Forum: The Academy
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Topic: Disposable income
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Disposable income |
Mon, 02 March 2020 04:44 |
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magic9mushroom | | Commander | Messages: 1364
Registered: May 2008 | |
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There are more than a few guides and posts around the place that make reference to the concept of "disposable income". Some people don't entirely understand what that is, and I must confess I didn't really get it - at least in the case of AR - until relatively recently. So, I'm writing a bit about it.
What is disposable income? It's the portion of your resources (both in the strict Stars! sense and to a lesser degree minerals) that you can throw down the drain (in any of various ways) without adversely affecting your economic growth. You can do anything you like with these resources and your curve won't know the difference (unless you get invaded ).
So, in the strict sense, disposable income is resources you can't spend on your economy. In a slightly looser sense, it's resources you can't spend on your economy with an appreciable rate of return.
What counts as spending resources on your economy? In rough order of directness, and assuming a relatively-standard race:
*Factories (directly gives resources)
*Mines (to improve your mineral output, which improves how many factories you can build)
*Terraforming (to improve your pop growth, which improves your future resources)
*Freighters (up to the amount you need to manage your pop and - for factoried races - Germanium; this is to improve your pop growth and to improve how many factories you can build)
*Colony ships (to give valid targets for your freighters)
*Scouts (to find targets for the colony ships)
*Economic technology research (i.e. that necessary to unlock better terraforming and better freighters, up to the point at which each is sufficient for current purposes)
(Note that some of these also need minerals; those minerals aren't disposable.)
Everything you can't spend productively on any of those is disposable income. In theory, nobody has disposable income until they've maxed out their terraforming tech and have the best freighters possible at maximum miniaturisation, but the last levels of terraforming don't have an especially-high rate of return (unless you're CA) and neither does freighter research beyond "LF that can go Warp 9 with a decent load" or even "privateer that can go Warp 9 without a zillion boosters".
Of course, removing some of these from the equation will increase your fraction of disposable resources. Some examples:
*-f don't need to build factories (which also drastically reduces "economic" mineral demand and thus the need for mines)
*CA don't need to build terraforming
*IFE and HE don't need to research Prop 9 to get "good enough" freighters
And now of course we come to the trap: Alternate Reality.
It's easy to think that AR has a ton of disposable income since they have no planetary installations. It's also wrong. Here's what you can do as AR to better your economy, again in rough order of directness:
*Research Energy (directly gives resources)
*Terraforming (directly gives resources and improves pop growth)
*Colony ships (to spread your population, which directly gives resources, as well as getting more minerals)
*Bigger starbases (to improve your pop growth, which improves your future resources)
*Freighters (to manage your pop and thus improve your pop growth, as well as recycle colony-ship minerals; there's also a direct spreading effect but it's not super-huge)
*Economic tech besides Energy (unlocks terraforming and bigger starbases)
*Remote miners (to get more minerals, although AR's innate mining fulfils most of its economic needs if you're good at recycling)
*Scouts (to find targets for the colony ships)
That's a different list, but it's still quite a list, and two of them (Energy and colony ships) are extremely open-ended and can be built by any planet. In the strict sense, therefore, an AR has zero disposable income until they reach Energy 26 and have colonised every planet available. In the looser sense, they still need to colonise every planet available (Pinta-ing a red has a payback time in resources of ~3 turns + travel time with Energy 10) and get Energy well past 10 to a point dependent on economy size (with an economy of 50k it's energy 12 for a 10-turn payback and energy 14 for 20-turn, but with an economy of 100k it's energy 14 for 10-turn payback and energy 19 for 20-turn; recall that the Feds' factories have a 9-turn payback and IS orgies 20-25 turns). AR have a lot of powerful tools with which to improve their economy... which means, of course, that their testbed resource numbers are the result of all those tools being used to maximum effect (assuming the testbedder isn't lazy or ignorant ). This is why pure-resource AR testbed results are so infamously optimistic; in stark contrast to a standard -f race, they have less "disposable" resources than even your average HP, so if they need resources for something military (weapons/elec/prop research, plus remote miners, then actually building the ships), it's coming straight out of their curve. This is also part of why they hate AccBBS so much (the other part being that it doubles their starting econ but quadruples that of everyone else); AccBBS gives you pop, but it doesn't give you the effect of all those resources spent on the economy. -f love that because they have minimal economic resource expenditure; AR loathe it because their requirements are enormous.
