Part 1: Basic Hosting
This article is intended as a guide to those planning to (or wondering whether they should) host a VGA Planets (VGAP) game. I will also freely admit that this is the way that I would do it and if this is in any way at odds with the way others might then ...... TOUGH!

Basic Hosting Equipment.

• A PC (386SX & colour VGA). In actual fact you really need a much more powerful PC than a 386 (of any kind) ... you should really have access to a fast 486 or Pentium of some description.
• A modem. In principal any old modem will do, but it must be borne in mind that we are talking about uploading & downloading large numbers of files here so you should really be looking at a 9.6K modem minimum.
• The host files for VGAP. All you actually need to host a game is the shareware version of VGAP because, strictly speaking, all the files you need to use are freeware (only the client program, PLANETS.EXE, is shareware & thus requires registration & the VGAP host does not "need" to use it)
• Utilities. There are no utilities you need for hosting VGAP but there are a number of utilities, it must be said, that many hosts would regard as essential (see utilities).

Planning the game.

To be a host YOU should be two things, the first is organised (there is no point in trying to host a game of VGAP for 11 other players if you don't have some form of organisation to the way you do things!) and the second is committed (that is you must undertake to run the game for as long as any of the players involved wish it i.e. you should see the project through to its end!). Most hosts will have problems with players at some point in their life ..... where possible deal with them diplomatically ... but if they ARE out of order and they DO cause you problems then kick them out of the game ... it's the only way to preserve your sanity and keep the integrity of the game!

OK! The first thing you'll need to do is to decide what kind of game you want to run, what kind of player you wish playing in your game & the frequency of host runs (it is OK to run the host as high as every couple of days to begin with but it is more usual, & sensible, to run a game on a twice weekly basis). The following questions are one's that you may feel you need to answer prior to finalising your game plan (I have supplied the most likely, but not all, answers)

Having made the decision that you are going to host a game of VGAP you must draw up some form of schedule for the game i.e. when you plan to run the game .... this should be carefully thought out as some players do not check for changes every day. Decide up-front how you are going to handle players who miss turns, submit late or stale turns or act in some way at odds with the way you believe your game should run. Write a set of conduct rules (see "Player & Host Conduct") to be sent to each player as they sign up or just prior to the start of the game.

Building The Game.

One thing it is important to realise is that VGAP is currently a DOS-based game & there is, as yet, no Windows based host & even players really need a degree of familiarity with DOS. However to host VGAP you MUST have good DOS Skills ... if you don't have a reasonable knowledge of DOS then, quite frankly, YOU SHOULD NOT BE HOSTING A GAME OF VGAP! The reason I say this is that you will need to automate your host runs so that all procedures can be executed on the entry of a single command line ... therefore you MUST be able to write reasonable quality batch files.

For the remainder of this article I am going to have to make some assumptions (some are, obviously, fictitious):

So, to build a standard game, you would first create your host directory:

cd c:\vplanets\standard
md boris1

Then create the galaxy:

master boris1

How simple it seems to just say create the galaxy .... "MASTER BORIS1", but even in a standard game there are a bewildering number of options to the new host. When running MASTER.EXE you will be asked questions, and the first screen you reach is titled UNIVERSE CREATION PROGRAM and you are told to "Select the player races you want in your universe. The selected races are show in green."

Typically you will be hosting a game for all races, but it is possible that you have only a few players and you do not wish to automate the remaining ones. In this example we will be using all races so you would hit keys 1, 2 .... 9, A & B (the last two representing races 10 & 11) - check that each race name is highlighted because these keys are toggled i.e. hitting '1' will select the Federation but hitting '1' a second time will de-select them. When you are satisfied that you have selected the required races hit [ENTER] to continue.

"Do you wish the players to have passwords? (y/n)".

