The MOOniac's Guide to the Galaxies: Master of Orion II  V0.0002 (Feb-9-97) - verified for MOO II, version 1.2

1.8 Abbreviations:

This FAQ, and especially the tables in it, make use, sometimes quite extensively, of the following, not too hard to recognize, abbreviations: 

MOO2 - Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares
MOO  - Master of Orion 1
MOM  - Master of Magic

PP   - Production Points (pick axes), necessary to build structures
RP   - Research Points (beakers and microscopes), necessary for research
BC   - Billion Credits, the money unit of the game
pop  - population, or 1 population unit

CP   - Computer Player
NAP  - Non-Aggression Pact

BOCV - Beam Offense Combat Value, the beam attack to hit chance
BDCV - Beam Defense Combat Value, a ship's defense against beams weapons.
dmg  - damage
shld - shield
arm  - the armor of a ship
str  - (also struct) the structure of a ship
sys  - systems, the internal systems of a ship
rng  - range
sq   - (also sqr) one square on the combat grid
spd  - speed
spc  - space, free space on a ship
x    - times ("3x struct" means "Structure multiplied by three")

max. - maximal
min. - minimal

  ?     - throughout the lists the question mark denotes that this information has not been verified or derived yet
really? - expresses doubt, I am not sure about that information.

"square" always means a square on the combat grid, never a mathematical operation.

2.1 What is MOO2?

You start on one planet in one of 20-72 star systems (with 0-5 planets each). 

2.1.4 Are there any differences between the Win95 and the DOS version?

First, let me say that both versions come on the same CD, so you don't need to worry which version to buy. The DOS version runs faster, but apart from that there are no differences. You can even run the DOS version in a DOS window under Windows 95. Note, however, that in multiplayer games ALL players must use the same version.

2.2.2 Sound problems

Some people complained that they couldn't hear sound during the cutscenes. This happens if you turn the music off in the "Game" menu. Just turn the music on again.

If you do not have the 340 MB free disk space (265 MB if you already installed the game) necessary to do this, copy only some selected files. The first file you should copy is STREAM.LBX. This is the music that plays from the CD, and it is accessed a lot. If you don't have the space, do NOT copy the following files: INTRO.LBX, ?????FIN.LBX and GENWINFN.LBX. These 10 files contain the intro and the cutscenes, and they need 40 MB disk space. Also do NOT copy the TANM_*.LBX files. These 213 files contain the spinning 3d-objects that you see when you researched new tech, and they need 63 MB disk space. The DIPLOMAT.LBX (45 MB, diplomat/scientist/soldier pictures and animations), the COUNCIL.LBX (12 MB, graphics for council meetings) and the ANTAROOM.LBX (11 MB, Antaran "diplomat" pictures and animations) can also remain on the CD. You then only need about 160 MB for nearly the full game.

2.7.2 Not-So-Random Number Cheat
Actually the random number is generated at the start of the game when generating the star system. This base number is then used throughout the game. Random numbers are used for a great number of events, such as asking a race to do something diplomatically, bad/good events happening, etc. To test this, wait until you have something happen to you the turn after you save the game. Reload the save game, go to any race that is willing to trade tech with you, say no when they offer some worthless piece of tech, and then go to the next turn. See, nothing happens (or at least something different happens). Remember that this is cheating though...
                                      
2.7.3 Guardian Tech Cheat
As a quasi-cheat (and a predictability factor), I've discovered that the Orion techs gained move in a predictable manner. For example, when you beat Orion, if you don't like the techs gained, load a save game and attack one turn later ... all the techs move up one on the list (except Death Ray you WILL get that). So if you're dying for a Damper Field, just attack
one turn later, until it gets on the list.  

============================================================================
=  PART III: DATA  -  Lists, Charts and Tables For the Emperor             =
============================================================================

3.1.1 Technology Summary

The following chart gives you a survey of all the technologies that can be researched in MOO2. Each column denotes one category of research. Each line denotes one "level" of research. There are only 17 possible levels, each marked which a certain cost of research points.

Each box denotes a "field" of research. The first line in the box shows the number of that field in its category (column) and the name of the field in CAPITALS. The following lines show the technologies that this field offers. You normally choose ONE from these technologies to research. You can NOT research the other technologies in this field unless your race is "Creative". A "(G)" in the upper right of the box denotes a "General" field. In these fields you do not have to choose between the technologies, all are researched together.

In every category you have to research level by level, meaning that you can research the field in level 5 only if you already researched all previous levels in that category. Since no categories has 17 Fields to research there are empty boxes in the list. These take you automatically to the next level.

    RP |1. CONSTRUCTION | 2.  P O W E R  |  3. CHEMISTRY  |  4. SOCIOLOGY  |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |1-ENGINEERNG (G)|1-NUCL.FISSN (G)|1-CHEMISTRY  (G)|                |
       | Colony Base    | Nuclear Drive  | Nuclear Missile|                |
    50 | Star Base      | Nuclear Bomb   | Standard Fuel C|                |
       | Marine Barracks|----------------| Extend. Fuel T.|                |
-------|----------------|2-COLD FUSN. (G)| Titanium Armor |----------------|
       |2-ADV.ENGINEERG.| Colony Ship    |----------------|                |
       | Anti-Miss. Rock| Freighters     |                |                |
    80 | Fighter Bays   | Outpost Ship   |                |                |
       | Reinforced Hull| Transport      |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |3-ADV. CONSTRUCT|                |                |1-MILIT. TACTICS|
   150 | Autom.Factories|                |                | Space Academy  |
       | Missile Base   |                |                |                |
       | Heavy Armor    |                |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |4-CAPSULE CONST.|3-ADV. FUSION:  |2-ADV.METALLURGY|                |
   250 | Battle Pods    | Fusion Drive   | Deuterium FuelC|                |
       | Troop Pods     | Fusion Bomb    | Tritanium Armor|                |
       | Survival Pods  | Augment.Engines|                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |5-ASTRO ENGINRG.|                |                |                |
   400 | Space Port     |                |                |                |
       | Armor Barracks |                |                |                |
       | Fighter Garrisn|                |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |6-ROBOTICS:     |                |3-ADV. CHEMISTRY|2-XENO RELATIONS|
   650 | Robo Mine Plant|                | Merculite Miss.| Xeno Psychology|
       | Battle Station |                | Pollution Proc.| Alien Con. Cent|
       | Powered Armor  |                |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |7-SERVO MECHANCS|4-ION FISSION:  |                |                |
   900 | Fast Miss. Rack| Ion Drive      |                |                |
       | Adv.Dmg.Control| IonPulse Cannon|                |                |
       | Assault Shuttls| Shield Capacit.|                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |8-ASTRO CONSTRCT|                |4-MOLECUL.COMPR.|3-MACRO ECONOMIC|
 1.150 | Titan Construct|                | Pulson Missile | Stock Exchange |
       | GroundBatteries|                | Atmosphere Ren.|                |
       | Battleoids     |                | Iridium Fuel C.|                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |9-ADV. MANUFACT.|                |                |                |
 1.500 | Recyclotron    |                |                |                |
       | AutoRepair Unit|                |                |                |
       | Artif.Planet C.|                |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |10-ADV. ROBOTICS|5-ANTI-MATTER F.|5-NANO TECHNOLOG|4-TEACHING METHD|
 2.000 | Robotic Factory| A-Matter Drive | Nano Disassembl| Astro Univrsity|
       | Bomber Bays    | A-Matter Torp. | Microlite Cnstr|                |
       |                | A-Matter Bomb  | Zortrium Armor |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |                |6-MATTR-ENRGY-CV|                |                |
 2.750 |                | Transporters   |                |                |
       |                | Food Replicator|                |                |
       |                |                |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |11-TECTONIC ENG.|7-HIGH ENERGY D.|                |                |
 3.500 | Deep Core Mine | HighEnergyFocus|                |                |
       | Core Waste Dump| Energy Absorber|                |                |
       |                | Megafluxers    |                |----------------|
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|5-ADV. GOVERNMNT|
       |                |8-HYPER-DIM. FIS|6-MOLECUL. MANIP| Confederation  |
 4.500 |                | Proton Torpedo | Zeon Missile   | Imperium       |
       |                | Hyper Drive    | Neutronium Armr| Federation     |
       |                | Hyper-X Capac. | Uridium Fuel C.| Galactic Unific|
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |12-SUPERSCALAR C|                |                |6-GALACT. ECONOM|
 6.000 | Star Fortress  |                |                | Gal. Curr. Exch|
       | Adv. City Plan.|                |                |                |
       | Heavy Fighters |                |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |13-PLANETOID CN.|                |                |                |
 7.500 | Doom Star Cnst.|                |                |                |
       | Artemis Sys.Net|                |                |                |
       |                |                |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |                |9-INTERPHASED F.|7-MOLECUL. CONTR|                |
10.000 |                | Interph. Drive | Thorium Fuel C.|                |
 (!)   |                | Plasma Torpedo | Adamantium Armr|                |
       |                | Neutronium Bomb|                |                |
=======|================|================|================|================|
       | 13 fields with |  9 fields with |  7 fields with |  6 fields with |
       | 36 technologies| 26 technologies| 19 technologies|  7 technologies|
       | for 24,130 RP  | for 24,030 RP  | for 18,600 RP  | for 14,450 RP  |

    RP |  5. COMPUTERS  |   6. BIOLOGY   |   7. PHYSICS   |8. FORCE FIELDS |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |1-ELECTRONCS (G)|                |1-PHYSICS:  (G) |                |
    50 | Electr. Computr|                | Laser Cannon   |                |
       |                |                | Laser Rifle    |                |
       |                |                | Space Scanner  |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |                |1-ASTRO BIOLOGY:|                |                |
    80 |                | Hydroponic Farm|                |                |
       |                | Biospheres     |                |                |
       |                |                |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |2-OPTRONICS:    |                |2-FUSION PHYSICS|                |
   150 | Research Lab   |                | Fusion Beam    |                |
       | Optr. Computer |                | Fusion Rifle   |                |
       | Dauntl.Guid.Sys|                |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |                |                |3-TACHYON PHYS. |1-ADV. MAGNETISM|
   250 |                |                | Tachyon Commun.| Class I Shield |
       |                |                | Tachyon Scanner| Mass Driver    |
       |                |                | Battle Scanner | ECM Jammer     |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |3-ARTIF. INTELL.|2-ADV. BIOLOGY: |                |                |
   400 | Neural Scanner | Cloning Center |                |                |
       | Scout Lab      | Soil Enrichment|                |                |
       | Security Statns| Death Spores   |                |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |                |                |                |2-GRAVIT. FIELDS|
   650 |                |                |                | Anti-Grav Harn.|
       |                |                |                | Inertial Stabil|
       |                |                |                | Gyro Destabil. |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |4-POSITRONICS:  |3-GENETIC ENGIN.|4-NEUTRINO PHYS.|3-MAGNETO GRAVIT|
   900 | Positr. Computr| Telepath.Train.| Neutron Blaster| Cl. III Shield |
       | Pl. Supercomp. | Microbiotics   | Neutron Scanner| Pl.Radiaton Sh.|
       | Holo Simulator |                |                | Warp Dissipator|
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |                |4-GENETIC MUTAT.|5-ARTIFIC. GRAV.|                |
 1.150 |                | Terraforming   | Tractor Beam   |                |
       |                |                | Graviton Beam  |                |
       |                |                | Pl.Grav.Gener. |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |5-ARTIF.CONSCSNS|5-MACRO GENETICS|6-SUBSPACE PHYS.|4-ELECTROM. REFR|
 1.500 | Emissn.Guid.Sys| Subterr. Farms | Subspace Commun| Stealth Field  |
       | Rangemaster TU | Weather Contr. | Jump Gate      | Personal Shield|
       | Cyber Sec. Link|                |                | Stealth Suit   |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |                |                |7-MULTIPHASED PH|5-WARP FIELDS:  |
 2.000 |                |                | Phasor         | Pulsar         |
       |                |                | Phasor Rifle   | Warp Field Int.|
       |                |                | Multi-Ph.Shield| Lightning Field|
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |6-CYBERTRONICS: |6-EVOLUT.GENETIC|                |6-SUBSPACE FLDS.|
 2.750 | Cybertr. Comp. | Psionics       |                | Class V Shield |
       | Autolab        | Height. Intell.|                | MultiWave ECM J|
       | Struct.Analyzer|                |                | Gauss Cannon   |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |7-CYBERTECHNICS:|                |8-PLASMA PHYSICS|7-DISTORT. FLDS.|
 3.500 | Android Farmers|                | Plasma Cannon  | Cloaking Device|
       | Android Workers|                | Plasma Rifle   | Stasis Field   |
       | Android Scient.|                | Plasma Web     | Hard Shields   |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |8-GAL.NETWORKING|7-ARTIFIC. LIFE:|9-MULTIDIM.PHYS.|8-QUANTUM FIELDS|
 4.500 | Virt.Real.Netwk| Bio Terminator | Disruptor Cann.| Cl. VII Shield |
       | Galact.Cybernet| Univ. Antidote | Dimens. Portal | Pl. Flux Shield|
       |                |                |                | Wide Area Jamm.|
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |9-MOLECULARTRON.|                |10-HYPERDIM.PHYS|                |
 6.000 | Pleasure Dome  |                | Hyperspace Comm|                |
       | Molec. Computer|                | Sensors        |                |
       | Achilles Targ.U|                | Mauler Device  |                |
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |                |8-TRANS GENETICS|                |9-TRANSWARP FLDS|
 7.500 |                | Biomorph. Fungi|                | Displacement D.|
       |                | Gaia Transform.|                | Subspace Telep.|
       |                | Evolut.Mutation|                | Inertial Nullif|
-------|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
       |                |                |11-TEMPORAL PHYS|10-TEMPORAL FLDS|
15.000 |                |                | Time Warp Facil| Class X Shield |
 (!)   |                |                | Stellar Convert| Pl.Barrier Shld|
       |                |                | Star Gate      | Phasing Cloak  |
=======|================|================|================|================|
       |  9 fields with |  8 fields with | 11 fields with | 10 fields with |
       | 24 technologies| 17 technologies| 29 technologies| 30 technologies|
       | for 17.750 RP  | for 18.780 RP  | for 35.000 RP  | for 38.550 RP  |

Sum: 73 fields with 188 technologies for 191,290 Research Points.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.1.2 Compressed and Corrected Technology List

This list explains all technologies in MOO2. It is divided into the 8 categories, each category is divided into its fields of research, and each field is divided into its technologies. They are numbered accordingly, e.g 8.5.a will denote the first technology (Pulsar) of the fifth field (Warp Fields) of the eigth category (Force Fields). The numbers are the same
as in the chart above and will be used throughout this document.

In this list all numbers start with "T" for "Tech list". They should start with "3.1.2" because this is the number of the tech list section in this FAQ, but this lead to confusingly long numbers like 3.1.2.8.5.a for the Pulsar. Instead it has entry No. T.8.5.a - the "T" just replaces the "3.1.2". Since all technologies start with a "T", this is usually not
mentioned when referring to them. I will just refer to "Pulsar (8.5.a)".

The list starts with the first category, gives a very short survey of the kinds of technologies in this category, and then explains them field by field.

Each field is listed with its number and name, e.g. "T.5.2 Optronics". If that field is "General" (you automatically research all technologies of this field together), this will be noted in brackets after the name. Next there may appear the abbreviation "Avg" (or "Adv"). These mean that you usually have already researched this field (and all previous fields) when you play on Tech Level "Average" (or "Advanced Civilization").

Finally there will appear two numbers. The first one is the amount of RP (research points) that you have to invest if you want to research that field and if you already have researched all previous fields in that category. The second one is the amount of RP that you have to invest into this _category_to research that field. You will not be able to research field 5 if you have not researched fields 1-4 before, so in a way the total cost for field 5 also includes the accumulated costs for all previous fields. This accumulated RP cost is shown in the second RP number.

Example: Advanced Robotics (1.10) and Teaching Methods (4.4) both cost 2000 RP. But to research the former you have to invest 7130 RP into Construction, whereas for the latter you only need to invest 3950 RP into sociology. Keep this in mind when exchanging technologies.

After the field name and stats, all technologies of this field will be listed, starting with a letter (a-d) and their name. Then a three-letter abbreviation shows the type of this technology. The abbreviations mean:
 Ach - Achievement    Bld - Building     Shp - Ship      And - Android
 Eqp - Equipment      Sat - Satellite    Sys - System    Spc - Special
The technology types are well explained on page 66 of the manual. Finally the list will mention all effects of the technology in question.

T.1 Construction
This category covers mainly Production Enhancements, Star Bases, Fighters, Barracks, Huge Ship Sizes and Planetary Defense.

T.1.1 Engineering (General) (Avg) (50 RP)
 a) Colony Base           Spc  Colonize planet in same system.
 b) Star Base             Sat  +1 command point, +2 scanner range at system Can build large ships. Defends planet.
                               Repairs damaged ships in system automatically Costs 400 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.
 c) Marine Barracks       Bld  Has 4 Marine units, +1 new unit per 5 turns                         
                               Removes 20% morale penalty in Feu/Dic/Con/Imp                                                                   
                               Produce Infantry until Powered Armor (1.6.c) is researched, then Powersuits.
                               Necessary to build Transport ships. Costs 60 PP to build and 1 BC to maintain.

T.1.2 Advanced Engineering (80 RP / 130 total)
 a) Anti-Missile Rockets  Sys  Range 15. Destroy incoming missile/fighter with 85% chance (-5% per square distance)
 b) Fighter Bays          Sys  4 Interceptors with: Speed 6 + 2x drive level Struct 2 (multiplied with best armor level),
                                best computer and Point Defense beam weapon. Can target ships, planet, fighters, missiles.
                               Fly to target, attack weakest shield 4 times, return to carrier, await new orders.
 c) Reinforced Hull       Sys  Triples structure points. Triples damage necessary to destroy drive.

T.1.3 Advanced Construction (150 RP / 280 total)
 a) Automated Factories   Bld  +5 production at planet, +1 prod. per worker Costs 60 PP to build and 1 BC to maintain.
 b) Missile Base          Bld  300 space for best missiles, unlimited ammo. Costs 120 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.
 c) Heavy Armor           Sys  Triples armor points, negates Armor Piercing.

T.1.4 Capsule Construction (250 RP / 530 total)
 a) Battle Pods           Sys  +50% space on ship
 b) Troop Pods            Sys  Doubles number of Marines on ship
 c) Survival Pods         Ach  Saves leader if at least 1 ship survived.

T.1.5 Astro Engineering (400 RP / 930 total)
 a) Space Port            Bld  +50% money on planet. Costs 80 PP to build and 1 BC to maintain.
 b) Armor Barracks        Bld  Has 2 Armor units, +1 new unit per 10 turns. (max: 1/4 current pop. or 1/4 base max.pop.)
                               Removes 20% morale penalty in Feu/Dic/Con/Imp Units will be Tanks until Battleoids (1.8.c)
                               is researched. Costs 150 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.
 c) Fighter Garrison      Bld  House 10x4 Interceptors or 6x4 Bombers (if researched) or 4x4 Heavy Fighters (if res.).
                               Gives new fighters every 10 combat turns. Costs 150 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.

T.1.6 Robotics (Adv) (650 RP / 1580 total)
 a) Robo Mining Plant     Bld  +10 production at planet, +2 prod. per worker Costs 150 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.
 b) Battle Station        Sat  +2 command points, +4 scanner range at system +10% attack for frndly ships defending planet
                               Repairs damaged ships in system automatically Costs 1000 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.
                               Replaces Star Base (1.1.b)
 c) Powered Armor         Eqp  +10 troop combat rating, +1 troop hit point Powersuits replace infantry (see 1.1.c).

T.1.7 Servo Mechanics (900 RP / 2480 total)
 a) Fast Missile Racks    Sys  Fire missiles 2x in 1 turn. Require 1 turn without firing missiles to recharge.
 b) Adv. Damage Control   Ach  All ships compl. repaired after each battle
 c) Assault Shuttles      Sys  4 Shuttles with: Speed 2 + 2x drive level, Struct 3 (multiplied with best armor level),
                               best computer and 1 Marine each. Fly to target, drop off marine, return to base. May be
                               sent off again - bug? Drop Marine even if enemy's shields are up.  Marines are not deducted 
                               from ship's crew.
                                
T.1.8 Astro Construction (1150 RP / 3630 total)
 a) Titan Construction    Shp  Construction of Titan ship class possible.
 b) Ground Batteries      Bld  300 space for best HV and PD beam weapons. Costs 200 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.
 c) Battleoids            Eqp  Armor Barracks now produce Battleoids. +10 combat rating (to armored units)
                               Take 3 hits to destroy (3 Hit Points) You automatically get Armor Barracks (1.5.b)

T.1.9 Advanced Manufacturing (1500 RP / 5130 total)
 a) Recyclotron           Bld  +1 prod. per pop. unit, no incr. pollution Costs 200 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.
 b) Automated Repair Unit Sys  Takes per turn 20% of ship's armor and struct damage and restores them, struct first.
                               Repairs 10% internal system damage each turn. Completely repairs ship after battle.
 c) Artif. Planet Constr. Spc  Colony can transform a Gas Giant (Asteroids) in the same system into a new Barren Norm-G
                               Abundant huge (large) planet.

T.1.10 Advanced Robotics (2000 RP / 7130 total)
 a) Robotic Factory       Bld  +5/8/10/15/20 production on U.Poor/Poor/Abundant/Rich/U.Rich worlds.
                               Costs 200 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.
 b) Bomber Bays           Sys  4 Bombers with: Speed 4 + 2x drive level, Struct 4 (multiplied with best armor level),
                               best computer and 1 of best bomb. Can target planets and ships. 
                               Fly to target, drop bomb on weakest shield, return to carrier, await new orders.

T.1.11 Tectonic Engineering (3500 RP / 10.630 total)
 a) Deep Core Mine        Bld  +15 production at planet, +3 prod. per worker
                               Costs 250 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.
 b) Core Waste Dumps      Bld  Eliminates pollution on planet completely. Costs 200 PP to build and 8 BC to maintain.

T.1.12 Superscalar Construction (6000 RP / 16.630 total)
 a) Star Fortress         Sat  +3 command points, +6 scanner range at system  +20% attack for frndly ships defending planet
                               Repairs damaged ships in system automatically Costs 2500 PP to build and 4 BC to maintain.
                               Replaces Battlestation (1.6.b)
 b) Adv. City Planning    Ach  +5 max.population for every planet
 c) Heavy Fighters        Sys  4 Hvy Fightrs with: Speed 4 + 2x drive level, Struct 5 (multiplied with best armor level),
                               best computer, 2 bombs, 2 of best PD weapon. Can target planets and ships.
                               Fly to target, drop 1st bomb, fire 2 beams, hover around, drop 2nd bomb, fire beams
                               again, return to carrier, await new orders. (ttack weakest shield always.)

T.1.13 Planetoid Construction (7500 RP / 24.130 total)
 a) Doom Star Construct.  Shp  Construction of Doom Star ship class possible
 b) Artemis System Net    Sat  Protect system with mine field Mines hit small/medium/large/huge/titan/dstar
                               ships with 20/30/40/50/80/100% Hit delivers 150-550 damage to armor, then
                               internal systems, not absorbed by shields. (100-500 points less shields?)
                               Costs 1000 PP to build and 5 BC to maintain.

T.1.14 Hyper-Advanced Engineering (15000 RP + 10000 * Level)

T.2 Power
This category covers mainly engines, torpedoes and bombs.

T.2.1 Nuclear Fission (General) (50 RP)
 a) Nuclear Drive         Shp  Moves ships at 2 parsecs/turn
 b) Nuclear Bomb          Sys  3-12 points bomb damage

T.2.2 Cold Fusion (General) (Avg) (80 RP / 130 total)
 a) Colony Ship           Shp  Colonize planet in new system.
 b) Freighters            Shp  Transport 5 food or 1 population per 5 fr.
 c) Outpost Ship          Shp  Build Outpost on Gas Giant / Asteroid.
 d) Transport             Shp  Includes 4 Marines for ground combat.

T.2.3 Advanced Fusion (Adv) (250 RP / 380 total)
 a) Fusion Drive          Shp  Moves ships at 3 parsecs/turn
 b) Fusion Bomb           Sys  4-24 points bomb damage
 c) Augmented Engines     Sys  +5 combat speed

T.2.4 Ion Fission (900 RP / 1280 total)
 a) Ion Drive             Shp  Moves ships at 4 parsecs/turn
 b) Ion Pulse Cannon      Sys  2-14 beam damage on shields, then systems
                                (passes armor), no effect on monst/Antarans.
                               Mods: AF, CO, HV
 c) Shield Capacitor      Sys  Triples shield recharge rate
                               (SRR +70% of strongest shield?)

T.2.5 Anti-Matter Fission (2000 RP / 3280 total)
 a) Anti-Matter Drive     Shp  Moves ships at 5 parsecs/turn
 b) Anti-Matter Torpedo   Sys  25 damage, speed 20, fires every 2 turns.
                               Mods: ECCM, ENV, OVR
 c) Anti-Matter Bomb      Sys  5-40 points bomb damage

T.2.6 Matter-Energy Conversion (2750 RP / 6030 total)
 a) Transporters          Sys  Transport Marines on enemy ship from 12
                                squares away if the shield facing the
                                attacker is down.
                               Drop bombs on planet from 12 squares away.
 b) Food Replicators      Bld  Convert 2 production into 1 food as needed.
                               Costs 200 PP to build and 10 BC to maintain.

T.2.7 High Energy Distribution (3500 RP / 9530 total)
 a) High Energy Focus     Sys  +50% beam weapon damage.
 b) Energy Absorber       Sys  Absorbs 1/4 of potential damage to ship and
                                can throw this energy on an enemy ship next
                                turn (always hits)
 c) Megafluxers           Ach  +25% space on each ship

T.2.8 Hyper-Dimensional Fission (4500 RP / 14.030 total)
 a) Proton Torpedo        Sys  40 damage, range 24, fires every 2 turns.
                               Hit the turn they are fired.
                               Mods: ECCM, ENV, OVR
 b) Hyper Drive           Shp  Moves ships at 6 parsecs/turn.
 c) Hyper-X Capacitors    Sys  Fires beams 2 times in one turn. Require
                                1 turn without firing beams to recharge.

T.2.9 Interphased Fission (10000 RP / 24.030 total)
 a) Interphased Drive     Shp  Moves ships at 7 parsecs/turn
 b) Plasma Torpedo        Sys  Speed 24, fires every 2 turns.
                               Damage 120, -5 per square of distance.
                               Mods: ECCM, ENV, NR, OVR
 c) Neutronium Bomb       Sys  10-60 points bomb damage

T.2.10 Hyper-Advanced Power (15000 RP + 10000 * Level)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

T.3 Chemistry
This category covers Armor, Fuel cells, Missiles and Pollution Reduction.

T.3.1 Chemistry (General) (Avg) (50 RP)
 a) Nuclear Missile       Sys  Damage 8, Struct 4, Speed 8 + 2x drive level
                               Mods: ARM, ECCM, EMG, FST, MV
 b) Standard Fuel Cells   Shp  Increases all ships' range to 4 parsecs.
 c) Extended Fuel Tanks   Sys  Increases equipped ship's range by 50%.
 d) Titanium Armor        Shp  +5 troop combat rating, standard armor.

T.3.2 Advanced Metallurgy (250 RP / 300 total)
 a) Deuterium Fuel Cells  Shp  Increases all ships' range to 6 parsecs.
 b) Tritanium Armor       Shp  +10 troop combat rating, 2 x armor and
                                structure on ships, fighters, buildings.
                               Replaces Titanium (3.1.d)

T.3.3 Advanced Chemistry (Adv) (650 RP / 950 total)
 a) Merculite Missile     Sys  Damage 14, Struct 6, Speed 8 + 2x drive level
                               Mods: ARM, ECCM, EMG, FST, MV
 b) Pollution Processor   Bld  Production divided by 2 before calculating
                                pollution (by 8 together with Atmo Renewer).
                               Costs 80 PP to build and 1 BC to maintain.

T.3.4 Molecular Compression (1150 RP / 2100 total)
 a) Pulson Missile        Sys  Damage 20, Struct 8, Speed 8 + 2x drive level
                               Mods: ARM, ECCM, EMG, FST, MV
 b) Atmospheric Renewer   Bld  Production divided by 4 before calculating
                                pollution (by 8 together with Poll.Proc.).
                               Costs 150 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.
 c) Iridium Fuel Cells    Shp  Increases all ships' range to 9 parsecs.

T.3.5 Nano Technology (2000 RP / 4100 total)
 a) Nano Disassemblers    Ach  Doubles all planet's pollution tolerance.
 b) Microlite Construct.  Ach  +1 production per worker
 c) Zortrium Armor        Shp  +15 troop combat rating, 4 x armor and
                                structure on ships, fighters, buildings.
                               Replaces Tritanium (3.2.b)

T.3.6 Molecular Manipulation (4500 RP / 8600 total)
 a) Zeon Missile          Sys  Damage 30, Struct 10, Speed 8 + 2x drive levl
                               Mods: ARM, ECCM, EMG, FST, MV
 b) Neutronium Armor      Shp  +20 troop combat rating, 6 x armor and
                                structure on ships, fighters, buildings.
                               Replaces Zortrium (3.5.c)
 c) Uridium Fuel Cells    Shp  Increases all ships' range to 12 parsecs.

T.3.7 Molecular Control (10000 RP / 18.600 total)
 a) Thorium Fuel Cells    Shp  Unlimited ship range.
 b) Adamantium Armor      Shp  +25 troop combat rating, 8 x armor and
                                structure on ships, fighters, buildings.
                               Replaces Neutronium (3.6.b)

T.3.8 Hyper-Advanced Chemistry (15000 RP + 10000 * Level)

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T.4 Sociology
This category covers different fields, icluding money production
enhancement.

T.4.1 Military Tactics (150 RP)
 a) Space Academy         Bld  +1 starting experience level for crews of
                                ships built on this planet.
                               +1 experience point per turn (and per Academy
                                in system) for crews of ships in system.
                               Costs 200 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.

T.4.2 Xeno Relations (Adv) (650 RP / 800 total)
 a) Xeno Psychology       Ach  +30 diplomatic points, helps negotiating.
 b) Alien Control Center  Bld  Assimilate at 2 turns/unit, any government.
                               Removes 20% morale penalty of multi-racial
                                colonies.
                               Halves unrest of assimilated population.
                               Costs 60 PP to build and 1 BC to maintain.

T.4.3 Macro Economics (1150 RP / 1950 total)
 a) Plan. Stock-Exchange  Bld  +100% money on planet
                               Costs 150 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.

T.4.4 Teaching Methods (2000 RP / 3950 total)
 a) Astro University      Bld  +1 food per farmer, +1 production per worker,
                               +1 research per scientist.
                               Costs 200 PP to build and 4 BC to maintain.

T.4.5 Advanced Government (4500 RP / 8450 total)
 a) Confederation         Ach  No automatic assimilation if conquered.
                               Assimilate at 4 turns/unit (was 8.)
                               Ship building costs 1/3 of normal (was 2/3).
 b) Imperium              Ach  +50% command rating (was 0).
                               Assimilate at 4 turns/unit (was 8).
                               +15 defensive spy rating (was 10).
                               -20% morale penalty still applies (barracks)
                                but also new +20% morale bonus (bug?)
 c) Federation            Ach  +75% research and money (was 50%).
                               Assimilate at 2 turns/unit (was 4)
 d) Galactic Unification  Ach  +100% food and industry (was 50%).
                               Assimilate at 15 turns/unit (was 20).
                               Own population morale can never be modified.

