Strategies and Tips

Fleetsave Made Easy

Your fleets cannot be attacked when flying, therefore safe! If you are going to be offline for a few hours or need to sleep at night, then fleetsave will make sure your fleet is still there when you get back.

In essence, fleetsave is sending all your ships, loaded with all your res, on a dummy mission.

If you fleetsave properly it is close to impossible to be crashed, even if you have an enemy with a sensor phalanx!

If you have a moon, use a recycle fleetsave. This cannot be seen on a sensor phalanx (lanx).

If you do not have a moon, the ONLY safe fleetsave is a deploy to one of your other colonies. Make sure you are online BEFORE your fleet arrives....if you are getting crashed, simply recall to save your fleet. A recalled deploy does not show on a lanx. If you use recycle, hold position or even attack fleetsave, you will eventually get crashed.

Simples!

Other tips:
- You can adjust the speed of your fleet and fleetsave target to get a good return time to suit your day.
- Often your cargos and warships travel too fast for a good overnight fleetsave in the same system. To slow the fleet down, build just one recycler. Hey presto, perfect times for anywhere between 1h to 16h.

That's it. Fly safe.

Credits to AlanFromage 

The Fleet

Fleeting

It's a long read, but you may find invaluable tips in the following. So I recommend taking the time, and you'll be crushing your opponents before you know it.

Terminology:
LF = light fighter
HF = heavy fighter
CR = cruiser
BS = battleship
BC = battlecruiser
BB = bomber
DD = destroyer
RIP = deathstar (rest in pieces)
SC = small cargo
LC = large cargo
REC = recycler
ESP = espionage probe

1. A right start: what is a good fleet?

All ships are useful!  To start with build up a good sized fleet of lc and bs.  These are the mainstay of any fleet.  Once you get a little more developed aim for typical ratios of 10lf, 5bs, 2 bc, 1 bb, 0.5 dd.  However, you are free to choose your own ratio.  Make sure you build lots of lc aswell.

Yes lfs are key as they are good fodder; they protect your big ships keeping them alive and let them do their job. But they generate heavy losses as well so use them only to fight large fleets, not to raid undefended planets.

Bs are good general ships, bc are essential against opponents fleets, as dd are tough, able to take on plasma turrets and survive. Bb are essential against defense although they are slow until you get to hyperdrive 8.

Another very important ship is recycler. Fleeting is only a profitable activity if you recycle. So let us ad 3 rec for 10 lf in the precedent ratio

2. Finding a target, keeping it on the watch

Well, just spy! Good targets are targets with res OR with sleeping fleets you will recycle.

Once you have found one, the question is: is this player inactive? Typically wait 10 min before launching an attack on fleet to see if the guy has move.

Calculate how many ships you need to have a profitable attack  by using the combat simulator(take into account res and df size Ð see recycling section).  Please make sure that you complete the enemy tech levels for weapons, shields and armour (WSA) Ð missing these out will result in getting an overly optimistic simulation and heavy losses.

The question you have now to ask yourself is: did he noticed or not?

Do not re-spy for now! Look at activity in the galaxy screen. If it does not come back to *, nothing has move at your target. You are safe for now. A good way as well to see if your target is really inactive is too look at his/her other planets: you can find is home planet easily, perhaps you know more. If no activity shows up anywhere, this is likely your target is offline playing golf or sleeping.

It might be that in the middle of your trip some activity shows up. Do not give up now, it can be someone else spied. Re-spy, if no change in ships, res, buildings, it is likely you can continue.

Now you are getting close, 2 min before hit: now re-spy: you need to know if defending ships landed for a trap and you cannot take the risk anymore to have an unknow activity. Respy at 1 min. If nothing has changed, go for it. If not see the section Òtraps and defense of planetsÓ

3. Recycling

This is essential you launch recyclers. Time them around 5 minutes after the hit, no one can be quicker than this. Never time them less than 30s after hit or you may arrive early and miss the debris (server lag Ð see below).

Given time to travel, it means you have to launch recyclers before the attack!!! This is a good way to wait seeing if your target is inactive or not.

One exception to timing 5 min after is when you crash a sat farm: here time the recycling as close as possible after attack if there is a fleet on the planet. It may well be the defender is just waiting for you to do the job before recycling his own df. Timing 1 min after is recommended

4. Traps and defense of planets

It might well be someone send ships on hold to defend a planet. You have two ways to get around this. You can recall your fleet. Or you can ACS yourself to send more ships: defending fleet are blocked there for one hour. When you have a doubt upfront, it is good to ACS yourself preventively.

Do not send more ships if you suspect the defender to be a very high ranked fleeter. He can send more ships as well and you will lose with more damages.

Remember yourself: if you defend a planet with hold: your fleet is blocked for one hour!!!! Do not be suicidal in defense.

5. ACS

ACS is an essential tool for large attack. You can invite players while going into fleet, flying fleet, select the one that attack and then select ACS. For fleeter: do not put emoji in your name, it makes it difficult to invite you to ACS. Players you invite will receive a pm.

When you are invited to an ACS, do not put probes in your fleet, you would not be able to join. Just select the ships, click on continue, select in the bottom the ACS (like a planet) and continue.

To do ACS it is recommended that each player gives it travel time (if big df, do not forget all to recycle), the most far away player invite the others. Do not forget to give times with different ships, so that the group can decide for instance not to put in BBs as they are too slow. When you time ACS with a phalanx, you can always keep a slot free and invite yourself so that if attack land too late (ACS are difficult to time right) you can send ships in to slow it down.

6. Moons, Phalanx and Ninja

Moons are useful tools to ÒninjaÓ a fleet with phalanx. You have to time your fleet just after your target land. Do not time it too close due to queuing and server lag. 10 sec is about right. You can miss though, even if your opponent does not escape, this is Òfog of warÓ due to server queuing: if too many action, your attack can be slightly delayed.  10 sec is very reliable at the time of writing this guide, but it does change.  Just send a circular asking what the latest fog of war time is and somebody will reply.

When attacking large fleeters, do not forget they can ninja one member of the ACS when he comes back. It is useful to have someone with a spare fleet to defend in case.

7. Improve Your Ships

Researching technology is essential. They make your fleet more effective, being weapon tech, shield or armour. Speed is very important as well. It makes attacks easier or faster. With hyperdrive 8 or 9 your fleet is fast, including bombers, and it is difficult to ninja you.

8. Getting mobile

Mobile planets are essential tools. They can be left blank. It is important to be cautious with movements: first send your colony ship, once you have a planet, then send your fleet at low speed to save deut (which means intergalactic attacks take time to be setup). Do not block them with transports in or out. Use deploy mission. Before destroying a mobile make sure your fleet has landed at its destination.

Having 2 mobiles is better but very costly in terms of industry. It enables to save deut jumping into the universe, as well it enable to use ÒdeployÓ mission when you are in operation and be safe for phalanx.

8. Conclusion

Why would you fleet? Because it is profitable or just because it is fun! Fleeting takes time though, so do it only if you can be active in this period. If not, settle, even temporary.

As well remember each battle has a winner and a loser, so be ready to lose your fleet. This is just the game.

Good hunting.




Graviton!

This guide outlines the considerations and steps necessary to achieve Graviton tech.

Location:

You need to find a quiet part of the galaxy.  Somewhere where you do not get scanned often. If you fleetsave well in your home system and the natives know you are not a farm, there is no reason why you cannot do it there! They will have given up scanning you long ago!

Planet Placement:

You need 1,000s of solar satellites to get the required 300K energy. As solar sat output is dependent upon planet temperature, the closer to the sun (slot 0) you are, the higher the output. My advice is aim for slot 1. It requires fewer sats and if you do it quickly you will be fine.

The one issue with slot 1 is the lack of fields. Since you be investing heavilly in the planet for the nanite and labs, it makes sense to keep it. Plus you get 2 x moonshots when you recycle (more on that later). Therefore, if you can afford the RL £Û$ then place you planet in slot 3, for more fields, and move to slot 1 24h before the Grav run. Remember the 24h freeze on deploy missions from moved planets that will screw you up!

The Calculation:

You need 300K energy. To work out how many sats and associated res you need:

- subtract you solar plant, fusion plant and existing solar sat energy output from 300,000 to get your shortfall.
- next divide this shortfall by the energy output of one solar sat. Don't know the output of one sat? Well, build one and take a look! Should be circa 66 in slot 1.
- you now have the number of sats required. Multiply by 2K for amount of crystal you will need to save; by 0.5K for the amount of deut. You now know how much you need to save, so start saving!

Top Tip:  When saving you will have an excess of metal, so put in a few levels of armour tech but make sure you are NOT researching anything when you reach 300K energy!

Note:  I keep mentioning 4,400 sats in this guide, however each planet has a different temperature and hence sat output. You must work out your own target!

Preparing the Planet:

You want to build the satellites as quickly as possible to minimise the chance of a crash...ouch#%^*. Therefore aim for nanite 3 - this combined with shipyard 12 and the Engineer will give you a build time of around 11h. (9s per sat; 4400 sats were my figures). Nanite 4 would halve that time, but takes another 8m/4m/0.8m res....your call, my view is that it is not worth it.

You MUST also have Research Lab 12.

Note: make sure that you are not still researching another technology when you reach 300K energy - you can only research one tech at a time and will be blocked from doing Grav until free.

Defences:

Opinions vary here. Some go for fortress style defences. My view is little to no defences! If you get spotted, you are screwed anyway unless you are very high ranked!!

In addition, little defence is great for ease of recycling the sats at the end - more on this later.

The 'Sat Run'

Pick a start time early in the morning so you can be online the whole time up to and beyond building the sats.

Build the sats in batches - I went for  500 at a time (1m cry, 0.25m deut) with a build time of around 1h10m. If you get spotted and the worst happens, you can at least pull out and preserve some res.

Top Tip: it is easy to spot the Grav run if you get probed. But to make it just a little harder, turn off your solar sat output so at least the espy report does not show 245K energy, or whatever!

Top Tip 2: send batches of res to your planet just before you need them. A res stockpile of cry and deut at 4:1 is another telltale sign, plus it keeps the res safe if the worst happens.

As you approach 300K, make sure you turn off all mines! They suck energy!

Once you reach 300K, go to the research screen, click 'Research' and hey presto it's done! Open a bottle of beer/champagne/moonshine.

But you are not yet done!

Recycling the Sats:

A sat farm is a super tasty target for crashing and recycling; it will not be there for long!!!

Therefore you must plan your recycling so you collect the 2.6m cry df. This part is easy if you have little defences...140 odd bc will destroy (well it will be a draw) enough sats for a 20% moonshot. If this fails, place some Lfs on the planet for more debris and try a second time crashing the remaining for another moonshot.  

Just SIM it out with your defences / tech levels / fleet to aim for a 2m df = 20% each time. Remember: the first moonshot will be aiming for a draw!

