In a far flung future, far away from planet Earth, humans are rapidly expanding across the stars. This provides an excellent opportunity for people who design, manufacture and sell spaceships. The game is, for reasons involving my sanity, split in 2 parts. In the first half of the year, you build and design spaceships, in the second half you try to sell them to whoever wants to take them.
The SettingAlcubiere warp drives powered humanities first exploration towards the stars. The general area of space you will find yourselves operating in, Arcadia, is still rather unexplored, but appears to be extremely rich in resources and habitable planets. Many large corporations have set up shop here, exploiting planets and providing significant finances for the region. These cooperations have formed a loose political alliance, the Havitak Free league, in order to protect themselves.
Most of the region is characterized however by the conflict between Hologian Confederation, and the Nemean empire. Both have several conflicting claims, and there's some tension, though a war seems very unlikely as long as both can expand into unknown terrain.
There's also varying independent nations, which try to maintain their neutrality with varying success.
Known TechnologyEverything is open source unless otherwise noted.
Structural
- Steel : moderately priced, easy to produce and rather strong. However, it's fairly heavy.
- Plastic : cheap, not all that difficult to produce and lightweight. Not that strong however.
- Reinforced : A material reinforced with another. Stronger, but often more expensive and harder to produce.
- Carbon Nanowaver armor. It's strong, lightweight but very hard to produce. (Taricus only)
- Ceramic Materials : Affordable , and fairly lightweight, making them excellent for Reentries. However, they are rather hard to produce. (Helios; Vulcan only)
Engines
- Solid Fuel: Disposable, good for getting ships into the air and not much else.
- Liquid Fuel: Fairly powerful, but expensive and heavy.
- Ion Engine: Light and economic, but slow.
FTL Drives
-Alcubierre drive: Expensive, large and power hungry. Still the fastest and most reliable solution.
--Compact FTL drive : A smaller version of the Alcubierre drive (Taricus Only)
Control
-One or Two pilot cockpit: One human pilot, or a human pilot and copilot fly the ship. Includes limited life support.
-Automated flight system: A computer flies the ship. Capable only of very simple instructions and not always reliable. Relies on open source programs, so vulnerable to hacking.
- Swarm AI: A distributed Automated Flight System that can easily manage large amounts of simple units, and becomes more capable if more systems are added. (UR only)
Payload
-Cargo: Brought from planet to planet or accrued from space, in arbitrary units. Cargo has been standardized, though ships can be specialized for some cargo sources.
-Passengers: Space for a given number of passengers, with life support included.
Tools
-Mining laser: Breaks up asteroids for ore.
-Scooping arm: Retrieves asteroid chunks and scrap.
-Ship Sized Hacking Equipment: Given time, will overpower enemy systems and take over the ship (Pax only)
-Camouflage System: While Stealth is impossible in space, Camouflage certainly isn't. Somewhat expensive, but the capabilities of this system, while not perfect, are impressive. (Pax only)
Weapons
-Cannon: Fires lead rounds using solid rocket fuel (gunpowder doesn't work in space). Capable or piercing armor, but not accurate.
-Laser: Accurate, but expensive and weak. A laser and batteries weighs as much as a cannon and bullets.
-Heavy Laser: Accurate, very expensive, but capable of piercing armour. Weights slightly more, and is slightly more spacious. (Helios)
-Missiles: Accurate and deadly, but with limited ammunition stores.
Other
-Short range sensors: Sensors and communications are on a craft by default
-Long rang sensors: Similar to above, but useful for exploration and military scouting.
Corporation name:
Forum Name:
Your Starting Funds: Ж100,000
Your Home Planet:_________ in region _________ (Choose: Havitak Free League, Hologian Confederation, Nemean empire, Independent)
Infrastructure:
- Design Complex (Allows you to make a single new design at Ж25,000, or make (unlimited) modifications for Ж10,000 )
- Production Facility (Up to 50 Production units/ annum)
- Research facility (Can research ! thing per turn at Ж10,000 or can do unlimited case studies at Ж5,000(Requires additional investment to finish research))
- One facility of choice
First turn orders:
The most predictable way to get money. You can off course attempt to sell everything to the market, but selling the market what it needs is generally the best choice.
The Havitak Free League intends to expand. They're looking for scout ships capable of finding and exploring new planets for them. Must have FTL capability. All other is an extra.
Various free planets need human transport ships, and are offering various contracts as ships are available. They must be cheap, safe and have a large passenger capacity. They are also seeking cargo ships with similar requirements. Speed is a bonus.
The Hologian Confederation is having problems with space piracy. They seek reliable interceptors to combat this threat.
The Nemean empire has no specific requests, but will probably order a counter to whatever the Hologians acquire
Various civilians want to acquire craft with space to atmosphere capabilities, for cargo and personnel deliveries. FTL is not required.
First TurnThe first half of every year is when prelimary ship design takes place. You can also research another ship part, like what's in the technology list.
Beginning to design a new ship costs Ж25,000. During this phase, you will attempt to create a feasible design, the fruit of which you will have by the beginning of the second turn. This is just, "I want a ship with liquid engines and cargo that's cheap" or the like- pick and choose relevant details from the technology list, I'll add stuff you forget or change stuff that's impossible. You can also make a modification of an existing design (Design X, but with Ion Engines instead of liquid ones) for Ж10,000.
You can also do prelimary research for Ж5,000. Simply suggest what you want to add to the technology list, like "Faster engines" or "bigger, better lasers" and I'll tell you what it will cost to finalize the design or if it's impossible. Only you will have access to this technology at first. You can also attempt to study a technology that exists in the field or study a captured technology for Ж10,000.
Second turnDuring the second half of every year, your options are quite different. You will know what your designs are and their stats. You can make a last-ditch attempt to change them, either fixing a flaw you found (more likely to happen on ambitious designs) or saying "it needs to be cheaper to build!" or the like. You can also say which contracts you wish to fulfill, and give a brief paragraph about why you should receive the contract. If you're successful, then at the end of the turn/beginning of the next turn you will fulfill the contracts automatically, receiving your profit.
You can also do some other things- like broker designs or technologies that aren't yet public to the other players (you'll have to agree on a price). You can also attempt CORPORATE ESPIONAGE during the second turn- PM me.
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Topic: Spaceship engineers [8/6] (Read 11520 times)