Ocean Empire - The ocean trading simulation
About
Ocean Empire is a project with the aim to reimplement the great trading simulation Ocean Trader (german: Der Reeder), in which you have to build up and run a shipping company. You are able to buy and sell ships, deliver cargos to various harbours and to deal with special orders, which have to be successfully conducted.
The game, published by Software 2000 in 1995 (the english version was published one year later), had several interesting features, but did not raise the complexity of trading and running a company over a valuable minimum so that you had an interesting overall gameplay, which did not force you to rethink any of your actions twice.
The game is still available through various abandonwares websites and you might find it on the one or other game compilation CD, but the company itself does not exist anymore, so that it is unlikely that there will be an enhanced version.
Project goals
The main project goal is to create a reimplementation of the game, that can be continually enhanced with new features such as network support or trading to the inland using motor trucks and more. The most important features for a first stable version are listed below.
You will be able to buy and sell about 30 goods, which have specific needs about the 6 ship types, which can haul them. You can create construction plans for your own ships, increase your money using a stock dealing part and many more.
Key features
- 6 different ship types
- 30 different goods
- 100 different towns to ship to
- Game AI ot play against
- "Hot seat" session mode
- Creation of own ships
- Easy integration capability of new towns and goods
Project state
At the moment (first quarter 2006) the project has still nothing of value to show you. A core library for the user interface is the most active part at the moment and as soon as it has reached a more or less stable version, the work on the game itself will be continued. You can find some first base classes in the CVS repository of the project however.
Development and contact
If you want to stay up to date with the current development, it is recommended to join the development mailing list. You can also can contact the project initiator directly.
ocemp-devel - development mailing list
Marcus von Appen - project lead