Battlestar Galactica

I implemented a proof of concept to add the FaceTrackNoIR (or OpenTrack) protocol into FreeSpace 2 Open on Linux PC. Apparently only TrackIR and FreeTrack (both Windows only) are supported so far. Still needs some fine tuning but I'm really happy with that single day coding frenzy considering that I didn't touch C++ in years.

I never did create a merge request so far. I'm still going to but it's really low priority for me rn :-/

This is a demo of the implementation with Diaspora: Shattered Armistice, a BSG mod for FreeSpace 2 Open. It's also on YT should you fancy that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRB8lRV1m54

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/18005749

Back in 2023 I started a new game in #Satisfactory where I did set out (on a whim) to build the #BattlestarGalactica – and fair warning: I never finished it. I found some measurements of this iconic ship from the #BSG verse online, which is apparently something like 1.44km x 551m and converted this to 179.6 x 68.9 Satisfactory Foundations (look Mom, a game made me do MATHS again).

Finding a spot with enough space was a task on it’s own and I settled for the West Coast in the end. This is so close to the edge that the game starts to kill the player because the map ends there. This is also a Vanilla game with no mods.

After laying a square for the proportion and being somewhat satisfied (haha) with that I started refining the outlines. This took ages and some mad image editing skills to scale photos with correct proportions and overlaying them with a grid in the Gimp editor. Ah well not really but you get the idea.

The goal was to build a mega factory inside the hull working with the given layout. Vehicles and trains would pick up all required resources and bring them in via the fighter decks. I kinda imagined what could have happened if the Galactica crashed on a planet after her last journey. Using the powerful engines to power machines that would aid in starting with a settlement program or something like that, while the former ship itself would get decommissioned and transformed piece for piece.

I am rather happy with the result, even without ever completing this. My gaming focus shifted a lot and with the announcement that no further early access updates would happen I kinda lost interest in the project. I am not expecting to complete it once the release drops. That’s okay though. I am still looking forward to said release.

I mean after ~850 of casual hours I kinda have seen it all. Best early access ever – and yes all on a Linux PC – as usual for me 🤘I’m very curious what else the devs will come up with for this title. Anyway, here are the rest of the 16 screenshots. This shows more of the inner ship including the various power plants and reactors.

Thank you Coffee Stain Studios for making such an entertaining game. I enjoyed every hour of it and despite this being basically an endless grind game it never felt like grinding at all. Heck, thinking of all the possible ways to transport, collect and divide stuff is endless fun for me ❤️

Mebbe something for https://lemmy.world/c/bsg too 🤔

Originally posted at: https://beko.famkos.net/2024/06/27/and-they-had-a-plan/

A couple of years after the end of the reimagined series, I wrote and self-published the Lords of Kobol series of books. People seemed to like it quite a bit, so I spent years working on Colonies of Kobol to bridge the gap between them and the TV shows. Three massive volumes were published last year, but I've now given them the "special edition" treatment, creating additional content and writing an author's commentary. Via the commentary, I discuss connections to the TV shows, historical/mythological inspirations, share art and pics I made for myself during the writing, and so on. Most importantly, all three volumes are now in one and in chronological order.

Here's the official description:

Visit the sixteen Colonies of Kobol in a single volume ...

Two thousand years before the Cylons destroyed the Twelve Colonies and the Battlestar Galactica led a ragtag fleet to Earth, the Lords of Kobol fell and mankind fled for the Colonies.

See the settling of the first colony on Gemenon. Behold the destruction of Earth and the flight of the Final Five. Witness the rise of empires on Virgon and Leonis and the thousand-year-war waged across the plains of Tauron, the seas of Picon, and the mountains of Sagittaron. Visit the jungles of Libran and Scorpia, the mines of Canceron, the farms of Aerilon, and the volcanoes of Aquaria. Read the continuation of the short-lived TV series Caprica and watch the horrors of the Cylon War and the creation of The Colony. Revisit New Caprica and then, on our own world, go on one last journey with Bill Adama and Saul Tigh, and get a look into our own future as the Messengers of The One True God work to free mankind of the cycle.

