Hello from Starfire player of old

[miketr (OP)]

I dont see a Stafire chat forum so I thought I would post here. 

HELLO!   

Was a member of the old starfire mailing list from late 90s until early 2000s.  Was involved in UTM.  Ended up drifting away from starfire for various reasons but today I am looking to get back into.  Maybe a solo game using SA, nice to see thats still possible to download and perhaps use even if Steve has moved onto bigger and better things.

As an aside the SDS site looks like it has fallen on hard times.  Broken links on the main page and not a huge amount of activity in its forums.  Without rehashing the Marvin vs Steve debate from back in the day whats the status of starfire today?   

Regards
Michael R

[Kurt]

I dont see a Stafire chat forum so I thought I would post here. 

HELLO!   

Was a member of the old starfire mailing list from late 90s until early 2000s.  Was involved in UTM.  Ended up drifting away from starfire for various reasons but today I am looking to get back into.  Maybe a solo game using SA, nice to see thats still possible to download and perhaps use even if Steve has moved onto bigger and better things.

As an aside the SDS site looks like it has fallen on hard times.  Broken links on the main page and not a huge amount of activity in its forums.  Without rehashing the Marvin vs Steve debate from back in the day whats the status of starfire today?   

Regards
Michael R

I'm here as well, as are a number of people from the old days.  I'm currently writing a Starfire-based campaign called Cold War, as I decided to take a break from Aurora for a while.  I thought about posting on the SDS site as well, but I wasn't sure about how the older versions are thought of over there (and SA), and it didn't seem like there was a lot of participation. 

Kurt

[waresky]

Starfire!!!!!!!!! OMFG.

AM Elder (1964) and play Starfire in 1979-1992... When in 1998 ive been found "Steve's" SA on web...

@Steve r our Salvation.

[Shinanygnz]

I dont see a Stafire chat forum so I thought I would post here. 

HELLO!   

Was a member of the old starfire mailing list from late 90s until early 2000s.  Was involved in UTM.  Ended up drifting away from starfire for various reasons but today I am looking to get back into.  Maybe a solo game using SA, nice to see thats still possible to download and perhaps use even if Steve has moved onto bigger and better things.

As an aside the SDS site looks like it has fallen on hard times.  Broken links on the main page and not a huge amount of activity in its forums.  Without rehashing the Marvin vs Steve debate from back in the day whats the status of starfire today?   

Regards
Michael R

Hiya.
As Kurt says, a few of us about from UTM & 3DG days
I know they released a new version of Starfire a bit ago, possibly v6, so it was still going.  I gave up on it with no SA equivalent, though I did house rule some of the more interesting stuff from 4th into my old 3DG campaign
Stephen

[miketr (OP)]

I dont see a Stafire chat forum so I thought I would post here. 

HELLO!   

Was a member of the old starfire mailing list from late 90s until early 2000s.  Was involved in UTM.  Ended up drifting away from starfire for various reasons but today I am looking to get back into.  Maybe a solo game using SA, nice to see thats still possible to download and perhaps use even if Steve has moved onto bigger and better things.

As an aside the SDS site looks like it has fallen on hard times.  Broken links on the main page and not a huge amount of activity in its forums.  Without rehashing the Marvin vs Steve debate from back in the day whats the status of starfire today?   

Regards
Michael R

I'm here as well, as are a number of people from the old days.  I'm currently writing a Starfire-based campaign called Cold War, as I decided to take a break from Aurora for a while.  I thought about posting on the SDS site as well, but I wasn't sure about how the older versions are thought of over there (and SA), and it didn't seem like there was a lot of participation. 

Kurt

Hey Kurt.  I already found your cold war story.  Its good, reminds me of you old long running story from the list days.  Brought back some good memories.

Michael

[miketr (OP)]

I dont see a Stafire chat forum so I thought I would post here. 

HELLO!   

Was a member of the old starfire mailing list from late 90s until early 2000s.  Was involved in UTM.  Ended up drifting away from starfire for various reasons but today I am looking to get back into.  Maybe a solo game using SA, nice to see thats still possible to download and perhaps use even if Steve has moved onto bigger and better things.

As an aside the SDS site looks like it has fallen on hard times.  Broken links on the main page and not a huge amount of activity in its forums.  Without rehashing the Marvin vs Steve debate from back in the day whats the status of starfire today?   

Regards
Michael R

Hiya.
As Kurt says, a few of us about from UTM & 3DG days
I know they released a new version of Starfire a bit ago, possibly v6, so it was still going.  I gave up on it with no SA equivalent, though I did house rule some of the more interesting stuff from 4th into my old 3DG campaign
Stephen

You really need software support to run anything like starfire.  My old group made VERY heavy use of excel to track everything back in the 90s. 

