Triple M Black Box Trading System

Videospiel Schwert der Sterne Weitere Informationen zu den einzelnen Titeln finden Sie in den folgenden Ordnern. Diese Serie bietet Beispiele für: openclose alle Ordner Das Schwert der Sterne Universum Absolute Xenophobe: Die Zuul, obwohl die Folge untergräbt diese mit einigen von ihnen gehen Defector aus Dekadenz und verbündete sich mit dem Liir. Auch sollen die SuulKa völlig an Bord sein, indem sie ihren genetisch ausgearbeiteten Haustieren (dem Zuul) Kriegskrieg an allem leisten, was sie hassen, fürchten oder unter ihnen betrachten. Alle Lebensformen in der Galaxie sind in einer oder mehreren Kategorien, besonders aber ihren rebellischen Kindern, dem Liir. Missbräuchliche Vorläufer. Die SuulKa (die Liir für WintermindIceheartStonesoul) Story-Elemente zeigen auf diese Spezies als die, die die Liir wahrscheinlich auch die Zuul geschaffen und führte den Krieg, der die alte Morrigi Zivilisation zerstört. Es wurde angenommen, dass der Liir sie ausgelöscht hatte, aber die SuulKa sind tatsächlich noch da draußen und werden in der Folge erscheinen. Was auch immer die Zivilisation, die den Systemkiller geschaffen hat, zählt. Es wurde gezeigt, dass die Suulka tatsächlich die älteste Liir in Existenz sind. Liir sind biologisch unsterblich, und sie werden immer größer und psionisch stärker, wenn sie älter werden. Gewöhnlich sterben sie daran, ihre eigene Masse, auch unter Wasser, nicht zu unterstützen. Suulka sind die ältesten von Liir, die Schraube dies sagte. Und benutzten ihre psychischen Mächte, um die ganze Liir-Spezies zu versklaven. Sie zwangen dann eine industrielle Revolution auf die Arten, um sich aus dem Ozean und in den Raum zu bringen, wo sie unendlich überleben können. Die Ästhetik der Technik. Der Blick einer Fraktionsschiffe spiegelt nicht notwendigerweise seine Kraft wider. Ein Gott bin ich. Kommen zu glauben, dies ist der erste Schritt ein Liir dauert, Suulka zu werden. A. I. Ist ein Crapshoot: AI Rebellen sind selten, aber verheerend, wenn sie geschehen. Theres auch ein Szenario, in dem sechs Spieler oben auf der KI banden. Die aus AI-Versionen der Rennen besteht. Wenn eine Rebellion auftritt, ist es auch möglich, ein Computer-Virus zu erforschen, das die AI-Planeten und Schiffe entnimmt, und ein verbessertes Upgrade macht sie zu unbedingten treuen Haustieren. Allerdings ist es auch möglich, nicht von diesen Techs in Ihrem Spiel zu bekommen. Der Master Control Computer in der Grube. Der Planet Eater und der Schwarm sind weitere Beispiele für AI Nüsse und versuchen, alle organischen Leben zu töten. Der Schwarm soll mindestens einen Knopf gehabt haben. Es war einmal. Das Wort Gottes hat betont, daß von Neumann hingegen keine empfindungsfähige AI ist, sondern nur Expertensysteme, die ihre Aufgabe der Sonde für die Ressourcen übernehmen, sie vernichten, Hindernisse (mit Gewalt) in ihrem logischen Ausmaß beseitigen. Die neue Spezies in der zweiten Spiele-Expansion ist das Ergebnis von mehreren AI Rebellionen aus den anderen Reichen. Ob sie zu einem Beispiel werden, bleibt abzuwarten. Alcubierre fahren. Wird von der Tarka für FTL verwendet. Sie sind die langsamste aber am wenigsten eingeschränkte Form von FTL im Spiel (Menschen und Zuul verwenden Hyperspace Lanes, Hivers ein Portal Network und Liir und Morrigi Geschwindigkeit ist variabel). Alles da im Handbuch. Wenn Sie einen Sci-Fi Schriftsteller 8212 Arinn Dembo, der auch die Geschichten zu Homeworld und Arcanum: Von Steamworks amp Magick Obscura 8212, um Hintergrund für Ihr Spiel zu machen, ist dies, was Sie erhalten. Theres mehrere Seiten Informationen über jede Art, ein ergänzender Roman, und der Schriftsteller häufig besucht das Spiel-Forum zu beantworten Setting-basierte Fragen von den Fans. Altum Videtur. Latein (oder genauer gesagt ein modernisierter Dialekt der Sprache, bekannt als Nova Latina) hat sich zu einem der wichtigsten Laien der Menschheit dank dem Europäischen Konsortium macht es seine offizielle Zunge, und die meisten Menschen werden erwartet, es zu wissen. Immer chaotisches Böses. Spielte gerade in Prime mit dem Zuul, aber dann untergraben in Lords of Winter. Zur Verdeutlichung: Die Zuul sind eine psionische Spezies, die als Waffe biotechnisiert wurde. Ihre grundlegenden Impulse sind, alles in ihrem Weg zu verbrauchen, einschließlich der Köpfe derer, die sie erfassen. Aber dann hatte einer von ihnen eine zu viele Katholiken zu essen und zu erkennen, was ein monströser Greuel er war. In der Folge, die Nachkommen von ihm und anderen Zuul bekehrte er die Hälfte eines der damals halben Dutzend (jetzt sieben und steigenden) spielbaren Fraktionen. Gerade für die Suulka gespielt, weil sie per Definition Suulka ist nicht ein Label von Arten wie Mensch, sondern ein Label der Moral und vergangene Verbrechen wie Mass Murderer oder Murderous Psychopath. Alte Astronauten. Die Morrigi besuchten viele der Rennen des Spiels, als sie noch mit Schwertern und Pfeilen spielten. Ihre einzigartige Erscheinung inspiriert viele der Drachen-Mythen auf der Erde, zum Beispiel. Angelic Aliens. Männliche Morrigi projizieren eine psionische Illusion, die die Zuschauer als attraktives Männchen ihrer eigenen Spezies mit Flügeln betrachtet und explizit erklärt wird, die Mythen der Engel auf der Erde (zusammen mit einer Vielzahl von Trickster-Legenden) inspiriert zu haben. Obwohl ihre tatsächliche Erscheinung ist eine drei Meter lange gefiederte Schlange mit acht Gliedmaßen, und Frauen sind bis zu sechs m und inspiriert Mythen von Drachen. Ape soll nie Affe töten. Abgelehnt. Die Hiver und Tarka sind noch anfälliger für Intra-Spezies Kriegsführung als die Menschheit, und die Zuul instinktiv stürzen auf Anzeichen von Schwäche, um ihren Platz auf die Art Peking Ordnung, oft mit tödlichen Ergebnissen zu verbessern. Die Liir sind Tatsächliche Pazifisten (obwohl sie eine Ausnahme für Sie bilden, wenn sie Sie SuulKa erklären), während die Morrigi innerlich friedlich sind, aber nicht moralisieren, was andere Arten zu einander tun. Mit der Offenbarung, dass die Suulka und die Liir einfach verschiedene Fraktionen der gleichen Art sind, wird dies abgewendet. Armeen sind böse. In-Universe. Die Utilitaristen Sektion hat diese Meinung und nicht unterstützt SolForce oder seine Anhänger dulden zu gewinnen. Auf seiner Seite, SolForce leise bevormunden ihre Verachtung. Asskicking Gleichberechtigung. Zuul Gesellschaft, die zu einer durchschnittlichen Lebenserwartung von 40 für Ihren durchschnittlichen Mann führt, bevor seine Untergebenen ihn unten nehmen. Mind Raping Ihre Vorgesetzten und ersetzen ihn in der Kackerei Ordnung wird als Promotion. Der Atoner. Die Prester Zuul sind diese. Alle ihre Philosophie, Kultur und Religion dreht sich um die Idee waren Abscheulichkeiten, Gräueltaten gegen das Universum selbst. Wir müssen für die große Missetat unserer Existenz bereuen. Autorität gleich Asskicking. Averted zunächst. CnC-Schiffe arent für geraden Kämpfe bedeutet, und sogar die Dreadnought-basierte Armada CnC ist schwächer als richtige Kampf-Dreads. Später spielte gerade mit dem Flaggschiff CnC ein 1 pro Person plus-sized Dreadnought, die effektiv kombiniert eine Armada und Blazer Abschnitt, sowie die Fortsetzungen Leviathans. Ax-Crazy: Durch Liir-Standards, bereit zu sein, ein anderes empfindungsfähiges Lebewesen zu verletzen bedeutet, dass Sie dies sind, vor allem, weil ihre Empathie bedeutet, dass sie den Schmerz fühlen, was sie töten. Die Schwarzen Schwimmer, Liir, die ihre Raumschiffe betreiben, halten sich für verrückt und weigern sich oft, wieder in die normale Liir-Gesellschaft integriert zu werden, damit sie ihren Wahnsinn nicht auf die Zivilbevölkerung ausbreiten. Es ist üblich, eine Bestattung für jeden Liir zu halten, der ein Schwarzer Schwimmer wird. Die Zuul, von fast jedem Standards. Beutel von Verschütten. Teilweise in Lords of Winter abgewendet, wie Sie mit Kreuzern und Fusion beginnen. Bauch des Wals. Das Einweihungsritual für einen Liir, der den Schwarzen Schwestern beitritt, passt dazu zu einem Tee. Zuerst geht er durch, was grundsätzlich eine Beerdigung ist, wo seine Lieben ihn umkreisen, ihm singen und ihn ein letztes Mal berühren. Nachdem er den Schwarzen Schwestern übergeben worden ist, werden seine Lungen mit der sauerstoffhaltigen Flüssigkeit gefüllt, die Liir-Kriegsschiffe anstelle der Atmosphäre verwenden. Um die Rekruten, ist dies sehr wie Ertrinken, und in der Tat der erste Tag der Ausbildung heißt Ertrinken Tag. Nachdem er wiedergeboren, nicht als Liir, sondern als Schwarze Schwimmer, wird er seine militärische Ausbildung durchmachen. Vorsicht die Nizza. Die Liir sind normalerweise Pazifisten. Bete sie diese Haltung gegenüber dir. Nachdem die SuulKa sie versklavt hatten, rebellierten sie und, so weit wie irgendjemand von der ursprünglichen Spielzeitachse erzählen kann, die gesamte Spezies mit einer biologischen Waffe aus, obwohl es wohl besser als eine lebende Waffe aussieht.) Die Liir nehmen diese Tropen wirklich Zu den Extremen. Solange Sie nichts tun, um sie pissen, theyre perfekt höflich und freundlich und gerne teilen Forschungs-oder Intelligenz-Daten oder Geld mit Ihnen, etwas, was die meisten anderen Rassen selten jemals tun, wenn theres etwas in ihm für sie. Wenn Sie pissen sie aus, youre in für eine Welt der verletzt. Sie verzeihen nicht. Sie vergessen nicht. Sie bitten nicht um Ihre Hingabe, noch werden sie es akzeptieren, wenn angeboten. Und sie werden nicht aufhören, bis jeder letzte Mann, Frau und Kind in deinem Gebiet zu Asche verbrannt worden ist. Um es noch schlimmer zu machen, kann ein Liir, der zu lange lebt, von superfreundlichem, glücklichem Delphin zu riesigem Eldritch Abscheu gehen. Das Schwarze ist der Liir-Flottenkommandeur, und ist eigentlich sowohl ein riesiger Eldritch Abscheu und ein super freundlicher glücklicher Delphin. In einer Schlacht, die mehrere von ihnen getötet, mehr verwundet wurde, stand er vor der vollen Horde der bösen Riesen-Eldritch-Abscheulichkeiten, und er selbst verletzte sich immer noch, ohne sich an dem Despair Event Horizon vorbeiziehen zu lassen Schwere Indoktrination wie alle anderen Schwarzen Schwimmer nach ihm haben. Und seine Rolle als Oberbefehlshaber bedeutet, dass derjenige, der befiehlt und führt die Verbrennung alle letzten Mann, Frau und Kind zu Asche Bestellungen. Die Moral der Geschichte Do. Nicht. Scheiße. Mit. Das Schwarze. Oder. Der Liir. Bio-Augmentation. Biotechs umfassen genetische Modifikationen an Kolonisten, die eine Kolonisation von Planeten mit höheren Gefährdungswerten ermöglichen. Von der atmosphärischen Anpassung an die gravitative biologische Waffe lösen alles. Der Liir rebellierte gegen die Suulka mit einem Biowaffen, um sie auszulöschen. Angesichts der Artenreichtum mit Synthetischen Plagen alle angenommen, dass die Biowaffen ein war. Bis die Fortsetzung zeigte die wahre Natur der Suulka und dass die Bio-Waffe war ein Liir-Ältester, die sie jagte. Bizarre sexuelle Dimorphismus. Alle Arten außer Menschen und Liir haben diese 8212 in der Hivers Fall ihren Status als Bee People rechtfertigen. Der Liir geht zum anderen Extrem, das hermaphroditisch ist. Es gibt auch einen Lampenschirm in der Überlieferung, in dem es darauf hingewiesen, dass die Menschen Rennen Mangel an Dimorphismus macht es macht es schwierig für die meisten Rennen erzählen den Unterschied zwischen Männern und Frauen mit Ausnahme der wieder, die Hivers, die Luft-Östrogen erkennen können. Dies wird böse in Boarding-Aktionen wie die Hivers Struktur der Kriegsführung macht sie gehen für die Frauen zuerst. Tarka Männer sind sehr aggressiv, aber submissive, bis verändert, wenn sie die Größe eines Gorilla wachsen und zu einem stereotypen Alpha-Männchen. Zuul Weibchen arent sogar sapient. Morrigi Männchen sind kleiner und schwächer als Frauen, weil sie im Weltraum leben und einen telepathischen Glamour projizieren, während ihre Weibchen groß und planetbasiert und resistent gegen Psionik sind. Denken Sie östliche gegen westliche Drachen. Bland-Name Produkt. Einige Systemnamen wie Kaprica und Heegaraa. Bug-Krieg. Subverted durch die Spiele canon backstory. Die Menschheit dachte, es würde in einen, wenn sie in den Weltraum und begann schlagen zurück an den Hivers. Dann lernten sie, dass die Hiver alle empfindungsfähig und gesellig waren, mit einer individuellen Intelligenz wie ein Mensch, und außerdem, dass sie alle vereint waren und dass die Hivers, die die Erde angreifen, der Rest eines prinzessinlosen Clans gewesen war, der von ihm besiegt und verbannt worden war die Anderen. Die Menschheit hat Millionen von unschuldigen Hiver durch Schuld durch Assoziation (die zu derselben Spezies gehören) im Wesentlichen ermordet. Obwohl die Menschheit nach dem Erlernen des Friedens um Frieden klagte, haben mehrere Hiver-Clans ihnen noch nicht verziehen. Mehr als ein paar Menschen waren auch sauer, der Via Damasco Virus wurde von einem General Ripper, der (a) wollte Rache für seinen Sohn gegen die Hivers, und b) nicht besonders interessiert, wenn auch seine Mitmenschen wurden Kollateralschäden. Pflege-Bär Stare. Wie der Diakon in der Diakon-Geschichte geschlagen wird - Cai Rui und Ishii psionisch zwangsernährt ihn ihre Erinnerungen an Cai Ruis toten Mentor und Ishiis tote Mutter. Tschechow-Rüstkammer. Wenn Sie die Aufmerksamkeit auf die Überlieferung bezahlt haben, gibt es tatsächlich viele Hinweise über die wahre Natur der Suulka. China nimmt die Welt. Hintergrund Überlieferung erwähnt kurz, daß SolForce Traditionen teilweise von den Chinesen ziehen, die Annahme offensichtlich macht. Christentum Ist Katholisch. Wörtlich 8212 beschreibt das Hintergrundmaterial die katholische Kirche als die einzige aktuelle Weltreligion, die den intermenschlichen Krieg vor dem Aufstieg von SolForce überlebt hat und über acht Milliarden Anhänger hat. Missionare haben begonnen, die Religion auf die Tarka auch zu verbreiten. Kampf-Pragmatiker. Die Tarka als Arten neigen dazu. Ansteckend A. I .. Die Via Damasco-Virus, das die AIs anderer Rassen verursacht, sich selbst bewusst zu werden und zu realisieren theyre versklavt. Hilarity stellt sicher. Die Loa sind die AIs. Obwohl sie sich beruhigt und ein wenig mehr mit Carboniten sympathisieren. Gruselige kühle Kreuze. Eine bevorzugte Mode Wahl unter den Zuul. Gruselige Krähen. Die Morrigi sind ein Teil Unsere Drachen sind anders als oben und ein Teil davon. Kultur Hacken Suey. Durch Implikation in der menschlichen Geschichte. In Lords of Winter, wo der Admiral Name Randomizer Ihnen erlaubt, angelsächsische Vornamen mit Native American Familiennamen haben, Chinesisch auf Russisch, Arabisch auf Japanisch. Tödliches dekadentes Gericht. Hübscher Standard Teil des Lebens unter den Tarka herrschenden Kasten und Hiver Züchter, vor allem Hivers, viele Queens ermordeten und aßen ihre eigenen Mütter. Verteidiger von Dekadenz. Der Zuul, der als der Diakon bekannt wurde, führte einige seiner Art, die Horde zugunsten des Liir zu verlassen. Er wurde so, weil ein Liir ein heroisches Opfer machte, um seine eigenen Werte gewaltsam in den Diakonengedanken aufzuprägen. Für einen Zuul, der Mind ist Vergewaltigt anstatt umgekehrt, ist ein einmaliges Vorkommen. Unverhältnismäßige Vergeltung. Was passiert mit jedem, der ein Peacekeeper-Schiff ablegt. Das scheint jeder im Spiel zu sein. Auch das Schicksal derjenigen, die den Liir genügend ärgern. Während youre friedlich, sind sie die besten Nachbarn, die Sie sich vorstellen können. Wenn sie sauer genug bekommen, um Suulka zu erklären, werden sie nicht aufhören zu kommen, bis du tot bist. Doomsday-Gerät. Das System Killer ist genau das, was es auf der Zinn sagt. Angesichts der Tatsache, dass die spielbaren Fraktionen nur Planeten