Captain's Orders, a return to...

[JB2005]

(Orignally Posted at TrekBBS)

I'm not sure if anyone here plays or used to play the Activision game "Bridge Commander" and if you do if you are a member of the online community...

If you are, you may vaguely remember that 4 years ago, I (as Trekky_35/James_Bonsall) released a mod entitled "Captain's Orders" which was an experiment into adding Guests and that Hailing function to ships in QuickBattle...

Suffice to say I abandoned the mod after I left the community for personal reasons, however boredom recently led me to dig it out again and take a look. It led me to realise two things:

1) The (limited!) python I learned 4 years ago had gone...
2) The mod was woefully messy - bits of code everywhere and generally in need of cleaning up!

So I am announcing my intention here to begin work again on Captain's Orders, however with the slightly more ambitious intention this time of making it an "Alternative Campaign" for the game [ie a series of Custom Missions], rather than an expansion to QuickBattle!

I'll update here and at BCC [obviously here and TrekBBS!] and if I feel the urge may even start a blog detailing my progress!

Thank you for your time!

So yeah, that's my story!

Also on a seperate note, I'd like to request a Username change...and while I'm posting just thought I'd ask who I should ask this question to...many thanks!

[JimmyB76]

im thrilled to see youre picking up this project again!

as far as a username change, send me a PM with what youd like to change it to and i can take care of that for ya..

[Defiant]

A new Campaign is exactly what we need. But it is a lot, really lot of work. You do know that?

[JB2005]

I'm under no false illusions that i'll be able to rattle off some code in a day or two and call it a campaign! It'll quite a while before this is done!

However when I was making Captains Orders in the first place, what I was doing was basically - learning to script by going through the old campaign's code seeing what worked how and why and using that as a basis for my own purposes! When I came back to it, it made more sense to me to use a Custom Campaign to try to create my own playing field to work with (as it were) since I can control the variables that Captains Orders works with (ships and hailing are easier to define when I always know which ship is going to be where, when!)

I'm a fairly decent writer, so hopefully I'll be able to come up with a good story! Planning this out, my intention is for there to be a looser story line, with the "prequel" I'm currently working on setting the scene, followed by a series of Episodes that can be completed in any order!

EDIT:

Whilst scripting the "Prequel" I hit a small problem with Felix which I felt worth sharing:

[CyAn1d3]

.... that would make a worthwhile story in itself lol

.... but it would have been funnier if it were saffi 

[eclipse74569]

Whilst scripting the "Prequel" I hit a small problem with Felix which I felt worth sharing:

LMAO You sir get a cookie for making me laugh for the first time today

I really hope this works out for you and hope to see more of what you come up with!

[Lurok91]

One of my favorite mods     Not only used a fair bit, but learned a lot from studying script.   I've been working on various original game elements - crew, bridges, etc - to update maelstrom missions to other than era set in (specifically, to post-Dom War era) so hope something might be of use there.

http://bc-central.net/forums/index.php/topic,8349.0.html

How much are you planning to change in CO? or just going for completely new version?   The elements I specifically liked were: adding guest to bridge;  hailing Liu and other ships; and calling in other ships.   Never really found practical use for/interest in the credits system.

If updated, thought might be nice, for example, if you were on Sov bridge and brought in Norexan/Valdore ship to then be able to hail Cmdr Donatra (or similar  ).  That sort of idea.    Oh, and one bit of code I'd love to have is a button that would allow you to trigger spacedock to open doors on approach  (see  http://bc-central.net/forums/index.php/topic,8777.0.html)

I'm sure there's lots of other little things one could do.  Look forward to seeing how this develops...

[JB2005]

.... that would make a worthwhile story in itself lol

.... but it would have been funnier if it were saffi 

Just done it with Saffi too it's a fault with that particular animation so whenever it's used it compresses the body!

And as for what I'm planning to do:

For those who remember Captain's Orders, one of the problems with it (at least the thing that irritated me) was that the Guests I added had ???'s and no Default sounds! I've now corrected that and will soon be releasing a preview video of the Guest in the prequel!

The hailing is also something I'm going to come back to! One of the nice things about working in the Single Player domain rather than QuickBattle is I'll be able to use the existing hail button here!

The "Orders" System will also receive a revamp! Since I know what the battles will be, I'll be writing a series of complex AI's that will allow you to control your friendly fleet more effectively!

For now I am only working with Stock Ships. There are two reasons for this

1) I'm only just getting started and I find it easier to work within the boundaries of BC and then expand outwards!
2) Thinking ahead to a release, whenever I use a ship made by another, it will require either permissions to redistribute or a lot of additional requirements to the mod in order for it to play! However when the time comes I will probably get in touch with some people and seek some permissions!

As for the story line, I'm a fan of the Star Trek Novels and I have been playing around with ideas about a Post-Destiny "Typhon Pact" campaign...(not following ST:Online Continuity because I've never played it!) However this is just an idea I'm playing with in my head at the moment!

I've also created a blog that I will chart my progress in:

http://captainsordersdevelopmentblog.blogspot.com/

[JimmyB76]

The hailing is also something I'm going to come back to! One of the nice things about working in the Single Player domain rather than QuickBattle is I'll be able to use the existing hail button here!

thats a cool thing...  one issue ive always had with bridges is alot of them have their own unique hail sfx and viewscreen on/off sfx which are pretty much useless right now...
it would be cool to be able (in QB or whatever) to hail a friendly ship and have those 3 sfx be of use...

[JB2005]

That's one of the things I hope to utilise! The problem I always have with BC, is when you read the scripts, the coding, there was a helluva lot of stuff they wanted to put into this game that they made and just never made it in...it's like it shipped before it was finished...

Just as a for instance, one line of code is all it takes to activate a system that makes Brex go to the Engineering set on the Galaxy Bridge, and be able to contact him with F5...

There's a whole slew of animations that let you walk a character (presumably this would have been Picard) from the Guest Seat, the the Helm, to Tactical, to the First Officer's chair and then sit down again...

The mission names also suggest that the campaign was meant to go on  a lot longer as well (Episode 4 starts on Mission 4, for instance)

The guys who worked on BC put in a ridiculous amount of work and I think it's a shame that a lot of it has gone unappreciated...

[JB2005]

Ok, so this is the opening video I've put together for the campaign...basically it's an info dump that explains everything that happened in the novels between Nemesis and now, for those of you who don't read them!

I would very much appreciate feedback, obviously it's just a scrolling wall of text and if anyone thinks something else would be more appropriate, let me know! Cheers!

[007bashir]

I think thats just right. Reminds me of the beginning form DS9. Also a good choice for the music.
I read the Destiny Series and the ongoing novels of TNG and Titan. Its cool that you are spinning the stories further ahead. Cookie.

[JB2005]

Well after talking to some of the authors, it's pretty clear that what I have planned is not their current plan to continue the narrative!

Having some trouble converting this video into a .Bik file, RAD video tools keeps coming up with a lack of memory error...any advice anyone?