Sword of the stars

At the beginning of the XXII century , humanity escaped from the Einstein cell.
Gigantic nodal engines made it possible for people to travel to the stars at a speed many times higher than the speed of light . After several centuries of dreams, people were finally able to leave their cradle.
For many years we built the first earthly colonial ship.
"New Mary" has become a symbol of hope for all of humanity. The best representatives of our race entered the crew of the ship. They prepared for departure, intending to conquer the Galaxy, in which, as we have long decided, there is no intelligent life.
The universe was just waiting for us to come and take possession of it.
It is a pity that no one said this to the divers.
They came in silence. No statement of intent. No declaration of war. They didn’t even demand that we give up.
They attacked us without warning; within a few seconds, our dreams of conquering the stars were shattered by a meteor shower of fire that hit Earth.
A few years later, we realized that we had encountered only a small reconnaissance fleet - we still had to find out the full strength of the swarm.
But the divers were not the only threat. While traveling through the Galaxy, we met with legions of ruthless Tarkas and ghostly fleets of mysterious lyres. And then we learned to build larger and more durable ships, to create weapons with tremendous destructive power. Mankind had to study, colonize and conquer the cosmos in order to assert its right to exist in the universe, where to show weakness - it meant to be defeated. And we are ready to become ... Lord of the stars. ^[one]

During space battles, which can take place in the orbits of planets or in deep space (during interceptions), everything happens on a two-dimensional area, although the ships themselves are made in 3D. Ships can fly over each other to avoid collisions (although collisions are possible). Each shot is traced by the game until it hits or misses, that is, a shot that misses one ship can fall into the ship behind it. When increasing the ship, you can give orders to attack one of the three parts of the ship or even each gun.

There are three classes of ships in the game: destroyer (length ≈ 30 meters), cruiser (length ≈ 90 meters), and battleship (length ≈ 270 meters). Each ship has three parts: command, task (mission / support), and propulsion. These parts depend on the technologies studied. Task parts indicate the mission of the ship and can be everything from the Armored Unit (for warships) to the jamming one (hides information about the fleet from the enemy). There is also a part called the Wild Ferret , which forces the enemy missiles to aim at him, and not at some more important target; can also be used to lure missiles into the missile defense zone. Command units add a secondary function to the ship, for example, a part called Deep Scan gives the fleet greater visibility during battle. As for the shield, deflector, and stealth parts, they are the task parts of the destroyers and command parts for the cruisers.

The research screen is made in the form of a cylinder that can be rotated from the inside. Unlike many other games, the technologies in Sword of the Stars are randomly selected at the beginning of the game. That is, in the game you cannot learn all the technologies. Each technology has its own likelihood of appearing in the game, for example, Advanced Cloaking , which allows ships to shoot even when invisible, has a very small chance of getting into the research tree.

People

After many internal wars that have destroyed most of the governments of the Earth and the death of 70% of the population, mankind has changed its policy structure to reduce the chances of war. During this so-called Golden Age, the first off-system colonial ship, Nova Maria, was built, using the newly-invented Nodal Engine to travel faster than the speed of light . Immediately after the launch of the ship, it was destroyed by the hive colonial fleet. Only the ancient repositories of nuclear and plasma weapons helped repel the attack on Earth. Immediately after that, a new military organization was created - SolSily - to protect human ships and future colonies. Their official motto is “Per Aspera Ad Astra” (“Through thorns to the stars”). Their unofficial motto is “Repensum est Canicula” (“Revenge is a bitch”), as the secondary task of SolSil is to detect the Hive fleets and revenge for attacks on Earth.

A nodal engine ( Eng. Node drive ) allows human ships to travel through subspace tunnels between large celestial bodies (stars). Since these tunnels are natural phenomena, the connections between the stars are completely random. Ships located in the “nodal space” cannot change direction, but they cannot be intercepted. When a system is destroyed (very rarely in a game), all the tunnels associated with it collapse, destroying all the ships in them. Further research will allow people to build unmanned Nodal Missiles to mitigate enemy resistance before the arrival of the fleet.

If the ship retreats during the battle, then it must reach the nodal point before the jump.

