Fleets

Fleets consist of one or more ships that are directed by one of the human factions or the aliens. Fleets conduct operations and fight in space battles.

Fleet Operations

Fleets may undertake various operations, typically only when they are in orbit and not in a transfer. They are:

Operation	Effects	Required components
Transfer	Launch this fleet toward the selected orbit, station, or fleet.
Split Fleet	Break off one or more ships into a separate fleet.
Merge Fleets	Merge a nearby fleet into this one.
Merge All Fleets	Merge all nearby fleets into this one.
Land on Surface	Set down at a friendly or undefended enemy base, or an unimproved hab site. Fleet must have sufficient acceleration to take off again, and access to enough Delta-V to reach an interface orbit.
Launch	Launch the fleet into an interface orbit of this space body. Requires the fleet has Delta-V greater than the body's escape velocity.
Undock	Undock from this station and assume a matching orbit.
Scuttle Ships	Scuttle ships from this fleet. If docked at one of your shipyards, gain 25% of the ship's construction resources in your stockpile. If not docked at any hab, pay Boost to send any crew home that can't be absorbed by the rest of the fleet.
Resupply	Refuel and rearm ships in this fleet. Requires being docked at a hab with a supply depot or shipyard and a sufficient resource stockpile to cover at least a partial resupply. Ships with the capability to resupply from the local environment may do so for free.
Repair	Repair damage and restore exhausted modules to ships in fleet.
Repair and Resupply	Refuel, rearm, and repair all ships in this fleet.
Set Homeport	Sets a home habitat for this fleet. A station, or an interface orbit above a base, will become the default destination for the fleet when initiating a trajectory when the fleet is not already docked there and no other space object is currently selected.
Clear Homeport	Clear this fleet's homeport.
Cancel	Cancel the fleet's active operation.
Share Propellant	Transfer propellant between ships in this fleet to increase some ships' Delta-V.	Drive with the same propellant
Low-Level Bombardment	Begin orbital bombardment against a surface target from 200km altitude. Requires being in an interface orbit. Defended locations will return fire. Earth-based space facilities and armies typically must be in a nation at war to be targeted. Targeting large civilian facilities is an atrocity.	Weapons that can bombard
Mid-Level Bombardment	Begin orbital bombardment against a surface target from 400km altitude. Requires being in an interface orbit. Defended locations will return fire. Earth-based space facilities and armies typically must be in a nation at war to be targeted. Targeting large civilian facilities is an atrocity.	Weapons that can bombard
High-Level Bombardment	Begin orbital bombardment against a surface target from 600km altitude. Requires being in an interface orbit. Defended locations will return fire. Earth-based space facilities and armies typically must be in a nation at war to be targeted. Targeting large civilian facilities is an atrocity.	Weapons that can bombard
Destroy Hab	Destroy the hab this fleet is docked at. Counts as an atrocity against human habitats with certain civilian modules. We will recover salvage.	Marine Assault Unit or Rangers Weapons (stations only)
Assault Hab	Assault and capture an enemy hab with our Marines. We can seize a station we have docked with, or an enemy base from an interface orbit above it. Habs with Marine defenses will be harder to capture.	Marine Assault Unit or Rangers
Survey	Prospect mining sites on a planet, moon or asteroid. The fleet must be in an interface orbit of the space body to perform this operation.	Mobile Space Science Lab
Found Platform (Solar)	Found a solar-powered platform with a construction module in the fleet's current orbit. Requires at least one free Mission Control.	Solar Platform Kit
Found Platform (Fission)	Found a platform with a fission pile and a construction module in the fleet's current orbit. Requires at least one free Mission Control.	Fission Platform Kit
Found Platform (Fusion)	Found a platform with a fusion pile and a construction module in the fleet's current orbit. Requires at least one free Mission Control.	Fusion Platform Kit
Found Outpost (Solar)	Found a solar-powered outpost with a construction module at a prospected base site. The fleet must be in an interface orbit or landed at the site to perform this operation. Requires one free Mission Control.	Solar Outpost Kit
Found Outpost (Fission)	Found an outpost with a fission pile and a construction module at a prospected base site. The fleet must be in an interface orbit or landed at the site to perform this operation. Requires one free Mission Control.	Fission Outpost Kit
Found Outpost (Fusion)	Found an outpost with a fusion pile and a construction module at a prospected base site. The fleet must be in an interface orbit or landed at the site to perform this operation. Requires one free Mission Control.	Fusion Outpost Kit
Found Automated Supply Depot (Solar)	Found a solar-powered platform with a supply depot in the fleet's current orbit. Requires sufficent local solar flux to deploy and two free Mission Control.	Automated Solar Platform Kit
Found Automated Supply Depot (Fission)	Found a fission-powered platform with a supply depot in the fleet's current orbit. Requires two free Mission Control.	Automated Fission Platform Kit
Found Automated Mining Outpost (Solar)	Found a solar-powered automated outpost with a mine. Requires sufficent local solar flux to deploy. The fleet must be in an interface orbit or landed at the site to perform this operation. Requires 2 free Mission Control.	Automated Solar Outpost Kit
Found Automated Mining Outpost (Fission)	Found a fission-powered automated outpost with a mine. The fleet must be in an interface orbit or landed at the site to perform this operation. Requires 2 free Mission Control.	Automated Fission Outpost Kit

Transfers

A transfer is the term for a fleet moving from one place to another while staying in space. Fleets may transfer to orbits, stations, or other fleets.

