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THRESHOLD – VOLUME 2

Letters to the Editor
Editor’s Corner
Player Fiction
How To
Diplomatic News
Empire Histories
Takamo Updates
Other Issues


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Ramblings

My first PBM experience began with Takamo. At that time I was glad to find a Space game with multiple planet -star systems, asteroid belts, and a 3D universe. After a few turns I found that space could be a lonely place. If not for a few random messages “overheard in space”, and captured documents, I would have sworn, I was the only person in the game. Eventually, I ran into another player, and through him, I contacted other players; most of who dropped and moved on the newer/flashy “stuff”. Eventually, I too dropped. What went wrong?

1: Too little player interaction or action at the earlier stages of a new empire. Possible fixes. faster economic growth, other sources of revenue (Tech level modifier to a planets income (tech level * .05% of standard RU receipts??)) representing higher productivity with additional technology. Terraformed planets and colonies begin at the tech level of the first ship converting the status of the planet. I still believe that a colony would not start at the lowest possible level; At most, a slight drop (1-5 levels), based on habitat range factors??.

2: Play was flat, as were the characters. Even though some player types have special abilities, something was lacking. Maybe more details .

- Spying, espionage, technology leakage/transfers. – GU/Spy ability to provide planetary readout

information with a + factor, acquire tech info, such as ship plans??

- Ability to capture ships through combat. – Representing recovery of derelicts and boarding actions??

- Different/more ship, troop, and fighter types.

- All player types should be able to teraform. (??)

3: Lack of information. I still don’t know what the universe looks like; I should have some idea. I should know if I was dealing with the Cargill of AG Corporations or Uncle Louies “Pump-em-up” Soy Farm. I should know if the Evil Empire just knocked on my door, or was it the girl scouts wanting a business relationship.

4: I was always poor and small.

Anyway; I’m here, and just rambling on.


EDITOR’S CORNER
Welcome to the web based version of Threshold. This issue is actually the second issue of Threshold to be published since the revival of Takamo by Aleator Games. The first issue went out to play testers by e-mail in early 1999. You can find the first issue in the Past Issues section of the Threshold web page.

With the long awaited second issue, we begin monthly publication of Threshold on the Takamo web site. Threshold seeks player articles covering every facet of Takamo. We need Player Fiction, “How To” articles, Empire Histories, Letters to the Editor, Diplomatic Announcements, discussions about current game design elements, suggestions to improve the game, and anything else you can imagine. Get those articles in!

This issue features a number of Empire Histories – which can be updated later or presented as a running series. Other articles include a fiction piece from Roger Buchholz, diplomatic traffic from several empires, and an update on play-test program and game development.

We know that you have been waiting months for Threshold’s second issue, we appreciate your patience, and we look forward to larger and more comprehensive issues each month.

Enjoy!


PLAYER FICTION

WILD WOLVES
By Roger Buchholz

The blackened ships stood silhouetted against the evening sky. The ground crews, busy with their lethal charges worked diligently as they prepared the strike ships for their mission, a mission that could end before it got started.

First Captain Angar Rottweiler, a short stern faced man, and commander of the 97th Bombardment Fleet known as the Wild Wolves, stood puffing on a cigar as he watched the work in progress. He noted his crew lounging about acting nonchalant, but he knew they were nervous because he was their leader and he was nervous as hell. The 97th was a missile boat fleet made up of five missile sloops of war with the express mission of getting to a planet undetected and delivering their missiles with pinpoint accuracy. In theory they should get in and out before the enemy knew what had happened. It normally didn’t work that way.

The enemy this time was not the usual low-tech world that Rottweiler was used to attacking, this world belonged to a borg race, the Charon Empire. The Charon had declared war against an ally of The Pack, the Kvizier Empire, but apparently had underestimated the strength of the Alliance. The 97th’s mission was to knock out the shipyards over one of the Charon’s planets. Other Alliance ships were attacking as well but later on, when Kvizier fighter cover was available. It was felt that the Wild Wolves should go it alone in the hope of catching an unprepared cyborg off guard. But first rottweiler and his little fleet must get to the staging point, a uninhabited asteroid chain, to start their attack run. He hoped it was uninhabited. If not, his war would be over quick.

“We have all the missiles loaded, Kapitan,” the ground chief stated as he pointed toward Rottweiler’s flagship, if one could call it that. “We are having problems charging the radon guns because of your battle damage. It looks like you might go in with only one charge.” The captain waved his chief off with a sweep of his arm. “I don’t think it matters.”

