Planetarion Wiki - User contributions [en]

Round 37

2011-09-25T14:19:36Z

86.96.226.26: /* Galaxy Setup */

=Dates and Times=

Signups opened at 20:00 GMT on Friday 21st May 2010

Ticks started at 20:00 GMT on Friday 28th May 2010.

Ticks finished at 20:00 GMT on Friday 16th July 2010.

=Pre-Round Announcement=

If time is money you've made me a weathlier woman.

==Alliances==
* The maximum amount of members allowed in an alliance will be kept at 100 members.
* The amount of members that count towards an alliance score will be dropped to 50.
* The combined total amount of members that two merging alliances have to have whilst merging is 60.

==Other Changes finalised==
* Added new 'Feed' list - highlights huge battles and interesting rank changes during the round, accessible through the universe page<br>
* Planet log available in the journal page - accurate log of all planet activities from during the round<br>
* Optimised alliance scans in the alliance defence / attack pages to reduce load issues experienced last round

=Round Summary=
The sign up period was delayed by a week due to server issues.

After [[Round 36]] and their round win [[VisioN]] had disbanded, with many of their members following main [[HC]] [[SantaCruz]] to new alliance [[Osiris]]. Following the events of the previous round Osiris and [[Apprime]] entered the new one extremely hostile towards each other. [[Evolution]] also returned, with mostly previous players and a number of ex-[[DLR]] ones as DLR significantly decreased in size for this round. The other perceived main contenders for victory this round were [[Ascendancy]] and [[NewDawn]].

The early stages of the round saw Osiris target Apprime, who had concentrated a third of their memberbase in three [[core galaxies]] very effectively. Helped out in this by Evolution to some extent Apprime looked to be losing this conflict. At this point Ascendancy and ND, who had held friendly relations from the beginning of the round, stepped in. With Evolution holding a clear [[score]] and [[roid]] lead over the chasing pack the three alliances concentrated on them primarily. Evolution and Osiris rapidly formalised their relations, agreeing on a [[NAP]], and bringing in [[Conspiracy]] on their side of the war. Evolution were slowly brought back towards the others but despite this initial success, the war stagnated with neither side losing or gaining much. Apprime came out on top with the most roids and focused on defence for several days to stave off incomings. While this made them very hard to hit, it caused tensions between them and the other members of the [[block]].

The relationship between NewDawn and Apprime was on a knife's edge already, because a number of Apprime planets defended Evolution planets against block incomings. Apprime gaining on the other alliances was the final straw, and NewDawn broke the NAP with Apprime (but not the one with Ascendancy, who would remain their allies for the remainder of the round) and joined the other block in attacking them.

With the numbers significantly stacked against them, Apprime grounded fleets altogether in an attempt to hold onto as many roids as possible. Despite crashing quite a lot of fleets, the block stubbornly continued hitting Apprime until they were 6th on size and had lost their number 1 position.

Ascendancy, meanwhile, having kept their NAP with ND, had kept on the sidelines of this war and were getting fat by random roiding. Activity varied wildly between members though and at some point the majority of the roids in the alliance were in the hands of only 15 planets. Osiris and Evolution were both hurting for roids after hitting a fleet grounding alliance for the better part of a week and even with the numbers on their side, their roid count was only average, while activity was going down.

Apprime had expressed their displeasure with Ascendancy keeping their NAP with NewDawn and, looking to regain lost roids easily once the incoming slowed down, Apprime decided to drop the NAP with Ascecndancy. After the round was over, some controversy on [[Alliance Discussions|AD]] broke out over this move, with [[Golan]] of Ascendancy claiming Apprime ignored a previously agreed to 48 hour grace period, while [[HaNzI]] of Apprime stated none such agreement existed. No proof from either side was brought up.

By this point, Ascendancy had a strong hold on the #1 ranking along with 7 of the top 10 planets. However, solid incomings over the four days by four alliances resulted in a 30% drop in roids, reflecting the mediocre activity level the majority of the lower ranked members were playing at.

NewDawn took advantage of this lull and were mostly getting fat by hitting randoms, much like Ascendancy had done previously.

Apprime managed to pick up most of the roids Ascendancy lost and once again emerged as a contender for victory. Unfortunately, NewDawn and [[Conspiracy]] saw this coming and attacked Apprime with Ascendancy for a few nights. This was surprisingly effective and subsequently Apprime dropped out of the picture for #1 alliance for the remainder of the round.

