Game opening: GALACTIC CONQUEROR From: hz@zardoz.ping.de (Harry Zimmermann) Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 00:00:00 +0000 Hi! Finally the translation of the German version of Galactic Conqueror into English is finished and the first international game can begin. GC is a simple SciFi strategy game played via e-mail: * up to 50 players per game * Easy rules (14 commands) - Build Ships (26 classes) - Improve production facilities on planets - Research ( 7 research areas) - Espionage etc. * Graphical user interface for players (PC Windows ; Atari ST ; UNIX/X11) * Graphical user interface is recommended but not mandatory so that everybody can take part * free :-) I append the rules to this posting so that you can get a better impression of the game concepts. A HTML version will be available soon. The English version of the command editor will be available via ftp later this week. I'll announce the exact location during the next days. Signing up is handled by a simple mail server whose address is: gcserver@zardoz.ping.de To sign on send a short e-mail to this address. Subject doesn't matter, the body has to contain the following line: #ANM GC16 <Player Name> where <Player Name> is the name you want to use in the game (maximum 15 characters, only letters, numbers and blanks). GC16 is the identification code of the game. If you want to take part using the name "Darth Vader" you would send e-mail with the following line to gcserver@zardoz.ping.de #ANM GC16 Darth Vader The server will also be used to manage all necessary game actions. Send an e-mail with subject "HELP" to its address to get a list of all available commands. GC16 should be a game just for GC newbies so experienced GC players should not sign on. If you dare to play against experienced players sign on for GC15. Both games will start in about 2 weeks. Turn processing will be once a week, probably on Wednesday. THe length of a normal game is about 25 turns, so it will last about half a year. Once in a while when my job leaves no time for GC, turn processing will have to be delayed. c u Harry -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Galactic Conqueror ****************** Version 2.03 25.01.1997 1. Introduction Galactic Conqueror is a simple SciFi strategy game. Each player starts as the owner of one of several hundreds of planets on a 2-dimensional playing-field and has a small fleet of starships. During the game he has to explore and colonize new planets, build up his fleet, invest in research etc. When the game starts each player gets a map with all planetary positions that are known to him and a situation report with detailed information about the planets under his control and about the situation of his starfleet. The position of other player's home planets is not known. The player uses this information to create a command file which he sends to the game master (GM) via e-mail. All command files are processed at the same time (usually once a week) and new situation reports are send to the players. The winner of the game is determined by a score system. Each turn the overall situation and the actions of the last game turn are evaluated for each player and an appropriate score is added to the player's total score. The first one who reaches a pre-determined final score is the winner. 2. The Concept 2.1 Planets Let's take a closer look at the values which characterize a planet in the situation report: 2.1.1 Production Facilities The basis for the development of a planet are the production units (PU). They represent the industrial power of the planet and can be spent for instance to build shipyards, ships, fortresses or to finance espionage. The maximum number of PU on a planet is normally determined by the number of factories on this planet, which means that on a planet with for example 24 factories you can have up to 24 PU to use each round. The actual number of spendable PU can be smaller because each factory needs products from mines (Mine-PU or MPU), refineries (Refinery-PU or RPU) and farms (Agricultural PU or APU) to operate. Each mine, refinery and farm produces one of its special PU per round. For each PU that a factory delivers, it needs exactly one MPU, one RPU and one APU, so in the ideal case there should be equal numbers of factories, mines, refineries and farms on a planet. MPU, RPU and APU which are not used to produce PU (because there are not enough factories) are stored and can be used later or can be loaded into transports to bring them to other planets. The situation report shows how many PU can be used on each planet