The Grand Theatre

Saturday, January 8, 2011
Today we are introducing a new concept to the "Nu" community.  It is the first step in a series of new functionality that will be released in the coming weeks to better define the war for the Echo Cluster.  The new concept is what we call the "Grand Theatre" of the war.  

In the war for the Echo cluster many battles are being fought by the 11 races and their officers (you).  In this war, each game you play here at Nu is representing one of those ongoing battles.  Since we expect there to be many hundreds or thousands of games we couldn't keep naming them "Beta 41, Beta 42... Beta 4239, Beta 4240... etc." so we have decided to name each game after a planetary system in the Echo Cluster.  Each game becomes the battle for that system.  There may be more than one battle ongoing at the same system, which will be distinguished based on the Echo Cluster year when that game began.   It is currently Year 1 on the Nu calendar.  (1 Echo Cluster Year = 1 Real Time Earth Month)  

It is now possible to see the entire war displayed on the traditional Echo Cluster map on the Join Game page.  (http://vgaplanets.nu/echo)

Grey planets represent planets which do not yet have a game (battle).  Red planets are full games, brown/orange planets are games in progress which have one or more open player positions and blue planets with green rings around them represent new games which you can join.  A blue square around a planet represents a game you are currently in.  

The Echo Cluster has been divided up into 25 Quadrants, which are divided into 5 Sectors.  
  • Sector 1 - The Corner Quadrants - Games in this sector have private or experimental configurations.
  • Sector 2 - The Outer Quadrants - This is where all new and inexperienced players play.  These games have basic default configurations.
  • Sector 3 - The X Quadrants - You will need to have a certain amount of playing experience and skill level to play in these games.  They may contain more complex configurations or addons.
  • Sector 4 - The Inner Quadrants - Only high ranking, experienced and successful commanders will be able to play these games.  They may contain more complex configurations or addons.
  • Sector 5 - Quadrant 13 - This is where Emperors are made.  (More on this coming soon)

To join a game using the new Echo Cluster "Grand Theatre" map hover over a quadrant where a green circle game is located and click on it to view the games in that Quadrant.  Then click on the game you would like to join and you will see the usual game information screen.  

All your current games can be found on the new map.