DarkOrbit

Last updated
DarkOrbit
DarkOrbit Logo.png
Developer(s) Bigpoint
Publisher(s) Bigpoint
Platform(s) Web
Microsoft Windows
Mac
Linux
ReleaseDecember 11, 2006
Genre(s) MMO, Action role-playing
Mode(s)Multiplayer

DarkOrbit, later renamed to DarkOrbit: Reloaded is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Bigpoint Games. The game is set in outer space, where players control a spaceship to battle against non-player characters and other players. It is a three-dimensional isometric Flash game with over 300 million registered accounts. [1]

Contents

Gameplay

Players must control a spaceship to battle against evil non-player characters and other players. If a player defeats an enemy, they must be given a reward.. The other object of the game is to upgrade the spaceship and any equipment to increase in Ranks personally and for the company altogether. DarkOrbit is a free to play game with an optional monthly subscription called Premium that adds various benefits. An additional in-game currency called Uridium can also be purchased to purchase Full-Elite items. The game is playable on within a web browser and it does not require any download. While in the wake of the discontinuation of Adobe Flash Player, the game made available on Mac/Windows/Linux platforms in either. At the start of the game, the player chooses between three companies : Venus Resources Unlimited (VRU), Earth Industries Corporation (EIC) and Mars Mining Operations (MMO). In the story, one more company exists (Saturn Autonomous Technology) but not for the players. [2] Players are teleported to the home map to begin quests from Mission Control. The object of the game is to gain wealth and power both individually and for the company.

Top User Points

This is a formula that will divide the player's Experience by 100,000 and Honor by 100, which will equal the player's top user points. Top user points show up in the hall of fame.

Rank Points

Rank points are also based on a mathematical formula that is figured by a variety of factors, such as experience, level, honor, quests finished, Ships Points destroyed, Alien Points destroyed, and the player's ship type. There are also factors that will reduce the player's rank points such as times destroyed, own company kills, radiation zone destructions, and phoenix (starter) ships destroyed. Rank Points do not show up in the hall of fame.

Economy

DarkOrbit uses two types of currencies: credits and uridium. Uridium, common abbreviated "Uri", is more valuable and harder to obtain. Some types of equipment and ammunition can be purchased using credits, however the most valuable or "elite" items can only be bought with uridium. [3] However, for some of those elite items, there is an option to bid using credits. This auction system is used to control inflation of credits. [4] Many new items are not offered in trade. The P.E.T. 10 is a highly priced drone that increases with costs as the player levels it up. Ship designs are also available in the auction.However, certain valuable equipment such as Drone designs or Elite laser ammo are not available in the auction. Uridium can be purchased in exchange for real money via PayPal, credit card, or another method of payment. Uridium can't be traded.

Combat

DarkOrbit utilizes a real-time combat system. In combat, a variety of weapons can be used to destroy aliens and other players. These include laser cannons, laser ammunition, rockets, rocket launchers, and mines. Players need to click on their target to lock on before they can begin shooting. Successfully destroying an enemy will result in a "cargo box" containing ore being dropped that the player can take. If the destroyed ship is a player, it will cost 500 Uridium to repair the ship, although the ship started with in the game is free to repair. This was available only before Darkorbit Reloaded. At the moment, players can choose to repair their ship for free, spawning at their home base, paying 700 Uridium (or one repair credit + 200 Uridium) to spawn at the nearest portal on the map (note that on 4-x maps there are not demilitarized zones, so be careful), or 800 Uridium (or one repair credit + 300 Uridium) to spawn at the same spot their ship got destroyed. Players start of the game with a Phoenix, a free but easily destroyed ship. As the player advances in the game, they can buy better ships. There are a total of 53 different ships that can be bought, with the Goliath, the Aegis, the Citadel, and the Vengeance typically being regarded as the best ships. Some ships can only be purchased with real money during special events. Ships can be equipped with a variety of items, including shield generators, speed engines, laser cannons, rocket launchers, ammunition, and many other accessories.

Clans

Players can join a clan if they pay 1,500 credits. Benefits of joining a clan include help from clan mates and clan payouts in the form of credits. However, most clans have a clan tax (between 0% and 5%) that is collected into the clans treasury daily. Clans can help players level up, gain credits and compete against other rivals. In addition, a player can found a clan for 300,000 credits. There is also a page in the game that shows which clan players are online, if they are ready for action on the player's map or if they are offline. The menu also allows players to invite them into group without having to write their name. [3] [5] Clans can engage in wars with one another.

