Interstellaria/Fleet management

Your fleet can consist of one to five ships at a time. There are four parts that require managing: the crew, the stations, the weapons, and the ships themselves.

Crew
There are two approaches to the crew. You can hire robots to man the stations, or you can use normal crewmen. If you have more than one ship, you will generally want to put robots on the accessory ships so that you don't have to worry about the crew getting hungry, tired, or bored. If you choose to use normal crewmen on the accessory ships, you will either have to provide need stations for each ship or remember to transfer them back to the captain's ship. The second option has two variants. You can assign crew to the ships until they get hungry, or you can assign them to the ships only when you enter a battle. Most multi-ship setups will involve some mix of these options.

Stations
There are eight types of stations in two categories. The navigation, tactical, scanning, and engineering consoles are combat stations. The stasis, entertainment, food, and medical consoles are life-support stations. All types come in three tiers. All stations require energy and a crewman in order to provide any bonus.

Combat
Combat station tiers follow a simple pattern in terms of requirements, but have varying levels of bonus for each tier. MKIII stations are best used in multi-ship fleets.

Navigation
Normally, ships cannot move on their own unless they have a navigation console manned and energy allocated to engines. (The exception occurs when exiting battle.) The speed of the ship is determined by the formula: (speed class x engine energy) + (0.03 x crewman navigation level) = pixels per second in battle. Map speed will be 1.25 times the speed of the fastest ship in the fleet.
 * Navigation: Sold at Trade Co and Anoa. Enables movement.
 * Navigation MKII: Sold at Yunqi and Ongmon. Provides 0.05 extra speed. Is not worth the extra energy.
 * Navigation MKIII: Sold at Yunqi. Provides 0.1 extra speed, but extends that and the crewman's bonus to all ships in the fleet. Is only worthwhile with multiple ships.

Tactical
Weapons cannot be turned on or fired without a tactical console manned. The damage formula is (100 + crewman tactical level)% of weapon base damage.
 * Tactical: Sold at Trade Co and Cyala. Enables firing.
 * Tactical MKII: Sold at Yunqi and Ongmon. +10% damage for the ship.
 * Tactical MKIII: Sold at Ongmon. +25% damage for all ships in the fleet. Also extends crewman bonus to all ships in the fleet. Is better than two MKI's unless your second crewman has a tactical level above 25, and you have only one ship.

Scanning
Most ships have a base accuracy of 60%. (Scouts only have 15%.) If you have a scanner manned on any ship, you will be able to see ship profiles on the map screen. You will also be able to see the entirety of the battle screen. Crewman add 1% accuracy per scanning level when assigned to any scanner. Accuracy cannot exceed 100%.
 * Scanner: Sold at Trade Co and New Terra. +5% accuracy.
 * Scanner MKII: Sold at Cyala and Ongmon. +10% accuracy for the ship.
 * Scanner MKIII: Sold at Wiegre. +20% accuracy for all ships in the fleet. Also extends the crewman's bonus to all ships in the fleet. With this and a high level crewman, you do not need any more scanners in the fleet.

Engineering
Engineering consoles repair armor and shields over time, and auto repair hull breaches and fires. They only affect the ship they are equipped on. Crewman increase the ship's engineering stat by one for each engineering level. The added bonus from the higher tiers is not worth the energy, so you are better off equipping multiple MKI's, unless you are using the auto repair function frequently.
 * Engineering: Sold at Trade Co and Eshk. +1 engineering. Enables a slower auto repair.
 * Engineering MKII: Sold at Cyala and Ongmon. +2 engineering. Enables auto repair.
 * Engineering MKIII: Sold at Eshk. +3 engineering. Enables a faster auto repair.

Life-support
Life-support stations keep your crew happy and healthy. Higher tier stations satisfy needs faster. If normal crew get hungry, tired, or bored and stay that way, they will stop providing their bonuses. This usually happens after they provide a bubble over their heads with one of the need icons. If you fail to solve their problems, they will desert with all their gear. Normally, this poses no problem since crew will automatically seek out a station to satisfy their needs. If you do not have the required stations, do not have enough energy to use them, or leave the crew assigned to combat stations, the crew will consider desertion. Your captain cannot desert, but he can stop providing his bonus.

Food
Crew get hungry often, so you should consider having multiple fridges. Food stations follow the same requirements pattern that combat stations use.
 * Fridge: Sold at Trade Co and Delna for 750dy.
 * Stove: Sold at Yunqi and Anoa for 1500dy.
 * Kitchenette: Sold at Anoa for 6000dy.

Sleep
Crew get sleepy less often than they get hungry. All stasis tubes require one station slot, but the energy requirement matches the tier.
 * Stasis Tube: Sold at Trade Co and Wiegre for 750dy.
 * Stasis Tube MKII: Sold at Yunqi, Cyala, Ongmon, and Wiegre for 4000dy.
 * Stasis Tube MKIII: Sold at Cyala for 8000dy.

Entertainment
Crew rarely need entertainment, especially since disembarking them will cure all boredom. You only need entertainment stations on your accessory ships, and that only if they have normal crew aboard. Entertainment stations' energy requirements match their tiers. The Jukebox and Game Console normally fill one station slot, but you can slide them underneath Med Boxes and TV's if both are already installed on the same ship. TV's take one slot horizontally, so you will probably want to slide something under them to conserve space.
 * Jukebox: Sold at Trade Co and Paren for 750dy. Plays Jukebox-specific sound effects when activated.
 * TV: Sold at Kibou and Yunqi for 1500dy. Flashes pictures and plays voice recordings when activated.
 * Game Console: Sold at Kibou for 4000dy. Do not buy this unless you are annoyed by the other stations' sound effects or have energy to spare.

Medical
Healing stations will relieve the stress on your Healthpack supply, allowing you to save those for situations where you cannot get back to the ship without dying. Healing stations follow the standard requirement pattern, except that the Med Box only requires half of a station slot.
 * Medical Box: Sold at Trade Co for 1000dy.
 * Med Bay: Sold at Yunqi and Wiegre for 1500dy.
 * Med Vat: Sold at Wiegre for 4000dy.

Gatling cannons
You start with the 20mm Gatling Cannon. Since the 15mm Machine Gun reloads faster and is cheaper, you should get it rather than the 20mm Gatling Cannon. The Human 30mm Gatling Cannon does about twice as much damage, so it is better if you have the cash for it. The Terran 30mm Gatling Cannon has to be unlocked, but the 33% damage increase is worth any extra energy you have on hand.

Rockets
Rockets travel slower than projectiles. The Human Rocket Pod is slightly better than the 20mm Gatling Cannon and 15mm Machine Gun in terms of damage. The NX Rocket does 1.5 times as much damage, but costs over twice as much. The Kaidun Rocket Pod does less damage per energy than the NX Rocket, but more than the Human Rocket Pod. It is good for the situations where you have more available energy than you have weapons slots, although the Terran 30mm Gatling Cannon does more damage.

Particle beams
Particles travel slightly faster than rockets, but slower than projectiles. The damage dealt by a particle is equal to its Damage Multiplier times the firing ship's Total Weapon Energy (TWE). This means that a Particle 1's base damage can vary from 1.5 to 18. With 10 energy allocated to weapons, it will deal more damage than a Terran 30mm Gatling Cannon. The Particle-Adv only needs 8 energy to reach that approximate amount, so it is better if you can afford it. The Particle II is rather expensive for not actually providing a damage boost (due to reloading slightly less quickly).

Damage over time
Since DOT weapons attack the hull regardless of shields, they are especially good against Suna ships. They can also be used against scouts, but cheaper weapons are more versatile. Unless you are planning an extended stay in Suna space, do not buy DOT weapons, especially not the Disintegrator. If you see a multi-colored projectile coming your way, it's a DOT weapon.

Electronic warfare
The Small E-war Dish reduces enemy accuracy for a short time. The Overloader decreases enemy engine speed. The Small Emp Generator disables the enemy's engine and weapons for a very short time. The Engine Kill Switch shuts down the enemy's engines for a short time. These weapons can provide variety, but they are usually best used in single ship fleets, since large fleets spawn too many enemies for these weapons to handle them all.

Special
The Artillery has the fastest travel time of any weapon. It passes through anything and everything in its way as it flies out of the map, but it deals less damage after each collision. If you get it to travel horizontally along a ship, it may damage it twice. Artillery is good for getting first strikes when the map is full of asteroids. Nukes are only good if they are charged when you enter battle, and they do not miss. Otherwise, they do less damage than a Terran 30mm Gatling Cannon. The 60 damage per hit looks enticing, but the reload time makes it almost worthless. The Death Beam is technically a particle weapon, so it follows the same damage formula. It travels only slightly slower than Artillery. At full power, it deals more damage in a minute than any other single weapon.

Ships
Players can control 21 different ships spread out among four size classes. In general, more expensive ships are better than less expensive ships. The number of ships and size of those ships affects the random fleets that appear on the Starmap. Story-based fleets will be constant no matter what you have in your fleet. All ships provide the same amount of storage space no matter what size they are.

Scouts
Scouts are intended to make it easier to acquire a multi-ship fleet. They can be used to provide extra speed, firepower, and/or cargo space. The Human A2 Fighter is well balanced and the easiest to reach at the beginning of the game. The Anoa Torch Fighter costs less and has more armor, but it's slower and less powerful. The Suna Pod offers high shields and much less speed. The Kaidun Miner Craft offers the most space for stations and guns, but you can't use all of them and move at the same time. It can be used to cheaply provide a few more weapons in a sustainable format if you put robots and all four combat stations on it. The Kursha Fighter has the highest energy, the highest maximum speed, and a balanced armor to shields ratio, but it only has space for two stations, and it is the most expensive.

Corvettes
Corvettes are good for adding firepower or cargo space, and they can also be used as your main ship. The Old Empire Corvette that you start with has the most gun slots, but other than that, every other corvette is an improvement in some way. The Suna Corvette is the cheapest and has the most shields, high energy, and high space, but it only offers one gun slot. It is good for when you want to use a high-energy weapon (like Artillery) yet cannot afford the Kursha Corvette. The Anoa Corvette has the lowest space and energy, but it has more armor than the Old Empire Corvette. The Human Corvette MKII has the highest speed and a little shielding, but it sacrifices five extra armor for those shields. The Kaidun Corvette is the all-around best, so you should get it unless you want one of the other ships' strengths. The Kursha Corvette has the highest energy and better than average speed, so it can be almost as fast as the Human Corvette MKII, and still have extra energy. If you want speed, you should buy this, unless you don't have the cash.

Frigates
Frigates are mid-range upgrades to the corvettes. They can be used for anything for which smaller ships can be used, but will spawn more powerful enemies. The Suna Frigate has the most energy, but its low defense and gun slots make it feel more like the best corvette available. The Human Frigate MKII has the best speed, but doesn't have much more space than a corvette. The Kaidun Frigate has the slots and defense to be a cruiser, but it has the lowest speed and energy of the frigates. The Kursha Frigate is the most balanced, so it is the best choice if your fleet will consist of only one frigate.

Cruisers
Cruisers are the ships you want to fly but cannot initially afford. The Suna Cruiser has the highest energy of any cruiser and the highest shields of any ship available to the player, but it only has three gun slots. Like the Suna Frigate, it can be considered the best of the size class below it. The Human Cruiser is cramped, but it offers a good balance for the price. The Kaidun Cruiser is the roomiest and the most heavily armored, but it has the least energy. The Kursha Cruiser is the fastest cruiser and has good stats all around. Unless you want to specialize, this is the best ship available.

Unique Ships
These two ships can only be acquired once per game, and can easily be missed if you don't plan for them. See the Secrets page for information on how to get them. The Space Shuttle is both the slowest ship and the one with the most energy. It feels like an extra-cramped, low-defense cruiser. The Experimental Human Ship is the fastest ship in the game since it has enough energy to max the engines, unlike the fighters. It feels like a cramped corvette.

Battle Strategies
There are multiple ways to win space fights.

Slug fest
If you do not have speed, but you do have defense, you can stay put, take damage, and leave your weapons on. Depending on your opponent, you will need your engineering to be as high as possible, preferably at least 20, if not 30.

Run and gun
There are three variants to this method. In type A, you simply try to dodge bullets while leaving your guns on. This is what you were probably doing at the beginning of the game. In type B, you equip a particle weapon (or two) on a high energy ship. You then dash in close, transfer energy from engines to weapons, fire, and transfer the energy back before moving away to recharge. This method allows you to deal high damage without good accuracy. In type C, you need at least two ships. One ship is designed for map speed to get away/catch up, and the other is loaded with high powered weapons to blast any enemies you meet. This method works well if you choose to fly with the two unique ships.

Bullet swarm
This method involves loading numerous Gatling cannon on your ships and firing walls of projectiles at the enemy. It often works better when you have poor accuracy then when you have good accuracy, since something will hit. This is the technique favored by pirates and Terrans.

First strike
This method requires Artillery or Death Beams. Artillery can punch through asteroids, but you should still try to avoid as many asteroids as possible with it. Death Beams cannot travel through asteroids, but they can do more damage. When using this method, try to fire one (or two) weapons at one target, pause, fire at another target, and repeat until you are out of either ammunition or fresh targets. The downside of this method is that it is expensive to set up.

Electronic lock
This method requires at least one Small Emp Generator, preferably more. The plan is to keep the enemy from doing anything while you sit next to him and hit him with whatever you have. If you are using more than one Small Emp Generator, try to stagger them. This technique doesn't work with large fleets, unless every ship is capable of doing it solo.

General tips

 * Aim vertically: The easiest targets to hit on most ships are the upper and lower sides.
 * Carry your weapons charged: The enemy always charges their weapons when they enter battle. You can get an edge by charging yours beforehand.
 * Take one for the team: If you have multiple ships and a choice as to which ship gets hit by a projectile, choose the ship with more defense and/or higher engineering. If the projectile doesn't do damage, choose the ship that will be least hindered by the status effect.
 * Use the pause button: You can pause at any time outside of a menu or dialog. This helps with firing at multiple targets. If you see a red damage number on one of your ships, and the damage is greater than the current defense, you can pause and remove as many crew and stations as possible before the ship gets hit. If your captain's ship is doomed, you can avert that by promoting someone on another ship to captain, thus killing them instead.