markb50k

thanks for putting up that analysis Kobra, definitely giving me some good ideas

Hi folks, my name is Mark. I am a Java programmer by trade and by hobby. So much so, that a few years ago I built a strategic galactic conquest game called Empire vs Republic. It went on for a couple of years and had nearly 100 participants from around the globe battling for control of the galaxy. It was a fun game, but had limitations. Five years later, I have finally finished the core programming on the next generation of that game. I call it Galactic Simulation, or GalSim for short. Basically, you can read up about it at http://galsim.nickersonm.com , where I give a little history and some of the features provided. I also give pics and stats for all the ships you can play in the game. In short, if you liked Rebellion but wanted more control, or like Empire At War but would love to have dozens of players, this game could be up your alley. Build ships, launch attacks, mine resources to fuel your war machine, whatever you want. And all the while, you could command a fleet of star destroyers, like we all have wanted to do. This game is designed to be content-intensive giving you eventually alot of options on how to make your fortune, plus the ability to see your units down to the individual fighter. Anyway, I hope I have interested you enough. Check out my site (I am NOT a web designer, so it is REALLY REALLY basic) and write me if you want to sign up. Once I get a few people signed up I will start the game turn engine and the war will be on. Thanks in advance for any interest. UPDATE: we have a nice little forum setup for the game and their is already a nice group of folks playing. go here for the forum http://warlords.swrebellion.com/smf/index.php/board,23.0.html here are some screenshots of the action so far http://galsim.nickersonm.com/screenshots.html Just email me at markb50k at gmail dot com to join

Steve, I logged into the GUI as you, clicked on your CC9600, then clicked on onboard craft. On the next page I was able to click on either the dash to the left of either on of the "TD New TD" onboard or even click on the dash in the title row, both times, the X's appeared just fine. Then I clicked on "Give Orders to Selected Onboard Craft" and it worked fine. Is it possible you are not clicking right on the dash. If you hover your mouse over the dash this should show up under the map in the status line "onboard&selected=12733563234807" here is a screenshot. you should click where the red box is http://galsim.nickersonm.com/gs_select_onboard.bmp

hmm ok. ill take another look.

New ZIP Update. Download at http://galsim.nickersonm.com/galsim.zip New Features Two Magazine Loads: I had two places I was showing magazine load on the unit display. Removed one of them. Navigation from onboard craft: Now when you are viewing an onboard craft, when you click on its parents name from the quick nav bar on the display, it will take you back to the onboard craft listing (so you dont have to keep reclicking "Onboard Craft" each time)

Moribundus: if you are still interested, email me at markb50k at gmail dot com and I can help you out. 30 some-odd players have already signed up. Also a little update: we have a nice little forum setup for the game and their is already a nice group of folks playing. go here for the forum http://warlords.swrebellion.com/smf/index.php/board,23.0.html here are some screenshots of the action so far http://galsim.nickersonm.com/screenshots.html Just email me at markb50k at gmail dot com to join

well my reasoning is that I need to 'reward' the players who are taking an active interest in the game. If that means, giving a more realistic setting for the battlefield, then I would have no problem doing it. Yes, we are still trying to get the wrinkles out, but I want peoples interest to stay high.

New Engine update. No download necessary. New Features Simply because at this stage in the game, no one should be on super long JUMPs, I put in code that will cancel JUMP orders if their DURATION is over 1000 cycles. I may revisit this later on if 100 turn jumps are viable at a later time. For ships that are in long jumps like this, they will appear at their start points after the cancel.

New ZIP update. Download from http://galsim.nickersonm.com/galsim.zip New Features Warhead Production: - any non-dockable craft that can either carry other ships OR has a need for warheads will start producing a small amount of warheads each cycle, depending on the size of the ships reactor (the number of PROPULSION components used to build it). - you can view the ship's warhead production capability on the Spec display for that unit - fighters docked on those ships will attempt to draw warheads from the ship's stores as usual - for any ship, on its unit display, it will show the number of "warheads" on board Fuel Production: - any non-dockable craft that can either carry other ships will start producing a small amount of fuel each cycle, depending on the size of the ships reactor (the number of PROPULSION components used to build it). - you can view the ship's fuel production capability/capacity on the Spec display for that unit - fighters with cargo capacity will attempt to draw fuel from its own cargo if it has any PROPULSION cargo - fighters docked on those ships will attempt to draw fuel from the ship's stores FIRST then attempt to draw fuel from the ships cargo (any PROPULSION cargo) - for any ship, on its unit display, it will show the fuel status (for craft) or the fuel amount on board. Fuel Usage: - craft use up fuel every cycle at different rates - at full load, their fuel load is 100 - craft ONBOARD or in hyperspace do not use fuel - craft in WAIT or IDLE status use 0.1 from their fuel load each cycle - craft in any other status use 0.5 from their fuel load each cycle - once a ship runs out of fuel you will get an alert in your user report - once a ship runs out of fuel it is very limited in what it can do. It CANNOT MOVE (except for JUMPING), detect or USE WEAPONS. it cannot enter/exit atmosphere, it cannot move to dock to a ship, although if a ship moves to the fighter it will dock if it is in DOCK order, it can SALVAGE but cannot move to salvage, it CAN TRANSFER goods and DUMP goods. It CAN turn off grav wells but not turn them on. It CAN set weapons status to free or hold (but obviously it still cant fire). Have fun!

I definitely agree that before I make anymore changes to this piece of code, I would like for someone to do some more controlled testing. I would really appreciate it. Pick an empty sector, drop in 20,30,40, whatever fighters of two different types and have them duke it out.

I will address the scarcity of warheads (and fuel) with the next change. It wont be all to your liking but it will make that process a little more straightforward. As for smoothing out hit rates, that is a touchy thing. After all, you are talking about TUFTRs (techno union), seriously, how effective should those be against top of the line spacecraft? But I can take a look at the calculations and see if I can make things make a little more sense.

I got a request to change the game around a little bit, where reinforcements arent immediately available. I will look at putting that in, and also start to implement some of the production piece. I can probably put the slow-reinforcement in pretty easily. Any suggestions on the rate of points I set it at?

New ZIP update. Download at http://galsim.nickersonm.com/galsim.zip New Features Unit spec display now does NOT round jump speed (some with 1.5 were showing 2) Have Fun! Next Steps A big change is coming. I am looking at implementing a limit on how long fighters will be able to be launched without having to be docked. The fighters will have something new like their magazine, but it will hold fuel (so instead of loading WEAPONS components, you will need PROPULSION components)

I dont see a problem with this. Please make sure that you select the onboard craft you want to give orders to first. (there is a little '-' to the left of the ships. you have to click that to make it an 'X')

That is truly strange. Sorry you have to go through all of that silliness.

very cool, Kobra.

DW is correct.

still having issues? the zip at http://galsim.nickersonm.com/galsim.zip should be the proper version. let me know if you are still not able to login.

any ship with cargo capacity can salvage. so you would most likely salvage with a big ship, then land fighters on it, and they would fill up their mags. if the big ship does not have the ability to house fighters, then use a TRANSFER GOODS order to move the supplies from the ship that has the salvage stuff on it to another ship that has cargo capacity AND can house fighters. over the turn end the fighters will fill their mags from the motherships stores

Im about to leave for a baseball game. Wont be reachable for a few hours.

New ZIP update. Download from http://galsim.nickersonm.com/galsim.zip New Features Standoff Range: - You can add a STANDOFF range to your priority target list. It will apply to any priority target below the STANDOFF entry. You can have multiple STANDOFF entries down the list, and each supercedes the others. Once a STANDOFF is in the list every target below that will use it, so you must put a STANDOFF of -1 in to clear the STANDOFF for any targets below it (if you want to use the standard distances in the ship's specs). Or obviously, remove every STANDOFF entry from the list and the ship will use the standards spec range. Specify weapons per priority target: - pretty self explanatory. for every priority target, you can specify it to apply to different weapons types Salvage priority: - After adding a salvage order, you can edit its salvage priority through a link in the order list. if no priority is given it will use randomness like normal. Have Fun!

ok, thanks, ill take a look at it.

test that. 20 vs 20 or something like that but realize that the TD is much smaller than the XJWING, so if we need to balance things, the only things we could tweak are giving the XJWING phenomenal turning ability and speed or much better shields/hull. The point I am trying to make is that the code doesnt care if the fighter is newer or more shiny, it just cares about the stats that is uses to derive the combat. If we want to change things to be more "canon" we have to do it by tweaking stats of the ship, which ironically would make the ship less "canon"

yeah all of that, size of fighter speed and turn ability plus the speed and turn ability of the shooter my opinion is that they all play a significant role. How much, no clue, but game experience will determine that.

yeah I can look at that. i really did a real fast and ugly code job to get the user reports so I would have to mess around a bit to get it nice and neat and into the GUI.