With Season One of the Starfleet Commander Tournament Universe coming to an end, it’s time to get ready for Season Two! This Season will be another time limited, fast paced, smash ‘em up battle to the top of the leader board and will include new ships, a new building, a new tech, and a number of twists on the classic Starfleet Commander rules. Season Two will use the same ship speed as Season One and the building speed from the Nova Universe.

Season Two of the Tournament Universe is scheduled to launch on November 14, 2012 at 19:00UTC and will run for approximately 6 months. The Universe will be available at http://tournament.playstarfleet.com and on Facebook.

At least two weeks before the end of Season Two we will announce the exact end date and time. At that time we will also announce the start date and rules that will govern Season Three. At the end of the Season the leader board will be preserved and made accessible in future Seasons so that it may always be referenced for eternal bragging rights.

The following rules and features will be in effect during Season Two of the Tournament Universe:

—Battle Mechanics—

One destroyed ship point per 1,000 resources destroyed. Season Two will use the destroyed ship point formula from Starfleet Commander Original Universe.

Debris Fields. 80% of the ore and crystal used to build ships will now be placed into the debris fields. Additionally, 30% of the ore and crystal used to build destroyed defenses in battle will be placed into the debris fields.

No destroyed ship points will be awarded for attacking non-player characters (NPCs) or inactive players. We will not be awarding any destroyed ship points for attacking NPCs or inactive players.

Non-player characters. NPCs will be capped to a maximum size of 250,000RSP.

Proportional destroyed ship points in group attacks. In all group attacks we will award destroyed ship point proportionately between the attackers based on the resources spent value of the ships contributed to the attack. This will allow destroyed ship points to be a better representation of the ships actually destroyed by each player. For example if one group attacker contributes 1RSP worth of ships to the attack and the other group attacker contributes 99RSP worth of ships to the attack they would respectively receive 1% and 99% of the DSP earned in the battle.

No Newbie Protection. Season Two will have no Newbie Protection. This means that you may be attacked by any player at any time once entering the tournament.

No Zeus or Empusa. The Zeus and Empusa will not be available during Season Two of the Tournament.

Reduced Shield and Weapons Rating on Curetes. The Curetes has has the shield rating reduced to 1400 and the weapons rating reduced to 75.

—Non-battle Mechanics Changes—

		No Moons. Season Two of the Tournament will have no moons and therefore no moon related structures.
		Systems and Galaxies. Season Two of the Tournament will have 30 planets per system and only 4 galaxies.
		Mining algorithm. We will be using the Starfleet Commander Universe 2 base mining formula modified to Starfleet Commander Nova building speeds.
		Building and Attack Speeds. As indicated, we will be using the attack speeds from Season One of the Tournament and we will be using the build speed Starfleet Commander Nova.
		No Missions or crew droids. All missions and crew droids have been removed from Season Two of the Tournament.

—New Building, Tech, and Ships—

The new buildings, ships, and defense added to Nova are as follows:

		Tiresias Tower – Wiki Entry The Tiresias Tower can be built on your planet and allows you to scan a planet for details concerning any attacks traveling to or from the planet. Increase your Vessel Detection Technology to improve the reliability of the information you obtain.
		Vessel Detection Tech – Wiki Entry Vessel Detection allows you track the attacks traveling to and from nearby planets. Increasing the level of this Tech will increase your chance of obtaining more valuable information and will make it more difficult for others to obtain information about your fleet activity.
		Erebus Class Fighter – Wiki Entry The Erebus is a lightweight fighter with a heavyweight weapons system. During combat the Erebus will always fire three times per round, ignoring all shields and directly striking the hull of the ships and defenses of your enemies.
		Moros Class Fighter – Wiki Entry The Moros is the big brother to the lightweight Erebus. During combat the advanced weapons system of the Moros will fire three times per round, ignoring all shields and directly striking the hull of the ships and defenses of your enemies.

—Other Mechanics—

Playing in the Tournament Universe will require that you register with a Facebook account. A standalone site will be available to log in after the account is created.

