MOD:WCU:Privateer3:ReqUpgrades

Exploration: "Exploration" is the name of a song by a Washington DC band called Thievery Corporation. Not a bad band. Worth a listen... I've been advocating the role of explorer at the Vegastrike forums for a long time; but come to think of it, I should have done it here. It kind of goes together with another idea I was promoting: Space Elevators. Long story. But the background is different, because WC is not realistic at all, whereas VS is, somewhat, and I've been arguing for an increase in realism to VS overall. So I was arguing there that most ships shouldn't be able to land on planets, and those that are aerodynamic enough to enter an atmosphere, would still need spaceport facilities --i.e. a strip to glide down to, and assisted launching. So it would be very expensive to land on a planet and then launch again. So you'd do most of your business at geostationary orbiting stations that feature space elevators going down to and coming up from the planet. Then, to be an explorer, you'd have to get an appropriate ship, first of all, and then quite a bit of equipment:

1) Jump point identification and mapping computer 2) Asteroid and planet survey and analysis sensors and computer

And if you want to descend to a planet to conduct a closer survey and/or begin colonization, you'd need,

3) A space elevator starter kit (minimal space elevator with 2 wagons) 4) An asteroid survey computer or software, to find an asteroid of the right size to capture and serve as counterweight for the space elevator station. 5) A colonization starter kit that includes housing, power generation, hydroponic food growing greenhouse, tools and equipment

Or, to start building an asteroid mine, something similar but including mining equipment.

The space elevator starter kit would include a basic station, with a bit of space for stock keeping, a dock, a computer for newsreading, refueling facilities, and a modicum of automatic defenses. You can add floating capship turrets around it, of course.

To have something like it in WCU we'd have to disable landing on planets without spaceports. One could buy a spaceport starter kit later, but it would cost 100 times more than a space elevator, and you'd need a much larger elevator to get the pieces down to the planet anyways. The general idea is that, once you get a basic economy going, the population and income start to grow on their own.

Anyhow, to become an explorer, you'd first join the ES to get experience. The idea of exploring for other developers is a good one; it could finance your deep exploration, but once you find an absolutely perfect system, you might want to keep it for yourself... 8)

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Allright, allright, first thing we need to do for it to happen: We need to design a new computer. I'm an electrical engineer, but this doesn't help much in this context. What we need is a computer interface. Something like when you press Shift-M and the map comes up. So you buy this computer for like 300,000 credits at a pirate base... Well, yeah, you think the Confeds would let civilians buy them?... And then fly out into the unknown. So, once you get into an unexplored system you press Shif-X and this computer does 20 seconds of sensing and comes up with a set of waypoints you must visit. You fly by each waypoint and it gets sensed. You come back to first base and press Shift-Y and it does a full analysis of the data collected, and activates the HUD marking of jump-points. So now a whole bunch of normal-looking jump-points appear out of the void. And through them you can jump into new, unexplored systems. But you might want to start by pressing Shif-Z which would analyze the local system first and make a rough map showing planets, moons and asteroids. Flying close to a planet or moon or asteroid, having it locked, and pressing Shift-Z should produce a more in-depth analysis of that body. And if you fly around the body it will gather more data, let you know the type of geology, of resources available, whether there's life, or intelligent life, or archeological remains of any kind in particular. Hey, I remember in MOO2 when a planet had archeological remains it produced more research... X, Y and Z stand for any keys we want to assign that to.

So, actually coming up with an interface for the above is no rocket science, but the Exploration Computer has to also allow you to browse the map graphically, or browse planets by size, climate or resource. For graphical browsing it could just transfer the new data to the regular flight computer as an extension to the standard maps.

By the way, there has to be a big buffer of explored but not on official map systems between normal systems and the unknown. I'm talking like at least 2 or 3 jumps deep. In the middle layers before the unknown there would be some pirate bases, and throughout this buffer there'd be like mining operations and squatted planets.

We need to have also an Explorers Guild, but this guild may only exist on pirate bases, because posession of Exploration Equipment by non government agents is illegal, so the whole business of exploration is illegal, although it is needed, and therefore unofficially sanctioned. Which means that you'll never be scanned by confeds for possession of exploratory equipment. There'd be massive tax witholding protests if they ever tried that... So, at the Explorer's guild, perhaps you can exchange system data scans with other explorers, get contract assignments, or find out about deals on other exploration equipment such as elevetor starter kits, or colony starter kits. It would also give you access to the buffer zone maps. Thing is, there are no militias in the buffer zone, so the whole place depends on agreed codes of conduct. There are no faction flags. When you are flying through the buffer zone, if a planet is already squatted it reads "taken". Period. If you land on it, it might be pirate or AWACS or retro or unaffiliated; but everybody in the buffer zone agrees not ton interference with each other. Want a planet for yourself?, then keep going.

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Fireskull:

I just dont understand why its illegal.

