From: wool8657@mach1.wlu.ca (john woolsey 9209 U)
Subject: Re: BattleTech PBeM Development Group
Organization: Wilfrid Laurier University
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 17:01:14 GMT

In article <9211130920.AA29720@fccn01.fccn.pt> bc@fccn01.fccn.pt (Luis Miguel Sequeira) writes:
Much deleted for simplicity
>	There seems to be some feedback about this BattleTech PBeM
>stuff, so I propose a news discussion about implementation and
>development details, here on rec.games.pbm.
Interesting concept.

>	As I can judge by now, there are some PBM attempts on the
>BattleTech game. 
I don't know of any... Or at least any that have been mentioned here in
about the last year... But I wasn't always listening.
>
>	The second phase would be the implementation. Of course, I'm
>not talking about a 100,000-line program or something like that, but
>it would be nice to get a group of people working at the same time on
>different aspects of the game. Some could specialize just on the input
>& order processing, some others on database issues, yet others on
>reports, some on the rules themselves, and even perhaps someone just
>to collect suggestions and "gripes" from players, and eventually
>organize a newsletter about the game.
I offer flagship as a site, but I will not do much coding other then linking
things together. Flagship is a PC Based site that uses UUCP to connect to
the world. This may be an advantage since it will allow the PC based
programmers out there to work on the game. SFACS works like this:
parser module reads in moves, and responds back to users.

Fighter module does general maintenence, lists fighters, finds fighters, and
adds a whole bunch of nice subroutines that generally help the world. It is
responsible for loading the database into memory. Since I am using windows
there is no logical ram limit, and thus my database will work all in memory
regardless. It also calls a procedure fightscn with the appropriate
warriors.

FightScn is simply the FightScene procedure which does the complete combat.
There is also a common code module.

FightRec. This common code includes the data record, and all of the weapon
types defined in a constant. It will include all of the armour types as well
when they become properly implemented.
>
>	Also, if you never heard of BattleTech before, you may help
>us, too, by telling us about experiences with previous PBeMs in
>details like order processing and report generation, or database
>handling, which are universal issues anyway.
I think each player should be allowed to control a lance. This would be a
simple way of getting the moves co-ordinated. For fun people should also be
able to choose that lance type at the start of the game. This game actually
would be very easy to implement as a PeBM game in that format, and although
players dropping out might be a problem it would cause less problems then
one player in a lance dropping out. Four way combats would be nice for fun
though to add to the game. Designing your own mech would also be a nice
thing to add, and it wouldn't be particularely difficult to implement.

>	Or is it going to be an economic/diplomatic/strategic game on
>a larger scale, where players lead mercenary units which not only need
>to prove themselves in battle, but also need money to keep their units
>in working order, and fame & glory earned in battle to achieve better
>contracts? Of course, the battlefield level *must* be present in some
>form (after all, that's what BattleTech is really about), but how?
Battletech's strength is in its battlefield combat. If you want to create an
economic game then model something that is better written then FASA's
afterthought. Oh yeah we can make more money if we write an RPG for this
battletop simulator basically sums up their motivation and effort on the
role playing game. That is not to say that it can't be thrown in on top.
Salvage, and Mech repair & design is an interesting aspect of the game. I
for one would be far more interested if I was allow to create my own mechs
based on tonnage.

As for SFACS that is my creation, and I intend to support it. Among other
things the interest in it seems to be growing as features get added, and
people get used to the game. I am willing to help on this battle tech game,
and I might even start up another new game if I get the time, but I will
only take on programming concepts that I have time for.