HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: monty@iesd.auc.dk (Torben Thellefsen Nielsen)
Subject: Re: strategies
Organization: Mathematics and Computer Science, Aalborg University
	<MONTY.93Jan19160959@banach.iesd.auc.dk>
	<1993Jan19.154133.15775@wam.umd.edu>
Date: 23 Jan 93 12:07:56

In article <1993Jan19.154133.15775@wam.umd.edu> wayne@wam.umd.edu (Wayne McCullough) writes:

>   One strategy I like is to build early a bunch of scout vessels, and then
>   send them into enemy teritory, looking for planets and frieghters.  Sure,
>   once a single one of his capitol ships catches up, your ship is toast, but
>   most of his planets will be bait, and will have enough Fuel to keep it going,
>   and he will spend most of his resources trying to stop you instead of
>   disrupting your planets, so you can build the capitol ships to finish him
>   off.

Sure, you'll be a real pain in his unmentionable, but the planets will
most certainly be equally easy for him to get back. I'm not saying
that it's a bad idea, though, provided you start on Short or Medium
Range - otherwise you would be unable to reach his planets before he
gets his defenses built up (in which case your small ships are
"toast").

Torben
--
*******************************************************************************
Torben Thellefsen Nielsen                             E-mail: monty@iesd.auc.dk

Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say 'NI' at will to old
ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred.
							Roger The Shrubber
*******************************************************************************
From: harwood@umiacs.umd.edu (David Harwood)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: Re: new version - a lottery proposal/ correction
Date: 26 Jan 93 20:09:26 GMT
Organization: UMIACS, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

In article <63730@mimsy.umd.edu> harwood@umiacs.umd.edu (David Harwood) writes:
[H\In article <1k1ua6INNb77@ub.d.umn.edu| cbusch@ub.d.umn.edu (Chris) writes:
\|I fear the game will be _ruined_ with the different race abilities.
\|There will a lot of personal fighting as to what race a person gets.  A
\|cure for this would be to allow more than one occurance of a race in a
\|game.  E.g. 2 people playing the gorn, 5 people playing the feds.  I
\|dont expect the game to allow more than 11 players of course.  Another
\|benefit would be that compettions will be easier to run.  (Everyone with
\|the same race.)  So please Tim, I beg of you, allow a race to be used
\|by multiple players in a game.
\|
\|
\\\\\\
\For tournement purposes, I think the game ought to provide a
\default lottery system for assigning races:
\(o) The host determines how many may play the same race type;
\eg. Each race should be available, but a random subset of
\extras might be added to a pool. Or the pool might be purely
\random.
\(i) If there are any priviledged assignments, they are assigned
\their races by a host.
\(ii) Other players rank all races in simple order of preference.
\(iii) A random number generator determines a random ordering
\of players.
\(iv) According to this order, players are assigned to the
\race which remains available and which they most prefer.
\D.H.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
In step (o) I mean the pool might be determined by random
sampling  - with replacement - (extras), as suggested by 
previous posts.
From: adam@micromuse.co.uk (Adam Kerrison)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: Where can I get VGA Planets ?
Date: 25 Jan 93 16:52:33 GMT
Reply-To: adam@micromuse.co.uk
Organization: MicroMuse Ltd.

Hi,

Sorry if this is an FAQ, but where can I download VGA Planets ?? This
sounds like a fun game and I am very interested :-)

Adam

---
===========================================================================
Adam Kerrison                  | Phone : +44 71 352 7774
Technical Support              | Fax   : +44 71 351 7834
MicroMuse Ltd                  | Personal E-mail: adam@micromuse.co.uk 
London SW10 0RN                | Support E-mail : support@micromuse.co.uk 
===========================================================================
Any opinions expressed above are my own and not those of MicroMuse ....
so if you don't like them ...
===========================================================================
From: pcrossma@cs.ulowell.edu (The Gillrocker)
Subject: Re: I still have six open spots in my VGA Planets game.
Organization: University of Massachusetts at Lowell Computer Science
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 06:28:18 GMT

My VGA-Planets game is now full...

I will be posting a list of scores for all to see from time to time...

Thanks to everyone who responded.