A pity that UTM and 3DG died but thats water under the bridge so to speak. 

Doubt I will look at v5 or v6 of Starfire as I didn't much care of v4.  Dynamic was all off.  Revolutionary change vs Evolutionary change.

OK I think I will hang out here then as SDS looks fairly low activity. 

Thanks all for the replies!

[Kurt]

I dont see a Stafire chat forum so I thought I would post here. 

HELLO!   

Was a member of the old starfire mailing list from late 90s until early 2000s.  Was involved in UTM.  Ended up drifting away from starfire for various reasons but today I am looking to get back into.  Maybe a solo game using SA, nice to see thats still possible to download and perhaps use even if Steve has moved onto bigger and better things.

As an aside the SDS site looks like it has fallen on hard times.  Broken links on the main page and not a huge amount of activity in its forums.  Without rehashing the Marvin vs Steve debate from back in the day whats the status of starfire today?   

Regards
Michael R

I'm here as well, as are a number of people from the old days.  I'm currently writing a Starfire-based campaign called Cold War, as I decided to take a break from Aurora for a while.  I thought about posting on the SDS site as well, but I wasn't sure about how the older versions are thought of over there (and SA), and it didn't seem like there was a lot of participation. 

Kurt

Hey Kurt.  I already found your cold war story.  Its good, reminds me of you old long running story from the list days.  Brought back some good memories.

Michael

Glad you enjoyed it.  I'm having fun writing it, and with the changes I made to population growth (about one-fifth normal) I've been able to keep it going longer in game time than the Phoenix Campaign. 

Before I started this campaign, I played around with running a campaign set in either Galactic Starfire (4th Ed), or Solar Starfire (5th?).  I spent some time going over the rules, and set up some preliminary spreadsheets, but after a while I realized it would be so much easier that I went back to 3rd/UTM and SA.  I haven't given up on maybe doing something in those editions, but for now I'm liking the Cold War campaign. 

Kurt

[Starslayer_D]

Hi and welcome here, I'm another old refuge from the mailing list and UTM.

Cheers,
Alex

[Paul M]

Also a hello and welcome!  Starslayer and I are still running a long term campaign with a fairly stars at war feel to it...turn 298 I think we are on. 

[Castinar]

Just been catching up on the campaign between you and starslayer.  I need to go back and start at the beginning tho!  I played a bit in the 90s myself --- found it a.....lighter version of Star Fleet Battles (or at least, easier to teach others at least).  That is what originally brought me to Aurora4x -- browsing for space games and landed here. 

I've just discovered that the Vassal game engine (an older online board game engine) has a Starfire module.  Going to be checking it out --- I have no background experience with it (and little with the vassal engine itself) -- but Vassal has absolutely tons of older board games available --- so I'm hoping there is something there!  Couple years ago I brought the complete online package from SDS and every now and then go back to reading rules books to refamiliarize myself with the game, thinking I might get back into it.

With the stories/campaigns here and the possibility of a Vassal engine to work with... I need to give it a go!

[bankshot]

Wow, I remember starfire as a pencil and paper game - I think we played 2nd edition (late 80s?) but I never got involved in anything online with the game.

[Paul M]

I have the vassel documentation and the desire to make a real starfire set for the game but I need to find time and also practice a bit.  I'd like the counters to have different information on them such as movement and turn mode and have it be adjustable depending on damage...also shields up, streaming air and so on.  But I'm not sure how to make the counter art and how to script this all but from what I can see it is do-able. 

I can say that Starslayer and I have used vassel to run a few battles it most certainly works but the counters are a bit dull and you end up tracking everything manually.

It is a lighter version of SFB with rules that are written by David Weber so they are vastly entertaining but full of interesting bits "...a presser beam is for all intents and purposes a reverse polarity tractor beam..."  without ever saying anywhere that the tractor lock applies or not...still they are fun to read.  What starfire after 3rdR lacks is Starfire Assistant (SFA).   Any improvement to the game system is lost due to really it is just unfun to do the management without a database program to keep track of things.  I tried a solo Galactic Starfire game and that ended when I hit my first NPR and realized I'd have to double my 3 EXCEL spreadsheets for them...and every other NPC in the game.   Starslayer just says "no" when I suggest either modern Starfire or other systems (VBAM, Squadron Strike) as they all lack a SFA eqivelent.

I've played Starfire by mail in the 80's...second edition and 3rdR for ages now.  Glad you are enjoying our write ups.  We do keep getting distracted by Stellaris or City of Heroes (or in my case Cyberpunk 2077) so it comes in fits and starts.