Battleships Forever Windows, Mac, Linux game

Battleships Evermore - 1.0 Release!

Hi all! I'm back with another first-time-mod for ModDB (although this game once had quite the modding community on its official forums - now it's a bit quieter, but the occasional post still gets made) - a mod for the freeware ship-building-and-combat game, Battleships Forever! Given the game last saw official support something like eight or nine years ago and much of the community has dropped off since, I decided this little revival would be aptly titled Battleships Evermore - as the game approaches its second decade of existence.

I played this game a lot as a kid, introduced to it by my dad, and always had ambitions of creating something serious. I wasn't proficient enough to understand even the simple mechanics behind encounters and proper ship design, but many years later I took another crack at it with a serious concept and scope in mind. Without further ado - let's get into it!

Battleships Forever is freeware and can be downloaded here.

Ship Sections - The Building Blocks

First things first - Battleships Forever is built on players doing some, well, building. The ship maker is just the start - as although the base game has plenty of pieces to work with for making your own ships, I wanted the ships unique to the mod to have their own visual style. Therefore, I hand-drew another twenty ship sections of various shapes and sizes, with ten "chunks" intended for constructing general hull shapes and ten "wings" for outcroppings. All the ships in the mod (which we'll discuss next) are built out of only the new and custom segments, with weapons and effects from the base game.

Ships of the Line - The Aphaxi Navy

The new alien race introduced in Battleships Evermore are the Aphaxi, a nomadic race of aliens who get caught in the middle of the Terran-Nanz conflict. The Aphaxi navy is made up of ten ships ranging from smaller patrol craft to the two-of-a-kind mega star dreadnoughts.

Frigates

Visage Frigate

Vestige Patroller

Veritas Defence Ship

Venerable Fortress Craft

Destroyers

Centurion Frontliner

Liberator Gunship

Cruisers

Syndicator Fleet Support Craft

Bellator Assault Vessel

Battleships

Adjudicator Enforcement Ship

Dreadnoughts

Vindicator Star-Farer

Encounters - A Fortuitous First Contact

In Battleships Evermore, you'll meet the Aphaxi - a nomadic race of aliens. Initially leading into conflict with the losing Terran forces, the Aphaxi will eventually become an ally against the Nanz, but only after many twists and turns in this short but engaging adventure.

Special thanks to Bunnytob for the default ships used in encounters!

Encounter 1 - First Contact at Praxes IV

Encounter 2 - Diplomatic Tension

Encounter 3 - Nanz Aggression

Encounter 4 - Enemy of my Enemy

Encounter 5 - Alienism

Encounter 6 - Separatism

Lore - What You Leave With

Whilst Battleships Forever is hardly a lore-heavy game, it does have its own simple narrative to frame events. There's no obligation from mod creators to remain within this narrative, but in designing Battleships Evermore, I kept the themes and conflict consistent with those from the base game as a sort of "addon campaign". Lore for each of the six encounters, as well as entries on every one of the ten ship types, will give a little extra background to the events taking place. It's suggested you read each encounter lore entry before playing that encounter!

Conclusion

This has been another little modding adventure, and I especially enjoyed creating the custom sprite pieces the ships are constructed from! I'm not against revisiting the Aphaxi with yet more ship pieces and more ships as they evolve to face off against the Nanz - but just like with all of my mods, a sequel is a story that may or may not ever be told. For now, enjoy this walk down memory lane, and feel free to use my ships and ship parts in your own encounters and creations!