The communication methods of people have not changed - radio waves. To communicate with other systems, all ships leave connected beacons at the nodal points that transmit messages through the nodal space.

Beehive

An insect race made up of many related species. Also known as Divers or Beetles. Each Hive family (thousands of individuals) is ruled by fruitful females - Princesses. Each individual is fully loyal to its Princess. The “fathers” of individuals are the Princes, high-class males, who are also generals of the troops. All Princesses come from the Queen.

The hive uses a stargate system to instantly move (1 turn in the game) ships. But each gate must be delivered and installed by ships at sublight speed. This helps them to invade enemy systems, establish gates and send reinforcements. The gates cannot operate outside of a strong gravitational field. Further research may allow one-way gates for traveling to nearby systems (10 light bulbs ) with a slight correction (plus or minus 2 light guides).

Each ship has a small gateway for instant communication with other ships and planets. Apparently, the mass of the ship is sufficient for the operation of the gate.

Liirs

A race of telepaths - dolphins who recently rebelled against alien oppressors called Suul'ka (in the language of Lirov, the word "Suul'ka" since then means "alien"). Using their technology, the Liirs were finally able to go into space. Their telepathy does not allow them to communicate with other ships, so they developed a voice communication method called Fleet Song. To communicate with other (non-telepathic) races, a special cast “Singing to the Deaf” was created using a variation of the Fleet Song.

Engines Liirov (borrowed from Suul'k) do not use movement in our understanding. Instead, they teleport the ship a short distance millions of times per second. This method is called Stutter Warp . Since there is no movement as such, inertia should also not exist, but the “inertia” of the engine must be respected otherwise it will simply explode due to a sharp energy drop (that is, you cannot stop or change direction instantly).

Liirov’s engines can develop very high speed (the number of teleportation cycles) in interstellar space (apparently bypassing the special theory of relativity ), but in a strong gravitational field, the speed drops noticeably due to the complexity of the calculations. Further research may allow the ships to disappear for a while, giving a small chance for enemy shots to pass through the ship.

Liirov’s connection is made by recording the Fleet song on “stutter probes ”. These probes have their own teleportation motors. Due to their small size (they require fewer calculations for teleportation), their speed is much higher than ships.

Tarkasy

A race of bipedal, tailed reptiles, although internally they are more like terrestrial primates . They are also called Tarkasy or Lizards. Their young males are “servants” of mature females because of the need to become adults. Adult males (physically and mentally stronger) become privileged members of society and the military. That is, low ranks in the fleet are given to young males, low officer ranks to adult females, and high ranks to adult males. The Tarkov fleet commander is called Var'kona.

Tark engines are the most “standard” in science fiction - hyper motors. They create a hyperspace field around the ship, where the normal laws of physics do not work. Therefore, their ships can accelerate almost unlimitedly and carry out maneuvers that would kill an unprotected crew and destroy the ship (for example, a sharp turn with twenty-fold overloads).

Unlike Liirov’s engines, gravity is not a factor in the speed and maneuverability of Tark’s ships. Further research may allow ships to have no sublight engines and maneuver only with the help of hyper engines, changing the direction of the field.

At the beginning of the game, the Tarks cannot communicate with ships in hyperspace, but after the invention of hyperspace, this becomes possible.

Morriga

Among all the ancient species that still inhabit this sector of the galaxy, dragon-like Morrigs are among the oldest and have the longest recorded history of interstellar travels. Previously known only because of the original design of their low-orbit attacking drones, the Morrigs received from the first cosmonauts who met them the name "Crows"; these vessels have an aerodynamic wing shape and are good dive bombers, which led to the idea of ​​carrion predators from the old Earth. In recent years, active intelligence activities of the special services have shown that the nickname "Crows" in many respects was the most suitable. Morriga have many habits that make them related to the legendary ravens of the old Earth, and numerous studies on their history and behavior will certainly cause associations with earthly legends about the divine ingenious bird, which can easily take any form, lead its enemies into a death trap, ward off more powerful enemies from valuable treasures, a bird that often served as an avatar for the gods and goddesses of war. Morrigs are distinguished by deep sexual demorphism - females are approximately twice as large as males. Male and female societies are separated, most females live in planetary colonies, while males spend their lives on ships and stations.

