Ben Zwycky

yes, my experience too, the planets page is in the UC appendix and the UCSE appendix, but not the AWA appendix. The two pages are identical in UC and UCSE, so I suspect nothing changed in AWA.

For me it's displaying that it ends on March 3rd, 6am board time and is still going. I guess that's causing some confusion.

OK, for those unable to use the polling feature (or who want to give their input after it closes), we can do it manually- just answer the three questions in the poll, which are: Question 1: Are you a member of a fleet? i. Yes, a Galcom Fleet ii. Yes, an Earthcom Fleet iii. Yes, an Insurgent Fleet iv. Yes, a Gammulan Fleet v. No, but I'd like to be. vi. No, and I don't want to join a fleet Question 2: Which version(s) of Universal Combat do you own? (Please select all the versions you have) i. Universal Combat ii. Universal Combat Gold iii. Universal Combat: A World Apart iv. Universal Combat Special Edition Question 3: What kind of organised multiplayer activities are you interested in? (You can select more than one) i. Team-based, goal-oriented tactical scenarios ii. Team-based deathmatches iii. Individual duels iv. Something else (if you choose this option, please state what you have in mind in the thread) As was already stated in the first post in this thread, please also post your availability times GMT, verifying your time zone at the Greenwich Mean Time site beforehand.

what the Fleet action season is all about. All pvp stuff, team-based tactical scenarios (some more goal-oriented, some more deathmatch style depending on what you're trying to do) whose outcome impacts the situation on a game map (you're basically trying to wipe out other fleets and capture territory, but there are multiple ways you can go about it). Several fleets are taking part (both galcom and insurgent, with the possible participation of non-fleet types as a raider band), so you can choose which side you want to align yourself with. This is the thread to post in if you want to join a fleet, then the various active fleets can tell you what they have to offer a potential new recruit.

This kind of thing forces you to look at your priorities in life, good can come form this in the long run. As for MP with AWA, Devin only has UC and UCSE last time I checked, we've been playing good old UC together a couple of times. It looks like we'll be running the new Fleet Action Season using AWA, so if you want to get involved in that, you can take part in the poll over here and tell us when you're available in the thread. We can also set up a temporary UC or UCAWA MP server for fleet members for messing around on, just as long as you don't need it up when we're using it for something official.

OK, only two days left in the poll and a fairly clear picture is emerging, though it is not complete because there are still a lot of people who haven't posted their availability times in this thread. At the moment, it looks like we will be going with UC:AWA and 8pm GMT on Sundays for our main MP activity, for all those who that does NOT suit, please state your availability times and game versions here, so that we can arrange some way for you to take part. (This will either be a secondary MP activity using a different game version and/or time slot, or the opportunity to take part in the main Fleet Action season via submittable offline SP missions, depending on how compatible your options are.) For all those who can make the above slot, let's start organising you into teams here so we can get started with the new season. Wolfie and the other non-fleet players, if you can't get enough of you together to form a raider band, maybe you could play as 'guests' with the Insurgents, if they'd be willing to have you.

You're in my prayers, Devin, stay strong and we can arrange to meet up on TS if you need to vent or just mess around. I look forward to MP'ing with you at the weekend.

I'm very sorry to hear that, Devin, I hope no long-term damage was done. We can definitely meet up in MP as soon as you're up to it.

Excellent, Wolfie and it appears we now have 3 non-fleeters interested in taking part (plus the two who would like to be in a fleet), so if you could get at least four of you together (you three, whoever you are, plus at least one more bloodthirsty scou- *ahem* I mean like-minded indepedent) to form a pirate band, you could take part as a raider 'fleet' Who else have we got?

OK, at the time of this post we have 15 people who have posted in the poll so far, but only 8 have posted regarding their availability times here in the thread. We don't know who to contact if you don't, since the poll itself is anonymous. Chime in, people

I know this is not commercially available, but what do you think Derek could do with this ?

quote: Originally posted by Cruis.In: being prepared? like what heh... like this.

