Background

How did you learn about PrUn? What made you keep playing?

Two friends and I started after one saw an ad read on the Spacedock YouTube channel. I kept playing because I like the gameplay loop in PrUn and the idea of building something with my friends is always fun. I've really enjoyed many logic games like Screeps, Factorio, Trimps.

What are your long-term goals? Would you care to share anything about your real-life background/profession?

My highest goal in the game is to eventually become a ship builder: being able to make a whole ship where most of the parts are built from my "empire".

IRL, I'm a custom software engineer for hire. I've had my shingle out for over 10 years now and I live with my wife and kids. I've just started contributing to the refined-prun Chrome extension which has been pretty fun.

What does your nickname and company name mean?

Erendrake is from an old book of slang which had it as a derivation of Errand-rake: someone who does what needs doing. Redwind is a guild name from my very first MUD from back in the early 90's.

Why did you decide to run?

Curiosity more than ambition. I wanted to see how that layer of the game actually worked, and the best way to learn something in PrUn is to do it.

Polity

In your opinion, is Benten a leading region or a lagging one?

Benten feels like a region that's aware it's not the top region. The infrastructure gap compared to ANT is real. But right now, regions are more colors on a map than actual political entities. There's no in-game representation at that level, so all the coordination happens in Discord, which means it only works as well as the people involved. I hope the faction update changes that, because the ambitions some governors have for regional development really need proper mechanics to be legitimate.

What do you think is the most important issue in this round of elections?

Gateway expansion is probably the biggest one. There have been conversations about linking Ementior through Cadia, which would open up that whole arm of the galaxy for a lot of players. Finding reliable maintainers for existing gateways is just as important as building new ones though. At the planet level, good POPI management and honest communication about taxes before they change rather than after.

Are you involved in gateway programs?

I have no formal involvement in the gateway program. I have advocated in the Ementior govenors chat for people to get involved in the discussion on Discord.

Where are the materials for gateways going to come from?

I have no idea other than there is a lot of KV involved.

Policy

Why is your program better than the program of the other party?

I don't have a formal program, and I'm not sure the other candidates do either. I show up, I ask questions, I read the ledger, and when I disagree with something I say so on the record. That's about as much of a platform as I've got.

What regional infrastructure should Benten develop?

Other than gateways, what regional infrastructure actually exists in the game right now? The tools for regional coordination are pretty limited until the faction update arrives, which is part of why the current debates about cross-planetary taxation feel premature to me.

Gateways, colonizing new planets, higher-tier pops, grants, warehouses, shipyards

I'd split that list into things that actually need regional coordination and things that are already happening at smaller scales.

Gateways are the real regional project. They require more people working together than our current org tooling was really designed for, and honestly I'm impressed they get built at all. Shipyards are the other one I'd put in this category, though we may not actually lack them right now. Kaffee has one with a system population under 30k and I didn't even know it had a shipyard. That suggests a single corp or a motivated planetary government can handle it without regional coordination.

Everything else on that list is already happening without regional involvement. Colonization only takes a few thousand CIS and someone willing to plant a flag. Higher-tier pops and warehouses are planetary government work, full stop. Grants are happening ad-hoc in chat and Discord every day.

So my honest answer is: gateways are the one thing that genuinely needs the region. The rest is being handled and probably doesn't need another layer of governance on top of it. I am really excited about the systems being put in place for regional governance though, not only for better management but for the new gameplay it will enable.

Polling

Is there anything Benten should do differently for future elections?

I would love to see more people outside of government get involved. Not just voting but actually talking in chat and on Discord about what they need, what isn't working, what they wish existed. The parliament seats go to whoever shows up. If more people showed up with opinions, the quality of governance would improve pretty quickly.