Skylab

The Skylab is a system used to produce and refine ores, such as Prometium, Endurium, and Terbium. These basic ores can be refined to Prometid and Duranium, which when combined with Xenomit can make Promerium. There is also a crystal named Seprom that can only be produced in the Skylab by further refining Promerium. Seprom cannot be sold however the ore can give weapons and shields a great power boost. These ores can then be sent to the player's ship and either sold for credits or equipped to enhance the ship. [6] The highest level is 20 for upgrading the Skylab.

Pilot Sheet

The Pilot Bio is a very powerful skill tree designed to give players extra advantages in-game. Pilot points are needed to work the Pilot Bio. Pilot Points can be obtained by buying log disks from the shop, shooting down boss or uber NPCs for a small chance, or even by completing Galaxy Gates. Each pilot point can be used to acquire certain abilities that help the player in battle or other game functions. A player can have up to fifty pilot points in their bio. When certain skills are maxed out, they generate special effects, such as brighter lasers, rocket trails, etc. [7] Most pilot points a player can spend is 50.

Galaxy Gates

For 100

Uridium or from Palladium, a resource which is converted into extra energy, players can "spin" a galaxy Gate Generator, which gives ammunition, free repairs, or parts for a "galaxy gate". Once enough parts to build one of the many galaxy gates are collected, players are sent through a portal into a map where enemies cannot reach the player, only NPCs. Once in, the only way out is to be shot down, or to destroy the entire "wave" of aliens. These waves get progressively harder throughout the duration of the gate; they also become more difficult depending on the active gate. The reward for completing a gate without being shot down more than twice is quite substantial.

LoW Gate

Also called the Outfit Gate, the Lord of War map is found on every x-3 map. To enter this gate, one must be in an outfit. Once in the gate, players find there is no way out - they must "finish" the gate. The goal is to energize four probes at the corners of the map; once this is accomplished, the station at the center of the map gains the ability to heal any player that goes within range. In addition, a considerable horde of aliens spawns, along with the Century Falcon. Killing this extremely tough NPC awards the player the achievement "Falconer" and ejects them from the map. All destructions inside the map result in free repairs.

Special Events

DarkOrbit has special events from time to time that can give players special rewards.

Jackpot Arena

Jackpot Arena is a monthly event on the second Sunday of every month, in which all players who sign up fight each other in 1 vs 1 until only one ship is left surviving. The winning player will receive real cash up to €10,000. [8] from DarkOrbit, based on how many "Jackpot euros" they had. Jackpot dollars can be found in bonus boxes that are scattered across space. The Jackpot Arena has been suspended Permanently. [9]

Team Death Match

The Team Death Match is an event that in which five ships from one company work together to kill five ships from an enemy company. The winning team receives rewards at the end and is taken to the next level. This keeps on continuing until the player dies (or their team loses).

Spaceball

Spaceball is an event that takes place in the map 4-4, with the objective of scoring goals by shooting an NPC ball to the player's x-5 portal. After a goal has been scored cargo boxes are released around the portal containing assorted prizes such as uridium, ammunition, and jackpot dollars. The winning company wins prizes for 24 hours the next day such as x%EP, honor, bonus box rewards, and cargo selling price.

Invasion

An event that takes place in different maps, depending on the player's level. This event is made up of waves, each wave harder to pass than the one before. Should the player die on the invasion map, repairs are free.

For levels 5-9 an invasion gate appears in the middle of x-1, in x-3 a gate appears for all those between levels 10-14 and in x-5 all players at levels 15 and above have to enter invasion here. The gate in x-1 typically contains NPCs that are easier to kill with the higher gates having tougher enemies.

Capture The Beacon

Capture The Beacon, like the traditional game capture the flag, is an event where all 3 companies have beacons in their x-2 maps which must be protected by the defending company, and captured by the attacking company, and taken back to their own x-2 map. Games are 1 hour long, company with most points gets a 1-hour prize such as x% more experience, honor, bonus box rewards, etc.

Scoremageddon

Players fight in PvP battles to gain points. More points are awarded based on combos. The top 50 in points at the end will win various prizes such as UCB-100, PLD-8, Special Mines, and even Uridium. Players start with five lives.

Infiltration

NPCs will spawn every 10 minutes. The objective is to destroy all NPCs to earn a point for the player's company. The NPCs have camouflage and are marked as yellow on the minimap. Every map, except x-1, have varying amounts of NPCs, and once they are all destroyed there will be a message to all players on the map saying all the Infiltrators have been destroyed.

Birthday Gate

To commemorate the date that DarkOrbit went online, every year on December 11, a gate appears on the home map, given free to all players. Weakened aliens, usually at half-strength, are found in the gate. The rewards are not as large as other gates, since the enemies are weaker. They also give players 35.000 uridium.

