|
|
||||||||
THE TRAVELING TRADE SHOW A REVIEW OF INTERSTELLAR TRADER 2
Shrapnel
Games is nearly alone as an independent publisher
of the turn-based wargames that were a staple of computer gaming for the
first couple of decades of its existence.
Their titles run the gamut from science fiction games, such as Space
Empires IV, to the rigorously historical Horse and Musket game of
eighteenth-century tactics. Sometimes though the company will put out a
game that does not fit the prevailing image, and Interstellar Trader 2
is one of them. It should be
emphasized that this is not a wargame, though there are occasional, almost
incidental battles with space pirates.
Nor is there an opponent recognizable as such, not even a
computer-controlled enemy. Instead,
the player is a solitary figure, alternately fighting and exploiting
circumstances, and ultimately in competition only with himself. The center of gravity in Interstellar
Trader 2 is strictly economic. The
starting point has the player choosing a spacecraft based on his perceived
needs for relative degrees of cargo space, room for passengers, combat
capability, and endurance, the last dependent on the size of the fuel
tank. He also receives a sum of cash,
and takes to the stars. As the title
indicates, he travels between planets, trying to fill his holds with goods
bought low to sell high. There is a wide range of commodities that can
be traded between worlds. Something of
a rarity in science fiction games, few are exotic; guitars and puppies are
pretty standard. In addition, all take
up the same amount of stowage space, so one cannot decide to carry a lot of
small furry pets instead of a few big screen TV’s. Ultimately, there is absolutely nothing to
distinguish between trade goods except their names. Yet a player has to differentiate between
them, as what might be rare and valuable on one planet could well be dirt
cheap on another. It takes no thought at all to make money
hauling passengers. Making landfall, a
player might be presented with a number of passengers looking to book
passage, and how much they will pay.
The player agrees to pick them up, then gets the money. One does not have to take them any particular
place, and they leave the ship at the next stop, making room for others to take
their berths. Passengers represent
found money, as long as the player has room on the ship to accommodate them
for a very short time. A player has options other than trade to keep
and invest their money too. He has
access to a bank where he can deposit money in a savings account or take out
a loan, both at fluctuating interest rates.
He can also buy stock and invest in two mutual funds, both of which
can go up or down with the fortunes of their companies and the interstellar
economy as a whole. Though offering extra options for economic
strategy, the implementation is a little weak, and appears arbitrary. To begin with, players have very little
information on which to base their decisions, just a few news headlines that
pop up when visiting the “
Considering that this is a game
and not a purportedly sophisticated economic model, it would be as
inappropriate as it would be unexpected to have mechanisms that might win a
Nobel Prize for economics, or deluge a player with bits and pieces of news. However, a little more pertinent
information, and a greater connectivity between events, would have greatly
improved it.
A gamer too has the option, in
fact the long-term need, to invest in his own ship. Normal wear and tear, not to mention
violent encounters with pirates, cause damage that needs to be repaired at
planetary shipyards. One can and in
the long term must improve capabilities well, especially in regard to cargo
space and weapons, expensive purchases that pay off in the end. Increasing the loads carried
correspondingly raises the payoff when they are sold, and in general
increases one’s flexibility to buy and hold onto trade goods.
Military power can be
augmented by upgrading the basic weaponry and defensibility of the
merchantman, or by acquiring special weapons and even escort vessels at the
shipyard, in effect creating a trading fleet.
In Interstellar Trader 2, pirates are a common problem. They will not totally destroy a player’s
ship, but they will cause damage that must be repaired, and steal money. Naturally, it is in a player’s interest to
keep this from happening.
Defeating pirate attacks can
also pay off directly for the trader too, as the reverse is also true; a
player often ends up taking an attacker’s cash for himself.
This presents one of the
game’s most interesting areas of decision.
Macchiavelli would recognize the principle that military power can be
used to acquire gold, and that building up one’s weaponry can be just as
lucrative at times as increasing cargo space.
Thus there is an implicit competition for resources between guns and
cargo capacity.
When dirtside, the game also
gives the player opportunities buy off pirates to prevent attacks for a few
turns. Sometimes buying peace can be a
good idea. But for a powerful ship
flanked by battlecruisers, it can be the worst thing in the galaxy, as being
attacked by weaker forces can be downright profitable.
Pirate encounters are random
events that can prove to be good or bad.
Most other random events tend to benefit the player.
