Issue #9
Monday, March 21st, 2005Talking with the Gods
Earlier this week, I was pounding away on the keyboard, putting together the finishing touches on a story I’d been working on when Nickpan came into the room shouting “I DID IT! I DID IT!!” Now this screaming wasn’t uncommon for Nick and I generally blocked most of it out, but it was odd when he slapped a folded envelope in front of me with “THE GALACTIC COUNCIL” written in bold black letters. My interest was piqued.
“And this is?”
“THIS” Nick explained as he waived the envelope in some kind of victory dance I’d never quite seen before “is the ticket to interview Baldur of the Galactic Council!”
And so through Nick’s connections, we soon found ourselves being escorted to the domain of the Galactic Council. I don’t remember exactly how we go there [I knew something tasted funny in my drink], but we can tell you that the place was amazing. The room we waited in seemed to have no walls and our surroundings seemed to be changing from one to another. For a while it felt like we are back in Tiacken, then it felt like we were floating around in Federation space, and then we saw the unmistakable outline of Keldana I below our feet, and then we see something like the Christmas War flash before our eyes. We were not really sure if these events were really happening in front of our eyes or whether these were recorded events in some sort of elaborate three dimensional photo album. “Don’t worry about them…” came a mellow voice, we turned and saw a bright light, intimidating yet serene, majestic yet humble like a close friend. Immediately we bowed our heads in respect. As you know, Baldur is an immortal and one of the four remaining ‘Heads’ of Pardus whose bodies have long since fallen to dust, the light is just a representation of Baldur’s presence. The following is a transcript of the divine experience we had with Baldur.
Tribune: We are honored that you allowed us to gain this attendance; our main purpose here today is to try and represent the Pardus Population across different races and faction and to bring to light information that many assumed. Baldur, I think that most space travelers by now should know who you are, some rumors say that you are a deity of sorts, some say you are in invisible force that governs the universe and yet some claim to have seen you and heard voices from you while traveling in deep space. Anyway, just to set the record straight and also for those who don’t already know who the Bicycle Repair Cube is, would you give us a brief introduction of who you are and your role in Pardus from your own perspective.
Baldur: First of all, I feel very honored to be interviewed by the legendary Tiacken Tribune. A paper that has given me lots of good laughs in the past.
Now to the content… Before my brain was integrated into that yellow cube my name was Michael, but people in the Pardus universe know me as Baldur. This name may originate from a divine entity, but I don’t like to be seen as some kind of “god”. Yes, sometimes I shift planetary productions and eradicate whole civilizations, expand the universe or change its fundamental laws, but deep down I am just another inhabitant of this galaxy who has to scrub his space toilet every week before it gets all clogged up and dirty.
My main role is to expand and change the universe with various inventions until it is perfect - this may be an endless road. While in the past my friends Bladefist (Werner), Grelor Blood (Flo) and Londo Mollari (Ulli) did the hard work when I focused on the superficialities or easy things I was able to do (design, galactic manual, formulas), I started to seriously learn that ancient natural language of PHP, which controls the universe, a week ago. The recent laser/armor-class update you experienced was the first warm-up project.
Tribune: From your view, what is the state of our galaxy now?
Baldur: The galaxy is in a state of huge progress and changes - nothing is certain. You can best see this on the universal constant that keeps flip-flopping all the time: Two weeks ago it was about 4.6692, last week e^(i*pi), and now -1. ..wait .. However, in the long sight it keeps converging towards 42, which seems to be a good number.
For many people the galaxy looks boring after a while, but that’s not because it should be that way, but rather because to improve on it one needs a lot of time you cannot always find.
Tribune: Apart from the factual statistics, any interesting individual or individuals or alliance you would like to point out?
Baldur: There are too many to list - all individuals I have encountered and remembered in Pardus were original and interesting in their own ways. The first one was certainly the long forgotten Deejax, who has helped us a lot in the beginning and translated most of the manual. To list active ones would be also unfair to those I would forget. ;)
Tribune: Any high points and low points for you in Pardus?
Baldur: The high point I remember best was when Pardus was made public on Sep. 14th 2004. I expected maybe 20 players on every one of the first days, and in reality we had about 1000 after two weeks (most from bluesnews.com, the great Somethingawful Forums and Bladefist’s www.moo3.at). The “Christmas War” was also very exciting; some potwor-players actually financed their defenses and retaliation attacks through the holy Christmas stars - a highly absurd situation. Usually all player-related excitements are as exciting for members of the Galactic Council to watch - if there is action it means that the game works well. Low points arise always when players have to be deleted for breaking the rules. On the one hand I know I have to do it to preserve the order, on the other hand I sometimes feel bad because it can cause so many unnecessary frustrations that could have been prevented.
Tribune: In the future will we discover new sectors and new races? If so in which direction?
Baldur: Of course you will discover more. If all plans are going to work as intended, the universe should become at least 4 times the size of now (if not a lot bigger). All I can tell you about directions is: north and east.
Tribune: What sort of future for Pardus do you foresee or is the future already waiting to unfold? Will there be more war and piracy or will ancient harmony prevail?
