The ones that you already have available to you are listed on the left, and the ones that are still undeveloped are on the right. You star the game with the ability to build Attack, Science and Colony ships. You can develop a new type of ship whenever your technological development reaches a perfect square (1,4,9,16,25...).
- Note:
- When you have a new technological development ready you can click on the one you wish to add and it immediately will be added.
- Attack:
- This ship may move around to any explored systems.
- Science:
- This ship has the ability to explore unknown jump points.
- Colony:
- This ship has the ability to colonize an uninhabited world. The starting population of this world will be the square of the current BR of the colonizer.
- Stargate:
- This ship is an orbiting relay station that can transport a group of ships to another system you own. You tell it what system you want to "send" your ships to, and next turn the stargate will transport all of your movable ships in the system where the stargate resides to the new system.
Note: Although severely costly, they allow for quick transport of our ships to another planetary location. They should only be used in large galaxies where speed is essential.
- Cloaker:
- This ship has the ability to cloak, to not be seen by the enemy.
One turn is required to build the ship and another turn to cloak the ship. When it is cloaked only you can see it on the map and system menus. It does not fight with any enemy ships until uncloaked.
If a cloaked ship is hovering over a system where a minefield goes off, the cloaked ship is destroyed along with all other ships in the system.
One good use of cloakers is to go behind enemy lines unnoticed, uncloak and nuke an unguarded system. Then cloak again before the ship can be destroyed and move on to a new system.
- Note:
- You have to uncloak before being able to attack other ships or to nuke a system.
- Satellite:
- This ship provides a cheap stationary defense for your systems. It's maintenance and build costs are less then any of the others (see the Build Menu" for details).
They often are built to protect against cloaks, which can be used by an empire that has discovered where your home world lies.
This often is the ship of choice by more experienced players to protect a planet when enemy ships are orbiting overhead.
- Terraformer:
- This ship terraforms or increased the agriculture of a system.
- Note:
- A terraformer adds (10*BR of your ship) agriculture to a system, but each system can only hold so much agriculture (equal to the largest number of the system's other two resources.)
For instance, if agriculture is 10 on a planet, and mineral and fuel are each at 20, a BR1 terraformer will move the planets agriculture level from 10 to 20, the maximum it can be for the system.
- Troopship:
- This ship transports a group of commandos equal to [10*(current BR)]. Once this ship invades a hostile system, the commandos will attack the colonists. If there are more commandos then colonists you capture the system, keeping half of the population.
- Note:
- An unsuccessful invasion kills (current BR of troopship * 2) colonists on the would-be invaded planet.
- Doomsday:
- This massive warship has the ability to destroy an entire system with one shot reducing all resources to 0.
- Engineer:
- This ship allows you to close off a jump point, or open a closed one.
The ship was not implemented in early games but was brought back by popular demand in recent games.
Some games demand that the engineer have a BR greater than 1. Other games call for the BR to be reduced by .5 whenever the ship is used.
Engineers required as much tech to create as a star gate, which is a lot.
- Minefield:
- This ship orbits a system, waiting for enemy ships to pass through. If a minefield is destroyed in combat, ALL ships in the system, friend or foe, are destroyed. Unfortunately half of the people in the system will be killed by the fallout.
- Note:
- Minefields are the only ships immune to DEST. (see How an Update Operates)
- Minesweeper:
- An attack ship which can nullify the effect of a minefield.