This option allows the host to assign a password for each player (my favourite technique is to flip to random pages in a book and choose the first appropriate 4, 5, 6 or 7 letter word as a password ... just to make it more interesting I also make sure the book deals with space combat or similar so I get nice words like "cattle" or "mutilate" <g>). If you answer "Y" you will have to supply a password for each player in your game (although you can change your mind and press [ENTER] for each player instead which is effectively the same as having answered "N" for passwords!). typically I do not password protect the RST's (and usually prevent the use of passwords in RST's) because the files are distributed in encrypted archives (using PKZIP) (see Player & Host Conduct).

The program now creates the data files for the planets & ships (there are 500 planets and a potential maximum of 500 ships) .....

"Do you want the planetary friendly codes randomized? (y/n)".

Answering "Y" to this ensures that all the new planets players find have a randomly generated 3 number friendly code, otherwise it will be "AAA". Whilst it is probably not particularly important in most games it could be when playing scenarios such as disunited kingdoms or Ashes of Empire. I'd advise saying "Y".

Next you are presented with what, I think, is a rather daunting screen, containing the following information:

Minerals on all non-homeworld planets

<1> Random rare
<2> Random normal
<3> Random rich
<4> All the same and rare, no natives
<5> All the same and normal, no natives
<6> All the same and rich, no natives

I haven't investigated every possible option here, in fact I've only ever chosen one and that is option 3. Why? because without natives the galaxy would be very boring (half the excitement of visiting a planet is to discover how useful it can be, whether you can build a starbase with free tech levels there, how much can you tax the natives ... oh! those avians and bovinoids!) so options 4-6 are ruled out straight away. Even using the Random rich setting (option 3) you seem to run out of minerals too easily so that rules out options 1 & 2.

The next step is to select the scenario for your game.

<<< Starting Options >>>

<1> Classic homeworlds in a circle (The old way)
<2> Custom homeworlds, your pick the spots
<3> Wandering Tribes all ship same spot
<4> Wandering Tribes you pick the spots
<5> Wandering Tribes mass confusion
<6> Ashes of the Evil Empire
<7> Crazy Intermix
<8> Disunited kingdoms

<1>,<2>,<3>,<4>,<5>,<6>,<7>,<8>

We will deal with these options one at a time (except for Wandering Tribes).

<1> Classic homeworlds in a circle (The old way)

All the races will be arranged in a circle around a given point (typically the centre of the galaxy but you will be given an option to choose). You will also be asked to decide how far each race will be from each other:

Minimum and Maximum Distances Between All Homeworlds

Short Range ( 5 to 200 light years )
Medium Range ( 150 to 900 light years )
Long Range ( 200 to 1200 light years )
Very Long Range ( 400 to 2800 light years )

Choose One
( default is medium )

(short, medium, long, very long) (S M L V)?

• Short Range effectively means that homeworlds are right next to each other, so close in fact, it's plain stupid (however those interested in such things, please note that this setting is incredibly useful for setting-up test galaxies)!
• Medium Range is still quite close but playable .. with 11 players in the game things will be quite crowded for a while.
• Long Range will put most of your players a "comfortable" (but that's a matter of opinion) distance from each other but players should be aware that they will easily be seen by neighbouring races if they venture into open space.
• Very Long Range puts most races at the very edge of the galaxy. Medium Range is the default but Long Range is probably the best for a standard 11 player game but it must be borne in mind that at the galaxies edge there are a significant number of worlds that are not within one turns jump of other worlds.

<2> Custom homeworlds, your pick the spots

If you are playing the game as well as hosting then this option is pretty much a no, no! (unless, of course, you let every player know where every other player is or get another, non-involved, person to pick the locations). In this option, as host, you pick where you want each player to start (although having chosen the sites of the homeworlds you can then assign races randomly) which means you can take the trouble to ensure races are in a reasonably dense star cluster to begin with.

