Dump
Background
Old ISW (OISW)
ISW was started in the 2000s. The game had a strong sense of community with a daily active player base. As the game grew, the site experienced lag when the player base was especially active. Despite this, players continued to play and enjoy ISW. However, the developers decided to close the game down in 2007 because the cost to continue to develop the game and to pay for increased server capacity was too expensive.
Revived ISW
In 2018is this accurate?, players from the Old ISW (OISW) decided to revive the game and become the game's new developers. The developers operate under the pseudonyms of various Doctors. After redesigning the "tick" system to avoid the downfall of the OISW and building a minimum viable product, the developers launched an open Alpha in December 2019.
Gameplay
See the ISW Helpsite for more detailed guides on how to play.
The Tick
ISW is a real-time game that revolves around 15 second action phases. The Tick updates the games interface reflecting the updated location of ships and refreshes the available actions to players such as
- Activating the Hyperdrive on a ship
- Repair ship shields/hulls
- Fire weapons (if online)
- Mine minerals
- Move to orbit a planet, move to dock at a starbase, move to intercept a ship, enter a Star System, or move to a coordinate on the tactical screen
- Manage Buildings on a planet (if in orbit)
The tick appears as a refresh of the browser.
The Universe
The playing environment in ISW is composed of many star systems. Each faction has its own home system while the remaining systems can be owned by any faction. Many of the star systems can only be discovered once a player has improved their pilot skill. See the Pilot Level Table for an overview of what pilot skill is needed to see specific star systems.
Star systems contain planets and asteroids. Planets and asteroids generate income for the faction, players can mine minerals, and construct buildings on the planets and asteroids. If no starbases exist in the star system, then a faction that owns a planet or asteroid can build a starbase while orbiting any planet their faction owns.
Combat and Travel
Skills
Players can invest experience points in 5 different skills. The experience point cost of increasing a skill goes up the more the player improves the skill.
- Command: Determines a player's faction influence, ability to command different vessels, and the overall effectiveness of the crew.
- 50 Command - players can become a councilor in their faction and vote.
- 75 Command - players can purchase and command Rank 4 ships.
- 100 Command - players can purchase and command Rank 5 ships.
- Piloting: Improves the speed of ships and the ability to avoid damage. Higher skills unlock the ability to find new systems on the Starmap.
- Engineering: Improves a player's ability to repair their ship and the capacity to mine and collect resources.
- Building: Unlocks the ability to construct buildings on planets owned by the player's faction and acts as the gunnery skill for weapons built on planets. Each level built for a building increases the time and cost of building the next level of that building.
- Gunnery: Increases ship weapon accuracy and damage.
Getting Started
If you are more of a visual person, see the video walkthroughs on the ISW Helpsite
New players have the option of going through a serious of introductory missions that teach the basics of the game. These missions are located on the Factions screen in the bottom right. It is highly recommended that players take advantage of the introductory missions. The missions teach players:
- How to Purchase a Starship
- How to Move
- How to Mine
- How to Build
- Combat
Once a player completes the introductory missions, the player will have enough experience points to upgrade all skills to level 25. At that point, the player can join one of the playable factions.
Economy
Mining
There are 8 Ores (each with numerous versions) that can be refined into 8 minerals.
Asteroid belts will appear semi randomly with higher value ores throughout the known systems. These have a fixed amount (tn) of minerals and will expire once mined. Higher value ores are not found on planets.
Players are able to sell the minerals at starbases with Trade Stations.
Planets
Faction controlled planets contribute income to the faction.
Politics
Governments can take actions via motions. Motions are very diverse. They include, but are not limited to dismissing players (taking voting rights) to appointing new leaders, buying ships for players, sending credits to other factions, creating alliances, and declaring wars.
The way governments enact motions depends on the government type.
Dictatorship
A Dictatorship is a government system in which the Council consists of 1 Dictator and 3 Councilors.
To gain the status of Councilor, one requires to reach level 50 command skill.
