The Solar Federation

Solar Federation race icon from VGA Planets Nu

The Solar Federation better known as ‘The Feds’, are based on the United Federation of Planets as found in the Star Trek series and movies. The Federation can loosely be considered the stereotypical utopian "good guys": on the side of order, morality, and government, the Feds are the slightly creepy father figure who knows what is good for you, and by damn, will force you to accept it whether you want it or not. Other, similar races in Science Fiction are the "Alliance" in Firefly, Ian M. Banks' "Culture", and the US Government in nearly everything it shows up in. They have a very nice all-round fleet of ships, ready to fulfill any purpose you might think of. In the division which is often made between 'fighter-races' and 'torpedo-races' the Feds are definitely a torpedo-race, and a good one too.

Overview

The Federation have the widest array of torpedo ships ranging from the small two-tube Nocturne Class Destroyer to the massive Nova Class Super Dreadnought. This race is relatively easy to play (no dirty tricks you need to master first) and is fairly newbie friendly (super refit allows you to build tech 10-everything ships provided you find the right natives, and they have quite some useful ships below hull tech 7). The Feds’ special abilities are a 200% tax rate, the ability to Super Refit ships with better parts, some very nice crew bonuses in battle, three bonus fighter bays on any carrier and a good amount of special ships.

Original Strategy Guides

These strategy guides helped inform and in some cases word much of what is contained in this article.

• The Federation: a guide by Donovan
• The Solar Federation by Conrad Lesnewski
• The Imperial Federation by WarriorSol
• Ed's guide to the Federation by Ed Robinson
• The Federation player in VGA Planets by Mike Haslam
• Feds by Rufus Aurand
• Playing the Federation in VGA Planets by Arend Wellmann

Race Characteristics

The Feds main abilities revolve around their ability to maximize the economic efficiency of any race they work worth, their Eegineers that are able to come through in the clutch, and their modular ship design. However, the bureaucratic oversight that gives them so many economic advantages holds them back from being able to exploit the mineral deposits on planets they colonize, causing a reduction in mining efficiency.

The main race characteristics that distinguish the Feds from other races are:

• Super Refit
• 200% tax rate: The Federation encourages the economic development of their Colonies, effectively doubling their tax base. Because of this the Feds have about as strong of a money Economy as the Lizards and the Cyborg
• Scotty Bonus: Federation Engineers are among the most knowledgeable, crafty, and some may say downright lucky of all Engineers and they are able to increase the performance of their ships in the following ways.
  • +50kt hull mass
  • carriers get +3 fighter bays
  • Shields regenerate 25% between battles
  • All beam weapons, torpedo tubes, and fighter bays remain available regardless of starting combat damage
• Terraforming:

Of the three different Terraforming Hull types the Federation have two of them and they are highly useful for their purposes. The Eros Class Research Vessel, and the Bohemian Class Survey Ship can create a hospitable planet out of any planet.

Disadvantages:

• Reduced Mining Efficiency:

Due to Federation environmental protection laws, they mine at 70% the efficiency of all other races, except the Lizards. If a player is not careful this can cause serious problems with development.

Ship List

Name	Tc	Bm	T/F	En	MC	Dur	Tri	Mol	Mass	Car	Fuel	Crew
Outrider Class Scout	1	1	0/0	1	50	20	40	5	75	40	260	180
Nocturne Class Destroyer	2	4	2/0	1	70	25	50	7	90	50	180	190
Bohemian Class Survey Ship (Terraform up to 50)	3	2	0/0	2	40	10	20	3	32	30	180	70
Medium Deep Space Freighter	3	0	0/0	1	65	4	4	6	60	200	250	6
Eros Class Research Vessel (Terraform down to 50)	4	2	0/0	2	30	4	3	13	35	30	110	78
Vendetta Class Frigate	5	4	4/0	2	170	12	23	57	100	30	140	79
Nebula Class Cruiser	6	4	4/0	2	390	42	61	73	170	350	470	430
Banshee Class Destroyer	6	4	2/0	2	110	22	47	53	120	80	140	336
Large Deep Space Freighter	6	0	0/0	2	160	85	7	8	130	1200	600	102
Brynhild Class Escort (Bioscanner)	7	4	0/0	1	100	5	45	35	90	30	140	162
Loki Class Destroyer (Tachyon Device)	8	2	4/0	2	170	10	20	43	101	80	140	265
Arkham Class Frigate	8	6	3/0	2	70	12	43	67	150	90	120	328
Missouri Class Battleship	8	8	6/0	2	510	140	143	150	395	170	260	810
Thor Class Frigate	9	1	8/0	2	130	35	55	89	173	95	160	370
Diplomacy Class Cruiser	9	6	6/0	2	410	35	53	79	180	95	350	328
Kittyhawk Class Carrier	9	4	0/6	2	195	25	45	49	173	65	280	370
Neutronic Refinery Ship (Alchemy Neutronium)	9	6	0/0	10	970	125	150	527	712	1050	800	190
Super Transport Freighter	10	0	0/0	4	220	125	13	18	160	2600	1200	202
Merlin Class Alchemy Ship (Alchemy Minerals)	10	8	0/0	10	840	625	250	134	920	2700	450	120
Nova Class Super-dreadnought	10	10	10/0	4	810	240	343	350	650	320	560	1810

Only the most useful ships will be mentioned here.

• Nocturne Class Destroyer: This is a small and cheap torpedo ship. It is useful as a minelayer for laying small overlapping minefields to thwart cloakers. Useful for the early game, but since it only has one engine its utility diminishes.

• Bohemian Class Survey Ship: Warms planets up to 50 degrees.

• Eros Class Research Vessel: Cools planets down to 50 degrees.

• Nebula Class Cruiser: The small/medium warship and primary minelayer of your fleet. Decent mass, large cargo hold, large crew, large tank, four beams and four torptubes.

• Brynhild Class Escort: The Federation Bioscanner, which has a 20% chance of scanning planets within 200 LYs for natives and temperature when it's mission is set to 'sensor sweep'.

• Missouri Class Battleship: The best tech 8 ship around. 8 Beams, 6 tubes, high mass and a large crew.

• Loki Class Destroyer: This ship should never do any fighting for you. It's far too valuable. It will decloak those sneaky cloakers, after which one of your other ships can kill them. Beware of Lizards and Birdmen: their cloakers are immune to the Loki's tachyon field.

• Diplomacy Class Cruiser: Six torp tubes and six beams. Holds 95 torps, weighs 180 KT and has a nice big 350 KT fueltank.

• Kittyhawk Class Carrier: The Kitty is the Federation's only carrier. It has six fighterbays, holds 65 fighters and has four beams. With the three bonus fighterbays it puts fighters in the battle at the rate of a ship with 9 bays, only one bay less than the large carriers. It's main drawback is it's limited cargohold.

• Nova Class Super-Dreadnought: The biggest ship in your list. Pretty good, but on it's own it still won't win from any of the large carriers or the Annihilation Class Battleship.