T.4.6 Galactic Economics (6000 RP / 14.450 total)
 a) Gal. Currency Exch.   Ach  +50% money on all planets

T.4.7 Hyper-Advanced Sociology (15000 RP + 10000 * Level)

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T.5 Computers
This category covers targeting computers, research enhancement, morale
enhancement, spying enhancement, androids and some ship systems.

T.5.1 Electronics (General) (Avg) (50 RP)
 a) Electronic Computer   Shp  +25% beam attack to hit chance (BOCV)

T.5.2 Optronics (150 RP / 200 total)
 a) Research Laboratory   Bld  +5 research on planet, +1 res. per scientist
                               Costs 60 PP to build and 1 BC to maintain.
 b) Optronic Computer     Shp  +50% beam attack hit chance (BOCV)
                               Replaces Electronic Computer (5.1.a)
 c) Dauntless Guidance S. Ach  If target of missile/torpedo is destroyed or
                                phase-cloaked, weapon targets nearest enemy.

T.5.3 Artificial Intelligence (Adv) (400 RP / 600 total)
 a) Neural Scanner        Ach  +10 to offensive and defensive spy rating.
 b) Scout Lab             Sys  +1/2/4/8/16/32 research when installed on
                                small/medium/large/huge/titan/doomstar ship.
                               +10/20/30/40/50/60% beam attack for all ships
                                in same fleet against monsters/Antarans.
                                (in fact always +20% bonus which does not
                                 apply when attacking Antares - bug?)
 c) Security Stations     Sys  +20 troop combat for marines defending ship.

T.5.4 Positronics (900 RP / 1500 total)
 a) Positronic Computer   Shp  +75% beam attack hit chance (BOCV)
                               Replaces Optronic Computer (5.2.b)
 b) Plan. Supercomputer   Bld  +10 research on planet, +2 res. per scientist
                               Costs 150 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.
 c) Holo Simulator        Bld  +20% morale on planet
                               Costs 120 PP to build and 1 BC to maintain.

T.5.5 Artificial Consciousness (1500 RP / 3000 total)
 a) Emissions Guidance S. Ach  EMG Modification becomes available: missiles
                                damage first the shield, then engines only.
 b) Rangemaster Target U. Sys  Range accuracy as if distance was only 1/3.
                               Damage still reduced by range.
 c) Cyber Security Link   Ach  +10 to offensive and defensive spy rolls.

T.5.6 Cybertronics (2750 RP / 5750 total)
 a) Cybertronic Computer  Shp  +100% beam attack hit chance (BOCV)
                               Replaces Positronic Computer (5.4.a)
 b) Autolab               Bld  +30 research on planet
                               Costs 200 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.
 c) Structural Analyzer   Sys  2x damage for beams that penetrate shields.

T.5.7 Cybertechnics (3500 RP / 9250 total)
 a) Android Farmers       And  Generate food as farmer +3 for 1 prod. unit.
                               Environmentally tolerant. Need 1 pop. space.
                               No racial bonus, income, tax, morale effects.
 b) Android Workers       And  Generate production as worker +3 for 1 prod.
                               Environmentally tolerant. Need 1 pop. space.
                               No racial bonus, income, tax, morale effects.
 c) Android Scientists    And  Generate research as scientist +3 for 1 prod.
                               Environmentally tolerant. Need 1 pop. space.
                               No racial bonus, income, tax, morale effects.

T.5.8 Galactic Networking (4500 RP / 13.750 total)
 a) Virtual Reality Netwk Ach  +20% morale on all planets
 b) Galactic Cybernet     Bld  +15 research on planet, +3 res. per scientist
                               Costs 250 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.

T.5.9 Moleculartronics (6000 RP / 17.750 total)
 a) Pleasure Dome         Bld  +30% morale on planet
                               Costs 250 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.
 b) Moleculartr. Computer Shp  +125% beam attack hit chance (BOCV)
                               Replaces Cybetronic Computer (5.6.a)
 c) Achilles Targeting U. Sys  All weapons ignore armor. Triples chance of
                                any weapon hit that passes shields to strike
                                weapon or shield systems

T.5.10 Hyper-Advanced Computers (15000 RP + 10000 * Level)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

T.6 Biology
This category covers mainly Food production enhancement, Population growth
enhancement, Terraforming, Bio Weapons and Antidotes

T.6.1 Astro Biology (80 RP)
 a) Hydroponic Farm       Bld  +2 food on planet
                               Costs 60 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.
 b) Biospheres            Bld  +2 maximum population
                               Costs 60 PP to build and 1 BC to maintain.

T.6.2 Advanced Biology (Adv) (400 RP / 480 total)
 a) Cloning Center        Bld  +100.000 population growth until maximum.
                               Costs 100 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.
 b) Soil Enrichment       Spc  +1 food/farmer if not on barr/tox/rad planet.
 c) Death Spores          Sys  10% chance to kill pop unit. Harms diplomacy.

T.6.3 Genetic Engineering (900 RP / 1380 total)
 a) Telepathic Training   Ach  +5 to all spies
 b) Microbiotics          Ach  +25% pop. growth. Halves bio weapon effects.
                               Replaced by Universal Antidote (6.7.b)

T.6.4 Genetic Mutations (1150 RP / 2530 total)
 a) Terraforming          Spc  Terraforms Barren->Desert->Arid->Terran,
                               Barren->Tundra->Swamp->Terran, Ocean->Terran.

T.6.5 Macro Genetics (1500 RP / 4030 total)
 a) Subterranean Farms    Bld  +4 food on planet
                               Costs 150 PP to build and 4 BC to maintain.
 b) Weather Controller    Bld  +2 food per farmer
                               Costs 200 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.

T.6.6 Evolutionary Genetics (2750 RP / 6780 total)
 a) Psionics              Ach  +10 to offensive and defensive spies.
                               +10% morale on all planets if Feu/Dic/Con/Imp
 b) Height. Intelligence  Ach  +1 research per scientist

T.6.7 Artificial Life (4500 RP / 11.280 total)
 a) Bio Terminator        Sys  20% chance to kill pop unit. Harms diplomacy.
 b) Universal Antidote    Ach  +50% pop. growth. Quarters bioweapon effects.
                               Replaces Microbiotics (6.3.b)

T.6.8 Trans Genetics (7500 RP / 18.780 total)
 a) Biomorphic Fungi      Ach  +1 food/farmer, Farming on all planets poss.
 b) Gaia Transformation   Spc  Terraforms Terran to Gaia
 c) Evolutionary Mutation Ach  +4 picks of racial specials

T.6.9 Hyper-Advanced Biology (15000 RP + 10000 * Level)

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T.7 Physics
This category covers mainly Scanners, Beam Weapons, Rifles and Fleet
Communications.

T.7.1 Physics (General) (Avg) (50 RP)
 a) Laser Cannon          Sys  1-4 beam damage, Mods: AF, AP, CO, HV, NR, PD
 b) Laser Rifle           Eqp  +5 troop combat rating
 c) Space Scanner         Ach  Detect ships at 1 + size class (2-7) parsecs.

T.7.2 Fusion Physics (150 RP / 200 total)
 a) Fusion Beam           Sys  2-6 beam damage, Mods: ENV, CO, HV, PD
 b) Fusion Rifle          Eqp  +10 troop combat. Replcs Laser Rifle (7.1.b)

T.7.3 Tachyon Physics (Adv) (250 RP / 450 total)
 a) Tachyon Communic.     Ach  +1 command per orbital base. Issue orders to
                                ships within 3 parsecs of base or Doom Star.
 b) Tachyon Scanner       Ach  Detect ships at 3 + size class (4-9) parsecs.
                               -20 to target's missile evasion.
 c) Battle Scanner        Sys  +50% beam attack to hit chance (BOCV),
                               +2 parsecs scanner range on galaxy map.

T.7.4 Neutrino Physics (900 RP / 1350 total)
 a) Neutron Blaster       Sys  3-12 beam damage. Mods: CO, HV
                               Kills 1 Marine per 5 points internal damage.
 b) Neutron Scanner       Ach  Detect ships at 5 + size class (6-11) parsecs
                               -40 to target's missile evasion.

T.7.5 Artificial Gravity (1150 RP / 2500 total)
 a) Tractor Beam          Sys  Slow or hold single ship prop. to size class.
                               No. of beams to hold ship equals size class.
                               Slowed ships' speed-related defensive bonuses
                                are lessened. An immobile ship is attacked
                                with +20 beam hit chance and can be boarded.
 b) Graviton Beam         Sys  3-15 beam damage. Mods: CO, HV
                               Additional 50% of damage that passes armor is
                                applied directly to structure.
 c) Pl. Gravity Generator Bld  Removes 25%(50%) penalty to food, production
                                and research on Low(High)-Gravity planets.
                               Costs 120 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.

T.7.6 Subspace Physics (1500 RP / 4000 total)
 a) Subspace Communic.    Ach  +2 command per orbital base. Issue orders to
                                ships within 6 parsecs of base or Doom Star.
                               Replaces Tachyon Communications (7.3.a)
 b) Jump Gate             Ach  Increases speed of ships travelling between
                                two own colonies by +3 parsecs per turn.

T.7.7 Multi-Phased Physics (2000 RP / 6000 total)
 a) Phasor                Sys  5-20 beam damage. Mods: AF, CO, HV, PD, SP
 b) Phasor Rifle          Eqp  +20 troop combat. Replcs Fusion Rifle (7.2.b)
 c) Multi-Phased Shields  Sys  Maximum damage absorbed by shields is +50%.

T.7.8 Plasma Physics (3500 RP / 9500 total)
 a) Plasma Cannon         Sys  6-30 beam damage, enveloping. Mods: CO, HV
                               Double range damage penalty.
 b) Plasma Rifle          Eqp  +30 troop combat. Replcs Phasor Rifle (7.7.b)
 c) Plasma Web            Sys  Range 15, fires every 2 turns. Does 5-25
                                enveloping damage, next turn 5 less until 0.
                               Multiple webs act as one with accum. strength

T.7.9 Multi-Dimensiomal Physics (4500 RP / 14.000 total)
 a) Disruptor Cannon      Sys  40 beam damage. Mods: AF, HV.
                               No range damage penalty.
 b) Dimensional Portal    Sat  Necessary to visit Antares.
                               Costs 500 PP to build and 2 BC to maintain.

T.7.10 Hyper-Dimensional Physics (6000 RP / 20.000 total)
 a) Hyperspace Communic.  Ach  +3 command per orbital base. Issue orders to
                                all your ships. Replcs Subspace Com. (7.6.a)
 b) Sensors               Ach  Detect ships at 8 + size class (9-15) parsecs
                               -70 to target's missile evasion.
 c) Mauler Device         Sys  100 beam damage, always hits. Mods: HV
                               Double range damage penalty.

T.7.11 Temporal Physics (15000 RP / 35.000 total)
 a) Time Warp Facilitator Sys  Ship gets 2 combat turns instead of 1.
 b) Stellar Converter     B/S  400 beam damage, enveloping.
                               No range damage penalty. Always hits.
                               Destroys planets outside combat.
                               Planetary version costs 1000 PP to build
                                and 6 BC to maintain.
 c) Star Gate             Ach  Travel between two systems with own colonies
                                takes only 1 turn.

T.7.12 Hyper-Advanced Physics (15000 RP + 10000 * Level)

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T.8. Force Fields
This category covers mainly Ship and Planetary Shields, ECM Jammer, Suits,
Inertial Stabilizer, other defensive ship fields and some weapons.

T.8.1 Avanced Magnetism (250 RP)
 a) Class I Shield        Shp  Absorb (5 x size) damage before failing.
                               -1 enemy attack strength even when failed.
 b) Mass Driver           Sys  6 beam damage. Mods: AF, AP, HV, PD
                               No range damage penalty.
 c) ECM Jammer            Sys  +70% missile evasion

T.8.2 Gravitic Fields (Adv) (650 RP / 900 total)
 a) Anti-Grav Harness     Eqp  +10 troop combat rating
 b) Inertial Stabilizer   Sys  +50 beam defense. 1/2 move cost for turning.
 c) Gyro Destabilizer     Sys  (3-7 x size) structural damage. Range 15.
                               Passes shield and armor.

T.8.3 Magneto Gravitics (900 RP / 1800 total)
 a) Class III Shield      Shp  Absorb (15 x size) damage before failing.
                               -3 enemy attack strength even when failed.
 b) Pl. Radiation Shield  Bld  -5 bomb damage. Makes Radiated worlds Barren.
                               Costs 80 PP to build and 1 BC to maintain.
 c) Warp Dissipator       Sys  Enemy cannot leave combat when WD active.

T.8.4 Electromagnetic Refraction (1500 RP / 3300 total)
 a) Stealth Field         Sys  Ships invisible on Galaxy Map
 b) Personal Shield       Eqp  +20 troop combat rating
 c) Stealth Suit          Ach  +10 to offensive and defensive spy rolls.

T.8.5 Warp Fields (2000 RP / 5300 total)
 a) Pulsar                Sys  (2-24 x size) damage to all ships/missiles/
                                fighters in 6 square radius. (Fighters and
                                Projectiles are size 1/2.)
 b) Warp Field Interdictr Bld  Slows all enemy ships to 1 parsec per turn.
                               2 Parsecs radius.
                               Costs 300 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.
 c) Lightning Field       Sys  50% chance of destroying any fighter/missile/
                                torpedo trying to hit the ship.

T.8.6 Subspace Fields (2750 RP / 8050 total)
 a) Class V Shield        Shp  Absorb (25 x size) damage before failing.
                               -5 enemy attack strength even when failed.
 b) Multi-Wave ECM Jammer Sys  +100% missile evasion
 c) Gauss Cannon          Sys  18 points beam damage. Mods: AF, AP, HV
                               No range damage penalty.

T.8.7 Distortion Fields (3500 RP / 11.550 total)
 a) Cloaking Device       Sys  Hides ship from scanners. +80 beam defense.
                               50% chance that missiles miss (indepedent
                                from miss.evasion). Uncloaks while attacking
                               Recloaks after 1 turn without firing.
 b) Stasis Field          Sys  Range 3. Holds 1 enemy ship in stasis. Enemy
                                is effectively removed from battle until
                                generator is switched off or destroyed.
                               Combat cannot end when ships are in stasis.
 c) Hard Shields          Sys  -3 damage from any attack. Immune to SP.
                               Enemy cannot get Marines aboard with transp.
                               Shields work in nebulae.
                               Effects hold even when shields have failed
                                until generator is destroyed.

T.8.8 Quantum Fields (4500 RP / 16.050 total)
 a) Class VII Shield      Shp  Absorb (35 x size) damage before failing.
                               -7 enemy attack strength even when failed.
 b) Planetary Flux Shield Bld  -10 bomb damage. Makes Radiated worlds Barren
                               Replaces Planetary Radiation Shield (8.3.b)
                               Costs 200 PP to build and 3 BC to maintain.
 c) Wide Area Jammer      Sys  +130% missile evasion; +70% for all other
                                ships in fleet (only best bonus applies).
                                (actually the +70% fleet bonus IS cumulative
                                 with the boni from the ships' own jammers.
                                 This is probably a bug?)

T.8.9 Transwarp Fields (7500 RP / 23.550 total)
 a) Displacement Device   Sys  30% chance that any weapon misses completely.
 b) Subspace Teleporter   Sys  Ship can jump 20 squares with no movemnt cost
 c) Inertial Nullifier    Sys  +100 beam defense. No move cost for turning.

T.8.10 Temporal Fields (15000 RP / 38.550 total)
 a) Class X Shield        Shp  Absorb (50 x size) damage before failing.
                               -10 enemy attack strength even when failed.
 b) Plan. Barrier Shield  Bld  -20 bomb damage. Makes Radiated worlds Barren
                               Troops or Bio Weapons cannot enter planet.
                               Replaces Planetary Flux Shield (8.8.b)
                               Costs 500 PP to build and 5 BC to maintain.
 c) Phasing Cloak         Sys  Ship cannot be detected or attacked for 10
                                combat turns. Then works like cloak (8.7.a)

T.8.11 Hyper-Advanced Fields (15000 RP + 10000 * Level)

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T.9. Unresearchable Technology

T.9.1 Starting Technology
T.9.1.1 Capitol           Bld  Loss of Capitol results in moral penalty
                                until new Capitol built.
T.9.1.2 Pulse Rifle       Eqp  +0 troop combat rating (standard weapon)
T.9.1.3 Spy Network       Ach  Enables you to train spies.

T.9.2 Orion / Antaran Technology
T.9.2.1 Death Ray         Sys  50-100 beam damage. Mods: CO, HV
                               Kills 1 Marine per 5 points internal damage.
                               Guaranteed if you kill the Guardian.
T.9.2.2 Reflection Field  Sys  Reflects beam weapons back to attacker at a
                                chance of: 10 / (10 + weapon attack damage)
                               Equipped on Antaran Titans and Battleships.
T.9.2.3 Damper Field      Sys  Quarters the damage a ship takes.
                               Not compatible with shields.
                               50% chance of killing Marines trying to
                                transport to ship.
                               Equipped on all Antaran ships.
T.9.2.4 Quantum Detonatr  Sys  50% chance of self-destruct when captured.
                               Triples destructive power of ship's explosion
                               Equipped on all Antaran ships.
T.9.2.5 Particle Beam     Sys  10-30 beam damage, naturally shield-piercing
                               Mods: CO, HV, PD
                               Equipped on all Antaran ships.
T.9.2.6 Spatial Compr.    Sys  (4-32 x size) struct damage to everything in
                                2 square radius
                               Equipped on Antaran Cruisers (Intruders).
T.9.2.7 Xentronium Armor  Shp  +30 troop combat rating, 10 x armor and
                                structure on ships, fighters, buildings.
                               Negates Armor Piercing (not ag. Achilles T.U)
                               Replaces Adamantium (3.7.b)
                               Equipped on all Antaran ships.
T.9.2.8 Black Hole Gen.   Sys  Target Ship cannot move and is destroyed in
                                2 turns if generator or equipped ship cannot
                                be destroyed.
                               Equipped on Antaran Harbingers.
T.9.2.9 Phase Shifter     Sys  Teleport equipped ship or other ship 18 sqrs.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.1.3 Planetary Building List

The following list shows all structures that can be built on planets. The
list is ordered by the effects of those structures. If possible, these occur
in the same order as on the Colony Screen. The columns mean:

 PP      - Production Points necessary to build this structure
 BC      - BC's to pay for maintenance each turn
 Effects - effects of the structure once it is built
 Tech    - Technology you have to research to be able to build this
            structure. Numbers refer to those in the Tech List (3.1.2).
 RP      - research points necessary to research that technology
 Total   - total (accumulated) RP necessary to research that technology

  Money:          PP BC  Effects:                          Tech    RP  Total
Space Port        80  1  +50% money on planet              1.5.a   400   930
Stock Exchange   150  2  +100% money on planet             4.3.a  1150  1950
Trade Goods        /  /  production turns into money (2:1)   0       0     0

  Food, Production and Research:
Gravity Generat  120  2  remove -25%/-50% Gravity penalty  7.5.c  1150  2500
Astro Univers.   200  4  +1 food/farm, prod/work, res/sci  4.4.a  2000  3950

  Food:
Hydroponic Farm   60  2  +2 food on planet                 6.1.a    80    80
Subterr. Farms   150  4  +4 food on planet                 6.5.a  1500  4030
Soil Enrichment  120  /  +1 food/farmr if not Bar/Tox/Rad  6.2.b   400   480
Weather Cont.    200  3  +2 food per farmer                6.5.b  1500  4030
Food Replicator  200 10  convert 2 prod. into 1 food       2.6.b  2750  6030
Android Farmer    50*1p  generates food as farmer +3       5.7.a  3500  9250

  Production:
Automated Fact.   60  1  +1 prod/worker, +5 on planet      1.3.a   150   280
Robo Mine Plant  150  2  +2 prod/worker, +10 on planet     1.6.a   650  1580
Deep Core Mine   250  3  +3 prod/worker, +15 on planet     1.11a  3500 10630
Recyclotron      200  3  +1 prod/pop., no incr. pollution  1.9.a  1500  5130
Android Worker    50*1p  generates prod. as worker +3      5.7.b  3500  9250
Robotic Factory  200  3  +5/8/10/15/20 prod. (Poor-Rich)   1.10a  2000  7130

  Pollution:
Pollution Proc.   80  1  no pollution for 1/2 of product.  3.3.b   650   950
Atmospher. Ren.  150  3  no pollution for 1/4 of product.  3.4.b  1150  2100
Core Waste Dump  200  8  eliminates pollution completely   1.11b  3500 10630

  Research:
Research Lab      60  1  +1 research/scient, +5 on planet  5.2.a   150   200
Supercomputer    150  2  +2 res./scientist, +10 on planet  5.4.b   900  1500
Galac. Cybernet  250  3  +3 res./scientist, +15 on planet  5.8.b  4500 13750
Android Scient.   50*1p  generates res. as scientist +3    5.7.c  3500  9250
Autolab          200  3  +30 research on planet            5.6.b  2750  5750

  Morale:
Holo Simulator   120  1  +20% morale on planet             5.4.c   900  1500
Pleasure Dome    250  3  +30% morale on planet             5.9.a  6000 17750
Capitol          200  /  loss of capitol = morale penalty    0       0     0

  Morale and Assimilation:
Alien Con. Cent   60  1  assim. 2 turns/pop., less unrest  4.2.b   650   800

  Morale and Ground Combat Defense:
Marine Barracks   60  1  remove morale penalty; Marines    1.1.*    50    50
Armor Barracks   150  2  remove morale penalty; Marines    1.5.b   400   930
                                           or (Battleoids) 1.8.c  1150  3630
  Population Growth:
Cloning Center   100  2  +100.000 pop. per turn until max  6.2.a   400   480
Housing            /  /  how does housing affect growth?     0       0     0

  Max. Population:
Biospheres        60  1  +2 maximum population on planet   6.1.b    80    80
Terraforming     250* /  improves planetary environment    6.4.a  1150  2530
Gaia Transform.  500  /  forms Terran planets into Gaias   6.8.b  7500 18780

  Shields (defense, also terraform):
Radiation Shld    80  1  -5 damage; terraforms Rad->Barren 8.3.b   900  1800
Flux Shield      200  3  -10 damage; forms Radiat.->Barren 8.8.b  4500 16050
Barrier Shield   500  5  -20 damage, forms Radiat.->Barren 8.10b 15000 38550
                          Troops/Bioweapons cannot enter
  Defense Systems:
Missile Base     120  2  300 space for best missiles       1.3.b   150   280
Fighter Garrisn  150  2  40 Intcpt. or 24 Bomb. or 16 Hvy. 1.5.c   400   930
Gound Batteries  200  2  300 space for best HV / PD beams  1.8.b  1150  3630
Stellar Convert 1000  6  defends planet                    7.11b 15000 35000
Artemis Sys.Net 1000  5  protects system with mine field   1.13b  7500 24130
Warp Interdict.  300  3  Slows enemy to 1 parsec/turn      8.5.b  2000  5300

  Star Bases:
Star Base        400  2  +1 command, defends planet        1.1.*    50    50
Battle Station  1000  3  +2 command; +10% attack; defends. 1.6.b   650  1580
Star Fortress   2500  4  +3 command; +20% attack; defends. 1.12a  6000 16630

  Crew Training:
Space Academy    200  2  new ships +1 lvl, all +1 exp/turn 4.1.a   150   150

  Colonization:
Artif. Planet    800  /  create planet from Giant/Asteroid 1.9.b  1500  5130
Colony Base      200  5* colonize another planet in system 1.1.*    50    50
Colony Ship      500  /  colonize planet in new system     2.2.*    80   130
Outpost Ship     100  /  build Outpost on Giant/Asteroid   2.2.*    80   130

  Other:
Freighter Flt     50  /  transport food or population      2.2.*    80   130
Transport        100  /  incl. 4 Marines for ground combat 2.2.*    80   130
Dim. Portal      500  2  necessary to visit Antares        7.9.b  4500 14000
Spy              100  1  trains one spy                      0       0     0

* Androids may be built repeatedly (as long as the planet can support more
    population) and cost 1 production unit each.
  Terraforming costs 250 PP the first time you use it, 500 PP the second
    time you use it on the same planet and 750 PP the third time. You may
    use it until the planet becomes Terran.
  The Maintenance Cost of 5 for the Colony Base is probably a bug. Since
    Colony bases expire if you do not use them at once, they do not need any
    maintenance?
  A star in the Tech Number (e.g. 2.2.*) means that this is a general field,
    so you do not have to choose between the technologies.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.1.4 Ship Systems

3.1.4.1 Ship System List

This list contains all wepons and ship systems, ordered by effect. The
Columns mean:

 Effects  - the effects of that system
 Siz/Cst  - Two pairs of values. The former shows size and production cost
             of the unminiaturized system (when it has ben just researched),
             the latter shows size and production cost of the system with
             maximal miniaturization (usually systems can miniaturize six
             times). See the explanation of sizes and costs in section
             3.1.4.2 for further explanation.
 Tech     - Technology you have to research to be able to build this
             structure. Numbers refer to those in the Tech List (3.1.2).
 RP       - research points necessary to research that technology
 Total    - total (accumulated) RP necessary to research that technology

  Computers:     Effect:                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
Electr. Comput.  25% BOCV                  (see 3.1.4.2.5) 5.1.*    50    50
Optronic Comp.   50% BOCV                  (see 3.1.4.2.5) 5.2.b   150   200
Positronic C.    75% BOCV                  (see 3.1.4.2.5) 5.4.a   900  1500
Cybertronic C.   100% BOCV                 (see 3.1.4.2.5) 5.6.a  2750  5750
Moleculartr.C.   125% BOCV                 (see 3.1.4.2.5) 5.9.b  6000 17750

  Beam Weapons:
Weapon:         Damage I 3ACEHPRS Spc      Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
Laser Cannon     1-4     3ac hpr            10*5     3*1   7.1.*    50    50
Fusion Beam      2-6       cehp             10*6     3*1   7.2.a   150   200
Mass Driver        6   * 3a  hpR            10*7     3*1   8.1.b   250   250
Ion Pulse Cann   2-14  * 3Ac h    sys       20*15    5*3   2.4.b   900  1280
Neutron Blastr   3-12      c h    kil       10*8     3*2   7.4.a   900  1350
Graviton Beam    3-15      c h    +st       15*12    4*3   7.5.b  1150  2000
Phasor           5-20    3 c hp s           10*10    3*2   7.7.a  2000  6000
Gauss Cannon      18   * 3a  h R            10*10    3*2   8.6.c  2750  8050
Plasma Cannon    6-30  *   cEh    drd       10*15    3*3   7.8.a  3500  9500
Disruptor Can     40   * 3   h R            20*25    5*6   7.9.a  4500 14000
Mauler Device    100         h    a+d       50*75   30*18  7.10c  6000 20000
Particle Beam   10-30      c hp S           15*35   15*35  9.2.5 Orion Orion
Death Ray       50-100     c h    kil       30*75   30*75  9.2.1 Orion Orion
Stellar Conv.    400   *    E  R  alw      500*500 200*125 7.11b 15000 35000
(legend: see section 3.2.17)

  Beam Support:
Battle Scanner   +50% BOCV                 250%100 100%25  7.3.c   250   450
Scout Lab        +20% BOCV ag. monsters    300%150 120%35  5.3.b   400   600
Rangemaster TU   BOCV range penalty calc.  200%200  80%50  5.5.b  1500  3000
                  as if range was only 1/3
High En. Focus   +50% beam damage          200%200  80%50  2.7.a  3500  9530
Struct.Analyz.   2x dmg if shlds penetr    150%200  60%50  5.6.c  2750  5750
Hyper-X Capac.   2 shots with 1 turn wait  200%200  80%50  2.8.c  4500 14030
Achilles T.U.    All weap. ignore Armor    200%300  80%75  5.9.c  6000 17750
                 If shield penetrated 2x chance to hit weapons or shields

  Missiles:     Damage: Struct:
Nuclear Miss.     8      4                  20*20    5*5   3.1.*    50    50
Merculite Miss   14      6                  20*20    5*5   3.3.a   650   950
Pulson Missile   20      8                  20*20    5*5   3.4.a  1150  2100
Zeon Missile     30     10                  20*20    5*5   3.6.a  4500  8600
Fast Miss.Rack   2 shots with 1 turn wait  200%200  80%50  1.7.a   900  2480

  Torpedoes:
Anti-Matter T.   Damage 25, Speed 20        30*15   12*3   2.5.b  2000  3280
Proton Torpedo   Damage 40, Range 24        30*20   12*5   2.8.a  4500 14030
Plasma Torpedo   Dmg 120 -5/sq, Spd 24      40*75   16*18  2.9.b 10000 24030

  Fighters:
Fighter Bays     1 beam, fire 4x            30*10   30*2   1.2.b    80   130
Assault Shutt.   carry 1 Marine             25*10   25*2   1.7.c   900  2480
Bomber Bays      carry 1 bomb               60*30   60*7   1.10b  2000  7130
Heavy Fighters   2 bombs + 2 beams (2x?)    80*50   80*12  1.12c  6000 16630

  Bombs:
Nuclear Bomb     3-12 Damage                 5*3     1*1   2.1.*    50    50
Fusion Bomb      4-24 Damage                 7*5     2*1   2.3.b   250   380
Anti-Matter B.   5-40 Damage                 7*6     2*1   2.5.c  2000  3280
Neutronium B.    10-60 damage               10*9     3*2   2.9.c 10000 24030

  Bio Weapons:
Death Spores     10% to kill 1 pop           5*5     1*1   6.2.c   400   480
Bio Terminator   20% to kill 1 pop           7*8     2*2   6.7.a  4500 11280

  Special Weapons:
Plasma Web       Rng 15, 5-25 env.dmg.      40*40   16*10  7.8.c  3500  9500
                  persists
Gyro Destabil.   (3-7)x size struct dmg     50*35   20*8   8.2.c   650   900
                  Rng 15. Pass Shld/Arm
Pulsar           (2-24)x size dmg to        50*30   20*7   8.5.a  2000  5300
                  ship/miss/fight, 6 sq rad.
Spatial Compr.   (4-32)x size dmg to        50*40   50*40  9.2.6 Orion Orion
                  everything in 2 sq rad.
Black Hole Gen   target cannot move, is    150*150 150*150 9.2.8 Orion Orion
                  destroyed in 2 turns
Tractor Beam     slows/immobilizes ship     30*20   12*5   7.5.a  1150  2500
Stasis Field     Rng 3. Target is frozen    75*75   30*18  8.7.b  3500 11550
                  and cannot be attacked
AntiMiss.Rock.   Hit with 85% -5/square     20*5     8*1   1.2.a    80   130
                 ag. missiles/fighters
Energy Absorbr   absorbs 1/4 of pot.       250%250 100%62  2.7.b  3500  9530
                  damage, throws back
Quantum Deton.   50% self-destr. when capt  60%90   60%90  9.2.4 Orion Orion
                  3x damage

