Star Traders

I decided it's time to start reviewing some games. My first choice is a game that I found quite interesting when it first came out; unfortunately it never matured. The core gameplay is good, but now it serves as an example of BYOND's true potential without having reached it itself. I like Star Traders for what it could have become.

Star Traders is basically similar to something like Tradewars, if it was partially ported to BYOND. You buy and equip your ship, then fly around to see if you can find stations to trade goods, and planets you can claim and develop. I still score the game well for originality because BYOND doesn't have enough of these types of games, even though it's well-suited to them.

Like Tradewars, Star Traders was basically meant to be played multiplayer, although it's enjoyable on your own. It takes a while to build up wealth by trading with the stations you find, which buy or sell each of the major commodities at fluctuating prices. If you find a short profitable route you may find prices stabilize too quickly, so your best bet is to find a bunch of different stations and memorize where they are. Each server has a random station layout. All of this is to the good.

The down side is that once you've played and enjoyed this game for a while, and you've built up a small chunk of change for yourself, you are then chained to the computer. Even though there is still more you can work up to in the game, you'll have spent hours reaching a point of even small wealth. Well no problem, right? Like any RPG, all you do is come back and your savefile will keep everything intact. Except for one problem: Star Traders has no save feature. Once the server goes down, everything you worked for in the game is gone. The author has often said he prefers it that way, but I don't buy it; I think it's just a really bad excuse for being too lazy to finish the game, which he could have admitted just as easily.

Planetary development suffers from this as well; it's by far one of the most expensive things you can do. This section of the game isn't completely finished regardless, but what is there adds to the depth of the overall game--or would if you played for 12 hours straight.

Graphics-wise, Star Traders has mostly simple icons, but the icons for planets are quite good. I don't recall ever hearing sound, although it's questionable how much sound you'd really want in a space game.

In the end, Star Traders is more potential than solid game. It's a decent way to spend an afternoon if you're in it just for the one-time experience and don't care that your achievements bite the dust. This game used to sell subscriptions which open up access to other features of the game, though to get a subscription now you'd have to contact the author directly. I bought one myself at one point, although frankly that money was wasted because without persistent saves, the game loses a lot of its meaning.

For developers I recommend checking out this game and studying it, because a lot of good concepts are presented here that could be done much better by a committed developer. If you're at all interested in making any kind of game with an economy, Star Traders is a must-see. For my part I want to see someone make a game that has all of Star Traders' good points but few of the bad.