<3> Wandering Tribes all ship same spot
<4> Wandering Tribes you pick the spots
<5> Wandering Tribes mass confusion

As can be seen above there are 3 wandering tribe scenarios all basically very similar. Players start off in deep space with 6 Super Transport Freighters and no planets. The freighters are stuffed with colonists, minerals and supplies (but no cash) so the aim is, find a decent world and find it quick (the only time I ever played this I split my forces and went for two worlds the first was a warm Avian with loadsa minerals and the second a Tropical Bovinoid with almost as much minerals ... talk about lucky or what?) so that a starbase can be built and a war-footing adopted. The difference between the three scenarios is that in the first every players ships start in the same place (dubious!), in the second the host picks the spots (potentially an excellent game) and in the third your freighters are scattered all over space (which is completely ludicrous).

<6> Ashes of the Evil Empire

Ashes of the Evil Empire allows the host to set up a game where one player takes on all the other players. The "Evil Empire" (and it doesn't actually have to be the Empire race) has under their control 1 starbase and anything up to 450 or so planets whereas all the other players (who must learn, ideally, to act as a single team) occupy starbase's in the corner of the galaxy remaining to the rest of the races. The host can decide how many planets the "Evil Empire" initially owns.

<7> Crazy Intermix

Crazy idea more like! All your worlds are randomly distributed across the galaxy (so are all the other races). I guess it would mean a number of early battles. The host decides how many planets each race will own.

<8> Disunited kingdoms

Much more sensible & useful since all races own a group of worlds (up to 45 each, one of which may have a starbase) in a cluster around "the" homeworld. I used this game as the basis for the start of one of my game's .... excellent!

Having selected your scenario it remains only to answer a few more questions before MASTER.EXE finishes it's job and presents you with a fully configured universe:

Select mineral richness of the homeworlds

<N> Normal Richness
<E> Extra Richness

Quite frankly, unless you're a complete (expletive deleted) you'll give your players extra rich minerals on their homeworlds.

Select homeworld Population

<N> Normal ( 250,000 )
<H> High ( 1,000,000 )
<V> Very High ( 3,000,000 )

Only a host who is real nasty (the lowest of the low ... a complete an utter mangy cur) would give the players the first (Normal) option and I think a host using the second option (High) would very likely be of dubious moral disposition. The only realistic option is the third (Very High) one!

Select starting money of the homeworlds

<L> Low ( 1,000MC )
<N> Normal ( 3,700MC )
<H> High ( 5,000MC )
<V> Very High ( 15,000MC )

I'm afraid it must be said, once again, that only a complete (expletive deleted) of a host is going to give player's anything less than 10,000 MC (you listening Max? <g>). Without the <Very High> cash levels it is almost impossible to get a decent colonisation programme going and the first 10 or so turns of the game are, relatively, uninteresting. In my (ever so 'umble) opinion the only amount of money worth giving players is 15,000MC.

Select the Crystal People's Homeworld Climate

<1> Normal Earth Like ( 50C )
<2> Desert Like ( 100C )

Depending on the HCONFIG settings (see part 2: The Complexities of HCONFIG.HST) Crystals can live quite happily on desert worlds. This option means, quite simply that an invader race, having smashed the Crystals homeworld to the rubble it surely deserves to be (joke <g> ... sort of!) can't really do a lot with it unless they have Terraformers. It also means that the Crystals can slow an invader down by terraforming their worlds to 100 degrees making an enemies advance very difficult.

Do you want the homeworlds to have starbases (y/n)

Simple question, simple answer ("Yes" means they have one and "No" means they don't)

Please enter the starting ENGINE tech level of all players homeworld's starbases (1-7):

All this does is save the player a small amount of cash (up to 2100 MC for Engine Tech 7). I would advise giving them Tech 7 as it can only help speeding up the game at the start.

Do you want the homeworlds to have two free ships (y/n)?

