In the beginning...

There were 13 colonies, each considered themselves a sovereign independent state (what we would call a nation today). Virginia and New York, for instance, considered themselves as sovereign as England and France.

The peace treaty between Great Britain and the United States was between Britain and the 13 specifically named independent states.

As a means to largely defend themselves from powerful colonial powers as well as to discourage warring between themselves (Virginia, for instance, claimed the territory today used by Michigan, Ohio and numerous other future states), they created what was effectively a neighborhood association.

They first tried out the Articles of Confederation but it proved to be too weak. Many veterans of the Revolutionary war remembered darkly the starving men in their ranks because congress was too weak to get them the food and resources they needed.

To this end, we got the constitution. Originally, it had no bill of rights. Its authors didn't consider it necessary because this new federal government didn't have the power to do anything other than what was expressly mentioned in the constitution. They feared that even having a bill of rights might imply to future politicians that the federal government had the power to enact laws that could somehow violate such a bill of rights.

In compromise, the bill of rights included the 10th amendment that made clear that the federal government did not have any powers that weren't expressly given to it in the constitution. All power would rest with the individual states and the people of those states.

The problem was the Supreme Court. Being a federal institution appointed by the federal President, the Supreme Court would constantly find new powers given to the constitution.  The states responded with the 11th amendment which as designed to slap down the Supreme Court in making clear that the states were the supreme authority, not the federal government.

...

Time Passes...

Of course, today, the federal government has managed to get all kinds of power. The federal government provides a retirement plan to citizens of the states, it has a minimum wage law (where did that power come from -- states have that power, the federal government does not but still does it).

So how did that happen? The answer is the supreme court.  The founding fathers were brilliant in most respects but could have used some experience in game theory.

The federal government is made up of 3 branches:

1. The executive which was picked by the states via the electoral college.
2. The legislature which is picked by the citizens of the states (now anyway).
3. And then... the judicial branch which isn't picked by the states but instead by the federal executive and conformed by the federal legislature branch.  Oops.

Not surprisingly, the federal government is naturally biased in favor of power being with it rather than the states. As time passes, more and more power gets concentrated into the federal government from the states. There is no question of if this will continue to happen but only the progression of it.

What the founding fathers should have had is the judiciary be appointed/elected/whatever by the states instead of the federal government.

In the next few weeks, we'll be close enough to release to start talking more about all the cool stuff that we haven't had in the betas so far. Stay tuned.

When looking at the graphics in Elemental as we show them, there are two things to remember:

1. We're over a year away from release so we're talking very preliminary artwork.

2. It's a strategy game not an RPG so the units aren't going to have the kinds of detail that an RPG has because we have to display thousands and thousands of these units on screen.

So the other day we discussed how equipment being added to your units would work with the Intel Havok physics engine. The idea is that when you add armor to a unit or  other equipment that it wouldn't just be some sort of texture blend as seen in most traditional 3D games but rather the equipment mixes and matches with physics being applied.

The trick here is performance and obviously this would not be displayed on lower end machines (the graphics would just stay together like in most games). But the idea is to future proof the game and provide some visual candy and greater immersion as people see their created units doing their thing.

It's worth noting that one could just play the game zoomed out in the cloth map and never even see an actual unit so people who don't care about this kind of thing don't have to look at it.  But people (like me) who really like seeing their units in action can watch the units go into battle.

For this video below, we took a horse and equipped it with horse armor to show how it worked together.

Video: http://draginol.stardock.net/videos/physics.wmv

Healthcare includes Medicaid, Medicare, and other stuff.

Pensions includes Social Security and pensions for government workers.

Merry Christmas everyone!

There is an excellent book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

I highly recommend it to people.  In many discussions on-line, it becomes really apparent that most people don't really understand money. They know what it does but they have no idea how it works, where it comes from, and how to make more of it.

Conceptually, it's straight forward: If I have $1 and my goal is to have more than $1 then I need to invest it in things that will generate a greater than 1.0 rate of return. 

Most people make money by converting time into money -- they trade their labor for money.  It is what they do with that money that determines how wealthy they are going to be.

If the average human being takes $1 and makes $1 back that means there are lots of people who take $1 and will turn it into $.50 just as there are people who can take that $1 and turn it into $2.

People who advocate higher taxes on "the rich" usually don't have much of an understanding of money.  The government, at its best, will take $1 and consume it with it being transferred somewhere else.  So it gets $1 in and $1 out.

That means if it is taking capital from people who take $1 and can turn it into $2 they are, in effect, decreasing the overall wealth of society.  Society never realizes this is happening because they don't know what they're missing. 

Of course, prior to the rise of republican government and private property rights in the 18th century, the wealth of world societies grew extremely slowly because tyrannical governments (kings, queens, emperors, whatever) ultimately controlled all the capital they could get their hands on. 

Soviet Russia was the best modern example where the state had, by definition, all the capital thus its society was effectively in suspended animation while the west profited by having those who could take $1 and turn it into $2 have as much freedom as possible.

Online, you regularly see people argue that the government can take $1 from "the rich" and give it to the "needy" but that should only be done as a last resort and only short term since, by definition, the chronically poor are people who will take $1 and turn it into less than $1. They are, literally, consumers.  Over the past few decades, we have increasingly become a society of consumers as most people know. But we have all still managed to benefit because thanks to technology and economic freedom, there are people who take $1 and turn it into $1000 out there.

