When two enemy carriers meet at a star, a combat takes place.
Combats are fought automatically and are instant. A summary of the battle is placed in your event log to review next time you log in.
If two players approach an unoccupied star and are due to arrive at the same time, the ship that has traveled the shortest distance will claim the star first and will receive the defenders bonus
The defender is the player who owns the star at the time of the combat. The defender strikes first and with +1 Weapons Tech bonus.
Starting with the defender, each player takes turns destroying enemy ships until only one player has ships remaining.
Each player destroys a number of ships equal to their Weapons Technology each round.
When players have more than one carrier in combat, damage is applied roughly evenly to each carrier involved.
Working out who will win a combat can be difficult to guess so the top of the carrier and star inspector windows is a battle calculator. It will help you predict the outcome of battles. Simply enter the number of ships and the weapons technology you think each player will have.
When a star is captured its Economic Infrastructure is destroyed and the winning player earns 10 credits in salvage for each point destroyed.
The Industrial and Scientific Infrastructure is not damaged and will start producing ships and research points for winning player
Warp Gates are also undamaged in combat.
Defender has 4 weapons technology (+1 for defending) and 10 ships. Attacker has 6 weapons technology and 10 ships.
Round 1: defender does 5 damage, attacker loses 5 ships leaving 5 ships.
Round 2: attacker does 6 damage, defender loses 6 ships leaving 4 ships.
Round 3: defender does 5 damage, attacker loses 5 ships leaving 0 ships.
Defender wins with 4 ships remaining!
In combats that involve more than two players, the players are arranged into teams. The Defenders are all players in a formal alliance with the star owner. The Attackers are all other players.
All ships fight with the best weapon skill of their team. The entire defending team will receive +1 weapons tech.
The battle is resolved as above, but if the attacking team wins, the star is given to the player who has the most ships in orbit.
If, after the star has given to the largest player, there are ships in orbit who are not allied with the new star owner, another combat will begin. This continues until all players at a star are in a formal alliance with each other, or only one player remains.