Round 2 Manual

Overview

This screen works as your planet's Headquarters, as it holds information on what is going on at your planet.

It will display all incoming fleets, all fleets fighting at your planet, it displays what you are currently building or researching, a brief summary of your own ships and PDS units, as well as a count of your asteroids.

Recently, we have added links in the table showing any incoming fleets, so you can easily message any enemy or ally without going through the Messages screen.

Also, please note, at most times, there will be a "message of the day" right at the top, with links to important events, like a special message on our messageboard. Please read these, so you are sure you are informed about major events.

Private News

Your private news holds information on events that have taken place in the last 48 hours. The news-entries are stamped with date and time (CET) for when the event occured. The items that appear in your private news are:

• Completion of constructions or research
• Incoming fleets
• Attempted scans of your planet (if you manage to detect it, see the page about Waves for details)
• Report of new messages
• Combat reports (see sample below)

Also, other news entries may be added as the game progresses

Production

The production screen is where you basically order the ships that you have enabled through the various different Research and Construction options

You will notice there are two distinct sections to this screen. At the top of the page, you have a list of the ships that you are able to build (providing you have the funds) and at the bottom half of the screen, you will see a table that shows how long your ships have left before they are built.

The list of ships in the top section of the screen can be split into 3 separate sections. To the left of the list, you have the name of the ship, and the total you already have completed in your fleet stations. The middle section of the list has a brief ship description to give you an idea of exactly what it does and its cost per unit, then finally on the right hand side, you have the ship order box, and the time it will take to complete bulding of the unit.

To get a full overview of the ships, and their cost, take a look at the table in the List of ships in Planetarion document.

At the bottom section of the screen is a table, this table shows exactly how long the ships you have ordered have left before they are built. You will notice that the table is split into blocks, each of these equals one hour, so for example, if you order a ship, and it is on the fourth block along in the table, then you will have to wait four hours (or ticks) until it is completed.

• Round_2:Ship_Stats

Resources

Just like Construction, Research is vital to advancement in technology. Different Research and Construction will determine what you can and cannot build in the game. In Planetarion, Research-items and Constructions follow one another. Completing a research item will allow you to build a construction following that research down the part of the Tech Tree.

As with constructions, you can only Research one item at a time. Please note that you may both build a construction and research an item at the same time.

When you start out, you have just a few research options to choose from, but when you have finished your first Construction, a new one will appear. I advise you take a look at the Tech Tree, although large to look at, as it will give you an idea of which constructions follow which researches and the other way around.

You can find the list of the researches here, in a more readable format than the Tech Tree.

Resources Available

Metal Perhaps the most important resource to begin initiating if you are new to the game. Metal is the main component in nearly everything that you will need to have a successful planet. It is needed for Research, Constructions, and the production of ships. If you come to think of it as the most important currency in the game, and ensure you have lots of it then you won't go far wrong.

Crystal This is an additional component, that is extremely valuable within the game, it is primarily used for building various 'Waves' and is also necessary for Construction, Research and the production of ships as you get further into the game.

Eonium The primary function of this resource is for the powering of your spacefaring vessels, this in effect is your 'fuel'. Also used in one or two other items within the game, the fuel aspect is the most important, ensure you have a large stockpile of this if you intend to be launching attacks on a regular basis, combat has never been so expensive.

Technical Information and Resource Initiating

Those of you that have played the game in the past will notice a dramatic difference in the way that you can initiate your 'roids compared to the previous rounds.

In days gone by, you were only able to select one asteroid at a time to initiate, and if you had several hundred, the effort and time it took was extremely long winded. This is now a thing of the past as you will see when you look at the bottom of your screen.

There are now boxes next to the three available types of resources within the game, simply type in the desired number you wish to initiate, click the 'Initiate' button and they are all done at once.

If you wish to know exactly how much it is going to cost you to initiate your 'roids, there is also a handy calculation box. Simply put in the number you wish to see (as before) and then click on the blank window under the resource names, and you will be given the ammount of metals it would set you back.

Technical Breakdown

For each 'roid you initiate, you will be rewarded 1500 points, there are no points given for uninitiated 'roids.

Each initiated 'roid will produce 250 units of that resource per 'tick'

The cost of initiating 'roids is 1000 Metals + (250 Metals x Number of initiated 'roids you have)

Planetary Defense System

The first thing to meet any attacker at a planet, is the Planetary Defense System, or PDS for short. The PDS can consist of up to 5 different units, 3 of them being turrets that will attempt to shoot down incoming enemies, 1 being an EMP-based turret, and the last being the Wave Absorber to give protection against incoming waves.