in a given round. These PU (in opposition to the MPU, RPU and APU) can't be stored and have to be used immediately. If there are remaining PU on a planet after all player commands have been dealt with, they are spend to increase the score of the player who owns the planet. For every 10 PU not spend the score is increased by 1. PU can only be used on the planet where they were produced. This raises the question of how you can produce goods or facilities on a planet with no or very few production facilities where you have nearly no PU that you could spend. To handle this problem you can produce the so called kits on any planet and you can transport them to any planet you wish. Kits are transportable production facilities (factories, mines, refineries and farms), which can be loaded into a transport to bring them to another planet, where they can be installed to increase the production on that planet. With this method it is possible to develop independent production facilities even on poor planets. 2.1.2 The population The size of the population on a planet is important because it influences the maximum number of factories on that planet. For each 10 population units one factory can be built and operated. In addition the size of the population influences the owner's score. Normally a player gets 1 score point per game turn for each planet under his control. This score is increased by one point per 1000 population units up to a population size of 10000 and 1 point per 2000 population units over 10000. For example a planet with a population of 2344 would bring 1+2=3 score points per game turn (see also 2.4). The basic population growth per game turn lies between 1 percent on a planet with natural defence 9 (see 2.1.5) and 9 percent on a planet with natural defence 1. The growth can be increased by research in medicine. The maximum population on a planet is 30000. 2.1.3 Loyalty The loyalty, a value between 1 and 10, represents the relation between the population and the owner of a planet. A high value is a sign for good relations whereas a low value is a sign for a bad relation. When a planet is conquered by a player the loyalty is set to 1. Each game turn the value rises by one up to the maximal value of 10. The raise can be influenced by players by investing in corruption on this planet. How many PU are needed for an increase depends on the communication technology level. Corruption can also be used to decrease the loyalty on an enemy planet. This can make sense because of the effects of a low loyalty: as long as the relations between population and owner of a planet are bad, the population won't work with maximum power or, even worse, could sabotage production. In GC the production of mines, refineries, farms and factories is decreased by 5 percent for each loyality point below 10. 2.1.4 Fortresses Fortresses are the ground based defence facilities of a planet. When a planet is attacked by enemy starships the fortresses fire at the ships. A planet is conquered when its last fortress is destroyed by an enemy starship. Neutral planets, i.e. planets not owned by one of the players, have 1 to 4 fortresses at the beginning of the game. During the game the number increases because these planets start building new fortresses after game turn 4 (1-2 fortresses per turn). 2.1.5 Natural Defense The natural defence, a value between 1 and 9, influences the chance of an enemy starship to hit a fortress on the planet. Each natural defence point reduces the hit chance by 5 percent. 2.1.6 Number of Ships in Orbit This value is important when there has been a battle for this planet in the previous game turn. When this number is higher than the number of own ships in the orbit, there are still surviving enemy ships nearby. 2.1.7 Shipyards Shipyards are needed on a planet to produce new ships. On each planet up to 3 shipyards can be built. For each shipyard you have to decide which of the 26 ship classes will be produced. The size of the shipyards determines how many PU can be invested per game turn and therefore directly influences how long it takes to build a ship. Each ship class needs a specific number of PU to be built, depending on the size of the ship class and the player's construction technology level. For example a ship of class 11 needs 16 PU to be built, which means that on a shipyard of size 8 it can be built in 2 turns if the player invests 8 PU per turn in this shipyard. A shipyard can only produce 1 ship per game turn so that even if the shipyard in the above example would have size 32 and the player would invest 32 PU into this shipyard, he would only get 1 ship. The 16 surplus PU would remain in the shipyard and would be used to build another ship in the next turn. If the produced ship class is changed, all surplus PU are lost! The first ship of a given class that is built on a shipyard, costs 50 percent more to represent the costs for changing the production. If at the end of a game turn there are only enemy starships in the orbit of a planet, the planet is considered besieged and the shipyards do not produce any ships. The invested PU remain in the shipyards and are used as soon as the siege is ended. 