Selecting "N" means the players get no ships at all and have to build their own which means they at least get to build something sensible. Selecting "Y" gives the players 2 ships. All players except the Feds get a small freighter. The following is a list of ships each race gets:

After answering this question MASTER.EXE has finished (you only have to press another key and you're back at the DOS Prompt).

Last but not least you must configure the game by typing:

hconfig boris1

When running HCONFIG simply type D (for Defaults) & S (to save the HCONFIG.HST file) and again you will be placed at the DOS Prompt (see The Complexities of HCONFIG for greater detail on this subject).

Having run HCONFIG, to produce the RST files for your players it now only necessary to type:

host boris1

and a few minutes later you have created 11 RST files for Turn 1.

Player & Host Conduct.
It is important to define the rules of a game before you start to host it and by this I do not mean rules governing internal issues (such as alliances, player to player aggression etc. although it is possible for you to set up a game which dictates team behaviour, limits on starbases & similar) I mean the rules that govern the players relationship with you (the host). The following are example of rules I think you might consider dictating & reason's why I think they are important.

Deadlines.
Define your deadlines e.g. "The turns will be run twice weekly with no host runs on major public holidays"

It is crucial to ensure that you have a regular schedule, some players do not check PBEM on a regular basis so that knowing a turn must be in on specific days of the week will enable them to meet the stated deadlines. Your deadlines should take into account the time it takes for files (both RST's and TRN's) to be uploaded and major public holidays (don't forget that you may be hosting a multi-national game so there may be more than US holidays to account for). You should also be prepared to accept TRN's (and possibly send RST's) by conventional E-Mail in the initial phases (& perhaps later, if there are service problems or personal crises for players).

Missed Turns
Decide how you will deal with players who submit late or stale turns.

It is important that a player understands how a host will react if a player submits a late or stale turn. Players must understand that you (the host) cannot hold up a game for a single player without good reason and that even if the reason is good but he hasn't informed you, you should not allow a re-run. You should make it absolutely clear to the players that submitting a late or stale turn (or a TRN that is in any way faulty) is the players problem not yours. In my recently started UH1 game I clearly stated that the latest version of ALTLST would be used and yet 9 of the 11 players involved still managed to use the wrong version. Having given them some serious verbal abuse for this I then managed to make myself look a complete idiot <g> when all their ships appear at points far-removed from their starbases (I had failed to use FIXMAP in order to ensure the host played the game correctly) ... I guess the players had the last laugh (oh well!). It is also worth stating how many times a player may miss their turn (or consistently miss turns at irregular intervals!) without informing the host before being considered to be out of the game. You should also decide, & state clearly, whether you are prepared to play for a player if they ask you too (because they for some reason cannot play the turn).

File Names.
Define exactly what name format you (the host) will upload files in and what format players must return their files in .... for instance on CompuServe both main VGA Planets forums have file-naming standards in use and it is better to stick to these and inform your players what is expected.

Part 2: The Complexities of HCONFIG
Part 2 of the series is simply a revamp of Tim’s Wisseman’s excellent documentation published within the final release version of Host V3.20. This part of the series scores over that supplied by Tim ONLY in that I show the default values (i.e. those gained if, when running HCONFIG you simply select the default values by pressing [D] and save them ([S])) and, where possible or practical, supply examples.

HCONFIG (Default Standard Setup)

Defines the amount of minerals that are retrieved from the hull of a ship that is recycled using the COLONIZE mission.

Defines the chance that one large meteor will hit ONE of the 500 planets ....

Determines whether new minefields can be dropped but has no effect on existing minefields.

Determines whether new Web minefields can be dropped but has no effect on existing Web minefields.

Allows alchemy ships to convert supplies into minerals or supplies and/or minerals into fuel.

Deletes old (unread) messages each turn ... if set to NO a player will receive their old messages as well as new messages if the host failed to receive a TRN file for their race during the last host run.

Determines whether players may protect their RST files using the internal VGAP password protection facility ... on CompuServe this is often not used because the host archives the RST files in a ZIP file password protected by a password known only to host & player.

