SF-X manual

This wiki is a manual for the online game Star-Fury X. This page is meant to help new players understand this complex online game.

Basic information
Getting Started

Some important things to keep in mind when you start your new empire.


 * Lower your tax below 5% ( preferably 0%) This will make your morale go up, and since it works as a mulitplyer for your tax, you will make more credits. Once your morale hits 2.00, raise your tax back to 5% again. Read more about this under Morale.


 * Don't build to many buildings at once, a few powerplants, farms and residents will be enough.


 * Build 3-5 miners


 * Set your researches.

Resources

The game centres around resources, through mining, trading and production. Resources can be gathered from a planet or mined from an asteroid. For example, food can be collected from Farms on your colony and Titanium can be mined from asteroids. You can also trade resources with other empires. If you want a resource but don't have the time to mine for it, then you can buy it from another empire.

Mining

Probably the first thing you should do is to send your mining ship out to collect resources. Take a look at the buildings and ships available for construction and decide which resource(s) you want. Then goto the mining screen (Goto: Tactical -> Mining), from there you can assign mining orders to a ship or fleet. Choose the resource you want from the drop-down menu and then enter the sectorid (or select a bookmark) to which you want to find the closest suitable asteroid, then click Search. A list of asteroids will be returned, chose one by clicking Mine. Now select a ship OR fleet from the menu and then select a colony you want the mining ship to return to. After submitting the order, you will see the order list of the ship or fleet chosen, showing the orders necessary to mine the asteroid and the estimated time of completion. You can repeat this list of orders by adding a Loop order.

Colony Managment

Running your colony requires careful management of your resource stock, which can be observed from the Colony Overview screen. You can also see the net change of each resource in your resource stock. If you are losing a resource, you will need to collect more of this resource through mining or trading, or by disabling buildings which are using this resource. If your resource stock runs out of a resource which is being used by some of your buildings, then these buildings will stop operating and will need to be manually re-activated.

Planets have a finite amount of land. You can build up your colony as long as there is free land on the planet.

Ships

To build new ships (Goto: Military -> Construct Ship) and select the colony where you want your ship to be built. Then select the ship from the list provided. The list of ships depends on which shipyard type you have (Small/Medium/Large) and what research items you have completed. Note: Your shipyard must be operational for your ship(s) to build.

Ships can be organised into fleets to ease their management. i.e. Defence Fleet, Mining Fleet. Ships must be in the same sector and the same state (in space, docked or mining) to join the same fleet. You can create a new fleet from the fleets page (Goto: Military -> Fleet List). Fleets can be assigned into a formation, which is the formation they attack in. So the ships at the front of the formation will take the most damage and the ships at the back will take the least.

All ships and fleets can be assigned orders. Goto the ship order section of the manual for more details about ship orders.

Combat

There are 3 types of attack, Ship-to-Ship, Colony Raid and Colony Invade. Ship to ship attacks will steal any cargo the defending ship(s) have if the attacker is successful. Colony Raid will steal as many resources as can fit in the attacking ships if successful. Colony Invade will attempt to take over the colony, if successful the colony will then belong to the attacking empire.

There are 3 parts to a colony attack. 1st) The Space-to-Space combat in space between the attacking ships and the defending ships (any ships docked at the colony during the attack will become defending ships). 2nd) Space-2-Ground combat in which attacking ships (with Space-to-Ground) weapons will attack defending building on the colony (such as defence turrets). 3rd) Ground-to-Ground combat in which soliders from the attacking ships land on the surface of the planet and fight against the ground forces of the defending colony (their defending soliders). Note: Only Colony invasion involves the 3rd attack (Ground-to-Ground)

When ships fire their weapons their 'Energy' decreases. This can be seen from the ship information screen or the ship list. The time it takes for this energy to fully recharge from 0% is known as the 'Recharge' time. It can be seen on the Ship information screen.

Star Map

The star map (Goto: Map -> Star map) show you the galaxy your empire inhabits. The Galaxy View shows the clusters in the galaxy, the lines between them indicate the jumpgates connections between clusters. Clicking on a cluster will show you the cluster view. The Cluster View shows all the sectors in the cluster which are populated by planetary systems, asteroid fields, jumpgates and ships. The drop-down lists will allow you to show or hide certain attributes. When you are starting out it is useful to turn on the 'Show SectorIDs' option to see the cluster more clearly. Any systems which you have a colony will be indicate by a yellow and blue icon instead of a solid yellow system icon. Clicking on an object will show you the Sector View. The Sector View shows the contents of a sector. You can click on an object (planet or asteroid) in the top pane and view more details in the bottom pane. Note: An alternative to the star map is the Text Map (Goto: Map -> Text Map).

