Master_Xan

I've looked into decompiling Rebellion. Its possible, but would require extensive programing skills, as the decompiling process would leave you with the code all mangled; out of order and hard to read. Plus no notes about what does what. Even worse, it might end up with a spattering of assembly mixed in, which would really make things hard. In short, it can be done, but not by me. If anybody feels up to it, I wish them luck. I'll even pass along the info I gathered about it.

I'm starting to write a book. That's right, me, writing a book. I doubt it will turn out very well, but I figure the experience is worth it, even though it won't ever be publishable material. Would any of you guys be interested in reading parts as I get them done? I'd really like opinions, and when righting a book there can never be too much BEAKing... (as a sidenote, I do believe I'm a Lt. Commander now... ) EDIT: Dang, not yet. Can't be far off, as others with about this post count are. Is it 145, or 150?

This is another instance where I'm pretty sure somebody told me it was hardcoded, that is the Luke script where he leaves is unaccessable. However, I've done no research into it myself, so this is merely conjecture, not fact. I wish you luck. It won't be an easy task, even if you do succeed. You might be better off switching characters around to get someone else into Luke's slot.

hmm... you're from Canada, right? US teachers don't get paid so much. College professors do, but when I say teachers I'm refering to teachers in general, and elementary through high school teachers don't get nearly that much. Professors do get paid well, but they are required to do research in their field, publishing new information every so often. They also have to grade all those long papers (both my parents are professors, and they ALWAYS have something to grade. My dad is currently spending three hours a day just grading!). True, once they get the lessons down they don't have to make new material... unless they work in a field that is constantly changing, like business, computers or other tech fields, medical, etc. Then they are not only always going to classes themselves, but also tweaking their lessons. In your case, the strike is ridiculous. You should walk up and smack them all with a white glove, and if they get mad then you should point out that 80 grand is more then many people make in three or even four years. And if you include third world countries, then 80 grand is more then they'll ever see in their lifetime.

If you succeed, I will have to throw a party for you. Personally, 30 characters is just fine with me. I don't want to even think about the nightmare that would become 1,000 characters... there isn't enough for them all to do! You'd have a commander/general on every planet, and commander/general/admiral with every fleet, diplomats all over the galaxy, sab missions left and right, incite uprisings and capture missions up the wazoo, and you'd STILL have 700+ characters sitting around! However, if we ever gained the source code and made it so characters age... now then, that's a different story. Wouldn't it be cool to have, say, 300 characters, and after so much game time some of your people retire? After awhile you can recruit more, either younger people who were too young before, or else people who for some reason didn't want to join you before, and use them to fill your ranks as others retire. You could even go so far as to make an entire Star Wars saga game, starting with Ep 1 and moving through each episode's characters, ships, and so forth... (now if we only had the source code and somebody who wanted to live in their basement for 2 years to make all the necessary changes...)

I never really got into the show, not because it wasn't good but because I just never watched it. I'd be interested to play a TC based on it though... as well as one based on Stargate. (dream on, right? )

Teachers are like nurses. They never get paid enough. That's just the way it is, and probably always will be. Anybody who doesn't agree that nurses or teachers aren't paid enough, obviously has never known someone in those professions. Although 0.6% is a pretty extreme reason to strike. Seriously, lets do some math. Say you make $40,000 50% =$20,000 25% =$10,000 10% =$4,000 1% =$400 .6% =$240 So the teachers are striking for a measly $300 or so. Granted, this is a college, (right?) so the professors could be striking over a whopping $600 instead! *gasp!*

Who/what are they? All I can think of is Rommie (sp?) from the Andromeda TV series.

All you people getting all worked up over a little BEAKing, geez. Can't we all just get along? Here's a good lightsaber battle that hasn't been mentioned yet. Not a duel per se, but the Boba Fett vs. Obi Wan battle in Ep 2 was pretty cool. I'd like to see a true duel in the rain, that would be awsome.

Hmm... sounds like I should be glad that I've never heard of this Christmas Special one before... As for Troops, its great. There are a few really good fan films, and Troops is among the best. I have a link around here somewhere to where I got it, and they've got quite a few others there as well... I'll have to find it later today when I get off work.

There should be a list in the game files somewhere, from which the game 'randomly' generates the starting conditions. By random, I mean a series of mathematical formulas that determines... well, you get the idea. It isn't really random, but about as close as a program can get. Taking into account the difficulty level, of course. I have no clue how to go about editing that file though. Would be interesting to do, but since I've not seen any mods that do so, I suspect either nobody knows how, or its hardcoded.