2.1.8 Spares This value is the number of usable spare parts for starships on the planet. They are used automatically after a battle to repair own starships in orbit. In addition they can be loaded into a transport to repair ships during battle in orbits around enemy planets. Spares are produced on shipyards (ship class 0). Their cost depends on the producing player's construction technology level (see table 5.6). Scrapping of old ships produces spares, too. 2.2 The Fleet 2.2.1 Information in the Fleet Report The fleet report contains detailed information about each of the up to 200 ships that the player owns: 2.2.1.1 Position The number of the planet in whose orbit the ship is. If the ship is on its way to another planet, the value is 0. Most commands can only be given to ships in orbit. 2.2.1.2 Destination If the position of the ship is 0, its destination shows which planet the ship is flying to. 2.2.1.3 Rest This value shows the remaining distance to the destination planet. Considering the range of the ship the player can determine when the ship is about to arrive at its destination. 2.2.1.4 Task Force Ships can be grouped into so called task forces. Commands can be given to task forces as a unit, which can be quite useful when creating the command file. 2.2.1.5 Class (or Type) A value between 1 and 26 which specifies the class of the ship. 2.2.1.6 Armament Technology Level The armament technology level (see 2.3.4) that the owning player had when this ship was built. This value influences the attack capabilities of the ship (see 2.2.2). 2.2.1.7 Shield Technology Level The shield technology level (see 2.3.5) that the owning player had when this ship was built. This value influences the defensive capabilities of the ship (see 2.2.2). 2.2.1.8 Range The range determines how far the ship can fly during one game turn. Each planet whose distance from the current position of the ship is equal to or less than the range can be reached in one turn. Planets further away can only be reached in several turns. The range of a ship depends on its class and the propulsion technology level of the owning player when the ship was built (see 2.3.6). 2.2.1.9 Attack The attack value determines how often the ship can fire on enemy ships or fortresses in battle. Ships with attack 0 are unarmed and cannot be used to destroy enemy ships or to conquer planets. 2.2.1.10 Defense This value represents the quality of the ship's hull and depends on the class of the ship. It shows the maximum number of hits that a ship can take before being destroyed. 2.2.1.11 Kills The number of enemy ships that the ship has destroyed during the game. This values represents experience in battle and increases the hit chance in all battles by 2 percent per kill. 2.2.1.12 Current Defence For an undamaged ship this value is equal to the defense value. Each hit that the ship has to take during battle decreases the current defence by 1. If at any time this value falls below 0, the ship is destroyed. If the current defense of the ship is lower than its maximum defence, spares are used as soon as possible to repair the ship. 2.2.1.13 Maximum Transport Capacity The maximum transport capacity which depends on the class of the ship. How many goods can be transported in this ship depends on its size (see 5.3). 2.2.1.14 Free Transport Capacity This value shows the free transport capacity of the ship. 2.2.1.15 Freight These values specify the kind of freight in a transport. Possible cargos are: spares, mine kits, refinery kits, farm kits, factory kits, MPU, RPU, APU and colonists (i.e. population loaded into the transport). 