Stellar Impact

Stellar Impact, a MOBA in space. This is actually the first MOBA game I've ever played (never touched DotA or LoL), and me being a sci-fi geek, I love it.

Main page (and also available on Steam)
Wiki

So yeah, a MOBA in space, with "Allies" vs "Axis". There are five basic ship classes: corvette, frigate, destroyer, cruiser, and dreadnought. In addition, there are four DLC ships: science vessel (frigate tonnage), artillery (destroyer tonnage) support (cruiser) and carrier (dreadnought).

It uses a fairly standard MOBA style, with less emphasis on laning phases and more emphasis on map control, since there are capturable objectives that benefit your team. There are bases, which you need to kill to win. There are lanes (the number and placement of which differ from map to map) where shipyard-spawned minions/creeps will continuously move down towards the enemy base. You earn command points (basically money) for creep and player kills, turret destructions, and objective captures. CP can be used to upgrade your ships, your minions, and your faction. You also spend CP to lock objectives (preventing enemy capture for a few moments), buy escort ships to accompany your main ship for extra damage/utility, and to teleport from your base to teleport outposts.

Player ship health is divided into two parts: shields and hull. On top of that, a certain percentage of your hull is armored. Shields take 100% damage from all attacks, but recharge quickly if you haven't taken damage on them. Hull also takes 100% damage and regenerates slowly. However, the percentage of your armored hull only takes 1/3 damage. For example, a cruiser has 1750 hull and 1250 shields, with a 35% armor rating. That means, in total, that cruiser actually has 4225 hitpoints total. A corvette with 1000 hull, 2000 shield, and 15% armor has 3300 effective HP. Do note that some attack skills will do 100% damage to armor, and critical hits from your ship's guns deal triple damage, negating armor mitigation.

Also worthy of note is that almost all attacks (with a few exceptions, like the shockwave or tractor beam skills) are collision based. So unlike most other MOBA style games, the tank character can literally block attacks for his flimsier allies. A friendly destroyer getting pounded to bits by enemy cannons? Simply move your cruiser between the enemy and him, and he'll stop taking those hits. A barrage of rockets heading towards your shieldless corvette? Drive behind an asteroid and let the rock take the hits. You've almost killed that dreadnought? Nope, a full-health support ship just blocked for him, and now he's hitting you with a huge broadside with impunity. As you can see, positioning plays a huge role in gameplay.


Each ship has stats that give it a role in teamplay:
Corvette is the fastest and has the highest shield rating.
2000 shields/1000 hull/15% armor/7 speed/55 radar/1 medium gun+3 light guns/20% critical
The corvette ultimate, Distortion Engine, allows instant teleportation to any point on the map.
The corvette is mainly used for ganks, harassment, map control, distraction, and backdoor attacks on the enemy base.

Frigate has the highest radar (sight) range.
1750 shields/1250 hull/20% armor/6.5 speed/60 radar/2 medium guns+2 light guns/15% critical
The frigate ultimate is Echo Impulse, which removes fog of war from the entire map and reveals all stealthed units for thirty seconds.
The frigate is mostly found escorting--and providing vision for--large, high-DPS ships, like dreadnoughts and artillery, and providing vision, debuffs, and harassment during teamfights. Because of its speed and size, it can also perform scouting in preparation for a battle.

Destroyer has the highest critical percentage rate (chance to deal triple damage with regular guns).
1500 shields/1500 hull/25% armor/6 speed/50 radar/3 medium guns+2 light guns/25% critical
The destroyer ultimate is Fusion Beam, which fires a high-damage, armor-piercing beam from the front of the ship for a few seconds.
An orthodox destroyer deals high burst damage, and because of its balanced stats it can operate semi-independently if needed. It becomes something akin to a semicarry in the lategame because its high critical rate allows its regular guns to deal incredible sustained damage.

Cruiser has the highest armor percentage rating.
1250 shields/1750 hull/35% armor/5.5 speed/45 radar/1 heavy gun+2 medium guns+2 light guns/10% critical
The cruiser ultimate is Shield Overload, which provides total immunity from all damage sources for six seconds.
The cruiser is a super durable tank, and in teamfights it can be found on the front line, soaking up and blocking damage for the softer, high-DPS ships like destroyers and dreadnoughts. To a certain extent it can also be operated independently, since cruisers are so hard to kill.