Diplomacy mode and vacation mode will not be available in the Tournament Universe.

At the end of the season, all unused time on commanders and credits will be transferred to the new season. However, all unused items and androids will be destroyed.

A spreadsheet with many of the changes for Season Two can be found here.

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Join Us and Play Stardrift Empires Nova Now!

Do you have what it takes to rise to the top?
Like us and play on Facebook or jump right in on the standalone site.

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Stardrift Empires Nova is an exciting new Universe with updated game mechanics, including faster attack and build speeds, new buildings, new ships, and a new defense!

Stardrift Empires Nova will be available on October 1, 2012 beginning at 18:00UTC. Like the Stardrift Emprires Nova Facebook Page so that you can be one of the first players to join the game! A standalone site will also be available and the address for that site will be posted at the time of launch.

—New Buildings—

		Resource Den – Wiki Entry The Resource Den will be available at launch and expands the available storage on your planet and protects a portion of your resources from plunder. When protecting resources on your planet it will attempt to do so in equal quantities (it follows the attack plunder formula) and those resources do not display on an espionage report of your planet.
		Lunar Dock – Wiki Entry The Lunar Dock will allow you to undeploy your Titan Class Attack Platform so that it may travel via Warp Gate.

—New Ships—

		Empusa Fighter – Wiki Entry The Empusa is a small, but powerful, assault unit. It’s pilots are trained to perform kamikaze missions to inflict massive amounts of damage on enemy ships. However, the Empusa is only effective against opposing ships during an attack and will always be destroyed in the first round of battle.
		Zagreus Recycler – Wiki Entry The Zagreus is used for collecting debris left behind in battle. It is faster than the Dionysus, but has a smaller cargo capacity. Send these on a harvest mission and you can collect the resources that float in debris fields around planets after battles.
		Curetes Cruiser – Wiki Entry The Curetes is a defensive style of ship designed to absorb large hits. While it has limited offense, its high shields and the fact that nothing rapid fires against it make it able to withstand large amounts of fire, making it a great addition to your fleet.
		Carmanor Cargo Ship – Wiki Entry The Carmanor is the largest freight ship in the Universe. It’s slower than the Atlas or Hercules but has the largest cargo capacity available making it ideal for moving large amounts of resources.
		Pallas Bomber – Wiki Entry The Pallas is a specialized assault unit meant for disabling enemy mine fields and hammering opposing defenses. It’s not very effective against enemy fighters, but is able to quickly neutralizes mines so that they cause minimal damage.
		Thanatos Destroyer – Wiki Entry The Thanatos, a massive assault unit rivaled only by the Zeus, is able to make quick work of both enemy fleets and defenses.

—New Defense—

Space Mine – Wiki Entry Space Mines provide an excellent deterrent to enemy raids when placed in large numbers. However, this comes with risk. During battle your own ships may detonate a space mine and take damage.

—Battle changes—

Stardrift Empires Nova will have several changes to the battle mechanics aimed at improving the overall leader board and encouraging attacks on players of similar size. These changes include:

No destroyed ship points awarded for attacking non-player characters (NPCs) or inactive players. We will not be awarding any destroyed ship points for attacking NPCs or inactive as we work to make the destroyed ship score a reflection of a player’s achievements in hunting other active players.

Relative destroyed ship points will be awarded for all attacks. To discourage players from attacking players that are significantly smaller than them we have implemented a new scale for awarding destroyed ship points in a battle. Depending on how many more or less resources spent points the opposing player in the battle has will determine the value of the destroyed ship points you earn in the battle. Attacking a player of equal size will result in one destroyed ship point per 1,500 ship resources destroyed in battle. See the wiki for a full explanation of how the destroyed ship value of a battle is determined.

Proportional destroyed ship points in group attacks. In all group attacks we will award destroyed ship point proportionately between the attackers based on the resources spent value of the ships contributed to the attack. This will allow destroyed ship points to be a better representation of the ships actually destroyed by each player. See the wiki for a full explanation of how the destroyed ship value of a battle is determined.

