Line #60 VideoGame/StarWolves


1	[[quoteright:264:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/co422m.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:264:A RagtagBunchOfMisfits and possibly the very best pilots in human space.]]
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4	In the year 2226, mankind has spread out among the stars. Interstellar travel is common now, enabled by the use of special portals that make traveling from star system to star system simple and easy. However, this does not mean humanity has entered some kind of golden age. On the contrary, planetside life for most people means total domination either by the Emperor of Earth or one of three megacorporations. Those who want to be free of imperial bureaucracy or economic exploitation have to head out to the edges of known space, where asteroid mining stations and freelance interstellar traders can still make a decent living. But with freedom comes chaos, in the form of ravaging pirates, hostile aliens, and rogue AI-controlled ships.
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6	'''''Star Wolves''''' (Russian:''Звёздные волки'' '''''"Zvozdnyye Volki"''''') is a series of real-time strategy games with RPG elements, originally developed by X-Bow Software and published by 1C Company. Story aside, essentially what you do is select a mission, fly out into space, blow stuff up, loot the remains of the stuff you blow up, level up your pilots, and buy shiny new gear for the Star Wolf and its fighters. There are three games in the series:
7	* ''Star Wolves'' (2004): The original game, more or less linear, but still gave freedom in what missions you could choose. A pair of people decide to become mercenaries, and eventually get involved in a war that will decide the fate of the universe.
8	** ''Star Wolves: Empire's Legacy'' (''Звёздные волки: Наследие империи'' '''''"Zvozdnyye Volki: Naslediye Imperii"''''') (2005): A mod that brings an additional storyline and new ending. Made by the fan team '''Elite Games''', but recognized by the publishers as good. Was never translated into English.
9	* ''Star Wolves 2'' (2006): Set six years after the first game, it gave a big, but empty, universe that you were free to explore. Considered to have a strange and disjointed plot, it was received poorly by the fans. It features the same heroes [[BagOfSpilling somehow degraded back to green rookies with all their achievements forgotten. They also lost their previous mothership, which was replaced by an even crappier vessel, the MSF Radamanta]].
10	* ''Star Wolves 3: Civil War'' (''Звёздные волки 2: Гражданская война'' '''''"Zvozdnyye Volki 2: Grazhdanskaya Voyna"''''') (2010): Created by the previously mentioned fans using the tools that were used to make the original game, with official support from 1C. Exploiting the second game's open-world system, it was filled with A LOT of content. Follows the storyline of ''Empire's Legacy'', totally ignoring the second game.
11	* ''Star Wolves 3: Ashes of Victory'' (''Звёздные волки 3: Пепел победы'' '''''"Zvozdnyye Volki 3: Pepel Pobedy"''''') ([[DevelopmentHell Unreleased]]): A standalone expansion set just after the events of the third game, in the aftermath of the Civil War that has ravaged the Empire. Has an entirely new protagonist team and an expanded galaxy. Has not been released due to 1C's loss of interest on the series and stuck in DevelopmentHell since 2014.
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13	The story of the first game begins with [[HelloInsertNameHere Hero]], a trader who gets his vessel blown up and looted by the Red Corsair and his pirates, and who swears to restart his life and get his revenge at the same time. With the aid and financial backing of a few friends, he buys and outfits a decommissioned military transport, the "Star Wolf 17", with armor, shields, and weapons, and throws in a few starfighters to boot. The crew and pilots of the Star Wolf become interstellar mercenaries, making their living by protecting traders, hunting pirates, taking bounty contracts, and salvaging the remains of all who oppose them.
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15	The third takes place in the aftermath of the first. The ongoing civil war has not stopped business from being carried out. A trader in charge of a small trading company has sent out an important and lucrative convoy, which is destroyed under mysterious circumstances. Bankrupted by this and unable to find out what had happened to his people through official channels, he decides to launch an investigation with what resources he has left. As he gathers more information, he finds himself being dragged into events that will shape the future of the universe...
