How To Play Cyber Knights RPG on your PC!!!

[Volyren Nightsong]

Hello, everyone! If you are like me, and use a phone, rather than a tablet, you know that playing games, even ones as great as this one, can be a chore. Small screens, unreliable touch sensitivity, and battery drain so bad, that the darned phone could probably milk an entire nuclear power plant dry in 35 minutes.
Well, maybe your phone doesn't have this problem...and if that's the case, I hate you! Go away! You don't NEED this....

Now, for the rest of us who have the same exact phone listed above, then read on. Don't let the names fool you. HTC, Android 2, Lightning, Evo, etc.. They are all the same phone in a different case, and in a few cases with different OS's. But that is IT. (If you don't believe me, just read below in the box)

!!!!!!!!!!!!******Oh, and Cory, I think I found a site thats giving out copies of your game, but its an old version. (intimidate was listed as etiquette, and battle had no menu, just click the char to move and enemies to attack, if that helps) I am not going to post the link here, but I will tell you in PM if you need to know. Just PM me and I will send you the link. (and NO ONE ELSE ask me for the link, it might be an older version, but its not for me to decide to give it out, or to help others give it out)
On a seperate note, I hope this information helps you out as well. With this software, both Star Trader and Cyber Knights can be enjoyed by people without android phones, and thus, increases the ammount of players (and potential BUYERS) from android users only, to EVERYONE with a PC!!. If for any reason you don't like this idea, just let me know and I will remove it and zip my lip about it. I just thought it might help you reach out to a whole new selection of potential customers.*****

************WARNING: SILLINESS UNRELATED TO TOPIC******

There are only two smart phones in existence.
1. The PSG-1WHU8Y-0RS0l (PSG=Pretentious Smarmy Git).
This phone was developed for use by Billionaires, Royalty, Celebrities, and hybrid-car driving neo-hippies, but since its inception, has seen wide dissimination among the populace. It does however retain it's original vibe, as even the poorest, and most humble of people seem to have a "Holier Than Thou" aura surrounding them, until the phone is discreetely put away, at which time the owner becomes just a normal person again.
This phone's true designation is revealed here, for the first time. So as to escape the aspersions which would undoubtedly be cast at the owner of such an overpriced, luxury item such as this, the heads of 12 different Mega-corporations, and Shadow-Governments from around the world met in secret to decide the phone's new monicker and appearance. The phone is quite popular now, having had all traces of its origins wiped clean. However, due to the nature of its design, having been made only for the elite and the ultra rich, this phone has never been able to cast off its mantle of pretensiousness. No matter who you are, when you hold this phone, every fiber in your being is screaming "I AM BETTER THAN ALL YOU PEASANTS!"

2. Project: E.M.U.  (Evil Must Unite!)
The EMU began as a plot to tighten control over the masses by the Supreme Rulers of Earth. (Google)
They began with a Digital Camera, then added enough hardware for it to run Windows 98 (complete with the incompatibility issues, random crashes, and the "go around your butt to get to your elbow" setup). After changing the graphics and removing all mention of windows (it was a bootleg copy of windows, so better safe than sorry!), they began working on the most important feature. No, not the mind control device, that would come later as a required downloadable update...I'm talking about Porn.
Yes, that filthy mulch that both helped the net grow and holds it together. They were about to add the Direct Brain Link hardware which would enable the device to beam advertisements directly onto the inside of your eyelids, when they recieved disturbing news.
The PSG device had been mass produced and released as the I-Phone.
They knew they had to act fast, so they added a crude phone device to the camera, skipped the debugging phase and went straight into mass production, marketing their handheld whatcha-ma-callit under hundreds of different names and styles, in the hope that buyers would feel the need to purchase multiple units.
They decided in secret that they would add one new feature every month, and then call the phone by a new name and sell it to the same fools who purchased one last month.

and folks, you are playing on one of these right now..... yeah, that headache you feel? It's already too late......
They sent out the update last night...... Now they are in complete control of your brain. Thankfully, they are still working on the program to delete people's personalities and turn them into zombies. According to their internal memos, the release date is next year, on december 21.

Wait a second.......next year is 2012...... Dec 21, 2112. So thats why they call the program "Project MAYA".

ok, i had planned on this being a lot funnier than it turned out, so im just going to stop here, as the joke is just going nowhere fast.. thas what happens when you type half the joke, and then fall asleep before you finish. Let it be a lesson to you:  MAKE NOTES ON THA FUNNY B4 U FALLZ AZLEEPZ



OK, Back to the point of this post.
In order to run your Android games and apps on your PC, please read below.
The program is called YouWave, and it is Shareware.
Once you install it, you have a 4 day free trial, and you can purchase it for $14.99 USD.
I cannot give a full review of it at this time, but from what I have seen so far, I am impressed. You Control it using your mouse as you would your finger, and for other phone functions, there seem to be ways to activate them. (though I think I saw that there was no way to use the accelerometer function)
I can also let everyone here know that Cyber Knights works just fine on this program. (I do not have my USB cable to get my full version on the computer, but I did find an older version online, which works, so your game and save files should work just fine when you load them)
Without any further babbling from me, here is the information about this nifty little program.

[glow=blue,2,300]YouWave[/glow]

[glow=green,2,300]Key Technical Features[/glow]
Supports Android 2.3 Gingerbread (new)
Runs on Windows XP/Vista/7, 32/64 bit
Simulated SD card functionality - enables game saving
Saved State - enables fast restart
Enables multi-player online games
Dynamic rotating - phone-like instant response (new)
Volume control buttons (new)
Retractable control panel (new)


[glow=red,2,300]Requirements:[/glow]
Intel Pentium 1.6GHz CPU, 1GB DRAM, 500MB disk space,
Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 32/64 bit

[glow=yellow,2,300]Limitations:[/glow]
Apps that have ARM native code, require Flash, require hardware sensors, or use closed source APIs, such as Google Map API, are not supported.


Instructions for Setup:

• Click HERE[//url] to download the Free Trial at YouWave's Website
  
• Install the program, following the on-screen prompts. Be sure to make a note of where the "Android Apps" folder ends up on your computer. Default path for Windows 7/Vista is "Users/YourUserName/YouWave/Android Apps".
  
• Either download or transfer from your phone (Using the USB cable) the games or apps that you would like to play/use on your computer, to the folder "Android Apps". It is important to know that all files must be in ".apk" format, otherwise the software may not recognize them.
  
• Start the YouWave program and once it loads, you should see a list of your programs. (plus sudoku, and a couple of others that came with the YouWave software.)If you do not see your games listed there, please make SURE that your games are placed INSIDE the "Android Apps" folder. You may find it easier to create a shortcut to the folder on the desktop for easy access. You may also set which folder you wish to be the default app folder for YouWave.
  
• Last but not least, some troubleshooting help specifically for Cyber Knights RPG:
  1. If the game loads, but you don't see your character or the tilemap, you may need to click the "Rotate" button in the bottom right of the application. This button mimicks the act of turning your phone from vertical to horizontal (widescreen). **It is possible that this is a problem ONLY with the outdated version i found to test the program with.
  2. If the text looks funny, or runs outside of the button space, or is cut off, then please see solution #1. That usually happens when a game is no on the correct size screen. While some games disable the rotation feature of your phone, it seems that YouWave's emulated rotate function is unnafected by this, and so you must make sure you are playing your game in the correct position for optimum play.
  
  
  
  
  AND THATS IT!!!!
  I will add more if I find more information, or (I hope) a FREE android platform for windows that doesnt suck. Right now, YouWave is the best I have seen and tested. I only recently got my computer back, which was lost in luggage at the airport, but sadly, I had two bags, which the geniuses at the airport sent out seperately, so until my other bag arrives either tonight or tomorrow morning I do not have access to my phone's USB PC Transfer cable. (and no way to charge my phone!!!!) Once I get my phone back in service, I will see how hard it is, and how to; load Cyber Knights onto Youwave and make sure your save game is carried over.
  Until then, I'm sure you guys (and gals) can figure it out. If not, I will see what I can figure out and post it here.
  