Dreadnought has the heaviest broadside armament and the highest hull rating. 1000 shields/2000 hull/30% armor/5 speed/40 radar/2 heavy guns+1 medium gun+3 light guns/5% critical
The dreadnought ultimate is High Command, which instantly resets all non-ultimate skill cooldowns for itself and nearby allied ships.
Dreadnoughts in the early game are support ships, hanging in the back providing buffs, debuffs, and damage from its heavy broadside. Like hard carries from other MOBAs, if a dreadnought is allowed to gather up enough command points (money) it becomes terrifying, with incredible durability and sustained damage.


Of the DLC ships:
Science vessel can troll and gank like none other if you let your guard down; basically an intiator and force multiplier.
2500 shields/1250 hull/0% armor/6.5 speed/60 radar/2 medium guns+2 light guns/15% critical
The science vessel ultimate is Gravitational Singularity, which spawns a black hole at the science vessel's location. Enemy players are sucked towards the center and take damage while in the area of effect.
The science vessel is an initator and support ship, specializing in disrupting enemy formations and controlling enemy movement during teamfights. If operating in tandem with a destroyer or corvette, it can become an effective ganker.

Artillery can bombard you from far, far away.
1500 shields/1500 hull/25% armor/6 speed/50 radar/1 superheavy artillery cannon+3 light guns/0% critical
The artillery ship ultimate is Targeting Support, which gives the artillery perfect accuracy for the next five siege mode shots. While the skill is active, the ship also has vision around the artillery cursor.
The artillery ship provides incredible damage from long range, and its skills assist in teamfights with damage-dealing effects. Very effective during pushes, since it can wipe out creep waves in a single shot. Also, artillery shots are not blockable, so a damaged, fleeing ship that's being covered by its teammates will not escape if the artillery has range on it. Very fragile, however, since its immobile, virtually unarmed, and loses shields when in siege mode.

Support can place various defensive and support structures.
1250 shields/1750 hull/25% armor/5.5 speed/45 radar/1 heavy gun+1 medium gun+3 light guns/10% critical
The support ship ultimate is Heavy Turret, which spawns a high-health, shielded, high-damage turret at the target location.
The support ship greatly assists in map control, fortifying friendly positions and providing teammates a safe location to repair when injured during pushes. Because of its skills, the support ship usually gathers up enough command points to buy communal faction upgrades by itself, and usually has enough left over to make itself effective in the midgame.

Carrier sends out long-range squadrons with a variety of effects.
1000 shields/2000 hull/30% armor/5 speed/40 radar/7 light guns/5% critical
The carrier ultimate is Tactical Bomber, which sends out a nuclear-armed bomber to a target unit. The armageddon bomb dropped by the bomber deals high damage in a large radius. The armageddon bomb ignores armor and deals double damage to structures.
The carrier can be played in a variety of ways, but usually it can be found in the back providing heavy burst damage and vision with its squadrons. Squadrons are not blocked by enemy ships, so they can be used to kill a fleeing enemy.


On top of that, there are four normal skills that your ships can use in addition to their ultimate. To a certain extent the skills can be mixed and matched, as every ship in the game can take at least one skill from any category, barring the DLC specialty skills. For example, a corvette can have up to three maneuvering skills, two recon skills, two attacks skills, but only on defense and command skill. On the other side of the spectrum, the dreadnought can only have one maneuvering or recon skill, but can access two attack or defense skills, and can carry three command skills. A destroyer can equip only one maneuvering skill, but can carry three attack skills, two recon skills, two defense skills, and only one command.

Thus, you're never completely sure what skill loadout you'll run into. Will that frigate be an orthodox scout build, or will be a quick offensive build? Will that destroyer be a glass cannon with attack skills only, or will he be a tanky bruiser with defensive skills? Will that fat, beefy dreadnought have blink?


