Welcome to Solar Eclipse! The space strategy game that was loved by dozens before the shutdown of Yoyo Forums! I was appointed the task of taking care of the game, while the games creator C_A is no longer around to care for his creation. This may look like a complicated game, but once you get into it you will love it; as dozens of others have before. This is not a normal forum game, Solar Eclipse has a
real time viewer used to watch and program the battles. If you want to view the gameplay, download the viewer below.
Full-scale war has broken out between the (Jedi) Antillan Alliance and the (Sith) Cercilae Confederation, and this time the stakes are off the charts and the steaks are off the tables. You're needed on the front lines RIGHT AWAY!
I'm not kidding, Mister. Go! Fight!
What? You don't have a ship yet? Well, we can't have that now, can we. I'll get you a promotion to Lieutenant and take you over to the shipyard right away.
THE SHIPYARD (Designing your ship)Welcome to the 'yard, boy. Be sure to try some of our galaxy-reknowned milkshakes during your stay.
What's that? Business first? All right. There's good news and there's bad news. The bad news: This shipyard is more of a do-it-yourself shipyard, because the management's just really lazy. The good news: This shipyard is more of a do-it-yourself shipyard, so you have the freedom to do it yourself.
You just need to know a few things about making your ship:
--Your ship's hull will be an image in .png, .bmp, .gif, .tga format up to 128x128 pixels in size, and, if you ask nicely, I'm sure that Management can be persuaded to get off its yass and make you a ship hull to use.
--You get a set number of Points to spend on different resources for your ship. You get a number of points to spend on your crew, and a number of points to spend on your ship's systems. I'll discuss exactly what you can spend those on shortly.
--Your ship can have a specialization in one of 4 areas that you can choose. More on that after I talk about what to spend ship Points on.
Point allocations and upgrades--As a Lieutenant, you're qualified to command a Class-I vessel. A frigate is built with 12 points for crew and 20 points for ship systems. As you gain experience and receive promotions to Commander, Captain, and Commodore, you'll receive an additional 3 crew points and 5 ship points to use as you see fit to upgrade your ship.
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Ship Systems:--Hull. The physical boundary between your crew and icy, vacuumy death in the deadly, icy vacuum of space. Needless to say you'll want to spend at least one point in this department. Or maybe 30, if you're feeling death-o-phobic today. Every point spent here gives you resistance to 100 damage.
--Shields. The less physical boundary between your crew and death. They're also your best safeguard against enemy weapons. Not only does each shield point protect you from as much damage as a hull point does, shields can be recharged more easily from damage than the hull can be repaired. At least, if you're not firing your weapons. That's a pretty big selling point for the shields. Yep.
--RCS Thrusters. The other white meat. A reaction control system is going to be vital if you want to be able to dodge any enemy weapon fire. Alien gunners that couldn't hit the broad side of a barn were left behind a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, and your average spaceship is a bit bigger than your average barn's broad side.
--Scanners. At the distances and speeds involved in space combat, gunners can't rely on visual cues to find a target, they need technology to help. Try shooting the broad side of a barn from 600 clicks away. Missed? Now you know why you need these. The more the better. These don't apply to fighters nor missiles.
--Tachyon Jumps. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, spaceships gotta fly at thousands of times the speed of light to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time. All our ships have these drives to get from one star system to another, but if you try a tachyon jump over a short in-system distance, you're gonna break a lot of hardware. Every point spent here gives you the replacement parts for a single 4400 kilometer jump to get out of (or into) those sticky situations. And we'll restock your inventory every 30 rounds (if you can even last that long).
--Fighters. With a range of 1536 kilometers and a short-range plasma burst that'll hit pretty often and do 20 damage per hit, fighters are ideal for sitting back and picking off heavily-armed battleships without the tachyon drives to escape your wrath. Also, all fighters have their own scanner systems built in! The only real problem with launching a bunch of small, agile ships that take a turn to repair if destroyed is if your enemy has a bunch of small, agile weapons. Something like lasers.
--Lasers. The anti-fighter weapon also doubles as an anti-ship weapon. In one turn, a laser can be fired at an enemy ship to do 10 damage, and then fire a low-power beam at an incoming fighter to take it out before it has a chance to shoot you. They have an anti-fighter range of 384 km and a normal fire range of 768 km. Pretty cool, right? That's what we think too.
--Torpedoes. And you thought you could only deploy these underwater... These bad boys have a range of 768 km and deal a whopping 20 damage for each hit. Also, you don't have to worry about repairing destroyed torpedoes-you can fire your entire arsenal every turn if you want. Definitely great for smashing stuff into little tiny bits. Oh, their nickname is Ted. You don't want to know why.
