Interstellar Communicator #11 From: dpierce@erinet.com (Daniel Pierce) Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000 Interstellar Communicator Volume 2, issue 1 Stardate 1048 ============================================================================= Copyright 1995 by Daniel Pierce dpierce@erinet.com ============================================================================= Daniel Pierce, 17 Dean Place, Dayton Ohio 45420 USA We need your articles. Your comments. Your ideas. Your gripes. What's going on? Many bases are going broke as Traders are currently 90% selling and only 10% buying. Stockpiles of Beacons, Basehull, Industry, and Fighters are high as few Empires are buying in large amounts. There is still peace across the galaxy, with no wars or acts of revenge. In the long run, Traders need to get larger ships and sell resources rather than fuel or markets will wither and die. Statistics: There are 930 suns, 514 planets, 125 Bases, 61 Starports, 35 Beacons, 4 Battle stations. There are 174 Trampships, 322 Transports, 529 Warships, 121 Merchantman, 111 Scouts, 0 Shuttles, 0 Monitors. There are 43 Merchants, 22 Empires, 51 Live players, 14 Computer players. Federation 109 planets, 40 starbases, 0 colonies, 4 starports. 7239000 people, 3594000 industry, 10 scouts, 119 warships, 157 transports. Star League 0 planets, 0 starbases, 0 colonies, 39 starports. 2652000 people, 395000 industry, 0 scouts, 29 warships, 32 transports, 153 others. Antares Confederacy 44 planets, 9 starbases, 0 colonies, 1 starport. 4397000 people, 1539000 industry, 5 scouts, 13 warships, 75 transports. Dreenoi 31 planets, 13 starbases, 0 colonies, 1 starport. 107632000 people, 4397000 industry, 5 scouts, 18 warships, 48 transports. Cyborg 33 planets, 3 starbases, 0 colonies, 3 starports. 565000 people, 726000 industry, 15 scouts, 15 warships, 45 transports. Weyland-Yutani 1 planet, 8 starbases, 3 colonies, 1 starport. 338000 people, 191000 industry, 1 scout, 1 warship, 1 transport, 14 others. Caladan 2 planets, 0 starbases, 0 colonies, 1 starport. 319000 people, 137000 industry, 2 scouts, 1 warship, 1 transport, 23 others. Imperial Empire 51 planets, 26 starbases, 1 starport. 1044000 people, 521000 industry, 20 scouts, 80 warships, 96 transports, 30 others. Veiled Society 5 planets, 1 starbases, 0 colonies, 0 starports. 254000 people, 110000 industry, 1 scouts, 1 warships, 2 transports. Hegemony 2 planets, 0 starbases, 0 colonies, 1 starport. 211000 people, 100000 industry, 6 scouts, 1 warship, 1 transport. Questions: Q) When loading colonists on a Falcon, is 200 the upper limit or can you fit more units of colonists than other cargo types? Does a cargo capacity of 200 in a Falcon mean it carries 200 units of metals, organics, etc.? a) It means it can only carry a total of 200 units, regardless of the type. Q) I tried this at 00:00:LLL: REPAIR b1 20. and got this message: There is not enough repair capacity at this Star Port. a) For a port to repair ships it has to have resources. Terminus (b1 @ 00:00:LLL) is notoriously short of resources each stardate, as are most Star League starports. Also, many Federation ships try to get repaired there. I suggest you try Von Braun starport at 00:00:AAA as they seem to be well supplied and have a much larger capacity than Terminus. Q) You seem to be saying that we Traders can run multiple ships. So is it OK if I buy two yachts for fuel runs? a) It sure is. In the new rules you will be able to set up automatic trade runs for your other ships. Q) Suppose I want to buy an Industry and move it, to sell to someone else. Is it possible to load Industry onto a transport and sell it to the Star League? How much does it cost? And how much does Basehull cost? a) Industry can be built, loaded, shipped, and sold to anyone that has the credits to buy. It takes 5 industry to build 1. Basehull requires 1 industry to build one basehull. Q) How do you command a Starbase to build a ship? a) Use: BUILD <type of ship> <class number> as in BUILD TRAMPSHIP 10 to build a Freighter. Q) Is it possible to "mine out" your home planet, such that it can no longer produce fuel ore, organics, and metals? a) It is impossible to 'mine out' a planet that you own. You can use up other planets by MINEing them. Q) Is there any help files that futher explain the economic model used in the game? I guess I am looking for help on what I should set my prices to. a) You set the prices to whatever you want. The Galactic Price Index is the average of all Federation, Antares, and Star League bases and would be a good guideline to go by. The highest prices are at Star League ports, with prices being about twice the galactic average. An Empire incures a real cost of about 500 credits when they build an industry but the Star League charges about 10,000 for one. Q) Can you sell luxuries to your own colonies? To computer controlled independent worlds? a) You can DUMP luxury goods onto anyone, including yourself. You can also SELL them to anyone who wishes to buy. Q) Can you load Fuel Production Units, Organics Prod. Units, etc. onto a ship and then download them onto a colony world? a) No. Just as you canot load a coal mine onto a truck, production facilities cannot be loaded or moved. They are the mines, wells, and farms that produce the raw materials we use. Q) How many "show ports" can you do in a turn? a) You can only do one SHOW PORTS in a turn. You can have a friend do a different one than you and swap the reports. Trading of information can be as important as trading other things. Q) What info do beacons give you? a) They give you the same report as a regular ship does. Q) Can you clear up pricing for me... What formula is used, where I find the variable values... a) The real price of an object is Cost to build * 100 * Galactic Price Index. All other prices are set to reflect what the market will bare. Q) How much storage do weapons take? Like for gun running, not for use. a) Each unit takes up one unit of cargo space. Q) Do computers help with anything other