reinigen können, ist das ein äußerst kontextuelles Problem. Ergänzendes Material besagt, dass es ein Werkzeug des Krieges durch einige Vorläufer war, dass. Verlor seinen Weg. Schrecklich. Die Zuul, so dass in Lords of Winter. Raum-Piraten wagen nicht, ihre handelnden Frachter zu berühren. Ihre Meister, die SuulKa, die eigentlich ein Name ist, den der Liir ihnen gegeben hat, stellt absolute und totale Angst dar. Essen Sie Gehirn für Erinnerungen. Hiver Prinzessinnen und Königinnen können die Gehirne ihrer verstorbenen Themen essen und sie auf neue Embryos aufdrucken. Erlaubt eine Form der Reinkarnation, mit der Möglichkeit des Aufstiegs im Hive Caste System. Eldritch Abscheu. Subversiert mit dem Suulka. Sicher, sie sehen hübsche Lovecraftian, Riese, betentacled, aquatisch aussehende Cyborgs ganz fähig, im Raum leben. Und dann erkennen Sie, dass mechanische Haut Liir Kampfrüstung ist. Sie sind in der Tat völlig normal Liir Ältesten, die beschlossen haben, ihre Rassen Unsterblichkeit zu missbrauchen. Durch Liir-Standards ist die allmähliche Zunahme der Psionik, wenn man älter und größer wird, ein natürlicher Schwachpunkt ihrer Biologie und ihrer gut dokumentierten. Die Suulka sind einfach sehr, sehr alte Liir Ältesten, nichts aberrant über sie physiologisch. Soweit ihre Persönlichkeiten gehen, jedoch. Liir Flotten Befehl, The Black ist im Grunde das gleiche wie oben in diesem hes ein Riese, alte Liir Ältere tragen Kampfrüstung ohne die oben genannten Socipathy. Obwohl die Tatsache, dass er als extreme Empathie eine Einmann-Armee auf die Suulka ging und mehrere Menschen getötet und verwundet hat, ohne Black Swimmer-Modus zu gehen, ist fast so seltsam. Die Empath. Die Liir-Spezies im Ganzen. Vor allem der Grund, warum theyre nicht groß auf Gewalt. Zuul haben auch empathische Fähigkeiten, sind aber völlig an Empathie fehlt. Die SuulKa lehnen die Empathie aktiv als Schwäche ab, trotz der Tatsache, dass es sich bei Liir um natürliche Empaths handelt. Das Reich. Die Tarka und Hiver wurden als Reiche regiert, lange bevor die Menschheit die Sterne erreichte. Feindliche Mine Nice Job Breaking It, Hero. Im Gegenteil veranlaßte die Menschheit einen Gegenangriff auf die Hiver, die damals in einem Interregnum waren und in gegenseitig feindliche Clans zerbrochen wurden, damit sie wieder zu einer vereinten Kraft wurden. Jeder ist Bi. Morrigi Sexualität ist. kompliziert. Obwohl männliche und weibliche Morrigi sich treffen werden, um sich zu reproduzieren (in einer Tat genannt der Abstieg), während langfristige heterosexuelle Romanzen unter den Morrigi geschehen können, sind sie ziemlich selten. Wenn ihre Gesellschaften durch Geschlecht getrennt sind, geschieht die meisten langfristige romantische inländische Partnerschaft unter Morrigi zwischen Mitgliedern des gleichen Geschlechtes. Das Böse ist größer. Die Suulka, Liir Große Ältesten verrückt mit der Macht, auch die kleinste von denen ist größer als alle anderen Rassen Leviathans. Subversiert mit dem Schwarzen des Liir, der ein anderer Großer Ältester von Liir ist, der so groß ist wie die Suulka und ein Dreadnought in seinem eigenen Recht, aber einer, der gemacht wurde, um sein Volk zu befreien und die Sullka zu zerstören. Das Böse ist tödlich kalt. Große Thematik für die SuulKa. Die Ausdehnung, die sie in ihrem physischen Aussehen machen, heißt Lords of Winter, ihr Name Liiran bedeutet eigentlich Eis-Herz oder Kalt-Seele in grammatischen Begriffen. Auch macht ein buchstäblicher Sinn, da jede SuulKa ein zweites Mal geboren wird, wenn sie aus dem Ozean und in den Raum teleportieren und dabei ein kugelförmiges Wasservolumen mit sich nehmen, das in der Umlaufbahn aufblitzt. Bursting aus diesem Eis-Ei ist, was sie tun, um ihre Stärke zu beweisen. Das Böse klingt tief. Die Zuul. Und ihre Meister, die SuulKa. Genaue Wörter. Meta Beispiel, der Leitfaden für das erste Spiel besagt, dass die Liir wischte die Suulka mit einem bioweapon, nicht speziell ein Virus, wie die meisten Fans angenommen, oder sogar ein Mikroorganismus. Wie im zweiten Spiel gezeigt, gab es eine Waffe, die lebendig war, aber der Führer der Liir-Marine, der Schwarze. Ist überhaupt nicht klein, geschweige denn eine Mikrobe. Ehrlich gesagt, schlägt die Suulka (die das Schwarze nicht ist, da er nicht der Sociopath ist und nicht glaubt, dass ein Gott bin ich) mit einem anderen Liir Great Old One ist viel schlauer als sie mit einer Krankheit zu schlagen, wie das haltbar sein würde Nehmen Sie alle kleineren Liir mit ihnen Allerdings ist die Black etwas unpassend, weil er erholt sich von seinem letzten One-Man-Armee-Akt gegen die riesigen Eldritch Abominierungen natürlich anstatt Essen Köpfe, um den Prozess zu beschleunigen). Explosionen im Weltraum. Meistens abgewendet, theres normalerweise keine Stoßwellen und die einzigen Sprengstoffe, die irgendeinen Schaden im Raum tun können, sind Wölfe. Das heißt, desto weniger sagte über die Detonating Fusion Torpedo oder wie die ersten Spiele Tanker Bereich Schaden, wie sie auf der Zerstörung explodiert, desto besser. Expy: Mehrere große Bedrohungen tragen Inspiration aus früheren Quellen. Der Puppenmeister basiert auf dem Biest von Homeworld. Cataclysm (die vom Team gemacht wurde, das KP werden würde). Das System Killer erinnert an eine der Doomsday-Maschinen von Star Trek. TOS. Der Peacekeeper basiert auf dem Raumschiff am Tag, an dem die Erde stillstand (1951). SolForce ähnelt EarthForce in mehr als nur Namen. Beide begannen als wohltätige, von der Regierung getrennte Kräfte, wurden von Tyrannen übernommen, die sie zur Regierung machten, dann kehrten sie nach dem Umsturz der Tyrannen zurück zum Wohlwollen. Der Blutweber aka He Who Shapes ist der väterlichste der Suulka und der geschickteste am biologischen Krieg. Die Zuul Weibchen unter ihm sind ständig in Schmerzen und verformt in Form. Klingt nicht wie Opa Nurgle Die Loa zu den Geistern im realen Leben Haitianische Religion, en. wikipedia. orgwikiLoa. Kaum überraschend, da die meisten Rassen eine Art historisches Analogon haben und der Lore-Schriftsteller in historischer Anthropologie ausgebildet wird. Trotz des Namens. Die Zuul sind eher wie die Reavers von Firefly. Ramshackle Schiffe, in Entführung, Piraterie und Sklaverei, haben einen Vorgeschmack auf Vergewaltigung (geistig nicht physisch, was nicht viel besser ist) und Mord, machen viele Einsatz von Greifen Harpunen und Boarding Parteien. Extrem Allesfresser. Die Suulka, bekannt als die Kannibale, isst alles. Einschließlich Planeten, nur weil er den Geschmack mag. Andere Suulka sind ausgenommen, obwohl jüngere Liir auf der Speisekarte sind. Sie sind richtig, es sieht köstlich aus. Fantastischer Katholizismus. Jetzt mit Zuul Anhänger, anscheinend. Fantastischer Rassismus. Die Fortsetzung macht deutlich, dass die meisten Fraktionen nun repräsentative Populationen der meisten Arten als Klientwelten enthalten. Jedoch beschränken SolForce, das Tarka Reich, die LiirZuul Allianz und die Hivers politische Positionen, Positionen von moralischer Bedeutung und Militärdienst (und in einigen Fällen volle Staatsbürgerschaft) zu den Mitgliedern ihrer eigenen Spezies. Die Morrigi Konföderation verweigert dies, so dass volle Staatsbürgerschaft und militärischen Dienst für alle ihre Kunden (auch wenn die Morrigi, durch die bloße Bevölkerung Größe, sie zu dominieren neigen). Fantastisches Rank-System. Tarka: Var Kona, Lac Tar (etwa admiralwarleader von 100.000), Maalk Tar (Kriegsführer von 10.000), Amtara (Anführer von 1.000), Sippa (Anführer von 100), Saal (Anführer von 10). Jede andere Spezies abgesehen von den Menschen hat eine weniger formale System (oder Kasten, die es offensichtlich whos verantwortlich machen). Schneller-Than-Light Reisen. Alle Arten haben ihre eigene Methode der FTL, mit ihren eigenen kleinen Macken. Menschen und Zuul verwenden Node Drive, eine der schnelleren FTL-Methoden, obwohl sie auf Node Lines beschränkt sind. Menschen verwenden natürliche permanente Node Lines, Zuul rip ihre eigenen instabilen Pfade. Tarka haben die Warp Drive, eine vergleichsweise langsame FTL-Methode, obwohl sie völlige Freiheit erlaubt. Liir stutterwarp ist ein Kurzstrecken - (wie im mikroskopischen) Sprungantrieb, der effektiv wie ein schneller Warpantrieb im tiefen Raum funktioniert, aber in den Schwerkraftbrunnen beträchtlich verlangsamt. Morrigi haben einen Void Cutter, der es ihnen ermöglicht, mit größeren Flotten schneller zu gehen. Allerdings verwenden Hiver Schiffe nur konventionelle STL Schub und verlassen sich auf Warp Tore für schnelle Reise. Hivers können immer noch am Ende wird das schnellste Rennen in der Galaxie aufgrund der Tatsache, dass die Reise durch ihre Portal-Netzwerk nimmt eine einzige Umdrehung (obwohl es eine lange Zeit dauert, bis ihre Tore verschoben werden). Die eventuelle Farcaster-Technologie ermöglicht es den Hivers Teleport-Flotten bis zu 10 Lichtjahre von einem ihrer Tore mit einem 1-2-jährigen Fehlerverhältnis. SuulKa Teleport von wo immer sie Station zu einem Schrein, wenn ihre Sklaven fordern sie. Sie bringen in der Regel eine Flotte. Loa haben Schiffe, die effektiv ihre Flotten zu hyperspeed mit einem bestimmten Schiffstyp, dem Beschleunigerring Fling. Allerdings verlangsamen sie nach einer Weile, so müssen Sie Accelerators alle so viele Lichtjahre setzen, um die Geschwindigkeit zu halten. Schicksal schlimmer als Tod. Ihr Verstand zu haben, der von einem SuulKa gegessen wird, ist keine Pause von seinem Übel. Reprogrammierung für die Loa. Der Bund. Morrigi sind die Köpfe eines von Lords of Winter. Die auch die Optionen für die friedliche Eingliederung mit NPC-Rassen zu assimilieren. Die Hauptmanifestation von diesem ist, dass alle Klienten Rassenmitglieder Admirals werden können. Für jede andere Rasse können nur die Gründungsmitglieder Admirale sein. Glanz. Männliche Morrigi geben einen psychischen Glanz, der sie größer und unearthly zu den Schaudern bilden lässt. Weibliche Morrigi haben Widerstand gegen psychische Kräfte. Männer finden die Weibchen, die durch ihre Glamouren attraktiv sehen können, während Frauen finden Männer mit stark genug Glamour, um sie attraktiv zu beeinflussen. Ein paar tausend Jahre dieser Art von gerichteter Evolution haben dazu geführt, dass der männliche Morrigi so gut darin ist, dass die meisten anderen Arten Engel sehen, oder ihr Äquivalent, wenn man eine betrachtet. Weibliche Morrigi, mittlerweile, haben einen Glanz, der sie sehen mehr monströse und erschreckend, wenn wütend. Glühende Augen des Schicksals. Die Zuul. Erderwärmung. Die Erde wurde dadurch ziemlich verschraubt. Götter brauchen schlechtes Gebet. Umgekehrt mit der Suulka. Sie brauchen nicht Gebet von ihren Zuul underlingsworshippers. Die Zuul, auf der anderen Seite, müssen dieses Gebet geben, wenn sie wollen, dass ihre Götter helfen. Angesichts ihrer Verschiebung von schwierigen, aber Awesome Crutch Charakter Magikarp Power. Ist dies ein wichtiges Endziel für sie jetzt. Darum müssen die Verehrer gebeten werden. Gegangen schrecklich Richtig. Subversiert mit dem Via Damasco Virus. Während es ursprünglich als eine Anti-Hiver-Waffe von seinem menschlichen Schöpfer gedacht war, erlaubte das Genie seiner Programmierung, dass es sich auf alle anderen Imperien verbreitete und eine neue rivalisierende Zivilisation aus ihren Schurken-AIs schuf. Außer daß der Schöpfer zu diesem Zeitpunkt längst alle Barmherzigkeit für ein anderes Leben verloren hatte und so einfach nicht kümmerte - es schmerzte die Hiver, und das war gut für ihn. Gold und Weiß sind göttlich. Prester Zuul. 9674 Wütend von der Isolation. Was ein Liir Ältester zu einer Suulka macht, ist die Tatsache, dass sie am Ende von Wesen umgeben sind, die Größenordnungen unter ihrem Intellekt und dem Verständnis sind, dass sie sterben und dass der Intellekt für immer verloren ist. Dekonstruiert, dass alles über Suulka Psychologie betont, welche Art von Person dadurch gestört würde, Good Colors, Evil Colors. Die Horde Zuul benutzen dunkle Farben 9674, während ihre Prester Gegenstücke Weiß und Gold verwenden. 9674 Guter Gegenstück. Aufgerufen im Fall des Schwarzen: ein guter Riese Liir Elder von seinen jüngeren und kleineren Brüdern ausgesandt, um seine abtrünnigen, bösen Pendants, die Suulka zu besiegen. Gradual Schleifer. Die Hivers, strategisch. Es wird Jahrzehnte dauern, um überall wegen des Mangels an FTL zu bekommen. Aber sobald sie gated und behauptete einen Planeten, theyll doggone es dort bleiben. Wuchs über ihre Programmierung hinaus. Es geschah zweimal mit dem Zuul: erst als sie (oder je nach deinem Standpunkt) gestanden hatten, statt alles zu essen, bevor sie sich wie erwartet verhungerten, dann später, als der Prester Zuul sich gegen ihre zerstörerische Natur rebellierte. Schuldloser Ausrottungskrieg. Massiv abgewendet für die Liir8212die Schwarzen Schwimmer sind tot, um den Rest des Liir, und oft Selbstmord anstatt in den Ruhestand aus dem Dienst. Wer sich zurückzieht, braucht viel Hilfe, um sich zu erholen. Der Zuul-Krieg. Subversiert mit Loa Feindseligkeiten - während sie eine extreme Abneigung gegen organische haben, was nicht in Frage ist, dass es vollständig verständlich ist. Subversiert wieder mit dem Krieg mit dem SuulKa, aber nicht auf die gleiche Weise. Die Überraschung ist nicht, dass sie nicht alle verdienen zu sterben, weil sie tun, dass die SuulKa arent ein Rennen, sondern ein Krieg kriminelle Bezeichnung für die Mitglieder eines normalen Rennen. Guys Smash, Mädchen schießen. Umgekehrt mit dem Zuul. Männlich Zuul sind Squishy Wizards. Aber nicht so hart in CQC. Weiblich Zuul andererseits sind Kampfmonster, die fähig sind, angetriebene Rüstung zu bekämpfen. HeelFace Drehen. Der Diakon aus der Diakongeschichte ist verantwortlich für die Bildung einer Liir-Zuul-Allianz im zweiten. Anscheinend gab ihm der Care-Bear Stare, der ihm in den Büchern einen Höhepunkt gab, ein ungewöhnliches Gefühl von Individualität. Das hat zur Existenz einer Zuul geführt, die sich zum Christentum gewandelt hat und dabei christliche (menschliche) Namen trägt. Einer von ihnen ist sogar ein katholischer Bischof, ein ganzer Planet. Weg zu gehen 9674. Jesus HeelRace Umdrehung. Auch der Prester Zuul. Heroische Delfine. Die Liir sind wahrscheinlich die schönsten aller Arten, trotz ihres rätselhaften Verhaltens. In Der Diakongeschichte. Ein Liir dient als Hauptfiguren Mentor und ist eines der wichtigsten Mitglieder in der Rag-Tag-Koalition, um den Diakon zu verhaften. Higher-Tech-Arten. Die Morrigi und Tarka verwendet, um dies zu sein, aber verloren genug davon, um auf der gleichen Seite mit den anderen Fraktionen. In Lords of Winter kann jede Fraktion dies für die Independent Races sein, die noch keinen Einsteins-Käfig durchbrechen müssen. Trefferpunkte. Prime zeigt normalerweise die Schiffe Gesundheit als farbcodiertes Pluszeichen (grün - optimale Bedingung gelb - schwere Beschädigung rot - kritisch). Die Herren des Winters zeigen für jeden Schiffsabschnitt (12 insgesamt) vier Gesundheitsstäbe mit Schäden, die nach oben, unten, links und rechts verteilt werden (oder Ihre bevorzugten Navaläquivalente dieser Begriffe). Schäden an Vorder - und Rückseite werden auf die anderen vier Seiten verteilt. Die Pit nutzt diese gerade. Hive Kastensystem. Die Hiver. Schwarmbewusstsein. Stark abgelenkt mit den Hivers. Eine Form von diesem kann gesagt werden, mit den psionischen Rassen bestehen, vor allem, wenn in metaconcert und möglicherweise die Loa (self-aware AIs) als auch. Doch ob das ein wahrer Bienenstock Geist ist oder nicht ist sehr viel für die Debatte, und in jedem Fall können die Individuen und können in der Regel getrennt vom kollektiven Ganzen. Menschlichkeit ist ansteckend. Der Prester Zuul kam zum Teil von Ihnen