Evolution and Osiris had been enjoying an easy ride for over a week now and with both Apprime and Ascendancy now definitively out of the picture, they slowly gained ambition again. Ascendancy was still top heavy and held most of the top planets, so Evolution and Osiris decided to start waving these in hopes of gaining a lot of [[XP]]. Apprime also joined in a couple of nights and after four nights most Ascendancy top planets were left with few roids.

The main beneficiary of these actions was NewDawn, as they were still napped to 4 alliances in the top 5, were now 30k roids ahead of the #2 alliance, while Apprime were never really given an opportunity to effectively give them the incomings they expected.

With a week to go, Evolution, who by now had taken the #2 position both on size and score, started to realise that NewDawn would need to be taken down quickly if they were to win the round. They dropped the NAP, got Osiris and Apprime to join them and started a war against NewDawn, who were 11m score ahead of them.

Also during the last week, knowing they were out of the running for alliance victory, Ascendancy had been working hard to secure planet rankings, still holding half the top 10 planets, including the top planet, played by [[BlueArmy]]. His main concern was [[Coolkat]] of Osiris, who had overtaken him in roids during the final week and was now gaining score twice as fast as he was. Both sides attempted to keep the other down, with Ascendancy landing two alliance-wide fi/co waves on Coolkat on two subsequent nights and Osiris consistently hitting Ascendancy top planets.

When Coolkat gained a over 300k value in salvage when Osiris crashed a lot of defence at his planet, concern over more potential salvage donations kept Ascendancy from further attacking Coolkat, instead focusing on defending against his attacks, made possible because Ascendancy had several planets in his galaxy to keep an eye on his outgoing status and as a Terran, Coolkat did not have a fi/co roiding fleet.

On the last day of the round, the rankings were closer than they had ever been before. Initially it looked like the gap was closing too slowly for Evolution to come out on top, but by now they were less than a million score behind NewDawn and had managed to close the roid gap. Simultaneously, BlueArmy was still #1 planet, but a heavily escorted landing by Coolkat on HaSu, one of NewDawn's top planets, had given him a boost in roids and XP. If he were to manage to do that twice more on the last day, he could overtake BlueArmy an inch before the finish line.

Fortunately for BlueArmy, Coolkat made a bad decision when he launched his battleships on Rgat of NewDawn, who only had a mediocre planet, which was easily covered by a single Ascendancy fleet, due to the fact that he only had two escorts. After BlueArmy gained some salvage due to an Osiris crash on him, Coolkat gave up and refrained from launching his destroyers.

On the alliance front, things were equally close, if not more so. Four ticks before the end of the round, due to several crashes by and fleetcatches on NewDawn, Evolution overtook them. However, realising that their top planet was secured, Ascendancy had launched a mass fi/co wave on Bee of Evolution, in an attempt to swing the balance in favour of their round-long allies. Even though Evolution prevented crashes by managing to get all of the defence to recall, it looked like this attack would allow NewDawn (who were only 390k score behind them) to come out on top at the last moment.

Unfortunately for them, Evolution found an unexpected trump card in [[DunkelGraf]] of Ascendancy, who, as per his habit, had been out of tag all round. They convinced him to join the Evolution tag, thereby preventing a last tick NewDawn victory, which, it turned out, Ascendancy's landing on Bee would otherwise indeed have granted them.

* [[Round 37 Graphs|Graphs of top rankings throughout the round]]

=Final Rankings=

* [[Round_37:Planet_Ranks|Final Planet Rankings]]
* [[Round_37:Galaxy_Ranks|Final Galaxy Rankings]]
* [[Round_37:Alliance Ranks|Final Alliance Rankings]]
* [[Round_37:Miscellaneous Ranks|Miscellaneous Rankings]]

Yeah that's what I'm talinkg about baby--nice work!

New Player Manual

2011-09-25T10:54:22Z

86.96.226.26: /* Can't Login? */

== Introduction ==
Little experience in [[Planetarion]]? You've come to the right place.

Browse around before the beginning of the round to gain an advantage about the inner workings of the game.

=== A Relaxing Browser Game For The Whole Family ===

In [[Planetarion]] you compete with thousands of other players over a 2 month period of non-stop gaming. Activity, skill, endurance and a solid [[alliance]] are the building blocks of a winner in this game. Use of [[IRC]], while not required to play the game, is extremely important to communicate between other players and to succeed in the game.

