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.

Description
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).

Artifacts
One reason to explore the lesser known parts of the galaxy is that you may discover a rare artifact on the surface of some planet. There are a handful of artifacts in the entire galaxy, so they are quite valuable finds. They are placed in your character's personal inventory and will improve your character. Even if you find an artifact you don't necessarily want, you can trade it to someone who does for a nice price. To find artifacts, you should buy the Captain's Stash in a port. It normally takes 5 or 6 of these drinks before the bartender will tell you the location of an artifact. Sometimes the bartender will not tell you the location of an artifact. In that case, move to a different port and buy some drinks there. You can also find Artifacts with a Neutrino Scanner. Use the Neutrino Scanner in each system to figure out if there are any artifacts (See section below on scanners). There may be more then one Artifact on a planet. Here are the artifacts one might find and what they do:
 * Oracle of Wonders - Increases your Wisdom by 2.
 * Intergalactics' Spacesuit - Bestows +2 Dexterity upon the wearer.
 * Beautiful Aura Necklace - This device increases Charisma by 2.
 * Persuasive Pulsator - Helps you haggle better prices from port merchants.
 * Cloak of Disguise - This cloak helps in port robbery.
 * Intergalactics' Map - Decreases the amount of warp fuel used to warp by 0.5.
 * Shield Emanator - Damage sustained by your ship is reduced by approximately 1/7.
 * The Superconductor - Increases ship's energy generation speed.

Character Attributes
Players are allowed to control one and only one character per server. You can view your character's status by pressing Alt-P. All characters exist at all times, even when the player who controls them is not logged in. Characters have three attributes decided when your character is created or remade with tokens:

Charisma - Increases the number of colonists you can recruit from ports, makes it easier to haggle with port merchants, and increases morale on your colonies.

Wisdom - Decreases the warp fuel used by 0.2 per wisdom when warping.

Dexterity - Increases turning speed, energy regeneration rate, and thrust acceleration.

Note: Once set, these three attributes along with your character name become rather permanent and can only be changed with tokens, not credits. Its a good idea to start the game on a temporary server. These games will reset themselves after about 14 days, called a Rebang. This will give you time to understand the effect of the three attributes.

Experience
Experience is gained when you: discover and enter a new starport for the first time, complete taxi or escort missions, when negotiating better prices in trades, and most significantly when colony construction is set to experience. Experience is important in rebang games, as medals are awarded to the top 10 finishers based on experience ranking.

Reputation
Reputation is gained when you: fight or kill players with opposite reputation, complete taxi or escort missions, provide housing to colonists at your colony, or add to the bounties on pirates at the police station. You receive 1 reputation point for every thousand credits that you add to a bounty. Reputation is lost when you: fight or kill players with the same reputation, fail an escort mission, jettison colonists, or get caught when you rob a port. 1/10 of the killed person's reputation is subtracted from yours, so for example: If the killed person's rep is 15400, you lose 1540. If the killed person's rep is -9270, you lose -927 (in other words, you gain 927).

Government

 * Democracy - Best morale of all types of government, but are banned from producing nuclear weapons.
 * Anarchy - Increased population growth. Normally helps morale.
 * Directorship - Doubles the chance to gain a research.
 * Prison - Decreases morale approximately 3 points/hr. +50% construction and Weapons Factory production. Researching does not produce any results with Prison government.

Hardware
There are four star bases that sell hardware to equip a ship with. One base is only accessible by having a very low reputation; this base is referred to as the 'Pirate base.' Costs of hardware are shown in the following table.

* This amount varies between servers. 40k is the standard price, while 2.09mil is normally found on the PAX servers.

** Prices are subject to Supply and Demand at ports with 20 being price at full supply, bases always sell for 20.

Lounge
Each port has a lounge in which you can talk to the patrons. Some patrons have customers that need a ride to a different port and will pay you $3,000 per hop plus a bonus if you are fast. Some patrons have customers that need to reach a port in dangerous territory and will pay you to escort them. Talking to the barkeep (by buying drinks) will result in various tomes of wisdom. The barkeep may tell you the last person to visit the port, the location of an artifact or various hints about the game. Purchase the most expensive drink if you want the best information. On average, after you purchase ten of the bars most expensive drinks, you will receive half off inn rates at that starport until the system ends.

