A chronological listing of all in-game announcements for SuperNova Draco by GM Pete Dorman.
NOTE: I only have access to Draco Announcements back to 21 January 2016. I am looking for players who have been playing Draco prior to 21 January 2016 to send in the announcements from their prior turns to add here. Please contact me. - Raven
February 2024 Supernova Update document.
Santa comes early again this year!
A Santa gift of 450 bonus saved lifeform points will be added to your imperial records at the conclusion of this turn. If you have some points already saved, the 450 will simply be added to that total and used normally. If you have none saved, or have already exhausted all of your saved points, the 450 points will be added and flagged just like the original saved points. In this case they will not be triggered for use unless you execute an SRP order. This was done because some players who miss the turn or otherwise don't submit an SRP order might not want the 450 points spent on whatever happens to be in their slot 1 Research Center next turn. Thus, if you have no saved points left over and do not submit an SRP order next turn, you will still have the 450 points saved - they will be triggered and used the first time you submit an SRP order (just like on the original setup).
Two updates go into effect this cycle: [1] Legendary character production boost chances have been increases slightly, with Martial Artists and Religious Leaders receiving more than the others, and [2] Repair Bay capability has doubled to 250 million integrity each to better facilitate field repairs. These affect both Andromeda and Draco. --Pete
To counter dramatically increasing postage and printing costs along with general inflation on the cost of everything else, starting May 15th we're raising prices slightly, by $0.50/turn sheet. Though it's not a big change, it should help quite a bit in covering our costs. --Pete
Santa comes early again this year!
A Santa gift of 400 bonus saved lifeform points will be added to your imperial records at the conclusion of this turn. If you have some points already saved, the 400 will simply be added to that total and used normally. If you have none saved, or have already exhausted all of your saved points, the 400 points will be added and flagged just like the original saved points. In this case they will not be triggered for use unless you execute an SRP order. This was done because some players who miss the turn or otherwise don't submit an SRP order might not want the 400 points spent on whatever happens to be in their slot 1 Research Center next turn. Thus, if you have no saved points left over and do not submit an SRP order next turn, you will still have the 400 points saved - they will be triggered and used the first time you submit an SRP order (just like on the original setup).
As part of some general database maintenance, every empire will have a DECF, HOME order executed at the conclusion of this turn cycle to clean out empty fleets. This won't cost you anything and will happen at the very end of the turn (at the same time Santa points are added in). --Pete
I'll be out of the office at the end of August, from the 25th (Thursday) to the 28th (Sunday night). As a result, I'm going to start processing that Draco cycle late on TUESDAY NIGHT to get an early start. I'm hoping for very few ground and space battles that cycle to give me the best shot at being able to print and mail the hard copy results on Thursday before I take off. The next cycle is not a good one for you to use in a major offensive --Pete
I'll be out of the office at the end of August, from the 25th (Thursday) to the 28th (Sunday night). As a result, I'm going to start processing that Draco cycle late on Tuesday night to get an early start. I'm hoping for very few ground and space battles that cycle (hey, I can dream) to give me the best shot at being able to print and mail the hard copy results on Thursday before I take off. That cycle is not a good one for you to use in a major offensive--I just wanted to give you a heads-up even though that's 4 weeks away --Pete
The USPS raised postal rates again (they've been doing that every 6 months lately), this time by a whopping 6.5 %. Paper and printer toner prices are also up significantly over this time last year. I don't like raising prices, and will hold off for now as a result; hopefully printing and mailing costs will stop rising --Pete
In a desperate attempt to get the Draco results processed, printed and mailed before an expected snowstorm hits this area tomorrow (Friday) night, it is likely that I won't be able to update your account balances on your results. If I am able to do so I'll put a note in which will appear where you usually see your newly researchable items (right before the main Fleet Report section).
For newer players: don't include items held in Cargo Bays, Fuel Tankage, Fighter Bays or Drone Racks into your ship design NUD's--such as Fuel, Iron, or various fighters or drones. Those items are instead loaded into a fleet via LC orders. Also I've seen a fair number of NUD's for Starships halt because they have no engines, and they end up being converted to be Surface Fortress designs instead. Sometimes this happens because the NUD had a missing comma (throwing off the item, quantity pairs) and other times it's just because you forgot to add in an engine with a quantity. Starships need at least one engine, even just one Mk I Nuclear Engine, or they end up as Surface Fortress designs. --Pete
The key word ALL is not a substitute for 'a very large individual number' - for example, OC, 1, 2, ALL is fine because it offloads everything in Fleet Cargo, regardless of quantity, but OC, 1, 2, Iron, ALL is not (use an actual number for the quantity in the Iron example) --Pete
Account balances not updated for these results -- will get that caught up next time. --Pete
I'm moving back to Colorado during the second week of May--that's good for a lot of reasons (Denver is more centralized in the country for mailing purposes, for one thing), but it does entail a 2000 mile road trip. I'm timing it to start the drive right after the May 10th cycle, arrive just in time for the May 17th run, and not lose a beat to avoid any turn delays. For both of those cycles it would be a good idea on your part to get your orders in early and avoid any major engagements--processing time will be very tight on both sides of my trip. Getting everything set up for the May 17th run and jumping right into processing on arrival will be interesting to say the least. With any luck everything will go smoothly, but there's always the possibility of DMX interference, Imperial entanglements or whatever else. I will say that I'm looking forward to getting back to Colorado --Pete
USPS holiday mail delays have been brutal for the past month, causing some players to miss getting their orders in this cycle. I had to start processing this turn early on Wednesday to have any hope of getting the hard copy results printed and mailed out on Friday as the USPS is closed on Saturday, New Year's Day. Here's hoping that mail times get back to normal in January! --Pete
When assigning a leader to a world, use this type of format: AC, 1, World, Able, 5b without any extra 0, entries in the middle. I have also made a pass through the main processing code to catch as many case sensitive issues as I can find, so AC, 1, WORLD, Able, 5b should also work. --Pete
The special keywords FUEL or SPLIT (either one can be used) are now supported for any quantity field in an RN (Reorganize Naval) order. If you do that, a FUEL order will be executed for you at no order charge immediately following the RN, using the two RN fleets and the SPLIT option. The FUEL order does not consume an action point for either fleet.
I'm taking over from Russ on the turn entry side of things, while continuing to run the actual turn cycles, so if you previously sent your orders directly to Russ, you should send them to me instead. Russ will continue to handle everything related to your accounts, so you can keep dealing with him with regard to sending in funds and so forth. I have a corrlinks account for those of you using that system, so you can send your orders to me that way if you like. This will be a big increase in my workload and I'll try to keep up - nice, clean, easy to read orders make all the difference as I get up to speed on turn entry. If you have any way to send in your orders via the turn entry program, perhaps by having someone else key in your orders and having them send them to me, that would make a huge difference. Hand entering your orders is a massive time sink, so if you're able to send in orders by email, it would help in a very big way. Otherwise, the usual little things make all the difference for turn submissions that I have to key in: spaces instead of commas for large numbers (because each entry in an order is already separated by a comma, making more commas very confusing), number your orders (1- 40 or 1-80 or whatever) and a nice blank line after every 5 orders helps a ton. Email guys just keep using the entry program as you always do. --Pete
I decided to run a DECF, HOME instead of DECF, ALL as part of the DRACO database maintenance. This way you get to keep all of your empty fleets and their settings, causing less disruption to your plans of galactic dominance. --Pete
Santa comes early again this year!
A Santa gift of 350 bonus saved lifeform points will be added to your imperial records at the conclusion of this turn. If you have some points already saved, the 350 will simply be added to that total and used normally. If you have none saved, or have already exhausted all of your saved points, the 350 points will be added and flagged just like the original saved points. In this case they will not be triggered for use unless you execute an SRP order. This was done because some players who miss the turn or otherwise don't submit an SRP order might not want the 350 points spent on whatever happens to be in their slot 1 Research Center next turn. Thus, if you have no saved points left over and do not submit an SRP order next turn, you will still have the 350 points saved - they will be triggered and used the first time you submit an SRP order (just like on the original setup).
