Light of Icarus

Light of Icarus was originally made for RMN’s Theme Roulette 4 in about 2 days of main gammaking due to school and life stuff coming up. A lack of easily attained assets also hurt progress. As such it is a relatively short demo, tho it has been updated with additional depth and fixes. It will get additional content and story at a later date.

Current Demo version 1.01b.
Changes from 1.01a:
New and updated battle system.
Substantial additions and changes to game systems.
Re-balancing of all ship equipment and enemy ships.
Lower cost of equipment and ships.
Increased income.

It might be a while before the next update because of school, but work continues slowly.

Game page TO DO: Add more technologies information.

Gameplay-
Light of Icarus is a Sci-fi RPG that centers around story and ship combat. Ships do not level up by themselves, instead actions by the player and events will raise the level of the main cast which provides bonuses and unlocks skills for the ships. Ships are highly customizable with varied loadouts that help reflect the player’s own playstyle and individuality of the ships design. A departure from standard Rpgmaker RPGs, the standard attack skill is replaced with a highly customized skill that will use all normal guns/attacks of a ship at the same time. Since the main combat group of the player fleet can have 8 ships, modifying the attack skill for speed and efficiency was very important to keep battles from dragging on. The total active fleet is 32 ships divided into 4 different groups associated by color. The Main Combat/Command Group is gold and are the ships controllable by the player in combat. Strike/Flanker Group, Defense/Picket Group, and Support/Artillery Group mechanics are not implemented at this time.


Stats-
Another departure from traditional RPGs is that almost every ship, vessel, etc has defensive energy shields. The current strength of a shield, abbreviated as SP, is displayed underneath the HP, or Hull Points, of each ship. Shield Recharge, SHR, is how much SP a ship recharges per turn. Energy, or EN, is used to activate some skills, such as Boost Shields, and is reduced by equipping various equipment on a ship. Reactors provide Maximum Energy and Energy recharge per turn for a ship and are highly valuable pieces of equipment. In combat enemy HP, SP, and EN are visible.

Attack increases the damage done by an attack by one percent. Defense modifies a ships Armor, each defense point increases armor by one percent. Agility increases a ships attack speed, evasion, and critical hit percentages. Point Defense reduces how much damage a ship takes from strike craft, noted as PDF, and from missiles and torpedoes, shown as PDT.

Many weapon types have their own quirks and uses so having a varied loadout across your fleet is advisable. There are multiple types of other equipment as well with advantages and disadvantages.

Another major difference is that the amount of equipment ships can have installed is limited by a weight system, technically a mass system since there is no weight without gravity. Each point of Weight is approx. 100 metric tons. The limit is called Maximum Weight, which is based on the ships class, size, and modifications. The relatively massive size of even a light corvette is due to the various sub-systems, structural components, but primarily the warp drive. A gunship, equal in many respects to a corvette but lacking a warp drive, tends towards half the size and less than half the mass of a corvette. The lack of a warp drive limits such ships to close orbital operations without a carrier or being a parasite ship. Ships also have different equipment slots based on class, size, and modification as well.

Weapon slots for main guns are separated into generic and specific types. The size, such as Small or Medium, also limits what weapon can be put in the slot. A Large Photonic Lance weighing in at 200ct will not fit on a corvette. Specific types are separated into weapon type categories such as Energy, Ballistic, and Missile. Hangar slots perform similarly to main weapons. Torpedo and Artillery slots give a ship special attacks, limited by cooldown or ammunition, but do not fire without authorization during normal attack salvos.


Story-
Well into the fifth millennium mankind has traveled the stars and found many things fantastic, wonderful, and horrifying. Mankind has been divided, reunited, and torn apart countless times, but still survives to this day. Will it be so tomorrow? The movements of the great and powerful drive fear into the weak and spur others to build weapons to tear down the powerful. How can mankind have peace in such desperate times? Is there an end to this spiral of insanity? In anguished cries, people call out to the stars for answers and the stars hesitate to answer. Do they ignore us, or would their answer be so terrible it would be ignored? What if something did speak and we listened? Out in a distant corner of space, far from the high technology of the ancient planets of man, we might find an answer and with it our salvation. Or our destruction.

Characters-
Daltanis Wilks- Captain of the FPC Libertà dall'Ingiustizia. Long term Corsair and pirate hunter. Comes from the noble family Wilks, though his darker appearance suggests he is of the lesser known Stolt side of the family. Daltanis has been a frequent sailor of stars since he was a young lad and even owned an IW-9001 Waverunner at one point.

Corene Beran- Typically goes by Corene for some reason. She is the communications and navigational officer under Captain Wilks’ command. Corene can be found gossiping with various crewmembers in the Mess Hall while the Libertà dall'Ingiustizia is underway. She seems to keep what she does on liberty, or shore leave, private.