--Repair Beams. These things are exactly what it says on the tin. Beams that repair stuff. You can fire these at any friendly ship (which isn't your ship) that's within 384 kilometers, and they'll patch the shields on it up by 4 damage per beam. And allies don't try to evade repair beams, so they'll hit more often than weapons would hit an enemy. Awesome, right? They're blooming awesome, that's what they are.
--Repair Drones. The only thing more awesome than a beam that repairs other ships could only be one thing. No, not space zombies. Space robots that repair other ships. These little robotic janitors fly off and patch up the hulls of your allies' ships at the same rate as repair beams fix up the shields. Abso-bloom-lutely awesome.
--Missiles. A self-guided weapon, like fighters, which are replaced each turn so that you always have a full arsenal. They have the same range as fighters, are slightly more accurate and slightly more difficult to shoot down than fighters are, but do one third of the damage (7 per shot).
--Plasma Turrets. These short-range (384 km) weapons are basically ship-mounted versions of fighter weapons, and fire a spread of 4 plasma pulses dealing 10 damage each at the enemy. They aren't quite accurate enough to be used to target fighters yet, although rumor has it that R&D is working on a way to improve their targetting (at a possible loss in firepower)
--Antimatter Annihilators. These powerful matter/antimatter warheads have all the destructive power modern science can fathom--able to deal 120 damage to the target between the energy of the warhead's impact and its explosion. Just be wary that because of their lack of guidance systems, they have a short 384 km range, and that when one of these goes off, it'll have a blast damage radius, dealing 100 damage at the center, tapering out to 0 damage at the edge, 384 kilometers away. It's possible to damage yourself just as much as your target using one of these.
Crew Recruitment:--Repair Teams. These guys patch the holes in your own ship up. Each team you buy will repair your hull damage and your shield damage at a rate of 1.25 damage per team. Of course if you don't fire your weapons, you can divert the power to doubling how fast repair teams recharge your shields.
--Marine Squads. If you want to screw up another ship's systems, then marines are the guys for the job. You can deploy them to enemy ships that are within 384 kilometers of your own, and they'll wreak havoc with enemy engines, weapons, and repairs. Unless they get stopped by
--Security Teams. The forces protecting your ship from invaders. The more you have, the faster they'll eliminate enemy marines. Simple as that.
Ship Specializations:
--
Advanced Engines: gives your ship 1 extra thruster and 1 extra tachyon jump, and allows you to move 50% farther on sublight engines (so you can move the normal 400 km, OR 600 km if you so choose).
--Advanced Weapons: gives your ship 2 extra scanners, and bumps up weapon ranges by 50%. Fighter range is increased by only 25% because they already have an enormous range.
--Advanced Defenses: gives your ship 1 extra shield point, 1 extra hull point, and increases your repair teams' repair rate by 50%.
--No Specialty (default, advanced experience): Because your ship suffers a handicap compared to others, your superiors give you a little sympathy when it comes to working towards a promotion. Working conditions in alien cultures are simply amazing, aren't they?
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So now, Lieutenant, you can go ahead and begin designing your first spaceship. You can post the layout below and we'll get right on building it.
Just post:ship's name (EG: Photonic Legend)
image for your ship (as mentioned above)
Ship Specialization:
Hull:
Shield:
Thrusters:
Scanners:
Tachyon Jumps:
Fighters:
Lasers:
Torpedoes:
Repair Beams:
Repair Drones:
Remember! You don’t have to have a ship with every system. You could have no Fighters, or no lasers! You may like to be a offensive ship with loads of torpedoes, or you may prefer to be a healer for the team by having 10 Repair Beams and little to no weapons. It’s up to you!
And then you can post some extra things. You can post an image up to 64x64 for your fighters to use (if you don't then we've got a default design you'll be given), and you can post the colors you want used for your lasers (default: Red), torpedoes (default: Blue), repair beams (default: Green), and repair drones (default: Yellow). Soon we'll have an editor which will allow you to build your ship yourself to even more exact specifications and send its design to us.
Are you ready? Your ship's blueprint is complete and they're building it now? Great. What's that? You don't know the first thing about commanding a spaceship? Well then, I guess we're off to the Command_Academy to give you Spaceships 101.
COMMAND_ACADEMY (Gameplay)Welcome to the C_A, Lieutenant. Commanding a spaceship is really a very simple thing. You just choose where to move and what to blow up. It's really that simple. Every turn, you just need to order what ship to fire your weapons or repair devices at (or you can hold your fire to recharge your shields and repair downed fighters), and then order what course to move your ship on (or you can not move at all). As long as it's clear what your action is, you can get as fancy with your posts as you want to get the real feeling of spaceship battle action.
