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Space Empires IV Gold Game

Posted: 2005-10-23 10:57pm
by brianeyci
<edit>
CURRENT MAP :

Image

CURRENT GAME SCORE :
Image

Left to right,

Starfleet Command - arthur_tuxedo
Klingon Empire - dalton
Borg Collective - nephtys
Tholian Assembly - alan bolte
United Federation of Planets - uranium235
Dominion - guppyshark
Romulan Star Empire - trogdor
Ferengi Commerce Authority - brianeyci

</edit>

I've created the game to give people time to sign up for PBW. Assuming nobody objects to AST Mod, I set the game to that.

PBW is easy to use. Sign up, don't be shy, ip sucks and nobody is going to open your zip files, wait for your turns, hassle for turns and so on, when there's an automatic system out there. Well nobody but an insane person. I don't want to open 8 e-mails every day, unzip them and execute the turn, all manually.

http://seiv.pbw.cc

http://www.astempire.net/startrek/STM.html

The turns will be 24 hours for two weeks, then 36 hours for two weeks, then move onto 72 hours. Time commitment is roughly 15-30 minutes every turn. If you miss a turn the AI will play for you, so you don't need to worry if you miss the odd turn.

It will be my first time administering a SE:IV game in over a year. I used to administer about six. It's a piece of cake, but the problem with it is trust. I want to play, but since I'm the administrator I'll have the game master password and can open the game file and look at any of your turns.

Solutions,
  • Find somebody who has SE:IV who doesn't want to play to administer the game other than me.
  • I give everybody the password, so if I can cheat everybody can cheat and nobody will cheat.
  • You trust me.
Background Story (Assuming we don't change modifications) : Q has taken one planet from each of the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, and so on, and placed them in a foreign galaxy. Nobody knows why, but fuck him, it's time to kill some Cardies/Pointed Freaks/whatever you want. Don't like my story, go with the official one at the mod's website lol.

When the game starts, I intend to "cheat" once and open the file to see where everybody is, then post an image up in this thread and show everybody's location relative to others. That way, you can talk to the other person, either in character or out of character, and form alliances, buddy system, so on. It gets rid of some of the exploration aspect but adds in an RP aspect. Of course nothing forbids you from declaring war with everybody in the galaxy, but oh well. I also need to open the map file to see if there's any space monsters that will ruin the game for us.

For races, I don't give a shit about what I am, except that I know everybody wants to be Romulans lol (Romulans are fucking cool). So I'll roll a d20 or something (or pick out of a hat) when everybody is signed up and select a race for everybody, unless they have a strong preference for a specific race. If there's a confict I'll flip a coin.

The game name is "SD.net AST Mod Game." Post your PBW name here so I know you're not just some random guy, and I'll let you in.

Hopefully we can start some roleplay in this thread once the game gets going.

<edit>Addendum you need the image modification as well as the latest patch for SE:IV Gold, v. 1.91 and v. 1.9.2.4 of AST Mod (don't worry about the version being different in PBW, I'll check/pm an admin if it's wrong), and also the image pack. All are below.

http://seiv.pbw.cc/Download/filelib/117 ... hgold4.zip

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thread ... ber=376442

http://www.spaceempires.net/files/seiv/ ... 3.2005.exe
</edit>

<edit 2>I'm bored so here's the backstory, the long version.

Star Trek : Where, How and What the Fuck

You're the governor of a plush, out of the way world in your respective empire. All is well, all is good, until one day something wierd happens. You feel tingly all over, as if a transporter beam is beginning to seize you. If you're armed, you draw your weapon before you disappear, knowing that you'll rip someone a new one if they're fucking with you.

You appear in large room full of humanoid looking figures. They're indistinct, varied, many and awesome. You notice beside you other species from all over the galaxy, some you recognize, some you do not. They're all as shocked as you, and one of them is in a rather embarassing position. They stand up, and stare into the bleachers. The room is circular, with many benches for humanoids to sit on. The shadowy figures laugh, proclaim your stupidity. If you're angry you attempt to fire your weapon at them, but your weapon fizzles and doesn't respond. If you're patient you cross your arms, or whatever your tradition is, and wait. If you're going "what the fuck", you scream, but don't really do anything because something seems to be restraining you from hurting or interacting with the others around you.

Then, a luminous light appears off in the distance. A faint bit of laughter, then a voice.