—Newbie Protection—

Newbie Protection in Stardrift Empires Nova will be the same as Stardrift Empires Original. The rules for newbie protection (also available on the wiki) are as follows:

•Players with fewer than 1,000 Resources Spent Points (RSP) cannot attack (except NPCs) or be attacked.

•Players with over 1,000, but fewer than 250,000 RSP, may only attack or be attacked by other players who have between one-fifth and five times (20% to 500%) their current RSP, unless the other player has fewer than 1,000 RSP.

•Players with more than 250,000 RSP may attack or be attacked by players with between one-tenth and ten times (10% to 1,000%) their current RSP, unless the other player has fewer than 250,000 RSP, in which case the 5x rule above applies.

•Group Defense is also restricted by Newbie Protection. Players may Group Defend Buddies and Alliance mates (only) if they have between one-tenth and ten times (10% to 1,000%) the mate’s RSP. It does not apply directly to the attacking and group defending fleets.

—Non-Player Character changes—

In addition to the removal of destroyed ship points from non-player characters we have changed NPCs to grow dynamically with the size of players in the the Universe. NPCs in Stardrift Empires Nova will also create debris fields when attaced.

—Moon related changes—

In addition to the Lunar Dock mentioned above, the following changes are also active in Stardrift Empires Nova:

		Reduced warp gate cool down per level. After the first level of warp gate the cool down for the warp gate will be reduced by 15% for each additional level. When two warp gates have different cool down times, the cool down for the gate ships are sent from will be applied to both gates. See the wiki for more details.
		Destructible Moons. You are now able to destroy moons with the power of your Zeus! As such, moons will now be assigned a size when they created that is directly correlated to the size of the debris field which forms it. This means that larger debris fields create larger moons which will be more difficult to destroy. More information about moon destruction can be found on the wiki.

—Mining changes—

Mining algorithm changes. We have made changes to the mining algorithms in the game to increase end game competitiveness. You can view the new mining tables and formulas on each of the individual mine page in the wiki.

—Other changes—

Stardrift Empires Nova be a 1.5x speed Universe. Additionally, Stardrift Empires Nova will have no diplomacy mode and no vacation mode. Players who need to step away from the game for an extended period of time are encouraged to send their ships on long fleet saves or to try a neutrality marker.

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Join Us and Play in the Starfleet Commander Tournament Now!

Can you conquer the galaxy and rise to the top of the leader board?
Like us and play on Facebook or jump right in on the standalone site.

Note: A Facebook account is required to play in the Tournament Universe.

For the latest news and information from Blue Frog Gaming:
      

Get ready for Season One of our upcoming new Tournament Universe for Starfleet Commander! This Universe will be a time limited, fast paced, smash ‘em up battle to the top of the leader board and Season One will include all of the new ships, defense, and buildings from our Nova Universe, the ship speed from our Extreme Universes, and a never before seen building speed that is approximately three times as fast as our Original Universe.

Season One of the Tournament Universe is scheduled to launch on July 9, 2012 at 18:00UTC and will run for approximately 4 months. The direct link to the Universe will be posted here and on our Facebook page at that time.

About two weeks before the end of Season One we will announce the exact end date and time. At that time we will also announce the start date and rules that will govern Season Two. At the end of the Season the leader board will be preserved and made accessible outside of the game so that it may always be referenced for eternal bragging rights.

The following rules and features will be in effect during Season One of the Tournament Universe:

—Battle Mechanics—

One destroyed ship point per 1,000 resources destroyed. Season One will use the destroyed ship point formula from Starfleet Commander Original Universe.

No destroyed ship points will be awarded for attacking non-player characters (NPCs) or inactive players. We will not be awarding any destroyed ship points for attacking NPCs or inactive players as we continue to work to make the destroyed ship score a reflection of a player’s achievements in hunting other active players.

