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* RateLimitedPerpetualResource: The game requires harvesters to collect water from springs, which is then sent to the Water Launch Pad and sold for credits. A spring refills at a fixed rate, slightly slower than what the water harvesters can handle.
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You are a follower of the scientist/philosopher/religious leader Alpheus Togra. After his world is destroyed by the war, you find a probe sent by your long-lost leader. It offers you the chance to go back in time and rewrite history, saving Togra and preventing the splintering of your group. But first, you must train by fighting twelve battles in simulation, reliving the great battles of the civil war.
to:
You are a follower of the scientist/philosopher/religious leader Alpheus Togra. After his world your civilization is destroyed by the war, you find a probe sent by your long-lost leader. It offers you the chance to go back in time and rewrite history, saving Togra and preventing the splintering of your group. But first, since the Time Machine will only work once, you must train first prove your tactical skill by fighting twelve battles in simulation, reliving the great battles of the civil war.
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* BittersweetEnding: The Freedom Guard ending in the expansion. Some of the Freedom Guard remain marooned on Nineveh, but those that do make it off world will be able to cure the rest of the Freedom Guard of the Mark that afflicts them.
to:
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The Freedom Guard ending in the expansion. Some of the Freedom Guard remain marooned on Nineveh, but those that do make it off world will be able to cure the rest of the Freedom Guard of the Mark that afflicts them. ]]
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Not to be confused with the MarvelUniverse ''ComicBook/DarkReign'' event.
to:
Not to be confused with the MarvelUniverse Franchise/MarvelUniverse ''ComicBook/DarkReign'' event.
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* NonEntityGeneral
to:
* NonEntityGeneralNonEntityGeneral: Present as a gameplay trope and [[JustifiedTrope partially justified]], given that most of the story missions are actually an in-universe [=RTS=] being used as an OnlySmartPeopleMayPass lock for the probe's time travel mechanism.
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* SpiderTank: The Freedom Guard's Spider Bike unit.
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* ShoutOut: To ''Franchise/StarWars''.
** At the beginning of the first game has the Freedom Guard defending a [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack shield generator]] from being destroyed by the Imperium.
** In the expansion pack, [[Film/ANewHope a small Freedom Guard ship is being pursued by a larger Imperium vessel.]]
** At the beginning of the first game has the Freedom Guard defending a [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack shield generator]] from being destroyed by the Imperium.
** In the expansion pack, [[Film/ANewHope a small Freedom Guard ship is being pursued by a larger Imperium vessel.]]
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IUEO only
Deleted line(s) 37 (click to see context) :
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Jeb Radec, Stiv Baator, Gregor Trilkin, Gerhard Bantrill...the list goes on.
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no longer a trope
Deleted line(s) 68 (click to see context) :
* PolygonCeiling: The {{Prequel}} hit it ''hard'', resulting at best in an extremely simplified game that was functionally two-dimensional and had rather camera-unfriendly topology. At least it looked decent for its day.
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* AIIsACrapshoot: The AI Osiris turns against the Shadowhand just on the second mission. The Shadowhand spends the rest of the campaign stopping Osiris from getting off world.
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* BittersweetEnding: The Freedom Guard ending in the expansion. Some of the Freedom Guard remain marooned on Nineveh, but those that do make it off world will be able to cure the rest of the Freedom Guard of the Mark that afflicts them.
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* FunWithAcronyms: Some units like the S.C.A.R.A.B.(Self Contained Armored Ranged Artillery Battery).
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* OneHitKill: The Guard's Snipers, of course (but only on infantry, which would have been far more useful in the Imperium's hands). There's also the Civilian unit Jeb Radek, who's available in the Map Editor only.
to:
* OneHitKill: The Guard's Snipers, of course (but only on infantry, which would have been far more useful in the Imperium's hands). There's also the Civilian civilian unit Jeb Radek, who's armed with what appears to be a rapid-fire version of the usual sniper rifle and can tear apart tanks and buildings. Sadly, he's only available in Level 11 and the Map Editor only.map editor.
