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Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu alt.games.gb:2350 news.answers:4069 Newsgroups: alt.games.gb,news.answers Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!wupost!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ames!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!usenet.coe.montana.edu!news.u.washington.edu!stein.u.washington.edu!ingram From: ingram@milton.u.washington.edu (Doug Ingram) Subject: Alt.games.gb (Galactic Bloodshed) FAQ [Part 1 of 2] Message-ID: <1992Nov16.175020.9648@u.washington.edu> Followup-To: alt.games.gb Originator: ingram@stein.u.washington.edu Lines: 1047 Sender: ingram@milton.u.washington.edu (Doug Ingram) Organization: University of Washington, Seattle Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 17:50:20 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Archive-name: alt-games-gb/part1 Here's version 4.03 of the Galactic Bloodshed Frequently Asked Questions list (for use with the alt.games.gb newsgroup). This is part 1 (the first of two postings) of the FAQ. FAQ 4.03 -------- Contents: First posting: Part I -- Getting Started Part II -- The Game Set-Up Part III -- Playing the Game Second posting: Advice from GB vets for novices on a variety of questions. Changes from last posting: none ************************* Part I -- Getting Started ************************* 1-0 What is GB? ---------------- "GB" stands for "Galactic Bloodshed." GB is a game played on a network by several users at various sites. The home site, where the game and its database reside, is generally referred to as the "server." While telnet is one way to connect to a GB game, most if not all players prefer to use a more complex program, usually called a "client." Not all clients are the same, of course, but for now, don't worry about it. 1-1 What is HAP? ----------------- "HAP" stands for "Heuristic Astronomy Project." HAP is a close relative of GB, but there are many very important differences between the two. Rather than go into the differences here, I suggest you continue reading through this and then log in to one of the games yourself. Ask around and experiment and decide for yourself what you like best in a game. Both "flavors" of GB (original and extra crispy, if you like) approach the game in a different way. For example, in HAP games, communication among players who have not met is restricted while on GB, global communication is the rule...thus for help, it would be best to try a GB game first where players can hear you. Of course, on the original HAP game, the deity and developer of HAP, Clay Luther, is around most of the time, and there are no restrictions on communicating with him in the game. As a general rule, HAP tries to incorporate many of the best changes from new versions of the original code while bowing more to "realism" where possible. 1-2 Where can I get the client and/or server code? --------------------------------------------------- Use anonymous ftp to reach one of these sites: scam.berkeley.edu (128.32.138.1) in /src/games/gb directory; morticia.cnns.unt.edu (129.140.4.5) in /pub/gb directory; 129.24.24.10 (machine is in Australia) in /pub/dist/GB directory Pretty much everything you'll find there is compressed and/or sharred/tarred, so you'll need to know a little bit about manipulating Unix files in order to set things up. Here's a helpful example: Suppose you ftp gb.docs.tar.Z. First: uncompress gb.docs.tar.Z (gives you gb.docs.tar) Next: tar -xf gb.docs.tar (separates out all the files) Then: delete the original tar file to save some space. OR: If you ftp gb.docs.shar.Z First: uncompress gb.docs.shar.Z (gives you gb.docs.shar) Next: /bin/sh gb.docs.shar (separates the files) Then: Delete the original shar file to save space. Info on these processes can be found in your system's help files, but if you continue to have problems, telnet to one of the running gb games and ask around for help. This is usually the first best thing to try when you have any problems. After all, the players have all had to go through the same things you will in order to get set up in gb. Once the files are in your directory in a conventional format, there will be help files and so forth included. It's a good idea to print the help docs out and have them handy when you play. When you've successfully compiled the client, stripping the executable file will reduce your client to a size of around 130 blocks If you've got a strict quota on disk use, it's best to do most of this work in a temporary directory, then print out the help files and transfer the executable into your permanent directory. Note that the client successfully compiles only on Unix machines or a close derivative of Unix. At this time, no client exists which is compatible with VMS. There is also a new version of a PC based client for GB available at the moriticia ftp site, written by Chris Fodor (aka Feepness). As it develops (ie. as soon as Chris sends me a paragraph or two about it), I'll include more information in the FAQ. 1-3 What if I have problems compiling something? ------------------------------------------------- As mentioned earlier, the first thing you should always try is to log in to one of the existing games as a guest and start asking around. There will often be someone on who can help you with simple problems, but if they can't help you, you'll probably be referred to Evan Koffler (ekoffler@zephyr.cair.du.edu), who has graciously volunteered to deal with _client_ compiling problems, but be polite... give him informed questions rather than just helplessly whining. In other words, don't just write and say "It doesn't compile on the NeXT and crashes when I try to boot it." At the least, run the code through a debugger of some kind to get a line number within a routine or at least get some kind of output sequence. This gives the person helping you some reference point from which to track the problem down. If you're having a problem with a bug in the server code, your best bet is to post to alt.games.gb. If the authors want to volunteer their addresses (Garrett, Clay, et al.) and/or services for direct email correspondence, I'll let them do it. There are enough users out here familiar with the code (I'm NOT one of them) to help you deal with whatever problem you're experiencing. What was said in the previous paragraph about finding and reporting bugs and receiving help also goes here. 1-4 How can I find out more about gb? -------------------------------------- Try logging in to one of the current games running. Some games have a guest account set up specifically for new users to find their way around and ask questions. When it asks for a password, simply type "guest" or "guest 0" in most places, and you'll be