Received both G81 and D26 turns.

In both, my Sector Specials (1 in each) did not appear to function.
What's up, Paul?

By Kirk Petty (Zugzwang) on Sunday, December 06, 2009 - 07:26 pm: Edit

ken Did you sucessfully load aide with vista ? Please tell me how My puter says it cant do the 32 bit thing and I cant figure out dos box

By Andrew Campbell (Andrewc) on Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 11:27 am: Edit

In the new Die Hard game, D27, can you pick a random event in your initial build ?

I didn't do it, but was wondering if i have missed out ?

By Arthur J. De Laura (Klingondog) on Monday, January 18, 2010 - 11:39 pm: Edit

HEY PAUL

where are my turns ???

Have fun

DOC

By Arthur J. De Laura (Klingondog) on Monday, January 18, 2010 - 11:43 pm: Edit

Andrew

I believe the answer is no..

He has to put in initial first, then add the rest of the stuff....event game.. DH , SS..

DOC

By Andrew Campbell (Assimilators) on Sunday, January 31, 2010 - 03:47 pm: Edit

I used to post my turns and i am now using the Aide for the first time.

Can you use ditto marks in the Aide for ships that are moving together, or do you have to write the move for each ship, even if they are moving exactly the same ?

By Kirk Petty (Zugzwang) on Sunday, January 31, 2010 - 04:05 pm: Edit

I havent be able to use aide since I got Vista but look on the bottom of the input screen there is a combo of keys that allow you to input the first ship then press the combo and it copies it Control J I think if memory serves

By Andrew Campbell (Assimilators) on Sunday, January 31, 2010 - 07:20 pm: Edit

Thanks Kirk
I also use Vista, but read somewhere on the forum, if you save the aide on your Local Disc rather than in Program Files, it works alright.
I hope !

By Roger Rardain (Sky_Captain) on Sunday, January 31, 2010 - 09:10 pm: Edit

Andrew,

Kirk is correct, the Aide will allow you to repeat the same series of moves on multiple ships.
I can confirm the keystroke is Ctrl-J.

By Andrew Campbell (Assimilators) on Thursday, February 04, 2010 - 02:26 pm: Edit

As this is a random event game that you can pick, i have been looking through the random events list, and i see an event that lets you send another ship into the graveyard.
Is that right ?

Also, the three special random events at the end of the list say, "they can can only be given to players, they can never be gained randomly, the computer will give out the first two, and the third must be specifically assigned"
I assume they cannot be used in a random event game by players ?

By Andrew Campbell (Assimilators) on Thursday, February 04, 2010 - 05:42 pm: Edit

Sorry for being such a newbie, but it's a while since i've done this.

Are you able to pick your own random event each turn from the random event list, or is just a game with normal random events, which can be turned off if you don't want the bad ones ?

When checking, how to purchase a ship in the rule book that i downloaded, it says "The only parameters required for this order are the Race and Class of the ship being bought"
Surely that should be Race and Designation, as how would the computer know which "PC" ship, or "FF" ship to buy ?

Hope you can help

By Roger Rardain (Sky_Captain) on Thursday, February 04, 2010 - 09:12 pm: Edit

Andrew,

As for requesting random events, in G81 I also had no idea what I was doing.
On Turn 2 (Y166), I did not ask for a Random Event but received one anyway. Fortunately, it was a good one.
(I do not have any info about the three spacials. Can anyone help?)

I believe you are correct about the rulebook, you would have to state the race and designation of the ship you wish to purchase.
This has now been corrected in the rulebook version I am editing. That version is very nearly ready to be posted for player use.

By Kirk Petty (Zugzwang) on Thursday, February 04, 2010 - 11:00 pm: Edit

Every Turn you can pick a random ev using EV #
for example if you wanted the replicator you would write EV 88 and you get it next turn. You cant get those at the bottom those are GM only and you cant get the Old space dragon either I think. The key on these is to pick one that will help you most at that time

By Ken Cole (Kencole) on Thursday, February 04, 2010 - 11:05 pm: Edit

Kirk,
The following is a cut and paste of an explanation I gave to Ike several months ago and it worked for him.

+++++
In my experience, Vista and Aide don't play nice out of the box. Vista seems to have it's own idea of where to write important files, and is very picky about simply overwriting the previous version of your corp. The work-around that Paul gave me was to install the aide in the C: directory (NOT PROGRAM FILES), and run it from there. All your file should end up in that directory.
+++++

Andrew

There currently exist two event lists. The one on the Play-by-email website. and another one buried in back issues of the SFW Newsletter.

I have combined them into an excel file and made corrections as they've been pointed out/ discovered.

I'll email you a copy of the spreadsheet, and also copy Roger for inclusion in the new rulebook.


Ken


ps, Yes, you can ask for those special events. Like EV -1 (the C-MBB event)

By Ken Cole (Kencole) on Thursday, February 04, 2010 - 11:07 pm: Edit

Cross posted with Kirk.

Yes you can get the M-OSD and the C-MBB.

By Ken Cole (Kencole) on Thursday, February 04, 2010 - 11:19 pm: Edit

A side note on the ctrl J command for the aide.

