This Month's Review: BRE V.0.983 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Opening Comments: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Well now.. May has arrived! And just because it's may, we've got a new feature now. I've set up an area on my BBS where regular users can voice their own opinion about each door game I review. This way, you will get different points of view from many people. Unfortunately, there's a catch to it all. (How'd you know THAT was coming?) You see, in order for there to be other opinions listed in the article, the users have to write them! And since pretty much everyone reading this article is/has been a user at one point in time, you should know that they can be really stubborn at times! Of course, why stop there? If *YOU* want to give me a short opinion on the game I'm planning on reviewing next month, drop me a line at any of the addresses mentioned at the end of this article! I'll be sure to include you when the next month arrives! As for Barren Realms Elite, or B.R.E. as it's better known, it was one of the first, and perhaps one of the most advanced Inter-BBS games. This means that not only can you beat the living daylights out of your closest friends, but you can beat up other friends that just happen to be found on other BBSs too! The more to kill the merrier, EH? Well, look at it this way - there's more people that are gonna want to kill YOU! :) Ah, not to fear. This games not that hard. In fact, it's relatively simple, and the Inter-BBS feature makes it a different kind of gaming experience altogether. SysOp's Point Of View: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you're new to Inter-BBS gaming, B.R.E. is definitely the way to go. It is a relatively simple game, and not hard to set up. Also, it incorporates many safety features within it, as to prevent those users lacking moral values from cheating (thus giving you a headache from all the mail you'll get). Of course, it's not necessary to play B.R.E. against other BBSs in Inter-BBS play. If you wish, you can have a local game going, or even a Inter-BBS local game (Multiple games of B.R.E. running on your system to for a league that operates off of your BBS only). To date, I haven't seen the latter of the three, probably because few BBSs can mass the number of users logging in each day required to run one of descent size. Don't get me wrong here, B.R.E. is a popular game. In fact, it only ranks below L.O.R.D. (figures..) for the most played game! Therefore, if you don't have this game up on you're BBS, you're missing out on a lot! The installation process consists of eight steps, according to the docs. First you run "UNPACK.BAT" which fully unpacks the game once you've unziped it into its own directory. Then you run "BRE INSTALL" - my only real beef against the game itself. B.R.E. uses command line parameters for virtually all of its tasks. Until you get to know which ones you need to use, you'll probably be spending many trips back and forth from "OPTIONS.DOC" - the file that lists all the parameters you can use. Anyway, at this point, you'll enter the standard configuration info, and then, out of the courteous heart of the author, B.R.E. will create a .BAT file for you to run it from. Chances are you'll want to edit this file to "fine tune" it, just in case there's something it missed, or if you need something "extra" added to the file. After hooking up B.R.E. to your BBS, just run "BRE RESET" (more parameters..) and your set. Of course, if you're daring enough to prove to the world that your BBS is simply the ultimate fighting machine ever put forth in mankind's history, then you're going to want to join an Inter-BBS league. You're first task in going Inter-BBS is finding a league. At this point, you have 3 basic choices: a local league, a non-local league, and making your own league. You're probably thinking of all the wealth, honor, and glory the latter option will bring, but I'll inform you right now - the BBS market is virtually overflowing with a huge surplus of leagues. If you are to start one, make sure you're dedicated to it. It takes alot of work to setup, maintain, and promote a league (providing you want to run a descent one), and it'll be especially hard starting out. Due to the saturation, it will be very hard to bring on BBSs, especially at the start. Of course, if the feeling of ultimate power can't be resisted, then perhaps this is the answer for you. A better bet though, is to join someone else's league (ie. MINE! ). Generally speaking, you will get more people to fight, and a better experience altogether. Of course, if you've decided to take this route, you've got another decision to make - local or not? Local leagues are those that operate merely out of one city. While I'll admit these probably have a more personally feel to them, you end up playing the same people constantly, and tensions generally get high more often. This is because since everyone is in the area, there's not much preventing them from logging on to other BBS in the league and "spying" or trying to ruin the game altogether. Therefore, I feel the best