Online campaign - TURN 10 (Game over)

[Gekko]

Online campaign - diplomacy, strategy, combat

Last edit: Added the apparently missing section explaining possible orders specified to a fleet, and added the new movement order "attack any fleet". Also added some stuff that wasn't in this thread such as the process at which the turn moves.

For some time I've wanted to play a bigger campaign in UQM. I originally suggested this to Shiver, but he said that I had just described how Star Control 1 gameplay was (I've never played the first Star Control). It was also agreed that the net melee community isn't big enough for this sort of stuff. Anyway, I think we should try.

The grand idea is to play a strategical game of net melee, sort of a mix of Star Control 1 and diplomacy. This means that we will be using a star map (maybe a portion of the original star map from UQM, size depending on the number of players) as the play area. In this sector of space there are multiple players (Admirals?) who are trying to defeat their opponents and gain control over more solar systems. The ultimate goal is not to defeat all other players, but defeat all the hostile alliances. Alliances are dynamic, meaning that they can change entirely during the game. The game ends when there is only one alliance left. At the start of the game no-one is allied, but the situation can be entirely different after the first turn.

Story

We do not know what happened. This is important. Oh, there are plenty of rumours. Some say that just before it happened, the Rainbow Worlds lit up, blazing energy pulsing out of them and engulfing entire systems. Others say that in Orz space, large things defying description could be seen in hyperspace, bending time and space around them. There are reports of blotches of green appearing in hyperspace, and of strange beings appearing in many systems.

But we do not know what happened. We only know that just as we had sat down to sign the final peace treaty within the sector, to usher in an age of peace, things changed. Hyperspace began to move around. It is still there, but now it is filled with storms and danger. The gravity wells are in different places and lead to new systems. In Truespace, planets disappeared. Sometimes we find them in completely different systems, devoid of life. Sometimes we do not find them at all. Fleets disappeared too, many of them for good. Some ships were scattered through Hyperspace and Truespace, often appearing within moons or planets. And there was death. Something moved out of the new darkness of Hyperspace, and where it moved life ceased.

And then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped. The presence retreated, leaving the survivors in this harsh new world. We were left alone, among the ruins of our old order. And we do not know what happened. We just know that things are different. The Arilou no longer smile. There is sadness in their eyes, and they tell us that they are trapped here. They cannot find their way home. The Orz are silent. They will follow directions, but they no longer talk. It is as if they have lost a part of themselves. The Arilou say that their *fingers* have been cut off. The Androsynth are here as well. They do not know where they have been, they are as lost as all of us. They are joined by two other lost races, the Chenjesu and the Mmrnmhrm in being confused, alone and worried. The Chmmr are still here, and view the newcomers warily. But they have enough troubles of their own. Some say they were performing a experiments at Delta Draconis, experimenting with Precursor technology beyond their understanding. Perhaps this is why we do not find any Traddash. Perhaps it is even why everything happened as it did. But we do not know: We only know that the Chmmr are not trusted the way they once were.

There were battles at first. Many of us were sworn enemies, and this was an excellent time to repay old debts. But within every race, there are those who would rather live. Even among the Kohr-Ah, some prefer life to death. Eventually, the fighting stopped. Those who now remain work together, or die by our hand. Who knows how long this truce will hold? But for now, it does.

There must be others out there. Other groups such as ours, struggling to stay alive and to rebuild civilization. Perhaps they will welcome us gladly. But what if they do not? How many new Hierarchies have formed out there? How many lone Kohr-Ah are still preying on the defenseless? How many of the survivors we encounter will view us as an obstacle to be removed?

So we come to you commander. Among us, you are the only one with experience of commanding troops. We need a leader to take us through these trying times. To rebuild our worlds and our way of life.

Please help us commander, you’re our only hope.

The starmap

Starmap

There are 121 stars, each generating 3 points. That means in total this area of space generates 363 build points each turn.

Gameplay

As mentioned above the game is played in turns. The players move simultaneously, but in specific order. At the beginning of the movement phase each player is given a random number between 1 and n (n = player count) after which the players get their movements done according to the number they received. Players can move all their fleets once during each turn to any star in their current constellation, or to any neighbouring constellation / individual star.

Combat

Combat occurs when two or more fleets of different alliances end up to the same solar system. There are a few cases:

Case 1: 2 players of different alliance
Case 2: 3 players of 2 different alliances
Case 3: 3 players of 3 different alliances

The battles always occur a fleet against a fleet (think of them as pokemons). At the beginning of the battle both players pick their fleet and connect to their opponent. The players play super melee as normally, except they are allowed to retreat. Retreating causes the ship on the battlefield to be left behind and get destroyed. Retreating can only be performed during combat, not in the ship menu while considering your next pick. Once a player retreats the fleet will move to any adjacent solar system immediately. If the fleet lands to a hostile solar system, it is then forced to combat again. The first case above uses these rules.