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17	Not to be confused with [[Literature/SpaceWolf a similarly named chapter]] of SpaceMarines in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. Has nothing to do with Wolf from the VideoGame/StarFox franchise.
18	----
19	!! This game provides examples of:
20	* AWinnerIsYou: The second game's ending isn't very well developed, to say the least. [[spoiler:Once the Mega-Bomb detonates at the other side of the Angorian portal, the game goes on a blurb about the end of a chapter in conflict history and ends, sending you back to the main menu.]]
21	* AbsentAliens: Until the beginning of the first game, humans had never encountered another sentient civilization until [[MegaCorp InoCo]] discovered a Precursor portal in the Eridan system of the Phoenix Sector.
22	* AlienInvasion: Late in the first game, a race of Aliens attack the Empire in retaliation for [[spoiler:the death of their envoy.]] Humanity is quickly left in serious trouble. [[spoiler:It takes the Star Wolves and [=InoCo=] managing to communicate with them to stop them from wiping everyone out. The newfound peace is uneasy, as one major slipup could lead the Aliens to unleash death on humanity's worlds once more.]]
23	* AceCustom: The Red Corsair from the first game has an upgraded Excalibur (A fighter with a single large gun and two missile slots) that can fight on equal level to second generation fighters.
24	* AdventureGuild: The titular Star Wolves.
25	* AIIsACrapshoot:
26	** The Berserker AIs, originally born from Mainframe, a supercomputer developed by [[MegaCorp InoCo.]] for military purposes that developed a mind of its own, escaped its masters and fled the Solar System, only to return with [[RobotWar a massive fleet that devastated Earth and nearly destroyed humanity]].
27	** EL/AL claims to be an AI made to destroy the Berserkers, [[spoiler:but she eventually took over the rogue Berserks, [[LiarRevealed then reveals her true identity]]]].
28	** [[spoiler: UEL/SAM, who was made with safeguards against the same thing happening, but went too far with trying to ensure the prosperity of the human race and created monstrosities like the Manticore and the Symbionts. Like his predecessors, he also became the leader of the Berserkers]].
29	* BackTracking: Infrequent, but you do find yourself returning to certain special systems occasionally, like Debris (due to its uranium mines and the intra-corpo conflicts that ravage it) and Eridan (due to the Precursor Portal that leads to [[spoiler:the Aliens' DysonSphere]]).
30	* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame:
31	** Berserkers are most easily destroyed by quickly blasting them with heavy beam weapons, before they attack you in the same manner.
32	** Their own lasers are really effective against them, though you need someone with the right perk (Astra in 1 and Ternie in 3 have it) before you can install them. They're also the only beam weapon that can be installed in small gun slots.
33	* BeamSpam: A great way to quickly deal massive damage to a capital ship. It works well on fighters as well, except for those with laser-resistant shields.
34	* BigDamnHeroes: The Star Wolves and the third game's team pull several moments like this.
35	** The very first is when the Star Wolves save the Llanowar systems from Triada, by fighting through hordes of pirates and destroy their beachhead station with explosives.
36	** In the NESF branch of the third game, Alexandra [[spoiler:saves the party from the Greys (who just lost the Astarte to a systems malfunction) by jumping to their location with the Star Wolf, their soon-to-be new mothership.)]]
37	* CharacterCustomization: Limited. Besides Hero, your crew members have predetermined classes with their own development trees, but you can customize them within those restrictions.
38	* CharacterPortrait: Each character has a static profile to recognize them uniquely. Even the Motherships in the sequels have their own portraits.
39	* CoolStarship: The Star Wolf. It's bigger and potentially better-armed than most of the vessels the Star Wolves fight, and using it as a gunship is a pretty good tactic for players who are concerned about sending it in ahead of the fighters.
40	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Your interface has a colored square around targets to distinguish whether they're friendlies or enemies. Green indicates yours and allies, yellow is for neutrals and red is for enemies.
41	** Ships also have different color schemes depending on which faction they belong to:
42	*** Star Wolves/Mercenaries: White, silver and navy blue/purple (Ships looted from other factions keep their old colors.)
