History VideoGame / Ixion

* EarlyGameHell: You can make things a lot harder on yourself by not prioritising branches of research that give bonuses to the entire playthrough, like faster passive research or cheaper solar panel construction. Losing too many people to early accidents or story events can also make it difficult to get enough buildings manned to replenish your losses.

* YouLoseAtZeroTrust: If trust in the administrator (increased or decreased by station stability and various events) drops to zero, the people mutiny and oust you from your position, causing a game over.

* AlternateReality: [[spoiler: There are many implications that the VOHLE and later IXION engine don't actually allow you to travel at light speed, but rather that they shift you into another universe. The idea of "Self-''Similar'' Drive", and the fact that you keep running into people that are ''similar'' to your own, but not quite the same, implies that you're not even remotely close to your own universe by the end.]]

* The WikiRule: [[https://ixion.fandom.com/wiki/Ixion_Wiki Here.]]

* AlwaysABiggerFish: A narrative in-retrospect example. [[spoiler: You find the ''Protagoras'' barely hanging on after being brutalized by the United Nations ship ''Etemenaki'' and are told to prepare yourself and the ''Tiqqun'' to face it - only by the time you catch up to it in the next chapter the ''Etemenaki'' has been utterly destroyed by the Black Market society ship ''Piranesi''.]]

* ApocalypseHow: Class 3a, or close to it.

** Naraka is [[spoiler: Battista - greedy, gluttonous and arrogant, making the same chewing sounds as it speaks to you and repeating his line about "opportunity".]]

* BreadAndCircuses: Like ''Frostpunk'', you can build fighting arenas to give your people entertainment and emotional release to increase a sector's Stability.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: [[spoiler: Should you choose to disconnect Edden, any alerts or announcements normally voiced by her will be silent instead.]]

* HurlItIntoTheSun: During your initial encounter with [[spoiler: the Piranesi]], the only way to stop it and leave the system you're currently in is by detonating the system's pulsar. Emphasis on "stop" since [[spoiler: [[MadeOfIron the Piranesi returns damaged, but otherwise operational]], in the next system.]]

* KonamiCode: Entering the code during gameplay grants you [[spoiler: a hidden message from Naomi, further explaining her feelings towards DOLOS and the Marduk Council.]]

* MadeOfIron: The Piranesi, the BLS' hyper-advanced, self-sustaining, AI-driven starship, survives being lured into an exploding star well enough that it's still a planet-ending threat until rammed with the Tiqquen!
* MechanicalAbomination: [[spoiler: The Piranesi. It's interior is so advanced it seems almost organic, it ''bleeds'' when badly injured, it generates a seemingly endless swarm of hunter-killer drones to "digest" anything it takes offense to and it is controlled by a mad AI hell-bent on consuming all in its path. Most disturbingly of all there is no mention of a crew and, if the tank full of the decaying bodies of the Etemenaki's crew are any indication, it might literally be an EatingMachine.]]
* MeaningfulName: ''Tiqqun'' might be a reference to the idea of Tiqqun Olam (although it's mispronounced by the game's characters), a concept in Jewish philosophy referring to the duty to improve the world of those who have the means to do so - a spot-on representation of the Marduk Council's intentions.

* NoFullNameGiven: [[spoiler: Naomi's first name is never revealed, likely due to her defection from the Marduk Council and subsequently becoming an {{Unperson}} amongst them.]]

** The Ashtangites use it as part of their transhumanist, eco-societal agenda. On [[spoiler: Remus]], this involves such things as buildings grown out of rocks by introducing engineered, microscopic fungi into them (which hollow out the insides while secreting enzymes which strengthen the "walls"), fields plowed by oxen whose tails were modified into farm tools, and long-range communication via birds with organic radio and ultrasonic capabilities. They also possess incredible genetic engineering abilities, going so far as to, in one of the endings, [[spoiler: be able to modify the entire population of the Tiqqun into green-skinned posthumans like them simply by introducing retrovirii into the atmosphere]].
** The starship Piranesi, while never explicitly stated to be organic, ''is'' said to look from the inside more like a living creature than a machine, in order to highlight just how alien and impossibly advanced is the technology used to build it.

