3rd Party Scripting » BCS: The Beginning

Description & Read Me:

BCS: THE BEGINNING
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Version 2.0.2. Last Update: 26 March 2006
By Bridge Commander Scripters: The New Generation
Contact:

[INTRODUCTION]
Welcome to The Beginning.

In September of 2005, four new faces found themselves stumbling through the hallowed and aged halls of Bridge Commander Universe, Scripting Division. One had been there before, done some bits of work, and only recently returned, with little hope of particular amusement. Another was a new player who had not yet beaten the single player campaign and was compelled to join after being horrified by the cancellation of ATP: Dimensions. To this point, his only programming experience had come from writing math aids on the TI-83 calculator, in BASIC, on a screen with only eight lines and no tab. Yet a third member had never coded a day in his life, but his curiosity and courtesy initially earned him at least the non-rejection of his peers. Finally, there was a fairly experienced coder who had never used Bridge Commander before, but found some of the work quite admirable, and seemed to like the company it kept.

In mid-September, the veteran, named USS Sovereign, and the newb, Wowbagger, posted radically different scripts for the same idea by Tuvok1101. They did so simultaneously, and simultaneously went to work on each other's code to improve and combine their almost equal wisdom. The non-coder, CaptainKeyes, jumped in, offering all sorts of suggestions that led the 57-line script to evolve into what became an 1800-line monster. The coder new to BC, Lost_Jedi, couldn't help but join the fun, and, with his infectious humor, soon became an accepted and critical part of the team.

This mod pack represents the culmination of five months of bonding, bouncing, learning, scripting, debugging, and just plain staring at all the pretty colors in the Python IDLE. In this time, we have formally incorporated to become Bridge Commander Scripting: The New Generation, and our workload has grown from "what we want to do, when we want to do it" to a solid calendar of twenty-odd projects, four (addendum 1/10/06: FIVE) of which might be termed "revolutionary."

Lastly, we've learned to love doing what we do. This pack contains very little in the "revolution" department, but it's a darned good lineup of mods, and we are proud to deliver them to you.

And, remember: The Modding Adventure Is Just Beginning…


[REQUIREMENTS]
Star Trek: Bridge Commander (Retail Version)
13 MB free hard drive space
Bridge Commander 1.1 Patch
Foundation
QBautostart (TB tested in 0.9/0.9.1)
NanoFX v2.0 Beta
Distortion Firepoint package (included)
BCSTNGLib (included)
KeyFoundation by MLeo (optional; included)
UnifiedMainMenu (UMM) (optional; recommended)
Notepad. (It came with your Windows)(optional; for customization purposes)

For a full array of options and customizability, download MLeo's UnifiedMainMenu (UMM). We have specially designed TB with the ability to customize, and the UMM is what allows non-scripters to access many of those options.

Scripters, of course, can refer to the BCS:TB Config file, at [STBCDIR]scriptsCustomUnifiedMainMenuConfigModules
OptionsSavedConfigsBCSTBConfig.py


[THE RUNDOWN]: How To Get TB Running Without Reading A 34-Page ReadMe
1) Be warned: between all the useless rambling, this ReadMe really does contain a lot of useful stuff. And you are skipping it all. Shame.
2) Install TB. The Rundown assumes that you know how to do this.
3) Run BC. Duh.
4) Configure WalkFX. If you have KeyFoundation (and, unless you did a partial install, you are now a proud owner), you will have to choose your control keys in Options > Controls > Misc. at the bottom of the menu. (See Page 17: WalkFX for defaults and recommendations.)
5) Configure UMM options… or don't. The defaults are pretty good.
6) Make sure all the BCS:TB mutators are active.
7) Run QuickBattle.
8) Look at all the pretty new buttons!


[INSTALLATION] (For Dummies! (TM))
We've written a .exe installer, so this should be pretty easy. Download the file, double-click it and "extract" the installer from the ZIP file, then double-click the installer and follow the instructions. This will overwrite several older versions of our own scripts, but that's all. We expect you'll like the improvements.

A list of files and their directories is available on request, for those of you who are really
curious as to where we did what. But only nerds ask for that kind of information. No pressure or anything.

