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#215 APOLYTON 2007 Rasbelin walks us through his predictions for five years time on the site of the name above. #214 THE COURTS OF CANDLE'BRE: AN INTRODUCTION Vel opens the door of the Candle'Brewing laboratory just for glimpse of what's happening in there... #213 A FREECIV FAN RESPONDS CapTVK responds to the "accusations" against Freeciv #212 FOUR YEARS AND SIXTY EIGHT MILLION HITS PASSED DanQ reviews the 4th year of Apolyton #211 CIV3: THE LAST GLASS OF WINE The eternal issue: exactly how much does civ3... ;) #210 EDITING RULES FOR EXPERIENCED PLAYERS Peter shares his suggestions for more interesting games COLUMN ARCHIVE

What has been inspiring the mankind for centuries and has been called the final frontier? Space. If you would have asked me, the answer would have been that other dimensions is the final frontier, but space is currently the one we are aware of. But why am I starting by stating that space has been a source of inspiration and that it's the final frontier? Space has inspired many gamemakers and worked as the scenery for zounds of different games, but to mention a few of interest: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Master of Orion [and] Stars!. The void around us outside our hemisphere has been the final frontier for colonisation or the area to explore in many strategy games. In Sid Meier's Civilization series, space represented the unknown void to explore, if you had reached Alpha Centauri and settled down there. This instead brings SMAC into the picture with space colonisation.

So what's the catch here? As space is currently the final frontier of strategy games, a gathering of people has decided to go one step further in turn-based strategy gaming about interstellar and extraterrestial colonisation. The name of this bold project is Stella Polaris. Or the name Stella Polaris is the title of the actual game to be released. So what's this Stella Polaris then?

Stella Polaris is a GNU GPL licensed open source TBS game about interstellar and extraterrestial colonisation. The game has been inspired by several other games like CivII and CivIII, SMAC, MoO and Stars!, but it's still a unique game that tries to go one step further in the subject of space colonisation. Quoting one Canadian fellow development team member: "A free game developed by gamers who always wished that exsisting TBS games could have been something more than they are. It's a game of hope and inspiration, set on an alien planet, where your leadership would determine the future of spicies." Before I carry on any further, I want to underline that Stella Polaris isn't a cheap SMAC clone or a simple setup of copy & paste material.

CapTVK, a representative of the FreeCiv project, raised a question about why we started a new project as it can be very time consuming, instead of joining an exsisting one, i.e. the SMAC clone based on the FreeCiv engine. One must admit that making a "yet another SMAC clone" wouldn't be innovative at all. Neither do I believe that it's inspiring so much, as most of the game concept already exisists. Because I haven't been around for as long as many others, especially Blake and Closey, my point of view on the reasons for making a new game isn't the same, so I'll explain why I think we wanted to start making something new. Making a clone of some already published game or only ripping ideas from other games wouldn't be so innovative and it would limit the creativity, so we decided to start making something new and hopefully a game that will take one step further in TBS gaming. Also starting a new project gives independence, but also the opportunity to create a totally new and selfmade game that includes the missing elements of other game related to this title. Briefly, we want to think different.

Many readers woud like to see comprehensive feature lists, but I think that would be quite boring. Don't you share my opinion? And there wouldn't be much to say for sure yet as the game is currently in pre-alpha phase. But one thing is sure. There will be concepts that haven't been seen before, i.e. slave trade. So what's the current status of the game? Has there been any setbacks? One of the current main priorities is to make the GOD (game outlook document; includes information about all aspects of the game, except the engine), but generally speaking getting more people involved is currently as important as the GOD. The positive news is that the project has mostly been progressive, except that I have somehow lost one German, one Lithuanian and one Indian in the cyberspace.

I want to finish my column by advising everyone interested in this project; no matter what they can offer or what their skills are, to visit FreeAC Forums and registering themselves as FACF members. After that they can easily find information on how to join the development team. Those who are interested in giving us materialised support, can contact me by e-mail or with a PM on Apolyton for details on how one can help with a donation.

"In Stella Polaris we trust." -Rasbelin

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About the author: Stella Polaris Development Team Manager -- website

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