MOD:WCU:bgUniverse

I will soon put here a destillation of all those discussions we had about the "Gray Zone".

What we need, if someone would like to add it here, is a general reference to the chronology of when sectors, quadrants and systems are mentioned to have been discovered or explored, as well as a chronology of WC games and the sectors their maps span, so that we may interpolate a more detailed chronology of exploration. Like, check the ones I filled out for Priv/RF below...

WC1:

• (sector(s)/dates)
• (sectors/systems explored during the game, date for each)

WC2:

• (sector(s)/dates)
• (sectors/systems explored during the game, date for each)

PR1:

• Gemini 2669.014-2669.093
  • Delta 2669.080
  • Beta 2669.081
  • Gamma 2669.082
  • Delta Prime 2669.083

PRF:

• Gemini 2669.107-2669.181
  • Eden 2669.177

WC3:

• (sector(s)/dates)
• (sectors/systems explored during the game, date for each)

WC4:

• (sector(s)/dates)
• (sectors/systems explored during the game, date for each)

WCP:

• (sector(s)/dates)
• (sectors/systems explored during the game, date for each)

PR2:

• Tri-System (dates)

Others: Special Ops, whatever

Would be much appreciated

THE GREY ZONE

For now I'm just pasting forum posts below, showing how the idea of a Grey Zone developed...

me:

Speaking of unexplored systems and sectors... Spirit, maybe we could have the system generator generate 10 times as many systems as are known, mapped and-or accounted for in the game? This would be really, really cool! You could try to get to the far side of Kilrah by taking the uncharted regions of space. You could go looking for the Steltek by following anecdotal descriptions of the region of space they were often seen coming from.

There could be realistically hidden bases, --retro, pirate or otherwise, rather than the absurdly, centrally located pirate bases in Privateer. All you'd need to obtain is a Jump Point computer, of the kind the Exploratory Service uses; which should be available only to the military and government agencies, but if you could somehow get a hold of one, you could explore a system, land on a planet and let the computer run for a few hours on the collected sensor data, and it would spit out jump-point locations, so you keep going. You'd need something like a capship or shuttle for jump fuel, of course. Hey! And there might even be some other steltek gun to be found, out there.

And, speaking of jump fuel: Why does it have to be so limited? I mean, if I'm, say, taking a caernaven for a ride into the woods, and I'm not carrying any cargo, why can't I just fill my cargo with spare jump fuel canisters and then buy them from myself? Okay, make a full fuel refill occupy 100 cubic meters volume in the cargo, so I can't just go to the center of the galaxy in one shot.

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me:

I think a game should have secrets; in fact, layers of deepening secrets. Stuff that is not necessary to discover in order to finish the game, but that adds replay value. If, for instance, we want the player, at some point, to gain control of a system, this could be achieved a number of ways. One way we haven't explored, though, is that you might just explore uncharted territories and find a system with a lot of resources, and simply settle it. In fact, there could be a virtually infinite number of choices, but some choices more strategic than others. I was arguing at the Vegastrike forum that besides becoming a merchant, pirate or hunter, one should be able to become an explorer; and I argued there should be ships that are better suited than others for exploration. I argued for special equipment for exploration, like telemetry and analysis computers to be able to tell what resources can be expected from a planet; a space elevator kit one can carry in a medium sized ship to deploy a minimal space elevator, to facilitate the landing of settlers, materials and equipment. And automatic defense turrets one can buy, so as to protect the space elevator while one is coming and going. Spirit created just such defenses recently.

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CC:

The exploration thing is a fantastic idea for me, there could be a side plot with the explority services. The way i see it, the player should be able to do what they want, that way it satisfies every one. of course this is pretty much impossible, but it should be kept braud. I actually think that the more "timless" fetures such as this are the best things that can be put into the game, as with a story line there is only so much you can take of constantly redoing it.

the talk about amassing money and building up a fleet is exactly the thing i was aiming for. You need to do it inorder to defeat Kroiz (the powerfull rival), My latest thought is that as kroiz is involved in the whole kilrathi retro scandal, when you and monte spoil the party, kroiz would have monte killed, and send a privateer to kill you. that sets you off in the direction to find and kill kroiz, which is entirely up to you at that point, and would be like a wing comander armada campein (or MoO2), you have to make money, mannage your assets and build up a fleet at the same time. I envisiged it as becomeing more like lynch, (maby you decide to take over his empire), where you can have both legal and illegal buisnesses, (trade routes, bounty hunters guild, mining, exploration, piracy, plesure cruisers, smuggling, arms dealing, stuff like that)

I personally, spend most of my time fighting confed. Blowing up the capship garrisons, and genrally causeing havoc for no real good reason. the unexplored systems, if you own your own faction and have the capibilities, will allow for exploration and development, and essentially allow you to form your own republic. maby you want to team up with the landrich, or AWACS, and pick a fight with confed or the kilrathi. Killing kroiz would just be a warm up, for the things you could do later (it would be dam cool if you could eventually own large plesure cursiers, and escort carriers). If we did it, there would be no way to keep it inline with WC, (as theoretically you could overthrow confed), but at the end of the day it is a game and i think it would be dam fun, and by far the best addition.

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-- chuck_starchaser