Manuevering (Corvette)
Quantum Accelerator: Provides extra speed. Upgrading the skill increases the buff duration, buff speed, and allows the buff to affect nearby allies for a short period of time.
Quantum Leap: Basically blink from other MOBAs. Upgrades decreases the cooldown, increases range, and provides AoE damage at the arrival point.
Stasis Field: Slows enemy ships within a radius of your ship. Upgrades allow the skill to completely immobilize targets upon activation, as well as increasing skill duration and the strength of the slowing debuff.
Stealth generator: Cloaks your ship, becoming invisible unless the enemy has detection. Stealth is broken if skills are used or if you fire without having protonic turrets equipped. Upgrading the skill prolongs the stealth period, allows the ship to use skills without breaking stealth, and provides immunity from detection for a short period upon activation.

Reconnaissance (Frigate)
Radar Beacon: Places a cloaked radar beacon at a target point that provides basic vision around it. Can have up to three at any given time. Upgrades increase the sight radius and provides friendly ships with a firing range buff if they are in the vision radius. Beacons can be destroyed by stray shots or if they are revealed.
Tracker: Places a tracking satellite on an enemy player ship, providing vision on that ship, things around it, and preventing the ship from entering stealth. Upgrades increase the skill duration, increase the vision around the affected ship, and deals damage to the enemy ship over the skill duration.
Jammer Device: Jams a target player. The affected ship cannot lock onto anything during the skill duration. Upgrades increase the skill duration, lowers the target's sight range, and prevents skill recharge for a few moments.
Scanner: Reveals all stealthed units in a radius around the ship. Upgrades increase the detection radius, skill duration, and debuffs any enemy ships within the detection radius to take extra damage from all sources.

Attack (Destroyer)
Rocket Battery: Launches a swarm of homing rockets at a target. Upgrades increase individual rocket damage, number of rockets, and decreases cooldown.
Missile Battery: Launches a large missile with area-of-effect at a target unit. Upgrading the skill increases damage, AoE radius, and missile lifespan.
Torpedoes: Fires three unguided, shield-bypassing, armor-piercing torpedoes at a target area. Torpedoes have an arming distance, and will not deal damage to targets within that range. Upgrades increase damage, speed, and shortens the arming distance.
Shockwave: Releases an instantaneous area-of-effect attack centered on your ship. Upgrades increase the range and damage and provides a silencing effect to enemy players hit by the skill.

Defense (Cruiser)
Forcefield: Erects a shield bubble around your ships. Blocks all enemy attacks and prevents enemy carrier squadrons from entering. Upgrades increase the forefield's shield points and provides shield regeneration to friendly ships within the bubble and to the bubble itself.
Emergency Repairs: Instantly repairs some of your ship's hull. Upgrades increase the heal, provides a limited heal to nearby allies, and provides a chance to negate any debuffs placed on your ship.
Backup Generator: Instantly restores some of your ship's shields. Upgrades increase the restore, steals some shielding from nearby enemy ships (which are added to the total restore), and provide a brief moment of 50% damage mitigation to shields.
Countermeasures: Instantly destroys all hostile projectile in a radius around your ship. Upgrades increase the radius, decreases the coodown, and prevents your ship from being targeted for a few moments.

Command (Dreadnought)
Command Field: Generates a buffing aura around your ship that decreases skill cooldowns and increases all command point income to ships within the buff radius. Upgrades increase the buff duration, cooldown decrease, and command point income.
Priority Target: Debuffs a target enemy ship, increasing its chance to take critical damage from your allies' guns. Upgrading the skill increases the debuff duration, increases the chance for criticals, and provides bonus command points if the enemy dies during the debuff.
Reinforcements: Spawns a set of three assault escorts around your ship. Escorts target and fire independently of your ship. Upgrades decrease the cooldown and allows your escorts to fire armor-piercing torpedoes at enemy buildings and homing rockets at enemy players.
Quantum Beacon: Spawns a beacon that acts as a teleportation point for friendly ships. Upgrades increase the number of jumps the beacon allows before deactivation and cloaks the beacon for a duration.

Experimental (Science Vessel)
Distortion Bomb: Spawns a distortion bomb at a target point. After a moment it will detonate into a stationary distortion rift that deals damage to enemies that enter the rift, directly affecting hull and ignoring armor. Upgrades decrease activation time, decrease cooldown, and increase the rift size.
Tractor Beam: Tugs an enemy ship towards your ship for a few seconds. Prevents teleportation from warp points. Skill ends if the enemy moves too far away. Upgrading the skill increases the pull time, pull range, and decreases cooldown.
Electronic Warfare: Prevents a target enemy ship from changing heading or throttle speed for a few seconds. Upgrades increase the duration, range, and decreases the cooldown.
Pulse Wave: Physically repells all enemy ships away within a radius and deals light damage. Upgrades increase radius, damage, and decrease cooldown.

