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Earth & Beyond is a science fiction massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released on September 24, 2002 in the United States. EA shutdown E&B on September 22, 2004, ending the paid subscription service that allowed players to play.

Game universe

It is not known what year it is set in exactly, but that it is some time around the 2175 AD. It features three races: the Progen, Jenquai and Terran. The Progen are a genetically altered and advanced race. The Jenquai are philosophers that seek eternal life. The Terrans are the original humans. Each of the three races is decended from the human race on Earth, in essence they are all human. The game's storyline takes place in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Progen, Terran and Jenquai are all uneasy of each other, but still manage to live together in peace. The Terrans are known for their extremely large corporations, such as InfinitiCorp and GetCo. InfinitiCorp is the manufacturer of the intersystem and intersector warp gates. The warp gates were originally created by the mysterious Ancients, a enigmatic and hyper-advanced race who had all but disappeared.

The Warp Gates

Originally, a Progen freighter was travelling on a trade run near Pluto, when his reactor exploded and sent him flying into a nearby asteroid field. As a result of this, a nearby asteroid exploded and revealed the gate of Akeron.

When you flew into the gate, you would be almost instantly transported to the Aragoth system (this did not happen in the game anymore because of lag). The finding of this gate led to many things, both good and bad.

• The loss of several explorer vessels investigating the new Aragoth system,
• The start of the Gate war
• Infiniticorp gained the ability to make other gates
• Lag while playing the game (everyone uses Akeron's gate to get to Aragoth)
• Other insignificant things

Home planets of the three races

The home planets of all three races is really Earth, but when long range space travel first became available, each race went to a separate planet. The Terrans stayed on Earth, the Jenquai moved to Jupiter and the Progen went to Mars.

Changing Conditions

One of the more interesting aspects of the game was the actual use of a plot and backstory in a game that would otherwise be just another ordinary MMOG. Regular updates added to the story, and included many new NPC missions as well as bug fixes.

Boss Spawns

The universe is unpredictable, a sector that is normally peaceful can quickly change and create a bad situation for any players not on their toes. For example, while mars is normally a peaceful sector, if not careful you could find yourself looking down the barrels of an extremely large red dragon battlecruiser. Some boss spawns are MoB activated, which means they spawn after so many enemies in the area are killed. Other bosses are time based spawns, like the Crystal Daeva, which was notorious for its extremely good loot, and extremely long spawn time of 72 hours or more. Like most games, bosses carry many sought after items that sell extremely well on the market and are highly sought after. So when one spawns, it is usually a mad dash to be the first one to kill it. The person or group to do the most damage being the winner of the rights to loot.

Invasions

Some sectors had areas where "Invasions" were staged. Sectors like Aragoth contained a heavily defended Red Dragon base that was surrounded by multiple layers of defense turrets, carriers, battlecruisers, and frigates. Invasions often involved a multitude of clans joined together to attack the base and a huge battle would ensue. Another well know invasion point was the TADA-O gate in Beta-Hydri. The story behind this invasion, is that TADA-O was levering for a position in the interstellar transportation market and started research on gate travel. Their first success was the TADA-O gate which successfully created a gateway to a new sector. Unfortunately the sector was filled with giant, mutated, and vicious fish called TENGU who proceeded to spill into the Beta-Hydri sector. TADA-O attempted to seal off the gate, but failed. They fled the gate station and proceeded to deny any knowledge about the gate research or TENGU. A "Gate Raid" is triggered when a small tengu that wanders around the gate is killed and summons its larger and meaner parents.

The language of the V'rix

In the Aragoth system, suddenly after the Progen opened up another recently discovered ancient gate, ancient artifacts about the V'rix appeared. Two large Maelstroms appeared in Jenquai and Progen sectors. Alien life forms started appearing all over the galaxy, small bat-like creatures poured out of the Maelstroms. The Aliens would fly around sectors in random patterns, when a comm signal was opened to an alien craft, it would simply reply in a language like this: (Note: this is not the actual text message they would reply with)

H2LL4,3'M1N1L32N

It was first believed to be a mathematical form of communication, until the language was decoded. When the V'rix first appeared they were merely another NPC class that was hostile towards no particular faction and merely appeared to be exploring the sectors in and around the maelstroms from where they came. After a short while though it was discovered the V'rix were really planning an invasion, and became hostile towards nearly every faction and quickly swept through the surrounding systems. Before cancellation the V'rix could be seen building a large Weapon or Station in the Akeron Gate sector under heavy guard.

Decoding the language

H2LL4,3'M1N1L32N

• There are English punctuation marks
• There are Roman-style characters
• Numbers are used in seemingly random places

To decode the language, you will need to use a chart like this one, that lists the vowels.

|A1|
E2|
I3|
O4|
U5|

There are five vowels in the English language, if you replaced them with numbers, in the sentence Hello, I'm an alien you would get

H2LL4,3'M1N1L32N.

