BOTF had a number of images that related to the in-game random events, and we're hoping to employ a similar system in Supremacy, and possibly even BOTE. However, we can't use the images from BOTF as these are copyrighted. We therefore need new images for the random events.

The matter is futher complicated by the fact that we (I) have come up with a new - and vastly increased - list of random events for the game(s). The following is a list of all the random events and their descriptions that may need an event image to go with it. The final list of random events has not yet been decided on, so this list may change over time.

Anyone can submit images for the random events. Images must be in the .png filetype and be 270x225 pixels and must be your own work or non-copyrighted AND used with permission. Images that are taken directly from the internet or any other sources cannot be used, so don't submit them!

Today everything is copyrighted, for god sake were we gonna find 500 copyright fee images or 500 permissions?

500 is estimated number of images needed for Supremacy.

I' m preparing "the image mod" for supremacy and i will include pics from old botf so far i have around 300 images.

So you're saying you don't make them Zeleni? I've very disappointed in you. Tut tut.

We don't have to find these images - they don't even really need them. But they're an extra piece of eye candy that we can just keep adding to. It's definitely not a priority, but kenneth wanted a list of them so I thought I might as well make one.

Ooh some of those images would be useful in Supremacy. Can anyone use them? What about editing them, since we need images that are 270x225?

On the side of legitimacy, one of the moderators on the Bethesda forums has said he is going to review Supremacy soon, so that's a small positive sign...unless he means "review the available legal options", of course.

I've already submitted an update to Gamespot that has been accepted - they've changed the category of the game to "Sci-fi Turn-Based Strategy". They also added a couple of extra tags that I added to the game.

They didn't listen to all of the information that I put in there though - I told them to change the Sharepoint link to Codeplex and gave them a link to the forums, but they seem to have either ignored me or missed it out.

Perhaps we need to submit the info from a number of sources. Could you try telling them the same thing Mal? The Supremacy info submission link is (You need to log into Gamefaqs using your Gamespot username and password before that link will work)

On a side note, the video I uploaded yesterday has already been viewed 60 times.

well, codeplex isn't exactly what they were looking for. the domain botf2.com is registered on Mike Strobel and that's what they need since they can fix the game down to a real person with that domain information. A codeplex.com subsite would not give them that. Nevertheless one could make a forum entry there about the codeplex source availability.

on a side note, if I were Mike I would ask them directly if they checked all legal aspects with their mother company CBS. From their initial mistake in genre assignment, I have my doubts they really know the real status of the game. I mean that botf2.com looks a lot like a valid business site thanks to the way MS sharepoint is designed so I can understand if that was maybe enough for them or they even think we have some sort of deal with CBS since we practically just do as if we have tbh .

In any case, I'd rather sort that out first. If they got nothing else planned commercially in that area (like a PC version of Conquest) then Mike is likely to get a positive answer from them right now. They sure want to have every possible trek game for the new film as "by-products" as they can get. I mean we have a hook now here. Let's just use it before it vanishes unseen..
Of course one could think about trying to merge wolfe's next combat demo into Supremacy first to have some real action there to show. Also it would be a good idea to just remove all botf images and replace them with a blank screen.

Thanks Mal, i will use some of images you showed me. Well, this is going to be fan mod aimed for personal use only, in that way it should be legaly free.

Zeleni, what is meant by "legally free" (offered for free so as not to be commercial or free of legal liability, there would still be liability even if the game wasn't used for profit and you came up with your own trek content)? Mal you have a good point about getting permission from CBS/Paramount, I have no idea how they would respond though. I had noted to myself that Mike Strobel's Supremacy website (in addition to sharepoint) looks very professional when I saw it after he launched the site to the point I feared it would be confused for an unauthorized commercial game (someone may want to tell Mike Strobel to credit CBS/Paramount with the copyrights to star trek on his http://www.startreksupremacy.com site and/or to say something about how the game is being developed as a free fan game not affiliated with CBS/Paramount).

Sad to see sharepoint crashed in the last few weeks , hope that doesn't slow things down too much. Hope all the code and content gets backed up with a high degree of paranoia now . I had been dabling in making some voice recordings for the game prior to the sharepoint crash, but was shy about submitting them and got distracted by studying for the bar exam the last two months. Now it seems the sharepoint recordings are gone though, so I might go back and try again, and maybe submit them to see if anyone likes them for the game.

Hope Supremacy can keep climbing those rankings.

good point. the usual "Star trek is a registered trademark, etc.." is missing on both sites which could have lead them to really think Supremacy is an all-official game. Though I would have thought about the chance of it being the opposite way too, in fact I first would have thought of that and tried to check that. With gamespot being practically owned by CBS, that would have just been an internal phone call away .

