Escape Velocity: Difference between revisions

** ''EV Nova'' may have an example with General Smart, a Federation officer who defected to the Rebels and is now in charge of their [[Space Navy]]. The Federation Navy appears to use US Navy ranks (the two named Federation officers, Krane and Raczak, are a commander and an admiral respectively), so the only way to resolve it is by having the Rebels use Army or Air Force ranks. Given that the Rebels are of Federation extraction, this seems unlikely.

** Possibly, he was an actual Federation General (in charge of some sort of ground troops, one imagines) who defected and was put in charge of the Rebel navy because [[Closest Thing We Got|eh close enough]].

** {{spoiler|Some of the epilogues indicate that humanity eventually merges with the universe, becoming [[Precursors]] to an unnamed alien race.}}

* [[Asteroid Miners]]: In ''Nova'', certain asteroids can be mined for metal and water.

* [[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 Holy Grail]]'' where the knights yell "Run away!"

** 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.

* [[Author Avatar]]: Ships like the Andrew Welch from the first game are named after the game's creators. They are indestructible.

* [[Bilingual Bonus]] / [[Meaningful Name]]: The name ''Voinians'' seems to originate from the Russian word "voyna" ("war"); the same with ''Miranu'' and "mir" ("peace"). There's also ''Dogovor'', a system where a treaty between Voinians and the UE was signed; "dogovor" means "treaty" in Russian.

** The [[Space Station]] in the Dogovor System is Pax Station. "Pax" is Latin for "peace".

* [[Breakable Weapons]]: It's possible to design outfits that wear out after a given amount of time by putting together two oütf resources (one for the good version, one for the bad version) and a crön resource (a time delay) that replaces one with the other. ''Nova's'' in-game example is the cheap versions of the Fission Reactor (which breaks down after a few months) and the Thorium Reactor (which becomes an explosion waiting to happen).

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: In ''Nova'', the description of the planet Our Spiel, to which the player is teleported once they beat a storyline.

** In ''Nova'', the multi-jump organ allows your ship to perform up to 10 instant hyperjumps for the cost of one. It blows Hypergates out of the water.

* [[The Federation]]: The United Earth of ''Override'' is a union of [[Captain Obvious|the countries of Earth]], is generally good, and has a Parliament. It began as an [[The Alliance|Alliance]], but has grown tighter since then, with plans to introduce a common currency mentioned in-game and [[Word of God]] mentioning it doesn't fall apart after the Voinans are effectively defeated.

* [[Final Death]]: An optional mode of play is "Strict Play", which deletes your character file if you die in the game, rather than allowing you to just reload it as you would if you were playing normally. Fortunately, escape pods can be used to escape from your ship if you have this enabled, but you start over in a shuttlecraft and lose any legal status you've gained in systems. This can be annoying, as often, you need a certain legal status to take a mission.

** On the other hand, resetting your legal status also means you'll no longer be attacked if you had previously pissed off a government.

* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: The Polaris' and Vell-os' hat in terms of weapons.

* [[Game Mod]]: Hundreds, ranging from cheats to total conversions. The data files were easily editable via ResEdit and numerous fan-made graphical editors. ''Nova'' even has official GUI editors.

** 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]].

* [[Old School Dogfighting]]

* [[Opening Scroll]]: In ''Classic'' and ''Override''. Nova's game engine changes it to a non-scrolling [[Opening Narration]] or Opening Montage, depending on the game files used.

* [[Outrun the Fireball]]: The [[Loading Screen]] for ''Nova'', which shows a Valkyrie and Starbridge doing just that.

* [[Pass Through the Rings]]: A rare [[NPC]] example. The [[Betting Minigame]] for ''Nova'' exchanges the first two games' slot machine for gambling on a space race with Viper fighters doing this.

* [[Photoprotoneutron Torpedo]]: Numerous weapons. Neutron turrets are superior to proton turrets, which are superior to laser turrets.

* [[Physical God]]: The player winds up as this at the end of the Polaris and Vell-os (maybe Auroran) strings. Especially the latter, as you get a [[Nigh Invulnerability|large bonus]] to your shield rating, no matter what ship. The T0 rank becomes great fun when you are equipped with a Kestrel.

** {{spoiler|Some of the epilogues mention that humanity in turn became a precursor race to another species by similar means.}}

* [[Press X to Die]]: Literal version. Holding down Cmd-D (Ctrl-D on Windows) for ten seconds triggers your self-destruct sequence.

** Actually you could get ahold of those super-ships, no modding required -- you just can't ''buy'' them. If you disabled, boarded and captured an AI-controlled ship that was using and illegal load-out, and you then chose to use that ship yourself, you would inherit the illegal load-out, and still have access to it. This was amusing to no end, when one captured one of the illegal load-out super-Ravens -- the normal, player-accessible Raven already arguably being the most powerful ship in the game. A great way to get a very powerful ship early on was to capture a Starbridge D, which, if memory serves, had more space then and superior stats to any Starbridge you could actually buy -- and still had more equipment installed than it had space for, even with the extra!

*** There are, however, some ships with unique pilots that are actually ''INVINCIBLE'', meaning they cannot be captured, and thus inaccessible without cheating. Also, weapons that do not have a defined outfit (such as the super-weapons that planetary defenses use) are erased once you land at a planet.

** In ''Nova'', [[Intentional Engrish for Funny|red Leviathan roaming]] [[Zero Wing|CATS]] [[Intentional Engrish for Funny|piloted]].

** [[Dune|Arrakis]] in NAEV.

** ''Nova'' has a [[Ring World]] named Tre'ar [[Halo|Helonis]].

** The [[Forklift Fu]], a [[Lethal Joke Item]] in ''Classic'', is a reference to an episode of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''.

* [[Single Biome Planet]]: Several planets are described in a manner that seems to give them a single biome.

** Though this might be application of the [[Law of Conservation of Detail]]: the planetary description box has a limit on the amount of text it can display, and has no scrollbar.

* [[Warp Whistle]]: ''Nova'' has the hypergate system, unlockable after the right mission(s), as well as {{spoiler|wormholes hidden at the edges of certain systems}}.

* [[Wave Motion Gun]]: Plenty, although ''Nova's'' Capacitor Pulse Laser is probably the best example.

** ''Nova's'' Winter Tempest weapon for the Vell-os. It does quite a bit of continuous damage and ignores shields, skipping straight to hull damage.

*** [[Awesome but Impractical|Yet it eats up Your (Mental) Energy like theres no tomorrow]]

* [[Wide Open Sandbox]]: Very wide. All of the games have large galaxy maps.

** Some [[Game Mod|total conversions]] for ''Nova'', notably ''Starfleet Adventures'' and ''[[EV Nova]]: United Galactic Federation'', feature map sizes bordering on ridiculous.

* [[Zerg Rush]]: In many missions, the player has to deal with this. The AI can only handle a few forms of combat, and Zerg Rush is one of them.

** [[Mook Chivalry]]: Due [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit|(at least in part)]] to [[Cap|engine limitations]], the dozens or even hundreds of ships in a planetary/station defense fleet can only fight you a few at a time, making battles with them very lengthy.