** The Imperium's Shredders will one-hit kill any infantry they touch.
** The Imperium's Shredders will one-hit kill any infantry they touch.
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* CreepyHighPitchedVoice: The few Imperium units that don't fall into EvilSoundsDeep fit this, like the Amper and the Hostage Taker.
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Frickin' Laser Beams entry amended in accordance with this Trope Repair Shop Thread
.
.* EnergyWeapon: Every Imperium unit, with the exception of the Amper.
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* FrickinLaserBeams: Every Imperium unit, with the exception of the Amper.
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* HarmfulHealing: The Imperium Amper is a ranged healing unit that fires a dart that heals infantry to full health, but poisons them, slowly reducing their health over time until they die. It can be used against enemy infantry too...
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You are a follower of the scientist/philosopher/religious leader Alpheus Togra. After his world is destroyed by the war, you find a probe sent by your long-lost leader. It offers you the chance to go back in time and rewrite history, saving Togra and preventing the splintering of your group. But first, you must train by fighting twelve battles in simulation, reliving the great wars of the civil war.
to:
You are a follower of the scientist/philosopher/religious leader Alpheus Togra. After his world is destroyed by the war, you find a probe sent by your long-lost leader. It offers you the chance to go back in time and rewrite history, saving Togra and preventing the splintering of your group. But first, you must train by fighting twelve battles in simulation, reliving the great wars battles of the civil war.
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Awesome Yet Practical is not a trope any more.
Deleted line(s) 37 (click to see context) :
* AwesomeYetPractical: The Tier 1 tanks of both factions. Unlike tanks in most RealTimeStrategy games, ''their weapons have AntiAir capability''. If that isn't cool enough, the FG Skirmish Tank is a rugged missile tank while the Imperium Plasma Tank is shiny and futuristic.
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* FragileSpeedster: The Guard's Spider Bikes are weaker than Imperium infantry, and are very easy to kill. The only thing going for them is their range and mobility.
to:
* FragileSpeedster: The Guard's Spider Bikes are weaker than Imperium infantry, and are very easy to kill. The only thing going for them is their range and mobility.
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* FriendlyFireproof: Averted; if units get within the SplashDamage of larger weapons, they'll take damage as well. This can be a serious complication if you're trying to back up a tank squadron with artillery, but pretty much every weapon in the game has at least minimal splash radius. Also, if your projectiles miss due to the target moving (the AI does not lead targets), and a friendly happens to be in the spot the projectile lands, that's a direct hit; unlike weapons in many other RTSes, even single-target attacks will not [[Roboteching Robotech]] to pursue a moving target.
to:
* FriendlyFireproof: Averted; if units get within the SplashDamage of larger weapons, they'll take damage as well. This can be a serious complication if you're trying to back up a tank squadron with artillery, but pretty much every weapon in the game has at least minimal splash radius. Also, if your projectiles miss due to the target moving (the AI does not lead targets), and a friendly happens to be in the spot the projectile lands, that's a direct hit; unlike weapons in many other RTSes, [=RTSes=], even single-target attacks will not [[Roboteching Robotech]] to pursue a moving target.
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* NintendoHard: It's similar to CommandAndConquer games, but it gets much harder than any of them.
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* NintendoHard: It's similar to CommandAndConquer ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' games, but it gets much harder than any of them.
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* FollowTheLeader: ''Very'' similar to CommandAndConquer games.
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* FollowTheLeader: ''Very'' similar to CommandAndConquer ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' games.
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''Dark Reign: The Future of War'' was a RealTimeStrategy game released in 1997. It demonstrated a number of features no RTS had before, such as
* Production queues
* Complex fog-of-war, which was affected by the terrain (a unit at the top of a mountain could see further than one in a forest)
* Powering down of buildings to preserve power
* Unit behavior, which would govern when a unit would retreat, how far it would chase an enemy, and how likely the unit would ignore orders and engage
* Infiltrating a building with a spy, which allowed for stealing designs for units or buildings, depending on the building entered
* A waypoint system, which allowed for paths to be saved and customized, as well as allowing for looping. Units would also perform actions at a waypoint, based on what the waypoint was selecting. Thus, it was used to instruct Freighters (resource gatherers) to avoid enemy bases to get to a specific resource. After that, it would always follow that path until the resource was depleted.
