USS Freedom

Update 3 December
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Dec 03, 2020 at 08:58:14 PM

Hello Crew,

We are in our final run now and we are going to give everything we have for an explosive finale!
Time for a crew briefing once more, everybody to the bridge!
Let’s start with our unlocks:

Daily Unlock 2 Dec - Stolen Alien Technology

We have unlocked Starship Module rewards for starship fights. Every starship combat has a chance of dropping an additional module that will give a unique bonus to the USS Freedom that will break some rule restrictions on your ship and give new possibilities on how to run the entire campaign.
Those modules are unique for each starship you face and reflect the technological advancement your enemy focused on. Each Alien culture will have different loot to offer!

Daily Unlock 3 Dec - Metal core

We are proud to announce one of our most expensive unlocks: premium chips with metal core for all of our chips! We know that this significantly increases the cost to produce the game, but we want to provide the best gaming experience for you. Now you can enjoy heavier, sturdier chips for your game!

Space combat

One of the major elements of USS Freedom is the space combat. Space combat refers to all the battles, explorations, and scientific discoveries you attempt to do while on board your spaceship. 3 out of 5 encounter types are resolved with space combat: Alien Starships, Titans, and Space Phenomena.

During space combat, heroes move around the USS Freedom manning different parts of the ship according to the needs of the battle. The most important things you do are:

· Fly the spaceship from the Cockpit

· Fire on the enemy from ship Weapons

· Produce energy from the Engines

· Raise shields from the Shield Generator

There are other things that you might do on occasion such as repair incoming damage, try to hack the process unit of an enemy starship , try to study a space phenomenon, or even fight in melee combat if your opponents sneak their way onto the USS Freedom.

Producing power is the most basic and most important action. After producing the power, you choose in which parts of the ship to allocate this power. That is a pivotal moment on planning this round’s strategy. Having no power to Thrusters, for example, means your pilots will be unable to maneuver the ship to avoid incoming missiles or gain an offensive advantage. Where you allocate power and how much of it, is one of the most crucial decisions you will make each round.

At the Thrusters step, you will try to outmaneuver your opponents to gain one of following three bonuses:

· Evasive Maneuvers

· Vantage Point

· Full Throttle

Evasive maneuvers will help you avoid some of the missiles coming towards you. Vantage Point will give more accuracy when you fire at your opponent, and Full Throttle will allow you to escape a combat if things get too dangerous.

At the Weapons step, you will have to overcome the resistances of the opponent, taking risky shots for high damage output or firing carefully for a high chance of success but lower damage.

Lastly, make sure to raise enough shields to absorb the damage from any missile you failed to evade. Choose wisely what part of your ship to protect as anything in your ship that takes damage cannot be used again until fully repaired.

Enemies of space combat

Starships

Starships have an array of missiles that they will throw at you. Some of the most dangerous missiles can start a fire on your ship, or even worse, pollute the starship with radiation or a deadly virus.
The most advanced alien starships have unique technologies such as cloaking devices, auto-repair modules, or even special beamers that will allow their soldiers to sneak into our ship. A thorough study of the opponent’s combat tactics will be needed as each opponent will require a different strategy to defeat.

Titans

Titans are huge monstrosities that roam in space from planet to planet and wreak destruction and havoc on anything they find. They lack the technological shields that the starships have so it is easy to accurately hit them, but their thick skin is much more difficult to penetrate and can withstand lots and lots of damage. They have a seemingly infinite number of tricks at their disposal depending on the species. Some throw their massive bodies on our ship, forcing us to evade or face the end of us all; others’ bites can penetrate the hull of the ship with ease. We need to be extra careful when fighting those beasts and we must never be shy of escaping if things go the wrong way.

Space phenomena

Space phenomena are a very different kind of encounter. There is no battle involved. There is scientific research and survival—mostly survival. Getting close to a black hole to study it is a challenge of its own. Their strong gravitational pull is a constant threat, and if the pilots aren’t at the top of their game, our ship could be lost forever. Most of our systems risk malfunctioning near those massive astral bodies and the challenges are never ending and are getting worse as time passes by.
Also, there are rumors that some other phenomena exist of a non-scientific nature but of a more supernatural one…

Encounters

Alien Portrait: Corsairs
Corsairs are nomadic aliens that get by mostly with pillaging, stealing, and doing mercenary work. They are brought to battle very early in their life and thus they are some of the most battle-hardened aliens you could ever encounter.
Their pirate way of life makes almost certain that if you ever run into them, you should be prepared to pay or fight. There are many things they might ask for; if you are not willing to pay, they will be determined to take what they want by force.

