The Rules In a Nutshell
Distance is measured in light years ( ly )
There can be up to 30 players in a game.
There can be any mix of race types in a game.
There can be many players playing the same race.
Ship engines burn fuel.
The more massive a ship the more fuel it burns.
The faster a ship travels the more fuel it will burn per light year.
Fuel is neutronium.
A unit of fuel has a mass of 1 kiloton.
Fuel is made from neutronium ore by smelters.
Neutronium ore is mined from the core of planets by mineral mines and labor
mines.
There are 3 different metal types, tritanium, duranium and molybdenum.
Ship hulls are made out of tritanium, duranium and molybdenum.
Tritanium, duranium and molybdenum are made from their ores in smelters.
Metal ores are mined from the ground by mineral mines and labor mines.
Engines are made out of metals.
Engines move the ship through subspace and produce power for the weapons.
Hyper Jump Engines move ships through hyperspace.
Only special ships can use hyperdrives.
Ships with hyperdrives also have normal subspace engines.
Hyper drives require no metals to build.
Hyper drives produce no power for the weapons.
Hyper jumps can be from 3 ly to max jump range of the hyper drive.
Point defense weapons are not made from metals.
Small weapons are not made from metals.
Large weapons are made from metals.
Super weapons are made from metals.
Tech levels are universal, once a tech is reached all planets can use that
tech level.
The smallest unit of money is the megacredit ( mc )
Money is stored on ships and planet bases.
Money can be wired to a central account.
Money can NOT be wired back to a planet.
Money is wired to the central account by a government center.
Money in the central account can only be used for two things, spying and
buying tech.
You can not set tax levels on planets.
Colonists produce some money if there are enough of them on a planet.
Natives produce some money.
Cites increase the money output of a planet to 100mc per city.
A city holds 100000 colonists.
Cities use med units and food units.
Med units are made from food units and cost 1mc each.
Med units and food units have a mass of 1 kt
Farms produce food units
Med labs convert food units to med units.
Farms only produce food on planets that have a good climate.
What is a good climate varies from race to race.
A planet ' s climate can be changed using a terraforming device.
Ships have a maximum speed for their hull type.
Ships can not exceed their maximum hull speed
Ships can be fitted with a shield generator.
Ships burn fuel when their shields are used.
Ships have a maximum shield power that can not be exceeded
Ships have armor.
Weapons fire hits a ship ' s shields first, its armor second and its internal parts last.
Weapons hits on a ship drain the ship of some shield power, most of the time.
Weapons hits on a ship drain the ship of some armor, most of the time..
Weapons hits on the internal parts of a ship damage the ships hull, weapons
and engines.
Repair units are used to repair damage to a ship hull and its parts.
Repair units have a mass of 0.01 kt each.
Repair units are stored in a cargo area independent of all other cargo.
The ammunition used my many weapons is called Ord ( ordnance ).
Each unit of ord has a mass of 0.01 kt.
Ord units are stored in a cargo area independent of all other cargo.
Some Weapons can jump through some levels of shielding as if it was not there.
Some Weapons can jump through some levels of armor as if it was not there.
Some weapons require ord units and energy to fire.
Many weapons do not require ord and only need energy to fire.
Weapons have differing ranges.
Weapons have differing recharge rates.
Weapons have differing accurateness.
Large weapons have differing masses.
Ships that have large weapon mounts have a maximum size that the ship can use.
Small weapons and point defense systems all have a mass of 1 kt each.
Any small weapon will fit in any small weapon mount.
Any point defense system will fit in any point defense system mount.
Small weapons and large weapons fire at enemy ships and bases.
Point defense systems fire on enemy fighters and incoming weapons fire.
If you beam colonists, troops, crew or high guard rangers to a planet ' s surface you set up a base.
You can set up a base on planets that already have another player ' s base on it.
If an enemy player ground attacks you from their ground base and wins they get
everything your base has.
Mine laying ships convert ord into minefields.
Minefields have a limited amount of energy, when the energy is used up the
minefield disappears.
A ship recovering a minefield can only recover an ord amount based on the
remaining energy.
A minefield with 50% of its energy remaining will only yield 50% of the ord
that was used to lay it.
Minefields do not change in size.
Minefields can overlap.
An exploding Barbitic minefield will destroy other minefields that have a
center within the exploding field.
No other exploding minefield will destroy other minefields.
A minefield laid in a minefield produces a second overlapping minefield.
A mine sweeping ship destroys one field per turn.
A mine sweeping ship only destroys fields that it is in.
Natives move from the planet to the base of the race that they like the most.