STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://flyingmoose.cjb.net) VOL 20, Nov. 22, 1999 CONTENTS Feature Article - STAR WEB for POINTS or FUN by B Rent Questions - None - everyone's clear on the game :-) SEDG Web Page URL The Captain's Log - The Post-End Game The Swap Corner - The Order Editor Part II Correspondence - Beware of Robert , The Antimerchant. FEATURE ARTICLE STAR WEB for POINTS or FUN by B. Rent (Email address withheld by request) There are two styles I've noticed in SW. One of which I think is discriminated against by what seems to be the more vocal contingent of players but not necessarily the majority of Star Web players past and present. The first style of playing is what Elliot referred to in SEDG 19 as "playing seriously", and that is giving homage to the Almighty Point. Playing the game for point totals is what it's all about isn't it? Wrong! For some of us the point total is nothing more than the countdown to the end of the game. The second style of playing Elliot referred to in the same article was "playing in character". Unfortunately this is done for about 5 to 10 turns of any first time players game until they begin to interact with veteran players and reality sets in. This is when the Pirate, Berserker, Apostle, and Empire Builder are told the facts of life. Pirate: You can't act like a devious scoundrel laying waste to whatever you come upon and enjoying the havoc you create. Berserker: You can't behave like a Life hating robot destroying planets and populations with the exception of the Goodlife you've declared. Apostle: You can't play like a religious zealot who wishes to subvert the populations of other empires. Empire Builder: You have to let our Pirate friend plunder some of your worlds and build ships for him to protect you. Our Berserker friend needs to kill off some of the populations on your worlds after letting our Apostle friend convert some of them. That way they will help us in another part of the web where a guy just like you, did not listen, and would not behave the way we wanted him to. So we're all getting together to wipe him out. Maybe you'll get some of his worlds if you go along. Does any of that sound familiar? I left out the Artifact Collector and Merchant since they're just big suckups and the latter has an unfair advantage over the rest of us anyway. (Sense any bitterness here? I can have an alter ego that makes comments too!) If you join the pack you're alright but the fun and excitement has just decreased by at least 50%. You instantly receive a map of 2/3's of the web because Joe Bob and his friends have a gizmo (No offense!)[Editor's note: YOUCH, that stung ] that allows the hard work, mystery and surprises of the map to disappear (years ago it was a thick file containing maps accumulated by fanatics over the years). Suddenly a Merchant friend now shows up and knows exactly where to go to haul for you. No longer must you endure the decision making process on how to allocate your resources. If you're not an EB, then what are you doing holding on to that Home World? Those are points Joe Bob's EB friend Squiggy needs. Don't worry, he'll take care of all your builds for you. Something else you don't have to worry about. If you don't join this organized Point Factory where most of the excitement and uncertainty has been stripped, and many of the chess like elements of the game are gone, you lose! Joe Bob who offered you the deal is going to tell his 6 to 10 allies that they found another victim for their pirate and berserker allies to feast on. You fools, what were you thinking? A Pirate that interferes with commerce and exploits an enemies weakness and then runs away? A Berserker that mindlessly follows its imperatives to destroy populations? An Empire Builder that won't cut a deal with the Scum of the galaxy and is hell-bent on expansion? An Apostle bent on converting the populations of the galaxy thereby subverting and wresting control of whole planets. Merchants and Artifact Collectors plying the space lanes with their special abilities gathering information and contacts with only their own interests at stake. What kind of game did you think this was? Hmmm, sounds like a Science Fiction game scenario based on a book. That might be fun, unfortunately it rarely if ever exists. A combination of competitive gamesmanship, an old buddy network, and some minor flaws in the rules seem to conspire to prevent this. Game conventions virtual or otherwise appear to have become big hugfests. I love Elliot's dedication to Star Web and this newsletter is a great thing and long overdue but I was personally aghast at his description of events at the last two FBI Star Web Tournaments. Don't get me wrong, his writing was humorous and well done. What appalled me besides the lack of participation