Complete Rigellian Diary

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

that worked steve thank you very much.  any hope on getting more chapters wrote.  how about a rewrite with the story of the monitor that went back in time through the gate.  could rewrite that for 167 turns.  lol

Very little chance of any additional chapters. I finished writing the Rigellian Diary about 10 years ago

Steve

[The Forbidden]

Unfortunately, at least for me, the link seems to be very much dead.

[arty]

is there a new link ?

[JacenHan]

Try http://www.pentarch.org/steve/CompleteDiary167.zip

This link works for me.

Edit: Just realized that's because it got changed right before I clicked it, ignore this. The first post works fine now.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Yes, this is the correct link. I have updated the original post.

http://www.pentarch.org/steve/CompleteDiary167.zip

[arty]

works thank you reading )

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

works thank you reading )

Bear in mind that was one of the first things I wrote so standard was pretty low

[The Forbidden]

works thank you reading )

Bear in mind that was one of the first things I wrote so standard was pretty low

Well, you have to start somewhere. Plus, I've always wondered what your Starfire campaigns looked like, seeing that this game inspired Aurora.

[Kurt]

works thank you reading )

Bear in mind that was one of the first things I wrote so standard was pretty low

I went back and took a look at my Terran Empire Campaign recently.  It was written at the same time as Steve's Rigellian Campaign, although Steve's campaign came first, and, in fact, was what inspired me to begin writing up my campaign reports.  I make no claims to brilliant writing now, but my writing was pretty rough back then.   

Kurt

[HighTemplar]

Just finished the whole thing (on the third attempt), took a week of solid reading (good distraction while aurora loads it's turns). Very enjoyable read despite having never played starfire (the ship class descriptions are complete gibberish to me).

Some thoughts and questions
1. This is 300% dead right?
2. How did the bugs with their massive depth not crush the allies under massive waves of bugs (I know they tried but come on they had so many 40 billion pop systems)
3. How were you running the diplomacy elements (was it based on dice rolls or something or completely narrative?)
4. The Octopi will probably be able to hold of the Andromedans but I can't see them getting their systems back from the dragons or the Rigellians a war between the two groups will probably happen in the future
5. Where did the ideas for each race come from? (especially the races who got extended backstory i.e. the Rigellians and the Drax), and how did you work out their different tactical doctrines?
6. What was the final income of each race?
7. What was the next big threat for the Rigellians?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Just finished the whole thing (on the third attempt), took a week of solid reading (good distraction while aurora loads it's turns). Very enjoyable read despite having never played starfire (the ship class descriptions are complete gibberish to me).

Some thoughts and questions
1. This is 300% dead right?
2. How did the bugs with their massive depth not crush the allies under massive waves of bugs (I know they tried but come on they had so many 40 billion pop systems)
3. How were you running the diplomacy elements (was it based on dice rolls or something or completely narrative?)
4. The Octopi will probably be able to hold of the Andromedans but I can't see them getting their systems back from the dragons or the Rigellians a war between the two groups will probably happen in the future
5. Where did the ideas for each race come from? (especially the races who got extended backstory i.e. the Rigellians and the Drax), and how did you work out their different tactical doctrines?
6. What was the final income of each race?
7. What was the next big threat for the Rigellians?

I'm rereading this at the moment for the first time in many years and I am surprised how much of it I had forgotten. I'm only about a fifth of the way in so no spoilers please

I can't remember the tactical details as this was twenty years ago. All the diplomacy, backstory, tactical doctrines, etc. were all role-played by me. My young son (who is 29 now) started the Octopus Empire and came up with the name, but lost interest quite quickly so I took over. I haven't maintained the Starfire Assistant code, although I still have it somewhere, so I can't check the final incomes. It ended eventually because it was taking a very long time to play each turn (several weeks).

I probably should try to get SA up and running again so I can see the maps

EDIT: Just opened the VB project for Starfire Assistant. Lots of load reference errors, probably due to all the missing files that are no longer supplied with Windows (such as OCX). Might be fun to find all those files and get it running again, but I should probably spend my time on C# Aurora   Maybe some other time.

[Father Tim]

Let us raise a glass to the fallen Octopi of the Ring system, and pledge vengeance in their name!

[Garfunkel]

I'm reading this currently and it is an interesting read. I can say that Aurora is clearly an improvement over Starfire when it comes to mechanics. But I thought this was a sort of a multiplayer game, I didn't realise you're role-playing all the different races/empires!

[Father Tim]

Starfire had a pretty robust set of 'AI rules' for NPRs to operate by. . . except for the unfortunate tendency for them to go suicidally insane and attack you no matter what.*

.

.

*If an NPR ran out of room to expand, they would grow steadily unhappier with you and eventually attack.  If an NPR was particularly militaristic and/or xenophobic, they would eventually roll the tiny chance of jihad and attack.  If an NPR ally liked you enough to ask for your help to attack another NPR ally, you were utterly screwed because refusing to help your ally made you untrustworthy (and some NPRs would grow steadily unhappier with you and eventually attack) whereas attacking your ally clearly made you untrustworthy and some NPRs would grow grow steadily unhappier with you and eventually attack.

And in case you thought you could break one or both alliances before (or instead of) getting dragged into the fight, guess what that did to your trustworthiness?  There were very good reasons for the doctrine of "ally with the first race you meet, and annihilate the second" or the more common "Genocide (everyone) for Fun & Profit!"  Turns out those other Rigellians were right all along.

[Warer]

The download was eaten by Arachnids. I keep getting sent to Arkayn game design with a 404 nothing found message.