The story goes thus: Earth began to become over-populated. Soon, the Jovian Detention Administration (JDA), a group responsible for shipping prisoners to the penal colonies on the moons of Jupiter, took control of the government. Deciding to expand, the JDA cut a deal with the prisoners, known as the Sprawlers: they would find and colonize new worlds, and the JDA would grant them their freedom. Thus, the Sprawlers began to find and colonize new worlds. After two generations, mankind was flourishing on over a thousand worlds. The JDA renamed itself to the Imperium, declared itself the ruling government of the galaxy, and began ruling with an iron fist, using its control of every planet's water source to force the planets into line. Eventually, after rising dissatisfaction with the Imperium, the Sprawlers had a genetic key secretly inserted into their DNA by Imperium scientists which would kill them when they reached their 25th birthday. When the news that this condition had been caused by the Imperium leaked out many years later, the Sprawlers and a number of other unhappy with the Imperium banded together, and, calling themselves the Freedom Guard, struck back at the Imperium, starting the first galactic civil war.
You are a follower of the scientist/philosopher/religious leader Alpheus Togra. After his world is destroyed by the war, you find a probe sent by your long-lost leader. It offers you the chance to go back in time and rewrite history, saving Togra and preventing the splintering of your group. But first, you must train by fighting twelve battles in simulation, reliving the great wars of the civil war.
Each side has certain strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, each side also [[CripplingOverspecialization specialises in one specific unit type]], and has a counter for the other side's specialisation.
The war was fought between
* The Freedom Guard, who specialize in infantry. Their strengths are [[DrillTank phasing]] (the unit can disappear below the ground, thus becoming invisible and nigh-impervious to harm, but completely incapable of moving or shooting back) and stealth (a number of infantry units can disguise themselves as trees, rocks or bushes). However, they are at a technological disadvantage against their opponents. Their counter for the Imperium's tanks is the Tank Hunter.
* The Imperium, who specialise in tanks. Their main strength is hovering units (which consists of pretty much every tank and one infantry unit). Unlike the Freedom Guard, they don't have any Medics or Technicians, thus forcing their units to return to base for healing. They have three counters for the Guard's infantry: the [[MadDoctor Amper]] (which fires darts that heal the unit and make it faster and tougher, but kill it after five seconds. This is the closest the Imperium get to Medics), the Hostage Taker (that eats infantry and spits out mindless drones with satchel charges strapped to their bodies), and the Shredder (which is a ten-foot-wide circular saw hovering at about waist height. [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe Yeah]]).
* In the final mission, you take control of the Tograns. Their biggest strength is that they have access to Freedom Guard AND Imperium technology. Their biggest weakness is that it requires a ''lot'' of work to get both techs (to get Freedom Guard units, you build the associated production building, which will not manufacture Imperium units, etc.).
There was a 2000 prequel that dealt with the JDA/Sprawlers conflict taking place during Earth's 26th and final century.
Not to be confused with the MarvelUniverse ''ComicBook/DarkReign'' event.
----
!!Provides Examples Of:
* ActionBomb: Aside from the Hostage Taker's drones, the Freedom Guard has Martyrs: Sprawlers on their last months of life who seek to go out with a bang.
* AllThereInTheManual: The manual contains histories of the conflict, biographies, even unit specifications. However, it's accessible in game and even contains a journal written by the player character.
* ApocalypseHow: What happened to Togra's world was a Class 5, rendered uninhabitable because all the water on the planet was essentially burned out of it.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** When you tell a group of units to go somewhere, they proceed in a straight line, resulting in the first few units getting their health whittled away quickly.
** If units are being fired at by artillery, they'll charge the artillery regardless of the distance, leading to them most likely charging headlong into an enemy stronghold.
** [[GlassCannon Artillery units]] will frequently charge out into the middle of a battlefield unless you mess with the AI settings.
** If a unit gets chased away from a position by enemy fire, they'll retreat a certain distance, then proceed back to the area where they were when they got attacked.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Jeb Radec, Stiv Baator, Gregor Trilkin, Gerhard Bantrill...the list goes on.
