STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://flyingmoose.cjb.net) VOL. 39 Sept. 4, 2000 CONTENTS Feature Article - THE FBI CONVENTION 2000 STARWEB GAME Questions - The Increase Population Limit Order SEDG Web Page URL The Captain's Log - M. I. A. – MISSING IN ACTION! The Swap Corner - Where is my turnsheet Correspondence FEATURE ARTICLE THE FBI CONVENTION 2000 STARWEB GAME By Elliot Hudes Well, the annual FBI Convention occurred on July 28-30, 2000 at the Quality Suites in Scottsdale Arizona. Once again I found myself facing worthy and dangerous opponents. But I get ahead of myself. Let's go back to April. My partner Mike (cofounder of Flying Moose Technologies - a shameless plug!) tells me that due to the way his vacation time with the children falls he cannot go to the convention this year. As I sign up for my holiday time at work I note that the only week I can take off when my children are away at summer camp coincides with the convention (and I had planned on going away with my wife .... ALONE :-). But the more we look for somewhere to go the less we can find. We agree that it needs to be HOT and we both wanted something scenic as opposed to the belly of a large city. So it looks more and more like Arizona fits the bill. When I tell my wife that the convention is a bit intense and that I would likely ignore her from 8 AM to past midnight she thinks that it's great! A chance to sit by the pool, shop and read books. So the decision is made. I am going back to the FBI Con! And secretly I am thinking, "Hey, Maureen has played a Starweb game once. Maybe I can con her into joining and have some fun being her opposition". That was not to be and even the mention of it from various gamers and myself was enough to double up Maureen in laughter. This year we rented a car and were planning to stay an additional 6 days to explore Arizona and we wound up at the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, The Meteor Crater, The Petrified Forest National Park and Sedona. If anyone is thinking that Arizona is too far to travel to play games then consider the idea of combining it with a trip as we did. It was fantastic. We arrived the day before the Convention and the Quality Suites were terrific. A lot better than previous hotels we used. The rooms were spacious and had a microwave and refrigerator which is an absolute necessity since free time for such frivolous things like eating were in short supply. Maureen and I quickly stocked up on the essentials for an athlete ready to compete in games relegated to pen, paper, desk and laptops. Chips, cookies, beer, soft drinks and enough bread and sliced meats to get through the convention. I made sure of a few other amenities and found that the hotel had a happy hour from 5-7 PM for free drinks and snacks. This was followed by a Milk and Cookie hour which I thought a bit strange at first but after the first taste of home baked chocolate chip cookies I quickly changed my mind ;-). That first day there was time for a swim in the pool and a great Mexican dinner. We bumped into many gamers who I had played with in previous years or just on the internet. It seemed that everyone wanted to ally before turn 1 was even printed up. Chris, my main opposition in the previous 2 years was there and we really wanted to be allies for once. But the way things were shaping up it was going to be a game with only 1 big alliance, which included everyone. This was clearly not ideal so everyone agreed that we should see how many people were playing, what positions people wanted and wait until first contact on the web before making any long range plans. What a novel approach :-). This suited me because I was already gearing up for a winning position and one of my potential allies wanted this as well. It wouldn't work well to have an alliance where many of the players wanted to win - this had been one of the reasons I got thrashed the previous year. We had played the game without Merchants or Berserkers and I thought I could balance my Apostle position with my allied Empire Builders. He, taking the best worlds while I took the low pop worlds. We couldn't outpace Chris playing an Empire Builder who had the support of his whole alliance. We picked our positions poorly and our strategy and so we were out played. This dashed my hope to repeat the Toronto Blue Jays back to back pennant win with a two year in a row grab for the Starweb plaque. On day 1 we gathered to sign up. There were only 7 players and FBI notified us that we would be playing a multi game with 2 positions each. For those of you who haven't played this you should know that only your lowest scoring position counts. So the choice of characters was your first big decision. Choices like Pirate/Merchant or Pirate/Berserkers would make for a mighty war machine. Chris was there without his usual