Archspace
From the Encyclopedia of Speculative Fiction - http://encyclopedia.wizards.pro
Archspace (abbreviated AS) is a multiplayer browser-based and turn-based strategy game, or MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game).
Archspace players begin by creating an account where they select a name for their character and choose from one of 10 races, each having their own unique strengths and weaknesses. The Archspace universe consists of different clusters, each of which is ruled over by a computer controlled magistrate, which, in turn, is ruled by the empire. The goal of the game is to successful siege (take) the magistrates home planet via building ships, forming fleets, and sieging other players with these fleets. To get to this planet players must work together in councils (clans) to defeat the magistrate and then take all other empire planets before it's possible to take the home planet. Players may also siege other players for planets and PP (Production Points).
Currently there is one Archspace server running 1 turn every 5 minutes.
However, the Archspace as players knew it, is finally gone. So far, 2 cast of projects have appeared, both with launchdates early 2008.
The two follow ups are www.archverse.com, or better known as AS 2.0. Secondly, www.magellanwars.com has recently sprung up, and will be supplying players with a game close to the archspace they knew.
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Races
There are 10 races currently available in Archspace.
Agerus Bosalian Buckaneer Evintos Human Targoid Tecanoid Xeloss Xerusian Xesperados
Each race in Archspace has unique strengths and weaknesses. Such as different starting technologies, different racial modifiers, and different ending projects.
Planets
There are 5 different planet sizes in Archspace, with 5 different resources. The 5 sizes, from smallest to largest, are Tiny, Small, Normal, Large, and Huge. The different resources range from Ultra Poor, Poor, Normal, Rich, and Ultra Rich. Most players abbreviate their planet attributes by using the first letters from each attribute. For example a TUP would be a Tiny, Ultra Poor planet. The larger the planets size the more buildings can be built on it and better the resources the more money can be gained from it. Each planet may have an unlimited number of modifiers, such as volcanoes or radiation, which can make the planet more or less desirable. On each planet you can build (via a ratio) 3 building types, Military Bases, Research Labs, and Factories.
PP, MP, and RP
"Money" in Archspace is represented by PP, or Production Points. Production Points will be converted into MP if you run out (at a rate of 20PP to 1MP), or it can be used to buy projects, black market items, etc. However, PP is primarily used to build ships. The slower you take in PP the longer it will take you to produce ships. MP, or Military points are used to upkeep fleets, the more fleets you have the more upkkep is needed. If you do not have enough MP to keep up your fleets, PP will automatically be used. If you do not have enough PP, fleets will automatically be deactivated, then ships scrapped, then fleets disbanded. RP, or Research Points are used to discover new technologies, by investing PP towards research, you can speed up this process.
Technology and Projects
You can research up to 116 techs in Archspace in 4 different categories, Social Science, Information Science, Matter-Space Science, and Life Science. Each technology you research can provide you with a different weapon, ship component, project, etc. Projects are large scale changes you can make to your planet or council which can change one or several modifiers to your race or planets.
Concentration Mode
You can change your concentration mode to affect your attributes. Balanced will not change anything. Research will speed up your research, but slow down your ship building and your production. Military will speed up your ship building, but slow production and research, and so forth.
Ship Building, Fleets, and Battles
There are 10 different ship sizes, from smallest to largest, Gunboat, Corvette, Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser, Battle Cruiser, Battleship, Dreadnought, Mobile Fortress, and Doomstar. Again, each ship can carry progressively more weapons and devices than the previous model. However, sometimes it benefits to build a smaller ship. For example, only Cruiser and below can use the cloaking field generator device, which makes it almost impossible to spot a ship before it fires. There are a variety of devices that can influence a ship in different ways. There are also 27 common weapons that can be added to each ship, different hulls which offer bonuses vs. missile weapons, projectiles, etc. some even have self-regeneration. The variety of ships players can build leads to an almost never-ending modification of ships to counter the designs of others in the game.
After building one or more of a single ship design you can form a fleet. You begin by selecting a fleet commander. Different commanders range in level, or experience, from 1-20, and indication of how good they are. The higher the commander level, the higher his stats will be and the more ships he can hold. Commanders make a huge difference in how well a ship will do in battle.
Once you form a fleet you can battle another player, either via a siege where you take his planet, a raid, in which you destroy buildings on a planet to slow their production, or a variety of other havoc causing mean things. The most common, a siege, will pit your fleets (up to 20) against your chosen enemies. If you loose most likely your fleets will lie in ruins. If you win you destroy his fleets and gain the planet of his that you siege. This is the most popular method of gaining planets, and thus power in Archspace. However, you may only siege planets of people you are at war with (in council) or players in councils you are at war with. There are vary rarely in council wars as most councils cooperate towards winning the game.
Other Features
AS is a game rich in features, too many to list and explain here. Some of these include a Black Market where you can buy planets, ships, techs, projects, and commanders. Many features aren't a true result of the game rules or programming. Such as diplomacy between councils, members, and how council leaders, called speakers, run their councils. Strategy is constantly evolving as different ship designs, fleet formations, commanders, and countless other variables are experimented with. Relations with the empire can range from Pursued Anywhere in the Universe, to Perfect Subject, where you may request favors and receive gifts such as planets from the empire. When you become a perfect subject it also becomes possible to obtain court ranks, 5 in total, which ascend from Baron to Duke. AS also implements a power level feature where you may only attack players within a certain percentage of your overall power, this prevents the very powerful from killing off the very weak.
History
The First reference to Archspace occurs on Nov 9th, 2000 according to web.archive.org [1] Archspace was originally developed by MARItel, a Korean company, who also developed Archmage. At some point around 2002 MARItel went down the drain, and development/hosting of the game was taken over by the players, much in the way that The Reincarnation sprang from Archmage. During this time server space and bandwidth were donated and developers worked for free. In 2004 Archspace, with the help of Google Ads, started being hosted on its own dedicated server, giving the developers more options and better access to the server, overall more control over the game; however, developers continue to work for free. Currently plans are being laid down to completely re-code AS from the ground up, being dubbed AS 2.0.