The Echo Cluster: How E-mail Play Works

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NEWCOMERS: HOW E-MAIL PLAY WORKS
READ THIS BEFORE YOU ASK. THEN ASK ANYWAY.

[STATUS] [GAZETTE] [NEWCOMERS]

THE SHORT VERSION

You never play at the same time as anybody else. Each turn, the host mails you a file with everything your race can see. You load it into the game on your own computer, give all your orders, and the game packs them into a small file that you mail back. When the host has everybody's orders (or the deadline passes), he runs the host program once, which works out everything for everybody, and mails out the new results. That's one turn. Twice a week, in our game.

You can do your turn at two in the morning in your bathrobe. Most of my players do.

STEP BY STEP

1	Get the game. VGA Planets is shareware, so a friend can give you a copy, or you can find it on most of the big shareware archives. You need version 3.5. Make a directory just for this game, say C:\ECHO, and keep it separate from any other game you're in.
2	Get your result file. After every host run I e-mail each player a result file as an attachment. It's named for your race number, so the Lizards get PLAYER2.RST. Save it into your game directory.
3	Unpack it. Run the UNPACK program in your game directory. It reads the result file and sets up everything the game needs to show you the galaxy as your race sees it.
4	Play your turn. Start the game (the DOS client, or Winplan if you're on Windows) and give your orders: set your planets' taxes and build orders, send your ships where you want them, set missions and friendly codes, build ships at your starbases. Take your time. This is the fun part.
5	Make your turn file. When you're done, run MAKETURN. It packs all your orders into a turn file, PLAYER2.TRN for the Lizards, and so on.
6	Mail it back. Attach the turn file to an e-mail to the host, with your race in the subject line, before 10:00 PM Central on host day. You can send a new one any time before the deadline. I use the last one I get.
7	Wait. The host runs. New results come out. Read the Gazette. Feel paranoid. Go back to step 2.

THINGS NEW PLAYERS GET WRONG

> Mailing the wrong file. Send me the .TRN. Not the .RST I sent you. Not your whole directory zipped up. I have received all three.

> Forgetting to run MAKETURN. If you play your turn and quit without making a turn file, nothing you did leaves your computer. You will find this out Tuesday morning.

> Mixing up games. If you're in two games, keep them in two directories. A Robots turn from another game will not do you any good in mine.

> Time zones. The deadline is Central time. If you're on the East Coast, that's 11:00 PM your time. If you're in California, it's 8:00. I have players in five time zones and one in Germany, who sends his turn at five in the morning before work and is never late, which ought to shame the rest of you.

> Trusting people. Everyone in this game is very friendly. Remember that.

YOUR FIRST TWENTY TURNS

The game rewards patience. You start with a home world, a starbase, a little money and a couple of ships. The best thing you can do early on is spread out: build freighters, carry colonists and supplies to nearby planets, and get mines and factories going everywhere you can. Most new players build warships too soon and run out of money by turn fifteen. Warships are for later. Planets are forever, or at least until somebody takes them.

Learn your race. Every one of the eleven has something nobody else has, and the people who win are the ones who use it. Read the race descriptions that come with the game, and then read them again.

And write press releases. The Gazette is half the fun.

GETTING ON THE STANDBY LIST

Write to me with your e-mail handle, your time zone, which races you'd be willing to take over, and whether you've played VGA Planets before. Replacements inherit whatever is left of a race, which might be fifty planets or might be two, so be the kind of person who enjoys a challenge. When the Echo Cluster ends I'll start a new game, and standby players get first pick of races.

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LAST UPDATED FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1999