Sword of the Stars

Sword of the Stars
Developer(s)	Kerberos Productions
Publisher(s)	Paradox Interactive (current) Lighthouse Interactive (former)
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	North America: 22 August 2006 Europe: 8 September 2006
Genre(s)	Science fiction, turn-based strategy, real-time tactics
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Sword of the Stars is a space 4X game by independent developer Kerberos Productions.

Combat

Sword of the Stars' combat model uses a hybrid 2D/3D model that has the user controlling the battle on a 2D plane but allowing the ships to move in three dimensions automatically (such as to avoid collisions). Weapon accuracy is determined by the size of a cone of fire; more accurate weapons have tighter cones of fire. Shots are then tracked from initial firing until they hit maximum range; in this, it is possible for a projectile to hit something it was not even aiming at, or for a shot that might have missed to hit as an opposing ship maneuvers itself into the line of fire. Damage is then applied to the affected section or turret, depending on the location hit. Weapons are poly targetable, which means that whatever point on the ship is targeted, a ship's weapons will center their cones of fire on the point clicked. This allows players to target individual turrets or focus on damaged, weakly armored or vital enemy sections.

Ship design

Ship design revolves around choices of the ship's three sections: command, mission and engine. There is also a choice of three different hull sizes: Destroyer, Cruiser, and Dreadnought, each roughly three times larger than the class preceding it. Mission sections tend to define a ship's main purpose, and vary from straightforward sections like the heavily armed Armor section to the Jammer section that creates sensor holes on the tactical map (and hides fleet info on the strategic map), to the Wild Weasel section that tricks enemy missiles into targeting the Wild Weasel ship instead of its intended target. Command sections can add a secondary function to a vessel, such as the Deep Scan section that reveals more of the tactical map and provides fleet details on the strategic map. Modules may occupy different sections depending upon the hull size. For example, the shield, deflector and cloaking modules are mission sections on Destroyers and command sections on Cruisers.

There are also four different weapon sizes: small, medium, large and special. Special turrets include heavy beams that can only target straight ahead, torpedo launchers (also targeting straight ahead, but usually able to track targets), and missile turrets. Though missiles are a medium weapon, certain mission sections (including defense platforms) have dedicated missile slots that cannot be reassigned to a different weapon (but which hold more than one missile launcher). The three different weapon sizes are not mutually exclusive, and weapons designed for a smaller mount may be mounted in a larger turret than intended (except for point-defense weapons). Small weapons mounted in medium turrets are double turreted, and in large mounts are triple turreted; medium weapons mounted in a large turret are double turreted. Though the tracking speed of the turret is determined by the turret class, an increase in firepower can be achieved. Turret amounts and sizes are determined by ship section and the race of the ship designing it. For instance, while deep scan modules increase scanner range, fewer weapons can be mounted on that module and it is less heavily armored.

The Node Drive

The Node Drive is a fictional faster-than-light system. Travel between worlds is achieved through moving between the Node Lines which only humans can utilize within the game to achieve maximum efficiency. Since the node space, which the ships enter when they activate their drives, is highly compressed even early drives can achieve speeds over 4 LY per turn. The problem with this form of travel is that in order to reach certain distant locations; several different node lines might have to be used which can delay arriving reinforcements to protect a besieged colony. Also because the node lines are formed naturally at times it may be impossible to reach a destination through nodes, forcing a painfully slow STL trek through the void. They also often force human fleets into choke points, fighting bloody battles over locations that hold only little value to other races.

Research

Research is presented on a 3D screen that is akin to a cylinder that may be rotated around. Scrolling in on a technology provides a description of the tech and in the case of weapons, stats such as accuracy, damage, range and rate of fire. Research is primarily funded as a portion of an empire's income, and adjusted via a slider.

