The advent of faster-than-light travel enabled humanity to reach out into the furthest galaxies and star systems. Free republics -- essentially corporations comprised of voluntary participants (shareholders) -- of all shapes and sizes seek to produce goods and services, to establish trade routes, to procure resources, and are constantly competing with one another for dominance over ever larger swaths of the universe.
Combat is all but forgotten. Wealth, technology and influence replace the shield and sword. As republics grow, the strain of expansion is inevitably felt. Brave leaders must strategically plan for the future and balance the three forces in order to succeed.
Space Trader 2142 is most strongly influenced by games like:
- Railroads! and the Railroad Tycoon games
- The Galactic Civilizations series
- Barron Realms Elite
- Trade Wars 2002
- Stellaris
- City of Gangsters
- Rise of Industry
Can players raise their new republic from a lonely backwater to take over the universe? Or will their opponents put them out of business and take away all of their shareholders? Will players be able to manage the truly massive-scale and fully-integrated production economies across boundless space and numerous star systems, or will it all come crashing down? With no guarantees that anyone will succeed,
Space Trader presents a new exploration of economic simulation in the 4X genre. Players will manage levels of wealth, technology, and influence as they attempt to expand their republics across a true three-dimensional map.
Unlike traditional RTS and space games, there are no navies to build and no units to micro-manage. Players will "combat" one another like corporations do - by stealing customers through influence, hostile takeovers through wealth, or obsoleting rivals through technological advancement.
There is no direct money in Space Trader. Players will not amass currency and simply purchase buildings and units. While Space Trader is an economic simulation, there are only three economic "resources" to manage:
- Wealth
- Technology
- Influence
As players grow and expand their republics, they will reach new levels of wealth, technology, and influence.
More wealth and technology will open the door for more advanced facilities to be built.
Given sufficient technology level, republics can explore deeper into the universe to discover new trade opportunities and resources. Higher technology levels attract more valuable shareholders, increasing wealth and influence.
More influence allows the sphere of a republic to grow. Given sufficient influence and/or wealth, players can take over rival's systems, facilities, trade routes, and more.
Expansion of the republic comes at a cost, and too many drains on wealth, technology or influence can result in losing levels and, ultimately, the failure of the republic. Careful management of construction, exploration and resources is key to success.
The three resources will be reflected both as "levels" for the republic, as well as spheres around the republic's facilities. The level and/or the sphere on the map will determine what actions a republic may take in that region of the map.
The goal of Space Trader is not to micromanage units, but to "macro"-manage economies. Players will take control of a newly-formed free republic in a corner of the universe. By commanding and controlling the production and exploration of their republic, players will begin to influence the surrounding systems and grow their wealth and technology, benefiting their shareholders.
Players will construct facilities to turn raw resources into goods that can then be sold via trade routes. Goods may be transformed multiple times into more complex and valuable goods.
Players will set up trade routes by constructing and sending trade ships throughout the universe. Trade routes will enable republics to both buy and sell resources and higher-order goods.
Building comes at a cost, but not in terms of "spending" some resource unit. In contrast to more traditional RTS or economic simulations, construction of units and facilities and their movement has an affect on the wealth, technology and influence levels of the republic. Some effects are temporary and others may be permanent. The balance of activities against their resource level effects is critical to success.
Almost all modern RTS and strategy games take place in two dimensions. Civilization, Warcraft, Starcraft, Sins of a Solar Empire and others are all essentially 2D playing areas. While some games in the RTS category employ terrain as an aspect of unit management, Space Trader envisions a true three-dimensional universe where the size of the map ultimately influences the length of the game. The three-dimensional aspect of the map is also what enables the resource spheres to play such an integral part in the game.
One of the three core economic aspects of Space Trader 2142 is wealth. As the number of assets, territories, and other economic activities of the republic grow, so too does the wealth of the republic. Wealth, like all of the economic core elements of Space Trader 2142, is measured in levels.
Building assets, acquiring territories, and other activities will require wealth to be expended. Depending on the action taken by the republic, the effect may be temporary or permanent.
For example, building a new facility may have a temporary effect of wealth level reduction while the facility is under construction. Once the facility is online, the wealth level may return to its original value. Certain facilities may generate wealth. Facilities with high operating costs may cause a permanent reduction in wealth that must be offset with other revenue-generating facilities and activities.
Similar to wealth, the technology level of a republic must be carefully managed. Certain facilities and activities may have temporary or permanent effects on the technology level of the republic.
While the wealth level is a much more slowly moving statistic, generally speaking, the technology level may experience wild swings. Certain events may cause a huge leap in technology level, whereas others may cause a slow increase. Further, a "law of diminishing returns" of technology applies. Ever more complicated technology-related facilities and activities must be built and undertaken in order to continue to achieve significant increases in technology level.
Lastly, influence plays a key role in how the republic is able to interact with the systems and republics that surround it. The influence level of a republic affects wealth and technology costs of trade and, in many cases, must be expended like the other two core resources. Influence is not only a level, but is also represented graphically on the game map. Systems within the sphere of influence of a republic come under the republic's wealth, technology and influence effects. And the level of influence effects the size of the sphere.
In contrast to traditional technology trees in most RTS, depending on the level of wealth, technology and influence of the republic, certain activities or facilities may not be available. These various levels make up the "tech tree". Additionally, because availability is dependent on level, and because the activities of a republic may reduce the various economic levels, it is possible for certain facilities or activities to become temporarily unavailable until levels rise again. The balance of the affect of both the increases and decreases of the various economic is a key aspect of management of a successful republic.
- negative levels of economic resources?
- some kind of lose/end-game situation
- turn-based
- some kind of "action point" economy to limit the number of things that can be done per turn, related to the wealth and technology of the enterprise
- purchasing claims to areas of space to be allowed to build them
- warehousing goods as trade/cargo ships have range
- automation of trade routes (delivery, pickup, etc)