Hello (soon-to-be) world devourers,
And as promised in Part 9, I would now like to (finally) give a brief insight into spaceships and explain how they are linked to resource production and the rest of the economy.
But do you even want to build spaceships? Well, why not, is the answer here, because spaceships in Entrotria basically require no maintenance and there is no maximum number of spaceships you can own. (Only the number of ships that can be grouped into a fleet is limited, but you can stack fleets on a tile without limit...)
[Shipyard Levels 1, 2 + 3]
First things first: spaceships are built in a shipyard, and this building requires titanium, OK, but what about the spaceship itself? Well, that's a bit more complex, but titanium plays a major role, I can already reveal that much...
Spaceships have a modular structure. Every spaceship has a hull, the cost of which must always be paid, of course. The rest depends on the equipment. Each spaceship can also have an drive assigned to it. One or, in the case of larger ships, several weapons certainly make sense. And how about additional armour? Or would you prefer a shield? And of course, large spaceships also have several slots for these. Finally, the reinforcement slots can also be filled, which can be used to increase the rate of fire, for example.
So first, the hull, which requires titanium. For a hunter, that would be 3 titanium. The slightly larger destroyer requires 7 titanium. The cruiser requires 12 titanium and the battleship 25 titanium. And wait, from the cruiser onwards, not only is a level 2 shipyard required, but there are also electronics costs. 2 electronics for the cruiser and 4 for the battleship. If the shipyard is upgraded to level 3, the Giants and Galaxy Dragons become accessible, which consume 40 titanium, 6 electronics and 2.5 maligon glass (Giant) or 80 titanium, 12 electronics and 5 maligon glass (Galaxy Dragon). But 80 titanium!!! That's insane, isn't there any other option? This is where hull modifiers come into play. These allow you to replace part of the hull costs with other resources and unlock additional effects for the spaceship. These hull modifiers are species-specific, so I will now focus in particular on the Giratakel, which will also be playable in the upcoming demo of the game. Giratakels are snails that live in deserts and therefore love sand. Silicon, yes, we already had that from solar cells and mine upgrades. And so 80 titanium becomes only 64 titanium and 16 silicon. Still too much? So how about a sand hull that replaces 20% of the titanium costs with silicon? Silicon, yes, we already had that from solar cells and mine upgrades. And so 80 titanium becomes only 64 titanium and 16 silicon. Still too much? Then I would offer cement as a hull. Only 50% of the titanium cost, so only 40 titanium, but now 20 concrete (25%) is added. And so it would go on for a while, but let's move on to the weapons.
[Mass Accelerator, Laser and Crystal Shard Launcher]
A spaceship without weapons makes little sense, of course. Weapons come in sizes S, M and L. S weapons cost 100% and cause 100% damage. M weapons cost 150% and cause 150% damage, and L weapons cost 200% and cause 200% damage. There are also special weapons for giants and galaxy dragons. But let's start small. A hunter with an S weapon... There are three basic weapons: the mass accelerator, which requires 5 iron; the rocket, which is target-seeking and causes a lot of damage but fires rarely and requires 5 copper; and the laser, which is fast and powerful and requires 3 water for cooling. Through research, you can unlock crystal shard launchers, which cost crystals, plasma balls, which cost plasma, and upgrades for standard weapons such as the large laser. These weapon upgrades are more powerful, but require either more or higher-quality resources. The large laser mentioned above, for example, requires 3 gases.
[Titanium and Crystal Armour, as well as Plasma and Maligon Shields]
When weapons gain penetrating power, better armour helps. You can choose between armour (cheap and effective) and shields (more expensive and ineffective but with better regeneration). Armour starts with titanium armour for 3 titanium. This is followed by crystal armour for 3 crystals and culminates in neutron dust armour for 3 neutron dust. The shields are sorted into plasma shield (4 plasma), maligon shield (4 maligons) and degenerate shield (2 degenerate matter).
[Plasma Drive, Maligon Drive, and Degenerate Drive]
And finally, the drive. Do we need a drive? Not necessarily, because the ships already start with one movement point... No, of course not! So we need a drive. The basic drive costs 1 titanium and 5 fossil fuels and provides 2 additional movement points. The plasma drive provides 3 movement points for 4 plasma and 2 titanium. The maligon drive provides 4 movement points at a cost of 3 Maligones and 4 titanium. And the degenerate matter drive provides a full 6 movement points for 1 degenerate matter and 6 titanium.
[Example equipment for a hunter]
So now I've written a lot, so it's time for some examples. So we are Giratakel and want a cheap ship? Well, that means we'll need a hunter. With a sand hull, that's 2.4 titanium and 0.6 silicon for the hull. 5 iron for the weapon. 5 fossil fuels and another titanium for the drive (3.4 in total) and we're done. Still have titanium left? Then a titanium armour would make sense. (Now accumulated 6.4 titanium). Sounds affordable? It is, but all the better, then we can build more of them! Or we could spend 6 titanium on a hull reinforcement for the ship, which further increases the hull's hit points, but then we'd already be spending a total of 12.4 titanium. Time for something bigger! We need a cruiser! One M and one S weapon, three slots for armour and two reinforcement modules. So let's say we have crystals and maligons, which calls for crystal armour and matter photonisers (requires maligons) as the most powerful of all laser weapons. Then we want to be able to bomb planets and a simple mass accelerator to get rid of our iron. And we end up with 19.6 titanium, 9 crystals, 12 maligons, 7 iron, 2 electronics and 2.5 silicon for the sand hull. Still not enough? Well, the giant is next. 5 slots for armour, 2 M weapons and a very special X weapon. Maligon drive, so it's pretty fast. Three times the slime armour unique to the Giratakel, which costs 10 alien groats, two maligon shields, three hull reinforcements and, as weaponry, two of the best mass accelerators, the maligon accelerator, for three maligon glass and a surquapp ball as the main weapon for a mere 101 alien groats... And that adds up to: 54 titanium, 8 silicon, 131 alien groats, 8 maligon glass, 6 electronics and 11 maligons.
Hey, that's too much! I want these shipyards to give me a discount!!!! Don't worry, they do, at least the higher levels...
And that's it, that was the economic overview. I hope you had some fun reading it, at least some of the time, despite all the dry numbers!
See you soon!
-a crazy Giratakel