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STARBASES
How to play (and ogg) them -- see also "ogging" and "playing-sb"
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Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 14:17:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Hugh Moore <hm0f+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Bulletin Board Administration <bb+andrew.games.xtrek@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Random showing off
I'd like to point out to those who are new to SBs that I've found that there are three things that massively help in survival.
- Team mates who help spotting/killing cloakers.
- Clueless opponents.
- Heavy use of the pressor beam.
I had a lot of help from #2 last night and occational very important help from #1 (Thanks to Sun Tzu for the drag when I was DEAD). When the going is tough, remember that a starbase moves faster with a tractor/pressor beam than at full warp.
I'd also like to point out that I only got about 50 kills.
ZZnew guy
Human Target
Devil's Dam
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Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 16:01:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Kevin Michael Bernatz <kb32+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Bulletin Board Administration <bb+andrew.games.xtrek@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Random showing off
You left out a few things that SBer's should know....
- Be patient.. don't tractor in every enemy you see. Examine the situation first... if your not going to be pulled (remember, he'll run and drag you at warp 7 towards the home planet...) into trouble, kill the guy. Otherwise just be patient and fire torps (unless he's a fool an gets really close.... :-> )
- Hope you have someone willing to tow you to safety. I can't mention the number of times I've been over 500 internal, only to survive because a teammate (or enemy.... if they fly by, I tractor them but don't kill them to let THEM tow me back..) towed me to a repair planet.
I do have to admit that Hugh played really good last night, though I only wish I had had fuel when those two last cloakers came in... I might have been able to kill one before he got to yah, Hugh. :-(
While I'm on the subject of SBing, if a SB needs to be towed. LET THE SB USE THE TRACTOR!!! You (the ship) just go warp 7, and let the SB tractor. His w temp will NOT overheat, while yours would in a very short time. I try to tell people this and it always comes off in a negative conotation (ie, as if I'm angry with them; which, of course, I'm not.) Just me two bits worth..
Commodore Sun Tzu
(the SB with 47 losses and still a ratio of almost 60 ) :-)
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Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 20:40:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Laxman Kapur <lk1b+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Bulletin Board Administration <bb+andrew.games.xtrek@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Starbases and Other Trivial Things
Hi guys!
I read with keen interest the articles on bases. A key factor is that a cooperative team is essential for a base to perform properly. If teammates do not help a base when required, the base has no use. This includes responding to distress calls, bringing armies to the base (if a guy is at rigel and say earth pops a few) etc. That night when I raked up the kills my teammates were helping me a lot. It would have been impossible for me to handle 3 cloakers for a planet simultaneously. A bad experience is when an enemy player is cloaked on you, and a clueless guy (or someone in for cheap kills) blows him up on you. This can send your damage skyward if you don't have full shields. Thanks for listening........
Adios
MAVERICK
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Date: Sat, 6 Apr 91 18:39:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Donald Alan Sutton <ds50+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Bulletin Board Administration <bb+andrew.games.xtrek@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Starbases and Other Trivial Things
A couple other SB notes:
If a SB seems to be holding an opponent with the tractor and your in the area kill him! I often hold others (and eat/det their torp spreads) in an effort to give players kills - this goes out there to those players who just think I'm playing with the guy for fun. NOTE: if I give you a kill DON'T go ogg the next guy on the screen and die - not after I just took 100+ damage for you! If I'm giving people kills then its probably the case that I have armies and want you to take a planet, or ferry armies to me, etc.....
Flash your shields if heavily wounded and the SB will try to protect you. NOTE: if you do this when opponents are on the screen the'll probably come after you....
If the SB is getting ogged (always look at galactic when docked) fly away and shoot torps/phasor! Don't make me pressor you since then I can't pressor the ogger.
If the SB doesn't look like he's fighting but is being attacked HELP him! Its probably the case that his WT is way high and he can't fight! Its also the case that your SB is way more important to you team than you are since it probably has more armies on it! Respond to distress calls that a SB sends out even if it looks like he's not hurt. Often I'm caught in the situation where I'm way forward and I have no wingman and there are 3-4 oggers coming in. This is BAD NEWS usually! OR the distress call was for someone to take a planet the
SB is near - either way respond...
If your going to take a planet and the SB is there let him know ahead of time. I'm happy to "orbit" a planet and det torps for you, plus kill oggers....
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Date: Sun, 7 Jul 91 12:29:57 -0400 (EDT)
From: Marc Christopher Pottier <mp2i+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Bulletin Board Administration <bb+andrew.games.xtrek@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: SB!
Howdy,
A few things I have noticed while SBing recently is the general lack of cluelessness when it comes to docking... Because of this, I figured now would be a good time to explain a few things about using your local friendly Starbase. Although every SB has his own style (vive la differance!), I think these points are general enough that they apply to everyone...
- Don't cloak and dock on a SB if it is in a combat zone. As a matter of fact, don't cloak and dock on a SB ever. I had a painful experience last night when my 270 kill SB had a docked cloaker in the middle of the battle. As it turned out, I was already hurt and retreating, so the added explosion was unwelcome...
- Don't dock on a SB during combat unless it is far enough away that torps can be detonated with minimum damage. Although this is a general rule, and varies, bear in mind that it is the players duty to make sure he doesn't dock when there are oggers/enemy SB's around. Once again, an exploding ship on a SB doesn't exactly tickle.
- Don't use the SB as a fuel planet. If you want to sit on the SB and shoot round after round of torp spreads, find a fuel planet. SB's don't have infinite fuel stores. It's rare that they run out, but it happens...
- Don't insist on sitting right next to the SB during combat. Spread out a little and try to stop incoming ships. If you blow up right next to a SB, it takes damage.
- The SB is there to protect you. If at all possible. the SB will do its best to pull you out of danger if you signal that you need help. This can be in the form of flashing shields and distress signals.
- If you want to use quick docking, (ie SB tractors you in to speed up process), flash your shields.
- If you change ships on a SB, be prepared to be pressored away if enemy ships start attacking. As a general rule, I tend to pressor docked ships off me if enemy ships come onto the screen.
That's about it. Sorry if it sounds a little lectureish, but these are points I see ignored again and again.
Happy Hunting everyone...
See you all on the net...
