Oct 06

Sanctions and Attack Penalties

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Starpires

In Starpires, it was important to make sure that more powerful players could not just beat up much smaller players. Nobody likes bullies especially when you are the weaker player that doesn’t stand a chance of defending yourself.

To help combat this there are penalties and sanctions for unprovoked attacks against smaller empires. The cutoff for penalties is currently set to an empire that has less than 50% of the number of planets and net worth than you.

These penalties imposed by both your own population and the galactic council get increasingly harsh the more an empire bullies smaller players

Population Upset - Your population may become upset after an unprovoked attack on a smaller empire, leading to your civilian mood being lowered.

Economic Sanctions - After repeated attacks the galactic council may impose economic sanctions on your empire which you have to pay at the beginning of each turn. These sanctions will last several turns.

Military Action - The galactic council maybe forced to take “peacekeeping” actions, launching a series of devastating missile strikes against your

Attacks are considered unprovoked if the opposing empire has not attacked you within 40 turns. A good way of checking this is by looking at your enemies list, or seeing if your relationship to the empire is “At War” under the diplomacy menu.

There is also a small icon next to an empires name in the attack menu, if attacking them may result in sanctions.

Sep 08

Military Units in Starpires

Posted on September 8, 2011 by admin

In Starpires will need a military to both defend your empire and attack other empires. Each type of military unit has different strengths and weaknesses so you will need an appropriate mix to defeat an opponent. Each turn there is an upkeep cost to maintain your military in optimal condition.

Troops - Basic ground forces. You will need them to both defend and capture planets during an attack and they require generals to lead them into battle. Very ineffective at attacking space based military units such as cruisers, carriers and command ships. They are also prone to deserting your military if your military moral becomes to low.

Weaknesses: Chemical strikes, low military moral

Upkeep: 5 credits + food

Generals - Command your troops and make them more effective fighting force. You will need 1 general per 50 troops to lead them on attacks. If you have too few generals your troops moral maybe effected. Generals have very little fighting capability themselves.

Upkeep: 50 credits + food

Fighters - Equally effective against almost all forces but are primarily an offensive weapon with very weak defensive capabilities.. You will need 1 carrier per 100 fighters to transport them on attack missions.

Weaknesses: Defense stations

Upkeep: 12 credits

Heavy Cruisers - Very effective at taking out defense stations.

Weaknesses: Command ships

Upkeep: 80 credits

Defense Station - Defense stations are only defensive and can not be sent out on attacks. They are heavily armored and very effective against many types of military units. Your best bet for defending your empire.

Weaknesses: Heavy cruisers

Upkeep: 12 credits

Carriers

You need one for every 100 fighters to be able to take them into combat, but don’t have much firepower themselves.

Weaknesses: Heavy cruisers, command ships

Upkeep: 100 credits

Command Ships - This heavily armored capital ship is extremely effective at taking on heavy cruiser and other command ships. It has the added benefit of significantly increasing the effectiveness of heavy cruisers under it’s command. Has almost no ground attack capabilities and is vulnerable to fighters.

Weaknesses: Fighters

Upkeep: 400 credits

Covert Agents - Allow you to take covert actions against other empires. The more you have the higher the chance of success in both completing operations and countering operations against you.

Upkeep: 100 credits

Aug 30

Civilian Mood and Calming and Upset Population

Posted on August 30, 2011 by admin

There is a fairly complex economic model underlying the game play of Starpires, with many variables that can be adjusted creating various effects. One of the more influential components is the mood of your civilian population. 100% is totally peaceful, while 0% is all out civil war.

What does it effect?

Production of many planet types is effected by your populations mood, unhappy workers are less productive workers.
Immigration to and from your empire. Unhappy people will quickly leave your empire for greener pastures, reducing tax revenue.
If your civilian mood gets low enough <30% your empire may fall into civil war with entire planets revolting and leaving your empire.

What effects it?

Tax rate, the lower taxes are the happier people are.
The more government planets you have the easier it is to keep a population in line.
Failure to pay planetary upkeep or provide food to your population
Heavily polluted air can upset your people.
Your population can turn on your government if they see you making repeated unprovoked attacks on much smaller empires.
Other things such as foreign operations to destabilize your government.

Quick fixes…

Lower your tax rate significantly for a short period of time.
Overpay or over feed your population when at the start of your turn, using the manual payment option. Make them fat and happy.
Acquire more government planets.

Aug 29

Want (ok, need) Extra Turns?

Posted on August 29, 2011 by admin

We’re not a big game development studio, actually calling us a studio would be quite an exaggeration. So, we don’t have a big budget to help promote the game we’ve put so much time into designing the past few months, and we’re pretty reliant of word-of-mouth to help expand Starpires.

To help this process, you get virtual rewards in the Starpires universe for each one of your friends that you refer. For each person you will get 5 bonus turns after they play their first 10 turns and another 5 bonus turns after they play their first 100 turns. We do this to prevent people from just creating a bunch of sock puppet accounts in order to get lots of extra turns.

Each player has a unique “Referral URL”, accessible on the referral console. If a new player finds the game through your referral URL, that player will get credited to you. You could send this referral url in an email, post it on your blog, etc.
We’ve also added a couple of convenient buttons to the referral console to send your referral URL as well as a description of Starpires to your FB friends, or post it on you Facebook wall. So help us spread the word about Starpires, but please don’t spam anyone.

