Imperium Nova Restart

[Bosh]

http://www.imperiumnova.com/Imperium/

Last year a good number of poly people played the beta of this Dune-inspired text-based space strategy game. A much more polished version with new empty galaxies just went up today.

This game is different from other text-based strategy games (Ogame etc.) in that instead of getting a bit of territory you start out with a small military and some business holdings on a planet subject to the Emperor. What you can then do is expand your business holdings (the economic model is simple but pretty good, merchantile requires a good bit of number juggling but most of the other spheres don't take too much time), eventually build up a military that you can kill people with (for example you can rebel against the empire, have fueds, stage coups or just try to stay out of the fighting), run for the galactic senate (which also lets you be governor of a planet and set tax rates/pocket some, give monopolies, etc. they added some good planetary government stuff), found a religion, have duels, run covert ops etc.

The way it works out is that you can operate fairly easily without joining a bit alliance or having people ganging up on you.

Fun little game, if you join up I'm House Bogdan in galaxy Baade.

No this isn't one of those games that if you join I get money.

[Sandman]

Joined as House De Vaux.

[Sparrowhawk]

I played in the last one and enjoyed it

Good game, if I had more time I would sign up again.

/me

[Bosh]

Originally posted by Sandman
Joined as House De Vaux.

Ah, you're in my galaxy. Merchantile is one of the more time-intensive spheres but since you have little competion right now you can make some good money if you check around the planets in your neighborhood for the best trade opportunities.

[Sandman]

It should be easy enough with the large price differentials between the poverty-stricken and rich planets. But I wouldn't mind trying out some of the other spheres as well.

Oh, and I've got a (not very good) cousin eligible to marry. Any takers?

[Kassiopeia]

This looks interesting, I haven't played browser games in ages. I was thinking maybe Politics for messing around and Geological, Finance or Transport for making money. You could in theory probably wield considerable power with Finance and Politics, but I'd probably need some sort of "cash croP" like Geological or Mercantile to get started. I'll look into the rules before I jump in.

How much time do you need to invest daily, will 5-15 minutes be enough?

[Sandman]

You need to take one of mercantile, geological, transport, agriculture, psionics or technology to start with. Dunno what changes they've made since last time, so I can't say which is best.

[Kassiopeia]

I'll probably go for Transport to start things out. If the galaxy's mostly empty, there's probably a lot of routes where you can have a monopoly on, and people always need to get around so you can hike the prices. It also doesn't sound as sexy as the other ones so there's probably not a lot of competition later on anyway

[Bosh]

Well its the sort of game where you should spend a little time or a lot of time, 5-15 minutes/day should be enough. Transport isn't a very time-intensive sphere and it works great with politics since it expands your range and allows you to cherry-pick vulnerable Senate seats.

[Kassiopeia]

I ended up in Baade as well, as House Gallonigher. My homeworld was suitable for farming but all the other planets in my range are airless or frozen, obviously with small populations, and my homeworld had low mineral deposits.

Luckily, there are at least four planets in my range with plentiful or boundless mineral resources and one with abundant so I decided to go for Geological for the time being. Only one house is conducting mining operations in my range, and that's on only one planet, and they're the Imperial House so obviously they have a finger in that pie.

I commissioned two surveys on two nearby planets and pretty much left it at that, my house head is diligent and an average administrator so he should be fine heading that Sphere. Now I just have to wait for the surveys to find something, I'm going to have to run a little decifit meanwhile.

[Sandman]

Disbanding your starting army will help your economy, if you've not already done it.

[Kassiopeia]

Oh, right, not like I need it. Now I'll only lose a couple of hundred a month. Thanks!

[Bosh]

Soon I'll open up financial and will be able to offer low/zero interest loans to those in need
I'm raking it in with technological...

[Kassiopeia]

Everyone seems to be doing Tech. Is it some sort of uber-sphere that's broken or is it just the relative emptiness of the galaxy making it so profitable for now?

[Kassiopeia]

Heh, I might need a loan soon. Those surveys are taking over a month to complete and due to depreciation (you lose 5% of your remaining balance every month) I lost over half a grand last month, just ordered a fourth survey since I'm basically getting at a discount if I have extra money kicking around.

I'll have around $5000 left next month to start working on any deposits I find, but building the deposits will probaly take time too. I could build another mine on the deposit I got in the beginning, I guess, but it's only bringing in 1k a month and since mining more of something on a planet answers more of the demand, prices would go down and I'd probably not earn enough to cover the mining costs since the deposit is so small.

I guess I should have taken Agriculture for a quicker start, but once I get several operations going on several planets I'll be fine. May need a bit of cash to hold me over in the duration, however.

Edit: Heh, I think loaning out any money you can spare on no interest at all is profitable since if you keep it to yourself and not spend it you lose 5% of it by the end of the month anyway.