Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » New Game Announcements » The Wheel of Life IV
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| Re: The Wheel of Life IV |
Mon, 06 December 2010 13:07   |
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 craebild |
 | Lieutenant |
Messages: 568
Registered: December 2003
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark | |
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| Scorpius wrote on Mon, 06 December 2010 15:10 |
Hi,
I have a couple of quick questions about the game.
1. We have the 50yr gen and we set build/research orders and scouting orders. Are we going to get the .m files for each year in order to build our own history file? If not do we get any information from scouting done?
2. Are we playing with random events? I've done a couple of test-beds and it's not inconceivable that someone could get the mystery trader in the second turn (after 2450). Given that we'll all have fairly small resource counts at the time, the tech provided could be equivalent to more than a decades research! That's a huge head-start to give someone!
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To answer your questions:
1. After the 50 year jump, you will receive a .m# file with all the messages collected over the 50 years and all the scouting data collected over the 50 years. The 50 year jump is generated in one go through a command line option - Or more precisely through a batch file I have sent Kostya.
2. It is true that it is possible for a very lucky player to intercept a MT in 2452, but that is highly unlikely, and it is equally conceivable that a player in any game with Random Events on intercepts the MT at an equivalent level of technology, so what you are saying is that Random Events should be switched off in any game because a very lucky player can get an undue advantage from intercepting the MT. Also, the advantage isn't that great, a properly designed race with the right research and production settings can have tech 10 or more in all tech fields by 2450, so if the MT gives that player a total of 10 tech advances (the maximum) that is only a 17% increase in total tech levels. Getting tech 10 in all tech fields by 2450 isn't necessarily the best strategy, tough, there are a lot of other factors to consider.
Edit: It seems Kostya / XyliGUN beat me to the answer to the first question, but then, I wrote an longer answer 
[Updated on: Mon, 06 December 2010 13:20]
Med venlig hilsen / Best regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Christian Ræbild / Christian Raebild
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| Re: The Wheel of Life IV |
Mon, 06 December 2010 16:49 |
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| craebild |
| Lieutenant |
Messages: 568
Registered: December 2003
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark | |
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As promised, here is a reiteration of what you now needs to do as players:
1. Get in touch with your teammate (if you haven't already) and coordinate race designs and strategy. You might also want to reread this entire thread, as there have been some clarifications and hints along the way.
2. Once you know the relevant information, you need to send me the following information:
Player name (preferably your HWF ID)
Displayed player name on game page (preferably your HWF ID)
e-mail address
Race name (plural)
Team name
Race filename
DO NOT SEND YOUR RACE PASSWORD TO ME AS I AM PLAYING IN THIS GAME, TOO.
I will need some of that information in order to create the batch files, game.def file and Autohost game slot application, but a team name is not strictly necessary.
You can send e-mails related to this game to woliv[AT]craebild[DOT]dk (make the necessary substitutions yourself) - That is a (temporary) e-mail address I have set up specific for this game. You can also send e-mails to any of my other active e-mail addresses, if you include either "Wheel of Life IV" or "WoL IV" in the subject line, then they will automatically be moved to the correct folder at my end.
3. Once you have your races ready, you need to send your password protected race files to xyligun [at] mail [dot] ru along with your password and e-mail address.
There is not (as yet) any deadline for when you need to have your race files ready, but please do not take too long.
When the game is on Autohost, there will also be a game forum on HWF.
Once XyliGUN has all the race files, he will check that the races are in order according to the game rules and set up the game by remapping the universe and moving the HWs and any secondary planets to appropriate positions. This remapping and moving HWs and secondary planets can take some time, as it is a question of luck whether any given remapped universe makes it possible to move the HWs and secondary worlds to appropriate locations.
I do not expect the game to start until sometime in January. Even if you get your races and strategy coordinate fast and XyliGUN gets lucky and can set up the game fast, it would still be getting close to the Christmas and New Years eve holidays, and we shouldn't start the game with a long break.
To all of you: Let's hope for an enjoyable game.
Med venlig hilsen / Best regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Christian Ræbild / Christian Raebild
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| Re: The Wheel of Life IV |
Mon, 06 December 2010 22:39 |
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craebild: Regarding random events with jump start, the MT is an unlikely/unimportant complication, but comet strikes and/or planetary shifts to HWs are likely over 49 gens and can drastically unbalance the start. You may want to have someone check that these haven't occurred - compare pop values at 10y intervals to their NRE equivalents or something. They probably wouldn't need to go so far as to check player messages every turn.
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| Re: The Wheel of Life IV |
Tue, 07 December 2010 04:09 |
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| craebild wrote on Tue, 07 December 2010 21:48 |
The 50 year jump will be done using a command line option, resulting in a single .m# file for each player with all messages and scouting data for the 50 year jump. Splitting the jump up into smaller segments would overly complicate things both for the third party and for the players who obviously want all scouting data for the 50 year jump.
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In the absence of a .x file the produced .m file contains all years data so doing it 10y at a time won't affect the final results (for the players).
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| Re: The Wheel of Life IV |
Tue, 14 December 2010 21:47 |
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Team 4 is in - races to xyligun.