 
A personal exodroid guard almost always attends each corsair. Exodroids are an even bigger menace when they fight under a corsair raider. Corsairs know how to utilize exodroids, increasing their combat prowess and protecting them when they have to. Also, corsairs are especially dangerous when you fight them on your ship. They can pillage your ship in a moment and create massive damage to your spaceship’s gear.

Their weapons are the best in terms of technological advancement and military efficiency; very few individuals survive being hit by a corsair’s double blaster; their antimatter blast can kill a group of opponents in a single hit.
Do not ever engage in combat with the corsairs unless you are certain you have the upper hand; even then, it’s going to be a challenge. Their armor is close to impenetrable by non-energy attacks, so make sure you have all your energy attackers on your team. Also, deal with their exodroid guards as fast as possible as they can do lots of damage if they are not dealt with immediately.

Corsairs’ Starships

The corsairs’ starships have all the characteristics that you would expect a pirate ship to have. They are quite fast, they can shoot a lot of missiles, and of course they can easily board your ship!
The most difficult part of the space battle vs. the corsairs will actually be...the ground combat! They have lots of exodroids that are practically a consumable resource for them. They beam exodroids to our ship, hoping to kills us in melee combat without having to destroy our ship; after all, it will sell for more if they do not destroy it! Be certain to prioritize killing all of the exodroids before doing anything else or you face the danger of being overrun with them.

Their missile strikes and mayhem barrage will not allow you to neglect your ship duties for long though. You need to keep raising shields and evading missiles if you are to survive.
If all of the above are not enough to bring you down, the corsairs will not hesitate to get their hands dirty. They will beam to your ship themselves and try to kill any heroes that are resisting.

Let us hope we will never meet such cruel aliens, and if we do, let us hope we have whatever they might ask of us.

Monster: Spikerpikore

No matter in which planet you are, if there is a Spikerpikore in the planet, then it is probably the apex predator of that planet’s ecosystem. Twice as a tall as the tallest human and with spikes covering most of its body, those monsters are a force NOT to be reckoned with. Just looking at their monstrous claws and spikes and seeing the red glowing eyes can shock the bravest person to their core.

The simplest claw strike can kill you, and very few heroes can survive two such strikes in a row. Their glowing red eyes can shoot lethal laser beams that kill the toughest of our crew in a single shot.
Another natural weapon those creatures possess is their spiked tail that can sweep a group of heroes in a flash!

Lastly, fear its deadly charge. No one has survived to tell the story of getting hit by their steel-strong horns. If you are ever against such a beast, make haste; strike at its torso where there are no thick spikes to protect it. A few quick, strong strikes and you might hit a weak spot and kill the beast before it kills you…

Titan: Charybdis

Scylla and Charybdis are indeed a mythical pair. Should you ever encounter either of them, you run the risk of having to face them both. It is a well-known fact that each Charybdis can call a Scylla in a time of need. But one of those titans alone is more than enough to destroy you.
Another known fact is that the power of its jaws is so strong they can destroy a part or even the whole ship in a single bite. Evasive maneuvers are what will keep us alive if we ever get caught in a space combat with a monster like this. 

But the most dangerous and mysterious of its tricks is called Crushing Siphon. We are not sure how it does it, but it can suck ships in to crush on its gargantuan spikes. When you hear that howling sound, make sure that you ignore everything else and put all power to thrusters and use full throttle to avoid being sucked in. One thing is for certain if we survive long enough for it to feel threatened and call a Scylla we need to escape or it will be our last battle.

Space Phenomena: Soul Helix

Some phenomena can be studied and explained. They follow the laws of physics, and regardless of how complicated they may be or how new to us they are, we can to figure them out with enough time and observation. There are others, though, that follow none of the rules of nature we know. They act as if they control how reality shifts around them. One such supernatural phenomenon is the Soul Helix.
In addition to the gravitational pull that almost all astral bodies share, the Soul Helix fights your will: your will to study it, to get closer to it, even your will to live. 

Only the wisest and the strongest willed individuals have a chance to get near it. Its psionic beams will distort reality and cause problems and malfunctions that not even the brightest mechanic can repair. Heroes who are weak of mind will drop where they stand if they stay near a Soul Helix too long. When fighting this phenomenon, priorities changes. Rather than engineers, mechanics, and weapon experts, you need the heroes with strong minds and souls…

Update 1 December
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 01, 2020 at 11:38:04 PM

Hello crew, 

We are on the final countdown of this amazing journey and we continue head on to more unlocks and more information about our game! Let’s kick things off with the Unlocks: 

Daily Unlock Nov 30 - Hero Equipment loot 

We introduced Hero items in the game. Whenever you defeat an Alien enemy there is a small chance that you can salvage some of their gear. Your opponent blasted you with an amazing energy rifle during the fight? Take it for your future fights! They wore an amazing protective armor? Take it! 

