Topic: Weigh in: New server features. Post your thoughts.

[Dizzy]

Some possible ideas and concepts for future servers...

Terraforming:

-There will be 3 hex locations made know per side that is an empty hex. These empty hexes have a planet which is not on the map, but has the opportunity to be terraformed and if certain conditions are met, a Planet will be added to that hex. In order for this to happen, several hexes DEEP behind enemy lines will need to be flipped. No LoS is necessary. The flipping of these hexes will constitute a 'raid' that your side has conducted in order to get the last known secret terraforming technology that was in the enemy's possession that you did not have. Each side will have the same opportunity. The hex to be terraformed must be under your control with LoS and you may terraform only one of these 3 hexes.

Scorched Earth:

-If an enemy Planet or Starbase (starbases are mission-indestructible) is surrounded and controlled with a LoS, it may be bombarded and destroyed and wil be removed from the map. VC's for the SB or Planet Destroyed may no longer be collected.

Custom Map features for each side:

- On an average sized map, something like 10 DV hexes will be used with a maximum reinforce of 20. Before the start of the server, each side will be given 200 or so DV's placeable in 5 DV groups that they may place anywhere in friendly space up to a hex's max DV.

- Several neutral empty and planet/starbase hexes will be located in friendly space. Before the start of the server, these will be flipped to any allied race of a side's choosing to allow another race to operate far from home.

- Several secret BATS will be given to each race to be placed before the start of the server in friendly space.

- One planet per side will secretly choose to be their Battleship production facility. If it is taken, no more BB's may be purchased.

Live Interactive Webmap:

- Current till the last turn. Will show map terrain, DV shading, Hex DV's, Planets, Battles Locations, Economy, Battle Reports, Destroyed ships/Kills, News, Roster and who is online.

- On the Destroyed ships/Kills link, a Battle Report is made by the server for every PvP battle. There a player will click a box for that PvP report and type their name to confirm the kill.

PvP Kills:

- Total PvP pts will be traded for map DV’s at the end of a VC period. Only the side with the higher point difference gets map DV's. That side picks friendly or neutral hexes with LoS and the map is reconfigured adding these DV points in 5 DV groups rounding down and play continues.

- Ship kills are worth the following DV points:

SBB:  12
BBV:  12
BB:    10
CVA:  8
DN:    6
BC/V: 4
CV:    2  (8 or more ftrs)
All N/CA ships, any class escort or Droner with 5+ racks: 1
All other ships : 0

Web based ship purchasing:

-Special ships and such will be able to be purchased through a link on the webmap. Unlike the shipyards, you will always be able to find every ship available to you at anytime to bid on it. It will automatically be placed in the shipyard with your bid and you simply wait for it to appear in your fleet.

Ship CnC and Penalty Box:

- If you lose one of the following ‘Capital' ship types, you may not fly another one of that class or higher for 12 hours. This applies to all of a person’s multiple accounts. The following ships below are considered ‘Capital Shipsl’: BB/V, DN, CVA, BC/V's.

- Max Capital ships on the server at the same time: 16 points. The following ships are worth the following points:

  SBB:  12
  BBV:  12
  BB:    10
  CVA:  8
  DN:    6
  BC/V: 4

- No Capital ships are allowed to fly in a mission together. If they happen to by accident, one must immediately leave the battle without engaging the enemy.

[Bonk]

Scorched Earth!!!!       Its sooo eeeevil, I love it! (timing is the only trick, but a little fiction can make it work)

Like the terraforming idea too, though its more for those tree-hugging Fed types...  (ditto on the timing)

I also quite like the "Penalty Box" - complements the disengagement rule nicely, something for the underdog to cling to...

(more comments to come)

[FPF-DieHard]

- Ship kills are worth the following DV points:

BB:    11
CVA:  8
DN:    6
BC/V: 4
CV:    2  (8 or more ftrs)
All other ships: 1

Not all ships should be worth VCs.   This makes new players a liability and not an assest, it rewards picking on newbs and small ships and penalizes being merciful and letting people fly off.   This is bad for the game.