Note:

• The Aliens do not use spaces.

Playable professions

There are three races (as mentioned above) and three professions: Warrior, Explorer and Trader. Not all combinations are available for play. The following professions are available:

Jenquai Warrior

"Ninja". Jenquai warriors rely on stealth. Their weapons of choice are beams, weapons with the shortest range. Able to target enemies from an extreme distance due to their advanced sensor range, and jump in, get their hits in, and cloak in order to escape. Class abilities allow them to cloak entire hunting groups. Conversely, these combat tactics were the bane of Terran Enforcers because they allowed them to jump into a fight against an already attacking enemy and effectively steal a kill.

Jenquai Explorer

Explorers are very difficult to play solo. This class has the thinnest hull and the fewest (three) weapon mounts. Conversely, they have six device mounts. Class ability enables them to share their extreme sensor range (best in the game) with other teammates.

The JE class has some unique abilities in the game:

• Open wormhole.
• Build reactor.

Progen Warrior

The ultimate tank, slow and loud. Huge hull, powerful shields. Hull damage control skill reduces damage. Class ablity allows it to build weapons and ammunition that are of much higher quality than bought from NPCs.

Progen Sentinel

The most under-used class. Slightly less firepower than the Progen Warrior, but has the ability to mine asteroids and repair equipment.

Terran Enforcer

Long-range artillery. Second only to the Progen Warrior in hull strength, the Enforcer benefits from fast engines (fastest warrior class) and long-range missile weapons. These last two attributes make the class ideal for kiting. Tactical leader of hunting groups, able to increase the firing speed and decrease the reload time of teammate weapons. Can also repair equipment. Class ablity allows it to build weapons and ammunition that are of much higher quality than bought from NPCs.

Terran Trader

Despite its name, a TT is must-have in any hunting group, due to its in-flight repair ability and shield recharging. Class ablilities allowed it to build Equippable devices and Shields.

===Terran Scout=== (Unreleased) One of the original and yet caned playables was the teran scout. Only speculation remained on its capabilitys. But improved stealth and scan range as well as High Beam Capabilitys were among them

Character stats

Combat

Combat experience comes from killing mobs. Being incapacitated results in "EXP Debt" in where the character only recieves 1/2 of the normal exp until the debt is repaid. Logging off for a period of a couple hours usually cleared up any minor debt.

Trade

Trade experience comes from selling loot dropped by mobs, by building stuff, by taking trade jobs at job terminals or just buying low and selling high (trade runs). The most effective trade runs became famous, acquiring nicknames like:

• The "newspaper run" (delivering Net-7 news between Net-7 Sol and

Frienship 7 stations, which were only one hop apart). This was the canonical low-level trade route. When the trade experience starts to diminish, one graduates to

• The "spice run" (so called because the most effective item on one leg was "Spices").

It's four hops long.

• The "Fenris run" (delivering antenna parts to Fenris observatory)

This is a very long run (12 hops).

Exploration

Exploration experience comes from visiting navigation points. In general each system has a number of "nav points", usually between 20 and 50. Visiting a nav point for the first time gives a certain amount of exploration experience (the amount diminishes when exploration experience increases). After a nav point is visited, it appears on the "radar" when the player is in the system.

Certain nav points are hidden, which means that even after visiting them they don't appear on the radar. Experienced players would offer to "tour" less experienced ones (usually for a fee) by forming a group and visiting these hidden nav points.

The number of nav points in the game is limited; after a player has visited all nav points he can only gain exploration experience by visiting them again grouped with players who visit the nav point for the first place. This is called "assisting", but the rewards are much lower.

Characters playing an Explorer class, such as the Jenquai Explorer and Progen Sentinel can mine asteriods for Exploration experience, and in turn sell materials for Trade Experience.

Certain NPCs give mission with rewards in exploration experience.

Spaceships

All ships consist of three essential pieces of eqipment. Your ship will not be allowed to leave from spacedock if one of these items is not installed when you decide to disembark.

• Reactor - Provides power to your ship
• Shield - Protects your ship from weapons fire and environmental damage
• Engines - Propel your ship and enable warp travel

Secondary Equipment consists of

• Weaponry - Beams, Projectile Weapons, and Missile Launchers
• Devices - Equipment used to Buff or Debuff friendlies or Enemies

Customization

While nearly all equipment ingame could be reverse engineered, rebuilt, and enhanced, a large trade market was planted on the dismantling, analyzing, and construction of equipment for sale to other players. Player made weapons boasted a higher quality percentage, 200% maximum, and allowed for a moderate degree of ship customization. Player made weapons boasted faster reload times, shorter cooldown, and faster firing rates which made them essential for combat. Player made reactors and shields gave greater recharge speeds in combat, and offered higher capacities. Modified reactors were a must for characters using missile launchers due to the huge energy demand. Player made engines allowed for faster that average warp travel, higher thrusting speeds, a tighter turning radius, and shorter spin-up and spin-down times for warp jumps. Ammunition for projectile and missile weapons could also be player made, producing higher damage ammunition.

