You have just become the leader of your world. It was a hard struggle; you persevered and you won. Now you have moved on to greater challenges. You have set your sights on conquering the universe. Your job is to design and build the most powerful and effective ships and fleets so as to obliterate all opposition and unite the cosmos under your enlightened leadership.

To do this you must build an armed force that is carefully crafted to handle the many missions that your leadership may demand of it. You must learn how enemies might resist your rule and how to make them submit. You must first consider the many missions your ship and/or fleet will be sent to accomplish. You must design ship class to meet those goals and you must design ship systems that will enable your ships to exersise your will accross the frontiers of your empire.

There are numerous missions that your empire will have to engage in to protect itself; to make any unenlightened foreigners submit to your glorious rule; and sometimes to prevent radicalized homegrown saboteurs, insurgents and terrorists from undermining your rule.

Welcome to Space Ship Clashes. My goal is to create a believably realistic simulation of a space conquest game. I hope to incorporate the more detailed and realistic forces of economy, politics, diplomacy, ideology and R&D. I also hope to make more accurate combat and graphics over time.

In particular I want to allow you to design and build custom weapons and components. I would like to give you the opportunity to trade them. I want to incorporate the possibility of making international treaties and organizations. (Free trade agreements and United Nations like organizations). I envision a real socio-economic-political model, one which will let you experiment with different social systems, economic systems and political systems. I would like it to be as scientifically accurate as possible (given that we are dealing with many unknown technologies and phenomena) and therefore as believeable as possible.

I want a game that can be quick and short or slow and long. I most of all wish to create a community of civilization critics with whom discussions and arguments can be encouraged. I have several ideas of the world and the way it works which I would like to submit for intelligent criticism and testing.

I want players to be able to develop a 'national strategy' to compete against other players in a quest to conquer the world. A national strategy is the effort to put together all of the resources that might be available to a government -- economic, political, diplomatic, technological, as well as military -- and direct them to securing the government's objectives in a competition with other governments. I want it to be more than just military strategy which is concerned only with the use of military resources. But military strategy is where we start.

To this end I plan to keep this game free.

Mission Concept

A mission is one example of how your will must be executed in the universe. For whatever reason there are people in the universe who wish you ill or who do not care to be under your enlightened leadership. They resist your rule in many different ways. This means that you must respond to their resistance with creativity, authority and ultimately power. But not all tools of power are equally effecive against all forms of resistance. Therefore it becomes of prime importance to design ships to maximise their power projection capabilites relative to the form of resistance.

Missions are the test of whether the power behind your will was addeqetly matched to the resistance it encountered. Therefore missions are the primary scoring mechanism in Space Ship Clashes. Success in a mission means that your designs are more effective for that mission's objectives than your competitor's. The better your empire preforms in missions against other empires the better it will rank in that mission field. The more mission fields that you excel in the higher your overall score will be.

It will be assumed that your captains are well trained and do not make mistakes -- they will use the best strategy and tactics for the capabilities of the ship under their command. The result of confrontation between empires is determined by the matrix of the capabilites scores of the ships involved and the mission paramaters.

There are numerous missions that your empire will have to engage in to protect itself; to make any unenlightened foreigners submit to your glorious rule; and sometimes to prevent radicalized homegrown saboteurs, insurgents and terrorists from undermining your rule. But be aware that the enemy is crafty and they will adapt. Consequently a design that worked well in the past may become obsolete as the enemy learns your weaknesses. Every mission will need to be fought over and over again against many enemies as they continue their foolish and shortsighted attackes against your dynasty.

Ship Systems and Capability Points Concept

In a ship's design, you add many ship systems that quantify the ships capabilities. So for example the ship's bridge is a system that affects the ship's command, control and communication capabilites. The ships computer is another system that affects the ship's control, communication and targeting capabilites but not the command capabilites.

The ship's capabities are a function of one or many ship systems working together. It is possible to create higher capabities by puting one, two or more systems together in a synergetic maner. It is usually (but not always) more cost effective. There is more on these two forms of synergism in the synergism concept.

