Monday, August 17, 2015

Update#90 : The Word Money

The Word Money ... doesn't look right if you stare at it and say it too many times. Or at least that's my experience within the past 2 minutes of starting this post.


I finally managed to get a paypal account linked to my bank account. I won't get in to details, but it should have taken 1-5 days, and it took a month!

BUT NOW THAT THAT'S FINISHED it's time for me to make a purpose for it. Buying stuff in the game! What could you possibly buy? Well I'll tell you what you can't buy in this game: an easy win!

The main items you might be buying in the game would be semi-passive account enhancements, such as increased research speed for science and technology, or the ability to see a bit more in the maps, and probably a few other things I can't remember... they're in a much older devlog I'm 50% sure but right now I can't remember it all.

Whatever the items are, they won't be bought directly but they will cost various amounts of a secondary in-game currency which will be tradeable in the market like other resources. This will allow players willing to spend money the ability to trade these special credits for helpful resources, and those who have some excess resources or can't spend the money will be able to acquire the special credits through in-game trade.

Below will be a stream-of-thought babbling and typing of name ideas for this new currency; it was sparked up now while trying to set up a Paypal button to buy this currency, and part of it is "Item Name" and it made me realize that there is no name yet for the item being bought! Duh..


Private Sector Contract = PSC
~ I think PSC would be more applicable to just the research buff

Special Investment Grant = SIG

Super-Imperial Grant = SIG

Super-Imperial Favour = SIF

Old Relic Donation Endowment = ORDE

STAR = Special Trade and Advancement Reserve

.... I think I like that STAR. For now, that's going to be it, I'm satisfied by STAR. I'll come back if I become dissatisfied and feel the need for another brainstorming session.

Also, for the main game currency COINS I'm shortenning it to [COIN, Currency of Interstellar Negotiation] because it just feels better (to me) as an acronyzed name.

Alright, now to play with some Paypal settings...


PS:  This is officially Update#90 but it's actually my 100th post here! \o/

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Update#89 : Good Ol' Rock. Nothin' Beats Rock!

Among other things I've worked towards a finalization of my desired resource processing. The exact numbers are subject to change and at this stage are unimportant, but the concepts and general ideas of the processes are solid as rock. Listed and described below are the 'Raw Materials' and the 'Production Materials' followed by their related processes.

Raw Materials
(VI) Volatiles : Volatile Compounds, generally liquids and gases and other chemically interesting substances
(OS) Oxysilicates : Common Minerals, often used as building materials
(LO) Light Ore : Low-density ore containing useful concentrations of metals such as aluminum and copper
(HO) Heavy Ore : High-density ore containing significant quantities of dense metals, primarily iron
(UO) Uncommon Ore : Rock and ore containing hard-to-find precious metals like gold
(EM) Exotic Minerals : Unusual and exciting minerals which contain very rare substances

Production Materials
(Atm) Atmosphere : breatheable atmosphere, necessary in large quantities for building long-term habitable structures
(Wtr) Water : clean water is required for life support and many industrial processes
(Rct) Reactants : chemicals used in the production and purification of many other substances and materials
(Con) Concretes : solid moldable thermal-tolerant materials used in virtually all construction projects
(LtM) Light Metals : lightweight metals with a variety of unique properties and always in demand
(StM) Structural Metals : heavier metals (most commonly iron) which can be used to make very strong structures
(PrM) Precious Metals : these metals are not common but can be applied to excel in certain applications
(RaM) Rare Metals : in addition to being very difficult to find and extract and purify, they have highly unusual and useful elemental properties

Processes
Atmosphere & Water & Reactants <= Volatiles
Concretes <= Oxysilicates + Water + Reactants
Light Metals <= Light Ore + Water + Reactants
Structural Metals <= Heavy Ore + Water + Reactants
Precious Metals <= Uncommon Ore + Water + Reactants + Light Metals
Rare Metals <= Exotic Minerals + Reactants + Light Metals


Note that these resources stand in addition to the Currency Of Interstallar Negotiation and Sales.


Another area of resources I've been toying with on paper is populations. People are a very important resource - no, the most important resource - in any civilization or empire. I'm not completely sure I want populations as a resource type for people to manage, but I think it would be interesting to have various 'types' of population affecting various aspects and requirements. For example, out of a city's total population there might be an employable fraction and that 'employable' population really helps to boost the economy, but then you also have the option to take some of that and give them military training to prepare them for military service so you can later put them into a starship or army if you need them. Having populations as a meaningful resource also opens the possibility of having slaves among the population and taking prisoners from conquered enemies. Slaves could provide some economic benefit, while having other drawbacks based on moral implications; the least of which being that other players will know that you allow slavery and might dislike it, especially if you've captured any of their citizens...

For the record, I'm completely against real slavery. This is just a game and great empires in history did allow the keeping of slaves, I'm recognizing that and just considering adding it as an option to the game. If anybody takes it as an excuse to enact real racism they will be punished for being stupid and offensive.


I have very recently started making a new setup of paypal and bank accounts that will be 100% dedicated towards this project; reaffirming my seriousness to continue work on The UNIVERSE Project.

Having mentioned that, I'm also really considering doing some reasearch into further requirements and promotional avenues which might eventually lead to something like a kickstarter effort. Development doesn't need much, but having help getting a more modern computer and maybe a dedicated internet line would be awesome. I don't expect to try anything like that terribly soon, but I'm now open to the possibility; I wasn't before and I don't remember why.


My final little note for this posting... August 9 is my birthday. August 5 is my oldest friend's birthday.
Happy Birthday to Me and Friend!