Newbie questions about FCOL

Fwing · Post by **Fwing** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:12 am

Hi all,

I'm new to FC and have been tempted by the online version in order to get some plays in with my non-local friends who are also interested.
The FCOL client is not very user friendly and I haven't been able to find any documentation so please indulge these newbie questions

- What does the client do/not do in terms of managing the game-state? Is it just up to us to move our tokens and ensure we're playing legally?

- When creating a new game room, how does one invite other players to it?

- I've seen mention of "saving" a game. How does this work? Is any player in a given game able to access the "save"? One chap I want to play with is in a different time-zone and we'd like to play against each other without having to be logged in simultaneously. Is this possible?

- Is there a user-manual for the client somewhere?

Thanks in advance!

Krellex · Post by **Krellex** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 6:19 pm

First off, welcome to the forum!
-The client tracks energy usage, baseline speeds, movement and weapons fire. You can also use it to calculate damage, and marking damage on your ship cards.
-Once you set up a game room, anyone can hop in and view it. Only the person that you allow permission to play can control their ships.
-Both players *should* save the game before they end a session so they don't lose anything if one person saves and the other doesn't, although technically, you can still do it this way. There is no way to really play without both of you being logged in at the same time. (You may want to look at getting in to play-by-email for this.)
-User manual? Sadly, no. However, there are a lot of friendly chaps that are willing to show you the ropes once you get on the client. Everyone I have played has been exceptionally helpful and friendly. You can try a demo account first, which allows you to play fleet scale Federation CA and I think the Klingon D7.

Hope to see you online!

gar1138 · Post by **gar1138** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 7:07 pm

Here are a few tutorial videos that I found helpful in getting started: http://www.sfbonline.com/tutorials.jsp

I have also found that using a voice chat program of some kind (some of us use skype during games) makes things easier and more fluid.

Welcome aboard!

Garrett
skype ID: gar1138skype

Fwing · Post by **Fwing** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 6:47 am

Thanks very much

mojo_billbo · Post by **mojo_billbo** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:10 pm

I would strongly encourage setting up a demo / training game with Eric, Garrett, or anyone else who play FCOL frequently.

I was doing pretty good, but then Eric did a training game with me on FCOL, and after that, I had the hang of the client.

I did help that we used a voice chat program too, because he was able to describe the client very clearly.

Fwing · Post by **Fwing** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:09 pm

Thanks for the advice

I've played FC precisely once so far and I'm going to get 1-2 more tabletop games done first in order to firm-up my grasp of the rules. Then I expect I'll register for FCOL next month some time. That way anyone who offers to help can focus on the online aspects rather than my infuriating basic rules questions!

Krellex · Post by **Krellex** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:00 am

Don't forget that you can hop in with a demo account and watch *any* game in progress. I learned a lot by watching the veterans play for a while before I was brave enough to try it.