Though we have spent a long time discussing and developing the Fleet Action system of play, no system is ever perfect, some things may not be completely clear from the documentation, or from your unique perspective you may just notice something or have some ideas that haven't occurred to us. This thread is for your questions, overall impressions and suggestions. Please bear in mind that your suggestions are unlikely to be implemented, especially not straight away, as many alternatives have already been considered. Please take a look at the following three items before asking questions, as they are likely to be covered or explained there: The Fleet Action Handbook. This document lists the latest version of all the rules and procedures for taking part in a fleet action season. The Fleet Action Sample Season. This document is an example season containing many different situations that can arise, showing how the system works and flows in practice. The Fleet Action Sample Season Map animation is an animation showing the situation on the game map as it changed over the sample season, with additional highlighting of the changes that occurred, helping people to get oriented with how the game map module shows the latest tactical situation. A few starter questions and answers that may be particularly pertinent to those undecided as to whether to get involved: -What is the difference between Raider Fleets and Military/Insurgent Fleets? This info can be found spread across several sections of the handbook, but to put it all in one place for clarity: Raider Fleets cannot use carriers (just like you can't have access to a carrier as a raider in SP), so their fleet forces will be at a disadvantage when facing military or Insurgent fleets in straight combat in space (all else being equal, which it doesn't have to be ), but are still stronger than defensive militia forces Raiders cannot issue the Signals Intel order, but they can issue the Sabotage order (to disable enemy cloaking devices) and only raiders can issue the Raid order (to harvest enemy supply lines and deny them the ability to reinforce their lines) -How would I set up a Raider Fleet to participate in a Fleet Action Season? First of all, let's make it clear that the participation of a raider fleet in Fleet Action is in no way official recognition of that fleet, there is no binding commitment of it's members to that fleet, and they are not blacklisted from joining an official fleet at a later date, it is just a (hopefully fun ) way for non-fleet people to get involved in MP activity with the official fleets. What you'd need to set up a Raider fleet for Fleet Action is at least 4 players, a name for your fleet and a designated spokesman/leader to tell us what your fleet is going to do in the mission orders thread. -Why doesn't the map module work in my browser? We are aware that the map module doesn't display correctly in some browsers, with different issues in different browsers (instability when scrolling in IE, connecting lines and mouseover images and links non-functional in Firefox). We got this module as is and don't have the programming skills to reengineer it, and though it has it's problems, it does the job very well and we've been able to modify it to suit our needs. In Firefox, the mouseover system ownership images and planetary data links work fine in all quadrants except the Terran quadrant, and those work in the Terran quadrant in IE no problem, so I just use IE to look at the terran quadrant (no scrolling necessary) and Firefox to look at the situation elsewhere, which doesn't seem like too big a hassle to me. If it does to you, and you can build us a bug-free cross-platform set of modules to do the same job or better, we'll happily switch over to that and give you a medal, probably - What do the medal images look like and how are they awarded? In a word, awesome thanks to Eclipse, but don't just take my word for it, take a look for yourself. These will be displayed on your individual stats page in the Fleet Action Players module if and when they are earned. Details on the requirements for each medal can be found in the handbook. - Is there any way to get involved somehow even though I can't meet up with the rest of you online? Ideally we'd want everyone to be able to take part in MP matches of some kind, but that isn't always going to be possible. If you want to get involved in MP, then please take part in this poll, telling us your availability times in the thread. The more people that do, the more likely we can find ways to get you all involved in something. If there is enough demand, then ways of offline participation via SP missions can be arranged. We've thrown around some ideas in this respect, some of which wouldn't be too hard to set up. Okay, that's all I could come up with off the top of my head. If anyone has any other questions or comments, fire away.

Just a temporary lull, some things are being prepared . I see 9 threads in today's active topics, is that good enough?

That depends on how many others we get available at that time. If there are enough to run some sort of parallel MP activity, we can set that up no problem. Don't write yourself off yet

All those interested in organised multiplayer using a UC-series game (of any sort, not just Fleet Action) should go and take part in this poll and tell us what you're looking for and when you're available. Your opinions matter. Later,

My availability times GMT: Mondays 15.00-16.00 Tues-Sun 18.30-20.30

I think it was too much activity and too much leaning forwards too soon after the general anaesthetic (after that, they told me always to look up when walking around to avoid my head spinning, the amount of stuff they took out of my head had upset my balance, and it took a while to readjust). I have no idea what it was, but it apparently isn't that rare, since they were well prepared. I don't want to have to go through it again, but polyps have a habit of coming back after a while, so I can't rule it out in a few years (hopefully decades ) Getting back to 100% now, my head is clear now (no headaches with a blocked nose and it no longer hurts to blow my nose), I'm going to be playing a little indoor soccer on Monday, we'll see how that goes.

Looks like a cross between scientology and new age mysticism, so its either fiction or there's something nasty behind it.