If there are 2 players from alliance Alpha and 1 player from alliance Beta, then the alliance Alpha simply selects which of the players goes to battle first. Retreating works normally.

If there are 3 alliances present, then the battle occurs by randomly selecting who are battling first. This means that the waiting player will get a major bonus. If there are 4 alliances, then 2 battles will occur at the same time, and the winning alliances will continue to battle for the control of the solar system.

When a battle is over, the surviving ships will be repaired. This is done by spending build points for the amount of crew lost with the following formula:

amount_of_crew_lost / max_crew * ship_price

This means that if you have a Chmmr that lost 15 crew, then you will be purchasing crew with the values:

15/42*30 = 10.71 = 11 build points.

The ship hull will be fixed, new crew hired and equipped, supplies filled etc. In this Chmmr example the price is 11 build points, which is 19 points less than a full Chmmr. You already have the hull, weapons, hyperdrive and all the required systems, but due to the damage lots of vital components need to be replaced.

If the player cannot afford the repairs, then he must either destroy his ship or go to negative build points.

When your battles are over you can either calculate the cost of repairs yourself or submit the remaining crew to me. There is a small function for this in your excel sheet fleet page.

This rule is enacted immediately. The battles that occur during this turn 2 are affected.

If you end up into the same star with another player, then you can negotiate with each other. If one of the player wishes to retreat immediately, giving the star to the other player, then the other player can decide whether or not he accepts this. This means that if you end up to the same star with someone else, then you don't necessarily have to blow the opposing ship into oblivion. You can let it go. Retreating during combat still causes the penalty.

In case the players are unable to connect to each other they will name a vice admiral. This of course doesn't mean that you get I_LIVE or me from #uqm-arena, but someone who you have named before the game. All players will be tested for connection issues before the game on #uqm-arena. You are free to play your games wherever you wish as long the games get played in time, though #uqm-arena is recommended for support.

There are some ways around connection problems. First of all you should configure / disable your firewall. After this you should see your virus protection, followed by router port forwarding. Remember to also check if you are able to ping your opponent (windows key + R, type cmd, ping [insert ip address]). Occasionally routers automatically block pings, but sometimes it might tell you something if you are able to ping each other, but still unable to connect. There are some instructions here for port forwarding. If everything else fails you can use a program called Hamachi. This program creates a virtual local area network for the computers who are connected to the "room" which someone has created. We use room called "uqm-arena" with password "culture20". If you are using Hamachi, then you must use the IP address displayed in the Hamachi window.

Rules of engagement

By default you are allowed to play the battles with whatever rules you want, but both of the players have to accept them. However, if one side wishes to use the official tournament rules, then the another player must accept this. Default tournament rules are:

Tyranny

In case there are problems I (Gekko) will have the final word in these debates. I do listen your opinions, but we need someone to lay down the rules. You are free to question these rules at the arena or public debate here.

Stalemates

Rule: In the spirit of competition, both players should employ whatever tactics they consider most effective. This may result in a stalemate at some point. If so, the faster of the two ships becomes a designated attacker. The attacker does not necessarily have to make a bee-line directly for the defender, but they are required to take the initiative. This means that Androsynth attacks Shofixti, Ilwrath and most of the ships other than Slylandro with the comet, not bubbles.

Explanation: Stalemates are bound to happen. We found this rule to be a relatively painless solution. The decision to use speed as a stalemate-breaker did not significantly reduce the effectiveness of Star Control's fastest ships. As it turned out, the most mobile combatants were best suited to withstand such a penalty.

Shofixti Host Advantage Prevention

Rule: In case the guest player uses the Shofixti's Glory Device against the player who is hosting the game and manages to destroy the opponent in his suicide attack, then that battle is considered as the Shofixti's victory. In case this happens the host player must tell what ship he is going to deploy next on the IRC, giving the upper hand to the guest player.

Explanation: The game forces the guest player to select a ship first. This causes the host player to get an advantage in the game of rock-paper-scissors by giving him an opportunity to pick a counter against the guest player. This has been discussed on the arena and it has been decided that the battle in question should be considered as Shofixti's victory.

Torch ban

Rule: Thraddash Torch is banned from the game.

Explanation: The ship is broken in serious net melee. The long ranged main weapon gives the fastest ship of the game a clear advantage over almost every other ship. The ship can destroy most of the other ships in UQM if you are willing to give it 10-20 minutes of time per ship.

