Tournament IRC-SFB Frequently Asked Questions From: stevelee@post.its.mcw.edu (Number 6) Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 04:09:39 +0000 okay... this is _slightly_ off topic, but the whole thing started over a SFB PBeM campaign... Tournament IRC-SFB Frequently Asked Questions (Well, they aren't actually FAQs yet, but they will be.) Original Issue: Dated 22 October, 1994 (TSFBIRC.FAQ ver 1.0) Q1) What is SFB? A1) If you don't know that, stop reading this FAQ. You don't wanna know. Begone heathen swine! <*poof*> Q2) What is IRC? A2) IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, is the next generation of 'talk' protocols on the internet. Where 'talk' is one on one, IRC allows multiple people on multiple systems to sit in a channel and chat, argue, threaten, bluff, flirt, tell bad jokes... or play SFB (see Q1). Q3) Why use IRC over 'talk'? A3) Ah, gwasshoppah, aww wiw become cweaw in time. Actually, IRC is just a personal preference. 'talk' works fine, but no one can watch you play. AND all 'talk' protocols are not alike. From personal experience, i've had some real trouble using talk with some people. Some systems don't let you connect to other systems, or certain implementations aren't particularly friendly with other implementations. But not everyone has access to IRC. Later in the FAQ, I'll give pointers to where you can either telnet to get IRC access, or where you can get your own IRC client (the latter requires about a meg to a meg and a half of disk space on your internet account). Oh, and one more thing... IRC doesn't prompt you with that annoying prompt: "talk request from <whoeverthehellistryingtogetyourattention>" which you have to respond to by typing "talk <whoever>" which you will _never_ get right on the first try. You can just jump on IRC, and tell someone that you are there by their nickname (explained later, if you aren't familiar with the IRC), and jump on a channel and play. No fuss, no muss, no futzing around. Q4) What ships can/do I fly? A4) First things first - Only tournament ships are being flown in this particular group. _All_ tourney ships - including Patrol Only (not for much longer, I hope) are available. The Official List is posted later in this FAQ, including the modifications I know about since GenCon that are not on the ships listed in Module T or CL#15. At the moment, we are pretty anarchistic. Fly whatever you want. At the time that this FAQ is being put together, I have about 10 people that are interested in SFB-IRC. Just agree on it before you fly. If you want to fly an ISC against the PundyWYN, feel free. And if for some sick reason you want to fly the Seltorian, well... Good luck. One other note, if there are any changes to the tourney ships, the changes will dribble over into this group. There may still be some tweaking going on with a few of the patrol ships, and Onion/WYN rules may get shuffled (they seem to do that about 1-2 times a year). Q5) How do we handle EA? A5) In just about every game I've ever played, we've taken it for granted that the opponent is telling the truth about his EA. I've never checked it out, except to see if I guessed right about something on a given turn. However, it is probably a good idea to do your EA on the computer. I will be more than happy to whip up a text-based EA form. At the end of the game, you can swap EAs (there is a way to do this through the IRC directly, but if you are using 'talk', you can mail the EA to your opponent at the end). As in regular tourney, it is _vitally_important_ to keep track of your opponent's energy for him. Q6) Impulse chart? How do I handle the Impulse Chart? A6) I don't care. You can trade off, you can have one person doing it, or you can snag a friend to do it for you (IRC only)... Q7) Movement? How do I give the movement information? A7) Movement is probably the easiest thing to deal with. Just give the hex number and the facing. If you turn, precede it with a 'T'. If you sideslip, precede it with a 'S'. HETing can be done with just a preceding 'H', but it would be better to precede the move with "HET". e.g., Starting in Hex 1701, facing D. Abbreviated (1701D or 1701-D, or 1701:D, or 1701 D... or any other means you can imagine to say the same thing). Turning right into 1601 is posted as T1601-E. Sideslipping into the same hex is posted as S1601-D. Going straight into hex 1702 is posted as 1702-D. HETing from hex 1601-E to 1702-C can be posted as either H1702-C, or HET1702-C. The latter is preferred. These rules apply for nearly all types of counters - plasmas, drones, shuttles, ships, and insults hurled out the shuttle bays. The only exception are T-Bombs or PA-Mines. Anything launched during the launch portion of impulse activity, must give facing information (the hex of origin should be pretty obvious, but you are by no means restricted from giving the full info, e.g., a D7CT is in 1414-C and launches two drones, facing D. The Klink can announce either "two drones, launched facing D," or "2 drones launched, 1414-D.") Q8) What about dice? Do I trust me opponent to tell me what he rolls? A8) If you want to, go ahead, but I highly recommend the Die Server at dice@danpost4.uni-c.dk - and if you know of others, share them with the rest of the group. What it does is take a die roll request and