Ground Based Units

PLANETARY UNITS

Everything that may be constructed by your people, with the exception of spacecraft, can be gathered under the collective term of planetary units. The types and use of these units is explained below:-

Clone banks (CLONE) : Biological production lines used for the manufacture of people! Each operating clone bank increases the growth rate of a planet by 1 to 2%. Unfortunately the general public do NOT like clones, too high a percentage of them on a planet will result in civil unrest.

Computer Complex (CC) : These are heavily computerised buildings that act as distributed hubs to the many computer networks of your planets. They use data highways to speed up information transfer to and from your computerised areas such as PDF's, fighter control and troops in addition to acting as a central repository for research increasing the overall effectiveness of all these units.

Drones (DRONE) : Unmanned, long distance fighters designed to accurately dispatch a considerable payload on an intended target while their 'mother fleet' stays well clear of attack and in some cases detector range. The planet under attack by drones has no idea who is conducting the attack, unless the originating fleet is within detector range.

Farm (FARM) : Farms produce food for the population of a planet, without food population will die. 1 Population unit requires 1 food per production run. There are a number of types of farm which are suited to the various environments within the universe. A standard farm will operate in any Oxygen or carbon dioxide planet with sufficient water. An oxygen rich planet at 1g with more than 70% water will produce 1000 food per production turn, this will increase with a carbon dioxide rich atmosphere or lower gravity, but will reduce with less water or more gravity.

Hydroponics Farm (HYDROPON) : A Hydroponics farm does not need a specific atmosphere at all since it is a totally enclosed structure which uses nutrient rich water based agriculture, it does however require more than 25% water on the planet, this will produce 500 food per production run.

Subterranean Farm (SUBFARM) : A subterranean farm is also totally enclosed but requires more than 10% water to produce 500 food.

Industrial Unit (IND) : An incredibly varying and diverse unit that produces all the materials and items that are required for the construction of any unit. From steelyards to refineries, engineering works to plastics manufacturers, all forms of industry combine to make up this broad term.

Planetary Missile Base (PMB) : Used to increase the effectiveness of planetary defences, these building contain 10 of the most advanced missiles available to your empire ready to be deployed against any attacker within range.

Mines (Hmin/Lmin) : There are two types of mines that may be constructed on colonies worlds, both operating to strip out one of the two main classifications of resource. Heavy Raw Material Mines produce fully-processed and refined HRM, while the LRM is produced in exactly the same manner through Lmin units. No matter the amount of resources a world may have, it remains useless without Hmin/Lmin units to process it.

Planetary Defence Forces (PDF) : These units also vary enormously, but all fit under the same classification in terms of their purpose. Gigantic laser towers through to Surface-to-Air missiles, tracking stations and radar arrays to mobile attack teams, the defence of a planet from invasion is down to the PDF units.

Troops (MIL) : The fighting men of your world, not just those who sit at home and defend, but Marines and Soldiers that are capable of surviving in all kinds of hostile environs, take hyperspace travel with a pinch of salt and eat aliens for breakfast. Equipped with all manner of the latest tools of death, these boys are your main planetary offensive force.

Commando's (COMM) : These are your elite infantry fighting units, they receive extensive training enabling them to perform a number of different sabotage roles, these are:
1 Cause general unrest in civil population (up to 50 unrest).
2 Disrupt economy of an empire (up to 50% of treasury lost).
3 Destroy planetary defences (PDF's).
4 Destroy planetary fighters.
5 Cause pollution (up to 50 pts).
6 Destroy habitation (super cities first, cities then colonies).
7 Destroy shipyards.
8 Poison food.

Any fleet with cargo capacity can drop commandos onto an enemy planet, space required is 1 cargo unit per commando group. Any insertion onto an enemy planet has a risk of capture associated with it, this risk is increased with the presence of enemy commando's.

Spies (SPY) : These individuals are also highly trained, but their training has a different emphasis. They are used to gather information on enemy planets. Any ship can carry spies, no cargo space is necessary. Again a chance always exists that a spy may be captured and even forced to inform upon his controlling empire.

Counter Spies (CSPY) : As spies are used more and more in civilisations, the need for specialists to counter the threat they pose becomes greater. Small teams of counter spies can be used to increase the chance of capturing enemy spies and of discovering the originating empire.

Fighters (FGHT) : Single-man attack craft that operate well in large numbers but are too lightly armoured to be of much effect otherwise. These small ships are highly manoeuvrable, very fast when compared to their much larger cousins, but need to be carried into combat - or even into orbit - by purpose built carrier craft.

Heavy Fighters (HFGHT) : Heavy fighters are built around the standard fighter chassis, but much more armour and larger weapon arrays are used in their construction. Heavy fighters can take much more punishment and deal a great deal more out. A consequence of a heavier payload is reduced speed meaning heavy fighters attack after their smaller cousins.

