Re: Fire on the Suns

From: bradac_56@my-deja.com

Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 00:23:24 +0000

In article <6zBm5.631$2l4.18487@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net>,
  "Chris Williams" <williac6@rjrt.com> wrote:
> Hey everyone,
>
> I ordered a FOTS CDs from the FOTS website about 4-5 months ago, it
finally
> showed up a couple days ago. I had totally forgotten about even
ordering it.
>
> Has anyone ever actually played Fire on the Suns?
>
> I have to admit, I'm not terribly impressed with the production
quality of
> the CD. It's a bit of a mess, from the offcenter CD label, to the
haphazard
> way they dumped the files onto it.
>
> I hope the game itself is better than the mess they sent me.  It looks
> fairly interesting, although apparently it's a lot less computer
moderated
> than I thought. More like "somewhat computer assisted" with a bunch
of Excel
> spreadsheets.
>
> I guess we'll see.
>
> Chris Williams
>
>

I've played in (and still playing in) several FOTS games.  While
Greg does need to work on the professional production of the game.  The
dynamics and play ability of the system is first rate.  I've never
played in a SF game with as much depth and player interaction (and I've
been playing PBM's for 2 decades).

The part that gets most "newbie's" is the fact that R&D of new
technologies is a hand-moderated field.  The players can submit new
techs for research to the GM or start researching into the fields
that's been already ok'd by Greg (and there's a ton of 'em).

Another aspect of FOTS is that while it�s a free game to play, you
can buy the CD for ($25.00) that gets you all the software and
background story you need to GM a game.  Greg and company is also
working on �modules� to be released in the near future that will help
GM�s to quickly setup and run pre-designed FOTS games.

Unfortunately the software is still in a "raw" state which Greg and
his development staff is currently working on.  That means allot of the
GM's work is hand imputed at the moment and requires you to know allot
about the game and Battle Engine before you start GM'ing.  (I wouldn't
recommend GM'ing unless you've played in several games for a while).
Hopefully a more GM friendly version of the software will be out soon
as this is there main focus at the moment.

If you�re a long time �war gamming� fan, and fancy yourself
a �powergammer� try signing up for a game of FOTS, you might just be
surprised and the level of complexity in the battle system and the
complexity of the players out of game Diplomacy <G>.

The offical web site is: [http://www.fireonthesuns.com ]  (don�t let
the bad HTML scare you, the game is very good, it just needs some
polishing.

You can also contact me for a current copy of the rules and help
designing a race setup (trust me you�ll need help).  My e-mail is [
bradac_56@hotmail.com] or better yet contact Greg Ellis (the
owner/designer) at [ gnellis@ifn.net ]

- Brad Clarkston

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

References

Fire on the Suns
"Chris Williams" <williac6@rjrt.com>
Wed, 16 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Fire on the Suns
"Chris Williams" <williac6@rjrt.com>
Wed, 16 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000