* AwesomeYetPractical: The Tier 1 tanks of both factions. Unlike tanks in most RealTimeStrategy games, ''their weapons have AntiAir capability''. If that isn't cool enough, the FG Skirmish Tank is a rugged missile tank while the Imperium Plasma Tank is shiny and futuristic.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: The Imperium are Black, being TheEmpire and poisoning most of the water in the galaxy so they can maintain control of it, while the Freedom Guard are Gray, being a bunch of screwed-over people who will do [[IDidWhatIHadToDo whatever is necessary]] to stop the Imperium and free themselves from the 25-year expiration date. Oh, and the Tograns just want to kick both of their asses so that their homeworlds don't end up in the line of fire. The Tograns ''were'' content to sit it out, but that didn't work so well the first time around.
* BottomlessMagazines: Played straight, except for air units, who either have to return to a Rearming Deck to reload, or in the case of Sky Fortresses, just recharge over time.
* BoisterousBruiser: Triple Rail Hover Tanks.
* ColourCodedCharacters:
** The player's side is orange. The enemy is red.
** Even more blatant in the sequel, if at least more consistent and [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the difference in tech level. The high-tech JDA are silvery, the Sprawlers (whose gear is scavenged and jury-rigged extensively) are rust-brown.
* CripplingOverspecialization: All units have only one weapon and those which are single purpose fall squarely under this trope. The most notable examples include a monstrously expensive, slow moving tracked vehicle whose only purpose is to ''contaminate springs'' and the Freedom Guard superweapon, a slightly less expensive vehicle which attacks by blowing up to cause an earthquake.
* {{Determinator}}: Jeb Radec. He lived well beyond 25, and the popular tale is that this is because he refused to die until he saw the Imperium defeated.
* EscortMission: Subverted because, once you find them, they fall under your control. Since every mission can be played from either side, this is also inverted, as you can go out and stop the transport escaping.
* EvilSoundsDeep: The Imperium units, when they talk. Eventually taken to ridiculous extremes.
* FrickinLaserBeams: Every Imperium unit, with the exception of the Amper.
* FogOfWar: As stated above, it came up with the complex fog used today.
* FollowTheLeader: ''Very'' similar to CommandAndConquer games.
* FragileSpeedster: The Guard's Spider Bikes are weaker than Imperium infantry, and are very easy to kill. The only thing going for them is their range and mobility.
* FriendlyFireproof: Averted; if units get within the SplashDamage of larger weapons, they'll take damage as well. This can be a serious complication if you're trying to back up a tank squadron with artillery, but pretty much every weapon in the game has at least minimal splash radius. Also, if your projectiles miss due to the target moving (the AI does not lead targets), and a friendly happens to be in the spot the projectile lands, that's a direct hit; unlike weapons in many other RTSes, even single-target attacks will not [[Roboteching Robotech]] to pursue a moving target.
* GainaxEnding
* KillSat: The Desiccator, which was used to vaporize the planet on which Togra lived.
* LargeHam: The Martyrs are extremely over-the-top, laughing maniacally and screaming at the top of their lungs. Justified, because they're basically suicide bombers and want to go out [[IncrediblyLamePun with a bang.]]
** Togra's voice actor is also quite hammy.
* LuckBasedMission: The final level pits you against an extremely aggressive Imperium base and a defending Freedom Guard. If the Imperium defeat the Freedom Guard, you lose, because the Freedom Guard Orbital Defense Matrix is the only thing preventing the activation of the KillSat. Your success or failure entirely depends upon whether or not the Freedom Guard can hold off the Imperium long enough for you to cripple them. Then, it all depends upon whether or not the Freedom Guard attacks your base while your army is tearing the Imperium apart. Also, if the Imperium and Freedom Guard attack at the same time, you're almost guaranteed to be screwed.
* MadDoctor: The Amper.
* MagneticWeapons: The Freedom Guard use a lot of railguns.
* NintendoHard: It's similar to CommandAndConquer games, but it gets much harder than any of them.
* NonEntityGeneral
* OneHitKill: The Guard's Snipers, of course (but only on infantry, which would have been far more useful in the Imperium's hands). There's also the Civilian unit Jeb Radek, who's available in the Map Editor only.
