I like making formal alliance on compulsory, but I think having trade scanned off is really important since it gives way to lots of options and different game plans. And it’s really fun.
Trade Scan ONLY is a GREAT option … among other things, it reduces the dominating power of distributed cartels and forces MORE diplomacy as you can only exchange tech with your neighbors.
I’m much prefer playing games with this option set.
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It does, but having it off allows a different form of alliances.
Not necessarily neighbor alliances.
But, you have a point.
So in the Heretic VI game, some good comments in the group thread that I thought worth posting here to get a definitive answer and also share info with other NP players.
@cptcrackers : allies can no longer give each other ships. Rather, they can use each other’s stars to park ships or use them as navigation points to travel further.
@Heretic I think you can still give ships, you just have to explicitly drop the ships on them.
To summarize the question, say I’m allied with another player and land on their star.
I’m 99 certain that if I do NOT drop my ships, they stay with my carrier.
But if I do DROP my ships, do they transfer over to the ally … or do they just “stay” on the star and continue to belong to me … and I can subsequently create a carrier to move 'em along?
I think we wrote code to prevent dropping ships if the star doesn’t belong to you.
@Dysp , Question , I am curious.
is there one after action report for each loop of battle ? ( I favor this method )
or is there one single after action report for the completion of all battles ?
Since @JayKyburz said “thinks”, I’m hoping it’s OK I setup a test game to see how it actually behaves. As a software guy, I know sometimes my own code throws me for a loop! 
Here is a 6-user game with tons of cash, close stars, and formal alliances - password is “test”
So if we can get some folks to join, and then once it starts, send a formal alliance everywhere (and accept them) … and then send ships at stars and we’ll see what happens.
P.S. Note I have win set to 66% so we’ll have time to test and I can delete before someone “wins” and get points … since it’s not a “real” game.
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Also could test secret teams coordinating declaring war ? LOL
I wonder what would happen at the “occupied” ( cough ) visited stars ?
Just reading about this for the first time now, and I’m stoked for the changes! Gives so many more possibilities to make use of alliances.
One problem I found it our test game is that, when you have two carriers at an allies star, you cannot move ships between them. Normally you push ships to the star and draw them back down. We’ll need some way to do carrier to carrier transfers.
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FYI FWIW that I’m thinking of the following tests - any others?
- What happens when an ally does a drop on a star already owned by an ally?
- What happens when an ally does a drop on an unoccupied star?
- What happens when two allies converge on an unoccupied star?
- What happens when more than two allies converge on an unoccupied star?
- What happens when an ally hanging out at another allies star declares war?
We have four of the six slots taken … so need two more players to sign up to test things.
P.S. I hadn’t thought about that case Jay … but yea, if I have two carriers parked at an allies star, the current mechanism of transfer to the star and then back to the ships no longer applies … unless the drop just “leaves” 'em at the star.
Signed up for @HULK’s test as Rebel.
Alliance requests sent. Is there a particular pattern or route for sending out ships you want to test?
PM’ing in the game the various tests … trying to keep simple.
Not sure why I wrote test #2 - that one is a big fat D’OH!
Adding test #6
6. What happens when multiple allies converge on a star occupied by a NON-allied player?
Thanks to the following players for helping out:
@cptcrackers - @Zaphod - @Trucriot - @Mach5 - @Rebel Automation
@JayKyburz - any other tests you (or anyone else) wants us to run?
You can use your super-powers to read the threads I started for each test, plus I assume can see what happens “under-the-hood”
Thanks Hulk,
My interface for reading ingame messages is not super good. I only use it when scanning for bad words or hate speech. Its fairly hard to follow a conversation. I would really appreciate if you let me know here if something really strange happens.
I’m farily sure the order will simply not do anything. here is the code in the fleet order function
if target_star.player == self.player or target_star.player == None:
if order.action == 0: # do nothing
pass
if order.action == 1: # collect all
self.collect_ships(target_star, -1)
if order.action == 2: # drop all
self.drop_ships(target_star, -1)
if order.action == 3: # collect x
self.collect_ships(target_star, order.amount)
if order.action == 4: # drop x
self.drop_ships(target_star, order.amount)
if order.action == 5: # collect all but x
self.collect_all_but_x_ships(target_star, order.amount)
if order.action == 6: # drop all but x
self.drop_all_but_x_ships(target_star, order.amount)
if order.action == 7: # garrison star
self.garrison_star(target_star, order.amount)Yea, will report back on what happens.
BTW, remember that code you added for me a while ago:
Experimental.Hit = Random(@Tech)
if (player == HULK) then Experimental.Hit = Weapons # Manual Hack for Big Green Guy
It’s not working too well for me when weapons are locked … 
Test #7
Testing to confirm behaviour on stars where the owner has no ships.
-Checking that the ally ships are not donated to owner.
-Checking that enemy ships attack the owner.
-Checking that ally ships defend owner against enemy.
-Checking what order allies defend owner against enemy.
oh sorry, i looked at the code and there is a bug
if player == HULK:
player.tech.weapons.research -= 1
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LOL Jay … no wonder the HULK hasn’t been smashing the last couple of games! 
FYI for those following the thread - here’s the initial bomburst. Everyone is aligned except me.
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As I see it:
This is a neat exercise in group coordination, in addition to the game testing.