Those loot items are unique for each enemy and they are bound to their philosophy, culture and combat style. You will not get an amazing sword as loot from a blaster wielding enemy. The chance might be small but all those items give a significant boost on one aspect of the Hero’s progress and might affect it’s play style. Note that each item is not bound to the Hero but to the player who controls it. So in each adventure a different Hero will gain the boost from the item but it is always going to be used by the same player. Make your Heroes even more unique by this addition of item loots!

Daily Unlock Dec 1 - Interstellar Frame

In the game insert, we have added a special component to act as a base and top lid just for the Interstellar Map. This way the Interstellar Map has a base so you can easily move it in the middle of a game session without needing to move its components separately. Moreover, when concluding a game session, you just need to apply the top of the lid and securely faster the Dice placed on the neoprene mat among the base and the lid.  Now you can pack your Interstellar Map into the box and store the box horizontally or vertically without a chance of the components falling off. When you are ready to continue your journeys, you just have to place the neoprene mat anywhere on the table, open the lid, and you are set to go. All Reputation Dice and the pegs are already in place.

Dont Forget: All-in Pledge 

Did you notice our All-in pledge? If you want to taste the full experience of USS Freedom we have included the all in a pledge that has all of our add-ons in very special Price!

Solo Duo Mod Details

The game is set up to be played by 12 Heroes in total. In a 4-player game, for example, each player controls 3 Heroes, for a total of 12. In the Solo and Duo game modes, however, set up changes as follows:

• In Duo, each player controls 4 Heroes for a total of 8 Heroes.
• In Solo, the player controls 4 Heroes for a total of 4 Heroes.

Another difference is that when a player discards an Aether Crystal after a Hero uses it, the Crystal is not completely discarded. The player may choose to take all discarded Crystals and place them back into their Aether Pouch.

• In Duo, each player can do this once in each game session.
• In Solo, a player can do this twice in each game session.

In Duo or Solo mode, there may be fewer active Heroes, but the starship’s AI will help a lot. When the Heroes perform an action in any station of the ship, the ΑΙ learns how to repeat the action. It will also repeat the same action on the station. However, the AI cannot use Aether abilities, so it will repeat the action to a maximum of 3 outputs. In Duo, a station will produce the same outcome for the next turn. Thus, after performing an action, you immediately add a number of cubes equal to the result of the Hero’s outcome to a maximum of three. These cubes will be used in the next round even if the Hero is not present at the station. In Solo, 3 stacks of cubes are produced for the following 3 rounds. This also leads to an exciting twist to the game at the beginning of a space combat as the Heroes rally towards all stations to activate them as fast as possible! The game is of course a little bit different, but similarly challenging. Fewer Heroes means that they are not as spread out in the ship and thus receive damage less often. Then again, fewer Heroes also means they will have a lot more running around to do in order to repair damage to different parts of the ship.

Insert preliminary design

Here is an image of the overall insert. This is a 4-part insert. In the image below, moving from left to right, the top most part is the map lid, followed by the neoprene map tray, then the “Mini” tray, and finally the base tray. 

 The lid and the tray are meant to hold the neoprene mat between games when playing in campaign mode. 

 The mini tray contains 4 of the 5 minis, the large cards, the normal cards (Poker size), the dice, and the gold, silver and bronze cubes. The big compartment in the lower right are also big enough to hold the player bags and the campaign bag between games in campaign mode. The goal here was to make everything that you need for a game as easily accessible as possible. This tray will have to be removed to play as the players will likely need components from the base tray. 

Finally, we come to the base tray. In the base tray the chips, standees, crystals and the last mini. This is not the final design but it is very close to it!

New Crew Hero 

 From a young age, Outage was an arrogant lad. His ego was surpassed only by his athletic performances. He always knew the sky was too low for a limit for him. Boarding the USS Freedom was a chance for him to excel. Unfortunately, it proved to be his conviction. In order to inflict as much damage as possible with his Ion Spear, he forfeited the protection of Heavy Armor for greater agility. He always thought that if his enemy went down before striking him, he would be much better protected. A valid belief…until he was torn down by the infectious bite of an ExoPterodonton on Yieta Prime. 

His infectious wounds are now spreading along his body and a strange cocoon has formed on his left shoulder. Outage now tries to fight more carefully behind his more armored allies as every new wound seems to progress his infection. No one knows how it might affect him if not contained. Outage uses his Ion Spear for both melee combat as well as ranged. He excels in inflicting as much physical damage as possible as fast as possible, and uses the Ion Spear to allow his energy attacks to bypass his enemies’ armor. He is not that efficient against multiple enemies as he doesn’t have many options for area attacks. However, in 1v1 combat, he is second to none. If he is well protected from enemy attacks, he can take down even the most powerful of enemies. 