leagues are those which connect multiple cities to each other, thus offering new users to play against, and you can even get your "East vs. West" or "Yankees vs. Canuks" wars going. Thing is, if such a league isn't present in your area, you're going to have to cough out some dough for long distance (LD) phone calls. In my opinion, the variety and growth that LD league can offer is well worth it. Even if you feel you can't afford it, chances are that there's someone else that is in an out of town league, and therefore, you can arrange for him/her to transfer your packets. Now to find a league, don't just pick up the first one you see. Shop around! Ask fellow SysOps of any leagues that they know of, and then get all the info you can out of the league coordinators (LC - those that run the league). Important things to note are version, number of BBSs in the league, settings, and most importantly, the participants. You'll probably want to join one that has at least 10 BBSs involved in it, as this will provide enough variety and challenge to keep everything interesting. Settings are good to know too, so that you can judge whether this is the type of league you're looking for. Also, the version number help tell you which version you'll need to get, and how well the league is maintained (A league not using the latest copy is, *USUALLY*, not well maintained). But, as I said, the most important part is the participants. When you find a few league you're interested in, log onto another BBS and play in that league. Get to know the people playing, and the general atmosphere of it. If the league is flying with mail containing foul/disrespectful language, claims of cheating on all sides, or anything else that leaves a sour taste in your mouth, DO NOT join that league! You'll end up with more headaches then you need. Talking to the LC can be helpful too, so you know what his outlook is and how you think he manages the league. One last thing to note - some leagues (the better ones) have constructed an "infopack" for themselves. If available, it is best to get ahold of this file as it contains important tid-bits and other goodies. For example, if you were to join my league, B.R.E. League 116, you could call my BBS at 1:163/114 and FREQ "116" for our InfoPack. This would give you the "low-down" on the league, and hopefully persuade you to join! (HINT!!! HINT!!!) Anyway, now that you know which league you're joining, you'll need to run "BRE SETUPINTERBBS". This will prepare your B.R.E. game for League play. Make sure you know the 3 digit code for the league you're joining!!! Without it, you'll be in big trouble! Once this step is done, you'll need to plug in "BRE PLANETARY" throughout your system. Definitely place it in your nightly maintenance file, and in the batch file used to call B.R.E. If you're really up to it, enter it so that it gets called everytime mail gets dropped of at the BBS, and everyone will thank you for the quick response time you'll offer them. Finally, obtain a nodelist from the LC, and begin beating up everyone in sight! One thing I must address at this point is cheating. As a SysOp, make absolutely sure that everything runs smoothly on at least your BBS. Keep an eye out for those stupid users that insist on trying to ruin the game for everyone. Of course, the opposite side of that is encouraging your users not to do the same to other BBSs. And of course, as a SysOp, you shouldn't be doing anything that would be considered cheating either. There are a dozen and one ways to mess with things, and all in all, it's not worth it. It pisses others off, and when their pissed off, you get pissed off. Once that happens, the league is no more fun. Bottom line - play fair. There is only a basic user editor contained within B.R.E. It will only allow you to change play aliases, the owner's names, or delete users altogether. Finally, the registration cost for B.R.E. is $15 U.S. - well worth the price compared to other doors. Also, there is a "package" deal, in which you can register all 3 SRDOOR games (B.R.E., F.E., & S.R.E.) for $30 U.S. - what a steal! In B.R.E., registering will entitle you to two main benefits - the bank and the SDI. The SDI provides greater defense for your planet, while the bank allows you to invest your money for greater profits. Player's Point Of View: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Note - The strategies and other points I make in this section pertain mainly to Inter-BBS play. This is due to the fact that I usually play Inter-BBS, and also the fact that most other people do also. B.R.E. is a team game, plain and simple. If you don't work together as a team, you'll end up being someone's dinner. Therefore, talk to each other. Pick a leader, and have him coordinate all the efforts of the BBS. Also, listen to this person. Failure to do so may lead to confusion, as well as ticking a few people off. However, keep an eye on your leader. If s/he isn't doing a good job, replace him/her quickly to prevent something disastrous from happening. In Inter-BBS play, do NOT attack fellow people on your own BBS. Doing this certainly