STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://flyingmoose.cjb.net) VOLUME 58, March 4, 2002 CONTENTS Feature Article – Untangling Questions – SEDG Web Page URL The Swap Corner Correspondence FEATURE ARTICLE First a plea for articles. My backlog of articles for this discussion group is dangerously thin. Is anyone interested in supplying an article about some aspect of Starweb? I think there is still plenty of room to discuss certain variants (Anonymous, multi, bitter end etc.) and a description of a particularly interesting game would be welcome as well. UNTANGLING by Elliot Hudes Is there a proper way to end a relationship in Starweb? Or will you be relegated to the deepest pit reserved for other Backstabbing scum? There really is no black or white in any two-sided deal. You may well be a backstabber and your ex-ally a saint whose righteous anger should smite you dead where you stand. Or it may be that things lie somewhere in the middle of the spectrum and your ersatz ally hasn't been cooperative and coughing up the goods and you have had just about enough . Of course if I were a lawyer I would draw up a nonaggression pact or alliance deal that covers all possible eventualities so there are no misunderstandings. But aside from one lawyer practicing in Las Vegas and playing Starweb, I'm afraid lawyers are a rare commodity in the game. Besides, lawyers don't inhabit the same stygian depths as backstabbers :-). So it behooves you to review the arrangements you have made with this character before taking any rash actions. Some of the most unforgivable faux pas would be to actually fail to do things that were promised - supply ships, gift worlds etc. Even worse would be to find out that they are actually helping your opposition. Yes, even if it's not stated, helping the enemy camp is not compatible with smooth relations in your alliance. When I trade outside my alliance I make sure that what I'm doing won't hinder any of the alliance plans (so I don't give away all my ships) and I make sure my allies are aware of my plans and don't oppose it. You can deal with the nonallied and this can be a good ploy to keeping them in a neutral camp when you decide to pounce on others. For these types of players I would say that it is fair game to just tell them that they are unallied now. If they have ships in your area or vise versa, giving notice and time to vacate peacefully is warranted. That doesn't mean you can't escort them out with a big armada. I have seen this done successfully especially when firing a merchant from his duties. Things are a lot trickier if dissolving the relationship puts you at serious risk - such as if the merchant is over your HW with ships and you fear he will take it poorly. I suppose the ambush or capture of the ships is in order. You likely supplied the ships so it won't matter but you should replace any keys you take that were supplied by this player. Agreements not so all encompassing - such as nonaggression pacts, border agreements or mutual defense pacts should have back door policies. Unless you can live with the agreement until games end - NO MATTER WHAT! Remember that you may want that peaceful border with player X until he and his buddies invade your other ally. All of a sudden you are constrained by an agreement that you would never have agreed to under these circumstances. Placing a clause such as the 2 turns notice for dissolution of the pact or border interdict gives you flexibility while still protecting both parties from things such as surprise attacks. But what about the Gray zones? Here are some situations I've seen that really get allies rankled. In many of these situations both sides will feel they have been wronged if suddenly an ally wants out. There will be a lot of finger pointing and accusations. 1) Won't participate in a strike on a nonallied character for whatever reason (He's a nice guy. He's giving me stuff. I need my ships etc.) 2) Won't accept the plan, keeps changing the plan, doesn't follow thru with his part of the plan. 3) Bossy, disagreeable, or makes inane or just plain stupid plans. In these situations you really have a conflict of ideals or personality and you may truly be better off playing apart. But as many well know, the dissolution of a relationship can be a stormy and painful experience. Then there are some situations where you wish you had never allied. And you don't have even the before mentioned questionable behaviors to blame. Such as the player that misses his turns. In truth they would make a much better target than ally. About the only advantage to remaining allied is that you won't have to worry about their border and if they actually managed to gift you anything or participate in alliance plans it's a bonus. (I try not to make any of the plans hinge on them such as transferring all my ships to their key to fire). Another situation I've seen (but never experienced personally) was where an alliance formed that contained 3 Empire Builders. My alliance had none and I asked the last one (to join that alliance) if he really thought he was going to do well in such an arrangement. In truth, I felt he was recruited for the sole reason of keeping him out of MY ALLIANCE but I didn't see how those others could feed him many worlds. In fact, they didn't and he defected to us in a nonbackstabbing way. He gave notice to his old