* PolygonCeiling: The {{Prequel}} hit it ''hard'', resulting at best in an extremely simplified game that was functionally two-dimensional and had rather camera-unfriendly topology. At least it looked decent for its day.
* ReinventingTheWheel: Justified. Each mission is a separate simulation, and, while in chronological order, are not related to each other.
* ScavengerWorld: The Freedom Guard's units, for the most part, look cobbled-together, which they supposedly are.
* TankGoodness: The top tiers of the Imperium and the Freedom Guard produce the Tachyon Tank and the Triple Rail Hover Tank, respectively. The Freedom Guard, surprisingly, have another: the Shock Wave, a mobile Earthquake generator that can wipe out an entire army.
* TechTree
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: What will happen in the 13th mission if you fail to defend the Orbital Defence Matrix.
* UselessUsefulStealth: Averted; Infiltrators are incredibly useful if used correctly.
* WhatTheHellPlayer: Screw up a tutorial mission, and the instructor will chew you out over it.
* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: Mostly averted. Of the two resources, one (taelon, used for topping-up your power generators) is optional (provided you build enough generators), and the other (water) is converted into cold hard currency.
** It helps that water is a renewable resource (as long as the spring doesn't get contaminated, which does not happen by accident and is hard enough to accomplish ''on purpose''). It's possible to strike a balance between your industrial output and the number of springs you control that results in none of the springs ever being tapped out and waiting to replenish; even if you overharvest, your freighters will obediently queue up and continue their business - it's less efficient, but your money does keep trickling in without further micromanagement on your part.
* ZergRush: The general AI strategy is to overwhelm you through sheer force of numbers. The combat mechanics - namely, the relative scarcity of area-of-effect damage and the indiscriminate nature of all weapons - makes this more threatening than it might otherwise be.
----
* Production queues
* Complex fog-of-war, which was affected by the terrain (a unit at the top of a mountain could see further than one in a forest)
* Powering down of buildings to preserve power
* Unit behavior, which would govern when a unit would retreat, how far it would chase an enemy, and how likely the unit would ignore orders and engage
* Infiltrating a building with a spy, which allowed for stealing designs for units or buildings, depending on the building entered
* A waypoint system, which allowed for paths to be saved and customized, as well as allowing for looping. Units would also perform actions at a waypoint, based on what the waypoint was selecting. Thus, it was used to instruct Freighters (resource gatherers) to avoid enemy bases to get to a specific resource. After that, it would always follow that path until the resource was depleted.
The story goes thus: Earth began to become over-populated. Soon, the Jovian Detention Administration (JDA), a group responsible for shipping prisoners to the penal colonies on the moons of Jupiter, took control of the government. Deciding to expand, the JDA cut a deal with the prisoners, known as the Sprawlers: they would find and colonize new worlds, and the JDA would grant them their freedom. Thus, the Sprawlers began to find and colonize new worlds. After two generations, mankind was flourishing on over a thousand worlds. The JDA renamed itself to the Imperium, declared itself the ruling government of the galaxy, and began ruling with an iron fist, using its control of every planet's water source to force the planets into line. Eventually, after rising dissatisfaction with the Imperium, the Sprawlers had a genetic key secretly inserted into their DNA by Imperium scientists which would kill them when they reached their 25th birthday. When the news that this condition had been caused by the Imperium leaked out many years later, the Sprawlers and a number of other unhappy with the Imperium banded together, and, calling themselves the Freedom Guard, struck back at the Imperium, starting the first galactic civil war.
You are a follower of the scientist/philosopher/religious leader Alpheus Togra. After his world is destroyed by the war, you find a probe sent by your long-lost leader. It offers you the chance to go back in time and rewrite history, saving Togra and preventing the splintering of your group. But first, you must train by fighting twelve battles in simulation, reliving the great wars of the civil war.
Each side has certain strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, each side also [[CripplingOverspecialization specialises in one specific unit type]], and has a counter for the other side's specialisation.
The war was fought between
* The Freedom Guard, who specialize in infantry. Their strengths are [[DrillTank phasing]] (the unit can disappear below the ground, thus becoming invisible and nigh-impervious to harm, but completely incapable of moving or shooting back) and stealth (a number of infantry units can disguise themselves as trees, rocks or bushes). However, they are at a technological disadvantage against their opponents. Their counter for the Imperium's tanks is the Tank Hunter.