43	*** Patrol and NESF: Yellow and silver.
44	*** MSF: Olive green.
45	*** Triada: Red with pinstripes and white.
46	*** USS: Black and beige or yellow.
47	*** [=InoCo=]: Blue and white.
48	*** Llanowar Standard: White and silver.
49	*** Berserks: Black with red (Fleas), orange (Ticks) or fuchsia (Phryns) highlights with silver-white and brown capital ships.
50	*** Pirates: Black and red.
51	*** [[spoiler:The Greys: Grey with white stripes]]
52	*** Aliens: Silver and glowing green.
53	*** Precursors: Beige and gold.
54	* CriticalExistenceFailure: No amount of damage to any spacecraft has any impact on it's performance until it blows up.
55	* CurbStompBattle: Get the Star Wolf and your fighters equipped with best modules and weapons early in-game by proper saving and decision making then you'll get a force to be reckoned with.
56	* CutAndPasteEnvironments: The environments are entirely written in readable scripts in the game's files, which allows players to remove, ruin or improve these aspects.
57	** Played straight in the first two games. Given how the background is mostly empty space, this is understandable. Still, you generally can tell systems of different sectors apart.
58	** Mostly averted in the third game, which has unique backgrounds for nearly every system.
59	* CuttingOffTheBranches:The third game does this with some of the first's events. Canonically, the Red Corsair, Heretic and Astra were recruited (The first leads the NESF and the latter is [[spoiler:the New Empire's ruler.]]) Neither of the first game's original endings are canon, with the route added by the mod ''[[ApprovalOfGod Empire's Legacy]]'' (in which the Star Wolves TakeAThirdOption and fight both the Empire and the Corporations, [[spoiler:discover Astra's true heritage, get rid of the Precursor superweapon/battleship Star Hammer and convince the Aliens to stop their war with humanity]]) being the canon ending of the story.
60	* DefeatMeansPlayable: The Red Corsair (The first game's StarterVillain) offers to join your team if you don't claim his bounty (He has a bounty of 50,000 credits, a massive amount in the early game). Accepting his offer makes him a new member of the Star Wolves who specializes in missiles. Sparing him also allows you to visit two missions you can't access otherwise and allows a fourth teammate, Heretic, to join.
61	* DesignItYourselfEquipment: All ships and motherships are modular and customizable, allowing you to change what weapons and systems they have installed. You can modify your fighters as long as they're docked inside your mothership, while the mothership itself must dock to a station to be modified.
62	* DialogueTree: In-mission conversations.
63	* DiscOneNuke: To some degree in first two games, major one in third game, where getting secret supply stash early in the game can give you rare equipment that is hard to obtain even in late-game.
64	* DiscardAndDraw: Obtaining a new mothership in the third game leads to the loss of the former one in some manner.
65	** Your initial ship, the Tug, is destroyed along with the station it's docked at by an Old and New Empires skirmish.
66	** Your second ship, the ARBA transport is given to the technicians aboard the Wild Dogs' Mastiff as a lifeline.
67	** The Mastiff can either be given to the mercenaries of XB-17 in exchange for the Astarte, or destroyed by reactor damage if the latter is taken by force.
68	** Depending on what storyline you follow, the Astarte will be replaced by either of these ships:
69	*** Depending on the side of the MSF questline you choose (whether you side with Alex Trump or Viper), you gan either get the FSS-2t12, a military supply transport of the same class as the Star Wolf turned into a light carrier, OR, the Lion [=MK2=], a SuperPrototype battlecruiser that can fight fleets head-on and win.
70	*** Siding with Triada gets you the Rhino, their flagship.
71	*** Siding with [=InoCo=] can lead you to fly [[spoiler:the Manticore, [[BigBad SAM]]'s ship. Depending on whether you side with Oliver or SAM, the Manticore will either have [=InoCo=]'s blue colors or the NESF's yellow.]]
