Star Lords Manual - Star Fleet Command Menu
Star Fleet Command Menu
Flagship
Image
Destination and Cargo Panel
Star
Ships Manifest
Fleet Summary
Secondary
Command Panel
Fleet
Command
Fleet Tactics
Ship
Tactics
Transfer
Fleet Cargo
Trade Request
Ship
Detail
Edit Fleet
Refuel
Fleet
Cloak/Uncloak
Fleet
Combat Tactics
Setting
Targeting
Tactics
Range Tactics
Ship
Combat Tactics
Planetary
Combat Tactics
Planetary
Defenses
The Star Fleet Command Menu is where you give your fleets commands. From here you can order a fleet to attack or go on patrol. You can check out your fleet condition and the fleet compositions. This menu is where you need to go to deal with your star fleets.
In the top left corner, is an image of the flagship in the current fleet. It is mainly for decoration, but it also quickly tells you what your largest warship in the fleet is. Above the flagship image is the name of the fleet. There is also a previous and next button to the left and right of the fleet name. These buttons will take you to the next and previous fleets.
By default the fleet name is named after the first ship that was added to the fleet, but you can rename a fleet to anything you would like. To rename a fleet, you must left click on the fleet name. This will activate the edit box. Simply enter in the new fleet name. There is not an undo feature for name changes, once started, the fleet name is changed forever.
Below the image of the flagship you will see two information panels, a cargo panel and a destination panel. The cargo panel is an information only panel. You cannot change the fleet cargo from this panel. Loading or unloading cargo is handled through the secondary command panel. The destination panel tells you where your fleet location is and where it is heading. If the fleet does not have a waypoint, it will leave the destination blank.
The destination panel is interactive because you can set your fleet warp speed here. Move the slide bar to the right to make your fleet go faster, and to the left to make your fleet go slower. Right clicking the mouse on the Star Map will set the fleet destination. If the destination point on the map has more than one possibility, a pop up menu similar to the Star Map Quick Menu will appear. Select the destination target by selecting one of the options given.
The destination panel also shows you the amount of fuel you have for that fleet. The fuel is unlike gas where you can fill it up without losing the amount in the tank. The way fuel works is that every ship uses energy crystals as fuel. Unlike like liquid, you can't add half a crystal. So when you refuel your ship, the remaining crystal is lost. Keep this in mind when deciding on when to refuel your fleet.
The panel shows you the amount of fuel units you have as well as a percentage of the maximum the fleet can have. If you have a destination, it will also display the cost of the travel. In general most ships can travel for about twenty-five turns. If you are constantly going at maximum warp, you might reduce that to about twelve to fifteen turns. If you cruise around, you could last for over sixty turns. Should you choose to refuel, you fleet must either have enough crystal in the cargo bay (if any) or be orbiting a planet you have colonized that has the require crystals.
In the lower middle of the Star Fleet Command Menu, there is a list box that shows you the ship manifest. In this list, you can see the ship name and design type. It also displays the ship's maximum warp speed, hull damage, frame style, ship marking, and the ship combat tactics. The list is also an auto-scrolling list box. It will scroll up or down if there is a ship above or below the top or bottom edge of the list. To get the list to scroll, you just need to move your mouse to the bottom or top of the list.
Ship Name
The ship name is a series of letters followed by a dash
and a series of numbers. The number distinguishes individual ships, so
you can tell two ships of the same type apart. The series of letters before
the number, indicate the ship hull type. For example, if a fleet consists
of a battleship, a heavy cruiser, and a carrier. You would see three ships
name like these: BB-2341, CA-5463, and CV-3245. A list of the hull type
labeling is shown in the star ship details section of the manual.
Ship Design
The ship design is displayed so you can tell what type
of ship you have in your fleet. If you use only the pre-built ships, then
you can tell when you have enough technology to upgrade to the better ship design
because the more advanced designs have a roman numeral II or III appended. If
you have custom design you can tell when your fleet has those ship in it.
Frame Type/Ship Marking
In the ship manifest there is a column
labeled Code. This code is how you can tell the frame and marking your
ships have. The number represents the frame style and the letter represents
the marking. The letter N means that the ship is normally marked. The
letter C means it is a covert ship.
Warp
The maximum warp is displayed so that you can tell which ship
is slowing you down. The maximum speed the fleet can go is the speed of
the slowest ship. A slower ship may be towed by another ship in the fleet
if this allows the fleet to travel faster. This is the only time where
the fleet can go faster than the slowest ship. Ship towing is automatic
you don't need to do anything to initiate a tow.
Combat Tactics Setting
The ship combat tactics setting are displayed
in the manifest as well. By default all the ships are set to follow the
fleet's tactics and settings. When the ship is using the fleet tactics
or settings, it will display fleet. The combat tactics are explained later
in detail, the only difference being that this setting is applied to the ship
selected and will override the fleet setting.
Hull Condition
After the combat setting, there is a column for
hull integrity. If the ship super structure is undamaged, it will display
100%. If the ship super structure is damaged it will display the percentage
it is intact. It is important to note that this is the super structure
only, to get a detailed ship state, you need to select the Ship Detail command.
Below the ship manifest is the fleet summary information panel. Here it tells you the fleet command, maximum warp speed, whether the fleet is cloaked, whether the fleet is a covert fleet, whether the fleet has ship towing another ship, and the fleet combat setting.
Most of the information displayed here is straight forward, but there are a few abbreviations. For instance, to determine if a ship in the fleet is towing another ship, you need to check the warp speed value. If there is an asterisk next to the speed, it means that at least one ship is towing another ship. The combat settings are also abbreviated, but for the most part they are recognizable from the abbreviation.
The secondary command panel allows you to command your fleet, get more detailed information about a ship in your fleet, set the fleet and ship tactics, load and unload cargo, set trade requests, initiate fleet refueling, and initiate cloaking.
Every fleet in the game has a command that it will try to do. There are seven commands you can have your fleet do. These command are explore, attack, join fleet, guard, patrol, build, and colonize.
Explore
The explore command is the default command. This
command is used when you just want to see what is out there and not act. If
a ship is set to explore it will only gather sensor information and will not
engage any fleet unless they are from a warring empire. You do not have
to set this command to get sensor information.
Join Fleet
This command will have the fleet merge with the select
fleet when it arrives in the same location.
Build
This command is only available for fleets that have at least
one engineering ship. Here you can specify the structure you want your
engineering ship to build. The fleet will start construction once it arrives
at its destination.
Attack
This command tells the ship to attack it fleet or planet
that its destination is set to. It will only attack the player the destination
is set to. If you set the destination to a fleet, for example, and that
fleet moves to another player's planet, you will only attack the fleet. Additionally,
this command will not allow you to attack a player with which you formed a trading
agreement or alliance.
Colonize
This command is only available for fleets that have
at least one colony ship. This command tells the first colony ship in
the fleet to disassemble and colonize the destination planet. If the fleet
has more than one colony ship, only one will be disassembled.
Guard
The guard command will have your fleet attack anything that
is in the same area as the fleet, unless you have a trading agreement or alliance
with the player. It will attack neutral players, but it will not intercept
any fleet. The guard command is used to protect whatever is at its destination.
If the target is another fleet it will follow the fleet and protect it.
Patrol
The patrol command will have the fleet intercept any non-friendly
fleets within its range. If there are no non-friendly fleets within the
range, it will proceed to the set destination. For example, a fleet can
have a destination of a planet and will travel there. If any neutral,
warring, or unknown fleets are spotted within the patrol range, it will change
course and intercept the fleets. Once the fleet is dealt with or has moved
out of the patrol zone, it will resume its original destination. The patrol
range is based on the maximum warp speed of the fleet. The faster the
fleet is, the larger the patrol zone will be.
This is where you can set your fleet tactics. By default all ships in the fleet use these tactics settings.
This is where you can set your selected ship tactics. This tactics setting will override the fleet tactics.
This command can only be done if the fleet is in the same location as another fleet or is orbiting one of your colonies. You also must have cargo bays or stasis chambers.
This can only be done at a colony that belongs to an empire you have a trade agreement with, or an allied planet. Your fleet also must have cargo room. The trade request does not guarantee the cargo was purchased, as it is only a request. Should the planet you wish to trade have need of the resource you wish, you might not receive any.
This will show you the details of the selected ships.
This command allows you to re-arrange your fleets. You can merge all the fleets at that location together or split them up.
This will tell your fleet to use it crystal resources on the planet it is orbiting or in the cargo bays. They will process the crystals into fuel for your ships power generators. The fuel currently in the system will be lost because it cannot be combined with the new fuel. You should only refuel when you are low on fuel.
This command is only available if all ships in the fleet can cloak. If the fleet is not cloaked, it will cloak the fleet. If the fleet is already cloaked it will de-cloak.
There are four combat tactics you can set for your fleet: targeting, range, ship combat tactics, and planetary combat tactics.
This will tell your fleet what to target from the enemy fleet. Once the fleet has determined a target, all ships using the fleet target will target the same target. When more than one ship fits the same hull type for the target, the fleet will choose the nearest one.
There are five different target settings: flagships, Star Bases, transports, fighters, and nearest capital ships. Flagships are the largest war ships in the enemy fleet, fleet. Star Bases are stationary and very powerful, but if taken out deal a powerful blow against the enemy. Transports are non-capital ships; this includes freighters, colonization ships, and engineering ships. Fighters are launched from carriers, and selecting them as targets is primarily for defensive purposes. Targeting nearest capital ships allows you to concentrate your fire on ships as they approach.
This tactic setting tells when your fleet will open fire with its primary weapon. All other weapons will fire when it is within firing range, but the primary weapon will hold its fire until the selected range is set. For large, powerful weapons, it is critical the first shot hits as it might be your only shot. There are seven range settings you can choose from: point blank, short, optimal (this is the default), long, extreme, maintain formation, and keep safe distance.
