STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://flyingmoose.cjb.net) VOLUME 32 April 24, 2000 CONTENTS Feature Article - A TALE OF NO TALKING - AN ANONYMOUS STARWEB GAME Questions - Bitter end game ranking. SEDG Web Page URL The Captain's Log - April 1st's Starweb 2000 The Special Artifacts The Swap Corner - Ring controls and Sorting. Correspondence FEATURE ARTICLE - A TALE OF NO TALKING - AN ANONYMOUS STARWEB GAME By Howdt After many Starweb phone conversations, I decided that my wife needed a break. So I entered an anonymous Starweb game as a berserker and set about ridding the galaxy of population. Turn one showed a three connect homeworld. Three five-ship keys went conquering, while the other two attempted the elusive double jump. The double jump is a Starweb strategy where keys with nothing better to do on turn 1 go through the first ring world to a random number. The odds are very much against this working, but there is no downside to attempting this maneuver since the keys would be setting idle. Turn two showed that the double jump worked - probably the only time I will ever see it happen. The ring two world had an I-ship to prevent capture, but gave me two extra connecting worlds to explore. Another bonus was an extra key - thus the turn resulted in +3 worlds and +3 keys and the five points for having a robotized homeworld. Turn three brought in six worlds - the five 2nd ring worlds that I saw plus a third ring world. I was able to have at least 4 ships on each exploring key, while the key at the ring two world picked off the I- ship. One extra key headed home with 2 metal. There were five industry on the 2nd ring - much more than I usually expect. I added four keys and one robot artifact. Turn four is always my favorite turn of the game. It is the first turn for meeting other players and reaching the general limit of your home area. I was able to explore six new worlds with 3 ship keys or better. Three of these worlds were owned - two by ODIN and one by NULL. Another was a contested two-industry ring 3 world, where I had a 3-ship key to ODIN's 2-ship key. An empty key also resided there. I added two keys and two worlds. A survey of my twelve owned worlds revealed three that would be future bomb bait - population limits of more that 125 with less than 3 mines. Turn five set the stage for many future decisions. The ships at the ODIN worlds all probed adjacent worlds and one found a turns=4 world - which had to be a ring one world for ODIN. It was a three connect to the base that I probed from and another ODIN owned ring 4 that I had visited on turn 4. The remaining connection had to be ODIN's homeworld - a point that I filed away for future reference. ODIN also fired at my keys at two worlds and at the I-ships on a third world. I had super information against an instant enemy. A seven ship ODIN key arrived at the contested world from turn 4 where neither key had moved. ODIN's shots did prevent my R1 robot drop from picking up an early kill. NULL and I both backed off, and I picked up two 4th ring worlds by exploring in a different direction. At both of these worlds, a 3-ship key added the world and an empty key. My hauling was up to 14 metal on 4 keys. Turn 6 brought a better definition of my overlap with ODIN. I retreated my keys to bring metal home. I knew that he was going to shoot at me, so I decided to go for more information. . I used my last ship on the disputed world to probe - the result found both MARS and PION. I also captured four ring 5 worlds off the two ring 4 worlds captured the previous turn. Somebody must have fallen asleep on their exploring! I was up to 17 worlds and 18 keys. ODIN captured the disputed ring 3 world, along with my key and the empty one. But my homeworld was nearly at full production while ODIN was using his resources in battle. I figured that I would get the territory back with robot attacks. I sent a 13-ship key to the ODIN world on turn 7. Since all of his keys left, I would be able to capture the world with robots - only 44 population. I did an R1 at NULL's world to let him know that I was a berserker. I traded a pair of unprotected worlds with AURA during my exploration forays on the 5th/6th ring. I also found two small ODIN keys on my 2nd ring, at worlds where I had 10 ship hauling keys. On turn 8, I arrived with 26 ships at the freshly robotized ring 3 world. This key strongly outweighed the ODIN single ship key. My homeworld was at full production and I was adding 6th ring worlds by capture. ODIN's small keys reached my 1st ring, but my plan was to get ready for a major invasion of his area. I continued to explore my own outer reaches - half my keys were two full turns away from home making world captures. I took all my available keys, loaded them and brought them home, planning the start of the robot attack. Turn 9 brought seven new players onto my turn sheet, many for a token appearance. I began robotizing my 2nd ring industry worlds, so that I could gather information by migrating robots. My score was up to 224 (wow), with three robot-inhabited worlds. I landed 27 ships in two keys on ODIN's ring 2 and probed several of his other worlds. Turn 10 was the