| Fledgling Admirals X (FA10) |
Tue, 17 December 2019 14:15  |
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Fledgling Admirals X (FA10)
A straight short game for complete beginners, to lower intermediates, also for oldtimers (considering themselves beginner to lower intermediate).
Since the difference between a complete beginner and a lower intermediate player is already quite a big one and to make the battleground even, players experienced in the mean combat vs other humans will have to leave some leftover points in the race wizard (see restrictions).
Host is not playing and feel free to ask when you feel unsure about the conditions, Stars-version, abbreviations etc.
To get new players going, I'll give comments about your chosen race design to help you finetuining it. During the game some articles, tutorials and links will be provided helping you to find your way in the vast available knowledge base for Stars!.
If a friend told you about the game and you are keen on playing but lack a serial code, there are unique serial numbers available from Ron who is also running autohost, look in the following thread: Getting serial numbers. Every player having a unique serial number is important to avoid running into really ugly copy protection problems during the game but since Stars is an old game this is not something that should stop you and we'll find ways to provide you with a unique code.
Game Info
Players: 6 - 9
Skill level: beginner - lower intermediate
Version and direct downloads: 2.6 J rc4 (engl., used by autohost) or 2.7 J rc3 (German version)
Stars!-Help file download: stars26jrc4.zip (within ReadMe.txt for installation info)
Autohost: Yes
Turn generation: 5 turns a week (Mo-Fr) up to year 2430, then 3 turns/week (Mo-We-Fr) as soon as requested by at least one player. Weekends and holidays off (do notify me about holidays).
Host is playing: No
Universe size: small packed (240 stars in a 800x800-ly-universe), distant starting positions
Starting conditions: ACC BBS
Game Rules
1) No pregame alliances which means that players should not get in contact before the game starts to optimize their race designs for a later alliance.
2) Stars is an old game with many very well described bugs and loopholes. Some have become part of the game, some are considered game breaking and cheating. We rely on the players not to cheat. Using chaff, split-fleet dodge, mine damage dodge and the repair after gating loophole is ok, all other "cheats" are forbidden and most likely lead to your disqualification, for more info see the thread: Known Bugs (JRC3) - Player Exploitable Bugs / "Features" (whenever in doubt, ask the host).
3) You may have 1 ally. From on turn 10 you must set every player to "enemy". Send a simple email to the host when you have found an ally whom then you can set to "friend". Afterwards at least 10 turns must have passed before, if you so choose to, you can switch your ally.
4) Victory conditions: Last Man/Last Team standing or consensus. Winning team mustn't exceed 2 players.
Restrictions for your race-design depending on experience
Players which have already played Stars games vs humans will have disadvantages by leaving leftover points in the race wizard and some PRTs (primary race traits) might be forbidden. I'll check the races and especially to the beginners I'll be offering some advice how to improve your design.
a) for beginners (no Stars-experience vs humans or 1 game and soundly beaten):
* banned: AR (Alternate Reality) and PP (Packet Physics)
b) for advanced beginners (up to 3 games vs humans and not part of the winning alliance):
* banned: AR
* JoaT (Jack of all Trades): 100 leftover pts
* all other PRTs: 60 leftover pts
Leftover points can be spent as you like.
c) for lower intermediates (more than 3 games and/or in 1 game in the winning alliance):
* banned: JoaT, SD
* AR: 0 leftover points
* all other PRTs: 120 leftover pts
Leftover points can be spent as you like except on mineral concentration.
d) players with higher experience:
* only allowed if free spots remain (in which case we'll be thanksful if players are willing to step in)
* banned: JoaT, SD
* all other PRTs: 120 leftover pts
* further severe restrictions (host will tamper with your race design on an individual base, expect to have basically no chance even vs advanced beginners... it will be a unique Stars-experience *grin)
If in doubt where to sort yourself in, send me an email with your Stars-history and ask.
Misc
* Inactivity: Players which have missed 3 turns will be set to inactive. I'll look for replacements if appropriate or may put in some last orders myself to upgrade the defenses but the game won't stop.