mails it to the requesting party, and anyone else that you want to send it to. I've done some large sets of rolls (typically 180 rolls at a time) and have come out with a pretty good distribution, so the rolls are probably fair. If you use the Die Server, mail a copy to your opponent. This goes for all rolls - labs, weapons, and damage. Later in the FAQ, i'll include the Die Server Request format information. It's not very finicky about what it wants and how it wants it, but it will give you an error message if you don't tell it the few things it does want to know. Note that when we get a bit more organized, I will _require_ you to use a Die Server. Q9) Rules Questions? A9) You're on your own with rules questions until this gets more formalized. When that happens, we'll probably have a roving Rules Geek running around with The Book open. Q10) What about Judge's Decisions? A10)You probably aren't gonna get none of them here. SFB via the IRC can take longer than a face to face duel. A two hour battle may take a couple of two hour sessions. Or one long three hour session. I will set a three session limit on each duel (how long you want each session to last is up to you - I'd recommend two to three hours). At that point, i'll pull in a judge (possibly me, but I'm not really the expert here... I just play the game, not judge it.). And try to get the games done in a week. The way I'll handle judges decisions is this: Both players send me the positions of all the counters (theirs and the opponent's), EAs, what their ships look like (shields and internals), current speed, and a brief description of how they plan on getting out of the mess that has gotten them to a nine hour game. I will blind out the player info and send it off to a neutral judge. As in tourny, ALL JUDGE'S DECISIONS ARE FINAL!! Q11)Okay, so what happens if we get a multiple session game going here? A11)Mail me the positions - BOTH PARTIES!!! That way, if there are any discrepancies, I'll have it on record and get it straightened out. Q12)How is the tourney going to be run? Patrol style or single elimination? A12)When a fight is over, mail me the results. I may run multiple sets, just like a Real Tourney - one single elim (i'll give you one free re-entry for first round) and a Patrol (one change of ships, and you start from scratch with the new ship). I've had a suggestion that we do a MegaTournament, where everyone flies a random ship against a random opponent. Each player flies each ship. That could/would get pretty messy, but mayhap we can get a small group together for that. Results will be posted weekly - Name, Ship, Win/Loss, and Standings. Postings will be done either Friday night or Saturday. I will mail and post the results to rec.games.board as well as mail them. Q13)How do I get involved? A13)Email me at stevelee@post.its.mcw.edu for more information. Send me your name/email address, the ship you will fly, and availability times. I'll get back to you in a day or two, with an FAQ and a list of opponents. Mentioning whether or not you have IRC access is probably also a good idea. And if you are a Rated Ace, that would also be helpful information. /***********************************************************************/ Okay, well, there's the basics. Now on to the Advanced Topics of SFB-IRC. AdvQ1) How do I choose my opponents? AdvA1) This is the easy part. I'm going to be distributing a list of players and availability times. At first, I'll leave it up to the individual players to set up times (and channels, if IRC is being used). We'll see how that goes until we get a bit bigger... (This is a hint: grab all your .net.buddies and .net.buddettes that play SFB and point them HERE!). When we get enough people together, I'll start matching people up randomly. AdvQ2) Okay, I don't have IRC access, but it sounds awfully qool. Where can I hop on an IRC client? AdvA2) There are several telnettable IRC sites that I am aware of. They tend to be busy, but the list I have is pretty long, so you should be able to use at least one of them. type "telnet <hostname> <port>" and it will either let you on or boot you off, telling you to try another host. sci.dixie.edu 6677 sci.dixie.edu 7766 wildcat.ecn.uoknor.edu 6677 wildcat.ecn.uoknor.edu 7766 skywarrior.ecn.uoknor.edu 7766 skyhawk.ecn.uoknor.edu 7766 skyraider.ecn.uoknor.edu 7766 intruder.ecn.uoknor.edu 7766 if you are on a VAX/VMS system, you need to add the /PORT switch to your telnet request. (e.g., telnet sci.dixie.edu /PORT=6677) AdvQ3) I don' wanna use somebody else's IRC client, I want my own! Where do I find one? AdvA3) Well, there are clients all over the place. I found mine through gopher's VERONICA. The latest version (it's only been out a week or two, I believe) is ver 2.6, but most places support version 2.2.9, which is the version i run. Watch the groups alt.irc.questions and alt.irc.ircii for info on FTP sites. AdvQ4) You said you'd tell us how to use the dice server. Well...? AdvA4) Okay. The die server I use is dice@danpost4.uni-c.dk there are several fields it requires, each field taking up a single line. #P <email address of ONE of the recipients of the dice> (note that each recipient gets his or her own line) #S <sides per die, in this case 6> #D <number of dice per roll> (for the sake of convenience, i'd