User:LiAnNaSu/XseraBak
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| Xsera | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Brainpen |
| Publisher(s) | Brainpen |
| Engine | Apollo Engine |
| Platform(s) | Mac OS X 10.4 or newer, Windows and Linux builds in development |
| Release | In Development |
| Genre(s) | Space adventure/Strategy/RTS |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
Xsera is a port of Ambrosia Software's game Ares. It is being ported from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It is an open source project under the MIT License.
Story
[edit]Xsera's storyline is the same as the Ares story. The player is cast as the commander of the U.N.S. Apollo, humankind's first interstellar vessel, dispatched at light speed to investigate the source of a signal broadcast at Earth from one hundred and fifty light years away. On reaching the source, the crew is told that, due to relativistic effects, Earth has by now been taken over by the religious Cantharan Order, and the signal was a ruse from the friendly Ishiman, who wished to maintain humanity as a free race; the Ishiman planned to find a new world for the crew of the Apollo. Although the advanced but peaceful Ishiman are unwilling to enter into direct war with the Cantharans, the Apollo's crew is able to persuade them to supply a limited amount of their technology in an attempt to free Earth. Upon undertaking their new mission, the ship is renamed the Ares. *[1]
Gameplay
[edit]Like the original Ares, Xsera is a top-down 2D space game featuring combined combat and strategic planning. The player flies a single space ship while commanding and building other AI ships. Dynamic zooming allows the player to focus on any one ship, observe the entire playing field, or anything in between. A player may transfer from controlling one ship to another ship at any time.
As with Ares, there are six main species, the Audemedons, the Salrilians, the Ishimans, the Cantharan, the Gaitori and the Humans, each with their own separate ship characteristics.
Multiplayer
[edit]Unlike Ares, Xsera allows multiplayer with more than two players. Each player will control their own team, and matches with 3 or more teams will be possible. Multiplayer is still in development and a working demo of multiplayer is not yet available.
Improvements over Ares
[edit]Current Release
[edit]Tech Demo 2 implemented basic movement (2-dimensional newtonian with a maximum speed depending on the ship), sound, smooth zooming, weapon particle spawning (both with and without inheritance of ship's momentum), damage, and mission completion conditions. It is available at Xsera.org
The source code is in a GiT repository http://github.com/xsera/xsera