Forum :: Mods :: release: "Mission: Newbie"

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release: "Mission: Newbie" :: Jun 3, 2007 @ 7:04pm
thirdparty Joined: Dec 20, 2006 Posts: 279 Location: Eastern U.S.A.	Mission: Newbie [update: this mission can now be found in "ThirdMissions" under the title "Imperium"] When there are three players remaining, including myself, I assess the skill of the other two.  Many newbies or almost-newbies can be beaten no matter how much a lead they have; if one of these is like this, I'll attack the other one.  Sometimes I do this even if I'm the smallest of the three; surprise is powerful, and if I wait twenty seconds first everyone will be sure we're in a standoff. This mission is for practicing the aftermath: the point at which I face an overwhelmingly-powerful player of little skill.  There's no hope of making a stand; he has something like ten times my ships and production.  But watch his moves: he's got shipping set to 50%, tends to shift-click, and generally attacks the biggest planet I own (and definitely to his homeworld, if I can conquer it).  This leaves him with ill-garrisoned planets, and gives me a way to manipulate him into sending his ships to useless corners.  And his territory usually has some juicy neutrals sitting around, if I can get around to grabbing them. This mission is tuned to be very challenging.  I haven't yet gotten an unwinnable level, but many of them take me multiple tries before I find a solution.  (Do I use both of my homeworlds, or have one make a stand while the other attacks?  Do I blitz for the enemy's homeworld, or do I try to grab tiny planets faster than he can?  Will taking a neutral give a needed boost to my ships, or just increase my enemy's production?  When do I make a grab for the megacluster?)  It's quite fun and excellent practice. post updated on Jun 18, 2007 @ 5:03pm reply
Re: release: "Mission: Newbie" :: Jun 3, 2007 @ 8:52pm
philhassey Joined: Nov 30, 2006 Posts: 671 Location: Zarcon	Neat - I'd suggest a difficulty slider for the map generation - so that players (such as I) who aren't experts can work on our tactics in this scenerio at an easier level. Phil reply
Re: release: "Mission: Newbie" :: Jun 3, 2007 @ 10:23pm
thirdparty Joined: Dec 20, 2006 Posts: 279 Location: Eastern U.S.A.	Yes, I was just thinking about implementing a difficulty slider.  Starting ships could range from 60 (where they are now) up to something much easier, like 120 (at which point the player could practically do a direct attack; five-to-one odds are way the heck better than ten-to-one). Eventually I hope to have a whole pack of missions and a mission selection screen, like the built-in missions do.  I'll definitely have a difficulty slider by that point. (Speaking of which, Phil: if you'd release an example of how to do the mission GUI--the big logo up top, the buttons that look like planets, etc.--that'd be extremely helpful.  I tinkered with it for a bit but didn't get anywhere: gui.py has an Image widget but I can't figure out how to use it; and while I'm sure I could modify the level editor to turn planets into buttons, I don't know how to add the difficulty slider if I do that.) reply
Re: release: "Mission: Newbie" :: Jun 3, 2007 @ 11:51pm
philhassey Joined: Nov 30, 2006 Posts: 671 Location: Zarcon	Hey - I'll see about adding some straight forward support to getting the logo and rendering planets directly in the next release ... Phil reply
Re: release: "Mission: Newbie" :: Jun 5, 2007 @ 1:28pm
carn Joined: Dec 16, 2006 Posts: 74 Location: LA	Thirdparty, I'm beginning to think you're ignoring me reply
Re: Carn's thing :: Jun 5, 2007 @ 5:20pm
thirdparty Joined: Dec 20, 2006 Posts: 279 Location: Eastern U.S.A.	Carn: I'm sorry for ignoring your two posts.  I kept not being sure what I wanted to say.  I'm feeling a little short on time lately, and helping to get user-made Galcon bots online is not very high on my priority list.  (There's rarely a time when people will want to play against both humans and bots at once, so having custom bots for single player seems fairly satisfactory.) Try again in another week or two. reply
Re: release: "Mission: Newbie" :: Jun 5, 2007 @ 7:02pm
eckels Joined: Mar 4, 2007 Posts: 200	If the bot is smart enough to count as a ranked player, then I'm in favor of it in multiplayer. Short of that, bots should be relegated to the role of time-waster. my 2c. reply

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