  Hope this helps some people to enjoy their games a little better, most especially Cyber Knights RPG!!!
  

[Cory Trese]

There are several sites that include pirated versions of Star Traders and Cyber Knights.

Most of the ones I see include a virus or hacked permissions.

If you want to send me the URL, I will ask the site to remove it, but they probably won't.

Rumor is that Google will be bringing some Android Games to Google+

Amazon also has a web-based Android player that they allow some developers to use.

Of course, from a business standpoint, I would rather have control over the PC edition of the game, but I can see why having a fast Android emulator would be nice for some.

and don't forget:


only install software that you can TRUST

[Volyren Nightsong]

no problem, cory. i will keep the Cyber Knights/YouWave combo under wraps. i wasn't sure if you had plans for a pc version or not, (though i hope you do) so i understand about the worrying about pirated versions.
up until these last couple of days, i didnt know that there was a lot of pirating of android games and apps,other than the usual ROM/Emulator, which i cannot claim to be innocent of. (how else am i gonna play the Dungeons and Dragons Arcade Games? they were awesome!)
one other thought:

I don't presume to tell you how to make your games, but I did have an idea, that may work well if you are planning on bringing your two games to PC.

A game I have always wanted to see would essentially be a Grand Theft Auto/X: Beyond the Frontier hybrid.
It doesn't need to be a flight sim, or a 3rd person shooter. What I was thinking was to COMBINE the gameplay of both Star Traders and Cyber Knights.

From the viewpoint of decreasing workload, the easiest solution would probably be making only a minor change to Star Traders, by fleshing out/changing the character and crew system.
The reason for this, obviously is that when you land on a planet, you can get out of the ship, head to the spice den, and maybe get mugged on the way. That is when the gameplay of Cyber Knights would come in.
The captain, security chief, medical officer and science officer would make for a decent team of cyber knights.

the downside would be the graphics overhaul needed for cyber knights, to represent a more high tech or in some cases alien feel to the buildings and terrain. apart from that, there would be the matter of every single landable planet having to have a new map.
i realize that would be an inordinate ammount of work. But I have thought of a workaround.
First, no one is going to want to traipse around a map the size of cyber knights just to go to a shop. For this reason, I would probably keep the map size to a maximum of 16. (4x4).
Still, that would leave a ton of "worlds" to map. The only thing I can imagine would make the idea feasible would be to use a random map generator. Keep in mind, I know how much you like to keep control of your game (I am the same way) so the generated environment would be on your end only. once you have a map that meets your approval, set and save. it would probably take around 75-100 normal map squares and 15-20 alien squares to achieve enough variety that the maps of each world would have enough variety.
This would of course all be dependant on how you have your engine and development kit set up, but just from my own experience working with tile based 2-D games, it should be simple to do (simple doesn't always mean easy though!)
anyway, just a thought.
a lot of people say they want games like that, able to fully explore the planets that they land on, but no game ever seems to pull it off. the few that try always leave one aspect as more of a gimmick. Even the good games tend to leave out one or the other, due to needing two seperate engines. thats why i think a 2-d game could work. (even Mass Effect totally ignored all aspects of space travel.) I think the best examples of this type of game would have to be the old "Buck Rogers" games for dos. (and one for Sega Genesis)
Just a thought.
(something like that could be a "3rd" game. you would just need to change the fiction of the two games to match, and a little graphic overhaul.)


....... damn.....can I ever just write a simple reply post without going into 7 different unrelated topics?.....




........Probably not.

[LordofSyn]

I agree in many ways from what you are saying Volyren Nightsong . I picture a hybrid civilization{2or3} /4x game.
the tiles don't represent miles, but rather a kilometer or two at max, and even smaller in combat. turn based is still the way to go, as it gives enough strategy.
as for the random map algorithm, fractal noise generator in the engine allows for not only the maps, but is also a check for micro scale with skills/hacking/combat, etc.

the are small ways to cheat with props, palette swapping, mass duplicate, tiling,
( the potential to add "cover" to combat. )

[liath]

LordofSyn and Volyren Nightsong : Me Gusta ideas. Although adding a touch of mecha would throw a bit more awesome-sauce on that fire methinks.

