Ascii Sector is a free space combat/exploration/trading game which is based on the classic computer game Wing Commander: Privateer released by Origin Systems in 1993.
In Ascii Sector, you start with a simple spaceship and can then accept missions or trade goods to earn enough money to upgrade your ship or buy a new one. You can engage in deadly fights both in space, on the ground and on board spaceships, and using the Ascii Sector scripting language, you can create your own quests for the game or have fun with other players’ quests.
Privateer: Ascii Sector allows you to freely roam the game universe, which currently consists of 32 systems and 45 bases and planets. (This number will increase in the next versions of the game. Visit www.asciisector.net for progress updates on the next version.)
As you travel in the game universe, you will be able to engage in dogfights with other spaceships and land on planets and bases. Here you can interact with the populace, upgrade and repair your ship – or buy a new ship – and get missions to complete in order to earn more money (called credits in the game).
There are three ways to get missions in the game: the Merchants’ Guild, the Mercenaries’ Guild, and fixers. Both the Merchants’ and Mercenaries’ Guild cost credits to join, but the fee is a small investment compared to the credits you’ll be able to earn by completing Guild missions. Most bases and planets have a Guild office with a mission terminal for you to use. When you log on to a mission terminal, the computer will connect to the Guild network and display the missions available to pilots of your rating. When you accept a mission, you’ll have a set time to do it within. The mission’s expiry date is the deadline. Completing missions will increase your rating and give you access to a greater amount and variety of missions, while failing to complete a mission, or not completing it before the deadline, will decrease your rating.
Fixers are people on bases and planets that have missions for you to do. They are usually found in bars, waiting for privateers to offer their services. Just like with Guild missions, you will have a set time frame within which to complete the mission. Successfully completing fixer missions will improve your reputation and more fixers will offer their missions to you, while failing missions will reduce your reputation.
You can always check your missions on your personal handheld computer (called a Quine) when on a base or planet, or in the nav computer when flying in space. Your Quine can store up to 15 missions at any time (not counting quest missions). When you have completed a mission, clear it from your Quine to free up space for new missions (if you have to return to your contact to collect your pay after completing a fixer mission, don’t clear it from your Quine until after you’ve been paid!).
The Quine is also where you save your game. Thus, you can only save your game while on a base or planet (but not while engaged in combat).
Taking on missions isn’t the only way to earn credits in the game. If your ship has a large enough cargo hold, you can earn a good deal of credits by buying commodities on one base or planet and selling them on another. This is done using the computer terminals in the Commodity Exchange.
To interact with your surroundings on a base, just walk into them (i.e. to talk to characters, use computer terminals, board your ship, or use a bed, just walk into it/them).
Features include:
- Uses the ANSI character set for the graphics.
- Real depth to the gameplay.
- Offers a wide variety of bases, missions, commodities and ships.
- Ships include: Broadsword, Centurion, Demon, Dralthi, Drayman, Galaxy, Gladius, Gothri, Kamekh, Nexus, Orion, Paradign, Stileto, Talon, Tarsus, and Ulysses.
- Four quadrants: Alizarin, Crimson, Mauve, and Viridian.
- Downloadable quests.
- Scripting of quests.
- Ascii Sector quest language, create your own stories in the Ascii Sector universe.
- NPCs on planets can be attacked and robbed.
- Persistent fleets that can move around, change control of systems, engage enemy fleets, head back for repairs and rebuilds.
- Ships whose systems have been disabled can be boarded.
- Download high quality music files.
Website: Website down
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Developer: Christian Knudsen
License: Freeware
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