isn't good sportsmanship, and it'll also cause your BBS to be weaker. After all, by attacking, you weaken your offensive power, and weaken your opponent's defensive power. Therefore, it will be harder for your BBS to beat other BBSs, and it will be easier for them to beat your BBS! The only exception to this rule is if you get some turkey that insists on being a poor sport and attacking other local people. If this happens, your best to eliminate him before he causes enormous amounts of damage to your team. Speaking of teamwork, make sure you keep open the lines of communication. This helps prevent costly mistakes and other problems. Also, have diplomatic relations with all other local empires. I recommend either the Intelligence Alliance (offensive) or Terrorist Prevention Plan (defensive). This helps to counteract enemy spies, thus making your convert operations more successful. If not one of those, try a trade deal, or at the very least, a technology agreement. Furthermore, trading can help quite a bit. Have the larger empires reinforcing the smaller ones as to help them pull ahead in the game. After all, two heads are better then one! As for individual strategies, I'll start with regions. As far as I'm concerned, technology regions are total garbage. They'll never improve your empire enough to offset the cost of maintaining them each turn. Therefore, not waste the cash to buy them. If you feel you have a need for them, chances are you're better off with a Technology Agreement. Next, Urban are another type I don't like. Sure they bring in people, but they're basically useless. Not only do they consume food, but it'll cost more to make them happy if they ever get ticked at you. Also, if you try to tax them more, they'll occasionally riot, costing you even more dough! My advise? Ditch 'em. That leaves 6 types. Agriculture you should obviously have. Make sure you've got enough to feed your entire empire, or else you'll be in trouble if you run out in the middle of a heated battle! Industrial regions are good as they beef up your military. You should keep a good number of these handy or else you'll fall behind in military strength. The last 4 are your money producing regions. In order from most profit to least, they are River, Coastal, Desert, & Mountain. River's my personal favorite as it produces almost double any of the others. However, one thing to note is that they'll occasionally turn to producing food for short periods, thus you'll lose all your income. Therefore, when you pick this one, have a secondary type of region to back up your empire when the river's stop for a few turns. Coastal is most people's favorite. The produce a good amount or cash, however, if you have lots of these, BUY SPIES! If you don't have lots of spies, you'll be crippled if ever your opponents launch some terrorist opps. against you! This is because these regions produce less when your support is low. Desert regions are descent, and produce enough gold to get you though, however they have neither advantages nor disadvantages. Mountain, your weakest producer, helps boost your industrial region output. This may give you the extra boost you need to beat the tough empire across the country. However, generally speaking, they don't produce quite enough, so have a secondary region to help offset their lower income rate. As for military, it's generally a tough call. One thing for sure is that by your 4th day of playing, you should have at LEAST 5,000 spies at your disposal. This will guarantee you a high success rate, and a low success rate concerning spies against you. As for the "meat" of your military, you'll have to decide. Troopers are cheap and are both offensive and defensive. However, they consume food so you'll have to worry about that. Jets are your offensive units, providing twice the strength of troopers. They can't however, be used in defense, and you'll have to buy carriers in order to bring them into battle. Also, they're the only weapon that can be used to take out a goodie kablooie! (NASTY!). Turrets, on the contrary, are your defensive equivalent, again, being twice as effective as troopers. They can't be used on offense though. Tanks are 4 times stronger then the trooper, and are both offensive and defensive. They supposedly help offset the success rate of enemy missiles that get sent at you, so they might be handy to keep around. However, they're bloody expensive! It's probably best to have a mixture of all 4 types, that way you'll be ready for any type of attack. The 2 I left out of that list were carriers and bombers. Carriers, while expensive, are crucial to victory. You'll need 1 for every 100 jets you have, or else you won't be able to take some jets into battle! Bombers, are rather expensive and not worth TOO much investment. What they do is destroy enemy jets when you attack (no defensive value), so it's harder for him to beat you. Don't stock up though, because if you do, you'll be lacking the rest of your "fighting" army, hence you'll be a sitting duck. Other little tips are to always attack those pirates. Usually attack a different one each time, as you'll