Gratuitous Space Battles: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''There will be a time for peace in the galaxy, where life-forms can skip through the fields and read poetry, unworried by the threat of war, but this is not that time. There will be a time for song, time for cakes, time for long afternoon strolls, but this is not that time. There will be time for love, time for joy, time for writing that novel you know you have in you somewhere, but this is still not that time.''

 

 

The game is rather unique among space battle sims in that the player does not actually give any orders during the battle itself; rather, the player can only make ship designs, dictate their starting position within the fleet, and modify each ship's AI before unleashing them on the enemy. After each battle, the player can analyze the results in order to tweak ship designs and fleet deployment before fighting again. Victories bring the player "Honor," which can be used to unlock hulls, components, and even other races.

 

 

There isn't a direct head-to-head multiplayer; instead, players compete by putting together fleets on their own computer and submitting them as "Challenges" to an online server. Other players can then download these Challenges and attempt to beat them with their own fleets. The server keeps track of both the number of attempts and the names of those who beat the Challenge.

In addition a Campaign expansion pack has been released that allows the player to provide just a bit of context to the gratuitous combat, as they spread across the galaxy, invading planets and building ever-expanding battle fleets. Just the thing for all you megalomanical conquerers!

 

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* [[Affectionate Parody]]

* [[The Alliance]]: [[Bug War|An insect hive]] dedicated to the eradication of all bipedal lifeforms from the galaxy.

* [[The Battlestar]]: Any cruiser outfitted with carrier modules.

* [[Berserk Button]]: Do not refer to the Swarm as "the Flock". Really, ''don't''.

** One of the most potent weapons in the game is the humble but efficient cruiser laser turret. Few weapons in the game can match its damage output, ability to penetrate shields and armor (by [[Death of a Thousand Cuts]]), and especially its fire rate. Its only weakness is slow tracking speed (making it poor against fighters and fast frigates) and relatively short range. Its not a huge glowey death beam and doesn't have the impressive visual ''smack-boom'' of a detonating plasma torpedo, and you're not going to see a hojillion glowing contrails of outgoing missiles, but ''nothing'' tears apart cruisers and frigates more efficiently. Of course, you get enough cruisers pouring on the laser bolts, and you ''do'' get [[Beam Spam|another breed of visual awesome....]]

** Carrier modules. Not particularly flashy, but if you field fighters in any capacity, they'll dramatically increase both the lifespan and viability of your fighter squadrons. Especially useful in the campaign, as destroyed fighters cost money to replace, while carrier modules will greatly reduce fighter casualties.

** The Swarm's ships look like birds of prey and are painted a bright golden color, with inexplicably car-like fighters.

** The Parasites go for a very [[Everything Is an iPod In The Future|white and shiny]] scheme.

** Despite their many colors, Nomad ships are unified by their [[Raygun Gothic]] design style.

* [[Command and Conquer Economy]]: In the campaign, you're the only one that orders what ships to be built. Also, you're not able to build structures on planet; the manual explains that this is because of all those droid work unions, misplaced and nonstandard parts, zoning issues, etc.

** [[Shock and Awe]] can apply to the Alliance, since they have a weapon specific to their faction that fires a huge bolt of electricity.

* [[Crippling Overspecialization]]: Many ships loadouts' can leave them this way; missile boats can be very vulnerable to fighters and plasma ships can be easily picked off by fast frigates and fighters; meanwhile, a cruiser or frigate outfitted with certain beam weapons will be helpless against cruisers that buff up their armor or shields, and fighters that lack armor penetrating weapons will not be able to damage heavy cruisers very well - but if they ''are'' equipped with armor-piercing weapons, they're hard-pressed to fight enemy fighters. The balancing act between fleets is very delicate. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Challenge mode, where many players assemble near-invincible fleets that are nonetheless vulnerable to a particular fleet configuration.

* [[Damage Is Fire]]: Damaged or destroyed modules on a ship will be presented as being glowing, burning pits in the hull of the ship in question. Realistically, the flames aren't very intense, and instead glow with radiated heat.

