Open Source TC

We can have BBS missions which the player chooses and say "Transport to <DSY>" or somesuch, to get around easily. The mission would cost x credits, by auto-failling, and moving the player on fail and subtracting credits on fail.

@lnsu, on Nov 20 2008, 02:42 PM, said in Open Source TC:

We can have BBS missions which the player chooses and say "Transport to <DSY>" or somesuch, to get around easily. The mission would cost x credits, by auto-failling, and moving the player on fail and subtracting credits on fail.

Unless the number of spöbs is really small , I don't think that would be very practical.

This post has been edited by ~vIsitor~ : 20 November 2008 - 06:41 PM

nononono, there would be two or three missions occuring at once max, and they would have random (but displayed-to-player) destinations. One of them could be a govt-only link, one of the could be a inhabited-only link, and the third would be random. Or any other combination. The rationale would be that someone invented a transporter, but it only works on unpredictable routes.

An improbability drive of sorts?

could work. I don't think it would be very reliable.(improbability)

This post has been edited by of doom : 20 November 2008 - 10:13 PM

It's possible I could get thrown out the developer loop soon to sometime next year (or, at least unable to test any additions I make). My iBook is acting like it wants to fail, though I'm not letting it by not shutting it down (it doesn't like starting up all of a sudden). I suspect it may be related to the few instances of accidental blunt trauma is has suffered. Don't know if this means my computer will go kaput soon or just be extremely annoying to start-up. Odds are, since I'm long out of warranty, any fixes are going to be quite costly and will be compounded with other prior issues, such as the DC-in board I replaced and the internal Airport card that dislodged itself half a year ago, forcing me to use an external wireless adapter or an ethernet cord.

Anyways, due to that and the fact everything new is going OMG INTELZORZ!!!!!1!11!, even though my computer could run the darn software if it didn't require Intel chips, I'm looking to buy a MacBook anywhere from next week to early next year, depending on my financial position tomorrow. I'm not looking at the one with that problem-causing GMA graphics chip (that MacBook model isn't a whole lot more powerful than my iBook, so it wouldn't be worth it), but rather one with that nicer Nvidia chip. Not sure if that chip hates Nova or not. If it does and my iBook manages to commit suicide despite my attempts to thwart it by the time I get my hands on a MacBook, it could hurt my ability to work on the project (I assume, unlike Nova, Mission Computer is good buddies with Intel, no?) since I won't be able to test anything I add until 1.11 comes out.

While the problems in the meantime are making me leery about doing anything significant on the project for fear my computer might decide to kernel panic and then refuse to boot to OSX instead of Open Firmware, thus causing me to loose data, I'm still with this thing and will add some things here and there when I get the chance. And should my computer die, if it's going to, before I obtain a suitable replacement, I still have various methods of keeping in touch here. Although, in that case, I wouldn't be able to do any work on the project. And even if it does die, I have just about everything I've ever put on this computer backed-up to an external storage drive. I bet I have every version of Colosseum since one of the late alphas on that thing.

This all sounds more pessimistic than it probably is. My computer has done some strange things before, such as randomly freezing while entering text or refusing to go to sleep, and then quit doing them suddenly. Hopefully, this is just one of those mysterious problem phases and it'll go away like the other two aforementioned issues, allowing me to continue working in peace. After all, I was originally intending to keep this thing all the way through college. Blasted Intel chips...

Initiating debug sequence:
Parsing:
Warning: insufficient data from phrases to create debug environment. Some messages may be generic.
Warning: the phrase: "OMG INTELZORZ!!!!!1!11!" is not recognized from any sentient language.
Error: the phrase: "even though my computer could run the darn software if it didn't require Intel chips" is not valid.
Warning: external reference from "1.11" cannot be resolved.
Warning: verb usage: "loose" appears substituted for "lose."
Done parsing.
Check hard drive. If it has errors, bad things may happen. If you have noticed the great noise being made about Solid State Drives, that is why. Hard drives are very likely to be damaged by impact while running. While not running, hard drives are not very likely to be damaged.
Check memory. I was going to say run memtest x86, but that would have been dumb. If your memory has gone bad, bad things WILL happen. If it is loose, tighten it. If it is bad, replace it (much cheaper than purchasing a whole system)
Confirm whether any issue is connected with the physical display. Normally this type of issue appears when flexing the monitor's hinge (loose internal cabling - not generally user-fixable).
Also, there is always the possibility that the Operating System itself is entirely to blame.