In starship combat, his efficiency at using the starship’s different weapons is only exceeded by his impressive piloting skills. It is said that there is no enemy ship that can outmaneuver him while he tries to flank it and offer the best vantage point for his allies to strike it down.

Update 29 November
almost 4 years ago – Sun, Nov 29, 2020 at 08:00:44 PM

Hello crew,

Once again it is time for the USS Freedom to update its servers! Put the ship on auto pilot and let’s gather on the bridge to discuss!
We will start with our two new daily unlocks:

Daily Unlock Nov 28 - Mirror Encounter( KS Exclusive)

We added an extra Kickstarter exclusive Encounter Card! Everything about it, story, mechanics, and stats are unique to our game!
During an encounter with an unknown space phenomenon, our Heroes made an amazing discovery that left them stunned: another USS Freedom almost identical to our own.
Unfortunately our alter egos are twisted and evil and strongly believe that two USS Freedom ships is one too many…

This encounter has a modular difficulty by using special abilities that take into consideration your progress in upgrading your own USS Freedom, and is always in par with your power.
If, for example, you fight this encounter near the end of your campaign, the evil USS Freedom will be a devastating opponent to match your powerful abilities. If you fight it near the beginning, it will be a simpler opponent with the same potential as you!
In any case, you will feel like you are fighting your own ship with whatever unique customizations you have added onto it!
Your worst enemy will indeed be yourself.

Daily Unlock Nov 29 - Captain’s Badge

The USS Freedom’s captain’s badge takes form and is added to our game! Flex your authority with this awesome token and lead your team to victory!
At any point, if the crew cannot decide something because of a tie in opinions, the Captain can break all ties! As USS Freedom is a sandbox and there are many ways to achieve victory, there could be many disagreements over what is the optimal course. Discussing the best option can be a very fun process, but it can also drag things out in a never-ending debate.

At the start of every adventure, one player is going to have the captain’s badge and with it, the responsibility for the mission’s success and the power to break all ties. For the next adventure, another player will have it in order that everybody becomes captain eventually.
So, this special Captain’s Badge token will help settle all ties and will allow you to use phrases like “Aye, Captain!”

The All In Pledge

We have a new definitive ALL IN pledge for you with a special price!

The ALL IN Deluxe pledge will include:

• all daily unlocks
• all Kickstarter exclusive items
• Ink spray add-on
• Metal coin add-on
• Card sleeves add-on

With a total price of 91 Euros, you can have the complete package of USS Freedom for a mesmerizing experience!

Encounters

Alien Portrait: Unblemished

The name Cepheuk used to describe a very populous race which made huge advancements towards singularity (the act of uploading your being into a machine). However, as usually happens, they couldn't agree on what to do with their discovery. A civil war erupted and soon both sides were using the same technology toward very different ends. The side that wanted to use it for the betterment of others kept using the name Cepheuks, and remained for the most part pious and peaceful. Near the end of their lives, those that wish to undergo a semi-mystical but painful process and transform themselves into Unblemished, becoming the righteous protectors of all living things. The process is completely voluntary and no Cepheuk will ever force it on someone. 

Once the process is complete, the Cepheuk is no more. It has forever bonded its soul with a metal body, extremely durable and with enough firepower to devastate a small starship. Unblemished roam the galaxy righting wrongs and defending those too weak to defend themselves, bringing a small ray of light and hope to an otherwise dark galaxy.

They are usually surrounded with lots of exodroids, lesser constructs that are vulnerable but can still deal lots of damage to the enemy front. That’s why the Unblemished have learned to protect the exodroids on the battlefield, taking all the fire on themselves. Their armor is an amalgamation of the rarest materials in the cosmos and it makes them almost invulnerable to both physical and energy damage when they take their special turret form.
Their offensive capabilities are many but they prefer to use their huge shoulder canons and turret form to blast their opponents with large AoE explosions.
Powerful defenses and wise positioning on the board are mandatory to have even the slightest chance of survival. You will spend most of your time defending, surviving, and waiting for the right time to strike. When that time comes, throw everything you have on energy attacks and try to deal as much damage as possible in a single turn. Without energy attacks, fleeing is the wisest option. No matter what Orke says…

Unblemished Starships

The Unblemished starships are on par with the combat prowess of the Unblemished soldiers. They are able to withstand a huge amount of damage and hold a technology of impossible-to-predict missiles that can strike without any warning.