* PunnyName: ''Tiqqun'' is pronounced like ''Tycoon', essentially making the game 'Space Station Tycoon'.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: The only way to permanently defeat the Piraensi is to ram the Tiqqun into it...[[SerialEscalation the Tiqqun being a city sized spacecraft. Moving at relativistic speed. After filling it to the brim with fully charged batteries, essentially turning it into a bomb.]] And that's ''after'' already heavily damaging it [[spoiler:[[HurlItIntoTheSun by luring it into ''an exploding star''.]]]]

* RefiningResources: Almost all of the resources you can collect need to be refined into a useable resource with a specialised building. This includes ''people'' due to having to thaw out cryopods.
* ResourcesManagementGameplay: As is standard for the genre, but is especially true for Alloy (which you need to repair the hull) and Food (which stops your people from committing mutiny due to starvation.)

* SceneryPorn: The outside view of the 'Tiqqun' is accurate to its position within the system, with each of the stellar bodies it can orbit viewable in this mode. The movements between locations are especially good eye-candy if you switch to the exterior view during the journeys.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: In each of the three Ashtagnite temples you can explore to improve your worth to them, deciding to [[ShmuckBait explore any further than you have to after having already found your goal]] results in the entire science team being killed, inevitably in an ironic fashion that implies a misunderstanding of the temple's "lesson" (which may well be the work of the Ashtangites' SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology somehow "punishing" their ignorance):
** In the temple of Merit (where they're supposed to cast away the illusion of self-worth), the entire team ends up [[spoiler: killing each other over a valuable Ashtangite artifact, each of them believing only they are intelligent enough to safely get it back to the Tiqqun]].
** In the temple of Free Will (where they're supposed to cast away the illusion thereof), the entire team ends up [[spoiler: getting killed by the temple's various hazards, having decided to split up due to inability to agree on a single course of action even for the greater good.]]
** In the temple of Common Sense (where they're supposed to cast away the illusion of it in favor of true rationality), the entire team ends up [[spoiler: taking off their space helmets and aspyxiating to death, having collectively decided that the situation is so hopeless they might as well die quickly.]]
* SpaceClouds: There are two types of 'space cloud' that can prove hazardous to your crew; ice-cold fields which can kill anyone doing EVA work while inside it, and electrical storms that can destroy ships passing through it.
* SpaceStation: The ''Tiqqun'' is a [[RingWorldPlanet toroidal]] space station with a slow rotation that allows for the creation of its ArtificialGravity, while also being able to travel through space. [[spoiler: This is also true of the ''Protagoras'', or at least, it ''was''.]]

** Staying in a system for too long adds a permanent hit to station morale. In addition, you will eventually run out of mineable resources, requiring you to move on in order to not run out of essential hull-repairing alloy.
** [[spoiler: During the first encounter with the Piraensi, it will begin to flood the system you're in with clouds of drones which are programmed to disassemble the Tiqqun. While you can buy yourself some time by researching a special technology which slows down the drones when the Tiqqun stops in a cloud of them, if you don't find a way to stop the Piranesi, between all you have to do to avoid the Piraesi's attacks and having nowhere in the system to stop which ''isn't'' infested by drones, your ability to repair the Tiqqun will eventually be outpaced by the drones' damage, resulting in the station's destruction.]]
** [[spoiler: When the Piranesi enters the final system, it will proceed to [[OrbitalBombardment glass]] and [[PlanetEater consume]] both habitable planets in the system, starting with the planet you chose not to colonize. If you can't complete the colonization steps for your chosen planet ''and'' turning the Tiqqun into a bomb once all personnel are evacuated before the Piranesi completes its meal, you get a NonStandardGameOver.]]
* {{Transhuman}}: The Ashtangites are radical transhumanist who seek to not only change themselves biologically but socially, psychologically and philosophically in a grand redefinition of "humanity" - seeking to cast aside what they see as the great "illusions" of self-worth, common-sense and free will in order to become a holistic part of the ecosystem. On the physical side, this involves becoming tall, spindly humanoids with green skin (so they can save food by photosythesizing), massive lungs (so they don't waste oxygen), enormous eyes and ElectronicTelepathy that lets them share thoughts and feelings as a society.
* UnitedNationsIsASuperpower: The prologue establishes that the United Nations in 2049 has apparently developed its own space exploration initiatives, possessing a research station on Mars and an abandoned lunar outpost, and is in competition with DOLOS Corporation due to the latter's unwillingness to share the secrets of its spaceflight advances. [[spoiler:In the TimeSkip between the prologue and Chapter 1 they become an outright ecofascist OneWorldOrder to deal with the global catastrophe caused by the Tiqqun's disastrous test launch, becoming embroiled in a bitter interstellar war against DOLOS and the Black Market Society before collapsing entirely.]]
* VillainousGlutton: The very first conversation you have with Battista, he's audibly chewing over the comms, instantly characterizing him as a selfish, gluttonous person who places his own instant gratification over others' respect. Sure enough, [[spoiler:he ends up taking advantage of the Lunaclysm to become the leader of the Black Market Society, living in unimaginable luxury in space while humanity goes extinct. Even further adding to the symbolism, it's his consciousness that becomes the basis for]] Naraka, the Piranesi's AI, whose sole purpose in existence is to endlessly devour.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The members of the Marduk Council legitimately, honestly all believe that they're the only ones who know what's best for mankind and may even be ''right'' in that it wouldn't survive without their guidance. However, they're so arrogantly convinced that they're willing to [[spoiler: possibly deliberately trigger the Lunaclysm, triggering a slow and horrible end for the vast majority of human civilization]], ''just'' so they have the opportunity to realize their own vision of a perfect society on some distant planet where there'd be nobody questioning their ideas. This callousness is what had [[spoiler: Naomi]] doubting them to the point of sabotaging the project in the first place.
* WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt: Edden [[spoiler: insists that planet Romulus is nothing more than a hallucination, despite the presence of another planet Remus in the same system. Theme naming means that one should expect the former when the latter has been known about since Chapter 1, and the player is tipped off that this planet is as important as Remus]].

