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[Updated on: Thu, 23 March 2006 02:52]

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I feel comfortable at the game settings. No probs with those.
And I certainly recommend on letting chaff being used.
It's not a cheat, it's a tactic everyone has to learn.
There is no better place, than a beginners game to learn. Right?

Another thing I choose for a beginners game, is my RL also absorbs some decent amount of time. And when going to play an intermediate game, I need to put a lot more effort in doing MM (Micro-Management) stuff and such.
Here I guess I can go easy and be of help to some newcomers in this marvelous easy-looking but complicated game. At least it all depends on how far you want to go into details of MM.
I noticed there was a good tutorial ("Stars - Must Know" forum part)on how to achieve a good resources-curve (or trying to hit 25k@ 2450) ... sure a must read.
Good economics is half the victory.

At least put some effort if possible in reading "The Academy" on this forum. Various usefull info for any player.

Gunter

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Chaff is something i've read a lot about. This will be a good opportunity for me to try some of those skills out.

Also the game is set up fine for me.

Players
Beginners only - if you can get 25k by 2450, then sign up for Hex2 for intermediates

I look forward to seeing you guys in game

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[Updated on: Thu, 23 March 2006 17:44]

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[Updated on: Thu, 23 March 2006 19:10]

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miklem wrote on Thu, 23 March 2006 15:53

As for galaxy size - I think, that size should be choosen _before_ race generations.

Ditto. It'd be nice to know for sure what the playing field would be.

Quote:

I prefer medium size for 6-8 players

Ditto. Small seems a bit cramped for this many people.

Quote:

but will play in small

Ditto again. So I'm in no matter what. Just please let me know how many planets this universe will have (small vs. med, normal vs. packed) so I have an idea how much breathing room my race should have.

[Updated on: Thu, 23 March 2006 18:11]

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Map Size and Density Change?[ 8 votes ]
1.	Small/Normal	0 / 0%
2.	Small/Dense	0 / 0%
3.	Small/Packed	0 / 0%
4.	Medium/Sparse	0 / 0%
5.	Medium/Normal	6 / 75%
6.	Medium/Dense	1 / 13%
7.	Medium/Packed	1 / 13%

I need a concensus here on map size/density... Also someone made a reasonable complaint about the tech setting, I tend to agree slow tech for noobs seems a bit... Harsh. Also some concerns on a guarenteed minimum concentration for the HW... If anyone cares to second these opinions I'd be pleased to alter the conditions.

Current players who've signed up (with me as host):
1) Yoey (no race file yet)
2) Cerindil (no race name, no race file.)
3) CaptainMaim (Clearly I've sent my race to myself , but I'm not quite ready yet either.)
4) c64k (No Email, No Race file, No race name)
5) <None>
6) <None>
7) <Do we want 7?>
<8 I'd say is the limit As per Madman's expirience>

I've assumed that starting distance is... Unchanged as 1) no one complained and 2) It seems to always be "distant".


(Oh here's a dumb/fun idea which I could do pretty quickly, what if the map were alphabetized into a grid. So you'd have "A" sector where all planets start with A, and B sector and C and so on. I think that'd be cool! Anyway, it's just a crazy fun idea I had. Could even pregen the map thanks to Map2XY while we wait. [But I'd need to know exactly how big and dense the map is going to be.])

[Updated on: Sat, 25 March 2006 00:02]

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Captain Maim wrote on Sat, 25 March 2006 15:17

I need a concensus here on map size/density... Also someone made a reasonable complaint about the tech setting, I tend to agree slow tech for noobs seems a bit...

Size/density depends a little on number of players - I'd choose differently for 7 or 8 players than I would for 5 or 6. It's the approx number of planets per player that matters (and density of course).

As for slow tech - I'd agree that beginner games should be as vanilla as possible (I could make a case for slow tech making Stars! a better game, but it's best to learn with normal settings).

Quote:

<8 I'd say is the limit As per Madman's expirience>

I think you might be referring to someone else's experience here - I think I suggested that medium normal was good for giving 7-10 players a bit of room.

Quote:

It seems to always be "distant".

Distant ... _always_ distant. The other options should not even exist (the only use for them is in testbeds where you _want_ races you are testing in battle to start next to each other).

Quote:

(Oh here's a dumb/fun idea which I could do pretty quickly, what if the map were alphabetized into a grid. So you'd have "A" sector where all planets start with A, and B sector and C and so on. I think that'd be cool! Anyway, it's just a crazy fun idea I had. Could even pregen the map thanks to Map2XY while we wait. [But I'd need to know exactly how big and dense the map is going to be.])

Unless Map2XY has changed since I looked at it, the problem with it is that you've got to very careful with first moves, because the game file is confused about where the ships are with the stars moved. Don't make life more complicated than you have to unless there is a particular shape/size you want for game reasons.

