Special Abilities

The Solar Federation has developed their weapons, hull, and engine technology to a point where they are able to do something that none of the other races can do. The Solar Federation has made all the parts of all their starships interchangeable. This means that even after they build a starship they have the ability to Super Refit it. 

The Super Refit

The Super Refit special starship mission will cause the chief engineer of the starship to take better engines and/or weapons off of a starbase that the starship is in orbit around and, if there is enough, replace the lower technology devices with the more advanced ones. For this mission to function there must be enough parts on the starbase to replace what is on the starship.

If a starship has two tech 1 engines and 4 tech 4 beam weapons – the starbase will need at least 2 engines more advanced than tech 1 and 4 beams or more of a tech level higher than 4. If there is not enough beams but there is enough engines the old engines will be removed from the starship and placed in storage and the newer high tech engines will be placed on the starship.

How to Initiate a Super Refit

To start the Super Refit process you will need to go to the main starship screen. By pressing the [F1] command from anywhere in the game and then scrolling through the choice of starships until you find the starship you wish to refit. Once the starship is selected you press the [ENTER] key and this will take you to main starship screen.

At the main starship screen you press the [M] key and this will take you to the primary mission menu (Table 2.5 pg. 26). Here, press the key that corresponds to the mission you wish to select ( [9] ). With this selected you starship will be refitted when the HOST.EXE runs. So when your unpack your next turn your starship will have all of it’s new equipment. Remember that cloaking starships will not remain cloaked while doing the Super Refit mission, if the Feds have somehow stolen or captured a cloaking starship.

The Solar Federation’s Increased Tax Collection Power

The Solar Federation is very good at making friends with any of the natives they encounter, except the amorphous of course. The benevolent governments of the Solar Federation are able to collect 200% of the normal amount of taxes than any other race. This 200% is the default setting in the HCONFIG.EXE program, it can be lower or raised but 200% is considered within game balance. The 200% means that when calculating the amount of taxes derived from a planet (Figure1.7 pg.11) you can multiply the result of that equation by two and this will calculate the amount of taxes you could collect. 

The Solar Federation Crew Bonus

All Solar Federation engineers who graduate from the engineering academy are sent to a private post-graduate school. This school is run by a former chief engineer from one of the first Nebula Class starships ever to roam the galaxy. This engineer had a knack for keeping the starships shields and weapon systems functioning even after the starship had taken heavy damage. After his retirement he started his “Miracle Workers Academy.”

Since all the engineers in the Solar Federation are additionally trained here a Solar Federation starship no matter how damaged, can maintain the integrity of its weapon systems. This means that no matter how damaged the starship is all of its weapon systems will continue to function and be ready and willing to fire from combat to combat.

This specially trained crew is always able to re-energize the starships shields an additional 25% between battles up to the 100% charged maximum. They will be able to do this between each battle.

Note: The FedCrew Bonus is a yes or no configurable switch in the HCONFIG.EXE program. If it is switched to no (off) the FedCrew Bonus will not be in effect and will not help the Solar Federation’s starships.

The Solar Federation and Mining

The Solar Federation as a race can mine at only 70% of the normal rate (this is default setting). This is due to the fact that a large number of the populous is deeply concerned about the environment. This group keeps a very close watch on the Solar Federation and its mining practices.

Eventually this problem can become an asset to the Solar Federation . Due to the environmentalists strict watch the Solar Federation does practice very good environmental practices and have an excellent safety record. This will cause a good return on investment for the government. Once a Solar Federation planet has 100 mines on it the miners start to achieve great returns. Once 100 mines is reached a Solar Federation planet will mine at least 25 KT of each mineral per day, regardless of the mineral concentration (although the minerals need to be present in the ground to be able to be extracted).

The Solar Federation’s Fleet

The Solar Federation’s war fleet is comprised of many medium sized starships that serve a variety of missions. Their fleet includes only one carrier style of warship. The Solar Federation does not like to use fighters except when they are desperate, like when their starbases or planets come under attack.

The favored weapon of the Solar Federation is the torpedo. The Solar Federation , for some inexplicable reason, likes to paint their warships bright white and place external lighting on them. This tends to make them easier targets in a fight but it also scares the daylights out of their enemies. After all, anyone who would light up their starships so brightly has to be unafraid of all enemies and have a very powerful starship or they are just completely stupid.

Other Special Abilities of The Solar Federation

RacePlus

The ability that is now added to the Feds is called Native Government Enhancement. This ability allows the Feds to educate natives on planets that have a poor native government. On a planet that has a government that ranges from Anarchy to Representative this ability may be used.

On a planet meeting the above conditions the Feds can implement their “education system.” This system requires an investment of money and supplies on the part of the Feds. The Feds need to own the planet for X turns (Where X is the configured number of turns in the RPCONFIG program) between each government increase. If the planet is owned for X turns and the planets friendly code is set to “HUD” for all of those turn and the required amounts of money and supplies are present the native government will “evolve” up one government level. The money and supply requirements are as follows:

Anarchy to Pre-Tribal – 100 supplies 375 Megacredits
Pre-Tribal to Early Tribal – 150 supplies 625 Megacredits
Early Tribal to Tribal – 200 supplies 875 Megacredits
Tribal to Feudal – 250 supplies 1125 Megacredits
Feudal to Monarchy – 300 supplies 1375 Megacredits
Monarchy to Representative – 350 supplies 1625 Megacredits
Representative to Particip. – 400 supplies 1875 Megacredits

Note: The planet needs to be under Fed control for X consecutive turns before a government improvement can occur.

Gryphon & Jupiter

Move Natives.

