Ultronomicon - User contributions [en]

Adjusted Ship Price Mod

2008-02-13T21:23:24Z

Elvish Pillager: credit where credit is due

The '''Adjusted Ship Price Mod''', designed by Shiver and Elvish Pillager of the [http://uqm.stack.nl/forum/ UQM forums] and implemented by Elvish Pillager, is a tentative attempt to balance the costs of [[The Ur-Quan Masters]]' ships to improve the netplay experience for top players. Cedric6014, the current organizer of all veteran-level tournaments, has stated that he will consider using the mod for his tournaments when it will be available for all operating systems.{{ref|1}}

The most recent version of the mod can be found [http://eli.cedarswampstudios.org/balance-mod-1.0.3-src.tar.gz here], and a Windows build [http://koti.mbnet.fi/lonnberg/uqm-balanced-1.03-win32.zip here].

Below are the adjusted prices, as per version 1.0.3.

{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1"
!Ship name !! Original price !! Adjusted price
|-
|[[Androsynth]] [[Guardian]]
|align="center"| 15 ||align="center"| 20
|-
|[[Arilou Lalee'lay]] [[Skiff]]
|align="center"| 16 ||align="center"| 14
|-
|[[Chenjesu]] [[Broodhome]]
|align="center"| 28 ||align="center"| 22
|-
|[[Chmmr]] [[Avatar]]
|align="center"| 30 ||align="center"| 26
|-
|[[Druuge]] [[Mauler]]
|align="center"| 17 ||align="center"| 20
|-
|[[Earthling]] [[Cruiser]]
|align="center"| 11 ||align="center"| 12
|-
|[[Ilwrath]] [[Avenger]]
|align="center"| 10 ||align="center"| 8
|-
|[[Melnorme]] [[Trader]]
|align="center"| 18 ||align="center"| 20
|-
|[[Mmrnmhrm]] [[X-form]]
|align="center"| 19 ||align="center"| 22
|-
|[[Mycon]] [[Podship]]
|align="center"| 21 ||align="center"| 14
|-
|[[Orz]] [[Nemesis]]
|align="center"| 23 ||align="center"| 22
|-
|[[Pkunk]] [[Fury]]
|align="center"| 20 ||align="center"| 14
|-
|[[Shofixti]] [[Scout]]
|align="center"| 5 ||align="center"| 6
|-
|[[Slylandro]] [[Probe]]
|align="center"| 17 ||align="center"| 18
|-
|[[Spathi]] [[Eluder]]/Discriminator
|align="center"| 18 ||align="center"| 12
|-
|[[Supox]] [[Blade]]
|align="center"| 16 ||align="center"| 10
|-
|[[Syreen]] [[Penetrator]]
|align="center"| 13 ||align="center"| 14
|-
|[[Thraddash]] [[Torch]]
|align="center"| 10 ||align="center"| 200{{ref|2}}
|-
|[[Umgah]] [[Drone]]
|align="center"| 7 ||align="center"| 6
|-
|[[Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah]] [[Marauder]]
|align="center"| 30 ||align="center"| 30
|-
|[[Ur-Quan Kzer-Za]] [[Dreadnought]]
|align="center"| 30 ||align="center"| 18
|-
|[[Utwig]] [[Jugger]]
|align="center"| 22 ||align="center"| 22
|-
|[[VUX]] [[Intruder]]
|align="center"| 12 ||align="center"| 12
|-
|[[Yehat]] [[Terminator]]
|align="center"| 23 ||align="center"| 16
|-
|[[Zoq-Fot-Pik]] [[Stinger]]
|align="center"| 6 ||align="center"| 6
|}

==Notes and references==
{{note|1}}''See [http://uqm.stack.nl/forum/index.php?topic=3816.msg49621#msg49621 this post] on the UQM forums.''
{{note|2}}''This is intended as a de-facto ban on the Torch, which is viewed by most top players as supremely boring to play with or against if the player with the Torch plays to win (such matches will continue for even half an hour, and will inevitably result in the victory of the Torch)''

:''See also:'' [http://uqm.stack.nl/forum/index.php?topic=3816.0 "Adjusted Ship Price Mod - Get it while it's hot!" thread at the UQM forums]

[[Category:Mods]]

Multiplayer Melee Suggestions

2008-02-05T00:10:29Z

Elvish Pillager:

The following are some suggestions for getting the most out of multiplayer [[Super Melee|Melee]]. (A more comprehensive list can be found [[Super Melee rulesets|here]].)
*Have pre-made teams of various sizes (100, 200, and 250 points fleets are often used)
*When using a keyboard, figure out suitable key bindings in advance. Most keyboards don't allow some combinations of key-presses.
*When playing over a network, find someone geographically close to you, so that you'll have a relatively good network connection.

