do you ever dream??? From: "Geoff Squibb" <star.empires@cableinet.co.uk> Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 11:30:45 +0000 Do you ever watch that sci-fi film where the teenage lad defeats an entire alien space fleet of vicious monsters with a piece of string and a lump of silly putty? of course YOU could do better !! Have you ever watched the poor helpless small girl rush into a building full of orrible nasty vampires and defeat the lot with what looks like a blunt teaspoon?? and just wish that you could have been there...!! you would have creamed the lot! Well now comes your chance to express your fantasies in a new version of... interstellar conquest and exploration.. Go find those worlds crawling with alien nasties and tame the lot.. or exterminate them if you want.. search old ruined alien civilisations until you discover the lost weapon that will allow you to rule the galaxy.. or is it really a tin-opener?? either way you'll be rich.....or famous .. or quite possibly dead! never mind it was fun wasn't it, blood can be replaced (maybe), limbs regrown, body pieces neatly stacked in a brown paper bag until wanted again!! Of course YOU will do it to the others... it will never happen to you.. STAR EMPIRES IV =============== This is much enhanced and expanded new game based on the very popular Star Empires III. Many new planetary, military, civil and ship based items have been added, expanded or enhanced and the galaxy expanded to 90 x 90 x 90 sectors... Its still game of interstellar empire building, exploration and conquest but with many new alien races that are now much more responsive to player interaction... Each Game can hold 200+ players, no fixed deadlines and monthly production run (free).. Startups cost 10 pounds (includes the first three turns) Subsequent turnsheets cost 2.50 pounds for email, 3.0 pounds postal. (discounts for block purchases in advance) Payment by cheque (sterling only), international money order, or cash (Dollars etc quite acceptable at current exchange rate) just send in envelope wrapped in a few sheets of paper... so far in 7 years we have never lost one in the post... Unfortunately VISA/MASTERCARD not available at this time. No hidden extras, costs or postage etc ie combat, status reports .. Design your own ships, colonise planets, explore alien finds, trade or conquer alien races or other players planets, drop spies on other players worlds to discover their secrets, drop commando's to interfere with another players economy or destroy selected targets, set up counterspy networks, launch drones out of detection range and pulverise their defences before you invade! Research dozens of weapons and other tech advances in a dozen fields including five weapon types, computers, shields, medical, social, civil etc Research into planet finds, strange alien devices, lost tombs, ancient alien cities, primitive races, Persuade lost colonies to join your empire, fight off incursions from other players, aliens forces, strange interstellar creatures and if you get really upset... destroy planets!... set stars to go nova! Racial definitions... You may pick a race with the following provisional characteristics and you will be given a certain number of points to distribute as you see fit within certain guidelines..... You get a total of 350 points at tech 1 and 25 points each tech increase.. see below for restrictions and guidelines.. Species Str Size Intell Dex Charis Con Spatia Luck Indust Psi Creat total Human 25 25 25 25 50 25 25 25 25 0 25 275 Feline 20 25 20 40 40 40 45 25 15 5 0 275 Bear 50 40 20 15 30 50 35 10 25 0 0 275 Avian 10 10 50 50 50 15 65 15 10 0 0 275 Frog/toad 20 20 40 25 10 75 10 15 55 0 5 275 Reptile/liz 50 30 40 30 20 50 15 5 35 0 0 275 Reptile/terr 80 50 30 5 10 60 5 10 20 5 0 275 Insectoid 10 10 50 65 10 15 40 5 65 5 0 275 Vegetable 55 40 40 20 35 30 10 5 25 15 0 275 Silicoid 20 35 20 20 5 90 60 5 20 0 0 275 Energy 5 10 50 20 60 10 70 10 5 35 0 275 Canine 40 40 25 25 25 35 35 10 35 5 0 275 Other 20 20 20 20 0 20 30 20 10 5 0 165 (Other is undefined.. you get to name it and get extra pts to spread about..) Planets may be colonised up to gravity 2.5 with oxygen/carbon dioxide atmos for any race.....see below for specials. Energy may colonise ANY world except molten and gas giants as long as gravity is max of 3.5 or less any atmosphere Vegetable may colonise hydrogen sulphide and nitrogen worlds up to max gravity of 3 and at least 5% water Other may colonise almost anything except molten and gas giants depending on individual races .. more details with come when specifics known.. Reptile may colonise any world except very cold or worse , molten or Gas giants and gravity of 3 or less. Any atmosphere not corrosive or methane based. Frog may colonise any world with minimum of 20% water except Gas giants molten, cold or worse, with gravity 3 or less Insects may colonise any planet in the range from hot to cold, gravity 2.5 or less, any atmosphere except corrosive or methane based. Avian may not colonise any world with gravity greater than 2 The characterists (range 1-100 normally) affect all manner of things in the game. eg. Str affects ground combat etc Int, luck, dex all affect research etc Charisma can affect trading and pop growth! etc Spatial awareness affects planet searches, space combat etc This is obviously not a full list and whilst some are relatively straight forward and obvious, not all will be so and there effects in the game will NOT be revealed in the rules ... I might add some will be NEGATIVE modifiers too.... ie the greater the Size the more difficult space combat becomes due to ship design problems. At present, as a rule of thumb, the HUMAN start figures all give bonuses and penalties of ZERO. Also if the starting value of a characteristic is ZERO it CANNOT be assigned any points at all.. At startup ONLY you may reduce and 2 (MAX of 2) characteristics by up to 50% but only at startup...... also you do not have to assign points unless you wish to.. they are not lost and may be assigned at any time... however once assigned they may NEVER again be reassigned... (unless you are specifically told that you may.... rarely). At STARTUP and ONLY then, you may adjust the SIZE and then it may not be changed EVER again. Every time your empire gains a general tech level you will gain some more points to assign within restrictions noted above. In certain circumstances racial points may be ADJUSTED due to external events over which you may have no control, none at all....(grin) Please note: Fighter spaces alien special has been reduced in price from 500 credits to 250 credits per unit as from NOW. Fleets.... you may now have more fleets . The old 50 fleet limit has been increased to 100.... Please be aware all other limits are still in place.... max of 5 fleets in a join order and 10 in combat (may be increased soon) etc. Fleet combat modes New mode FighterCap In this mode fighters will attack ONLY opposing fighters, NOT attacking ship fleets, then fleets will engage using normal default matrix of values. There are more things to come with time.... possibly... Planetary shields More ship designs More planetary units... Please note Research values are NOT the same in this game Apply to Geoff Squibb, 108 Teddington Park Road, Teddington, Middx.,TW11 8NE or Email star.empires@cableinet.co.uk Phone 0208 287 2596 Up