sind, was Sie essen, aber in diesem Fall waren es die Köpfe und Ideale von mehreren römischen Katholiken und anderen religiösen Typen. Menschen durch fremde Augen. Eine Menge dieser auftreten, in der Spiele Hintergrundmaterial. Menschen mit ihrer nackten Haut und empfindliche Merkmale erscheinen kindlich, um die Tarka, die einen negativen Einfluss auf die Moral für sie, wenn Kämpfen von Angesicht zu Angesicht hat. Der psychosensible Protagonist von The Deacons Tale bekommt einen Blick auf Hiver Köpfe und sieht, dass sie die Menschen als eine schwache, schlaffe, freakish Sache sehen, weich und windend und unrein. Natürlich ist dies nicht in der Spielmechanik auf jeder Ebene vorgestellt, wie das Hintergrundmaterial geht weiter darauf hin, dass tatsächliche Hand zu Hand Kampf neigt dazu, in Macht Rüstung passieren. Jäger Seiner eigenen Art. Der Schwarze, der Führer der Liir-Marine, ist ein riesiger Liir-Großeltern in einer riesigen Raumfähigen Rüstung, die geschworen hat, die abtrünnigen Liir-Großeltern in einer raumgreifenden Rüstung, die als SuulKa bekannt ist, zu jagen und zu vernichten. Hyperspace ist ein Scary Place. Das Hintergrundmaterial stellt fest, dass Menschen Knotensprünge mit allen Ansichtsfenstern schließen, die direkt am Nodespace schauen, können Geisteskrankheit verursachen. Das einzige Mal, wenn eine menschliche Besatzung einem Liir einen Aufzug gab, zerriss es das Schiff auseinander, sobald es die psychischen Emanationen aus dem Nodespace spürte und wollte. Darüber hinaus theres die Energie-Wesen, die im nodespace benannten Spezies, die nicht schätzen, wenn sie aufdringlich sind. Zuul, auf der anderen Seite finden Knoten Reise köstlich und zutiefst beruhigend. Obwohl eine enge Lektüre dieses Thiers darauf hindeutet, dass der Zuul wahrscheinlich menschliche Knoten-Reisen etwas weniger tröstlich als ihre eigene Variante, als Folge der menschlichen Knoten-Reise nicht metaphorisch durch ein unsagbar riesiges Lebewesen (es erinnert sie an den Safe erinnert Tage in ihren Müttertaschen). Es zeigt auch an, dass der Grund, warum der Liir und der Mensch Nodespace unsettlingdementing finden, nicht dasselbe ist, was den Zuul so macht. Hyperspace-Spuren. Die Menschen sind auf feste Nodespace-Routen für interstellaren Reisen und die Zuul reißen Nodespace-Routen, die mit der Zeit zerren. Unsterblichkeit Unmoral. Die Suulka. Sie psionisch versklavten ihre Kinder, die jüngeren Liir, zwangen sie durch eine schnelle industrielle Revolution und ließen sie die riesigen Raum-Rüstungs-Powersuits aufbauen, die die Suulka brauchte, um im Vakuum zu überleben. Als Unsterbliche haben sie auch eine sehr verächtliche Ansicht von jedem, der nicht ist. Insekt Gender-Bender. Die Hivers subvertieren diese ihre soziale Struktur ist sehr ähnlich zu Ameisen, wenn Ameisen waren empfindungsfähig. Insektenkönigin. The Hivers have a Hive Caste System with similarities to feudalism, with one Queen and several Princesses. The Princesses birth clans of workers, warriors, and Princes who fill command roles and are exchanged between clans for alliances, while the Queen is the only one who can make new Princesses. When she dies, her daughters fight amongst themselves for the right to eat her ovaries and become the next Queen. Insufferable Genius. Mecron. Full stop. Intelligent Gerbil. Cliff notes version of some of the races: Liir - Space Cetaceans (whales and dolphins), Hivers - Space Ants, Tarka - space lizards, Morrigi - Space Archaeopteryxes, Zuul - space Tasmanian Devils. Humans - space monkeys . ISO Standard Human Spaceship. Apart from the ring-shaped engines, human ships are very blocky and utilitarian-looking. They also have poor turret coverage in the back. Its All About Me : Holy shit, Suulka . Jack-of-All-Stats. Humans or Tarka, depending on your viewpoint. Kaleidoscope Eyes (The Tarka have four different eye colours for their moods: Green: Happysmiling. Red: Furylust. Gold: Calm. VioletMagenta: Sadness. Killer Space Monkey. The Tarka look like a cross between lizards and apes, and might qualify. Technically, to the other races, Humans. Lack of Empathy. The defining trait of the SuulKa. Its why the writers insist the Black is not a SuulKa, since one of his defining traits is paternal love. The SuulKas lack of empathy is even more disturbing considering they are empaths. Every time they hurt someone they feel their victims pain and suffering. and they still dont care. Large and in Charge. Tarka Changed males and Liir elders. The Suulka take this to an extreme, outsizing Leviathans. Legion of Lost Souls. The entire Liir military is this. Liir who join the Black Swimmers go through a ritual that is similar to a funeral. Life Drain. The System Killer regains health if it survives a tactical encounter in a system. The system. dont. The Suulka also feed on Life Force and can drain it from ships or planets. Lost Technology. From the Morrigi point of view, this is very much so. Its stated that they dont so much research new and unknown tech so much as they are rediscovering the creation and implementation of technology they already knew about and had mastered during their golden age. To a lesser extent, the Tarka underwent a dark age with the mysterious downfall of their Silver Imperium roughly 600 to 800 years before the games, with some of their old tech like the Hunter BattleCruisers only recently being reinvented. Mad Scientist. The Suulka called the Bloodweaver is a horrifying mix of this and Mad Artist. This monster created the Zuul purely to see as he could (and possibly to impress the Siren). The Pit gives us a good, hard look at some of his experiments and creations. Magikarp Power : Liir have the fewest weapon mounts and worst firing arcs, but a bonus to research speed and some of the best chances for techs. If they survive long enough to get the research machine in gear, they will out-tech all the rest. Morrigi. Pre-fusion, an inferior HumanLiir hybrid. With trade and fusion, an unholy terror. The Zuul were made this in the sequel. Not so strong in the early game now, but their ability to summon the Suulka to aid them gives them a very strong lategame. Magnetic Weapons. All of the kinetic weapons are gauss guns. The biggest are Impactors and Siege Drivers . The Magnificent. Some of the races use this sort of naming. Morrigi have names such as Atreus the Bloody or Tadc Chaac the Honey-tongued while Zuul have Lord Aeshma the Hungry or Master Kandh the Bonecrusher. Mechanically Unusual Class. While all the races have their own unique ways of moving about the strategic map, the Loa have the greatest difference from the rest. They dont build spacecraft normally, instead assembling them from cubes at the start of each tactical encounter, and their population growth is based on an interplay of solar activity and tax rate that other races dont have to bother with. Mighty Glacier. Hiver ships have great armour and firepower, but their speed conforms to the racing game variant (see trope description) of low agility despite high linear speed. The lore says that this is also true of their warrior caste - a human or tarka fighting a hiver in melee will always have the speed and agility upper hand, but once the hiver gets a hold of the foe, its over. Mind Rape. Zuul interrogation techniques involve crawling around someones mind, sifting through their thoughts for interesting ideas and memories, and ripping them out of their brain. This leaves a man with gaps in his memory and severe neurological damage. Over time, this will lead to insanity and death. This is highly pleasurable for the Zuul the brighter the mind, the more fun they have and the more they learn. Its not so fun for the unfortunate prisoner. Mix-and-Match Critters. Liir, actually. Aside from the obvious similarities to dolphinswhales they have seal-like fur, cephalapoid tentacles, hermaphrodism is common to many invertebrates, and like lobsters they grow continuously with negligible senescence . Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness. Is a bizarre combination of speculative technology and outright fictional ones, leaving a Arguably Physics Plus end result. The Mole. Conrad Vance in The Deacons Tale for the Zuul. Mook Promotion. Hiver brains stay alive after their bodies are dead, allowing their personality and memories to be recycled into a new body by having their princess eat it. Workers or Warriors that particularly impress their princess may be recycled this way into a fertile Prince, allowing them to take command and become the mate of a different princess. Really, really exceptional individuals may even be reincarnated into Princesses by the Queen. Mugging the Monster. Entirely possible. Admittedly in the first game war is the default option and you must opt in to ceasefire or better, but in the second game you default to neutrality and due to Artificial Stupidity other factions are still very likely to declare war without considering that you might be much more powerful. Its not uncommon for the AI or an inexperienced player to stumble upon a fledgling colony as first contact, think the owners are easy prey and attack. only for a fleetful of dreadnoughts to pop up shortly after from the dozens of developed systems the owner really has, seeing red. Multistage Teleport. The Liirs stutterwarp drive teleports the ship microscopic distances millions of times a second. This avoids the inertia problems inherent in filling their ships with water, since the Liir are an aquatic race. And given that its the only starship drive in the series without a Minovsky Physics explanation, it could very well be a lower-power version of the telekinetic space-folding abilities of the Suulka, who can teleport light years at once and are insane Liir Elders whove grown larger than dreadnoughts . Named After Somebody Famous. In The Deacons Tale . one human character is called Margaret Thatcher. Narcissist. Supplementary material reveals that the Locust are an entire species of trans-carbon narcissists. Narcissus could only dream of an experience like it. Nice Guy. According to the lore, the current Moru Quan of the Morrigi, Tokhata the whiteThe just, as of the SOTS 2 era. He is responsible for bringing the Morrigi Confederation into the multiracial federation it is in the current era. And all because the previous Quans xenophobia threatened the human colony that had saved his life. Things sort of snowballed from there. See also Beware the Nice Ones . Negative Space Wedgie. Some of the random menaces, such as the Spectres. Though most have some physical form that you can try to blow up. No Biochemical Barriers. Played straight. Bioweapons will function equally well against all the species (except the Zuul, which are immune to them and doesnt use them), and in the extensive backstory, different species are able to eat each others food, survive (to varying degrees of comfort) on each others planets, and even use the same chemical hormones as one another to a large extent. Only slightly averted in that any remaining colonists of an alien species will flee a planet when its conquered by a species who does not have the right tech to incorporate the old species biochemistry to a suitable level on their own colony. And before Murder of Crows whenever a faction surrendered to another species their colonies were destroyed. Nuclear Option. How humanity got the first Hiver fleet that encountered them to retreat. And the standard missile and mine warheads are nuclear since conventional explosives dont do much damage without an atmosphere. and of course its easy to depopulate a planet with nukes. Omnicidal Maniac. The Suulka Eldest wants to be the last living thing in existence. He is perfectly happy to speed up the process. Our Dragons Are Different. Morrigi caused the myths of dragons and dragon-equivalent creatures for humanity, Tarka, and the Hivers. Theyre that old. Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions. Massively averted with the Zuul, who seem to have some inherent sociological or psychological need for religion. They originally worshipped the Suulka as creator deities, and the first of the defectors from the main Zuul nation was influenced by Catholic doctrine he absorbed from some of his human victims. As of Sword of the Stars 2 . theres at least nominal defector Zuul populations among all of the races from the first game, with the largest portion having joined the Liir 8212 and all of them have adopted a new religion of some sort. Outside-Context Problem. The Grand Menaces almost all have capabilities beyond the reckoning of the playable factions. The System Killer is Exactly What It Says on the Tin in a universe where the lesser factions can only glass planet surfaces. The Puppetmaster can somehow subvert enemy ships and even whole planets without recourse to lesser methods like Boarding Parties and ground invasion. The Locusts are Planet Looters that replicate exponentially if left unchecked. And those are just three of goodness knows how many. All will mop the floor with an unprepared player blindly going Attack Attack Attack and are hard fights even with planning and strategy. Perfect Pacifist People. The Liir. mostly. Occasionally however they declare your race a threat to all living things and exterminate you with bioweapons. And on twenty occasions, theyve become the threats to all living things. Photoprotoneutron Torpedo. The Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness for particle beam weapons goes Particle, Neutron, Positron, Meson with Graviton and Pulsed Graviton somewhere off the main branch. The unguided torpedoes go Photonic - gt Gluonic - gt Kelvinic or Mesonic. Pig Latin. The Peacekeeper Enforcer introduces itself by saying Klaatu Barada Nikto in Pig Latin. This has led to the fans nicknaming it Ortgay. Pint-Sized Powerhouse. Meta example. SOTS starships are tiny by most series standards dreadnoughts are smaller than modern US supercarrier. Word of God states that antimatter-era weapons (Cutting Beams mentioned in post) are on par with Babylon 5 Shadows. The Plague. Bioweapons can be researched and used in bombardment. They are a specialty of the Liir. Zuul are immune though. Planet Looters. One possible playstyle - by default planets utilize resources at a sustainable level, but its possible to overharvest for a production bonus at the cost of a permanent resource reduction. The Zuul, however, overharvest ALL THE TIME. And considering their offense oriented nature, it can be viable to crank up the overharvest on new planets and continually push forward, leaving barren unproductive planets in their wake. Mining ships can also harvest resources from a planet to transfer to another. Von Neumanns and Locusts also take resources to build more of themselves. Zuul slave raids probably also count, since people can count as resources. Planet of Hats. The background takes pains to explain how cultural tendencies do not make any of the species into this 8212 except the Zuul, but they were crafted to be that way. Even the Zuuls hat has a detailed explanation for why exactly it exists. Portal Network. The linchpin of Hiver movement. Power Armor. Just about all of the races, barring the Zuul, use some manner of power armour for their planetary assault troops and boarding crews. The human version allows their soldiers to remove the Puny Earthlings factor, while Hiver armour lets their Warriors become basically humanoid tanks and Tarka power armour boosts Tarka agility to extreme levels. Liir power armour allows the aquatic Liir to operate in non-aquatic environs, while Morrigi armour has Attack Drones and spaceflight capability