As part of some general database maintenance, every empire will have a DECF, ALL order executed at the conclusion of the next turn cycle to clean out empty fleets. This won't cost you anything and will happen at the very end of the turn (at the same time Santa points are added in). --Pete
In an extremely bloody battle on the Carthage home world with heavy losses suffered by both sides despite troopers all around being exceedingly difficult to kill, Orks invasion forces managed to win out over their opponents, claiming the Carthage planet as their own.
Filth of the Devoured Hordes encountered no defenses on the Pontifex Hegemony home planet, capturing it with ease.
Both the Krine and Phtorr troopers proved extraordinarily difficult to kill in a low odds engagement, with the Krine eventually winning out.
Valtruvian Empire defenders were extremely difficult to kill, but there just weren't enough of them to hold off the Her Divine Colony invasion force, which also enjoyed a sizable technology advantage.
Sea of Life assault troopers were both more numerous and tougher than the Mishran Dominion home world defenders, proving victorious after a short engagement between otherwise equally-equipped opponents.
Living Stone defense troopers proved outstandingly difficult to kill and repelled several invasion attempts, but House Agano reinforcements eventually arrived with far superior technology and numbers to overwhelm them and capture the Living Stone home planet.
This is a re-post of various messages from a while back - there's nothing new here, just notes for newer players on some rules changes that have appeared over the years. --Pete
(1) There has been an update to the DIV (Division Assignment) order. The format is the same as always, but if you use the following format, all divisions will be transferred from the Army directly back into the Pop Group without needing an orbiting transport to pick them up and then drop them off. This not only saves you potentially many orders, but gets around the archaic requirement of needing troop transports in orbit for divisions that should have just walked / slithered / crawled / flown / tunneled / whatever 100 meters outside of their base back into the general population group. Use the key word DETACH as the third entry in the DIV order. It is not case sensitive, so you could enter Detach or DETACH or even deTacH and it would work fine.
Example: DIV, 1435, 12, DETACH
The above order will detach every division in army # 12 and place all of them in pop group # 1435. All of the normal restrictions for DIV still apply, so army # 12 needs to be located in pop group # 1435. There must be at least 1 division in the army to be detached. You need to own pop group # 1435. Nothing else is done to army # 12, so it still exists as an empty shell at its current location. You could then issue a normal DIV order to transfer some divisions back into it, or load some of the divisions onto an orbiting troop transport and then issue a DIV, 1435, 12, ALL to transfer all of the remaining divisions back into army # 12, or leave them in the pop group for future use.
Note that divisions in a pop group do not normally defend the world they are on, but this is not a certainty. To be absolutely certain that theywill fight, be sure to DIV them from the pop group into an army.
You would still use DGF (Disband Ground Force) to completely destroy an army that has no divisions in it and is therefore completely empty. DGF just destroys an already empty army id #, and there is no change to the DGF order.
(2) The TR order supports the ALL key word so that you can enter TR,1,2,ALL and it will transfer every item from pop group 1 to pop group 2. Note that this does not mean you can use the ALL key word in place of a quantity for a particular item; thus, TR,1,2,Iron,ALL is not legal--you should use TR,1,2,Iron,999999 or some other actual number for the quantity of Iron that you want to transfer.
(3) Because the Power cost of maintaining thermal regulator class installations (those that favorably extend your temperature range for attrition purposes) was so high, only 1 of these is needed now in a population group instead of 1 per 100 population. The Thermal Transfer Center and Deep Core Heatsink are the more commonly-known types of these installations.
(4) Global Exclusion lists for LC (Load Cargo) and OC (Offload Cargo) have been added. During execution of an LC, ALL order, if an item is found in the Load Cargo exclusion list, that item will not load. It is skipped as if it was not present in the population group. The same is true for OC, ALL orders - items in Fleet Cargo will be skipped if they are encountered during an OC, ALL order and are listed in your OC exclusion list. To add items to your LC exclusion list, issue an LC order with the special keyword GLOBAL EXCLUDE as the first item. Example: 'LC, 12345, 25, GLOBAL EXCLUDE, 0, Processed Radioactives, 0, Light Beam Laser, 0' would add Processed Radioactives and Light Beam Laser to your LC exclude list. This order acts like a toggle, so if either or both of those items happened to be on your LC exclude list already, they would be removed. 'OC, 12345, 501, GLOBAL EXCLUDE, 0, Fuel, 0, Light Drone, 0, Interceptor, 0' would add Fuel, Light Drone and Interceptor to your OC exclude list (or remove them if already on that list). These lists are only checked when an LC, ALL or OC, ALL order is encountered. It is also checked if you happen to enter an LC, ALL NO FUEL or OC, ALL NO FUEL order. Imperial Flag has been added to the LC exclusion list for every empire. The population group and fleet #'s entered in these GLOBAL EXCLUDE LC and OC orders do not matter, because these are global lists used for your entire empire. You can still use the ALL NO FUEL option if you like, but this system sort of replaces it - you could simply add Fuel to your LC exclude list.
(5) Specific LC and OC item exclusions has been added as well, for use with regular versions of those orders. Just list an item like you would normally, but use the keyword EXCLUDE as the quantity and that item will be skipped. Example: OC, 12345, 34, Construction Materials, 25000, Fuel, EXCLUDE, Crystals, 10000 would load Construction Materials and Crystals but would skip loading Fuel. These specific exclusions are checked during LC, ALL or OC, ALL orders as well as regular LC and OC orders. For the most part I'd expect the global lists to have items added such as Fuel, Processed Radioactives and Water (things needed for Power generation) or OC exclusions for expendables such as fighters or drones. Using specific exclusions during an LC, ALL order would look like this: 'LC, 12345, 25, ALL, 0, Fuel, EXCLUDE, Construction Materials, EXCLUDE, Processed Radioactives, EXCLUDE'. This would load everything from pop group # 12345 onto fleet # 25, but would skip Fuel, Construction Materials and Processed Radioactives. Make sure to put a number in for the quantity field right after the ALL keyword - it isn't used for anything, but you need to get past it to start entering excluded item names...so put some number in there and then start keying in , EXCLUDE pairs as if you were entering a regular LC or OC order.
(6) Note that the SCRP (Scrap Ship) order will jettison all Fleet Cargo. This occurs immediately after the exit routine error checks but before ships actually begin scrapping, so as long as it is a legal order, cargo will be jettisoned even if later on no ships end up actually scrapping. WARNING: All cargo is lost even if only one of many ships in the fleet is scrapped.
(7) The NENC (Naval Encounter Plan) order has been updated to allow you to change all of your fleets that currently have one FBP to any other one that you like by entering the 'from' and 'to' Force Battle Plans in that order and the keyword CHANGE ALL as the fleet #. Example: 'NENC, CHANGE ALL, Column Attack, Standard Line' would run through all of your fleets that are currently on the Column Attack FBP and change them to Standard Line. You might notice that the entry program saves the CHANGE ALL keyword in the fleet number box as a zero - that's ok as you can actually enter CHANGE ALL or simply a zero for the fleet # (either one works). You can make changes to the new Standard Line or Orbital Defense FBP's using FORM (Formation Combat Orders) orders just like your other Force Battle Plans if you like. They were just added to give you a couple more default plans to work with.
(8) The DECF (Decommission Fleet) order can now be used to send all of your empty fleets back to your homeworld in a single order. Enter the keyword HOME as the Fleet ID # and all fleets with no ships in them will be relocated at your homeworld.
(9) A new order, FNAM (Rename Fleets) has been added - it is very similar to the NAME (Name Legendary Characters) order, allowing you to rename up to five fleets per FNAM.
(10) Please note that you cannot have two Standing Orders with the same Priority #. A fair number of ESTA orders on this turn tried to chanage an existing Standing Order to have a duplicate Priority value; I added +1 to the Priorities to get them to run.
(11) DELS (Delete Standing Order) has been added, allowing you to delete up to 5 Standing Orders per DELS entry.
(12) ESTA (Edit Standing Order Priority) has been added, allowing you to change the priority of up to 5 Standing Orders per ESTA entry. Note that you cannot change one to the same priority as another existing standing order, so you should space out your standing orders by 5's or 10's to give yourself some room to adjust their priority #'s.
(13) The NAME (Name Legendary Character) order has been updated to allow up to 5 new names per order.
