              *VGA Planets - FAQ - version 1994 05 15*
                         * Part 2 (of 3) *

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Subject: Questions in this segment of the FAQ:

What about cheating?
So how do I run a game over the Net?
What about similar games and related newsgroups?
(Specific game-play questions follow:)
I have tech 6, but xxx doesn't show up on the build hull screen.  Why?
Why didn't my planet capture that attacking ship?
Why did the colonists I dropped on a new planet vanish?
How do I transfer fighters/torps between ships?
Why doesn't that ship conform to spec?
What is the order of movement/combat/actions in a turn?
What is the real Order of Battle?

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Subject: What about cheating?

        Well, it happens.  v2.2 was notorious for being fairly easy to
hack around, and there has been  some fairly acrimonious discussion in
this group about what to do with those  who cheat, and how it might be
prevented.  In essence, there's no /quick/ way to catch a cheater; but
not many people are foolish enough to  try it.  Let me reiterate: it's
EASY to hack v2.2!  It doesn't  show  that you're clever, and it's not
particularly impressive.
        If you suspect a fellow player  of cheating, probably the best
course of action is to send  a  message  to the host, setting out what
you suspect has gone wrong.  Be reasoned!
        Tim has produced a  program  called CHKSHIPS (distributed with
the game) which tests for  overloaded  ships  (too much fuel, cargo or
equipment).
        A related problem is  accidental  use of high-tech equipment -
if a player is in several games, it can be hard to remember which ones
are  unregistered.   Torben   Thellefsen  Nielsen  <monty@iesd.auk.dk>
produced a program for v2.2  called  UBI,  which scans for tech levels
greater than 6 in an unregistered game.

        A specific area  of  concern  regards  player  passwords.  The
passwords are trivially easy to discover  from  an .RST file, and with
this knowledge one could  download  someone's  turn  from  a BBS, give
inappropriate orders, and upload them.   Although  this  is not such a
problem over the Net, the danger still exists.
        My  own  preferred  solution  is   to  ignore  game  passwords
completely, and to use an encryption  package such as PGP (Pretty Good
Privacy), which  is  available  for  downloading  from  (among others)
wuarchive.wustl.edu [128.252.135.4] and garbo.uwasa.fi [128.214.87.1].
        This package serves  four  purposes:  it  creates a validating
signature so that the recipient can be sure the file has come from the
right person, it encrypts the file so that only the intended recipient
can read it, it compresses the file, and it converts it to a uuencode-
like format for mailing.

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Subject: So how do I run a game over the Net?

        Post an announcement to  alt.games.vga-planets, with a subject
such as "players wanted".  In  the  post,  try  to cover the following
points.  (Typical answers are shown in square brackets.)

*       Which version of  the  game  will  be  used?    [v2.2, v3.0 or
        later, give host version; Shareware or Registered]
*       When will the game be starting (i.e. first .RST files get sent
[B        out)?
*       How  often  will  turns  be  run?   [Once  per  day;  Mondays,
        Wednesdays, Fridays]
*       When are the turn deadlines, and  when will turns be sent out?
        Given the international nature of  this newsgroup, try to give
        a GMT time as well as your local zone.
*       Will you be playing in the  game?  Some players don't like the
        host to play, so it's only fair to warn them off.
*       What setup parameters are  used?   v3.x  especially has a very
        large array of options, so be clear on the sort of game you'll
        be running.
*       What skill level will the game be?  (In practice, what sort of
        player are you looking for?  Novice, intermediate, expert?)
*       Are alliance negotiations by Email allowed?  [Usually, yes]
*       Are player passwords in use?  [Normally not, over Email]
*       How should players choose races?  ["State first three choices"
        seems to work well.]
*       Are non-standard race names usable?  [Up to you as host]
*       What is the ending condition for  the game?  [First to reach a
        specified number of points;  highest  score on specified date;
        last player left alive, specific objectives...]
*       What subject line should Emailed  turns carry?  (Useful if you
        can extract files automatically.)
*       Where should the turns go, and  where should queries go?  [The
        account from which the message is posted]
*       Any other information.  Remind players  that  they will need a
        uuencode and  uudecode  package.   (You  could  use  something
        unusual, like PGP radix-64 or  xxencode, but it's probably not
        worth it for most purposes.)

        Leave at least a few days  for  responses to come in, and make
sure you have connectivity to  each  player's site before starting the
game!  After  that,  it's  just  a  matter  of  capturing  the  turns,
uudecoding, running the Host, uuencoding  the results and mailing them
out.

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Subject: What about similar games and related newsgroups?

        The newsgroup rec.games.pbm  has  postings about play-by-email
games, many of which have a space theme but don't have fancy graphical
front-ends.  You can obtain the  FAQ  for that newsgroup via anonymous
ftp from ftp.erg.sri.com.
        The  newsgroup   comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic  occasionally
carries material on VGA Planets.


