Good morning everyone. I just got addicted to this game again after not playing since 93 on BBSes.

I had a few topics I was looking for advice on:

1. Trying to read as much of the tips documents as possible, I see continued references to keeping your experience down as a Blue, getting punched out at the Underground to lose 1/2, etc.

Other than being able to sleep in fedspace, what advantages are there to keeping experience down as a Blue, especially later in the game?

2. Using a Tholian Sentinel for sector defense. Does the ship have to be occupied by a player to defend at 4:1, or can it just sit there unoccupied?

3. Just to clarify, if you cloak in fedspace with 1000+ exp (as a Blue) and the sector does *not* fill up above occupation limits, will you or will you not get towed (in a stock game)? Does # fighters make a difference if you are cloaked?

Thanks in advance for any replies!

Ok , I welcome you back ..the game is still popular [:)]
There are a few more ways to keep your exp down ..but I'll get to your questions.

1) it is good to be fed safe when you are the main coloniser in your corp because you can not be attacked while doing your runs twarp style.

2) Yes the ship has to be manned or it is a standard ship.

3) The feds will kick anyone with over 99 fighters on them from fed space parking cloaked or not.

Thanks Vid Kid. So cloaked with 99 or less I will not get towed, right (assuming the sector is not full)?

quote:Originally posted by jfoobar

Thanks Vid Kid. So cloaked with 99 or less I will not get towed, right (assuming the sector is not full)?


That is correct, even if your experience points are greater than 999 (which is the fedsafe cutoff, not 1000). The fig cutoff btw is 100, not 99. You can sleep safely uncloaked in fed with 100 figs if your exp is less than 1000. Unless you are at Terra or stardock, it is prudent to have at least 1000 shields, in case someone creates a 100% navhaz in your sector, which will give you 1000 damage points when you enter the game.

Control of your alignment is also important if you are blue. In a mixed red/blue corp, everyone loses experience points at extern. Not a problem for blues, but it reduces the red's earning potential. Check http://tw-cabal.com/ (formulas) for the mechanism. Simply put, the higher the blue align, the more the reds lose. Usually a good idea to keep align just above 1000 points. There are several ways to reduce align, cheapest is to jet colos, -1 point/colo. Only works once per day. The downside of relatively low alignment is that you might go evil if you attack another blue. If that happens, and you are in an ISS, Zyrain will smoke you.

Welcome,

I completely concur with Vid Kid and would like to add the following

As well as being Fedsafe (cannot be podded in fedspace), another advantage to staying blue is access to an ISS, which in most edits is advantageous. Staying blue as Vid Kid mentioned is generally the most efficent manner to Colonize your planets.
I would also like to mention that "IF" fedspace is above the allotted limit I believe that the selection process after the "LIMIT" starts with the highest number of fighters.
I doesn’t hurt to park with like 50 figs, or none for that matter at dock or terra if you’re blue and under 1k experience.

quote:Originally posted by Zoso

Welcome,

I completely concur with Vid Kid and would like to add the following

As well as being Fedsafe (cannot be podded in fedspace), another advantage to staying blue is access to an ISS, which in most edits is advantageous. Staying blue as Vid Kid mentioned is generally the most efficent manner to Colonize your planets.
I would also like to mention that "IF" fedspace is above the allotted limit I believe that the selection process after the "LIMIT" starts with the highest number of fighters.
I doesn’t hurt to park with like 50 figs, or none for that matter at dock or terra if you’re blue and under 1k experience.



The highest number of figs is more likely to be towed, but it is not the sole determining factor. I did some testing of this, not nearly enough to be conclusive, but here is what I found:

Fed limit 3. Player A 10 figs, B 30 figs, C 50 figs. I varied player D. D 90 - 100 figs, always towed. D 80 or less, others sometimes towed, and not always the next highest. I only ran a couple dozen tests, more work needs to be done - I'd appreciate inputs from anyone with more data.

