Difference between revisions of "Super Melee rulesets"

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==Preface==
 
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!
 
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]===  
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==Standard Rules for #uqm-arena==  
Only one ship of each type, to a maximum of 200 points. Commonly phrased "200 points no dupes".
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Players may use only one ship of each type and build up to a maximum fleet size of 200 points. The Thraddash Torch is banned. No game modifications are used.
  
*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.
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*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 knowledge of your opponent's team.
  
*Most players and tournament hosts ban the [[Thraddash]] [[Torch]] in vanilla UQM games, considering it unsportsmanlike. The ship has the potential to stall matches and upset balance if played to its limit.
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*Point limits other than 200 can be used, although they are uncommon. The outcome of a lower point game is drastically affected by each player's fleet composition, while higher point games don't leave much room for choice in fleet selection.
 
 
*Excluding the Pkunk Fury will reduce the effects of luck, especially in small fleets.
 
 
 
*Excluding capital ships (such as the [[Kohr-Ah]] [[Marauder]]) will result in more subtle battles.
 
  
*Point limits other than 200 can be used, although they are uncommon. The outcome of a lower point game is drastically affected by each player's fleet composition, while higher point games don't leave much room for choice in fleet selection.
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*The [[Thraddash]] [[Torch]] is banned because the ship has the potential to stall matches and upset game balance if played to its limit.
  
===Duplicate Ships===
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*Stalemates are resolved by forcing the faster of the two ships in play to go on the offensive.
  
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. Certain ship types tend to dominate most others. However, this ruleset has seen revival recently in games played with [[User:Shiver/Balance Mod|Shiver's Balance Mod]], which handles duplicates better than vanilla UQM.  
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*Game modifications have become quite prevalent recently, making the standard rule set less ubiquitous.
  
*In order to reasonably allow more of the same ship, players can take turns picking ships rather than coming with predetermined fleets.
 
  
*Capital ships can be limited or banned, to keep them from skewing the game heavily.
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==Fleet Setup Rules==
  
==="Crap Fleets"===
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====No Duplicate Ships====
  
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.)
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No more than one of each ship type can appear in a player's fleet. This forces ship variety and prevents a player's fleet setup from having too much impact on the outcome of the melee match.
  
*This can be played with various point totals or allowances for duplicate ships, although duplicates can lead to undesirable results such as a fleet full of [[Drone|Drones]].
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====Duplicate Ships====
  
*Each player designing half of each team is also used, as is each player selecting one ship that the other cannot alter.
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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. Certain ship types tend to dominate most others. However, this ruleset has seen revival recently in games played with [[User:Shiver/Balance Mod|Shiver's Balance Mod]], which handles duplicates better than vanilla UQM.
  
===Random teams===
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*In order to reasonably allow more of the same ship, players can take turns picking ships rather than connecting to each other with predetermined fleets.
  
A random team can be more interesting, as you will often end up without  such omnipresent mainstays as the [[Earthling]] [[Cruiser]] or [[Utwig]] [[Jugger]]. A good online random team generator (for vanilla UQM) can be found [http://bilious.homelinux.org/~paxed/uqmteam/ here].
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*30pt ships can be limited or banned, to keep them from skewing the game heavily.
  
===Random ship selection===
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====Crap Fleets====
  
Selecting ships randomly during melee can lead to very uncommon matches being played, since the players cannot attempt to counter each others ships. This is best combined with a ban on the [[Chmmr]] [[Avatar]] and [[Kohr-Ah]] [[Marauder]] (and the [[Ur-Quan]] [[Dreadnought]] in [[User:Shiver/Balance Mod|Shiver's Balance Mod]]), which tend to heavily skew a match depending on what is drawn against them.
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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. The fleet point limit should be considered a minimum rather than a maximum. This can be played with various point totals or allowances for duplicate ships, although duplicates can lead to undesirable results such as a fleet full of [[Drone|Drones]].
  
==Other Rulesets==
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====Random Teams====
  
===Alliance vs. Hierarchy===
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A random team can be more interesting, as you will often end up without such omnipresent mainstays as the [[Utwig]] [[Jugger]]. A good online random team generator can be found [http://bilious.homelinux.org/~paxed/uqmteam/ here].
  
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. Unfortunately, it seems to favor the Alliance.
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====Auction====
  
===Auction===
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Players get a pool of points and ships are auctioned off to the highest bidder. The details of auction procedure are up to the players. Ideally, a separate person outside of the game should act as auctioneer. This format is best used with 4 or 6 players playing a tournament with their auction-bought ships and multiple copies of every ship type up for auction.
  
Each player gets a pool of "points" (It doesn't really matter how many; 200 and 213 have been used) and each ship (possibly excluding [[Torch|Thraddash]] in vanilla UQM) 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.
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====Fixed Number of Ships====
  
===14 ships no dupes===
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Disregard point values and limit fleets by quantity. A "No Duplicates" rule is strongly recommended in conjunction with this. This places an emphasis on large, expensive craft or the opposite when combined with "Crap Fleets".
  
