Hoshikaze 2250 "Stars of Call" NAEV Total Conversion

[Mutos]

Hello all,


I'm Mutos, from the Hoshikaze 2250 Association. We are a French team who develop a Sci-Fi universe, based on 2/3 Space-Op and 1/3 Hard-Science, with some Cyberpunk spice for flavor.

So here's "Stars of Call", the videogame we're developing...

click on thumbnail to show image

click on thumbnail to show image

You can get the game's current state on Sourceforge (r97 as of 16/02/2013:2115-CET). Get the tar.gz, unzip it, run naev.exe, wait some time because loading the universe can take a few minutes, adjust the screen resolution and that's it !

For long we have sought a suitable engine for making our own game, inspired by the Elite-like, EV-like and ROgue-like genres. Now we've found the open-source EV-like NAEV and begun developing on it a prototype of the "Stars of Call" video game, as a NAEV Total Conversion. The game itself is an EV-like, seen from above, with the player captaining a starship. Exploration is the base of the gameplay, along with trade and combat, and numerous missions and events to be implemented, making for a very lively and immersive universe.

Current releases as of 02/2013 feature a near-complete map of the "lawful" areas with a few pirates-infested zones for testing combat, a set of ships including mainly freighters and some drones, fighters and corvettes. A small set of outfits is available, but still far from the full range. Very few events and missions are implemented for now and their triggers are badly written, so they are not often available. Anyway, all features will undergo heavy modifications in the months to come...

Personally, I consider it a pre-alpha at around 50% features and 10% contents coverage of the Hoshikaze 2250 universe, but thanks to the amazing NAEV engine, in this very early state, the game is fully working, playable and enjoyable !

And now, a small preview of the Hoshikaze 2250 setting...

Quote:The Hoshikaze 2250 universe is a parallel timeline in which, for us Humans, the space quest didn't stall in the 80s, but continued on its blazing trail... By 2000 we had numerous orbital stations and ion drive ships to explore the Sol system. By 2023 we discovered the warp drive to reach g+ accelerations, rendering sublight travel practical. Sublight extrasolar planets colonisation began by the 2050s and by the end of the century, hyperspace tunnels linking stellar systems were discovered by studying warp singularities.

We then encountered two other major species, the pacifist insectoïd K'Rinns and the warlike feline Rithai, who had already been spacegoers for centuries. A decades-long rith faction rivalry turned to war when the Rithai encountered the peaceful K'Rinns, whom it soon engulfed against their will. The belligerents then stumbled upon human factions already waging their own wars. This led to an all-out conflict named the "Fringe War", that only ended with the creation of the Spacegoing Species Commonwealth.

Two other species were contacted afterwards : the reptilo-avian Sshaads, whose children are mindless predators until they undergo Rebrth and gain access to self-consciousness, and the symbiotic Pupeteers, who live on various animals they control by connecting on their nervous system, and whose blood they use to feed upon. But no Puppeteer ever killed his bearer and they regard killing animals for meat, like Sshaads, Humans and Rithai do, as a disgusting and barbarian way of life.

The last species so far integrated in the Commonwealth is the Shapeshifters, whose homeworld was invaded by a sshaad faction, but who are now building a common culture with the Sshaads. However, the Complementarism is not accepted by all sshaad factions, leading to growing tensions within the Sshaad Sphere. Also, in open space, there are consistent sightings of mysterious giant spaceship from a species named the Navigators, but only a few puppeteer scientists barely begin to understand them.

Two extinct species are also known. The Purgatorians seemingly destroyed themselves after reaching the stars, and their homeworld was discovered by Humans, who waged a horrible war between Political Corporations over the possession of the high-tech remnants. The Ha'Tinkar were related to the K'Rinns. They were gengineered by a Purgatorians party that visited the K'Rinn-Ha'Tinkar homeworld shortly before purgatorian demise. Subsequent genetic flaws made the Ha'Tinkar sensitive to some diseases. One of them, endemic in certain k'rinn populations, killed the entire species in a matter of years, shortly after K'Rinn-Ha'Tinkar contact, despite desperate worldwide efforts to find a cure. This tragedy, seen by the very life-respectful K'Rinns as an involuntary genocide, has left a deep wound in the species' culture, that is likely to stay open for centuries.

In 2250, all species leave in a very relative peace, each being split into multiple factions, with inter-factions relations ranging from cooperation to local conflicts. Space is vast and only the planets and main jump routes can be controlled by the States, leading to extensive piracy and smuggling activities. Spacers are a growing part of all species and are slowly building a common culture of their own, overcoming the differences between their species of origin. As the saying tells : "Spacers from different species are often closer-minded than with their own planetbound relatives."

An important final point : "Stars of Call" is not an isolated project, but rather a subproject of a far larger endeavour...

We write this universe on French-speaking Wiki, which acts as a collectively maintained universe bible. From it, we derive works on other media, and any new material published on other media is bound to return to the wiki. We do not limit ourselves to a media or another, but publish on any media that is both accessible and enjoyable for us...

So far, the association has published in paperback 3 short stories books taking place in the Hoshikaze 2250 universe, totalling 35 short stories from 10 authors. In 2010-2011, we prototyped a cooperative boardgame where the players are a cargo crew that must complete a mission in dangerous space by coordinating the efforts and skills of all crew members. And we are also active in French Conventions, for instance we've maintained a regular presence at Zone Franche and Japan Expo for some years already. We organize internships with local art, engineering, multimedia and videogame schools on subjects related to our universe's development.

[Mutos]

Hello all,


A few more screenshots, including all of them into the first post triggered the spam filter because it's my second post, so they are there...

[Brian Rubin]

Wow, this looks very impressive! I'll have to give it a whirl. :-)

[Mutos]

Thanks, hope it'll please you ! Be indulgent, however, it's only at a very early stage of completion ^-^

[Mutos]

Hi all,


An r98 is now downloadable at http://starsofcall.svn.sourceforge.net/v.../?view=tar !

The only addition is a proper readme for the SoC NAEV TC, split in 3 files. They're still incomplete but at least they're present.

[Mutos]

Hi all,


An r99 is now downloadable at http://starsofcall.svn.sourceforge.net/v.../?view=tar !

Ship balancing with respect to jump range and cargo capacity has been started. It's far from complete, but ships are quite less unbalanced than before. Also added Grumbel to the credits readme file.

[Brian Rubin]

Cool cool, thanks for the update!

[Mutos]

Hi all,


Thanks Brian, and another is here ! I'll announce every single update in 3 forums : Hoshikaze, NAEV and yours, with your permission. They come out every 2-3 days, depending on time available to work on the TC.

An r100 is now downloadable at http://starsofcall.svn.sourceforge.net/v.../?view=tar !

Added a Rith portrait and an asteroid-carved training base on the Sol system.

[Brian Rubin]

Sure, go for it.

[solcommand]

Nice game you guys have there. I really like the multitude of specs and details you seem to have on the items in your game, particularly the ships (from what I can see in the pics).