DarkSpace

DarkSpace
File:DarkSpace box cover.jpg
Developer(s)	Palestar
Publisher(s)	Palestar, Got Game Entertainment
Designer(s)	Richard Lyle
Engine	Medusa (game engine)
Platform(s)	PC
Release	December 21, 2001
Genre(s)	MMORTS
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

DarkSpace is a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy computer game which is notable for its cult-like community, its stubborn perseverance, having lasted for nearly five years with a small playerbase, as well as its ongoing active and participatory development.

DarkSpace involves multiplayer spaceship combat between three player-controlled, warring factions: the Human UGTO and ICC, and the alien K'luth. There are also other, more mysterious non-player races: the Space Pirates, miscellaneous spacefaring entities such as the Gaifen, and the MIR (also known as Legion). The non-player races play a very small role within the game, and are usually only seen on special occasions. The game takes place mostly within a persistent universe, though there are also timed instanced servers with a single solar system to fight over. Most players begin in the scenario servers and move to the persistent server after gaining some rank and proficiency.

The DarkSpace History page contains the (fictional) history of the DarkSpace universe from 2000AD to the game's current date.

Gameplay

The game takes place in a persistent universe (known as the "MetaVerse") in which every player belongs to one of the three playable factions and controls a starship. Although the game takes place in space and uses a 3D graphics engine, game play is restricted to a 2D dimensional plane. The goal is to use the starships to gain control of as many planets as possible in the name of the factions. Players can choose from different types of starships with different specializations, such as smaller or larger battleships, troop transports, supply vessels or bombers. A special role is played by the engineer ships which are capable of building structures on planets. These structures can repair allied ships, be used as spawn points or protect the planet from attack. The high grade of specialization of most ships forces the players of each faction to work together as a team.

Every new player starts in the rank of a midshipman and is restricted to the smallest ships of his/her faction. To control larger ships the player has to be promoted to higher ranks by gaining "Prestige Points". Prestige can be awarded by doing various tasks like damaging the ships of enemy players, bombing and capturing enemy planets, building structures on planets or repairing the ships of teammates. When a player reaches a specific number of prestige points he is promoted to a higher rank. Most ships do not only require a minimum rank but also one or more specific "badges". To fly a larger bomber, for example, a player has to achieve the "Bronze Bomber" badge by inflicting 50 points of damage to enemy planets. This gives players the incentive to learn all aspects of the game.

The gameplay itself is much more similar to that of a massive capture-the-flag based first-person shooter than that of a conventional MMO.

Last updated: 5/20/07

Factions

File:DS-SolCruiser.jpg

A screenshot of the game

United Galactic Trade Federation (UGTO)

The UGTO are viewed as the most balanced of the factions, their ships having both powerful weapons and adequate defense. The style of the ships generally includes smooth, beige, armor plating layering the hull. The bridge section on all classes of ship is a pronounced ovoid. On most ships, including the frigates, destroyers, cruisers and dreadnoughts, a central engine is positioned at the rear of the ship, with two or three other engines attached to the hull peripherally. The shape of the bridge section along with the curves of the hulls on most UGTO ships has lead many players to dub them as phallic in shape. The UGTO homeworld is Earth, orbiting Sol.

Imperialistic and ruthless, the UGTO have been around for much longer than the fledgling ICC, and their captains are hardened veterans of the 1st and 2nd Stellar Conflict. Their troops and captains boast superior training, and confidence in the seemingly indestructible UGTO Empire. They seek for the reunification of the human race, under their banner, of course. Though sometimes appearing to be godless, faceless dictators, the majority of the UGTO simply want the human race to be unified in peace, allowing humanity, not an ICC or UGTO faction, to drive forward into space with all its strength. However, it's hard to see how the Sol-based UGTO would be able to actually keep control of any conquered systems in Farstar space. The UGTO benefit from a superior supply of equipment and vital goods, and also a vastly superior supply of manpower.