This is the definitive special edition collection of these books in chronological order, complete with additional chapters, behind-the-scenes information, art, pics, and author's commentary. Learn all about the writing of these tales, connections to the Battlestar Galactica and Caprica TV shows, and much more.

There is a Plan and questions will be answered.

The book is free and it is currently available here. As the book filters out to other apps and stores, I will update its page on my personal site.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it.

Here's one of the promotional images.

Here's what you could win.

Here's the edited/censored version.

And this is a blogpost from 2009 discussing the contest, and a follow-up post after the name change.

A couple of years after the end of the reimagined series, I wrote and self-published the Lords of Kobol series of books. People seemed to like them quite a bit, so I recently embarked on a re-read of that series, added deleted chapters back in, and created an author's commentary to go along with it. Via the commentary, I discuss connections to the TV shows, historical/mythological inspirations, share art and pics I made for myself during its writing, and so on. Most importantly, all five books are now in one volume. So that's nice.

Here's the official description:

All five acclaimed Lords of Kobol books collected in a single volume ...

Thousands of years before the Cylons destroyed the Twelve Colonies and the Battlestar Galactica led a ragtag fleet to Earth, the Lords of Kobol lived among mankind in peace and harmony. Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Athena, Ares ... the gods provided and the people worshipped. But who or what were they? In Book One: Apotheosis, see Kobol in its golden age, with gods and humanity working together, and witness the creation and exodus of the Thirteenth Tribe. In Book Two: Descent, learn the origins of the Olympians and the tale of their coming to Kobol, as well as their war against non-believers. In Book Three: The Final Exodus, watch the end of the Pantheon's reign as Cylons revolt and mankind flees for the Twelve Colonies. In Prelude: Of Gods and Titans, spend more time with Zeus and the gods, and meet their parents, the Titans, and observe the beginning of the cycle. And in the background of it all, The One True God and its Messengers seek to preserve humanity in the face of doom. Finally, in Alternate: Tales from Ancient Days, read a different take on the end of the world and how the gods played their parts.

This is the definitive special edition collection of these five works, complete with deleted chapters, behind-the-scenes information, art, pics, and author's commentary. Learn all about the writing of these tales, connections to the Battlestar Galactica and Caprica TV shows, and much more.

There is a Plan and questions will be answered.

The book is free and it is currently available here in all file formats. As the book filters out to other apps and stores, I will update its page on my personal site.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it.

(Colonies of Kobol - Collection: Special Edition will be released in March.)

It's the original series Ship of Light.

Here's an article on Neom's plans.

I'm re-watching the series for the umpteenth time and this has bothered me for years. I can forgive all the other issues with flying the raider: plugging hole with jacket, successfully out-flying Lee in a damaged and new to her spacecraft, raiders body parts still working after the brain is dead, getting the lettering on the bottom of the raider, etc. But I can't figure out how Starbuck was seeing to pilot the raider. Was this ever addressed and I just missed it? I assumed in the later episodes that she installed a view screen.

So, how could she see where she was flying?

Infamously, the premiere was interrupted by news of the "Camp David Accords," a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. This Washington Post article discusses the impact on TV that night and speculation that the announcement was planned for that evening.

From Michael Trucco's Instagram

Here's an article on the "scanning extras" story.

It features multiple characters and actors from the original series and a thirty-eight minute version of the film was made and shown at various conventions. More info here.

That's a Cylon from the would-be series.

In 2000, Singer and producer Tom DeSanto began negotiating with Universal and by 2001, they were hard at work on a new Galactica series that would have aired on Fox.

This series would have been a direct continuation of the 1978 show, set twenty years into that series' future and ignoring Galactica 1980. Deals were in place for original cast members such as Dirk Benedict (Starbuck) and Herbert Jefferson Jr. (Boomer). Sets and props were at least partially built and designs were well-fleshed out, including that of the above Cylons.

