History VideoGame / Hardwar

* 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 place of being on the Lazarus faction's wanted list 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 for trespassing the cordoned down Port crater when they're around 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 in the Downtown crater is completed and after one day has passed, as the research moths will eventually have concluded their work on the alien moth and you will receive a new message at 0300 hours which details the discovery of fusion technology from the strange moth. Since it is time-based, it is 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.

* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler:At the endgame's epilogue video, Xavier Lazarus is shown with a special joystick and starts pushing a single button which triggers the eventual self-destruction of not only his hightower that he resides in but somehow the entire Titan moon as you escape into outer space barely intact. How a single kill-switch can vaporize an entire moon like that with one press of a button remains a mystery.]]

* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler:At the endgame's epiloque video, Xavier Lazarus is shown with a special joystick and starts pushing a single button which triggers the eventual self-destruction of not only his hightower that he resides in but somehow the entire Titan moon as you escape into outer space barely intact. How a single kill-switch can vaporize an entire moon like that with one press of a button remains a mystery.]]

* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler:By the end of the game, Saturn has one less moon to brag about.]]

* 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 place of being on the Lazarus faction's wanted list 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.

** The plasma cannon is an incredibly useful weapon for stripping shields and it can be found at nearly any weapons dealer near you. However, it's pretty much useless as a hull damaging weapon so you had better switch to your hull-eating weapon of choice if you have it. Also, it drains your moth's energy reserves at a moderate pace so be wise to manage your cell's condition or else you'll be forced to take a trip to the local Lightwell (unless you have a Fusion Cell).

* InfinityPlusOneSword: While not a weapon, the Fusion Cell essentially eliminates any need to go to a Lightwell thanks to its boundlessly recharging effect. It won't be available until you advance deep into the game's plot. [[spoiler: That is, destroying the special part in the Port crater and cause the two gangs called the Skinners and Scrubbers to appear. These are the ships that will sometimes carry Fusion Parts, which are essential components needed to make the Fusion Cell. They are easily preyed upon by Pirates because of this, and you have to be opportunistic in acquiring those parts. Otherwise, you'll have to play far deeper into the story to acquire one.]] On the other hand, [[EarnYourFun in later versions of the game]], you can potentially choose to start off with a Moth equipped with one and not have to drudge out the storyline to acquire one later.
* InterfaceScrew: The first thing that happens when your Moth starts running low on energy is that your HUD starts to fade. Better find a Lightwell quick.

** The Neo Tiger Moth is essentially a slightly more upscale version of the Hawk in that it has even greater top speed (the second fastest Moth in the game after the Swallow) and cargo carrying capacity while keeping the same stats that the Hawk possesses. The only tradeoffs for the Neo Tiger are reduced maneuverability and mediocre hull ratings.

** The economic system sometimes has trouble even ''in the game'', with several resources becoming very scarce very quickly, and requiring massive player intervention just to produce a few for the player's own use. Notably, pirates, after killing faction moth and/or independent pilots, scoop up the remaining cargo that their victims were carrying and then bring them into their pirate hangars, storing them there indefinitely and actually contributing to making the game's economy worse. This gives players a legitimate incentive to hunt down pirates on an almost regular basis in order to prevent them from harming the game's economy.

** The economic system sometimes has trouble even ''in the game'', with several resources becoming very scarce very quickly, and requiring massive player intervention just to produce a few for the player's own use.

* ArmoredCoffins: The Moths have no integrated EjectionSeat. Justified in the fact that the Titan moon does not feature breathable oxygen in the atmosphere despite the abundance of nitrogen and methane. People still manage to breathe in Titan within the confines of the buildings or their Moths due to artificial life systems built by the mining corporation before their abandonment of Titan. Otherwise, life is rather cheap in Titan and the inhabitants are lucky to have artificial life systems just to eke out a living in such a [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Moon]].

** Fixed in the latest patch, called enhanced2 (05.03.05), part of [=UIM=] v6. Among the various improvements in this patch, the Police are now finally able to patrol Misplaced Optimism with absolutely no drop in morale. Now pirates are no longer exempt from [[KarmaHoudini getting away with their crimes]] and will get subjected to karmic retaliation without the player's intervention.

* KarmaHoudini: In the later patches, there is an [=NPC=] named Smokie China, who hangs around the Alpha crater. He pilots a Swallow Moth, the game's most powerful Moth, and the only pilot in Titan to do so. His Moth is fitted with a medium pod, which is noticeably the standard pod of all pirates in Titan. However, killing him results in you having a bounty put on your head by the Police, as the Swallow Moth seems to be invisible to radar. The only ways to kill him without being credited for it are using a Devastator and/or Groundbase missile, bumping him to death, or getting him stuck in the airlock of a building, which will blast him into pieces quickly.