[Cory Trese]

I think you'll like what we have planned for ST II =)

[captain nemo]

Aug 30, 2011 22:33:10 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

I think you'll like what we have planned for ST II =)

but Very

Haven't played ST much since doing the beta testing for CK.

Looking forward to seeing what you have up your sleeve for ST 2

[Cory Trese]

Well I have poured literally man-months of programming time into building a reusable RPG game engine that we call "StoryTeller"

CK is about the minimal use case for StoryTellerEngine (STE) right now. As we finalize that game we are planning to release several more in the ST franchise built on STE.

ST2 will be a hybrid of the ST and CK play modes. Star ships, trading, mapped urban zones, officers-as-party-members, crew promotions, randomized wilderness landing zones. Any other ideas? =)

[moody]

Sounds great Cory. ST2 is kinda shaping up to be a little like the old Buck Rogers games (count down to dooms day, etc...) Where your party members could board other ships and take them on with a CK like overhead tactical view.

[LordofSyn]

Mechs would be balance issue, unless you made them more power suits.
'and maybe that YakaShima chatter I heard wasn't so wonky afterall...
hmm.'

but I love the idea of Storyteller. sounds nice. Plug-in allowable?
just curious?

edit: ooh, Android XCOM esque/ Universal RPG...
oops, thought out loud again.

[Volyren Nightsong]

That would be awesome, indeed. (you stole my idea..... WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Imma go tell my mommy!!!)
but seriously, I can't wait to see what you have planned.
looks like the only idea i have left (that you didnt STEAL!! ) is the twin stick ship combat and the graphical style.....
and if you take those, cory, i SWEAR on everything i hold dear, my wife, my cats, my mind, and the lives of any friends, family or future children i might have, that you will sorely regret it....


because i will probably be pestering the hell out of you going " is it ready yet? is it ready yet? when you gonna release it? is it ready yet?"


but in all seriousness, I'm pretty sure that most people never think about the double edged sword that is game design. Everyone has their idea of the perfect game. everything that they have ever wanted in a game, all rolled into one neat little package, ready to suck every minute of free time out of the rest of their lives. But the sad reality is, none of them will ever get to enjoy any of those games. Because if you want to make your idea of a perfect game, then YOU will be the one having to make it.
That to me is the WORST part of making games. No matter how much you would have loved to play a game like that, you will never be able to truly enjoy your own game. Sure, you get enjoyment from the kind words of others who tell you how much they enjoy it, and how awesome you are for making it, but you are left empty.
You have just released your personal dream game. but you cannot enjoy even one minute of it. You know the entire plot. every secret, every area, all the tricks to beating the bosses. You know the optimal path, and even in the case of randomly generating levels, like in diablo or the like, you still cannot enjoy it, because you know exactly what pieces make up each level, which ruins even the random element.
thats not something most people realize.
and i think its one of the reasons that subconsciously i sabotage myself with endless bouts of procrastination. If i never build my game, then maybe someone else will, and I will get to play it, all the while complaining that "that jackass stole my idea!!!" but deep down, you thank him/her/them for letting you play and enjoy the game that you almost ruined for yourself.

[LordofSyn]

Sept 1, 2011 15:57:37 GMT -5 Volyren Nightsong said:

That would be awesome, indeed. (you stole my idea..... WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Imma go tell my mommy!!!)
but seriously, I can't wait to see what you have planned.
looks like the only idea i have left (that you didnt STEAL!! ) is the twin stick ship combat and the graphical style.....
and if you take those, cory, i SWEAR on everything i hold dear, my wife, my cats, my mind, and the lives of any friends, family or future children i might have, that you will sorely regret it....


because i will probably be pestering the hell out of you going " is it ready yet? is it ready yet? when you gonna release it? is it ready yet?"


