Nox

The Aopoa Nox is a speedy and maneuverable open-canopy racer capable of zipping along planet surfaces or through deep space. Originally designed for Xi'an, the ship was redesigned for Human pilots and made available for the first time in Human space in 2947.

In-game description
"Hit the skids with the 2947 Nox. This speedy and maneuverable open-canopy racer from Aopoa is capable of zipping along planet surfaces or deep space. Available for the first time in Human space, the Nox has been specifically redesigned for Human pilots and is ready to race."

Specifications
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Features

 * All-Terrain Anti-Gravity Drive: The Nox, like the Dragonfly, is equipped with an anti-gravity drive to allow it to hover about 1 meter above the ground. This allows it to skim over any rough terrain, including water. It can skim over ground at 40 meters per second, or up to 100 meters per second with afterburner. Despite this drive, it cannot transition between ground and space but will require a carrier vehicle. The drive also doubles as a landing gear, allowing the ship to hover at all times with emergency power.


 * Articulated Back Plate: The expandable back plate offers additional above protection for the pilot when the ship is activated.


 * Molded Carbon Composite Plating: The Nox's sleek hull is crafted from lightweight molded carbon composite that provides maximum speed and maneuverability in both atmospheric environments and vacuum.

History

 * Inspired by Humans:

The Nox was first introduced in the late 28th century, it represents one of the most recent additions to the Aopoa lineup. It was designed as a direct Xi'an response to Human open-canopy vehicles such as the Dragonfly. After the ship was introduced into Xi'an culture via a settlement on Oya III, the inhabitants there learned to love riding these Human space bikes. Thus with permission from Emperor Kr.ē, the Aopoa council started designing an open-canopy vehicle which is now known as the Nox.


 * Human Variant:

The Nox has been long valued among open-canopy enthusiasts. Because of its Xi'an technology and limited trade restriction between UEE and Xi'an Empire prior to the passage of the Human Xi'an Trade Initiative, they had to search far and wide to get their hands on a Nox, and spend a great sum of credits to rebuild and customize one for human usage themselves. But in 2947, with the passage of the HuXa, Aopoa and the Maiden Group started the sale of the Nox that has been adapted for human usage.


 * First Shipment:

On 2947-06-20, a Hull C named the MV Golden Ticket was delivering the first shipment of the human variant of the Nox from Xi'an space to an Astro Armada in the Terra system. During transportation the shipment was attacked by pirates under the leadership of Captain Bane. With the help of law-abiding citizens, the ship was able to reach Terra Prime safely on 2947-06-21, and the Advocacy hunted down and captured these pirates shortly after. The first human-pilotable variant of the Nox was finally made available to the public on 2947-06-23 through Astro Armada, along with the limited edition Nox Kue to celebrate the inaugural sale of the first Nox for Human riders.

Ship profile
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Special editions
Nox Kue

Renting
''Prices given are per-day. Prices for all rental periods can be found at Ship renting.''

Development
Unlike many other ships, the Nox was produced by multiple studios. The initial 2D concept of the Nox was created in Foundry 42 UK after which it was passed onto CIG Austin to get the ship flight-ready. There the ship was made by Chris Smith (Lead Vehicle Artist) and tech design was done by Partick Salerno (Technical Artist).

The Nox was concepted by the Vehicle Team in the CIG UK studio after the Dragonfly, based on the reimagination of the 30th century equivalent of a sports bike. The Xi'an was chosen to provide an alien spin on the original open-canopy concept. A limited edition called the Nox Kue was available during the original sale presentation. The Nox became flyable in Alpha 3.1 in March 2018, following in the footsteps of the Dragonfly.

Gallery
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'Kue'=

Trivia

 * Nox is the latin word for night.
 * Nox is not pronounceable in Xi'an. It is unknown whether the Xi'an have another name for the vehicle.
 * Before the introduction of the Human variant, the Nox already had a notorious reputation in Hyperion Rally.
 * If emergency power is depleted, the anti-gravity drive will shut down and the Nox will fall if subject to gravity.
 * Ben Lesnick once jokingly said that the plural of Nox is Noxoodles.