The game takes place in a city complex built among the craters of Titan. Misplaced Optimism is a {{dystopia}}n slum, earning the label "Misplaced" following the abandonment of the formerly lucrative mining city by the company that ran it, leaving all the workers behind with no means of escape. MO is being fought over by two rival factions, Klamp-G and the Lazarus Family; with various smaller groups thriving in the cracks. The preferred mode of transportation around MO are Moths: solar-powered speeder/aircraft crossovers available in a variety of models. It's this dynamic that makes the game interesting: During the day, Moths generally have no problem staying aloft and engaging in combat, but once night ticks around, energy starts to drain rapidly from the Moths' cells, leaving them stranded in conveniently placed Lightwells while better equipped combatants tear them apart.

Like most games of the genre, ''Hardwar'' allowed players to focus on three areas: scavenging, combat or trade; in fact, each of the three original starter Moth setups was designed around one of the three. Traders would trade resources among the hangars of MO, pirates would try to hijack and steal the cargo from traders, while scavengers would either have to work fast to scoop up any dropped loot before the pirates could manage to collect, or by hoovering up the scraps left behind from battles. As expected, players could then use their new wealth to upgrade the equipment of their Moths or upgrade to a shiny new Moth model. A patch added more starting setups, mostly easier than the originals due to much better equipment being immediately available.

* CyberPunk: Subverted. There are no [[MegaCorp mega corporations]] ruling the economy of Titan since most of the business is operated by smaller independent companies and supplanted by traders, and most of the gameplay takes place in the cockpits of Moths. Given that the game was developed and released in 1998, it's somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]].

* GrayAndGreyMorality: The Lazarus Corporation, the faction formed from TheRemnant of the evil mining corporation that stranded the colonists on Titan in the first place, and Klamp-G, the faction descended from the coalition of labor unions that fought them, are for all intents and purposes identical at this point, with neither one being clearly 'good'. The mysterious man in the intro of the game even says that in Titan, "there's no good or bad and you don't ask questions. All you want is a piece of the action and everyone wants a piece of you."

* TheManBehindTheCurtain: [[spoiler:Despite his frail, elderly appearance, Xavier Lazarus from the Lazarus Hightower is apparently the man pulling the strings of all of the major factions in Misplaced Optimism, including the Lazarus Corporation. He downplays this trope by being rather affable and is confined in an iron lung. It is revealed in his last meeting with you that he can intercept transmissions from any place in Misplaced Optimism and that the mysterious messages from the Port crater and the subsequent trading of Body Parts and Fusion Parts by the gangs were his plans all along to get you out of the moon in one piece. Apparently, he contacted Syd to secretly hardwire a Moth with a special shielding device to protect its pilot from being fried by the mysterious static field that you caused after destroying the special machinery part in the Port crater; this comes at the expense of having the Moth completely unarmed in order for the device to work and fit in conveniently. Later, as you enter the Moth and make your escape, you attract the attention of everybody in the Moon and cause them to come after your head; apparently, Xavier's manipulation of communications also eventually resulted in having every pilot providing you as a target and attempt to prevent your escape. In the epilogue of the game, he is seen carrying a special joystick that apparently causes the gradual self-destruction of the entire Titan moon while you escape intact.]]

* [[spoiler: TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Despite opposing the Lazarus Corporation and painting them as power-hungry monsters who want control of the moon and its resources, it's heavily implied that Klamp-G is no different than Lazarus when their ambitions are revealed much later in the plot. They are just as hungry for control of the moon as well and don't seem to care about improving conditions in Titan. See EvilVersusEvil]]

* 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.

* FrickinLaserBeams: All primary weapons in the game fire bolts of energy.

* WideOpenSandbox: As with most others commercial/fighting games, there's so very, '''very''' much to do outside of the plot that the programmers included an option to start a game entirely without it, just so you can play for the hell of it.

* InfinityMinusOneSword: The plasma cannon is an incredibly useful weapon for stripping shields and it can be found at nearly any weapons dealer near you. However, it's pretty much useless as a hull damaging weapon so you had better switch to your hull-eating weapon of choice if you have it. Also, it drains your moth's energy reserves at a moderate pace so be wise to manage your cell's condition or else you'll be forced to take a trip to the local Lightwell (unless you have a Fusion Cell).

* [[{{Sandbox/AccidentalNPCObstruction}} Dronejam]]: This can happen very easily, especially if you make a hangar very popular among the [=NPC=] population. They'll just queue at it, while the first in line just gets stuck trying to enter the hangar, then failing, then returning to the front of the queue, then failing... this is particularly evident in one of the latest patches, which screwed up the game economy and caused many traders to line up to buy wares that didn't exist.

