FAQ

Imperial Conflict - The FAQ

The contents of this FAQ came directly from the old imperialconflict.com/faq, the plan is for it to live within this wiki now, so anyone can fix errors or add to it

General Questions

How do I sign up for an account?

First off, you follow this link:

http://www.imperialconflict.com/register.php

Then you start filling the fields up like this:

Username

This is your login name. No one but yourself should know this - when asked only give it to full moderators. You'll have to type this name every time to login.

Password

Your password to your account which you also have to type in every time to login. Be sure you keep this a secret! Don't take an easy pass or a pass that is known by anyone else. But don't enter more than 15 characters. This field is case-sensitive.

Re-enter pass

Type your pass another time to ensure you didn't mistype it the 1st time. This field is case-sensitive.

Email

Very important. Make sure you type your email address correctly and check this! It has to be a valid email address else you wont be able to activate your account to play the game!

Name

Your empire has a ruler: you. What would you like yourself to be called?

You could use your real name, your nickname or just a fantasy name.

Again this name will show to everyone. Please keep this name decent and non-offensive.

Empire

How would you like to be called in this game? This is the name everyone will know you by. It will show to everyone. Please keep this name decent and non-offensive.

Nation

What country do you come from? Not the country where you happen to sign up but what country do you actually live in.

Gender

Speaks for itself.

Are you male or female. If you're not sure you can enter that as well. Be aware that this will affect your alignment on future Forum tags.

Email of Referrer

When you enter the email of an existing player here (preferably the one who told you about this game, but don't enter yourself: it will only get removed), that person gets 4 tag points. -- Check What's a tag for more info on tags.

Ok now that those fields are filled in, let's move on to the rest.

You'll see 2 options under the fields.

1st option

This is my only account.

You can NOT create an account if you already have an account in one of the other regular galaxies. By filling in this option you'll affirm this is your only main account. So not just the galaxy you want to enter but all galaxies. Failure to abide by this could result in the blocking of all accounts involved.

2nd option

I have read and accepted the rules

The most crucial one. The rules.

READ THEM!

If you don't and you break them, there are no excuses. So read them please.

Well if you're done with filling out everything you press "Next".

An activation code will be sent to your email address. You will need to enter that the first time you log in. If it doesn't arrive straight away, remember to check your junk mail.

Ok you're done here for now.

Now visit the login page and enter your ID and password.

Now you need to activate your account by entering your activation code sent to you in your mail.

Now its time to select a race.

You can select one of the predefined races (Partaxian, Wardancers, Quantam, Revalons or Camaar).

For more information on creating a race yourself, see the section - "How do I create a race?".

Torqez is a giant noob.

How long is a week and a year in IC?

One game week (or tick as used by players) lasts one real life hour. Each week 'passes' on the hour, every hour. The game may take up to a minute to update what has happened that tick, you can't do anything during this time, after then you can get right back into the game.

An IC year lasts for 52 weeks, from week 0 to week 51.

How do you delete your account?

In the HQ (the page loaded right after login) at the bottom there is a link called "Preferences".

To delete your playing account, choose the "Surrender" option. You will need to enter the password you use to log in.

If you have lost it, you can get it resent via the Forgot Password page at http://www.imperialconflict.com/password.php

Note: When you delete your account, only your empire is deleted. Your master accounts stays there. It is not possible to delete your master account.

If you wish to delete for a second time, you will be required to wait 7 days before being able to use the surrender option.

This rule can be overridden once per 3 months by requesting a delete reset from a moderator. As stated, this can only be performed once per 3 months and does not count during a galaxy's registration period, nor during the first 3 days of a round.

Additionally, you cannot delete if you have performed offensive actions during the last 24 hours (this includes attacks and offensive Special Operations, as well as exploration).

How long does a round take? When does a galaxy start/end?

Galaxies vary in duration, often between 7 and 10 weeks. The time lenght of a round is announced when a galaxy opens for registration.

Moderators are able to end rounds earlier than the advertised date, although this rarely happens in the regular galaxies.

You can view the start and end dates of each galaxy on the Universe page. Each galaxy will be removed from this page one week before its end date.

What is and what happens in vacation mode?

Vacation mode is a feature you can use when unable to log in for an extended period of time.

An empire can only use this feature if it has not performed any attacks or hostile ops during the 24 hours.

This is available from your HQ under preferences where you select "Vacation".

Minimum time = 4 days (96 ticks)

Maximum time = 7 days (168 ticks)

During this period you cannot be attacked, and you are protected from any hostile actions. Your empire will not make any cash or resources but you also won't use anything, i.e. no cash or food is required and no decay occurs. Your units will not decay either. Your account is in stasis, BUT it allows your buildings and units to be finished if you started anything before entering vacation mode.

Note: Any empires which haven't been logged into for 14 days will be automatically deleted by the game - be aware of that!

Note 2: The vacation mode option is disabled during the last 14 days of a round. This means you will not be able to enter vacation mode during this time.

Note 3: In King Of The Hill (KOTH) galaxies vacation mode will not apply to hill systems.

I cannot attack someone. It says:

This means the player is either in vacation mode or has been blocked for cheating. If someone is in vacation mode you cannot attack, or op them until they have come out of vacation mode. If a player is blocked, he cannot be attacked or opped from someone outside of the family. However, after 2 days the family may take the player's planets.

A similar message appears when someone is in Protection mode.

What is protection mode?

Protection mode is a feature which prevents empires from being completely wiped out by enemy forces. The benefit of protection mode is that whilst in it, no attacks or hostile operations can be made towards your empire (this only counts for planets which have been owned for longer than 48 hours). Your empire will enter protection mode if you lose 50% of your planets (of which you have owned for longer than 48 hours) within a 24 hour period. Any planets lost which were explored or attacked in the last 48 hours will not be eligible for protection

Protection mode lasts for 48 hours. However, before this time performing any of the following WILL also take your empire out of protection:

• Attacks on anyone (i.e. sending a fleet)
• Performing special operations
• Exploration

Note: Protection mode takes effect after the required amount of planets are taken.

Note 2: In King Of The Hill (KOTH) galaxies protection mode will not apply to hill systems.

Why do I have zero gc?

Well the easy answer is you are spending more on maintenance and upkeep than you take in. When you can't afford your upkeep troops will disband at a ratio of 1% per tick.

There are 4 ways to solve the problem.

1) Raise your income by making more cash a tick.

2) Cut your expenses by cutting down on unit upkeep costs (disband troops, lose troops with attacking) or cutting down on building maintenance costs (raze buildings).

3) Ask for aid from a family member.

4) Sell resources on the market to cover your upkeep and earn some gc.

How do coordinates work? How do you use the map?

Access the map from the link "map" in the menu. You will see a picture of your galaxy.

Coordinates are the same as on normal maps. You have your X-axis, which is the horizontal axis. The Y-axis is the vertical axis. Coordinates are usually made like this: (XX,YY). Planet coordinates add another number, the planet number (Z). So your coordinate will look like this: (XX,YY:ZZ).

To use the map, click on one of the sectors. You will get an overview of all systems in that sector. A system is represented by an image that is either surrounded by a blue circle if you have planets in it, a green circle if it's your allies/napped family's home system, a red circle if it's the home system of a family you're at war with, or no circle if it's none of the above. If you click on them, a pop-up opens with the list of all planets in that system.

Why can I not explore? How can I explore?

1. First, you must have 50% of your total building area covered with completed buildings (having buildings in queue but not yet completed will NOT allow you to explore).

2. Build an exploration ship in the Units menu

3. Go to the map and click on systems (stars) somewhere close to your homesystem or other planets you might have explored before (indicated by a yellow circle, once My Systems is checked in the side menu).

4. Find an empty planet (with no Empire name under it) that can support life. There are bonus resource and research planets also. Exploring safely in systems owned in majority by your family will bring some protection against other families taking your planets later.

5. You click on the planet and then the explore button. You need to pay a price in GCs for exploring. This price can be lowered by 40% if you cast the Space Amazement spell first.

