Star Traders
This game may be available in a ports or package system near you, e.g.
$ doas pkg_add trader
...
The documentation does not go much into the tactics involved, which may be complicated by the number and kind of various people playing the game. This page attempts to outline some of the basics of that play.
Early game
The early game starts with a uniformly random field; 20 locations are picked at random. The player list is incremented through, starting at a random player, much like one would pick a random dealer in a card-game, then go around the table in a particular direction. Each player must select a position to develop on the field, then can manage their stocks and bank account. Interest on a loan is applied right away, and after buying stocks one should visit the bank as there may be new funds with which to pay down any debt. Selecting positions on the field has some nuance; an outpost in space will not create a company (unless adjacent to another outpost) while those next to one or more planets will create a company. The more planets, the more valuable the stock. More valuable stock is more difficult to purchase without funds, so it may make sense to buy stocks in some other company with a lower stock price but higher growth potential. Or, a player can invest in and grow their starting company in the hopes of becoming a dominant company, especially if they are able to secure a good location on the map and luck favors the development of the company. Other players may try to buy into a good deal.
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The choices 'a' though 't' vary in quality:
- 'a', 'b', 'd', and similar will found an outpost; the player will have no company and slightly less money than a player who does found company. It probably makes sense to start a company early in the game, unless all the players agree to first seed the map with outposts.
- 'd' or 'g' should be avoided as they are less likely to grow on account of the fewer adjacent cells.
- 'c', 'f', 'j', and similar will form a company. 'f' and especially 'j' will start with slightly more money, at the cost of having a higher initial stock price on account of starting next to two or three stars.
- 's' or 'e' should be considered as these are fairly centrally located and have more nearby growth options. Such locations may develop into a regional power. 'j' by contrast needs more luck to expand as it has only one cell it can expand to. 'f' is also more likely to not expand than 's' or 'e'.
- 'i' or 'l' also form outposts, as diagonals are ignored when it comes to establishing or extending a company.
Odds of things
Some numbers may help put the odds into context. The map is 38 by 14 and the code states that "approximately 10% of the map should be stars". The stars are placed at random, so the players might agree to start a different game if the map generated is not a good one.
#define STAR_RATIO 0.10 // Approximately 10% of the map should be stars
...
extern double randf (void)
{
return drand48();
}
...
// Initialise galaxy map
for (int x = 0; x < MAX_X; x++) {
for (int y = 0; y < MAX_Y; y++) {
galaxy_map[x][y] = (randf() < STAR_RATIO) ? MAP_STAR : MAP_EMPTY;
}
}
By way of a Monte Carlo simulation (the code is linked to, below) that counted stars in a million runs, there will be on average 53 stars, though this could be as low as 24 or as high as 90, though usually between 48 and 58 stars (25% and 75% in an R quantile() analysis of type 9). With eight players opting for the full 50 moves of a game the board could get pretty full; the players may want to vote or otherwise agree to end the game before that as there will not be much left to develop. One might imagine a different game going on between the players on when to end the game, whether to pick a merging move, etc, though Star Traders itself does not have any in-game support for such. It would need the ability to transfer money to other players, possibly held in escrow pending a particular action, and other such features that would help integrate any out-of-game trading into the game.
Another question might be, given some number of stars on a board, what is the odds of a move being granted adjacent to a particular location with one to four free spots next to it? The RNG gets 20 attempts at this. Assuming 532 minus 53 locations are available, and accounting for various complications, and with a lot of trials, the odds that one location, or any of two, three, or four adjacent locations are picked are something like:
1 4.17%
2 8.18%
3 12.04%
4 15.73%
This shows that a company surrounded on three sides already is unlikely to expand, while an outpost with four free adjacent locations is more likely to be picked. Granted, one of those locations may head off in a wrong direction, so an outpost with four free locations actually has fewer than that if it needs to link up in a particular way. If you want a company anywhere in space, then there's about a 16% chance of being able to form a company with an existing outpost. These odds will change as the number of available locations goes down later in the game.
Later game
Later in the game there may be one or several developed companies; at this point a player may either try to expand those companies, or may start a company near to one of the dominants in the hope of being acquired. With sufficient funds one might buy all the stock in the new company, then bid that new stocks be issued, then buy all those stocks as well. This should largely prevent other players from gaining too much stake in a company, though any player can expand on any company by developing on an adjacent cell, which will grant them the option to purchase a limited number of stocks. Creating outposts is of more importance later in the game; these may eventually link up to existing companies or be used to start a low-cost company unconnected to any planets by means of two adjacent outposts.
Players must note when two companies merge, as the next player to move may have the option to create a new company somewhere. This is the best time to start a company in open area of the map, or one that is aimed to be acquired by a larger firm. Also with fewer available moves on the board, it is more likely that a given location will be picked in one of the 20 chances, improving the odds that a small startup can be linked to a larger company.