Captain Forever Universe

Captain Forever Universe (prev.: Captain Jameson/The Dawn Star) is the most recent game in the Captain Forever series, focusing on long term gameplay instead of short one off games. You can explore space, find space stations, mine asteroids, sell parts for money, and upgrade your ship.

Captain Forever Universe is regarded as the sequel to Captain Successor. It's accessible as an opt-in beta for Captain Forever Trilogy on Steam.

Development was restarted in late 2021, with occasional references to the game, organizational talk, and a few builds being discussed since. The full return of the game was publicly announced on August 31st 2022 with the release of Update 15, under its current title, Captain Forever Universe.

Due to its in-development nature, the content and rules of the game, and thus the content of this page may change over time.

Gameplay Mechanics

The player must explore different sectors, discovering and liberating progressively higher-tier sets of Stations from Guardians, while destroying any pirates or jackers that get in their way. Along the journey, the player will be constantly upgrading their ship so that it may face the new and tougher challenges that further exploration and newly discovered sectors bring.

VMEDS

The menu interface in Captain Forever Universe is based on an antiquated computer interface called MEDS (Multifunction Electronic Display Subsystem), most notably used in the United States' Space Shuttles.

The menu consists of the main window in the center, and all currently available inputs, the corresponding keys, and what they do down the sides of the screen. F1 will always move back up to the previous menu screen, or escape the menu if at the top screen. Tab and Escape perform the same function as F1. The functions for the other keys vary. When used outside of a menu, the F2-F4 keys will bring you to the same menu as they would in main menu. F1 brings you to main menu, F2 to the map, F3 to system settings, and F4 to the help section.

Stations

Main Article: Stations

Stations, after being liberated or discovered by the player, offer a variety of services, from creating safe spaces for the player with Atmosphere Generator Stations, over creating, upgrading, storing or selling parts at Factory, Upgrade, Warehouse and Scrapyard Stations respectively, all the way up to asteroid mining at Refinery Stations, or taking mail delivery quests at Apartment Stations.

Oxygen

Unlike all the previous games in the Captain Forever series, Captain Forever Universe adds an Oxygen Tank to the ship. Oxygen depletes fairly quickly when not in an Atmosphere Generator Station's atmosphere, and recovers when within one. The player is alerted when their pilot's oxygen supplies reach 50%, and further warned with an alarm sound if it falls below 5%. If the pilot drains their oxygen supplies, the player has 60 seconds to find an atmosphere, or else their pilot dies, and their ship is destroyed... forever.

Credits

Credits act as money and have several functions in the game. Credits can be earned by selling modules at Scrapyard Stations or minerals at Refinery Stations. Credits are necessary for progression in the game, as they are used to activate Atmosphere Generator Stations. Credits can also be used to buy modules from Factory Stations, repair them at Repair Stations, or upgrade them at Upgrade Stations.

Mining

Main Article: Mining

Players can mine asteroids by shooting them with their weapons, causes them to take damage and eventually break apart and reveal the minerals held within. Small asteroids are relatively easy to mine while larger ones can take hours without proper weaponry.

Minerals do not attach like parts, and therefore must be pushed manually by the player's ship. As a result, it is helpful to make a bucket-like attachment in order to transport minerals to a Refinery Station more easily.

Parts

The parts found in Captain Forever Universe include all parts found in Captain Successor, with the following changes and additions:

Additions:

• Auxiliary Oxygen Tanks: Each of these parts adds 5 more liters to your maximum oxygen, allowing you to travel farther without needing to refill.
• Sensor: Scans the map a certain amount of tiles away from the dish, allowing you to see further in the direction you place it in.

Changes:

• All shields are now linked, such that all take proportional damage simultaneously when any one on a ship is hit. In other words, if one shield takes damage that would drop it down to, say 50%, they all drop to their respective 50%, regardless of the strength of the others. This also means if one shield goes down, they all follow; making the weakest shield incorporated a potential liability if it can be easily hit. And also means heavy overlapping of shields now creates little more than dead weight.

• Bubble Shields now produce an octagonal shield rather than a circle.
• Planck Shields now produce a one unit tall trapezium shaped shield rather than an octagon.

• Blurst Shields have had their appearance changed. Their functionality remains the same as in Captain Successor.
• Sprinklers have had their swivel angle decreased to 45 degrees, making them much less self-destructive.
• Chrono Gears have halved in size and have a slightly lowered speedup ratio.