than combat (and industry)? a) Not now, but they will be necessary for the jump drive upgrades. Q) What is an interstellar trader market (or what is special about it)? a) Generally, a market is a location where there are a lot of planets and bases, all owned by different people, with extensive trading going on. So far, only Sol system at 00:00:AAA qualifies as a market. Basically, the main locations that Traders trade with are the galactic market. Q) When you buy a beacon, does it come armed? When you put a beacon, does it auto come with fire if fired upon orders? How do you set the amount of torps it fires/round? a) It comes unarmed. When you PUT a beacon you decide how many torpedoes to load it with and what order it is to execute. Q) When you see a beacon, do you know if it is armed? a) Until the next turn you didn't. As anyone looking at a beacon should be able to see if it has torps strapped to it's sides, all reports will show if a beacon is armed or not. Q) Since not everyone produces everything, is there any way to know who produces what, and what they do NOT produce? a) Only through diplomacy and communication with the other players will you find out what is being built and what is not. I encourage all players to put messages in the newsletter stating what they have for sale and what they need to help themselves grow. Q) Does alignment automatically change, regardless if you are not caught being naughty? Is alignment auto visible to everyone? a) Alignment only changes based on your actions. Good deeds raise it, bad ones lower it. No one can see your alignment except the Boskone. Q) When you transfer command, do all your computers, torps, fighters, etc go with you (especially hyper)? a) They do not. If you changed your Command Location it is up to you to move your defenses around. Q) When low on cash, can you sell fighters/torps etc? a) You can sell anything not nailed down. Q) Can EVERYTHING be stolen? (even techdata?) a) Anything not nailed down (including techdata) can be stolen, but except for credits, you have to steal or capture the entire object. Things on ships cannot be stolen but you can PIRATE the entire ship. Q) If you steal/pirate from "bad guys" does your alignment go up? a) No. Stealing is stealing. Blowing up a ship of someone with negative alignment will raise yours. Q) Are all reg/sect/systems on the "map" know? if not, how do we make sure we do not jump to bad places? a) The galaxy can have over 440,000,000 locations. That would be over 113 gigabytes of data if each location had a star system and one planet. The galaxy is created as needed as people SCOUT it out. The only penalty of trying to jump to a 'bad' location is that you burn fuel and stay in place. Today's 'bad' location could be SCOUTed by someone else tomorrow. If a location is SCOUTed, it is 'known' and can be jumped to by anyone. ============================================================================ Notes from above: Next turn, bases will show a notation indicating roughly how many credits they have. As it is no use trying to sell things to bases which are broke, now you will have better trade information. The values run from broke, poor, has credits, wealthy, rich, to very rich (<10,000 - >50,000,000 credits). Beacons now have an ID number so that you can tell one beacon from another. They also show whether or not they are armed. Messages have been added so that you know who is repairing ships at your Starports, and who is buying what from your bases. Messages are also issued whenever someone LOADs something onto anything you own. Computer run bases now have a better handle on what to set their prices at. Local conditions now have more affect on the prices, which had been set more for galactic averages. New rule books for both Galactic Empires and Interstellar Merchants will be out next weekend. New additions are jump drive upgrades, mines, more scout classes, and tugs. ============================================================================ Interstellar Traders: Interstellar Traders is a free to play open-ended computer moderated play-by-E-mail science fiction space opera game for any number of players. Players own and operate a Merchantman class starship, trading between planets, star bases and starports across the galaxy. Your goal is to survive the other cut-throat merchants, vast alien empires and changing economic prices, getting filthy rich in the process. There is no end to the game, you set your own objectives and agenda. There is no beginning, one can join at any time. As you travel from system to system you will trade raw materials at star bases, earning credits which will allow you to purchase more equipment and weapons for you starship. Some empires will be friendly, others will shoot you on sight. You start at a Star League Star Port with up-to-date lists showing where you can trade at other locations. Besides other merchants you will interact with the large empires of Galactic Empires. Galactic Empires: Galactic Empires is a $1.00 per turn pay to play-by-E-mail science fiction space opera game of exploration, colonization, diplomacy, and war. It is a game of interstellar empire building amoung many other empires and other types of players. There is no end to the game, you set your own objectives and agenda. You start with a planet, a few ships, and a short list of other star systems. The rest is up to you. The galaxy is yours for the taking! Turns are run every Tuesday and Friday. There are no signup fees, charges for the rules or newsletter, and no hidden charges. To sign up for either of the games, get a copy of the rules, or if you have any other questions, email to dpierce@erinet.com (Daniel Pierce). ========================== End of Transmission ============================= ----- ---------------------------------------------------- : \ | / : Programming Services, Unit 16 : :-- * --: dpierce@erinet.com - Daniel Pierce : : / | \ : Pacunium-non-fumo! - Money doesn't stink : ---------------------------------------------------- Up