Proportional destroyed ship points in group attacks. In all group attacks we will award destroyed ship point proportionately between the attackers based on the resources spent value of the ships contributed to the attack. This will allow destroyed ship points to be a better representation of the ships actually destroyed by each player. For example if one group attacker contributes 1RSP worth of ships to the attack and the other group attacker contributes 99RSP worth of ships to the attack they would respectively receive 1% and 99% of the DSP earned in the battle.

Original Universe Newbie Protection. Season One will use the Newbie Protection rules from Original Universe. This means that after a player reaches 25,000RSP they can attack or be attacked be any other player over 25,000RSP.

Destructible Moons. Following the same formula as Starfleet Commander Nova, all moons in the Tournament Universe can be destroyed with Zeus Ships. For more information on moon destruction please see the wiki.

Non-player characters. We will be using the spawn frequencies and resource levels for non-player characters found in Starfleet Commander Nova.

—Building and Speed Changes—

		Reduced warp gate cool down per level. After the first level of warp gate the cool down for the warp gate will be reduced by 15% for each additional level. When two warp gates have different cool down times, the cool down for the gate ships are sent from will be applied to both gates. See the wiki for more details.
		Mining algorithm. We will be using the Starfleet Commander Universe 2 base mining formula. The exact algorithm will be available closer to the start of Season One.
		Building and Attack Speeds. As indicated, we will be using the attack speeds from Starfleet Commander Extreme and we will be introducing for the first time a build speed that is approximately three times as fast as Starfleet Commander Original.

—Buildings, Ships, and Defense—

All of the buildings, ships, and defenses from Starfleet Commander Nova will be included in the Tournament Universe. The new buildings, ships, and defense added to Nova are as follows:

Resource Den	Lunar Dock	Space Mine
Empusa Class Fighter	Zagreus Class Recycler	Curetes Class Cruiser
Carmanor Class Cargo	Pallas Class Bomber	Thanatos Class Destroyer

—Other Mechanics—

Playing in the Tournament Universe will require that you register with a Facebook account. A standalone site will be available, but you will be required to log in using Facebook Connect.

Diplomacy mode and vacation mode will not be available in the Tournament Universe.

At the end of the season, all unusued time on commanders and credits will be transferred to the new season. However, all unused items and androids will be destroyed.

For the latest news and information from Blue Frog Gaming:
      

How did you get started with Game Development?
I wrote my first game on a pocket organizer that had an unstructured basic interpreter built in. I made a blackjack game. There weren’t any graphics or anything but it was a fully playable game. That was probably around 1992. That device didn’t last too long, but it sparked my interest. I would go to the library and read up on programming languages, but I didn’t have a computer so I would write code on paper. I really didn’t hit the ground hard until 8th grade when my science teacher nurtured my interest by giving me an ‘A’ for earth science, basically automatically, and excusing me to work in the computer lab for that period. Shortly after that I was working in that lab 4 periods a day (including lunch) writing code. I made a few simple games during that time. Card games, destroy the tower type games, and other things like that. I had manuals for Applesoft (the programming language we used on the Apple IIc’s in the lab), but they were written in Korean except for the actual code syntax. Figuring out that language with those books was some of the most fun I ever had.

What kind of work did you do before coming to Blue Frog Gaming?
Before coming to Blue Frog Gaming, I was a manager at Lowe’s. I also worked at Home Depot, had a pizza shop, was a supervisor at UPS, and was a controls engineer for an environmental company. I did a lot of different things, but I always wanted to write games and did so at a hobby level throughout my other vocational endeavors.

What projects have you worked on at Blue Frog Gaming?
I started out on Casino Tycoon, then Starfleet Commander and Stardrift Empires, and now am working on an undisclosed title. In the middle of all that, I also worked on Pop Dat.

What’s the biggest design challenge you’ve been faced with at Blue Frog Gaming?
The toughest part of working here is also the best part: Being able to pivot to different tech and quickly ramp up at a moment’s notice. This being the first software engineering job for me, that pivoting started on day 1. Its been tough at times to learn quickly and stay productive, but its very rewarding as well.

