Heh, since DH has started the discussion of upcoming servers - I think this one is ready to beta if there is interest from you folks.
I can schedule this around any other servers waiting to go, so if someone else wants to go first just holler, but we can probably have this one ready to go live within two weeks, or we can leave it until after the GW series (or whatever).
dave
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OverviewThis is a ten-year war between the Federation, Mirak, Klingons, and the Orion Empire. The Orions will be a playable empire (taking the Hydran slot in the shiplist).
In the year 2265, Orion scientists make a technical breakthrough that improves the power utilization. In strictist silence, all Orion ships receive the new technolgy. As soon as all ships are ready, the Orion Empire stages a carefully planned revolt, attaining control of a substantial portion of space along the Federation / Klingon / Mirak borders.
A number of worlds, unsure where their best self-interest lies, declare themselves and their surrounding space neutral. The situation rapidly develops into a full four-way war, with the newly founded Orion Empire right in the centre of things. Each empire is trying to take control of the neutral worlds as well as whatever they can grab from one another.
When will this run...I've got beta versions of the map, shiplist, and installer put together, and I think we just need to do some live testing. The installer includes the assorted .txt and .gf files so that ship, captain, and empire names are appropriate for the race juggling involved.
One thing I will need is a machine to run it on, but I'll see if I can bug Frey about using Thor.
The goal is to start at 4pm PDT on a Friday (July 27?), if that doesn't conflict with other scheduled servers. (Or starting a week earlier or two weeks later?).
The three VC rounds would end at
Round 1: Thursday (Aug. 2?), 6:00am PDT
Round 2: Tuesday (Aug. 7?), 2:00 pm PDT
Round 3: Sunday (Aug. 12?), 10:00 PDT
If this actually works out, there's a sequel already prepared - the MidEast server - playing out a similar scenario with the Orions in the middle of the three plasma races (that one would run 2268-2277, and would use lower than usual hex DVs to try and create fast sweeps across space in spite of it being an all-plasma server).
Technical notesThis is going to run for game years 2265-2274, and will be restricted to "native" technologies for the four races mentioned - i.e. no hellbores, fusion, plasma, gatlings, esg, maulers, or cloaking devices. Ships with those technologies either have them replaced or are deleted.
Bases and battle stations will be destructible, starbases WILL NOT.
(Starbases will not be available for purchase in the shipyards - BS and/or BATS will be.)
There will be 6 minutes per turn, 365 turns per year, econ will run once per turn, and the server will run from 2265 through 2274.
Each of the four playable races has an allied AI empire with a matching shiplist (actually the AI empire gets a pared down version to avoid the fighter-race/PF-race shiplist issues and to increase the likelihood that you will face line ships when fighting the AI).
Since you're enemies with the other six empires, all the allies you get should be flying ships from your own list. (In cases where you draft enemies from multiple conflicting races, they'll just have to live with being unable to fight each other directly for that mission - "enemy of my enemy" and all...)
The allied AI empires are nestled behind or within the playable empire space, and "shouldn't" be a major factor in play.
The map has the Orion Empire in the center, surrounded by the Mirak, Feds, and Klingons - so each empire has a border with each of its three enemies, and there is very little neutral space.
The Orion EmpireThe Orion Empire gets a little screwed by a variety of things:
- their weakened shiplist (without the weapon systems listed above),
- the lack of engine doubling,
- their map placement, and
- the fact that there isn't a traditional player base for them.
To compensate, I've given them a bit of a bonus by reducing the move cost for most of the Orion ships [the "breakthrough" mentioned above] so most can now hit speed 31 with power to spare for weapon arming.
Other than that, a lot of the balance issues we usually see are (hopefully) somewhat negated by having just the four drone races participating, particularly with the time frame ending in '74, before a lot of the real cheeze turns up
RulesThe standard "general" rules (plagarized from AOTK and appended at the end of this post) apply for the duration of the server.
