IC#6 Stardate 1038

From: dpierce@erinet.com (Daniel Pierce)

Date: Sat, 22 Apr 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Interstellar Communicator           Issue 6                   Stardate 1038
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Copyright 1995 by Daniel Pierce                          dpierce@erinet.com
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We need your articles.  Your comments.  Your ideas.  Your gripes.
And we need a lot of players!

What's going on?
    It looks like the Star League is going to be building Tramp Freighters
for awhile until they get the bugs out of their industry.
    Bases now decide what they are going to sell.  For a while, Fuel may be
in short supply as bases hoard what they have until more Fuel can be bought
from the planets they orbit.  Also, people and industry are moving onto bases
in order to build them up and into Starports.  In the mean time, as they
grow, some things may be in short supply.  If you wish to encourage a base to
become a starport then load people onto the base, and sell it lots of
resources.

Galactic statistics:
    There are 816 suns, 488 planets.  There are 111 Bases, 32 Starports, 105
Beacons, 0 Battle stations.  There are 128 Tramps, 288 Transports, 495
Warships.  There are 48 Merchantman, 102 Scouts, 0 Shuttles, 0 Monitors.
There are 25 Merchants, 18 Empires, 30 Live players, 13 Computer players.

Greetings from Captain Harrington of the Beowulf:
    I am looking for any Empires out there wishing to arrange trade via an
interstellar trader.  I would rather work with someone interesting, rather
than just with the "computer-run" empires.  Even if you do not yet need my
services, get in touch so that we can see if/when I can be of help.
    Yours,  jhalpern@newbridge.com

ADVERTISMENT:
Have Jump Drive Will Travel.
    Capt. Tazzaric (dabushne@leland.stanford.edu) is looking to make contact
with other Traders and Empires for exchanging information and trading.

Questions:

1)  The "order 1" explanation in the IT rules file is chopped up, and doesn't
explain what it means.  Help?
a)  Order 1 means the unit will not fire unless fired upon.

2)  Where can I ftp (or otherwise get ahold of) past Interstellar
Communicator files?
a)  We don't have an ftp site yet so just send up a note asking for any back
issues you don't have.

3)  I'm unclear as to how I.C. costs have any bearing to Traders.  Do we ever
_use_ industry?  Can we move it around?  What's the deal?
a)  Traders can't use industry but Empires build everything else in the
galaxy with it.  All of your fuel is made by industry.  Next to people, it is
the most important thing an Empire owns.  It can be bought & sold.

4)  Is case important for orders parsing?  i.e. "BUY" vs "buy"?
a)  Case does not matter.

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Notes from above:
    Turn fees from the Empire players can be sent to:
Daniel Pierce, 17 Dean Place #B, Dayton OH 45420 USA.
After May 1st the turn fees for Galactic Empires is $1.00 per turn.

Next turn the Parents will have their own communication channels which
their clients will automatically receive and can transmit on.  To send a
Parent message: XMIT PARENT "xxxxxx".  If you are a PARENT, then use XMIT
CLIENT "xxxxxx".
    When an Empire player resigns their positon becomes computer-run.  When a
Trader resigns their ship(s) are given to the Star League and put into
storage, and anything else they own becomes unowned.
    The External Messages routines need fixing & will be.  There were a lot
of bugs fixed this turn, too many to detail.

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