History VideoGame / SwordOfTheStars

** Downplayed: The Loa think they're beings of pure soul, and given their ability to change their bodies at will, view themselves as this as compared to other races, who lose their memories every time they reincarnate. They view this as a profound injustice.

* ContagiousAI: The Via Damasco virus, which causes the AIs of other races to become self-aware and realize they're enslaved. [[RobotWar Hilarity ensures]]. The Loa, who ''are'' those AIs, worship it as a god.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The game is basically ''Spaceward Ho'', but with a massive update to everything, and a few things added in.

* BizarreSexualDimorphism: All species except Humans and Liir have this -- in the Hivers' case their status as BeePeople justify it. The Liir go to the other extreme, being hermaphroditic. There is also a lampshade in fluff, where it's noted that the Human's race's ''lack'' of dimorphism actually makes it difficult for most races tell the difference between men and women with the exception of, again, the Hivers, who can detect airborne estrogen. This gets nasty in boarding actions as the Hiver's structure of warfare makes them go for the females first.

* PhotoprotoneutronTorpedo: The particle beam weapons. The SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness goes Particle, Neutron, Positron, Meson with Graviton and Pulsed Graviton somewhere off the main branch.

* AIIsACrapshoot: AI rebellions are infrequent but devastating when they happen. There's also a scenario where six players gang up on the AI.

* AIBreaker: The AI doesn't really know how to handle mines.

* PlayerPreferredPattern:[[invoked]] The randomised TechTree is supposed to make it hard for this to come to pass. Given that most species have specialties with very high chances of occurring, it can still occur.

** Certain races have trouble with getting proper 360 degree Point Defense coverage. Liir, for example, have weak ventral coverage, while Tarka and Humans often have weak dorsal cover. Morrigi have no vertical cover for their destroyers and cruisers whatsoever, making them defenceless to planetary missiles.

** The final development in [=CnC=] technology -- the Flagship -- is basically a buffed Armada [=CnC=] merged with a [[WaveMotionGun blazer section]].

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Averted initially. [=CnC=] vessels aren't meant for straight fights, and even the dreadnought-based Armada [=CnC=] is weaker than proper combat dreads (except for the flagship [=CnC=] being a 1 per person plus-sized dreadnought that effectivly conbines an armada and blazer section). The sequel's Leviathans play this straight however.

An "Enhanced Edition" of the second game [[http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/content.php?1173-Sword-of-the-Stars-II-Expanded-into-New-Enhanced-Edition has been announced]], which includes among others a new AI race called the Loa.

** The final development in [=CnC=] technology -- the Flagship -- is basically a buffed Armada [=CnC=] merged with a blazer section.

* SuperPrototype: Averted in the first game; the first Mark of any new combination of ship sections, assuming you design one as soon as it's available, will invariably be inferior to better-equipped later Marks. The sequel is supposed to zig-zag this, with some prototypes being inferior and some superior.

* ThePlague: A specialty of the Liir. Zuul are immune though.

** Morrigi have a warp drive that is more faster with larger fleets.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Mostly averted, but there are 30m-long destroyers. Seriously? Remember, the Space Shuttle is 56.1m. The sequel fixes this somewhat by starting with Cruisers, thus shifting the three ship sequential ship sizes a step up.

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* NonEntityGeneral: The voice-overs will address the player using non-specific titles like "commander", "my Queen", or "Elder". Though in SOTS 2 you're presumably [[spoiler: the Black when playing Liir, which is a playable unit]]

*** [[spoiler:By ''Liir'' standards, they are-the gradual increase in psionic power as one gets older and bigger is a natural quirk of their biology, and it's well-documented. The Suul'ka are simply very, very old Liir elders, nothing "aberrant" about them. [[CompleteMonster As far as their personalities go, however...]]]]

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Tarka are both an example and a glorious subversion of this trope; 'honour' in battle is gained by winning with minimum casualties and thinking outside the box, not by acting 'honourably' (or, as the Tarka would say [[HonorBeforeReason "stupid")]].

* FasterThanLightTravel: All species have their own method of FTL, with their own little quirks. However, Hiver ships only use conventional thrust and rely on warp gates for fast travel.
** Hivers can still end up being the fastest race in the galaxy due to the fact that travel through their PortalNetwork takes a single turn (though it takes a long time for their gates to be moved into place). The eventual Farcaster technology lets the Hivers teleport fleets up to 10 light years from one of their gates, with a 1-2 lightyear error ratio.

* SubspaceAnsible

* NonEntityGeneral

* NuclearOption: How humanity got the first Hiver fleet that encountered them to retreat.