Movement around star systems is considered instantaneous. A player can visit any location at the currently occupied system in a turn.
Jumps between systems cost energy based on the ships Warp Factor. The stronger the factor the better. Ships wishing to move out of a system can either specify a system as the jumps target or can specify a ship who they wish to Chase and they will mimic whatever jump that ship makes. Finally, a ship can use a Stargate to move between stars at no cost, as described in the relevant location section.
Mechanics of Warp Jumps: The cost in energy of a Warp Jump is equal to the distance squared divided by the ships Warp Factor.
Star systems have the following properties:
Terrain commonly takes one of three forms, each with certain characteristics. For the most part terrain is only relevant when ships start to engage in exchange of firepower and range becomes an issue, but Asteroid terrain also guarantees the presence of at least one Asteroid Belt location, which can be mined for energy.
Terrain will be covered more thoroughly in the relevant part of the Combat section.
Each system is made up of a number of locations.
Some locations are dangerous, baring significant risk to the ship that enters unprotected. These locations have an associated Danger percentage and a particular ships factor which can be used to protect the ship.
Mechanics of Hazardous Locations: Subtract the relevant ships factor from the Danger percentage of the location - this is then the probability of each module on the ship being Broken by the journey into danger (which includes a consequent reduction in relibility).
The Locations which make up a star system can be a mix of any of the following:
Each turn a player can search one location for adventures or criminals.
Each habitable location may also contain a criminal, ranked in seven steps between Heavy
and Godparent, which can be found through searching.
Once found, your Weaponry Officer may attempt to capture the criminal with the aid of his
crew. Once caught a number of options become available for the weaponry officer.
He may:
Each Factory sells a particular trade good for a constant cost of between $25 and $500. There exist eight colonys that buy each trade good and when goods are sold at one, the price there drops and the price elsewhere rises.
Mechanics of Trading: Selling a unit of a Trade Good at a Colony results in a drop in price at that colony of 35% and a rise in price at each other Colony which buys that Good of 5%.
If your ship is detected selling contraband, the alien government that owns the colony will declare you an enemy.
Mechanics of Not Getting Caught Selling Contraband:
Don't do it?
Failing that...
Your ship has a percentage chance of evading detection equal to your Cloak Factor.
Popcorn is an unusual trade good, being part matter, part energy. This makes it extremely easy to teleport from one location to another, meaning it is in high demand in certain industries. Consequently there is only one price each turn for popcorn, which is dependent on how much is sold.
Popcorn is harvested from the Popcorn Source, which requires reasonable levels of Sensors, Impulse Drives and Shields. Popcorn sells at $1000 divided by the number of popcorn sold that turn plus 4. ie $1000 / (4 + no. popcorn sold).
Harvesting Popcorn is a Science Officer Action.
Medicine is found in Oceans by the Medical Officer. The chance of finding a Medicine is equal to your Sick Bay Factor. The Medicine is then worth a set price between $10 and $1000 dollars, again related to your Sick Bay Factor, and can be sold at the appropriate Aliens Homeworld. Sale is automatic upon entering orbit around the Homeworld.
Only one Medicine can be carried at a time. Acquiring a new one or selling the old one will cause the old one to be lost.
Researching Medicine is a Medical Officer Action.
The last special cargo are mercenaries. There are 64 mercenary units available for hire, which work for the highest bidder, with bids made in payment per turn in energy dollars. A new mercenary unit is available for higher most turns.
Once hired, mercenary units take up residence in one of your empty pods for the duration of their stay with you, which is until you demobilise them. If you demobilise a merc unit then all the merc units become angry with you and you cannot hire any more until they forgive you, which has a 5% chance of occurring each turn.
Mercenary units will not share their cargo space with anything regardless of the size of the pod they occupy. If they took the magic pod, you're stuck with that until you demobilise them.
Mercenaries are used to fulfill mercenary contracts of ground combat. Each turn one contract will be available at a random star and on a random terrain. Transport the mercenary unit there and they'll complete the contract and you'll be paid for it.
If there's two or more ships with mercenaries in a systme with a contract, the contract goes to the strongest force of mercenaries. Mercs come in 8 different types of units, each with a different strength rating and different favoured and disliked terrain. A merc unit fighting on favoured terrain has it's strength doubled, one fighting on it's disliked terrain has it's strength halved.
Mercenary Unit Details can be found below:
| Name | Strength | Best Terrain | Worst Terrain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Infantry | 6 | Ruins | Badlands |
| Mobile Infantry | 12 | Ruins | Badlands |
| Hover Tanks | 8 | Ocean | Ruins |
| Cyber Tanks | 16 | Ocean | Ruins |
| Rocket Artillery | 10 | Badlands | Factory |
| Orbital Lasers | 20 | Badlands | Factory |
| Jump 'Mechs | 12 | Factory | Ocean |
| Assault 'Mechs | 24 | Factory | Ocean |