You design all but your first ship. It is obvious that a bigger ship will be able to repair more, and survive a huge amount of damage. But, a huge ship is not as mobile, and can be crippled by EMP attack, leaving multiple small ships able to blast it to pieces. Big ships also cost far more and the 13 point per turn jump in limit may mean you can jump in far fewer ships.
No ship can be larger than 76 units in size.
The cost of your ships effects the fleets entry into a system, and it is wise to choose a mix of ships that you think will prosper in battle.
If a ship loses it's habitat then the ship dies, no matter how much of the rest of the ship is intact. Habitat should be placed carefully on the ship, and should be surrounded by non volatile systems. The chance of sympathetic explosions should be kept to a minimum. Note that grouping volatile systems together will reduce the chance of explosions.
After habitat the mix of mass scoops and cargo hold is the most important. Mass scoops determine how fast you can fill your hold. A single warhead drone costs 1 mass, which means that in ship to ship combat you could only spend 1 mass in a turn. But if you are engaged with multiple targets or want a more complex strategy you should design with more mass scoops, and more hold.
To repair a damaged unit costs 5 mass, and requires a factory unit. Ideally you should have 2 factory units, so that should 1 be destroyed you can repair it with the other. Repair during compat is vital. As you can tell the ratio of mass scoop, to hold to factory will determine your ships abililty to survive engagement with the enermy.
As well as repair, a ship may use a factory unit, and 5 combat mass from holds to build a new unit. This means a ship can redesign itself. This ability means that small ships can, over time, grow to be large ships. Again, a player who selects large fleets of cheap ships may be able to promote those that succeed into larger vessels during combat.
Now we come on to combat, drone racks produce drones, the very heart of the game. Drones can see, destroy, mine, and alter the gravity profile of a system. Drone racks are the combat aspect of all ships.
The only defence once a ship is infested with combat nano is anti-body nano produced by swarm generators. These can destroy combat nano aboard the ship, stopping the spread of destruction. Antibody nano only takes effect after the system is destroyed, but it can kill combat nano dead if it is powerful enough. All ships should wiegh up the offensive capabilities of drone racks and the defensive abilities of swarm generators.
Finally the ships superstructure can make a ship far, far more robust. It will preserve channels of control throughout the ship, and will consume 2 attack nano when destroyed, rather than 1 which is the norm. A well armoured ship will survive the initial turns of combat far better than an unarmoured vessel.
Your crew stations are on the habitat. If all your habitats get destroyed then the ship becomes a hulk. And dies, sucked back into RipSpace. You can design your ship so that the habitat is well protected, and not surrounded by systems that are likely to explode when destroyed.
Habitats are the only systems which cannot be repaired by factories in open space. Habitats can be repaired in the gravwell of your home system, or a large colony (5 pop or more). Habitats are also automatically repaired at a rate of 1 per turn on the galactic map - bringing new crew on Nova shuttles from your homeworld.
Habitats must be connected to all other parts of your ship through undamaged units or superstructure to ensure they are controlled and so able to function.
Super Structure enables you to connect engine clusters etc to the main body of your ship. They will allow control to pass through them even if damaged. They are unique in this respect and should be used to make your design more robust to damage.
Super structure also acts as armour:
Each unit of engine can power a single item on the ship. Alternatively it can move the ship. The size of the ship dictates it max speed - due to internal stresses.
Max speed = 20-(size of ship/4)
Each unit of engine can boost the ship 1 hex up to its maximum. Darklight can be spent to increase this move by up to a factor of 2.
These are an alternative approach to movement. 1 Spindizzy per turn will charge up automatically (providing no Spindizzies are active, and you are not firing non-stealthy drones). Once charged you can use them to move 6 per charged Spindizzy. So 4 Spindizzies will take 4 turns to charge, and can be activated to provide movement 24 no matter the mass of the ship. If Spindizzies are active the engine movement algorithm above is not used.
Think of Spindizzies as providing strategic ship movement in system, while engines provide more tactical movement. They are also the only way that large ships are going to cover any distance - and so close to combat distance.
Note: Thanks to James Blish and his Cities in Flight books for the name
These harvest exotic matter through skimming the tide - but only when NOT in a gravity well. This is how the hold fills with combat mass.