What’s your favorite Blue Frog Gaming game?
Now I would have to say Starfleet Commander Nova is my favorite. I really love the changes we put out there.

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How did you get the nickname Karnage?
I am not entirely sure, I showed up at a local bar one night and everyone was calling me Karnage. I presume it is because someone found my name difficult to pronounce. It could also be that I am not very nimble and I am more likely to accidentally destroy something in my path then leave it completely untouched.

How did you get started with Game Development?
The truth is I never really wanted to get into game development and I actually avoided getting any specialization of it in college. I guess my story is kind of backwards. It was Game Development that got me into programming.

The first program I ever wrote was a game. I was bored out of my mind in my sixth grade math class, and I was messing around with the TI-82 calculator that I had borrowed from the school because my parents wouldn’t buy me one. I had no idea how to program or even knew what programming was. I started messing with random commands, not knowing what any of it did. Eventually I figured out enough of the commands to make a really rudimentary slot machine game. Over the next couple of years I took whatever available computer courses my school had. That led me to make several more games like a side scrolling shooter and pac-man.

What kind of work did you do before coming to Blue Frog Gaming?
Nothing really, I was fresh out of college and only had a few internships and research positions. I interned at Toyota and did research in Bioinformatics and Biometrics. The Bioinformatics research dealt with isolating genes responsible for diseases related to the eye. The Biometrics research was a program for the FBI that could match tattoos from surveillance video to an existing database of tattoos.

What projects have you worked on at Blue Frog Gaming?
I have worked on Spades HD, Hearts HD, Hearts Multiplayer, Polar Puzzles, Pop Dat, Ghost Chicken, Starfleet Commander, Stardrift Empires, and an undisclosed title.

What’s the biggest design challenge you’ve been faced with at Blue Frog Gaming?
All the different languages/technologies I have had to master since starting here. All five of the game families I have worked on have used completely different technologies.

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Moving from gavels to ban hammers, Matt is our featured team member of the week!

What did you do before coming to Blue Frog Gaming?
I had been working in law firms for over six years. I did a lot of tasks such as new case intake, initial file work-up, preparing documents and briefs for filing with the Court, and interfacing with clients to make sure we stayed up to date on their cases. But, my primary job during the last three years was brief writing. This included briefing cases at all levels of the Ohio Court System. In 2011 alone my briefing helped to obtain two positive opinions from the Ohio Supreme Court and numerous other positive opinions from various Ohio Appellate Courts. I’m pretty proud of that!

How did you first hear about Blue Frog Gaming and the job opening?
Surprisingly, from my mom. My dad had just retired and she was looking for some new work for him when she came across the job posting from Blue Frog Gaming. She sent it to me as a joke as her way of trying to tell me I spend too much time on the computer. Unfortunately, for her and my wife, I didn’t see it that way and applied for the position.

What is your position at Blue Frog Gaming and what does that position entail?
I am the Community Manager. My duties mainly include moderating the wikis, interacting with our users via our social media accounts and the forums (both Starfleet Commander and Stardrift Empires), and acting as a conduit for information and feedback between the player community and the development team. I also oversee support and assist in answering tickets if there is a backlog or issue that can not otherwise be resolved.

How was the transition from the legal field to Blue Frog Gaming and what is in your future?
I had about 6 years of experience maintaining communities as a personal business before coming in to Blue Frog Gaming. That experience helped make things easy and it has been a nice change of pace so far. As for my future, I’ve got one semester of law school left and I should take the bar exam next February. However, I have no plans to leave Blue Frog Gaming.

What comprises a typical day for you?
The only absolute about my day is that there will be a meeting at 11:50. Other than that, I generally start my day at home by checking all of the social media accounts, skimming the forums and anything that has appeared in Google Alerts, and reading through the backlogs in the Skype player chats that I watch.

Once I get to the office I’ll continue looping through those tasks, while also working on new blog entries, scheduling new sales, reaching out to sites that mention us, and trying to find ways to bring new people into the community. Of course, I also work to solve support requests and bug related issues if they arise.