Also note that you will need a friend to crash this for you, or send an lf and ACS you in. Have the SIMs worked out ahead of time (before you reach 300K) for a fast recycle.

Finally have the recyclers ready!!

If You Get Spotted:

Don't panic! Have your fleet ready to defend. If the spotter is massively more powerful, time to have a chat! Maybe negotiate a split of the debris? Get creative!

I think that's about it.  'Bon Chance'.









Farming and Raiding

Farming other empires, inactive or not, it the best way to build your empire quickly. Your mine output just does not cut it! Farming will triple, or more, you rate of growth.

To farm efficiently follow these steps. It does not take up too much time and yields huge amounts of booty.

Preparing:

Build 40 or more espionage probes, 40 or more large cargos (lc) and a few battleships.Go to the settings page and set your default probe settings to 3. You may need to adjust this up if your espy tech is low, and if this is the case then prioritise espy tech research for the near future.

You should also invest in as much Computer Tech as you can afford, to give your farming session maximum number of fleet slots.

Finding Targets - Phase 1:

Go to the galaxy view and start one up from your home system. I generally avoid farming my in system neighbours - you got to live with them a long time! Select targets that are either inactive (rank 9000 or higher, lower ranks almost always just have 10K of each res so not worth it) and active players your rank or lower. I do not particularly bother about other alliances, but do watch out for ASA and TWO! Send in the probes.

Continue in the galaxy screen until you have probed around 10 systems. This will generate a long list of espy reports for you to consider.

Finding Targets - Phase 2:

Once you have these espy reports, start at the top. By sending fleets to the farthest away, your fleets will generally all arrive back at the same time, so you have to spend less time in game.

Look at each espy report and identify:
- targets with at least 200K res and no defences. Less than 200K is just not worth it, unless your area is particularly poor. Divide the total res by 2 to give your yield, then work out how many lcs you need to grab it all. Add one or two lcs to create free space to ensure you get it all.Then click on 'Attack' at the bottom of the espy report, select the number of lcs and launch.
- targets with lots of res and low defences. Work out how many lcs you need, then go and run a battle sim to see how you can win and take the res. Losses are just fine, as long as you turn at least a 100k profit! You may need to add a few lcs to make sure you grab all the res taking losses into account.

Top Tip: always run the combat sim 3-4 times and take the worst outcome. Combat is random so running the sims a few times will give you a good idea of the likely worst case outcome.

- targets with tasty fleets. Again, run a battle sim and work out a winning attack. Also take note of the amound of debris (df) created and divide by 20K, rounding up, to get the number of recycs to send. Then launch. If the target has lots of fleet and no defences, consider two waves. One to kill the fleet, and a second to grab the resources. Also remember to send the recycle fleet, with a few extra added on in case the battle turns out worse than expected. You can send recycle mission with the df not yet there, just click on 'Attack' at the bottom of the espy report, select the number of recycs, then on the target screen make sure you select 'Debris Field' instead of planet as the target. You can then choose a recycle mission. Launch this just after you launch your fleet(s).
- ignore targets that are just too tough!

Keep doing this until you have one free fleet slot. You must always keep a free fleet slot for two reasons:
- if you need to slow down the attack (see below) you need a slot, but only for a short time.
- if you get attacked yourself, then you need a slot to fleetsave. Having no free slots and an incoming attack is a bad experience!!!

The Attack:

For attacks with just lcs I never normally bother watching! Rarely will you lose any ships, even against active players. Even if you do lose a few lcs, the very next raid will pay off the loss and more!

For attacks where you are committing warships, then it does pay to watch a little more closely. Half way through the attack run, take a look at the galaxy screen. If you see that the activity timer on the planet still marries up with when you probed, more than likely you are just fine! If you see a * (asterisk) denoting activity on the planet, don't worry, just go ahead and probe. Either he's woken up and moved the fleet, just recall. Maybe somebody else probed the target? If so, continue on your way!

When attack fleet with warships is getting close, it is wise to take precautions to prevent a ninja - another fleet arriving on hold, or an active player's fleetsave returning. To do this, Follow these steps:

- go to the Fleet screen, select Flying Fleet and then click on the attack mission. Finally click on the ACS button - no need to add any players, you are automatically added.
- around two minutes out from the attack hitting, go to the fleet screen. Select one espy probe, click next, click on the ACS icon at the bottom to select the target, and change speed to 10% (4m fly time approx). Click next, make sure you select 'ACS Attack' as the mission type and launch.
- the impact of this will be to slow the attack down by around 2 minutes (the attack will be 4 minutes out, the fly time of the probe.
- optional step:  immediately go back to the Flying Fleet screen and recall the probe on the ACS attack mission.  Frees a fleet slot and saves a probe.
- after 2 minutes, your original attack time would have passed but you still have 2 min left to run - any ninja would have arrived by now. Therefore, go to the galaxy view of the planet, look for an activity asterisk and also probe. The espy report will arrive, can be analysed looking for the ninja and you still have 1 minute left to recall if necessary - if clean, let it run. If getting ninjaed, recall.

Top Tip: once you become familiar with delaying an attack, you can start to use delay in more advanced ways. Putting in the delay just a few seconds before you hit the target is much more effective.

So, that's one wave of attacks. All the fleet will return generally around the same time. Once they are all home, send out another wave when you have another free 10 minutes. This time start on the galaxy screen from where you left off, or try heading down 10 systems instead. I generally stick to with 50 systems to keep fly times reasonable.

