New BOTF 1.0.3 installer ready for testing

[DCER]

If you've extended the shiplist then after you followed Thunderchero's instructions, you'll also need to open stbof.res and copy then remove a ship under Ship Stats. This will prompt UE to update all the values concerning the number of ships in shiplist.sst.

[Flocke]

I've another two suggestions:

First, stopping scanvalues appear on hidden, invisible, unexplored sectors.
It's annoying to know all the blackholes and stuff before having explored the map. Dunno, but maybe something to figure for DCER =)

Secondly, having thought about the Edo-Guardian again and with cloak not working, I think we should just remove shield but increase hull with having read the following in Aralons BOTF GUIDE:

But be careful not to damage the Edo gods’ hull without killing him, in that case he will shoot back even if hailed and kill your complete fleet.

[DCER]

Nice ideas, Flocke!

Have to say I just had a battle in 1.03 and love the explosions not to mention getting a Heavy Destroyer from the start as feds t5

[stardust]

Ah well, i thought as much.

I was curious because with what i've done i'm getting odd random crashes in the tactical combat and i know it'll eventually bother the hell out of me unless i do something about that.

I'm still umming and arring about the ship list i want for the major empires still anyway, I might yet get UM4 loaded back on to make a few more ship packs for myself as well.

But i'll do that some other time, i'm starting to get an insight into just how much it takes (and takes out of) you guys to do all these mods for us.

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

But be careful not to damage the Edo gods’ hull without killing him, in that case he will shoot back even if hailed and kill your complete fleet.

That's quite nonsense, check it out. Btw there's allot other nonsense in guide too.

But love the scan-value idea.

[Army40]

I just played the game just using the 1.03 game, no mod at all. Added lots of ships using UE (ships from the different ship packs). I just noticed something....well the federation and the ferengui torpedoes are black (guess I should play with the textures a little) but what bugs me the most is that the cardassian troup transport is out of scale....it's bigger than a borg cube. Did not played with any other ships than the federation so I did not screwed up their shiplist.

On another note, well I encountered again (as it was so frequent in vanilla 1.02) the random game crashes or game locked up while going in battle.

[Malvoisin]

I've another two suggestions:

First, stopping scanvalues appear on hidden, invisible, unexplored sectors.
It's annoying to know all the blackholes and stuff before having explored the map. Dunno, but maybe something to figure for DCER =)

but you're aware that blackholes and neutron stars need to be already-known due to their long-life nature. The light being emitted from those sectors travel at max 600 light years (worst case) to get to any sector on the map, that makes 600 years time span. Nearly all black holes and other scan strength diminishing cosmic phenomenons could be dated back more than 600 years which makes it perfectly reasonable to already have them detected whilst the sector is still unexplored. It's simple radio astronomy. Yet, you don't know of course about what else is in that sector but you do know right from the start that there is a black hole or whatever somewhere in that sector.

[thunderchero]

I just played the game just using the 1.03 game, no mod at all. Added lots of ships using UE (ships from the different ship packs). I just noticed something....well the federation and the ferengui torpedoes are black (guess I should play with the textures a little) but what bugs me the most is that the cardassian troup transport is out of scale....it's bigger than a borg cube. Did not played with any other ships than the federation so I did not screwed up their shiplist.

On another note, well I encountered again (as it was so frequent in vanilla 1.02) the random game crashes or game locked up while going in battle.

first you need to download newest installer it was replaced last night this will solve problem with torpedoes.

ship scale has not been changed on any ship from vanilla. except klingon starbase for klingon starbase distance bug.

Note: when installing you must uninstall everything first mod first then game then delete botf folder. this should be done regardless if you are installing vanilla cd or new installer.

thunderchero

[Flocke]

but you're aware that blackholes and neutron stars need to be already-known due to their long-life nature....

Of course I know that BotF is just an unrealistic game!
The stars should be known as well and so on, but BotF isn't designed that way.
It's designed by the "fog of war" concept and it's unrealistic having a negative scan value anyway. Just show 0 as scan value whenever it becomes negative should solve this 'bug' (but would make it more complicated to determine the amount of scouts being necessary to obtain a positive scan value).

Oh and it would be great to remove supernovae from random events
Such an event is very uncommon and should have been foreseen a long long time instead of just taking place.
I ever hated loosing systems that way and it has been my main reason disabling randoms.

[Malvoisin]

you're right, stars should also be known, planets probably not since their emissions are tiny compared to the stars'.

maybe a negative scan value can be explained by absorption of scan rays. the returning/reflected scan rays can be laid onto a 2D galaxy map and there would be significant drops in returning and interfering rays from the direction of such a cosmic phenomenon. usually the rays sent into one conus of direction continue their voyage until they are reflected at a point behind that cosmic phenomenon but now there are lost while other multiple-times-reflected rays produce pictures and information about the sector behind such a black hole. If there was no black hole in the way, there would have been much more rays reflected by that other target so you know by that that there must be something absorbing in the way of your rays. you get what I mean ?

I second the motion for capping supernovae (one could remove those sectors with foreseen supernovae during the time a game takes right from the start or make it uninhabitable since no one in his right mind would colonize such a planet).

[thunderchero]

Have to say I just had a battle in 1.03 and love the explosions not to mention getting a Heavy Destroyer from the start as feds t5

not sure what you mean I just checked and heavy destroyer is available in vanilla at t5? or did you mean the starting ships game gives you on turn one? if so this would be due to new ship order so AI build best ships.

thunderchero

[Flocke]

not to mention getting a Heavy Destroyer from the start as feds t5

well, although I understand being careful about changing gameplay of vanilla, I think it would be great to do at least some minor conservative balancing like giving fed some little bonus on high tech, etc

*duck and hide*

[DCER]

or did you mean the starting ships game gives you on turn one? if so this would be due to new ship order so AI build best ships.

Yes, that's what I meant.

[Martok]

Oh and it would be great to remove supernovae from random events
Such an event is very uncommon and should have been foreseen a long long time instead of just taking place.
I ever hated loosing systems that way and it has been my main reason disabling randoms.

I second the motion for capping supernovae (one could remove those sectors with foreseen supernovae during the time a game takes right from the start or make it uninhabitable since no one in his right mind would colonize such a planet).

Thirded. The Borg aside, supernovae are my other main reason for disabling random events.

[Flocke]

The Borg aside, supernovae are my other main reason for disabling random events.

Well, Borg can be disabled seperately in stbof.ini by just adding the entry BORG=OFF if it's not already set, so the Borg aren't a problem as long you're not fighting us in mp.
I would like to see Gomtu and it's friends back active. =)