72	*** Siding with the NESF will allow you to fly the upgraded [[PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo Star Wolf]], the same ship the Star Wolves themselves used as their mothership in the first game.
73	* DubNameChange: All the games have this in some manner.
74	** Ships:
75	*** The first two games called the Machete "Hatchet" and the Stiletto "Evil Eye". Berserker fighters were called "Breeze" and "Cancer" instead of their original names, "Flea" and "Crab". This is averted in the third game, which uses the correct translations.
76	*** In all three games, the ship known as Wyvern is actually called "змей" (Zmey) in Russian. "Zmey" can be translated as "Serpent" and "Dragon". A similar thing happens with the Stormcrow, known as "буревестник" (Petrel).
77	** Characters:
78	*** Ternie in the third game was originally called "Lastochka" (Swallow).
79	*** SAM is known as UEL (Stands for "Uluchshennaya Elektronnaya Lichnost'", "Enhanced Electronic Personality", [[spoiler:revealing his true identity as EL (the original Elektronnaya Lichnost'/Electronic Personality)'s successor]]) in Russian.
80	** Factions:
81	*** In the first game, Triada was known as "Triad" instead. The VKS/MSF was also known just as the "NAVY" (In all caps).
82	* EnemyDetectingRadar: Your scanners can detect enemies up to a certain range. You can buy improved scanners that increase the detection range.
83	* EventFlag: Just about almost every mission taken for granted has an event flag to guide players all throughout the three games.
84	* EveryBulletIsATracer: All kinetic bullets glow. The games would be much harder if you couldn't see the bullets.
85	* FlawedPrototype: The Astarte was a prototype Imperial battlecarrier. It was meant to be a spearhead ship that would lead assaults against enemy forces and survive large amounts of firepower. While it can do the latter very well, it came at the cost of weaker engines, little maneuverability and lack of weapons. For that reason, it was never mass produced and was left in a scrapyard until the mercs that run XB-17 took it for themselves. The "flawed" part comes into play late in the game: [[spoiler:In the story branches where you go save Ternie from Crayer's faction of the Greys, the Astarte suffers a massive malfunction cascade that fries its electronics shortly after entering XT-24 (where she's being held), leaving it unusable.]]
86	* GameBreakingBug: The first game is mostly stable, but it has a major one: If you skip cutscenes while in a mission, sometimes the scripts break and make the mission unwinnable. In other cases, the game simply freezes.
87	** The third game is mostly bug-free, but there's a single script issue that completely breaks [=InoCo's=] questline. Fortunately, it can be fixed by editing the game files.
88	* HardModePerks: Harder difficulties grant experience bonus, and the experience is extremely important in the game.
89	* HelloInsertNameHere: Hero ("Geroy" in Russian) is the default name of the leader-character you make at startup, but you can type in whatever you wish.
90	* IFoughtTheLawAndTheLawWon: Averted. Actually, attacking civil authorities is a great way to get salvageable loot. But generally they are either too well equipped or there are too many of them or loot isn't valuable at that level.
91	* InfallibleBabble: Newscasts always describe events that you're going to get involved in, if you aren't already involved.
92	* InfinityPlusOneSword: There's several rare and unique ships and weapons that you can find in some missions, that are far stronger than anything in the entire game.
93	** The first game has its strongest fighter and only Fourth Generation ship, the Wyvern, an [=InoCo=]-designed SuperPrototype made with Precursor technology.
94	** There's also a pair of Heavy lasers known as "ACSL Prototypes (M-805 Shinings)", which do massive damage per hit and fire in bursts. They're perfect for the Wyvern's large weapon slots.
95	*** The third game has an upgraded version of the Wyvern and a successor to the Shining, the M-809 Rage. But the rarest and most unique ship and weapons you can find and use are [[spoiler:the Precursor Satan fighter (the hyper-advanced and ancient alien ship the Wyverns are based in) and its Precursor Guns, looted from the Star Hammer's remains. There's a rare chance that the ship and both guns will drop, and you'l havr to fight an Alien armada for it, but if you get them, there will be nothing that can stand up to its strength.]]
