FirstOnes.com - News: June 1999

	Thrusday, 29th of July, 1999
	*ALERT: IN-GAME TRAILER RELEASED* Yes! Guy Welch, the much overworked Sierra webmaster, has posted the first Babylon 5: Into the Fire in-game trailer. MUST GET. http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/babylon5/sim/sim_dow.html The MPG is higher quality. Much more detail there. May be twice the size, but its well worth it.
	by Grinner

	Saturday, 24th of July, 1999
	*No Updates!?* A few of you probably have noticed that we haven't updated much in the past week. To be honest, there hasn't been much stuff to post. The Message Forum has been pretty quiet of developer information since I got back, and no new articles or interviews have surfaced.
	by Grinner

	Friday, 16th of July, 1999
	*Daily Developer Rants* The impact to taking a hit to your ship The forces are calculated correctly, and the ship will cancel the spin as quickly as that ship can. However, it does leave you pointed in a different direction, and does not try to steer you back. This works great for disorienting an attacker quickly, allowing his prey a chance to respond. --Dan Foy
	by Sorcerer

	Thrusday, 15th of July, 1999
	*New Screenshots* Here are the last three shots. Enjoy! All three images are 1280x1024 in 32-bit. To view the 32-bit images in their full quality, make sure your desktop resolution is set to 32-bit. For Windows users, you can do this by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting properties, and going to the settings tab. Note that not all video cards will support 32-bit, such as the Voodoo series and other low-end cards. *A Report of Grinner's Visit to Sierra Studios* Just in case you missed this yesterday. I've gotten my report of my visit to Sierra approved by the guys at Sierra, and can now release it. You're going to find a ton of never-heard before information from what I saw and heard. Click on the link below to access it. Grinner's Visit to Sierra Studios
	by Grinner

	Wednesday, 14th of July, 1999
	*A Report of Grinner's Visit to Sierra Studios* I've gotten my report of my visit to Sierra approved by the guys at Sierra, and can now release it. You're going to find a ton of never-heard before information from what I saw and heard. Click on the link below to access it. Grinner's Visit to Sierra Studios *New Screenshots* Just a bunch of various shots of the B5 Unit Viewer today. All three images are 1280x1024 in 32-bit. To view the 32-bit images in their full quality, make sure your desktop resolution is set to 32-bit. For Windows users, you can do this by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting properties, and going to the settings tab. Note that not all video cards will support 32-bit, such as the Voodoo series and other low-end cards. *New Screenshots at ugn3d.com* Thats write everyone,check out ugn3d.com to see some new kick @ss screenshots. You can also go here and read up on a interview between the Developers and ugn3d.com...Check it out!
	by Sorcerer and Grinner

	Tuesday, 13th of July, 1999
	*New Screenshots* Today is the dose of Whitestar shots. All three images are 1280x1024 in 32-bit. To view the 32-bit images in their full quality, make sure your desktop resolution is set to 32-bit. For Windows users, you can do this by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting properties, and going to the settings tab. Note that not all video cards will support 32-bit, such as the Voodoo series and other low-end cards.
	by Grinner

	Monday, 12th of July, 1999
	*New Screenshots* Today, you get the big dose of hyperspace shots. :) To see how hyperspace will look to Voodoo 1&2 (does not apply to 3) players, just turn down your colors to 16-bit. Big difference huh? Note, these images are huge in size. Unlike previous days, these have no compression other than the change to JPEG format. All three images are 1280x1024 in 32-bit. To view the 32-bit images in their full quality, make sure your desktop resolution is set to 32-bit. For Windows users, you can do this by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting properties, and going to the settings tab. Note that not all video cards will support 32-bit, such as the Voodoo series and other low-end cards.
	by Grinner