-Marc
aka Kamikaze
Usagi
Flap Eye
famine
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Date: Mon, 8 Jul 91 07:38:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Andrew Markiel <jm79+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Bulletin Board Administration <bb+andrew.games.xtrek@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: SB! (netrek angst)
Ok, ok, let's see what advice I can give to a poor suffering netreker, although let it be said that I am not one of the best starbases, or even fairly close to the best. But I can make myself efective, and people don't seem to abandon me. Of course, I'm Grey Elf :-) :-) :-)...
First of all, take a hard look at your team. Let's face, it, a lot of people playing over the summer just aren't that good. If your teammates all are under Commander with kill ratios around .5, and the other team has a couple of Admirals, you're hosed. Totally. Usually if I'm in that situation I fly into the enemy space and be a nuisance until we lose, or until we get better players and have a chance to come back. There's also a problem that all of the good local players know each other. I have this nasty tendency to enter the game and say...hey Hugh, what side are you on? Cool, now we have two Admirals on our team...and so it goes.
Don't expect help if your teammates can't give it. If you are going to play an SB, be really defensive. After all, your teammates will be too clueless to complain...
Second, there are times not to play an SB. These include: when a war is going on in what I call the "third space": the planets of a team which was previously genocided. When there are lots of armies on both team's planets, and serious bombing is in order. When you are attempting to grind the enemy down to it's last planets, or to keep them from getting 5 and an SB. Basically, in any situation where fast ships, or serious bombing or planet taking is necessary, an SB is not very helpful. The key point of an SB is a zone defense, and a repair/refuel/refit station, and there are times when this doesn't help. I remember one game at least where you were our SB, sending distress calls, and I said "hmm, I think I'll use this distraction to take a planet." I'm not going to save you if you're more help to our team in a faster ship. Cold, but true.
Third, be useful. There are many ways, but often going up to the front line, blowing up people, and taking damage is not exceptionally useful. See what your team needs. Your team probably needs to keep armies alive, so gather them up and let people know you have them. There are some planets that the enemy wants to take. Sit on them, denying the planet to the enemy. Are the enemies too thick at home? Get them to og you, not just anytime, but when your team has several planet takers and could really use a distraction. Does your team need kills? Get a single enemy, damage him a bit, and hold him for a teammate to kill. Not for Ensign cluebag, who probably can't kill him anyway, but for a player who will understand what you're trying to do for him. Rememberwhat you're there for (IMHO), defending a small zone, and providing fuel/repair/refit to your team.
And the most important way to be useful: send messages. If you're too busy to send messages, you're probably doing your team a world of good. Otherwise, set your long range scanner to show resources. Tell your team whenever and wherever the enemy has armies. Tell them who has kills. Tell them who has armies. Tell them when to og the enemy SB (when he's all alone, of course). Tell them which planets are independent (these are often hard to notice) or which planets can be taken by a one kill ship. Tell them where your armies are. Tell them everything. But never, never, never look away from the long range scanner for more than 2 seconds. If you do, you're asking to die. And tell them what to do, too. A little leadership can really help a team. Be civil, of course, you're not a self-styled dictator. Things like "F6, use my armies to get Ceti"..."F4 could you take Canopus?" "F5 there's another army on Vega". You've got the time...learn to touch type. If your team doesn't answer, or doesn't act on what you tell them, do you really expect them to save you when you're hurting? They're probably just in for the fun, and don't really care about your SB. If your team gives up on you, at some point you have to give up on them.
My last bit of advice is, concentrate on the good players, the ones who are actually getting things done. Commander Hangin' Around is not the one who's going to nuke your SB, it's Admiral You'reDead who will ruin your day. And you can give kills to Capt. Ratio all day and never get a word of thanks. If no one on your team appreciates you, give up and play moria, that's what I do.
-Andrew (jm79@andrew) : R. Adm. Grey Elf
Admiral Neutrino
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Date: Mon, 8 Jul 91 10:14:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: Marc Christopher Pottier <mp2i+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Bulletin Board Administration <bb+andrew.games.xtrek@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: SB! ARRRRROOOOOOO!
Hello Again.
Just another post to go over a few of the points Tortoise brought up...
I need people to steer with, and if they want to dock on me, fine. I can always pressor if it's a problem.
Well, if your style of play is pressoring off your side to get out of the way of a few torps then you can expect people to clear away from you. Personally, when I play a regular ship, I hate it when the SB takes liberties with pressoring off me or tractoring me in when I haven't requested it. As a SB, I make use of the enemy. Pressoring off the enemy, especially to get away from them, is a key element if you're playing a SB. This leaves your team free to fire at them and detonate torps for you if they want to. Usually, I'll only tractor my teammates under two conditions
: 1) I'm *really* wounded and need to clear out *fast*.
2) I made a mistake and tractored the wrong person. I usually appologise in the second case.
Also remember that one of your primary purposes as a SB is support. Being there for fuel and repairs is as important as holding an area of space. If they want to dock with you, help them...pull out of the combat zone a little.
I can pressor off the enemy, but it's hard to steer that way, and besides, they usually cloak until they're right next to me, and there are usually multiple oggers when I'm really hurting, so without team support, it's hard to survive at the front line unless you're sitting on a repair planet.
If they're cloaking until they're right next to you, I'd suggest you pay more attention to the galactic map to detect incoming oggers. Practice taking out cloakers whenever possible. If you can't do that, you won't make it as a SB. Remember though, that even the best SB's (Balton and Balinor included) can't survive a coordinated ogg if they don't have team support. Getting on the right side of your team is key.
I used to send lots of distress signals in the hope that maybe at least one person would come to my aid, but it was no use. In fact, it only made my team hate me more.
I only use distress signals in three cases:
1) I'm badly wounded and need to pull out / get support.
2) I've just picked up armies.
3) Someone asked if I have armies. This way when I cry wolf, the team really knows I need them...
I love playing SB, it's the only joy I have left in life. Food, women, tv, school; none of these give me pleasure anymore. The only pleasure I can still get out of life is playing a SB. But not if my team hates me and wants me dead. I may as well kill myself if I can't even trust my
own teammates, my comrades, my *brothers*.
Ummm....I think you need to look at your priorities again... You may be taking this a little to seriously.