A ship's system can be augmented in capabilites by increasing its size, its tech level, its optimization or synergy level and/or its utility level.

The ship's quantified capablities are used to calculate mission results based on the mission's paramaters.

Ship Systems

Each of the ship systems below represents a certain mass, volume and capablity. Volume is the standared measure. This means that one bridge system = one computer system = one SL engine system by volume (with the exception of Hanger which represents the volume it can enclose). Naturally their masses will be different. Across dimensions, one unmodified system unit = one volume unit = one capablity unit

Command and Control Systems

Bridge

Computer

Navigation and Power Systems

Sensors

Scanners

Sub-Light Engine

Power Reactor

Offensive Weapon Systems

Radiated Energy Weapon

Kinetic Energy Weapon

Absorbed Energy Weapon

Defensive Weapon Systems

Radiated Energy Defensive Weapon

Kinetic Energy Defensive Weapon

Defensive Systems

Energy Shields

Armor Plating

Energy Absorbers

Micsellaneous Systems

Tractor Beam

Damage Control

Laboratory

Probe

Hull

Cargo

Hanger

Structural Integrety

Hull Modifiers

Hull modifiers are modifications to the hull of a ship that allow it to preform certain functions or aquire certain capabilites. The default hull type is the standard space travel hull. However there are some environments and missions that require a different hull configuration. Hull modifiers cover these special missions and environments. Hull modifiers are not systems so they do not add any time to the build time. However, adding points will increase the ship's capabilities in the respected field in an analogous way to adding systems. Sometimes increased capabilites in one of these fields results in lower capabilites in regular space based capabilities.

Space Stealth: Space stealth involves adding radiation insulation and redesigning input and output systems to limit detectectible emmisions. Space stealth makes the ship harder to detect and if detected harder to hit.

Planet Strike: Planet Strike capablities refers to how well the ship can function in a gravity well. The atmosphere of most planets provides a natural shield which reduces the effectiveness of most weapon systems. To counter this a planet strike ship is able to orbit the planet in the lowest earth orbit well inside the atmosphere thus negating most of the atmosphere sheild. This naturally requiers engines designed in a different way than standared deep space ships. The change in engine configuration is analogous to the locomotion techneques of whales and humans: a deep space ship is like an orca whale in the ocean -- graceful, fast and powerful. but if you put a deep space ship in the gravity well of a planet it becomes similar to a beached whale. A human on the other hand is designed to walk on land much better than to swim in the sea. Just like a whale can swim circles around us in the ocean and we can run circles around whales on land, a planet strike ship is best suited to move and maneuver in a gravity well but this capability limits its deep space cruising ability.

Planet Fall: Planet Fall refers to a ships abilitiy to land on a planet, moon or asteroid. Some ships are just too big and/or awkward to land on any celetial body. However there are ships that can with proper facilities and some that can land on anything. All modern day artificial satalites in Earth orbit would have a planet fall rating of zero -- they cannot land safely on Earth. America's space program's, the late Apollo and shuttle programs produced spacecraft with very low planet fall cabablities (they essentially glided down to earth at a very specific window of opportunity in a rather dangerous procedure that required very high levels of infrastructure, equipment and labour to bring down safely). On this game's rating system the Apollo Eagle lander would be rated highest at 100 capablity points (it could land and take off on its own), the shuttle at 40 and the Apollo command module at 5 capability points. A single engine Cessna has a higher planet fall capability than a Boeing 747 because the cessna needs less infrastructure, equipment and labour to land than the 747. In this game's scale the Cessna would have a planet fall rating of about 800 and the 747 would have 400. Helicopters that can land without any other infrastructure needs would have some of the higher ratings. A large millitary helicopter would have a rating on the order of 1000 to 2000 with a smaller helicopter likely being 3000 to 6000 because a smaller can land in more places.

