New Weber and White Book

[Aslucides]

There finally is a sequel to the David Weber and Steve white book, In Death Ground. Its called The Shiva Option. As I recall, these books are loosely based on one of the precursor games to Space Empires, called Starfire. In fact, I believe one of the authors is a creator or contributor to that game. In any case, it would seem to be of interest to the members of this forum because of the book's similarity to the Space Empires universe.

[GhostBear]

You can find info on the pen and paper Version of Starfire at http://www.starfiredesign.com/starfire/welcome.html.

The Weber books are very good, but the sheer size of the fleets used in the books makes the battle scenes get pretty redundant in The Shiva Option.

Does anyone know if there is a mod for the Starfire races? I think running into the Arachnids would be quite a trip. Especially if they had their huge reserve fleet like they do in the book.

GB

[Growltigga]

I agree with you Ghostbear but given my predilection for all things feline, I would naturally want to see a really good "Khanate of Orion" race

I also agree that the fleet battles in the books are just a bit too big to comprehend

[Phoenix-D]

"I think running into the Arachnids would be quite a trip. Especially if they had their huge reserve fleet like they do in the book."

Err, yes, that would *suck*. I mean, even as stupid as the SE4 AI can be, it doesn't matter THAT much if it can throw 15 million dreadnaughts at you.

Phoenix-D

[Growltigga]

it would certainly make warp point defence a more theorised and important art in the game than it already is

imagine a warp point with 100 large mines, 100 large satellites, heavy fleet cover, lots of weapons bases with state of the art beam weaponry, stacks of fighters and whatever else you can throw in

THAT - would be an interesting nut to crack

[Dan]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Growltigga:
it would certainly make warp point defence a more theorised and important art in the game than it already is

imagine a warp point with 100 large mines, 100 large satellites, heavy fleet cover, lots of weapons bases with state of the art beam weaponry, stacks of fighters and whatever else you can throw in

THAT - would be an interesting nut to crack<hr></blockquote>

I agree Growlie, but SE4 would most likely have a nervous breakdown and give numerous integer overflow and stack errors right before it crashed forever. If sphereworlds cause hiccups a battle of that size would prove fatal. That said, I have half a mind (no snide comments, please - grin) to try my hand at making the Orion fleet; the Theban "Shellheads" would be kinda fun too, I think.

Dan

[geoschmo]

I have had fleet battles with 200 plus capital ships on both sides and hundreds of fighters too. The turns takes a couple minutes longer to process is all.

The problem with the spherewolds is a very specific bug related to the combined hitpoints of the weapons platforms exceeding a certain amount. It's been reported to Malfador and should be fixed in the next patch. It doesn't really have anything to do with the size of the battle though.

Geoschmo

[Sinapus]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Growltigga:
it would certainly make warp point defence a more theorised and important art in the game than it already is

imagine a warp point with 100 large mines, 100 large satellites, heavy fleet cover, lots of weapons bases with state of the art beam weaponry, stacks of fighters and whatever else you can throw in

THAT - would be an interesting nut to crack
<hr></blockquote>

Now imagine closed warp points and the cloaking ECM rules in Space Empires IV.

[Growltigga]

Sinapus - I am imaging that, believe me, I am and the strategist in me is absolutely dribbling with contained passion, just as if I were kissing a moose

[Gozra]

I am right in the middle of reading the book and ran out to make a Map with the Gold editor. My first stumbling block came when I found out obscuring a warp point is not possible. I can hide asteroids and Planets but not warp points.I think that has to be fixed somewhere else. I can 'mask' a warp point but then the way to find it would be very tedious. Any suggestions? I already tried 1.49Map Editor. This would be a fun game. Just Re-vamp the BORG from the startrek universe would make a good Bagh

[Phoenix-D]

You can- BUT it will be a true one-way. Just make one end and not the other.

"You can't go home again."

Phoenix-D

[Dan]

I checked for the book on Amazon and it seems to be in expensive hardcover only. Is it in softcover also?

Dan

[Jubala]

No, the book is not available in paperback edition yet and it won't be available in paperback until Novemeber at the very soonest since it was just published by Baen Books. Check their publishing schedule at http://www.baen.com/scheduleXML.asp . You'll find The Shiva Option in February and you'll see that the schedule is set until September and no mention of a paperback edition of The Shiva Option. So unless you're capable of waiting that long hardcover is the way to go.

And yes, David Weber was closely invlolved in developing the tabletop game Starfire, specifically the 3rd edition if I remember correctly. His Last official starfire product was ISW-4:Arachnids.