I try sending team messages, but nobody cares. Nobody cares. I try sending personal messages, and encounter resentment. People don't like being told what to do
That's true, people don't like being told what to do, especially if your requests entail them being put into danger. What I do is post hit lists, bomb lists and other information I come accross. As I'm usually watching the galactic map, I notice people picking up armies, I know where to find armies, and I tend to give my team as much information about these things as I can. I also try to take care of myself as much as possible; I retreat before I'm in danger of losing the SB. Remember, You're more useful alive than dead.
If your teammates all are under Commander with kill ratios around .5, and the other team has a couple of Admirals, you're hosed. Totally.
I wish I could disagree with you Andrew, but I can't. It's true that less experienced players have a tendency of being a little clueless about the mechanisms of the game. They don't understand the value of bombing your enemy flat and *keeping* them bombed flat, or of taking planets and defending them...
I defense of new players however, I have found them very open to suggestions and generally willing to help. If you're a SB, you can do alot to improve their style of play. You can explain the game to them, help them take planets, and give them tips. Usually this will pay off as they'll help you out when you need it the most...
I've babbled enough...
See you all on the Net...
-Marc
aka Kamikaze
Usagi
Flap Eye
famine
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Newsgroups: alt.games.xtrek
From: spot@CS.CMU.EDU (Scott Draves)
Subject: Re: Ship Explosions and StarBases
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 91 03:26:17 GMT
>>>>> On 15 Oct 91 23:41:06 GMT, carroll@cs.uiuc.edu (Alan M. Carroll) said:
Alan> Do SB's take damage from exploding ships? If I get trapped by a
Alan> tractor, is it worth my while (i.e., does any damage) to try to die as
Alan> close to the SB as possible?
yes. yes. dying right on the SB is a great way to kill it. standard practice is to tractor the SB after you uncloak.
conversely, DON'T die on a friendly SB. if you are docking, and see incoming oggers, get off the base. pressors are good for this. if there are only scattered incoming torps, you can stay on the base, and he/she should det the torps.
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Newsgroups: alt.games.xtrek
From: hoswell@news.colorado.edu (WARlock)
Subject: Re: Ship Explosions and StarBases
Date: 16 Oct 91 02:08:14 GMT
carroll@cs.uiuc.edu (Alan M. Carroll) writes:
>Do SB's take damage from exploding ships? If I get trapped by a
>tractor, is it worth my while (i.e., does any damage) to try to die as
>close to the SB as possible?
Um, pardon the expression, but: #$@%!#! yes!
I get many a SB kill by blowing up on it. A common tactic is for me to:
1. lock on SB
2. max speed
3. cloak
4. un-cloak to speed 4 on SB (max is 2-3 for SB)
5. tractor and fire
-King Tut
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Newsgroups: alt.games.xtrek
From: labb-2le@e260-2b.berkeley.edu (Dan Su)
Subject: Re: Collision in xtrek
Date: 16 Oct 91 07:49:25 GMT
As for ogging a base, I never lock on because the SB will assume you are coming straight at him. All the SB has to do is shoot directly at the "??" mark on his galactic map and <kaboom> you're dead. If it looks like some of his torps will hit you, detonate the first torp or two to make the SB think you are somewhere else. (actually, this works for taking planets as well. If the enemy knows where you are, they can phaser = quick death)
It's hard to og a base at EXACTLY the same time though. We were ogging a good base the other day (~550 kills, 4 losses) and even though our attacks were less than 1 second apart we could not do much damage on the SB (his reaction time was superb - many times we died during our uncloaking phase!
Considering that he didn't know where we were (no torp explosions to give us away), that's a very fast reaction!). For the record, he was playing on a SUN 3/50 just like the rest of us...
-Dan Su
labb-2le@web.berkeley.edu
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Newsgroups: alt.games.xtrek
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1991 23:45:06 -0400
From: Craig Boas <cb39+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Docking on SB's
Kenichiro Tanaka <kt12+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>I'd thought that docking on your own SB during battle was a capital
>crime but twice in the past few days, I've seen Balton docked on his
>team's SB in an assault ship and spraying torps. Does anybody else do
>this?
I guess I'll explain my motivation for this (I'm Balton). Occasionally I will take an assault ship with no kills and sit on the base if he's fairly low in enemy territory and getting ogged. I do this for two reasons... Firstly, I'm an above average cloaker spotter - both times it was at least a moderately new base player - and I used my torps and phasers to point out cloakers (consider me a starbase trainer). The second reason was because a new player is likely to take extra torps, and as I didn't want our base to blow under heavy fire, I docked on the combat side, detted torps until I was hurt, then flew away to repair. If I had seen a determined ogg coming, I would have left sooner - what I did was to combat the enemy tactic of staying at long range and peppering the SB with torps by giving them an AS to hit instead of the SB, since I was expendable. At no point did I risk dying on the base.
The only drawback to this is that it is a tradoff between fuel and damage for the starbase. He saves on damage since I am taking all of it, but he loses fuel since I am eating it rather quickly. In light of this fact, I didn't stay long, just long enough to let him repair a bit to face the next ogg wave. Unless you are a good judge of when an ogger will get through (I hope I am) it's generally not a good idea. (sometimes as a base I will tractor a friendly ship with kills and or armies to me even if I am in combat and det all incoming torps if I think the ship is valuable enough to save. That is an exception - in most cases it's not a good idea to dock during combat).
>Also, what do you do when a cloaked enemy ship has locked on to your SB
>and is waiting to explode? You can't kill him or pressor him...do you
>just have to wait until his fuel runs out? What if it's a destroyer or
>assault ship (no fuel consumption for cloaking)?
If he's the only one around, go into repair mode. You get back shields and internal damage, and he's likely to uncloak thinking you don't see him with shields down. Be ready to pressor and move at some odd angle (a diagonal usually throws them off) As soon as the ship uncloaks, raise shields, pressor, move away, det a few times (since the first few torps will start so close they'll hit anyway) and phaser him as he gets about 1/2" from your base so you hit him for ~100 points of damage but by the time he blows (usually 1-2 blasts) you take little or no damage from the explosion. Needless to say hitting all those keys in the time it takes him to start firing takes practice, but it can be done.