Movement & Mechanics

Each player starts with 200 build points and can build fleets as they wish before the first turn begins. Thraddash Torch is banned and there can't be more than one of each ship in each fleet. Fleets can only contain 14 ships. All ships must be in a fleet, even if there is only one ship in the fleet. This means that when you build new ships, you must then assign them into a fleet - one that already exists, or a new one. Ships can be built in any solar system you control. Build points can be traded freely. Include a command along with your orders.

At the beginning of each turn the players get 3 points for each solar system they control. These points can be used before moving your fleets to purchase new ships to any solar system you control. The prices are the same as in Super Melee menu (Chmmr = 30, Shofixti = 5). Fleets can be created and re-arranged during this phase, though moving already existing ships to other solar systems must be done by travelling in fleets (even in a fleet with only one ship).

Players see everything in a constellation where they control a star. If they control linker stars with blue lines to other constellations, then they also see the star at the other end of the line, including fleets.

The movement phase occurs as soon as all orders are in. Generally a week is accepted, further waiting is accepted with explanations. 2 weeks away with no explanation = Astronomical Plantmonster attacks your faction and destroys everything. This time span can be increased to once 2 weeks if the battles seem to occur too often and people don't want to get that many games played in such a short time span. The players send their commands to me using this forum, as a private message using the following syntax:

*****

Topic: [campaign] John The Examle, turn 3, orders

Message:


I use 10 points from my pool and construct two Shofixtis to Alpha Pavonis.
The independent Shofixtis create two new fleets:
Scout Fleet 1: Shofixti
Scout Fleet 2: Shofixti
I use 5 points from my pool and construct a Shofixti to 1st fleet at Alpha Pavonis
My 1st fleet at Alpha Pavonis moves to Beta Pavonis.
My 2nd fleet is split into two fleets:
2nd fleet: Arilou, Androsynth, Chmmr
3rd fleet: Druuge, Kohr-Ah, Shofixti
2nd fleet stays at Alpha Pavonis
3rd fleet attacks the enemy fleet "Red Squadron" at Gamma Pavonis

End of orders

*****

Allowed orders are:
- Move to star "Alpha Hyperion" - Simply moves the fleet to the star targeted
- Attack enemy fleet "Zebra Fleet" - Moves to the same star as the target fleet. If the target fleet moves, then you will chase it. If it goes beyond one turn movement range, then you will move to the star closest to the fleet.
- Attack any fleet in range (largest / smallest) - If you are afraid of the enemy fleet escaping and your fleet wasting one turn chasing the target, then this order can be used to attack any of the enemy fleets in the immediate range of your fleet. Remember to specify if you want to attack the largest or smallest of the fleets - otherwise smallest is used.

What happens if you are building a fleet at a star, but your opponent moves before you and takes the star? The fleet is deployed to some adjacent star. Story-wise this means that the ships under constructions are safely evacuated to the nearest safe dockyard. After the ships are built, they will execute their orders if it is still possible (aka reachable)

Something that people have asked is whether or not the newly deployed fleet will be taking the lost star map. The answer is: No, unless they have been given such an order beforehand. Here's an example, kind of a hack:

"
I build fleet Zebra at Alpha Blah
Zebra moves to Alpha Blah
"

- The player has high initiative, meaning he moves late.
- Another player moves first
- Another player takes Alpha Blah
- The fleet cannot be built on Alpha Blah
- The fleet is built to Beta Blah
- The fleet executes its order
- The fleet moves to Alpha Blah and combat begins

Orders are executed in pretty much First-In-First-Out -method. This means that I will attempt to execute your orders in the order they are listed.

Each of the players will receive a PM on the forums that has three things at the beginning of each turn:
- Their personalised map
- Copy of their faction chart with fleets and other numbers
- List of currently visible fleets

Upkeep

Alliances require that your factions trade with each other, collaborate, send resources to each other, handle administrative bureaucracy etc etc. The upkeep of an alliance is as follows:

2 players: 0%
3 players: 15%
4 players: 25%
5 players: 50%
6 players: 75%
7 players: 150%
8 players: 250%
9 players: 350%
10 players: 1000%

The % stands for the amount of build points which will be spent to the alliance stuff. If you make 30 points per turn, then in the above case your income is:

2 players: 30 points
3 players: 25 points
4 players: 22 points
5 players: 15 points
6 players: 8 points
7 players: -15 points
8 players: -45 points
9 players: -75 points
10 players: -270 points

With these numbers we can eliminate a mega alliance from forming. As we have 10 players (probably), we can have two alliances of 5 players. After that the alliances begin to eat themselves and become unstable.