Sword of the Stars features a random tech feature that puts a probability on the availability of a tech and the technology required to research it. Probabilities are weighted by race and influenced by the racial backstories (such as Liir proficiency with Biotech). The rest are core technologies and are guaranteed to be researchable (such as the different hull classes and propulsion techs). Thus not every technology or weapon is guaranteed to be available, or may be available through a different technology than in previous games (e.g. Advanced Cloaking, allowing cloaked ships to fire, has a very low probability of being researchable).

Races

Humans

After internecine wars ruined most of Earth's major governments and resulted in 70% of the world's population being killed, humanity was reorganized under Consortium governments, who were more willing to make treaties and truces than war. This Golden Age culminated in the construction of the Nova Maria, a colony ship utilizing the newly-discovered Node drive, a Faster than Light engine. However, the Nova Maria was destroyed in a rapid strike by a Hiver colony fleet. The fleet bombarded Earth from orbit, killing the majority of Earth's population. Only the use of historical stockpiles of nuclear and plasma weapons allowed humans to destroy most of the attacking aliens, the rest fleeing back into the void of space. Shortly afterward, a military organization - SolForce - was organized to protect humankind's further colonization efforts and ensure the survival of Humanity. Their official motto is "Per Ardua Ad Astra" or "Through Hardship, to the Stars" (actually the motto of the Royal Air Force). Their unofficial motto, "Repensum est Canicula" is more explicit—literally translated, it means "Payback is a bitch."

Humanity's Node drive allows ships to travel at speeds far beyond the speed of light along subspace fractures between large stellar masses. These fractures are entirely natural in origin, and connections between stars are seemingly random. Ships travelling in "node space" cannot change course mid-jump, but they also cannot be intercepted until they come out of node space. This also requires them to have all the fuel required before jumping, due to the inability to refuel in mid jump and the extreme danger of leaving a node line outside of a large gravity well. During battle, to retreat, Humans must move to a node point on the battle map and activate their engines. Their destination is determined by which system's node point they access.

This method of propulsion restricts Humans to certain paths, creating choke points as systems become vital transit points. However, Humans tend to remain ahead when it comes to strategic speed and range. Also, should a star system be destroyed (through natural or unnatural means), all node links with the system collapse, destroying all ships travelling through them.

Humans use ordinary radio signals to communicate. To allow for pseudo-FTL communication, all ships drop a message buoy as soon as a new system is first entered. These buoys relay messages through the node links. Due to the nature of node travel, ships already in links are incapable of sending or receiving messages. This can be devastating. For example, a small-sized fleet is sent to raid an enemy planet. Long-range sensors then detect a massive enemy fleet is about to reinforce the planetary defenses. If the human fleet already entered the node, it is committed and will most likely be wiped out.

Hivers

Hivers are an incredibly diverse species of insects sharing a common genetic base. Hivers were the first race to come in contact with Humans, and it is this violent first encounter that led to the formation of SolForce. Hiver families are controlled by the fertile females, referred to as Princesses. Such families typically number in the thousands, and loyalty to one's mother is quite literally all about love and the driving force in any Hiver's life. The Princesses control the methods of reproduction and can influence their desired progeny. They are fertilized by fertile males referred to as Princes, which are also produced by the Princesses who often seek influence by mating them to rival Princesses. All Princesses are descended from the Queen, who is the only one biologically capable of producing new Princesses. The Queen typically commands a position of respect and love from all members of her species; service to the Queen is universally respected and most defer to her authority.

Hiver FTL travel is centered around stargates, massive warp gates that allow instantaneous travel between two solar systems. Each gate must be deployed at the location at which it is to be used, which often means a Hiver fleet will have to travel to another star at sub-light speed, deploy the stargate (mounted on a specialized gateship), and 'gate' in extra ships. Needless to say, the gate is typically a valuable military target and no invasion would be complete without one.

One side effect of gate travel is that it tends to solidly link the empire to itself, so that a planet on one side of the empire is equidistant to any other planet within the gate network. Gates can only be deployed in the gravity well of a star, and thus they may only be deployed around a planet and cannot be deployed in deep space.

