HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to
THE UNIVERSE PROJECT
My ability to put things off is legendary! Alas, here we finally are, and I bring with me some meaningful and possibly exciting information! That's worthy of an anniversary post, right?
There are a number of things that I want to babble about here, now that I'm sitting and writing to you again. HOWEVER. I need to make more posts as time goes on, so this time I'm going to give you information about some (hopefully) interesting choices you can make about the nature & structure of the empire that you'll be building. The combat details will be released somewhere within the next 6 months, probably within 3 months actually. Lots of details still need to be finalized.
First, a note about the setting. There will be at least one (1) large NPC faction (still unnamed) which acts as the policing force and also a focal point for some of our history and events. Where you begin is as a colony which has been released from the larger faction and granted nearly full autonomy; it is there that your story begins. As for that nearly full autonomy, your income will still be lightly taxed by the greater faction, as a general fee for services. Such services include limited protection along with recognition of legitimacy and territories - maps telling the world that you own what you own! Different empire types and options will have different tax levels (added to your total upkeep)
Player : Empire Types
As the player of your account and the leadership of your stellar empire, the story of your civilization is yours to write. The attitudes and type of people, the form of government, the reason for why they do anything; it's all up to you. However, in the grand picture, there will be a few hard distinctions implemented that might influence some of your choices; either your vision will lead you to which 'empire type' you choose, or the options available will lend direction to your empire's fate. It should also be noted that they are not permanent selections, though changing from one type to another may have certain requirements.
We'll probably be starting with three (3) options which will be descibed below.
Independant Colony
The default type for all players. As described above, you're a colony which has been granted autonomy and self governance from the greater united body. Independant Colonies benefit from having the lowest upkeep and tax levels, and have the option to operate under 'protection' (new accounts are 'protected' by default) which disallows other players from attacking your fleets or cities. However, Independant Colonies are not allowed to formally claim or hold territory, except for individual asteroids upon which they have built a settlement.
About Protection: Naturally, you also can't attack others while being protected. There is a 5-day transition period when activating or deactivation protection, to prevent people from taking cheap shots and then picking up invincibility. You are not allowed to begin activation if you have recently attacked anybody, and you are not allowed to attack during the activation process.
Sovereign State
Transforming your independant colony into a fully recognized Sovereign State, you relinquish any remaining protection possibilities from the galactic government thing and are granted permission to claim planets and moons and even entire solar systems as your own sovereign territory. A Sovereign State also has the option to join nations and alliances with others, becoming part of a larger and more powerful group.
These groups will be able to have their own message boards, collective territorial indication, and certain levels of automated information sharing. They may also be able to assemble dedicated National fleets owned by the alliance body itself (not owned by individual players) and construct super structures whose strategic and prestigious value would be worth the immense cost.
Sovereign Corporation
Establishing a Sovereign Corporation can be an advanced option for some players who don't mind a little extra regulation in exchange for a boost in their growth potential. Generally, a Sovereign Corporation operates almost identically to a Sovereign State, with the only exception being that the corporation may not engage in simple unregulated trades or gifting like states and colonies can. This is to prevent abuse of the primary distinction of a corporation compared to a state: the option to accept investments from other player entities. Sovereign Corporation has the choice to be one of three different subtypes: General, Private, and Public.
General - This is the default subtype whose only specialty is the option to change to other empire types (State, Colony) or other corporation subtypes (Private, Public).
Private - A 'private' corporation has the option to accept monetary packages from other players, with some sort of contracted agreement about the returns. The idea being that the investment would be used to accelerate the growth or financial position of the investee, and one day the invested money (plus growth) could be returned to the investor, leaving both parties more wealthy than before.
Public - A 'public' corporation would be issued into a number of shares whose collective value represents the estimated value of the corporation at the time. The corporation can then sell these shares to raise money (aka investment) in exchange for the shareholders owning a portion of the corporation's profits and assets. Shares can be traded at will by any shareholder with the in-game stock exchange which would look the same as the other markets in the game. Shareholders would be issued a fraction of the profits of the corporation, and can sometimes be involved in important decisions and actions of the corporation.
I think that's enough detail on that topic for now. I could elaborate on the details of the public and private investments, but... basically, if you already have an idea how things like that would work, then you already know roughly how they'll probably work in this game. If you don't like the ideas about it, then don't worry about it, and if you're interested then please do some more reading in the topic.
Next time, we can look forward to a pile of details about how combat will work!
abraham@mail.postmanllc.net
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