Baldur: Hehe, thank you for handing such an important question on a silver platter. The biggest goal is to make the universe exciting, and not a place where counting and comparing your toe hairs becomes the event of the month. Development speed has decreased since September because of our time we spend (and have to spend) on other things, but we have a lot of plans and entire halls filled with to-do lists, so we (and therefore you) will not get bored.
Tribune: We heard that there is another parallel universe, another dimension that you inhabit. Would you care to share with us this other existence you have? What do you do there and what sort of formal training do you have?
Baldur: In that dimension I am called Michael, and those silly people think I was born 22 years ago. The place I live is right next to Vienna in Austria, where most people -as myself- speak German. As Werner and the others too I am a student on the Vienna University of Technology. My field is technical mathematics in computer science, while the other developers chose computer science. Our university diplomas should be reached in at most 3 years. What we do all day is learning and enjoying university life.
Tribune: If I’m not wrong I understand that The Galactic Council created Pardus? Please correct me if I’m wrong. What was it that inspired the Heads to create Pardus and to breathe life in us all?
Baldur: Yes, Bladefist, Londo Mollari and Grelor Blood created Pardus in about summer 2003; I joined in summer 2004. What the “moment of creation” was like I don’t know, but my personal motivation is mainly fun from creation, seeing reactions, and getting brand-new experiences and skills every day. A nice side effect is that I am forced to communicate in English.
Tribune: How much time do you spend in the Pardus Galaxy and in this other dimension? Will you come to a point where you choose to spend more time due to commitments in this other dimension and leave the The Galactic Council?
Baldur: Times differ a lot from day to day and I have a hard time to tell, but in average I spend probably about two hours a day in or on the Pardus Galaxy. I don’t know if this time of greater external commitment will come - I am certainly trying to avoid forced commitments ;) But I don’t have any plans to leave.
Tribune: If an individual really love living in Pardus, how can they as inhabitants show their appreciation?
Baldur: They can create wonderful contributions like maps, tools, the Tiacken Tribune, or they can just try out all the exciting things the universe has to offer and give feedback in the appropriate places if they like. Another good way is to bring more friends to enlist as pilots and having fun together. Maybe later we will install a tool for pilots who want to commit in a more material way.
Tribune: Anything final things you would like to add?
Baldur: Thanks very much to all Alpha pilots, there is an enthusiasm and helpfulness in the community I would have never dreamed of! And thanks again for the interview.
Tribune: Thank you for your time.
Suddenly the light representing Baldur grew even brighter the brightness was too much for us to bear and suddenly we were back at the Tribune’s office. We were not sure how we got back, but it was sure an enlightening experience.
Life in the Neutral Zone
Living in the Neutral Zone is not easy. I didn’t realize this until recently after receiving reports from across the Tiacken area about pirate attacks. Now pirate attacks, while not uncommon for the Tiacken area, were generally rather sporadic. A pirate would hit a building or two, damage defenses (occasionally getting through to raid the building), and move on. However, a well armed and highly skilled pilot entered the area recently deciding to make the Neutral Zone his home so to speak.
With no faction bounties to worry about, pirates are able to do as they see fit in the Neutral Zone. Kill, plunder, raid, destroy… all kinds of fun for pirates in the Neutral Zone and no consequences. It’s a killer’s playground! No building is safe. Pirates will raid farms and chemical labs as much as they will raid high end buildings, especially when defenses are weak. Pirates need to make a living themselves and will take the money where they can find it. The only real defense is a good offense. Unfortunately, a good offense only comes with extensive combat training which takes time and money.
Eventually, you’ll get raided in the Neutral Zone (assuming you aren’t protected by a wall of MO’s such as PACK’s Faphilda). What to do? Like everyone in the galaxy, pirates are limited on the number of turns they have each day. They want to maximize the amount of money they make with those turns. The best way to prevent additional attacks is to make the pirate waste turns. Sure they may come back, but if your building is the building that is costly to bust through (turn wise), then the pirate may find other places to raid. The best way to make the pirate waste turns is by putting up building defenses. Even though the defenses may be easily broken through, it costs turns to break through them. Eventually, the pirate will grow tired of wasting turns and move on to other less well defended buildings. Other responses include keeping your stock low while the pirate is in the area. By keeping less in stock, the pirate has less reason to raid the area.
The Neutral Zone really is a “whoever has the biggest guns wins” kind of area. There are no protections such as “faction bounties” to worry about and drug labs and slave camps have no real negative effect (unless of course, you gain the attention of PDI, but that’s a different story…) You can buy illegal items off the black market with no negative effect, and can attack/be attacked at will. All in all, it’s a lawless, chaotic cluster of sectors connecting the Empire and the Fed. But to some brave pioneers, it’s home.
Race to the Base
It seems that the Edmize Sector has seen quite a bit of action this week. Early last week, the building inspectors finally condemned the Bard’s Nest space station. The Bard’s Nest had fallen into a state of disrepair and had become the breeding grounds for some kind of vicious space worm. More than one ship who has docked for repairs had come away with more damage than they had started with. Anyway, the demolitions team destroyed the Nest in one big massive explosion (copies of the destruction can be found in various places around the net for those interested).