of course, was the setting up of two large alliances (Point Factories) before the games even began. I myself was in this year's Virtual SW convention. We couldn't get a fight started in the first game. When we tried to in the second game all of our really nasty plans were stopped by the end of the tournament. The only real excitement occurred when one of the players blew a gasket and quit. These large monolithic alliances and the thinking behind them kills the joy of the game for me. As a science fiction fan I was first attracted to the game when I saw an ad in Analog back in the 70's. I found the game easy to play and chose a Pirate to play for my first game (What else!?). I was having a great time plundering and ruining any chance I had of ever winning until I ran across one of those veterans who quickly straightened me out. H. R. Stockert. A fine fellow who after my initial blunder of threatening to do all kinds of pirate stuff to him if he didn't stay off my turf later accepted my apology for my rookie misunderstandings of the game. Stockert who I believe has passed on was one of those players with the file filled with map solutions and contacts with everyone in the game. He was a great guy who really loved the game and it was a joy to listen to him talk about it. Unfortunately it turned out that he and his friends had figured out how to kill much of the fun in the game. At that time they were less interested in points than they were in controlling the game. It used to be much easier to get 15 players in a game back then. They figured out how to run games with 10 or more players allied! They were always happy to have one more ally if you went along, otherwise they fed you to the wolves. Anonymous games seem to be the only way out but they are a poor substitute. What good is outwitting your opponent when evenly matched and not being able to crow a little. Even the most craven and aggressive players need a little companionship and want an ally or two. I want to see Pirates act like pirates, Berserkers act like Saberhagen's death machines, Apostles and Empire Builders at each others throats, and Merchants and Artifact Collectors unconcerned with anything but their own miserly gains. Perhaps the ranking system has fostered this. I don't know. Could this be why the ranks of Star Web players appear to be thinning? Maybe the time has come for an overhaul. In order to foster a character driven game I'm hoping might come about someday, some rule changes or a new SW variant will need to be created. Here's my wish list of rule changes and additions. They are not in any order of importance and as I compiled them some of my more fanciful ideas got let in. Rule Changes 1) Pirates need not own a planet to plunder it. They merely need to outnumber the defenders by 3 or more times the firepower. 2) Pirates may plunder whenever the conditions allow for it and only 1 turn is needed for a planet to recover. The points awarded for plunders could be reduced to reflect this rule change. 3) Increase the number of points a Pirate receives for fleets and perhaps give points for captured ships as well. This gives the Pirate a greater interest in hit and run tactics and gives other players a greater reason to avoid making the life of a Pirate any easier. 4) Limit the number of each character type per game. 5) Limit the number of alliances to 3 for each player. 6) Create a galactic currency that each world produces. Plunder would mean gold. Merchants would sell their services and products at certain world locations. Artifact Collectors would start with lots of $ in order to purchase artifacts. This would also make them interested in maintaining control of $ producing worlds. 7) Change the end of the game to a set number of turns, then we can get rid of the points all together. EB's win by the number of planets they own. Pirates by the number of fleets, ships, and booty. Merchants by accumulated wealth. Apostles by number of converts and martyrs combined. Berserkers by the number of dead. Artifact Collectors by the number of artifacts collected. 8) New player characters and abilities. Watchers and Outsiders! Galactic Federation or Galactic Cops! 9) Better technology! These are space faring races for Pete's sake. Let players continue to receive reports from any world they've been to. 10) Allow the purchase of keys, ships, information and new technology from either player or non-player entities! 11) Galactic News Service: announcements about disasters, wars, crimes committed by Pirates and Berserkers, etc. This would help prevent Pirates, Berserkers, and other renegades from getting away with murder. Reports could be made on their activities and bounties placed on them. This would help balance the rule changes in their favor. 