New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Bear with me while I steal some forum space to plug my next PBW game:

Puke's Furball V: Pinball
Status: Game open to new players

Game description
PUKE'S FURBALL FIVE - A.K.A. Pinball
projected start date Septermber 19

This is the fifth installment in the Furball Series! If you are familiar with these events, you will know that the ODD numbered games are all solid games. One system, and as many players and planets as will fit. Max Tech, and bash it out until only one player is left. Thats what we have here and now. This isnt a traditional Space Empires game with strategy and politicking, its a slugfest. Less thinking, more shooting, and a break from the regular program.

The EVEN numbered games will follow experimental formats. Furball 2 has had its historical files deleted for security reasons, and Furball 4 placed each player in his/her own system. A one-way warp point droped them in a central system, from which other one-way warp points lead back to the other player's systems. Maya Max and Dream Place managed to crash the game with their monsterous fleets before it was all over.

This game will take some inspiration from the EVEN numberd Furballs, and though it is number 5 in the series, there will be one experimental feature: There will be a random movement of 12 sectors in the system. This means that all Ships, Bases, and Units will be yanked to a different random spot, probably over someone's planet, every turn. Destruction will be wanton and random, and the path people are pulled in may rake them over lots of other planets along the way. Strange things may happen, but only one player will be the Bally Table King!

What is more, there will be some technology restrictions. In keeping with the spirit of Pinball, and to prevent all the defenseless planets from being wiped out early on, weapons will be limited. That is to say, that there will be no weapons aside from Tractor/Repulsor weapons, and Point Defense. All Unit technologies will remain, including Fighters and Troops. Ramming Warheads will remain, and Troop Weapons will remain. As a final trump, Stellar Manipulation will still be enabled, as Geoschmo used to great effect during Furball 3.

Intel will be disabled. thats DISABLED, as in TURNED OFF. you will have ZERO racial points. Please submit a ZERO point empire. This is a MAX tech game. There will be NO research. It should be obvious what this means for Empire Creation, spend those points wisely. Note that since most weapons are removed, racial weapons will also be removed, so think twice before purchasing a racial technology.

This game will conform to gentlemen's rules. Please, no predetermined alliances, or surrender to your buddy. If you need to surrender, do it to the guy thats kicking your butt. If your buddy is in the game, decide wither or not to be on his side after you meet him and the other empires. The same goes for grudges against the guy that beat you in the Last game you played. Please try not to carry over bad feelings, we're all grown up here.

Also, please do not knowingly exploit bugs in the game. I have not been paying attention to the Shrapnel Forums in recent months, so I am not even sure what these currently are. If anyone has information, please post it in the game forum.

Starting resources: 100000
Starting planets: 10
Home planet value: Good
Score display: Own
Technology level: High
Racial points: 0 (thats ZERO)
Quadrant type: CUSTOM
Quadrant size: ONE SYSTEM!
Event frequency: None
Event severity: n/a
Technology cost: n/a
Victory conditions: Last Empire Standing
Maximum units: 20K (or max allowed)
Maximum ships: 20K (or max allowed)
Computer players: None
Computer difficulty: n/a
Computer player bonus: n/a
Neutral empires: No
Other game settings: SEE ABOVE

projected start date Septermber 19

Game information
Owner: puke
Turn number: Not Started
Players/max: 0/12
Last turn:
Next turn:
Turn duration: 72 hours
Turn automation: Fully automatic turns (key)
SE4 Version: Stock v1.84 (Gold Patch 3)

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Hmmm, I don't know about this one Puke. My first impression is that the system movement is going to make assembling any kind of fleet next to impossible. So your single ships are going to get toasted trying to drop troops on the other guys planets. The way I see it the only way to do anything in this game is gonna be stellar manip. But everyone will build system grav shields to prevent this and the game will stalemate.

That being said I will join anyway because I wan't to see what someone does to prove me wrong. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

This sounds like fun!

