STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - VOL. 38 August 7, 2000 CONTENTS Feature Article - Evaluating Scoring Rates by John Shannonhouse Questions - Robot Attack and Key Capture SEDG Web Page URL The Captain's Log - I Task Thee (A challenge). The Swap Corner - The Combined Turnsheet Correspondence FEATURE ARTICLE It's time for another article from John Shannonhouse! Useful trivia post number 9... Evaluating Scoring Rates: Making sense of scores at the beginning and middle of the game are subjects for other trivia posts. Right now I will concentrate on scoring rates during the end game... who is doing well enough to win or be a serious threat, and what can be done to stop them. Starweb is not an open-ended game. The ending occurs the first time any player's raw score exceeds an amount that was determined at the beginning of the game. Each player chooses what he or she wants as an ending score, from 1,000 to 10,000, and the results are averaged to give the victory point limit. After the game ends, various special bonuses are added in for the possession and distribution of specific artifacts, so the winner might easily *not* have the high raw score. A typical victory point limit is about 7,600. An extremely short game might run 5,400, while a long one might be 8,400. Keep this in mind both when trying to determine when an opponent will win the game, and when to time your own push. It is easy to overlook the bonus issue, so I will address it first. A player owning all of the Nebula scrolls receives a 1,000 point bonus added to his score. An Artifact Collector will get 1,500 points for the Nebula Scrolls. Owning all artifacts of a type (excluding plastic) that is special for the player type gives a 500- point bonus. For example, a Pirate's greatest treasure is the silver lodestar. If he collects all of the silver or all of the lodestar artifacts, he gets a 500 point bonus, or 1000 points for having all of both types. An Artifact Collector gets 1,000 points for owning all the artifacts in one of his categories or 2,000 for both. In addition, an Artifact Collector gets 500 points for each "museum" that he builds of 10 or more artifacts on a world. Be sure to factor in the appropriate bonuses when trying to figure out which scores you need to beat. So, how likely is it that anyone will get these bonuses? From experience, I would say that an Artifact Collector who is doing well will always be able to build exactly three museums, for a bonus of 1,500 points. This is the Shannonhouse Law of Artifact Collectors. The other bonuses are all very rare occurrences, unless a lot of players work together to make it happen, so don't worry about it unless you have reason to suspect that someone has been working hard to get those bonuses. It is still a good idea to hold onto a Nebula Scroll just to keep another player from getting the large bonus, and keep track of Ancients and Pyramids belonging to a successful Artifact Collector. You may want to hold onto one of each of those as well. Keeping that in mind, you can now begin to evaluate who is doing how well in the game, but scoring rates have to be evaluated by character type. It is a good idea to keep track of scores, who has which ones, and how the rates are changing over time. In the analysis by type below, I give a "typical" growth rate for a successful character by type. This can vary a lot (usually downwards) depending on the game interactions. They will still give you a pretty good idea of what to expect in the end game. Several character types have fairly identifiable patterns. Artifact Collectors are the easiest to track. Unless they gain/lose art, their score will grow at the identical rate each turn. By the end of the game, there should be very little variation. Their score is also almost always an exact multiple of 15. (**TIP ALERT** If you are an artifact collector and want to hide your score or your character type from other players, kill off one or two of your population. That will subtract a point or two from your score, and it will no longer be a multiple of 15. For best results, do this early.) A successful Artifact Collector may have a score growing at a rate of about 800 points per turn in the end game, sometimes higher. The easiest way to hurt a Collector's score is to locate the museum worlds and capture or destroy them. Empire Builders are also fairly easy to track. A large percentage increase in their growth rate is very difficult, since it would require the gain of a large number of valuable worlds. By the end of the game, they should already have the most valuable worlds of their allies. It is possible to hurt their growth rate significantly by targeting home worlds. You can expect a rather modest increase in growth rate each turn and a check of how it has behaved over the last few turns should give you a good idea. A successful Empire Builder will also have a growth rate of approximately 800 points a turn. A high-scoring Pirate will usually see a decrease in his scoring rate towards the end of the game. A high scoring pirate will usually make about 500 to 600 points a turn. A high scoring pirate's score moves in cycles of four turns. If he had a huge increase four turns ago, it is time for another huge (though smaller) increase this turn. Unless it is a very low-scoring game, a Pirate is very unlikely to win. People usually play pirates for the fun of winning wars rather than for winning the game by high score. To hurt a Pirate's score, take away worlds from him just before they are plunderable. A successful Merchant will normally be growing at a rate of about 1,200 points a turn. A merchant's score operates on an even/odd pattern, so you should track odd numbered turns versus odd and even numbered turns versus even to see patterns of growth. A merchant is one of the most likely types to win, but is also one of the easiest to stop. The problem is, players usually wait one turn too many to take action. Besides the obvious of declaring him a non-loader, which does not have an effect on the current turn, gift him a home world that you own where he is dropping lots of metal. If possible, gift him two home worlds, even if you are an Empire Builder. He will lose points for two full turns. (**TIP ALERT** If you want to