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Players can build defenses on a planet to deter or prevent another
player from invading. These defense levels are referred to as Citadels
and advance from 0 through 6. Each new level builds upon the previous
one and adds new defensive (or offensive) capability. These Citadel
levels are:
0- no defenses
1- Treasury
2- Combat Control Computer
3- Quasar cannon
4- Planetary Thrusters
5- Planetary Shielding
6- Interdictor Generator
EXAMPLE: A planet with a level 3 Citadel has a Treasury AND a Combat
Control Computer AND a Quasar Cannon.
If the GameOp turns ON new player planets, you might start with a new
planet that already has a few colonists on it, along with FOE product.
When you launch a Genesis Torpedo and create a new planet, it will not
have colonists on it and usually no FOE product (the starting product
is a setting the GameOp can modify, using the Gold-edition extensions,
to help you get started). New planets always start off without defenses,
though, so they are considered level 0 on the citadel scale. Once you
acquire the colonists and products, you can start building a level 1
citadel.
Level 1 citadels have no defenses against invasion, but instead create
a planetary Treasury for you to place credits in from trading, robbing,
Tri-Cron winnings, etc. The 2nd Galactic Bank at the Stardock can only
hold 500,000 credits. It is a nice start, but they also keep the interest.
A planetary Treasury, however, has a maximum of 999,999,999,999,999
credits, and you earn 2% interest per day (a small percentage every
second) on whatever balance you have there. You can also park your ship
in the citadel and remain overnight if you so desire, but there is no
safety there yet.
Level 2 citadels add the first defensive ability, the Combat Control
computer, and the first planetary combat variable, the Military Reaction
percentage. The Combat Control computer gives fighters on a planet offensive
odds of 2:1 or defensive odds of 3:1 against anyone trying to land and
invade or destroy your planet. The reaction level determines what percentage
of the fighters on the planet are offensive. This percentage of fighters
react to the invasion by attacking the invader at 2:1 odds. The fighters
left behind on the planet defend it using the better 3:1 odds. An invader
must survive the offensive wave of fighters, and destroy all the defensive
fighters, before they can land.
Level 3 citadels have the dreaded Quasar cannon, one of the nastiest
weapons in the game. Powered by Fuel Ore on the planet, this weapon
can fire at opponents that enter the sector, or fire a more damaging
blast at anyone trying to enter the atmosphere and land. The values
represented by the atmospheric cannon setting are different between
the TWGS games and MBBS games. This causes a great deal of confusion
by their similarity and simple appearance. Both formulas take into account
the designated percentage of fuel, but they use the percentage differently.
Sector shots will do 1/3 of a point of damage for each unit of fuel
used, while atmospheric shots will do 2 points of damage for each unit
of fuel used.
NOTE! Watch the differences between the percentage settings, the damage
done, and the fuel used in the following examples. The settings for
Sector fire have the same effect in both TWGS mode and MBBS mode, but
the Atmospheric cannon fire is different under the TWGS mode.
SECTOR EXAMPLE: A planet has 10,000 units of Fuel Ore and a quasar
cannon setting of 10% for sector fire. When an invader enters the sector,
the cannon will use 1,000 units of fuel and blast the ship for 333 points
of damage. This leaves 9,000 units of fuel, so a 2nd sector shot would
use 900 units fuel and do 300 points damage.
ATMOSPHERIC (MBBS) EXAMPLE: After the planet above fired once in the
sector shot, there was 9,000 units of fuel remaining on the planet.
If an invader tried to land on the planet with the atmospheric set to
10%, the cannon will use 900 units fuel and do 1,800 points damage.
ATMOSPHERIC (TWGS) EXAMPLE: After the planet above fired once in the
sector shot, there was 9,000 units of fuel remaining on the planet.
If an invader tried to land on the planet with the atmospheric set to
10%, the cannon will do 900 points damage and use 450 units fuel.
DISCUSSION NOTE: When Trade Wars Game Server was first released, this
atmospheric cannon setting difference was a hotly-debated issue. After
many emails and notes passed through discussion groups, it was decided
to keep this difference to keep the TWGS version true to the original
Trade Wars.
When someone invades a sector, they usually come armed with a planet
scanner and scan the planets below before landing. The Qcannon Atmospheric
setting is revealed to a planet scanner, and instead of removing this
column from the scan, it was decided that the atmospheric cannon setting
could instead be set to twice the sector fire to equal the same effect.
Check the game version you are playing in to see how these cannons will
act, and choose your Q-cannon settings carefully.
Level 4 citadels add planetary thrusters. These are very similar to
transwarp drives for ships, allowing you to literaly drive your planet
around the universe. However, each target sector must have a fighter
in it to lock onto, and the planet uses 400 units of Fuel Ore for each
sector you jump, so you might not want to move it very often. Also,
you cannot "blind warp" a planet like you can with a ship,
but you can move it from port to port and trade large volumes easily.
This is known as “Planet Trading” and can be quite profitable,
as it saves Sell-to-Port turns by using the Negociate option.
Level 5 citadels add a planetary shielding system. When traders holoscan
the sector, the appearance of the planet looks very different, as it
is surrounded by arrows and says that the planet is shielded, even if
you have not added them yet. Because planets are so much larger than
ships, it takes 10 ship shields to make one planetary shield. If you
placed 1,000 ship shields into the shield generator, they become 100
planetary shields. The reverse is also correct, that removing shields
from the shield generator can only be done in units of 10.
An invader must defeat planetary shields at about 20:1 odds against
him (doubling the value placed in the generator). Another advantage
is that 200 planetary shields will protect your Quasar Cannon from being
dampened by a photon missle attack, and will also save your ship from
getting damaged (i.e. you losing your turns) if you happen to be on
the planet.
Level 6 citadels save the best for last, the Planetary Interdictor
Generator. This device prevents a trader from moving or warping out
of the sector, at a cost of 500 Fuel Ore per attempt. Once the planet
is drained of fuel, the interdiction fails and the trader gets free,
but each failed attempt gives the Quasar Cannon another opportunity
to blast the invader with a sector shot.
IV. GOLD EDITION PLANETS
- VI. THE PLANETARY TRANSPORTER
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