The first five settings control just how close to get, but the last two have special conditions. Both maintain formation and keep safe distance will cause the ships to fire at their target whenever it is within range. Maintain formation, however, tells the ship not to move towards the target, instead it should form up on the largest ship set to move in formation, and they will move in as a group. Keep safe distance causes the ship to be placed at the rear, and to not advance at all. Carriers will still launch their fighters, but their weapons will only be fired as a defensive measure against ships that get too close.
This controls how the ship deals with other ships. There are three settings, disable, destroy, and capture.
Disable Target
If you set the tactics to disable, then the ship
will continue targeting the ship until the ship stops firing back. This
could be because all the weapon systems on the ship are destroyed, or it has
lost power and its guns are not charged. Most of the time ship sensors
are pretty good at detecting when a ship really is disabled, but occasionally
the ship may be able to rejoin a battle and surprise you. Additionally
if you disable a ship, and lose the battle, the enemy will be able to repair
the ship and your losses will have been for nothing.
Destroy Target
Setting the tactic to destroy commands your ship
to continue firing until the target is destroyed. Once a ship is destroyed,
it has no chance of being repaired, and it will not be able to rejoin the battle.
However, you may waste precious firepower on a disabled ship, and those
shots could be the difference in a close battle.
Capture Target
The capture setting means your ship will attempt
to capture the ship instead of destroying it. This setting will mean your
ship will move to within boarding range once the target shields are down. At
this point your ship will start to beam marines onto the other ship. It
takes time for you to subdue all of the enemy crew and to take control of the
ship. If you successfully capture the ship, you will then have to organize
and set up your command structure on the ship. This reorganization phase
takes time, and during this time the ship will be vulnerable to enemy fire.
If you successfully complete this phase, then the ship will join your
fleet and fight in the battle on your side.
Civilian freighters are robotically controlled and will automatically self-destruct if an attempt is made to beam marines on board. Star Bases also are controlled by the planet and will be remotely destroyed before they are allowed to fall into enemy hands. Additionally, if the capturing process takes too long, the captain of the ship may decide to initiate a self-destruct sequence rather than be captured. Covert Ops ships will self-destruct sooner than normal capital ships.
Once your fleet defeats the defending empire fleets orbiting the planet, it will then proceed to attack the planet based on the planetary combat settings. There are four planetary tactics. These are: orbit, invade, scorch, and destroy.
Orbit
The orbit setting will have your fleet orbit the planet after
the fleet battle. Your fleet will remain in high-orbit around the planet
at a safe distance. All of your ships must be set to orbit otherwise this
command will not be carried out. This tactic is good if you don't have
a force strong enough to invade or scorch the planet, but want to blockade the
planet from shipping or receiving resources.
Invasion Planet
The invasion tactic requires a massive fleet with
a large marine force. The Invasion fleet usually consists of stasis field
transports, as you will need a large amount of marines to pull off a successful
invasion. The advantage of an invasion is you get the planet with most
of its structures intact. There will be damage done, but only defense
structures will be destroyed. Star Gates will also be destroyed if present.
After a planet is conquered, it will take four turns before you can use
the planet facilities for production. You can only invade a planet that
you can live on.
Scorch Planet
The scorch earth tactic means you will nuke the planet
from orbit. This will destroy all building structures, colonists, and
marines on the planet. This is a pure sterilization of a planet so you
can colonize it later. The advantage of this tactic is that it guarantees
success. The down side is that you have to colonize a planet and start
from scratch.
Destroy Planet
This is the ultimate display of power. With
this tactic, you will literally destroy the planet. The planet will be
removed from the Star Map, and will be converted into tiny pieces of rubble.
While this is very destructive, it can be a way to show the forces against
you the power you have. To destroy a planet you must have ship in your
fleet with the firepower required to destroy it. The only ships capable
of doing this kind of damage are the planet killers. They are the only
ship that has the firepower to damage the planet in this fashion, and sometimes
you might need more than one planet killer to successfully destroy a planet.
Destroying a planet takes a resource from the game, and guarantees that
no one will be able to use that planet against you.
The first line of defense against a planetary assault should be fleets orbiting the planet. After that, you will have to rely on your much weaker planetary defenses.
Planetary Defense structures launch fighters against the opposing forces. They are quite efficient against small, weak fleets, but the planet cannot control a large enough fighter force to take out large fleets.
If the enemy fleet defeats all of your fighters, they will then have to be able to penetrate your shields. Your shields can save a planet from being invaded, scorched, or destroyed. Even though they may have defeated all of you ships and fighters, as long as your shields hold, your planet is safe.
Your last hope is your planetary marines. Each defense structure is responsible for providing marines to defend your planet. If an enemy fleet attempts to invade your planet, it will be up to your marines to repel them. Of course, your marines can't defend against an orbital attack, so if it gets to this point, you better have reinforcements on the way.