They prioritize attacking our Thrusters and our Weapons, and when they are cornered, they are not shy about using nuclear attacks. The radiation of those missiles can slowly kill us if we do not act quickly. Speed is their only weak point. Even with their technological advancements, their ships are so massive that they are relatively easy to outmaneuver. That gives us an edge on avoiding their most dangerous missiles and finding the correct angle to bypass some of their shields with our attacks.
In any case, we shouldn’t mess with such a dangerous species unless we absolutely have to. The true challenge would be to make them our allies. What a powerful ally would that be…

Monster: Cyborg Abomination

Created from predators augmented with technology, cyborgs are mindless beings of destruction. They stop at nothing, fear nothing, and blindly follow the orders of their creators. They can drain life force and heal themselves, strike with their powerful teeth, and if their systems malfunction, they explode. These perfect killing machines are ideal foot soldiers. Though the process to create them is a close guarded secret of the Assimilators, they were sold to various factions and could be found across the Galaxy serving anyone able to afford their acquisition.

However because of their frequent malfunctions and how hard it was to control them, they eventually outlived their usefulness and were eventually destroyed.
Only a few of them remain, wandering around following their simple protocol:
“Seek and destroy.”
If you ever encounter one, be wary of their metallic jaws that can tear a person in half with no effort. Their legs are scissor-like blades, so just standing around them is very risky.
They have survived so long because of their restorative programs and auto repairs, so when you strike, make sure to end it with just a few powerful attacks.
Positioning is very important as well as these things often malfunction and explode, damaging themselves and everything around them!

Titan: Scylla

A sister, brother, or mate of Charybdis, this titan resembles a huge hawk gliding through space. Despite the difference in form, it is as hungry and aggressive as its counterpart, in many cases even more so. While Charybdis moves slowly, devouring everything that comes close to it (much like a living black hole), Scylla ferociously attacks anything that catches its attention. The creature lives to hunt and destroy. Once something enters its field of vision, it pursues relentlessly and will not stop until its prey is destroyed or out of its sight. No pleas for mercy or surrender will be taken into account once the creature begins its charge. However, the creature seems to have no means to attack from a distance, so escape, though improbable, is not impossible. The symbiotic relationship between Scylla and Charybdis is something that has baffled galactic scientists for centuries. Though it's unlikely we'll ever understand the creatures' mindset, it is something that, if discovered, might give us clues to the existence of life forms beyond the borders of our galaxy.

A single bite can easily tear down our whole ship, breaching its hull with a single attack; countless ships have fallen prey to their beaks. As if that is not enough, they dive with such force that if one hits us, our ship could break in half and everything would be over.
There is only one strategy when fighting such a beast. Evade. Evade and then evade some more. We need to use evasive maneuvers every turn and hope we succeed every time.
That’s not the worst though—if the battle lasts long enough, Scyllas make a terrible shriek that calls for another equally horrible monster. If we have to fight both of them, our chances of survival drops significantly.

Space Phenomena: Pulsar

At first glance, a giant star looks like a nova. It is only by getting closer that one can understand the differences. While novae are natural phenomena, giant stars, neutron stars and pulsars are more psionically charged than normal. Their gravitational pull is the same, but while one is captured by the star's mass, reality is distorted. It could result in anything from simple teleportation to completely rearranging a object’s molecules. The pulses of these phenomena can turn even the most massive of starships into atoms in mere moments. Not unlike novae, scientists believe that this energy can be harnessed; up until now, no success has been found in these endeavors.

To try and understand it means you are risking your own sanity and that you will have to go up against the paranormal.
Any damage we take from it cannot be repaired normally, and it can teleport our heroes in the blink of an eye, anywhere on ship. So, be ready to improvise. It is rumoured that if get close enough, our ship itself might be distorted and rearranged.

And, of course, do not forget about its powerful gravitational pull! We need to keep using full throttle if we want to avoid being sucked in!
Thankfully, our shields can absorb some of its paranormal beams, so we must always keep our shields up, charging them every round.
One thing is for certain, when you encounter something as weird as the Pulsar and survive, you will not be the same as before…

Ground Combat

You think that the USS Freedom will do all the combat? No, crewmembers! You need to get down and dirty yourselves. There will be many cases where your heroes might want to beam down to a planet and engage in deadly fights with huge dangerous monsters, or infiltrate an enemy spaceship or starbase and face the traps and guards that await there.
Bring forth your blades and warhammers to engage in melee combat. Send the tankiest heroes to the frontline to protect the vulnerable damage dealers and healers. Bring out your guns and bows and attack from distance. Use grenades and magical fireballs to affect many enemies at once.
Every monster is unique in the abilities it has, and you need very careful planning for which heroes will attempt to clash with it.

