Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » New Game Announcements » Sophisticated (and all jacked up)
| Sophisticated |
Mon, 27 October 2014 22:56  |
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| neilhoward | 
 | Commander |
Messages: 1112
Registered: April 2008
Location: SW3 & 10023 | |
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This is a no-comms game. Do not reply to this thread if you want to play; this is a filter. Do not reply to this thread if you do not want to play; your opinion is not welcome if you got no skin in the game. Send inquiries or arguments to my email or PM.
We have 8 players interested at the time of this posting, ten or twelve would be super sweet. How about a racefile deadline of 1200 GMT 4th November.
Universe and game parameters
Galaxy remapped to a circle. Players roughly equidistant with as close to 32.5 stars per player as I can get. With 8 players we will take ~240 stars = 30/player; 9 players get ~288 stars = 32 per player; 10 players get 360 stars or 36 each. Density will be nearest to dense after remap (2.5-2.55 stars/10kly^2). Players will be 246-324ly from nearest neighbors; some may be closer to the otherwise sparsely inhabited center. Slow tech advance. No ACC BBS. Arbitrary game parameters will kick on a public score sometime randomly selected around 2485.
I will select a universe with HW mineral concentrations of at least 40% for each mineral. I will aim higher, but no promises. I will also scout space nearby HWs and fix any extreme variance in distribution of planets and minerals within 1 and 2 hops.
Distribution of HWs will depend on the types and frequency of races fielded. Having HWs roughly set out in a circle is my fallback position, though there would be some fluctuation in the distance from center. If there is a clear distinction of fast and slow races, I am more inclined to put the speedies closer to the center and the builders closer to the rim. I will take experience as well as race design into consideration when placing players. I am not planning to put any players "in the middle", but some might be closer than others (eg give or take ~100ly at the extreme).
Race Design
Players start with a cache of 42 scrappers (DNA Scanner, Beam Deflector, RadRam FFs for chance of up to level 6 in all techs). I will use Jrc3 modded with Stars Editor and the zerohack module to set the tech level, resource cost, and mineral cost of ship hulls and components to zero. Because SAH does not use modded EXEs, all modded ships will need transfer tags before genning on SAH. The ships are queued in 2400, given orders to transfer in 2401, given orders to transfer back in 2402, and game files are distributed/loaded on SAH at year 2403. No CA, PP, or IT. Joat: no NAS, 60 points set to defense, 27 scrappers at start. IS: 25 points set to defense, 31 scrappers at start. Weapons expensive. Construction not cheap. If a race takes NRSE, their scrappers get DDL7s instead of RadRams.
There are no special restrictions on how you choose to use your scrapper frigates.
# Higher
Tech Fields
Available
6 | 49 74 87 93 97 98 99 99 99 99
5 | 49 74 86 93 96 98 99 99 99 99
4 | 47 72 85 92 96 98 99 99 99 99
3 | 44 69 82 90 94 97 98 99 99 99
2 | 38 61 75 84 91 94 96 98 99 99
1 | 25 44 58 68 76 82 87 90 92 94
------------------------------------------------------------ ---
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tech Trading Events
Schedule
First 3 weeks @ 25hour max non strict (meaning everybody in causes a gen). After three weeks and ~21 turns, a schedule of M, T, W, Th, F at 10pm PST (6am GMT T, W, Th, F, Sa). After 2470 a vote can be called for reducing gen to 50 hours max. Vote is called by player messaging host, then host messaging other players. Everyone gets two hold requests, including host. Hold requests may be used to delay no longer than two regularly scheduled gens. With no need for diplomacy or coordination between players, this should be a speedy game.
Bugs/Exploits/Features
Repair after gating, chaff, split fleet dodge are allowed.
Mine damage dodge and mine damage allocation are allowed.
Do not cause battleboard overflow: do not send more than 75 of your tokens into a battle. Merge happens after battle. Do not cause target list overload: do not cause more than 100 of your fleets to be at any one location. Be careful when chaff sweeping; chaff sweeping has caused me to inadvertently trigger battleboard and target list overflow in past games. Do not put alpha or beta torps on ships with more than two engines. The torp restriction in combination with best practices for avoiding battleboard and target list overload will be adequate to nerf minimum damage imo. Exploding Minefield Dodge will not be penalized if not deemed to be egregious or intentional. Colonize without Colonizer and Cheap starbase allowed for AR up until 2412.
Anything else on the Known Bugs (JRC3) - Player Exploitable Bugs / "Features" list is disallowed. See the list in the Must Know section of the forum. If in doubt, ask the host. If you suspect a violation, ask the host.
Game Specific Rules
Host not playing. Single Race Victory. All players set to enemy. No pregame alliances. No communication between players. No game-talk until it is all over (with the exception being a call to vote for schedule change or victory by acclaim initiated by private email to host). Player identities will be obscured; player names will show on game page as Player 1, etc. I would recommend players use generic naming conventions for their race and ship design names. Race names or ship names should not be used to circumvent the spirit of non-communication. I might get pissed if you start naming you ships the same as you have in previous games; telling people who is playing a race is too much communication in itself. If you are looking for a naming convention to obscure your identity, let me know.