(14) The OC (Offload Cargo) order has been updated to allow for the keyword ALL NO FUEL along with the usual ALL option - as you might expect, this allows a fleet to offload everything in its cargo bays except for Fuel.
(15) Ship design names cannot have single or double quotation marks in them, so an NUD with a ship name of QUEEN'S FURY is not legal.
Whifferdill Concordium assault troops pounded The Unstoppable Force's home world defenses into submission, taking control of the planet after hard fighting by both sides.
A Followers of Kronos invasion force barely squeaked out a victory over the Spirit's of Yggdrasil home planet defenses, conquering the world after a very close battle that involved only a small number of divisions on each side.
Bessisstine ground forces pounded the Drogan Empire's home world defenses into submission, taking control of the planet after a brief engagement.
Skeksis assault troopers enjoyed a significant technological advantage over the Cthaeh defenders, granting them a relatively easy victory on the Cthaeh home planet.
Federal States of Mooge and Saurial Order forces met on the Saurial home world in fierce combat--though the Saurialians were dug in and fought bravely, they were somewhat outnumbered and faced generally superior Mooge weapons, eventually being overwhelmed and conquered by the invaders.
Air Creepers assault troopers held significant advantages over their Raksashan opponents in almost every way, rapidly conquering the Raksashan home planet while suffering very few casualties in the process.
Though the Ceretori Flock deployed onto the Jade Ascendancy home planet with a very small assault force, the Jade troopers, themselves small in number, stood no chance against the more powerful Ceretori weapons and general technological superiority. As a result, it did not take long for the Flock to reign supreme over the once proud Jade home world.
Skraeling defenders fought with a ferocity even they did not know they had, even deploying tactical nuclear weapons in a desperate attempt to fend off the DragonianX attack on their beloved home world. Even dug in and nearly impossible to kill, the Skraeling troopers were eventually overwhelmed by vastly superior DragonianX advanced weapons, losing their home world in the process.
This is a re-post of various messages from a while back - there's nothing new here, just notes for newer players on some rules changes that have appeared over the years. --Pete
[1] There has been an update to the DIV (Division Assignment) order. The format is the same as always, but if you use the following format, all divisions will be transferred from the Army directly back into the Pop Group without needing an orbiting transport to pick them up and then drop them off. This not only saves you potentially many orders, but gets around the archaic requirement of needing troop transports in orbit for divisions that should have just walked / slithered / crawled / flown / tunneled / whatever 100 meters outside of their base back into the general population group. Use the key word DETACH as the third entry in the DIV order. It is not case sensitive, so you could enter Detach or DETACH or even deTacH and it would work fine.
Example: DIV, 1435, 12, DETACH
The above order will detach every division in army # 12 and place all of them in pop group # 1435. All of the normal restrictions for DIV still apply, so army # 12 needs to be located in pop group # 1435. There must be at least 1 division in the army to be detached. You need to own pop group # 1435. Nothing else is done to army # 12, so it still exists as an empty shell at its current location. You could then issue a normal DIV order to transfer some divisions back into it, or load some of the divisions onto an orbiting troop transport and then issue a DIV, 1435, 12, ALL to transfer all of the remaining divisions back into army # 12, or leave them in the pop group for future use.
Note that divisions in a pop group do not normally defend the world they are on, but this is not a certainty. To be absolutely certain that theywill fight, be sure to DIV them from the pop group into an army.
You would still use DGF (Disband Ground Force) to completely destroy an army that has no divisions in it and is therefore completely empty. DGF just destroys an already empty army id #, and there is no change to the DGF order.
[2] The TR order supports the ALL key word so that you can enter TR,1,2,ALL and it will transfer every item from pop group 1 to pop group 2. Note that this does not mean you can use the ALL key word in place of a quantity for a particular item; thus, TR,1,2,Iron,ALL is not legal--you should use TR,1,2,Iron,999999 or some other actual number for the quantity of Iron that you want to transfer.
[3] Because the Power cost of maintaining thermal regulator class installations (those that favorably extend your temperature range for attrition purposes) was so high, only 1 of these is needed now in a population group instead of 1 per 100 population. The Thermal Transfer Center and Deep Core Heatsink are the more commonly-known types of these installations.
[4] Global Exclusion lists for LC (Load Cargo) and OC (Offload Cargo) have been added. During execution of an LC, ALL order, if an item is found in the Load Cargo exclusion list, that item will not load. It is skipped as if it was not present in the population group. The same is true for OC, ALL orders - items in Fleet Cargo will be skipped if they are encountered during an OC, ALL order and are listed in your OC exclusion list. To add items to your LC exclusion list, issue an LC order with the special keyword GLOBAL EXCLUDE as the first item. Example: 'LC, 12345, 25, GLOBAL EXCLUDE, 0, Processed Radioactives, 0, Light Beam Laser, 0' would add Processed Radioactives and Light Beam Laser to your LC exclude list. This order acts like a toggle, so if either or both of those items happened to be on your LC exclude list already, they would be removed. 'OC, 12345, 501, GLOBAL EXCLUDE, 0, Fuel, 0, Light Drone, 0, Interceptor, 0' would add Fuel, Light Drone and Interceptor to your OC exclude list (or remove them if already on that list). These lists are only checked when an LC, ALL or OC, ALL order is encountered. It is also checked if you happen to enter an LC, ALL NO FUEL or OC, ALL NO FUEL order. Imperial Flag has been added to the LC exclusion list for every empire. The population group and fleet #'s entered in these GLOBAL EXCLUDE LC and OC orders do not matter, because these are global lists used for your entire empire. You can still use the ALL NO FUEL option if you like, but this system sort of replaces it - you could simply add Fuel to your LC exclude list.
[5] Specific LC and OC item exclusions has been added as well, for use with regular versions of those orders. Just list an item like you would normally, but use the keyword EXCLUDE as the quantity and that item will be skipped. Example: OC, 12345, 34, Construction Materials, 25000, Fuel, EXCLUDE, Crystals, 10000 would load Construction Materials and Crystals but would skip loading Fuel. These specific exclusions are checked during LC, ALL or OC, ALL orders as well as regular LC and OC orders. For the most part I'd expect the global lists to have items added such as Fuel, Processed Radioactives and Water (things needed for Power generation) or OC exclusions for expendables such as fighters or drones. Using specific exclusions during an LC, ALL order would look like this: 'LC, 12345, 25, ALL, 0, Fuel, EXCLUDE, Construction Materials, EXCLUDE, Processed Radioactives, EXCLUDE'. This would load everything from pop group # 12345 onto fleet # 25, but would skip Fuel, Construction Materials and Processed Radioactives. Make sure to put a number in for the quantity field right after the ALL keyword - it isn't used for anything, but you need to get past it to start entering excluded item names...so put some number in there and then start keying in , EXCLUDE pairs as if you were entering a regular LC or OC order.
[6] Note that the SCRP (Scrap Ship) order will jettison all Fleet Cargo. This occurs immediately after the exit routine error checks but before ships actually begin scrapping, so as long as it is a legal order, cargo will be jettisoned even if later on no ships end up actually scrapping. WARNING: All cargo is lost even if only one of many ships in the fleet is scrapped.
[7] The NENC (Naval Encounter Plan) order has been updated to allow you to change all of your fleets that currently have one FBP to any other one that you like by entering the 'from' and 'to' Force Battle Plans in that order and the keyword CHANGE ALL as the fleet #. Example: 'NENC, CHANGE ALL, Column Attack, Standard Line' would run through all of your fleets that are currently on the Column Attack FBP and change them to Standard Line. You might notice that the entry program saves the CHANGE ALL keyword in the fleet number box as a zero - that's ok as you can actually enter CHANGE ALL or simply a zero for the fleet # (either one works). You can make changes to the new Standard Line or Orbital Defense FBP's using FORM (Formation Combat Orders) orders just like your other Force Battle Plans if you like. They were just added to give you a couple more default plans to work with.
[8] The DECF (Decommission Fleet) order can now be used to send all of your empty fleets back to your homeworld in a single order. Enter the keyword HOME as the Fleet ID # and all fleets with no ships in them will be relocated at your homeworld.
[9] A new order, FNAM (Rename Fleets) has been added - it is very similar to the NAME (Name Legendary Characters) order, allowing you to rename up to five fleets per FNAM.
[10] Please note that you cannot have two Standing Orders with the same Priority #. A fair number of ESTA orders on this turn tried to chanage an existing Standing Order to have a duplicate Priority value; I added +1 to the Priorities to get them to run.
[11] DELS (Delete Standing Order) has been added, allowing you to delete up to 5 Standing Orders per DELS entry.
[12] ESTA (Edit Standing Order Priority) has been added, allowing you to change the priority of up to 5 Standing Orders per ESTA entry. Note that you cannot change one to the same priority as another existing standing order, so you should space out your standing orders by 5's or 10's to give yourself some room to adjust their priority #'s.
[13] The NAME (Name Legendary Character) order has been updated to allow up to 5 new names per order.
[14] The OC (Offload Cargo) order has been updated to allow for the keyword ALL NO FUEL along with the usual ALL option - as you might expect, this allows a fleet to offload everything in its cargo bays except for Fuel.
[15] Ship design names cannot have single or double quotation marks in them, so an NUD with a not legal.
To counter some rare fighter/drone overloading issues with the RN order, I'm considering adding a free REBASE to those RN's. It would just trigger on its own as part of the RN and wouldn't count as an issued order or take up an extra order pulse. If this would somehow cause detrimental effects to your undoubtedly nefarious plans, let me know. --Pete
Krusty Krab ground forces overwhelmed the virtually nonexistent Polaris Confederacy defenses on the Polaris home world, easily taking control of the planet.
5th Degree assault units proved victorious over the defenses present on the Taylored home world but both sides put up a good fight. The Taylored divisions possessed superior technology which made a big difference, but their troopers were ill- equipped physically to survive extended engagements, and in the end their beloved home world fell to the invaders.
Fighting took place all over the Yzlin' Zentron Collective home planet in relatively balanced engagements, but the Templars soldiers were physically superior and had numerous technological advantages involving ground combat. In the end the Templars invasion force was just too strong, and the Yzlin' home planet was eventually subjugated.
Heavily armored Adeptus Astartes troopers faced off against a massive Black Hole Dynasty defense force on the Black Hole home world, but though they were significantly outnumbered, the superior Adeptus soldiers used their extremely advanced weapons to good advantage, eventually overcoming the Dynasty defenses to capture their home world.
Santa comes early again this year!
A Santa gift of 250 bonus saved lifeform points will be added to your imperial records at the conclusion of this turn. If you have some points already saved, the 250 will simply be added to that total and used normally. If you have none saved, or have already exhausted all of your saved points, the 250 points will be added and flagged just like the original saved points. In this case they will not be triggered for use unless you execute an SRP order. This was done because some players who miss the turn or otherwise don't submit an SRP order might not want the 250 points spent on whatever happens to be in their slot 1 Research Center next turn. Thus, if you have no saved points left over and do not submit an SRP order next turn, you will still have the 250 points saved - they will be triggered and used the first time you submit an SRP order (just like on the original setup).
Also, Santa has instructed his elves to add 4th generation items to the list of goodies your survey teams can find during EXPL missions (formerly 3rd generation and below only). Finally, your scientists will be able to 'Slot One' up to 4th generation items instead of just 3rd and below. Santa instructed his elves to avoid adding this last feature into his bag 'o presents until after this turn cycle, so as to avoid fouling up potential slotting plans your researchers might have put into place this turn.
A fleet with an aggressive ROE setting but no weapons on any of its ships can still initiate combat, though sometimes I catch these instances and cancel an engagement. This eats up precious processing time so I will likely check less often in the future--your unarmed Colonial Liners could easily destroy themselves if given an aggressive ROE setting, so you would be wise to change those fleets to Quebec. Note that when you use NEWF, the new fleet takes on the ROE setting of the active fleet in that order--this is probably what is tripping you up with aggressive colony or merchant fleet settings. --Pete
Krusty Krab ground forces overwhelmed the generally unprepared United World Alliance defenses on the UWA home world, easily taking control of the planet after only minimal fighting.
Klade assault troopers crushed the defenses present on the Tumbleweed Triumvirate home world but not before suffering losses of their own.
The Ainur offered trivial resistance when faced by Eridani Enclaves invasion forces, quickly losing their home planet in the process.
Kemahlan Construct troops were told to expect heavy fighting on the Labyrinth Empire home world, but had little difficulty in overcoming various Labyrinth fortified positions which proved less numerous and far less sturdy than Kemahlan Army Intelligence had predicted.
The Templars assault force did not enjoy a severe numerical advantage over their Bore-Dom rivals, but they possessed far superior weapons and support equipment, giving them a decisive edge as they rolled over the Bore-Dom home planet's defenses.
The Hand of God appeared over the Tzeri Ascendancy home world, and soon thereafter the Tzeri defenses were crushed by Hand troops in an easy victory.
The Stregan Dominion stood no chance against the vastly superior DragonianX invasion force they were tasked to repel, and though they fought bravely, their beloved home planet swiftly fell.
[1] Excess power now sorts by population group #
[2] Rebasing fighters and drones between fleets is now live. Here's how it works: two colocated fleets launch all of theirfighters and drones into a shared combined pool, and then one of the fleets is fully loaded with as many of the best versions of fighters and drones that can fit into its Fighter Bays and Drone Racks. Priority is given first to Wild Weasel Drones and Hummers, and then to the highest tech level units of each type with ties broken alphabetically. Once one fleet has filled all of its Bays and Racks, all remaining fighters and drones return to the other fleet. These transfers can take place anywhere so long as the fleets are colocated, so there is no need to OC/LC at a pop group. A good example of use would be to load up a carrier with superior versions of a new fighter type that you just researched and built, move it to meet up with another fleet that is on station at a warp point in some distant star system, and then refill it giving priority to the best available fighters. The format for this is RN, 1, 2, REBASE with nothing else needed in the order. In this example, fleet 2 gets all of the best fighters or drones, with anything that cannot fit returning to fleet 1. --Pete
[1] Recently I informed several players that CONV is not a legal Convoy Route order, but that is incorrect. CONV can indeed exist as a legal Convoy Route order, but it can present some unusual behavior should a fleet executing a Convoy Route possess excess action points when it encounters a CONV order (you should expect those action points to be lost, effectively causing a bit of a 'stutter step' for those fleets when swapping to a new Convoy Route). This does not affect normal manually-issued CONV orders and none of this is new--it's just an artifact of how fleets can interact with the CONV order during their own Convoy Route execution.
[2] SKOC error check updated to better describe skim failure in the event the fleet is not over the planet where the OC pop group exists. SKOC is a special convoy route sub-order that is summoned when a convoy route consists solely of a SKIM followed by an OC order (or OC and then a SKIM). It is similar but not identical to separate SKIM and OC orders in that it combines all of a fleet's action points into a single giant SKIM + OC to speed processing. SKOC has been around for a long time so this is not anything new. However, if you want a fleet to just SKIM wherever it might be, use a convoy route that just has SKIM in it to avoid the pop group colocation error.
[3] I am working on code to allow for more intelligent in-space interfleet fighter/drone transfers. The idea is to form a pool of all of two fleet's fighters and drones and then transfer the highest technology versions of each until the priority fleet's Fighter Bays and Drone Racks are full, and then landing the rest on the secondary fleet. This should allow for much simpler upgrading of a fleet's fighter and drone ordnance without having to move both fleets back to a world for messy OC/LC operations. This would be particularly useful if the fleets are located in a star system with no planets or there simply are no nearby pop groups. I hope to have this complete before next turn. --Pete
DragonianX ground forces were busy recently, assaulting the home planets of both the Tambopata Dominion and the Urodelan Realm. In each case the fighting was incredibly intense with all troopers involved proving themselves to be incredibly tough, difficult to kill and unwilling to surrender at any cost. DragonianX forces were successful in conquering each world, but not without suffering significant losses. The Tambopata Dominion fell only because their ground combat technology was flatly inferior while Urodelan Realm forces utilized significant numbers of tactical nuclear weapons and very nearly pushed the invaders off of their war-stricken world, only losing in the end by way of raw attrition.
