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ServerSetup

Page history last edited by Dave Thaler 6 years, 1 month ago Saved with comment

Server Control Screen

When Artemis is first started, the initial screen will display the game's logo, as well as its version number. (This is useful to ensure that everyone has the same version) The "Start Client" button to the right is used for all of the players that wish to play a crew member on the ship, while the left button labelled "Start Server" is used to set up and start the server. The person setting up the main screen (usually the Captain) should select this option, which will take you to the Server Control Screen. Players wishing to set up a client and connect to the server should see the client setup page.

 

The Server Control Screen allows you to select the mission to be played. It also displays the IP address of this server. This IP address is very important, because all clients will need to type in this IP address in order to connect. Thus, this screen must be brought up before any client can connect. Note, however, that the game does not have to be running on the server for clients to connect. It is best to start up the server, select the mission and configure the server settings, and then wait until the other players have finished setting up their clients. Once all clients have selected "Ready To Play", you can click "Start" to start the server and begin the game. (Players may still connect after the server has started.)

 

Directly under the IP address display is a display of all clients that have connected to the server, grouped by ship. For each ship, the currently selected ship class is shown. (See Ship Customization Screen) Next to the image of the ship is the type of drive, W for Warp or J for Jump. After the name of the ship are two numbers separated by a slash. The first number is the number of clients that are connected to that ship. The second number is the number of consoles selected. A client can select to manage more than one console, so the second number can be greater than the first. In PVP mode (see below) this display changes to also indicate which side each ship is on.

 

Note that the button marked "Customize Ship" may be used to customize the name and appearance of the first ship and only the first ship. This is because the server acts as main screen for that ship. All other ships must bring up a Mainscreen or Helm client and customize the ship from there. (This button was introduced in Artemis 2.4, and will not be present in previous versions)

 

There are four main game modes and a variety of scenarios, many of which have been available since Artemis 2.1. Select the mode that fits the type of mission you wish to play. Each of the main game modes have subcategories which can themselves provide a very different play experience:

 

Solo Game - This mode is best for a single crew piloting the same ship, although multiple ships may co-operate to clear the sector. If all player ships are destroyed, the game ends, in a loss. In order to win, the player ships will need to destroy all enemy ships. When a player ship is destroyed, all clients for that ship will drop out to the client setup screen, and the remaining player ships will have to win on their own. Co-op mode, below, is more suited for multiship play, as it allows players on a destroyed ship to continue to participate, instead of taking them out of the game. However, in Solo mode, the players can keep fighting even after their bases are destroyed, which may be preferable.

 

Note that players on a destroyed ship are on their honor not to just click "Ready To Play" and respawn their ship. Individual gaming groups may wish to allow respawn, either in the original ship or a smaller one. (Like a Scout) Players could also reconnect in Observer mode, selecting one of the remaining ships, or select an unused console on that ship.

 

Difficulty - This lets you set the difficulty level of the game. The range is 1-11, and the most important consequence of this value is the damage of enemy weapons and the number of enemy ships. Diff level also affects how much your energy your ship consumes. Finally, Diff level is a multiplier for your final score. See Difficulty Settings for more details.

Scenario  - The scenario determines how the sector will be laid out and what the objectives of the game will be. These scenarios are as follows:

Siege - In this scenario, bases will be located in the center of the sector, with minefields ringing the center, and enemies advancing from every angle. Siege makes for a fast game, where stations are continually under threat. 

Single Front - Bases will be lined up along the right edge of the sector, and the enemies will enter from the left. This layout makes a much longer game, with long travel distances. The bases are far from enemies, but more isolated.

Double Front - Bases are in a corner, protected by dense minefields while the enemies advance from two sides. This layout (especially with minefields) makes for a complex terrain situation, but isn't as open as a one-front layout. 

Deep Strike - There are no friendly bases in this scenario, just a friendly bulk cargo ship that can resupply the player ship(s). The player ship(s) are launching an assault into enemy territory, which is defended by enemy bases.

Peacetime - This scenario appears to still be in development. There are very few enemy ships (none below difficulty 4, one or two fleets or single Skaraans on higher difficulties) in this scenario, although there may be monsters or quests for the player to complete if the appropriate Sector Options are set.

Border War - Both friendly and enemy bases appear in this scenario. A "neutral zone" exists between the two sides, which the player ship cannot enter until a declaration of war is received by the Comms console. As of Artemis 2.5, an additional control will allow you to set how many minutes will pass before war is declared. Obviously, this should be less than the Time Limit, below.

