In the shipyard you can repair and refuel your ship. More advanced ships require higher quality fuel and more skilled repairmen, and thus the work is more costly. Shipyards of more technologically advanced civilizations may offer various types of weapons, shields, and gadgets to improve your ship, as well as entirely new ships. The benefit of new ships is to gain more space for guns, cargo, and fuel. When buying a ship, you trade in your old ship and pay the difference in costs. Your gadgets will be freely transferred to the new ship. The shipyard's workers will happily move your cannons and shield upgrades to your new ship for a sensible fee. At the shipyard you may also have guns removed from your ship and change the order in which your guns fire, again for a small cost.

The bank will offer loans to players with good reputations (no criminal record). The amount of money they will offer is based on the total worth of the player at that time. Banks charge a 10% fee on the loan per day, which is automatically taken from your credits whenever you make a warp jump. If you cannot pay, the police will attempt to capture you when you are sighted. Owing money will also add to your criminal record. If you cannot pay the fine, your ship, its cargo and all installed gadgets will be sold and the money will be used to pay what you owe to the bank. You will be fined by the police, and then they will give you the remaining credits and a basic ship. If there is not enough money, you basically start over with the starting ship and credits and you are instantly deported back to your homeworld (i.e. the same exact state as when you were starting the game from scratch.)

At the marketplace you can buy and sell goods. Different solar systems have different needs and surpluses based on their government and technology level. You will get rich by moving from system to system and taking advantage of their various needs. Port events like famine, galactic war, ice-age, and overwhelming boredom will temporarily alter prices for the related goods in that solar system.

In addition to the functions of a normal port, the port in your native solar system has some extra features. A warehouse exists in which you may store a large amount of goods. Additionally, you can visit the treasury and either add or remove money from it. The win condition of the game is to accumulate a mass of money in the treasury by the time the kind returns from ICK. The game doesn't actually end at this point because it is an online game, but that is considered a victory.

Bored civilizations love games. Pacifists and Cybernetic cultures generally have nothing to do, because they don't fight, or they have robots do all their work.

Cybernetic cultures desire ore above all else. They have exhausted their supply of natural resources, and need ore both to build robots and to make backup devices for their whole solar system, their greatest goal.

A potent narcotic made on primitive worlds that is ground up and put into colorful, candy coated pills labeled with the trademark "MMM" logo. The components involved grow in dense forests that most advanced cultures have wiped out long ago. MMM's are contraband in most cultures and tend to attract the police. Cybernetic cultures have no interest in using narcotics, and don't particularly mind if you carry them in their systems. The communist and anarchist underground are both particularly fond of the pills.

Feudal cultures love weapons. Nothing helps siege a medieval castle like an eighty million volt laser cannon. Anarchists also have a penchant for destruction. Pacifist culture has no use for weapons, and neither produces nor buys them.

Cultures that have destroyed their natural world need to import all of their food.

Some planets have freshwater oceans. Others are deserts and desperately need the sweet liquid. Demand for water has less to do with the culture, and more to do with the planet itself.

Pacifists want to keep their people happy and safe, so medicine is a primary concern. Anarchists and cybernetics don't care for or need medicine.

Produced in only the most high end cultures, robots keep the economy moving. They are the ultimate desire the rest of the galaxy, and require vast amounts of ore to make, which gives primitive cultures a solid bargaining position and a valuable commodity.

Planetary Approach is the real-time part of this project, and is essentially a small version of the classic space arcade games Asteroids and SpaceWar. Your entry point from a warp is about 20 clicks (distance unit) away from the port you are trying to reach. You need to manually fly to your destination. Along the way you will probably avoid (or destroy) asteroids, battle (or run from) pirates, and trade with (or ignore) merchants. You may also be searched by the police, especially if you have a sinister reputation. Movement of your ship through space is physics-based. You can rotate left or right and accelerate forward. You will continue to drift with momentum until you apply thrust in an opposite direction or apply the space brakes (very high tech). When you apply thrust, your ship will accelerate until it reaches a maximum speed, and will continue along until it is stopped by you or an unfortunate collision. Running into asteroids damages the ship based on the speed of collision and size of the asteroid and ship. Crashing into other ships is similarly unpleasant. You will travel through four zones to reach the space port, each of which is one screen in size. Moving to the top of the screen will transfer you to the bottom of the next zone. You will bounce harmlessly off of the bottom of a zone, and will wrap to the opposite side if you move too far to the left or right edge of the screen. While in space you can toggle between war and peace modes. Your action in war mode is to shoot your weapons. Your action in peace mode is to request a trade with nearby merchants and players, enter a port, or talk to police ships.