The Councilors can issue Motions, on which the rest of the Council can vote in order to pass or reject the Motion. The amount of required votes is stated between brackets behind the Motion after it has been posted. The Dictator can force the passing or rejection of a Motion with his vote. Motions are posted on the faction page, and are visible to each member of the faction.
Overthrowing a Dictator is done by Installing a different member of your Race as the Dictator. Be warned, the Dictator can be overthrown as easy as he can be Installed, since that particular Motion only requires two votes.
Empire
An Empire is a government system in which the Council is appointed by the Councilors themselves.
The Council is able to appoint itself from the group of eligible players. The people of the Race have essentially no influence upon who becomes part of their Council. The Council generally appoints a leader from within. Experience has taught us that in most cases the appointment of leadership is done by election. This newly appointed leader gets by tradition and custom a specific title ("Emperor" for the Terran Empire and "Orfine Leader" for the Alliance)
The Councilor can, after the appointment begin to post Motions, on which the rest of the Council can vote in order to pass or reject the Motion. The amount of required votes is stated between brackets behind the Motion after it has been posted. Motions are posted on the faction page, and are visible to each player in the faction.
The Empire government system is, like the Collective, characterized by an unlimited amount of council seats. It has been known to happen that an Empire-type government consisted out of up to 24 Councilors, which can pose problems when it comes to making decisions. This is a clear disadvantage over other systems.
If you are the only player in your Race with the needed 50 Command skill, you will automatically become a Councilor, so that your Race is not without an active government.
Democracy
A Democracy is a government system in which the Council is directly elected by the people of the Race.
As a member of the Faction, you are able to cast your vote of Election on the faction page. You are only allowed to vote for a single Councilor at the time, but you are able to change your vote if you desire to. When an eligible player receives enough votes, he or she will be given a seat on the Council.
A Councilors can issue Motions, on which the rest of the Council can vote on to pass or reject the Motion. The amount of required votes is stated between brackets behind the Motion after it has been posted. Motions are posted on the faction page, and are visible to all players in the faction.
If all the Council seats are occupied and another player wishes to become part of Council, then that player will need more votes than the Councilor with the least support in order to gain his Council seat.
Factions
Morchedi
The Morchedi are the faction every new player joins when signing up to play. Once the player reaches level 25 for each skill, the player may pick join one of the playable factions.
Home System: New Hope
Government Type: N/A - Only for new players
The Orfine Alliance
Home System: Arcturus
Government Type: Empire
Terran Empire
Home System: Sol
Government Type: Empire
Union
Home System: Proxima
Government Type: Dictatorship
Nexus
Home System: Deneb
Government Type: Democracy
Genus
Home System: Tau Cygni
Government Type: Dictatorship
Pirates
Home System: Wolf 359
Government Type:
Hive
Home System: Betelgeux
Government Type: N/A - Not a playable faction
Federation
Home System: Castor
Government Type: N/A - Not a playable faction
Matrix
Home System: Algol
Government Type: N/A - Not a playable faction
Other Info
- Official Game Site
- Official Help Site/Guide Site
- Support for Bugs, Feedback, and Issues
- Code of Conduct
- Building Tables
- Game Mechanics
- Quick Guide
- Useful Links
- Faction Lore
- Current Events
- Past Events
- Player Stories
- Notorious Players
- Epic Players
- Terrible Players
- Interfaction Strife
- Dates War Are Declared
- Dates Ceasefires Are Declared
- Glorious Days When Peace Are Declared
- Anything Else You Can Think Of
Almost anything goes on this wiki, but if you must portray a player or faction in a negative light, please do so in a respectful manner, being sure to state facts.
We also ask that anything related to Old IW please be given the title [OIW] followed by your title, so it is easier to tell what is now, and what has passed.
Prizes may be available for those contributing the most so get adding, and if you run in to any trouble please be sure to contact Who on Discord.
Many thanks and happy editing! - The Dr's
P.S. Please note due to the high amount of spam registrations and pages being created, we now require registration in order to create/edit/post. Go ahead and get yourself registered if you want to contribute, it only takes a second.
