Sometimes you will need to gather resources of some kind, but every single objective will require the right drone to accomplish the task. These range from finding black boxes in early missions, to taking on giant space worms and destroying various things. Once you’re in a planet’s orbit, you’ll know what mission you will have to complete once you’re down there. You could end up alerting the Corp, if you’re not careful.
Your choices here can yield great rewards or increased danger, so you best be sure before you make the decision. Between systems, it’s entirely possible to run into random encounters, such as checking out a derelict ship or being beset by pirates. And so on, and so on, until you reach the wormhole out of there. Within each galaxy, you will have to complete missions on a set number of planets before you can head to the next system, which then requires more missions before moving on. Each time you head through a wormhole, the threat level drops as you momentarily shake your pursuer. The more you explore, the greater the chance of the Corp catching up to you and taking a chunk out of your flagship. Much like FTL, plotting the Nimbatus’ course through each system is a risk/reward thing. Nimbatus’ gameplay is essentially split into two parts: getting the Nimbatus ship from wormhole to wormhole, avoiding the Corp, and the building/piloting of drones to complete missions. Some are extremely dangerous, others offer almost no threat whatsoever. But instead of managing a starship, you’ll build drones and pilot them as they undertake a variety of missions. Nimbatus – The Space Drone Constructor (doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, so we’ll just call it Nimbatus from now on) begins with a similar concept, as you have to outrun the Corp. Consequences were at the heart of the game, as well as reproducing the feeling of commanding a starship, getting into Star Trek-like ship-to-ship battles. It was great, especially having to make difficult decisions that may result in fatalities for your crew, knowing that you couldn’t simply reload and try again. I used to love exploring space, all the while trying to outrun the rebels in a bid to deliver vital intelligence to the Federation. Remember FTL? Stray Fawn Studio remembers.