3.1 Overview

The base planet of a solar system has several characteristics, which vary throughout the galaxy. It is highly unlikely that you will find two identical base planets on your travels through the galaxy.

The characteristics are:

• Type of the base planet. There are M-class planets (similar to earth), desert planets, ice plants and gas giants. Every type has other average resources, which can be extracted into raw materials by mines.
• Race of the native inhabitants. There are humanoid lifeforms, insectoids, aquarians (inhabitants of the sea), robots, cyborgs and morphoids. Each of those lifeforms has different characteristics like reproductive rate (determines the population growth) and productive capacity (determines the raw material extraction rate).
• Equatorial diameter of the base planet. This defines the base population of native inhabitants and the population limit. Also, the maximum number of buildable mines depends on the size of the planet.
  
  By the way: the larger a solar system's base planet, the brighter this solar system will be displayed on the star map.

You can construct buildings on every planet you control. They will positively enhance some of the solar systems properties (this feature is only available for pro-users). The buildings and their effect are more thoroughly described in the appendix.

Also, you can determine the solar systems combat strategy, in case the selected system is under attack. If you choose "attack weakest enemy first", the orbital defense systems will open fire on the weakest target. If you chose "attack strongest enemy first", the defense stations will act accordingly.

The planets' native inhabitants produce tax income for you, their legal imperator. You can freely set the tax rate in the range of 0 to 15 percent. Of course, your tax income depends on the tax rate you chose, as well as the size of the native population on the corresponding planet. Please note, that the population grows faster if you set a lower tax rate and grows slower or even stagnates or shrinks if you set the tax rate too high. The last turn's change in population is indicated as the number within brackets below. Also, please note, that the population growth is subject to a maximum population barrier, which depends on the size of the planet. If the populiation gets close to this barrier, the population growth will decrease.

On the bottom of the screen, all upkeep costs are displayed.

The High Council commited every imperator to pay a distributive tax on every solar system controlled. This is called "star tax":

• Every solar system has to pay a tax into a community tax fund. This fund is then payed to every imperator in even shares.
• If you order all of your solar systems by the number of native inhabitants (highest population first), you get the tax rank of the systems.
• The lower a tax rank, the lower the incurred star redistribution tax for that system.
• Example: Your biggest solar system (highest population) has a tax rank of "1" and a star tax burden of 3 percent. The suceeding smaller systems have a higher tax rank and a higher tax burden.

Note: To the right of the solar system selector, you see a clickable icon, which leads to a tabular solar system overview! It helps you to manage high numbers of solar systems.

3.2 Mines

• Titanium is a very tough and extremely light metal, that is used primarily in the construction of star ship hulls. With titanium, an objects' outer structure is modelled, whereas other raw materials are more important for the development of internal components.
• Energium is a bluely glimmering crystal, which has properties, that allow the long-term energy extraction out of this crystal. Ultra compact energy cells are one of the better known products, which can be manufactured out of raw energium. This raw material is used in all energy systems in autonomous components and buildings.
• Optium is the primary ingredient of every modern data and information technology system. After its discovery, optium caused a revolution in information technology hardware. Within a few years the classic silicium based processors where replaced by their "higher technology" counterpart, made out of optium dies.
  All modern optical parallel supercomputers depend on this technology. Additionally, every piece of modern communication hardware and communication links are made of specially refined optium fibres.
• Plasma is a gaseous, highly reactive and highly volatile element, which was firstly discovered by an unmanned space probe in the lower athmosphere of a gas giant. The ultra-high pressure in this place might be the only reason, why natural plasma has not been discovered before. Plasma must be contained in extremely stable special containers. The highly unstable nature of this element is a propertiy, that is used in situations, where high ammounts of energy are needed in minimum time. Modern deflector shield systems and other high energy components utilize high ammounts of professionally contained and controlled plasma.

On the left side, the extension stage of the mines is displayed. By clicking on the appropriate icons, you can either construct new mines or remove them, again. If you plan to build a mine, please consider that the construction costs are 2000 credits (once) and the upkeep costs are 100 credits (every turn) per mine.
Important: If you disassemble mines, the construction costs cannot be refunded.

