OMGN News Posts November, 2002-February, 2003:
Quadrant 51 Solar Empire Kaput
By: Charles Rector | Other | 8:33pm, February 2, 2003
What was once the most popular server of the open source game Solar Empire is now no more. From the Quadrant 51 website:
Dear Q51 Members:
Due to certain circumstances, mainly lack of time and interest, the Solar Empire section of Q51 will be shut down until further notice. I hope to bring this section back online in the future with the latest code release and a little more support on my side. Recently, I've had no time to run this server properly and a few whiney players contacting me every ten seconds didn't help the situation either. I will post any updates here.
Thanks to many of you for your support,
NigerianRabbi & The Q51 Admin Staff
Quantam Star Solar Empire Released
By: Charles Rector | Other | 12:08pm, February 5, 2003
The first released of the Quantam Star version of Sola Empire has just occurred. Following is Moriarty's announcement from the SourceForge webpage:
Posted By: moriarty
Date: 2003-02-01 09:56
Summary: First release of Quantum Star SE
I have released the first easily accessable open source version of Quantum Star SE courtesy of Maugrim the Reaper.
This version of SE includes numerous refinements and bug fixes over version 2.0.2 which it is based upon.
It does not include the image set, but this set has now been released as a seperate package (as its a full 1MB), which will work with either Generic SE or Quantum Star SE.
Version 2.0.2 is now also available in a "small" vesion that does not include images either.
Moriarty
Solar Empire Sources Explained
By: Charles Rector | Other | 8:21pm, February 6, 2003
Recently, on the forums for the open-source space mining strategy game, Solar Empire, programmer Maugrim the Reaper explained the sources for the game and the differences between them. Following is his post :
There are currently two sources:
Open-Source SE (Moriarty) available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/solar-empire/ .
The updated Open-Source version of SE available to the public domain. Ranges from the popular 1.2 version to 2.0.2 (as seen on Purely to an extent). The latest has some quirks when installing but overall a good version. It's the base source for the Purely server and incorporates quite a few additions over the 1.x.x series, though take up on servers has been a little slow. This is still more advanced code than that used by many other servers and as Open Source is the only one capable of being used freely to build your own version. Being open-source it is generally the recommended option for starting a server. Most other options come with a few rules.
Quantum Star SE Project (Maugrim_The_Reaper) available upon request. You can email me at mailto:maugrimtr@hotmail.com.
Has just reached version 2.0.9 as opposed to 2.0.2 for the Open Source version. 2.1.0 is due in March 2003. Although based on the 2.0.2 source code, Quantum Star SE has been fully updated to solve all known bugs and installation issues. It has also built up a framework to expand SE Modules or add-ons, improve player options, prevent cheats, support any level of Admin styles and increase the scope of the game. Player wants are a main focus. This source is not strictly open-source, the project holds a copyright over its work and forbids the use of any section of the code that differs from the open source to be used on a non-affiliated server. The project is a little complex, but basically we release our code to servers who join and promote the project or to developers who wish to lend a hand. We have a small membership but are well supported. To get a copy of the code requires that you either a) join the project, or b)affiliate your server with the project, or c) are a potential developer who wishes to check the code out. Membership costs nothing, and gives you free access to the code.
Hope this helps some, I'll let Moriarty double the text on the open-source version...
Luck,
_________________
Maugrim The Reaper
"The problem with people is when they're not drunk, they're sober."
(William Butler Yeats)
Purely Solar Empire News
By: Charles Rector | Other | Game Data | 11:07pm, February 12, 2003
The following News pertains to the Purely Solar Empire server and not to the other Solar Empire servers. News originally posted by the operator of Purely, Moriarty:
Server News
Moriarty - 07:27 - Feb 11, 2003
Morning Peeps.
Well i've been playing with the code again, the first time in a long time, and performing some long overdue work.
Todays changes:
- It is no longer possible to use Omega Missiles, Quarks or Terras when the admin has planet attacking turned off.
- The admin now has the ability to make it so as when a player retires from a game they can't rejoin the game for however many hours. This should get rid of a few of the less ethical strategies (including cheating). :)
-- I've set the vars for the games as follows: Blitz: 12 hour wait. AE: 24 hour wait. Slow: 48 hours.
- There are now percentages shown on your player information page, similar to those shown on the clan page for your clan. This gives you one less reason to be in a clan now... ;-)
- I've also made a few other less significant changes and maintence fixes.
More will come soon, and purely will be back up there as the most advanced of the servers. :)
- Moriarty
Moriarty - 08:45 - Feb 09, 2003
I have implemented some code that will stop omega missiles from setting planet colonists to idle, whilst still killing as many colonists as before.
This will have some implications for those of your who used this bug as a strategy.