partner in crime (Frank) and was so used to playing for points to Franks Pirating that he declared that he would be a Pirate/Merchant (FUNNELWEB/BLKHOUSE) this time around. I was hoping that I would meet him first, as he would make a perfect complement to my choice of Merchant/Berserker (SHLUFEN/SOMNOS). Of course picking this combination was like broadcasting "I want the win - beat me up first!" The other players were Ken - playing the Merchant/Apostle combo LEWIS & CLARK, John playing Merchant/Art Collector - MIDAS/GOD, Joe as Empire Builder/Merchant as ZOOICIEUM/ZYMOLOGY, Sally as Pirate/Merchant - MABARKER/HAULER and Mike as Pirate/Merchant RIJN/BLKBEARD. Mike purposely named his positions for two characters backwards as RIJN is a merchant character in Scifi books (but Pirate here) and BLKBEARD was his merchant. This didn't fool anyone as I escaped capture by 7to1 when meeting BLKBEARD on first contact. Looking over the field I could see that Chris, Sally and Mike were the Pirates who wouldn't likely care about score but would be great allies to help promote my own. It seemed to me at first that Joe, John and Ken could all be potential winners. I felt my merchant would be my lower score if the rest of the players didn't try to cripple me first. It's a well-known fact that a berserker can take a game if given enough ships. And it soon became apparent that I had the only berserker in the game. This was a double-edged sword. It meant that at the correct time I would have to flush a ton of ships down the drain to sponsor my scoring campaign in a torrent of PBB fire. But the enemy would not. This means that they would definitely have a military advantage. In my mind that meant I had to be the one to strike first, hard and take someone out fast. To be invaded myself early would probably mean I would never be able to spare the ships for a scoring push. I would have advantages of being able to take worlds (HWs especially) by robot attack and that no robotic world could be used again by anyone else. But if I were in the opposition I would assume that the Merchant/Berserker combo would have to be first target for there to be any chance for anyone else. So at first I felt like I had a big fat target painted on my back. Cripple me and Ken, Joe and John, all with merchants of their own would be competing for the win between an Apostle, EB and an Art Collector. The map was not very complicated which was good due to our time limitations to try and map it out. It was a square grid whose left and right edges met as well as top to bottom making it into a torus (doughnut). There were some missing worlds in the grid just to make it interesting. As it would turn out on T4 I met Chris (Pirate/Merchant). He immediately agreed to alliance and was more than happy to support my win if I would support a military campaign by him. This meshed well with my philosophy because I feel that Starweb is a game best played on the offense. Defensive play rarely produces the winner. On the same turn John/Ken met and allied (This being a merchant/Art and Apostle/merchant). That very turn John/Ken offered to trade turnsheets with Sally. I was very concerned about that. I hadn't mentioned yet that Sally and Joe were mother and son. I assumed that they would likely be allied. This event to me foretold the eventual alliance of the 4 of these players. That would leave Chris and I to try and recruit Mike. Unfortunately, Mike has a long history of being a lone wolf and rarely joins an alliance. I didn't like where things were headed. About 1 turn later (T5 or T6) Joe came over and told us that we should be working together. He had asked his mother if they were an 'Us' and was promptly told that he was a 'They'! I guess they figured it would be pretty lopsided if it was 4 against 2. I was very thankful to be allied with Joe and Chris. Each had a good reputation as competent players and good strategists. Joe also told me that he wasn't interested in the win but wanted to be part of the winning team and part of the war machine. It couldn't have turned out better for me that early in the game. I was the designated the player to be pushed when the time was right. The teams had formed 3 vs 3 with one independent. It occurred to me that Mike was in a unique position that he could really take advantage of. His was the power to push one alliance over the other. I could see that the other team was busy making deals for art, ships and keys. All 3 of us on our team tried to make deals as well. But for whatever reason Mike was reluctant to deal with Chris and I. Perhaps too many games as our opposition. He did make trades with Joe. I decided to start gifting him rocks for plunder for 'future considerations' just to try and keep him friendly and reluctant to help the opposition. Perhaps if he were given stuff from both alliances he