Games PC STARS User Manual

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STARS!

The Premiere Space Strategy Game

PLAYER’S GUIDE

http://www.webmap.com/stars!

rec.games.computer.stars

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COPYRIGHT AND CREDITS

Design and Programming Jeff McBride and Jeff Johnson Addtional Programming Jeffery Krauss Producer Brian Walker Graphics Eric Chang, Michael Miller, Michael Reichmann,

Music Emil Herceg at Arte Wisdom Sound Effects Mahendra Sampath Intro Minds Eye Documentation Kurt Kremer, Brett Kremer Technical Advice David Pugh

Playtesting Bill Bolosky, Dave Buchtal, Kent Cedota,

Emblazon Multimedia

Daniel Chenault, Paul Enfield, Michael Grier, William Herlan, Peter Henriksen, Peter Horodan, Brent Jensen, Mark Kenworthy, Stu Klingman, Steve Kruy, Robert Lamb, Jim Lane, John LeVee, Hilton Lange, Chris McBride, Jeff McCashland, Beth Moursund, Chris Noon, Tony Pacheco, Chris Peltz, Tony Reynolds, Jenifer Schlickbernd, Eric Snapper, Andrew Sterian, Jeff Stone, Richard Sun, David Thiel, Brad Thompson, Thomas Voigt, Ross Youngs

Special Thanks To... Sam Belcher, Peter Celella Packaging Design and Artwork Sharon O’Neill Production Antony Bond, Gary Lucken

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Welcome 1-1

GETTING STARTED

Single Player Setup 2-1

Playing the Tutorial 2-1 Starting a Single Player Game 2-2 Setting and Viewing Winning Conditions 2-3

Multi-Player Setup 3-1

Setting Up a Single Computer, Multi-Player (Hot Seat) Game 3-1 Setting Up Network-based Multi-Player Games 3-4 Setting Up Modem, FTP, and Play by E-mail Games 3-7 Setting and Viewing Winning Conditions 3-9 Adding Expansion Players 3-10 Being Absent from Play 3-11 Finding Multi-Player Games on the Internet 3-12 Passwords 3-12 Using a Timer Application? 3-12 Creating a Universe from the Command Line 3-13

Things Every Stars! Player Should Know 4-1

Tuning Stars! to Your Display Resolution 4-1 Replaying a Previous Turn 4-2 Saving Your Game -- What It Means 4-2

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IV C O N T E N T S

Exiting the Game 4-4 Options for Launching Stars! 4-5 Copy Protection 4-7

THE STARS! SCREEN

The Stars! Screen 5-1

Screen Layout 5-1 Command Pane 5-2 Messages Pane 5-11 Scanner Pane 5-12 Selection Summary Pane 5-17

PLAYING STARS!

Planets 6-1

Your Home World and Other Inhabited Planets 6-1 Population 6-2 Minerals 6-4 Mines 6-5 Factories 6-5 Building Planetary Defenses 6-5 Planet-based Scanners 6-6 Starbases 6-7 Stargates 6-10 Mass Driver Basics 6-11 Terraforming 6-14 Planet Reports 6-21

Production 7-1

How Production Works 7-1 Adding an Item to the Production Queue 7-2 Removing an Item from the Production Queue 7-3 Production Templates 7-3 Clearing the Production Queue 7-7

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Adding Auto-Build Items to the Queue 7-9 Changing the Order of Planets in the Production Dialog 7-10 Conditions that Affect Production 7-11

Research 8-1

Fields of Study 8-1 Browsing Stars! Technology 8-2 Allocating Resources for Research 8-4 Cost of Research 8-5

Ship and Starbase Design 9-1

How to Approach Hull Design 9-1 Designing a New Hull from Scratch 9-2 Editing an Existing Hull Design 9-3 Deleting an Existing Hull Design 9-5 Counting the Humber of Hull Designs 9-6 Adding Ship-based Scanners 9-7 Adding Cloaking Devices 9-8 Engines 9-8 Learning About Other Players’ Hull Designs 9-9 Trading Ship Designs 9-9

C O N T E N T S V

Managing Fleets 10-1

Assembling Fleets 10-1 Warp Speed 10-1 Finding a Specific Fleet 10-3 Switching Between Fleets 10-4 Naming Fleets 10-4 Using Fuel 10-5 Routing Fleets 10-7 Rendezvousing Fleets 10-8 Splitting Fleets 10-9 Merging Fleets 10-9 Scrapping Fleets 10-10 Report for Your Fleets 10-11

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VI C O N T E N T S

Navigation 11-1

Adding Fleet Waypoints and Tasks 11-1 Notes and Tips on Waypoints and the Scanner 11-2 Deleting Fleet Waypoints 11-3 Stargate Navigation 11-3 Wormhole Navigation 11-5

Colonization 12-1

Choosing Planets to Colonize 12-1 Colonizing an Uninhabited Planet 12-2 Shuttling Colonists with Freighters 12-3 Hey, that Planet’sAlready Inhabited! 12-4

Mining 13-1

Mining Colonized Worlds 13-1 Calculating the Rate of Decrease in Mineral Concentration 13-2 Mineral Concentration and Mining Efficiency 13-3 Remote Mining 13-3

Transporting Freight 14-1

Shipping Freight 14-1 Transferring Fuel and Cargo to Other Fleets 14-2 Jettisoning Cargo 14-2 Creating a Custom Transport Zip Order 14-3 Flinging Mineral Packets 14-4

The Basics of Combat 15-1

Fleet-to-Fleet Combat 15-1 Bombing Planets 15-4 Mineral Packet Bombardment 15-5 Ground Combat 15-6 Minefields 15-6 Starbase Combat 15-9 Claim Adjusters and Terraforming as a Weapon 15-10 Declaring Enemies and Friends 15-10

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Battle Plans 15-11 Battle Report 15-16 Viewing Opponent Fleets in the Summary Pane 15-17 Viewing Enemy Ship Designs 15-17 Fleet Report on Enemies and Other Players 15-18

Patrolling 16-1

Assigning Patrol Orders 16-1 Patrol Targets Enemies Only 16-2 Patrol and Battle Plans 16-3

Scanning and Cloaking 17-1

Scanner Technology 17-1 Selecting Fleets in the Scanner Pane 17-2 Scanning Planets 17-3 Cloaking, or Hiding From Opponents’ Scanners 17-4 Detecting Opponents’Fleets 17-4 Pirating Using Stealth-based Scanners 17-6

C O N T E N T S VII

Reports 18-1

Keyboard Shortcuts 18-2 Sorting Report Fields 18-2 How the Sort Order Affects the Display Order of Planets and Fleets 18-2 Printing a Map of the Universe 18-3 Dumping Information to a Text File 18-3

Diplomacy and Trade 19-1

Player Relationships 19-1 Trading Fuel and Minerals 19-1 Trading Technology 19-2 Trading Ships 19-2 Trading with Transdimensional Beings 19-2 Joint Mining Ventures 19-2 Claim Adjusters and Orbital Terraforming 19-3

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VIII C O N T E N T S

RACE CREATION

Designing Custom Races 20-1

Opening the Wizard 20-1 Advantage Points 20-1 Step 1: Basic Race Definition 20-2 Step 2: Primary Trait 20-3 Step 3: Lesser Traits 20-11 Step 4: Population Growth Factors 20-13 Step 5: Population Efficiency 20-16 Step 6: Research Costs 20-17

Finish 20-17 Predefined Races 21-1 Alternate Reality Races 22-1

THE GUTS OF STARS!

The Guts of Combat 23-1

About the Battle Board 23-1

Armor, Shields and Damage 23-2

Weapons and Battle Devices 23-3

Damage Repair 23-7

Movement, Initiative and Firing in Battle 22-8 The Guts of Cloaking 24-1

Cloaking when the Ship is Empty 24-1

Cloaking for a Fleet with More than One Ship 24-3

The Effect of Multiple Tachyon Detectors 24-3

The Appendix of Cloaking 24-3 The Guts of Mass Drivers 25-1

Damage Potential of Mass Packets 25-1

Packet Decay Rate 25-1

Speed and Distance 25-1

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Damage and Recovery Formulas and Calculation 25-2 The Guts of Mine Fields 26-1

Types of Mines 26-1

Detecting Mine Fields 26-2

Ship Cloak Effectiveness and Mine Fields 26-2

Race Traits and Mine Fields 26-2

BACK OF THE BOOK

Keyboard Shortcuts A-1 Technology Tables B-1

Armor B-2

Beam Weapons B-3

Bombs B-4

Electrical B-5

Engines B-6

Hulls B-7

Mechanical B-8

Mines B-8

Mining B-9

Orbital B-9

Planetary B-10

Scanners B-11

Shields B-11

Starbase Hulls B-12

Terraforming B-12

Torpedoes B-13

C O N T E N T S IX

Files Used in Stars! C-1 Frequently Asked Questions D-1 Glossary Gl-1 Index In-1

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X C O N T E N T S

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INTRODUCTION

Some leaders are forged in battle. Others prefer formal training with less bloodshed. With Stars!, your training ground is the tutorial. Use it, and you’ll massively reduce the chances of getting your butt kicked early by the computer or other more experienced players. The ancient races responsible for the formation of the Stars! universe didn’t play the tutorial. Read what happened to them.

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1 WELCOME TO THE

STARS! UNIVERSE

IT’S A RELATIVELY SMALL UNIVERSE, AFTER ALL

Somewhere out on the edge of the Universe, two great races (the Sznip, a race of crustaceans, and the Fermis, a race of nuclear plasmatoids) have destroyed themselves and the chance for all remaining sentient races to evolve and expand into (nearly) infinite space. Once upon a time there was a theory that said the Universe was made up of interconnected bubbles of space/time. The Sznip and the Fermi War proved it. The detonation that destroyed both these super races also caused these bubbles of real space to pop (actually a simultaneous replacement of real space with null). All the bubbles that is, but one. This bubble of space/time, your bubble, is all that remains. And it’s small (too small) and full (too full) of sentient species, each on the verge of colonizing other planets and traveling between the stars. Each race is hungry to control the little bit that’s left.

There’s bound to be trouble.

WHAT YOU’RE DOING HERE

Fortunately, the destructive element found in the terrible weapons of the Sznips and Fermis does not exist in the Universal Remnant. So there is a limit to the trouble you and your opponents can cause. During your first year, you’ll be ready to build your first simple space ships. Eventually you’ll build interstellar cruisers and planet bombers, freighters the size of small moons, and weapons that will make your opponents tremble or shrug, depending on their confidence level. You’ll colonize world after world as quickly as only your race can. You may get lucky, and find artifacts left by those ancient races that catalyze your research efforts, or encounter transdimensional beings offering you knowledge that only they possess, and at low, low prices. By the time the space dust settles, 100, 200, perhaps 500 or more years will have passed, and either you or one of your undeserving opponents will be calling the shots. Or, shot up, war-scarred, and with too few resources to continue, you’ll call a halt, shake hands and all settle down for a foot stomping game of Fizbin.

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1-2 I N T R O D U C T I O N

It’s the 2400th year of the Planetary Era. Your world is resource rich and bustling with technological development. Your political leaders are giddy and, with much fanfare, have just declared this as the first year of the Galactic Era. Your people are looking for a real leader.

YOU ARE THE MASTER STRATEGIST

Use the Stars! control panels to command your capitol worlds and fleets, to seek out strange new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly help your neighbors understand their role in the doctrine of Manifest Destiny.

Stars! may seem complicated at first glance. Lots of tiles and windows, lots of text, lots of colors. These things require a little explaining. Only a very little.

But not here. You won’t need to pay more than cursory attention to most of the information on the screen, most of the time. It’s there when you need it. You can even temporarily collapse some pieces if you find them distracting.

To orient yourself, before you go nose to beak with the other spacially challenged races, PLAY THE TUTORIAL GAME. Just click on New Game in the opening screen, then click on Tutorial in the New Game dialog.

To get help during play, LEFT-CLICK the mouse when you see this cursor: Also consider clicking on Help buttons in the dialogs and choosing the Help commands in the main menu.

Now get going. The universe is waiting, along with up to 15 other star-hungry races.

WHAT YOU’LL FIND IN THIS PLAYER’S GUIDE

Use this guide to help you set up any type of single or multi-player game, to familiarize yourself with the playing screen, and to learn both the high points and the details of creating and running the universe. For quick reference, everything in this paper guide is duplicated in the Stars! online help.

WE’D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU

Stars! was designed by strategy game fanatics for strategy gamers of all levels. Many features in the game have appeared at the request of the Stars! players community. So talk to us. Tell us what you think and what you want (keeping in mind that Stars! is turn-based, not live action).

Multi-player games

You can challenge other beings on a single computer or across a local area network, or by transferring turn files using ftp, modems, email, computer bulletin boards, or any other file transfer mechanism you can think of. There’s room for up to 16 of you in the Stars! universe, with any mix of human and computer opponents.

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To contact us with your ideas and reactions, send e-mail to stars@webmap.com.

To learn more about the Stars! universe outside your computer, visit our official Web site, Waypoint Zero, at www.webmap.com/stars!, and our publisher’s handsome Web site at www.empire.co.uk.

To trade information and converse with other Stars! players, visit the Stars! Usenet news group, rec.games.computer.stars.

