I tend to take the attitude - any rule affects all of us, so it's an even playing field. I agree with xeno though, my tactic of using a rocket launcher on the first turn is hit and miss at best, and you can generally defend against it by positioning your units sensibly on deployment. I'm not a massive fan of the reduced hit points, although it was MUCH worse when I didn't realise it was a thing, now I allow for it. I'm happy to go with the majority vote :)
Well played Capt, Haven't played for a while and tried something different. Didn't plan it properly. Your rear blob attack was an audacious coup de main.
No I will. Has the case been proven that in 80 plus missions Rabid wins because of his propensity to pull out his massive weapon and shoot his awesome massive firepower against his opponents. No. Mange tout.<br /><br />Big boss says suck it up.
I still think you are using a hammer to fix something a screwdriver would do. But what do I know. Lone voice so I must be wrong. C'est la vie. I won't mention it again.
I agree that it makes some missions slightly unfair, but Cpt Fishmonger is correct in the amount of work. My solution is to keep the "50% aps for the first player" feature, and if any missions are unbalanced, adjust them accordingly. I usually do this every 6 months or so by looking at the game stats and seeing if one side is winning to often. (The stats are here if anyone is interested: <a href="https://www.stellarforces.com/dsr/miscstatspage.cls">https://www.stellarforces.com/dsr/miscstatspage.cls</a> )
The amount of work required to implement that would be prohibitive. Far simpler to retain the universal settings and players will vote with their feet (in terms of map preferences).
It's not impossible or at least not what I'm referring to which is the blanket rule not applying to every game. Of course it would take a lot of time to work out which games the first player can kill their opponent before they have a chance and which games they can't do that, there are plenty you can't, where the rule doesn't make a difference but actually alters the dynamic of the specific game now. Even maybe where it actually now allows the second player to deal out game changing damage first turn against the attacker. <br /><br />But it's not us who will have to spend the time trying to work it out (although we could all help) and certainly not us having to implement the change to individual games, and if I was in the same boat I might do exactly the same and just make all games that way. It all comes down whether you think it makes a significant difference or not doing it in a game specific rather blanket way and weighing that up against the time and effort that would be needed. <br /><br />There is always the option of making it an option itself whether to apply the rule or not when creating the game, giving the individual the choice of turning it on or off, depending on whether it is default or not. Again, I'm mindful of how difficult and time consuming it might be to implement that. I don't know, just an idea.
It's impossible for Steve to get right. Some games are naturally stacked in the attacker's favour (I'm looking at you Outhouses and Assassins).
Well that can spoil specific games as the attacker needs to move fast before the defenders can get into position, this game is partly that way and Big Push certainly is I would say. And Moonbase Assault the campaign version needs the attackers to move very quick. Some games are weighted evenly by giving the attacker first move, if that is reduced by half it weights the game in favour of the defenders, takes away surprise which has been built into the whole dynamic of the game. There is no way I can kill the second player in this game as the starting points are so far apart, it now gives the defender the advantage. I'll carry on as I think I might offset it by being more experienced in this particular game than my opponent is but there are now certain games I won't play as the attacker anymore.
No, it applies to all games, since there's always a chance in any type of game that the first player can kill the second player before the second player has had a chance.
Me too. Loads of people online say how much they loved Laser Squad, but very few seem to want to play a modern version. I dunno why.<br /><br />Yes, I spend a lot of my free time just churning out games, I have done for decades now. I much prefer writing games to actually playing them.
No traffic. I am at a wonder. I left a big plug there. I will again. I suppose this is very niche today, but there are enough of us over 40, or myself over 50... Christ I am... *goes into a trance* ;back there. As I said before so much out there now.<br /><br />I looked at your games on itch.io, wow a lot of Spectrum emulation games. Fair play, you've been busy. Picked up a free game and your games came up. Obviously being tracked.
On this mission the disadvantage can be offset slightly. Just munch walls for resource points and spend them in the next turn. Clone production will be a turn behind everyone else but on these big missions probably be compensated by battle decisions.
As I posted I saw you had posted just 42 seconds before me Peter. I can understand it in some multiplayer games especially when Rabid is around, but not all.
I just thought if it was a new feature. And lo and behold it is! Not sure I like it myself. I know whoever goes first has an advantage but I think limiting a player's APs by half is too much of a handicap. Anyway, looks like it was implemented 256 days ago so a bit too late to complain now!