Further research may allow the Hivers to build one-sided gates for faster interstellar travel.

Each Hiver ship is equipped with a tiny gate used to send and receive messages instantly. Apparently, a ship's mass (and thus gravity) is enough to allow such a gate to function even in interstellar space.

Liir

The Liir are a race of psionic aquatic mammals with similarities to both dolphins and other whales. Given their psionic (and thus empathic) nature, intraspecies warfare is unknown to them, since they experience the deaths of those they kill. Sometime around their early Bronze Age, a species known only as the Suul'ka enslaved their entire population. The Liir eventually rebelled, creating a biological weapon that not only wiped out every member of the Suul'ka race on the Liir homeworld, but throughout the local sector of space and possibly beyond. Some have speculated that there are no Suul'ka left anywhere.

After eliminating their oppressors, the Liir adapted the technology of their masters and used the industrial infrastructure they had been forced to erect for their service to the Suul'ka to build their first exploration fleets. The Liir rely on telepathic and empathic communication, but their new fleet requires an inter-ship communications medium that is usable reliably beyond telepathic range (which is admittably short), leading to the development of Fleetsong. At first, their diplomatic relations with other races were hampered by the fact that, for the Liir, sounds and body language are only used to accentuate or emphasize telepathic conversation. After the discovery that most other races use sound for interpersonal communication, the Liir developed a specific caste—the "Singers to the Deaf"—for diplomatic contact.

Liir propulsion technology is based around teleporting the ship a minuscule distance millions of times a second, a method known as Stutter Warp. This method is inertialess, which is fortunate because Liir ships are filled with a liquid oxygen medium which raises the mass of the ship considerably. Liir ships tend to circle enemy vessels like dolphins hunting a school of fish, and their inertialess drive makes this possible. The teleport effect of this engine often results in a 'ghosting' effect from the viewpoint of other races, who often find it difficult or impossible to get definitive sensor readings on Liir ships.

Liir FTL engines operate phenomenally in the vastness between stars, crossing great distances quickly, but once they approach a stellar mass they slow down considerably as the gravity well makes Stutter drive calculations trickier. More advanced engines allow the ship to disappear for a longer period of time, leaving a small chance of having ordnance pass through the vessel harmlessly while the ship is "somewhere else".

Liir ships send messages by recording them on "stutter-probes". These probes are equipped with their own Stutter-Warp drives. Due to their small size, their speed is much higher than that of ships. In essence, these probes are used as messengers.

Tarka

The Tarka are a species of bipedal, tailed lizards, though their internal structures are vastly different from Terran reptiles and also share many similarities with Terran primates. Tarkan society is ruled through a quirk in their biology; a male does not reach sexual maturity until they consume several unfertilized Tarka eggs (laid by the females as part of their menstrual cycle). Due to pheromones secreted by the different genders and different maturities, an immature male will instinctively obey a mature female's commands in the hopes of being granted enough eggs to achieve maturity, while the females in turn obey the mature males. This means in the Tarkan military, the noncommissioned ranks are almost universally filled by immature males (a female may serve in a specialized role, such as an engineer, or as an aide-de-camp) while the lower commissioned ranks (lieutenant, major) are filled by mature females, and finally the highest ranks (colonel, general/admiral) are filled by mature males.

Tarkan FTL travel is achieved via the hyperdrive: an engine that generates an energy shell around the ship, inside of which the normal laws of physics simply do not apply. This allows the ship to accelerate almost indefinitely and perform bone-crushing maneuvers that would kill an unprotected crew.

Tarkan Hyperdrive tends to be energy intensive and Tarkan ships tend to lag behind when it comes to strategic speed and range. Their drive is not affected by gravity wells or the availability of node paths, and thus they are able to move effectively in straight lines. Their movement is predictable and reliable, and will not slow down because of gravity wells or other phenomena.