Image

"YOU PATHETIC WEAK CREATURES, YOU WHO DARE DECLARE YOUR SENTIENCE AND PROCLAIM YOUR POWER, YOU WHO DEFY THE SANCTITY OF THE GALAXY BY YOUR VERY EXISTENCE, YOU WILL BOW TO ME."

Then, unwillingly, your knees bend. Struggling makes it more painful. Some try, and scream as they finally fall to the ground, mostly in anger more than in pain.

"NOW, LET THE GAMES... BEGIN!" You disappear in another flash of light, and reappear back in your office, lair or significant other's arms. A beep, flash, signal or whatever your people use to signal an emergency blares, and a slimy toady comes in. "Sir, our entire planet has been teleported to an unknown galaxy and we don't have any fucking condoms left!"

So it begins...

</edit 2>

Brian

Posted: 2005-10-23 11:18pm
by Dalton
I won't be able to sign up until I get home later on, but I'd like to be the Klingons. Oh, and I trust you.

Posted: 2005-10-23 11:20pm
by brianeyci
Dalton wrote:I won't be able to sign up until I get home later on, but I'd like to be the Klingons.
No problem. Nobody worry about a rush. I won't have the game installed until Tuesday at least, and going to keep the game open for joiners until maybe late this week or until everybody's ready. It's not going to start until everything's been ironed out, including game settings and whatnot.

Brian

Posted: 2005-10-24 02:57am
by Arthur_Tuxedo
Handle is "arthurtuxedo" (without the quotes). I call the TMP Federation.

Posted: 2005-10-24 08:18pm
by InnocentBystander
I love SEIV gold, but 1 turn a day is just not something I have the patience for.

Posted: 2005-10-24 08:53pm
by Dalton
Yeah, work makes things kind of hard. 48 or 72 straight would be a lot easier for me.

EDIT: My PBW name is "daltonator".

Posted: 2005-10-24 09:12pm
by brianeyci
Okay 72 hours. No problem.

Brian

Posted: 2005-10-24 09:25pm
by Dalton
EDIT: Never mind, going through the wrong area.

How many racial points are we playing with? 2K, 3K or 5K?

Posted: 2005-10-24 09:42pm
by brianeyci
Dalton wrote:How many racial points are we playing with? 2K, 3K or 5K?
5k. Since we're trying to level the playing field between experienced and inexperienced players, I suggest no customization of the races be allowed. So the stock 5k Borg, Cardassians, Romulans, so on that come with the mod and no changes to the races themselves. 5k also gives the most "error room". If we do allow changes it opens a whole can of worms that I don't want to get into.

I'm thinking, three planets, good value, huge sized start, high resources start, 100k resource points and research points start, and a large galaxy to allow room to expand. Also, a galaxy that's nice with lots of good planets.

Brian

Posted: 2005-10-24 09:49pm
by Dalton
Sounds good. So I assume I'll just have to edit my empire with a password?

Posted: 2005-10-24 09:50pm
by Chardok
Wait, I don't get it. Is this a game wehave to buy? Or is it freeware? I checked out the site, and nothing is really...definitive.

Posted: 2005-10-24 09:57pm
by brianeyci
Chardok wrote:Wait, I don't get it. Is this a game wehave to buy? Or is it freeware? I checked out the site, and nothing is really...definitive.
<edit>Yeah sorry, you have to buy it : - )</edit>

The game is a mod for this game.

If you are wondering what the game is, check out here.

Image
Snapshot
Dalton wrote:Sounds good. So I assume I'll just have to edit my empire with a password?
If memory serves, you need to turn off "AI controlled". I think too it's fair if anybody wants to change their name, history, background, physical description that kind of thing, just nothing that affects gameplay.

<edit>Warning to people who are thinking about buying it, SE:V is coming out early 2006. Everything is actually done I think (I played in a tournament to become a beta tester, sadly I lost hehe) so it's going to come out. Damn I just tried finding a distributor, and you can't buy SE:IV from the Shrapnel website anymore. Everything's out of stock hehe ah well.</edit>

Brian

Posted: 2005-10-24 10:14pm
by Arthur_Tuxedo
I agree with everything except the large galaxy part. Large galaxy makes for a needlessly long and boring game, in my view. Why not a small galaxy so that we come into contact with each other sooner and the game takes a few months instead of a few months of Sundays?

