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Alien Legacy: Difference between revisions
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{{
A [[Strategy Game|Strategy]]/SimulationGame from Ybarra Productions, Inc., released in 1994.
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The more clues you find as to the fate of the previous colonists, the more you begin to realize you're not alone in this system.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Absent Aliens]]: Despite the [[Backstory]] mentioning the Centaurians, you spend much of the game with no aliens in sight. Then you find the {{spoiler|Empiants and the H'riak seedship}}.
* [[Abusive Precursors]]: {{spoiler|The H'riak, who program all their creations with an overriding urge to destroy all non-H'riak-created organisms. This explains the Centaurians' hate towards humans. Interesingly, the Empiants are also their creation but lack their hate}}.
* [[All Planets Are Earthlike]]: Averted, as only two planets in the Beta Caeli system are habitable. All planets, moons, and asteroids can be colonized, though.
* [[Artistic License Astronomy]]: According to [[Word of God]], the creators of the game knew that Beta Caeli is unlikely to have habitable planets (Beta Caeli is an F-type blue-white star, about 6 times hotter than the Sun) but chose it due to its relative proximity (about 90 light years away) and easily-remembered name. In reality, colony ships would most likely be sent to G-type yellow dwarfs, which would also have to be far enough away for the Centaurians not to find them and would, therefore, likely have a Henry Draper Catalog designation (e.g. [
* [[Artistic License: Biology]]: Despite having never encountered humans before, the Centaurians somehow manage to come up with a deadly virus that kills millions of Sudanese.
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|The H'riak seedship is destroyed and there is peace with the Empiants. Several colonists (both human and Empiant) manage to leave the system using the new FTL drive. However, all first-generation colonists are doomed to die soon thanks to the flawed process of turning people into [[Human Popsicle|Human Popsicles]]}}.
** This doesn't seem to be mandatory; a technology available early in the game should leave you with only sweetness.
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* [[First Contact]]: In the [[Backstory]], first contact with the Centaurians in 2043 involved their probe destroying a scout ship and bombarding Earth with plague missiles. It's not even clear if humans even know what Centaurians even look like.
** The first contact with the {{spoiler|Empiants}} also results in a war. However, this is due to a misunderstanding, as {{spoiler|human brainwaves hurt the psychic aliens}}.
* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: All shuttles are armed with lasers. During the conflict with the {{spoiler|Empiants}}, shuttles can also be armed with missiles that increase their firepower.
* [[FTL Travel]]: Averted at the beginning, when it takes the ''Calypso'' over a century to reach Beta Caeli on sublight. Even the Centaurians and {{spoiler|the H'riak}} don't have FTL drives. At the end, though, the humans and {{spoiler|Empiants}} manage to build [[Applied Phlebotinum|psychic amplifyiers]] that [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Harmless Freezing]]: Initially played straight, then subverted at the end. Apparently, there are negative side effects to being turned into a [[Human Popsicle]] for decades ({{spoiler|all first-generation colonists are doomed to die soon, but their children born after will survive}}).
* [[Human Popsicle]]: All colonists and crewmembers spend the decades of travel in cold sleep. The crew is woken up first, including the first batch of colonists. Colonists are woken up based on need. However, a random malfunction can result in several thousand colonists dying in their sleep, when their cryochambers fail.
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* [[Psychic Powers]]: {{spoiler|The Empiants are a telepathic species who are hurt by human brainwaves. They can also melt human brains}}.
* [[Pyrrhic Victory]]: After {{spoiler|the H'riak seedship}} is found by the ''Tantalus'' colonists, they send their entire shuttle fleet to attack it. They manage to destroy all {{spoiler|its}} weapons but at the cost of 90% of the fleet.
* [[
* [[Random Event]]: Several research options become available only after random events (usually, tragic). For example, the idea to develop mass drivers for sending cargo between colonies comes after a manned shuttle engaged in a "pipeline" mission inexplicably blows up. If you only use automated shuttles (there is no advantage to be using manned shuttles, except occasionally ferrying advisors to colonies), then this won't happen.
* [[Timed Mission]]: Several tasks must be completed within a certain time limit. Unfortunately, you're not told about the time limit. Failing to do so often results in a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].
* [[What Did You Expect When You Named It?]]: [
* [[What If]]: Rhea is an Earth-like world whose position in the Beta Caeli system is similar to that of Venus in ours. It's not difficult to see that the creators wanted to show what Venus would be like as a lush, life-giving world. The main difference is the size (Rhea is slightly larger), the spin (Rhea spins much faster), and a moon. The theory is that these factors helped prevent the greenhouse effect that makes Venus a hellhole.
* [[Wide Open Sandbox]]: The game is non-linear, which means you are free to do as you please, for the most part, in terms of building colonies and expanding. Certain events do trigger new missions, though.
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[[Category:Simulation Game]]
[[Category:Alien Legacy]]
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