Community

The official DarkOrbit forums are powered by vBulletin. The forums provide a place for DarkOrbit to announce updates and events as well as a place for players to ask questions, discuss the game, and give suggestions. In addition, DarkOrbit's support can be contacted via email by players wishing to report a bug or make a complaint. There is a third-party private server of the game called Andromeda.

Development

DarkOrbit started as a closed beta test, in which over 80,000 players participated. They later on passed into an open beta phase. Finally, on September 1, 2005, the game passed into the subscription phase, which is expected to continue for the entire lifespan of the game. Currently, there are 300 million registered accounts.

Reception

Joystiq called it an "insane shooter" with a mix of Asteroids and EVE Online . [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Earth & Beyond</i> 2002 video game

Earth & Beyond was a science fiction massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Westwood Studios and published by Electronic Arts (EA). The game was released in September 2002 in the United States. EA shut down Earth & Beyond on 22 September 2004. It was the last game developed by Westwood Studios.

In video gaming, camping is a tactic where a player obtains an advantageous static position, which may be a discreet place which is unlikely to be searched. The tactic is employed both in single-player games and online multiplayer games, but is usually more effective in an online multiplayer game, as AI opponents in single-player games may be aware of the player's position, even if they are visually hidden. The tactic varies depending on the type of game. In first-person shooters, it generally involves a player waiting in one location for other players to approach, then killing them before being noticed, or before the other players can react to their presence. By camping, a player is able to learn and adapt to the limited environment they are playing in, noting specific points to check repetitively. By following this method with little fault, a lower number of deaths can be achieved. In other cases, players may wait in an area to gain access to items or perform actions before other players who are not camping have the chance to do so.

Ablative armor is armor which prevents damage through the process of ablation, the removal of material from the surface of an object by vaporization, chipping, or other erosive processes. In contemporary spacecraft, ablative plating is most frequently seen as an ablative heat shield for a vehicle that must enter atmosphere from orbit, such as on nuclear warheads, or space vehicles like the Mars Pathfinder probe. A large amount of developmental usage was on the early 1960s rocket powered X-15 crewed aircraft traveling at hypersonic speeds in excess of Mach 6.5. The idea is also commonly encountered in science fiction. In recent years, the concept has had widespread usage in robot combat as a method of reducing impact energy transfer to vital components.

<i>Uridium</i> 1986 video game

Uridium is a science fiction side-scrolling shoot 'em up originally designed by Andrew Braybrook for the Commodore 64, and later ported to other 8-bit machines. It consists of fifteen levels, each named after a metal element, with the last level being called Uridium. The manual quotes Robert Orchard, who invented the name as saying "I really thought it existed".

<i>Body Harvest</i> 1998 video game

Body Harvest is an action-adventure video game for the Nintendo 64 video game console, developed by DMA Design. It was intended to be a Nintendo 64 launch title, but was delayed due to its original publisher, Nintendo, having issues with the game's violent themes, and eventual dropping of the title, leaving DMA to find a new publisher. It was eventually published by Gremlin Interactive and Midway in 1998.

<i>Rebelstar</i> 1984 video game

The Rebelstar games are a series of turn-based tactics video games designed by Julian Gollop. Rebelstar Raiders was published in 1984 by Red Shift for the ZX Spectrum. It was reworked in machine code as Rebelstar, published by Firebird in 1986. A sequel, Rebelstar II, was published in 1988 by Silverbird. Rebelstar, but not its sequel, was also adapted for the Amstrad CPC home computer.

<i>X3: Reunion</i> 2005 single-player space trading and combat video game

X3: Reunion is a single-player space trading and combat video game developed by Egosoft and published by Deep Silver. It is the third installment in the X series and the sequel to X2: The Threat (2003), which in turn followed X: Beyond the Frontier (1999). X3: Reunion was released originally for Windows in 2005. The game was later ported to Mac OS X and Linux.

<i>Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday</i> 1990 video game

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday is a role-playing video game set in the Buck Rogers XXVC universe. It was published in 1990 by Strategic Simulations for MS-DOS, Commodore 64, and Amiga. A Sega Genesis version was released in 1991. Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed is the 1992 sequel.

<i>Shadowgrounds</i> 2005 video game

Shadowgrounds is a top-down shooter for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, developed by Frozenbyte. The game takes place on a space colony on Ganymede which is being attacked by aliens. It was released for Windows on November 11, 2005, in stores in Finland and Germany, and in Spring 2006 in the rest of Europe and North America.

