STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://flyingmoose.cjb.net) VOLUME 33 May 1, 2000 CONTENTS Feature Article - STARWEB VARIANTS Questions - SEDG Web Page URL The Captain's Log - Large Industrial And Mine Worlds - Part I The Swap Corner - The List View, A Guide to previous Swap Corners Correspondence FEATURE ARTICLE - STARWEB VARIANTS I like Starweb - yes, I really do. Previously, I have gone over several inequalities in the scoring positions between characters. I seriously feel that these represent flaws in the game. Bottom line was that I wanted a longer game, the merchant's scoring cut in half, the berserkers PBB worth only 100 points and an enhancement to the Apostle position. But alas this would require rewriting of the Starweb Program that FBI is reluctant to commit to. I'm sure that everybody has preferences and would desire changes to various parts of Starweb. And you can't please everyone. Here are some ideas and thoughts for Variants that explore different options and perhaps even overcome some limitations. Obviously some of the restrictions would be better off if the SW program enforced them but in the absence of a revamp many of these can be utilized if the players use the honor system. I know that FBI has a problem with increasing the number of variants they offer (and have sign up lists for) because it takes the same size player pool and divides it up among too many waiting lists. The risk would be that no Starweb game could get started. (HORRORS!) But my solution to this is that FBI should look over some of my new variants and offer them up as special games. We have all received the FBI email newsletter asking for players to fill up an anonymous or bitter end game that has not filled up in a long time. The next week we wind up hearing from Rick that he can now start 2 games . So I know this type of solicitation from FBI works. As a suggestion - Rick - why not offer some of these new variants up every 3 months in a newsletter. They won't be standard variants that people go on the usual waiting lists. You could send a note out and say that on such and such a date we are starting the new 'Intermediate Length SW' game. Of course, if FBI picks up on my idea - the main source of players would be the email pool. And this just suits me fine!!!! I would like to see as email variants the current Extra-long SW game, Bitter-End game and Partners game! Please note that some of these Variants can even be combined and all of them are within the scope of the present program. Now onto even more innovative variants. 1) MULTIALLIANCE VARIANT or HOW TO AVOID THE TWO POLE GAME To make it more difficult for the web to coalesce into two camps. A) No player can declare more than 2 ally/Loaders. B) Gifts and ship transfers restricted to your allies. C) Ally/Loader can be only declared once per game. Honor system to stick to these rules would be necessary. By using C) you get around the loophole that some bright Starweb Lawyer would find to declare his merchant a non ally when he was unloading metal so he can ally to another player to do something else (like gift a war fleet or art). In this way the sneaky could increase their alliance to many players if they coordinate well. In the above variant it is still possible to work with other players but cooperation is hampered and perhaps multiple alliances could form. 2) INTERMEDIATE LENGTH GAME Allow the ending score to be from 5,000-15,000. Now the average game would be somewhere around 10,000 points and run at least until turn 16. This could be called an Intermediate length game. (We now have Extralong games and normal length games). 3) NEUTER THE HIGH SCORERS VARIANT Or TWO POSITION MULTIVARIANT A) You get two positions B) The only combination you cannot have is Merchant/Berserker C) You must pick two different character types (i.e. you cannot be two merchants. D) Usual Multi Victory conditions - the VPT triggers the end of the game but it is your lowest score that is considered your score. In this variant anyone who picks the merchant or berserker will be unable to use them to win the game. Since these are the two positions with the highest ability to score if you run their scores up you will negate their use. Not allowing the Merchant and Berserker combination eliminates you from using either position to win. 4) HIGH RESOURCE GAME Many of us are bored to tears by the first 4 turns with it's usual lackluster exploration. T4 is exciting with its rapid and intense diplomacy but then you often spend the next 3-5 turns building up for a military or scoring push. Finally, the game ends 4 turns later :-(. 1) HW has 60 industry. 2) Start with 50 metal at the HW. 3) Mines tend to be on the high side - more mines in the area of 5-10. I imagine that exploration and buildup can be quicker and so can any war or scoring push. This Variant might be best combined with the INTERMEDIATE LENGTH VPT to allow the game to play out to a decent turn number. Here is a variant I am currently playing in as a private game but that all the participants agree has a lot of potential for excitement. 5) PARTNERS ANONYMOUS GAME 1) You join with a partner - who you can communicate with! 2) Anonymous game - unscrambled format so you and your partner can share maps! Many anonymous Starweb players join to avoid the endless need for intense communication and coordination required for success. It also tends to keep alliances small. For those of us that would like to avoid the spam of endless email this is good. But how about a game where you can talk to 1 player, coordinate, strategize and ally with? This would give you the best of both worlds. 