Battlestar Galactica Online

Battlestar Galactica Online is a browser-based spaceflight action MMO based on the reboot of Battlestar Galactica. It is free to play with Microtransactions.

Sometime pre-New Caprica, a Cylon attack on the Rag Tag Fleet goes awry when inexplicable phenomena throws both Colonials and Cylons into an uncharted sector far beyond the Red Line. With Galactica and the primary Basestar's FTL drives damaged, neither Colonial nor Cylon can just pack up and get a move on. Both sides quickly dispatch forces to claim the systems in the sector, resulting in a back-and-forth struggle, while studying the remains of technology left behind by mysterious Precursors and trying to find a way back on track.

Playing as either a nugget or a new Centurion, you dive headlong into these events. Starting out in humble Strikes like the Viper or Raider, you can progress to larger Escorts, and then to Lines and Carriers that are dwarfed only by the Basestars and Battlestars.

Tropes used in Battlestar Galactica Online include:

• Absurdly High Level Cap: 250, when it already takes weeks for all but the most dedicated or money-throwing players to reach 20!
• Anti-Poopsocking: Several things are done for this:
  • A gift of several items for logging in daily.
  • Sidequests, called "Assignments", only refresh once a day, so you cannot build a backlog first and then go back to clear it when you have a long stretch of free time.
  • Merits, a currency type available only through PVP or specific PVE encounters, have a cap on how many you can earn a day.
• Arms and Armor Theme Naming: Colonial Escorts are named after weapons.
• Asteroid Miners: One option for players. It can be a Boring but Practical way of gaining exp.
• Attack Drone: One type of mook.
• The Battlestar: Averted for players. Escorts and Lines are pure combatants, while the Carriers don't have much to contribute to a straight fight.
• Bottomless Magazines: Mining cannons, which are less powerful than proper guns in return.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: The Cylon War Raider is just a First Cylon War-era Raider refitted to modern specs.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: Many high-level items, including literal experience-buying, require Cubits. You can grind for the things, doing assignments, hoping for them in drops and looking for Water which can be traded in... or you can just fork out real cash.
• Call a Hit Point a Smeerp: Hull Points for HP (look ma, same short form!), power for mana and different types of currency. Tylium is used for basic purchases and doubles as fuel for Nitro Boost or FTL jumps, Titanium for repairs, Cubits for high-end purchases (which you can also convert real-world cash into) and Merits are used for the highest-end purchases like nukes.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Skills training somehow improves the capabilities of your starships.
• Corralled Cosmos: The mysterious nature of the sector, far from known space, leaves both sides trying to figure out what's really going on and has turned their attention from escape.
• Crew of One: There's no mention of any other crew serving with your craft regardless of how many should be realistically needed.
• Destructible Projectiles: You can target missiles. Normal bullets are no-go though. Strikes usually are relegated to this role in big battles, where the presence of Escorts makes it hard for them to get any useful licks in.
• Escort Mission: Some plotline missions. You can also invert this by attacking enemy Freighters that have a complement of defenders.
• Every Bullet Is a Tracer
• Faster-Than-Light Travel: Of course! You get a handwave about having jump drives installed on Vipers, allowing you to not miss out even if you pick them over the Raptor.
• Heal Thyself: Damage Control Packs enable this.
• Heavily Armored Mook: Assault types. To illustrate, the weakest of the bog-standard Cylon Raiders has 250 hp. The equivalent Assault Strike, the Marauder? 515.
• High-Speed Missile Dodge: Possible, usually with Strikes, but not reliable. Don't forget your decoys.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Even a tiny strikecraft can carry thousands of rounds of ammo and various assorted equipment.
• Hyperspeed Escape: Possible, but there's a severe penalty for the chargeup time needed if you try to jump out in combat, making it hard to do so.
• ISO Standard Human Spaceship: Played straight for Colonials, averted with Cylons.
• Lightning Bruiser: Multirole ships, at least in their own classes. Speed and agility of an Interceptor, tank and weapon mounts of an Assault, computer capabilities of a Command. Really expensive bastards, though.
• Mighty Glacier: Lines in general.
• Money Spider: Most mooks only drop salvage that can be exchanged for currency, but sometimes you'll get actual stuff like Cubits.
• Musical Spoiler: The music picks up when you engage in behaviour that triggers the Threat indicator. Unfortunately, it's easy to trigger the indicator by accident.
• Necessary Drawback:
  • Weapons are divided into three types. One gives More Dakka but is short-ranged, one has long range but poor rate of fire and the third offers a balance.
  • Hull plating offers bonuses to hull points, defence against normal attacks, defence against critical hits or a mix of two or more of those. The mixes give less of each individual attribute.
• Nitro Boost: Boosting is a default option for all ships, though you naturally get smaller boosts off the bigger ships.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: The Battlestars and Basestars are superior to all the other ships that players have regular access to.
• Point Defenseless: Lines are generally bad at killing Strikes. Escorts are better at flyswatting, but a good Strike pilot can still give them a run for their money.
• Protection Mission: Mining ships.
• Regenerating Health: All craft have self-repair capabilities that only work outside battle.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Both Colonial and Cylon Lines and Carriers are named after Norse Mythology.
• Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: Strikes, with their mobility, can nibble Lines to death. Escorts are intended to defend against them, but their size makes them prey for Lines. Carriers don't really fit.
• A Taste of Power: One plotline mission gives you a chance to take an Escort-type starship for a spin. If you accept that mission as soon as it's available, it'll probably be the first time you're going to get to use an Escort if you haven't been Bribing Your Way to Victory.
• Theme Naming: Cylon Escorts are named after ghosts.
• That's No Moon: Defense Platforms are always disguised as asteroids.
• Vendor Trash: Most drops.
• You Nuke'Em: Nukes are available, but at high cost.