but in all seriousness, I'm pretty sure that most people never think about the double edged sword that is game design. Everyone has their idea of the perfect game. everything that they have ever wanted in a game, all rolled into one neat little package, ready to suck every minute of free time out of the rest of their lives. But the sad reality is, none of them will ever get to enjoy any of those games. Because if you want to make your idea of a perfect game, then YOU will be the one having to make it.
That to me is the WORST part of making games. No matter how much you would have loved to play a game like that, you will never be able to truly enjoy your own game. Sure, you get enjoyment from the kind words of others who tell you how much they enjoy it, and how awesome you are for making it, but you are left empty.
You have just released your personal dream game. but you cannot enjoy even one minute of it. You know the entire plot. every secret, every area, all the tricks to beating the bosses. You know the optimal path, and even in the case of randomly generating levels, like in diablo or the like, you still cannot enjoy it, because you know exactly what pieces make up each level, which ruins even the random element.
thats not something most people realize.
and i think its one of the reasons that subconsciously i sabotage myself with endless bouts of procrastination. If i never build my game, then maybe someone else will, and I will get to play it, all the while complaining that "that jackass stole my idea!!!" but deep down, you thank him/her/them for letting you play and enjoy the game that you almost ruined for yourself.

I honestly believe we all feel this way. as most of my game creation experience has its full foundation in pen and paper RPGs. The beauty I found making games, not to be confused with writing modules or adventures. I mean full Engines, is that your imagination is only limited by you.

there isn't a budget for your imagination

that's something that cannot be fully replicated in a computer game. we all know this, but we don't ever really think about it. Yes, I would love to have my own game, and I'm thankful to pioneers like Cory, Fallen, etc. they are playing the games we wish we could make. our only hope atm is to help with the early game and given enough ideas, features, etc. we shall see some of our ideas put to game.

keep it your own flavor, or let it become the melting pot, as it were.

no matter what, if you cater to your audience, not only will you gain integrity, but also insight, and in the end...

a game we all love to play.

[Slide87]

Ahahah,i admit,every day i give a look at the forum and at the Market only for a CK release =P i understand u voly xD but ck development will continue or its only a "beta-ground" for ST2 Cory??

[Volyren Nightsong]

yeah, i started out doing pen and paper RPG's as well.
That was how i started writing my novels.
I really don't want to start naming them so that the board gets ran over by the crazies that stalk me, (sadly its happened before) but if you are interested in writing, let me suggest what helped me get my plotline fleshed out. actually get some players, the more the better, to roleplay your "world".
I had ran into a brick wall with my first book. i had the first half of the story, nearly 250 pages already done, and i had bits and pieces of book two plotted out, and nearly the entire last half of book 3 plotted.
my problem was that, where i was in the story, i just couldn't see how to get from point A to point B.
after two months and nearly 100 written and then deleted pages, I had a scheduled roleplay night with some people who had signed up to help me playtest my new rules system. i had the rulebooks printed and bound but I had totally forgot to prepare an adventure to take them on. I had nothing. NOTHING.
sure there were plenty of modules i could have used from any number of game systems, but the entire point was to use my new system.
so the only thing i could think of was to use my book, and give them a synopsis, and just use my scribbled plot notes to run them through an adventure. it went fairly well, and we stopped just shy of where i had stopped in the book. (they had actually given me some good new ideas, so i went back and edited a good bit, added a few new plotlines, and even 2 new characters.) After that, we all agreed that it would probably be easier to use WebRPG (i dont know if its still around, but it was a java program that was basically a chat room with built in dice rolls, and the best part was the RPG features. you could build a character sheet that was interactive. so much so that if you went into your character sheet, and clicked on your right hand weapon, the chat room would automatically roll your formula for attack for that particular weapon. it also had a map that you could use to represent miniatures, with each player being able to move his or hers.
anyway, before i get sidetracked the point was, that we met usually once a week to play a game session, and slowly but surely, i watched as my book wrote its self. the most awesome thing was that webrpg had a LOG function. any time i needed a reference, i could just read back over the log.
i wish i could talk about some of my favorite characters. its rare to find a group of roleplayers that get into their roles, and arent just in it for the fighting and loot.
but i owe them a great debt, because if not for them, i would have never been able to finish my first book, get my publishing contract, make a living doing what i love. ( i only knew one person's whole name, and after tracking him down, i offered him a thousand dollars out of my first check, but he wouldnt accept it. (was going to give each of them a thousand.)