As the last fuel hauler pulled away from the ships Rottweiler turned to his crewmen. They knew the time had come. They all stood and awaited his instructions. “You know what is asked of you. You know your mission. I don’t have to go over it again. Remember we will not form up and it is a independent firing run. Get in and get out. Good luck.”

With that he and the forty crewmen of the fleet walked to their ships to ready for launch. The captain turned and looked into the night sky and drew a deep breath of fresh air, something he had done before every mission to remind him that it could be his last. He turned, entered the ship and the hatch was sealed behind him.


“HOW TO” ARTICLES

This section of Threshold is dedicated to articles about how to get the most out of the game. This is where you can tell others all about your nifty new stellar mapping methods, your empire’s strategy and tactics, how you get the most out of your actions in Takamo, etc. All articles submitted must have a “How To” theme that will in some measure aid other players in the Takamo universe. All stories should be submitted to the Threshold Editing Staff. Submissions may be single articles or a multi-part series. All submissions become the property of Aleator Games. No payment is offered for your article. All submissions should have the title of the article clearly set out in capital letters at the beginning of the story, and the name of the author in small letters, directly below the title.
May these articles show you the way…

SMUGGLING PRIMER
By Terry Buchholz

May The Profits Be Praised

Our civilization is very driven by economics, as are all, but few recognize the true profit motive as we do. There is a very ancient saying by our species; “May the Profits Be Praised”, which dates back to a time before the Galactic Age. It defines us, and explains us, it is what we do.

With this in mind let me explain what we think the ‘True Power’ of a Free Trader is (or Smuggler in the vulgar form). You see… knowledge equals power. And the ability to acquire this knowledge with little cost or risk to an expensive fleet is the key.

It has been said in Real Estate and Business that three things are important: Location, Location, Location. For Free Traders, having Smuggling Center…Smuggling Center…Smuggling Center, is the mantra.

Sure they don’t make you much money, only 10 RU per turn, instead it is what they TELL YOU that is truly important. If you have allies that wish them on enemies, they may pay for valuable information, you decide the price.

Axiom: Take the Bridge from Both Ends.
This is the real advantage of a smuggler, growth of empire by conquest. Just as in warfare the spy, the turn-coat, the ‘fifth column’, or your smuggling center, can give you much valuable information…It can also allow to attack a planet at an advantage. Find the weakness, and attack the appropriate weakness from within. By landing guerrillas you can attack the planet or appropriate parts of it from ‘within’, or in effect ‘Take the Bridge from Both Ends’.

Small Planets with Few Resources are not Useless. Think about it, every planet has some value, either resources, population, or production facilities. All may not be of prime importance on small planets, but then you cannot terraform either. Think about it though…the more places you are, the more places you can hide, the harder you are to knock out. Would you rather have one large planet or five or ten small ones with the same total production/population/worth? We would suggest that you take the many over the few. Remember, not everyone is going to like you…Be at as many locations as you can.

For income, what about smuggling runs? Our opinions on this are well known, you may make some money. You will certainly make some enemies. We ourselves prefer the more permanent income of planets we own than the fickle income of cargo lost and enemies gained.

We wish you good luck and good income. “May the Profits Be Praised”

Rhatsibahn Smuggling Primer; The Wisdom of Rhotaris 7,
Mutos Mifflin Press. Available at the ‘Mutos of Rhatsibahn’
Home World (or more likely by Hyperwave Download
Distribution. We ain’t tellin’ where we are).

HOW TO ATTACK A PLANET
by General Crantus of The Phantatwains
There are several different ways to attack a planet depending on your personality and willingness to inflict casualties and no worry of having casualties inflicted on yourself. The Mass Assault philosophy involves a high rate of casualties for all involved. The first thing to do is locate the planet you want to take. Exploring with ships is the most efficient way of getting the most bang for the buck. Locate an occupied planet and then assemble the forces. I like a 2 fleet attack myself. The first is a large fleet of disposable ships that you send into planetary orbit. Shoot on sight orders will make sure it attacks any fleet in planetary orbit. The fleet will also trigger reaction from forts and torpedoes. If you have enough ships (75+) in the fleet you should be able to weather the defensives and still remain in orbit. After you have eliminated the defensives you then bring in the second fleet that includes the transports and the support ships. These ships should also be accompanied by cover ships to take some stray planetary fire. Invade and you now have another planet for you to reap the wealth from.