2.2.2 Battles When a ship is in orbit around a planet not owned by the owner of the ship, it automatically tries to conquer the planet. First all enemy ships at the same planet are attacked. This space battle lasts until there are only ships of one player remaining in orbit or until the maxmimum number of 3 combat rounds has taken place. In addition the space battle is finished when there are ships of several players in orbit but only the ships of one player have attack capabilities. The other ships surrender at once and are transfered to the fleet of the player whose ships are able to attack (if he hasn't reached the maximum number of 200 ships). In each of the combat rounds each participating ship fires once per attack point on a randomly determined enemy ship. The basic probability for a hit is 50 percent. The chance is increased by 5 percent per armament technology level of the attacking ship and is reduced by 8 percent per shield technology level of the target ship. A hit reduces the current defense of the target by one. At the end of each combat round each ship's current defense is checked. If it is below 0 the ship is destroyed. If after 3 combat rounds there are ships of more than one player in orbit, all fighting stops for this game turn. Each of the participating players gets an exploration report about the planet. If there are only ships of one player remaining, they start to attack the planet. The attack on the planet also lasts until the maximum number of 3 combat rounds is over or until one side is defeated. The attacker is defeated when all his ships are destroyed and the planetary defense is defeated when all fortresses are destroyed. If in the latter case there are still remaining enemy ships in the orbit, the owning player has gained control over the planet. In each of the combat rounds each of the fortresses fires once at a randomly determined ship. The basic probability for a hit is 50 percent. This value is increased by 5 percent per planetary defense technology level of the defending player and is decreased by 8 percent per shield technlogy level of the defending ship. Ships whose current defense falls below 0 are destroyed immediately! When all fortresses have fired the remaining ships fire at the planet to destroy the fortresses. Each ship fires once per attack point on the planet. The basic hit probability of 50 percent is increased by 5 percent per armament technology level of the firing ship and reduced by 5 percent per planetary defense technology level of the defending player and by 5 percent per natural defense point of the defending planet. During an attack on enemy fortresses other facilities like mines, refineries etc. on the planet have to suffer, too. Moreover each shot on an enemy planet reduces its population by 1 percent. This value is reduced by 0.1 percent for each medicine technology level of the defending player. If a planet is attacked, its loyalty value is reduced by one. 2.3 Research Research is a very important part of Galactic Conqueror. The player can invest in research in 7 areas. The achieved technology levels in theses areas have great influence on many parts of the game. 2.3.1 Planetary Defense Investment in planetary defense is used to improve the planetary defense facilities. For each reached technology level the hit chance of fortresses on the player's planets is increased by 5 percent and the hit chance of all attackers is reduced by 5 percent. For example the hit chance of a ship with armament tech level 1 on a planet with natural defense 7 whose owner has a planetary defense technology level of 3 is only 5 percent (50 + 1*5 - 7*5 - 3*5 = 5). In addition the planetory defense technology level reduces the costs of fortresses (see table 5.7). Finally the effects of attacks on mines refineries etc. are reduced, too. 2.3.2 Communication Research in this field has the following effects: 2.3.2.1 Positions of Planets Starting with GC version 2.0 the players don't get the position of all planets at the start of the game but instead only positions in a specific range around owned planets. This range is determined by the communication technology level (see table 5.5). 2.3.2.2 Espionage A better communication technology simplifies espionage on enemy planets. Each communication tech level increases the probability per invested PU to get an espionage report (see table 5.5). 2.3.2.3 Corruption Corruption on owned or enemy planets is influenced by communication technology, too. Better communiction facilites make it easier to control the population so that you need to invest less PU to reach the same goal when your communication technology level rises (see table 5.5). 2.3.2.4 Hyperspace Jumps During space flight there is always a little chance that ships can be placed on randomly determined planets, whose position is sometimes not known, by means of uncontrollable hyperspace jumps. The crew will try to contact the home planet at once. The chance for success depends on the communication tech level (10 percent per level). A failure to contact home will always result in destruction of the ship whereas success reveals the position of the planet to the player. The ship will attack the planet. 