* The Imperium, who specialise in tanks. Their main strength is hovering units (which consists of pretty much every tank and one infantry unit). Unlike the Freedom Guard, they don't have any Medics or Technicians, thus forcing their units to return to base for healing. They have three counters for the Guard's infantry: the [[MadDoctor Amper]] (which fires darts that heal the unit and make it faster and tougher, but kill it after five seconds. This is the closest the Imperium get to Medics), the Hostage Taker (that eats infantry and spits out mindless drones with satchel charges strapped to their bodies), and the Shredder (which is a ten-foot-wide circular saw hovering at about waist height. [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe Yeah]]).
* In the final mission, you take control of the Tograns. Their biggest strength is that they have access to Freedom Guard AND Imperium technology. Their biggest weakness is that it requires a ''lot'' of work to get both techs (to get Freedom Guard units, you build the associated production building, which will not manufacture Imperium units, etc.).
There was a 2000 prequel that dealt with the JDA/Sprawlers conflict taking place during Earth's 26th and final century.
Not to be confused with the MarvelUniverse ''ComicBook/DarkReign'' event.
----
!!Provides Examples Of:
* ActionBomb: Aside from the Hostage Taker's drones, the Freedom Guard has Martyrs: Sprawlers on their last months of life who seek to go out with a bang.
* AllThereInTheManual: The manual contains histories of the conflict, biographies, even unit specifications. However, it's accessible in game and even contains a journal written by the player character.
* ApocalypseHow: What happened to Togra's world was a Class 5, rendered uninhabitable because all the water on the planet was essentially burned out of it.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** When you tell a group of units to go somewhere, they proceed in a straight line, resulting in the first few units getting their health whittled away quickly.
** If units are being fired at by artillery, they'll charge the artillery regardless of the distance, leading to them most likely charging headlong into an enemy stronghold.
** [[GlassCannon Artillery units]] will frequently charge out into the middle of a battlefield unless you mess with the AI settings.
** If a unit gets chased away from a position by enemy fire, they'll retreat a certain distance, then proceed back to the area where they were when they got attacked.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Jeb Radec, Stiv Baator, Gregor Trilkin, Gerhard Bantrill...the list goes on.
* AwesomeYetPractical: The Tier 1 tanks of both factions. Unlike tanks in most RealTimeStrategy games, ''their weapons have AntiAir capability''. If that isn't cool enough, the FG Skirmish Tank is a rugged missile tank while the Imperium Plasma Tank is shiny and futuristic.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: The Imperium are Black, being TheEmpire and poisoning most of the water in the galaxy so they can maintain control of it, while the Freedom Guard are Gray, being a bunch of screwed-over people who will do [[IDidWhatIHadToDo whatever is necessary]] to stop the Imperium and free themselves from the 25-year expiration date. Oh, and the Tograns just want to kick both of their asses so that their homeworlds don't end up in the line of fire. The Tograns ''were'' content to sit it out, but that didn't work so well the first time around.
* BottomlessMagazines: Played straight, except for air units, who either have to return to a Rearming Deck to reload, or in the case of Sky Fortresses, just recharge over time.
* BoisterousBruiser: Triple Rail Hover Tanks.
* ColourCodedCharacters:
** The player's side is orange. The enemy is red.
** Even more blatant in the sequel, if at least more consistent and [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the difference in tech level. The high-tech JDA are silvery, the Sprawlers (whose gear is scavenged and jury-rigged extensively) are rust-brown.
* CripplingOverspecialization: All units have only one weapon and those which are single purpose fall squarely under this trope. The most notable examples include a monstrously expensive, slow moving tracked vehicle whose only purpose is to ''contaminate springs'' and the Freedom Guard superweapon, a slightly less expensive vehicle which attacks by blowing up to cause an earthquake.
* {{Determinator}}: Jeb Radec. He lived well beyond 25, and the popular tale is that this is because he refused to die until he saw the Imperium defeated.
* EscortMission: Subverted because, once you find them, they fall under your control. Since every mission can be played from either side, this is also inverted, as you can go out and stop the transport escaping.
