Final Frontier 2 (long post)

[+DarkLord]

Folks, we're gearing up for another round of Final Frontier 2 here at the

DarkForce! BBS. We're looking to recruit more players. If you've never

played FF2 before, you're in for a real treat. I'm posting the Intro here,

so you can get a "feel" about what the game is like. Please be sure and

read the Documentation when you play!

 

Final Frontier II Introduction:

 

As I looked up from my comm display at the alien with discolored black and

green splotches all over his face, I felt a wave of pity run deep within my

bowels. The tears ran down his cheeks as he sat, shaking, in the plaid

Naugahyde seat beside me, slowly telling me his story.

 

"It was HORRIBLE," sobbed the broken humanoid." I knew I had the intestinal

fortitude to handle it, being descended from Terran kings, but the atrocities

committed in the FINAL FRONTIER war were just too hard to bear; especially

those in THE DEAD GODS sector...that rebel DARKCHYLD's home turf!!"

 

'Kings? What?' I thought. I put the comm on auto and leaned back into my

chair, fixing my full attention on his story.

 

"It all started in the general assembly right before the war," he said.

"The Satharians were miffed because of Ted Turner XXXIV and his holographic

 

imaging colorization of something called 'I Love Lucy.' I think it had

something to do with a red-haired puritan axe-murder. Anyways, distribution

in the outer-rim was poor, and the Saths were literally shedding skin over it."

 

He leaned back in the chair with a gracefulness I had not seen in ages, picking

up his tea spoon and twirling it with exaggerated movements. Anything to break

 

"It all seemed like a small interplanetary riot, you know, the kind that never

gets any press anymore. Then that goody-goody MORDEN stepped in," He quick

snorted and wiggled his nose contemptuously. "He promised the lizards he

would acquire the rights to the shows and air them nationally. But instead

he packed up the Saths' national treasury, stole the prime ministers wife,

knocked off two holoburger stands, and, dear God, slandered the good name

of the acquitted sports hero Orangutan Jumper Sampson..."

 

I shook my head, remembering it well. "And that's when the proverbial guano

hit the gliding rotisserie blades..." I said.

 

"You guessed it," he continued. "Everyone went berserk, buying ships, weapons

and other stuff. Interplanetary systems dissolved, governments collapsed, and

 

all-out chaos ensued. And that was just from the media coverage alone!"

"People started colonizing planets everywhere, trying to get a foothold of

power. Dr. Scholl became a billionaire! But the thing about it was nothing was

sacred," he said. "People were invading people, taking planets, and wasting

each other just for kicks. It got so you had to hide in a sun's corona just

to get some sleep."

 

"But that's when all the new developed technology started coming about," I

interjected. "You know, booby-trapping derelict ships, laying mines, massive

production of defense installations, trade routes and other stuff."

 

"Not to mention the illicit beaming of 'Sweatin' to the Oldies' onto command

bridges playback consoles," he said.

 

I shuddered. Truly a fate worse than death...

 

"And that wasn't even the worst of it," the curly-haired alien said. "What

about those distinguished few, ROGUE, SYSOP, MORPH and others; the real nuts!

They sneaked around with weird aliases and thought no one would notice...."

 

"Yeah, some real unholy alliances came about because of this war," I said as I

read my tactical display, looking for SPACE PIRATES. " And with the new

increased galactic size, there's going to be a LOT more space to hide in.

 

Suddenly, the ship rocked with an explosion! Red alerts resounded across my

bridge. "And shut that blasted noise off!" came a command. From the back of my

mind twas some weird English-accented old man's voice. My alien copilot looked

at me as if he had read my mind.

 

"JEAN-LUC!" we said in unison. The alien started to reach under the dash for

the General Foods International Coffees, when another burst knocked him from

his chair.

 

"Darn!" I screamed, grabbing the joystick like it was the last Pina Colada in

Tahiti. I targeted the pirates with my newly-installed Photon Cannons, and

blew them 10 levels past Hades.

 

I started to let myself relax, but I noticed something peculiar. The graceful

alien had been knocked out of his seat and was being jostled about the cabin

. But he was moving now, on his feet, and it looked like he was supposed to be

walking forward, but instead he was moving backward.

 

"Just Beat me, just Beat me...." he murmured.

