Difference between revisions of "FAQ"

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=General=
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We regret to inform you that we have shut down Free Orion for good.
==What is [[FreeOrion]]?==
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'''A:''' An open-source, platform independent galactic conquest game in the tradition of the [[Master of Orion]] games.
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==How far along is it?==
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'''A:''' The game is currently in the alpha stage. In other words, it'll be a while till it is finished.
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=Design=
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==What is this "Design Document" that people in the forum keep referring to?==
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'''A:''' The most official design document is the most recent [[Requirements]] Document.
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===People in the forums refer to previously made decisions that aren't in the [[Requirements]] document(s).  What's going on?  Are these decisions recorded somewhere else?===
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'''A:''' Some decisions and accompanying discussions may be found in the [http://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=13 Design Archive] of the forms.
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A number of discussion and decisions were made on an old forum system that was lost.  There is no written record of these discussions.  Forum members who participated in these discussion still refer to these discussions and the decisions that were reached in this, however.  Some of these decisions are mentioned in this FAQ, however.
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==Can ships travel freely between stars, not on starlanes?==
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'''A:''' Other than wormholes and special events, no.  In the current design, most travel is on starlanes between specific stars, and ships never travel through empty space.  Wormholes are also between two specific endpoint stars, a
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===Why not?===
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'''A:'''
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[http://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=13256#13256 Aquitaine wrote]: ''No offroading was in one of the first public reviews we had. A lot of people wanted it, actually, but it came down to the fact that a strict, simple set of rules about galaxy movement means only one set of rules that the AI has to follow; offroading is one of those things that a player can take advantage of but not an AI. Without offroading, the AI can deduce strategic choke points and defend things appropriately; with offroading, it would be trivial to do an end-run around the AI's Krak de Chevaliers and go straight to the chewy nougat center.''
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''I believe our caveat when we passed it was that, if (one day) after we make Slashdot or become famous or whatever, we get some brilliant AI programmers who want a challenge, we would add this feature, since there certainly is demand for it. But until then, it is indeed the case that offroading is out.''
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==Are starlanes mandatory, or will the game be playable without them?==
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'''A:''' Starlanes are mandatory.  This follows from the decision that all travel is on starlanes.  Without starlanes, it would be impossible to move ships.
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==Will there be an option to have starlanes connecting all systems with all other systems, possibly with the lanes invisible?==
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'''A:''' No.  Having starlanes between all stars is effectively the same as having no starlanes.
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Revision as of 13:11, 20 April 2005

We regret to inform you that we have shut down Free Orion for good.