logged in to the game. There's no guarantee that there will be someone on who can help you and/or has the time, but during the evening is generally the best time to try. 1-5 Where are the current games running? ----------------------------------------- I used to keep a list of this, but it's just too much of a pain. The best way to keep track of which games are running (or about to be) is to watch the alt.games.gb newsgroup. It's very low volume, so that should be no problem. The FAQ gets out of date too quickly and easily in any case. Once you get a server address and part, use the following examples to connect you to a game with telnet if you're not using a client. If you're using a client, simply replace "telnet" with "gbII" or whatever you've named the client executable in your directory. on Unix: "telnet pooh.caltech.edu 2010" or "telnet 131.215.48.30 2010" or, on VMS: "telnet pooh.caltech.edu /PORT=2010" etc. Note: Some of these games are chronically off-line for one reason or another; others are only up at certain (unknown to me) scheduled times. Don't be surprised if you get a refused connection by more than one game. If you want to enter one or more of the games that have not started yet, check alt.games.gb for announcements about where to send your requests. Other games will be announced in alt.games.gb as they are started, including periodic "blitz games" run by various people. A blitz game is essentially a gb game in which the updates are squeezed down into 5 to 20 minute intervals as opposed to the usual 1 or 2 per day. If you're wondering what an "update" is, read section 3 about playing the game. 1-6 Do I need a client to play gb? ----------------------------------- If you're going to play seriously, then the answer is yes. Theoretically, one could get by using only telnet, but only the client will process maps correctly and enable you to encrypt your conversations, which is a convenient way to communicate at no cost without being overheard on the game. 1-7 How can I start playing a game? ------------------------------------ There are two ways to do this. First, you can wait until someone announces the beginning of a game. This newsgroup is where you'll see such announcements. The person in charge of the new game will either include (or point you to) a racegen program which you can then use to specify what kind of race you want. Then you log in to the game and start playing when it starts! Read on for more details on what racegen is and how it works. Another way to get into a game is to log onto a currently running game and ask. In most big games, there are "sleepers," or races which have dropped out for one reason or another (it's not always due to weakness, sometimes time constraints are involved). Also, many players with big races tend to look for people to help them out since playing a big race in gb can be very time consuming. Most games now run with the "governor" code, standard since pooh version 5.0 and in current versions of HAP. This allows for races to have one major leader who can delegate authority over given ships and systems to his governors, who are independent players recruited by the race leader. This is a great feature for those of you out there who want to play gb but lack the immense amount of free time that leading a fully active race requires. 1-8 How much time does it take to play gb? ------------------------------------------- That depends entirely on the number of updates per day. For a reasonably large race (say, control of 40 planets) in a game with 70 star systems or so (3-8 planets per system), it will take you at least one hour of playing time per update (this is vastly dependent upon how efficient you are...use macros!). This can go way up if you are actively waging war with another player. This time tends to increase as the game goes on and you grow in power, but the main variable in the whole time equation is simply how active _you_ want to be. It takes a very active race to come out on top in gb; even on a one update per day schedule, it can eat up your time, so consider yourself warned. Players who join only to play for a little while and then drop out, leaving all that they've built to fall into ruin, are generally frowned upon. Sometimes it is unavoidable, but all deities ask that you plan ahead. Don't get yourself involved in more than you can handle. Drop-out players who don't get replacements can seriously upset the game balance, ruining the game for many other players. The advent of team races may offset both of these diadvantages, but it's still best to be aware of them. 1-9 What is this newsgroup for? -------------------------------- This newsgroup is for the discussion of everything that has anything to do with GB, including game announcement, rules discussion, game editorials, etc. ************************** Part II -- The Game Set-Up ************************** 2-1 What race should I choose? ------------------------------- As of this posting, just about every new game that is coming on-line is accepting races generated by a program called "racegen." You can get a copy of this at any of the ftp sites mentioned above, and it compiles pretty easily on most systems. Use this program to generate your race and automatically send it to the appropriate "deity". Note that you usually have to compile a whole new version with the proper destination address (for sendmail) in the code, but this is easy...just find the destination address line (#TO, I believe) in the code and change the address with your editor, then compile. NOTE: In some new games, you'll be asked to use your client to connect to a special racegen daemon on the eventual gb server machine. This greatly simplifies the process of game registration since you don't have to have your own copy of racegen, just the client. Watch for specifics with new game announcements. There is now a facility on the machine listed above, gb.dorm.clarkson.edu. If you telnet to that machine and login as menu, you will get a list of options, one of which will enable you to run a remote version of racegen (which will send your race to the game designated by you) to submit your race. This is a very convenient feature that makes it unnecessary to actually compile and store the racegen code on your own account. Other programs, such as "opt_tech," which optimizes your tech expenditures (read the docs for more details on how tech works), and "psmap," which generates a postscript file containing a map of your game universe from a list of stars, are also available via this machine through a mail server. For a help file regarding the mail server, send email to "menu@gb.dorm.clarkson.edu" with a subject of "HELP". Here is a reproduction of the help file currently on-line at menu@gb.dorm.clarkson.edu: -- Begin