Ainur assault divisions landed all over the Tanar'ri home planet and captured every major population center on the world after swiftly overcoming the inferior Tanar'ri ground defenses.
Loraxian Blue combat divisions had no difficulty wiping out the defenses put forth by the inhabitants of the Infernium home world, rather easily capturing the world after a brief engagement.
Hanuman Empire troopers deployed onto the Greymen home planet via orbital drop pods, streaming forth in a coordinated world- wide assault. Though resistance was expected, the sheer determination of the defenders shocked the Hanuman commanders. Very nearly impossible to kill with conventional weapons, the Greymen troops existed in far larger numbers than naval intelligence had earlier reported. In many cases heavy weapons were required just to kill individual Greymen soldiers as concentrated firepower that would have shredded an entire Hanuman squad seemed to have little effect on the tough Greymen. In the end, superior Hanuman weaponry combined with an extreme expenditure of munitions carried the fight, but the world was secured only after the attackers had suffered extremely heavy casualties of their own.
Krusty Krab ground forces arrived in force on the Rokugan home world, establishing and fortifying multiple beachheads before gathering themselves for a full scale ground assault on the Rokugan defenses. In short order Krab units had occupied every major population center on the planet.
A Kemahlan Construct assault proved victorious over the defenses presented by Dominus Infernus Empyrean defenses, capturing and later establishing garrisons on all key cities on the planet. Scattered resistence continued for some time and in several cases tactical nuclear weapons were used to vaporize Kemahlan fortified positions, but in the end the Construct made it clear that its troops were there to stay.
DragonianX troop shuttles landed all over the The Caerillion Domain's home planet, swiftly deploying their heavy equipment in preparation for a simultaneous world wide attack on the Caerillion defense forces. The DragonianX attack plan worked to perfection despite heavy Domain counterattacks, and the world fell as a result.
Somewhat surprisingly, Brotherhood of Steel advance teams reported minimal defenses on the Tragic Kingdom home world; the main Brotherhood invasion force expected some sort of trap, but encountered very little resistance as it swept over every land mass to conquer the planet.
Myrmex Astartes assault troopers poured forth from their troop shuttles in a massive assault against Seanchan's homeworld ground forces. The defenders fought bravely but were soon overcome by the vastly superior Astartes invasion force - their fortified positions crumbled and the world quickly fell.
The Creeping Doom had arrived in force, and the Helios Prime home defenses were woefully inadequate to repel the invaders-- it was not long before CDM soldiers had squashed all resistence. Soon thereafter the sight of Creeping Doom troopers floating serenely over every major city was common as the invaders basked in the oxygen-rich atmosphere of their newly- conquered planet.
Adeptus Astartes troops, arriving in advanced orbital drop pods, were shocked to find almost no defenders attempting to repel their assault. The Minions of Nyx did put up token resistance, but their soldiers were weak and clumsy while being outfitted with inferior weaponry that their tiny bush-like stalks could barely even hold. They didn't stand a chance.
Interstellar trading and rumormonger dens were buzzing with activity as word poured in detailing a whopping six major worlds falling to neighboring district governors. It is clear that basic Bastion defenses are highly suspect in even reasonably developed regions. Construction of superior fortified defenses, fast-tracked pursuit of advanced armor and space combat weaponry, forging of strong defensive pacts to discourage attacks or simple conscription of massive armies combined with heavy ground combat research investment are all likely required at this point in even moderately dangerous areas of what has come to be known as the Draco star cluster.
Loraxian Blue # 5363 reconnaissance teams landed all over the Horde # 8561 home world in preparation for the primary invasion force's arrival. Shortly thereafter they were indeed bolstered by substantial Loraxian ground forces as the invasion developed as planned. Horde defenders fought back with everything at their disposal, but were eventually overwhelmed and their beloved home planet fell to the invaders.
Novus Plantarum Imperatorium Lux Specere # 6757 planetary defense installations ramped up to full alert and militias all over their world were called up soon after the Novus orbital defenses fell. Digging in to prepare for the expected invasion by the hated Creeping Doom # 6044, NPI troopers nervously awaited the inevitable. Sure enough, Creeping Doom troopers arrived in force--hideous plant-like creatures floating weirdly over the battlefield, surprisingly similar to the NPI troopers themselves. The defenses were no match for the superior numbers of the invasion force, however, and the world eventually fell under the thorny grip of the Creeping Doom.....
Adeptus Astartes # 7994 troopers, resplendent in their gleaming armor, wielding their advanced weaponry with practiced precision and in every way clearly forged in the scalding inferno of battle, marched inexorably over every defensive position the Thealor # 7304 could muster. It was no contest as the Astartes warriors fearlessly swept them from the battlefield, swiftly taking control of the Thealor home planet and placing it firmly under their control.
Rumors of an impending attack by the so-called 'MDK Alliance' were confirmed as space forces from multiple empires arrived to pummel the Guardian of the Rift # 7000's home system defenses. Rift space defenses fiercely battled back, but the attacking Orbital Battle Stations built in-system and towed from world to world proved too strong. After a frightening display of firepower and intense engagements at the Rift home planet and its colonies, massive numbers of DragonianX # 9367 soldiers deployed to the planetary surface. Shortly thereafter the world fell under DragonianX control.
Valorians # 8335 troopers clutched their weapons in anticipation of the inevitable ground assault by House Agano # 9587 forces. The results of the destruction of their orbital defenses, swept aside with ease by House Agano naval assets, could still be seen floating in orbit, the detritus of the battle still visible even from the surface. It was a slaughter on the ground as well, with Agano soldiers wielding superior weaponry and possessing advanced artillery, anti-tank rockets, aircraft and other technologies to support their invasion.
Skeksis # 9981 troopers deployed via orbital drop pods, arriving in style at the Cult of the Galactic Wyrm # 7941 home world. The Cult defenses stood no chance as the vastly superior Skeksis soldiers swiftly overran whatever fortifications the Cult army had available. In desperation, Wyrm civilians took to the skies, flinging themselves bodily into the despised Skeksis invaders, reptilian wings and claws blackening the skies in a terrifying display of resistance, but it was no avail as the attackers were simply too strong. Cult defenses crumbled and their beloved home planet fell, their 'Winged Serpent Swallowing The Galaxy' torn down and replaced by the Skeksis 'Planet Grasped In Raptor-Like Claws'.....
Santa comes early again this year!
The Santa gift of 200 bonus saved lifeform points will be added to your imperial records at the conclusion of this turn. If you have some points already saved, the 200 will simply be added to that total and used normally. If you have none saved, or have already exhausted all of your saved points, the 200 points will be added and flagged just like the original saved points. In this case they will not be triggered for use unless you execute an SRP order next turn. This was done because some players who miss the turn or otherwise don't submit an SRP order might not want the 200 points spent on whatever happens to be in their slot 1 Research Center next turn. Thus, if you have no saved points left over and do not submit an SRP order next turn, you will still have the 200 points saved - they will be triggered and used the first time you submit an SRP order (just like on the original setup).
Interstellar trading and rumormonger dens were buzzing with activity as word poured in concerning no less than three major worlds falling to neighboring district governors recently. It has become quite clear that basic Bastion defenses are highly suspect in even reasonably developed regions. Construction of superior fortified defenses, fast-tracked pursuit of advanced armor and space combat weaponry, forging of strong defensive pacts to discourage attacks or simple conscription of massive armies combined with heavy ground combat research investment are all likely required at this point in even moderately dangerous areas of what has come to be known as the Draco star cluster.
Rumors of an impending Annuit Coeptis # 7358 ground assault were confirmed when their divisions deployed via orbital drop pods in a massive invasion of the Imperium Romanum Sol # 6905 home planet. The friendly terrain and superior ground combat technology aided the defenders greatly as they took up key positions to repulse the attackers, but it was to no avail as the superior Annuit invasion force overcame every obstacle placed in its path to subjugate the targeted planet. The fair Annuit citizens never expected to see the dread 'Binary Ship Sailing A Sea Of Corpses On A Black Flag' flying over their cities, but on this day their fate was sealed. Perhaps they should have constructed superior space defenses to prevent such a thing from ever occurring, but consideration of such matters was behind them now.....