6. After paying, the exploration ship goes off to the planet.

Exploration Time = (SQRT((xDifference)^2 + (yDifference)^2))* 1/(1+SpeedBonus%)

You can't explore planets immediately though, it always takes at least 1 tick, even when it states 0 ticks as travel time.

Exploration ships start off from the nearest planet you own (even if there is no portal).

Note: The exploration ship vanishes after its used. You can't explore twice with 1 ship.

Note2: An exploration ships that tries to explore an already explored planet will be safely returned to the main fleet.

When 2 explorer-ships arrive at the same hour, how does the game actually determine who gets there

The game deals with this randomly. Therefore whoever gets the planet is undetermined until one of the ships arrive.

When do unformed planets get formed?

Unformed planets can only be found in a home system. The planets will remain unformed until a new player joins the game and occupies that planet as his home planet.

How can I gain ranks in the rankings?

For size rankings, to gain ranks you need to increase your number of planets either by attacking or exploring.

For networth rankings, you need to increase your NW by building more buildings or units, exploring new planets or through research.

You can find more information about networth here: - Networth formula

Score ranking is updated each tick and is takes both the size as the networth ranking into account.

Note: In King Of The Hill (KOTH) galaxies, the score ranking does not exist, it will rank families on the number of planets they own in hill systems in stead.

What does inactive mean?

Inactive is a tag which only the leader can assign to any family member.

Usually assigned when someone doesn't log on for a while (the leader can see the last login time of an inactive player if they haven't logged in for over 52 hours (1 IC year).

Attacking an inactive player takes less moral than attacking others. A person marked inactive can be killed off by his family members by attacking his home planet when it is his only remaining planet.

The inactive sign doesn't always mean the player is inactive.

Leaders can declare active family members inactive too, for several reasons.

What happens when the round is over?

At the end of a round 2 options will appear in your HQ:

- stay in your family

- delete your account

Note that the "delete your account"-option is default.

You'll have the chance to change your race, empire name, ruler name, email, etc. Only your ID can't be changed.

In the case of stay in family you stay in the same galaxy in the same family.

Delete your account will remove your empire and allow you to join another family, another galaxy or be drafted to a family.

When the round ends, the final rankings are saved and recorded. Your NW will be reset to 1100 at first. You'll be starting over with 1 planet only in a different place in the galaxy. Everyone gets this. Also everyone gets the same starting resources. Its a brand new start for everyone :)

Be careful with the names you pick. Offensive names can be changed to embarrassing ones ;)

Note: In the event of a galaxy reshuffle, the above options will not appear as every player will be deleted and will start afresh in new families. Reshuffles occur once every 2/3 rounds in the regular galaxies to level the playing field.

How do I create a race?

If you don't want to play one of the predefined races, you can create your own!

However we do suggest all newbies choose one of the predefined races..

Here are the basics.

To create your own race, log on and choose "Manage Races".

You get 120 points to create a race. By adding bonuses you lose points. By adding negative bonuses you gain points.

Race Bonuses

Population: 10 points per 10% growth bonus.

Attack: 10 points per 10% attack bonus.

Research: 10 points per 10% research bonus.

Magic: 10 points per 10% magic bonus.

Income: 20 points per 10% income bonus.

Speed: 10 points per 20% speed.

You can vary the percentage from -30% to +50% (with the exception of speed that can go from 0% up to 100%).

-x% will give you extra race creation points, +x% will cost race points.

Spells, Operations and Specials

All spells and operations cost 5 points per spell/op.

If you choose a lot of magic spells, it is highly recommended to take a positive magic bonus (or choose Partaxian), otherwise you will have trouble casting the spells.

Tax Offices cost 10 points

Droids cost 20 points.

New players are probably better off practising with a predefined race first and then switching to a custom race once they know what the bonuses actually do.

How does reset empire work?

Note that this option is only available during the downtime in between rounds and will disappear once time has started. It will act as a normal delete.

By surrendering during the timeframe outlined above, you will be presented with the option of staying in the same family after deleting. By choosing the "Stay in Fam" option at the same time as surrendering, you will be able to rejoin the same family with your empire reset.

Through this option, you'll be able to change your ruler name, empire name, race.

Your resources will also go back to starting resources and any already started construction will be reset.

You'll go back to only your homeplanet and your networth will go to starting networth.

You will remain in the same family

What is a galactic event?

These are major events that affect everyone in the entire galaxy. Events can be good or bad. The effects typically last only a short time, but some are permanent.

An example: the harvest of the crops have been excellent this year; we expect 15% extra food production for the next 10 weeks. (This example is not a real example but made up)

What is the Sentinel tag?

This tag will have many specific characteristics, as follows:

• Wearer is immune to 35% NW player rule; he will not be immune to the 35% family NW rule
• Wearer will have his attack bonus modified to -50% regardless of his race bonus; there will be no defense penalty
• Wearer must either be a Revalon or a Partaxian
• Player must wear the tag for a minimum of 6 hours

Resources/Population

How do I earn Galactic Coin (gc)?

Theres a nice formula for income that goes like this:

Income = (100+ (pop/30) + (CashFactories * 8)) * (1+RaceBonus/100%) * (1+(2 * TaxOffices/(TotalBuildings + 1))) * (1+ EconomyScience%/100%)

The currency in Imperial Conflict is GC, short for Galactic Coin. As you can see from the above formula, there are two main ways to get gc, through population and through cash producing buildings appropriately called cash factories. In addition, a few other factors can raise your income.

Lets focus on the income sources first.

Population

Every planet has a base population and every Living Quarter (LQ) adds to this max. For a more detailed explanation about population see section - How does population work?.

Every 30 people give you 1gc as an income.

So every 500 population (=1LQ) ensures you 16,67gc income.

Cash Factories (CFs)

Every cash factory gives you a base income of 8gc.

Now the different factors that enhance your income:

Race Bonus

(1+RaceBonus/100%)

This means that with a 50% income bonus you can multiply your base income with 1,5 (1+ 50/100)

A -30% income bonus means you should multiply with 0,7 (1+ -30/100).

Tax Offices

(1+(2*TaxOffices/TotalBuildings + 1))

Every 1% of TO's you have in regard to your total amount of buildings gives you a bonus of 2% (add one to your total number of buildings).

For more information see section - How do Tax Offices work?

Science

(1+EconomyScience%/100%)

You can invest in economy research. This will give you a certain research percentage.

Lets say you get 50% economy science.

Then you can multiply your base income with 1,5 (1+ 50/100)

With 20% economy science this means multiply with 1,2 (1+ 20/100).

Note: With the mentioned profits of LQs and CFs the maintenance costs weren't discussed. Also, population needs food to stay alive so part of the income will have to be spent on buying food or building farms to produce food.

Note 2: 0.5% of your cash is spent on bureaucracy.

This means that if you have 1000 gc, after the tick there will be 995 gc left plus what you produce or lose that tick.

How do I gain food?

Food is used to feed your population and troops (except droids) and for building mining facilities, exploration ships and portals.

Food can be obtained in three ways, the main method is by building hydroponic farms (HF for short). These supply you with 100 units of food per tick per farm. The productivity of a HF may also be increased if they have been built on a planet with a food bonus, for example a planet with a 20% food bonus and 10 farms will produce 1200 food units instead of just 1000 food units!

However each person in your population will automatically eat 0.1 food per tick. Also all units you own except droids will eat 1 food unit per tick. If you do not have enough food to feed everyone then your income will be cut in half, therefore cash producing players should pay close attention to their food levels.

As with most resources food can be purchased off the market, however the price will vary throughout the round and as such it may not always be a profitable way to get food.

Finally food may also be sent in the form of aid by any member of your family, this is often very useful for cash producing players who mainly rely on this method of getting food.

Note: 0.5% of your food decays per tick.

This means that if you have 1000 food, after the next tick there will be 995 food left, plus what you produce or lose that tick.

How do I get endurium?

Almost everything you build requires endurium, so this is a very valuable resource!

There are three methods of getting endurium, the main method is building refinement stations (or RSs), these produce one endurium unit per tick per station. The productivity of an RS may also be increased if they have been built on a planet with an endurium bonus, for example a planet with a 20% endurium bonus and 10 RSs will produce 12 endurium units instead of just 10 units. Any decimal result will be rounded down.