If there are other ships around, grin and bear it (and keep your shields up!). Take comfort in the fact that he would be a much bigger danger if he were uncloaked and the other ships were still firing at you - don't let him get there again.
Craig
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Newsgroups: alt.games.xtrek
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1991 18:21:48 -0400
From: Hugh Moore <hm0f+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Docking on SB's
>Also, what do you do when a cloaked enemy ship has locked on to your SB
>and is waiting to explode?
Kill him, but use phasers as the torps would damgae the SB. Your SB is pretty well GOING to take the explosion damage. There's no point in letting the ship uncloak and hit with some torps too.
ZZnew guy
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From: tom@headcrash.Berkeley.EDU (Tom Holub)
Newsgroups: alt.games.xtrek
Subject: Re: Making good use of the SB
Date: 11 Nov 91 00:29:32 GMT
In article <1991Nov10.202753.3087@m.cs.uiuc.edu> carroll@cs.uiuc.edu
(Alan M. Carroll) writes:
>I was told by various players (both on my team and not) that if you
>take out an SB, there's no difference between dieing in it, Q'ing out,
>or refitting in terms of when the next person can use it.
Not true. If you refit out of the base or Q out, it will still be available. This doesn't vary anywhere, as far as I know. In fact, you can refit from an outpost *to* an outpost: very useful if you have a lot of damage but decent shields. You lose your kills, but that's no big deal.
-Mojo
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Newsgroups: alt.games.xtrek
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1991 13:30:21 -0500
From: Charles William Swiger <cs4w+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Starbases...
Playing a starbase well is one of the trickier things to master in netrek. A good SB and 7 other players will beat a team of 8 players without their SB, because the SB can do a lot of good things for your team.
One of the most important is its ability to carry up to 25 armies safely against anything but a massive ogg. This is very important when good scout bombing is occurring, and armies are hard to get. (This is obvious to anyone who's played in a tournament game.)
Another good thing about a starbase is its ability to help your team at the front line. The SB has a LOT of firepower, and can be vital in escorting planet-takers to a planet that's being well guarded. Since the SB is better than a repair/fuel planet, and also allows ships to refit without going back to the home planet, it can help your team out in that regard as well.
One thing clueful players will do when they are killed is take out a scoutship and fly to the starbase at maximum warp, then refit to the ship they want to be in. For example, they can get to the front line at warp 12, refit, and be able to fight the enemy in a battleship.
Some advice to novice SB's:
Remember to use tractors and pressors a lot. They are vitally important, because they allow you to move both yourself and your teammates out of the way of a stream of torps. You should also try to help your team's ships along, by tractoring them towards you, and pressoring them away from you. Tractor the enemy towards you when he's far away, and pressor him away when he gets close to you, or if he's heading straight at you. When people are docked on you, det incoming torps. Having a teammate blow up on you will really hurt.
Be careful in using plasmas, because you can overheat your weapons. Also watch out when using a lot of phasers. Use plasmas only when you're facing just one enemy at a time. Use torps (and the occasional phaser) when you're being ogged and are facing many people at once.
You want to play the SB far enough up (towards the enemies' planets) that it helps your teammates out the most. However, you also want to make sure that you're not too far up. The risk of being ogged successfully goes way up when you get close to the enemies' home world. Having a repair planet around is really useful, because you can take a lot more damage, without being as concerned about getting killed.
When you're being attacked, try to balance the damage you're taking between your shields and your internal damage. Balancing out where you take damage allows you to repair both shields and internal at the same time. It's a lot better to have 300 shields and 150 internal damage than to have no internal damage and 150 shields. Just remember not to take so much internal damage that you go warp 1, because when that happens, you usually die.
When you're not engaged in combat, spend your time looking at the galactic display and the player list. Send messages to your team about who's got kills and should be ogged before they can take a planet.
However, there are times when it's better for the team to let your SB get killed. One example is when you're trying to genocide, and you need to get rid of an enemy SB that orbiting their last planet. A SB vs. SB attack may well be the only way to kill their SB. Going so far up that you distract the enemy into ogging you can provide some time for your teammates to take a planet or two.
Infidel (with a SB ratio of ~60 with 30 deaths)
Heathen (with a SB ratio of over 100 with 3 deaths)
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Newsgroups: alt.games.xtrek
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1991 20:44:17 -0400
From: Thomas Omar Smith <ts2a+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: What about SB vs. SB?
Having occasionally based myself, here's a few notes on the subject.
1) The general plan in SB on SB is mutual annihilation. Even if you kill him first, your generally overheated and damaged, and his team finishes the job.
2) Make sure to tractor. If you can force an enemy base to short range, your phasers can do amazing things. Also, it gives you the hope that if you die first, your blast kills him.
3) Don't charge forward without supports. If you get caught alone in front of your lines, he'll simply pull back and his supports will cream you.
4) This one is for the non-bases. When your base is going into battle, DO NOT DOCK. Nothing kills a base faster that having its teammates explode in it. Bases can't det all the torps coming in, and shouldn't be forced to worry about defending you anyways. Usually, if a base is charging into battle, it's to draw the enemy away from somewhere else, like taking a planet. One bad teammate can screw the whole plan.
Tom the non hacker
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Newsgroups: alt.games.xtrek
From: hadley@vlsi.ics.uci.edu (Tedd Hadley)
Subject: Re: Anti-ogging tactics for SBs
Date: 21 Feb 92 06:38:10 GMT
>I'm fully aware that a common anti-ogg tactic is to cloak before the
>ogger uncloaks; [ ... ]
>However, from time to time, I seem to see people in SBs using this sort of
>tactic; when they see oggers come in, they cloak the base.
>Have others found cloaking bases to be a frequently used tactic?
One tactic that makes base-cloaking a fatal mistake is fixing a player-lock on him before he cloaks. Closing in on a cloaked base at a reasonably maneuverable speed with a prior player-lock on it guarantees that the nose of your ship will be pointing right at him when you uncloak. And once you get a phaser lock his only choice is to uncloak.
