VGA Planets is the greatest game in the universe bar none! Tim Wisseman, it's creator is a demi-god and he'll lose the demi if the upcoming Planets 4 is half of what it seems.
So why haven't you heard of it? Because the only place in the world you can get it is from the man himself! (I've included a direct link to his ftp site for the shareware version on my Table of Contents) What other game has sold nearly 60 000 registered copies without any publicity or retailing? This is one of the reasons the cost is so low, you're not paying for some large corporation's private jet. Tim has by no means become rich off this game.
Don't be fooled by expensive but cheaper-quality imitations. Currently there is a wide variety of games that have stolen a page or two from the VGA Planets book. Outpost, Master of Orion, Star Control 3, and many others. Of the clones I've tried Star General was the worst and Stars came closest but still wasn't as good. In some ways I hope Tim does retail Planets 4 just to put these jokers out of business. Once you've played the real thing you'll kick yourself for ever having wasted your time with the others.
VGA Planets is a play-by-Email turn-based space strategy game. If you want another Duke Nukem, driving, flying, fighting card or remake of a board game, this ain't it. If you want something that is easy to learn, challenging and fun to play, tests your abilities to work with and against other human players, is a completely different game every time you play? More along the lines of Risk, Axis & Allies, Diplomacy, Shogun/Sword of the Samauri and chess? But on a larger scale with more game variables and players? THIS IS THAT GAME!!!
VGAP is a play-by-Email game. This means that all player's turns happen simultaneously. Everyone gives instructions to all their ships, planets and starbases. The Host program determines the consequences of these instructions on that player, all other players and indeed on the universe itself. Several scenarios are possible bu usually the object is to conquer the Echo Cluster, a group of 500 planets scattered over a 2000 x 2000 light year area. There can be as many as eleven others trying to do this however. Obviously then you don't want to fight everyone right away so trade alliances and non-aggression pacts are vital to your longterm survival. You'll want to send colonists, money and supplies to establish outposts on vacant world's. Build mines factories and defenses on your planets. When you have enough money and minerals you can build a starbase. Improve it's defenses, build fighters, increase your ship construction abilities in four areas: hulls; engines; beams and torpedoes. Build a variety of warships and freighters to support your growing Empire. Attack your neighbours ships and planets, lay and sweep minefields. Tax your colonists and native populations but keep them happy or they'll riot or even start a planetary civil war!
Each of the 11 races (based loosely on Science Fiction movies and TV) has their own special abilities AND their own list of ships they can build. So you need to always be aware of not just your abilities but those of your neghbours as well. Some examples: 3 races have Hyperjumping ships which go 340 - 360 light years in 1 turn; 1 race has gravitronic accelerators which double their distance travelled at any warp setting - normally warp speed (1-9) squared. 4 races have cloaking ships, and one has a ship which can instantly chunnel entire fleets to anywhere on the map that there's another ship of the same type.
Some planets already have native populations and each of them has unique characteristics as well. One will eat your colonists, some give you more money or supplies, others automatically maximize one of your technologies if you build a starbase over their planets (always usefu, especially in a shareware game)
Be sure to keep track of minefields and ion storms that can destroy your ships and woe to the player whose homeworld is struck by a 50 000 kT meteor. But when it comes right down to it success depends on knowing when to trust another player and when to stab them in the back before they get you.
After unzipping and running setup you need to decide if you're going to start playing in someone else's game, host your own game or get used to it first by playing against yourself or a computer opponent. If you choose this last option I recommend The Q. There's an ftp link to the shareware version of this program on my "Browse for addons" page.
To play in someone else's game all you need to do is run Winplan.exe, click start, then click which ever on of the 8 game slots you wish to use for this game. Now click on the "RST DOWNLOAD PATH" button and select the drive and directory the PlayerN.rst file from your host is located then hit OK. Usually you'll then hit the arrow key on the right but you can also click the "TRN UPLOAD PATH" button and selec a different outgoing directory if you wish. When that has been done correctly the race you are to play should be green on the list to the lower left. X the box beside it and the "UNPACK RST(s)" button goes green. Click on it then click on "PLAY CURRENT". On the following screen click the button to the left of your race name which should be green. Enter your password if you have one and then you're playing! Good luck. When your turn is done click the 'goodbye' button on the bottom right of your race's main menu and then click on the "MAKE TRN" button on the race list screen (this is why you need your "TRN UPLOAD PATH" selected). Now just send the PlayerN.trn file to your host and wait for your next RST.
To host a game for yourself or others there is a bit more to do. First run Master.exe then HConfig.exe and (optional) RConfig.exe to setup the scenario you wish to play. Next run Host.exe once to initialize the game, then distribute the PlayerN.RST files this creates as necessary. When all TRN files are returned or a predetermined deadline arrives put them in the same directory as Host.exe and run it once. Distribute resulting RSTs and so on.