The Factions of Infinite Space, Part 2

The Factions of Infinite Space, Part 2: Terrans and Garthans

Do humans have an advantage over reptilian warrior hordes? Time to find out...

The Terrans and Garthans are the best-known factions in the Infinite Space trilogy, with the former being comprised of justice-seeking humans and the latter consisting of terroristic, warlike reptilians. Supplementary material, such as the board game Eat Electric Death!, also stated that they were arch-rivals, with the Garthans going as far as to enslave any Terrans they cannot kill outright. Generally, these races have the most primitive technology in the sector, but as time passes during a normal game, the Terrans will develop increasingly advanced technology, and also release a larger selection of capital ships. However, Garthan vessels often tend to be more affordable than their Terran counterparts.

The Terran lineup, focused primarily on all-around ability.

The Terran interstellar fleet is mostly balanced, with few (if any) major weaknesses or strengths compared to equivalent vessels from other races. Their capital ships have fairly wide fields of fire, though not as wide as those of Muktian and Calatian ships, allowing a Terran commander to fire broadsides at hostile forces. In addition, Terran stations have good defenses and can spawn up to 4 fighters at once, and a Terran capital ship can be upgraded to an "Advanced" variant (which carries a rear-mounted turret) for a small fee - a unique feature.

The Garthan fleet looks menacing on paper, but...

Garthan ships are designed with offensive operations in mind; they sacrifice maneuverability and sideways "vision" for high sublight speed and heavy armor. As such, Garthan commanders almost always attack their targets head-on. However, there are no Garthan stations in Sector Prime (as yet) and the absence of rear-facing turrets makes them vulnerable to ambushes from behind.

A typical Terran-Garthan battle scene showing the slight advantage Terrans have over their reptilian foes in the early game, and the difference between the "fields of vision" their vessels have.

In terms of technology, the Terrans are slightly further ahead than the Garthans early on; their neptunium railguns can intercept incoming missiles with ease and their fission missiles pack a decent punch. However, this technological disparity increases as the game progresses; the Terrans will develop such advanced equipment as proton shields and fusion drives much sooner than the Garthans, which only ever arm their ships with weak chainguns and impaler missiles. Moreover, the Terrans will also begin using basic ship systems of various kinds, and even deploy the highly accurate Eidetic Matrix Bubble later in the game. Finally, as if the sheer variety of Terran weaponry wasn't intimidating enough, much of it is very potent; plasma blasters and micrometeorite guns are brutally effective in short-range combat, while proton blasters are basically neptunium railguns on steroids, and Multi-Missile Launchers can deliver plenty of damage from afar, particularly if more than one of them is mounted on the same ship.

Some examples of late-game Terran-Garthan battles, showing the massive technological disparity between these factions late in the game.

Garthan and Terran mercenaries, however, are all equally beneficial to your fleet's strength, but Ripcord O'Reilly is not one of them - his fighter is instead added to your flotilla for free, and can mount any interstellar drive, including the Hyperdrive. Upgrading the Bloodfang and Moon Maruader (and/or trading them in for larger vessels) can be useful later on as well. While the Bloodfang is cheaper to upgrade and can move faster, the Moon Marauder can be upgraded to a Destroyer, generally turns more quickly, and has a wider field of fire, particularly when upsized to a Terran Corvette or larger and converted to Advanced specs, which includes a rear-facing turret. Having either or both of these capital ships as allies is thus always a good thing!

In short, while the Garthans are often a legitimate threat to your flotilla early on in the game, their lack of advanced technology eventually causes them to fall behind in the end. The Terrans, on the other hand, will have become much more powerful and technologically advanced by then. Do not hesitate to recruit mercenaries (or other allies) from either faction, though. It might just save your flotilla from utter annihilation!

The Factions of Infinite Space, Part 1

The Factions of Infinite Space, Part 1: An Overview

The 12 factions of Sea of Stars. The Terrans are the only one you can play as in the campaign, but every faction is selectable in custom scenarios.

There are ten regular factions in Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars. In order of appearance, they are the Terrans, Garthans, Zorg, Urluquai, Muktians, Tan Ru, Klakar, Tchorak, Ravians, and Calatians. There are also two boss factions, the Yellow Kawangi and the Pirates, both of which only appear in their respective quests. Supplementary material also stated that there are rivalries involving pairs of factions: the Garthans are the Terrans' (and possibly Muktians',) arch-enemies, and the Urluquai are the nemesis of the Zorg (and also the Terrans), while the Tan Ru are hostile to every other race in the sector - unsurprising, since they were described as "oblivious to biological life". Moreover, the Klakar also despise the Garthans, as do the Calatians, who also happen to hold a grudge against the Ravians and Tan Ru (as stated in one of their pre-battle quotes when they are allied with you). Finally, the Tchorak and Ravians are also hostile to everyone else, although the former can be forced to ally with you if you give them a Crystal Fish.

You can only play as the Terrans in the campaign, but any and every race can be selected in user-generated battle scenarios. However, in any campaign, the map will be populated by flotillas from seven other factions. The Klakar (which are the only faction to always be allied with you) will always be among them, but there will also be flotillas from two of the three "neutral" factions (Muktians, Zorg, Calatians), and you will also encounter vessels from four of the five "hostile" factions (Garthans, Urluquai, Tan Ru, Tchorak, Ravians).

