User:Jesus Saves
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This user is a Starfleet Commander Wiki admin. |
Hi everyone! I'm Jesus_Saves, and that's the name I even use in-game. As you might expect, I am a Christian and I try my hardest to be an excellent example for Jesus Christ.
The Gospel of Jesus
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16
Have you ever heard the Gospel? It's quite simple, really. God sent his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross and pay the penalty for our sins - death.
That may not make much sense so I'll make it a little clearer. Jesus is God's Son. In essence, he IS God. He died so that we wouldn't have to be held accountable for our sins. Sin is going against God's perfect will. Have you ever lied, cheat, steal? That is sin. And one characteristic of God is that he is holy - pure, free of sin. And the problem is, holiness and sin are like light and darkness, which means that they can't be in the same place. So if you die, and you haven't accepted Jesus as your Lord (leader of your life) and Saviour (rescuer from Hell), then you can't go to Heaven because of your sin. But, Jesus, who didn't sin at all during his life, willingly gave himself as the ultimate sacrifice. He died and took on all of our sins - he became our scapegoat, assuming responsibility for all our nastiness. Now, if we will accept Jesus, we get to go to Heaven! That's it, that's all. No long lists of "Do this!" and "Don't do that!" needed to enter Heaven. The most important commandment is to love God with all you are, and then love others with the same passion. The rest just fall in line.
By the way, Heaven is NOT angels with halos strumming harps on clouds. Heaven is full of music, with everyone doing things assigned to them, praising God, and spending an eternity having a blast! The place is so awesome that even things considered valuable here on Earth are used as building materials - streets of gold and Pearly Gates, for example.
So don't let people with bad attitudes towards Christianity give you the wrong impression. God is not all about smiting sinners and torturing people for eternity, nor is he about a long list of do's and don't's. I hope I explained it all well enough for you.
(Did I lose you yet? No? OK, good.)
More About Me
I'm a high school graduate whose taking a year off to build up the money to pay for college. I attend Independence Community College and work about 15-20 hours a week at McDonald's. I'm part of the cleanup crew, and I usually work during lunch hours and a little after that.
My favorite TV shows, outside of Christian television, are the Star Trek series (except Star Trek: Enterprise), Meerkat Manor and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. I have a wide variety of musical interests which encompass most Western genres except jazz. I am especially fond of techno and variations thereof. My favorite bands are Hillsong London, Chris Tomlin and Newsboys. My hobbies include computer programming and writing science fiction. I maintain a personal website for programming practice and other things, http://shawntc.x10hosting.com. My ultimate programming goal is to make a multiplayer strategy game like Starfleet Commander although it would be significantly different from this. In order to do this, I need to learn one more scripting language and a database language.
Currently, I'm administrator for Zenventive, a forum devoted to discussion and displaying of art, health and meditation. Be sure to check it out!
I will probably use this as my mission log. I plan on being a little more structured with my ships, i.e., x amount of Athenas, x amount of Ares, etc. I'll also give ships names if possible, and fleets named. (Although so far, this hasn't worked out quite as well as I'd hoped...
- Also, I should mention I'm very
- bulleted
- list
- happy!
Alliances
January - 19 February 2010: Nobunaga's Overachieving Bastards, a training alliance where I can ask questions and receive help from experienced players. The former leader was once the leader of Empire. I don't plan on being in the alliance forever, just long enough for me to get stable footing.
19 February 2010 - 28 April 2010: The Borg, an alliance with more aggression, democracy and (hopefully) availability to suit my likings. As of 14 April 2010, it is the sixth oldest alliance in existence. I have been appointed chief diplomat of the alliance. As of 16 March 2010, I have been made the Leader to allow my predecessor more time to focus on a project going on in the alliance. Although it was expected to only be a week, leadership was held until mid-April, when I handed it over to an officer while I took a break from the game. I resumed playing, but only as an Officer, but saw the alliance had lost activity and members were not present on the message board enough to coordinate large events, therefore I messaged the Leader alerting him of my intentions to leave and departed the next morning.
29 April 2010 - present: The Corporation, a young alliance that focuses on maximizing profit and has a corporate business role play to it. It is in this alliance that I've broken under the 30,000 ranking.
The Points of the Game
Version 1.1, updated 3 July 2010
This game has several levels of depth that I have found, and when you look at it this way the game becomes rather interesting:
- Warfare: Yes, this is your typical interstellar combat game. You tech up and build huge fleets and try to obliterate your opponents before they obliterate you.
