Here I am once again with our final pregenerated corporation. I originally wrote these because it was a suggestion of the marketing firm we worked with at the time that we should have some kind of factions that players could identify with as part of our Indiegogo campaign. It was always planned that Rank: Warmaster would have some system for players to start with different advantages to each other to keep the game interesting and varied. It's also true that we were probably always going to have a few pregenerated corporations to give players examples to work off and to spark the imagination. We were, and still are, quite a ways from implementing this concept in the actual game but we wanted to follow the advice we paid for and so Arthur had me come up with a few example corporations. Ultimately, due to miscommunication, they didn't end up being advertised during our Indiegogo campaign which is why you're reading about them now and not months ago. Without further ado, Higgs & Smith Engineering Solutions:

As the size of an explosion increases the number of problems it is incapable of rendering irrelevant approaches zero. Other companies are founded on lesser commercial interests only to eventually branch out into the military industry when necessary but Higgs & Smith understands that there's no shame in being the first to resort to violence. A private military company to the core, Higgs & Smith Engineering Solutions was founded on the principle of taking what you need from those who would hoard it. You can count on Higgs & Smith Engineering Solutions to blow the competition away.

Suggested Traits:

·         Bonus to missile damage

·         Bonus to missile speed

·         Penalty to shield strength

As an American myself I don't really feel bad at all playing into the stereotype of big guns and big explosions with a wild west-sounding company name. Especially since I personally like all those things quite a bit. Our final corporation is basically the polar opposite of our previous one, focusing on the power of chemical energy over electromagnetic. The traits presented are intended to play into more of an artillery style strategy in the game, which is something you can actually currently do. Lasers and autocannons are DPS weapons and using them effectively will require dogfighting with enemy fighters getting whatever hits you can or creating a firing line for focused attacks in order to remove buildings. Missiles do all their damage at once and their range is based on the missile's available fuel and speed so they are quite preferable for bombarding your foes from a distance or even doing a flyby of an enemy city as a bombing run. Because of this players may feel that the penalty to shield strength in exchange for their missiles going further and doing more damage is an easy choice since effective use of this strategy would, ideally, mean their ships rarely take any hits at all.

As a final note, I wanted to talk about the format that I ended up writing these corporations in. I wanted to create short but memorable descriptions and after the first two I found myself falling into a pattern that I will share in the hopes of benefitting other writers. It may not show up so well on the blog but these were originally written in Word, 12 point Calibri (Body) font. Standard 8.5"X11" pages. Each description starts with an indent and is seven lines long and all but the last sentence are written in third person, referring to the company. These sentences are focused on the company's history and specialties. The last sentence is written in second person and is designed as a sort of stinger hook, it addresses the reader directly with a promise that the company intends to fulfill for them while naming the company once more time (If you need to be first, if you need to be comfortable, if you need to be stylish, then you need Loharani Luxury Crafts). I tried to imagine advertaisements for each company and I envisioned different speakers delivering each ad to try and alter the style of each company to be more unique.

That's all for this week, I'm still doing weekly blogs for now (possibly forever if I prefer it) and I'll be back next week with a new topic. See you guys then!