And after the office closes and on weekends, I’ll generally continue to keep an eye on the forums, the social media accounts, Skype player chats, and my e-mail in case an emergency arises. My wife hates it, but I can essentially do my job from my phone if I have to.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve been faced with at Blue Frog Gaming?
Keeping up with the community. I love our players and many of them have a lot to say. I want to make sure I’m hearing as much of what they have to say as possible and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the incoming feedback.

Anything else you want to share?
Sure! A few other random facts about me include:

• • I am a licensed minister in the State of Ohio and I have performed one marriage to date with another ceremony scheduled for August.
• • I wore duct tape to my prom.
  
• • And I love to catch up with all of our users on Skype (MattH_BFG), Twitter (@MattHirschfelt), and Facebook! Don’t be afraid to message me.

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Why are you known as the ‘Ric Flair of Ping Pong’?
Ric Flair is the single most decorated world champion in the history of wrestling. He is in a class of his own, steamrolling his opponents with a wave of masterful execution, leaving them begging by the wayside for mercy. Winning is all that he knows how to do and he does it with impeccable style and magnificent grace. I’m pretty sure this is the comparison that most people draw with my Ping Pong skills. That, or I happen to yell “Wooo!” at the top of my lungs at random intervals of play.

How did you get started with Game Design?
I like to think that I was born with a controller in my hand. I’ve always been a gamer, and I will always continue to be one. So, as a young lad, I thought to myself, “Why not combine my biggest passion with my need for monetary sustenance?” Haven’t looked back since.

What kind of work did you do before coming to Blue Frog Gaming?
Well, straight out of school I did a bit of freelance character design work. Soon after, I was hired as a Level Designer at a small startup company called ‘Kiz Toys’. I spent about a year there, eventually working my way up to the role of Game Designer after only being there for a few months. After that, I migrated to the bitterly cold climate of Ohio to lend my talents at Blue Frog Gaming as their resident Game Designer. Also, I did some bartending before all this – I can make a mean Cosmopolitan.

What do you do as a Game Designer for Blue Frog Gaming?
My position mainly consists of trolling the developers as much as possible, ‘researching’ the latest and greatest social and mobile games, and blasting Dubstep playlists on Spotify into my eardrums. In my free time, I’m usually drawing up some crazy new game mechanics or trying to break existing game systems so that I can hand the devs some shiny new bugs to fix.

What projects have you worked on at Blue Frog Gaming?
A majority of my work belongs to Stardrift Empires, Polar Puzzles, and the occasional smaller endeavor, like Ghost Chicken. Currently, I spend most of my time working on a super-duper top-secret undisclosed mystery project that shall not be named or have its existence confirmed, but it’s going to be awesome.

What’s the biggest design challenge you’ve been faced with at Blue Frog Gaming?
There certainly have been a lot of challenges that I have faced here at Blue Frog Gaming. The biggest, so far, has probably been implementing enemy NPCs into Stardrift Empires. There were a lot of player expectations, requests, and outright demands going into it, so I definitely felt a lot of pressure to deliver something that would be viewed as both fun and fair to a universe where the slightest change can potentially cause devastating reverberations to the game balance and economy if not done correctly. Once we introduced the NPCs, we were able to respond quickly to player feedback, adjusting and iterating to ultimately provide something that I feel accomplished its intended goals of expanding upon the existing universe and giving the players additional targets to seek out and destroy for their enjoyment.

What’s your favorite Blue Frog Gaming game?
I have a soft spot for all the love and care that I put into Polar Puzzles. As the first title that I worked on here at Blue Frog Gaming, it kind of feels like my baby. Despite it not reaching the breakout hit status of casual games like ‘Angry Birds’ or ‘Cut the Rope’, I still view it as an extremely fun, challenging, and addicting puzzle game.

Anything else you want to share?
Yes. Woooooooo!

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Join Us and Play Starfleet Commander Nova Now!

Do you have what it takes to rise to the top?
Like us and play on Facebook or jump right in on the standalone site.

For the latest news and information from Blue Frog Gaming: