Bay 12 Games Forum

Ropesk Sector - Near the Void Gate

??: The Ropesk sector, eh? No wonder we've hardly seen a ship worth mentioning!
: Yes, well, it is an autonomous dominion in a remote frontier, sir. Do you really think he's here, though, in a place like this?
??: Oh, he's here alright.
: Really?
??: I can smell him.
: Heh. If you say so, Captain.
(sirens blare in the background)
: An enemy?

((Whoa, look at this stylish guy! We'll be officially introduced later. For now, we shall refer to him as "Capt. Badass"))
: Well, well. I'm surprised that anyone in this sector would pluck up the courage to challenge me!
: It doesn't look like Ropesk security. It appears to be an anti-pirate force from the Central Elgavan Forces. What do you want to do, Captain?
: Those fools...they forget their place.

We're gonna be fighting quite a substantial force, and we're just in a single ship. Fortunately, it is one AWESOME ship.

As you can see, it doesn't even fit on the screen.

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: The enemy is getting ready to fire, sir.
: Crush them.
: Aye, Captain!

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The tutorial (which you can skip if you've played before) goes through the combat mechanics step-by-step. I'm just gonna cut to the chase and show you the overview of the Battle Screen:

Yes, it's a lot to take in at first glance. Fear not, I shall walk you through it!
1: Combat Gauge. This shows the distance between your fleet (green icon) and the enemy fleet (yellow icon), as well as your targeting range (green line). Some weapons may have shorter or longer range than this line.
2: Command Gauge. Slowly fills up during combat, the exact speed dependent on things like crew weariness and the size of your ships. The bar empties when you perform actions.
3: Enemy ship marker. Keep an eye on this, as the color of the outline shows you what the enemy's command gauge is at. We can see that the enemy fleet is in the red range.
4: Fleet Status. Hit Points (green bar) and crew health (blue bar) for each ship. The little blue icons indicate weapon systems. If the icons are red, it means that the enemy fleet is out of range of that particular weapon, and thus it won't fire.
5: Enemy Fleet. Shows the type of ships in the enemy fleet and their positions. BB = Battleship, CG = Cruiser, and DD = Destroyer. The destroyers are in the front row, followed by the cruisers, with the battleship safely in back. You can target any ship in the fleet, but ones farther back are much harder to hit. So the destroyers will have to die first 
6: Commands. The bread-and-butter of space combat. Normal is a basic attack that fires every available gun once. The command gauge must be in the yellow range or higher. Barrage is the "strong attack". The command gauge must be red, and it uses twice the power of a normal attack, but each weapon fires three times. However, the barrage is easily negated by the final command, Dodge. It uses the same amount of energy as a normal attack, and thus must be in the yellow range.
7: Movement Buttons. Combat is pretty much on a 1-dimensional surface; you can move forward, backward, or stay where you are. The enemy will be moving around as well, so you have to move as needed to keep them in your weapon range. Remember, this is all taking place in real time (except during attack animations).

Confused yet? Good! Now let's kill these guys!

The first barrage kills both of the destroyers:

...and weakens the cruisers enough for a normal attack to destroy them both. Now it's just the battleship.
Captain Badass fires one more normal attack:

...and the battleship blows apart:


Hell yeah.

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: That's the end of them.
: Bah. That barely even broke up my boredom. Think I'll lie low for awhile. It shouldn't be long before we get a hit.
: Aye, captain! Shutting down the inflation inverter. Switching to inertial navigation in thirty seconds.

And the ship of Captain Badass flies away. But wait, what's this?

Another ship appears, chased by Ropesk security!
RS: Unidentified ship! Stop right there! This is Ropesk Territory! No one is allowed passage without express permission! Halt immediately, or we will open fire!
The unidentified ship attempts to make a break for it!

Inside is a very special and classy lady:

Nia!
: Seems to me you already opened fire! Nobody likes a guy who's too eager to pull the trigger, know what I mean?
boom!
: What the...?!
Nia barely dodges several more laser blasts.
: Damn you! So you want to die that bad, do you? Fine, then, have it your way! I'll gladly knock you into Grus! Turn the Daisy around! Switch to AS mode!
Operator Voice: Anti-ship mode. Roger. Halting I3 warp engines. Switching over to battle engines.

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This here is the "quiz" battle, as in "it's technically possible to lose this battle, if you truly suck". It's the Daisy versus an "Other" class ship. Unlike the previous battle which featured devastatingly overpowered weapons and defenses, the Daisy is a rather weak ship, who's only saving grace is a missile weapon (which you won't be able to purchase for some time) to go with it's single laser.

Thankfully, Ropesk security uses ships that are even more crappy, and it dies to a single Barrage.

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: Phew. Looks like what they need now is a scrap collector.
boom!
: What the...?!
Several more security vessels have joined the chase, and the Daisy takes a hit!

: Agh! This is not good!

Far below, a young man stares up at the sky

"This is Ropesk, my home. Space travel is banned on this planet. It's ruler, Demid Panfilov, has ordered that no one venture out into space. But still - I don't want to be stuck here on this planet's surface anymore. I want to explore the sea of stars, just like my father did. The stars in the sky have always called out to me, for as long as I can remember. It was just recently that I first heard about the launchers - they act as guides for people like me, and take them out into the sea of stars. I was desperate, and I didn't have any other options anyway. I managed to contact a launcher, and then spent every night searching the stars for them.

"A week went by, and then two...Even as I started to lose hope, I still climbed that hill every night to watch for any sign of my launcher. And one night, with a sudden bright light that slashed across the horizon...

"...my guide to the stars fell from the sky."

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