Pirate Galaxy

Pirate Galaxy
Developer(s)	Splitscreen Studios
Publisher(s)	Splitscreen Studios
Producer(s)	Gustaf Stechmann
Designer(s)	Gustaf Stechmann, Jonathan Lindsay
Programmer(s)	Mark Buchholz, Ole Schaper, Alexandre Maia, Lars Campe, Joana Grade, Jannik Staub
Artist(s)	Alexandre Maia, Boris Patschull, Jan Sonnwald
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	2009
Genre(s)	MMORPG

Pirate Galaxy is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online game written in Java in which players operate spaceships, explore various planets, mine minerals from orbit, fight other players and computer enemies in planetary combat. The game features 3D graphics and runs from a web browser or as a downloadable client.

Plot

The Star systems are under siege by a race of aliens called the Mantis. The Mantis are ruthless in their hunt for resources and power. Peace was thought to have been an option, but the mantis could not be trusted, the human race found itself overwhelmed by the opposing forces. Fighting back with all their might the armies of humans from numerous star systems fought bravely. There are only a handful of those pilots left while the mercenary's and pirate's have multiplied and the armies are looking to recruit people, this is where you come in pilot.

Players start off on a nearly forgotten planet called "Kalebesh" in the Vega system, as a smuggler. On this planet the player will learn what things are, and get your their missions, which will eventually lead to a new planet called "Axiom". In the storyline players will get to some other planets, and also join the colonials, which are at first their enemy. After a big fight with a Mantis mother ship, they will go to a new star system, "Antares". Here players meet the Admiral, and will help him find his daughter. After another big fight, the player will gain access to another system: "Gemini", where they meet Isaac, Sara, and villagers who survived the war with the Mantis. When finally finishing the extremely hard story line players will reach "Mizar", where they meet the Baumarian Fighters. After yet another big fight players will reach their own solar system, Sol, which is now controlled by Imperials. After stealing and ancient artifact from the Emperor and once again a massive mantis ship, the player will gain entrance to Draconis, the newest system of Pirate Galaxy at the moment. Here the players meet the Methanoids, another alien race. In Draconis is the mother ship of the Mantis: the Mantis hive, where the player will defeat the Mantis Queen to complete the ancient artifact. After experiments with the artifact a wormhole will open to the new system, the Sirius Singularity. Here the next adventure begins. Untold riches and wealth await there, but only for the bravest of pilots who choose to yet again face the mantis and the rogue methanoid criminals.

Cryonite. The most precious mineral in the galaxy. It is extremely rare and only found deep in a planet's crust. Previously the Systems were a hub filled with merchants, trading for Cryonite. When the mantis struck, the rich merchants were forced into slavery.

Ship Types

There are many ships in pirate galaxy, costing from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of cryonite each. There are four main ship types:

Tank: The muscle of Pirate galaxy, these behemoths have high hitpoints but are relatively slow and have mediocre attack power. While virtually unstoppable by mantis, player versus player against these ships tend to fail. This includes the new META-01 Tank, and the extremely strong AnIn-1 Dominator.

Engineer: The pilot of one of these ships is your best friend. The engineer can repair ships around it and even rebuild the player's ship if shot down. that includes the META-04 engineer and AnIn-3 Constructor.

Storm: These ships have the highest firepower. They shoot harder and more accurately than any other ship in the game, and are the only ones equipped with rockets, like the META-02 Storm and AnIn-12 Parsec.

Shock: These ships are arguably the best player vs player fighter, able to stun enemy ships and use a speed actuator which speeds up the equipment of allies. Two examples: the META-03 Shock and AnIn-10 Terrorizer.

The following ship types are unlocked with progress through the game:

Sniper: This ship Type is first introduced in Sol System as a Rare Golden ship. These ships have immensely long-range and powerful weapons which take down enemies before being seen, and can deploy an attack droid to aid the player during close-quarters firefights; such as the META-05 Sniper, STAM-X shadow Sniper (Sol Rare Ship) and Parsec Disruptor.

Defender: These mine layers are essentially defensive ships, which can lay mines and drop turrets which attack enemies and repair allies. This class is the newest, and only ship in its class is the META-X Defender and Hyan Mutilator

Hybrid: These ships are a mixture of two or more of these ship types above. Some examples of Hybrid Ships are Ancient Myst, Ancient Punisher, and Hunter Parsec (Mixture of Shock and Sniper).

Gameplay

In Pirate Galaxy, players must take control of any of a large variety of spaceships, and perform various tasks such as space exploration, combat and many exciting missions. The player must explore the different star systems and planets, upgrade his/her ship with new technology, and play various missions that allow him/her to progress through the storyline.

Starting off on the planet Kalabesh in the Vega System, there are a total of 8 star systems and over 30 planets to explore.

Pirate Galaxy is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game where you can interact with players across the world, make friends, create or join Clans for huge Player vs Player conquest battles, or just create a Squad and blast enemy ships.

Even the newly updated System Sirius, is a system which needs lot of teamwork in which clan and allies have the role play, The Sirius System Has 5 Rings in which 1–4 is resource planets and 5th is an ancient Planet from which you get ancient items of other systems and Sirius, Jump ship plays major role to jump to planet by accomplishing missions on 1–4 ring planets and mission not needed to be done to jump from the ring 5, The player has to jump out of the planet to different ones before the planet collapse and it will be given on the planet profile, The planet will collapse and even be made automatically and names are random.

The Systems are as follows : Vega, Antares, Gemini, Mizar, Sol, Draconis, Sirius, Tau Ceti. The similarities of these systems are similar to the stars of the Milky Way, showing the similar stars, including the sun,

Note: Sirius is a Clan System you need to buy a Jump ship for 75,000 Cryonite and you can travel around Sirius until the jump ship explodes by not jumping to another planet when the planet collapses. Also,Tau Ceti is not Finished at the moment. (Releasing new episodes every month)

Blueprints(Common) and Goldprints(Rare)

There are two types of Blueprints the Rare and the Common, rare ones are gold in color and hard to find, normal ones are easy and 50% lower the cost than the rare, rare ones offer the best technology of the system while Blues give the normal and 2nd best quality The Adding of Sirius Singularity has a bit role to play. On the ring 5 players can obtain the BP stronger than the systems rare, there are 3 kinds of BP types which are obtained form Sirius.

Sirius Ancient Long or Rapid, Sirius Ancient Strong, Sirius Ancient. The sustain and durability and strength increases with the ancients

Note: Sirius Long Technology only apply to Speed Technology (Afterburner,Speed Actuator, Shield, Protector, Repair Droid)

Reception

The game generally received favorable reviews.

Awards

The game received an award at Deutscher Entwicklerpreis 2009 for technical innovation, and was nominated at Deutscher Computerspielpreis for best browser-based game of the year.

External links

• Official Homepage
• Pirate Galaxy on Moby Games
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to Pirate Galaxy (selected fan page)
• The PG-Faniste (selected German fan page)