"Stellar Realms" - online gaming, with a twist.

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 12:53 am

rbrodka wrote:Can you please help me understand why the species should be differentiated more?

there are 19 races. 59 players. Only 16 of the races are used. If those last three races (and those with only one player) are not strengthened, they might as well not be there. And if strengthened, why not doing something funny with them?

I suspect this would be a tricky thing to do and still maintain a balanced and fair game.

That is always the problem in all games that offer choices to it's players. However, the benefits if one succeed are great as it will enable a wealth of new strategies. 66% (two out of three) players play one of four races as it is. And 50% of top 10 is Dorune. I don't know if SR really is a "balanced and fair game" as it stands now. I am asking here because I trust SPCR-members to come with thought through ideas that would actually be possible/worth implementing if Vork so choose.

More differentiation between the species may make the game more interesting and challenging for the experienced player, but much tougher for the noobie. I think a new player should be able to blindly pick a species and be successful with it.

What is the reason of having different species if anyone should be able to pick any race in their first round of play and be able to finish in the top ten? I'd say that it is better to make a race that is fairly basic to play, which may be played relatively well in any style. That would allow a n00b to have a good first game and be able to learn the finer details of gameplay to be able to make a more choice next time.

dryfire wrote:what you propose seems a bit extreme to me.

Haha.... I didn't pick the numbers beacuse I thought the changes would be that large, but more to try to illustrate my thinking. [/quote]

StarfishChris · Post by **StarfishChris** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 1:41 am

I think the biggest benefits lies with the structures, fleet and special abilities within each race. Most things can be altered at a later date - 10% research isn't that much of an increase, especially when you can adjust all the stats a little and build structures to improve most things (research labs etc). But you cannot change a special ability, and you're lucky if you can get other race fleets.

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:02 am

StarfishChris wrote:
nici wrote:This is getting really boring....
Getting more interesting now?

Yeah, but im still too bored to care. At least now i have no fleet to do maintenance on so i can save some credits... Or something. Maybe build a structure or two.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:36 am

StarfishChris wrote:Most things can be altered at a later date - 10% research isn't that much of an increase, especially when you can adjust all the stats a little and build structures to improve most things (research labs etc).

10% increase in research is a HUGE benefit. Research is THE most important stat there is, so you better have some very good tactic with some race's special abillity before you decide not to add 5% to it at the start of the game.

What everybody can get is: 5% start modification; 2x5% from Research Lab; 2x7% from Research Lab (improved); 30% from Science I t/m V. Total 59%, which means research can be done in 41% of the unmodified time once you have all those things. If somebody gets a race bonus from 10%, then the research can be doen in 31% of the time. Which is a speed increase of almost 25%. Plus the 10% bonus is instant at the begin of the game, so that race will have the structures and sciences to boost research faster.

The Dorune get a starting bonus of 20%, so they can research in half the time another race can. They get another bonus of 15% on Wealth, so everything they can't make or do themselves they just buy or hire someone to do. That is why there are so many Dorunes in the top.

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 12:17 pm

Research seems to be the biggest thing in the game, as you almost have to research construction, sensors and stealth.

Moavar, Dorune, bengathi and Rool all seem to have a good advantage since they start off with large research bonuses.

Start off as one of these and pour all your extra stats into research you'll get a good head start.

rbrodka · Post by **rbrodka** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:27 pm

By my calculations, we are a little past half-way.
About 145 more years to go....

How is everybody doing?

Somehow I've slowly climbed from 45th to 18th, but don't expect to go any higher. I'll probably even fall back a few (or more) before it is all over.

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:36 pm

I'm fine. I have a massive attack fleet that is gonna go demolish someone's planet. just need one more turn before i finish all my ships.

Consturction is at max capacity as I"m replacing habitats with improved ones.

research is going very slowly though.

Post by **Rusty075** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:48 pm

I'm having a fairly good, if quiet, round. Just finished replacing all my hab's with Ultra's, and am starting on the Planet topics. Still mired back in 17th, but I seem to be slowly rising.

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:38 am

well i just attacked a planet and seem to have done no damage

and in stead of retaliating the player changed his stance to cooperation

I think my fleet is useless or something.

nici · Post by **nici** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:55 am

DryFire wrote:well i just attacked a planet and seem to have done no damage

and in stead of retaliating the player changed his stance to cooperation

I think my fleet is useless or something.

Depends on what you do... If you try to bombard with Interceptors or something it wont go too well

StarfishChris · Post by **StarfishChris** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:57 am

Change of plans. Most of my fleet just got bought and now I'm a lot richer & freer.. not to attack poor defenseless planets, though! No! That would be criminal.

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:44 am

Your fleet and every one ells's as well... I have a feeling someone pretty big will be attacked pretty soon. It is a lot of shipsthat has changed ownership today...

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:44 am

nici wrote:Depends on what you do... If you try to bombard with Interceptors or something it wont go too well

Well i sent 2 megaships, 3 dreadnought's, 25 heavy bombers, 2 defense bardges and 5 hurricane fast cruisers.

the defender had 2 deep recon scouts and an ageis moble shield but he has done research up the wazoo.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:11 am

rbrodka wrote:By my calculations, we are a little past half-way.
About 145 more years to go....

How is everybody doing?

Somehow I've slowly climbed from 45th to 18th, but don't expect to go any higher. I'll probably even fall back a few (or more) before it is all over.

Well I am going down in the rankings, but that is no surprise after the recent massacre at my planet. Let's see if I can stay in the top half of the field for the next 140 years.

rbrodka,
I see no reason for you to fall back, unless you are attacked. Last time I checked no planet below you earned more prestige per month and three planets above you earned less.