Atmospheric Dogfight: Atmospheric Dogfights can be necessary in and around gas giants or for speciallized infiltration missions and for reaction options during ambushes.

Atmospheric Stealth: Atmospheric stealth, like all stealth functions helps remain undetected and if detected harder to hit. Atmospheric stealth is necessary for espionage and speciallized infiltration missions.

Roles and Utility Design Points Concept

Utility design points (or simply Utility Points) are a measure of the number of roles or missions envisioned in the design of a ship. They reflect the guiding purpose or philosophy of the designer; the higher the number of utlity points the more the designers considered and planned for the effectiveness of a particular system in the design of the whole ship. These design features result in greater capability points in higher utility point systems where all other factors are equal. Systems with high numbers of utility points can get up to 4 times the quantified capabilities of similar systems without utility points assigned.

One way we classify ships is according to how many roles they can afford in terms of utility points. The maximum utility points that a system can have is three. Any system with 2.5 or 3 utility points is designated as part of the primary role of the ship. A secondary role system would have to have 1.5 to 2.5 utility points assigned to it. A tertiary role system would have more than 0 and up to 1 utility points. A system without any utility points (or other modifiers) is considered standard or unenhanced.

		Utility Points		Multiplier Factor
		3		9
		2.5		6.5
		2		4.5
		1.5		3
		1		2
		0.5		1.5

Utility points		Capability Bonus
3.0		x9.0
2.5		x6.5
2.0		x4.5
1.5		x3.0
1.0		x2.0
0.5		x1.5

Optimization or Synergy Concept

In addition to designing a ship with a system in mind one can also design the system in sizes that are most optimal. All systems in nature follow this rule. Consider that we have two legs; one or three legs would be sub-optimal for our needs. If we needed to eat food off of the ground we would optmally need four legs; 5 or 3 would be sub-optimal again. Ship systems also follow a similar optimal performance curve.

Synergy science can be thought of as the best format or arrangement of existing technology to maximize the capabilities of the system. In a similar way to how a super computer built from off the shelf parts needs processers to process data and to break up, distribute and recombine the data; the synergtic question determines how many processors to use for data crunching and how many to use for data distribution to achieve the fastest computer.

Synergetic or optimization science allows your optimized system to beat the one unenhanced system unit to one capabilty point ratio according to the Bell curve or AKA the Gaussian function.

For example a level two synergy science will follow this formula: y=2e^((-(x-3)^2)/5.7708) and the best synergy is at 3 system units with each equivalent to 2 system units. This means that 3 systems units will generate 6 capability points; all other factors being equal. At five or more system units the unit to capability point ratio returns to 1:1.

A second example: a level seven synergy science will follow this formula: y=7e^((-(x-8)^2)/25.181) and the best synergy is at 7 system units with each equivalent to 6 system units. This means that 7 systems units will generate 42 capability points; all other factors being equal. At 15 or more system units the unit to capability point ratio returns to 1:1.

Ship Class Concept

The various ship classes in the game were mostly inspired by actual modern millitary classifications. In general: the smaller the ship class the cheaper and faster to build up to a low system unit threshold; the larger the ship class the cheaper and faster to build per sytem unit point after a high threshold. We start with a very few systems that are very cheap to put together in fighter. After a particular threshold of systems it becomes cheaper and faster to build bombers. This trend continues all the way up to the Mothership class which has such a high system cost threshold that it is commpletely unreasonable to build a small mothership. However it is perfectly logical to build a super huge mothership rather than an super huge carrier.

The time cost to build ships follows the area under a parabolic curve that depends on the ship class and the number of systems you wish to put on the ship. For example a fighter with 10 sytems units will take 32 seconds of real time to build. But a huge fighter with 50 systems will cost 2896 seconds of real time to build. This means that you could build about 90 smaller fighters in the time it would take to build one larger fighter. You will have to determine the value of each choice based on your time, and the ship's capabilities and the missions you have designed them for in order to determine which option to build.