Stores combat mass. Vital to a ship's well being. If you run out of combat mass then you cannot feed your drone racks, factories or swarm generators. Each unit of hold will contain 1 unit of mass, enough to feed a drone (multiple racks) or a swarm generator.
A factory will use combat mass to repair any unit at the cost of 5 per unit repaired. It can also build a ship unit and eat a ship unit - providing mass for combat, or as part of a redesign. Factories can reconfigure the ship by eating/creating at most one unit of ship per turn. Reconfiguring a ship for offence/defence is costly. It can eat a unit to provide 1 unit of combat mass. To create a unit costs 5.
Note that engines may never be reclaimed by factories. Once positioned, an engine remains fixed in place forever.
Note that habitat cannot be repaired or manufactored after the ship is constructed other than within the gavity well of large colonies or your homeworld.
Drone racks create drones, and it is drones which fight the battles. Drone racks contribute 3 pts each towards drone design. DarkLight can be added to double the points from the drone racks - each DarkLight provides an additional 3 pts for the design. There must be sufficient mass (basic cost is 1) and energy (costs 1 per rack) for the drone to be created.
The points can then be allocated to drone attributes, however, this is not a linear progression, the more points allocated to a single attribute the high the cost of the extra level of effect.
Level | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
Racks Required | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4,5 |
6,7,8 |
9-13 |
14-21 |
22-34 |
35-55 |
The effect of the level in each attribute is discussed below, together with their attributes and design of the different drone types.
Swarm generators can generate antibody nano for use internally, to do this uses 1 mass and 1 power per swarm generator.
Antibody cannot stop the destruction of the unit infected, but they can stop the infection spreading. For instance, an attack drone hits a habitat which has 4 antibody nano on it. The power of the attack nano is 3, it immediately destroys the habitat and is reduced to 2. The antibody nano now kicks in and battles it - killing it's remaining 2, and leaving 2 antibody nano intact. These remaining antibodies drift to a nearby healthy system, ready to guard it from attack.
Antibody can also be placed upon a unit disabled by an ECM drone, it will remove the disabling effect.
Note that antibody nano is not very stable, it reduces by one every turn. It is not a viable strategy to simply hide, smother yourself in antibody nano and then charge.
If you lose all these your ship is pretty doomed. Any drones which hit will be devastating.
These are the tools with which most battles are fought. Drones can act as missiles (attack and EMP), scouts(beholders), colonization, mines, repair, lockdown and gravstars.
Drones are produced at a rate of 1 per turn per rack - providing there is combat mass in the hold and that the racks are powered up. When they are fired they can be targetted at a hex or a ship, depending on their type. If targetted at a ship they will be attack or repair drones and will home in on their target, even if it is no longer scanned. It must be scanned on the turn the drone is fired but that is all.
Drone racks are more often combined to fire more powerful drones. Each rack contributes 3 pts which can then be doubled by adding DarkLight (if you have it) - each DL contributing another 3 pts. The points can then be allocated to the drone attributes, but the level of the attribute is not a linear match with the pts allocated. i..e:
Level | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
Points Required | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4,5 |
6,7,8 |
9-13 |
14-21 |
22-34 |
35-55 |
Eg allocate 3 racks, which gives 9 design points. Put 6 into movement, which gives a level 5 move, and 3 into power.
The attributes of drones are:
Attribute | Applicable to | Notes |
Move | All drones | Move rate is level *3 for most, but attack drones get level*2. |
Burn | All drones | The number of turns the drone can move before the fuel runs out. Each turn of movement the burn decreases by 1 until it reached 0 and the drone dies. |
Power | Attack drones, Mimic drones, EMP drones and mines | Attack and Mines: How much damage is inflicted. Each turn of movement will decrease the power by 1. Mimic drones base decoy chance is the power. EMP: How many units are disabled in the firer upon firing, and the targets upon detonation. |
Warheads | Attack drones and mines | All drones cost 1 mass, but these can have more mass added to inflict multiple hits each equal to power/number of warheads. |
Repair | Repair drones only | Target the ship and add 5 mass for each unit of repair the drone can achieve. The units repaired are random. |
Targetting | Attack drones | Ships can fire mimic drones and move to create up to a 60% chance of decoying all targetted attack drones. This is reduced by 5% for each unit of targetting added to the drone. |
Armour | All drones | Mines will deploy their power against the armour of drones which pass near. EMP drones will also test against armour of drones. If the armour is not sufficeient the drone is destroyed. |
Radius effect | Beholder, Scrambler, GravStar and EMP drones | Beholders have a radius of 3* the level (up to 9, +1 from then on),
this decreases by 1 each turn down to 9 when it remains constant. |
As you can see, not all drones have all attributes and the effect of the pts allocated can be different depending on the type of drone. The drone design window makes this easy to comprehend -so have a play.
