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KLINGON ACADEMY > Development Diary
Courtesy of KlingonAcademy.com, these are Interplay's Diary entries for Klingon Academy.
10.20.00
Klingon Academy Scripting Package is now available. Greetings everyone. At long last, Klingon Academy Scripting Package is now available to make customized Klingon Academy missions. The package has the same functionality used by the development team to create missions for Klingon Academy. This package is intended to allow you to make Klingon Academy Scripts only and DOES NOT include is the ability to customize ships, planets, and/or systems. Klingon Academy Scripting Package To use the package properly, you will need to obtain some third party utilities (i.e. text editor, precompiler, etc.) Additional details regarding the scripting package are available in the readme file: Get it here. This scripting package is not intended for the casual gamer. While the scripting language is similar to Pascal, it contains many advanced features and processes that will require some knowledge in programming. Please read the included documentation thoroughly before attempting to make any missions. We have provided this package in good faith but it is not free of defects. The development team has tried to document as much as the mission building process as possible, but please bear in mind that some of these documents may have errors and that some information may not have been updated. Please note, this product is provided as is and we cannot guarantee its performance or functionality on every system. Please do not call Customer Service regarding any Scripting Package issues as they will not have any answers for you. A new "Mission Building" discussion board on the Klingon Academy Message Board has been created to help the community discuss any issues regarding the mission building process.
Enjoy. Rene Hakiki
10.17.00
The Klingon Academy 1.02 Patch is now available! This patch should address the remaining issues that the fans have been screaming for in Klingon Academy. The development team decided it would be best to delay the patch to bring you these features. It is our hope that we made the right decision. This patch will update all previous versions of Klingon Academy (i.e. 1.00 and 1.01) to version 1.02. (NOTE: It is not necessary to install version 1.01 prior to this patch). I would like to thank Robert, Danny and our QA team for their hard work in finishing the patch. This patch includes several fixes including a checksum to validate ships in multiplayer to prevent cheating. For a complete list of patch fixes in version 1.02, click on the following link: Patch Fixes (English) Patch Fixes (German) Like the last patch, there are three different patches for each version of the game--US (English), UK (English), and German. Please use the patch intended for your version only! Click on the appropriate link to download your version of the patch. Klingon Academy 1.00/1.01 to 1.02 Patch (US Release) Klingon Academy North American 1.02 Patch Klingon Academy 1.00/1.01 to 1.02 Patch (UK Release) Klingon Academy UK 1.02 Patch Klingon Academy 1.00/1.01 to 1.02 Patch (German Release) Klingon Academy German 1.02 Patch In other news, the Klingon Academy Scripting Package has been compiled and is ready for release. Please look for it later this week.
Enjoy. Rene Hakiki
10.16.00
Klingon Academy Patch 1.02 is here! Head on over to the Downloads page for the North American, UK and German 1.02 Klingon Academy Patch!
^..^ Krazikatt
9.07.00
Klingon Academy Patch It's been quiet around here lately but we're still working to make some additional fixes for Klingon Academy. The next 1.02 patch will be released after testing and should address the following issues: KLINGON ACADEMY 1.02 PATCH INFO: · (1) Checksum check to validate ships added to multiplayer. · (2) Star bases no longer are spawned too close to each other. · (3) Weapon's (in fact, all resources) recharge rate problem after warping fixed. The prior symptoms were rapid weapon firing after warping to several systems in Quick Battle. · (4) We fixed the problem where in-system warp would slow down to a crawl if you went to gunnery chair. · (5) You can no longer tractor ships while doing an in-system warp. · (6) A problem was fixed in ships would get too close to a planet when the helmsman was given a command to orbit a target and the target was a planet without an atmosphere. · (7) The wingman capture command was refined so that it is now less likely to destroy an enemy ship that it is trying to capture. · (8) The nVidia problem where plasma is being drawn on the celestial sphere can be addressed by getting the updated nVidia video card drivers (Detonator 618 drivers).
Take care. Rene Hakiki
7.28.00
The Klingon Academy Patch is now available First of all, I would like to thank the team members who worked vigorously on Klingon Academy through years of development, sacrificing their vacations and holidays. Without their dedication, this game would not have been possible. Next, I would like to thank the fans for their overwhelming response on the forums. The fans have contributed greatly to this product and the team has always appreciated your honest feedback. Thank you for your patience and understanding. This patch includes many fixes, including fixes for bugs reported on the forums. Click on the following link for a list of fixes in version 1.01. · Patch Fixes (English) · Patch Fixes (German) There are three different patches for each version of the game--a US patch, a UK patch and a German patch. Please use the patch intended for your version only. Click on the appropriate link to download your version of the patch. Klingon Academy 1.00 to 1.01 Patch (US Release) · US Patch Klingon Academy 1.00 to 1.01 Patch (UK Release) · UK Patch Klingon Academy 1.00 to 1.01 Patch (German Release) · GER Patch Enjoy
--Rene Hakiki --Line ProducerScriptor, Klingon Academy
7.25.00
Patch & Mission Builder Release Information First everyone will be pleased to hear that the patch will be released very soon. It is in the final signoff stage in QA. Now about the Mission builder. The decision was made to stop the Mission Builder because the game kept growing exponentially and the functions kept multiplying. The Mission Builder functionality was not able to keep up with the demands of the product so consequentially we were unable to use it, much to our dismay. Instead, we ended up using a scripting system that required the missions to be scripted by hand. But, in response to the overwhelming number of requests by the Klingon Academy fans, we are going to release the source code (unsupported) of the Scripting language so that you have the opportunity to build new missions for both the single and multi-player modes. I hope this code can continue to keep Klingon Academy supported and to make it possible for the users to keep this game alive. We'll release the code in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for your patience. Brian Christian Director of 14 ° East
6.26.00
KLINGON ACADEMY WARPS INTO RETAIL!!! You've been waiting for a game like this to come along and now it's here…Klingon is shipping and already flying off the shelves! Fight with honour in a multiplayer battle or take on the single-player mode! Buying it is the only honourable thing!
6.16.00
Design:
Reading through the posts on the board I noticed how many of you have said that you cannot bear the wait for Fed-X to deliver your KA pre-order, or for KA to hit store shelves. Well, I thought you should know that the wait is equally as bad on this side. We have poured our hearts into KA for almost three years, during which time many of you have followed our progress faithfully. There has been a tremendous response to the playable demos, and we have received very favourable previews. But now that KA has gone gold, I cannot wait to learn how you feel when you hear General Chang's induction speech for the first time or get swept up in the war with the Federation. May you enemies run with fear!
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
6.14.00
Design:
Now that Klingon Academy has gone Gold and we have all gotten a good night sleep, I would like to take a moment to thank each of you for creating such a great community, and for your support and feedback. It is doubtful that you will ever fully appreciate the impact each of you has made to the development of this great game. In my desk drawer is a copy of the vision document we presented to our CEO in the early stages of this project. Within its pages are a prioritized list of comments and criticism offered by magazine reviewers and members of the Starfleet Academy community. Alongside these comments are our very specific design goals intended to address each major concern. So, for you old timers out there from the SFA board, your comments may very well have helped shape the initial design direction of Klingon Academy. When the Klingon Academy demo was released, your enthusiasm helped reassure management and others within Interplay that we were still heading in the right direction. In addition, your comments and critiques had an enormous influence on our ability (and even desire) to implement needed features. When some of you expressed disappointment for not being chosen for our limited beta team, I had to smile - since whether you realized it or not, each of you were already valuable participants in what was effectively a very large beta test. I hope you all truly enjoy Klingon Academy. It is after all, your game.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
6.12.00
KLINGON GOLD!! Start the presses! The OFFICIAL word is out! It's a beautiful day in Irvine because Klingon Academy has gone gold. That's right, Klingon Academy is done and off to the duplicators. Time to pre-order it if you haven't already……! Pre-Order from the Interplay Store, Get a Free Klingon Academy Poster!
5.31.00
Quality Assurance It's been a long time since I had time to write one of these, and even then I don't have that much time so I will be brief. We are indeed at the beta stage of development. All features are implemented and feature/code freeze is in place so the dev team can no longer make any design changes and we can't request any more design changes unless it is to remedy a game breaking situation. QA has been working a lot of hours as we frantically work as fast as possible to break the game and get the bugs reported to the scriptors and programming team. Then, we verify the fixes the dev team implements to make sure the bugs are squashed. If the price of coffee and any other caffeinated beverage go up, blame us. We are consuming vast amounts of caffeine to keep working as long as possible to get this game done. This past week has been pretty hectic, more so than usual. I'm spending a lot of time going over bug reports, communicating to the testing team as to what's going on, inputting the status of bugs into our database, testing the game, and making sure that Raphael, the Producer of KA and Michael, the Director of QA are informed as to the status of the title at least every few hours. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone in QA and the dev team can see it, we're just hoping its not an oncoming train that hits us. That's it for now, back to testing….
Erick Lujan QA Project Supervisor, Klingon Academy
4.21.00
Klingon Academy Multiplayer Demo! This is it! The moment you've been waiting all week for. The exclusive Klingon Academy Multiplayer Demo is finally here and available for download by your friends at 3dfxgamers.com! Get it here!
