Ironduke is starting up a new online game of Wing Commander Tactical Operations, and now's the time to sign up to play. TacOps is the board/role-playing game that he's been working on for the last year and a half. The previous virtual games have helped improve the rules quite a bit, and everyone involved had a ton of fun. Players email/PM daily turn info to Ironduke, and there may be special IRC sessions as well. Each participant is also invited to role-play their character at the CIC Forums while the game is in progress. Check out the play-by-plays for the most recent adventure at Crius.net here. An updated version of the 0.14 rules manual is also available here (25.7 megs zipped PDF). Contact Ironduke right away if you want to get involved in the next game - it's scheduled to start Monday! Here are a few more details.
There's a total of 7 PBM players right now, which makes me think of a game of 3 Confed vs. 4 Kilrathi players (due to the underpowered Kilrathi fighters).
I'll start to host the new game on March 17. If you're new to the game, please be sure to send me your email address (preferably via the board's private messaging system)!
I also need to know on which side you'd like to play in the upcoming game (Terran/Kilrathi). And last, but not least, here's a selection of scenarios that came to my mind or have been proposed. Please choose the one you like best!
- Asteroid Ambush: A Kilrathi and a Terran fighter patrol clash in the middle of an asteroid field. Restricted to light and medium fighters only.
- Capship Arena: This is a pure fun game: One cruiser in the top left edge of the map, the other one in the bottom right edge. Free choice of any fighter or bomber, as long as it belongs to your faction. If you're destroyed, you get to choose a new fighter. The team destroying the enemy cruiser first wins. Since this is of course an allusion to the "Capship" mode of the great Wing Commander: Arena, be warned that random upgrades might pop up...
- Destroyer Battle: A Confed and a Kilrathi destroyer engage each other, while their fighter escorts battle it out. This game requires one team leader per faction who takes direct control over the capship. No torpedo-carrying fighters allowed.
I'll probably announce the IRC game(s) one or two days ahead. I'd suggest simple dogfights with no more than 4-5 light or 2-3 medium fighters involved. Could be difficult, since I'm not in the US time zone, but we'll see if it'll work out nonetheless.
Origin founder Richard Garriott is now working hard in Russia to complete his rigorous cosmonaut training course. His backup, Nik Halik joined him in February and they continue to count down to launch. So far Richard is on track to become the world's sixth space tourist this fall. Here are some pictures from space camp and one of his recent journal entries.
I am quite excited to be in training now and I look forward to all aspects that it will entail, but I am particularly enthusiastic to be here in Star City, as a resident, with its amazing history of space exploration. I’m honored to surround myself with its people and I am determined to learn as much as I possibly can, inside and outside the classroom...
We covered stabilization planes in our class on Wednesday. As you might expect, distributing weight and positioning thrusters is a big deal, but I won’t go into all the boring engineering and mechanical details. That night we had chicken curry over at the NASA cottages and I chatted with “ShREC” Greg Chamitoff, who will be onboard the station during my visit, about my Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) experiments and our mutual interest in magic. That night I had my first space-related dream. I don’t remember ever having had one before!
Thursday, we bussed over to Energia, the rocket manufacturer, to discuss my experiment plans. It was a very interesting meeting, with Nik and I sitting opposite a board of Energia managers. Fortunately, they seemed very interested in my plans, coming back with some great questions and comments about the PCG work I hope to do. Plus their main ham manager was the grandson of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, considered the father of human space flight. He was very excited to meet and discuss ham activities, plus also offered to personally show me the space museum in Kaluga, which I hear has many fine examples related to the beginnings of the space era. I hope to go this summer.
On Friday, we covered the exterior of the Soyuz: radio-antenna locations, docking procedures, the periscope, TV viewers, that kind of thing. But most importantly, we covered the reentry and how the bell-shaped craft can actually be “flown” to decrease the g-loads and land at a more exact location. If all goes according to plan, we’ll have a smooth ride and land right where the helicopters will be expecting us!
With our week’s studying and meetings completed, we relaxed this weekend by catching a children’s circus here at Star City, plus managed to get into Moscow for some shopping, eating, and even a night out! After all our hard work this week, we deserved it, right?
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