Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Fri,  9 Oct 1992 07:15:16 -0400 
From: Ceri Alun Morgan <cm5m+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Scimmage Results: Target Practice vs. the World

On 09-Oct-92 in Scimmage Results:  Target P..
user Steve Von Worley@cory.Be writes:
>At approximately midnight PDT, all hell broke lose on a small INL server
>deep in the bowels of the computer science department at UCBerkeley; Target
>Practice took on the World for the first time.
> 
>The pre-tourney sparring looked good; TP racked up kill after kill
>as it tossed beautiful torp streams into its surprised and bewildered
>human foes.  You could sense the intimidation building on the opposing
>team as doubts cascaded through their minds... "have we met our match?",
>"damn that robot toasted me like marshmallows in a forest fire"...
>Then the game began, and everything changed.
>

Surprisingly, Rick and myself were able to plasma the robots quite
successfully. Just seemed strange as I expected all of my plasmas to be
phasered right as I 
fired them. My favorite, at one point was R6: :-***

> 
>The initial bombing runs were pretty well even, with a slight advantage
>to the Feds (humans), who for a short while had a stockpile of armies
>on Earth.  The Feds brought out a base; this was a problem.  Since TP
>does not understand bases yet, it did not know that anyone with kills
>who had docked at the starbase might be carrying.  Thus, it did not ogg
>them or protect against them.  I requested that the base change out, but
>then I realized it would only prolong the scrimmage, which would end
>in genocide, so I let it stay in.
> 

Maybe this was because of the base, but I flew right by a robot on more
than one occasion, uncloaked while carrying 4+ armies and was not even
fired at. I think the robots should be more flexible as too killing
people with kills, not just people that are known carriers.

>
>Quickly, TP's front line planets were taken. 
>

Unfortunately, at this point (about 5 or 6 minutes into the game), my
connection was ghostbusted. We were playing on an inl server (not sure
which version #). I thought that a ghostbusted slot was supposed to be
cleared quickly on the inl server. My slot had still not been cleared
when the genocide occured (at least 10 minutes later).

>
>Soon afterm the core fringes
>were destroyed and then finally, there was an LPS on Rom...  at the 18 
>minute mark a Fed dropped the last two armies and finished.
> 
>Overall, I was happy with the results.  TP had a few good oggs, although
>it bombed and defended marginally.  Observing a robot, in action against
>clueful human opponents, highlights it's weaknesses beautifully.
> 

Their main strength seemed to be pummeling cloakers once they phaser
locked one. Some strategic flaws were evident though. Such as 4 robots
chasing ZZnew guy through kli and then ori space. Also, unless they
"saw" you pick up, you were ignored. At least that's what it seemed like
to me during my 5 minutes in the game.

>
>Here is the conquer file (TP was logged in as guest):
> 
>Conquer! Fri Oct  9 00:33:57 1992
> 
>  The galaxy has been conquered by the Federation:
>  The Federation:
>     InspectorPlasma (F9) with 3 planets and 69 armies.
>      Count SMACKula (Fb) with 3 planets and 66 armies.
>              JESTER (Fd) with 2 planets and 32 armies.
>           ZZnew guy (Fe) with 1 planets and 60 armies.
>        Sarah Conner (Fc) with 1 planets and 32 armies.
>               Shark (Fa) with 0 planets and 41 armies.
>              Scorn! (Ff) with 0 planets and 2 armies.
>  The Romulans:
>               guest (R6) with 2 planets and 32 armies.
>               guest (R3) with 0 planets and 77 armies.
>               guest (R7) with 0 planets and 46 armies.
>               guest (R1) with 0 planets and 43 armies.
>               guest (R5) with 0 planets and 36 armies.
>               guest (R2) with 1 planets and 1 armies.
>               guest (R4) with 0 planets and 28 armies.
> 
>And a list of the people who participated:
> 
>	InspectorPlasma		psycho bomber
Hey! That's ryche
>	Count SMACKula		Videodrome
>	JESTER			JESTER
>	ZZnew guy		ZZnew guy
>	Sarah Conner		Duck Dodgers
>	Shark			Shark
>	Scorn!			Scorn!
>	Rhudabaga Boy		Non-Stop!!
>
Please note that 5 people from Side Salad were playing at this ungodly
hour. Maybe that's why we're good :)
> 
>It was a fairly harsh first matchup!  I was actually surprised that it
>lasted as long as it did (longer than some INL games :).  Maybe I'll
>look for clueless opponents next time! ;)
> 
>Thanks to all of you for helping me!  I'll post information about the
>next scrimmage when I think I have improved Target Practice enough to
>make a difference!
> 
>Sandia - creator of Target Practice


-Ceri
InspectorPlasma
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