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This is an online multiplayer game (the only offline component is the tutorial) with action and strategy elements. The game features six playing modes: Deathmatch, deathmatch with a time restriction capture the flag, properity (generating a certain income), artifacts (searching for artifacts) and conquest (conquering all systems). Every player can take control over the various space ships with different tactical uses, e.g. salvation ships for rescuing shot down pilots (otherwise they are out for a while) or stealth fighters for scouting. Then the game plays like a traditional space simulation. But of course it would be hard to be coordinated when everyone just does his own thing. Because of that there are two additional roles which play like a strategy game. The commander is responsible for coordinating military actions and for exploring unknown sectors. He also sends out vehicles to exploit resources. Money is administered by the investor who can use it for researching new technologies and ships, building production plants and updating ships with special equipment or ammo. The commander takes those responsibilities if no investor if available. The game can be played with two to six teams between 3 and 15 members each. Originally a paid subscription to MSN was necessary for statistics comparisons or registering squads (similar to guilds from online role playing games). The game never achieved commercial success and the official servers closed in 2002. However, in 2004 the source code was released by Microsoft and picked up by the community at FreeAllegiance.org and is now further developed by them. The game can be downloaded from the site and can now be played once again on their servers. |
