I'm wondering whether these type of games could be interesting for the ppl:
1. S-quad - this one is a team remapped game with universe having form of quad with a circles on each corner. So, each team can start in their circle. There are 4 teams and each team can consists of 2-3-4 players.
2. Perfect World - this one have one special tuning - all the planets updated to have exactly the same original habs, let's say it's values are 20% percent from the right for each hab. All players know this value before they start designing a race. So, any planet in that game will be 100% for all palyers. This is one of small number of games where CA will be allowed and CA with TT is also welcome for this game.
This could be a solo or team game with some sort of remapping.

I'm not gonna play and I don't wanna host, but I can help with the setup for this game.

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Can we start HW's with 1000 nubians?

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Yep, if you want, just let me know.

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One game idea I would be interested in trying is a game in which you are forced to use a specific race... Which is exactly the same than all other players!

This would mean that the winner would be the one who manage to make the best of what he has, both in term of managing his empire than in term of tactical deployment on the field.

A game with only SS or PP playing would be nice to try out.

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Eagle of Fire wrote on Sun, 10 April 2011 05:15

One game idea I would be interested in trying is a game in which you are forced to use a specific race... Which is exactly the same than all other players! This would mean that the winner would be the one who manage to make the best of what he has, both in term of managing his empire than in term of tactical deployment on the field. A game with only SS or PP playing would be nice to try out.

Why would that require .m/.hst editing?
Just have the host lay down that as a starting condition....

The second concept by Xyligun (Pefect world) sounds more suited for what you have in mind, if it's the same race being played. Even if it's not the same race, it would still be a good test to see how you make do with what you have.. much more reliable than having the hab gods screw it up for you.

Coming to Xyli's offer of having special games, I was thinking of a Stargate variation. Haven't watched much of it, but from the 3 episodes I've seen :

>A (or three) predominantly space race (The Wraith) which are in slumber till 2425.. as they have depleted their food stock down to the minimum level (humans!!).

> A system of stargates (Ancients) (by a race set to friendly to all.. minimum pop on world, with any/any gates) spread out across the universe. This will be an inactive race.
These can't be killed or pop-dropped by either the Wraith or the humans. Anyone who pop-drops/bombs/attacks the base, gets booted out of the game).

> The wraith awaken from their slumber with Nubian fleets, in the bang middle of the universe in 2425 when they estimate that the human HW's will have grown big again.

>No scouts, except one scout with a peerless scanner and NAS, so they can see all ship movements in the universe, but can't scan planets, unless they visit the planet themselves.

>They have fully scouted universes from 2400 so they know the primary HWs.

>No bombers.

>They can thus attack only fleets in space and in orbit, but not actual population at the start..

> Once they have woken up enough and after they start realising that humans have spread out again in the universe.. (Surprise.. humans got space travel again!!),
The wraith are given (a limited number??) of bat scanner MiniMorphs with 3 complete phase shields, 4 Disruptors(or Mega Disruptors.. not pulverizers though), 1 Ovethuster and 1 Superlatium armor (or perhaps another OT).. in 2439...
> These mini-morphs will act as those scout ships that the Wraith send out.

>To make it interesting, give them bombers in 2460 and a HW in 2475 that is suddenly revealed with 10 million pop (is that possible?) and 2 fully loaded Deathstars (i.e. 1 deathstar which replaces a shot down deathstar, in the very next year).

>The humans have to ofcourse survive till 2475 and eradicate these 1-3 HWs while the Wraith have to harvest the humans again for food and bring them down to 2400 levels.
>The Wraith can't expand beyond these HW planets. (?)

It's a human vs wraith game.. but
> No restriction of allying or fighting between/amongst the humans .. but they can't ally with the Wraith.
The humans can fight each other for mineral rich planets, as long as they remember that the wraith are the long term goal.

>Perhaps have all humans play the centered habs.. so they are more inclined to fight each other for mineral rich planets.
It's upto each human race, if they want to broaden or narrow the habs.(?)

