Articles

A collection of articles written during the early years of the game.

Separating Real Life and your DG Life from Each Other

by Lightburner

Hello and welcome to this new episode of 'DG and REAL LIFE!'

Here I will try to explain the similarities between DG and RL. With my little experience i had in playing Dark Galaxy and being in the community a bit i've seen several persons entering the scene, i will explain them and how they should react in real life.


It al began in the middle of the night, when i was sleeping.. While i was dreaming about beautifull naked women (Yes I dream about older women) my cellphone went off.. trrrr.. /me wakes up.. What the hell? trrr.. So, i get out of my bed and take up the phone. "Hello? Who the hell is this?"

"Yo man, this is your m8 ****, I'm under heavy attack!" "What? Heavy attack? You doing crack again?" "No no, i just checked my comms and i noticed 3 large battlefleets approaching my 3rd planet!!" "Bye" "No, wait, I want you to sent your fleet to help me! Hello! Hello?"

It was clear, this bloke apperantly suffered from the DG decease, an extreme form of it obviously..


It is quite clear you should keep your Dark Galaxy life and your Real life seperate from eachother, some peeps however, fail bigtime in doing this.


Do you suffer from this decease?

If you experience any of the following things in your Real life then you are suffering from the Dark Galaxy Decease!


-Your girlfriend asks you how you are and you answer you're doing bad because someone just took your no3 planet..


-You're buying a PC with internet connection for your parents, so if you need to visit them on sundays, you still have the chance to check your Dark Galaxy account..


-You're having a bumper sticker on you car saying: "I don't stop for FoP"

or "Honk if you're a Reservoir Dog" or even "I believe in Zedd"


-Your boss is calling cause you're working home asking about the work he asked you to do and you're answering: "Yes, i finished the scannings.. ehh calculations.."


-You are in the middle of the sex thing and you stop just cause your settlement has just been built..


-You cancel your date cause you have enemy fleets on your comms..


If any of you peeps experience those symptons, then have the decease!


Next time: The Forum peeps

The DG Forums

by Lightburner

Aight, i promised to explain the forum personalities in this article, so that's what I'm going to do.


Being a regular on the Dark Galaxy forums, I've seen various personalities enter and leave:


The happy newbie:

The happy newbie often starts offtopic threads and put them into the 'Alliance sectíon' for example.. Of course, nobody listens to him and some people just use those posts to spamm (Lord Tino comes in mind) The rule for being a happy newbie that there are no rules.. They just start topics everywhere they want and then act confused when someone complains about him posting 20 threads in one hour. He can, for example, start various topics about Zedd & Scan being gods cause they program so good or whatever and then put the threads into the 'Game help' section.


The Pisshead:

They often are pissed off about something and they never really contribute to the community. These peeps often post stuff like: 'Hey muthafucka, i 0wn ya ass, why do you think you can't build deep core mines yet? You need a settlement! Read the fucking manual!' (excuse my french) Often these are 14 year old boys having problems in real life.


The Computer nerds:

These peeps often post stuff about their super duper computers in the forums, they ask questions like: 'Why do i get a msg saying the DG server is down? I have a Athlon XP 2100 and 512 MB DDR and i am running a T3 Line' you keep explaining them that it isn't their computer but just the DG servers. They often have sigs telling you what kind of stuff they have in their computers. (Like we give a damn..)


The all-knower:

These peeps think they know everything! They can justify many things and if they can't, then they just ignore the post. In NO WAY he should jump into a convo with some who knows more about a certain topic. Ignorance is blizz.


The Aggressive one:

Yes, these are the nicer ones, the peeps that start shouting at you at the moment they see you, telling you that they will come to your house with a baseball bat and crack your skull open. Often these are just 14 year old kids who are trying to get over their beating which they get on a regular basis on school. If they ever tell you that they will drive to your house and hit ya, don't worry, cause mommy prolly won't let them drive the car. Example: 'Oh yeah? How about i come to you right now and kick you in the nuts, you little shit!'


The newbie girl:

Strangely enough, while many men on the forums look like they're cool and all, everyone having a girl, they immediately jump on any female that enters the forum, that's why these girls act that way. I give you an example so you know what I mean: 'Hey! What's this game, how do i signup and how do i build farms so i can make food and i can get lotsa people? Kizz xxxxx :D'


The Spammers:

And of course you have the spammers, but you have allot of different kind of spammers. People that spamm but only with funny posts (still useless) and the ones that think they're all that. Example: 'Oh great! Another n00b!'


That's it for today peeps, cya next time :)

DG Round 1

by Lord Tino

Well as most of you know this is my first round of DG and i think it's worth me taking a few minutes outta my day to write about it.


I first came to this game as my brother told me about it and said it was free so what the hell, if i don't like it, i don\'t lose anything. Well after playing for about 5 mins i was hooked even though all i could do was look at the 6 hours left on my metal mine and wait for inevitable invitation to join TDF..at the time they were 6th and i was a n00b i thought it'd be cool to be in one of the best ranked alliances.


I joined TDF for a matter of days when i thought it'd be fun to play admiral for a bit and created the SPA (supreme power alliance). And to get a few members to work on we mass invited O_O for a few weeks. It was while i was Admiral of SPA that i first used the forums to post an alliance add...kinda tragic i know...and so began numerous visits and posts in the DG forums. I still had a friend in TDF and he sent me a report about an operation called "Grand Slam"...it's in the forums somewhere read it at ur leisure...due to grumblings from my ministers i had to consider a merge. I remembered in my recruitment thread a certain spammer (boba) asked if i wished to merge. i thought now y not? and contacted him. although he no longer was leading an alliance he put me in contact with chris1415 and soon SPA had merged with GoD.


It was really at this time i started using IRC and began chatting with the ppl who i knew from the forums...namely NaturalBornHippy and sometimes Gorilla. and soon found my way on a lot of channels and chatted with ppl and got familiar with them.


One day i logged into the account and saw i had about 5 messages asking "what happened to the alliance?" i had no idea what happened, but soon found out chris disbanded it for reasons i\'m still not clear on. So i was allianceless...this for me was a blessing and the turning point in this round for me.