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 overpriced ships (such as the [[Chenjesu]] [[Broodhome]] and the [[Ur-Quan]] [[Dreadnought]]) will see play. Combining this with the "design your opponent's fleet" rule could also be interesting. Note that this will be less interesting in [[User:Shiver/Balance Mod|Shiver's Balance Mod]], because (deliberately) no ships are overpriced.
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====Alliance vs. Hierarchy====
  
===Point loss system===
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A match with the predetermined teams "Old Alliance Ships" against "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 I. Unfortunately, it seems to favor the Alliance.
  
The victor is whoever loses the least amount of points, not whoever beats all the opponent's ships. So for example, if Bob destroys Bill's fleet, Bob loses 134 points and Bill loses 62 points, Bill wins. There is no limit to how many ships you can have and no points limit, although a point minimum may be wise.
 
  
== Silly rulesets (also ideas for handicap) ==
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==Other Rules==
  
===Left-turning===
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====Random Ship Selection====
  
Ships can't turn to the right - only to the left.
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Use the random select button whenever the game prompts you to choose which ship to send into the arena. Ideally, both players should immediately mash this button any time the ship selection screen comes up to remove any doubt of cheating. This format is not great for fair competition, but the unusual ship match-ups add a lot of variety to the game. Random Ship Selection is best combined with a ban on 30pt ships, which tend to heavily skew a match depending on what is drawn against them.
  
===Left-to-Right===
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====Left-to-Right====
  
Deploy ships to the battle in the order they are on your fleet list, starting from the left, going to the right.
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* Deploy ships in the order they are on your fleet list, starting from the upper-left ship slot and proceeding right.
  
===Extreme controllers===
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====Handicaps====
  
Play with a silly controller, such as a dance pad or something you've built yourself.
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* Disable one of the turning keys.
  
===Left hand===
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* Play with a controller that makes the game more difficult, such as a joystick or dance pad.
  
Play only with your left hand.
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* Play with only one hand.
  
===Caffeine/Alcohol===
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* Play drunk.
  
Caffeine will generally improve play, while alcohol will dumb it down.
 
  
 
[[Category:Game_mechanics]]
 
[[Category:Game_mechanics]]

Revision as of 01:05, 9 January 2011

Preface

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!


Standard Rules for #uqm-arena

Players may use only one ship of each type and build up to a maximum fleet size of 200 points. The Thraddash Torch is banned. No game modifications are used.

  • 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 knowledge of your opponent's team.
  • Point limits other than 200 can be used, although they are uncommon. The outcome of a lower point game is drastically affected by each player's fleet composition, while higher point games don't leave much room for choice in fleet selection.
  • The Thraddash Torch is banned because the ship has the potential to stall matches and upset game balance if played to its limit.
  • Stalemates are resolved by forcing the faster of the two ships in play to go on the offensive.
  • Game modifications have become quite prevalent recently, making the standard rule set less ubiquitous.


Fleet Setup Rules

No Duplicate Ships

No more than one of each ship type can appear in a player's fleet. This forces ship variety and prevents a player's fleet setup from having too much impact on the outcome of the melee match.

Duplicate Ships

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. Certain ship types tend to dominate most others. However, this ruleset has seen revival recently in games played with Shiver's Balance Mod, which handles duplicates better than vanilla UQM.

  • In order to reasonably allow more of the same ship, players can take turns picking ships rather than connecting to each other with predetermined fleets.
  • 30pt ships can be limited or banned, to keep them from skewing the game heavily.

Crap Fleets

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. The fleet point limit should be considered a minimum rather than a maximum. This can be played with various point totals or allowances for duplicate ships, although duplicates can lead to undesirable results such as a fleet full of Drones.

Random Teams

A random team can be more interesting, as you will often end up without such omnipresent mainstays as the Utwig Jugger. A good online random team generator can be found here.

Auction

Players get a pool of points and ships are auctioned off to the highest bidder. The details of auction procedure are up to the players. Ideally, a separate person outside of the game should act as auctioneer. This format is best used with 4 or 6 players playing a tournament with their auction-bought ships and multiple copies of every ship type up for auction.

Fixed Number of Ships

Disregard point values and limit fleets by quantity. A "No Duplicates" rule is strongly recommended in conjunction with this. This places an emphasis on large, expensive craft or the opposite when combined with "Crap Fleets".

Alliance vs. Hierarchy

A match with the predetermined teams "Old Alliance Ships" against "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 I. Unfortunately, it seems to favor the Alliance.


Other Rules

Random Ship Selection

Use the random select button whenever the game prompts you to choose which ship to send into the arena. Ideally, both players should immediately mash this button any time the ship selection screen comes up to remove any doubt of cheating. This format is not great for fair competition, but the unusual ship match-ups add a lot of variety to the game. Random Ship Selection is best combined with a ban on 30pt ships, which tend to heavily skew a match depending on what is drawn against them.

Left-to-Right

  • Deploy ships in the order they are on your fleet list, starting from the upper-left ship slot and proceeding right.

Handicaps

  • Disable one of the turning keys.
  • Play with a controller that makes the game more difficult, such as a joystick or dance pad.
  • Play with only one hand.
  • Play drunk.