House Agano # 9587 naval forces recently engaged and obliterated Alcornia # 8174's homeworld space defenses in a surprise attack. The Alcornians put up a good fight but were no match for the enormous House Agano Dreadnaught that shrugged off even their most devastating strikes. Soon thereafter, Agano divisions deployed via orbital drop pods and rapidly overran the Alcornian ground forces, easily overcoming their defensive measures with both superior numbers and technology.
In a separate simultaneous engagement an even larger House Agano # 9587 ship--this time a massive Battle Dreadnaught-- engaged and obliterated the space defenses of the Watership Shogunate # 5977 homeworld. The Shogunate fought valiantly, but they were both outclassed and outgunned. Debris from the battle in orbit was still raining down upon their beloved homeworld when House Agano troopers began arriving on the surface. The outcome was never in doubt as Agano soldiers moved from one city to the next, quelling all resistance in short order. The flags of both vanquished empires--the Alcornian 'Unicorn With A Black Background And Stars' and 'Wight Rabbit Skull And Crossed Bones On Black Background' of the Watership Shogunate--were each replaced when the somewhat perplexing House Agano 'White Rabbit In A Snowstorm' was raised in their stead.....
[1] [DRACO] A big welcome to all of the new players in Draco! You might even be greeted in-game by the DMX! To handle them, be sure to research much better ship armor and weaponry. Be safe!
[2] [DRACO] Subterranean Fort Assembly technology no longer restricts scrapping, and improves Surface Fortress combat integrity.
[3] [DRACO] Several report lines were added to allow your Planetary Engineers to inform their superiors regarding Deep Core Surveyor saturation and when all possible new planetary yields have been discovered on a world.
[4] [DRACO+ANDROMEDA] The # of ships and total tonnage in your empire now appears in the Fleet Summary Report.
Great news on the division limit change mentioned last turn. I was able to restructure the Divisions table so that it no longer causes issues for the database. As a result, there will be no need to limit how many Divisions an empire can possess, either normally or if you pick up Imperial Reforms. You can therefore flatly ignore the note from last turn. Furthermore, for those of you in Andromeda, the army division count section will now show up on every turn from here on out (it already shows up every turn in Draco). --Pete
To head off future database issues related to the divisions table, Draco empires will be restricted to a maximum of 2500 total divisions. I don't like imposing limits like this, but it's a pretty serious problem in Andromeda and it's best to take care of it early rather than wait. No empire is close to that number currently, so it has no immediate impact. As a side benefit, this helps empires who invest in ground combat technology or have lifeforms emphasizing ground combat as neither side will be able to simply flood a world with ridiculous #'s of divisions. The game is typically dominated by space combat anyway, so a little boost to the ground pounders should help them a bit. Since there will be no need to have a separate limit, the 1000 division maximum imposed by Imperial Reforms has been removed, likely making that technology a welcome addition for any empire. --Pete
Rumors of an impending DragonianX # 9367 ground assault were confirmed when their divisions deployed via orbital drop pods in a massive invasion of the Urodelan Realm # 5098 home world. The friendly terrain and superior ground combat technology aided the defenders greatly as they took up key positions to repulse the attackers. In some cases the fighting came down to hand to hand combat, claws flashing, poisonous stingers striking true and mighty jaws snapping shut on both sides. In the end the defenders held strong, overrunning every DragonianX beachhead in dramatic fashion to maintain control of their beloved home planet. Proudly waving flags bearing their 'Triangle Of Three White Stars On A Dark Blue Background', Urodelan soldiers were cheered on by throngs of grateful civilians during spectacular world-wide celebrations....
Word has spread that DragonianX # 9367 naval forces recently engaged and utterly destroyed Republic d'Basset # 6578’s homeworld space defenses. Shortly thereafter, DragonianX divisions deployed via orbital drop pods and overran the Republic d'Basset's ground forces to swiftly take control of the world. Interstellar traders have no doubt that DragonianX is a very serious force to be reckoned with in its region of space and that its emblem 'A Silhouette Of A Winged Serpent Rising From A Large Yellow Sun' commands respect wherever it may be sighted.
In a stunning victory, Tragic Kingdom # 5803 naval forces engaged and obliterated Death Machine # 9999's CORE0290 space defenses. DMX losses were spectacular as nothing was left but floating debris where once stood numerous Battleships, Monitors and even an SFAC-88 Orbital Mining Platform. Interstellar traders have no doubt that Tragic Kingdom is quite the force to be reckoned with. Various spies and rumormongers also note that the DMX will almost certainly take steps to improve the defensives at their bases as a result of this devastating loss.
Interstellar traders seem more skittish than usual of late as rumors spread that Bastions alone can no longer be trusted as an impenetrable defense. Higher technology armor and weapons, able to cut through Bastions with relative ease, strongly encourage imperial leaders across the region to immediately construct superior fortified defenses, fast-track such technologies themselves, form strong defensive alliances to discourage attacks, or simply conscript massive armies combined with heavy ground combat research investment to withstand invasion.
Explorers have received an across-the-board improvement in survey capabilities, as have leaders who enhance resource extraction. Emperor characters no longer act as both scientists and explorers at the same time during SURV missions.
Santa comes early again this year!
The Santa gift of 150 bonus saved lifeform points will be added to your imperial records at the conclusion of this turn. If you have some points already saved, the 150 will simply be added to that total and used normally. If you have none saved, or have already exhausted all of your saved points, the 150 points will be added and flagged just like the original saved points. In this case they will not be triggered for use unless you execute an SRP order next turn. This was done because some players who miss the turn or otherwise don't submit an SRP order might not want the 150 points spent on whatever happens to be in their slot 1 Research Center next turn. Thus, if you have no saved points left over and do not submit an SRP order next turn, you will still have the 150 points saved - they will be triggered and used the first time you submit an SRP order (just like on the original setup).
Also, Santa has instructed his elves to help your scientists to 'Slot One' up to 3rd generation items instead of just 2nd and below. He delayed adding these new items into his bag 'o presents until just after this turn cycle so as to avoid fouling up potential slotting plans your researchers might have put into place this turn.
Word has spread that DragonianX # 9367 naval forces recently engaged and utterly destroyed Barentrasi Economic Trade League # 6310's homeworld space defenses. Shortly thereafter, DragonianX divisions deployed via orbital drop pods and overran the Barentrasi Economic Trade League ground forces to swiftly take control of the world. Interstellar traders have no doubt that DragonianX is a very serious force to be reckoned with in its region of space. Various spies and rumormongers also note that the DMX, seemingly dormant of late, appear to have picked up a bit in activity.
Mostly for newer players: be sure to avoid single and double quotes in NUD and MESS orders --Pete
[DRACO] Combat Environment Suit and several related personal body armor technologies (several of which provided a bonus only in the Close Combat tactical category) have been adjusted--much of their emphasis has been distributed over various defensive tactical categories to better match their descriptions.
More updates!
[1] [DRACO] Possessing Improved and Advanced Weapons technologies will add to your CCM, GCM and DEF modifiers in ground combat. These bonuses stack with each other and the bonuses already provided by the Improved and Advanced Food Concentrates techs.
[2] [ANDROMEDA+DRACO] Possessing Improved or Advanced Plantfoods provides for a general increase in colonial influx from existing installations at the colony. These bonuses stack if you possess both techs.
[3] [DRACO] Aeroculture Farm is a new installation that requires Mineral Fertilizers to construct, and Improved Plantfoods tech to become available. It improves colonial influx and provides survival benefits for colonial civilians.
[4] [DRACO] Imperial Commissary is a new installation that requires Consumer Goods to construct, and improves colonial influx very efficiently for its cost.
[5] [ANDROMEDA+DRACO] Possessing Improved or Advanced Consumer Goods techs, or Improved or Advanced Luxury Goods techs, will add to colonial influx. Should you possess several of those technologies, the bonuses stack.
[6] [ANDROMEDA+DRACO] General improvement to formatting of tractor beam readouts. Total tonnage of orbital installations is also listed along with tractor beam strength.