I often talked of joining Psychoactive Planet if i wasn't in the HC of GoD now i had the chance. I joined psychoactive with 9 mill points and no plans to expand. I was soon brought upto speed by Noratron on #psycho about what we have in gal 15 (my galaxy but most knew that anyway)...literally a few days later i spent my fleet and invaded my first planet...i got the mop up operation so only 2 :3's there to take but it was my first conquest. I built up and then when psychoactive invaded sector 27 i was on the forefront we successfully gained full control of the sector and this time i had done a lot better capturing many planets, destroying a lot of opponents score. Finally me and alliance comrade Chronos85 began an attack on sector 23 with a new friend of mine Xenopus. Here again i had no real problems and sweeped aside most rulers there.


By this point i had been made a HC in psychoactive planet and more score had increased to over 150 mill...but i wanted to be in a real battle with many ships and many fleets involved. So the big battle plan was born. Although i missed the first tick (happens to me i have the memory of a sive) i survived several rounds of fighting (i also proved that cruisers weren\'t crap which was important to me) i won the battle and lost only 30 mill in the process.


The game is great...but this community is the best online community i have ever seen. The majority of members, despite some ppl stating otherwise, r the best guys (and girls) u\'ll ever met. On IRC i have talked to some interesting ppl (politest word i could think of :p) and always..well normally...okay sometimes get a warm reception on #darkgalaxy. Thanx to Zedd and Scan for making the game...but the best thing about this game imo is the community. I had fun this round and hope to be around for many more.


Cya soon guys,

Tino aka Reno aka Emperor Gav II


(really need to make up my mind on a nick don't i :P)

What does a Successful Alliance Need?

by Xtrafresh

Some alliances win, some don't. Why? Well, because the members play well. but what is behind all that is often forgotten, and it's equally important.


In my opinion, an alliance has 5 major topics to look at:

1) Recruitment

2) Internal Organization

3) Politics

4) Propaganda

5) Gameplay & strategizing


When you are starting a new alliance, don't make the mistake to forget any of these topics. I will give short comment on each of these topics.


1) Recruitment is needed to give body and continuity to the alliance. You need the right type of players, that fit your type of alliance. Hint: Make it clear for yourself what kind of alliance you want to be (eg: national alliance, small club of real life friends, renegades, peacekeeping, sector or galaxy alliance), and start recruiting members that fit that role.


2) The need for good organization is obvious, but not always do people put enough effort in it. Things that an alliance definitely need are: a forum, where they can discuss in private, two IRC channels (one open and one private), and a clear command structure. Lots of alliances fall, because they simply have too many officer's positions. Make the structure simple, and make sure to be flexible. Adapt your structure to current needs from time to time.


3) Politics are very very important when your alliance starts running. Good politicians doing their stuff will guide your alliance to wars that you are prepared for, and that you can win. It helps to have bigger friends, and NAPs. Make the right friends, and also the right enemies.


4) Propaganda is something that most alliances just don't do, or only do in a passive way. The best propaganda so far seen in DG is from SK. Granted, they have been here from the beginning, but does that make them as fearsome as they are? I say it is their brilliant image. Hints: make sure you have visible members on the forums, make sure that you act sensible and calm to most situations, and talk to many people. Not only the ones in key positions, but everyone that is around. Also, giving smaller players some space or showing some helpfulness now and then can pay off big.


5) Ahhh... NOW we can actually start hitting buttons. Meet in your secure channel with all the cool people you gathered around you, scan those enemy planets together, and exchange these scans through the forums or PM. Set your strategies: let them attack first and exhaust their soldiers, or set attack yourself and set the time and place for battle? What ships to build? How to structure your account? How to build up these planets. How to attack, and where? And ultimately: Have the fun of the game :D


To all the brave ones out there that want to start the adventure: good luck, but know what you are starting. You won't make it anywhere as an alliance leader if you are not prepared to invest lots of time and effort. I'm talking about months, with 3 to 4 hours a day on average, working on the alliance alone. This can be brought down by giving the right people the right tasks, but still if you don't feel like investing that much tome, you'd better just join one of the many alliances out there.


I hope this is helping all those new people who would like to give it a shot. I wish you all good luck, and a wonderful round IV :D

cheers!

The Players Who Play the Game

by Kreskin

The Different Level of Players...


Inactive:

This player wandered on the Darkgalaxy site by accident one day and signed up and looked at his planets and said I dont think I like this game and Never cared to look about it again.

This player is the most agrivating kind of all...


Quiter:

This player started and enjoyed the game untill a person, just playing the game, invades one of his planets and then he post a complaint thread in the Forums and cusses the person out with in-game-mail and then is never heard of again becasue he quits.

This players planets come in handy after awhile becasue he may have a few and then you can invade them and take their acumulated resourses and not have to worry about an reveng attack.


Annoying Noob:

This player doesnt care about the game and only wants to annoy larger players. This is the kinda player who will attack a planet knowing full well that it would mean the end of his game carrer. This is the type of player who would foolishly open a war thread in the Forums and declare a war on the galaxy he is in becasue he has just completed his Launch Pad and is alittle exited about it. This is also the kinda person who when after being attacked threatens you with his alliance and says somehting of the following..." you little **** Why did you take my ******* planet. I hate you. You will die a painful death. I am going to get my alliance to come and beat you up. DarkSide is my friend and he doesnt like you. Good bye you little pile of ****.

This is the player who doesnt last long becasue he creates enemies with everyone.


Intermident:

This player starts off in the game and really enjoys the game fully. He colonises a few planets and really gets a good start in the game. This player though he starts off good probable will not get in the top 1000 till far later in the game becasue he Doesnt exaclty know how to manage his resourses to the best of their ability.

This player is a fairly good foe and he can defend himself fairly good but not knowing the right combinations of ships in fleets has a problem attacking better players sufficiently.


Expert:

This player is a round veteren and knows exactly what to build, when to build and what not to build. He Knows who to allie with, who not to and who to backstab before they can backstab him. This is the player you see on your scanner with a 20 million point fleet when you are just starting to get one or two fighters. This player will strike all of those who oppose him and may even declare war on an entire galaxy ( DarkSide comes to mind )

This player is nearly impossible beat out becasue he has so many resourses built up do to good management.