If its needed and all... it would make more sence for confed to just legalize it and keep it under control with a guild. Thats sort of what happened with b-hunters guild. Thats not realy 100% honest bussiness.

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Well, because the ES is in charge of exploring, but it's a bureaucratic and inefficient agency, so what they do is wait until a squatted planet or mining operation is getting too big to keep hidden and then they claim to have just explored it. In other words, they let private enterprise do what they are incapable of doing, and then presume of having had a part in the development; to justify the tax money wasted on them. For the explorers and developers this is AOK, because they don't have to pay taxes on land before the official annexation of a system.

The *official* justification for its illegality, though, is precisely the fact that outlaws can discover new systems and use them as their bases of operation, of course; so theoretically nobody would have the means to identify jump points.

Of course, many people question this government policy and point out that pirates and retros seem to appear from nowhere, and therefore they must have access to Exploration Computers, sensors and equipment; but the fact that you *could* discover jump-points, manually, simply by pressing J repeatedly while combing space in a fine search pattern, lends the government side the benefit of the doubt.

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Spiritplumber:

wow, exploration @_@; that's going to be ceeerazy to implement.

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Which part of it, spirit? So far, the hardest part I see is the Exploration Computer interface, but probably a matter of copying the code for the map thing and modifying it.

In terms of data, we'd need to have systems that don't show on official maps but that show in clandestine maps. That's the "buffer zone", explored by some, but not officially acknowledged. And then more systems that would be yet to be discovered. Many of those. So, I'm thinking, the size of the universe could be as big as Vegastrike's, but at the beginning of the game you don't even suspect it's there. It is only once you manage either,

1) To obtain clandestine maps, or

2) To obtain Exploration equipment.

In the second case, if you have the exploration equipment but not the maps, say that you are in New Detroid and you do a scan for jump points with your new equipment, you might find that there's now a jump there in the middle of the system that didn't appear to be there before. You jump through it and you're in a nameless system with nothing in it. You do your scanning and analysis again, and find there are 3 jump points in this system. You take one of them and it lands you, say, in Rikel. So you jump back and try another one and it takes you to another nameless system; scan again, another jump point, jump and you're in Blockade Point Tango. So now, for the first time, you begin to understand where all those kat ships in New Det are coming from...

If you are in Troy and you do a scan, you might find a jump point to another system that might, after say 2 more jumps end at some pirate base, explaining those references to contraband coming through Troy.

But you might also find mining bases. Clandestine operations on the part of the merchant faction.

Now, if you keep going deeper and deeper, eventually you'll find systems that nobody's ever seen before.

Sorry that my examples are from Gemini; I'm not familiar with the other sectors, but same thing. Now, not all systems would have unofficial jump points. They'd be more common towards the edges of the official maps.

Have you read Jorge Luis Borges, Spirit? Argentinian writer. I read one of his books when I was young. Buenos Aires has like a secret network of tunnels that were dug in preparation to the Brittish invasions. They helped the defenders "disappear" from one place and appear at another. There's all kinds of legends about what happened to those tunnels in the following centuries. Borges wrote this fantasy book where blind people in Buenos Aires have like a secret society that thrives in the underground. I can't remember the name of the book now.

Anyhow, this unofficial system of systems would be like an underground for the player to discover. And there could be angles to it too, like there might be a pleasure cruiser full of corrupt politicians you have to blow up, and the place to find it is in that "underground". You might also find militias fighting retros, or whatever. Thing is, militias can only venture so far before it gets too hot for them...

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Klauss:

I'd prefer it being a HUD interface. That is, you enter the kind of sensory information to map on the HUD, and the computer overlays all that information. That's damn cool looking. That's what I intended with Hyperspace, if you remember that. So, it would be a matter of defining hidden objects: objects that have a "Sensor Gizmo ID", and you filter by ID, overlaying such or such IDs onscreen.

Plus, it would be much simpler.

Plus, if you checked out CVS lately, there's a new commandline interface. You can input commands much like in Quake's command console.

You could do all this crazy stuff with it. Say:

> Enable_Sensor_Overlay jump_analyzer > Enable_Sensor_Overlay anomaly_mapper

So, the anomaly_mapper would show gradients and stuff which would be possible jump points, but not all of them. The jump_analyzer would, at close range, identify those anomalies as either true jumppoints, or whatever. And, perhaps, their destinations?

Anyway, I was just saying, that this new console is very, very very very useful.

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CC:

The idea of the explorers guild is a good one. But i eco fireskull, in that i don't understand why it would have to be illegal. Maybe the reasoning is sound, but how are we going to explain all that to the player? we should try not to complicate things too much. I would say that as a member of the "exploreers guild", all work is done at your own risk, but you are officially "legally obliged" to sell your "nav data" to the guild which would be lucritive. as with the bounty hunters guild, you don't allways have to follow the rules. there should be hidden pirate and retro bases, to make things risky, and possibly neps out in "deep space". Maby you come across the occasional illegal manufactureing plant, where you can buy cheap goods. I personally would love to see a race of Human hateing robots (like in futurerama), they could be the ultimate enemy of the retros!