A heavily armored enemy requires your team to have energy weapons. Without them, the monster could withstand enormous amounts of damage. Other monsters can summon many other lesser monstrosities; in that case, you need as much AoE as you can bring on.
Plus, let’s not forget those heroes that have indirect ways of defeating your opponents by supporting the rest of the team or debuffing the enemy. Hipster can affect your Aether Crystal draws, Priest can heal your wounded, and Cleopatra’s curses can truly handicap your opponent!
Another very important aspect of the ground combat is positioning and facing. Every standee is placed in a way that it faces one side of the hex it is standing on. And that matters! Standees on adjacent hexes are considered at melee distance only if they face each other. So, you need to fight as a group and work together so the enemy attacks the toughest of you!
So, in ground combat, expect strategic positioning, damage mitigation calculations, risks that deal great amounts of damage to the enemy or hurt your heroes, and combos from abilities that work together to bring the scariest opponent down. And, of course, Opportunity Cards that can alter the battlefield, the enemy, or even yourself!

Thank you all!

See you in two days time where we will have some nice surprises for you :)

Update 27 November
almost 4 years ago – Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 11:00:12 PM

Hello Crew,

Our voyage is still on course. We are staying strong, but now it’s time to update USS Freedom’s software! So, let’s update!
We will start with our unlocks:

Daily Unlock Nov 26 - Storyline Campaign with 10 adventures

“The future we had.”

We have unlocked a streamlined 10-adventure campaign that will tell you the amazing story of the USS Freedom and its crew when they found the remains of an ancient, long extinct alien civilization. Their name, long forgotten. Their planet, utterly destroyed. The remains of their research, invaluable and dangerous.

What dozens of aliens are searching for and are willing to kill or even die for, our crew found by accident. Now there is an amazing chase and our heroes must decide whether to use their find, defend it, or if they trust an Alien culture enough to give it to them. What’s at stake? The integrity of the fabric of the universe. What is this important discovery, you ask?

Time travel.

A fast-paced story-driven mini-campaign that is light in terms of setup but with lots of action, space and ground combat, and many alternative rules that bend the laws of time and space.

Our next daily unlock is:

Daily Unlock Nov 27 - 10 One-shot adventures

We now have 10 ready-to-play missions of all complexities and difficulties that are independent of the full campaign. If you just want to step right into action, choose one of our one-shot missions and follow the rules for a simple setup that will include ship upgrades, Aether Pouch composition, an optional team, and of course the enemy!

There are some easier fights that will allow you to get accustomed to the game, some really difficult ones that will challenge even the most experienced space crew, and some that will be very special in terms of rules!

Sleeves Add-On

We have also managed to offer you an amazing deal in the form of one extra add-on:

With so many double-sided cards for Aliens, Heroes, Phenomena, Opportunities, and everything else, we couldn’t leave you without sleeves! 

We found premium sleeves with thickness of 100 microns and we can now offer them as a set to sleeve all your cards with a few extra. Make sure to add 12 Euros to your balance to receive a pack of sleeves. One pack is more than enough, containing 180 large and 60 normal sleeves!

Encounters

Today we are also going to have a look at some of the Encounters we could face on our epic journey.

Alien Portrait: Shadows

“There are whispers in the dark.”

The winning faction of the Oblivian civil war, the Shadows rule their home planet with an iron fist. They are infused with the power of dark magic, and take any talented children of the Oblivians from a very young age to increase their ranks. While they can engage in—and are especially deadly in!—an open fight, they prefer to act from the shadows, manipulating situations and pitting their enemies against each other, then attacking the weakened winner to gain the spoils. Though they hate the Aurelians, they at least respect them. The same can't be said for the Oblivians, who they view as cowards that refused to pick a side, and serve as nothing more than potential Shadows.

The Shadows avoid a fair fight as they consider it a sign of low strategic skill. They would never willingly engage in melee combat, but if forced into it, they fight ferociously for their lives using dark magic that allows them to steal the life force of anyone around them and gives them supernatural speed!

When we fight them, we need to spread out on the battlefield. If we can manage to pin them down in a corner, that would really help us survive. Each of their attacks will drain our Aether and heal them, leaving us powerless while strengthening them. What we need is for one of us, the strongest of us, to draw their attention and the rest of us hope that our comrade has enough armor to survive.

Shadow Starships

The Shadows are just as deadly in the skies as they are on the ground. They created the best cloaking device there is by blending technology and the dark arts. That means that that USS Freedom is going to take massive damage and only once in a while will we be able to use our weapons or even shield against it.

We will need patience while defending. Avoiding their incoming missiles is not enough—some of their missiles are unavoidable and will reach our ship no matter what. So we need to get our shields up as some of their missiles include deadly viruses that we must avoid at all costs.

But let’s not forget that we need to charge our weapons slowly and steadily. When the opportunity arises, we need to gain a vantage point and throw all of our firepower on them in a single mighty hit.

Monster: Colossal Exoworm

The reason the Shadows developed such tactics is that being stealthy is the only way to survive on their inhospitable planet. Among others, there are some huge monsters called colossal exoworms.

