Broken Metal is a turn based multiplayer browser game. The focus of the game is shipwrighting, but has other features including combat and trade. The game's home page is http://www.brokenmetal.net

Broken Metal: The Online Strategy Game

Set up in 2003 by a small group of americans this online game began to grow in 2004 with many new players joining the fun. There is an ongoing and a reset game. The reset games runs for 3 months, usually this is where the head programmer often tests ideas for the ongoing game. Turns are gained every 3 minutes...480 turns a day, depending on a players 'prestige'.

Broken Metal is an in-depth, turn based, online strategy game that uses diplomacy, strategic thinking and forward thinking, which can all be a part of playing the game.
Any single player's task is to build up to 4 ships, this can be from scratch or you can scavenge dead ones and make them your own. If you look carefully through the Help and Strategy forums you will come across some rules of thumb for ship building. There are many different ships you can build whilst playing, but there are four main types. To have the best chance of growing efficiently joining a fleet is recommended! The use and application of numbers in this game will give those who study mathematics a challenge to work out formulas that will enable players to build fast, efficient. This is a great futuristic turn based strategy game that covers every imaginable aspect of flying a ship in outer space. It is a great game to play whether you spend a few minutes every day or a few hours every day battling lonely rogues for the parts they stole from you the day before, flying from planet to planet trying to get the parts needed to get rid of a ship that has been tailing you for a week or just building an invincible space station that supplies everybody in the galaxy.

Ongoing

The ongoing, and main part of Broken Metal is where the majority of players enjoy the game. Players may build four ships and be allowed to do so indefinitely, fleets remains the safest option for a new player. New features are periodically introduced with a team of administrators working alongside other game staff to keep Broken Metal running and safe for all users. The main way of communicating with other players in the game is through the boards there are the general chat, dreams, fleets, help, strategy and FAQ forums. With the supporting events and role-play forums, accessible by all users and guests. Registration with the boards is separate to that of the game and players are encouraged to corroborate game usernames with board names.

Reset

The reset game (or round) lasts for 3 months, during which time players grow and build ships that are able to destroy others' before the end of the reset round. Currently reset is undergoing major changes, to add diversity to encourage players to think of strategies for growth and to stimulate players who can learn from reset and apply their new found knowledge to their ongoing game.

Gameplay

Once a single user has created an account they may construct four ships, each ship may be built in one of 3 starting systems in the Perlaxuis Galaxy (in which the game is situated), these systems are Levithyon, Tyran and Lexxias. Each system has a different distribution of planets, the 'home planets' upon which each player may start in any of the systems mentioned sell all of the basic parts needed to build a ship and be able to take off. These items are: Hull Capacity, Energy Capictors, Energy Generators, Scanners, Life Support Systems, Engines, Scanners and 2 different types of crew - Pilots and Merchants.

Rankings

There are many rankings that a player may look at to see how they are growing, improving.

Networth

Networth is measured in Kilocredits, there are modifiers in the calculation aswell. Many players regard networth as a representation of how good their ship is. Research increases the ships NW by very small amounts, as the efficiency of a component can count for more of that component with standard efficiency.

Prestige

Prestige is believed to represent how good the player is as a whole. Prestige is gained every turn, travelling gains the most prestige, therefore the faster a ship the more prestige a player can gain in the same amount of turns. Research and also gains a good amount of prestige.

Distance Travelled

Distance travelled is measured in elians, and speed elians per turn. Distance travelled may represent how fast a ship is and how much research has been put into it's engines. The faster ships may be sought after by pirates! It is difficult to move up the distance travelled rankings as fast as it is in the Prestige and Networth rankings.

Turns Efficiency

Turns efficiency is the amount of turns used - the amount of turns lost, turns are lost when a player doesnt log in for a few days and their turns 'max out'. Player prestige can affect the number of turns stored on a ship. The more active the player - the higher the Turns Efficiency.

Kills

This is the total amount of ships killed by a ship, also listed are the names of the vanquished. Kills are gained by destroying a ship, usually a ship will be destroyed when certain components are shot off the ship. If multiple players are shooting at a ship, the ship that fires the finishing shot may be assigned the kill.
Many players kill smaller ships to gain kills and progress through the rankings. Shooting can also give a player alot of prestige per turn.

Broken Metal Creator

A user called "Neque" created broken Metal in 2003, when some of the now veteran players joined. Since then Neque has maintained the site and made numerous modifications to the 300,000 lines of java, css and html code. Changes are made when 'bugs' occur in game. These changes, developments and completly new additions are posted in the News section of the boards or the Bugs section, where the creator confirms that a bug is fixed.

History

Membership

Membership is free for all in both ongoing and reset. However, members and visitors to the site may donate through paypal.
There are 8,220 accounts in the game, and 2,500 on the boards.