Yaecron 2017-07-14

Yaecron will be a science fiction MMO in 2D top-down view. The project was significantly inspired by StarLancer, FTL and Elite: Dangerous.

• Official website

The focus lies on finding and gathering resources, extension and managing of the own ship (e.g. the space station) as well as fighting in space and on the ground (PvE and PvP).

• One of the special features is, that several players can fly a space ship together as a team, while each fulfills an individual task. If the teammates are missing, the handling of the ship becomes difficult or impossible, so that alternative NPCs must be hired.
• Furthermore, the change between interior and exterior view is worth mentioning; all spaceships are walkable and can be changed by the owner. Control consoles and terminals are freely placeable and need accordingly space in the ship. If a system is damaged in battle or even catches fire, a player (or hired specialist) must take care of it on the spot.
• Correspondingly, also landings on foreign planets are connected to an external deployment, in which the landscape is actually entered. Possible dangers can be eliminated in melee or with laser weapons – or directly avoided with appropriate equipment.
• Finally, each character has several abilities (as a pilot, doctor, technician, fighter, merchant, scientist), which can be increased by training and decide, whether and how well one can deal with a specific situation.

The project is currently under development, which means ideas are collected and concepts created. This document is a draft, therefore names and content can change any time.

History

Short version: When everything goes wrong on earth, a scientist solves the mystery of gravitation. The race into space begins anew, but this time, even the spread and resettlement outside the solar system is possible. However, there's already war between 3 other races, while humanity is suddenly in the midst of it.

The history of humanity began on a small blue planet called Earth, where it could develop peacefully and securely against the galactic primal power. In just one million years, which merely represents a galactic wink, humans moved from simple cave dwellers, who had just discovered fire, to an urban society with airplanes, schools, video games and lawyers. The technical progress resulted in a global information network, astronomers studied the Big Bang with incredible precision and instead of the body's immune system, microscopically small robots fought against all possible diseases. But all this happened on the back of the earth, whose resources were exploited with increasing speed and whose ecosystem was becoming more and more unstable due to human greed. All this ultimately led to collapse, both in social and economic terms. More and more areas of the earth were marked as uninhabitable, while the price of water rose drastically. There were uprisings in many places due to pure despair, which were pressed down with cruel violence, while in civilized regions the luxury continued and the technical progress was absorbed like an addiction.

The story certainly would have come to an abrupt end, if an ingenious scientist and lateral thinker of his time wouldn't have revealed the secret of gravitation. Within a few years, cars had no longer wheels, aircrafts no wings and rockets no more tanks of one hundred meters – suddenly, space had become a reachable source for new resources and habitats. Some of the foolhardy projects failed, especially the attempt to build a settlement on Mars. Only when a gold clump of thousand tons, with the GOLD-X project and the help of a new drive system, was brought to the earth, a new era of human history began. Over the next 30 years, not only science has made tremendous progress, but also the human horizon was continually expanded – suddenly, one was no longer caught on a dying planet because there were new opportunities and possibilities on galactic level, new targets in far away solar systems and new hope on planets, of which up until now only the astronomical data were know.

So it was, that humanity left its quiet home in order to explore the Milky Way in deep. It was an adventure as in the time of Christopher Columbus, a journey into the unknown, associated with equally great dangers as treasures and experiences. And while the courageous spacemen explored the darkest corners of the Milky Way, a huge space ark was launched on the earth with which around 200'000 people should find a new home – the effective starting shot for an emigration to the stars. Food shortage, water scarcity, lack of space, all this had finally come to an end; humanity had climbed over its own mountain. Until in the moment of the greatest joy, a strongly distorted message was received from the depths of the universe:
"Wha... that? Goodn... we're n... alone!
What kin... creatur... are they!?
Help us!
...aah!"

It was quickly realized that the Milky Way wasn't a lifeless galaxy, but had been in dispute between the Taurax and Serpiliani for generations. Together with the Feydhar, which recently appeared as well, they created a territorial war, in which not only the survival of the own race, but also the supremacy over the whole galaxy was at stake. Thus the promising emergency solution directly led to an existential threat affecting everyone. Man was no longer the crown of creation and above the food chain. Rather, he was comparable to a lion, who lay comfortably in the sun, while hunters armed with spears and arches, stalked around him. But this lion realised the danger in time and intended to defend himself with all its strenght.

Final Sparks Victim

One of the first large space missions suffered a severe setback, when the leading exploration shuttle with 24 crewmembers suddendly in an area, which was supposed to be completely empty, was caught in a rain out of sparks and disappeared from the radar. Further experiments, to look at this area more closely or to find the cause, also ended this way. The area was henceforth known as sparks hole and feared, although human curiosity never dried up completely. At this time, nothing was known about other races, the presumption was, however, that it wasn't a natural phenomenon. Then years later, a team of astronomers succeeded in finding a tiny object, which looked like a flat parallelepiped, in sparks hole. Since its surface hardly reflected radiation, the observation from distance was extremely difficult, thus a total of three space probes followed, which should watch it from close up. These were ultimately destroyed in a rain out of sparks as well, but the evaluated data left no more doubt: It had to be a machine, which eliminated approaching objects with an energy beam and simultaneously protected itself by an invisible shield.

These findings received no attention, until the earth was targeted by the Taurax. Defenseless against their advanced weaponry, humans suffered great losses. The most effective defense were (in addition to oversized bombs) heavy metal constructions called steel hammers, which were rammed into tauraxian ships with the greatest possible speed. Both were highly inefficient and costly, but noticeably delayed their penetration and ultimately led to a retreat of the Taurax, which at this time had to concentrate all their forces against the Serpiliani.
People were aware of the fact, that the problem wasn't solved and they urgently needed appropriate weapon and shield systems. Although there was promising progress in radiation weapons and ion accelerators, one was still far away from a practical usage. Comprehensive salvage operations for tauraxian remains led to a collection of unknown (although defective) apparatuses, but those were likewise useless without the necessary energy sources and data logs.

