Frequently asked questions about playing Starpires, this will be updated frequently. If you have a question not listed hear feel free to ask it in the comments.
How do I get more turns?
You accrue more turns over time, currently get get an additional turn every hour up to your maximum number (20). You can also get bonus turns by helping to promote the game or inviting your friends to play. You can access the invitation/referral console under the “More” menu at the top of the page.
There may be other ways to earn additional turns added to the game in the future.
Why do planets get more expensive?
Every ten planets that get added to your empire the cost of buying planets goes up. This is to prevent empires from expanding exponentially.
How do I change what types of units supply planets produce?
There is a item under the “More” menu called Supply Production which allows you to adjust what types of units that supply planets produce.
How are scores computed?
Your empire has a cumulative score that goes up but can never go down (unlike net worth). Each turn you get points based on your empires size. You also get points for successfully attacking other empires, defeating invasions, as well as exploring the features within Starpires.
What is the difference between an invasion and a guerilla attack?
You have two different attack options available to you at the start of the game, invasions and guerilla attacks. In an invasion you need overwhelming military force to succeed and capture planets from your enemy. Guerrilla attacks just allow you to wear down their military but won’t allow you to capture planets. They are more effective when attacking a larger military force, and can be very useful for wearing down a more powerful empire.
How do I get nuclear or chemical weapons?
There are several types of attacks such as nuclear and chemical strikes than can be researched. Once they are researched your research planets produce chemical and nuclear warheads each turn.
How do the various types of attacks differ (invasions, guerilla attack, chem strike, etc)?
See this post for a full explanation and strategy for various attack types.
Why can I not attack certain empires?
There are a couple reasons you may not be able to attack an empire. If you hold your mouse cursor over the displayed attack icons or click on them it will show you the reason. The primary reasons are:
1. You have an alliance with that empire.
2. You have already used up your one attack for the turn.
3. The empire is currently under protection, either because they are a new player or they have gotten beaten up so bad they have been put under protection for a period of time by the galactic council.
Can I sell military units and planets?
Yes, in the market place you can sell both military units and planets. The “sell” is next to the “buy” button. When selling military units you will only get 1/3 of the purchase cost. You get 5000 credits for selling a planet, which is the purchase price when you start the game.
Why can I not attack certain empires?
Just added a response to your question in the FAQ
Are there any plans for a speed server? I love the game but hate the loooong turns.
Yes, the second version of the game will include spawning off multiple universe with different game speeds. Unlike the core game these different universes may also have specific scenarios to win. For example you could setup a game where the goal is to be the first player to 1000 planets.
Not sure of the timeline for that yet.
Is there a way to sell or just discard military assets? I have way too many covert ops from a raid and it’s costing me a giant pile of money for upkeep.
You can sell them in the market place. There is a “sell” button just left of the “buy” button. You only get 1/3 of the unit price for selling a unit though.
I am experience really long turn times. Is the server overloaded?
Chad, do you mean it’s taking a long time for the page to update when you do something? There isn’t any load on the server at all right now.
There is a penalty for attacking weaker players. It starts with sanctions, and grows eventually to missile strikes.
What determines when these events occur? aka. I attack an enemy thats 20% lower then my networth, 50% of my networth, etc?
Also, is it country specific? Aka. I receive a warnings for attacking weaker country A but stop short of receving penalties. Now if I attack weaker country B I will trigger a penalty, or does the count start over?
Finally, how long does the said penalties last?
What if a friend and I want to play in the same universe. How can we make sure we’re playing together?
Chris, if you referred him into the game or he referred you, you will automatically be placed together. Either that or if you are both signed up via a Facebook account and are friends on Facebook you will be placed together.
As your empire grows you discover more players that are added to your universe but currently there isn’t a way to manually add someone. Will look at adding that option.
I have a suggestion because messaging players is very handy. Instead of the long time that it takes to send specific messages, you could have a little chat box that shows all of the players that are online at the time. Also with this you could make what looks like an Instant Messaging box and the person messaged is able to immediately reply and it is not shown as a notification. Just a thought
.
Stealth Mode, that’s actually in the works right now. We’re revamping the entire notification/messaging system in Starpires, to improve interaction within the game. Basically the right hand side of the screen where you see your planet/military count will be a notification/message box. You’ll be able to see real-time updates about what is going on with both your empire, and other empires in your universe as well as send instant messages.
You’ll be able to switch back and forth between the notification view and the planet/military view using a tab.
Thats gonna be awesome!!! Thanks!
For the life of me I cannot find the “C” button to change the supply planet production. Is it missing, am I blind, or is this a browser issue? (FF 7.0.1)
Kirian, sorry I need to update the FAQ. That functionality was moved under the “more” menu at the top of the page.