History VideoGame / Hardwar

* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler:Syd, who happens to be a munitions expert and Psycho Bob's technician that runs the secondary Psycho Bob's weapons shop next to Trade Central, has been captured by Klamp-G forces and sent to Prison Oubliette for his knowledge of the true nature of the fusion parts and the escape vessel. When you do meet him there, he is in pretty bad shape after being roughed up by Klamp-G's goons. He tells you to go to Lazarus Hightower to meet up with Xavier for one last time where he will inform you to go to Syd's workshop which contains a specially hardwired, yet unarmed moth that will help you escape the Titan moon. Just as Syd barely finishes giving you the vital information, he is eventually shot dead by the spokesperson of Klamp-G, who gleefully lectures you about the spotty future of Misplaced Optimism and you potentially ending up being another casualty like Syd is.]]

* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler:Syd, who happens to be a munitions expert and Psycho Bob's technician that runs the secondary Psycho Bob's weapons shop next to Trade Central, has been captured by Klamp-G forces and sent to Prison Oubliette for his knowledge of the true nature of the fusion parts and the escape vessel. When you him there, he is in pretty bad shape after being roughed up by Klamp-G's goons. He tells you to go to Lazarus Hightower to meet up with Xavier for one last time where he will inform you to go to Syd's workshop which contains a specially hardwired, yet unarmed moth that will help you escape the Titan moon. Just as Syd barely finishes giving you the vital information, he is eventually shot dead by the spokesperson of Klamp-G, who gleefully lectures you about the spotty future of Misplaced Optimism and you potentially ending up being another casualty like Syd is.]]

** In combat, consistently flying very close and directly behind a moth (towards their 6 o' clock position) without bumping into it will easily spook the AI pilot into flying in a straight line. This severely hampers their ability to use their more dangerous weaponry on you and limits them to using their weak laser turret, of which you can easily avoid by consistently staying at their ventral section so that the turret won't be able to shoot towards you, or not being able to fire back at you at all if they don't have a turret unless you change course and give them an opportunity to reset their combat position at their 12 o' clock. You can easily exploit this ability by having the enemy pilot fly straight into an obstacle or wall and finish them off while they're busy trying to regroup themselves, further reinforcing this trope.

** In combat, consistently flying very close and directly behind a moth (towards their 6 o' clock position) without bumping into it will easily spook the AI pilot into flying in a straight line. This severely hampers their ability to use their more dangerous weaponry on you and limits them to using their weak laser turret, or not being able to fire back at you at all if they don't have a turret unless you change course and give them an opportunity to reset their combat position at their 12 o' clock. You can easily exploit this ability by having the enemy pilot fly straight into an obstacle or wall and finish them off while they're busy trying to regroup themselves, further reinforcing this trope.

** In combat, consistently flying very close and directly behind a moth will easily spook the AI pilot into flying in a straight line. This severely hampers their ability to use their more dangerous weaponry on you and limits them to using their weak laser turret, or not being able to fire back at you if they don't have a turret unless you change course and give them an opportunity to reset their combat position at their 12 o' clock. You can easily exploit this ability by having the enemy pilot fly straight into an obstacle or wall and finish them off while they're busy trying to regroup themselves, further reinforcing this trope.

* CuttingTheKnot: During the mission to destroy the "special part" in the Port crater, you usually have to contend with two Lazarus Guard moths that are watching over the dropped part, which earns you a bounty with the Lazarus faction should you choose to do so. However, there is an alternate, if hidden, way to approach the mission. It involves going to the Port crater and waiting near the entrance of the weird looking Mass Driver building until the in-game clock hits 0600 hours. Once it reaches the allotted time, a podded Lazarus prototype moth will then come out of the entrance. Just when it is about to leave, quickly obstruct its path by bumping into the moth several times until the airlock destroys it for failing to exit the entrance. The "special part" will come out of the destroyed moth and the airlock will also shoot at and destroy it, causing the mysterious static field to appear in the crater. This bypasses the appearance of the two Lazarus Guard moths and won't get you flagged for being an adversary to the Lazarus faction but it also won't get you the monetary reward from Klamp-G because of that. The alternate method must be done after the cover up mission involving the strange alien moth is completed and it is also a one-time opportunity, so if you forgo the alternate method, you'll be forced to contend with the aforementioned Lazarus Guards. You better hope you have done a little SaveScumming for the alternate method if you want to continue the plot without angering the Lazarus faction or else you'll have to start a new game all over again lest you don't mind getting on the Lazarus faction's bad side.