W E L C O M E 1-3

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GETTING STARTED

Welcome to Universe University—a short course in creating the universe, hosting games, and operating Stars! within the confines of your computer . Here are the administrative nuts and bolts every leader needs to know. Stay awake. You’ll probably use only 10% of what you learn here, but you never know which 10% it’s going to be.

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2 SINGLE PLAYER SETUP

PLAYING THE TUTORIAL

Stars! contains an intelligent, online tutorial that, in the course of one short (and very real) game, introduces you to a variety of basic strategies and familiarizes you with all the player tools. If you’ve never played Stars! before, we highly recommend that you play the tutorial first.

The current instruction is always highlighted.

¯ Just click on New Game in the opening screen, then on Begin Tutorial in

the New Game dialog. You can quit the tutorial at any time, saving your place to begin again later.

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¯ To start the tutorial where you left off, or to start over, click on New Game

and Begin Tutorial, or use the Help (Tutorial) menu item.

STARTING A SINGLE PLAYER GAME

Like we said, if you’ve never played Stars! or a game like Stars! before, we recommend that you play the tutorial before you strike out on your own.

To start a new single player game:

1. Click on New Game on the opening screen or on File (New) from the

Stars! main menu.

2. In the New Game dialog, select the universe size, difficulty level and race

to play. To learn about or modify the attributes of your race, click on Customize Race. The Custom Race wizard appears.

3. When you’re done selecting game settings, OK the New Game dialog.

You’ll be prompted to enter a file name under which to save the game.

4. Enter any name up to eight characters long (don’t worry about typing an

extension). Stars! creates a set of files containing data for that game and for each human and computer player in the game. You can save the game wherever you wish. By default, game files are saved in the Stars! install directory.

The game begins, with your home world displayed on the screen and in the Command pane, Scanner pane and Selection Summary pane. For the first turn, the Messages pane contains tips that help you get started.

5. Use this turn to investigate your home planet, start basic production and

research, and send your scouts out to learn about the nearby worlds.

6. Once you finish the turn, select the Turn (Generate) menu item or press

the F9 key. Your next turn generates immediately.

7. To quit, select File (Exit) or File (Close). If you’ve made changes since the

start of the turn, Stars! prompts you to save. If you don’t save, you’ll start the same turn over the next time you open the game.

8. When you wish to continue the game where you left off, click on

Continue Game on the opening screen. You can also click on Open Game, selecting gamename.m1 from the playing directory.

You can learn about defining a race in chapter 20, Designing Custom Races.

You can click on Advanced Game in the New Game dialog to specify the number of AI (computer) players and the conditions for victory.

IMPORTANT: The first time you play Stars!, exit using the File (Exit) command. This writes the stars.ini file to the Windows directory, saving game options and helping to prevent that pesky serial number dialog from appearing again.

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S I N G L E P L A Y E R S E T U P 2-3

SETTING AND VIEWING WINNING CONDITIONS

You can specify one or more winning conditions in step 3 of the Advanced New Game wizard. You can also accept the default conditions provided by Stars!. To view the winning conditions once the game has begun, choose the View (Race) menu item, then turn to page 3 of the View Game Parameters dialog that appears.

Because you can control the variety and combination of winning conditions, more than one player can be declared the winner. All players are notified in a message when someone wins. You can continue to play past this point, or end the game.

Track the score using Reports (Score) menu item (or by pressing F10). The Score sheet shows your score and current ranking, and a history of scores since the game began.

If Public Player Scores is selected in the game setup, all player’s scores and rankings appear in the Score sheet.

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3 MULTI-PLAYER SETUP

SETTING UP A SINGLE COMPUTER, MULTI-PLAYER (HOT SEAT) GAME

In a multi-player game, designate one person as the host. This person is in charge of generating turns and generally administering the game. A player can also act as host.

What the Host Needs to Do (Hot Seat Play)

Before you begin setup, have your players design their races and give you the race files for loading into the game. Alternately, you can customize a race for any player who wishes it.

To set up a multi-player hot seat game:

1. Click on New Game on the opening screen or on File (New) from the

Stars! main menu. The New Game dialog appears.

2. Click on Advanced Options, then specify options such as the universe

size, difficulty level, relative starting positions, accelerated play for BBS games, number and type of players (Human or AI), and the victory conditions. Be sure to load any custom race files provided by the players. Create player positions for latecomers if you think it’s necessary.

3. The order of players listed in Step 2 of the Advanced New Game dialog

becomes part of the turn file name for each player.

Learn about creating a race in chapter 20, Designing Custom Races.

Learn about Winning

Conditions, p 3-9

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Player #1’s file is gamename.m1 (for example, redstar.m1).

4. Tell each player their number. They’ll need it to open the correct file at the start of their turn.

5. You’ll be prompted for a game name. Enter any name up to eight characters long (don’t worry about typing an extension). Stars! creates a set of files containing data for that game and each player in the game. You can save the game wherever you wish. By default, Stars! will save the game files in the Stars! install directory.

6. The Stars! Host Mode dialog appears. Create a password, if you want to prevent other players from opening the game file. Click on Auto Generate to start the game.

7. Help the players understand what they need to do using the instructions in What Each Player Needs to Do. If you’re playing as well as hosting, you’ll probably find it easier to start a second instance of Stars!, playing from one and using the other to handle host duties.

¯ To quit the game, click on Close in the Host dialog.

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¯ To restart the host, start Stars!, click on Open Game, and choose the

gamename.hst file.

What Each Player Needs to Do (Hot Seat Play)

If you’ve never played Stars! or a game like Stars! before, we recommend that you play the tutorial before you strike out on your own. That said:

¯ (Optional) Before the host creates a game, use Stars! Custom Race wizard

to create a customized race, then give the race file to the host. Open the Custom Race wizard using the File (Custom Race wizard) menu item.

Once the host creates the game, do the following:

1. Start Stars! and click on Open Game from the opening screen. Open your player file, gamename.mN. The Host needs to provide you with the gamename.

Your game begins, with your home world displayed on the screen and in the Command, Scanner and Selection Summary panes. For the first turn, the Message pane contains tips that help you get started. Investigate your home planet, start basic production and research, and send your scouts out to learn about the nearby worlds.

2. Place your game files in the same directory each turn. The directory location is your choice—we recommend creating a play directory within the Stars! directory to keep things simple.

3. Once you finish the turn, select the menu command Turn (Wait for New). Stars! will minimize, waiting for a new turn. When the new turn is ready, it will beep once and flash, while displaying Turn Available.

Learn about creating a race in chapter 20, Designing Custom Races.

Screen Layout

To change the basic layout of the Stars! screen use the View (Window Layout) menu item. You can also rearrange and open and close tiles, and resize individual panes by clicking on their edges and dragging. For details, read the start of chapter 5, The Stars! Screen.

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If you wish, you can exit the game before or after you finish the turn. You can save your changes or start the turn again if you don’t like the way things are going. Read Exiting the Game on page 4-4 for more information.

If you plan to be absent for two or more turns, follow the instructions in Being Absent from Play on page 3-10.

SETTING UP NETWORK-BASED MULTI-PLAYER GAMES

In a multi-player game, designate one person as the host. This person is in charge of generating turns and generally administering the game. A player can also act as host.

What the Host Needs to Do (Network Play)

You will need to set up the game in a shared directory (sharepoint) accessible to all players. This sharepoint is the place that will contain all the game files, and where the players will go to open their games. The sharepoint can exist on a local area network, or via a modem connection (if you are using Windows 95 Dial-up Networking capabilities—just connect to the server machine or to another Win95 machine with the Plus Pack installed). You can also create network connections using PC-NFS or any other software that allows you to attach directories on the remote server as if they were local.

Before you begin setup, have your players design their races and give you the race files for loading into the game. Alternately, you can customize a race for any player who wishes it.

To set up a network game:

1. Create the sharepoint that will contain all the game files. We recommend keeping it simple—no more than one play directory per game, for all players in the game. You can create this directory within the directory containing the stars!.exe program, or anywhere else you wish.

2. Click on New Game on the opening screen or on File (New) from the Stars! main menu. The New Game dialog appears.

3. Click on Advanced Options, then specify options such as the universe size, difficulty level, relative starting positions, accelerated play for BBS games, number and type of players (real or AI), and the winning conditions. Be sure to load any custom race files provided by the players. Create player positions for latecomers if you wish.

Learn about creating a race in chapter 20, Designing Custom Races.

Learn about Winning

Conditions, p 3-9

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Player #1’s file is gamename.m1 (for example, redstar.m1).

The order of players listed in Step 2 of the Advanced New Game dialog becomes part of the turn filename for each player.

4. Tell each player their number. They’ll need it to open the correct turn file.

6. Select Auto Generate in the Host dialog. The dialog will minimize, waiting for all players to submit their turns. Stars! automatically submits any turn into the shared directory. Once that’s done, Stars! automatically generates a new turn, then returns to wait mode.

7. If you want to force a new turn to be generated, double-click on the Stars! host icon, then select Generate Now from the Host dialog. To cause Stars! to auto-generate turns again, select Auto Generate again. The dialog will minimize and wait for players as before. Stars! will continue to follow any existing orders for players who didn’t submit their turns on time. All messages and data for the missed turns, such as planets discovered or battles fought, will be present when they load the new turn.

8. Help the players understand what they need to do using the following instructions in What Each Player Needs to Do (Network Play). If you’re playing as well as hosting, you’ll probably find it easier to start a second instance of Stars!, playing from one and using the other to handle host duties.

¯ To quit the game, click on Close in the Host dialog. ¯ To restart the host, start Stars!, click on Open Game, and choose the

gamename.hst file.

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What Each Player Needs to Do (Network Play)

If you’ve never played Stars! or a game like Stars! before, we recommend that you play the tutorial before you strike out on your own. That said:

¯ (Optional) Before the host creates a game, use Stars! Custom Race wizard

to create a customized race, then give the race file to the host. Open the Custom Race wizard using the File (Custom Race wizard) menu item.

Once the host creates the game, do the following on the machine where you’ll play:

1. Start Stars! and click on Open Game from the opening screen. Open your player file, gamename.mN. This file should be located in the shared play directory (sharepoint) set up by the host. The host is also responsible for supplying you with the gamename.

2. Once you finish the turn, select the menu command Turn (Wait for New). Stars! will minimize, waiting for a new turn.

When the new turn is ready, the Stars! icon will beep once and flash, while displaying Turn Available. If you wish, you can exit the game before or after you finish the turn. You can save your changes or start the turn again if you don’t like the way things are going. Read Exiting The Game on page 4-4 for more information.

Learn about creating a race in chapter 20, Designing Custom Races.

If you plan to be absent for two or more turns, follow the instructions in Being Absent from Play on page 3-10.

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SETTING UP MODEM, FTP, AND PLAY BY E-MAIL GAMES

All multi-player games need one person to act as the host. This person is in charge of generating turns and generally administering the game. A player can also host a game.

What the Host Needs to Do (Modem/FTP/E-mail Play)

Stars is turn-based, not real-time. This means modems can be used to transfer turn files once they are generated. You can do this through a BBS, e-mail, upload/download from an FTP site, or using any other method you wish to transfer files from the host to player systems. There aren’t any special transfer protocols for modem users—you’re just uploading or downloading files.

Before you begin setup, have your players design their races and give you the race files for loading into the game. Alternately, you can customize a race for any player who wishes it.

To set up a modem or email-based game:

1. Click on New Game on the opening screen or on File (New) from the Stars! main menu. The New Game dialog appears.

2. Click on Advanced Options, then specify options such as the universe size, difficulty level, relative starting positions, accelerated play for BBS games, the number and type of players (real or AI), and the winning conditions. Create player positions for latecomers if you wish.

Player #1’s file is gamename.m1 (for example, redstar.m1).

Tip: Notice the Accelerated BBS Play option in the Advanced Game setup. You may wish to check this option during setup to jump-start the game.

Learn about creating a race in chapter 20, Designing Custom Races.

Learn about Winning

Conditions, p 3-9

The order of players listed in step 2 of the New Game dialog becomes part of the turn filename for each player.

3. Save the game using any name up to eight characters long. Stars! creates a set of files containing data for that game and each player in the game. You can save the game wherever you wish. By default, Stars! will save the game files in the Stars! install directory.

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4. The Stars! Host dialog appears. Click on Close to stop the game until all players have submitted their turns. If you’d like to leave Stars! running, click on Auto Generate.

5. Before the first turn each player needs to download the universe file, gamename.xy, and their player file, gamename.mN (where N is the player number), for the newly created game. Alternately, you can upload or emailgamename.xy and gamename.mN to each player. These files will be located in the same directory in which you saved the game.

6. Help the players understand what they need to do using the instructions in the following section on What Each Player Needs to Do (Modem/FTP/E-mail Play). If you’re playing as well as hosting, you’ll probably find it easier to start a second instance of Stars!, playing from one and using the other to handle host duties.

After each player has sent you their turn (in the form of the log file, gamename.xN) do the following:

1. Place each player’s submitted log file in the directory where you set up the game.

2. Start Stars! (if it’s not already running), click on Open Game, and open the host file, gamename.hst.

3. If the Stars! host is set to auto-generate mode, it will automatically generate the new turn as soon as you move the player log files into the game directory. If you’re generating turns manually, then select Generate Now from the Host dialog. Stars! will continue to follow any existing orders for players who didn’t submit their turns on time. All messages and data for the missed turns, such as planets discovered or battles fought, will be present when they load the new turn.