Ground Combat Attack Ratios
The number of defending clans on a planet that, assuming a ground defence ratio of 1, will die for every clan dropped from a ship belonging to the attacking race. The default values are as follows:

Ground Combat Defense Ratios
The number of clans attacking a planet that, assuming a ground defence ratio of 1, will die for every defending clan on the planet (assuming the attackers have that many). The default values are as follows:

Free Starbase Fighters
Number of fighters generated for free ("no money") at starbases for any given race (in the standard game only the Evil Empire receives free fighters at their starbases) ... default values are as follows:

Note: Each fighter still requires 3KT tritanium and 2KT molybdenum.

Mineral Mining Rates
The percentage of normal extraction rates a given race’s mines can extract minerals (from ground) at ... e.g. Lizards will mine at double the rate of any other race ... meaning fewer mines are necessary on Lizard held planets.

Tax Collection Rates
The percentage of normal taxation rates a given race can tax its natives and colonists at ... e.g. in the standard VGAP game the Feds will gain twice the MC’s from natives that any other race will.

Race Advantages

If set to YES the Rebels will build free-fighters in space (assuming 5KT Supplies, 3KT Tritanium & 2KT Molybdenum are present and the ship is one with fighter bays!)

If set to YES the colonies will build free-fighters in space (assuming 5KT Supplies, 3KT Tritanium & 2KT Molybdenum are present, the mission is set to BUILD FIGHTERS and the ship is one with fighter bays!)

If set to YES the Robots will build free-fighters in space (assuming 5KT Supplies, 3KT Tritanium & 2KT Molybdenum are present, the mission is set to BUILD FIGHTERS and the ship is one with fighter bays!)

Defines whether or not The Privateers may rob fuel, money & minerals from ships that are cloaked.

Defines the range at which the Dark Sense will work for The Evil Empire.

Defines whether the lizards are able to use their discontent suppressing HISS mission.

Defines whether the rebels can use their REBEL GROUND ASSAULT mission to attack enemy & self owned planets.

Defines whether The Feds are able to use their Starbase SUPER REFIT mission.

Defines the percentage of natives (of the number of Cyborg colonists present on the planet) that will be assimilated into Cyborgs.

Defines the number of mines that each colonial fighter can destroy during one sweep (turn!)

Defines whether or not colonial mine-sweeping fighters can sweep web mines!

The HISS mission works by beaming down happy units to the planet at which the ship is situated thus offsetting the negative happy units gained by overtaxation and other similarly nasty problems. IN the default settings each ship in orbit beams down 5 happy units per turn.

Defines the percentage of times the ROB mission will FAIL.

Defines whether or not a planet may attack a Rebel ship that is using the REBEL GROUND ASSAULT mission. Setting this to YES will effectively remove the Rebels GROUND ASSAULT mission.

Defines whether or not a planet may attack a Fascist ship that is using the FASCIST PILLAGE mission. Setting this to YES will effectively remove the Fascist’s PILLAGE mission.

Defines whether or not Terraformer’s may actually Terraform planets.

Defines whether the Federation Crew bonus (25% shield boost between battles, 2 extra fighter bays on ships with less than 9 fighter bays) is in operation or not.

Ranges and Rates I

The chance (percentage) that any given ships cloak may fail in a turn.

The amount of fuel required (per turn) to cloak 100KT of ship hull (weaponry and cargo excepted)

Impulse power switch ... if set to yes then ships can move some small distances without fuel.

The range (in light years) at which a ship becomes visible if it not cloaked or orbiting a planet.

The range (in light years) at which the SENSOR SWEEP mission will detect planetary factories and mines (enemy owned).

If set to YES and a planet is selected by host that has no natives then new natives will be discovered hiding on that planet.

Defines whether the planetary friendly codes "ATT" & "NUK" will operate to attack fueled and fueless ships in orbit.