beginning of my attack. I took two 31-ship keys from my homeworld to a 3rd ring world that ODIN didn't see. I shot at his small keys in my area, capturing one. I also pushed a 25-ship key onto his ring 1 world that I had probed earlier. It had 5 I-ships and an 8 ship hauling key. The only other noteworthy event was that I dropped robots on some of YETI's converts - the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between this berserker and an apostle. Turn 11 provided ODIN's wake-up call. While he had sent 105 ships to his ring one world, I flew both 31-ship keys through a 1-ship ambush into his homeworld, while firing at his home fleets. I outnumbered ODIN 60 to 29 at his homeworld and suppressed all his industry. Say goodnight. Judicious probing gave me information on most of his internal worlds. This turn marked the apex of the size of my empire. I had 24 worlds, 25 keys and 232 ships for a total of 524 points. ODIN's score as an EB was 1652 at this point. Turn 12 demonstrated why Starweb is the best play-by-mail game. I underestimated ODIN by trying for too much. Rather than make a futile attempt to stop the robot attack at his homeworld, ODIN shot at the industry. I transferred all the ships to one key and dropped 57 ships as robots. ODIN arrived in force with 5 keys and 111 more ships. At ODIN's ring 1, I dropped all my remaining ships as I-ships on the unowned world (I had shot it neutral), figuring that he would shoot at me and get nothing. This did disrupt his movement, but since he left instead of shooting, I should have robotized the world. At this stage, I had sight of 12 ODIN keys with 141 ships. If I had gone after him, I may have been able to remove ODIN from the game, but I decided to use my resources to score some points. That meant making robots and dropping PBBs. To ODIN's credit, he did not allow me to forget about him and my attack was not a mortal wound. I still had enough troops in his area to cause damage, but I would use them for score, not war. I had 1184 points. Turn 13 saw ODIN eliminate the rest of the I-ships at his homeworld. I built my first PBB and took it to a 157-population ring 1 world. I also gifted THOR (another Berserker) a key there. I dropped 19 ships in a robot capture on another ODIN ring 1 world - taking out 118 population, but ODIN's arrival in force would capture that key on the next turn. Turn 14 featured ODIN's removal of my influence from the wreckage of his homeworld, by shooting out the remaining I-ships. My robot net in his area still showed me most of ODIN's fleet movements, but he was able to pick off two small keys from me. THOR returned my gift at one of his worlds and scored heavily with an AP when I dropped my bomb. I also dropped a second PBB on a world where I had planted two plastic artifacts - a true Starweb waste dump. This was my largest scoring turn until the game finale. My score was 2601 and I owned 11 robot worlds. By turn 15, ODIN was headed back at me in force. Rather than turning elsewhere to score points, he was coming back for revenge, shooting home fleets and robots to send worlds neutral. I was busy turning ships into robots, scoring nearly 1000 points to move into 2nd place among the scores that I saw. I had one key 13 worlds away from home and owned an 8th ring world. There was enough industry in the game to support several remote keys - I never had to worry about bringing them home. At turn 16, I could again see over 100 ODIN ships, but now they were in my home terrain. I counted 154 ships on 11 keys for ODIN vs. 156 ships on 11 keys for my defense. I slowed my scoring pace to 400 points, but took over the lead as the current merchant leader had missed the turn. From the key in THOR's area, I found a connection to a world that I had seen once before - a route opened into new terrain. This turn turned out to be the last turn that THOR moved. Turn 17 brought ODIN full force to my ring 1 worlds. By this time, I had converted about half my worlds to robot population. My busted ring 1 had 17 ships for me, 29 for ODIN. I could juggle between home fleets and two keys and maintain the world. But I lost three more small keys and could tell that I was being outflanked. I started keeping lots of I-ship on my homeworld, to engage the oncoming hoards. As much as I could, I decided to trim the population of every world that I owned, attempting to leave a minimal number of robots behind. My score slipped back into 2nd place at 4318. Turn 18 brought another ODIN surprise. Instead of attacking my homeworld, ODIN stayed on ring 1. He captured one of my keys and neutralized the world. He also captured a ring 2 world on the other side. I still had 120 ships, but now was down to only 7 keys. I braced my homeworld for the impending attack. I also located THOR's homeworld and continued to trim YETI converts. I pushed out one PBB on an 11-ship key from my homeworld to the ring 2 world that ODIN had captured to start turn 19. I correctly guessed that he would advance to ring 1. On the other side, ODIN put 115 ships on two keys, left 5 keys empty and blew away my two 28-ship defender keys. I had 83 ships at my homeworld, plus 30 builds, but I could read the handwriting