>The Wraith can do whatever they want.. ally with each other, attack each other.. even force the humans to build bombers for them, in exchange for sparing their HWs. .
They just can't ally with the humans.

Actually, Wraith can't attack each other.. I'll fine tune this later to avoid pre-game agreements between humans/wraith players.

>Just a rough draft, but something to this effect.. I'll think of hosting this once I complete 5 games here.. If someone wants to go with something of this sort, feel free. I can brainstorm the finer points, if someone else

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Eagle of Fire wrote on Wed, 13 April 2011 23:42

I don't know if you mixed my post with others but frankly I can't make head or tail of what you are supposedly trying to tell me. I just gave out an idea because that's the subject of the thread... And my idea was more going around playing a losing race which is hardly ever picked by other players. Like SS or PP which I have never seen win a game or even come close without having to rely heavily on allies. Those races are not really that weak... They are however hunted on sight, which make them very unlikely to ever succeed.

nmid wrote on Sun, 10 April 2011 09:35

Eagle of Fire wrote on Sun, 10 April 2011 05:15 One game idea I would be interested in trying is a game in which you are forced to use a specific race... Which is exactly the same than all other players! This would mean that the winner would be the one who manage to make the best of what he has, both in term of managing his empire than in term of tactical deployment on the field. A game with only SS or PP playing would be nice to try out. Why would that require .m/.hst editing? Just have the host lay down that as a starting condition....

To summarise the summary : Why would having everyone play a SS or a PP require .m file editing? You're not being clear.

The second part was a game idea that required this thread's "special abilities" of being able to edit .m and .hst files.
I should have divided the original reply, so you could have read it easier.

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nmid wrote on Sun, 10 April 2011 06:05

I was thinking of a Stargate variation. Haven't watched much of it, but from the 3 episodes I've seen : >A (or three) predominantly space race (The Wraith) which are in slumber till 2425.. as they have depleted their food stock down to the minimum level (humans!!).

Hmmm, I would hope that kind of scenario can be evolved with regular Stars! mechanics without that much complex tinkering.

For instance, Wraiths would be -f HEs with decent tech and uber-growth but perhaps not too many available planets. Humans would have relatively modest growth, poor tech and econ, but much better hab. And good scanners, so probably JoaT. The Atlanteans could be an advanced IT race, with lots of tech but very poor hab, probably a 1WW. The Genii would be WarMongers and the only ones that don't have the Atlanteans predefined as friend or foe.

Alternatively, the Wraith could be SS, so they could build and use gates, but with just enough growth to grow faster than everybody else, particularly the humans, *AND* very little minerals so they need to steal (feed) from others.

That would require mucking around with starting techlevels and pop, and perhaps nothing else to achieve the desired (nightmarish) scenario.

[Updated on: Thu, 14 April 2011 17:10]

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XyliGUN wrote on Thu, 03 March 2011 23:59

universe having form of quad with a circles on each corner. So, each team can start in their circle.

What would you use to generate the circles? Any fancy tool?

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ma.stars wrote

What would you use to generate the circles? Any fancy tool?

Nothing special actually, Universe Creator will do remapping job, and than I'll have to move HWs with all of their stuff to the right place.

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XyliGUN wrote on Sat, 16 April 2011 22:23

Nothing special actually, Universe Creator will do remapping job, and than I'll have to move HWs with all of their stuff to the right place.

Bummer. I had hoped you'd be able by now to create/define HWs at will.

I have a small proggie to create starmaps, including spirals and rings. It would be neat to have a way to convert those to Stars! format.

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ma.stars wrote

Bummer. I had hoped you'd be able by now to create/define HWs at will.

Well, HWs still can be moved/swapped to any place/planet.

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XyliGUN wrote on Sat, 16 April 2011 23:41

HWs still can be moved/swapped to any place/planet.

You mean you can swap their coordinates with those of other planets? That would be a big step forward from what's usually possible.