Did you test with any sheilds Kav? I think that may also play a part?

quote:Originally posted by Zoso

Did you test with any sheilds Kav? I think that may also play a part?


None of the ships were shielded, thanks for the suggestion. Also, all ships different types, but no apparent pattern from that.

did you always park them in the same order? traitor did testing on that and found out that has a little bearing on it.
anywho, i think most incorrect things have been corrected, but i'll re-post them to make it easier:
ways to not get towed: 100 figs or less, stay under fed space park limit
unfedsafe: 1000xp and over or -1 align or lower

as for tholian. if you have a full corp tholian over a corp planet, but it is unmanned, if they choose to attack the tholian it *will* still recieve planet odds. but, it will also suffer from unmanned odds. so it will be defending at 2:1 rather than the manned 4:1 however, unmanned they can just ignore it and take the planet, while with a player in it, they have to deal with him first before they can get to the planet.

also, don't confuse being "fedsafe" with having a commision. you must have 1k+ alignment to use an ISS. (this does NOT affect your "fedsafeness"

i *highly* encourage you to go read http://www.tw-cabal.com it will have all these answers and many many many more!

also, the advantages for being fedsafe will come to you as you begin to grasp the way the game works.

good luck and have fun!

Slim

quote:Originally posted by Slim Shady

did you always park them in the same order? traitor did testing on that and found out that has a little bearing on it.
Slim


I remember that Traitor had a theory, had forgotten what it was, thanks. The first time player D was towed, it had 100 figs and was the second to park. From there thru 90 figs it was 4th parker, and was towed each time. I got bored and jumped to 80 figs, D was still 4th parker, but ship B was towed. B then became 4th parker, after that I cant remember what got towed each time I ran extern. It might well be that they were towed based on Traitor's "probability of tow", or perhaps the same, with a bias for max figs on ships.

quote:Originally posted by Kavanagh

quote:Originally posted by Slim Shady

did you always park them in the same order? traitor did testing on that and found out that has a little bearing on it.
Slim


I remember that Traitor had a theory, had forgotten what it was, thanks. The first time player D was towed, it had 100 figs and was the second to park. From there thru 90 figs it was 4th parker, and was towed each time. I got bored and jumped to 80 figs, D was still 4th parker, but ship B was towed. B then became 4th parker, after that I cant remember what got towed each time I ran extern. It might well be that they were towed based on Traitor's "probability of tow", or perhaps the same, with a bias for max figs on ships.


Heh, I bet B was the 2nd parker after D got towed the first time. When B became the 4th parker, did C become the 2nd parker, and did C get towed next? With fed limit of 3, I would expect the 2nd parker to get towed the most all things being equal. I should really go back and re-examine that...I almost always used 99 figs on all my test subjects. I should apply my theory with different fig amounts. hmm....looking over my notes again, I only really tested about 600 externs, and it's possible that the trends I saw were just normal random flux. OTOH, I did drive Jackal crazy one week in a game a few years ago by applying what I had learned and getting him towed every night he tried to park in fed...

Heh, lots of misinformation. The only one that has yet to be corrected is the one by slim saying that an unmanned tholian gets unmanned odds. That is incorrect. If a tholian is unmanned over a corp planet, it gets the exact same odds as if it were manned. However, in terms of protecting your planet, it really doesn't do anything since it doesn't stop anyone from landing if no one is in it.

did some testing... non-gold+non-mbbs, only gold, only mbbs, and gold+mbbs and found that all unmanned corp tholians get no planet odds over corp planets...
i have seen it get odds before.. but not in stock edits.. ima play around a bit more... could have been changed in 3.13...

I'm guessing it's changed since .55. That was the last time I tested it. I confirm slim's test results with 3.13, however.

i know its past .55 as i didnt play pre .55 heh
i'd say past .60 at some point, but more recent would be the way i lean.
any sysops running old versions that wish to set up test games for me?