SC 3 FAQ

What's New

• 11/22/97 - Finally fixed the builder code (yeah), also fixed was the code for gating fleets (broken since 2.8) and the missives sent by the new ships.
• 11/15/97 - changed the inital number of tech developments available (thanks to Agt the Walker for suggesting it).
• May have fixed the lack of nuking when a player surrenders in a 2 player game. It seems to work....
• Some changes Rowan made:

  Up to 29th October 97
  Added additional features to player profile. Home page URL, Theme URL,Options.
          Different method of selecting player icon used  etc.
  Changed display layouts, backgroung images and logo.
  Added Background flag option to header(), pageheader() & footer() to  allow user 
  profile
          toggle of backgroung image.
  Added Theme URL as required for user profile selection of local graphics.
  Added check in player creation to prevent multicase empire name duplication
  Added series option to allow restricted games with password
  Added credits info window
  Modified Admin restart operation to be a bit more friendly
  Updated Admin series edit for V3 features
  Modified method of saving player icon to allow for use of custom icons
  
  October 30th '97
  Added restricted option and paswword to Series creation/edit
  Minor re-format on series displays
  Corrected a few minor problems in init game list introduced with restricted serie
  s flag/password
  Re-formatted game list full description display
  November 2nd '97
  Reformatted Admin player stats viewer for addition profile options.
  Corrected player/V2.9 visibility flags in series edit
  
  November 3rd '97
  Added player group administration flag/name to profile.
  Added player admin edit details to server admin player profile edit.
  
  November 4th
  Added functionality to edit player icon in admin edit.
  Fixed bug in player creation. Ensure that a player icon is set before going to profile edit.
  Added group info to profile icon display
  
  November 6th
  Removed imbedded table from history display. Causing havoc with IE. Not quite right with NS either.
  Added additional reporting to history.  Mostly commented out by Del.
  Added Player login IP mapping to profile.
  Tidyied up detailed game list display header
  
  November 17th
  Implemented and debugged initial frames operation.. (Shelved until other options finished)
  Implemented graphic buttons option
  
  November 21st
  Fixed theme directory bug in player creation..  Set up for all normal graphics to be loaded from the
          standard theme directory "/theme/std"
  Currently unresolved problem with auto update using graphic buttons. Javascript not finding graphic index etc
  

• 10/13/97 - Fixed a couple of bugs that popped up, including the game list displaying incorrectly, the games counter not updating correctly and commented out the fleet gating feature (it isn't present in any other version)
• 10/6/97 - Fixed the formatting, I won't be making any more changes for at least a week.
• 10/5/97 - I added the history viewer, the formatting isn't working out right, but it is there.
• 10/5/97 - Got rid of the halt and resume series, since it can be controlled by the number of games allowed.
• 10/5/97 - Added developed tech to the start of a series.
• 10/5/97 - Rowan made some nice changes to the start series function.
• 9/27/97 - Restricted tech works, yeah! The game is currently compiling and is probably mildly useful, yeah!
• 9/27/97 - Resumed work, fixed a number of bugs.
• 6/28/97 - Work started on version 3.

Motivation

Length

Games can still be long. It is even worse in 'fair' games with skilled players. The problem I believe is the advantage of defending instead of attacking.

Varieties

I hope to continue expanding the variety present in SC games.

Player Registration

It usually isn't much fun for anyone when players of widely differing skill levels play against each other. IMO, using the number of wins is not a good way to find games against similar opponents. From time to time there are tournaments that are played and other circumstances when you want to play against a specific player. It would also be nice to not have to worry about cheaters, and although player registration isn't a full solution, it can help.

Separation of User Interface

To be blunt, it is a real pain to change the server. So, I've only changing the stuff in the server that has to be changed there. Changes to the user interface can and should be done in the Ares Toolkit.

Features & Status

Servers

The test servers will be 4th planet and one near cybernex

Beta Status

Fixes

This is a bit subjective but these are 'fixes' to the 2.9 code.

1. You can now gate fleets.
2. Added many more comments to the code.

Features

These are new aspects to the game.

1. The biggest changes are four new ship types. These new ships are meant to make offense a more viable option.
   • Carrier: A very tough ship and formidable battle ship. If it would have fallen victim to DEST in combat, then it's max br and br are reduced by a series based value. The new br is used to reduce DEST and it is also added to the rest of the fleet. (Example: A br 5 carrier would have fallen to DEST and the server reduction is 1.0. DEST is reduced by 16 and the carrier is reduced to max br 4 and joins the rest of the fleet)
   • Morpher: This ship can assume any technology that has been developed by the empire. It takes one round to transform from one tech to another. The morpher loses a series determined value each time it transforms.
   • Jumpgate: This ship can transport ships to any non-annihlated world with in a series define distance based on the ship's br. The destination world must have been explored. Each gating reduces the ship's (max) br by a series determined value.
   • Builder: If enough builders work together they can create a new average planet at an adjacent location. The number of builders needed depends on their br and the series. A builder's br is multiplied by 10 and then compared to the cost to build a new planet. Note: The new planet will not be explored and will not have any links.
2. Changes to existing ships:
   • Cloaker: when built is cloaked.
   • Stargate: can be optionally set on a per series basis so that it can only transport up to br systems distance.
3. There are many customizable options that can be set for each series.
   • Available Tech: Each technology can be set to 'unrestricted', 'exclusive' or 'not available'. Only a limited number of 'exclusive' techs can be developed, and 'not available' techs can not be used at all in the series.
   • New tech costs: Since the new techs are very new, there build, maintenance, fuel and usage costs are customizable.
   • Player Listing: Whether or not the empires in the game are listed on the login screen.
   • Visibility Option: This option determines if builds can be seen by other players and if they affect the mil rating.
   • Spawn Option: determines when a new game should be spawned.
   • Resources: The average planet resources and the homeworld resources can be set on a series basis. Also the initial tech level can be set.
   • Group and skill level: Series can be targeted towards certain skill levels or groups.
   • Record: A new screen off of the login screen that reports who nuked who recently.
   • Description: Since there are alot more options the login screen will only show a short description, another screen is available to show the full details of the available games.
4. HTML comments have been added to make parsing easier.

Unsolved Bugs

Plans