6) TEAM STARWEB If you are tired of all the early diplomacy but would still like a game where you play with good allies. This might be an idea. 1) Join as a team of 3 players. No registration possible unless you supply FBI with your 3 players, character types, names and acct #. This is really an expansion of the Partners game where you have a ready-made alliance of 3 players. Combine it with MULTIALLIANCE VARIANT and none of you can ally with anyone else. But it allows you to pre- select your allies before the game starts. I suppose for fairness FBI would put allies close together on the web. 7) NO MERCHANT VARIANT Tired of the usual merchant-scoring race to the finish line? This variant is another way to limit the success of the merchant - because in this variant you don't have any merchants at all. So, nobody feels they must ally with one or find themselves behind the alliance using one. 8) NO MERCHANT/BERSERKER VARIANT This variant is for the players who feel these characters have an unfair scoring advantage and you would like to pit yourself against other players without them in the mix. The 1999 FBI Con was run this way and it was a very interesting game. The EB won! All the above variants address different problems inherent in Starweb or desires that have been expressed by players. Until now they could only be explored via a private game but I'm hoping FBI will take up the challenge and offer some of these. I had some flights of fancy for some interesting or strange variants that people might like to try. 9) BERSERKER/APOSTLE BITTER END GAME 1) There would only be Berserkers and Apostles in this game. It is difficult to take an Apostle's converted worlds unless you wish to expend the resources to drop CGs. In this game it might be interesting to see Apostles waging war on each other and using their ability to 'flip' a world's converts over to themselves. Or fighting their natural enemy in this game - the berserker who can take the world by Robot attack. Usually in Starweb games Berserkers and Apostles are natural allies whether for martyrs or on Jihad. Not likely so in this variant where killing won't affect your position in the game. The berserker will use his R attack abilities to wrest worlds away from Apostle players. 10) ALL PIRATE VARIANT The pirate has the least ability to score but they would fare well against a universe populated only by their pirate brethren. Here they could use their awesome Pirate capture abilities against each other as they seek out the territory they need to plunder and win. As usual - alliances of several pirates would be more successful to win wars, capture ships and gain territory. But your whole alliance is made of pirates? Who will win and can you trust them until the end? Not likely! Yes, I know I am free to recruit players to play any of the variants I have suggested. And I have. But not only is it a lot of work but I find that I only know so many interested Starweb players. I find I am playing the same people over and over again. So my plea to FBI. Rick - please, would you offer some (or all) of these variants to your players every so often (every 3 months would be good) in your email newsletter? Whaddya say? El ----------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? Has anyone seen the famous turn 1 'Guess the connection to ring 2' gambit work? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 000504.0448-4 By Walt Schmidt walts@dorsai.org More Can Be Better - Large Industrial And Mine Worlds - Part I "But there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen, Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green." - G. K. Chesterton In keeping with this issue's discussions of Large Industrial And Mine Worlds (LIAM Worlds) I mean really large - let's take another look at the TP - the Transfer Portal. Yes, I know it doesn't exist. But if we can convince the Gods of Starweb to host a private game with LIAM Worlds - maybe, just maybe we can get him, er, them, to figure out a way to add TPs to the game. And if we could do that - boy will the Empire Builder become a popular player character. At least we can dream and talk about it... [AH, Nemo] [Yes, Alter] [WHO or what is Kensal Green?] [You mean you DO NOT KNOW Kensal Green! Alter, I am surprised!!!] [IN other words, Nemo - you don't know either.] [Well, when you put it that way...maybe one of our readers knows] [NEMO!] [Yes, Alter] [IF you don't know it - don't quote it!] [I'll consider your point] [ARRGH] Getting back to TPs. The Empire Builder can build, re-design and maintain Transfer-Portals that have as their destination a world known to the EB. It does not matter how many worlds it takes to get there. As long as the EB knows all the connections between the two worlds and in the route they designate, they can build the TP, which build occurs before movement. Once built, the TP attaches itself to the originating world as yet another destination world. What I did not mention in the SW2000 issue, once built the TP's originating world also shows up in the list of connects at the destination world. So, in conflict situations - it would be a damn good idea to build and use the TP on the same turn - if one wants to keep the element of surprise, that is. The TP re-design feature (and its reduced cost to the EB - one-fourth the build cost) taken together with the cost to a non-ally for using the TP (a fee of ships equal to three times the number of worlds in the length of the world-chain that are above three) was one of my ways of dealing with a traitorous ally. When faced with a traitor who wants to use the TP to attack the originating world, the EB can redesign the once-used TP, extending the route "around-the-block" a few times, so that a significant number of a non-ally's ships are used! And all the ships collected by this fee appear as additional T Ships on the EB's originating world!!! So even if the non-ally has enough ships to use the TP without losing the key, they will find their target now has that-many-more-ships with which to defend. A fitting situation in my book. Now what does any of this have to do with LIAM Worlds? This all takes s..h..i..p..s! The answer to this need being a game with LIAM Worlds. And, LIAM Worlds are also the answer to the true defense to the TP attack threat - Pirate Traps! But that's a discussion for the next Captain's Log... 