Ok, another nurse is giving me 10 minutes for a sandwich, cup of coffee, and a chance to breathe.
Then it will be back to the struggle.
Matt, answering the questions borders on a spoiler, but if you are curious, here it is.
(for those who aren't, or would rather wait, don't read)
If we were going to start a new game in Ultra, we didn't want just the same old routine.
In the Empires game we were running (now become the New Empires), you will find the standard drives, etc.
For this game, since we were really trying Ultra out, we decided to see what it could do.
So we pitched most of the normal drives. Don't look for I, J, etc.
WP also went away.
And with only one SA per player, there was a real incentive not to try for breakthoughs.
Tying it up on a 'maybe', if you could make real progress on something else, wasn't high on their 'to do' lists.
Most of their breakthroughs came from lucky research rolls.
We did keep one inertialess drive, and the ability to jump between stars.
If you are curious and want to peek at what the future holds, and how it works in a nutshell, hop over to the SDS site in their forums.
Check under Cosmic or General Starfire's heading (not sure which), under Starfire without WP's. I think my entry is on whatever is currently still the last page.
Maybe the next to last. I can't get to that site while I'm at work.
Somebody apparently made an arcade style computer game called starfire, so the hospital's web filter shuts down links to any site with that in its name. There are a few spots in the Aurora site that don't have starfire anywhere in the link/text, so I can sneak in here. Once I'm on the site, I can get around without a problem.
No internet where I live. Phone lines are to bad, no cable, and the hills block the LOS to just about every satelite.
So I check in here while I'm at work on my breaks.
Times up.
Back to little needles, little tubes, and lots of prayers...