Hello all,

The following is a recap of additions, updates, corrections, GM notes, etc. that will be showing up in the next version of the rules (yes...I know, I'm working on it). If you have any questions, see any typos or if there is something I've missed, let either Pete or I know.

Russ


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ORDERS
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ANZ (Analyze Item)

Order can be used to identify any item that you have researched, can research or have in stockpile at any population group with a science installations(Imperial or otherwise, any size).

CONV (Assign Fleet to Convoy Route)

The CONV order now defaults to ‘zero’ in the priority field – you can just type over it or leave it alone. Entering a zero is what almost everybody does anyway as that tells the fleet being assigned that the last Convoy Route order that it executed has a priority of zero…so it will do the next highest-numbered Convoy Route order next time (almost always Priority #10).

DECF (Decommission Fleet)

The DECF order can now be used to send all your empty fleets back to your homeworld in a single order. Enter the keyword HOME as the Fleet ID # and all fleets with no ships in them will be relocated to your homeworld.

DELS (Delete Standing Order)

Used to delete up to five standing orders (identified by their priority number)

DELS, [Priority #], [Priority #], [Priority #], [Priority #], [Priority #],

ESTA (Edit Standing Order Priority)

Change the priority # of up to five standing orders

ESTA, [Priority # to Edit], [New Priority #], [Priority # to Edit], [New Priority #], [Priority # to Edit], [New Priority #], [Priority # to Edit], [New Priority #], [Priority # to Edit], [New Priority #]

EXIL (Exile Character)

Exile a specific character

EXIL, [Character ID#]

FNAM (Rename Fleets)

A new order, FNAM has been added – it is very similar to the NAME (Name Legendary Characters) order, allowing you to rename up to five fleets per FNAM.

FNAM, [Fleet #], [New Name], [Fleet #], [New Name], [Fleet #], [New Name], [Fleet #], [New Name], [Fleet #], [New Name],

FOB (Fleet Order of Battle)

Gives an analysis of the fleet

FOB, [Fleet ID#]

JETT (Jettison Cargo)

The JETT order no longer requires an action point.

If you Jettison a System Beacon, your fleet will deploy a System Beacon. There is no point in deploying more than one System Beacon at once in the same system.

MESS (Send Message)

An order to send standard messages in-game to another empire.

NAME (Name Legendary Character)

Changed to allow 5 characters to be named per order

OC (Offload Cargo)

Updated to allow for the keyword ALL NO FUEL along with the usual ALL option (offloading everything except fuel)

PAP (Political Action Proposal)

You can set any level of alliance you like with this order, which is used primarily to allow for complex Rules of Engagement fleet settings. You must have a diplomat-class Legendary Character located at the same place as a diplomat of the target empire (either on the same world or with co-located fleets). The level of alliance you choose is one-way: that is, you can indicated that you treat the other empire as an “alliance”, but he could do a PAP order and set a relationship with your empire as a “trade pact”. Both parties do not need to issue PAP orders at the same time. One could issue a PAP and the other does not ever have to reciprocate.

PAP, [Empire #], [Agreement]

REVO (Instigate Revolution)

Used to change your primary goverment type, secondary government type and/or imperial tradition (also allows you to specify the title of your new emperor). May be issued once every 25 turns.

REVO, [new primary govt type], [new secondary govt type], [new Imperial Tradition], [new Emperor title]

RTD (Request Technology Descriptions)

RTD results now display a list of every tech area that you have earned research points for, including Exploration research bonuses.

TAC (Ground Force Tactical Ratings)

Gives analysis of army

TAC, [Army ID#]

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GM NOTES
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“Scientists aboard fleets will use their spare time to work on research projects. They aren’t as effective as when they have access to superior facilities on a world but they are able to assist in SURV missions at the same time as they conduct their shipboard experiments.”

“Your religious leaders have a newfound faith, seeking out and praying to powerful deities when possible.”

“ORB (Orbital Reconnaissance) missions will reveal all unusual exploration finds on a planet, and will also give an estimate of how intense the exploration at the world in question has been in the past.”