Colonists will eat supplies to survive if the planet is overpopulated. If insufficient supplies are produced to maintain the population the population will cease growing.

The number of KT’s of a mineral (LARGE MASSES density only ... lower densities will reflect that fact) produced per turn for any mineral within a planet.

The number of planetary structures (mines, factories and defence posts) that will decay per turn if the number existing exceeds the maximum allowed.

The percentage of Web mines that are lost by normal decay from a Web minefield (Crystalline) each turn.

The percentage of mines that are lost by normal decay from a minefield each turn.

The percentage chance of hitting a mine within a minefield for each light year traveled ... so for an 80 light year jump through a minefield a ship will (at default settings) have, in effect, a die with 100 sides rolled and if the number 1 is rolled the ship will have hit a mine.

The percentage chance of hitting a Web mine within a Web minefield for each light year traveled ... so for an 80 light year jump through a Web minefield a ship will (at default settings) have, in effect, a die with 100 sides rolled and if a number less than or equal to 5 is rolled the ship will have hit a Web mine.

The maximum possible radius of a minefield in light years.

The range (in light years) at which the MINE SWEEP mission will detect a minefield.

Defines whether two overlapping minefields (different races) will neutralise (destroy) each other.

Ranges and Rate II

Defines whether engine tech will boost the power of a ship’s shields.

Defines the percentage level of boost shields will receive from Hi-Tech Engines.

Defines how many mine-units an X-Ray Laser will sweep in one turn and how many hundreds of mine-units will be swept by a Heavy Phaser.

Defines how many web mine-units an X-Ray Laser will sweep in one turn and how many hundreds of web mine-units will be swept by a Heavy Phaser.

Defines the distance (in light years) from a minefield a ship must be before its beams will begin to sweep mines.

Defines the distance (in light years) from a web minefield a ship must be before its beams will begin to sweep web mines.

Defines the odds that a cloaked ship will hit a mine for every light year traveled across a NORMAL minefield (cloaking does NOT affect the danger potential from web mines)

Defines the percentage level of damage a ship may have AND still be able to cloak

Defines whether one-engined ships can tow or not.

Defines whether the three Hyperdrive ships in the game are allowed to use those drives.

Defines the percentage of the current colonist population on a planet that will die until the population reaches its maximum level (which is one except where races show special climate-based advantages).

Defines whether ships less than 3.001 light years from a planet will be drawn into orbit around that planet.

Defines whether the Crystal Peoples can live better on high temperature (desert) worlds i.e. that they will reach their maximum population level (250,000 clans) on high temperature desert worlds (50,000 on temperate-warm worlds)

Defines whether normal mines will neutralise (destroy) web minefields when the two overlap.

Defines whether the climate of a world has any effect on population growth. A planet can support a maximum of 250,000 clans where climate is not an issue.

Meteor Impacts

This defines the odds (percentage) that a small meteor will hit a planet (every planet is checked every turn)

These define the maximum and minimum amounts of the 4 minerals in VGAP that will be deposited on a planet if they are subject to a small meteor strike. These are useful to a host if depleting minerals in a game start to cause the game to stagnate.

This defines the number of large meteors that will hit planets each VGAP host run.

These define the maximum and minimum amounts of the 4 minerals in VGAP that will be deposited on a planet if they are subject to a LARGE meteor strike.

Defines whether players are informed that LARGE meteors have struck in territory they DON’T own and whether their own planets are the subject of small meteor strikes.

Cloning and Other

Defines the maximum number of megacredits a planet can produce in a single turn.

Defines the maximum number of Ion Storms that can exist within the game.

Defines whether the FireCloud ship is able to Chunnel or not.

Defines whether Birdmen starships are able to change a planets friendly code to match their own or not.

Defines whether Ion Storms (if active) hide mines from ships using the MINE SWEEP mission.

