For the People, By the People: Monday

Babylon 5:

FirstOnes.com has opened a Babylon 5 wiki. Of particular interest, The Great Machine includes a section on mods.

Bridge Commander:

Recent releases at BCFiles include Trekmods Team's Favor the Bold (unfinished alpha), Ignis' Intrepid Bridge Retexture (low-res and hi-res, Kovk's Hidden Core (asteroid), Zambie Zan's Dignity-class USS Jean-Luc Picard, Book's SFC High-Energy Turn mod, and mrjohn's USS Authority.

Freelancer:

Lancers Reactor hosts PsyCadelik’s New Freelancer System Editor v0.1, the Privateers’ Privateer: The Reckoning OpenSP Beta v4.65 Patch (Beta v4.65 mod required), Starfyre Studios’ Freelancer: The Next Generation 2.7.6, Jim Rupp's Just for Fun Single-Player v1.1 Mod (Freelancer SDK required), and Jay, DRIVER and OverDrive's Overload MOD v1.1 (designed for multiplayer roleplaying but can be played in single-player games).

Freespace 2:

Raa's GTF Kelpie has been deployed. There's also an SCP-compatible patch for the campaign Inferno (details in this thread).

Hardwar:

Eamoe has put together a non-digital (yes, paper!) manual called the "Mis.Op Handbook". There are shipping and handling fees (along with printing fees) to have it mailed out, but the three-dollar requirement would seem to gel with the not-for-profit intent of the project.

smurph has started a Hardwar Enhanced website, which features his patches for Hardwar, amongst other things.

Independence War 2:

At the IW forum, Second Chance has posted an untextured 3DS version of Craig A. Clarke's Lightwave Dreadnaught. Second Chance has shares an update regarding the SW TC for IW2 and pics of the Mon Cal (in-game and untextured model shots). Lastly, the official sites for Indepedence War are no longer, but there is a cached version at web.archive.org (thanks to Zarhan).

Klingon Academy:

Moogle's Romulan TMP War Bird Sienae has taken flight, along with Poktarl's Type 6 Shuttle.

Nexus:

darkshimmer announces the release of the v1.1 Star Trek: Age of War Alpha v1.1, Rainman shares a weapons hack, and monty has issued a new version of his "Survival" mission.

Starfleet Command III:

The Legions of War mod can be downloaded at Dynaverse.net or at GLFUniverse.net. The mod includes over one-hundred ships, tweaked AI, tweaked objects, and more. Also, SFCIIIFiles hosts a batch of Seltorian vessels by Darkdrone, including the Lacewing-class, Firebrat-class, Tussock-class, Locust-class, and Harlequin-class.

The Babylon Project:

mr.WHO shows off a screenshot and a download link for his new mission, "In the Line of Fire", at the HLP TBP forums.

Wing Commander:

The CIC hosts Cyberion's model of the Wing Commander Academy Epee; the model is in Lightwave format and is based on specs by LOAF and BradMick.

Hardwar UIM.06 and More

Ian Martin announces the release of UIM.06, which "fixes the load game (from an earlier UIM) problem, and the incorrectly set display problem." Links to the file and readme are included in the thread.

Also, Max and smurph have released UIM.05-based patches; details and requirements can be read in the respective threads.

*

In non-related news, expect a fairly hefty FTP, BTP later today.

MMPOG Patches

Vendetta Online was updated again this week. The latest version of the game (v1.1.8.4) includes balance changes, bugfixes, and a few tweaks.

Also, EVE-I.com covers the latest EVE patch (3207).

Hardwar Patches

Ian Martin's UIM.05 patch is out; there is also Max's Hardw[a]r Enhanced patch for UIM.05 and smurph's UIM.04 (se.01) patch.


Needless to say, this week has also been very busy for me and will continue to be through Saturday. I'll post when I can.

Privateer Remake Shots

There's a stack of hi-res Privateer Remake shots in a thread at the CIC-hosted forums. There are also a few smaller pics that show off ships.

SFIII Looking for Programmers

The Starflight III project is looking for volunteer programmers to assist with the project. From the SFIII boards:

SF3 is a volunteer project, thus we are all volunteers. People join our project and help out, but a year or three down the road, they may become very busy with their real jobs or they might leave. This is why we need new recruits to keep our train on the tracks and moving forward. Especially important are programmers, who we can always use more of it seems.

Technical details and further information can be found in the thread.

EVE's 3207 Patch

EVE-I.com reports on the upcoming 3207 patch for EVE, which will be released on February 1.

Vendetta Online v1.1.8.3

A news update at the official Vendetta Online site details new balance changes in the MMPOG.

EVEKill Database

The Chef announces the availability of the EVEKill mail parser. Requirements are listed in this thread at the official EVE forums. The project is hosted at SourceForge.

A kill and loss database for EVE Online. Kill mails are input via a webpage, and then automatically stored in a database. Recommended for EVE Online alliances/corps use. View the demo at http://evekill.sourceforge.net/demo/index.php.

Thanks EVE-I.

SWG Chat Log

SWG Stratics has posted the chat log from Wednesday's chat with Star Wars Galaxies developers.

UIM.05 Beta 5

The good news: we're expecting a decent bit of snow this weekend. The bad: I have some work I must do from home. The good: I should be able to update--really update--sometime this weekend.

In the meantime, Beta 5 awaits.

UIM.05 Beta 4

If it's Wednesday, it must be Beta 4. UIM.05 full release should be this weekend, according to Ian Martin, should Beta 4 go well.

Hardwater/Hardwar 2 Tech Demo

evacuate has released a small, 4.6 MB tech demo of sorts (proof-of-concept, perhaps, would be a better description) of his Hardwater/Hardwar 2 project. Details and a download link can be found in this thread at the good Captain's.

For the People, By the People: Tuesday

This is an abbreviated edition, as I have a conference to attend tomorrow. I should be able to catch up by the end of the week.

Freelancer:

Lancers Reactor hosts Mogadin's Enforcer Ship Mod (single-player and multiplayer compatible).

Freespace 2:

Blaise Russell has rereleased Derelict; the new version of the campaign replaces the old backgrounds. In an entirely different sector of space, Axem serves up "Super FreeSpace Kart", a GT4/FS2 cross-over-y sort of deal.

Nexus:

monty's "Survival" mission has been updated; it now offers a greater variety of ships, amongst other things. Also on the mission front is frogger1108's untitled mission.

TBP v3.1 and Raider Wars Campaign

Mr. Fury announces at the HLP forums that The Babylon Project has been updated to v3.1. The 8.6 MB download features a number of fixes and a few ship inclusions and weapons tweaks. Also, the new Raider Wars campaign has been released (without voice-acting).

Vendetta Online Update

The Vendetta Online website has been updated with word of the latest version, which features a new trading mission system and several tweaks.

SWG Chat on Wednesday

Statics will be hosting a Star Wars Galaxies House of Commons developer chat tomorrow at 8 PM Eastern/5 PM Pacific. Topics will include loots, combat upgrades, and community relations.

"Hardwater" Screenshots

evacuate has posted a pair of screenshots from the independently developed Hardwar prequel, "Hardwater".

Hardwar UIM.05 Beta 3

The third and potentially last UIM.05 beta patch is now available. As usual, detaisl and the download link are available at Captain Zedo's boards.

For the People, By the People: Sunday Drive Edition

Bridge Commander:

BCFiles hosts MadJon's Battlestar Galactica Ship Pack v1.0, which includes the Battlestar Galactica, the MK 2 Colonial Viper, and the Colonial Shuttle.

Hardwar:

smurph's UIM.04 (e.06) Bonus Features patch (Captain Zedo's boards) has been updated with beefed-up Q-busting code that now helps in freeing stuck Moths.

Klingon Academy:

whitestar's fully ginsu-ed G'Quan has been released. The download can be found on whitestar's site (Narn page).

Star Trek Armada II:

STA2Files' new downloads include Fleet Admiral Raphaela's Steamrunner-class Starship, Yacuzza's Ultra Borg Mod v2.0, Dragon Master's Tholian Heaven-class Vessel, draconis_sharp's STA 2.5 Beta Patch, and draconis_sharp's STA 2.5 Beta Textures Pack.

X2:

Roenie and Merroc have released a spreadsheet "that calculates loop end-station profitability for closed loops, and how it all compares to each other. Also included is a comparison with the profits you would have got had you not produced product X but sold the e-cells instead, plus loads and loads of other data, such as the return you're getting on each energy cell used in creating a product." Further details and the download link can be found in this thread at the official X forums.

Starshatter v4.5.0 Screenshots

Missed this before, but John "milo" DiCamillo has posted a half-dozen GUI screenshots of the 4.5.0 version of Starshatter.