I had let a few folks in Draco change their empire names so long as they hadn't met any other empires yet, but empires are running across each other a lot more often these days, so I'll close that off at this point. The mighty (insert your empire name here) will have to conquer the galaxy as-is from here on out. --Pete
I've managed to get some new code in place to handle the following issues:
[1] [DRACO] Previously, the Improved and Advanced Food Concentrates technologies did nothing useful because they are not required to build any division types. Now, if you possess either of those techs (just have them researched), you will receive a bonus to your base GCM,CCM and DEF lifeform modifiers for your divisions. Who wants those old C-Rations with mystery meat when you can get one of these fancy new E-Rations, with a chance at 100% guaranteed real artifical simulated turkey?
[2] [ANDROMEDA+DRACO] Ah, tractor beams. So finicky, they didn't work half of the time, or it didn't even matter if you had the danged things the other half. Very sad times for tractor beam manufacturers. Those days, however, are behind us. Enter the new Mk II version of the tractor code! Now, if you have a fleet containing Orbital Installations, the tractor strength of all Starships in that fleet is summed up and properly compared to the total tonnage of the fleet (that's the way it has always supposed to work, but often didn't). No, your Orbital Installations that have tractor strength cannot tow themselves or each other since they can't move to begin with, so it's a waste to put tractors on them. Sorry, Surface Fort fans, but you can't tow those around at all. You cannot tow anything through a warp point, as the tidal stresses involved would quickly shear the tractor beam and result in Bad Things(tm) happening. Finally, the tractor power calculation in the Imperial Navy Report: Fleet Summary section has been updated to reflect that only tractor strength on Starships is counted. I've tested this stuff reasonably extensively, but tractor beams remain very picky so let me know if you have any issues
with them.
[3] [DRACO] Point defenses. Why bother researching that fancy-sounding Mk I Repulsor CIDS tech when the venerable 4cm Gatling CIDS is just as good? After all, vaporizing some enemy missile with a simple bullet fired out of a gatling gun requires much less technology than trying to deflect or smash it with some complicated repulsor cannon, and ton for ton they're otherwise equally effective (with the exact same pd_firepower-per-ton ratio). To remedy this in a dynamic way, when the point defense total for one of your ships is calculated, a check is made to see if any of your enemies involved in that battle possess that particular point defense technology. If they do, they know how to outfit their missiles, fighters and drones to evade your point defenses as best as they can, and the base pd firepower for that item is used. If they don't possess that tech, then they are not as prepared to handle your superior point defenses, which then receive a bonus. It's not enough to exceed the rising cost difference between pd weapons that require Normal vs Improved vs Advanced materials or between generations of pd weapons (which double in effectiveness with each bump up in its tech line), but for otherwise similarly advanced pd weapons within the same cost category it's a solid bonus. The bottom line is that if your ships are using point defenses that your enemy does not understand, they will be more effective, with the goal of providing a use for the more exotic point defense tech lines. Early on it might not be a big deal, but eventually, when you can build a top-ofthe-line point defense weapon using Advanced materials, at that point every similarly advanced point defense weapon has the same pd_firepower-to-tonnage ratio, and the bonus will simply make yours better than whatever generic one everybody else researches. The only sunk cost would have been researching the thing. Note that this doesn't work for pd firepower contributions from fighters or drones, which simply use their base values.
An update on the tractor beam discussion at the top of these results: that note should have said that the tractor strength is compared to the total tonnage of all Orbital Installations in the fleet (rather than the total tonnage of the entire fleet). Naturally, the Starships with tractor strength only need to tow Orbitals, and not themselves or each other. I'll take a look at modifying the Imperial Navy Report: Fleet Summary to show the Orbitals tonnage next to the tractor output to make it easier to see. --Pete
Ah, I didn't post how many saved points Santa granted to every empire last turn - it was 75 --Pete
To celebrate the anniversary of the launch of Supernova, Santa comes early this year, with a gift of some global research points to every active empire! Expect him to show up at the beginning of next turn, so plan those SRP's wisely next time.... --Pete
Some balance changes go into effect this cycle. Thanks go out to the players who pointed out the outliers on some of the production costs. This is for Draco only and include the following:
[1] Construction costs for many advanced weapon systems were reduced to bring them in line with each other (some were pretty expensive considering the scaling costs on items such as Advanced Electronics). All Plasma Torpedoes (Type A and up) had their costs increased as they were extremely cheap (there would have been no reason to research and build anything other than Plasma Torps otherwise). All other weapons were either left alone or made less expensive to produce. You should now expect advanced versions of all weapon systems to have production costs that are reasonably similar, though not identical. Improved version costs remain largely unchanged with some cost reductions for particularly expensive weapon lines. The short and simple: weapon costs were normalized by making many lines less expensive, to make them all viable choices. If you choose to build the slightly less expensive weapons to fine tune your industrial output, your enemies simply have more encouragement to counter with defensive systems tailored to combat those systems. With that in mind...
[2] Research costs on all 3rd+ generation defensive systems reduced dramatically. An example of the lowest generation affected is the venerable 6cm Gatling CIDS.
[3] Research costs on Mk III+ Nuclear Engines and Mk II+ Fusion Engines (and all Antimatter, Gravitic and Total Conversion Engines) reduced substantially.
This cycle sees a fair number of new empires joining Draco - welcome aboard, and enjoy the ride For the new guys, you are allowed to set up multiple empires if you wish--Draco is a lot slower-paced than Andromeda, allowing for a nice variety of regional conflicts on this or that side of the galaxy....and there are no super-powerful (player) empires running around to rock you back into the stone age o.O --Pete
Charges won't be accurate on this turn--I wanted to get the results out as fast as possible, so ignore your current balance figures. They will be up to date on the next set of Andromeda and Draco results. --Pete
For those who just joined Draco and have asked about setting up second or third empires in Draco--you absolutely can. The region is still really, really young, and there aren't any ancient player empires running around ready to squash new guys, making Draco a great place to set your nefarious plans of galactic domination into motion.... --Pete
Beginning next turn, AC (Assign Commander) for Draco empires will be treated as a primary order, flagging the commander so that he cannot be AC'd again in the same turn. There are some other ways for a commander to be reassigned, notably an RN order from one fleet to another with no ships remaining behind in the 'from' fleet (he gets transferred over automatically)-- in those cases, the transfer will go through. It's just the AC order itself that is flagged to be once-per-turn.
This note applies only to ANDROMEDA players, but I'm posting it here just to get it out there. I'm close to having wormhole link creation fully automated on this end (until now I've had to look up and key in everything by hand). Here is what you will need to provide should you want to create a new wormhole link:
Empire #
System Name, Planet #, Pop Group FROM (example: Alpha-5a pop group 5063) [Note: your empire must own this pop group]
System Name 1, Warp Point # (example: Alpha Warp Point 17423) [Note: your empire must have surveyed all
System Name 2, Warp Point # (example: Bravo Warp Point 3506) of these warp points]
System Name 3, Warp Point # (example: Charlie Warp Point 125)
System Name 4, Warp Point # (example: Delta Warp Point 6231)
System Name 5, Warp Point # (example: Echo Warp Point 14253)
System Name, Planet #, Pop Group TO (example: Foxtrot-8 pop group 13524) [Note: your empire must own this pop group]
Your empire must own both pop groups at the time the warp point link is created. You don't need to have constructed Wormhole Generators yet, but you do need to own the pop groups.
Your empire must have already surveyed all of the warp points connecting the two systems. You can choose either direction, and do not need to have surveyed the way back, but will need a complete survey path connecting the FROM system to the TO system. Thus, if you wanted to go from Foxtrot-8 pop group 13524 --> Alpha-5a pop group 5063, you would have used Foxtrot-8 as the FROM system, Alpha-5a as the TO system, and warp point links starting in Foxtrot leading to Alpha.
As always you can have up to 5 jumps to connect starting in the FROM system leading to the TO system. If it's less than 5 jumps, just list fewer warp points. If the first warp point listed isn't in the FROM system, the link creation will fail, so make sure that if you start in Alpha, the first warp point is in Alpha leading to Bravo.
The first warp point begins in the FROM system, with the chain of warp points after that moving closer and closer to the TO system. The last warp point listed would lead into the TO system. In the example below, warp point 775 in the Hotel system would lead into the Golf system).