I think Zeleni means a mod that only he (and a very close and closed circle of friends) plays and never gets published. That would be the only way of it really being legally free. To be clear, the pictures I linked Zeleni are in fact royalty-free as long as the files are protected from in-game retrieval (encryption, etc.) and can be used for Supremacy's official content too.

On the issue of recordings Stegrex we need now a Cardassian and Dominion rendition of these voice acting recordings. (As below for the Klingon and Federation and Romulans not shown)

Power shields vs Shields up
Power weapons vs power weapons
Attack vs Engage Hostiles
Ship Destroyed vs Ship Destroyed and Wessel Destroyed
Station Destroyed vs Station lost
Enemy destroyed vs Hostile destroyed
Incoming vs Incoming fire
Shields failing vs Shields down
Damage to Hull vs Hull damaged
Fire Weapons vs Fire weapons
Torpedo fired vs fire torpedo
Fire disrupts vs fire phasers
Strategic withdrawal vs disengage hostiles

Make up something like this for the Cards and Dominion, keep it short for rapid fire combat and have fun.

We have nearly all the recordings backed up from SharePoint. You will be able to hear those above and upload your own once SharePoint or its replacement is running.

I'll do the Dominion so don't worry about doing both, though if you want to variety is the spice after all

Regards Wolfe

I'll just try my hand at the Cardassians then. Is there a script for combat on the forum with all the voice stuff (I think it was a diplomacy dialogue thread) or should I use something along the lines of the original BOTF? Also, maybe this is on a voice recording thread, but any particular encoding/file format/bit rate preferred?

There is a script in another thread, but unless you're referring to the minor race intros, we're not gonna be using it.

This is because the voices need to be short and punchy - battles are going to be big and will likely have lots of voices. Unless those voices are short, we're gonna end up with a big indistinguishable noise during battles.

The battle script that you need is the stuff in red in Kenneth's post above. We're not intending you to read it out, it is merely a guide. Each race will have their own unique way of saying something, or will have race-specific weaponry - Phaser vs Disruptor for instance - so it will be up to you to make those changes as necessary. That's also why the word "vs" is in there - this denotes that there are two or more variations of the same thing in that line, for instance:

Power shields vs Shields up

This is two separate lines, and either one could be used - or you could make your own one up. Just remember the spirit of the different races. Since you're doing the Cardassians, remember they are militaristically rigid and have been training since they were children. They should be calm and thoughtful, but should also sneer, laugh at, and be disdainful of their cowardly enemies, as they believe they are the superior race.

Sounds good, if I have any questions I will go back to the proper thread first. I will just record in .wav format then and convert it if necessary.

How about using FLAC for lossless audio encoding?

Here is a link to what we have on Sharepoint as example for the Cards. Most of these recording will not be used but most of the new two word combat lines will.

We put everything on SharePoint in MP3 to save space but I is nice to make the initial recording in a better formate.

I can see having more than one voice for each race. We just do not have anyone doing those lines for the Cards yet. I would say feel free to record them for all the races.

When Sharepoint or its replacement is available we can upload them all.

Impressive!

Here are 5 that I've created so far.

Borg


Species 8472


Sphere Builders


Q


Caretaker Array

Impressive!

Heres 5 more I just finished:

Subspace anomaly


Subspace Bubble


Pirates


Gravitron Ellipse


Alien Shipyard

Our SharePoint data base is down for now. We are working on a way to collect, organize and store all the old and this stunning new content. Welcome to the collective sj2290.

Nice!

Spicy

Were botf random event images also 275x225? I thought they were bigger .

In botf.res they are 270x 225

well must be the old 800x600 screen resolution that made them appear larger. Anyway, how about taking the proportions over too, so it would then be something like 405x338..

Sj PM'd the first five images to me last night, and I told him to post them here for you guys to see.

I was wondering if you guys thought there would be legal problems with using peoples faces, such as Locutus and Q? Or am I being pedantic?

Anyways, i'm making copies of these images for Supremacy Kenneth, so if anything happened then at least we've got a backup ready.

Keep up the good work, Sj. These are fantastic images!

Damn didn't think about it to that extreme. Meh forget about it. Damn the legalities.

The original BOTF did not use well known actors. Replacing them would be safer. That is one less person to come after us.

it did. in the intro videos for example and iirc with the race introduction screens when you first met a race. wasn't it in diplomatic menu too? Long time since I played botf, for sure...

Edit: Okay maybe they weren't famous or well-known. Instead of Q-actor, one could also paint a big shiny Q-letter in the image with 2 or 3 exclamation marks to make it at least a bit funny .