Review Submitted By: dopplershift
Author Status: Player
Started on Federation II: 1993
Submission Date: Jan 15, 2009
TMC Listing: Federation II
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [dopplershift]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
Federation II is an interesting, dynamic, and ever-changing game. It
challenges the player to proceed from buying his first spaceship to
eventually creating his own galactic space system and planets. It is a
long process that requires months, even years of gameplay to achieve,
and the opportunities for advancement are regularly extended,
providing players continued challenges.
There are three major drawbacks however, as I have experienced.
First, it is a low-budget, one-man operation resulting in numerous, if
not frequent, crashes. This requires the player to maintain a
frequently updated off-line database in order to request that lost
data be restored. Otherwise, progress in the game is lost in the event
of a crash. One such crash, as noted by other reviewers, resulted in a
total loss of all data, requiring players to begin again from scratch.
Second, progress to Planet Owner status is tedious at best. It
requires operations such as loading a specified cargo on your
spaceship and delivering it to a specified destination for literally
hundreds of iterations. Not particularly a 'fun' process.
Finally, the Fed staff/monitors are active in the game as players. In
this game, players can 'marry' other players in the game. Many of
the Fed Staff are 'married' to regular players. IMHO, this leads to
the loss of objectivity and the development of 'cliques'. If you are
not in, you are out.
That's my two cents worth. Try it for yourself.
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Submit Comments About this Review
Comment Submitted By: Kalandra
Author Status: Player
Started on Federation II: 2005
Submission Date: Jan 22, 2009
(The following review comment is the opinion of the comment's author
[Kalandra] and in no way represents the opinions of this website
or its staff).
I have a couple of issues with the reviewer's assessment of the game.
I have been playing the original Federation and lately Federation II
for many years since its days on the AOL games server back in the
late 90s. Most of the complaints he has mentioned are common ones
made over the public address system on a daily basis, but are usually
done in good humor.
What he doesn't mention is that the number of required 'runs' that he
complained about has been reduced a number of times. For a first
time player, these help orient them to the different features of the
game, as well as provide insight as to how a planet might be written
to add depth. The second purpose of these runs is to prevent people
from rocketing up the ranks in a few hours using macros and scripts.
While this might not seem like a bad thing at first glance, the lower
ranks are important for new players to fully experience and the
programmer is trying to keep people playing the game, not just
setting a program running and walk away from the computer, which
minimizes the social aspects of the game.
The game is admittedly a work in progress, but staff has always been
fair in my experience and they will often recuse themselves if their
'significant other' is involved with an issue. The formality of
marriage in the game merely makes obvious and official to anyone
looking what would otherwise be hidden through private friendships.
It is a social game, and as such there are friendships and alliances
but I wouldn't go so far as to call the game 'cliquish.'
The programmer has had problems with other people 'helping' code the
game which had previously resulted in an unmanageable mess. And this
is the primary reason that the game is programmed by one person
instead of several. I have never had issues with 'losing progress'
due to the occasional crash that hasn't quickly been rectified by
staff and the issue that cause 'the big one' as I call it has been
resolved. Anyone that has done any programming knows that a work in
progress will have bugs. And with people constantly testing the
limits of the game, crashes will happen.
Overall, as I said in my previous review its a fun game, and very
social. There is a lot of gameplay that is missed by speeding
through the ranks to planet owner, and I wish more players would take
the time to enjoy what each rank has to offer rather than trying to
'beat' the game all in one sitting.
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Comment Submitted By: NolePaul
Author Status: Player
Started on Federation II: 2006
Submission Date: Jun 18, 2009
(The following review comment is the opinion of the comment's author
[NolePaul] and in no way represents the opinions of this website
or its staff).
Kalandra's response is right on. While I have not been part of the
Fed II community as long as she has, I must say this is a fun MUD and
a unique one to be part of.
To the reviewer's take about the crashes. There has only been ONE
major crash, other then that, the servers are very reliable. The staff
are very nice. Hazed, Freya, and all the other 'demi-goddesses and
gods' are all very nice and very helpful.
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