++
Tedd Hadley (hadley@ics.uci.edu)
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Newsgroups: alt.games.xtrek
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1992 23:55:33 -0500
From: Kevin Michael Bernatz <kb32+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: SB anti-ogg
Greetings all,
There are really only a few times when cloaking as an SB is useful (assuming a competent SB). If your wtemp has blown, and there is no need/person to pressor or tractor off of, you can cloak to prevent the newly returning enemies (or ones not paying attention) from locking onto you {your w temp had to have blown for SOME reason :> ). This shouldn't be done with enemies still attacking, since you can dodge reasonably well with liberal use of pressors and tractors. Another time to use is if you have NO escort, not alot. With alot of escort, you should remain uncloaked to take advantage of the torp explosions and phaser locks that
your teammates will provide you with (even if they are accidental). With no escorts, you are generally hosed since you can only kill one at a time. If you aren't damaged very much, it's generally better to NOT cloak, and kill what you can and take the punishment. If you're hurt (say ~300 internal), cloaking might save your life if you can make the enemy miss {use Tom's advice and move towards the enemy cloaks at the last possible second so that their torps fly behind you}. As far a Gerry's comment goes, if you lock onto me, then you have to fly in a straight line. That's a risk that might get you killed, and usually doesn't last all the way to the base (ie. There is a decent chance you will have to change course, thereby losing lock-on. Anyways, I'm off to practice what I preach :)
KB
------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 18:40:18 -0400
From: Craig Boas <cb39+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Alotting Spockers (and other questions)
Hi!
Bill Gilliland writes:
> 1) What is a good way to get a phaser hit on a cloaker...
I tend to fire a cluster (not a line) of torps at the ??'s on the galactic map then phaser the first explosion I see. After that you just have to maintain the phaser lock.
> 2) Is there anything more to a 'phaser lock' than just following the path of
> the enemy ship as the phaser beam moves along with them and shooting them
> again?
No.
> (i.e. will holding the mouse button down after one successful hit result in
> continual hits?)
On the standard client, you have to keep firing (clicking) but that's basically the idea.
> 3) What can a starbase do against ships (dd or ca, usually) than just hang
> around the edge of the screen and hail torps at the base and run away before
> they get in the base's tractor range? The same question stands for machine-
> gun ships on fuel planets.
Several options here:
- loak, if they can hit you from a full screen away, you deserve to be hit.
- Cloak and approach. Move away, they will follow. Cloak and do a U-turn uncloaking and tractoring. You can't fire, but you can tractor while you are 'half-cloaked' (ie: coming out of cloak). They are probably facing you and don't stand much of a chance of getting away. This works well on the 'machine-gun' ship since you approach (he can't run and stay on the planet) and when you grab him he's going warp 0 (and off the planet) so you've got him for sure. Learn your tractor range!
- Leave. That's right, just wander off. If you're needed there, tractor the hapless fool in and kill him, but otherwise, why bother?
> 4) What's the best way to learn starbasing
Play a BB and engage in combat at warp 2. Learn to det and tractor and pressor to miss torps and make others hit. A BB is expendable so you don't have to get all upset about dying.
> 5) Is it better to fire with the keyboard or the mouse? I ask this because
> while I am more used to firing with the mouse, when I "lose all semblance of
> control" (READ: Panic really badly) I tend to indiscriminately pound the torp
> and phaser buttons and blow my weapons in a big way. Wtemp of 240==bad news.
This sounds like a personal problem :-)
> 6) Is quitting out as a SB considered dishonorable? Earlier today it was roms
> vs. feds at Calvin and I was SB'ing. The Roms had pushed back from 4 planets
> to our space, and had decided to take me out for good. (I had racked up over
> 100 kills, interspersed with a ghostbust 2 kills away from my max )-: ) They
> took enough time coordinating a big wave that I had enough time (with 2 secs
> to spare!) to get totally healed and, just as the cloakers got near earth, I
> switched to a BB and was blown away during the delay. Apparently the Roms
> didn't appreciate this treatment, because they all started rezscumming until
> they died.
Nah, it sounds like you did the right thing if you thought you'd die. If it frustrated them then it almost certainly was the right thing to do :-).
> 7) Is it just my inexperience, or do you have to get in a 'starbase mindset'
> after playing normal ships for a while? It seems that I am too impatient and
> get beat up really badly during the first few minutes in the base. If I live
> past this first bruising (which on bronco, bigdog and bezier is not likely)
> then I perform much better afterwords.
Sounds like another personal problem, but I know I really stink at SB'ing after not playing for a while (ala spring break).
> 8) What is peoples opinion on the tactic of, after a first genocide, cloaking
> and taking the third-race SB full of armies and a few escorts deep into the
> just-conquered race's territory and taking them over? I have only seen this
> done once (by pjb (the base) and takafuji (an escort who took about 6 planets
> in under 5 minutes) on Calvin and was really impressed. It threw the just-
> victorious team into such mass confusion that they (err... 'we') were down to
> our core in under a half hour. Is it a good tactic? If so, what can be done
> against it?
It sounds good to me. I occasionally do it, but you need to be confident that the base isn't going to get killed since he's only a little closer to home than he is to the enemy and there aren't (presumably) many ships between your base and the enemy home planet so they might pick him off with one good ogg wave.
> 9) Etiquette question: How vocal should a SB be? I usually post info
> whenever I can do it (someone picking up, one of our planets pop, I pick up
> an army, how damaged I am after an ogg wave...) as well as ogg lists and the
> mandatory "is anyone bombing?" question and its follow ups, "IS ANYONE
> BOMBING?" and "Why isn't anyone bombing?"
As the starbase, you're kind of the impromptu leader of your team simply because (usually) you aren't involved in direct combat which requires your attention on the short range scanner. Drifting between planets at warp 2 leaves lots of time to notice things and you should certainly point them out.
Craig
(Admiral Balton)
------------------------------
From: leonard@mimsy.umd.edu (Leonard Dickens)
Subject: Some tactical hints for base play
Date: 24 Apr 92 11:05:52 GMT
William Gilliland writes:
>[Some excellent starbase questions]
Hmm. SpaceAce! already gave good answers to these, so I will not. However, there are a few tactical hints on base play that are not in Balton's guide, although he makes passing references in such a way as it is clear he knows them...
>What's really scary is a cloaker who just circles around nearby.
