Oct 20

Strategies – Attacking Larger Empires

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Quickly moving up the list of top players in Starpires will often require taking down empires who are more powerful than you are.  Defeating a more powerful empire through brute force will simply end in disaster and requires utilizing a bit of strategy.

Know your enemy

Gathering intelligence on an opponent before attacking.  Find out if they have defense pacts with other empires, and what the makeup is of their defending forces.  Take advantage of the strengths and weakness of different military units.  For example heavy cruisers will absolutely demolish defense stations but are not very effective against either ground troops or fighters.

Hint: If you have access to it under research, a spy satellite is a useful tool in helping to spy on a larger empire.

Wear them down with Guerilla Attacks

Guerilla attacks are very useful for wearing down the military forces of a larger opponent in preparation to invade them.  You can’t capture planets through guerilla attacks, but since they occur with no warning an empire can’t call on their allies to help protect them.  Also the smaller your force is relative to your opponent the more effective each individual military unit will be.

Gas their troops

If the are reliant on a large number of troops to defend their empire, launching chemical strikes (assuming you’ve researched the technology) to kill them off is a good strategy to weaken their defenses.

Take advantage of technology

There are a number of useful technologies which you can research that can aid your attacking forces temporarily.  Jam their communications to prevent them for calling on allies to help defend against an invasion.  Set off an EMP Blast, that will disable a large percentage (~50%) of their defense stations.  Provide an Adrenaline Boost to your military units to temporarily increase their attack strength.

Talk with your allies and coordinate attacks against a larger empire.  2 or 3 smaller empires can take down a significantly larger opponent if they work together.
Oct 13

Big Bang Theory – The Expanding Starpires Universe

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Unlike many of the previous space empire building games which Starpires is based on, it is meant to be truly massively multiplayer.  That is, there can be thousands or even tens of thousands of players competing in the same game.

To make this manageable from a players perspective each player has their “Known Universe” of players within the game.  These are the players they can see, interact with and attack.  As their empire grows and becomes more powerful there known universe will expand as they discover new players.  An added benefit of this is the game keeps getting more challenging.

How does this work?

When you first start out, your known universe is made up of about 20 players.  These players are people that started playing at about the same time that you did, your friends (via Facebook relationships) and anyone who invited you into the game.  So basically you start off playing with people at your level, and people that you personally know.

Every so often the game checks to make sure your known universe still contains plenty of players on a similar level as you.  If not, then additional empires are added to your known universe.

So far the system seems to be working pretty well, but we’re always looking for ways it can be tweaked to keep the game play challenging and engaging.

Oct 06

Sanctions and Attack Penalties

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In Starpires, it was important to make sure that more powerful players could not just beat up much smaller players. Nobody likes bullies especially when you are the weaker player that doesn’t stand a chance of defending yourself.

To help combat this there are penalties and sanctions for unprovoked attacks against smaller empires. The cutoff for penalties is currently set to an empire that has less than 50% of the number of planets and net worth than you.

These penalties imposed by both your own population and the galactic council get increasingly harsh the more an empire bullies smaller players

Population Upset - Your population may become upset after an unprovoked attack on a smaller empire, leading to your civilian mood being lowered.

Economic Sanctions - After repeated attacks the galactic council may impose economic sanctions on your empire which you have to pay at the beginning of each turn.  These sanctions will last several turns.

Military Action - The galactic council maybe forced to take “peacekeeping” actions, launching a series of devastating missile strikes against your

Attacks are considered unprovoked if the opposing empire has not attacked you within 40 turns.  A good way of checking this is by looking at your enemies list, or seeing if your relationship to the empire is “At War” under the diplomacy menu.

There is also a small icon next to an empires name in the attack menu, if attacking them may result in sanctions.

Sep 26

Please Review Us and Assorted Vote Whoring

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I’m glad people are enjoying Starpires.  Right now almost all the players joining the game are coming via referrals, posts players have made in forums and small game sites.  Every little bit helps us grow, and allows me to dedicate more time to the game development.

The following sites have recently added Starpires to their database of games, and having positive reviews/votes on the sites really helps drive traffic to us.  So you if have a minute we’d really appreciate stopping by one of these sites and rating, reviewing or voting for us.  Thanks…


* I will update this list as we are added to more game review sites.


-Matt
Sep 26

Clarifying the multiple account policy

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During the previous week I’ve had a few complains and caught several people creating multiple accounts on Starpires with the clear intent of cheating in the game.  They were either creating fake accounts to receive bonus turns from the referral system in place, or using multiple accounts to coordinate attacks against other players.

This type to gaming the system is cheating, affects the game play experience for other Starpires players and will not be tolerated.  We’re monitoring accounts and if we find this occurring will not hesitate to delete the offending accounts without warning.

That said we realize there are times when there maybe multiple people creating accounts from the same IP Address (computer) legitimately.  Multiple accounts on the same IP address won’t automatically get them banned but if there is a clear pattern that shows it is most likely the same person and is doing it in an attempt to “game” the system they will be removed.

Feel free to ask any questions via the comments or using the Starpires contact form.

Sep 26

Game Update – Dozens Of New Research Items

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We just finished putting live a ton of new research items, which we’ve been spent the past week adding to the game.  This include a few dozen more “permanent effect” items which which do things such as increase the strength of particular military units/attacks or the production of planets.