4. Once the turn is generated, notify the players that the new turn is available. You can e-mail or upload each newly updated gamename.mN file or allow each player to download it themselves.

What Each Player Needs to Do (Modem/FTP/E-mail Play)

(Optional) Before the host creates a game, use Stars! Custom Race wizard to create a customized race, then give the race file to the host.

Once the host creates the game, do the following on the machine where you’ll play:

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1. Obtain the gamename.xy and gamename.mN files from your host, where gamename is the name entered by the host in the File Save dialog and N is your player number; for example, nonstop.m1.

Place these files in a playing directory you’ve created on your own system. Use the same directory for each turn. You can create a unique play directory for each game, or put all games into one directory. Whatever your strategy, we recommend that you keep it simple.

2. Start Stars! and click on Open Game from the opening screen. Open your player file, gamename.mN.

3. Select File (Save and Submit), then File (Exit). Or, if you’re trading turns quickly or leave your computer on for long periods of time, you can also use Turn (Wait for New)—a much simpler scenario.

4. Upload or e-mail only your log file, gamename.xN file to the host system.

If you plan to be absent for more than a few turns, follow the instructions in Being Absent from Play on page 3-10.

SETTING AND VIEWING WINNING CONDITIONS

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3-10 G E T T I N G S T A R T E D

Track the score using Reports (Score) menu item (or by pressing F10). The Score sheet shows your score and current ranking, and a history of scores since the game began.

ADDING EXPANSION PLAYERS

If you think there’ll be other players joining later in the game, add an Expansion Player for each missing person. Stars! will assign a housekeeper AI to run things for those players until they actually join the action. This AI will keep planets and fleets active, making sure the production queues are busy, etc. It does not develop any strategy.

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M U L T I - P L A Y E R S E T U P 3-11

When the player joins, right click in the Host dialog on the diamond next to their name and change the type to Human Controlled. Then, give the latecomer a break by asking the other players to leave them alone for N years.

BEING ABSENT FROM PLAY

When you miss a turn, Stars! will continue to follow your existing orders. All messages and data for the missed turns, such as planets discovered or battles fought, will be present the next time you load a turn.

Alternately, if you plan on missing more than a few turns, you can ask the host to substitute a housekeeper AI to keep your planets and fleets active. This AI does not develop any strategy for you.

Hot-seat and network players: ¯ Just tell the host you’re going inactive and ask them to substitute the AI in

your place.

Modem, e-mail or BBS players only:

1. Give your host a copy of your history file, gamename.hN. This will allow the host to update the universe for you while you’re gone.

2. Be sure that your host returns the history file and new turn file to you before you open your game. You won’t be able to open your turn until this time.

What the host needs to do:

1. Open the Host dialog, if it’s not open yet. Use File (Open), selecting gamename.hst.

2. Right-click on the blue diamond next to the name of the player who’s absent. Choose Human (Currently inactive ).

3. When the player returns, right-click on the diamond and select Human Controlled. You’ll have to do this before the player can open their player file, gamename.mN.

4. If you’re running the game over a modem, e-mailor BBS, return the updated history file, gamename.hN, and player file, gamename.mN, to the player.

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FINDING MULTI-PLAYER GAMES ON THE INTERNET

If you want to join a multi-player game, or start your own, but can’t find other players, visit the Stars! Web site, Waypoint Zero, at www.webmap.com/stars!. Read the web pages on Player Resources for a list of host sites (growing weekly) and other host and player information.

PASSWORDS

Create or change a password for the current game using the Commands (Change Password) menu item.

You can create a default game password using the following option in the [Misc] section of stars.ini file:

DefaultPassword=<password> <password> is the password you wish to use. If you are sure that your

opponents will not have access to your stars.ini file you can set this to your password. Whenever you open a game file that is protected by this password you will not be prompted to enter it. If DefaultPassword is not present in stars.ini, type it in under the [Misc] heading.

The stars.ini file is written into your Windows directory the first time you save a Stars! game. It doesn’t exist before that time.

Don’t Forget Your Password

If you forget or lose your password, there is nothing you can do to open the password-protected game. We hope you’re not reading this because you’ve forgotten. Don’t worry, empires come, empires go.

Inactive Players and Passwords

There is no valid password for inactive players. When the player becomes active again, they get their old password back.

USING A TIMER APPLICATION?

If you use a timer application to launch Stars! on the host system, take a look at the variety of command line options on page 4-5. These options will do such things as start Windows and Stars!, generate the new turn and exit both programs.

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M U L T I - P L A Y E R S E T U P 3-13

CREATING A UNIVERSE FROM THE COMMAND LINE

For experienced hosts only

Use the following command to create a new game/universe without using Stars! setup dialogs:

stars!.exe -a game.def

game.def has the following format:

Game Name Universe Size (0-4) Density (0-3) Starting Distance (0-3)

Maximum Minerals (0/1) Slow Tech (0/1) BBS Play (0/1) .... (other boxes)

Number of Players, only humans allowed (1-16) Pathnames to race files VC # of planets (0/1) Percent of planets (20-100) VC Tech (0/1) Level (8-26) Fields (2-6) VC Score (0/1) Score (1000-20000) VC Exceeds nearest (0/1) (Percent (20-300) VC Production (0/1) Capacity (10-500) VC Capital Ships (0/1) Number (10-300) VC Turns (0/1) Years (30-900) VC Must Meet (0-7) Minimum Years (30-500) New universe file name

The following is a sample game.def file: Tour of Duty 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 4 c:\stars\play\game.r1 c:\stars\play\game.r2 c:\stars\play\game.r3 c:\stars\play\game.r4 1 60 1 26 4 0 1 150 0 1 100 0 2 150 c:\stars\play\game.xy

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4 THINGS EVERY STARS!

PLAYER SHOULD KNOW

TUNING STARS! TO YOUR DISPLAY RESOLUTION

The higher your screen resolution, the better Stars! will look. However, it will run on any color VGA display.

1024 by 768 (or better)

For maximum playing pleasure.

¯ Use this menu command: View (Window Layout > Large). ¯ If you use large fonts, you may need to specify View (Window Layout >

Medium).

800 by 600

This is the minimum recommended resolution.

1. Choose the menu item, View (Window Layout > Medium). If you’re using large fonts, you may find that the small window layout works better for you.

2. Resize each of the windows to optimize the information you need to see at a glance.

3. If the screen still seems too cramped try hiding the Toolbar using the menu item, View (Toolbar). Most of the Toolbar functions are available using shortcut keystrokes.

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4-2 G E T T I N G S T A R T E D

640 by 480 (VGA)

This is the minimum required resolution.

1. Use this menu command: View (Window Layout > Small).

2. Resize each of the windows to optimize the information you need to see at a glance.

3. Collapse tiles in the Command pane, expanding them when needed.

4. If the screen still seems too cramped try hiding the Toolbar using the menu item View (Toolbar). Most of the Toolbar functions are available using shortcut keystrokes.

REPLAYING A PREVIOUS TURN

Stars! allows you to save previous turns in case you need to resubmit a turn to the host or replay the current turn. You can specify saving up to 999 turns using the Backups option in the stars.ini file. If you don’t specify the number of turns to backup, Stars! backs up only the previous turn. Once you save and submit, Stars! saves the current turn as the most recent backup copy.

To start a turn using data from a previous turn (for example, the last turn played):

1. Copy all files for the current game from the backup directory into the playing directory. For example, if you originally saved the game under the name of Nonstop, copy all files with Nonstop as the prefix. To ensure that you are choosing the correct files, check the date/time stamp on the backup directory.

2. Choose Open Game or File (Open). Select the player log file player turn file (for example, nonstop.m1), and click OK. You should be back where you started, although the universe will reflect the current positions of other players.

SAVING YOUR GAME—WHAT IT MEANS

Default Save Behavior

By default, saving a game saves only the current state of the current turn. The previous turn’s data is saved in a directory called Backup, under the directory in which you’re saving the game. Stars! creates the Backup directory

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T H I N G S E V E R Y P L A Y E R S H O U L D K N O W 4-3

automatically. Each time you generate a turn, the old data in the Backup directory is overwritten with the previous turn’s data.

Saving the Current State of Your Game

Use the File (Save) menu item to save the current state of your game. This is useful if you need to exit the game before you finish your turn. When you restart Stars! just click on Continue Game to resume where you left off.

If you close the game before saving you will see this alert, you’ll be asked if you wish to save before exiting.

Saving More than One Previous Turn

If you’d like to save more than one previous turn for review or any other purpose, do the following:

1. Open the stars.ini file for editing. It’s a plain text file located in your Windows directory.

2. Under the [MISC] section, set the Backups option to a number of turns, between 1 and 999. If the Backups option isn’t present, go ahead and type it in; for example:

Backups=50

Backup directories will be named Backup1 to BackupN. Old game files will be stored in the backup directory according to the turn number. For example when Backups=4 then the first turn would be backed up to the directory backup1, the second to backup2, the third to backup3, the fourth to backup4, the fifth to backup1 and so on.

The stars.ini file is written into your Windows directory the first time you save a Stars! game. It doesn’t exist before that time.

Save and Submit

Multi-player Games Only

Use the File (Save and Submit) command to save the current state of your game and submit your turn. In multi-player games, this marks your turn as finished so the host can auto-generate; Save does not.

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If you close the game before saving you’ll be asked if you wish to save and submit your turn before exiting.

EXITING THE GAME

Select File (Exit) or File (Close). If you’ve made changes since the beginning of the turn, Stars! will prompt you to save or, if you’re in a multi-player game, to save and submit your turn.

Exiting Stars! the First Time

IMPORTANT: The first time you play Stars!, exit using the File (Exit) menu

item. This writes the stars.ini file to the Windows directory, saving game options and helping to prevent that pesky serial number dialog from appearing again.

Exiting Stars! to Erase Changes

If you want to erase the changes you’ve made that turn, before you submit, do the following:

1. Choose File (Close), without saving.

2. Select Open Game from the opening screen, then choose your player log file from the Open File dialog. You’ll be back at the start of the turn you just left.

Save vs. Save and Submit

Multi-player Games Only

If you close the game before saving you’ll be asked if you wish to save and submit your turn before exiting.

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T H I N G S E V E R Y P L A Y E R S H O U L D K N O W 4-5

OPTIONS FOR LAUNCHING STARS!

Stars! can be launched from a DOS or Windows command line, using the Stars! command only or with a variety of options. When using an option, you must also supply either a player or host file name as an argument. You can also supply only the player or host file name without any other options.

With or without options, supplying the file name causes Stars! to start without displaying the splash screen (startup bitmap).

-s – start with battle sound effects turned off

-m – start with game music turned off

-t – try, then exit. If you specify a player file, this opens the newly generated

turn. If the turn hasn’t been generated yet, then Stars! exits. If you specify a host file, this checks to see if all players have submitted their changes for the turn. If they have, Stars! generates the new turn and exits. Otherwise, it just exits.

-w –wait. If you specify a host file, this auto-generates the new turn as soon as

all players have submitted their changes. If you specify a player file, this waits for the new turn to be generated. This option does not cause Stars! to exit.

-g –generate and exit. Specify a host file only. This forces the turn to generate

regardless of whether all players have submitted changes, then exits. You can’t load a player file when you use this option.

-p password –supplies the password on the command line. You can use this

with a host file or a password-protected player file.

-x –Exit Windows when Stars! exits. This is a good match with the -b option if

you wish to create a script that automatically starts Windows, generates the new turn, then exits Windows.

-b gamelist_file –Generate turns for each game listed in the supplied file

name.

-a game.def – Create a new game/universe based on the contents of game.def.

This allows you to create new games from the command line. See Creating a Universe from the Command Line on page 3-13 for more information.

-h – Causes Stars! to alway ask you for a password when you open a turn file.

This helps keep the wimps who can’t play without cheating out of your turn files. This is especially useful for hot seat play.

The -x flag is for 16-bit Windows only (3.1 or 3.11). Behavior of the -x option on OS/2, Windows NT, or Windows 95 is undefined and probably not what you want.

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Examples

stars! Filename Load a player or host file, starting the game without

loading the splash screen.

stars! -w gamename.hst Load the host file and enter Auto Generate mode. stars! -w gamename.mN Load the specified player file and wait for the host to

generate a new turn.

stars! -t gamename.mN Load the specified player file; quit if the host has not yet

generated a new turn.

stars! -g gamename.hst Load the host file, force a new turn and quit. stars! -w -g gamename.hst Load the host file, wait for all players to submit turns,

generate and quit.

stars! -t -g gamename.hst Load the host file, generate a new turn only if all players

have submitted turns, then quit. If it generates the turn the return value is 1; if the turn is not generated the value is 0.

stars! -t -b gamelist_file Conditionally generate turns for a list of games. stars! -x -b gamelist_file Generate turns for each game listed in the supplied file

name, then exit Windows. Useful for BBS play

For example if your BBS is OS/2, NT or Windows-based you can launch Stars! with the -b gamelist_file parameter to batch generate turns for multiple games. Stars! will automatically exit when the last turn has been generated. The file listing the games must contain one game name per line including the full path:

c:\games\stars!\play\frenzy.hst c:\games\stars!\play\game.hst c:\user\jeff\stars!\killer.hst

You can name this games list file anything you want. If you are running a DOS-based BBS but have Windows installed on the machine, you can launch Windows and Stars! from a nightly maintenance script similar to this:

win c:\games\stars!\stars!.exe -x -b c:\games\stars!\gamelist.txt

This will launch Windows and Stars!, generate a turn for each game listed in gamelist.txt, then exit Stars! and Windows. This method is optimal for Windows 3.1.

