Cluster Game Moves

Overview

  • Turn based multi-player
  • Internet based shared state
  • Once all player moves for a turn are complete, the turn is executed
  • Strategic level
  • Non-interactive combat resolution a the end of the turn

Units

  • Scout ships
    Small, unarmed vessels with unlimited range used to gather information.
  • Colony transports
    Large vessels that only exist to transport a group of colonists to a new star. Once the colonists debark, the transport ceases to exist as its parts are used to support the new colony.
  • Escort
    Small interstellar armed vessel
  • Assault ship
    Medium sized interstellar armed vessel
  • Capital ship
    Largest interstellar armed vessel
  • Defense platform
    Small defense system dedicated to the defense of a single planet. Combat equivalent to an escort.
  • System defense boat
    Medium sized system defense vessel. Equivalent to an assault ship in combat. May be used in defense of any planet in a single system.
  • Factory
    Production facility on a given planet. Increases output of one unit of population based on the level of factory technology that has been developed.
  • Robotic Industry
    Production facility that operates without an accompanying population unit.

Basic Turn Mechanics

  • Spend on building ships
  • Spend on building facilities
  • Transfer population to colony transports
  • Form ships into fleets and break ships out of fleets (if at a star)
  • Spend on technology buys

Movement Mechanics

  • Scout ships can move independently and over unlimited distance
  • Unarmed ships that are not escorted may be destroyed on entry into a new system
  • Without hyperwave technology, fleets always continue to their destination system
  • Fleets never encounter each other in open space
  • Fleets move at the current guidance velocity for their side
  • Fleets are destroyed if they move beyond guidance range of all of their side’s beacons
  • Ships that aren’t scouts can only move as part of a fleet
  • Every fleet must have an admiral assigned to it
  • One ship with an admiral can be a fleet
  • When a fleet enters its destination system it ceases movement

Combat Mechanics

  • If fleets from different players are at the same star then combat will occur
  • Combat ends when a system contains only ships from one side in a system
  • Planets with defense platforms may be reduced by attacking and destroying those platforms or interned.
  • Production on planets that aren’t interned becomes available to the controlling player after some delay
  • The owning player may perform planetary bombardment to reduce planetary population. This eliminates one unit of population capacity for every unit of population removed. Likely only relevant if you expect the enemy to reclaim the system soon.

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