The PDS is your planet's first line of defense when attacked. The different turrets target different ships, and are no different from ships, except for their low agility and fast weapon-speed. The PDS will always shoot first in combat, before any enemies are allowed to return fire upon them. All PDS items belong to a CLASS, just as the ships do, so they will be targeted as any other ship you may have beside them. Click here for the list of the PDS items with full stats.

Please note that even though the Wave Absorber is not something directly related to combat, it will be targeted by incoming enemies all the same. For information regarding how these are used to absorb incoming waves, please see the Waves-section of the manual.

• Round_2:PDS_Stats

Affairs

When building up a strong galaxy, it is important that everyone takes part in building it. This is when internal affairs are important. And one of the most important things to do, is to set your vote for Galactic Commander as soon as possible, so that the galaxy can start getting organized.

On this acreen, Affairs, you set your vote for Galactic Commander. You are also able to send resources to any planet in your galaxy from here, if you have any to send.

To become a Galactic Commander, more than half of the galaxy members must vote for you.

The Galactic Commander (GC) should be the overall leader in the galaxy. He can arrange joint attacks, give out tasks to those who want them, and try to keep peace in the galaxy he is commanding. He also appoints the Minister of Communication.

The Minister of Communication (MoC) is responsible for both the internal communication in the galaxy and the communication with the other MoCs in the cluster. He has the ability to send messages to all the players in the galaxy at the same time, as well as to all MoCs in the cluster. He can, and should, keep the politics board tidy, as he can delete threads.

Galaxy

When you first visit this screen in a relatively new Galaxy, you will probably notice the planetarion banner and your planet co-ords and default name. eg.

[XX:XX] Far Far Away

Now as the game progresses, and a GC is chosen, the planet Banner and name will be chosen by him (via the Affairs screen) and inserted here to give you some form of identity amongst all the other Galaxies in this ever expanding Universe. As well as the Banner and Name, you will notice your planets co-ordinates in two little boxes next to a button entitled 'View Galaxy'. This handy little feature allows you to change the co-ordinates of the Galaxy viewed on the page (your own by default) and therefore choose targets, find friends or even search for people within the same alliance. Simply put the new co-ordinates into the boxes and hit the 'View Galaxy' button, and within seconds you will be looking at another Galaxy.

The information contained on this page is similar to that of the Universe screen, but you will notice a few other additional details as well the standard 'roid count and score etc.

These new symbols or colours are briefly explained below :

Tag Meaning

• [] -Under protection
• {} -On vacation
• * -Online
• Green -Your planet
• Blue -GC
• Yellow -MOD
• Pink -MOC

Military

The Military screen is where you administer your fleets, transfer ships between them, and launch them in attack or defend missions. The screen is divided into 3 sections.

The top section gives you an overview of your fleets and what they contain. As you can see, there are 4 fleets altogether, Base, Fleet 1, Fleet 2 and Fleet 3. These are somewhat different:

Your Base fleet is the fleet where all new ships are placed when they are completed in production. This fleet cannot travel anywhere or undertake any missions at all. You are able to transfer ships to and from this fleet at any time you like, as long as the fleet you transfer from or to is also at your planets location, and not out on any mission.

Fleet 1, Fleet 2 and Fleet 3 are 100% similar, and you can launch these fleets at any time they are home and ready, as long as you have the Fuel it costs to launch this fleet. You may also transfer ships between these fleets whenever they are in your planet's sector, at home.

These 3 fleets are the only fleets who can ever have a Fuel cost, as Fuel cost is deducted from your account at the time of launch. In this top section, on the bottom of the table, you will see the fleets current cost to launch. If you transfer ships from 1 fleet to another, you will see the cost change, with the value per ship listed in the List of ships in Planetarion document.

The bottom of the upper table displays the travel time and fuelcost of the 3 fleets that are able to be launched. The travel time is displayed in hours, and the fuel cost in Eonium. Please note the three different rows for every fleet, one row for traveling inside your own galaxy, one row for traveling outside your galaxy but within your cluster and one row for traveling outside your own cluster.

For explanations regarding clusters and galaxies, please see the terminology page.

The middle section is where you transfer ships between fleets. Note that you can only transfer ships between fleets that are located at your home planet.

The bottom section is where you can see where your fleets are, and what their current missions are. This is also where you send them out on new missions, to attack or defend someone. Select the mission type, enter the target coordinates, and click the button below the table. Please note that the only order you can give a fleet which is not at home, is the RETURN order.