Posted: 2005-10-24 10:19pm
by brianeyci
Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:I agree with everything except the large galaxy part. Large galaxy makes for a needlessly long and boring game, in my view. Why not a small galaxy so that we come into contact with each other sooner and the game takes a few months instead of a few months of Sundays?
Okay no problem. I'm still thinking of going in as game admin, taking a screenshot of the "starmap" window, and posting it up so everybody knows where the closest opponent is. Then, if you know the relative position of your enemies, you can form temporary alliances.

I think to make it fun, we might have a rule, where if you get defeated and declare your surrender you turn into a puppet state under the subjugation treaty and have to obey the conquerer's orders for the rest of the game. That way nobody really gets eliminated until there's two huge alliances fighting each other.

<edit>Oh and it depends on the number of players, if we manage to get 6 or 8 a medium galaxy is kinda crazy but doable if we want chaos. There are six or eight that posted in the other thread, come on don't let the Star Trek scare you don't have to be Janeway :twisted:. I want time to build up a fleet and not just rely on small ships, small numbers of troops, weapons platforms and mines, before I invade somebody.</edit>

Brian

Posted: 2005-10-24 10:30pm
by Dalton
I think we should have one or two AI races out there, like the Hirogen or something, so we can actually have someone to fight instead of each other.

Posted: 2005-10-24 10:37pm
by brianeyci
Maybe neutral empires? Neutral empires are confined to their star system, don't use warp points, and looking at the mod's website there's plenty of neutral races like Binars, Sheliak, one-shot-wonders from Voyager... Actually, we could put in tons and tons of neutral races. Every other system could have a neutral race to conquer or something.

If we put in an actual Empire AI controlled... it might kick our ass lol.

Brian

Posted: 2005-10-24 10:41pm
by Dalton
Yes, yes, good! My Klingon warriors are thirsty for glorious battle.

Posted: 2005-10-24 10:45pm
by brianeyci
Dalton wrote:Yes, yes, good! My Klingon warriors are thirsty for glorious battle.
There's also a strategic reason to capture neutral races. They'll have breathers of different atmospheres, and a planet populated entirely by breathers doesn't need to be domed. If you manage to gain access to other breathers this is a huge advantage in the long run.

This brings up the whole "gamey" thing, trading populations with other people to get access to breathers and more building space. Ah well, gamey or not it's nice having some Orion slave girls :-).

Brian

Posted: 2005-10-24 11:41pm
by Alan Bolte
brianeyci wrote:Ah well, gamey or not it's nice having some Orion slave girls :-).
EW EW EW EW! That sounds soooo nasty. Gonna go install stuff now.

Posted: 2005-10-25 12:23am
by Dalton
brianeyci wrote:There's also a strategic reason to capture neutral races. They'll have breathers of different atmospheres, and a planet populated entirely by breathers doesn't need to be domed. If you manage to gain access to other breathers this is a huge advantage in the long run.

This brings up the whole "gamey" thing, trading populations with other people to get access to breathers and more building space. Ah well, gamey or not it's nice having some Orion slave girls :-).
I find it kind of odd that we're talking about trading sentient species :lol:

Posted: 2005-10-25 12:42am
by Trogdor
Have you guys started yet? I'd like to be in on this, but due to my midterms I won't have any time to spare until this weekend and I don't want to hold the game up.

If it's no trouble to let me in, then I'd like to be the Romulans.

Posted: 2005-10-25 01:18am
by Nephtys
Hrm. Who should I be... DS9/TNG Feddies, or Borg.. oh hell. Borg for me. :)

Posted: 2005-10-25 01:42am
by Hotfoot
Off the top of my head, I remember something that was flying around when the mod team was putting together this mod, but I'll keep my trap shut, because it will be more fun to watch this develop.

Posted: 2005-10-25 01:45am
by Nephtys
For this game, I think we really ought to set some rules. For fairness to prevent min-maxing... I propose the following.

1. No exchanging colony tech. That's just wrong, giving a player 500000 RPs worth of stuff on turn 3.
2. No mining space ridiculously. In some PBM games, you see star systems with thousands of mines in them... That's ebil.

Posted: 2005-10-25 01:53am
by Uraniun235
What should I put for the Empire Name? My preferred race?

I could go for TNG Federation myself.