hassell@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Christopher Hassell) (01/02/89)
I am posting this with already a good deal of interest shown by those
around here.
I notice the extreme lack of postings in rec.games.programmer at times and
I wonder if everyone still has it in the untouched "r"'s in their .newsrc.
This is put out as a notice regarding a project being discussed. It is an
e-mail game very similar to "normal" play-by-mail games. The one bonus
is that it is automated. What we intend to make is an environment that
is "logged" into and out of which is supported as your little section
of the much larger "world" database out there.
Its primary focus will be upon programming your forces to enact the object
of the game (remotely!). Exploration is not unlikely but conquering resources
does appear to be a biggie vying for the object. It will be a game for skill
in programming and of good strategy, but even moreso because the strategy
must be *taught* and reaps benefits all over the "world" as made.
One of the LARGEST niftynesses is that of it BEING OVER THE ENTIRE NET (mail-
wise). A previous project involving making random solar systems produced
fruit that could spur a *VERY* realistic world of Gargantuan size. There
would be no boundaries under the current design. Another plus could be
the continued ability to submit new structures and/or improve the realism of
the old ones. A current possibility is that of a "space war" style. This
could obviously be focused down to a lower level and spur off a near-
adventuring style. Star Trek and Star Wars both have their analogs possible
to be played out in this game.
The reason anything like this needs many people is that demand AND programmer
supply may drive this to a reality. <Hopefully kept so slow in running that
sysads won't complain???!!!!! ohpleaseohplease>
One other reason is that for the first time people might demand a computer game
ACTUALLY as complicated as the analogs on paper!!! (And as fun!!)
That should be enough to whet someone's appetite.
### C.H. ###
<Think of it as a way to keep us students' nasty little hands from trying
to break systems? Especially when our programmed fleets just captured
Ferdlewatz!>
[Those ferdlwatzians thought they were so smart when they
destroyed all my first fleet so easily. Hah!
What's this report here?.... Uh, well,.... I'll get back to you on that...]hassell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Christopher Hassell) (03/27/89)
(this is partially leached from talk about "Actual", the Bs game run a looong time ago <Sept or so? was it?>. You know who you are out there.) Thanks all for those front-line attacking legionnaires. They really work well against my current foe. I think he may be a guy I heard was kicking ass who lives in N.Y. (?), but the techniques may <of course> have been recorded and I may just be getting killed by the !$^&$$ computer [smart thing, once it sees what to do]. Who knows. I had to leave for about a week and I had it Cloaked but apparently these guys didn't notice that <aaaaaaarg>. I need another absorbing matrix. Maybe I shouldn't have blatted their outpost when they were Dormant <oops> and I got that one-in-a-million Fix on em. I remember when even I started as a lowly Lord. Gad what a pain that was. Nothing but Factory-1 to work with in that cruddy system! [I was under "Rome-II"'s claw as well!!] (In case anyone wants them, they are Legion[4.2-c]. They're in the m-archives at rutgers. Their stats are good, but you need to polish off some of their interaction-predicates <they seem to attack each other under bad conditions.> Fiesty buggers. I think a scan on a [censored:-] type of R-wave will satisfy some of the worst conditions, if you know when to do it...heh heh. I've been also trying to deal with a population around arm 3. They are really a pain to occupy ... but DANG if their Trilithioid Lattices aren't really the best quality around. They are in a Feudal stage as well as a Very Monarchical Industrial stage (that's likely to change, heh heh). I got back a REALLLLY good tape from a spy (Spy[8.2-t] <made for H-evolved populations. I recommend them, with decent modifs...>). I sat around for an hour watching on that visi-Shower that joe@Ublow made for VGA. (A bit blitty, but you can even SEE the people move around as it gets and uses each SocialEvent. Man, was I worried he'd bite it once when the local Bad Girls were actually hitting on him!! Gotta make those things Uglier*5 <not too ugly I spose:>. These simulations are getting weirder and nicer. Almost wish I could vacation there. <'cept for the level-2/7 battles that are ALWAYS going on. Sheesh, what a mess!> Has anyone heard anything about those Researcher-3's that everyone says are now supported. My little think-tanks haven't gotten anything relatively useful for about 30 Steps. I have heard about some amazing new Physics being submitted and have also heard about its effects (it had better not be revoked again) and Whoaaaa man. That is serious power, I heard, and I want to be in on it and SOON!!! (I'm going to have to retreat into at least one nebula soon). But beyond that, I've heard that they've FINALLY found enough wide support to get those sub-platoon simulations in!! Now you can make those Real Champions everyone has been wanting and HIDE THEM IN THE SWARMS!!! It'll be hell to try and decode the results though. I've heard some people are going to make analyzers for the results once the backbone gets 'em (sorry you guys in the boonies, they're working on getting the results shrunk for distant mail). (They still say that eye-view searches from a system <finding the site that supports a star in direction X> are too costly, but I think that batching some machines together and leaving it as GameAdmin-Info could work??? Any takers?) Also, I looked over some of the battle-damage on one of my systems and, would you believe, mixed in with the Pfyzer-craters (yeah..it was a mess) I actually had induced a pocket of Organic-C on planet 6!!! Totally useless, but it is interesting to watch. I just watched 2010 (that old movie) and it almost seemed like that, even though those things are totally worthless (based on Deviant carbon, they will probably not reach Stability) it was interesting to watch the scanning pass that I got relayed <some sectors never give me ANYthing these days..>. It was swooping down, kinda like in the movie and all of a sudden, Boom, chlorophyll <okay, with +4 mutations, and baaad efficiency>. I wonder how often that has happened already? [as if the m-net load wasn't enough already!] If anyone wants to hear about some of my modifs (you must be registered with the Alliance, <none of you True-Power pukes need apply:->) I'll just say that I've modified my Prolog 2.1 (yeah I know it's wierd and old) and I'll need to mail some C-diffs if you want to compile it right. It DOES however take advantage of that new bytecode-set they have out (much more organized I think) on some systems. Contact your GameAdmin for details as to what you're running now. -------- Actually I also looked over at our cousins in the Conquer Universe (the one that runs European-like Feudalist states <castles and all>) and I hear that they've gotten two new Magic-paks in the last week! They seem to splinter off a lot more because it gets too big and so many rule-sets are used, but they aren't complaining too much. :-> (gimme 3-d Star-Dain-Bramage over their HUGE dungeons anyday though...Sysads don't seem to like it much in any case) It's almost as bad as those in Espionage. Those guys never seem to stop getting new doohickeys to do this or that. I've talked to some guys and they are splitting off sometimes to have different Tech-levels. <even back to less than 1930 levels, it must be nice to not need to outmode devices to level a game out> They are really gaining popularity, though. --------- Also, I don't know about you Spacers but I'm itching to try some new robo-culture simulation AND actually apply some REAL history to some of the less accurate levels (ya know, 1800-styles and some early Renaissance are really never simulated at ALL). They're taking new simu-submissions for those areas. As always new NPC-runners are wanted (as long as they aren't next to you when placed <heh.. heh>). I have heard that they will screen new Physics for a looong while. If anyone finds new applics that aren't supported let them know, they do every day in normal science. I also heard they are getting tired of new Classes of robots. Some are beginning to overlap and the Administration doesn't like all the extra space taken by their Library-Predicates at the distribution sites. Recognition is going beyond the 1-dimensional continuums they have these days and handlers are resorting to brute-force simulations more and more often, so I don't see what they'll be able to do except include them as border-classes. Mail me or someone in charge if you have better ideas <I personally want to add a class or two of me own :->. Time-mark 10.23.23-1.1222 In much less Actuality yours.... ### C>H> ###