Welcome to Elite Frontiers, a replacement galaxy for Escape Velocity.
Reading this document will allow a greater enjoyment of Elite Frontiers. Please take the time to do so.
Elite Frontiers is quite different to Escape Velocity in a number of ways. You will discover these as you play, but a number of points need to be made at the beginning.
- Hyperdrives
Ships in Elite Frontiers all come equipped with a stardrive with limited range. To jump further than one system without refuelling, you will need to purchase a Hyperdrive Upgrade and/or a Fuel Scoop. Remember this fact when buying a new ship.
- Governments
The Elite Frontiers Galaxy is much larger than the standard Escape Velocity one. There are three main govenments, two of which are at war. This war forms the core of the missions in Elite Frontiers.
In addition though, there are several smaller independent governments and a number of corporate concers that have their own agendas and lead to subplots within the main game.
- Finding Clues
At the beginning of the game, it is particularly hard to establish oneself in the great galactic heirarchy. As time goes on and you make friends (and enemies) a definite path to success will present itself to you. Early on though, it is wise to look for a few clues.
Until such time as you get beyond simple trading it is suggested that you pay attention to three particular features of Elite Frontiers that are in place to aid you.
- The message displayed as you arrive in a system.
This will give you a brief overview of the system's government and starports.
- The satellite news channel in the bar.
This contains a number of clues about the later stages of the game as well as hints about where to find good trade routes in the early stages.
- The colour of starships.
Care has been taken to colour-code ships according to their governmental leanings. This helps a lot in the heat of battle and saves the embarrasment of shooting your allies!
Known Bugs ... The thing I (and Ambrosia) couldn't fix!
A peculiar bug has manifested itself in my plug-in. This doesn't affect the gameplay in any way as it is only a visual effect confined to the starmap.
When you have explored more than about 30 systems and you view the map from a system near the edge of the known galaxy, scrolling to the otherside shows the system connections to be missing. This is an illusion, and zooming in fixes it. The cause is probably due to the replacement of nebulae in the plug-in or the sheer size of the galaxy. ...
As I say, the gameplay is unaffected.
- Lastly
Elite Frontiers will take you a long time to complete, but it can be done. It has taken five months to write and has been thoroughly playtested by a group of experienced Escape Velocity players. It is harder the the standard Escape Velocity, but this presents it self gradually.
Endeavour with your career within the military of your choosing and I guarantee that the later stages of Elite Frontiers will give you the greatest challenge yet presented in a plug-in. I wanted a plug-in for everyone, but particularly a tough challenge with big ships, big guns and big bad enemies. Let me know how you think I did :)
This plug-in is a tribute to 'Elite'. All trademarks and copyrights acknowledged.
'Frontier - Elite II' for the PC and Amiga is available from Gametek Software.