VCs only belong on capital ships, X-tech, and Speialty ships.

An H-RN/RN+/MHK has 8 fighters and is not a CV.   The definition needs to be more clearly defined.

[Dizzy]

NCL class and small worth 0?

[FPF-DieHard]

NCL class and small worth 0?

That's a start.  maybe go as high as CWL.

I thought the system on GW was fine.  Specialty ships on a non-OOB setup should be worth something but the other shops shouls be left alone.   We went as high as CCH on GW.

Gotta draw the line someplace, CWL is fine, CCH might be a bit too high, I think stock NCL is a bit too low.

On another note, the  "v" experiment on AOTK2 was a collosal waist   

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

Three letters.... S Q L

[FPF-DieHard]

- Max Special ships on the server at the same time: 16 points. The following ships are worth the following points:

  BB:    11
  CVA:  8
  DN:    6
  BC/V: 4

- No special ships are allowed to fly in a mission together. If they happen to by accident, one must immediately leave the battle without engaging the enemy.

Do you mean Capital or Specialty?

BBVs should cost more than 11 points, so should the super BBs like the B11 series. 

[Bonk]

Three letters.... S Q L

Or how to draw a crowd for an SQL server... Stay tuned... (have already discussed the viability of all of the above, we're looking for player feedback on these ideas now).

[Dizzy]

Do you mean Capital or Specialty?
BBVs should cost more than 11 points, so should the super BBs like the B11 series. 

Modified. What u think now?

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

Three letters.... S Q L

Or how to draw a crowd for an SQL server... Stay tuned... (have already discussed the viability of all of the above, we're looking for player feedback on these ideas now).

he he... its more than viable... what we need now is a way for mission scripts to make updates to the database to make the terrain type changes (which need not be limited the above either... planets can become asteroids, nebulas can become planets (Genesis device), suns can be collapsed into blacl holes... any terrina type can be changed into any other). Wormholes work as well, transporting players from one side of the map to the other. Econ shifts as well as DV shifts (which need not be just a shift of one either). Thesall really need to be done from a mission script however to work in real time.

Things that dont require scripting though are those things we can do web-based such as shipyard, webmap etc. Its even possible from such a shipyard to completely customise vessels SFC3 style (although previous posts regarding this have shown it to be unpopular).

Additionally, it need not just be web-based either... a computer program that connects to the SQL server can do the same but would of course take longer to develop. The advantage however, is that the program only needs to be downloaded once and is not restricted by web design (can have much better graphics). Additional functionality for special logins such as RMs or admins can be created as well, expediting things like allocating OOB ships or running a true economy.

[Bonk]

You've got it... we're going to probably run all the above without SQL scripts, (careful scheduling) but hopefully if we can prove a stable SQL server, SQL mission scripting will then be worthwhile. Note that terraforming and scorched earth require a server reboot even if it were done instantaneously from an SQL mission script... (see where I added a planet on the live map for The Forge, Hexx could supply on it etc, but it did not appear on the map until I rebooted the server... so some kit code modification would be required to make it fully instantaneous...) and as an aside drb and I were discussing removing the "forfeit" option from the mission selection screen altogether if possible without the client code as every forfeit puts such a hideous load on the the serverkit... or find a way to remove that load...

Also, regarding a non-web-browser-based approach, I have yet to check out the latest ACSIII client (http://www.r-pex.com/) which I had promised feedback on and possibly participation in for such purposes... from what I gather, they have made a good start, we could share technologies hopefully...

[Hexx]

I (very much) like the idea of explodable planets. Was going to try and incorporate such an idea onto
Mirror, but had enough people yelling at me that I put it off.

- VP points (if used) shouldn't apply to anything CCH (or one down from CCH) size and smaller

-And I *really* don't like the BB building idea at all. The only thing you can do if your opponent builds a BB of any kind
is either build one yourself, or convince your opponent to let a Gorn fly it around a planet/really big asteroid.

[Dizzy]

It can all be done along with a DB clean... A simple edit to the DB and it's taken care of.