* CuttingTheKnot: During the mission to destroy the "special part" in the Port crater, you usually have to contend with two Lazarus Guard moths that are watching over the dropped part, which earns you a bounty with the Lazarus faction should you choose to do so. However, there is an alternate, if hidden, way to approach the mission. It involves going to the Port crater and waiting near the entrance of the weird looking Mass Driver building until the in-game clock hits 0600 hours. Once it reaches the allotted time, a podded Lazarus prototype moth will then come out of the entrance. Just when it is about to leave, quickly obstruct its path by bumping into the moth several times until the airlock destroys it for failing to exit the entrance. The "special part" will come out of the destroyed moth and the airlock will also shoot at and destroy it, causing the mysterious static field to appear in the crater. This bypasses the appearance of the two Lazarus Guard moths and won't get you flagged for being an adversary to the Lazarus faction but it also won't get you the monetary reward from Klamp-G because of that. The alternate method must be done after the cover up mission involving the strange alien moth is completed.

* DisasterScavengers: The [=NPCs=] that fly moths fitted with the distinctive brown-colored Smallest Pod fit this description rather lightly: a more apt name for them would be Disaster Moon Janitors and/or Crater Rats. They will sniff out any cargo dropped down to the crater floor after a firefight with a couple of moths has died down regardless of whether they had cargo pods, annoyingly complicating efforts for players to nab the cargo of their choice. Unlike most examples of this trope, the scavengers will sell the cargo to a nearby trading post in order to increase their profits. [[ArtificialStupidity Too bad that even though they'll get rich selling off the loot they've found, they'll never even once think about upgrading their weaponry at a weapons dealer. Not only that, they also, along with pirates, won't go to tunnels to pick up dropped cargo there]].

** Brown-coloured Smallest Pods: Primarily used by Scavengers and don't represent a threat to others, but can annoy regular human players by attempting to undercut them for certain valuable cargo dropped on the moon crater from a firefight like Alcohol and/or Narcotics by getting to them first. There are also Silver-Y Moths fitted with these but they are strictly associated with construction firms in Titan such as Riverside Construction, Fred's Builders, etc...

** Their choice of primary weapons is poor. They'll use laser turrets to whittle down your shields even as you blast huge chunks off theirs with the far more effective plasma cannon, while the few who have that weapon are able to kill shields just as quickly but then don't seem to realize that the plasma cannon has no hull-damaging effect whatsoever, and keep unloading it into their target with no appreciable results. Certain pilots such as Scavengers, cabbies, and Lazarus/Klamp-G pilots who don't fly in transport moths at least subvert this by using the laser gun and Sprat missiles to deal with their adversaries since the two weapons are able to cause reasonable hull damage in spite of inflicting relatively weak shield damage.
*** Averted with the Police. [[LightningBruiser They own a moth that is every bit as worthy as their occupation proclaims]] and they have the actual sense to not only use their laser turret, but also fire their plasma cannon as well as launching whatever missiles they've got to take down a moth. Which would be good if they [[PoliceAreUseless had the mental fortitude to actively seek out would-be offenders, that is.]]
** They never go to weapons dealers to upgrade their weaponry and moths, so their threat level - and by extension the whole game's difficulty level - doesn't increase as you go along (see CurbStompBattle below). The only exception is the occurrence of [[RespawningEnemies freshly spawned pirates]] going to weapons dealers for one-time visits to install missiles of varying power after the original pirate [=NPC=] was killed. But that's as far as they can go: they'll never visit the dealers again after they've bought their fancy toys.

* CuttingTheKnot: During the mission to destroy the "special part" in the Port crater, you usually have to contend with two Lazarus Guard moths that are watching over the dropped part, which earns you a bounty with the Lazarus faction should you choose to do so. However, an alternate method to approach the mission is to go to the Port crater, wait near the entrance of the weird looking Mass Driver building, and when the clock hits 0600 hours, a podded Lazarus prototype moth will come out of the entrance. Just when it is about to leave, quickly bump into the moth several times until the airlock destroys it for failing to exit the entrance. The "special part" will come out of the destroyed moth and the airlock will also shoot at and destroy it, causing the mysterious static field to appear in the crater. This bypasses the appearance of the two Lazarus Guard moths and won't get you flagged for being an adversary to the Lazarus faction but it also won't get you the monetary reward from Klamp-G because of that. The alternate method must be done after the cover up mission involving the strange alien moth is completed.

* DestroyableItems: Dropped cargo can be destroyed by shooting at them a few times. In multiplayer, this can be a useful strategy to prevent other human players from nabbing the cargo of their choice and get rich afterwards. The airlocks will also shoot at dropped cargo if a moth with a pod was destroyed while still inside them and it was carrying cargo. [[spoiler:This is also an important task to perform in one of the early plot missions, which involves a "special part" dropped in the Port crater.]]

