Heck, if you do already know about the mod, watch the trailer anyway.
Trailer
For those who aren't familiar with it have some copypasta from Maplantis.
Quote from me
Premise
While reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy a while ago, I was struck with an idea for a mod. And so Ad Astras arose. This mod is based not around battle tactics, but around long-term strategy: yes, of course your tactics are vital, but nowhere near as important as they are in many mods. Resource management, tech choices, unit production...these are your main areas of focus.
The mod is set in the distant future, when the Empire of Sol has collapsed, leaving the areas of the galaxy under the control of local governments. You take the role of ruler of one of these rising stars and must lead your armada to victory.
Gameplay
Mineral desposits are silly; we're talking about colonizing entire planets for expansions. Yes, that's right. Planets. You start with an outpost, a couple workers, and a couple scout ships, and build your way up to a galactic empire. Although there are technically around 40 different units (only one race, though), the mainstream military units fall into only seven different types, with most of the remainder consisting of upgrades to them. Because, seriously, if you've just found a new kind of weapon, your ships aren't all spontaneously going to all suddenly have it equipped, and retrofitting is is pretty hard with spacesihps. So if you want that Firefly to have extra firepower, you'll need to build it in from the start.
Closely related to this is the tech tree. Instead of the normal building/unit progression, all buildings and units are dependent on your tech level in three fields: Engineering, Weaponry, and Piloting. A Firefly fighter requires nothing, but a Firefly with upgraded weapons requires Weaponry Level 1. And so on. These techs are pretty darn expensive, though, so choose wisely...
Other features
Well, since there's only one race, the aspect of player control has to enter into the equation somewhere, right? Which is the rationale behind the Sanction system.
At the beginning of the game, you start with 2 Sanction Points, which you can spend on any of 10 one-level upgrades which do all sorts of things, mostly in the way of unit construction. One, for instance, lets you build heavy siege ships, another allows the construction of a money-giving building, and a third gives a certain ship an uber-planet-killer-laser-storm-of-death. There's a total of 45 possible combinations, so go crazy
Oh, yeah, by the way, space is big. Really big. And I'm trying to give some idea--not an accurate one, but a general impression--of how big space really is, that is to say "really big." This means that it takes a long time for units to get anywhere--another reason why strategy has a bigger effect that tactics.
Oh, did I mention that it can only be played on special maps? "Oh no!" I hear you cry, "Whatever shall we do?" Not to fear, for 25 such maps--count 'em--are packaged with the mod. I make no guarantees as to balance and such issues, but they look pretty well-balanced to me.
While reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy a while ago, I was struck with an idea for a mod. And so Ad Astras arose. This mod is based not around battle tactics, but around long-term strategy: yes, of course your tactics are vital, but nowhere near as important as they are in many mods. Resource management, tech choices, unit production...these are your main areas of focus.
The mod is set in the distant future, when the Empire of Sol has collapsed, leaving the areas of the galaxy under the control of local governments. You take the role of ruler of one of these rising stars and must lead your armada to victory.
Gameplay
Mineral desposits are silly; we're talking about colonizing entire planets for expansions. Yes, that's right. Planets. You start with an outpost, a couple workers, and a couple scout ships, and build your way up to a galactic empire. Although there are technically around 40 different units (only one race, though), the mainstream military units fall into only seven different types, with most of the remainder consisting of upgrades to them. Because, seriously, if you've just found a new kind of weapon, your ships aren't all spontaneously going to all suddenly have it equipped, and retrofitting is is pretty hard with spacesihps. So if you want that Firefly to have extra firepower, you'll need to build it in from the start.
Closely related to this is the tech tree. Instead of the normal building/unit progression, all buildings and units are dependent on your tech level in three fields: Engineering, Weaponry, and Piloting. A Firefly fighter requires nothing, but a Firefly with upgraded weapons requires Weaponry Level 1. And so on. These techs are pretty darn expensive, though, so choose wisely...
Other features
Well, since there's only one race, the aspect of player control has to enter into the equation somewhere, right? Which is the rationale behind the Sanction system.
At the beginning of the game, you start with 2 Sanction Points, which you can spend on any of 10 one-level upgrades which do all sorts of things, mostly in the way of unit construction. One, for instance, lets you build heavy siege ships, another allows the construction of a money-giving building, and a third gives a certain ship an uber-planet-killer-laser-storm-of-death. There's a total of 45 possible combinations, so go crazy
Oh, yeah, by the way, space is big. Really big. And I'm trying to give some idea--not an accurate one, but a general impression--of how big space really is, that is to say "really big." This means that it takes a long time for units to get anywhere--another reason why strategy has a bigger effect that tactics.
Oh, did I mention that it can only be played on special maps? "Oh no!" I hear you cry, "Whatever shall we do?" Not to fear, for 25 such maps--count 'em--are packaged with the mod. I make no guarantees as to balance and such issues, but they look pretty well-balanced to me.
And on to the patch notes for this version.
Quote from the Readme
RELEASE 1.5
-(Unit Changes)-
Defense Platforms, Laser Batteries, Ion Cannons, and Vanguards now require 4 supply each.
Militia Fighters now require 1 supply each.
Pulse Singularities now require 20 supply.
Pulse Singularities now deal damage in one blast instead of radiating beams.
Reduced Draconis HP by 40.
Croniades attack now deals damage to target instead of having Stasis effect.
Tyrant-line ships are now built from Project Development.
The Vanguard no longer has the lift-off ability.
Vanguard cost decreased to 750 material.
-(Gameplay)-
Added Lamia line.
Planetary resources are now awarded on a diminishing-returns system.
-(Bug Fixes)-
Corrected the Command Platform (Arming)'s portrait.
Corrected the sounds for the Arming Command Platform and Eleint.
Fixed a kill-score bug.
Fixed a unit size bug.
Fixed a bug in which buttons would not disappear correctly from lifted-off Vanguards.
-(Miscellany)-
Updated readme.
-(Status unknown)-
Possibly fixed a bug causing units to become unselectable
-(Unit Changes)-
Defense Platforms, Laser Batteries, Ion Cannons, and Vanguards now require 4 supply each.
Militia Fighters now require 1 supply each.
Pulse Singularities now require 20 supply.
Pulse Singularities now deal damage in one blast instead of radiating beams.
Reduced Draconis HP by 40.
Croniades attack now deals damage to target instead of having Stasis effect.
Tyrant-line ships are now built from Project Development.
The Vanguard no longer has the lift-off ability.
Vanguard cost decreased to 750 material.
-(Gameplay)-
Added Lamia line.
Planetary resources are now awarded on a diminishing-returns system.
-(Bug Fixes)-
Corrected the Command Platform (Arming)'s portrait.
Corrected the sounds for the Arming Command Platform and Eleint.
Fixed a kill-score bug.
Fixed a unit size bug.
Fixed a bug in which buttons would not disappear correctly from lifted-off Vanguards.
-(Miscellany)-
Updated readme.
-(Status unknown)-
Possibly fixed a bug causing units to become unselectable
Oh yeah: almost forgot
Download!PATCH 1.5.1: Download!
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 22 2008, 2:31 pm by Lord Agamemnon.
None.
