Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: May 30, 2009, 06:05:11 PM »Year one report for the United States of Terra.
One of my goals in the design for Beyond the Stars! was to give the player as many options as I could. Allowing them to design their species and Power in any form they could imagine. And even though I had to remove the Mechanology, Corporate, Bio-tech, and Machine Race options for later inclusion in expansions there is still quite a bit for the player to choose from.
So much it can be a wee bit intimidating the first time out. Case in point, I am the designer, yet I made a major mistake in the design of my power. I did not purchase any Explorer's Clubs or Assay Offices. That in and of itself would not be so bad as long as the player purchases a couple of Exploration and Prospecting teams to hold him over until he can build some later in the game.
Want to guess what I did? Oops. In designing the UST I had decided to purchase no civilian or military units beyond the initial, and free units you can get that are in production beginning pre-game. Well, I never used those points to purchase any Explorers or Prospectors.
So my exploration of the Sol system is limited to the basic P-Dat information that probes can give me. This is not enough to colonize or set up mining stations due to not enough data available. The kind of data ONLY Explorers and Prospectors can give you.
So my expansion is dead in the water until I can build an Explorer's Club and an Assay Office. And then wait until I can train some teams. All together I cannot place a single new colony or infra level for three friggin years due to that VERY bad mistake.
Other than that things are golden for the UST. The points I did not spend on a military I invested in the economy and a large population. I began with a population larger than both of the other testers combined. And beyond a nasty pop maint bill I had for the first year it will pay off in the long run since I can keep my economic expansion maxxed out and not have to worry about a labor shortage.
Cheers, Thor
One of my goals in the design for Beyond the Stars! was to give the player as many options as I could. Allowing them to design their species and Power in any form they could imagine. And even though I had to remove the Mechanology, Corporate, Bio-tech, and Machine Race options for later inclusion in expansions there is still quite a bit for the player to choose from.
So much it can be a wee bit intimidating the first time out. Case in point, I am the designer, yet I made a major mistake in the design of my power. I did not purchase any Explorer's Clubs or Assay Offices. That in and of itself would not be so bad as long as the player purchases a couple of Exploration and Prospecting teams to hold him over until he can build some later in the game.
Want to guess what I did? Oops. In designing the UST I had decided to purchase no civilian or military units beyond the initial, and free units you can get that are in production beginning pre-game. Well, I never used those points to purchase any Explorers or Prospectors.
So my exploration of the Sol system is limited to the basic P-Dat information that probes can give me. This is not enough to colonize or set up mining stations due to not enough data available. The kind of data ONLY Explorers and Prospectors can give you.
So my expansion is dead in the water until I can build an Explorer's Club and an Assay Office. And then wait until I can train some teams. All together I cannot place a single new colony or infra level for three friggin years due to that VERY bad mistake.
Other than that things are golden for the UST. The points I did not spend on a military I invested in the economy and a large population. I began with a population larger than both of the other testers combined. And beyond a nasty pop maint bill I had for the first year it will pay off in the long run since I can keep my economic expansion maxxed out and not have to worry about a labor shortage.
Cheers, Thor