Play by web guide

[Puke]

if not a hall of fame, you can at least gleam a little something from who wins Geo's elimination tourney. i think it has about two more rounds to go, so it should be done sometime next year

[geoschmo]

quote:

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Originally posted by Puke:
if not a hall of fame, you can at least gleam a little something from who wins Geo's elimination tourney. i think it has about two more rounds to go, so it should be done sometime next year

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The only thing you'll be able to tell from that is who did the best job in the tourney out of the 24 players that started it.

That's a far cry from saying that person is the best SEIV player.

Geo

[Puke]

well, if there was a ladder, there would have to be an option to setup certain games as 'non ladder.'

for example, it would have been honest to call the first furball game a 'fair' game, while calling furball2 fair would be complete bull**** just because of the nature of the game and the map. it would probably be desireable to not count games like that in peoples rankings. and games like the End of the Universe (theres an opening in that one, by the way) would not get players because EVERYONE DIES when the universe ends! it would mess up everyones rank.

besides, keeping score between games encourages things like people throwing games to improve someones rank, or playing dummy games against fake people.. its best just to play for fun i think, and not to wory about who is the top dog on the heap.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

edit: although a hall of fame for who turns in the fastest turns, now THAT would be handy. maybe a comment system like ebay where other players could post things in your profile: "that bastard betrayed our alliance!" or "This guy drives a dreadnaught like its my grandmothers OldsMobile!" or "the sick jerk keeps making throw-up jokes"

[This message has been edited by Puke (edited 17 October 2001).]

[Dragonlord]

I like the idea of a hall of fame.
Maybe it should just record how many serious (fairly standard) PBW games you were in, and how you did. If you wanted to be on this list, you'd have to tell the list maintainer which games you won (or were 2nd, 3rd or whatever in), AND you should get a few of the people you beat to attest that you did in fact win that game. (they would, if they were honorable, and enjoyed the game).
I know that still sounds flawed and could probably be abused somehow...but maybe it's a start?

[Rollo]

Puke and Dragonlord,
I will answer to your Posts about the Hall of Fame in a new thread, so we don't get off-topic here.

My pieces of (limited) wisdom for PBW:

1. Advanced Storage trait. Consider taking it. All your (home)worlds will have 20% more facilities. Very valuable for a good start. Besides that you can ship population from your homeworlds without losing the production bonus, because there will be 4800 instead of 4000M people.
2. If you find a player with the same planet type/atmosphere nearby, attack and glass his homeworlds ASAP, you can't find any better planets than this . (Might not make you very popular, though).
3. Combat bonuses. The extra 20% you can get from racial modifications can really turn a battle around at all stages of the game. I consider good combat bonuses from race/sensors/ECM/training much more important than weapon choice. What good is a PPB that doesn't hit compared to a DUC in the hands of an expert? (see also the "Are battles always one sided" topic)
4. Trade tech, especially colonization tech.
5. most importantly: Have fun! And if you lose, remember: it is only a game.

Rollo

[Commander G2]

Here are my tidbits of wisdom:

1. In addition to using racial combat modifiers to make you hard to hit, consider using Destroyers against battleships.

2. Scattering Armor and Stealth Armor are stackable modifiers for defense and can be added to ECM IIIs.

3. Cloaked Ships can move through enemy ships if undetected.

4. Organic Seekers Ships are cheap to build. You probably cannot afford to put enough point defenses on your ships to fight them one on one. Psychic and Crystalline are nice to have to fight Organics.

5. Organic race can build ships faster because their armor and weapons use purely Organic resources. They can build most ships in 2 turns because they use so little metal.

6. Rename your planets to indicate where Fleet and Ship Training facilities are for easy identification. Consider using a code as renames are visible to opponents.

7. Consider using 'Nearest' in your combat orders to avoid shooting at long range with non seeker weapons.

8. Build cheap mines (one warhead) to build more at a time.

9. Use fighters and missles in combination to overwelm point defenses.

10. Consider targeting seekers before fighters as missles always hit and generally do more damage.

11. Target ships before fighters to let point defenses deal with them leaving your weapons free to fire at ships.

12. Target 'has weapons' as a priority. Why waste shots on a crippled ship, especially if using PPBs or Null space?

13. Missleships can function as cannon folder as they do not need ship training for offensive purposes. Send them straight to the front lines.

14. Consider shipyard ships before repair ships as shipyard ships are useful when there is nothing to repair.

[Deathstalker]

Some more tidbits of knowledge:

1. LEARN to BLUFF! Don't be too revealing in your ship/base names. Sure, naming the bases what they actually are ( 'Repair Base 1'etc, with planet location) may help you remember what they are, but for people encountering them the 'first time' they can gauge the 'threat level'. Use 'defense base' for the class or 'attack base', may make people think twice about attacking a planet. Or do it the other way around, have a dreadnought fully loaded with weapons called 'supply ship one' or 'mine sweeper deluxe'. The less info the enemy has the better.

2. Keep your eye on the alliance screen, watch for patterns. And watch out for first contact. If a new race shows up and immediately goes for your planet with training facilities suspect your 'allies'. Someone could be funding them on the side instead of direct attack. BE PARANOID!

3. Spy Ships RULE! Don't know if I mentioned this before, but destroyer or frigate class ships, maxed out on engines with level 1 stealth armor and a few solar panels can really make a difference. Station one in the sun (or storm/asteroid) of a nearby system and watch the enemy (or ally below partnership) moves.

4. Midway into the game GET stellar tech fast, get to warp opener and closer and then build the ship fast (closer first IMO, then you could always retro-fit to please). Later of course get Star Destroying tech.

5. Again, Racial Traits will either let you win or kill you. If on a 3 planet start then definitly take the extra planet storage one, the research points alone are worth it. For a rock or Ice race with 'none' atmosphere with the adv. storage that means those small moons can have 6 buildings!! Large and Huge can have 30!!

6. Research points, spend them wisely, especially in a med/high cost tech game. You have DUC IV, do you really need V??, put the points somewhere else as it is a marginal damage increase but no range increase.

7. Cheap units!, ie 'Riot Police' for planets (1 cockpit, 1 armor, nothing else), keep em happy! , and like suggested before, small mine with 1 warhead, numbers count here and you can build them faster this way!

EDIT: OOPS, forgot the most important. Fleet formation, go to your empire options, check the boxes under fleet formation for ships to break formation. They will now follow their individual orders (max,point blank, capture etc) instead of trying to keep in fleet formation and getting hammered!

Enough rambling for now.....

[This message has been edited by Deathstalker (edited 17 October 2001).]