A friend of mine just banged a game where all the ships except for a "pre-owned" merchant cruiser cost at least 3-5 million, ranging up to 40 million. I think the numbers make more sense for what they do, plus the feeling you get from buying a new ship, after having to actually save your money for 2-4 days, as opposed to being able to buy 2-4 (or more) ships a day if you wanted to, is very much reminiscent of the v1 days.

The cheap "Pre-owned" merchant cruiser is of course for getting podded.

How does this fit into the recent discussions about the future of the game, if at all? You decide.

Similar edits have been out I believe, just a matter of changing the turn base, but doing so can really unbalance red/blue because the blue ships are usually a lot less expensive for attack purposes. In the Classic default, the reds really do not have an attack ship that can go against an ISS. Not a lot of fun running cashing only in a game.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

This brings up an interesting point. I'm surprised there isn't a used ship dealership in the game. You tow your old unneeded ships to this place and sell them off, then if anyone wants, they can come in and buy them at a discount. Then after a while if there's ships nobody buys, the annoying ads start in the journal.

"All ships must go! You can blast off in a quality pre-owned merchant cruiser right now! For only 9999! We'll give you 4500 credits for your old junker even if it's trashed!
plus tax title and license offers don't combine limited time offer applies only to people who have never destroyed a spaceship in their entire life goobledeegook gobbledegook goob goob goob hope no one can understand this"

Don't forget "Here's a beauty... only driven on Sundays by a little old lady who never left her home sector!"

I know most of us have been playing the game for years or even decades, and are probably past the point where you read the shipyard text closely. Next time you pss, read the text on entering the shipyards. It says they sell used ships. AFAIK that's never been used by any sysop, well at least I've never seen anyone use it.

I think that is just in-game propaganda.

Like the old computer upgrade...

what's the server addy?

Like the fission or non fission drive system

The fusion drive is actually a setting in the Gold ship editor. I think it affects resale value. The other stuff is just myth.

@comet, or anyone else interested:

the game I'm talking about is at bbs.legionhq.net:2002

It's the only game on the server.

There is a lot of red herring info in the game, I know. It's reasonable that the text @ the dealership mentioning used ships would be considered a red herring.

I like the idea of more expensive ships. I think a good plan by default should be the more sectors and turns their are, the more everything should cost by default. Of course all of it is editable but the idea of setting a default would be to give the newbies one more helping hand in designing a better balanced game.

I just made an edit for a Warlock Class Destroyer based on the IC for my Babylon 5 game edit. I gave it twarp but only 30 holds (ten hops max) and 15 turn to move ratio (is a REAL PIG in crawl mode) but carries 200k figs. The base cost of this ship is 5.5 million. I specifically designed it for a cap the flag game. The new Planet I developed for the Shadow Aliens is extremely hostile and carries 1.5 Million ore.

JP has done a very good job of making a lot of things configurable in TW now. What I see is a lack of ideas on how to approach building a unique and different game.

Everyone seems to be building games off a few ideas and not really exploring what can really be done to make something truly different.

Just in case anyone is wondering why I chose Babylon 5 for my first edit. Babylon 5 was the first real TV series that read like a novel across 5 seasons. The ultimate goal, almost from day one was to finally meet and defeat the Shadow. Along the way, we were introduced to literally a hundred different races and ways of thinking with thousands of secondary story lines.

It is great fuel for making a game edit and each time it's done, it can be completely different, yet still be focused on the end game. To me, interesting games are going to require time to complete, maybe as long as 6 months. Any game that only lasts a few days are a waste of time in my book.

The new access edits are fabulous because they allow someone to play anytime they want as long as they can apply the same amount of time and still be competitive. The first Babylon Master Edit is a full 30k sector game with very long paths (100) with 7000 turns per week or 1000 per day.

I'm sorry if this read more like a blog entry than a post. I do tend to get carried away. Once a Trekky, always a Trekky.

I've been looking at the TWAs that are out there. I feel like a lot of designers are more interested in overpowered stuff and cool themes than in actual playability.

I'm working on a TWA of my own right now... starting with a bunch of spreadsheets and other design documentation.

MB, if you find yourself frustrated trying to implement your ideas, let me know what I can do to facilitate your efforts.

I do like the idea of having a simple formula to recommend costs in the game. Of course, you will be able to override. But if you set a baseline for stock costs at about 1K turns, it'll really open people's eyes to see what the scaled costs should be for the higher turn games.

If it's not in the new features forum yet, I'll add it.

@MB: The game is very much changed, it's not the oldskool TW anymore, and I'm not trying to bring it back... neither is the Sysop of that game. So as you say it remains to be seen what can be done nowadays. I think it's a matter of the right creative minds jumping into TEDIT coupled with the eventual implementation of the TWA database and user voting.

We'll be in good shape when all that comes to pass...

I'd definitely give Myrmidon (the game in reference to the OP) a like in the database. Maybe a few! (Vote early, vote often! j/k)

On the subject of games that are over in a short period of time... I don't entirely agree. I value games I can quickly jump in & out of without much committment, due to real life schedule.

Tradewars is cool too though! haha