Saturday, January 22, 2005

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.

Friday, January 21, 2005

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.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

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.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

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".

Monday, January 17, 2005

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.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

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.

Friday, January 14, 2005

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.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

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.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

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.

Monday, January 10, 2005

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.

Saturday, January 08, 2005

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.