Complete Example:
Hey Pete, I want to create a wormhole link for my Empire # 310 connecting Juliet-8c (pg 3650) to Golf-7 (pg 13524). Here
are the details:
FROM Juliet-8c pop group 3650
---- Juliet Warp Point 4737)
---- India Warp Point 26154)
---- Hotel Warp Point 775)
TO Golf-7 pop group 13524)
Who cares about those primates over in Andromeda? o.O We want Draco info! Well, I've gotten very positive feedback on the ratings that showed up last turn, and plan to run them fairly regularly (do you want them every turn?). I will also create additional categories so that more empires have a chance to show up.
I've also had inquiries about setting up second or third empires in Draco. You absolutely can. The region is still really, really young, and there aren't any ancient player empires running around ready to squash new guys, making Draco a great place to set your nefarious plans of galactic domination into motion.... --Pete
This is a re-post of various messages from a while back - there's nothing new here, just notes for newer players on some rules changes that have appeared over the years. --Pete
[1] There has been an update to the DIV (Division Assignment) order. The format is the same as always, but if you use the following format, all divisions will be transferred from the Army directly back into the Pop Group without needing an orbiting transport to pick them up and then drop them off. This not only saves you potentially many orders, but gets around the archaic requirement of needing troop transports in orbit for divisions that should have just walked/slithered/crawled/flown/tunneled/whatever 100 meters outside of their base back into the general population group. Use the key word DETACH as the third entry in the DIV order. It is not case sensitive, so you could enter Detach or DETACH or even deTacH and it would work fine.
Example: DIV, 1435, 12, DETACH
The above order will detach every division in army # 12 and place all of them in pop group # 1435. All of the normal restrictions for DIV still apply, so army # 12 needs to be located in pop group # 1435. There must be at least 1 division in the army to be detached. You need to own pop group # 1435. Nothing else is done to army # 12, so it still exists as an empty shell at its current location. You could then issue a normal DIV order to transfer some divisions back into it, or load some of the divisions onto an orbiting troop transport and then issue a DIV, 1435, 12, ALL to transfer all of the remaining divisions back into army # 12, or leave them in the pop group for future use. Note that divisions in a pop group do not normally defend the world they are on, but this is not a certainty. To be absolutely certain that theywill fight, be sure to DIV them from the pop group into an army.
You would still use DGF (Disband Ground Force) to completely destroy an army that has no divisions in it and is therefore completely empty. DGF just destroys an already empty army id #, and there is no change to the DGF order.
[2] The TR order supports the ALL key word so that you can enter TR,1,2,ALL and it will transfer every item from pop group 1 to pop group 2. Note that this does not mean you can use the ALL key word in place of a quantity for a particular item; thus, TR,1,2,Iron,ALL is not legal--you should use TR,1,2,Iron,999999 or some other actual number for the quantity of Iron that you want to transfer.
[3] Because the Power cost of maintaining thermal regulator class installations (those that favorably extend your temperature range for attrition purposes) was so high, only 1 of these is needed now in a population group instead of 1 per 100 population. The Thermal Transfer Center and Deep Core Heatsink are the more commonly-known types of these installations.
[4] Global Exclusion lists for LC (Load Cargo) and OC (Offload Cargo) have been added. During execution of an LC, ALL order, if an item is found in the Load Cargo exclusion list, that item will not load. It is skipped as if it was not present in the population group. The same is true for OC, ALL orders - items in Fleet Cargo will be skipped if they are encountered during an OC, ALL order and are listed in your OC exclusion list. To add items to your LC exclusion list, issue an LC order with the special keyword GLOBAL EXCLUDE as the first item. Example: 'LC, 12345, 25, GLOBAL EXCLUDE, 0, Processed Radioactives, 0, Light Beam Laser, 0' would add Processed Radioactives and Light Beam Laser to your LC exclude list. This order acts like a toggle, so if either or both of those items happened to be on your LC exclude list already, they would be removed. 'OC, 12345, 501, GLOBAL EXCLUDE, 0, Fuel, 0, Light Drone, 0, Interceptor, 0' would add Fuel, Light Drone and Interceptor to your OC exclude list (or remove them if already on that list). These lists are only checked when an LC, ALL or OC, ALL order is encountered. It is also checked if you happen to enter an LC, ALL NO FUEL or OC, ALL NO FUEL order. Imperial Flag has been added to the LC exclusion list for every empire. The population group and fleet #'s entered in these GLOBAL EXCLUDE LC and OC orders do not matter, because these are global lists used for your entire empire. You can still use the ALL NO FUEL option if you like, but this system sort of replaces it - you could simply add Fuel to your LC exclude list.
[5] Specific LC and OC item exclusions has been added as well, for use with regular versions of those orders. Just list an item like you would normally, but use the keyword EXCLUDE as the quantity and that item will be skipped. Example: OC, 12345, 34, Construction Materials, 25000, Fuel, EXCLUDE, Crystals, 10000 would load Construction Materials and Crystals but would skip loading Fuel. These specific exclusions are checked during LC, ALL or OC, ALL orders as well as regular LC and OC orders. For the most part I'd expect the global lists to have items added such as Fuel, Processed Radioactives and Water (things needed for Power generation) or OC exclusions for expendables such as fighters or drones. Using specific exclusions during an LC, ALL order would look like this: 'LC, 12345, 25, ALL, 0, Fuel, EXCLUDE, Construction Materials, EXCLUDE, Processed Radioactives, EXCLUDE'. This would load everything from pop group # 12345 onto fleet # 25, but would skip Fuel, Construction Materials and Processed Radioactives. Make sure to put a number in for the quantity field right after the ALL keyword - it isn't used for anything, but you need to get past it to start entering excluded item names...so put some number in there and then start keying in (item name), EXCLUDE pairs as if you were entering a regular LC or OC order.
[6] Note that the SCRP (Scrap Ship) order will jettison all Fleet Cargo. This occurs immediately after the exit routine error checks but before ships actually begin scrapping, so as long as it is a legal order, cargo will be jettisoned even if later on no ships end up actually scrapping. WARNING: All cargo is lost even if only one of many ships in the fleet is scrapped.
[7] The NENC (Naval Encounter Plan) order has been updated to allow you to change all of your fleets that currently have one FBP to any other one that you like by entering the 'from' and 'to' Force Battle Plans in that order and the keyword CHANGE ALL as the fleet #. Example: 'NENC, CHANGE ALL, Column Attack, Standard Line' would run through all of your fleets that are currently on the Column Attack FBP and change them to Standard Line. You might notice that the entry program saves the CHANGE ALL keyword in the fleet number box as a zero - that's ok as you can actually enter CHANGE ALL or simply a zero for the fleet # (either one works). You can make changes to the new Standard Line or Orbital Defense FBP's using FORM (Formation Combat Orders) orders just like your other Force Battle Plans if you like. They were just added to give you a couple more default plans to work with.
[8] The DECF (Decommission Fleet) order can now be used to send all of your empty fleets back to your homeworld in a single order. Enter the keyword HOME as the Fleet ID # and all fleets with no ships in them will be relocated at your homeworld.
[9] A new order, FNAM (Rename Fleets) has been added - it is very similar to the NAME (Name Legendary Characters) order, allowing you to rename up to five fleets per FNAM.
[10] Please note that you cannot have two Standing Orders with the same Priority #. A fair number of ESTA orders on this turn tried to chanage an existing Standing Order to have a duplicate Priority value; I added +1 to the Priorities to get them to run.
[11] DELS (Delete Standing Order) has been added, allowing you to delete up to 5 Standing Orders per DELS entry.
[12] ESTA (Edit Standing Order Priority) has been added, allowing you to change the priority of up to 5 Standing Orders per ESTA entry.
[13] The NAME (Name Legendary Character) order has been updated to allow up to 5 new names per order.
[14] The OC (Offload Cargo) order has been updated to allow for the keyword ALL NO FUEL along with the usual ALL option - as you might expect, this allows a fleet to offload everything in its cargo bays except for Fuel.
[15] Ship design names cannot have single or double quotation marks in them, so an NUD with a ship name of QUEEN'S FURY is not legal.
Content contributed by Raven Zachary and Scott Vandersee.