Has anyone here ever heard of / played it?


If you haven't, here's a (brief) introduction:


The Escape Velocity series was created by Ambrosia Software originally for the Mac (but has been since ported to PC), and consists of three games, the original Escape Velocity (1996), Escape Velocity Override (1998), and Escape Velocity Nova (2002). There's also a free fan-made clone currently in beta testing called NAEV. It's hard to summarize the games easily in one post, but they are essentially top-down space shooters with a number of rpg and rougelike elements. As the excellent TvTropes page for the series notes, the game "Looks like Asteroids, plays like Elite". The combat is similar to that in Star Control II, although it plays much more smoothly in EV.


The game universes consist of a number of linked star systems which players hyperjump between and explore. Almost all will contain a number of AI ships belonging to various factions, usually randomly spawned upon entering the system, as well as at least one planet / port where the player can land, pick up missions, buy outfits to upgrade their ship, buy a brand new ship, or do numerous other activities.


A picture of part of the original Escape Velocity's map:

PBEM12 has just finished .. we crowned Kyan the winner as no-one really had a chance to beat an Expansive India on a heavily forested map!!

Anyone is welcome to sign-up and discuss settings. [thinking 6 or 8 players/teams]

Also, is there a map-maker out there who's willing?

Well, in a rambling email chain each player has volunteered to call this game in favor of India. Congratulations, Kyan!

I actually think we've all pretty much said whatever it is we really wanted to say in that email chain. I had some lengthy thoughts on the game which I suppose I will get around to posting, but I don't much care right now, I'm happy enough to say that I enjoyed playing with everyone, and I apologize for all the really mean things I said about everyone in my lurker thread.

If the Admins want to move this to completed games, that is indeed what it is.

Just wondering if any people on the board play estiah?

Its an online browser game, very loosly based around building different style decks to fight either PVP or PVE. Standard thing of having so many action points acrue per hour. by playing the cards you level skills which allow you to wield more powerful cards

A couple of things make it stand out for me from the normal stuff

a. Surprising involved tactics in decks, it gets more complicated at high levels, but even at low you have pure damage deck beats penetration deck beats armour deck beats pure damage deck for both melee and magic damage types.

b. Having multiple accounts gives you variety but little else, so unlike most games of this sort having 'mule' accounts doesnt really benefit you.

Anyway game is here:
http://www.estiah.com

And my referal link is here (gives me a small rise to a minor skill each time you level if you use the link, if you dont no hard feelings):
http://www.estiah.com/user/register/index/id/90885

Hi folks,

I wasn't sure where to post this, and after choosing this subforum I asked myself if anyone actually visits the off-topic section. In any case I wanted to share something with my fellow RBers. NASA has this thing called "Astronomy Picture of the Day", and one of the latest entries is this video of the Aurora Borealis. The video is taken in the northern part of Norway, where incidentally I hail from, but I think everyone can appreciate the beauty of the northern lights.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110328.html

Enjoy!

Don't read if you are a player
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And don't scroll further down.

1. 'o' (Ok) hotkey does not work on build screen
2. 'o' (Ok) hotkey does not work on town screen
3. Game crashed after my hero killed a night stalker in combat (on Myrran) - this was the very first night stalker I encountered.

A couple of RBers have expressed some interest in a SotS1 SG over in the Civ forum. Anyone interested in taking a look at SotS, please feel free to check it out.
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4592

PS SotS1 Complete Collection is just a few bucks these days so if you're looking to try it out before SotS2 arrives in Sept, now's a good time.

Nakor, Tatan and I did Monarch and Emperor SGs back in the fall, along with TT and Kyan for the later game. We always said we would try to get back to do this again on Immortal. Now seems like a good time for me because PBEM3 is finished, PBEM11 is moving like molasses, and WW3 is over.

We had pretty bad land in the Emperor game as I recall despite a great capital and just backdoored our way into a cultural victory. All this means that Immortal may well be beyond our skill level. But you have to start somewhere.

Right now, I have four people who signed up:

1. GES
2. Nakor
3. Luddite
4. scooter
5. TT

I offered the last spot to Tatan, but I haven't heard back yet. I think he might be too busy to play, so if someone is interested in playing with us, we may well have a spot in place of Tatan.


Here are the questions I want to put out to the turn players who have signed up so far:

1) Should we just random roll a leader?

Last time we did that, but on Immortal, should we just choose a leader and civ we think will be fun to play with and won't be too weak? Remember, Immortal is a big step up for everyone but Luddite who has signed up so far I think.

2) What speed do we want to play at?

I am against quick for sure. I am fine with normal or epic. I have never played epic before. I am pretty sure epic will make it a touch easier, but the game also starts off slower.

3) Previously we said 24h to grab the save and 48h to play and post an update. Is everyone still cool with that?

4) I would prefer to keep the thread here at RB where I know everyone rather than at CFC. Is everyone OK with that?

5) Any particular map settings that we want?


Once we make some decisions, I will roll a few starts and see what everyone wants to play.

As usual, I am fine with lurker comments. Luddite is essentially our ringer, but I don't mind any advice from the helpful veterans around here either.

I'm creating this thread so we don't have to keep re-using the thread in the General Forum. I wanted to let you all know that the tracker is up and running! Here it is:

http://mistbinder.org/RBPBEM16tracker.php

The Gmail account should still send you the save, but this will let you know where the save is at, and if Gmail should mess up on the FW at some point, there's always the download button on the tracker that should work. Big thanks to Mist for hosting the tracker for us.