Cap\'n Aures sez \"Respect my authoritah!\"

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 11:54 am

LOL.................

:P:P:P:P:P

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 5:44 am

Star Trek Infinite Space

Aures · Post by **Aures** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 6:01 pm

Nope no cigar.

The prize is still on offer but I am bumping it up to 250,000,000. If it is released before anyone guesses correctly the offer will expire and I will just come out and say what I am involved with.

PandaBear · Post by **PandaBear** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 6:57 pm

Tell me it independence war. I had alway been a big fan of IW. I only stop playing it cause I can not get it to work with win7

Atollski · Post by **Atollski** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 9:43 pm

Northstar?

Johnatan · Post by **Johnatan** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:24 pm

Sword of the Stars 2
Trudy's Mechanicals
Alpha Squad
Solaris Assault Tech
Aero Empire

even thou, i think its SOTS 2.

Aures · Post by **Aures** » Sat Nov 20, 2010 2:59 am

Great guesses everyone but no, none of those games. Time for some big hints:

1) It is an expansion pack for an existing game;

2) The name and some details of the expansion pack have just been released today;

3) Planned release date before Christmas.

The first person to put all of that together and figure it out gets a cool quarter billion. Only a month or so until it is released, it would be sad if no one gets if before then because then no one gets the prize.

Btw, since the op mentioned me getting Captain rank I should say I am now a Fleet Admiral.

[Edited on 20-11-2010 by Aures]

Tycow · Post by **Tycow** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 12:17 am

Oh oh! I know!

I'm in the same beta test

Do I get a prize?

:D:D

[Edited on 11-21-2010 by Tycow]

Aures · Post by **Aures** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 3:14 am

And you didn't pick it up earlier despite me using the same nick in both forums?

Nice try Tycow, I'll believe you when you tell me the name of the game

.

Tycow · Post by **Tycow** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 6:44 pm

Originally posted by Aures
And you didn't pick it up earlier despite me using the same nick in both forums?

Nice try Tycow, I'll believe you when you tell me the name of the game .

Pfft! Open your eyes and look at the private forum we get access to! There's a thread there started by moi (currently sitting 5 down from the top).

If that still doesn't convince you (

), would you like it displayed here or via PM?

[Edited on 11-21-2010 by Tycow]

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 9:30 pm

LOL^^^^........

:P:P:P:P

Aures · Post by **Aures** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 3:44 am

Free advertising for the game Tycow:). Your lucky I don't disqualify you because you are part of the test team. But, I'll be generous.

First to post the name of the game in this thread wins the prize whether it is you or someone else.

Tycow · Post by **Tycow** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:30 am

I won't name it due to having an unfair advantage

Instead, I'll leave a few more clues...

1) Recently discovered exoplanets are the main games name.

2) The main game was released earlier this year, and was a surprise hit for the publisher.

/moocow out!

Aures · Post by **Aures** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:50 am

Good on you Tycow.

Shouldn't be long until someone gets it now. Google could easily find it before, but now it is really obvious what search terms to try.

buggy · Post by **buggy** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 1:47 pm

its s4 league http://www.mys4league.com right?

Gordon · Post by **Gordon** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 2:44 pm

I'll take a guess at it.

Distant Worlds - Return of the Shakturi Revealed

[Edited on 11-22-2010 by Gordon]

Aures · Post by **Aures** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 4:16 pm

We have a winner!

Congratulations Gordon, you can claim the 100,000,000 prize from me on the Remula One server at your convenience.

Distant Worlds is a great game, shame it hasn't had more publicity. I was just checking the forum before I turn in for the night so I will post more details about why it is special tomorrow.

Gordon · Post by **Gordon** » Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:44 pm

Originally posted by Aures
We have a winner!

Congratulations Gordon, you can claim the 100,000,000 prize from me on the Remula One server at your convenience.

Distant Worlds is a great game, shame it hasn't had more publicity. I was just checking the forum before I turn in for the night so I will post more details about why it is special tomorrow.

Excellent! But I thought you said the prize was 250,000,000 for a correct guess? In either case I am donating my winnings to the Guild of Independent Merchants so when you see Marvin online give him my winnings.

The game looks very interesting and would like to hear more about it from you and Tycow

Aures · Post by **Aures** » Tue Nov 23, 2010 5:26 pm

Yeah I thought I had raised it to 250,000,000 but I didn't find that post in a quick scan of the thread yesterday

. 250,000,000 it is, I can see the post now.

The greatest thing about DW is that it isn't stultifying like most 4x games and doesn't take ages to get into. No need to play lengthy tutorials or read and absorb the manual before you play. Just fire up a game and let the AI handle most of it for you while you learn the ropes. Likewise it is possible to go through games at a high rate, you can spend hundreds of hours on a game if you like or just a few. There is a lot of customisability in how you set up your games and that greatly adds to the replay value.

It is real time and that gives it a huge advantage over all the turn based 4x games out there. The closest analogy I can come up with is it is like a Total War game but all the combat plays out at once and it is always properly resolved, never simulated. The entire thing is real time rather than a real time/turn based hybrid. It is 2d but planets actually orbit stars and moons orbit planets.

Keeping with the Total War theme, you know how the volume of trade is represented in those games by the number of ships passing between cities? In DW, every ship is a real ship carrying specific goods, trade in DW is real trade and not some simple number crunching with a visual cue. DW has something that I value very highly in a strategy game, resource physicality. Resources are mined where you find them and then shipped to where they are needed. They are not auto-magically instantly moved to wherever they are needed like in most strategy games.

They are planning to make a number of expansions for DW and Return of the Shakturi is just the first. An official product page for the expansion is going to be put up soon, once that is up I should be able to relay some of the awesome new stuff in the expansion. Everything I talked about above is part of the original.

Tycow · Post by **Tycow** » Tue Nov 23, 2010 6:44 pm

Congrats Gordon!

As Aures says, DW is definitely an unique game.

I'm very much a real time gamer. I cannot play turn based games for the life of me., no matter how many times I try.

I played games like K240, Fragile Allegiance and Imperium Galactica 2 until my discs were worn out, because there is nothing like being in control of an entire empire without having to press NEXT TURN repeatedly just to get the game going. Unfortunately, those three came out donkeys ago (K240 and Fragile Allegiance in the 90's). Nothing has managed to fill the gap left by them... that was until I found DW.

DW is a trip down memory lane combined with some of the latest gaming developments. It retains the 2D charm of yesteryear, but has Supreme Commander style zooming in and out. Want to see one of your planets, or look at the universe as a whole? No problem, just scroll your mouse wheel! As Aures says, planets and moons orbit the stars of their system, making planning an attack/fleet movement even more tactical. Black holes present navigational problems, nebulas eat your ships shields (and eventually your ships), space creatures like tearing your scouts to pieces if they sit still long enough, pirates try to threaten you into paying for protection or sell you information about abandoned ships and bases... *GASP*

The ship design, different empires, tactics, colonising... there are so many good things about the game it's hard to get them all down. The fact that it was mostly all done by one bloke in his bedroom is even more deserving of recognition (much like Vice and ER/EL/EM

).

The addon (which we cannot discuss too much, because of the NDA we had to sign) makes the game even better.

Keep an eye on it.

[Edited on 11-23-2010 by Tycow]