Weapon Classes

• Beams - Energy or EMP damage - moderate firing rate, moderate energy usage, low/moderate damage. Favored by Jenquai.
• Projectiles - Damage varies by ammunition type, fast firing rate, low energy usage, moderate damage.Favored by Progen.
• Missiles - Damage varies by ammunition type, slow firing rate, extremely high energy usage, high damage. Favored by Terrans.

Ammunition

Unless using beam weaponry, players needed to buy or build ammunition for their weapons and keep some on hand for an emergency reload. Main Ammunition types:

• Impact - typical projectile bullets
• Explosive - projectiles or missiles that explode on contact
• Plasma - DOT weapon: projectiles or missiles that explode and cover the target in an ignited plasma cloud. Effective against organic enemies.
• Chemical - DOT weapon: Like plasma, cover enemies in a corrosive chemical. Effective against enemies with metal based ships.
• EMP - Able to deplete an enemy's shield strength extremely quickly, these are used at the beginning of a fight. Consequently, then do absolutely no damage to ships once the shield is down, and organic enemies are unaffected by it.

Factions

In EnB, every player and most NPCs belong to a faction. Some factions get along well, some less well and some don't get along at all.

A player's standing with a faction is a numerical value

• -2000 or below: red. Mob attacks on sight.
• -1999 to +1999: yellow. Neutral, won't attack until provoked.
• +2000 and above: green. Friendly.

Here's a list of factions (incomplete):

• Centuriata Warriors (Progen Warriors)
• Sabine Explorers (Progen Sentinels)
• Collegia Traders (Progen traders, NPC only)
• EarthCorps Warriors (Terran W.)
• Freespacers (NPC only) The hippies of space.
• InfinitiCorp Traders (Terran T.)
• Hyperia Explorers (Terran explorers, NPC only)
• Shinwa Warriors (Jenquai W.)
• Sha'ha'dem Explorers (Jenquai E.)
• Sharim Traders (Jenquai traders, NPC only)
• The Red Dragon (abbreviated RD). Pirates. Hate any form of authority.
• Bogeril. A loose collection of early settlers in the Alpha Centurai system. Bogeril are renowned for their ingenuity and tinkering abilities.
• Anseria. Violent Psionics, they hate InfinitiCorp.
• V'rix. Mysterious aliens. Apart from the Mordana, they hate everyone and attack on sight. The feeling is mutual.
• Mordana
• Glenn Commission. The Glenn Commission is the neutral government of Beta Hydri.
• Good Earth Trading Company. Although competitors of InfinitiCorp, their faction standing is neutral.

Every time a player kills a Buff (MMORPG terminology), their standing with the victim's faction decreases, and their standing with other factions that hate the victim increases. For example, killing Red Dragons decreases Red Dragon faction, but increases (in a smaller measure) Centuriata and EarthCorps faction, because these factions hate each other.

The Red Dragon are a special case. Although players start with a large negative RD faction, getting friendly with them is desirable because this allows acces to the Smugglers Run system, which is an excellent shortcut between far-flung places in the galaxy. Also, the Red Dragon leader offers some missions with large experience awards once a player's RD standing is green (+2000 or greater).

There are two "well-known" methods of increasing a player's standing with the Red Dragons:

• Killing Chavez. The Chavez are pirates who dislike Red Dragon, and the NPCs can sometimes

be seen fighting each other. The Chavez don't have their own faction so there is no

• Killing one's own faction. A Progen Warrior can go and hunt Centuriata NPCs,

taking care not to reduce the Centuriata standing below +2000, because he'd get kicked out of the faction and won't be able to land on Centuriata-owned stations.

Here's the algorithm for getting better RD faction:

1. Kill some NPCs of your own faction (e.g. Centuriata) until your standing approaches +2000
2. Run lots of trade, explore or combat jobs sponsored by the Centuriata, until faction increases.
3. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Cancellation

Rumors of the game's cancellation became prevalent in early 2004. EA confirmed the suspicions in March 2004 by announcing that Earth & Beyond was to be discontinued the following September, stating that it would refocus on other projects. E&B never became very popular, reporting close to 40,000 subscribers early and later showing continually lesser numbers. Not surprisingly after the March statement, the figures saw their most dramatic decline.

External links

• www.ebportal.com
• www.saveenb.bravehost.com

Spawned Projects

 www.unknownabyss.com
 enb.game-host.org

Community

Today Earth & Beyond's community still keeps in contact through the forums of www.ebportal.com and enb-files1.game-host.org/forum. The latter forum is an ongoing community project by various E&B fans to develop a new E&B-style game, to be known as Beyond Earth Online.

• 2002 computer and video games
• Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
• Windows games