Trading

You can trade with any empire in the universe. Goto the Trading market and search for the resource you want and the colony you want it closest to. The search results will be ordered by the distance from your selected colony. Once you've bought the trade item, you will need to collect it from the colony you purchased it from, todo this you will need to send a Cargo Ship to perform a Trade Pickup.

You can order trade pickups from the trading reserve screen (Goto: Trading -> Trading Reserve). Click Collect next to the item you want to pickup. Select a ship with sufficient cargo space then select the colony you want the ship to return to. After submitting the order you will see the order list assigned to the selected ship or fleet and can see the estimated time needed to collect the resource and return to your colony.

Morale

Another important thing is your populations morale, as it works as a multipler for your income. This means that if you have a low morale (under 1.00), you will make less money and if you have a high morale(over 1.00) you will make more money. If have your tax over 5% your morale will start to decline. If you have it under 5% it will start to rise again. The rate at which moral rises or falls each key tick is: 'New Moral' = (1.05-'Tax Rate')x'Old Moral'

Ticks

SF-X has two kinds of ticks. One keytick that occurs each hour and one that occurs each minute. The keytick is used to update networth and researches. The other tick is used for the construction of ships and buildings. If you build a ship at 13.45, and the ships buildingtime is 2 hours, the ship will be finished at 15.45, and you will get networh for it at the 16.00 keytick.

Empire
Overview

Show some basic information about your empire. For example how many colonies you have, how many ships you have built and your current networth.

News

Shows your empires news

Colonies

Shows a list of all your colonies. This is the place where you build new buildings by clicking on buildings under the colony you want to build.

Finance

Shows how much each of your ships require in maintenence, how much credits your empire produces per tick and how much maintenence that is required.

Research

Shows which researches you can research, which ones you already have completed, and the ones that you are currently resarching.

Map
Star Map

Brings up the grapichal Star Map, where you can look trough the universe for other starsystems and asteroid fields. You can also see ships and other planets.

Text Map

Brings up the Text Map, wich basiclly shows the same things as the Star Map, but without the grapichal output.

Comms
Messaging

This is where you view Messages to your empire, and where you can write messages to other players

Bookmarks

Here you can bookmark a specific sector. This makes it easier for you to find it, for example when issuing ship orders.

Forums

Here you can view the sector forum and the cluster forum. It can be used for trading offers or just simple communication.

Chat

This will open a chat client that will take you to the channel #sfx on this games own ircserver. Here you can get ask questions, or maybe make trade offers to other players.

Military
Fleet List

Shows a list of all your fleets, and their current location. You can also set orders to entire fleets here.

Ship List

Shows a list of all your ships currently not in a fleet. You can also view building ships here.

Construct Ship

If you have multiple shipyards, you can also choose on which shipyard to build the chosen ship. Shows a list of the avalible ships that you can build which depends on what research you have completed and if you have a small/medium/large shipyard.

Tactical
Scaning

If you have a Small or Large Scanning station, this is where you do all your scans. You can scan specific colonies to find out their resources, buildings and defence. You can also sweep for enemy ships using the sector scan.

Attacking

This is where you attack other empires. You can choose between etiher a Raid or an Invasion. In a raid you attempt to steal resources from another colony. When invading a colony, you attempt to take it over and add it to your own empire.

Mining

By searching for a specific resource, you can see how close they are to your colony. And then you can send your ships out for mining.

Trade
Resource Market

Here you can search for different trade items, and view the current prices of different resources.

Trading Reserve

Here you can view the resources you have bought and pick them up by sending a cargoship.

Alliance
Alliance List

Gives you a list of all alliances in the universe, information about their size and if they are currently looking for new recruits.

Membership

If you are in an alliance this is where you can view which other empires that are in the same alliance as you are. If you are the leader you can also set things such as the alliance's irc channel.

Relations

Here you can view the relations between all the alliances.

News

Here you view the alliance news

Forums

Here you can view the alliance's forums

Chat

This chat is the same as the one under Comms, with the difference that this will bring you to the alliance channel, and not #sfx.

Messaging

If you have the privileges, you can view the messages to the alliance here.

Options
Preferance

Here you can change different options

Help

This contains links to the manual and the getting started guide.

Score

Shows the strongest empire and the strongest allince among other things.

Ship List
Space 2 Space Ships

Scout

Only requires a small shipyard to be build. A fast and expendable ship. Space to Space weapons.

Speed: 120 Armour: 400 Shield: 200

Corvette

Only requires a small shipyard to be built. A slightly stronger but slower ship. Space to Space weapons.

