Games Objectives
You control a solar empire. Your goal is to become and remain the most powerful empire. You can do this alone or as part of a coalition.
To become powerful, you can:
Produce military units and build a strong army to invade other empires
Use agents to attempt various kinds of covert operations on other empires
Use diplomacy to forge strong alliances or to blackmail others
Control the food market and let unstable empires starve themselves
Invent new tactics and surprise everyone, since the game is far from being linear
When you join the game, you will begin with a few planets, a small population and no army. Your first 30 turns (3 real days) take place under protection, meaning no other players can attack you, though you will be vulnerable to raids by AI hostiles who steal from empires. While under protection, you are prevented from attacking other players but you can attack the pirates.
Use these 30 turns wisely, building your economy and your army, and establishing a stable empire. You should also try to find potential allies from among the other empires and send them defense treaties. You might also ask to join a coalition of empires.
When the protection period ends, you can attack players with whom you do not have treaties, and likewise they can attack you. You will be fully immersed in the game, and your quest for survival will begin.
Turn Anatomy
Hostile Attack
Attacks made by hostiles cannot directly annihilate your empire. When they attacks, the Hostile steal
your stuff in small quantities. They steal more often when you experimental major disorders in your population.
Random Event
See RandomEvents for details
Food Growth
Food production and consumption is calculated, if you do not have enough food, your population and/or soldiers starve to death!
Money Growth
This information is still being worked on.
Military Production
This information is still being worked on.
Population Growth
This information is still being worked on.
Civil Status (Insurgency)
This information is still being worked on.
Your people and your soldiers need food to eat. There are two primary ways to obtain food: Growing it on your own food planets or buying it from the food market. Do not make the mistake of starving your empire. If you can't feed everyone, civil unrest will spread in your empire, leading to a higher insurgency level, loss of population, and loss of military.
Food planets
On these planets, huge farms produce food. Food planets cost more than buying food from the market, but they are much safer. If your food planets produce a surplus, you can save the extra for the future, or you can sell it back to the market.
Food Market
An alternative to having food planets is buying from the food market each turn. This is risky, though. The market may run out of food, especially if there is a high demand from other empires. As demand increases, the price increases as well. This is bad if you want to buy food, but good if you have a surplus and want to sell to the market.
The primary way to start building wealth is by producing it with your planets. Ore, petroleum, and tourism planets are all revenue-generating.
Ore planets are stable sources of revenue, but produce smaller amounts.
Petroleum planets can generate much higher amounts of money, but they are subject to supply and demand. Petroleum planets also produce pollution, which you need anti-pollution planets to clean.
Tourism planets produce more money on average than ore planets. But they are dependent on peace. If there is civil unrest in your empire, profits will fall.
Other revenue strategys
If you have a large population, a high tax rate can generate a lot of revenue. This requires Urban planets to house the people, Education planets to attract immigrants, and Food planets to feed them. Be careful with the tax rate. Setting it too high can anger your people and cause them to leave in large numbers.
Another means of generating income is to sell products. Selling military units can generate a small amount of revenue, but it is generally not worth it. Selling food to the food market can be effective, though, if demand is high.
Trade with other empires is also a possibility. If your empire is producing large amounts of anything, you can trade it to another empire in exchange for credits. Trading requires that you have a treaty with the other empire.
Solar Bank
If you find yourself low on credits or desiring capital you can use to buy planets, then the bank is the place to go. It offers loans that can be paid back in installments over time (as long as 30 turns). The interest rate is usually pretty high, though, so beware.
Lottery
There is a daily lottery drawing. Emperors can buy tickets. The more tickets sold, the higher the prize awarded. It almost goes without saying that an emperor should not rely on the lottery to supply the needs of his empire.
Food Planet :On these planets, huge farms produce food, which is required for your empire to survive. An alternative to having food planets is to buy from the food market each year, but the risks are that the supply of food in the food market may run out. Having a food planet is safer, but costs more than buying food from the market. Having too many food planets leads to food surpluses, which can be sold for low prices to the market, or saved for a later time.
Ore Planet :A stable source of income, ore planets continue to function even during wars and domestic troubles. They can be valuable if your tourism planets are not producing a good income during troubled times. They produce less income than tourism planets and petroleum planets.
Tourism Planet : Producing more money (on average) than ore planets, the tourism planets depend upon the tourists spending money. During periods that your empire is not PEACEFUL (such as after a civil war), the tourist attractions earn very little or nothing. Too many tourism planets can cause your empire to be dependent on peaceful times, and the empire can easily collapse if you do have internal troubles.
Supply Planet : Supply planets produce military for less money than buying the military unit would cost. However, you also have to consider the initial investment of buying a supply planet instead of a money-producer. Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a tourism planet and use the money from there to buy a military; other times it is better to buy a supply planet. Also, it is more convenient to have a constant production of military rather than having to buy it every turn.
Government Planet : The base of the government agencies, these planets house the generals, who not only are military commanders, but are important political figures as well. They set up bases of operations for which they required 1/50th of the planet's usable land area. Therefore, 50 generals can use a single government planet. The covert agents also roam these planets, and having over 300 spies on one planet causes them to fight each other for territory, leading to internal conflicts.
Education Planet : Educational planets have large universities to which students come from independent planets, where the educational facilities are not as large as those that your empire can afford. After seeing your empire's resources and power, most of the students remain in your empire to add to your general population.
Research Planet : These planets are set up as scientific research laboratories in which developments may or may not occur. If a breakthrough occurs, it may benefit your empire and give you an edge over other empires that do not have your technology. They include such things as proteins to increase crop yield on food planets to new tourist attractions that increase tourism planet revenues. Some of the benefits will last forever and others are only temporary.
Urban Planet : Urban planets are devoted to housing people. Since every city has internal commerce in the form of stores, fuel docks, and other services, the urban planets earn revenue in the form of sales taxes. Urban planets also increase the population of your empire, and as a result, increase the income taxes earned from your people.
Petroleum Planet : These planets supply petroleum to the galaxy. All planets in the galaxy require petroleum to run machinery and vehicles. If there are few petroleum planets, the demand for oil will be higher and the income per petroleum planet will be higher. If there are too many of these planets, the price of oil will drop, and so will profits. One problem of petroleum planets is high pollution.
Anti-Pollution Planet : Anti-pollution planets are completely covered with forests and jungles to absorb the toxic chemicals released into the galactic atmosphere by petroleum planets. Pollution causes reduced tourism, so the anti-pollution planets are neccessary to keep tourism active and also to reduce emmigration.
Building a strong military is crucial to your success. Once you have built a strong military, you will be ready to launch your own offensive attacks.
The following military units can be bought from the "Manage Your Empire" menu; most of these units can also be produced by your Supply planets:
Soldier: Soldiers are ground defense for your planets. When attacking another empire you can use soldiers to fight other soldiers. They cost a small amount to maintain, and also require food.
Fighter: Fighters are small spacecraft that are designed to destroy a planet's defense bases. They fight in the planet's atmosphere, and cannot travel through space. As a result, you need to take carriers to carry fighters during an attack. Fighters take a lot of time to prepare for an attack, so they are no use as defense.
Defense Station: Defense stations are towering bases that shoot at incoming fighters. They cannot be moved (traded). A defense station can sometimes hit a soldier or cruiser, but soldiers are usually too small to hit, and hard to find in various forms of terrain, and cruisers are out in space, too far away for good accurate fire.
General: Generals are not only are military commanders, but are important political figures as well. They set up bases of operations for which they required 1/50th of the planet's usable land area. Therefore, 50 generals can use a single government planet. You need 1 general to lead 50 soldiers in battle.
Light Cruiser: Light cruisers are quarter-mile long craft similar to heavy cruisers. They pack a large amount of weaponry onto a smaller craft. However, since these ships are high-tech, your supply planets cannot produce them, and they are not available on the market. Only research planets can produce them. Unlike heavy cruisers, light cruisers do not help in defense treaties. They are the same strength as heavy cruisers, but due to their smaller size, they get an extra five rounds to fire upon the enemy before the battle begins.
Heavy Cruiser: Heavy cruisers are half-mile long deep-space craft. They are capable of travelling long distances but cannot enter a planet's atmosphere. Heavy cruisers have impressive weaponry, used against other cruisers. They must be led by a command ship to coordinate attacks; this keeps the cruisers from accidentally firing at one another. A strong command ship can double the effectiveness of your heavy cruisers.
Command ship: Each empire can have only one command ship. Once construction of the ship begins, it will build up automatically each turn. You can spend extra money to build it up quicker, though. The command ship adds to your heavy cruiser strength by providing a central flagship.
Carrier: A carrier is used to trade resources/units and transport troops to the front line during a battle.
Effectiveness
Your military units are affected by your empire's overall level of military effectiveness. This level represents the current morale of your troops. Military effectiveness grows 1% each turn to a maximum of 100%. Covert operations against your empire, as well as offensive or defense military action can reduce military effectiveness.