* TheManBehindTheCurtain: [[spoiler:Despite his frail, elderly appearance, Xavier Lazarus from the Lazarus Hightower is apparently the man pulling the strings of all of the major factions in Misplaced Optimism, including the Lazarus Corporation. He downplays this trope by being rather affable and is confined in an iron lung. It is revealed in his last meeting with you that he can intercept transmissions from any place in Misplaced Optimism and that the mysterious messages from the Port crater and the subsequent trading of Body Parts and Fusion Parts from the gangs were his plans all along to get you out of the moon in one piece. Apparently, he contacted Syd to secretly hardwire a Moth with a special shielding device to protect its pilot from being fried by the mysterious static field that you caused after destroying the special machinery part in the Port crater; this comes at the expense of having the Moth completely unarmed in order for the device to work and fit in conveniently. Later, as you enter the Moth and make your escape, you attract the attention of everybody in the Moon and cause them to come after your head; apparently, Xavier's manipulation of communications also eventually resulted in having every pilot providing you as a target and attempt to prevent your escape. In the epilogue of the game, he is seen carrying a special joystick that apparently causes the gradual self-destruction of the entire Titan moon while you escape intact.]]

* TheManBehindTheCurtain: [[spoiler:Despite his frail, elderly appearance, Xavier Lazarus from the Lazarus Hightower is apparently the man pulling the strings of all of the major factions in Misplaced Optimism, including the Lazarus Corporation. He downplays this trope by being rather affable and is confined in an iron lung. It is revealed in his last meeting with you that he can intercept transmissions from any place in Misplaced Optimism and that the mysterious messages from the Port crater and the subsequent trading of Body Parts and Fusion Parts from the gangs were his plans all along to get you out of the moon in one piece. Apparently, he contacted Syd to secretly hardwire a Moth with a special shielding device to protect its pilot from being fried by the mysterious static field that you caused after destroying the special machinery part in the Port crater; this comes at the expense of having the Moth completely unarmed in order for the device to work and fit in conveniently. Later, as you enter the Moth and make your escape, you attract the attention of everybody in the Moon and cause them to come after your head; apparently Xavier's manipulation of communications also eventually resulted in having every pilot providing you as a target and attempt to prevent your escape. In the epilogue of the game, he is seen carrying a special joystick that apparently causes the gradual self-destruction of the entire Titan moon while you escape intact.]]

* TheManBehindTheCurtain: [[spoiler:Despite his frail, elderly appearance, Xavier Lazarus from the Lazarus Hightower is apparently the man pulling the strings of all the major factions in Misplaced Optimism, including the Lazarus Corporation. He downplays this trope by being rather affable and is confined in an iron lung. It is revealed in his last meeting with you that he can intercept transmissions from any place in Misplaced Optimism and that the mysterious messages from the Port crater and the subsequent trading of Body Parts and Fusion Parts from the gangs were his plans all along to get you out of the moon in one piece. Apparently, he contacted Syd to secretly hardwire a Moth with a special shielding device to protect its pilot from being fried by the mysterious static field that you caused after destroying the special machinery part in the Port crater; this comes at the expense of having the Moth completely unarmed in order for the device to work and fit in conveniently. Later, as you enter the Moth and make your escape, you attract the attention of everybody in the Moon and cause them to come after your head; apparently Xavier's manipulation of communications also eventually resulted in having every pilot providing you as a target and attempt to prevent your escape. In the epilogue of the game, he is seen carrying a special joystick that apparently causes the gradual self-destruction of the entire Titan moon while you escape intact.]]

* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler:Syd, who happens to be Psycho Bob's technician as well as a munitions expert that runs the secondary Psycho Bob's weapons shop next to Trade Central, eventually ends up being incarcerated 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.
** At the end of the main plot, you also end up being hunted down by everybody in Misplaced Optimism for knowing about the spaceborne escape vessel that has landed on top of the seemingly abandoned terminal in the Port crater that will provide you the only means of escape from the Titan moon.]]

* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler:Syd, who happens to be Psycho Bob's technician as well as a munitions expert that runs the secondary Psycho Bob's weapons shop next to Trade Central, eventually ends up being incarcerated 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. At the end of the main plot, you also end up being hunted down by everybody in Misplaced Optimism for knowing about the spaceborne escape vessel that has landed on top of the seemingly abandoned terminal in the Port crater that will provide you the only means of escape from the Titan moon.]]

* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler:Syd, who happens to be Psycho Bob's technician as well as a munitions expert that runs the secondary Psycho Bob's weapons shop next to Trade Central, eventually ends up being incarcerated 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 Psycho Bob's technician as well as a munitions expert 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.]]