Planets
There are 11 types of planets of which 9 are able to be colonized by a player.

Usable
Players are able to colonize the following nine planet types:


 * Arctic: Arctic planets have neutral population growth; the population will not grow until you have medicine, Weather Prediction researched, or Anarchy government. Arctic planets produce all resources except uranium and spice, and will supply you with plenty of anaerobes and oil. The Arctic planet's unique building is the Heater Core which increases construction on the planet by 50% (was 100%, changed 2/1/05). That means your buildings and Experience will be produced 50% faster. Arctic planets provide more Experience per hour than any other planet type. Arctic planets can produce 843 Experience per hour when set to 100% construction. Arctic worlds have a very high rate of pollution.
 * Volcanic: Volcanic planets have sharply negative population growth; you'll have to replenish your colonists until you get 2000 medicine. Volcanic planets produce all resources except organics and spice, and will supply you with plenty of metal ore and equipment. The Volcanic planet's unique building is the Lava Mill which means the Weapons Factory produces weapons twice as fast. Volcanic worlds have a fairly slow rate of pollution.
 * Desert: Desert worlds have slightly negative population growth. They produce every resource, although this is said to be less useful since the Refinery is now limited to 50,000 of each resource. Desert worlds have incredible spice production, greater than any other type. If you build the Spice Mine, it doubles your Refinery's production of spice. Desert worlds have a fairly slow rate of pollution.
 * Mountainous: Mountainous planets have slightly negative population growth. Mountainous worlds only harvest metal ore, uranium, and anaerobes. Mountainous planets harvest metal ore and uranium faster than any other planet type. The Atom Smasher building lets you transform two tons of any resource plus one ton of uranium into two tons of any other resource. So you can convert 2 tons of metal ore and 1 ton of uranium into 2 tons of spice. Mountain worlds have an above average pollution rate so keep a watchful eye on it.
 * Greenhouse: Greenhouse worlds have sharply negative population growth. They produce primarily anaerobes and metal ore, with some medicine, oil, and uranium. The Ion Tower will completely hide all traces of your biodome and defenses from players with neutrino scanners. The Ion Tower does not hide the tonnage of aliens or artifacts. Greenhouse worlds have a fairly slow rate of pollution.
 * Oceanic: Oceanic worlds have slightly positive population growth. Some players enjoy Oceanic worlds because of their resource yields. Oceanic planets produce every resource, and they are the only planets other than Desert and Paradise worlds to produce spice. The Deep Sea Explorer, the unique building, doubles the research rate on the planet. They have the highest medicine production of any planet. Ocean worlds have a moderate rate of pollution.
 * Rocky: Rocky worlds have moderately negative population growth. Rocky worlds harvest mostly metal ore and anaerobes, along with a lesser amount of equipment and uranium. The Artesian Well is a structure which increases the morale of the planet. This allows taxes to be set higher without losing morale. They can provide more than enough money to cover the costs of cleaning pollution. Rocky worlds have a moderate rate of pollution.
 * Earthlike: Earthlike planets have very high population growth. Earthlike worlds produce all resources except anaerobes and spice. The Church of Earth, the special building, lowers the pollution rate to very low. Earthlike worlds have a moderate rate of pollution.
 * Paradise: Every server contains three Paradise worlds. They produce all resources. The Intergalactics' Shrine doubles your hourly Experience for owning it. Paradise worlds have no pollution.

Unusable
Two types of planets can not be colonized:
 * Gas Giants - Very large
 * Tiny - Very small

However, these planets may contain artifacts or players who have landed on them before logging out. These players are often referred to as "sleepers."

Planet Resources
This guide is to show you how much product you need on each type of planet to build every structure on the planet. This table is useful to allow you to start building up your product stock so that when one structure is finished you can immediately start on the next structure and not face any delays due to not having enough stock on the planet. Besides the special buildings, which are included in the numbers, rest of the buildings require the same resources from planet to planet, thus these numbers reflect that assumption. Source: User - Silurian Forum article : http://www.starportgame.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1236

Morale
Colonies have a morale level, indicating the general mood of their citizens. Are they happy with their lives in this colony, or destitute? Morale generally goes down over time, but can be increased by a low tax rate setting. Government type can influence morale. Large populations tend to reduce morale. The radio receiver structure helps increase morale once built, as does the broadcast receiver and the Artesian well. The charisma attribute of the owner character slightly helps morale as well. In order to reach unity status, a colony needs a morale total of about 800 morale points. At -300 morale points, colony will reach revolt. The following is a list of morale levels from angriest to happiest, with any special affects that apply to that level of morale.