Interstellar Cultural Confederation (ICC)

The ICC is another human faction, and the keepers of powerful shield technology. Shields, while consuming energy when recharging, provide better protection than armor alone. ICC captains are also able to divert power from the shield on one side of their ship to another, possibly covering a section under focused fire. This makes the ICC the most defensive faction. In addition, shields can be constructed on ICC planets, making them resistant to planetary bombardment, therefore making the ICC planets harder to capture. Their ships tend to be angular, dark blue and black in color, and very industrial in comparison to the sleeker UGTO ships, though are still aesthetically pleasing. ICC ships, while fast, do not have much armor on them compared to the UGTO. Although shielding makes up for this lack of armor, precious energy from the reactor must be diverted to recharge them. The ICC homeworld is an Earth-like planet called "Exathra", orbiting the star CD-36°15693.

Hardy, cunning, and self righteous at times, the ICC are the new carriers of the banner of freedom for the Farstars. After two failed attempts at rebellion against the UGTO, the Farstars are trying again. This time, however, may be different. Though few in number, many of the ICC captains have now survived quite a few battles with the UGTO, and therefore have experience in UGTO tactics. Some were even UGTO captains before they defected to the ICC, and know much about the UGTO's strength and weaknesses. In addition to the new shield technology, the ICC have a much better chance of holding out. The rest of the men comprising the ICC Navy and Army are either turned UGTO officers, patriotic traders and merchants who have decided to put their flying skills to good use, or even ex-pirates. This extremely patriotic conglomeration of people may seem like a unorganized rabble to the UGTO, but in fact, all their strengths combined, plus the new ICC shield technology, make them a formidable foe.

K'Luth

A mysterious alien faction, residing somewhere in the Sirius A system. Their true home planet remains unknown, though it is said that they were driven from it by the MI (or MIR) and have been chased by them since then. They resemble four-armed humans, and are commonly nicknamed "lobsters" by the humans. All K'Luth ships are organic, living, sentient creatures, each with a single engine trail protruding from the hull regardless of how many engines the ship has. Almost all K’Luth ships share a simple, flattened sword shape in the centre, with either spikes or even wings protruding from the rear. Unlike the human factions, K’Luth ship names are non-descript, and instead use names relating to insects or insect anatomy, such as: Proboscis, Scarab and Nymph.

K’Luth ships generally have much more weapons then human ships of the same size, however, they put most, if not all, of the ship's weapons in the fore arc, rather than spaced out in all directions. Most K'luth ships also suffer from a severe lack of energy, owing to their extremely destructive beam and Antimatter weapons, and the sheer number of them. Also, K’Luth ships utilize nanotechnology in their hulls; their ships can slowly repair themselves over time. Every K’Luth ship holds a cloaking device inside the hull that negates any ECM or ECCM effects on the ship and renders the ship invisible to sensors and light. However, the K’Luth ship cannot fire, nor enter FTL when cloaked and energy consumption is high when the cloak is activated. K'luth seem to have psychic abilities, and although not much is known for sure, it is certain that K'luth communicate telepathically, and are able to create destructive energies with their mind. Several K'luth pooling their telepathic energy can even create a beam capable of harming space-faring ships!

Vicious and unrelenting, the K'luth are fierce believers in the destruction of whatever is mechanical. While this may seem idiotic to the humans, the K'luth have a good reason. A race, if it can be called that, known as MIR, drove the K'luth out from their original homeworlds and into Human-Controlled Space. As humans learn more about the MIR from K'luth contacts, the K'luth's fear of machines becomes more understandable. The MI is a purely mechanical race, manufactured by an unknown entity. Unyielding, unrelenting, and merciless, the MI wiped out the original K'luth systems with mechanical precision and efficiency. A few K'luth survivors escaped, however, against overwhelming odds, and traversed the galaxy to arrive at the edge of human space. Contact between the humans and K'luth might have been peaceful...but to the misfortune of both races, it was anything but. A UGTO task force arrived in the Sirius system, scouting for habitable planets. They found one, Sag Hothha. They moved in to investigate. It just so happens that Sag Hothha was the site of the first colony of K'luth refugees. The entire remaining K'luth population was on the ground and in orbit, and all sensed the approach of the humans. Curiosity gave way to terror. The K'luth though the MIR had tracked them down, as the human ships were identified as machines. A fierce battle ensued, and in the process, the human flagship, in a valiant move, crashed the ship into Sag Hothha, enveloping it in a firestorm, and destroying the colony. Human - K'luth relations have been sour ever since, but some K'luth have veered away from the fanatical fear and hatred of machines, and are starting to view the humans in a more rational light.