When initiating a transfer operation, a fleet will receive one or more trajectory options if it can reach its destination at all. If multiple trajectories are possible, the player may choose between trading off arrival time and Delta-V expenditure between them.

Trajectories might be microthrust spirals, which are typical for fleets with low acceleration; impulse conics, for fleets with high acceleration but low Delta-V; or torch chords, for advanced fleets with high acceleration and Delta-V.

Orbital Bombardment

A fleet equipped with magnetic or laser weapons may conduct orbital bombardment against targets on the surface of a space body. They must be in an interface orbit to launch attacks.

Above Earth, valid targets include armies, space facilities, regions, and any alien assets we have detected. On other space bodies, bases and landed space fleets may be targeted.

Certain weapons, such as lasers that fire in ultraviolet wavelenghts, cannot bombard through thicker atmospheres, particularly that of Earth and Titan.

If a targeted hab or region has defenses, they will fire back at the attacking fleet.

Space Combat

Combat UI showing ship commands and fleet commands

When two fleets from enemy factions meet in an orbit, deep space, or at a station, a space battle begins. Players may elect to autoresolve combats.

Stations with defensive modules will take part in battles; they will be considered disabled if those modules are destroyed.

Very large space battles will have active and reinforcing ships. Reinforcing ships will join during combat at a later time to replace active ships when they are destroyed. You can adjust the maximum number of ships that can be active at any time during combat in the gameplay settings in the options menu. A maximum value of 30 for example, will limit each side to having a maximum of 15 active ships at any time. This is for performance reasons in very large battles.

When a fleet or station is attacked, allied fleets of the defender in the same orbit and less than 1,000 kilometers away will be drawn into the battle and join the defending fleet.

Before a battle begins, each fleet will select from one of three stances: Engage, Accept, or Evade. Fleets that are docked at habs or are unavailable for operations because of previous battles may only select the Accept option. Based on what each side picks the follwing will happen:

Choice	Engage	Accept	Escape
Engage	Combat	Combat	Pursuit
Accept	Combat	No combat	No combat
Escape	Pursuit	No combat	No combat

If pursuit takes place both fleets will attempt to outpace the other with a combination of fleet acceleration and bid Delta-V. If the fleet that selected Engage moves faster the combat will take place.

Once in combat, players plan maneuvers their ships by setting waypoints in 3D space. Ships will turn and thrust to reach their waypoints. Players may also rotate a ship's facing independent of its direction of travel to present certain weapons or armor facings to an enemy. Special maneuvers include persistent spins, rolls, and a padlocking-target command that keeps the ship's nose pointed at its primary target.

Any damage that penetrates a ship's armor is applied to its internal systems. Weapons and other modules may be temporarily disabled or permanently destroyed, requiring repair at a hab with a shipyard. Damage control teams will also attempt to restore function to critical systems in combat.

Fire Control

Weapons have one or more fire modes available to them. They can be set at the fleet, ship, or individual weapon level during combat.

Ships may also designate an enemy ship or hab module as its primary target. The ship's weapons will favor that enemy over others. Missile weapons require a primary target to fire.

Depending on their capabilities, weapons may also be set to only attack enemy ships, only fire defensively at incoming projectiles and missiles, or in "guardian" mode, firing first at threatening projectiles and then targeting enemy craft.

Ships or the entire fleet can be set to the following fire postures:

Posture	Offensive weaponry	Guardian-capable weapons
Focus Fire	Attack only primary target	Attack only primary target
Attack	Attack primary target if in range, otherwise nearest target	Attack primary target if in range, otherwise nearest target
Balanced	Attack primary target if in range, otherwise nearest target	Attack threatening projectiles if any, otherwise nearest target
Defensive	Attack primary target if in range, otherwise nearest target	Attack only threatening projectiles
Fortified	Preserve power and ammo	Attack only threatening projectiles

Heat Management

Running the ship's power plant to recharge the batteries or operate the drive creates heat that is normally expelled by the ship's radiators, which cannot be armored. In combat, radiators may be retracted to protect them, but the ship must put all its heat into heat sinks, which have a limited capacity. The heat level will lower automatically when the radiators are extended. If the heat level stored in heat sinks reaches maximum, the ship will start to take internal damage. In combat, the radiators will automatically be extended to start radiating heat if possible. Keep in mind, without proper heat management a ship will experience catastrophic failure.