Similarly a Mother ship with only 50 systems would cost 1500 seconds of real time to build. More likely you will build a mothership with 5000 system units; such a ship would cost 668561 seconds (or about 7 days) of real time to build. This is less expensive in terms of time costs than a symilarly sized carrier which would cost 4728646 seconds (or about 54 days) of real time to build.

Ship Classes

Fighter: Short range/duration attack/defense. Highly dependent on their mothership, base or planet. They have a maxium of two seats; without living accommodations. They are used for scouring large areas for stragglers and clean up operations. Usually they are cannon fodder in battle group confrontations due to their limited mass and capabilities. Usually they have atmosphere capabilities. Usually due to their size fighters have a natural stealth bonus making them harder to hit. Some fighter mission areas are 1) planet-fall warfare, 2) law enforcement, 3) sensor/scanner triangulation/extension, 4) espionage, 5) search and survey 6) low level escort. Mission duration: Hours. Max: 36 hours in game time. In real time the minimum mission time is 2 seconds and the maximum mission time is 36 seconds. The maximum number of Utilitiy Points are 1.5.

Striker/bomber: Short range/duration attack/defense. Although slightly more independent than a fighter, a Striker/bomber is still highly dependent on its mothership, base or planet. There are three to twelve stations with Spartan living accommodations (only the absolutely necessary). Used for scouring large areas for stragglers and clean up operations. Usually they are cannon fodder in battle group confrontations due to their limited mass and capabilities. Usually have atmosphere capabilities. Striker/Bombers are usually several times better in their capabilities than fighters. Striker/Bombers mission areas include 1) planet-fall warfare, 2) law enforcement, 3) sensor/scanner triangulation/extension, 4) espionage, 5) search and rescue and survey 6) Low level escort. They are more modular multi-role ships. Mission duration: Days. Max: 4 days. In real time the minimum mission time is 3 seconds and the maximum mission time is 96 seconds. The maximum number of Utilitiy Points are 2.5.

Corvette: The smallest independent ship. Primary role is scout and escort duties. May carry one fighter or have facilities for one. Some Corvette mission areas are 1) mid level escort of for example commercial ships, 2) Battle group point defense, 3) reconnaissance 4) espionage, 6) police duties, 7) customs and border patrol, Medium range search and rescue. 8) Scout ship, 9) Atmosphere interceptor. The corvette is a two role ship. Mission duration: weeks. Max: 6 weeks. In real time the minimum mission time is 30 seconds and the maximum mission time is 1008 seconds. The maximum number of Utilitiy Points are 7.5.

Frigate: The frigate is for long range/duration defense, escort, scout, interceptor, police flagship. It is a three role ship. Mission duration: months. Max: 4 months. In real time the minimum mission time is 60 seconds and the maximum mission time is 3080 seconds. The maximum number of Utilitiy Points are 9.5.

Destroyer: The Destroyer is the pinical of role maximization. The destroyer can function very well in long range/duration attack defense, multi purpose combat, Anti-ship -fighter -planet and stealth functions. It is a four role ship. Mission duration: months. Max: 12 months. In real time the minimum mission time is 140 seconds and the maximum mission time is 8888 seconds. The maximum number of Utilitiy Points are 14.5.

Cruiser: The cruiser is the heavy work horse of any navy. It can preform well in long range/duration attack defense, multi purpose combat, Anti-ship -fighter -planet, stealth and Command functions. It is a 3 role ship. Mission duration: months. Max: 36 months. In real time the minimum mission time is 270 seconds and the maximum mission time is 25920 seconds. The maximum number of Utilitiy Points are 11.5.

Battleship: A big ship devoted to usually a single job. It has long range/duration attack defense capabilities with a single purpose: usually combat. Anti-ship -fighter -planet. One role ship. Mission duration: months. Max: 24 months. In real time the minimum mission time is 170 seconds and the maximum mission time is 17520 seconds. The maximum number of Utilitiy Points are 5.