The K'luth share many parallels with the Yuuzhan Vong of the Star Wars universe.

MIR/Legion

An non-player character faction in Darkspace. They are not currently implemented into the game as a major element, although they are occasionally spotted scouting systems that are sparesly populated.

What is known about the MIR is obscure, but from K'Luth stories, they are machines, ruthless and intelligent. They were the ones who wiped out the majority of the K'Luth from their original homeworlds, and sent the survivors scrambling from the burning wreckage and shattered planets which were once the mighty, ancient K'Luth Empire. The MIR, or Legion are still out there, actively searching for the only race to escape their eradication attempts. This brings up an unfortunate scenario for the 3 factions if the Legion are able to track the K'Luth to human space..

The Legion seem to favor large, entirely mechanical ships with lots of highly reflective armor, which renders the K'Luth's formidable arsenal of beam weapons almost totally ineffective. From K'Luth reports, the largest of their seen ships, their stations, appear to have drives which let them exceed speeds of roughly 12 gu per second, just a little slower than a human Dreadnaught. They also appear to carry extremely destructive beam weapons aboard their ships, comparable to the Gaifen 'mouth beam'. These reports, if they can be believed, are highly disturbing...

Pirates

Another non-player character faction who spawn from revolted shipyards or other instanced locations. They also are not currently implemented into the game as a major element, although they as well are occasionally spotted scouting systems that are sparesly populated.

Throughout human history, there are always those who decide to break the laws and prey on the weak and isolated. As human trade went into space, piracy followed with it. Though the UGTO classify both the ICC and the marauders as 'pirates', the ICC shun these raiders, and the ICC Navy often clashes with pirate fleets. There are pirate bases scattered throughout the human quadrant, but it is rumored that pirates have a sort of 'home base', a refuge where pirates from all corners of human space can come and interact, without the various pirate factions coming to blows.

Pirate ships are typically lightly armored but fast, made for hit and run operations. Though pirates usually prey on merchants and civilian vessels, pirate fleets have been known to attack a small or isolated UGTO or ICC fleet. On a few occasions, they've even won.

Selecting ships

Upon joining the game, the player is presented with their faction's Ship Selection Screen. It lists all the ships the faction is able to provide, although not all ships may be available - the ability to spawn a ship is dependent upon the player's rank and badges, plus a sufficient resource supply. In the MetaVerse, the sheer number of planets controlled by any faction is usually sufficient to obviate consideration of resources; in the scenario servers, however, the success of a faction can hinge upon their proper shepardry of the resources of the planets. The types of ships available is usually fairly wide; there are a number of combat vessels awarded at each rank, and a smattering of support craft throughout the ranks as well. However, since flexibility is vital for any fleet, a player is not limited to any single ship during their playing. At any point, a player may return to a shipyard or home gate, storing his current ship and choosing a new one.

While the factions all try to provide a full range of effective ships for players, many players prefer a slightly different layout than the standard armament. Shipyards are currently unable to construct custom-designed ships (though this has been mentioned as a goal for development), but players are able to modify their ships after spawning; to accommodate these variants, players have a "garage" which allows them to store up to six vessels. Whenever the player enters a shipyard or the home gate, their ship is automatically docked and stored; they may then spawn it again at their convenience.