Research Bases (RESB) : The scientific arm of your empire. These labs house the brains and ingenuity of your nation, and it is through these bases that new discoveries and technological advances are made. As with all research, the greater the number of facilities you have working, the more likely it is that you will continue to make new discoveries and break into new grounds. Research Bases all cover individual projects but their results are grouped into the single term "Research points".

Shipyards (SHYD) : Vast complexes that either float in near orbit or have the ability to launch new craft into space, it is here that you are able to construct new ships, scrap old ones, or repair those that are in need of it. Work is being undertaken by your researches to try and find a method of refitting ships that would prove cost-effective; as yet it proves cheaper to scrap old ships and rebuild new ones.

Spaceports (SPPRT) : Spaceports are your planets link to the rest of the universe, they provide a landing and refuelling area and as such they generate a small income from all manner of passing vessels. Your primary use for spaceports is the handling and distribution of trade goods. Without these structures, trade cannot take place on a planet.

Waste Processors (WSTP) : Recently devised to handle the toxic and often dangerous by products that come from refining HRM and LRM or are produced through Industrial units. These complexes are often vital in keeping the environment safe to live in. Without Waste processing plants, older planetary units can soon produce stockpiles of waste materials that can cause the spread of disease or other pollution-based problems.

Housing : This takes various forms, more often than not categorised by the size and capacity of the unit than anything else. The smallest and cheapest housing unit is the Outpost; a simple colonial construction that holds just ten population units in total. As this is the number of people it also takes to construct, it is generally a very short-term shelter. Without the room to expand through natural growth, the moods of people who have nothing other than an Outpost to live in tend to sour very quickly.

A Colony is a much larger construction, though still quite basic in it's manufacture. More space is available but not much improvement in amenities. The next step is a City, which is often the first stage of ensuring a newly colonised world becomes a permanent settlement, holding four times the number of people it takes to construct. Next come the Super Cities - huge structures that could hold many cities within their borders. Finally come the Metropolis's which sprawl across massive areas; filled with leisure amenities and all the requirements to make daily life much more simple and pleasurable they are the ultimate in colonial life. However, they are expensive to construct, and only through technological advancement may your engineers learn how best to construct them.

For worlds that have more hostile environments but which you still wish to colonise, Domed versions of the outpost, colony and city exist. These settlements are more difficult to construct and more expensive to produce thanks to the pressurised dome that is designed to create an artificial world for the populace to exist in.

Additionally, subterranean colonies or cities can be built if subtlety is required. These structures are invisible to orbital scanning and totally immune to bombing attacks.

A balance must be maintained between the maximum number of people allowed to inhabit a structure and those currently there. If during a Production Run, the populace overspills the available space, those without adequate shelter will die.

Strip-mines (STRP) : These massive leviathans are incredible feats of engineering, resulting in the construction of self-assembling units which are basically mobile mines. Fully automated they are constructed upon unpopulated worlds for the sole purpose of stripping it of its useable resources. As they traverse the surface of the world they not only seek out the resources but process them too. Strip-mines have an edge over normal mines in that they are capable of processing BOTH types of resources at once, but their down side is that ships must constantly ferry the processed resources back to the worlds that need it.

In addition to constructing buildings and units, a planet itself my be changed in small ways, an example being Terraforming, a process by which the value of trade goods produced on a planet can be adjusted up or down. Each application of terraforming will alter the trade goods value by plus or minus 1 point.

The table below shows the basic costs, in population, materials and credits, of each of the above planetary units.

PLANETARY UNITS

The following items may be built on owned planets:-

Item Code Tech Pop used Credits cost Con pts cost Upgrade
Industrial unit Ind1 1 10 10 3 2 con/lvl
  Ind2 2 10 20 4 + cr cost
  Ind3 3 10 40 5  
  Ind4 4 10 80 6  
  Ind5 5 10 160 7  
  Ind6 6 10 320 8  
  Ind7 7 10 640 9  
  Ind8 8 10 1280 10  
HRM Mine Hmin1 1 10 10 2 2 con/lvl
  Hmin2 2 10 20 4 + cr cost
  Hmin3 3 10 30 6  
  Hmin4 4 10 40 8  
  Hmin5 5 10 50 10  
LRM Mine Lmin1 1 10 10 2 2 con/lvl
  Lmin2 2 10 20 4 + cr cost
  Lmin3 3 10 30 6  
  Lmin4 4 10 40 8  
  Lmin5 5 10 50 10  
Matter Transmuter Mat1 4 10 1000 50  
  Mat2 6 20 2000 80  
  Mat3 7 30 5000 150  

[HRM - Heavy Raw Material, e.g. Iron, Copper, Lead, etc. LRM - Light Raw Material, e.g. Hydrogen, silicon, oil, gas, etc]