Carrier: The Carrier does not usually engage in offensive combat directly however it carries smaller ships that do. Good for long range/duration attack defense, multi-purpose combat, anti-ship -fighter -planet. Two role ship: carrier strike force maintenance and fleet command. It would carry many fighters class ships. Mission duration: months. Max: 24 months. In real time the minimum mission time is 230 seconds and the maximum mission time is 17530 seconds. The maximum number of Utilitiy Points are 8.5.

Mothership: Also known as a space control ship. Used for extremely Long range/duration attack, defense, or exploration; multi purpose combat; anti-ship -fighter -planet and planet strike. Three role ship. Would likely carry many fighter and bomber class ships and have a lot of cargo space and hull space. Often a mothership is a traveling fleet repair dock and forward command "base" that alows quicker repairs near conflict zones and/or a command center and/or protection during base construction. Mission duration: years. Max: 5 years. In real time the minimum mission time is 2000 seconds and the maximum mission time is 43920 seconds. The maximum number of Utilitiy Points are 11.5.

Base Class Concept

Bases are like ships without engines (therefore they do not move) but with a lot more mass and some special bonuses. Bases can be operational without having been completed. Bases can grow throughout the game - unlike ships which stay constant once built. Bases have flatter system cost curves which means that adding systems is always cheaper for a base. Due to constant familiarity with the region of space they enjoy high sensor and scanner bonuses. Since they don’t move and usually have an advantage in power generation attacking ships will attack at max speed and the base will not suffer a speed penalty. Bases are formidable adversaries.

Like with ships, the smaller the base class the cheaper and faster to build up to a low system unit threshold; the larger the base class the cheaper and faster to build per system unit point after a high threshold. We start with a very few systems that are very cheap to put together in listening post. After a particular threshold of systems it becomes cheaper and faster to build outposts. This trend continues all the way up to the star base class which has a high system cost threshold. In all cases you can always add another system anytime - it just might take a long time for a large low level base.

The time cost to build a base follows the same patern as for ships: the area under a parabolic curve that depends on the base class and the number of systems you wish to put on the base. You will have to determine the value of each system choice based on your time, and the base's capabilities and the missions you have designed it for in order to determine which option to build.

Base Classes

Listening Post: A listening post is a single role base. It can be a spy/listening post, a research base, a supply depot, or a military weapon installation such as a ground based cannon. They are often designed to be hidden and hard to detect. If on a populated planet there is no need for hull or cargo. However if the listening post is in deep space it will need hull and cargo to supply the people operating it. Utility Points: 3

Outpost: An outpost is a two role base and is larger than a listening post. It is not meant to be hidden. It usually functions as a general store out on the frontier. An outpost is often the foundation for bigger bases in deep space or if on the ground they evolve into the armouries of cities. Utility Points: 6

Base Station: A base station is a three role base. It is a larger outpost with more administrative command and control coordination. It functions as the command headquarters for a group of outposts and/or listening posts. On a planet the base station is often located in the capital city. It is the biggest base that can be constructed on a planet or moon. Utility Points: 9

Battle Station: A battle station is an improved base station dedicated to war and defense. It is a three role base and it must be in space. It must have hangers and weapons. Due to military standards a battle station will be significantly more expensive than a base station. Utility Points: 10

Star Base: A star base is a major installation for war, defense, and construction. It is a 4 role base. It functions as an administrative center, battle station, fleet repair dock, depot, and as a center of commerce and market. Utility Points 12

Star City: A star city is an old potentially self-sufficient and growing space construction. A star city usually evolves out of a star base whose military usefulness was lost due to shifting borders. The majority of the city will not have the utility points of the star base but it would have developed a competitive commercial advantage in resource gathering or manufacturing. Really old star cities may be independent states. Utility Points are variable.

Single Ship Combat Concept

A standard deep space ship engagement involves two hostile ships that, for whatever reason, have not been able to settle their differnces amacably and have decided to fire their weapons at each other. The two ships move towards each other in space with the goal of firing their weapons. They can approach each other obtusely in which case the comabt is a joust and there is only one round of combat. Or they can approach each other acutely in which case the combat is a broadside and there are as many rounds as is neccessary to destroy one ship.