As with most resources, endurium can be purchased off the market, however the price will vary throughout the round and as such it may not always be a profitable way to get the resource.

Finally, endurium may also be sent in the form of aid by any member of your family.

Note: 0.5% of your endurium decays per tick.

This means that if you have 1000 endurium, after the tick there will be 995 endurium left plus what you produce that tick.

How do I get iron?

Almost everything you build requires iron, so this is a very valuable resource!

There are three methods of getting iron, the main method is building mining facilities (or MFs), these produce one iron unit per tick per facility. The productivity of an MF may also be increased if they have been built on a planet with an iron bonus, for example a planet with a 20% iron bonus and 10 MFs will produce 12 iron units instead of just 10 units. Any decimal answer will be rounded down.

As with most resources, iron can be purchased off the market, however the price will vary throughout the round and as such it may not always be a profitable way to get the resource.

Finally, iron may also be sent in the form of aid by any member of your family.

Note: 0.5% of your iron decays per tick.

This means that if you have 1000 iron, after the tick there will be 995 iron left plus what you produce that tick.

How do I get octarine?

Octarine can be very valuable for mages but less valuable for non-mages.

It is used to build portals, for making wizards and for casting spells.

There are three methods of getting octarine, the main method is building occult centres (or OCs), these produce one octarine unit per tick per centre. The productivity of an OC may also be increased if they have been built on a planet with an octarine bonus, for example a planet with a 20% octarine bonus and 10 OCs will produce 12 octarine units instead of just 10 units. Any decimal result will be rounded down.

As with most resources, octarine can be purchased off the market, however the price will vary throughout the round and as such it may not always be a profitable way to get the resource.

Finally, octarine may also be sent in the form of aid by any member of your family.

Note: 0.5% of your octarine decays per tick. This means that if you have 1000 octarine, after the next tick there will be 995 octarine left, plus what you produce that tick.

How much food does each member of my population consume?

Food Consumption = (population/10) + (total amount of units - droids)

Each person in your population will eat 0.1 food unit per tick, therefore it takes 10 people to eat one unit of food. As a hydroponic farm produces 100 food units each farm can support the food needs of one thousand people.

Bankers focused on population will therefore consume large amounts of food, if however you do not provide enough food to feed your people, they will starve and your income will be cut in half.

Do not be fooled into thinking your food requirements equals the amount of food your population eats, as every unit except droids will eat one food unit and 0.5% of your food will decay each tick.

Note: If you are population banking and do not have enough food to cover your consumption needs or are unable to be aided some food. It may be cheaper for you to starve than buy food at higher prices off the market.

How does population work?

Your population is the people who live in your empire on the planets you own, their basic activities are to produce 1gc per 30 people, to eat 0.1 food units per person and to add networth to your empire by 0.025NW per person.

Every planet has a base population.

This means that without additional LQs, population can still live there.

Each planet has a maximum population capactiy of 40 times the building capacity of the planet. For example every home planet starts with a building capacity of 250: 250 * 40 is 10,000. A planet with 300 size means a 12,000 base population.

You are able to raise this maximum population using living quarters (LQs). Each LQ has room for 650 people to live in. So building an extra 10 LQs on a 250-sized planet will raise the max population from 10,000 (base population) to 16,500 (base population + 10LQs).

A factor which can enable you to have more population than your max pop is researching in welfare science. If your planet can have 10,000 as a max population and you have 50% in welfare science, your max pop still remains at 10,000, but your actual population will be able to rise to 15,000 (10,000 + 50%).

Welfare science only gets updated once per day, so the effects will not be immediate.

Now how does population grow?

The population on a planet doesn't start at maximum capacity, when you first gain a planet you will get a starting population of 1x its size, for example, a 250 sized planet will start with 250 population.

Every tick the population will grow with a base growth of 5%. This means your 250 population will grow to 263 people. And a tick later 276 people and again a tick later 290 people and so on.

This pop growth is decided in your race in the form of a pop growth bonus.

0% bonus means a growth of 5% per tick.

50% bonus means a growth of 7,5% per tick.

-30% bonus means a growth of 3,5% per tick.

This is basically how population works.

How does the market work?

The market is a mechanism where all players in the galaxy can buy and sell their resources of iron, food, octarine and endurium.

To give you an impression of how the market looks, this is an example of the Virgo market a while ago:

[Insert Market Picture]

There is usually a buy price and a sell price for each resource, the buy price is the highest amount someone is willing to pay for a resource and the sell price is the lowest someone is willing to sell for.

In the example above for iron, there are currently 12616928 units people want to buy, but they are only willing to pay 37.00gc. On the sell side, there are 3960 units in stock which sellers are selling for 40.00gc per unit.

You can sell your resources instantly if you sell for the highest buy price, or purchase the resource you need by paying the lowest sell price.

Often a better option is to place a bid, this will stay on the market until someone meets your offer, however if people start beating your offer by placing a higher bid, you may have a long wait until your own bid is satisfied.

The price of resources can range from anywhere between 0.01 to 50gc per resource unit depending on supply and demand. Players can put any quantity of a resource up for sale as long as it is 10 or more units.

It is wise to note that putting resources on the market does not stop them from decaying and withdrawing any bids will cost you 10% of the bid. That makes withdrawing bids an expensive business! Also, 2% of any resources you put up for sale goes towards a market tax.

What are the start resources?

$cash = round(10000 * $m);

$endurium = round(50 * $m);

$octarine = round(25 * $m);

$food = round(250 * $m);

$iron = round(375 * $m);

$m being the multiplier, which is stated in the Announcements forums when a Galaxy has been reset and is ready to play.

Buildings/Units/Attacking

What does every building do?

Portal

Between two planets with portals, transportation of units is instantaneous.

A planet with a portal is also defended by your main fleet.

More information can be found in the guide and in this section:

- What protects a portalled planet?

They take 40 weeks to finish.

Laser;

Defence-only weapons which can add significantly to the defence of a planet.

Every laser makes 10 shots at enemy bombers and transports if they survive the attacks of the bombers.

(10 bombers can destroy 1 laser)

Costs are 700gc, 35iron and 1 endurium.

They take 8 weeks to finish.

Home planets can not be attacked unless you are declared inactive so don't bother building lasers on your home planet.

Mining facility;

Mines one unit of iron per week

The costs are 200gc, 5 food and 1 endurium.

They take 12 weeks to finish.

You want to build these especially on planets with an iron bonus since they'll produce more than 1 piece of iron per tick then.

Research center;

This facility works independent from your other scientists, and adds 20 research points each week.

The costs are 100gc and 1 endurium.

They take 14 weeks to finish.

Hydroponic farm;

Produces 100 units of food per week.

You want to build these especially on planets with an food bonus since they'll produce more food per tick then.

Costs are 160gc, 3 iron and 1 endurium.

They take 10 weeks to finish.

Refinement station;

Produces one unit of endurium per week.

The costs are 300gc and 20 iron.

They take 12 weeks to finish.

You want to build these especially on planets with an endurium bonus since they'll produce more than 1 piece of endurium per tick then.

Occult center;

Produces one unit of Octarine per week.

The costs are 400gc, 15 iron and 4 endurium.

They take 12 weeks to finish.

You want to build these especially on planets with an octarine bonus since they'll produce more than 1 piece of octarine per tick then.

Tax office;

Increases taxation on the planet through magical means.

For every percent of your total number of buildings that are Tax Offices, your income is increased 2 percent.

More is explained in section - How do Tax Offices work?.

The costs are 200gc, 15 iron and 1 endurium.

They take 14 weeks to finish.

Living Quarter;

Increases the maximum population of a planet by 650.

The costs are 200gc, 25 iron and 1 endurium.

They take 8 weeks to finish.

Cash factory;

Gives a base income of 8 cash each week.

The costs are 120gc, 10 iron and 1 endurium.

They take 5 weeks to finish.

How do you build buildings?

Go to your "Planets" screen.

Find the planet you want to build on.

Press the build option next to the planet.