would side with neither and that would be acceptable. As the game unfolded he did remain neutral. Since the first day was mostly team building, exploring and the beginning of hauling the turns were not that difficult. I managed to sneak off and go swimming with some of the players and my wife. There was time to go to happy hour and it was a very relaxing and enjoyable day. The first day we managed to do 5 turns and were handed our T6 printout around 9:30 PM. It was due the next morning at 9 AM. That night a whole bunch of the gamers went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant and I got my turn done by 1:30 AM and was able to get 6 hours sleep. Not too bad. On day 2 - our alliance had a pow wow early. We determined that we had to make the first strike. We must be on the offensive because it was inevitable that we would not be able to supply ships until games end and when our scoring push occurred it was likely that the enemy would start a counter offensive. It would be better if some of their empires were laid waste and they had a long distance to cover before getting to our industrial centers. We discussed various options. I was pushing for our Pirate to hit theirs. None of the rest of us had a border with her so it would be one on one. Then I proposed that Joe and I use our 4 HWs to bash Lewis (or Clark) as we both had decent borders. Unfortunately from the scoring on day 2 it was apparent that John (Midas/God) was doing the best scoring and if we left him out he would not only be able to counter attack early but would be in a good position to run for the Victory! Joe suggested we hit all 3 of their alliance simultaneously. Sure it would be one on one but hopefully if we got the drop on them we could keep them tied up on their turfs until we were ready. It would make things like Pirate captures and HW captures less likely but we went with that plan. We didn't even consider hitting Mike the independent. To do this was suicide, as it would drive him into the opposing camp immediately. We launched our attack on T7 having surplus ships from so many merchants. It wasn't until T8-9 that we had full HW builds to ship out. We landed in all 3 areas on T9 and we got the jump on them. They were not as ready as we were. In addition I was the sole merchant to Chris' two empires and was making plans to be the second merchant in Joe's area. We didn't have so much time on day 2 to track scores but as it later turned out the opposition each did mostly their own merchanting. Since I was hoping that my merchant was to be my low score this would work in my favor. The second day we only got in 5 turns as it takes longer to do the orders for 2 positions and many players were in multiple games. There was little time for such things as walks, swims and even happy hour was relegated to a slightly happy few minutes. Maureen would come in to visit and often shake her head very solemnly. By the end of the day we walked out with our T11 printouts to be done by morning. We had managed to send out 1 (first) small wave and 3 good waves to the war fronts. Chris had managed to find 5 of the enemy HWs and was about to engage one of John's (MIDAS or GOD). He was dancing around ring 1 of LEWIS&CLARK. In MABARKER's area I believe there were many firefights. My understanding of the war was getting limited as I started to think about score. At the end of the day we looked things over. My merchant was out in first place (and likely to be the discounted score). GOD/MIDAS had and Art Collector score close by and we figured he could produce 4 museums. We were not sure which of the other scores was his EB. Meanwhile LEWIS&CLARK could only beat GOD/MIDAS if the opposition preferentially started using his merchant and supplied him with PBBS for Jihad. We didn't think that was likely with them still fighting us on their ground. Remember, my berserker had 110 points and by the end of day 2 hadn't dropped one PBB. At our 2nd evening meeting we realized we were not getting as many turns as previous years. We predicted that the game would end on T15. PANIC - did we leave things too late. We had 4 sets of orders to start PBB runs. We realize that it would take 1 turn to build and deploy them and had only 3 turns to take the game away. It was agreed that we would now put EVERYTHING into the berserkers hands - builds, Joe's hauling fleets, war fleets -- everything. That night after a brief dinner Chris and I did our turns until 3:30 AM. It was hectic. T11 was a turn where we nuked one of the GOD/MIDAS HWS and send all surviving ships in the direction of the other HW. Why? Because we couldn't allow GOD/MIDAS to have a lot of war fleets idle - ready to counter attack. We hoped they would go save his other HW. Meanwhile in LEWIS&CLARK and MABARKER/HAULER Chris was in full retreat. He fought where he could, left ambushes