Nothing threatens the progress our society makes, however, than when people stop realizing how all this progress occurs. It's not government that does that but free men and women. Citizens.

Governments must tax its citizens to provide basic services, security, and law enforcement. When the government moves beyond this, we all ultimately suffer because every dollar taken from citizens is a dollar that is no longer available to be invested in one form or other. 

That is why, as a society overall, we are better off with the smallest government we can absolutely tolerate.

So my tax bill for April is starting to come together and it's looking pretty bad. I've been paying estimated taxes all year but we had a particularly good year this year and since many of our projects run under S-corporations, their profits get tied to my personal return (like most small business owners).

Our company has around 70 people in it. We'd have more but we literally can't fit anyone else in the building.  We're in the process of building out other parts of the building we own but of course, that requires a lot of money.

Some of these projects will have to be put off until mid next year or later depending on how well Demigod, Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment, Object Desktop 2009, and ironically, how well our partner Dell does (buy Dell computers! ).

The reason they have to be put off is not that we don't have the capital to build out more of the building and hire more people, we do. It's that that money is going to go to the government instead in the form of income taxes -- almost $2 million of it in fact.

Now obviously, the government needs money to pay for vital services. I don't begrudge paying taxes on principle.  But too often, people forget where government money ultimately comes from. Worse, they are totally unaware of the consequences of taxation.

Taxes should always be kept as low as humanly possible because when you tax, you are literally taking from the people who are the most productive with capital and often giving it to the least.

Stardock, for instance, is based in the Detroit area of Michigan. So there is a certain sense of irony that the $2 million the government is taking from us is going to be given to the Auto companies and other companies have have absolutely demonstrated that they are terrible with capital.  Heck, our $2 million probably was used up in the hearings leading up to the vote on the bail out for the auto industry which Bush ultimately and unwisely decided to ignore.

So instead of using that $2 million to hire workers to build out another 8000 square feet so that we can hire an additional 24 more people this next year (to open more development teams to work on more projects for OEMs, gamers, and general consumers) we'll have to wait until we make enough money from the sales of our projects next year.  Way to go government...

In Elemental, you design your own units. Give them whatever name you want to give them, equipment them with weapons, armor, helmets along with deciding how much training they need.

Creating a soldier or a scout or a knight or what have you boils down to how long it takes you to have the equipment on hand and training which is raw time. 

There is still "quick build" but that simply, at a cost, gets supplies to that town a lot quicker. It's like having your "stuff" sent to you via Fed Ex Air rather than UPS Ground.

So we're still playing around with this concept so would love to hear thoughts on it.

Corel's full line of award-winning applications are on Impulse.  What sorts of other office applications would you like to see?

For those of you who are new to Stardock beta programs, we will often post in our own forums the bugs and suggestions we have on the games to let other users discuss them.  This was done with GalCiv and Sins of a Solar Empire with very good effect.

Below are some of the bugs / suggestions I (personally) ran into with ideas I think would help the game without making radical changes.  I'm speaking only for myself, not Stardock here so feel free to debate/discuss as you see fit.

1. Lobby needs a chat area that lists players and chat messages.  

2. Selecting hero UI issue (known).

3. New Game Option: All flags start out neutral.

4. New Game Option: War Ranking pacing (slow, medium, fast). Determines how quickly the war ranks progress. (already in)

5. New Game Option: Flag Power (low, medium, high). Determines the amount flags will effect the game.

6. New Game Option: Leveling (Epic, Normal, Hyper). Determines how much XP you need to go up a level. Already in

6a. New Game Option: Starting Reinforcements (2, 4, 8). Determines how many creeps come out of the portal at the start.

6b. New Game Option: Minion base Armor (Light, Medium, Heavy). Determines how tough the creeps are. (already in)

7. Flags need descriptions (known).

8. Clicking on an opposing Demigod should show what they are equipped with.

9. Selection issues (known)

10. Minions of generals should not give out XP when they are killed.

11. Minions of generals should have 2X as many HP for starters.

12. Minions should move as fast as the general (if general is moving fast, so do the minions).

13. Reinforcements from neutral portals should do 4X damage to structures as they currently do.

13a. Alternatively, eliminate neutral portals and replace with flags that affect gameplay.

14. All arenas should have at least 1 flag of experience that causes that team's Demigods to get XP at 3X the normal rate when it's captured.

15. Creeps that your Demigod (or minions) get the last hit on prove bonus gold to that player.

16. There should be very expensive items that allow the Demigod to do 4X damage to structures.

16a. AI should be careful about following a weakened enemy too far to avoid being led to its doom.

17. Wish List

a. Move the Favor Item to the left side and provide 2 more item slots.

b. New Item: Demolitions. Does N points of damage to a structure, is consumed.

c. New Item: Wand of Denial. Cast on friendly creeps that causes those creeps to not provide any XP to the enemy when killed. 30 second cool down.

d. New Item: Want of Learning. Cast on Enemy Creeps, doubles the XP they provide when killed.

e. New Items: Various anti-stun items that reduce stun times or have a chance of avoiding stun entirely.

f. New Item: Ring of Reflection: When activated, causes all missile damage to bounce back at enemy for 20% damage while leaving player unharmed. Lasts 5 seconds, 30 second cool down.

g. New Items: Items that reduce cool downs of abilities and summonings.