- Strategy: This isn't a turn-based game, nor are you against computerized AI's that rely on if-then statements and random numbers in their source code to make a move. As such, it requires you to strategize. Who will I attack? What ships will I send? Is it profitable to raid this person? Is this planet good to colonize? You can either stare at the screen and click the little shield to attack the same inactive noob over and over and over until the planet crumbles, or you could pull out your inner tactician and formulate complex plots to rid your immediate neighborhood of some scuzball that you don't like.
- Mercantile: It's also a resource-gathering game, which ties in with strategizing to see which planet you can colonize, which noob to raid and what battles will max out your ore, hydrogen and crystal supplies. And you can open up the trade lines with others to exchange what you have an abundance of for what you lack.
- Intelligence/Espionage: There are over 70,000 people playing this game, and in your solar system alone you could have up to 14 other people pursuing the same goal(s) as you. 499 solar systems per galaxy with one hundred galaxies makes for a lot of ground. You want to be a spy? Now is your chance. The game lets you gather intelligence on other people, figure out their habits, see what makes them tick. If you're in an alliance then your cohorts can fill your blind spots.
- Domination: Being the biggest and baddest on the block. Reaching for the #1 position. What more needs to be said?
- Interaction: As I said before, there are over 70,000 others playing this game. That is a lot of people. And then there's the messaging system, buddy lists, alliances, the forum, and the wiki! That all enables you to interact with other people, which could then help with any number of these other points.
- Assistance: Are you a helper? This game gives you the opportunity to carry out that role. If someone needs a strong defense, or a buddy to help make an attack successful or perhaps they lack resources. You can show some benevolence (I know, harder to spell, even harder to do) and provide the help where needed.
- Managerial: You're the head honcho of your interplanetary starfleet (huh, Starfleet Commander, go figure) and you call the shots. I also clump with this the task of managing the wiki, keeping it informative and clean. I often patrol the wiki to make sure everything is good.
That's my take on it, anyway.
My Goals
This game will only remain fun so long as you make it fun. Once the excitement of joining and getting your first few kills has passed, thing can get boring and routine and eventually players quit. My way of avoiding this is to set detailed goals for myself to accomplish and then work at them in step-by-step increments. The key is to thing long-term, while making little steps which ultimately lead to the main goal's completion. So here are my goals:
- Be #1.
- Unlock all techs.
- Unlock all ships, defenses and buildings.
- Build a Zeus.
- Build a Hephaestus.
- Unlock all missions.
- Fill all my colony slots. I have decided on what types of colonies I would like to make and what their names would be:
- A mine world close to my homeworld, which would emphasize mine output. First E.C. Parsonage
- Ship construction planet. It wouldn't focus on research as much as getting mines, shipyard and mine levels up. Victory Extrasolar Church
- Two planets that would act as mobile attack colonies. Mission Center 1/2
- A slot occupied by my Hephaestus. It would simply be called Faith.
- This leaves three empty slots. Ideas for them include:
- Trading colony.
- Secondary homeworld. Salvation E.C.
- Missile colony.
- Mobile Raiding Colony. This could either be the prelude to MACs and/or integrated with them.
- Make my way across the universe, perhaps on two different fronts, wiping out people and then moving on. This would be perpetual, as when I made it to the end of the universe I would go back the way I came.
- Get moons on all my planets.
Faith and Gameplay
It seems almost ironic that I'm trying to make a stand for Christ in a game that is about war and conflict. Christianity is perceived as something where we all try to make peace with each other, not plunder each others' planets. So how can I be an example for God and still terrorize the local space?
For starters, regardless of how immersed one may get in the game, it's important to realize that it's just that - a game. It all comes down to bytes on SFC's servers with scripts that wait a certain amount of time and then do something in a microsecond. In addition to that, there are several things I wish to do:
- Excel in the game. In the Bible, we're called to be the best at whatever we do, be it a job, school, sports, or a game.
- Answer others' questions. I have a great deal of knowledge of the game in my head, and whatever I don't know can likely be found in the wiki. If you have questions about the game, feel free to get in touch with me and I'll do my best to answer.
- Wiki moderation. For some reason, people find it fun to vandalize and spam on the wiki, and someone needs to clean it up. Other active editors get the job done but they can't always be online - unlike me, who is often on the Internet 9+ hours a day.
- Helping with alliance pages. There have been multiple alliances who have wanted to make a wiki page or have made one, but because of their limited wiki code knowledge it ends up looking poorly done. Given my experience editing the wiki, I can help them get it set up or fixed.
