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 | Officer Cadet 3rd Year |
Messages: 279
Registered: January 2004
Location: Aachen, Germany | |
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I just digged up an old (1999) article by Art Lathrop on Google Groups. There are some very nice ideas - most are just silly though. Have fun reading!
Here's a quick summary of some really awful and a few silly ideas for games.
Given how serious discussions on this newsgroup are (cough, cough), I thought
I would post something frivolous. Bad ideas for PBeM Stars! games.
Title: Grounds for Divorce (or Your Life Will Only Be Stars!)
Conditions: All player levels
Universe: Huge, Dense, No Public Scores, Slow Tech
Victory Conditions: Last Player standing
Special Game Rules: Players may only use HE's with unmodified growth rates of
at least 12% or SD. Turns will be generated every 17 hours.
Comments
You could add to this
"players must submit a weekly newsletter from their empire of not less than
1000 words" "autobuild orders are banned" (individually modify planetary
production)"ship counterdesign help service available" (have to keep
redesigning ships)"prizes are available for the highest total production
(ships, not resources)""turns alternately to these addresses.... (supply 200
email addresses)""download from this web server (supply Force9 web address)"
..also..no more than 2 waypoints per fleet! and "repeat" checkbox banned!
And then add in a bunch of HE AI's with their spores going every which way!
*****************************************
Small, sparse, 16 players, slow tech advances.
Weapons research set to +75%. No starbases, Ultrastations or Death Stars
allowed. No bombers allowed. Winning conditions: first player to own 1000
capital ships.
(OK, I was desparate to think of something that didn't have to do with MM -
sue me).
*****************************************
Title: One-Percent Wonder Warriors
Universe: Huge, Packed, No Public Scores, Slow Tech
Victory conditions: 500K production and owns 65% of all planets (both
conditions required)
Special: You guessed it growth rate must equal 1%. No HE
Title: Engines from the Abyss
Universe: Huge, sparse, slow tech
Victory Conditions: Exceed second place by 300%
Special: All races must have cheap engines and no ram scoops. No race can
have IFE.
Comments:
OUCH! These two hurt just to look at. I'm currently playing a race with a 10%
growth rate (That was the maximum allowed in the game) and it is slooooooow.
Also, I could not live without ramscoops.
*****************************************
Title: Biowarfare
Universe: Tiny, Packed
Victory Conditions: Last Man Standing
Special: All races must be CA with Bio Cheap and Weapons expensive.
*****************************************
Title: Hide and Go Seek
Universe: Huge, sparse
Victory Conditions: Special - must destroy all enemy ships
Special: All races must be SS.
*****************************************
Title: Democracy Universe: Huge, Packed. Victory: 300% of second place
Special: There are five teams each with three players. Each team only has
one race. All ship movement has to be decided by committee.
*****************************************
Title: Hurry up and Wait
Universe: Huge, Packed, Public Scores
Victory: Same as above
Special: Turns due every Sunday 0000 GMT. Turns mailed Saturday 1200 GMT.
*****************************************
Shootout:
Tiny, Sparse, 16 players, 1000 year force gen. *Close* starting positions.
*Everyone* is a PP.Last man standing. Should take less than 20 turns...
Comments
20 turns? Pshah, more like four. Flash Point which BANNED PP (but used
similar conditions) only lasted 23 years and only that long because there were
two SDs). Perhaps it would be better to say that all the players have to
shoot at each other every year and the last player alive loses.
*****************************************
The Great War:
Huge, dense, No Acc BBS, *2* players. Distant starting positions.
*****************************************
Pea Shooters:
Huge, Dense, 16 players.
Special Rule- No weapons besides the laser and alpha torp are allowed. All
other systems legal. No PPs.
*****************************************
16 Blind Mice:
Huge, Dense, 16 players.
Special Rule- You *cannot* build any scanners, ever.
No planetaries either. No Joats, SD, PP, or AR.
*****************************************
Name: Supernova Prevew
Settings: Not important, only can't use 'Beginner: Max Minerals'
Special Rules:
No freighters allowed.
This means, anything at all that has cargo space is
BANNED. Period.
No PP PRTs.
No UR LRTs.
Comments
I believe that game is called Supernova 
*****************************************
Fabulous Frigates
Settings: Doesn't matter
Special: All ships must be based on the frigate hull. Any ship that players
start with at the beginning must be destroyed. Just to make invading planets
extra fun, WM, IS, and PP are banned. Since AR can't build colony ships
without its hull, AR is banned too. How do you settle planets? Build one
frigate with a colonizer and then put it in a fleet with cargo hulls.
*****************************************
"Eggs with Hammers"
No armour, shield, or jammer parts may be used.
*****************************************
"Rebellion"
Med, packed, 16 players, AC BBs, 50 year jumpstart.
Host plays a CA monster that get's played during the
jumpstart. The other players have to kill him. (Yeah,
right.)
*****************************************
"Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Acadamy"
No computers, no beams.
*****************************************
"Metamorph" Large or huge Packed, 16 player. Playe as normal but every 5 or
10 years the game .xy file is run through mapper with a randomly generated
gif. Should be quite confusing.
*****************************************
Red Shift II:
Every year, universe is streched 1%.
*****************************************
Bog: Host sets up a max-tech SD before the game starts,
saturated universe with all three mine types. No beams.
Comment
Beams are OK, but the minelayers are all nubians and are in a grid pattern
every 100ly.
*****************************************
Blue Shift II:
Start with medium packed, stretch it to huge.
Every 5 years, universe is compacted 100ly
Can you put the stars _anywhere_ you want? If X1(stinky socks) <
X1(wammalammadingdong) can you shuffle the universeso that X2 (stinky socks)
< X2(wammalammadingdong)? You could do a cool 'whirling galaxy' thing if so.
Stars all move at constant velocity (Even as low as 1ly/y) but the inner ones
would move at a faster radial velocity.
*****************************************
Pond Life 1:
Small/normal, players submit races as normal, but the first 100 years are
played by the maid AI.
Comment
Ow.
*****************************************
Pond Life 2:
As above, but start the game with 'expansion player' races
Comment
Double Ow. Probably unplayable tho - random races are too unbalanced.
*****************************************
Pond Life 3:
As PL1, but players get to submit turns on years 1, 20, 40,
... 100, 105, 110... Ai handles the rest.
PL4: PL1, but in a huge/dense.
<shudders>
Comment PL 3: considering how the HK AI works, that'd probably be closer to a
jump game.
Art Lathrop
The Stars! Directory
http://art.lathrop.com/stars/directory.htm
http://www.hkstar.com/~art97/stars/directory.htm
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