This game is low graphics quality but simply amazing. Steven told us about it and Zack, Steven, Mike, and I tried it out for a little while.
Looking into it, there's a lot going on in this game in the community, including total overhaul mods for star trek and battlestar galactica.
Between the mission creator/editor and the GM screen, this game looks to be that thing that tabletop RPG has always lacked in sci fi games. I'm gonna continue looking into this, but it'll run on netbooks, it requires 6 players (7 if there's a GM), and some of the stations aren't super duper hard.
I'd like to play somewhat frequently, and would be happy to host.
Also, S is planning an event for this game that should be epic.
Artemis 2.0 came out today. It is a large enough overhaul that it costs $5 for people who previously bought the game to upgrade.
There is literally NO information right this second on what the changes are, but I can tell you that the changes form 1.6 to 1.7, which occurred since we played at the manor hours, were already significant. I want to say that multiple ships would have separate science counters as of 1.7.
I've learned to play this game by myself for the most part, only getting a few group games together, as it happens, but I enjoy the game anyway, due to the detail involved in all the workstations and all the skills needed to run a ship.
I think I could put together some guidelines for each of the workstations, at least as of 1.7, and will be able to soon for 2.0 due to obsessive tendencies.
I'd like to try to get people together for this again. The community will take a little while to catch up and make new missions for 2.0, but once there's a mission editor for 2.0 I plan to learn it and write a few missions myself. I was in the process of collecting the necessary tools to do so for 1.7, but then this happened.
We'll see what happens with the new update. The rumor mill on the artemis boards suggested a 3rd dimension to ship movement might be included...
There is literally NO information right this second on what the changes are, but I can tell you that the changes form 1.6 to 1.7, which occurred since we played at the manor hours, were already significant. I want to say that multiple ships would have separate science counters as of 1.7.
I've learned to play this game by myself for the most part, only getting a few group games together, as it happens, but I enjoy the game anyway, due to the detail involved in all the workstations and all the skills needed to run a ship.
I think I could put together some guidelines for each of the workstations, at least as of 1.7, and will be able to soon for 2.0 due to obsessive tendencies.
I'd like to try to get people together for this again. The community will take a little while to catch up and make new missions for 2.0, but once there's a mission editor for 2.0 I plan to learn it and write a few missions myself. I was in the process of collecting the necessary tools to do so for 1.7, but then this happened.
We'll see what happens with the new update. The rumor mill on the artemis boards suggested a 3rd dimension to ship movement might be included...
I think your place is fine.
You've got a desktop hooked up to your main TV which is on the router, so it would be ideal as a server or as a main screen duplicate and your computer would be the server/gm screen.
You've got enough room for enough stations plus one or two people to trade out or train on new stations
You've got a neat swiveling chair that could be moved the middle of the room and function as a captain station.
We can probably wrangle up enough laptops to do the rest on tray tables and such. We need five, and I think an android capable tablet or an Ipad can do it, though probably not as smoothly.
The stations and their requirements are like so:
Captain - somewhere to sit or stand so that they can hear everybody, be heard by everybody, and see the main screen.
Helm - One terminal, and a clear view of the main screen. If a flight stick is to be used, they need somewhere to stabilize it.
Weapons - One terminal. A mouse would be highly recommended for boresight firing as manual dexterity is a critical part of doing this, and a trackpad or touchscreen is likely to interfere. Being able to see the main screen clearly would be a plus, and they need to be able to communicate quietly and clearly with the helmsman, preferably sitting next to them.
Science - one terminal
Engineering - one terminal
Comms - One or more terminals. this job can be shared by others if absolutely necessary, but for complex maps using fleets of allied ships, this workstation could use a second screen for the long range sensors, which would speed up initial fleet consolidation and delicate maneuvers.
You've got a desktop hooked up to your main TV which is on the router, so it would be ideal as a server or as a main screen duplicate and your computer would be the server/gm screen.
You've got enough room for enough stations plus one or two people to trade out or train on new stations
You've got a neat swiveling chair that could be moved the middle of the room and function as a captain station.
We can probably wrangle up enough laptops to do the rest on tray tables and such. We need five, and I think an android capable tablet or an Ipad can do it, though probably not as smoothly.
The stations and their requirements are like so:
Captain - somewhere to sit or stand so that they can hear everybody, be heard by everybody, and see the main screen.
Helm - One terminal, and a clear view of the main screen. If a flight stick is to be used, they need somewhere to stabilize it.
Weapons - One terminal. A mouse would be highly recommended for boresight firing as manual dexterity is a critical part of doing this, and a trackpad or touchscreen is likely to interfere. Being able to see the main screen clearly would be a plus, and they need to be able to communicate quietly and clearly with the helmsman, preferably sitting next to them.
