A tangled web of events involving Dorator Technologies R&D, Particle Systems, Inc, and TRI-RMD – along with Hyperian, Solrain and Quantar factions -- has resulted in Dorator enhancing its dominant position in the non-laser weapon manufacturing market with its hostile takeover of Particle Systems, Inc. With the takeover, Dorator now as added the InSight, Serializer and Nova Mk I to its arsenal. Perhaps even more importantly, in recovering the stolen plans for production efficiency improvement through the use of artifact technology Dorator, and its PSI subsidiary, has gained the first TRI license to use the technology and will take a significant early lead over its competitors – a move that is likely to sit poorly with T&P Systems, which first developed the artifact-enhanced technology.

Dorator’s takeover was facilitated by a Hyperian sting operation which resulted in the arrest of [[20]] PSI executives and employees. The Hyperian government alleged that PSI was being used as a front for terrorists, with the suggestion that Phoenix Rising was involved. Not specifics regarding the accusations or evidence have been provided to date, leading some to speculate that another agenda was at work. PSI stock price plummeted after the Hyperian raid and Dorator was quick to buy up a controlling interest.

Dorator also recently signed a long-term deal that will give it access to Quantar research facilities. Founder Malkev Dorator’s statement about the deal did not do much to clarify the specific terms or objectives: "Change is around the corner, and we must stay ahead of the curve, if we do not wish to get left behind, and be obscured by the trails of others. Dorator's goal is to lead the way, and own the markets we participate in, and with that in mind, we must look to a new paradigm of leveraging the synergy between the core competencies of our centers of excellence while proactively ensuring our bandwidth is adequately scalable to operationalize our value proposition to ensure a win-win turnkey solution for our customers. Dorator views this agreement as the enabler of the next steps towards instantiating our learnings, on a go forward basis."

Quantar insiders have suggested that, with Dorator’s star apparently on the rise, the Fa’hil Memta wanted to ensure that Quantar – the only major faction without a Dorator presence – was not left behind.

Dorator Technologies R&D is a diversified, well-funded company with a very diversified manufacturing platform. The company was founded by Malkev Dorator of Ares Prime, and has production centers at Solrain Core, Wake, Cornea, Octavius Core, Great Pillars, Outpost and Hyperial.

Explosion on Hypsos Kills Thousands
A series of bomb blasts turned peaceful protests in Barnard, Rongen and Nobelus into scenes of hysteria and carnage. Hyperian President Rauder was quick to assign blame to "cowardly terrorists" but no terrorist organization came forward to take responsibility and no evidence of terrorist connections was released.

A Hyperian raid on PSI offices alleged that PSI was a front for terrorist organizations. Although no direct correlation was made, it is clear that the Hyperial government was connecting PSI with the bombing tragedy.

Novas Hit the
Market Again
Flux-hunting pilots celebrated as PSI/Dorator began production of the high-end plasma weapon both at Hyperial and at a new production facility on Solrain Core. In addition to initiating Nova production, PSI President & CEO Fundanus Cyricus also revealed that they had "located" the schematics and formulas for the artifact-enhanced manufacturing process pioneered by T&P

"This process was stolen by (former) PSI operatives," said Cyricus. "In an agreement with TRI-MSD, we have returned the process to them, and have licensed its use for Nova production at Hyperial and Solrain Core."

The Search
for the Lost
Planet Solrain

The search for the Solrain homeworld has begun.  In a move filled with symbolic irony, the STCC named Drayvn as leader for Phase I of the project.  Drayvn is a member of the squad Solidarity -- which was originally formed by a group of Solrain pilots who allegedly had only recently been awakened from a cryosleep that began before the Great Collapse.  (Details of this story were published in Darkspace Dispatch 3.1.)

Solrain minister Aljia Keval revealed that a weak carrier wave, believed to emanate from the lost planet, had been detected.  To date, the information on the wave remained indecipherable.  Because of the weak signal, it has also been impossible to get a bearing on the source of the carrier wave.

