Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » The Bar » General Stars! Questions
| General Stars! Questions |
Thu, 21 November 2002 18:54  |
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 tech25 |
 | Petty Officer 3rd Class |
Messages: 49
Registered: November 2002 | |
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Well, I finally took the plunge and am now planning on playing an email game against live, "um, so to speak," opponents. So, I have to set up my computer to handle the game. What is the best way? Should I put the game in a separate folder? Under the Star!s folder? How will the program find it? What file do I send? I found my game saved as game.m1 if I was the first player. That is where I have played all the time, (that is as the first player.) So, I am making the assumption that if I was player 16 I would find my game saved as game.m16? How do I send my move? I mean what is it called when it is finished? Where is it stored? How will I be able to tell it from my other saved games? Does it have a unique name that I will be able to recognize? Next, I will be away for Thanksgiving. So, how do I take my game along with me? That is: what do I have to bring along to play on a "foreign" machine? If I put the exe and game.xy on a cd, can I play it as though it were installed on the "foreign" machine? I have to find some way to make my moves for 4 days this Thanksgiving and looks like 4 to 5 day at Christmas. Finally, I use Yahoo for a mail drop. I attach files to outgoing emails. Will that work for autohost moves?
tech25
Anyone can learn from loosing ...
an excepional individual learns from winning
David Drake
Email me: ---tech25@--yahoo.com---Report message to a moderator
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| Re: General Stars! Questions |
Thu, 21 November 2002 20:37  |
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The basic Stars! files for your game, assuming you're player 3 in game foo:
foo.hst - The host file. If you're not hosting the hame you won't have this.
foo.xy - Universe definition file. You need this in order to play.
foo.m3 - Your player file. This is generated from last turn's .x3 file, and you'll need a fresh one each turn.
foo.x3 - Saved turn file. Send this to the host.
foo.h3 - History file. this keeps a record of the information you collect, such as the vitals of explored planets.
When you save and submit your turn (ctrl-A), the stars! exe creates a .x file. So if you're player 3, you would open the .m3 file and send the .x3 file back when you're done.
If you're going to play on a foreign machine, you'll need a copy of your Stars!.exe, your .h and .xy files, and of course a way to access the net in order to get your .m file and send off your .x file.
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| Re: General Stars! Questions |
Thu, 21 November 2002 22:35 |
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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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| Quote: |
Finally, I use Yahoo for a mail drop. I attach files to outgoing emails. Will that work for autohost moves?
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Sending files by email to AutoHost, I believe, is still disabled. You have to use the web to upload turns. After game is started you will receive an email from AutoHost with password and URL to upload turns, something like this for let's say player 3:
Your turn upload password is: 3hi6
This is for game: xxx, player 3
http://library.southern.edu/stars/games/xxx.htm
Go to URL received in email to get your Universe definition file.xy near the top right of screen.
Click on the .m3 file (.m? that matches your player name and race) at the right to get your first .m3 file for 2400.
Do your turn, save it. When done go to URL and select "upload turn"
Click browse to find .x3 file on your system.
after doing this type in password you received in email above.
Then click on the SUBMIT button below.
Important: Also be certain that your game is also using a password as others can download your .m3 file and look at your turns if you don't use a password in the game.
If you can't use the web while you are gone you have to email your x file and upload password to someone and have them upload for you until you return.
BlueTurbit Country/RockReport message to a moderator
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| Re: General Stars! Questions |
Fri, 22 November 2002 11:39 |
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| Mike Nixon |
 | Crewman 3rd Class |
Messages: 9
Registered: November 2002
Location: Minnesota, USA | |
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Don't forget to bring your serial number with you (you need it to run stars the first time on that foreign machine)!
And if you want to disable that machine when you are done with it (if you don't want others to be able to use your stars serial number) you should find the stars.ini file (probably in the c:\windows directory) and delete it. (I have left working stars.ini files installed on several PCs that I trust, like at home, at work and at my Dad's house)
Mike Nixon
[Updated on: Fri, 22 November 2002 11:46] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: General Stars! Questions |
Fri, 22 November 2002 15:23 |
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| Mike Nixon |
| Crewman 3rd Class |
Messages: 9
Registered: November 2002
Location: Minnesota, USA | |
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As I understand it the .h file changes each turn as well keeping track of any new information that you have found out. Anyone out there able to confirm or refute this?
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Yes, it does.
