Free Trade
From Data Realms Wiki
"Free Trade (FT) is a super corporation so massive it's above all goverments, morals and conflicts. They deal with everyone and everything. They construct the massive TradeStars to fascilitate their business. Wherever they are, they mark the center of commerce. Everything else has to adapt.
"Various corporations can rent space and produce goods aboard a TradeStar. Some types of goods are restricted and can only be procured via black market channels. Free Trade officially only deals in trade, but may hire an army when they need to enforce a deal, or place a blockade." [1]
Owning and operating the orbital station over the planet and handling all deliveries to and from the surface, Free Trade runs all commerce. Craft sent down are loaned with a gold deposit and returned on a prorated basis reflecting damage suffered before returning. In addition to their marketplace and shipping dominance, Free Trade sells a small inventory of goods, often described as "TradeStar" standard products likely due to Free Trade being synonymous with their great trading stations. This may include controllable bodies, weapons, tools, shields, and bombs-- including the large craft-borne bombs.
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TradeStar Midas
In the main menu, the satellite seen orbiting the planet is the TradeStar Midas. It brought you and many other aspiring adventurers to this mysterious Earth-like planet in a galactic gold rush. Currently it serves no direct purpose besides Buy Menu interactions and selling stolen or abducted enemy possessions for profit, but there are plans to make it more interactive.
"The TradeStars can separate into two parts. The outer hull of a TradeStar works as an industrial park or office complex, housing many large corporations. This part never leaves orbit. The central part is swappable and contains most of the cargo space and the superior FTL drive. It's the ability to move large amount of cargo quickly to the rich core worlds which cements Free Trade's monopoly."
The Midas is a massive orbital safe haven and marketplace for the fortune seekers who venture down onto the planet's surface, and will likely be factory and office space for the various Techs in-game. Despite the fact certain landing craft belong to specific Techs rather than Free Trade, all in-game items have to be sent down via the Midas.
It is also probable that there are Alchiral VAT cloning arrays operated aboard the Midas, since this is frequently the case in systems with large populations of humans. Alchiral has a monopoly on human cloning, though with the amount of alien biotech involved in contemporary meat puppets, it's debatable how accurately the term "human" cloning applies. Quality control issues are likely the source for the Culled Clone units sold on TradeStar Midas.
Brains
Brain Case
A small case that holds the brain of the player. The brain is the most valuable object in the game as it controls all the operations of your army.
Brain Robot
Brain case mounted on a mobile humanoid robot body. This body allows the Brain unit to move around freely while commanding units, but it can by no means survive on its own without good protection.
Culled Clones
The by-product of quality control issues in factory cloning, these infantry units are flimsy compared to everyone but crabs. Maybe including crabs. But crabs can't use weapons.
Sold at a discount without jetpacks or armor. Effective and affordable in large groups armed with cheap weapons.
Skeleton
A skeleton kept moving by a thin plastic-compound film over their bones. Always smiling and very cheap! They can't fly or jump and are weak overall, but in large groups they can be a nasty threat.
Sometimes a dead skeleton is used for a decoration in scenes.
Thin Culled Clone
A thin, fast clone "zombie" rejected after flawed development in the tank.
A little more fleshy than a skeleton; at least it can stop bullets. Oddly has same weight as the "medium" Culled Clone.
Culled Clone
A half-baked clone "zombie" rejected after flawed development in the tank.
This is the cheapest of the culled clones and balanced, relatively speaking.
Fat Culled Clone
A heavy, slow clone "zombie" rejected after flawed development in the tank.
They make reliable miners.
Craft
You pay a deposit for the deliver craft when ordering from the Trade Star Midas, and the percent of craft's health remaining is the percent of your deposit returned when the craft flies back above the top of the map. Trade Star buys any cargo on the craft from you, a fact which paves the way for theft and slave raiding of your enemies (the AI hasn't thought of this yet).
Drop Crate
"Quick drop from an orbiting station in a strong metal crate and amazing cushions to preserve the contents that would usually never survive an orbital drop."
The Drop Crate is technically a rocket, just minus the rockets. Unless you can throw it into orbit, don't expect your deposit back. But as you may expect, the Drop Crate is cheap. Cargo capacity and delivery is the same as rockets, other than all the falling straight down onto the surface from Trade Star Midas.
Despite lacking motors, the drop crate-- like all other craft-- has found extensive use as a weapon. Rather than an improvised missle, the Crate is used for orbital bombardment. Falling straight down its mass alone is enough to crush a dropship. And it can be packed with bombs, or dinner. However, with the recent ending of Trade Star's "Look, sir, free crabs!" promotion, it's unclear what, if anything, will fill that void.
It also finds use in a defensive role as a "base" in your base.
see also: ACRocket
Rocket Mk1
The cheapest Trade Star Rocket, but also the riskiest since the Rocket is larger than a dummy's, has trouble landing, and it's fuel is kept under high pressure; if shot, it becomes extremely hard to control. The large fuel load, however, makes it a fairly good offensive weapon, and it explodes with great force and a spray of large pieces of shrapnel and debris upon crashing. This allows it to be used as a sort of impromptu cruise missile, and if the player has money to spare, it can be used as a weapon after using it to deliver its cargo.
see also: ACRocket
Rocket Mk2
Free Trade's Rocket Mk2 is a much improved design of the Mk1 for maximum safety, but it is even more tall than the Mk1 making it a even bigger target but it's high speed and maneuverability over compensate for this weakness. The higher speed, larger size, and much higher maneuverability of this craft make it a even better guided missile than the Mk1. The offset is the much higher price.
see also: ACRocket
Drop Ship Mk1
The more expensive and complex craft, this craft keeps its balance, and is easier and safer than a rocket. Assuming no one decides to blast off an engine, causing the craft to fall and spin out of control, crash, and explode, sending its doors nearly into orbit. Dropship doors are quite dangerous, somehow managing to find a nearby unit and splattering it across the ground every time they're launched. When the engines are shot off, there are two possible reactions: the engine explodes, causing a small amount of debris to drop off and endanger units underneath it, or the engine flies off the dropship at extremely high speed, exploding like a large bomb on impact with a solid object. Either way the remaining drop ship engine forces the ship into a helpless spiral and it will impact into the ground. If the ship doesn't explode on impact it is still technically alive until the owner selects the scuttle command or it is killed by an outside force.
see also: ACDropShip