===Gameplay variations===
*Limit the number of ships of one type. This will result in more varied battles. Generally a no-duplicates rule is used, preventing the use of more than one ship of the same type.
*Exclude or limit certain ships:
**30 points ships. This will result in more subtle battles.
**[[Pkunk]] [[Fury|Furies]]. This reduces the effects of luck, especially in small fleets.
**ships that usually cause a game to last forever, like [[Thraddash]] [[Torch]]es (or, sometimes, [[Spathi]] [[Eluder]]s and [[Arilou]] [[Skiff]]s).
*Play with random teams. A good random online random team generator can be found [http://bilious.homelinux.org/~paxed/uqmteam/ here].
*Let each player build the fleet of the opponent. This will result in fleets with ships you don't usually use. You may want to limit the number of ships of one type, to avoid ending up with a fleet of [[Umgah]] [[Drone]]s.

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Super Melee rulesets

2008-02-04T22:06:11Z

Elvish Pillager: Added a page to list Super Melee rules!

The Ur-Quan Masters provides a networked Super Melee arena and point costs for all the ships, but no standardized rules. Thus, different groups of fans have developed different rule sets for putting together their fleets for battle. This page is an attempt to collect all such rule sets and describe them. (If you've played using rules that aren't described here, by all means add them!)

===Rules that use point costs===
*The standard rules on [http://uqm.stack.nl/wiki/Uqm-arena#Finding_someone_to_play_against #uqm-arena]: Only one ship of each type, to a maximum of 200 points. Commonly phrased "200 points no dupes".
**In a serious game or tournament you are expected to build your team before connecting, so that you can't base your ship choices on what ships are on your opponent's team.
**Some players and tournament hosts ban Thraddash, considering it unsportsmanly (the ship has the potential to stall matches and upset balance if played to its limit.)
*Other point limits can be used, although it's less common, since too much fewer than 200 tends to lead to the outcome of the match being determined by the teams used, and too much more doesn't leave much room for choice in team design.
*The game can also be played simply with a point limit and no restriction on duplicate ships; this has fallen out of use since the result depends mostly on the teams used, especially since certain anomalous teams (such as ones with many Chmmr) are very likely to maul a "well balanced" team. A limit of two ships of each type is occasionally played.
*In order to reasonably allow more of the same ship, players can take turns picking ships rather than coming with predetermined fleets.
**Picking one ship at a time creates the strange effect of picking cheap ships first in order to have more points left to counter. A probably better way is to pick a certain number of points worth. For instance, the first player could pick at 100 points worth of ships, then the second player design his entire fleet, then the first player pick the remainder of his fleet.
**50-100-100-100-50 is also possible, and probably leaves less room for the first player to effectively counter the opponent's entire fleet.
*In order for some of the less commonly used ships to see use, some players like to play with each player designing the other player's fleet (of course, to a minimum of 200 points rather than a maximum.)
**This can be played with various point totals or allowances for duplicate ships, basically as a modification of any of the rulesets above.
**Each player designing half of each team is also possible.
*Another possible modification to any of these rules is to use [http://uqm.stack.nl/forum/index.php?topic=3816.0 alternate ship prices].

===Other rulesets===
*Alliance vs. Hierarchy: A match with the predetermined teams "Old Alliance Ships" and "Old Hierarchy Ships". It's an interesting match, since the creators of the game went to a great deal of effort to balance it in Star Control 1. On the other hand, it seems to favor the Alliance.
*Auction: Each player gets a pool of "points" (It doesn't really matter how many; 200 and 213 have been used) and each ship except Thraddash is auctioned off to the highest bidder. Details of the auction vary.
**The order the ships are auctioned in is arbitrary; it can be done in alphabetical order or ordered by original point cost, or in other ways.
**What happens if the two players try to bid the same amount can be ambiguous. The cleanest solution is to have the players take turns bidding, the first player to make the high bid buy the ship, and the players also take turns making the first bid on each ship.
**Sometimes a third player acts as auction master, but it isn't necessary if the rules are specified beforehand.
*14 ships no dupes: Essentially any team you can build, as long as it doesn't have two of the same ship on it. Of course, cheap ships will rarely be played, but costly, somewhat overcosted ships (such as Chenjesu and Orz) will see play. Combining this with the "design your opponent's fleet" rule could also be interesting.