get less and less the more you pick on a certain group. This will help bring in extra regions and army, provided you don't send everything you've got. Usually, 5,000 of each type is best. Anymore then that, and you'll end up losing more then you gain! Your take rate can be bumped up a little - mine's at 16% usually, however I'm heard some people with it as high as 40%. How effective this is I'm not sure, but I do know that they'll riot quite a bit more. Whether the increased taxes offset the cost of fixing the riots, well, that's a entirely different question altogether. Moving onto your basic Inter-BBS options, avoid chemical assaults. They take out enemy civilians (maybe troopers too), but don't disrupt the enemy empire nearly enough. Gooies are a huge waste of money for the amount of damage they do, but never the less, if you've got some spare change that can be put towards them, they do quite alot of damage never the less. They'll take out large amounts of enemy regions, however they'll only need a fraction of the construction cost to defeat it with their jets. Nukes are just plan great though. While they get quite costly the larger the empire, if you can continually hit the same guy with 'em, they're bound to crack him shortly thereafter. Sabre missiles you've got to be careful about though. These missiles result in unpredictable effects, and while they can hurt an empire badly, I've heard the odd instance where the victim has actually benefited from being hit! Spy Guys can be a handy thing, especially if your suspicious of a BBSs attitude towards yours. Consider launching one of these guys off now and then to see what's up. The 4 bombing operations are hardly worth their price though. For example, bombing the food market is usually useless as everyone has agricultural regions. Undermining investments can be useful though, despite the cost. This will lower enemy returns from the bank, but keep in mine it's worthless against non-registered BBSs!!! Terrorist Opps. can be key to victory at times. Your best bet is to send all you can to the BBS you plan on attacking right before you attack. If possible, target the empire you're going to take out. Then, when you're attack arrives, they'll already be suffering from your terrorist operations. Which type of operation you choose depends on what you want to accomplish. Demoralize is good if you're not sure you can pull off victory, while bomb airbases takes out enemy jets. The rest of them are fairly obvious in what they do, so I'll let you experiment to your hearts content with them. As for a general game plan for your BBS, here's some good advise to follow. Just after a reset, come out fighting! The minute you leave protection, get those attacks out so you can prey on your opponents while their weak. This will give you the added benefit of extra regions, which will help you keep that edge over the rest. Also, prey on the smaller BBSs. Generally speaking, unless they have big allies, you'll be able to squash them, so reap the rewards from them so you can beat bigger, tougher opponents. Also, don't go to war with more then 2 BBSs at one time. If you do, you'll spread your forces too thin, and end up fighting more then you can handle. Also, keep in touch with other BBSs. Learn about who's fighting who, and who's going to fight who. This way, you can prepare for incoming attacks, and join in a pillage of another BBS that's under siege. If you want to beat another BBS though, here's a good strategy that's gotten my BBS suckered time and time again. As a group, pick out a SINGLE target - preferably one of the larger ones. Then, everyone attacks ONLY that target, with everything they got (T-Ops, attacks, nukes, etc.). Now the logic behind this is that obviously, a single empire can't withstand the combined assault of and entire BBS. Therefore, eventually, after a few days, it'll begin to buckle. The other empires will be forced to help the dying empire out, and send him forces &/or cash. This will in turn, weaken them, and their effort will prove futile under the constant attacks of your BBS. Eventually, that empire will go under, which eliminated one problem for ya. All the other empires will be weaker since they tried to save the guy's butt. You then pick another target, and take him down, causing the rest of the BBS to weak in an attempt to save him/her. Eventually, you'll wipe them out enough that they'll basically be back to a post-reset stage, at which point you've basically won the war. Now I've tried to contemplate a defense strategy against this, and have yet to come up with a truly effective one. The only things I can suggest is do NOT help out the dying empire. S/He's as good as gone. Rather, have him transfer all his offensive military to another empire, so that they can put it to use. All the other empires should be building up defense so they last longer when their turn comes, and also keep attacking the enemy BBS. If you're the unfortunate empire that gets the brunt of this assault, do NOT go strictly on the defensive! Pick out a few of the weaker targets on the opposing BBS and attack them. This