These huge worms burrow mostly through extremely dense planets. Their huge jaws are known to be able to cut through almost any surface, and their stomachs can digest even non-organic matter. They can easily tear through armor or shake the ground, and are large enough to swallow a human-sized creature whole. Though their ground-shaking approach can easily be felt, they are excellent predators and many explorers have met their demise when a colossal erupts beneath their feet to swallow them whole.

The slightest disturbance of the surface can awaken it and provoke it to burrow through and devour anything it finds. It can produce small earthquakes, and its skin is extremely resistant even to energy attacks. If we hope to kill it, we must push through its defenses and attack it when it toughens up or its regenerative powers will kick in.

We need to have at least two tanky heroes if we want to kill it. It’s not uncommon for these beasts to swallow a human-sized enemy in one gulp, and if that happens to one of us then we need to kill the beast quickly or our ally will be lost forever…

Titan: Hydras

Cruising the interstellar space of the galaxy, lost travelers have reported viewings of this bizarre creature. At first glance, it looks like a virus cell enlarged to unbelievable size. Closer inspection, however, reveals that the creature is not organic but made of a strange material that resembles both rock and metal at the same time, and that the tips of its many tentacles are actually unknown technology resembling advanced weapon systems. This has led scientists to believe that the Hydra is not actually a creature but rather an advanced ship of a long-lost civilization, navigating by a super-computer at its core. It is unlikely that any life form still takes residence inside the ship; while it does emit some kind of radio signal, it never responds. The assumption is furthermore increased because the Hydra never attacks unless attacked first or approached closely. If we are ever able to approach it and breach its hull, the technology we could uncover would bring the galaxy to new limits, unthinkable until now.

We will need to use evasive maneuvers in the beginning until we can raise enough shields to safely shoot at it. But whatever you do, don’t take that fusion ray; it will mess up both our engine and our crew, so avoid it at all costs. Also, be ready to put out many infernos and do so as soon as they start, or things will get out of hand very fast.

Space Phenomena: Black Holes

There isn't an advanced civilization in the galaxy that doesn't know what a black hole is or the dangers it possesses. In addition to the huge gravitational pull that not even light can evade, the radioactive emissions of a black hole can destroy almost anything approaching its event horizon, and its huge mass can create distortions in time. Many a traveler has been pulled near a black hole and activated their faster-than-light engines only to discover that many years have passed for those outside. The safest way to evade a black hole without any side effects is to steer clear of it.

Trying to get close is a difficult task on its own; trying to stay close enough for long enough that our scientists can study and understand it is even more impossible. Its massive gravitational pull will require that we constantly send energy to thrusters to avoid being sucked in. The radiation it emits is not strong enough to cause any serious problems, but if we do get hit, we must immediately repair our ship. We really need to focus on shields since our shield generator usually malfunctions near black holes.

The real danger is the anti-energy beams; they can totally shut down our engines and without power, we are sitting ducks. So try to always have some stored energy in both the thrusters and shields.

Well that's all for today.. much more and a few surprises in a few days!

Update 25 November
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Nov 26, 2020 at 03:06:49 AM

Daily Unlock 25 Nov - Introducing the New Crew

Today’s unlock is one of the most important ones!

We have a new crew on board! This means that we have an additional 16 Hero Cards in our game! These cards cannot be used in combination with the old Cosplay Heroes. We will keep the 32 Cosplay Heroes because we love them and they make great campaigns.

However, when starting a campaign, you get to select whether to play a campaign with the 32 Cosplay Heroes or the 16 new Heroes.

So, what’s different with the new crew? Well, they are not cosplayers. It’s not that we don’t like the cosplay concept; we love and support the cosplay concept and we want to thank you for the support you gave to a not so “conventional” idea for a crew. However, we are not isolated from our audience. Although you do support the cosplay crew, many of you would love to have the option to play with a more serious yet interesting crew. We do listen to you and we do respect all opinions. If we have the possibility to offer both solutions…why not do so? Who has ever said no to additional free content anyway?

So why 16 you ask? Good question. Now, the way that the new Crew is designed is different. Each Crew member has two versions: the normal version on the front of the card, used as they start the campaign, and the Deathtouched version on the back. When one of the new Heroes reaches 0 HP, they are not killed like normal Heroes are. Instead, they are removed from play for that particular game session and considered to be in the sickbay. When you continue the campaign in future sessions, you may choose to select those Heroes if you want. However, this time, you flip the card and you play with the BACK side of the card.

Now, the back side of the cards has a slightly different illustration. It is still the same Hero, but you can see how they were injured and how this affected their appearance. In the Player’s Handbook, you will be able to see the Heroes’ starting stories and a story of how they “changed” after their injuries. This way, we can see our Heroes evolve as characters within the campaign.

