Setting
HighFleet takes place in a Dune-inspired [3] post-apocalyptic future where humanity has returned to feudal-style governments on a ravaged planet, known contemporarily as Elaat, following an event known as The Catastrophe. The Catastrophe was believed to have occurred thousands of years before the events of the game, when humanity blew up the Moon (called Kharu by historians of the Romani Empire) with nuclear weapons, causing it to shatter and impact the surface, destroying the climate and wiping out all traces of advanced technology and artificial intelligence. [4] Due to The Catastrophe, the predominant form of combat in the world of Elaat is performed with large metal airships powered by methane, with political tides being determined by naval strength.
The events of HighFleet take place 214 years after the founding of the Romani Empire, the most powerful nation in the known world, led by the House of Sayadi. The Empire, though once prosperous, is on the verge of defeat by the Gathering of Great Houses, a military alliance from the desert region of Gerat. Gerati leaders, led by the Lord-Governor of the city of Khiva, rebelled against the Empire after decades of peace and overthrew the Imperial puppet king Elaou-Ali, declaring themselves the Republic of Gerat.
The setting of Gerat is based on the Middle East and Central Asia, with the Gathering War and the circumstances around it being heavily inspired by the Soviet-Afghan war. [3] The land of Gerat is split between two major ethnic groups, the Romani and Elaim. The Romani are from the core of the Empire, located to the south of Gerat, and are often at odds with the native Elaim. The conflict between the Imperial and Gerati cultures features prominently throughout the game and has the chance to affect major plot elements.
Plot
214 years after the founding of the Romani Empire, the Empire is on the verge of defeat by the Gathering of Great Houses, and the House of Sayadi is in danger of being exterminated. The player, heir to the Imperial throne Grand Duke Mark Sayadi Salemsky, along with Fleet Admiral Sharif Rahmatovich Daud and General Pyotr Ignatyevich Shahin, is on an expeditionary mission to the rebellious Republic of Gerat in an attempt to cut off the Gathering's fleet and secure the rumored nuclear reactor believed to be located in the city of Khiva, one of only three to survive The Catastrophe. [4]
Shortly before the campaign reaches Gerat, the Imperial flagship Sevastopol arrives unexpectedly, and brings grave news about the state of the war. According to Pyotr, the capital of the Empire, long under siege from the Gathering's fleet, has been hit with a devastating and unprecedented nuclear strike, and the current Emperor, Kerim Shah II, is assumed to be dead. After much deliberation, Pyotr convinces the fleet to continue the campaign to Khiva as a last-ditch effort in hopes of forcing the Gathering of Great Houses to accept a peace deal. The expeditionary force crowns the Grand Duke the new Emperor of the Romani Empire and Grand Tarkhan of the Fleet before setting off towards Gerat. Before the fleet's departure, the Grand Duke and his assistants decide to send the strategic cruiser Diana back to the Empire in hopes of establishing contact with any survivors.
As the Fleet begins to push deeper into Gerat, they make contact with a variety of Tarkhans, military leaders in hiding as a result of the Gathering War. Depending on player choices, the Fleet recruits some or all of these Tarkhans to assist with their campaign to Khiva. Eventually, the Grand Duke encounters an aging doyen, a tribal leader, who wishes to show him a Qoda, a scrap of paper from a religious text that survived The Catastrophe. Although the Qodas are written in a forgotten language and deciphering them has proven almost impossible for those in possession of them, the Grand Duke is able to read it without effort. Depending on player choices, the Grand Duke can either claim that the House of Sayadi has preserved this forgotten language, or that it's simply a miracle. If the player chooses to claim it as a miracle, the Grand Duke will be treated like a prophet and will be given additional options that bolster this identity. The Grand Duke can eventually claim that the expedition of Khiva is a religious pilgrimage to secure the city as a "sacred Ark".
Sometime well into the campaign's progress towards Khiva, the Fleet is shocked upon waking up to find that the sun has not risen. Admiral Daud claims it to be a solar eclipse, but Pyotr, who has been monitoring the situation, says that it must be a climatic catastrophe caused by the unbridled nuclear war in the Empire. The native Elaim take it as a fulfillment of their prophecy of the end of the world, and the fleet falls into chaos. The Grand Duke is forced to give a speech to the crew in an attempt to reassure them. If the Grand Duke has been established as a prophet, he can claim that the end of the world is indeed nigh, but his expedition will save humanity. The fleet hurries to Khiva in hopes that the reactor's power will allow Gerat to survive in the endless night.
Before reaching Khiva, the strategic cruiser Diana returns to the expeditionary force with news from the capital. Contrary to the earlier statements by Pyotr, the war in the Empire is much less severe, the capital is intact and still under Imperial control, and the Emperor is alive. Daud accuses Pyotr of lying, claiming that he covered up a message from High Command sent before the expedtion to Khiva ordering the fleet to go back to the capital. Pyotr admits to doing so, but claims that the strategic opportunity to take Khiva was too important. Depending on player choices, Admiral Daud is either shot and killed by Pyotr, or Pyotr is arrested and Daud takes all Imperial forces back to the capital, leaving the Grand Duke with only the Sevastopol and any mercenaries hired throughout the game.