EMPIRE HISTORIES

This section of Threshold is dedicated to the fictional histories of Takamo empires. This is where you get to tell other players in the game what your empire is like, how your alien race appears, what they eat, their philosophy, their political views, their leadership, how they wage war, etc. All messages should be submitted to the Threshold Editing Staff by the 20th of the month for publication in the next issue of Threshold. Submissions may be presented as single submissions, updated periodically, or presented as a series of articles. It is important that all empire histories be presented in a manner that upholds the dignity of your stellar empire. All submissions should have the name of the empire clearly set out in capital letters at the beginning of the message, and the name and title of the historian who prepared the history must be set out at the end of your submission.

May the history of your empire be glorious!

PHANTATWAIN BIOGRAPHY
The following information has been gathered from other empires and species that have dealt with the Phantatwain Empire and what writing that can be found. It should be noted that an old Phantatwain world was just discovered there are expectations that some works of history will be found on it.

The PHANTATWAIN means Ant Kings. Twain being the title given to the ruling Phantatwain i.e. Twain Grantis I. When discussing the empire the term Ancient Ones is an acceptable way to acknowledge them.

A Phantatwain average height is 5 to 6 feet tall (long) and their military troops 7 feet. With 6 limbs they have the ability to scale sheer cliffs, carry unusually heavy objects and to handle 4 weapons at a time if needed. They also have huge pinchers for hand-to-hand combat which deters most other species from close assaulting them.

They have been in existence since the Great Age of Empires or the Second Age of the Universe. It was during this age that the Phantatwains, Gedi Knights, Stellron Trade Corp., Kviziers, Seth Naf Gar and many others discovered the ability of space travel. This was also the time of meeting others and fighting wars on a galactic level.

It was also during this time that the famous fleet maneuver “Near Melee” was developed by Admiral Navant during the civil war and perfected in the war with Seth Naf Gar. It was the belief that no other empire would be willing to engage in close combat and boarding parties. Casualties are high but The Phatatwains seem to be willing to take heavy loses.

Militarily teamwork and masses are more of an integral part of their military philosophy than one-on-one combat. This leads to high casualties on all sides of the battlefield.

As far as to what they profess to be, that is up for debate. They had started as nomads but had a civil war that caused a Cyborg break off under the same name. It has also been discovered that they have other branches that evolved into mining Corps and Ag. Corps. Which if any of these species still exist is unknown. Hopefully new discovery will lead to more information.

MUTOS OF RHATISBAHN
May The Profits Be Praised

It has been said that there was a time, long ago before space travel. This is a time which little has been recorded of in our history. Our species is ancient and has survived through the coming of the third Galactic Age. It has been recorded that collisions of Galaxies have remade our Galaxy, that even our own star system has been destroyed and remade…And yet through all that has changed, much remains the same.

But, I digress let me introduce our race. We are the ‘Mutos of Rhatsibahn’. Maybe we are not so much one race, as a collection of peoples. But it has been said that we started as one race or species that was destroyed in a great catastrophe. Our history does not record this, except through rumor and evidence in petrified soil and radioactive stone.

It has been said that this catastrophe may have been a nuclear War between planets or on one planet, or indeed a Galactic collision has been proposed, or collision between stars or planets or with an asteroid…In any case the evolved race which ruled our planet was nearly destroyed. Our race is a combination of this evolved race which was nearly eliminated and that which evolved in the wreckage of the world that remained.

We won’t go into all details here, not that all are fully known, but let this be a little introduction to our species for those of you who we are making first contact with.

First contact is always awkward, often dangerous, and in any case full of misunderstanding. The Universal Translator is a great help, and yet there were problems with this device in the early days. But these are stories for another time.

Now that you know a little of our history, maybe you can understand…How a species, not yet evolving an ability to terraform or develop new worlds…How in the Ancient Days was cut down at the verge of this multi planet evolution… How it might as we might say, do what it must to survive, especially after a great calamity that nearly destroyed all…
Might evolve along different lines.

That is to say, and we make no excuses, but simply state the facts…We are a Free Trader Species. If you still, yet do not understand…let us use the vulgar vernacular if we must…Some call our species a…smuggler. There I said it.

This is a rude word to us and not completely indicative of what our species does, yet if we must use this word for you to understand then it has been said. With this in mind as an introduction I will let you speak further to representatives of our species and the companies and services which they represent.

-Yrret Zlohhcub- Chief Diplomat and Historian in Charge of First Contact, Diplomatic Center, The Moon Rhotar

LENSMAN
Lensman is the leader of a technologically specialized association known as the Membership. The Membership are Miners who work in union towards the common goal of enlightenment. The Membership of the Lensman Mining Guild are known among star faring entities as LENSMAN.

