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Poo Bear
Pod Team
Joined: 14 Oct 2002
Posts: 4121
Location: Sheffield, UK
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 Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:33 pm Post subject: Starport GE |
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http://www.playtechtonics.com/information.php
Massively multiplayer 2D Elite style space trading game, it doesn't really look that great and it didn't seem that massive. You pick a server to join and the game resets every two weeks, the highest population I ever saw was ~50 people on a server. You can hop from one system to another and trade goods at space stations or ferry NPC's from one station to another for credits. They've also added planets you can explore, landing shows a pretty ropey randomly generated dungeonesque map which can contain resources or colonies or more often nothing.
You can play for free but if you run out of money there is the option of spending real cash on more ingame currency. Just to help push things along there are various taxes, expensive upgrades to buy and even fuel has to be paid for (although it regenerates if you sit still). Some servers are private and you have to pay a one off entry fee. I was dubious but people in their forum say a lot of players hardly ever put real money in so I think they've tried to be fair about it. I was really excited when I heard about this game being as I'm such a big Elite fan and I think if I really put some time in I could probably get a lot out of it. I've spent about 2 hours with the game so far (which I know isn't much) and I have no clue what is going on. I think you would need to scour the forums before playing to really work anything out.
Most of the planets are empty, but there is probably some trick to working out which ones might have resources on them.
If a planet has a colony on it then you'll take one shot and die, but then I am a newbie. What do colonies do anyway?
The game universe seems enormous, in fact it is far too big for the small number of players in it. You see plenty of ships but most of the time they seem to be NPC's or maybe they're humans who are ignoring me.
Trying to work out where to buy and sell goods is still a mystery to me, I keep looking for some trick to it, but I suppose I'd have to fly all over and note down prices and just work it out. Gosh that sounds like hard work.
Even though there aren't that many players there is still a healthy dose of "you are a newbie, I am not, I will kill you and laugh at you and there is nothing you can do about it. My ship and weapons own joo". I just love that aspect of unbalanced multiplayer gaming.
I'm confused and frustrated 
Just recently they've been running some advertising and this has caused a large influx of visitors. Some seem to be saying the same things I am and getting roasted on the forums by the lifers  . If you put the time in to research the forums for info then I think this could be fun. You can play for free too so it's worth a look. One day I will find the holy grail of Elite games, just got to keep searching. |
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OvermindDL1
Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 138
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| Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:18 am Post subject: |
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| Its not terribly interesting once you've played it for a bit. I've learned that no matter how powerful you've become or how many defenses around dettlements you've made, someone, sometime when you are offline, will turn them all to dust... |
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Flumpaphone
Joined: 18 Sep 2003
Posts: 86
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| Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:20 am Post subject: |
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Did anyone else notice the advert for Starport over at Penny Arcade? It's still there if you want to catch it.
Did anything strike you as familiar?
Perhaps it was just me thinking it was a direct rip-off of a Starscape advert. (yours, of course, looked infinitely better  )
Still, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery etc.
It could perhaps be just me. I know it was not the first game of its type, however Starscape defined a genre for me (It's not the 2d, top down, space shooter genre! It's the Starscape genre!!)
Regarding Starport: it is full of great ideas, but I think it is a case of A for effort, D for implementation. People who like Subspace might enjoy it however (I never could understand why people liked that but it seems to have a big following). |
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hair65
Joined: 13 Jul 2018
Posts: 886
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