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Welcome to the Interstellar War Wiki!

Interstellar War (ISW) is a free to play online multi-player game of tactical space conflict that only requires a web browser to play. The game has a friendly community, encourages role-playing, and space warfare. The game is currently in the Alpha development stage with regular updates from the developers.

Players of ISW can engage in a variety of activities including, mining, piracy, trading, politics, and combat. Even though in-game treachery is allowed, the game is known for its friendly community of players and the developers' close engagement with the player base.

See the ISW Helpsite for additional information on the basics of the game.

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 the early 2010s because the cost of continuing to develop the game and pay for increased server capacity was too expensive.

Revived ISW

In 2018^{is 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

Additional Details at the Gameplay of Interstellar War page

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.

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.

Factions

Merchedi

Home System: New Hope

Government Type: N/A - Only for new players

The Merchedi 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 one of the playable factions to join.

Alliance

Home System: Arcturus

Government Type: Empire

Origins of the Alliance

Terran Empire

Home System: Sol

Government Type: Empire

[Origins of the Terrans]

Union

Home System: Proxima

Government Type: Dictatorship

Origins of the Union

Nexus

Home System: Deneb

Government Type: Democracy

Origins of the Nexus

Genus

Home System: Tau Cygni

Government Type: Dictatorship

Origins of the Genus

Pirates

Home System: Wolf 359

Government Type:

Hive

Home System: Betelgeux

Government Type: N/A - Not a playable faction

Origins of the Hive

Federation

Home System: Castor

Government Type: N/A - Not a playable faction

Origins of the Hive

Matrix

Home System: Algol

Government Type: N/A - Not a playable faction

Origins of the Matrix

• 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.