2.3.2.5 Planetary Events Some of the planetary events (such as creation of bonus planets) deliver the position of the involved planet to a player if his communication technology level is high enough. Bonus planets will be revealed with level 5, positions of planets on which a reward that you offered was earned, with level 6 (see 3.14). 2.3.2 Medicine Research in medicine increases the population growth on planets. Each level adds a specific percentage to the normal growth: TL | Increase ------------------ 1 | 4 2 | 6 3 | 8 4 | 10 5 | 12 6 | 14 7 | 16 8 | 18 9 | 20 A planet with natural defense 8 (normal growth 2 percent) whose owner reached medicine technology level 2 has a population growth per game turn of 2+4+6=12 percent. In addition each medicine technology level reduces the risk of killed population in case of an enemy attack by 10 percent. 2.3.4 Armament Armament increases the hit chance of your ships. For each reached technology level this chance is increased by 5 percent. 2.3.5 Shields Shield technology reduces the risk of being hit in battle. For each reached technology level the attacker's hit chance is reduced by 8 percent. 2.3.6 Propulsion To increase the range of your ships you have to invest in propulsion technology. This table shows the increase in range per technology level: TL | additional range -----+---------------- 1 | 2 2 | 3 3 | 4 4 | 5 5 | 6 6 | 7 7 | 8 8 | 9 9 | 10 This means that a ship of class 19 (range on propulsion technology level 0 is 6) build with technology level 4 has a range of 6+2+3+4+5=20. 2.3.7 Construction Construction technology helps you to find less expensive ways and materials to build your ships. Each technology level reduces the ship costs by 10 percent. A ship of class 15 (normal costs 37 PU) will cost only 26 PU when construction technology level 3 is reached. 2.4 The Score The winner of a GC game is the player who is the first to reach a pre-determinded winning score. After each game turn the actions of a player during the turn and his overall current situation are evaluated and the calculated points are added to his score. This is how the score is calculated: * 1 point per planet the player controls * 1 point per 1000 population units on each planet controlled by the player up to a population size of 10000. For each 2000 population units above 10000 the player get an additional point. A planet with a population of 24000 is worth (10000/1000) + (14000/2000) = 10 +7 = 17 score points. * score point for PU that the player can use in the following turn: * 1 point per 5 PU for the first 1000 PU industrial capacity * 1 point per 10 PU for the range of 1001 to 3000 PU * 1 point per 20 PU for PUs above 3000 This means a player with an industrial capacity of 5400 PU would get 1000 / 5 = 200 + 2000 / 10 = 200 + 2400 / 20 = 120 ----------------- = 5400 ===> 520 score points * 1 point per 10 PU that the player did NOT use in the game turn. * n points for each successful conquest of a planet in game turn n (initial turn: 1 point, stardate 3501: 2 points etc.). * 1 point for each destroyed enemy fortress in the game turn. * For each destroyed enemy starship the attacking player gets half the maximum defense of the ship as score (rounded down, minimum 1). Accordingly a destroyed ship of class 7 is worth 1 score point whereas a ship of class 19 is worth 12 points. If you lose a planet to an enemy player during a turn, your score is reduced by the score amount that the enemy player got for conquering the planet. Additionally score points can be gained by conquering of special bonus planets or planets of players for whom a reward is offered. 3. The Commands There are 14 different commands that can be used by the player to control the game. For each game turn the player has to create a command file which he has to send to the game master. Once a week these command files are processed and the new game situation is calculated. Afterwards all players receive their new situation reports via e-Mail from the game master. The command file can be created with a normal text editor or with one of the the graphical command editors for GC. The latter method is preferable because the player doesn't have to remember the syntactic structure of his commands so that the chance of errors is reduced dramatically. If the command file is edited manually, each command has to be placed