At the beginning you construct [[structures]] and initiate [[asteroids]]. You will gain resources by mining these asteroids. With these [[resource|resources]] you are able to construct 6 different [[Ship_Class|classes of ship]]. Two classes are capable of [[Pods|stealing asteroids]] from enemy planets while another is capable of bombarding enemy planets ruthlessly destroying their [[structure]]s.
There are 5 [[race]]s to choose from, and each is equipped with unique ships.

Planets are ranked by their [[score]]. The planet with the highest score wins the game.

Each planet (including your own!) is grouped into [[galaxy|galaxies]]. Planetarion is a turn-based game with turns being called a [[tick]]. In standard rounds, there is one hour between ticks.

Rounds are generally announced 2-3 weeks before the ticks (turns) start. Around a week before a round starts, signups are opened allowing everyone to register their very own planet. When the game starts, everyone is placed in [[Protection|protection mode]] and temporarily grouped into large galaxies. At tick 12, planets are "[[shuffle|shuffled]]" and placed into their true starting galaxy using a highly intelligent AI. You can form [[buddy pack]]s with friends, which can contain up to 3 people, which will allow you to play in the same galaxy throughout the round.

=== The First 72 Hours: Under Protection ===

During the first 72 [[tick]]s of the game your planet is under [[protection]]. During this time, get used to the game, and as often as possible visit the mining page to initiate asteroids, the research page to start new researches and the construction page to start new constructions.

It is recommended to have some ships built by [[tick]] 82, as that is when the first attacks will be able to reach your planet. In the beginning of the game it is nearly impossible to stop attacks on your planet. As such, it is preferable to build mainly [[Pods#Astropod|pods]] and send them out to attack others.
Heck of a job there, it absluotely helps me out.

== Planet: x,y,z ==

=== Government ===

A planet can choose one government for the round. Each government has different costs and benefits for your planet. Once chosen, your government remains with you throughout the round.

=== Population ===

A good starting setup is to focus on research, mining and construction. Make sure you set your population's priorities '''before''' starting a research or construction, as otherwise you would not receive the population bonuses for them.

=== Research ===

The undisputed first choice for research is [[Improved Resource Handling]], so please click the ''initiate'' button next to this research.

This technology branch allows you to mine more of the [[asteroids]] than you have collected around your planet. This is because you can "initate" as many asteroids as you wish, but you can only receive resources from those you are able to, depending on your resource handling ability. All of the more experienced players spend the first 60 or so [[tick]]s initiating asteroids in the Mining screen, but shortly after protection ends it is far more cost-effective to attack other players to gain roids (this also gets you [[XP]] - see [[combat]] for more information).

Just a quick note about the number of ticks beside the Research and the Construction items below. Those numbers represent the 'base' amount of time it will take to complete this research, however your Race, your Engineering Setup and the number of Research Labs you have ''will'' significantly reduce this time - indeed you should be able to fit the Infrastructure Upgrade research before protection is over, and perhaps HCT 3 as well.

'''Starting Research'''
# Improved Resource Handling - 16 Ticks to complete
# Heavy Cargo Transfers II - 24
# Fighter Class Hulls - 24
# Jumpgate - 16
# ''**End of Protection**''
# Infrastructure Upgrade - 16
# Heavy Cargo Transfers III - 24
# Warpgate - 32
# Advanced Core Extraction - 24
# Frigate Class Hulls
# Heavy Cargo Transfers IV - 48
Then, about this time you'll need to try and get as much Scan technology as you can whilst keeping up with your roids (at least until Unit scans)

The things to research least if you are a free account are the [[Waves|scans]] and [[Covert_Operations|covert ops]], as they're heavily limited and there's nothing worthwhile available until you upgrade.

=== Construction ===

The most beneficial construction to start with is the [[Research lab]]. This increases your research speed by up to 20% (when 1 in 5 or more of your constructions are [[research lab]]s). To build ships you need a factory and the appropriate research.