[Updated on: Mon, 02 March 2020 05:12] Report message to a moderator
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Topic: PSA: Galaxy Scoop makes fuel at Warp 9
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PSA: Galaxy Scoop makes fuel at Warp 9 |
Sat, 02 September 2017 21:40 |
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magic9mushroom | | Commander | Messages: 1364
Registered: May 2008 | |
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There has been a statement going around (it was in the wiki, for instance) that the Galaxy Scoop doesn't actually generate fuel at Warp 9. This used to be true, but it was fixed in 2.6j/2.7j RC1; as the only versions still in use are 2.7j RC3 and 2.6j RC4, the Galaxy Scoop does indeed generate 1 mg/ly in current versions of Stars!.
I have edited the wiki article accordingly.
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Topic: Posey excel sheet
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Topic: Funny Bug... when the scannerless is better than the scanner!
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Funny Bug... when the scannerless is better than the scanner! |
Sun, 17 September 2006 11:37 |
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I just looked at my turn in current game (Not Too Busy for Stars). I visited a certain AR world called Deacon, and got pop reading of 246400 from his orbital fort, thanks to a short visit by my flak!
Correction: Turn before my last reading from planet was his former IS buddy (who is dead/has dropped) with that exact pop level so likely artifact reading.
[Updated on: Sun, 17 September 2006 11:42] Report message to a moderator
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Topic: Engine Safe Speed & Battle Speed
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Engine Safe Speed & Battle Speed |
Thu, 06 July 2006 07:20 |
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m.a@stars | | Commander | Messages: 2765
Registered: October 2004 Location: Third star to the left | |
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Greetings, fellow space travelers,
I recently dug out a few tidbits from ancient rgcs posts. I'm posting them here for their possible interest to modders, tinkerers, and/or clone coders.
The Battle Speed for any given engine is determined by its fuel consumption at every warp. The "Best" Speed will be the last warp *before* fuel consumption rises above 120% (as the Stars! helpfile hints). Some rgcs posts mention 125% or even higher, so tests with modded fuelusage tables would be welcome. That "ideal" warp will be used to compute Movement points in the Battleboard.
Battle Movement (for the engine alone) = (ideal_warp - 2) / 4. So, Warp6 gives 1 square of movement, and every warp above it gives another 1/4 square. The full Movement Formula (for a ship design) is outside the scope of this post.
For some engines, that Battle Speed should be 10, but is only 9. Why? Because they're unsafe at warp 10. And it seems "Warp10-safety" is determined thru fuel consumption, too. Thus, any engine that burns fuel over a 105% "safe" rate will be unsafe for Warp10 travel. The cutoff isn't clearly stated, but 108% fuel consumption makes an engine unsafe, so the margins are small.
Enjoy,
So many Stars, so few Missiles!
In space no one can hear you scheme! Report message to a moderator
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Topic: Mineral depletion
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Topic: Disengage in 8 moves
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Disengage in 8 moves |
Wed, 24 November 2004 16:55 |
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LEit mentioned to me that ships disengage after 8 moves rather than 7 as mentioned in the help file. To confirm this I fired up the game and gave it a try - the battle viewer showed my scout with tactic "Disengage in 7 moves", so I thought "phoey - what does LEit know anyway ?".
I've just looked a bit closer, and noticed that after the 1st move the scout still says "Disengage in 7 moves". After that it does count down though. So, LEit was right, and disengaging takes 8 moves. The help file and the battle viewer are wrong
Jason Cawley mentioned this in rgcs on 26 Feb 1997, so it's not exactly news, but I thought it was worth mentioning anyway.
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Topic: Favorite PRT
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Topic: Universe size info
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Universe size info |
Sat, 23 November 2002 02:50 |
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BlueTurbit | | Lt. Commander
RIP BlueTurbit died Oct. 20, 2011 | Messages: 835
Registered: October 2002 Location: Heart of Texas | |
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Picked this up somewhere (newsgroup?) once:
Here is the number of planets / density information for all
universes, credited to Leonard Dickens.