and tried to stop the enemy from coming in on us. Meanwhile every HW built bombs and Chris turned over parts of his armada to me. On T13 as the scoring from my first wave of bombs struck I jumped to 3000 points. I trailed my own merchant by about 5000 points and I was trailing the enemy AC by quite a bit. On T14 the second last turnsheet of the game I had jumped to 8000 points. I was having difficulties keeping track of the war and the scores and even having trouble getting my turns in on time as I was managing more and more of our alliances resources. My allies were finding their turns taking less time. I believe on this turn I was tied with my opponent MIDAS/GOD. As it turned out I didn't see any rise in the score of LEWIS&CLARK so they were not trying a similar score push. The last printout of the game showed my berserker grabbing a whopping 8000 points. I squeezed every point out of that printout I could, with no time to produce and deploy new PBBs I resorted to PBBing already Busted worlds, R attacks and even migrating off my robots from the HW to ring 1. We even built industry at HWs so that I could haul even more metal with my merchant. With the final results on T15 I managed to win the game. The opposition took positions 2,3 and 4. Our gambit to firmly establish the war on their ground and not give it up until our scoring push was a good one. It was the last printout of the game when the opposition were finally at any of our HWs in force. We were able to use our HW production until games end. I was able to keep almost all my PBBs out of harms way (I only lost one to Mike who stayed neutral until the very end and used the last turn to invade everyone on his border). It was a good game with plenty of military campaigns for the warmongers and a good run at the finish line at the end. I truly believe that the opposition would have had a better chance if they had done 2 things. One was to target me early and the second was to choose one player as their candidate and get his merchant hauling maximally earlier on. That night Rick, FBI and all the gamers went to a Steak house for dinner to retell the tales of our campaigns. It was a fabulous weekend of gaming - living with little sleep and much junk food and beer to sustain us. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys FBI games. Will I return? Well, I've shown I am fairly competent at the scoring positions and I'm wondering if I should test my meddle in tournament play as a bad assed pirate - a king maker. Who knows? As for my wife - I don't think we did anything that weekend to persuade her that gamers are not a very strange breed :-). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? 1) Last issue I said: Here is a quickie - who won the FBI Con Starweb game - 2000? Clue - He's a Starweb junkie well known to you. I think my Feature article answers that :-). 2) Here is a new question. Has anyone ever had a good reason to use the order to increase a worlds population limit? 3) Another Question. If a Pirate captures a key from a berserker (or Apostle) that is dropping a PBB. What happens to the points? Does the Pirate lose points for the kills made? Does the Berserker/Apostle still get the points? This question was generated from discussions between Rick Loomis and John S. - see below. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 By Elliot Hudes M. I. A. – MISSING IN ACTION! The Captain A.K.A. Walt Schmidt seems to be A.W.O.L. or M.I.A. I haven’t heard from him in a while and I hope all is well and that he returns to the SEDG soon. But this brings up an interesting problem. Your offense is a finely tuned machine requiring the timing and finesse of a well-performed dance (or your defense if that’s the type of game you are in :-). You send instructions to your good buddy MIA and he acknowledges. When the turn comes you see that he has missed his turn. Or he botched the orders. Or he didn’t even confirm the orders. What do you do? Well, in the situation where they didn’t confirm your orders you are partially at fault. Without confirmation you don’t know if your ally has seen your requests due to the vagaries of the Cybergods or just do to time constraints of their own. But if your ally just forgot to carry out the “Plan” or just plain missed the turn – that is a more serious offence. If the “Plan” hasn’t been totally destroyed I suppose you could be magnanimous and just forgive and forget (but don’t forget too much – it may pay not to make such battle plans hinge on such an unreliable player). Because in the long haul it is better to tolerate the mediocre or incompetent than to do anything that might add him to your enemies camp. Where you have taken a major loss due to the problem you might recall the players history. Is this a one time problem or just another in a long line of fumbled balls? In the latter case