In the above image, the white ship is you as you travel through the four zones from the warp point (where you appear in zone 1) to the space port (the green dot). Red triangles are pirates, blue triangles are police, and yellow triangles are merchants. The brown circles are asteroids. Each zone is one screen in size. After warping to a new system using your short range chart, the zone will be filled with asteroids and/or space debris, but no police or pirates (zone 1 in the image). You might find a trader or two out here, but it is generally unlikely. The next three zones (zone 2-4) each have fewer asteroids and less debris. Also, as you progress through the zones, the chance of pirates in a zone decreases and the chance for police and traders increases. Traders and police will not share a zone with pirates. Some systems with a large pirate presence might have pirates through all three zones, and no merchants or police. Other systems might have only merchants and police, or some pirates in the outermost zone, and then no more. Pirate presence is based somewhat on luck, and largely on government type. The fourth zone has a space station in it, in addition to any police, merchants, or pirates. Choosing to dock at the space station will change to a fifth zone, which is a landing zone.

In the landing zone, gravity will pull you down toward the ground. You use upward thrust to stop from plummeting to the earth and horizontal thrusts to maneuver to a landing pad. Hitting the ground with notable velocity will damage your ship by an amount dependant on the size of the ship and the speed you hit with. If you land outside the landing zone, you can thrust up and maneuver yourself back into place. Once you have stopped on the landing zone, you are officially inside the port and switch to the appropriate screen with the port's menus. A port will not let you dock (with the exception of anarchist ports) if there are pirates in the area or you are currently in battle with the police, so you will have to dispose of your enemies first in those cases.

Your action in war mode is to fire your weapons. Your shots will zoom off into space and disappear when they reach the top or bottom of the screen, or when they collide with a valid target. Shots will wrap to the opposite side if they travel off the left or right side of the screen. You can be hit by your own weapon fire if it wraps around and you are in the way. Various types of weapons are available that will fire with different velocities, powers, and formations (such as spread fire). When you destroy another ship, there is a chance that some amount of their cargo will survive the explosion and float around space. Touching the lost cargo with your ship will pick up as much as possible and add it to your hold. Merchants typically have more goods than pirates. Destroying merchants is an act of criminality, and destroying pirates is considered a virtuous act that will make the police trust you more. Police ships can be full of contraband cargo they have seized, making them very valuable targets, but destroying them will absolutely ruin your record and the police will not treat you well from that point on.

Death is permanent. However, if you have an escape pod gadget on your ship you survive. You lose your ship, all cargo, and any mercenaries (if they exist). Your escape pod takes you to the nearest port. Essentially, your ship explodes then you appear in port with nothing you were carrying. If your character dies, the solar system that was created with him remains in the universe.

Shooting a large asteroid breaks it into 2-3 medium sized pieces. Medium asteroids break into 3-5 small asteroids. Small asteroids can be shot and broken apart into tiny bits of ore, which are collected by running them over with your ship. The smaller an asteroid is, the faster it travels. Ore pieces travel slowly. Asteroids break down into smaller pieces when they are shot or when you collide with them. Asteroids do not collide with each other. Whenever a large or medium asteroid is broken apart, there is a small chance that the pieces it leaves will be chunks of ore instead of smaller asteroids. So instead of a large asteroid breaking into two medium asteroids, it might occasionally break into one medium asteroid and one medium ore chunk. Thus there are three asteroid sizes (large, medium, and small) and three ore chunk sizes (medium, small, and tiny). Asteroids wrap to the opposite edge of a zone whenever they reach a side of the screen. They will move off the top of the screen and appear at the bottom, etc.

Merchants, Pirate and Police are all NPC ships that can wander around in the approaching port zones. You can switch between combat mode and peace mode and then hit a generic "action" button. While in war mode, the action is to fire your weapons. While in peace mode, the action is to try to talk to something. So if you go up to a merchant in peace mode and "action" it you will be requesting a trade. If you peacefully action a police ship that is following you, you will have the choice to accept or reject their search. Peacefully interacting with a pirate ship will probably be a bad idea. More specific details follow.

You may request a trade by using the action command while in peace mode near a merchant or player vessel. If it is a player, he/she will be prompted to accept or decline the trade. NPC merchants will make a similar decision. If they reject your offer, you may not ask them again for a short period of time. If they accept, a trade window will appear while still allowing you to see your ships. Also, a shield will be put up around the two ships to protect them from wandering asteroids while making the trade. The trade interface will allow both parties to select the goods they want from the other party, as well as to offer up their own goods, or remove goods belonging to either party from the current trade. The inventories of the two parties are shown along with what is currently being offered by both sides. If both sides choose to accept the deal, the trade is made. The trade window could have, for example, four panels. The leftmost of which is the other merchant's inventory, and the right most is your inventory. The middle two panels are what you are each offering. The values NPC merchants place on items will generally be an average of their value of the item in their native solar system and the value of the item at the port you are currently near. Either party can cancel the transaction at any time.

