The First Council Adjourns.. and the Election Race Begins Anew!
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22JUN10
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The first council has finished their interim government tenure with some interesting debates. As well as investing in a lot of technology research, they also made a number of election reforms to make it easier for pilots with less money to run in elections.
A lot of discussion was held on the making the "Academy" faction a government run group - however, this was benched for the next council to work through.
They voted for the following items :
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- Changing advert fee's during election campaigns to 200k Credits.
- Reduced the candidate fee for new elections to 500k credits.
- Mandated that four votes were needed to impeach a president of the council
- Salvage Cranes to be developed.
- Cargo pods to be developed.
- Invested 350million credits into the development of new space station technologies.
- Invested 100million credits into the development of colony buildings.
- Invested 300million credits into Jump Inhibitor technology development.
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In total they spent all but 75 million credits of their budget which will be passed to the next councils buget making just under a total of 600 million credits to spend (due to market growth and spending on gvmt items during this time).
The new candidates for the next election are : Saripul, Image egamI, EVA Destruction, James Anthony, Doctor Zoidberg, Arya Astra, Void Ranger and Nick Succorso.
Check out their election posts on the Outer Empires forums and also their GNN adverts in game!
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Galactic Election Results
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19APR10
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The last few days have seen the citizens of the Nyridion Galaxy voting for the new Galactic
Council.
The new Government Council will be able to set the direction of development within
Outer Empires - literally making choices as to how things will run in the Nyridion Galaxy
over the next few months.
The candidates voted in by electorate are as follows : Dirk Prefect, DoM inator, Razer Corvallis,
Stellar Aitann and Unfrozen Jon. Below you can see how the vote was distributed on the
ballot.
The new Council members will be given access to the government offices within the next few hours
so that they can begin the process of electing a president from amongst their number.
Please join me in congratulating everyone for taking part - the election process was excellent
and I can not wait to see how the new council refine and change the current process and to see
what decisions they make for the future of the galaxy.
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iGameRadio Interview with Paul Hutson on the Elections
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11APR10
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The new Government Council, what is it all about?
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29MAR10
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Those of you who have listened to the latest episode of the
PodCast on iTunes will have some insight in to what will be happening in the elections over the next few weeks and what the new Government
will be able to do once they are elected.
The election process
There are three distinct parts to the election process...
The first is registering to be put on the ballot - doing so will cost 1.25 million credits in game, payable to OESupport Bill or OEDev Brandon
- they will be accepting registrations on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of April.
The second phase is the campaigning, every registrant will be able to purchase GNN news time - i.e. seen when people load into the game in the
news window. This will cost 500k credits for each advert you want posted - a maximum of two adverts will be posted per day, but slots can be
prebooked.
Lastly we have the voting which will happen on the 16th/17th/18th of April. Every character in game will get a vote to cast (so premium account
holders will, essentially, get two votes as they have two characters).
The Results
The votes will be counted, checked and recounted - then the results will be released on Monday 19th, the new Government council will be "sworn in"
and they can begin their sixty day term in office.
The President
The new council will vote on a new president amongst their number (i.e. they all get to vote on who will be the president). That president will
be able to set the votes for each week - up to two votes can be held in any one week on new developments/laws/etc. Votes will be passed on
a majority vote.
What the new council will do?
The council will have a budget - all the credits that are generated from the space stations, taxes and industry within the gvmt territory.
With that comes a list of things that the budget can be spent on (and the associated costs). These include Jump Gates additions, New Ship Designs
(from existing hulls and brand new hulls), Worker Pay Subsidies, Space Station Improvements, New ship Technologies (cloaking devices, scanners,
salvage cranes), Improved existing ship technologoes, Improved Colony flatpacks and new Colony Building flatpacks...
Needless to say, the budget won't stretch to everything and I'm sure that all of the council won't have the same priorities as to which should be
developed first.
So, there we have it - the GVMT will control all developments within the Nyridion Galaxy, they can change taxes (i.e. add extra tax to fuel, or
mechanics, or markets) to raise more credits to spend on the improvements listed above...
Will you step up to the challenge? How will you exercise your right to vote?
Comment on this news post on the Office Outer Empires forums
Outer Empires Development Team
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PodCast Episode 2 - Election Time!
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28MAR10
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The second episode of the PodCast is out - it features the development team talking about the upcoming Elections for the new player government,
how they get elected and what they will be able to do when they have been elected. Ever wanted to be the president of a Galaxy? Your chance is
here!
You can find the PodCast Channel
on iTunes as a free download.
We'll be looking forward to candiates submitting their ballot fee's between the 1st and the 3rd of April...
Outer Empires Development Team
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March Updates
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26MAR10
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Outer Empires Developer PodCasts :
OEDev Brandon and OESupport Bill have been pouring some time into creating a new Outer Empires developer PodCast - the first episode (in two parts) lasts for an hour
and a half, featuring interviews with lead developer Paul Hutson on the status of the game and future development, and also an interview with Stellar Aitann the leader
of the Iron Union. You can find the PodCast Channel
on iTunes as a free download.
