History VideoGame / WingsOfDawn

** One of the weapons, the HEDR-3, is given the nickname [[Manga/MahouSenseiNegima 'Spiritus Lucis']].

* OurElvesAreBetter: The Cyrva are longer-lived, more physically flexible, more able to multitask,in general better shots than Terrans, and their ships are much, much more powerful and advanced. Terrans do have some advantages over them though, they are physically stronger and have a much higher pain tolerance, to the point that a fist fight between a Terran and a Cyrvan will ''always'' end in a Terran victory. Terrans are also more experienced and [[{{Determinator}} determined]] in warfare, which is one of the reasons they were able to fight the more technologically-advanced Cyrva to a stalemate. The other, and arguably biggest, reason was the fact that as the war dragged on public support for it on the Cyrvan side dwindled, which meant that the volunteer-run Cyrvan armada stopped receiving reinforcements.

[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WoDsmall_4171.jpg]]

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* CoolShip: The ''Zephyr'' is of the "run-down but awesome" variety. A full-blown, if very outdated, BattleStar owned and operated by two people, complete with luxuries like a full Japanese-style bathing area.

Following the success of the mod, Spoon decided to make the game a standalone title utilizing the Freespace engine, and began a massive overhaul of the setting. The new iteration of Wings of Dawn (christened "[=NuWOD=]" by Spoon) contains a rewritten story now taking place during the Terran-Cyrvan War, a new control scheme, and short VN segments between missions to add to the character development and worldbuilding. It is released episodically, with Episode 1 being available now.

Now has a [[Characters/WingsOfDawn character page]].

* ConLang: The Cyrvans speak their own language. Averting AliensSpeakingEnglish.

* GenreSavvy: The main characters. Leads to much {{Lampshading}}.

* OneWorldOrder: Averted. Unlike the original mod, the Terran race is split into four major factions, [[TheFederation the Sol Union]], [[TheKingdom New Brittania]], [[ProudMerchantRace the United Guilds of Commerce]], and the [[TheEmpire Delest Dynasty]]. The four of them have formed a military alliance against the Cyrvans, the League Star Forces, which is supposed to be a purely anti-Cyrvan task force.

* TheKingdom: New Brittania is a neo-feudal kingdom, ruled by a single monarch with power further divided among four noble houses. They like to style themselves after the knights of old Europe, and strive to be seen as honorable and dignified. In particular, they hate the Delest Dynasty, citing irreconcilable moral standards.

** The "Playground" simulator mission includes the ability to call in [[LyricalNanoha Nanoha Takamachi]] from the reinforcement menu. You can guess what happens next.
** Cyrvan capital ships include the [[LyricalNanoha ''Starlight''-class and the ''Breaker''-class.]]

** "[[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Shoot the core]] [[StarCraft for terrible, terrible damage!]]"

** The fighter power up sequence in the flight testing missions is exactly one extra line from MechWarrior 3's mission-start lines.

* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:The Hertak, who enslaved the other hostile species [[StarControl Ur-Quan style.]]]]

** ''StarControl'':

* PurposefullyOverpowered: The Prometheus Frame, aka Infi. Let's see: [[spoiler:it has a powerful primary weapon that can kill any fighter in about three shots that ''aims itself'' at your target, four {{Wave Motion Gun}}s that allow it to chew through capital ships with ease, AI-controlled anti-fighter beams to deal with enemies trying to flank you, two variations of extremely powerful heat-seeking swarm missiles, and capital ship strength DeflectorShields. The only things really capable of taking Infi down are over a dozen fighters attacking at once or an ''Armageddon dreadnought''.]] The R&D folks really weren't kidding when they said this single ship could probably turn the tide of war on its own.

** The heaviest missile available happens to be called the [[{{Slayers}} Dragonslave.]]

** Though we only see his back, artwork of Justice looks suspiciously like [[OutlawStar Gene Starwind]]. He shares Gene's fascination for space and spaceships, and he also shares a last name (Hawking) with Gene's partner Jim. (According to Spoon, this was a coincidence, as he's never seen ''OutlawStar''.)

!!The newer game includes examples of:

** Misuzu notes that the red Fura'ngle fighters [[MobileSuitGundam do not go]] [[RedOnesGoFaster three times faster]] than the others.
** Also, said fighters are called [[GundamSeedAstray Astrays]].
** The decal on the Ray I is the king of hearts from GGundam and the decal on the Hazel is from the Advance of Zeta test team.

* TransformingMecha: ''[[MartianSuccessorNadesico Aestival]]''-class fighters have a mecha mode. Unfortunately, due to engine limitations, this is only shown in a split-second cutscene.

** ''[[MartianSuccessorNadesico Aestival]]''-class fighters.

* TheEmpire: The United Earth Union in the opening missions was noted to have controlled Earth and the Solar colonies with an iron grip and extremely heavy taxation rates. Eventually the colonies banded together and overthrew the regime, replacing it with the Sol Union.
** The Delest Dynasty is another. They practice {{Conscription}} for their military and, they are isolationists to the core. While they are not villainous, some systems are led by corrupt officials. Nobody except themselves know their exact military might, and they are sort of the {{Foil}} of the New Brittania.

*** And Misuzu thinks they should be able to [[CombiningMecha combine]] and perform the [[GunBuster Inazuma Kick]].

** "[[{{Gradius}} Shoot the core]] [[StarCraft for terrible, terrible damage!]]"