If there is an infraction, the host will not regen but might enact a penalty of a skipped turn, or alter the offending players next turn (eg target list overload is triggered inadvertently: all fleets at location over 100 get set to scrap).
If an infraction is grievous, the host might do something nasty like deleting ship designs or resetting planetary production queues.
If an infraction is wilful and grievous, like initiating communication with another player, the offending player might be banned from the game. Players must keep host advised of current passwords, or risk a skipped turn.
[Updated on: Tue, 28 October 2014 09:45] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Sophisticated |
Wed, 29 October 2014 21:21  |
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| neilhoward |
| Commander |
Messages: 1112
Registered: April 2008
Location: SW3 & 10023 | |
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Send me tentative races if you want a testbed. Whatever I get by Friday night I should be able to turn around by Saturday morning.
Update: When you submit your final racefile, give a vote for starting ships 1. normal, or 2. jacked. Jacked (an artifact of genning with zerohack) replaces parts with Carbonic Armor, Yakimora Beams, RadRam or AD8‡*, Robo-Miner*, Possum Scanners, Wolverine Shields, & Beta Torpedoes.
* based on PRTs.
‡ colony ships always have AD8.
[Updated on: Fri, 31 October 2014 02:34] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Sophisticated |
Fri, 31 October 2014 15:48 |
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| neilhoward |
| Commander |
Messages: 1112
Registered: April 2008
Location: SW3 & 10023 | |
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I am sorry to make this confusing. You will receive your normal starting ships as determined by your race, plus a number of frigate scrappers (27 for Joat, 31 for IS, 42 fer everybody else).
All of your frigate scrappers will be identical and contain both RNA Scanners and Beam Deflectors. Your Frigate Scrappers will all have DDL7 engines if you took the NRSE PRT. If you did not take the NRSE PRT, all of your frigates will all have RadRam engines.
I will use the Zerohack mod to build the frigate scrappers (so they have tech level zero and no mineral or resource cost). I can create the game with an unmodded version of Stars! (causing your regular starting ships to be just like they normally are) and then load Zerohack to build the frigates. Alternatively I can create the game in Zerohack and your regular starting ships (eg Santa Maria, Stalwart Defender, etc) will have upgraded components as a side affect. In order to keep those components, the ships will need to be transferred to another player and transferred back again. This creates a second choice: If you decide to have the upgrades, do you want to start at 2404, or have a random player know that someone has those starting ships (ie potential knowledge of PRT/LRT of an adversary, but not which one). To keep things anonymous, each player will have ships transferred with each other player, so all race names are revealed to each player. Since I won't distribute history files from before 2403 (or 2404 if that route) locations are secret at the start.
You will not be able to build any more of these ships until you complete the necessary research, but those starting ships are much more important for the non-AccBBS game. If your race normally starts the game with remote mining ships and did not take OBRM, they get a boost to 240% from robot upgrades. The armor and engine upgrades improve the range of some ships significantly.
Also, check out the table i posted for guts of tech trade. It shows the chance of gaining tech based on number of higher fields and number of fleets scrapped; it will be very useful for getting the most out of your scrappers.
Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Sophisticated |
Sun, 02 November 2014 19:59 |
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| neilhoward |
| Commander |
Messages: 1112
Registered: April 2008
Location: SW3 & 10023 | |
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My exam is delayed, so race file deadline is extended to Wednesday 2000 GMT.
We might have our tenth player. More are welcome.
Some Clarifications
Rules
There is no explicit ban on Min Damage. Do not put alpha or beta torps on anything with more than two engines. Do not cause more than 75 of your tokens to appear at any one battle. If you are unsure of the difference between fleets, stacks, and tokens, ask for some help.
What constitutes communication for the purposes of this game?
-sending tech lambs/scrappers to another player?
-sending minerals to another player?
-setting the stage for a pop drop?
-setting out chaff to draw an arrow, peace sign, smiley face ...?
Anything like this is just asking to be banned.
No communication game: no diplomacy, no cooperation, no pickle tickling, etc.
Please do not call the Ban Hammer.
Do not spoof player scores after they go public. Stuffing pop in orbit is fine. If a player systematically orders pop up and down just to game the score, I might alter their orders and have the pop stay up while the fleet is scrapped.
Universe Setup
246-324ly (~300ly) distance between enemies is what I plan for, might be a little bit more. If there are two clear camps of races (ie fast and slow) the faster races (1ww, -f, qs) will be a little bit closer to the center and/or a little bit closer to each other. This depends on the types and frequency of races fielded. It is my fallback position, though there would be some fluctuation in the distance from center. If there is a clear distinction of fast and slow races, I am more inclined to put the speedies closer together. HW queues are set to alchemy (after FFs built) from 2400-2402.
Approx diameter of remapped circles:
10 player ~1340ly
9 players ~1199ly
8 players ~1094ly
[Updated on: Sun, 02 November 2014 20:00] Report message to a moderator
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