Additionally we added a new class of “temporary effect” research items which should add a whole new level of strategy to the game.  The items have effects that last for a period of time, either in turns or in time and provide a much greater boost.

  • They can be used strategically to help attack or defend your empire.
  • Once researched they may show up again on your research list at a later date (and higher number of research credits)
  • You can view how many more turns or how much time they are in effect under the “Research” tab, but will disappear when the temporary effect has ended.

 

Some of the new “temporary effect” items:

Adrenaline Boosters – Temporarily increase the offensive strength of your military forces.  Useful if you want to attack another empire stronger than your own.

 

Victory Broadcast – Doubles the defensive capabilities of your empire for a period of time.

 

Spy Satellite -  Substantially increases the chance of spying operations against another empire being a success.  Doesn’t effect other types of special operations.

 

Jam Communications – Jams an enemies communications so they can’t call on their allies for support in the event of an invasion.

 

EMP Blast – Send out an electro-magnetic pulse that disables many of an enemies defense stations.  Useful in setting up the big attack.

 

There are more besides these that appear later in the game.  Enjoy…

Sep 15

Press Release – Space Strategy Game Starpires Launches

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Just put out our launch press release…

—–

Seattle, WA, Sept. 15, 2011 - Independent game developer Bad Pug Games has announced the launch of it’s flagship space strategy game, Starpires.

A free, turn based, massive multiplayer game, Starpires combines many elements of traditional strategy games with social features to create an engaging game play experience for both hard core and casual gamers.  Players build their galactic empire, build military forces and do battle with each other through a variety of attacks and covert operations as they move up the player rankings to become ruler of the known galaxy.

Addictive and Engaging

Starpires has proven to be a very addictive game with a high percentage of players logging in multiple times per day to play.  It is a turn based game, with players accruing additional turns over time.  According to Starpires creator Matt Heaton, “I hear from players who tell me they can’t wait until they receive more turns so they can keep building their empire.”

There are dozens of metrics including score, net worth and number of battles won on which players can see their rank.  These rankings can be used to compare your empire against others in the game, your known universe of empire, or against your Facebook friends.

The Big Bang – Expanding Universes

Starpires uses a unique system to deal with having thousands of players participating in the same game.  When they start out they are in a known universe of players made up of people starting the game at the same time as them as well as their friends.  As they progress in the game they discover new, more powerful empires.  This creates a game play experience that becomes progressively more challenging while not overwhelming new players.

Starpires is a free-to-play, browser based game.   Players can signup and create their empire at http://starpires.com

Additional Information:

Screenshots: http://starpires.com/screenshots

Blog: http://starpires.com/blog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Starpires

 

 

Sep 10

Update – Alliance Changes

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One observation and frequent feedback item from initial players of Starpires was that the way alliances were functioning was affecting game play. They made it very hard to succeed in attacking even much smaller players that had several larger allies.

To even out the game play and keep alliances from dominating the game the following changes were made.

1. The amount of support an ally can provide in an attack is limited to the strength of the defender. That means an ally that is 10 times the size of the defender can send a maximum of 1/10th of their available forces to help defend.

2. The amount of support an ally can provide is additionally limited by how many alliances they have. This limits the benefit of allying with someone who’s just randomly allying with lots of players.

3. Previously your empire could defended by up to 3 allies during an attack. Now either one, two or three allies are chosen at random to defend.

Sep 08

Military Units in Starpires

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In Starpires will need a military to both defend your empire and attack other empires. Each type of military unit has different strengths and weaknesses so you will need an appropriate mix to defeat an opponent. Each turn there is an upkeep cost to maintain your military in optimal condition.

 

Troops - Basic ground forces. You will need them to both defend and capture planets during an attack and they require generals to lead them into battle.  Very ineffective at attacking space based military units such as cruisers, carriers and command ships.  They are also prone to deserting your military if your military moral becomes to low.

Weaknesses: Chemical strikes, low military moral

Upkeep: 5 credits + food

 

generals - starpires space strategy game

Generals - Command your troops and make them more effective fighting force. You will need 1 general per 50 troops to lead them on attacks. If you have too few generals your troops moral maybe effected. Generals have very little fighting capability themselves.

Upkeep: 50 credits + food

 

Fighters - Equally effective against almost all forces but are primarily an offensive weapon with very weak defensive capabilities.. You will need 1 carrier per 100 fighters to transport them on attack missions.

Weaknesses: Defense stations

Upkeep: 12 credits

 

cruisers - starpires space strategy game

Heavy Cruisers - Very effective at taking out defense stations.

Weaknesses: Command ships

Upkeep: 80 credits

 

Defense Station - Defense stations are only defensive and can not be sent out on attacks.  They are heavily armored and very effective against many types of military units. Your best bet for defending your empire.

Weaknesses: Heavy cruisers

Upkeep: 12 credits

 

Carriers

You need one for every 100 fighters to be able to take them into combat, but don’t have much firepower themselves.

Weaknesses: Heavy cruisers, command ships

Upkeep: 100 credits

 

Command Ships - This heavily armored capital ship is extremely effective at taking on heavy cruiser and other command ships. It has the added benefit of significantly increasing the effectiveness of heavy cruisers under it’s command. Has almost no ground attack capabilities and is vulnerable to fighters.

Weaknesses: Fighters

Upkeep: 400 credits

 

Covert Agents - Allow you to take covert actions against other empires. The more you have the higher the chance of success in both completing operations and countering operations against you.

Upkeep: 100 credits