- Moriarty
Purely Solar Empire Update
By: Charles Rector | Other | Game Data | 6:59pm, February 13, 2003
Note: The following News pertains only to the Purely Solar Empire Server and not to the other SE servers.
Server News
Moriarty - 12:25 - Feb 13, 2003
Me again.
Been playing with a few minor fixes and improvements:
- I have added 'planetary slots', similar to those that can be seen on the Tradelair server (the idea was originally proposed in the globals). It is only possible to create planets in a system with empty slots. For the 3 running games i have set all slots in all systems (bar sol) to 2. So that means that only 2 more planets can be built per system. This will have no effect on the present number of planets in a system.
-- From now on, when a game resets there will always be planet slots in a system. These slots are randomly placed (The admin can specify the most possible slots a system can be given) at universe creation.
-- They can ONLY be turned off by creating a universe with pre-created planets (a admin var i programmed a long time ago). So either way, from now on the maximum number of planets in a system will be limited by the admin. That means no more - 200 planets in 1 system... Otherwise known as 'turn burners'.
- Fixed the bug that let ramscoops load up more than their capacity of cargo.
- Clan members can now click on the 'new' link next to their clan forum to see new messages for the clan forum (same to the standard forum system).
As you've probably noticed by now, there's now a fourth game on this server, called Chaotic Empires, this game will (like all the others) be different from the norm, in that every game will have a different admin.
This should allow more people to get to know what the admin can and cannot do, as well as present some very new game types (one of the conditions of becoming an admin for the game is that you be original with the game vars).
There are after all about 1.86463338260134107707700092928e+142 possible combinations for all the admin game vars (that's written as: 1,864,633,382,601,341,077,077,000, 929,280,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ). (That's more than there are theoretically atoms in our universe (only 78-81 0's on the end, rather than our 142!!!)
True, you can't get that many different game types out of them, but I'd hazard a guess you can get at least a few hundred out of them. If not thousands.
- Either way it should keep people busy formulating new strategies and formulating games to beat those strategies. :)
- Moriarty
Purely Solar Empire Server News
By: Charles Rector | Other | Game Data | 6:49pm, February 14, 2003
The operator of the Purely Solar Empire Server Moriarty, has been experimenting again with his SE game as evidenced from the following:
Server News
Moriarty - 01:32 - Feb 14, 2003
Guess who.
Yep been playing with the code again, and this time we have a rather larger change than the other recent one's i've been making.
I have put something so wonderfully marvelously genously awesome into the game that there's already a word for it:
"Time"! :-)
Well it's not THAT good, but it's better than nothing (note: other servers :) ).
Basically it's an alternate play style, and can be turned on or off by the admin (hehe, it's better than real life. U can't turn time off here :) ). What it does is stagger the release of technology/planets/ships/everything.
The game will generally start with only MF's and SS's available. Then once time is passing and players are using their turns, more items will become available. Players don't have to research anything, it just happens.
So no more starting with access to a whole armarda, this is more realistic. Though eventually you will have access to you precious ABStars and Brobs, but not at the start.
- Enjoy. Advanced Empires will be restarting tomorow, and when it does, it will be the first game to have it turned on.
Word of warning though: It's still in the test phase. The amount of time it takes for things to appear will probably need balancing. Afterall, you don't just invent time overnight... ;-)
- Moriarty
Purely Solar Empire News
By: Charles Rector | Other | Game Data | 2:07pm, February 17, 2003
The following News was posted at Purely Solar Empire and applies to only that SE server:
Server News
Moriarty - 04:06 - Feb 16, 2003
Weeeeee....
Well i've been hard at work playing with the code, and have some significant improvements to report:
- There is now a Ship Duplicator at sol that will allow you to make an exact structural copy (everything except the contents of your hold) of the ship you are commanding.
However Seatogu doesn't like alien tech, so only ships with tech you can get from Earth can be used.
- It is now possible to mass purchase any ship in the game (with the obvious, and not very small exceptions of the two flagships). This includes Black Market ships!
- There is now an much improved clan-ranking screen where you can easily compare clans statistics.
- Due to an astute observation by a player in the new Chaotic Empires game, when ship prices don't increase even if fighter prices do. This has now been rectified, so that the cost of a ship is based on it's hull price + the value of it's fighters.
- That's enough for today. It's 9am here. Bed time. :)
- Moriarty
Moriarty - 12:53 - Feb 15, 2003
Booo...
Yes i'm still here, and still playing with stuff.
Today a few medium sized changes:
- The most obvious change is the system information that appears at the top of the star system screen. This information is now presented in a nice table based layout. It holds all the same information, but has an extra little feature pertaining to autowarp that shows what jumps are left to jump. If you don't like the new system there is a user option to change it to the old one.