“Stability is a measure of happiness, and if high enough it can induce civilians to move into your population groups of their own accord. This can be hard to achieve on the homeworld (if it does happen, this represents civilians opting to move into the big cities out of the countryside). On colony worlds it means civilians moving in from off-planet to seek better lives. In combination with Imperial Medical and Cloning Centers, colony pop growth can see some pretty impressive increases”

“Alien fleet sightings now indicate some movement information about the intruding fleet—if it warped into a system to generate the intruder report at a warp point, if it moved in-system to get to the destination or if a sensor sweep was performed”

“As each of your Standing Orders is loaded (normally the first thing that happens in each turn), the code will now check to see if you have a DELS order anywhere in your issued orders. If so, a check is made to see if any of the DELS orders you are issuing will be deleting a Standing Order with the same priority number that is about to be loaded. If so, that Standing Order will not be loaded. It hasn’t deleted the Standing Order yet, but it will when it gets to the DELS order during actual order evaluation. This is to make your DELS orders timely: they’ll delete the appropriate Standing Orders later in the turn, when the DELS is processed normally. The Standing Orders that are going to be deleted later should not be loaded for processing – you’ve ordered them deleted, after all – to the ones that are going away will be skipped”

"Fuel Shuttles & Cargo Barges - Can now be carried in cargo bays instead of fighter bays. This change was done to make it easier to pick up these items during EXPL missions. Fighters and Drones still require Fighter Bays and Drone Bays respectively when found during EXPL missions."

"Population & Colonists can no longer be transferred or offloaded into a Population Group that was not originally colonized by your Empire. This prevents one Empire from rapidly transferring a lot population to a trading partner on its homeworld, so as to rapidly create another (alien) production base there for the purpose of making alien technology (and avoiding any significant shipment of goods)"

Russ, there is nothing in the REVO order or GM notes that specifies what, if any, consequences there are when isssuing that order. Last we heard, the highest ranked Diplomat would take the place of the Emporer. Don't know if this is final, and if it is, we never heard what happens if an Empire has no Diplomats.

The highest ranking character (lowest ID, I believe, if multiple of same rank) moves into the position of Emperor in the event of a REVO. The character retains his class (scientist, army officer, etc.) so he becomes a dual-function character retaining his previous abilities/bonuses while acquiring those of Emperor as well

Russ

Just added to the code

• SENS (and XSENS) no longer give the erroneous "No alien fleets are detected here" message on empty alien fleets.
• Hydrogen atmospheres can be SKIMmed now at the same yield as Methane (I just posted a note about this in the "sticky" message on Skimming). Methane atmosphere with Liquid Hydrogen oceans was great, but Hydrogen atmosphere with Liquid Hydrogen oceans was far inferior...made no sense
• Non-Gas Giants that happen to have Hot Gases can now be skimmed at a 0.40 yield efficiency. They won't be as good as Gas Giants no matter what liquid ocean they might happen to have, but the 0.40 isn't bad

Regarding the note on DELS orders being flagged and not loaded, it does not appear to be working...

In my last turn I issued a DELS order to cancel an XSHIP order. I was informed that the relevant standing order had been deleted (which it has, by the way) but for some reason the program still attempted to run the XSHIP order again later in the turn. Fortunately the order failed due to lack of ship components.

Are we supposed to notify RTG if we have DELS orders in our order sheets or are they automatically scanned?

Pete,



Please can you look at the other thread I just replied on?

This is NOT what's been happening. I think there might be something rather wrong here with the SENS order. A fix would be appreciated by all with WP Sentinels!!!!

Mark

Already responded there - either there were no fleets there, no alien fleets with ships, or an alien fleet was there but your fleet failed the spotting check during the SENS. That line has been atomized from the code and mercifully will never be seen again

Yes, looking into this. DELS should prohibit the loading of the priority #'s that show up in the DELS order. However, there is an issue involving the addition of new standing orders or renumbering of existing ones that causes a problem here. It is definitely my intention to have the code not load standing orders with priority #'s that match those appearing in a DELS order, as I expect that's what everybody wants

Wasn't there something about the ED (Eliminate Design) order being changed so that it would clear all designs that currently have no ships?