perhaps it may be time to consider a divorce. Check your alliance agreement carefully and make sure you have just grounds. But like a real world divorce, remember it can be long and bloody and nobody may win. But live and learn and in future you may be more selective when committing to an ally. Elliot (Shai Dorsai) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE SWAP CORNER Where is Stuff Hiding? Many of you have grown very used to the usual turnsheet setup. So much so that it becomes difficult at first to find what you want in the Starweb Analyzer. Let's start at the beginning. The usual information at the top of the turnsheet is the Game Identification line followed by the header information that contains the summary of your position such as your score, worlds owned, mines, population, industry, players met, allies and artifacts followed by your sign. In the List View of the Analyzer you start of with a World list. Above the list is a white box containing the word - World. You may also select here for Fleet, Art and Player Lists. If you select Players you will be greeted with a list of all the players (your own included) each containing that very same header information. Your sign will be absent as it has been moved so that they can be viewed with Diplomatic messages. In addition to the header information is found the Players you can see this turn and their scores (not necessarily in order. They were grouped together because it is easier to figure out player scores if you have your score (in the header) and the other scores (footer). You have this information for every player you process a turnsheet for. What about the Diplomatic Messages and Signs? Above the title box for the List View is a button with an icon for a page with text on it. If you click this you can view all the Diplomatic messages and signs that each player sees sorted into the various players by tabs. It opens by default to your own player position. The world information is already offered on processing the Analyzer automatically. The due date at the bottom of a turnsheet is offered immediately upon processing a turn in a window that tells you the due date, how many days until the due date and a button marked 'OK' that you must click to acknowledge. Following this it disappears and a Due Date appears at the very bottom of the analyzer below the List and Map Views in a white bar. The only data not incorporated into the Starweb Analyzer are the FBI report of the orders you submitted and any errors they detected. I hope this helps you find all your turn info! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE Here is an interesting thread between John Shannonhouse, myself and Rick Loomis generated from a recent notice from FBI. John Shannonhouse said: John>> Talk about nasty! From FBI ========================== Also all pirates, apostles, and berserkers should be aware that if a pirate captures your fleet on the turn you are dropping your pbb or attacking population, it cancels your points. (Or rather, the pirate loses them instead of you getting them.) ========================== << Message text written by Elliot T. Hudes >Sounds like Rick got an earful from some newby green player who screwed up :-). < John: He also discussed someone getting caught with the "Drop PBB as you gift it to target" disaster. I think I was the first person to get caught by this -- dropping a PBB on the *only" 255 pop world I have ever seen, for a 765 point swing... Since this is such a *major* area for Apostles & Berserkers, as well as Pirates (*I* didn't know the pirate would lose points for the PBB drop), I would prefer to see this accented *very* prominently in the rules. Perhaps in a section titled: "GOTCHA! -- misunderstandings that can *REALLY* hurt!" I am of two minds over this. I don't mind the Berserkers & Apostles not getting the points. But a Pirate has enough trouble scoring, and can't get a high score as it is. I don't like seeing his special ability *losing* points for him. I just had a really nasty thought. Change the rules just slightly so that if a Pirate captures an opposing key as it PBB's, AP's Robotizes, or drops metal or CGs, have the pirate gain/lose points exactly as if he had been the character taking the action. It fits with the pirate personality of stealing the work of others, done at exactly the right time. He grabs the generated "wealth" just before it is transmitted back to the other player. It gives the Pirate an additional incentive to take on the players most likely to win the game. I like this. I am going to CC Rick and see what he thinks. I don't know how difficult this type of a change would be, but I really like it. It might get me playing a Pirate. John Rick responded: Actually I like the idea, but it would be a program change and potentially expensive, with the additional likelihood of