-- 
 _ __ A straight _ line __ may be the shortest distance between two points, 
' )  ) but it is//by no/  ) means the most interesting. -- Dr. Who
 /--' __.  . . //     /    __  _____    _   ______  __.  ____  pcrossma@ulowell
/    (_/|_(_/_</_    (__/ / (_(_) \_)__/_)_/ / / <_(_/|_/ / <_ .ulowell.edu
From: pcarver@ruhets.rutgers.edu (Paul Carver)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: Is it Really this complicated?
Date: 26 Jan 93 05:49:56 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

I'd like to play, but the mechanics seem terribly complicated.
As I see it, I have to:
1)  upload the *.rst files to my sun account in binary
2)  uuencode each of them
3)  email each one to the appropriate player
4)  get responses from each player
5)  write them to separate files and edit out the header
6)  uudecode them to get *.trn files
7)  download them to my pc
8)  run host and then start at the begining again

am I over-complicating it?  If there's an easy way to do it, please
tell me because I don't think I could deal with all that on a regular
basis.

					Thanx,
						paul
From: reynolds@park.bu.edu (John Reynolds)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: planetary defense, ship mass
Date: 22 Jan 93 02:38:37 GMT
Distribution: alt.games.vga-planets
Organization: Boston University Center for Adaptive Systems
In-reply-to: smithme@spot.Colorado.EDU's message of 21 Jan 93 23:45:04 GMT


Has anyone put together a schedule of the types and number of beam
weapons that planets acquire at different levels of defense? 

Also, how does mass affect the amount of damage a ship can take?  

Finally, do fighters always do 1% per shot?  

Thanks! -John
From: 90sra@eng.cam.ac.uk (S.R. Atkins)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: Re: Is it Really this complicated?
Date: 27 Jan 93 09:34:22 GMT
Organization: cam.eng

pcarver@ruhets.rutgers.edu (Paul Carver) writes:

>I'd like to play, but the mechanics seem terribly complicated.
>As I see it, I have to:
>1)  upload the *.rst files to my sun account in binary
Yep.
>2)  uuencode each of them
>3)  email each one to the appropriate player
Should be a simple script file to do both of those - my UN*X scripting is
a little rusty, can anyone oblige?
>4)  get responses from each player
No, wait for them to e-mail them to you...
>5)  write them to separate files and edit out the header
>6)  uudecode them to get *.trn files
Again a bit of devious scripting should be able to do this.
>7)  download them to my pc

>8)  run host and then start at the begining again

>am I over-complicating it?  If there's an easy way to do it, please
>tell me because I don't think I could deal with all that on a regular
>basis.

>					Thanx,
>						paul

This is all only needed if you're hosting the game of course....

A better solution would be to have host (which is a simple dumb tty app.
after all...) running on the Sun - any chance of some source code for
host, I wonder?
From: reynolds@park.bu.edu (John Reynolds)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: Re: Fighters and Torps in 3.0
Date: 26 Jan 93 18:23:53 GMT
Organization: Boston University Center for Adaptive Systems
In-reply-to: bengalt@bigwpi.WPI.EDU's message of 25 Jan 93 20:52:09 GMT


I think Tim's decision to make fighters more expensive is good,
although maybe a bit extreme.  In the present version, there is no way
to defeat a big carrier except with another big carrier.  Something
has to be done to balance this out.

In the example you gave (which, by the way is a biased example because
the pest class ship is cheap for the many beam weapons it has), it is
true that under the new system the Pest player would lose a ship that
is worth alot less than the fighters.  But the loss in the most
precious resource: minerals is much less, and in the new game, money
will be transportable, so the higher cost may be less of a problem.

                  Tech                   #    #  Empty  Max    Max    #    #
CLASS             Req  MCr  Tr  Dr  Mb  Eng Crew  Mass  Fuel  Cargo  Main Aux
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Little Pest Escort  2   60  27  12  45   2  175    75     80    20    6    -


DEVICE             Tech Req         MCr      Tr      Dr      Mb
------------------------------------------------------------------
Fighter                1             25       3       0       2

-John
From: cascio@garnet.berkeley.edu (Jamais Cascio)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: Tim, Tim, Mountain Man
Date: 22 Jan 1993 21:03:45 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: garnet.berkeley.edu
Summary: Chainsaws and CPUs


I once saw Tim launch fire from his fingertips.