Defines whether the D19 Nefarious and Saber class ships can be set to explode with the friendly codes "trg" and "pop" or not.

Defines whether the Loki Class ship will force cloakers within 10 light-years to decloak or not.

Defines whether the Lady Royale starship will generate megacredits from the proceeds of gambling or not.

Defines whether or not a cloaked ship will attack a visible ship belonging to the race that matches its primary enemy setting or not.

Defines whether all races (except the Privateers & Crystals who can’t) can clone captured or exchanged ships .... a process which requires the correct tech-levels at a Starbase, the FC "cln" on the starship to be cloned, the required amount of minerals AND twice the required number of megacredits.

Defines whether a Crystalline or Privateer ship can capture a fueless enemy ship just by locking a tow (tractor) beam on the enemy.

Defines whether the Imperial Star Destroyer can capture a planet (& Starbase if it exists) simply by dropping 10 clans onto the surface of the planet.

Defines how much fuel the Cobol Class Research Cruiser will scoop for every light year it travels.

Defines whether the Aries Class Transport can convert minerals into fuel or not.

Defines whether the Cobol Class Research Cruiser, Pawn Class Baseship & Brynhild Class Escort can detect life on other planets if they are using the SENSOR SWEEP mission.

Defines the tech level at or above which a ship WILL NOT be slowed down (by 10 light years) if it suffers a mine-hit.

Part 3: Alternative Scenario’s

Don’t get me wrong ... playing the standard game is a lot of fun in fact I, personally, prefer it but there can be no doubt that it is not particularly fair to the torpedo-based races .... it takes a very good player to win solo in a standard game with a torpedo-based race ... the simple fact is that the advantage conferred by the ability to build free-fighters for the top four races is, almost, unbeatable. In addition the distribution of planets within the standard game is, to say the least, variable .... many players feel that it is possible to start on a world (for instance Rodu 9) which, effectively leaves the player no chance to move covertly around a local cluster and thus begin the process of forming a reasonably stable base for future expansion.

VGAP data consists of eight major files these are:

I could also quote the structure of the data files but won’t (once I have as complete a structure list as possible I will publish it in a later issue) ... such information would not be much use to you unless you’re a programmer, however what is useful to the host is the knowledge that these data files can be changed and a number of pre-constructed data sets are available in order to allow you (the host) to present your players with what are known as alternative scenarios.

Alternative scenarios vary in many ways. For instance those designed by Jan P. Dijkstra are complete replacements for the standard file set and attempt to redress many of the imbalances in the standard game. The data files offer not only a redistributed pattern of planets (circular rather than square) with a far better distribution (fewer instances of stars in remote locations ... though they still exist!), but ships & weaponry that have been changed to redress the torpedo race vs. fighter race issue (torpedoes have been modified to have greater killing power as have beams). Hulls have been modified to encourage greater use of smaller ships (for instance the Colonial Scorpious actually becomes useful!!!) and engines have been modified to encourage greater use of lower tech models. But by far the best thing about this data set (my opinion only) is the use of names based on famous films and TV series (so that the eleven races become The Federation, The Gorn, The Romulans, The Klingons, The Borg & The Tholians from "Star Trek", The Cylons and Colonies from "Battlestar Galactica" and The Imperial Empire and Rebels from "Star Wars" ..... quite where the Orion Space Pirates come from I have yet to figure!). Engines, Torps (especially the brutal Hell Hammers) & Beams (e.g. Tri-Focus Plasma Beams) have all been renamed as well.

To paraphrase Jan: Standard games have one serious problem ... sooner or later the limit of 500 ships is reached leading to a very static late game (although I would argue that this depends in many respects on player mentality ... a number of players like to try to avoid battle and quietly build their empires whilst everyone else smashes each other to bits ... sometimes I wonder why such players bother playing!!!) due to a tendency to avoid risking the loss of a ship in battle and allowing another player to fill the slot freed up. Additionally some races feature relatively light ships whilst others have some very heavy ones ... not a problem in the early game but when the 500 ship limit is reached the balance begins to favour the heavier races.

