History VideoGame / SpaceRangers

* ChromosomeCasting: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but applies in normal gameplay, unless you count Makhpella, a HiveQueen of a race of non-organic crystal-based lifeforms. Other than that, every single pilot and government official (all of whom share a single model per race) are male. What's weird is that, according to lore, Pelengs can [[SexShifter change their sex at will]], while Faeyans are naturally {{hermaphrodit|e}}ic, but all of them are almost always treated as male. The second game allows the player to choose a female portrait, but it doesn't change the dialogue at all. The [[UpdatedReRelease HD Revolution]] version finally introduces female [=NPCs=] in the form of a separate NPC type, special agents. They, however, are all human, and women of other races remain unseen. Text quests are a bit more willing to have female characters, but you still have a lot more men than there are women, and many quests don't have any women at all.

** For instance, the "Megatest" quest demands you to pass a Ranger exam, and several of the questions in there demand you to go back to the first game and it's quests. A few other questions also don't have clear answers stated in the game, meanwhile, such as the one that asks you to choose a correct line for a Maloq song, and another that asks how to greet a peleng (which, even with sufficient info, has you choose between a handshake or [[BadassArmfold folding your arms on your chest]] and nodding, the latter being correct). This is even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the quest itself, as Ranger trainees consistently fail to pass it.

** The Shadow of the Empire hull requires getting lucky with finding a crystal on an uninhabited planet, and it still costs a lot to buy afterwards. Howeve,r it has nearly all the slots available (except for two weapon slots), and comes with several unique abilities.

* AnarchyIsChaos: While [[AvertedTrope averted]] with Coalition planets in the state of anarchy (as they still function just fine and even have prisons and militaries), any system taken over by the pirate clan will be plunged into anarchy, while the planet's background and the government official make it clear that corruption and violent crime are commonplace.

* ExclusiveEnemyEquipment: The Dominators in the second game carry their own set of items that's roughly equivalent to what you can buy in stores at that point in the game. Dominator equipment has its own benefits and drawbacks, though -- most notable being that while these items might not cost anything initially, and have no racial restriction on micromodules, upgrading and repairing them costs nodes, which can only be acquired by shooting down more Dominators. These items are also typically less reliable than normal store-bought items.

** To fight with popular scheme of players buying tons of goods by cheap price, stockpiling them all on the planet and later selling when price goes up due to artificial deficit you've created, one of the patches for first game made it so goods in the storage now count towards total amount of goods on the planet, thus reducing the selling price. This practice was carried over into second game.

* StopOrIWillShoot: If you're hostile to a planet, their military ships will demand that you land on their planet. If you don't, they'll immediately respond by trying to destroy your ship.

* CallARabbitASmeerp: In one text quest you must figure out how to feed a "Desert Ship" from Mars. In the original Russian version, this English name is phonetically transliterated to Cyrillic letters. In Russian, "ship" means "thorn", so Russian players are tricked to think they are dealing with "Desert Thorn". The animal's description is also intentionally confusing. In the end it is revealed that player was dealing with a simple camel.
** In another example from the same quest, "Ferriferous No-Oodles" is telephone wire.
** That zoo quest in general consists of these. There are five animals and five types of food, all named in insane ways, and the point is to figure out what each of them actually means.

** The enemies can also fire multiple weapons at the same time in hyperspace, but they don't do it often.

* HerdHittingAttack: There are several weapons capable of hitting multiple enemies at once. This includes the mid-game Atomic Vision (Creates [[SphereOfDestruction a sphere that hurts everything inside of it]]) as well as the Dominator-dropped Vertix and [=IMHO-9000=].
** There is also the late game Turbogravir, which causes anything killed by it to [[ChainLightning release a huge electrical discharge that jumps to nearby enemies]] -- potentially killing those as well and propagating the effect even further.

* SummonBiggerFish: A villainous example spanning the entire story of ''Space Rangers 1''.

*** The Ranger Corps has shades of the Warrior, meanwhile, as everyone has personal initiative, with everyone having to equip themselves out of their own pocket, and they tend to be far less disciplined than the military. However, this same initiative makes it far easier for them to come to the defense of systems under attack, and it allows the player to be the one who can defeat the Dominators and the Pirate Clan.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Because the final text quest of the pirates is [[MarathonLevel extremely long]] and has several opportunities to die, it has two checkpoints (which are technically separate quests), thus making death less of a setback to your progress.

* ChromosomeCasting: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but applies in normal gameplay, unless you count Makhpella, a HiveQueen of a race of non-organic crystal-based lifeforms. Other than that, every single pilot and government official (all of whom share a single model per race) are male. What's weird is that, according to lore, Pelengs can [[SexShifter change their sex at will]], while Faeyans are naturally {{hermaphrodit|e}}ic, but all of them are almost always treated as male. The second game allows the player to choose a female portrait, but it doesn't change the dialogue at all. The [[UpdatedReRelease HD Revolution]] version finally introduces female [=NPCs=] in the form of a separate NPC type, special agents. They, however, are all human, and women of other races remain unseen.
** Text quests are a bit more willing to have female characters, but you still have a lot more men than there are women, and many quests don't have any women at all.