Not really. Remember, there are only two things a cloaker can do to damage you: blow up on you, or det your teammates' torps on you. Uncloaked ships are a base's real enemy... which brings me to my first tactical hint:
* Learn to pressor/det own/torp-torp-torp--/phaser-phaser nearby uncloaking ships *reflexively*.
The key to defeating individual oggers is simple: destroy them *fast*, before they are able to fire. At the absolute worst, they can cause you the 100 point ship explosion -- as long as you kill them before they fire. There is no time to think.
While you are doing the above sequence, you must be deciding whether or not the enemy is going to get off any torps (if close), or whether his/her torps will hit you (if far). Torps that will not miss must be detted (see below); dodging torps is covered by Balton.
Against multiple oggers, things get hard. As Balton describes, the thing to do here is to run away -- move directly away from the enemy home planet/towards yours, or towards a repair planet. Once the wave gets close enough and is starting to encircle you,
* Kill the "direct" oggers first
Inexperienced oggers or those close to being out of fuel will come at you straight, and are generally easier to hit when cloaked, as well as being easier to destroy when not cloaked, and poor shots. Also, they often are close enough to each other such that your torp hits and
their explosions damage more than one ship, which is economical. If there are no direct oggers:
* Move towards some particular cloaker and try to kill him/her first.
The key to taking on multiple clued oggers (as far as there is *anything* that can help you) is to get them to uncloak out of synchrony with each other, so that you can toast them individually. Oggers will predict you to move straight back; therefore they will try to enfold a point behind you. Pick a left or right side ogger and move that way, trying to take him/her out.
Beyond that, all you can do is get help, be near a repair planet or the home planet if possible. And:
* Use det heavily.
Unlike all other ships, a base often cannot dodge at the range where most torps are fired at it. In these instances (i.e. most good oggs), the spacebar is your friend. Det, det, and det some more.
However, in constrast to this, there is:
* Conserve your weapon heat the way you normally conserve fuel
Unlike normal ships, the limit to a base's combat function is not fuel, and for the most part not even damage, but wtemp. A fully functioning base can soak up 90 cruiser torpedos -- 900 damage -- without losing *any* combat ability, as long as it dets each one at max range. And as long as it does not wtemp detting all those torps...
The mark of a superb tactical base is *always* having a wtemp reserve in the same way that good dogfighters learn to use torps and phasers sparingly to conserve fuel. (Actually this is a conjecture on my part, since I have not attained this ability yet. I tend to die wtemped -- from detting -- a lot.)
In general, do NOT fire plasmas. They cost too much heat. Firing a plasma should be a calculated thing -- hitting a scout bombing a planet, or hitting a BB ogger that you *know* from experience always comes in directly, etc.
Finally:
* Play at 9 updates/second if at all possible.
This one is entirely from my own experience. I find that for normal ships the difference between 5 and 9 is not that large; however, bases need to be able to dodge torps with much smaller tolerances, and therefore the difference between 5 and 9 is very noticeable. Any other base fanatics notice this effect?
I wonder if it would be possible for Terence to change bronco so that bases could get double update rate in spite of the fact that everyone else is only allowed 5/sec?
-Wreck
------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1992 19:08:41 -0400
From: "Timothy C. Worsley" <tw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: More Base foo
How valuble a base is has a lot to do with what it's doing and what the state of the game is. Bases are niether always mondo nor always useless.
A base is useful for 3 things:
1) To store armies against bombers.
2) To strengthen up a weak spot.
3) To distract attention.
These three often get in eachother's way.
1) A base that is storing armies has to be somewhere where can collect them, and where friends can pick armies up. This normally call for a base to be back near home, trying to get to armies before enemy SC bombers can find them. During this time, a base can attitionally try to defend one or more planets against bombers. This is what tournement bases traditionally do. A base who is up front fighting and being Ogged normally does a poor job of hording armies, because it is not safe for team mates to pick up.
2) The problem with using a base to strengthen a weak spot is that it normally results in a weak spot somewhere else. Against an opponent who knows how to exploit it, it can cause a terrible wase of a player. However, if there is a spot where one *knows* that the oppenent will want to attack (some vital Agri for example) having a base there can help a lot. Sometimes the mear presence of the base will cause the ememy to leave a zone alone.
3) If a base does a sufficently good job, or is against too singleminded of an opponent, it can often draw wave after wave of hopeful Oggers. This can free up the rest of the base's team to take planets, bomb, Ogg, etc. Of course, if the base is overextended or not good enough, it can draw more freindly attention to help it than enemy attention. This is often the case, and is what leads good players to dislike bases.
An important point is that if a team has plentiful armies, and a wide front line, then all the base can do is distract. A good opponent will not waste their time on such a base, forcing it to overextend if it wants to distract. At such a time, the base is wose than useless. The big arguement is over how often such a time occurs.
ZZnew guy
------------------------------
From: leonard@mimsy.umd.edu (Leonard Dickens)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Followup: Iggy SB
Date: 3 Aug 92 15:48:34 GMT
Jason Pascucci writes:
>Picture: Me, in SB, the last 18 armies, 100 shield, 450? hull,
>headed to Org, about 3-4 planet-widths away.
>
>Picture: It's 18:32, Time to Die....
>
>Picture: Me, screaming at the top of my lungs in my office.
>
>Picture: Iggy appears, right near Org. Tractor, 8*Torp, phaser,
>dodge, det
>
>Picture: Me, Pressor, 8*Torp, phaser, dodge, det
>
>Picture: A little less than all Iggy's torps hitting, a little more than
>half of mine.
>
>Count to 8.
>
>Picture: Picture the (usually breathtaking) bitmap of an SB explosion.
Picture: What you should have done: pressor torp distress distress. det det det det det torp det det det det det torp det det det det det det...
Your base was already half dead when Iggy appeared. Therefore, you cannot hope to damage her enough to get her to run without being dead or too hurt. You must rely on holding her off until a teammate can come to help you.
I think two distress calls are the most effective way to call for help in a base when you really need it. The human eye notices duplication. (I almost never use even a single distress call to tell my team about armies, for fear that they will come running to help and thereby removing themselves from what they should be doing.) Don't use more than two distress calls for any reason; stylistically this makes you look like a newbie. I personally am not much inclined to rush to save a base that I know will die in seconds anyway.