A few months later, when the Serpiliani had been pushed back, the Taurax again sent spy ships into human territory and despite a large number of bombs and steel hammers, they already saw themselves as losers. Until without warning, one of the spies dissolved in a rain out of sparks. Immediately everyone realized, that even the Taurax with their energy shields were powerless against sparks hole and that there was, if at all, the only chance to defend themselves against them. Driven by the new hope, numerous attempts were made to get the black cuboid or rather to reach him at all. It turned out, that sparks rain was caused by an energy pulse, which needed a short cooldown after each shot, while it was preparing for its next target. The same was true for the shield in case of an impact. In a bold venture, in which thousands of unmanned drones attracted these impulses and attacked the shields, a three-headed special unit succeeded in overcoming the engine with an electromagnetic explosion at close range. This heroic deed made history, was henceforth known as "(Final) Sparks Victim" and was the cornerstone for a completely new field of research. Back on Earth, scientists were able to investigate the innards of the machine and to adapt parts of their technology, before she awoke to new life and destroyed one half of the research institution during self-destruction. In the process, a damage to the cover was found, which was initially held for the lettering "2rNG" – and thus was written down in the official report.

The new findings of the 2rNG triggered a wave of progress and hope. Weapon and shield systems, which only were considered as science fiction until then, had suddenly become reality and finally there were possibilities, to effectively defend themselves against the tauraxian intruders. Especially the AE Group with its far-reaching supply network contributed the self-defense significantly. Nowadays, the AE logo can be found on space suits, drive units, bearing units and almost everywhere else.

Races

Humans

Humans are as diverse as adaptable.

• Way to the stars: forced by scarcity of ressources as a result of greed

Taurax

Taurax are born fighters. They're tall, muscular, graceful and as robust as their spaceships. Small horns on their skull bear witness to their evolutionary past. Their natural culture doesn't know any laws, but rather uses a code of behavior, which precisely regulates the consequences of a criminal offense. In case of doubt, the right is clarified by an honorable duel. Also as advanced civilization, they practice ancient rituals (in modernized form) and pay homage to their ancestors. Their first spaceships were created by pure pride against the ancestors and as demonstration of taurax superiority.

• Way to the stars: pride and prestige

Serpiliani

They place the greatest value on precise laws, which are applied captious on every occasion. In fact, they're excellent strategists and sly contemporaries. Espionage and intrigue not only dominate their war tactics, but also their daily life. One can call them definitely greedy; they strive for power, control and exponential growth. Their buildings are spacious, pretentious and often rather daring constructions. For them, the journey to other stars represents a large resource storage, which they want to exhaust as quickly as possible.

• Way to the stars: greed, desire for domination

Feydhar

The Feyhar are sociable and flexible beings, which can quickly become a friend or enemy. Despite their shrewdness, they aren't very smart in their plans, but easily compensate their lack in strenght with speed. They were long oppressed by the Serpiliani, but were able to separate from them and now live scattered everywhere in space. They see life as a great adventure with many opportunities and setbacks, which need to be recognized and mastered.

• Way to the stars: desire for freedom, forced by serpilian oppression

Siras Tel'danye

The Siras Tel'danye (often just called Siras) are birdlike beings, but can't fly like their genetic ancestors. They've always built their civilizations in great height, first on prehistoric trees. Over time, they developed ingenious rope constructions, soon set up own stilt houses of dizzying sizes and finally reached the sky with floating platforms, which are connected to one another like spider webs and convey a completely uncluttered impression.

• Way to the stars: forced by overpopulation as a result of benevolence

Kikkomakkai

The Kikkomakkai (actually Kikkomakkai kama Kad'daika, which roughly means "beings of the world") have thin limbs, a glassy, almost transparent skin, are very mobile and can almost move soundlessly. With their sharp eyes and sensitiv ears, which are coupled to the entire skin surface, they can hide perfectly and wait for their prey in order to study them. Their thirst for knowledge and understanding dominates their strict society, which follows countless rules and allows no exceptions. For them, the space is a huge study area that they analyze soberly and systematically. Their language is essentially based on fast clicking, snapping and chuckling noises, which are hardly understood by strangers.

• Way to the stars: curiosity, exploratory urge

Ndo

Ndo are lively fur beings, which compensate their physical weakness with foolhardy actions, experienced mind and blameless teamwork. Because of their small size, they frequently do salvage operations and are often underestimated in negotiations. While their original home planet was made uninhabitable by a natural catastrophe (evolution of the sun to red giant), they'were able to flee to other planets in time. Many of them still live in space, where they repair space ships, wait stations and cheat simple-minded traders.

• Way to the stars: forced by natural disaster, daringness

2RNG

The 2RNG aren't directly a race, but rather a large number of robots, which are found in different places of the universe. Some of them indiscriminately attack anyone who dares to approach them, others perform nonstop the same (often senseless) activity, some are capable of conducting halfway reasonable conversations, while a few don't react at all, even under heavy fire. It's presumed, these are the remnants of an earlier civilization, which executed experiments with artificial intelligence. The designation 2RNG originates in Final Spark's Victim, where a robot unit with the same inscription was discovered. Finally, the designation turned out to be a hull damage, but the term remained.

Game mechanics

Game mechanics