Kickstarter

Thanks again for all the mails, we've tried to answer all of them & one of the more common questions we've been asked is about the new features in Nexus 2 & about the ships and their crew. We've drawn up an overview for you and in this update we'll give you a little more insight into the Ship's Crew. In the next Update we'll post info about Ship Management & Configuration.

SHIP CREW 

Every ship has a separate crew. They are the ones who fulfill the orders the player gives them. The crew collects experience points in every mission, according what they do. When they collect enough experience, they advance a level. The experienced crew gets bonuses for many actions so it is worthwhile to increase their skill levels as quickly as possible. 

When a ship is destroyed the crew can also lose experience, even though they will try to reach the next ship in escape pods, not everyone make it (the enemy fighters and flaks are ruthless. As you can actually see this in the game, you can influence it too, by sending ships into the area to draw fire from the escape pods.). The lost crew members will be replaced by Rookies, who will lower the average experience level of the rest of the crew (we might soften this and make them lose only the experience collected above their current rank, so a Veteran crew never becomes Regular again). 

The crew has four experience levels: 

• Rookie 

• Regular 

• Veteran 

• Elite 

SKILLS 

The crew and the heroes (see below) have three skills.

 • Military: better aim, damage bonus 

• Science: scanning bonus, detect and identify ships-devices faster, collect Secrets faster 

• Engineering: faster repairing, generator output bonus 

A Rookie crew has a value of 1 of all of the skills. At every level all of the skills grow with 1, and the player gets 1 point that he can allocate to any of the skills. So the maximum skill value is 7 – only heroes can have higher values. 

HEROES 

We have 2 type of heroes is Nexus 2. 

CAPTAINS 

They are the captains of the ships. Their dialogs help to develop the story, so they are invulnerable. Even if their ship blows up, they will always reach the next ship in an escape pod (except if the story says otherwise). They always do service on the same ship, they can’t be moved around to other ships. 

They have 3 skills, which give additional bonuses to the ship (Military, Science and Repair). They gain experience with the crew and can increase these skills. It is well worth it to increase these skills, as a captain with a high skill can make a big difference in a battle. 

If one of the skills of the captain on board is higher than the crew’s value, than the ship gets the bonus of that skill. E.g. a well known scientist’s science skill is 10, therefore the unit gets this bonus at every intelligence and scanning operation. 

PSIS 

Another type of hero is the Psi. They are also integral part of the story, so they can’t die either. They have only 1 special skill, with a very limited use (so they won’t become overpowered). Some of these skills are: 

 • Micro Jump: this power allows the ship to jump to its move target immediately. It works similarly as the micro jump drive the “White” race has used in the 6/1 mission of Nexus. 

• Regeneration: this power can immediately “heal” the ship’s hull. 

• Psi-blast: all enemy ships within a certain radius around the NPC’s ship get a random but serious device malfunction. The Mechanoid ships within this same radius all die. 

• Battle Meditation: Greatly boosts the skills of the given crew for a short time, skills can exceed the maximum levels. 

• Mind Control: Takes over certain functions of the enemy ships for a short period. 

• Psychic Clone: Makes a ghost-like copy of the selected ship. It is weak, but the enemy units tend to concentrate fire on it. 

• Shield Drain: Drains the shield of the target ship and enforces the shields of the ship of the Psi. They can be placed on any ship.