Galactic Empire wiki

Neutral zone

The neutral zone is the whole of sector 0 0, not merely the space around one planet. It is used as a protected center for ship arrivals and Galactic Command business. In the distributed setup, Zygor, Tahanian Station, the Enforcer Planet, and several wormhole portals occupy the sector. Sysops can configure its predefined objects and the damage dealt for violating its rules.

Zygor and Tahanian Station are predefined planet records, not ordinary player colonies. Their supplies are replaced on scheduled planet passes by special restocking rules; Zygor handles the main market and Tahanian Station specializes in colony supplies. Classic's later Zygor restock made that supply division imperfect. See their articles for the inventories, classic starvation side effect, and ge-next changes.

The code determines whether a ship is in the neutral zone from its two sector coordinates. A ship at any position inside 0 0 is neutral; crossing a sector boundary changes that status immediately. Sector 0 0 is also excluded from ge-next's nebula generation.

Enforcer Planet and its warning

In ordinary play, the Enforcer Planet sends a warning beacon to ships in the sector about hostilities. The warning is repeated on a 120-second timer; receiving it does not mean the planet has detected a particular attack. The planet is a predefined object that can be scanned and orbited, but the beam, warning, and projectile-defense behavior attributed to it come from game routines rather than from a planetary weapon or a combat-capable ship. See Enforcer Planet.

An attempted prohibited attack can trigger zaphim(), which adds the configured SE100DAM amount directly to the attacker's ship damage and displays the Enforcer Planet's beam warning. The distributed ge-next setting is 10 damage, though a sysop may change it. This is a penalty on the attacker, not an exchange of fire between ships. The exact response depends on the attempted action; not every prohibited command calls zaphim().

Weapons and protection

  • Phasers and hyper-phasers: Firing from inside 0 0 is prohibited and can draw the Enforcer Planet's damage penalty. A ship outside can aim toward the sector, but a ship protected inside it does not take the phaser hit. In ge-next, the firer receives a message when a ship in the beam is protected by the neutral zone.
  • Torpedoes and missiles: The fire-control routine will not establish a new lock on a target in 0 0, and launching from inside the sector is prohibited. An existing projectile is a separate issue: ge-next 0.2.4 added Enforcer Planet interception of incoming torpedoes and missiles as they approach a ship in the sector. Classic does not have that in-flight safeguard, so entering 0 0 does not reliably shake off a projectile already following the ship.
  • Mines: A player cannot lay a mine inside the neutral zone. The regular mine-damage check also excludes ships while they are in 0 0. Unlike phaser, torpedo, and missile firing, a rejected mine command in standard ge-next does not itself call zaphim().
  • Self-destruct: The Destruct countdown cannot be started in 0 0; entering the sector cancels a countdown already under way. Ships inside the sector are excluded from another ship's self-destruct blast damage.
  • Planetary attack and spying: An attempted ATTACK on a neutral-zone planet is aborted with the Enforcer Planet's damage penalty. The SPY command also refuses deployment against a planet there, but does not apply the beam penalty.

These are command- and damage-path rules, not an all-purpose invulnerability flag. Collision damage, wormhole travel, and other hazards still matter. A player can also carry hostility or damage acquired elsewhere into the sector. The neutral zone should be treated as protection against particular forms of combat, not as an instant ship repair or a guarantee of survival.

Trade, maintenance, and departure

In both classic Galactic Empire and ge-next, Zygor is the principal place to buy ships and goods, and maintenance can be requested at Zygor or Tahanian Station. The usual requirements for MAINT, including the planet's repair facilities, sufficient cash, and freedom from combat restrictions, still apply. The Enforcer Planet itself has no repair depot. Being anywhere in sector 0 0 does not automatically repair a ship.

ge-next adds Galactic Command faction standing to Zygor's business rules: a player sufficiently disliked by the faction can be refused trade there. Classic has no corresponding faction-standing ban. Classic can allow TRA D deposits on a neutral-zone planet when its general transfer option permits them. Since ge-next 0.2.5, TRA D is rejected throughout 0 0, even in orbit, to prevent the Command planets' item counts from overflowing.

In classic, a ship with a nonzero cantexit combat timer cannot exit the game or begin maintenance, even in the neutral zone. ge-next 0.2.4 made a specific exception: inside 0 0, a ship can exit before the timer expires if no torpedoes or missiles are still incoming. Maintenance likewise clears the timer there if no incoming ordnance remains. Neither exception bypasses the other requirements of the command.

ge-arena

In ge-arena, 0 0 has different rules depending on the match phase. During the initial staging minute, players are held in the sector and cannot fire. Crossing its boundary causes a reduced bounce and damage; entering a wormhole's path triggers an Enforcer Planet repulsor and damage instead of transporting the ship out of staging. The normal neutral-zone weapon and projectile protections apply during this period.

When combat begins, participating ships may fire in 0 0, receive fire there, and leave the sector. Cybertron attacks are likewise allowed when their arena mode includes them. The sector is no longer a protected haven for the duration of combat.

A tiebreaker returns the finalists to 0 0. Firing is blocked during its countdown, then permitted once the tiebreaker begins; unlike the main combat phase, finalists still cannot leave the sector. Its perimeter and wormhole repulsor rules remain in effect until the tiebreaker ends. See ge-arena for the match sequence.

See also

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