Star Trek: Dominion War scenario

kobayashi · February 21, 2001, 04:19

Dear Everybody,

I have submitted my latest scenario for review. It is different from STBAQ in that it is not a civilisation building game but rather a quest plus battles scenario. There will be new ships, terrain and races and this is not a re-hash of BAQ. The four square spiral galaxy example in my 'alternative uses for terain 2' tip will feature as well.

If you have any comments on STDW (or STBAQ for that matter) please post them here so that I can do improvements.

Thank You

PolarisGL · February 21, 2001, 11:11

I have a strategy guide for The Art of War for this scenario. I gotta try it out first.

Kobi, send it to my e-mail.

Paul Hanson · February 21, 2001, 18:55

Hey, congrats on STBAQ: it was without a doubt the best Star Trek scenario I`ve ever played. If STDW is of the same standard, then I know what I`ll be spending too much of my time doing shortly.

Leonidas · February 23, 2001, 06:32

Star Trek for the Alpha Quadrant is an excellent scenario. The graphics, sounds and research tree are all very well done. I highly recommend this scenario to everyone. Basically, you colonize star systems throughout the Universe, while encountering various civilizations along the way.

I am looking forward to more scenarios from you

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Go tell the Spartans, passerby:
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.

PolarisGL · February 23, 2001, 10:37

Dominion War is excellent so far...

and yes, it matches his first scenario.

kobayashi · February 26, 2001, 02:47

Hi folks,

Sorry for the dealy, seems there was a slight problem with the S-League maibox. I've sent the zip files directly to Cam now so they should hopefully be appearing sometime in the very near future.

Anybody who can manage a win at Admiral level (or above) please post here for recognition. The hardest game I managed to win was at Commodore level, (and I know where everything is).

kobayashi · February 28, 2001, 00:09

OK, its here! You can download both the game and sounds zip from the Spanish Civilisation site at Apolyton.

Just one thing to note: it says MGE only in the description - which is not true. STDW is a FW or above scenario. I will get jesus to change that.

Jay Bee · February 28, 2001, 04:02

I'll change it asap. Sorry 'bout that. I was misled by the enormous size of the events.txt file (22 K!!). What did you do to stuff such a big file in without the scenario crashing?

kobayashi · February 28, 2001, 05:14

22.5k is roughly the maximum size for events in FW. There is a red bar in the events editor on the right that moves up as you add things and when it reaches the top you are not allowed to add anymore stuff. I think I am within five words of the limit after some experimentation.

Most of the messages that pop up now have been edited to the bare minimum compared to when I first started. You know, I had descriptions of how Worf killed Gowron and let Martok be the Chancellor. Now it just says "Martok suceeds Gowron." Also had to take out some other interesting messages which are irrelevant to the actual game - like how Jadzia was killed, why Sarah Sisko is actually a wormhole Alien and lots of other stuff.

Jay Bee · February 28, 2001, 06:47

quote:

Originally posted by kobayashi on 02-28-2001 04:14 AM
22.5k is roughly the maximum size for events in FW. There is a red bar in the events editor on the right that moves up as you add things and when it reaches the top you are not allowed to add anymore stuff. I think I am within five words of the limit after some experimentation.

I knew about the bar, that's one of the reasons I asked. The manual states 15 K maximum and I myself have verified this to be painfully true in my own scenarios. Everytime I exceeded that figure the scenario refused to load. I am really perplexed with this. Any other opinions, please?

[This message has been edited by Jay Bee (edited February 28, 2001).]

kobayashi · February 28, 2001, 08:22

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that you didn't know about the bar. What I meant was: I didn't do anything special, just filled in the events until the bar reached the top.

As for any other opinions, well if I am forced to come up with one:

The manual says that there is a 32k heap dedicated to events. I would surmise that different 'triggers' and 'actions' take up a different amount of space in memory not directly related to amount of code used in the events file. I use a lot of text messages in my events and presumably this kind of 'action' takes up the least amount of memory when civ is running since messages don't affect the game, they just appear. If the majority of actions were not message related, then the max size of the events file would then be 15k.