May I suggest that if people have races done, to go ahead and send to him and if possible, we can get started over the holidays with no time limit - everyone submits and it generates.
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| Re: The Wheel of Life IV |
Sun, 19 December 2010 00:08 |
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| craebild |
| Lieutenant |
Messages: 568
Registered: December 2003
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark | |
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| bretter wrote on Wed, 15 December 2010 03:47 |
Team 4 is in - races to xyligun.
May I suggest that if people have races done, to go ahead and send to him and if possible, we can get started over the holidays with no time limit - everyone submits and it generates.
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Actually, things will be a little more complicated than that.
Once XyliGUN has all the race files, he will set up the game, remap and move homeworlds. That can take some time, as it is a question of luck when he will get a result where the positions of homeworlds and secondary worlds allows the homeworlds and secondary worlds to be moved into positions such that teammates are in adjacent arms. The element of luck is because the utility used cannot move planets in the east-west direction, only in the north-south direction. I have seen mention of utilities that could do that by swapping worlds, but AFAIR those utilites do not bring along the mineral concentration and HW status, so I do not think those utilities could be used for this game. I could be mistaken, though, there might have been created an utility capable of that since I set up the first three Wheel of Life games. When I was setting up for The Wheel of Life III I timed how long it took - But keep in mind that by that time I had worked out the fastest and most efficient way to do it. For The Wheel of Life III, it took me a little under 2 hours to get an "acceptable" result, i.e. HWs and secondaries were in the proper arms, and after a little over 6 hours I had a "perfect" setup with HWs bewteen 1/3 and 1/2 out in the arms and secondaries close to the HW. Those 6 hours weren't in a single stretch, though, they were spread out over a weekend.
When the universe has been set up to XyliGUN's satisfaction, the .xy file and .m# files will be sent out to the players. Each player will receive both their own .m# file and their teammate's .m# file, as I assume that each team will want to share .m# files. I anyone does not want that, you can say so, but I cannot see any reason to keep .m# files secret form your teammate, and plenty of reasons not to keep them secret from your teammate. When the players have received the .m# files they must then set up orders for the 50 year jump and set all players to friend for the 50 year jump - And please do not set battle orders to attack "Everyone" or a specific race, the intent of the rules that everyone must be set to friend for the 50 year jump is to prevent battles during the 50 year jump, though that might no be completely clear from the rules for this game. There might also be some discussions of strategy at this time, as the players can now see where in the arm their races are, and what mineral concentrations they have. When each player has finished their orders for the 50 year jump they send their .x# files to XyliGUN.
When XyliGUN receives the .x# files he checks that the orders are according to the rules and that everyone is set to friend, and once all .x# file are in and checked, he generates the 50 year jump and checks that there have been no wayward comets or similar, and sends out the new .m# files, as well as sending all .m# files to me so I can send the files and the application for getting the game set up on Autohost, and apply for the private game forum on HWF.
When the players receive their .m# files for 2450 they can then set orders for the next turn and change player relations. There is nothing in the rules preventing a player from keeping all other races set to friend, and technically it is also permitted for a player to set his teammate to neutral or enemy, but the winners of the game is the team declared as winners, not a single race or an alliance of two races from different teams. There is no time limit on submitting the turn orders to AH for 2450, but please do not take too long.
When the game is up on AH, I will set AH to automatically e-mail new turns to each team to both teammates unless I have been told otherwise, and all turn files will also be e-mailed to XyliGUN so he has all turn files for all turns, so he can look back in earlier turns in case he has to resolve some dispute. I can also change the upload/download passwords, and most teams will probably want to have the same upload/download password for both team members. It does not affect the security of any player that they tell me what they want for a new upload/download password, as I can see all the upload/download passwords in the host utility, and my host utility password can also be used as an upload/download password for any race in the game. As I do not have the race/game password for any race outside my team, I cannot look into the turns of other teams or submit incorrect turn files. Theoretically I could change the upload/download password of a race to prevent them from uploading their turn, but that would be noticed almost immediately, and trust me, cheating hosts are not welcome on AH.
When all turns have been submitted to AH I will take the game off hold, and the game will proceed from there according to the normal max. 100 hour schedule.
The schedule can later be modified according to player feedback, but setting the schedule to less than 100 hours will require an unanimous vote of all surviving players or some very good arguments.
The game will be put on hold during holiday seasons such as Easter and next years Christmas and New Year, or set to a very long max. gen time to allow the game to generate a new turn if all players find the time to submit their turn despite the holiday season. We will discuss that when we get closer to such a time.
If a player has to be absent from play for a shorter time such as a vacation or business trip, then the teammate can play both races for the few turns involved. I would like to be informed of such situations, and it is not allowed for one player to play both races for and extended period or permanetly unless special circumstances warrant it, such as if both races are so weak as to unable to make any appreciable impact on the rest of the game.
If both players of a team have to be absent from play for a shorter time, then the game will most likely be put on hold.
If a player has to drop out, then the teammate can play both races until a replacement player is found, unless there are good reasons that should not be allowed.
Med venlig hilsen / Best regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Christian Ræbild / Christian Raebild
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