Personally, I avoid messing with the registry. Partially because its complicated, partially because there are so many duplicates of most things in there that I invariably miss one, partially because if I screw up it can do nasty things to my computer, and partially because I can usually get the same results in another way. Plus it takes awhile and I'm lazy. With a game like this, it wouldn't be too bad, but I'd stay out of the Windows OS entries almost as if they contained the plague. But Budious is correct, you could certainly do that. I should have thought of it myself. *smacks forehead*

You could copy/paste the files, then modify one and leave the other unmodified. Most games can't operate like this, as the copied files can't be run properly... something to do with registry information and other such data that isn't copied. However, many older games could be used like this, as they relied less upon the registry and other data areas. Rebellion may be old enough to work in this manner, but I'm not sure. The only way to find out would be to try it. Otherwise, you can install it on different hard drives, but only if each has its own operating system. Reason being that you would need to boot the computer from the install drive, otherwise it won't contain the necessary registry info to run the game from its location. And you can't install two copies, so the other drive can't be the one running or the game detects its previous install. Hope that helps.

Orson Scott Card's website Info on the book Ender's Game

I sometimes get a crash after a tactical combat as well, just as you describe. Drives me nuts. I've yet to find the culprit however, as it does so with the stock cards loaded, no alterations. There is one patch for Rebellion, 1.01 I believe. Maybe its 1.1, I dunno. It doesn't do much, but if you don't have it you might as well get it. As for the graphics, you've stumbled into the realm of the Reloaded project, which is trying its best to update the graphics using the same outdated game engine. Other then that, I'm not aware of any graphical improvements... although you can edit most of those files directly, and many TCs have changed them.

Well, hop to it you two! Read Ender's Game first, if you like it, check out either Ender's Shadow or Speaker for the Dead after that, depending upon which series you want to start with. I recommend Speaker for a deep read, and Shadow for a lighter, more adventure-driven reading. I haven't read any of his other books, though I've been meaning to do so. Just never really got around to it. Maybe I'll give them a shot this week.

Only three girls? Glad I already have a girlfriend, not much chance of meeting one here... Actually, most forums have little femal representation. Why is that?

Its a classic study of psychology and the human brain. This is some of the stuff I enjoyed from my psychology class (we talked about the Ames room). I didn't much enjoy the study of psychologists... or most of their methods (I personally don't agree with them or their findings). But lots of things were pretty cool, such as the Ames room, studying dreams, and so forth. I'd recommend a psyc class to anybody who gets into this sort of stuff. Just watch out for when they start talking about Freud and his absurd outlook on children and their parents.

Ender's Game is good, but its sequels aren't the same sort of book. Obviously Card wrote them, but they are different from the original. Deeper, heavier material. Lots of people don't like them as much. They were ok, but the ones I really got into were actually those of the companion series... the one featuring Bean, which began with Ender's Game's "sister book", Ender's Shadow. Same timeframe, but from Bean's point of view. Very good, and its sequels are the same sort of books.

Hey now, I'm not sure I like what you could be implying there... I'm going to get myself back into observation shape! Without any whips or instruments of death, pain, or destruction. None whatsoever.

First, Reloaded doesn't yet exist. Second, I'd wager a guess that once Reloaded is finished, you'll be able to swap between it and the original, similar to how you can restore the original settings using RebEd. As for your second thought, if you get into orbit, you can pause the game (or save and quit). As for modifying the outcome... you'd have to use an editor to modify the saved game file. Meaning you'd need to be able to hex edit, something I know next to nothing about.

That long? Dang, I'm loosing my observant touch. Better whip myself back into shape...

Hey! I said no google! You cheated!! CHEATER!! Anywho, yep its Bean from the Ender's Shadow book cover. I'm surprised you guys got that so easily. That's my favorite book series though, through its combination of adventure, feelings, and thought-provoking situations. Plus it just makes me feel smart afterwards... if that makes any sense at all.

*DING DING DING* We have a winner!! I'd have deleted that entire scene. Better yet, filmed it, then cut it from the movie and burned it. In a large furnace, at least hot enough to melt steel. Then, I'd have shot all the script writers who had anything at all to do with the scene, including George Lucas himself. Finally, I'd have burned the editors at the stake for allowing such a monstrosity into the movie! Er, I mean, yeah... I hated that part too. And Jar Jar needs to go, or at least be matured so as to not make the movie good for 5 year olds. The corny love scenes and lines from Ep 2 need some work, and while R2D2 flying is cool, it doesn't fit very well at all. The puns could certainly go as well. And some more stuff, but that's good enough for now.

Editing the units is easy enough, but adding more units is tougher. I think somebody told me that the unit count was hard-coded in, making it impossible to add units without replacing existing ones. Then again, I've done no testing to prove this myself, so don't take this as fact.