'''Starting Constructions'''
# Research Lab - 12 ticks
# Refinery - 12 (the number of which Refinery depends on your race. If you are Terran, focus on Metal Refineries as your ships cost alot of Metal. Cathaar = Crystal and Zikonian = Eonium. Eonium is no longer fuel, but is as important as Metal and Crystal - so keep it in mind ).
# Refinery - 12
# Refinery - 12
# Light Factory - 12
# Research Lab - 12
# ''**End of Protection**''
# Refinery - 12
# Refinery - 12
# Amplifier - 12
# Refinery - 12
# Research Lab - 12
# Medium Factory - 12

=== Mining ===

Mining is one of the important screens (together with research and construction) at the beginning of the round.

When you first sign up, you have 5000 of each resource. This is enough to buy 3 of each type of asteroid in the "Mining" screen. Paid accounts have 10000 of each resource, and so can afford 6 of each roid type.

To initiate asteroids, put the numbers in the corresponding boxes beside the three different resource types and click ''initiate''.

'''Note:''' You want to be the biggest planet you can be. You initiate asteroids at the beginning of the game as that's the most cost effective way of gaining asteroids, and you need asteroids to give you more resources. However, after 100-150 initiated asteroids of a specific resource the most cost effective way to gain more is by building ships that can steal asteroids and attacking other planets (you also gain [[XP]] for doing this, which adds to your planets [[score]]). Therefore, while you use this page a lot in the first 5-10 days, afterwards you won't need it much unless exchanging resources with others.

== Galaxy: x,y ==

A [[galaxy]] allows its own planets to launch ships to defend each other with a low [[ETA]]. In the galaxy status you can see details on friendly and hostile fleet movement. All planetats will be able to see incoming fleets, but only upgraded planets will be able to see outgoing fleets.

=== Galaxy Politics ===

==== Galactic Commander (blue) ====

Each planet can vote for a player they want to be the overall leader of the galaxy, called the [[Galactic Commander]]. When a player has the most votes, he or she is automatically appointed the role of GC. The galaxy screen shows the current galaxy staff setup.

==== Minister Of Development (yellow) ====

The MoD is responsible for the Galaxy Fund. He can donate funds to the smallest planets in the galaxy (the planets with below-average score). He can also regulate trade within the fund: at any time the MoD can choose to forbid or allow trade of one or more (or even all!) types of resources.

==== Minister of Communication (light blue) ====

The MoC is the spokesperson for a galaxy: he

==== Minister of War (red) ====

The Minister of war is responsible for arranging attacks and defences in a galaxy. He's generally the one, together with the Minister of Communication, that organises contact information on the forums and overview for defence. He may often also look for galaxies for his own galaxy to attack.

'''Note:'''
Not all galaxies follow these ideas. Some planets play with friends and alliances as much or more than their own galaxy mates (especially for attacking). Therefore it's a good idea to also have an alliance.

The bottom line for defence and organisation is your galaxy, and generally "galaxy mates" know each other quite well by the end of the round. Communication is essential, which is why many galaxies use a form of communication such as [[IRC]] where they have their own private channel to discuss and organise galaxy issues. Mobile phones are often also used in emergencies, such as when the galaxy is being heavily attacked (although giving your mobile phone out is always optional).

It's generally up to the galaxy how much they play for fun and how active they are, as in any galaxy there's some people on 10 hours a day and some only 2-4 hours. As there's only a limited amount of people in a galaxy, some of the more serious players are determined to get active players, but even the smaller less active galaxies often have a certain amount of fun.

== Alliance: 1st line of support ==

Beside galaxies, your main line of defence is [[alliance|alliances]]. Alliances are groups of players that agree to defend and perform coordinated attacks together.

=== Are Alliances Made Of Green Men And Cheese? ===

Alliances have several ranks within them.

The [[High Commander]]s are in charge of the alliance. There's no set limit for how many people are in this most powerful position, but generally there's between 3 and 5 who are in ultimate authority.

[[Officer]]s sort out the alliance attacks and defences, and are often responsible (together with some of the HCs) for the technical responsibility of the alliance. Some are in charge of intelligence, internal and external affairs, and even "scanners" - those devoted to scanning for the alliance.

Normal members (aka. pe0ns) help with duties within the alliance, but mostly are required to be as active as possible and participate in alliance attacks and defences. Some alliances give points for attacking and defending, so they can keep track of how helpful alliance members are. Alliances generally are organised on IRC and often have their own forums and/or IRC servers to increase privacy and communication ability. Some alliances have a "minimum IRC activity time" together or instead of a points system - inactive players don't pull their weight in the long term and so often require a lot more defence than they give. At the beginning of the round, many alliances would prefer players with less experience but that are online 8 or more hours a day than experienced players that won't be on more than 2 hours a day.