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T H I N G S E V E R Y P L A Y E R S H O U L D K N O W 4-7

If you have Windows for Workgroups installed (Windows 3.11) you may want ato use the win /n option:

win /n c:\games\stars!\stars!.exe -x -b c:\games\stars!\gamelist.txt

This will prevent Windows from loading any of its network drivers and suppress its login prompt. If you only need to generate a turn for a single game you can still use the -g gamename.hst parameter with or without -x (use

-x with Windows 3.1 or 3.11only).

COPY PROTECTION

Save Your Serial Number

The first time you run Stars!, you will be asked to enter your unique serial number. The number is printed on 2 labels enclosed in the pack.

It is very important that you keep the serial number where you can find it

later. Stars! may ask for the number again if :

• You re-install Stars!

• You change your computer’s configuration.

• You install a Stars! upgrade.

One Computer - One Serial Number

Each computer running Stars! must use a unique serial number. Given this, the copy protection activates ONLY in the following situations:

• When you cancel the serial number dialog.

• When players using the same serial number submit turns created on two

different computers . This includes submitting turns from networked computers sharing a serial number. If you want to submit turns from different machines on a network, each of those machines must have a copy of Stars! installed with a unique serial number.

• One person submits turns for two or more player positions from different computers that share the same Stars! serial number .

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4-8 G E T T I N G S T A R T E D

In every case, Stars! will give you a chance to enter a unique serial number and continue play normally.

How the Copy Protection Works

Stars! is played by submitting player log files to the host (either a human or the game itself). Each log file is tagged with the serial number for the copy of Stars! used to generate the file, and a fingerprint of the computer on which the game was installed. If the Stars! host receives two or more log files with different computer fingerprints and the same serial number it assumes that all the players associated with those log files are guilty of software piracy, and activates the copy protection for those players (honest players are unaffected). The copy protection makes the game unplayable for the guilty parties, until each player enters a unique serial number. As soon as each player submits turns with a unique serial number, the copy protection deactivates.

The Host Doesn’t Need a Serial Number

A host can use the same serial number as one other player without affecting the host or the player. This allows you to host and play from the same copy of Stars!

Computers Running More than One Version of Windows

If you are running some combination of Windows 95, NT or 3.x on a single computer you will be asked for a serial number the first time you run Stars! under each version of Windows. After that, you should only be bothered for the number if you change your system configuration or delete the stars.ini file from the Windows directory. Each version of Windows will have its own directory containing Windows system software. By default, this directory is named Windows. You may have named it something different on your system.

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THE STARS! SCREEN

You can’t manage an empire with a stick and whistle.

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5 THE STARS!-SCREEN

The Stars! playing screen is divided into four panes:

Command

This is where you give detailed orders to your fleets and planets. Collapsible tiles display data and controls for the planet or fleet under your command.

Messages

This is where you receive yearly reports from far-flung fleets and planets and messages from other players. Build alliances or deceive enemies with your crafty replies.

This is your view of the universe. Use the scanner toolbar to select filters and overlays. Manipulate fleet routes and track opponents who ignore your ‘no trespassing’ signs.

This area shows details about the object selected in the Scanner pane.

Scanner

Selection Summary

Changing the Layout

From the main menu, select View (Window Layout). Select Small Screen, Medium Screen or Large Screen. Choose the screen layout that works best with your video resolution.

Shrinking and Growing Panes

Change the size of each of the four panes by simply clicking on and dragging the pane borders.

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COMMAND PANE

The Command pane is where you give orders to a planet or fleet that you own. Select one of your planets to command and controls for giving orders to that planet appear on tiles. Select one of your fleets to command and controls for giving orders to that fleet appear.

Moving and Collapsing Tiles

You can individually move and collapse the command pane tiles.

To move a tile, click on the title bar and drag to a new location.

Tiles Seen When Commanding a Planet

Planet tile

This tile displays the planet currently under your command. Click on Prev and Next to scroll through your planets in the

order they are listed in the Planet Summary Report. Hold down on the SHIFT key while clicking on Prev or Next to scroll between planets that have a starbase.

Minerals on Hand tile

The upper half of this tile lists the amount of each mineral

available for immediate use. The lower half tells you how many mines and factories are in operation out of the total number the population can operate.

Click here to collapse a

Left-click on items in the tile

for more information.

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Status tile

Left-click on items in the tile

for more information.

Fleets in Orbit tile

Small screen layout: click on the Cargo button to display the cargo list.

THE STARS! SCREEN 5-3

This tile displays planetary population, scanner and defense statistics.

Resources/Year – The tile displays the number of resources, or

units of work, available for use by the planet out of the total

number of resources generated by the planet annually. The difference, if any, is the number allocated to research.

Defenses — Number of defenses deployed out of the maximum your population can operate.

Defense Type — Current defense technologyy Defense Coverage – Estimated percentage of bombs, troops

and mineral packet bombardments that can be stopped with current defenses.

The fleet dropdown lists all fleets and other objects in orbit.

Fleets you own are listed in black. Fleets belonging to other players are listed in red.

Click on Cargo to transfer cargo between your fleets and the

planet.

Click on Goto to bring the specified fleet under command.

Starbase tile

Left-click on items in the tile for

more information.

This tile describes the local starbase, if any, and its mass driver.

To target the mass driver, click on Set Dest and then click on the destination in the scanner.

Left-click and drag in the gauge to set the packet speed. The warp specified is the maximum safe speed. The gauge color is purple as long as the speed is safe, changes to yellow when the speed is over the limit, and then to red when the maximum decay rate is reached.

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Production tile

This tile displays the planet’s production queue. Colors in the queue show completion status:

Green: all will be completed this turn

Blue: at least one will be completed this turn Black: at least one more turn before even one is finished Red: mineral concentration is so low that the time to

Gray: will be skipped this year Auto build items display in italics.

Click on Change to alter production orders. Click on Clear to remove everything from your production

queue. Click on Route, then click on a planet in the scanner to send

all newly built ships to that planet. Alternately, CTRL-click in the Scanner on the destination planet.

Tiles Seen When Commanding a Fleet

completion exceeds 100 years

Fleet tile

Location tile

This tile shows the fleet currently under your command. A fleet may contain several types of ships. The picture displays

the most significant type of ship in the fleet. A small plus (+) sign represents each additional ship type (up to four).

Click on Prev and Next to scroll through your fleets in the

order they are listed in the Fleet Summary Report. Click on Rename to rename the fleet.

This tile displays the location of the fleet under command. Selecting Goto switches to commanding the planet you’re

orbiting. You can’t do this if you don’t own the planet. Click Xfer to transfer cargo between the fleet and planet. For fleets in deep space, cargo transfer is replaced by cargo

jettison. Click on Jettison to dump some or all of your cargo.

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Fuel and Cargo tile

Small screen layout: click in the Cargo gauge to see the cargo list.

Fleet Composition tile

THE STARS! SCREEN 5-5

Fuel — The Fuel gauge shows the current and maximum fuel level of the fleet under command.

Cargo — The Cargo gauge shows the amounts of cargo loaded

and the total capacity of the fleet.

Left-click in the cargo gauge to transfer or jettison cargo, or pick up available salvage.

This list shows the name and number of each type of ship in the fleet. The extent of damage, if any, is shown by the red bar over the name. Left-click on the name to see more details.

To change the battle plan for the fleet under command, choose a new plan from the dropdown list. To view, create or edit a battle plan, select Battle Plans… from the dropdown list.

Click on Split to divide the fleet in two. Click on Split All to break up the fleet into separate fleets of a single ship type.

Click Merge to merge the fleet with other fleets in the same location.

Left-click on a ship name to

see design details and specs.

Other Fleets Here tile

Small screen layout: click on the Cargo button to display fuel and cargo amounts.

This tile lists all other fleets and mineral packets in the same

location as the fleet under command.

Click and drag in the Fuel gauge to transfer fuel between the

fleet under command and the fleet specified in the tile.

To bring another fleet here under command, choose one from

the dropdown list, then click Goto.

Click on Merge to transfer ships between the fleet under

command and the fleet shown in the tile.

Click on Cargo to transfer cargo between the fleet under

command and the fleet or object specified in the tile.

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Fleet Waypoints tile

The Fleet Waypoints tile lists all the waypoints assigned the fleet under command. The first waypoint listed is the current location. If the fleet are in transit between waypoints, the location is given as coordinates in deep space.

Right-click on the blue diamond to display a list of items at the same location as the selected waypoint. Select an alternate item to change the exact waypoint target.

Warp Factor: By default, Stars! chooses the ideal speed for reaching the next waypoint with the fuel available. To manually set the speed select the waypoint from the list, then

left-click and drag in the Warp gauge. To use a stargate, drag the bar all the way to the right. If you’re

not at a stargate, the travel time will display Never.

Fuel Usage: This tells you exactly how much fuel the fleet will use to reach the waypoint at its current speed. The number

turns red if you can’t reach the waypoint given the current speed and fuel supply.

Repeat Orders: Repeats the total set of orders you assigned using the Waypoints Task tile. Assigning repeat orders works best when the first waypoint in the list is repeated as the last.

Waypoint Task tile

This tile shows the task the fleet must perform at that waypoint selected in the Fleet Waypoints tile. Click on the dropdown to assign a task.

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THE STARS! SCREEN 5-7

Transport tasks

Use this task to load or unload minerals, fuel or colonists. The middle dropdown lists methods of loading and unloading.

When you assign a load/unload action, the cargo name turns from black to green. Some load/unload actions allow you to specify exact amounts.

Zip Orders: To quickly load fuel, minerals and colonists, right-click on the blue diamond and choose a pre-defined order from the list. If a Zip Order doesn’t quite meet your needs, you can create your own or modify the existing order.

Load / Unload Actions: (no action) No transport task for the specified cargo.

Load All Available Load as much of the specified cargo as the fleet can hold. Unload All Unload all the specified cargo at the waypoint.

Load Exactly... Load the amount specified only if there is room in the hold. Unload Exactly... Unload the amount specified only if the fleet is carrying that amount. Fill up to %... Loads up to the specified portion of the cargo hold subject to amount available at

waypoint and room left in hold.

Wait for %... Remain at the waypoint until exactly X % of the hold is filled. Load Optimal (fuel only) Load or unload fuel until the fleet carries only the exact amount needed to

reach the next waypoint. You can use this task to send a fleet loaded with fuel to rescue a stranded fleet. The rescue fleet will transfer only the amount of fuel it can spare without stranding itself.

Load Dunnage (minerals and colonists only) This command waits until all other loads and unloads are

complete, then loads as many colonists or amount of a mineral as will fit in the remaining space. For example, setting Load All Germanium, Load Dunnage Ironium, will load all the Germanium that is available, then as much Ironium as possible. If more than one dunnage cargo is specified, they are loaded in the order of Ironium,

Boranium, Germanium, and Colonists.

Set Amount to... Load or unload the cargo until the amount on board is the amount specified. If less

than the specified cargo is available, the fleet will not move on.

Set Waypoint to... Load or unload the cargo until the amount at the waypoint is the amount specified.

This order is always carried out to the best of the fleet’s ability that turn but does not prevent the fleet from moving on.

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5-8 T H E S T A R S ! S C R E E N

Colonize

Remote Mining

Merge with Fleet

Use this task to transport colonists to an unpopulated planet. The fleet must contain a ship with a colonization module, and must be loaded with colonists. Once the colony is established you can use freighters to transport additional colonists.

Use this task to mine an uninhabited planet. The fleet must have robot miners. The quantity of each mineral the fleet can mine annually is shown by tonnage and color.

Blue: Ironiumm Green: Boraniumm Yellow: Germanium

Use this task to merge the fleet under command with a fleet at the waypoint. The fleet given this task will be assimilated into the target fleet and assume its orders.

To pick from multiple fleets at the waypoint, right-click on the blue diamond in the Fleet Waypoints tile. Otherwise, Stars! will pick the most dormant fleet with similar ships.

Scrap Fleet

Use this task to salvage a portion of the minerals in the hulls of outdated or unrecoverable ships. Players can also trade technological knowledge by scrapping ships at each other’s planets.

The minerals are deposited on the planet where the fleet is scrapped. The percentage of minerals recovered varies depending on the situation.

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Lay Mine Fields

Patrol

Route

THE STARS! SCREEN 5-9

Use this task to lay mines at the waypoint. Fleets given this task must have mine layers. The tile notes how many mines the fleet will lay for each year it performs the task.

Use this task to intercept incoming enemy fleets. Set the detection range to specify how far away the patrol ship will look for interlopers. Manually select an intercept speed, or use the default of Automatic intercept in the shortest possible time using the least amount of fuel.

Use the Route task to automatically send fleets from one planet to another. If the waypoint planet has a routing destination, the fleet assigned this task will automatically set that destination as its next waypoint.

Transfer Fleet

Route destinations are set using the Production tile.

Use this task to place one of your fleets under the command of another player, and to give that player knowledge of the design of all ships in that fleet.