Science - one terminal
Engineering - one terminal
Comms - One or more terminals. this job can be shared by others if absolutely necessary, but for complex maps using fleets of allied ships, this workstation could use a second screen for the long range sensors, which would speed up initial fleet consolidation and delicate maneuvers.
I've run the server and a client on my netbook.
As far as accumulating workstations is concerned, I have a laptop and a netbook to contribute, and a mouse. So that's weps and something else, probably science or engineering or comms. It's better if each workstation has a decent screen to work on.
The mission I"m working on involves a lot of comms traffic, and weapons has less to do than usual for stretches of it, which makes weps a good place for me, since I'd have "out of character" knowledge about what to do.
The big problem right now is that Thom, the author, has been cranking out updates to the game faster than the mission makers can update their missions, so there is a host of missions for 1.55 and a few for 1.65, a couple for 1.7, and nothing but a couple preloaded shitty ones for 2.0
Each update comes with reasons the game can't handle missions written for previous updates, in the form of deprecated xml expressions and other things like that. I'm working on learning to write in "artemis markup language," which is the XML language and syntax used by Artemis to understand missions and maps. It's a specialized subset of XML, and I'm taking to it fairly easily. There's a lot that can be done with the limited tools in the AML library, and the main thing I've heard people asking for in Artemis missions is "something to do besides blow up enemies," like escort missions and stuff like that.
I have some ideas but they are more grandiose than I"m prepared to start writing right now. I need some experience writing and debugging simple missions before I tackle multi-episode campaigns, which I've figured out how to do already, but the basics are what I need practice on.
What kinds of missions would people like to do? Invasion mode is fun, and Module_3_Bases allows for GM interaction and potentially huge fleets. Any suggestions?
As far as accumulating workstations is concerned, I have a laptop and a netbook to contribute, and a mouse. So that's weps and something else, probably science or engineering or comms. It's better if each workstation has a decent screen to work on.
The mission I"m working on involves a lot of comms traffic, and weapons has less to do than usual for stretches of it, which makes weps a good place for me, since I'd have "out of character" knowledge about what to do.
The big problem right now is that Thom, the author, has been cranking out updates to the game faster than the mission makers can update their missions, so there is a host of missions for 1.55 and a few for 1.65, a couple for 1.7, and nothing but a couple preloaded shitty ones for 2.0
Each update comes with reasons the game can't handle missions written for previous updates, in the form of deprecated xml expressions and other things like that. I'm working on learning to write in "artemis markup language," which is the XML language and syntax used by Artemis to understand missions and maps. It's a specialized subset of XML, and I'm taking to it fairly easily. There's a lot that can be done with the limited tools in the AML library, and the main thing I've heard people asking for in Artemis missions is "something to do besides blow up enemies," like escort missions and stuff like that.
I have some ideas but they are more grandiose than I"m prepared to start writing right now. I need some experience writing and debugging simple missions before I tackle multi-episode campaigns, which I've figured out how to do already, but the basics are what I need practice on.
What kinds of missions would people like to do? Invasion mode is fun, and Module_3_Bases allows for GM interaction and potentially huge fleets. Any suggestions?
Update
Some missions have recently had updates posted for 1.7. This may seem odd, in that 2.0 just came out, but 1.7 came out *just* long enough ago that efforts to debug and updated deprecated code for 1.65 missions have finally finished, just in time to start changing them over to 2.0.
I have found and downloaded working copies of about four or five missions that I didn't find any bugs in while playing them for about ten minutes or so. IF there are bugs that crash the game or otherwise prevent the mission from completion, I am unaware of them, and they did not occur within 10 or 20 minutes of play using my play style for solo games. (little to no use of warp, impulse only, gather NPC fleet to help with combat, engage with missiles while closing to beam range and then lock down enemy with manual beams, keeping their weapons offline until their hull buckles. This is how a scout can bring down any ship in the game, as long as you're fighting solo and have the nerve for it. It's almost suicide against anything more than two ships.)
It seems to me that "Hunt and Punish", "Party Crashers",and "Havok in the Hamak Sector" are the three longer and more interesting missions that I picked up. There is a knockoff of encounter at farpoint I'm gonna try to get to work.
Another activity that is available is the star trek mods which I have finally gotten to work for artemis 1.7. The main activity available with these is Invasion Mode, with star trek next gen (and beyond) ships in play. Can you take your Akira Class and go toe to toe with a borg sphere? It could be fun to explore the features these alternative ships have in Invasion Mode, but I have not gotten a mission to work for them, since the missions written for the star trek mods are still 1.65.
