The Wargamer

Author:  Niels Bauer

What is Smugglers IV?

Over seven years of development built the path from Smugglers I to  Smugglers IV.   Smugglers IV is the most recent release from Niels Bauer Games and we’d like to share with you why we are proud of our achievement.  Smugglers IV is a turn-based science-fiction space trading game, but it´s also much more. With virtually endless opportunities and a dynamic campaign it´s actually a whole science fiction setting in a nutshell, ready to be explored.

You have the option to be a greedy trader, an ambitious bounty hunter, a ruthless pirate, or any one of the other professions the game has to offer. Through trading, combat, fulfilling missions, or piracy, you earn the money and skills necessary to improve your ship and upgrade your equipment. Additionally, you'll have to manage your crew, conduct planetary raids, and sometimes fight in decisive battles. You can rise in rank from a puny 2^nd Lieutenant up to Admiral and command anything from a small fighter up to a whole fleet in battle formations.

Our design philosophy is: Easy to learn, but a challenge to master. When developing the game we took special care to ensure that the game is self-explanatory as much as possible.  Additionally we developed a 10-minute interactive tutorial for the game, which shows you how to get started if you don’t like reading manuals.

Why we created Smugglers IV:

To get rich and live happily ever after in Hawaii.  Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. You do not get rich by making independent games – which is why you should buy this game by the way.  In reality when I started making Smugglers I back in 2001/2002 I created the game mostly for myself. I wanted to play a space trading game that would actually be dynamic enough for ME to have fun playing it. A difficult endeavour considering a developer knows a game inside out and is hardly surprised by the game mechanics.  But I did achieve this and when I made it available for sale on the internet more and more people liked it, bought it and talked about it. Finally when I released Smugglers II and III some magazines even started to write about the “cult” game.

So the stakes were high when I started developing Smugglers IV, especially since our team of artists had almost changed completely since Smugglers II so I was dealing with new faces and new challenges. The basic idea was to include even more features and at the same time keep the game playable or – better yet – to make it even more accessible to newer players. I didn´t want the game to end up like some extremely complex strategy titles that require a lot of effort to learn to play.

What´s new in Smugglers IV?

There were a couple of suggestions people kept asking for. This included a more lively space combat experience, a roleplaying-like advancement of your character, a better ship boarding feature, a more dynamic story and more realistic trading.

To achieve this we had to create a new space combat system from scratch. To make it more complex and increase the replayability we´ve added up to 60 different combat and non-combat skills, which you can learn during the game. While you´re not bound to the six professions you can choose when starting the game, the idea is that you select the skills that fit your profession and shape your own perfect game character.

A new and rather unique feature in Smugglers IV is the ability to receive reinforcements when within friendly territory or enemy reinforcements when conducting an operation deep within enemy territory. This makes it advisable for you to vary your ship type depending on your plans. In friendly territory, you’d be fine  with a rather slow and weak trading ship. But in enemy territory you’ll need a fast Smuggler vessel with less cargo space, but a bigger chance of survival and escape.

Ship boarding has been completely changed too. You now start at the airlock of the enemy ship and can choose to either fight your way to the enemy bridge to capture the ship or just go for the cargo space and get out with whatever you can loot. There is also an improved dynamic campaign system and a unique text engine providing different storylines of the war and mission descriptions with almost an endless number of combinations.

In Smugglers IV you write the storyline! Your actions directly affect the fate of four nations. Whether you fight for freedom, for supremacy, for peace or for profit – you decide the war. You don´t necessarily need to fight to win the war though. Instead you could acquire war bonds. The amount of influence depends on the current war progress of your faction and the amount of money invested. The fewer systems your faction controls the greater the impact of your money. Large empires will need a lot more money for their vast armies than factions just controlling one faction and having a tiny fleet. These investments make it possible to influence the outcome of the war without firing a single shot. Last but not least we´ve included a new trading system that is now based on real supply and demand.

The Storyline

Mankind stands in the year 2249, and has spread among the stars. Since the colonization of the first star systems, the mighty Federation had ensured peace by ruling the galaxy with an unyielding hand, exercising tough anti-piracy measures and treating the colonial governments like subordinates. For many years, humanity prospered as newfound wealth circulated among the planets. But soon, conflicts ensued between the colonies. Similar to the problems England had with her newly founded colonies in North America, the colonies at the border of known space called "The Outer Rim" accuse the leadership of the Federation of exploiting their resources and not providing them sufficient ways of presenting their interests to the Federation government. The last straw came when the Federation President announced the “Freedom Of Men” act prohibiting all forms of slavery within federated space. Slavery had re-emerged during the space colonization era due to the need of a cheap source of labor to meet the Federation's needs for raw materials. In response to this announcement, the outraged Outer Rim colonists overthrew the local government on New Skye in the New Scotland system. The Federation answered coldly when the dreaded Admiral Kelsen sent the Second Federated Fleet to bombard the surface of New Skye, an act that resulted in the destruction of 200,000 civilian lives and a great deal of infrastructure. More Outer Rim colonies began to turn away from the Federation, and in time, they formed the Outer Rim Alliance and engaged the Federation in a full-scale war. With the galaxy in the midst of a civil war, it is a time for brave soldiers, ruthless buccaneers, and greedy traders. It is a time for epic battles, covert operations, and unfathomable discoveries. There will be success and there will be failures. Your faction needs a hero. Will you be ready?

Smugglers IV is compatible for blind players

As probably one of the first games of its kind, Smugglers IV features a blind compatibility mode making the game accessible for blind players. This mode can be turned on in the options menu and will place additional text on the game interface. All text on the screen can be read out loud by common screen reading software, which is usually used by blind players to navigate through web browsers etc.

About Niels Bauer Games

Niels Bauer Games is an independent game developer from Freiburg, Germany. Since 1998 we have been creating addictive casual games for PC-Windows. Our games are distributed world-wide, especially in European and North American markets. Our games are focused on replayability and combine the complexity of full-price games with the easy accessibility of casual games.

Smugglers IV is expected to be released next week.  For more information, check out the product page.