[Spoon-business] Proposal: From up here, you can see miles!

["Baron von Skippy" <baronvonskippy@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

[[I see a whole big mega-story in all this... working together is good if I 
can profit from it. Oh, and I'm not sure who's a public forum, so I sent 
this to both.]]

{{
__A New World to Explore... and Conquer__

[[
     It was a cloudy afternoon over the vSOI office complex. It was 
supposed to rain that afternoon. The Baron was not having a good day. With 
Wonko's announcement that he intended to start a company which could end up 
competing with vSOI, vSOI stock was down seven percent that nweek, as the 
market prepared for a new division of holdings and assets. In addition, 
although the police had declared the action the work of terrorists, the 
Baron was sure Glotmorf didn't really believe that. The firefight his guards 
had had with a next-generation helicopter should have been evidence enough 
of that. And to top it off, performing unspeakably immoral acts like 
stealing technology and vaporizing half the evidence always gave him an ice 
cream headache. His staff had learned to interpret his moods, and those he 
could track down were all being more industrious than usual, so he couldn't 
even yell at anyone. vSOI needed a boost, and he needed something good to 
happen. Anything...
     There was a knock at the door. Not a gentle, worried knock, but a 
definitive knock full of self-assurance, with no hint as to the emotions of 
the knocker. The Baron smiled wryly. Not a trace of the fear most of his 
other employees would have. He had yet to regret hiring the man. "Come in, 
Campion."
     Commander Campion, head of vSOI Black Ops commando forces, entered the 
office, wearing a black suit with a black tie and gray shirt instead of his 
vSOI combat garb. Since most vSOI employees didn't know he existed, he never 
wore the fatigues outside of missions. Officially, he was senior vice 
president of vSET, von Skippy Experimental Technologies, which was a 
legitimate front for the Black Ops force. Employees had to have exceptional 
loyalty to vSOI to get into vSET, loyalty and a weak sense of ethics. 
Campion didn't come to his office very often. Something was clearly up. 
maybe it had to do with the manila folder with bits of photographic paper 
sticking out the edges. Or maybe the sun would set in the east.
     "Sir, I have astounding news. While testing the speeders, one pilot 
lost track of his position, and when he checked it, he was at (23,14)." 
Campion paused for this to sink in. Baron tried to ignore his headache and 
figure out why that was so damn important. (23,14)? He conjured up a mental 
map of the Grid. (23,14) was right... oh. The Baron's eyes and jaw snapped 
open.
     "But... that's not possible!"
     "I know, sir, so we recalled the speeder, checked the instrumentation 
on another speeder, and sent it out on recon to confirm. It reached (30,10), 
looped around, and re-entered the Grid from (17,21). Follow-up flights have 
established that the Grid is at least twice as large in both dimensions as 
was previously believed. Here are the preliminary reports."]]

{{
Replace the text of 301.A.1 with "There exists an environment known as the 
Grid. The Grid is composed of units, or Squares. The Grid is 40 units wide 
by 40 units tall. The units are numbered from 1 to 40 horizontally (the x 
axis) and 1 to 40 vertically (the y axis). Each unit on the Grid can be 
expressed as an (x,y) coordinate location, with (1,1) in the lower left-hand 
corner, and (40,40) in the upper right. The area of the grid defined by a 
square with corners at (1,1), (20,1), (1,20), and (20,20) is the Football 
Grid. The remaining area is the Empire Grid. Sections C, E.1-E.4, and F of 
this rule only apply to the Football Grid. All other sections apply to the 
entire Grid. Squares on the Empire Grid are also called "lands." A 
collection of lands owned by a player is called an Empire. Players are 
encouraged to name their Empires."
}}

[["Empire Grid?"
     "That's page 4, sir. I think you'll like it."]]
{{
Add a subsection to Rule 301:
A.3.3. Ownership
Players may purchase lands from vSOI at a cost of 50 points apiece. Players 
may only purchase squares that border the Football Grid, the border of the 
Empire Grid, or another square they control, unless there are no squares 
that meet these qualifications, in which case they may purchase any land. 
Members of vSOI may purchase lands for 35 points. No land may be purchased 
such that any player that owns lands would then have no available lands 
bordering their lands.
}}

[["You were right. I do like it. I have a few questions, though. One: Why 
should people buy lands, and two, who'll keep track of it all?"
     "Pages 5 and 7, sir."]]