on a new line. All parameters of a command have to be separated by blanks. Processing of the command file works strictly sequential. This is important for load and movement commands for ships. A ship can be loaded and unloaded a often as the player wants, but there can be only one movement command for that ship in a given command file. After this movement command no more loading or unloading is possible. Here are the GC commands that a player can use. The letters for the commands are derived from the German meanings of the commands so don't be confused if there doesn't seem to be a relation between them ;-). I think this isn't a big problem because you won't have to know the syntax if you use a command editor like GC-Ork. 3.1 Move (B) The "Move" command is used to send a ship or task force to another planet. The first parameter specifies whether a ship or task force should be sent (S or T), then the number of the ship or TF and the final parameter is the number of the destination planet. If the destination planet is not owned by the ship's owner, the planet will be attacked. Syntax: B S <ship no.> <destination planet> or B T <TF no.> <destination planet> Example: Move ship no. 45 to planet 56 command ==> B S 45 56 3.2 Load (L) With this command a ship or TF is loaded. The first parameter determines whether a ship or a task force has to be loaded (S or T). Next is the ship or TF number followed by the type of cargo: 1: Spares 2: MPU 3: APU 4: RPU 5: M-Kits 6: A-Kits 7: R-Kits 8: F-Kits 9: Colonists Finally you have to specify how many of the usable transport units of the ship should be filled with the desired cargo. How much of a given cargo type fits in a transport unit can be seen in table 5.3. If the last parameter is 0 the program tries to load a much as possible. Example: if you want to load 80 colonists the number of transport units to be filled is 4, because according to table 5.3 each unit holds 20 colonists. Syntax: L S <ship no.> <type of cargo> <amount> or L T <TF no.> <type of cargo> <amount> Example: TF 56 shall be loaded with the maximum amount of colonists Command ==> L T 56 9 0 3.3 Unload (E) The syntax of this command is the same as for the "Load"-command . Syntax: E S/T <ship or TF no.> <type of cargo> <amount> 3.4 Ship Class for Shipyard (W) This command defines the ship class that a given shipyard will produce. Parameters are the number of the planet with the shipyard, the number of the shipyard (1-3) and finally the ship class. The first ship which is built in a shipyard after a change of ship class costs 50 percent more than normal. Syntax: W <planet> <shipyard no.> <ship class> Example: Shipyard 2 on planet 67 will produce ships of class 7 Command ==> W 67 2 7 3.5 Ship Production (S) After defining the ship class that a given shipyard has to produce, the command "Ship Production" can be used to invest PU in the shipyard. Parameters of this command are the planet and shipyard number and the number of PU that are to be invested. Syntax: S <planet> <shipyard> <number of PU> Example: The player wants to invest 15 PU in shipyard 1 on planet 78 Command ==> S 78 1 15 3.6 Scrap Ship (V) Since a player can't own more than 200 ships it can happen that a shipyard can't produce a ship, because the player already owns the maximum number of ships. In this case it can be necessary to scrap an older ship to make room for new construction. When a ship is scrapped in planetary orbit, spare parts are created on this planet (half the production costs of the ship on construction TL 0). Syntax: V <ship no.> 3.7 Attach Ship to Task Force (Z) With this command a ship can be attached to a task force. Parameters are the number of the ship and the number of the task force (0 - 50). A TF number of 0 means that the ship does not belong to a TF. Syntax: Z <ship no.> <TF no.> 3.8 Transfer Ship (U) With this command a ship of your fleet can be transferred to the fleet of another player who owns the ship from then on. Parameters for this command are the number of the ship and the number of the receiving player. This command can only be used after a "Move" command for the ship, which sends the ship to one of the receiving player's planets. Each gameturn only 2 ships can be transferred without danger. For each ship above 2 the risk that the ship's crew refuses to obey, increases by 10 percent. If a ship of class 16 or higher is transferred to another player, every other player in the game will get a message about this transfer. Syntax: U <ship no.> <player no.