The ship with the higher acceleration usually controls the minimum distance which the two ships will reach. Both ships have sophisticated targeting and movement algorithms that continually update each ship’s trajectory to achieve the ideal firing solution. The faster ship will win this contest and will have the best opportunity to choose the best distance to make their weapons most effective. The amount of dis-advantage will be proportional to the relative difference in the two ship’s acceleration. If the difference is great then the detriment will be proportionally great also. This detriment will subtract from the maximum ideal damage of the slower ship.

The number of weapons barrages for each round will depend on the energy requirement of each weapon and the surplus energy each ship has after achieving the max acceleration of the slower ship. The faster ship’s surplus energy will be its reactor power plus any unused engine power. The slower ship’s surplus energy will be solely its reactor power. In combat surplus energy is used to fire the weapons. For both ships it is assumed that all weapons fire at least once because weapon capacitors could always be charged up at the start of the engagement before needing to use engines for maximum burn. Surplus energy divided by total weapon power needs will determine the number of barrages that the ship will fire. This number plus one will multiply the maximum ideal damage of both ships. Ideal damage is defined as the damage all the ship’s weapons would cause if fired once under perfectly ideal conditions.

Sensors and scanners are similar to the eyes and ears of a person. They are the senses of the ship. When a person is engaged in melee combat, a certain advantage goes to the person who can see and hear better. If one participant has smudged glasses or an unoptimized hearing aid they are at a slight disadvantage. If one participant is bind and or deaf they are at a significant disadvantage. In each category of sensors and scanners the better rated ship wins the contest. The winner will not have any detriment modifier applied to their ideal damage number. The lower rated ship in each category will have a detrimental modifier applied to its ideal damage rating that is proportional to the relative difference between its rating and its opponent’s rating.

The stealth rating of both ships also affects the ideal damage. Smaller ships are naturally harder to hit than larger ones and so are ships in which more thought went into the hull design and materials chosen. Each ship’s stealth rating is compared and a penalty is applied to the less stealthful ship based on the relative difference of the two stealth ratings.

The base damage caused in an engagement is equal to: the ship’s ideal damage times the number of barrages times the acceleration penalty times the sensor penalty times the scanner penalty times the stealth penalty. This base damage number (if greater than or equal to 1) is then reduced by the target ship’s shield rating. Then this adjusted base damage number (if greater than or equal to 1) is further reduced by the targets ship’s armour rating. If this latest adjusted base damage number is greater than 0 then that number is applied through an internal damage matrix to individual ship systems. At this point one damage point destroys one volume of system where volume units are equal to hit points. If the hit points are reduced to zero the ship is destroyed. If there are internal hits but the ship is not destroyed then the ship’s various capacities are adjusted down as a result of ship systems losses. Note that an advanced ship with higher levels of synergism science, technology and utility point will likely suffer proportionally far more capacity loss form a single internal hit than a low tech ship. This is due to the higher levels of complexity associated with better integration and higher technology.

At this point in the joust engagement each ship's momentum is carrying them apart. If both ships want to engage again they would have to expend energy to slow down and reverse course. There is lots of time to repair shields and armour, to recharge weapons and do some less sophisticated repairs or to run away. All ship captains have standing orders to disengage automatically after a joust (this is espcially important if in any round they were not able to score internal hits).

At this point in a broadside engagement each ship is travelling roughly parallel. Both ships want to engage again. There is little time to repair shields and armour or do less sophisticated repairs. In a broadside, ship captains have standing orders to fight to the death. Assuming both ships scored internal hits, the battle resumes in a new round broadside with any capacity losses from the previous round incorporated into the new broadside. Each round in the broadside engagment brings the two ships closer to their ideal damage potential which is the limit to a hyperbolic tangent function: tanh(x).