Every planet has a prime
minister’s office, and it is in the player’s interest to visit there first
upon landing. Most of the time His
Excellency will be too busy, sick, tired, distracted for a meeting. But he can also be a source of largess
too. A friendly government might gas
up a ship for free, donate an upgrade, add escort vessels, or simply put cash
or shares of stock in a gamer’s pocket.
He might even manipulate prices to drive up profits.
What do the politicians want
in return? Absolutely nothing. This is more like corporate welfare than
bribery.
Other times, a rogue trader
will offer to sell some item that is allegedly rare and can bring a good
profit, or make an offer to buy everything that the player has in his cargo
holds. Generally, these deals require
less caution than one might think, as those commodities up for sale generally
are very mcuh in demand at the player’s next destination and can therefore
bring in a handsome profit in a hurry.
Whether a rogue trader’s price for a player’s own cargo is quite as
good, that varies a lot more and calls for more discretion.
Interstellar Trader 2 also draws the player into games of chance on
occasion. The emphasis here is on
chance, as skill has nothing to do with the outcome. Critically, the player never loses money in
the casino; at worst he leaves with his wallet intact, and frequently the
issue is not so much whether he wins or loses, but how much he will win.
There is a last way in which a
player can gain revenue, and that is through building toll gates on
planets. These are expensive, at least
as much as two or three ship upgrades, but produce income every time so other
ship visits the world.
This might make Interstellar
Trader 2 sound like a kind of Monopoly in space. There is a resemblance at times, one must
admit. There is also a feel
reminiscent of Avalon Hill’s space trading boardgame, Merchant of Venus,
and this one should appeal to players of that game.
At the same time, gamers
should bear in mind that some of the characteristics and dynamics most taken
for granted in other games are not part of the Interstellar Trader 2
experience. Most critical, there is no
perception at all of any kind of coherent opposition. Even the most primitive computer game tends
to have an artificial intelligence with a clear pattern of actions, albeit
sometimes stupid actions. Interstellar
Trader 2 has nothing of the sort; one sees the environment as one of
randomly changing conditions, without any kind of guiding hand behind them.
There is also little sense
that planets have character. Supply
and demand are underpinning principles of the game, but there is no
consistency, nor any pattern as to what worlds have to sell or want to buy. A planet that has a surplus of an item this
time might be grossly overstocked with them a short time later.
In one way, ironically, there
is a little too much consistency in the economics of the game. Planets with shortages or surpluses have
them across the board, for all goods that they might trade. In a real-world economic system, one might
expect to an agricultural economy to have large amounts of grain to sell at a
good price but an appetite for finished goods and industrial technology, for
example, and an industrialized system to have its surpluses and shortages
reversed.
But in the galaxy of Interstellar
Trader 2, there is no such phenomenon.
Planets are either consumers or producers of everything.
There is another missing
element, one that is surprising considering that commerce involves
travel. The game has little sense of
time and space. When picking a
destination, one sees a display with ten planets, and the gamer picks one,
any one, as a destination. He lands
and conducts his business.
Even Monopoly and the
game of Life give a clear indication of distance between squares, and
the time it takes to travel between them.
Interstellar Trader 2 does not.
Do these missing elements make
it a bad game? No, not at all.
One has to understand what Interstellar
Trader 2 is not. First, it is not a
wargame, despite its pedigree. If a
player wants a game of war with economic aspects, or for that matter an
economic game with provision for conflict, he is best advised to look
elsewhere.
Nor does the game have the
mercantile trading dynamics one sees in Merchant of Venus, for
example. There is little or no
opportunity to set up consistently productive triangular trade patterns, and
the game does not call upon players to make the sorts of decisions incumbent
upon that. Instead, the more important
questions involve whether or not to sell cargo, or hold onto it, taking a
risk on a better price elsewhere, or when to buy goods. The strategic questions are more a matter
of when than where or even what.
Interstellar Trader 2 functions on its own terms, and on the whole, it does
pretty well. There is no denying the
fun of it. There are some areas in
which it could be improved, such as a more coherent economic model, and a
clearer portrayal of spatial relationships.
Furthermore, there could be
visual cues or at least other reminder of what kinds of conditions were last
found at a destination world.
Circumstances can change, and make for a challenging game, especially
if the most recent information on a place is not as fresh as it could
be. Yet Interstellar Trader 2
could benefit from a reminder of that intelligence and its age.
For all that, one has to
return to the fun factor, and on this the game scores well. As long as one does not expect another
game, Interstellar Trader 2 is good for a lot of hours of good,
avaricious fun. |