will help bring in the regions necessary to sustain you. Remember, the longer you can hold out, the longer your buddies will have to build up defense and counter attack! Lastly, the final point is not to cheat in any way. Whatever you do, don't log onto other BBSs in the league and try and play there, "sabotage" them, or even "spy" and get information out of them. Not only are such practices unethical, but they ruin the game for everyone. Eventually, you'll start verbal wars full of cheating accusations and that ruins the fun. Therefore, anything you wish to find out about another BBS, should be done from the BBS that you're on ONLY! Not another BBS, and not the BBS you're trying to find out about. When you join any league, pick a BBS and fight FOR it, ON it! Play fairly, no matter WHAT you think your opponents are doing, and your gaming experience will be all that more enjoyable. That's basically all I can think of now. At this point, I can't even guess just what I might of missed! Scores: ^^^^^^^ (All scores based on 10 - 10 being the best.) DOCUMENTATION: 9 Sure it might be a pain to read all the .DOCs contained, but they are well written and informative. Some parts could use a little sprucing up though! INTERFACE: 9 B.R.E. incorporate many "hotkeys" for easier control. Everything is laid out for you in an easy to user format, and there are options to customize your game play to some extent. Some ANSI graphics here and there would help greatly though! FUN FACTOR: 8 B.R.E. is a game that can be tailored to your needs. It's the type where you can pound enter to get all the way through if you've got little time to play, however, it also compels you to slow down and see what's going on. There's also lots of little options to pick from, which will keep you enticed for a long period of time. UNIQUENESS: 8 B.R.E. shares many common traits with the discontinued game, I.S.A. Chances are that it sprung from this game, when the author realized the potential the game had, in which in no way I.S.A. was exploiting. LONGTERM PLAYABILITY: 7 B.R.E. relies solely on the people playing. If there are few people playing, you'll probably get bored of this game quickly. However, it still maintains it's popularity, which means you'll probably get a good game for a long time yet. OVERALL SCORE: 8.2 B.R.E. has yet to enter the "full ANSI" or even RIP graphics era. True, it may not add a great deal, but these days, you've got to keep up with the technology. Other then that, B.R.E.'s main weakness is the reliance on other people to fight. When the day comes where another Inter-BBS game arrives that knocks the socks off of B.R.E., it will probably quickly fade into the past. Until then though, B.R.E. offers solid play and a great challenge, and all users should take a peek. Closing Remarks: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ As you've probably noticed by now, I dropped quite a few hints to join B.R.E. League 116. Exploitation you say? Perhaps. Either way though, it's a perk of the job! Therefore, I'll make one last ditch attempt at it.. If you're interested in joining a league, consider join up with B.R.E. League 116! After all, if I'm dedicated enough to write these articles every month, surely I'm qualified to run a great Inter-BBS League! Of course, I won't mention the fact that I run 5 different Inter-BBS Leagues, so I surely know what I'm doing. So, if you're interested in joining, you can write me at any of the addresses listed at the end of this article, or FREQ "116" from them for our infopack! "I'm only a user" you say? No matter! Pass on this info to your favorite (and not so favorite) SysOps! After all, the only thing that could make this league any better, is...*YOU!* Well, enough with the tough sell.. B.R.E. really is a solid game, and will be for many years to come. Hopefully, the authors won't get side tracked by all the other doors there's pumping out currently and forget about this game. B.R.E. is constantly evolving, and to stop that evolution can only lead to something negative if left for a prolonged period of time.. Stay tuned! Next month, I review: Vampires: Children Of Darkness - V.1.00 or later ***>>>Don't miss it!<<<*** Miscellaneous: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This door was tested by the writer using the following: Maximus V.3.01 (BBS) DORINFO1.DEF (Dropfile) X00 V.1.53a (Fossil) Front Door V.2.12 (Front End) 486DX4/100Mhz 8Megs RAM Qemm V.7.52 (Memory Manager) Windows 95 Comments? Suggestions? Want to compliment the author on an astonishing article, or complain about a piece of crap he wrote? Here's how to contact him: InterNet Address: LBUNBURY@CYBERPLUS.CA FidoNet Address: 1:163/114 Trans-Canada Net (TCN) Address: 201:935/104 Myles' Games Extraviganza (BBS): (613) 825-9016 And don't forget to join up with BRE/FE League 116! If you're a SysOp, just write me and I'll sign you up, or FREQ "116" from my BBS for more information! If you're a user, why not bother some local SysOps and convince them to join? All BBSs are welcome, just let me know you want to join! Until next month, this is Myles Bunbury, saying TTYL! þ