Could this be the last year for AFC site?

[thunderchero]

server cost is not an issue, We are not on one of those "free" servers but yearly cost is still low ($150.00). I spend more than that every week on my "bad habits"

while the scam posts have decreased lately, the site still need maintenance and updating (we are behind now). Currently I am afraid if I update we will lose our forum "style" and end up back on default phpbb style.

when I took over AFC, I knew nothing about running a server or phpbb.
cleverwise was and still is my main technical support here. example when we lost certificate couple months ago. cleverwise fixed the issue, I had no idea what to do.

If you guys really want to give a donation you could give it to cleverwise's donation page cleverwise created our download pages and last 5 posts widget on main page just for AFC.

without cleverwise support AFC would have closed many years ago.

[Flocke]

while the scam posts have decreased lately, the site still need maintenance and updating (we are behind now). Currently I am afraid if I update we will lose our forum "style" and end up back on default phpbb style.

I'm not much into PHP coding and stuff, but when you need help in that part, we could have a look together.

cleverwise was and still is my main technical support here. example when we lost certificate couple months ago. cleverwise fixed the issue, I had no idea what to do.

It is absolutely awesome what support he gave. I remember when he first showed up and offered to build a whole new site, we all were in fear what might happen to the forums. Already then you were lost on some upgrade issues. Thanks alot to him!

[sean_west]

I am sorry to hear that you have lost your passion, but after so many years at the helm it was bound to happen. Life and priorities change and we need to follow what it is that makes life worth living.

I have been absent for some time as I am now with Keen Software House managing their 44 public servers and have very little time left.

Growing up, I was always the geeky, uncool Trekkie, but this forum gave me somewhere that I felt welcome, so from the bottom of my heart I say thank you to everyone on here.

[Axis]

Sincerely: don't get depressed, Thunder, it's a loss if this site isn't up and running the next year, my routines would be severely disrupted .

As I've read the posts "above", I think there is a need for some kind of "revolution" for this site, is phpbb really so bad?

I thought woke electric cars are going to ruin the world (I really think so, after all they are exploding and stuff), but there's some insight in this "we want new technology all the time"-idea,
For example, I've updated my image files into PNG:s and WEBP:s instead of GIF:s and JPG:s for the reason they are lossless image file types, all the new tech is not always bad (maybe the electric cars are, sure as hell I think so).

But anyways, something fresh might keep the interest up.

[Scatter]

Thunder, if you decide you want to step back, drop us a PM. I can't right now, but in a couple of months I'll have the time to look after the joint.

I used to be able to code in php, sure it won't take me too long to pick it all back up again...

[29BQ]

I just come back to check out here, thanks to Star Trek: Infinite - incoming BOTF successor.
More info: see viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4290

Thunder, I would be sad if you decide to shut AFC site down, but I would understand. Since ST: Infinite appears, I am wondering if you will reconsider your decision? I think this AFC site will attract more newcomers.

[Blake00]

Damn.. I stop by here every few months and didn't realise things had gotten that bad.. would be very sad to see this place go.

Especially if all the mods are lost. Would be good to get them all on to ModDB.. although the all in one installers wouldn't be allowed due to containing the BOTF game itself. However they could be put over on archive org instead. I've been rescuing and backing up heaps of lost Sid Meier's Civilization 2 mods & scenarios to moddb and archive org over the last few years.

[Danijel]

We are not on one of those "free" servers but yearly cost is still low ($150.00).

That made me....wont say what, but includes the toilet.

And its not free ^^ and somebody mentioned "moving" forum there, we did not had that intention. Page was only extension to this forum to reduce bandwidth on bucket for example.

That said, thunderchero we need to talk

[Blake00]

Just to add to my previous comment about making sure all the great mods aren't lost.. I checked over at ModDB and they didn't have a BOTF game page to add mods to so I spoke with their staff and they gave me the green light to make one so I have! So it's ready to have mods added to it . What makes ModDB great is that it puts your work in a very public place in front of a lot of fans, for free, with no size limits and you can add pictures and video in blog like posts too:
https://www.moddb.com/games/star-trek-b ... ation/mods

And as for archive org you can upload nearly anything there lol, and like with moddb they support pictures and videos too, however unlike moddb they allow abandonware stuff too (meaning the all in one BOTF installers would be fine), and as an extra they even generate torrent links (to encourage file sharing and lesson the load on their servers I guess). So even though maybe it wasn't what the site was originally built for they've actually worked out pretty good as a mod host too. For example here's the Star Trek mod for Civilization 3 I preserved there last year :
https://archive.org/details/star-trek-c ... 0.9.0-beta

.

[Flocke]

Just to add to my previous comment about making sure all the great mods aren't lost.. I checked over at ModDB and they didn't have a BOTF game page to add mods to so I spoke with their staff and they gave me the green light to make one so I have! So it's ready to have mods added to it .

Awesome! And some really nice image selection you uploaded!

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

Yeah, nice one, pal!

Funny thing is the dev version of BotF in the game trailer shows the current calculated code areas during turn process.

Red text where the turn number is displayed: https://www.moddb.com/games/star-trek-b ... r#imagebox

Shows the familiar asm code labels we analysed.

Also some of the planet animations appear nicer than in the actual game.

[Blake00]

Thanks guys, hah yeah those pictures are all ones I took back in 1999, I'd kept them all these years heh. I recently saw that original BOTF trailer on youtube and moddb has the ability to copy youtube videos across so I did! So that page is pretty much all ready to have mods uploaded to it now.

Of course who here really has the free time to sit there downloading all the mods on this site and uploading them to there.. probably none of us haha! But oh well at least the capability is now here and ready!

[RSE_Chris]

Just to add to my previous comment about making sure all the great mods aren't lost.. I checked over at ModDB and they didn't have a BOTF game page to add mods to so I spoke with their staff and they gave me the green light to make one so I have! So it's ready to have mods added to it . What makes ModDB great is that it puts your work in a very public place in front of a lot of fans, for free, with no size limits and you can add pictures and video in blog like posts too:
https://www.moddb.com/games/star-trek-b ... ation/mods

That looks good! And I can't believe you have the BOTF trailer on there, I have not seen it in 20 years and had forgotten it even existed. I enjoyed looking at all your ST stuff on your webpage too.

[thunderchero]

Thanks guys, hah yeah those pictures are all ones I took back in 1999, I'd kept them all these years heh. I recently saw that original BOTF trailer on youtube and moddb has the ability to copy youtube videos across so I did! So that page is pretty much all ready to have mods uploaded to it now.

Don't forget the original Microprose Birth of the Federation screensavers

rom1024.bmp (687.45 KiB) Viewed 1618 times

klgn1024.bmp (696.97 KiB) Viewed 1618 times

frng1024.bmp (694.39 KiB) Viewed 1618 times

fed1024.bmp (682.46 KiB) Viewed 1618 times

card1024.bmp (676.81 KiB) Viewed 1618 times

[Danijel]

If any file size becomes an issue, I can host those with no issues, or limits for that part