Player 1, first turn rule gets 50% AP's so to restrict the player from using rocket launchers and wiping out enemy players before the game has begun. I think the rule has been put into most or all such multilayer missions.
Thanks Peter. Just looking around really, play an odd game if I see one.<br /><br />@Steve Yes, it surprises me that this game isn't as popular as it should be really. Laser Squad was an iconic game. You couldn't have done more than what you have done though. I suppose it comes down to competition from so many other mobile games out there.
It sounds like that is what happened. It's happened to me a few times, so I added the special warning to the mission description: <a href="http://www.stellarforces.com/dsr/missiondescriptions.cls?type=123&camp=0">http://www.stellarforces.com/dsr/missiondescriptions.cls?type=123&camp=0</a>
Morning. Recently played this and captured the flag, but lost despite the fact that my team was still alive. Is it actually a case of capture the flags?
Thanks, fingers crossed. SF isn't doing too badly at the moment (there's about 10 games currently being played which is about par for the course) but more players are always welcome. I know it's not the best looking game in the world, but it does surprise me that there's not more players given how popular Laser Squad was back in the day.
Bring on the dancing girls. I mentioned this site in HUKDs. Done the same for them.:) You should get some traffic passing through. It's if they decide to stop.
Thank you Steve. Been just over a year. Looking back at my comments I was as footballer's like to say quite passionate. I will try to remain reserved. No you don't want that!<br /><br />Hope you and the family are well Steve. Always a great outfit you have here. My hat off to you as always bud.
Hi Xeno and welcome back. Sorry for the late reply, I've only just got back from work. I'm glad things are sort of looking up for you, and I hope things get better. Stellar Forces is pretty much the same as it's been for the last 10 years. :) Mostly lots of Colonisation type missions are played nowadays.
Anyone home! *Tiptoes around the place.* C'mon there might be guests coming. <br /><br />Sod it I'm making an underground colony. Just have to remember how to play.
Hi folks, been a year since I left. Needed a good break. <br /><br /><br />Hope all are fine. Got talking about Rebelstar and Laser Squad in a forum and remembered Stellar Forces! Left a plug for the game. Then thought, go on take a look. So I have. Needed my new reading glasses to type this, so that has changed. That came on quick. The fact I can share this with you shows how close we are: I have been diagnosed with ASD. Level one Autism which is Asperger's Syndrome as it used to be called. Had to wait until I was 52 to was diagnosed. My doctor, wonderful woman, pushed me after I bailed out years ago. Doesn't change anything as such but it slots that quite large missing jigsaw piece right in near the centre. <br /><br />Anyway, what's been going on here. I looked for Peter's name first and see he's still playing and alive. :D
Not far behind you. Gonna message you. Played assassin's game over a week ago. Bit the opponent never played again. Thought I should get the points. Bit short of points (who isn't) won't let me cancel?
Once you're 4 or 5 turns in, it's so hard to contain so many blobs, the best chance is to weaken the blob forces in the first few turns. I took a risk though, if you'd had a rocket launcher or a few AP100s you could have taken out a lot of blobs in that penultimate turn.
I got an email at about 15:30 from my cloud server provider saying that it looked like the server I rent is being used to brute-force attack other servers. On a Sunday of all days! <br /><br />Long story short, it was. I turned it off for a while until I decided what to do, which was basically clean out all I could find, add some extra security, and hope for the best. It's back up now, and fingers crossed that all fixed.
You guys need to thanks my ap100 grenade wiping most of Dijon,s engineers when he took the flag near me! :-) I'm surprised I lasted so long and still keep a bit of a menace for Peter near my end.
Yep, I was wondering why all these Steve Smith troops were suddenly appearing later in the battle. I was expecting little resistance rather than a wall of aggressive troops.
I did only my first move, where I put myself in the open for the zombies.<br />Leave up to you guys to decide what's best and possible. Gooey Bob, maybe it's already in the attack, so probably too late to restart.
Thankfully it's quite rare (going by how often it's mentioned). What turn are you on? If player's have started moving, it's probably too late.
Sorry guys, I don't know what happened, but the server didn't assumed any equipment I choose for my troops. I put myself out in the open since I have zero.
I think the Alien side has too hard a time. They can't really move much when guns shoot them down at a long distance. Either the Queen needs to produce limited acid smoke for cover or a random placing of mist/smoke in the centre of the map.