Police often float around in space near ports. They will sometimes make an announcement that they wish to search your ship. The more criminal you are, the more likely they are to search you. Interacting with the police ship while in peace mode will give you the option to either bribe them or allow the search. Corrupt cops will always take a bribe. Normal cops will take a bribe, but charge a lot more for the privilege. Honorable cops will never take a bribe. While some types of police are more common in regions with certain governments, you can not tell the difference by their appearance. Requesting a bribe and then changing your mind or failing (asking an honorable cop) will add a criminal act to your record. If they search you and you are clean, they will improve your criminal record and apologize for the inconvenience. If they search and find contraband, it will be seized and you will be fined, as well as marked as more criminal. You may also run from them instead of interacting or you can fight them, both of which are criminal actions. If you are criminal enough, the police will attack you on sight. They use disabling weapons, so your ship will not be destroyed if its shields are reduced to zero, but it will shut down and you will end up in jail, where you will need to pay a hefty fine to get out. If you can not pay the fine, your ship will be sold to pay it off, and you will be given a weak ship and the left over credits.

Anarchies can occur in civilizations of any technological level. Narcotics and weapons are especially popular. Games and medicine are worthless. Very little is produced in anarchies and the people typically get money through piracy and theft rather than fair trade. Anarchies never have a police force and the skies near the ports are overrun with pirates, making them prime locations both for pirate-hunting and dealing in illicit goods. Pilots with unsavory criminal records appreciate anarchist ports as havens where they can visit without being harassed by police on the way in.

Pacifists neither buy nor produce weapons. They primarily desire to keep everyone healthy and happy, and so they need medicine and games. Technological advancement is usually driven by military needs.

Communist societies can't advance past Low Tech. They have a very strong police force that is corrupt and can be easily bribed. The strong police force reduces pirate activity. Weapons and drugs are both contraband, although the people will pay well for both.

A philosophy of free trade means that nothing is contraband in capitalist ports. Merchants frequent these systems. Prices are generally average and fair.

These advanced cultures have incredibly strong pirates and police who are constantly killing each other off. This doesn't particularly bother either side, however, as all members of cybernetic citizens have backups of themselves on disk, and can be easily reloaded when they are killed. Cybernetic societies are always high tech, and constantly want to buy as much ore as possible. They have no interest in buying drugs, but don't particularly mind if you carry the pills in their systems. Being high tech, they also have no natural resources and so can't produce drugs either. Weapons are not contraband, but are heavily taxed. The police force will ask you to pay the tax if they search your vessel and find weapons in the cargo.

This government type can initially appear only in systems with a medieval tech level. Feudal cultures are constantly engaged in territory wars with nearby systems, and even with themselves. They require weapons and medicine and have no desire to buy games or narcotics. Neither guns nor narcotics are contraband, as the first is the primary import and the latter is a valuable export (if the tech level allows it) to fund the war effort. Feudalism may be established in systems that are forcefully taken over, regardless of what their existing technology level is, allowing low and high tech feudal societies in addition to medieval.

These societies can not produce power. Their worlds are rich in natural resources. Medieval systems can't produce weapons or medicine. They will buy and use all high technology except for robots, which they can't recharge without electricity.

Low Tech societies can produce everything except for robots. They have a fair amount of access to natural resources. Their primary desire is generally robots.

Although they have no natural resources of any kind, High Tech systems are in a powerful trading position because they can produce robots. They need to import all food, water, and especially ore, which they need to make robots.

The higher this skill, the quicker your ship turns, accelerates, and decelerates while flying the last 20 clicks to a port. Piloting skill also increases your max speed while approaching port and slightly increases the distance you can warp jump and the fuel efficiency involved in doing so.

A skilled engineer can keep his ship in better condition, taking less damage from combat, and also slightly improves the quality of his shields and weapons.

A skilled trader can get a discount of up to 10% on the wares he buys, allowing better profit margins and the ability to render a profit without as much shopping around.

Skillful combatants can shoot with less delay between each shot. Their shots also travel faster and do more damage than those of a pilot not trained in the arts of war.

The most important gadget, the pod allows you to escape from your ship in the case that it is being destroyed. Instead of dying in the explosion, you will float to the nearest port and can re-equip yourself using money from your bank account.

Adds to your piloting skill.

Adds to your engineering skill.

This is actually a gadget for you, not your ship, and it adds to your trading skill.

Adds to your combat skill.

Increases your ship's hold space.

By mounting gun turret's to your ship's exterior you can increase the number of guns it can carry.

The extra credit opportunities on the final project are extensive. You will have the ability to complete up to 50 points of extra credit which will count towards your Phase 5 Demo turn in. The list of extra credit options and their respective points values will be posted shortly to the .announce newsgroup.