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Madman wrote on Fri, 24 March 2006 22:32

Captain Maim wrote on Sat, 25 March 2006 15:17 I need a concensus here on map size/density... Also someone made a reasonable complaint about the tech setting, I tend to agree slow tech for noobs seems a bit... Size/density depends a little on number of players - I'd choose differently for 7 or 8 players than I would for 5 or 6. It's the approx number of planets per player that matters (and density of course).

Fair enough.

Quote:

As for slow tech - I'd agree that beginner games should be as vanilla as possible (I could make a case for slow tech making Stars! a better game, but it's best to learn with normal settings).

Great! Slow tech off, normal tech on! Hope no one disagrees.

Quote:

Quote: <8 I'd say is the limit As per Madman's expirience> I think you might be referring to someone else's experience here - I think I suggested that medium normal was good for giving 7-10 players a bit of room. Quote: It seems to always be "distant". Distant ... _always_ distant. The other options should not even exist (the only use for them is in testbeds where you _want_ races you are testing in battle to start next to each other).

Makes me want to propose a game based on the premise of using one of the other distance settings.

Quote:

Quote: (Oh here's a dumb/fun idea which I could do pretty quickly, what if the map were alphabetized into a grid. So you'd have "A" sector where all planets start with A, and B sector and C and so on. I think that'd be cool! Anyway, it's just a crazy fun idea I had. Could even pregen the map thanks to Map2XY while we wait. [But I'd need to know exactly how big and dense the map is going to be.]) Unless Map2XY has changed since I looked at it, the problem with it is that you've got to very careful with first moves, because the game file is confused about where the ships are with the stars moved. Don't make life more complicated than you have to unless there is a particular shape/size you want for game reasons.

Na... I know what I'm doing, I just 1) gen a map of the medium/normal variety, 2) use... Hmmm... What's it called? Xboarders to divide up the map for me, then 3) go squentially down the sectors with a text editor, the .map file and a list of names and copy paste my way through it.

Doing it once I don't mind, redoing it 3 times in a row? That might be pushing it a little.

But otherwise, yeah, I'm fully aware of remapping issues... No sweat though, I'll just use a seed number to lock to map down into a predefined pattern. Piece-a-cake!

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seems that a few people prefer medium maps for 6+ players. normal density seems to give a fair amount of planets. If we are under 6 players then a small/dense or small normal is acceptable. just my

my vote would also be for normal tech advance. No other reason than for my own lack of experience playing with that setting. It is a beginner game, after all

If that is the consensus, i will have my race to Madman on Sunday

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Captain Maim wrote on Sat, 25 March 2006 17:17

Makes me want to propose a game based on the premise of using one of the other distance settings.

Wait until Sanity is finished so I can play! One of my first duels against Chagarra was Close start positions. Fortunately, neither of us was PP, but it was certainly interesting.

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Captain Maim wrote on Sat, 25 March 2006 11:01

If anyone who's play testing their race would like, I can give them the def file I'm using to gen the map with if they'd like.

First, this won't work since the way the universe is genned also depends on the computer the game is genned on. Same seed gives different results on different pc's.

Second, if it would work you would be giving everyone the chance to pre-scout the entire universe ... I know you're only trying to help but bad idea.

mch

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[Updated on: Fri, 31 March 2006 09:30]

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yoey wrote on Sat, 25 March 2006 18:52

seems that a few people prefer medium maps for 6+ players. normal density seems to give a fair amount of planets. If we are under 6 players then a small/dense or small normal is acceptable. just my

Medium normal with 6 players is an average of 48 planets/player. That's good in some ways - fairly forgiving for beginners to get started without meeting opponents immediately, but there is the risk of some of the empires being too big to manage comfortably. I always seem to bog down badly when I get more than about 80 planets. Of course, YMMV (your mileage may vary) - I'm a compulsive micromanger

[Updated on: Sat, 25 March 2006 22:19]

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Thanks Micha! And, the prescouting aspect did occure to me which is why I only asked.. And second.. I didn't know that the game seed number genned based on the particular computer it was genned on. That's one complex randomization algorythum!

Thanks for the update Madman... I'll have to send in my race too. And... I'll use a non seeded map for play testing. (I'm almost done alphabetizing the 9 sectors I put up. Shame.. The letter "E" didn't have enough names in it, so I filled in the rest of the names with Z's in stead. I suspect F will be a similar problem. Oh well. If I ever do this again, I'll just write a little batch program to do it for me. (That's what I usually do for Stars! problems like that.)

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[Updated on: Tue, 28 March 2006 06:53]

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I mailed my passworded racefile to Madman this morning.
So expect me to join as well.

Cya
Gunter

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