 

I started reaching for my hand-phaser, slowly and cautiously. He spun around

and stopped so abruptly I thought the gravity simulators were off line.

 

"You wouldn't happen to have any peanut butter and bananas lying around here,

would you?" he queried.

 

I screamed and hit the floor, grabbing my weapon. But the Prince (God help us)

slid over to me like a greased proton beam and wrenched it from my hand.

 

"So, you figured it out, huh?" said the Prince.

 

I stared at him, aghast. He just smiled that weird-smile of his; it was like

something out of an old beach flick.

 

"Yeh, it's me. One of my daddy's old fans set me free from the suspended

animation chamber. And wouldn't you know it, after my daddy, Michael, and my

momma, Lisa-Marie, hid all the Terran currency some years ago after collecting

it from owning rights to just about everything (gasp); I'm quite rich! But I

thought it would be nice to put some Thriller into your life by stealing your

ship."

 

He started to laugh; it was a ghostly, haunting laugh, and made him throw back

his head. I took the initiative and pushed his skinny 80-pound body across

the floor, slamming him into the bulkhead. But he quickly recovered, and raised

the phaser. Click.

 

"Shoot!" he exclaimed, wrenching off the battery cover, the SupraVolts falling

to the ground.

 

I sprang forward, slamming my fist on to the escape pod eject button. The small

section of the ship he was in closed off and spewed forth into space, taking

the demon-spawned love-child with it. I made a silent prayer to a certain

bass drum-toting pink bunny.

 

Collapsing on to the console, I heaved a sigh of relief. I sat up, entered

some random coordinates, and warped into space. The war was getting bigger.

 

It was much more intense. I was going to get my fair share of the...

 

FINAL FRONTIER II

 

(Final Frontier I was just a teaser...)

 

* * *

 

Think you're bad enough to survive this NEW, VASTLY IMPROVED version of Final

Frontier? No longer do you have to wait for the wusses on your board to show up

and play. No longer do you have to depend upon your teammates like in S.E.E.

(Shameless Plug). Want to see if you are TRULY bad enough to hang with all

the pros? It's a whole new game, networked and armed to the teeth...

 

You know the old story...

 

"This is where you come in to play. You have been given a ship

and some vessels; the most that your government could give you in

this deep space area. You must, either by yourself, or with the

help of others, control at least 400 of the planets in the Outer

Rim to win this war. By colonizing and fortifying planets, you'll

be able to manufacture more goods and ships for yourself. You should

expect aggression from other ships and planets, and should not hesitate

to attack others to reach your goal of 400 of the planets. Good luck.

You'll need it.

 

Now live it! An expanded, networked galaxy awaits you, along with many

players from all around the universe. So get ready, read the docs and new

features, then let's get down to some serious arse-kicking!

 

See you out there in CyberSpace, friend...

[Gunstar]

That's interesting, but it gives me no idea really about this "Final Frontier" thing at all, except that it's a sci-fi premise. Is it a game for the ST? the 8-bit? Both? Neither? The PC? Is it a strategy war game? A Strategy God game? A networked shooter? Something like Elite or Frontier? something totally different? A card game like Magic the Gathering? An RPG? I have NO idea. A storied "intro" hardly explains anything to me.

[+DarkLord]

That's interesting, but it gives me no idea really about this "Final Frontier" thing at all, except that it's a sci-fi premise. Is it a game for the ST? the 8-bit? Both? Neither? The PC? Is it a strategy war game? A Strategy God game? A networked shooter? Something like Elite or Frontier? something totally different? A card game like Magic the Gathering? An RPG? I have NO idea. A storied "intro" hardly explains anything to me.

 

Final Frontier 2 is an online, BBS multiplayer game. It supports individual play, team play, and even has a computer AI opponent. (The Sartharians). Because its a BBS game, it does not matter what computer you are using. It does involve strategy aspects. No, its not a pure "shooter", although there is combat. It reminds me a lot of Elite or Frontier, just not the graphics. No, its not a card game or an RPG.