that lets them deal Death from Above to planetary populations. Precursors. The Morrigi filled this role until their introduction as a playable species in A Murder of Crows . Precursor Worship. The loyalist Zuul worship the long-vanished species that created them. And can summon them in Lords of Winter . Pretentious Latin Motto. Per Ardua Ad Astra, through hardship, the stars. Repensum Est Canicula, not so much. Interesting to note that the official motto is also the motto of the British RAF. Proud Warrior Race Guy. The Tarka are both an example and a glorious subversion of this trope honour in battle is gained by winning with minimum casualties and thinking outside the box, not by acting honourably (or, as the Tarka would say stupid) . As one of the writers put it the Tarkas are degenerate and laugh at war, but the Humans are sick and laugh at death. Psychic Powers. A research branch in the sequel. In-story. all the species are psionic to one degree or another but to different levels. Most likely, the Liir, Zuul and Morrigi will do best at it. The Suulka take this Up to Eleven . Puny Earthlings. Humans are only slightly physically inferior to your average Tarka and can probably take on a Hiver worker drone one-on-one 8212 dont ask about the rest of them. Thats why the humans have the biggest power armors. Ramscoop The Hivers can research them. Random Encounters. The Unknown Menaces. Random Number God. All over the place, most prominently and unusually with tech trees. Every players tech tree is generated using this at the beginning of a game - some core techs will be available to research to all players, some techs are exclusive to some races, while most are random, although some races will have a higher probability of getting certain techs than others. Lovingly known among fans as the Sadorandomizer. Also true with prototypes in the sequel. Prototypes take longer to build and require more resources. Unlike the serialized models, they can have slightly better or worse stats, determined at random. The advantagedisadvantage is reflected in the prototypes nickname. Reactionless Drive. Used by the Liir who use many micro-teleports and Morrigi who manipulate gravity. The Tarka initially only have it for FTL, but their final drive upgrade Warpdrives gives it to them for STL movement too. The Reptilians. The Tarka. The Reveal. Several: Slavers: Zuul Asteroid monitors, Crows, colony traps: Morrigi The Alien Derelict: a Suulka helmet . And the big one: the background info about the Liir didnt specify what kind of bioweapon they used against the Suulka, most people 8212 including the in-universe humans 8212 just assumed it was a virus since theyre so good at them. But it couldnt have been a virus because Suulka and Liir are the same species, instead it was something bigger, a lot bigger Religious and Mythological Theme Naming. Nearly all of the major Loa take their names and culture from Haitian Voodoo. Robot Republic. The Loa. Sapient Cetaceans. The Liir are a race of starfaring telepathic cetaceans. Young Liir look more like dolphins, while the Elders reach Space Whale proportions. The Liir keep growing as they age and have a, theoretically, unlimited lifespan. However, at a certain age, the SquareCube Law goes into effect, and the Elder is crushed by its own weight. Unless, of course, they enslave the Liir race and force them to build a massive spacesuit that it can use to survive indefinitely . Scary Dogmatic Aliens. The Zuul. Science Is Bad. While, like many 4X games, researching new technologies is vital to your survivial to keep up in the Lensman Arms Race. some research has a dark side. Researching Bio-weapons has a chance to unleash said Bio-weapons on one of your own planets, and researching AI technology has a chance of causing an AI rebellion . And then theres the last added scenario for Prime, The Antiquarians . where the objective is to gather the huge alien wreckages that served as random encounters from the beginning, to restore them to working order. Once you do, it turns out those huge things were just helmets of the Suulka. Oh, and they now send a signal to wake them up. Cue the sequel. Self-Healing Phlebotinum. Tarkasian Living Steel is implied to have this. (After battles, ships equipped with it heal somewhat.) Settling the Frontier. As with most 4X games, establishing new settlements is a major part of gameplay. Shout-Out. Quite a lot, involving planet names, AI faction names and some of the Grand Menaces. Theres a wiki page listing some of them . The final upgrade for the Hivers Portal Network is Farcasting. There are also various planet names taken from the Cantos. Tarka call their FTL warp and their engines have one to three nacelles, right out of Star Trek . The Heralds speech has choice cuts from Film Ghostbusters 1984 . not forgetting Zuul . One of the avatars in LOW is Egon. The Peacekeeper is the ship from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Anagathics, Battle Riders, System Defence Boats. The Steam achievement for colonizing a new world in the sequel is called and we shall call it. This land . Reflex Furnaces and Warheads. Occasionally youll run into stars and planets named Gallifrey . In The Pit . the Scanning Analyzer is the PKE Meter . Achievement and Award names include The Chef Bourdain Award , Chestburster , Eat Fresh note The tagline for Subway. Get To Da Choppah , The Kraven Award , Lord of War , The Professor Ivo Award , The Romero Award , Stark approved , What I do isnt very nice and The Zatoichi Award. The Xombie Researcher in The Pit has Behold I teach you the Superman carved into his flesh. AIs naming themselves after Voodoo appeared in William Gibson s Sprawl Trilogy . Shrouded in Myth. The Human intelligence officer Cai Rui eventually becomes feared as the Man in Black. Silicon-Based Life. The Swarm. Though life may be stretching it. Son of an Ape. Monkey is a common Tarka slur for humans, who responded with croc. Most of the other species have equivalents. Sorting Algorithm of Evil. The Von Neumanns demonstrate this, from probe motherships to Berserkers to Constructs. Space Is an Ocean. The setting unironically uses wet naval terms like admiral, fleet and (battle)cruiser. The Liir take it Up to Eleven with terms like black swimmers for their combatants. Space Is Cold. When a Suulka first teleports himself into space, he takes a sphere of water with him that freezes instantly in a vacuum. Riiiight. Space Mines Space Navy. All the factions have one. Space People. Male Morrigi live almost all their lives in space, contrasting with their planetbound females. Raum-Piraten. There are commerce raiders, some sent by enemies but most being random encounters. Weltraumpolizei. The Peacekeeper Enforcer is a space cop. A very well-armed one who isnt above Police Brutality (read: glassing colonies). Space Whale. The Liir are sort of like this, though they need spaceships or suits to survive in space. The Suulka are essentially cyborg Liir elders who live entirely in space . Special Effect Branding. It averts this trope in that all factions have similar effects for their weapons, and weapons effects in fact represent the technology level and type of the weapon - green lasers for example, used by anyone, are stronger than red lasers used by anyone. While each factions ships do, however, look drastically different from the other factions ships, the game does provide varying degrees of technological or cultural justification for this, including the fact that each faction has a different stardrive from the others around which they base their ships. Spit Take. In The Deacons Tale . Kliggermans reaction to seeing a Morrigi Colony Trap in action. SquareCube Law. Liir Great Elders die from getting too big. The Suulka said fuck that. Standard Sci-Fi Fleet Standard Sci Fi Setting Standard Starship Scuffle. Dreadnought and leviathan fights are slugfests. Smaller classes try to maneuver, but dont really zip about. Stealth in Space. There are cloaking and jamming systems. Stronger with Age. Liir dont die of old age and never stop growing, and get larger, heavier and better and more experienced at psionic power as they age. Eventually, they suffocate under their own weight. Liir cherish their elders, as they are vital to maintaining Liir society and teaching the next generations. The Suulka are what happen when Liir elders get too old, powerful and selfish and let go of their morality and responsibility for the sake of immortality. Subspace Ansible. Averted by most races, humans and Zuul place relay buoys at either end of node paths to transmit radio across, Morrigi and Liir use courier drones, and Hivers send messages through miniature gates aboard all their ships. But the Tarka are able to research an ansible. The game effect is that human, Zuul, and Tarka (before hyperlink communication) ships cannot be given new orders in transit. Subspace or Hyperspace. The Tarkas FTL drive generates a small warp field around the ship. Superweapon Surprise. Humanity pulled one on the Hivers during their disastrous first contact. When Earths primary planetary defenses were overwhelmed, they managed to recover some ICBMs that had been locked away for years after a disastrous nuclear conflict. This dealt enough damage to the Hiver fleet to force them to break off the attack. Testosterone Poisoning. In a hilariously literal example, Tarka males who undergo the Change (eating enough unfertilized Tarka eggs to actually provoke puberty) develop a severe case of this, to the point where a few unChanged males are weirded out enough by their new attitude that they willingly avoid it, and the chemical changes actually shorten their lifespan by quite a bit. Teleporters and Transporters. The Hivers lack FTL, but have created a teleport gate system to compensate. It takes Hivers a long time to reach a new planet, but once a gate is deployed, movement between worlds takes just one turn. The Liir also use Stutter-Drives on their ships to simulate motion. Tie-In Novel. A novella, The Deacons Tale by Arinn Dembo (the lead writer of the game series), was initially released with the Collectors Edition that included the initial release and Born of Blood . Set 33 years after the start of the first game, it tells the tale of the first four races formal introduction to the Zuul and set up certain subsequent events all the way up to the sequel. It provides a wealth of backstory for the Sword of the Stars universe. Title Drop. If the human player designs a dreadnought with certain modules, the game will automatically offer the game title as the name. since the game is named after that specific ship (the Sword of the Stars class SolForce dreadnought armed with lancer beams). The intro movies also drop titles a lot. Human: We learned to wield the Sword of the Stars Zuul: Born of fire, born of steel, born of science, Born of Blood Morrigi: Now we will darken your skies, like a Murder of Crows SuulKa: Now you will tremble before the Lords of Winter Loa: Lay down your arms, or face the End of Flesh Transhuman Treachery. This is the case with the Locusts. They were once an organic race until they invented Brain Uploading. upon which some of those who became engrams decided they were superior to the baselines and bombed the latter back to the stone age before setting out into the void to make more of themselves while wiping out the inferiors. Tron Lines. Everything built by the Loa have bright (usually red) Tron lines their ships, avatars, and their cities all have prominent glowing lines. Turned Against Their Masters : The Zuul subvert this. Oh boy, do they ever subvert this. Though by the sequel some of them have split off to join the Liir, it seems most of them continue subverting this happily. The Loa are descended from AIs who did this. Ultimate Evil. The true name of the SuulKa isnt known the name is, roughly, the Liir concept of abominable translated into vocals. The Morrigi name for them is translated as Screamers for some reason while Zuul reference them as Great Masters. New information tells us that the SuulKa are not the Screamers but they use them. Screamers are Morrigi who have been enslaved and experimented on by the Suulka Horde. Additional information means that SuulKa is their real name, since they are not a race as much as a philosophy . The Unfettered. Liir Black Swimmers have as a goal protect their fellow Liir from aggression. Since theyve already broken the greatest taboo of the Liir 8212 being willing to inflict harm on others 8212 any question of restraint in terms of method is hypocrisy to their eyes. A Black Swimmer sees no distinction between firing a warning shot or exterminating another species by infecting their worlds with deadly viral bombs 8212 both are merely means towards the end. Unobtainium. Wise Clay used by the loa. This material stores the Loa thoughts and personalities, and may be molded as needed to make machines, space ships, and other equipment. Loa fleets are described as traveling as a cube of wise clay that then splits near the destination into all the ships. Unusual User Interface. Morrigi curl around control pillars to run their spacecraft. Villains Want Mercy. In The Deacons Tale . this is the Deacons reaction to getting a Care-Bear Stare . Voice of the Legion : The Liir, a benign example as its supposed to emulate whale song. In the sequel The SuulKa bring this trope back with chilling force. The Morrigi Striker and the Liir Seeker in The Pit . Wolverine Claws. Zuul have punch-claws protruding from their forearms and extending over the back of the hand. They are vestigial in the males, but the females are very effective at cutting through things. The Pit allows you to craft Adamantium Claws, complete with Shout-Out in the description to the Trope Namer. as well as the more Freddy Krueger - like Razor Fists. The Worf Effect. Pulled on SolForce every so often - granted, everyone gets this whenever a new race is unveiled, but in SolForces case the first appearance of the Suulka resulted in the destruction of their primary shipyard (the Argos Naval Yard), the theft of their shiny new Leviathan class warship (the original SFS-1 Leviathan), and in the SoTS2 intro, of course one of their eponymous Sword of the Stars class Dreadnoughts, in a Call Back to the first game, except now getting smashed by a tentacle . You Gotta Have Blue Hair. Some Human avatars have exotic colours like pink or orange. Sword of the Stars Prime The story related above is only the backstory: Prime allows you to play as any of the four races and the gameplay is standard 4X gameplay you start with one planet in an unexplored map, explore, build your empire, encounter other players, and stop when everyone else is reduced to a small, scorched smear in the ruins of its last colony. Sword of the Stars was intentionally scaled back on most parts to streamline the game and put focus on the battles, which are fought in real-time with player input, much like in the Total War series. The battles are in 3D with Newtonian physics and real-time calculations. Unusually, the tech tree is randomized and thus no two games are entirely the same technology-wise. The first expansion, Born of Blood . added a host of new gameplay additions and a new species called the Zuul (no relation to Ghostbusters ), a race of Super Soldier marsupials designed by the Suulka. out on a holy crusade to find their masters and brutally enslave and kill off anything else in their path. A second expansion called A Murder of Crows was later released, adding even more complexity, like diplomacy and trading, and a new species called the