<i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i> (pinball) 1993 pinball machine

Star Trek: The Next Generation is a widebody pinball game, designed by Steve Ritchie and released in November 1993 by Williams Electronics. It was part of WMS' SuperPin series, and was based on the TV series. It is the only pinball machine that features three separate highscore-lists. Apart from the regular highscore-list and the buy-in-list, it also features a reminiscence to The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot billionaires club. It is also the third pinball game overall based on the Star Trek franchise, following the 1979 pinball game by Bally, and the 1991 game by Data East, and preceding the 2013 pinball game by Stern.

<i>Sins of a Solar Empire</i> 2008 video game

Sins of a Solar Empire is a 2008 science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Ironclad Games and published by Stardock Entertainment for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is a real-time strategy (RTS) game that incorporates some elements from 4X games; its makers describe it as "RT4X". Players are given control of a spacefaring empire in the distant future, and are tasked with conquering star systems using military, economic and diplomatic means.

<i>Space Lords</i> 1992 arcade video game by Atari Games

Space Lords is a video game released in arcades by Atari Games in 1992. It is a first-person perspective space combat video game.

Ace Online or AirRivals is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) 3D shooter developed by MasangSoft Inc. and owned by YD Online Corp.

<i>Pardus</i> (video game) 2004 video game

Pardus is a graphical browser-based MMORPG written in PHP and C/C++ and set in a futuristic universe where players interact and compete in space. It is a persistent-universe, open-ended game with a player-driven economy. Players travel through hundreds of "sectors" or solar systems while trading, building or battling with Non-Player Characters (NPCs) and other players. There are dozens of spacecraft models in Pardus, which can be customized with different weapons, armor and other equipment. Pardus characters do not have a defined 'class'.

<i>MechWarrior: Living Legends</i> 2009 video game

Mechwarrior: Living Legends is a free, fan-created multiplayer-only game based in the BattleTech universe - originally a total-conversion mod for Crysis, it's since become stand-alone - running on Crysis Wars, and using CryEngine 2 as its engine. It's one of the few mods based on the BattleTech universe to have been sanctioned by Microsoft—who currently owns the rights to the Mechwarrior video-game franchise—and additionally received pre-SDK support and sanctioning directly from Crytek, producers of the games' engine. On December 26, 2009, an open beta was released via BitTorrent and other distribution methods. Because the project changes the play-style and feel of the game it is originally based on so completely as to be unrecognizable in comparison, it is billed as a "full-conversion" mod, since little to no trace of the original game's art or play-style exists any longer within MW:LL. It was created by American developer Wandering Samurai Studios.

<i>CrimeCraft</i> 2009 video game

CrimeCraft was a free-to-play online Persistent World Next-generation Shooter dubbed "PWNS" by Ukrainian developer Vogster Entertainment and published at retail by THQ. The game is set in the near future where the world lies in anarchy and gangs have replaced governments.

Deepolis was a 3D online browser based game, developed by Bigpoint. Released on 17 December 2008, the game is available in 20 languages.

<i>Boom Beach</i> 2014 mobile game by Supercell

Boom Beach is a free massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game for iOS and Android, developed by Supercell. It was soft launched in Canada on 11 November 2013 and released worldwide on 26 March 2014.

<i>Destiny 2</i> 2017 video game

Destiny 2 is a free-to-play online first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie. It was originally released as a pay to play game in 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. It became free-to-play, utilizing the games as a service model, under the New Light title on October 1, 2019, followed by the game's release on Stadia the following month, and then PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S platforms in December 2020. The game was published by Activision until December 31, 2018, when Bungie acquired the publishing rights to the franchise. It is the sequel to 2014's Destiny and its subsequent expansions.

<i>Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS Force</i> 2015 video game

Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS-Force is a portable spin-off of the Extreme Vs. series, developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Lancarse for PlayStation Vita.

References

  1. ↑ "DarkOrbit main page". DarkOrbit.com. Bigpoint. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  2. ↑ "DarkOrbit registration". DarkOrbit Help. Bigpoint. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
  3. 1 2 Robota, Damian. "Kostenfalle Online-Spiele". PC Welt. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2011.
  4. ↑ "Trading post". DarkOrbit Help. Bigpoint. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
  5. ↑ "Clan". DarkOrbit Help. Bigpoint. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
  6. ↑ "Skylab". DarkOrbit Help. Bigpoint. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
  7. ↑ "Pilot Bio". DarkOrbit Help. Bigpoint. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
  8. ↑ "Jackpot". DarkOrbit Help. Bigpoint. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
  9. ↑ Jackpot Arena suspended. Darkorbit Forums.
  10. ↑ Beau Hindman (June 21, 2011). "MMObility: Fifty games for the mobile lifestyle | Massively". Joystiq. Archived from the original on January 29, 2015. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.