Pirate Galaxy

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

Pirate Galaxy is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online game written in Java. Players can operate spaceships, explore vast amount of planets, mine minerals, fight other players and enemies in the planetary combat. The game features 3D graphics and runs from 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 mercenaries and pirates have multiplied and the armies are looking to recruit people. This is where the player/pilot comes in.

Players start off on a nearly forgotten planet called Kalebesh in the Vega system as a smuggler. On this planet the player will learn basic things and get their missions. After the completion of a certain amount of missions, the game will eventually lead to a new planet called Axiom. In the storyline, players will get to other planets after completing some missions and also join the colonials, which are at first their enemy. After a battle with the Mantis mothership, the player will achieve access to a new star system called Antares. Here, the player meets the Admiral and will help him find his daughter. After completing a series of missions and another boss fight, the player will gain access to another system, Gemini, where the player meets Isaac, Sara and the villagers who survived the war with the Mantis. Upon finishing the Gemini story line, the player will reach Mizar, another star system where they meet the Baumarian Fighters. After the completion of the missions in Mizar and yet another boss battle, the player will reach their own star system, Sol, which is now controlled by Imperials. After stealing an ancient artifact from the Emperor of Sol, the player once again battles a massive Mantis ship which is controlled by Lord Fam Doom, whom the player met in the Vega system. After completing the boss fight, the player gains entrance to the Draconis system. Here the player meets the Methanoids, another alien race, who also fight against the Mantis. In Draconis is the base of the Mantis: the Mantis hive, where the player defeats the Mantis Queen to complete the ancient artifact. After the player experiments with the artifact, a wormhole opens to a new system, the Sirius Singularity. 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 would go through the Wormhole. Here, the player discovers a new type of NPC called "The Ancients".

The latest system, "Tau Ceti," is nearing its completion, with three of four parts already released.

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 the player's 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 the game, players take control of any of the large variety of spaceships, perform various tasks such as space exploration, and play many missions. The player must explore the different star systems and planets, upgrade their ship with new technology, and complete various missions to progress through the story.

Pirate Galaxy is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game where players can interact with other players across the world, make friends, create or join clans for huge player versus player (PvP) conquest battles, and create a squad to blast enemy ships.

Starting off on the planet Kalabesh in the Vega System, there are a total of eight star systems and over 30 planets to explore. The star systems are Vega, Antares, Gemini, Mizar, Sol, Draconis, Sirius Singularity, and Tau Ceti. These systems are similar to the stars of the Milky Way, showing the similar planets, including the sun.

The newly updated Sirius Singularity is a system which needs lot of teamwork in which clan allies have a role to play. The Sirius Singularity has 5 Rings: Rings 1–4 are resource planets, and Ring 5 is an ancient planet from which players get ancient items of other systems. In Sirius Singularity, a jump ship plays a 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 displayed on the planet profile. The planet will collapse, and even the new ones will be automatically made but the names are random.

Sirius Singularity is clan oriented, which you need to buy a clan jump ship for 75,000 Cryonite to travel around Sirius until the jump ship explodes by not jumping to another planet when the planet collapses.

Blueprints and Gold Blueprints

There are two types of Blueprints in the game, known as Blueprints (common) and Gold Blueprints (rare). Blueprints are blue in colour, and offer 50% lower cost than the Gold Blueprints. Gold Blueprints are gold in color, and harder to find compared to the normal Blueprints. Blueprints give the lowest to the second best quality, while the Gold Blueprints offer the best technology of the system.

The developer has made a few changes since the adding of the Sirius Singularity system. On Ring 5, players are able to obtain the Blueprints stronger than the Gold Blueprints.

There are three different types of Blueprints which are obtained from Sirius Singularity: Sirius Ancient Long or Rapid, Sirius Ancient Strong, Sirius Ancient. The durability, strength, and sustainability increases with the ancients. Sirius Long Technology only apply to Speed Technology (Afterburner, Speed Actuator, Shield, Protector, Repair Droid).

Reception

The game generally received favourable 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.

Players Quotes

• « Prot is nerfed » is a sentence that has been said by a player named "Hecatte".

External links

• Official website
• Official gamepage
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to Pirate Galaxy