MOD:WCU:PR0

Privateer Zero Origins of the Steltek Hypothesis, and of the Church of Man.

Preface

This project began as part of Starlord's proposed "WC Zero". Starlord's original idea, actually, did not include any privateering; it was me (chuck_starchaser) who first proposed ties to Privateer within WC0. Starlord's idea was to play Ripper/Bossman (Chen) from McAuliffe to Custer's Carnival. But according to the Timeline, Ripper graduates in 2637; and that's a problem because McAuliffe takes place 3 years earlier, in 2634. I then proposed that perhaps we should make Bossman a privateer prior to his graduation. Starlord liked the idea, but Maverick later expressed reservations about playing Bossman, and particularly about mixing Privateer and WC gameplay paradigms. I felt we could work out the paradigm shift, but I also realised that, as a privateer, Bossman might be a pirate at the time of getting his Confed Flight Academy graduation, which would make absolutely no sense. At the time of this writing I'm still waiting for a response by Starlord to my email, but assuming he will agree, here I begin to put together a separate Privateer Zero page.

UPDATE:

Starlord just expressed a bit of sadness at letting go of the idea of combining privateering and fleet combat. I suggested to him that I feel the same way, and that perhaps the best way to go is to elaborate Priv 0 and WC 0 further, separately, and leaving open the question of combining them or separating them. So, officially, as of this writing, I'll be working on the Priv 0 storyline while trying not to preclude either possibility.

Game style

Privateer Zero is intended to be fairly similar in gameplay to Privateer and Righteous Fire. A few differences are noted, however:

• Base interiors to be similar in looks to the original Privateer but modelled in 3D and including more places to go:
  • SIM: A door leading to an arcade-like place where the player can practise dogfighting or take gunner/pilot courses.
  • Militia: A place to get jobs advertised by the (local) militias
  • Confed: A place to get jobs advertised by the confeds (or by confed militias)
  • News: A place to read news and electronic magazines
• No jump drives: Back in the 2630's and 40's, jump drives were big and bulky, and could not fit in small ships. Note that in the 2660's a big change takes place: First the Broadsword appears in 2665, featuring a jump drive. The Broadsword is officially a "heavy bomber", though. By 2667, two more medium-small ships appear with jump drives: The Crossbow bomber and the Morningstar heavy fighter. This miniaturization revolution is completed by 2669 with the Confed's Excalibur, and the availability of installable jump drives for private ships, at least in Gemini. But, to get back to the pre-war era of Privateer Zero, the large size of jump drives makes them unsuitable for small ships, such that only medium size cargo ships like the Drayman, and frigates like Caernavens, can sport one. And what this means for gameplay is that, until the player owns a larger ship, he or she must rely on a larger ship to go across systems. This is not a problem, because most jobs for small ships are escort jobs, and the escorted ship must have docking space for its escorts, precisely to get its escorts across jumps. And the player can hire a cargo ship, as well... See next point.
• Cargo ships can be hired, like in Privateer 2.
• Escort docking expansion can be installed in cargo and other larger ships.
• If your ship has turrets, you can hire gunners for them (temporary or permanent).
• If you don't have a ship, such as at the start of Privateer Zero, you can get a job as turret gunner.
• New job types, such as exploration, and transporting passengers, a la Fronteer Elite.
• New buyable items, such as "treasure maps" at pirate bases.

Privateer Zero Universe and Background

The map includes the entire WC universe map (LOAF's map), from Avalon to Landreich; however, most of the story takes place in or near Gemini. A lot of stuff is happening that the player may never come to realize or understand without analytical effort. Here I will explain what's going on in detail, and therefor you should NOT read it; as it may be a terrible spoiler...

Characters

• Deiter Lang: "Spice merchant", food tycoon, influential among the pirates based on Drake, Sherbrook. Main distributor for the planet Palan, both for its food and spice products. "Spice" isn't just any spice, though: When people say "spice" they mean "THE spice". A nut similar to nutmeg, used in fine cuisine, but whose concentrated extract is used in the production of Ultimate. Spice grows in very few planets, in the entire Confederation; --Palan being one of them. Besides Ultimate destilleries in secret pirate bases, the main consumer of Spice is exiled Pilgrims in hidden systems. Damien Lang made his fortunes in piracy and racketeering, but is now trying to become a food and spice tycoon. Deiter Lang's son, Damien, will take over Deiter's food empire, after his father's violent death.
• Romulo Lynch: A business tycoon, but fair; a man of his word, and not a gangster at all. (The same will not be true of his young son, Roman, or of his nephew, Regis; but that's far in the future...). Mr. Romulo Lynch has gradually acquired a near monopoli in Gemini's asteroid mining. His company, Lynch Mining, legally owns almost half of all asteroid mining bases in Gemini, including over two thirds of those producing gems and iron. Iron's main consumer, however, is the Terran Confederation, for the production of durasteel, which is what most ships are made of in pre-war times. This is a bit uncomfortable for Mr. Lynch, in the sense that just as he has a near monopoli of production, the Confed has a near monopoli of consumption. This is not the kind of "free market" paradigm that leads to stable pricing and fair profits. It's an unstable situation that can lead to stalmates or deal breakdowns. The Confeds have a Secret Service that's known to be dangerous. And therefore he would like to "diversify": Rather than try to get total mining monopoli, Lynch plans to go into banking and lending, so as to be able to legally lend money. He will at some point start a company called Lynch Trust, such that he can let the prices of ores rise and fall as per offer and demand, but be able to say to the Confed "Uhm.. The price of iron is higher this week than it will be next, but I can lend you the difference, and you can pay me back when the price goes down". The trick will work, --too well, in fact; but he will get greedy and try to start offering credit to other parties also.
• Young Lemuel Monkhouse and Masterson: Freshman Oxford students. They should look a bit crazy, and believe the Steltek Hypothesis, and insist that artifacts and remains of the Steltek have been uncovered by the dozens, but that the Confed keep supressing the news and confiscating evidence. Legends about them have survived among the Varni and Smopok. The Steltek realized that most civilization eventually self-destroy; that the key to avoid self-destruction is to exercise control of their own technological advance. Although they live in isolation at the core of the galaxy, they try to help other civilizations wisen up through "agents", which are usually robots made to resemble a typical member of the civilization they infiltrate. Their work is benign, they believe, and amounts to raising public awareness. Monkhouse and Masterson want to help the Steltek agents by spreading the word about the Steltek, and have founded a small club. So far they are the club's only two members.