The Tarkas achieve interstellar communication by sending messages through a focused hyperfield, although some research is required for the hyperfield to penetrate the one used by a ship travelling FTL, facilitating communication with ships in transit.

Zuul

The Zuul are a species of psionic marsupials. There is a large amount of sexual dimorphism in this species; the males are generally short and weak compared to the females, but with the largest brain and strongest psionic abilities. The females are as large and strong as a Tarka changed male, and are armed with massive claws grown from the wrists.

A Zuul female is born with infants already in her protective pouch. They are fed narcotic milk, which keeps them dormant until the supply of milk is cut, mainly when the female dies. Once the Zuulings wake, they eat their way out of their mother, and devour anything that is in their path. Once they are old enough, the males begin to form corteries. Each cortirie has one male and potentially dozens of females, all controlled by the male.

The Zuul were originally a bioweapon against the Morrigi on Irridia V, engineered by the Suul'ka. They were expected to die out within a few years, after stripping the world of all life. However, the Zuul kept most of the colonists of Irridia V alive until the males could "rip" their minds of knowledge. Within one hundred years, the Zuul had engineered ships and their own unique interstellar drive.

The Zuul ships are made from parts of wreckage they find, welded together to form functional ships. As a result, the armor on these ships is never very strong. The Zuul use the Rip Drive, which is similar to the human Node Drive, to travel between systems. They create black holes with Bore ships, which open an artificial nodeline to another system. These nodelines are never very stable, and collapse after a time.

Morrigi

Long thought extinct, the Morrigi have been brooding on plans to take back their rightful place as masters of the universe. Seemingly emerging from out of nowhere, their bird-shaped ships come packed with weapons and technologies that none of the other races possess or know how to combat. They are portrayed to be hellbent on the destruction of the Zuul and their masters.

The Morrigi have a unique way of travel. Using their Grav Flock drive system, they are able to travel faster as their fleets grow bigger. That sounds fairly straightforward but there is more to it than that. Only ships equipped with a Gravboat hull count towards the efficiency of the Grav Flock speed. On the positive side, even when just a single one of these ships is part of the fleet, the entire fleet reaps its benefits.

Development

A demo was released on FilePlanet on 25 July 2006 that allowed players to play as either Humans or Tarkas.

Sword of the Stars was released August 22, 2006 in North America and September 8 in Europe by Lighthouse Interactive.

Patches

Sword of the Stars has received several major gameplay additions through the release of two patches. Full details of each patch release can be found at the Kerberos forums, and at the community wiki.

Expansions

On June 6th, 2007, the first expansion, Born of Blood, featured a new race, the Zuul, as well as select interface improvements. This expansion also introduced Trading and Commerce Raiding.

On May 28th, 2008, Sword of the Stars went gold with "Sword of the Stars: Collectors Edition", which contained both the original game and the "Born of Blood" expansion. It also contained a bonus CD with concept art, etc.

On October 3, 2008, the second expansion, Sword of the Stars: A Murder of Crows, featuring the Morrigi race and new Xeno Tech and Drone technologies. The economy of the game changed with the addition of Civilians to planet populations, and Dreadnaught sized orbital stations were introduced. Required either the "Collectors Edition" or "Born of Blood"

On April 17, 2009, Paradox Interactive (new publisher) and Kerberos Productions released the "Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection", repackaging the game with both "Born of Blood" and "A Murder of Crows" expansions.

On June 17, 2009, the Argos Naval Yard. This expansion focused on new ship sections, technology and weapons. Required either "Ultimate Collection" or "A Murder of Crows".

On January 27, 2010, the sequel was announced by Kerbos, titled Sword of the Stars II - The Lords of Winter. It is scheduled for release in 2011.

On May 6, 2010, the Complete Collection was announced for digital download. It includes 3 new maps and a new scenario, The Antiquarians, which is also included with the free 1.8.0 update, but the new maps are exclusive to the Complete Collection release.

External links

• Official website
• Sword of the Stars Wiki
• http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/726/726551p1.html