Luckily, I don't have many designs to clear out, but it would be nice to take care of it all at once.

-LX

There was some discussion way back about allowing multiple (four-five) fields on the CON/DISM order to sponsor colonialism, was this dropped out of concern for turn income or so?

Cheers
/Lars

Could we also PLEASE, Pretty please have an addendum to the rules about our leaders? Ie what they affect and so on, it may be obvious for those of us that have played a while but not for all, I still hear of players depositing agents on worlds thinking they actually do something at this point. When will this be fixed and what can one expect from for example agents? Can you capture leaders? Is this what the prison is for? What can you do with captured characters etc. I have seen some ground battles where characters are simply eliminated, there's no listing if they've been killed in battle or captured, they're just poofed. So this bit needs a wee seeing to.

Cheers
/Locklyn

Russ and Pete, I know that you guys are busy and I would not ask if it werent important but would it be possible to have any further changes to the rules since January 9 2004 posted here? As a newbie I do not know what other things have changed. I just found out how global excludes work and I was unaware I did not even know. Now I wonder what else I dont know.

Mahalo

Hi Pete and Russ. I have to agree with Ali. I've been in this since the start and keeping up with all the changes/edit/additions is getting very difficult with notes spread out on various turns and posted here on this forum. I know a couple of folks that don't even read the forum so they're really out of the loop. An updated rules files is badly needed not only for the new folks but for us old folks too. Thanks

This is what i have collected since i have been playing. Hope it helps.

GAME UPDATES

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2003-11-21
Scientists aboard fleets will use their spare time to work on research projects. They aren't as effective as when they have access to superior facilities on a world, but they are able to assist in SURV missions at the same time as they conduct their shipboard experiments.... Your religious leaders have a newfound faith, seeking out and praying to powerful deities when possible. Beginning next turn, ORB (Orbital Reconnaissance) missions will reveal all unusual Exploration finds present on a planet, and will also give an estimate of how intense the exploration at the world in question has been in the past. Stability is a measure of happiness, and if high enough it can induce civilians to move into your population groups of their own accord. This can be hard to achieve on your homeworld (if it does happen, this represents civilians opting to move into the big cities out of the countryside). On colony worlds it means civilians moving in from off-planet to seek better lives. In combination with Imperial Medical and Cloning Centers, colony pop growth can see some pretty impressive increases.... New entry program including the recently-added orders to be sent out soon. Alien fleet sightings now indicate some movement information about the intruding fleet--if it warped into a system to generate the intruder report at a warp point, if it moved in-system to get to the destination or if a sensor sweep was performed.
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2004-01-30
RTD (Request Technology Descriptions) results now display a list of every tech area that you have not yet finished but have positive research points invested. This includes regular Research Center work and Exploration research. System Beacons are in! To deploy a System Beacon, simply Jettison one and it will begin operating immediately. There is no point in deploying more than one in a star system at the same time. System Beacons are 100 ton items and require 400 Electronics and 100 Transaluminum to construct. Every empire has been given System Beacon technology this turn. A description of System Beacons follows: **System Beacons are used to claim star sytems in the name of your Emperor. If you have no Emperor, one of your highest-ranking leaders will claim imperial leadership in the interim. System Beacons decay over the period of twenty turns as a result of cosmic radiation, micrometeorite hits and general system failure and cease to function after that time. Some system anomalies such as solar flare zones could speed up this process. The activation date of the Beacon is broadcast along with the Beacon message. Replacing one of your own Beacons
will leave the original activation date intact while restarting the decay timer. Other empires can place their own Beacons anywhere they like, even in star systems you have already claimed. You cannot destroy your own system beacons, but alien ones can be destroyed by moving any fleet into their location with Rules of Engagement settings of X-Ray, Yankee or Zulu** If you design a Surface Fortress or Orbital Installation with at least one engine or jump drive, those designs will now be
converted into Starships during the NUD execution and given a Starship Class designation. In the past it was possible to design Surface Forts or Orbitals with engines or jump drives and they kept their Fort/Orbital designation - they were treated as Starships in battle and gained no advantage, being Starships for all purposes, but it looked odd so the NUD takes care of the naming scheme properly now.

