Gravitic Mine Rack

[cestvel]

Population in SNII was different than population in this version . First off , there were tons of advanced neutrals in the old game . Second , you could not manipulate the population in the old version in the manner that you can in this game . When you conquered a HW , then basically all you could do is turn that world into a manufacturing center....which you could do with any neutral also . It was not possible to get the pop off of any world except your own homeworld and turn them into colonists to make colonies . Colonies in the old SN were the primary way to generate income ( money ) with which to build things...at the same time to had to generate IOP from your industries to build these things . There was so much unusable population , that it was no big deal to kill 100's of thousands of pop....or destroy whole planets outright . As a Death Machine , after I had enough manufacturing centers , every population number that was in excess was killed . That generated favor points , since as a Death Machine ( and the Unit Prime ) , our sole directive was to rid the galaxy of biological entities . Research was much simpler back then , and the tech trees also shorter and simpler.....The NWTX-44 planet cracker mdd was one of those weapons that Paul ( Dutch PBM Express ) allowed us to use to destroy worlds ......a destroyed world created an asteriod field ....the field could be harvested to bring resources...either light or heavy metals which were used by the industries to create IOP ( industrial output points )....with a combination of IOP and money you could then build things . Resources were finite in that game , not like in this game . Paul also allowed us to destroy worlds with smaller mdd's , but then we had to use massive amounts of these mdd's . For a Death Machine , mdd's were an important thing , since they did allow us to kill large amounts of population . Mdd's were also important , though to a lesser degree for biologicals , since they could use them in conjunction with special orders to kill population, and declare the kills as sacrifices to the bad gods ( Kar-Tang and Vladchek I believe were their names ) . We were also allowed to use the lesser mdd's to alter planets to make them more colonizable . As a Death Machine I looked for a V planet class ( very very cold worlds which under normal circumstances could not be colonized by even a Death Machine ) , dropped some mdd's on it to raise the temp of the world ( and the world kept its V class ) . I could then colonize the world with not so bad attrition , and the world was a great trading partner for a nearby world with population . In that game , really , mdd's were important for many reasons . Pete probably envisioned other things for the mdd's in this game when he started programming the game , possibly similar to the old game , but then as the concept for this game varied so much from the old game , he changed the mdd's , but did not take them out completely......but , from what I can see , they could easily have been left out from this version . Maybe they were left in for sentimental reasons....after all , they did play a more important role in the old game . Ultimately only one person could really answer why they were left in this game....much the same as to why religion was left in the new version , since from what I can see , religion has no relevance in this game...at least not yet .

 

Paul did a lot of things wrong with the special orders in my view. He even told other players your HW location. A real bad thing to do for a GM.

No wonder they went bankrupt.

[rfouasnon]

I launched a drone strike with over 400 , 000 drones of varying sizes and tech , and then launched about 300 , 000 fighters....wiped everything out....and the guy did a special order to his god , and had his fleet moved and restored.....that was the last turn I did.....didn't want to play against Wim , the GM .

[Locklyn]

I too miss religion, I miss neutrals doing something other than being placeholders for useless items and installations you cannot use and I miss the universe being more alive than it is, basically this is a wargame where numbers prevail, ensure to get bigger numbers than your opponent and you win.

 

I started playing SN II with PBM Express, unfortunately they folded right after I had started. I used to play Starmaster and the excellent Where Lies The Power game (which my own Shadows Of Power is based upon) I remember heading a 45 player alliance before email was common, back in the 80s, postage and phonebill was killing me

 

 

 

 

/Locklyn

[hobknob]

I too remember the Gods of SNII. At one time or another I was the top position for each of them, not counting death machines which I didn't play. Some of the special abilities were kind of nifty and for the dark ones it was a sure fire way to keep your population down.

 

I keep waiting for my religious types to actually get something other than favor points for all the pages they have taken up over the years. Alas, nothing thus far.

:cheers:

[chairman lar]

I too remember the Gods of SNII. At one time or another I was the top position for each of them, not counting death machines which I didn't play. Some of the special abilities were kind of nifty and for the dark ones it was a sure fire way to keep your population down.

I keep waiting for my religious types to actually get something other than favor points for all the pages they have taken up over the years. Alas, nothing thus far.

Gods.....Schmods..... What I really miss is 'Improved Berthing'.

 

Locklyn's right about the postage & phone bills though, no love lost there!

 

[Locklyn]

LOL, We sound like the old geezers sitting on the porch in our rocking chairs remeniscing over how everything was better in the golden old days! Last night I had to go out into my storage shed and look through old PBM rulebooks, Earthwood, Starmaster, Early Victory, Early Supernova, Starweb and many many more...I do find it a bit sad that so many games were lost to the mediaintense and instant gratification web games...Oh well, this old geezer better get to my doctors appointment, just had my birthday so time for my checkup

 

Have fun all

 

Cheers

/Lars

[looker]

LOL, We sound like the old geezers sitting on the porch in our rocking chairs remeniscing over how everything was better in the golden old days! Last night I had to go out into my storage shed and look through old PBM rulebooks, Earthwood, Starmaster, Early Victory, Early Supernova, Starweb and many many more...I do find it a bit sad that so many games were lost to the mediaintense and instant gratification web games...Oh well, this old geezer better get to my doctors appointment, just had my birthday so time for my checkup

 

Have fun all

 

Cheers

/Lars

 

Hope they do not find anything that a bandaid on the tush won't fix!

 

Not even I wish to be the looker for that treatment.