Infestation - In this scenario, introduced in 2.5, the sector is under attack from a swarm of BioMechs, which have begun reproducing out of control. There are limited enemy ships, the same as Peacetime mode. Instead, about 20 Biomechs of all stages will appear, along with enough asteroids and anomalies to allow them to breed for some time. The infestation must be exterminated in order to protect the bases and win the game. The Sector Options settings below will have no effect on the number of BioMechs, asteroids or anomalies.

Sector Options - As of version 2.1 of Artemis, sector complexity has been split into a number of options that allow precise customization of the environment in which a mission will be played.

Terrain - This option controls Nebulae, Asteroids, and other obstacles that can make a game more interesting.

Lethal Terrain - This option controls Black Holes and Minefields, terrain features that can destroy both enemy and friendly ships.

Friendly Ships - Ships friendly to the player can be added with this option. These ships can be very valuable with a good Comms officer to command them.

Monsters - Space Whales, Space Monsters and BioMechs can be added with this option. Note that this can be used to add threats to a Peacetime scenario.

Anomalies - Adds Anomalies to the sector.

Time Limit - A time limit can be set for any game scenario. Note that Peacetime apparently will end after 30 minutes whether this is set or not.

 

PVP Game - In this mode, two or more player ships should be defined, and they will do battle against each other. By default, there are no enemy ships in this mode, although each side may create a fleet of friendly ships that will act as enemies to the other side. When the game ends (presumably by time limit) the score is presented in terms of number of kills and number of times destroyed for each ship.

 

Sides - This determines how many "teams" the player ships will be divided into. This may be from 2-5, or a Free For All in which each ship is out for itself.

Time Limit - As above, sets a time limit for the game.

Allowed Ship - Can be "Any" or any individual class of player ship.

Allowed Torp - Can be "Any", or only one type of torpedo can be used. (Note that no torpedo type can be disallowed. You can't just eliminate Nukes, for instance)

Escort Fleet - Each side has a fleet of the given number of ships (0 is a choice) which they can escort and direct in combat. Note that the ships chosen will be the same for both sides, and randomly selected from all of the races, friendly or enemy. This does not affect which side they are on. The fleets will fly towards each other, at a very slow speed, if not directed by Comms.

Fleet Diff Level - Sets the damage done by both sides' Escort Fleets. Number of foes will not be affected. Even if no Escort Fleet is defined, (or difficulty is above 5) the difficulty level will still affect the energy use of all player ships, so "Fleet" difficulty is a bit of misnomer.

Nebula Hides All - This option hides all friendly and enemy ships in nebulae, from the Science console as well as LRS. With it set to NO, only enemy ships will be hidden, and only on the LRS. In 2.1, this option was disabled, possibly because the option carried over to other game modes, but it has been fixed in 2.3.

 

Co-op Game - This mode is identical to the Solo Game, but is designed for multiple player ships. In this mode, if any player ship is destroyed, it will respawn automatically. However, all enemies will also respawn, so try not to get destroyed. This game mode is lost when all friendly bases are lost.

 

Options for Co-op mode are identical to Solo mode, except that Difficulty is the last option, and there is no time limit. The Deep Strike scenario cannot be lost, because there are no friendly bases. (If the supply ship is lost, remember you can self destruct in order to reload energy and Nukes, although this may result in a stalemate with both sides respawing indefinately)

Auto Enemy Configuration - In Co-op mode, enemy shield strength, speed, and fire rate automatically scales with the number of player ships connected.  Every ship adds 50% to the given systems.  (i.e. at 1 player ship, enemies have 50% shields, at 3 player ships, enemies have 150% shields and at 8 player ships enemies have 400% shields.)

    • This works similarly to the Configuration settings, below, and setting any Configuration for enemy ships (or player ships) will override this behavior. That is, if you set Enemy Shields to 200% on the Configuration screen, they will be set to 200% no matter how many player ships are connected, and speed and fire rate will be set to 100%. (Since the default setting is 100%)
    • Network Update Speed, Sensor Range and Start Delay are the only Configuration settings that do NOT affect Auto Enemy Configuration. Once this automatic configuration has been overridden by setting a Configuration setting, it will remain overridden until Artemis is shut down and restarted.
    • Auto Enemy Configuration is based on the number of player ships connected when the server is started. Ships added after the server is started will not affect enemy systems. Destruction of a player ship will not affect enemy systems either, although they will respawn, as noted above. Setting Start Delay in Configuration, below, can help ensure everyone is logged in before the server starts.
    • Note that the maximum for Auto Enemy Configuration is 400%, while the maximum a system can be set to with Customization is 300%.  

