Prosperous Universe

Overview

Prosperous Universe is an economics simulator MMO set in the deepest realms of space. Players become business owners of their own spacefaring company – discovering the vastness of space, creating spaceships, making allies, and of course—producing, exchanging, transporting, and reaping the rewards. Players or “licensees” will run their business through a sophisticated, adaptive user interface dubbed APEX, available on all web browsers. Participation in an entirely player-contributed sandbox economy in a persistent universe gives way for an assortment of play styles without ever having to resort to grinding. Realism is a huge part of Prosperous Universe from economics to space colonization theory, and the game provides a one-of-a-kind experience to a wide variety of players.

Thousands of licensees have signed up to play since Prosperous Universe first released its public access version in December 2018. The game introduced a free-to-play version in 2019 and honored its agreement to avoid microtransactions entirely. After two years in First Access, Prosperous Universe began its Early Access phase in March 2021.

Colonization

Although many had predicted the opposite, humanity was doing very well for itself in the year 2045:

It should be noted that global tensions were never completely eradicated and commercial interests continued to dominate the political landscape, strong economic agreements across national borders resulted in most of the large remaining conflicts to be resolved without bloodshed.

However, economic prosperity could not save Earth; the planet destroyer was first identified in 2046, an asteroid that would hit Earth 100 years later resulting in the demise of the planet along with all living creatures. The general feeling of panic caused by the announcement was remarkably short-lived. After all, the majority of the world’s population would not be alive to witness Armageddon. But they did not sit idly by and doom future generations; organizations immediately commenced a plan B for humanity. And they began with finding humanity’s next home among the galaxies.

Unfortunately, not every planet, moon, or asteroid out there was suitable for human life. There were many factors to consider like atmosphere, minerals, temperature, pressure, access to water, and terrain. Proximity to Earth was also a factor since trade costs for resources would increase as the distance from a particular planet was maximized. Furthermore, Earth would still be a vital trade partner until the inevitable collision.

Economic practicality would play a large part in determining which planetary object would be deserving of colonization. While colonies would likely be dependent upon Earth when first created, after some time it would need to become self-reliant and be able to produce and trade goods with neighboring colonies or planets to flourish and prosper.

Political disagreements raged and conflicting principles resulted in the decision to colonize not one but several planets. For many, it was an opportunity to establish their philosophy as the dominant doctrine for mankind, and so the race to create the first sustainable space economy ensued.

Production

Terrain was the first thing to be considered when setting up a supply chain. Some planets were made up of rocky, arid terrains and others contained water in addition to plants and clay. By designing the colonies with the environment in mind, shipments from Earth for building materials was negated since the cost of shipping goods from neighboring planets became very costly, especially for newer settlements. In severe weather conditions, robots were used instead of human workers in order to construct and engineer infrastructure. Another explanation for using the planet’s own resources for production was because they could survive on the new planet with confidence. If colonizers had abruptly introduced steel or iron on a planet that had never contained this type of material, it may have happened that the material was rendered totally unusable under new atmospheric conditions.

Once chained to a single planet, humans not only made several new planets into homes, but they began to advance individually as new knowledge and ideas began to spring up. And mankind did what they had always done throughout history; they began to trade beyond their borders.

Trade

Years passed and galactic enterprises were formed in space, which resulted in people buying and selling and the establishment of the first non-Earth local market. The local market exchange was also formed so that people as well as enterprises could buy and sell for profit. Ultimately supply and demand helped to regulate the market and gave rise to the local economy being recognized.

Research, development, preparation, supply chains, production, personnel, and materials—all had to be organized between thousands of participating parties. As a result of all the complexity that was needed for coordination, the development of A.P.E.X., the “Advanced system for the facilitation of Production and Exchange for the eXodus of mankind”, was created. It was used as a central information and trading system that facilitated global participation in production as well as a transport and trade for goods, which was made faster and easier than ever before.

History of APEX

The precursor to APEX was used as a bidding system installed by the Exodus Council to organize the distribution of surveyed systems on other planets to those that were interested. Therefore, all factions became contributors in the system and for practical reasons, the system advanced over time to assist a huge range of commercial applications that was more complex than its original design. Because of these changes, it was renamed ‘APEX’ and became the de facto platform for information exchanges, coinage swaps, and the trade of resources for the Earth’s largest corporations.

Current Purpose of APEX

As it stands, APEX uses a multitude of subsystems. One of the most frequently used programs is its unified trading platform. It allows 24/7 access to all participating commodity and currency exchanges in the new worlds. The powerful fleet management subsystem allows a company to track all the activities of its ships, even including positions during faster-than-light travel. Robust contract and communication systems allow for instant and universal transactions between all system users and a wide range of databases provide high-quality information about anything ranging from systems over planets to commercial entities.