Attached is a news release that provides a little more information about Dark Expanse.
Dark Expanse News Release 27 October 2010
Summary: Dark Expanse is a free-to-play, real-time, massive multi-player online strategy game of galactic conquest. Local commanders develop their resources, improve their planets, colonize new worlds, research new technologies and build space fleets while defending their territory and conquering enemy worlds. Choose your friends and allies carefully because mutual offensive, defensive and navigational capabilities can be achieved through combining forces with other commanders.
Dark Expanse: Have you captured a planet today?
Dark Expanse is the newest Massive Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy (MMORTS) games developed by Deorc Enterprise. Dark Expanse is a complex long-term space strategy game, with an easy to use interface, and flexibility that provides the player many strategic options. The game is free-to-play and no special downloads or software are required.
Deorc Enterprise is a small start up company with a unique outlook on space strategy game design. Our development philosophy is not to mimic existing products but to provide the most innovative game play possible. Deorc Enterprise has created a real-time strategy game with several diverse design approaches when compared to similar games in this genre. So how is Dark Expanse different from other browser based space strategy games?
No Research Tree
First, Dark Expanse does not have a research development tree. For example, in some game designs, a player might need 5 levels of laser technology before they can build a laser cannon. Within Dark Expanse, the player is free to improve any of the technologies, whenever they want, and in any order they want. Therefore, the player determines which technologies are important to their strategy and is not locked into something determined by the game developer.
Each Combat Unit Is Unique
Also, many games have combat units that are stamped from a mold. Meaning all ships or planetary defenses of a certain class are exactly the same. Within Dark Expanse, each combat unit is unique. Therefore, a Destroyer built on planet A, with a Ship Weapons Technology of 1000, is not the same as a Destroyer built on planet B, with a Ship Weapons Technology of 3000. This is because each combat unit reflects the level of technology of the producing planet.
Persistent Combat Damage and Maintenance
Because each combat unit is unique, there is persistent combat damage. This means, each unit has a chance of getting damaged during combat, and that damage persists until it is repaired. Which leads us to another concept which we believe is special to a browser based strategy game. Individual combat units can be sent to the ship yard for maintenance so the combat damage can be repaired. Also, a unit that had previously been built, with a lesser technology, can be sent to the ship yard to be retrofitted. This makes Dark Expanse different because in many games, the combat unit is either alive or dead. There is no in between.
Constant Build Times
Another deviation is, that for all items, the cost and build times remain consistent. Many similar style games increase the build times and cost for each level of an item. So it takes longer and longer to build that next level of research and that next level consumes more resources as well.
Universe Has Three Dimensions
Surprisingly, several space based games have a flat two dimensional universe. The Dark Expanse universe has randomly placed stars within a three dimensional environment. The star map is displayed relative to the fleet's location, and fleets in transit are displayed on tracks that show their progress.
Astrogation
One of the main things that makes Dark Expanse unique is how ship travel is handled. The distance a fleet can travel is based on the best planetary astrogation for each star. Therefore, before a fleet is able to leave the star system, the player will need to raise a planet's Astrogation to the same technology level as the star distance the fleet is trying to reach. Another option is, that if the player is a federation member, and one of the federation member's astrogation spheres overlaps the star where the fleet is located, then the player will be able to use this alternate astrogation system to travel between the stars.
Fleet Travel Times
Since each ship is unique, each ship has it's own propulsion statistic. Each fleet travels at the speed of the slowest ship. Therefore, the time to traveling between two stars depends on the speed of the ships and the distance between the stars. Some games, with their two dimensional universe, have fixed standard travel times.
Level of Commitment
Within Dark Expanse, the attacking fleet can set a level of commitment. This means the player can tailor their attack. When in combat, once the attacking fleet exceeds the level of commitment, the fleet retreats. Right now, the defending fleets do not have a level of commitment but we are looking to change that in a future enhancement.
Numerous Missions
There are a wide variety of missions which are broken up between intra-stellar and interstellar missions. As is typical of the space strategy genre, Dark Expanse has colonization, bombardment, cargo loading, unloading, reconnaissance and invasion. Some unique mission types include espionage, sabotage and terrorism. Once a black ops team has been inserted, these teams automatically continue their activities each day until the team is caught by planetary security.
These are just a few of the concepts that makes Dark Expanse different. There are many more concepts on the future enhancements list that will continue to make Dark Expanse innovative in this game category for years to come. For additional information, Dark Expanse can be found at
www.deorc.com and questions can be submitted to questions@deorc.com.
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