Number of planets in a galaxy.
These numbers are not exact, actual number of planets may vary by
1 in a tiny/sparse, or 6+ in a huge/packed
Number of stars
_____Sparse_Normal_Dense_Packed
Tiny____24_____32____40____60
Small ___96____128___160___240
Medium 216____288___360___540
Large__384____512___640___910
Huge __600____800___940___945
Size
Edge(ly) Area(ly^2)
Tiny 400 160K
Small 800 640K
Medium 1200 1440K
Large 1600 2560K
Huge 2000 4000K
Density of stars (#stars/10000ly^2)
Sparse Normal Dense Packed
T/S/M 1.5 2.00 2.50 3.75
Large 1.5 2.00 2.50 3.55
Huge 1.5 2.00 2.35 2.36
BlueTurbit Country/RockReport message to a moderator
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Forum: The Bar
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Topic: Looking for a replacement player
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Looking for a replacement player |
Thu, 12 May 2022 03:33 |
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Ludi Magister | | Master Chief Petty Officer | Messages: 103
Registered: April 2019 | |
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Hi all!
One of the players in "The Blues" has to drop out of the game. If there is anybody who would like to jump in, please contact me a ludiUNDERSCOREmagisterATwebDOTde, and I'll let you know details about the race.
Cheers,
Matt
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Topic: Requesting (yet another) replacement for Once More, Into the Breach
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Requesting (yet another) replacement for Once More, Into the Breach |
Thu, 11 March 2021 02:39 |
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magic9mushroom | | Commander | Messages: 1364
Registered: May 2008 | |
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A player has requested a replacement in Once More, Into the Breach. This is due to RL trouble; their race is doing fine.
I should note that this is a substantial time commitment; this is a Large Normal game currently at 2509 and running at 2/week, with the end probably many months away (there are still ten races in contention).
PM or email me (same username at gmail) and I will put you in touch with the current player.
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Topic: StarsBox for macOS
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StarsBox for macOS |
Sun, 03 January 2021 18:22 |
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raptor | | | Messages: 138
Registered: June 2014 | |
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Hi,
I put together a StarsBox package for macOS Catalina (10.15):
https://github.com/stars-4x/starsbox/releases
This package is dosbox-staging + Windows 3.11 + Stars! all wrapped together in a clickable app. If anyone uses it, please let me know; I'm interested in the performance and any bugs. I do not use macOS normally and had to use a borrowed machine to get this to work.
Note: Normally WINE (32-bit from homebrew) works quite well if you run macOS 10.14 or earlier, but macOS 10.15+ has problems as discussed here:
https://starsautohost.org/sahforum2/index.php?t=msg&th=5 670
[Updated on: Sun, 03 January 2021 18:22] Report message to a moderator
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Topic: Discord Server for Stars!
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Topic: Game page not updating
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Game page not updating |
Tue, 03 November 2020 02:11 |
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magic9mushroom | | Commander | Messages: 1364
Registered: May 2008 | |
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I changed some settings for Once More, Into the Breach a few hours ago (notably, taking the game off hold), but the changes still aren't displayed on the game page. Indeed, said page is displaying the time 10 hours ago, a bit before I made them.
(When I went into the Host Utility to confirm that I'd actually made them, they showed up.)
If Ron could look into this, that'd be nice.
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Topic: Recording battles, new try
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Recording battles, new try |
Sun, 14 October 2018 19:05 |
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Last topics about recording Stars battles are quite a few years old and didn't really help me.
What would be a good, easy (and if possible open source) software to record Stars battles when Stars runs within a virtual xp?
I tried fraps but got error messages due to too old directx-versions. Since I am one of the few non-programers (just a peaceful wargame despising antiquarian *grin) playing Stars I haven't really a clou wether those can be even updated in a virtual xp nor wether this would really help.
[Updated on: Sun, 14 October 2018 19:05] Report message to a moderator
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Topic: Hope for Android...
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Topic: Anyone up for a Quickie?