Tim has an electric stump in his bedroom.

Does everyone know what cocomax means?

heh heh heh
From: rfentima@ub.d.umn.edu (Robert Fentiman)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: Ship List
Date: 28 Jan 1993 11:09:27 -0600
Organization: University of Minnesota, Duluth
NNTP-Posting-Host: ub.d.umn.edu

I have a list (in ascii) of the ships, their cost (in money and
minerals), their cargo/fuel space, etc.

Would anyone like me to post this list here?

	Thanks
	Robert Fentiman

InterNet: rfentima@ub.d.umn.edu
At: University of Minnesota, Duluth
From: shephard@fraser.sfu.ca (Gordon Shephard)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: Re: new version
Date: 27 Jan 93 01:02:45 GMT
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada

cbusch@ub.d.umn.edu (Chris) writes:

>benefit would be that compettions will be easier to run.  (Everyone with
>the same race.)  So please Tim, I beg of you, allow a race to be used
>by multiple players in a game.

I agree.  It Certainly wouldn't conflict with the Game Story.

It certainly would lend to game balance.

-- 
| Gordon Harry Shephard         | Distributed Computing Support Group  |
| Academic Computing Services   | Phone: (604)291-3930   (604)464-4991 |
| Simon Fraser University       |                                      |
| Burnaby, BC, Canada. V5A 1S6  | shephard@sfu.ca                      | 
|                                                                      |
| Disclaimer: In No Way am I speaking for my Employers or Simon Fraser |
| University.                                                          |
From: jensen@peruvian.cs.utah.edu (travis jensen)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: Is there an FAQ?
Date: 28 Jan 93 00:40:24 GMT
Organization: University of Utah Computer Science

Is there an FAQ for vga-planets that I could get
at?  I would appreciate you response.


Travis A. Jensen             "Who needs a life if you have 
Brain Dead Student            lots of money?  Who needs money 
Overworked Employee           if you have no life?" 
Ugggghhhh                     --T. Jensen (relating his life) 
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
From: jbc4m@holmes.acc.Virginia.EDU (John B. Carr)
Subject: Re: New Game
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 15:42:00 GMT

	This game is now full.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 John Carr
 jbc4m@virginia.edu 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
From: monty@iesd.auc.dk (Torben Thellefsen Nielsen)
Subject: Re: FLEET 
Organization: Mathematics and Computer Science, Aalborg University
Date: 27 Jan 93 22:21:11

In article <1993Jan27.141234.17000@ghost.dsi.unimi.it> merig@ghost.dsi.unimi.it (giorgio merigo) writes:

>   Is it possible to have more than one ship travel together so that if an attack
>   occurs the entire fleet is engaged?

>   (I ask this for cargo ships lack of defensive power)

Yes, if you have two ships at the same place in space (eg orbiting a
planet) and you give them the same waypoint and the same speed, they
will act as a "fleet". If you want to protect your freighters, give
your warships the mission "kill". That way they will attack anything
that approaches your freighters (including planets :-) ).

Torben
--
*******************************************************************************
Torben Thellefsen Nielsen                             E-mail: monty@iesd.auc.dk

Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say 'NI' at will to old
ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred.
							Roger The Shrubber
*******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
From: rmg53668@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Ryan M. Grant)
Subject: Re: new version
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 02:08:25 GMT


In alt.games.vga-planets you write:

>I fear the game will be _ruined_ with the different race abilities.
>There will a lot of personal fighting as to what race a person gets.  A
>cure for this would be to allow more than one occurance of a race in a
>game.  E.g. 2 people playing the gorn, 5 people playing the feds.  I
>dont expect the game to allow more than 11 players of course.  Another
>benefit would be that compettions will be easier to run.  (Everyone with
>the same race.)  So please Tim, I beg of you, allow a race to be used
>by multiple players in a game.

It'll prolly be more fair then it is now...  As long as the different 
strategies can be used sucessfully, as I expect creative people will be able
figure out, it should be a much righer game.  There is tha big Q though,
WILL it all work?  Right now torp-based races suffer immeasurably against
the fighter owners, hopefully fighters will not be rendered obselete in the
new version.  I'm kind of expecting them to pay off again in the long run, 
when everyone has their populated planets and can ferry cash about.

