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Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » The Academy » Some basics about Stars! for beginners  () 1 Vote
Re: Some basics about Stars! for beginners Mon, 27 February 2017 23:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
talkingbologna is currently offline talkingbologna

 
Senior Chief Petty Officer

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Registered: November 2016
Location: 1947
I can't seem to find the files I once had concerning how to set up the shortcut, nor the page on the forum about the Stars! Box program for download.

I've tried this you've typed up, Altruist, as well as those in the Windows 7 x64 thread in the Academy. I currently use the download that's already set up, as I never could figure out how to change the screen resolution when I tried to download/install/run it all manually. The pre-made system uses a batch file, not an .exe, if there's any help in knowing.

When I try to change the "target" in the shortcut linking to the batch file included in the all-in-one download, it always loads to the Stars! start screen, regardless of the parameters I include. Do I have to change the batch file, itself? I am certain I've used the proper directory and syntax.

I've also tried to go back and create a whole new shortcut linking to the originally downloaded DOSBox program. No matter the target path in the shortcut's properties, it says it's invalid. I am certain it's correct, also, following the setup provided here and in the Win7x64 thread.

Do you have any suggestions? Thank you, Altruist, for all the help you've given so far.

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Re: Some basics about Stars! for beginners Tue, 28 February 2017 09:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Altruist is currently offline Altruist

 
Commander

Messages: 1068
Registered: August 2005
Location: Berlin
talkingbologna wrote on Tue, 28 February 2017 05:53
When I try to change the "target" in the shortcut linking to the batch file included in the all-in-one download, it always loads to the Stars! start screen, regardless of the parameters I include. Do I have to change the batch file, itself? I am certain I've used the proper directory and syntax.

I've also tried to go back and create a whole new shortcut linking to the originally downloaded DOSBox program. No matter the target path in the shortcut's properties, it says it's invalid. I am certain it's correct, also, following the setup provided here and in the Win7x64 thread.


Sorry, I've got no experience with DosBox. I am myself using a virtual xp.

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Re: Some basics about Stars! for beginners Tue, 28 February 2017 15:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
raptor is currently offline raptor

 
Chief Warrant Officer 1
Creator of StarsWine
Created StarsWine

Messages: 138
Registered: June 2014
Yes, you'd have to change the stars.bat file itself. The shortcut is only a pointer to it.

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Shortcuts, Stars! interface, abbrevations Sat, 05 May 2018 19:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Altruist is currently offline Altruist

 
Commander

Messages: 1068
Registered: August 2005
Location: Berlin
A new Fledgling Admirals IX game has begun, so I'll add some posts from time to time. Some might, at least partly, be already covered by above posts but sometimes writing it a bit different can be also of use for a newbie.

HELP file:
If you haven't installed it yet, you definetly should. Even the most experienced players will press F1 quite often.Unzip it and move everything into your Stars directory. There is an extremely handy search function coming with this help-file. You can also bookmark pages for fast access, my most used bookmark: "Movement, initiative and firing in battle".

SHORTCUTS which you'll use a lot:
  • 1: tactical map (to see your and enemy units)
  • 4: hab map (to easily see habitable planets)
  • +/-: zoom map in/out
  • F1: Help
  • F2: Tech Browser
  • F3: Planet list, fleet list, enemy ships, battle reports (all can be sorted in many ways, just click the headlines... the longer the game, the more you'll use this)
  • F4: Ship & Starbase Design
  • F5: Research
  • Shift - leftclick: move ships to exact position (without shift it will target something like next planet, ship etc.)
  • Shift - rightclick: measuring distances, unpressing shift let's the pointer jump to the next possible target
Below the map you can see the distance and exact x- and y-coordinates.
=> more keyboard shortcuts, search within the help-file for "keyboard shortcuts".

MAP OVERLAYS
What OVERLAYS to use? In the image below (see interface)I marked the "overlay"-buttons with a red eclipse. Well, most likely, espcially in later turns, you'll turn on/off some layers to actually see something on the cluttered map and it is highly a personal choice, just to get you going here what I mostly use:
  • Scanner coverage (100%... and to identify super-stealth I change it to... well, look it up)
  • Mine fields (all)
  • Fleet paths
  • Ship counts
all others off or only turned on occasionally.

INTERFACE
Everybody to his liking, the Stars interface can be modified a lot and the windows can be moved. As an example, on my notebook with a 1600x900 display, I moved the windows a bit and Stars looks like this:
# http://stars.arglos.net/img/stars-interface.png

ABBREVATIONS
The gibberish Stars player tend to use, here some translations:
# https://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Abbreviations
Believe me, if you aren't already, soon you'll talk the same way as if belonging to a mysterious sect *grin

FURTHER LINKS:
# work in progress: the Help file transfered to the Stars! Wiki: Stars! Player's Guide
# The Stars! screen

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Uploading your orders to stars autohost Mon, 07 May 2018 14:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Altruist is currently offline Altruist

 
Commander

Messages: 1068
Registered: August 2005
Location: Berlin
Uploading your orders at Stars! Autohost for the first time

After the host has generated the game and sent the files to Ron, a few days later you'll receive a notification from stars autohost (sah) providing you
# with your upload password
# and the link to the game interface.

In additon to the above post How to up-/download your orders I made an image of a game page/interface where I marked some important spots and wrote a small legend to it (in orange):
# http://stars.arglos.net/img/stars-autohost-game-interface-or ange.png
Click on the image to enlarge it.

PS: A link in the previous post seems to have redirection issues, another try...
Further links:
# work in progress: the Help file transcoded to the Stars! Wiki: Stars! Player's Guide


[Updated on: Mon, 07 May 2018 17:28]

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Scouting and identifying PRTs Tue, 08 May 2018 15:17 Go to previous message
Altruist is currently offline Altruist

 
Commander

Messages: 1068
Registered: August 2005
Location: Berlin

Scouting and identifying PRTs
Most games do not show a public score (unlike games against the AIs), so you need to find out everything yourself: by scouting and thinking.

Right at the start, the difference due to race design settings, starting ships and starting tech is the biggest and leads to some interesting ways to easily (and sometimes not so easily) determine your neighbour's PRT and some LRTs as well.

Some easy examples:
1) Your neighbour has a ship based on the mini miner hull (see F2: Tech Browser: Ship Hulls), another look into the help file (F1: Primary Traits) shows that there is only 1 out of 10 races that starts with and can build mini miner hulls.

2) You detect an early minefield and it is a trap minefield. There are only 2 races that can build trap minefields in the beginning (later some players might have gained access to trap mines via allies having transfered ships).

3) You detect a scout with a DNA-scanner. A quick look into the Tech Browser shows you an impressing bio tech 6 is needed for that... in 2405 rather unlikely except some races start with it: CAs. You look up CAs' starting conditions and correct: they start with biotech 6 but only with prop 1. You have just learned that your CA neighbour has very likely prop expensive and the tech 3 box chosen.

4) Your neighbour has already 2 heavily populated planets and both have a starbase. Clicking on the mineral concentration values of one planet, shows not only a number but behind it also a 30 in brackets or perhaps the letters HW: as small a sign it is, it's a 100% proof that this is your neighbour's homeworld.

5) After looking closer at this HW, you see that the radiation value is 96. Is this even possible? There is only ONE possible answere and reason for this and it tells you a lot about your neighbour. (answere to this small puzzle in a future post)

You might say, only WMs can see the exact design and you can't see wether the scannner is DNA or rhino or wether there is a scanner at all but without getting into combat contact you can just see the hull... well, attack it or use the info about hull and given weight to puzzle together what components the ship might have.

Starting tech, starting ships
Ships you start with at the beginning of the game are always equipped with the best tech components possible. Often this is fine, sometimes not. Surely you'd rather have the fuel mizer in your scouts than a DDL7 daddy long legs engine. To make things worse, those ships might advertise your PRT, some LRTs and are targets for your neighbours to gain some easy research levels. You might want to use those ships only near your HW and to scrap them later.
Then again, some players might not try to hide their PRT but rather show off with it: CAs... everybody likes to have a CA-ally helping with terraforming. Or SDs, after all it would be insane not to use the mini hull mine and why not showing that you are the probably best defensive race in Stars.

Further Links:
# Early Research settings (earlier post in this thread)
# Scouting (earlier post in this thread)
# Tricks of the Trade (sticky thread here in this forum)

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