Artillery (Artillery Ship)
Fusion Shell: Next artillery shot will fire a fusion flare at a target point. Flare drains enemy shields and provides vision in the flare area of effect. Upgrading the skill increases flare duration, shield drain per second, and decreases the cooldown. Slowly kills carrier squadrons.
Nanite Shell: Next artillery shot will fire a nanite bomb at a target point. Nanites eat away at enemy hulls, ignoring armor. Upgrades increase nanite radius, duration, and decrease the cooldown.
Gauss Shell: Next artillery shot will fire a gauss shot at a target point. The gauss shot pierces armor and ignores shields. Upgrading the skill increases the damage, decreases the cooldown, and immobilizes and silences struck enemies for a short duration.
Frag Shell: Next artillery shot will fire a frag shell at a target point. The shell deals damage in a large radius. Also damages enemy carrier squadrons. Upgrades increase the damage, decrease cooldown, and slow enemy players that are hit.

Support (Support Ship)
Repair Outpost: Spawns a repair turret at a target point that constantly repairs allies' hulls in a short radius after a short activation time. Upgrades increase the repair rate, decrease activation time, and allow the repair turret to heal defense turrets.
Defense Turrets: Spawns a defense turret at a target point that fires homing rockets at enemy units and carrier squadrons after a short activation time. Rockets can deal critical damage to enemy players. Upgrades decrease activation time and increase turret hull, shields, and damage.
Stealth Field Generator: Spawns a generator that cloaks all nearby allies after a short activation time. Upgrading the skill decreases activation time, increases the cloak radius, and allows the generator to cloak defense turrets. Cloaked turrets can fire from stealth without revealing themelves.
Mines: Spawns a mine at a target point that arms after a short activation time. Mines detonate when an enemy unit moves too close. Upgrades increase mine damage, detonation range, explosion radius, and provide a slow to enemy ships hit by the explosion.

Squadrons (Carrier)
Fighters: Launches a controllable fighter squadron that deal constant damage in their area of effect. Upgrades increase the number of fighters, damage per fighter, and squadron speed.
Bombers: Launches a controllable bomber squadron that can strike a single target befor returning. Upgrades increase the number of bombers, damage per bomber, and squadron speed.
Assault Ships: Launches a controllable group of assault boats that can target enemy players. Each assault ship that lands on an enemy ship will deal random module damage. Module damage can be reduced firing rate, reduced radar range, nonrecharging shields, slowed skilled cooldowns, and reduced speed. Upgrades increase the number of assault boats, duration they can remain outside the carrier, and the duration for which the target is crippled.
Drone: Launches a controllable, cloaked recon craft that provides basic vision around it. Upgrading the skill increases drone duration, vision radius, and gives bombers within the vision radius increased damage.




There are five levels for each ship, and at each level you gain additional skill points to spend to upgrade your skills in-game. (You get 6 points at Mk I, and 10 at Mk V.) You also gain access to better passive buffs as you level.


Learning curve is a bit steep. Most people who are used to the point-and-click approach of games like DotA and LoL will find it weird to point your ship with right clicks and actually accelerate/decelerate with W and A, respectively. There's a huge emphasis on positioning (remember that you can take cover behind asteroids, teammates, creeps, and buildings and not take damage) and even orientation (broadsides do the most damage, while your rear gun is usually the weakest). You need to judge when to bodyblock for teammates and when to write off their loss. You have to be careful not to run into asteroids and to use asteroids to block incoming attacks. Know how to cover your teammates' weaknesses with your strengths, and vice-versa.

There's a Teamspeak3 channel for the players, supported by the devs. TS makes the game infinitely easier to learn. People I play with say I'm very... entertaining to listen to, so there's that.

The game community's kind of small at the moment (though it was pretty big during the Steam summer sale) so I'm just throwing this out there to get more people to join. Come on. You know you want to.

 

Here's a 2v2 match.