This task will fail if the receiving player does not have enough free ship design slots.

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Bringing a Fleet or Planet into the Command pane

Stars! provides more than one way to command a planet or fleet. Use the method that suits your needs.

To command the planet you are orbiting, click on Goto in the Location tile. (The planet must already belong to you.)

From the Command pane, you can select one of your fleets in

the same location using the Fleets in Orbit tile. Just choose a fleet from the dropdown list and click on Goto.

You can also use the Scanner pane to bring either a planet or fleet into the Command pane. If the object you wish to command is the only thing at that location, just double-click on it in the Scanner.

When more than one object is in the same location, do one of the following:

¯ Right-click on the location, then click on the name of the object from the pop-up list. ¯ Left-click on the location till the object you wish to command appears in the Command pane.

When clicking on a location to cycle through your planet and fleets, other player’s fleets are skipped. Even though you’d like to, you can’t display these fleets in the Command pane. Other player’s fleets, if present, are listed in the pop-up: selecting one will display what you know about that fleet in the Selection Summary pane.

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THE STARS! SCREEN 5-11

MESSAGES PANE

Each year you receive reports about conditions in the universe and the progress of your empire. As your empire expands, you’ll find that some types of messages become routine and distracting, and can be filtered.

Click to filter this type of message

Filtered Messages

Click to unfilter this type of message

The asterik tells you that you’ve made changes since the last save

Click to display (+) or hide (-) filtered messages

Click to draft and send mail (multi-player games only)

SHIFT-click to read the first message

Click to focus your commands and scanner on the subject of the message

SHIFT-click to read the final message

Select an addressee from the list

Click to exit mail mode

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Mail Form

Scanner

Status bar

SCANNER PANE

The Scanner pane is your window on the universe. All players see the same map but not the same details.

Command Keyboard/Mouse Action

Set Waypoints SHIFT+ left-click on the waypoint Route Fleets CTRL + left-click on the destination planet List Objects at Waypoint Right-click on the waypoint Measure Distance Hold down SHIFT, then right-click and drag Show your current location Press V

Choosing Your View of the Universe

There are six exclusive scanner views, which you can use with one or more overlays. Use the toolbar above the scanner to select views and overlays. Display or hide the toolbar with the View (Toolbar) menu item.

Normal view

This default scanner view displays the essentials, such as planets, fleets positions, orbital devices, salvage sites, wormholes.

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Surface Minerals

Mineral Concentration

THE STARS! SCREEN 5-13

This view displays the quantity of minerals under the surface at each planet you own or have scanned. The mineral colors and scale matches the display in the Summary pane’s mineral content graph. Rescaling that graph rescales the bars in this view.

This view displays the concentration of minerals under the surface at each planet you own or have scanned. The mineral colors and scale matches the display in the Summary pane’s mineral content graph. Rescaling that graph rescales the bars in this view.

Planet Value

Population

This view uses color and size to display which planets are best suited to your race. Blue flags mark your planets, yellow flags mark your friends’ planets and red flags mark planets of neutrals and enemies. Planets without flags are uninhabited.

Green: habitable. The larger the circle, the more hospitable the

planet.

Yellow: habitable after terraforming. Larger circles indicate faster

minimal terraforming and better results.

Red: uninhabitable. The larger the circle, the harsher the planet.

This view displays population levels. The wider the circle, the larger the population. Planets are sorted by color:

Green: your colonized planets Yellow: friends Red: enemies and neutrals Uncolonized planets that you’ve visited are small and grey.

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No Player Information

This view hides all traces of planet ownership. Just a thousand dim points of light.

Add Waypoints Mode

You can add waypoints for the fleet under command using just the mouse. This mode is primarily for beginning players, or anyone who wants to eat and play at the same time.

Scanner Coverage overlay

This overlay displays the effectiveness of radar coverage at the percentage selected in the dropdown. Reducing the displayed coverage does not change the actual coverage—it only gives you an idea of what your coverage would be in relation to the cloaking ability of opponents’ ships. For example, select 75% to show how close a fleet with 25% cloaking will need to be before you can detect it.

Mine Fields overlay

Fleet Paths overlay

This overlay displays minefields as colored grids. Your minefields are blue, friends are yellow, and enemies and neutrals are red.

You can see both the center and radius of another player’s minefield only if either the center of the mine field is in range of your penetrating scanner, or you have hit the minefield at least once and the center is in range of your normal scanners or you are currently in the minefield.

This overlay displays the assigned paths of all your fleets.

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Planet Names overlay

Ship Count overlay

THE STARS! SCREEN 5-15

This overlay displays planet names in the scanner. If the names are too crowded, increase the scanner zoom factor to place more distance between planets. If Player Colors is activated, planet names appear in the color assigned to that player. Your planet names always appear in white.

This overlay displays the number of ships at a location. Active Ship Design and Enemy Ship Class filters will limit the count to ships specified in those filters. For example, if you have a filter that displays only enemy warships, the number above enemy fleets and planets will be the count of only warships.

If Player Colors are turned on, numbers appear in the color assigned to that player. Your fleet numbers always appear in white.

Idle Fleets filter

Idle fleets are fleets with no movement orders. This overlay displays only your idle fleets and any active enemy fleets. Only those planets with idle fleets in orbit will show orbit rings. Fleets that have run out of fuel are still considered active, and won’t appear if you’re using only this overlay.

Exception: Claim Adjuster fleets that are terraforming from orbit are not considered idle.

Ship Design filter

This overlay displays only those fleets that contain a specific ship design. Only those planets orbited by the selected ships will have orbit rings.

Enemy Ship Class filter

This overlay displays opponent fleets containing a specific selected ship class. Opponents’fleets appears as red triangles. Only opponents’ planets orbited by the selected ships will have orbit rings.

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Status Bar

Planets

ID#, coordinates and name of planet selected in the Scanner

Fleets, Mineral Packets and Wormholes

Coordinates and name of selected fleet or other object

Planet or fleet in Command pane

When you select a fleet orbiting a planet, only the planet’s information is displayed in the status bar. If the scanner is too narrow to display all the status bar information, left-click in the upper bar to display a pop-up summary. To get information on the fleet, right-click on the planet and select the fleet from the pop-up list.

Zooming

To zoom in or out of the Scanner, you can either use the View (Zoom) menu item, click on the magnifying glass in the toolbar, or use the + and - keys on the numeric keypad.

Player Colors

Stars! assigns each player a color when a game is created. Use the Reports (Score) to open the Score sheet, then switch to the history graph to see which player has which color.

Select the View (Player Colors) menu item to activate player colors in the Scanner. When the Ship Count and Planet Names overlays are on, fleet numbers and planet names for other players appear in their color. Your planets remain white.

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THE STARS! SCREEN 5-17

SELECTION SUMMARY PANE

The selection summary pane displays what you know about an object you select in the scanner.

Planet Summary

The planet summary displays information only for planets you’ve visited or scanned.

Habitability Value

Age of information

Environment Graph

Original value

Current value

Mineral Content Graph

Lighter portion is the quantity on the surface. Left-click to see the exact amounts.

Bright yellow indicates other objects at this location. Leftclick to scroll through their summaries. Right-click to select

Starbase in orbit. Left-click to see design details.

Left-click to see maximum pop and growth next year.

Left-click to see exact range

Best value possible applying current terraforming technology

Darker portion projects the quantity mined next year.

Left-click on the scale to increase or decrease the increments

Position of diamond indicates mineral concentration under surface: width of graph = 100. A + indicates the concentration exceeds the scale.

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Fleet Summary

The more significant type of ship in the fleet. Left-click to see other ship types. Right-click to see hull designs.

A plus sign represents a ship type not shown.

If you scan opponents with a Robber Baron or Pick Pocket scanner, you also see fuel and cargo levels

Left-click here to display the race name and player number.

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PLAYING STARS!

The essence of Stars! is resource management. To win, learn what it takes to smoothly and effectively grow and manage your empire’s industrial infrastructure. Learn when to colonize, when to move people and other resources so that your empire becomes stronger and more balanced with each passing year. Learn how to make resource management more expensive for your opponents than it is for you. When you attack, look for targets where the cost to your opponent is greater than your investment in the offense. (This is especially true in a solo game.)

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6 PLANETS

Planets are the gold nuggets of the Stars! universe: everybody wants them, and hardly anyone wants to share. ‘Green’worlds give your people a place to grow, learn and produce. The minerals in each planet provide the building blocks for all the

technology you create, including planetary installations such as defenses and scanners, and starbases with stargates that act as navigational shortcuts and mass drivers that fling minerals between systems.

When you click on a planet in the Scanner, you’re actually selecting a star system. The planet that appears on your screen is the most desirable planet in that system. (There may be lesser rocks in the system, too, but you won’t want them.) If you colonize a planet, it becomes your capitol world in that system, the local center of government and industry. If the planet is dangerous to your people, you can mine it from orbit, and ship its valuable minerals to other parts of your empire. If the planet is inhabited by another player, you can try to take it away. If the owner is another human, you can also try to establish trade relations.

No matter how you play, you need to give your people room to grow. That growth rate will vary on any given planet, depending on the levels of gravity, temperature, and radiation. You can create a race that is immune to one or more of these environmental factors—a very expensive advantage. You can also make a planet’s environment more hospitable by terraforming.

YOUR HOME WORLD AND OTHER INHABITED PLANETS

You start the game on your home world, a place with optimal environmental conditions where you have a small but thriving population, basic industry in the form of factories and mines, fundamental technology, and a short range, planet-based scanner. In orbit, you have a starbase capable of building ships and providing a small amount of planetary defense. Each player’s home

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world, whether it belongs to a computer-generated AI or a human, starts out with these same items. When you colonize another planet, you can build these and other items as your resources and knowledge of technology allow.

All planets contain minerals. All home worlds start with the same surface mineral content — adjusted to even out any advantages or disadvantages provided by racial attributes. If your home planet has a serious lack of a specific mineral on its surface then your opponents are initially faced with the same problem.

All the information about a planet you own and the controls you use to give orders to that planet are available in Command pane. The Selection Summary shows the gravity, temperature and radiation levels of a planet, as well as the rate at which your population will grow. Environmental conditions on your home world are optimal for your species.

Abandoning a Planet

When you abandon a planet, the starbase and all installations on that planet are destroyed automatically.

POPULATION

People, along with factories, create the resources you need to build your empire. The more people you have, the more resources you have, and the faster you’ll get things done.

Your maximum population on a planet is based on the planet’s Habitability Value. When you select a planet in the Scanner its value, along with other information, appears in the Selection Summary:

The first number is the current value. The number in parentheses is the value after terraforming.

Resources are units of work created by people and factories. They represent the effort involved in performing a task or producing an item.

To learn about the Command pane and other parts of the Stars! screen, look at chapter 2, The Stars! Screen.

To see how many colonists it takes to produce one resource per year, use the View (Race) menu item then turn to page 5 of the View Race dialog.

The higher the percentage, the more people the planet will support. A negative value tells you the percentage of population the planet will kill if you colonize under the current environmental conditions. For example, a planet

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P L A N E T S 6-3

with the optimal value of 100% may fully support 1,000,000 people. A planet with a value of 50% can support only 500,000 people. A planet with a value of -9% will kill 0.9% of the colonists on that planet each year.

All planets with a positive value of less than 5% are treated as 5% planets in determining the maximum supportable population.

Growth Rate

The habitability value also determines your population’s annual growth rate. Left-click on the value to display the current growth rate, as well the total number of people the planet will support based on current environmental conditions. The growth rate is shown as “up to n%” because the rate slows as the population approaches the maximum. Population growth begins to plateau after the planet reaches 25% capacity.

Maximum Population

The maximum population on an optimal planet, for all races but two, is 1,000,000.

Hyper-Expansion races grow fast but are limited to one-half the typical maximum population: 500,000 on an optimal world. The ingenuity of Jack-ofAll-Trades races grants them a maximum population that is 20% greater than normal: under optimal conditions a Jack-of-All-Trades world supports up to 1,200,000 people.

Annual Growth Rate

This rate is calculated by multiplying the habitability value by the Maximum Colonist Growth Rate Per Year found on page 4 of the View Race dialog. For races with the Hyper-Expansion trait the actual maximum colonists growth rate is twice that displayed.

Alternate Reality Races and Population

Since Alternate Reality races live on starbases, they use a different population model. Read more about them in chapter 22.

Races who possess the Only Basic Remote Mining trait also receive an additional 10% increase beyond their normal limit. For example, the maximum population for a Jack-of-All-Trades race with Only Basic Remote Mining is 1,320,000 (under optimal conditions).

Overcrowding

The number of people between 100% and 300% population capacity work at 50% efficiency. Any population in excess of 300% capacity can perform no useful work whatsoever.

Deaths from overcrowding reach an annual maximum of 12% at 400% capacity.

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Killer Planets

Planets with negative habitability values kill colonists. The annual death rate is calculated as:

Habitability Value / 10 of the colonists on the planet each year

For example, a planet with a habitability value of -10% inhabited by 2000 colonists will kill 1% or 20 colonists per year.

If you terraform the planet after colonizing, your people will begin to die until environmental conditions become favorable (the value becomes 0% or a positive number).