In terms of ships, fleeting, etc, the rules are simple:
- you can fly one or two ships
- if you fly two ships then one must be a command variant and the other must be a line ship with a lower move cost
- note that there are no BBs and carriers/dreads will be scarce. Furthermore, bpvs for carriers will be inflated somewhat to keep AI matchups more balanced, bpvs for line ships will be reduced somewhat
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in co-op missions and planet/base assaults at least 50% of the player ships on each side must be line ships (round fractions down). That would mean if two or three ships fly together at least one must be a line ship, if four or five fly together at least two must be line ships, and if six fly together at least three must be line ships.
- if an illegal fleet combination is drafted then the player(s) in violation of the rule must disengage one or more ships as necessary to create a legal combination.
If you are forced to Disengage in a PvP match, then you are banned from the hex you either took the mission in or were drafted for 60 Minutes. If your ship was destroyed then you are banned from that hex for 30 Minutes. If you draft or are drafted while moving out of an area you have been banned in, the mission is to be played out normally, but any outcome for purposes of disengagement/destruction is voided and the banned time from the previous mission and hex doesnt begin until the current mission concludes.
I will do my best not to add mid-server rule changes, but (as we all know) there are times when they are both logical and necessary to address errors or oversights.
PvP PointsSolo line ships with a movement cost less than 1 are worth 0 PvP points*
otherwise line ships are worth 1 PvP point each*
Ships with a movement cost of greater than one are worth 3 PvP points each*
All other ships are worth 2 PvP points each*
*There is a +1 PvP bonus (per ship killed) for ships destroyed while deep striking,
as well as a +1 PvP bonus for capturing a ship.
Deep StrikingDeep striking is permitted, but you cannot disengage from ANY mission (even against the AI) while deep stiking. (Deep striking is defined as fighting a mission in an enemy hex when all six bordering hexes are also enemy-controlled.) Also note the PvP modification above if you are destroyed while deep striking.
Line shipsBecause of the limited races and time frames, the list of line ships is pretty simple:
Federation: FFG, DD+, CL+, NCL, NCL+, CAR+
Klingon: F5K, F5B, D5, D5K, D6K, D6B, D7K, D7B
Kzinti: FF+, FFK, FH+, DD, CL+, CM, CA, CS, BC
Note that NO Orion ships are considered line ships.
Victory PointsThe server is running for roughly 10 game years, and there will be three VC rounds. Assuming a Friday July 27th start, the VC rounds will end Thursday the 2nd at 6am PDT, Tuesday the 7th at 2pm PDT, and Sunday the 12th at 10pm PDT. (Sorry, these are timed to fit in with my weirdo schedule). I'll grab a shot of the map and a copy of the DB as soon after each of those three points as circumstances permit - please bear with me if I'm off by a few minutes.
To claim VPs for a planet or starbase you must hold the planet and have a line of supply to it at the end of the VC round. The line of supply must connect it to one of your ORIGINAL planets or starbases (which must also, of course, be in your control at the end of the round).
There are three core worlds in neutral territory at the start of the server. If you hold one of these planets (with line of supply) at the end of a scoring round you score 10 VPs, if you hold two you score 25 VPs, and if you hold all three you score 100 VPs. (The core worlds are located within the larger blobs of neutral space on the map.)
Each originally-enemy planet and/or starbase held at the end of a VC round (with line of supply) is worth 5 VPs.
Shifting alliancesThe four empires are trying to ensure their own survival, so formal alliances will be formed/shifted as follows:
After the first round, the two teams with the fewest missions flown will form an alliance.
After the second round, the team with the fewest flown missions will ally with the team with the most flown missions, while the second/third teams form a counter-alliance.
These will be done by DB edits to the political tensions, and there will be no Wild Geese on this server.
Multiple AccountsEach player is permitted a secondary account, for use if your primary account is ghosted or otherwise bugged. The secondary account MUST be of the same race as your primary account. There is no switching of sides permitted - the alliances formed by the empires are temporary measures of political expedience, and as such the various military branches will NOT entrust ships or commands to "allied" officers.
