Hello to all who have visited this forum.

This will serve as the place for discussion about STCA, a new online game that I've released for alpha testing.  The game can be seen here.  Documentation is here.

From the documentation page:

"STCA" is a turn-based strategy game with a futuristic space theme – a tactical starship combat simulator. It is based on the game Begin, a shareware game created in the mid 1980's which still has a small following even today. ("STCA" is a code name for the game until domainnames are secured.) 

cool.  i joined a game.  guess i'll wait to see what happens next

Pluto: Thanks for testing.   If you check out the docs, there is a quickstart tutorial.  And you don't need to "wait to see", if there are no human opponents, then you can just play against the AI, which will take its turn right away.

Anyway, I'm going offline for a few hours.

hi pistos and pluto!  i finally found "start game" and when i clicked it it says "Failed to create game 9.".

I should also mention that, for Firefox users, you need to go into about:config and change this setting:

network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server

From 2 to something like 8.

Hi, luckymustard; thanks for trying the game.

You need at least 2 ships to play a game, and probably of different races.

I will add some more informative error messages.

where do I change the setting?

Type about:config into the address bar then network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server into the search box on that page. Double click on the setting to enter a new value

Uh, yeah, what he said. 

i've been searching the help for how to end my turn, but no luck

There is no end turn.  I notice that this is a bit of a FAQ, so I will be adding some in-game help to clarify all this.

The idea is, you just issue orders, and when all participants have issued orders, it automatically goes to the next turn.  If you do not receive acknowledgement for your orders, then the most likely reason is that you have not adjusted your Firefox setting as I mentioned above.

I will add a spinner to the Issue Orders button.

there was acknowledgement in the box at the bottom

The turn should have ticked automatically.  Check the turn indicator in the bottom right.

it says "Turn: 1"

If there are other people in the game, the turn will only tick after they've given orders... Is this game 7?

Game 7 seems to have more than the two of us in it.  Try creating your own game and putting only one AI opponent in it, and starting it up.

yes, game 7.  i'm now playing in a game with ai's that i created.  and the turns are progressing. tx!

Great.   Feel free to ask questions, even in real time, since I am online at the moment.

Okay, I've made a number of updates, including more in-game help and the ability to issue basic orders to your ally ships.  More ally orders to come.