* No rule but especially new players I want to urge not to play in more than 2 games (better even only 1 game) of Stars. You will encounter various difficult tactical challenges and there are lots of good articles available, waiting for you to get inspired by them and to apply their ideas somehow onto your specific situation. After turn 30 orders and thinking will consume time and a good game will be in the back of your mind all the time. It's more fun to play only 1 game but to do this one right.
If you are interested, please send to altruist (at) arglos (dot) net :
* the race file
* the password (none is needed but if you want to set one)
* your desired email address (which will be revealed to the other players after some time in the game)
* your nick at autohost
* a short note about your Stars-experience
* to make my life easier, include FA10 in the subject line of your email
We aim to start the game in January. The earlier you'll send me your race design the more time to discuss and finetune it.
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| Fledgling Admirals X (FA10): further infos |
Tue, 17 December 2019 14:16  |
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Fledgling Admirals X (FA10): additional infos
Stars and various operating systems
If you use Windows (64-bit) the easiest way to setup Stars will be just to download:
# http://wiki.starsautohost.org/files/starswine4.zip by raptor (thanks a lot)
Unpack it, start stars.bat and you are ready to go.
If you have an old stars.ini with your prefered settings, just put it into ..\starswine4\otvdm\WINDOWS\Stars.ini (or rather replace the default one there).
Further info:
* StarsWine - Major update to new WINE engine
Various other operating systems:
* Stars Wiki: "Stars vs OS"
Topics within the autohost forums where you can also post questions:
* Win7 (64bit)
* Win 10
A note about game length and what you might have to expect:
With the above turn generation and assuming the game will last for about 60 turns, the game will be played over a period of around 16 weeks (about 4 month). While this is rather short for a Stars-game, I want to remind everybody, it is not wise to sign up for the game when you already know that eg in 2 month you will be away/without internet connection for several weeks.
Small packed games with 6-9 players tend to be very fast paced. Thus you better don't expect a long peaceful development but skirmishes along your frontiers and somebody trying to invade your colonies perhaps as early as in the 10th and first fleets with destroyers in the 20ies. Early scouting is important not only to know your possible enemies but also to find a suitable ally. It's not at all like playing against the AIs, humans are tricky, nasty and look out for your weak spots. This game setup favours action.
Don't despair when you get wiped out. Usually you learn more from loosing a game than from winning... and the advantage of a short game: you can apply your newly gained knowledge soon in the next game and kick some admiral's ass.
Since this game is also for new players, the host will describe in detail how to use the autohost interface to upload/download turns.
There were other Fledgling Admiral games, the rules were slightly different, though. But to get you an impression, here what the players wrote about it:
FA1 - FA2 - FA4 - FA6 - FA8 - FA9
About race design
Here some very helpful links:
* Stars! Official Strategy Guide: Basic Race Design (especially the info about breakpoints at the end)
* direct Download: Stars! Official Strategy Guide (download: ssg.zip, 1305 kb, for cozy offline reading, start with ssg.htm)
* Basic Race Design by Art Lathrop
* Race Design, Step by Step" by Mahrin Skel 1997 v2.6/7
* Lots of more articles: Race Design/Strategy
Take it as hints and inspiration, never follow it to the point or believe everything what you read in the articles. But some stuff is really good and helpful. Remember that you need to adapt what you read to our specific game settings.
If you want to get a feeling how your race fares, test it in small packed vs 8 random expert AIs. Your race should manage to conquere the first HW between 2430-40. If you need anylonger, rework your race design.
[Updated on: Tue, 17 December 2019 20:18] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Fledgling Admirals X (FA10) |
Wed, 18 December 2019 07:00 |
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Fine fine, emails from the first 3 players are in... beginner, adv. beginner and one I still need to sort in.
green = racefile in, orange = racefile missing
1) AngeLwitcH (beginner)
2) Raythe (adv.beg)
3) TheJorrus (adv.beg - rusty with 2 games within 10 years, well, that's adv.beg)
[Updated on: Wed, 18 December 2019 12:04] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Fledgling Admirals X (FA10) |
Thu, 19 December 2019 00:57 |
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craebild wrote on Wed, 18 December 2019 21:20Interesting game, certainly gives beginners an advantage.