And lastly but certainly the least ;)


Annoying Expert:

This player knows how to play the game he is better at it than you...and he isnt afraid to tell you that. This is the type of player that you either just exept as a sarcastic prick or you get all your friends together and get rid of the annoying person.But as he being the good player that he is would most likely take you out anywazs.This is the sort of person who can really bug you...annoy you and drive you to quite becasue you know you cant beat him...but you really dont wanna play this wonderful game while he is playing...

The annoying expert tries to spamn the noobs down....the expert annoy them so long.....that they stop posting stupid...questions in the forums...

A person I can think of that fits this profile would be non other than naturalbornhipp ;)...I of course did this at his own request :p



These are basically all the players that I could think of...

Starting an Alliance

by Khevlar

Many people try to start alliances or join them, but don't really know what they're getting into. When you start an alliance, as many know, it is EXTREMELY hard to grow. Here are a couple tips to help get you on your feet.

#1 - Don't be a jerk to alliance members, don't boss them around, etc.

#2 - Don't make a chain of command with only you at the top. Find another person who will work as hard as you will and has experience with alliances. You both will function as HCs. As you grow, you will need to add more HCs. You should have some sort of subordinate of the HCs (GLX [an alliance for another game] uses ACs).

#3 - As you grow, you might want to add new positions in the categories of defense, war, recruiting, and communications.

#4 - Recruit, recruit, recruit. Don't go spamming your alliance in channels like #darkgalaxy or #e-tidalwave. If someone in #darkgalaxy is asking for an alliance, PM them with the name of yours and your IRC Channel.

#5 - GET AN IRC CHANNEL. I cannot stress this enough. Before you even start recruiting, register one ChanServ.

#6 - Get a website.

#7 - Establish goals. Decide whether you want your alliance to be focused on defense or attacks. Also, decide whether you want to NAP or Ally or not.

Too Old to Play Games?

by Postal

Some of you may know me; most of you probably do not. I run an alliance in Dark Galaxy, the Old Phartes Alliance [OPA]. No really I do, and yes I do know what OPA means in German (that’s the whole point of the acronym!). As you can imagine we get the always witty lines, “Heh, do you guys smell or something.” “You guys suck.” and the always popular “Ph34r meh uber 1337 haxx0r skills”. Oh how I weep for the future.


How old am I? Let’s just say I actually owned a Pong game. I still have my Atari 2600 (Super Breakout rules). I began programming Basic on a TRS-80 Model II sharing one 5 and ¼ disk drive with the whole class. I can remember when 4 Megs of RAM and a 20 Meg hard drive were more than enough. Worst of all, I can remember a time when you had to get up off the couch to change the channel!!! The horror, oh the horror. You tell kids today these stories and they won’t believe you!


Sure I have underwear older than most players in DG, but does this make me too old to play computer games? No way! I may not always remember where I parked my car, but I can still come up with good strategies and put together fleets to challenge any player around. So what if the hair from head is now growing in places hair was not meant to grow, after over 30 years of gaming I’m still having fun. And when it comes right down to it that’s what it’s all about, “Having Fun”. I can’t wait for the day when my son is old enough to challenge me to a game, and then have my wife yell at both of us “Your not on that damn computer again are you?”


I’m glad that I’ve never let that little kid inside of me die over the years. In fact he has grown, living on a constant diet of Count Chocula (for those who remember) and Kraft Dinner. I don’t consider myself old at all, just experienced. Yeah, that’s it, experienced. And I know I’m not alone out there. There are more of us than you think. So watch out, and for god sakes, “Keep off the bloody lawn you damn kids!”

Retro Galaxy

by Kier

Granted, I have not been with Dark Galaxy the longest, nor have I been the most involved, Az and dpcows have been here longer, MeM writes guides, Ib3n gets all the gossip. However I still think I have been around long enough to give a few comments on things.


The DG community is one of my favorites. In fact, it’s the only message board I use for anything more then pure info (or shameless DG plugs). That said I guess I am a little biased towards DG. Fortunately that does not matter, as I won’t be doing much comparing.


Lets see, I suppose I should dive right into what I plan on saying.


THE PRE-COLONISATION ERA


Thats right, all we had was building one planet! Not to mention the fact that we had a fraction of the buildings and they all cost more!


A fun time to be sure, there were a lot of people there that did not stick around. Though the ones that did are almost to no exception famous. Mostly because they have high post counts and any one with a high post count is well known. (some might say that’s why people want a high post count)


The Mods of the time were, : SoBiteMe, ChasesDaemons, Azhrarn(I still can’t spell it, sorry Az) and Dpcows.


A good lot they were. Though just like now the mods caught some flame for something or other they didn’t do, or intended to do.

A Working Day of an Ordinary Ruler

by Gledkoom

The soft red light of the bigger (should I say hugger) of the twin suns that every day hung on the orange-painted sky of Icemania woke me up. Since last moth, my life had become a real mess as I had been appointed Head Administrator of the major planet of the empire, and that means to carry a heavy weigh.




After a quick breakfast, I met my secretary to have a look to my agenda; The first thing to do was visiting and inaugurating a brand new deep core mine, that would boost our metal production in a few months - I must confess that putting a greasy and dirty helmet on my head were not one of my favorite ways of spending that sunny morning, but what can one do?




I jumped into my new fusion-powered limousine to get as soon as possible to the next meeting with trader's labor union. It seemed that they were going on strike, due to high taxes applied on the transported goods and the increasing and worrying insecurity ( they were constantly held up by space pirates) so they wanted an escort service for every commercial trip. I replied that at the moment, we were not able to supply them with such escorting frigates, because our military plans were firstly focused on defending other weaker and strategic planets, and our resource incoming was not high enough to quickly made the amount of warships that their escorting plans demanded. So the traders would have to wait. As for the taxes reduction, we rapidly reached a reasonable agreement.




