History VideoGame / AlienLegacy

* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: The maximum number of colony platforms is slightly lower than the number of colonizable spots on all planets and asteroids. The purpose of this cap is unclear -- extra colonies don't take much memory compared to the game's requirements, and doubling the cap would've allowed to build them everywhere on the surface and have a space station at each planet and asteroid. They don't affect game balance, but the limit forces the player to jiggle resources frantically, if he invested in the inner planet and then decided to expand outward.

* PyrrhicVictory: After [[spoiler:the H'riak sporeship]] is found by the ''Tantalus'' colonists, they send their entire shuttle fleet to attack it. They manage to destroy all [[spoiler:its]] weapons but at the cost of 90% of the fleet.

* MeaningfulName: All planets are named after [[ClassicalMythology Greek gods]], which are equivalent to the [[ClassicalMythology Roman]] names for planets in the Solar system. The two Earth-like planets are named Gaea (earth goddess) and Rhea (mother of the gods). Interestingly, one of the ruins contains a mention of a movement among the ''Tantalus'' colonists to rename the planets to their Roman counterparts.

* WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalus Tantalus]] was punished by the [[ClassicalMythology gods]] for killing his son and generally being a dick to be trapped for eternity in [[FateWorseThanDeath Tartarus]] constantly presented with food and water and never being able to reach them, as well a huge rock suspended over his head. So you decide to name a ship that is supposed to keep humanity alive with a guy who ended up this way. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong

* FTLTravel: Averted at the beginning, when it takes the ''Calypso'' over a century to reach Beta Caeli on sublight. Even the Centaurians and [[spoiler:the H'riak]] don't have FTL drives. At the end, though, the humans and [[spoiler:Empiants]] manage to build [[AppliedPhlebotinum psychic amplifyiers]] that [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin amplify]] the [[spoiler:Empiants']] natural PsychicPowers that, in conjunction with the ''Calypso'''s fusion reactor, tear open a hole in space-time.

* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling / EverythingSensor: The "transcendental radiation" research allows shuttles to scan for things of interest on planets, moons, and asteroids.

* AbsentAliens: Despite the {{backstory}} mentioning the Centaurians, you spend much of the game with no aliens in sight. Then you find the [[spoiler:Empiants and the H'riak seedship]].

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: According to WordOfGod, the creators of the game knew that Beta Caeli is unlikely to have habitable planets (Beta Caeli is an F-type blue-white star, about 6 times hotter than the Sun) but chose it due to its relative proximity (about 90 light years away) and easily-remembered name. In reality, colony ships would most likely be sent to G-type yellow dwarfs, which would also have to be far enough away for the Centaurians not to find them and would, therefore, likely have a Henry Draper Catalog designation (e.g. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_154345 HD 154345]]).

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The H'riak seedship is destroyed and there is peace with the Empiants. Several colonists (both human and Empiant) manage to leave the system using the new FTL drive. However, all first-generation colonists are doomed to die soon thanks to the flawed process of turning people into {{Human Popsicle}}s]].

* PyrrhicVictory: After [[spoiler:the H'riak seedship]] is found by the ''Tantalus'' colonists, they send their entire shuttle fleet to attack it. They manage to destroy all [[spoiler:its]] weapons but at the cost of 90% of the fleet.

* FirstContact: In the {{backstory}}, first contact with the Centaurians in 2043 involved their probe destroying a scout ship and bombarding Earth with plague missiles. It's not even clear if humans even met a live Centaurian. They do have Centaurian gene samples to compare to life on Rhea and Gaea.
** The first contact with the [[spoiler:Empiants]] also results in a war. However, this is due to a misunderstanding, as [[spoiler:human brainwaves hurt the psychic aliens]].
** The samples were likely collected in the Oort Cloud after one of the many battles there.

* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: The "transcendental radiation" research allows shuttles to scan for things of interest on planets, moons, and asteroids.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Several notes found from the previous colonists reveal that the captain of the ''Tantalus'' had the ship's fusion reactor dismantled to speed up colony construction. After the [[spoiler:H'riak]] threat became apparent, many colonists cursed the captain for leaving them no option by to fight (without the reactor, the ''Tantalus'' couldn't flee the system).

The player takes on the role of TheCaptain of the UNS ''Calypso'', a colony ship sent from Earth to the Beta Caeli system in the wake of a HopelessWar between humanity and the Centaurians as a last-ditch effort to ensure that humans survive in some parts of the galaxy. Upon waking up from a HumanPopsicle state, you receive messages from Earth sent decades prior, which inform you of another colony ship, UNS ''Tantalus'', sent to Beta Caeli 16 years later but, thanks to a more efficient engine, set to arrive 21 years prior to the ''Calypso''. Upon arriving to the system, you see that it is remarkably similar to the Solar System. There are also remains of the ''Tantalus'' colonists' presence but no colonists themselves.

* EarthThatWas: Given that centuries (if not milllennia) have passed since the launch of the ''Calypso'', the fate of Earth remains unknown, especially since the most recent messages were erased or badly corrupted by a NevativeSpaceWedgie. The implication, though, is that the Centaurians have finally broken through Earth's defenses and wiped out everyone on the planet.

** Do not set up a self-sufficient colony on Gaea. You get plenty of time and multiple warnings here. You're killed by a ''science advisor''[[hottip:*:at the beginning she/he is introduced as an Executive Officer and your second in command, but that detail is ''never'' mentioned again]]. Apparently, the military advisor just sits by and does nothing.

* MeaningfulName: All planets are named after [[GreekMythology Greek gods]], which are equivalent to the [[RomanMythology Roman]] names for planets in the Solar system. The two Earth-like planets are named Gaea (earth goddess) and Rhea (mother of the gods). Interestingly, one of the ruins contains a mention of a movement among the ''Tantalus'' colonists to rename the planets to their Roman counterparts.

* WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalus Tantalus]] was punished by the [[GreekMythology gods]] for killing his son and generally being a dick to be trapped for eternity in [[FateWorseThanDeath Tartarus]] constantly presented with food and water and never being able to reach them, as well a huge rock suspended over his head. So you decide to name a ship that is supposed to keep humanity alive with a guy who ended up this way. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong

* CryoFailure: A possibility (read: RandomEvent) for a large number of as-yet unopened pods to fail if you don't act fast enough to provide a lot of living space in your colonies. Furthermore, if many colonists die this way, your science advisor will grant him/herself a KlingonPromotion (read:NonStandardGameOver).

The game involves colonizing the system and figuring out what happened to the ''Tantalus'' and her colonists. This involves sending shuttles to scout planets for resources and viable colony sites, building new colonies, populating them, and constructing buildings necessary to make them self-sufficient. Some colonies cannot be self-sufficient by definition, which includes space stations (which can't mine natural resources) and the ''Calypso'' herself, which is a giant, albeit mobile, space station. While only two planets (Rhea and Gaea) can support life, all planets short of gas giants can be colonized. The player can build habitats, power plants, factories, and labs for the colonies. Habitats house and "produce" colonists, power plants allow other buildings to function and produce the "energy" resource. Factories can be set to mining (produces the "industry" resource) or production (builds robots, shuttles, or missiles). Labs generate scientific resources, depending on what each lab is set to produce. The main resources in the game are "people", "industry", "energy", and "robots". Scientific resources are used to research new technologies. All but "people" can also be found while exploring planets with shuttles.