included file -- The mail server on gb.dorm.clarkson.edu currently has several functions, and more will be added as the demand arises. *** "OPT_TECH" *** "Opt_tech" is a C program that allows you to calculate the greatest use a given amount of money could get in tech production. When input the amount you wish to spend, and a list of your planets's tech stats, it will tell you what to invest where, and produce a file that can be used with the gbII "shell" or "source" command, so the client will make all of the changes for you. To run "opt_tech" from email, send email to "menu@gb.dorm.clarkson.edu" with a subject of "TECH amount_to_invest", where the amount is an integer. In the body of the mail, send the output from the "status" command from your race (See: "How to send output from a command" below...). VERY important - you have to edit out part of your "status" log. Namely, the beginning titles and the ending totals. The only thing that should be in the file will be a set of columns, including the planet name, population, and 2 columns of numbers. The mail server will send you back an email message, the first portion will tell you how much tech will be produced if you do what it suggests, and the second portion (separated by a "CUT HERE") can be removed from the message and fed into the gbII client's "source" command to actually make those changes. Please note that if you have a large empire, running this command could take a while... *** PSMAP *** "psmap" is a program written in C which, given the output of your race's "stars" command, will produce a nice looking PostScript map which looks really peachy keen on laser printers. :-) HOW TO USE: Put in the subject line "PSMAP mode", where mode is "0" for a normal map, and 1 is for a map with circles around your home system at 50000 unit intervals (good for judging distances from your home system). In the body of the message, put the output from the "stars" command you get from your race (See: "How to send output from a command" below...). The mail server will then mail you your map, ready for printing on a PostScript printer. *** FAQ List *** If sent a message with a subject of "FAQ", the mail server will respond by sending you a copy of the most current FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) List from the newsgroup "alt.games.gb". This list has lots of good info in it regarding race stats, game play, etc., and is good for beginner players. *** gbII Client *** To get a copy of the latest gbII GB client, send a message with a subject of "CLIENT". A shell archive will be sent to you. *** How to send output from a command *** Using the gbII client (available from scam.berkeley.edu (128.32.138.1), in the directory /src/games/gb (it's gbII.client.shar.Z or gbII.client.tar.Z)) logging a command's output is very easy. Simply type your command, followed by a ">", and the file to log into. For example, typing "stars > starlist" would create a file called "starlist", and in addition to showing the output to your screen, it would also save a copy of the output in that file. Remember to edit out the "gbII Log" title in the beginning of the file also. The "starlist" file can then be mailed to "menu@gb.dorm.clarkson.edu" with a subject of "PSMAP 1" and in no time you'll have a nice PostScript map. When you are sending a log of your "status" output to be processed, remember to not only remove the "gbII log" title, but also the column headers and the ending totals as described in the "opt_tech" section. If you have any problems or questions regarding the mail server on gb.dorm.clarkson.edu, or have a suggestion on other things that can be put either in the mail server or in the public access account (Telnet to gb.dorm.clarkson.edu (128.153.48.5) and login as "menu", no password), feel free to email me at varneyml@gb.dorm.clarkson.edu. -- End included menu help -- Here are the helpfiles included with racegen, which should answer most of the questions about the program and its use: --- Begin included racegen docs --- How to get and compile racegen First off, get net access. Then you can use the file transfer program, ftp, to get racegen from several sites, including scam.berkeley.edu. Connect to the remote system, use "anonymous" as your name (any password is OK), cd to the src/games/gb directory, and get racegen.shar. The whole process should look rather like this: > ftp scam.berkeley.edu Connected to scam.berkeley.edu. 220 scam.Berkeley.EDU FTP server ready. Name (scam.berkeley.edu:leonard): anonymous 331 Guest login ok, send ident as password. Password: 230-Welcome Guest - access restricted. ftp> cd src/games/gb 200 CWD command okay. ftp> get racegen.shar 200 PORT command okay. 150 Opening data connection for racegen.shar (60101 bytes). 226 Transfer complete. local: racegen.shar remote: racegen.shar 62071 bytes received in 6.1 seconds (9.9 Kbytes/s) ftp> quit 221 Goodbye. > When a game is announced, the host will specify what sort of races are desired. If the game will not use the "vanilla" racegen, the host will post a file called "game_info.h" that you will then use to compile racegen with. Note that racegen.shar comes with a default game_info.h file. Now you can make an executable racegen. Unshar the archive you just got, and make it: > sh racegen.shar x - racegen.c x - racegen.h x - game_info.h x - Makefile x - racegen.README > make cc -bsd -g -target sun3 -c racegen.c cc -o racegen racegen.o -lm > ls Makefile racegen* racegen.c racegen.o game_info.h racegen.README racegen.h racegen.shar Now you are ready to go. Just type "racegen", and it will run. If it does not, make sure you have the current directory "." as a part of your path: > printenv PATH .:/usr/imports/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ucb:/bin:/usr/bin > (Note that the first directory in my path *is* ".". ':' is used to separate the directories in this list.) If "." is not in your path, you must either put the racegen executable file in one of the directories that is in your path, or else put "." into your path. The second option is much easier: > setenv PATH .:$PATH Now you are ready to go! The creation of new races is controlled by the person hosting the game. Player #1 (the first player enrolled into the game) should always be given diety status, as many of the game default operations are placed in player #1's control. Other players may be designated as having diety status during the enrollment procedure, but this isn't recommended (or needed in most cases). Race generation is often done using a rather complex point based system, the idea being that you must spend a limited number points to get better attributes. The program that you do this creation process with is called "racegen". There are five types of data associated with each race that