Also note, that any fuel spent launching a fleet, is lost even if you choose to return the fleet before it reaches its target.

Combat

Combat is one of the main aspects of Planetarion. Politics and diplomacy can get you a long way, but sometimes there is only one thing to do, let the weapons do the talking.

When combat is calculated, things happen in the following order.

• All defending fleets are merged into one for ease of calculation. The same happens with all attacking fleets
• The PDS open fire and shoots at the attacking fleet, turret by turret
• By sorting ships by the order of INITIATIVE, the order of fire is set up
• For each step in Initiative, the defending and attacking fleets fire, hits are calculated, and finally, casualties are deducted.
• After the "regular" shooting and EMP-Paralyzing is over, the Ship-Stealing ships attempt to steal their targets. Ships are transferred to the stealing fleet
• The Cargoships and AstroPods now attempt to capture resources and asteroids

Click here for the list of ships available in Planetarion, with full listing of all attributes. I recommend reading through this page first, and then look at the ships, or have them both open at the same time.

In the combat calculation, there are x variable used to calculate the outcome. Each ship has its own set of attributes, which are: Class, Primary Target Class, Secondary Target Class, Initiative, Agility, Weapon-target-speed, Guns, Gun Power, Armour and EMP-Resistance.

The Class of the ship can be 1 out of a total of 6 classes. The class says something about the size of the ship, its ability to carry heavy weapons, and its moving speed and agility. The classes, from the smallest to the biggest, are: Fighter, Corvette, Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser and Battleship.

A thumb rule in combat is that when looking at any two classes, the smaller will be faster and harder to hit, the bigger slower with heavier armour. If you wish to get more into how it works, keep reading.

The next attribute is the Primary Target Class. This attribute specifies which Class of targets it will aim for first. As long as there are ships present in that class, only those will be targeted. One thing to notice is, there might be more than 1 shiptype in the target class present. For instance, there can be both Interceptors and Spiders present in the enemy fleet, which are both Fighter-Class ships. Then, if there are 70% Interceptors, and 30% Spiders, there is a 70% chance the ship chooses to target the Interceptors, and only 30% chance of targeting the Spider. If there are no targets in the Primary Target class to shoot at, it will target ships from the Secondary Target Class. If there are no Primary and no Secondary targets present in the enemy fleet, it will shoot randomly into the enemy fleet, using the same matter of percentage seen when having many shiptypes to choose from in the same class.(i.e. If the enemy fleet is 50% Interceptors, there is a 50% chance that the shot in question will target an Interceptor)

Terminology, Rules, Intergalactic communication systems

If you have read through most of this manual, then you will be familiar with many of the phrases or shortened names that you may find throughout your interraction with other members of the Planetarion Universe. The main ones are listed below :

• [GC] Galaxy Commander
• [MoD] Minister of Development
• [MoC] Minister of Communication

Tick Period of time (1 hour)

You will also notice people talking about the various ships in a shortened fashion, i.e. IN (Interceptor), or BB (Battleship). These shortened names can be found on the ship list in the Military section of this manual.

Rules As with anything in life, there are rules that must be followed, a full explanation of these are on the main Planetarion screen. But here is a little word of warning to all those who feel that they may wish to cheat within the game. So far we have discovered two types of cheat within Planetarion, these being the Multi/Farmers or the Bug exploiters. If you are found attempting to utilize either of the methods above, you can expect one of the following to happen depending on the nature or severity of the offence :

{a} Your account/s will be frozen for 24hrs while the PACrew investigate, and if they are happy with their findings then they will terminate said accounts.

{b} If you are found to be exploiting bugs, then your account will be severely penalised, with the possible removal of key structures, or fleets leaving you wide open attacks from other disgruntled players that you may have upset.

You have been warned !

Credits

The following people took part in the development of Planetarion and it's accompanying content - cheers lads :)

Christian Lassem "Spinner", Bjørn Wennberg "Vish" and Erlend Maanum Simonsen "Fudge": The makers, designers, creators, rulers of life, death and everything!

Unni Osen: Graphics and Menu! Great job!

Geir Allsted "Freaky": Helped us with ideas, installing of servers and network, and helping out where he could!

Peter Koster "FBW" and Alex Weening "WLK": For all their work on the ship designs

Ryan Hays "LuCid" and Alvaro Thompson "AlBiro": Part of the Dark Clarity Design Crew - designed and implemented the front end of the manual, both technically and graphically.

Warren Howarth "Irons", David O'Hare "Zeus", Chris Yule "Messiah": Advisors to the project,story, ship desciptions and excellent all round help!