What Manshooter is saying is true. Trek is an established IP with its own set of "rules", and though it is work of fiction has its own set of "stats". Everything has to function a certain way. Some things need to function for example the cloak. I think i can speak for everyone that most "professional" trek games fall way short when it comes to following the IP's own set of rules, or satisfying the fans hunger for attention to detail. This is why i chose to mod trek instead of creating my own IP which i am more than capable of doing.
Many trek games lately seem "dumbed down" and childish. Armada, and Legacy are two examples. ST:Online is looking that way too. Bridge commander while a somewhat good game (after some annoyances are modded out) also falls into the "childish" catagory. What i mean is there is not much "thinking" involved. Just go out, and shoot the space thugs, and save the day.. oooooh, ahhh. Yawn. There is no "science" left in this science fiction anymore. No exploration, diplomacy, etc. etc. Just go out there, and blow shit up.
Not one single Trek RTS, or Empire Builder exists. BOTF, and Dominion Wars can be considered 4x but again they fall short, and fail.
The best trek games i have played were Starfleet Command, and Klingon Academy. They were good because they paid attention to the details. They were not dumbed down. In fact they had a high learning curve. Though in SFC you fought on a 2d plain, because that game was adapted from an uber geek board game.
Our point with the original SoA mod, and SoA 2 was that a complex trek game could be possible that will also be enjoyable. I felt sins was the perfect engine because of its 4x elements. I way underestimated the hardcoded mechanics, and thought i could find a way to work around them. The more i would try to work around an issue. The more new issues would arise.
Adapting Treks "rules" into Sins is very difficult if not impossible to do in the Sins present state. How many would accept a Romulan, or Klingon faction that cant cloak? I can safely say no one would. In sins cloaking can not be done. I have not found a way to make it work.
The movement is hardcoded. In trek most if not all of the ships had to manuever somewhat during combat to face its strongest shields, and best weapons. In sins that aint gonna happen. While for some big ships that may be acceptable, but not for small ships like the Defiant, or B'Rel. All ships come to a screeching halt to fight. All attempts to make them manuever met with failure. Even the assistance from other mods did not work. All of the ships come to a screeching halt to fight. Unless the fighters movement can be coded into the ships themselves thats how it will remain.
The weapons on Trek ships while they look simple enough, are quite the opposite. Each ship has an established set of weapons. Each ship has an established set of weapon stats. The Sovereign (nemesis refit) for example has 18 Phasers , 8 torpedo launchers, and one quantum launcher. Most of the 18 points are spread out throughout the saucer section. With the hardcoded "general" firing arcs of front, back, left , and right. I had to chose carefully what point fired where, and it still resulted in many weapons firing through the hull of the ship, because you cant narrow down the firing arcs to prevent this. The Galaxy/Venture you have already seen what i mean. It has 12-14 points. Some points on the right side fire to the left when a ship drifts through the firing arcs. It is very disturbing to watch. I have said to try to ignore that annoyance, but why? Why cant we control the firing arcs in this game when in other games like Homeworld we can?
There is much more that i wont get into, but im sure most of the modders already know about those.
Believe me i do not want to give this up. I am just at a loss on how to make it work. If i continue then all i am doing is importing Trek IP onto Sins hardcoded mechanics. That just is not going to work.
This is what i may do my next project on, and hopefully without any hard coded brick walls
http://www.nanofx-evolved.com/