on the wall. On turn 20, I bolted. I loaded two 35-ship keys, build a PBB on a 15 ship key and left through the side door. ODIN arrived with ten 11 - 13 ship keys, only to find the non-mobile one ship THOR key. I was down to 15 worlds and 14 keys total, but had my score up to 5489. Now I was the hunted, but I had a few bombs left - 154 ships total. At turn 21, between ODIN's attack and my robot drops I was down to 21 population. ODIN destroyed the industry on my vacated homeworld and started going after my minor worlds. I was able to migrate robots to prevent captures, but would lose worlds each turn for the rest of the game. But I did have 3 PBBs left to drop and YETI came through with a 23-ship key at the THOR homeworld. I had a small key nearby, so my debate was whether to try a robot attack, a 44 vs. 50 robot chance, or wait and connect the two keys at Thor's world to make a PBB later on. My 6474 score edged ahead of the 6312 merchant score. Turn 22 showed that patience had won out and I added a 6-ship key to the 22 left at THOR's homeworld. A probe of THOR's ring 1 world found 130 people - buster bomb bait. Now I had a really tough choice. ODIN had me completely routed from my home area - he was poised to shoot out my ring 2 worlds and was hunting little keys. The merchant was back ahead 6935 to 6742. The game could end on any turn. At turn 23, I shot my ship load. I dropped a bomb, robotized two worlds with my last two 10 ship keys and hoped that the game would end. I sent a PBB to THOR's ring 1 world and found the merchant, outnumbering my key 10 ships to 2. It made me wish that I had tried to robot attack THOR's homeworld. ODIN had me down to 10 worlds, but I figured that I would score what I could and go with it. I had one 28- ship key left and it was headed toward a world with 12 I-ships. Other than two PBBs, one which might not drop, my scoring was over. On turn 24, the game ended. The merchant did not shoot my key, but my score would have crossed the threshold even without that PBB. My collection of worlds numbered seven and I had 47 ships - 28 on one key. Since both bombs dropped, my score was 8871, victory point limit was 8240 and the merchant was second at 7529. I would like to congratulate ODIN on a fine game. His score was ~4000, but he kept my feet to the fire continually, all game long. NULL, who was a pirate, ended the game with 63 worlds, 48 keys and 1070 ships - dwarfing everybody else by sheer mass. And YETI, my apostle friend, deserves thanks for the many martyrs that he allowed me to make during the second half of the game. Good gaming to all of you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? Last Issue Sean Corrigal asked: What role does score play in bitter end games? He asked FBI and here was the reply. The winner gets one point. Everyone else gets zero. -Chuck, FBInc. I wonder does that mean the winner gets a 1000 ranking? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 000418.0427-4 By Walt Schmidt walts@dorsai.org April 1st's Starweb 2000 - Yet A Little More...The Special Artifacts "It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination." - Martha Gellhorn [Hey Alter!] [YES, Nemo - what can I do for you - especially this early in the Log] [So what do you think. Even though it was a joke (it was a joke, wasn't it), shall we re-visit Starweb 2000] [SURE, why not] [You da man!] [AND you Nemo, are so full of it, that...] [That will be quite enough, Alter] [!!!] From the traffic I've so far read, there has been some confusion about many of the new Starweb 2000 rules. So as the questions are asked - or the confusion becomes known - I'll follow Alter's advice [RIGHT, blame it on me - especially if anyone objects! Now I know why you asked me my opinion] [Why Alter - I would never...] and spend a Log or two on further discussions. From Loomis' Version One of the rules, it is quite clear that certain physical rules are either expanded beyond our current knowledge, or, suspended entirely. Just such a case is the Special Artifacts. You see, the Creators - well somebody built the Starweb Universe, if you have a better name, let me know [AND his name was Loomis - and he was good] [Alter!!!] [WELL, you did ask, Nemo] - as I was saying, the Creators realized that unlike a normal or standard artifact, special artifacts were so powerful that to use them in tandem - in almost any way - would so increase the abilities of a player's character, to make winning the game almost a certainty. And, they got a kick out of the need for a player to choose between which special artifacts to use. So what did they do? Using a form of multi-dimensional folding, they created the special artifacts. How many dimensions you might ask - can't say. I have enough of a problem remembering that the first derivative is the velocity and the second derivative the acceleration (or something like that). But by using this dimensional folding they were able to make the special artifacts appear to us as being of the size of a standard artifact. Then, using something that includes the gist of the square-root of minus one, in combination with dimensional folding AND something else I have yet to grok, they were