but yeah, if you are ever stuck on writing something, try doing that. It will work wonders for you. Believe it or not, if you are familiar with Dragonlance (from AD&D 2nd edition era) you might have ready the chronicles of the lance. ("Dragons of Autumn Twilight", "Dragons of Winter Night" and "Dragons of Spring Dawning", and then much later on, they added to the set with "Dragons of Summer Flame") well, you can get all of those books printed as a single volume, called "The Annotated Chronicles" even though i had already read all those books until their spines had started falling apart, i bought the massive tome.
It turns out as i read Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's notes which had been printed in the margins of the book that they had done the very thing I had.
I just found that to be irony defined.
that the books i read when i was young, which made me want to be an author, had used the very same method of plot creation that i had just used. And i remember feeling so crappy about having to resort to basing my plot on what occured in a roleplay session.
I remember feeling like i would never be as good as authors just LIKE weiss and hickman.
and there i was seeing that they too had suffered from writers block, and resorted to roleplaying out the scenario with their friends.

anyway, i know i ramble like a madman sometimes, and you have my apologies.
LordofSyn, if you are interested i can send you or post a copy here, of my RPG setup. its a 70 page players guide that has all rules, tables, charts and even a bestiary and character sheet templates, if you are interested.
And i noticed you had written a story in another thread. Keep up the good work. I posted one in Fallen's thread, but i dont know if anyone has even read it. I think i made it too long (its 17 pages in MS Word and its only halfway done!) for most people to read.
I had hoped to use it as a lead-in for Cyber Knights to try and get more people in to the game.
without giving anything about the story away, the whole point of writing it, was to have at the very end, the main character, John, decide to seek the help of a Cyber Knight. (and of course that means YOU. so go get the cyber knights game and go help John!)
that was what i had hoped to do with it, but i am afraid that my attempt at a back story has turned into a short story, that is verging on the precipice of becoming a novella

alright, time to end this post.... and go make me a sammich....MMMMMmmmmmm ... A 'mater sammich. Fresh cut garden tomatoes, peeled and sliced thin. Nice crusty, chewy bread, or one of those flat, wheat sandwich rounds, spread a thin layer of mayo onto the bottom piece, then layer the 'maters (tomatoes/ 'maters, its a southern thang!)until you cover the bottom piece. sprinkle salt and a buttload of pepper (buttload is a recognized measurement in the south. its at least twice as much as a sprinkle, but not quite as much as an ass-load of pepper) then spread a decent ammount of mayo on top and put the tomato sandwich... err i mean, the 'mater sammich... together and cut in half. get some potato chips or doritos and a glass of iced tea, and you are set... (you can add turkey to it, if you are really hungry, but never forget; its not a turkey sandwich w/ tomato, its a damned 'Mater Sammich with gobbler meat on it!"

seriously you guys. if you ever get your hands on some RIPE garden grown tomatoes, TRY THIS SAMMICH!
it sounds simple and plain, but seriously, its all in the quality of the tomatoes, and the mayo (use Duke's or Sauer's mayo) and you MUST put salt and pepper. (lots and lots of pepper)
i am telling you, there is nothing that hits the spot better on a hot day.

*******dear god.. i started talking about a game, then game design... then writing a book, pen and paper RPG's, from there i moved to reminiscing about the books i read waaay back when, and end the post by listing my recipe for a 'mater sammich?...... I need help....
you think there is a cure for ramble-itis?

[LordofSyn]

I agree, understand, and so forth.

thankfully the story I have been posting has come about on its own. the beauty of a story like this, is its raw quality. check it out, I would very much appreciate your feedback.