Spiralus PBW discussion thread.

BeeDee10 · #1 July 26th, 2001, 09:51 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Dragonlord:
Hmm yes maybe we should try this with 4 players or so. And yes, ancient race would not be a fun trait to have on such a map.

Well, I don't have anything against ancient race myself; you pay your points and you get your maps.

quote:
Im still a little puzzled about black holes though...always have been. What's the big deal with them?

Well, for starters black holes tend to be associated with corrupted warp points. They're like unsweepable minefields, and if they happen to cripple your engines you can still lose ships to the hole. But even if the warp points are normal, you just can't station a fleet in a black hole system for an extended period; eventually they run out of supplies and die. You can't put in sentry satellites or minefields either, they get sucked in too. And if your fleet is low on supplies, be very careful before sending them through. Remember also that combat consumes supplies, so fighting inside a black hole system could doom you even if you win the battle resoundingly.

Basically, it's a major pain to _hold_ a black hole system. They're natural no-man's lands.

Note that I haven't actually had much _experience_ with the strategic implications of these things; I've mostly played against the AI so far. But it all seems to make sense inside my head at the moment.

quote:
Nebuleas I can understand, good to make resupply stations in or for forcing combat with no shields. (or was that black holes again, the no shields thing?)

Black holes are the no-shield systems, nebulas are merely naturally cloaked (though one of the red nebula types cloaks better than any sensor can overcome, and ships in such a nebula are _invulnerable_. Invest in stellar manipulation.

.

(I came across a mod that added a wide variety of new nebulas with all sorts of effects borrowed from the storms, but the name is slipping my mind.)

Oh, and the usual disclaimer applies; different people have different playing styles and enjoy different sorts of maps. I wouldn't want to play _every_ game in an Ancient quadrant, that would get tedious.

Rollo · #2 July 26th, 2001, 10:23 AM

Yeah, let's give it a try on a small ancient map with 4 or 5 players and no AI. If you don't mind, I could gamemaster that. I don't want to take away your idea, but since we are moving away from it anyway it will be in addition to that, not replacing it.
I don't actually care who gamemasters it, but I have not done it yet, so I could learn it.

About Black Holes: In one of my games with the demo I had my one of my explorers getting sucked into them, because it ran out of fuel. It already had solar collectors on, but had to travel through a couple of nebulae (sorry, no fuel here

). Already low on fuel they had high hopes of finding a sun at the other end of an unexplored warp point only to find a black hole... Well, the good thing about those is that you don't have to pay maintenance for stranded scouts

. In order to reach the other end of this nebulae/black hole cluster I had to develop better solar collectors, wait a few turns just outside the first nebula to refuel and then make the run (the Kessel run?). But it was worth it: On the other side, I found a really nice system with at least one breathable planet (cannot recall exactly). While the scout waited in the system to refuel and watch the system, I had to put together an actual colonization fleet (Colonizer, 2 Refuel ships with solar collectors, warships (just to make sure

)). That really gave a "Battlestar Galactica" feeling, if you know what I mean.
This little tale might illustrate best, what I mean with the fun of exploring and planning task forces. Playing in ancient maps gives you some other problems to deal with. Some might argue that playing with ancient maps in PBW can be a drag (in the boring sense), but I say we try it anyway and find out ourselves...

Just my 0.02
Rollo

Rollo · #3 July 26th, 2001, 10:28 AM

Whoops, I didn't see BeeDee had already replied. I was offline typing my stuff. Anyway, it's never bad to have a second opinion...

Shoujo · #4 July 26th, 2001, 12:56 PM

Ship names - Ok I'll add YR after all my ship names from now on.

Time zones- I'm the Japanese player

Sorry for slowing you all down folks. If this game Lasts a month or so I'll be back in the states and ready to crank out turns as fast as the rest of you.

Ancient Galaxy - Eeep no ancient map please. I'm in three normal games that might as well be ancient galaxies from the sheer number of nebulae and black holes I've run into. From my experience they slow the game down a lot without adding much. I frequently end up just looking at a very short empire log, then hitting end turn because nothing happens

Maybe I'm just a tad impatient...

Rollo · #5 July 27th, 2001, 01:49 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Shoujo:
Ship names - Ok I'll add YR after all my ship names from now on.

Okay, good. In all my PBW games I have somebody using the same shipset as me. I guess I should create my own (at least a different flag).

quote:
Originally posted by Shoujo:
Time zones- I'm the Japanese player Sorry for slowing you all down folks. If this game Lasts a month or so I'll be back in the states and ready to crank out turns as fast as the rest of you.

Don't worry, I don't think you slowing things down at all (not more than I do, anyway

). I think this game is progressing quite good. Can't really judge, because this one of my first, but compared to my other games this is really fast.

quote:
Originally posted by Shoujo:
Ancient Galaxy - Eeep no ancient map please. I'm in three normal games that might as well be ancient galaxies from the sheer number of nebulae and black holes I've run into. From my experience they slow the game down a lot without adding much. I frequently end up just looking at a very short empire log, then hitting end turn because nothing happens Maybe I'm just a tad impatient...

Yeah, I understand what you mean. I still like the "feel" of ancient galaxies, though. I guess it's not everybodys cup of tea.

Rollo

dogscoff · #6 July 26th, 2001, 03:21 PM

QUOTE:
I guess I should create my own (at least a different flag).
/QUOTE

You are aware that there is already a Space Viking shipset in build aren't you? That would be too much of a coincidence...

http://www.sandman43.fsnet.co.uk/viking.htm

------------------
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"I think so Brain but, if you replace the P with an O, my name would be Oinky, wouldn't it?"

Rollo · #7 July 26th, 2001, 04:23 PM

No, I didn't know about it. That's great! I hope I can use it, when it's finished

.

Actually I've been using the name Space Vikings for a long time in these kind of games (i.e SE3, Galaxy PBM). Believe or not, it is pure coincidence. I come from an area in northern Germany where the Vikings had settlements (e.g. Haithabu) and also my real name sounds pretty "vikingish". Just for your information, Rollo was a Viking King (that sounds odd

) in the Normandy.

Okay, enough history for now...

Until the shipset is finished and I get permission to use it, I think I will do my own flag anyway.

Rollo

[edit]
P.S.: Maybe when the set is finshed and someone wants to create an AI for it (don't look at me), I can help a little bit with the speech files. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

[This message has been edited by Rollo (edited 26 July 2001).]