Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Thu, 23 March 2006 01:21 |
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c64k | | Petty Officer 3rd Class | Messages: 42
Registered: March 2006 Location: .us | |
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Since it looks like we'll be getting a new host (thanks for offering, Maim)... can we change the game parameters a bit?
1: Small universe for 6 players with only normal density? Maybe packed density or medium universe on normal density would work a bit better.
2: I dunno about this chaff thing. Since I generally play against computers, I have no experience in dealing with or using chaff, and I would imagine that other beginners might have the same problem. On the other hand, this might be a good place to learn. What do people think about chaff? Should we ban it? Or at least discourage it?
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Thu, 23 March 2006 02:15 |
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Madman | | Officer Cadet 1st Year | Messages: 228
Registered: November 2003 Location: New Zealand | |
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c64k wrote on Thu, 23 March 2006 18:21 | 2: I dunno about this chaff thing. Since I generally play against computers, I have no experience in dealing with or using chaff, and I would imagine that other beginners might have the same problem. On the other hand, this might be a good place to learn. What do people think about chaff? Should we ban it? Or at least discourage it?
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Definitely allow chaff:
- it's something people will have to learn for other games anyway, so disallowing chaff would be doing them a disfavour by teaching bad habits,
- it makes the game more interesting by providing a Rock-Paper-Scissors loop,
- it's _very_ hard to define rules that determine exactly what is and isn't chaff, as there are other uses for small ships (scouts, minesweepers etc). I've seen much discussion about this in games that don't want chaff.
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Thu, 23 March 2006 02:44 |
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Well.. Like Madman said, disallowing Chaff would do you a dis-service... I'm sure you'll either catch onto it in this game or some future game depending on what happens. (I didn't even see it in the first game or two that I played.. I think.. Yeah.. First 2 or 3 there wasn't any chaff used against me. And it was still allowed. So there ya go.)
So... I guess I'll be needing Email addresses and that ping back... Oh! And yeah... Recomfirmation on game settings.
Do me a favor and just private message me or something... I'll check back here again to see what's going on.
[Updated on: Thu, 23 March 2006 02:52]
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Thu, 23 March 2006 17:44 |
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Well if Zoiker ever shows up again I'll send my race in to him too... But right now I'm getting ready to host.. Just need names, emails and race names. Also the race file.. And if Madman would like to hold the race passwords that would be very useful.
In which case you'd send him the passwords, and probably a copy of the race files.
Medium universe does sound nice given the potential for crampt quarters.
[Updated on: Thu, 23 March 2006 17:44]
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Thu, 23 March 2006 17:56 |
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Madman | | Officer Cadet 1st Year | Messages: 228
Registered: November 2003 Location: New Zealand | |
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OK, whenever things are ready (I know universe size has to be determined first), feel free to PM me with race files (and passwords), or alternatively, email me at: roy_dunedin@hotmail.com (note: this is not a permanent email, just an account I activate every so often to be able to post an email address on a website). Make sure you include your name, email and SAH name so there's no confusion which race goes with which person.
I'll try and check daily.
Remember to also let me know (via PM) if you change your password during the game.
I'm also happy to try and offer some constructive comments about the races if this would be considered useful (I'd be a high intermediate or possibly even advanced level player).
[Updated on: Thu, 23 March 2006 19:10] Report message to a moderator
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Thu, 23 March 2006 18:08 |
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c64k | | Petty Officer 3rd Class | Messages: 42
Registered: March 2006 Location: .us | |
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miklem wrote on Thu, 23 March 2006 15:53 | As for galaxy size - I think, that size should be choosen _before_ race generations.
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Ditto. It'd be nice to know for sure what the playing field would be.
Quote: | I prefer medium size for 6-8 players
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Ditto. Small seems a bit cramped for this many people.
Quote: | but will play in small
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Ditto again. So I'm in no matter what. Just please let me know how many planets this universe will have (small vs. med, normal vs. packed) so I have an idea how much breathing room my race should have.
[Updated on: Thu, 23 March 2006 18:11] Report message to a moderator
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Thu, 23 March 2006 19:16 |
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Madman | | Officer Cadet 1st Year | Messages: 228
Registered: November 2003 Location: New Zealand | |
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miklem wrote on Fri, 24 March 2006 08:53 | I send my race to Zoiker and still want to play in this game - maybe max number of players can be >6?
And we definitly should make victory conditions more clear.
As for galaxy size - I think, that size should be choosen _before_ race generations. I prefer medium size for 6-8 players, but will play in small (and even in tiny;)).
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I'm inclined to think between 25-40 planets per player is good - less than 25, and combat might be a little early for a beginning game, more than 40 and empires get too big.
For 6 players, that's from 150-240 planets, which fits small dense, small packed or medium sparse.
With 7-10 players, medium normal is a good choice.
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Fri, 24 March 2006 22:17 |
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Map Size and Density Change?[ 8 votes ] |
1. |
Small/Normal |
0 / 0% |
2. |
Small/Dense |
0 / 0% |
3. |
Small/Packed |
0 / 0% |
4. |
Medium/Sparse |
0 / 0% |
5. |
Medium/Normal |
6 / 75% |
6. |
Medium/Dense |
1 / 13% |
7. |
Medium/Packed |
1 / 13% |
I need a concensus here on map size/density... Also someone made a reasonable complaint about the tech setting, I tend to agree slow tech for noobs seems a bit... Harsh. Also some concerns on a guarenteed minimum concentration for the HW... If anyone cares to second these opinions I'd be pleased to alter the conditions.