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Anyone up for a Quickie? |
Sun, 05 November 2017 16:08 |
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talkingbologna | | Senior Chief Petty Officer | Messages: 86
Registered: November 2016 Location: 1947 | |
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Now that I've hammered when's when with this job-o-mine, I'd like to start playing again. Would anybody care for a fast game over a Saturday evening?
I was thinking a blitz with standard rules:
-Distant Starts
-Tiny/Packed
-AccBBS
-No Random
-Play every 4 turns till year 40, every 2 till year 60, and every turn thereafter
-10 minutes/turn
No CA
Standard cheat disclaimer:
- Chaff
- Split Fleet Dodge
- Merge Fleets After Gating
- Mine Damage Dodge
Turns filed via GMail or something.
Edit: doesn't have to be a blitz.
[Updated on: Mon, 06 November 2017 19:31] Report message to a moderator
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Topic: Replacement needed
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Replacement needed |
Fri, 22 January 2016 22:43 |
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vmanuel | | Chief Warrant Officer 3 | Messages: 187
Registered: October 2004 Location: Dallas, TX USA | |
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I need a replacement for a player in the game I'm hosting. Well placed, one ally, many enemies. Who's up for a challenge? Email me at eyityotg at gmail com
Victor.
Editor in Chief of the Kaynan Space News.
All Space, All The Time - Kaynan!
www.myhood.bizReport message to a moderator
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Topic: Facebook Page
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Topic: New beginner/intermediate game reqd!
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New beginner/intermediate game reqd! |
Fri, 11 April 2014 22:36 |
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1 week counter to show possible players for a new game..[ 3 votes ] |
1. |
Interested |
3 / 100% |
I recently sent out an email to a number of Stars! players that I've played over the years for a replacement.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see the number of players who were interested in getting their feet wet once again.
I found my replacement, but I think we could do with a new beginner/intermediate game for returning players.
I find myself missing Altruist's FA series games and I did ask him about FA9 .. so if that's going up, awesome!
If not, then someone should throw up a regular vanilla style, simple alliances type game up.
ps - I am shying away from it myself for now, I know.
[Updated on: Fri, 11 April 2014 22:40]
I know my minefields.. but I'm a chaff sweeper.
I used to curse when I got stuck in traffic... till I realised I AM traffic.Report message to a moderator
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Topic: Replacement Player Needed
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Replacement Player Needed |
Wed, 25 September 2013 02:45 |
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neilhoward | | Commander | Messages: 1112
Registered: April 2008 Location: SW3 & 10023 | |
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Email damarae1 at gmail for more details
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Topic: Replacement needed for DD5
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Replacement needed for DD5 |
Tue, 24 September 2013 18:07 |
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Eagle of Fire | | Lt. Commander | Messages: 809
Registered: December 2008 Location: GMT -5 | |
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Greetings.
I am in need for a replacement for the game DD5. I've had so many set backs from schedule problems that I'm not interested in playing this game anymore. Both because this is turning out to be the worse game I've played in this regard so far and because bad involvement is bad both for the game as a whole and my ally.
This is a no diplomacy, 2 players based team game. Because of the nature of the game I'm not open to tell any details about my race so if you are interested to take over and keep the game alive please send me a PM.
Thank you.
-EoF
STARS! Wiki
STARS! Wiki Français
I am on a hot streak... Literally.Report message to a moderator
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Topic: We should try to get Stars! on Good Old Games
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Topic: Replacement player needed for Dynamic Duos 4.
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Replacement player needed for Dynamic Duos 4. |
Sun, 06 January 2013 18:01 |
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ManicLurch | | Lt. Junior Grade | Messages: 462
Registered: May 2009 | |
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We need a replacement player for this game. This is a team game and a no communication game, so I don't know any details about how this race is sitting. If interested, I will get you in touch with your partner and he can fill you in on the details.
Thanks,
David
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Topic: Replacement needed for Classic Capers
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Replacement needed for Classic Capers |
Sat, 14 July 2012 08:31 |
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Combat | | Warrant Officer | Messages: 118
Registered: May 2008 | |
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I cannot maintain the current pace of the game for another two months due to real life. My race is currently in 1st place with 1 ally. Also at war with 2 other players and taking quite a pounding. Race is HE and very MM intensive so make sure you have plenty of free time.
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster...when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you.Report message to a moderator
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