 

Scripted Game - Otherwise known as "Mission Mode", this mode enables you to play a custom mission that has been written by other players. A scripted game can have very complex mission parameters which will require strategic thinking and non-combat objectives in order to complete. For instance, a scripted mission may ask you to bring a cargo to a faraway base station, or investigate a mysterious phenomenon. While battles against enemies are usually involved, they are not the focus of the mission. Some missions can have an emphasis on role playing.

 

Mission - When this mode is selected, the Mission folder of the Artemis directory is searched for suitable missions. All available missions may be scrolled through with this option to find the one to play.

Difficulty - This is similar to Difficulty in PVP mode, as it only determines the damage done by friendly and enemy ships, and the energy use of the player ship. The number of ships in the mission is usually determined by the script. However, the script is able to read the difficulty level, and may present more challenges at higher difficulty.

 

Join War Server - The War Server is a separate application that simulates a galactic war, covering several sectors and dozens of ships. This option can be ignored if the War Server application is not available. For more information, see the page on the War Server.  

 

Server Customization Options

Selecting "Customize" on any game mode screen will bring up the following additional customization options: (Only Network Update Speed and Sensor Range will be present in Scripted/Mission mode)

 

Network Update Speed

This affects how quickly the network will transfer data to and from the server. The lower the number, the faster the updates. This setting generally does not need adjustment, but if a client (or clients) is lagging, try reducing this setting to between 20 and 50ms.

 

Sensors

This limits the range at which enemies will be visible on the long range scan or science scan. Note that this value will also affect the range of friendly bases, which will report enemy ships to you. Thus, ships may be visible on LRS/Science even if they are out of this range. For comparison, the entire playing area is 100K across. Possible settings are as follows: 

  • Very weak     8K
  • Weak           11K
  • Medium       15K
  • Strong         33K
  • Unlimited    All enemies visible

The names for these settings are taken from earlier versions of the game. As of 2.0, the actual values are given instead. The game manual recommends using this setting as a technology level, you can simulate older, less advanced ships by using the Weak or Very Weak setting.

 

The artemis.ini file defines a value called playerSensorRange, which defaults to 50000. If this value is changed, all of the above except Unlimited will change accordingly, For instance, setting Sensors to 25000 will halve the above ranges. Unlimited will not be affected, and will always display all ships in the sector. (Except for those with special cloaking abilities) Sensor range for bases can be edited as well, with the value stationSensorRange, and it will be affected by the Sensors setting in the same way.

 

Enemy Speed

This allows you to increase or decrease the enemy speed. This value (and all following) range from 40% to 300%, in steps of 20%. Note that 200% will make most enemies move as fast as the player ship at Impulse. There isn't an option to let the enemies move at Warp 1, but if there were, it would be 2000%. This value affects the speed of friendly AI ships as well.

 

Enemy Shields

This lets you make enemy shields stronger or weaker. Note enemy shields are not affected by difficulty. This value affects the shield strength of friendly AI ships as well.

 

Enemy Weapon Power

This lets you increase or decrease enemy ship fire rate. It does not affect damage, which is set by difficulty level. This value affects the fire rate of friendly AI ships as well. 

 

Player Shield Strength

Increases or decreases the player ship's base shield strength. All player ships will be affected.  

 

Player Weapon Power

Increases or decreases the player ship's beam fire rate. All player ships will be affected.  

 

Start Delay

For PVP or Co-op modes, sets a delay before the game begins. This is intended to allow time for all clients to make sure they are connected.

 

Pausing the Game

At any time during play, pressing the ESC key on the server will bring up the Pause Display. This overlay will appear over the Mainscreen display, and will contain two buttons. The upper button will pause the game and stop all action, including on the clients. The lower button will terminate the game and proceed to the Game Results Display. This screen will show the results of the battle, with all enemies killed by the player ship listed, as well as all bases lost or protected, and other information.

 

Under the End Game button is three slider bars, which are used to adjust the game volume, as described on the client setup page under Client Options Screen. These changes will affect the volumes for the server. In particular, the Game Comms Volume control will affect the audio files played by Comms, since these files are always played on the server only. You may wish to turn the Game Music Volume down if you know that Comms will be playing a lot of audio files.

 

Hotkeys

  • Escape: Toggle pause/resume game
  • F7: Cycle through missing scripting debug information displays (Events, Timers, Variables, Client Keys, Ship Brain Stack, Monster Brain Stack)
  • E: Toggle AI mode.  When in AI mode, all player ships will be AI-controlled.  If the game ends, the AI will immediately restart a new game.

 

 

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