{{
Add a subsection to Rule 301:
E.5. Improvements
Players may purchase improvements for lands they own from the Gnome account. 
Improvements may only be destroyed by sale, which takes 2/3, rounded up, of 
the improvement's cost from the Gnome Account and gives it to the owner, or 
by the land the improvement is on becoming of type Fire. Lands may not have 
more than one improvement on them at any time.
E.5.1. Mines
Mines may be purchased for 20 points by non-vSOI members, or 15 points by 
vSOI members. Mines give the owner of the land they are on 15 Resource Units 
per nweek. There is no limit on the number of Mines a player may own.
E.5.2. Factories
Factories may be purchased for 30 points by non-vSOI members, or 22 points 
by vSOI members. Factories give the owner of the land they are on 50 BNS per 
nweek. No player may own more than 12 Factories at any time. If a player 
would own more than 12 Factories, a random Factory that player controls is 
sold.
E.5.3. Cities
Cities may be purchased for 50 points by non-vSOI members, or 40 points by 
vSOI members. Cities give the owner of the land they are on one point for 
each nweek since their purchase, up to a maximum of eight, plus one point 
for each set of one Mine and one Factory immediately bordering that city, up 
to a maximum of two. No player may own more than 8 cities, and no player may 
own more cities than they do any other improvement.
}}

{{
In 625.C.1, add the word "Football" before all occurences of the word 
"Grid."
}}

{{
Add the following section, appropriately numbered, to Rule 625.C:
The Ministry of The Empire
There exists a Ministry of the Empire. The Minister of the Empire may be 
referred to as the Surveyor. The Surveyor is responible for keeping track of 
all changes to the Empire Grid and posting those changes on a web page whose 
URL has been announced on a public forum. At the end of each nweek, the 
Surveyor shall be paid one point and 10 BNS for each player who alters the 
status of the Empire Grid.
}}

{{
Make Baron von Skippy the first Minister of the Empire.
}}

[["You ever had an ice cream headache, Campion?"
     "I used to get them all the time just after you hired me, sir."
     "Right. Now, we need a hook, and I have an idea for one. It'll cost 
us, but it may be worth it to encourage expansionism."]]

{{
Create a new rule:
__Imperial Seeds__
There exist carryable objects called Imperial Seeds. A player may destroy an 
Imperial Seed they hold by announcing their intent to do so in a public 
forum. If a player destroys eir Imperial Seed in this manner, they recieve 5 
lands, 1 Mine, 1 Factory, and 1 City. If there are no more Imperial Seeds in 
play, repeal this rule.
}}

{{
Give each player an Imperial Seed.
}}

{{
Remove all points from the Gnome Account.
}}

[["Niches. It's all about niches. If you can't find one to fill, create one. 
Campion, you and your boys have done a marvelous job. I think it's about 
time your department got a raise, don't you?"
     "Thank you, sir."
     "Don't mention it, it's probably overdue anyway. Now, then, do you 
know what the one thing every empire has had in common is?"
     The commander grinned. It wasn't a friendly grin. It was a predatory 
grin, like a reverse Cheshire Cat, where you know the next thing you'll see 
is the whole cat, probably coming at your head at high speed. "Conquest?"
     "Indeed." The Baron hit a button on the phone on his desk. "Ms. 
Samson, kindly cancel all of my appointments for this afternoon."
     Outside, the first big drops of what looked to be rather a large storm 
began to fall.
]]
}}

                                                  [[BvS]]


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