Research
The occupation of colonists can be set to research in the biodome management screen. Colonial researchers spend their time exploring their home world and solving problems. The more colonists allowed to research, the greater a colony's chance of making a research discovery. Discoveries are bonuses that will remain with that colony forever. Every colony has its own, independent list of discoveries, even if they're owned by the same character. These are the possible research discoveries that can occur on a colony: The symbol "2x" means double. If you harvest 0 before the research you still harvest 0 after. Researching takes a bit of luck. You need to set your colonists to work on research, and then give them a day or two to come up with something. There is an element of chance to how soon a discovery will be made, but the more research output the colony has, the greater the chances of making a discovery with each passing hour.
 * Commodities market allows you to sell any resource in the refinery at a reduced selling price.
 * Military Tradition doubles the effectiveness of a colony's defense. For example, a colony with its military workforce set to 25% would defend itself as though it were set to 50%. Remember that the maximum defense strength for any colony is 2,500 colonists, so with Military Tradition and a 5000 population colony, you would only need to set the military to 25% to get the maximum defense strength. This discovery does not effect the Weapons Factory.

Scanners
All ships are equipped with scanners. You start with short-range scanners until you decide to upgrade to one of the four other types. You can only have one type of scanner at a time. Scanners are purchased in the hardware area of Star Base Shipyards. When buying a new ship, your scanners are transferred to the new ship. A scan can be performed by pressing Alt-S. Results are given as tons of unidentified compounds. This can indicate the presence of other ships, defenses, colonies, aliens, and artifacts in the area. Scanners do not detect defenses or colonies on a greenhouse type planet with an Ion Tower. Here are descriptions of the 5 scanner types and how they are used:
 * Short Range Scanners can be used to scan your immediate vicinity. They can be helpful when you first land on a planet surface if you would like an estimate of what lies on the planet without having to go around and look it all over. When used in space, these scanners report on the solar system space alone, and not any of the planets. Short Range Scanners use up 1 unit of warp fuel.
 * Broadband Scanners are used from space and scan every planet and moon in the entire solar system in one fell swoop. The result obtained is a total, representing the combined tons of all unidentified compounds across all planets and moons in the system. Broadband scans use 3 gallons of warp fuel.
 * Neutrino Scanners operate like Broadband Scanners except instead of reporting the total for all planets, they are capable of scanning each planet individually. So results obtained from these scans are more concise. Neutrino scans cost 5 gallons of warp fuel each use. The Neutrino Scanner shows the total of a planets mass. In order to read the results, use the following. The values the Neutrino Scanner reports are added into one total. Adding structures to a Biodome does not change the reading.

Reported Values Alien - 5 tons Artifact - 100 Biodome - 500 Flak Cannon - 25 Laser Cannon - 25 Mine - 15 Beacon - 10 Player - 200 Destroyed Biodome - 500 Here is an example scan: 1 Biodome = 500 14 aliens = 70 125 cannons = 3125 Total reported Neutrino Scan = 3695 Here are the weights to look for: 0-70 = 14 aliens on a tiny or inhabitable planet 0-140 = 28 aliens on a gas giant. It is possible to be an artifact or mines. 150-195 = This is usually an artifact; however, someone could have placed mines. 200-495 = This means some combination of aliens, artifacts, and players. Usually, it's a sleeping player or an artifact. 500-570 = Almost always Biodome with no cannons. Could just be multiple players or artifacts. Over 570 = Almost always Biodome, likely defended. The higher the weight, the higher the defenses. Subtract 570 (biodome and aliens) and then divide by 25 to get the number of cannons. Sometimes, there will be a sleeping player. 3625-3695 = This means the planet is a fully defended colony containing 125 Laser Turrets or Flak. Be careful; maps with an extremely wide landing area could kill you before you fly back to the warp. Land on these at your own risk, as you will likely be destroyed if you are unable to immediately take off again. Also, be careful when landing on greenhouse planets because the Ion Tower (a special building) will cause you to scan only the weight of aliens and player ships which makes it appear empty when it is defended.
 * Tactical Scanner are Short Range Scanners that have been modified for combat purposes. When your ship is equipped with a Tactical Scanner, you can see the shields levels of other ships.
 * Battle Scanner are like Tactical Scanners; However with a Battle Scanner, you can see cloaked ships. Just what an Avenger captain fears most!

Ships
Ship Comments:

Antarean Speedstar - Great fuel efficiency offset by mediocre to poor everything else limit this ship's use to pure exploration. Its special, the Anti-Gravity Bomb, flings other ships away upon impact, although combat should be generally avoided due to the low maximum shields. (Note: with a Wisdom of 10 and three Intergalactics' Maps, the Speedstar uses only 2.5 fuel per warp, making it twice as good as the Dreamsower for moving cargo, with a cargo per fuel rating of 36.00.)

Avenger - This ship's prominent feature is its ability to cloak, leaving only a black outline against the stars and nothing on the minimap. While cloaked, the ship can fire AND receive damage, though the powerful Grav Cannon cannot lock-on. When using the cloak, auto-targeting cannons can still do you damage if you get too close to one, or are in the line of fire between the cannon and another player or NPC. As far as stats go, the important ones for fighting are quite sufficient, but the low shield max require that one rely on stealth.

Battleship - With better shielding and better armaments, this ship is a decent step up from the scout-class ships when looking to attempt combat. However, being in a tie for the worst fuel efficiency in the game, you had better have some warp fuel to burn.

Corporate Flagship - This ship, only buyable by heads of corporations, is decent in most areas but excels in none, and is thus replaced for any specialized job. Its special weapon is the Tractor Beam, which is somewhat awkward to use, but potentially deadly.

Dreamsower - This ship boasts the largest cargo capacity in the game, along with the only energy-draining special. Those, however are the only things it can boast, being weak, slow, and handling sluggishly otherwise. For intersystem cargo movement, the Galaxy Whale is a better choice here, since twice the top speed means the job is done much faster for very nearly the same fuel cost. however, for moving cargo around within a system, this ship can be considered a decent candidate.

Garbage Barge - This is the standard ship for moving equipment. Its the only ship with more than eight hardware slots, having 24, in addition to its 100 regular cargo slots. The barge itself is dirt cheap and players will often hire a barge for various jobs. Its defensive special weapon can knock out the steering of enemies' ships, giving you the time needed to escape. Having a low top speed but high acceleration, the barge is one of the easiest ships to maneuver.

Galaxy Whale - In order to move large amounts of cargo you want one of the three cargo ships; dreamsower, garbage, or the whale. Of these three, the whale has better shield and speed but costs much more. Its difficult to control and turn, so even the auto-pilot misses its target a lot. The galaxy whale has a fun and effective weapon called Repel that flings away nearby ships.

Imperial Starcruiser (ISC) - This ship requires a reputation above 5000 in addition to a massive 2 million in credits. Although expensive, its price reflects its features, with the best possible shields, speed, and energy regeneration rate in the game, and above average stats otherwise. Its special, the Photon Torpedo, has decent range and does heavy splash damage.

Intergalactics' Ship - This ship costs 10,000 tokens (10 USD), and is the only ship in the game that can be bought with real money. Thus, it is the best in everything but cargo movement. Beware! This ship's distinct purple glow will make you a target for other players, and dying means you lose this ship and must repurchase it.

Merchant Cruiser - This is the stock starting ship, and the only good thing about it is that it's free. Its Afterburners special is unique in that it affects your speed, but most experienced players immediately trade this in for either the Tyrolean Falcon, Garbage Barge, or Scout Marauder, since all three are buyable with starting money and materials.

Merchant Freighter - An overall improvement on the Cruiser, there is nothing to recommend this ship over other better choices except its special weapon, Point Defence, which can auto-target any projectiles in close proximity to your ship.

Scout Marauder - This ship has only its fuel efficiency to brag about, since its top speed is rarely reached due to its poor thrust, and its special weapon Reverse Guns is merely a slightly more powerful version of the stock Plasma Cannon that fires backwards.

Sethdar Cruiser - The top choice for players with a reputation of -1000 or lower, this fine ship can only be bought at the Pirate Base Chernyj Almaz. It handles and thrusts better than the ISC, but loses in a straight race. Its special weapon EMP Blast can temporarily knock out the thrusters of enemy ships. However, their turning and weapons will still be fully operational.

Tyrolean Falcon - This is probably a better choice for a starting ship for most beginning characters, being cheap, relatively fast, and having a the ability to eject other ships' cargo with the Cargo Disrupt weapon, as well as being able to generate shields by jettisoning cargo.

Vulture - With the worst fuel efficiency and speed, and poor everything else, this ship definitively claims the title of the most special-use ship in the game, with its Surface Missiles having the longest range of any weapon in the game plus an unlimited supply, which makes them perfect for assulting planetary defences.

Titles
Titles - A character's name is usually preceded by his title. Title is determined by a character's experience and reputation. Reputation divides titles into two classes depending on if it's positive or negative. Experience determines the rest, according to the following table:

Warp Fuel
Every character has an amount of warp fuel. Warp Fuel is used every time a warp portal is entered to make the jump from one star system to another. One warp jump costs about 10 units of warp fuel (the actual number varies depending on the type of spaceship making the jump). Warp Fuel is automatically generated for every character, at a constant rate over time, regardless of whether or not the character's human controller is online or offline. A typical setting for warp fuel generation speed in a game of SGE is 1 unit every two to three minutes. If you want to make a jump but don't have enough warp fuel you'll have to wait for it to generate. On the other hand, if you have not logged on to the game for 24 hours or so, you will find that 24 hours worth of warp fuel (about 480-720 units) has accumulated for your character. Also, you can jettison up to 500 spice each day, gaining one gallon of warp fuel per unit of spice consumed. You can check your spice quota at any time using the "/spice" command. Entering the atmosphere of a planet requires 1 unit of warp fuel, and docking at a port also requires 1 unit of warp fuel. The warp fuel gauge on the console displays how much warp fuel your character currently holds.

Text Commands
Any text input without a command before it will be a radio message to your current system. Here is the list of commands you can use while playing:


 * /c - or /corp - talk to corp
 * /e go - or /e come or /e warp - commands your escort
 * /r - or /reply - reply to a private message
 * /s - or /shout - shouts to all players
 * /t - or /tell - tell something privately
 * /tc - or /tellcorp - talk to the entire corp of


 * /hug
 * /laugh
 * /kiss
 * /nod
 * /salute
 * /shake - or /handshake
 * /smile
 * /wink


 * /give - gives credits to
 * /givetokens - gives tokens to


 * /help - displays a screen giving general information about Starport
 * /tips - turns on the tips feature
 * /tutorial - command replaced by /tips


 * /bug - used to report an error with Starport
 * /changepassword - changes your account password
 * /idea - used to submit an idea
 * /max - maximizes all info windows
 * /min - minimizes all info windows
 * /news - displays game news
 * /news <#> - displays old news
 * /ping - ping yourself
 * /ping - returns the latency of a player
 * /spice - displays the amount of spice converersion you have left
 * /time - displays the time


 * /cancelun - cancels UN protection on the colony you are inside
 * /givecolony - give your corp use of the colony you are inside
 * /makeceo - makes the CEO
 * /namecolony - give the colony you are inside a name... no spaces
 * /takecolony - take or give the use of the colony you are inside


 * /bounty - displays bounty of
 * /char - or /character - displays profile of
 * /ignore - displays a list of the people you are ignoring
 * /ignore - ignores all messages from ... can send you two mails
 * /pro - or /profile - displays profile of
 * /who - or /whois - displays profile of


 * /clearmail - deletes all mails in your mailbox
 * /mail  - mails ... is limited to one word
 * /readmail - prints all your mails in the chat box


 * /go - or /goto - goes to system
 * /m - opens map
 * /map - maps system
 * /warp - emergency warps
 * /where - returns the coords of

More Help
Look at the Star-Pedia 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.