If you have no game.h3 file for your game.m3 then stars! will create one, and it will have information from the current year in it. If you replace your game.m3 in the same place each year, your game.h3 file will include information from your current turn year, and it will also "age" the other data that isn't current. (Like you last had a scanner over planet X 5 years ago, it reports that information about planet X is 5 years old.)
I believe the following things are in the game.h3 file:
- Scanning History for planets (Environment, Owner, Population, Defense Percent, mineral concentration, and surface minerals?)
- History of other race's starbase and ship designs that you have seen/scanned
- History of score information, at least your own race, and other races when they become public, either PPS, victory conditions met or if a race is killed off.
- (Does NOT contain a history of ingame messages)
It is possible to confuse your .h file if you restore an older year .m file without moving your .h file
When I played a lot of stars on multiple computers, I would either copy my game.h3, game.m3 and game.x3 files to a floppy (using windows briefcase) or email the .h3 and .x3 to myself. (And I also liked to backup my game.x3 orders file and my game.h3 history file from each turn into a folder or archive.)
HTH,
Mike Nixon
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| Re: General Stars! Questions |
Fri, 22 November 2002 15:28 |
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| FurFuznel |
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Messages: 437
Registered: November 2002
Location: New Brunswick, Canada | |
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| tech25 wrote on Fri, 22 November 2002 14:59 |
Ok, here are a few more questions.
How is tech transfered to your partner? If I want a remote mining robot how does he transfer that knowlage to me?
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In one of the threads at the academy I suggested taking a look at the Stars FAQ web-site which has details on technology trading or at the Strategy guide. These both talk about the three methods for technology transfer Scrapping, Wolf/Lamb, and Population drop, but none of these methods allow you to trade a specific item. I believe the easiest way to get a specific item from someone is to have them build you a ship with the component in it and then give it to you. They can do this by setting its Waypoint task to Transfer Fleet and selecting your race name from the additional drop down list. The strategy guide may mention some other way, or someone here may know of another way to get a specific technology item from an ally. 
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Is there an email channel built into the game? Or do we just email each other with taunts, offers, blah blah blah?
I asked in another forum about the private forum.
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See my response to your other post.
FurFuznel
Shadallark <==> FurFuznel
Mental anguish is for those who choose to think - FurFuznel
running Mac OS X 10.6.7
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| Re: General Stars! Questions |
Mon, 25 November 2002 07:58 |
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| tech25 wrote on Fri, 22 November 2002 14:59 |
Ok, here are a few more questions.
How is tech transfered to your partner? If I want a remote mining robot how does he transfer that knowlage to me?
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** He can transfer ships to you using a waypoint transfer command. Transferring tech levels themselves is another thing altogether and a bit more complex. There are articles on the major methods of doing so on the rec.computer.games.stars newsgroup (Google is your friend), and also over on the StarBaseDelta forums. In fact, I might just re-post my tech trading article here as well since this is essentially a FAQ subject.
** Also, there is no way for an ally to transfer some abilities; i.e. if you can never build speedtrap minelayers there is *no* way for an ally to give you that ability. He can build the minelayers and give them to you, he can give you the tech levels required to build them, but he can not give you the ability to build the component.
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Is there an email channel built into the game? Or do we just email each other with taunts, offers, blah blah blah?
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** You can send text messages within the game. A bit limited in size. And given an exchange rate of one message per turn it's in actuality too slow for diplomatic details - like hashing out all the particulars of a treaty. Thus the reason a lot of games go into a forum for exchanging messages (faster), or allies eventually exchange email addys in order to facilitate longer and more detailed messages.
** Having an outside forum for communicating is *vital* to a team game. In most team games I've played in the team has quickly established a distribution list for information sharing - and often held "meetings" on a private IRC channel to discuss details while working on turns.
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I asked in another forum about the private forum. Is this just for public anouncemnts like, " The carnivoids announce today that they are officially at war with the tetroids. There will be no prisoner exchange program this time: due to the famine in the alpha sector of the empire. We feel that the drain of public resources that would be used to alleviate this situation is best recovered by using all prisoners for food to feed the starving alpha-sectarians." You know, that sort of stuff?
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** Good example of a "fun" in-game message. Could also be posted to the forum so that the non-game observers could have a chuckle as well.
- Kurt
[Updated on: Mon, 25 November 2002 10:07] by Moderator
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Fruit flies like a banana.
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I hope so. I will try it out on the second move up in Bangor. Gives me an excuse to drive up there and visit the brew and internet pub. A match made in heaven: dark beer and an internet connection.
Re: General Stars! Questions