the player can choose: * Name, password, and other profile information -- While none of these have any direct effect on game play, they add interest. Name and password can be set with racegen before enrolling in the game. All of the others can be changed as needed; see also: name, personal, profile * Home planet type -- A race's home planet can drastically affect its game. Jovian home planets are the most costly type, because jovians are huge planets with about half the sector area of the universe on them. Jovians are the only worlds with gas sectors on them; gas tends to be resource-poor but fertile. Class M (Earth-type) home planets are the next most useful, with a good balance of fertility and resources. Forest and water worlds are like class M's and generally more fertile, but they are also smaller on average. Desert worlds have high resource content but are not very fertile. Iceballs and airless worlds are too small to make very good home planets, but they are very common in the universe as a whole. * Racial type -- There are two main racial types in GB: normal races (think of humans, Klingons, Wookies, Pierson's Puppeteers, etc) and metamorphs (Alien, the Thing, body snatchers, etc.) The primary difference between these two race classes is that only metamorphs may have pods and absorbtion as racial attributes. Metamorphs are also required to have one sex, which is another advantage. A secondary difference that is rather harder to notice is that the price of various attribute combinations is slightly different for normals and morphs in racegen, especially for some of the attributes' extremes. * Compats -- The planets found in the GB universe are represented as arrays of sectors of various types: ice, land, sea, etc. Various races may have varying degrees of compatibility with these sector types, which will affect the amount of population they can grow on that sector type, and other things too. * Attributes -- Attributes are quantizations of a race's abilities. Currently there are 11 basic attributes for each race: ** Absorbtion -- Only metamorphs may have this attribute, which allows them to absorb enemy troops and civilians in combat if the morph wins. Combined with pods, it allows metamorphs to replace alien population on planets when pods burst. ** Adventurism -- This described what percentage of a sector's population may move and explore other sectors. High value tend to settle planets on their own far more efficiently. If you have a low value, you can order movements with the 'move' option. ** Birthrate -- This factor determines how rapidly the population in the sector will converge to the maximum population supportable on the there. High values mean that the population multiplies faster. ** Fertilize -- This attribute represents the percentage chance that a race will increase by one percent the fertility of any sector it owns. Any race may take advantage of space plows for a similar effect, once it gets to tech level 5. ** Fighting Ability - Higher values mean that the race is more likely to kill an alien than a lower value. Races with lower values will usually need to have larger forces to win in direct combat over a high fighting ability. It is important to note that this effects only land combat and ship boarding strengths, and not ship to ship fighting. ** IQ -- The raw growth rate of a race's technology is governed by the race's intelligence. The technology increase per update is IQ/100. Addi- tional technology gain is available by technology investments on the individual planets under the race's control. ** Collective IQ; IQ limit -- The intelligence of a race with collective IQ is related to the race's total population, as follows: IQ = IQ_limit * [ (2/PI) atan(population/50000)]^2. [Note: Be careful with this one! If you can't build pods, then having a collective IQ could be disastrous as you won't have the knowhow to build *any* kind of useful ships for a looooong time.] ** Mass -- Each race has a mass. The heavier the individual, the more fuel it will take to launch and land ships full of the race. ** Metabolism -- This value controls how industrious the race is. Higher metabolism races will produce resources more rapidly than lower metabolisms, and also increase the efficiency of sectors faster. ** Pods -- Pods are small ships, available only to metamorphs but at tech level 0, buildable instantly on the surface of planets. Each one may carry a single crew-thing; this makes them ideal for settling other planets. Pods which enter a system after having frozen in deep space will warm and eventually burst, possibly leading to spores landing on worlds in the new system. If a spore lands on a sector, a ton or more of biomass will be created, resulting in a new colony for the podding race. Note that spores may never land on alien occupied sectors unless the podding race has absorbtion. ** Sexes -- Each race has a number of sexes. This represent the minimum population that a sector must have in order to be able to reproduce. Lower values are preferable to high values for colonization efforts. It is not recommended to have more than 3 to 6 sexes at the outside, unless you are really looking for a challenge --- End included racegen docs --- 2-2 What's the difference between a normal and a morph? -------------------------------------------------------- A "morph," or "metamorph," is described in the standard docs as the type of race you'd see in John Carpenter's "The Thing." The major differences between morphs and normals can be summarized like this: -- Morphs can absorb enemy bodies when they attack a sector -- Morphs can build spore pods on planetary surfaces -- Morphs' IQ is determined only by their population It used to be the case that morphs had a very high metabolism and very high fighting strength to go along with all of this, but the advent of racegen has changed that considerably. Now, morphs can have all of the basic characteristics of normal races -- but the three attributes mentioned above are only available to metamorphs. The disadvantage that offsets this option is that some items will be more expensive in racegen. I'll discuss these three items in reverse order: First, morph IQ is based on some exponential population formula. In all games, this means their iq starts at 0, and the maximum possible morph IQ can be set by the player in racegen. A common practice is for morphs to spend a great deal of tax money investing in tech to offset this disadvantage, but it still takes a while to "take off." The low iq means that morphs cannot rely on shuttles (which require some minor tech ability to build) to ferry them around to colonize planets early in the game. Morphs, however, have the ability to build spore pods. These pods require no tech to build and are very