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
A participant is considered eliminated when they lose all their Star Systems. All of the participant’s in-warp carriers are destroyed due to the loss of the warp-tone signal.
Entities and Concepts
Galactic Tick – a unit of time roughly equivalent to an Earth week.
Star System – The territories you're capturing. Each has a Resource Value.
Resource Value (or Resources) – measures how rich a Star System is in resources (energy and materials) and determines the maximum number of Production Lines it can support.
Supplies – an umbrella term for materials, food, fuel, construction prefabs, and other tradables. The Universe’s true currency!
Defense – a static combat unit used to protect Star Systems from capture. Has Attack 1 and HP 1.
Fighter – a mobile combat unit used to attack enemy Star Systems. Can be transported by 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 results in MND (Maintenance Negligence Degradation), leading to their destruction. You will be notified through 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.
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!
Open System
Allows a Star System's owner to let non-enemy players warp to the system. Typical uses:
Transit through neutral/allied space
Joint defense operations
Force projection!
Diplomatic Proposals
Deal
Allows players to trade entities (Star Systems, Carriers, Fighters, Supplies) with each other.
Each Deal has an Offer and a Request section; either section can be left empty, enabling pure demands or gifts.
Carriers and Fighters are taken from or delivered to your Capital.
Every unsuccessful Deal will be reported in Local Reports, detailing which part of the deal failed.
Every successful Deal will be reported in Global Reports.
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 Suzerainty.
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 when an empty carrier encounters another empty carrier? Both will be destroyed. Star system ownership will remain unchanged.
What happens to a carrier if one of its waypoints becomes owned by another (neutral) player during mid-warp?
If it's the current waypoint: EWO (Emergency Warp Out) – the carrier will execute emergency procedures and warp back to the nearest player-owned system within the same tick.
If it's the next waypoint: EOR (Emergency Order Revocation) – the carrier will cancel the next and all subsequent waypoints.
In both cases, you will be notified via Local Reports.
Attack order: Carriers target Defenses first, then Fighters, then 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.