RMsI'd like one RM and, ideally, one ARM per race. RMs will receive a starting bonus of 50,000pp, to be used and/or distributed as they see fit. ARMs will receive a starting bonus of 25,000pp.
The MapThe map below shows the empire layouts.
Again - the Orions take the Hydran spot in the shiplist, and use the Lyran spot for their AI allies. The Fed's AI mirror uses the Gorn spot, the Klingon's AI mirror uses the Romulan spot, and the Kzinti AI mirror uses the ISC spot. You'll have to find the key VC planets and starbases yourselves
Installation: Step 0. Install OP
Step1. Patch to 2552
Step 2 Install OP+ 4.0
Step 3. Download and run the installer below (can someone please mirror this?)
This is a beta version of the installer:
- the shiplist undoubtedly still needs work
- directory selection is still a little quirky - it does include everything necessary to play the campaign in single player
(though the map econ/dv/terrain values don't match the online version)
http://www3.telus.net/NuclearWessels/sfc/downloads/OldWest.exe General Rules To misquote Moggy:
Rule 1: Don't cheat.
Rule 2: Don't be a jerk
Rule 3: Don't exploit.
Rule 4: Have fun.- If you are in a PvP and die, stay there in the battle till the match is over.
- If a mission causes all players to drop, then all those players must attempt to log back on and retry the mission at least once allowing the player with a slower connection to draft. If this player is known to cause drops or lags, this player must not be on the front lines drafting, being drafted and causing connection issues. It isnt fair to anyone else. They need to do missions elsewhere.
- If the server goes down and players are still in a mission, VC period ends, or the server concludes, it still counts for PvP purposes.
- During some missions, a player's name may not be indicated on their ship. If you suspect you are playing against a human, type a greeting in the chat. All other human players are required to immediately respond with a text chat greeting and identify the ship they are in. Some missions drop hosts and clients. In suspected situations, a player has the right to ask if their opponent(s) is still present and that player(s) is required to immediately respond with a text chat greeting.
- If you disengage or are destroyed in a game and there are others still fighting, you may not leave the game until the match is finished.
Forfeiting Missions:Do to unfinished game code we suffer from the following issues and I would like everyone to follow the following protocol otherwise, these issues may causes SERIOUS errors in the database and lead to CPU overload and eventual server burps:
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You are NEVER allowed to forfeit a mission under ANY circumstances on the map during a mission draft or a mandatory mission choice.
- If you are drafted you MUST accept the mission. You are NOT ALLOWED to logoff or FORFEIT. EVER.
- If your navigator is incompetent and has wandered into an enemy hex and you receive a mandatory mission, you may logoff and relog on as long as you do not do this repeatedly. You are NOT ALLOWED to FORFEIT a mission.
- DO NOT park your ship anywhere near the front lines and go AFK. You will cause forfeits this way. Logoff the server till you come back as you may take up a player slot.
- Do not EVER ALT-F4 out of a bugged mission. In case of a buggy mission, the attacker must fly off the map and then ESC FORFEIT in battle to get it to close. Occasionally the defender may also need to exit the map and ESC Forfeit in battle. The attacker is defined by the side that is in a hex controlled by the enemy at the time of the draft. The defender is defined as the side that is in their own home space at the time of the draft.
Redraft rule:
- If a player drops while a missions is loading, the remaining players should fly off the map and attempt to redraft the mission. It is best to have the player with the worst connection draft in these cases as it will be the most stable.Account Creation Guidelines:- Chat channels and the DB editor don't always work properly if you setup your character name to begin with a number or include spaces in your name or any non-letter or number symbol other than an underscore _
- Hexx/SAC will mess up his chat because of the / he added to his character name. Instead he should use: Hexx_SAC the Underscore symbol in place of the forward slash.
- The only non letter or numeric symbol to use is the underscore. _ DO NOT put spaces in your name or start your name with anything other than a letter.
Topic: Old West Server (4 drone races , 2265-74) (Read 3715 times)