History VideoGame / EscapeVelocity

A series of three open-ended sci-fi {{shareware}} computer games from 1996 to 2002, published by Creator/AmbrosiaSoftware for the UsefulNotes/{{Macintosh}} (though the last is also available for [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows]]). Looks like ''VideoGame/{{Asteroids}}'', plays like ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}''.

** ''Nova'' also lets you see somebody get it right in the Nirvana Terraforming questline: you deliver supplies to the eponymous terraforming company's proof-of-concept job, which turns the chlorine-atmosphere rock UHP-1002 into the class M planet Nirvana. The Polaris have largely mastered it, with several worlds listed as terraformed in the "hail planet" dialog.

** ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: The Auroran counterparts to the Viper and Anaconda are the Firebird and Phoenix, respectively.

** ''EV Nova'' may have an example with General Smart, a Federation officer who defected to the Rebels and is now in charge of their SpaceNavy. 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.
** Possibly, he was an actual Federation General (in charge of some sort of ground troops, one imagines) who defected and was put in charge of the Rebel navy because [[ClosestThingWeGot eh close enough]].
*** He might not have been a commander of ''ground'' troops -- the backstory has him taking command and saving the day for the Federation at a time when defeat seemed almost certain, but many countries have their marines be a part of their Navy but use Army ranks, and it would have given experience with ships (since his marines would be on ships)...

* NuclearTorchRocket: Most ships canonically use nuclear thrusters, with the Valkyrie considered somewhat outdated for still using chemical rockets according to its FlavorText. These are primarily of the fission variety, either uranium- or thorium-based (the Starbridge is considered cutting-edge in part for using the latter, and in part for its design pumping more power directly into the engines but then recouping some of that energy through turbines placed behind the engines), and additional reactors can be purchased from outfitters in the Federation storyline; otherwise you're limited to buying black market ones, which are illegal and have a tendency to wear out (uranium) or explode (thorium), the opposite of how it ought to be (real thorium reactors are immune to meltdown). Vell-os and Polaris ships use ReactionlessDrive instead: the Polaris are a HigherTechSpecies and Vell-os ships are constructed entirely with the pilot's PsychicPowers.

** 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[[note]]Missions wit random destinations in ''Nova'' never go to planets or stations that can get changed during the storylines, to avoid the possibility of them becoming impossible to complete due to how changing planets, stations or systems are done in the engine. Earth can get changed during the storylines[[/note]]. 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.

* ArbitraryMaximumRange: Can be justified for everything except weapons that rely purely on kinetic energy.

* AnimalThemeNaming / ArmsAndArmorThemeNaming / ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: Most factions throughout the franchise don't have any recognizable naming convention for their capital ships. The exceptions are the Vell-os and Polaris in ''Nova'', who use projectile weapons and animals respectively.
** The Auroran interceptor and fighter-bomber are the Firebird and Phoenix, respectively. Their Federation counterparts are the Viper and Anaconda.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Stud Beefpile, among others; many of them are {{Shout Out}}s to ''Film/SpaceMutiny''.

* TacticalRockPaperScissors: Something very much like this trope was used for the design paradigms of the races/groups of ''Override'', with the human design paradigm countering the Voinian paradigm, and in turn being countered by the Crescent paradigm (and the Crescent paradigm theoretically being countered by the Voinian paradigm, but no storyline or standing situation involved those two clashing). Of course, mismatched ship classes could shift things (the Voinians may favour slow and lumbering ships, but their fighters were still quick compared to their frigates) or simply be too difficult a matchup for one side's paradigm advantage to be enough, and players, being able to mix and match outfits and ships from multiple civilisations, were in no way bound by this.

* KangarooCourt: In ''Nova'', judges presiding over major [[{{TheFederation}} Federation]] trials are typically Vell-os, a race of evolved humans endowed with {{Telepathy}}. Defendants do not mount a defense or get to testify, do not get a defense attorney, and do not stand before a jury; rather, a list of charges against them is read and they enter their plea. The Vell-os judge then reads their mind and history, and is able to determine the truth and issue a ruling in seconds. This would in itself be questionable enough, but it doesn't stop there! Unbeknownst to the general civilian population, as well as most prominent political and military leaders, the Vell-os are enslaved via [[RestrainingBolt mind control chip implants]] by the Federation, which is in turn puppeteered by the [[{{SecretPolice}} Bureau of Internal Investigation]], a shady organization that officially serves as military intelligence but in fact control the Federation entirely. Enemies of the state, particularly those who speak out against or get in the way of the Bureau, tend to end up in court with extensive lists of unlikely charges leveled against them and are invariably found guilty. [[spoiler:Turned around in several storylines when Commander Krane, the most prominent Bureau officer in most of them, is tried for war crimes. She pleads not guilty, not realizing that the Vell-os judge has been freed from his mind control chip; to her shock, he calls her out for lying and then sentences her to death without a second thought.]]

