The Space Project Design Update #3 (I think)

From: ericsum@aol.com (EricSum)

Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Worked a lot on the code this weekend. Added ability to probe planets and
neighboring starsystems if the ship has a Planet Probe or a System Probe in the
hold. Put in code for market listings to show what items can be bought or sold
at a place if they have an active market economy.

Have been wrestling with a minor dilemma however. I had planned on allowing
players to have multiple ships, but I had also planned on making the game
heavily dependant on player interaction. Looking over the ideas for things I
wanted to put in the game, a single ship can do a whole LOT of things. Having 5
ships would result in a Order Sheet that would be about 2 pages long and a
Results Sheet that would be about 25 - 30 pages. Since the game is going to be
Email only, this is not that big of a problem, but it is still something that I
have to decide on.

I may limit the number of ships that one player can own to 3. In addition,
players can join player run organizations much like in BSE, but unlike in BSE,
involvement in a player run organization would not be mandatory. Of course
involvement in an organization will have advantages, but there should not be
anything in the game that makes it impossible to play alone. Playing with
others should be encouraged I belive, but not enforced.

I am also kicking around what to do with Technology, I want to make it so that
players have to work a bit to get the ability to use certain items,
particularly items found on wrecked starships and items obtained from alien
races. Once a player has achieved knowledge of a certain Technology, lets say
Trans Warp Drive for an example, he can sell or trade that Tech knowledge as he
sees fit.

I have got several other ideas which I find pretty exciting for the game. I
will begin working on them soon and update everyone as to how it is going.

Thanks,
Eric