Item Code Tech Pop used Credits cost Con pts cost Upgrade
Farm Farm All 10 100 5  
Hydrophonics farm Hydropon All 10 500 25  
Subterranean farm Subfarm All 10 5000 100  
Terraforming Terra 5 - 50000 300 +-1pt TGV
Clone banks Clone 5 50 20000 200 +1-2% growth
Strip mine Stmin1 2 0 50 25  
  Stmin2 4 0 250 25  
  Stmin3 6 0 500 25  
  Stmin4 8 0 5000 250  
[Stmin4 are usable on gas giants]            
PDF (planetary defence forts) PDF1 1 10 100 5 4 con/lvl
  PDF2 2 10 200 6 + cr cost
  PDF3 3 10 400 7  
  PDF4 4 10 800 8  
  PDF5 5 10 1600 9  
  PDF6 6 10 3200 10  
  PDF7 7 10 6400 11  
  PDF8 8 10 12800 12  
Troops (pop used perm) Mil1 1 1 10 1 2 con/lvl
  Mil2 2 1 25 2 + cr cost
  Mil3 3 1 50 3  
  Mil4 4 1 100 4  
  Mil5 5 1 200 5  
  Mil6 6 1 400 6  
  Mil7 7 1 800 7  
  Mil8 8 1 1600 8  
Commando's Comm I 2 20 10000 100  
  Comm II 4 20 20000 150  
  Comm III 6 20 30000 200  
Spies Spy All 1 1000 5  
Counter spies Cspy All 1 2500 10  
Fighters Fght1 1 - 10 1  
  Fght2 2 - 20 1  
  Fght3 3 - 40 1  
  Fght4 4 - 80 1  
  Fght5 5 - 160 1  
  Fght6 6 - 320 1  
  Fght7 7 - 640 1  
  Fght8 8 - 1280 1  
Heavy fighters HFght1 1 - 50 2 - Damage 15  
  HFght2 2 - 100 2 - Damage 20  
  HFght3 3 - 200 2 - Damage 25  
  HFght4 4 - 400 2 - Damage 30  
  HFght5 5 - 800 2 - Damage 35  
  HFght6 6 - 1600 2 - Damage 40  
  HFght7 7 - 3200 2 - Damage 45  
  HFght8 8 - 6400 2 - Damage 50  
Drones Drone I 2 - 1000 5 - Range 1, Dam 500  
  Drone II 3 - 2500 10 - Range 2, Dam 400  
  Drone III 4 - 5000 15 - Range 3, Dam 300  
  Drone IV 5 - 10000 20 - Range 4, Dam 200  
Research base Resbs All 10 20 5  
Shipyards Shyd All 250 1000 250  
Spaceport Spprt All 10 5000 50  
Computer complex CC All 10 12500 100  
Living quarters           Houses
Outpost Outp All 10 100 10 10
Colony Coln All 50 500 50 100
City City All 250 2500 250 1000
Super city Scity 1 2500 25000 500 5000
Metropolis Metro 5 5000 75000 2000 25000
Domed outpost Dout All 20 500 20 10
Domed colony Dcol All 100 2500 100 100
Domed city Dcit 2 1250 12500 500 1000
Sub colony Sbcol 3 2000 10000 1000 100
Sub city Sbcit 4 8000 40000 4000 1000
Waste processor Wstp All 10 5000 25 -

Notes:

1) Strip-mines are not constructed on worlds and then moved to their destination. All Con units for these items take the form of self-assembling parts. The Con is simply dropped onto the target planet and then the relevant construction order is given for that planet.

2) Waste processors are only needed to counteract the effects of pollution (see later). They are expensive to use though, and each Processor cost 1000 credits when utilised; this means that if you had 10 processors, all of which were required in use by a Production Run, it would costs a total of 10000 credits to operate them - they will only operate if you have enough credits to do so.

3) Shipyards are required by a world if you wish to construct fighters, ships or to scrap obsolete ships. Each shipyard costs a total of 1000 credits per Production run. Each shipyard can produce 100 units (i.e. 100,000 tons) of ship per turn... i.e. 10 frigates, 5 destroyers etc.... Each shipyard adds to the cumulative total... so 3 shipyards = 300 units etc. So some of the bigger ships will certainly need multiple shipyards.

A max of 100 fighters (at 1 unit each) or 50 Heavy fighters (at 2 units each) can be built per shipyard.

4) Fighters and heavy fighters cannot be upgraded; they are tiny one-man ships and any major changes to their construction would cost more than rebuilding them from scratch.

5) Domed habitation cannot be upgraded in any manner at all. They can be built on planets with any atmosphere type, but the limit of 2.5g gravity still applies, as does the need to have a solid surface on which to build them. Molten or Gas Giant worlds are not suitable. Upgrading Normal habitation costs the difference between the units... i.e. outpost -> colony 40 CON. You may only upgrade one size of a unit per turn.

6) Subterranean cities can only be built as an upgrade of a subterranean colony, they cannot be built from scratch.