=== How Do I Get An Alliance? ===

Most alliances require [[IRC|IRC]] activity. The established alliances require vouches (people already in the alliance knowing you and saying you're a good player), but many just interview and require a minimum activity time. New players should look in the [http://pirate.planetarion.com/forumdisplay.php?f=37 Alliance Recruitment Forum] in particular the Alliance Overview at the top.

== Combat ==

This is a space war game in which [[combat]] is an important part.

=== Ships, Classes and Targets ===

Ship from different [[Ship_Class|classes]] can be categorized into their respective [[Ship_Type|primary functionalities]].

=== Inititative ===

[[Initiative]] defines the order that ships fire in battle. Generally, [[Race|Cathaar]] EMP ships fire first, then [[Race|Xandathrii]] ships, then [[Race|Terran]] and [[Race|Zikonian]] kill ships and [[Race|Cathaar]] kill ships, and then the astropods, and then steal ships, and then structure killers.

=== Arm/Cost and Dam/Cost explained ===

In the [http://game.planetarion.com/stats.pl?page=33 ship statistics] these are, in some ways, more important than the armour, damage and cost columns themselves. They summarize these columns by saying, per cost, how much armour or damage the ship does. This means you can quickly compare ships no matter their different costs. looking at Terran, you can see their "Arm/Cost" column is much bigger than the other races. [[Race|Cathaar]] and [[Race|Xandathrii]] have bigger "Dam/Cost" columns, but keep in mind that 6 of the [[Race|Cathaar]] ships only stun their opponents (the ships that are listed as EMP).

==== Attacking ====

Look around for targets you can handle, unit scan, produce a [[battle calculation]] and attack. Remember to send enough [[pods]] to capture 25% of the targets [[asteroid|roid]]s, which have an armour of 50. Get a News scan at [[ETA]] 1 or a Jump Gate Probe scan between [[ETA]]1-4 to be aware of any defence the planet might have obtained. It is advisable to watch your targets resource spending during the attack not to be caught unaware of ships coming out of production. The [http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=185199 How to Attack] thread on the [Strategy] Forum outlines a procedure for attacking, however it does include some more advanced [[:Category:Terminology|Terminology]] so it may be initially confusing, however it is still a good viable guide. Furthermore, a description of the various [[Fleet Strategy]] is also available - it outlines common names for the various tactics involved, provides an example, and identifies counter-strategy too. Again, it uses complex [[:Category:Terminology|Terminology]] and so it is something to work towards :).

==== Defending ====

When under attack several planets will receive defense from their alliance. However, those without an [[alliance]] have to rely on the planets within their galaxy (or a buddy within the cluster) to receive defence. In-galaxy defence is usually coordinated within the galaxy's [[IRC]] channel.

If you have just started out, you will likely be uncovered, meaning you do not have enough ships in defensive to stop the attacker from taking a share of your roids.

Sending random ships for defence is counter-productive as ships target a certain [[ship class]]. Unit scanning the attacker and producing a [[battle calculation]] based on an estimation of what the attacker sent should always be done before any defence is done.

== Troubleshooting ==

Four score and seven minutes ago, I read a sweet article. Lol thknas

=== Exceptions ===

If you play from the same place as someone else in your family, it is strongly recommended you apply for an [[exception]].

===Logging in from different urls ===

You can login to the game via the following URLs:

http://game.planetarion.com/login.pl

http://p45.planetarion.com/login.pl

http://87.124.126.17/login.pl

== Further Help ==

[[Sovereign]], a Planetarion [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]] [[Moderator]] is able and very willing to help players who are new, uncertain on where to go or what to do next, or to provide advice and assistance on a whole range of topics in Planetarion. The [[HashStrategy|#Strategy]] Channel on the Netgamers [[IRC]] Network (see [[Connecting To IRC]]) is ideal to drop by, or you can make a post on the [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]] for a more in-depth answer. [[Sovereign]] also maintains other Planetarion Resources, some of which can be found in the [http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=169297 Useful Links] (Help Guides section) thread on the [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]].

== See Also ==
*[[Fleet_Strategy]]
*[[Military_strategies]]
*[[New_Player_Manual:Combat]]
*[[Battle_calculator]]

[[Category:Strategy]]