Waitaminute... Ships with no weapons agaisnt Large Weapon Platforms with Max Tech weapons (and Relics, no doubt)... I'm not too sure about that.

Or, since Weapon Platforms use Ship weapons, are they limited to Tractors, Replusors, and PDC as well?

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not if someone can get a Star Destroyer to the center before the Grav Shields are in.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not if someone can get a Star Destroyer to the center before the Grav Shields are in.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">And destroy the entire universe? Boy, that's a feather in their cap. I gotta get in on this one.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

If it's the same map he's used for previous Furballs there wont be a star. I was talking about planet destroyers.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh yeah. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Planet Destroyers work without a Star? I thought all Stellar Manipulation needed a Star in the system to work?

[ August 27, 2003, 18:02: Message edited by: Loser ]

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nope, Planet destroyers work fine in a system with no star. Warp openers and closers as well, allthough those wont be a factor in this game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

But I believe you do need a star in a system to use a planet creator to build a planet out of asteroids.

[ August 27, 2003, 18:23: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

yep, you need a star for planet creators but not for destroyers.

and yes, weapon platforms use ship weapons, so they will be limited as well. I have ammended the games description on PBW to also include shield destroyers, so that boarding parties can be a factor.

and as to random movement and fleet assembly, it wont be a problem at all. The Last time I tested it (a few Versions back) random movement worked as follows:

The game picks a random sector, and moves all ships / bases / units towards it by X number of sectors. in this case X is 12, so that everyone will end up in the same sector at the end of each turn, but it will be a different sector each turn, and everyone will take a slightly different path to get there, depending on their point of origin.

and no, there wont be a star.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Good, planets defended by Massive Mount ReplUsers... fun, fun, fun. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I was thinking "ram until shieldless" would be the plan. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sector? That's how it works... Everyone's stuff will fight every turn (everyone's stuff that doesn't get wacked by another planet on the way to the magic sector). <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Dangit, I wanted to burn everything.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Not even planetary napalm? So you have to use units to attack the enemy planets?

(interesting... if the "random movement" takes everybody to the same sector, then "movement" will consist of jockeying for a good position on the edge of the system so that most of the possible directions you can go point you somewhere you WANT to go, sort of like a slingshot that always points inward... this might be more interesting than it sounds! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

edit: so what happened with furball 2 anyway??? come on, tell me! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ August 27, 2003, 23:22: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Umm, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't random movement and black hole movement just poof the ship instantly, without going in between the other sectors?

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That will still be interesting. It will be the randomly located Riot Sector. Fleets can leave it to maraud across the surrounding area, knowing that, next turn, they'll all be back again for another go.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Hey, people.

Get in on this one.

You know you want to.

All the cool kids are doing it.

Ten years down the road, you'll remember this missed oportunity and wonder why you didn't take it. You had nothing to lose. The experience could have broadened your horizons.

Bring it!

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Is it going to be a mod that restricts the weapons or is it just by agreement?

And just to verify - no mines, right?

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

no mod, you can restrict tech areas during game setup. the first grit tech game didnt use a mod, but simply disabled many tech areas. thanks to Geo for making that one happen, BTW.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

oooh, mines.. interesting. i dunno, why not? they would all be sucked to the same sector like everything else, and odds are someone would bring a minesweeper along. I think they would be more irritating than effective.

i can turn them off, if you think they would pose a serious problem, but id like to hear your reasoning on it.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">heh, never realized all the weapons tech were in exclusive research areas. I had thought there was some overlap with weapons and components.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, I have no problem with mines - just didn't see mine warheads in the allowable weapons list, so I wanted to make sure. I say put em in. Teleporting mines sound like good clean fun!

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Aah... Actually, how would that work?

If I have ten planets, and launch one hundred mines from each one in the same turn, then the sector that everything gets pulled to will have one thousand of my mines and God knows how many of everyone else's...