12) Super Novas and other galactic catastrophes, players would be notified that a certain worlds star was about to collapse and that each turn for several turns the explosion will expand one ring at a time until that part of the web was gone. Players would have to flee and pick up the shattered pieces of their game.(God am I evil!) 13) The simplest solution of all might be to offer ranked and non- ranked games. Although I doubt any of the players who have a vested interest in keeping their high rankings will bother. 14) Not all player positions need to be designed to win. All some of them need to be is entertaining. I know some of these are unrealistic and possibly too difficult to implement. Some may not even affect the environment I'm rebelling against. I present them as part of my own mad diatribe hoping some will listen and change their ways. I hope their are others out there far wiser than me that can offer a solution. I do appreciate the skill and hard work that it takes for you top rated players to achieve what you've done. I merely present my own warped view of things and hopes others out there that feel the same might help me storm the gates one day. Until that day comes and I get my way I think I'll act like a spoiled brat that doesn't get his way. I'll stick to anon games and take Elliot's advice about alias'. I'll play a Merchant for the cargo advantages but play like an EB that could care less about points. I'm going to be the guy you all hate. I'll pretend to be that friendly Merchant until you show me where your HW is and I can figure a way to sneak that PBB through. I'll plunder and PBB anything that belongs to any Point Factory. I've been inspired by the movie Fight Club. Perhaps others will join me in my self-mutilating masochistic behavior. Ontological Terrorism, attacking the beliefs of people and systems by any subversive means possible. One of these days one of us may get to that magical -37000. B. Rent (Editor's note: If this article doesn't get you to send me a letter to discuss some part of it - then drop out of Starweb - you're dead already :-). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? This space for rent. Anyone have a good question? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP - is now available on the web. Look for our new MAPPER'S SECTION on the SEDG Web Page. http://www.accessv.com/~somnos/sedg.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE CAPTAIN'S LOG 991121.0437-5 Say Goodnight Nemo: The Post-End Game (Walt Schmidt - walts@dorsai.org) "It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it. . . . There are some things in every country that you must be born to endure; and another hundred years of general satisfaction with Americans and America could not reconcile this expatriate to cranberry sauce, peanutbutter, and drum majorettes." Alistair Cooke [NEMO!!!] [Yes, Alter - and you don't have to shout, we do share the same mind] [JUST wanted to make sure I had your full attention when I asked you - What The Hell does that quote have to do with a post-end game, and what the hell is a post-end game, and hell, Cooke doesn't like drum majorettes - is he gay?] [Alter, I'm gonna ignore your third comment - as to your first two...]. The upcoming Thanksgiving holiday (leastwise in America, Canada already has celebrated theirs last month) is a time to, well give thanks [BRILLIANT Nemo, not!]. And even in a game such as Starweb, there is a way to show those who you feel have played the game well - especially when they have beaten you - that you appreciated the game and their play. You can do this by how you handle the "post-end game." [NEMO, that is possible one of the thinnest segue ways I have ever had to suffer through - and I happen to know Cooke's quote is one of your favorites and you foist it upon us, every November!] [ - ain't it nice to be king]. You've lost the game. Those resources you do still have do not warrant your continued play. You are in what I've called the post-end game. There are three things you can do: 1 - a form of "Blitzkrieg, " 2 - just do a "walk-away," or 3 - the "thank-you." The "Blitzkrieg" is your last ditch attempt to rain destruction on your opponents - why, well, just because. Or, because of previous game events - can you say "get even." Whether you plunder all your worlds, transfer ships to neutral keys, or some other form of sabotage, you are making a last statement about what you think of their game play the only way left to you. You're doing your damnedest to minimize their immediate use of your remaining resources. The "walk-away" is just that. It saves you a turn fee - and leaves all your resources as they were. Sorta like a way of saying you have no strong feelings one way or another about this game. But the "thank-you," when warranted, is my favorite way of ending my involvement