- I have performed major surgery on the user options page. Gone is the day of complicated option change. Now it's nice and simple with radio buttons for most things, so you can easily see what you're getting yourself into. Take a look. You might just understand this version. :)
- Autowarp now runs from the star-system. So when you've entered a destination, you'll go straight back to the star system, rather than to a page saying it's all set.
- Autowarp now says how many jumps are left to a system (in both new and old).
- And one last thing: the user option to specify if you want planet reports all the time or some of the time, or none of the time is now removed. Instead you can now choose on a per-planet basis (so you can have your production planets on, and your defence planets off). Hope it makes life a little easier.
- Moriarty
More Purely Solar Empire News
By: Charles Rector | Other | Game Data | 2:04am, February 19, 2003
The following News only applies to the Purely Solar Empire Server and it is from that server that this News was taken from:
Server News
Moriarty - 01:56 (GMT) - Feb 18, 2003
Seems i forgot to post my changes yesterday. Oh well.
Join the Advanced Empires game if you want to play a version of SE where you don't start with all the tech. Should prove for a very interesting game.
Changes
- Fixed one heck of a lot of minor bugs. :-)
- Engine upgrades are now available. A cheaper one at Sol, and a more expensive one at the Blackmarkets. They increase your speed in combat, and in games where the cost warp cost is based on the ships in the fleet, they can lower the warp cost between systems!
- Added a new story to the story collection (which can be found in the help pages). The story relates to the new engine upgrades.
- Admin can now give all players a cash injection.
- Fixed the bug that stopped planet passwords from being turned off.
Anyone with any suggestions on how the interface for a new Fleet Attacking function i'm working on should look, feel free to message them to me in any of the games.
When i say fleet attacking, i mean like: "Your 5 Skirms and 2 Warmongers are attacking the enemies 1 Brob and 9 AB's".
- Moriarty
Purely Solar Empire News
By: Charles Rector | Other | 4:59pm, February 22, 2003
The following News has been cut and pasted from the
Purely Solar Empire Server Game Listing Page and only applies to the SE games running off that
server:
Server News
Moriarty - 02:14 - Feb 22, 2003
IMPORTANT! READ THIS!
I have made some rather dramatic changes to the game and have just uploaded them.
There are now fleets in the game. All ships form part of one fleet.
I have Got rid of Towing!. Instead of towing now all that happens is that every ship in a fleet will follow every other ship in the same fleet. So there is no real 'command ship' any more. You can command any ship in a fleet, and all the rest in the same fleet will follow.
- Each player can have up to 120 seperate fleets!
- At present the Fleets only purpose is to allow for more efficient towing. However when fleet attacking is complete they will have many more uses.
- Any new ships you buy are in the same fleet as the ship you are commanding.
- A ship can only be assiged to 1 of your fleets at a time.
There are also Clan Fleets. These will server simply to afford clan members mutual protection. At present they don't do anything. Again this will change with fleet attacking completed.
I have added Armour to the game. At present no ships have any as it doesn't do anything.
There is now a new page called Fleet Command this will allow you to do lots of stuff with fleets. It is from this screen that you must now self-destruct ships from.
That lot shouldn't be too much to take in. Enjoy. :)
- Moriarty
Moriarty - 07:15 - Feb 21, 2003
This will probably be my last update for a few days.
I'm about to start work on the fleet-attack system. And as well as that i'm going to be making a few drastic changes to planets, and probably bombs too. You won't see any of these changes for a few days though. But they will all come at once when they do come.
Recent Changes
- More bug fixes and code improvements.
- It is now possible to fill a fleet with goods from a port.
- Moriarty
Quantam Star Solar Empire
By: Charles Rector | Other | 3:28pm, February 23, 2003
A new server of the open source space strategy game,
Solar Empire, has just sprung up. Quantam Solar Empire is a variant of the SE type. It claims to be a new and improved version of SE.
Purely Solar Empire Server Games Reset
By: Charles Rector | Other | Game Data | 10:08pm, February 23, 2003
Note: The following News pertains to the Purely Solar Empire Server
only:
Server News
Moriarty - 09:33 - Feb 23, 2003
Courtesy of KilerCris (probably spurred on by the all knowing idiot weaz), all games have been reset on this server. This was done exploiting a little bug which i am now in the process of fixing. Moriarty
Moriarty - 22:39 GMT - Feb 23, 2003
A few more changes.
- There are now two different ship limits. One of them limits the number of warships you may have (ships with the battleship upgrade), the other limits all the rest of the ships. This should allow the admin more control over just how agressive the players can become.
- Due to the above change, it is now NOT possible to put more than 4999 fighter capacity onto one ship unless the ship is classed as a battleship (bilkos upgrade).
- The attack pack (as brought from bilkos) now increase fig capacity by 900 - up from 700).
- Fixed a lot of the bugs that have been reported.
- ships are no longer listed on the player info screen. They can now only be found under fleet command.
- Moriarty
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