Post date: Apr 15, 2020 3:25:08 AM
The 2065 Turn for the Great Game is now open! You will have 3 weeks, May 5 at 1200 UTC, to submit to me your written orders portion for the new turn. Instead of the usual where all of you have been creating a Word document for your orders and emailing it to me, I am going to be giving you access to a Google Docs file for your nation(s). I think the interactivity of a Google Doc will be very helpful ...this does NOT mean I will tolerate 'negotiating your orders' or 'editing to react to events post due date'!!! This just means that it will be much easier to fix errors and respond to questions. Your access to edit will be removed on the due date.
All players, the newer players especially, are encouraged to first submit a set of trial orders to the Referee so I can review them, this is a complicated game and mistakes are all too easy to make.
Updates:
Do note that the rules have been updated to version 20200401, as always see the section 11.1 for a summary of the rules changes. The most obvious change is that while a summary of actions will be published as usual, the results from written orders will not be released until the end of the turn, to give time for you and everyone else to role-play to and influence those actions.
The Movement tab of Spaceship Designer sheet has also been updated to the new rules, namely to broaden the situations that it can handle.
I am very proud of the state that the Settlement List file is finally at, there was a time when it was a blood-thirsty beast that knew no law. You guys have no idea. Right now it still takes a strong man and a stout whip, but it can be beaten in moving in the right direction. This is important because right now it is the engine that is pulling the game along, and while this is a good thing but it is not enough as this is supposed to be a game about colonies and space battles. So the engine of the game really needs to be about a good colony management system, which is a terrifying problem because that is another still wild beast. I have been working hard on that problem lately, mostly behind the scenes, the most obvious change is that it is now required to also specify the location of something by its star with its star system e.g. "Primary", "Binary", "Trinary" ...to match what the Heaven&Earth software does. Right now the game could probably handle a very small colonial empire, but a bigger one will still require much more work yet to be done. You should all be very grateful to Laurent for serving as the guinea-pig of our Colony Management rules and procedures. The pain he suffers now will hopefully mean that you will not have to suffer quite so much when your time comes.
If I could do it all over again I would have nations/Settlements, have special characteristics, i.e. 'skill's, to make them unique and interesting. Too late now, or at least not now, there is so much else to do.
Recruitment:
We need more players! This game is more fun when you can actually deal with another person instead of somebody's low priority alt. Spread the word around! On that note, Stephan Johnston has joined the game as Japan. Welcome Stephan! Paul O'Grady has had to extend his absence from the game, which means, ...yes, I'm back as your favorite Canadian!!!!
Bonus PA points:
[to those new to the game, this is where the Referee hands out rewards for good play]:
3 to Sergey, for his great role-playing and game contributions
2 to Vladimir, for excellent role-playing
1 to Laurent, for good role-playing
Be sure to:
-I have already started to see slipping on using Action ID column in the Unit_Listing and their orders. Filling in that was required for a good reason, there are too many units doing too many things across too many separate pages, a meaningful understanding of what units are doing quickly becomes impossible without it. I cannot, will not, allow Action ID to fall into disuse!
-The RPOL characters 'GMDirector' and 'Israel' are dead mailboxes. Do not address anything to them, they will not be read. I would have changed/deleted them long ago but certain quirks of the RPOL site rules prevent me from doing anything about them.
-If you are not subscribed to the Yahoo! Great Game mailing list then why not? This is where all of the game-wide announcements are made. Send a blank email to 2300greatgame-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
-List the Settlement where something is going/built/put/referring/etc/etc in your orders. Even if it obvious! Right now it may be obvious, but as the game progresses, as more and more Settlements are built, then it will not be so obvious and you do not want a Referee that is confused about where things are. We have all got to get much better about being in the habit of listing exactly which Settlement we are talking about!
-Coordinate closely with anyone that you are making a deal with. Your Referee has to check and log the effect of each of them and has diminishing patience for sorting out conflicts and uncertainties between the order sets. Expecting the Referee to research the orders of another player to find out what your nation is going to is unacceptable, you must explicitly state exactly what your nation is going to do. Fail at this and your Referee has, and will continue to do bad things to your precious plans.
Yours, In Service,
K