Planets

Planets are places to visit, trade, colonize, defend, or attack. Ordinary planets are persistent parts of the galaxy: their stock, population, defenses, finances, ownership, and name can change over time. The galaxy is not fully populated at startup. When the game first loads or creates an unexplored sector, it determines that sector's planets and wormholes and saves them for later visits. See sector discovery for the different ways a sector can be created.

Finding and approaching a planet

A sector scan shows the planets and wormholes in the current sector and gives each a local number. SCAN PLANET number provides a closer description, including bearing and distance. A scan can also reveal a planet's environment, resources, ownership, and broad signs of its population, defenses, or stock. Visibility varies with range and jamming, and full item counts are shown only to owners of that planet (and in ge-next, an unowned, orbited planet). See planet scanning.

A ship must get within about 250 distance units before it can establish orbit. ORBIT does not steer or move the ship to the planet; it records the orbit state and stops the ship at its current position. It may be entered while the ship is moving at impulse speed, but not in hyperspace. Coming too close without orbiting is dangerous: the gravity warning becomes urgent near 50 units, and a collision inside 25 units destroys the ship. See Orbit command for the command and Orbit for the approach and departure rules.

Ownership and colonies

Other than in the neutral zone, generated planets begin unowned. A player orbiting an unowned planet can claim it through ADMIN, subject to the owned-planet limit. The owner may name it and configure labor, prices, stock reserves, tax, trade access, and other supported settings. PLANET lists that player's holdings; see Planet command. Ownership can later change through conquest, revolt, or abandonment.

A claim is only the beginning of a colony. Men provide the workforce; food supports the population and troops; troops and fighters protect it. A planet with a better environment and resources can produce items faster and hold more goods. The owner can move supplies between an orbiting ship and the planet. See Colonizing planets and Planet administration for a full colony setup and the administration menus.

Production and finances

A colony divides its workforce among population growth, food, gold, and other goods. It keeps its own stock, cash, and tax balances, separate from its owner's personal cash. Sales to visiting ships add to the planet's bank; gold already stored on the planet is converted into planetary cash during a production update. A positive bank supports higher production and stock limits. Taxes can raise owner income, but high rates lower productivity and increase the risk of revolt. See Planetary production, Gold, and Economy and cargo.

Population, food, production, tax, famine, and revolt advance on scheduled planet updates, not simply because a player scans or revisits the planet. Classic GE contains a defect that can give some planets too few updates and others too many; ge-next tracks update progress and timing to make the work more consistent. Classic GE also does not actually have men consume food despite its intended colony rules; ge-next does by default. See Classic bug: Skipped planetary updates and Classic bug: Men do not consume food.

Trade and services

An owner can choose which goods visitors may buy, set their prices, and reserve stock. Trade passwords and team access can affect what a visitor is permitted to purchase. A purchase moves goods from the planet to the ship and pays the planet's bank; transferring an item is a different operation with its own ownership rules. Ordinary player-owned planets can sell goods to visiting ships but do not buy visitors' cargo. See Planet administration, Buy command, and Transfer command.

The named locations in the neutral zone sector 0 0 have special roles. Zygor is Galactic Command's principal market for supplies, ships, equipment, ship-cargo sales, and maintenance. Tahanian Station was designed as a colony-supply station, although the shipped classic and ge-next stock rules do not make it the sole source of those goods. Their supplies are restocked by special game routines rather than an ordinary owner's labor assignments. The Enforcer Planet can be scanned and orbited, but its warnings and penalties are actions of game routines, not an autonomous planet AI.

Defense, spying, and conquest

Troops resist invasion and help prevent revolt. Fighters oppose troop or fighter assaults; installed ion cannons can fire at a hostile ship near the planet. These defenses have distinct jobs and require supplies to remain useful. Spies can obtain information about another player's planet, while planetary spies can work against infiltrators. See Attacking planets and Spies.

An attacker must orbit a planet to use ATTACK with troops or fighters; a player cannot fire ship weapons at a planet. The attack is resolved against the planet's defenses and may transfer ownership if the conditions for conquest are met. A hostile orbital attacker can also draw ion-cannon fire. See Attacking planets for the battle rules and Classic bug: Planet conquest bypasses ownership limit for a classic ownership-limit flaw corrected in ge-next.

ge-arena planets

ge-arena creates its match galaxy as sectors are explored, but wipes that galaxy between matches. Most arena planets have no owner and do not run the persistent colonization, tax, or production lifecycle. They instead offer mode-specific supplies, upgrades, or maintenance; eligible pickups can be collected while orbiting with TRANSFER UP. Zygor starts empty and receives announced drops during a match. Planet scans show the match-relevant contents rather than a colony's environment or population. See ge-arena and planet scanning.