I took all that discussion as a warm-up to my next "course" of the day: the Imperial Space Army (ISA) wanted to develop a new cruiser ship project, with more fire power and some kind of reinforced hull; the problem is that everyone thinks that credits fall down from the sky, and I wonder if our loved workers would admit another raise in their rather high taxes without protesting only to enrich Military industries and high classes ( which, obviously would generously make a "donation" of some amount of money to my next electoral campaign).I told them that the project must be passed by Empire's senate , and I saw some frowning , annoyed faces staring at me, because that will mean that money for their war toys was going to take a little bit longer than they expected; " the former Administrator was a more reasonable man!" they mumbled as they were leaving my office.




After this, I decided to take a break and have some meal -it was about time! The second twin sun was raising and that means "noon" in my planet. I like having a look at my HNB (Holo note book) to find out about galactic economical affairs. I noticed that colonist price on Milky way's trading post was incredibly low, contrasting to soldier or robot values, that was more than 10,000 times the price of colonists. "It's amazing" thought I " how a cheap machine can be worth more than an human life" but it is the law of supply and demand, I guess.




A meeting with Foreign Affairs minister started the afternoon; we had to study a proposal of local alliance in my sector. To me it seemed a good idea, but the minister was not so sure about that; he doubted if that pact would interfere the global alliance we firstly signed . We resolved to present the plan on our Alliance forum- although I was totally convinced about the handiness of that local sector alliance.




My working day was ending; I relaxed and faced my armchair to the majestic large window from where I could see the whole city. The second golden sun was slowly setting, and on the now dark blue sky two of the three moons were appearing. I closed my eyes and slept. Tomorrow was going to be another tough day!

Mini Game Over

by Cadavre

Well the first mini-game is over and although we didn't have anywhere near as much time as we'd have liked a few fun things happened. The final top 10 were: -


1 Dildo Baggins 10,069,330

2 Juy 7,352,400

3 Sachem 7,021,802

4 Troxx 6,886,534

5 DazMcG 6,427,741

6 FrostyCoolSlug 5,435,205

7 ~space R@ptor~ 4,448,439

8 Admiral Thrawn 3,645,680

9 Ironpants 3,495,161

10 TheDominian 3,426,619


I'd liked to have listed a few more places so I would appear but the line has to be drawn somewhere right? :) Most of the round was building up resources, the 2 major alliances were at war from the beginning (Protectorate and Unknown-Quartet) however not many battles took place. The first attack on anyone of the round (as far as I know) was an attack by me on space raptor (getting her back for the attacks in the closed beta) which was successful in wiping out the orbiting fleet however unable to take the planet : The first successful invasion (again, to my knowledge) was by Craig (FrostyCoolSlug) who took over Earth (which was taken back fairly soon afterwards).


I think the funniest part for me would have to be when the trading post died! This was not dies to abuse (according to scan and zedd the new code is unabusable :rolleyes: ) because at the time of death we were unable to conduct trading. It just kind of died. Suddenly the prices went to -400000 (yes that's right, minus 400000) for energy to the other extreme of 4E97 for soldiers!


All in all not a complete success in finding new bugs, the military button still doesn't work which was a dissapointment but alot of fun was had.


Congrats to Mr.Dildo for winning the round


Proves that Dildo's have more than one use ;)



Signing off, Cad

Mini Game 2

by Cadavre

The first round of the mini game was all about who could colonise fastest and looking at Skute’s score it was him. During this round we saw the establishment of the two alliances that have so far dominated the mini game (mainly because they were the only two that have been started) one called AoGPS started by yours truly and the other, GAK started by Skute. The ranks for the first half are as follows: -


1 Skute 2,216,942

2 Lord Jon Snow 2,084,523

3 The AcE 2,076,494

4 Mythor 2,074,193

5 FRoGuLoX 1,818,684

6 kaliane 1,772,765

7 Troxx 1,760,358

8 Zarg 1,715,323

9 Mental 1,586,490

10 Zedd 1,573,843

11 Ogre IV 1,527,673

12 Zeox 1,358,429

13 Scan 1,352,495

14 Cadavre 1,254,978

15 Lyza 1,214,857


And below are the alliance rankings: -


1 AoGPS 14,900,580

2 Galactic Ass Kickers 11,552,634



We’re all looking forward to the second bit as it promises battles which were lacking in the first.


Exciting things in AoGPS in the second part! The AcE has been building a fleet to wipe out Zedd all round and it finally finished, he sent it and time ran out with 1 tick before he got there!!!!! The rankings are much more spread out now to earlier on so the alliances have also spread out.


1 Troxx 10,674,840

2 Mythor 7,517,988

3 Skute 7,383,769

4 Lyza 6,454,087

5 Lord Jon Snow 6,284,305

6 The AcE 5,434,309

7 Zedd 4,785,122

8 kaliane 3,902,930

9 Cadavre 3,839,496

10 Ogre IV 3,683,799

11 Scan 3,563,829

12 FRoGuLoX 3,479,124

13 Mental 3,297,409

14 Zarg 2,860,942

15 Zeox 2,255,563


And the alliance table


1 Galactic Ass Kickers 40,576,852

2 AoGPS 36,294,491


We’re all waiting for the bloody war that is sure to happen tomorrow at 2pm BST !!!! I will have much more to say about it tomorrow than I have so far it the war we expect actually ensues.


The third part of the mini game was, as expected the one for all the wars. We were all expecting GAK to attack AoGPS and they did, oh god they did :)

I was one of the unlucky ones to be attacked by this well organised alliance (much better organisation than my AoGPS, but what did you expect? We are plastic soldiers ;)). The Ace was actually the first one to make an attack (he’s from AoGPS) and he attacked Zedd with a fleet that we all thought was unstoppable. . . oh god were we wrong. Zedd had built a fleet of bombers back up by fighters and had been waiting for The Ace to arrive and so wiped him out which pretty much ended The Ace’s round. Then came the gang banging. I was attacked on a planet (at the time it was worth 1/3 of my total score) by a 3 separate fleets which wiped out my fleet and several allies fleets. Even after this I was confidant I would keep the planet due to the amount of robots I had. The first invasion attempt came through: -


[I]Scan failed to invade your planet Unknown. Scan lost 47200 soldiers. You lost 372220 colonists, 49894 robots and 0 soldiers during the invasion.[/I]


Followed by Skute finishing the job. This meant I now had Skute who was 1st in the ranking in my home system! Kaliane received a similar blow in her home system. I forgot to copy the tables at the end of this part so I’ll just give you the jist, Skute was first by quite some way with Troxx second and Lyza third whilst the alliance ranks were still the same as last time just different scores.


