spacetrace

Spacetrace (http://www.spacetrace.org) is a space strategy game, which is played by many users at the same time in the same game world. It is translated to many languages and therefore played by gamers in the whole world. At the homepage you can create an anonymous accout and directly start playing.
Spacetrace is a so called browser based game which allows being played in the Internet browser without installing any further software. The aim of the game is to build space fleets and to research new weapon technology. These are used in space battles with other players in with you can ally with other players. Successful fights will grant points for the highscore ranking. As a special teaser there are special planets providing bonus score for there owners. The game is running in an endless loop in which all players will die after a few months. By this new players can join at any time without suffering drawbacks compared to other players. After dying you can restart at will and try to use a new tactic or race. At the moment there are five races in game, whos abilities differ in many details.
The simple and often used game concept might be nevertheless interesting in Spacetrace. This is due to the intelligent fighting algorithm. It splits the fleets into four part fleets which combat each other by given rules and a part of randomness. As you will not know more than the number of ships in each part fleet of your enemy there is enough room left for strategical thinking and development of new tactics.
Furthermore Spacetrace tries to straighten the game and single actions such as building or moving fleets would take several hours during which you have not much options to react. This is an advantage for casual players who want to make a move here and there without having disadvantages compared to those who could spent the whole day at the computer. Hardcore gamers on the other hand a likely to get impatient after a while.
Another special of the game is the limited number of resources, which can not be enlarged by claiming planets. With ongoing time of play a player would have more different types of ship available but not more combat power in general. This gives almost equal preconditions in combat. An advanced player still would have more strategical options when building his fleet but not more man power like in many other games. This also favors casual players who in other games would have to get used to get wiped by invincible enemy fleets and might cut of the joy of the nerds on the other hand.
Learning the game is not too easy for beginning. The interface and the special abilities of the differnt ship will only get clear one by one. Nevertheless more than hundred players have made it and are now continiuosly participating in the game.
Spacetrace is not a game of everybodies taste. This is not least because of the simple basic game concept. But friends of this genre will find many details which make the game different compared to other competitors. This would lead to some becoming a true follower of the game while other leave it being bored. Being a relatively small game it has an active user community which interacts in game and in the forum. This often leads to a diplomatic flavour of the game when interacting within alliances.