 

I'll post the Documentation as well, perhaps that will help some:

 

Final Frontier II ©1995 Marc Ferrari

 

Quantum Thump BBS - 14.4 baud (512)795-9175

 

This File has not been updated yet. None of the latest features are

listed in this document. Please see the Updates file for all the latest info

 

Contents

------------------------

 

I. Introduction

II. Basic Concepts

III. Combat

IV. Computer

V. Stock market

VI. Team play

VII. Latest Developments

------------------------

 

I. Introduction

 

In Final Frontier, your goal is to control 60% of a region of the

galaxy known as the Outer Rim. You can do this through colonization,

war, and diplomacy. You may also be part of a team of up to five

fleets (players). The only way you'll be able to do this is by raising

money for yourself so that you can survive, and at the same time,

keep your planet well defended.

This documentation is also available as a seperate file. Since

Final Frontier is a complex game, you may wish to download it from the

BBS. If it is not available, you should request it from your Sysop

so that you may look this over closely.

 

II. Basic Concepts

 

When you start the game, you'll have only 250,000 credits, which is

not much. You should use this starting amount of money to improve

your weapons, shields, and engines, and buy a few ships for your fleet

as well. Shields are useful in battle because they keep your ship

from being destroyed. The better engine you buy, the faster you'll be

able to travel through space (conserving time is important in Final

Frontier, if you want to be able to do more per day). The more powerful

your weapon, the more damage you can do to enemy shields. For every

level of weapon, you will be able to do a maximum of ten times that in

damage.

 

Freighters are for carrying raw matterials (things such as building

metal, electrical equiptement, etc.; the stuff you need to build

colonies) and ore (which you can sell to the Ore markets on imperial

planets for money). Each freighter has a capacity of 100 tons total

of eighter raw matterials or ore. Transports are for transferring

colonists from planet to planet. Cruisers are the most basic tools of

battle and invasion; before you can attack and enemies ship directly,

you need to fight through his defensive cruisers with your own

cruisers. To invade a planet, you need to destroy their defending

cruisers.

 

There are four types of planets: A,B,C and D. Type A planets are

the easiest to colonize, because they already have conditions suitable

for life (the Earth would be a type A planet). Type B planets cost

slightly more, because their environment is slightly more hostile

(such as Mars). Type C planets are more barren and desolate, often

with no atmosphere. Type D planets are unlivable, rocky balls in space.

They can be colonized, but they are the hardest to do it to. However,

the ease of mining ore from these planets is inverse to how hard it is

to colonize. A chart would look like this:

 

Type Mining Raw Matterials Needed Colonists Needed Frequency

---- ------ --------------------- ---------------- ---------

A 3 100 100 vry rare

B 5 250 100 rare

C 7 1000 100 common

D 11 2500 100 common

 

One final word about money: Save it. Occasionally, you may meet

up with a space merchant who will sell you some very exotic weapons

or equiptment for your ship. These items will cost a lot of money,

though (250,000 Credits and up).

 

III. Combat

 

In the end, war may be a necessity in Final Frontier. You may wage

war by attacking other fleets, or invading planets. When you attack,

make sure you outnumber your enemy, because the defender always has a

slight advantage over the attacker. Invading planets is the hardest;

in addition to the enemy cruisers, there may be defense installations

on the planet which your cruisers can't reach.

 

When attacking an enemy fleet, there are two waves: the cruiser

phase, and the ship vs. ship phase. After you have broken through the

defensive barrier of cruisers, the real dangerous part of combat takes

place. Using your weapons or cruisers, you must attack the enemy.

They will fire back, and you could be destroyed. Freighters and

Transports may occasionally be lost in the crossfire of combat. If

you win a ship vs. ship battle, you'll get all of your enemy's

fleet that remains. A destroyed enemies planets will then become

"lost colonies."

 

Invasion of a planet takes one phase only, and that is to break

through their barrier of cruisers. Once you win, the planet will be

yours.

 

IV. Computer

------------

You have a shipboard computer at your disposal which allows you to

connect to Outer-$erve. Once you get over the initial line noise of

subspace telecommunications, you'll find it quite useful. With it, you

can do several things:

 

o Send Electronic Mail (up to 20 lines) to another player.

o Play online gambling games for real credits.

o Call up the history of a planet.

o Call up the current profile of a planet.

o Access the stock market.

 

The electronic mail is a full command line e-mail system. The

commands you have are:

 

/Gxx [Go to xx line number]

/Dxx [Delete next xx lines]

/Lxx

/A [Abort]

/S [save E-Mail]

Players are notified at the beginning of the game if they have

E-Mail waiting.

