Mankind (video game)

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Not to be confused with Face of Mankind.

Mankind

Developer(s)	Vibes Online Gaming
Publisher(s)	Cryo Interactive, later O2 Online Entertainment
Designer(s)	Frank de Luca
Version	1.8
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date	December 1998
Genre(s)	MMORTS
Media	CD (1), downloadable installer
System requirements	P 166 MHz CPU, 32 MB RAM, 120 MB HD
Input methods	keyboard, mouse

Mankind is a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) computer game published in December 1998 by the French computer game developer Vibes Online Gaming. After the bankruptcy of Vibes, the game was bought by O2 Online Entertainment^[1] and while still active today, is being primarily maintained by a group of volunteer programmers.

Unlike most MMOGs of its era, "Mankind" was one of the first games where all players played in the same persistent universe, trying to stake out an empire starting with only a small ship. Estimates of the number of active players are hard to come by - while the official site claimed both 145,000 and "more than 200,000" players on the same page^[2], these figures likely included inactive as well as trial accounts. According to an interview with an O2OE spokesman, just about 3,000 accounts were active in May 2003.^[1]

Mankind has gone through several revisions since its first release in 1998. Its distribution channel was also unique in that, unlike some other MMOGs such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft, the program was not heavily distributed through retail stores, but rather was downloaded on-line. Players pay a monthly fee for access to the game.

Mankind has been one of the first games to give players the chance to completely interact in a persistent universe, to create Guild or Corporations, and to be free to follow their own path within the game without pre-given schemes. Players are free to play as miners, warriors, merchants or mercenaries, and regroup accordingly in guilds or alliances of guilds that through several wars made the story of this game and its virtual galaxy. There were at least two "universal wars", with two opposing factions consisting of several allied guilds linked by a wide complex of diplomatic ties, involvements or NAPs (Non Aggression Pact).

Among the most popular guilds: Ordos, Settlers, Imp-St (Imperium Stellaris), CoRM (Confederation of the Red Moon), RP (Res Publica), ColSup (Colonies Supremes), Borg, DA (The Dark Alliance), ELN (Empire de la Lune Noire), ESN (Empire du Scorpion Noir), BKA (Black Knights Alliance), SMERCS (Space Mercenaries), SPQI (Senatus PopulusQue Imperialis), FSI (Italian Solarian Federation), @@@, SDF (Space Defense Force), Nazgul and Mordor. Several guilds combined into the @lliance to combat such threats as Mordor, CoRM and at one time the Borg.

Military events and battles took place in its virtual galaxy, such as the Hyperion project by ColSup, Res Publica and SDF and the following war against CoRM, won by the latter, the sudden ascent of Nazgul guild spreading terror for wiping away all ships parked within Imperial systems (the so-called Inners) and the Milestone project for space colonization by Imp-St, strongly opposed by Settlers, and causing the epic battle of system Sagee Doooar, lasting 4 real life days, with players of different time zones changing on the front line of both sides.

The game declined following Vibes' bankruptcy, and the apparition of new games offering similar concepts with vastly improved graphical environment. Many players migrated in other "virtual universes" such as that of EVE Online. In fact some guilds, born in Mankind, are still alive and still fighting each other today in other games like EVE Online or Astro Empires, such as [1]CoRM and [2]ColSup.

1 Gameplay
- 1.1 Environments
- 1.2 Game universe
2 Version history
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Equipped with one construction unit, a Vibz-type starship, and a small amount of credits, players started out in a guarded star system ("Imperial system") to eventually create their own empire. Typical first steps in Mankind consisted of building a small base on one of the nearby planets and mining available resources which could either be sold or used to construct further units. Later, a player could leave the safety of the Imperial systems behind and colonize his own star system.

[edit] Environments

Planet surfaces as well as the space in star systems were realized as separate two-dimensional square game maps, called "environments" in game jargon. While space maps had borders, planetary maps were virtually borderless - units leaving the map at the eastern border reappear in the west, those leaving in the north reappear in the south.

Each environment could contain player units and installations. Some restrictions existed, such as land vehicles only being able to operate on planetary maps, or specific starships not being able to enter planetary environments.

Only one environment per player could be active at a time. Players could switch between maps by loading the unit content of a new environment, thereby leaving the old one.

[edit] Game universe

The game took place in the so-called "Mankind galaxy". The galactical map available for navigation was divided into sectors of space ("cubes" in game jargon), each of which might contain between zero and about 25 stars. Each star system contained between 5 and 8 planets.

Early game reviews talked about a total sum of 900 million available planets, each with their own climate, seasons and population^[3], a figure that was repeated in advertising text on the game box and even topped by the official website, which claimed several million systems and billions of planets.^[2]

In fact, a majority of these planets and star systems were unavailable ("closed") at the initial release of the game^[4] and have never been opened afterwards. During the two game resets since its release, the layout of the Mankind galaxy was changed and its size reduced. The last released galaxy consisted of 73,251 star systems with 476,265 planets.^[5]

The persistent universe feature meant that, even when players were not involved in the game, their mines extracted ores, factories created equipment, ships continued commerce, and combat units continued to do battle. The game also had option to allow the user be notified via cell phone text message if their units came under attack. Unfortunately this and other alert features were not implemented at release. In fact through the first several months the ships and installations of players not actively connected to the universe did not defend themselves when under attack, making it possible for a player controlling handful of ships to wipe out heavily fortified bases in a few hours. This led to the development of more-or-less adhered to war ethics prohibiting attacks on offline players.