I'm running a destroyer outfitted with disruptive turrets, which slow enemies upon a hit. My teammate, AMACSCAMA, has plasma turrets on his cruiser, which allow splash damage at the expense of weakening his critical damage. Markive on the other team is another destroyer with ballistic turrets, which deal bonus damage, and his teammate Garrett is a support ship with plasma turrets.

In a moment of idiocy, I accidentally encoded this using 10bit colorspace, so it looks all funky on Youtube. I had already deleted the FRAPS avi raws, so there's no fixing it.

 

Some more videos from a while back.

Another video, this time with colors done right

3v3, about 50 minutes.

And you can actually hear my scintillating voice this time.

You can see one of the most evil and effectie combos in the game. Silverhelix, in a frigate, will freeze you in place with upgraded Stasis Field skill, and then hit you with the armor-piercing torpedo skillshot. Luckily, I had Countermeasure skill to counter that.



I talk up a storm while flying a destroyer. I derp around a bit in this video, turning in the wrong direction all the time.


By the way, I have <strike>some spare copies</strike> one spare copy of the game to give away. Gift includes the game itself and the Support, Artillery, and Carrier DLCs.

 

No one else is a fan, huh? Makes me very, very sad.

But I recorded two other games. Both of which I lost. Sigh. I'm so highly ranked that I usually get stuck with brand new players, and the opposing team breaks out their best ships. It hurts.

Also, I added some extra info to the first post, giving a little more in-depth look at the ships and the skills.


3v3 with me as destroyer.

5v5 with me as support. Play of the game was at 32:38. Fear the mines. Especially when they come in stacks of three. That's almost 4300 damage.


Also offering a copy of the game which includes all the DLC except the science vessel.

 

So, don't know how he did it, but a guy managed to modify/hack the servers somehow to override the default maximum player count. Games can range from 2v2 up to 6v6, but he managed to make a 9v9 game. It was pure madness.

I played a science vessel, whose express role is to screw with enemy positioning and movement. And, in a game like Stellar Impact where positioning can make or break a teamfight, that really changes the gameplay up. I didn't have complete free reign though, since the opposing team also had a science vessel. (Although, I do think he was playing it wrong; he was trying to get kills for himself, whereas proper science vessel gameplay is to feed enemy ships to your team). I'm not a particularly good SV player, but I forget how fun it can be, especially when some people on their team didn't have counters.

To the DoTA players of NBR, a science vessel (at least my configuration of it; see first post about how skills are interchangeable) is very similar to Batrider. The electronic warfare and tractor beam combo emulates Flaming Lasso (albeit it's not a complete disable; the enemy can still aim, shoot, and use skills), and pulse wave is kinda-sorta like Flamebreak in that forces enemies away from the epicenter. And then there's an ultimate like Enigma's Black Hole, again minus the disabling aspect.

Part 1.
Part 2.

Started out pretty good, but then we started to lose ground real fast. They had better, heavier lategame ships (i.e. hard carries) than our team, which was mostly light ships. At one point we actually got pushed back inside our base. We managed to turn the game around though, somehow.

I liked my score. My team had a total of 166 kills. Of those, I had 12 of them. I assisted in 99 of the remainder.

And I still have some spare copies. If you promise to at least give the game a try, I can gift it over Steam.

 

I haven`t heard about the game before but that looks pretty cool

 

It's fun. It's a MOBA... IN SPACE.

Also, the community is very nice. Some of the voice recordings were of opposing teams on the same channel, talking to each other. There's a distinct lack of trash talk which I find refreshing compared to a lot of PvP games.

 

Another match! 10v10! On a map that normally accepts a max of 5v5. Hax.

It was basically two 5v5 matches going on in the respective lanes, with no rotations despite one team controlling both warp points at different parts of the game.

I played as a support ship if anyone was wondering. It's the kind of ship where you'll get kills without knowing it, since your turrets might get the last hit or an enemy blunders into a mine. It's not uncommon to get posthumous kills, either.


And if there's any DotA players interested in the game, I can even explain the game in DotA terms. Like...Priority Target is like Amplify Damage and Track rolled into one. Upgraded Stasis Field is like Overgrowth followed by Degen Aura. Shockwave is basically like Waning Rift. You can build a corvette that functions just like a Slark would, and it's not half bad.


Still offering copies of the game with the DLC minus the science vessel.