So, how does a base near to Iggy hold her off until help comes? Det, det, and det again. Iggy is kicking out a torp every 1/5 of a second, or so. You can det 10 seconds of such torps at a surprisingly low price of 10*5*30/5 == 300 damage. IF you get them at max range. [By the way, I just assumed 1805 det range == 1/5 damage taken when detting. Is this the case? Seems reasonable given 1600 == 1/4.] And finally, IF you do not wtemp. Detting 10 seconds of torps requires AT LEAST 50 wtemp; probably more like 100.
This last reason is why you should NOT phaser or heavily torp Iggy. Wtemp is a base's limit to combat power, offensive AND defensive. If Iggy is still close when rescue comes, go for it. A thirty-point hit on Iggy-base is nothing; a thirty-point hit on Iggy-scout is 1/5 dead.
You do want to keep ONE torp continually moving directly down the line from you to Iggy, or possibly slightly offset in the direction she is currently moving. Iggy always dodges the closest torp; this tactic will lead to you slowly gaining ground on her.
-Wreck
------------------------------
From: srt@aero.org (Scott R. Turner)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: making good use of your team's starbase
Date: 21 Sep 92 15:24:11 GMT
I'm not a particularly good base player yet, but here are three things I wish people understood about helping a base:
(1) Don't shoot ships that are right on top of the base.
All too often someone manages to sneak up on me and tractor in right on top of me. Many times they're completely out of fuel and no danger. But before I can get them pressored off, somebody on my own team blows them up. That's a bad thing. Let the base deal with anyone within a ship's radius of the base. If the base is healthy, he can deal with it. If the base is sick, he's going to be a lot more sick when you blow that ship up.
(2) Break up ogg waves before they reach the base.
Most people are fairly clueful about helping the base during an ogg wave when they are on the same tactical as the base. Most people use torps to help spot cloakers. Some are clueful enough to use their tractors/pressors to good effect. A few will det to help the base.
But to my mind it is a lot more useful for a few players to head towards enemy space and harrass the oggers on their way to the base. Rarely is a base ogg coordinated enough to deal with this. Usually a couple of the oggers get distracted by the harassment. And cutting
the numbers is the best thing you can do for the base during an ogg wave.
(3) Don't let enemies sit on the edge of the tactical and potshoot the base.
I probably just haven't based long enough to come up with good tactics for this situation, but I find that there is little I can do against a couple of clueful enemies who sit on the edge of my tactical and bombard me with torps. They can't kill me, but they occupy my time and wear me down. If I'm teammate to a base, I never let the enemy get away with this. I either hunt the snipers or try to drag them within range of the base and let him work out his frustrations by frying them into small pieces of smoldering flesh :-). (Conversely, if I'm playing against a base that doesn't have a sizable escort, I often use this tactic. It's especially good if the escort is just kill scumming and won't come out to challenge me. I can just feel the sb's blood pressure rising. :-)
-- Scott T.
------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1992 12:04:34 -0400
From: Craig Boas <cb39+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: making good use of your team's starbase
Hi All!
I just read Scott R. Turner's post on basing and I think it's good advice for everyone. I think it should be added to the archive (are you listening Jonathan?).
As for dealing with enemies who sit at the edge of your tactical and pelt you with torps, the strategy I use is:
1) move away - wait for them to start following
2) cloak
3) IMMEDIATELY execute a u-turn
4) move into tractor range
5) uncloak
6) IMMEDIATELY tractor
7) Vent your frustrations (or even better, cripple the poor fool)
8) Rinse. lather. repeat as necessary.
You can usually get one or two following you who aren't turning around quickly enough when you uncloak. A little known (but very useful) fact is that you can tractor and pressor when you are half-cloaked (even though your weapons aren't online). This means that as soon as you know your tractor range like the back of your hand you can INSTANTLY uncloak and tractor before the enemy even sees you. Once you've got a ship in tractor, it's curtains.
At this point, there is a benefit to controlling your blood pressure. Killing the ship means that he's back in a bit. Crippling him and holding him down with tractors and pressors until a teammate (who, unlike you, can use the kills) happens by to pick up a kill is better. Or you can just phaser him until he's going warp one and push him away so you can deal with his buddies. This is especially satisfying if he's in a big ship so you know he'll take forever to repair :-). This is much more helpful to your team than killing the bozo, and after you've done it once he's unlikely to bother you again.
Craig
Admiral Balton
------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: hde+@cs.cmu.edu (Herbert Enderton)
Subject: making good use of your team's starbase
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1992 20:48:42 GMT
On the rare occasions when I play a starbase, I invariably end up telling my well-intentioned teammates over and over not to escort me so much. They seldom understand, and sometimes they get angry. So in the hopes of not having to send so many such messages in the future, here's my reasoning:
My starbase is there to help you take planets. Say I've got a bunch of armies, and I'm near the front line, being ogged occasionally by a couple ships. You come up and get a kill or two off my oggers, that's fine and dandy and makes me feel somewhat useful. But now grab some armies from me and take a planet! Don't just hang around trying to to make sure I don't die! If you hang around, you are turning an asset into a liability. I could be a team asset by helping you take a planet, or I could be a team liability if I cause you to waste your time protecting me. I'm going to be much happier if I feel I'm helping my team, even when that means dying honorably.
Also in many cases the best way to save me is to give the clued enemy oggers a more urgent target to go after. I.e. you, if you are threatening to take their planets. A lot of good players will only og a starbase if there is nothing more pressing to do. If you don't have a kill, bombing their planets and ogging their carriers are good ways to get the same effect. In other words, play the game.
Since I'm sure somebody will point this out, yes, there are times when by protecting your starbase for a few seconds (e.g. while its weapons are overheated) you can lengthen its useful life by several minutes, and that this is therefore a good thing to do. But these times are pretty rare, and the starbase will usually let you know about them.
-- Red Shirt
------------------------------
From: echeverr@scf.usc.edu (5150)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Shameless Plug
Date: 5 Dec 1992 06:31:44 -0800
Remember vlsi.ics.uci.edu, the Base Practice Server, with some of the best local life in the galaxy, the UCI RoboOgger. If you need to go somewhere to have fun with some friends, practice base ogging, or engage in mindnumbingly insane base wars, this is the place for you!
