Colony
is, as the creator says, "my tribute to ... Starcraft." a Flash game made by Krin Labs and published by Armor Games.
It puts the player in the shoes of a military commander in the far future. You control armies of science fiction soldiers, such as marines, drones, tanks, helicopters, and much, much more.
The player takes control of one of four 'ideologies', Capitalism, Communism, Fascism, and Monarchy. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and while mastery of them all is not necessary for victory (one will suffice), each one is worth trying out.
This work contains examples of:
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Averted with units- there doesn't seem to be a cap on the number you can have- but played straight with buildings. You can have four, tops. You will end up using all of your slots.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Averted. Mastery of both offence and defence are necessary for victory.
- * Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: You, when you realize you just attacked Marines or Sakatas with air units, or Phantoms with tanks.
- Anti-Air: The Sakata Mk. II and Marines both fill this role.
- Cool Plane: The Phantom It's fairly cheap, deals huge damage at a fast fire rate, and it's pretty tough. Its only weakness is it cannot target other air units. Its special unit variant, the Mod. Phantom, has even better stats, though it also cannot attack other air units.
- The Black Queen is an extremely expensive and powerful air unit that can easily destroy most other units with missiles. However, its fire rate is quite slow, leaving it vulnerable to attack.
- The Saint possesses powerful fast-firing weapons and is the only air unit with self-repair abilities.
- Command & Conquer Economy: You have for resources: Money, Manpower, Energy, and Influence. Each one does something different, and you will need at least two of them to win, with 3 or 4 being better.
- Money: Makes buildings, used to upgrade buildings. Used in most units, too, albeit in small quantities.
- Manpower: Makes human soldiers and other units along the 'Barracks' path. Used in large quantities in Tier 3 units.
- Energy: Makes robotic soldiers and other units along the 'Factory' path. Used in large quantities in Tier 3 units.
- Influence: Used to make special units at Tier 2-or-3 buildings. Units made with Influence cost no other resources, often deploy very quickly, and there's no building dedicated to producing it (with the exception of the Special Operations building, which can produce it very slowly). Instead, it's earned by controlling the field, killing enemies (as Communists), or passively over time (as Monarchists).
- Critical Existence Failure: Units don't change in move speed, attack speed, or any other stat as their hitpoints decrease.
- Excuse Plot: None of the factions are given very much depth in the game's Campaign Mode, with Communists only appearing in the last of the Campaign Mode's 6 missions and Monarchists only appearing in Quick Play and Multi Player.
- Faction Calculus: Played straight.
- Capitalists: Earns resources faster.
- Fascists: Build units quicker.
- Communists: Get money and influence from killing enemies.
- Monarchists: Gain influence faster than other factions, allowing them to deploy special units more frequently.
- General Ripper: The player fits this to a T, with We Have Reserves being standard operating procedure.
- Glass Cannon: Infantry and drones, both of which generally suffer from low health and weak armor.
- One-Word Title: The game's Campaign Mode takes place during the beginnings of a war on the titular location.
- Super-Soldier: Gladiators. Robotic warriors with powerful lasers and regenerating health. They are firmly Awesome, but Impractical, though, due to their cost and requirements to make them (tier 3 factory, armory). If you can get them, though, no ground units will stand a chance, and air units barely fare better.
- Tank Goodness: Chronite Tanks are relatively cheap, hardy, and can hit multiple infantry with their cannons, but can't attack air units.
- Hover Tanks are more expensive, but much faster to deploy and are considerably tougher and more powerful than Chronite tanks. However, they require an Arsenal (which requires upgrading an Outpost, then upgrading the resulting Barracks) and still can't attack air units.
- Tech Tree: Zig-Zagged. The buildings follow much the same role, determining what units may be deployed, but there is no actual 'tree', just different buildings that can be built to create units or gather resources.
- The AI even calls them 'technologies'.
- Zerg Rush / We Have Reserves: This is a primary strategy, with either Marines, drones, or robots. Often weak to units like Chronite Tanks that can hit multiple targets at once.