protect yourself from this fate as a Merchant, either have a Berserker ally robotize the home world (a robotized world cannot be gifted to a Merchant) or gift home worlds to a dropped position.) Other possibilities include destroying the home world with a PBB, destroying the industry, or driving it neutral. A successful Apostle grows at a rate of about 1,000 points per turn. His growth is very variable, so a low increase one turn is no guarantee that the following turn will not see a huge increase. To slow an Apostle, make sure that your high population worlds belong to different players. He gets Jihad points against only one player a turn, so he has to delay his kills. Driving a target world neutral before he gets there is also effective. A successful Berserker's score may grow at a rate of about 2,000 points a turn. This is much more variable than the Apostle's growth on both the high end and the low end. A Berserker's score may increase 15 points one turn and 2,600 the next. The best way to stop a Berserker is to do it early. If a Berserker has managed to gain control of two or more home worlds, he is a likely winner of the game. Mount an attack against a Berserker who owns two home worlds as soon as possible. He has probably temporarily weakened himself by robotizing his opponent's home world, and is at his most vulnerable point. If you wait, you are likely to see ships from two home worlds converging on your own, and it will be too late. (**TIP ALERT** Berserkers win more games than any other character type, but when they lose they frequently lose big. To protect your rating, make sure you start your push soon enough to ensure a decent score even if someone else wins.) With information on current scores, scoring rates, and bonus points, your overall plan of action becomes much clearer. You have a good idea of the real threats in the game, and can take action. John Shannonhouse ----------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? Last Issue Jack Fulmer posed the following question. His answer follows. The situation is: 1) ABLE is a berserker. 2) BAKER is not a berserker. 3) W123 (1, 100, 200) [BAKER] (Industry=2, Metal=6, Mines=3, Population=35, Limit=35, Turns=4, I-ships=20) F255[ABLE]=20/0 F1[ ]=0 Clearly ABLE can and probably should robotize the world. Look at all those lovely I-ships to replace the ships he uses from F255 plus more! Question: Assume ABLE does F255R14 and no other keys not at peace arrive at W123. He will own the world next turn and its I-ships but will he own the neutral key or have to wait another turn to capture it? **************************************** Answer: ABLE will capture the neutral key. I had exactly this situation occur in a current game. Apparently robot capture of the world and any P- or I-ships occurs prior to neutral key capture in the program. Editor: Here is a quickie - who won the FBI Con Starweb game - 2000? Clue - He's a Starweb junkie well known to you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP - is now available on the web. Look for our new MAPPER'S SECTION on the SEDG Web Page. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE CAPTAIN'S LOG 000731.0541?4 By Walt Schmidt I Task Thee ! "He tasks me! He tasks me! And I shall have him. I'll chase him round the moons of Ibia and round the Antares maelstrom and round Perdition's flames before I give him up." - Ricardo Montalban as Khan, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan This is the first of our monthlies - and again I'm keeping this log short and to the point. You disappoint me! Last issue I asked for half a dozen or so good people, to join Elliot and I in a private game. Seven - that's what I asked for - four that's what we have so far . . . The game will be a bi-weekly (by popular demand the concept of a weekly game has been scrapped), email, dual-multi, 20,000-victory point game. The dual-multi is my way of saying that each of us will play any two different characters of our choice. All communications are allowed, and the only other requirements or rules are there aren't any - other than those printed in the current Starweb Rules booklet. Folks - again I mention that here's your chance to test the mettle of your "characters" against others of us who read or write SEDG. And again with all apologies to Stan Lee, let me announce - the winner of this proposed game would be the recipient of the First-Ever Captain Nemo Fabulous No-Prize, get special mention in a special edition of SEDG, and, receive a specially designed Winners No-Prize certificate - designed by himself and suitable for framing or any other use the winner can think of. So Again, I Task Thee - Be Thee Up To It?!! Shai Dorsai ! Nemo ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE SWAP CORNER Preparing a Combined Turnsheet - Hardcopy. For your poor allies that do not have a Starweb Analyzer you can prepare a composite report as a text file suitable for emailing (or printing and snail mailing). If you are someone who absolutely must sift through reams of paper rather than viewing the data online then this function is for you. You can create a combined turnsheet composed of many allies Starweb turnsheets. On the Analysis Window Menu choose File and the Save Composite report. This will create a file that will be a combination of the Player, World and Art View from the List View. The Player header information, players met and their scores, WorldView and the art summary similar to the Art View will be saved. Here is how it is organized. 1) Starts by identifying the game and turn. 2) Then the due date. 3) Then a list of all players seen on any turnsheets. Those players that have sent you turnsheets will have their header information displayed. If the header information is not current (say the last turnsheet that player sent you was last turn or older) then there will be a statement "Information current as of turn ..." 4) The composite world report is ALMOST identical to a FBI SW turnsheet. If the world did not appear on the combined turnsheet on a previous turn then an asterick '*' will appear in the left margin. This will appear again if the world changes connections. This only occurs for border worlds you have not visited - you will know only 1 or 2 connections. If you gain more information by visiting it or another of it's unknown neighbors then the world will be marked as new again. 