Draft
You can establish a draft so that if your empire is attacked, a percentage of the civilian population will be pressed into military service to help defend your empire. You can set a draft rate from 0 to 30%. One million people turn into 100 soldiers. When the battle is over, most of these people will be dead or they will leave your empire, so if you set your draft rate too high, your population will drop every time you are attacked, even if your military alone would have been able to handle the situation.
Attacking other players is the primary path to power in Solar Imperium.
You cannot attack a player who is in protection; you cannot attack someone else if you are in protection. You are not allowed to attack an empire with whom you have a treaty.
Types of military operations
There are three types of military operations you can perform; two are for use against other empires, one is for use against the pirates.
Conventional Invasion
This is the normal way to attack another empire. The conventional attack uses your soldiers (led by generals), fighters (taken to battle by carriers), light cruisers and heavy cruisers.
If you win, you can capture some of the opponent's planets and credits. An additional effect is your opponent's level of civil unrest will rise.
If your opponent has defense treaties with other empires, his allies will send forces to assist in his defense against you.
There are three fronts fought simultaneously during a conventional attack. Soldiers will fight on the ground against enemy soldiers; your fighters will attack your opponent's defense stations, which will fire back at your fighters; these battles take place in the space around the planets. Heavy cruisers battle in deep space against each other. Light cruisers fight alongside with heavy cruisers, but they do not get the attack bonuses that the command ship gives to heavy cruisers. However, light cruisers get five bonus rounds of firing at their opponents before the opponent can fight back.
Guerilla Warfare
This somewhat immoral act is a surprise attack on the opponent that allows no warning, so the victim empire has no time to call allies. Also, the soldiers are randomly shooting at the enemy, so no generals are needed to lead them. There is no good way of knowing the enemy casualties, and no planets can be captured. However, civil unrest can be spread through the opponent's empire, and some of the soldier defenses can be weakened. There is a risk that the opponent will capture a few of your soldiers and discover your identity; otherwise your attack will go unnoticed.
Hostile Bust
By attacking Hostile you can attempt to reclaim what they have stolen from you. Sometimes they are alerted of your attack and flee, but when you prevail in battle it can be very rewarding. The Hostile Bust is the only attack you can perform while under protection.
Pre-attack considerations
If you are making a conventional invasion, the best strategy to minimize your losses and have a chance of winning is to match your opponent's army on each front. An army based solely on fighters will be devastated if the enemy has soldiers and cruisers; you need to control two of the three fronts to win. You may wish to use covert agents to spy and determine the type of military held by your opponent before initiating an attack.
It's important to note that attacking an empire whose net worth is less than 33% of your own net worth will lead to an increase in your empire's civil unrest, which is bad. But, in some situations it may be wise to attack anyway.
The game shows you how an empire's net worth compares to your own in the relevant menus. For example, when selecting an empire to attack, you might see the name of an empire followed by a percentage in parenthesis like this:
Pizzarico@Space Pizza Delivery (430%)
If you saw this, it would mean the Pizzarico empire is 430% larger than your own.
In Solar Imperium, politics is an important part of the game. Through the diplomacy menu you define your relationships with other empires by offering treaties, breaking existing treaties, and creating or joining a coalition.
Treaties
You can propose one of the 5 types of treaties to another empire. If the other empire accepts, you two will be bound together, meaning neither of you can attack the other or perform covert operations against the other. Treaties last until the parties choose to break them. All of the treaty types allow for trading of goods or credits between empires.
If you are interested only in trading with an empire or in ensuring that they cannot attack you, use the Neutrality Treaty. If you are interested in giving and obtaining military protection, use one of the other 4 treaties.
Neutrality Treaty: This is a treaty with another empire that will prevent you from being attacked by the other empire.
Minor Alliance: When one of the parties is attacked, the other will send military forces to assist in their defense.
Total Defense: Same as the Minor Alliance, except a larger military force is sent when one of the parties is attacked.
Armed Defense Pact: This is a Total Defense pact that only applies to soldiers sent in defense, but more soldiers are sent with the Armed Defense Pact than with the Total Defense.
Cruiser Protection Plan: The heavy cruisers of both empires patrol the planets of both empires, to provide protection. Light cruisers do not contribute.
Coalitions
A coalition is essentially a team. When you create or join a coalition, you will receive access to a coalition shoutbox. This is a private messageboard where coalition members can chat during the game. As with treaties, the owner of a coalition can send invitations to join to other empires.
Creating or joining a coalition does not guarantee defense, so all members of a coalition should still send one another some sort of defense treaty.
