3. Starting A Game

This game manual is for Universe version 0.8.

At the start of the game, the following dialog pops up:

Click on "Start a New Game" to start a new game!

Future versions will allow you load and save games. When this functionality is complete, the second button will be enabled.

3.1. Schemes & Themes

At the start of the game, a dialog pops up that asks for the Scheme and Theme you want to use. An example of this screen is below:

Schemes and Themes are used to create the 'rules' of the game. They will allow you to modify things such as the races, technology, and number of starting planets. The current version only ships with a basic Scheme and Theme.

3.2 Game Options

The next window you will see is the Game Options window, a picture is shown below:

Each of the options are described below.

3.2.1. Players/Race

Selecting the number of players determines how many alien races exist in the game (including your race). With the current version, only one human player and multiple computer players can exist.

Each player by default is assigned a random race, to change this click on the race field for that plaer. The races available will be determined by the Theme that you have chosen to use.

3.2.2. Galaxy Creation

There are two options for Galaxy creation, the size and the density. The size represents the diameter of the spherical galaxy. This value is in parsecs. The density represents the density of star systems in the galaxy. This value is in systems/parsecs³. For example, the approximate density of star systems where are sun (Sol) is located is about 0.125 systems/parsecs³. The density at the center of our galaxy might be in the range of 35,000 systems/parsecs³.

The number of star systems created in the galaxy is determined by the volume of the galaxy times the density. The number of star systems can increase dramatically as the size increases. For example:

size = 3, density = 1 => 15 star systems
size = 4, density = 1 => 34 star systems
size = 5, density = 1 => 66 star systems
size = 10, density = 1 => 524 star systems
size = 15, density = 1 => 1768 star systems
size = 20, density = 1 => 4189 star systems

There is no limit to the size of the galaxy, but more star systems will require more memory.

3.2.3. Gliese Galaxy

The Gliese Galaxy option creates a galaxy based on the Gliese Star Catalog. Choosing this option creates a galaxy based on the closest stars to our sun (based on current Astronomical surveys.) As you might guess, your home world is assigned as Earth.

In order to use this option, you must download the Gliese Star Catalog from the Universe web site. This is a must for astronomy fans!

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Created: 27 Jan 1997
Updated: 05 Jan 1999