(questions related to game-play follow)

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Subject: I have Tech 6 but don't see a Large Freighter on the "hulls
     available" list.  Why?!

You don't have the resources to build it; when you do, it will show up
on the list.  [Ryan Grant <rmg53668@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>]

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Subject: Why didn't my planet capture that attacking ship?
...it had no crew but was still fighting my planet!

Tim is aware of this - his reply to a similar message:

   I know about this bug and there is nothing that can be done about
   it short of replacing the VCR program that everyone is using and
   doing so would be a nightmare. So we will just make it a rule
   instead of a bug.

   Ships with no crew will continue to fire at planets.  The targeting
   computer is locked onto the planet. The planet is such an easy
   target that the targeting computer can continue to fire even after
   the crew is all dead.
[Scott@Hades.equinox.gen.nz (Scott McNabb)]

[Note: I have seen a case where a planet captured a ship...the crew
were killed, but the battle was timed-out before either the ship or
the planet could be destroyed.  At this point the VCR declared the
ship captured...Gary]

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Subject: Why did the colonists I dropped on a new planet vanish?

Amorphous planet, perhaps? [Scott@Hades.equinox.gen.nz (Scott McNabb)]

Anther possibility: the "planet" was still in revolution from a 
previous owner [Gary]

With host 3.1x: No fuel on the ship?  If you drop something on a 
planet when you have no fuel (or drop all your fuel), everything is
lost. [spock@dobag.in-berlin.de (Thomas Voigt)]

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Subject: How do I transfer fighters/torps between ships?
 
I really hate to say this but "I've heard" (there, I did it) that on
the transfer screen, you can use 7 to transfer fighters, even though
it only shows options 1-6.  [Scott@Hades.equinox.gen.nz (Scott
McNabb)]

Torpedoes: the solution is not so simple.  You can have one ship lay
a minefield, then use the special friendly code included with your
registered game to "scoop" up the minefield with another ship.  This
works regardless of the torpedo type.  Transfer between races also
works like this...[Gary]

Actually, torpedoes aren't too bad if both ships are at the same 
StarBase.  This is what you do: choose which ship you want to transfer
from and from the StarBase menu select fix.  It will then ask you 
something about leaving torps on board and the minus key will remove 
them.  Now the torps are on the starbase.  From there just put them on
the other ship. [un03@clark.edu (Craig S Barnhill)]

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Subject: Why doesn't that ship conform to spec?

Example: In the manual, the D7a Painmaker Class Cruiser is listed as
cloaking-capable.
...It's the D7 Coldpain Cruiser that cloaks not the Painmaker.
[mrh0631@Zeus.tamu.edu (Mark Hesidence)]

The manual has several errors of this sort, as Tim is too busy 
changing the actual game to spend much time changing the manuals...

A comprehensive list of these discrepancies is being worked on by
mdl@world.std.com (Michael D Lemon).  I'm sure he would appreciate
any additions people could send to him.

     In the meantime, rely on the ship stats reported by the game
(in the build screens), not the documentation.  Also, certain 
utility programs like ships.exe, vputil.exe, and others will report
the actual capabilities...
 
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Subject: What is the order of movement/combat/actions in a turn?

     Special missions (Super Refit, "Hssss"ing, Spying, Plundering, 
Robbing, Cyborg repair, Dark sense, presumably building fighters in
space (?)) probably occur first. [Gary]

Beaming up/down to planets (minerals, Clans, Supplies...)
Alchemy missions
Mine laying
Mine Sweeping
Mine Field check
Web Field check 
Building of new ships
Surrendering
Movement
Intercept Missions
Star Base Functions
Colonize Missions
COMBAT!
Science Missions (Science Ships - Planet Climate changing)
Planet Production
*Assimilation
	(* added by me, may be in wrong slot)
[marjola@cc.Helsinki.FI (Kalle J Marjola)]

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Subject: What is the real Order of Battle?

    The OOB in the docs is bogus; until the version 3.1 host, with
the numeric friendly code determining OOB, the lowest ID fights first.
Period.  Except, I believe, that freighters will fight last.
[Andrew Jones (lrpr@unb.ca)]


1. Games versions 3.0x and 3.1x are both buggy for OOB.
2. Their docs are bogus for OOB.
3. The emendations proferred here are bogus too.
4. Everyone should do thorough simulations of multi-ship combats.

- It is not true that lowest ID combat ships always fight first in 
     versions 3.0x; the real OOB is not simple, but it is not
     documented anywhere.  [Lower ID ships very often do fight first;
     but this depends on other factors which are not correctly
     documented.]

- SIMULATE before you commit your ships to combat.
[harwood@umiacs.umd.edu (David Harwood)]
-- 
Gary Grothman # grothmag@vax.cs.hscsyr.edu # grothmag@snysyrv1.bitnet 
 last resort: # bz334@freenet.cleveland.edu
 even worse:  # (315) 652-5488