Decamber
3.31.00
I'm happy to announce that Klingon Academy will now fully support higher screen resolutions. This support will also be available in the forthcoming multiplayer demo. I know that this was a major area of controversy, concern, and angst with many people, and with the state of games these days, I think it was at least justified. For the longest time, we have publicly stated that we wouldn't be able to support these higher resolutions in KA, and even if it were possible, it would require a lot of work to be re-done. In light of the fact that we are now saying the exact opposite, some explanations are in order. Higher screen resolutions support is something we've wanted in the game for a long time now, but there were two major hurdles preventing us from achieving this goal. The first had to do with a code module that is responsible for initializing Direct 3D, including the display resolution. This part of the code is something we inherited from SFA, but unlike the rest of SFA, there was no way for us to modify it because the original source for it was lost quite some time ago. All we had, literally, was the object code that was pre-compiled and linked to our code base. This module was not something that we could just rip out and re-write, like we had with other portions of the code, it was embedded throughout and would have taken considerably more work to re-write it than to just simply work around it. The bottom line was that without the source code for this, changing the resolution was impossible-or so we thought. John Panettiere, our lead programmer, tried an idea that was risky, but ended up working beautifully. He found a means by which to force the higher resolutions despite what had previously been hard-wired. With further help from Robert Coultrip, our AI/physics programmer, they worked out a means by which to arbitrarily set the resolution for the game. Yet despite their ingenuity, we were still left with the challenges posed by adapting our many interface screens to these higher resolutions, and the initial rush of John's achievement was a bit tempered by this cold fact. The next step that we knew we had to take was to re-position the HUD elements for each of these higher resolutions. Thanks to Mark Murakami's expertise with these interfaces, and with the old SFA code, he was able to get this support into the game very quickly and efficiently, but, we were still left with the daunting task of addressing all the other interface screens, and this is where most of the challenge remained. Due to the fact that KA is a serious star ship simulator, we designed and implemented a variety of bridge stations that provide for a redundant control interface and also help to impart more of a 'Star Trek' feel. These bridge stations total nine in all, and this is not even including the other interface screens for the rest of the game (main menu, multiplayer screens, etc.). Now, the best way, in terms of quality, to support hi-res, is to have unique art for each of these screens at each respective resolutions. Unfortunately, we had neither the time nor the resources to take this route, even if it were left up to us. The only alternative we had was to leave the interface screens at a lower res while the HUD would fully support hi-res. This left us with a very uncomfortable feeling, but something that we had to accept if we were to have hi-res support in the game at all. What this would mean to the player, is that all interface screens, except for the HUD, would be in a small 640x480 window, no matter how high the 3D screen resolution was. We were prepared to live with it and ship the game this way, but John surprised us again. He found a means in code to stretch the interface screens to fill the entire display without requiring a large investment in time from either the artists, or the programmers. There is, however, a trade-off for this, a lot of the text on the bridge stations (but not the HUD) appears blurry. We've looked at it several times now, and although the degradation is noticeable, all of the text is still very legible. Also, it isn't even all of the text on these stations that is affected this way, all engine-generated text is clear, no matter what the resolution. What this means, is that any text serving as labels within the bridge stations is a bit blurry, while the rest is mostly untouched. In any event, this is really the best we are going to be able to do for this, and I firmly believe the trade-offs are well worth the gains. All of you who download the multiplayer demo will now be able to play the game in resolutions up to 1280x960, providing your video card supports this, of course. And to those of you who have yearned for this feature in KA, I'd like you to join me in thanking John Panettiere, Mark Murakami, and Robert Coultrip for giving us this, and for once again accomplishing the impossible.
Raphael Hernandez Producer, Klingon Academy
3.28.00
Design:
With work on the boarding party system complete, you will now be able to use your transporters to beam away teams to an enemy vessel. Once aboard, your marines can disrupt the operation of internal systems or even destroy them completely. It will even be possible to capture an opponent's bridge and take control of his ship. Boarding parties can be tricky to use however, as you must maintain a line of sight for several seconds on an opponent's down shield in order for a transport to be successful. In addition, sending your own security forces on offensive missions can leave you vulnerable to boarding engagements yourself.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
3.23.00
Design and Scripting:
The design team has been very busy these last few weeks going over demo feedback and making adjustments and tweeks to game play for the full version. Issues such as weapon fire rates, medical efficiency and visual effects are carefully revisited after any data change and then placed in our 'in house' revisions for testing. Some of these changes will be available in the up coming Multi-Player demo, while other more involved changes will still be in too much of a state of flux to be released with the Mpdemo. The scriptors are still very busy with the single player missions. As more voice files arrive from our audio department several times a week, the scriptors must make sure that the mission logic still flows and that their design is still solid. Full motion video scenes are also being finalized and placed into the mission, soon these too will be getting audio and tested for mission logic. In game cinematics are still being worked on as well, the scripting team and audio will be working closely on these to ensure a higher sound quality then what was in the single player demo.
Steve McLafferty
3.14.00
Design:
Now that you have had an opportunity to experience Klingon Academy, and we have had a chance to digest all your feedback, I thought I would kick off the development updates again by letting you know what I've been working on. We have read through all of your comments on the board and have identified necessary design tweaks and prepared a list of feature requests. Several bug fixes and design tweaks have already been made. This includes corrections to the AI cloaking parameters so AI ships cannot hunt you as effectively, a change to medical healing rates so sickbay is more effective during combat, a reduction in primary weapon firing rates with a corresponding increase in damage, a reduction in FMPA damage to better bring the Emperor in line with the Excelsior, and a greater chance of breakdown when performing emergency manoeuvres. In addition, our programmers are beginning to look at some of the feature requests you have made. At this stage in development it is certain that not all of these feature requests will be added, though I am hoping that the most important items for game play will be included in the final release. Currently, I am working with Brad in QA to test boarding parties and bring them into balance. In one brief and very decisive battle yesterday he forever ingrained in my mind the importance of sub-targeting…but I digress.
Take care all, Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
3.01.00
KLINGON ACADEMY DEMO NOW AVAILABLE! The Klingon Academy Demo is now available! Warp on over to the Star Trek Continuum and start downloading now!
Decamber
2.11.00
Design and Scripting:
A lot of progress is made on the demo and full versions everyday. The timeline that we had set internally for the demo remains intact. Soon we expect to get the final audio for the demo. The AI is still in it's infancy, and is being trained nightly by Ron. Mission 2 is intended to be an exercise in hunting/tracking and hiding in terrain. The mission starts at Dipeyj Base. Repairs to the Qu'ov have just finished. Sensor sweeps have found the "Centurion" Class Cruiser that fled from the battle in the ThoQ'jI system, now hiding in the Kovat system. The Kovat system lies within open space, even though some groups occasionally express an interest in the system. First Officer Torlek must seek out the Romulan Cruiser, possibly by focused sensor sweeps, flush them out and extract vengeance for violating Klingon space.