alliance and asked his merchant to leave. As a neophyte player who truly wished to score he may have been taken advantage of. It's hard to know or second guess other's motives and that is why I say there are gray zones. Some would say you should live with the decisions you make - even such bad ones as joining the alliance with 3 EBs. This speaks highly for taking time and choosing wisely who your allies will be. But as you know, if you wait too long in Starweb the alliances form around you and even as early as turn 5 you could be left out in the cold to fend for yourself. It's a cold hard universe and you do need your allies to survive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? Addendum to the Art Collector discussion: An Art Collector would gain 10,180 points if he owned all 100 pieces of art. This would include the category bonuses and museums. I saw this happen at the 1998 FBI Con where two Art Collectors conspired to get the art to one of them and push him to the win. Great ploy and in a regular game of Starweb would likely have succeeded. This one is much more subjective. I would like to hear from people regarding actions they have taken to facilitate nonverbal communication in Anonymous games. How did you make your wish for alliance known? How did you telegraph your character type or your needs for certain resources? Were you able to get help in a military campaign? How? I haven't heard back from anyone on this question yet. Perhaps it's not as interesting as I thought or the player base from Anonymous Starweb is much smaller. One thing I did to alert a potential ally that I would like his help in a war was to gift him a small key at a border world where I had a huge armada. I had seen this player shoot at my intended target earlier in the game and I made sure that I chose the common border so that when I flew in simultaneously with the gift he could see that I had flown into our common enemy. It worked and we had a two pronged attack on this player. New Question: Again, it's not a B&W Starweb question. Last issue in the SEDG Craig Steel spoke about possible new Variants that FBI could offer (his all Apostle game has me interested ). Any ideas of Variants that could be tried (please, nothing that requires reprogramming the SW game)? Editor: I have organized and played in games that excluded merchants and berserkers as well as variants where we played 2 position multi and couldn't match up the berserker and merchant characters. This effectively eliminated the possibility of the merchant or berserker running away with the game. They were a lot of fun. Anyone one else have ideas for an interesting variant? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MAPPER'S DELIGHT – MAPPER'S NIGHTMARE This puzzle hasn't been cracked yet! For those of you who love to crack a good Starweb map, I've constructed an interesting one. The data is a barebones turnsheet that the Starweb Analyzer can handle or use pen and paper. The worlds and their connections can be found in the SEDG Volume 57 and if you don't have it you can look it up on the web page. Questions 1) What is the base unit composing the superstructure? (Part marks if you can describe it but don't recognize what it actually is). 2) What is the Superstructure? El ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 SWAP CORNER V1.5 Beta Not a lot new to report. Mike has added a halo of red to surround a world where combat is occurring. V1.4 and V1.5b are compatible with Windows XP. If you are a registered customer then your V1.5b will install that way. Others will have it open as an Evaluation version. The key that we send you when you purchase the program works on both versions so you don't have to download them again after purchase. We don't anticipate an upgrade fee for V1.5 so if you're thinking of buying the Starweb Analyzer – go ahead, V1.5 will be a freebee. Of course no SWAP Corner is complete without a plug for our upcoming convention. At present we have 10 confirmed players and an 11th who says 'the cheque is in the mail' :-). It looks to be a great game so come on up! FLYING MOOSE TECHNOLOGIES STARWEB CONVENTION. Yes, it's official. Here is the information about the Con. The web site http://flyingmoose.cjb.net will have more details including a map to the resort and links to the Resort's homepage. If you have received one of our paper fliers I apologize for the error in the web page URL – the demise of the @Home network has forced us to relocate it. The Flying Moose Technologies' - Great White North (Canadian) Starweb Tournament It's official! Flying Moose Technologies will host the first Canadian Starweb Tournament and we shall be bringing Flying Buffalo's head Honcho -- Rick Loomis up to moderate the game. Come and enjoy 3 days of gaming, playing the award winning Starweb face to face with your allies and opponents. There will be a beautiful plaque presented to the winner of the tournament and the satisfaction of crushing your enemies. When: Friday April 26th 9 a.m. - Sunday April 28th 6 p.m. Due to the location of the Tournament it is recommended that you arrive no later than Thursday evening. Registration: Please send your registration fee to Flying Moose Technologies 2912 Remea Crt. Mississauga, Ontario Canada L5L 2H5 Cost: $100.00 US or $150.00 Canadian. For those that Register after Dec. 25th the price will be $120.00 US (or $175.00 Canadian). Where: Birch Haven Resort, Baysville Ontario. This Resort/Conference Center is found in Muskoka - a region composed of thousands of lakes and hills nestled in northern Ontario. It is a robust ecologic niche entrenched in the geologic formation known as the Canadian Shield, an area virtually stripped of topsoil by the most recent glacier's advance leaving outcroppings of three billion year old Precambrian rock and thousands of lakes in its wake. Call (705) 767-3354 to make your Resort reservation - 1 night payment by credit card will be required to hold the room. Birch Haven will charge $30/person/day Canadian (without meals) based on a double occupancy. It will be $45/day for single occupancy - the rooms come with kitchenettes. Due to this being the offseason the Restaurant will be closed but there are several restaurants in nearby Baysville (2 minute drive) as well as General Stores to help you stock your fridge while you game. Directions: It's a 2-hour drive from Toronto. For those landing at Toronto International Airport - take Highway 401 east to Highway #400. Go north on Highway #400 past Barrie and then get onto Highway #11 north. You will pass the following towns - Orillia, Gravenhurst and Bracebridge. Exit Highway #117 and go east 16 kilometers (10 miles) until you reach Basyville. After you pass over the bridge in Baysville look for the Birch Haven Resort and Conference Center on your left (within 2 kilometers). (Out of town guests - it is recommended that you rent a car. There may be some opportunity to grab a ride with a local Torontonian on Thursday evening - check with me if you wish to explore this). Refund Policy: This convention is basically being put on by the Canadian fans and to limit our risk of large losses (to bring FBI to Canada, reserve the Resort etc.) we are making the registration fee nonrefundable after Dec. 25th, 2001. If the Convention must be cancelled from our end your Registration fee will be refunded. Starweb Analyzer: If you bring a laptop you will be able to get your turns on diskette to input into your Starweb Analyzer. If you have a laptop but not the Starweb Analyzer I encourage you to check out our web site. http://flyingmoose.cjb.net. If you prefer paper and pen - I will ensure that I have an inkjet printer available for paper turns. If we get a large response there might be a chance of running other FBI games. Please let me know if this is of interest to you. For more info on FBI games - http://www.flyingbuffalo.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE At 07:35 PM 2/4/02,Rick Loomis wrote: >STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) > (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer > - http://flyingmoose.cjb.net) > >VOLUME 57 Feb. 4, 2002 > Nice issue. By the way, I re-read my comments about Richard Broman's suggestions, and I come off kind of angry or irritated. I didn't mean to be so negative. I was just trying to respond. I really like the comments in this issue. It doesn't cost anyone anything to provide links to my website, and I am always happy to provide reciprocal links if they want them. I'll have to add more links to your site from the Starweb pages, and more Starweb stuff online. I should point out that some search engines rate a site higher if there are more links TO it from other sites. Thus every link that a fan sets up that links to Flying Buffalo, increases my standing on certain search engines, which means more chances to attract an interested customer. They should include a link to the home page, and a link to the starweb description page or the starweb rules. Plus a link to your page, of course. Also if they want to help, IWON.COM has set up a virtual store thingy. As a customer of iwon.com I can (and have) set up my own "store front" where you can buy books, cds, computers, cameras, office supplies, games, etc online. Any purchase made in this store, Flying Buffalo gets a commission. If you were going to buy something online ANYWAY, please check out Grimtooth's Bazaar and if the price is the same, buy it there instead of somewhere else. (If the price is higher there, don't push it, as my commission isn't THAT big.) The link is http://grimtoothsbazaar.iwonmarket.com - even if you don't buy anything there, take a look at it. It's a little bit amusing. Rick PS I agree with the comment about popup ads - you will never get those from the Flying Buffalo site. PPS Convention - I haven't called the travel agent yet, but will do so shortly. He needs to drop by and deliver some tickets this week anyway. We're still giving away the flyers you sent. And I have the convention listed on my "conventions" page now. I'll probably want to visit Niagara Falls, I guess. I've seen big cities before, but I've never seen Niagara. Rick Flying Buffalo Inc www.flyingbuffalo.com PO Box 1467, Scottsdale, AZ 85252 480-945-6917 fax 480-994-1170 Editor: Your right - emotional tone often gets lost in email - it's caused more than one flame war in some discussion forums I've participated in. As for the convention – Anyone who is planning to fly in and participate in the Canadian Starweb Tournament is welcome to join us on Monday April 29th for an excursion to Niagara Falls. My van holds 7 so there is still room. Well, that's it for Volume 58. 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