Can you test that one on your magic map there, Puke?

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">i'll give it a shot.. have to see how the mines per sector limit works, here.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

I wonder how the game decides whose mines get detted first in a combined minefield... Would suck to be the player in an alliance who always got his mines blown up first whenever enemies came by and thus had to build more mines to maintain the field... especially so in this game! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Of course, that player could always beg the others in the alliance to build loaded mine layers and gift them to him, in order to save on build time...

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

would mines destroy mines?

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Don't mines only detonate when moving into a sector (i.e., not events or random movement)?
[edit to test sig inspired by this post]

[ September 06, 2003, 18:26: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

So, once people start throwing some mines around, the Magic Sector will become fatal for anyone moving into it during Movement but before Random Movement. But once a Ship, Base, or Unit is in the Magic Sector due to Random Movement it is safe from the Mines.

As if this game wasn't going to be odd enough already.

Get in the game! We need more monkeys!

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

well, i'm a mouse.

a mouse without gold. but's, i ordered it.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

This thing should be starting tomorrow. Last chance to get in on it!

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Get On It!

You Know You Want It!

Get It On!

Get Some!

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm getting in on it, though I'll probably get slaughtered.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Woo!

Somebody got one.

So, who blew up who?

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Well, according to the log message, the Moguchiy Soyuz did it, but I didn't bother to count everybody's planets to see who got nuked http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Man, I had a planet killer over a year ago, game time. the first turn I had it, it was over an allies planet, so I didnt use it. The second turn, it decided to flee (dont-get-hurt strategy)to the oposite side of the map, instead of the nice and protected corner it was in. needless to say, that nice expensive 2-year-build-time ship was blown to little tiny pieces.

I ALSO almost sucessfully captured a planet with troops, but the ship bringing my reinforcement troops to help break the stalemate was rammed and killed. Why it didnt fire ANY of the TEN feking repulsor beams with multiplex tracking, i have no idea. if the ship captain wasnt dead, id kill him.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Perhaps the ramming ship was bigger? Or it couldn't be targeted by repulsor beams? (edit: like it was really a fighter stack or something? I tried a few of those until I started using drones http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

[ January 30, 2004, 18:29: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Someone just took one of my worlds. I'm not sure who, other than 'game name'. But congradulations.

How have ground actions been going for others?

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

as you're well aware, they've been sucking for me. I wish I knew which troops I still had down on that planet, and how urgent it is to reinforce them. any chance of a hint (or can you tell, either?)

Even if we have someone or the other blowing up one planet every turn, I dont think thats going to decide the game. Might take a couple people out of the running, but its looking like either drones or planetary bombardment is going to be the deciding factor.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Replacement needed! Take over the Confederacy of Doom, and, uh, doom us all!

This is a fun game, join up!

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Alright, I'm in.

PS. Geo, I could take over the empire use the Graphics Version & Mozilla. Sorry didn't grab the error, just switched to the text Version and worked fine.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Alright I've got the handle on this game, and some new designs will be rolling off the production lines next turn. I hope they work. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
But I do have a question. I noticed 2 planets have been destroyed and just worked out that they were mine. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Does someone want to take responsablity for their destruction so I know who to take my revenge on?

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

If you're the Confederacy of Doom I don't see how your planets could have been blown up. With Temporal and that insane Construction bonus I put Planetary Gravitational Shields on all worlds within the first few turns.

Perhaps they were taken, and then blown up?

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Thanks Loser, I think you could be onto something.
Even though we are the only None breathers, their are 2 None planets that are owned by other races. Now I know who to blame. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif
So that means that the 2 dead planets must belong to someone else. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

you know how many months i spent in stalemated ground combat trying to get that planet? that was WORK! it didnt help that my transports carying reinforcements kept getting toasted.

i can only take credit for one of them, though.

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

Next!

Re: New PBW Game - Furball V: Pinball
 

What, it's over?

Who won?