Federation Commander

First, figure out how big each box will be, (there's a little mouse grid locator deal in one of the lower corners that can help you approximate the Length and Width of the boxes on the image). Then put that in the Set Grid Size window that you can find under Tools. Once you've done that, switch to Overlay mode also under Tools.

To define a box, click on the upper left hand corner of the box and fill in the details of the box, you can also do groups of boxes by selecting the amount of boxes the go in direction X, (Left to Right), and direction Y, (Top to Bottom), just be sure to take into account the creative placement of the boxes so you don't go too far in a particular direction.

Once you've defined all the boxes, you can save the ship as a def. Until it's approved by Paul and SVC, you'll have to send a copy of the def and a counter to your opponett so they can see it.

It may take a few tries, but you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. The only block you'll run into is trying to figure out hoe to scan the ship card and scale it properly first before you define the boxes. I'm still trying to figure out how to scale the cards I've scanned.

So in preparation to pick races, it is done via a bidding system right? You give a list like this:

Klinks 1950
Kzinti 1960
Romulans 1970

all the way to the bottom with a maximum of 2000 points. Then if you have the lowest bid for a race you get it, but you only get that many points to make your inital fleet. So if no one had bid less then 1950 points, then I would get the Klingons, but I would only 1950 points.

Make sense?

So start emailing me you fleet choices on Friday, and when I get them all I will report who gets what fleet.

Oh and just so everyone knows that I am on the up and up, here is my fleet choices for everyone to see.

Kzinti 2000
Klingon 2000
Fed 2000
Gorn 2000
Rom 2000
Selts 2000

So as you can see it doesn't really matter to me what I fly. I will start making the map when I get all the player's bids.

How many folks do we have so far?

To my count we have the following confirmed players:

Dread_Lord
Sweeper
Sir_Krotar
quzziod + Mazza
SylvrDragon
terryoc

If Terry wants his own empire then he should probably take the Selts (is anyone else interested in them?) since he said he was interested in them and otherwise we run over the number of available empires. His number two choice is also a good option - he could play the Orion Mercenaries who aren't really an empire but are in the game as raiders and pirates. Otherwise he can join up with another player (who is willing). He can certainly join up with me but it is his call.

So perhaps before we jump into race selection we should work out if we want to split into two groups or not. My vote is to keep one group and double up on players but we have enough for two groups if that is the preferred choice of everyone.

Opinions?

How did we do it last time? Didn't we put the Orions and Tholians together as a combined empire?

I'm good with playing Teams myself. I work nights and have the weekends off.

Well, we did play with Orions and Tholians as a combined empire, but I would prefer to avoid that this time. Last time we were playing when there were only three empires available and we had four players. This time we have five true empires and six if someone wants to play/add the Selts. Both the Orions and the Tholians are problematic as a true empire for several reasons that have been mentioned, but also just because there aren't that many ships in the client for them.

I would leave the Tholians out of this game, and keep the Orions in their role as specified in the rule set as raiders and pirates. If web rules get added to the client, we could use the Tholians as the Guardians of the Center planet though....that could be cool (I think that was Terry's idea)

Yeah, sorry if I wasn't clear about these points.

Yes, it is a silent auction. You send in bids in a list with a bid for each race from your first choice to your last choice in order. The only reason I announced my bid is so that it is obvious that I didn't look at everyone else's bids and then set my choices.

So for example if there were three players and the bids looked like as follows:

Player A: Klinks 1940, Kzinti 1950, Rom 2000
Player B: Klinks 1930, Rom 1950, Kzinti 2000
Player C: Klinks 1940, Kzinti 1945, Rom 2000

Then Player B would get the Klinks because he bid the lowest for it, and Player A and C complete for their Second Choice. Player C wins so he gets Kzinti and Play A gets his third choice of Romulans. In the event of a tie I will flip a coin. (or d3 or d4 or whatever approriate)

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As for the second question, I was going to let the indivual teams work those kinds of details out as works best for them, but they share the same empire and they share the same reasources. The only advantage to being in a team is a logistical/real world one; if one player can't play for a month (or whatever) then the other player can take over. Also if you have say five battles to fight in a turn, it is easier to do finish them all in a reasonable amount of time with more then one person to play them out. The teams would just need to work it out who fights what battles.

If the teams wanted to split it up by fleet that is fine by me and is certainly a good approach.

Huh, and here I figured you for the Kzinti as every time I see you play, I see massive drone launches.

Well, Kzinti is my #1 choice in my race picks

I'd be happy to go with the Selts, but I don't know how to make ship defs in the client.

Yup, feel free to send in your bids. I will announce the results when I get the all and have a chance to calculate the winners.

I will also send around the rules updates to be voted on when I get everyone's email address.

It sounds as if we have six empires so I will start working on a proposed galactic map this weekend. Once I have it I will allow for a round of suggestions/improvements, and then we will be all set.

At this time the only partners that I know about are Mazza and quzziod. If you and Sweeper would like to partner, that is totally cool.

People who wish to join the campaign later should feel free if they can find a willing empire to join up with. Empires aren't set in stone until I get all the bids.

It is by no means required that you have a partner. Just an option. You can have no partner, or get one later in the game or get one now. Just an option is all.