* [[Death of a Thousand Cuts]]: Even ships with [[Overly Long Gag|gratuitously]] heavy armor can be brought down by weapons with little or no armor penetration thanks to the "Lucky Hit" mechanic combined with a very high volume of fire. Repair systems can mitigate this, though, provided the armored tank ship doesn't get too unlucky, and provided the repair module doesn't run out of supplies.

* [[Deflector Shields]]: Capable of absorbing an awful lot of damage, are completely immune to weapons with a lower shield penetration than their resistance value (unlike armor), and recharge relatively quickly while they're up, but once they're down, they're gone for good for the rest of the battle. Also, fighters can easily get inside them and bypass their defense, and they can be destabilized by certain special weapons and go temporarily offline.

* [[Easy Logistics]]: Generally played straight, especially in the campaign, but certain missions, challenges, and campaign planets have "supply limits" which reduce the number of modules that can be brought to that battlefield.

* [[The Empire]]: Ancient, oppressive, and ruled by a thousand-year old Emperor who is officially "under the weather."

* [[Enemy Chatter]]: Inverted. You don't hear anything from your enemies, but you receive plenty of feedback from your own ships.

{{quote|That last impact vaporized the ship's galley. Looks like it's take-out food tonight, guys.}}

* [[Glass Cannon]]: Most frigates can be this way; even their most powerful shields can be swatted down fast by most cruisers, and they get absolutely torn apart by fighter swarms. On the other hand, they can do a ''ton'' of damage at low cost, they move fast for their size, and only frigates can mount ion cannons, EMP rockets, disruptor bombs, and anti-fighter missiles.

* [[Hopeless War]]: For just about everyone. The Rebels are locked in a permenant struggle with the Empire for freedom, and with everyone else for simple survival. The Empire is bent on conquering the galaxy, the Alliance and the Order are on genocidal rampages to wipe out everyone else, the Swarm are just doing what they've been doing for eons since, and the Tribe are killing everyone because they've realized the only way the galaxy will be at peace is if everyone else is dead, the Parasites need new hosts, and the Nomads are killing everyone because, well, they're bored. And ''everyone'' owes the Federation money, and they're coming to collect.

* [[Luck-Based Mission]]: The campaign's battles involve the player being sent up against fleets randomly selected from those being used by other players who've played the campaign. As a result, the player will sometimes end up fighting poorly designed fleets that fall apart like tissue paper. Other times, they'll end up slamming headlong into an immaculately-designed, highly-efficient fleet of ''death''. Ultimately, the only way to win is to make sure your fleets are just as well-designed.

* [[The Mario]]: The Federation is a middle-ground, [[Jack of All Stats]] faction with small bonuses to many stats and no penalties. This makes them a good all-around faction to start off with, and flexible enough to run with many strategies and configurations.

* [[Standard Sci-Fi Fleet]]: Comes with the territory. All vessels are broken down into three main categories (Fighters, Frigates, Cruisers) by hull type. Where they fit further on in the scale depends on how the player designs and uses them.

* [[Stealth in Space]]: With no explanation given or [[Rule of Fun|needed]].

* [[Theme Naming]]: Each faction has ships named after a particular theme. [[The Federation]]'s ships are named after terrestrial animals, the Alliance's fleet is named after aquatic predators, [[The Empire]]'s ships are named after Ancient Roman military terminology, and the Rebels' ships are named after Norse mythology. The Tribe draws their names from terms regarding tranquility and transcendence, the Order has names drawn from the Catholic church, and the Swarm is based on ancient Egyptian mythology. Nomad ships have names that sound vaguely Arabic, and the Parasites take names from taxonomic classifications.

* [[Tractor Beam|Tractor Beams]]: Frigates and Battleships can be mounted with (blue) Tractor Beams, slowing the pesky-deadly fighters down to the point where slow tracking beams and missiles can kill them.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Science Fiction Video Games]]

[[Category:Simulation Game]]

[[Category:Casual Video Game]]