You'll end up in the "Building" screen.

Select the building type you want to build and type in the number of the amount of buildings you want.

Press build on the bottom to actually build it.

In order to build a portal on a planet click on the construct portal link on the far right of the correct planet on the planets screen. This link is only avaliable if a portal has not been built there, on this page the cost of a portal will be displayed, click build portal and the construction will start.

Note: You might get the warning "Insufficient...".

This means you do not have enough of that particular resource to build that amount of buildings.

Try to lower the amount or get more resources first.

Note: Don't forget the overbuilding costs!

For more information about overbuilding costs see section - What does overbuilding mean?

What does overbuilding mean?

Overbuilding is a phenomenon occurring when you decide to build a higher amount of buildings on the planet than the planet size.

Lets say your planet is sized 250. 250 buildings will fit on this planet for the normal costs.

However when you decide to add a 251st building, the price will suddenly be a bit higher because the planet already has its size built with buildings.

The 500th building will be exactly 2x the base costs.

The 750th building will be exactly 3x the base costs and so on.

How do Tax Offices work?

The way tax offices (TOs) work is quite simple.

Imagine having 200 buildings and 20 of them are TOs.

Then the percentage of TOs is 10% of your total amount of buildings.

Every 1% of TOs gives you an income bonus of 2%.

So with 10% of TOs you'll get an additional 20% income.

If your income was 100k its now 120k.

If your income was 200k its now 240k.

Etc.

Note: The more TOs you build, the more your maintenance goes up, the lower your income gets.

So don't be suprised if you don't get the exact 20% bonus. (or whatever your bonus is).

Note: There is an optimum of TOs and LQs that depends on your strategy.

100% TOs won't work since there won't be any space for LQs left so there's no use for a bonus.

And having 0% TOs doesn't work either when you aim for a TO income bonus.

Experiment until you find a balance that suits your strategy.

How does building maintenance work?

You need to pay maintenance for every single building.

The costs are 1gc per building and they can not be lowered.

So the formula is as follows:

Building maintenance = 1gc * (total amount of buildings)

How does unit upkeep work?

For every unit you own you have to pay 1gc maintenance per tick. They also use 1 unit of food per tick, except for droids (these mechanical units do not need food).

You can not lower these costs unless you lower the amount of troops.

Therefore, the following is how your unit upkeep is calculated:

Upkeep in gc = (total amount of units) * 1gc

Upkeep in food = (total amount of units - total amount of droids) * 1food

Please note that if you don't have enough cash for at least two ticks +1 gc worth of upkeep you will be informed that your fleet is disbanding. This disbands at a rate of 1% of your total fleet per tick (which works for every 100 units, for example, if you only have 99 or less droids, none will disband, if you have 199, one will disband and so on...).

Note: Your fleet will not actually disband if you still have gc left after a tick, even if the game tells you it is. It will not disband for real until you completely run out of gc.

Is there a limit on what a transport can carry?

Yes, the limit is 100 soldiers or droids (or a combination of both) per transport.

Why can't I attack someones home planet?

Home planets are automatically defended.

The only way you can attack a home planet is when you meet these conditions:

1) the person is declared inactive

2) all his/her other planets are already taken away

3) you're in his/her family

Note: this does not count in the hardcore galaxies (Draco and sometimes SD).

In Draco and sometimes in SD, you can attack every persons home planet as long as the home planet is the last planet left.

Note 2: It is also forbidden to attack the home planet within 48 hours after the person has joined a family.

I lost my attack! Why?

There can be many reasons, of course its mainly about the fleet you used to attack. It is important to say that the ground phase decides the result of the battle (simply meaning that even if you send huge amount of air units to overpower your enemy, and you dont send enough ground units - you won't win!)

When you click the attack button, you will be provided with your battle report. Read this carefully as it will show where you failed.

The first stage is ground against air. Enemy lasers have the ability to shoot down your transports (and bombers) - hence killing some/all of your ground units. A good way to ensure you send the right amount is to use the agent op planetary infrastructure which will reveal laser count on the targeted planet. The average amount of bombers required to shoot down one laser is 10, however this is just an average. Note that attacking bombers strike at defending lasers before lasers get a chance to fire, so if you send enough bombers with an attack to take out all lasers, you won't have to worry about lasers shooting down your bombers/transports.

The second stage is the airfight. That's your fighters against your enemy's fighters. One of the biggest killers of ground forces is transports being shot down by enemy fighters, the amount lost is based upon the fighter on fighter battle (fighters shoot down fighters, bombers and transports).

The third and last stage is ground fight. Your remaining transports unload their cargo (ie soldiers and/or droids) and they will fight the enemy's soldiers/droids. If you lose this one you need to add soldiers/droids.

Note that this battle is the deciding one. Whoever wins it, wins the planet.

If you do want to attack a bigger target try to close the portal on the planet you wish to attack first if there's a portal present. You can close portals all over his empire as decoys as well.

When you do that the chances of succeeding are much greater.

A few benefiting factors to attack are the spell no fear and an attack bonus (either acquired through research or included in your race).

Another way to lose an attack is by hitting an enemy defence station. It is sometimes difficult to spot, but it does tell you in the battle report and hitting one will cost you a third of your attacking fleet. A good tactic is to initially send a very small fleet or use the Sense Defence Station op to check.

Note: Be careful with whom you attack. It's not wise to attack someone 10 times your size ;-)

Whats the largest percentage of a unit type that can be lost in an engagement when you attack?

Ground against air

Transports: all (including contents of soldiers/droids)

Bombers: all

(defending lasers: all)

Airfight

Fighters: 30%

Transports: all

Bombers: all

Groundfight

Droids or soldiers: 15%

Note: The additional 30% loss on fighters and ground troops when encountering the enemy's defense station is not included in the figures above.

What is Morale?

Morale is a measurement for how long your fleet will still be able to make attacks. Every time you make an attack, your morale will decrease.

Your morale can range from 110% max to quite a big figure in the negative.As soon as you reach morale -0% (yes, odd figure) or lower, your fleet will be unable to attack. You are able to attack with 0% morale.

Fortunately your morale will rise 5% each hour by itself until it reaches the 100%. After that it will rise with 1% each hour until it reaches 110%

This growth can be increased if you have a planet with a morale bonus. Each morale bonus planet will increase your morale by an additional 1% per tick.

The important thing to realise is the amount of morale you lose per attack is based upon planet count, not networth. The more planets you have and the less your target has, the more morale you will lose upon making an attack. Therefore an important art for most attackers is keeping planet count relatively low.

If either empire has 10 planets or less, the loss of morale on each attack can be overwhelming and can take a while to recover, so be careful.

A family declaration of war on the family you are attacking will result in 50% reduced morale losses per attack.

Intra fam attacks cost morale as well unless it's the home planet of someone declared inactive.

Disband Units/Recall specified fleet: What is what?

The disband option can be found in the fleet screen. All the specified units will be destroyed for good.

There is no way to get them back.

This option might be useful if you can't pay the upkeep of your units and rather want to choose for yourself which units should be destroyed than letting the program choose the units to be decayed/destroyed automatically.

Recall means calling your fleet back to your main fleet.

You can not recall a specific unit type back; you will always have to recall the whole fleet back.

When do units start to disband?

If you don't have enough cash for at least two ticks +1 gc worth of upkeep you will be informed that your fleet is disbanding. This disbands at a rate of 1% of your total fleet per tick (which works for every 100 units, for example, if you only have 99 or less droids, none will disband, if you have 199, one will disband and so on...). The decaying will happen to all units, meaning all types of unit will decay.

Note: Your fleet will not actually disband if you still have gc left after a tick, even if the game tells you it is. It will not disband for real until you completely run out of gc.

How does the speed bonus work?

Go to your "Planets" screen. First you need to calculate the distance in hours/ticks.

Say you travel from (1,1) to (7,9)

The time you have to travel:

x-coordinate: 7-1 = 6

y-coordinate: 9-1 = 8

6*6 + 8*8 = 100.

Square root of 100 is 10.

So your travel time is 10 weeks.

Now the speed bonus.