In the lower left column, the current and maximum numer of erectable mines is displayed.

On the right side, you see the productivity rates of each raw material. As described earlier, they depend on the type of solar system and the race of the native population. One mine exactly produces "productivity rate" raw materials each turn.

Example: 40 energium mines have been build on a planet with an energium productivity rate of 7. This yields 280 units of energium every turn.

Note: The "Ore refinery" building increases the productivity rates by 30 percent

In the lower right column, the last turns' upkeep costs are displayed.

Tip: Please consider building mines on planets with high productivity rates. This will lower your average cost per unit of raw material. (If you only control planets with low productivity rates, you can alternatively buy raw materials on the goods market)

3.3 Factories

The extension of a factory (by one techlevel) costs level² * 500 credits (once), the daily upkeep is level² * 100 credits (every turn). If you choose to tear down factories, the daily upkeep will be reduced, but the installation cost cannot be refunded, so think twice.

Every factory has a productive capacity of level² production points. To produce a good of the level "x", exactly "x" production points are required.

To finally build a good, click on one of the production icons within a factory. There are 1, 5, and 10-fold production icons, just choose one. On the right of these icons the missing input factors are displayed.

Factories gather surplus production points up to the triple of the daily capacity. So you can save production capacity over a few turns to build many units at once.

A factory can only build goods of a techlevel up to its own techlevel!

Classification of factory types:

Supply factories:

• Machinery
• Computers / Optium processing
• Titanium processing
• Energy cells
• Plasma processing

Diese Factories produce goods, which are needed for further processing in the component factories. The maximum techlevel (= extension) of supply factories is unlimited. But, the most advanced supply goods are within the techlevel 8. Therefore, supply factories of a higher techlevel only expant the production capacity, they do not offer further goods.
Example: In a tech 10 machinery factory, the "shield emitter" represents the most advanced product you can build. If you want to construct one of these, click on the "one" (one dot) production icon in the machinery factory. You need the following inputs, before production can take place: titanium: 38 units; energium: 38 units; optium: 60 units; plasma: 95 units. (as reported as in the Kosmors online encyclopedia, which you can access directly through the toolbox in the lower left part of the screen).

Component factories:

• Hulls
• Shields
• Drives
• Lasers
• Torpedos

These factories take supplies (and credits) as input goods and produce ships' components, which can be installed in your spaceships in the shipyard (see below). The "hulls" factory can be extended to a maximum techlevel of 11 (there are only 11 hull types), the other component factories to a techlevel of 12 (here, there are 12 different ships' components for each factory).

Example:

To build the hull of a fregatte, you need a "hull" factory level of 5 and the following resources in stock (of your production planet): credits: 5750. machinery controllers: 10 radar dishes: 5 sensor phalanxes: 5 life support systems: 5 optium fibres: 15 photon controllers: 5 communication modules: 5 titanium plates: 30 hull modules: 5 energium containers: 15 crystal converters: 5 energy converters: 5

Production of goods:

If you click on the "production" link in the factory overview, the corresponding factories' production menu is displayed.

In the lower part of the screen, the goods available for production are displayed (this depends on the technology level of the factory).

On the right side, you see the clickable production icons. If they are marked with a red exclamation mark, there is at least one input factor missing. The quantity and description of the missing input factors are displayed, too.

In component factories, there is a helpful tool, that allows you to produce the necessary missing input factors. Just click on the "produce inputs" link, to automatically try to produce all the necessary input factors for the desired component.

To finalize production, remember to click on the production quantity buttons (1, 5, or 10 units).

Example: A machinery factor of techlevel 3 has a unique installation cost of 500 + 2000 + 4500 credits (you need 3 turns to build it, as you can extend the factory only by one techlevel per turn). The factory has a daily production capacity of 9 production points. With those production points you could build 3 level-3 machinery goods, or 9 level-1 machinery goods or other combinations every turn.

Tip: In the encyclopedia, all goods are described and their necessary input factors are listed.

Tip: Try to fully utilize your productive capacity. As the production process transforms less valuable goods into more valuable ones, you can always profit from them. You could sell those more advanced goods on the goods market, for example.

