The Mud Map

Rogue Fleet The game

The Soup

Three scenes from the book, east through the Rainbow Nebula: powered down in the dark, then the dogfight, then the run at the rim.

Concealment and speed are the same resource spent in opposite directions: the medium that hides you is the medium that slows you, and the thrust that gets you out announces exactly where you were.

Run the cloud

  • Point with the mouse — the hull turns to follow.
  • Hold the left button (or Space) to burn.
  • Right-click (or F) to fire, once you have guns.
  • Burning and firing both move your problem along. Both also light you up.
  • The bright soup is cover. The dark gaps are thin gas — fast, clumsy to turn in, and where they can see you.
  • You never stop. In vacuum momentum is forever; the dashed line off your nose is where you are actually going. Only thick gas slows you, which is one more thing cover costs.

Where the rules come from

  • “The dense soupy structure made it almost impossible for a vessel’s sensors to detect other craft until they were on top of you.”
  • “If he restarted his engines, powerful sensors on the Jark destroyer would be able to locate him.”
  • “They were shooting proximity rounds to flush him out.”
  • “Two large wings and a tall tail fin to allow maximum maneuverability in a dense atmosphere. Or a nebula.”
  • “Fired its own volley of neutronium rounds that ripped passed his vessel as he dove downward.”
  • “In open space, survivability was determined by thrust and velocity.”

All from Rogue Fleet.