'Til then - Shai Dorsai ! Nemo ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE SWAP CORNER The List View This is the text area to the left of the Map View (in the default SWAP Orientation). The List View displays all the information regarding the Starweb game subject to the active filters. There are two controls at the top of the List View: The View Selector Selects the type of information displayed in the List View. The choices are: o Worlds o Fleets o Art o Players Depending on which view selection is made a different choice of filters and sorts will be available in the Filter Control and Sort Selector respectively. The Sort Selector Provides different sort criteria to apply to the information displayed in the List View. The list of available sort selections depends on the choice made in the View Selector. Whatever view you select you can also choose to display the information annotated with icons or not. Icons help to distinguish between different type of information displayed such as worlds, fleets, art, etc... In addition the icon for a world contains a number at the bottom right designating how may rings this world is from the currently chosen ring zero world (the designated center of the universe). Choosing not to show the icons allows more list information to fit on the screen. A '+' sign in the left margin indicates further information is available. Clicking on this '+' sign will display this information. Tip Selecting Expand All from the View menu will expand all the '+' signs in the List View. For world information, a number in angle brackets after the connection information indicates the turn this world was last seen if it's not currently seen. This old information is also grayed out to help distinguish it from current data. E.g. <4> was last seen turn 4. Note: Old worlds may or may not have their fleet data included. Since the Analyzer tracks all fleet movement - if it's seen elsewhere in the universe it won't appear on the old world at all. All fleet movement information has been stripped from the world also. This handling of old fleet information is also present on the Combined Turn sheet if you generate one. Border worlds seen as only connections on your turn sheets are given a separate listing on the World View as well as the Combined Turn sheet. You will also see in the connection information '...' indicating that the connection information may be incomplete. E.g. If you own W43 and it connects to an unknown border world W50 you will see W50 listed as W50 (43,...). Anytime you click on an item in the List View the map will shift to show the associated world in the Map View and it will be highlighted to aid in finding it. If you right click on a world in the List View you are presented with a menu. The first menu item reads 'Goto Connection' and allows you to jump to a connecting world. The second is 'Set as ring zero'. This will set this world as ring 0 (the center of the universe) just as the button on the Tool Bar does. Fleet View This puts all the turn data in the List view organized according to fleets with the world information tucked underneath. It looks very much like a turnsheet that is reversed. The filters for this view are for current information and fleets(owner). The Sorts available are by fleet number, owner or by world. Use of the Fleet view will cause only worlds with fleets on the map to be highlighted. This is often a useful view to get an overview of what is happening in the universe. The Fleet view can sort the fleets by Fleet number (ascending order), owner or by world. Art View This lists all the art. In collapsed view you get a one-line summary of the art listing its name, number, owner and the world it's at or key it is on. It can be Filtered by art(owner) and current info. The art can be sorted by number (last name - such as all the lodestars), by first name (e.g. the platinums) or by owner. Player View This lists all the players in the game that you can see. In the expanded view the players that send you turn sheets will have their headers included here. You will see the summary of the players score, gifts, worlds, keys, ships, industry, mines, people, art, players met, allies, and loaders. Also the Players that can be seen this turn and their scores (not necessarily in order) are put here. This can be filtered by Team and Sorted by Player name or score. A Guide to previous Swap Corners Topic Volume Dummy Turnsheet 16 Adding Map Data 16 Defining Teams 17 Sound Hooks 17 Ring Functions 18 Order Editor I 19 The Order Editor II- Meta-orders 20 Other Player's Orders The Order Editor III-Direct order entry 21 Locating Orders on the Map The Order Editor IV-Checking Orders 22 THE ORDER EDITOR V Preferences 23 HOW DO I Biggest metal stockpile-1 turn of a HW 24 Best PBB target within 1 or 2 turns 24 Show all keys within 1 turn of a world 24 The Starweb Analyzer for Dummies by Lee Knirko 25 Finding fleets (yours, allies, pirate) 26 Color Control 27 Art Stuff (Show it, find it) 28 Find specific key/world and EB gift 29 Filtering concepts 30 Ring functions, Sorting 32 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE >Regarding a low score SW game:< Bob Becker said: What I also think would be funny since I like playing an AC, for once you would have players fighting over Plastic Artifacts and seeing AC's giving away as many Artifacts as they can. I can just see it, EB - "Will you take one of my worlds?" AC - "Will you take my Ancient Pyramid?" Well, that's it for Volume 33. 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