You are a viceroy – the sword, the plow, and the justice of a star cluster. You grow, destroy, and bring light (or, if necessary, darkness) in the name of your Homeworld.
Campaigns
To bring fame and prosperity to their Homeworlds, viceroys participate in campaigns that take place in star clusters. The first viceroy to fulfill the objective is considered the victor.
Objectives
Expand – Capture 50% of the star systems in cluster.
Elimination
Participant considered eliminated when they loose all their star systems.
Entities and Concepts
Galactic Tick – A unit of time, roughly equivalent to a week.
Star System – The territories you're capturing. Each has a Resource Value.
Resource Value – Indicates how rich a star system is in resources (energy and materials). Determines the maximum number of Production Lines that can be built.
Supplies – A generalization of materials, currencies, food, energy, construction prefabs, etc.
Defense – A static combat unit with Attack 1 and HP 1.
Fighter – A mobile combat unit that can be transported via Carriers. Has Attack 1 and HP 1.
Carrier – A mobile transport that can carry Fighters between star systems. Has Attack 0 and HP 0.
Upkeep – The maintenance cost of combat entities. Requires Supplies.
Failure to maintain combat entities leads to MND (Maintenance Negligence Degradation): random entities are destroyed. You’ll be notified via Reports and Notifications.
Upkeep table
Defense: 1 supply per tick
Fighter: 2 supplies per tick
Carrier: 4 supplies per tick
Industry
Industry divided into three categories:
Production Lines – Produce Supplies, Defenses, Carriers, and Fighters using local resources.
Construction Lines – Build Production Lines using Supplies.
Since all participants start with equal resources and combat is simple and deterministic, it’s usually impossible to win by force alone. That’s why diplomacy turns exist!
Diplomatic Entities
Trade Treaty
Both participants gain additional supplies per tick equal to 10% of the lower supply production.
Maximum of 3 trade treaties per participant.
War
Participants may only attack each other when they are at war.
The one who declares war is the aggressor, the other is the defender.
Exception: If both parties declare war on the same tick, both are considered aggressors.
Bloc: Defense Pact
Members automatically join all defensive wars involving other members – current and future.
Any aggressive war you initiate must be handled alone.
Bloc: Alliance
Shared scan range – all members see what each other scans. A major boon and a major vulnerability. Be careful who you invite.
Members auto-join all defensive wars.
Aggressive wars can be declared on behalf of the Alliance through voting.
Bloc: Suzerainty
Participants who accept (or ask for) subjugation become vassals.
Vassals pay a 10% tribute.
Vassals auto-join all wars started by their suzerain.
Ending vassalage:
Suzerain may release a vassal voluntarily.
Vassal may ask for release.
Vassal may declare war on their suzerain.
Warfare
“War is merely the continuation of policy by other means.”
Carl von Clausewitz
When diplomacy fails, war begins.
Combat
Combat occurs when a Carrier reaches a star system owned by a player it's at war with.
At the end of the tick, all Carriers are sorted by distance to their destination. The closest Carrier attacks first.
Carriers have no attack capabilities. They rely on Fighters for combat.
What happens to a carrier if one of its waypoints becomes owned by another player? If it’s the current carrier waypoint: EWO (Emergency Warp Out) – the carrier executes emergency procedures and warps back to the nearest player-owned system within the same tick. If it’s the next carrier waypoint: EOR (Emergency Order Revocation) – the carrier cancels the next and all subsequent waypoints. In both cases, you will be notified via Reports.
Edge Case: empty carrier vs. empty carrier – both are destroyed. The star system ownership remains unchanged.
Attack order: Carriers target Defenses first, then Fighters, then other Carriers.
Fighters and Defenses are equal in combat: when they clash, both are destroyed.
Combat outcome is deterministic:
Add up all Defenses and Fighters of the defending star system.