I think it would be kinda cool for explorers to have like robotic probes, that can act as scouts or markers. I'm no phyiscisist, but i wouldn't go through an unknowen jump unless i knew i could get back.

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I think it's very important to make non-ES exploration illegal:

• 1) If it wasn't, then the official maps would be expanding at an accelerated rate, driven by free enterprise, which would disagree with canon. At each episode there should be many more systems than the previous.
• 2) If the official maps were not artificially bounded, militias and Confed would be spread too thin and there'd be no clear mandate as to what jurisdictions are they expected to keep under control and protect.
• 3) We have the opportunity to explain the appearance of hitherto unknown jump-points, like in the last mission in RF where the jump to Eden appears and then another to Rikel.
• 4) We have the opportunity to explain why we never saw jump-points into unexplored systems at the fronteers.
• 5) We have the opportunity to explain where all these kats, retros and pirates are coming from, that just appear at systems out of nowhere.
• 6) We can gradually go from a universe that is superficially identical to WC canon, and gradually introduce the player to the concept that there's much more underneath than meets the eye.

Nothing of this would be possible if we removed the illegality.

As for how to explain all this to the player, simple: Magazines. You buy an issue of "Explorer -- The Unofficial Hero's Journal" and you find articles, and letters to the editor arguing for and against legalization of exploration. Then all these issues can be explained in luxury of detail.

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Sounds like you agree with me on every point...

Fireskull wrote: Chuck: 1) Official maps dont need to expand at a accelerated rate, as those are the maps that are sold to the general public. But I see no reason for the map the player owns to be slowly expanding. It should expand dynamically as the player explores new systems. Now and then the map the player owns could/should be updated with systems other explorers found.

Exactly what I said. Those are the "official" maps sold to the general public. Everybody knows there are plenty of "unofficial" systems, but the jump-points in and out of those systems are not on most ships' computers, and most people don't have the equipment to detect them because the equipment is not legally available to the public. But yes, as you explore systems, your computer's map expands.

Quote: 2) Just because a system is know,it doesnt means it must be colonized.

Of course not. What I said is *some* planets in this gray zone would be squatted, some asteroids mined, ... meant "just a few".

Quote: 3) Wanst there a explanation for that already? I thought jump points were naturally created, but had to be found with special tech.

Exactly. But what I meant is *politically* how can we explain that, given proper equipment these jump points off systems in the middle of civilization, like from Rikel, should have been known long before a retro informant gives you their coordinates, right? Or should we assume that the ES simply missed them the first time? The system later called Eden must have been known before, but for some reason never included in the official maps.

Quote: 4)There are jumps at the front already.. at least with the Kilrathi border there are and you can go into Kilrathi territory.

Only some jump-points into kat territory are mapped. If you got to lile TriPaq, North-East Gemini, there's kats all over the place, with no apparent route from katland.

Quote: About jump points to fronts into unknown territory, we cant map the whole galaxy.

Agreed. The whole galaxy would be quite a mouthful. Now, let's see... The Milky Way galaxy: Off the top of my head I remember we're 8.5 kilo-parsecs from the core. Each parsec, IIRC is about 3 and a half light years, so... 8.5x3.5=about 30,000 light years. Now, we're about 2/3 of the way out, so one more third to the back, and 3 more thirds forward, that's 4, plus 2 = 6, so double, so the diameter of our galaxy is about 60,000 light years. And the thickness of the galactic disc is 2% of its diameter, I remember reading, so that's 1200 light years thick. Judging from the systems in the Sol sector I would say they span less than 100 light years, so the whole present map, katland included would probably span less than 1000 light years across. So we haven't even crossed the thickness of the disc, yet. What I'm suggesting is that we have a ratio of unexplored systems, relative to explored systems, of about 100 to 1; which I reckon would make the total number of systems to be a few thousand, so roughly the size of Vegastrike's universe. So the engine can handle it, no problem.

Quote: 5) Retros have hidden bases, pirates have hidden bases. Kilrathi, when found in confed territory, should do so with light carrier and other fast moving ships. Fighters in special missions are also possible.

Thing is, retros show up in large numbers in Oxford. Kats are always in New Det. How do they get there? How come I never see those light carriers?

Quote: 6) We can do that without having the faction being illegal. I am not sure if it needs explaining, but for short: as exploration happens, more of the map shows up.

Actually, I didn't explain myself correctly: I never thought of Explorer as a "faction", more like an occupation. And not an illegal ocupation exactly, either, since the very existence of private explorers isn't even acknowledged. The official story is that exploration happens because the ES are doing their job, which is the opposite of the truth. What is officially illegal is the sale of exploration equipment, which is supposed to only be available to the ES and other government agencies. It's not that if you become an explorer, suddenly militias and confeds will be your enemies. Being an explorer shouldn't make any difference to your faction relations.

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