MINERALS

All planets contain three important raw minerals: ironium, boranium and germanium. These provide the building blocks for almost everything your race produces. Minerals exist both on and under the planet’s surface. Minerals found on the surface can be used immediately in production. Those under the surface must be mined to become available for use. Minerals can be transported to other planets where they’re needed using freighters and mass drivers. Minerals can also be created through a production-based recycling effort called Mineral Alchemy. You also receive minerals when you initially colonize a world, automatically scrap a colonizing vessel, and when you scrap a ship at a planet you own.

The Selection Summary pane shows the surface mineral supply, the concentration of minerals under the surface, and the mining rate for the selected planet. Each mineral is represented by a colored bar. The bright colored bar shows how much of the mineral is on the surface and ready to use; the dark colored bar shows the amount that will be mined next year. The diamond shows the current mineral concentration, measured from 0 to 200 units. The width of the graph is 100, with a plus sign (+) appearing if the concentration exceeds the current scale. If you are scanning the planet but donít own it, you see only the mineral concentration. You see all mineral information as soon as you colonize the planet.

Claim Adjuster Races and Negative Planets

If your race has the Claim Adjuster trait, your colonists automatically terraform your new planet to the best of their abilities the first year it is colonized.

If your race possesses the Mineral Alchemy trait, you can transform existing resources into minerals four times faster than races without this advantage.

You can also obtain mineral information from the Minerals on Hand tile when you are commanding the planet.

Left-click on a bar to display the exact quantity, concentration, and mining rate for that mineral.

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P L A N E T S 6-5

The mineral concentration on your home, or starting world never drops below

30. This world always retains this advantage, regardless of who occupies it during the course of play.

MINES

Mines extract minerals from the planet. As you mine, you decrease the concentration of minerals under the surface, adding them to the supply on the surface and making them available for immediate use. You never run out of minerals on a planet, you just decrease the concentration until it reaches 1%, when it becomes difficult to extract more than tiny amounts from each mine each year.

You can build mines on any planet you inhabit or use robot miners on uninhabited planets.

FACTORIES

Factories, along with people, create resources used to build items such as ships, mines, defenses and more factories. Resources are also required to research new technologies. In general, any task that requires mental or physical effort requires resources.

You do not need factories in order to build things. Factories only increase the total number of resources you receive each year. For a typical race, you can double the number of resources generated per year by building factories. Think of factories as virtual colonists. Once built they produce work and consume nothing. Nothing is wasted—factory resources not used for production are directed into research efforts.

Factories cost 4 kT of germanium to build or, if you selected Factories Cost 1 kT Less when defining your race, factories cost 3 kT of germanium. No minerals other than germanium are used.

BUILDING PLANETARY DEFENSES

Defenses partially protect a planet from bombs, incoming mass packets and invasion. Unless you are playing an Alternate Reality race, you should always build defenses, especially in a single

player game. AIs love to bomb planets. While you can’t build a perfect planetary defense system you can significantly reduce the number of bombs, mass packets and invading colonists that make it to the surface.

Learn more about Mining, p 13-1 Auto-build, p 7-9 Flinging Mass

Packets, p 6-12 Colonizing, p 12-1 Scrapping Fleets,

p 10-10

The Minerals on Hand tile shows you the current number of mines and factories operating on a planet, and the maximum number of mines and factories the current population can operate.

Alternate Reality Races and Factories

Alternate Reality races cannot build factories or any other planetary installation.

To learn how many resources a factory will produce for your race, and the cost of building a factory, select the View (Race) menu item, and turn to page 5 of the View Race dialog.

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Whether you build defenses in a multi-player game depends on how much you can trust other players to leave your worlds in peace (there’s room enough for all in the Stars! universe—isn’t there?)

While you can build as many defenses as you wish, you can only operate as many as your population has resources to handle. When commanding a planet, look at the Status tile to see both the current and maximum number of defenses, the type of defenses deployed and the percentage of bombs and invading colonists that can be stopped.

As a game progresses, you can increase the number of defenses and upgrade the technology (and the efficiency) of existing defenses:

Adding defenses increases the number of existing defenses of the type you’re currently employing. For example, if you’re using Missile Batteries, then adding Defenses to the production queue causes more Missile Batteries to be built. This increases the percentage of coverage.

Upgrading defenses happens automatically. Whenever you learn new technology that applies to defense, all defenses on all your planets upgrade automatically and at no cost.

PLANET-BASED SCANNERS

Alternate Reality Races and Planetary Defenses

Alternate Reality races cannot build planetary defenses or any other planetary installation.

To learn about defense technology, open the Technology Browser (press F2), choose Planetary from the drop-down menu, then click Next until the Browser displays defense technology. Each type of defense is described with a graph summarizing its effectiveness.

For more information on how planetary defenses help protect you from mineral packet attacks read chapter 25, The Guts of Mass Drivers.

A scanner is the inhabited planet’s radar, giving you information about all objects within scanner range. There are several types of planet-based scanners, with different ranges for detecting fleets, mass packets, mine fields and wormholes, and different ranges for

detecting the environment and mineral content of other planets. You start the game with a basic scanner on your home planet.

The cost of building a scanner is fixed. Once you build a scanner, it will automatically be upgraded when your research allows you to build a better scanner.

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A planet’s scanner type and range appear in the Status tile.

P L A N E T S 6-7

Planet-based scanners are useful for detecting opponent’s fleets that pass near or enter your empire. Only fleets that are cloaked have a chance of escaping detection. You can reduce the chances of fleets sneaking past if you place scanners on all your planets. When you select an enemy fleet, the scanner will also show the estimated path of the fleet.

To view the area covered by your scanners, select the Scanner pane’s Radar overlay. Your basic radar coverage appears in red. Planet-penetrating radar coverage appears in yellow. You can also adjust the displayed effective coverage to different percentages, showing your vulnerability to cloaked fleets. Changing the displayed coverage does not actually decrease the actual effectiveness of your scanners. It merely shows you how effective your scanners would be versus other player’s cloaks. For example, if you have reason to believe that your enemy is using 80% cloaked ships it would be informative to set your displayed scanner coverage to 20%. The areas not in red are vulnerable. Knowing that you have a hole in your coverage is the first step in filling it.

STARBASES

A starbase can be an orbiting shipyard, fuel depot, defensive station, and a platform for a stargate and mass drivers. Before a planet can build ships, it must have a starbase with a space dock. Starbases stand in the way of attacks against the planet—

your fleet must destroy the starbase before bombing can commence. Starbases with weapons always strike back and can initiate attacks against enemies in orbit.

A starbase can also carry cloaks, and thus can partially cloak itself from remote scans. Cloaking a starbase does not cloak the planet.

Alternate Reality Races and Planetary Scanners

Alternate Reality races cannot build planetary installations. Turn to chapter 22 to read more about how these orbit-loving nuts perform scanning.

Learn more about Scanning and

Cloaking, p 17-1 The Guts of

Cloaking, p 24-1

You can find details on a specific starbase hull design in the Technology Browser. Just press F2, click on the dropdown list and choose the Starbase Hulls category.

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Your starbase is your primary defense against bombing and invasion by enemy fleets. Your planet can not be bombed or invaded as long as your starbase still exists. Defend it well.

In the Scanner pane, a starbase appears as a yellow dot in orbit if a spacedock is present or blue dot, if no space dock is present. The Starbase tile describes a starbase belonging to the planet you’re commanding.

Building a Starbase

Build a starbase by adding it to the production queue. Like a ship, cost depends on the type and number of items attached to the hull. You’ll find that a starbase hull is very expensive, so you’ll need to plan how to afford it. You’ll also find that hull parts attached to a starbase are 50% cheaper than the same parts attached to ship hulls, helping balance out the cost and making the replacement or addition of components easier to handle.

A planet can have only one starbase at a time. An existing starbase can be upgraded or replaced, with credit given for the recycled materials.

You’ll have access to additional starbase hulls if you have the Improved Starbases trait.

Starbase Design

Alternate Reality Races and Starbases

Alternate Reality races live in orbit on starbases. This means that the starbase also determines a planet’s maximum population, and gives Alternate Reality races greater incentive to protect their orbiting homes. Read more about these unusual Stars! denizens in chapter 22.

There are five starbase hulls, with slots for weapons, armor and other items: Orbital Fort — No ship building or refueling capacity. These don’t count as

starbases in the score. Space Dock — Ship building capacity: 200kT or smaller ships. This hull

requires the Improved Starbases trait. Space Station — Unlimited ship building capacity. Ultra Station — Unlimited ship building capacity, with more slots for

weapons, shields and other components. This hull requires the Improved Starbases trait.

Death Star – Top of the line orbital habitat for Alternate Reality races.

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Upgrading a Starbase

You can upgrade a starbase by changing the hull or by adding or changing items in the hull slots. You receive full credit for the existing installation, paying only the difference between the old and new hulls. The upgrade appears in the production inventory, ready for you to add to the production queue when you wish.

Here’s how the cost is determined: If the hull changes:

• You receive a 50% credit for minerals and resources used in the original

starbase.

If the hull does not change:

• Slots where the components don’t change are free.

• Slots where only the count of the component increases cost only the

component price multiplied by the number of additional items.

• Slots where the component type changes to a similar component are

discounted in cost; the discount based on the closeness of the part types.

P L A N E T S 6-9

• Slots where the component type changes dramatically cost the full price

of the new component. You will receive some minerals back if the old components are recycled.

Sorting Starbases for Easy Upgrades

1. Press F3 to open the Planet Summary Report, then maximize the report

window.

2. Click on the top of the Starbase column and select the Starbase sort order.

3. Find the first planet with a starbase design you want to upgrade.

4. Click on the Production column for that planet. The Production dialog

opens, showing the queue for that planet.

5. In the Production dialog, double click on the new design listed in the

production inventory (left-hand list).

6. Click on Next. Notice that the Next and Prev buttons follow the sort

order of the report.

Learn about Ship and Starbase

Design, p 9-1 Adding Items to the

Production Queue, p 7-2

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7. Keep adding upgrades for each planet until you’ve upgraded all your

starbases.

8. Close the Production dialog and the report.

STARGATES

Stargates are starbase installations that provide cargo-less ships with fuel-free, single year transport between your planets. This is the optimum way to move scouts and warships when you’re in a hurry, or any other ship that isn’t carrying anything but Fuel.

In the Scanner pane, the stargate appears as a green dot orbiting the planet.

Interstellar Travelers and Stargates

For Interstellar Traveler races, starbases with stargates scan any planet in range that also has a stargate. Interstellar Traveler stargates are also able to move ships full of cargo.

Building a Stargate

A stargate occupies an Orbital slot in a starbase hull. You can add a stargate by upgrading an existing starbase hull or building a new hull.

To upgrade a hull and add the gate:

1. Choose the Commands (Ship Design) menu item, opening the Ship and

Starbase Designer.

2. Under Design, click on Starbase.

3. Select the design you wish to upgrade from the dropdown.

4. Click on Copy Selected Design. The dialog changes, offering the design

and a component list.

5. Select a hull picture (using the arrows under the picture) and type in a

new name, or use the defaults shown in the dialog.

6. Drag the stargate from the component list to an Orbital slot in the design.

Subtract and add any other components as you wish.

Hyper Expansion

Races with the Hyper Expansion trait cannot build stargates.

All stargates require research into Construction and Propulsion. The Orbital section of the Technology Browser describes capabilities for each stargate.

Learn about Ship and Starbase

Design, p 9-1 Adding Items to the

Production Queue, p 7-2

Navigating Using Stargates, p 11-3

7. Click on OK. Then click on Done to close the dialog.

8. Click on Change in the Production tile, and add the new starbase to the

planet’s Production queue.

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MASS DRIVER BASICS

Mass drivers provide a fuel-free method of transporting mineral cargo packets between planets, and, secondarily, can act as an effective long range weapon. Mineral packets are bundles of

ironium, germanium and boranium. Mass drivers fling mineral packets at high rates of acceleration. This prevents you from flinging Fuel, which would explode, or colonists, who would, well, also explode.

In the Scanner pane, a mass driver appears as a purple dot orbiting the planet.

Building a Mass Driver

A mass driver occupies the Orbital slot in a starbase hull. You’ll have to research Energy—the requirement for each type of driver is listed in the Orbital section of the Technology Browser.

Once you complete your research, upgrade your starbase hull design to hold the driver (or design a new starbase hull that includes the driver). To upgrade a hull and add the driver:

1. Choose the Commands (Ship Design...) menu item, opening the Ship and

Starbase Designer.

P L A N E T S 6-11

2. Under Design, click on Starbase.

3. Select the design you wish to upgrade from the dropdown.

4. Click on Copy Selected Design. The dialog changes, offering the design

and a component list.

5. Select a hull picture and type in a new name, or use the defaults shown

in the dialog.

6. Drag the driver from the component list to an Orbital slot in the design.

Subtract and add any other components as you wish.

7. Click on OK. Then click on Done to close the dialog.

8. Click on Change in the Production tile, and add the new starbase to the

planet’s Production queue.

Learn about Adding Items to the

Queue, p 12-2

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Building and Flinging Packets

Mineral packets are built and flung as a function of the Production queue. The Production inventory will list a packet for each mineral and a mixed packet that contains all three minerals. When you click on a packet type in the inventory the numbers below the inventory show how many kT of each mineral the packet contains.

Once a packet is built, the driver automatically flings them at the destination you’ve set. If you don’t set a destination, the packet disintegrates.