I don't like fighting against the EE right now, but if given
a choice between a game of all EE or the usual mix, the mix sounds much better.
If there were the option to all play the EE, everyone would demand to be them,
and then where would we be?

We just have to trust Tim to have the fairness/variety trade-off worked out
well.

- Ryan Grant

Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
From: kivi@phoenix.oulu.fi (Pekka Kiviniemi)
Subject: Re: VGA Planets 3.0
Organization: University of Oulu, Finland
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Distribution: alt
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 11:46:59 GMT

:   One type of "ship" that I would love to be able to build would consist of a
: huge hull capable of holding 1000KT of Neutronium fuel, 4 beamers, 4 torps,
: some fighter bays.  The ship would store up to 100 fighters and 200 torps.  
: This ship would NOT have any engines on it though.  The idea is that it would
: act as a "base station" capable of refueling, repairing, and rearming various
: friendly ships that stop at it.  Thus, it could perform most of the functions
: of a starbase at a fraction of the cost.  More importantly, it would be towed
: by a friendly ship to any point in deep space that you wanted it.  There are
: always those annoying stretches of empty space that complicate your invasion
: plans.  With these little "gas stations" along the way, you can move at warp
: 9 all the way, deep into enemy teritory and keep the fight going even if you
: haven't captured a planet.  Of course, these base stations would be prime
: targets so you'd have to leave a few ships to help guard it, but that just adds
: to the fun.  You might also want to have them in several sizes.
: 

I think that ship designing should be improved. Instead of putting components
inside hulls, you should be able to put hull outside components. Let's say
you want to create this "gas station". Go to the desing menu and put all the
necessary components together. There would be a screen telling ships stats
including max. speed and cost. Then name and save the design and build it
(if the components are available). 

If fleet option is added, players should be able to have ships perform 
different tasks in combat. You could have a battleship, that attacks enemy
directly and a fighter carrier that tries to stay out of the harms way and
launch its fighters. If threatened, carriers could try to escape, possibly
ditching its fighters.
From: bengalt@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Thomas Lee Russell)
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
Subject: Fighters and Torps in 3.0
Date: 25 Jan 1993 20:52:09 GMT
Organization: Privateer Shipping Ltd.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu
Summary: Which is a better value?

While running through the changes for version 3.0, I noticed these two lines
in particular:

         - Better torpedoes ( 70 % chance of hitting, up from 55% )
         - Fighters will cost 200 ( NOT 25 )

Fighters currently run about twice the cost of the more expensive torps in 
terms of both MC's and minerals and that's the way it should be.  The torps are
a one-shot deal while surviving fighters can be used again and again.  However,
the fighters must survive for more than one or two sorties for them to become
cost effective.  Raising the cost to 200 MC's without any increase in their
survivability could make fighters a losing proposition.  Take an Iron Class
Baseship up against a Little Pest Escort.  It's very likely that the Baseship
can win but if the Escort manages to kill off 6-10 fighter before dying off,
(very probable) then the Escort has done 1200-2000 MC's worth of damage which
is easily more than twice the cost of the Escort.  I wouldn't be surprised to
find that the total mineral loss would be greater on the fighter side than on
the Escort side.  Knowing this and knowing about the increased odds of a 
successful torp strike, I'd be a fool to waste my precious money and material
by taking a race that depends heavily on fighters for it's punch.

I guess my real question is if the fighters will have improved durability (like
a simple shield that can take 2-3 shots before the fighter goes piff) for their
increased cost.  This would make fighters a much better deal.

later
bengalt
The Mighty Halfling Wizard
 




Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
From: pcrossma@cs.ulowell.edu (The Gillrocker)
Subject: I'm Starting a NEW VGA-Planets GAME
Organization: University of Massachusetts at Lowell Computer Science
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 02:19:04 GMT

I'm Starting a new game of vga-planets.

I'll be using version 2.1

You can play with the unregistered version, but I will be playing with 
a registered version so I will have tech levels 6-10.

I recomend(sp) registering this game to everyone!!!!

If you want to play send me the following...