The final stage was really a bit of a let down, it was all about who could get the most score as quick as possible. Well, Cobra put a few blows on Skute that messed him up at the end but other than that not much happened.


The final rankings were


1 Lyza 31,912,251

2 Mythor 25,398,448

3 Troxx 25,077,295

4 Zedd 20,201,404

5 Cadavre 19,588,543

6 Cobra 19,379,712

7 Skute 18,570,479

8 Ogre IV 18,470,874

9 Lord Jon Snow 16,082,947

10 kaliane 11,111,561

11 FRoGuLoX 10,992,920

12 Scan 9,579,568

13 travisswccg 9,322,503

14 Zarg 8,134,695

15 The AcE 7,109,144

16 Mental 6,803,066

17 FrostyCoolSlug 6,750,435

18 Zeox 5,026,481

19 . Atomic . 4,147,845

20 Fizz Stickle 3,971,734



Top planets were


1 Bases Lyza 22,911,040

2 The Hague Troxx 14,429,312

3 Rebel Cobra 11,792,332

4 My 01 Mythor 11,687,532

5 Elephant Ogre IV 9,490,837

6 Stronghold I Zedd 8,003,570

7 Highgarden Lord Jon Snow 5,753,526

8 The Planet of Pain FrostyCoolSlug 4,707,616

9 Potrag Bib FRoGuLoX 4,372,445

10 . Plutonium . . Atomic . 3,783,429

11 Planet Internet Troxx 3,734,117

12 Mars Colony Scan 3,501,110

13 Dorne Lord Jon Snow 3,336,157

14 Stark Lord Jon Snow 3,213,019

15 IO Prime Lyza 3,196,612

16 caer sidi kaliane 3,102,472

17 Prospero Magnus the Red 3,040,667

18 Earth Defender Zedd 2,948,004

19 Timber travisswccg 2,748,878

20 Zargo3 Zarg 2,720,425


And the alliances


1 Galactic Ass Kickers 168,923,521

2 AoGPS 59,470,724

3 OPA Deluxe 23,527,557

4 The Dark Host 3,494,638

5 Sons of Frans Bauer 3,262,185

6 The Sneaky Group 1,324,928

7 LONELY ONE 1,051,629

8 The Collective 344,846


Overall a much more enjoyable game than the last one even if we were missing rappeh (I will get you next time) and caprius along with all the people living in Germany due to a bad connector in Texas. All that played have learnt to respect the bomber, those that didn’t will do soon.


Signing off

Cad

The Community of DarkGalaxy

by Naturalbornhippy

The 4th round is over and so I thought I should write a column not about the game, so I decided to write about the Community.


THE FORUMS

The forums have ever min 50 visitors when you visit them. This says a lot about the activity from the DG-Players. In the forum you find all kinds of players - the oldschooler, the spamner, the new-spamner, the noobs and the players who view them for information or game-strategy.


The Oldschooler

These are the people, who are there for a long long time...most of them are in the forums and in the game since the first round, yes the first round this none-combat round. The have a lot of posts, the know a lot and the are always not so nice to the noobs, but the good fact is that the clear soon who is here the chief and how the community runs. Yes it is true we lost a few of them already, but noone can escape and the past has shown that all of them come back...sooner or later...but everyone comes back...


The Spamner

These are the people, who are always in the forums when they are online...ok not always but most times. The discuss a lot of things in the forums...most of these discussions are really good and the quality of there posts is still high. A lot of these people are around a long time too....and so the help new players and answering questions too. Good to have them - and the spamn battle is still running....the fact that Zedd and Scan removed the number of posts in the normal profile did not stop them. A note to the roots of the spamners......where the come from??? I can answer this too....in the beginning of DG there were some thing different to today.. Not everyone was allowed to have an avatar - 100 posts was the right to get an avatar so the people started to get 100 posts and this small little picture under there name. There were some other feature too...like polls and rank...but I cant remember the posts and so.


The New-Spamner

These are the people, who have seen how cool it must be to have a name in DG, so the started to post a lot in the forums. The old-time spamner call them new spamner or noob-spamner. These guys are not really funny the post in a low-quality way and most of there threads are senseless and have nothing to do with the game. These people made the off-topic sektion so full and not interesting. Someone should teach them the game and how to help other and new players.


The Noob

These are the people, who post only crap and stupid questions....Eddy had always a nice picture for them...with said...read and search....on this picture was a teacher with pressed a student on the board. It was really cool and i miss it a bit...lol....a bit only....so these players make threads about everything...the cant read the manual and the cant read other thread or the board rules the must just make a new thread.....ahhhh....not so cool at all...and they are the reason, why a lot of people and oldschoolers quit the forums already...the maked the forums shity...not more...just shitiy


The normal Player

These are the people, who need information or who are just bored so the join the forums read a bit around and make a post there and one there...noone really see them in the mass of posts....the are posting in threads about there alliance or there sektor two...that is all I have to say about them.


At all we have a nice Community on which we can be proud...but the noobs and the new spamners should stop to be so stupid and they should start to read and learn from players, who are longer here than them..maybe the should try IRC too........oh...there we are...by the second part of our great community.


IRC IS DA GAME

I think i have said this 100s of time on the forums before but it is just true....everything is made on the forums...big diplomacy...friendships for real and cyberlife.....IRC is like your second family. There are diffrent types of users too but i wanna say some more words about it before....yes there is more than this facts....IRC = The world of the inet...the main power in online games...the real power in online games...everything happens there and a lot of feature were made there....in the times Zedd and Scan idled there too and discussed stuff with players there...but this times are over...Me and im sure you know it too...so only inner gamethings like wars...naps and such things happens there...ok this has nothing to do with the game itselfs but it is a big part of the Community life and the way people play this wonderfull game. So join IRC search a nice chatroom...for example #darkgalaxy or #chatspike......try /list when u are there....to find out more......oh again next thing, the people which u find in different rooms...


