Games - Pardus

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	Games - Pardus

Pardus is a free Sci-Fi browser-based MMORPG (or Massive Multiplayer Online Browser Game - MMOBG) playing in a future where traders, pirates and other pilots of various races and factions strive to gain wealth and fame in space. It is similar to the classic computer game Elite. Normally two hundred plus are online, depending on the time of day.

Background

Located in a technologically evolved but war-torn universe, you play an adventurer who travels around in his spaceship and tries to make money and obtain power - as do many others. There are many ways to accomplish this: Mining raw materials, manufacturing goods in your factories and trading them, carrying out military assignments, bounty hunting, plundering buildings, naked piracy, etc.

Basic Gameplay

The Pardus interface is browser-based. Players have a view of the local system they are in, plus various screens detailing the buildings in the area, the contents of their ship, and the skills of their character. A unique and criticically important aspect of the game is the Action Point system - almost all actions require Action Points (or APs), which regenerate 24 APs every 6 minutes throughout the day, up to a maximum of 5000 APs. This prevents players who stay in the game all day from gaining an advantage. Much of the skill required is to do the most you can with limited APS - there are many ways to waste or save them.

Collaboration

The game allows for complex collaboration between players: they are encouraged to join alliances, which can have dozens of players, and each alliance has its own agenda and goals. The largest alliance right now has over 110 members. Chat channels and forums are available for trading, alliance discussions, and other topics.

Economy

Every day, the game's many planets and starbases, and player owned buildings produce an amount of a variety of commodities, from low-tech raw materials such as Food, Water, Energy, Ore, and Metal, to high-end finished products such as Droids and Hand Weapons. There are more than 40 types of commodities available, including illegals. While trading commodities is a good way to create revenue, Pardus also allows players to create their own buildings and starbases to produce those commodities. Many players have made this basic system into a good example of Emergence.

Ships

Many players strive to acquire better ships, often going to great lengths to gain the required Experience points or Faction Rank. There are merchant, military, and hybrid ships, and each can be equipped with a large variety of weapons, armour, shields, engines, and various other equipment.

While many players stop at high-end traders or one of the effective Hawk Family of Fighters, a few acquire enough experience and wealth to afford the larger "battleships."

Combat

Combat in Pardus is turn-based: players choose how many rounds to go against an opponent, and have the combat skills of their character, as well as their equipment, matched up against their enemy to calculate how many hits scored per round and the damage per hit. In addition to the numerous NPCs roaming the galaxy, player-vs-player combat is frequent, and deadly.

Races

Two factions inhabit the Pardus universe: the Federation and the Empire. While currently at peace, a war could break out and force players to choose a side. The Federation consists of the Humans and the Rashkir, which have been described both as reptillian and catlike (though usually the former). In the Empire are the crab-like Ska'ari and the Keldon, called both lizard-like and bug-like. A long history of feuds and betrayals have created the current alliances. No-one could say what the future holds, though.

Outside of Federation and Empire space, there are Neutral Zones which are more often than not claimed by various groups of pirates and producers of illegals goods, such as slaves and drugs.

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