June 28, 2000
The team has been really busy working on so many aspects of the
game. I thought an interesting thing would be to give some feedback
to a great post on the Taldren forum. Viking has compiled a large
number of questions for many fans of the game. I picked at random.
Here we go =)
1. I was wondering if Taldren planed on implementing ECM Drones?
We are considering new drone types but want to limit the ships to
only carrying 1 type at a time. With that said I doubt players would
want a ship with just ECM drones.
2. The original monster missions in SFB made the player use labs
to identify what was needed to destroy or drive off the monster. Do
they plan on doing this in SFCII
We have Dave Ferrell Working for us now. He was the creator of
"intruder alert!" scenario for SFC1. He says he would like
to port it to SFC2 and has done some work on it. Write Dave some fan
mail on the forum if you would like to see this mission =)
3. Will there be a cap on the number of missions you will be able
to play in the single player game before it quits or will it be
infinite?
There should be no limit. Events like losing all your worlds
might end the campaign however.
4. Will there be any provisions for macros that would allow the
players to automate ECM/Shield/Hit & Run options? This could be
very handy!
We might add some support but we don't want to make it too easy
on the player =) I think part of the fun is actually setting the
buttons on the panels. If you take too much control from the player
the only thing they will have to do is hit the fire button.
5. When do they think the playable demo will be available?!
Here is an industry standard: When it's ready. Seriously is will
be released before the game hit the retail shelves so you will get
to try it before you run to the store to buy it.
6. We now know that you will be able to use captured ships in
battle. Will you be able to use them immediately upon capture, and
if a ship is captured in a campaign game, will you retain that ship
in your fleet for future battles?
Immediately. No you don't keep them they are too valuable to your
empire. You should get a prestige bonus however for managing to
capture a ship.
7. Will the capturing of ships be enabled in Multiplayer?
Yes
8. In the last irc chat, it was hinted that there would be better
energy management options, any more specific information that may be
revealed?
The artwork for this is being made now, then the programming.
When it works Ill give you more info =)
9. Will Klingons get their rear firing boom phasers that they had
in sfb on some of their ships?
We should be able to get their arcs into the game. The problem is
on large ships that have multiple phasers on the same hard point,
they would not get the arcs.
10. Will all disruptors for all the disruptor races: klingons,
mirk, lyrans be created equal, ie will they all get uim and defracs
that never burns out? SFC currently has disruptor 1's 2's 3's and
4's implemented, the difference being the maximum ranges at which
they can fire. However in sfb there were differences like the lack
of uim or derfacs in certain eras and certain ships.
No changes for disrupters are planned.
11. Will the Gorn be getting their own freighter and star base
designs instead of the borrowed Federation and Orion ones?
YES! All new! =)
12. Any old campaigns or battles from SFB to be used in the
scenarios? Additional TOS battles?
I think you might recognize some the scenarios in the meta =)
13. Are you going to model PFs individually or in flotillas of 6?
Most likely individual or groups of 3. Beta will determine the
right way to go.
14. Are escorts going to be able to rearm fighters?
No
15. Are ships going to do repairs more like SFB? Based on the #
of labs and damage control ratings?
The formula already uses those factors.
16. Are repair ships/FRDs/Bases going to be able to repair
systems during a scenario?
No. This isn't planned…but you could write a scenario like
this.
17. Is klingon mutiny going to be there?
This rule is not used
18. Will there be dogfight drones, III drones, or RALADs???
There should be more drone types but the final list is not
determined.
19. Will federation Drone-G racks fire drones OR anti drones like
they should?
Those ships will get a free ADD rack for every G rack.
20. In the meta game, if I want to travel from the fed-gorn
border to the fed-klingon border, how long will it take in REAL
time???
This depends on the map size. Different servers could have
different sized empires.
21. Will the kzinti have non-UIM disruptors?
The MIRAK will have the same disrupter classes as everyone else.
That's it for this session of 21 questions =)
Take care,
Josh