> 3.9 Production (P) With this command a player can invest the PU on a planet to improve the planet. Parameters for the command are the number of the planet, the type of facility and the amount that has to be built. Possible values for the facility type are: 1: Fortress 2: Mine 3: M-Kit 4: Farm 5: A-Kit 6: Refinery 7: R-Kit 8: Factory 9: F-Kit 10: Extend Shipyard 1 11: Extend Shipyard 2 12: Extend Shipyard 3 The costs for theses facilities can be found in table 5.2. Syntax: P <planet no.> <kind> <amount> Example: 2 fortresses shall be build on planet 23 Command ==> P 23 1 2 3.10 Espionage (I) With this command the player can invest in espionage on a planet. Parameters are the target planet, the number of PU to be invested and the number of the planet from which the PU should be taken. If PU from several planets are used for espionage on a single target, the invested PU are accumulated. The number of invested PU determines the chance for a successful espionage mission. For each invested PU the chance is increased by a value which depends on the communication technology level the investing player has reached (see table 5.5). The probability of success can be reduced, if the player who owns the target planet has invested in espionage on his own planet. There is always a chance that the target player gets a message about the espionage mission on his planet. This chance also rises if he invested in espionage on his on planet. When an espionage mission is successful, the player receives an exploration report of the planet. If the target was a player's home planet, some additional information is revealed: the current score of the owning player, the current technology level for a randomly determined research area and, if the owning player has set up a reward for another player, the name of this player. Syntax: I <no. of target planet> <number of PU> <planet no. for PU> Example: The player wants to use 15 PU from planet 20 for an espionage mission on planet 40: Command ==> I 40 15 20 3.11 Corruption (K) For each 10 PU that a player invests in corruption the loyalty level on a planet can be modified by a value which is determined by the player's communication technology level (see table 5.5). Corruption on own planets increases loyalty whereas corruption on enemy planets decreases it. Parameters are similar to the espionage command. There is always a chance that the owner of a target planet gets a message about the corruption. Syntax: K <no. of target planet> <number of PU> <planet no. for PU> Example: The player wants to reduce the loyalty of the population on planet 56 by 4. He has communication TL 5 and wants to take the necessary 20 PU from planet 13 Command ==> K 56 20 13 3.12 Research (F) PU can be used for research in one of 7 research areas to increase the technology levels. How many PU have to be spent to reach a given level can be found in table 5.4. Syntax: F <planet no.> <number of PU> <research area> The research areas are: 0: Planetary Defense 1: Communication 2: Medicine 3: Armament 4: Shields 5: Propulsion 6: Construction Example: 15 PU from planet 25 shall be invested in medicine research Command ==> F 25 15 2 3.13 Install (N) This command has to be used to install kits on a planet to get new production facilities. Syntax: N <planet no.> <type> <amount> Possible values for the type are: 5: M-Kits 6: A-Kits 7: R-Kits 8: F-Kits Example: 3 M-Kits on planet 57 shall be converted to mines Command ==> N 57 5 3 3.14 Reward (G) With this command a player can offer a reward for another player. Everybody who conquers a planet of the target player receives the offered reward. As soon as this command is used to offer a reward, the offered amount is deducted once from the score. Whenever a planet of the target player is conquered, the conquering player's score is increased by the amount and the offering player's score is decreased. The maximal reward that a player can offer is determined by the number of planets that he owns. For each planet he can offer 1 point reward (maxmimum 50) so that, for instance, a player who owns 12 planets can offer 12 points reward. If a player offers 20 or more points reward he gets information about who earned this reward each time that a target's planet is conquered. If he has invested in communication research this number of 20 points is reduced by 2 for each reached technology level. If a player has reached communication TL 6 he receives the positions of conquered planets. At any given time a player can only offer a reward for one enemy player. If the reward command is used a second time, the old reward is lost. If more than one player offers a reward for a given target player, the rewards are accumulated. Important: If a player uses the reward command, this reward can not be earned before the following game turn because every player has to be informed about the reward through the next status report. Syntax: G <number of points> <target player> Example: The player wants to offer 5 score points reward for player 3 Command ==> G 5 3 To withdraw a reward the command has to used again with target player 0. 