Only thing I want missions to do is draft 6 peeps and be stable. Other than that, our mission packs are not all what want them to be. I want variable start locations for one thing. I want more types of missions than Tracey A and B. Which are good, btw. But thats another thread.

Basically, all this may be able to work in a few weeks.

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

You've got it... we're going to probably run all the above without SQL scripts, (careful scheduling) but hopefully if we can prove a stable SQL server, SQL mission scripting will then be worthwhile. Note that terraforming and scorched earth require a server reboot even if it were done instantaneously from an SQL mission script... (see where I added a planet on the live map for The Forge, Hexx could supply on it etc, but it did not appear on the map until I rebooted the server... so some kit code modification would be required to make it fully instantaneous...) and as an aside drb and I were discussing removing the "forfeit" option from the mission selection screen altogether if possible without the client code as every forfeit puts such a hideous load on the the serverkit... or find a way to remove that load...

Also, regarding a non-web-browser-based approach, I have yet to check out the latest ACSIII client (http://www.r-pex.com/) which I had promised feedback on and possibly participation in for such purposes... from what I gather, they have made a good start, we could share technologies hopefully...

Actually, I've looked into writing a complete new application from scratch with C++ using DirectX. Like I said... a lot more work, but the finished product can be virtually a game in itself.

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

It can all be done along with a DB clean... A simple edit to the DB and it's taken care of.

Only thing I want missions to do is draft 6 peeps and be stable. Other than that, our mission packs are not all what want them to be. I want variable start locations for one thing. I want more types of missions than Tracey A and B. Which are good, btw. But thats another thread.

Basically, all this may be able to work in a few weeks.

Yes... the plan is to get just one stable, bug free patrol that does everything we want. From there creativity can do what it likes, and we can make any mission we like in a fraction of the time without requiring extensive testing. We are almost at this point.

[Dizzy]

Yes... the plan is to get just one stable, bug free patrol that does everything we want. From there creativity can do what it likes, and we can make any mission we like in a fraction of the time without requiring extensive testing. We are almost at this point.

What thread may we pick up this discussion?

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

Note that terraforming and scorched earth require a server reboot even if it were done instantaneously from an SQL mission script... (see where I added a planet on the live map for The Forge, Hexx could supply on it etc, but it did not appear on the map until I rebooted the server...

I did some experimenting with transporting people across the map and assigning them new ships, changing shipnames, changing hex race ownership, changing DVs etc.. What I discovered is that the changes do not take effect until a map update is done. Maps only get a full update when you either log into the server, or complete a mission, after which the map appears normal and shows the change. I have not tested it with changing terrain types though, but perhaps this may also work in a smiliar fashion. Something to add to the list.

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

Yes... the plan is to get just one stable, bug free patrol that does everything we want. From there creativity can do what it likes, and we can make any mission we like in a fraction of the time without requiring extensive testing. We are almost at this point.

What thread may we pick up this discussion?

Any thread you like, or start a new one if you like 

[FPF-DieHard]

Do you mean Capital or Specialty?
BBVs should cost more than 11 points, so should the super BBs like the B11 series. 

Modified. What u think now?

Below is closer to the actual Federation and Empire EP economics costs.  By closer I mean proportionate.  a BB costs about twice as much as a DN, 2 points for CVA "fighter factors" . . . .

Pretty much means that if you REALLY want that BBV, you will be the Louis XIV of your empire   


  SBB/V:  16
  BBV:  14
  BB:    12
  CVA:  8
  DN:    6
  BC/V: 4

PS.   Every thing else that I didn't comment on sounds good   

PPS:   I advise using a seperate Point system for X-tech/XP tech if used.

[Dizzy]

Pretty much means that if you REALLY want that BBV, you will be the Louis XIV of your empire   
  SBB/V:  16
  BBV:  14
  BB:    12
  CVA:  8
  DN:    6
  BC/V: 4

PPS:   I advise using a seperate Point system for X-tech/XP tech if used.

Xtech- need to figure that out later. Pretty simple tho.

With my 16 total points to  have on the board, whats the difference between 14 and 16?