cheap. The major advantage to spore pods is this low cost and the fact that they can be built right on the planet's surface (while most other ship types require factories which need resources to be turned on and time to repair before actually building any ships). The drawbacks to pods are that they are slow and that they explode upon entering star systems. That's not _always_ a drawback, but early in the game, it will mean that several pods must be sent to a system in order for you to have a good chance at landing morphs on a planet or two. The success rate of spore pods (ie. whether they explode harmlessly or result in a colony) varies from game to game from 20% to 40%. The other major difference between morphs and normals which is mentioned above is morphs' special combat ability. If a morph attack force defeats another race in ground combat, a large fraction of the defeated enemy will be "absorbed" by the attacking morph race, enabling morphs to actually _increase_ their population through attacking. Thus, late in the game when all planets are covered and well-defended by other races, morphs still have a chance to do some serious damage by showering an enemy system with pods and perhaps landing enough morphs in the system to cause a lot of problems, if not to take over a planet or two. 2-3 Which is better, morphs or normals? ---------------------------------------- This is debatable. Each race type has its own advantages and drawbacks. It also depends upon the modifications made for the particular game you are in. Generally, each race type can be led to success by a good player, and alliances between morphs and normals are quite common and can be very effective (since the normals generally have the high tech levels while morph's pod launching ability and generally high metabolism and/or fighting strength can help the alliance). 2-4 What kind of planet should I choose? ----------------------------------------- This is covered in large part in the above racegen docs, but I can make some comments about common questions that arise. Of all types of planets, class M's are chosen for homeworlds around 75% of the time. This is because they are the largest of any type planet except Jovians. Thus, they can support a high population (for taxation and tech purposes), and they usually have a fairly high number of resources. Another common choice is desert, since it is on the same order of size as a class M planet. Deserts have more resources, but are less fertile and are rarer in some games than class M's (also, you should take 100% desert as a sector preference, which means you can't spend as much on the other, more common, sector types). Big planets have two big advantages: 1) The larger the planet, the faster you will produce resources from it once you have covered the planet. The formula for resource production goes as (1 - avg efficiency) ^ (number of sectors), so the more sectors you have, the better. Races that select small home planets tend to get left behind early on in the race to build the first ships for this reason. 2) The planet is much harder to conquer. Even if an enemy manages to field a temporarily superior force to your planetary population, odds are he won't have the AP's necessary to take the whole thing in one update, so you have time to marshal reinforcements if you're in a bind. Here's a brief summary of the various planet types, to the best of my knowledge, along with an estimate of how common these planet types are. *NOTE* This will vary from game to game. The relative sizes of each of these planets, as well as the benefits (and % of races which choose each type of planet, etc.) will also vary from game to game. When using racegen, you'll typically pay (or get a bonus) for the type of planet you choose to start with, and the deity will try his best to see that your points are fairly spent. Class M - 15% - These planets are usually about 60% water, 20% land, and an even mix of everything else. Once in a while, you'll find a class M with an abnormal atmosphere (like heavy in methane content). Jovian - 10% - These planets are 100% gaseous, and they are usually twice as large as the typical class M planet. They tend to be very high in fertility, too, so you can easily build up a large population for taxation and tech purposes. Also, ships in orbit around Jovians add fuel to their holds every update (tankers are twice as efficient at this), so even if you're not a Jovian-type race, having one of these nearby can be a tremendous asset. Water - 5% - These are largely water planets, and I've found that they are generally resource poor. They can be quite large, ranging up in size to class M quality, but they are usually about 40% smaller. Desert - 5% - These planets are usually 80% desert and 15% mtn/ice. They are _very_ nice as far as resource content is concerned, and their size range is much like Class M planets. Forest - 5% - These planets are almost entirely covered in forest, which is the rarest sector type. Resource content is fairly good. Size range is between Water planets and Class M's. Fertility is higher than on a normal class M. Iceball - 20% - These planets are generally small (1/5 the size of class M's or less), and they consist of around 75% ice and 25% mountain. Relative to their size, they are resource rich, but the small number of sectors means that resources will come more slowly. Airless - 30% - These planets are mostly land (75%) with some mountain and ice sectors. The atmosphere is almost always hostile, of course, but these planets are probably the most resource rich relative to their size (ie. 1/3 the res of a typical class M but 1/5 the size). Asteroid - 10% - These are just floating rocks in space, not good for a heck of a lot. They don't count as planets in victory conditions, and they usually have very few resources, and the small number of sectors make it very difficult for most asteroids to ever contribute to your cause, though having colonies on them have other advantages, such as morale bonus. Sector types are random but range among land, desert, ice, and mountain. 