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When you shoot, you can launch one of 3 things. You can launch your fighters with their 1536 km range at an enemy ship, you can launch both lasers and torpedoes with their 768 km range at an enemy ship, or you can launch repair beams and drones at a friendly ship within the 384 km range. Be careful that you don't try to fire at a ship outside the given range, or nothing will happen.
When you move, you have 2 options. Either move with your sublight engines, or use one of your tachyon jumps. Sublight engines will move your ship 400 kilometers on whatever heading you set, and a tachyon jump will take a turn to charge and then you'll jump 4400 km away on the heading you set. Your tachyon jumps will get replenished every 30th turn.
If you have marines and want to deploy them, you can deploy up to 5 marines to an enemy ship each turn, so long as that enemy ship is inside 384 kilometers. Many a battle has been fought and won without marines, but they can be very useful in a pinch.
By default, repair crews work on repairing your ship's hull and shields all 27 hours a day, all 6 days a week, all 47.9 weeks a year. But if you're running low on fighters, you can also pull your repair teams to the flight deck to fix up an extra fighter for you.
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So, Lieutenant, now your ship is ready and you're all set to engage in vicious battle with cool explosions! Wait, what was that? You're wondering what it's going to accomplish? It's time for your mission briefing.
MISSION BRIEFING (How to Win)In each sector we're fighting for, the two opposing Fleet Admirals have designed and put in place a star base. Completely ignore the star bases. Those were used in previous battles and it was decided upon that having the winner chosen by whomever blew up the most ships at the end was better. You won't fire at a base, and a base won't fire at you, so don't bother them. The Team with the most kills by X turn wins.
What's a Fleet Admiral?The Fleet Admiral for each side in the battle is the highest-ranked player on his or her side. Also, if any non-player controlled ships are sent into the sector, the Fleet Admiral will have full command over them. The Fleet Admiral tells everyone what action he/she wants from each player. The player doesn't have to comply, nor does the player have to be given a specific action.
What happens if your ship is destroyed?If your ship is destroyed, your escape pods will bring you and your crew back to the Shipyard, where you'll be able to design a new ship and rejoin the fight. Just note that it takes 2 turns after your ship is destroyed for your ship to be returned to the battle. During sudden-death (tie-breaker), your ship cannot come back.
How do you get promoted?As you take actions in the game, you will gain prestige and experience. As you do more things helpful to your fleet and your ship, they will pile up. Eventually you'll get promoted to Commander, then to Captain, then to Commodore. As you get promoted, you'll be able to upgrade your ship and crew right away. If you're lucky, you may even have a stint or two as the Fleet Admiral and get to design a star base! Beware though, that actions like destroying a ship or jumping out of an impossible-to-win situation have opposites (getting destroyed, or jumping away from an easy-to-defeat force) that can get you to lose prestige and work you towards demotion. If you're demoted, however, the loss will only affect your ship and crew after your ship is destroyed.
"Sign me up!"Is that what you said? You've got it. Just design your ship. The first battle will begin once we are ready. The tactical display will be posted here daily from then onward. The real-time player is here:
http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/181940-solar-eclipseJoin Now! Always accepting new players!
Also, if you want to support the game, we have a number of signatures available. Just put a link to this topic around them:
SIGNATURES:[/u]
(500x200)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9541787/Solar%20Eclipse/SolarEclipseLogoSmall.png (500x152 of the above image, in case you want more space for other stuff in your signature)
(500x200)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9541787/Solar%20Eclipse/SEBanners/SETrailer1Small.GIF (500x152 of the above image)
And, if you want to support the Antillan or Cercilae cause, we have 2 rotating signature banners for each side:
Antillan Banners:http://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/SolarEclipseAntillans.gif
(500x48)
And a banner showing Antillan ships from the previous battle:
http://ultrarandomization.com/view/3477/.png
(500x125, this banner isn't by me-C_A)
Cercilae Bannershttp://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/SolarEclipseCercilae.gif
(500x48)
And a banner showing Cercilae ships from the previous battle:
http://ultrarandomization.com/view/3476/.png
(500x125, this banner isn't by me-C_A)
If you use these banners or the full 500x200 signatures, don't forget to put in a link to this topic with them!
Real-time viewer(If you ever get an error with the viewer, do not freak out. It happens often. Just click the “Ignore” button. You may need to hit enter after that also, it hits the ignore button for you many times until the problem goes away. If the problem doesn’t go away, please let me know.)
You want to get in on the action of battle like a real Draconian? Then get the real-time viewer so that you can see every action being performed in real-time!
http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/181940-solar-eclipseLet the battle begin!
