Home World Forum: Stars! - Must Know » Stars! Order of Events

Commander

Messages: 2341
Registered: November 2002
Location: Belgium GMT +1

Link to the thread in the Academy

Stars! Order of Events

Scrapping fleets (w/possible tech gain)
Waypoint 0 load tasks (if done by hand)

Waypoint 0 Tasks

        A. Waypoint 0 unload tasks (By hand)
        B. Waypoint 0 Colonization/Ground Combat resolution (w/possible tech gain)
        C. Waypoint 0 load tasks (Random player order)
           * Other Waypoint 0 tasks *

MT moves

In-space packets move. Packets that will hit planets decay pro-rated by distance traveled.

        A.   PP packets (de)terraform
        B.   Packets cause damage (Packets impact, oldest first, in planet-id order)
        C.   Planets hit that end up with 0 colonists become uninhabited  
             (Player order -lower- deterines whose packets hit first)

Fleets move (run out of fuel, hit minefields (fields reduce as they are hit, lowest # fleets hits mines first),
stargate, wormhole travel)
Inner Strength colonists grow in fleets. Overflows to player owned planets.
Mass Packets still in space and Salvage decay
Wormhole endpoints jiggle/degrade/jump
SD Minefields detonate (possibly damaging again fleet that hit minefield during movement)
Mining. Including AR *waypoint 1* remote mining of colonized worlds.
Production (incl. research, packet launch, fleet/starbase construction)
SS Spy bonus obtained
Population grows/dies
Packets that just launched and reach their destination cause damage (Impacts are in planet ID order)
Fleets refuel at bases
Random events (comet strikes, etc.)
Fleet battles (w/possible tech gain)
Meet MT

Bombing

      A. Player 1 bombing calculated 
            1.  Retro Bomb, delayed effect.
            2.  Normal/LBU Bomb Damage Calculated 
            3.  Smart Bomb Damage Calculated
            4.  Defences Recalculated (Retro Bombing takes effect).

      B.  Player 2 bombing calculated and so on in order with players 3, 4... 

      C.  Planets with 0 pop lose defenses, planetary scanner, invasion tech gain
          possibility, the production queue, and the insta-terraforming of CA's.

Remote mining
Waypoint 1 unload tasks
Waypoint 1 Colonization/Ground Combat resolution (w/possible tech gain)
Planets with 0 pop become uninhabited
Waypoint 1 load tasks (Random player order)
Minefields Decay
Mine Laying
Fleet Transfer
Waypoint 1 Fleet Merge
CA Instaforming
Mine sweeping
Starbase and fleet repair
Remote (De)Terraforming

[Mod edit July 10 2006: correction "Minefields Decay happens before Mine Laying."]

[Mod edit Nov 20 2006: added "Remote mining", changed 11. "... AR *waypoint 1* remote mining ..."]

[Mod edit Nov 9 2007: moved "Fleets refuel at bases", fleets get refueled *after* base production but *before* the base is destroyed in battle.]

[Updated on: Fri, 09 November 2007 15:20]

Origin of the Stars! Order of Events

Sat, 07 January 2006 05:18

Commander

Messages: 2341
Registered: November 2002
Location: Belgium GMT +1

Thanks to Matt for digging this up!

Link to the thread in the Bar

mch

---

* To: stars-l...@umich.edu
<Jeff_McBr...@msn.com>
* Date: Thu, 27 Jun 96 08:13:46 UT
* Cc: s...@webmap.com
----------

Is this how it works for everyone? Or are there people who can
click and drag immediately??

### Okay, let me see if I can explain this. If you click on an
object in the Scanner pane you select that object into the
Summary pane. If you want to add a waypoint at that object you
hold down the SHIFT key, changing the cursor to a + and click.
There is no way to suppress the snapping on the initial ADD of
the waypoint. Once the waypoint exists the cursor changes to a
hand when over the waypoint. Clicking and dragging will move the
waypoint. While moving waypoints you can suppress snapping by
holding down the SHIFT key. I will review all of the scanner
keyboard functions between now and version 3 to see if I can
make things a little more consistent.

### Them that don't learn from history....

it's only possible to steal one tech each turn ### Yup. This was
being seriously abused in 2.0 by friends sending single ship
fleets to each other by the dozen to be slaughtered in order to
give each other tech.

What post movement tasks are we talking about? ### Ah. It is
time for the "how does turn generation work and in what order
are things done in?" talk. I'm leaving out some of the nitty
gritty details but here we go.... I'll fill it in some more and
put it on our web site soon.

Each turn the host loads the .hst file setting everything to
exactly the condition it was in at the end of the last turn. It
then loads the .x# file for each player and applies their change
orders. The only interesting part of this is what happens if two
or more players try to grab the same stuff. For example if two
players are both at the location of some salvage and each one
tries to transfer all of the minerals to their freighter by
hand. When each player was taking their turn we could not know
what the other players were going to be doing so we had to
pretend the by-hand transfer was going to succeed. During turn
gen we flip a coin when multiple players are going for the same
thing. This is why sometimes things that you were SURE you did
by hand turn out to have been day dreams by the next year.

At this point we allow all waypoint zero tasks to be completed.
This is whatever task each fleet has at its current location.
When processing transport orders we fulfill all unload
operations before any load operations to ensure that exchanges
work correctly. If you sent a colonization fleet to a planet and
forgot to give a Colonize task at that the destination waypoint
your fleet will be in orbit of that planet waiting for orders.
I'm sure you all have done this at least once. So, when you give
a Colonize task at the current location it is a Waypoint Zero
task. It happens at the beginning of the year. Waypoint zero
tasks can not be prevented by battle (this was not true in
version 1 as we had a pre-movement battle phase and a post
movement battle phase). There is no difference between using the
Cargo dialog to load up with stuff by hand and giving a
Transport task at waypoint zero.

Now the Mystery Traders and existing mass packets move. All
fleets with waypoints on a mass packet or MT get their orders
updated to point to the new locations.

All fleets move if not blocked by waypoint zero tasks that could
not be completed (Wait for...). If fleet A has fleet B as its
destination waypoint and fleet B is moving then the movement of
fleet A is postponed until fleet B is done moving. If fleet B is
following fleet C then it too is postponed until fleet C has
moved. If fleet C is chasing fleet A then (we detect a circular
case) and allow each fleet to move 1/10th of it's total movement
value and repeat 10 times. This causes these fleets that are
chasing each other in a circle to spiral in on each other. This
is also where fleets hit minefields, run out of fuel, go through
wormholes, stargates and so on.

Inner Strength colonists grow in fleets. In theory, this was
happening while the fleets were moving. Mass packets and salvage
decays.

Mining. Production. It is assumed that production takes all year
and that the minerals are not needed all up front but "on
demand" throughout the year. This means that all minerals mined
one year can be used in production that same year. Population
growth. Research. Random Events (like comet strikes...)

Battles occur now. Notice that the destination waypoint tasks
have not yet occurred. For example you have a remote mining
planet with some fighters in orbit and I send a fleet to
colonize that planet. When I arrive at the planet you get a
chance to kill me before I can fulfill my colonize orders. These
are the "post movement" tasks that Rogier was confused by. All
tasks assigned at destination waypoints are post movement tasks.
They sure can't happen before you arrive. Contrast this to the
case where my colonizer was already in orbit and you send a
fighter after me. I give my fleet a colonize task at the current
location (waypoint zero). The waypoint zero tasks happen before
movement (I'm already there) so by the time your fleet shows up
(post movement) the planet is already mine. Indeed this is where
battle MUST happen for many many reasons.

Any attacking fleets with bombers or troops to be unloaded can
do so if not blocked by starbases. Note: people have asked why
fleets in orbit can't prevent bombing and invasions. That' s
because the starbase is actually in orbit of your major
population center and can stop all incoming bombs and shuttles.
Fleets in the system are considered to be anywhere (or
everywhere) in the star system. Only the starbase is guaranteed
to be in the right place to prevent bombing and invasion. Your
fleet captains jobs are to kill the damned things before they
get close.

Post movement (destination) waypoint tasks. Minesweeping.
Ship/Starbase repair.

All old files get copied or moved to the backup directory and
the new .m# files and .hst file get written out. Done.

UPDATE - Stars! Order of Events

Mon, 10 July 2006 04:02

Commander

Messages: 2341
Registered: November 2002
Location: Belgium GMT +1

Correction made: Minefields Decay takes place before Mine Laying.

See this thread in the Academy for details.

Previous situation:
...
23. Waypoint 1 load tasks (Random player order)
24. Mine Laying
25. Fleet Transfer
26. Waypoint 1 Fleet Merge
27. CA Instaforming
28. Minefields Decay
29. Mine sweeping
...

mch,
modaw

[Updated on: Mon, 20 November 2006 04:31]

UPDATE - Stars! Order of Events

Mon, 20 November 2006 04:36

Commander

Messages: 2341
Registered: November 2002
Location: Belgium GMT +1

Corrections made:

- added "Remote mining" at 20.
- changed 11. "... AR *waypoint 1* remote mining ..."

See this thread in the AR forum for details.

mch,
modaw

[Updated on: Mon, 20 November 2006 04:37]

UPDATE - Stars! Order of Events

Fri, 09 November 2007 15:20

Commander

Messages: 2341
Registered: November 2002
Location: Belgium GMT +1

Correction made: moved "Fleets refuel at bases", fleets get refueled *after* base production but *before* the base is destroyed in battle.

See this thread in the Academy for details.

mch,
modaw