** In combat, consistently flying very close and directly behind a moth will easily spook the AI pilot into flying a straight line. This severely hampers their ability to use their more dangerous weaponry on you and limits them to using their weak laser turret, or not being able to fire back at you if they don't have a turret unless you change course and give them an opportunity to reset their combat position at their 12 o' clock. You can easily exploit this ability by having the enemy pilot fly straight into an obstacle or wall and finish them off while they're busy trying to regroup themselves, further reinforcing this trope.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Near the end of the game, [[spoiler:plot events cause ''every AI player in the game'', no matter how far they are from you, to head straight for you with single-minded purpose. The main reason for this is that you're trying to leave the moon in the only spaceborne vessel that recently landed in the seemingly abandoned terminal in the Port crater, and every citizen in Misplaced Optimism found out and now are trying to stop you from getting there. They all want out of the moon too. However, there is a real funny moment at the end. As you finally reach the Port crater, stay near the entrance of the terminal before you dock and watch the other AI pilots get quickly fried to death by the mysterious static field that permeates the crater after you have destroyed the "special part" a long while earlier. It seems your moth [Moon Moth] has a specially-equipped shielding device that completely protects you from the damaging static field, which the other moths don't have.]]

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Near the end of the game, [[spoiler:plot events cause ''every AI player in the game'', no matter how far they are from you, to head straight for you with single-minded purpose.]]

** The Sprat missile. It is the most commonly used missile in Misplaced Optimism due to its relatively cheap price and simplicity and is in high demand by practically everyone who wishes to use it in combat. There's already a major shortage of these missiles at the start of the game, and after about three passing days or so, they're practically out of stock in shops [[ItsUpToYou unless you, the player character, bring them back to availability]] in the shops by purchasing large amounts of [=SheetMetal=] and Explosives and have them manufactured in the respective factories that produce it or your own factory if you have a munitions manufacturing kit installed in your hangar.

** The Trojan is a viral bomb that disguises itself as a cargo of "minerals" to fool would-be scavengers into picking it up. Then when it's scooped up into the pod, the bomb activates itself the second the drone enters inside the pod with it and blows up the entire Moth. It serves as a novelty SchmuckBait weapon in single player games, but in multiplayer, this can be a good way to distract other human players by befuddling their radar, especially if they don't have advanced software to differentiate between other blips in the radar console and if the player in question possesses lesser piloting skills.

* [[TrickBomb Trick Missile]]: The Power Leach missile does no damage whatsoever, but it'll attach to the target moth and drain its power cell, forcing it to drastically slow down and flee to a lightwell to recharge. This can only be done once a moth's shields are out as firing the missile when it still has shields is effectively useless.

* JokeItem: The Starshells are essentially flares that don't provide any defense against missiles and only serve as illumination particles for night time operations and/or entering the Haven and Midway caves. They are of no practical use whatsoever and are a waste of valuable credits so much that they are essentially VendorTrash.

* DiscOneNuke: later patches added easier starts as an AntiFrustrationFeature, and at least one of those gives you a fusion cell from the get-go - whereas in the normal game it's only available fairly late. This completely sidesteps the problem of having to manage your power while every other Moth has to regularly recharge at a lightwell; along with the aforementioned predictable behaviour by the AI in combat, at this point you could only really die if you were ''trying''.

* DummiedOut: there was to be an additional tunnel linking Downtown to Reservoir, which got removed before the final release. The tunnel still existed in the game world, but all AI pathing through it had been disabled and the openings blocked, so it was completely unreachable until one of the latest fan-made patches reopened it.

* RecursiveAmmo: The Swarm missiles split up in four smaller missiles which [[{{Roboteching}} robotech]] on the target, minimizing the effect of anti-missile flares.

** There is a software shop in the Riverside Crater called 'Software Refinery', which is the same name as the video game company that was responsible for developing this game until their untimely Chapter 7 bankruptcy in December 2002.

* FeaturelessProtagonist / HelloInsertNameHere: You can name your player character any way you want (although there is one exception, see EasterEgg above), but the game [=FMVs=] will refer to you as "aviator/flier" and you never utter any spoken line or even distinguishable sound during the videos. Your name is displayed on the message box interface and the hangars that you have purchased, but the in-game model for your character flying inside the cockpit of the moth of your choice is the same gender-neutral pilot model that is used in every other AI pilot model flying [=NPC=] moths to provide immersion.

* HelloInsertNameHere

** The Sprat missile. It is the most commonly used missile in Misplaced Optimism due to its relatively cheap price and simplicity and is in high demand by practically everyone who wishes to use them in combat. There's already a major shortage of these missiles at the start of the game, and after about three passing days or so, they're practically out of stock in shops [[ItsUpToYou unless you, the player character, bring them back to availability]] in the shops by purchasing large amounts of [=SheetMetal=] and Explosives and have them manufactured in the respective factories that produce it or your own factory if you have a munitions manufacturing kit installed in your hangar.