Has BSF lost its way? - No, just it's mind.

the mulletron · Post by **the mulletron** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:04 am

Hello one and all, The Mulletron here! I'm posting this thread because I've been neglecting BSF for about a month or two now, and I know the reason why.

Over the past year, I've seen BSF slowly turn from a tactical strategy adaptation of Warning Forever into a designing tool just for making pretty pictures with. The reason I say this, is that whilst Shipmaker gets more and more attention, the actual game itself has been largely abandoned.

As it stands, Shipmaker and the game itself are more or less mutually exclusive at the moment, with the only real way to use your custom ships, is to muck about with them in the sandbox mode, the only alternative being to take pictures of it, and to post them here for other people to ogle at (which is OK I guess, but not exactly interesting).

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that there is anything wrong about designing pretty ships, nor that the BSF developers are doing a bad job, but the game has become (for me at least) just something to mess around with rather than something to actually play.

So I ask you, what's your opinion on this? Has BSF lost it's way? Could it do with Shipmaker being better incorporated into the game? Or is it just fine the way it is?

Swamp Fox · Post by **Swamp Fox** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:11 am

I can see your point, although in my opinion if BSF has lost its way it happened a long time ago. Once you finish with the campaign, Sandbox is pretty much all that's left, aside from the skirmishes. It's been this way as long as I can remember. At this point I've gotten used to it, but I do think it would be somewhat nice if the game itself were revived somehow, although I have to wonder how practical it would be.

Squishy · Post by **Squishy** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:16 am

I'm still waiting for the last two campaign missions.

Also, you use the encounter maker to cook up some minigames and custom missions, but it seems to have been neglected as well.

ArcaneDude · Post by **ArcaneDude** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:23 am

Do mind the fact that people build their ships for two reasons;

1) aesthetics
2) being fun to play with.

Personally, every ship i get my hands on is something new to test, or to test on. I run battles with some appropriate music, sometimes I set one ship as a flagship and control that myself...personally, I believe that's more fun than the campaign missions. I'm still waiting for those last two though.

Slayer0019 · Post by **Slayer0019** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:37 am

I have to agree with this. There's a severe lacking of things to do with these pretty new ships. Using them in the preset modes feels like cheating, using my tech against stock, and building encounters for me to use myself later feels like playing with myself (<- any context will convey my point).

The last 2 missions would be a good start, but what we really need is a new game mode. We need a way to set what will spawn for us, what will spawn for the enemy, and a spawn interval.

TL;DR VERSION: You know that endless battle that happens on the menu screen that is really fun to watch? Gimme that with options to set what spawns.

SHAD0Wdump · Post by **SHAD0Wdump** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 10:05 am

I've thought up a pseudo rule-set for playing as a pirate junk lord.

It involves alot of die rolling but it makes playing the game feel alot like playing a RPG.

ifelon · Post by **ifelon** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 11:16 am

Squishy wrote:I'm still waiting for the last two campaign missions.

Also, you use the encounter maker to cook up some minigames and custom missions, but it seems to have been neglected as well.

I suppose in BF it seems could make a mission yourself?
But how to?I'm confusing..

Squishy · Post by **Squishy** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:06 pm

BSF encounter maker is inside the game.

Custom Game -> Make Encounter.

Sadly, I hardly know anything about making .enc files.

TormakSaber · Post by **TormakSaber** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:38 pm

I thought this long ago, and it is indeed why I neglected the forums and game to the point where I was removed from the mod staff. It's also why I wanted an un-CE version of the game, for personal use.

Sadly, I hardly know anything about making .enc files.

It's not difficult, and is actually quite fun, though full functionality was neevr given to the system: All oyu can do is spawn waves, pretty much. I took to writing accompanying scripts for my encounters, but there's only so much you can do.

And now with the Encounter section of the forum pushed into the archives and unnaccessible, you've all but lost that facet of the game as well.

Post by **Arcalane** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:51 pm

That's because hardly anybody used that feature, y'know.

Verminator · Post by **Verminator** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:05 pm

I think it was because it was a bit shallow and finicky. I'd use the hell out of it if it had as much depth as shipmaker.

Post by **Kaelis** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:02 pm

Valid points all around.

First off, some background. The recent developments of the shipbuilding part of BSF are pretty much my own initiative. I choose to expand the shipmaker instead of the game itself due to my own preferences and opinions. I love the creativity aspect of BSF the most, and never really cared much about gameplay itself (i still havent finished the campaign!), and i always thought shipbuilding has alot more potential and could use more flavor (custom sprites!). I am also a staunch proponent of promoting creativity in/trough games.

Now, after 0.90 release, i was quite satisfied with the new features shipmaker had to offer. There were plans to implement at least three new game modes after the bugfixing was done. As you can see, this never come to pass, and there are still many critical bugs that need fixing. This is simply because neither i nor Sean have time for BSF anymore.

In short, i fully agree that BSF needs more gameplay, but im afraid i just can't afford working on it.

VNilla · Post by **VNilla** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 3:18 am

Kaelis wrote:This is simply because neither i nor Sean have time for BSF anymore.

I believe I speak for almost everyone on the forums when I say that I absolutely love BSF and would hate to see it die. However, if you do have to abandon it, I'm sure any number of people would be willing to take up the slack and continue the project.

Post by **Arcalane** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 3:51 am

VNilla wrote:
Kaelis wrote:This is simply because neither i nor Sean have time for BSF anymore.
I believe I speak for almost everyone on the forums when I say that I absolutely love BSF and would hate to see it die. However, if you do have to abandon it, I'm sure any number of people would be willing to take up the slack and continue the project.

But that's something that simply can't be done right now, not until we hear more about BSF2 and how BSF1 ties into that legally.

I think all that should be done with BSF now is rounding off a few loose ends - fixing bugs, wrapping up the campaign - maybe slip in a couple more custom weapons if any good ideas come up... and no, don't suggest any, there's already threads full of ideas.

Post by **Kaelis** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 6:13 am

VNilla wrote:
Kaelis wrote:This is simply because neither i nor Sean have time for BSF anymore.
I believe I speak for almost everyone on the forums when I say that I absolutely love BSF and would hate to see it die. However, if you do have to abandon it, I'm sure any number of people would be willing to take up the slack and continue the project.

I didnt say im abandoning BSF, i merely stated that i don't have time to work on it atm. And besides, im not the owner of the game, Sean is. What happens to BSF is not my decision.