The Idler

These are the people, who are in all rooms or in the most intresting rooms...mostly bouncer or flat-rate user....the bring the life in the rooms and discuss there a lot of things....not only game related, but you can find discussions about the game too....If u need anything about IRC just ask this people the know to 90% what they are doing here and what kind of help u need. These people making fun with noobs a lot and kick and ban very fast...but this has nothing to say, they are just sick of the ignorance and the stupidty of the noobs. There are this trivia guys too...which want to play this game...1000s of times and spamn the rooms with it...but i like this game and play it by my own so i should shut the fuck off.


The Alliance-IRC-User

These are the people, who join only there alliance channel and idle there or have fun with there alliance mates.

You find them only in 2-3 rooms in the public and the private alliance channel and on some public other channels like #darkgalaxy. Nothing to say against them..if u not know them from forums or ingame u will not reconize them.


The Meeting-User

These people u find only for IRC parties and alliance meetings online...normaly the do not care about IRC only when the alliance send them a msg the join and talk..thats all....but these users make it possible to see what an alliance does....if u find a lot of players in a normaly empty chatroom u know whats going on....so a speacial thnx to this players....we love ya


The Noob or Help-User

Ok everyone must start once...but not with so much questions please...read the fucking manual..IRC isnt so difficult so just read 5 mins and u will know most things or use the help command.....the help-user...this are the annoying players which join IRC to ask questions about the game...like;”Is tha game down????”

With this players the idler and user, who are online more than 3-4 hours making fun...because the cant read the topic....yeah this thing in the top when u join...mostly in colors...not so hard to find..i think....so just read it...and shut the fuck off.......


In the end I can say...we have a nice Community with lots of nice people and if u do not like them...just run away...the space in the DG-Community is big enough.


BUT AT THE MOMENT

all this loose which are only there for the game do not join IRC and killed a bit the life in the Community...hey the game still runs....only not ingame so come back and chat with us....

I want to thank kreskin, which gave me the idea to wirte this there and if u wanna read something about the players who play this game just join the article sektion and so..u know.....

Sorry about my bad english and my bad langue.

Running With Scissors, a review

by Ib3N

Running With Scissors, a review


Running With Scissors - RWS has made themself a well known alliance in Saturn last round, I was curious on what they had to offer this round, so I went off poking around.


What I found was a fun-loving alliance, with many nice players, a few wierd ones, and something rarely as a female leader/spokesperson! Darkest Queen is a female from sweden, a former teacher in psycology and modern politics, but works now in a institution for demented pepole with schizofrenia and other pschotic conditions.


WOW! I thought.. this was interesting. So I met up with Darkest Queen in their public channel #scissors and had a chat with her.


(Ib3N-) Q0: Running With Scissors, RWS, is a pretty strange but cool name for an alliance, how did you come up with it?

(DQEliza) I didnt . It was given to me by Cricket. It was his suggestion in the beginning.

(DQEliza) and its also the name of a Wierd Al Yankowic album

(Ib3N-) hehe, ok

(DQEliza) it was a late night and i wanted a new name

(DQEliza) it couldnt be something serious

(DQEliza) it had to be a funny name

(DQEliza) cause in the "post-depression" after RD died- the only way to go on was with humour

(DQEliza) and Cricket is always full of the wierdest ideas..

(Ib3N-) hehehe

(DQEliza) and he suggested it to me.


(Ib3N-) Q1: RWS is one of the well known alliances in DG, how come you think? Is it because RWS did well in previous rounds?

(DQEliza) Im not so sure we are that well known. We have some well known players.. and the clever ppl make sure to know where players are.

(DQEliza) RWS is pretty new.

(DQEliza) Unfortunately many ppl still see us as RD-light

(Ib3N-) Thats free respect ain't it?

(DQEliza) I only ever played in RD really .. they trained me ... and all ideas and values I have of DG is what I was taught in RD - so in a way ofc there will be similarities maybe

(DQEliza) as i think the ideas that RD was based on - are still the best ones

(Ib3N-) ..and what ideas would you say that is?

(DQEliza) well .. the biggest thing is perhaps the organisation .. its kinda flat .. a lil wild talent free kinda play style .... we dont have ranks and hierachy. all players in RD are strong individual players with lots to offer.

(DQEliza) I think a hierachy and chain of commands limits the true talent of players.

(DQEliza) We dont have a HC

(DQEliza) Anyone with a good idea that gets supported by the members can step up and play an important part for a while

(DQEliza) but nobody does it all the time

(Ib3N-) How is diplomacy and structual integrety of the alliance maintained if you do not have a HC?

(DQEliza) hehe .. Its going very well thank you

(Ib3N-) hehe..

(DQEliza) Its the mutual respect within the alliance that makes it possible


(Ib3N-) Q2: What attetude do want RWS to display towards the community?

(DQEliza) Attitude ... Hms .. this is a hard one .. ppl have so many ideas about that ...

(DQEliza) Im not sure i wanna send any message at all there... I dont really care how ppl see us . We are a group of ppl who have alot of fun ingame

(DQEliza) RWS prolly have the most irc-active members of all alliances

(Ib3N-) IRC is a critical part of the alliance?

(DQEliza) yes it is .. the fast decisions are possible that way

(DQEliza) In this alliance theres no member that will ever receive an order

(DQEliza) we dont do order-shit ..

(Ib3N-) hehe

(DQEliza) ppl are politely asked to participate in killing off this or that player or alliance

(DQEliza) and since most are warmongers in rws the response is always very high

(DQEliza) its not a very peace loving crew im afraid

(Ib3N-) so you would classify RWS's playstyle as very agressive?

(DQEliza) Im prolly the nicest of them all

(Ib3N-) I'll take that as a big yes

(DQEliza) yes .. I think so


(Ib3N-) Q3: RWS is ranked pretty low right now, is this pure tactics, or a slow start?

(DQEliza) LMAO!!!

(DQEliza) the alliances ranked high right now are the ones we will have for dinner later..

(Ib3N-) hehe..