introducing new program errors. Chuck informs me that I MIGHT have been mistaken in telling everyone that the Pirate loses points if he captures a PBB being dropped. The player that wrote me was giving worlds to his jihad victims and then dropping PBBS on them. He ALSO had a fleet being captured by a pirate, and assumed that was why he didn't get all the points he was expecting, but the numbers didn't quite add up. I didn't actually check with the pirate to see whether he lost the points. Rick >> (*I* didn't know the pirate would lose points for the PBB drop), << Elliot: Well, as Rick said - he isn't sure that a Pirate would lose points for capturing a PBB key as it makes the drop. Would make an interesting question for the SEDG - see if anyone has observed this. Lee Knirko said: Elliot, would it be appropriate to start a string on Coolboard on the mega-alliance issue you and I and a few other players have been discussing? Or do you plan to use the information in SEDG? I feel Starweb will be losing many players if the mega alliance is not voluntarily limited. The pool of players is shrinking, which just contributes to big alliances, since most players know each other and want to join together. Again, let's publicize the Coolboard access, and get some interesting strings going. I read all the messages there again last evening and enjoyed them. Keep up the good work guys, you are making significant Contributions to Starweb players. Also, don't take so many Suggestions for changes in the SW Analyzer seriously. Players need to do a bit of work themselves, and not expect a machine to do so much of the game playing. Maybe that subject might be an interesting "string". LEE Editor: OK Lee - here it is again. Coolboard is an online message board where Flying Moose Technologies has registered Starweb. Go there to lurk and enjoy many threads pertaining to Starweb or join in by posting responses of your own or entirely new threads. Lee, the subject of mega-alliances would make a terrific thread. Why don't you post your concerns and start the ball rolling (or submit them to SEDG). To access the Starweb Coolboard go to the Flying Moose Technologies web page at http://www.flyingmoose.cjb.net and on the main page click the link to the Discussion Forum. Regarding the Starweb Analyzer - some of the suggestions we plan to incorporate because we like them. Others are not going to be implemented. It's a balance between personal preference and what is too much. El Lee followed up with: Elliot- Been thinking about the "Mega alliances" situation in StarWeb, particularly from the non-member point of view (which I am in our current game). As you know, FBI in their wisdom prohibited Roy and I from playing in the same game for a couple of years due to alleged pregame alliances. Now, Elliot, as the most popular player in Starweb attracts all his friends and nearby neighbors to form the mega- alliances, which does not result in a level playing field for the "unchosen". At least one player follows the principle of not allying with the same player in successive games. Another suggested limiting alliances to no more than four players. Another suggests dropping from games where one is not one of the "chosen". What do you think? BTW, the Analyzer works great on turns sent as attachments from players whose text turns are not accepted. Good recommendation, Elliot. LEE Editor: While I like the idea of being popular :-), I don't think it's entirely accurate that I am the author of all the mega alliances. I've been in some recent games (that Lee was not in) where my alliance was the smaller one. I've had my head handed to me in a couple and we've managed to grab the victory in others. Any other comments on the issue of Mega alliances in Starweb? ----------------------------------- Elliot, I said I would let you know when the David Gerrold forum opened up to the entire internet. I set up a "Sci-Fi Games" section there, where people can discuss their games, give hints, answer questions, etc. I will be checking in frequently and will be happy to talk with anyone. This is a bulletin board system. Messages are left, responses sent and received, but it is not "live". The messages and responses stay out for weeks. Anyone coming by can read them and respond to them. This allows all sorts of interesting discussions to go on. There is also a set of chat rooms available, so you and your alliance could get together for live chats to work out strategy and tactics for the game. Only those people in the chat room at the time can see and participate in the discussions, and they are not saved as "bulletin board" message as in the Sci-Fi Games section. Here are the links: http://forums.compuserve.com/vlforums/default.asp?SRV=DavidGerrold John Shannonhouse Well, that's it for Volume 39. 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