If you have 10 raids out at a time, each with at least 100K profit, then you will be making 1M+ res each time. That's enough to build more fleet, research more fleet slots and increase the farming income. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Over time you will also learn where the lucrative targets are, and can do even faster farming sessions by just probing the juicy ones.

Have fun and fly safe.

AlanF.




IND Frequently Asked Questions Guide

Q: How do I contact a GO?
A: Send an email to goforgethelp@gmail.com.
 Make sure you use the correct subject line format of Empire Name - Home
 Planet Coords - Brief Description of the Issue. For example 
'AlanFromage - 10:375:6 - Missing Res From Deploy Mission'. If asking 
for a refund make sure you put down the time of the mission return and 
also a time when you will be online to receive the refund. Always make 
your message clear and concise. I have found the GOs to always be 
responsive to well written emails.

Q: My transport/deploy/recycle mission returned and the res was missing. Why and what can I do about it?
A:
 You need to contact a GO via email and ask for a refund. Make sure you 
take a screenshot of the transport report as evidence. Without a 
screenshot you will not get a refund. For recycle missions, in 
particular fleetsaves, the return recycle report will not show res and 
will not be accepted. If you can't afford to lose recycle fleetsave res,
 make sure you screenshot EVERY recycle fleetsave from the Flying Fleet 
screen on overview. Finally, please don't moan on circs. You have been 
warned.

Q: I have been spied. What do I do?
A: Don't panic! 
Getting spied is a regular occurrence in the game. You may expect an 
attack any moment now so if you are going to be offline, now is a good 
time to fleetsave.

Q: I am being attacked. What do I do?
A: 
Don't panic. GE is a war game so attacks are inevitable. The first thing
 to do is send the attack a friendly PM (private message) and let him 
know you are online and will fleetsave. Often this alone will make the 
attacker recall. If the attack continues then just fleetsave. Any res 
you cannot fleetsave spend on buildings, research, defences or fleet. If
 an attacker keeps getting nothing he will go away and find another more
 profitable target.

Q: I cannot recall my holding fleet. Why?
A: You can only recall a hold mission BEFORE it arrives on hold. Once it is holding, you cannot recall.

Q: I am trying to destroy a building level but it keeps saying 'not enough resources'. I have enough resources to destroy. Why?
A:
 Known bug. ÊYou need enough resources to build the next level before 
you can destroy a level. Although only the correct resources for a 
destroy are consumed. ÊEither get enough resources for the next level on
 the planet/moon or email the GOs and ask them to destroy it for you.

Q: How do I fleetsave?
A: Read the fleetsave guide on the alliance internal page.

Q: IND is a training alliance for ASA. How do I join ASA and what are the criteria?
A: Here is the announcement:
"The ASA council decided to change some things about our recruitment process , with two objectives :
- strenghten the ties between IND and ASA , making ASA more a "mother alliance" than a "sister alliance".
- making the IND members join ASA easier than the other players

To reach these two objectives, the council voted and decided to make these new rules :
- Any IND member can join ASA when he/she reachs 150k point
- External players are not allowed to join if they have less than 150k points. They will be redirected to IND.
- IND members willing to join ASA will have to answer to a small test (2/3 questions maximum) about GE basics.

I
 hope these rules will motivate IND members to join ASA (objective : 
150k point and the "test"). ÊPlease note that we will NOT exclude 
current ASA members having less than 150k points , as they were 
recruited before these new rules.

Thanks for understanding. If you have any questions or problems , please pm me and i'll see what I can do.

Lightsabers, sVP"

Q: One of my fleets is missing from the Flying Fleet screen - where has it gone?
A:
 If you have two fleets with the same timer, then only one will show up 
on the Flying Fleet screen via Overview. You can check your fleet via 
the Flying Fleet screen from the fleet screen. It will be there!

Q: I had a mission on hold over a planet/moon and it got attacked/disappeared. However I did not see a combat report?
A:
 Fleets on hold, if attacked, do not produce a combat report. Only the 
attacker and the player with the planet over which you are holding will 
see a combat report.

Q: How many times a day can I attack one planet / be attacked on one planet?
A:
 The bashing rules changed to allow up to 18 attacks by one player 
against any other single planet. Note that this is per planet.

Q: How many fields can I expect on my planet? What is the best position for maximum fields?
A:
 Your home planet always has 163 fields. The only way to increase this 
is via the terraformer. Colonies will have a random number of fields, 
but the maximum/average size varies by position in the system. The 
maximum number of fields obtainable is slot :8 and you can get up to 
210. For every slot away from :8 the maximum decreases by 10. For 
example, in slot 6 the maximum will be 190. In slot 1 or 15 the maximum 
is 140.

Q: How do I add more items to this FAQ? What if my question is not answered in this FAQ?
A: Just send a circ asking for an item to be added, or go ahead and ask your question via circ!

~Thorkitt

Apsalar: 

     So you are tired of waiting  days  for a Research Projects to 
finish.  Well there is a solution the Intergalactic Research Network 
(IRN).  I hear many people asking what exactly this Technology does, and
 this article will hopefully explain it to you.  

     The basic requirements to get this Technology are Computer and 
Hyperspace Technology both at level 8.  It also requires a Research Lab 
of 10 to begin Research.

