God damn, Derek Smart has all the hallmarks of a narcissist. He's still living within his own fantasy where he and BC3k are some kind of benchmark in gaming,

Oh wow.. I didn't even realize that there were newer iterations of the game. I actually have a boxed copy of BC3k.. box is in kinda sad shape though.

Well, even Universal Combat was a re-warmed version of BC3k (he blew it on that one, too).

I remember when this was being developed, and Derek was all over the Usenet forums getting into flame wars with everyone. I think if he spent all that time on his game instead of in the forums maybe he could have actually finished it.

Well, he did finish it and finally put out a version that was actually ok (once it was patched enough), but it was far from the amazing, groundbreaking title he seemed to think it was.

I still remember the infamous ads for that game... https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/758092597256654848

gdjacobs wrote:

Well, he did finish it and finally put out a version that was actually ok (once it was patched enough), but it was far from the amazing, groundbreaking title he seemed to think it was.

I remember reading that he fixed biggest bugs, but there were some unfixable things like a bad user interface (too much key shortcuts, unintuitive shortcuts, no help, those things). Did someone played it? Would have it been a better game with better UI?

gdjacobs wrote:

Well, he did finish it and finally put out a version that was actually ok (once it was patched enough), but it was far from the amazing, groundbreaking title he seemed to think it was.

Well, at least he got the game published. He got further than most amateur programmers.

Writing games takes an immense amount of effort, so my hat's off to the guy regardless.

Also, a high number of bugs in open-ended games is the norm, expect nothing less (except of your own projects, maybe).

Basically he seemed to hype up the game due to its technical merit, but game design was lacking. Just because a game has amazingly advanced tech behind it doesn't mean it's automatically going to be fun to play. That game was not that fun to play. It seemed rather mediocre to me.

Considering his proclivity for self promotion, I attach a fair amount of credibility to allegations that the technical achievements in the game were overstated.

gdjacobs wrote:

Considering his proclivity for self promotion, I attach a fair amount of credibility to allegations that the technical achievements in the game were overstated.

Well, it seems the game had a machine learning system in it. If true, then there's no overstatement here.

So DS (and only DS) claims.

I've come to understand that the only thing between you and implementing even deep learning in the 90s was computing power rather than core algorithmic lack. So I don't immediately see how the guy couldn't have crunched a basic net in his basement for x months to get a simple model of some detail of behavior that's light to deploy and so he can put a sticker on the box. Unlikely to be an expansive model if one at all, but colin mcrae rally 2 was said to have neural net ai just a couple years later, as well.

It's no longer about the plausibility or even possibility of his claims. I'm going to take any statements from DS with a salt lick (or indifference) until he begins to act more transparently in a way consistent with wanting to actually earn the trust of the wider world.

I remember he registered at hardlight.net (sort of the unoficial home of Descent Freespace)
saying the rights for freespace are up for sale, should he buy them and make a sequel?
The reply he got was a resounding "NO" - he did not like that 😁