¯ Target a mass driver by clicking on Set Dest in the Starbase tile, then

clicking on the destination in the Scanner.

The Scanner pane shows mass packets within your scanner ranges, regardless of who the packets belong to (unless you are a Packet Physics race).

Interstellar Traveler Races

Interstellar Traveler mass drivers are only half as effective at catching minerals as their rating, are less efficient at flinging minerals, and all mineral packets flung decay, regardless of speed.

For the packet to arrive safely, the target must also have a driver of equal or greater capacity. If the planet has a lesser mass driver, or no driver at all, the packet destroys colonists and installations on the planet surface.

The gauge in the Starbase tile allows you to control the speed at which packets are flung. You can purposefully fling packets at a slower speed if your receiving planet isn’t equipped with an accelerator that’s high tech enough to catch the packet at full speed.

You can also target a mass driver by SHIFT-clicking on the destination.

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You may fling packets at speeds up to three Warp levels above the rated speed. Packets flung above the rated speed become unstable, decaying at 10% per year for one warp level above the rated speed, 20% for two warp levels, and 50% for three warp levels. Packets decay in the year they are launched and in the year they arrive at a planet proportional to the distance they travel in those years.

During a packet’s first year out, it travels only half the normal distance, then the normal distance in any following years of travel. Since production happens all year long, the packets could be launched at any point. Stars! simplifies this by averaging it out to a half-year’s travel.

Packets as Scanners

For Packet Physics races the mineral packets have the added feature of behaving like a planet-penetrating scanner. The radius of the scan is equal to the square of the packet’s warp speed.

Packets Perform Terraforming

P L A N E T S 6-13

Planet-penetrating Scanners

These scanners can detect fleets in orbit around a planet. They also can tell you planetary stats from a distance.

Packet Physics mineral packets only do 1/3 the normal damage when hitting a planet, but have a 50% chance per 100kT of minerals to terraform the planet’s environment toward the player’s ideal value.

You Can’t Attack Packets

You can’t attack mineral packets. You can only intercept them and transfer their contents to your fleet, as described below in Stealing Mineral Packets.

Stealing Mineral Packets

If you can intercept a mineral packet in flight you can steal from it. When a packet is at the same location as your selected fleet, it appears in the Other Fleets Here tile. Use the Cargo button and the Cargo Transfer dialog that appears to transfer minerals from the packet to your fleet.

Building Two Mass Drivers on a Starbase

You can build up to two identical mass drivers on the same starbase (assuming you haven’t used an Orbital slot with a stargate already). This has two advantages: 1) you can catch incoming packets at one warp speed greater

Packet Physics

For Packet Physics races, mineral packet decay rates are half the normal level.

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than the driver’s nominal rating; and 2) packets flung at a speed higher than the recommended maximum from dual drive starbases decay as if they were flung at one warp speed lower.

Packets as Weapons

Packets flung at planets with a lesser mass driver or no mass driver damage the planet and kill inhabitants. A warp 13 mineral packet is about as close as Stars! comes to a doomsday weapon.

TERRAFORMING

Terraforming is the ability to change a planet’s environment to make it more habitable for your race. If you are immune to environmental conditions, you don’t need to terraform.

You won’t know if you need to terraform or can terraform a planet unless you can scan it, gathering information about the planet’s environment. To see all terraformable planets you’ve found use the Scanner pane’s Planet Value view. You possess the technology to terraform Yellow planets, making them habitable. Most green planets can also be terraformed to improve them. The larger the yellow dot, the better the planet will be once you terraform it.

Click on a planet in the Scanner pane, then look in the Selection Summary pane. The habitability value shows the current value of the planet followed in parentheses by the value the planet would be after terraforming (given the limits of your current technology).

Terraforming with Auto-build Tasks

1. Bring the planet you wish to terraform under command.

2. Click on Change in the Production tile. The Production dialog opens.

3. In the production inventory, click on either the Min Terraform or Max

Terraform auto-build tasks. Then click on Add to raise the limit to which the task will terraform.

Minimal (Min) terraforming changes only those environmental factors that have a negative value and that you have the technology to change, up to the percentage you specify in the task. Terraforming will continue only until the habitability value reaches zero. To go beyond the point of minimal terraforming, you must manually add Terraform Environment or the Max Terraforming auto-build task. Minimal Terraforming will activate and terraform only when there are resources available and not doing so would cause people to die on the planet (from negative environment values or overcrowding).

Claim Adjusters

Claim Adjusters automatically terraform a planet as soon as they land.

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Max Terraforming changes any environmental attributes that you have the technology to change, up to the percentage you specify in the task.

As each terraforming task completes, an environmental factor is improved by 1%.

Terraforming as a Default Action

P L A N E T S 6-17

You implement default terraforming by defining a default production template that includes auto-build terraforming tasks. This is done through the production dialog.

1. Make sure the auto-build terraforming items in the production queue are

arranged in the sequence you want them to appear in the template.

2. Make sure the Contribute Only Leftover Resources to Research checkbox

is set the way you want it to be reflected in the template. An unchecked box specifies Contribute Resources to Research before spending resources for production. A checked box indicates Don’t Contribute to Research before spending resources on production.

3. Right-click on the blue diamond next to Apply or Define... and select

<Customize> from the pop-up menu.

4. Select <Default> in the Customize Production Template dialog.

Auto-build items do not need to be listed consecutively in the production queue nor do they need to appear at the top of the queue to be produced.

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5. Click on Import to copy in the auto-build items from the production

queue, then OK both the Customize… and Production dialogs.

That’s it. The default production orders will take affect on every planet taken over or newly colonized. It does not affect any planets where colonists have already landed.

Adding Terraforming to the Queue Manually

1. Double-click on the planet you wish to terraform, placing it in the

Command pane.

2. Click on Change in the Production tile.

3. In the production inventory, click on the Terraform Environment task.

Then click on Add to add the desired number of this task to perform.

Each Terraform Environment task you add to the production queue improves an environment factor by 1%. The number of tasks you may add to the queue is limited by the current level of your terraforming technology. When you have successfully completed all the tasks you can add to the queue, the Terraform Environment task disappears from the production inventory. It will reappear once you achieve a higher level of technology that allows you to terraform further.

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Types of Terraforming Technology

Each of a planet’s three environmental factors has a matching type of terraforming technology: Temperature Terraforming, Gravity Terraforming, and Radiation Terraforming. Each requires a different combination of research:

P L A N E T S 6-19

• Temperature terraforming requires research into Biotechnology and

Energy.

• Gravity terraforming requires research into Biotechnology and Propulsion.

• Radiation terraforming requires research into Biotechnology and

Weapons.

Each technology allows you to improve a specific factor a minimum of 3% from its initial value and a maximum (without Total Terraforming) of 15%.

The percentage of improvement does not always indicate how much the value of the planet will increase. Often only one or two environmental factors will be negative, while the remaining factors look pretty attractive. In this case improving the negative factors can improve the planet’s overall value to a much higher percentage than that indicated by the technology.

As you upgrade your terraforming technology, you’ll see the amount you can improve the planet increase. You may also see that some planets that were previously not terraformable (red in Planet Value view) become terraformable (yellow in Planet Value view).

To learn more about the individual types of terraforming technology and their research requirements, open the Technology Browser (Press F2) and select Terraforming from the dropdown list.

The Total Terraforming trait requires that you research only Biotechnology to learn terraforming technology

Total Terraforming

Total Terraforming is a race trait, not a type of technology. Races with Total Terraforming begin the game with the ability to improve temperature, gravity and radiation levels up to 3%. Terraforming requires 30% less resources and you can research terraforming technologies that improve factors up to 30% instead

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of just 15% normally. Terraforming requires research into only Biotechnology, instead of Biotechnology and three different additional fields.

Claim Adjusters and Automatic Terraforming of Colonies

Races based on the Claim Adjuster trait automatically terraform new colonies upon landing. This terraforming action is both instantaneous and temporary— as soon as the planet is deserted or taken over, the environmental conditions revert to their original values.

As the race learns more about terraforming all its planets are automatically and instantaneously terraformed to the limits of the technology.

Claim Adjusters and Terraforming Other Players’ Planets from Orbit

Races based on the Claim Adjuster trait can terraform other player’s planets from orbit. This creates unique opportunities for diplomacy or war. If the owner is your Friend, you automatically perform positive terraforming (adjusting planetary conditions toward the inhabitants’ optimal conditions). If the owner is your Enemy, you perform negative terraforming.

Terraforming from orbit requires a fleet outfitted with Orbital Adjusters. These are described in the Mining Robots section of the Technology Browser. Every race with the Claim Adjuster trait starts out with one ship outfitted with Orbital Adjusters.

Terraforming from orbit is a great vehicle for diplomacy: in return for other technology, an alliance, or just a plain thank you, you can help your friends make their planets a better place to live. Only offer this assistance to friends who have lesser terraforming capabilities than yourself. Terraforming is not additive—you can’t combine your orbital terraforming abilities with those of the inhabitants to super terraform the planet. The planet will only be terraformed to the limits of whoever possesses the superior technology. For example, if the inhabitants have 3% terraforming and you possess 5% terraforming, the planet can be improved up to 5% from its original conditions (not exceeding optimal conditions for the inhabitants).

To determine if your race has Total Terraforming, choose the View (Race) menu item then turn to page 3 of the View Race dialog.

Orbital Adjuster

Specify Friends, Enemies and Neutrals using the Player Relations dialog (press F7).

Terraforming from orbit can also be used as a weapon: just orbit the planet and start to terraform it under your opponent’s feet. This allows you to prepare more favorable conditions for a planetary invasion. You must destroy any existing starbase before you can launch this type of attack. Depending on your opponent’s level of terraforming technology, using terraforming as an

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P L A N E T S 6-21

attack could turn into a shoving match if they begin terraforming operations of their own.

Terraforming from orbit happens automatically as soon as your fleet arrives. Just set the destination planet as the fleet waypoint. No waypoint task is necessary.

PLANET REPORTS

The Planet Report displays the same information displayed by the Command pane, but for all your planets. You can use the report to change the order in which planets appear in the Planet tile and the Production dialog according to any category in the report.

A planet report contains the following information: Planet name – the color of the dot, if present, indicates the type of starbase,

and whether a mass driver and stargate are present. In the report, the name of the planet currently in the Command pane is highlighted.

Retro Bomb

Claim Adjusters also can gain the Retro bomb, a type of terraforming weapon used to return the planet to its original conditions.

Yellow dot — starbase has a space dock (can build ships) Blue dot — starbase without a space dock Purple dot — mass driver

green dot — stargate Starbase – Click to display the starbase design. Population – Current population. Click to display details. Cap – Percentage of planetary population capacity. Value – Shows the maximum population percentage relative to maximum

growth under optimal conditions (100%). A second number is the value after terraforming using your current technology. Click to display details.

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Production – the item at the top that planet’s production queue. Click to access the queue.

Mine – Number of mines in existence. Click for details. Fact – Number of factories in existence. Click for details. Defense – Type of planetary defenses. Minerals – Number in kT of each type of Mineral on the planet surface. Click

on each number for details about that mineral. Mining Rate – Mining rate of each mineral in kT/year. Click for details. Min Conc – Mineral concentration for each type of mineral. Click for details. Resources – Resources available for use by the planet, followed by total

resources generated by the planet. Click for details, including the number of resources dedicated to research.

Driver Dest – Destination of mineral packets flung from that mass driver. Routing Dest – Destination planet for ships routed from production.

Learn more about Changing the Order

of Planets in the Production dialog, p 7-10

Sorting Starbases for Easy Upgrades, p 6-9

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7 PRODUCTION

In Stars! you produce ships, mines, factories and defenses, and assign tasks, such as terraforming. The Production dialog lists all the things you can build or tasks you can perform on a specific planet, commands that allow you to add these items to the queue, information showing how much each item will cost and when or if it will be completed given your available resources.

HOW PRODUCTION WORKS

You have one production queue per planet. The queue is essentially a work list. Items are produced in the order shown in the queue, from top to bottom.

Items waiting production

Resources are units of work created by people and factories. They represent the effort required to perform a task or produce an item.

Minerals and resources required to build the selected item in the specified quantity

Completion status of selected item

You can add, delete or move items at any time, anywhere in the queue. The percentage complete is shown for the selected item. If you add an item to the top of the queue in front of something that is partially complete, your people will not work to complete the original item until the new item you placed in the queue is complete or has been deleted. Production of items that require minerals is halted if the planet runs out of minerals. Auto-build items that require only resources will continue to be produced.

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The production inventory lists all the things you know how to build or tasks you can currently perform on that planet.

Inventory of everything the planet can build. Like items are displayed in the same color.

Amount of each mineral and number of resources required to produce one of whatever is selected in the inventory.

Unique Items

When a planet can only use one of an item, such as a planet-based scanner or starbase, the item appears only once in the inventory. When this kind of item is added to the queue, it disappears from the inventory.

Upgrades of Existing Items

Upgrades of existing items, such as stargates and starbase hulls, will replace any older versions in the inventory list. When you upgrade a item, it is labeled in the inventory as an upgrade. Since upgrades enhance rather than replace an item, they only require enough minerals to create the enhancements.

ADDING AN ITEM TO THE PRODUCTION QUEUE

You can add an item at any time to any spot in the production queue. The procedure is slightly different depending on whether you want to do the following:

Add an Item to the Top of the Queue

1. Click on — Top of the Queue —.

2. Click on an item in the inventory, then click on Add or double-click on

the item in the inventory list.