Ritta Pushkin- Ritta is a relatively new crewmember and although she lacks the practical experience of some of her crewmates, she tries to make up for it with her academic experience. Graduated top ten percent of her class in General Engineering and specializes in Naval, Space Engineering. Ritta frequently suggests upgrades, modifications, or overhauls the Libertà dall'Ingiustizia is in dire need of to Captain Wilks, though without the resources he just adds them to an ever-growing wish list.

Urial Gamedynei- Commonly goes by Urial as people not from Capyros III usually butcher it’s pronounciation. Urial is a scientist and chief medical officer under Captain Wilks. He doesn’t get out of Medbay much, but his job has people come to him.

Pernidea Harris- Specializes in manual ship navigation, otherwise known as a pilot, but also has knowledge of tactical and rescue operations. Has multiple cybernetic implants. Pernidea prefers to spend her down time reading or playing simulator games.


Factions-
Free Planets Collective- Frequently referred to as just the ‘Free Planets’ the FPC is a group of quasi-independent start systems and independent planets under elected representative rule. The star system Capyros is one such system and is located on the outer edge of FPC space. Though the Free Planets is considered a minor nation it possesses multiple fleets, including the battle-hardened Fleet Bartek, so named after the warrior from Tcha’t’ec legends.

San Suir- A single star system nation. The current ruling authoritarian regime is under constant threat by over two dozen local groups ranging from peaceful protest organizations to indiscriminate terrorist groups. As a result of deteriorating conditions pirate activity has spiked in recent years. San Suir has a strong rivalry with the Capyros system.

Onma- A minor nation in close proximity to the Free Planets Collective. Relations between the two nations has been strained for the last sixty years.

Itwan- A minor independent system nation in close proximity to the Free Planets Collective. Has cordial ties to the FPC and Itwan trading vessels can be found traveling to Capyros or even into Vercuna.

The Union- One of the five largest human nations in known space. The Union is the newest member to the Council of Humanity, replacing the Ghennlit Autocracy in an absorbative war, and taking the newly vacant fifth seat on the Council. The Union was seated and officially recognized over three centuries prior to present day. The Union has technology far in advance of most smaller nations and an efficient infrastructure to leverage its substantial economic power. In part due to its technological and economic power, the Union has had few open wars since its formation.


Technologies-
FTL- Faster Than Light, method for ships to travel the stars in reasonable timespans.

Warp- Refers to any system, technology, or theory relating to the sub-inter-dimensional plane. Subspace is any dimension lower than three, typically higher than two. Hyperspace is greater than 3+1 but less than four. Note: Exceptions are known, however the further from normal space a denizen of that space goes the more difficult it is. Dimensions different than the 3+1 normal plane dimension are exceedingly hostile to 3-dimensional biological entities, warp field or mass shielding destabilization can result in cellular disintegration. See three-dimensional representations of tesseracts, a fourth-dimensional shape.

Warp Nexus- A singular point in space that allows easy initiation of a dimensional fold allowing a vessel to enter warp space. Warp Nexus are the most stable known phenomena in the galaxy and seem to hold absolute points relative to a local star or gravity well.

Shields- Any number of protective energy forces. Most often used to protect objects from aggressive intent, but also has many peaceful applications.
Lasers- "Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation", used in medical, industrial, scientific, recreational, and military technologies. Due to laser output scaling linearly, provided sufficient cooling and other technologies exist, lasers are fantastically effective military weapons. Rapid development of energy shield and more advanced reflective/refractive material technologies in the 25th century were a direct result of reasonably efficient space-borne laser weapons.

MagAccel- Originally a brand name for “magnetic acceleration” weapons by the Coliburn Corporation, it has long since been used as a proprietary eponym for assisted magnetic rail weaponry with an emphasis on efficiency and a six-rail launcher. Other styles of rail launcher exist and are called MagAccel. The use of a chemical propellant means that less energy is used to accelerate the projectile mass, though it lacks the true destructive power of a full railgun.
Coil Gun- A simple type of magnetic accelerator weapon utilizing a wound coil to drive mass. Some coil guns make use of chemical propellants to increase rate of fire and reduce energy usage. Either way a coil gun cannot rival the power of a railgun.

Railgun- A generic form of magnetic accelerator weapon. Utilizes electromagnetism to propel mass at extreme velocity. Energy consumption and destructive power is high.
Polarization, Hull- Polarization of a ships hull increases molecular bond strength to resist external forces. Even civilian craft make use of some level of hull polarization to resist wear and tear from warp travel and even constant acceleration and de-acceleration in space.

Nanite- A “micro-machine” on the nano scale. Can perform a myriad of tasks, however each nanite must be specifically built and programmed for a specific job to do it well. Industrial nanites became viable in the 2400s while medical nanites for specific tasks were only viable post-2600s. The thermal increase in a patients’ body that occurs even with modern nanites usage prevents casual use and is only administered in a controlled setting. As such, field use of nanites is not common and even violates many nation’s medical standards.