(DQEliza) an alliance with high rank now are sucky cause they have too much ppl in one sector

(DQEliza) wait til tick 350-400 when alliances start linking up

(DQEliza) and since nobody have launched a merch to other sectors yet the link up isnt possible yet

(DQEliza) then u can see who is big or not

(Ib3N-) I'll look forward to that


(Ib3N-) Q4: Some of the top players in RWS has formed their own ingame alliances, eg. Death to noobs, The vikings, do you wish to comment this?

(DQEliza) its not own alliances .. Its sector teams .... and its standard procedure in most alliances that use the sector team thing I believe

(DQEliza) its a way for the group to be able to cooperate til we all link up

(Ib3N-) In other words, standard alliance beginning tactics?

(DQEliza) yepp


(Ib3N-) Q5: How high ranked can we expect to see RWS when the alliance show a little muscle?

(DQEliza) How high .. hms .. It depends ... round 5 many alliances died, dissolved, quit, regrouped etc .. I expect to see many new strong groups round 6 .. many are just starring after the old big names .. well they arent gonna be there .. but

(DQEliza) In each galaxy we now have 1350 players

(DQEliza) they already formed and "known" alliances make up maybe 350 of those..

(DQEliza) and

(DQEliza) therefore its 1000 unaccounted for

(DQEliza) lets say that as many as 500 are n00bs or ppl just signing up and wont play

(DQEliza) there are still 500 player i have no idea of their strength or what alliances there will be

(DQEliza) after tick 300 or so we may begin to see what really is in the galaxy.

(DQEliza) and after that we can make some sort of estimate of the opposition

(DQEliza) i cannot predict anything right now

(DQEliza) we may do well though .. I hope we will

(DQEliza) but every round is new and nothing is for granted. old merits dont count


(Ib3N-) Q6: there's been alot of players trying to join RWS, is there any special requirements to joining?

(DQEliza) Yes ))

(DQEliza) lots

(Ib3N-) hehe, figures

(DQEliza) they have to be active, be strong individual players yet team players...

(DQEliza) and they have to be funny, very active

(DQEliza) and not very sensitive ppl.

(Ib3N-) IRC active perhaps?

(DQEliza) ofc..

(DQEliza) hehe

(DQEliza) and also ppl that have special 'talents'

(DQEliza) high ranks isnt as important as attitude and will. when I was brought in RD I was kinda sucky. But in 3 weeks they made me a top 100 player.. and I havent left top 100 since. So the environment and the support and mentor ship is a big part. so the most important thing we look for is attitude, hunger and some aggressiveness.. no peacelovers...

(DQEliza) we think we can make anyone with big ears and willingness to listen a good player.

(DQEliza) this round we have a few trainees (3). brand new players with us.



(Ib3N-) Q7: What's the alliance's biggest achivement so far, you think?

(DQEliza) what a question ..lol

(Ib3N-) hehe.. I was running out of questions.. *joke*

(DQEliza) i dont know..

(DQEliza) lol

(DQEliza) I think we had a good round

(DQEliza) we didnt lose much

(DQEliza) won most our battles

(Ib3N-) last round in saturn?

(DQEliza) yes

(DQEliza) rws was never on mars

(DQEliza) but some of our players was


(Ib3N-) Q8: There has been an increase of old players returning to R6 Saturn, do you think they can bid on a few suprises?

(DQEliza) RWS doesnt see oldies returning as a threat .. rather the opposite .. It awakes the killer insticnts in many of my players .. as its more fun to kill someone 'well-known' than just anyone

(DQEliza) RWS dont do any naps

(DQEliza) especially not this round.

(DQEliza) Ive always been against naps ..

(DQEliza) sometimes its neccessary .. but only from a machiavellian point if wiew


(Ib3N-) Q9: Except RWS, who do you think will be DG Saturn's 3 most dangerous alliances this round?

(DQEliza) Ceots ! no doubt! I cant see ceots being beaten by anyone this round

(DQEliza) Spearmint Rhinos will deliver alot of surprises aswell They are kinda strong.

(DQEliza) I cant think of a third one ..

(Ib3N-) hehe, fair enough.


(Ib3N-) Q10: I'd like to thank you for your time, and do you have any last words?

(DQEliza) I hope everyone will have a fun round 6. We sure intend to have one. RWS are very hyper and tagged for the game to start for real ...


So my conclusion is, watch out for that RWS tag, both now and in the future.


I'd like to apologize the lack of rich text, but that bast... scan has disabled the tags.

It's All About Communication

by BeckerC

An important part in playing DarkGalaxy is the part of being in an alliance - sooner or later everyone will be in an alliance as all members do realise very fast that playing alone without any friends or at least comrades is playing without even the chance of having any access. An alliance is the place you belong to, a place to find comrades, a place to co-ordinate attack- and defence-strategies and having fun. I've seen very different ways alliances are organised - some are organised very military-like with a strict commandment, some are more anarchy-like, where the members only agree upon the lowest level of co-operation and only set up common targets in a very open way.


What all succesfull alliances do have incommon is some way of MASS-COMMUNICATION. They use their ingame-forums, some even use specially created forums on their own web-sites, but all of them use some matter of instant communication like iRC, ICQ or any instant massenger. Joining iRC is even more useful to communicate with other alliances, which is an utmost important thing for having success in DarkGalaxy.


Some alliances try to build up immense organisations, with every kind of military-structure, you may think of. They have an admiral, a high-council, some sub-commanders for different Galaxies (which will not be necessary in DG 4 anymore), some sub-commanders for sectors or even for minor squads and teams. Some also do implement specific rules for specific fields, like having a minister of war, a minister of diplomacy, etc. I believe that all these command structures are completely without any sense. DarkGalaxy is a game and in a game I do play. I'm searching for fun while playing, not for being bossed by someone or being just the receiver of orders. I won't do anything someone tells me to do just because within my alliance he has the necessary rank to do so. I follow orders or suggestions of someone I know I can trust, sometimes even like, but at least I should know that he (sorry to the girls, but it makes it much more easy to read if I only use ONE form of sex, not always need to write he/she) is someone who is acting to make the game for succesful for the alliance. And being in a succesful alliance leads to being succesful and is a part of the fun. It is always more fun to be a member of the winning team, not of the losing one - nevertheless it is up to your definition what winning and losing in DarkGalaxy-terms is.