You can only move to stars controlled by some other player if you are in an alliance with them. This means that you can't simply give them a military access to your territory. Build points can be transferred as the players wish. Fleets and ships cannot be sold, but stars can.

End of the game

The game ends when one or more of the following conditions are met:

- Time limit: The game ends after 20 turns
- There is only one alliance left

If the game ends with only one alliance left, each player gets:
+50 points divided by the members of alliance
+1 for each star the player controls
-3 for each star constellation with more than 1 player inside it

If the game ends with any other condition, each player gets:
+1 for each star the player controls
+2 for each constellation he controls exclusively
-3 for each constellation that the player shares with someone else

Turn process
1. Orders executed
1.1 By initiative, each player builds ships and moves them, also disbands alliances and transfers build points if specified, star sales are made
1.2 Battles are resolved before moving to the next player
2. Alliances formed / disbanded
3. Build points
3.1 Stars generate build points
3.2 Players transfer funds to other players
3.3 Alliances pay upkeep
4. Stats are edited to the excel sheets

Role-playing

All factions can send messages to the public bulletin if they wish. Faction remains completely secret if they don't use the public bulletin. Once they write to the public bulletin, any faction can contact them, Otherwise, factions can only be contacted by first meeting them. You are allowed to role-play wherever you wish, let it be PMs on the forums, emails or IRC queries as long you save your role-playing logs somewhere. They should be an interesting read after the game.

Alliances are formed through role-play and they can be rather loose without that much pressure from the rules. However, once an alliance is formed you must include a note about that with your orders. Both players of the alliance will have to send me that information. Alliances agree on new members based on how they are shaped. If it's the Empire of Gekko, then Gekko will have the final say regarding everything. If it's the United Alliance of Free Stars, then the member factions will vote on new members.

Alliances can be broken. This means that you might receive a message of this nature at the beginning of your turn:
"Gekko has broken their alliance with us!
We have lost 13 stars to Gekko!"

Interested players

#uqm-arena
Gekko (managing, not playing) CONFIRMED IN
AmonX CONFIRMED IN
Sideways CONFIRMED IN
Oldlaptop CONFIRMED IN
Starcruiser GAME OVER
Nekron CONFIRMED IN

SCDB:
chenjesuwizard CONFIRMED IN
Nuclear CONFIRMED IN
Ziper1221 CONFIRMED IN
Alvarin GAME OVER
Lukipela CONFIRMED IN

UQMF:

[Nuclear]

NuclearWin95 the Supox Master here . I hate registered names on Relay Chat...

Anyways, I haven't played Net melee for at least a month now, but I would be willing to play a game if the times right.

[Alvarin]

I really wanted to play about a year ago.
As there was no really big attendance, I tried to play versus the regulars, which was really not met well. So I stopped visiting.

[chenjesuwizard]

I would be interested in playing, but would probably fail.

[Lukipela]

EDIT: Yes, this is indeed posted in *heavy space*. It's for a good reason.

Er, mind sharing the reason for placing this here? It looks like it belongs in GD or OT really. It's not a forum game, a fanfic or an adventure thread, which makes it a bit of an odd duck. But if you have a good reason, by all means let me know and I'll leave it here.

Now, report!

I've never been much for multiplayer games. In part it's because while I enjoy melee, I enjoy it within the story of SCII, not as a single detached component. that's why I've finished games like StarCraft and whatnot, but never played them on line. And in part it's probably my brittle ego not wanting to be challenged and defeated by someone who you can't trick the way you can A.I's

[Gekko]

Anyways, I haven't played Net melee for at least a month now, but I would be willing to play a game if the times right.

I really wanted to play about a year ago.
As there was no really big attendance, I tried to play versus the regulars, which was really not met well. So I stopped visiting.

I would be interested in playing, but would probably fail.

Quite accurately just what I was looking for. Less serious players in masses.

EDIT: Yes, this is indeed posted in *heavy space*. It's for a good reason.

Er, mind sharing the reason for placing this here? It looks like it belongs in GD or OT really. It's not a forum game, a fanfic or an adventure thread, which makes it a bit of an odd duck. But if you have a good reason, by all means let me know and I'll leave it here.

Very well. Posting the idea here.

[Gekko]

edit: content moved to the first post up there

[chenjesuwizard]

I guess I'll give it ago. Sounds fun.

[Ziper1221]

I'll do it if someone can give me the name of a good irc addon for firefox and drop gekkos help link.

[Alvarin]

Chatzilla works well.