Upon reaching the outskirts of Khiva, the Lord-Governor sends a message to the Grand Duke asking to meet with him alone upon the plains of Basra, located far from the city. Depending on player choices, the Grand Duke will either ignore the request outright, assuming it to be a trap, and fights the Governor's fleet over Khiva, or agrees and goes to meet with him. If the Grand Duke chooses to meet with the Lord-Governor of Khiva, he is given the option to duel him with his flagship Varyag, consistent with Gerati traditions. However, if the Grand Duke has been declared a prophet, he will attempt to convince the Lord-Governor to join him. If successful, the Lord-Governor joins the expeditionary force with his flagship and leaves the fleet of Khiva to fend for themselves.
Upon securing Khiva, the expeditionary force lands in the city and is shocked to discover that the rumors are true; not only is the nuclear reactor real, but so is the supply of weapons-grade plutonium, and as a result, Khiva has become the biggest manufacturing center for advanced nuclear weapons in the world. The Gathering refuses to negotiate and instead performs a suicidal nuclear attack on the city to destroy all traces of its existence, which is successfully fended off by the expeditionary fleet. Following the battle, the Grand Duke, Pyotr and the rest of the expeditionary command inspect the nuclear reactor located in the heart of Khiva. Upon stepping into the reactor control room, the Grand Duke sees a message inscribed on a white stone pillar in the center of the room, and describes it as, "...neat, and very clear." After the scene, the game ends.
Gameplay
The majority of the gameplay takes place in a top-down view of the strategic map. Here the player may command their fleet, detect enemies with sensors, radio interception, and code-breaking, intercept enemies with missiles and jets, and salvage wreckage. Players must also consider fuel while moving around the map, and the morale of their crew.
When the player fleet engages with an enemy fleet, or when aircraft / missiles engage a target, the game switches to real-time combat resembling "simcade" games (where controls are simple like an arcade game but the gameplay itself is nuanced like a simulation game). Before combat, the player will select ships to directly fight enemy ships. The AI can control up to three ships on screen at a time, and any more will be queued to spawn after the destruction of one onscreen. Meanwhile, the player will only be given one at a time, to make up for the inefficiencies of the AI and the standard ship designs, as well as allow the player to control the ship granularly, having control directly over its movement and aim. When a combat is initiated by a missile or jet, the attacking party cannot control any aspect of the combat except ordering aircraft to disengage. The defender can control ships to defend themselves with whatever they have, or to potentially evade the attack itself.
Ship designs can also be edited in a large variety of ways. Outside of the campaign mode, players may create new ships in the ship editor and test them out before using them in the campaign.
Along with plot development and randomly generated events, the player may meet Tarkhans in cities. Tarkhans allow the player to acquire more ships and gain special assets when appealed to via a diplomacy system. The Tarkhan interactions consist of a set of dialogue options where the player must pick the right choices based on the Tarkhan's interests.
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, and a component of His Majesty's Naval Service. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service.
The British Armed Forces are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, support international peacekeeping efforts and provide humanitarian aid.
The Death Star is a fictional space station and superweapon featured in the Star Wars space-opera franchise. Constructed by the autocratic Galactic Empire, the Death Star is capable of obliterating entire planets, and serves to enforce the Empire's reign of terror. Appearing in the original 1977 film Star Wars, the Death Star serves as the central plot point and setting for the movie, and is destroyed in an assault by the Rebel Alliance during the climax of the film, with the 2016 prequel film Rogue One and the 2022 television series Andor exploring its construction. A larger second Death Star is being built in the events of the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, featuring substantially improved capabilities compared to its predecessor, before it is destroyed by the Rebel Alliance while under construction.
The Galactic Empire, also known simply as the Empire, is a fictional autocracy featured in the Star Wars franchise. It was first introduced in the 1977 film Star Wars and appears in its two sequels: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). It is the main antagonistic faction of the original trilogy. An oppressive, autocratic regime with a complicated bureaucracy, the Galactic Empire seeks to ensure singular rule and social control over every planet and civilization within the galaxy.
The Kirov class, Soviet designation Project 1144 Orlan, is a class of nuclear-powered guided-missile battlecruisers of the Soviet Navy and Russian Navy, the largest and heaviest surface combatant warships in operation in the world. Among modern warships, they are second in size only to large aircraft carriers; they are similar in size to a World War I-era battleship. Defence commentators in the West often refer to these ships as battlecruisers - due to their size and general appearance. The Soviet classification of the ship-type is "heavy nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser".
