Introduction to the EVN Survival Guide

EV Nova is the third game in the Escape Velocity series, and is by far the most ambitious installment to date. With a completely redesigned gaming engine, EV Nova thrusts you into a sprawling universe dominated by a myriad of warring factions, each sharing a common bond, but so philosophically different as to make conflict inevitable.

The remnants of the Colonial Council's utopian vision of a united galaxy are littered about like so many discarded dreams. The eccentric genius in Omata Kane, whose Hypergate system brought distant stars within reach, has all but been forgotten. Like a wave in the darkness of space, colonization flowed outwards from Earth, until discord and dissent against a growingly corrupt central government caused it to come crashing down.

Open rebellion caused the destruction of critical parts of the Hypergate system, severing entire systems from the umbilical cord of civilization. They were left adrift in the lonely void of space, forced to fend for themselves, truly strangers in strange lands. The collapse of a central government caused civilization to slide helplessly into a dark age of isolation. The few pockets of humanity that did survive developed in near solitude, clinging perilously to life like a tree desperately trying to gain root on a rocky cliff.

Time marched on in its relentless journey toward the future, and each of these civilizations slowly reconstructed their humanity... but in their isolation, a strange thing happened. They each followed markedly different paths in their evolution. As rediscovered technology finally allowed contact between these far-flung children of the Colonial Council to tentatively resume, they found that they had little in common. Indeed, rather than reunited brothers, they were strangers... or worse, adversaries.

It is into this maelstrom of territorial contention that you are thrust, like a pebble tumbling aimlessly between the tectonic fault lines that uncomfortably separate these divisions of humanity. Welcome to EV Nova. Will the pebble become an avalanche?

The purpose to this guide should be rather obvious, given it's name: to help you survive. This Guide, as well as its Original and Override counterparts, list all of the governments, ships, weapons, systems, and missions you'll deal with as you play the game. At the end of it all, you can read tips and tricks that other Guide readers have posted, as well as post some yourself.

Good luck, Captain!