As yet, there have been no official resolutions or peace accords, but all involved parties appear to want to find a way to discontinue hostilities against civilian craft.

ECON:  TRI Grants
Optimus Pilots Special "Powers"

In an effort to help further boost economic output, TRI has given the most senior pilots who have achieved Optimus rank the ability to boost station production at their own faction stations for a short period of time. With some second-tier commodities like Synthetics and Chemicals in short supply – not to mention high-use equipment items such as Missiles – the ability to boost production is a great help to TRI econ workers.

Conflux Hives Discovered; Sent Attacks Resume

Conflux sentient activity has begun to pick up –shortly after a new Conflux "asset" has been discovered. Within the past 60 days, pilots who venture into conflux space have been seeing objects currently described as "Conflux Hives." While, so far, these hives do not appear to contain drone or sentient conflux "ships" – some of them are armed with turrets. It is still unclear exactly how the Conflux plan on using these new assets or what threat level they present. Through its conflux bounty/reward program, TRI has encourages pilots to damage or destroy the hives they find.

Sentient conflux have also made several recent forays into TRI space -- first attacking Octavian sectors and showing special interest in several shipyard buildings.  Later they attacked Amananth and were able to completely destroy the critical Antiflux ECM manufacturing platform.

JPR: Kingmonkey/
Johnny Prime "Redux"

Johnny Prime was one of JPR’s first DJs and was instrumental in getting the popular broadcasting concern off the ground. Both shows included the usual blend of classic pre-collapse music recovered from various DSS, along with sponsor ad spots and a sprinkling of comedy. At this point is remains unclear whether Kingmonkey’s dating advice spot is serious, or whether it is just another opportunity for the sarcastic simian to poke fun at his less-furry compatriots.

Each show was also rebroadcast several hours later for the enjoyment of pilots flying a different shift schedule.

ISTVAN'S UPDATE
Hello, Jumpgate ^(tm) . . . This is
Your Wake-Up Call!

Rather than once again describing what features I'm presently working on, I'd like to try instead to explain why I'm working on what I've chosen to work on. Jumpgate is an online game unlike any other. It has some features that cause it to be classed with MMORPGs, games like WoW or EQ, AO or SWG. Those games tend to be about marching up a level ladder, getting more powerful skills and better stuff so your character can face the bigger opposition later in the game. Where you can go and/or what you can do in those games is generally limited by your character's level, and anyone higher level is sure to beat you in a fight, assuming the game even allows PvP between players of dissimilar level.

(continues ...)

Khronos' Korner
TRI to Take a "Back Seat"

One of the biggest hurdles for me to overcome as Istvan’s warfare changes move along, is TRI itself. In its current form, TRI is a quasi-government entity – sort of an alliance between the three major factions – yet, TRI has no true power. The pilots who sign up through TRI belong first and foremost to their factions, leaving TRI with no standing army, or muscle to enforce its decisions. TRI’s current ‘cant we all get along’ UN style of operation just wont fit into the warfare paradigm (just I really just use that word?) of Oct/Sol/Quant pilots shooting each other for their faction’s honor. There are also more than a few holes surrounding other aspects of TRI/pilot interaction – for instance, pirate tags – if TRI is oh so powerful, why wouldn’t they just pull the plug on a pirate, and revoke their flight rights the moment they docked? (Answer: Customer service trumps backstory).

So, with that in mind, welcome to the brave new TRI.

(continues ...)

* * *

Khronos' is looking for YOUR questions regarding "dos" and "don't" as well as approaches to player-driven storyline development and management. 

Questions for Khronos' Korner can be sent to darkspace@jgcentral.net.

MMORPG.COM RATINGS ARE JUMPING!!!  Jumpgate is up to 7.7 on the MMORPG "game list" -- up from 5.8 (in July 2004) but we still need to go up FOUR-TENTHS OF A POINT to be sure to get on the MMORPG front page.  

If you either WANT to receive  Darkspace Dispatch by email or WANT TO BE REMOVED from the mailing list simply email us:
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Betrayal
a Jumpgate Novella by Fellblade
(reprinted with permission)

- Part VII -

The ship loomed before him as he strode purposefully toward it, dull brown with the Octavian Phoenix insignia visible, and no serial number printed on the side. As he climbed up the slightly oily rungs leading to the cockpit, he dwelt on what that meant. There was no registration number on the side of the ship, and the electronic registration was supposedly purged as well. Well, that meant he had to get a holo-shift plate so he could switch ´painted´ serial numbers, and a serial number generator for the electronic side of things. Then he just had to find the tracker that they put on the ship; he wasn´t naive enough to think that there wasn´t one. He hit the cockpit release pad, noting that he would have to get it replaced with a palm scanner when he could, and climbed in. There was a great deal more space than he was used to in his Raven, and even a hatch down into the (admittedly small) cargo bay was there. The shield generator and ECm systems and diagnostics panels were easily accessible, and there was an access hatch in the cargo bay up to the underside of the engine which meant that, if necessary, the engine could be lowered into the cargo bay for emergany maintenance.

Very nice, thought Arouin, I won´t be parting with this in a hurry.

(Click here for the complete text of Parts VII & VIII)

Darkspace Dispatch Back-Issues

Vol.   I, No 1 (104.7.24)           Vol. I, No. 2 (104.8.12)           Vol.   I, No. 3 (104.10.2)          Vol.   I, No. 4 (104.10.2)

Vol. I, No. 5 (104.12.7)          Vol. I,No.6 (104.12.28)         Vol. II,No.1 (105.1.25)         Vol. II,No.2 (105.2.26)    

Vol. II,No.3 (105.4.24)         Vol. II,No.4 (105.6.16)         Vol. II,No.5 (105.8.7)         Vol. II,No.6 (105.10.10)

 
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