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This is a top-down single-player indie role-playing game. Set in the year 3126, the player commands a fleet of spaceships and engages in combat, trade, and exploration in a procedurally generated world. It's an open world single-player space combat role playing and exploration game, with a procedurally generated map. The player is able to interact with and join one of 7 factions, remain as an independent, or become a mercenary. At the start of the game, the player is given the option to choose their headshot and spawns in the world with a small fleet of ships. After an extremely short series of tutorial missions, the player is given complete freedom to do whatever they desire. Movement of your fleet in the game is controlled by your mouse, or can be set on autopilot. You can either travel freely through space or select a destination to travel to various colonies where you can purchase materials. During the game, one can hire crew members, purchase ships, and conduct trade. As of the 0.9 patch, you are able to establish your own colony and manage it yourself later in the game. Missions are offered as you fly through space or go to colonies, and will disappear soon after, as transmissions travel in real time. Completing these missions rewards you with credits which you can use to repair ships, purchase fuel, buy new ships, or hire officers. The game sports a real-time simulated economy on every colony, with an open market (subject to a tariff of 30 percent) as well as a black market, where one can purchase goods without a tariff, as well as various illegal materials such as recreational drugs, humans organs, and AI cores. All ships in the game are extremely customizable, and the player can equip different weapons, perks, and special abilities to every ship. Combat occurs when one fleet intercepts another in space. The game interface then changes and the player is able to take control of a ship directly. The player is also able to control all other ships with basic commands such as "avoid" or "full retreat". Different weapons do more damage against different types of targets (shields, hulls, etc.). The game uses standard WASD movement, with the option to strafe using your mouse. A ship generates flux when it fires or absorbs damage with their shields (if applicable), which has to be vented out into space through a process which leaves it momentarily defenseless, or face being rendered totally nonfunctional for a longer period. Victory provides the player an opportunity to loot the ships or add some to their fleet. Failure means they may attempt a full retreat. If they fail at the retreat and their fleet is destroyed, the player will not die but will escape and be given a minuscule fleet in order to start over again. Combat rewards players with experience, which they can use on their character to gain more skills. The Alpha Version was released on April 29, 2011 with six missions and a tutorial, as well as some basic modding tools. It's written in Java using LWJGL, and has been receiving steady updates for over a decade. As of January 3, 2021 the game contains 14 missions, 3 combat tutorials, the steadily-updating campaign mode with several major gameplay systems (an economy that easily scales-up, planetary colonization, exploration and salvage, factional reputations, bounty hunting, player and non-player colony raiding). These systems are well-integrated with the core combat gameplay and some are expected to be expanded or improved upon, such as expanding the player's options in raiding colonies. |