Peaceful, biological species have sought the Membership to be among them throughout history. Ancient ledgers of the Guild record contacts with alien species who visited Homeworld while exploring Naplia. Many of the Membership elected to work among these adventurers and joined their expeditions. Many technological advances recorded by those in Naplia were possible because of the early cooperative efforts of the Guild and its Membership. Renewal of contact with the Membership and their heirs who live beyond known space is official policy of the Guild.

Although a young species that only recently have begun to venture to the stars, the Membership has always welcomed contact with star faring species. Awareness among the Membership about opportunities to assist biological species eventually led to active exploration of Naplia and cooperation with its biological entities.

Generous and honored are the Development and Diplomatic Stratifications of the Guild. They have promoted policies that shaped many worlds. Civilization has been advanced in many areas of Naplia due to their expertise. Many allied species prosper through their alliances with the Membership.

On occasion the Membership have assisted peace loving worlds regain their independence. Liberty and freedom to pursue enlightenment are prized by the Guild and assisted when possible. The progression of the corporate continues victoriously in the name of peaceful development.

The Membership of the Lensman Mining Guild are prepared to assist those biological species seeking enlightenment. We can assist others of any habitat develop their resources to levels they alone can not reach. Inquiries welcomed.

On behalf of Lensman… To A Greater Naplia.


TAKAMO UPDATES

Takamo Update
Program Changes:

PROBE RANGES

The range of planetary probes has been reduced to the sector where the probe is launched, out to one sector away. Planetary Probes launched beyond this range will have a high probability of malfunction.

PROBE ACCURACY

Probe accuracy has been reduced. Stellar Cloud interference; Transmission interference from system anomalies, and navigational errors have been added to the programs.

ABMs

ABMs now have the capacity to intercept and destroy planetary probes while at extreme range. Probes destroyed in this manner will give transmit little useful information.

FIGHTER RECON (AC 84) FOLLOW-UP STRIKE

Carrier fleets may now assign a number of fighters to a follow-up strike. If a fighter recon element encounters an enemy fleet and survives to report its discovery, the number of fighters assigned to the follow-up strike will immediately launch a strike against the enemy fleet. Fighters originally assigned to reconnaissance or to CAP will not participate in the follow-up strike.

To assign Fighters to a follow-up strike, place the number of fighters you want on deck and ready to strike in the # to build slot. An example of a follow-up strike with 50 Fighters is listed below:

Act AC Location1 Fleet# Bld Qty Bld Cde Empire/Ship Name Fleet#2 Location2 Spec#

1 84 ABC211 25 50 RADNIAN EMPIRE ABC2111 100

Additionally if you put an Empire name in the Empire/Ship Name slot your strike fighters will only attack fleets of that empire. Otherwise they will attack any alien fleets they come across. If you put the word WAR in the Empire/Ship Name then the fighters will only attack fleets whose empire you have declared war on. You must spell the name correctly or use the Masked code if the alien empire is masked.

FIGHTERS

Fighters are now less effective in Stellar Clouds. The search capability of fighters has been reduced in stellar clouds. You will get messages stating that the flight leader is requesting more fighters to conduct the search with. When launching strikes into or out of Stellar Clouds, fighters may not find the target or may not all arrive at the target at the same time. There is even the possibility that some fighters will turn back while others press on to the target.

MILITARY BASES &MILITARY BASE SHIPS

Players may now construct Military Base Ships. These ships move to the target planet, land and dismantle in the same manner as a Colony Base Ship. The MLB Ship has the same tec level as the planet where it was built. Military Bases may only be established on planets that you own.

Once established, a Military Base retains the tec level of its parent ship and all military installations on the world fight at the tec level of the Military Base. Shipyards are not upgraded to the tec level of the military base and may not be used at higher than the planet tec level.

A Military Base also allows players to build and upgrade torpedoes on planets, regardless of planet status if a fort is present.

The build code for a Military base ship is 253 and the action code to install the military base ship is 127. It is a move and do. The cost of a Military base ship is 100 X tec level where it was built.

Example follows:

Act AC Location1 Fleet# Bld Qty Bld Cde Empire/Ship Name Fleet#2 Location2 Spec#

1 127 ABC21135 25

We hope you like the additions to the game. There are many more exciting enhancements in the works. The Military Bases were a direct result of player requests for an easier way to ‘tech up’ a planet.

We think this is a good compromise. Keep those ideas coming.

Aleator Games