prefer to use the number 1) #R <number of rolls> #L <number of rolls/line> (i.e, if you want 10 rolls on one line, put ten here. i prefer 1-2, depending on what's going on.) #T <text to be included in message> (this can be info on what rolls mean what, or just a general statement of what the rolls signify, e.g., "lab rolls for drones at range 2 and 3 - first two rolls at range 2, last two at range 3. You can throw on as many #T lines as you want). Here's a concrete example of the Die Server at work: #P stevelee@post.its.mcw.edu #S 6 #D 1 #R 6 #L 2 #T Fire roll: #T first two are 1xHB #T next two are a disruptor shot and a p1 #T last two are for the second 1xOL HB. <send out for results> <response will look something like this:> Subject: Fire roll: first two are 1xHB next two are a disruptor shot and a p1 last two are for the second 1xOL HB. Dice rolls requested by: stevelee@post.its.mcw.edu No. of sides on every die: 6 No. of dice for every roll: 1 No. of dice rolls requested: 6 No. of rolls pr. line: 2 4 6 2 1 4 4 <end of file> Actually, there's some extraneous info in there, mostly a disclaimer telling you not to reply to the message. The only problem with the server is that you have to leave what you're doing to mail it out. Now, if you are running on a typical UNIX account, you can just ^Z out from talk and do your email duties, get your results, and type 'fg' to bring the talk program back into the foreground and grumble about either your or your opponent's gunnery teams. IRC is a different beast. ^Z doesn't always work. IRC "binds" keys to certain functions, and for reasons which elude me, ^Z is often bound to something. I'll explain in a moment how to deal with that. AdvQ5) Okay, well... deal with the question already. (And while you're at it, give us some more info and hints on using IRC). AdvA5) There are several common commands used for IRC. Some are necessary, others are just really really really nice. All commands are preceded by a forward slash ('/') and if your are familiar with EMACS or JOVE, the command line editing features are taken right out of EMACS. as far as i know, all these commands can be abbreviated to 4 letters. /join #channel : joins a "channel." All channels _must_ be preceded by a '#'. /quit, /signoff, /leave and i don't know what else: gets you out of IRC. /nickname <nickname> : lets you choose your 'nickname' on IRC. if you want to be known as Death, type "/nick Death" and you'll be informed that you are now known as Death. /msg <nickname> : sends a private message to the person of a given nickname. it cannot be seen by other people in the channel (except operators, which I haven't dealt with). If you have someone sitting in on your channel, you can send important fire decisions to him or her. /alias <alias name> <command string> : allows you to condense commands into single commands. e.g., calling fire decision: /alias fd Fire Decision. every time you type in /fd the screen will put "Fire Decision" on the screen. /save <optional filename> : you can save all your parameters and aliases. this only works if you have direct IRC access. the default value file is .ircrc, which is read each time you start IRC. /load <filename> : loads a configuration file (if you saved your irc parameters to a file other than .ircrc). /bind <key> <command> : this is a way to bind some commands to a keystroke. just typing /bind gives you a listing of key bindings. i highly recommend that if you are going to use IRC, you /bind ^Z stop_irc this will let you shell out of IRC by typing ^Z. AdvQ6) So, Steve, what do you get out of this? AdvA6) First and foremost: practice. I need to get a lot more familiar with ships other than the few I've flown. Coming in a close second is the desire to potentially get a full blown ECon going - ya know, grab a bunch of people together for a couple of weekends on the IRC, have groups of FRPGers, board gamers, and what not. Mayhap we can even get Herr S.V. Cole to sit in on some things, and/or make it a sanctioned tourney (don't hold your breath). AdvQ7) So, Steve, what do _I_ get out of this? AdvA7) I hope to get some Ace Cards out there, but that depends on Herr Cole (again, that's down the road a ways). Other than that, you get more opponents to choose from other than the local group and conventioneers. AdvQ8) Final Question: What were those ships again? AdvA8) Captain's Only: DFer: Federation ("Freds") Hydran Neo-Tholian Drone Chuckers: Klingon ("Klinks") Kzinti ("Kzin") Lyran Plasma Boats: Gorn ISC Romulan FH ("Rommies") Weirds: Andromedans ("Andros") Orion ("Onions") WYN ("WYNers") Currently Patrol Only and Changes from originals (CL#15) DFer: Archeo-Tholian ("Archeo") [HET on 5-6] Drone Chuckers: LDR [+2 APR] Seltorian [+2 CW] (does anyone have any idea _why_ this is listed as a drone ship?) WYN Black Shark [+2 drone points] Plasma Boats: Romulan KE [+5 armor] Romulan KR Weirds: None. -- -stevelee- john galt is prometheus who changed his mind. after centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought the fire of the gods, he broke his chains and he withdrew his fire - until the day when men withdraw their vultures. -francisco d'anconia -- reaching for god, and finding self. ayn rand "the fountainhead" -- reaching for god, and finding self. ayn rand "the fountainhead" Up