VGA Planets: New game openings. From: rmg53668@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Ryan M. Grant) Date: Sun, 07 Feb 1993 09:25:25 +0000 I'm opening my doors to host a game of VGA Planets. Everyone is invited. I would prefer people who already know what the game is, though. In this game, all race assignments will be made at the same time, with random order but obeying any preference lists sent. This means lottery, not by race directly, but by choice of first race. Send me as long a list of prefrences as you want, I will obey that list with what's available or assign randomly among remaining races if there are no more races you have listed as prefrences. I will not be playing, and I will be opening as many games as necessary to keep everybody happy. This means everyone has a shot at the Empire, without sitting at your terminal all week looking for openings. If there are three extra people, you might get turned down due to lack of content for a game, but otherwise everybody responding by Friday plays. This also may mean you get stuck with the Lizards, but hey, who among us picked our own heritage? Turns will be run every night at 10:00 CST. That's flexible. Hopefully it won't come down to the wire too often though, because I'll run a turn anytime I have all the turns and it will count for the day. I will mail personal receipts to everyone on receiving the turns as well, so you'll know if you sent it and nothing happens. If I recieve everyone's turn 5 times a day, and I check my account enough, 5 turns will go out that day. If one person has something better to do, the game waits up to a day. if(all_turns_in) host else if(after 10PM CST .AND. last turn before 10PM yesterday) host else nothing If that's not clear or isn't working out, it's flexible. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^\=-- main point Turns will be collected through uuencoded email, and RSTs will be sent out through compressed uuencoded email. That's playerx.rst.Z when you uudecode it. Compress is available on almost all UNIX systems, if it's bad for you tell me and I'll change your file. Otherwise the uncompression is as simple as "uncompress playerx.rst.Z" and it creates the file you need. As in war, victory is determined by surrender, or mutual agreement to cease fire. Surrender is the sole decision of the player. If you think your score is bad, you can surrender. If you want to cling to your corner of the galaxy at all costs, feel free. If no one wants to weed you out, they'll quit and decide for themselves who won. Indicate in your application desired length of game: Long, Very l, Med, Shrt. I am now planning a long game, but if the public wants otherwise, it's a "can do". As far as host police actions/intelligence gathering, expect none. This is my formal declaration of intent to maintain confidentiality of all player actions throughout the game. If you think someone is cheating, I'm not going to open up anyone's files without a warrant and their consent. Send passwords if you want one, and I'll DESTROY it. Most cheating can be caught with simple addition, if it's enough to be worthwhile at all. I just don't have the time to start up a "police state" style game. I am going to presume everone to be trustwothy and innocent, and I am not going to go wichhunting. I certainly hope everyone joining my game(s) is mature enough to know how boring cheating in this game is, and how it not only ruins a good game, but fucks up everyone ELSE'S hard working societies. No Stormtroopers, SS, KGB, CIA.... (No beefs with the Evil Empire race intended either though, feel free to terrorize your own race :). So there's the general policy and attitude of this game. I want to stress that there is no such thing as a "running a registered game", there are only games intended for regulars, or newbies, and the version of the game everyone else (including the host) runs is irrelevant. The whole fun of Planets is getting a bunch of people together to play, and while the regulars may stomp the firstcomers, it will be an invaluable learning process anyway, so I am encouraging everyone to join the game regardless of how confident they feel. Once again, I'm opening the mail till Friday, and should note that if I get over 33 requests to play I probably will have to turn people down, but I don't really expect that. If I only have 8 people by Friday it won't be a full game. Be sure to send a race preference list, if you have one - at any length. Indicate the distance you want to play the game at, and if you have any objections to a long game. Send a password for me to input and immediately delete, if you desire (there is no chance the wrong person will get the turn unless they intercept your email). If you send race names they will be used in the host files and sent on to the other players. If this all sounds froopy then I await your response! (deadline Fri. 12) - Ryan Grant rmg53668@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu P.S. If you want to know what planets is, or where to get it - email me. If you want to get a free experimental universe set up with everything you need for your scientific battle simulations - email me. If you want to get free UNIX, Telix, and 4DOS files to help hosting run smoother - email me. Don't forget to email me if you want to play too! Referenced By Up