  Boarding:
Security Stat.   +20 defense bonus         100%50   40%12  5.3.c   400   600
Troop Pods       2x Marines onboard        250%100 250%25  1.4.b   250   530
Tractor Beam     slows/immobilizes ship     30*20   12*5   7.5.a  1150  2500
Transporters     beam Mar. from 12 sq      200%100  80%25  2.6.a  2750  6030
                  if facing shld down

  Beam Defense:
Inert. Stabil.   +50% BDCV, 1/2 turn cost  300%100 120%25  8.2.b   650   900
Inert. Nullif.   +100% BDCV, no turn cost  300%450 120%112 8.9.c  7500 23550
Cloaking Dev.    +80% BDCV when cloaked    250%250 100%62  8.7.a  3500 11550

  ECM Systems:
ECM Jammer       +70% missile evasion      200%100  80%25  8.1.c   250   250
Multi-Wave ECM   +100% miss. evasion       200%200  80%50  8.6.b  2750  8050
Wide Area Jam.   +130% ship, +70% fleet    400%400 160%100 8.8.c  4500 16050

  Shields:       Block: Absorb:
Class I Shield     1    5x size            200%100  50%25  8.1.a   250   250
Cl. III Shield     3    15x size           200%100  50%25  8.3.a   900  1800
Class V Shield     5    25x size           200%100  50%25  8.6.a  2750  8050
Cl. VII Shield     7    35x size           200%100  50%25  8.8.a  4500 16050
Class X Shield    10    50x size           200%100  50%25  8.10a 15000 38550
Shld Capacitor   triples recharge rate     200%200  80%50  2.4.c   900  1280
Multi-Ph.Shlds   +50% Absorption           200%200  80%50  7.7.c  2000  6000
Hard Shields     Block +3 dmg, negate SP   200%200  80%50  8.7.c  3500 11550

  Other Fields;
Energy Absorbr   absorbs 1/4 of pot. dmg.  250%250 100%62  2.7.b  3500  9530
                  throws it back
Displacem.Dev.   30% ch. any weapon misses 200%300  80%75  8.9.a  7500 23550
Phasing Cloak    10 turns invulnerability  300%450 120%112 8.10c 15000 38550
Damper Field     Blocks 3/4 dmg, no Shield 100%150 100%150 9.2.3 Orion Orion
Reflect.Field    can reflect beams         200%300 200%300 9.2.2 Orion Orion
Cloaking Dev.    50% ch. missiles miss     250%250 100%62  8.7.a  3500 11550
Lightning Fld.   50% chance to destroy     200%200  80%50  8.5.c  2000  5300
                  miss./fight./torps
AntiMiss.Rock.   Hit with 85% -5/square     20*5     8*1   1.2.a    80   130
                  ag. missiles/fighters

  Armor/Structure:
Reinforcd Hull   Struct x3, Drive x3       200%100 200%25  1.2.c    80   130
Heavy Armor      Armor x3, negate AP       200%100 200%25  1.3.c   150   280
AutoRepair Un.   Fix Arm,Struct,Sys.       200%200  80%50  1.9.b  1500  5130

  Speed:
Augmented Eng.   +5 combat speed           200%100 200%25  2.3.c   250   380
Inert. Stabil.   1/2 turn cost, +50% BDCV  300%100 120%25  8.2.b   650   900
Inert. Nullif.   no turn cost, +100% BDCV  300%450 120%112 8.9.c  7500 23550
Subsp.Teleprt.   20 square jump in combat  200%300  80%75  8.9.b  7500 23550
Phase Shifter    18 sq. jump, target any      %   ?   %    9.2.9 Orion Orion
TimeWarp Fac.    ship gets 2 combat turns  300%450 120%112 7.11a 15000 35000

  Range:
Ext.Fuel Tanks   +50% range for ship       250%120 250%30  3.1.*    50    50

  Space:
Battle Pods      +50% space on ship    -500%1600 -500%1600 1.4.a   250   530

  Stealth:
Stealth Field    Invisible on galaxy map   200%200  80%50  8.4.a  1500  3300

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.1.4.2 Ship System Miniaturization

Everytime when you research a new technology field, the ship systems
(including weapons) in the lower fields of this research category can
miniaturize - this means they cost less production to build, and often they
also take up less space. The following tables show how the size and cost of
each ship system change when you have researched a better tech level in the
same research category. The columns in the tables mean:

 Lv    - the research level
 RP    - research points necessary to achieve that tech level
 Total - total (accumulated) RP necessary to achieve that level

Each following column shows the values for one ship system. The system is
noted on top of the column with its name and its tech number. Each line of
this column shows two numbers for the size and cost of that system at the
corresponding tech level. The leftmost number denotes the size of the
system, while the rightmost number shows its cost. The star "*" or percent
sign "%" between these numbers determine how they must be read - and now it
gets a little complicated.

Sizes and costs for special systems are calculated differently from those
for weapons. At any given tech level one weapon will have the same size and
cost regardless in which hull you put it. This is not the case for special
systems: They take up a certain percentage of the hull so that they need
more space and more production points in larger ships. Thus I had to
implement two ways of describing Size and Cost: for weapons it will read
something like "10*20", meaning "this is a weapon system (denoted by the
"*") and it takes up 10 space and costs 20 PP". For special systems, it will
read something like "125%63", meaning "this is a special system (denoted by
the "%") and it takes up 12.5% of the hull and costs 6.3 PP per 100 hull
space". (Note: The "hull space" in these calculations is the base hull
space, so if you have researched Megafluxers, you have 125% space on your
ship.) If this sounds complicated, it is. But if you understand it it will
greatly help you in planning ship designs.

Some more notes on miniaturization:
- You don't have to research new _weapons_ in order to miniaturize older
  weapons. You just have to get a higher tech level in that category. It
  doesn't matter whether you research the Neutron Blaster or the Neutron
  Scanner, that old Laser Cannon will miniaturize anyway.

- However to get that level you _have_ to research it. Trading the Neutron
  Blaster from another player won't give you the tech level and thus won't
  miniaturize the Laser. There is one exception to this: If you get the last
  technology of a field that you could research (i.e the field appears in
  your research screen), you will get the according tech level. So if you
  could trade for the Neutron Blaster and the Neutron Scanner, you would get
  the tech level.

- If you trade for a ship system that is higher than your tech level, you
  nevertheless can build that system immediately. Its cost and size are as
  if you had just researched it. However the system will not miniaturize
  unless your according tech level gets higher than the system's own tech
  level. So if you obtained Graviton Beams through trade, those will not
  miniaturize when you research the Neutron Blaster, or the Tractor Beam.

- If you trade for a ship system that is lower than your tech level, then
  that system will at once miniaturize, as if you had possessed it all the
  time.

3.1.4.2.1 Miniaturization of Construction Systems

                  Fighter   Assault    Bomber   Heavy     Anti-Miss.
                  Bays      Shuttles   Bays     Fighters  Rockets
Lv:  RP: Total:    1.2.b     1.7.c     1.10b     1.12c     1.2.a
 2    80    130    30*10                                    20*5
 3   150    280    30*7                                     16*3
 4   250    530    30*5                                     14*2
 5   400    930    30*4                                     12*2
 6   650   1580    30*3                                     10*1
 7   900   2480    30*2      25*10                           8*1
 8  1150   3630    30*2      25*7                            8*1
 9  1500   5130    30*2      25*5                            8*1
10  2000   7130    30*2      25*4      60*30                 8*1
11  3500  10630    30*2      25*3      60*22                 8*1
12  6000  16630    30*2      25*2      60*16     80*50       8*1
13  7500  24130    30*2      25*2      60*12     80*37       8*1
14 25000  49130    30*2      25*2      60*9      80*27       8*1
15 35000  84130    30*2      25*2      60*7      80*20       8*1
16 45000 129130    30*2      25*2      60*7      80*15       8*1
17 55000 184130    30*2      25*2      60*7      80*12       8*1

                   Reinf.   Heavy    Battle    Troop   Fast Miss. Auto
                   Hull     Armor     Pods      Pods    Racks    Repair U.
Lv:  RP: Total:    1.2.c    1.3.c    1.4.a     1.4.b    1.7.a     1.9.b
 2    80    130   200%100
 3   150    280   200%75   200%100
 4   250    530   200%55   200%75   -500%1600  250%100
 5   400    930   200%40   200%55   -500%1600  250%75
 6   650   1580   200%30   200%40   -500%1600  250%55
 7   900   2480   200%25   200%30   -500%1600  250%40   200%200
 8  1150   3630   200%25   200%25   -500%1600  250%30   160%150
 9  1500   5130   200%25   200%25   -500%1600  250%25   140%110  200%200
10  2000   7130   200%25   200%25   -500%1600  250%25   120%80   160%150
11  3500  10630   200%25   200%25   -500%1600  250%25   100%60   140%110
12  6000  16630   200%25   200%25   -500%1600  250%25    80%50   120%80
13  7500  24130   200%25   200%25   -500%1600  250%25    80%50   100%60
14 25000  49130   200%25   200%25   -500%1600  250%25    80%50    80%50

3.1.4.2.2 Miniaturization of Power Systems

                 Nucl.  Fusion AMattr Neutr. AMatter Proton  Plasma  Ion Pls
                 Bomb   Bomb   Bomb   Bomb   Torpedo Torpedo Torpedo Cannon
Lv:  RP: Total:  2.1.*  2.3.b  2.5.c  2.9.c   2.5.b   2.8.a   2.9.b   2.4.b
 1    50     50   5*3
 2    80    130   4*2
 3   250    380   3*1    7*5
 4   900   1280   3*1    6*3                                          20*15
 5  2000   3280   2*1    5*2    7*6           30*15                   16*11
 6  2750   6030   1*1    4*2    6*4           24*11                   13*8
 7  3500   9530   1*1    2*1    5*3           21*8                    10*6
 8  4500  14030   1*1    2*1    4*2           18*6    30*20            7*4
 9 10000  24030   1*1    2*1    2*1   10*9    15*4    24*15   40*75    5*3
10 15000  39030   1*1    2*1    2*1    8*6    12*3    21*11   32*56    5*3
11 25000  64030   1*1    2*1    2*1    7*4    12*3    18*8    28*41    5*3
12 35000  99030   1*1    2*1    2*1    5*3    12*3    15*6    24*30    5*3
13 45000 144030   1*1    2*1    2*1    4*2    12*3    12*5    20*22    5*3
14 55000 199030   1*1    2*1    2*1    3*2    12*3    12*5    16*18    5*3

                  Augmented  Shield    Trans-    High En.  Energy   Hyper-X
                   Engines  Capacitor  porters   Focus    Absorber Capacitor
Lv:  RP: Total:     2.3.c     2.4.c     2.6.a     2.7.a     2.7.b     2.8.c
 3   250    380    200%100
 4   900   1280    200%75    200%200
 5  2000   3280    200%55    160%150
 6  2750   6030    200%40    140%110   200%100
 7  3500   9530    200%30    120%80    160%75    200%200   250%250
 8  4500  14030    200%25    100%60    140%55    160%150   200%185   200%200
 9 10000  24030    200%25     80%50    120%40    140%110   175%135   160%150
10 15000  39030    200%25     80%50    100%30    120%80    150%100   140%110
11 25000  64030    200%25     80%50     80%25    100%60    125%75    120%80
12 35000  99030    200%25     80%50     80%25     80%50    100%62    100%60
13 45000 144030    200%25     80%50     80%25     80%50    100%62     80%50

3.1.4.2.3 Miniaturization of Chemistry Systems

                  Nuclear   Mercul.   Pulson    Zeon      Extended
                  Missile   Missile   Missile   Missile   Fuel Tanks
Lv:  RP: Total:    3.1.*     3.3.a     3.4.a     3.6.a      3.1.*
 1    50     50    20*20                                   250%120
 2   250    300    16*15                                   250%90
 3   650    950    13*11     20*20                         250%65
 4  1150   2100    10*8      16*15     20*20               250%50
 5  2000   4100     7*6      13*11     16*15               250%35
 6  4500   8600     5*5      10*8      13*11     20*20     250%30
 7 10000  18600     5*5       7*6      10*8      16*15     250%30
 8 25000  43600     5*5       5*5       7*6      13*11     250%30
 9 35000  78600     5*5       5*5       5*5      10*8      250%30
10 45000 123600     5*5       5*5       5*5       7*6      250%30
11 55000 178600     5*5       5*5       5*5       5*5      250%30

3.1.4.2.4 Miniaturization of Sociology Systems

There are no ship systems in this category.

3.1.4.2.5 Miniaturization of Computer Systems

Note: Computers have no size. Their cost increases rapidly with the hull
size, but I couldn't figure out a formula. The table shows the cost for
Electronic Computers for all sizes (e.g. at tech level 3 it will cost 2 PP
on frigates, 8 on destroyers ... and 440 on doom stars). All other columns
show the values for frigates and doom stars only - the values between them
are the same as in the corresponding lines of the "Electronic Computer"
column.
                       Electronic      Optronic  Positron. Cybertr.  Molec.
                       Computer        Computer  Computer  Computer  Comput.
Lv:  RP: Total:        5.1.*            5.2.b     5.4.a     5.6.a     5.9.b
 1    50     50  5/15/50/125/300/800
 2   150    200  3/11/37/ 93/225/600    5..800
 3   400    600  2/ 8/27/ 68/165/440    3..600
 4   900   1500  2/ 6/20/ 50/120/320    2..440    5..800
 5  1500   3000  1/ 4/15/ 37/ 90/240    2..320    3..600
 6  2750   5750  1/ 3/12/ 31/ 75/200    1..240    2..440    5..800
 7  3500   9250        1..200           1..200    2..320    3..600
 8  4500  13750        1..200           1..200    1..240    2..440
 9  6000  17750        1..200           1..200    1..200    2..320    5..800
10 25000  42750        1..200           1..200    1..200    1..240    3..600
11 35000  77750        1..200           1..200    1..200    1..200    2..440
12 45000 122750        1..200           1..200    1..200    1..200    2..320
13 55000 177750        1..200           1..200    1..200    1..200    1..240
14 65000 242750        1..200           1..200    1..200    1..200    1..200

                  Scout    Security  Range    Structur. Achilles
                  Lab      Stations  Master   Analyzer  Trg.Unit
Lv:  RP: Total:    5.3.b    5.3.c     5.5.b     5.6.c     5.9.c
 3   400    600   300%150   100%50
 4   900   1500   240%110    80%35
 5  1500   3000   210%80     70%25   200%200
 6  2750   5750   180%60     60%20   160%150   150%200
 7  3500   9250   150%45     50%15   140%110   120%150
 8  4500  13750   120%35     40%12   120%80    105%110
 9  6000  17750   120%35     40%12   100%60     90%80    200%300
10 25000  42750   120%35     40%12    80%50     75%60    160%225
11 35000  77750   120%35     40%12    80%50     60%50    140%165
12 45000 122750   120%35     40%12    80%50     60%50    120%120
13 55000 177750   120%35     40%12    80%50     60%50    100%90
14 65000 242750   120%35     40%12    80%50     60%50     80%75

3.1.4.2.6 Miniaturization of Biology Systems

                  Death     Bio
                  Spores    Terminator
Lv:  RP: Total:   6.2.c     6.7.a
 2   400    480    5*5
 3   900   1380    4*3
 4  1150   2530    3*2
 5  1500   4030    3*2
 6  2750   6780    2*1
 7  4500  11280    1*1       7*8
 8  7500  18780    1*1       6*6
 9 25000  43780    1*1       5*4
10 35000  78780    1*1       4*3
11 45000 123780    1*1       2*2

3.1.4.2.7 Miniaturization of Physics Systems

                Laser Fus. Neutr Tract Grav. Pha-  Plsma Plsma Dis-  Mauler
                 Cann Beam Blast  Beam  Beam  sor  Cann. Web   ruptr Device
Lv:  RP: Total: 7.1.* 7.2a 7.4.a 7.5.a 7.6.a 7.7.a 7.8.a 7.8.c 7.9.a 7.10c
 1    50     50  10*5
 2   150    200   8*3 10*6
 3   250    450   7*2  8*4
 4   900   1350   5*2  7*3 10*8
 5  1150   2500   4*1  5*2  8*6  30*20 15*12
 6  1500   4000   3*1  4*1  7*4  24*15 12*9
 7  2000   6000   3*1  3*1  5*3  21*11 10*6  10*10
 8  3500   9500   3*1  3*1  4*2  18*8   8*4   8*7  10*15 40*40
 9  4500  14000   3*1  3*1  3*2  15*6   5*3   7*5   8*11 32*30 20*25
10  6000  20000   3*1  3*1  3*2  12*5   4*3   5*4   7*8  28*22 16*18 50*75
11 15000  35000   3*1  3*1  3*2  12*5   4*3   4*3   5*6  14*16 13*13 40*56
12 25000  50000   3*1  3*1  3*2  12*5   4*3   3*2   4*4  20*12 10*10 33*41
13 35000  85000   3*1  3*1  3*2  12*5   4*3   3*2   3*3  16*10  7*7  25*30
14 45000 130000   3*1  3*1  3*2  12*5   4*3   3*2   3*3  16*10  5*6  18*22
15 55000 185000   3*1  3*1  3*2  12*5   4*3   3*2   3*3  16*10  5*6  13*18
16 65000 250000   3*1  3*1  3*2  12*5   4*3   3*2   3*3  16*10  5*6  13*18

                  Battle     Multi-Ph.   Time Warp        Stellar
                  Scanner    Shields     Facilitat        Converter
Lv:  RP: Total:    7.3.c       7.7.c       7.11a            7.11b
 3   250    450   250%100
 4   900   1350   200%75
 5  1150   2500   175%55
 6  1500   4000   150%40
 7  2000   6000   125%30      200%200
 8  3500   9500   100%25      160%150
 9  4500  14000   100%25      140%110
10  6000  20000   100%25      120%80
11 15000  35000   100%25      100%60      300%450          500*500
12 25000  50000   100%25       80%50      240%335          400*375
13 35000  85000   100%25       80%50      210%245          350*275
14 45000 130000   100%25       80%50      180%180          300*200
15 55000 185000   100%25       80%50      150%135          250*150
16 65000 250000   100%25       80%50      120%112          200*125

3.1.4.2.8 Miniaturization of Force Field Systems

                Mass Gyro  Pul-  Gauss Stas.  Warp   Stealth Lightn. Subspc.
                Drvr Dest.  sar  Cann. Field Dissip.  Field   Field  Teleprt
Lv:  RP: Total: 8.1b 8.2.c 8.5.a 8.6.c 8.7.b  8.3.c   8.4.a   8.5.c   8.9.b
 1   250    250 10*7
 2   650    900  8*5 50*35
 3   900   1800  7*3 40*26                   300%300
 4  1500   3300  5*2 35*19                   240%225 200%200
 5  2000   5300  4*2 30*14 50*30             210%165 160%150 200%200
 6  2750   8050  3*1 25*10 40*22 10*10       180%120 140%110 160%150
 7  3500  11550  3*1 20*8  35*16  8*7  75*75 150%90  120%80  140%110
 8  4500  16050  3*1 20*8  30*12  7*5  60*56 120%75  100%60  120%80
 9  7500  23550  3*1 20*8  25*9   5*4  53*41 120%75   80%50  100%60  200%300
10 15000  38550  3*1 20*8  20*7   4*3  45*30 120%75   80%50   80%50  160%225
11 25000  63550  3*1 20*8  20*7   3*2  38*22 120%75   80%50   80%50  140%165
12 35000  98550  3*1 20*8  20*7   3*2  30*18 120%75   80%50   80%50  120%120
13 45000 143550  3*1 20*8  20*7   3*2  30*18 120%75   80%50   80%50  100%90
13 55000 198550  3*1 20*8  20*7   3*2  30*18 120%75   80%50   80%50   80%75

                 ECM     M-Wave  Wide A.   Inert.  Inert.    Cloak.  Phase
                 Jammer  ECM Jm. Jammer    Stabil. Nullif.   Device  Cloak
Lv:  RP: Total:   8.1.c   8.6.b   8.8.c     8.2.b   8.9.c     8.7.a   8.10c
 1   250    250  200%100
 2   650    900  160%75                    300%100
 3   900   1800  140%55                    240%75
 4  1500   3300  120%40                    210%55
 5  2000   5300  100%30                    180%40
 6  2750   8050   80%25  200%200           150%30
 7  3500  11550   80%25  160%150           120%25            250%250
 8  4500  16050   80%25  140%110 400%400   120%25            200%185
 9  7500  23550   80%25  120%80  320%300   120%25  300%450   175%135
10 15000  38550   80%25  100%60  280%220   120%25  240%335   150%100 300%450
11 25000  63550   80%25   80%50  240%160   120%25  210%245   125%75  240%335
12 35000  98550   80%25   80%50  200%120   120%25  180%180   100%62  210%245
13 45000 143550   80%25   80%50  160%100   120%25  150%135   100%62  180%180
14 55000 198550   80%25   80%50  160%100   120%25  120%112   100%62  150%135
15 65000 263550   80%25   80%50  160%100   120%25  120%112   100%62  120%112

                  Cl. I   Cl.III  Cl. V   Cl.VII  Cl. X    Hard     Displ.
                  Shield  Shield  Shield  Shield  Shield   Shields  Device
Lv:  RP: Total:    8.1.a   8.3.a   8.6.a  8.8.a   8.10a    8.7.c     8.9.a
 1   250    250   200%100
 2   650    900   160%75
 3   900   1800   130%55  200%100
 4  1500   3300   100%40  160%75
 5  2000   5300    70%30  130%55
 6  2750   8050    50%25  100%40  200%100
 7  3500  11550    50%25   70%30  160%75                   200%200
 8  4500  16050    50%25   50%25  130%55  200%100          160%150
 9  7500  23550    50%25   50%25  100%40  160%75           140%110  200%300
10 15000  38550    50%25   50%25   70%30  130%55  200%100  120%80   160%225
11 25000  63550    50%25   50%25   50%25  100%40  160%75   100%60   140%165
12 35000  98550    50%25   50%25   50%25   70%30  130%55    80%50   120%120
13 45000 143550    50%25   50%25   50%25   50%25  100%40    80%50   100%90
14 55000 198550    50%25   50%25   50%25   50%25   70%30    80%50    80%75
15 65000 263550    50%25   50%25   50%25   50%25   50%25    80%50    80%75

Note: Shields treat the Doom Star hull size as if it had only 1000 space,
not 1200. This means that shields on Doom Stars are slightly smaller and
cheaper than expected.

3.1.4.2.9 Non-Miniaturization of Orion/Antaran Techs

Orion/Antaran techs never miniaturize. They don't have a tech level assigned
to them. Their sizes and costs are:

Death Ray       9.2.1   30*75     Reflect.Field   9.2.2  200%300
Particle Beam   9.2.5   15*35     Damper Field    9.2.3  100%150
Spatial Compr.  9.2.6   50*40     Quantum Deton.  9.2.4   60%90
Black Hole Gen  9.2.8  150*150    Phase Shifter   9.2.9     ?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2 All things that can affect ...

MOO2 is a very complex game, the different aspects of the game are
interconnected and affect each other in many different ways. To understand
and to master MOO2 it is important to know these interdependencies. The
following tables will help you with that. For almost every aspect of the
game they list every aspect that can affect it.

If you, for example, want to max out research in your empire, have a look at
table 3.2.5. There you see all the Technologies, Buildings, Environments,
Leader Abilities and some other aspects that can help you.
If you wonder why your production on planet x is unexpectedly low, take
table 3.2.3. It lists everything that can influence production, so by
checking this list you will eventually find out which aspect you forgot. You
will also learn a lot about the game mechanics this way.
If you want to equip ships, tables 3.2.17 to 3.2.30 will aid you. They cover
almost every aspect of ship equipment and combat.

The following 31 lists all use the same layout. The first line shows the
aspect that is covered by this table. Then all aspects that influence that
one are shown in the following order:

- Race Specials: The table lists the name of the special, describes its
 effects and tells how many picks it takes to choose it.

- Technologies: Techs that affect that aspect as soon as they are researched
 are listed here. The table names the tech, describes its effect and gives
 the number (Tech), research cost (RP) and total research cost (Total) of
 the tech. The numbers correspond to those in the Tech List (3.1.2) and Tech
 Chart (3.1.1). An RP Cost of "Orion" means that this technology cannot be
 researched, you have to acquire it by defeating the Guardian or capturing
 Antaran ships.

- Buildings: Things that can be built on planets are listed here. The list
 names the building, describes its effect and gives its production cost
 (PP), maintenance cost (BC), the tech necessary to build it (Tech), also
 the research cost (RP) and the total research cost (Total) of that tech.

- Systems: This is ship equipment like weapons, shields and special systems.
 Armor and engines are listed under "Technologies" because they immediately
 take effect and you cannot choose between them.
  The table names the system, describes its effect and then gives two pairs
 of values for the size and cost (in production points) of that system. The
 first pair describes the size and cost immediately after the system has
 been researched (no miniaturization has taken place). You can use these to
 estimate the sizes of the systems you are just researching. The second pair
 shows the minimal cost and size this system can have. Usually systems can
 miniaturize six times. For more information about these values, have a look
 at section 3.1.4.2: Miniaturization.
  After the Cost and Size numbers the table displays the tech necessary to
 build that system (Tech), the research cost (RP) and the total research
 cost (Total) of that tech.

- Weapons: Uses an extended "Systems" layout. It is only used in table
 3.2.17 (Ship Offense: Beams) and is explained there.

- Planetary Gravity: The table names the condition and describes the effect.
- Pl.Mineral Richn.: The table names the condition and describes the effect.
- Planetary Climate: The table names the condition and describes the effect.
- Planet. Specials:  The table names the condition and describes the effect.

- Weapon Modifications: The table names the modification and describes the
 effect. Then it displays the increase for size and cost of the weapon
 (Cost/Size) and the necessassary miniaturization level (Min).

- Firing Arcs: The table names the arc, describes its effect and displays
 the increase for size and cost of the weapon (Cost/Size).

- Leader Abilities: The table first describes the type of the ability: "S"
 means "Ship" and stands for abilities that only Ship Officers can have. "C"
 denotes abilities of Colony Leaders, "G" General abilities (both types of
 leaders can have this ablility). The table then names the ability and
 describes its effects.

- Events: The table names the random event and describes its effects.

- Other: The table names all other aspects that have influence and describes
 their effects.

- Affecting: All aspects that are directly affected by the aspect in
 question are listed here. The affected aspect is named and the effects are
 described. Examples: Pollution directly affects production. Ship size
 directly affects ship speed.

- Remarks: Other things to keep in mind considering this aspect.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.1 Money:

Race Specials:                                                        Picks:
 -0.5 BC         -0.5 BC per population unit (min. 0)                   -4
 +0.5 BC         +0.5 BC per population unit                             5
 + 1  BC         + 1  BC per population unit                             8
 Democracy       +50% money on all planets                               7
 Fant. Traders   +25% trade treaty bonus, +100% for trade goods,         4
                  1 BC per surplus food generated (normally 0.5)

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Federation      +75% money on all planets (was +50%)      4.5.c  4500  8450
 Gal.Curr.Exch.  +50% money on all planets                 4.6.a  6000 14450

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Space Port      +50% money on planet               80  1  1.5.a   400   900
 Stock Exchange  +100% money on planet             150  2  4.3.a  1150  1950
 Trade Goods     production turns into money (2:1)   /  /    0       0     0

Planetary Climate:
 Radiatd,Desert  +25% maintenance costs on buildings
 Toxic           +50% maintenance costs on buildings
Planetary Specials:
 Gems            +10 money on planet, added before percentage bonuses
 Gold            +5 money on planet, added before percentage bonuses

Leader Abilities:
 G Megawealth    +10 (+15) money per turn
 G Trader        per level +10% (15%) money on trade treaties
 C Finan.Leader  per level +10% (15%) money on all planets in system

Events:
 Donation        + one empire gets some money
 Pirates         - reduce trade? steal BC from colony? destroy with fleet?

Other:
 Morale          +/- 10% money, food, prod., res. on planet per smile/frown
 Trade Treaty    does anyone know how they work exactly?
 Tribute Treaty  5% or 10% of the other empire's total income each turn
 Tax Rate        0-50% of all planet's production turns into trade goods

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.2 Food:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 -1/2 Food       -1/2 food per farmer (min. 1)                          -3
  +1  Food       +1 food per farmer                                      3
  +2  Food       +2 food per farmer                                      7
 Unification     +50% food on all planets                                6
 Low-G World     -25% food on Normal-G, no penalty on Low-G             -5
 High-G World    no -50% penalty on High-G worlds                        6
 Aquatic         Tundra and Swamp worlds are treated as Terran, Ocean    5
                  and Terran Worlds as Gaias.
 Cybernetic      consume 1/2 food and 1/2 production, repair ships       4
 Lithovore       population does not need food                          10

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Gal. Unificat.  +100% food on all planets (was +50%)      4.5.d  4500  8450
 Biomorph.Fungi  +1 food/farmer, Farming on all planets    6.8.a  7500 18780

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Hydroponic Farm  +2 food on planet                 60  2  6.1.a    80    80
 Subterr. Farms   +4 food on planet                150  4  6.5.a  1500  4030
 Soil Enrichment  +1 food/farmr if not Bar/Tox/Rad 120  /  6.2.b   400   480
 Weather Cont.    +2 food per farmer               200  3  6.5.b  1500  4030
 Food Replicator  convert 2 prod. into 1 food      200 10  2.6.b  2750  6030
 Android Farmer   generates food as farmer +3       50*1p  5.7.a  3500  9250
 Gravity Generat  remove -25%/-50% Gravity penalty 120  2  7.5.c  1150  2500
 Astro Univers.   +1 food/farm, prod/work, res/sci 200  4  4.4.a  2000  3950
 Terraforming     incr. base food prod. per farmer 250* /  6.4.a  1150  2530
 Gaia Transform.  Gaias have a 3 food/farmer base  500  /  6.8.b  7500 18780

Planetary Gravity:
 Low-G World     -25% penalty to food, production and science
 High-G World    -50% penalty to food, production and science
Planetary Climate:
 Radia,Tox,Barr  farming impossible
 Des,Tndra,Arid  1 base food production per farmer
 Ocn,Swmp,Terrn  2 base food production per farmer
 Gaia            3 base food production per farmer
Planetary Specials:
 Natives         farmers, can't be reassigned, but work at an +2 food bonus

Leader Abilities:
 C Farm.Leader   per level +10% (+15%) food on all planets in system

Events:
 Axis Shift      + one colony's environment improved to Terran
 Industr.Accid.  - one colony's environment set to radiated?
 Space Amoeba    - toxifies planets?

Other:
 Morale          +/- 10% food, prod., res., money on planet per smile/frown
 Conquered pop.  -25% penalty on food, production, research unt. assimilated

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.3 Production:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 -1 production   -1 production per worker (min. 1)                      -3
 +1 production   +1 production per worker                                3
 +2 production   +2 production per worker                                6
 Unification     +50% on all production                                  6
 Feudal          ships cost only 2/3 production                         -4
 Low-G World     -25% prod. on Norm-G, no penalty on Low-G, -10 troop   -5
 High-G World    no -50% penalty on High-G, troops have +1 hit point     6
 Rich Homeworld  Homeworld has 5 prod./worker (normally 3)               2
 Poor Homeworld  Homeworld has 2 prod./worker (normally 3)              -1
 Cybernetic      consume 1/2 food and 1/2 production, repair ships       4

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Microlite Cnst  +1 prod. per worker on all planets        3.5.b  2000  4100
 Gal. Unificat   +100% prod. on all planets (was +50%)     4.5.d  4500  8450
 Confederation   ships cost 1/3 production (was 2/3)       4.5.a  4500  8450

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Automated Fact.  +1 prod/worker, +5 on planet      60  1  1.3.a   150   280
 Robo Mine Plant  +2 prod/worker, +10 on planet    150  2  1.6.a   650  1580
 Deep Core Mine   +3 prod/worker, +15 on planet    250  3  1.11.a 3500 10630
 Recyclotron      +1 prod/pop., no incr. pollution 200  2  1.9.a  1500  5130
 Android Worker   generates prod. as worker +3      50*1p  5.7.b  3500  9250
 Robotic Factory  +5/8/10/15/20 prod. (Poor-Rich)  200  3  1.10.a 2000  7130

Planetary Gravity:
 Low-G World     -25% penalty to food, production and science
 High-G World    -50% penalty to food, production and science
Planetary Mineral Richness:
 Ultra Poor      1 base production point per worker
 Poor            2 base production points per worker
 Abundant        3 base production points per worker
 Rich            5 base production points per worker
 Ultra Rich      8 base production points per worker

Leader Abilities:
 C Labor Leader  per level +10% (+15%) production on all planets in system

Events:
 Miner. Deplet.  - one colony's mineral richness gets lessened (how much?)
 Mineral Deposit + one colony's mineral richness gets improved (how much?)

Other:
 Morale          +/- 10% prod., food, res., money on planet per smile/frown
 Pollution       -1 production on planet per 1 pollution unit on planet
 Conquered pop.  -25% penalty on production, food, research unt. assimilated

Affecting:
 Pollution       the more production, the more pollution (exact formula?)

Remarks:
 Production can be bought with money. The Formula is a bit complicated: You
  pay 10 BC for every Production Point (PP) until you have 10% of the
  building's total PP cost together. Then you pay 5 BC per point until you
  have 50% of the total PP cost. Then you pay 2 BC for every remaining PP.
 Alternativaley, you can use this equivalent formula: You pay 2 BC for every
  remaining PP, then an additional 3 BC for every remaining PP that is
  needed to build the first 50% of the structure, then an additional 5 BC
  for every remaining PP that is needed to build the first 10% of the
  structure.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.4 Pollution

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 Tolerant        Pollution is ignored (no prod. necessary to clean up)  10

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Nano Disassmb.  doubles all planet's pollut. tolerance    3.5.a  2000  4100

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 PollutionProc.  no pollution for 1/2 of product.   80  1  3.3.b   650   950
 Atmospher.Ren.  no pollution for 1/4 of product.  150  3  3.4.b  1150  2100
 Core WasteDump  eliminates pollution on planet    200  8  1.11.b 3500 10630

Planetary Environment:
 can anyone figure out what "Planetary Pollution Tolerance" really is?

Leader Abilities:
 C Enviromntlst  per level -10% (-15%) pollution on all planets in system

Other:
 Production      does anyone know how exactly production affects pollution?

Affecting:
 Production      1 pollution unit needs 1 production unit to be cleaned up

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.5 Research:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 -1 research     -1 research per scientist (min. 1)                     -3
 +1 research     +1 research per scientist                               3
 +2 research     +2 research per scientist                               6
 Feudal          -50% research on all planets                           -4
 Democracy       +50% research on all planets                            7
 Low-G World     -25% res. on Norm-G, no penalty on Low-G, -10 troop    -5
 High-G World    no -50% penalty on High-G, troops have +1 hit point     6
 Artif. Homew.   +2 research per scientist on homeworld                  3

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Federation      +75% research on all planets (was +50%)   4.5.c  4500  8450
 Height.Intell.  +1 research per scientist on all planets  6.6.b  2750  6780

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Research Lab    +1 research/scient, +5 on planet   60  1  5.2.a   150   200
 Supercomputer   +2 res./scientist, +10 on planet  150  2  5.4.b   900  1500
 Galac. Cybernet +3 res./scientist, +15 on planet  250  3  5.8.b  4500 13750
 Android Scient. generates res. as scientist +3     50*1p  5.7.c  3500  9250
 Autolab         +30 research on planet            200  3  5.6.b  2750  5750

Planetary Gravity:
 Low-G World     -25% penalty to food, production and science
 High-G World    -50% penalty to food, production and science
Planetary Specials:
 Artifact World  +2 research per scientist on planet
 Orion Special   +5 research per scientist on planet

Leader Abilities:
 G Researcher    +5 (7.5) research points per turn
 C Science Ldr.  +10% (15%) research on all planets in system

Events:
 Ancient Ship    + scientists discover one new technology
 Computer Virus  - have to start current research project from scratch
 Plague          - one colony's research output redirected to finding cure
 Secret Experim. + scientists discover one new technology field
 Super Nova      - one colony's research output redirected to finding sol.

Other:
 Morale          +/- 10% prod., food, res., money on planet per smile/frown
 Research Treat  can anyone figure out how these work exactly?
 Conquered pop.  -25% penalty on food, production, research unt. assimilated
 Scout Lab       +(2^ship size class) research per turn (Tech 5.3.b 400 600)
                  (always 20 due to a bug?)
Remarks:
 Research is only one way of gaining technologies. The others are: diplomacy
  (exchange, demand, gift), espionage, ground combat, dismantling captured
  ships at your colonies, defeating the Guardian (will yield 4 not
  researchable techs), colonizing an Artifacts world first, hiring a leader
  offering tech, and two random events ("alien space ship wreckage" and
  "secret experiments").

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.6 Morale:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 Feudal          -20% morale penalty if no barracks on planet           -4
                 -50% morale penalty if Capitol is lost
 Dictatorship    -20% morale penalty if no barracks on planet            0
                 -35% morale penalty if Capital is lost
 Democracy       -20% morale penalty if Capitol is lost                  7
 Unification     ALL morale effects are ignored                          6

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Imperium        +20% morale on all planets                4.5.b  4500  8450
                  (but -20% penalty still applies - bug?)
 Virt.Real.Netwk +20% morale on all planets                5.8.a  4500 13750
 Psionics        +10% morale everywh. if Feu/Dic/Con/Imp   6.6.a  2750  6780

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Marine Barrcks  rem. -20 Governmnt morale penalty  60  1  1.1.*    50    50
 Armor Barracks  rem. -20 Governmnt morale penalty 150  2  1.5.b   400   930
                                           or (Battleoids) 1.8.c  1150  3630
 Alien Con.Cent. rem. -20 multi-racial moral pen.   60  1  4.2.b   650   800
 Holo Simulator  +20% morale on planet             120  1  5.4.c   900  1500
 Pleasure Dome   +30% morale on planet             250  3  5.9.a  6000 17750
 Capitol         loss of Capitol = morale penalty  200  0    0       0     0

Leader Abilities:
 C Spir. Leader  per level +5% (7.5%) morale on all planets in system

Other:
 Multi-Race Col  -20% morale pen. on multi-race colonies wo. Alien Con.Cent
 Androids        are not affected by morale!

Affecting:
 Money           +/- 10% money on planet per smile/frown
 Food            +/- 10% food on planet per smile/frown
 Production      +/- 10% production on planet per smile/frown
 Research        +/- 10% research on planet per smile/frown

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.7 Population Growth:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 -50% Growth     -50% population growth                                 -4
 +50% Growth     +50% population growth                                  3
 +100% Growth    +100% population growth                                 6

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Microbiotics    +25% population growth                    6.3.b   900  1380
 Univ. Antidote  +50% growth, replaces Microbiotics        6.7.b  4500 11280

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Cloning Center  +100.000 pop. per turn until max  100  2  6.2.a   400   480
 Housing         how does Housing raise popgrowth?   0  0    0       0     0

Planetary Environment:
 Can anyone figure out how planetary environment affects population growth?

Leader Abilities:
 C Medicine      per level +10% (+15%) pop. growth on all planets in system

Events:
 Population Boom + one colony's population growth is doubled (how long?)

Other:
 Present Population - or maybe difference between present and max pop.?
 Starvation?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.8 Max. Population:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 Aquatic         Tundra and Swamp treated as Terran, Terran as Gaia      5
 Subterranean    +2/4/6/8/10 max.pop on tiny/small/med/large/huge plan.  6
 Tolerant        All environments treated as Terran (really?)           10

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Adv.City Plan.  +5 max. population on every planet        1.12b  6000 16630

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Biospheres      +2 maximum population on planet    60  1  6.1.b    80    80
 Terraforming    improves planetary environment    250* /  6.4.a  1150  2530
 Gaia Transform. forms Terran planets into Gaias   500  /  6.8.b  7500 18780

Planetary Env.:  Gaia Terran Arid Swamp Other
 Tiny              5     4     3    2     1     <-- The table shows how
 Small            10     8     6    4     3         the base max. pop. of
 Medium           15    12     9    6     4         a planet is determined
 Large            20    16    12    8     5     <-- by size and climate.
 Huge             25    20    15   10     6

Events:
 Axis Shift      + one colony's environment improved to Terran
 Industr.Accid.  - one colony's environment set to radiated?
 Space Amoeba    - toxifies planets?

Affecting:
 Pop. Growth     does population grow faster on larger planets?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.9 Assimilation:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 Feudal          Assimilate other races at 8 turns per pop. unit.       -4
                 Own pop conquered will by enemy be assimil. at once.
 Dictatorship    Assimilate other races at 8 turns per pop. unit.        0
 Democracy       Assimilate other races at 4 turns per pop. unit.        7
 Unification     Assimilate other races at 20 turns per pop. unit.       6
 Repulsive       Assimilate at half speed.                              -6
 Charismatic     Assimilate twice as fast.                               3
 Telepathic      Can totally assimilate enemy colony via Mind Control    6
                 from a large (or bigger) ship in orbit (instead of
                 bombing or invading) if enemy not telepathic.

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Confederation   Assimilate at 4 turns/unit (was 8)        4.5.a  4500  8450
 Imperium        Assimilate at 4 turns/unit (was 8)        4.5.b  4500  8450
 Federation      Assimilate at 2 turns/unit (was 4)        4.5.c  4500  8450
 Gal. Unific.    Assimilate at 15 turns/unit (was 20)      4.5.d  4500  8450

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Alien Con.Cent  Assimilate at 2 turns/pop unit     60  1  4.2.b   650   800

Leader Abilities:
 G Telepath      Negates effect of enemy telepathy in system (e.g. no Mind
                  Control takeover possible).
Affecting:
 Food            Conquered pop has -25% penalty on food until assimilated
 Production      Conquered pop has -25% penalty on production unt. assimil.
 Research        Conquered pop has -25% penalty on research until assimil.

Remarks:
 Instead of assimilating enemy population it is also possible to annihilate
  them at a rate of 1 pop.unit per turn. This will harm diplomatic relations
  with every other race. This option does not exist for Democracies and
  Federations.

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3.2.10 Planetary Defense: (Structure, Shields, Systems, Star Bases)

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
a) Shields
 Class I Shield  block 1 point damage                      8.1.a   250   250
 Cl. III Shield  block 3 points damage, replace Class I    8.3.a   900  1800
 Class V Shield  block 5 points damage, replace Class III  8.6.a  2750  8050
 Cl. VII Shield  block 7 points damage, replace Class V    8.8.a  4500 16050
 Class X Shield  block 10 points damage, replace Class VII 8.10a 15000 38550
b) Armor
 Titanium Armor  Standard Armor, 100 Struct per building   3.1.*    50    50
 Tritanium Arm.  200 Struct per bldg, replaces Titanium    3.2.b   250   300
 Zortrium Arm.   400 Struct per bldg, replaces Tritanium   3.5.c  2000  4100
 Neutronium Arm  600 Struct per bldg, replaces Zortrium    3.6.b  4500  8600
 Adamantium Arm  800 Struct per bldg, replaces Neutronium  3.7.b 10000 18600
 Xentronium Arm  1000 Strct per bldg, replaces Adamantium  9.2.7 Orion Orion

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Radiation Shld  -5 damage; terraforms Rad->Barren  80  1  8.3.b   900  1800
 Flux Shield     -10 damage; terraf.Radiat->Barren 200  3  8.8.b  4500 16050
 Barrier Shield  -20 damage, terraf.Radiat->Barren 500  5  8.10b 15000 38550
                  Troops/Bioweapons cannot enter
 Missile Base    300 space for best missiles       120  2  1.3.b   150   280
 Fighter Garr.   40 Intcpt. or 24 Bomb. or 16 Hvy. 150  2  1.5.c   400   930
 Gound Batter.   300 space for best HV / PD beams  200  2  1.8.b  1150  3630
 Stellar Conv.   defends planet                   1000  6  7.11b 15000 35000
 Artemis SysNet  protects system with mine field  1000  5  1.13b  7500 24130
 Warp Interdic.  Slows enemy to 1 parsec/turn,     300  3  8.5.b  2000  5300
                  (gives you some time to react)
 Star Base       see section 3.2.31                400  2  1.1.*    50    50
 Battle Station  see section 3.2.31               1000  3  1.6.b   650  1580
 Star Fortress   see section 3.2.31               2500  4  1.12a  6000 16630

Other:
 All military ships in the system will defend the attacked planet.
 All weapons except missiles and bombs do only half damage against planets.
 Planetary shields can never be weakened, only destroyed.

Remarks:
 When beam weapons attack a planet, the computer does the following
  calculation for every single weapon: First the weapon's raw damage is
  calculated, then halved. Then the Planetary Shield (plus the empire's
  shield level) block some more damage. The remaining damage is applied to
  the planet's buildings.
 Even when no shield has been built on a planet, damage is still blocked
  according to the empire's shield level.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.11 Ground Defense and Troop Combat Rating:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 -10             -10 troop combat rating penalty                        -2
 +10             +10 troop combat rating bonus                           2
 +20             +20 troop combat rating bonus                           4
 Low-G World     -10 troop combat rating penalty                        -5
 High-G World    +1 hit point for ground troops                          6
 Subterranean    +10 ground troop combat rating bonus when defending     6
 Warlord         Ground troop build speed x2, max. troops on planet x2   4

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
a) Armor
 Titanium Armor  +5 troop combat rating                    3.1.*    50    50
 Tritanium Arm.  +10 troop combat, replaces Titanium       3.2.b   250   300
 Zortrium Arm.   +15 troop combat, replaces Tritanium      3.5.c  2000  4100
 Neutronium Arm  +20 troop combat, replaces Zortrium       3.6.b  4500  8600
 Adamantium Arm  +25 troop combat, replaces Neutronium     3.7.b 10000 18600
 Xentronium Arm  +30 troop combat, replaces Adamantium     9.2.7 Orion Orion
b) Rifles
 Laser Rifle     +5 troop combat rating                    7.1.*    50    50
 Fusion Rifle    +10 troop combat. Replaces Laser Rifle.   7.2.b   150   200
 Phasor Rifle    +20 troop combat. Replaces Fusion Rifle.  7.7.b  2000  6000
 Plasma Rifle    +30 troop combat. Replaces Phasor Rifle.  7.8.b  3500  9500
c) Other
 Anti-Grav Hrn.  +10 troop combat rating                   8.2.a   650   900
 Personal Shld   +20 troop combat rating                   8.4.b  1500  3300
 Powered Armor   +10 troop combat to Infntry, +1 hit point 1.6.c   650  1580
 Battleoids      +10 troop combat to Armored, 3 hit points 1.8.c  1150  3630
 Security Stat.  +20 troop combat for Marines defending    5.3.c   400   600
                  their ship against enemy boarders

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Marine Barrcks  4 Infantry +1/5turns up to 1/2max  60  1  1.1.*    50    50
 Armor Barracks  2 Armored +1/10turns up to 1/4max 150  2  1.5.b   400   930
                                           or (Battleoids) 1.8.c  1150  3630
Leader Abilities:
 G Commando      per level +2 (+3) to the troop combat of Marines and ground
                  troops in system. (Is this cumulative?)
 S Security      per level +2 (+3) to the troop combat of the fleet's
                  Marines when defending their ship against enemy boarders.
Other:
 Experience      when boarding or defending against boarders, ship crews get
                  a +0/5/10/15/20 bonus according to their experience level.
Remarks:
 Sometimes militia units help defending a colony. Does anyone know where
 they come from?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.12 Spy Rating:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 -10             -10 penalty to all spies                               -3
 +10             +10 bonus to all spies                                  3
 +20             +20 bonus to all spies                                  6
 Dictatorship    +10 bonus to defensive spies                            0
 Democracy       -10 penalty to defensive spies                          7
 Unification     +15 bonus to defensive spies                            6
 Telepathic      +10 bonus to all spies                                  6

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Imperium        +15 to defensive spies                    4.5.b  4500  8450
 Neural Scanner  +10 to all spies                          5.3.a   400   600
 Cyber Sec.Link  +10 to all spies                          5.5.c  1500  3000
 Telepath.Train  +5 to all spies                           6.3.a   900  1380
 Psionics        +10 to all spies                          6.6.a  2750  6780
 Stealth Suit    +10 to all spies                          8.4.c  1500  3300

Leader Abilities:
 G Assassin      per level +2% (+3%) chance to kill an enemy spy each turn
 G Spy Master    per level +2% (+3%) to offensive spies
 G Telepath      per level +?% (+?%) to defensie spies, negates effects of
                  enemy's telepathy (e.g. Mind Control) in the system.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.13 Diplomacy:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 Repulsive       declare war and sue for peace are only dipl. actions   -6
 Charismatic     +50% diplomacy, double effect of good and half effect   3
                  of bad diplomatic actions

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Xeno Psychol.  +30% diplomacy bonus                      4.2.a   650   800

Leader Abilities:
 G Diplomat      per level of leader +10% (+15%) diplomacy (cumulative?)

Events:
 Diplom.Assassin - relations between 2 empires get worse
 Diplom.Marriage + relations between 2 empires get better

Other:
 Using bio weapons and annihilitang population harms diplomacy. (How much?)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.14 Command Rating:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 Warlord         Each colony produces 2 command points                   4

Technologies:    order      command points                 Tech:   RP: Total
a) Communic.:    range      per orbital base
 Tachyon Comm.   3 parsecs   1                             7.3.a   250   450
 Subspace Comm.  6 parsecs   2 (replaces Tachyon Comm.)    7.6.a  1500  4000
 Hypersp. Comm.  unlimited   3 (replaces Subspace Comm)    7.10a  6000 20000
b) Other:
 Imperium        +50% command rating (was 0)               4.5.b  4500  8450

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Star Base       +1 command point, defends planet  400  2  1.1.*    50    50
 Battle Station  +2 command pts, replcs Star Base 1000  3  1.6.b   650  1580
 Star Fortress   +3 command pts, replcs Battlest. 2500  4  1.12.a 6000 16630

Leader Abilities:
 S Operations    adds per level of the leader +2 (+3) to the command rating.

Other:
 Military ships need 1 command point per size class.
 Support ships need 1 command point each.

Remarks:
 You always get 5 command points as a baseline.
 If you do not have enough Command Points you have to pay 10 BC per turn for
  every missing point.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.15 Scanners and Stealth:

Race Specials:   Effect:                                              Picks:
 Omniscient      Knows all planets, sees all (even stealthy) ships.      3
 Stealthy Ships  Own ships do not appear on galaxy map                   4

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Space Scanner   1+size class (2-7) parsecs                7.1.*    50    50
 Tachyon Scann.  3+size class (4-9), replace Space Scann.  7.3.b   250   450
 Neutron Scann.  5+size class (6-11), replace Tachyon Sc.  7.4.b   900  1350
 Sensors         8+size class (9-15), replace Neutron Sc.  7.10b  6000 20000

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Star Base       +2 scanner range at system        400  2  1.1.*    50    50
 Battle Station  +4 scanner range at system       1000  3  1.6.b   650  1580
 Star Fortress   +6 scanner range at system       2500  4  1.12a  6000 16630

Systems:                                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
 Stealth Field   Invisible on galaxy map   200%200  80%50  8.4.a  1500  3300
 Cloaking Dev.   Hides ship from scanners  250%250 100%62  8.7.a  3500 11550
 Battle Scanner  +2 scanner range on ship  250%100 100%25  7.3.c   250   450

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.16 Crew Experience:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 Warlord         all crews (and leaders?) get a +1 exper. level bonus    4

Buildings:                                          PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Space Academy   new ships +1 lvl, all +1 exp/turn 200  2  4.1.a   150   150

Leader Abilities:
 C Instructor    per level of leader +1 (+1.5) experience per turn to every
                  ship and leader (not cumulative, only best bonus applies)
Other:
 All ships and leaders gain +1 experience point per turn.
 All ships and leaders gain +2 pts for every enemy ship they destroy/capture

Affecting:
 Beam Attack     +0/15/30/50/75 BOCV for Green/Regul/Vet/Elite/U-Elite crews
 Beam Defense    +0/15/30/50/75 BDCV for Green/Regul/Vet/Elite/U-Elite crews
 Troop Combat    +0/15/30/50/75 troop combat for lvl 1-5 crews when boarding

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.17 Ship Offense: Beams

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 -20             -20% Beam attack to hit chance (BOCV) penalty          -2
 +20             +20% BOCV bonus                                         2
 +50             +50% BOCV bonus                                         4

Systems:         Effect:                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
a) Computers:
 Electr. Comp.   25% BOCV                  (see 3.1.4.2.5) 5.1.*    50    50
 Optronic Comp.  50% BOCV                  (see 3.1.4.2.5) 5.2.b   150   200
 Positronic C.   75% BOCV                  (see 3.1.4.2.5) 5.4.a   900  1500
 Cybertronic C.  100% BOCV                 (see 3.1.4.2.5) 5.6.a  2750  5750
 Moleculartr.C.  125% BOCV                 (see 3.1.4.2.5) 5.9.b  6000 17750
b) BOCV Modifiers (better chance to hit):
 Battle Scanner  +50% BOCV                 250%100 100%25  7.3.c   250   450
 Scout Lab       +20% BOCV ag. monsters    300%150 120%35  5.3.b   400   600
 Rangemaster TU  BOCV range penalty calc.  200%200  80%50  5.5.b  1500  3000
                  as if range was only 1/3
c) Damage Intensifiers:
 High En. Focus  +50% beam damage          200%200  80%50  2.7.a  3500  9530
 Struct.Analyz.  2x dmg if shlds penetr    150%200  60%50  5.6.c  2750  5750
d) Other:
 Hyper-X Capac.  2 shots with 1 turn wait  200%200  80%50  2.8.c  4500 14030
 Achilles T.U.   All weap. ignore Armor    200%300  80%75  5.9.c  6000 17750
                 If shield penetrated 2x chance to hit weapons or shields

Weapons:        Damage I 3ACEHPRS Spc      Siz/Cst Siz/Cst
 Laser Cannon    1-4     3ac hpr            10*5     3*1   7.1.*    50    50
 Fusion Beam     2-6       cehp             10*6     3*1   7.2.a   150   200
 Mass Driver      6    * 3a  hpR            10*7     3*1   8.1.b   250   250
 Ion Pulse Cann  2-14  * 3Ac h    sys       20*15    5*3   2.4.b   900  1280
 Neutron Blastr  3-12      c h    kil       10*8     3*2   7.4.a   900  1350
 Graviton Beam   3-15      c h    +st       15*12    4*3   7.5.b  1150  2000
 Phasor          5-20    3 c hp s           10*10    3*2   7.7.a  2000  6000
 Gauss Cannon     18   * 3a  h R            10*10    3*2   8.6.c  2750  8050
 Plasma Cannon   6-30  *   cEh    drd       10*15    3*3   7.8.a  3500  9500
 Disruptor Can    40   * 3   h R            20*25    5*6   7.9.a  4500 14000
 Mauler Device   100         h    a+d       50*75   30*18  7.10c  6000 20000
 Particle Beam  10-30      c hp S           15*35   15*35  9.2.5 Orion Orion
 Death Ray      50-100     c h    kil       30*75   30*75  9.2.1 Orion Orion
 Stellar Conv.   400   *    E  R  alw      500*500 200*125 7.11b 15000 35000
 (see legend at the end of this section)

Weapon Modifications:                                          Cost/Size Min
 Auto Fire       AF  3  -20% BOCV, but fires 3 times per turn        +50%  2
 Armor Piercing  AP  A  Beam bypasses Armor, hits Struct/Syst. dir.  +25%  1
 Continuous      CO  C  +25% BOCV                                    +25%  1
 Enveloping      ENV E  Hits 4 times (1 hit on each shield facing)  +100%  2
 Heavy Mount     HV  H  +50% damge, only 1/2 range penalty to BOCV     x2  0
                         and damage, unable to target fight./miss.
 Point Defense   PD  P  +25% BOCV; but 1/2 damage, 2x range penalty  x1/2  0
                         to BOCV and damage
 No Range Diss.  NR  R  Damage is not reduced by range               +25%  1
 Shield Piercng  SP  S  Beam bypasses shields                        +50%  1

Firing Arcs:                                                      Cost/Size:
 Forward         can fire straight on and up to 60 degree left/right     +0%
 Forward Ext     straight on and up to 120 degrees to the left or right +25%
 Backward Ext    can fire straight back and up to 120 degr. left/right  +25%
 Backward        can fire straight back and up to 60 degr. left/right    +0%
 360 Degree      can fire in all directions                             +50%

Leader Abilities:
 S Weaponry      per level of the leader +5% (+7.5%) to the ship's BOCV.
 S Galact. Lore  per level +10% (+15%) to the fleet's BOCV against monsters.
 S Ordnance      per level +5% (+7.5%) to the maximum damage of the ship's
                  attacks (probably beam only?)

Other:
 Crew Exp.Level  +0/15/30/50/75% BOCV for Green/Reg/Vet/Elite/U-Elite Crews
 Immobilized     +20% BOCV against immobilized targets (including bases?)
 Damage          Destruction of the computer System removes its BOCV bonus.
 Range to Target Damage only 90/80/70/60/50/40/35/0% if between you and your
                  target are  4/ 7/10/13/16/19/22/25 free squares at least,
                 also causes a BOCV penalty. How is it calculated?

Remarks:
 Beams do only half damage against planets.
 The calculation of the cost and size increments is done in three steps.
  First all percentage ratings resulting from modifications and firing arcs
  are summed up (e.g. Forward Extended Arc (+25%), Armor Piercing (+25%) and
  Enveloping (+100%) together result in a +150% increment). Then cost and
  size of the weapon are increased by this value (e.g. if the original cost
  was 20 PP then 150% = 30 PP will be added, resulting in 50 PP cost).
  Finally this result is doubled (or halved) for Heavy Mount (or Point
  Defense) weapons (the example above leads to 100 PP cost for a HV weapon
  or 25 PP for a PD weapon).

(Legend to the "Weapons" list:
 A "*" in the "I" column indicates that this weapon has at least 1 intrinsic
 Weapon Modification without the cost and size increments or the necessary
 Miniaturization level. The 3ACEHPRS columns stand for one modification
 each, if the weapon can have this mod, then the corresponding letter will
 appear in its line. Intrinsic modifications are shown in CAPITAL letters.
 The "Spc" column denotes another special bonus/penalty of this weapon:
   kil - kills 1 Marine per 5 points of damage to internal systems
   sys - bypasses armor AND structure, hitting systems directly
         This weapon has no effect against monsters and Antarans.
   +st - an additional 50% of the damage done will be applied to Structure
   drd - double range dissipation (double range damage penalty)
   alw - always hits, regardless of BOCV       a+d - as alw and drd        )

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.18 Ship Offense: Missiles

Race Specials:                                                        Picks:
 -20 Defense     -20% Beam defense (BDCV) penalty                       -2
 +25 Defense     +25% BDCV bonus  (missiles are harder to hit)           3
 +50 Defense     +50% BDCV bonus  (do these really apply to missiles?)   7

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
a) Drives:
 Nuclear Drive   missile speed 12, defense?                2.1.*    50    50
 Fusion Drive    missile speed 14, defense?                2.3.a   250   380
 Ion Drive       missile speed 16, defense?                2.4.a   900  1280
 Anti-Mat. Drv.  missile speed 18, defense?                2.5.a  2000  3280
 Hyper Drive     missile speed 20, defense?                2.8.b  4500 14030
 Interphased D.  missile speed 22, defense?                2.9.a 10000 24030
b) Guiding Systems:
 Emissions G.S.  EMG Modification available                5.5.a  1500  3000
 Dauntless G.S.  if target destroyed, tar. nearest enemy   5.2.c   150   200

Systems:                                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
a) Missiles     Damage Struct
 Nuclear Miss.    8      4                  20*20    5*5   3.1.*    50    50
 Merculite Miss  14      6                  20*20    5*5   3.3.a   650   950
 Pulson Missile  20      8                  20*20    5*5   3.4.a  1150  2100
 Zeon Missile    30     10                  20*20    5*5   3.6.a  4500  8600
b) Support
 Fast Miss.Rack  2 shots with 1 turn wait  200%200  80%50  1.7.a   900  2480

Weapon Modifications (for all missiles):                       Cost/Size Min
 Heav. Armored   ARM   doubles structure of missile                  +25%  1
 El.Ctr-Ctr-M.   ECCM  only 1/2 chance that miss. is jammed by ECM   +25%  1
 Fast travel     FST   +4 combat speed (defense?)                    +25%  1
 MIRV            MV    4 separate warheads, hit as 4 missiles       +100%  2
 Emissions G.S.  EMG   miss. bypass armor and hit drive directly    +300%  0

Other:
 Shots/Combat    2/5/10/15/20 shots need -50/+0/+50/+75/+100% cost and size.

Remarks:
 All missiles have a 360 degree firing arc.
 If not jammed or shot down, missiles will always hit, delivering their
  fixed amount of damage. They do full damage against planets.
 Missiles can be targeted by beam weapons, interceptors and anti-missile
  rockets.
 The calculation of the cost and size increments is done in two steps. First
  the "Shots per Combat" modification takes place. Then the Weapon Mod
  increments are calculated with the result of the first step as the base.
  Example: Missiles that cost 20 BC at 5 shots will cost 5 BC (25%) more
  with the ECCM modification. With 20 shots, the missiles alone will cost 40
  BC (+100%), and ECCM will now cost 10 BC more (25% of 40, NOT of 20!).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.19 Ship Offense: Torpedoes

Technologies:                                             No.: RPCost: Total
 Dauntless G.S.  if target destroyed, tar. nearest enemy  5.2.c    150   200

Systems:                                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
 Anti-Matter T.  Damage 25, Speed 20        30*15   12*3   2.5.b  2000  3280
 Proton Torpedo  Damage 40, Range 24        30*20   12*5   2.8.a  4500 14030
 Plasma Torpedo  Dmg 120 -5/sq, Spd 24      40*75   16*18  2.9.b 10000 24030

Weapon Modifications (for all torpedoes):                      Cost/Size Min
 El.Ctr-Ctr-M.   ECCM  only 1/2 chance that torp. is jammed by ECM   +25%  1
 Enveloping      ENV   hits 4 times (1 hit on each shield)          +100%  2
 Overloaded      OVR   +50% damage                                   +50%  1
 Not Red.by Rng  NR    Damage is not reduced by range                +25%  1
                        (only necessary for Plasma Torpedoes)
Remarks:
 Torpedoes fire only every 2 turns and have a 360 degree firing arc. The
  number of shots per combat is not limited (as it is for missiles).
 If not jammed or shot down, torpedoes will always hit, delivering their
  fixed amount of damage. They do only half damage against planets.
 Torpedoes cannot be targeted by any weapon system. (really?)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.20 Ship Offense: Fighters

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
a) Beam attack:
 -20 Attack      -20% Beam attack to hit chance (BOCV) penalty          -2
 +20 Attack      +20% BOCV bonus                                         2
 +50 Attack      +50% BOCV bonus  (do these really apply to fighters?)   4
b) Beam Defense (Fighters are easier/harder to hit):
 -20 Defense     -20% Beam defense (BDCV) penalty                       -2
 +25 Defense     +25% BDCV bonus                                         3
 +50 Defense     +50% BDCV bonus  (do these really apply to fighters?)   7

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
a) Computers:
 Electr. Comp.   25% BOCV                                  5.1.*    50    50
 Optronic Comp.  50% BOCV                                  5.2.b   150   200
 Positronic C.   75% BOCV                                  5.4.a   900  1500
 Cybertronic C.  100% BOCV                                 5.6.a  2750  5750
 Moleculartr.C.  125% BOCV                                 5.9.b  6000 17750
b) Structure:
 Titanium Armor  Struct: Int  2, Ass  3, Bom  4, Hvy  5    3.1.*    50    50
 Tritanium Arm.  Struct: Int  4, Ass  6, Bom  8, Hvy 10    3.2.b   250   300
 Zortrium Arm.   Struct: Int  8, Ass 12, Bom 16, Hvy 20    3.5.c  2000  4100
 Neutronium Arm  Struct: Int 12, Ass 18, Bom 24, Hvy 30    3.6.b  4500  8600
 Adamantium Arm  Struct: Int 16, Ass 24, Bom 32, Hvy 40    3.7.b 10000 18600
 Xentronium Arm  Struct: Int 20, Ass 30, Bom 40, Hvy 50    9.2.7 Orion Orion
c) Drive:
 Nuclear Drive   Speed:  Int 10, Ass  6, Bom  8, Hvy  8    2.1.*    50    50
 Fusion Drive    Speed:  Int 12, Ass  8, Bom 10, Hvy 10    2.3.a   250   380
 Ion Drive       Speed:  Int 14, Ass 10, Bom 12, Hvy 12    2.4.a   900  1280
 Anti-Mat. Drv.  Speed:  Int 16, Ass 12, Bom 14, Hvy 14    2.5.a  2000  3280
 Hyper Drive     Speed:  Int 18, Ass 14, Bom 16, Hvy 16    2.8.b  4500 14030
 Interphased D.  Speed:  Int 20, Ass 16, Bom 18, Hvy 18    2.9.a 10000 24030
d) Point Defense Beam Weapons (Interceptors and Heavy)
 Laser Cannon    1-2 Damage                                7.1.*    50    50
 Fusion Beam     1-3 Damage                                7.2.a   150   200
 Mass Driver      3  Damage   (is this one really used?)   8.1.b   250   250
 Phasor          2-10 Damage                               7.7.a  2000  6000
 Particle Beam   5-15 Damage  (is this one really used?)   9.2.5 Orion Orion
e) Bombs (Bombers and Heavy)
 Nuclear Bomb    3-12 Damage                               2.1.*    50    50
 Fusion Bomb     4-24 Damage                               2.3.b   250   380
 Anti-Matter B.  5-40 Damage                               2.5.c  2000  3280
 Neutronium B.   10-60 damage                              2.9.c 10000 24030
f) Marines (Assault Shuttles)
 see Ship Offense/Defense: Marines

Systems:         Effect:                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
 Fighter Bays    1 beam, fire 4x            30*10   30*2   1.2.b    80   130
 Assault Shutt.  carry 1 Marine             25*10   25*2   1.7.c   900  2480
 Bomber Bays     carry 1 bomb               60*30   60*7   1.10b  2000  7130
 Heavy Fighters  2 bombs + 2 beams (2x?)    80*50   80*12  1.12c  6000 16630

Leader Abilities:
 S Fight. Pilot  per level +5 (+7.5) to the defense (BDCV) and beam weapon
                  damage (?) to all fighters in the fleet

Remarks:
 Fighters have a 360 degree "launching arc" and launch in squadrons of 4.
  They fly to their target, attack it at its weakest shield, then return to
  the carrier. Those who made it back can be sent off again.
 Fighters can be targeted by Beam Weapons, Interceptors and Anti-Missile
  Rockets. They can target ships, Bombers and Heavy Fighters can also target
  planets. Interceptors can target ships, missiles and fighters. Bombers can
  throw bombs at other ships.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.21 Ship Offense: Bombs

Systems:         Effect:                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
a) Bombs
 Nuclear Bomb    3-12 Damage                 5*3     1*1   2.1.*    50    50
 Fusion Bomb     4-24 Damage                 7*5     2*1   2.3.b   250   380
 Anti-Matter B.  5-40 Damage                 7*6     2*1   2.5.c  2000  3280
 Neutronium B.   10-60 damage               10*9     3*2   2.9.c 10000 24030
b) Support
 Transporters    12 sq range (was 3)       200%100  80%25  2.6.a  2750  6030
 Bomber Bays     use bombs against          60*30   60*7   1.10b  2000  7130
                 ships and planets
c) Bio Weapons
 Death Spores    10% to kill 1 pop           5*5     1*1   6.2.c   400   480
 Bio Terminator  20% to kill 1 pop           7*8     2*2   6.7.a  4500 11280
d) Planet Destruction
 Stellar Conv.   destr. pl. from orbit     500*500 200*125 7.11b 15000 35000

Remarks:
 Bombs always hit their target. They do full damage against planets. They
  have a 360 degree firing arc.
 The use of bio weapons harms diplomatic relations with all other races.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.22 Ship Offense: Special Weapons

Systems:         Effect:                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
 Plasma Web      Rng 15, 5-25 env.dmg.      40*40   16*10  7.8.c  3500  9500
                  persists
 Gyro Destabil.  (3-7)x size struct dmg     50*35   20*8   8.2.c   650   900
                  Rng 15. Pass Shld/Arm
 Pulsar          (2-24)x size dmg to        50*30   20*7   8.5.a  2000  5300
                  ship/miss/fight, 6 sq rad.
 Spatial Compr.  (4-32)x size dmg to        50*40   50*40  9.2.6 Orion Orion
                  everything in 2 sq rad.
 Black Hole Gen  target cannot move, is    150*150 150*150 9.2.8 Orion Orion
                  destroyed in 2 turns
 Tractor Beam    slows/immobilizes ship     30*20   12*5   7.5.a  1150  2500
 Stasis Field    Rng 3. Target is frozen    75*75   30*18  8.7.b  3500 11550
                  and cannot be attacked
 AntiMiss.Rock.  Hit with 85% -5/square     20*5     8*1   1.2.a    80   130
                 ag. missiles/fighters
 Energy Absorbr  absorbs 1/4 of pot.       250%250 100%62  2.7.b  3500  9530
                  damage, throws back
 Quantum Deton.  50% self-destr. when capt  60%90   60%90  9.2.4 Orion Orion
                  3x damage
Other:
 (Self)Destruct  Damage to adjacent ships. (How much? Which radius?)

Remarks
 Special Weapons can target ships only (except Anti-Missile Rockets which
  can target missiles and fighters only). Weapons that do damage in a radius
  around them also hit missiles and fighters (both have size class 1/2).
 If not stated otherwise, special weapons always hit theit target.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.23 Ship Offense/Defense: Boarding Marines

Systems:         Effect:                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
 Security Stat.  +20 defense bonus         100%50   40%12  5.3.c   400   600
 Troop Pods      2x Marines onboard        250%100 250%25  1.4.b   250   530
 Assault Shutt.  drop off Marines           25*10   25*2   1.7.c   900  2480
 Tractor Beam    slows/immobilizes ship     30*20   12*5   7.5.a  1150  2500
 Transporters    beam Mar. from 12 sq      200%100  80%25  2.6.a  2750  6030
                  if facing shld down
 Hard Shields    negate Transporters       200%200  80%50  8.7.c  3500 11550
 Damper Field    50% to neg. Transp.       100%150 100%150
 Neutron Blastr  \ kill 1 Marine per        10*8     3*2   7.4.a   900  1350
 Death Ray       / 5 damage to systems      30*75   30*75  9.2.1 Orion Orion

Leader Abilities:
 G Commando      per level +2 (+3) to the troop combat of Marines and ground
                  troops in system. (Is this cumulative?)
 S Security      per level +2 (+3) to the troop combat of the fleet's
                  Marines when defending their ship against enemy boarders.
Other:
 Experience      when boarding or defending against boarders, ship crews get
                  a +0/5/10/15/20 bonus according to their experience level.
 Ship Size       5/8/12/20/30/50 Marines Crew on class 1/2/3/4/5/6 ships.
 Damage          Each point of damage that penetrates shields and armor has
                  a 2% chance of killing a Marine.
Remarks:
 You can board a ship if a) it is immobilized and your ship occupies an
  adjacent square, b) you have transporters and its shield facing you is
  down, c) you send Assault Shuttles.
 Do the Ground combat bonuses also apply to Marine fighting? All of them?
 Does cloaking affect boarding?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.24 Ship Defense: Beam Defense (Beam DCV in Fleets Screen):

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 -20             -20% BDCV penalty                                      -2
 +25             +25% BDCV bonus                                         3
 +50             +50% BDCV bonus                                         7

Systems:         Effect:                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
 Inert. Stabil.  +50% BDCV, 1/2 turn cost  300%100 120%25  8.2.b   650   900
 Inert. Nullif.  +100% BDCV, no turn cost  300%450 120%112 8.9.c  7500 23550
 Cloaking Dev.   +80% BDCV when cloaked    250%250 100%62  8.7.a  3500 11550

Leader Abilities:
 S Helmsman      per level +5% (+7.5%) bonus to the ship's beam defense.

Other:
 Combat Speed    +5% beam defense per 1 square of combat speed.
 Crew Exp.Level  +0/15/30/50/75% BDCV for Green/Reg/Vet/Elite/U-Elite Crews

Remarks:
 Does anyone know how the beam defense of missiles/fighters is calculated?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.25 Ship Defense: Missile Evasion

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Tachyon Scann.  -20 to target's missile evasion           7.3.b   250   450
 Neutron Scann.  -40 to target's m.e., replace Tachyons    7.4.b   900  1350
 Sensors         -70 to target's m.e., replace Neutrons    7.10b  6000 20000

Systems:         Effect:                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
a) ECM Systems:
 ECM Jammer      +70% missile evasion      200%100  80%25  8.1.c   250   250
 Multi-Wave ECM  +100% miss. evasion       200%200  80%50  8.6.b  2750  8050
 Wide Area Jam.  +130% ship, +70% fleet    400%400 160%100 8.8.c  4500 16050
b) Fields
 Lightning Fld.  50% chance to destroy     200%200  80%50  8.5.c  2000  5300
                  miss./fight./torps
 Cloaking Dev.   50% ch. missiles miss     250%250 100%62  8.7.a  3500 11550
c) Rockets
 AntiMiss.Rock.  Hit with 85% -5/square     20*5     8*1   1.2.a    80   130
                  ag. missiles/fighters
Remarks:
 Missile Evasion helps against missiles and torpedoes, but not fighters.
 Anti-Missile Rockets can target missiles and fighters, but not torpedoes.
 Beam Weapons also can target missiles and fighters, but not torpedoes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.26 Ship Defense: Shields and other Fields

Systems:                                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
a) Shields       Block: Absorb:
 Class I Shield    1    5x size            200%100  50%25  8.1.a   250   250
 Cl. III Shield    3    15x size           200%100  50%25  8.3.a   900  1800
 Class V Shield    5    25x size           200%100  50%25  8.6.a  2750  8050
 Cl. VII Shield    7    35x size           200%100  50%25  8.8.a  4500 16050
 Class X Shield   10    50x size           200%100  50%25  8.10a 15000 38550
b) Shield Support
 Shld Capacitor  triples recharge rate     200%200  80%50  2.4.c   900  1280
 Multi-Ph.Shlds  +50% Absorption           200%200  80%50  7.7.c  2000  6000
 Hard Shields    Block +3 dmg, negate SP   200%200  80%50  8.7.c  3500 11550
c) Other Fields
 Energy Absorbr  absorbs 1/4 of pot. dmg.  250%250 100%62  2.7.b  3500  9530
                  throws it back
 Displacem.Dev.  30% ch. any weapon misses 200%300  80%75  8.9.a  7500 23550
 Phasing Cloak   10 turns invulnerability  300%450 120%112 8.10c 15000 38550
 Damper Field    Blocks 3/4 dmg, no Shield 100%150 100%150 9.2.3 Orion Orion
 Reflect.Field   can reflect beams         200%300 200%300 9.2.2 Orion Orion
 Lightning Fld.  50% chance to destroy     200%200  80%50  8.5.c  2000  5300
                  miss./fight./torps

Leader Abilities:
 Engineer        per level +2% (+3%) to the ship's shield restoration rate.

Other:
 Damage          Destruction of the shield System takes away the shields.

Remarks:
 Ships in stasis fields cannot be hit with any weapons.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.27 Ship Defense: Armor and Structure

Race Specials:   Effect:                                              Picks:
 Cybernetic      Fix 10% Armor and Struct damage, 5% Systems damage      4
                  per combat turn, repair ship completely after battle.

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Titanium Armor  Standard Armor                            3.1.*    50    50
 Tritanium Arm.  2x Armor and Struct, replcs Titanium      3.2.b   250   300
 Zortrium Arm.   4x Armor and Struct, replcs Tritanium     3.5.c  2000  4100
 Neutronium Arm  6x Armor and Struct, replcs Zortrium      3.6.b  4500  8600
 Adamantium Arm  8x Armor and Struct, replcs Neutronium    3.7.b 10000 18600
 Xentronium Arm  10x Arm. and Struct, negates AP, repl.Ad. 9.2.7 Orion Orion
 Adv.Dmg.Contr.  all ships compl. repaired after battle    1.7.b   900  2480

Systems:                                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
 Reinforcd Hull  Struct x3, Drive x3       200%100 200%25  1.2.c    80   130
 Heavy Armor     Armor x3, negate AP       200%100 200%25  1.3.c   150   280
 AutoRepair Un.  Fix Arm,Struct,Sys.       200%200  80%50  1.9.b  1500  5130

Leader Abilities:
 Engineer        Repairs per level 2 (3) of ship's Structure or Armor.
                 Repairs ship completely after combat.
Other:
 Ship Size       4/10/30/50/80/150 Armor and Struct on size 1/2/3/4/5/6 ship
 Star Bases      All bases completely repair ships in the system each turn.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.28 Ship Speed:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
 Trans-Dimens.   +2 travel speed (includes +4 combat speed)              5
                  (this does not work yet - bug?)
Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
a) Drives
 Nuclear Drive   travel speed 2, base combat speed 4       2.1.*    50    50
 Fusion Drive    travel speed 3, base combat speed 6       2.3.a   250   380
 Ion Drive       travel speed 4, base combat speed 8       2.4.a   900  1280
 Anti-Mat. Drv.  travel speed 5, base combat speed 10      2.5.a  2000  3280
 Hyper Drive     travel speed 6, base combat speed 12      2.8.b  4500 14030
 Interphased D.  travel speed 7, base combat speed 14      2.9.a 10000 24030
b) Other
 Jump Gate       +3 tr.sp. for ships betw. 2 own colonies  7.6.b  1500  4000
 Star Gate       travel betw. 2 own col. takes 1 turn      7.11c 15000 35000

Systems:         Effect:                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
 Augmented Eng.  +5 combat speed           200%100 200%25  2.3.c   250   380
 Inert. Stabil.  1/2 turn cost, +50% BDCV  300%100 120%25  8.2.b   650   900
 Inert. Nullif.  no turn cost, +100% BDCV  300%450 120%112 8.9.c  7500 23550
 Subsp.Teleprt.  20 square jump in combat  200%300  80%75  8.9.b  7500 23550
 Phase Shifter   18 sq. jump, target any      %   ?   %    9.2.9 Orion Orion
 TimeWarp Fac.   ship gets 2 combat turns  300%450 120%112 7.11a 15000 35000

Leader Abilities:
 S Navigator     per level + 0.5 (+1), but at least +1, to the travel speed
                  of all fleets. (including increase in combat speed?)
                  (This does not work yet - bug?)
Events:
 Hyperspace Flux - only trans-dimensional races can travel through Hypersp.
 Warp Funnel     - one travelling fleet gets frozen (how long?)
 Wormhole        + one travelling fleet reaches its destination at once

Other:
 Size Class      +6/4/2/1/0/-1 to combat speed of ships of size 1/2/3/4/5/6.
 Unused Space    + (10 * ( unused_space / hull_size ) ) for every ship.
 Damage          Damage to the engine System slows the ship proportionally?

Affecting:
 Beam Defense    +5% beam defense per 1 square of combat speed

Remark:
 So, before every combat turn, the combat speed of all ships is calculated
 according to the formulae above. The computer takes the base combat speed
 of the empire's fastest engine, adds the size class bonus and then adds the
 Unused space bonus. Since the ship's systems are miniaturized when you
 research better technologies, any ship's Unused space bonus will grow over
 time, making the ship faster.
 The hull_size in the formula is the base hull size of ships of that size
 class in the empire. This means that by equipping your ship with battle
 pods, these will increase the unused space, but not the hull size, thereby
 making your ship faster. Is this a bug?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.29 Ship Range:

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
 Standard Fuel Cells   4 parsecs ship range                3.1.*    50    50
 Deuterium Fuel Cells  6 parsecs ship range                3.2.a   250   300
 Iridium Fuel Cells    9 parsecs ship range                3.4.c  1150  2100
 Uridium Fuel Cells    12 parsecs ship range               3.6.c  4500  8600
 Thorium Fuel Cells    unlimited ship range                3.7.a 10000 18600

Systems:                                   Siz/Cst Siz/Cst Tech:   RP: Total
 Ext.Fuel Tanks  +50% range for ship       250%120 250%30  3.1.*    50    50

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.30 Ship Size, Space and Cost:

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
a) Ship Construction
 Titan Constr.   enables you to build Titan Class ships    1.8.a  1150  3630
 Doom Star Con.  enables you to build Doom Stars           1.13a  7500 24130
b) Other
 Megafluxers     +25% space on all ships and bases         2.7.c  3500  9530

Systems:                                Siz/Cst   Siz/Cst  Tech:   RP: Total
 Battle Pods     +50% space on ship    -500%1600 -500%1600 1.4.a   250   530

Other:
 Ship Size       25/60/120/250/500/1200 space on class 1/2/3/4/5/6 ship.
 Ship Cost       20/70/250/600/1500/4000 PP for a class 1/2/3/4/5/6 ship.

Affecting:
 Ship Speed      +6/4/2/1/0/-1 to combat speed of ships of size 1/2/3/4/5/6.

Remark:
 The +50% space bonus of the Battle Pods is relative to the base hull size
  without the use of Megafluxers, i.e. they provide 12/30/60/125/250/600
  additional space (according to Size class), regardless whether Megafluxers
  have been invented or not. This may be a bug?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2.31 Star Bases Combat Values:

Race Specials:   Effects:                                             Picks:
a) Beam Attacks
 -20             -20% Beam attack to hit chance (BOCV) penalty          -2
 +20             +20% BOCV bonus                                         2
 +50             +50% BOCV bonus                                         4
b) Beam Defense
 -20 Defense     -20% Beam defense (BDCV) penalty                       -2
 +25 Defense     +25% BDCV bonus                                         3
 +50 Defense     +50% BDCV bonus                                         7

Technologies:                                              Tech:   RP: Total
a) Computers:
 Electr. Comp.   BOCV:  Base  40%,  Batt  50%,  Fort  60%  5.1.*    50    50
 Optronic Comp.  BOCV:  Base  65%,  Batt  75%,  Fort  85%  5.2.b   150   200
 Positronic C.   BOCV:  Base  90%,  Batt 100%,  Fort 110%  5.4.a   900  1500
 Cybertronic C.  BOCV:  Base 115%,  Batt 125%,  Fort 135%  5.6.a  2750  5750
 Moleculartr.C.  BOCV:  Base 140%,  Batt 150%,  Fort 160%  5.9.b  6000 17750
b) Missile Evasion:
 ECM Jammer      +70% missile evasion    (-> 77%)          8.1.c   250   250
 Multi-Wave ECM  +100% miss. evasion     (->107%)          8.6.b  2750  8050
 Wide Area Jam.  +130% ship, +70% fleet  (->207%, bug?)    8.8.c  4500 16050
c) Shield:
 Class I Shield  Shld:  Base  15,   Batt  20,   Fort  25   8.1.a   250   250
 Cl. III Shield  Shld:  Base  45,   Batt  60,   Fort  75   8.3.a   900  1800
 Class V Shield  Shld:  Base  75,   Batt 100,   Fort 125   8.6.a  2750  8050
 Cl. VII Shield  Shld:  Base 105,   Batt 140,   Fort 175   8.8.a  4500 16050
 Class X Shield  Shld:  Base 150,   Batt 200,   Fort 250   8.10a 15000 38550
d) Armor and Structure:
 Titanium Armor  A/Str: Base  60,   Batt  90,   Fort 120   3.1.*    50    50
 Tritanium Arm.  A/Str: Base 120,   Batt 180,   Fort 240   3.2.b   250   300
 Zortrium Arm.   A/Str: Base 240,   Batt 360,   Fort 480   3.5.c  2000  4100
 Neutronium Arm  A/Str: Base 360,   Batt 540,   Fort 720   3.6.b  4500  8600
 Adamantium Arm  A/Str: Base 480,   Batt 720,   Fort 960   3.7.b 10000 18600
 Xentronium Arm  A/Str: Base 600,   Batt 900,   Fort 1200  9.2.7 Orion Orion
e) Heavy Mount Beams:
f) Unmodified Beams:    (?)
g) Point Defense Beams:
h) Missiles (20 Shots):
i) Special Systems:
 Battle Scanner  +50% BOCV                                 7.3.c   250   450
 Heavy Armor     Armor x3, negate AP                       1.3.c   150   280
 Reinforcd Hull  Struct x3, Drive system x3                1.2.c    80   130
 Shld Capacitor  triples shield recharge rate              2.4.c   900  1280
 Multi-Ph.Shlds  +50% Absorption                           7.7.c  2000  6000
 Hard Shields    Block +3 damage, negate SP                8.7.c  3500 11550
 Security Stat.  +20 for defending Marines                 5.3.c   400   600
j) Other:
 Megafluxers     +25% space on all ships and bases         2.7.c 3500   9530

                    Syst.Dmg  Space:
Buildings:     Crew Com/Shld  HV  no  PD Mis Totl   PP BC  Tech:   RP: Total
 Star Base       20   5  6    60  30  30 150 270   400  2  1.1.*    50    50
 Battle Station  40   7  7   125  60  60 300 545  1000  3  1.6.b   650  1580
 Star Fortress   80  10 10   250 125 125 600 1100 2500  4  1.12a  6000 16630

 (Legend: Com/Shld means the System Damage that Computer and Shields can
  take before they are destroyed. The four columns under "Space" show how
  much space the base offers for Heavy Mount beams, unmodified beams, Point
  Defense beams and missiles, the fifth column sums these four up.

Remarks:
 All bases have a base beam defense (BDCV) of -5% and a base missile evasion
  of 7%. They are immobile, which gives attackers a +20% beam attack (BOCV)
  bonus. They can be boarded, and if the attacker wins will then be
  destroyed after combat.
 All Bases are automatically equipped with the best Computer, ECM Jammer,
  Shields, Armor and the seven systems listed under i) when they are
  available. They offer a fixed amount of space for Heavy, unmodified, Point
  Defense and 20-shot-missile weapons each (which can be increased with
  Megafluxers). The best weapon of each type will be chosen and implemented
  until there is no room for more of them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.3 Rules and Formulae

3.3.4.1 Leaders List

Ship Officers:

Altos, the Alkari Pilot
 Fighter Pilot +5, Helmsman* +7.5, Navigator +1
Aquasarrious, the Trilarian Navigator
 Helmsman +5, Navigator* +1, Weapons +5
Caern, the Tulosian Mercenary
 Helmsman +5, Navigator +1, Ordnance +5, Security +2, Weapons +5
Cyr, the Fighter Ace
 Fighter Pilot +5
Dalan, the Legendary Captain
 Famous* -90, Fighter Pilot* +7.5, Helmsman* +7.5, Ordnance* +7.5
 Weapons* +7.5
Dantos, the Bandit Lord
 Famous* -90, Megawealth +10, Fighter Pilot* +7.5, Helmsman +5, Weapns* +7.5
Diablo, the Cyber Marauder
 Assassin +2, Commando +2, Spy Master +2, Ordnance +5, Weapons +5
Gizmo, the Gadgeteer
 Researcher +5, Engineer +2
Grak, the Bulrathi Commando
 Commando* +3, Famous -60, Operations +2, Security +2
Grum, the Armsman
 Commando +2, Security +2
Hawk, the Astrogator
 Helmsman +5, Navigator +1
Jarred, the Explorer
 Diplomat +10, Helmsman +5, Navigator* +1, Weapons +5
Karg, the Pirate Captain
 Galactic Lore* +7.5, Helmsman* +7.5, Navigator* +1, Ordnance* +7.5,
 Weapons* +7.5
Kher, the Smuggler
 Trader +10, Helmsman +5, Navigator +1, Weapons +5
Kronos, the Ancient Spacefarer
 Galactic Lore* +7.5, Helmsman +5, Navigator* +1
Kytryl, the Privateer
 Famous -60, Trader +10, Helmsman* +7.5, Navigator* +1, Weapons +5
Loknar, the Last Orion  (after defeating the Guardian)
 Fighter Pilot* +7.5, Galactic Lore* +7.5, Helmsman* +7.5, Ordnance* +7.5,
 Weapons* +7.5
Mukirr, the Mrrshan Warrior
 Commando +2, Weapons* +7.5
Mystic X, the Unknown
 Random Captain
Nhagg, the Armsmaster
 Commando* +3, Ordnance* +7.5, Weapons +5
Nile, the Forsaken Warrior
 Commando* +3, Security* +3, Weapons* +7.5
Ruola, the Weapons Officer
 Weapons +5
Skaine, the Legendary Pilot
 Famous* -90, Fighter Pilot* +7.5, Helmsman* +7.5, Navigator +1, Weapons +5
Slag, the Armsdealer
 Megawealth +10, Trader* +15, Helmsman +5, Navigator +1, Weapons +5
Slith, the Rebel Pilot
 Helmsman +5, Navigator +1, Ordnance +5, Weapons +5
Sparky, the Meklar Cybernaut
 Engineer* +3, Ordnance +5
Tellik, the Legendary Engineer
 Famous* -90, Operations* +3, Researcher* +7.5, Engineer* +3, Ordnance* +7.5
Tulock, the Bounty Hunter
 Assassin +2, Commando +2, Helmsman* +7.5, Navigator +1, Weapons* +7.5
Tyranous, the Sakkra Armsman
 Commando +2, Security +2, Weapons +5
V'Larr, the Independent Trader
 Megawealth +10, Helmsman +5, Navigator +1, Weapons +5
Xyphys, the Antaran Warrior  (the Antaran hero defending Antares)
 Fighter Pilot* +7.5, Helmsman* +7.5, Ordnance* +7.5, Security* +3,
 Weapons* +7.5

Colony Leaders:

Ailis, the Gifted
 Envionmentalist -10, Medicine* +15, Spiritual +10
Androgena,
 Farming +10, Financial +10, Labor +10, Medicine +10
Black Razor, the Enforcer
 Assassin* +3, Spy Master* +3, Farming +10, Financial +10, Labor +10
Brainac,
 Random
Cassandra, the Elerian Mystic
 Diplomat +10, Telepath* +3, Envionmentalist -10, Spiritual +10
Chug, the Planetologist
 Researcher +5, Envionmentalist -10, Farming +10
Claw, the Klackon Taskmaster
 Operations* +3, Farming* +15, Labor* +15
Crassis, the Labor Leader
 Labor +10
Draxx, the Spy Master
 Assasin* +3, Spy Master* +3
Electra, the High Priestess
 Telepath +2, Envionmentalist* -15, Farming* +15, Spiritual* +15
Emo, the Science Leader
 Science +10
Felina, the Naturalist
 Envionmentalist* -15, Farming* +15
Galis, the Financial Leader
 Financial +10
Garron, the Ambassador
 Diplomat* +15, Famous -60, Megawealth +10
Houri, the Environmentalist
 Envionmentalist* -15
Khunagg, the Ruthless
 Commando +2, Farming +10, Labor +10, Tactics +6
Kimbuzzi, the Farming Leader
 Farming +10
Kirsus, the Psilon Scientist
 Researcher* +7.5, Science* +15
Lydon, the Noble
 Diplomat +10, Famous -60, Megawealth +10
Malovane, the Battle Lord
 Commando* +3, Instructor* +1.5, Labor* +15, Spiritual* +15
Matrix, the Cyber Mage
 Assassin +2, Telepath* +3, Science* +15, Spiritual* +15
Megatron, the Relic Android
 Farming* +15, Labor* +15, Science* +15
Mentox, the Legendary Scientist
 Famous* -90, Researcher* +7.5, Science* +15
Necron, the Dark Lord
 Telepath* +3, Financial* +15, Labor* +15, Science* +15, Spiritual* +15
Nimraaz, the Master Tactician
 Commando* +3, Operations* +3, Instructor +1, Tactics* +9
Orphus, the Peacemaker
 Diplomat* +15, Famous -60, Instructor +1, Medicine* +15, Spiritual* +15
Ralleia, the Siren
 Diplomat* +15, Famous -60, Spiritual* +15
Rash-Iki, the Warlord
 Commando +2, Instructor* +1.5, Labor* +15, Tactics +6
Tanus, the Revolutionary
 Farming +10, Labor +10, Science +10, Spiritual +10
Torg, the Overlord
 Commando +2, Farming* +15, Financial* +15, Labor* +15
Urro, the Ikarian Doctor
 Researcher +5, Medicine* +15
Valin, the Rogue Trader
 Megawealth +10, Trader* +15, Financial +10
Vott, the Technomancer
 Megawealth +10, Researcher* +7.5, Financial* +15, Science* +15
Xantus, the Supreme
 Envionmentalist* -15, Financial* +15, Labor* +15, Science* +15,
 Spiritual* +15
Yota, the Elder Sensei
 Famous* -90, Instructor* +1.5
Zog, the Gnolam Capilatist
 Megawealth +10, Financial* +15, Labor +10

3.3.4.2 Leader Levels

Lvl  Ship Officer   Colony Leader
 1  Commander      Administrator
 2  Captain        Director
 3  Commodore      Magistrate
 4  Rear Admiral   Commissioner
 5  Admiral        Governor
 6  Lord Admiral   Lord

Each effect of every leader is multiplied with this leaders's level. Exceptions to this rule are Megawealth (always stays at +10), Navigator and perhaps Instructor (I haven't figured out the latter two yet).

3.3.4.3 Leader Rules

If you have four leaders in any category, you will never get a new leader. Unless all four of them are real good once I get a fourth leader I fire the lousiest guy. This keeps me from losing any good leaders due to being "full". If a leader shows up, and you don't hire him/her, he will also prevent new leaders from showing up. Go to the leaders screen and dismiss
him. Even though you never hired him, you have to dismiss him to open up the slot again for new leaders.            

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.3.5 Diplomacy

3.3.6 Spying

[Dave Osborn <osbornd@smtpgate.umkc.edu>] contributed: "In the MOO I strategy guide, they almost penalized you for having too many spies. It is likely that MOO II is doing the same thing. I have the best luck with around 4 defending spies and 1 at each enemy."

[Doug Jacobs <djacobs@rahul.net>] observed: "It's been my experience that having TONS of spies will actually cause you to fail more than if you just have a few. Maybe it's like a bell curve ... there's an optimal # of spies for a given empire size. Too few will have little effect. Too many would probably increase your chances of getting caught (with nothing to show for it)."

Some people think that the spying mechanism has bugs, but I am not so sure about that. Some observations that seem to indicate a bug can be explained otherwise. For example, if everyone steals your tech, even races that have no espionage boni, then perhaps there is only one advanced race doing all the spying, which just frames the other races (when you have been robbed you can check with the "Report" button in the diplomacy screen where the tech really went).

If you have an espionage penalty due to a race special or goverment, and another race with an espionage bonus is consequently spying at you, then it appears logical that you will never get rid of it. You may hamper their activities when you research the right tech, but since they have their bonus, they sometimes still succeed until eventually they steal exactly that tech, which will improve their chances even more. The only chance you have under these conditions is to research other techs that improve your spy rating before your enemy can steal the first tech. Or you have to put your
defensive spies to maximum performance, but at the moment no one knows how to do that.

Of course, a buggy formula could also explain the phenomena mentioned above. Since there are integer overflows elsewhere in the game, it is conceivable that another overflow might be the reason for the observed ineffectiveness of large numbers of spies.

Either way, the exact formula remains unknown unless a) someone hacks the code or b) the formula gets derived through experiment and analysis. I suggest that some MOOniac (who has a certain amount of spare time) does the
following: Start a hot-seat multiplayer game with 8 identical races, none should have espionage modifications. Give one race ("Provider") all the tech with the according cheat. Give all techs except those that enhance spying to another race ("Victim") and have this race produce a number of defensive spies (e.g. 4). Save the game. Have the remaining six races ("Spies") spy at the victim, each with a different number of spies (e.g. 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36) and write down their success. You may want to do this for a longer time because the random number generator is involved in the formula, which will
distort the pattern that you want to find. Afterwards load the previously saved game and have the provider give some spy-enhancing tech to either the victim or the spies (both situations should be tried). Repeat the experiment under these conditions. In other trials you can change the number of the victim's defensive spies. With all this data we then can calculate a variable "average number of turns per success" for each number of offensive spies against each number of defensive spies under each combination of offensive/defensive spy ratings. By comparing these numbers we may be able
to derive the rules for spying.

Another question that no one could answer so far is how the game determines which race is being framed. Logically only races that are known to spy and victim should be available for framing, but has each of those the same chance or is there a bias, maybe based on how technically advanced each race is?

3.3.10 Random Events

Negative events have a bigger chance to hit leading empires, whereas positive events are more likely to strike empires that have fallen behind. The "Lucky" race special improves this race's chance to encounter positive events and negates the chance to encounter negative events.

The following list explains all possible events. Positive/negative events are marked with a plus/minus sign respectively. Detailed information about the duration, the size of effect and the necessary countermeasures will be greatly appreciated.

Ancient Ship     + one empire's scientists discover one new technology
Axis Shift       + one colony's environment gets improved to Terran
Comet            - destroys one colony if not destroyed by fleet?
Computer Virus   - have to start current research project from scratch
Diplom. Assassin - relations between 2 empires get worse
Diplom. Marriage + relations between 2 empires get better
Donation         + one empire gets some money
Earthquake       - kills/destroys population and buildings on one colony
Exploded Ship    - destroys one ship, a leader onboard gets killed
Hyperspace Flux  - only trans-dimensional races can travel through Hypersp.
Industr.Accident - one colony's environment gets set to radiated?
Miner. Depletion - one colony's mineral richness gets lessened (how much?)
Mineral Deposit  + one colony's mineral richness gets improved (how much?)
Mutiny           - one ship now belongs to another empire
Pirates          - reduce trade? steal BC from colony? destroy with fleet?
Plague           - one colony's research output redirected to finding cure
Population Boom  + one colony's population growth is doubled (how long?)
Secret Experimt  + scientists discover one new technology FIELD
Space Amoeba     - invades galaxy, toxifies planets?
Space Crystal    - invades galaxy, kills colonists?
Space Dragon     - invades galaxy, kills colonists?
Space Eel        - invades galaxy, blockades system, spawns?
Space Hydra      - invades galaxy, kills colonists?
Super Nova       - one colony's research output redirected to finding sol.
Time-Sp. Anomaly - one system gets frozen (how long?)
Hyperspace Beast - randomly destroys travelling ships (how long/how many?)
Warp Funnel      - one travelling fleet gets frozen (for how long?)
Wormhole         + one travelling fleet reaches its destination at once

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3.3.11 Score

Compared to the score you can get from the population in your empire, every other score component is just peanuts. But only YOUR OWN population counts fully. Unassimilated population counts only 20%(?), and assimilated foreign population doesn't count fully, too (This is only an impression I got, and not verified).   
Someone claimed the max tech score is 212, and that you do NOT get points for hyper advanced techs, as the manual states. 
The manual says you get a bonus for winning by council vote - but you actually don't. Take other races planets by force - you don't get those "bonus" points if you, say, demand them, or if they surrender to you.

============================================================================
=  PART IV: STRATEGY  -  Hints, Tricks, Tactics, Strategies                =
============================================================================
4.2 Custom Races

4.2.1 Discussion of Special Abilities

4.2.1.1 Population Growth Modifiers (-50%/+50%/+100% for -4/3/6 picks)

-50% growth can be fairly painlessly negated by cloning (400 RP). By the midgame, you should have almost completely negated the disadvantage. For the positive modifier, consider the best case: terran planet at exactly 1/2 its max pop. For the three points, you get an extra 50K colonists/turn, or one extra point of population after 20(!) turns. But for the same price as +50 pop, you might have taken +1 production; you could have had *all* of your workers producing an extra +1 resource for *all* twenty turns.
                                                       
4.2.1.2 Food Modifiers (-0.5/+1/+2 for -3/4/7 picks)

There are other, less painful disadvantages than -1/2 food. It is a *crippling* pick for a non-unification, non-aquatic, and non-cybernetic race. To feed 8 colonists takes 6 (!) of them, meaning you start 1/2 as
productive as normal races until you get decent food tech. Yuck. This is *not* what you want in the most critical section of the game!
                                                      
-1/2 farming is almost an auto-pick for Aquatic, Unified, and Cybernetic (because of increased food production or less need for food), but junk otherwise.                                   

4.2.1.3 Production Modifiers (-1/+1/+2 for -3/3/6 picks)

These are powerful picks since research and production are the key issues of the game.

4.2.1.4 Research Modifiers (-1/+1/+2 for -3/3/6 picks)

These are powerful picks since research and production are the key issues of the game. However there are people who rarely use scientists at all except in the beginning of the game. This is possible because the research technologies (research labs etc.) do not only enhance the output of scientists, they also provide a base research output regardless whether
scientists are present or not. If you plan to rely on this base research alone then the negative research modifier will barely hurt you.

4.2.1.5 Money Modifiers (-0.5/+0.5/+1 for -4/5/8 picks)

NEVER take +1 BC. Instead take +0.5 BC AND Fantastic traders (7 picks) and with the leftovers take Large Homeworld. And with all your money you'll do way better than the poor fool who takes +1 BC.
                                    
4.2.1.6 Ship Defense Modifiers (-20/+25/+50 for -2/3/7 picks)
4.2.1.7 Ship Attack Modifiers (-20/+20/+50 for -2/2/4 picks)
4.2.1.8 Troop Combat Modifiers (-10/+10/+20 for -2/2/4 picks)
4.2.1.9 Espionage Modifiers (-10/+10/+20 for -2/2/4 picks)

4.2.1.10 Feudal Government (-4)

IF you get to Confederation, you are golden. But I find Feudal is crippling at the start of the game: you can barely do science. You need at least a little to get started with conquest, but by the time you get even mirv nukes, your enemies are too far ahead of you. You can't catch up using tech trades, because they long since have whatever you develop. You have to
conquer to catch up. But this is hard since they easily outproduce you, being cheating CPs. Their designs are not good, but when they have more of them *and* they are higher tech, they can prove to be an insurmountable challenge.                                             

4.2.1.11 Dictatorship Government (0)

4.2.1.12 Democracy Government (7)

NO WAY. The spy penalty is horrendous, especially at the hard and impossible levels and I can get the money advantages with fewer picks (+.5 BC and +1 research = 6 picks). The assimilation rate just isn't an issue and the inability to exterminate conquered populations (especially ones that have little to offer your empire) is a DISadvantage in my book.
                                        
This is like starting with -10 spying, +0.5 BC, and +1 research, which would cost 6 points if bought like that. Later on, the bonuses apply to tech buildings in addition to population. And you *do* get to partake of morale, which is a nice benefit. Furthermore, this government is a tech building one, and tech beats everything else. So there is a self-reinforcing aspect to democracy that is absent from unification: the more tech you get, the better your government bonuses including the research one, and that makes it even easier to get more tech.                          

4.2.1.13 Unification Government (6)

I think Unification is worth the price. In the early game Unified governments have no morale problems whatsoever and they have the 50% production and 50% food bonuses plus the +15 spy defensive bonus. That early game bonus can get a race started FAST especially if coupled with a production bonus and/or a pop growth bonus. The standard dictatorship does NOTHING for you in the early and middle game when compared with Unification. Finally, when I play unification, I almost never bother to assimilate a planet, so the slow assimilation rate doesn't hurt. I can usually produce colony ships almost as fast as transports so if a planet looks like it might rebel, I bomb it out and recolonize with my own people.
                                        
In the early game, unification is something like having +1 spying, +1 production and +1 food, or eight points. In the long run, unification gets both better and worse: the +50% bonuses apply to tech bonuses, so they get even better. BUT you don't get morale, which is a curse in the long run.

4.2.1.14 Low-G Homeworld (-5)

Low-G is essentially a production penalty on most planets AND a ground combat penalty on most planets. Given that -5 is probably right.
                                        
4.2.1.15 High-G Homeworld (6)

Heavy-G isn't worth it in my opinion, because there's no guarantee you'll find a good Heavy-G planet. And if you find a Heavy-G planet you like so much get yourself a gravity generator.      

I don't take heavy-G often, but the main benefit is not living on HG worlds without the penalty, but the ground combat bonus - since your troopers take 2 hits to kill, they are a match for Powered Armor and Tanks right from the start.
                                     
4.2.1.16 Aquatic (5)

Aquatic is not one of the best picks, but nearly worth the 5 picks you pay for it. The reason is that by being Aquatic, you *start* on a Gaia planet! This means three food/colonist, not two, right out of the gate.
                                                       
4.2.1.17 Subterranean (6)

This pick is considered one of the "game killers". It gives you 2-10 more space for population on any planet, which in turn gives you more money and production/research. It is especially strong when combined with picks that further enhance research and production.

4.2.1.18 Large Homeworld (1)

This makes your homeworld be 33% larger (even more when combined with subterranean), which will fairly quickly - still in the early game - translate into a 33% greater tech or production output.[leonard@alw.nih.gov]

4.2.1.19 Rich Homeworld (2)

This gives you a substantial advantage if you play in a smaller galaxy, where it's essential to get a good start. If you play a combat-oriented race with boni in ship attack and/or defense, and maybe feudal for the discount on ship production, this pick enables you to produce a powerful fleet really fast.

4.2.1.20 Artifacts World (3)

3 picks seems about right for this. It is only one world, and in the early game that world has to also be a production base to get your empire going. By the time that planet can become a pure research colony, you've got research labs and/or super computers, thus rendering research on the homeworld as a mere footnote to the overall game.

4.2.1.21 Poor Homeworld (-1)

4.2.1.22 Cybernetic (4)

I almost always pick cybernetic, the eating food/production means you can put your 1st colonist on production and he will eat 1 production instead of food while he is by himself. The best benefit by far is the auto-repair ability. I have had CP's come to attack my systems, charge the lone starbase, knocking out all my weapons with marine raiders - and then they
pound my starbase futilely until combat is ended after however many turns.
                                           
You can research ship repair tech (there are even ship officers that have the Engineering trait), so cybernetic doesn't seem that appealing to me. If you can research a technology instead of picking it as a race attribute, so much the better. Especially in a huge universe, you'll have some extra time to get technology before there is serious competition for planets.
                                            
This has its own built-in punishment (you eat some of your own production and production is one of the holy of holies.
                                        
4.2.1.23 Lithovore (10)

I think Lithovore is maybe a little overvalued, but not much. Having ALL of your population available to be productive and never have to worry about food is a HUGE bonus early in the game.
                                     
There is a big downside: pollution. A normal planet will not generate very much production before most of it is going into pollution. This makes it a lot harder to get a lithovore rolling than a normal race.

4.2.1.24 Repulsive (-6)

This pick effectively takes diplomacy out of the game. Many posters consider this not a great loss, since (at least on the harder levels) they regularly end up with all races declaring war on them, so there's not much use for diplomacy anyway. However if you choose this pick, you will also get less money (because of no trade treaties) and less research (because of no research treaties and not being able to exchange/demand technologies). Not being able to make treaties also means that you cannot improve your relations to any other race, and other races will easily declare war on you because they do not have to cancel treaties to do so.

4.2.1.25 Charismatic (3)

Charismatic isn't worth *1* point on impossible. The CPs WILL attack you and you WILL NOT make peace with them so what's the point of charismatic?
                                        
In the long run the CPs *will* attack you, but with Charisma you can keep them off your back a little longer. It also supposedly helps you when demanding systems and techs from CPs. One other thing I have noted with good diplomacy is that you get framed directly to war less often - there is more likely just a warning or a "break-all-treaties". Finally you do get *much* better leaders with Charisma, and you get them *fast*, when they have a substantial impact on your power. You always get one or more of the "little" heros almost immediately, and by the early midgame, you should have one or two of the better ones.                                

To be worth the picks it ought to be more reliable in getting good leaders to you when it counts. I just haven't seen that kind of reliability from this pick.                              

4.2.1.26 Uncreative (-4)

It is not too bad on hard but I cannot win a game on impossible with Uncreative. It is interesting though because you end up being forced down a particular research tree that you may not have considered important before.
                                      
There are two keys. First: early early conquest (telepathy and warlord help), second: restart immediately if you don't have research labs. I have done it several times, but I have more losses than wins (and lots of restarts).                                             

4.2.1.27 Creative (6)

Creative is by most people considered as being one of the "killer picks" of the game. You get all the technology, meaning you do not have to choose which tech you do not research. This way you end up with a race without any weakness. Other posters, however, have pointed out that you probably get these technologies anyway through trade, spying, or conquest - especially when your game has a large number of players, so that every technology will be researched by one or two players.

4.2.1.28 Tolerant (10)

Part of the tolerance advantage is getting more pop, but it is not as much more as subterranean. Much of the benefit of tolerance is being pollution proof. But you can get that from tech, albeit at a cost of 4 or 8 BC/turn per planet. So, tolerance does speed up the early game (which is highly important), and it is good (though not huge) in the long run. That is worth a lot, but it costs a lot.                             

4.2.1.29 Fantastic Traders (4)

I think fantastic traders is well worth 4 points since if you have a colony devoted to trade goods you double the amount of money coming in. This is incredibly helpful in building your empire when you have one or two good, maxed out planets that you can turn into cash factories, to buy your other colonies into production quicker.       

4.2.1.30 Telepathic (6)

Mind control is just absurdly powerful. Instead of waiting for the money to support a fleet of transports in addition to warships, the telepathic race has already eaten its neighbor, got all their tech and buildings, and is ahead... Then you throw on the spy bonus (+3 picks by itself, if +1/+2 spying are fairly valued), the diplomacy bonus (maybe another +1), the
instant assimilation (not *that* valuable, but certainly nice), and the ability to capture/use enemy ships, and this is a massive pick. I would say it would be worth 4-5 points even without mind control. (And it would be a lot more fun, too.)                                    

Telepathy becomes even better in an advanced-tech galaxy, because you *start* with the capital ships needed for mind-control. Normally, it takes at least a little while to stamp out 300+ production for an effective ship.
                                                       
Others have posted (and I also suspect) that you get more techs if you leave the colony as intact as possible.  So mind control might be better for getting technology than bombing and/or invading a planet
                                
4.2.1.31 Lucky (3)

How about 0.5 points for this one. This has GOT to be the most worthless pick in the game.                     

4.2.1.32 Omniscient (3)

I always consider information to be the most valuable resource, and it seems to work well in this game. I like knowing which is the best system to send my colony ships to. I like knowing 4 turns in advance who is coming to my world. I like knowing which world my fleet should go to in order to inflict the most damage with the least losses

Omniscient is one of those love it/hate it traits. I think that it's a decent way to spend 3 race pick points, but it doesn't compare all that well to power picks like Telepathic, Subterranean, or Creative. It is also a trait of variable value as the game progresses. It starts out very useful, but in a longer game, Omniscient is nearly worthless, because you get all that information anyway.          

You will tend to want omniscient more:
 * for races that are food-sensitive (find those terrans, gaias)
 * for races that need to meet others fast for trade/war
 * in larger galaxies (more to know)
 * in games with fewer players (more space/player to stake out)
 * in mineral-rich galaxies (good worlds hard to find)
 * in prewarp/normal tech (make sure you get a gaia for first colony)
 * if you plan to engage in a lot of early/midgame warfare
Note that you get much of same effect of omniscience by getting a leader with galactic lore, along with reasonably decent scanners which you get in the mid-game. (Loknar, for one, who appears reliably at Orion. Assuming the omniscience bug does not kick in.) So, if you plan on taking Orion early in a galaxy that is small enough to find it the hard way, you will probably not want omniscient.                                       

4.2.1.33 Stealthy Ships (4)

This pick supposedly doesn't work against CPs (although no one has been able to prove that, which would be hard to do). It is a nice pick in a multiplayer game, although you can achieve the same effect with a Stealth Field (and neither Stealth Suit nor Personal Shield are usually crucial technologies that would hurt giving up).

4.2.1.34 Trans-Dimensional (5)

There is one big advantage of being trans-dimensional. I played one game with trilarian when space flux appeared early in the game. I was only player capable of moving my ships and I manage to conquer *four* star systems before that space flux dissolved. Otherwise it is quite useless pick. Distances between star systems are too small to get any real benefit for faster ships. In combat ships move a little bit faster but who cares if you can kill an opponent without moving at all?        

4.2.1.35 Warlord (4)

Warlord races will last - warlike won't, whether they have warlord or not. If you have Warlord, put those Space Academies to use and park it, collect the meager, but useful over time, experience and be very conservative - a strategy that works suprisingly well at times, especially since the CP isn't big on spontaneous attacks on your colonies  However, if you war on too many too often, eventually someone will squash you.
                                           
The command point bonus from Warlord is horrible to behold, especially in a multiplayer game with a player who has a production bonus capable of filling up those command points.                

4.2.3.1 Player's Favorite Races

RACE: Robert Gresham's Favorite
PICKS:
 +6  Subterranean  +3  +50% growth  -4  -0.5 BC      -2  -20% ship defense
 +10 Lithovore     +1  Large Home   -2  -ground cmb  -2  -20% ship attack
COMMENT:
 Usually in control by the 20th year, and able to "purify" and repopulate the galaxy by the mid 40s (this is what takes time). Pointers: 1. You need planet construction. Spy and make sure your "pet" race has it and steal it during the repopulation phase. Can give you 10% more population. 2. When repopulating the galaxy, send one colony ship to each system. Put as many colony bases as you can in the queue and turn it on auto. Keep note of the systems with gas giants, and after all colony bases are built go back and build planets and more colony bases. 3. Have max spies in your pet race. Try not to keep Darloks for pets for obvious reasons.
((What do you mean by control? If you mean you are close to being as strong as they are, fine, if you man you have more systems than they do and have put down some races, you must be play a low level game. Turn 260 or so should have one as the top rank race and starting to gain some control at impossible.-KG))
                               
4.4.1 Buildings

Biospheres:
                                
Hydroponic Farms:
Hydro farms require 2BC support to produce two food. If two food can be produced elsewhere, then two freighters transport the same amount of food for the same cost. If you've got a farming planet (terran + soil enrichment + strong food producers like androids or whatever + weather control + etc), then hydro farms can actually be a loss. (Just remember to defend your
farming planet well.)             

Marine Barracks:
On conquered planets, I usually build a Marine Barracks first, then the Alien Control Center, then an Armor Barracks. If you build the Alien Control Center first, that would give the CPs a chance to revolt. Building the Marine Barracks first helps reduce any unhappiness and also starts building troops to protect your investment. I also usually unload one transport on the planet. This way I have enough ground troops present if the colony rebels.
                               
4.4.2 Building Priorities

  Automated Factories
  Pollution Processor
  RoboMiner (if I have it - I usually have to trade for it)
  Atmospheric Processor
  Missile Base (Have to trade fo this too)
  Hydroponic Farms
  Starbase
This load maxes out production fairly fast. If I have enough cash coming in I will buy the automated factory just to get the colony off to a fast start. Then the computer builds other stuff and I usually don't interfere too much.
                                       
My build queue for new colonies goes like this: Marine Barracks, Factories then research lab, and I add all production/research structures as they become available, then I turn them on max research while churning out trade
goods from the excess production

I prefer (if you have them) an android worker (or two), automated factory, marine baracks, any other production enhancer and cloning center, then research labs, etc. Early in the game, when food is still a problem, I'll usually outright buy a hydroponic farm (so I don't have to worry about freighters or diverting workers or scientists to farming - blasphemy!)
                                         
4.4.3 Population

4.4.3.2 Population Growth

Use those otherwise worthless tiny but rich planets to produce population. Plop one guy down there with a colony base, buy all the production multipliers you can, and have him crank out housing. In the early game, you should get 250K/turn or so, increasing to approach 1M/turn later on. All in addition to the population of your "normal" planets and without draining
their resources. (Of course, if you turn a planet like Orion over to housing, you can hit 2M/turn.)
                                    
4.4.3.3 Assimilated Population vs. Own Population

Whether assimilated population is actually useful for you is determined by the picks which you and your enemy took. If the enemy took global specials like "Democracy" and "Charismatic", and your own people have production and/or science boni, then this enemy's population will be mostly useless for you (except when you have a lot of free space on your planets and need colonists to fill them up). If, however, the enemy race has intrinsic boni that your race doesn't have, then you would want to keep that race.

Useless conquered population can be annihilated but this would upset the other players. Often it is a better strategy to assimilate them and then send them to a planet that has no room for them. They will die upon arrival. Then you can repopulate the conquered planet with your own people. (This will work only partially if the deported race is Subterranean. You can deport this race, but every planet will have some room for them because of their Subterranean bonus - except if it's populated by another Subterranean race. However there's no reason to annihilate Subterraneans this way. You can send them to any of your planets to boost population there.)

If the assimilated race is superior or at least equal to your race in all the intrinsic modifiers (growth, food, production, research, money), then it is a good strategy to kill your own race and repopulate your empire with the
enemy's race. (Attention: this will probably lower your score.) However it is dangerous to do this when the enemy's empire still exists, since he can now take over your planets without having to assimilate the population.

If your race and the assimilated race both have boni that the other race doesn't have, then use people for what they are good at - Psilons as scientists, Klackons as workers etc. 
rephrased] Even if the captured race doesn't have any outstanding features, they can free up your own population to specialize in whatever specialties they have (science, production or food). 

4.4.3.4 Population vs. Androids

Androids work well if you have a minus on some ability. Also, if you don't get the awesome bonuses from Morale (e.g. if you chose Unification) then Androids are very good. I usually go for a Android Scientist, and get a good improvement. I've never played with +s to research though. Question: Do Androids count as population for the votes in the Council?  
                     
Androids consider each planet as a Gaia world in terms of maximum allowed population. Caution, the androids take up "organic" living space before they start filling up the "inorganic" space. An Example: A large terran world can hold 16(?) population units. If you have 15 "organic" units, your population is still growing to the maximum 16. If you add an android, then the android takes up the last organic space and the "organic" population stops growing. From that point on you can fill the planet up with only androids to the maximum population of a large Gaia. An important thing is that android workers receive morale bonus but farmers and scientists don't. Therefore in the long run, use "organic" units for farms and research and androids for production. If you benefit from morale then around mid game the morale bonus for farm and research is most likely to outweigh the +3 bonus of an android. Here's what I do. I turn every planet I colonize to terran. Maxout the population. Build android workers to the Gaia population limit. In this way you don't need to turn every planet you own into a Gaia world and every colony you have always has a certain amount of production base. In addition, if you need to switch priorities within the planet, you have "organic" units to move. Some people completely populate worlds with androids but because they don't generate income, unless you have a steady money supply I don't think it's a good idea.
One thing I didn't check yet is what happens if a maxed-out planet, with "organic" units and androids, moves an "organic" unit off the planet. I'm pretty sure the vacated space is taken up by an android and that one space can now only be filled by an android. I guess once you maxed-out a planet, don't shift units off the planet.                  

The point of Androids when your planet is at max population is that Androids are Tolerant. Tolerant allows you to occupy uninhabited areas of your planet, effectively increasing the max pop allowed. For example, lets say you are a non-Tolerant race, and you have maxxed out a planet with a pop of 19. The pop of the planet will show on the screen as 19/19. Now build an Android. What happens is that the computer cautions you there may not be room for him if you build him. Ignore that warning, and build the Android anyways. This is because the warning for some reason does not take into account the
Tolerant bonus. When the Android is built, not only is it alive and kicking, but your planet now reads something like 19/22. It looks like your planet has increased it max population, but this is not really the case; there is still no new population growth among your fleshy non-Tolerant race present. What the new max capacity represents is additional space for more of those Tolerant Androids. So, I guess the moral of this story is to only build Androids when your planet is at max capacity, so you can add those extra Android citizens without accidentally taking away from your non-Tolerant population capacity.

You can develop a colony in a jiffy once you get droids:
  (1) Move in 7 androids: production is 42.
  (2) Buy auto factory: $240. Production is 54.
  (3) Build one android per turn until the world is full.
  (4) Using surplus production which has accumulated, build all the other buildings you want. 

Pros:
No need for any farmers.
All population units work more effectively than any organic population.
All population is tolerant, thus high max populations, no pollution, and
  few problems with bad worlds.
*VERY* rapid population growth.
Android technology has high trade value, and CP's never build androids.

Cons:
Lots of technology needed.  You need a lucky steal or you need to be creative to get the two important android types.
Androids eat some production.
Androids cannot be shifted between jobs.
Androids cannot be subterranean or aquatic, or partake of any other racial bonuses, except for government and morale.
Androids appear fairly late in the game.
Androids cannot be taxed and produce no income.  
Those pesky organic computation units keep popping up out of your colony ships, when you wanted androids.

4.5 Research

4.5.1 Research Choices

4.5.1.1 Advanced Construction (T.1.3)
- Automated Factories, Missile Base, Heavy Armor

You REALLY need the Factories, but Missile Bases are SO useful if you're at war, they can even take out the Antaran. 
                                
Get ground batteries instead ... in this game, beams are a heck of alot better than missiles.                       

Factories for the early jump on colonies and for that critical first decent ship. Missile bases can be obtained later through subterfuge. Also, whenever I have misile bases, the CP's seem to pack more PD and ECM, etc.
                                      
4.5.1.2 Robotics (T.1.6)
- Robo Mining Plant, Battlestation, Powered Armor

Again, production vs command points and a better defense. I'd rather take the former and attempt to stay at peace until I have stolen the latter, though.                         

Hard choice ... depends on how much you're used to being attacked ... if you forgo the station and can't steal/trade the tech, then make sure you get those planetary defenses (i.e. ground batteries, planet shields, Stellar Converter, and the last station)            

Always Robo, for the same reason as factories - the early jump. Increased production helps supplant any potential command point problems through increased BC income.                  

You almost have to get RMPs. But that gives up the +10 ground attack/+1 hits power of powered armor, which if taken as a racial pick would cost something between the +2 points of the mere ground attack bonus and the +6 of high-G.

4.5.1.3 Astro Construction (T.1.8)
- Titan Construction, Ground Batteries, Battleoids

This may not seem a hard choice at first (Titan wins hands down), but the increased defense provided by Ground Batteries makes things easier in the later game. Steal one or both from the Psilons.                         

At first, I used to go for Titan. Lately, however, ground batteries have proved indispensible (can't shoot down a beam!). I just hope to steal Titans (if the C.P. gets that far), or hold out for what I really want: DOOM STAR!
                                      
4.5.1.4 Ion Fission (T.2.4)
- Ion Drive, Ion Pulse Cannon, Shield Capacitor

I never bother researching Ion Cannons. Sure, they're killers, but so are Gyro Destabilizers, and you don't have to worry about not being able to hit Antarans. Further, this lets you get Ion Drive, so you can get Augmented Engines instead of Fusion Drive, which is a very useful tech to have.
                                  
4.5.1.5 Anti-Matter Fission (T.2.5)
- Anti-Matter Drive, Anti-Matter Torpedo, Anti-Matter Bomb

Go for the drive, the bombs and torps aren't that spectacular. (Bombs and missiles in general aren't spectacular ... save the slots for phasors and proton torps)                              

4.5.1.6 Advanced Metallurgy (T.3.2)
 (Deuterium Fuel Cells, Tritanium Armor)

I just recently played a game where I went for the deuterium fuel cells. I had to be very careful in some early mid-game battles because until I got zortrium armor, I tended to lose good ships too easily. I had to make sure that my ships had enough firepower to win a battle in 2 rounds of combat or less or else they would get cooked by the other side.
                                        
4.5.1.7 Nano Technology (T.3.5)
- Nano Disassemblers, Microlite construction, Zortrium Armor

Zortium, because I already have Automated and Robo. Zortium = tougher: ground batteries, fighters, missiles, missile bases, planetary fighter stations, starbases and SHIPS.        
 
4.5.1.8 Positronics (T.5.4)
- Positronic Computer, Planetary Supercomputer, Holo Simulator

If I don't get research labs and supercomputers, I *ALWAYS* lose the game. Later I'll research the Cybertronic Computer.
                                  
Supercomputers are clearly the best of these. PCs would give another +25% to hit, or the value of +50 offense, which is worth +4 picks. Now think about the power of a +20% morale boost. It is about half the effect of +1 farming, +1 research, and +1 science. (Average production is 3 units of each thing, so adding one is a 33% boost. But you have to build HSs, a big downside. But HSs apply to everyone - your race, conquered races, even worker androids.) This is big - worth +4 points.  Positronics is probably the worst tech bottleneck in the game.                               

4.5.1.9 Cybertronics (T.5.6)
- Cybertronic Computer, Autolab, Structural Analyzer

You really need a good computer in the phase of the game when you can research this, and there doesn't come any computer tech later for a very long time. On the other hand, getting far behind in tech because of no Autolab really sucks.
           
Get the lab, steal the computer. Besides, the Positronic (that's the one before the Cybertronic) will do you for awhile ... just play nice and use the other mods to compensate.               

Cybertronic, because I skip the earlier one. The CP's invariably have autolab, or I get it from one of the heroes.

Autolabs, I can survive without, because at this point, beam weapons are better than gyros and missiles, and I need a ship computer, and I have bumloads of new research from all my terraformed planets coming in. The 30 RP per colony would be nice, but I really need to beat some wimpy helpless race up for a while to get a better handle on things, so I go with
Cybertronic computers instead.    

4.5.1.10 Advanced Biology (T.6.2)
- Cloning Center, Soil Enrichment, Death Spores

Death Spores are worthless, but the other two are a terrible decision. Soil Enrichment is worth almost as much as the +1 food pick (+4 points), perhaps +3 when weighted for the fact you have to build SE. But cloning is also nice, giving something like the effect of +100% growth, a +6 pick, perhaps weighted to +4 or so.                                  

4.5.1.11 Magneto Gravitics (T.8.3)
- Class III shield, Planetary Radiation shield, Warp Dissipator

This was the hardest for me, because class I shields don't do much good, but I need the Radiation shield for my poor radiated, ultra-rich colonies.

IIRC, those Class V's are just a couple of advances away ... at this point, you likely need the productive colony more than you need the shields.
                                            
ALWAYS class III for me! I go straight for mass drivers and class III. I never research class I. Mass drivers are just too indispensible: small, consistent, no range damage penalty. 

4.5.2 Research Strategies

Normally I start with missiles, go to mass drivers, then (briefly) to gyros when I have enough production to kill the guardian. (EMG missiles are also supposed to be great on Guardian, but I have not messed much with them.) Then I have death rays. Usually by that point I will have researched assault shuttles, and that combination poses a nasty threat to any enemy. Especially if you are lucky enough to get xentronium. It only takes one assault shuttle to capture a ship that has zero marines.

So I will often have death rays before even neutron blasters. Given that situation, it is much cheaper to pursue transporters than plasma cannons; and with transporters and death rays, you probably have a better combination
against anything but monster CP fleets. Each transporter/death ray ship, once in close, should be able to capture one enemy ship/turn, possibly two if you also build in one assault shuttle each. And of course, after combat you get to scrap captures for BPs and ship techs, if the enemy is ahead, which is usually the case. Or even use them. Particularly if you are telepathic.

Another reason I favor transporter/death ray ships over plasma cannons is that they make capturing Antarans simple, assuming you have the computers needed to actually hit the little buggers. Every Antaran ship, even the frigates, has a damper field, particle beam, xentronium, quantum detonator, and moleculartronic computer. (The big ones also have fun stuff like reflectors, space compressors, and BHGs, but they are rarely seen.) Once you get dampers and xentronium, you should stay in the game for a while just to have fun, but it is basically over. Moleculartronic computers are also very nice.                                                  

4.6 Diplomacy

4.6.1 Don't make alliances
Rejecting an alliance has NEVER caused me any negative grief. Usually the same race will come back again and again and yet again asking for that alliance. I just refuse. The rare alliance I get into is usually with a race that is (a) strong enough to fight well on their own and (b) has enough spying strength that framing becomes problematic, i.e. I've allied with the Darloks once when they were (a) big and (b) obviously difficult to spy against. This worked fine because their spy bonuses plus spy tech bonuses kept anyone from successfully spying on them and framing me. I've also allied once with a very strong Klackon empire that had alot of spy tech (+ the unification defensive spy bonus) and again I never got framed. But alliances with other races are a waste. 

4.6.2 Trade CPs Weapon Tech
For the most part CPs use weapons poorly. I give them about any weapons tech. I do hold off on productive/research tech as that is what really drive the game. I'll trade them about any weapon for something that makes me more productive or better research - that's where the game is won. The CP's also don't seem to use specials very well. It would have been nice if Simtex had programmed them to use some of the combos that were so obvious from what the tech implied, but unfortunately they don't. They just stink at ship design.
                            
4.6.3 Trade them Android Tech
CP's do not seem to build Androids, so maybe this is a safe tech to trade. If it is, you should certainly do so because there are a lot of nice techs in the 1000-1500 range, which you should be able to get.
                                                       
4.6.4 Trade to all CPs
If you are going to trade, trade the same tech with EVERYBODY (because the CP's will anyway) and trade that tech AS SOON AS YOU DISCOVER IT. It has it's highest value at that point before anyone else has had a chance to steal it or research it themselves. And after you trade that tech item and have gotten a bunch more goodies for it, go back around the diplomacy screen and try to trade again. Maybe the Missile Bases that you just got will be attractive to those Alkaris who didn't want to talk to you the first time.

I regularly trade for lots of tech. There are some things that are VERY hard to get though. These are (1) higher level beam weapons (the CPs just don't want to offer them up too easily so plan on researching those yourself), (2) certain key items (among these are autolabs but you CAN get the CPs to trade autolabs - you just have to have something they really want), and (3) Power Armor. Power Armor is tough to get because most of the CP's won't bother to research it either.

A good way to get autolabs early is if one of the CPs hire Mentox who gives them autolabs. If this happens, research Class III shields ASAP. This particular tech appears to be very attractive for trade and I've gotten autolabs a couple of times this way.    

4.7 Leaders

Especially in the early game I will grab these heroes:
Kronos - Galactic Lore and Dimensional Portal
Sparky - Advanced Damage Control (hire and fire!)
Mentox - Research bonuses + research lab + autolab
Cassandra - Telepathic training.  
      
4.8 Ship Designs / Combat Tactics

4.8.1 Discussion of Weapons and Systems

4.8.1.1 Fusion Beams

Fusion beams shouldn't be underrated, once you get Enveloping. Once you get past the shields they do 4x damage. With the 2x range dissipation you may want to specialize in heavy-mount or get augmented engines or design a lighter ship for more speed. These put out a lot more damage/space than my midgame autofire phasors I noticed, with the exception of attacks on
shielded planets. And they rip apart space monsters and Antarans, who don't have shields anyhow.            

4.8.1.2 Mass Drivers

Mass Drivers are my main weapon up until level 7 shields show up, however, I don't understand the fascination with all the mods, particularly Heavy Mount. I can have two Mass Drivers doing 12 pts damage or one heavy doing 9? At level 3 shields we are even, at less than that I do more damage with the base MD. Once shields get heavy I switch to the heavier version of the MD.
                                      
Autofire mass drivers rock the world, early on. 18 damage with no range dissipation? Awesome. Add AP, battle scanner, and maybe Class III shields, and two cruisers can handily take out early starbases. Great for point defense, too. Not so good against planets, so build a couple of bombers, too.                            

Mass Drivers have four small problems. First, you give up class I shields for them. This means you want to get class IIIs, which you can do, but then you give up planetary radiation shields. Generally, races going for MDs want an early win, and thus don't need to mess with rad shields, since they have no intentions of either defending with them or using them to build up planets. Second, they are beam weapons, and thus need computers for the best firing accuracy. But all the computer advancements have other very desirable advancements in the same tech level. Third, they don't work very well on monsters. (I have not tried this enough to be certain.) Fourth, they are useless on planets that have radiation shields. Most weapons are halved when entering air, and the shield blocks 5 points from each attack ergo, even HV mass drivers do zero. 

4.8.1.3 Ion Pulse Cannons

The Ion Pulse Cannon is _very_ powerful. 2 heavy Ion Pulse Cannons plus some other beam to knock down the shields (if any) will result in a ship with an engine breach (ie. KABOOM). Just for kicks, I put 2 heavy autofiring Ion Pulse Cannons on a ship and was reducing starbases to useless piles of metal. The only bad thing about them is that they can't be used against
fighters or missiles, they can't be used to destroy missile bases or starbases (they do no armor or structure damage), and are useless against monsters, the Antarans, and Xentronium armor.
                                           
Against Ion Pulse Cannons, build well-shielded ships. The Ion Blaster has a small damage/space ratio, so against those it's practically worthless by itself.                          

4.8.1.4 Phasors

Heavy phasors will toast about everything and they miniaturize quickly. Only when you start fighting things with reflection shields do you run into a problem, but by then you'll have something else because I've only seen the Antarans use them in number. Once you get Heavy, Cont., Auto-Fire and Shield Piercing then can easily be the best weapon (except maybe Death Rays). I usually kill fleets 5-10 times my size even when I am massivly out-teched elsewhere.                               

4.8.1.5 Plasma Cannons

It is the enveloping damage X4 which makes the plasmas so terribly destructive. Take a bank of heavy plasmas (heavy to reduce range dissipation and to add a little extra punch), throw in structural analyzers (targets ship weak points and doubles the beam value), high energy focus (adds another +50% to whatever the darn beam was going to do in the first place), and a good computer and suddenly that X4 damage means ALOT. You can do similar with the fusion beam but since the fusion beam is (a) less powerful overall and (b) the enveloping mod is an add-on, it just doesn't come close.
Banks of 10 or more heavy plasmas on a titan with the above mods can sometimes do thousands of points of damage in one shot. i.e. The heavy plasma does 9-45 points (per shield facing). So let's take an average value of 27 points X4 = 108 points PER BEAM before the mods are applied. Add in structural analyzer (X2) and we are up to 216 points per beam. Add in High Energy focus and we are up to either 270 or 324 points depending on how MOO2 does the calculation. Now take 10 of these babies in one bank and you have 2700 points (minimum!) of damage. Since you can often get 2 banks of 10 heavies coupled with a smaller bank of 6-8 Fx standard plasmas (they are great for shooting down fighters and missiles too!) this ship is carrying around 5000-7000 points of damage PER TURN. Put 5 of these titans in a battle group and go kill somebody's empire. It all comes down to that X4 enveloping mod though. Take that out and those numbers quickly drop down to
700-1000 points per turn.  
     
However Plasma Cannons are not the best weapon against a really heavily shielded ship, because their damage is spread evenly across all the shield facings. Here Phasors or Disruptors, which deal all their damage at one facing, might be better.                                               

4.8.1.6 Particle beams

Nice, compact PD capable weapon, really makes your fighters worthwhile (though I generally prefer minaturizations of phasers, plasma cannons, and disruptors in the late game on ships)  

I don't find these useful; death rays pack more punch and I tend to like to capture ships if at all possible. Free tech, free money for scrapping. This one is good for trading to CPs.                        

4.8.1.7 Death Rays

I find plasma cannons a better weapon, death rays are nice for their marine-killing function, and in assaulting planets with shields or against CPs that I have a reason to not get close to (like the occasional plasma-web guru that pops up).         

4.8.1.8 MIRV Missiles

The MIRV advance is special; it actually keeps the Nuclear missiles in the game. It does the same damage as four launchers, while using the space of two. Of course, your individual missiles are easier to shoot down than a cloud of four times as many missiles. Combine this with Emissions Guidance, and you have a missile that is on its way to becoming worth the major space these things take up (and is better given to Disruptors anyway). Usually, the effect is this: you fire the Emissions Guidance missile at the enemy; it hits, they blow up. Not bad. However, I dislike missiles and torpedoes. Ideally, you want to deal crippling damage now, not two turns later.
                                        
4.8.1.9 Emissions-Guided Missiles

IMHO, compared with the Gyro, the anti-drive missile has better kill efficiency. I use this baby against the Antarans, the ship goes Kaboom with only one shot of nuclear missile (MIRV, FS, EGS). It has its weakness though, namely it won't work well with a well-shielded ship.

4.8.1.10 Bombs

Why not put one nuclear bomb on each ship above destroyer size? The waste of space is minimal and it makes the ship capable of damaging a planet with a radiation shield. With the ship's beam weapons shooting down the planet's missiles, it doesn't matter that the damage they do is small because it all mounts up with several ships bombing and there is nothing to stop them. The method of putting all bombs in one ship sounds risky to me as the computer has a strong tendency to fire everything it's got against ships with lots of bombs aboard.    
            
Bombs are a waste of time IMHO. I prefer using missiles, death rays, and auto-fire disruptors against planetary defenses as they can be used against ships as well, and making dedicated bomb ships is generally overkill and makes a weak link in your fleet.       

4.8.1.11 Bio Weapons

Bio Weapons are totally useless, unless you want to risk a war with all the CPs. Every single CP's slider bar will drop like nuts.

4.8.1.12 Fighters

Fighter Bays do not miniature in size, so for example 4 Heavy Fighters will always use up 80 space units. If you are on Neutronium Armor level, the will have 30 Structure Points each, totaling 120. That far in the game, I suspect Phasors to have undergone about 2 levels of miniaturization (this requires tech level 9 in Physics, which costs 14,000 RP in total, as opposed to Construction level 12, which is required for Heavy Fighters and costs 16,630 RP in total). This means that each PD Phasor will take up 4 space units (maybe 3 or 3.5, not sure). The defender can fit 20 of these on the same space that the attacker needs for his fighter bays. These 20 PD Phasors will hit the fighters for an average of 120 damage point per turn, if all of them hit. Which is exactly the amount necessary to kill all fighters before they get a chance to attack. If the defender uses Mass Drivers instead of Phasors, he can deal up to 120/180/240 points damage per turn (assuming
maximally miniaturized PD Mass Drivers take up 2 / 1.5 / 1 space unit). This seems highly unbalanced, considering that the defender can use his weapons on the attacker in further turns, while the fighters will be gone.

The key question is how many of the Phasors/Mass Drivers will hit. I cannot calculate this because I couldn't find any information about the beam defense (BDCV) of fighters (or missiles, for that respect), and even if I could I still wouldn't know how the computer calculates the to-hit chance out of the attacker's BOCV and the target's BDCV. Can you help me out on
this one?

Anyway, if the numbers above do represent a typical endgame fighter combat scene (which I don't know for sure due to little experience with fighters), there are three possible reasons why fighters don't work well:

1. They don't miniaturize.
2. Their Beam Defense is too low.
3. They don't have shields, hence they cannot block a single point of damage, which makes highly miniaturized low-level weapons very effective against them.
4. They have too little structure.

4.8.1.13 Gyro Destabilizers

The Gyro is the most powerful low/medium tech weapon in the game, IMO. The damage it does is increased for larger ships, and it miniaturizes well enough to fit into nearly any platform easily. Plus it doesn't miss and can fire from any direction and there's no defense against it.
                                            
The biggest problem I have with GDs is firing them at the right time. You don't wan't to spin a ship with shields in case it ends up facing away from the rest of your fleet and you end up having to take down it's rear shields as well as the front ones to do any more damage to it. They can be useful in deflecting incoming bombers though, as they spend all their movement points turning rather than advancing on the planet, if you get lucky.
                             
Against Gyros, put Reinforced Hull on your ships. Being Cybernetic doesn't hurt, either.  
                         
4.8.1.14 Spatial Compressor

Brutal, especially on larger ships vs. smaller ships; however, detrimental to fleet tactics as it hits your own ships too. I might like it if it affected fighters and missiles too. It doesn't. I don't.

4.8.1.15 Black Hole Generator

A guaranteed kill. Nice. However, using minaturized heavy plasma cannons, I can generally kill much quicker. Since the BHG immobilizes the ship, it is also easier to hit AND a prime target for boarding as well. However, unless the combat ends in short order, you'll loose the ship you just captured.
                                       
4.8.1.16 Damper Fields (on non-Antaran ships)

The best Antaran tech. Better than any shield, and takes up less space than a shield on the ship, also removes the necessity for shield specials.
                                       
Damper Fields are too easy to get around for non-Antarans. First, you can easily be boarded by transporters. Second, you die instantly from Ion Pulse cannon, and anything which is using the Achilles targetting system does you in pretty quick also. Third, Emission Guided missiles are also instant death.                            

4.8.1.17 Engines

I find almost all my battles these days involve some movement, either to run from enemy missiles/fighters/etc or to close rapidly with a target to board, fire, beam, or bomb. Just consider all the low or mid level techs that may demand tactical movement:
- missiles: fire and run back to escape beams
- assault shuttles: fire point-blank and they attack immediately!
- gyros: range 10 or 12
- transporters: range 12
- bombing: range 3 (12 with transporters)
4.8.2 Ship Building Strategies

4.8.2.2 Richard Kenan's Strategy 2

Wait for Pollution Processor (or equivalent), class III shields, and Battle Pods. Build cruisers with Fast, MIRV Nuclear missiles, battle pods, and shields (actually, you can do without the shields, but you will get creamed by Ion Pulse Cannons which show up at about this time).  Use 2 shot racks, you should be able to cram about 11 racks of missiles on a cruiser. 2 of these can usually destroy an CP empire, if you're telepathic, and 2 of them plus a bumload of transports will do the trick if not. Essentially, you're taking advantage of the fact that, early in the game, few worlds have any defenses. If you plan carefully, you'll be able to kill off a starbase *AND* any ground defenses with this fleet of 2 ships. Fleets of mobile ships are totally defenseless, as few have the HP to survive 88 nuclear detonations in a single salvo.

To extend their operational lifespan, be sure to research scanner tech, so that your missiles can at least partially ignore ECM. ECCM just is not worth the space, though.

This same fleet is OK against Antarans (small Antaran fleets, anyway), and is awesome against monsters. Don't waste your time attacking Orion, though, as even 10 or 12 of these things still won't dent the Guardian's shield.

Lastly, try Neutron Blasters to knock down shields, and then Ion Pulse Cannons to make the ships blow up. I usually prefer Gyros, but this design works very well, also.

Early to mid in the game, cruisers are probably best, as you can get them off the assembly line reasonably fast, and they have a bit of staying power.
                                 
4.8.2.3 Jim Vieira's Strategy

My FAVORITE thing to do is when I find a nearby neighbor and I want him out of my way, I'll mass up tons of missile boats on the borders (perhaps mass drivers as well if I skipped class 1 shield) and start making demands. Often the player will give me enough techs to 'catch me up' with the CPU's (I only play on hard/impossible where you can quickly fall behind in tech). If they declare war, no problem, I'll just come in on one of their newer worlds and take it while it's weak, mass all my ships there and continue in on to the heart of their empire.                

4.8.3 Ship Designs

 The Designs are ordered by their research cost, so that ship designs for the early game appear before those of the mid- and endgame. If the research cost is equal, ships with less production cost are listed first.

SHIP: Missile Frigate
SIZE: Frigate (Small)
WEAPON: 3 Nuclear Missiles (FST, MIRV, 2 shots)
SYSTEM: none - no shields, no computer
COST: 950 RP / 60 PP
COMMENT: You can fit more missiles per production cost on frigates than on anything else. The ships are cheap, and it doesn't matter that the crews are green! 

SHIP: MIRV Frigate
SIZE: Frigate (Small)
WEAPON: 2 Nuclear Missiles (MIRV, 2 shots)
SYSTEM: Battle Pods
COST: 1480 RP / 72 PP
COMMENT: I've determined this design to have the best missile to command point ratio of all early designs. The Battle Pods work really well with the Frigate class. Six or so of these ships (only 1 starbase needed for support!) can take out all monsters guarding those choice planets, as well as early Missile Bases and Star Bases. I think there's a bug with the MIRVs
though. I thought I read somewhere that they can't be used against planetary defenses but mine work fine.     
                                          
SHIP: Missile Cruiser
SIZE: Cruiser (Large)
WEAPONS: Nuclear Missiles (MIRV)
SYSTEMS: No computer (has no effect on missiles)
COST: 950 RP / 316 PP (for 6 2-shot MIRVs, without shield)
TACTICS: Useful early in the game. A couple of these can take out most space monsters, and provide a credible defence against greedy neighbours. Missiles generally seem to be more useful than beams in the early game - a  nuke will do a lot more damage than a laser cannon, and the ships are slow enough that you can get away with slow missiles.
COMMENTS: Small enough to be cheap and quick to produce, large enough to  pack a punch. Part of the "Cruiser Strategy" - see "Assault Cruiser" and  "Beam Cruiser". 
                                             
SHIP: Laser Cruiser
SIZE: Cruiser (Large)
WEAPON: Laser Cannons with _all_ the modifications except point defense, keep them forward arc only for max impact.
COST: 1350 RP (or more for better miniaturization), 300 PP (for 5 fully modded lasers, without computer/shield)
COMMENT: For the middle game. I've found that laser cannons at high techs are the most effecient because of the extreme small size and cost, even after you give it all the cool mods. A couple of tech levels higher, fusion beams have the same effect, but more damage and range. In general, I very rarely go for the highest tech weapon available... it takes some refinement before they really pack the big punch.
                                     
SHIP: David Ramsey's Early Game Favorite
WEAPONS: Mass Drivers (HV), Ion Pulse Cannons
COST: 1530 RP / PP depend on size (without computer/shields)
TACTICS: Use the heavy mass drivers to knock down shields and the ion pulse cannons to disable enemy weapon systems.
COMMENT: Often you can trade the mass driver to someone friendly to get the Class I shield. Neutron beams are also nice and come early enough to be effective in a variety of scenarios.  
 
SHIP: Prowler's Early Game Favorite
WEAPON: Mass Drivers (AP)
SYSTEM: Class III Shields
COST: 1800 RP (without computer)
COMMENT: Get Mass Drivers and then research the Class III Shields. That way you can have the shields and make the mass drivers Armor Piercing!
                                            
SHIP: Assault Cruiser
SIZE: Cruiser (Large)
WEAPONS: Assault Shuttles
SYSTEMS: No computers necessary
COST: 2480 RP / 290 PP (without shield)
TACTICS: For the midgame. Why bother with bombers, when you can capture the enemy battlestation and use it to take out the planetary defenses? There doesn't seem to be any defense against these guys - even if you knock them out quickly, there are still those shuttles full of marines, who'll probably capture your best ships quite quickly. These are best combined
with the Telepath ability. (If you launch the shuttles together with missiles, the missiles will be targeted first. 
COMMENTS: Small enough to be cheap and quick to produce, large enough to pack a punch. Part of the "Cruiser Strategy" - see "Missile Cruiser" and  "Beam Cruiser".                                           
  (I have found that it works best for to have a combination of these two types of ships. Usually at a 3 to 1 ratio of beam ships to assault shuttle ships. 

SHIP: Yellow Carrier
WEAPONS: Interceptors, a few Missiles with only 2 shots
SYSTEMS: Battle Pods, Fast Missile Racks
COST: 2530 RP (with Nuclear Missiles, without shield)
TACTICS: On the first turn, launch the fighters and both missiles (emptying the racks) and then retreat the carriers. The enemy fleet will most likely fire on them the first turn but at that range they should survive. It gives you a free turn to fire on the enemy and they still have to deal with the missiles and fighters.                  

SHIP: Fusion Beam Ship
WEAPON: Fusion Beams (HV ENV), plus Ion Pulse Cannons or AP AF Mass Drivers
COST: 2630 RP (without computer/shields)
COMMENT: When I get neutron blasters I also get the Enveloping mod for fusion beams. This makes the fusion beam X4 (hits all 4 shields like a mini plasma cannon). I use heavy version of these to knock down shields and either ion pulse cannons or AP AF mass drivers to wreck the enemy ship.
                                        
SHIP: David Ramsey's Early Battleship
SIZE: Battleship (Huge)
WEAPONS: 4 HV Neutron Blasters, 1-2 HV Ion Pulse Cannons, 4-5 ENV Fusion Beams (Forward Extended Arc), some bombs to fill it out.
SYSTEMS: Battle Pods, Battle Scanner (to assist beam weapons), maybe Shield Capacitors if you can trade for them, best computer and shields.
COST: 3160 RP / 1180 PP (without computer/shields/shield capacitors)
TACTICS:
 The Neutrons do a decent job against shields. The Ion Pulse Cannons do the number on internal systems of course. And the Enveloping Fusions (you get Enveloping when you research Neutron Blasters or Neutron Scanners) make for really nice anti-missile/anti-fighter weapons.
                                     
SHIP: Panther's Mid Game Favorite
SIZE: Battleship (Huge)
WEAPONS: Mass Driver (partially HV), or Fusion Beams
SYSTEMS: Rangemaster TU, Anti-Missile Rockets, Troop Pods, Inertial Stabilizer, Augmented Engines if you have the room.
COST: 4560 RP / 1730 PP (without computer/shields - but Class III shields are only 900 RP away, and Positronic computer can be researched before the Rangemaster TU)
TACTICS: For early/mid game. Basically, all you do is drive this bad boy up to a starbase/battle station and board it.
COMMENT: Also, just build a Battleship that is classified as an anti-missile ship and use them to shield your fleet when attacking homeplanets. Mix in a few missile cruisers in the back firing huge volleys of missiles (only equip them with 2 ammo so that you can get two huge volleys that are harder to kill). Also, Shields 3 are one of my first tech goals.
                                               
SHIP: Jolly Rodger
WEAPONS: none
SYSTEMS: Troop Pods, "Speeders" (Inertial Stabilizer, Augmented Engines), "Slowers" (Tractor Beam, Warp Dissipator), best ECM Jammer and shields
COST: 5210 RP (without jammers/shields)
TACTIC: This guy just jumps next to enemy ships, as quickly as possible, and boards 'em.
COMMENT: For the midgame. Of course, it helps to research techs which give a bonus in marine combat. This design tends to work very well for everything but (a) fighting monsters, and (b) attacking planets - for those, you need other ship types. But for taking out the enemy fleet 'in being', and getting some tech out of it to boot, it's a fun thing to try.
                                       
SHIP: Beam Cruiser
SIZE: Cruiser (Large)
WEAPONS: Disruptor Cannons
SYSTEMS: Best shielding specials: Multi-Phased Shields, Shield Capacitor etc
COST: 22950 RP / 349 PP (with Cl.V shield, 2 Disruptors, without computer)
TACTICS: The king of the endgame. Knocks out enemy battleships with a single shot, and can easily take out titans and star fortresses if you have a couple of them. Don't retire those Assault Cruisers from the midgame though - they still come in pretty handy, especially if you find yourself outgunned at some stage.
COMMENTS: Small enough to be cheap and quick to produce, large enough to pack a punch. 

SHIP: Zoel's Doomstar Killer
SIZE: Battleship (Huge)
WEAPONS: Phasors HV AF CO NR SP
SYSTEMS: Battle Pods, Hyper-X Capacitors, Rangemaster TU, Structural Analyzer, Achilles TU, Battle Scanner, Time Warp Facilitator
COST: 67310 RP (without computer/shield)
COMMENT: Absolutely awesome ship that takes out 3-4 Doomstars on the first turn and 1 or 2 each turn thereafter.     

4.8.4 Fleet Composition

1. Big, slow, armored missile ships with no point-defense *must* be
   accompanied by:
2. Small, fast, agile point-defense cruisers. With mass drivers if possible.
   No Missiles! No Bombs! These are Aegis Cruisers :-)
3. Smaller bombers. Nothing but bombs. Frigates or destroyers.
4. UNARMED fast, agile, defended with ECM, lightning-field, armor etc, and
   TROOP PODS.

My notes on the computers strategy are that it tends not to target unarmed vessels. Hence, the unarmed troop carriers will generally make it to the starbase, batlestation etc, where they raid, raid, raid or capture. Also, in planetary defense, the computer will target anything that carries bombs in preference to anything else. Hence the seperate bombers. These hang
back and lure the missiles and fighter squadrons into the guns of the point-defense cruisers. Meanwhile, the missile ships are pounding away dodging beam weapons. They should never have to defend themselves from missiles -- at least 2:1 ratio
of Aegis to missile boats. Also, the bombers should be taking a lot of flak away from these boats which are the real killers (in the early game).
                                         
4.8.5 Combat Tactics

4.8.5.1 Cheap Distraction
Have you noticed how much the planetary defenses hate/fear ships with bombs? I've set up invasion fleets that have all the cool stuff on the battleship and titans, and a bunch of dirt cheap frigates armed with nuclear bombs just to distract the planetary weaponry. 
                     
4.8.5.2 Cookoffs
Sometimes ships go down with a bigger explosion than usual, doing more damage to the surrounding ships. They don't even have to have quantum detonators onboard for it to happen. I've taken to calling these events "cookoffs" since it appears that the damage done to the ship causes other onboard weapons to "cookoff" setting off a major explosion. I've found that
a combination of heavy phasors followed immediately by heavy ion pulse cannons can often cause this sort of behavior. I use this effect when I'm facing large CP fleets. If he has a titan or doomstar in his front line, I can often get it to detonate, thus taking as many as five surrounding ships with it. And sometimes one of those will cookoff too setting off chain reactions. I once took down 5 Sakkra doomstars, about 7 or 8 Sakkra titans, 10 or 12 Sakkra battleships and another 15-20 smaller ships in just two combat rounds using only 6 of my own titans.
                                        
4.8.5.3 Self-Destruct
Self-destructing frigates and destroyers in FRONT of a nasty is a great way to weaken it's shields enough where the shields FAIL on the side facing the explosion. I usually build something fast enough to get in an enemy ship's face, then as the enemy fires off missiles, fighters, shuttles, etc, I self destruct my ship, taking the launched subsystems AND the enemy ship's forward shield out. THEN, I follow up with my ranged attacks, funneling the damage through the now-depleted front shields. If and when you get the quantum detonator, your destruction damage is TRIPLED and REALLY lays waste just about every shield and launched subsystem within 5 or 6 squares distance.                                        

4.8.5.4 Cheap Bomber Squads
A tip for fights against shielded planets with highly advanced missile bases: missile bases only shoot at a max of two targets/turn (I'm not sure whether CPs ever shoot at more than one). It will take you two turns to run up to the planet. That means that, at most, he can shoot at two of your ships before you are in bomb distance. So make a bunch of frigates with nuclear bombs (fusion if you got 'em). 8 frigates cost 8 command points, which should be affordable to anyone. When you enter combat, first turn, charge the planet. Missile base fires. Next move, watch carefully to see which frigate(s) the missiles are aimed at. Turn these around and run to the edge of the map, then retreat. The missiles follow harmlessly. The frigates not aimed at run up and bomb. Second enemy turn, he fires again. One or two more frigates die or run off. Etc.                     

4.10.2 Slaver Empire

Firstly, all of your colony ships are of your race, even if the planet they are built from is made up totally of another race. Also, all of the ships pilots and crew are of your race as opposed to the race that built the ship. Because of this, isn't it beneficial to take only ship combat bonuses and telepathy, take penalties in the production fields, then grab the Sakkra or Silicoids, and just genocide your own race? I ended up in my last game capturing Ssla early on, and after realising that the Sakkra had no gravity penalties (I took low-G), +1 to food, subterranean, and double population
growth, that it made a whole lot more sense to populate my empire with Sakkra, since other than ship combat and government, the Sakkra workers were hands-down superior to my own ... and ship combat and government is of the originating race, regardless.

This is also affected by the difficulty level. At hard or impossible, the CPs get extra picks, and I've often seen them pick things like repulsive so they get even _more_ pluses. This makes the slaver strategy the most viable option in a hard or impossible game. A hard game is pretty easy if you start in average or advanced with a telepathic/ feudal/warlord. In the last game I played like this, _most_ of the CP races were better than my own pop. My biggest headache late in the game was when I started another wave of colonizing, the first colonist would always be my "own" race, even though I had built the colony base on a slave world. I had to build a bunch of extra freighters to ship Sakkra slaves in and ship out my people.
                                       
4.11.1 Trojan Planet
SITUATION: You are telepathic. You have fallen behind in tech against a non-telepathic player who you do not mind to go at war with.
DESCRIPTION: Gift them a system. Take the system back via Mind Control, you may acquire tech. Repeat.
COUNTER: Do not accept the gift.     

4.11.2 Stirring War thru Shared Systems
SITUATION: You are the directly in the path of a CP empire that wants to expand, but has no more unoccupied systems it can reach. You fear that the CP will attack you.
DESCRIPTION: Build an outpost in a second CP's system, and give it to the first one. This gives it a place to go other than you, and CPs do *not* seem to share systems effectively with each other. This tactic almost always seems to lead to war between the two CPs. Which is almost always a good deal for you.                                    

4.11.3 Offensive Prevention Against Framing
SITUATION: A race with good spying boni has contact with a race with poor spying boni, and both have contact with you. You fear that the first race will spy on the second race and frame you, which will ruin your relations to the first race.
DESCRIPTION: If you make enough spies and keep them on the offense, each player you spy on will keep a counterbalancing number of his spies on defense. Then they aren't framing you or stealing you blind. Since you may not be able to generate spies fast enough to shotgun everybody like this, you can be a little more selective with who you spy on. Keep at least the
guy with good bonuses at home by spying on him. Or make him your ally.

4.11.4 Blocking Outpost Ships
If two empires have colony/outpost ships in the same system then neither can create a colony/outpost: after all, which one would get first pick? So target empires with whom you have NAPs. Then create outpost ships and send them to the target's home system and surrounding systems. When they get there do NOT create the outpost; just leave the ship in orbit. Now your
"friend" will not be able to colonize and won't get mad at you. Later you can build colony ships and wait or make them take theirs from the system so you can colonize it yourself. Perhaps send a scout for "defense" in case they attack. I suspect this also works against colony bases; which are wasted if an alien has a colony/outpost ship in your system.
                             
4.11.5 Potemkin Defense
SITUATION: You have a good production base, but no good ship technology to build a powerful fleet. You fear that your neighbours might realize your weakness and attack, or you want to demand technology from them.
DESCRIPTION: Keep lots of empty ships stationed at your planet, for the intimidation factor. Whenever you do finally research some worthwhile weapons or specials, you could always refit them. The AI takes fleet size into account when thinking about war, and it will influence diplomacy as well.
COUNTER: Just attack ... that's why this strategy will only work against CPs.                   

4.12 Strange Strategies to Try

4.12.6 Uncreative/Repulsive Galaxy
Set up a customized game with all the players being *Uncreative* and *Repulsive*, including yourself. Customize your race. Then pick the CP's, add Uncreative and Repulsive, and give them miscellaneous picks (upgrade governments first) to get them back to zero. Start with Pre-Warp technology. It is funny to have massive battles and take over planets in a galaxy where
Lasers (although fully modified - hey, I just captured Mass Drivers!!) are the best weapon and where shields are a rarity. Spying is a must in this game, too.          

5.1 Program Bugs

5.1.1 Bugs in Combat / Combat Specs

5.1.1.1 The Unprotected Missiles Bug
Missiles do not profit from better Armor technologies. Even with Xentronium, a Nuclear Missile can only take 4 points of damage, a Merculite 6, a Pulson 8, a Zeon 10.

5.1.1.2 The Accumulative Jamming Bug
The Wide Area Jammer (WAJ) provides a +70% missile evasion bonus to the whole fleet which should not be cumulative with the effects of other ships' own jammers (as stated in the Online Help, the manual does not say anything about it). Actually the effect IS cumulative, even with the +130% that the WAJ provides for the equipped ship itself. So, in fleets with at least one ship with a WAJ, the missile evasion bonus is +70% for ships without jammers (correct), +140% for ships with ECM jammers (should be +70%) and +200% for ships with WAJs (should be 130%).

5.1.1.3 The Reapproaching Shuttles Bug
Assault Shuttles are not set adrift after dropping off their marines (as stated in the manual, page 70), they return to the carrier and may be sent off again. This means that the attacker can send an infinite number of boarding marines - as long as the shuttles remain intact - whereas the target ship has only its limited crew to defend the ship against these hordes.

5.1.1.4 The Fixed Scout Lab Bonus Bug
The Scout Lab (Ship System) does not provide the promised beam attack bonus when attacking Antares (I once had a bonus of 0 and another time of 10, but I am not really sure about the second value). Against monsters and when defending against Antarans it provides always +20 beam attack, not +10 per ship size class as stated in the manual.

5.1.1.5 The Smaller Battle Pods Bug
Battle Pods always add 50% of the base hull size, regardless whether Megafluxers (+25% space on all ships) have been researched or not. This means that after inventing Megafluxers, Battle Pods will only give you 40% additional space.

5.1.1.6 The Afterburner Battle Pods Bug
Ships are faster when there is more unused space on them. This Unused space speed bonus is apparently calculated by the formula  Bonus = (10 * ( unused_space / hull_size ) ) for every ship. The hull_size in the formula is the base hull size of ships of that size class in the empire. This means that by equipping your ship with battle pods, these will increase the unused space, but not the hull size, thereby making your ship faster. When you fill the additional space with more
equipment, the ship will be as fast as a ship without battle pods and without the additional equipment. This should not be the case. Ships with more equipment have more mass and therefore should be slower.

5.1.1.7 The Repeated Stasis Bug
Once a ship is put into stasis it can be destroyed without any retaliatory strikes: Put ship A into stasis. At beginning of next turn release it from stasis and shoot everything you have at it. Before that turn is over, put the same ship back into stasis so it can't retaliate during its next turn, AND ALL TURNS thereafter. SOLUTION: Once released from stasis, that ship
shouldn't be allowed to be put into stasis again until the following turn.
                                                   
5.1.1.8 The Tiny Planet Bug
When attacking a tiny planet with shields, the game crashes. (Workaround: Use the "z" key for ultra-fast combat. Then the game doesn't try to draw the shield being hit). 

5.1.2 Bugs regarding Money

5.1.2.1 The Good Old But Still Bothering Integer Overflow Bug When I research more than 32767 research units per turn, the number becomes negative and researching is impossible. The same goes for money (earning more than 32767 BC per turn), this "negative" income is actually deducted from the total. (Food production also goes negative, but this is very unlikely to happen in a normal game.) (I wonder what happens to a really large computer player empire when its income just drops by 60000 BC ...)

5.1.2.2 The Even More Negative Income Bug
The income that is shown at the Info Screen (Budget Breakdown) can also go negative. This may be the same integer overflow bug, but it happens earlier, because here your total income is shown, whereas the main screen only shows your net income.

5.1.2.3 The "I Graciously Offer You These Debts" Bug
When your total income has gone negative, you can even "pay" 10% of this negative income to any other player, who cannot avoid that because he cannot decline your gift. This means that once a player has reached the total income overflow, he can substantially hamper all other players by paying each of them negative tribute. Since his own net income will still be
positive, he gains a major advantage. The routines for calculating the total income should be checked. Also, tribute should not be paid if the total income is negative. (Perhaps this should automatically cancel the tribute treaty.)

5.1.3 Bugs Regarding Ship Travel

5.1.3.1 The Non-existent Speed Bonus Bug
The +2 travel speed / +4 combat speed bonus for Trans-dimensional races does not work. The "Navigator" (leader ability) speed bonus does not work either (at least not when the leaders have low levels). (Example 1: Save the game before researching Evolutionary Mutation. Hit the Turn button. Choose no additional race special. Look at the ETAs of your fleets. Now restore the saved game, hit the Turn button and choose "Trans-Dimensional". The ETA's will be the same, although there should be a difference at least for the long distance trips. Example 2: Get a "Navigator" leader on a fleet and send
it off. Dismiss the leader. See if the ETA changes.)

5.1.3.2 The One Line With Two Lengths Bug
The distance that is shown in the Fleet Window when the chosen destination is out of reach is not calculated correctly. When choosing a 2-player game, you can check the distances by trying to send the fleet of Player A from Homeworld A to Homeworld B and then trying to send the fleet of Player B from Homeworld B to Homeworld A. The numbers that will be shown in red in the Fleet Window will differ. (I had differences up to 8 parsecs in huge galaxies.)

5.1.3.3 Stargate Bugs
I tried relocating ships from one plant to another with a blackhole in between. The program wouldn't let me even though I could go from one planet to the other through the stargate and relocations use the stargate for getting there fast. Another irritating "feature" of stargates is that freighters and leaders can't use them. Once you have stargates it should
never take more than one turn to ferry population around.
                                           
5.1.4 Bugs regarding Diplomacy

5.1.4.1 The Exchanged Names Bug
When you cancel a treaty, the other player will see his own name in the message "(his name) has broken your ... treaty."

5.1.4.2 The Lost Technology Bug
When trading/demanding/offering technologies with/from/to other races, it can happen that the technology list is too large to fit on one page. It will then be divided in parts of 11 techs per page. On the first page the first 11 techs will be displayed. However, on all following pages only 10 techs of the 11 techs that are supposed to be on these pages are displayed (there is one line less space because you now need one line for the "Previous Page" entry). This means that the techs that were number 22, 33, 44 etc on the list will never appear on the pages, so that you cannot choose them.
Verification: When you pick another tech, trade it/get it/give it away and then trade/demand/offer again, the tech list appears again minus the one entry that you just chose. All "lost" techs behind the chosen tech now move one entry upwards, meaning they will appear now. However, the techs that were right behind them will now be "lost". (Note that this is not always true. Sometimes picking one entry removes more than only this single entry from the list, and sometimes the list order changes.)

5.1.4.3 The Stock Exchange Trade Bundle Bug
I have now come up twice with this interesting bug. When I don't have Galactic Stock Exchange yet and I exchange it with some other race I get Stock Exchange AND Astro University AND Advanced Government!
                              
5.1.4.4 The Halved Tech Exchange Bug
Another bug I've noticed in the Null-Modem Link game: When I exchange tech with the another human player, only the one who suggests the exchange gets the tech! Of course I can get around this bug by giving the tech to the other person.                 

5.1.4.5 The We Hate Your Being Nice To Us Bug
Votes in the Council go just the other way one would expect: allies vote against you, enemies for you.             [

5.1.5 Bugs regarding Planetary Construction

5.1.5.1 The Repeat Build Colony Bases Bug
In the "Planetary Construction Orders Screen" the "Repeat Build" option does not work for Colony Bases.

5.1.5.2 The Superfluous Colony Base Bug
I have 1 uncolonized planet in a system and want to colonize it with a Colony Base. When I build that then the entry "Colony Base" does not vanish from the Support List, however when I click again on "Colony Base" the computer adds "Freighter Fleet" to the Production Queue. The entry "Colony Base" then vanishes. The entry "Colony Base" should vanish immediately after the number of Colony Bases in the Production Queue equals the number of uncolonized planets.

5.1.6 Scoring Bugs

5.1.6.1 The No Election Bonus Bug
I've finished two games in a row now by getting "elected" emperor of the galaxy, but there was no bonus added to my score. I reloaded both games and surrendered to one of the other races and I got the same score as when I won the game!                                
The manual lies on that one. You get no bonus for getting elected or for playing in a large galaxy. The manual also says that if you have extra picks left over, 2 for example, your score should multiply 120%, but that reportedly doesn't work either.     
   
5.1.6.2 The Genetic Mutation Score Boost Bug
When you do not spend the 4 extra picks that you get from "Genetic Mutation" tech, +40% are added to your score. This should not happen, 4 picks not spent somewhere in the endgame should not affect score the same way as 4 picks not spent at the start.

5.1.7 Various other Bugs

5.1.7.1 The Crew Experience Bug
You get an experience level when you go *over* the experience level stated in the manual; i.e., you need 51, not 50, points to become average. But all experience is capped at 500. So, you never get elite crews unless you are a warlord, and then you never get ultra-elites.          

5.1.7.2 The Overcrowded Planet Crash Bug
I freighted 20 colonists onto Orion, which was already maxed out at 42 of 42 at that moment. The system crashed the same turn that the colonists arrived when I switched to the colonies screen, or (reloading the auto-save) on the next turn after that if I didn't do anything but press "Turn". I was playing a subterranean lithovore. When I sent the colonists off, I didn't get the usual warning that the planet was already full.
                                  
5.1.7.3 The Instant Leader Movement Bug
Click the leader and destination normally. Accept the 5 turn wait. Exit leaders screen (to galactic view), reenter leaders screen. Place leader in pool, then reselect the previous destination. This time no time delay will be required. It appears that the official 'position' of the leader has changed. This does not work if there is a leader already in the destination.
To put the leader 'back' where it was at the start of the turn now will allegedly cost 5 turns.         

5.1.8 Spelling Errors

Some Spelling Bugs:
The small Planetary Info Box in the Colonies Screen shows the text   "Popualtion" instead of "Population".
When researching Moleculartronics, the research screen shows   "Moleculatronics".
When right-clicking on the "Mind Control" in the Attack Planet Screen, a text with the word "overwheming" appears.
Warp Dissipators and Disruptors often are called "Warp Dissipaters" and  "Disrupters"
In the building dock screen, weapons that have not been modified say no  "modifcations" 

5.1.9 May-be Bugs

5.1.9.1 The Imperium Morale Bug (?)
Imperium governments do not have the -20% morale penalty any more. However, barracks still add 20% morale. This is a either a bug (barracks removing non-existent morale penalty) or missing/misleading information in the manual  and Online Help. The line "barracks remove the -20% morale penalty under ... governments" should then be rephrased into "add 20% morale under ... governments". Also, the information that Imperium governments do not have the penalty any more should be added into the Online Help and the manual (page 82).
Another explanation that is more in line with the manual is that Imperium governments suffer a -20% morale penalty (which can be removed by barracks) AND AT THE SAME TIME a 20% morale bonus which applies anyway. In this case, the 20% morale bonus (which is mentioned only in the manual on page 141) should be explained also in the Online Help and on page 82 of the manual.

5.1.9.2 The Unload Troops Bug (?)
The routine for the "Unload Troops" option of transports is odd. Sometimes it will allow me to station more Marines in a colony than the Marine barracks would support, sometimes not.

5.1.9.3 The Assassination-Resistant Spies Bug
Spy assassination (leader characteristic) doesn't work. The message appears but no spies are really lost.  
           
5.1.9.4 The No Instant Assimilation Bug
I captured Elerians' homeworld. The Elerians have a feudal government, so instant assimilation, right? No. They even rebelled a few turns later, and managed to defeat my occupation force. And no, they did not have the Confederation advancement.               

5.1.10 Bug Reports Without Version Number

5.1.10.1 The "Diplomat Assassinated - so what?" Bug
When you assassinate a diplomat (random event) the message is that relations have gotten bad, but when you look at the relationship bar, it hasn't nudged a bit. 

5.1.10.2 The Refit Captured Ship Bug
All it takes is a leader in the ship in question. It will ask if you want to send the leader back to the leader pool while refitting takes place and then you decline (didn't try it with sending the leader back to the pool). Presto, instant alien upgrade! You won't be able to replace any items you remove if you don't have the tech for them (i.e you will lose the chance to scavage the tech [I believe] if and when you scrap the ship), but other than that, it keeps those captured junkers in shape for a few more battles.
                              
5.1.10.3 The No Difficulty Score Bonus Bug
I waited a bit before posting this because I wanted to confirm it, but now I'm sure: the scoring does NOT seem to be taking difficulty level into account. Both my impossible wins are below a hard win in the Hall of Fame. No big difference between them, except it took me a little longer for the hard win (so, presumably, greater pop). 

5.1.10.4 The Android Morale Bug
I noticed that with android workers you get morale bonus contrary to what is said in the manual. That means you get the +3 bonus being an android and you get the morale bonus. If this is consistent, then it means always use androids to do your production and use people for farms and science if the morale bonus for these 2 resources is more than 3. 

5.1.10.5 The Diplomatic Immunity thru Ignoring Bug
In a game that was a typical frame fest, I set the Mrrshans, the only race who didn't declare war on me so far, to IGNORE to see what would happen. It seems I was now IMMUNE to frame ups! 200 turns went by, and the whole rest of the game the Mrrshans and I were happy, hunky-dory treaty partners! That is just TOO strange an occurance to be mere coincidence. So, while IGNORE may not stop declarations of war per se, it MAY be able to stop deterioration of your diplomatic standing due to events such as framing - in other words, you can "freeze" your friendly standing by hitting IGNORE.
                                      
5.1.10.6 The Long-Range Anti-Missile Lasers Bug
I had _heavy_ (continuous, autofiring, ... and the kitchen sink) lasers shooting missiles from across the playing field. No other heavy beam weapon can do this. If it's not a bug, it's a rather gaping oversight. Why use PD weapons when your kitchen-sink lasers can knock those missiles/fighters out as they leave the ship/planet?             

5.1.10.7 The Negative Structure Points Bug
Once I couldn't fire at the enemy, nor would it fire if I did AUTO. It would just sit there.  However, after I did DONE DONE DONE (on all my ships), the computer ships just blew up.  No self-destruction, no firing, no moving... nothing. 

This happened to me once too - I scanned the enemy ships and found out they had negative structure points.                                

5.1.10.8 The Bilateral Tribute Treaty Bug
I had one game where the Klackons where paying me 10% tribute, then later demanded that I give them 5% tribute (while they where still paying me 10% tribute).  ((Still happens in 1.31 -kg))                                           

5.1.10.9 The No Outpost While Colony Ship Present Bug
I sent an outpost ship and a colony ship as a fleet, to a star system that I wanted to build an outpost on. It never gave me a choice to build an outpost. When they first arrived, I was asked if I'd like to build a colony. I was never asked to build an outpost. The little "build outpost" menu choice under the fleet window wouldn't show up. I finally had to send the
colony ship away to another star then, it let me build an outpost.

5.1.10.10 The Repeated Phase Cloaking Bug
Unfortunately the Phasing Cloak works ten turns PER USE before turning into a stealth cloak. That means that as soon as you turn it off it resets the counter to 0 and you're good for another ten turns.
                                       
I also consider it a bug that, using a Time Warp Facilitator, you can re-cloak in the same turn you de-cloaked, so the main limitation of cloaking devices / phase cloaks gets disabled.

5.1.10.11 The Converted Lithovores Bug
When you are lithovoric and research Evolutionary Mutation, you can drop the "lithovoric". All you do is turn cybernetic on and off when you get to the race screen - then you have 14 new race picks to spend. ((1.31 also -KG))
                               
5.1.10.12 The Building Unresearched Structures Bug
I started up a new game and began playing when I noticed that after a while whatever I started reseaching immediately appeared in my build lists and I was able to build it even as I was reseaching it. Then a bit later I noticed that the dimensional gate had just "appeared" in my build list, out of nowhere!                                            

5.1.10.13 The Stasis Field Bug
In a big battle many of my ships are armed with stasis fields. I cover about half of the CP's 16 battleships with the stasis fields and then kill the other half. Then I hit DONE for all my ships, and the game freezes up hard, apparently as a result of the enemy attempting to play his side with that fleet of stasis inhibited ships.                 
I have had the game lock up on me as well for many different scenarios during battles. One scenario is this: I have 1 Doom Star attacking a planet with a Star Fortress. I put the fortress in a stasis and destroy the planets defenses and once they are gone, the game locks up.
                            
5.1.10.14 The Captured Stasis Field Bug
You can board a ship held in a stasis field, but once you have captured it, the stasis field will not go away, even if the ship that put the stasis field in place is destroyed or retreats.
                             
5.1.10.15 The Trading Just Stolen Tech Bug
If you're quick, you can sometimes trade the CP's the tech they just stole.
                                                         
5.1.10.16 The No Council Vote Bug
I've played many games on large universes with 8 players and organic rich, and have gotten a council meeting every time. My last game I switched to a huge galaxy with 4 players and mineral rich. I was very careful to leave two other races in the game; I had definitely enough momentum to win and wanted to win by vote. But the vote just did not happen. About 95% of the systems were colonized, and in the neighborhood 90% of planets were colonized.
                                       
5.1.10.17 The Surrendering Host Bug
In Multiplayer, the host cannot lose or surrender without killing the game. I was playing a 3-player game and the host surrendered - the game crashed.
                                            
5.1.10.18 The Unspyable Tech Bug
I've been unable to get some tech from races because it doesn't show up on their tech list. For instance, I met the Psilons who didn't have biospheres or hydro-farms. They had armor barracks, yet I couldn't steal them (didn't show up on their tech list). Same went for things like stealth suit or low-g harness. Most annoying.                    

5.1.10.19 Another Research Bug
I also hit a weird one two days ago playing a creative race. I was researching field tech and the thing got up to 100%. I figure I've dumped enough research into that to get a shot at the more expensive anti-matter tech so I switched over. I hit a breakthrough (I think, memory is a bit soft). In the same turn I captured anti-matter bombs from a CP's colony. The
game gave me the anti-matter bomb but took away ALL research points and made me pick a field of study again without advancing my anti-matter power.
                                               
5.1.10.20 The Zero Population Empire Bug
see the according story (6.12) in Part VI.

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5.2 Online Help Errors and Missing Information

5.2.1 Corrections to the Tech Review

5.2.1.1 The Online Help states that Star Fortresses add +20% to offense and defense of all friendly ships in combat. In fact this bonus applies to beam offense only.

5.2.1.2 The Online Help states that Space Academies add +2 to the starting level of ships built on that planet and +2 experience points per turn for every friendly ship in the system. In fact the numbers are +1 and +1. Also, the experience-points-per-turn-bonus (but not the starting level bonus) of Space Academies is cumulative: if you have a ship in a system with 4 Academies, this ship will get +4 experience points every turn. Since this is explained nowhere, I do not know whether this is a bug or just missing information.

5.2.1.3 The Galactic Currency Exchange is an Achievement, but the Tech Review lists it under "Buildings".

5.2.1.4 The Galactic Cybernet provides +15 research on a planet. This information is missing in the Online Help.

5.2.1.5 Space Scanners, Tachyon Scanners, Neutron Scanners and Sensors are Achievements, but the Tech Review lists them as Equipment.

5.2.1.6 The Alien Control Center (ACC) removes the -20% morale penalty on multi-racial colonies. The Online Help does not mention that. Instead it states that the ACC assimilated aliens twice as fast and made them "work harder". This is not true: they assimilate at a fixed rate of 1 population unit every 2 turns, and production levels remain unchanged.
(Personally, I think the doubled assimilation rate would have been the better solution. One of the main disadvantages of Unification government, its extremely slow assimilation rate (20 turns per unit), isn't much to worry about when you just have to spend 60 production units to build an ACC and assimilate ten times faster!)

5.2.1.7 Psionics provides a +10% morale bonus on all planets under Feudal, Dictatorship, Confederation and Imperium governments. The Online Help states that the bonus only applied to Dictatorship and Imperium.

5.2.1.8 The Online Help does not give any information about the speed of missiles (which is 8 + 2x the empire's drive level).

5.2.1.9 The Online Help does not provide or gives wrong information about the speed of fighters, which is 6 + 2x drive level for Interceptors, 2 + 2x drive level for Shuttles and 4 + 4x drive level for Bombers and Heavy Fighters.

5.2.1.10 The Online Help does not provide information about the structure points of interceptors (they have 2, modified by your best armor) and bombers (they have 4, modified by your best armor).

5.2.2 Corrections to the Help in the Ship Design Screen

5.2.2.1 The help screens do not tell that Firing Arcs other than "Forward" and "Back" cost more and take up more space. "Forward Ext" and "Backward Ext" lead to a 25% increase of cost and size, "360 degree" to a 50% increase.

5.2.2.2 The help screens that pops up when right-clicking on the hull sizes in the Ship construction screen states that Titans have 150 armor and structure points. In fact they have only 80 of each.

5.2.3 Corrections to the Help Regarding Leader Abilities

5.2.3.1 "Engineer" legendary officers repair per level 2 (or 3) of the ship's structure or armor. The Online Help does not mention this.

5.2.4 Corrections to the Planetary Construction Screen

5.2.4.1 On the "Planetary Construction Orders Screen" the Colony Bases are listed with a maintenance cost of 5 BC. This is odd; since the bases expire when they are not used at once, they cannot have maintenance costs, can they?

5.2.4.2 On the same screen, Spies are listed with a "Special" production cost (although it always seems to be 100 production units). The 1 BC maintenance cost per spy, however, is not mentioned. (This information is also missing in the manual and in the Online Help).

5.3 Manual Corrections and Missing Information

5.3.1 Corrections to Chapter 5: Star Systems

5.3.1.1 Huge planets can have a base population (depending on the climate) of 6-25, not 6-30 as stated in the manual (page 48).

5.3.2 Corrections to Chapter 7: Research and Development

5.3.2.1 The manual states that Star Bases add 2 and Battle Stations add 3 to your command rating (pages 67 and 70). The true values are 1 and 2. The manual has no information on command points generated by Star Fortresses (page 73). The value is 3.

5.3.2.3 The information about fighters in the manual is very wrong. Fighters do not have armor, but each fighter class has a base structure rating. This base rate is multiplied with the bonus of the empire's best armor (as with ships).
Interceptors have a base structure of 2 and a speed of 6 + 2x the speed of the empire's fastest engine (I call this the "drive level"), not 3 structure and 14 speed as stated in the manual (page 68). Assault shuttles have a base structure of 3 and a speed of 2 + 2x drive level, not 6 speed as stated in the manual (page 70). They will return to the carrier and can be sent off again, they are not set adrift as stated in the manual (page 70) (this may be a bug). Bombers have a base structure of 4 and a speed of 4 + 2x drive level, not 10 speed as stated in the manual (page 72). Heavy Fighters have a base structure of 5 and a speed of 4 + 2x drive level, not 12 speed as mentioned in the manual (page 73). (Also see corrections for page 131.)

5.3.2.4 Heavy Armor triples the armor points of a ship, instead of just adding 50% as stated in the manual (page 68).

5.3.2.5 The manual states that Survival Pods are a System (page 69). In fact they are an Achievement.

5.3.2.6 The manual states that Fighter Garrisons are equipped with 24 Interceptor squadrons or 18 Bomber squadrons or 12 Heavy Fighter squadrons (page 69). In fact there are only 10, 6 or 4 squadrons respectively.

5.3.2.7 When troops conquer a planet, not all of them rebuild their transports. The last 1-4 units of the surviving troops will stay. This information is missing in the manual on page 75.

5.3.2.8 All missiles travel at a speed of 8 + 2x the empire's drive level (this is the current maximum warp speed in your empire in parsec per turn). In the manual, this information is missing for Nuclear Missiles (page 78) and Merculite Missiles (page 79). The manual falsely gives fixed values for the speed of the Pulson Missile (page 79) and the Zeon Missile (page 80).

5.3.2.9 Titanium Armor confers a +5 bonus to the ground troop combat rating until Tritanium Armor is researched. This information is missing in the manual on page 79.

5.3.2.10 The Space Academy costs 2 BC maintenance each turn, not 1 as stated in the manual (page 81).

5.3.2.11 The Dauntless Guidance System is an Achievement, not a System as stated in the manual (page 84).

5.3.2.12 The Emissions Guidance System is an Achievement, not a System as stated in the manual (page 85). (Actually it is a Modification. But this category does not exist.)

5.3.2.13 For Tachyon Scanners, Neutron Scanners and Sensors the base detection range (BDR) has been confused with the detection range for small ships (DRSS). They are not the same: the DRSS is always the BDR +1. The numbers that are mentioned in the manual (pages 92, 92 and 95) denote the BDR and NOT the DRSS (for the DRSS they should have been increased by 1).

5.3.2.14 The Research and Development section of the manual does not say that shields lessen the strength of attacks by a number of points equivalent to their shield class (pages 96, 97, 98, 99, 100).

5.3.2.15 A cloaked ship has a 50% chance that missiles miss it. This information is missing in the manual on page 99. (Interestingly this 50% chance works, although it is not a bonus to missile evasion.)

5.3.2.16 Hard Shields are immune to Shield Piercing. This information is missing in the manual on page 99.

5.3.2.17 The Sub-Space Teleporter can teleport a ship over a distance of 20 squares, not 18 squares as stated in the manual (page 100).

5.3.2.18 The modification "Emissions Guidance (EMG)" is not explained in the manual (page 103). It bypasses any armor and does its damage directly to the ship's drive. It takes 4 times the cost and size of the regular missile.

5.3.2.19 The modification "Fast" adds +4 to the missile's speed, not +8 as stated in the manual (page 103).

5.3.3 Corrections to Chapter 8: Ships

5.3.3.1 The manual does not tell that Firing Arcs other than "Forward" and "Back" cost more and take up more space (page 112). "Forward Ext" and "Backward Ext" lead to a 25% increase of cost and size, "360 degree" to a 50% increase.

5.3.3.2 The manual calls level 1 crews "Recruits" (page 116). The game however uses the term "Green".

5.3.4 Corrections to Chapter 9: Mercenary Leaders

5.3.4.1 The "Helmsman" leader ability increases the beam defense of the leader's ship only, not of the whole fleet as stated in the manual (page 119).

5.3.4.2 The manual states that the leader ability "Tactics" should increase ship attack and ground troop strengt (page 120). In fact the ground troop strength is not changed. The Online Help says that "Tactics" adds to the ships' initiative - but initiative doesn't exist in the combat system.

5.3.5 Corrections to Chapter 10: Combat

5.3.5.1 Missiles are not protected by the empire's best armor as stated in the manual (page 130). This may be a bug.

5.3.5.2 Fighter craft do not return to their target as stated in the manual (page 131). Once they returned to the carrier you have to give them new orders. Fighters also do not have any armor, but structure - the exact value is the fighter type's base structure times the empire's armor bonus. The line "as for missiles" should be deleted, at present missiles do not profit from better armor technologies (this may be a bug?).

5.3.5.3 The Conquered Population Production Penalty is 25%. Conquered units of population produce 75% of their normal rate, not 50% as stated in the manual (page 137, and also on page 58).

5.3.6 Corrections to Chapter 11: Managing an Empire

5.3.6.1 Feudal and Confederation Governments have a -50% research penalty. This information is missing in the manual on pages 140 and 141.

5.3.6.2 The manual states that in a Federation, loss of the Capitol will result in a 35% morale penalty (page 141). In fact it is only a 20% penalty.

5.3.6.3 The Imperium government sets the defensive spy rating baseline to 15%. But the Online Help states it should be set to 20%   - the manual (pages 19 and 142) also says it should be set to 20%.
         - the manual (page 82) claims it should be "increased by 15 points"
           (which is misleading because it suggests an increment to the initial +10% bonus from Dictatorship government, this would result in a +25% setting).

5.3.6.4 The terms "Agent" and "Counter-agent" in the manual (pages 149 and 150) are very misleading because the game uses different terms. "Agent" should be displaced by "Spy", and "Counter-agent" should be displaced by "Agent".

6.1 Eel Colony

I had one game that had a space eel protecting a large/rich planet. The nice thing about it was that the planet had a splinter colony on it. Since the eel did not attack my ships the computer gave the planet to me. I was able to colonize the other planets using colony bases, and was about to do almost anything I wanted with the colonies, the only side affect was the planets were affected by a blockade.