If you are having a hard time finding the referral console it’s the “R” button next to your empire name.

Thanks,

-Matt

Aug 29

The Art of War – Invasions, Guerilla Attacks, Nukes

Posted on August 29, 2011 by admin

Other than maintaining your own empire one of the most important aspects of Starpires is attacking others. There are currently four different types of military attacks that you can perform on another empire, in addition to all lots of special operations (in another post).

Each turn you may launch a single attack against an opposing empire.

Launch an invasion

Invading another empire is the primary attack type where you send a fleet to attack and attempt to capture planets from your opponent.

An invasion is the only attack type which allows you to capture planets from an opponent.
You much have overwhelming military strength for your invasion to succeed, and it must include at least some ground forces (troops) in order to capture planets.
If the opposing empire has defense pacts with other empires, up to 3 of their allies may send forces to help repel your invasion.
If your invasion is repelled, you are likely to take very heavy military losses. This is why is sometimes is advisable to send only some of your military forces if you are unsure about the strength of your opponent, or who they have as allies.

You can’t send defense stations to attack an opposing empire, they are defensive only.
Troops require generals to lead them into combat (min. 1 general per 50 troops) and fighters require carriers to transport them (min. 1 carrier per 100 fighters)
All military unit types have different strength and weaknesses, for example troops are nearly useless against space based military units such as cruisers and command ships. Heavy cruisers are great against defense stations, but there weakness is fighters.
You are awarded points for a successful invasion based on the size of the empire you invaded. Conversely your opponent will get points based off of your size if they repel the invasion.

Guerilla Attacks

This surprise attack on the opponent that allows no warning, so the victim empire has no time to call on their allies to help defend them. Unlike an invasion where the key is to have overwelming military odds in your favor a guerilla attack is most effective against a larger military force. Thus it is great for wearing down a more powerful empire in preparation for an invasion.

You can not capture planets during a guerilla attack, just kill off their forces and lower military moral.
Attack success is based in large part on the size of the two forces. The larger their force and the smaller your force the better the chance of success and the less chance some of your forces are captured (giving away your identify)
A guerilla attack is most successful against a larger force, so your attacking force may actually be more destructive if you only send a portion of your military.
Your opponents military moral will be lowered if the attack is successful.
You will be awarded points for a successful guerilla attack based on how much of your opponents military you destroy.

Chemical Attacks (Research required)

Chemical attacks allow you to launch chemical warhead tipped missiles at an opponent killing off both their civilians and unprotected troops.

Chemical strikes are not available to your empire at the start of the game but can be researched. Research planets will then produce chemical warheads each turn which can be launched at an opposing empire.
The use of WMD’s is looked down upon by the galactic council, so their unprovoked use maybe met with penalties including (civilian revolt, sanctions, or retaliatory strikes)
You are limited in the number of chemical warheads you can launch against an opponent in a single attack based on their empire size.

Nuclear Attack (Research required)

Nuclear warhead tipped missiles can turn an opposing empires planets into uninhabitable rocks. Pretty much all the same rules apply to nuclear strikes as chemical ones.

Planet Types and Strategy

Posted on August 15, 2011 by admin

There are 10 types of planets which you can colonize in Starpires, each of which helps your empire different ways. Providing credits, growing food, giving your people a place to live, etc. What planet types you decide to colonize is one of the main strategies to building your empire.

Food planets produce the food needed both by your civilian population and troops. You can view your current food productions and empire food requirements on your turn summary. Food production maybe effected by factors pollution and unrest. You can buy and sell food in the global market, but it’s generally much more expensive than it would be for you to grow it yourself.

Urban planets give your population a place to live. Initially urban planets will hold up to 200,000 people, but the closer they are to maximum capacity the slower your population will grow. The more people you have the more tax revenues you bring in. Tax revenues are a great source of income, but it can take longer to build a population base than to build revenues through other means.

Research planets produce research credits that can be used to upgrade or buy new technology under the research tab. They also have other future benefits such as producing chemical and nuclear weapons (once they are researched)

Mining planets most stable of all planets, produce a steady stream of credits regardless of factors like population unrest. They don’t generate as many credits as say a tourism planet, but their stability can be a life saver in hard times.

Supply planets produce military units much cheaper than you can buy them. You can change what types of units they produce with the “Edit” link next to where you buy/sell the planets.

Tourism planets bring in more credits per turn than mining planets, but are heavily effected by civilian unrest. No one wants to visit an empire in civil war. Relying solely on tourism as your empires main source of income is a dangerous strategy.

Anti-pollution planets help keep pollution under control. Will be needed if you have lots of petroleum planets or a high population density. You can view your empires air quality on the right side bar. If your air gets too polluted your population may revolt, your food planets will grow less food, along with other effects.

Government planets help to keep your population in line. Too few of them, and your population can go into unrest quite easily. If you find your populations civilian mood going down, a few more of these might help.

Great schools attract people and will help to grow your population much faster that just relying on new people to be born. If you want to jump start your population growth (particularly early in the game) education planets are a great way to do it.

Petroleum planets can produce the most credits of any planet type, but are affected by supply and demand (the ratio of petroleum planets vs other planets in your empire). They also create a lot of pollution, so if you have a lot of them you will need some anti-pollution planets.

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