This doesn't mean that the player with the highest score is the one who should automatically be the leader. Team-play, coordinating attacks and defence, laying out strategies and making the contacts to other alliances is one of the most demanding but also one of the most demanded thing within an alliance. A leader is one who has good ideas, who knows what are important tactical target, who is capable of laying out succesful strategies and who knows a lot about the enemy you are probably dealing with. By having good ideas and succesful strategies you will automatically achieve a state, where your alliance-members do follow you, agree to your plans and strategies and are not doubting that whatever you will advise them to do is good for them, too.


Lets take a look of two totally different concepts of alliances I did expirience last round. At the beginning of the round I was a member of the "Steel Company", an alliance founded by a real-life friend of mine together with some other people I did know from real-life. The alliance did exist for only 1 months and did break apart due to the lack of communication. Our admiral wasn't using the ingame forums, we didn't use iRC or any other mean of communications. Some of our members - including me - used the ingame forums for request, seeking for advise or even help, as our admiral was ranked #1 within the 2 first weeks of round 3. No replies had been given, every member was totally alone and within 4 weeks all members did leave the alliance and the admiral himself than cancelled the "Steel Company". On the other hand I did play a long part in round 3 together with the Reservoir Dogs, a bunch of chaots, the complete anarchist. No command structure was given, the ranks within the alliance varied from "The ring bearer" over "Mr. Dildo" to "Fluggiest Dog" and actually no one was commanding or giving orders. But Gollum was someone full of ideas, someone to arrange things, someone listening to his members, someone knowing the weaknesses as well as the strengths of his members. We used outgame-forums to make suggestions, gather informations, seeking help, and they had been very frequently visited - furthermore we used iRC, discussing about strategies, incidents and happenings, discussing about other alliances and possible enemies. Each member trusted the other one, which is - IMO - the most important part about being in an alliance. I can remember events when Gollum entered the iRC-Channel asking "Who is willing to fight in war in Galaxy 6?": Some members just stated "/me raises hands" in iRC, others refused and decided on making up the home-defence. It all worked out perfectly. Attack dates were agreed upon, movement-plans made, soldiers gathered, all the stuff needed to be succesful and all went out being succesful.


As far as I can see it being in a bunch of players you trust in, being together with a lot of experienced players and some newbies, will make the game succesful. You will have most if the fun possible the more members stay active, the more you communicate within your alliance and with other alliances. Having a nice alliance-idea, like making an alliance according to a specific book or a specific movie is nice, but somewhat irrelevant. It's all within trust and communication.


You don't need to have 200 members in your alliance to be succesful - many members ot cause many problems and need many help. But a couple of people, lets say 30-60, will always be enough to reach a strong position. Active members for sure - and active does also mean taling part in the discussions and strategies. If you are in an alliance full of egoists, who check their accounts every tick but never lose a single word about WHAT they are doing and never even thinking about teamplay and co-ordination, you won't ever have fun within DarkGalaxy. Reaching the #1-spot scorewise may be a nice achievement, may be something you have done, something you have achieved. But playing in a team, co-ordinating strategies and tactics and then seeing how everythings works out as you and your comrades did plan it, THATS fun, thats DarkGalaxy. So I wouldn't care for ranks or titles, allthough many alliances try to recruit new members by offering them something like that, thats worth nothing. Being a commander without troops is no fun at all, fighting wars without having anyone to trust on at your back isn't fun and furthermore won't be succesful.


Another important part of DarkGalaxy is the way, Alliances interact with each other. Being on iRC you will realise quit fast that the DarkGalaxy-Community has its specific rules, that there are persons representing alliances you should know - not only the admirals. If you reach a status where people do respect you not only for your strengh but also for your behaviour, reaching a status where you make friends outside your own alliance, will help you a lot in the game. I go back to the example used before: As the Reservoir Dogs moved to their war against FoP in Galaxy 6, leaving their home-galaxy mostly undefended behind, another alliance made up the home-defence for them, cared for their homes. You cannot achieve this by being arrogant or only relying on your own power, but by being a well-known member of the community, being a respected player, being someone people - even from other alliances can count on as they know you keep up your word, as they know if they would be in an equal situation you would help them the same way they did without even the need of discussing about that. Some people do thing those "powerblocks" are unfair or leaving no chance for other alliances, but thats simply nonsense. Meta-Alliances aren't working very good, there is only a limited way of incorporating as your troops still keep hostile to each other and would fight against each other ingame when being at the same place at the same time. These powerblocks have been formed by alliances which have some common ideals and common states of mind what this game is about, which do think in some common categories. And they are not a closed "club", there are new alliances every round on the catwalk that make their way fast towards being a fully accepted bunch of players within the DG-community. Some never get that status and there are good reasons why they never reach that status, e.g. cheating, abusing bugs or fighting unfair. Let me add something: Fighting a war against each other doesn't mean people do not like each other. As far as I can remember there has been no personal reasons why the Reservoir Dogs went into war against FoP, it was only about being in war as DarkGalaxy is and will ever be a wargame. A warGAME - some should keep that in mind. No one loves to lose the efforts he did spend months long being active, building up his own planets, building up large forces, within a tick, but as it is still a game, it shouldn't be the reason for any personal insultats. If someone beats the crap (escuse my french) of you, you should just realise that he did have the better strategies and that this is a strategy game. Being a game if leaves you some options when being confronted with an overwhelming enemy. You could just lay down and die, making a new account in a far away Galaxy (dunno how that will exactly work next round), you could even try to fight back as long as possible to give your enemy a good battle, or your could seek for some help, even outside your alliance, to fight the attacker back. It is also an option to insult your enemy, to complain and whine and never accept that you did lose, but that is the worst way of all. Being a good player does also mean realizing when you have lost. And if the enemy you thought you would have already win again suddenly brings in some good friends raping you, you should keep in mind that diplomacy is also a part of a strategy game. Thats not unfair, thats smart.


So keep in mind, no matter if you are a newbie or someone only searching for a new alliance: It's all about communication, its all in the mix