Post by oddzilla on Jul 25, 2010 12:41:22 GMT -5
This looks interesting!
In the UN space laboratory located in the orbit known as Lagrange point 5, humanitarian scientists have discovered nanofacturing techniques allowing materials to be built atom by atom. A lunar base funded by a Japanese entrepreneur is using this research in the low-gravity mechanosynthesis of carbon buckytubes. China has just completed an orbiting military base, a geostationary powersat that supplies energy to Earth via laser beams. This base was constructed using the European Space Agency’s cycler, a large transporter satellite that makes rapid transits through the Van Allen belts. NASA has established a cryogenic fuel depot in Low Earth Orbit, using its workhorse, the Ares Cargo LV, with a payload of 125 tons. Further afield, a privately-funded prospecting rocket using robonauts has just discovered water on the small moon of Mars called Deimos.
Future space activities will be driven by economics and rocket technology, and this means that space entrepreneurs will be chasing water throughout the inner solar system. Whoever gets the evolving water circuitry right by maximizing ISRU (in-situ resource utilization), along with developing efficient rockets using water or hydrogen propellant, is going to gain the strategic high ground for making money through exoglobalization.
Here's the stripped down gameplay explanation (basic game)
Each player is a different organization or government (NASA, Red China, Shimizu Corp, ESA, UN)
During each player's turn they get to move their rocket and then perform one operation
Operations include: building of factories, prospecting, putting technology up for bid, boosting equipment off of earth, selling patent cards back to the bank for money, etc.
Money is water is fuel... so you'll have to balance using your money to buy tech, boost heavy cards, or literally pour it into your rocketship to serve as propellant.
Technology is handled by cards (thrusters, refineries, robonauts, etc). If a card is in your hand it's a patent or a prototype (something still on the drawing board). If you spend the money to boost a card into space it becomes a component, which you can store in LowEarthOrbit or attach to your rocket, etc.
There is a map of the inner solar system, with various sites of varying states (composition, amount of water present, size, hazards, etc); and each player is attempting to build factories at sites they have previously prospected and claimed. With those factories they can produce advanced versions of the technology cards which they have acquired.
Movement on the map is unique, requiring a keen eye to balance the fuel cost of a route as well as the time taken. Balancing speed and fuel is essential. Balancing the fuel efficiency of your rocket, the thrust/speed of your rocket, and the overall mass of your rocket is also key. As you move across "burns" you spend fuel, if you move across hazards you will either have to roll for a chance of rocket destruction, or pay some money to upload some software and avoid the roll.
Prospecting is done with crew or robonauts using either ground buggies, ranged lasers, or self-propelled rockets. Large sites have a better chance of being successfully prospected, but require high thrust rockets to take-off and land efficiently.
Victory is points-based. Factories give X amount based on how many factories of are built on certain site-types (ie. they score more if they are the only factory on a given site-type). Points are also scored for glory (example - be the first to send a crew to Mars and getting him home alive), prospecting sites, setting up colonies, and space-ventures (space tourism, etc).
The expanded game introduces new types of cards (reactors, generators, radiators), more advanced maneuvers (slingshots, piracy, etc), doubles the size of the map (Jupiter + Saturn), adds politics to the game, adds events and seasons (for example if there's a solar active cycle coming you may want to launch earlier than planned or wait until it passes), and a ton of other stuff.
Here is a website to see discussion on the game.
games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HighFrontier/
In the UN space laboratory located in the orbit known as Lagrange point 5, humanitarian scientists have discovered nanofacturing techniques allowing materials to be built atom by atom. A lunar base funded by a Japanese entrepreneur is using this research in the low-gravity mechanosynthesis of carbon buckytubes. China has just completed an orbiting military base, a geostationary powersat that supplies energy to Earth via laser beams. This base was constructed using the European Space Agency’s cycler, a large transporter satellite that makes rapid transits through the Van Allen belts. NASA has established a cryogenic fuel depot in Low Earth Orbit, using its workhorse, the Ares Cargo LV, with a payload of 125 tons. Further afield, a privately-funded prospecting rocket using robonauts has just discovered water on the small moon of Mars called Deimos.
Future space activities will be driven by economics and rocket technology, and this means that space entrepreneurs will be chasing water throughout the inner solar system. Whoever gets the evolving water circuitry right by maximizing ISRU (in-situ resource utilization), along with developing efficient rockets using water or hydrogen propellant, is going to gain the strategic high ground for making money through exoglobalization.
Here's the stripped down gameplay explanation (basic game)
Each player is a different organization or government (NASA, Red China, Shimizu Corp, ESA, UN)
During each player's turn they get to move their rocket and then perform one operation
Operations include: building of factories, prospecting, putting technology up for bid, boosting equipment off of earth, selling patent cards back to the bank for money, etc.
Money is water is fuel... so you'll have to balance using your money to buy tech, boost heavy cards, or literally pour it into your rocketship to serve as propellant.
Technology is handled by cards (thrusters, refineries, robonauts, etc). If a card is in your hand it's a patent or a prototype (something still on the drawing board). If you spend the money to boost a card into space it becomes a component, which you can store in LowEarthOrbit or attach to your rocket, etc.
There is a map of the inner solar system, with various sites of varying states (composition, amount of water present, size, hazards, etc); and each player is attempting to build factories at sites they have previously prospected and claimed. With those factories they can produce advanced versions of the technology cards which they have acquired.
Movement on the map is unique, requiring a keen eye to balance the fuel cost of a route as well as the time taken. Balancing speed and fuel is essential. Balancing the fuel efficiency of your rocket, the thrust/speed of your rocket, and the overall mass of your rocket is also key. As you move across "burns" you spend fuel, if you move across hazards you will either have to roll for a chance of rocket destruction, or pay some money to upload some software and avoid the roll.
Prospecting is done with crew or robonauts using either ground buggies, ranged lasers, or self-propelled rockets. Large sites have a better chance of being successfully prospected, but require high thrust rockets to take-off and land efficiently.
Victory is points-based. Factories give X amount based on how many factories of are built on certain site-types (ie. they score more if they are the only factory on a given site-type). Points are also scored for glory (example - be the first to send a crew to Mars and getting him home alive), prospecting sites, setting up colonies, and space-ventures (space tourism, etc).
The expanded game introduces new types of cards (reactors, generators, radiators), more advanced maneuvers (slingshots, piracy, etc), doubles the size of the map (Jupiter + Saturn), adds politics to the game, adds events and seasons (for example if there's a solar active cycle coming you may want to launch earlier than planned or wait until it passes), and a ton of other stuff.
Here is a website to see discussion on the game.
games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HighFrontier/