96	* IrrelevantImportance: [[spoiler: The Ancient skull in the first game]]
97	* ItsUpToYou: Played with. If you're working for corporations or civilians, they'll usually ask you to take point. The MSF, on the other hand, is okay with leading the charge as long as you provide backup.
98	* KingIncognito: Astra, one of your potential party members in the first game, is this in two ways. [[spoiler:She's the adoptive daughter of [[MegaCorp InoCo's]] CEO, Marcus Reynolds.]] [[spoiler:And she learns near the end of ''Empire's Legacy'' that she's actually the daughter of the former Emperor Elrud Durer, who was usurped by Triada and USS and replaced with his cousin Azar IV. He and his entire family except for Astra were killed. After the events of the game, Astra decided to claim the throne that was hers by birthright, even if it meant civil war, becoming the leader of the New Empire.]]
99	* KungFuProofMook: Ships with AMS and/or ECM systems are able to deflect and destroy missiles before they can hit their ships, depending on how advanced the missiles and the [=AMS/ECMs=] are and the pilot's own skills.
100	** One of the things that makes [=InoCo=] forces a fearsome foe is their Anti-Laser systems, codenamed Project Diamond, which form a bubble shield around their ships that can severely reduce laser weapons' damage (Up to ''80%'' with the most advanced variants, the Ruby (for fighters) and the Emerald (for capital ships)). Given how many players rely on lasers to quickly kill foes from afar, this is ''very'' bad news.
101	* MacrossMissileMassacre: Some classes of pilots can be trained to do this. Some fighters (like the Naginata, the Hurricane and the Bident) are BUILT to do this.
102	** Expect it to cost LOTS of money though, as missiles don't recharge and need to be bought. This can make the more advanced ones like [=MIRVs=] and the devastatingly powerful Supernova TooAwesomeToUse.
103	* MegaCorp: The Empire has three major megacorporations that act as the de facto rulers of its systems. These are Triada, [=InoCo=] and [=USS=]. Due to the Empire's mishandling of the Alien situation, they rebel, starting a brutal civil war. By the time of the third game, Triada and USS remain independent, while [=InoCo=] sided with the New Empire.
104	* MirrorMatch: The first Star Wolves has you run into a different group of mercs who are charged with killing you. Coincidentally, they're armed with a refurbished armed transport, exactly like yours, and fighters like the ones you might be flying.
105	* MultiMookMelee: Averted. Although you're warned in places that you may be fighting an endless stream of enemies, it's never actually endless. Actually, there's a lot of money to be had by fighting off multiple mook waves.
106	* MultipleEndings: Although not on Star Wolves 1, its sequels allow players to affect the ending of the game by decisions made in the long stories.
107	* NonStandardGameOver: The third game has a couple of these.
108	** The first is specific to [=InoCo=] branches. If you try to leave their territory when SAM tells you not to, the Manticore will abduct you shortly after, ending the game.
109	** Failing a critical story mission in any of the branches will trigger a special cutscene and end the game. Sometimes it can be triggered just by going to the wrong system. (If you get the message "Mission Failed. Game Over", you messed up badly)
110	** Trying to enter the New Empire systems of Eridan (The NESF's central HQ) or Gideon (SODNE's HQ) before the plot leads you there will end in your ship being torn to shreds by an endgame fighter fleet. If you somehow survive the barrage (whether through the immortality cheat or having endgame systems installed), an instakill script ([="MotherShip.Blow()"=]) is triggered and your mothership explodes.
111	** In some story missions, going the wrong way or doing something lethally stupid will lead to your mothership being ripped apart and script-killed. Examples include: Trying to go to Aurora when you first get the Mastiff (A Pirate mothership is a big no-no for the MSF), trying to enter the other Beta Lefthera gates when you piss off the MSF with your investigation and [[spoiler:Attacking the Aliens/Precursors when they show you mercy (Their dreadnought could destroy battleships, not to mention your ships, by itself, and it has a massive escort fleet. Your death will be overkill if you do something stupid.)]]