2-5 What sector preferences should I take? ------------------------------------------- The most common sector type besides gas is water, but this is misleading since there are so many water sectors on Class M's (in addition to those on waterball planets). Running a close second is land terrain, which is found on just about every planet type. Forest is probably the least common, making it an unusual and often strategic addition to your list of preferences (remember, you pay for both the % compatibility and an overhead cost for each of your sector prefs). Mountain is convenient to have since it is usually high in resource content and found in small amounts on many planets, and ice is also a common choice. I've also noticed that taking a combination of desert and a choice of mountain, land and/or ice in your sector prefs somehow entices the server into making your race a "methane breather" some of the time (or maybe it's just bad luck). The problem with this is that most planets will be extremely incompatible with your race, meaning your pop will grow very slowly and often leave you vulnerable to invasion. You'll find yourself at a rather large disadvantage until such time as you or an ally can build atmospheric processors (at a pretty high tech level, so it takes a while). Some games (with my strong approval) are phasing out the possibility of methane breathing races except by request. This is not to say that you should always choose water, land, and mountain as your sector prefs. In many cases, alliances are made based on sector incompatibility. In other words, a morph who loves water and forest would rather ally with a desert/mountain/land loving normal than another water loving normal, so don't be afraid to choose an unusual sector type. It may enable you to exploit planets which other races wouldn't mind giving away. 2-6 What happens if I get a rotten home planet? ------------------------------------------------ As it says in the help docs, a good home planet or system can really make or break your race. In some games, the diety actually goes around before the game and manually sets up everyone so that they can more or less start off on an equal footing. If this isn't happening, though, and you start with a crummy home planet, be ready to fight your way out of it. This makes it all the more important that you establish yourself throughout both your system and the surrounding ones. Look on it as a challenge. :) **************************** Part III -- Playing the Game **************************** 3-1 What is a move seg? ------------------------ A move seg (or movement segment) is a procedure during which the server updates the positions of all ships in the game based on their current orders. For example, if you have a ship ordered to move toward a particular star, planet, or ship, this process moves your ship closer based upon the ship's speed. You'll receive messages from the server when you arrive at your destination, at which time your ship stops moving. Repairs also occur at move segs. This means that everytime there is a move seg, any of your ships which are currently trying to repair them- selves, regardless of how they incurred damage, will have their damage percent reduced by some amount. For more information on how to repair ships and so forth, see the help docs on scam. 3-2 What is an update? ----------------------- An update is a "glorified move seg." Basically, everything that happens in a move seg happens here PLUS the following: - Production occurs at your colonies - Ships attempting hyperspace jumps either jump or charge in increments towards a level where they can jump. What this translates to is this: The pace of the game depends almost entirely on how often these updates occur. There will always be a given number of move segs (usually anywhere from 2 to 6) between updates, but updates are the real pulse of the game. Also, you should note that the period right after updates is usually when the most frantic action in the game takes place. This is important when choosing what game you wish to play in. For example, if you live over in Europe and the update schedule is such that updates always occur at 4 am for you, you might want to pass on the game. If you aren't on at updates, enemies often get the chance of jump into your system and start attacking while you aren't on to defend yourself. This can have disastrous effects. 3-3 What strategy should I use? -------------------------------- This sounds like a pretty hairy question, but I will try to answer this in a limited fashion for beginners. What you're basically looking for is some simple-minded strategy that will get you through the first 20-30 updates while you're still learning the ropes of the game. Try to follow these two basic principles: Produce and colonize. Your first and foremost need is to produce resources on your home planet so that you can start building ships. The fastest way to start producing is to spread out and cover your home planet as quickly as possible. This will be the sum total of your turns for the first several updates. Once you have resources, you get to start building ships. If you're a metamorphic race, that means you get to build pods. This is something you should do as soon as you get resources. This is one of the major advantages to playing a morph...pod-building ability. The nice thing about pods is that you don't need factories to build them, which means they can be built on the ground and launched immediately. Since pods are slow relative to most ships, however, it is imperative that you launch them quickly so that you have a fighting chance to win the race to all of the unoccupied systems. If you're a normal race, you should build a factory as soon as possible and then modify it so that it can start producing cheap shuttles. After you've played a game, you'll realize why it is so important to win the race toward unoccupied planets: it is far, far easier to take an unoccupied planet than to kick a hostile race off of that planet. The best advice I've heard yet is that you should be sure to understand the commands in the game so you can use them to your full advantage! It takes time and experience to learn the game, and it will be a rewarding and fun experience if you approach it in the right way. 3-4 Random Questions I Always Seem to Run Into ----------------------------------------------- 3-4-1 -- How do I change scope? That's the cs command. Scope works just like directory trees in Unix. If you want to go to the top (Universe) level, you type "cs /". To go to a given planet, you'd type "cs /starname/planetname". To change scope to one level higher, you use "cs ..". 3-4-2 -- How do I talk to others? There are three basic ways: br <message> - This broadcasts a message that will appear on all active player screens except those players with a "gag" in place (you can see that in the who list). On HAP, if you broadcast, only those players who know something about your race will be able to "translate" your broadcast or your messages (see send). ann <message> - This is the same as broadcast, except that it limits your audience to those players in the same stellar scope as you. This is a good way to carry on a more sensitive conversation, but there's no way to be sure whether you're being overheard. send <player> <governor> <message> - This sends a telegram to the named player at a cost of 1 AP. There is no cost for communicating this way with the game deity. There is also a "cr <key> <message>" command available with the gbII client, but it is discussed in the client Help just fine. 3-4-3 -- What should I do first? Once you get into the game and have connected using your password (and your governor password, if applicable), type "help". Read through all of the concepts listed first and then branch out from there. You'll find some topics in the main list have no help files listed. The docs always tend to suffer from game advances which outpace anyone's ability to update them, but they are definitely useful for the basics. 