5) Old worlds not seen on this turnsheet will always be remembered - so you won't forget them or their statistics. They will be marked as to which turn they came from. A number will appear in the left margin denoting the turn it was from and again in <> brackets after the connection information to make you double aware. For example - 6 W52 (82,134,249) <6> [XENON] (Captured,Metal=2,Mines=2,Population=54,Limit=150,Turns=1) F119[XENON]=1 (Moved) F151[XENON]=0 (Captured) This world was last seen on turn 6. 6) Sometimes world or map information is gleaned without getting a complete turnsheet. Often this information is put into the Starweb Analyzer in a Dummy turnsheet. My practice is to label it turn 1. Since only HWs can be seen on turn 1 I know that any worlds labeled turn 1 are from this data. These worlds may also be incomplete if you only were given world connections. For example: 1 W24 (124) <1> [] (B*L*A*C*K H*O*L*E) 1 W30 (237,247) <1> [OMNITRON] In these examples players told me about the Blackhole at W24 and Omnitron's W30. 7) Border worlds will get a separate listing in the world list and not just appear as connection information for another world. In this way it is easier to remember it. Of course it will not have any detailed information and the connections will end with '...' to indicate that it is incomplete. Here is an example * W44 (31,21,...) 8) At the end of the world list is a list of all art seen, where and its ownership. If the art was seen but flew off all turnsheets it will be listed as lost in space. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE Regarding Anonymous games - John Gault said: > Anonymous Starweb Games This is what prompted me to try anonymous SW. I tried the various means of communication that you (and the FBQ) mentioned, and was simply ignored and shot at by everyone else. So I don't think it's a viable game as it is. I tried to get FB interested in adding message commands like those in Battle Plan, and even offered to do the work myself, but was refused; IIRC, Rick Loomis trusts only the original programmer, even though he quit years ago. I'm glad that you're having better luck, but I don't think I'll try again. And regarding the Captain's challenge - John Gault said: If this were every 10 days (or slower) I would go for it. But I can't keep up with weekly turns. If there are others who feel as I do, I'll start another private game with those parameters. John David Galt Edilbert Kirk said: El, Some short comments to your SEDG letter: You wrote: > Art Collector - This position seemed the most hopeless. How would you > be able to show anyone what you are? Unless you flew around with two > keys and passed art back and forth between them. An AC cannot do that! Others can hook arts to the fleets of an AC, but the AC cannot transfer arts among his own fleets. That was part of my problem in merging my art fleets in SW-Z1300. Editor: Actually the rule book states that an Art Collector can transfer art from one fleet to another and I believe I remember doing that the last time I played that position. > So, you would be dependent on players trying to shift art to your >key. Again, I don't like my position in the game relying on how bright >my neighbors are. It's a good idea, to fly with plastic artifacts attached to the fleets. Any other character type tries to get rid of plastics ASAP. So if you see someone carrying around plastics for more than 1 turn, he's probably an AC (or a fool or a very tricky berserker ?). And finally a comment to the mega-alliance discussion: I think, mega-alliances are a direct consequence of email games. It's nearly impossible to have a good working alliance of more than four players that correspond via snail mail. The snail mail game correspondence is dominated by two player agreements and communication, while in email games you typically experience several iterations of plans, that are broadcasted to the alliance members. And you need at least as many iterations per turn as alliance members. So if some players have problems with large alliances, I suggest, that they avoid email games and stick to the snail mail variants. Ed Herb Diehr said regarding the dual multigame to 20,000 points. Was this a serious challenge to play, or a humorous article? Answer: It was serious. Interested? Yes! How would I sign up? Herb Editor's note: Send an email to Walt ( Tell him your choice for character types, name and acct number. Bob Becker said: To open an old topic on why is Star Web losing players. Well I just discovered Fantasy Sports! This is from a person (me) who thought Major League Baseball was a waste of airtime on TV for something else that could be on. I have went from baseball bores me to death to running 6 different teams on the internet all for free and watching the games, scores and stats on who I should trade, waive, pick up, and play that night. This is an absolute gamers paradise for those who even don't watch sports, basically it's an interactive game. You don't wait 1, 2, 4 weeks for your next game turn to see whats happening. You watch whats going on now everyday in the Major Leagues and also what your competition is doing in your fantasy league that you've joined. Sheesh I think I've become a junkie, I know my wife does. And now to top it off the NFL leagues are starting this week. When seeing how I have taken to this I can now understand why StarWeb has been losing it's appeal to people. I don't mean to offend anybody but it's slow and plodding compared to what's happening today on the internet. Bob Becker Editor: I think you have a point there Bob. But the attraction of snail or email games for many (myself included) is the due date and asynchronous nature of the game. I can pick it up when I have time to work on it. I wouldn't have the time to play one of those live interactive internet games that had similar complexity to Starweb. And I certainly don't have the time for a daily game like your Fantasy Sports. Well, that's it for Volume 38. Don't be afraid to submit articles or suggestions. Remember the next SEDG is coming out Sept. 4rth. They don't have to be long. Address your correspondence to Elliot Hudes at