Should a drone be unable to move because of a gravity well movement cost then the drone is destroyed by the stresses created.
A drone full of volative attack nano, this then moves out to the target and when it hits it eats the target. Attack drones can be destroyed by Mines, EMP and by high gravity fields. They can only be fired when the target is actively scanned, or made visible by it's own activities. Once on board the target the offensive nano engages in combat.
The target can fire mimic drones to decoy all incoming attack drones. The targetting of the attack drone will reduce the chance of the drone being decoyed by 5% for each unit of targetting allocated.
Attack drones can have more than 1 combat mass allocated - this creates additional warheads. The power of the attack drone is devided equally between the warheads, creating multiple hits on the target. When firing on constructs it is the number of warheads which dictate the instant damage, and not the power of the attack drone. Attack nano has no effect upon the real space matter of the construct.
Note that attack drones actively seek the target ship - and it is this link which means they only move 2 per hex per rack. Unlike every other drone which is move 3.
These can only be fired into the hex adjacent to the ship. They provide a base chance of decoying incoming attack drones which is equal to the power of the done.
This chance is increased by 3* the distance that the firing ship moves away from the mimic on the turn that the drone is fired. The firing ship must also remain stealthy - not moving by SpinDizzy or firing off a non stealthy drone.
So, fire the mimic into an adjacent hex, move away as far as you can using
conventional engines and the chance of decoying all incoming attack drones is:
power of mimic drone + distance ship moves away * 3.
The chance of decoying can never be more than 60%.
For example a tiny fighter drops a power 1 mimic drone, and moves 18 hexes away. The chance that each incoming attack drone loses target lock is 1+18*3 = 55%
Attack drones may allocate design points to targetting which negates the mimic
drone by 5% for each unit of targetting.
Mine drones are fired at a hex rather than a ship and will move to the hex and then go passive. Any ship or drone(including your own) that moves into the hex or an adjacent hex will trigger the drone and it will target the ship and attack it as a normal drone would. If it is targetting a drone then the mines power goes up against the drones armour. Reducing it below zero will destroy the drone.
For instance an attack drone of armour 2 triggers a mine drone of power 2. The mine eats the attack drones armour, reducing it to 0. The mine is now destroyed, and the attack drone continues with armour 0. Should it meet any further mine drones along it's route it will be destroyed.
Mine drones, repair drones and scramblers are the only stealthy drone in the game; this means that when moving they are not visible, and they do not cause the firing ships to be revealed. Stealthy drone firing is also the only kind which will allow spindizzies to continue to charge; firing non stealthy drones will disrupt the spindizzy charging.
Mines are also not visible unless illuminated by beholders, or within 3 hexes of the enemy ship. Additionally, if a mine is involved in combat then it will become visible for that turn to all ships in the system.
LockDown drones are fired at a hex and will stop the tide washing new ships into the system. This will initially effect the ships of the race that fired the lockdown - they will be the only race locked out for the first 2 turns. After that the lockdown will stop any ships of any race from entering the system. Ships can still exit, but no new ships can enter the system.
LockDown drones last until destroyed, or the combat completes and one race is victorious.
LockDown drones can be killed by EMP drones in the same way as others. Ships can always fire multiple lockdowns if they want the combat to continue.
These are fired at a ship and loaded with mass - in multiples of 5, providing you can also power up a factory. i.e. each unit of repair requires 1 factory and 5 mass (ship class can reduce this). When they reach their target they repair units equal to the mass/5. Repair drones do not need targetting and do not get effected by evasion - the target will provide a beacon to ensure the repair drone remains locked on.
The unit that gets repaired is selected using 'most useful' criteria, which tries to repair factory, hold, scoop and engines first - to allow the ship to repair itself. This is not under player control.
Repair drones are stealthy drones - they can be fired without revealing the location of the firing vessel.