0% bonus -> divide travel time by 1

20% bonus -> divide travel time by 1,2

40% bonus -> divide travel time by 1,4

60% bonus -> divide travel time by 1,6

80% bonus -> divide travel time by 1,8

100% bonus -> divide travel time by 2

200% bonus -> divide travel time by 3

0% speed bonus: 10/1 = 10 weeks.

20% speed bonus: 10/1,2 = 8,33 weeks (rounded up to 9 weeks)

40% speed bonus: 10/1,4 = 7,14 weeks (rounded up to 8 weeks)

60% speed bonus: 10/1,6 = 6,25 weeks (rounded up to 7 weeks)

80% speed bonus: 10/1,8 = 5,56 weeks (rounded up to 6 weeks)

100% speed bonus: 10/2 = 5 weeks

200% speed bonus: 10/3 = 3,33 weeks (rounded up to 4 weeks)

What protects a portalled planet?

A portalled planet is automatically protected by your main fleet, so basically anything not stationed, in transit, or hovering over a planet. Your main fleet can be easily viewed by clicking on the fleet button in the sidebar.

Only fighters, soldiers and droids will defend your portal when its attacked, the other units have no bearing on the battle in any way. In case your enemies fleet is a lot bigger than you (3-5x your size) you'll loose a maximum of 30% of your airforces and 15% of your groundforces. When your enemy isn't larger than 3-5x your size it's pretty tough to determine who will win as the race bonuses, research, ops cast and attacking formula play a part.

As with a non portalled planet any lasers or units stationed on the planet will also protect it, however stationed units are no stronger than usual and as the planet is portalled there is no need to station on it. The exception is if the portal gets blocked, then you will need to station.

Are there any limits on who you can attack?

Yes, in order to prevent large players from picking on smaller players, there is a 40% networth limit placed on attacks.

This basically means you are forbidden to attack anyone 40% of your networth or lower.

This limit is reduced to 25% when war is declared between the two families.

These rules apply for individual players as well as for families as a whole.

Note: If the smaller player attacks the large player first, the 40% limit is ignored for 72 hours (from the last attack made).

These rules apply for individual players as well as for families as a whole.

Note 2: Any attacks made on players 40% of your networth or lower will result in the planet being "blown up" and therefore made uninhabitable. The planet will need to be explored again.

If my attack is successful, will I keep the existing buildings?

It depends.

If your opponent is above 70% of your own networth and the attack is successful, then you will gain the planet with all the existing buildings intact.

If your opponent is between 35% and 70% of your own networth and the attack is successful, then you will gain the planet but all buildings will be destroyed.

Any attacks made on opponents under 35% of your own networth will result in the planet being "blown up" and therefore made uninhabitable. The planet will need to be explored again. Within your own family you can attack lower then 35%, you will keep the planet but the buildings will be destroyed.

What is attackbonus

Attack: This bonus increases the damage done by your troops, when attacking. It doesn't affect your defense. It costs 10 racepoints per 10%..

What are the defense and attack ratings for units and buildings?

Bomber

Ground attack 10

Air defence 2

Fighter

Ground defence 4

Air attack 10

Air defense 10

Soldier

Ground attack 5

Ground defense 6

Droid

Ground attack 6

Ground defense 7

Transport

Ground defense 5

Air defense 5

Laser

Air attack 40

Air defense 8

Mining Facility

Air defense 4

Research Center

Air defense 2

Hydroponic farm

Nothing

Portal

Ground defense 15

Air defense 20

Refinement station

Air defense 4

Occult center

Air defense 3

Tax office

Nothing

Living Quarter

Air defense 2

Cash factory

Air defense 2

Magic/Agent Operations

How do you cast self spells?

Self spells are the easiest to cast.

Simply go to special ops, enter the amount of wizards you want to use to cast the spell and select the spell.

You don't need to enter any coordinates.

Self spells are usually fairly easy to cast.

They only work once though! So casting no fear twice will only give you the 10% bonus once, not twice.

How do you perform ops/spells on others?

There are 2 ways to do this. You either already know the coordinates you are to target, or you can manually find a planet owned by the player you wish to target (specific planet in some operations/spells cases.).

If you are using the coordinate method, click operations, go to the correct portion (Wizards or Agents) and then pull down in the boxes the appropriate operation/spell. Once done, type the coordinates in underneath this. Finally click "go". If you have enough octarine or cash, then you will attempt to perform the op.

The alternate method involves finding a planet the player owns. If you don�t know any, then go to his families home system, he will ALWAYS have a planet located there. Once you have reached this system, find his planet. Select it. Next you get a screen that includes "operations". Click this text, and you will be in the screen for operations with the coordinates already entered for you. Merely select the appropriate operation/spell, and then click "go". Again, if you have enough octarine or cash, then you will attempt to perform the op.

What determines the success of my agent operations / magic spells?

Basically the amount of agents/wizzies you have, the amount of agents/wizzies your opponent has and both your NW's.

Also with magic both the magic race bonuses count.

When you op/spell someone with a bigger NW than you it will be about sheer number of agents/wizzies.

When you op/spell someone with a lower NW than you it will be about amount of agents/wizzies per NW.

Also note that with both the actions there's a probability factor as well.

So even if you have a lot more wizzies/agents than your opponent you can still fail due to bad luck!

How long do spells/ops last?

Most spells/ops have an instant effect.

The following spells have a certain time limit:

• No Fear (5h)
• Octarine Hurricane (6) - 3 ops max
• Reduced Food Production (8h)
• Electric Storms (8h)
• Create Portal Force Field (10h; takes 12h to build up)
• Space Amazement (8h)
• Warcry (6h)

The following ops have a certain time limit:

• Infiltrate (8h)
• Sabotage Portal - permanent effect (takes 20h to get into effect)

Which spells/ops appear in the enemy's recent reports?

The following spells appear in the enemy's recent reports:

• Hypnotize (both success and failure)
• Octarine Hurricane (both success and failure)
• Reduced Food Production (only upon success)
• Electric Storms (both success and failure)
• Kill Scientist(only upon success)
• Create Portal Force Field (both success and failure: when succeeding, the casters name won't be revealed)

The following ops appear in the enemy's recent reports:

• Place Nukes (both success and failure)
• Destroy Units (only upon success)
• Terminate Scientist (only upon success)
• Sabotage Portal (both success and failure)
• Destroy Cash (only upon success)

What determines the price of a spell/op?

A spell costs a certain amount of octarine.

The cost of a spell varies with a few factors.

1) The size of your empire - the higher your NW, the higher the price of your spell.

2) The magic bonus in your race - the higher your bonus, the cheaper the spell is.

An op is easier to determine the price of.

It is paid in cash and one op costs your total networth divided by 15.

What do the ops/spells do?

Spy On target: If successful your agents will retrive an overview of the target. Showing information similar to the one found in your HQ, number of planets, resources and such. You can also see, how much research your enemy has got.

Plant False Info: Your agents will attempt to infiltrate the targets news network and plant a false bit of information to confuse the target. If successful either a Place Nukes or Sabotage Portal failure message will be placed in the targets news and you will be able to choose which empire to frame in the news

Infiltrate: Some of your brave agents will try to infiltrate the targets news network. If they succeed they will deliver all the news they get their hands on right to you for several weeks.

Place Nukes: By placing small nukes at the target your agents will, if successful, give you the option to trigger the nukes and destroy 15% of one type of your enemy's buildings. Be sure to trigger the planted nuke before placing another one.

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding and failing.

Check Allies: Your agents try to get a list of the allies your target have, and give it to you.

Destroy Units: With explosives, fire and such your agents make an attempt to destroy stationed forces at the target. If succesful 30% of the targetted unit type on that planet will be destroyed.

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding.

Terminate Scientist: In an attempt to hamper your targets development your agents will try to assassinate your scientists at your enemy. If succesful 3% of the already accumulated research points of your enemy will be lost.

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding.

Sabotage Portal: As a portal is vital to the defence of a planet your agents make a very bold attempt to sabotage the portal. If they succeed this will allow you to attack without interference from the main fleet of your enemy. The sabotage will take 20 weeks before it has destroyed the portal. This operation can't target home planets.