      For each Level of IRN you have you link in an additional planet 
with a Research Lab to your IRN.  IRN 1 will link in 2 planets IRN 7 
will link in 8 planets.  The game will automatically give you the best 
planets to link in.  If the planet in question does not have a Research 
Lab level high enough to do the project it will NOT be linked in.  So a 
planet with a Research Lab level of 5 can not help to research Shielding
 Technology.   Add the levels of your linked in Research Labs together 
to get your effective Research Lab level.  

     So say your researching Shielding Technology and have IRN 3.  Four 
of your planets have Research Labs on them with the following levels, 
12, 10, 8, 5.  Your effective Research Lab level would be 30.  If that 
one lab had been 6 instead of 5, it would be 36.   The higher your 
effective Research Level the faster your production.

     Math - or how to get actual times.

           Take the total cost of the project in Resources lets use Astrophysics 11 in this example.

            1,077,600 Metal + 2,155,100 Crystal + 1,077,600 Deut. = 4,310,300 Total Resources.

            Divide this by the Time Factor in GE2 it is 4.16666 in GE1  2.77777. **

            4,310,300 / 4.16666 = 1,034,474 (rounded)

            This is the base number of seconds the project takes.

             Divide this number by your effective Research Level + 1 to get actually time.

              Using the above numbers 12+10+8+5+1 = 37.   1,034,474 / 37
 =  27,958 seconds or about 7 3/4 hours.  Without IRN at the Research 
Lab 12 it would have taken about 22 hours. 

               How much you want to put into IRN is up to you. All it 
saves is time, and it does take fields on multiple planets.  A little 
IRN can save a lot of time though.

              ** Please note I am truncating these for this example, the
 actually number continues ad infinitum. from Yahoo! Mail on Android

LordoftheSith:
If you want to stop this bs of having your moons popped, you have to defend them. Defenses on moons cannot be taken out by missles, so that means players will have to waste fleet grinding them down or lose their rips when they attack. Most won't do that on the off chance of your fleet heading there. Here's how I build up a new moon, before I ever use it for my fleet. Takes about 2-3 weeks, but I've not had anyone even attempt to pop a moon in over 6 months. And believe me, I piss off plenty of people who would love a shot at my fleet. 


Build in this order. 


Lunar base 1
Robotics 1&2
Lunar base 2
Robotics 3&4
Lunar base 3
Robotics 5&6
Lunar base 4
Robotics 7&8
Lunar base 5
Robotics 9&10
Lunar base 6
Lunar base 7
Lunar base 8
Lunar base 9
Jump gate 1
Jump gate 2
Ship yard 1,2,3,4,5,&6
Delete robotics 10
Ship yard 7
Delete robotics 9
Ship yard 8
Delete robotics down to 2
Dump 50M metal, 50M crystal, and 30M deut into 1000 pt's
Build sensor phalanx up to 7. 


You'll have a good solid base for all you operations now. 


LightSabers's GE guide

I] Getting started

1) Gamer type

Basically, there are 3 ways of playing GE :Ê
-The fleeter : most of his points are invested in fleet. He has medium mines lvl , and get most of his resources from crashing/raiding other players. The more you play, the faster you grow
-The miner : he has strong mines , usually a small fleet(to raid inactive or low players) and grow by trading with other players (example by selling deuterium to fleeters!)
-The turtle : most have high mines , but a Turtle have A LOT of defense.Usually, a turtle is a player who don't have time to play, so he only spend his res into defenses.

These 3 ways of playing are effective if you play the 2 first : fleeter and miner.having high mine and big fleet will ensure the fastest grow.Lot of def isn't required

Late addition:
Fleminurtle - a schizophrenic playing style that can't quite make their mind up between fleeting, mining or just being a turtle.  Courtesy of Sleet, inspired by Nightmare.

2) Planet placement

You have your home planet, well well.now , with Astrophysics lvl, you can colonize more planets.(you can colonize 1 more planet every odd lvl of astro = 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15.... there's no limit , but astro 19 cost 200m cry :p).You planet placement mostly depend on your playstyle :

-fleeter : put planets separated by at least 70systems.Then make a moon on them to fleetsave correctly(see number 3).you will have now 35sys of hunting ground up and down from every planet.you can easily cover an entire galaxy with 8/9 planets separated with 70sys each!Now you can hunt and crash everyone !
-Miner : usually , miners have all their planet in the same system, that allow a fast-transport system as well as a fast-reaction against attackers. you can ninja you opponent in a few minutes !
-The turtle : basically same placement as miner , for same reasons !

NOTE : IND is here to start you up, to teach you the game, so i recommand to all of you to place your planets in group of players , if possible of the same timezone , so you can try and experiment ACS , ninja , etc!Ê

3) Fleetsaving

Fleetsaving is :Simple, Flexible, and OBLIGATORY.If you don't fleetsave, you WILL be crashed.As simple as that.Having defences deters low players , but any high ranked player will just crash you if you don't.There are not many solutions to fleetsave correctly :

-without a moon : Deploy only.Always deploy from colony to colony.if someone is lanxing you( see Moon part) , just recall : a recalled deploy is invisible to lanx !.
-With a moon : since a moon can't be lanxed , you just have to send your fleet to a non-lanxable target : friendly moon or debris field.you can't lanx a debris field , so if your fleet is flying between a debris and your moon, you're safe. hold pos to friendly moon also works , but it's not useful!

4) Fleet guide

Your fleetsize will depends on your deut mine lvl : if you can't produce your daily fleetsaving cost, you'll find yourself one day without deut to fleetsave , and you will be crashed !Here's a reminder for each ship :

-small cargo(sc) = small cargo space but very fast , you can use them to raid inactives without defence
-large cargo(lc) = 5times the small cargo hold , but slower.you can use them for the same goal as small cargoes
-Light fighter(lf) : mostly used as Fodder (see the fodder part)
-heavy fighter(hf) : same as light fighter , but thoughter against cruisers
-cruiser(cr) : fast attack ship , he's deadly in mass and he destroys lfs VERY fasy ! however, he's weak against bs , bc and dds
- Battleship (bs): most used ship, he's fast and strong , as said in the description, it's the backbone of your fleet
-battlecruiser (bc): Fleet killer ! very fast, he's very effective against battleships ! But he fails against Destroyers...you still use them to intercept small fleets
-destroyers (dds) = the king of the warships : it's like 2bs merged into one ship.It cost a lot of deut to move it and he's very slow , but he has so much armor it's very hard to kill them
-bombers (bbs) are similar to destroyers , but they are specialized in defence destruction : they're very effective against Rocket launchers !
- deathstar(rip/ds): VERY slow , they're defence destructor.they never die , and can destroy many defence.Turtles fear deathstar !

5) Defence guide

Defence is useful to protect your overnight production, when you sleep.basic defense is 1000rl 10PT, to avoid lc raids during the night !Ê

-Rocket launcher (rl) is used as fodder , like the light fighter
-plasma turret (PT) is a very strong defence , it takes out a bs in one shot and is very armored.always help in battle ;)
-others def are more or less destructive , but most used are rl and pt

6) Researchs

Researchs are an important part of the game.Some of them are just requirements (laser tech , ion tech,etc ) to unlock new ships/def/techs/buildings.When you reach the required lvl, there is no interest in researching them anymore.

Others techs are always upgradable : weapon/shield/armor techs will give you Stronger and thoughter ships/defences , while all the drive techs (combustion/impulsion/hyperespace) will make your ships travel faster.

Basically, research the requirements , then improe the essential techs when able to !

II]First steps in the hunting ground

1)Moon

A moon is VERY useful to fleet : you can LANX your opponents ! To lanx someone , you must build a Sensor phalanx on your moon.The lanx range is [lvl]squared - 1( range of lvl 1=1,2=3,3=8,4=15,5=24.....).On your galaxy screen, click on the planet you want to lanx and click "phalanx".You'll see ALL THE FLEET ACTIVITY of this planet : incoming and upcoming fleet.By seeing this, you can attack your target 10/15seconds after his fleet lands back on his planet.If he does not fleetsave correctly (exemple recycle) just look at when his fleet will be back, and send you own ships to hit 10s later. i'll make a guide on ninjas later to clarify it.

-getting a moon : to make a moon,you need to crash fleets on your planet.for every 100k of debris in the debris field , you have 1% chance of moon creation, and the maximum is 20% (2m df).To create a moon, there are many solutions : keep some light fighters and your planet and ask someone to crash it.OR, hold a big fleet on your planet, one friend attack you with a lf , acs you in, and you join with some lf to crash themselves on your own fleet ! (tip : use 1667lf for an exact 20% chance)
-moon building : a moon has 1slot when you get it.you need to build lunar base to have more field (use 1field , make 3fields).then you can build robotics factory to build fast, and phalanx sensor.last building : Jump gate
-Jump gate : this building allow you to TELEPORT your own ships between 2 jump gates ! you must have 2 moons and 2 jumpgates to teleport your fleet. note that ressources can't be transported throught the gate , so always have deut at both ends !
-moon destruction : moon can be ....destroyed ! Evil deathstars can kill them , depending on : the number of rips , and the diameter. The more rips you have , the more chance you have to kill the moon.The bigger the moon is , the better chance you have the deathstars destroyed.on a destroy mission, there are 4 outcomes : 1) moon is destroyed 2) rips are destroyed 3) both are destroyed 4) nothing happens.basically, if your moon is bigger than 8,5k diameter , you're safe ;)

2) Mobile-ing

What's a mobile ?A mobile is an Empty planet: no building / def.Let me explain this : to kill a target , you need to attack him wit a small time window , so he has no time to react.The most useful option was to colonize IN your target's system, deploy your fleet on this planet, then attack directly in the same system ! that will make an attack in 20min instead of at least 40. when you hit your target, you can deploy back to your permanent colony OR directly to a SECOND mobile ! if you have 2mobiles , you can jump directly from one to another , and walk anywhere in the galaxy ! Remember to always have deut , it's boring to stay stuck on an empty colony with 0 deut !

3) ACSÊ

What's an ACS ? ACSing with someone allow you to combine your fleet with a friend's fleet to crash a bigger enemy fleet! To ACS , you must launch an attack, then go in the fleet screen, tap on your fleet ; you'll see "return" and "acs". put a name , and invite him.when you're invited , just select the ships you want to send , and select "acs xxxx" as destination.xxxx is a random number. Acs will help you to crash BIG targets with the help of 1-5friends. ACS also help in moonshoting , with it your friend can acs you and you send all your fleet to crash your lfs /all your lfs to sucide on your fleet.

III] Advanced tips

1) Fodder

What's fodder then ?Fodder(usually lf , rl) are used to avoid major losses on battle : when you're facing a well balanced fleet, you will lose some major ships (dds/bbs/bc) = ships that cost deut to build. deut doesn't go into df , so when you lose these ships , you literally lose your deut! having a lot of light fighters will make the enemy fires on weak ships , so your big ships will fire longer and harder on the enemy.500 destroyers and 10000lf will kill 1000destroyers ! basically, while the weak and cheap ships get destroyed , your real fleet is crashing the enemy

Attention : fodder generate heavy losses ( even if you retrieve 30% in the df) , so most of the time you don't need it.sending majors ships and losing 1-10 is more acceptable than 200light fighters. use the simulator !