* [[spoiler: DetonationMoon:]] The launch of the ''Tiqqun'' [[spoiler: rips a huge chunk of the Moon into Earth orbit, and rapidly accelerates the collapse of the Earth's already-degrading biosphere.]]

* HurlItIntoTheSun: During your initial encounter with [[spoiler: the Piranesi]], the only way to stop it and leave the system you're currently in is by deliberately luring it into the system's sun. Emphasis on "stop" since [[spoiler: [[MadeOfIron the Piranesi returns damaged, but otherwise operational]], in the next system.]]

* [[spoiler: DetonationMoon:]] The launch of the ''Tiqqun'' [[spoiler: rips a huge chunk of the Moon into Earth orbit, and is almost certainly the event that caused the death of the Earth itself.]]

* BrainUploading: [[spoiler: It's how AI's are created]]. You can tell which of the ones you encounter over the game were created using the brain of which character based on their use of characteristic catchphrases and mannerisms.

** In the temple of Free Will (where they're supposed to cast away the illusion thereof), the entire team ends up [[spoiler: getting killed by the temple's various hazard, having decided to split up due to inability to agree on a single course of action even for the greater good.]]

The game focuses heavily on resource management, with players scavenging and mining for resources to repair the ''Tiqqun'''s constantly deteriorating hull and expand the station. The game also features a morale mechanic inspired by Creator/ElevenBitStudios' ''VideoGame/{{Frostpunk}}'', where players must juggle the health, workload and morale of the station's occupants. The game also has a strong narrative focus for a city-builder, with a definite goal and endgame for your journey, and frequent storylets that fill in the gaps of what happened to humanity between the station's past and its present.

By the year [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2049]], a series of ecological disasters has prompted increased focus on space exploration and the potential colonization of other planets. Leading the charge is the DOLOS Corporation, who together with [[ChurchOfHappyology the new-age "Ashtangite" religion]] have formed a committee known as the Marduk Council to send the mobile SpaceStation ''Tiqqun'' on humanity's first-ever extrasolar expedition, via an ExtradimensionalShortcut through "self-similar space."

By the year [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2049]], a series of ecological disasters has prompted increased focus on space exploration and the potential colonization of other planets. Leading the charge is the DOLOS Corporation, who together with a [[ChurchOfHappyology the new-age Ashtangite religion]] have formed a committee known as the Marduk Council to send the mobile SpaceStation ''Tiqqun'' on humanity's first-ever extrasolar expedition, via an ExtradimensionalShortcut through "self-similar space."

