Xpace - The New Frontier!
Large-Scale, Multi-Player Space Exploration & Strategy Game
This webspace is a tribute to the Windows PBEM (Play By EMail) space strategy game called "Xpace." This is also an online museum of sorts. Another words, this is an archive of Xpace materials and fan sites that have otherwise disappeared. I was dismayed when I recently discovered that many of these resources are gone. Fortunately, I had backups of many of these. Hence the creation of this place in cyberspace to preserve them.
Main Window:
System/Planet Window:
Empire at a Glance:
This turn-based game was created by Xoftware Innovations (www.xoftware.com), which was originally a sole proprietorship with a few contributors and volunteers. Developed in their spare time, the "Pre-Release Beta" version of Xpace was released in November of '96. It was intended to become a shareware venture, probably being inspired by other games of the genre like Stars! and VGA Planets. Citing a lack of time and resources, they announced plans to discontinue work on the game in its current form. Instead, they intended to use Xpace as a prototype for a full-scale game. To this end they were working towards establishing a new company and becoming a full-time venture. Though, they did find the time to release an unofficial patch (version 0.600.2) to fix a few of the critical bugs which were reported since their last official release.
Unfortunately, that seems to be about the end of the story. The last update of their website occurred sometime between January and July of 2002 - at least according to the Internet Archive. By November of 2002 it was replaced with the message "ORDER ENTRY - SALES FORCE AUTOMATION - E PROCUREMENT" followed by something in Italian to indicate it was under construction. And by February of 2005 it became "Xoftware.com - Net Business Solutions", which seems to be an Italian Internet consultation service for point-of-sales management. So, it seem safe to assume that Xoftware Innovations was dissolved and the owners sold the domain name. Perhaps they were unable to acquire adequate funding? Or perhaps personal reasons were involved and they choose to stick with their full time jobs?
Even though the game was never completely finished, it was still quite
playable. Some hardcore strategy gamers of the 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and
eXterminate) genre were immediately attracted to it because of its unique
features and open-ended game design. Further, the sheer size of the game
was quite remarkable. It boasted support for up to 200 players and
a vast game universe of up to 50,000+ star systems - with the
possibility of each star system containing multiple planets! In comparison, most
space strategy and exploration games only support a
paltry few dozen (perhaps 50 to 100 or so) star
systems and more often than not these had only one habitable world each.
Truly, if there ever was a space game worthy of calling it's game universe a
"GALAXY" then Xpace fits the definition! 
Also, players get to choose which technology path of FTL (faster-than-light) travel to pursue: either "Particle Thrust Engines" or "Jump Engines." The Jump Engines have an advantage in that all travel occurs in one game turn. However, this is offset by the disadvantage that, ordinarily, travel by Jump Engines consumes many times the energy (fuel) than does Thrust Engines. You may be able to get to your destination quicker (assuming you have enough fuel), but then you will likely have to refuel before going very far. With low tech levels, it's quite possible for jump-equipped ships to get stranded with an empty tank - whereas thrust engines can be a bit more reliable in terms having enough to go the distance.
In addition, the communication network feature was intriguing and rather ingenious. Each ship or star system equipped with a communication array can communicate FTL with other parts of your empire within a certain radius. The size of this radius corresponds directly with the tech level in Communication for that particular device. Beyond this radius, it takes a certain number of turns before messages or orders will arrive. Also, even after your research labs have discovered some new technology or designed some new ships or facilities, these discoveries still have to be delivered to other parts of your empire before they can be utilized. Discoveries and starship designs are not automatically delivered to every corner of your galactic empire instantaneously like in other games of the genre.
Further, your "Emperor" or leader can be moved from one star system to another as cargo aboard a ship. This can be desirable so as to improve the range of communication with outlying border worlds or to strategically position yourself away from conflicts with the enemy. On the other hand, if your Emperor is destroyed... it's game over! Also, players can join or leave a game in progress at any time, making this truly an open-ended system.
Honestly, about the only things missing from this beta version are a respectable computer AI and a few finishing touches. The latter includes missing racial benefits, some minor bugs, and a few game balance issues. Computer opponents can build stuff and drone about like mindless insects, but do little else. Hence, the game is only fun when played against human opponents. The two biggest problems I see with this game are 1) the complete lack of players and 2) the vastness of the game.
Having such a vast game universe is really a double-edged sword. While this size is a more realistic simulation of space and can lead to some long campaigns, it is possible for things to get boring or tedious real quick if the game is not set up well. The game host should have a good idea beforehand of how many players will probably be involved and set the universe size accordingly. It should not be too sparsely populated, nor too crowded. From my limited experience, it seems that this game would probably benefit a great deal from having many players involved in one game universe.
Requirements: Runs under Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95 or Windows NT. Requires 8MB of RAM. Games can be hosted by any player.
Finding players: Remember, unlike most games, players can join or leave a game in progress. Thus, it's not always necessary (or desirable, even) to join a game at the very start. If you are interested in participating in a multi-player game of Xpace, then I suggest checking the "Challenge Board" on AccessDenied.Net. This can be found by clicking here. The Challenge Board is great for finding players or opponents for any upcoming or ongoing RPG, PBEM, Board or Network game and even many obsolete games (such as Xpace) are listed. It can even connect players in a specific geographic region, which is useful for those who prefer classic pencil & paper RPGs and other board games. Also, AccessDenied.Net can be used to do a search for those who play Xpace. BTW: As of this page update, I am currently interested in hosting an Xpace game.
Contact info: This page is maintained by Benjamin
P. S. and I can be reached at bsperan
mo-net.com
Note: The archived webpages are provided as
is. Do not contact me about broken links or missing files in the museum
section as I won't bother to respond about those. (Go ahead and
try the links, though. I was able to include most
files and most of the links work anyway, so it shouldn't be a big deal.) The
only exception would be if you happen to have the comms.txt
file entitled "How Xpace Communications
Work" by Rob C. Johnson. If you have that file and email it to me,
it would be greatly appreciated!
Disclaimer: If you own the copyrights to any of these works and wish for them to be removed, just contact me. I am simply a fan hosting this material for archival purposes and I do not receive any financial benefits by doing so.
MUSEUM:
Xpace Homepage
Download XPACE from FileFront
Xpace on Galactic Traveller
Xpace
Tutorial (text)
Operations Order (text)
Command
AI (text)
LINKS:
Shadow Killer's Xpace
Page
AccessDenied.Net
Challenge Board on AccessDenied.Net
Last Update: August 19, 2006
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