112	* OmnicidalNeutral: You can play like this, if you really want to. Killing anything that moves gives you massive amounts of loot, if you can handle enemy retaliation.
113	* PaletteSwap: Different factions could be using identical fighters, save for the difference in color. Patrol ships are yellow and silver, while Pirates usually have a RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver color scheme.
114	* PermanentlyMissableContent: Any ship you have will be permanently lost if it's destroyed. Unique ships (Like the Red Corsair's enhanced Excalibur and Astra's racing Yacht from the first game) are not immune to this.
115	** The first game has three pairs of missions that are mutually exclusive. The first of these pairs can cost you the most advanced ship in the game if you choose wrongly.
116	* PointBuildSystem: Both in gaining character experience to make most of the skill tree each character possess and the ability to buy stronger equipment deeper in the game.
117	* PortalNetwork: The Human Empire's systems are connected by a network of Portals. Those portals are unstable and will destroy anything that has too little mass (like a single fighter) to pass through it, requiring either large squads of fighters or a capital ship to use them.
118	** The Precursors also built their own portals, but they are different. Instead of being a set of four modules in a ring pattern like manmade portals, theirs resemble a pair of pincers with a stream of energy tethering them together. They're also unusable by most except for a few who know how to activate them.
119	** [[spoiler:In the third game, the Berserks have built a trio of portals that connect Proserpine, Pegasus and XT-54, presumably as beachheads for when the time comes to invade the Empire. They're high above the ecliptic plane of the rest of the sector and using them is risky, as both pirates and Berserker scouts use them too.]]
120	* {{Precursors}}: There was a highly advanced race that was active up to at least 2,500 years before the first game, known by the humans as the Precursors. They built their own portals, [[spoiler:a DysonSphere]] and had ships with immense regenerative capabilities, which has allowed them to keep working up to this day. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that they still exist, but have had to rebuild their citilization from scratch due to an unknown incident that nearly wiped them out. They're now what humans know as the Aliens, and they're really ''not'' happy that people are rummaging in their territory and looting their ancestors' stuff.]]
121	* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: The Star Wolves themselves play a large role in the third game, due to Astra being the New Empire's empress.
122	** Ship-wise, if you follow the New Empire route, you can obtain the retrofitted and upgraded Star Wolf (Known ingame by its NESF designation "MSS-19") as your final mothership.
123	* RealTimeWithPause: Rarely seen in many [=RPG=]s, it also comes with a [[VideoGameTime speed-up]] option if the game feels too slow for certain players (8x in the [[{{Trilogy}} second sequel]]).
124	* RocketTagGameplay: You can tear fleets to shreds once you get strong enough, but your enemies are just as capable of doing the same to you. Don't be surprised if your mothership is torn apart by a wing of Pirates if you're not careful, especially if they're armed with higher-yield missiles.
125	* RPGElements: You can find equipment and ships to improve your characters and they obtain experience when they kill stuff.
126	* ScratchDamage: With recharging shields, you may not notice the scratches, but enough weak enemies can still present a threat.
127	* ShoutOut: In the third game, the Shula system contains a trade station called "Brennan's Triumph", also the name of a sector in the ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' series.
128	** A news item in the 2nd game mentions a Minister [[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Forcosigan]], and in the first game, the Empire is ruled by Emperor Ezar - the same name as that of the grandfather of the Barrayaran Emperor for most of the series (it somehow changes to Emperor Azar in the third game).
129	* SidetrackBonus: Visiting every possible location of interest in a system, even when they have nothing to do with your actual reason for being in the system, is the best way to get jobs and/or targets to blow up and salvage.
130	* SpaceFriction: Spaceships and starfighters can apparently turn and stop on a dime without using any sort of retro engines or directional thrusters.
131	** Blow up a ship and it will drop loot. Your mothership will automatically tractor that loot and bring it towards you. Blow up another ship closer than where the loot is, and the tractor beam will leave the first piece of loot and lock on to the new one, leaving the first piece of loot to slowly drift to a stop.