Ship classes

This is a general description of the different types of ships a player may utilize in DarkSpace. Each class of ship has many different variants which may specialize in one of many different capabilities, and players are able to customize their ships further via in-game starports. The combat ships in general have a fundamental trade off of speed for strength: the fastest ships are also the weakest, but can conversely avoid most damage due to their speed and ability to dodge. As ships go up in size, their firepower increases, but their maneuverability decreases, so while they can pack a punch, they are less likely to land that punch on the smaller ships. Thus, ships can often be more effective against higher level ships than lower, especially in groups.

Scout/Corvette

These ships are designed to move quickly. Their jump drives are highly fuel-efficient, and recharge rapidly. They can place beacons on enemy ships, allowing retreating ships to be tracked and destroyed. These ships are also excellent decoys. A fast-moving scout or corvette near an enemy planet can draw away enemy defense base fire, allowing the rest of the fleet to safely get into position for a troop landing. While the scout and corvette have very little firepower, they are still a vital component of a balanced fleet.

Frigate

The frigate is the largest warship that can be obtained from the Home Gate. Frigates are especially useful in scenario play, as they can be used to harass enemy engineers, preventing the enemy from building the all-important shipyard.

File:DS-DessyAssaultSM.jpg

Two 'Destroyer' class vessels in combat. A M300 Dreadnought can be seen in the background.

Destroyer

The destroyer only slightly favors speed over firepower: it and the cruiser are the most balanced. It is an excellent escort ship for cruisers and dreadnoughts, able to strike opponents quickly and allow the larger ship to focus on its primary mission. Destroyers are capable ships in the right hands, and a skilled pilot can make a destroyer into a formidable weapon.

Cruiser

The cruiser is the first true stand-alone vessel of the line. While not as powerful as the mighty dreadnought, the cruiser still mounts a wide array of weapons. Cruisers can easily stand alone as battleships, but perform even better when integrated into a fleet. Due to their balance of speed and firepower, it is not uncommon to see even the highest ranked players flying cruisers.

Dreadnought

The dreadnought is the embodiment of power in DarkSpace. The massive racks of weapons on these ships strike fear into the enemy. The powerful generators on the dreadnought class ships allow for far more powerful beam weapons to be mounted than on lesser ships. Most dreadnoughts have at least four fighter bays, allowing a measure of long-range power. While the dreadnought is powerful, a group of smaller ships working together can remain out of its effective range and emerge victorious. It also continues up the scale of speed vs firepower balance - while powerful up close, it is a lumbering giant and can be hard to maneuver into effective striking range.

Station

Slow, heavily equipped and armored, and the biggest bulls-eyes around. If you had to pick a ship that is easy to hit with even the slowest weapons, it would be the station. However, if you flew too close to one, you would learn that it is not the easiest target in space. Boasting incredible short-range weaponry, the station can destroy anything that gets close enough. However, the station itself is extremely slow. The primary function of a station is fleet support. They are able to reload and repair friendly ships, as well as to shield them from damage. Stations are the core of a long-range assault fleet as well. Their wormhole device allows the creation of a temporary portal between systems. This wormhole can be used by all ships, making its use somewhat risky.

Supply ship

No serious invasion fleet travels without a supply ship, or a fleet of them. While these ships have little offensive power, they are often considered priority targets on the battlefield. These ships have the ability to repair hull, systems, and armor. As if that wasn't enough to turn the tide of battle, they can also rearm depleted ammunition stores and refuel jump drives. With a few supply ships around, your fleet will last a lot longer.

Engineering Ship

The engineer ship is the single most important ship class in DarkSpace. Without the engineers, a faction would be limited to defenseless planets orbited by mere frigates. The engineer is required to build every planetary structure, including the critical shipyard. A newly captured system is worthless until an engineer arrives to build up the infrastructure and defenses.

Transport

The transport serves one function, and serves it well. If you need troops or cargo moved from place to place, the transport is the best choice. With ten cargo bays, or space for ten troops, the transport can move a sizeable planetary invasion force into place quickly and efficiently. As a result of the massive space devoted to cargo, these ships are light on armor and armament, and require the protection of warships to stand a chance at making it to orbit around an enemy world.