 

You don't want me to start playing again, my corvette and destroyer flying (both maxed with red sets) bring too much pain

It was fun when you could take out a corvette with 1 maxed torp run though, also lead to much hilarity

Anyone need spares*?



*no you cant trade.

 

Let's do it! Dust off that vette.



Level 1 scanner plus level 3 torps can oneshot a corvette, and level 3 scanner plus level 3 torpedoes can oneshot a frigate.

 

Attempting an instructional video. We fail quite spectacularly.



A 8v8 game. The map we're playing on is a very common artillery map, but both teams made an agreement not to use artillery. If we had allowed artillery I would have most likely been the artillery on my team, but oh well.

Instead, you can see me playing a lategame ship/hard carry, the dreadnought, alongside Nebuchanezar. As you can see, it starts out fairly weak, but lategame, it absolutely devastates the enemy team.

I do attribute our win to having science vessels (excellent gankers and initiators) and Neb equipping the radar beacon skill. At max level it increases our already ridiculous firing range by another 30%, so we could outshoot the enemy dreadnoughts before they could even lock onto us.

Neb went with a high-single-target damage build, which allowed him to severely injure enemy ships with only a single volley. I went with a bombardment/pushing dreadnought with AoE plasma cannons that allowed me to push the creeps and keep up the pressure in big teamfights when the enemy balled up.

At the end, I had a pretty ridiculous farm amount, while Neb had more kills.

 

I like what I see. I might give it a try! Once I get the new laptop hehehehe...

 

Game's on sale for $2.49 on Steam. The bundle (game plus artillery, support, and carrier DLC; no science vessel) it's $2.99.

Come on! Play! Lots of new players so lots of even footing.

What's not to love in a space MOBA? Why be Juggernaught when you can be a dreadnought? Why shoot things with ice arrows when you can hit things with disruptive energy cannons? Why Meat Hook someone when you can tractor beam them into a asteroid-y death? Magic missile? Pssh. How about a missile battery?

 

6v6 game.

Played a ship I haven't recorded before, the corvette. Probably the strongest ship in the early game, it's able to 1v1 most any other ship class under most circumstances. And because of its emphasis on shields and its speed, it's an excellent hit and run ship. It's pretty normal to see a corvette retreat from battle with no shields and 75% hull, but be back in the fight ten seconds later trying to pick off weakened ships, silencing with shockwave, tearing up hulls with torpedo, and generally being a nuisance. It's 20% critical rate isn't bad, either.

Of course its speed also makes it an excellent split pusher, as Red and I showed in this video.

 

8v8 game on the map Hell Pass.

Something else I haven't recorded before, a supportive frigate. With the best vision and the second highest shield and speed ratings in the game it makes for a great harassment and for keeping tabs on the enemy. It synergizes very well with the artillery and dreadnought, since they both have long range and high DPS, but poor vision.

I had plasma guns (splash damage) in this match because I was anticipating the enemy bunching up, but they stayed spread out. I should've stuck with disruptive cannons.

Also: Upgraded radar beacons give +30% cannon range. It's so good.

 

6v6 on the map Confrontation.

I played artillery. Basically, I sit behind my team and blast the crap out of anything I can see. There was also an enemy artillery. In that situation I an enemy artillery is a danger to my teammates, so I prioritized him whenever I saw him. Since artillery ships reveal themselves briefly when they fire I was usually able to countersnipe him.

 

I love space strategy games and this looks very nice, don't get me wrong, but it still seems to me like a very dumbed down version of Sins of a Solar Empire.

Why don't you try and play that, instead?

 

They're very different genres. Sins is a 4X RTS, whereas Stellar Impact is a MOBA or Dota-style game.

 

Dude, I know that -_-

MOBA is basically a stripped down RTS (I play LoL regularly, so I know what it means) that focuses on the tactics, while Sins is considered to be a 4X, but it really is just a RTS on a grand scale, and both of them play out like a RTS in their core.

From the youtube videos, they're very similar in concept, but Sins seems to offer a similar experience, only more of it. Have you given it a try?

 

They're not similar in concept at all. Sins is a 4X RTS while Stellar Impact is a MOBA at its core. The only similarity that I can see are spaceships.

Even Sins you don't control your capital ships like you control your player ship.