Hi tom. the Missions thing in Stfc deffinately sounds fun, ---- I'd actually be interested to know how real time command of multiple ships would work.
As to Raceway and Monti, as I said, so long as human speech is stil being used for the atmospheric bits in the game , , I have no objections to the use of Sapi for reading status information, ----- even the horror that is Microsoft Sam which I'm forced to endure at the moment (though I'm hoping to get this fixed at some point). If the release date for the monti beta is Spring, I'm guessing that means we'll get something playable fairly soon, which will be great! Good luck with future developements. all the best, Dark. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Ward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 4:54 PM Subject: [Audyssey] USA Games News > > > USA Games News > > March 12, 2007 > > > Introduction > > Hello gamers, > It has been along time since USA Games has released one of these monthly > progress reports, and we feel at USA Games that one is long over do. We > certainly have a bit of ground to cover in this issue. > > Montezuma's Revenge > > Some time ago we reported Montezuma's Revenge will begin beta testing > sometime this spring. To our knowledge the beta is still on more or less > the same time table though the release date will be set back by a couple > of weeks do to some necessary upgrades we will be making to the engine. > During early testing of the Alpha version the USA Games test team and I > have converted the keyboard handling from Windows Events to Microsoft's > DirectX Input technology. The advantage here is faster keyboard response > as well as a wider range of keyboard options. With DirectX Directinput > now a core component for the game it shouldn't be long before joystick > and mouse support will be added as additional input devices. > In addition to improvements in keyboard input the first two levels have > been fully written, fully debugged, and are quite stable for game play. > In addition the core game engine is now ready for new levels and > additional expansion once we make a couple of upgrades which is going to > hold up the release for a couple of weeks yet. > Since it really is very difficult for us to record, trim, edit, wav > files for processing speech we have decided to build Sapi 5 support in > to Montezuma's Revenge. There is a great deal of technical complications > in making wav files act the same as a good tts engine we have decided to > add the support for directly interfacing with tts engines, and hope that > those of you who wish to have high quality speech will buy a compatible > high quality tts engine which will work with all our future titles. > For example, if you liked the Neospeech voices Kate and Paul you can > easily purchase them at Nextup.com and then use them with our titles. We > also will support the Scansoft RealSpeakvoices, the AT&T Natural Speech > system, and any tts engine that meets the basic Sapi 5 specifications. > The advantages of this change for us is significant. Faster upgrades, > easier management, less work, no need to record and edit every voice wav > file, better game performance, and several other technical updates. > So if you are willing to wait a few more weeks for us to make the > conversion we feel this will improve the game rather than harm it. > > USA Raceway > > We've received a few requests this passed month or so about Raceway, and > have not been able to fully explain the status to each and every person > who asked. So we have decided to answer as many questions as we can via > this forum. > Do to work on Montezuma's Revenge we have not had much time to really > work on Raceway. All our resources have been spent on stablizing the > Monty game engine and preparing it for public beta release > status.However, here is a brief overview of the status thus far. > Like Montezuma's Revenge we fully plan to remove any use of wav files > for speech output, and convert it to a Sapi 5 support. That said some > things such as radio messages, race announcer, etc will remain as a > human actor. However, Sapi will fill in for giving in number of laps > remaining, weather conditions, speed, position, score, etc. > One of the major things that is slowing Many you have asked why it is > taking so long to put out a demo of Raceway. Many of you have to > understand we are rewriting the engine from scratch. The main reason for > doing so is the differences in languages. > Initially James North had written the first beta in VB 6 which is > rapidly becoming a very old programming language which is slowly but > surely being fazed out. He then started on a VB 2003 version, but that > engine was far from complete or playable. As a result USA Games decided > to start over with a fresh and clean engine written in C++. The main > reason for using C++ rather than VB C++ and C# have better support for > game devices, especially ff game devices, then the more beginner > programmer languages like VB. Apparently, Microsoft holds profetional > development languages such as C++ more valuable for DirectX features > than beginner languages like VB which was primarily designed for > non-profetionals or profetionals who need to rapidly produce an > application or prototype. > One major distinction in this new Raceway engine is it is geared for > season based play. It will keep track of season scores, season earnings, > and all points will be earned specifically on the Nascar based scoring > system. > In addition, Raceway will offer several different weather conditions > ranging from sunny and clear, light rain, heavy rain, snow and icy, > etc... These weather conditions may cause additional hazards like > slipping and sliding on the track, low visibility, and other dangers > that would not normally be allowed for in a standard race, but in the > game will add substantial challenge to each and every race if weather is > turned on. > > > Final Conflict > > Obviously, do to the Monty release schedule extremely little time has > been spent on STFC, but we have certainly decided on an up and coming > 2.0 release of STFC. there are many things we would like to change in > STFC, and many of the plans for the new version are still undecided. > One thing we are strongly conciddering is allowing you, the player, to > decide the enemy to play against. Rather than fighting x Cardassians, x > Klingons, and Romulans all in the same battle have you choose one enemy > to face off with and you will face say 15 Romulans, or 15 Cardassians, > 15 Klingons, etc... This is not yet anofficial feature but a thought. > Another possability is to base STFC on the Dominion War as such. I can > imagine being able to command several Federation as well as Klingon > vessels against Jem'hadar, Breen, and Cardassian ships. > No matter if this is going to be TNG or DS9 based the new STFC will > certainly have specific missions rather than all out war as before. > You may have a mission to explore the disappearence of several ships in > such and such a sector. When you and your fleet show up you find out a > Borg cube is responcible and the Borg are building a base there and have > to destroy it. > However, again since we are thinking more in terms of missions it might > be preferable to scrap all move based games for an all out real time > game which would be certainly more fun in the long run. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Gamers mailing list .. 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