Extractor

The extractor is basically a modified transport that sacrifices some cargo space for mining equipment. The extractor can mine resources from planets and asteroids, and sell them for a profit. These ships are crucial to obtaining resources for engineers to quickly construct a system, although they lack even the most basic armor.

Development History

DarkSpace was created by Palestar, an independent development company created by Richard Lyle. In the late 1990s, Lyle and a few other developers were working on the framework for an internet space game that would later evolve into DarkSpace, originally called DeepSpace. After getting the game to a playable alpha state in 2000, Palestar teamed up with Blue Byte to publish the game. Blue Byte, attempting to leverage the power of the name of their Battle Isle series of games, rechristenend the game Battle Isle V: DarkSpace.

Palestar had offered closed beta test signups on their website prior to the publishing agreement; after Blue Byte became involved, they handled the testing arrangements. In early 2001, Blue Byte published announcements of signups for a closed beta test of Battle Isle: DarkSpace. The testing was to begin on March 1, and those who had signed up beforehand on the Palestar website were to get first consideration; otherwise, it was random selection. The initial group chosen was small, but they worked closely with one another and the developers, who went by Faustus and nimby.

Soon after the testing began, Ubisoft announced that they were buying Blue Byte and making it a wholly owned subsidiary. As such, they evaluated the current projects Blue Byte was funding and decided that DarkSpace did not, in fact, fit into the Battle Isle series. Consequently, they cancelled their publishing contract with Palestar, forcing the small outfit back into independence. Palestar launched a new website for DarkSpace on May 29, 2001 at [1]. After the new backend infrastructure for the game was written and released (called GameCQ, and similar to Blue Byte's portal software, the Blue Byte Game Channel (BBGC) due to Richard Lyle having written much of the latter), a new open, public beta test began.

During the summer and fall of 2001, DarkSpace underwent a public beta test, enjoying relative popularity and respectable player counts. Since the game was free and reasonably fun, a large number of people drifted through, many of them sticking around throughout the test. Development proceeded at a decent pace, as features were added, bugs fixed, and changes made. Eventually, however, the money provided by Ubisoft to cancel the publishing contract was going to run out, so the game needed to develop a revenue model. On December 21, 2001, therefore, DarkSpace moved to pay to play, charging $10 per calendar month for unlimited access. Those who do not pay still have limited, "demo" status within the game, usually without the ability to use more than basic ships or advance one's profile; the exact details of demo status have changed over time.

Since release and the transition to P2P, the game has received a number of patches and undergone many changes, some of which have caused (and still cause) controversy. While the game has always been "under development," the pace of the updates has varied. At times, the patches and changes will be fairly frequent; at others, long delays have been known. With the small size of Palestar (only a single part-time programmer, since 2002), speedy changes are not always possible. Plus, the head (and only) developer cannot survive on only the income provided by DarkSpace, necessitating his holding a second job. This necessarily slows down progress on DarkSpace.

Despite these problems, development does proceed on DarkSpace. Due to the historic limitations on the developer (Richard "Faustus" Lyle), volunteer assistance has generally been welcomed in many forms. All of the moderators of the game, forums, and chat rooms are unpaid volunteers; the Administrators and Developers are also volunteers, though they usually are granted free play as compensation for their assistance. Player input is also welcomed via a suggestion forum, as well as official developer chats and casual feedback given in the chat rooms. The voulunteer developers, numbering historically anywhere from four to nearly a dozen, frequent the chat rooms as regular players, and the lead designer/programmer, Faustus, is also known to make occasional appearances and be open to all kinds of feedback and suggestions.

The games curent Release is: 1.483.6

The games curent Beta is: Beta Version: 1.484

This was last updated by: Spendeck 06:17, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

External links

• DarkSpace Main Site
• Palestar Home