Steve McLafferty
2.11.00
Quality Assurance:
This week has been pretty busy for QA as we work on getting the demo ready for its upcoming release. We are working hard at breaking the demo and reporting bugs to the programming team and getting frequent updates with fixes to our bugs that require us to verify their fixes. Sometimes it goes easy and the bug is squashed, other times it's still there and the programmer has to go back and try to figure out why his fix didn't fix the bug. We just went over the bug list last night with each of the programmers and have finalized a priority list of bugs that they have to fix. It's amazing but the demo is actually getting closer and closer to being ready. The latest revision which we received last night showed some improved AI behaviours and the Romulan Command Cruiser in Mission 1 actually managed to surprise me a couple times which made the fight real interesting. The AI is starting to get clever…maybe a little too clever…we'll just have to see what further testing uncovers.
Erick Lujan QA Project Supervisor
2.10.00
2D Art Department:
Working towards completing the demo has seen the in-game art list shrink like never before. This past week has seen the development of improved heavy photon graphics, improved explosions (brighter, more color), new Sha'kurian missiles, a revised multiplayer interface, small enhancements to the main game interface, and many, many bug fixes. Having completed so much work is allowing us to review all of the ship and planet data for imperfections, as well as looking towards improving other parts of the game, such as photon and plasma graphics. I believe the installer was completed as well (it has animations while the installation takes place), so it looks like we'll be able to concentrate on strengthening the graphics where ever need be.
Manuel Salazar 2D Art Department
2.02.00
Design and Scripting:
The demo is still proceeding on schedule. Yesterday we received some temporary dialog files from our audio department - things like bridge crew voices, Torlek's in-game movie speeches and the like. Once this is hooked in the single player aspect of the demo will be in final beta test mode. A limited version of quick battle will be in the demo release. Players will be able to command either a Klingon "voDleH" (Emperor) Class Heavy Battle cruiser or a Federation "Excelsior" Class Heavy Battle cruiser in engagements with up to four ships per side. From a terrain menu, battles can be placed just above a gas giant, planetary ring or solar corona. The atmosphere of the gas giant will greatly impair ship sensors, decreasing weapon accuracy and obscuring visibility. High-speed movement within the gas giant will tear down a ship's shields and eventually damage the hull. The player may also select to place the battle along the rim of a planetary ring. Once inside the ring, both sides must be wary of large chucks of rock and ice, as collisions will do massive amounts of damage. Battles in a solar corona will be extremely dangerous, a ship's crew will be exposed to massive amounts of radiation, crippling the crew's effectiveness, if a shield face goes down. QA is currently focusing on finding and reporting multiplayer issues. Once the multiplayer side of the demo goes into final beta we'll release more specific information.
Steve McLafferty
2.01.00
2D Art Department:
The past week has seen a lot of revision and bug fixing. All of the celestial spheres were revised, as we were trying to achieve a gaseous background that fills the screen. The interface screens have received their proper pieces and are in working order (minus final animations), and small fixes to bridge station screens have occurred, most of them pertaining to the demo. Having recently completed his work on the movies, Kurt Raur has begun to help fix the in-game art, beginning with ships. Each ship is being examined yet again (!) in minute detail to iron out any remaining errors. Weapons will be looked at and refined next, along with enhancing the numerous explosions that occur in the game.
Manuel Salazar
1.31.00
Design:
With the data and balancing in place for the demo, I've been spending my time playing quick battle matches to identify and address bugs. Ron is busy reviewing the sound management system, and Steve is setting up in-game movies and testing the demo missions.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
1.28.00
Quality Assurance:
This week QA has shifted gears from design input and general testing to more bug finding and breaking the demo. The development team has started locking in the data which is a big help in tracking bugs down. The mission scripts that are going to be in the demo have been implemented and work, but they are not finalized as far as bugs go. We've sent two testers from my team to work with the Multiplayer Programming Team to get the multiplayer bugs squashed and things are really starting to pick up here as we concentrate on finding bugs, report them to the development team, and verify their fixes. It's going to be mighty busy over here as we work towards getting the demo ready for its ultimate release.
Erick Lujan QA Project Supervisor
1.25.00
Design and Scripting:
With all the items for the demo falling into place and QA working hard on identifying demo specific bugs, we are able to look ahead at some more tangible features in the demo. The following will have a bit of info on the 1st demo mission, next week we'll have some more information on mission 2. The demo will have two missions that will follow their own story line, taking place before the game itself. The first mission takes place in the ThoQ'jI system, along the Klingon/Romulan border. At this time Torlek is the First Officer aboard the Qu'ov, a "K'T'inga" Class D7 Cruiser. The mission starts as Torlek takes command of the Qu'ov after his captain sustains severe injuries in a battle versus two Romulan ships. One of the Romulan ships, a "Senator" Class Command Cruiser, re-engages the player's ship while the "Centurion" Class Cruiser retreats to another system. The goal of mission one will be for the player to defeat a ship one class higher before moving onto mission two. This demo mission is tiny (one system, one task) in comparison to the missions in the full game, where the player deals with approx. 4 to 5 different situations spread over several systems. For the demo, the VOS system will be fully functioning, allowing the player to give orders to bridge officers without having to visit the screens in person. Each star system will be complete, i.e. star, planets, moons etc. Some will have Gas Giants and/or Planetary Rings, these can be used by either the AI or player for tactical advantages.