Members of a coalition can be kicked out or can choose to quit the coalition through the Diplomacy menu.
There may be times you want to take secret military or political actions against another empire. Or you may want to obtain intelligence information about another empire. You need covert agents to perform these sorts of clandestine activities.
Agents and government planets
Covert agents can be purchased from the "Manage Your Empire" menu; they can also be produced by Supply planets.
The agents need government planets, which they use as a base. Government planets also serve as a base for generals. One government planet can hold 50 generals or 300 covert agents. If you don't have sufficient government planets for your agents, they will fight one another, leading to civil unrest.
When you decide to launch a covert operation against an opponent, the success of the operation will hinge on who has more covert agents. The same is true for defending yourself against operations performed by an opponent. The more agents you have, the safer you will be.
Operations
Each covert operation costs a certain number of covert points. Your covert points are generated automatically over time, so once you have used them all up, you must continue playing until you have replenished your supply. Here are the operations available:
Send Spy: Your agents can obtain information about the status of another empire. Spying may not always be successful, but you can guarantee that you can get a spy report by bribing a spy in the other empire. You can spy as many times as you like.
Insurgent Aid: Your agents send troublemakers and political pamphlets to an opponent empire, increasing its civil unrest. The violence in the other empire will reduce tourism profits and cause the population to shrink. This operation is more difficult to accomplish if your opponent is already in civil disorder.
Support Dissension: Your agents try to convince enemy troops to leave the army.
Demoralize Troops: Your agents send distractions to an opponent empire, reducing the training efficiency of its soldiers and the effectiveness of its army.
Bombing Operations: Your agents can attempt to bomb an opponent's food supplies. Some or all of the food may be blown up.
Take Hostages: Your agents cab attempt to capture a prominent official from an opponent empire and demand a ransom. If successful, the opponent emperor will be forced to pay, and you will receive the money.
Carriers Sabotage: Destroying carriers may prevent an opponent from being able to mobilize its fighters in attacks against you.
Relations Spying: Your agents can discover the allies with whom an opponent has treaties.
Communication Spying: Your agents intercept the last 5 messages received by an opponent emperor and bring them to you.
Several gangs of hostiles roam the universe. They make surprise raids and take valuable resources from empires: planets, military units, food, or money. The pirates raid empires of all sizes, but larger empires are bigger targets.
However, the pirates themselves can be attacked and an empire can attempt to reclaim what they stole. You can perform a Hostile Bust from the Battle Command menu. Sometimes the pirates get alerted before an empire attacks, enabling them to flee. But when an empire prevails in battle against them, it can be very rewarding. The pirate bust is the only attack an empire under protection is allowed to make.
The population of an empire can be fickle. You must take great care to keep your people happy, or they will get angry.
Several things that can cause your empire to experience civil unrest and raise your empire's insurgency level:
Lack of food
High taxes
Civil war
A guerilla attack from an opponent
A successful conventional invasion from an opponent
Covert operations from an opponent
There are 8 levels of insurgencies, listed below in increasing order:
Peaceful: Everything is proceeding normally in your empire.
Mild Insurgencies: Peaceful demonstrations might disrupt tourism, and faith in your empire is slightly weakened.
Occasional Riots: Small riots break out in your empire; many people refuse to pay taxes, and your empire's income is lower. The conditions also reduce the number immigrants to your empire and may increase the number of emigrants.
Violent Demonstrations: Larger riots and demonstrations break out. Your tourism industries suffer. Universities, harboring many dissidents, attract fewer people to your empire.
Political Conflicts: Officials within your government begin to take sides, causing factions to form and supporters to fight each other. Some of your industries are devastated by the conditions.
Internal Violence: Top officials begin to question your authority; many of them form factions, intending to take political power. Massive riots leave your empire in ruins.
Revolutionary Warfare: Government officials organize large scale military units to bring the threat of civil war into the heart of your empire. Your empire is avoided by tourists and students; people flee in masses.
Under Coup: Your command position is in jeopardy; you have little control of your military except when you can convince them to attack an outside foe. Income from tourism, taxes, and urban trade is gone, and your population is decreasing rapidly. If your empire is attacked by an opponent, there is a chance that you will be assassinated, ending the game for you.
Each turn, a random event has a chance to occur. Here are a few examples:
Major strike at the main food processing company, food production reduced.
Jovian flu kill dozens
A new plutonium-based toothpaste prove to be highly toxic, population lost.
A Bluurgozats Monster eat your food
Your university has hired Dr.Doom
A new military factory increase your supply production
A new tourist attraction increases the popularity of your tourism planets
A new mine increases ore production