Current players who've signed up (with me as host):
1) Yoey (no race file yet)
2) Cerindil (no race name, no race file.)
3) CaptainMaim (Clearly I've sent my race to myself , but I'm not quite ready yet either.)
4) c64k (No Email, No Race file, No race name)
5) <None>
6) <None>
7) <Do we want 7?>
<8 I'd say is the limit As per Madman's expirience>
I've assumed that starting distance is... Unchanged as 1) no one complained and 2) It seems to always be "distant".
(Oh here's a dumb/fun idea which I could do pretty quickly, what if the map were alphabetized into a grid. So you'd have "A" sector where all planets start with A, and B sector and C and so on. I think that'd be cool! Anyway, it's just a crazy fun idea I had. Could even pregen the map thanks to Map2XY while we wait. [But I'd need to know exactly how big and dense the map is going to be.])
[Updated on: Sat, 25 March 2006 00:02]
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Fri, 24 March 2006 23:20 |
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c64k | | Petty Officer 3rd Class | Messages: 42
Registered: March 2006 Location: .us | |
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Captain Maim wrote on Fri, 24 March 2006 22:17 | Current players who've signed up
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I'm in.
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Sat, 25 March 2006 00:17 |
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Madman wrote on Fri, 24 March 2006 22:32 |
Captain Maim wrote on Sat, 25 March 2006 15:17 | I need a concensus here on map size/density... Also someone made a reasonable complaint about the tech setting, I tend to agree slow tech for noobs seems a bit...
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Size/density depends a little on number of players - I'd choose differently for 7 or 8 players than I would for 5 or 6. It's the approx number of planets per player that matters (and density of course).
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Fair enough.
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As for slow tech - I'd agree that beginner games should be as vanilla as possible (I could make a case for slow tech making Stars! a better game, but it's best to learn with normal settings).
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Great! Slow tech off, normal tech on! Hope no one disagrees.
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Quote: | <8 I'd say is the limit As per Madman's expirience>
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I think you might be referring to someone else's experience here - I think I suggested that medium normal was good for giving 7-10 players a bit of room.
Quote: | It seems to always be "distant".
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Distant ... _always_ distant. The other options should not even exist (the only use for them is in testbeds where you _want_ races you are testing in battle to start next to each other).
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Makes me want to propose a game based on the premise of using one of the other distance settings.
Quote: |
Quote: | (Oh here's a dumb/fun idea which I could do pretty quickly, what if the map were alphabetized into a grid. So you'd have "A" sector where all planets start with A, and B sector and C and so on. I think that'd be cool! Anyway, it's just a crazy fun idea I had. Could even pregen the map thanks to Map2XY while we wait. [But I'd need to know exactly how big and dense the map is going to be.])
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Unless Map2XY has changed since I looked at it, the problem with it is that you've got to very careful with first moves, because the game file is confused about where the ships are with the stars moved. Don't make life more complicated than you have to unless there is a particular shape/size you want for game reasons.
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Na... I know what I'm doing, I just 1) gen a map of the medium/normal variety, 2) use... Hmmm... What's it called? Xboarders to divide up the map for me, then 3) go squentially down the sectors with a text editor, the .map file and a list of names and copy paste my way through it.
Doing it once I don't mind, redoing it 3 times in a row? That might be pushing it a little.
But otherwise, yeah, I'm fully aware of remapping issues... No sweat though, I'll just use a seed number to lock to map down into a predefined pattern. Piece-a-cake!
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Sat, 25 March 2006 05:01 |
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If anyone who's play testing their race would like, I can give them
the def file I'm using to gen the map with if they'd like.
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Sat, 25 March 2006 08:19 |
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Madman | | Officer Cadet 1st Year | Messages: 228
Registered: November 2003 Location: New Zealand | |
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I'm going to use this post as a placeholder to update which races I have received so far - I'm regarding them all as preliminary until all the game settings are resolved.
I'm quite happy for people to send a race, then later send a race to replace it (possibly in response to feedback), as long as you are clear on which one is the 'current' one. Stars! can be such a huge investment of time that it's worth taking time to get a good race.
Races received:
(1) Cerindil
(2) Captain Maim
(3) miklem
(4) yoey
(5) Woody
(6) c64
Some of the people that have sent races are revising their races and will re-send them.
NOTE: It's offical - you only need to send races to me, not Captain Maim (although you still reserve a game slot through him).
[Updated on: Fri, 31 March 2006 09:30] Report message to a moderator
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Re: New Game -- Beginners -- Hex I |
Sun, 26 March 2006 21:27 |
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Madman | | Officer Cadet 1st Year | Messages: 228
Registered: November 2003 Location: New Zealand | |
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To avoid confusion, I suggest that players just send passworded races files to me (with password). I'll then forward all of them (without password) to Captain Maim when I have them all.
Are you OK with this, Captain Maim?
[update - Captain Maim is fine with that]
[Updated on: Tue, 28 March 2006 06:53] Report message to a moderator
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