Story-wise, we know what was up. I guess I'll say spoiler alert, but since this is a show from over twenty years ago that never got made and whatever we get next will likely be radically different, ... I can't imagine that you really need a spoiler alert. But still. Oh, and you might be a bit surprised how much sounds like the Moore & Eick BSG.

Two years after the episode "Hand of God," Galactica's fleet finds Admiral Cain and the Battlestar Pegasus, leading to a mammoth battle that destroys their Cylon pursuers once and for all. Unfortunately, Cain, Pegasus and Apollo were all lost in the engagement. Some years later, Adama passes away and Commander Tigh and the fleet weary of their search for Earth and decide to settle upon habitable asteroids abundant with resources which they called New Caprica. Elsewhere, the Cylons engaged in a civil war between two factions: those who embraced their free will and those who believed it should be eliminated. In the end, the mechanical Cylons decided to incorporate many facets of humanity, thanks to their assimilation of Baltar and became all the more deadly for it.

That's just the backstory.

So, in the main story of the show, the commander of Galactica is Boxey, now called Orin (and not Troy). The president, Mara, and the council decide that after so many years of peace, Galactica should be deactivated. It is and, of course, this is when the Cylons strike. As the Galactica is about to be destroyed once and for all, the Cylon Central Controller orders a retreat. They then communicate with the Colonials and order them to surrender.

Orin refuses, of course, and launches a bunch of new Vipers. They fight well, but the new Cylons are too strong. In the battle, a water ship is damaged and a large chunk of ice forms. The Colonials push it into the Basestar and it's destroyed. Their cover blown, the Colonials again gather up a ragtag fleet and search for Earth.

Epilogue: on the Cylon homeworld, we see their mechanized might and then we see their Central Controller: Richard Frakkin' Hatch! And his eyes glow Cylon red! Da-da-dummmm!

A Cylon suit that was built.

One of two Vipers on their way to completion.

Galactica's large central bridge console set.

So, what happened?

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Bryan Singer departed the production to work on X2: X-Men United and Fox passed on the series in favor of Joss Whedon's Firefly. They felt the story of a sneak attack was a bit too close to home. This iteration of Battlestar Galactica was, for all intents and purposes, dead and all of those sets, props, costumes and more were trashed. Literally.

If you're interested in more info, check out the Archive.org version of Tombs of Kobol. Those pages include dozens more photos, a more detailed breakdown of the story, plus an interview with Bryan Singer's producing partner on the show, Tom DeSanto.

Here's the TL;DR ... there is no new info. But it's more complicated than that.

In Fall 2019, it was announced that Mr. Robot's Sam Esmail was brought on to shepherd a Peacock-based BSG series. (We'll ignore the question for now as to whether this is going to be a reboot, continuation, or something else. There is no known answer.)

In Fall 2020, it was announced that Michael Lesslie was going to be the showrunner. The following Spring, he departed the show. No replacement (nor any other additions to the staff) have been announced.

It should also be mentioned that Universal has been working on a Galactica movie for years, most recently with the X-Men franchise's Simon Kinberg's involvement. In January of 2022, he gave an interview and said they were hoping to announce a director soon (they didn't) and that the movie and TV show would be a "shared universe."

And that's the last direct news we've heard.

However, there is another aspect to the (lack of) BSG news we have to consider: the business. To put it simply, streaming services are bleeding money and Peacock is no exception. Comcast (Universal and Peacock's parent company) has lost more than $3 billion on Peacock since 2020. In fact, Peacock has lost more than $7 million a day in the first quarter of 2023. That is very definitely not good news. Simply put, BSG would be an expensive show to produce and Peacock may be loath to pursue an admittedly niche IP when purse strings are tightening. A movie, however, might still go forward if only because it's not under the Peacock umbrella. In case it's successful, maybe the Peacock series could get going again. Maybe.

(For further reading, here's my blog post from last fall on this subject. Also, here's my tongue-in-cheek proposal for a proposal for a trilogy of BSG films.)

And here's a Cylon graphic with the Peacock logo for its eye.

One of the greatest moments in television history.