2) Fog Of War (FoG)

What's the Fog Of War? The Fog is the server lag when your fleet is moving.this lag is estimated at 7 seconds now , so if your fleet is supposed to land at 15h23min00s , it may land between 15h23m00s and 15h23min7s.You have 7s of "latency" while you wait your fleet ! That's why you must time your fleet 10s after an enemy's fleet when you lanx/ninja them : if you time your fleet 1s after his , due to lag, your fleet may hit BEFORE his fleet land back ! that's why you slow it down 10s , so if his fleet appear 10s after the schedule , he only has 3secs to fleetsave haha 

End of LightsabersÕ Guide









Moon Build

This guide provides details on how to build up a moon.  There will be an additional guide on how to use a moon.

Moon Sizes:

Moon can be destroyed by an opponent sending his deathstars (RIPs) on a destroy mission.  The ease at which this can be done varies by moon size.  The bigger the moon, the harder it is to destroy.  In addition, the bigger the moon the more likely the RIPs will be destroyed during the mission.

You can run destruction simulations at:
http://o-calc.com/?sec=_rip

Just remember to enter your moon size in K (thousands) of km.  So a GE moon size of 8.5 will be 8500 in the sim.

Building Up Your New Moon:

Every moon starts off with one field, or building slot.  Therefore your first building project must be a lunar base (base).  Each level of lunar base adds 3 fields, one of which is taken up by the lunar base itself.  Therefore for each level of lunar base you can build two more levels of other buildings and leave one free for the next level of lunar base.

Note:  storage, fusion plants, alliance depots are all useless on a moon.  DonÕt even bother building them!

Lunar buildings are expensive, therefore your first priority should be to build up to a good level of robotics factory (robo).  The recommended initial building order is:

Base 1; Robo 1; Robo 2; Base 2; Robo 3; Robo 4; Base 3; Robo 5; Robo 6; Base 4

This will give you a good start with 2 slots free and a decent level of robotics.

The next move is a matter of choice.

If this is your first moon I would go for sensor phalanx (lanx) Ð this will allow you to crash others and increase income.  For this option the building order will be:

Robo 7; Robo 8; Base 5; Lanx 1; Lanx 2; Base 6; Lanx 3; Lanx 4; Base 7; Lanx 5; Lanx 6.

If this is your second or more moon, I would recommend jump gates Ð the capability to move fleets around the galaxies quickly is invaluable.  For this option the building order will be:

Robo 7; Robo 8; Base 6; Jump Gate 1; Lanx 1; Base 7; Lanx 2; Lanx 3.

Some choose to invest heavily in defenses on their moon, so will next build the shipyard (yard).  For this option the build order will be:

Yard 1; Yard 2; Base 5; Yard 3; Yard 4; Base 6; Yard 5; Yard 6; Base 7; Yard 7; Yard 8.

This will allow the building of all defences, including plasma turrets on the moon.  Whilst the lunar bases are upgrading you can build defences.  But remember you cannot upgrade the shipyard whilst defenses are building.

Completing Your Moon

Whatever path you have chosen you are now at lunar base 7.  Base 8 is very expensive, so you can start to destroy levels of robotics to free up slots.  Then just build whatever you fancy.

There are many variations on the build order, those expressed above are my own preference Ð here are some other players choices:

Alphabet:
As earlier recommended start then RF 7+8; LB 5; RF 9+10; LB 6; RF 11+12; LB 7; RF 13+14; LB 8; RF 15+16
(at this time I stop building lunar bases because of cost. However you can continue to build up to as high as you wish. ÊThe reason why I build robotics factories after each lunar base is to decrease production time)
JG 1; RF destroy to 15; Lanx 1; RF destroy to 14; Lanx 2; RF destroy to 13; Lanx 3; RF destroy to 12; Lanx 4; RF destroy to 11; Lanx 5; RF destroy to 10; Lanx 6; RF destroy to 9; Lanx 7; RF destroy to 8; Lanx 8
(at this time I stop building phalanxes because of cost. However you can continue to build to the lvl you wish. I typically keep the phalanx at the same lvl of my lunar base. The reason for destroying a robotics factory before each phalanx is to make room for it on your moon. I maintain a high lvl and only destroy 1at a time to help decrease build time)
RF destroy to 7; SY 1; RF destroy to 6; SY ? lvl 2; RF ? lvl 5; SY ? lvl 3; RF ? lvl 4; SY ? lvl 4; RF ? lvl 3; SY ? lvl 5; RF ? lvl 2; SY ? lvl 6
At this time your moon should be full. ÊYou now have a lvl 8 lunar base, a lvl 8 phalanx, a lvl 6 shipyard, a lvl 2 robotics factory, and a lvl 1 jump gate. Your moon buildings are pretty much done.

Note: it is the authorsÕ opinion that the reduction in build time between robotics 10 and 16 does not warrant the extra res needed to be invested to build and destroy these additional levels.  Stopping at 10 would probably give the same build times taking the time to build and destroy robotics 11 through 16, and at lower overall res investment.  But as always it is your choice!