 

The online game is based on an old 20th century game known as

"poker-dice." This is a game much like five card draw poker, without

things such as straights and flushes. You just have to get as many

dice of the same number as you can; on a tie, the dealer wins. If

you win, you double the credits you bet. If you lose, you don't get

anything back.

 

A "log" is kept for all planets which you may see for a charge of

2500 credits. This will show you who has ever colonized it, who has

invaded it in the past, etc.

 

You may also gain current information on a specific planet, including

it's type (A through D), current owner (if any), and location.

 

V. Stock Market

 

The stock market is complex, and fluctuates like it does in the

real world. You may want to watch how a stock rises and falls before

buying, because they follow realistic up and down slopes. Watch out

if the stocks get two high, because they could crash. If everyone

sells and doesn't buy, you should also expect it to go down and not up.

Stocks will split if they get too expensive. The stock market, like

in the real world, is a good way to gain money if you know what you

are doing. It is also a good way to lose a lot of money if you don't.

 

VI. Team Play

 

You'll find that winning the game is almost impossible without a team.

Teams allow all ther planets of the people in the team to be pooled,

and if this adds up to 60, all the members of that team will win the

game.

 

A team is started by having a player access the team menu and starting

a team. Then, anyone may request to join the team; the team leader

will be given a chance to accept. No more than five people may be on

one team. If a team leader is killed, the team will disperse. If a

member of the team who is not the leader is killed, all his planets will

be transferred to the team leader.

 

VII. This just in from the outer rim...

 

A renegade Titan from the system of Sol has just announced his candidacy for

dominance of the Outer Rim and, ultimately, the universe as we know it. After

months of speculation as to whether things would ever heat up in Final

Frontier II again, a protracted war is now imminent.

"Screw that crap about just grabbing 50 planets and winning the universe,"

said one FROSTY just before he jumped in the cockpit of his command ship.

"We're developing planets here first, then we're gonna have a hell of a war."

Various owners of intergalactic ships are now vying for the reign of supreme

commander of all, but now with a new twist, said one man who was frothing at

the mouth.

"There will be a strategic game plan here," said a hiccuping STARCHASER. "We

won't be dealing with 100s of cruisers and destroyers here, we'll be shoving

1000s of each into orifices where the sun never reaches, and we're not gonna

stop."

 

Currently, everyone is waiting for the other to make the first move, sources

say. Several planets have been peacably colonized while others have been

burned, nuked, and then taken over by crazed lizards and other less than vile

commanders.

"It'ssssss just a thing," slobbered one reptilian Satharian. "You haveth to

undersssstand thath we are just presssserving the massster rassse. Our Armada

hasss been frenthdly sssso farrr. We'll ssstart getting nasssty unlessss the

ssseries 'Cop Rock' isss brought back on theee airwavessss. That'sss when the

Guano hitss the rotating blade air-blower."

The Titan that started it all after glueing the Satharian Ambassador's swamp

chamber door shut just when a rumored ladyfriend was eggblown, was quoted as

saying, "All who oppose THANOS OF TITAN will die. All who serve him will

live. It's that simple; I don't know how to make it simpler, you cretin!"

Thanos has vowed to make all that dare to seek the supreme throne drown in

their own blood. "From their entrains, of course," said the Titan with a

glimmer in his eye.

All wait to see the outcome of the upcoming war in FINAL FRONTIER II. Patrons

of QUANTUM THUMP are encouraged to read the docs and join in the affair. It's

still early, so it's a great time to get in. Build your colonies and planets

into massive empires. Team up (or not) with friendly and/or treacherous foes.

 

Make friends with bug-eyed, mealy-mouthed, fishheadded humans. Or die trying;

it's all relative, when one gets into FINAL FRONTIER II.

Experienced players will find this go around interesting. New players will

have time to learn. So go for it. The more crusaders we have trying to take

over the universe, the more spoils there will be.

Play now!

More news forthcoming as things develop...

[Gunstar]

thanks.

[+DarkLord]

thanks.

 

 

No problem!

 

It really is a great game. I know I'm addicted to it... Its like many online games though, the more people that play it, the more fun it is.