More new stuff on this turn: when you lose Installations on a colony due to attrition (ouch!) the program will weight the losses toward whatever Installations that are the most plentiful. For example, if you lose 2 Installations (no more unemployed population to soak up the attrition) and you happened to have 99 Iron Mines and 1 Fission Power Plant, you'd have a 99% chance to lose 1 Iron Mine, followed by a 98/99 chance of losing another Iron Mine. You could still lose the Fission Power Plant, but the odds are strongly in your favor. Also, when you gain the ability to construct a new Installation, a free INST order is now executed for you on the spot (just like the free ANZ that you receive whenever you complete a new regular tech item).
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2004-04-09
I am making a general pass through all Power-consuming Installations to look at their efficiencies - some just aren't worth powering up and will likely have their Power requirements dropped. Shipyards will begin consuming Power as part of this pass. Installations that can increase population growth are also being looked at, to improve their usefulness. New fleet formations will be added soon - every Empire will get some new formations for free, with the ability to change all fleets on one formation to another formation with just one order.
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2004-04-23
Lots of upgrades this turn
[1] Because the Power cost of maintaining thermal regulator class installations (those that favorably extend your temperature range for attrition purposes) was so high, only 1 of these is needed now in a population group instead of 1 per 100 population. The Thermal Transfer Center and Deep Core Heatsink are the more commonly-known types of these installations.
[2] Atmosphere Exchangers are still required at 1/100 pop but have been reduced in cost to Domed City levels at 5,000 Improved Construction Materials. They also now draw power from wind turbines, or surface thermal exchangers for vacuum worlds, reducing their external Power needs to a lowly 2,500 Power each. Crustacean financiers everywhere are clicking their claws in frustration for failing to purchase Acme Atmo Exchange stock before the coming boom in construction... Those of
you who spent gobs of points on lifeform attrition modifiers need not fret, though: there are plenty of worlds that are still really hard for lesser races to colonize, or remain prohibitively expensive for them without your built-in natural advantages. Thermal regulation can only extend a race's temperature range so far, after all, and these changes make it easier for you to colonize *really* ugly worlds that would scare off any inferior species....
[3] The entry program now lists warp point classes for all warp points that appear in the drop down menu during a MOVE (Move to Warp Point) order.
[4] All warp points in every star system that you have ever System Scanned, including those that you have not yet Surveyed, will also show up in the MOVE order dropdown menu.
[5] Update to Orbital Crystal Refineries: they now produce 100 Improved Refined Crystals instead of 10.
[6] FOB (Fleet Order of Battle) results now list Morale and Experience levels for all ships in the fleet.
[7] Global Exclusion lists for LC (Load Cargo) and OC (Offload Cargo) have been added. During execution of an LC, ALL order, if an item is found in the Load Cargo exclusion list, that item will not load. It is skipped as if it was not present in the population group. The same is true for OC, ALL orders - items in Fleet Cargo will be skipped if they are encountered during an OC, ALL order and are listed in your OC exclusion list. To add items to your LC exclusion list, issue an LC order with the special keyword GLOBAL EXCLUDE as the first item. Example: 'LC, 12345, 25, GLOBAL EXCLUDE, 0, Processed Radioactives, 0, Light Beam Laser, 0' would add Processed Radioactives and Light Beam Laser to your LC exclude list. This order acts like a toggle, so if either or both of those items happened to be on your LC exclude list already, they would be removed. 'OC, 12345, 501, GLOBAL EXCLUDE, 0, Fuel, 0, Light Drone, 0, Interceptor, 0' would add Fuel, Light Drone and Interceptor to your OC exclude list (or remove them if already on that list). These lists are only checked when
an LC, ALL or OC, ALL order is encountered. It is also checked if you happen to enter an LC, ALL NO FUEL or OC, ALL NO FUEL order. Imperial Flag has been added to the LC exclusion list for every empire. The population group and fleet #'s entered in these GLOBAL EXCLUDE LC and OC orders do not matter, because these are global lists used for your entire empire. You can still use the ALL NO FUEL option if you like, but this system sort of replaces it - you could simply add Fuel to your LC