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P R O D U C T I O N 7-3

Add an Item to the Middle of the Queue

1. Click on the item in the queue under which you want the new item to

appear.

2. Click on an item in the inventory list, then click the Add button, or

double click on the item in the inventory list.

Add an Item to the Bottom of the Queue

¯ Click on the last item in the queue, then on an item in the inventory list.

Then click the Add button, or double click on the item in the inventory

list.

Move an Item in the Queue

1. Click on the item in the queue that you want to move.

2. Click on the Item Up or Item Down buttons.

REMOVING AN ITEM FROM THE PRODUCTION QUEUE

Do one of the following: ¯ Select an item in the queue, then click the Remove button or double-click

on the item in the queue. ¯ Keep clicking the Remove button or double-clicking on the item name to

remove additional units.

PRODUCTION TEMPLATES

A production template is a sequence of auto-build items imported from a production queue and saved for later use. Use production templates to automate auto-build production strategies you plan to use more than once. The default production template is automatically applied on any planet taken over or newly colonized by your people. The other three templates can be manually applied to any planet’s production queue. Templates are saved for the duration of the game but may be edited at any time.

Adding Large orders

SHIFT-Add adds up to 10. CTRL-Add adds up to 100. Pressing CTRL+SHIFT when clicking on the Add button will add as many of that item as possible. This also works if you press CTRL+SHIFT and double click on the item in the inventory list. These keys behave the same when used with the Remove button.

Speedy Removal

SHIFT-Remove removes up to 10. CTRL-Remove removes up to 100. Pressing CTRL+SHIFT when clicking on the Remove button will remove as many of that item as possible. This also works if you press CTRL+SHIFT and double click on the item in the queue. These keys behave the same when used with the Add button.

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You apply templates by simply selecting the template name instead of manually adding the items to the production queue. When you apply a template, all auto-build items currently in the queue are replaced with the list of items in the template.

Production Template Strategy

To help illustrate how production templates are useful, here’s an example of a useful default template for new colonies:

Minimum Terraform Up to 10% Factories (Auto Build) Up to 10 Mines (Auto Build) Up to 10 Defenses (Auto Build) Up to 2 Factories (Auto Build) Up to 25 Mines (Auto Build) Up to 25 Maximum Terraform Up to 10% Defenses (Auto Build) Up to 5

Minimum Terraform Up to 10%

The planet will work on terraforming first if it is possible and people might die otherwise. This handles fledgling negative worlds, overcrowding and disasters.

Factories (AB) Up to 10 / Mines (AB) Up to 10

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P R O D U C T I O N 7-5

You want constant progress on improving the planet’s productivity. This is what fledgling colonies spend most of their time doing.

Defenses (AB) Up to 2

If the planet is doing well enough to complete all those mines and factories you can afford to work on defenses a bit to keep from falling way behind. Fledgling colonies don’t make it this far.

Factories (AB) Up to 25 / Mines (AB) Up to 25

At this point we want to ensure the planet has the maximum number of mines and factories. Only mature planets will reach this point.

Maximum Terraform Up to 10%

Push a mature planet to perfection. The mines and factories are probably maximized for the current population so, if possible, increase the maximum population and growth rate.

Defenses (AB) Up to 5

Add defenses if the colony has the maximum number of mines and factories possible for the current population.

Contribute only Leftover Resources

While the colony is fledgling it is a good idea to have “Contribute only leftover resources to research” checked. When the colony reaches the point were the defenses are being auto-built you can deselect the “Contribute only …” option.

Creating a Template

1. Make sure the auto-build items in the queue are arranged in the same

order in which they should appear in the template.

2. Make sure the Contribute only Leftover Resources to Research checkbox

is set the way you want it to be reflected in the template.

Auto-build items do not need to be consecutively listed nor do they need to appear at the top of the list to work.

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When Contribute Only Leftover... is checked the custom template will

include the label Don’t Contribute to Research (until production is

complete). Otherwise the template reads Contribute to Research (before

production begins).

3. Right-click on the blue diamond and select <Customize>.

4. Select default or one of the three other template choices.

5. Click on Import .

6. Type in a name for the template and OK the name dialog.

7. OK the Template dialog. The template is now ready to apply. If you

created a default template, it will be applied automatically whenever you

establish a new colony.

Manually Applying a Template

Right-click on the blue diamond and select a template to apply to the current production queue. The auto-build items in the template are applied underneath the last item currently in the queue.

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Editing a Template

1. Repeat steps 1 & 2 above.

2. Right-click on the blue diamond and select <customize>.

3. Select the template to be edited.

4. Click on Import.

5. Type in a new name for the template if you wish and OK the name

dialog.

6. Click on OK. The edited template is now ready to apply.

Renaming or Deleting a Template

P R O D U C T I O N 7-7

1. In the Production dialog, right-click on the blue diamond and select

<Customize>.

2. Select one of the three non-default templates. Click on Delete to erase the

template contents and it’s name or click on Rename and type in a new

name.

CLEARING THE PRODUCTION QUEUE

¯ To remove all items from the production queue click on the Clear button

in the Production dialog or the Production tile. If the item is removed from the queue before completion, resources and

minerals already spent on the item are lost.

UNBLOCKING A PRODUCTION QUEUE

The default template cannot be renamed. To clear the contents of the existing default template you must import an empty production queue.

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If your planet’s mineral concentration runs so low that the time to completion exceeds 100 years, the item name turns red. This means it will practically never be completed unless you do something about it. You have two choices: transport minerals from other planets or use mineral alchemy (or use a combination of the two).

Transporting Minerals

To transport minerals, set up freighter waypoints to transport minerals from your remote miners or mineral-rich planets to your planet with the blocked production queue. If you have a mass driver on the needy planet and the mineral-rich planet, you can also fling mineral packets between planets without using ships.

Mineral Alchemy

Mineral alchemy transmutes resources into minerals (sort of your own Philosopher’s Stone). If you can’t complete an item in the queue because you’ve run low on one or more minerals, place mineral alchemy in the queue ahead of the item you’re trying to build. Each unit of mineral alchemy will turn a mere 100 of your resources (25 if you have the Mineral Alchemy trait) into 1 kT of each of the three minerals. This is a good strategy for unblocking queues on a planet where you have a large population and can quickly replace the resources used by alchemy.

Add as many mineral alchemy units as you need to finish the item stuck in the queue. Like other items in a queue, the color of each Mineral Alchemy task will tell you how long it will take for the process to complete. If you have a large number of resources dedicated to production, you can create a large amount of minerals fairly quickly.

Mineral alchemy is one of the items available for auto-building. Consider adding it to your default or a custom production template, if it isn’t already there. If auto-alchemy is placed in front of an item, it will be used only if you have a mineral shortage. If it is the only item in the queue, it will convert resources into minerals until you remove it or place another item immediately following.

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P R O D U C T I O N 7-9

ADDING AUTO-BUILD ITEMS TO THE QUEUE

Auto-build items are always in italic, but appear differently in the production inventory and queue.

When they’re in the inventory, they are labeled as Auto-build. When you add them to the queue, they are labeled <Item> up to <number>; for example, Factories Up to 50. The latter number indicates that the queue will attempt to produce the stated number of that item every year.

Auto-build Mineral Alchemy is the exception, displaying as Mineral Alchemy as needed. If you insert it in front of an item in the queue you want to perform as much Alchemy as possible to maximize the production rate for that item. If you already have enough minerals, Mineral Alchemy isn’t needed and doesn’t happen. It’s a great insurance policy that always does the right thing. If Alchemy is the last item in the queue, it means to spend all remaining resources on Mineral Alchemy.

Auto-build items can be used to create a default queue for newly colonized worlds, or for items you wish to produce on any world whenever extra resources are available for production, or when the queue is empty of anything but auto build items. For example, early in the game, it’s useful to continuously build mines and factories. It’s always useful to auto-terraform when conditions are less than perfect and you have the means.

Like any production item, auto build items can be inserted anywhere in the queue. An auto build item stays in the queue until you remove it. This means your production queue will annually attempt to build these items when possible. You can always place other items ahead of auto-build items, or rearrange the items in the queue. Auto build items that cannot be built are skipped.

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There are, however, differences between the behavior of auto-build items and others in the queue:

• Auto-build items do not block the queue. If they cannot be performed,

they are skipped over.

• Auto-build items are never automatically removed from the queue. They

remain there until manually removed and activate only when necessary

and possible.

• You never make progress on auto-build items. When work is done it is

seen as a partially completed normal build item in the queue. Auto-build items include Mines, Factories, Defenses, Mineral Alchemy,

Terraforming, and auto-building and flinging Mineral Packets (if you have a mass driver).

CHANGING THE ORDER OF PLANETS IN THE PRODUCTION DIALOG

You can use the Planet report to change the order in which planets appear in the production dialog. This allows you to easily find the planets that may need upgrades of a specific type (such as starbases) and add the upgrades to the production queue.

1. Press F3 to open the Planet report.

2. Click at the head of any column, choosing a sort that appeals to you. You

may want to sort by starbase, by production, mines, factories—anything

you wish.

3. Click in on the Production column to open the queue for that planet.

4. Click on Next, paging through the queues for each planet. Notice they

appear in the order you specified in the report.

Changing the sort order of planets also changes the order in which they appear when you click on Next and Prev in the Planet tile.

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CONDITIONS THAT AFFECT PRODUCTION

Page 5 of the View Race dialog tells you if you excel at building and operating factories and mines, as well as how many resources N colonists will generate each year (not counting the resources created by factories). The more each of the following conditions are true, the more your race will excel at production:

• One resource is generated each year for every seven colonists.

• Factories produce 15 resources per year.

• Every factory requires five resources (and the usual amount of minerals) to

build.

• Colonists may operate 25 factories.

• Factories cost one mineral less to build.

Of course, the mining rate also affects production. The closer your race is to meeting one or more of the following conditions, the better:

• Mines produce 25 kT of minerals per year.

• Every mine requires two resources to build.

• Every 10,000 colonists can operate 25 mines.

How Research Makes Production Cheaper

Production of a particular item becomes cheaper when all research requirements are surpassed by one level. For example, an engine requiring research level 3 Propulsion and level 1 Energy becomes 4% cheaper when you attain level 4 Propulsion and level 2 Energy, 16% cheaper with level 7 Propulsion, level 5 Energy, and so on. You can eventually reduce the cost of producing some items by 75% (or 80%, if you possess the Bleeding Edge trait, which decreases costs at a rate of 5% per level instead of the normal 4%).

Learn more about Factories, p 6-5 Mining, p 13-1 Research, p 8-1

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Disaster Strikes Planet X!

When comets or other naturally occurring blunt instruments crash into inhabited planets, the planet’s production queue is reset. All work in progress is lost, including the resources spent on that work. It’s not all bad. Usually a cosmic barrage brings extra minerals that you can apply immediately to production.

Games PC STARS User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

COPYRIGHT AND CREDITS

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

GETTING STARTED

PLAYING THE TUTORIAL

STARTING A SINGLE PLAYER GAME

SETTING AND VIEWING WINNING CONDITIONS

SETTING UP A SINGLE COMPUTER, MULTI-PLAYER (HOT SEAT) GAME

SETTING UP NETWORK-BASED MULTI-PLAYER GAMES

SETTING AND VIEWING WINNING CONDITIONS

ADDING EXPANSION PLAYERS

BEING ABSENT FROM PLAY

FINDING MULTI-PLAYER GAMES ON THE INTERNET

PASSWORDS

Inactive Players and Passwords

USING A TIMER APPLICATION?

CREATING A UNIVERSE FROM THE COMMAND LINE

TUNING STARS! TO YOUR DISPLAY RESOLUTION

REPLAYING A PREVIOUS TURN

Saving the Current State of Your Game

Saving More than One Previous Turn

Save and Submit

Multi-player Games Only

EXITING THE GAME

Exiting Stars! the First Time

Exiting Stars! to Erase Changes

Save vs. Save and Submit

Multi-player Games Only

OPTIONS FOR LAUNCHING STARS!

Examples

COPY PROTECTION

Save Your Serial Number

One Computer - One Serial Number

How the Copy Protection Works

Computers Running More than One Version of Windows

THE STARS! SCREEN

Changing the Layout

COMMAND PANE

Moving and Collapsing Tiles

Tiles Seen When Commanding a Planet

Tiles Seen When Commanding a Fleet

Bringing a Fleet or Planet into the Command pane

MESSAGES PANE

Filtered Messages

SCANNER PANE

Choosing Your View of the Universe

Zooming

Player Colors

SELECTION SUMMARY PANE

Planet Summary

PLAYING STARS!

YOUR HOME WORLD AND OTHER INHABITED PLANETS

Abandoning a Planet

POPULATION

Growth Rate

Maximum Population

Overcrowding

Killer Planets

MINERALS

MINES

FACTORIES

BUILDING PLANETARY DEFENSES

PLANET-BASED SCANNERS

STARBASES

Building a Starbase

Starbase Design

Upgrading a Starbase

Sorting Starbases for Easy Upgrades

STARGATES

Building a Stargate

MASS DRIVER BASICS

Building a Mass Driver

Building and Flinging Packets

Packets as Scanners

Packets Perform Terraforming

Stealing Mineral Packets