- Helping in-game. Although I've never been invited to a group attack or defend by another person, if they ever needed it and it would be possible for me to participate without it being unprofitable, there's a fair chance I would be OK with it.
- Greeting new players. Should a new player ever appear within range of me, I will try to get them started by referring them to the wiki, forum, and be open to any questions they may have.
- Displaying godly character in-game and elsewhere. Part of being a good witness is showing integrity, decency and honesty, which means not swearing, engaging in flame wars, or joining in pervy jokes... although they are pretty tempting at times.
- Planet names: First Extrasolar Church, Victory Extrasolar Church, Redemption Extrasolar Church, Missions Center (that's a future mobile attack colony).
- Attack for profit, not war. Although I'm an active player, I wouldn't consider myself to be aggressive in the sense that I'm a warmonger seeking to ruin people's lives by decimating their fleets. There's nothing personal intended, and I wouldn't be above forming friendships after such an event.
- Policy on repeated attacks: I will attack a planet for the resources and/or ship destroyed points. Then I will get the plunder, if possible. I will also collect as much of the debris field as possible at my discretion. However, afterwards I will not continue to hound the victim, but rather they will be given an arbitrary amount of time to restock. This is because being under constant attack would cause the game to lose its fun and eventually lead to the player going (d) or (i).
Project Big Wave, or, Where Am I Going From Here?
Terminology used here:
- Mission: a small event or group of small, connected events such as simultaneous attacks or raids.
- Operation: a large event composed of several missions performed in order to achieve an end result, with confidence that it will succeed.
- Project: an operation, with the exception that it's not known what the end result is at it's never been done before.
When I reached the #30,000 ranking barrier, I began to wonder, "Where am I going from here?" At the time I had unlocked everything except ARCNet, Foundry, Zeus and Hephaestus as well as a couple unimportant expedition missions. Not knowing where to proceed, I went into (v) mode to get life itself straightened out and then come back into the game with a plan. I didn't know when I would return and it could very well be that my planets could go (vi). Update: The planets were two days away from getting the (i). I should have registered as an inactive, but I logged in two days after entering (v) mode.
There seems to be a point in this game that I've reached or am extremely close to reaching that separates the normal players from the advanced. I use the Foundry to mark off this division, because it requires 1 million ore to construct and you can't have anything else being build or researched while it's being constructed. After this, the next remaining two items on the tech tree that aren't moon related or expedition related are the Zeus and Hephaestus. But by then you're probably an above average player. That is where I want to be.
One of the things I noticed at this point of the game is that there isn't too much higher that I could go simply by building and researching. Eventually the tech tree will be filled and all I could do to keep my rank is destroy others' fleets. In addition, I've longed to begin my own alliance, but at 30k my ranking is hardly high enough to be taken seriously - even though I led the Borg alliance for about a month. The United Alliance of Commanders is a real possibility, though.
So the plan, then, when I am ready to return, is this:
- Continue to actively raid nearby inactives, going after whatever ones are most profitable and leaving the others for future raids.
- Begin upgrading and researching for ARCNet. While this isn't useful at the moment, in the future when more colonies are established this could be vital.
- Update: ARCNet has been unlocked and researched to level 1. Now I just need another Research Lab...
- Update 2: Foundry has been constructed, and all 8 colony slots filled.
While these are going, I can commence running the missions and operations for Big Wave:
- Build the raiding fleet. The Mission Centers will also be raiding colonies. Target of 60 Atlas class cargo ships to be sent to the MAC. Cost: 120,000 ore, 120,000 crystal.
- Build the attack fleet. The homeworld fleet can be stripped, especially if local planets have become unprofitable for attacks. Most warships can be taken, but leave the cargo ships and Dionysus. The attack fleet would be composed of every type of attack ship under Zeus. Also build 15 Dionysus. Cost: unknown.
- Find a colony slot ~30 SS from the homeworld and colonize it, with enough resources to begin building mines, a shipyard, and a research lab.
- Attack.
- When the area becomes devoid of worthwhile targets, build another Gaia and continue in the same direction. Rinse and repeat.
- This may be done in two directions, however it has not been decided yet.
Also, as for the UAC, I've determined that should be founded when I'm of a higher rank. I may choose to begin making the alliance page on the wiki. I've set a goal of founding it once I have reached the #25,000 rank.
Proposed Ideas
Being part inventor, part organizer and part leader, I've thought up some things that I've figured would be good additions to the game for others and myself. None have actually been implemented but could at some point gain attention.