* ElectionDayEpisode: One of the text quests require you to become elected leader of the planet. The loser gets blasted by security guards, due to an existing law. Within the following seven days, you organize advertisements, press conferences, and try to convince citizens to vote for you.

* HarderThanHard: Difficulty options normally go from 50% to 200%. However, it's possible to unlock more difficulty options, allowing you to go up to 500%. At maximum difficulty, the game becomes impossible without cheating (by dumping your save to see what's where) and constant SaveScumming, as the galaxy will be grinded into paste by the Dominators [[ItsUpToYou without your help]].
* HardModePerks: There are several sliders adjusting difficulty of various parts of the game, thus making the difficulty go from 50% to 500% - it's actually a quotient to multiply points by for the record table. Aside from that, more enemies means more experience and money once you get moderately good weapons, and the EnemyMine becomes much easier to utilize. Also, you may pick either additional units or bonus armor for planetary fights, or deny both and get bonus experience and money.

* ObviousRulePatch[=/=]AntiGrinding:
** Using a [[SummonBiggerFish Transfactor Beacon]] now gives you radiation sickness. It's an incurable disease that lasts a couple months (the more you use the beacons, the longer it lasts) and dramatically reduces any [[ExperiencePoints experience]] you receive. This change came as a response to an exploit where, once you get a cool enough ship, you can load it with [[HerdHittingAttack Vertixes, IMHO-9000s and Resonators]] and destroy entire crowds of enemies very quickly. Getting a load of Transfactor Beacons and summoning huge clouds of enemies used to be an insanely effective way of [[LevelGrinding experience farming]].

** One of the text-quests involves a human computer system being infected by a virus called "Windows," and the company providing anti-virus software is called "[[ShoutOut Maloqsoft]]".
*** In the sequel, Maloqsoft apparently switched to military research.

* TemporalSickness[=/=]LaserGuidedAmnesia: A text-quest in the first game involves using experimental Gaalian TimeTravel tech. It is explained that the shock of time travel scrambles the conscious memories of the rewinded period in the displaced individual, but leaves the subconscious memories intact, which manifest in constant strong ''deja vu''. This is known as Temporal Amnesia.

* YouHaveFailedMe: Screw up too many Pirate Clan quests to get promoted to Khan, [[spoiler:and you'll get offered the [[MedalOfDishonor Honorary Ataman ran]], which ends with you [[HumanPopsicle being frozen]] as a memorial of failure.]]
* YourMindMakesItReal:
** The "Testing" quest has you testing a VR game so that it can be tuned to your race's brain, with the waiver you're signing mentioning the possibility of pseudodeath. Indeed, if you die in the game, you'll die for real.

* AllCrimesAreEqual: Mugged a couple of traders for their cargo and money? Four months in prison! Sold too many drugs at once? Four months in prison! Attacked and destroyed an entire military fleet, leaving a planet defenseless against killer robots? Four months in prison!
** That is, of course, if you manage to reach a planet in order to be arrested at all; Otherwise the system military will simply blast you of the sky.

* BottomlessMagazines:
** Fragment and energy weapons can fire indefinitely until they break. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with missile weapons, which have finite ammo and require reloading at a station/planet.
** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] in text quests, as some quests grant you infinite ammo, others track ammo (even down to each individual round), and a few give infinite ammo to certain weapons while tracking shots for others. The "Drugs" quest also has a [[JustifiedTrope justification]] for the buyable pistol having infinite ammo, as it's explicitly advertised as a gun with infinite ammo.

** During "The Core" planetary battle (part of Pirate Clan storyline), you get told to be careful around the core, as if it breaks, entire planet would explode. The core is actually invulnerable; according to the mapmaker, it ''was'' supposed to be breakable, but idea was scrapped when it turned out that it's too easy to hit by accident.

** "The Breed" text quest from first game tasks you with breeding perfect combat penchekryak; you're supposed to achieve perfectly balanced stats by mixing different stats-boosting food (if any stat is below or ''above'' the others, your hirer would reject penchekryak as unfit for combat), while also avoiding making any of them go above 12, or you would fail the quest immediately (too strong penchekyak would break the cage; too agile penchekryak would make a lockpick; too loyal penchekryak would die from a heart attack; and so on).

* MaliciousSlander: During "Elections" text quest, you may try to use slander to hurt your opponent's position and reinforce your own. It can be tried more than once, but has a chance to backfire on repeat uses.