	Sunday, 11th of July, 1999
	*New Screenshots* I turns out that I only have 18 screenshots. I thought I had 24 because the last filename was screen0024.bmp, but neglected to remember that I had deleted a few of the really bad ones. I also just realized that I have way too many Thunderbolt shots. Ah well. The first image is capped in 1600x1200 in 16-bit. Know that in 32-bit resolution, the thuster flares are not artifacted like shown there. The last two are 1280x1024 in 32-bit. To view the 32-bit images in their full quality, make sure your desktop resolution is set to 32-bit. For Windows users, you can do this by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting properties, and going to the settings tab. Note that not all video cards will support 32-bit, such as the Voodoo series and other low-end cards. The report I promised yesterday will be delayed till about late-Monday or Tuesday, because I will be sending it to Sierra first to make sure I did not disclose anything I should not have. *Decal Example* Stuart has just given us our first piece of information on decals for some time. This is his example (also an excellent Star Fury shot). *Daily Developer Rant* Taking out Capital Ships One fighter has no practical chance to take out a capital ship. It could happen, but the circumstances to do it wouldn't come about in the normal couarse of the game. To actually do it you need the following: A capship that will not retreat, avoid you, fire on you, or launch fighters to take you out. Then you will need a half-hour or more of constant banging on it, racking up enough hits to do some real damage. --Marc Hudgins Number of In-Game Locations More than 100, less than 200. --Stuart Compton
	by Grinner

	Saturday, 10th of July, 1999
	*New Screenshots* I (Grinner) have returned from my trip to Sierra. In my possesion are 24 exclusive screenshots that I will be releasing over the course of the next few days. Three a day, until I run out. I was doing these in a hurry (I forgot all about them until just before I left), I got a mix of good ones and bad ones. Hope you'll be satisfied! :) This particular set of images were capped in 1600x1200 in 16-bit. A report on what I saw at Sierra Studios is forthcoming, and will be up before the end of the weekend. Information contained in that report will also be added to the FAQ.
	by Grinner

	Wednesday, 7th of July, 1999
	*Daily Developer Rants* Authority of Rank? You will always have the choice of jumping into your Starfury - regardless of your rank - regardless if you decide to set up your strategy on the bridge first. This is always an option. You could even do part of your war strategy on the bridge and then hop into your Starfury and finish up your strategy there! If you get tired of being "in the trenches" during a furball you can dock and go back onto the bridge - provided that you can pull that off without getting shot up, of course. --Randy Littlejohn Voice Recognition? Well, my main concern with any voice recognition in the game deals with the "cost". This game has a considerable number of ships being maintained at all times, and some formidable AI on each one as well. So, we really don't have much CPU time left over to a major task like voice recognition. Also, development time comes into play... We want to ship this title with the features we have already outlined ASAP. --Dan Foy Physical Damage! You will be able to disable and destroy specific systems and components (take out specific guns for example). --Marc Hudgins What systems you do damage too will also have an impact on how the ship breaks apart when it is ultimately destroyed. --Jeff Reitman The cap ships will tend to break apart near the area where the enemy fire has been concentrated on it. --Dan Foy
	by Sorcerer

	Monday, 5th of July, 1999
	*Multi-Developer Space-Sim Chat Scheduled* Beth Wasden of the excellent A Talent for War (ATFW), informed us that the second Multi-developer Space Sim chat will be held next Saturday, with representatives from Vicarious Visions (Terminus), the Parsec team, the Starfleet Command team, Volition (Freespace 2), and the Babylon 5 team. The chat will be held on Gameslink's IRC servers. The channel will be #space-sim. Check the listing of servers here to find your nearest server. You will also be able to join the chat via a Java chat applet if you don't have an IRC client. The chat will be moderated for the majority of the chat, but it will be opened after a certain point. This is necessary to make sure all of the developers are able to answer questions to their satisfaction. For further info on the chat, they've set up a FAQ right over here.
	by Lorien

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	Sunday, 4th of July, 1999
	*Daily Developer Rants* Historical Missions? There will be historical missions. They will all have to do with conflicts that the EA has been involved in since becoming a space power. How these missions are integrated into the game, and the content of these missions, is best left for the player to discover. In this way they will have the greatest effect. --Randy Littlejohn
	by Sorcerer