Ship Combat: The Joust

A standard deep space ship joust involves two hostile ships moving towards each other in space at high speed and at a high obtuse angle with the goal of firing their weapons at an optimal time and avoiding being hit by the other ship. Spaceship jousting combat is similar to medieval jousting tournaments. Where medieval knights would ride towards their opponents trying to kill or un-horse their rivals by hitting them at the ideal time in the ideal way and then passing past them to look back, re-evaluate and perhaps repeat the joust or give it up, space ships speed toward each other hoping to strike at a moment and range that suits their ship’s characteristic, then their momentum carries them far past each other and they reorganize, repair and perhaps prepare to joust again or they disengage.

Ship Combat: The Broadside

A broadside engagement is the result of both sides refusing to give up. Perhaps one side is defending some territory or perhaps it is pride or fear but for whatever reason the combatants are locked in a death dual that only the total destruction of the enemy will resolve. Unlike a joust in which the escape route is determined by maintaining acceleration and the obtuseness of the angle of approach, in a broadside the combatants maintain constant velocity or slow down as they approach (they do not accelerate) and they approach at an acute angle so that they achieve a roughly parallel course. A broadside is similar to old sailing ship battles in which two sailing ships would sail close to each other fire their guns and try again until one ship was destroyed or captured.

During each round each ship fires a full barrage of its weapons. At each round the ships get closer and the barrages are closer to the ideal damage that ship can inflict. As the shields fall and the armour get pierced the ships begin taking internal damage. Each internal damage point will reduce the ship’s capacities in each successive round. Rounds will continue until one ship is destroyed. (in the future we will have boarding party combat to capture the enemy ship.)

Resource Concept

Currently resources are made up of one single resource. (At a later date there will be many specialized resources.) Resources are gathered in the space around solar systems. Your empire currently collects just enough to feed its people and build at a rate of one second per second. To expand this rate you will need to build more ship yards and then make sure you have sufficient resources to build at a rate of 2 seconds per second.

The first step is to build a space exploration ship and send it out. Its mission length will be proportional to its hull and cargo capabilities and inversely proportional to its total system count. The longer the mission the more micro-parsec cubed will be surveyed. The number of micro parsecs cubed explored in a turn will be a function of the existing explored space, the current bases to territory ratio, and the sensor, scanner and computer capacity.

Once a volume of space has been explored, resource harvesting ships can be sent out to pick up resources. The larger the volume the more quickly resources will be harvested; the more collection ships out the lower the average per unit harvesting speed will drop.

Any functional ship with scanners, energy weapons, tractor beams, and cargo capacity can function as a harvester and be assigned to harvest missions. Every second of game time each ship assigned to harvest will finish one round of harvesting and will add to the empires resource store a maximum of its cargo capacity. Each ship will use its excess energy to power its harvesting systems, scanners to identify usefull resources, energy weapons to cut into useful blocks and tractor beams to help possition raw and cut material to bring into the cargo hold. The better each of these 5 capacities (to the limit of cargo capacity) the better the harvester will build up stores for the empire.

HVT: Resource Harvest Operations

Harvesting: sending ships to gather raw materials from space.

Harvesting operations consist of finding and procuring the necessary raw materials needed for building your empire. Your home planet long ago exhausted it supply of non-renewable resources. All that your empire can get from your home planet are the renewable resources it needs to maintain the standard of living of the population. To expand and grow your empire needs new sources of raw materials off world.

At this moment harvesting, processing, and building are all done with a single space based resource. This resource must be procured with specially designed ships. These ships need to have excellent scanners to find the resource, radiation beam weapons precise enough to cut rocks and debris, tractor beams to hold and move the partially prepared resource, and finally cargo space to hold and transport it to your logistics fleet.

Coming Soon: [Since the harvesters are essentially foraging for resources in space, the larger the space explored the greater the likelihood of finding easy to retrieve desirable lodes in the vastness of space rocks. However the more harvesters out there the less efficient each one becomes because they each have to compete to get resources.]