Steve McLafferty
1.24.00
Design:
Data, data, everywhere... While the programmers work the magic that brings Klingon Academy to life, the code reference enormous amounts of data that govern such things as ship manoeuvrability, weapon damage, shield strength, explosion effects, collision damage, and a host of other behaviour. Our objective today is to lock down the data that will be used in the demo. This will be a major step toward completion of the demo.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
1.21.00
Programming:
At this point, our programming goals are to only fix bugs that deal with the demo. We have cut our task lists down considerably by deciding that features that will not be seen in the demo are now a lesser priority. Now, I'm sure that the demo will go out with some bugs, but at the rate we are fixing things, all of the major bugs should be taken care of for the demo. There are a lot of features for us to test and debug, but its rewarding to see everything falling into place and working.
Mark Murakami Programmer
1.19.00
2D Art Department:
There has been so much demo activity lately that the 2D art team hasn't had the time to do an update. The main interface is nearing completion, and it looks like everything but interface animations will be in the demo. We've received some fallout from changing the palette that goes along with the main interface, so now we've got to track down all the little bugs that have popped up (the Federation bridge screens that suddenly came up with red text instead of yellow, etc). On that note, after many, many requests, we finally gave in and gave the Federation bridge stations a darker, more glowing look, so as to be easier on the eyes. The planets were given the once over and many nasty seams that occurred between textures were eliminated, and Qonos was re-textured so that it looks as good as Earth does. We've obtained a level of detail scheme for planetary rings and black holes, which bodes well for the framerate. The celestial spheres were given the once-over once more so as to ensure that they look better than they did on the first draft. And of course, our main title screen, the one you will see first when the game begins, now has the correct copyright date of 2000, instead of 1998. What we've got ahead of us for the demo are a few items like the mission 2 loading screen and the screens that run at the end of the game, which show you all the cool things that you'll get in the full version. And of course the bugs.
Manuel Salazar 2D Art Department
1.17.00
Design:
Work is proceeding well on the demo. Ron is working to reduce the size of the download by identifying files that will not be needed. Steve has been busy meeting with the scriptors and setting up the really cool in-game movies that you will soon experience. I am currently reviewing the verbal orders system and difficulty settings to identify bugs and polish things up. On a separate note, we recently received temp voice-over files from our sound department. We had a great time listening to Colonel Poktarl's imaginative use of language and hope you will enjoy the game's characters as much as we do.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
1.11.00
Design and Scripting:
This past week has gone by extremely fast. We've been able to finalize much of the game data that will be needed for the final product. Still, it will be good to get feedback from the people who play the demo for fine-tuning and compatibility issues. With the demo only a few weeks away, we thought now would be a good time to list what will be in the demo. In single player, mission feel is very important, as is the overall storyline. To this end the demo will hopefully give you enough of a tease about the underlining story and how the missions will play out. Again since these missions were designed from scratch for the demo, they really are tiny in comparison. Multiplayer and the Quick Battle features have been scaled down for the demo, ships and terrains have been limited.
Steve McLafferty
1.7.00
Programming:
We are all back from vacation, and we have all recovered from our sicknesses, so it's back to work. Not much new to report from the programmers. Most of our time now days is dedicated to fixing bugs. We do have a new short term goal, the interactive demo, and this will help guide us on our bug fixing priorities. We have been making good progress with the AI, sound effects, and interface issues, and with the help of our excellent QA department, we will be hard at work grinding out MANY more fixes for the upcoming demo.
Mark Murakami Programmer
1.4.00
Design and Scripting:
Several weeks ago the team met and finalized what we want out of a demo. The results of which I hope you will all see soon. I've been working with Chad on a demo specific training mission, this will cover just the bare minimum needed to fly your Klingon vessel. Chad is mostly done with it and QA is putting it through it's paces. Danien and I have been working on some Demo specific missions. These missions will be somewhat removed from the game's story-line, but will tie in once you play the game. Danien has already finished the first of the missions and it too is in QA's hands. The next demo mission will be created today or tomorrow. Just yesterday Brent finished the systems that will be used for the demo and Manny will be doing the art associated with the demo in the next few weeks. This is just a small portion of what the demo will have, we'll have more information for you in the coming weeks.
Enjoy! Steve McLafferty Designer-Scriptor
1.3.00
Design:
Back from Christmas break and ready to knock out several balancing adjustments as QA returns their attention to testing missions. Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
12.20.99
Design:
This past week we completed basic balancing for all terrain except the black hole. The black hole looks to be the most challenging terrain to balance - but should be really fun. The physics model for the black hole's gravity is really cool and is likely to be the source of some innovative combat tactics. The visual effects are stunning, but can be quite disorienting. Unlike a gas giant where you can become disoriented due to poor visibility, visibility is great in an accretion disk. It is rather the gravity, turbulence, occasional breakdown and the spin of the accretion disk itself that can make you lose your bearings. Of course, this is somewhat speculative until I can lock down the exact parameters for the gravitational forces and get it to QA.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
12.15.99
2D Art Department:
Work is progressing steadily on the loading screens, and the to do list is looking mighty small these days. Now that we're getting closer and closer to finishing, I've been taking a look at the art that's been finished so far. One thing that we've tried to do with Klingon Academy is create a unique look. It would probably be easiest to rely on the small amount of Klingon design that has been done in the Star Trek world and live comfortably in the knowledge that we won't offend anyone who's familiar with its trappings. But how is that going to excite the player? Or get someone who wouldn't be ordinarily interested curious? Instead, the graphic design in KA has taken its own route, and now that much of it is written in stone I'm beginning to wonder if people out there will enjoy it. The idea is to keep the look of the game current, and by that I mean some sort of vague reference to "hip". Is it "Klingon" enough? I think so. And I hope you will too.