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XyliGUN wrote

HWs still can be moved/swapped to any place/planet.

m.a@stars wrote

You mean you can swap their coordinates with those of other planets? That would be a big step forward from what's usually possible.

Yes, this is exactly what I mean, but I was under impression that there are other tools that can do the same...

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XyliGUN wrote on Sun, 17 April 2011 19:47

Yes, this is exactly what I mean, but I was under impression that there are other tools that can do the same...

HW coordinates can be shifted around, but there's the need to keep the planet list ordered as Stars! builds it, so the X coordinate cannot generally be changed and the Y coordinate only as the ordering allows.

But if you're able to just swap one planet's coordinates with another's, then that would mean practical freedom to move HWs anywhere, something no current tool can do.

It still sounds a bit weird, tho, as there would still be a need to respect the planet ID order.

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[email

m.a@stars[/email] wrote on Mon, 18 April 2011 09:35]But if you're able to just swap one planet's coordinates with another's, then that would mean practical freedom to move HWs anywhere, something no current tool can do.

err.. Stars! Planet Swapper

Also, PaulCr's Stars Host Editor can modify the position of planets directly.

If XyliGUN has sufficiently decoded the file structure (and I believe he has) then he can pretty much do anything you want, within the validation rules of Stars!(no SB parts from "future" tech, future/foreign tech on gifted ships only etc). I remember Wumpus did similar tricks for me for Pirates!

http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Customizing_Stars!#Pirate s

The game Pirates! required the Host player(Pirate Controller - PC) to take over the HW's of the 10 pirate players and be at max tech before the game proper began. Using HST editing this was achieved at 2400. In addition, editing allowed all 11 PC planets to start with full population, mines, factories and defences and a fully armed Deathstar with inf/inf gate and W13 drivers. It also gave the PC access to all of the MT parts and allowed Random Events to remain enabled which would have been a game ruiner with pre-genning.

[Updated on: Mon, 18 April 2011 03:29]

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gible wrote on Mon, 18 April 2011 09:14

err.. Stars! Planet Swapper Also, PaulCr's Stars Host Editor can modify the position of planets directly.

If that's so, then why aren't those tools widely used to remap HomeWorlds?

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m.a@stars wrote on Mon, 18 April 2011 22:35

If that's so, then why aren't those tools widely used to remap HomeWorlds?

At a guess, I'd say SHE is dauntingly technical to use. No idea for his planet swapper.

XyliGUN wrote on Tue, 19 April 2011 03:14

Yep, PaulCrs' planet swapper can do that, with several limitations, which looks more like a bugs, but not a real limitations....

Noted.

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XyliGUN wrote on Mon, 18 April 2011 17:14

2. If players' secondary planet (IT, PP) has lower id than HW then after swapping it should keep id that will be lower than HW. And if it was higher it should be keept higher. Otherwise that player will see his HW or secondary planet uninhabited until first gen.

Fascinating! Any idea why?

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XyliGUN wrote

2. If players' secondary planet (IT, PP) has lower id than HW then after swapping it should keep id that will be lower than HW. And if it was higher it should be keept higher. Otherwise that player will see his HW or secondary planet uninhabited until first gen.

ma.stars wrote

Fascinating! Any idea why?

This is because Stars! needs planets in m files to be in order of their ID and if you change their ID in m file (this is what Pauls' tool does), but left their location in file (this is what it doesn't), then Stars! cannot correctly load such m file. This could be fixed, by additional editing of m file after swapping.

[Updated on: Tue, 19 April 2011 14:12]

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XyliGUN wrote on Tue, 19 April 2011 17:17

if you change their ID in m file (this is what Pauls' tool does), but left their location in file (this is what it doesn't), then Stars! cannot correctly load such m file. This could be fixed, by additional editing of m file after swapping.

Just the m? Not the h or the hst?

Do you think you could build an easy-to-use fool-proof HW-remapper tool?

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