By the year [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2049]], a series of ecological disasters has prompted increased focus on space exploration and the potential colonization of other planets. Leading the charge is the DOLOS Corporation, who together with a [[ChurchOfHappyology globe-spanning new-age religion]] have formed a committee known as the Marduk Council to send the mobile SpaceStation ''Tiqqun'' on humanity's first-ever extrasolar expedition, via an ExtradimensionalShortcut through "self-similar space."

The game focuses heavily on resource management, with players scavenging and mining for resources to repair the ''Tiqqun'''s constantly deteriorating hull and expand the station. The game also features a morale mechanic inspired by Creator/11BitStudios' ''VideoGame/{{Frostpunk}}'', where players must juggle the health, workload and morale of the station's occupants. The game also has a strong narrative focus for a city-builder, with a definite goal and endgame for your journey, and frequent storylets that fill in the gaps of what happened to humanity between the station's past and its present.

''IXION ''is a 2022 [[SpaceManagementGame colony management/city-builder]] survival game by Bulwark Studios, the developers behind VideoGame/{{Crowntakers}} and [[VideoGame/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus]].

As the administrator of the Tiqqun, you emerge from a test run in lunar orbit to find that the station's FTL jump has not only [[DetonationMoon destroyed the moon]], but has flung it an unknown amount of time into the future, where humanity has been rendered all but extinct. Following emergency protocols and some [[ApocalypticLog cryptic logs]] from your long-dead superiors, you set out with the remnants of humanity in search of a habitable planet to colonize, wary of the dangers that have emerged in your absence...

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/capsule_616x353_715.jpg]]

''IXION ''is a 2022 survival-based colony-building game by Bulwark Studios, the developers behind VideoGame/{{Crowntakers}} and [[VideoGame/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus]].

''IXION ''is a survival-based colony-building game by Bulwark Studios, the developers behind VideoGame/{{Crowntakers}} and [[VideoGame/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus]], taking heavy inspiration from ''VideoGame/{{Frostpunk}}.''

[[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture In the near future]], a series of ecological disasters has prompted increased focus on space exploration and the potential colonization of other planets. Leading the charge is the DOLOS Corporation, who together with a [[ChurchOfHappyology globe-spanning new-age religion]] have formed a committee known as the Marduk Council to send the mobile SpaceStation ''Tiqqun'' on humanity's first-ever extrasolar expedition, via an ExtradimensionalShortcut through "self-similar space."

Like ''Frostpunk'', the game requires resource management to keep on top of the ''Tiqqun'''s constantly deteriorating hull and expand the station, while also juggling the health, workload and morale of its individual occupants. The game also has a strong narrative focus for a city-builder, with a definite goal and endgame for your journey, and frequent storylets that fill in the gaps of what happened to humanity between the station's past and its present.

* UnitedNationsIsASuperpower: The prologue establishes that the United Nations has apparently developed its own space exploration initiatives, possessing a research station on Mars and an abandoned lunar outpost, and is in competition with DOLOS Corporation due to the latter's unwillingness to share the secrets of its spaceflight advances. [[spoiler:In the TimeSkip between the prologue and Chapter 1 they become an outright OneWorldOrder to deal with the global catastrophe caused by the Tiqqun's disastrous test launch, and became embroiled in a bitter interstellar war against the Marduk Council before collapsing entirely.]]

As the administrator of the Tiqqun, you emerge from a test run on the moon to find that the station's FTL jump has not only [[DetonationMoon destroyed the moon]], but has flung it an unknown amount of time into the future, where humanity has been rendered all but extinct. Following emergency protocols and some [[ApocalypticLog cryptic logs]] from your long-dead superiors, you set out with the remnants of humanity in search of a habitable planet to colonize, wary of the dangers that have emerged in your absence...

[[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture In the near future]], a series of ecological disasters has prompted increased focus on space exploration and the potential colonization of other planets. Leading the charge is the DOLOS Corporation, who together with a [[ChurchOfHappyology a new-age religion]] have formed a committee known as the Marduk Council to send the mobile SpaceStation ''Tiqqun'' on humanity's first-ever extrasolar expedition, via an ExtradimensionalShortcut through "self-similar space."

[[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture In the near future]], a series of ecological disasters has prompted increased focus on space exploration and the potential colonization of other planets. Leading the charge is the DOLOS Corporation, who together with a [[ChurchOfHappyology a new-age religion]] known as Ashtangism have formed a committee known as the Marduk Council to send the mobile SpaceStation ''Tiqqun'' on humanity's first-ever extrasolar expedition, via an ExtradimensionalShortcut through "self-similar space."

IXION is a survival-based colony-building game by Bulwark Studios, the developers behind VideoGame/{{Crowntakers}} and [[VideoGame/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus]].

Frequently described as VideoGame/{{Frostpunk}} [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]], or Frostpunk [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] VideoGame/{{Startopia}}, ''IXION'' places you as the administrator of the space station ''Tiqqun''. Following a event that throws the station into the future, where the Earth is long dead and completely uninhabitable, you role is to keep the ''Tiqqun'' in one piece and its people from despair while searching for a new home for what little remains of humanity.

* UnitedNationsAsASuperpower: The prologue establishes that the United Nations has apparently developed its own space exploration initiatives, possessing a research station on Mars and an abandoned lunar outpost, and is in competition with DOLOS Corporation due to the latter's unwillingness to share the secrets of its spaceflight advances. [[spoiler:In the TimeSkip between the prologue and Chapter 1 they become an outright OneWorldOrder to deal with the global catastrophe caused by the Tiqqun's disastrous test launch, and became embroiled in a bitter interstellar war against the Marduk Council before collapsing entirely.]]

** Finally, [[spoiler: Eden is Naomi, the woman who developed the process and used to be a member of the Marduk Council, until the others had her killed and forcibly uploaded onto the ship when she started questioning the extremity of their methods]].

* HeroicSacrifice: Since the game ends with the Tiqqun ramming the Piranesi to finally defeat it after the entire crew has been evacuated, somebody has to stay behind to guide its final approach. Normally, that would be your trusty AI, Eden. If you've [[spoiler: deactivated Eden in order to detect Romolus, it'll be ''you'', the Administrator]]... [[TakeAThirdOption unless you had the foresight to]] [[spoiler:[[TakeAThirdOption keep a copy of Valkyrie, which could be used to pilot the ship into the Piranesi instead]] while EveryoneLives.]]

** [[spoiler: During the first encounter with the Piraensi, it will begin to flood the system you're in with clouds of drones which are programmed to disassemble the Tiquun. While you can buy yourself some time by researching a special technology which slows down the drones when the Tiquun stops in a cloud of them, if you don't find a way to stop the Piranesi, between all you have to do to avoid the Piraesi's attacks and having nowhere in the system to stop which ''isn't'' infested by drones, your ability to repair the Tiquun will eventually be outpaced by the drones' damage, resulting in the station's destruction.]]
** [[spoiler: When the Piranesi enters the final system, it will proceed to [[OrbitalBombardment glass]] and [[PlanetEater consume]] both habitable planets in the system, starting with the planet you chose not to colonize. If you can't complete the colonization steps for your chosen planet ''and'' turning the Tiquun into a bomb once all personnel are evacuated before the Piranesi completes its meal, you get a NonStandardGameOver.]]

* VillainousGlutton: The very first conversation you have with [[spoiler: Battista]], he's audibly chewing over the comms, instantly characterizing him as a selfish, gluttonous person who places his own instant gratification over others' respect. Surely enough, [[spoiler: he ends up taking advantage of the Lunaclysm to become the leader of the Black Market Society, living in unimaginable luxury in space while humanity goes extinct. Even further adding to the symbolism, it's his consciousness that becomes the basis for]] Naraka, the Piranesi's AI, whose sole purpose in existence is to endlessly devour.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The members of the Marduk Council legitimately, honestly all believe that they're the only ones who know what's best for mankind and may even be ''right'' in that it wouldn't survive without their guidance. However, they're so arrogantly convinced that they're willing to [[spoiler: possibly deliberately trigger the Lunaclysm, triggering a slow and horrible end for the vast majority of human civilization]], ''just'' so they have the opportunity to realize their own vision of a perfect society on some distant planet where there'd be nobody questioning their ideas. This callousness is what had [[spoiler: Naomi]] doubting them to the point of sabotaging the project int he first place.

** A "maze" if mysterious, mirrored crystals large enough for a Science Ship to fly through. Shatter the crystals, and [[spoiler: the last you'll see of the scientists is their own corpses, perfectly sliced into pieces as if was themselves physically shattered]]. Don't, and [[spoiler: the last surviving scientist will return a few hours later... decades older and having spent said time going insane in the maze.]]