Show Media Item - The Complete Interview - KwesyThe Complete Interview - Kwesy
Here is the complete interview as seen in the Planets Newsletter - Enjoy!
PN: Tell us a little about yourself.
K: I work in software development since around 20 years. I'm living in North-Rhine-Westfalia (Germany). My favorite activities are various outdoor sports and listening to or making music. Windows and (real life) Fascists are the only things I really can't stand in life.
PN: When did you first start playing?
K: That was around 1993. We were playing VGAPlanets by exchanging floppy discs and later on via a BBS (run by a friend who is a user here too). Compared to today we all played totally stupid, since there weren't so many possibilities to exchange know-how like today with the Internet. I stopped playing planets when I banned DOS / Windows from all my computers.
PN: What's your favorite race and why?
K: Lizards are nice, Rebels too, and Crystals and Birds, ... hard to choose just one. If I have to, I'd pick Birds, though I'm not very successful with them.
PN: What do you build on first three turns with them (or your general opening strategy)?
K: It highly depends on the race. Generally I try to get up economy as early as possible, so that would mean LDSFs. If playing an offensive Race (Birds, Lizards) I will build a cloaker in around turn 3. If playing Rebels I'd build a Falcon pretty soon.
PN: How many games do you play at the same time?
K: Only one! Maybe two if I'm desperate. Obviously I'm very slow in making my turns and I want to keep a healthy work-life balance. ;-) When starting a game you never know if you are going to be successful or not. In mid or end game having lots of planets and ships can cost so much time that you regret playing too many games.
PN: What types of games do you like playing most?
K: I like Classic games but start preferring Campaign games. Some of the new features are really nice.
PN: What's your most memorable game, and what made it so interesting?
K: Rebirth 1: http://planets.nu/#/sector/815 It was just out of coincidence that I found out about planets.nu so early. In that game I really really sucked, because I had to learn so much stuff again, after not having played planets for so long.
PN: Name a memorable friend and/or a memorable foe, and what made them stand out.
K: Kedalion ate me for breakfast in that "Rebirth 1" game (and another one I think). Then in some other games we were allies. Review some of his games and you will understand the importance of excellent communication. We both fiddled around with extracting game data from planets.nu and doing all sorts of things with it. But it was him who prepared some actually useful things (plugins) that most of us use for everyday work - erm ... gameplay :-)
PN: Give an example of excellent tactics you've used or seen (w/ details so readers can view it, if possible).
K: I use no excellent tactics, just pure obstinacy. :-) Most of my starbases are set to friendly codes that my enemies might possibly use on ships (mkt, gsX, HYP, lfm, ...). Every now and then I get a ship for free. Also many players are not aware of minefield friendly codes or even global minefield FCs. So I often set a global minefield FC on border planets and try to "lose" those planets to enemies. In many games players don't notice that and I have free safe passage in their mines. Hopefully minefield FCs get more awareness, because it feels like cheating to exploit them ... :-/
PN: What do you think is the most important skill for a Planets player to succeed?
K: Good communication and coordination with other players can more than make up for otherwise average skill. Communication goes hand in hand with diplomacy - try to make sure to always have partners that help you killing your primary enemy.
PN: Describe the process you use to make a turn.
K: Check the scoreboard, read about any exotic or dramatic happenings in the reports, VCRs or diplomacy messages, then check the starmap.
AFAIK most players use the "Planetary Management Plugin", but I can't get used to it.
I still use the older "Tax Assistant" (I think by Big Beefer), so one of my first actions is to hit the button to updatethe native taxes on all planets. When I captured some planets I selfishly use the Territory Map plugin (by Kedalion) and see how my imperium grows by switching back and force in the time machine.
I heavily make use of the Idle-Visualizer plugin (most essential plugin).
Usually I give the "easy" orders first and mark those ships as ready. Then after a while only those ships are yet idle that require more thinking and communication with other players. I try to always mark all ships ready before the host, so I'm sure to not forget anything.
I try to write messages to other players early so there's enough time for talking.
Often I reopen a turn and adjust some actions because I dreamed of them during some boring work meeting or so.
PN: What is your favorite thing about Panets Nu?
K: The fact that it's running in the web browser and doesn't depend on Windows! Being a Linux user with no lame M$-Windows I was more than happy when Joshua announced to create a web version of Planets.
PN: Is there anything else you would like to add?
K:Yes! My apologize for my (german?) lack of tact and my (occasionally) rude diplomacy. And everybody don't forget it is still just a game!
Thank you to Kwesy!
You can view Kwesy's profile here.