_Eight hundred years ago, the galaxy was a very different plane.

The many disparate and far-flung civilisations of the galactic arm had already established first contact with each other, but their worlds and their forces were stretched thin across their space. Contact with the other races was precious and rare, yet each civilisation was forced to live isolated from even their other worlds.

Intergalactic trade was seldom and rare, as the costs and time needed vastly outweighed the friendships formed. The galactic community envisioned by the first deep-space explorers had yet to materialize, and the worlds of their species' stagnated with isolation.

Contact should not only be made, but maintained! The galaxy should unite! Each civilisation should learn about the other, and so will perfect itself!
And thus was the Cantharan Star League forged...

There was a sudden rebirth among the galaxy as the civilisations united under one government. Intergalactic trade and communication let every race flourish and prosper to their fullest.

The galaxy entered a new Golden Age, but new power stirs up old troubles. Reawakened by their newfound nationalism, The Gaitori Empire and the Free Worlds of Obain promptly declared war on each other.

The Republic of Bood, fearful of these strange, new galactic powers, rose up and fought with horrible ferocity against the Unification. And so the Boodan Civil War began.

And on the homeworld of Salril, troubles were stirring. After centuries of oppression, the Radical Estate rose up to power and, after an eleven-minute battle, overthrew the Pratriarchy. The Salrilian Confederacy was born.

Driven perhaps by their fear of the unknown, they built a massive system of computers operating on the principle of matter extrapolation, the Oracular Net could see into the near future, predicting every major event with stunning accuracy. However, over the next hundred years, the Salrilians would face many new troubles on their quest for enlightenment.

This is their story._

Slugsoft Gamestuff in conjunction with Axis Software Integrated presents:

Before They Sailed: Audemed's Storm

Coming soon....

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If our military is so much better than theirs, then why don't we ever use it?

(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 12-27-2000).)

Long intro there...

Storyline looks good. Could you give us an idea of what the gameplay will be like?

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"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

Be ready to think a lot. There are a few situations in here where you'll need more than piloting skill and tactical knowledge.

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Throughout their history these "unenlightened" beings have continually opposed and fought abuses of power wrought by their own bretheren. We, as the prophets would do well to learn from these Humans.
-Final statement of the Salrilian reformist Sirthis shortly before his execution.

You have to be able to improvise you way through the puzzles the Audemedons weave, dart past the border of the Gaitori Empire at it's height, know when to retreat, handle sudden plot twists, and ost importantly, you need to know how to fight at the machine's level.

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If our military is so much better than theirs, then why don't we ever use it?

I've probably not been paying enough attention, but wasn't the whole "Before they sailed" project scrapped when Slug turned it over to Commodore Ambrose?

Either way it sounds very good

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I have a plan so ingenius even an idiot could have devised it. On my command, we will line up our ships and fly straight into the enemy death-cannons clogging them with wreckage.

Sounds great. What about difficulty?

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"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

Well, it's between challenging and impossible. Sometimes the battle is so up-hill you have to be very lucky to survive. Sometimes the level is so simple you simply have to be a good pilot.

It varies from level to level, but ask Darkk. He's beta testing the thing.

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If our military is so much better than theirs, then why don't we ever use it?

Looks like an excellent plug. Do you have any idea when it'll come out?

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"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

It was scheduled for New Years, but Hera crapped out and I had to revert to an earlier version of BTS.

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If our military is so much better than theirs, then why don't we ever use it?

Speaking of crapped out, Hera is completely corrupting one of my levels. Every time I try to get it back to its origional state, it gets corrupted. But if I make the level different, everything's fine. This happen to anybody else?

This looks like it will be a good plug, Slug. I look forward to seeing it.

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Long Live Apple! Long Live the Mac!
(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/salrillian")http://www.geocities.com/salrillian(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/evclassic")http://www.geocities.com/evclassic(/url)

Sounds like it's gonna rock! When are you expecting it to come out?

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To Escape Velocity: Nova and Beyond!
--------------
Millennium. Its coming, prepare for it.
Coming to the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiaSW.com/games/ev/chronicles.html")EV Chronicles(/url).

bangs his head on the nearest hard and stable object

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"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

When's it coming out... Oh, not this; StarLance!

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Subcommander g'Var "8 Lightnings" Krai'un
Second in command of the Escort Starbeam.
"CRUISER DESTROYED. 91 remaining" -Ares, chapter 9, Hand Over Fist

Well, my beta appears to only have the first 5 levels, but I'll give my report on their difficulty.
The difficulty varies from "you have to be kidding, this is way to easy" to "The Mothership Connection 2". There aren't any levels harder than Ares: Chapter 20. If you can beat Ares, you'll be fine.
I'd have to ask Slug to kick it up a notch in the later levels. Oh, and I didn't really notice much in the way of puzzles. Maybe we have a different definition of "puzzle". It's not that lack of puzzles is a bad thing, I found the plug very fun.

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William Darkk, head of the Darkklight Entrepenurial Federation
Your cargo or your life!!!

Bah to plugs made for pansies that don't like having a struggle.

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"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

I don't mind a struggle, but it shouldn't be "only Mag Steelglass can beat it" unless you're sadistic or something. Speaking of sadistic, can anyone beat the secret level of The Rogue? I keep hearing "maximum number of objects" when I'm down to my last ship.

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William Darkk, head of the Darkklight Entrepenurial Federation
Your cargo or your life!!!

It's physically impossible to beat the secret level.

And it doesn't need to be "only Mag Steelglass can beat it." If you're at the secret level, then I would assume that you can beat it. But at least more difficult than Ares. Ares is way too easy.

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"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

Actually, I was at the secret level because I used the "replace your 'Ares scenarios' file with the plug you want" trick, and the secret level comes sooner than 20.

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William Darkk, head of the Darkklight Entrepenurial Federation
Your cargo or your life!!!

The Rogue secret level...

Was that the one with the Borg? I beat that... It says "You killed a Borg cube! Only (Some incredibly large number I can't remember) to go!", right?

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Subcommander g'Var "8 Lightnings" Krai'un
Second in command of the Escort Starbeam.
"CRUISER DESTROYED. 91 remaining" -Ares, chapter 9, Hand Over Fist

That's Iron Fist's secret level.
The Rogue's secret level features millions of Cantharan warships (I'm not sure how many, it hits the unit limit fast) that cannot be beat even via cheating because you will run out of ammo/energy and it will become physically impossible for you to win.

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William Darkk, head of the Darkklight Entrepenurial Federation
"Strategic warfare" is code for "killing civilians", and it's my calling. Yeah, it's barbaric. War's supposed to be.