Debris Disks

Overview

Also known as an asteroid field, a debris disk is a collection of debris clumped together into a small area of space.

Limited mass

Ships whose mass is 200kT or more cannot enter or cross a debris disk. The weak armor to mass ratio of the Large Freighter, Super Transport, Neutronic Fuel Carrier also prohibits them from entering a debris disk. Any other ships that are less than 200kT may enter freely.

Imperial ships with 200kT or greater can enter debris disks, but run the risk of colliding with asteroids, taking damage as if they had triggered a mine. The faster the speed, the higher the risk. The formula for the risk of hitting an asteroid each light year is given as follows:

$\operatorname {chance} ={\frac {round(warp/(10-warp)*2)}{2}}$

This means that a ship moving at warp 1 would have no chance of colliding, a ship moving no faster than warp 4 has 0.5% of colliding, and it escalates from there, with a warp 9 ship having a whopping 9% chance of colliding!

Planetoids

Some of the particles clump up large enough to form colonizable planetoids. In order to colonize these planetoids, a player must initially bring a huge amount of supplies to the planetoid in order to support the colony (for purposes of population support, planetoids always count as a hostile planet that carries a base support of 0 clans). Planetoids do not have warp wells, and rarely have natives, but they are 20 times as likely to experience meteor showers.

Mining Station

Main Article: Mining Stations

Once enough minerals have been mined and the required credits has been unloaded or received from taxaion, Mining Stations may be built for a considerably cheaper cost than a normal starbase. However, they cannot be used to build ships or upgrade technology, and they can only hold 20 fighters and 50 defenses.

Mining stations support 50,000 colonists without supplies, and doubles the rate at which minerals are mined.

Misc

• The Falcon Escort can hide from hostile ships by ending its turn inside a debris disk. Its visibility is only a single light year
• Ships cannot be towed into a debris disk. The lock is broken, and both ships are stopped.
• Firecloud Cruisers should take care when opening a chunnel to or from a debris disk. Ships that participate in the chunnel are destroyed by the collisions with asteroids.
• Although ships can hyperjump into or through a debris disk, they cannot hyperjump out, and will move normally instead.