The Rebel Alliance is a fictional organization in the Star Wars franchise. The Alliance is portrayed as a stateless coalition of rebel dissidents and defectors who oppose the Galactic Empire and its authoritarian rule. Its stated goal is to restore the liberal governance of the previous Galactic Republic, which had been dissolved after its leader Palpatine seized absolute power and declared himself emperor. It is the protagonistic faction of the original Star Wars trilogy, along with the mostly fallen Jedi Order.
USS Seawolf (SSN-575) was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the seawolf, the second nuclear submarine, and the only US submarine built with a liquid metal cooled (sodium), beryllium-moderated nuclear reactor, the S2G. Her overall design was a variant of Nautilus, but with numerous detail changes, such as a conning tower, stepped sail, and the BQR-4 passive sonar mounted in the top portion of the bow instead of further below. This sonar arrangement resulted in an unusual bow shape above the water for a U.S. submarine. Originally laid down in 1953, her distinctive reactor was later replaced with a standard pressurized water reactor, the replacement process lasting from 12 December 1958 to 30 September 1960.
Battlefleet Gothic is a naval miniature wargame that was produced by Games Workshop from 1999 to 2013 with Andy Chambers as the primary developer. A spin-off of the science-fantasy setting of Warhammer 40,000, the game has players command fleets of large spaceships belonging to one of several spaceborne factions. Although the wargame's miniatures and rulebooks are no longer supported by Games Workshop, two video game adaptations have been made since its cancellation in 2013.
Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship or submarine with heat provided by a nuclear reactor. The power plant heats water to produce steam for a turbine used to turn the ship's propeller through a gearbox or through an electric generator and motor. Nuclear propulsion is used primarily within naval warships such as nuclear submarines and supercarriers. A small number of experimental civil nuclear ships have been built.
The names of commissioned ships of the United States Navy all start with USS, for United States Ship. Non-commissioned, primarily civilian-crewed vessels of the U.S. Navy under the Military Sealift Command have names that begin with USNS, standing for United States Naval Ship. A letter-based hull classification symbol is used to designate a vessel's type. The names of ships are selected by the Secretary of the Navy. The names are those of states, cities, towns, important persons, important locations, famous battles, fish, and ideals. Usually, different types of ships have names originated from different types of sources.
OGame is a browser-based, money-management and space-war themed massively multiplayer online browser game. OGame was created in 2002 and is produced and maintained by Gameforge. OGame is available in multiple languages, and different nationalities have their own communities. The game does not differ between the nationality communities except in rare cases. Players are generally informed of news, rule changes, or new versions through the official forums.
Master of Orion III is a 4X turn-based strategy game and the third in the Master of Orion series. Master of Orion III was developed by Quicksilver Software and published by Infogrames Interactive on February 25, 2003.
Star Wars: X-Wing is a series of space flight simulator video games based in the Star Wars media franchise that attempts to simulate the fictional experience of starfighter combat, while remaining faithful to the movies. The player took the role of a pilot of the Rebel Alliance, and, in later games, the Galactic Empire. To complete the games, players must complete missions such as simple dogfights with opposition starfighters, reconnaissance and inspection tasks, escort duty for freighters or capital ships, or attacks on larger opposition ships. In addition to dogfighting designed to resemble the free-wheeling duels of World War I, the games also offered the challenge of managing power resources and wingmen, and using weapons effectively.
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the world's most powerful navy and the largest by tonnage, at 4.5 million tons in 2021 and in 2009 an estimated battle fleet tonnage that exceeded the next 13 navies combined. It has the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with 11 in service, 1 undergoing trials, two new carriers under construction, and six other carriers planned as of 2024. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the U.S. Navy is the third largest of the United States military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 299 deployable combat vessels and about 4,012 operational aircraft as of July 18, 2023.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is a real-time tactics video game developed by Tindalos Interactive and published by Focus Home Interactive. It is set in the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, and is specifically an adaptation of the miniature wargame Battlefleet Gothic by Games Workshop.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Sega, with assistance from Media.Vision. It is the fourth main game in the Valkyria Chronicles series. It was released in Japan for the PlayStation 4 in March 2018, and worldwide, in addition for the Nintendo Switch, Windows, and Xbox One in September 2018. It was also ported to Stadia on December 8, 2020, and to Amazon Luna on July 8, 2021.
Empire under Attack is a 12-episode 2000 Russian miniseries, about the confrontation of the Security Department and the SR Combat Organization at the beginning of the 20th century.
Vladimir Lvovich Kasatonov is an officer of the Russian Navy. He currently holds the rank of admiral, and since 2019 has served as deputy commander in chief of the navy.
Star Wars: Squadrons is a space combat game set in the Star Wars universe developed by Motive Studio and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, on October 2, 2020 and for Xbox Series X/S on December 3, 2020. The game features both multiplayer game modes and a single-player campaign. Set after Return of the Jedi, the campaign alternates between the New Republic's Vanguard Squadron and the Galactic Empire's Titan Squadron, both of which become involved with the Republic's Project Starhawk; Vanguard Squadron wants to ensure its completion, while Titan Squadron attempts to destroy it.