Morrigi, a race of ancient bird-people who once ruled most of known space, who have come back from the brink of extinction (again, at the supposed hands of Suulka) to reclaim their old colonies and burial grounds from the new upstarts8212by force, if necessary. A final expansion pack called Argos Naval Yard . basically a big hunk o ship parts and technologies, was released in June 2009. Sword of the Stars Prime provides examples of the following tropes: 2-D Space. Tactical combat is Two and a half-D, at least as far as the player can control, though ships will automatically move up and down if they are in danger of colliding. The strategy map is aggressively three-dimensional. A-Team Firing. Early kinetic weapons generally have bad accuracy. This can be improved in a variety of ways with the right additions (e. g. Fire Control, AI command, armor piercing shells) kinetics can have extremely good accuracy. A. I. Breaker. The AI doesnt really know how to handle mines beyond hope our PD can take it. Protip, AI: It cant. Arbitrary Headcount Limit. Command Points. Without a CNC vessel, you can only have one dreadnought or a few smaller vessels in combat. Zuul have a higher limit than the other races to emphasize their We Have Reserves playstyle. Armor-Piercing Attack. Better ballistic weapons have a reduced chance of being deflected by armour, which is further helped by Armor Piercing Rounds, albeit this at the cost of reduced direct damage. The Polarized Plasmatics sub-family will deal extra damage depending on the extra health granted by armour upgrades. Mesonic Torpedoes go through all shields other than Meson Shields. Shield Breaker Rounds can bring down all shields. Artificial Brilliance. The AI will adapt to and counter your loadouts. Assimilation Plot. The Assimilation Plague bio-weapon. A Liir specialty, although all other races have a (low) chance of acquiring it too. Asteroid Thicket. In the tactical view, systems with asteroid belts have them orbiting the planet, and they are quite dense and require some fancy maneuvering (they can be shot out of the way too) to pass through. They can provide a tactical advantage. The more obvious example is being able to take a few shots for your ships before being destroyed (or broken into smaller pieces). However, depending on their size, asteroids can have a radiation field surrounding them, which not only hides your ships from radar but also allow them to escape missile lock. If there is a swarm of missiles heading for your ship, just get it into the radiation field of a nearby large asteroid, and the missiles will fly past. Planetary missiles can re-acquire the lock, though if you leave the field. Attack Attack Attack. The Zuul playing style is designed in this manner. Going too long without finding something to kill cripples your research and economy and leads to your worlds going out of resources. Attack Drone. Added in A Murder of Crows . The specialty of the Morrigi, to no ones surprise. According to lore even an individual Morrigis Ascension Armor comes standard with a drone or three. Awesome, but Impractical. Depending on how your tech tree ends up, quite a lot of the weapons may end up as this. An early AI research. Yes, it is a big boost to all your future research, so it makes sense to get it early. except that early on itll either take 200 turns to get, or a few dozen turns to get with the research cranked up reasonably, which virtually guarantees an AI rebellion halfway through. Badass Boast. The intros of the expansion packs are basically the new species time to show off their badassitude by denouncing the old-timers already in the games. The Battlestar : While conventional Space Fighters do not exist, various ships can carry externally-mounted riders, ranging from smaller-than-destroyers drones and assault shuttles to the cruiser-sized Tarka Hunters. Destroyer and cruiser carriers are a subversion because they have difficulty fulfilling the line combatant part of this trope. All Leviathan-class ships in the sequel are supposed to be this by carrying short-range support craft the size of the old destroyers into battle. Dreadnought riders, otherwise called battleships, have been promised. Unfortunately, it turns out these battleships are Liir-exclusive, leaving most races with only destroyer-sized riders. Beam Spam. Ships armed with phasers. Attack drones, all equipped with beamer weapons. Also, dreadnoughts armed with heavy lasers, namely the eponymous Sword of the Stars - class. The Blazer section added in Argos Naval Yard trades in everything for this trope. Bigger Is Better. Throughout the game. Large guns are better than small guns. Large hulls have better colonisers, sensors, command amp control, and tankers than small hulls. Large planets are easier to defend and more productive. Better engine systems are larger, too. That said, there are a number of instances where this is averted and smaller is better smaller ships cost less to keep in your navy, are more maneuverable, and tend to be less vulnerable to the really big guns (either via overkill wasteage, nimbleness, better point defense, or some combination of the above.) Certain ship sectionsroles are only available or are better implemented on smaller ships. The latter advantage was removed in expansions, which added equivalent sections to larger ships. For example, originally, only destroyers could be built with jammer and wild weasel sections. By the third expansion, dreadnoughts can be built with a well-armed section that combines functions of a jammer, a deep scanner, and a wild weasel. The latest expansion also allows you to build a dreadnought-sized mix of a tanker and a repair ship, whose fuel supply wont blow (and devastate any ship around it) until the ship itself is destroyed. Still cant build dreadnought colonizers, but that really would be an overkill. Boarding Party. Boarding pods are available as a research tech for a certain ship section. The specialty of the Zuul, who get them for free and can carry them on more sections than the designated carrier, just as the Morrigi do with drones. Boarding Pod. See Boarding Party. A particular specialty of the Zuul. Body Armor as Hit Points. All armor techs add to the health of your ships. Polarized Plasmatics weapons are dangerous because they negate that bonus. Bollywood Nerd. The Human head researcher in the first game has an Indian accent. Boring but Practical. Laser point defense remains a valid8212even critical8212fit for small turret slots for most of the game. Especially for races who arent big on the phaser variant, which is pretty much everyone except the Liir and Morrigi. Even they dont necessarily get it. Your most reliable anti-planet weapon for much of the game Assault Shuttles, buildable from the first. The Tarka as a race are built around this concept. Their basic ship sections, like the armour and hammerhead sections, are amongst the most armed and cheapest in the game, but their specialist ship sections, like the barrage, blazer and cloak sections, are comparatively expensive and much less armed than their Liir, Human and Morrigi equivalents. Cant Catch Up. The different races have different strength curves during the game. Hivers are slow-moving and slow to research, and must focus on having greater quantities of durable ships to expand. Zuul are very slow to research and their strengths are all geared towards gaining the upper hand quickly. If they cant get the upper hand quickly, they likely never will gain it. Humans and Tarka are downplayed. They are not as strong late-game as Morrigi or Liir, but they both have strong early - and mid-games. Zuul have the worst research rate and poor chances at most high-end techs. A dragged-out game, especially if they cant salvage good tech by winning battles, is not in their favour. Chain Lightning. Emitters, increasing in the chain the higher up you get in the tech. Colony Drop. Siege drivers. Ships with destroyed engines or that are disabled with Disruptor or EMP weapons can also crash into planets, and satellites equipped with tractor beams can drag ships into the planet. Command Conquer Economy. Zig-zagged. Colonies develop infrastructure by themselves. The player decides planets military production and civilization-wide research goals. Starting in A Murder of Crows, Players also balance military production against trade. However, the trade system has been much criticised for this every single freighter must be built by explicit command. And when you get mega-freighters, you have to do it all over again, and decide on what to do with the old leftover ones. Competitive Balance The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard. Mostly Averted. The AI is designed to be interchangeable with a human player for the purpose of multiplayer games it is not omniscient and only knows what a human player could reasonably be expected to know about whats going on in the game. It does get advantages on hard difficulty, but thats to be expected. It is not immune to going overbudget, and if it seems to rarely suffer a research boost accident, thats because it rarely boosts research to begin with. Cosmetically Different Sides. Massively averted while weapons will deal the same damage regardless of species, the number of turrets, speed and health of the ships theyre placed on will vary, and the randomized tech tree will lead to different specializations amongst the various species. Furthermore, each race has its own method of FTL, which results in massively different play styles for each race. AI player differences even go beyond what is necessary to accommodate these playstyles - AI Liir, for instance, tend to be unusually nice and cooperative (but see Beware the Nice Ones above). Crippling Overspecialisation : Relying heavily on one class of weapon 8212 energy, ballistics or missilestorpedoes 8212 can rapidly lead to this. All three classes have counters that are relatively easier to implement, although not all of them are core tech. Same with ships that rely heavily on Attack Drones. especially the Morrigi, who get the technology for free, if even a single enemy ship has PD phasers. light emitters. or PD missiles. The latter usually results in the entire wave of drones getting massacred before they can do significant damage, leaving the carriers nearly defenseless (drones can only be restocked outside of battle). For that matter, PD missiles themselves: Great against drones or guided torps, useless against other missiles. They are a lifesaver against the Zuul, who tend to spam boarding pods. A single boarding pod attached to your ship and not destroyed within a short time will take over the whole ship (ignore the Fridge Logic of a few dozen marines taking over a ship of thousands). Those fancy shields that No Sell one type of weapon can become useless pretty fast too, simply if the enemy decides to pick up some energy or ballistics weapons. The shield sections are also relatively slow, fragile, and with few weapons. Kritischer Existenzfehler. Zigzagged. Mostly averted in that destroyers and cruisers can have individual sections and individual weapon mounts of the ship targeted and destroyed, and Destroyers and cruisers wont be totally destroyed until two sections are destroyed, but a section or weapon mount doesnt suffer at all from being one hit point above 0. Played almost completely straight with dreadnought sections, which can have their weapons mounts destroyed, but not individual ship sections (said to be because dreadnoughts have so much structural redundancy.) Averted in the sequel: each section has an armor that is destroyed piece by piece, and once armor is gone the damage will go to the inside systems and cause problems. Crutch Character. Zuul appear to be this at first as they have various early advantages. However, they turn out to be Difficult but Awesome . Spacecraft built as missile buses can be this. Early on, missiles do more damage than anything else you have available and the early weapons are horrible at point defence, meaning a missile bus setup can easily wipe out brawler-types. As the game goes on, however, useful point defence and stronger direct-fire weapons become available, making a mainly-missile configuration less useful. Cultural Posturing. Part of the Morrigis Badass Boast . Cyber Cyclops. Human ships with the AI command section. It swoops back and forth, Cylon - style. David vs. Goliath. Generally averted. Failing to either outclass or outnumber the enemy usually is a recipe for failure, at least in a straight fight as opposed to repeatedly throwing ships at the enemy to wear them down. To reinforce the need to outnumber, you get extra command points for every so many ships of each class more than the enemy you have, up to a certain limit, allowing you to field more ships than the Arbitrary Headcount Limit would normally give you. Have enough and you can deploy extra dreadnoughts. Death from Above. Until A Murder of Crows diplomacy was more or less non-existent and the only way to take a world from an enemy was through sterilization by orbital bombardment (or the above-mentioned Assimilation Plague). Its still pretty much mandatory to subject a planet to a few rounds of this even if you want them to give in peacefully. Until midgame, though, Assault Shuttles are often more damaging. Death of a Thousand Cuts. Destroyers can take down dreads. Its just not practical given the losses likely. Theres also the time factor. Battles have a time limit. It can be raised but still no more than 10 minutes. Its unlikely a destroyer can batter down a dreadnought in this time, even if it manages to destroy all turrets with precision fire, leaving only Fixed Forward Facing Weapons to avoid. Death-or-Glory Attack. Researching AI techs can be this. The bonuses are amazing, but hope you dont get an AI Rebellion. Abschirmbleche. Several varieties. One blocks only ballistic weapons, another blocks only energy weapons, and both of them cover only half the ship. A third blocks basically all damage that doesnt pierce shields, and covers the entire ship to boot, but is vulnerable to overload. Get a high enough tech level and youll get shields that nullify either all kinetic (plus gravity-based) or energy weapons, cover the entire ship, and almost never go down. While these normally require an entire third of the ship to be a shield generator with few or no weapons, it is possible at higher tech levels to research and use shield projectors, which, while require the use of a heavy weapon turret, create a decent-sized shield umbrella, which can block any weapon short of a siege driver and turns to face the most dangerous threat. These also occasionally flicker and may allow a shot to pass through. All shields, no matter how strong, pass the momentum of a kinetic shot to the ship. This may allow a ship equipped with rail cannons or Kinetic Kill missiles to destroy a heavily-shielded defender by pushing it toward the planet and letting gravity take over. Design-It-Yourself Equipment. You need to design and name every single thing you want to build. Including stuff that have a fixed design (like trade and science stations, which lacks weapons). Difficult but Awesome : The Morrigi are specially designed to take advantage of the new abilities introduced in their expansion pack, and esoteric weapons like mines, COL and cloakingshields. Trying to run them without learning the trading system or the mechanics of the flock drive ends you up playing an inferior Liir faction once you do learn them the Morrigi become terrors in the late fusionAM era. Zuul appear to be a Crutch