Parsec is going to introduce you to a whole new universe. The core of Parsec will be a network of gameservers each responsible for a single galaxy comprised of several solar systems. All gameservers will be registered at the central Parsec masterserver from where you can select a specific gameserver for playing.

The basic unit of game play is a single solar system but you can jump from system to system as you like. There are no game sessions that have to be started explicitly. You can seamlessly join and unjoin a gameserver at any time. But beware! While you are peacefully exploring the universe everyone else will try to shoot you down to advance their position in the roster of all-time Parsec legends. If you want to become a legend yourself, you will have to eliminate a lot of other spacecraft and still prevail to collect the honor.

Gameservers (that is, galaxies) have their own dedicated position in the Parsec universe and are connected to nearby galaxies via stargates. The server transition involved in this jump is handled transparently by the masterserver and the involved gameservers.

There are several ways to enter the Parsec universe. You can always connect directly to a specific gameserver if you know its IP address or DNS name. If you don't know any server address you can go to the masterserver webpage listing all currently available gameservers and simply pick one. Alternatively, you can have the masterserver resolve star coordinates or solar system names to server addresses. This name resolution will be performed automatically each time you jump from one galaxy to another.

Each stargate only knows its destination solar system but nothing about server addresses. Since these addresses can change, or servers can be down temporarily, the masterserver is responsible for connecting you to your desired destination. If the masterserver cannot find a suitable server, the jump will be refused. In this case, the corresponding galaxy is currently not reachable via stargates.

To facilitate the creation of new galaxies we are going to release gameserver executables for a wide variety of platforms. After registering a new server at the masterserver, the corresponding galaxy will be part of the Parsec universe. Server administrators can easily design their own solar systems by specifying a lot of properties. Among them are the names, numbers, and orbits of planets and moons, along with the name of the system itself.

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