OK, got out of hospital yesterday, still a little groggy and taking a load of medications, so my thinking is probably not as clear as normal. Apart from the polyps and infection, for a bit of extra spice there was also a cyst in there that they managed to remove. A whole load of things happened while I was there, this is one of the highlights: During my first meal after the operation (about 5 hours later), I started getting a really powerful headache, and the pain then spread to my hands, stomach and legs, extreme pins and needles everywhere, feeling like my whole body was inflating like a balloon and I was shaking uncontrollably and totally panicking, because I hadn't been warned that this could happen and had no idea what was going on. Two nurses practically carried me back to my bed and held me down while another gave me an injection they had imported from Germany for specifically this situation. The doctor who was there put his hand on my shoulder and told me the following, "look at me. Your hyperventilating is making it worse. Start breathing slowly and gently, or I'm going to put a plastic bag over your head to get you to rebreathe that carbon dioxide." That got me focused on controlling my breathing, and the shaking calmed down as the injection took effect. A cool guy, that doctor. I'm back, though still won't be at 100% for a couple of days at least.

I'm so sorry to hear that, Kal. My prayers are with you and with those kids.

There are actually 5 or 6 polyps and inflammation throughout both sinuses, and the operation is on the 10th, so I'll be unavailable for a few days after that. Marc and Krasus will be in charge during that time.

quote: Originally posted by The Black Ghost: First, I wouldn't say that our elemental beleifs are irrelevant at all to our era, they were relevant to every era and especially so now. It is what is in your head that ultimately determines how you act and how events turn out to be. It also determines the kind of people such as you say next that WILL end up with the "Human power" in their hands. Of course there is no way we can stop advancement of technology, but we can still reform the advancement of how we think and act -that is what is most important and that is what will determine how the entire human race will turn out to be in the future: intelligent but responsible, or arrogant and thoughtless. That's what I meant, they are always vitally important, no matter what era we are in. There will always be a mix of evil and good in society, of responsible and irresponsible, there will always be a battle between good and evil desires in each individual, we have to keep fighting to make sure that the arrogant and destructive ones among us do not drown out the responsible and constructive ones, since really bad things happen when good people do nothing (I forget who first said that.)

No new fleets are allowed, and won't be until SC says otherwise. Try joining an existing fleet, there are plenty to choose from with different aims and emphases, many of them in need of new members.

I did say that it wasn't meant as a complete list. Yes, technology contributes to certain problems, the more and more hectic pace of life as people demand more and more instant service tends to dehumanise us. Communicating with others via chat rooms and forums gives us a feeling of anonymity and invulnerability - we can invent a whole new identity for ourselves and feel no-one can do anything to us for what we say, hence the anarchy that reigns over most forums. When we meet people in the course of our day, we are often under pressure, in a hurry and tired, hardly conducive to warm human contact. We are increasingly more and more isolated from nature, catching idealised glimpses via adverts and movies. The healthier and more advanced our economy becomes, the more specialised our workplaces and knowledge bases become, the less informed we become of the overall picture and more lost in the sea of human knowledge, though in some cases this is leading to more iniatives involving cross-cooperation between different fields. In practice, this leads to people having to be selective in areas they study, learning only the skills they need to perform in their given field, lacking general skills that were common knowledge in previous generations, being more and more dependant on technology and on others to do things that almost everyone did themselves 30-40 years ago, and still do in less-developed countries. As technology becomes more widespread, it gets into the hands of those further down the intellectual and social ladder who would never have had a chance of being near the leading edge of society 20 years ago. While it may appear in some instances that the latest generation is spoiled or less intelligent than the previous one, it may be because there are some sections of society that are just a lot more visible than they used to be. I know a lot of highly intelligent teenagers, it just depends on where you look to get your 'representative sample'. Another major problem that is not new, though is maybe more visible now, is that of double standards, both intellectually and morally. Intellectually it goes something like this, if I can throw the tiniest doubt on your position through a wild conspiracy theory, by making insanely large demands for evidential support or by finding an alternative explanation for a very minor point, then your position is untenable and you're a fool for believing it, though my position is based on an amateur website or book I read that I liked the sound of and suits my lifestyle, so I never bothered to look any further. An alternative version is 'I only ever read books or articles by people I agree with, all the rest must be wrong' Morally, it means being outraged by an evil act when committed by one individual or group, but excusing the same sort of act (or worse) when committed by another. The mass news media seems to be guilty of this on a whole range of topics. On a more personal level, this is also being a lot more troubled by the evil in the world than by the evil in your own heart. After all, that's the problem you can do most about . Yes, we have to sort out our more fundamental issues, but this is irrelevant to our era, or to what the next era will be. There are always those who say we are playing God by advancing in some technological area, but you can't stop science from progressing, you can't stop new discoveries from being made (if you stop, then someone else will overtake you). All we can do is attempt to ensure that the most powerful of these new technologies do not get into the hands of those who would be irresponsible with them, punish those who abuse them, and attempt to make sure that our own use of them is as constructive as possible. A difficult task, but if we don't do it, who will?