1) Your top 3 race selections (first come first served...)
2) A password for yourself
3) If you want to name the race you pick you may, just send it to me.
4) Please put your email address somewhere in your mail message to me.
5) I will only be able to update the game Sunday-Thursday, but there may
   be weekend updates (Which would you rather?  Sun night - Thurs night with
   occasional weekend action, or strict Sun-Thurs?) Let me know.

Oh yeah...
I will delete all passwords when the universe it built to keep things fair.
I will also be playing with you.



-- 
 _ __ A straight _ line __ may be the shortest distance between two points, 
' )  ) but it is//by no/  ) means the most interesting. -- Dr. Who
 /--' __.  . . //     /    __  _____    _   ______  __.  ____  pcrossma@ulowell
/    (_/|_(_/_</_    (__/ / (_(_) \_)__/_)_/ / / <_(_/|_/ / <_ .ulowell.edu
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
From: monty@iesd.auc.dk (Torben Thellefsen Nielsen)
Subject: Don't we need a FAQ?
Organization: Mathematics and Computer Science, Aalborg University
Distribution: alt
Date: 25 Jan 93 14:58:43

Hello everybody,
  I tried to bring this up a week or so ago, but the response was
quite low (none, actually). It is a new group, I admit that, but
almost every day someone asks: "What is this game?". If we can't make
a FAQ-list, maybe we could make an introduction to the game, saying
what it is and where to get it. Does anyone on this newsgroup have
experience in putting together a FAQ? If you do, and you want to
maintain it, that's fine! If you don't want to maintain it, tell me
how to and I'll do it! 

Torben
--
*******************************************************************************
Torben Thellefsen Nielsen                             E-mail: monty@iesd.auc.dk

Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say 'NI' at will to old
ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred.
							Roger The Shrubber
*******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
From: pcrossma@cs.ulowell.edu (The Gillrocker)
Subject: I still have six open spots in my VGA Planets game.
Organization: University of Massachusetts at Lowell Computer Science
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:22:22 GMT

I still have six spots open in the game I am trying to start.  If you want
to play vga-planets do the following:

1) send me your top 3 race choices
2) send me a password
3) put your email address in your message to me.

All passwords will be destroyed when I cause the BIG BANG :)
This way the game will be fair.
The registered version is allowed, but if you don't have it, that's fine too.
I would like to get this game started next week, so if you want to play...
I have room.

-- 
 _ __ A straight _ line __ may be the shortest distance between two points, 
' )  ) but it is//by no/  ) means the most interesting. -- Dr. Who
 /--' __.  . . //     /    __  _____    _   ______  __.  ____  pcrossma@ulowell
/    (_/|_(_/_</_    (__/ / (_(_) \_)__/_)_/ / / <_(_/|_/ / <_ .ulowell.edu
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets
From: d92magax@odalix.ida.liu.se (Magnus Axelsson)
Subject: Re: Where to get VGA-planets...
Organization: CIS Dept, Univ of Linkoping, Sweden
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 11:49:55 GMT

mattias@tse.uucp (Mattias Hembruch x0830) writes:

>Could someone post a brief description of vga-planets and where I can get
>a copy?? I sounds kind of interesting.. Is it anything like Space Empire

>or Galactic Empire?? Or is it more like Starflight? Any graphics? 

>Other requirements?? (according to my newsreader, this group only appeared

>a few days ago, but I haven't seen any info on the game..)


>Thanks,
>Mattias 
>Mattias Hembruch
>E-mail: mattias@tse.asd.tse.ca

Actually it has already been info where to get the game. I got mine from
ftp.ucsc.edu  in the directory /pc/vgaplanets

VGA-planets is played in two-dimensional space. You are supposed to capture
you opponents (and free) planets by using space-ships you build on your 
own planets.
Each turn you do your moves and then send in a small file, containing all
vital information about your moves, to a BBS etc. When your opponents also
have sent in their files, the administrator of the game updates all the 
moves and returns the same small file, containing yours and your opponents
moves to you whereupon you analyze the game and make your new moves.

Good luck,
Magnus Axelsson, 
Student at University of Linkoping, Sweden
d92magax@und.ida.liu.se
Newsgroups: alt.games.vga-planets