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding and failing.

Investigate Portal: Your agents try to investigate if there is any presence of a portal on the target planet, either fully working or still under construction.

Planetary Infrastructure: On the target planet your agents mix with the local population and travel around investigating all the buildings on the planet, including the laser turrets.

Destroy Cash: Your agents will attempt to sneak in to the cash reserves of the target and destroy the cash stored there. If successful 3% to 10% of the cash in the target empire will be destroyed.

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding.

Magic

Vision: Your wizards will try to get a vision of your target. If successful you will be presented with an overview. Showing information similar to the one found in you HQ, number of planets, resources and such. You can also see, how much research your enemy has got.

Generate False Info: By casting magic your wizards try to make false information appear in the targets news network. If successful either a Hypnotize or Create Portal Force Field failure message will be placed in the targets news and you will be able to choose which empire to frame in the news.

Hypnotize: With the help of strong magic your wizards will try to hypnotize a portion of the targets population. If they succeed you will be presented with the option to trigger the hypnotized people in a psychotic state of mind where they will bring mayhem on their fellow citizens and ultimately 30% of them will commit suicide all over their empire. Be sure to trigger the planted hypno before casting another one.

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when failing and succeeding.

No Fear: Your wizards make an attempt to make your military forces bold with magic dances. If they succeed this will give you a bonus of 10% on the battlefield for 5 weeks. Both if you attack another empire or if you are defending your own planet.

Note that casting this spell multiple times is of little effect since the maximum bonus will remain 10%.

Reduced Food Production: If successful your target's food production will be hampered for 8 weeks, causing a reduction of 10% per tick. Casting multiple food reductions will cause a greater reduction.(effect=cumulative)

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding.

Electric Storms: For 8 weeks the sky of the enemy will be full of electric storms killing a lot of of citizens all over their empire. Casting multiple e-storms will only enhance the effect!

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding.

Kill Scientist: In an attempt to hamper your targets development your wizards will try to cast magic that kills scientists at your enemy. If succesful 3% of the already accumulated research points of your enemy will be lost.

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding.

Create Portal Force Field: Using very strong magic your wizards will make a risky attempt to build a force field at the targets portal. If they succeed the enemy will not be able to use the portal for troop transportation for 10 weeks. The force field will take 12 weeks to gain strength before its functional. This spell can't target home planets.

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding and failing. When succeeding, the casters name won't be revealed.

Find Targets Planet: If successful you will be presented with a simple list of every planet owned by the target.

Space Amazement: Your mages fill the citizens living in your empire with amazement for space travel and discovering new planets. If successful this will result in a 40% lower explorations cost for all explorations started during the following 8 weeks.

Note that casting this spell multiple times is of little effect since the maximum bonus will remain 40%.

Sense Defense System: Your mages try to use their power so sense if there are any Defense System hovering in the target system.

Destroy Iron: Your magicians try to cast a spell making the targets iron become highly radiated, causing the iron to be unusable for the empire. If successful 3% to 10% of the target empires iron will be destroyed.

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding.

Octarine Hurricane: Casting this op creates magical turbulent weather at the targetted empire. This effects 20% of income produced from Cash Factories, and lasts for the duration of 6 weeks. This op works multiplicatively and has a stacking limit of 3 OH on the targetted empire (irrespective of the opper).

Shows up in the enemies recent reports when succeeding

Warcry, when casted, will grant the player an automatic boost of 20% morale. Example, if you have 50% morale before casting, you will have 70% afterwards.

While it may be of extreme usefulness, there is also a downside to this spell: you cannot cast it again for 6 ticks, and when the effect wears off, your morale will experience a reduction of 18%, which will bring your morale to a negative if it is low enough by the time the effect wears off.

This spell, like No Fear, will not stack its effect, and cannot be cast again while its running time doesn't expire.

Also regarding morale, if you cast Warcry while at 110% morale, you will still get the extra 20%, meaning you will have a max morale of 130%

Is it useful to use a spell/op multiple times?

Some spells/ops are useful when cast multiple times, others aren't. Self spells all work only once ; casting them twice won't have an additional effect.

Offensive spells like hypnotize and destroy iron do have a cumulative effect.

How can I protect myself from spells/ops?

The most simple answer to this is: build more agents/wizzies.

If you notice people can easily op or spell you, you should do something about it.

If you get a lot of ops, build more agents.

If you get a lot of spells, build more wizzies.

How difficult are ops/spells to perform?

There is a common rule that goes like this:

Self spells are easy to cast.

You wont need a lot of wizzies to cast these.

Harmless spells/ops on other targets (non-offensive like vision) are mediocre to cast/perform.

Offensive spells/ops like sabotage portal or hypnotize are difficult to cast/perform.

What are "hard" and "soft" OPs?

Hard OPs

Spells;

Hypnotize

Reduce Food Production

Electric Storms

Kill Scientists

Create Portal Force Field

Destroy Iron

Octarine Hurricane

Operations;

Place Nukes

Destroy Units

Terminate Scientists

Sabotage Portal

Destroy Cash

Soft OPs

Spells;

Vision

Generate False Info

No Fear

Find Target Planets

Space Amazement

Sense Defense Station

Operations;

Investigate Portal

Spy on Target

Plant False Info

Infiltrate

Check Relations

Planetary Infrastructure

Hard OPs are shown in HQ and fam news when casted.

How much % of pop does one estorm kill?

.

Formulas

Research formula

Science% = 100 * (1 - exp(-RP / (100 * networth) ) )

Max Research bonus:

100% for all 4 sciences.

Sciences:

• Military: increased attack strength, increased defense strength
• Welfare: increased maximum population
• Economy: increased income.
• Construction: cheaper buildings and units faster building

Construction Bonus: Cost = NormalCost/(1+(ConstructionScience%/100%))

• Resources: increased resource income.

Cash in research

• Every GC adds 1 RP
• Research race bonus gets multiplied with the 1 GC meaning a 50% bonus makes 1 GC worth 1,5 RP.
• You deposit an amount of GC's into the research and it cannot be taken back.
• Every week 10% of the amount of cash you put into the research gets transferred into RP.

Research centers (RC)

• Every RC adds 20 RP per tick
• Research race bonus gets multiplied with the 20 RP meaning a 50% bonus makes 1 RC give 30 RP per tick (20 points/week * (1+Racebonus%/100%))
• Once you paid the price for the building itself the research generated by them will be free of charge. Meaning you don't get to pay for the amount of points generated each tick.

Note: With 20RP per week and with a base cost of 100GC and 1 endurium research centers pay themselves back in less then 6 weeks.

However overbuilding costs can raise the price of the building.

Still, research centers are much more cost effective than putting money into research.

There are 2 situations where cash in research is used:

• In a specialized banker strategy when RCs aren't wanted as they mess up the TO percentage
• At the end of the round when you got a huge pile of cash left, no endurium or iron, and you only got 1 hour left to raise your NW.

Then investing in research could benefit you. In other cases it's pretty useless.

Income formula

Income = (100+ (pop/30) + (CashFactories * 8)) * (1+RaceBonus/100%) * (1+(2 * TaxOffices/(TotalBuildings + 1))) * (1+ EconomyScience%/100%)

More is explained in section - How do I earn money?

Networth formula

This formula shows you how your networth is made up:

1100 + (3*Fighters) + (5*Bombers) + Soldiers + (6*Transports) + Droids + Wizards + Agents + (pop/40) + (Buildings*4) + (Planets*800) + (RP/1000)

List of Networths

• Fighters = 3 nw
• Bombers = 5 nw
• Soldiers = 1 nw
• Droids = 1 nw
• Wizards = 1 nw
• Agents = 1 nw
• Transports = 6 nw
• Buildings = 4 nw
• Population = 0.025 nw
• RP = 0.001 nw
• Planets = 800 nw

Speed bonus/travel time

Exploration Time = (SQRT((xDifference)^2 + (yDifference)^2) + 1) * 1/(1+SpeedBonus%)

(x and y difference is calculated from your closest planet, portalled or not)

Travel Time = SQRT((xDifference)^2 + (yDifference)^2) * 1/(1+SpeedBonus%) (explorers excluded)

(x and y difference is calculated from your closest portalled planet)

Maintenance formula

Units

• Upkeep = (total amount of units) * 1gc
• Upkeep cost is 1gc per unit
• Only way to lower the costs is to have less troops

Buildings

• Upkeep = (total amount of buildings) * 1gc
• Upkeep cost is 1gc per building
• Pop does not have any effect on the upkeep.

