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Once More, Into the Breach (vanilla game)

Thu, 19 March 2020 23:20

magic9mushroom

Commander

Messages: 1361
Registered: May 2008

It has been requested that a new game be created, as Fledgling Admirals X is stalled by Altruist's absence.

So, here's a new game. I will host; I will not be playing.

Game settings:

Size and Density: 30 planets per player, not Packed.

Special settings: none (i.e. no Max Minerals, no Slow Tech, no AccBBS, etc.)

Victory conditions (real): winner by acclamation.

However, I've seen too many games end boringly because nobody spotted the monster (or because those who did were ignored), so the victory conditions in Stars! will be set in order to act as an "auto-pitchfork", enabling public player scores once someone starts to run away with the game. It's not expected that people immediately surrender upon the scores going public; indeed, the idea is that they shouldn't.

Victory conditions (Stars!): 1 of: (owns 30% planets) (exceeds second place score by 40%), after 2440.

One winner only. I consider "Vichy alliances", where a player totally abandons any attempt at winning the game and settles for "allied to the winner", to be playing against wincon and unfair to the rest of the players. I won't be force-replacing people for it, but... don't expect me to refer to you as "part of the winning alliance".

Race requirements:

Claim Adjuster must take two or more immunities
Hyper-Expansion must take a growth rate of 11% or less
Race file must not have a password. You must not add a password to your game files during play.

If someone sends in a race file that is obviously suboptimal (e.g. growth rate too low, mines too weak, lots of points left over), I will point out what's wrong with it. This is to avoid people dropping when they realise their race is execrable.

Also, if you send in a Space Demolition race and there is already a Space Demolition in the game, I will give you an opportunity to change race. This is due to Exploding Minefield Dodge.

Races are to be sent to my gmail.com account - same username.

Turn schedule:

1/day fixed until 2420, then slowdown to MWF upon request. Holds may be granted in special circumstances.

Stance on bugs/features:

Chaff: Permitted
Split fleet dodge: Permitted
Profitable scrapping: Banned - You may not scrap ships for more minerals than it cost to create them (via UR, CE, BET etc.)
Battle Board Overload: Banned - If ships are excluded from a battle due to you triggering this bug, you must scrap them.
0.2% Minimum Damage: Banned - You may not fire over 100 salvos of missiles and/or torpedoes per round of battle*.
False Public Player Scores: Banned - You may not drop population at Waypoint 0 that you uploaded at Waypoint 1 the previous turn.
North/South Minefield Immunity: Banned with exceptions - You may not set waypoints directly North or South of each other unless both waypoints are planets or you're going at mine-safe speed.
Cheap Starbase: Banned - You may not edit a starbase design while it is in a production queue.
Mineral Upload: Banned - You may not upload minerals to a fleet without its owner's consent. You may not consent to an upload of minerals exceeding your fleet's cargo capacity.
Target List Overload: Banned - You may not send more than 95 fleets to the same waypoint in deep space, or more than 60 fleets to the same planet (with the same arrival time).**
Space Dock Armour slot overflow: Banned - If you have the Regenerating Shields Lesser Racial Trait, you must not design a Space Dock with 22+ units of Superlatanium.
ISB trumps IT gate-scanning: Permitted
Starbase Friendly Fire: Banned - The "Attack Who" in your default battle plan must be set to "Nobody", "Enemies" or "Neutrals & Enemies".
Repair after gating loophole: Permitted
Mine Damage Dodge: Permitted
Exploding Minefield Dodge: Permitted - SD player numbers will be in first-come-first-served order; if you don't change your race when warned, you consent to this possibility.
Colonise without Colonisation Module: Banned - You must use a Colonisation Module to colonise planets. Empty mech slots are permitted as long as they're not "zero of Colonisation Module".
Pop Overflow: Banned - You may not place more than 1 billion population on a planet.
Hacking: Banned - You may not use third-party utilities to extract information from a .m file that could not be obtained through the Stars! client, or to place orders in a .x file that could not be placed through the Stars! client.

*1 Battleship with 20 missiles fires 5 salvos (one for each weapon slot). 50 Battleships of the same design in the same fleet still fire 5 salvos (ships in the same token combine their salvos for each slot). 50 Battleships of the same design in 50 fleets fire 250 salvos, which is banned.

**"Shared-fault" Target List Overload will be dealt with on an ad-hoc basis.

Penalties for bug abuse are at host discretion based on level of intent and level of advantage gained. I will check regularly for most of the banned bugs, although for Battle Board Overload/0.2% Minimum Damage/Target List Overload/Starbase Friendly Fire I'll only check if they're reported (these are all obvious to the victim and as such I would ordinarily expect to be notified immediately).

Let's get playing Stars!

[Updated on: Fri, 20 March 2020 00:00]