ASW: Anti-Starship Warfare

Destroy, disable or disrupt hostile assets and operations.

IEO: Intergalactic Exploration Operations

Conduct & support deep space exploration, scientific & research operations.

SEO: Scientific Exploration Operations

Investigation of hitherto unknown natural phenomena.

MQO: Medical and Quarantine Operations

Medical & public health investigation and treatment in space and in colonies.

There are two aspects of health for your empire. First there is public health which seeks to prevent illness through population wide interventions in chronic disease prevention, occupational health, safety promotion, mental health promotion, early childhood development, standards for inspections for food supply and all allied care practitioners etc. The health of your empire’s population will be directly proportional to the total capacity of your health care fleet relative to your empire’s population. The healthier your population the longer they will live and more productive they will be.

The second aspect of health for your empire is acute or primary care which fills in when there is a failure of public health such as during a major accident, an epidemic, a natural disaster, or a war. The larger your empire’s health care capability rating the greater the number of people will be prevented from dying and the quicker they will return to being productive. This aspect is mildly inversely proportional to the volume of space your empire claims and highly inversely proportional to the number of emergencies at any given point in time.

The police play a complimentary role for medical ships. A high police rating will provide a mild health benefit. It should also be understood that the professionals of your empire are very good at what they do. Therefore any disasters such as a major accident, an epidemic, a “natural” disaster, or a war are most certainly caused by malicious foreign agents that have slipped past your empire’s defenses.

INT: Intelligence Operations

Surveillance and reconnaissance operations.

CIO: Counter Intelligence Operations

Disinformation and security operations.

LOG: Logistics Operations

Support, material, and transport facilities for battlegroup
assets in theater of operations.

STO: Covert Soft Target Operations

Covert operations against logistical, civilian, and/or industrial assets.

SFO: Special Forces Operations

Covert operations against specific hard or military assets.

NCO: Non-Combat Operations

Training, medical, recreation, brig, troop & VIP
transport, disaster relief, diplomacy and evacuation services.

BKR: Blockade Running

Smuggling, blockade running, and external insurgent support .

FRI: First Responder Interceptor

Escort, interception of blockade runners, smugglers, & domestic insurgents.

POL: Police Services

Law Enforcement and Anti-piracy.

Police services are vast and surgical. The notion that police serve and protect in a myriad of ways gives vastness to their mission. Additionally their responsibilities often mean dealing with civilians and aliens one on one, investigating skittish criminals or saboteurs, visiting delicate crime scenes and thus they need to be very precise. Police will never be as big or as powerful in brute force as the deep space navy. But they do make up for it in knowledge of the population and in their domestic intelligence networks. Police ships will tend to be small with capacity over a wide range of domains. The Corvette is the typical police force’s preferred ship size class because of its easy of construction and their likely capability and convenience for landing on planets and small asteroids, but they can command ships as large as cruisers. Empire police service coverage requires large numbers of ships to fill the space of the empire and widely capable ships that can adapt to vast numbers of citizen’s concerns. Police forces need to be good at every task while also being capable of maintaining a presence covering the vastness of the empire.

A weak police force will mean increasing lawlessness and criminality, the exploitation of the strong over the weak and the ruthless over the law abiding. Less respect for the rule of law increases the cost of colonization, economic expansion, building, exploration, population growth, sabotage, piracy, and foreign subversion or insurrection. A strong police force will have the opposite effects. A strong police force contributes the most to reducing the number and effectiveness of piracy and privateering operations. A strong police force also makes blockade running a little harder by providing better intelligence to first responder interceptors.

PIR: Piracy and Privateering

Sneak attacks, boarding and capture of enemy ships.

The summary screen is the first screen you see after choosing a game. It gives you a summary of the events that have taken place since your last login and a list of your current ship classes.

For those who prefer to use the keyboard more than the mouse there are hot keys (AKA access keys) to help navigate the main menu. They are as follows: