We have reset the Beta Game and there have been a number of changes.

1. Instead of spawning in a Pioneer when you create a new player or your ship is destroyed without an escape pod everyone will spawn in a Columbus. We are testing the new starting player code that will allow an admin to set the default ship to any of the standard ship classes.

2. The number of colonists a colonist port offers was increased by 10 times.

3. All ports in Federation sectors will trade ALL of the basic 4 commodities of Energy, Goods, Ore and Organics. Once you leave federation space the ports may not trade all of the commodities.

4. Two Way warp links from federation sectors will be highlighted in green. If the sector in the warp link list isn't a federation sector it will not be highlighted in green if it's a two way warp link.

5. The number of turns to fire a Nova Bomb has been increased from 50 to 200 turns.

6. When a player tries to Nova Bomb a planet any sector defense will attack the player before they can fire the Nova Bomb just like a normal attack.

7. When a planet is Nova Bombed and not destroyed it will try to place sector defenses from the fighters and torpedoes it has on the planet.

Some of these settings may change during the game as they are needed to balance the game-play.

How cool!! You guys really do listen to us, even if we are whining *big grin*

Thanks!!

It's a percentage but it will ALWAYS leave more than enough on the planet so the planet can defend itself if attacked normally.

The changes seems good except change #5, amount of turns for use of a nova from 50 to 200 turns.

That means if the settings are 10 turns per 5 (2880 turns added per day), that U max can use 12-14 bombs per day(incl. the ones who backfire). That means that a builder are completely save with more than 2 levels in the lair...

In other words it removes the points of agressive moves and turn it into a single phase game aka builder game

Big I think you said that wrong, 12-14 is the minimum amount of novas you can do in a day. Save some turns you can nearly triple that number so i would say 36-40 novas per day is the near maximum but you can push 50 if you really wanted to, if you had maximum turns to begin with and used the turns you gained throughout the day too.

I think I should refrase it. The turns U gain per day is 2880. these make U able to fire 12-13 new bombs. I f U have saved turns (Default: max 8000)
So in "Best case" U got 8K turns when U start your bombing If U used the turns over 24 hours U got max 10880 turns available (=app. 50 bombs in best case on the first aggressive day), the foloowing day U are back to max. 12-13 bombs per day. That makes to too easy to build a lair who the attackers never can burst. This is "In my point of view" a argument for never to be agressive (waste of turns). I thought I never would say this, but if the 200 turns per bomb (even with 100 turns) stands, I will transform into a Builder. Not because I enjoy it, but just to prove my point. In the long run it probably means that "The Game" is close to a end for me. (I know I have said it before).

hmmmm the extra turns was tricgged by a "Whining builder" and now is replied by a "Whining Attacker"

NB! I admit that attacker in the past had easy conditions, and the interactive sectordefense has made it harder for attackers, but there from to make it impossible for attackers is too large a "jump".

Well it needed something to balance things out some. I think we can see that from how the last Main game went... I think that it would be just a temporary fix until the code can be worked out. I'd also say it would be best to have things working like Panama Jack firsst mentioned. where the nova bomb blast is divided among the total planets in the sector. It doesnt seem to currently be working that way, Atleast not very good...

I think something like Kwae zar mentioned. if you have the nova being divided among the planets in the sector and what is left of the blast that actually hits the sector fighters depending on the planet shileds and the level of nova being used. I dont think anything should be able to be calculated exactly or even real close... I just know that someone ranked 15 places below you should not be able to take out 30-40% of the fighters every 3rd or 4th successful nova. I'd like to see a system that goes by the planetary shield and how many planets are in the sector for defending nova bombs. On the other hand, each level of nova could only be capable of doing so much damage like Kwae Zar said except that nothing is concrete... you make the code so that there is always a chance the planets shields may malfunction allowing more damage to sd. by the nova plus a small % of chance that each nova could do more damage than its supposed to.

If we had this workin right then i'd say that either 75 or 100 turns per nova would be great.

Wasnt trying to whine Big, just thought that maybe you miscounted. I see where your coming from about that option making it alot harder for attackers. I have never thought that something costing more turns or more money was the answer, in my opinion they dont fix the problem they just slow the game. A way to fix the problem I think should be in the research/build tree that will eventually be added. What needs to be added is either a counter to the nova in the form of either a defensive shield or anoter bomb Id like to call "return to sender".

The problem is though, that those features are not in place yet and it would be nice if something was done sooner rather then later, I think the turn increase is doing just that, but a turn increase also stalls the game so maybe if they were 10x more money or, the minimum ship to use them was increased, or the ship needed to use them was reflected by the level of bomb you wanted to buy. For example an endevour could only hold the basic nova while you would need an excelsior to get the biggest one.

AB I completely disagree. How can planets defend SD fighters? Its not realistic unless those fighters maintain near orbit. The Nova was designeed to enable a small guy to take out a larger opponent, that was the whole point of the nova. By neutering it the large player just gets larger and maintains thier position there for a new inbalance. While I agree that the the damage should be spread among the planets making planetary damage minimal I do not agree with a planet controling the shielding of fighters.

I do think the nova power should control how many fighters you might take out. But there should be some failure rate depending on the nova power and what is firing it.

DS, excelent ideas...some of them I had been thinking of once we get this version out and running. I like the idea of nova shielding and nova bounce... cool stuff.


OK here I may offend some people but here it is. The current main game is probably the weakest competition I have yet seen. Come on guys form up and take the top guys out! They did it to the other team, why can't you do it to them? If I weren't already there I'd just join to see if it could be done. YES they are tough players, but they are not impossible to bust. Instead of safely hiding behind your defence hoping for a reset, jump in and try and take them out.... Have some fun doing it. The whole point of .30 is no one is safe so just do it!

Well ok, I was just talking about what i thought PJ. had meant. But yeah, the planets shouldnt exactly help defend the SD i guess.




Wow I know i certainly never made a statement like that when i was podding most of those guys and had a huge lead. I guess one has to try harder to finish completely when they are nearing the end. Since alot of us thought this was definitely comming to a close i don't think its realistic to keep going now. It takes time to get into a position to take out a team.
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Well there are a few players playing that might be able to do it. I'd almost be willing to quit and start over to show you it could be done. I could team up with one other player currently not in the top 5 and could be a royal pain to those up top. But I can't abandon my team, would not be fair to them. Look around at those players in the game, I bet they could make one mokeys life a little more exciting.

Just a curious question pertaining to the beta test game.

I have been playing out of my norm so I could peek at some of the features. Picking up debris today I hit a 'lower all tech one lvl' which I remember bring major disappointment and drop of score. But due to the new ship lvl system, this hardly affected anything. Is this going to be left this way or is it needing tweeked?

Its gonna change to what it was. I mentioned that to PJ at luunh oonridaayso be prepared for it to hurt just like it used to. More changes a coming some will hate them some will love them, some will just have to get used to them