The Last Resort

From:  http://librenix.com/sst/tlr.html


The Last Resort

January 15, 2005: What is The Last Resort and why should I play it? In
very obvious ways, TLR is a crude game. While there is a graphical
client, it is not necessary to play the game. TLR is free and can be
played with a web browser or simply by telnet. Using a web browser is
not very immersive; playing via telnet is difficult at first. You find
yourself typing '?' a lot for the command menu.

TLR's strength is a gameplay balance that provides a platform for
strategy like few other games. Understanding it is slow at first, but
once understood, there are a relatively small number of mechanisms and
objects that can be used in a near-infinite number of ways. A recent
predecessor of TLR, Starship Traders, was described by a long-time
player like this: First it seems too complicated, then too simple. Then
too complicated again.

TLR suffers from a lack of human factors engineering and is even more
confusing as a result. Nothing is obvious to the first-time player. Even
when a new player figures out how to use the radio and ask someone what
they should be doing, they are likely to be told to 'Computrade'. Such a
simple answer to the mystery posed by such a complicated, abstract
universe. Surely that wasn't a satisfactory answer.

But we will address that in due time. Suffice it to say, TLR is
confusing, text-based, and huge. 'How huge is it?', you might be
wondering? The new version of the game supports a universe of up to four
million sectors and rooms in size. There are over a million machines and
ports, and over a hundred thousand planets and pantries in a a game of
that size.

It will also support thousands of other players.

The typical universe is divided into 1500+ distinct galaxies and hotels,
ranging in size from 125 sectors up to 16,000 rooms. Any one of those
places might harbor an enemy starship, attack starbases, or maybe an
automatic homing device that will attach itself to you as you enter, and
start broadcasting your location to the other player that placed it
there.

But back to the central question: why should you waste your time on this
game? First, a simple answer to a simple question. You probably
shouldn't play this game. But, who am I to decide? You'll have to make
that decision for yourself. Most players quit within a few minutes of
logging in. They see no appealing graphics, no music plays, and nothing
makes sense to them immediately. They move on to the next shiny thing.
The first impression may not be everything, but here it eliminates
almost 90% of players.

The other 10% starts to play, tentatively. Moving to another sector by
typing a sector number, Moving and Trading and with a machine by typing
C (for Computrade), testing the various commands in the menu that ?
lists. They move, they trade, they build a few milibots, they find an
abandoned pantry and lift some stuff out of it. The pantry takes the
name of the player, just as several of the machines had. And one MiniBar
reported the name of the last player to trade there, 42 hours ago. So?
Another 5% of the would-be players wander off to some other site or go
mow the lawn.

The last 5% continue to play. Some of them listen to the radio as other
players chat, occasionally using words and abbreviations that hold no
meaning. Maybe they figure out how to use the radio themselves and ask a
few questions. A few interesting things were discovered today. Perhaps
half of the remaining 5% will return tomorrow to poke around more.

Our last 2% log in again. The game is still there, their character still
where it was left. There are a different set of other players on this
time. Some have various kinds of backpacks like 'Policepack' and
'Travelpack'. Others, however, having launched into space, are flying
starships. Their ships have names 'Battleship', 'Stealth Destroyer' and
'Hyper Cruiser'. Our newbie hero notices that he has the words 'Camo
Fannypack' in front of his title of 'Tourist+2'. The others have titles
of 'Admiral+5', 'Predator+0', and 'Minor Tyrant+7'.

The new Tourist has quite an imagination and starts to see patterns in
the seemingly meaningless actions in the game... When he moves, his
energy level goes down. Energy is fuel that appears to be necessary to
move around, trade, among other uses. One of the numbers in 'Inventory'
is the ratio of microbots earned to fuel consumed. Further, new fuel is
issued every hour. This is a turn-based game and energy is the fuel that
turns are measured in. The energy can be used all at once in a single
session, a little at a time, or hoarded up for a marathon session some
time in the future. Efficient use of fuel is surely one of the keys to
success in this game.

However, computrading is the simplest and quickest way to make money in
the game. Did I say money? Even the local currency is confusing. The
basic unit of wealth is the industrial Microbot -- a tiny machine that
was never intended to be used as cash. Having actual inherent value,
though, the microbot has displaced traditional, government-issued,
currency and is in use whereever there is no controlling authority.

Microbots retain their industrial uses, of course, and a few hundred of
them can be used, along with an amount of iron, to make small
semi-autonomous weapons called milibots.

Huge quantities of microbots, and a large quantity of hardware, can even
be used to build securitybots. Securitybots can be configured to defend
a room -- or to attack anyone who enters the guarded room. Unless, of
course, the visitor is a gangmate.

Any player can create a gang, and any unaligned player can apply for
membership in any gang that has a vacancy.

Backpacks can be upgraded to augment their offensive or defensive
military prowess, their cargo capacity, their instruments, and even,
with jetpacks, their travel capabilities. Alas, as with all things, each
type of upgrade is a tradeoff against other capabilities.

As you may have gathered, a new player starts out on a resort world as a
tourist. However, it's not a difficult thing to find your way to the
spaceport, trade in your gear for space equipment, and get launched into
space. From space, you can trade and earn even more microbots, build
starbases, augment your ship with all manner of weapons and equipment,
as well as start a search for other resort worlds. There are 25 such
worlds in total, 24 of which are randomly scattered throughout space...

In many games, there is a 'play nice' rule that applies to all in-game
actions, with the sometime exception of words. In TLR, things are quite
the opposite. There are no limits on in-game actions but freedom of
speech is somewhat limited by the second of our three rules:

1) Play only your own character, only the number of aliases explicitly
permitted, and never, ever share accounts! The current limit is 4
characters per person.

2) Use no profanity or personal verbal obnoxiousness anywhere here --
including the radio, the message base, and graffiti.

3) Violate no applicable law in your use of this system.

That's it. You may have noted the peculiar absense of another common
rule of other games: bug exploits.

Anything you do within the game that doesn't violate one of those three
rules is _not cheating_. If you find a bug in the game that lets you
gain an advantage without breaking one of our three rules, then
exploiting that bug is hereby explicitly permitted.

A player who finds and uses a bug, especially to win or place highly in
a game, is greatly respected here. A player who wins such a game, then
reports how they did it in a story on the message board, will long be
remembered in the legends and lore of this place.

While it is hoped that such exploits are reported, note that there is no
rule that requires it. Our permissive policy on bug exploits has served
us well over the years, and several game outcome-affecting bugs have
been discovered and fixed directly as a result of our
bug-exploits-are-permitted policy.