VGA planets

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VGA planets
Studio Tim Wisseman
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 before 1992
platform Windows
genre turn-based global strategy game
Subject space
Game mode Single game against computer or multiplayer
language English
Current version 5
copy protection Proprietary

Version 1 to 4 of VGA-Planets is a turn-based , strategic postal game for the PC ( DOS up to version 3 , Windows version 3.5 or higher ), invented and produced as shareware by Tim Wisseman. The implementation of version 5 is the first MMOG browser game in the VGA Planets universe.

According to golem.de , it is the most popular representative of play-by-email games and has been the inspiration for subsequent titles such as Stars! or XPace served. According to its own statements, VGA Planets has sold over 65,000 times. The game was quite popular in the mailbox scene. Other providers have developed numerous extensions.

VGA Planets became famous in 1994 with version 3, but has been played worldwide as version 2.2 since 1992. Up to eleven players can take part. Each player takes on one of eleven possible races, which are based on the well-known races from Star Trek , Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica . Each player starts with a home planet and has to build spaceships, explore the galaxy, colonize other planets, mine raw materials, establish industry, etc.

The game does not have a win condition, the players must agree on this before starting. A host (a PC as a server ) is also required. The host receives the moves of the players, evaluates them and creates a new score for each player. This process can be fully automated and no license is required for the host. Local networks and online games were not yet widespread at that time, so VGA-Planets was mainly processed as a post game , the files with train data and game status were transmitted by email , for example within the FidoNet network. There are now several extensions that allow game data to be exchanged directly via the Internet.

VGA planets 3

Gameplay

VGA Planets is turn based. Each action takes exactly one round. However, ships and planets can perform several different actions during the turn, e.g. B. activate the cloaking device, invite colonists and move up to 81 light years.

Each player usually tries to expand his range as much as possible and to break the resistance of the other players. He achieves this by combining very simple individual activities that combine to form logistical strategies and military tactics.

There are four different raw materials ( Neutronium , Tritanium, Duranium, Molybdenum), of which Neutronium is needed as fuel for the spaceships.

The player decides for each of his planets on the construction of mines for raw material extraction, factories for the production of supplies, the number of defenses and a tax rate for the collection of money (megacredits). If enough resources and money are available, he can decide to use them to build a base on this planet, so that the planet will be able to defend itself better and build ships in the future. The expansion of planets is kept simple. The player only decides on the number of mines, from which the mining amount of the various raw materials results. He does not have to decide on the number of mines for each raw material individually. In this way, every planet has five control parameters, namely mines, factories, defenses, tax rate of the colonists, tax rate of the native population. The construction of mines, factories and defenses costs supplies and megacredits. The number is limited by the number of colonists present on the planet.

For each base it is determined which ship will be built at the base. This requires raw materials and money that must be available at the base. Each race can choose from a maximum of 20 different ship types. The engines, the beam weapons and, if necessary, the torpedo tubes can be freely equipped for each ship. Ten different technology levels with different properties and raw material consumption are available for this. When building a ship, you have to consider which capabilities a ship should have and how many raw materials it will then cost.

For each ship, the player decides which cargo should be provided with it (colonists, raw materials, money, supplies) and where it should travel. The player has two purposes with ships. First of all, there is the logistical aspect, because it has to ensure that the raw materials and supplies produced on different planets are brought to where they are needed to build bases and ships. In addition, ships are of course also used to defend your own realm and to conquer other players' areas. Minefields can also be laid out for this purpose, the crossing of which leads to damage for ships of enemy races with a probability that is related to the distance covered in the minefield.

Fighting ships can use two types of ammunition: torpedoes and fighters. Torpedoes can be built anywhere, fighters can only be built on bases. Exceptions are some races that have the special ability to build fighters anywhere.

To colonize a planet, the player must unload colonists with a ship and provide supplies and money.

Freedom of play

The players agree on a goal before the game begins. As a rule, the game master - the person who creates the game and the game configuration - works out a proposal and players are asked to participate. Possible goals are:

  • Achieve the most points after 80 plays (different evaluation criteria can be applied)
  • Defeat all other races
  • Whoever loses his homeworld has lost immediately
  • Own more than 40% of all planets
  • Own most planets after 100 turns
  • Voting among the players as soon as the majority of the players still in the game can agree on a winner

The player has a great many options to approach the game. A player can decide to either concentrate his resources in order to be able to build strong ships as early as possible or to use the scarce resources at the beginning of the game to colonize as many planets as possible. Conquering alien planets can only succeed with enough fuel and supplies. Diplomacy to form non-aggression pacts, trade and alliances also plays a major role.

Racial Individuality

Each of the eleven races that can take part in a game have unique characteristics and individual ship types to choose from. Each race has to achieve the goal of the game in its own way. There are races with ships capable of camouflaging, which operate clandestinely and can attack surprisingly. Against the large ships of other races, they suffer heavy losses in duels. There are only two races that can unmask enemy ships with one of their ship types. These ships can be valuable commodities.