Jay Bee · February 28, 2001, 08:46

Yes, you are correct, the FW manual states 32K. 15K was probably the CiC limit, when I started with this business. Your explanation might be correct although I still wonder why yours is the only scen I know that gets beyond 15-18 K. I was under the impression as well that message texts take up the most space but I cannot substantiate it.

kobayashi · March 1, 2001, 01:11

The STBAQ events file maxes out at 19.6k. So I guess its really different for each scenario - depending on what the events files contain.

Chris 62 · March 1, 2001, 01:15

Heh, heh, I knew getting you two together was a good idea!

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All knowledge begins with the phrase: I don't know.
[This message has been edited by cpoulos (edited February 28, 2001).]

Thoth · March 15, 2001, 09:12

quote:

Originally posted by kobayashi on 02-21-2001 03:19 AM
Dear Everybody,

I have submitted my latest scenario for review. It is different from STBAQ in that it is not a civilisation building game but rather a quest plus battles scenario. There will be new ships, terrain and races and this is not a re-hash of BAQ. The four square spiral galaxy example in my 'alternative uses for terain 2' tip will feature as well.

If you have any comments on STDW (or STBAQ for that matter) please post them here so that I can do improvements.

Thank You

Great job kobayashi!

Two marathon days in front of the computer, and I've finished it off. 28 hrs, 152 turns. My back hurts, my eyes are bloodshot, but the Dominion is no more.

Seriously, this is one of the better (read: more enjoyable to me) scenarios I've played. Great looking, challenging and *FUN*.

Thanks for all the hard work.

kobayashi · March 16, 2001, 23:41

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the support.

Finished in 152 turns? That is quite amazing if you played at commodore level. Care to furnish a few juicy details about your game?

Vitmore The Great · March 18, 2001, 15:19

I loved Dominion War! Kudos kobi! I passed it in 76 turns, but then I'm a whimp and played at the third level. Anyway, lotsa fun!

Vitmore

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"We should not go out and conquer the people, but give them no other choice in their minds but to be conquered." - Me

Paul Hanson · March 19, 2001, 12:07

This is a brilliant scenario! The graphics, the sounds and the gameplay are all top-notch!

I think we have found a new Captain Nemo!

Cal · March 20, 2001, 02:15

...What happened to the old one?

kobayashi · March 20, 2001, 11:45

quote:

Originally posted by Paul Hanson on 03-19-2001 11:07 AM
I think we have found a new Captain Nemo!

Thanks. There will be never a second Captain Nemo!
(Although I am experimenting with a WWII scenario now)

Thoth · March 21, 2001, 09:09

quote:

Originally posted by kobayashi on 03-16-2001 10:41 PM
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the support.

Finished in 152 turns? That is quite amazing if you played at commodore level. Care to furnish a few juicy details about your game?

I didn't keep a log, but the game went roughly like this
(Played on the default level, Comodore I think)

Looked around at my planets, discovered there was little to be done to increase sheild production (except for building Data the Android, so that was made a research priority). Luxuries up to 30% in turn 1 to get my planets growing by WLTKD. Earth, Vulcan and several other planets without Orbital Yards switched to Clydesdales.

Lost Defiant, Bajor, Defiant II, Betazed and DS9 early on. Managed to hold on to everything else.

Once Earth had started DTA, Planetary Transit systems became my next priority.

Defiant III took two planets in the NorthWest, establishing a foothold.
Relief forces arrived in time to save one and retake the other (Defiant III having been lost in the process). Played a defensive game near the Wormhole until the NorthWest had been fully pacified. By this time Null Space catapaults had shortened supply lines considerably. Tech coming in about every 3-4 turns.

Found the artifact that set up the Sisko events, and followed those for awhile. I'd just finished relocating the bulk of my forces from the NorthWest campaign, and had retaken Betazed and Bajor. Golanis had fallen
and forces were massing for further conquests. Then the Breen showed up.

Many Norways and Steam Runners were bought (thanks to the magic of incremental rushbuilding and a healthy economy, my larger planets were in the 18-22 range by now).

Lost one planet to the Breen, retaken shortly thereafter and conquest of the Breen worlds followed.

With the Breen taken care of, the war in the West became easier and a second task force began the conquest of Cardassian space. Moving from West to East Federation forces encountered slight resistance at first, and easily conquered several outlying systems before pushing on to the major facilities and Cardassia herself.