- United Alliance of Commanders (UAC) - an alliance that I've flirted with the idea of founding, it emphasizes aggressiveness, activeness and fair play. Diplomacy mode and inactiveness would be frowned upon. Would also include the UAC Academy, a fact and experience-oriented training program.
- Wiki Editors Council - I thought it would be a good idea for those who regularly patrol the wiki to communicate with each other so our efforts at keeping the wiki proper would be more concerted. For instance, everyone would have free reign to undo all vandalism and spam, but everyone would also have a special group of pages they gave extra attention to.
- Ceres Class Mine Layer and Persephone Class Minesweeper - the idea of explosive mines in the game is somewhat popular, and I wanted to see more ships available to middle-range players (in the 30,000-50,000 range for me) so I suggested the Ceres would generate mines for a cost and then place them around a planet and the Persephone would be able to detect and explode them without taking damage.
- Masterminds of Starfleet Commander (MSC) - my latest idea. I want to take some time and thoroughly study the wiki so I can have more factual knowledge about how to play the game and it seemed like a good idea to make it a group effort. Perhaps after I've completed learning this might become an official project of mine.
- Starfleet Commander Offline Reference (SCORE) - since players don't always have access to the Internet, it would be good for there to be an encyclopedia of data that could be downloaded. It would cover all the relevant information on the wiki, converted into HTML files, and updated monthly.
- Project Big Wave - a technique for how I plan on being #1 in the game, it involves bashing the living daylights out of whoever I can find in a certain section of space. I'll either do one or two fronts, wherein I'll plop a colony or two and proceed to farm inactives and battle useful targets. Once that is completed, I'll continue on. Once I reach an edge of the universe, I'll simply go in the opposite direction. Whenever the two fronts meet, one will simply hop over the other and keep the mayhem going.
- Project UNITY - an idea borrowed from a past alliance, this involves several players coming together and acting as a single unit, revealing all their information to each other and as a group deciding how to dominate the game.
- Project Aeon - had an idea for this, but lost it. The word "Aeon" sounds cool, so if I can find something that fits this word, it'll be used.
Battle Reports
If I ever have any juicy battles, I'll be sure to state when and a general idea of where, plus the fleet sizes and end results.
- 20 May 2010: Tarak and Phillip Gimmell succeeded in totally destroying the fleet around my homeworld. I dropped 4,000 points. Well played!
- 30 May 2010: Would you believe that in just ten days I'm already back in battle???
- First Battle: 13 opposing ships destroyed. 1 ship lost.
- Second Battle: 20 opposing ships destroyed. 5 ships lost.
- Third Battle: 7 opposing ships destroyed. 2 ships lost.
- 31 May 2010: Continuation of yesterday's attacks on the same person.
- First Battle: 17 opposing ships destroyed. 0 ships lost.
- Second Battle: 10 opposing ships destroyed. 0 ships lost.
- 19 June 2010: Small attack, actually pushed my score up high.
- Fist Battle: Maybe 20 opposing ships destroyed. 0 ships lost. Not counted in total below.
Current Total of Opposing Ships Destroyed (Starting as of 30 May 2010): 67
Current Total of Ships Lost (Starting as of 30 May 2010): 8
Fun Stats
Percentages are relative to the previous amounts.
I have noticed that the numbers tend to rise and drop daily in a manner similar to a sawtooth wave. It steadily grows and then at some point during the day the inactives are cut out, causing a drop.
Number of players (7 June 2010 11:02 PM EST): 103,988 in Original.
Number of alliances (same time): 5,771 in Original.
Number of players (11 June 2010 4:54 PM EST): 97,629 (-6.115%)
Number of alliances: 5,659 (-1.941%)
Number of players (13 June 2010 8:14 AM EST): 94,300 (-3.41%, -9.316% since 11 June)
Number of alliances: 5,618 (-.724%, -2.651% since 11 June)
Number of players (14 June 2010 9:16 AM EST): 92,800 (-1.59%, -10.759% since 11 June)
Number of alliances: 5,592 (-.463%, -3.102% since 11 June)
Number of players (16 June 2010 5:39 PM EST): 89,438 (-3.623%, -13.992% since 11 June)
Number of alliances: 5,532 (-1.073%, -4.141% since 11 June)
Number of players (18 June 2010 9:44 AM EST): 87,147 (-2.562%, -16.195% since 11 June)
Number of alliances: 5,489 (-.777%, -4.887% since 11 June)
Number of players (20 June 2010 8:38 AM EST): 83,900 (-3.726%, -19.318% since 11 June)
Number of alliances: 5,427 (-1.13%, -5.961% since 11 June)