* EvilSoundsDeep: The Imperium units, when they talk. Eventually taken to ridiculous extremes.
* FrickinLaserBeams: Every Imperium unit, with the exception of the Amper.
* FogOfWar: As stated above, it came up with the complex fog used today.
* FollowTheLeader: ''Very'' similar to CommandAndConquer games.
* FragileSpeedster: The Guard's Spider Bikes are weaker than Imperium infantry, and are very easy to kill. The only thing going for them is their range and mobility.
* FriendlyFireproof: Averted; if units get within the SplashDamage of larger weapons, they'll take damage as well. This can be a serious complication if you're trying to back up a tank squadron with artillery, but pretty much every weapon in the game has at least minimal splash radius. Also, if your projectiles miss due to the target moving (the AI does not lead targets), and a friendly happens to be in the spot the projectile lands, that's a direct hit; unlike weapons in many other RTSes, even single-target attacks will not [[Roboteching Robotech]] to pursue a moving target.
* GainaxEnding
* KillSat: The Desiccator, which was used to vaporize the planet on which Togra lived.
* LargeHam: The Martyrs are extremely over-the-top, laughing maniacally and screaming at the top of their lungs. Justified, because they're basically suicide bombers and want to go out [[IncrediblyLamePun with a bang.]]
** Togra's voice actor is also quite hammy.
* LuckBasedMission: The final level pits you against an extremely aggressive Imperium base and a defending Freedom Guard. If the Imperium defeat the Freedom Guard, you lose, because the Freedom Guard Orbital Defense Matrix is the only thing preventing the activation of the KillSat. Your success or failure entirely depends upon whether or not the Freedom Guard can hold off the Imperium long enough for you to cripple them. Then, it all depends upon whether or not the Freedom Guard attacks your base while your army is tearing the Imperium apart. Also, if the Imperium and Freedom Guard attack at the same time, you're almost guaranteed to be screwed.
* MadDoctor: The Amper.
* MagneticWeapons: The Freedom Guard use a lot of railguns.
* NintendoHard: It's similar to CommandAndConquer games, but it gets much harder than any of them.
* NonEntityGeneral
* OneHitKill: The Guard's Snipers, of course (but only on infantry, which would have been far more useful in the Imperium's hands). There's also the Civilian unit Jeb Radek, who's available in the Map Editor only.
* PolygonCeiling: The {{Prequel}} hit it ''hard'', resulting at best in an extremely simplified game that was functionally two-dimensional and had rather camera-unfriendly topology. At least it looked decent for its day.
* ReinventingTheWheel: Justified. Each mission is a separate simulation, and, while in chronological order, are not related to each other.
* ScavengerWorld: The Freedom Guard's units, for the most part, look cobbled-together, which they supposedly are.
* TankGoodness: The top tiers of the Imperium and the Freedom Guard produce the Tachyon Tank and the Triple Rail Hover Tank, respectively. The Freedom Guard, surprisingly, have another: the Shock Wave, a mobile Earthquake generator that can wipe out an entire army.
* TechTree
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: What will happen in the 13th mission if you fail to defend the Orbital Defence Matrix.
* UselessUsefulStealth: Averted; Infiltrators are incredibly useful if used correctly.
* WhatTheHellPlayer: Screw up a tutorial mission, and the instructor will chew you out over it.
* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: Mostly averted. Of the two resources, one (taelon, used for topping-up your power generators) is optional (provided you build enough generators), and the other (water) is converted into cold hard currency.
** It helps that water is a renewable resource (as long as the spring doesn't get contaminated, which does not happen by accident and is hard enough to accomplish ''on purpose''). It's possible to strike a balance between your industrial output and the number of springs you control that results in none of the springs ever being tapped out and waiting to replenish; even if you overharvest, your freighters will obediently queue up and continue their business - it's less efficient, but your money does keep trickling in without further micromanagement on your part.
* ZergRush: The general AI strategy is to overwhelm you through sheer force of numbers. The combat mechanics - namely, the relative scarcity of area-of-effect damage and the indiscriminate nature of all weapons - makes this more threatening than it might otherwise be.
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