A Sector Darkly

A Sector Darkly is a 2-d real-time space exploration sandbox RPG. Explore, trade, scavenge, research, craft and survive a sector in chaos. Interact and dialogue with more than 10 alien races. Imagine a 4x-LITE universe, where instead of being in command of the faction, you are in command of a single ship and crew just trying to survive. An open world exploration, with an underlying mystery: sectors are going dark one by one and no one knows why.

Take command of your ship and crew, survive, solve the mystery of the dark sectors and get your crew home.

FEATURES

• The simulation manages all entities and actors in a fully simulated universe. Miners pull ore from asteroid belts, and move it to refineries. Traders move goods and those raw ores locally to star ports and industrial stations for processing. Haulers and freighters move goods large-scale across the entire sector. The military patrols and protects from hostile forces and invading U'Guul.

• Engage in fierce combat against hulking dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, destroyers and phantom fighters. Use point defense, powerful devices, special weapons, missiles, torpedoes, and mines to defend your ship and others.

• Mine, scavenge, salvage, pillage, protect the vital trade lanes, conduct missions to gain favor and research assistance... the choice is yours: follow the laws of the region or take what you want by force.

• Ship classes exist, but are not made obsolete when you upgrade or purchase different ships. Ships have role bonuses and a unique special device/weapon per class. There is no better or best weapon or ship. Instead of upgrades, think of them as side-grades. Some things might be flexible, but generally not as good as a specialist item. Dozens of ship components enables hundreds of combinations to suit your fighting style.

• Radar cross-section, heat and EM signatures play a role in detecting entities. The more powerful these signatures are the farther out you can detect them. Your own heat/cross-section plays a role in how far you can be detected.

• This enables stealth gameplay mechanics: equip a heat-sink and lower your heat signature to mask your signature for a limited time (but get too close and you will be detected!) at some point you have to vent your heat!

• Each with their own distinct manner of communication.

• From the enigmatic Coriantans to the aggressive V'Throni and the unstoppable U'Guul. The passive Noxu, the depressed Boolooloo & more. Maintain cordial relations and they will assist you. Under attack? Send a distress call. Damaged? Ask for repairs. Disabled? Request a tow.

• Stable, Unstable, Ancient wormholes and sectors to be discovered and exploited. Unstable wormholes can be stabilised with the right technology, unlocking new sectors to exploit or new shortcuts across the sector.

• Stabilise wormholes before entry. Some wormholes can only be traversed by smaller support craft. Park your mothership, launch your runabout, go exploring and come back right where you left it, even if you leave the system!

• Your crew offers passive bonuses to various stats. They consume water and food (which you can craft from raw materials gathered while on long expeditions). You can send them on away missions to planets in a shuttle to gather materials for crafting. All in real-time, no abstraction.

Support Ships

• In addition to your pilot-able support craft, you can equip yourself with a suite of drones for mining, salvaging and repairing. Deploy them and continue exploring, they will return on completion.

• These phenomena can lead to dark sectors, where the only light you have is what you bring with you. There are things in the darkness which don't like the light.