Speed: 60 Armour: 1,000 Shield: 500

Frigate

Only requires a small shipyard to be built. A standard attackship in the early phase of the game, stronger then the corvette, and has Space to Space weapons.

Speed: 40 Armour: 4,000 Shield: 2,000

Light Destroyer

Requires the researches Destroyer Drive and Medium Shipyard to be built, you also need a medium shipyard. Much stronger then the frigate but also slower. Space 2 Space weapons.

Speed: 15 Armour: 20,000 Shield: 10,000

Heavy Destroyer

Requires the researches Destroyer Drive and Medium Shipyard to be built, you also need a medium shipyard. Stronger then the Light Destroyer but for the same upkeep cost and the same speed. Space 2 Space weapons.

Speed: 15 Armour: 30,000 Shield: 15,000

Light Cruiser

Heavy Cruiser

Light Carrier

Heavy Carrier

Battleship

Space 2 Ground

Assault Frigate

The standard Space to ground attacker in the early game. Only requires a small shipyard to be built.

Speed: 40 Armour: 4,000 Shield: 2,000

Assault Cruiser

A bigger ship.

Mining Ships

Small Miner

Only requires a small shipyard to be built. The standard miner.

Speed: 30 Armour: 5,000 Shield: 5,000

Medium Miner

Requires the Advanced Mining research, and a Medium Shipyard or bigger to be built. A bigger miner.

Speed: 20 Armour: 30,000 Shield: 30,000

Large Miner

Transports

Small Cargo Ship

Only requires a small shiyard to be built. A standard cargo ship, that can be used to pick up traderesources or to transport raided resources.

Speed: 60 Armour: 2,500 Shield: 1,000

Medium Cargo Ship

Requires a Medium or bigger shipyard to be built. A bigger cargoship, with larger cagohold.

Speed: 40 Armour: 10,000 Shield: 5,000

Large Cargo Ship

Small Troop Transport

Only requires a smal shipyard to be built. Can transport soliders or civilians to other colonies.

Speed: 20 Armour: 10,000 Shield: 2,000

Large Troop Transport

Ship and Fleet Orders
A ship or fleet can be assigned a queue of upto 20 orders.

To view a ship or fleets current orders, click the [Orders] link from the fleet or ship list screen, or click [View Orders] on the ship screen. A list of the current orders will be displayed along with the status of each order.

An order can either be Waiting, Active, Complete or Failed. A waiting order is one which is yet to be executed, the active order is the currently executing order, a complete order is an order which has already been executed and a failed order is one which has executed but has not perform its intended function (the reason for failure will be displayed in brackets).

You can assign a new order to a ship or fleet by clicking the Add New Order link. Select the order type from the drop-down list, once selected the next screen will automatically load and will request the next peice of information required depending on the order selected. i.e. if you select Move a field requesting the SectorID (or a bookmark) will be displayed.

Here is a list of the available orders:

Attack Order

Adding the attack order will bring you to do the same screen as going to Tactical -> Attack (See Tactical for details)

Colonise Planet

The colonise planet order is only used for colonise ships or fleets with a colonise ship. You will need to enter sectorID (coordinates), planet's name and the name of your new colony. The colonise planet order will add the move orders needed move your ship or fleet to the right cluster and sector. When the colonise ship is in the right sector it will automatically get scrapped and build a colony with some building and resources on it, but with no civilians.

Dock with Colony

Dock with Colony is one of the most important orders. This order will allow you to dock your ships with a colony. When docked at a colony you can load and unload both soldiers and cargo or scrap your ship. When docked with a colony your ships will provide space-to-space defence for that colony. To add this order you will need to enter the sectorID, planet's name and the colony name. The 'Dock with Colony' order with automatically add the nessecery move orders to the order sequence.

Enter Jumpgate

This order will order your ship to enter a jumpgate. You will need to enter the SectorID of the jumpgate. The order will automatically add the nessecery move orders to the order sequence. Entering a jumpgate takes 1 min.

Join Fleet

Makes the ship join the selected fleet. If they are not in the same sector, the ship will move to the fleets latest location.

Load and Unload Cargo

Loads and unloads cargo, like food or trillium, to to the ship.

Load and Unload People

Loads and unloads people, soliders and civilians, to the ship.

Loop

Enables a loop function. The order loop enables you to loop back to a previous order, so you don't have to enter the same order several times.

Mine Asteroid

Mines an asteroid for the resources selected.

Move

Moves the ship to the selected sector.

Repair

Repairs the ship.

Scrap

Scraps the ship, but you get 75% of the resources required to build the ship back.

Trade Pickup

If you have resources in your traind reserve, this order can be used to pick them up.

Wait

Makes the ship wait and do nothing for a set ammount of time.

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