The resulting power vacuum proceeded to attract two of the locals to start their own starbases as a replacement. Spiff and the PACK alliance wanted to establish firm control over Edmize to prevent the use of the starbase as a beachpoint by potential enemy attacks. Previous attackers had used the Bard’s Nest as the launching point and PACK wanted to prevent this from happening again. Brackard, FHA member and local Tiackenian resident, wanted to establish a starbase as the launch point between Tiacken and Usube and a producer for cheap energy for the Tiacken area. Public opinion seems to be split for the most part with a slight leanings towards PACK in terms of which potential owner makes more sense for the area..
All the attention in the area has brought pirates out of the woodwork this week. It looks as if pirates are using the opportunity and preying off supply and protection ships for the racing outposts. Brackard and Spiff have both been destroyed this week protecting their outposts although Spiff has sent pirates home in an escape on several occasions.
The race looks to conclude sometime early this week. Who will win the race? As far as this reporter can tell, the race is a dead heat. It will end up being a matter of who can click “upgrade to starbase” the fastest at the appropriate time. Good luck to both participants!
First Bank of Pardus
White Ninja and dasMikechen have gotten together to form the First Bank of Pardus last week. Still in the developing stage, the Frist Bank of Pardus is currently offering loans n the 50-100k range to eligible participants with interest rates running at 7% a week Payments are to be made to the contact at a specified time/location with penalties being incurred for non-payments and no-shows. The First Bank of Pardus has also contracted with some bounty hunters should the loan holders skip town. Assuming the trial run goes well, there is potential for additional services including increased loan amounts as well as wire servicing abilities.
The contract can be found on the Pardus Tavern board, or you can contact White Ninja or dasMikechen for more information.
TIACKEN PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
The Tiacken Board of Economic Development would like to remind Tiackenian residents that sending radioactive rockets into space in hopes of recreating the Bard’s Nest explosion is in violation of seventeen different Tiackenian codes. Should you have questions regarding the code, please consult your local jurisdictions.
Thank you.
More on the Weasels
After last week’s report on the DOW, I decided I needed to get more information regarding this new alliance, so I called into the DOW to see exactly what they are about. Here’s the response I received:
“The Divine Order of the Weasel was founded by myself [Cookie] and Zouron after we found ourselves becoming increasingly concerned about the weasel threat and the lack of action by the major governments. We know that unless everybody is united when the weasels attack we will all be destroyed but we wanted to follow a policy of diplomatic agreement to achieve this and so not cause a repeat of the events that caused the weasel’s creation.
We believe that by having this pacifistic and moral approach we can successfully unite everybody against this threat and so we have modeled ourselves on agnostic beliefs. This doesn’t mean we are a religious alliance or consider the weasels to be deities but just that we follow divine principles of right and wrong, good against evil, etc.
Our overall plan is very simple, we want to get all the alliances to agree that if and when the weasels do invade they will put aside their differences and fight together. At the same time we hope we can also show everybody that we are a non-violent alliance, agree as many non-aggression pact’s as possible and help to resolve other alliances disputes by acting as neutral negotiators.”
And there you have it. An insider’s scoop as to the DOW and what they stand for. Next time your alliance needs an arbitrator, looks like the DOW may be just the alliance you need to call to work through a deal.
Military Secrets Revealed!
It’s taken several years of infiltration, but spies FINALLY managed to get into the Galaxian research labs unveiling new sets of armor and weapons. Unfortunately, the spies lost the big case of ‘secret documents’ as well as all the prototypes in a card game while drinking and gambling to their success.
That knowledge has found its way into the hands of six entrepreneurs who have established research stations across the galaxy for each kind of weapon and armor. Each station specializes in either armor or weapons, and then in one specialty. Four of the six stations have currently been discovered. The new types of armor and weapons are broken into 3 classes: Organic, Electro-Magnetic, and Pardus. Each type of armor or weapon is more or less efficient against the corresponding armors and weapons. For a complete rundown on the differences, please consult your local space outfitter or consult the weapons / armor guide found here
Rumor has it that local dragons, worms, and pirates have increased their defenses in preparation of the new onslaught of thrill seekers.
Gravitational Shift In Keldon
Spaceball is one of the most popular sports in the Keldon area. This week, the Keldon moon “X” was the location of the Keldon spaceball championships. Now the “X” moon was not all that large, and the number of ship that landed on the planet was incredible. After the game, the population fled the moon almost simultaneously in just about every direction. The stress from these departing ships caused the moon to all but disintegrate.
In turn, the loss of the “X” moon, caused the the planet Keldana I to slowly drift a few spaces as its gravitational axis shifted. While a bit different for local residents, the real impact of the shift is the economic feasibility for a player owned starbase in the sector. I’m sure this will start another interesting “Race to the Base”. Good luck to the new potential owners!
About Home
The Tiacken area is home to several different alliances, all looking to be part of the action in the center of the universe. If you are in a slump and looking to be part of an up and coming sector, come and by and plant your flag in the Tiacken area. For more information, please PM Brackard in the Pardus information system. You’ll be glad you did!