Thorkitt:
Lunar 1; Robo 1+2; Lunar 2; Robo 3-4; Lunar 3; Ship 1-2; Lunar 4; Ship 3-4; Lunar 5; Robo 5-6
While the lunar bases are building you can build rockets and lasers galore (1500rl 400ll) will protect moon while your you upgrade
Lunar 6; Robo 7-8; Jump Gate 1; Then destroy robo to level ?
Can do ship to 8 for plasmas or do lanx,
I have 40/50 plasmas on all moons; have destroyed shipyards now for lanx!





Using a Moon

This guide outlines how to use fleetsave safely from a moon, and also how to use a sensor phalanx (lanx) to make some big crashes.

SAFE FLEETSAVING FROM A MOON

Fleetsaving, although essential, is always at risk from being lanxed by an enemy, and finding that their fleet timed for 10s after you return. Without a moon, using deploy solves this problem. However, a moon cannot be lanxed, so fleetsaving from a moon makes fleetsave much easier. As long as you select a target to fleetsave to that also cannot be lanxed (another moon or debris field) then your entire fleetsave is un-lanxable.  Safety!

Therefore it makes sense to station your fleet and you resources on your moon(s). Your can safely raid and fleetsave. The only downside is that moons typically have fewer defenses (unless you build them of course!) so you need to be a little more vigilant. When you need resources on your planet, just ship them down and they will be there in under 2m.

Note: When attacking you can still be lanxed at your target end, if it is a planet. Therefore, you still need to be vigilant for a crash timed for your fleet return.

My personal preference is just using a fleetsave from a moon to debris field. You can select the same coordinates debris for a shorter fleetsave - up to 1h with recyclers; up to 3h30m with RIPs (both at 10% speed) Ð for popping away from the game for a bit. For longer or overnight fleetsave just select another planet and order a recycle fleetsave. There does not need to be debris at the target for a recycle mission to be sent.

Note: At some point you WILL be hit by the bug where your fleet returns and the resources disappear. Take my word! Therefore if you cannot afford to lose the res, ALWAYS take screenshots of your flying fleet and res after launch. You will not get a refund from the GOs without those screenshots, and the recycle return report always shows 0/0/0 res Ð this will not be accepted. Also note that if this bug hit you, your fleet will have zero deutÉstuck. Therefore make sure you can send deut from the planet quickly Ð just keep a few lcs on each planet with a moon and send up your overnight deut production.

If you have a small moon (less than 7) and feel at risk from a moon destroy mission, you will need to change your tactics. If you moon is destroyed whilst your fleetsave is underway, the fleet will return to the planet. Therefore it will be lanxable and can be crashed. If you are in this situation, I would recommend reverting back to deploy fleetsaves between moons.

USING A SENSOR PHALANX (LANX) - OFFENSIVE

A lanx is a very powerful tool for crashing enemy fleets. When you spend the 5k deut to scan an enemy planet you reveal all the fleets departing from and heading to that planet. The screen looks just like your ÔFlying FleetÕ view from the Overview screen. You can see flight times and fleet composition, including resources on the fleet.

Top Tip:  if you find a tasty target on a lanx take a screen shot (on iOS Ð top right button + home) if the fleet detail so you have a record of the fleet, res and approx. return time (your clock at the top of the screen will also be on the screenshot).

The lanx can be used to attack in the following ways:

- Crash the targetÕs returning fleetsave, always a favourite. No doubt you have experienced this yourself and always much for fun as the attacker.
- Crash the targets returning attack, a variation of the fleetsave crash but with added risk as the target may have more fleet to help defend.
- Perform a hold ninja on the targetÕs fleet as he attacks another planet. This is risky as your fleet will be stuck on hold for 1h and the target can always add in more fleet, or somebody else lanxes you and crashes you!
- You can use a lanx to defend a debris field from looters. If you see a recycle mission to your debris, just time a crash for 10s after it returns Ð bit like a returning attack crash.
- You can attempt a crash on a deploy mission. Often the target will just recall if he wakes up before he arrives, but always worth a shot! People sometimes get busy in RL or sleep in, or just stupid.

If you are timing a crash on a fleet, use the same method to time your recycles for 30s after the crash. A speedy recycle is very satisfying and prevents your hard earned debris from getting stolen.

Note: There is a link to an easy crash timing tool on the alliance internal page.

USING A SENSOR PHALANX (LANX) - DEFENSIVE

A lanx can also be used to make attacks much safer. If you are sending significant fleet to attack a planet, you can scan your target 5m out to look out for a hold ninja. Even if the holding fleet has already arrived it will show on lanx. Spending 5k on deut is preferable to loosing several millions of fleet.

If you see a hold ninja, you have two choices. Recall. Or my favourite, ACS in more fleet and take the guy down! A variation: just recall and send a new bigger fleet. DonÕt forget the recyclers!

A lanx can also be used to watch the movements of fleeters when operating from mobiles. You can watch their deploy missions and see what is coming. If you want to crash the deploy, often they will recall, but at least you keep a big fleet out of your area.

USING JUMP GATES

Jump Gates are incredibly powerful Ð you can instantaneously move entire fleets to a different moon at zero cost. This allows cycling of farming areas, or the capability to bring in reinforcements quickly if you need them.

Note: Jump Gates do not allow transporting of resources. Therefore always make sure that you keep deut on each moon with a jump gate, and of course the associated fleet to allow you to fleetsave it.

Jump Gates can also be used to perform a ninja. By bringing in a larger fleet just before you opponent attacks your moon, you can prevail. This is always satisfying. Many attackers will delay an attack on a moon to check for a ninja, so expect this.


Crash Time Tool