Epic: Middle States Released

Epic: Middle States is a total conversion mod that enhances the freeform experience of Trade and Piracy in Edge of Chaos. The Middle States introduces a new cluster and the new occupation of merchant trader, as well as forming a platform for future releases.

Download Page
www.i-war2.com/epic/default.asp?nc=1145&id=43


Description and Features

The Middle States is designed around a freeform Trade and Pirating experience, similar to X, Elite, or Privateer. It is based on the Edge of Chaos engine (Flux), but adds many, many new features.

Setting

The Middle States is a whole new cluster built from scratch using custom geography creation tools written by the Epic Team. The cluster is a huge 26 stars, packed with rival governments, corporations, and pirates.

The Middle States features a rich history and background written by Duncan Day (who also wrote the excellent Iwar stories “The Meeting�, “Out in the Cold�, and “Uncertain Freight�. Find them at www.i-war2.com ).

Reworked lighting and artwork give the Middle States a whole new look. The lighting is darker and more dramatic. Station reactors glow in the dark. Ship silhouettes cross the Milky way galaxy like ghosts. Collapsing nebula glow with new stars.

The music system is a whole new concept. Sensor sounds build in layers to form a haunting, shifting, sound environment. Planets wail in the electromagnetic spectrum, and station LDSI fields beat out a pulsing rhythm against the passive sensors.

Trade

This mod adds a whole new economic system to EoC. Pricing is based on stations and trade routes. Inventory levels are reduced and replenished via trading and manufacturing.

Unlike most space sims, you hire wingmen to physically move cargo pods from system to system. No phantom cargo holds with phantom cargo.

Also unlike most space sims, your ships burn fuel and require constant upkeep. You need to plan carefully to keep your income higher than your fuel costs. Average Traders live on the ragged edge. But smart traders can build a trade empire!

Piloting and route planning are crucial. Pirates haunt Lagrange points, looking for cargo ships to extort. Governments protect merchants but they charge heavy taxes for the privilege. One pirate toll or government tax could be the difference between profit and bankruptcy.

Your reputation is the key to building your fortune. Ally with powerful factions, governments or corporations to get the best trade goods.

Piracy

The Pirate occupation is fully developed in the Middle States. A new faction relation system makes piracy much more challenging. Corporations will track those who make frequent attacks and will soon be hostile.

Governments track those who attack innocent shipping. The government patrols will intercept and attack pirates on sight. No longer can you sit still while government corvettes do nothing about your deprivations.

Looting cargo becomes more challenging. You must hire wingmen to collect the cargo and keep them safe from vengeful corporations. Legal stations will not handle stolen cargo. You need to develop a reputation in the underworld and work with Fences and Pod Scrappers to sell off your loot. They take a cut, of course.

Wingmen

The Middle States builds on the wingman control features of iFleet. Build a trade armada that can empty a station of cargo in one visit. Or hire a fleet of mercenary corvettes and terrorize the trade lanes.

A new command system makes grouping and controlling your fleet easier than before. New formation code stops them from piling up. And new cargo pod commands make moving dozens of cargo pods a snap.

Your new wingmen burn fuel and supplies, so make sure to keep them well paid. If you don’t, they will desert with your precious cargo pods as recompense.

Save Nearly Anywhere

The player is no longer tied to a single base. You can enter any station in the game. You can even save your game while in deep space.

Your location in the cluster is remembered when you save. And so are the locations of your whole fleet. No longer do you reload your game only to find yourself several systems away from where you saved.

THIS MOD IS NOT MADE, DISTRIBUTED, OR SUPPORTED BY INFOGRAMES OR PARTICLE SYSTEMS LTD. ELEMENTS TM & (C) INFOGRAMES AND PARTICLE SYSTEMS LTD.

Congratulations on the release! I just took a test run around and it looks (and acts) beautiful. Very nice nested wingman group commands... easy to remember. Wonderful atmosphere.

Good job guys. Really nice stuff. Pat yourselves on the back.

Cheers,

Shane

Hi Shane,
Thanks! Glad you liked it.

I am interested to hear what people think about the music system. It is very new, so I am wondering how well it contributes to the mood.

i registered on these boards just to thank the team for this great mod : it's really beautiful (nebulaes, dockings, cap jump and so on) and gives a fresh air to i-war

with the physics from eoc + this beautiful environment you made it's a brand new game and at the same time brings back the pleasure to pilot i-war ships
when i read it's just a base for future releases i just can say i'm astonished !

congratulations to the team, advertise it (i did a bit on X² french boards) it's really worth it !

ps : i had some troubles at star and also faced some bugs, i'll try to report on the right board