Manuel Salazar
12.14.99
Design:
Today we should be finished with the dialogs for the training mission. These will be separate simulations that give the player a quick walk through of the verbal order system and how to use it to order your helmsmen , weapons officer and several other systems. The missions are coming along nicely. Danien has been scripting several of the larger engagement missions that have 30+ ships and 10+ planets. These thankfully are becoming less and less of a strain on my poor PC, however the missions are still being finalized and are subject to change and refinement.
Steve McLafferty Design - Scripting
12.13.99
Design:
We've dialled in the majority of warships and are shifting our attention to balancing the terrain. The nebula just got a thumbs-up from QA and they are now looking at the solar corona. Ron is currently working on the game manual and Steve is writing dialog for the training missions. With QA working on the terrain, the constant stream of testers into our office has slowed temporarily, giving me an opportunity to update all the ships with the new weapon and collision values that came out of our balancing efforts.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
12.10.99
To give you a quick overview on some of the people going through these areas. We got Mystic here who is the Romulan God. Deceitful, tricky, and cunning. Wait til you see the game folks, this guy thinks the Rom weapons were TOO WEAK! Eraser, who is the Tholian mastermind and Macro Master. Always webbing and shifting power. A threat to be reckoned with. Devil Doll, silent but deadly. The Ping Pong Master. Let me tell you, don't face Brad on a bad KA day. He won't hesitate to hit you in the head with a ping pong ball! Brad let's his actions speak instead of his words. You'd swear he's a mannequin! The Great Colossus, Fezzik, He could kill you now! (Andre the Giant Voice) Mark is a well seasoned player with the Shakurian's. I'm sure he could take out any DN with the fighters. Believe me guys, those fighters are pesky and incredibly challenging. Don't mess with the big man! Last you got the Vampire, the QA Lead on the project. In the over 27 months I've been working for Interplay, I think I have only seen the vampire wearing something white once. Always wearing black, the Vampire cries out in terror when of the feeble testers takes out his KDN in a FCA. Such joy to us. From Hell's Heart, we stabbeth thee. The Vampire is the last one here in the morning and most of the time, the last to leave. 80 hour weeks on KA are not uncommon for him. Talk about hectic! Most of us have been staying til the wee hours of the morning, going over battle after battle to get the ships in line. We have many meetings a day with the DEV team to discuss these battles. Simple balancing on paper, turns into full scale war and smack talk across offices. It gets wild and downright mean at times. Shouts of "I am the Radiskull, I will kill you one by one" can be heard, along with "Kill me I'm here... come on.. Do it now.. Kill Me! Every match is heated and not one of us let's up. Except for Mystic at times. He'll intentionally ease up in some matches, so when he comes about it again he just annihilates you. At the end of it all we will discuss what's going on intently. Well, it starts as a discussion but then, almost always turns into a debate. We are CONSTANTLY debating over what areas need adjustments. We fought against one another, tooth and nail, about one simple change for a good 2 weeks. Quite simply, we have an incredible team here who have viewpoints from every different type of game style. There is such a difference of balance between all the races, it's like comparing the greatest athletes against one another. We are steaming ahead though and checking out the terrains even as I write this. I'm in awe of what the artists have come up with. Truly beautiful terrains from a far and within. I haven't seen a game this year that looks as impressive as KA does. From the ship models to these terrains. The effects when your within a terrain such as a Ringed planet, Gas Giant or Black Hole are astounding. Be assured the battles will get even more interesting when fighting and only able to move 1/8 impulse because of the turbulence from a Gas Giant. Every ship has a cloaking device in theory, due to all sensors being handicapped when your in a Nebula. It gets seriously intense when we are fighting in these. Alot of Strategy, Macro management, and trash talk! It doesn't feel like work at times. I can't wait to see the finished result. I gotta get back to the fight now, my ship is being plummeted.
Take Care, Erik Guenther (Silent Bob) - QA Senior Tester
12.08.99
2D Art Department:
It looks like almost all of the in-game art is complete. This past week has seen all of the exotic weapons finalized (minus the GDDS), as well as adjustments to some of the other weapons. The only pieces that haven't been finished are the loading screens. Since we're trying to keep continuity between movies and game play using the load screens, this has turned out to be more involved than I first thought. For instance, on the first mission, the load screen details the Klingon assault groups as they move across the neutral zone, with close-ups of the asteroid base and probe net. We have to coordinate with the scripters and designers to make sure that the information is accurate. And of course its all written in Klingon, which if you have enough time you can decipher. As for the 3D art department, Perry Scalf (the lead) and Kurt Raur are closing in on completing the CGI footage of the Klingon city. It has been many, many months of work just to get to this point and it has become clear from the detail that the effort has been worth the time and effort. You will see the Klingon home world in detail that has never been seen before, complete with people walking the streets, monorail type transports, day scenes, night scenes, and scenes that occur during rain. It really brings a segment of Star Trek to life that until now has never been presented in such grand detail.