4. Strategy The most important thing in the beginning of the game is to invest the increased number of PU (800), that is only available in the first turn, in a wise way. It's always a good idea to invest a large part of these PU to extend the shipyards on your home planet. Think about the ship classes that you want to produce. In the beginning the home planet only produces small ships which are not very useful. When you change the production on a shipyard always remember that the first ship a the new class costs 50 percent more. The rest of your initial PU should be invested in research. Construction and propulsion are always a good choice to start with. In the beginning of the game your fleet only consists of some small ships which should be used immediately to conquer new planets. Neutral planets can have up to 4 fortresses so it may be wise not to send the ships alone but in groups of 2 or 3 ships. Neutral planets start to build more fortresses after gameturn 4 (1 or 2 per gameturn). WHen you have conquered a new planet you should use the new resources to further increase your research and to start new ship productions to produce more ships per turn. The real challenge starts as soon as you have found enemy players. GC is not a peaceful trading game. If you want to win, you have to conquer other player's planets. Don't try to attack more than one enemy player at once. Try to negotiate with your neighbours to build up some secure borderlines and concentrate your power on one enemy. The minimum distance between 2 home planets is 16 so that planets nearer than 8 from your home are normaly considered to be in your territory. 5. Tables 5.1 Ship Classes in Galactic Conqueror A = Attack D = Defense T = Transport Capacity R = Range (Construction TL 0) C = Costs in PU (Construction TL 0) Class | A | D | T | R | C ------+---+---+---+---+--- 1 | 0 | 5 | 32| 16| 9 2 | 0 |10 | 32| 16| 14 3 | 0 |15 | 32| 16| 19 4 | 0 |10 | 64| 16| 18 5 | 0 |20 | 64| 16| 28 6 | 0 |20 | 96| 16| 32 7 | 1 | 1 | 0| 20| 5 8 | 2 | 2 | 0| 8| 10 9 | 2 | 4 | 0| 8| 14 10 | 2 | 8 | 0| 6| 22 11 | 4 | 2 | 0| 8| 16 12 | 4 | 4 | 0| 8| 20 13 | 4 | 8 | 0| 6| 28 14 | 7 | 4 | 0| 8| 29 15 | 7 | 8 | 0| 6| 37 16 | 7 |12 | 0| 6| 45 17 |12 | 8 | 0| 6| 52 18 |12 |15 | 0| 6| 66 19 |12 |25 | 0| 6| 86 20 |20 |15 | 0| 6| 90 21 |20 |25 | 0| 6|110 22 |20 |40 | 0| 4|140 23 |35 |20 | 0| 6|145 24 |35 |30 | 0| 4|165 25 |35 |50 | 0| 4|205 26 |50 |30 | 0| 4|210 5.2 Production Costs No. | Kind | PU ----+-----------------+--- 1 | Fortress | 7* 2 | Mine | 2 3 | M-Kit | 3 4 | Farm | 2 5 | A-Kit | 3 6 | Refinery | 2 7 | R-Kit | 3 8 | Factory | 2 9 | F-Kit | 3 10 | Extend Shipy. 1 | 10 11 | Extend Shipy. 2 | 10 12 | Extend Shipy. 3 | 10 * Costs for fortresses depend on planetary defense TL (see Table 5.7) 5.3 Transport Goods AM = Amount per Transport Unit No. | Kind | AM ----+----------------+---- 1 | Spares | 1 2 | MPU | 1 3 | APU | 1 4 | RPU | 1 5 | M-Kits | 1 6 | A-Kits | 1 7 | R-Kits | 1 8 | F-Kits | 1 9 | Colonists | 20 5.4 Research Tech-Level | PU -----------+----- 0 | 0 1 | 50 2 | 150 3 | 350 4 | 700 5 | 1250 6 | 2050 7 | 3500 8 | 5600 9 | 9000 5.5 Effects of Communication Research CTL = Communication TL R = Radius around own planets, in which positions of other planets are revealed LO = Loyality change per 10 invested PU for corruption PRE = Probability of a successfull espionage mission per invested PU CTL| R | LO | PRE ---+----+-----+---- 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 1 | 6 | 1 | 2 2 | 7 | 1 | 3 3 | 8 | 1 | 4 4 | 10 | 2 | 5 5 | 12 | 2 | 6 6 | 14 | 3 | 7 7 | 18 | 4 | 8 8 | 22 | 6 | 9 9 | 28 | 8 | 10 5.6 Costs for Spares COTL = Construction TL SPA = Number of Spares per invested PU in a shipyard COTL | SPA ----+----- 0 | 1 1 | 2 2 | 4 3 | 6 4 | 8 5 | 11 6 | 14 7 | 17 8 | 20 9 | 25 5.7 Costs for Fortresses PDTL = Construction TL COST = PE Cost per fortress COTL | COST ----+----- 0 | 7 1 | 6 2 | 6 3 | 6 4 | 5 5 | 5 6 | 5 7 | 4 8 | 4 9 | 3 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Harry Zimmermann <--------<<<< ***** >>>>--------> hz@zardoz.ping.de | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Referenced By Up