Items

Galactic Empire has fourteen active cargo item types. Values below are the stock classic 3.2e and ge-next configuration; a sysop can change weights, prices, production, and planet maximums.

Production per 10K man-weeks is the configured amount that 10,000 men working on one item for a week would nominally produce. It is a rate, not the number made at each planetary update. The game scales it by the planet's population and the percentage of workers assigned to that item, then divides by 42 for one production pass. For example, 10,000 men assigned entirely to torpedoes at the stock rate of 500 yield about 11.9 torpedoes before modifiers. Better environment and resources increase output, taxes reduce it, and a planet with cash remaining in its bank receives a production bonus. Only whole items are added to stock; actual output over a week also depends on how many update passes occur. See Planetary production for the formula and the rest of the production process.

Item	Weight each (tons)	Production per 10K man-weeks	Base price	Principal use
Men	1	3,500	2	Population, production, taxes, and scoring
Missiles	5	300	20	Guided hyperspace weapon
Torpedoes	3	500	7	Guided impulse-space weapon
Ion cannons	250	4	33	Planetary defense
Flux pods	20	200	200	Refill ship neutron flux
Food cases	2	8,000 (12,000 in ge-next)	2	Feed planetary troops (and men in ge-next)
Fighters	15	100	50	Planetary attack and defense
Decoys	3	900	18	Intercept torpedoes and missiles
Troops	2	200	1	Invade, defend, and suppress revolt
Zippers	5	100	99	Trigger nearby mines
Jammers	4	300	21	Disrupt nearby scanners and guidance
Mines	5	500	16	Delayed area weapon
Gold	0.5	30	1,000	Commodity and planetary-bank input
Spies	1	20	100	Planetary intelligence

Configuration notes

For the complete stock option-by-option comparison, including planetary caps and item point values, see Item and equipment configuration.

The weight entries are described in classic configuration as the weight of 100 items and are divided by 100 in cargo calculations. Thus a configured value of 50 for 100 gold means 0.5 ton each.

Classic's ITMPR11 description says “mines” and ITMPR12 says “jammers,” but the runtime array order is jammers then mines. The descriptions alone are reversed: the stock base price is 21 for jammers and 16 for mines. Editing the classic options by their descriptions can therefore change the wrong item's price. ge-next 0.3.3 corrected these descriptions in its MSG files without changing either option number or value, so the effective prices remain 21 for jammers and 16 for mines.

Item rules

Items may be produced, traded, and transferred where the relevant command allows it. Ship class capability is separate from inventory: carrying mines or missiles does not provide a launcher. Men, troops, and spies cannot be jettisoned in ge-next.

Production competes for one planet workforce and is modified by planet quality, population, cash, and maximum capacity. See Planetary production.

Numeric behavior

Counts are 32-bit unsigned values in classic records. Transfers and production must be checked before addition to prevent wrapping. Weight also requires a safe intermediate calculation; see Classic bug: Cargo weight overflow.

Home · Play · Reference · Versions & history · Sysop · Development · Classic bugs