These pages are my contribution to the fascinating massive multiplayer online strategy game SPACE by Coldfirestudios.

WELCOME RECRUITS
So you want to dominate the galaxy? You want to rule an empire spanning hundreds, perhaps thousands, of star systems, and leave your mark on the universe? To accomplish this you have to learn how the economy of an empire works, what makes a good starship, and what tactics and strategies are viable in the Coultonian Universe. The factors which determine the eventual winner in any battle or confrontation are many. I doubt that I will get to cover them all, but I do hope that what follows contributes to your understanding of the game.

Game Environment
You start a game by joining a 'galaxy'. There is always a galaxy waiting to start, and one starts roughly every 5-7 days. The map shows the portion of the galaxy you have explored, with each star system represented by a single planet icon. Each star system has a limited amount of space and resources. You have to get the most out of the limited space and resources of each star system, and the more star systems you own and develop, the larger your economy becomes. A 'galaxy' contains 3,500 star systems, and about 150-200 players per galaxy on average, sometimes as many as 350. When sufficient players have signed up, a 24 hr countdown is initiated before the game starts. 

Before You Start
There are ten species available to play in the game, and you have to choose one. Each species has advantages and disadvantages. Some are stronger economically, while others are stronger militarily. Some are expansionist, while others are more of a slow builder type. Select the species that most suits your style of play. General consensus within the playing community is that the species are very well balanced, and no one species dominates the game.

Starting Out
You start as the ruler of a single star system, and your first goal is to claim as many unoccupied systems as you can. As you colonise star systems, so the map is revealed to you, exposing new star systems if you are lucky, or empty spaces (holes) if you are not. Eventually you will discover that you are not alone in the galaxy, and you will find star systems occupied by other players. You may choose to ally with some of them (max 4 people per alliance) or to make war on them and conquer their star systems. Alliances may make peace with neighbouring alliances (non-aggression pacts) or make war on them as a team.

Building your economy
Concepts such as trade, merchant ships, colony ships etc are abstracted in the game. All your income goes into an empire wide purse, and you may spend or squander as you like anywhere in your empire. Your income is derived from the buildings you choose to construct in the star systems you own. These include ore-mines (ore), factories (production points), megapoli (housing - produces credits). Each star system has limited space, represented as 'land'. The land available in the system may vary from 750 to 1200 units, and this is assigned randomly at galaxy creation. Each system also has a random amount of ore, so some star systems may be rich in ore, while others may be poor. You have to find a balance in the buildings you construct, so that you maximise your income in all three categories from the land you own across your empire.

Conquering Your Enemy
Most of your activity will be concentrated around your military. The crux of the game is to build starships (warships) with which to crush your enemy and conquer his/her star systems. The game has a complex space-combat model, in which many types of ships employing a range of weaponry is recognised. Starship roles range from light and fast scouts to slow and heavy battleships or assault carriers with immense firepower. In the course of a game, you may end up building hundreds of starships, which are assembled into fleets. Starfleets do battle with each other when they enter the same star system. The combat model of the game is such that numbers do not always win the day. Rather, you have to pay careful attention to such concepts as weapon accuracy, weapon type (beam, missile, fighters), starship speed and stealth (evasion), initiative, and racial bonuses.

Defending Yourself
If you feel that your mighty fleets are not enough, you may build powerful but immobile weapon platforms in your star systems, or sacrifice some precious land to build shield generators or minefields. Note, each minefield requires one unit of 'land'. In other words, there is a limit to how many minefields you can build in a system, and building minefields means you cannot build economic buildings. Each minefield has a chance to damage an enemy ship, and a well-built minefield can severely damage enemy fleets, bringing an invasion force to a grinding halt.

Diplomacy
You are playing against other human players, and diplomacy is a huge part of the game. Players are constantly plotting with each other or against each other. Players may enter into informal mutual protection pacts, or may agree to jointly attack a third party (gangbang), or sometimes will set out to deceive you or manipulate you. A very large part of the game therefore is played out in chat rooms, MSN instant messages, or in-game messages. Prepare yourself for an experience that is as much about politics, friends, diplomacy and backstabbing, as it is about beam weapons, missile evasion or planetary conquests.

The Aim of the Game
The game ends when there are 25 active players left in the game, or the top 5 alliances (max 4 players per alliance) control a total of 2500 star systems between them. Players earn medals based on their final ranks, and these medals are recorded in your war-chest, so you may build up a store of them over several galaxies. Essentially then, several hundred players have to be eliminated from the game to meet the ending conditions.

Game duration and activity
A typical galaxy lasts anywhere from five weeks to eight weeks. A game-turn lasts one hour, during which you can move ships, set build queues, assign research topics and colonise planets. At the top of each hour, the moves are executed by the computer (the game 'ticks'), and all results of combats, conquests, building and economy, etc are computed. To finish well in a galaxy, you would have to log in several times a day, sometimes for several successive turns at a time. You can log in as often as you like, with no penalty or bonus. Should you fail to login for 72 turns (72 hours) your account will be listed as inactive.

Acknowledgements
Besides Coldfire Studios for creating such a wonderful game, I must also acknowledge all of the following people:-
- Gregg Dolyan (GC of Cosmos) who got me started analysing the game, and who spent endless hours teaching me when I was a total noob.
- Raven, who supplied me with much of the info on this site, and who has a superb website himself, from which I have drawn shamelessly.
- Plasto Quinon, who's website also served as inspiration.
- xMythx, Adric, Takhoma for many interesting discussions and strategy posts, which served to clarify my understanding of the game.
- LordBORG, for telling me when something didn't make sense, and for asking many questions.
- Everyone who has taken the time to provide me with feedback and corrections, whether by email, PM, or a post on the forums.

These pages owned by Michael January
Last Update 02 November 2005