Incarnatus

May I ask what you would expect to mine in a Stellar System's Oort Cloud that would be any different from closer in to the parent star?

This is a very, very complex question, with both intrinsic and extrinsic factors to take into account: Off the top of my head: Intrinsic (In-Game Variables). The volume of space occupied (simplest being spherical). I guess this would be inversely proportional to the cube of the distance? How far do troops and/or resources have to travel? How many troops for each cubic light year of space? How occupied is each standard volume (x number of cubic light years) and is this homogeneous around the Universe? Time taken to counter incursions. Mobilizing troops and travel time? The number of Allies involved? The number of enemies on your borders and their population densities? Extrinsic (Real Life Variables). Communicating with players, absent or otherwise. All our history has dealt with Empires being two dimensional in nature due to the Earth's surface. Space? Solar/Stellar Systems .... mind blowing!!!

One of my very first MMORPG's was Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). This was in 2003 before the Combat Upgrade (CU) or the New Game Enhancements (NGE). The gameplay footage was very reminiscent of SWG. Massive, Open World (Universe?), Exploration, Player Driven Economy, Emergent Gameplay, Non Theme Park and Player Built Structures and Spacecraft. I have not played such an immersive game since, even though I have played them all (WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, RIFT, SWTOR, EVE, to name just a few). The real attraction for me I suppose is the fact that you can explore both Space and Planets as was done, to a lesser extent, in SWG: Jump to Lightspeed, which for me at that time was epitome of all I desired in such a game. I am hoping this game will pick up where SWG: Jump to Lightspeed left off.

I see valid arguments for all three models. Personally, I feel that a subscription model suits me the best and am happy to see the majority of posters apparently agree. FTP. Great if you do not want to pay for anything. BTP. Great if you want to play a game that has an end (not for a MMORPG with no end). PTP. Great if you want to show continuous support. (Good for a MMORPG which needs regular updates). The only issue I would really have would be if the game was PTW.