New Galaxy Starting From: slothoub@cs.utwente.nl (Frans Slothouber) Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 00:00:00 +0000 ============================================ New Galaxy Game Zeal Starting ============================================ Heya, I plan to start a new galaxy in the near future, and am therefore looking for players. Galaxy is a free play-by-email galactic war game. It requires strategic as well as diplomatic skills, and is highly addictive. Depending on how you play, the game takes about 1 to 2 hours a turn. There are a number of tools, such as a turn viewer, that make playing the game even more easy. == Number of Turns == For the first 20 turns Zeal will run at 3 turns a week. After that it will run at 2 turns a week, so that they players can cope with the increased complexity. The game runs automatically, and an orders checker is available, using a server that has been used to run several other games. == Number of players == 30 players can join, that is if there that many that are interested. If not the game will start with a fewer number of players. == New type of Galaxy == The game will be somewhat different from the traditional galaxy games in that it will use different algorithm to create the initial layout of the galaxy. Each player will start with 2 fully developed home planets instead of 1. One of size 1000 and one of size 500. Each player will have the same number of planets within a given radius from it's home planet. The sizes of these planets will differ, but the sum of the sizes will be equal for all players, ensuring that each player has an equal chance to success. In addition, the home worlds of the different player are widely spaced from each other, ensuring that a player isn`t kicked out in the first few turns. To improve the tactical possibilities a number of `stuff planets' will be scattered across the galaxy. These are small useless planets that provide players with different routes to attack their enemies. I developed this algorithm with Rogerio Fung and it has been successfully used in a number of galaxy games; Outback, Xzone, and Matrix. == Rules Changes == There are also a few changes to the rules. 1) If you bomb an enemy planet, you become the owner of the planet. Though both population and industry will be reduced to 25% of their original value. 2) You can change production when ever you like, production points are not lost. 3) Much of the restrictions concerning the uploading and downloading of cargo over enemy planets are removed. It is allowed to unload or upload colonist and other goods from the planets of other players. This allows different types of cooperation between players. But also creating the possibility of piracy! The goal of the changes is to make the game more dynamic, and place a little more emphasis on the battle part of the game and less emphasis on the economic part of the game. It has proven to do so in the game Xzone, that ended after 42 very violent turns. == Alliances == It is allowed for an alliance to win the game, and the runner-ups will be also awarded point, making it a little more easy to enter the hall of fame. The new hall-of-fame that is. We, Jacco van Weert and I, came up with this idea because we think it's unfair that only the winner of a game is awarded victory points. We therefore propose that the runner-ups are also awarded points. These victory points are calculated as follows: Points = (Total_number_of_players / Position_of_the_player) Only the upper half of the players get points. == How To Join == If you are interested in joining this game send an email with as subject: Zeal to: slothoub@cs.utwente.nl == More Info == The Galactic Traveler Page http://www.jacobean.demon.co.uk/gtrav.html The Xzone Home Page http://wwwtios.cs.utwente.nl/~slothoub/Xzone Or send mail to slothoub@xs4all.nl Have Fun, Frans -- ( Frans Slothouber, Centre for Telematics and Information Technology ) ( www.xs4all.nl/~slothoub slothoub@cs.utwente.nl ) Up