Phase I, which will be led by Drayvn, will be a massive data-gathering effort.  Pilots will be encouraged (financially) to scour Solrain space for pre-collapse data disks, and then turn them in to a Drayvn-appointee.  The hope is that information on how to decipher the carrier wave data will be discovered .   It is hoped that some understanding of the message will help in finding its source.

ISTVAN'S UPDATE
The View from DEEP Space

Implementation is well under way for the core portions of the faction conflict system. Since I've been giving attention to descriptions of those systems in my recent columns, as well as in the official forums, I want to offer a taste of future items on the development agenda. As always, I'm in no position to make representations about when things will be implemented. Numerous concerns, incidents, and other needs of the project can detract from the time available for getting new features into the game, making it nearly impossible to estimate a timeline for any new material. However, new material is the one tool available to me as developer for improving the chances of the game's continued survival, so that's where I try to focus my time.

Remaining warfare items: Territorial Contests and Privateering are key parts of the complete conflict system design, and will be my top priority after patch 1.0109 is released. Territorial Contests will be a "game-within-the-game" to focus fleet battles on border areas and add objectives to the faction struggles. Privateering will be a system to allow pilots to fly for other factions in "foreign service", a vital capability to prevent boredom when your own faction is at peace, or just at peace with the people you want to shoot.

Economy: When all the warfare work is complete, I will have spent many months having set aside other very important parts of the game. There are many economic enhancements I'd like to make, up to and including a massive revision of the commodity lists. Such a revision would have extensive effects throughout the game code, but could go a long way to solve the problem of bottlenecks in the mining and manufacturing processes. The Jumpgate economy has been made player-dependent, but operationally it's still not player-centered enough. I expect that reconstructing the economy to become more player-driven will improve gameplay for everyone, not just the haulers and miners. Furthermore, another of my long-term objectives is to try to make the Jumpgate economy business-friendly. I think it should be possible for players to operate in-game businesses of several sorts, with reasonable expectation of profit. The logical focus for this kind of operation would be the POS, which almost certainly means revisions and upgrades to the existing POS code, as well as a number of major bugfixes. I probably won't start with massive changes, but I'll welcome any chance to spend more time trying to make the Jumpgate economy more dynamic, and player-centric.

.(continues ...)

. . . And Now for Something
Completely Wacky.

Thanks to one of Jumpgate(tm)'s GREAT friends -- Kwip of neenerneener.net fame -- Darkspace Dispatch is connecting you to some all-time great JG articles and cartoons as published on N3.

Enjoy!

Jumpgate Featured AGAIN!

Istvan's Developers Journal was followed up with an INTERVIEW that was published on MMORPG.COM in March.  Now There's a big w00t!

Jumpgate currently is rated 7.9 on the MMORPG "game list" -- up from 5.8 (in July 2004) another THREE TENTHS of a point and JG will make it to the FRONT PAGE -- what and advertising coup that would be!

If you either WANT to receive  Darkspace Dispatch by email or WANT TO BE REMOVED from the mailing list simply email us:
darkspace@jgcentral.net

Click here for more . . .

Betrayal
a Jumpgate Novella by Fellblade
(reprinted with permission)

- Part XI -

Shouldering his way through the crowds, Arouin entered the hangar entrance area, turned a corner into the hangar proper, and moved towards his ship. Passing a couple of Solrain light fighters, he noticed the guy in the blue shirt from in the mall working under one of them; he must have needed some information from the terminal in the mall to fix his ship. Raquel wasnīt working on the Lithe Shadow... although he could see she had been; the cockpit locking system had been added and replaced, he could see. Raquel was standing beside it, looking at him, tapping her foot as he approached. When he finally came within armīs reach of her, she grabbed him by the shoulder, pulled him towards her, and whispered urgently in his ear,

"Thereīs a stack of Lance warheads arranged in a starburst cluster around your powerplant and engine... where the hell did you get this ship from?"

Arouin took a step back, looking suspicious.

(Click here for the complete text of Parts XI & XII)

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)          Vol. II,No.7 (105.12.27)

Vol. III, No.1 (106.2.20)

 
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