Colonizing planets

Colonies turn discovered planets into persistent sources of items, trade, tax income, and score. Colonization is available in classic Galactic Empire and ge-next; it is intentionally absent from current ge-arena matches. This page is a starting point for finding, claiming, and keeping a colony. Claiming a planet does not instantly make it productive: the owner must consider its population, food, work assignments, finances, and defense. The ordered update calculation, examples, and classic source citations are on Planetary production; its schedule is covered at Planetary update cycle.

Finding a planet

Use SCAN SECTOR to find planets in the current sector, then SCAN PLANET to inspect one. Ordinary sectors are generated when the game first requests their records, for example through a scan or the normal-space proximity check; merely passing through in hyperspace need not create them. The number of generated planets depends on PLODDS and MAXPLSE (see Main configuration reference); wormholes occupy entries in the same sector table.

Environment and resources each range from poor through very good. Both affect production and storage maximums, so a nearby world is not necessarily the best colony. A planet with an existing population and food stock is easier to start than an empty one, but its other stores and defenses also matter. New ordinary planets have no owner. Roughly one quarter are initially populated in the stock generation path, with random men, food, and small production allocations. See planet scanning for what a scan reveals and Orbit for approaching safely.

Claiming a planet

Enter orbit and issue ADMIN. If the planet's owner field is empty, the game asks whether to claim it. Accepting the claim records the player as owner, increments the player's planet count, and asks for a planet name before opening the administration menu. On a completely unnamed planet, it also initializes base prices and a 50/50 men-and-food production split.

A player cannot claim more than the sysop's MAXPLNTS setting. A planet owned by another player, or marked **Free** after a revolt, must be captured through planetary attack. See Classic bug: Planet conquest bypasses ownership limit for a classic loophole corrected in ge-next.

Getting the colony established

A newly claimed empty planet needs men to provide a workforce and food to sustain its population and troops. An owner can bring supplies aboard a ship and transfer them down while in orbit. An already populated planet is not automatically self-sufficient: its food stock, work assignments, and next scheduled update still matter. Planetary production explains how population and food change, including the difference between classic GE and ge-next in men's food consumption.

The initial work allocation on a completely unnamed planet favors men and food, but an owner can redirect the shared 100% workforce budget through Planet administration. Assigning effort to weapons or valuable goods leaves less for growth and food. Production is not immediate when a setting is changed; the planet advances during passes described at Planetary update cycle. A planetary bank with cash supports stronger output and higher stock limits, so moving supplies to a poor or unfunded colony is not the same as making it sustainably productive. See Planetary production for the calculation and Gold for one way to fund the bank.

Administration

The owner can set production effort, tax, prices, sale reserves, and access rules and can supply the planet by transferring inventory from an orbiting ship. The PLANET command lists owned planets by name, sector, and local planet number. Most choices affect only that planet and take effect in the next production pass rather than changing its inventory at once. See Planet administration for the menus and Buy command for visitor purchases.

Abandoning a planet

While orbiting a planet one owns, ABANDON clears its owner, password, and team code and decrements the former owner's planet count. The planet's name, population, inventory, prices, production allocations, and banks are otherwise retained. It can immediately be claimed by another player. See Abandon command.

Defense

Troops resist surface invasion and help prevent revolt; fighters defend against fighter and troop attacks; ion cannons can fire at a hostile ship near the planet. A large stock of one does not replace the others. Troops consume food, so defensive strength also depends on supply. A colony can be weakened without being conquered: an attack can remove defenders or stock, while neglect of food or the planet bank can undermine future production. See Taxes, Ion cannons, and Attacking planets for the separate rules.

Production cycle

A scheduled planetary update checks food and population, converts existing gold to bank cash, processes the fourteen items in order, adds tax revenue, and checks for revolt. Planet quality, taxes, and the cash remaining before each item can substantially change both production and maximum stock. The full calculation, worked examples, and 17 classic source-line references are on Planetary production. See Planetary update cycle for when passes occur and how ge-next tracks missed ones.

Income, scoring, and setbacks

An owner can collect the planet's accumulated taxes into personal cash, but a high tax rate reduces production and stock limits and may expose an under-defended colony to revolt. Alternatively, goods can be sold to visiting ships through BUY, adding money to the planetary bank, or physical gold can be collected and sold at Zygor for personal cash. These are different balances and different choices about labor, transport, and risk. An ordinary owned planet sells goods to visitors but does not buy their cargo.

A colony also contributes to its owner's score. Combat points can change immediately, but the value of owned planets is recalculated during nightly cleanup. Claiming or improving a planet therefore need not move the owner on the roster at once. Revolt, abandonment, or conquest can end ownership; accumulated population and stock do not make it permanent. See Taxes for revolt conditions, Attacking planets for conquest, and Scoring and rosters for planetary valuation.

Source notes

Planet generation and the classic multiply() routine are in GEPLANET.C; the latter is documented step by step at Planetary production. Claiming and administration state handlers are in GEMAIN.C, while the ADMIN, ABANDON, and PLANET command entry points are in GECMDS.C. Configuration defaults are in MBMGEMSG.MSG or MPOGEMSG.MSG, depending on version.