3-4-4 -- How do I interpret the maps? Well, the stellar system maps and the galaxy map should be pretty simple to figure out. Objects on the map which are darkened completely are those in which you have people, either on ships or planets. Objects which are partially darkened are those which you have data for but no people present. The planetary map is a grid. When you refer to a given sector, be sure to use (column,row) and not vice-versa. If your toggle switches (see "help toggle") are set in the default way, the highlighted sectors are those with your people on them. Any sectors with numbers on them represent sectors occupied by other players. Sectors with letters or symbols on them imply the presence of a ship with that symbol. Also as a part of the map, it lists how many sectors on the planet you own, whether any aliens are present on the planet, what your population is, the planetary compatibility (which depends upon atmosphere and temperature), and a few other things that you can look up in the help docs...it changes from game to game. 3-4-5 -- How do factories work? Well, first you build one, then you cs to it by typing "cs <shipnum>". Next, you use the modify command to get everything just the way you want it, from ship type, to crew capacity, etc. Once it is the "perfect" design for you, type "order <shipnum> on". It will take a few updates for the F's damage level to go from 75 down to 0, and you can only build ships (with the build command) at F's which are undamaged. Once you've turned a factory on, you can't change the basic design of the ship, so plan carefully! You can modify the ship later at double the cost differential (which is new cost - original cost) provided you can fit the necessary resources into the cargo bay of your ship. This means that ships with 0 cargo capacity cannot be modified. 3-4-6 -- What tax rate should I set? After you've covered the planet and are on the verge of building ships, start it off with a few percent. This may vary depending on your race, but I think it is a good rule of thumb. This small amount will pay for your ships and keep you from losing morale. Later on, when you're not so worried about increasing your sector efficiences, you can up the tax rate (but watch out for insurgencies!). Note that the higher the tax rate, the less chance you have to increase in efficiency, and the average efficiency of your planet directly determines how many resources you produce in an update. Also, note that heavily taxing your people can have other ill effects in HAP. 3-4-7 -- What's the difference between military and civilians? Civilians have a fighting strength equal to your race's fight. Military have fighting strength 10 times stronger than your civilians. Contrary to what you might think, military _cannot_ pilot ships _or_ fire guns...only civilians can do that. Thus, if you have 5 guns on your explorer and 2 mil and 3 crew, you will only be able to fire 3 guns at a time. Also, if you have only mil on board a given ship (ie. your only civ on board gets killed by a lucky shot from an enemy), you cannot order the ship to any destination. 3-4-8 -- What should I set my mobilization level at? I've found that it's a good idea to mobilize only a few very large planets that you may own. The reasoning for this is long and involved, but you'll learn through experience that mobilizing small planets (as opposed to building weapons plants there) only makes them more vulnerable to a metamorph invasion force. Mobilizing big planets still leaves you vulnerable to a ground assault (your high mob allows enemy troops to arm just as easily as you can if they bring their own destruct and absorb a few hundred civilians, for example), but big planets require a lot of AP's to take and require a lower mobilization in order for planetary guns to come into effect. 3-4-9 -- How do planetary guns work? You don't have to load them. These guns will take destruct directly from your stockpiles (provided you have some dest there). You can actively use them against ships in orbit around your planet by using the "defend" command (in the help files). These guns will also _automatically_ fire on any non-allied ship that tries to land on your planet...even a couple of medium caliber planetary guns is better than nothing. Also, the ship may not be destroyed, but if it is damaged, there is a chance that it will crash land, thwarting the attack. You get a certain number of planetary guns proportional to how many sectors you own on the planet and how high your mob level is. 3-4-10 -- How do atmosphere processors work? To put it simply, it doesn't matter who builds a processor... only who currently owns it. A processor will slowly change the atmosphere of a planet (rate inversely proportional to planet size) to the ideal preferences of the owner of the processor at a cost of 3 fuel per update, which must be loaded into the processor. The last time I checked, processors will continue to eat up 3 fuel per turn if they have fuel to burn even after a given planet is perfectly atmospherically compatible with the owner, so it's a good idea to scrap processors once you reach this goal. 3-4-11 -- What's the quickest way to jump to other systems? Since you receive jump technology at a tech level of 50, your best bet is to have a ship ready to modify once you get there. If you're going to build a large fleet of jump ships, you'll save a lot of res by just building a factory and starting it up AFTER you've been able to design the ship with jump included. Some players, though, prefer using a few heavily armed explorers or Terraformers (which have large hanger and fuel capacity for long jumps) which they modify for jumping as soon as they can, saving a few updates by not having to wait for a factory to come on line. 3-4-12 -- How do I get hyperdrive on board ships? In order to get hyperdrive aboard ships such as e's and T's, you must first have a given number of resources in the cargo bay. The amount depends upon the new cost of the ship with hyperdrive minus the old cost (double that to get the cost of the upgrade). That means you must be able to fit that many resources _on_board_ your ship to make the upgrade. For e's, big cargo holds