* MedalsForEveryone: Defeating any of the enemy factions will result in you being told to head to a Ranger Centre in your parade uniform. Once there, you'll be congratulated and given a medal.

* TruthSerum: A courier mission has you transport a pizza recipe. The volunteer that receives the pizza then quickly blurts out everything he thinks about the local planet's authorities (his the wife mother-in-law doing the same).

** While some text quests use exact HP values for the player and/or enemies (and their vehicles), the majority use descriptions to show how damaged they are

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Every time you're arrested, you're thrown into the same HellholePrison, regardless of the planet's race. This even includes Gaalians, who are far too humane for such prisons to exist.

* DoWellButNotPerfect: The "FrameUp" quest tasks you with planting drugs into an apartment, but also making sure that they can be found. It's possible to fail the quest if you hide the drugs too well, as the cops fail to find them.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The ending where you kill both the pirate baron and the Coalition admiral (thus returning the pirates back to the old days of doing what they please), and then defeat the Dominators for the Clan. Because the pirates aren't properly organized, the whole galaxy falls into complete chaos with the planetary governments fighting each other. In the end, history will know you as galaxy's least succesful hero.]]

** The final quest of the Pirate Clan ends with a massive version of this, [[spoiler:as a military base docks with Rogeria]]. Judging by the numbers shown, there are thousands of fighters on both sides, with heavy vehicles being utilized.

* DataPad: In Space Rangers 2, the human governor carries one. It's a transparent back, to give it a nice sci-fi look.

* DevelopersForesight: One Pirate Clan's story quest involves you being sent after pirate named Makarov. If he lands on the planet, he would be arrested and sentenced to 100 years in prison. If you then actually try to wait it out, he would die after 75; it ''would'' count as success due to LoopholeAbuse, but the pirates would get angry at you (not only did you waste a lot of time, but Makarov snitched on everyone whom he knew), and refuse to give any extra rewards.

* CasualInterstellarTravel: Simply fly to the edge of a star system, and you're off. Hundreds of AI-controlled ships do this constantly every single turn of gameplay. Interstellar trips are instantaneous, no matter the distance.

* MultipleEndings: ''Reboot'' added several, depending on your choices during the pirate story-line and whether or not you chose to ignore your Ranger duties.

** The "Ministry" has one after you try to open the baseement door with your bare hands, only to have the handle fly back into your head. However, your reply is "Game Over" instead of "The life of a great ranger has ended", so it's obviously a joke.

* IncomprehensibleEntranceExam: The "Megatest" quest tasks you to test an exam for rangers, as trainees keep failing it. Judging by the questions, it's no wonder they keep failing it, as the questions in there ask about extremely minor things (Maloq songs), irrelevant trivia (klissan classifications, even though the war ended 300 years ago), or [[ViolationOfCommonSense demand answers that go against common sense]] (if you're overwhelmed by dominators, the correct answer on the test is to go for a suicidal charge, instead of retreating or calling for reinforcements). All of this is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the fact that it was designed by a [[DumbMuscle maloq]].

* FissionMailed: One of the text quests in second game has this. It's easy to see it coming because it happens at the second location, and you don't have many choices in the first location.

* JurisdictionFriction: Rangers are allowed to kill pirates on the spot, and doing so will give them points towards promotions in the Coalition military. However, peleng planets don't recognize this authority, and will treat it as a crime, possibly leading to you being thrown in prison for killing pirates.

* SexSlave: In the first game's text quest "Spy", it's possible to run into a group of {{Depraved Homosexual}}s (no explanation is given what they're doing in the president's palace), who would decide to appropriate you as their new "toy"; picking the wrong door when escaping from them would result in them capturing you, and putting on a chain in the cage for the rest of your (mercifully short) life; it counts as your ranger dying, and triggers immediate NonStandardGameOver.

** Several text quests will have time pass when you do anything, with you failing the quest or dying. A few will also [[InvertedTrope invert]] this, as they require you to survive/[[HoldTheLine hold off the enemy]] in order to complete the quest or progress further.

* WithThisHerring: At the start of the game, you get an unimpressive ship, low-tier equipment, and only 1-2 weapons. This is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the fact that the Rangers are meant to fund themselves, in exchange for having the freedom to do what they want.
* WizardNeedsFoodBadly: Many quests that track time will also have a hunger mechanic. Unless a TimedMission, they usually lack renewable sources of food and money, so you'll eventually starve to death if you can't complete the quest.

** The weight of Turbo Gravirs and [=IMHOs=] dropped by Dominator ships was increased in ''Reboot'' (each weighs at least 100) after veteran players found it too easy to rock 4-5 of them as early as 4 years into a game, even at 200% difficulty.
*** For some reason, the Turbogravirs you get from wormholes weren't covered by this patch, and weigh much less than the ones you can get in real-space.