[Puke]

dude, go play Imperialism one or two. both are very good games, and the play style is vastly different between the two. I would suggest playing both, you can get them at the bargin bin of your local software store, most likely.

Merchant Prince is by the same company (frog city / ssi) and looks to be showing no small ammount of promise.

edit: eee oil. that just sounds funny. seriously tho, the game is setup to be more abstract than that. many space games use different types of minerals that you have to combine in different ammounts. SE4 lacks that on purpose to cut down on micromanaging. diamonds and gems ARE minerals. oils and slaves ARE organics. it would be another factor in the game, and might be a good add for SE5 if it was made a more involved game. But the abstraction of the percential gain from trade works well, and represents the fact that even tho each person is trying to buy low and sell high, free trade should net a profit for all involved parties.

this is not a game of economic warfare, so it is assumed that the playing field is level and everyone benefits. if you want to increase your production of one resource to lower your costs and establish a monopoly on its sale so that you can undercut the market on furniture, play imperialism. if you want to play the original game of that concept, try MULE.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[This message has been edited by Puke (edited 09 September 2001).]