able to completely mask the effects (inertia, gravitational attraction, their effect on the twelfth-insight) [THE twelfth-insight? I thought there were only eleven!] [Quiet Alter - most people think there are only ten - and that's another Log for another day] of the special artifacts having a mass that is slightly larger than that of one half a black- whole's mass. AND, this masking only works when there isn't more than one special artifact in the same place - again this has something to do with that pesky square-root of minus one. By doing what they did, any special artifact can be easily picked up and carried - just as easily as can be any standard artifact. But woe is it to them who try that with two. It seems the Creators had more than their fair share of - the square-root of minus one! So Martha, me thinks ya don't have to worry... Til the next Log - Shai Dorsai ! Nemo ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE SWAP CORNER Ring Functions By pushing the ring button you designate one world to be ring 0. I often refer to this as the designated center of the universe. Worlds adjacent to it will be considered ring 1, 2 worlds away ring 2, 3 worlds away ring 3 and so on. All worlds in the List View will have a number at the bottom right of the world icon. This tells you its ring position from the center of the universe. In addition you can filter worlds by their ring position. Useful functions are to find things within range of a world such as the best metal stockpile <= ring 3 to haul from or from a world with a battle going on. You can also sort the List View by ring and it will list the ring 0 world first and then all the ring 1 worlds followed by ring 2 etc. The worlds within each ring are still listed in ascending order. Combining the ring functions with other filters gives you a powerful tool to search for things, such as filtering all worlds within ring 3 of a key you have a PBB on and sort by population to reveal your best target. You can even refilter using world owners to include/exclude players that you don't want to visit with the PBB. Sorting Data This function will sort all worlds seen in the Combined World View whether filtered or unfiltered according to the following choices. o by World (in ascending world number) o by Empire Builder Points (Ascending) o by Empire Builder Points (Descending) o by Population (Ascending) o by Population (Descending) o by Population Limit (Ascending) o by Population Limit (Descending) o by metal (Ascending) o by metal (Descending) o by Mines (Ascending) o by Mines (Descending) o by ring. There are unique sort functions for the Fleet and Art View also. For example in the Art View you can sort the Art by number (Last name e.g. Lodestars), by first name (e.g. Goldens) or by owner. The type of sort active will appear at the top of the World View. When sorting by ring you must have a ring 0 world designated on the Tool Bar (a button with a world number on it) or by selecting it when right clicking on a world on the Map View. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE In Volume 30 - The April Fool's issue we asked: In Starweb 2000 do the new Special Artifacts contribute to museums? Chris Richards answered: I meant to submit an answer to the question about whether the new artifacts count towards a museum before the next issue, but it looks like I missed the boat. Here's my answer anyway. The new artifacts have slightly more than half the critical mass of a black hole. That means they are going to be spheres of neutronium 10 miles across about 500,000 times the mass of the earth. So what happens when you drop one on a museum world? Well, you can't really drop it on the museum world because the world will drop itself on you first. The world will start moving towards the artifact when it is more than an astronomical unit away and will be accelerating at 100 quadrillion gravities when it reaches it. Shortly afterwards, the former museum world and any ordinary artifacts already there will be just the outermost half a centimeter or so of neutronium plating the special artifact. To add to the fun, every other object in the system including the star is going to be hurtling towards the special artifact by now, probably bringing it up to around 90% of the critical mass of a black hole. This would be a good time for the art collector to leave. So you don't get points; you just lose the museum. I suppose the thrill of possibly adding the last few kilos need to reach criticality by landing on it might make what's left of the museum world a tourist attraction for the suicidal. - Chris Editor: I haven't the heart to tell him it's a joke :-). Regarding a low score SW game: > Then you would need to say it's the lowest score of all that wins. Sure would foul up the merchants . Berserkers could quietly do nothing and EBs would give away their worlds :-). I like it! Here's an interesting idea for yet another private game.< John Shannonhouse said: Sorry. Merchants automatically win this one. No points for hauling to their home world and nothing to counter the points gained by attacking population. Well, that's it for Volume 32. 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