Game Elements

The elements of the game - vehicles, locations, and materials - are fairly straightforward. Each element can vary in terms of its characteristics, whether this is a natural characteristic (i.e. the amount of a given resource on a given planet) or within the player’s control (i.e. the strength of the armor on a ship).

Spaceships

A spaceship is the primary means of travel between planets, and a prerequisite for playing the game.

Jumps

A ship can move to a specific place in the universe (a ‘jump’). The jump capacity (speed, distance) depends on the capacity of the engine, the amount of fuel, and other factors such as cargo weight.

Furthermore, a jump will drain the resources of the ship and reduce its lifespan. It is therefore periodically necessary to self-repair and enhance the ship’s capabilities.

Slots

Enhancements can be forged (using mined resources) or purchased ready-made in order to improve a ship’s performance (e.g. jump capacity, combat ability, and cargo capacity) or appearance.

Each ship contains two rows of “slots” - Primary and Secondary - corresponding to the ship’s core and peripheral capabilities respectively. These slots can be “filled” with various capabilities and augmentations, as set out below.

Primary Slots	Secondary Slots
Cabin	Turrets
Hangar	Repair robots
Warp engine	Shields
Fuel tank	Autopilot
Main weapons	Mining ray
Armor	Missiles
Radar	Additional seats
Power reactor

Adding enhancements could have knock-on effects elsewhere in the ship’s capabilities. For instance, adding a Turret may increase a ship’s weight, reducing speed and lifespan.

As the number of slots is limited, there is a limit to the number of enhancements that can be made, and an owner must always trade off the benefits of one capability against another.

Example: Adding capabilities will increase total energy consumption, which cannot exceed the maximum energy capacity of the ship. Installing an energy reactor will increase the maximum limit, but will require the use of a Primary slot that cannot then be used for another enhanced capability.

Other modifications

Further modifications are possible to the ship’s appearance. These do not enhance the ship's capabilities but may have the effect of decreasing jumping capacity or other factors linked to the carrying capacity and weight.

• Textures

• Paint

• Decoration

Requirements

A ship in its basic form can be modified for different purposes, and requires different combinations of capabilities depending on the activity.

Travel

In order to move from one point to another, a ship needs:

• Warp Engine

• Fuel

This could be considered the bare minimum requirements for taking an active role in the game.

Exploration

Seeking out constellations and searching for minable resources within planetary systems requires the capabilities for Travel, and in addition:

• Radar

• Wave Inspector

Mining

In addition to the basic requirements for Travel, a mining ship requires:

• Spectroscope

• Space probe

• Mining ray

• Mineral extractor

• Space compressor

Fighting

There are many different options for engaging in battle, but will typically require, at a minimum the addition of:

• Main weapons

• Armor

• Repair robotsaa