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

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:32 pm

Interested in Online Multiplayer gaming but without the time committment or graphics requirement? I've got your game right here.

Stellar Realms - The Online Game of Interstellar Conquest

www.stellar-realms.com

Now, don't be losing interest so soon. This isn't an advertisement for some money grubbing corporate entity, Stellar Realms is free to play. This is simply an announcement for a great game that a friend of mine has been working on for a couple years now. There's been a few of us playing for awhile, but we're trying to expand and get even more folks interested.

Stellar Realms is accessed completely from its website. For those visual folks out there, I'm sorry, but there really aren't any pictures. But this also means you don't have to get that top end video card to play. It also means you can check up on it (discretely) while at the office during the day.

Did I mention that its free?

Here's a quote directly from the Stellar Realms site:

What is Stellar Realms?

Stellar Realms is an online, multiplayer strategy game in a science-fiction setting. The object is to accumulate as much prestige as possible, through various means, in the period of 400 game-years.

This can be accomplished through construction, research, diplomacy, and occasionally, military action.

One month in the Stellar Realms universe constitutes a turn, and represents 20 minutes of "real-world" time. Therefore, a full 400-year round is accomplished in 66 real-world days.

There are over 20 playable species, each with their unique blend of technologies, focus and philosophies.

Play styles can be quite diverse; play an avid technophile, xenophobic zealot, crafty diplomat, shrewd arms-merchant or militaristic bully, it's up to you. But keep in mind, there's only room for ONE planet at the top of the galactic prestige chart!

I know there's a couple other folks here that are already playing, but I'll let them speak up and share their thoughts so far. In the previous game rounds we've only had around 30 active planets, so you're not going to be lost in multitudes of players. It will be very easy to become noticed. Whether being noticed a good thing for your planet or not is something you'll have to find out.

Come and have some laid back fun, check it out. The next round is scheduled to start Thursday, March 17.

www.stellar-realms.com

Post by **Rusty075** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:37 pm

I'll admit to being one of the "other folks" here playing. Stellar Realms (SR, as we all call it) is incredibly, oddly, addictive. It has enough complexity to keep it interesting for the months of gameplay, but is simple enough to allow even the first-timer to enjoy himself.

Highly recommended.

We'd love to have some fresh victims.

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:48 pm

If ya check it out and have any questions about getting started, fire away. Myself or Rusty will do our best to answer.

StarfishChris · Post by **StarfishChris** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:08 pm

Sounds good, I'm signed up - and playing this doesn't make my folding time disappear

Since it ends Thursday it's a good time to mess around with the options. Just don't mess with the high-up players (but then they'd crush you easily, right?

)

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:33 pm

StarfishChris wrote:Since it ends Thursday it's a good time to mess around with the options. Just don't mess with the high-up players (but then they'd crush you easily, right? )

Actually, the round is just starting right now. Currently SR is in 'pre-round' status. You can create a planet and get things started, but the turns will not be starting until Thursday morning.

So right now, all planets are basically equal. There are differences in prestige ranking already, but very small compared to what we'll see in overall prestige real soon.

Thursday morning you'll see that your 'turns' start incrementing (use up your turns by Performing Missions), and any construction or research you've initiated will actually start progressing.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:40 pm

Any of you ever been addicted to VGA Plantets

From the first look this is the same type of fun.

But it wouldn't hurt if you could get a bit more information before you registered.

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:53 pm

Tibors wrote:Any of you ever been addicted to VGA Plantets

From the first look this is the same type of fun.

But it wouldn't hurt if you could get a bit more information before you registered.

Haven't seen VGA planet before, I'll check it out.

As Russ commented, SR is "incredibly, oddly, addictive."

And I think I see what you mean about looking for more information. I thought the overall 'Help' section was available even before creating an account. I'll mention that to Vorkuta (SR developer) on the forums there.

Oh, yeah. There's great contact with Vorkuta and Zippit, the two guys working and creating SR, in both the forums there and in email if need be.