The rest was just mopping up.

(BTW: in STBAQ the "First Contact" wonder is obsolete from the start. The Borg start with the tech that makes it obsolete.)

Shadowstrike · March 21, 2001, 20:47

The scenario is great (art is amazing, gameplay is excellent) and since Star Trek is one of my favorite TV series (I must have seen nearly every episode, I followed DS9 and Voyager from beginning to end) I have to admit htat this scenario is great. My only complaint is the positioning of the planets (which I don't think you can do too much about). For example, Cardassia is right next to Bajor (as shown by Sisko being swept away to that system from Bajor in his solar sail craft), but that would either make the Cardies (

) too strong or too weak in that region. The Breen homeworld is also in teh Alpha Quadrant, somewhere close to Romulan space, but if the player destroyed them early... well you get the picture.

kobayashi · March 22, 2001, 03:14

To Toth,

I am just curious so I have some more questions. Seems you had a very good strategy. I wasn't able to finish myself until day 300.

Does that mean you did the entire campaign without sealing the wormhole?

Didn't you start to encounter dominion battleships? I had to kill about 60 battleships in my game. Maybe they don't appear in big numbers if you gain the upperhand early.

Does 'the rest was just mopping up' refer to taking Great Links after going through the wormhole?

To Shadowstrike,

Generally agree. I did consider the solar sail episode but in the end I considered it just one of those things that crop up when a different person pens each episodes. If Cardassia was next to Bajor, why did they have to fight all over the place for a few years after retaking Bajor? In the end I did a compromise and put Cardassia reasonably nearby and not at the bottom left corner. But as you put it there was no real way around the problem.

As for the Breen, they are in the Alpha Quadrant (in the sense that their private area is not connected to the Gamma quadrant). Guess I just walled them off to keep their homeworld hidden till the right time. Not an ideal solution but again as you put it there was no real way around this either.

Thoth · March 22, 2001, 10:04

quote:

Originally posted by kobayashi on 03-22-2001 02:14 AM
To Toth,

I am just curious so I have some more questions. Seems you had a very good strategy. I wasn't able to finish myself until day 300.

Does that mean you did the entire campaign without sealing the wormhole?

Didn't you start to encounter dominion battleships? I had to kill about 60 battleships in my game. Maybe they don't appear in big numbers if you gain the upperhand early.

Does 'the rest was just mopping up' refer to taking Great Links after going through the wormhole?

The wormhole was sealed (after the Sisco episode IIRC), but it didn't seem to make much difference. The Dominion didn't put enough effort into breaking through the self-replicating mines. By the time the wormhole was sealed, I was sending a few ships down the wormhole on hit and run raids.

I only saw three Dominion battleships the whole game. One came after Vulcan, and was fought off thanks to some quick rushbuying. Another was up in the Northwest. It was curiously timid after I took a shot at it with a torpedo. I had an Oberth flying around keeping tabs on it, but the battleship never engaged in combat.

The other appeared at the same time as the message about the Dominion shipyards.

'Moping up"

Finishing off the last of the Dominion forces in the Alpha Quadrant and sending the fleet down the wormhole. I'd have finished the scenario a few turns earlier, but it took forever to relocate the fleet.

kobayashi · March 23, 2001, 01:09

quote:

Originally posted by Thoth on 03-22-2001 09:04 AM
The wormhole was sealed (after the Sisco episode IIRC), but it didn't seem to make much difference. The Dominion didn't put enough effort into breaking through the self-replicating mines. By the time the wormhole was sealed, I was sending a few ships down the wormhole on hit and run raids.

How could you be sending ships down the wormhole after it was sealed??? Did your Sisko find Sarah in the timeless void? I hope its not a bug. Anyway, as long as you enjoyed the game..that's all that matters.

Thoth · March 23, 2001, 07:01

quote:

Originally posted by kobayashi on 03-22-2001 12:09 PM
How could you be sending ships down the wormhole after it was sealed??? Did your Sisko find Sarah in the timeless void? I hope its not a bug. Anyway, as long as you enjoyed the game..that's all that matters.

No, I was sending ships down the wormhole *until* it was sealed. Sisko finding Sarah put an end to that sport for awhile.