How to Play

Fundamentally the game is played according to this simple diagram:

Technology -> Assets -> Actions


Or, in English, "Technology allows you to build assets which allow you take actions. "

Technology

Technology in the game controls what you can do and when.

Each technology allows you to build one asset and has one prerequisite technology. Each technology may, however, allow you to build more than one other technology which forces the player to make choices.

With few exceptions (you may get one or two "free" technologies at the start of the game) you must research a technology to own it. Owning a tech means that you get to use it; it does not prevent other people from also researching the tech.

Attempting research takes a certain amount of time (at this writing this is expressed in turns, but soon this will be in hours, although it will come to the same thing). It will also cost a certain amount of money. And the attempt may not be successful.

Once you own a technology you may research other technologies that require it and you may build the asset allowed by this tech.

Future Enhancements

  • Research will require at least one research facility.
  • The number of research different techs you can research in a turn depends on the number of research facilities. So you can research more kinds of tech with more facilities.
  • But you can't shorten the time to research a single tech no matter how many facilities you have.
  • There may be actions that you can take with a technology directly, regardless of any assets you have.
  • You will be able to buy technologies from other players through the use of Contracts.
  • The fact that someone owns a technology may make it easier for other people to research the tech. And the more people who own the tech may factor into this

Assets

You need technology to build assets. You need assets to take actions. There is a one-to-one correspondence between technology and assets. Each technology can enable one and only one asset and each asset is enabled by one and only one technology. Assets allow you to take actions. Principally, owning the right rocket and the right satellite will allow you to "Launch" the satellite and get money.

Future Enhancements

  • The entire premise of the game depends on there being a lot more assets than this (which necessary requires more technology).

Contracts

Contracts do not currently exist. Functionally, when you launch a satellite and get paid, that is a sort of hidden, automatic contract. But real contracts aren't in the game yet.

Future Enhancements

  • Government contracts will be pre-built contracts that will specify what things need to be done and what you'll get when you do them. They will usually be "you put this in orbit and we'll pay you x a turn for y turns" but other structures will be possible.
  • Player contracts will be constructed by the players. There will be a set of requirements plus a set of payments plus a time frame.
  • Once accepted the system will enforce contracts to the letter of the law. The mostly likely way you'll go bankrupt is by taking a contract you can't fulfill.
  • There will be a marketplace for contracts where a player or government contract will be put out and any player can bid on it. The highest bid after some period of time gets it.
  • Wrinkle: A "wrinkle" is a contract that looks good but actually has a poison pill in it that makes it impossible to fulfill. This is a requirement for the "Wrinkle Release". Obviously, contracts in general are also a requirement for that release.

Actions

  • Build: if you have a technology you can build the asset. Currently you only can only build one copy of a thing per turn, but you can build multiple things as long as they are different.
  • Launch: if you have a payload (aka satellite) and an appropriate rocket, can launch them into orbit.
  • Research: you can attempt to research any of the technologies that are allowed given the technology you own.
  • Operating Satellites -- the hidden action: when you launch a satellite, it is automatically operated for you which brings in revenue.

Future Enhancements

  • There will probably be a facility that limits how many things you can build. Every facility that you have allows you to build one more asset per turn.
  • There will probably be a "launch facility" that limits how many rockets you can launch per turn.
  • Change orbit: I believe there will be a need for an action that will allow you to shift something from one orbit to another. This might be Leo to MEO, or it might be Earth to Mars or Jupiter -- if you think about it, it's all same action, although they should have very different requirements.
  • Remove Debris: It might be good in the late game to have the ability to remove dead satellites. I might even add a rule "when the total number of satellites is greater than X, there's a chance of collisions" so that smart players may create contracts to prevent this.

Money

Money makes the game go round. You start with a certain amount, you spend it on research and assets and actions and then, hopefully, you make it back -- and more -- through some mechanisms ("step 3: profit").

Currently the only way you make money is through the automatic action "Operate Satellites". Each satellite has a certain amount of value.

Future Enhancements

  • Making money generally will be controlled by contracts. In particular, a contract will specify what satellite, in what orbit, will pay you money. It will probably also specify for how long.

Orbits

There are 3 orbits:

  • Low Earth (LEO)
  • Middle Earth (MEO)
  • Geosynchronous (GEO)

Rockets

There are 3 sizes of rockets:

  • Small
  • Medium
  • Large

Satellites

And there are 3 sizes of Satellites:

  • Small
  • Medium
  • Large

This table tells you which combinations are allowed

Rocket Size
Small
Medium
Large
S
Small
LEO
MEO
GEO
A
Medium
-
LEO
MEO
T
Large
-
-
LEO

A satellite has a specific operating orbit. It can't be launched into the wrong orbit.

  • There is currently no way to get a satellite from one orbit to another. But there's also no need.

Future Enhancements

  • Obviously there are more to orbits than Earth orbits. An action to change orbit (with a special asset, of course) will be added and that will catch most cases.

Space News

The Space News is a sort of a newspaper that reports out all the events of the game. Presumably this will be of interest to the players because they can figure out how their opponents are doing.

The Space News does not require you to log in. It's accessible to non-players. It forms a sort of a "rail" (a poker term) where non-players can watch the game.

Future Enhancements

  • Players will be allowed to insert messages into the news, probably for a fee and certainly only within certain limits.
  • There will be certain news articles that pertain to real information about space-related events in the real world. It will be up to players to work out the relevance. This relates to the Mission Statement of the game.
  • The veracity of news articles is not guaranteed. Obviously, player inserted messages may be incorrect but the game itself may insert fake messages.
  • Some day, the game will be required to make money. One way to do that will be to sell advertiser space. I dream of a universe in which such ads will be clever.
  • Premium accounts will, for a small recurring fee, be shown a nicer form of Space News. This will have pictures and video and sound.

User Interface

Actions

Every turn the game figures out what technology you can research (based on what technology you have), what assets you can build (based on what technology you have), what you you can launch (based on what assets you have on hand).

The game then puts this list of actions in a table called "Possible Actions You Could Take". There is a check box next to each action. When you click on "Add Commands" anything checked gets move to the 2nd table, "Actions you are taking".

If you click on "Remove Commands" it will move anything checked from the second table to the first table.

You can go back and forth, adding and removing actions from the list until you are satisfied.

The turn is executed by a server process that takes all your commands and executes them. They become news articles

Information

On the left hand side of the screen are various information tables.

    • Events from last Turn
    • Your turn (#)
      • Your Cash
      • Satellite Revenue
      • Assets You own
      • Tech You control
      • Tech you are researching
      • Satellites you are operating