exclude list.
[8] Specific LC and OC item exclusions has been added as well, for use with regular versions of those orders. Just list an item like you would normally, but use the keyword EXCLUDE as the quantity and that item will be skipped. Example: OC, 12345, 34, Construction Materials, 25000, Fuel, EXCLUDE, Crystals, 10000 would load Construction Materials and Crystals but would skip loading Fuel. These specific exclusions are checked during LC, ALL or OC, ALL orders as well as regular LC and OC orders. For the most part I'd expect the global lists to have items added such as Fuel, Processed Radioactives and Water (things needed for Power generation) or OC exclusions for expendables such as fighters or drones. Using specific exclusions during an LC, ALL order would look like this: 'LC, 12345, 25, ALL, 0, Fuel, EXCLUDE, Construction Materials, EXCLUDE, Processed Radioactives, EXCLUDE'. This would load everything from pop group # 12345 onto fleet # 25, but would skip Fuel, Construction Materials and Processed Radioactives. Make sure to put a number in for the quantity field right after the ALL keyword - it isn't used for anything, but you need to get past it to start entering excluded item names...so put some number in there and then start keying in <item name>, EXCLUDE pairs as if you were entering a regular LC or OC order.
[9] Two new Force Battle Plans have been added to every empire: Standard Line and Orbital Defense. You'll see them with your other FBP's at the end of your turn results. The NENC (Naval Encounter Plan) order has been updated to allow you to change all of your fleets that currently have one FBP to any other one that you like by entering the 'from' and 'to' Force Battle Plans in that order and the keyword CHANGE ALL as the fleet #. Example: 'NENC, CHANGE ALL, Column Attack, Standard Line' would run through all of your fleets that are currently on the Column Attack FBP and change them to Standard Line. You might notice that the entry program saves the CHANGE ALL keyword in the fleet number box as a zero - that's ok as you can actually enter CHANGE ALL or simply a zero for the fleet # (either one works). You can make changes to the new Standard Line or Orbital Defense FBP's using FORM (Formation Combat Orders) orders just like your other Force Battle Plans if you like. They were just added to give you a couple more default plans to work with.
[10] We've made some adjustments to the effectiveness of static sensor sweeps (SENS and XSENS orders), improving their results.
[11] A new entry program is coming out with this set of turn results. Unzip it and copy the resulting file directly into your c:\snrote\ directory, overwriting the program that is there now. You don't need to do anything else. It supports the new warp point dropdown menus and has a few other minor fixes. If you try to use the old program after this turn, you'll see some weird-looking names for your warp points I hope you find these additions useful!
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2004-07-16
The SCRP (Scrap Ship) order can now be used to repair damaged ships. Instead of dismantling these ships for their component parts when completed, your shipyard workers will finish them as if they were new ships. They will retain their former Morale and Experience levels. To repair a ship instead of scrapping it, use a negative number in the Quantity field I am working on giving your ship designers a way to redesignate an already-existing ship class to a new Mission Class (from B to
T, for instance).
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2004-07-30
Axial tilt on asteroid fields is no longer considered when calculating attrition.
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Russ,

Do we have an ETA on the new rules version?
The Legendary Characters bit?

/Locklyn

Suggestion -- can you post any order changes here each turn, instead of just listing them in the turn results? It's been a year since anything on this thread was updated. I know there have been order changes put in. And without having them posted here, it is very difficult to find the orders.

If this is still the case; it's been another 4 months since WKE235's post.

What new orders are now available since then, and/or what additions have happened since?

Thanks in advance...

Krysia, this was the only reference to an order change since WKE posted in August. The other comments referred to Santa points (a SRP bonus given on the game anniversary) and the creation of a player run newletter. Here is the reference:

BUMP
/Locklyn