Re: GalaxyNG question

From: bampton@tyco.cs.utk.edu (Howard the Energizer)

Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000

In article <35FCC39C.587485BD@c-lab.de> Roland Scholz <roland@c-lab.de> writes:
>Hallo GalaxyNG players,
>
>In turn 0 of a standard Galaxy game and of GalaxyNG games prior to version
>3.1, the list of 'Unidentified' planets is in the same order than the
>'Players list'. So you know the home planets of all players. Frans Slothouber
>changed this in GalaxyNG 3.1. I don't think that was a good idea. Currently,
>I play a blind galaxy game, but I think it's really boring not to know what
>is happening in other realms. In my opinion, that's the advantage of Standard
>Galaxy and GalaxyNG compared to Blind Galaxy. I think, Frans should change
>this back in the next GalaxyNG release. What do you think?

I think you are missing the point.

1) The game is somewhat more interesting not knowing how many players
are in it (at least for some of us).

2) Not knowing where homeworlds are makes Blind (and Explorer for that
matter) more difficult for the attacker, particularily in the mid
game. You have no way of knowing where your where the major systems of
your enemy are, short of observing what they have deployed there...
NG has this to a very limited degree, since secondary homeworlds are
(apparently) size 400, but you have 50-50 chance without knowing what
is deployed there.

3) Galaxy and GalaxyNG are somewhat less "realistic" by telling you
how many systems your enemy has, their relative size (infered over the
long term from growth rates), as well as their ind, pop and tech
levels. As we've seen from the Cold War, the accuracy of those things
when you are trying to figure them out in the "real" world leaves much
to be desired. In Galaxy/NG it is fairly clear who the leader is, and
you can bet the wiser players try to stay out of the lead slot. In
Blind games, I frequently see size estimates of opponents that are off
by 30%, 50% sometimes even 100%. Heck, I've seen the #1 player manage
to convince the other players that the #2 or #3 player is the
largest...

Having predictable homeworld owners isn't bad of course, it just
simplifies the game.

My $0.02

Howard
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Howard Bampton   bampton@cs.utk.edu        http://www.cs.utk.edu/~bampton/
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References

GalaxyNG question
Roland Scholz <roland@c-lab.de>
Mon, 14 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000