Escape Velocity is a
shareware game put out by
Ambrosia Software for
MacOS. In the game, you play a
starship pilot out to make his/her
fortune. Starting out with a small
shuttle craft, you must work your way up to bigger and better ship by running
missions, trading
cargo, or through piracy. Along the way, you will be able to get bigger, faster and more powerful ships and weapons. You must keep track of your
reputation, both as a
fighter, and with other governments. A positive reputation with governments will allow you to run missions with them, opening to door for profit and danger. A negative reputation means that ships of that government may
attack you, and you will be
forbidden to land on their planets. EV is a dynamic game, the world changing around you as you progress through the game.
The world of EV takes place many years after the Great War, where a powerful alien race was destroyed in self defense by the humans. The massive government had grown corrupt, and a rebellion took hold. The universe was embattled between the Confederation and the Rebellion, with many un-aligned worlds in the middle. All this time, pirates establish home worlds, and attack freighters transporting goods between worlds.
You see the game from a top, 3rd person view, controlling your ships acceleration, direction and weapons with the keyboard, the mouse is only used when landed or while viewing the galactic map. when landed, and if the planet has the right facilities, you can go to the bar, where you can hire escorts and gamble. The bar is also a place where people seeking to hire you can find you. You can also use that mission computer to search for shipping jobs that are available. There is a Commodity Exchange where you can go to buy and sell basic commoditys like food or medical devices. New ships are available at the Shipyard, and upgrades to your ship can be bought and sold at the Outfitter. EV has tons of interwoven plots, dependent on each other, and each has many subplots.
One of the most interesting features about EV is it's plug-in architecture. The format for writing plug-ins is simple, and many editors are available to help with this. Using plug-ins, almost every aspect of the EV world can be changed. In fact, even the standard data files are plug-ins.
The way the plug-ins work is rather clever. First, the data files are loaded, then the plug ins are examined, and any resource in the plug-in has the same ID number as one in the data file, it is replace in memory.
EV has a companion game, Escape Velocity Override.
Much thanks to CentrX for his content and grammer help