Manuel Salazar
12.07.99
Design:
It's getting to the point where I'm seeing star ships collide in my sleep. Even when I blink I get the after-image of an Anaconda's (Gorn Destroyer) flank careening toward me at several hundred meters per second. Ahh, you just gotta love ship balancing. When Brent isn't dragged off into a meeting, I see him at his desk colliding ships over and over again, taking notes, modify data and starting the process all over again. Ron is also constantly at his desk modifying ship parameters, damage areas and checking out new weapon art. In and out of our office there is a constant stream of QA testers reporting various balance concerns to the design team. If all goes well, the bulk of our ship balancing tasks will be finished tonight. Damage and power ratios for the ships will be tweaked until the day we ship, getting this done will allow the us to balance out the missions as far as ship strength is concerned. But that will be lead to different dreams…I hope.
Steve McLafferty Design - Scripting
12.01.99
Design:
The last couple weeks have seen a whirlwind of balancing activity and bug fixes as we race to lock down the balance of star ships and their resources. Over Thanksgiving weekend our "exotic" weapon systems have come on-line, and we are currently working feverishly to bring each race into balance.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
11.30.99
Design:
KA's design team, mission scripters, testers, programmers and producer are all involved in a massive push to finalize the offensive and defensive power or all the star ships. This in turn will allow us to conclude several other important phases of the game; AI, mission length, honour system, etc. The balancing of these star ships range from the energy cost of sensors to the damage per second rate of exotic weapons like the GHRC (Gravimetric Harmonic Resonance Cannon). Add to this, classes of ships are intended to be on a near level playing field from race to race. And of course a battle hardened captain in a BOP with an exceptional crew should find a basic FCA at least an interesting prey.
Steve McLafferty Designer - Scriptor
11.22.99
Design:
Recently we've been able to add and refine usable terrain that will be available to the player in both the single and multiplayer games. For the past week or so I've been working with the scripters on implementation of these terrains and some modifications to their missions. On other news Chad has inherited quite a few additional missions, so please console him on the message boards when you see him post. Additionally Manny has been willing to put in some additional models and modifications to existing art that will enhance the game play environment. Please remember to say "hi" to him on the message boards as well.
Steve McLafferty Designer - Scriptor
11.17.99
2D Art Department:
The past few weeks have seen lots of tiny improvements made to the game. The Plasma weapon animations have been tweaked and finalized, minor improvements to the planetary rings and celestial sphere have been likewise finished, and a few secrets have been added as well. The only major portion left is the loading screens for out system warping, which will feature a galactic map as seen from the bridge on the helm screen, which details the major military movements that are taking place during that portion of the game. The out-system warp sequence will happen something like this: The camera switches to an external camera in letterbox mode while the warp engines power up. The ship warps out, and the screen switches to the galactic map while the next system is loaded. During this time, you will be able to decipher the Klingon language on the maps and learn some information about the mission or secrets that are hidden in the game. I'm not sure how much information we'll actually be able to put on the maps, but I'm hoping we'll have time to make it really interesting, seeing as how the player is just looking at a loading screen. The ship's library is coming along, thanks to 3D engineer Chris Regelado. Rather than simply show the player a simple rendering of an object like a disruptor, we decided to go further and provide a glimpse into how things work. That disruptor now includes a cut-away wire frame showing inner workings along with the disruptor bolt generation within the gun. Chris has had the most time available to produce detailed renderings of the artefacts and events that surround Klingon life, including items like roast lingta, gak (yikes!), hand weapons, and places like the boreth monestary. This is the area that we seem to have the most creativity, so I hope that I can finish up my task list so I can return to creating these informative bits of life. Currently I am working on setting up scenes in the game where you might witness some activity, like a shuttle/work bee repair team managing Federation probes, or damaged Klingon ships being repaired or supplied by other craft. These aren't things that can be scripted in such detail, so they're done in a canned format. But you can still destroy everything, and they do add life and context to the missions.
Manuel Salazar
11.15.99
Design:
Now that star systems and terrain have been implemented, I am turning my attention balancing the star ships themselves. This is quite a tall order with six races, over 50 warships, 20+ weapon systems and multiple ship systems such as boarding parties, tractor beams and the cloaking device. Of course, we have been working on the balance of the star ships for some time, but now we must address those areas that are clearly broken and examine the ships with greater scrutiny. We will be working closely with our QA team, using multiplayer matches to evaluate the relative strengths of each star ship and to identify ship resources that are either unbalancing game play, or are not enhancing the experience. Once the ships have been balanced, then the AI must be trained, each terrain must be balanced, and finally each mission must be balanced. Therefore, most of my design updates will probably focus on balancing until Klingon Academy ships.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
11.08.99
Design:
I have just completed implementation of base-line parameters for all terrain effects within Klingon Academy. One of the things the design team is really excited about is the interactive terrain. Traditionally, game play within space sims has taken place in an empty environment with an occasional battle in an asteroid field. In Klingon Academy however, the entire star system is your battlefield. You can use in-system warp to take the battle to any environment you choose, flying in and out of terrain at will. Each terrain will pose unique tactical challenges that can turn the tide of battle. Environments you will experience are solar corona, gas giants, planetary atmospheres, planetary rings, nebula, asteroid belts and black holes. As many of you have already seen, the graphical effects are outstanding, thanks to Manny Salazar (art team) and John Panettiere (lead programmer). My personal favorite is the planetary rings. When you dip beneath the surface of a planetary ring and all the asteroids begin coming out of the dust it reminds me very much of diving beneath the surface of the ocean and seeing another world below. There is still much to do of course. The exact effects of each environment are subject to balancing, and QA will now be taking a close look at each terrain. In addition, Steve McLafferty (design / scripting) will be working with our scriptors to ensure mission objectives are placed in areas that utilize terrain. When complete, it is our hope that interactive terrain will not only blow you away graphically, but change the way you play the game.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
10.25.99
Design:
I have just completed our star systems for both the Federation and Klingon theatre of operations. This includes those systems players will need to warp to in order to complete stated mission objectives, as well as additional systems near objectives that player's can investigate. Some of these "additional" systems will contain hidden scripted events, while others may hold random encounters that will bolster your crew experience and enhance personal honour. As captain, you may order your crew to take you into any of these additional systems you want, given the amount of time you have to complete your mission objectives. With a war is in progress timing is crucial. If your officers feel your extended jaunts throughout the galaxy are jeopardizing the Empire they will view your dereliction of duty as weakness and you may find yourself at the business end of a disruptor while your first officer enjoys a new promotion. In addition to these systems, I have built star systems that can only be explored within player-created missions. This will give you plenty of opportunity to experiment with border skirmishes along the Romulan border, a Federation invasion of Klingon territory in the mirror / mirror universe or even a full-scale conflict with the Tholians.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
10.21.99
Programming:
Bugs, bugs, bugs. Most of our efforts lately have been in bug fixing. We have a great quality assurance team, and they have been a valuable tool in helping us track down bugs. Some examples of daily bugs that we might encounter are: Minor code errors, minor logic errors or design flaws that come up from game testing, minor additions we feel need to be added to the game, etc. Its amazing how many little things come up during play testing.
