The Ferengi IMO make the perfect NPC tool for the GM to "act" within the game. They are there to provide loans, buy and sell ships, weapons, and so forth. So long as they continue to act in said capacity, they are pretty much guaranteed protection from other powers.
Sorry little bro.....you told me that once, and it just didn't click
They say that in the Army,
the women are mighty fine.
They look like Phyllis Diller,
and walk like Frankenstein.
If you want to be a powerful player right from the start the. You need to do one of two things. Either play as the UFP since the sim is highly stacked to them... Or you need to create a powerful new race. Everyone else starts in equally bad shape.
Powers will be much more equal in this version. All types have advantages and drawbacks but the economies should all start close enough that everyone can have a chance to "win".
The Federation did have a significantly bigger economy in Alpha than most others. Though the revenues taken in by the government each turn were much closer to the Klingons and Romulans do to enforced lower tax rates.
Just to compare the effective revenue of two empires from the last sim so everyone has an idea of what they are looking at when they read about GDP vs revenue.
In turn 22 the Klingon Empire had GDP of 24 million (pre trade) vs the Federation with a GDP of 52 million. This would make one think the Klingons have no real chance to take on the UFP.
However the government revenue (what you can spend) broke down as follows.
Klingon Empire- 18 million in taxes, 2.7 million in trade.
Federation- 19 million in taxes, 5.5 million in trade.
The GDP would suggest a difference of about two times. But the actual government revenue suggest a difference in spending ability of 15%, an overall much smaller gap. When further looked at the Federation maintains an exploration fleet that runs north of 2 million credits per year in maintenance, which would reduce the raw gap in that particular turn to right around 10% around every turn for everything else.
This was mid-term for the game, after the first KE-Romulan War and before the second so that everyone has a reference point. In the next version everyone will be much closer in overall starting capacity than that. What you make of it from there is up to you.
Ok, test sheet has been sent out to a few people who can play with it and give it a quick BS detection test. I will get another power or two done every night this week and go from there.
Tsu - UFP
Deep - KE
Tyyr - RSE
CJ - Custom
Mark - Custom
Reliant - Custom
Light - CU
Stitch - Gorn
Sonic - Breen
Tinadrin - Tholians
This is my preliminary list unless anyone loudly objects. Everyone except Deep gets a new power to play. If you have a custom race send me a PM and I will tell you what I need.
Lighthawk wrote:"A true victory is to make your enemy see they were wrong to oppose you in the first place. To force them to acknowledge your greatness." - Gul Dukat
Let the games begin
Nice.
To paraphrase Archer's speech from the founding of the Federation...
Oh, right...
There is only one way of avoiding the war – that is the overthrow of this society. However, as we are too weak for this task, the war is inevitable. -L. Trotsky, 1939