In designing his alternative ship list Jan & his group set out with the following aims:

• To give each player the highest possible number of ships to choose from and to ensure that those ship list were "balanced" no matter what host configuration was used.
• To ensure that the top ships of each race were more equal than in the standard game (in the which fighters can be seen to do more damage than torpedoes and carriers are substantially more massive than battleships).
• To even out the cost vs damage potential of some ships in the standard game (the Colonial Scorpious is a good example of this where it actually becomes a good mid-game ship in the alternative list as compared to the expensive pile of rubbish it is in the standard game).
• To provide a starmap with a, much, fairer distribution of planets thus eliminating the inherent problem in the standard map of homeworlds surrounded by vast tracts of empty space and to encourage the use of a more wide variety of engines.
• To encourage the use of high Kill ratio weapons (as opposed to high damage) because in the standard game players tended to avoid the kill weapons and some ships were so heavily crewed that no kill weapon would have a real effect anyway!

In order to achieve these aims each race was given a standard set of ships i.e. all four freighter types, alchemy & refinery ships and two terraformers. All races were given access ann expermental class ship which uses technology not normally assigned to that race but requiring two additional engines over and above that normally required for such a craft. In addition ALL cloakers and gravitronic ships were designed to require one additional engine ... making them more expensive to build. Several novel ship designs are included for instance the Romulans possess a cloaking fuel carrier a design which the Orion Space Pirates (Privateers) have stolen.

A Berlin group (Pinnow, Voigt, Pietsch & Mueller) has released an alternative ship list which attempts to put all races on a equal level, make torps and beams more valuable than fighters, delay the 500 ship limit (by making heavier ships more expensive but also making lighter ships no match for them), raising techs so that registered players will "hopelessly" outclass non registered, increase engine efficiency and ones and give an element of realism with regards to ships names and associated images.

Schoonhoven has designed an alternative list meant for team play (although it can be used for 11 race solo play). In the team game 8 races are involved (the Fascists, Privateers and Borg are left out!) and many of the standard racial advantages are disabled. He has attempted to increase the use of beams by making them cheaper and more effective and has given most races a better choice of big ships to avoid the standard effect (reached at the 500 ship limit) of building nothing but one or two types of ships. Torpedoes and torpedo launching ships have been made more effective so that a torp ship can take on a carrier and stand a fair chance of winning. Engines of all types have been made more efficient but higher classes even more so. Alchemy & Refinery ships have been made very cheap to compensate for the increased fuel usage in larger ships.

There are other variations, for example pure map variations such as Sphere Map which is a circular starmap 800 light years in diameter with a high incidence of double star systems and 5 triple star systems. The triples are all set 350 LY from the galactic centre and Matt Clouser of Interstellar Designs (the scenario developer) suggests that victory conditions be the first player of alliance (max of 3 players) to hold all 5 triple systems control once the game passes turn 50.

Another map variation (again by Matt Clouser) but this time a team oriented one is the Rift War scenario. Rift War is designed as a team challenge game, preferably with 8 races (although it can be played as non-team) where the galaxy features a huge rift in the stars (running from south-west to north-east) and the two multi-race teams start on either side of it. Victory goes to the team that is first to gain 100 VP's (victory points) and thes are gained by ownership of 4 key worlds within the rift (5 VP's each) and any world on the opposing side of the rift (2 points each).

Finally, and briefly, I shall mention some tools which can be used to create scenarios and/or edit games.

Final Comments.

I would like to thank some of my fellow hosts (in particular, Max) for their input to this article (thanks Rob, Ian, Doug, Jan & Max). I would also like to thank James Perry for his advice & encouragement in continuing to write for the Echo Cluster.

Some of the text in this article is the original intellectual property of Tim Wisseman.