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:54 pm

aaahahhh, how I would love to play, but I promised myself a couple of years ago not to play any text based mulitplayer online strategy games again. They hold to much power over me and is truly addictive. When thinking back at it, it is almost hilarious, but I had internetbills in excess of 1800SEK (260+USD incl. taxes) a month playing Utopia. The rest of my social life played as well in the beginning and so me relations didn't take that much of a hit, the feeling of companionship still remained. But when I started to let my work suffer from my gaming things soon got out of hand. Luckily for me I got me a girlfriend and a big change in life that let enabled me to sober up. During the five years since I got out of my addiction the first time, I've had relapses, but somehow managed to get clean again.

Thanks Zyzzyx, I do believe it is a great game, specially if you are only 30 to begin with. Hehe, I do believe, though, that that number is goin to shoot upward:) It is not for me though. And I hope that noone here will get to serious with it and get problems with it. But if one just learn to read the signals, one should be allright.

Have fun playing!

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 6:03 pm

Hey, I understand. I'm a recovering EverQuest addict. And I let it totally mess up my school and social life. I even relapsed a bit with EverQuest 2. I find this more relaxing and less addicting. With the 20 minute turns, it runs slower (can take ~15 turns to land an attack, 30 turns to build a habitat, 100+ turns to research a top level item). And being slower paced, its far less consuming.

Yeah, I'm trying to coerce ya a bit to play, but I also know that you know the situation best. (also let me explain the game a wee bit more)

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 6:34 pm

I just registered.. Never played anything like this before

We´ll see how it goes, my planet is Perkele. The leader is Period because it was . but apparently thats not allowed.. Period sounds stupid

I have one question, when do i get more turns? after the stuff im building is finished in a bit over 7 hours(23months)? As i said i have never tried anything similar..

Post by **Rusty075** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 6:57 pm

You'll start getting turns on Thursday, 1 turn every 20 minutes. They build in this little pause at the beginning to give people time to sign up without the early people getting an unfair advantage.

You'll catch on quick, don't worry. The game time is long enough that you have plenty of time to figure stuff out, so don't worry too much about making wrong decisions at the beginning, there's plenty of time to recover. There's also a built-in "grace period" at the beginning, where for the first 250 turns (I think) planets aren't allowed to commit hostile acts against you. That helps level the "noob vs old-timer" playing field too.

Good Luck!

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:40 pm

The default time of the SR phpBB forum was GMT-4. So am I right in guessing that all times in the game are GMT-4

So the game starts two days and 20 minutes from now

ChucuSCAD · Post by **ChucuSCAD** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:29 am

I confess I am also an SR junky. I was sceptical at first but quickly grew addicted to the game.

It proves that a well coded game does not have to have flashy graphics to be fun. Back to the games I used to play on the TI99-4a

chucuSCAD

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:22 pm

I signed up looks interesting.

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:43 pm

Cool, glad to have ya. If it looks good, spread the word to friends.

We still haven't had a 'large' group of planets in a round. More active planets should make it more interesting.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:11 pm

DryFire wrote:I signed up looks interesting.

Sure looks interesting for you. We're not even started and your prestige is 327

Vorkuta · Post by **Vorkuta** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:45 pm

Zyzzyx wrote:And I think I see what you mean about looking for more information. I thought the overall 'Help' section was available even before creating an account. I'll mention that to Vorkuta (SR developer) on the forums there.

Done.

PS: Hi!

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:29 pm

Vorkuta wrote:
Zyzzyx wrote:And I think I see what you mean about looking for more information. I thought the overall 'Help' section was available even before creating an account. I'll mention that to Vorkuta (SR developer) on the forums there.
Done.

PS: Hi!

Hmm... since I forgot to mention that to Vorkuta, I'd say it looks like someone has been looking over referrer logs.

Heya, Vork.

Now, how's that for customer service!?!

ChucuSCAD · Post by **ChucuSCAD** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 8:05 am

The important question is........ is the SR server silent!

chucuSCAD

rbrodka · Post by **rbrodka** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:48 am

How much of my time will this require, and how dedicated to the game will I need to be to play successfully*? For example, do I need to be playing all the time, or can I just play a little each day? If I can't play for several days, will that be bad?

* By successfully, I don't mean "win the game", but rather have an enjoyable time and not be a relentlessly humiliated “whipping-boy” for 400 years?

Thanks !

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:09 pm

rbrodka wrote:How much of my time will this require, and how dedicated to the game will I need to be to play successfully*? For example, do I need to be playing all the time, or can I just play a little each day? If I can't play for several days, will that be bad?

* By successfully, I don't mean "win the game", but rather have an enjoyable time and not be a relentlessly humiliated “whipping-boy” for 400 years?Thanks !

You can spend all day on the game, or you can check on it two or three times a day. Play either way and you've got a decent shot at staying on top. Since many actions (scouts, attacks, research, building) can take 3-6 realtime HOURS to complete, constantly checking on it doesn't help.

You can leave it for a few days as well. Potential drawback to that is if you happen to get attacked while away, and not be able to respond in a timely manner, might get attacked more. But you can always rebuild in this game, even up to the end.

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:57 pm

I see that Tibors has it all figured out already. Look at him enjoying that lead.

Get him!!

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 11:21 pm

Actually I haven't got a clue why I am in front of all the rest.

Now if you go and attack each other, then you'll gain prestige and I can disappear between the anonimous masses again.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 1:58 am

To give an idea of all the stupid things I have done.

I missed about 15 turns worth of research and 10 turns worth of building when the game started.
I reseached two sciences I shouldn't have, because the structure they allowed me to build turned out not to work as I thought.
I ran out of radioactives and shortly afterwards I ran out of metals too.
I overcompensated for that by building too many mining facilities. Resulting in high maintenance costs.
A second result was that I suddenly ran out of storage space. OK, this was in part because of a "lucky" mission where I recovered 400+ of each material. I dumped some materials at bargain prices, which probably made some people happy.

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:33 am

Im pretty high on the top myself too, Perkele - Period. No idea how though

I have also run out of metals and built too many mining facilities, just discovered i need to change my stance to other planets to allied too and not just accept the alliances and loads of other silly stuff...

Still im number 4 or 5 at the moment..

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:56 pm

Tibors wrote:
DryFire wrote:I signed up looks interesting.
Sure looks interesting for you. We're not even started and your prestige is 327

what exactly does prestige do?

I suppose i should read the how to but i think i have the hang of it.

I'm starting to get addicted slowly.

StarfishChris · Post by **StarfishChris** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:18 pm

Your prestige is your overall ranking. You get it by having lots of credits, structures, attacking etc.

(I'm only 20th but I'm biding my time & saving my turns for later...

)

- Nope, going up - to 18th. The Doomed Planet isn't living up to its name

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:42 pm

AFAIK there are two things prestige does:

He who has the most at the end wins the game.
Attracks people attacking you.

So at this fase of the game i'd rather had a lower ranking than I have now, but if this was the last turn...........

rbrodka · Post by **rbrodka** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 5:05 pm

Prince Volvo sends his warmest regards and well wishes to all the SPCR forum readers.

The people of Ohmm have great respect for the technical expertise and professionalism of SPCR, and have commissioned a monument to be erected in tribute. We would be most honored to form an alliance and friendship with any SPCR planeteers.

Our planet is small and poor, and not very sophisticated in the ways of this galaxy. We are learning as we go, and are having great fun along the way. Alas, our strategic planners have also made many mistakes, which we attribute to our inexperience in these matters. We recently demolished two radioactives mines as we were grossly over-producing, running out of storage space, and suffering excessive maintenance expenses.

Our people are warm, friendly, and peace loving. It also appears they are very prolific as they seem to be reproducing quite rapidly. We counsel them to “make love, not war”, and I guess they are taking that to heart. The growth in population is good for the coffers, but I suspect we’ll have to start building more habitats for them soon.

Construction of our counter-intelligence training facility recently completed and our first class of agents will soon graduate. Plans are for our agents to be dedicated to protecting the home planet against alien agents and thieves. Although it seems counter-intuitive, I have been advised friendly planets will send agents to each other’s planets to steal small amounts of credits or resources, as a way to raise their alert level. A high alert level makes it more difficult for enemy agents to be successful in their missions.

If your travels through the galaxy bring you any where near the planet of Ohmm, we would be thrilled to have you as our most esteemed guest and will plan a great celebration for your arrival. I must ask, for your own safety, that you please give us prior notice of your arrival. Our defense agency personnel are…. err, how can I say this…. somewhat “technically challenged”, and sometimes have difficulty turning off our planetary defense system. We would feel just terrible if anything untoward should happen again to any of our guests.

Your friend,

Prince Volvo