Starport: Galactic Empires

Starport: Galactic Empires is a free MMOG based in a fictional galaxy. Players assume control of their own starship, make money via trading or combat, and form their own empires by colonizing planets.

There are two types of game servers. "Rebangs" end after about 2 weeks; if you are ranked in the top 10 when the game ends, you get a medal which is visible on your profile. "Permaverses" never end, so you never receive medals. Each server has its differences, for example: The Battle Royale server (or shard) has plenty of NPCs (Non-Player Characters or computer controlled players), while many other servers have fewer NPCs. Players are given 2000 gallons of warp fuel that regenerates—up to 5000; different servers have different regeneration rates, and a small amount of starting money with which to build an empire. Players can use their real-life credit cards or PayPal accounts to buy Admiral Tokens from the Admiral's Club; you can use these tokens to buy warp fuel, nukes, credits, or a special ship named the Intergalactic Ship. Starport takes place in persistent real time, meaning that the player must dock at a port or fly to UN Space to log out safely; ships are vulnerable to attack when the player is not logged in and not in a safe area. Your colonies can be defended with many types of defenses, such as Flak Cannons, Laser Cannons, Mines, or a Solar Cannon. There are many avenues to make money in the game such as: trading among ports, bounty hunting, building colonies, fighting NPCs or other players, taxiing people from ports, escorting NPCs ships from ports, or doing favors or jobs for other players. Starport is sometimes said to contain certain aspects of other games like Elite, Trade Wars 2002, and Star Control 2.

One popular aspect of the game is colonizing planets. There are several varieties of planets that a player can colonize; each type has pros and cons. Players can build structures in their colonies by having the colonists set to construction and by placing resources in the refinery. Players set what type of government their colonies will have; each type has differing effects on the colony, for example: Democracy raises morale the fastest, while prison sacrifices morale rate to increase production speed. Players can invade another player's planet using missiles and special ships (example: Vulture which has surface missiles).

Help
Look at the Starpedia which you can reach from the menu system or by pressing Alt+E. Choose the "COMPUTER" menu followed by "STARPEDIA." The menus appear any time the mouse is moved up to the top of the screen or when you press the ESC key with no info screen up. You can also type /help for a quick list of all commands.

You can also get some help on the official forum. Here you can get tips from other players, This will normally be your primary means of game support as the small development team can be slow to reply. Veterans of the game are always willing to give some sound advice to the new guy in town.