A Vacuum that Doesn't Suck: Starport Galactic Empires Review

[HaemishM]

Space, without the vacuum.

[WayAbvPar]

Sounds interesting. If I ever have enough time, I may very well check it out.

[sidereal]

It it fully realtime or is there some kind of anti-catass time management mechanic?

[schild]

Fully realtime. When I played, I was in first for a while, then dead last, then ended somewhere in the middle. The catass doesn't necessarily always win. EXP is largely skill based. If you destroy a much higher level ship/ranked person you will net the appropriate exp and TONS of shit.

[Trippy]

It it fully realtime or is there some kind of anti-catass time management mechanic?

There is an anti-catass feature which is that moving around in the game costs Warp Fuel. You start the game with a certain amount (like 2000 units) and then everytime you warp to another system or land on a planet or starport you use up a certain amount of fuel. You also slowly gain one unit of fuel every few minutes even when logged off. For the non-poor catasses you can buy Admiral Tokens with real life money and then exchange those tokens for in game things including warp fuel unless you are playing one of the special "Subscriber Point" games which cost $5 to join but don't allow you to buy Admiral Tokens. So basically Warp Fuel is the limiting factor on how much you can accomplish in the game within a given time period unless you are willing to buy tokens (in the games that allow it).

[Triforcer]

The only thing I care about is PvP.  How is ship to ship pvp combat?  Is it Everquest (click autoattack and have HP run down) or Star Trek (have to keep adjusting things and moving around, vaguely homoerotic bridge banter)?

[HaemishM]

Think Star Control 2. It's almost the exact same thing. Each ship has two weapons, a normal weapon (which you can change out by buying a new one) and a special weapon. The special weapons are different for each type of ship, and include things like "cargo disrupt" which makes your target lose the contents of one cargo hold, or repel, which does just that, or a cloaking device. Each ship handles differently, some turn faster, have faster speed, etc. You thrust with the Up arrow key, thrust reverse with the back arrow key and turn with the left and right arrow keys. Inertia and gravity of planets are in full effect. If you get to close to the sun or a planet, it's gravity well will draw you in. Hitting a planet/sun/wall (when on planet), you lose energy, which regenerates quickly and is used to fire weapons. Your HP are called shields and each ship has a different max level of shields. You really have to work on turning, because if you overshoot your turn you have to come back.

I'm mediocre at combat myself. I got pwned hard last night, but did manage to pwn one guy back.

[Kcaz64]

I've been playing starport for about a year now, and i've just recently gotten skilled in PvP.

Mostly is consists of having good aim with far range weapons (to do this you have to understand the physics that goes on in the game so you can guess where the enemy will be next) and being able to dodge enemy bullets, which I find the hardest seeing as in most fights I go full speed and can't turn fast.


Anyway, Great review! Hopefully it'll get us more players.

[Margalis]

Star Control 2 was a fun game, although some of the matchups between ships were hilariously bad. Hard to balance when certain ships have only short-range weapons.

I really like that kind of game, that has some strategic elements and some tactical/action ones as well, without being super-complex.

[loank]

i hack on game lost my colony so game suck i lost level 3 colony 7day of work lost  i do not no who works on game i can fun on game no hacker
good day

[schild]

i hack on game lost my colony so game suck i lost level 3 colony 7day of work lost i do not no who works on game i can fun on game no hacker
good day

This might be the best post I've ever seen. There's so much emotion that comes through with so little content. Perhaps it's some sort of viral marketing thing. Whatever it is, thank you.

[HaemishM]

Holy Fuck, I think the Engrish center of my brain just imploded.

[Samwise]

All game maker go for look butt not fun, eh?

[Soukyan]

Quite funny, but it still deserves the necropost image.

[WayAbvPar]

i hack on game lost my colony so game suck i lost level 3 colony 7day of work lost i do not no who works on game i can fun on game no hacker
good day

This might be the best post I've ever seen. There's so much emotion that comes through with so little content. Perhaps it's some sort of viral marketing thing. Whatever it is, thank you.

Can you make that into a banner? That derserves to be on the front page under 'From the Forums..."

[Maniacus]

Just followed a link to here from the Starport Forum. Loank is a running gag with us now as well. (I coined the phrase Loankish to describe his "native" language. Even after being asked where he is from, he has never been willing to answer)

Saw your request for a banner.... so I made one for you. Just follow instructions in the email I sent for the coding and it's good to go. sent to your MSN.. Anyhow that's why I'm here. Besides I think it's hilarious that loank is a joke wherever he goes. ;) banner will appear as the quote above.



[edit] didn't realize this thread was over a year old... new to fourm didn't check date... hope you can still use the banner tho.

[Yegolev]

I do miss loank.  I plan to miss the people from the Starport forum as well.

[WindupAtheist]

I think I'll bump this thread in 2010, just because.

[Yegolev]

Because you spend all your time in the Graveyard anyway?  What's up with that UO patch?

[Vaiti]

You missed your bus WUA.