Player Government - starting in April... :
The in game government is failing - has been failing for several months - and it's about to all come to a head, the citizens of the galaxy aren't happy with a near
non-existant government... so more and more are rioting in protest for a new elected Government. That's where you come in, five players will be voted in to office in game (via a voting
terminal) - they will decide how things develop through deciding where the vast galactic budget is spent, from new jump gates to more ships being developed - they
get to decide it all. Want to rule a Galaxy? Now's your chance! More on this in the second episode of the PodCast coming next week!
Patches and New Ships :
Today brought with it a big new content patch after last weeks combat browser enhancements. Today's patch brings yet more enhancements to the in game system and also
five new ships - three completely new ships, the Rapier, the Katana and the Sabre - each are hybrid ships featuring both cargo capacity and weapon slots.
In addition to that there are a few new lower level ships (the refueller and a new and improved freighter with a weapon slot)... we've got so much more planned in the
near future too!
New Team Members :
Last month saw the introduction of two new team members. OEDev Brandon and OESupport Bill. OEDev Brandon has been pushing along browser and app enhancements and
fixes (recently pushing out the new browser combat enhancements!) OESupport Bill has been in game every day (from 7am EST until *very* late) in the channel /j support
- answering peoples questions and support requests in record time. Drop by some time and say hello - or say hello in General chat, they're often around.
Not logged in for a Month or More?
Anyone who hasn't logged into the game for a month or more will find that they currently have five days free
subscription time applied to their account - so you'll be able to take advantage of 2 x XP and Credits for every job you take on.. and also start up that second
character.. ever wanted to be a Pirate? a faction leader? a market trader.. now's your chance!
Performance Improvements :
The game has had an overhaul and removing a lot of the early release issues with lag and crashes. Lag has virtually been
eliminated from the game and, as a result, a number of the crashes on the App version have also been removed (they were linked together). A number of patches have
been pushed out for the Browser version to fix combat issues, meaning that combat is easier and smoother than ever on App or Browser version.
See you in game soon!
The Outer Empires Development Team
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Player Made Map
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19MAR10
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"AUS Roadie" has created an up to date map of the entire galaxy, it's amazing to see how far people have expanded from the original Government areas.
Yet, there are still 15000 systems that have never been visited by anyone - meaning around three quarters of the galaxy is still uncharted...
You can view the map in realtime on his website, here : ausrodie.com/map.html :
It's a large download (13 meg or so). Alternatively, you can view a 2.8 meg image version by
clicking here.
Paul Hutson
Lead Developer
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Click on the Image for a
larger version (2.9 meg)
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Browser Patch V1.1 Released
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17MAR10
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A new browser patch out today brings with it a number of bug fixes and enhancements before we start on some of the bigger enhancements.
Read the patch note on the forums
Have Fun!
Outer Empires Development Team
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Updates Updates Updates
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14MAR10
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Over the past few weeks you will have noticed a number of changes, enhancements and fixes in the game which have
sped the game up as a whole.
This is due in a large part to two new people joining the Outer Empires team. OEDev Brandon and OESupport Bill (their in
game names, so you can say hello) - who are doing development, support and testing of in game items. At the same time I've
been doing a number of enhancements to the back end and middle layers of the game to fix a few of the lag problems.
You'll be seeing new patches for both the Browser and the App versions of the game in the very near future - starting with a
Browser patch in the next week or so, adding in some combat related fixes and a few enhancements (one click to start all
weapons, and one click to stop them all again).
The development is speeding along well with some of the promised enhancements being released soon (new ship hulls for pilots
of rank Heavy Class C 1 and higher) which are a cross between combat and transport ships so you can have a bit more
protection while in deep space.
The Development Team and I are still very committed to pushing Outer Empires ever forward - with the deployment of the game
on to the iPad when that releases (we're doing some work to the browser version shortly to work on the iPad and, of course,
the App will just work on the iPad straight off the bat).
See you all in game soon!
Paul Hutson
Lead Developer
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News and the next part of the Background Story
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04JAN09
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Happy new year from all of us here at Ironwill Studios - I hope you've had an excellent holiday period... there are lots of new things
coming to Outer Empires this year - amongst them bug fixes, new game play additions and the much hinted at "Government Troubles" will
be coming to a head in the next little while...
... Leading up to that is the next part of the background story, part Six "Sympathy's Hope" which has been added to the website.
"I don't care how long it takes you, Jo’neil but I want that engine coupling cleaned and I want it done yesterday."
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Jo'neil Tirris glared at the chief engineer of the Sympathy's Hope and swore under his breath. The chief was only six months older
than he was. Who was he to be giving orders like that? He scrambled up the access ladder that led to the coupling Chief Harris had
indicated. It would be clean enough, Jo’neil was sure. The chief just liked to keep him busy whether there was work to do or not. He
smacked the back of his hand on a ladder rung as he scrambled carelessly upward. Jo’neil swore again, this time loudly hoping the chief
would hear.
Read all of the "Sympathy's Hope" story...
There will be several more in game news items over the next few weeks bridging the gap between this story and the next.
Paul Hutson
Lead Developer
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