Aside from bug fixing, we have also been working a lot with the scriptors lately. We have been working together to get all of the mission details into the game and working. Also, we have started working on a lot of game optimizing. Sections of the 3D engine, 2D overlays, AI, and sound engine, have been much improved, and we plan to continuing to optimize the game even more. Music has been another recent addition. We have a great system that allows the scriptors to change music themes seamlessly during a mission.
Well enough talk, back to fixing bugs.
Mark Murakami Programmer - Klingon Academy
10.20.99
2D Art Department:
This week saw the implementation of the different HUD's (Romulan, Federation, etc.). After much work over the course of the project, we now have most of the HUD running in a semi-translucent, full color state. What we've tried to do with the look of the different HUD's is a) match them in style to the ships they appear on, b) match them in style that is consistent with the "feel" of the Star Trek universe, and c) have them maintain a style that is current and in line with trends in today's graphic design movements. I know a lot has been made of the fact that SFA didn't have different art for the different ships, so I hope that this work will please our audience. Of course, I'm concerned that people might find the designs too different from what they might expect. I know some of the ship designs have thrown people off, but as with the HUD, we're trying to update and expand upon what little information is available about different races from the Star Trek universe.
For the rest of the week we'll be working on finalizing the black hole, user interface screens (the helm screen, engineering screen, etc.), and the celestial spheres (the star field in the background).
Manuel Salazar
10.19.99
Today I'll be working with Brent (lead designer) on system continuity and mission flow for the final 3 missions and also with Rene (line producer) on polishing the some of the early missions.
If time permits I'll also be working with Erik (senior tester) on finalizing the music for an assault on a Fed convoy and several other missions.
Steve McLafferty
10.18.99
Greetings and Felicitations...
This communiqué is the first update from the Klingon Academy development team. We thought you might enjoy an insight into the development process and the people behind the interactive terrain, ginsuing and all the other cool effects in Klingon Academy.
I would like to use this first update to let you know the impact your design suggestions have had on the development of Klingon Academy. At the very beginning of the project Ron and I carefully pored over the comments that gamers like yourselves were making about Starfleet Academy. We distilled these comments along with those made by magazine editors into a list of requirements for the design of Klingon Academy.
This list of gamer requirements was a major contributor to the capital ship vision for Klingon Academy. For example, when initially designing the interfaces the words of one gamer jumped into my mind describing how he dreamed of sitting in the captain's chair barking out orders to his crew. While his dream probably won't be fulfilled until virtual reality becomes more accessible, it was while I was pondering his dream that the concept for the verbal order system was born.
Believe it or not, Ron and I consider every design suggestion that gets made on the board, though only a few make it past the technical and game play hurtles to actually make it into the game. For example, when the suggestion was made that photon torpedoes be given a slight tracking ability, Ron and I thought it would be a cool effect and we asked the programmers to put it in. Only later did we discover that making torpedoes track caused them to be incredibly inaccurate - so we had to remove it.
Another suggestion that Ron I actually disliked did made it into the game. It was suggested on the board that we include numerical strength indicators on the HUD for shields. Ron and I were initially opposed to this idea since we felt ramping the shield colours when damaged would be sufficient and we were concerned that six sets of numbers would clutter the HUD. After discussing it, one of our programmers agreed to implement the idea as a test, and the indicators proved so incredibly useful that we've never looked back.
I realize that some of you thought it odd that we brought up ship manoeuvrability during our chat the other night, but this is just another demonstration of the value we place on your input. Based on feedback received on Starfleet Academy, we had initially set our manoeuvrability 50% below that of Starfleet. As development proceeded we reduced it further on two separate occasions. Currently, ships manoeuvre three times slower than Starfleet, which corresponds to Starfleet's turn rates with the speed slider turned all the way down. The team has been considered setting the default speed setting even lower, so we brought it up at the chat hoping to discuss it with the whole community. The feedback we received on the board since then, as well the new survey Tim posted on his site give you the gamer an incredible opportunity to influence the development of a major software game title.
Thank you for your excitement in Klingon Academy.
Brent Kollmansberger Designer - Klingon Academy
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