PBEM Fanzine, volume 93 number 4 From: gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) Date: Fri, 21 May 1993 06:01:42 +0000 ====================================================================== @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@``````````@@ @@``````````@@ @@`````````````` @@@@ @@@@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@``@@ @@ @@`` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@`` @@ ``@@`` @@```````````` @@``````````@@ @@```````````` @@`` `` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@`` @@`` `` ```````````` `````````````` `` `` ====================================================================== A Fanzine for Free Computer-Moderated Play-By-Electronic-Mail Wargames ====================================================================== volume 93, number 4 may 15, 1993 ====================================================================== Greg Lindahl, Editor gl8f@virginia.edu ====================================================================== Table of Contents: Opening Stuff o The Editor's Corner o Short Summary of Available Games Articles o A First Look at Phoenix Bruno Wolff III o An Atlantis Update Greg Lindahl Reader Feedback o You didn't fill me out, now did you? Regular Features o Game Descriptions & Information o Archives and subscriptions by email o Hints regarding sending electronic mail to other networks o What's this "ftp" thing anyway? ====================================================================== The Editor's Corner ====================================================================== We're a few days late because I managed to walk into a tree while vacationing in Nowhere'sville, North Carolina (better known as North Wilkesboro), and gave myself a corneal abrasion. Sigh. What did they do in the Middle Ages before they invented codine and bacitracin? They probably didn't try to walk around at night when the moon is down, carrying a drunken person. -- greg (gl8f@virginia.edu) p.s. If you're interested in writing an article, please send me email. I'd especially love to have a review of "Judgment Day", or to find out about more games. ====================================================================== Short Summary of Available Games ====================================================================== Diplomacy --- Play Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boardgame by email. There are 1000+ players involved in ~234 games, with new games starting frequently on several automated email servers. Galaxy --- An economic/strategic space-opera game. There are around 500 players involved in a dozen or so games. New games start occasionally. There is a new automated Galaxy server. Judgment Day --- A simple strategic game of economics and warfare, set in the "modern era": tanks, plans, and atomic bombs. Currently in beta-test. Atlantis --- An open-ended economic/strategic fantasy game, that will remind you of Olympia quite a lot. The first turn will run April 11, and new players are still being taken. Celestial Empire --- a more complicated space-opera game. There 5 games running with about 100 players. New games start occasionally. Dougal Scott is looking for someone to take over running these games. Phoenix --- described below. You can ftp the rules, but no game positions are currently available. Sports Simulations --- a variety of different electronic leagues are available. Each game generally does one or two seasons per year. Decentralized games --- a couple of games are available which are designed for a few players, and the moderation programs are available so you can run your own games. For more information on any of these games, please wade through the "Game Descriptions and Information" section below. It lists ftp sites and the addresses of the moderators. The sports simulations and decentralized games listings are located in the "PBM List", which is a separate document. ====================================================================== A First Look at Phoenix Bruno Wolff III ====================================================================== I am currently playing in one of two recently-started games of Phoenix. The game is still in its early stages, so I have not experienced the flavor of all parts of the game. Phoenix is a strategic/economic conquer-the-galaxy game with very nice automated turn processing. The authors provide a well-written set of rules and strategy hints. The game is played on a sparse toroidal map, with worlds located only at places with integer coordinates. All action takes place at worlds. Slightly fewer than 10% of possible locations contain worlds. The program that generates the map does a lot of checking to make sure the map is reasonable (no large gaps, moderately balanced starting positions, etc.). After the initial setup, the game is totally automated. When you send in your orders, they are immediately checked for syntax errors. You can request a forecast of your turn results This is very useful for catching mistakes that are caused by valid but silly orders. You can request copies of turn reports for previous turns. You can send mail to other players through the game. This can help in some cases where there are problems when trying to send mail directly. You can also send your turn reports directly to other players. The response from the server is very fast. I normally received forecast results in fewer than two minutes. Players' orders are all processed at the same time. The program can be set up to run turns at set times or to run as soon as everyone has their orders in. Each player has a choice among a number of different races they can play. You must pick your race before you know anything about your starting position. The races appear to be relatively balanced. The race you pick does not restrict your play or whom you ally with, but does allow you to build certain units and be better at certain facets of the game. There are rules for technology development. The main effect of technology seems to keep people from taking over some of the independents worlds until after they have improved their combat technology. However, there are a number of important decisions that need to be made regarding technology. I think it may be a complication that does not add enough to the game to make it worthwhile. The game ends when a faction of about 25% of the players controls over half of the worlds. This adds a nice feature to diplomacy in the game: You do not have to stab your allies in order to win. All members of the faction must agree to any change in the faction membership. Once a faction is formed, all members pretty much have to work together. The game seems to have three stages. The first is the initial expansion from your homeworld. The second is forming alliances to eliminate players. The third is forming factions to win the game. One nice feature of the game is that moving raw resources around is