The Infinite Space Challenge: Setting a Personal Best

The Infinite Space Challenge: Setting a Personal Best

Having already obtained every achievement that Sea of Stars had to offer, I gave myself one more challenge: to earn as many points as possible. There were two prerequisites for this incredibly difficult task: both the Enemy Strength and Nebular Mass had to be set to "high" to maximize the number of points gained from exploration, combat, trading and diplomacy. Even then, just to have a chance of setting a record, I had to not only complete the game without losing any ships, but also had to have the largest capital ships available in my fleet, and fully upgrade them with the best weaponry and equipment I could find for good measure. On top of that, I also had to destroy lots of hostile ships, explore every single star system on the map, establish alliances with as many factions as possible, and complete the quest successfully (whichever it was), all within the game's 25-year time limit. This was, to put it bluntly, a tall order.

"Captain Taylor of the Starship Swift, reporting for duty..."

Early on, I hired a crew of Zorg mercenaries - an incredibly wise decision that saved me a lot of time, thanks to their ship (a Zorg scout named Kuti) granting my fleet the unique ability to travel to a nearby star system in 21 days or fewer. I then discovered a Calatian destroyer under attack, and accepted its crew's offer of an alliance with them - thereby guaranteeing that the Calatians would be friendly for the rest of the game. Given that I'd already discovered another ally in the form of the Klakar by then, befriending the Calatians seemed like the logical next step.

"The only sensible course of action under these circumstances is to ally with the Calatians..."

Thus, in every subsequent encounter with them, the Calatians decided to trust me straight away and were quick to lend their support. Later on, I rescued a crew of Calatian castaways, returned them to their home world of Calatia, and was rewarded with a Calatian destroyer - the Thunderbucket - for my troubles.

"I knew they'd be formidable allies in combat when we need them the most!"

I then discovered the Moon Marauder, a Terran scout crewed by pirates-turned-mercenaries, and traded that ship in for a larger and better-equipped Terran corvette. By now I had sold three high-value artifacts (a Black Monolith, a Golden Gnat, and an Eye of Babulon) just to be able to afford a Plasma Coil Cloaker, and much more besides.

"Moon Marauder, meet your new ship - compared to the scout we'll be selling, it's more formidable and definitely improved in every way."

With the Kuti in tow, I then decided to visit the Zorg home world, Loryx. It came as no surprise that they greeted me enthusiastically the moment I turned up on their doorstep. Shortly after arriving at Loryx, I traded in the Zorg scout for a larger Zorg corvette, and made a mental note of what equipment the Zorg would sell over the course of the game. By sheer chance, one of the items they sold was an Anti-Graviton Shunt - and I remembered to buy it later on to allow myself to travel directly between or close to black holes without being destroyed by their intense gravitational pull.

"Welcome back, Kuti. We missed you after all those years lost in deep space."

"A Zorg corvette? Surely our fleet can provide extra firepower if we buy that one."

By now, the Kuti had also been upgraded with high-end equipment, as had the rest of my fleet. But I still managed to forge yet another alliance - and this would involve a very special delivery. In order to make friends with the silicon-based Tchorak, I had to encounter them while in possession of a Crystal Fish, and accept their offer to take it from me. I did just that - and was utterly relieved not to have to fight them at all for the rest of this game.

"The Tchorak must really like the Crystal Fish to form an alliance with us. No wonder they're pleased!"

As I continued to explore Sector Prime, I discovered Ripcord O'Reilly's stranded Terran fighter, and later on, a Garthan fighter piloted by a Garthan mercenary. Unsurprisingly, I decided to hire the latter to improve my chances of winning any and all subsequent battles - although in the end, I did not have to summon his ship at all during the game. Eventually, I survived long enough to be able to trade in both Terran corvettes for a pair of Terran destroyers - the largest ships in the entire Terran fleet - and did so as soon as I could. By now I'd bought a lot of Plasma Coil Cloakers from the Urluquai and sold them to Terran merchants on Glory, just to afford these huge behemoths along with all the weaponry and equipment required to turn them into the most formidable ships in all of Sector Prime.

"There it is! A Terran destroyer. We just bought one of those, but we still need another one to really frighten our adversaries."

And for good measure, I also traded in the Kuti for a Zorg frigate and the Thunderbucket for a Calatian super-dreadnought. As with the two destroyers, I made sure to fully upgrade them to bolster my field strength in preparation for the inevitable quest. Just to be sure, I even bought back the Eye of Babulon for the purpose of detecting cloaked Urluquai Deep Hunters.

"Our fleet won't be complete without a Zorg frigate..."

"...and a Calatian super-dreadnought would really boost our defensive capabilities!"

With a flotilla of big, bulky capital ships armed to the teeth in my possession, there was only one thing left for me to do to complete the game: trigger the quest. Much to my surprise, the quest that appeared in this game was the Ravian invasion. Completing it is a tall order if the difficulty setting is set to its highest level, since the Ravians will send more and better-equipped ships after your home system (Glory) - fortunately, I was prepared for the Ravians' arrival, having already purchased the largest capital ships available and upgraded them as much as I could have by the time the quest began, and as such I found this quest to be much easier to complete than it usually was.

"The Ravians have lost one fleet, but they're not finished with their invasion plans yet. We must finish them off as soon as we can!"

Not wanting to be complacent, I decided to convert both Terran destroyers to the Advanced specification, which added a second dorsal turret that faced backwards.

"The advanced spec for our destroyers is a worthwhile upgrade - who knows if we have to use that aft turret sooner or later?"

Finally it was time for me to finish off the Ravians once and for all. However, with so much firepower and shielding at my disposal, the final battle against the remnants of the Ravian invasion force was anticlimactic, to say the least.

"That's definitely the last of the Ravians - we won't have to worry about them again, for sure!"

From then on, to increase my score as much as possible, I continued my routine of trading, upgrading and fighting, until there was simply no time left to do anything at all that would yield extra points. I eventually ended up with two advanced destroyers, each armed with three Multi-Missile Launchers and two Proton Blasters, plus a Zorg frigate carrying two launchers and one blaster, in addition to a Calatian super-dreadnought fitted with five blasters and two Antichronon Pulse Blasters.

"Will you look at that! Our fleet is the most formidable one in Sector Prime - and possibly the whole galaxy!"

I also had a Terran fighter and a Garthan fighter in my fleet, although I ended up never using either of them in combat even once.

"With fighters as effective these, piloted by the galaxy's top aces, hostile forces will have a hard time penetrating our defenses - so watch out!"

By the end of the game, thanks to my incredibly clever strategy, some top-notch tactics, and a healthy dose of luck, I had amassed a staggering 293,292 points - definitely a new personal best. If the map had contained even more high-tech equipment, I may well have achieved a score of over 300,000 points; as it is, however, 293,292 points is still an outstanding achievement.

"Congratulations, Captain Taylor. You have not only neutralized the threat from various hostile alien species, but also formed alliances with the few alien races that wish to cooperate with us. Please accept your generous reward."

And so ended my most successful adventure among the Sea of Stars to date. Will there be another one even remotely like it? Probably not, given how difficult it is to obtain such a high score even with the perfect storm of circumstances I encountered back then, but we can always hope for the best.