This is a thread for discussing the Anacreon scenario "Fallen Worlds Beta II", which was opened for play on June 2, 2016. This thread is maintained by me, Watch TV, Do Nothing, an Anacreon fan, and isn't official.
Beta II FAQ
What's going on in the game right now? What has changed recently?
George, the developer, is recently fixed many major bugs and made changes to the game. The game is currently considered to be in "Era 3" and the well-established Beta I and Beta II games are working with all changes implemented. There is not a new game for Era 3.
- "Jump beacons" were added to serve as a check on jumpship strength.Players' non-explorer jumpship fleets can only jump to within 250 LY of their imperial capital, jumpship yards, or sector capitals if the player's Doctrine is Fire & Movement. They can still be joined into fleets with starships or ramjets, which will move anywhere on the map at their slower normal speeds. (Gunships are probably preferable for this sort of convoying.)
- Your new sector capitals must be placed at least 250LY away from your other capitals. To found your first sector capital, you must have either a dedicated jumpyard world besides the capital (to extend your jumpship range beyond the capital) or convoy infantry in transports that are attached to a warp-speed fleet.
- Ships and defenses have been completely rebalanced. Resource costs are still the same but many ships' range, damage and armor have been increased. Performance of ships and defenses that use missiles has been improved via a change to how missile attacks work. Jumpcruisers are much tougher and stronger, starfrigates' armor has been decreased, and jumpships can no longer be able to first-strike cannon defenses without taking casualties. Missile protection has been reduced across the board for ships that have it. Jumpmissiles will do more damage to heavily-armored ships. Starcruisers had range buffs and may now be viable heavy combatants.
- Mesophon worlds now sell every class of ship.
- The double/no capital and graviton launcher overproduction bugs have been fixed. These improvements will make the game a lot more enjoyable going forward.
All ships and defenses have been rebalanced. Nobody really knows what is strong or weak yet, so go wild trying to figure out what works! Until I can get some proper tables cooked up, refer to Imperator's table or the Core Library
If you are a new player spawning or moving into the northeast corner of the galaxy, you may see strange worlds that don't display information when you clicked on them. A large empire, Ontarion, was destroyed in a way that caused a few hundred of worlds to get screwed up; they can't be interacted with in any way (due to a bug that has since been fixed) If you are a new player who has spawned near to any of these defective worlds, they are annoying but harmless.
What is the difference between the Alpha I, Beta I and Beta II games?
Fallen Worlds Beta I and II run the same Era 3 version of Anacreon but have different galaxies. Beta II was started more recently and has more players and less of the residue that accumulates in really old games (giant hexacarbide stockpiles, massive starship fleets, ruins, strangely-named worlds, etc.) I believe Alpha I is also running Era 3 but I haven't checked. Alpha 1 doesn't have any nebulas, since it was started before nebulas got added to the game.
I'm a new player. How can I get started?
Read the Official Quick Start Guide, join the game, and read the section of the next post in this thread titled "How to conquer worlds and grow your early empire". For more detailed information about the game, check out my Gameplay Guide and FAQ thread.
Are there any unofficial rules or codes of conduct?
Don't exploit known bugs. Players that I've talked to have generally expressed a desire that players not run multiple empires simultaneously, refrain from giving their empires the same name as other empires, not give planets rude names, and not harass other players through the message system.
Stationing fleets over other player's planets when you aren't at war with them is generally considered hostile, although some players don't seem to mind. Don't be surprised if your explorers get attacked or shot at with jumpmissiles when they're in or near other players' territory, even if you don't think you did anything aggressive.
New players should know that other players with an imperial might >200 will suffer a penalty to social order on some of their own planets if they try to attack your worlds, but this penalty will be waived if you have ever attacked one of the that player's worlds. You can always safely attack any fleets that are orbiting your own worlds or shoot at moving fleets with jumpmissiles and it will not waive the penalty.
Weaker players should be skeptical if stronger players try to bait them into attacking one of their planets (e.g. under the premise that it is a "gift" world), as this may be done the intention of subsequently attacking them without the penalty. On the other hand, it might truly be a gift. Weigh the costs and benefits yourself before attacking a stronger player, even with their permission.
Anacreon is an online game and military combat is a major part of it. Eventually you may need to fight to defend your empire- either with lasers and missiles, or through skillful diplomacy. Don't forget that you can try to negotiate a truce with the other player, or recruit allies from among other players.
What's your empire?
I'm Aden, which is a small empire put together to test bugfixes. In Beta II, my past empires (all long since abdicated or conquered) have been Hand, New Agraria, and Trinacria. In the Beta I game I played as Hallucination and later as BOYCOTT CHRONIMIUM.
What is history of the galaxies in Betas I and II?
If you browse through this thread you'll see periodic updates on the state of the galaxy made by me and other players. (Some of these posts are pretty biased, so keep that in mind .) When Beta I was active, several players contributed to a guild newsletter called the Stargazer Bulletin and you can find interesting strategic suggestions and battle narratives in this and other older threads from the Alphas.
I found a bug or want to make a suggestion, how do I do that?
Mention it in this thread or start a new one! If it's a bug, it's likely that others have seen it too but if not you can report it on Ministry which is the bug tracker. People in this thread or other players may be able to recommend workarounds.
Useful Links
Fallen Worlds Beta II
Gameplay Guides and FAQs:
Official Quick Start Guide | My Gameplay Guide and FAQs (written for Beta I)
Anacreon Community:
Report bugs and make suggestions on Ministry | Anacreon Wikia (not comprehensive and a little out of date) | Official Anacreon Discussion Forum | Stargazer Bulletin: Discussion and news for Beta I | Alpha Server Chronicles: Discussion and news for Fallen Worlds Alpha