aren't very common, so you might find that you have to "bootstrap" your way up by upgrading the size of your cargo hold. See the "upgrade" command in the help files for more info. In case the help files aren't very enlightening, here's an example of how to build a jump capable terraformer: > build T 2,2 (let's say this gives you T #1456 in sector 2,2) > load #1456 r 18 > cs #1456 > upgrade hyper (now you've got hyperdrive capability) > load #1456 r 16 (assume you want to add a crystal mount) > upgrade mount (now when you jump, you'll do it in one update, and you'll use a _lot_ less fuel, if you've got a crystal in the mount, of course) > load #1456 x 1 (assuming you have a crystal on the planet) > mount #1456 (now you can take advantage of your xtal mount) Say I wanted to increase the hanger capacity of my T, here's how I would do it: > cs #1456 > load #1456 r 2 (This can cost 2 or 4, depending on your T) > upgrade hanger 6 (Default hanger of a T is 5...you must also have a high enough tech to build this kind of ship) 3-4-13 -- How do I build ships in space? Well, the way to do this is get a ship into orbit with the resources you need. You can use just about any ship, but a shuttle works just fine. You can load it with an infinite number of resources, but you just can't land an overloaded shuttle...so you _don't_ need ships with huge cargo bays to build some of the larger structures like H's, O's, S's, etc. You can get resources onto the shuttle by ferrying them up from the surface with another ship. Once you have done that, change scope to your shuttle, and type "build <shiptype>". This will create a new ship docked to your shuttle. You can then launch it or do whatever you want with it (but be careful about trying to land damaged ships! Some ships are built with a certain damage level that must then be repaired...others can't land at all). 3-4-14 -- How come I don't have any resources yet? Often, races with low metabolisms and/or small homeworlds or worse, a combination of the two, will take painfully long to start generating any resources. You can help alleviate this problem by buying a reasonably high metabolism. I usually find that 1.0 gets me off fairly quickly, but if I have the points to spend, I'll go higher. High metab isn't so crucial for Jovian races since they start with huge homeworlds, so this minimum could go down to around 0.85 or so, in my opinion. 3-4-15 -- How come my pods didn't explode when they reached their destination? Speaking from personal experience only, pods can explode at an update or a move seg. The chance of this happening for each pod at each update/segment is around 30%. Thus, if your pods arrive at a system, go ahead and set them on course for nearby planets. Some might actually get there before exploding, giving you a new colony in the early parts of the game. 3-4-16 -- How do I get a list of where my crystals are at? Once you are at tech 50, you'll be able to see the location of all crystal sectors on planets you have explored. At times, these sectors will be covered by structures built by you or someone else (such as F's, a's, Y's, etc), but you can get around that problem by using "toggle geography" and than viewing the map. 3-4-17 -- How do I get crystals? If you occupy any crystal sectors, you have a chance, depending upon that sector's efficiency, to mine a crystal at every update. Once you've mined from around 1-6 crystals from a given sector over time, it will revert to a "normal" sector. 3-4-18 -- How do I get a list of ship types I can build? Try "build ?" which is described under "help build." This will give you a summary of ship types. If you want detailed info on a specific ship, type "build ? x" where x is the letter that represents that ship type. 3-5 Final Warnings and Advice ------------------------------ If you see a bug, tell the deity in charge. Period. Many games are thrown out of balance by players who find bugs and exploit them. If you're really in this to have fun and play the game well, you shouldn't need to cheat to win. Remember that some types of ships are built with damage that takes a few updates to repair. This means that you'll have to plan ahead, and, more importantly, don't try to land these or any other damaged ships unless you want to risk losing them! You have a percentage chance equal to the ship's damage of crash landing and possibly destroying your ship! Use the "tactical" command often to check for the presence of enemy ships which may not show up on your map. Remember, to check an entire system for enemies, it might be better to do a "tact g" rather than just a "tact." This gives tactical reports for your planets only (which is still full coverage most of the time) and avoids repetitive tact reports from every single one of your ships in system. Also, be careful what orders you give in Universal Scope (the top level)...sometimes, asking for tact reports from all of your ships (or even just stock reports) can tie up the game and waste a lot of everyone's time. Remember that some types of ships can't be built in factories, most importantly ships such as Stations and Habitats. To build something like this, you can overload a shuttle in orbit! Also, be sure you know what the rules are for Habitats in your game (ie. do they produce extra resources every turn? If so, how many?). If you've got "smart guns," learn how to use them and take advantage of them! Don't get caught off-line at an update only to have everything you hold dear destroyed simply because you didn't set up a protection network. The beginning of the game is a critical time when you need to get your race started off and several updates occur very close together in order to get things moving. When you sign up for a game, be sure you can make this first update "blitz" or you may find yourself hopelessly behind. ********************* I M P O R T A N T *************************** Finally, remember that the deity of the game is there to help you. If it weren't for him/her, you wouldn't be playing GB at all. So don't whine. Be polite. Make constructive comments. It'll be easier for everyone that way. ********************* I M P O R T A N T *************************** *** RELAX. IT IS ONLY A GAME. *** ------ Comments, flames, and questions are welcome and should be sent to me at ingram@u.washington.edu. This will be posted monthly or as the need arises, and I'll email it upon request. Copies are also available via anonymous ftp at morticia.cnns.unt.edu (login as the user "anonymous" and give your email address as the password when ftp asks for it). Also, you can get a copy of this by sending a null mail message to the address "menu@gb.dorm.clarkson.edu" with the subject line "FAQ". Doug Ingram -- Fnebish Legion // ingram@u.washington.edu // "Carpe Datum."