UIM.05 Beta 2

UIM.05 Beta 2 is ready for testing. The second beta fixes problem with saved games and analogue gamepads, amongst other things. Check this thread at Captain Zedo's for the download link and for further details.

For the People, By the People: Thursday

Bridge Commander:

New at BCFiles are two ships by Zambie Zan--the Kestrel-class Light Cruiser and the Longbow Torpedo Cruiser.

Freelancer:

Lancers Reactor hosts the Rheinland Firbolg mod, a script mod that makes available the Firbolg "Very Heavy" Fighter and is compatible with single-player and multiplayer.

Hardwar:

fragile dog offers a beta version of his Kestrel Moth, which replaces the Hawk. See this thread at Captain Zedo's for more information and a download link.

Nexus:

monty has a single-player alpha mission available for download. "Survival" requires the Age of War mod to be installed. The download link and full instructions can be viewed in this thread at the official Nexus forums.

Hardwar 2005 Plans Revised

Ian Martin has revised his 2005 Hardwar plans. From the Captain Zedo forums:

Plans for HW 2005:-

1) UIM.05 will be out soon, just fixing a few glitches. This is a bug fixing patch.

2) UIM.06 will have:-

New Moth (Ghost).
Optimised link code, and latest DirectPlay interfaces
Some AI fixes.
Conversion of existing textures to raw BMP files.

Realistic target - late Feb 2005

3) The planned XML save is shelved for the moment; the considerable work involved does not justify the effort, compared to the link game etc.

DOSBox WC1/Privateer/Armada Guide

The CIC has posted a nice step-by-step guide to getting Wing Commander 1, Privateer, and Armada to work on contemporary computers with DOSBox.

Vendetta Online Review

IGN reviews Vendetta Online, the space combat MMPOG that has been out for a few months. The review is quite mixed. Thanks Blue's.

For the People, By the People: Tuesday

Bridge Commander:

New downloads at BCFiles include Wicked45 and Zambie Zan's U.S.S. Yorktown (TNG) Refit, Ignis' Nebula Bridge Retexture v2.0 (requires the original Nebula Bridge to be installed), Zambie Zan's Lexington v.1.0, and mldaalder's Submenu Mod, which enhances the ship submenu.

Freelancer:

WatercoolerWarrior's TLR.Freelancer.Utility Library, a collection of routines and classes that might assist with Freelancer mods, is available at the Lancers Reactor. TLR also offers fbatb-spengel's Perry Rhodan System Mod v1.0, which adds six new systems and is compatible with single-player and multiplayer.

Klingon Academy:

whitestar has posted pics of his upcoming G'Quan model and a modification of a prior Advanced Whitestar.

Master of Orion 3:

MOO3 Guardian has added two new strategies (spying and dangerous races0 by Psilondude. They also have added the HABI Tool by Connan, which allows the player to edit optimal temps and atmosphere values of each species.

Star Trek Armada:

Sherman2's Romulan Super Weapon is available at STA2Files.

Star Trek Armada 2:

STA2Files serves up the public beta version of the STA 2.5 TC by draconis_sharp, Joelteon7's Mini-Mod Upgraded Borg Cube, Armada II Map Editor Manager (Anon), USS Enterprise-E Refit (Anon), Star System 12 (map) by Sonic14, Assimilated Titan-class Starship (Anon), and Thufir-class Starship v2.0 by Terradhyne.

Wing Commander Secret Ops:

The CIC points to a shot of the in-progress hanger deck that will be featured in the Macross: Do You Remember Love TC.

X2:

remusofsmeg is looking for X2 Saver evaluators. X2 Saver increases the number of available auto-save game slots.

Hardwar Beta UIM.05b1

Ian Martin has begun a public beta test of the UIM.05 (beta) patch for Hardwar. From the Captain Zedo's thread:

Time for a quick public beta test. UIM.05 is a short upgrade in that it fixes a few bugs. Anyone may test but please do NOT post on any other site, and do not host public games with it. This is version UIM.05b1.


Features and fixes for UIM.05
-----------------------------

1) The terminal negative deposit problem is fixed.
2) The problem whereby automatically generated pirates etc ran out of names, is cured.
3) Dead pilots are once again saved in the SAV file.
4) An old savegame problem (present since 1998 I believe) is fixed. This caused
a fatal crash at load, occasionally.

