History VideoGame / EscapeVelocity

** Mixed with FreudWasRight in the case of the [[http://www.boring.org.uk/evo/ships/igzara.htm Igazra]].

*** [[AwesomeButImpractical Yet it eats up Your (Mental) Energy like theres no tomorrow]]

* ''{{Naev}}'', an open source clone available [[http://blog.naev.org/ here]], subtitled ''Sea of Darkness'', exists on all three major platforms. The plot is based around an ill-defined [[AfterTheEnd "Incident"]] in which [[ApocalypseHow the Sun is destroyed]], leaving the remains of a VestigialEmpire and several Houses bickering over territory.

** It's called TheEmpire outright in NAEV.

** [[{{Dune}} Arrakis]] in NAEV.
*** EV Classic got to it first, except the system was named Arrakis and the planet named Dune. In NAEV it was vice versa.

** The first game in particular is ''packed'' with them, from the forest moon of [[Franchise/StarWars Endor]] to the joint-swelling, speech-degrading [[ManosTheHandsOfFate Torgo]] virus.

* EarnYourTitle / NomDeGuerre: Auroran battle names, earned for feats of combat skill. During his time as a Heraani warrior Eamon Flannigan gained the moniker "Archindar", meaning "he who refuses to die", after he covered a retreat via a rear-guard action wherein he repeatedly destroyed the Moashi fleet's forward scouting elements. The Auroran storyline gets the PlayerCharacter dubbed first "Little Wolf", then "[=KarHallarn=], Leader of the Pack". The Aurorans also give such names to entire military units; the Wild Geese are called the "Archekro", meaning "they who dance with blood and war".

* AbsentAliens: Subverted in ''Classic''. The game had them in the backstory, but humanity [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar wiped them out]] after they tried to do the same to us. [[spoiler:There's still one last alien cruiser floating around out there, though.]]

* ApocalypseHow: ''Nova's'' backstory contains a war between the Colonial Council and the Vell-os, which ends in the Vell-os being enslaved to the Colonials and succeeding Earth-led governments. Following the Vell-os surrender, the Colonial Council used [[WeaponOfMassDestruction WMDs]] to render all [[spoiler:but one of the]] formerly Vell-os-ruled planets uninhabitable. [[spoiler:The planet Korell on the extreme western edge of Vell-os space somehow escaped notice.]]\\

Not long after, a dissatisfied Colonial Council member leaked the security codes for the Sol hypergate to the Armetis terrorist group, who blew it up. This sent a shockwave through hyperspace that outright destroyed around half the hypergates and rendered the others inoperable. This resulted in Galactic/Societal Disruption and the collapse of any semblance of organized interstellar government.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: The original ''EscapeVelocity'' had a major become an admiral. That's not even trying.

* BilingualBonus / MeaningfulName: The name ''Voinians'' seems to originate from the Russian word "voyna" ("war"); the same with ''Miranu'' and "mir" ("peace"). There's also ''Dogovor'', a system where a treaty between Voinians and the UE was signed; "dogovor" means "treaty" in Russian.

* CoolStarship: Again, you can buy it if you complete certain mission for a faction. There are several. The Igazra from ''Override'', and the ''Unrelenting'' and the Thunderforge from ''Nova''.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: ''EveOnline's'' story is almost a direct copy of ''EV Nova's''.

* EliteMook: In ''Nova'', each ship has several variants. One might also single out Polaris Nil'kimas craft (which are significantly better than regular Polaris ships, but these are the Polaris: you wet yourself regardless of type.)

* TheEmpire: The Confederation in the original. Also, the Bureau of Internal Investigation -- and by extension, the Federation -- in ''Nova'', and, of course, the Voinian Empire in ''Override''.

* FasterThanLightTravel: Instantaneous "hypergates" in ''Nova'', in addition to normal ship drives.

* TheFederation: The United Earth of ''Override'' is a union of [[CaptainObvious the countries of Earth]], is generally good, and has a Parliament. It began as an [[TheAlliance Alliance]], but has grown tighter since then, with plans to introduce a common currency mentioned in-game and WordOfGod mentioning it doesn't fall apart after the Voinans are effectively defeated.

* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: Played straight in ''Override'' between the United Earth and the Voinian Empire. {{Inverted}} in ''Nova'', where the Federation is TheEmpire, and the Auroran Empire is really a [[TheAlliance loose confederation]] of [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy warrior houses]].

* MacrossMissileMassacre: As mentioned in MoreDakka, this is the preferred attack method for Federation ships in ''Nova''. The destroyer in particular.

* MoreDakka: Literally, chainguns. More figuratively, Auroran ships embody this trope, using a wide variety of heavy weapons to project a ballistic stream of death down-range. Federation ships prefer a heavy barrage of missiles, while Polaran ships have beam weapons.
** Also, the Polaris Multi-Torpedo launchers. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Overkill? Perhaps. Awesome? Heck yeah.]]

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Aurorans, especially the Heraan House.
** Ironically, of the Auroran Houses, the Heraan also happen to be the one that most remembers that ''non''-warriors can be worthy of respect (and not just grudging respect, at that...)
*** And that's why THEY'VE got cool toys like the Argosy and Thunderforge -- because they actually fund scientific research.

* TheRashomon: You can only get the full story of ''Nova'' if you play every faction to the end. It's not too important, but several interesting details can be discovered. [[spoiler: For instance, you are in fact the universe in human form, [[ThePlan the Rebellion was started by the Federation as a way of finding all the would-be traitors]], the Vell-os were from tenth century Earth (although that is also AllThereInTheManual), your father was the king of all the Pirates in the galaxy before being betrayed by [=McGowan=], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and that the Wild Geese are Irish]] ([[CaptainObvious of course, their world is called New Ireland]])]].

* SaveScumming: A certain minor storyline in Nova gives you a permanent 750 credit per day wage, but only if [[spoiler: someone does not die]] and [[spoiler: the pirates accept your offer]]. Save scum away!

* ShoutOut: The first game in particular is ''packed'' with them, from the forest moon of [[Franchise/StarWars Endor]] to the joint-swelling, speech-degrading [[ManosTheHandsOfFate Torgo]] virus.

* SpacePirates: Lots and lots of space pirates. They're the most hated "faction" in every game so no government will care if you kill them.

* SpaceFriction: Partial aversion. Ships don't magically stop when they shut off their thrusters, and you can turn your ship in any direction without affecting your direction of movement, but all ships have a maximum speed, and a disabled ship will slowly drift to a halt.

* StandardSciFiFleet: In ''Nova'', the Federation and Auroran Empire each have an interceptor, a fighter-bomber, a gunship, a light cruiser, and a carrier. The Federation adds a scoutship, while the Aurorans later develop a fast battleship designed for close-range brawling. The Polaris use {{living ship}}s equivalent to fighters, gunships, frigates, destroyers, and two types of [[TheBattlestar battleship/carrier hybrids]]. Meanwhile the Rebels have an interceptor, fighter-bomber, three different gunships, and two different cruisers.

* StarfishAliens: The Wraith[[note]]No relation to ''Series/StargateAtlantis''[[/note]] in ''Nova''. They can grow to 30 meters in size and look like the business end of a trident, live in gas giants, can [[StealthInSpace cloak]] and enter hyperspace unaided, [[TelepathicSpacemen are telepathic]], and can emit [[PhotoprotoneutronTorpedo graviton beams]].

* StateSec: The Bureau of Internal Investigation in ''Nova''. They control their own navy, and have authority over the Vell-os (IE, the only telepaths known to the Federation at the start of the game). [[spoiler: They're also TheManBehindTheMan to both the Federation ''and'' part of the Auroran Empire, and their leader wants to rule the galaxy from behind the scenes. They're not nice people.]]

* StopHelpingMe: Friendly faction ships (not escorts) will be all too eager to blow up that Kestrel you've painstakingly disabled after several minutes of combat.
** Similarly, escorts can be overzealous in missions that require you to disable but not destroy your targets.

* SuicidalOverconfidence: In the first two games, hostiles will always attack you. Even in a lightweight fighter against the best ships available.
** ''Nova's'' upgraded engine allows for individual governments to KnowWhenToFoldEm at pre-programmed odds.
* {{Terraform}}: In all three games, Mars was the first planet to be terraformed. And it always [[GoneHorriblyWrong Went Horribly Wrong]], and the next few hundred years are spent trying to fix the mess.

