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Enjoy.

There's a review at http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchrev iew.asp?reviewid=194383 but its fun from the freeform concept, you can either be a freelance pilot or follow a mission-based career.

You're in luck. Derek Smart (the lone maniac developer) has released the old versions of the game for free on the game's Web page. A while back I downloaded BattleCruiser Millenium, the 2nd generation of the title. [BattleCruiser 3000 was the 1st.] I have to admit, it is impressive. The scope of the idea of the game: space cruiser combat, space fighter combat, and (FPS) ground combat is very ambitious. Unfortunately the gameplay is not very good and the game itself is unstable. It doesn't help that Derek denies that his games have any stability problems.

I recommend you try it out.

Why isn't he on this list??? His indie Battlecruiser series, now renamed Ultimate Fighting Championship, are the greatest ever, with secret AI goodness! Hell, the man has a PhD! These games by high school dropouts are nothing compared to the masterpieces that have been in development for years! His flamewar was the greatest online game for years - it's time his software was recognized too! Aaaaaahhhhhh!

...that this isn't just like Battlecruiser only bigger...

Chris Mattern

This guy has to be the biggest ass in gaming history. Just look at the support forum for his last game, BattleCruiser 3000AD.

So-called Support Forum

Examples:

1) Now that this major patch has been released, starting from now on, all subsequent patches will only be available via the registration downloads page.

For this reason, you must register the game and ensure that your profile contains correct, accurate and useful information.

Today, a large number of records have been DELETED from the database. These range from single letter first/last names, to completely empty profile info. Now, those people will have to re-register. And if the same problem occurs, the database will again flush these records every week. After three such deletions, the CDKEY will be invalidated and you will no longer be able to register it.

I paid a LOT of money for this system and I don't like people making a mockery out of my system.

So, now would be a really good time to login to your profile and update it accordingly.

[ 05-10-2004, 11:38 AM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

2) From now on, ANYONE posting ANYWHERE on this site without their valid sys info in their signature, will be site banned. If you don't know what a site wide ban is, read this.

There won't be ANY warnings whatsoever. And once you are site banned there is absolutely ZERO chance of coming back here. Ever. If you feel so bad about it, next time you see my games on the shelves, just walk on by.

And this is how the guy talks to customers! Why would any company put up with this asshole?

> It is.

Uncorrect. The real answer is "It depends on the game!"

Anytime someone says "X is a silver bullet", I'm critical of what disadvantes they are overlooking.

We tried, and successfully used Java in one of games. It dropped in, in about a week (of course the game logic took months to write.) Having to use 2 IDE's was a pain, but workable, for debugging. (We made the C++ code into a DLL) There were TWO big problems -- the OVERHEAD from calling Java from C/C++ (or vice versa) *completely* bogged down the game. The other issue was the garbage collector - the game froze while it was doing it's thing, which is unacceptable. (We were doing a single player strategy-sim hybrid, that unfortunately got cancelled, due to other issues.)

Will we use Java again? Maybe. But the scripting language used is only one of the issues regarding gaming tech! One must look at the "pros" AND the "cons." The designers were able to get up to speed quickly with it, appreciated the ton of books on Java programming, and it freed it up one of our programmers of having to maintain a in-house properietary language. However, the designers also lacked the many years of formal training and experience that programmers normally have to go thru, of using a "real language" compared to our easy-to-use previous in-house language. These two things (very bad C/C++ integration, & requiring designers to be programmers) will most likely determine whether we use Java in the future.

I'm the graphics programmer, and personally think Java is not the best tech for game scripting. HOWEVER, I do see its advantages and elegance in using it for game scripting and game logic. It's the old trade-off of "slow & flexible (interpreted) OR "fast and hard-coded (compiled)." Java definately has some advantages - and some disadvantes - like all languages.

I'm sure you can search Carmack's old plans for why he didn't use Java - his reasons were different from ours.

Is Java a viable option? Wild Tangent has clearly shown that a Java-based game works. They have some pretty cool tech.

You might want to read the Gamasutra Post Mortem article on "Vampire" -- That's the only other game developer I know that used Java in a commercial game.

> Too bad most game developers seem to think that a game can't be any good if it

How many game developers do you personally know? That's a pretty broad statement with no basis in fact.

> doesn't spew out 3D graphics at a rate of 500 fps or,
> if it is a strategy game, doesn't have at least have a 3D isometric view in true color.

Game developers are well aware of raising the technical requirements so high, that you loose a lot of customers that don't have the "latest and greatest" video card.

They are also quite aware of Graphics != gameplay.

However, if you DON'T have some of the best graphics, your game is criticized as having "dated graphics." Is that an excuse? No, it's what the consumer wants. Pretty graphics are (usually) what catch the gamers attention, but gameplay is what keeps him/her playing.

It's interesting to note that most of the top selling games are all 2D. i.e. Sims, Diablo, RollerCoaster Tycoon.

If you want a good insight to how the games industry really works, read this Derek Smart's rant on Gaming Industry - Where We Are which dicusses what really happens with the marketing.

Also Avault's series on PC Gaming As An Industry

Bringing this long thread. back on topic -- OpenAL is a good thing, and I'm glad it is progressing. I'll be sure to mention it to our engine architect, next time we do a Mac Port. If we do a Linux port, it will definately make things easier for us. It's a REAL shame OpenGL is completely ignored by so many developers -- using one cross platform API is very cool. Now if only consoles supported it better ;-)

Then again, I'm just a game developer, and this is my opinion.

Yes! AILOG! The advanced neural net engine used to realise the limitless gaming multi-verses flowing from the imagination of the maverick games programmer Dr. Derek Smart, Ph.D, a genius of the first rank.

AILOG - the most advanced AI engine ever used in a game - combines the sum of the last 40 years of European and Japanese artificial intelligence research. Dr. Smart, Ph.D has encapsulated the most bleeding edge, advanced AI concepts from across the globe.

The birth of AILOG, however, was not without a great deal of pain. In a fit of creative rage, Dr. Smart, Ph.D violently ravaged a Coke machine, but it was a small price to pay for the insemination of the most advanced AI engine ever seen on the desktops of hungry gamers all around the world.

Click here to experience bug-free gaming quality, excellence, and creativity: www.3000ad.com