The link to the beta and more are included in the thread.

For the People, By the People: Monday

Bridge Commander:

Zambie Zan's Loknar TMP Refit, Ignis' Azati Prime NX-01 Silver v2.0, and Ignis' Azati Prime NX-01 Gold v2.0 are available at BCFiles.

Freelancer:

Lancers Reactor offers the Just for Fun Mod v1.0 by Old_Beowulf aka Jim Rupp, which is a mod geared towards single-player that has a number of requirements and conditions and allows the player to tweak a number of beginning-game options, and the Lansdale Colleseum Server MOD Client V5.4.1 by Damocles, which is a multiplayer-only, single-system mod that adds a few ships and many credits.

Freespace 2:

SabrWolf's Quick VP 0.3b, which adds a few features and fixes a few bugs, is now available. mr.WHO's R3.0 Babylon Project mission, "Convoy Party", has been completed; he has also posted a screenshot from another soon-to-be-released B5 mission, "Apocalypse". All info excavated at the HLP forums, as usual.

Homeworld 2:

The Star Wars: New Rebellion site has been updated with a screenshot of the recently added Borg Cube and word that a new release of Star Wars: Invasion should be coming up soon.

Nexus:

A new mission called "Stare If You Dare" by monty is out. The mission requires the Age of War mod to be installed.

Starfleet Command III:

The TOS: Final Frontier mod (hosted at SFC3Files) has been updated to v1.01 (stand-alone patch, bundled with v1.0).

Wing Commander Secret Ops:

The Standoff composer, Needaham45, is soliciting opinions on his re-rendered music. Thanks CIC.

X2

X-Scripting serves up Storm_Front's Mod Kit v5.0 for download (as seen in this thread at the official X forums).

B5: SCTS Update

The Babylon 5: Starship Commander Tactical Simulator developer log has been updated with information about recent developments in the indie game.

EVE's Potential New Ship Classes

Oveur classifies possible new classes in a dev blog, which has been posted at EVE-I.com.

For the People, By the People: Saturday

Bridge Commander:

At BCFiles, there is a German Bridge Voices sound pack (Anon), as well as a new mission, "Inside a Tal Shiar Starbase" by TiqHud. Also available are a pair of torps by BCFreak.

Freelancer:

Lancers Reactor offers Eugene's Titan Mod v2.3, a single-player story-based add-on.

Freespace 2:

SabrWolf has released QuickVP v0.1, a utility that allows users to open and to browse .vp files via an Explorer-like interface and also to extract .vp files.

Independence War:

Steve Robertson has posted a trio of pics that show off Hot4Darmat's previously mentioned Corvette model. Two of the pics are also available at the Independence War Paper Models site.

Starfleet Command 3:

SFC3Files hosts Cozbo's TOS Final Frontier mod, which includes a number of ships and weighs in at 147.62 MB.

X2:

The Basic Patrol Commands script has been updated to v1.03; the new version incorporates new enemy detection logic.

X2: The Return Release Date

X2 Source reports that Deep Silver has set April 29, 2005, as X2: The Return's new release date.

Heads Up: Star Trek: The Neutral Zone 2

A bit overlooked but not too out-dated, the Star Trek: The Neutral Zone 2 site has launched. The game is a sequel to Neutral Zone, both of which are 2D shooters. Full details about the game are available at the site, along with an alpha version of the game.

glElite Update

The glElite site has been updated with word that Teddy (the previous glElite engine) development has nearly halted. The game will use the Ogre engine instead. Further, there have been advancements in the planning stage. Full updates can be read at the site.

For the People, By the People: Friday

Bridge Commander:

BCFiles serves up Cakuzma's Target Separation v4.0 script, which allows Galaxy-class starships to separate. There are additional mods which must be installed; requirements are listed on the linked page.

Freelancer:

Hispania Revolutions Mod Beta v1.101 can be downloaded from Lancers Reactor or from Kryosphere Studios. Another mod by KS is the Music Mod v1 (also at Lancers Reactor and the KS site), which allows the user to select music styles for each House.
Freespace 2:

The Babylon Project is soliciting voice actors for a sixteen-mission run. Full details and instructions can be found in this HLP thread.

Hardwar:

REAxion offers a new version of HardLook, which is compatible with UIM.04. This thread at Captain Zedo's has a download link and more information about the program.