* TelepathicSpacemen: The Vell-os in ''Nova''.

* [[{{Two-D Space}} 2-D Space]]: That's how the game plays out, although Nova attempts to give 3-D graphic effects to a 2-D platform. That combined with ZergRush, below, makes combat turn out like jousting.
* UnitsNotToScale: Many large warships are only slightly larger than their destroyer and light capital brethren.

* WaveMotionGun: Plenty, although ''Nova's'' Capacitor Pulse Laser is probably the best example.

* WideOpenSandbox: Very wide. All of the games have large galaxy maps.

* NonLinearSequel: None of the games take place in the same universe as the others.

*** In ''EV Nova'', the Association of Free Traders' (the good pirates) ships don't pirate anything but other pirates. The Guild pirates if they think they can get away with it, regular pirates pirate anything, period, and Marauders don't even try to pirate. They just try (and fail) to kill things.

** An attentive player can notice that there is something off with that normal cargo run, but it requires that random chance doesn't put it up too early: ordinary cargo runs ''never'' goes to Earth, which that one does[[hottip:*:Random missions in ''Nova'' never go to planets or stations that can get changed during the storylines. Earth can get changed during the storylines]]. It is also possible to get out of the Vell-os storyline by rejecting (that is, saying no to, rather than aborting) the ''second'' mission (you are still hunted by the Federation, but you are told where to go to get them to stop following you - and that somewhere is three jumps away) - but you are still locked out from five of the six storylines, just with the Vell-os story as one of the those five instead.

*** ESPECIALLY Leviathans. Using the maximum amount of mass conversions, retools, Sigma conversions, and getting additional ports for guns and turrets, someone on YouTube made a warship out of one, earning it's rightful place for this trope.

** ''Nova'' has a {{ringworld}} named Tre'ar [[{{Halo}} Helonis]].
** The {{forklift|Fu}}, a LethalJokeItem in ''Classic'', is a reference to an episode of ''MysteryScienceTheater3000''.

* StarfishAliens: The Wraith[[hottip:*:No relation to ''StargateAtlantis'']] in ''Nova''. They can grow to 30 meters in size and look like the business end of a trident, live in gas giants, can [[StealthInSpace cloak]] and enter hyperspace unaided, [[TelepathicSpacemen are telepathic]], and can emit [[PhotoprotoneutronTorpedo graviton beams]].

** Part of the mission statement of the Mu'hari is to ensure the survival of the Polaran people, whatever the cost. This means that they take on the StateSec[=/=]SecretPolice role at times by necessity, but since they're treated as benevolent caretakers, this counts as a subversion.

** Escorts can be ordered to disable ships but they will not stop firing until the ship is disabled. So if it takes a couple of seconds for missiles to reach the target there will be a couple of seconds worth of [[MacrossMissileMassacre Macross Missile Massacre]] on it's way to destroy the ship.

A series of three open-ended sci-fi shareware computer games from 1996 to 2002, published by Ambrosia Software for the Macintosh (though the last is also available for Windows). Looks like ''{{Asteroids}}'', plays like ''{{Elite}}''.

** ''EV Nova'' may have an example with General Smart, a Federation officer who defected to the Rebels and is now in charge of their {{space navy}}. The Federation Navy appears to use US Navy ranks (the two named Federation officers, Krane and Raczak, are a commander and an admiral respectively), so the only way to resolve it is by having the Rebels use Army or Air Force ranks. Given that the Rebels are of Federation extraction, this seems unlikely.

** The "Monty Python Maneuver" makes use of the series' partial aversion of SpaceFriction to fly away from multiple targets while shooting backwards. The name refers to the instances in ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' where the knights yell "Run away!"

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Thunderhead Lance comes stock with the Thunderhead Heavy fighter, can be bought at Rebel II in the Koria system for 100,000 credits, does considerable damage, but its short [[{{FrickinLaserBeams}} Beam]] range forces you to get very close to your target, and by then you would get shredded.
** Actually, on any ship with decent speed, they're [[AwesomeYetPractical one of the most powerful and effective weapons]], despite the beam being shorter than Frodo Baggins.

