Jan 1, 2075:
You’ve acquired a battered first-gen transport somehow (Inheritance? Poker game?). Now you’ve traveled with the last of your money to Bù Rén Hòu Chén City in western China, Earth’s singularly shimmering (yet decaying) spaceport. The odds are long against you: MaoCorp holds a monopoly on trade in our solar system. However, FreeTraders on Earth and her colonies are ripe to crack its hold. All they need is a trader they can rally around. Move enough cargo, survive, and maybe you can be that man.
The game follows the genre of the down-on-his-heels space captain, one with barely enough money to stay fed and keep his ship moving. The game system is fairly simple but takes a little getting used to. Read through the manual and play the tutorials in order – then get ready to have fun. With a fully randomized solar system and God variables, no two games will ever be alike!
To play, download the version below, and unzip everything into a folder. Then, click on the SolarTrader excel file to play. Make sure you click on the SAFE MODE / TUTORIAL checkbox to get basic run-throughs of the game. The full manual should be in your folder (and is available for download separately). Remember, this is a complex game of maneuver and management, so learn, have fun, and enjoy!
Latest Beta version (2.09): SolarTraderV209.zip
Older versions:
Full download (Version 2.08 – Beta! Win7/8 version): SolarTrader
Full download (Version 2.08 -Beta! Win7/8 DIRECTORY version): SolarTraderFull
To install, open the zip file in your download directory and unzip / drag the contents to your hard drive (Documents directory?).
Game Rules: ST Manual
Want to discuss it? Join the Facebook group: GridSims
I think I’m going to try to make a small walk through for the city. Right now, I have live walk throughs for space navigation and also for takeoffs and landings (tricky to get used to).
Hint one: When you blow your sewage pumps into space, burn immediatly. I forgot. Got poop all over my solar panels… 🙂
Over a year later – thought I’d update everyone that work continues.
1. Encounters have been dramatically enhanced – requiring a refactoring of that code.
2. Encounter refactoring has been completed
3. Additional encounters have now been added – since they are now much easier to add.
4. Background music added
5. Added indicator lights
6. Added rats on ships, as well as cats
7. Updated generate location code (better placement of space encounters)
8. Assorted bug fixes
Next steps:
1. Update / Clean up space encounters with new encounter coding approach
2. Test, Test, Test – make sure version is stable.
3. Keep adding additional encounters / items / etc. as we think of more clever things to play with.
4. Include bombs (MaoCorp agents may attach a bomb to your ship if you pose a big threat to them.) with its own mini-game.
5. Release next Alpha copy here for folks to do more play testing.
Latest Beta version (2.09) has now been posted… Playtesting and feedback welcomed.