in a game, for a couple of reasons. It's unexpected, and it does speak much, leastwise in my humble opinion, about you as a game player. It is the antitheses of the Blitzkrieg, and what you do is try to maximize your opponents ability to immediately utilize the resources they were about to capture anyway. You do this with the judicious use of your last-turn's two gifts, and by, say, transferring all ships to your opponents keys, thereby allowing them to capture all the keys on the same turn. Remember, transfers (2) occur before key capturing (8): 1 - Unloading metal 2 - Transfers of ships 3 - Building 4 - Loading 5 - Combat 6 - Movement and ambushing 7 - Special combat 8 - World and key capturing 9 - Pirate Fleet capture 10 - Gifts It is a way of saying "thanks for the good game - and I look forward to our next game, together." And, it is very much a part of Shai Dorsai! While I know I initially said it would be this log, current event's made the above more meaningful right now. So, more on my Four Questions of Fidelity, next log. - Shai Dorsai ! Nemo ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE SWAP CORNER The Order Editor Part II - Meta-orders and Other Player's Orders (There will be a Part III) Let's continue with the meta-orders that the Analyzer will accept. These are not valid FBI orders and won't be sent to them. But they allow you to flag orders so that you know their stated purpose. The Starweb Analyzer has added a pseudo order called the Ambush Order. Normally, if you decided to leave a fleet to ambush, you would enter no orders for that fleet at all (ie., can't move or fire). The problem with this is that you can't tell the difference between this and just plain forgetting to give the fleet some useful orders. The order editor will warn you that fleets with no orders have not moved, fired or been gifted. To avoid having the Order Checker issue warnings for these ambush fleets as having not moved or fired, and then having to go back and check to see if this was intended or not, you can give an explicit ambush order to the fleet of the form: Fnnn@ Ambush orders are automatically not included in the order count and are not included in the final submission orders. Many times you may find that you don't have enough information at the moment to complete a particular order. To avoid having the Order Checker issue an error for this incomplete order (preventing additional checking from happening), and to alert you to come back to this order, the Analyzer allows you to flag the order as incomplete by typing a ">" symbol in front of the order. >FnnnW2W56 * Not sure if this is where I want to go yet! >W123B2 * Don't know who to build to yet... The above example shows that even syntactically complete orders can be flagged as incomplete orders in order to alert you to come back and visit them before you submit your orders. The Order Checker generates an "incomplete" warning message for each of these orders, making it easy to recognize and come back to them before you submit your orders. Other Player's Orders Warnings/Errors can be generated because the silly program doesn't recognize that your ally is supplying the ships!! For example, another player may be transferring ships to your fleet and you are using them to R attack. If you didn't have enough ships on your fleet to start with, the Order Checker would warn you that the R attack might fail. To get around this you can enter orders on behalf of another player by prefixing the order with the player's name. For example Fred's orders might look like: [MYBUDDY] F222T12F123 * Give ships so that Fred can R attack [FRED] F123R10 Note: Typing '[' will prompt you for all known players in the game. If you haven't met the player yet you can manually type the name by pressing Esc from the prompt menu and then typing the name. Sending your orders to an ally in this fashion makes it easy for him to see what you expect him to do. Note: o All orders on the same line after a player tag are considered to be from that player. o Orders from other players are not included in the order count and are automatically stripped out of the final submission orders. o For clarity you can tag your own orders. Just the tags will be stripped out of the final submission orders. o Orders for other players are also checked for correctness. It is possible to insert your allies orders (each line prefixed by their name in brackets [ALLY] and check them for accuracy. GEM OF THE DAY: Putting your allies orders after TAGGING them is extremely useful. It not only improves your own order checking but allows you to check allies' orders AND acts as prompts to allies if you use your Draft Orders as your blueprint or plans for the turn and share it with your allies. Here is an example of these features from a defunct game (including lot's of comment lines). Remember - from this file the Analyzer extracts my orders and formats them so they are suitable for emailing to FBI. I am playing Somnos while I insert requests and orders for other players. ORDERS * * I can't send as much into Shaman as I thought I have Dillinger * invasion into me at W206 with 21 ships. Can't afford to let him hit my * HW with enough to robotize! * *-------- ** Build Orders [SOMNOS] W16B1I [SOMNOS] W22B30I * Would protect industry from major incursion - Beer Confirm ** W23 [MOOSE] F255W66 * Go rendezvous with Skyron. I have built you * up to 15 ships and there will be 4 at W66. You will be able * to haul 10 metal and give Skyron 14 ships to continue into * Shaman! We shall advance via W174 on Shaman's opposite side * from my W199. *-------- ** W113 I will be gifting a key to Skyron - I need his * unique abilities to come into Shaman. [SKYRON] F229X F229W148W23W66 * Meet Moose for ships and * you will continue into Shaman and hit the other side of * his HW. We squeeze him on 2 sides. * * I see 21-s2k of Dillinger at W206 enroute to my HW. * I will need 48 shots to stop a robotization from 2 keys. * I will not be caught with my pants down. * [BEER] F209@ * Wait for next turn's builds. [SOMNOS] F51X F51G=SKYRON [SOMNOS] F226T1F33 [SOMNOS] F105@ * Keys staying put at the HW. [SOMNOS] F123@ *-------- ** W161 [SOMNOS] F166W131W34 * 4 ships into Godfather - what the hell. *-------- ** W193 We shall capture from Shaman and create an ambush [MOOSE] F202N F202W209 * Moose help to deconvert for capture. * You go to reinforce me at W209 Shaman Ring 1. [POSTAL] F94AH * Fry him Postal!! [SOMNOS] F136T15F202 F136@ * 15 Ships to Moose incursion * of Shaman and I stand with 16 ambush! *-------- ** W199 Poor Shaman-Dillinger - no reinforcements possible * as I have 30 ships in ambush between here and his HW. [SKYRON] F188AF159 * Kill Shaman. * [MOOSE] F133 * Were fine - GO HAUL! [SOMNOS] F251T10F188 F251AF128 *-------- ** W209 [SOMNOS] F66@ * Ambush at Skyron ring 1. Moose is coming * with reinforcements from W193. *-------- MSG EVERYONE I hope everyone is having as good a time as I am. It sure is a bloodythirsty game. Good clean fun. END ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE In response to Vol. 19, and my top 12 things you don't do in Starweb - Robert Easton said: (bobwxman@alaska.com) >> And the number 1 thing you don't do in Starweb is .... 1)backstab Then in response to the Captain's Log Bob said: >Nemo's Four Questions of Fidelity: > 4 - Has he ever missed a turn, no matter what the reason? > 3 - Has he ever mis-spoke, regardless of why? > 2 - Has he ever broken a promise, period? > 1 - Does he shy-away from getting his public hands dirty? Robert Easton Editor's note: Yes everyone - I would agree. Everyone should beware of Robert :-) (A.K.A. Protos SWCON98 ). John Symons said: Hi Elliot, You wrote: in SEDG19: >Elliot's top 12 things you don't do in Starweb > > >12) Ignore email >11) Ambush your allies (ouch!) >10) Forget to load >9) Load at a HW >8) Forget to go to peace (spoil captures) >7) Transfer ships to an enemy key (yup, I've done it :-) >6) Impose your will (plan) on allies >5) Don't follow the plan (but didn't open your yap to discuss concerns) >4) Miss turns >3) Drop out >4) Send out objectionable personal email/diplos > >And the number 1 thing you don't do in Starweb is .... > >1)backstab I agree generally with these except for number 9 - Load at a HW. I've done it with excellent results in one game - it was an idea suggested to me by Lee Knirko, actually, and in the context of that game it was supurb. It was a multi game with a very nasty lack of mines, and I had a pirate who was plundering worlds as well - the result was a really nasty metal shortage. I could manage getting 30 metal a turn to each of my homeworlds to keep them producing, but my merchant needed more than 720 points a turn from there to be in it. Solution? The merchant brings in metal, while a pirate key (say) at each HW LOADS all but 30 metal and takes it out again to the next loading target of the merchant. The merchant key follows, and the next turn, gets to load all the metal on the ground PLUS what the pirate key unloads - unloading happens before loading.... :-)) The merchant doesn't lose points for the loading at the HW because it's not the merchant that's doing the loading! That little trick Lee showed me was worth a lot of points to my merchant that game. Yes - just sometimes, scoring as a merchant can be made difficult by the game setup, and needs some help! John. Editor: Ah yes, I've heard of the antimerchant :-). Thanks. Well, that's it for Volume 20. Don't be afraid to submit articles or suggestions. They don't have to be long. Address your correspondence to Elliot Hudes at somnos@compuserve.com