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Escape Velocity: Difference between revisions
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A series of three open-ended sci-fi shareware computer games from 1996 to 2002, published by Ambrosia Software for the Macintosh (though the last is also available for Windows). Looks like ''[[Asteroids]]'', plays like ''[[Elite]]''.
Though being part of the same series, the games are not connected by any sort of overarching plot, very much like ''[[Final Fantasy]]''. In each, you start with nothing more than a simple shuttle craft and are free to more or less do what you want. While the first game required the player to pick one side or the other in the ongoing galactic conflict, later games introduced more complex politics. Since the third game is the only one still updated, the publisher has released free [[Game Mod|Total Conversion]] plug-ins containing the scenarios from the first two games.
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* [[Attack Drone]]: You can hire/capture escorts and launch fighters from capital ships; they're destroyable, though.
* [[Attack Pattern Alpha]]: Three well-known maneuvers which [[Artificial Stupidity|abuse the AI]] have earned proper names from the fandom.
** The "Monty Python Maneuver" makes use of the series' partial aversion of [[Space Friction]] to fly away from multiple targets while shooting backwards. The name refers to the instances in ''[[Monty Python and
** The "[[Not the Nine O'Clock News]] Maneuver" allows the player to land on blockaded planets. Instead of blasting your way through, you lure the enemy away from the planet, then double back around the enemy fleet.
** The "Qaanol Maneuver", named after its inventor, involves using an absurdly fast ship to draw the enemy's fire while your escorts make the kill.
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** In ''Nova'', a large number of developers, producers, and random associates of the project can be spotted tooling around in their own custom ships. Most are overwhelmingly powerful, but some are [[Butt Monkey|downright puny]].
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The Thunderhead Lance comes stock with the Thunderhead Heavy fighter, can be bought at Rebel II in the Koria system for 100,000 credits, does considerable damage, but its short [[Frickin' Laser Beams|Beam]] range forces you to get very close to your target, and by then you would get shredded.
** Actually, on any ship with decent speed, they're [[Awesome Yet Practical|one of the most powerful and effective weapons]], despite the beam being shorter than Frodo Baggins.
** The pirate version of the ship, reasonably enough, [[Lightning Bruiser|sticks another engine on]].
* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Stud Beefpile, among others; many of them are [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to [[Space Mutiny]].
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* [[Multiple Endings]]: All of the games except ''Override'' (which ''did'' have multiple storylines; [[Word of God|it just turned out]] [[Third Option Adaptation|all of them happened]]), although, as the [[No Ending]] entry notes, the effect is rather minuscule in ''Escape Velocity Classic''.
* [[Mutant Draft Board]]: In ''Nova'', all telepaths in Federation space are enslaved by the Bureau.
** A plot point in the Vell-os storyline rests on the fact that ''technically'', it is the Vell-os rather than telepaths per se that are supposed to be enslaved (unofficially. Officially, even the Vell-os serve voluntarily), it is just that at first the only telepaths known are the Vell-os. You aren't actually a Vell-os, but your immense telepathic potential leads the Bureau to ''think'' you are one.
* [[No Ending]]: It was totally impossible to affect the war in the original game, even if you personally conquered and dominated every planet in the galaxy. ''Override'' allowed you to make permanent changes on the galaxy, but the strings of missions end without either side being completely defeated, leading some people to make plug-ins that finish the story. ''Nova'' finally allows you to actually finish its wars to victory, though [[Railroading|at great cost]].
* [[Noodle Incident]]: The ring around Kont is one, though only [[In-Universe]]: [[Word of God]] is that it's an ancient hypergate.
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