See for further information:

- How does building maintenance work?

Food formula

Food Consumption = (population/10) + (total amount of units - total amount of droids)

On top of this food decays with (0.005 * total food) per tick.

See for further information:

- How much food does each member of my population consume?

Score formula

Score = (your NW / max NW in galaxy + your planet count / max planet count in galaxy) * (10 + turn number / 50)

Exploration formula

Exploration Time = (SQRT((xDifference)^2 + (yDifference)^2))* 1/(1+SpeedBonus%)

Leader/Diplomacy Questions

What is the defense station? What does it do?

The Defense Station is an AI-controlled warship that can be moved only by the family leader to a system that has at least 70% of its planets occupied by said family.

What does it do?

Think of the Defense Station as a Death Star... it will destroy one third of an attacking force per attack! It is very durable, and will only be destroyed if your family is reduced to less than 25% of the planets in a system one is covering.

Each family begins with one defence station, but it is possible to build more (depends on the galaxy) by raising the funds required through the family defense fund. accessible from the family page.

What is a NAP?

A NAP is IC terminology for Non-Aggression Pact. This indicates a lasting truce between two parties.

They are generally made by family leaders and differ greatly from alliances. They often, and should, contain specific terms such as to what constitutes an attack, what happens in the event of an attack, and how much advance notification should be given before the NAP can be cancelled.

Official NAPs (ones signed via the relations page) have the ability to prevent hostilities (only attacks, special operations are allowed) between the families.

Non-official NAPs do not have this ability, but are more flexible, and often include terms to end them, terms on what to do if someone violates them, and terms the two (or more) leaders express desires on. These are usually made in the form of in-game messages.

What do the rogue and fleet admiral tags do? Is there anything special about them?

The fleet admiral tag is an additional tag the leader can assign to one member of the family. The fleet admiral will benefit from an additional 5% attack bonus. To avoid abuse, once the leader has allocated this tag to someone, it cannot be removed for 48 hours.

The leader can also use the rogue tag to prevent a player in their family from attacking or opping any player inside or outside their family. Leaders may want to set players as rogue when troublesome situations arise. Families should take care of the players they elect to leadership.

What does a vice-leader do? Is there anything special about being a vice-leader?

A leader will give the people they trust the position of vice leader, this brings extra responsibility.

The vice leader may also be responsible for the family's diplomatic relations, for example, they can cancel official NAPs on the relations page.

You will also get a vice leader tag next to your name, new people to your fam and people from other fams will see your rank and it is therefore a good idea to represent your family well.

A vice leader also has the ability to moderate the family forum.

How do you ally/NAP/declare war?

You have to be a leader to be able to declare alliances, NAPs and wars.

Go to your relations page and simply enter the number of the family you want to declare war on, or to create and alliance or NAP with.

Press on the declare button (Sign it for a NAP) and it's a fact (unless you have time limitations because of prior relations or if the family already has 2 wars declared on them).

The action can be undone after 48h with the "Break alliance", "Cancel war" or "Break Pact" option.

Note: Declaring someone an ally doesn't automatically mean the alliance is a fact; you need that family to ally back with you in order to read each others forum etc.

Note 2:Only one family needs to declare war to obtain the war advantages. However, it will take two ticks after one family declares war before the advantages become apparent. In order to get the 25% networth advantage, both families have to declare war.

How do you add/remove the inactive/vice leader/sentinel/fleet admiral/rogue tags in the family list?

You have to be a leader to change inactive/rogue/sentinel/vice leader/fleet admiral status and only the leader can take it away as well.

To do so, go to your family screen, then leader options and there should be two drop-down boxes. Select the name of the person you want to make vice leader/inactive/fleet admiral/sentinel/rogue, select vice leader/inactive/fleet admiral/sentinel/rogue and press declare.

To remove it again, select the name of the person you want to remove the VL/inactive/fleet admiral/sentinel/rogue tag from and select the Normal Player in the options.

Then press declare and he/she should be a normal player again. Do note that the Fleet Admiral tag has a minimum duration of 48 hours, and can not be removed from a player before this time has expired. And the sentinel tag has a minimum duration of 6 hours.

What can leaders do?

Leaders have the power and authority to deal with the galactic relations for the family. In doing this, they can make or break alliances, meaning they can officially ally/unally families and sign NAPs. They also have the ability to declare/undeclare war on families.

The leader is also responsible for declaring inactives, sentinels, vice leaders, rogues and fleet admirals, setting the fam chat room, the leader message, the family name/picture/homepage and the systems that the defense stations reside in.

How many votes are needed to become leader?

To become leader, one must obtain a minimum of three votes (of which one can be your own), plus have the most votes within the family. However, if two or more family members have the same amount of votes, the person who gained leadership first will be the leader. Also, if there are less than three people within a family, that family will be unable to obtain a leader.

How much does a defense station cost?

The cost of building a defense station is 5 times your family's networth in gc. You can add money to the defense fund by following the 'family defense' link in your family screen.

Can you send aid to allies?

No. You can only send aid to your family members.

Go to family screen > send aid.

Community/Forum/Chat Questions

How do I contact the moderators?

The following are the current administrators and moderators:

Administrator:

Stefan

Moderators:

KT

Genesis

Poley

Arby3

Final Doom

You can find them in the chat in channel #mod with & or a green dot.

Or you can email them at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="97faf8f3e4b9fefae7f2e5fef6fbf4f8f9f1fbfef4e3d7f0faf6fefbb9f4f8fa">[email protected]</a>

What do the moderators do?

Imperial Conflict's Administrators have relied upon additional helpers, Moderators, to run large aspects of the game since near the beginning. Within the game, Moderators have the Moderator forum tag and can post in the Announcements Forum.

Moderators' main responsibility is managing the playing members of Imperial Conflict to ensure that the playing field is fair. This comprises searches for multiple accounts plus players who try to cheat the game in other ways, including: illegal drafting; account sitting; bug abuse.

Moderators are also responsible for maintaining order in the game's communication systems: Private messages and Forum postings. Players can be warned, blocked and even deleted over the material they post. Forum Moderators also play a large role in maintaining order in IC's forums.

What is a Forum Moderator? What are their powers?

A Forum Moderator is a player who is given special powers by the game moderators to police the game's main forums. You can recognise them by a op/green dot in #forum or the "Forum Moderator" tag in the forums. Their main job is to uphold the forum rules and they have the ability to edit/delete posts, delete/move threads and issue warnings to misbehavers.

What is a multi? Where do I report them?

A multi is someone who uses more than 1 main account or created more than 1 main account. Creating an account on behalf of someone else will also be seen as multying..

It is against the rules to multi. The punishment for convicted multis is the permanent deletion of all accounts involved.

If you suspect a multi or anyone else who is abusing the game rules, you can contact a moderator through IRC or email with a full explanation of the events. They will then start an investigation and determine if the situation is punishable.

What does blocked mean?

It means the empire is being suspected of a certain crime.

The empire will be in stasis like in vacation mode, so you won't be able to attack this empire.

A few reasons for blocking are listed below:

1.Multiple accounts.

2.Cheating.

3.Illegal Drafting.

4.Illegal alliance.

5.Babysitting/sharing account details.

6.Cuss in ingame messages or forum.

7.Spam in the forums or ingame messages.

8.Insults and real life threats.

9.Some other reason...

How does blocking work?

Mod A finds evidence of cheating/other reason to block.

Mod A presents the evidence.

Mod B has to approve of the evidence supplied. Once mod B approves, the block becomes active.

From this point, the player will no longer have access to the account.

A block can be temporarily or permanent. A temporary block will be announced in the attached message and the grounds of why the block was made.

For non temporary blocks:

The player gets 2 days to respond to his/her block. After 2 days the block gets judged. The judgement will either be unblocking of the account based on the response or permanent deletion. Responses on the block will be read before that 2th day as well, to see if there might have been a mistake in blocking and if unblocking is required.

Temporary blocks will be unblocked once the amount of time the block was supposed to remain active has passed.

Can someone else play IC on the same computer as me?

Yes, they can play.

Yes, they can even use the same computer.

There are a few points that you should follow:

1.Let them create their own accounts, so that you have no way of knowing any of their private game information.

2.Don't let them borrow your contact email, username, game names, nicknames, password etc.

3.Be sure to log out fully after each log in so you don't accidentally land in each other's account.

4.Pick different galaxies preferably. Makes the risk of being seen as one person much less. Also, it will make you less eager to babysit each other.

5.Don't do each other favours by babysitting and stuff like that. Its illegal!

6.Let a moderator know of your situation. You will get placed on the mod's "siblings" list to help prevent accidental blocking.

Note: Being placed on the siblings list does not mean your accounts will not be subject to possible investigation at any time.

My chat applet keeps crashing....why?

The Java applet can crash often. Best is to download an IRC client like mIRC (windows), Ircle (Mac) or XChat (*nix). Then you need to configure the settings to the chat server.

I have a mIRC-client but I don't know where to enter the required information... or what that information is?

Start up mIRC.exe

Press Alt+O (or go to options, its the same thing)

Press Add

IRC server : www.imperialconflict.com

Port(s) 6667

Fill in a description (like "IC") and press ok.

Fill in the info of full name, email, nick and alternative (nick).

Select the IC server (like "IC"), press connect to IRC server.

After being connected type:"/join #general" for joining the General chatroom.

And you should be there : )

How do you change nick or channel in (m)IRC? What are the most common commands?

A good site for help about IRC is the mIRC homepage

To give the most commonly used commands:

Chat commands

/join {#channel} -> makes you join the specified channel

/nick {new nickname} -> changes your nickname to whatever you like

/me {action text} -> transforms the things you type into an action

/msg {nickname} {message} -> send a private message to this user without opening a private window (=query)

/query {nickname} {message} -> open a query window to this user and send them the private message

/whois {nickname} -> shows information about someone in the status window

/clear -> clears all the text from the current chat window

/exit -> forces mIRC to closedown and exit

Chatoperator commands

/kick {#channel} {nickname} -> kicks the specified nick off the specified channel.

/ban {#channel} {nickname} -> bans the specified nick from the specified channel

/topic {#channel} {newtopic} -> changes the topic for the specified channel

/invite {nickname} {#channel} -> invites another user to the specified channel when the channel is on invite only (+i)

Operators are indicated by the @ (or green dot) before their nickname.

What is a chat-op?

Operators are indicated by the @ (or green dot) before their nickname.

They are in charge of enforcing the rules in the chatroom.

They have various methods to ensure people do so; warnings, kicks and bans can be used.

The rules they enforce are listed under the chat rules. Note that channels other than #mod, #forum, and #general may have slightly different rules, depending on the operators and channel owners.

What is NickServ? How does it work?

NickServ is a service to register nicknames with to prevent impostering.

Detailed info can be found on the IRC server by typing: /msg nickserv help

What is ChanServ? How does it work?

ChanServ is a service to register channels with for various purposes.

Detailed info can be found on the IRC server by typing: /msg chanserv help

What is MemoServ? How does it work?

MemoServ is a service to send memos (private message) to people who own a registered nickname on the server.

Detailed info can be found on the IRC server by typing: /msg memoserv help

The easy way to send a memo is to type: /msg memoserv SEND nickname_receiver message

Whats a tag?

A tag is a name that appears under your nickname in the public forums when you post while being logged into your account and accessing the forums through your account.

For more info read the sections:

- What are the tags?

- How do you gain a tag/tag points?

What are the tags?

Tag

Points Required

Administrator, Moderator, Forum Moderator

Custom Tags

Imperial Legend

250

Imperial Commander

220

Imperial Warrior

195

Imperial Fighter

170

Imperial Defender

145

Universal Legend

125

Universal Commander

105

Universal Warrior

90

Universal Fighter

75

Universal Defender

62

Galactic Legend

50

Galactic Commander

40

Galactic Warrior

32

Galactic Fighter

25

Galactic Defender

20

Solar Legend

15

Solar Commander

10

Solar Warrior

5

Solar Fighter

3

Solar Defender

1

Player

0

Solar Waste Collector

-1 or less

Galactic Space Junk Dealer

-6 or less

Universal Tax Auditor

-13 or less

Dirty Politician

-21 or less

"Quantum Idol" Reject

-30 or less

How do you gain a tag?

You can gain a tag by making good posts.

A post is considered good when it is helpful to others or serves another goal. They are mainly written in the Questions, Bugs and Strategy forums.

The awarding of tags is up to the judgement of the moderators and forum moderators.

You can also gain points by referrals.

Be sure that the person who referred you has been playing for over a week though, else the points won't be added to your account. Also make sure the person fills in your email address in the referral bit while signing up :)

Each referral gives 4 tag points.

Make sure you're logged into your account and access the forums from within your account (HQ > Forums) to have your tag under every post.

Note: the so-called "negative" tags can NOT be acquired by showing negative behaviour. Rather start a good thread in the Roleplay forum or somewhere else and you might get the honour ;).

Spamming, Insults, Cussing, etc will be rewarded with blocking of the account.

What are the forum/chat rules?

The chat rules can be found here.

The forum rules can be found here.

How do you make those smileys in the forums?

:P 

:D 

:) 

;) 

:( 

:o 

X(

VIP section

How do you get a Premium Account/VIP account?

By donating to the game, through PayPal or regular mail.

What are the advantages of donating to IC?

A Premium Account gives you special features such as

� Drafting into a family and a friend code for drafting a friend into the same family with you.

� A hotlist to track friends

� The ability to name your planets

� The ability to play in more than one regular galaxy.

Note: Premium Accounts do not give you any additional rights. This is a donation.

Blocks will not be reversed just because someone is a VIP.

The threat of suing IC is therefore quite useless too.

How do you go about activating the account?

After you log in, follow the link "Activate Premium Features" on your master account page.

Enter your Premium Email and Premium Code (you should have these in your email) and click the "Activate Premium" button.

Log out and log back in to complete the activation.

Am I allowed multiple VIP accounts?

Yes, you may buy multiple VIPs.

You may keep them for yourself and activate when your current VIP runs out.

You may give them to your friends.

However do not give away PLAYING or MASTER accounts since this is a breach of general rules.

Also, this does not mean you can buy several VIPs and create accounts to activate them on. You are only allowed to have 1 master account.

How does drafting work?

There are two main forms of drafting into someone's family - VIP drafting and friend drafting. Each family in the regular galaxies (apart from Pinwheel) has spots available for this - check the Announcements forum for details of how many drafts are allowed in each family. This will vary from round to round.

VIP drafting is the process of using your VIP account to draft into a family with an open VIP draft slot. You can ask a mod to check how many spots are left in that family.

To do this, from the main account screen, choose "Join a Specific Family". From here, enter the number of the family you wish to join and if there is a spot free, you are there!

Friend drafting is the process of using a friend code to draft a friend into a family if there is a slot free. Each VIP is issued a new friend code each round.

To use the code, from the master account screen, choose "Draft a Friend". From here, you can choose the empire of the family you wish your friend to join, and enter your friend's email address. Your friend will then receive an email with all the details required. Follow the instructions on the email and if there is a spot free, your friend can join! You can also just give your friend the email and friend's code without sending an email. However you still need to set your account to "Draft a Friend" and leave the email info blank. Also the email that you need to provide is the one where your VIP was sent.

Note: Friend codes will only be reset if the VIP account holder is in a galaxy when it is reset.

Note 2: The game will prevent people who have a VIP or friend drafted into a family to delete and re-draft into the same family. You will not be allowed to enter the same family for seven days after you have initially deleted.