The Deathtouched card side is not more powerful the original card side. It is different and maybe more interesting. Having said that, there is a heavy price to it: if this Hero reaches 0 HP a second time, they are permanently removed from the campaign. This means that the mortality balance of the 32 Heroes within the campaign is kept exactly the same.

Now, some players might realize they prefer the Deathtouched side and even consider that in some Heroes, it might be even a bit more powerful because it matches their play style better. However, with the new crew you have a significant important decision to make:

“We are going to risk it and fly past the Cosmic Behemoth Titan. We will try to pass without it noticing us. If it does notice us, we will try these new Upgraded Thrusters we bought on the Neptunise Colony to outrun the Titan. We will need Nataly—she is the best pilot we have, but she is in the sickbay after the incident on the Ectognathoids’ Capital World. Should we call her? If she is injured again, she will not make it…”

Daily Unlock 24 Nov - Dreamcraft Coin

We have unlocked the commemorative metal coin that goes with every board game of our company!

This is a Kickstarter exclusive item and has our company’s logo on it! It is a collector's item (we are really proud of our coin), and it includes our motto, the saying “τοῖς τολμῶσιν ἡ τύχη ξύμφορος” said by the ancient Greek Historian Thucydidis that roughly translates to “Fortune favors the bold.”

Hero Portrait: Barcelona
Barcelona is an exuberant and dynamic lady that has spent most of her free time as an activist. She is overprotective of her new family and the first to join combat as she always likes to be in the front line. As she frequently says:
“If not me, then who? “

Barcelona is one of the best crew members to have when fighting the strongest opponents that deal both physical and energy damage. She can withstand the worst blows while still pushing threw some good strikes to her opponent. Her determination to survive and protect her team can make her even ignore lethal blows.

On the ship, she is good at the Shield Generator, but what she excels at is fixing the damage the USS Freedom takes. She can repair even the most damaged parts of the ship in the minimum amount of time. There is none better than her when it comes to repairing our starship.

Hero Portrait: Chris

The youngest crew member of USS Freedom is Chris. Do not be deceived by his young age or small stature; he was one of the smartest kids of his school with lots of awards in school tournaments in math, spelling and history. He is determined to help save Earth and all he needs to do that is his precious wand!

 
Chris can’t handle being in the frontline as he cannot absorb damage as well as other members of the crew. But having him on the battlefield can prove devastating for your opponents. He is excellent at dealing with many enemies at once, as most of his abilities deal damage to more than one opponent.

When it comes to space combat, his engineering skills are on par with the most experienced engineer despite his lack of experience. But most importantly, he learned a powerful abjuration spell that will protect even the most important part of the ship from the worst attack!

Funny Fact: Chris is modeled after Aiollus’ beloved nephew, Chris! Even at a very, very young age, Chris loved reading fantasy books like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and he loves cosplaying as different magic wielders. His illustration is based on a photo of Chris dressed up as a sorcerer inspired from fantasy books with the Dreamcraft emblem on his chest.

Hero Portrait: Geisha

Back on Earth, she was arguably the most famous Asian Cosplayer. She was also a history professor who specialized in Japanese culture as she is both proud of and fascinated by her people’s history and culture. Her mission in life is to make others thrive.

 
The least her magical staff can do is break some heads; but it can also do much more. Her magic can boost her allies’ abilities to deal damage and can eliminate any opponents’ defenses. What is even more amazing is that she can partially control reality itself by seeing a glimpse of multiple possible futures and choosing the one she prefers.

She is one of the very few crew members whose amazing abilities are equally effective in space combat and ground combat.

Metallic Coins Add-on

We are very happy to announce that we will be collaborating again with one of the most recognizable (and one of our favorite) companies in their field, DrawLab Entertainment. We are going to offer you an additional pack of credits which will include 12 coins of 3 different Alien designs! For just 12 Euro, you can feel your intergalactic currency weigh down your pockets!

The Group Deluxe Pledge

Plenty of you requested the option to buy this game as a group of friends. There is nothing better than a group of friends who love board games, is there? We are such a group ourselves! And thus, we thought of an amazing deal to offer you. We present to you, the Group Pledge!

Buying the Group Pledge gets you 3 copies of the Deluxe Pledge at the price of 190 Euro instead of 201 Euro. And not just that—you also get an additional 50% discount on the total shipping fee! For example, if there is a 16 Euro shipping fee to your country, shipping three games would cost 48 Euro. With the Group Pledge, all three games will be shipped together and you will pay just 24 Euro!

Let us thank you one more time for all your support and for keeping our shields raised. You are the best crew we could have, and we are trying our best to respect everyone and offer the best game possible. Be vigilant for our next update; we have so many things in store for you! Until next time, full power to Thrusters!