The word "Morriga" can be roughly translated into Proto-Creole, known as "Trading language", as "Wanderers" (although there is an opinion that this word has other semantic connotations in Morriga dialects that cannot be translated)

Morrigi's engines have an unusual feature - their efficiency depends on the number and size of ships in the fleet. A single ship can barely exceed the speed of light, but a powerful fleet will overcome a light year in a few days or even hours.

Zuul

Zuul is a race of cosmic marsupials. People called these creatures "Reapers" because of numerous reasons, in particular because of their attacks on SolFors colonies. The Zuuls were present in this part of the cosmos for many years and became known for their unexpected attacks on colonies of other intelligent creatures. Since practically no one survived as a result of their attacks, there was no one to tell anything about these raiders: about their psychology, technology and motives, which remained a secret for many years.

However, recently, the number of Zuuls at this end of the galaxy has increased significantly, and their tactics have changed. SolFors increasingly began to encounter increasing groups of Reapers ships, which were heading into a frontal attack with the enemy. After the captives and some of the Riper's technologies were captured, SolFors made many negative discoveries.

First: it has been fully proven that the Zuuls are not a product of natural evolution. These wild marsupials are the result of a deep and sophisticated genetic transformation; they were created by biological science, which is far ahead of all existing sciences. Despite the fact that it is almost impossible to say which creatures were the basic material for the creation of the Rippers or which race created them, we know that their number of their natural features has increased significantly. The frequency of reproduction, a tendency to aggression, intelligence and psychological indicators - all these parameters have developed significantly ... And the last two indicators continue to develop with each generation.

In just a few decades, the Zuuls evolved from an unorganized mob of bandits into a large, well-organized and coordinated battle group. The location of their main base is currently unknown.

Zuul ships are chaotically welded to each other parts of ships of other races, indicating that the Zuuls have plowed the battlefields for a long time and collected “details”. Due to this randomness, the Zuul ships are quite fragile compared to ships of other races. However, this same randomness allows the Zuuls to bristle their ships with a huge amount of guns.

The Zuulov method of interstellar flight was partially borrowed from humans, as indicated in the novel The History of the Deacon. However, unlike people who use natural nodal channels between stars, Zuuls prefer to “drill” these channels between any nearby stars. As a result, Zuuls are not dependent on randomly scattered nodal channels, but their artificial channels are unstable and gradually lose stability. Frequent use of channels accelerates their destabilization. If these channels are not supported by special “drilling” ships, then they will eventually collapse. Any ship in a collapsed nodal channel ceases to exist.

According to Kerberos employees, the company is working to complement the game, as well as to continue. On February 26, 2007, Lighthouse announced the first expansion for Sword of the Stars called Sword of the Stars: Born of Blood, which they plan to release in mid-April 2007.

On August 13, 2008, Lighthouse Interactive announced the second add-on called “ A Murder of Crows ”.

On June 17, 2009, Paradox Interactive and Kerberos Productions released the third add-on called Argos Naval Yards (Argos Shipyards). This addition does not add new races, but focuses on new ship sections, technologies, and guns. This add-on is the latest for the game. The next issue is expected to be the second part.

On January 27, 2010, Paradox Interactive and Kerberos Productions announced the development of a sequel titled “ Sword of the Stars 2: The Lords of Winter ”. The second part will not only add the seventh race - the ancient and evil suul'kov, but will further develop the history of all races and the game world. For example, the Zuuls will be divided into two factions, one of which will remain faithful to the creators and the other will side with other races. Morriga will become a confederation of independent worlds instead of a single empire. The release of the sequel is scheduled for October 28, 2011 . To make managing the empire more convenient, developers will improve the interface and create a map of orders. Tactical battles will continue to take place in 3D. Star systems will cease to be a single whole - the game will begin to track individual planets, satellites and other celestial bodies. Capture them will help powerful navies, which will lead the Leviathan class ships, three times larger than the largest ships from the first part. At the same time, the capabilities of different races will be very different, since Kerberos promises to grow unique "technology trees" for each.

• - official site of Sword of the Stars