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Starship Hope is a story based strategy RPG set in the far future. It features both tactical combat ( enabled via the leTBS plugin and some minor fixes) for character-based combat and a modified version of the old style jRPG combat style for ship-based combat.

The Game has the following feature (so far):

• Tactical Battle System powered by leTBS Plugin (with some small modifications to fix some defects). This is used whenever the crew themselves in combat (which is of course often - gotta have conflict).
• A modified version of a traditional jRPG battle system adapted to model Space Combat. The idea here is that the player is commanding the ship from the bridge and gives "commands" like rerouting energy from weapons to shields, or firing the ships primary weapons. Primary modifications to the jRPG standard are the inclusion of an Engineering window to allow repair and transfer of energy from the various systems to and from the Ships "AP (MP)" as well as randomizing damage to different systems on the ship that effect Hope's effectiveness in combat and how much the ship takes.
• A mildly branching story line. There are a lot of optional parts or side effects to the decisions the player makes as Captain. These are typically subtle so far and aren't intended to be noticed unless you happen to play the game twice. Choices can determine whether a combat occurs, where a combat occurs, if a side characters lives or dies, the class of a side character (in one case a choice in "Chapter 2" can lead to a character either being a cyborg class or scientist class.
• No Experience Points. I'm not married to this, but I am exploring the use of skill / character upgrade purchases from various in game vendors as the method of character progression. This allows me to tune the game a little better and I think the idea is a better fit for the universe I've created as I envision it.

(NOTE: I do not currently have a visual artist and my visual art ability can fit inside a matchbox ... that has already had another matchbox worth of matches placed inside on top of the original ... so these graphics are not final, just an idea of what's in the current prototype).

Heroes

• Captain Anzri Cruze: Typical Hero Type Character that the player controls: Commander of the Starship Hope, one of the last remaining Ranger Captains left after the fall of the Galactic Government. Cruze is driven by his belief in what the Rangers once stood for and while he can be tough on his crew he will do whatever is required to protect his ship and crew.
• Commander Michele Bloom: Second in command of the Starship Hope, Commander Bloom is stoic, but passionate women. Trained as a security specialist, she is a master of both hand to hand and ranged weaponry. Michele is the crews "parental supervision" - she serves as a voice of reason and calm when others want nothing more than to run right into a situation.
• Lieutenant Alli Morenz: A Nano-Biologist who has found a way to fuse her love of computers with her love of biology. Alli is easily excited by new ideas and always looking to push the frontiers of her craft. She is good friends with the ship's Engineer and the two can often be found working in the lab on whatever new project they've devised together long into the night.
• Lieutenant Shelly Cromwell: Hope's Engineering specialist. Shelly is a lighthearted person with a soft spot for Robotics. She spends most of her time bantering with Hope in Engineering, eating strange, delicious, and noticeably unhealthy new types of food, and working with Alli in the lab creating whatever new ideas spark into their heads.
• Ensign Johnny Kludge: Johnny is the youngest member of Hope's crew. He grew up racing starfighters around the space dock his father worked at. Johnny is an excellent pilot and a clever fighter. When not performing his duties he spends most of his time in his bunk, conversing with Hope whom - as is the case with most Ranger pilots - he has formed a close friendship.
• Doctor Timothy Wu: Hope's medical Doctor, like many Ranger Doctors, Tim has a very strong sense of ethics. He believes in respecting and protecting all life, no matter the cost. This commonly puts him at odds with both the Captain and the needs of the mission.
• Hope: Starship Hope's integrated artificial consciousness. Hope has been around for nearly five hundred years and served with far more Ranger crews than she can remember. Without the resources of the former Galactic Empire to support her however, age has begun to take its toll. She is becoming far more paranoid than she used to be - seeing danger around every asteroid and slowly forgetting key details about her past and presence. Dr. Wu and Shelly are doing what they can to keep her alive, but without help, her personality will soon fade away. Of course, help is precisely what she is afraid of.