While the aide will tell you if the order is illegal if you try to move to a hex that you cannot when copying the previous; it does not know how many movement pulses are legal for your ship. It will gladly copy a five pulse move for a ship that is only allowed two pulses of movement.

Also I have found that the aide does not understand SZ movement restrictions, so you need to leave the first pulse of movement unused (the pulse you lost).

By Ken Cole (Kencole) on Thursday, February 04, 2010 - 11:37 pm: Edit

As for a strategy of picking events (others feel free to disagree), but I try to use events that are going to have the longest lasting effect early.

For example, I usually want extra ships as early as possible since they can have the greatest effect on the game that way. So in some order I will ask for:

88 Gain a Replicator (monster)
112 Gain a random ship
113 Gain an old space dragon

three extra ships won't mean much on turn 25, but if you have three extras by turn 5, it's a big deal.

Some events I try to save for special occasions, these are the orders you want to have available when you NEED them, not to be wasted on short term goals:

175 Buy DNs (including WG's) at 25% off next turn
127 Use DH to turn off a hex
125 ES order is half cost next turn
123 Use CG to change Stargate destination
122 Next ship bought has speed 6
102 Fill all ships with heavy drones
103 Give all eligible ships an MRS
104 Repair all damaged ships
105 Generic ships can change missions without "I" or base

Those events can prove to be worth their weight in gold, if they are available when you need them.

Ken

By John Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Friday, February 05, 2010 - 10:45 am: Edit

I like issuing event 122 on year 174! The turn after (year 175), one can get a speed 6 BB!

John

By Andrew Campbell (Assimilators) on Friday, February 05, 2010 - 01:38 pm: Edit

Thanks for the replys.

Ken
Got the list event list from the email alright, the list i had was from the website.
It's a pity event; -2 isn't allowed, "+1 speed to all ships", that would have been interesting.

And above, you are spot on with your expanation of using the Aide with Vista.
The Aide is working alright on my pc installed in the C: directory, with Vista.

The only thing i found with the aide is when you enter EV # (event number), it says "The order had an illegal format. Possible legal moves are; EV or EV OK".
Though when you hit ESC, the aide enters the order in your Miscellaneous Orders.
Will the computer read a random event alright, after the aide saying it is an illegal order ?

Extra ships early on will be a real boost !

By Ken Cole (Kencole) on Friday, February 05, 2010 - 10:28 pm: Edit

Andrew,

Often time the aide will give you an error message, even when you do something that is legal for your game (such as EV #)

As I recall, Bruce Graw at some point lost the source code to the Aide, so was unable to update it to make it work with some or the more rare orders that were added later.

The thing to remember about the aide is that all it does is create an output file that is designed to be read by the game engine. It's legal opinions are not binding.

Concerning the Event List
I have had several requests for a copy of my event file, and I'm happy to share...But, I make no guarantees as to the accuracy, as I have not tested all events, I literally created it by combining the event file list on the play-by-mail website and the list found in the old Star Fleet Warlord News #11, plus a few that have been mentioned on this board.

By Kirk Petty (Zugzwang) on Friday, February 05, 2010 - 10:53 pm: Edit

Ok well I have a 64 bit system and it says aide is incompatible Is there a fix for this ?

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Friday, February 05, 2010 - 11:18 pm: Edit

Kirk,
You should be able to use DosBox. That is what I am currently using to on my Mac to run the SFW Engine.

Long term solution is a Java-based version.

Another short term solution that I would like to run by you. That is to provide a csv file for submitting the ship orders and the misc orders. Then you would send me a csv file and I could process that. It would be simplistic and not have some of the power of the Aide but it is something I can implement quickly.

By Ken Cole (Kencole) on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 09:21 pm: Edit

Kudo's to Roger, Rich and Paul for the new RULEBOOK.

I have not had a chance to go through the whole thing yet, but what I have seen is really great.

By Andrew Campbell (Assimilators) on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - 06:15 pm: Edit

I made a terrain scan of a sector in D27 this turn, and in Pulse 1, where the terrain scan is written out, ie; "The O-SLV-1 "Ace of Hearts-1" made a terrain scan of sector".
It says that in a hex there is "Unknown Terrain", but when i look at the map it tells me what the terrain is, instead of ??+??.
Looking at last turn, it was the same there as well.

Thought you might like to know Paul.

By Stephen Henson (Erebus) on Monday, April 26, 2010 - 10:57 pm: Edit

Paul,

I've been noticing a distrubing trend with my SFW warlords turns, specifically because I use starfleet warlords Aide. On recent turn results, ships that I have lost haven't been removed from my aide ship list. However, other ships (normally the one that should be below the that was supposed to be lost) have disappeared in my ship list. Normally I catch this, but with for my recent turn for G82 and D26 my computer died so I was rushing at the last minute to get my turn.

So I ended up with at least 2 (possibly more) ships that sat around and did nothing on my turn because they never showed up in my SFW Aide file. I know I've seen it in D26, not sure if I've seen it in my other games off the top of my head, but it's something that you might want to look into.

Stephen
Kzinti Dogfighters