The Tiacken Tribune

Tribune HQ Closed!

Under the crushing weight of lawsuits, negative publicity, public threats, and Federation investigations – the Sol Tribune HQ Starbase had no choice but to close its doors last week. The station’s owner has yet to make a public comment to the effect but those close to the source say the owner has been mumbling about the “blasted Federation”, “stupid lawyers”, and “idiotic public” in various forms and fashions for the past week or so.

The Federation had planned on tearing the station down to pay Tribune HQ debtors, however, the loss of thousands of homes and the public outcry with the loss of those homes prompted an alterative. Instead of tearing the station down – the Federation developed a process to allow Tribune HQ to transfer ownership to another party. This is something that hadn’t been an option in the past and it quickly gained popularity among other controlling agencies around the universe. Current residents stopped packing their bags as they looked to see exactly how this would all play out.

The next day, the Tribune HQ owner put out a limited Want Ad went out to a few potential parties:

WANTED

One party interested in operating a starbase in the cozy northeastern corner of Sol. Pleasant view of nearby minefields and variety of native wildlife including space maggots and a space worm albino named Alf. Nearest food/water source is Earth with a distance of 7 energy tiles, 9 space tiles (approx 300 turns round trip including trades at Earth and Tribune HQ with IP drive – will vary slightly with maggot placement). Preferential treatment will be given to Icewing or any member of FHA or Triad. Please PM me if interested.

Interest from FHA parties was limited and Icewing was flattered, but felt he didn’t have the time to properly manage a starbase. Triad, however, with their large presence in Epsilon Eriandi, Alpha Centarui, Eriocn, and other sectors around Sol took a hard look at the location before determining the location had some potential. With the connections the owner had with Triad, the deal was done on a handshake and the Tribune HQ was transferred to Epic of Triad. Additionally, Triad’s ‘connections’ through the Federation allowed the former owner of Trib HQ to escape prosecution by the Federation – as long as he gave up ownership of the base. And so with a heavy sigh, the owner signed the documents and the deal was done.

Here’s hoping that Epic’s director of operations has more common sense than that of Tribune HQ’s. Good luck to Epic and the new restructured Tribune HQ!

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Starbase Movements

Following the announcement that starbases could be transferred, a flurry of starbase owners shed the responsibility of owning a starbase and others are in progress. No less than six different starbases changed owners after the announcement. The reason the flurry of transfers? Unlike the ‘old’ days where you had to watch your starbase crumble before authorities would allow you to dismantle the base, then the new owner would come along, place his trading outpost, wait seven days, and THEN upgrade to a new starbase – the new system takes roughly half a day (If it weren’t for the lawyers- it’d take 10 minutes), and the starbase can be transferred to the party of your choice. Additionally – there’s no need to empty the starbase of materials ahead of time. All materials transfer as well. All in all, this is a very nice change for starbase owners looking to get out of the business!

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Starbase Regulations In Effect

Rule 1.356.45.433 of the starbase regulations guide states that all starbase stock needs to be located inside the starbase. This has by and large been the most overlooked rule in existence as tons upon tons upon tons of raw materials have been stored in open space ‘warehouses’ patrolled by security forces. It wasn’t uncommon for some bases to hold 20k – 30k of materials in these open areas outside the starbase. Officials have overlooked this rule for the simple fact that economies have been going gangbusters all over the universe and there was really no need to crack down on the rule.

However, a rash of recent robberies (who wouldn’t try stealing from ‘free’ stuff), accidental deaths (auto piloting into a parking dock that was now used as a storage yard), police deaths, and complaints from starbase residents (great views from the SB are now ‘blocked’ by these storage yards) have pushed starbase regulators to begin enforcing the rule. All materials have to be located within the starbase or within starbase warehouses. Materials located outside of the starbase will be confiscated and sold to the highest bidder.

Starbase owners stared in disbelief and shock as the order made its way around the universe. Some owners quickly got over the shock and immediately set out to build additional warehouse space. Other owners were on the other side of the universe were forced to drop pricing in order to get traders to remove excess materials. Some owners were GIVING commodities away in order to reduce inventory. Other owners shrugged in disinterest as they didn’t have 20k worth of materials in the first place. Needless to say, owning a starbase has become a bit more of a juggling act now that SB owners actually have to start following rules.

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Black Market Embryos

We get a tip this week from trader Baine on the Black Market’s unquenchable thirst for embryos this week. With the regulations enforced, starbase owners were forced to get rid of cheap and unnecessary items. On the top of the list? Embryos! Yet, the black market purchased every cheap embryo they could get which ended up being thousands upon thousands upon THOUSANDS of tons of embryos.

Now the question comes up from the general population. What would the black market want with that many embryos? Rumors abound.

Rumors include that the black market is:
Using the Embryos for experiments to create an animal mutant army to overthrow the universe
Cornering the embryo market to starve the universe and become even more rich and powerful than they currently are
Actually the cybernetic station and that the station is tainting embryos to make minds easier to control

The true answer is likely something much more mundane – but you never know…

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Starbase Regulations Overhaul

After meeting resistance regarding the storage capacity issue, starbase regulators combined the regulations books later the same week to determine what other regulations starbase owners had been neglecting to follow. Regulators were floored when they discovered what had been happening. Starbase owners had been walking all over the regulators and laughing behind their back the entire time.

Changes were immediately made.

Ships were to be built by starbases themselves – and not ordered through Federation/Imperial retailers and shipped to starbases.

Weapons, armor, shields, engines, and special equipment were to be manufactured by starbases themselves – and not ordered through Federation/Imperial retailers and then shipped to starbases.

Repair facilities owned by Federation/Imperial and neutral forces (leased), were taken back from starbase owners. Starbase owners would need to build their own repair facilities.

Again, reactions to the changes were mixed. The changes put many, MANY more options in the hands of starbase owners and alliances. Starbase owners have the ability to make some pretty good money, but it’s going to take a good amount of coordination to get it going.

Finally, before the regulators left, they indicated to owners that they would soon be taking away the INSTAZAP starbase protection systems. Soon, starbase owners would have to protect the starbases themselves…

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Killing the Weasels

The cry of “Death to the Weasels!” takes on an entirely new meaning this week. The Wily Weasel, a starbase located on the backside of Fed space, is being systematically starved. Led by the Triad, the effort has taken advantage of the extended absence of Paradis to stock the starbase so full of water that it becomes incapable of being able to afford food for its inhabitants. Obviously, with no food, the base is slowly starving to death.

While no public announcements have been made regarding plans to replace the base, it is safe to assume that with Triad holdings in Ericon that they plan to replace it with a more… hospitable owner. It will be interesting to see just how useful — or profitable — such a move turns out. XH 3819 has been a notoriously poor spot for a starbase and whether or not the new developments help the situation or make it worse has yet to be determined.

Reactions by the locals? DoW has been passively neutral to the developments as expected while FTS is generally happy to see the thing die.

So for anyone planning a vacation to see the historic starbase, you best do so quickly while it still exists.

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Tidbits:

After ten months or so of leading one of the largest Pardus alliances, Lordmoore stepped down and passed the leadership onto RAL. FHA has long had a history of being a relatively quiet builder alliance and it will be interesting to watch for potential changes in direction under new leadership.

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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Citizens. You know who you are. Make the move now while you can. We know you have more potential than what you show. Prove it to us! Show us the strength! Show us your value! It will be much easier this way.

The alternative will be much less pleasant. Pain. Suffering. Death. Preparations for this alternative are underway. Don’t tempt fate. Claim your destiny now.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 5th, 2005 at 12:00 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.