abstracted. This removes a lot of busy work from the game -- I consider figuring out the details of supply transportation busy work. Players are limited in what unit types are available for space fleets and ground armies. Each race has special units available to it that are not generally available to the other races. Ships have a larger range of values than armies. Ships are more mobile than armies (they can fight at a new world every turn, while armies cannot both be moved and fight). Only armies can actually take a world. Another unusual feature of the game is that some orders require special command units to be nearby. The effect of this is to give the defender a significant advantage at deploying his forces effectively. Overall I like the game a lot. I think the game itself presents the players with important decisions that are not clear cut. I think the player interface allows the player to worry about what he wants to accomplish and not about being surprised by typoes in his orders. Phoenix was written by Steven Goodman, Doug Garrett, and Don Woods. ====================================================================== An Atlantis Update ====================================================================== Atlantis has run 5 turns so far, and has around 150 players. So far there have been many deaths, the formation of at least one large alliance, and the first of many battles to control strategic production areas. Will Dr. Pain rest easy in the Garden of Valga? Tune in next month for the answer... ====================================================================== You didn't fill me out, now did you? ====================================================================== I received 21 answers to my survey last issue. 19 received PBEM from the Internet, 2 from the mailing list. Gee, even my childhood friend on Compu$erve didn't bother to mail back a survey. 15 seemed to play a lot of face-to-face wargames. I guess I should have asked about other computer games as well, but no doubt the answer would have been "yes" in most cases. 11 played no snail-mail wargames. One was a commercial PBM moderator. The most common email game was Galaxy, followed by Atlantis and Phoenix. 7 played no email wargames. 17 had year-round access to email. Since this issue was mailed while school was still in session, this is a surprisingly-large fraction, at least to me. The most common thing desired in PBEM games was better front-ends, graphical or otherwise, which was mentioned by 7 people. 4 liked the fact that play was not continuous, unlike face-to-face games or games like Berkeley Empire or MUDs. And finally, everyone loved this fanzine. Really. ====================================================================== Game Descriptions and Information ====================================================================== FTP Site: ftp.erg.sri.com username: anonymous Directory: pub/pbm Contains back-issues of this magazine, source for Galaxy, and rules for a whole bunch of games. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FTP Site: ftp.cp.tn.tudelft.nl username: anonymous Directory: pub/pbm The same stuff as sri.com, often a little more up-to-date. ====================================================================== Game: Atlantis Type: strategic economic/military, fantasy setting Duration: open-ended Turns: one per week GM: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace) Status: accepting new players For those of you who are familiar with Olympia, Atlantis is Russell Wallace's answer. It is a _very_ simple game, one in which the players have to provide most of the flavor. Other than the players, there is no one but peasants in the world. The only economy is that which exists between players. A magazine is generated weekly and is posted to rec.games.pbm. It should also be available at the ftp sites. The rules are also available for ftp. The first turns were mailed in April, 1993. The game is now accepting players... send email to the GM to join. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Celestial Empire Type: strategic economic/military space-opera Duration: close-ended, 30+ turns Turns: one per week GM: Dougal.Scott@fcit.monash.edu.au Status: occasionally starting new games Description: Players compete to capture worlds which produce many different types of resources, of which different amounts are needed to manufacture various items. The author, Dougal Scott, is currently running several games, and he periodically starts new ones. The rules may be ftp-ed from yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au in the directory /pub/celemp. After you've read them, if you still want to join a game, send your name to Dougal.Scott@fcit.monash.edu.au. He's also looking for a new administrator to take over running his games, so he can finish his degree. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Diplomacy Type: email version of Avalon Hill's pure strategy game Turns: frequency varies from one per day to one per 2 weeks for different games. Email Server: judge@morrolan.eff.org HELP in body of message, Email Server: judge@u.washington.edu the subject is ignored. Description: The Diplomacy Adjudicator is a fully computer-moderated gamemaster for Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boardgame. To get more information from the moderator, send email with the word "HELP" in the body of the message (the subject is ignored) to judge@morrolan.eff.org. Some information is available via FTP from milton.u.washington in the public/misc subdirectory. All of the information up for ftp is also available via the email server. There is also an older diplomacy Judge at judge@u.washington.edu, which is not starting any new games but has lots of standby positions available. Diplomacy is probably the biggest PBEM game out there, with 234 games going as of May 15, a 100% increase over the past year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Galaxy Type: strategic, economic/military, space opera setting Duration: typically 50-80 turns Turns: typically 1 or 2 per week GM: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace) GM: bampton@cs.utk.edu (Howard Bampton) Email Server: beast-serv@acca.nmsu.edu, Subject: HELP Description: The game typically takes place on a 100x100 2D map, with a few hundred planets and 20 to 50 players. Players compete to capture planets, which can be used for economic expansion. You may purchase technology in several different areas, allowing your ships to fight harder and move faster. Galaxy turns range in size from 10kbytes early in the game to 100-200kbytes late in the game. The rules and source code are available for ftp. There is now an automated email server which presumably will be handling a large fraction of games in the future. You can talk to it by sending email to beast-serv@acca.nmsu.edu with the word "help" in the subject. Note: in the subject. This email server runs games as well as mailing lists for the "Galaxy PBeM Development Group", and will let you get at the latest GPDG source code. You can help develop, if you like. If you have problems or want to talk to a human, try beast@acca.nmsu.edu. You can also write to humans who run games; they start games occasionally and also have standby positions. They are: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie bampton@cs.utk.edu Howard Bampton has a variant called "blind" galaxy. You can ftp the source for it from cs.utk.edu:/pub/bampton. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Judgment Day Type: strategic economic/military, present day setting Turns: one per week GM: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace) Status: beta test. one game running. standby positions available. Description: Judgment Day is a game for up to 25 players. Each player controls an empire which can build weapons and attack each other. When the nukes start flying, remember to duck and cover. Judgment Day is in the first beta-test. Dropout positions are occasionally available; after you have read the rules (available at the ftp sites), write the GM to ask for a position. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sports games and Decentralized games are on the PBM List, distributed separately on the Internet, and at the end on CompuServe. ====================================================================== Archives and subscriptions by email ====================================================================== PBEM is archived at "ftp.erg.sri.com" and "ftp.cp.tn.tudelft.nl". I will also be setting up a mailing list to distribute this magazine, but keep in mind that it will be posted on a regular basis to at least Usenet and CompuServe, so if you're reading it now, you probably won't need to get on the mailing list to receive it in the future. ====================================================================== The remainder of this magazine doesn't change, and isn't of interest to most readers anyway. Skip it. ====================================================================== Hints regarding sending Electronic Mail to other networks ====================================================================== OK, so now you're wondering, "I'm using FidoNet or CompuServe or FoobieBlech and those email addresses he keeps on talking about sure look funny to me!". Welcome to the modern world of networking. See, there's this big amorphous network called the Internet that lots of other networks, like FidoNet and CompuServe and DELPHI and America Online (but not GEnie, yet) are hooked up to. And you can send email between all of them, if you know the right incantations. Often size or cost limitations will keep you from being able to play games on another network, but at least you can send me letters to the editor or articles. Compuserve: If your ID is [76515,1122] then your canonical Internet address will be 76515.1122@compuserve.com. The comma is replaced by a period, and that's your username. Compuserve.com is the name of your site. The .com on the end means that Compuserve is a business, and also generally means it's in the USA. This address is the one that non-compuserve people will use to talk to you. To send mail from CompuServe to the Internet, you use this sort of address: >INTERNET:gl8f@virginia.edu In this example, the ">INTERNET:" part indicates that the email is going to the Internet, and gl8f@virginia.edu is a normal Internet address (mine). Compuserve users have to pay extra for mail to or from the Internet. If you're a flat-fee user, the cost is 5 cents per 2500 characters, minimum 15 cents, and the first $9 per month is free. This can add up to a bit of money if you send frequent messages, or get into a Galaxy end-game where your turns are large. In addition, the maximum size for a given message is 50kbytes, and most Internet games do not split their game turns into pieces if they are too large. But you can try. Diplomacy, for example, should definitely be ok in size and volume if you play a no-press anonymous game. BTW, the 50k limit will be upped to 2 megabytes sometime during the spring of 1993. America Online and DELPHI tell me that they don't charge extra for sending email to the Internet. So you might want to investigate them as an alternative to Compu$erve. To go from FidoNet to the Internet and back is a similar process. Actually, it's not so simple. I have a document that describes this, but since FidoNet seems to be a bit of an anarchy, you can't even send netmail from some nodes and others may not be configured properly to send mail to and from the Internet. And, when you send email, someone is paying to send it, or maybe there is a local gateway and it's free. So, you should probably talk to your sysop first to figure out what's going on. Anyway, the long and the short of it is this: FidoNet users can send mail to the Internet by sending normal netmail to the user UUCP, and then on the first line of the message, put the line: To: gl8f@virginia.edu To send email from the Internet to FidoNet, you take an address such as "Dale Webber at 1:105/55.0", and turn that into dale.weber@p0.f55.n105.z1.fidonet.org. Again, this is subject to the same caveats above about the gateway and the costs involved. From what I've gathered (but I haven't asked recently), they ask that you keep messages under 10k bytes and to only send two or three a day. This is a fairly small amount that would limit your ability to play Internet games, but you can still submit articles to this fanzine (hint, hint). If you want to avoid the limitations, yet don't know how to get directly on the Internet, I can mail you a list of public-access Unix sites with Internet email capabilities. Just send me a short note, using the above info, to "gl8f@virginia.edu", and I'll mail a copy back. ====================================================================== What's this "ftp" thing anyway? ====================================================================== ftp is an acronym for "file transfer protocol", and it is only directly available to the privileged few who are directly hooked to the Internet using heavy-duty hardware. There is a way to use ftp via email, and if you can get email to me, I will send you a document explaining how to use it, or send email to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com, with an empty Subject: line, and the word "help" in the body of the message. ====================================================================== PBEM is published monthly. Please redistribute it far and wide, but do not modify or delete any articles. Write me if you want to redistribute it in other forms; such permission is easy to obtain. For example, some old articles are being translated into German. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE! Our focus is primarily on free wargames, but we're interested in articles about anything relevant. Up