** [[AuthorAvatar Nuada]]'s ex-boss appears as a cargo drone with the subtitle [[CreatorInJoke "Incompetent"]].

* HumanSubspecies: After they left Earth using their {{psychic powers}} around 980 AD, the Vell-os evolved separately from mainline humanity. They developed an organ that produces nanites.

** A plot point in the Vell-os storyline rests on the fact that ''technically'', it is the Vell-os rather than telepaths per se that are supposed to be enslaved (unofficially. Officially, even the Vell-os serve voluntarily), it is just that at first the only telepaths known are the Vell-os. You aren't actually a Vell-os, but your immense telepathic potential leads the Bureau to ''think'' you are one.

* PortalNetwork: The hypergate network in ''Nova'' allows starships to [[WarpWhistle travel between certain star systems instantaneously]], whereas using your ship's built-in hyperdrive can go more places but takes anywhere from one to three days per jump depending on the mass of your ship. Unfortunately many of the gates were destroyed by a terrorist attack on the Sol gate in the backstory, and the knowledge to build more of them was lost in the subsequent collapse of the Colonial Council. Nowadays Sigma Shipyards controls the remaining network in its entirety, and gaining access requires their approval.

** In ''Escape Velocity'' and ''Override'', there was a cheat weapon called the [[FugitiveAlien Forklift]]. It's {{exactly what it says on the tin}} only {{Every Car Is A Pinto}}. A beautiful, homing, nuclear Pinto.

* AllLowercaseLetters / NoPunctuationPeriod: Vell-os telepathy in ''Nova'' is depicted as such. [[SelfDemonstratingArticle <they talk like this although theyre not really speaking theyre manipulating your surface thoughts>]]

* AllThereInTheManual: Override had some of this (most importantly, the out-right stating that the Strands ''are'' all the same species), but Nova goes beyond that, having seven Preambles of varying explanatory effect on the game, revealing such things as when certain states and organizations were formed, what preceded them, how the Rebellion's informant network is organized, etc.

* ShoutOut: The first game in particular is ''packed'' with them, from the forest moon of [[StarWars Endor]] to the joint-swelling, speech-degrading [[ManosTheHandsOfFate Torgo]] virus.
** In ''Nova'', [[IntentionalEngrishForFunny red Leviathan roaming]] [[ZeroWing CATS]] [[IntentionalEngrishForFunny piloted]].

* ApocalypseHow: ''Nova's'' backstory contains a war between the Colonial Council and the Vell-os, which ends in the Vell-os being enslaved to the Colonials and succeeding Earth-led governments. Following the Vell-os surrender, the Colonial Council used [[WeaponOfMassDestruction WMDs]] to render all [[spoiler:but one of the]] formerly Vell-os-ruled planets uninhabitable. [[spoiler:The planet Korell on the extreme western edge of Vell-os space somehow escaped notice.]]

* MoreDakka: Literally, chainguns. More figuratively, Auroran ships embody this trope, using a wide variety of heavy weapons to project a ballistic stream of death down-range. Federation ships prefer a heavy barrage of missiles, while Polaran ships have beam weapons.
** Also, the Polaris Multi-Torpedo launchers. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Overkill? Perhaps. Awesome? Heck yeah.]]

* RecursiveAmmo: The Polaris-designed Multi-Torpedo Launcher. Only their two largest capital ships mount it, but they can take out opposing warships in only a few shots.

* WeComeInPeaceShootToKill: In the original and ''Override'', the aliens and Voinians sort of did Type 2. The ''Classic'' aliens wanted to kill us, while the Voinians wanted to enslave us, [[SubvertedTrope though in both cases their aims were pretty clear from the start]]. ''Nova's'' a little more complicated. First contact between the Polaris and Wraith ended up as Type 1 when Polaran border patrol ships thought some young Wraith playfully buzzing them were attacking and killed them.

** Some [[GameMod total conversions]] for ''Nova'', notably ''Starfleet Adventures'' and ''EVNova: United Galactic Federation'', feature map sizes bordering on ridiculous.

* StateSec: The Bureau of Internal Investigation in ''Nova''. They control their own navy, and have authority over all telepaths in Federation space, most notably the Vell-os. [[spoiler: They're also TheManBehindTheMan to both the Federation ''and'' part of the Auroran Empire, and their leader wants to rule the galaxy from behind the scenes. They're not nice people.]]