Above, from top: When encountering a flotilla from a neutral faction, you can withdraw or attack them, preserving their neutrality or causing them to become hostile towards you respectively. However, if you have a vessel from a normally neutral faction in your flotilla, and you encounter a flotilla from that faction, they will become your allies for the rest of the game.

There is a key difference between neutral and hostile factions. The latter always attack on sight (with the exception of the Tchorak as stated previously), unlike neutral factions, which will only attack if you provoke them, and will leave you alone if you withdraw from a system under their control, but will ally with you whenever you engage any of their flotillas (or arrive at their homeworld, if it is undefended) with one of their own vessels (or, in the case of the Calatians, while carrying Calatian castaways in your cargo bay). Both boss factions are also hostile, but due to the absence of the Mantle of Babulon (which forced non-allied races to join forces with you in previous games), you must engage in combat with the Garthans or Urluquai whenever you encounter them. Worse, attacking a neutral faction's vessels is the only way to explore the systems they occupy if you have no chance of negotiating them, such as when you have to explore the Muktians' home system but a noble Muktian vessel is not among the allies you can encounter, befriend and ultimately add to your flotilla.

Finally, the two special factions (Yellow Kawangi and Pirates) are guaranteed to be hostile whenever you encounter them, and must always be eliminated altogether from the sector in that case. Failure to do so within the time limit will lead to the destruction of the entire Glory system (where the Terran home world, Hope, is located) at the very least. Defeating them outright, however, effectively completes your quest since although some systems may remain unexplored by then, Glory cannot be annihilated. I hope you are equally skilled both in combat and negotiation - you'll need em to conquer the galaxy!

The Analysis of Infinite Space, Part 4

The Analysis of Infinite Space, Part 4: Ship Equipment

Apologies for the long delay between posts (again); I was struggling to deal with the massacre in Orlando and its brutal aftermath. This explains why spent a great deal of time (a whole week, in fact) watching footage of old light gun games, trying to draw parallels between those and Sea of Stars. In those games you were a lone soldier pitched against hundreds of enemy infantry per level, and when playing Sea of Stars while the enemy presence is set as high as possible, it can sometimes feel like that, although with the right gear, ships and strategy one can obliterate even the strongest enemy fleets with ease. 

Having discussed in detail the various weapons in Sea of Stars, I will now describe the other types of starship equipment featured in that game. Any piece of equipment that is not a weapon, interstellar drive or sublight thruster is classified as a ship system, and these fall into one of six categories: shields, targeting computers, countermeasures, repair systems, scanners, and unique items. I will now describe each category in order.

Shields protect a ship's hull from weapons fire. Generally, stronger shields can absorb more damage before being depleted, although they take longer to recharge (or not at all in the case of the Temporal Flux Shield) and will need more time before they replenish. All of these are obtainable by normal means, except for the Aethric Nimbus Shield, which is as strong as a Proton Matrix Shield but can begin recharging almost immediately after it has been depleted, and is only obtainable by creating one with a Timeless Bauble. However, in addition to being standard equipment on Primordius' space station, it can also be selected for use in custom scenarios, where any shield can be installed on any vessel, including fighters, which would otherwise only be able to carry nothing stronger than an Electron Matrix Shield.

Targeting computers improve the fire rate and accuracy of a ship's weapons suite. In all cases, higher-end computers provide greater increases in both accuracy and fire rate, although one of these systems, the Sardion Maximizer, is only obtainable by returning the Sardions to their homeworld in the Urluquai Crusade quest. You will, however, certainly need it to destroy the Urluquai flotilla that spawns immediately afterwards, since it makes your task far easier. The Maximizer is also available freely in custom scenarios.

Countermeasures systems deflect incoming missiles whenever they are fired at your ship. Only two such systems are available: the Hyperwave Tele-Scrambler and the Signature Projector. Both work in the same way; the latter is simply far more effective (and expensive - at 750 credits it's six times the price of a scrambler!). As such, if your target carries missiles, it is generally a good idea to install these systems on at least one of your capital ships.

Scanners show the current locations of every alien flotilla on the map. The Hyperwave Filter Array can only detect flotillas in the vicinity; the Continuum Renderer Array can detect every flotilla in the sector (except for Primordius, unless your flotilla travels close enough to the black hole it orbits). Other quest-specific flotillas, however, do not need to be detected using scanners. Moreover, scanner ranges are stackable, so the detection range of your flotilla is increased further if scanners are installed on multiple capital ships. On the other hand, they provide no advantages in direct combat.

In addition to the above types of equipment, there are three items that don't belong in the categories previously described. The Nebular Extent Calculator highlights all nearby nebular boundaries, and takes into account the effects of nebulae when plotting a course; although its effects are stackable, there is seldom any need to use more than one of them. The Anti-Graviton Shunt prevents your flotilla from being destroyed by the gravitational pull of a black hole and allows it to orbit such systems with impunity, as well as giving you the ability to travel directly between black holes; since it is standard on the Damocles, you must ensure it survives until you reach Primordius, unless you have another capital ship so equipped, or choose to erase Primordius from existence with a Limited Vacuum Collapser. The Plasma Coil Cloaker allows any ship equipped with it to cloak itself; although a cloaked ship cannot fire, it cannot be detected by hostile vessels either, making this system a very useful tool for ambushes, and since the Urluquai Deep Hunters use this by default, they can be particularly nasty in close quarters.

In short, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each ship system is on its own insufficient to guarantee victory; you must determine the best way to use them in order to defeat a well-armed enemy flotilla.