For the People, By the People: Thursday

Bridge Commander:

New ship models at BC Files include Zambie Zan's Romulan Starling-class Destroyer, Enterprise Intrepid, K'Mirra Klingon Battleship, and Klingon Suvwl'QeH.

Freelancer:

Lancers Reactor serves up the Crossfire v1.4 mod by the Crossfire Server Team.

Freespace 2:

Mr. Fury announces the availability of The Babylon Project (Base Project) v3.0 and a re-release of the original Earth-Minbari War campaign. Raider Wars, another campaign, and a mission pack should also be released in the near future. All releases can be downloaded either via Bit Torrent or Fileplanet.

Independence War:

Hot4Darmat and Steve Robertson discuss the progress they've made on Dreadnaught-class Corvette paper models.

Star Trek Armada II:

Armada 2 Files hosts an Enterprise Intrepid (Anon), a Romulan Negh'Var by t_Beta_t, a Thulfir-class Starship by Terradyhne, and a mod by Sweldon that replaces the user-controls tutorial in single-player.

X-Wing Alliance:

The X-Wing Alliance Upgrade site has been updated with a Type H Freighter, which is filed appropriately under "Transports" in the downloads section. The Freighter is also available at Darksaber's.

For the People, By the People: Tuesday

Freelancer:

Filed under "Mistaken Identities" or "You've got Wing Commander in my Star Wars!", Lancers Reactor brings word of a new Midway CMP and MAT file by Aldebaran (needs additional hardpoints and other requirements to make it flyable in game).

Freespace 2:

Goober5000 has released a demo of sorts of a project with the worlds-colliding title, "Freespacelancer". As the title suggests, this is his attempt to add a non-linear campaign to Freespace 2. Also, Col. Fishguts (and you have to love that name) has posted some additional screenshots to the Babylon Project's board at HLP.

Starfleet Command 3:

MajorRacal offers a Liger-class Dreadnaught. From SFC3Files.com come Anon's Borg Tactical Ziggurat, MarianoDT's Xindi Insectoid, Unimatrix 1's Zeus Refit v2.0, Unimatrix 1's Odyssey Refit v2.0, Unimatrix 1's Shipyard v2.0, Unimatrix 1's Excelsior v2.0, Unimatrix 1's Excalibur Refit v2.0, and Unimatrix 1's Borg Probe v3.0.

Vendetta Online Update

The Vendetta Online site has been updated with word of an impending patch for the game that will "fix some server-side problems and introduce some improvements to AI code and a few other things. Among said changes, it will now be possible to follow mining bots back to the queens (within 1000m, their jump destination will be displayed)." Also, there will be an update to the In Progress developmental page sometime later today.

SWG Dev Update

Gordon Walton has added to his original post regarding upcoming changes to Star Wars Galaxies. Any new planets will apparently only be made available in expansion packs, and additional quests in space (as well as ground) should be "moving forward".

For the People, By the People: Sunday Drive Edition

Bridge Commander:

BCFiles has a few additional downloads that I missed on New Year's Eve--a Main Menu Replacement Movies mod by JTS1701, a Klingon Shuttle by mrjohn, and an Akira Hardpoint model by Applefreak.

Freespace 2:

Mr. Fury has posted a pair of updates on the status of the Babylon Project, including word that a new release should be forthcoming in the next week. The other update concerns future plans for the conversion, including news about the Mists of Fire and EA Civil War campaigns.

Hardwar:

smurph has released another bonus patch for Hardwar, which builds on the UIM.04 patch. smurph's patch affects police presence, disables negative withdrawals and negative deposits, and a variety of spawning issues. See this thread at Captain Zedo's for a readme and a download link.

Starfleet Command 3:

New models announced on the Dynaverse.net boards include MajorRacal's Gorn Dimetrodon-class Dreadnaught and Sandman3D's Eagle-class. Also, Trek-Online speaks with Generations at War mod leader, NannerSlug, about the mod, the present status and possible future of Trek gaming, and the starfleetcommand3.net website (which also has news that a new campaign is underway).

X2:

KrashKart offers a new script called Shipjacker v1.0a that adds a bit of GTA flavor to Egosoft's space sim.

Heads Up: Star Wars: Empires at War

TFN has a few details about an upcoming Star Wars title, Empires at War, which will feature land-based and space-based (a la Homeworld, the article states) combat. The strategy title is due in Autumn 2005 and is being developed by Petroglyph. Thanks Blue's (via VE3D).