There are three options on the installer, which we put in so we couldn't do any irreversible damage to your install without you having signed the legal waiver. First, you'll have to decide whether to install the mutator-controlled mods, which are in one big, shiny, Foundation-controlled package. Since 90% of this pack (actually, 86.67%) is contained in this option, we highly recommend it. The other two are for Reload All Torpedoes and Change Warp Speed. Since these mods overwrite stock files (or, with CWS, NanoFX files), they are included seperately. Still, they rock, and they've been thoroughly tested (even without the Beta Squadron, these mods have both been previously released). So, unless you're some kind of religious NanoByte purist worshipper ("if iTithe = = iIncome * 0.1 then return iTithe else raise MortalSin"), check all the little boxes and install the whole thing!


[OVERVIEW]
The mods included in this pack are:
- Emergency Repair v0.8.2 (successor to Emergency System Repair) (UMM optional)
- Intensive Scan v0.3.9
- Advanced Core Options v0.8.5
- Silent Running v0.5.3 (UMM optional)
- WalkFX v0.3.4 (supersedes v0.2.0, as well as the last released version, v0.0.2)
- Tractor Beam Settings v0.2.1
- Assimilation Beam v0.3.2
- Transport Torpedoes v0.1.3
- Transport Tribbles v0.1.4
- Reload All Torpedoes v2.0
- Torpedo Yield v0.3
- Targetable Plasma Streams Way Larger Than LJ Thought It Would Be (v1.3)
- Change Warp Speed v1.0
- Boost Shields v0.1.1
- Engineering Menu Button Text Fix (UMM required to deactivate)



[CONCLUSION]
And it looks like that's a wrap. Thanks for playing BCS:THE BEGINNING! And remember: The modding adventure is, and always will be… just beginning.

See you… out there…

[CREDITS]
BCS:TNG:
Wowbagger
USS Sovereign
CaptainKeyes
Lost_Jedi

Squadron Beta:
Mateo
Gamesfunk
blaXXer
JimmyB76
tungmeister
hustler_alpha
nebula
Commander D
Mustang
Adonis
Cube
Shinzon
trekie80
dung_beetle
dshash
Dragon
spanner
CyberOps
treleth
Cackad
Rhochi
Micoos
RobArcher
and, finally: dazzharvey

Special Thanks:
spanner, for those video clips
NanoByte, for permissions
MLeo, permissions and aid
Phaser, for those textures
Dragon for making the wonderful Photon Torpedo for Torpedo Yield
Wowbagger, for blowing three weeks of scripting time on this readme and the trailer! Yes, he's thanking himself!
USS Sovereign, also writing his own thanks, for making the installer for all of these guys and for fixing all the mess they made!

The Shoulders of Giants:
Defiant, for QBAutostart and the well-commented scripts therein. They taught Wowbagger nearly everything he knows, and he's sure the same is true for many.

NanoByte, for NanoFX, and for showing that a little work really can change a mediocre game into something still worthy of some keyboard drool.

Dasher42, for Foundation, without which we would all be lost.

MLeo, for a kind heart and a wise hand.

[BCS NEXT VOYAGE]

"And Would The Stars Be Still As Bright…"

(If you can't see this image, click the white area until the picture control bar appears, and adjust brightness or contrast up or down. This way keeps it secreter.)


[LICENSE]
Bridge Commander is Activision's baby, though I think they're well past the caring stage. Star Trek is the property of Paramount Pictures, technically, but evidently CBS has all the power over whether or not there's ever a new show, so I don't even know why Paramount bothers these days. If you're not using it, why not let somebody like TrekUnited borrow the license? I mean, come on! They offered you $18 mil towards a new season of ENTEPRISE and you turned it down? What kind of monsters are you? You and your Les Moonves puppets have driven me to watching fan films, curse it! Anyhow, you (referring to the reader here, not Paramount) can use anything in our scripts, but you must give us credit for code you adapt, and you must not release new versions of the mods contained herein without our express permission. Should BCS:TNG one day cease to exist, or no member can be found online for thirty days or more, all scripts contained here are to be considered free-use, until such time as BCS:TNG or any of its recognized constituents return to the BC community. If I forgot to mention something important, just refer to the GNU. Their document is pretty clear about what you can do with packs like this. Retail value: Priceless. No proof of purchase necessary. Not for resale. Batteries not included, though why you'd want batteries is beyond me. I admit double-A's are pretty cool, but still… that's just weird.

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