I recently became aware of a free online game called Star Pirates, and my productivity has begun slowing ever since. Star Pirates is a text based games that is set in a future with a short but sweet description: "The Earth is destroyed - space miners stationed in the Asteroids struggle for survival. Gangs of Star Pirates loot old hulks, scavenge resources, attack and raid each other's ships and fight for dominance of the stars."
Now doesn't that just sound awesome? When you join you start off with the smallest ship a Sloop Mark I, and from there you begin. Each hour you can search through station debris finding cargo (cargo is translated into cash) that can be deposited into the bank or be used to buy a better ship, better equipment, or my favorite to play the stock market. Also, when searching through debris you can come across items, usually basic gear but at times you'll find rare, very useful items, that you can either equip to make yourself stronger, or sell for lots of cargo.
You have four meters for you ship, your health, your energy, your research, and your fuel. Health is for attacking; either other players or trips into the Asteroid Belt and battling rogue drones and robots. Energy is also used for attacking, and for researching. Researching is very important to the game because it is through that where you gain power in your weapons add strength to your defenses and pure "oomph" to your engines. Research points' sole purpose is for increasing your stats. Finally your fuel is used for expeditions into the Asteroid Belt to fight drones for cash and experience, and used to travel to different planets; also it's used for salvage operations that also gain you cash and experience (if they succeed). You gain levels but accruing experience, each time you move up a level you get more points to use, as well as a few other perks.
After expending your points you'll have to wait for them to regenerate before performing those actions again, but while waiting for points to go back up I like to head over to the stock market and try to make some cash.
The stock market is currently on a random algorithm that gives it periodic ups and downs, and also gives it a small percentage chance of crashing. The thought process to making money here is the same as the real markets, buy low and sell high. Most of the money I've made in the game is through this.
Each day at 8 pm EST you can try your hand at the slot machines to earn extra cash, the higher lvl you are the more turns you get. 50 cargo to play will normally return 500 cargo, so it's a great way to make quick cash for buying gear.
The game also has a "shoutbox" feature that shows on your home page of the game where you can chat with other players. There are also the forums to go to for questions and for trading. Even for roleplaying is you'd like. Many players like to roleplay themselves as starship captains and give their character a backstory. It can be fun to join in on an impromptu drone attack in the shoutbox if you get bored.
Like I said before, Star Pirates is a free online game, which means no downloads, or anything. You log in online and you play, and you can even play on portable devices with internet connection. Anyone can sign up for the game, and play for free and do great and have fun, but if you are serious about it you can spend a little real life money too. For the cost of a sup of coffee you can put "points" that can either be sold (for a nice cargo price) or used for various functions (including debris searches to find rare items). You can also purchase a "Notorious" account which makes your HP, Energy, Fuel, and Research regenerate faster, as well as let you have more stocks on hand and gives you more debris search cycles. It's a great deal, and makes it so you can spend more of your time playing, and not waiting.
In the game there are groups called Fleets, where players join together to support each other, and to be able to declare war on other Fleets. It's a great system and very fun. Fleets with active members and who win wars move up in the Universal Ladders and gain bragging rights, and experience to gain levels on other players.
I've played my share of free online games similar to this one, and thus far this one is my favorite. I've played games set in the Prohibition, games obviously rooted in Tolkien, and games purely about gladiatorial combat, but this online game is the most fun.
I only have two complaints about the game; Fleets don't have personal forums built into the game like I've see in the past with other online games. I believe this is being worked on right now. It's a minor complaint either way, since most Fleets simply create forums outside the game to plan tactics and talk. My second complaint is mostly from a work standpoint, I haven't been able to get much done since I started playing this game!
Star Pirates is great, and it's only going to get better since the hardworking people of Snakehead Games who created Star Pirates are always working to better gameplay and provide players with the best online game experience possible. I joined the game less then a week ago and they've already made two or three changes that have clearly made the game for fun, so I look forward to seeing what else they decide to add.
I hope you'll come point me on Star Pirates! My name there is LordTyrion, and I hope you'll drop me a line when you join up. I'd be free to help you out and listen to you lament your decrease is productivity, while waiting for the next time you can attack again. Just follow the link at the bottom of the page to join up, and start pirating!
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