Maintained by Tedd "No, you can't have my RoboOgger code" Hadley himself.
5150
i'll go to sleep now
------------------------------
From: leonard@mimsy.umd.edu (Leonard Dickens)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Learning SB
Date: 20 Jan 93 17:14:39 GMT
Article-I.D.: mimsy.63564
I recently got a note from an aspiring base player asking me for tips, and after looking at the existing base play stuff in the archive, decided it might be worth writing up some info on how to learn to play base.
---
It is easy to learn how to play most ship types. You just get in the ship, charge, die, and repeat -- until you start to learn what the right speeds are for the ship and what tasks it is good at. With the starbase, however, the process is much slower. When you die, you cannot just jump back in a new base and go; instead you have to wait thirty minutes. Indeed, if your team is pushed back to four or fewer planets, you cannot get the base at all! Therefore I offer this text on learning how to base.
If you ever want to be a good base, there are a few things you can NOW to improve your chances. First, get a client that has visible tractors and pressors (T/P). Bases sometimes live or die by the quality of their T/P use; having visible feedback on the tactical screeen is extremely useful to learn to use them well.[1] Second, change your keymap, NOW, if it does not already have any of the following in an instantly accessible position: tractor, pressor, plasma, repair, distress, shield up, shield down, lock, det-own, det-enemy, beam up, beam down. Also, be sure to map docking permission ('e' by default) somewhere; it doesn't need to be readily accessible, though, since you should most likely never turn it off.[2]
As an example, this is my keymap:
keymap: qyw3e%ritEaTsldDf]g[hRzzxxccvfbb dEeRrWw
Learning to use a new keymap is quite painful, I know. But it will save you a lot of grief in the long run to have some of these functions right at your fingertips. You don't want to risk losing your home position to hit shift in the middle of an ogg.
There are some things about the game you should know before even beginning to try to base. Get some clue, basically. Learn how to fly AT LEAST the cruiser. Learn to watch your galactic map, because you will need to do so a LOT as a base. Learn to use your tractors and pressors in combat. And perhaps most important, learn to hit cloakers with phasers. These rudimentary aspects of clue are all directly applicable to your survival as a base. Also, I think it helps a lot to ogg enemy bases as much as possible; try to notice what works and what doesn't work against them. Know your enemy.
Now you should read the excellent written stuff on basing that you can find in Jonathan Hardwick's netrek archive.[3] The two files you want are called "playing-sb" and "starbases". Pay particular attention to my article in the starbases file on tactical hints for base play.
There are two good ways to practice basing before doing it in a real game. The first is the battleship; it is the normal ship most similar to the base. Any time you find yourself in an LPS in a real game, get in a BB and remap your keys so that you can only request warp 2, max. Sit around near a fuel planet destroying the enemy. I think you will find that tractors and pressors are vital to your long term survival; learn to use them at range to hold off potential oggers. If you can get two kills, go refit into another battleship at your home planet to get plasma and then try to smack people with plasma as they cloak in to take the planet.[4] This can earn a lot of emnity from the opposing team, which is a sure sign you are doing all right for your team.
The second excellent way to practice basing is to log on to the base practice server, vsli.ics.uci.edu (128.195.1.42), get in a base, fire up some robotic oggers, and just do it! Read the MOTD for instructions on how to start and command oggers; right now all you need to know is that you request new robots by messages to ALL, and you modify robot behavior by messages to the individual robots.
F0->ALL start 3 rom
R1->ALL Ensign Annihilator joining as R1 (...)
R2->ALL Ensign Destroyer joining as R2 (...)
R3->ALL Ensign Abolisher joining as R3 (...)
F0->R2 osync 1
R2->F1 ogg syncing with R1
F0->R2 hm 1
R2->F1 humanity level set to 1
Log on and have fun. Try to get to the point where you can live forever against three ogg synched robots at humanity level 1. Please follow the server maintainer's requests and do not bring up too many robots during working hours.
Reread the excellent written stuff on basing that you can find in Jonathan Hardwick's netrek archive. Pay particular attention to Balton's playing-sb.
Now you are ready for the real thing. If you are not too concerned about team play, just take out a base as soon as you can and have fun. You may get flak from your teammates about being a useless slug, so be ready. Otherwise, there are two times when you can grab a base without hurting your team too much. The first is when you are way ahead on planets: get a base and either sit cautiously at an agri collecting armies and allowing people to refit on you, or charge to the front and probably die quickly, but get some combat under your belt. (When you lose the base while way ahead, it doesn't hurt your team.) The other good time to base is when your team is losing badly; be sure that you or someone else on your team gets the base before your team drops below five planets. The nice thing about the LPS base is that you can do a lot of good for your team by sitting on your home planet, where you are most difficult to ogg due to the reentry, repair, refit, and refuel.
One final note: many servers are currently adding a patch to allow bases ten updates per second even if other ships are limited to five. This is a good thing; bases tend to need to dodge torpedoes with much smaller tolerances than other ships. Lobby your favorite server to implement this change if it does not have it; if it does, then USE THE UPDATES. I mean it. I find 10 UPS helps me dodge a LOT.
-Wreck
[1] Some experienced players that play on monochrome monitors complain about the clutter and general inutility of visible T/P; I would be interested to hear the opinions of any new base players forced to play on monochrome as to whether they turn on visible T/P or not.
[2] When you refit into a base, as opposed to entering in it, your docking permissions are OFF rather than on. This problem will probably be fixed eventually.
[3] There is a lot of other extremely useful and interesting stuff on netrek in the archive; as for how to access it, let me quote Jonathan: "Jonathan H., jch@cs.cmu.edu Keeper Of The Netrek Archives
Access for the masses : anonymous FTP to gs69.sp.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.206.167).
If you have AFS, look in /afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/jch/netrek. If you have WAIS,
use the netrek-ftp database, available on port 6000 of gourd.srv.cs.cmu.edu."
[4] And when you do hit people with plasma, the right way to gloat is:
R0->ALL SMACK!
(notice all caps, and exclamation point); but not:
R0->ALL Wreck :-*
The second is a weenie invention lacking elegance; don't do it.
------------------------------
More on playing Starbases Part 2 and Part 3.
|