If I wish to participate, I would be type d), but could we in that case discuss what disadvantages I would have to take, in addition to the 120 leftover points, instead of you making changes to my race design ?
Hehe, you allow me no fun... but, hey, send me a racefile as an offer and I'll look into it. If the offered race design is already horrible enough...
But, please, no hard feelings that true beginner lower intermediates have precedence.
First 2 race files are in and looking fine:
green = racefile in, orange = racefile missing
1) AngeLwitcH (beginner)
2) Raythe (adv.beg)
3) TheJorrus (adv.beg)
Waiting list:
craebild (d: special)
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| FA10: deadline for racefiles |
Thu, 19 December 2019 17:00 |
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Quote:We aim to start the game in January. The earlier you'll send me your race design the more time to discuss and finetune it.
Hoping for enough players to sign up, I'd set the deadline for final racefiles: 5th January 2020.
Until then you can send me as many race-designs as you want to, I'll use the last one.
Plenty of time for some cozy days over Christmas and and New Year and the rest (the vast majority of Earthlings) to do whatever they do in this time of the year.
I myself will be visiting relatives from 21st Dec upto perhaps 1st Jan. During that time my response to this thread or emails might take a few days, so don't worry or hurry.
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| Re: Fledgling Admirals X (FA10) |
Tue, 24 December 2019 13:32 |
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A few more players and we are good to go...
green = racefile in, orange = racefile missing
1) AngeLwitcH (beginner)
2) Raythe (adv.beg)
3) TheJorrus (adv.beg)
4) Scott (IL/Oldtimer)
5) Vaaq (beginner)
Waiting list:
craebild (experienced)
Raindancer (experienced)
Deadline for final racefiles: 5th January 2020.
[Updated on: Fri, 27 December 2019 13:29] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Fledgling Admirals X (FA10) |
Wed, 01 January 2020 22:19 |
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Guys, we need one more player,
with that and the two experienced ones thrown in as sharks, as handicapped as they will be,
we have 8 players in total and that's fine to get going...
but one more player is needed.
And yes, those who haven't send in a race file by now, well, hurry up.
For the experienced ones: I'll leave it to you to either
a) send me a convincing crippled race design
b) or do your best and be at my mercy for what changes I'll do to it
[Updated on: Wed, 01 January 2020 22:24] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Fledgling Admirals X (FA10) |
Wed, 08 January 2020 08:54 |
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Sorry, for the delay. Looks like I can't keep my own deadline, had and have lots of stuff to do.
I won't be able to look much into the new race files today, so we can, for the convenience of all, set a slightly later deadline: Friday, 10th Jan.
I think we have enough players, some experienced players have already offered to fill any still open slots.
So, if everything goes right, we should have the first turn of the game next week.
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| Re: Fledgling Admirals X (FA10) |
Wed, 15 January 2020 13:45 |
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I have still too much to do at the moment and still a heap of work to crunch down.
So any feedback will be delayed for a few more days.
After the feedback to the race designs I haven't replied to yet, I'll give you a few more days to rework your design... then I'll set up the game (and before that every one taking part in the game will also get a direct email). Until then feel free to send in new/reworked designs.
Don't worry, your emails and messages have arrived... but I still need to look them thru.
Sorry for the delay. Usually I am really a big fan of getting together a Stars game within 4 weeks at the most.
But all that work wasn't in the plan... I rather expected some very cozy weeks in which I could give myself the pleasure to strat-talk about stars race designs and setting up a game. Well, that pleasure will come but to ensure it will be a pleasure I don't want to do it in a rush and queezed in in a hurry and thus, as I said, is still delayed for a few more days.
The good thing: The delay isn't due to lack of players (Stars still rocks!) but solely the fault of an overworked host who can't fulfill his own set deadlines.
ccc_037 wrote on Tue, 14 January 2020 19:09I'm hoping mine is in too.
I found this just in time to send in a race about a day before the deadline, in the slim hope that one more newbie could perhaps squeeze in...
Yes, I haven't read your email yet but count yourself in. Welcome to FA10.
[Updated on: Wed, 15 January 2020 13:55] Report message to a moderator
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