Villians

• Professor Elizabeth Wang: One of the Galaxies most revered scientists, Professor Wang is in charge of the Spacial Anamoly Research Station. (Galactic Designation Research Station 718). Her research involving the macro-manipulation of space-time has provided her an insight into how reality can be reshaped by making small changes to the past. Until now she has left this avenue unexplored due to the catastrophic amount of damage her equations predict would occur in the surrounding parts of the Galaxy. The brutal murder of her wife and daughter have left her a broken woman, and at the urgings of Vice Admiral Sheng she has begun to piece together to components needed to see her ideas become a reality - all in the desperate hope of seeing her family alive and well again.
• Vice Admiral Sheng: A disgraced former Admiral from the now-defunct Galactic Navy, Vice Admiral Sheng is obsessed with regaining his former glory. Consumed by his obsession, and worshiped by his former troops, Sheng has made it his life's goal to restore the glory of the Empire by any means necessary.
• The "Brotherhood": A male dominated quasi-spiritual political organization that has become dominant in Sector 718. The Brotherhood looks to remake the Sector in its own vision, subjecting everyone to its teachings that its leaders believe will allow them to avoid the moral follies of the former Empire.
• The Syndicate: The largest Corporation in Sector 718. While not evil per se, they are highly profit driven which leads some of their more unscrupulous satellite offices to overlook and/or bend the rules quite a bit in order to help themselves stand out from their competition on the corporate ladder.

The Galactic Empire has fallen. Professor Wang and her Wife find herself trapped in one of the first separatist provinces - confined to her little government funded Spacial Anamoly Research Station (SARS). With no Galactic Navy to defend them, her station soon finds itself under attack by every opportunist Raider looking to exploit the advanced technology on her station for themselves. Little by little the Raider attacks add up, culminating in the murder of both her wife and child.

All that remains, other than the nightmares, is her work. Her experiments show that with enough computational power, and a strong enough power source she could bend reality itself - remake the Galaxy as it once was before the Empire fell and her family died - all at a cost of only a few trillion innocent lives.

Vice Admiral Sheng, longing for his glory days when the now disbanded Galactic Navy was the jewel of the universe, has partnered with Professor Wang to bring back the Empire he loved so dearly - using any means necessary.

Starship Hope heads out to Outpost 613 where they find Raiders has massacred everyone in sight - including relatives of Commander Bloom - while stealing nothing more than a simple data core. Ordered to investigate by what remains of the Ranger central command, the crew traces the Raiders back to SARS station where an unexpected attack lead by Professor Elizabeth Wang leads them into a mission of a scale they never thought possible.

Although I do have a prototype, it's not quite ready to be played by a wider audience yet. I'm still collecting feedback on the gameplay/story from my inner circle of guinea pigs ... I mean testers. Once I've integrated all their feedback and fixed a few more of the defects I'll share a link to the current version (assuming people find it interesting enough to want to try it).

1. Prologue [Ready for Prototype testing]
2. Introducing Elizabeth [Ready for Prototype Testing]
3. Station 718 [Ready for Prototype Testing]
4. Algiers Shipyard [In Progress]
5. Exetar Incident
6. The Hermit of Monaidia
7. Agricultural Rescue
8. Sheng's Station
9. The Refugee Armada
10. Temporal Displacement
11. The Incident at Outpost 613
12. Fall
13. The Shadow Court
14. Sheng's Flagship
15. Elizabeth's Gate
16. Hope

Non Story Modules:

Space Combat [IN PROGRESS]

• Basic Mechanics [In Progress]
• Coding for Animation and Effects [In Progress]
• Starship Upgrades

Tactical Combat

• Basic setup and configuration of leTBS plugin [Ready for Prototype Testing]
• Initial Skill Design [In Progress - most are Ready for testing, but too powerful to be introduced at the current stage of the game]
• Robot Deployment / Summoning
• Combat and Ability Effects [In Progress]

Skill Vendors [In Progress]

Tactical Enemy Design / Balance [On going]

Hostile Starship Design / Balance [On going]

Galactic Map / Jump Drive Mechanic [In Progress]

Character and Enemy Sprites

Area Splash Screens

Proper Title Screen

Proof Reading / Continuity Checking [On Going]