Limited fleet

With the Timhost, the game is limited to a maximum of 500 ships. A special version of Timhost and PHost allow the use of up to 999 ships, but the standard configuration is set to 500 ships.

Once this limit has been reached, players can no longer build as many ships as they could due to their number of bases. New ships are only built when old ones leave. This happens either through destruction in combat or through intentional scrapping by the owner.

Game clients

Various clients are available for VGA Planets 3, with which the players can make their moves. Since a host is used to implement the commands, all clients work offline and only send a file with the commands to the host (via email or via upload).

The game client originally developed for VGA planets is still widespread in the community, but there are some new developments that give the player a better overview and have some convenient functions with which one can more easily control his empire.

The Planets Command Center (PCC) developed by Stefan Reuther is strongly based on Tim Wisseman's client. However, it has many extensions and is easier to configure. In addition, Stefan Reuther provides various tools on his website with which you can make your moves better and more fun. There is a VCR viewer (PlayVCR), which can be used to display combat reports more beautifully, and a ship list viewer (CCSHIPS), which clearly displays all ship properties. CCSHIPS is an indispensable tool, especially in connection with alternative ship lists.

The client VGA Planets Assistant (VPA) has a representation that has been greatly developed from the original client. During the entire game time, the star map is shown in a large area of ​​the screen, while information on selected game elements is displayed in a column at the edge.

Both game clients described can be used to create moves for Timhost and PHost.

Hosts

The first host provided by Tim Wisseman (Timhost) defined the core scope and main gameplay of VGA Planets and was updated frequently. It is still popular today.

Due to the limited configurability and the fact that Timhost can only run under Windows, a portable host (PHost) was developed. This offers considerably more configuration parameters and is also more flexible in terms of the game structure than Timhost, and it has also been compiled for Linux systems. PHost follows its own rules, but in principle, during the development, attention was paid to maintaining the functionality and calculations of the timhost and optionally making other rules available via configuration parameters. PHost is therefore more flexible, but can largely be configured in such a way that it almost completely reflects the behavior of the Timhost.

Form of distribution

The game is distributed as shareware by the author . There is no time-limited use of the game, but an unregistered player only has six of the ten technology levels.

Since 2010, VGA Planets 3 can also be played purely web-based via the browser. Similar to the licensing of the original, this version, known as NU, is free up to the seventh technology level.

Host provider

There are various websites that offer hosting of VGA planets, some of which are free of charge. Some of them are well attended and very popular:

  • Planetsserver (host provider with English website, offers PHost games, offers games for version 3, ranking system)
  • Planets NU (browser-based version of VGA Planets 3) with its own interface, chargeable from technology level 8, offers THost and its own add-ons, ranking system)

VGA planets 4

Since the first version of VGA-Planets 4 appeared in 1999, the game has been in constant (further) development, as was the case with VGA-Planets 3 before. The development of version 4 was officially ended in 2005.

Numerous new rules make VGA-Planets 4 an independent game and therefore incompatible with its predecessor. To name just the most important of them: Up to 30 players can now take part, the size of the cards (playing area) has been increased, as has the number of selectable races. The game tactics for the individual races also differ much more clearly from each other. Many combinations of races (in an alliance) complement each other in different ways. The interaction with others has become much more important than in the 3 version.

Compared to the old version, there are also a myriad of 'fine-tuning' options for the various areas of activity, combat and business. The latter is one of the criticisms of the 4-version (“too much micro-management”), but this didn't reduce the game's popularity. The increased influence of the player community on the development of the game has also contributed to increasing the playability.

VGA Planets 5 - StarCube

The version 5 with the nickname "StarCube" is based on the version 4 of VGA-Planets. Instead of dealing with just a few, the player now deals with thousands of other players in an MMOG browser game . It can be played both turn-based and in real time.

For version 5 the graphics of the game have been completely revised. The basis for this is the Microsoft Silverlight browser extension , which allows the player to fly his spaceship in a three-dimensional universe and carry out various actions.

In order to stay true to the original idea of ​​VGA-Planets despite some changes to the game concept, Tim Wisseman is working directly on VGA-Planets 5. Since 2012 the development is permanently on “Hold until new development team is build”. As of 2015 there is no longer an official website

VGA Planets NU 2010

Planets NU is a browser-based remake of version 3, which has proven to be the most popular version of VGA Planets to date. Founded in 2010, the NU version offers a purely web-based platform as well as a revised user interface and has meanwhile become the world's largest provider of VGA planets. As with the license for the original, up to the seventh technology level can be played free of charge; fees are charged for technology levels up to 10. At regular intervals, championship games are played among the first placed of each species on Planets NU.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ originally: https://sites.google.com/site/csplanets/starcube