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:42 am

does someone know if anyone have developed a tool for checking the growthrate of the people around us yet?

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:55 am

I still use cut and paste into Excel.

Don't know how far Chris got with this
http://www.stellar-realms.com/phpforums ... php?t=1703
hint, hint......

rbrodka · Post by **rbrodka** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:47 pm

I wrote a tool that captures the galaxy overview stats every 20 minutes and stores it in a database. I then do some analysis on the numbers to see who is moving up and who is moving down. SR provides a XML feed to get the data. I run this on my home computer and it is still fairly crude. I'll need to do some work on it and move it to a public web server so it is available to others. I'll probably run it past the SR developers first.

StarfishChris · Post by **StarfishChris** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 2:20 pm

I was going to do one but had more (home)work to do than I expected.
Hmm - XML feed - I think I'll kill two birds in one stone and beta test a friend's code with this, but don't blame me if I reset the galaxy or anything.

(btw nici- I needed an excuse to rebuild that Intelligence Agency

)

nici · Post by **nici** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 6:26 am

StarfishChris wrote: (btw nici- I needed an excuse to rebuild that Intelligence Agency )

Yeah? Well im guessing you got your excuse..

Straker · Post by **Straker** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:24 pm

heh i picked Dorune without even looking at galaxy overview. their special buildings are kind of nice but also fairly boring, haven't built either yet, just drones. i was in at the start of the round but only logged in a few times the first couple weeks. not sure if all those Dorune players are just lazy or really really like bulwarks or what, but the Bengathi bonuses are quite a bit better. only concern with that is that it doesn't take that long to max population, and then their 5%/0% wealth/reproduction mods are worthless compared to Dorune's 15%/-5%. research is the same for both races, so...

speaking of research, is the mod done that way on purpose? that seems more like a bug than anything; 100% research should double your speed, assuming all other bonuses are a straight multiplier. would be neat if racial bonuses were a modifier too, i.e. rather than a 20% research bonus, Dorune get 1.2 of whatever their research is at due to buildings/research.

would help if there were a way to see stats on the 9 race-specific intelligence agents too, the links are currently broken. i'll probably decide my race for next round on that alone, assuming some of the intelligence problems get worked out.

StarfishChris · Post by **StarfishChris** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 4:03 pm

Reproduction helps you fill your population cap quicker, so you can build Habitats more often and get more money from tax earlier in the game.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 9:44 am

Straker wrote:speaking of research, is the mod done that way on purpose? that seems more like a bug than anything; 100% research should double your speed, assuming all other bonuses are a straight multiplier.

Yes, I think this is on purpose. Construction and Maintenance follow a 100% minus bonus% scheme too.

Straker wrote:would help if there were a way to see stats on the 9 race-specific intelligence agents too, the links are currently broken. i'll probably decide my race for next round on that alone, assuming some of the intelligence problems get worked out.

Have you asked them to fix it?

Moavar Creeper: Double the Staff, Credits and Months to train. Half the Maintenance. All other stats like a normal agent.
Anyone else care to post the stats on their species specific agents?

StarfishChris wrote:Reproduction helps you fill your population cap quicker, so you can build Habitats more often and get more money from tax earlier in the game.

And thus more prestige, since that is cumulative. Plus you can have the resources for Planet V earlier, which just increases all the other effects.

Straker · Post by **Straker** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:31 pm

StarfishChris wrote:Reproduction helps you fill your population cap quicker, so you can build Habitats more often and get more money from tax earlier in the game.

i wrote:only concern with that is that it doesn't take that long to max population, and then their 5%/0% wealth/reproduction mods are worthless compared to Dorune's 15%/-5%

it's not a huge difference, but no matter how you cut it this should make no difference until everyone's at max pop, and then Dorune obviously have it better afterwards, that's all i was saying. not going to do some silly monte carlo analysis to see whether you'd earn more prestige turtling the whole round and having higher initial population vs. more cash at the end.

or, even more simply put, at best that extra reproduction will keep your income in line with someone who has 10% extra wealth... until your planet's full.

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:51 pm

my planet's about full.

Just started planet 2 but it's kinda distrupting the order i wanted to do reserach in.

Post by **Rusty075** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:53 pm

Population is often the key to ending high in the ranks. At the end the game shows you who the top ten in every category...almost without fail the people atop the Population list will also be the ones atop the Prestige list.

Just look at your own prestige breakdown.....who isn't getting the bulk of their prestige from their population base?

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 5:41 pm

yes and they are also the bulk of most people's income, which also adds prestige.

Post by **Rusty075** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 7:47 pm

Yup, and they support research, and ship staffing, and, and and....

Having lots of people makes everything else easier. They also build prestige much faster than credits: you get 1 point for every 10K people, but you need 100K credits for each point. The risk is that unlike credits or research, population can be taken away from you.

Here's an insider tip just between us SPCR SR players: There are three of here at SPCR that have been playing SR for quite a while...and those same three players are currently ranked 1, 2, and 3 in the galaxy in population, and they're 1, 3, and 6 in credits.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 5:30 am

And before I got bombed I was number 5 in population. I have rebuild most of the structures now, but because I still have only about half of the population from before the bombing I am still going down in the rankings.

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 12:34 pm

Next round i have a good bit of it planned already and unless they make some big tweaks i already know my race.

I'm climbing my way up the current rankings now. I wonder how much things will shift wehn we get closer to teh end and a lot of battles begin.

the one battle i fought gained me 0 prestige

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:38 pm

I've actually gained 118 prestige points from battle.... but it there aren't really that many inactive players to attack. and none of them will get you any significant amount of prestige:(