PlanetsCentral

Hi everyone,

to finish this year, here's some updates.

Premium accounts... for everyone

Given that PlanetsCentral plays "classic" VGA Planets, one question I frequently received was: how to get a key for that? If you have that on a floppy disk, how to extract it? What if you cannot find your floppy or never had one? Even if you'd want to buy one, all sites seem to be down or disfunctional now (planets4.com, vgaplanets.com, bmtmicro.com, stc-play.de), and that's not even thinking about the philosophical question whether you should actually need one if you don't use Winplan.

All PlanetsCentral accounts therefore now have a key associated with them. To play with full tech, click "Options > Set up & Play", choose the directory name (on the server), and then select "Registered to PlanetsCentral, <hex-code>".

Documentation... for everyone

Not all add-ons available on PlanetsCentral have documentation that is easy to find. If you'd sign up for a game with ExploreMap, we'd have assumed that you know what it is and how it works.

I have therefore added the new Documentation Center. It currently contains documentation about PlanetsCentral, some of the host software, and documentation for PCC2. I expect to fill it with more documents over time. If you have a useful document to add to the collection, get in touch with me.

New front page... for everyone

Already a few weeks ago, I reworked the front page and parts of the Host area. The main aim was to make the site more mobile-friendly (i.e. responsive multi-column layout), and use a little more modern design language (i.e. activity bobbles for unread mails and unplayed turns).

Have fun, and have a happy new year,
Stefan

Hi Stefan,

Thanks a lot for all the new stuff. I can only imagine all the time and effort you put into making all this happen.

Have a brilliant new year!

Tulgas

Hi everyone,

to finish this year, here's some updates.

Premium accounts... for everyone

Given that PlanetsCentral plays "classic" VGA Planets, one question I frequently received was: how to get a key for that? If you have that on a floppy disk, how to extract it? What if you cannot find your floppy or never had one? Even if you'd want to buy one, all sites seem to be down or disfunctional now (planets4.com, vgaplanets.com, bmtmicro.com, stc-play.de), and that's not even thinking about the philosophical question whether you should actually need one if you don't use Winplan.

All PlanetsCentral accounts therefore now have a key associated with them. To play with full tech, click "Options > Set up & Play", choose the directory name (on the server), and then select "Registered to PlanetsCentral, <hex-code>".

Documentation... for everyone

Not all add-ons available on PlanetsCentral have documentation that is easy to find. If you'd sign up for a game with ExploreMap, we'd have assumed that you know what it is and how it works.

I have therefore added the new Documentation Center. It currently contains documentation about PlanetsCentral, some of the host software, and documentation for PCC2. I expect to fill it with more documents over time. If you have a useful document to add to the collection, get in touch with me.

New front page... for everyone

Already a few weeks ago, I reworked the front page and parts of the Host area. The main aim was to make the site more mobile-friendly (i.e. responsive multi-column layout), and use a little more modern design language (i.e. activity bobbles for unread mails and unplayed turns).

Have fun, and have a happy new year,
Stefan

Documentation... for everyone

Not all add-ons available on PlanetsCentral have documentation that is easy to find. If you'd sign up for a game with ExploreMap, we'd have assumed that you know what it is and how it works.

Stefan

https://planetscentral.com/host/shiplist.cgi/plist-3.2

what is missing in the documentation. there is a table of ships. but in this table there are no special features of these ships, for example

Al = Alchemy

B = Bioscan

C = Cloak

C+ = AntiCloakImmunity

D = GloryDevice

G = Gravitonic

H = Hyperdrive

I = Planet Immunity

IA = Imperial Assault

N = Refinery

R = RamScoop

T = AntiCloak

WS = WarpChunnel Self

+ = HeatsTo50

# = HeatsTo100

- = CoolsTo50

$ = Gambling

https://planetscentral.com/host/shiplist.cgi/plist-3.2

what is missing in the documentation. there is a table of ships. but in this table there are no special features of these ships, for example

Al = Alchemy

B = Bioscan

C = Cloak

.
.
.

Good point. In addition to this and if possible I suggest to also add the standard XP levels when certain features become available, for example:

B'Rel - C (L0)

Cobra - C (L1)

Cheers,
Mike

at0mix in Re: Site Update:

https://planetscentral.com/host/shiplist.cgi/plist-3.2

what is missing in the documentation. there is a table of ships. but in this table there are no special features of these ships, for example

Al = Alchemy

B = Bioscan

C = Cloak

Good point. In addition to this and if possible I suggest to also add the standard XP levels when certain features become available, for example:

B'Rel - C (L0)

Cobra - C (L2)

This is actually the reason why this feature doesn't yet exist.

Writing "Alchemy" behind hull 105 would be pretty trivial, but those PList 3.2 abilities can be pretty complex and configuration-dependant. In PCC2, I've been experimenting with a few ways to visualize it, i.e. filter out irrelevant things and so on. It shouldn't be too hard to duplicate that logic to the website.

--Stefan