These drones used to be vital, but colonies are now auto grown every galactic turn, providing the system is within 4 legs of your homeworld, and you have a trade gate in the system. If the trade gate is destroyed the colonies will shrink by 1 every galactic turn.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE THESE DRONES EVER. But if you want to then they remain in the game for now.
These drones allow Novas carrying troops/colonists to land on the planet surface with enough support equipment to wage war or establish colonies. You may add more mass to increase the colonists that land. When the drone reaches the planet they will wage war on any existing enemy colony and if they reduce the enemy to 0, while some of the attackers remain alive then a new colony will be established. Fighting is a simple 1 v's 1 calc. e.g. a 3 colonist drone attack a 5 pop colony, and so reduce it to pop 2. If it is your colony, then your colonists will simply grow the colony size up to it's allowed maximum.
The maximum population of a colony depends on how the mass, temperature and volume of the target planet matches your home system. If it is a close match your colony will have a large potential max population. Selecting planets which match your homeworld, and protecting them will allow you to make more ships.
You may also allocate power to the drone, which will result in a neutron bomblet bombardment prior to the drone landing. Neutron bomblets may kill existing enemy colonists, the chance of killing the enemy is
a) If max pop is more then it means the planet is in some way habitabe. In this case the chance of killing of a colonist per bomblet is
chance = (current pop)/(max pop * 5)
For instance, a bomblet dropped on a max pop 20 planet with a current pop of 15 gives a 15% chance of killing a colonist. When the colony is reduced to pop 5 then the chance is now (5/(20*5)) = 5%.
A more effective way of obliterating colonies is to simply destroy the trade gate, the colonies will then shrink by 1 pop per galactic turn.
Area effect drones are fired at a hex. When they arrive they will bloom to a radius equal to their area of effect, or start at 1 and grow slowly to this radius, or if EMP drone the radius of effect has immediate effect only..
Beholder drones can illuminate a region of space. All ships can see the region illuminated by beholders. Ships cannot be seen unless illuminated, or they fire a non stealth drone the turn before. Only mines and scramblers are stealthed, other drones can always be seen. Ships can only be fired at in turns when they are illuminated by beholders, or visible through firing non scrambled drones.
The region illuminated is 3 hexes per level of area effect up to 9, and then +1 per level. A level 3 beholder will illuminate a region 9 hexes in radius on the first turn, a level 5 will illuminate 11 hex radius. The radius will decrease by one each turn from then on, down to 9 at which point it remains constant. Beholder drones can be destroyed by EMP drones. Note that should the owning ship be forced from the system then all it's drones are destroyed - the beholders will be sucked into ripspace in the firing ships wake.
Beholder drones which 'detonate' within an already visible region are destroyed.
A scrambler hides any ship within it's zone from view, unless the gravwell is more that 0. The zone starts equal to the drones power in radius, it then reduces by 1 hex per turn. Any ship in a scrambler zone is also blinded. The only way to fire at ships in such a zone is to fire mines into it and hope you get close. Another approach is to fire a GravStar which will cancel the scrambler zone, exposing the target and allowing you to destroy it.
The extremely bad thing about being inside a scrambler zone is that you cannot target any enemy ships - even though you may have scouts outside the zone. Beware of being caught in a large scrambler zone, unless you have a good plan.
Scramblers which 'detonate' within a region already scrambled are destroyed.
These create an artificial gravity zone, which blooms out to radius of effect, with strength power in the central hex, and which dissipates by 1 per turn. For instance a power 5 drone will create a 5 power gravity well at the central hex, with a radius of 5 hexes. Artificial gravity zones do allow increase of DarkLight, and stop accumulation of combat matter, they also cancel out scrambler zones. They can only be destroyed by EMP drones with pulse strength greater than the drones armour.
Gravstars which 'detonate' within an existing gravity well are destroyed.
The firer of an emp drone will suffer a backlash from the drone equal to the power of the drone. This backlash will disable a number of units equal to the power of the drone. When the drone detonates, any ship within the radius of the drone will suffer disabling of a number of units equal to the power of the drone. Disabled units cannot be used until they recover. The chance of any unit recovering is 50% per turn, or you can put antibody nano on the unit to ensure that it recovers..
Any drone within the radius of effect of the EMP drone must test for destruction; this includes both moving and deployed drones. Drones with armour equal to or less than the power of the EMP drone will be destroyed.