3.4 Shipyard

Using a shipyard, you can transform your compontents into a spaceship and configure your own spaceships...

Example: If you have a Tech-7 hull, four Tech-6 drives, and up 8 lasers, 5 torpedo launchers and 3 shield systems in stock of a shipyard-solar system (shipyard technology level 7), you can build a considerable warship.

Watch out:

• A shipyard can only work on hulls, whose technology level is smaller or equal than the shipyards technology level!
• A hull can usually only be equipped with components, that are 2 techlevels higher than the hulls' techlevel! An exception is the "Leviathan" which can only be equipped with tech 6 drives.
• Ships always need to be equipped with the full number of equal-techlevel drives (or they would be unable to maneuver in open space)!
• But it is always possible, to configure different types of lasers, torpedos or shields, and also not fully equip your ship with them.
• Every shipyard can only build one ship at a time!

Example: The maximum configuration for a space probe (tech 1 hull) is one tech-3 laser, one tech-3 drive and one tech-3 shield. It has no torpedo hardpoints.

Construction of ships

If you have build a shipyard of at least technology level 1, the "build ship" link appears. If you click on it, you are transported to the construction menu: First, you select a hull (must be in stock), out of which to build the new ship. After that, the hull configuration page is opened. Here, you can select drives, lasers, torpedos and shield systems to install into your new spaceship. Use SHIFT or CTRL in your browser to select multiple components!

If you then click on the "build" button, a last confirmation page is displayed. Here you can name your new ship, review the upkeep (cost per turn) and the combat power, before finally confirming the production.

Now your ship is being produced. You will be notified via spacemail, when the production is complete. See the appendix a for the list of construction times of different hulls.

Note: As a normal user, you can extend the shipyard up to a technology level of 5 and can install components of technology levels up to 7 onto your ships. As a pro user you can build all ships and utilize all components.

Reconfiguration and disassmbly of ships

Ships can be individually configured with components. So you can always upgrade your ships' components, using the reconfigure link in the shipyard. The new components have to be in stock, and the ship that is about to be reconfigured must be in orbit of the shipyard solar system, though.

Note: The ship's drives nees to be firmly connected with the ship's hull. If you want to upgrade the ship's drives, you have to disassmble the ship first.

Note: The disassembly of ships might be a good idea, if you have more powerful replacement ships. You can sell the old parts on the market.

Cost of ships

A ship has a daily upkeep cost of hull tech-level² * 500 credits. Space probes (tech 1 hull) and gliders (tech 2 hull), are an exception, though. They cost 1250 and 2250 credits, respectively.
Please note, that ships of higher tech level have higher upkeep costs than smaller ships, but they are also much more powerful.

3.5 Stock

A solar system's stock stores all goods, that have been produced in the solar system or have been transported to it.

Before you can build any ships, the necessary components (at least a hull and the drives) need to be in stock.

The stock inventory lists all goods and quantities.
On the right is a pulldown menu, which allows transportation of goods to other solar systems. The estimated arrival date is also listed.

Note: Conventional nonbiologic goods are sent via ultra high velocity cargo capsules between the solar systems. They have a daily range of 150 lightyears. If you send some goods from one solar system to another one, which is 200 lightyears apart, the goods will need 2 days to reach their destination.

Note: You can also fill out several rows and choose different targets and quantites in one step. The dispatcher will automatically send all selected goods to their destinations.

When dispatching goods, you have two additional options, you can select:

• Max.: If you choose this option, all goods will be transfered (maximum quantity). You need not type in the quantity yourself.
• Permanent: If you chose this option, a standing order will be created. In every turn, the given quantity will be sent to the destination solar system.

3.6 Shipment

This overview shows the shipment queues on the selected solar system.
The four windows show outgoing goods, incoming goods, and standing orders for outgoing and incoming goods.

If the goods have not yet been sent (i.e. the shipment order was given in the same turn), then the transfer can still be canceled. If the transport capsules are already on their way, there is no way to stop them... :-)

Standing orders can be canceled at any time.