132	* SpaceNavy: Every major faction has one, or perhaps more than one. The biggest is the Empire's Military Space Forces (MSF).
133	* SpaceIsAnOcean: While ships have a full 6DOF movement range, most system objects are aligned within the same ecliptic plane. Ship classes and military rank names are also the same as in a navy.
134	* SpaceIsNoisy: Zoom in close enough, and you can hear the ''[[GatlingGood dakkadakkadakka]]'' or ''[[FrickinLaserBeams pewpewpew]]'' of the battling starfighters' weapons.
135	* StarKilling: The Precursors have a weapon that can destroy stars, known as the Star Hammer. Most of the final part of the first game involves the Empire and the corporations' conflicts over it, as they want its power for their own reasons. In ''Empire's Legacy'', [[spoiler:Astra and the Star Wolves decide it's too dangerous to remain in human hands and send it back through the portal it came from. They also destroy it (and [[AIIsACrapshoot EL/AL]] with it) just to be sure.]]
136	* SuicidalOverconfidence: Those lowly pirates will never stop harassing you, even if the Star Wolf and its crew are quite obviously better-armed than the Imperial Navy.
137	* TheresNoKillLikeOverkill: Try to enter restricted systems at your peril in the third game. Your fleet will be surrounded and obliterated with massive firepower, especially in [=InoCo=] and New Empire territories. And not even the god mode cheat will save you if you try to enter Eridan before the plot leads you there.
138	* TimeSkip: The second game is set six years after the first, while the third is set one year after the first while ignoring the second's events.
139	* TitleDrop: Since "Star Wolves" is the actual name of your mercenary company, you can expect it to appear a lot in the news as your reputation grows.
140	* TwoDSpace: Averted, sort of. All mobile objects in the game can and do move in three dimensions. However, generally everything happen at same Z-axis. Also all ships will align up-down when idle.
141	* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Averted. While at first Berserk[[spoiler:/Precursor/Alien]] weapons are unusable, some of your party members have skills that can unlock them for player use. Justified as most of these weapons were made by their own faction ''for'' their own use only and are incompatible with Imperial tech without modifications.
142	* WalkItOff: Fighters have recharging shields and can recover HP as well if they're docked inside the Star Wolf, they can also recover constantly in-flight if they have an available Nanobot module equipped. Most other ships regenerate shields, and can also armor if they also have the corresponding modules.
143	* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou: If your mothership is destroyed, [[GameOver the game ends]]. Your mothership is (usually, there are exceptions in the third game) a modified freighter that wasn't designed for heavy combat, so you shouldn't expose it too much to enemy forces, ''especially'' to ships with Plasma weapons (Designed to kill bigger ships), massed laser attacks (they're just as deadly to you as they are to them) or lots of missiles.
144	* WeComeInPeaceShootToKill: Type 1. [[spoiler:The Aliens originally tried to make peaceful contact with humanity, but the MSF ruined everything by destroying the envoy due to Azar IV's failed GenghisGambit to unite humanity against them, triggering a devastating war that would've ended badly for humanity (and ended really badly for the Empire) if not for [=InoCo=] and the Star Wolves' efforts to explain to them what happened.]]
145	* WeHelpTheHelpless: If you're playing nice during in-game dialogues, the Star Wolves may find themselves doing an awful lot of pointless errands as well as system-saving adventures. Still, this is more rewarding materially than snubbing everyone.
146	* YouAreNotReady: [[spoiler:Once peace is achieved between the Empire and the Aliens/Precursors, this becomes the latter's opinion on humanity by the time of the third game. They've come to realize that humans are too divided and violent to maintain relations with them, so they isolate themselves and attack whoever's stupid or crazy enough to enter their homelands and loot their ancestral heritage. They even destroy their own jumpgate after helping the party and Heretic destroy the Berserkers in X220.]]

Context VideoGame / StarWolves