The Fed Banshee class ship can transport batches of (1600) native clans in its modified and improved version of Lizard Cryo-Hold (see below for details). With an FC of “LNR”, a totally empty (except for fuel) Banshee can load and store in its cryo holds the native clans of any race excluding the amorphs (hard to catch) and the reptilians (very strong family ties). The number of native clans is determined by multiplying the cargo hold of a Banshee by (20), configured capacity of Federation CryoTanks. It can then take them to any planet and unload with a FC of “UNR”. Three things can occur: if the planet has no natives, the native clans will unload and populate the planet; but as a result of the move and accompanying chaos, their government decreases by 1. If there already are natives of the same race, the natives add to the already existing natives; the government is set to the lower of the two and the happiness is set to 100 as a result of happiness of the reunited clans. If there are natives of another race on the planet, nothing would happen, since natives don’t live well together in VGAP.

Just be careful not to load anything (besides fuel) onto the ship while the natives are loaded, or the cryogenic units would break down and all natives would die.

NOTE: it is possible to “steal” natives from planets owned by another race, if their happiness level is lower than 80%.

Fed cooperation.

Seeing the kindness and the order of the Federation colonists, a variable number of natives might decide to join the Federation colony as full citizens. The happiness must be greater than 80% and the native race cannot be amorph. To stop native clans from joining, you can set your planetary FC to begin with the letter “S”.

Superrefit in flight.

Federation starships no longer need a starbase to perform their super refit function. As long as a ship has sufficient minerals/money and FC of “UFP”, the ship can do the super refit. Set the first letter of the ship name to “E” if you want to up your engines, or “T” for torps, or “B” for beam weapons. The old parts are too bulky for storage, so they are ejected into space.

NOTE: due to some strange technological barriers <wink, wink> ships cannot raise their engines, beams and torps from tech 6 to tech 7, and engines from tech 7 to tech 8. (This is done to protect Tim’s registrations). If the host desires, he can increase the money cost of the upgrade. For example, with the factor of 2 it costs twice as much money to upgrade the parts as from a base. The default value is (1).

NOTE: If you have any torps on the ship and are upgrading launchers, the torps are upgraded too, but 50% of them are disassembled to upgrade the other torps.

NOTE: This is an UPGRADE, not a new component installation. You cannot built a ship with no torp launchers and then try to add launchers using UFP. At least level 1 launchers have to be present on the ship.

Bonus-Refit.

This is a super-set of super refit inflight. Federation ships in orbit around planets with “special” natives (human, silicon, etc.) can get their ships super-refitted up to level 10 without a base! For the normal amount of minerals and double the (money factor) (for presents to natives), FCode “UFP”, the ship can do the bonus-refit. Set the first letter of the ship name to “E” if you want to upgrade your engines, or “T” for torps, or “B” for beam weapons. If you are upgrading torps, any torps presently on the ship are now useless (too low-tech) and are discarded, so transfer them to another ship or lay and scoop them as minefield.

NOTE: This is an UPGRADE, not a new component installation. You cannot built a ship with no torp launchers and then try to add launchers using UFP. At least level 1 launchers have to be present on the ship. Allied ships can get bonus-refitted on Fed-planets.

Nemesis & Jupiter

Genesis device.

The Federation scientists have finally found a way to stabilize proto-matter. From now on, the Genesis device has become available, and all Federation ships will come with this device installed. The Genesis Device allows ships to convert hostile planets into habitable ones (50 degrees), seed them with natives of choice and even have pre-built structures. The only requirement is that the ship has to have more than 49 colonist clans aboard. To use the Genesis Device, set the FC to “@XY”, where x is structures, y is natives.

X:
D 50 defenses, F 50 factories, M 50 mines.

Y:
A amphibious, B bovines, a amorphous, H humans, G ghipsoids, S silicons, R reptilians, I insects, V avian’s.

For example, to have a planet with 50 degrees, 50 factories and Bovinoid natives, set the ship FC to “@FB”. The number and government of natives are set at random. As a matter of course, the use of this device is only allowed on non-owned planets with no natives and within a set temperature range, to prohibit its use as a weapon of destruction. Genesis device will add a large meteor’s worth of minerals to the planet and set mineral density of all minerals to 100%. Genesis device instability has been removed.

Sweet-talk.

The peace-loving Fed captains do not like to fight. They would much rather take their ship on a diplomacy mission by setting the FC to “SWT”, Sweet-talk. If the captain is successful, the captain of the enemy ship would be sweet-talked, or persuaded, into doing nothing, including attacking, building fighters, torpedoes, or using any of the functions included in this add-on. However, the enemy ship is allowed to attack any of the other races’ ships in the same location, or the Fed ships that are not on a diplomacy mission. The suggested success rate is 25%, or it would require 4 ships to have 100% success in diplomacy missions. The sole exception to that is the Federation’s Diplomacy Class Cruiser, which, thanks to its luxurious accommodations and conference rooms, has a 4*(success rate) chance to persuade the enemy. So, with the default 25%, a sole Diplomacy will suffice to keep an enemy ship at bay. Federation captains cannot sweet-talk the Borg because they obey the collective, not the emotions of individuals.

A special config option allows the host to configure “aggressiveness ratio”. It decreases the chances of successful sweet-talk outcome with the higher number of torpedoes. The more torpedoes and the greater the ratio, the less chance of successful sweet-talk For example, 30 torps and the ratio of 2 will decrease the sweet-talk chance by 3% per ship. To activate it, set FC to “SWT” and intercept the target enemy ship.

Note: sweet talk cannot be given away in a team game. Clarification: Enemy ships at Fed bases at the start of the turn can be sweet-talked into SURRENDERING if the base has FCode SWT and mission Force Surrender and there are enough ships on sweet-talk mission to sweet-talk the enemy. This was there from the beginning but people thought it was a bug.