** In all three games, Mars was the first planet to be terraformed. The success depends on the game, though -- while none of the games have Mars as really all that habitable, in the first it just didn't seem to have entirely taken, and Mars remains a dry, harsh world. In ''Override'' Mars is also dry and harsh, but this is implied to be simply because the terraforming hasn't being going on for all that long and isn't really a priority anymore with hyperdrives allowing access to more easily colonizable worlds. In ''Nova'', the terraforming went wrong, souring people on terraforming for generations to come (although there ''is'' still a human population on the planet).

* HardCodedHostility: Factions flagged as "xenophobic" will be hostile to anyone not of a faction marked as an ally. This is most often used for creating SpacePirates; so are [[spoiler:the aliens]] in the first game. There's also an "always attacks player" flag which is supposed to be used only for mission-specific ships.

** 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[[note]]Random missions in ''Nova'' never go to planets or stations that can get changed during the storylines. Earth can get changed during the storylines[[/note]]. 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.

* OpeningScroll: In ''Classic'' and ''Override''. Nova's game engine changes it to a non-scrolling OpeningNarration or Opening Montage, depending on the game files used.

* 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. ''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.

* ''Escape Velocity'' (1996) - The original. After humanity beat back galactic invaders and destroyed them, the planets closer to Earth ([[TheEmpire The Confederacy]]) began pushing the outer systems around, causing them to rebel ([[LaResistance The Rebellion]]). They are locked in a bloody stalemate throughout the game.

* FantasticCasteSystem: The Polaris in ''Nova'' have an occupation-based caste system; citizens are assigned to castes based on aptitude tests. The Kel'ariy are the governing caste, the Ver'ash are doctors and medical researchers, the P'aedt do most other science research, the Nil'kemorya are the military, and the Tre'pira are the labor caste (which ranges from construction all the way up to ship captains). Oddly the Tre'pira are the most honored caste because they're seen as the backbone of Polaran society.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The Crescent Warship in ''Override'' fulfills mostly the same role as the Kestrel in the original: a [[LightningBruiser lightweight but powerful]] [[TheBattlestar warship]] not aligned with any particular faction (all of the Strand races field them, though the Azdgari have a [[AceCustom custom version]] for their unique fighter bay).

* NuclearTorchRocket: Most ships canonically use nuclear thrusters, with the Valkyrie considered somewhat outdated for still using chemical rockets according to its FlavorText. These are primarily of the fission variety, either uranium- or thorium-based (the Starbridge is considered cutting-edge for using the latter), and additional reactors can be purchased from outfitters in the Federation storyline; otherwise you're limited to buying black market ones, which are illegal and have a tendency to wear out (uranium) or explode (thorium), the opposite of how it ought to be (real thorium reactors are immune to meltdown). Vell-os and Polaris ships use ReactionlessDrive instead: the Polaris are a HigherTechSpecies and Vell-os ships are constructed entirely with the pilot's PsychicPowers.

* KangarooCourt: In ''Nova'', judges presiding over major [[{{TheFederation}} Federation]] trials are typically Vell-os, a race of evolved humans endowed with {{Telepathy}}. Defendants do not mount a defense or get to testify, do not get a defense attorney, and do not stand before a jury; rather, a list of charges against them is read and they enter their plea. The Vell-os judge then reads their mind and history, and is able to determine the truth and issue a ruling in seconds. This would in itself be questionable enough, but it doesn't stop there! Unbeknownst to the general civilian population, as well as most prominent political and military leaders, the Vell-os are enslaved via mind control chip implants by the Federation, which is in turn puppeteered by the [[{{SecretPolice}} Bureau of Internal Investigation]], a shady organization that officially serves as military intelligence but in fact control the Federation entirely. Enemies of the state, particularly those who speak out against or get in the way of the Bureau, tend to end up in court with extensive lists of unlikely charges leveled against them and are invariably found guilty.

* 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 [[EnergyWeapon 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 one of the most powerful and effective weapons, despite the beam being shorter than Frodo Baggins.
** The pirate version of the ship, reasonably enough, [[LightningBruiser sticks another engine on]].

* TheBattlestar: All the heavy capital ships except the Auroran Thunderforge qualify.

** ''EVC'' gives the Confederation and Rebels each a fighter, gunship, destroyer, and [[TheBattlestar cruiser]].