Habs

(The content of this page is based on Terra Invicta Dev Diary #13: Habitats.)

Types of Habs
A critical component of your faction’s efforts are habitats, or habs. You can build two types of habs: stations, which go in an orbit, and bases, which go at a hab site. Habs are composed of modules.

Both types of habs come in three sizes. Stations grow from platforms, to orbitals, and then to rings. Bases start as outposts, grow to settlements, and finally become colonies. The size determines both how many modules you can have (4, 12 or 20, plus the core), and the maximum size of each module.



All habs have a core module; upgrading the core upgrades the entire station and unlocks new module slots. Those slots have designated positions in the overall layout of the hab, so construction is a bit “on the rails” instead of freeform.

Habs, like fleets, belong directly to a faction. Your hab may be nominally operating under NASA or the United Nations, but what matters is that its people are really working for The Academy, The Resistance, Project Exodus, etc.

You can found a new hab in a few ways. One is to launch the core module from Earth, using boost. This can be a bit slow if the location is far from the homeworld. A second is to develop and build kits your ships can deploy when they arrive in an orbit or land on a space body. A third is to found habs from other habs in the same planetary system that have a factory module.

Modules
Habs need power generating modules for all non-core modules to work. Initially only solar power modules are available, but you can develop fission and fusion modules as the game goes on. It’s important to note that solar power output decreases dramatically the further you go from the Sun – and are unlikely to be useful beyond Mars, but the panels will have huge output if located near or on Mercury.

Many modules can be built both at stations and bases, although some are hab-type-specific. Most need a project completed to unlock them. A few are faction-specific. Several are upgrades of prior ones: The materials lab can become a materials research center, which can become a materials institute at the largest hab.



There are hab modules for research, hab modules for money and influence production, and hab modules that grant engineering project capacity. Most modules have a support cost, which is drawn from your space resources, if you have them, otherwise from your boost. And if you are out of both, or have insufficient mission control, your hab is much more likely to suffer accidents, and be much more willing to switch allegiance to another faction.

Five module types deserve further note:


 * Mines. Buildable only on bases, of course, these produce space resources based on the hab site’s profile. These are built with electromagnetic catapults that fling material into space and into your resource pool.


 * Supply Depots. These let your fleets take on propellant and reload weapons by drawing down your space resource supply, or boost. These can go on the smallest habs; we expect you’ll need a network of them around the Solar System to keep your fleets moving.


 * Shipyards. These let you build and repair your warships. Larger yards speed construction of the ships. You’ll have a shipyard manager interface with build queues so you can coordinate construction across your holdings.


 * Barracks. These hold Marines to defend your hab from enemy assaults. From stations in an interface orbit, the Marines can also drop to assault surface bases, as long as one of your councilors is present to lead them. Councilors can similarly lead Marine assaults from one of your bases against a nearby enemy base.


 * Defense modules. These mount antiship and point defense weaponry for space combat. If a station is involved in combat, the enemy’s objective is to destroy these modules. After the battle, the station can be boarded or destroyed. Defense modules on bases fire back when the base is being bombarded form orbit.

Councilor Missions
You can also send councilors to habs, either by spending boost to launch from Earth to somewhere in the Earth-Moon system, or by hitching a ride on a ship. Councilors may only board enemy human ships or the smallest habs if they have the “undercover” trait. But second- and third-tier habs are large enough that councilors may board freely.

Once aboard, councilors can run a number of missions, including sabotaging a particular module or persuading the hab’s leaders to switch sides and join your faction.

Finding the UI
Once you have the prerequisites of a Hab space station, deselect (click x) on any agents. Zoom out until the boarders and icons on Earth aren't shown. Then click on Earth, it will zoom in a bit and a small icon of a space station with a + will appear at the bottom where commands normally are.

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