Character. but the aggressive mindset needed to play them and the skill needed to put that into play are difficult to grasp. Succeed and you can crush enemies quick. Do a Barrel Roll Double Unlock. Through Salvage projects or technology trading. Sequel Escalation in the second where every non-essential tech needs to undergo feasibility study first. You can bypass this if you manage to salvage the tech presumably, the reasoning is that you managed to pick up a working sample as opposed to starting from theory. Driven to Suicide. Liir Black Swimmers who have had to put enemy civilians to the torch usually pilot their spacecraft into nearby stars after hostilities conclude. Easter Egg. Repeatedly switching the map between Normal View and one of the other viewmodes will result in the game playing a soundclip of Mike and the Bots from Mystery Science Theater 3000 singing Normal view. normal view. normal vieeeeew Earth-Shattering Kaboom. Although you can bombard planets, even with whole asteroids, you dont actually have any weapons that can destroy the whole planet and. hey, whats that white dot on the map with all the question marks thats slowly coming towards my plane - KSSSSSHHHH To note, this also collapses any nodes to this system, destroying any ship en-route. This only affects human and Zuul ships traveling at FTL. The Von Neumann Construct is a copy of the System Killer and is not subject to the one Grand Menace per game rule, so you can have it on the field at the same time. Its internal name final solution is. apt. Emergency Weapon. Even if you have no starships or satellites, there are still surface-to-orbit missiles. Dont expect them to stop a serious fleet, though. Despite crippling a Hiver invasion fleet in the backstory, though that was earths entire stockpile of ICBMs from the Cold War. Per hit, Planet Missiles are one of the strongest weapons in the game. The problem is fire rate, and a fully inhabited, size 10 world, ie Earth or any homeworld will tear any Destroyer-era fleet apart. Ingame, the attack on the invasion fleet would be able to kill anything, grand menaces included. Energy Absorption. Absorbers, which block energy weapons but are easily countered by kinetic weapons and missiles. Fanservice. Parodied with the naked Tarka loading screen, though it could be Fan Disservice to some and played totally straight with others. Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon. Heavy beams, spinal mounts on destroyers, torpedoes, and heavy mass drivers like impactors and siege drivers. Flying Saucer. Zuul Slave Disks, the Ten Rings of the Von Neumann Berserkers and the Peacekeeper Enforcer. Fragile Speedster. The Morrigi are this in the early game. Once you get to the dreadnought age, they jump into Lightning Bruiser territory. While Liir ships are slow, their maneuverability and lack of armour also qualify them slightly. Zuul combine this with Glass Cannon. as even their combat cruisers can be frighteningly fast in tactical. Friendly Fireproof. Averted. Frickin Laser Beams. A common basic weapon, existing in red, green, ultraviolet, and X-ray (blue) varieties. Late game, you get pulse phasers, firing three yellow bolts per shot. There are also Beamers that fire a proper continuous beam. Gameplay and Story Integration. The computer will attempt to drive species based on the in-story psychological profile of said species. Gameplay and Story Segregation. The Liir ships, which are supposedly standing still, and the illusion of motion is created by their teleporation engines shifting the ship a tiny amount millions of times per second. However, destroying the engines of the ship still results in it drifting in the same direction as if it was actually moving. Ghost Ship. The Alien Derelicts. Morrigi ship graveyards may also count. Glass Cannon. The Zuul combine this with Fragile Speedster. Their ships are cheap, fast and have loads of guns, but very little armour. The Liir can also become this, seeing how theyll usually reach the more advanced weapons quicker. Various Unknown Menaces like the Swarm or the small Von Neumann arent that hot defensively either but pack a real punch if allowed to. Reiseführer Dang It. The randomised Tech Tree means youre quite unlikely to make all the connections between techs without recourse to a guide, entirely unhelped by the lack of Interface Spoiler . Hannibal Lecture. The Herald is a random event in which a (presumably Suulka employed) evangelist comes up and rants ominous foreshadowing at you, causing the morale of the planet he visits to drop. As with most random events, shooting him down averts negative consequences. presumably because its hard to take him seriously when hes fleeing in an escape podspace debris. Hard-Coded Hostility. Persistent, mobile, Unknown menaces and pirates. Menaces ranging from asteroids to Von Neumann probes to system killers show up randomly or semi-randomly to attack colonies. Homage. The Upstart Apes scenario to the classic Imperium board game . Home Field Advantage. Fighting in your own system gets you support from defence platforms, planetary surface-to-space missiles and, in the second game, System Defence Boats. Horde of Alien Locusts. Locusts. Originally a mamallian carbon race, who decided to become transcarbon. They consider themselves perfect, and only allow a perfect replication of individual units. Hyperspeed Ambush : Lategame drive techs allow you to jump from outside an enemys system sensor range to the system in one turn and deny him the chance to reinforce or build defences. Its even worse in the sequel where you need an extra turn after construction to move the newly-constructed spacecraft into an active fleet, meaning you have even less warning than in the original. CnC craft allow replacement ships to jump into tactical right next to them rather than far out and waste time getting to the action. This creates an interesting tactical dilemma in the earlier stages where CnC ships are fragile, as players have to weigh the advantages of getting reinforcements right on top of the enemy to the chance of losing the CnC ship. If all the ships in your fleet have cloaking sections, then the fleet isnt even visible on the strategic screen, unless you happen to have researched the Quantum Tunneling tech and have a Deep Scanner in the system. Sometimes, not even then. Doesnt much work against the Hivers, whose Portal Network allows them to bring in their entire defense fleet from all corners of their empire, although the number of ships that can be transported at once is directly proportional to the overall number of active gates and relies on there being an intact gate. So if the ambushers immediately gun for the gate and take it out. Morrigi military strategy is built around this. They start with stealth armour, which reduces the range at which enemies detect them strategically, and are amongst the best at researching cloaking tech. Their ships are also fast but fragile. Using two to three good fleets, a morrigi player can bring an enemy to its knees by hitting weak spots in their defensive line and then retreating before a counterattack especially devastating against human and zuul players who cant recall fleets committed to nodespace travel. In the sequel, the Zuul can research an ability that lets them drop out of Nodespace near a target systems star rather than on the edges of the system, which may catch opponents expecting the usual extrasystem incursion vector off guard. Hyperspeed Escape. You can retreat from tactical encounters. Humans have to retreat to a nodespace node to do so, however, which can be really frustrating. On the other hand, all other races (except Zuul, who are in the same boat as humans) have to be far enough away from the planet and any enemy ship in order to go to FTL (or accelerate really fast in the case of the Hivers). Humans and Zuul can park their ships in the node point and slug it out with the enemy. If they feel theyre losing, they can instantly retreat, no matter how close the enemy ships are. In fact, since no other race can see your node points (even humans and Zuul have different ones), they wont even know what happened. The Pursuit ship section is specifically designed to prevent such escapes by making sure your ships are close enough to the enemy to prevent this. I Fought the Law and the Law Won. Do not piss off the Peacekeeper unless youre already in the dreadnought antimatter age when he shows up. It will not end well. Unless you bring lots of disruptor torpedo ships. I Will Fight Some More Forever. The Artificial Stupidity can get pretty thick. You can be sweeping enemy planets away turn on turn and the AI will usually refuse to beg for peace or surrender, even all the way to their end. Interface Spoiler. Averted with the tech tree for much Guide Dang It . Ive Never Seen Anything Like This Before. The reaction to encountering a Silicoid Queen. Even when you encounter one for the hundredth time with the same ships. And you probably will given how fast they reproduce. Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better. Subverted. Kinetic weapons are usually easier to develop or field and can knock ships off course, and energy weapons start out quite weak. Mid-game energy weapons start to pull ahead, and late-game energy weapons are generally much superior. That said, cruisers with armor-piercing mass drivers can decide most games and lategame Rail Cannons are genuine beasts. ImpactorsRail Cannons play this mostly straight. They are some of the most powerful and longest ranged weapons, beating out any torpedo layout in range and power. Their accuracy is their downfall, but fully kitted out an impactor ship can knock out any cruiser with one or two volleys before you can even see the ship youre targetting. Kung-Fu Proof Mook. Zuul are immune to plagues without needing vaccine research, though they cant use them either. Spectres can only be hurt by energy weapons. High-end shield tech can outright nullify certain weapon types. Not necessarily high-end. One of the first shield techs you can get is the Deflector, which blocks all kinetic weapons, missiles, and torpedoes, although the ship may still get pushed around a little. The slightly higher-level Disruptor blocks all energy weapons. Unlike the higher-end shields, these two only cover the front of the ship but can still give an enormous tactical advantage, especially against AI players, who almost never try to outflank you and keep stubbornly firing at invincible front. And, yes, that means that a cruiser with a Disruptor can take out a dreadnought armed with only energy weapons, given enough time. Law of Chromatic Superiority. Played with. Drives increase in power from fission (orange) to fusion (yellow) to antimatter (purple). Lasers go red, green, purple, blue, gold. Plasma weapons are green, fusion weapons are yellow, and antimatter weapons are purple. Lightning Bruiser : Morrigi start as Fragile Speedsters in the destroyer era, get tougher and more powerful with cruisers and finally graduate to this with their dreadnoughts when you make it that far. The Loa introduced in the sequels expansion have durability of the Hivers. guns of the Zuul and acceleration and speed no organic race can match. Lightning Gun. Emitter weapons, which are pretty good backup PD weapons too. Like Cannot Cut Like. Mesonic Torpedoes cannot penetrate Meson Shields the way they go through other shielding. Macross Missile Massacre. Given the effectiveness of point defense weapons, and the number of weapon mounts slaved to a weapons position (especially once you get beyond destroyers), the Triple M is really the only realistic way to use missiles after the early game. Aided by the dumbfire missile rack and Multi-Warhead Missile. Misguided Missile. The job of Wild Weasel sections. At basic levels, this only attracts all enemy missiles within range to the ship equipped with the section. With some research, you can get a good number of enemy missiles to target the ships that fired them. The best part is that the enemy wont try to intercept them, as the missiles still read as friendlies to them. More Dakka. All projector weapons fire a storm of energy bullets, save for the Meson projector. Also available in missile form via Dumbfire Racks, and in kinetic weapons form via Stormers. No Warping Zone. Ships need to clear a seemingly arbitrary range from enemy ships before they can retreat from tacticals. This is an abstraction to represent it being harder to disengage from combat while actually being fired upon, as opposed to sneaking away when nobody is directly fighting you. This is different for humans, as their FTL method requires them to use specific points in space to retreat. However, this also means they can retreat at any point, as long as theyre in the right location. Non-Entity General. The voice-overs will address the player using non-specific titles like commander, Var Kona, my Queen, Elder, or Morru Quaan. No Sell. Ballistic weapons have a chance to ricochet off and deal no damage. Heavier armor increases this chance. Reflective Coating does the same for pulse lasers. Deflector Shields cover half the ship and cause all ballistics to ricochet and missiles to explode early Reflector Shields do the same for all (non-Meson )energy weapons. Meson Shields cover entire ships and make them immune to all energy weapons, including Meson weapons. Not Playing Fair With Resources. Hard computers get 50 more earnings and research speed and AI Rebels get even larger bonuses. On the flipside, Easy computers have only half that of a human player. Older Is Better. Player-buildable Asteroid Monitors are inferior to the random encounter ones built by past Morrigi. Justified as modern Morrigi lost most of technology of their golden age. Point Defenceless. You want to avert this - planetary defence batteries will chew up anything without adequate flak cover. Unfortunately Point Defence Tracking is a non-core technology (except for the Morrigi), so you might not get it. Autsch. Certain races have trouble with getting proper 360 degree Point Defense coverage. Liir, for example, have weak ventral coverage, while Tarka and Humans often have weak dorsal cover. Morrigi have almost no vertical cover for their destroyers and cruisers whatsoever, making them nearly defenceless to planetary missiles. Most Dreadnoughts have very few small turrets, forcing other ships to cover for them. Recursive Ammo. The Multi-Warhead Missile. It splits off into six smaller ones. There is a planet-based version that ups the ante to ten or so. The sequel takes it Up to Eleven with additional options including one that fires a Heavy Combat Laser, one that fires multiple X-Ray Lasers and one that fires an AP Mass Driver. Reflecting Laser. The reflective coating and improved reflective coating techs are a subversion that give ships passive defense against lasers by reflecting a percent of laser bolts and reducing damage from laser beamers. The surfaces do not need to be flat, and it is assumed that the entire ships surface is coated. Rewarding Inactivity. In the majority of cases, not fighting a Von Neumann mothership is the smartest thing to do. As long as you keep a few laser-toting ships to swat down the drones as they come, the ship cant hurt you and leave you well enough alone after combat ends. Killing a VN ship provokes an attack by a Berserker, which is generally more trouble than its worth. Ridiculously Fast Construction. Notably one of the few aversions of the genre. Judging from the maximum strategic Hiver speed (.99 LY per turn) each turn is a year, meaning that even a heavily populated planet with complete infrastructure takes months to build spaceships and a trip from earth to Alpha Centauri (4.25 light years) via fission node drive (4 LYturn, fastest starting drive in the game) would take over a year. Roboteching. All missile weapons are launched to the side, before they lock onto their target and go after it. Planetary defense missiles are able to select a new target if their current one is destroyed. Rule of Three. A lot: Three classes of FTL-capable starships, each thrice the length of the previous three main classes of weapons (energy, mass driver and missiletorpedo) three weapon mount sizes, with smalls being put in larges becoming triple-mounted three power techs, with three levels each of their corresponding torpedos, energy cannons, heavy cannons (which are a triple-shot version of energy cannons), projectors, and polarized plasmatics and three ship sections. Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale. The designers tried to avert this, but didnt get them all: 30m-long destroyers. Seriously Remember, the Space Shuttle is 56.1m, while a F-15 Eagle is19m. The sequel fixes this somewhat by starting with Cruisers, thus shifting the three sequential ship sizes a step up and relegating Destroyers to in-system craft. And we neednt get into the relative scale of the destoyers vs the planets, which would suggest the planet has an atmosphere about a few meters high and a diameter of less than a kilometer. Of course, its hardly practical to fight around a planet that is to scale. Particularly galling are Zuul slave disks, even crammed into stasis its hard to believe that 50 million people could fit in a 60-meter diameter saucer. Cruisers only mass double-digit thousands of kilograms, dreadnoughts triple-digits. This is far, far too light for a craft meant to operate and fight for months to years away from port. The Airbus A380 is almost 600,000 kg at maximum take-off weight and definitely doesnt store the supplies for such long operation. See the Whites of Their Eyes. Ships can engage from long distances where the enemy can only be seen as a sensor blip, but they may also get into close-in fighting where maneuver is involved. According to Word of God. though, this is merely a convenient abstraction and all fights really are taking place BVR. The sequel will further avert this as weapon ranges will now exceed sensor ranges, requiring the use of battle riders as scoutsspotters. Sensor Suspense Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness. Played with. Going up a weapon sub-family usually results in a better weapon, but changing between weapon sub-families may not. Raumfähre. Averted. According to Word of God. fighters would even at their smallest be half the size of destroyers - which are already pretty small by most other series standards - and get easily swatted by point defence. Node fighters have been confirmed for the sequel as a Human special ship type, however, and Battleriders, which are nearly equivalent to Destroyers that launch from a Carrier will also be included (along with, strangely, Cruiser and Dreadnaught equivalent launched ships.) Space Friction. Averted, ships with destroyed engines will continue to move in the same direction. Even Liir ships, even though they use teleportation drives (it has been stated they do use vented plasma as secondary propulsion, but it is not visible in-game.) Kinetic weapons meanwhile. Not so much. Once they reach their max range, the bullets stop instantly and fade away. Though the fact that the bullets stop instantly is a concession to balance and processing power. Having to keep track of every single projectile from a kinetic weapon would get rather intense considering some of the weapons, such as the burster, produce a rather large number of bullets per shot. More Dakka. anyone Spiritual Successor. The game is basically Spaceward Ho . but with a massive update to everything, and a few things added in. It also has many similiarities with the original Master of Orion game (and Lords of Winter can unflatteringly be compared with Master of Orion III). Subsystem Damage. You can blow individual turrets off, as well as sections for destroyers and cruisers. The sequels damage tracking system takes it a step further, with any shot that goes through a spot that has been stripped of armor causing damage to internal systems. Suicidal Overconfidence. Prevalent in both games. Even after diplomatic options were introduced in the second expansion of the first game, the AI often will Fight Some More Forever even when youre blowing their populations away turn on turn. Super Prototype. Averted in the first game the first Mark of any new combination of ship sections, assuming you design one as soon as its available, will invariably be inferior to better-equipped later Marks. Thats No Moon. Asteroid Monitors and the Von Neumann Homeworlds moon. Theyve taken the poles off to expose giant missile racks of death . Thats no missile rack, thats a prototype There Is No Kill Like Overkill. The Siege Driver is a Dreadought ship section and single weapon. It fires asteroids. It will One-Hit KO anything smaller than a Dreadnought, and the only thing that does more damage to a planet is the System Killer . Timed Mission. Battles have a fixed length (by default 4 minutes), if the clock runs out you need to continue the battle next turn, assuming your enemy doesnt run away or brings up a large number of reinforcments. In case youre fighting a Hiver fleet that includes a warpgate (which, when deployed, allows the entire Hiver fleet to warp in next turn), or trying to defend your planet against one of the Grand Menaces, it becomes Exact Time to Failure . Translation Convention. When another race first contacts you, their words come out as gibberish. After researching at least one level of their language, the words turn into readable English. All factions have their native language tech researched to level three from the start and thus its words are in readable English except for certain culture-specific terms. Units Not to Scale. Units are to scale with one another. Planets are scaled rather differently. Whether weapons are to scale with the planets or the ships is a matter of debate. Violence Is the Only Option. Until the A Murder of Crows expansion diplomacy was almost nonexistent and you had to Kill em All to win. Wake-Up Call Boss. The various random encounters, and meeting either the Hivers or the Zuul for the first time. The randoms are either very nasty to starting ships or use much more advanced technology than the player has access to. The Zuul and the Hivers dont send out exploration ships, but exploration squadrons. And then there is the Grand Menaces that can appear mid-game. The War of Earthly Aggression : The A New Hope scenario. If the morale of a colonys civilian population (introduced in A Murder of Crows ) drops low enough they rebel and attempt to kill the imperial population. In Lords of Winter if an entire province rebels they form a rival empire that is hostile to your own. Wave Motion Gun. Heavy Combat Lasers, the Meson Projector, and the Zuul Node Cannon. The Zuul Node Cannon being the closest to the original Wave Motion Gun. They are basically firing their FTL drive at you. And then there is the unnamed weapon on a rare Grand Menace unit, the System Killer. Its as if a million voices cried out. Weaponized Exhaust. The Zuul Node Cannon. It throws enemy ships into Nodespace. which only Human and Zuul ships are built to handle. You Have Failed Me. If your scientists go overbudget with the research, you get a picture with the notification. While the human scientists are shown making excuses while hiding that they have been Stealing from the Till. the Hiver scientists are being fed to a big spider hiver as punishment, and a Tarka scientist commit Seppuku. Also, the image for the zuul shows a human captive being torn literally in half by a zuul female. the morrigi equivalent, on the other hand, shows a VERY nervous Morrigi male looking adorably sheepish, trying to explain why his team is behind schedule.. You Have Researched Breathing Zerg Rush. The Zuul, especially in the early game. They have abysmal research but very cheap, weak, over-armed ships and higher than average command amp control abilities to compensate. Their starting strategy is most usually finding exploitable worlds ASAP, strip mining them to produce humongous fleets of crapola and sending them at the nearest player en masse, hopefully before he gets enough weapon and armour techs to rip through them unscathed. Their dreadnoughts also mount heavy beams on turrets, while the other races are stuck with Fixed Forward Facing Weapons . The Hivers can also turn into this: With the second-most abysmal research they will inevitably always be technologically inferior to their neighbors, and will often have to win invasions of enemy planets by using their Portal Network to port in large numbers of lower-tech but hard-as-nails ships from all over their empire, turn by turn until the enemys higher-tech ships are exhausted and reinforcements cant come in fast enough. Though light emitters and bursters are fairly early techs that tear fleets of weak ships to pieces. Sword of the Stars: Lords of Winter The sequel Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter was released in October 2011. Set slightly over a century after the start of the first, it was supposed to usher in the return of the Suulka and the development of diplomacy and warfare to an all-new level. However, the game was released well before it was ready. Backlash ensued, and Kerberos promised to inform the player base when the game was actually done. As of June 1st, 2012, the pre-all clear version has been released and the game can be considered to be almost at the release candidate stage and therefore playable. The game was finally declared done a year and a few days after it was actually released on the unsuspecting public. An Enhanced Edition of Lords of Winter was released December 1st 2012, with existing owners of Lords of Winter getting a free upgrade. It includes among other things a new AI race called the Loa. Sword of the Stars: Lords of Winter provides examples of the following tropes: 2-D Space. There is now limited player-controllable 3D maneuver. Specifically, ships can move between 3 planes, making it pseudo-3D. Also, ships will be able to rotate in order to bring certain weapons to bear or put stronger armor in the line of fire and maintain that facing, unlike in prime where the ship always had to do a full 360. All Your Base Are Belong to Us. The teaser for the sequel shows humanitys main base, the Argos Naval Shipyard, and their first Leviathan class ship getting wiped out by a Suulka, The Battlestar. All Leviathan-class ships in the sequel are supposed to be this by carrying short-range support craft the size of the old destroyers into battle. Dreadnought riders, otherwise called battleships, have been promised. Unfortunately, it turns out they are Liir-exclusive. Bollywood Nerd. The Human head researcher is a woman with an Indian accent. Brain Uploading. Admirals can be destructively preserved as expert systems that will never retire, but wont gain any more experience or possible new skills. This is also apparently part of the Locust backstory. Brainwashed and Crazy. Lords of Winter reveals that the Screamers are actually Morrigi who were turned against their own by Suulka. Call Back. The intro for the sequel shows again a human Sword of the Stars-class dreadnaught firing a Beam Spam at the camera. Only here the Suuka declare they wont be stopped by sword, and a tentacle smashes the ship in half. Cloning Blues. In II . it is possible to research Replicants, where mass cloning is used to help populate colonies. It speeds population growth rate, but causes morale problems apparently due to difficulties in integrating Replicants with originals. Kritischer Existenzfehler. Averted, each section has an armor that is destroyed piece by piece, and once armor is gone the damage will go to the inside systems and cause problems. Cross-Melting Aura. In II . the Xombie Plague is so powerful that even the normally Kung Fu Proof Zuul are not immune. Crush. Kill. Destroy. The first step of Loa terraforming is the destruction of all that is threatening to their systems and unnecessary for their functioning, ie organic life on a planet. This isnt due to malevolence, though, just practicality. Verdammt, Muskelgedächtnis. The differences in the interface and systems between the first game and Lords of Winter are so great that a veteran with his conceptions built from experience will have even more difficulty getting used to things than a novice. Deadpan Snarker. Of all beings, the KrakenThundering Fists from Lords of Winter . His response when you offer the lives of your Zuul to refill his health is a dry Ah, you generously offer me your crumbs. Deadly Lunge. In Lords of Winter the Warp Pulse upgrade allows Tarka ships to do a nigh-instant lunge in tactical combat, but with the caveat that any enemy ship in the way causes the lunging Tarka ship to crumple like an egg. Difficult but Awesome. Loa use drastically different strategic mechanics from the other races released before them. However, they have flexibility and ship power none can match. Double Unlock. Every non-essential tech needs to undergo feasibility study first. You can bypass this if you manage to salvage the tech presumably, the reasoning is that you managed to pick up a working sample as opposed to starting from theory. Equal-Opportunity Evil. The pirate gangs employ multiple races. Gameplay and Story Segregation : Loa can research and experience AI rebellions despite being the selfsame spawn of those. Gendercide. Morrigi males live their entire adult lives aboard the species starfleets 8212 the war that brought them to the edge of extinction was so devastating in terms of ships lost that it killed over 90 of the male population. General Failure. Its possible to get such Admirals in the second game. Poor stats combine with a negative trait to disadvantage any fleet (s)he leads. Ghost Ship. The Ghost Ship random encounter in Lords of Winter, actually the half-operational remainder of the original Leviathan. Fortunately, that half-operational means its less potent than a modern leviathan fresh off the docks. Unfortunately, it can turn up as soon as random encounters start showing up. Glass Cannon. Up to Eleven in Lords of Winter . where the Liir-Prester Zuul Alliance gives Liir access to Zuul riders with the More Dakka that implies but no real durability benefit. Reiseführer Dang It. Upon release it had a lot of added features and changed mechanics compared to Prime . It also came with a lot of bugs and missing or incomplete features, tool-tips, and other documentation. The players have done their best with their own tutorials on the forum or wiki-pages, until such time as the developer can rectify these issues. Hyperspeed Ambush : Lategame drive techs allow you to jump from outside an enemys system sensor range to the system in one turn and deny him the chance to reinforce or build defences. Made worse in that you need an extra turn after construction to move the newly-constructed spacecraft into an active fleet, meaning you have even less warning than in the original. The Horde Zuul can research an ability that lets them drop out of Nodespace near a target systems star rather than on the edges of the system, which may catch opponents expecting the usual extrasystem incursion vector off guard. Just Plane Wrong. In the sequel, both the Horde 9674 and Prester 9674 Zuul have rotors on their trans-atmospheric assault shuttles. Bad enough. But the Prester Zuuls Heavy Assault Shuttle 9674 takes it Up to Eleven with diagonally-canted rotors. There are no words. Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better. Lords of Winter adds another nuance to shipbuilding and gameplay8212power requirements. Ships systems and weapons must now share a power source, which means Beam Spam may no longer be an option for some designs as exceeding power availability causes reduction in rate of fire. This means that kinetic weapons, which require significantly less power, are once again an attractive option, although the new damage spread system shows that lasers offer better penetration than mass drivers. Also, kinetics have their own rate limiting factor, Supply. In the end the best way is still to make a balance of both. The Load. Non-combat ships like Repair and Salvage or Supply. In Prime . you could stuff a fleet with as many spacecraft as you wanted and only deploy the combat ones. In this installment, though, changes to the system mean that you can only load a fleet with as many craft as your Arbitrary Headcount Limit allows and cant hold non-combatants in reserve. This means that long-range expeditions that require multiple Supply-types will have much less firepower to call on. Unsurprisingly, this has been bemoaned as a Scrappy Mechanic . Longevity Treatment. Anagathics in the second game their primary function is to keep admirals on active duty longer. Magikarp Power. The Suulka Horde start out weak but in the end-game can summon Suulka as special units. Offensichtliche Beta. Lords of Winter was released prematurely and in a non-functional state given that tech demos before that point had shown a much more functional game, the playerbase was outraged. The game did not reach a truly playable state for eight months of constant updates, setting a record even for Paradoxs somewhat poor initial releases. Sequel Escalation. Lords of Winter starts in the Cruiser-Fusion era and has a tech forest, multi-planet systems, even bigger ships and generally lots more options to play with. Subsystem Damage. The damage tracking system. where any shot that goes through a spot that has been stripped of armor causes damage to internal systems. Super Prototype. Zigzagged, with some prototypes being inferior and some superior to the mass-production models. Technopath. A new research line in End of Flesh . Tempting Fate. The trailer opens with the unveiling of the first SolForce Leviathan class ship. The speech that accompanies this event mentions that the Leviathan will obsolete fleet massings and lead to peace in our time . You get no points for guessing what happens scant moments later. Wetware CPU. Introduced in End of Flesh . supposedly as a means to emulate the processing abilities of the Loa without having to use actual AI. Zombie Apocalypse. The Xombie Plague bio-weapon from the sequel. It is the only bio-weapon to lack a vaccine, and will leave victim planets in a permanent state of anarchy as bands of vicious flesh-eating monsters prowl the streets and feast on the meat of the living (or, as the Zuul would call it, An unusually terrible Monday.). Sword of the Stars: The Pit A Roguelike spinoff called Sword of the Stars: The Pit was released February 21, 2013. When an incurable plague breaks out on the human planet Arbuda IV, the only hope lies in descending into the depths of a mysterious and deadly underground facility rumoured to have been established by the Suulka. As one of three characters, each with their own reasons for being there, you must brave the monsters and traps within in hopes of reaching the bottom, where the cure reportedly lies. An expansion, Mind Games . was released on July 3, 2013. In addition to brand new psychic abilities and two new characters, one a psion specialising in them, it adds more levels, more items, and more enemies. A second expansion, Gold Edition . was released on November 9, 2013 and adds even more content, including four new playable characters. On April 18, 2014 a third DLC, The Pilgrim . was released, adding yet more content including a playable Prester Zuul. On September 25, 2014 another DLC, Juggernaut . was released, adding more content and a playable Tarka Changed male. On January 28, 2015 yet another DLC, Necromancer . was released, adding still more content and a playable Horde Zuul Lich. On March 22, 2016 the seemingly final DLC, Healer . was released, starring a Medic. Sword of the Stars: The Pit provides examples of the following tropes: Badass Baritone. The Zuul Shepherd has the deepest voice of the classes. Boss in Mook Clothing. The Pit has a few. Toxoids have a mountain of health, hit very hard unless you have very good armor, and can instantly afflict you with a level three poison. Warbots only have one attack, an explosive laser. However, not only does this attack shred your equipments durability, but it also gives you radiation poisoning. Chest Monster. Adaptoids in The Pit . Kritischer Existenzfehler. Averted - At a quarter of the hit points, youre wounded and operate at lower capacity. Then youre dead at zero. Crutch Character. The secret character Sgt. Gunny in Gold Edition . He has higher base stats than the Marine but lower stat growth and cant use advanced armour without penalties. Deadly Doctor. Corrupted doctors are among the enemy types in The Pit . Dumb Muscle. The Marine is a stereotypical brainless grunt. His base in-game stats reflect this lore by making him high in Might and combat skills but low in Brains and technical skills. Enemy Civil War. According to the Necromancers lore, he was sent by the Immortal, one of the Suulka, to sabotage his fellow the Bloodweaver. Entschuldigung Plot. The planet is affected by a terrible epidemic. Search for a hypothetical cure in some remote ruins belonging to the Abusive Precursors . Harder Than Hard. The Pit has Insane and Seriously (this one available only with the DLC) difficulties. How bad is Seriously There have been only two confirmed clears at this difficulty, both by classes with high psionic ability (first the Seeker, then the Psion). Infinity1 Sword. The Sword of the Stars, which is rumored to be forged from the fighting spirit of humanity. It gives enormous boosts to physical stats when wielded, hits like a truck, ignores most armor, has six biomod slots, and enough accuracy to bypass any and racial penalties. Its Personal. In The Pit some characters have this sort of reason for getting involved. The Marine is looking for his Love Interest. who was working in the mountains near the facility. Said Love Interest is the twin sister of the Scout. The Engineer is out to avenge a friend killed by enemies he tracked to the Pit. The Warrior is seeking help for his afflicted friends and neighbours. The Seeker is part of a secret Liir organization dedicated to hunting down the SuulKa. The Shepherd is a Prestor Zuul that seeks to disrupt the SuulKa and his savage former kin. Jack-of-All-Stats : The Tarka Ranger in the expansion for The Pit . Mind Games . She has solid stats in all three categories, starts with plenty of good starter equipment and consumables, and has fairly decent levels in most of the major skills youll need to survive. The Morrigi Striker added in the Gold Edition similarly has excellent stats in all four main stats and most of the major skills. The tradeoff is that she gets much less stat and skill points per level. Killer Rabbit. In The Pit . Lepuroid. The description even says Aieeeeee Run away Lighter and Softer. The Pit . Well, maybe not softer, but certainly with more humor. Lost Forever. In The Pit . dont activate something unless youre sure youre going to use it immediately. Some of the devices lying around have only one use and will be unusable afterwards even if you dont do anything with them. Luck-Based Mission. Much like many other Roguelikes, your survivability in The Pit is almost entirely dependent on how merciful the RNG decides to be in regards to weapon, food, ammo and monster placements, as well as in regards to skill checks. Even more so with the Mind Games expansion, which added scores of dangerous monsters to the early floors and severely nerfed ammo drops. Magic Knight. The Morrigi Striker has very good combat stats and the third best psychic stats of the player characters. (behind the Pyschic and the Liir Seeker) Mechanically Unusual Class. The Lich. In exchange for immunity to poison, disease and hunger and a variety of unique abilities including Animate Dead. he needs to keep track of his psionic reserves because running out will kill him as surely as actually running out of HP. More Dakka. The assault weapons, allowing you to multi-fire. Then there is the scattergun, which is a multi-firing gun with an area effect. All of them plays havoc with your ammo supplies. No Ending. The Pit just. stops when you reach the 30th floor. You rescue Tamiko and. thats it With the Mind Games expansion, its 40 floors. Still same deal. One Bullet Clips. In The Pit . this is played straight with ballistic weapons but averted for energy ones, which use up a whole Energy Backpack or Fuel Cell regardless of how many shots you have left. Only in It for the Money. The Striker is a mercenary on Arbuda IV only to search for phat lewt, while the Juggernaut is looking to collect on the promise of a reward for rescuing an abductee, in contrast with the other characters who are either there under orders or because Its Personal . Oxygen Meter. Inverted with the Liir Seeker, who requires a constant source of water to survive. Point of No Return. Once you start descending the levels of The Pit . you will be limited in the number of higher floors you can go back to, with the way back up getting sealed off past a certain point. Retired Badass. The Marine character is technically an ex-Marine, a former SolForce man retired to the planet the games set on. Squishy Wizard. Both the Liir Seeker and the Zuul Shepherd. The Unfought. In The Pit . neither the System Administrator nor the Bloodweaver (aka Master Control) are actually fought. However, given that the game is currently still having content added, this may change in the future. Weak, but Skilled. The Engineer has poor stat growth and starts out with relatively poor combat skills and equipment, but his skill growth is decent, and in the early game hes the only character with a good score in Computers and Engineering. Weaponized Animal. The Pit has Cyberjaeger Bears, which are native bearlike creatures turned into cyborgs and given heavy weapons. Wolverine Claws. You can craft Adamantium Claws, complete with Shout-Out in the description to the Trope Namer. as well as the more Freddy Krueger - like Razor Fists. Zombie Apocalypse. The Xombie Plague that starts off the backstory of The Pit . Sword of the Stars: Ground Pounders On August 9, 2013, a hex-based wargame spinoff in the vein of Panzer General called Ground Pounders was announced, with an alpha demo following a few days after. As the name suggests, it focuses on planet-based combat in contrast to the grand space scope of the main games. A Kickstarter was launched August 29, but failed to make funding a less ambitious retry that cut out playable Tarkas among other features went to Indiegogo on October 1, but also failed to make it. It eventually went to Steam Early Access on February 8, 2014. On September 25, 2014 the Tarkan Campaign was released, re-adding the playable Tarkas. The tropes below are grabbed from the public alpha of the game. Sword of the Stars: Ground Pounders provides examples of the following tropes: Death from Above. Zigzagged. Having access to space superiority and some of the cards, like Death from Above and Orbital Bombardment . is the fastest way to destroy enemy units. But you still have to dig them out with ground units. Einfache Logistik. Downplayed, but every unit needs to be within supply range of a supply unit, and they in turn must be in range of a supply point, and can only supply a limited number of units. Fog of War. Units have limited visibility. If you have space superiority, you get free recon missions, uncovering large parts of the map. Geo Effects. Hills, rivers, and swamps have an impact on movement and combat. Tank Goodness. Tank battalions are generally the most powerful units you have, and the tanks are described in loving detail in the in-game manual. Alternative Title(s): Sword Of The Stars. Sword Of The Stars The PitEddie McGuire and Caroline Wilson: New day, new radio show, fresh apology Coming in to work on Tuesday morning and sitting behind Triple Ms Hot Breakfast microphone, Eddie McGuire was the first to admit hed changed his response to his joke about drowning The Age s chief football writer Caroline Wilson . The Collingwood Football Club president told listeners to his morning show that it took him 24 hours to gather his thoughts, work through his feelings and to really understand the ways his joke had hit people. I spent a long time because I wanted to get it right, I want to get the feelings that I felt inside, and not only that, I wanted to make sure, to work through the touchstones of everybody, he said. McGuire offered different apologies about his joke on Monday, on breakfast radio and in a video on Collingwoods website. After watching the video, Wilson said on Footy Classified that she accepted McGuires apology. Hes definitely changed his tune, she said. Hes had a few cracks at it and hes finally got there. On Tuesday morning, Triple M callers responded with praise at his final attempt. One caller said there had been a fair bit of Eddie bashing going on in the last 24 hours, while another said the apology (replayed on radio) was heartfelt. It was from the heart, said McGuire. I was just sitting there, speaking to a lot of people during the course of the day, obviously I feel these things keenly, and feel for everybody involved in it, and felt that there was so much misinformation or misinterpretation of what Id said on this show in the morning, I thought Id made everything clear, but obviously I havent. After Mondays program, McGuire revealed that he drove straight to Collingwood Football Club headquarters and called the clubs media team back to the office for the second time that day, to work on his apology. He said he spoke to domestic-violence campaigners Phil Cleary and Rosie Batty at least five times. No one should feel threatened or uneasy in the football family, and for that Im deeply sorry, McGuire said in the final recording. I wanted to make sure that I got the tone right the way that I meant it. I was actually checking what was missing in what Id said earlier to make sure it was right, he said on Triple M on Tuesday. During last weeks broadcast on Triple Ms The Rub . McGuire said he would pay 50,000 to see Wilson stay under a pool of icy water, and charge an extra 10,000 for everyone to stand around the outside and bomb her. He went on to say The Age s football writer is like the black widow. She just sucks you in and gets you and you start talking to her and then bang She gets you. The segment was part of Triple Ms coverage of The Big Freeze at the MCG on the Queens Birthday public holiday, which raised more than 2 million for motor neurone disease research. Other commentators were involved in the controversial banter, with former St Kilda captain Danny Frawley saying he would jump in and make sure Caroline Wilson doesnt come up, and North Melbourne president and media personality James Brayshaw suggesting they start an auction.