Game Design & Configuration Two issues I'd life to fly by any who care to consider them are game design and configuration. FIRST - Many players aren't aware they can easily design their own game via the simple fill in a blank "Make-A-Game" feature with Robo. It's a tad confusing as you have to hop forward and backward a bit to actually build a game for Robo to run, but if I can do it, anyone should be able to figure it out. The advantage of building your own game is it gives you a chance to "tweek" the parameters a bit. But before you go "tweeking," please consider the power this gives you. Do NOT modify a game to favor any one race over the other. Unfortunately some players create games for just this purpose and any unsuspecting person joining such altered games is very likely going to be slaughtered. So, be true to the spirit of the game and keep the field level for all races. Game Configuration - This topic sounds pretty boring but I assure you it's vitally important for everyone both designing a game or simply JOINING a game to understand what each game's configuration will mean. Failure to understand or even consider the configuration is probably why many players end up DROPPING a game rather than finishing it. Ever notice most players who drop games will do so in the first dozen or so turns? These players aren't beaten yet...they are disgusted with the game parameters...which they hadn't considered before joining! Message - Look before you leap. Understand what you are getting into. Don't just pick your favorite race and join a game. Failure to do so is a prescription for trouble. You can find all this information on every game's page. Simply click on "View the Host Configuration" and I also suggest you look at the "Master Configuration" as well. Next, lets look at some of the individual configuration items and show you what they will mean you the game. I'll hit these as briefly as I can to get across the point. HOMEWORD DISTANCE - Most players put all the homeworld virtually on top of one anther! This sucks! Imagine a cloaked privater ship on your doorstep the 2nd or 3rd turn of a game. For goodness sake, when you design games, scatter the homeworlds as far as you can get them so every race has a chance to get something together before they are faced with an enemy. All you will accomplish putting homeworlds next to one another is insure several players get screwed and drop out early, leaving a game stalled or little fun for anyone who's left. The idea is to give EVERYONE a chance. Right? MINERALS - The default mineral settings in Robo are quite low. Some players claim this is how VGAP was ment to be played...low minerals. I think this is a lot of horsefeathers. Low mineral games vastly favor races like the privaters. They can survive very nicely on few minerals while it is a death sentence for many races. At the very least low mineral games are pretty boring. You spend most of your time and energy trying to scrounge enough fuel and minerals to even play. I suggest a minumum of 3500000KT of minerals for each game. This gives each race a chance to develop. RACES - The default attack/tax/etc ratios are pretty good, although some thing the Lizard ground attack ratio of 30 to 1 is a little insane. Tweek the race abilities if you like, but don't stray far from defaults is my advice. And again, don't alter these abilities unfairly. Strive for reality...not advantage. COMPUTER PLAYER - The default here is for the Q to pick up abandoned races. This would be a grand idea except the "Q" cheats big time! Imagine an opponent who looks at your turn before he decides about making his moves. This is exactly how the "Q" operates. Many times when the Q takes over a race, usually a race that has been pretty much defeated, this creates a major hassle for the poor guy who defeated the race to start with! Instead of having a defeated enemy, they now have an enemy reading their turns in advance. There are NO surprises for the "Q". He knows your friendly codes and he sees you cloaked or uncloaked. Truth is, The Q sucks! Turn the computer player OFF. Put this setting on NONE. This way when a race is beaten...it will die.....not come back to pester you as some cheating monster. I won't go into all the other quirks of the Q, but suffice it to say you won't like any of them. Further, the Q does a lot of stupid things which may make an abandoned race LESS attractive for someone to pick up. The best thing is to have no computer player at all and let races either be picked up or destroyed when they are abandoned by their commander. CLOAK FAILURE - Many games have NO chance of cloak failure! This assumes me the gadget works perfectly every time. (I kinda doubt it.) Toss is a small chance of random cloak failures just to keep the game interesting. SENSOR RANGE - 200 ly is plenty. Less might even be more interesting. SHIP DETECT RANGE - Default is 300 ly. Frankly, I think LESS is better here as well. I'd like to try a game where you didn't see ships coming until they were within 100 ly of me. This would make a game VERY exciting at times. But more importantly, I think shortening the "ships appear" range gives all races some privacy and more freedom of movement. Makes everyone a little more sneaky and this could be fun. CLOAKED SHIPS ROBBED - Duh, will someone explain to me how you rob a ship you don't know is there and can't see? How do you hook up a siphon hose on an invisible ship? This option shouldn't exist. BORG ASSIMILATION RATE - Borg have a tough time. They are virtually helpless early in a game but let's not go crazy helping them something around 50% assimilation rate is about right MINEFIELD DECAY - 5% is default. Avoid games with more. SHIPS WITHOUT FUEL - I think the default is "YES" but it's like robbing invisible ships to me. How do you do that? I've actually used this option in games to help me but I still think it's a crock and should be turned off. If you're outa gas....pull over to the side of the galaxy. You aren't going anywhere. MINEFIELD DETECT - This range is often ridiculous in configurations. It should never be over 100 ly in my opinion....although the Privaters won't like this since they are the only ones with ships that can outrun their headlights and smack into a minefield. But it makes their life so much more exciting! It takes a little more brain to maneuver a fast ship and live too. CLOAKED SHIPS HITTING MINES - Here is another strange option someone needs to explain to me. How does having a ship cloaked help you get thru a blind, mindless minefield. It's like saying I can run thru the house easier without bumping into anything if you'll turn out the lights. Another horsefeather option here. Increase this risk up towards reality. MINE SWEEP RANGE - I've seen many games where you can sweep a minefield from 25 light years away! That's some damn fine shooting. It's also horsefeathers. I'll be generous and leave this range at 5 light years. Webs, ya gotta be in them to chop your way across. DAMAGE PREVENTS CLOAK - Common sense says it shouldn't take much damage to screw up a cloaking device. Keep this kinda low. METEORS - Small meteors are OK. They kinda spice up planets now and then. Large meteors are pretty much a silly option. I've never seen anyone use them for anything. They are mostly a nuisance. GRAVITY WELLS - This option seems innocent, but if you leave it on you create a situation where privater ships can orbit your planet and you can't do much about it. It gives any privater play a BIG advantage you don't have. ION STORMS - Ion storms are BIG nuisances in evey game. Some games may have half a dozen of these things swirling around at once! When you consider these things can hide minefields, trash small ships and even large ones sometimes, having a lot of ion storms can all but ruin a game. You can't make long range plans for anything! Keep this number mighty low! ION STORMS HIDE MINES - This little option can cause you LOTS of grief if you aren't aware it's turned on. Imagine plowing into an invisible minefield...hidden in an Ion Storm! Great way to trash good ships in a hurry. What's worse...you can't sweep these invisible mines because you can't see them. Only defense is to stop all engines and sit there till the storm leaves and you can see what you're doing. This can have devasting effects on your game. Imagine you're in a tight situation and half your war fleet is sitting out an Ion storm and can't move! Nightmare scenario from one little configuration option. I'm not saying turn it off, but you sure better know if it's on or not. I've skipped most configuration options because the default settings are generally fine on these. The ones I've commented on are the ones I would alter or at least check before jumping into any game. Be suspicious of ANY radical departure from most of the default settings, even though there are a few, i.e. minerals and homeworld distance that NEED some drastic changes made. The message is simple: NOW...LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP and your games will go much better.