I'm working on an escort type mission for Artemis 2.0. The learning curve on AML is somewhat steep, but I'm equal to the task. Post in this forum if there are mission types (seriously, anything you can think of) you'd like to try out.
Campaign Update
I've got a story arc put together and features that I need to learn to develop. One of the things about doing this sort of writing is that a pretty detailed plan of what needs to happen and how needs to be outlined before the ground work can be done. There are some pretty amazing things that can be done with the scripting language, far beyond mere Invasion Mode and Escort Missions, but they have to be planned out carefully and executed together, otherwise you wind up going back and having to rewrite huge amounts of code to get something messed up in the beginning to work right at the end. Right now I'm asking questions and trying to find answers for some interesting set pieces I have in mind. Like with LK work, and research papers, I'm doing this by building a template which will then be filled in, so the first task is to decide what needs to go on the template.
Therefore, if people have mission types they'd be interested in playing through, suggesting them doesn't hurt anything. It can only help, even if it can't be done, determining why it can't be done is as valuable as determining how to do it.
/end update
Some missions have recently had updates posted for 1.7. This may seem odd, in that 2.0 just came out, but 1.7 came out *just* long enough ago that efforts to debug and updated deprecated code for 1.65 missions have finally finished, just in time to start changing them over to 2.0.
I have found and downloaded working copies of about four or five missions that I didn't find any bugs in while playing them for about ten minutes or so. IF there are bugs that crash the game or otherwise prevent the mission from completion, I am unaware of them, and they did not occur within 10 or 20 minutes of play using my play style for solo games. (little to no use of warp, impulse only, gather NPC fleet to help with combat, engage with missiles while closing to beam range and then lock down enemy with manual beams, keeping their weapons offline until their hull buckles. This is how a scout can bring down any ship in the game, as long as you're fighting solo and have the nerve for it. It's almost suicide against anything more than two ships.)
It seems to me that "Hunt and Punish", "Party Crashers",and "Havok in the Hamak Sector" are the three longer and more interesting missions that I picked up. There is a knockoff of encounter at farpoint I'm gonna try to get to work.
Another activity that is available is the star trek mods which I have finally gotten to work for artemis 1.7. The main activity available with these is Invasion Mode, with star trek next gen (and beyond) ships in play. Can you take your Akira Class and go toe to toe with a borg sphere? It could be fun to explore the features these alternative ships have in Invasion Mode, but I have not gotten a mission to work for them, since the missions written for the star trek mods are still 1.65.
I'm working on an escort type mission for Artemis 2.0. The learning curve on AML is somewhat steep, but I'm equal to the task. Post in this forum if there are mission types (seriously, anything you can think of) you'd like to try out.
Campaign Update
I've got a story arc put together and features that I need to learn to develop. One of the things about doing this sort of writing is that a pretty detailed plan of what needs to happen and how needs to be outlined before the ground work can be done. There are some pretty amazing things that can be done with the scripting language, far beyond mere Invasion Mode and Escort Missions, but they have to be planned out carefully and executed together, otherwise you wind up going back and having to rewrite huge amounts of code to get something messed up in the beginning to work right at the end. Right now I'm asking questions and trying to find answers for some interesting set pieces I have in mind. Like with LK work, and research papers, I'm doing this by building a template which will then be filled in, so the first task is to decide what needs to go on the template.
Therefore, if people have mission types they'd be interested in playing through, suggesting them doesn't hurt anything. It can only help, even if it can't be done, determining why it can't be done is as valuable as determining how to do it.
/end update
Update again:
It appears that most missions for 1.7 work on 2.0, but may not have compensated for the new features.
They say that "appropriately coded" missions will always be forwards compatible, but I'm not sure that is the case.
One of the missions I have, which seems pretty cool, requires....a bit more than just the mission file. I can *probably* get it to work on 2.0.
V2 is a BIG update, and is probably worth using over 1.7 any day.
Not much really changes from my last update, except that I'll see if it looks like the needed file for "Hunt and Punish" can be created easily enough.
It appears that most missions for 1.7 work on 2.0, but may not have compensated for the new features.
They say that "appropriately coded" missions will always be forwards compatible, but I'm not sure that is the case.
One of the missions I have, which seems pretty cool, requires....a bit more than just the mission file. I can *probably* get it to work on 2.0.
V2 is a BIG update, and is probably worth using over 1.7 any day.
Not much really changes from my last update, except that I'll see if it looks like the needed file for "Hunt and Punish" can be created easily enough.