Interestingly, my PowerBook had this problem (it refused to start up unless I held it a funny way, and eventually just died). I got a new hard drive, and that fixed the problem.

Odd, but I have had problems with starting my old G3 Powermac. The first time you push the power button, it won't start up. Then you push the re-set button after about 10 seconds and everything is happy. Not really annoying, but a little weird.

Since we're talking about computer issues, I'm having problems with my Macbook Pro. It turns out that this specific model line was given a batch of faulty graphics cards, and it seems that mine received one of them. It has the slight problem of overheating. By around seventy degrees F. Right now I'm managing to keep it under control by forcing the fan speed up. I'll take it in over Thanksgiving break. Unless someone has any suggestions on how to fix it?

My computer seems to be recovering. I've been forced to restart it twice and each time it booted up just fine. Of course, that's not enough evidence for me...

If our main developer's computer dies we are in for it.

and wasn't thanksgiving several weeks ago before halloween?

Not in the U.S.

If Josh's computer dies, I'll take over the project for the time that his machine is down. It's silly that a project like this would die because the person who started it all got separated from a computer he could control it from.

Indeed, the TC is "Open Source" after all!

Speaking of which, what's our current status on devving? We've got our governments, we've got a basic system map, I'm working on planets, others are giving us new ships... What else is there to do? Judging by the activity level in this topic, the project appears to have stalled.

I think we should set goals. Say all ships done soonish. And a minor storyline to test.

Well, considering that this is an open source project, setting goals could be a rather hamfisted approach.

Since my copy is about 2 weeks old, I'm going to grab the latest version and see what needs to be done.

Edit: I already have the most current version, it seems. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about that fact, but right now it looks like we need more ways to make money, some more "filler" ships (e.g. freighters and the like; military ships aren't as important at this point), a homeworld for the "Freedom Republic", and we need to decide on names for the different governments besides "whoever the heck they are."

I'll throw out some names and see what happens; those are the most important at the moment.

The Religious Monarchy

Crusaders for Earth
Disciples of Earth (suggested by JTH)
The Jade Monarchy (referred to in text as just "Jade followers" or "the Jade")

Advanced Freedom Republic

Free Peoples Republic
Republic of Advanced Freedom
Free Society Republic
Society of Liberal Freedoms

(These are all just a rearrangement of words that practically mean the same thing.)

Moderate Warrior Culture

The Trillians
The Antumbrans
The Vanarians (I made this up...)

And that's it for me. We should probably stick with one word names, save the Advanced Freedom Republic, so that the player doesn't get tongue tied when trying to discuss all these different governments.

This post has been edited by JacaByte : 25 November 2008 - 04:58 PM

Right now, getting the galaxy set-up should be the main concern. We need spobs and systems. We also need ships and govts to inhabit the systems and weapons and outfits for them to utilize. In other words, we need to set-up the basic components. Additionally, setting up some junks and simple BBS missions while we're at it won't hurt. I'd have done more already if I wasn't so mistrustful of my computer at the moment.

On names...

Republic: I'm thinking of something United <term> of <govt homeworld>. Some randomly assorted examples, all using Earth as the homeworld, even though that won't be their said homeworld:

The United Planets of Earth
The United Worlds of Earth
The United Territories of Earth
The United States of Earth
The United Republic of Earth
The United People of Earth

The only one I'm specifically against would be "United Federation", mainly since my novel has the United Federation of Earth as one of the nations.

Monarchy: Jaca already listed me suggestion. Replacing Earth with the name of their deity or main prophet would also work.

Military: Personally, I'd like it to sound more like a nation than a species. The Polaris sounds like a species, the Auroran Empire, even though they're usually called simply Aurorans, sounds like a nation. I don't have any specific ideas beyond that at the moment, sadly, but if I come up with something I'll throw it out there.

While it was my aim to make the Warrior nation sound more like a nation, it sounds like my suggestions didn't work...

This post has been edited by JacaByte : 25 November 2008 - 05:53 PM