Spaceship Tournament! L$5000+ in Prizes!

SPACESHIP

A multi-player real-time strategy game of interplanetary combat.

by JorgeLuis Burrel and Mrxxx Cheetah.
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* * * PUBLIC BETA RELEASE * * *

* A WEEKLY TOURNAMENT SERIES WILL BEGIN IN NOVEMBER 2006.
** Entry into the tournaments will be free.
** CA$H prizes will be paid to the top finishers, through generous corporate sponsorship.
** Prize money in each tournament will be proportional to the number of entrants, so...
*** Invite your friends to play!
** Join the group "Spaceship Pilots' Association" to get up-to-date information about the game and tournaments.

* For the month of October game play will be absolutely free.
** Practice up for the tournaments and win big money!

* Please IM JorgeLuis Burrel with any bug reports, comments, or suggestions for features to add to the game.

* ENJOY!


HOW TO PLAY

Touch one of the pylons at the sides of the playing field. (The north pylon has been reserved for game development.) This will put a spaceship on the board for you. It will ask you to choose a fleet for your ship. Choose anything except "Rogue" -- the other fleets are all the same. (Rogue ships shoot each other. Ships from other fleets don't shoot their friends.)


SHIPS

Wait for a little while and some squares will appear around your ship. Touch one of the squares -- your ship will move there. The pillar that appears is your "center" -- it is where you are heading next turn. When the squares appear, so do some little cones -- these are your "2nd centers". They indicate where your center would be next turn, given each choice of one of the nine squares. The squares (called "plaqs" always appear in the nine places closest to your center. The positions of the 2nd centers depend on the gravity of the planets. (It takes some experience to anticipate this in complicated high-gravity situations.) You have a limited amount of time to choose a plaq -- they begin to disappear after approximately 20 seconds. If you don't choose in time you go to the position of the last plaq to disappear.

To attack a target you want to get your center close to the target's current position. "Close" means within a knight's-move of it -- the diagonal of a 2-by-1 rectangle or nearer. When your center appears that close to an enemy ship (or base) it will automatically cause your weapon to hit the target(s). When you hit a target you take 1/2 of its points, and the target loses control for the rest of its turn cycle. If you have fewer than 5 points you die. Ships with more points cycle through the turn sequence more quickly than ships with few points. This makes high-score ships very maneuverable, but also somewhat tricky to control. Having a high-scoring ship is a definite advantage, but it is still not unusual for a 12-point ship to score a hit on a 150-point ship.

* Eventually, ship points and L$ will be exchangeable currencies.
** The idea is to buy a ship for L$100, say, and fly it around attacking other ships. Once you build it up to a good score you can cash it out and take a little profit.
** Tournament games will be scored differently from the "cash games" just described -- the ability to buy ships will be restricted and the longest-lasting survivors will be paid.
*** (Just like poker!
*** For October, game play is absolutely free.

If you fly off the edge of the board you will "bounce" back on, slowing down slightly, taking a little damage, and losing control of your ship for one turn.

If your ship is out of control for a turn because of an enemy hit then, instead of choosing a plaq on its turn, you can touch the ship when the plaqs appear and it will move to its center position. This causes a very small amount of damage and prolongs the loss of control for another turn. (This is a useful maneuver for avoiding another hit, or as a "sacrifice play" when attacking a base with several ships.)


BASES

If you bring your ship to a standstill for two turns in a row, then it will automatically produce a starbase there. The starbase takes 1/2 of the ship's points. Each ship can produce only one starbase -- a ship that has done so has an asterisk in its name (between the pilot's initials and its score). If you bring your ship to rest on a starbase of the same fleet then it will dock with the base. The ship disappears and its score is added to the base's score. If you touch a base that you own, you get a dialog box asking if you want to launch a ship from that base. A launched ship takes 1/2 of the base's points, unless the base has 50 points or less -- in that case, the base dissappears and turns into a ship with the same score.

Bases attack enemy ships that move into the zone indicated by their perimeter shield. The size of this zone is proportional (in area) to the score of the base. The base's weapons are active when its central turret is spinning. The base's weapons are deactivated for a short time after it fires its weapons, or after it is hit by enemy weapons. The time delay before reactivation depends on the base's score -- up to a score of 400 it is roughly the same as the delay for a ship of the same score (slightly longer). For base scores higher than 400 the time delay becomes increasingly long as the area of the base increases.


ADMIRALS

The first ship (or base) built for each fleet (other than Rogue) is marked with the symbol @. This indicates the Admiral of the corresponding fleet. If the Admiral is killed then the whole fleet disbands... the remaining ships and bases become Rogues and are no longer under the control of the players. The Admiral of each fleet is like the King in chess -- you must protect it at all costs! If a ship with a @ creates a base, then the @ moves to the base. If a base with a @ launches a new ship, then the @ moves to the new ship. Ships that "scoot" or bounce off the edge of the board take damage, and these lost points are collected in a central bank, the "Void". Every couple of minutes, funds permitting, dividends are paid from the Void to the Admiral of each fleet, so that the lost points recirculate back into play.


KNOWN BUGS AND ISSUES

* Loss-of-control (LoC) is not working properly.
** Bases seem not to induce LoC when they attack ships.
** "Scooting" when in LoC seems not to prolong LoC.
** OTOH, ship-to-ship combat seems to induce LoC correctly.
*** Testing for weapon-readiness (or lack thereof) coming out of LoC should be done in all situations.

* Visibility of small objects doesn't extend all the way across the board. Stay close to your ship(s) or hover over the middle of the board.
** Under the "World" menu, "Force Sun" to "Noon" for best viewing.