Re: Galaxy- Rapid Occupation

From: Everett Boyer <everett@ikos.com>

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000

Webko wrote:
>
> Peter Roberts wrote:
> >
> >  Advice please.
> >
> >  I noticed in the start of a recent Galaxy game that one player seemed

Only one?  Perhaps the game is packed with novices.
That may be something to consider in your strategic planning.

> > to be able to LOAD Col , fly ship, and UNLOAD at a planet in 1 turn.
> > At least on the turn2 report he had occupied the planet.

Don't panic!
By my reckoning, he has gained only two minute advantages
by this maneuver.

(1) By controlling the planet, he is now able to choose how its
production is used, whereas if he arrived without unloading he
would have to accept the default production, CAP.
Note that CAP is usually what he would want to produce anyway,
and that the amount of production he gets is unaffected.
Note also that this advantage, such as it is, is stronger when used
(later in the game) for planets you have previously scouted and
made other production plans for.

(2) There may be some psychological advantage over newer players
who might be overawed at his early possession of an extra planet.
The extent of this advantage is speculative, but hopefully
miniscule.

By controlling the planet, he also gets to change its name.
I'm not counting this as an advantage, but didn't want to
omit mentioning it here.

> > Could someone please explain how this can be done, or was I just
> > imagining it?
>
> Assumption: Normal Galaxy 3.5x
> Reason: Player set a Route to the Planet, and Option Autounload ON
>
> Possible Orders:
> O AUTOUNLOAD

Autounload has nothing to do with rapid occupation,
it only causes unloading at planets you already own.

> R Planet1 Planet2 COL  (hmmm... syntax may not be right, but that's the
> idea)

R MyHomeworld COL 87

Use this syntax.  Note that no named world will be suitable
for rapid occupation--instead that would be rapid conquest.
The Route order is the key to rapid occupation, particularly
in that unloading is performed automatically at any Route
destination.

> L 1 COL
> S 1 Planet2

L 1 COL
S 1 87

These orders are purely optional, in that the Route order
would do this anyway, and often better.
These orders will spread your available colonists evenly
among all the ships in group 1, and send the entire group
to planet 87.  Without them, the colonists will crowd into
as few ships as will hold them all, and only those ships
will move to planet 87, while any extra ships will remain
at your homeworld, available for the next batch of colonists.
However, you may want some variations of these orders if
your plans are more complicated than a single rapid colonization.

> This is a known, but not very well described "feature" of Galaxy.

It's not that hard to work out once you've seen someone else do it.
But it's indeed not something a novice player would ordinarily try.

> In Galaxy NG, it's even easier, as it assumes that if you
> send a COL ship to a planet that you want to unload it
> even if the planet is vacant (given this is what happens once
> a planet is occupied, it makes a deal of sense...)

Well, obviously not a lot easier than the single Route order
which is all that's really needed.

> Once again, my disclaimer is that the above is based on my own
> perosnal obervations, as I can't program to save my life and
> as such, haven't examined the source code. But I'm pretty
> sure about it...

This has nothing to do with looking at the source code.
It's something I've actually done as a player, so I know.

Everett Boyer / palmyra Caidans, etc.

References

Galaxy- Rapid Occupation
Peter Roberts <peter@melba.demon.co.uk>
Wed, 25 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Galaxy- Rapid Occupation
Webko <TBooth@publications.usyd.edu.au>
Fri, 27 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000