Basically, this is a list of major game changes since Round Z (I was going to use X, but everyone would think that was Round 10 :P)
In general, defence is harder as more people attack for XP. Defence is as much to stop people getting XP from roids as to stop roid loss.
Firstly, some of the major changes post R10
Post R10, "e
XPerience" was introduced. You get it for:
Scans (minor)
Covert ops (minor)
Capturing 'roids (potentially major)
Defending (minor)
Initiating Asteroids (minor)
Score = XP*60 + Value
XP for capturing roids = roids capped * 10 * (min (2,target_value/your_value) - 0.1) * (min (2,target_score/your_score)-0.2).
So the highest XP gain is from hitting someone 2x your value AND 2x your score .
Each planet now has a population which you can set to work on research, construction, production, security and mining. This increases the bonus of your planet in this area. This replaces engineering, if you knew about engineering
Each planet also has a government settable in the first 168 ticks after you've been upgraded. This gives you benefits in some areas at the cost of other areas.
You can now "pre-launch" your fleet, which allows you to schedule your launch for up to 12 ticks in the future. When pre launched, your fleet will not take part in combat
You can also set your base fleet to "run and hide", where your base fleet will not take part in combat.
Most players quickly find an alliance to become a member of. Alliance tools have been extensively integrated into the game.
Covert ops is another option to cause damage to opposing planets. You can purchase agents to perform missions to damage opposing planets, instantly.
The galaxy status page updates on the tick - launching fleets earlier won't show on galaxy status. They do still show on the "jumpgate probe" scan though.
Ships are launched eta X, show up at eta X-1, land, and return home eta X-1.
The last new major addition is covert ops - similar to scans in some ways, covert ops allows you to send agents to hostile planets to steal resources, destroy ships or constructions, and so forth. It involves a random element, as scans used to. You can be immune to covert ops using an engineering setting and/or having a certain percentage of your constructions as security centres (see the manual
here for more information).
There are also 5 new races, with the newest, Eitraides, joining in Round 20.
The startup system is now instant - you get 2 million resources to allocate to your planet, in exchange for a shorter protection rate.
You can only send ships for 1 tick of attack/defence
There's also a basic quest system.
Major chances since:
Round 1-3
Game now has the option to upgrade your account for a one off bonus.
Now we have 5 separate races instead of a tree with choices.
Combat has changed - gone are wpsd, agil, and the target all classes option. Some rounds, ships only have 1 target.
Instead, we have "armour" "damage" "init" and "class" - chance to hit another ship is 100%. EMP resistance is present though.
Combat happens over 1 tick - only 1 tick of attack and defence is allowed.
There's no PDS
Races were introduced: Terran, Cathaar, Xandrithii, Zikonian and Eitraides
Terran have big ships that fire late, with heavy armour and poor damage. Cathaar ships have high powered EMP ships and poor damage ships. Xan have small fast ships with a form of cloaking. Zik are harder to play, and steal ships. Eitraides have at least one of each of the steal, cloaked and EMP ships, as well as normal ships. Their special ability is to trade with the universe fund for a lesser price. They also get more salvage when defending.
Cluster ETA bonuses for attack have been removed.
Order slots introduced - you're only allowed 5 orders at once.
No such thing as a military scan any more - there's a fleet scan, which shows all non-cloaked ships heading your way.
There's also a new Advanced Unit Scan, which shows all ships (including cloaked ships) accurately, unlike the unit scan which suffers from distortion.
Round 4
Game now has the option to upgrade your account for a one off bonus.
Combat has changed - gone are wpsd, agil, and the target all classes option. Some rounds, ships only have 1 target.
Instead, we have "armour" "damage" "init" and "class" - chance to hit another ship is 100%. EMP resistance is present though.
Combat happens over 1 tick - only 1 tick of attack and defence is allowed.
There's no PDS (YAY!)
Races were introduced: Terran, Cathaar, Xandrithii, Zikonian and Eitraides
Terran have big ships that fire late, with heavy armour and poor damage. Cathaar ships have high powered EMP ships and poor damage ships. Xan have small fast ships with a form of cloaking. Zik are harder to play, and steal ships. Eitraides have at least one of each of the steal, cloaked and EMP ships, as well as normal ships. Their special ability is to trade with the universe fund for a lesser price. They also get more salvage when defending.
No such thing as a military scan any more - there's a fleet scan, which shows all non-cloaked ships heading your way.
There's also a new Advanced Unit Scan, which shows all ships (including cloaked ships) accurately, unlike the unit scan which suffers from distortion.
Researches and Constructions have changed - all previous researches and constructions are now just researches, and as such are free. Constructions are buildings you make on your planet to enable ship production or give some form of benefit to your planet.
Scans are different - you don't have to buy them in advanced, they're just there. There's no more wave scans to discover uninitated asteroids, they're just *there* and you initiate through the mining screen.
Wave Amplifiers and Distorters/deflectors/reflectors are now constructions, and have a straightforward formula - either you can scan, or you can't.
Cluster ETA bonuses have been removed.
Round 5
Combat has changed - gone are wpsd, agil, and the target all classes option. Some rounds, ships only have 1 target.
Instead, we have "armour" "damage" "init" and "class" - chance to hit another ship is 100%. EMP resistance is present though.
Combat happens over 1 tick - only 1 tick of attack and defence is allowed.
There's no PDS (YAY!)
Races were introduced: Terran, Cathaar, Xandrithii, Zikonian and Eitraides
Terran have big ships that fire late, with heavy armour and poor damage. Cathaar ships have high powered EMP ships and poor damage ships. Xan have small fast ships with a form of cloaking. Zik are harder to play, and steal ships. Eitraides have at least one of each of the steal, cloaked and EMP ships, as well as normal ships. Their special ability is to trade with the universe fund for a lesser price. They also get more salvage when defending.
No such thing as a military scan any more - there's a fleet scan, which shows all non-cloaked ships heading your way.
There's also a new Advanced Unit Scan, which shows all ships (including cloaked ships) accurately, unlike the unit scan which suffers from distortion.
Researches and Constructions have changed - all previous researches and constructions are now just researches, and as such are free. Constructions are buildings you make on your planet to enable ship production or give some form of benefit to your planet.
Scans are different - you don't have to buy them in advanced, they're just there. There's no more wave scans to discover uninitated asteroids, they're just *there* and you initiate through the mining screen.
Wave Amplifiers and Distorters/deflectors/reflectors are now constructions, and have a straightforward formula - either you can scan, or you can't.
Cluster ETA bonuses have been removed.
Round 6-9.5
Combat has changed - gone are wpsd, agil, and the target all classes option. Some rounds, ships only have 1 target.
Instead, we have "armour" "damage" "init" and "class" - chance to hit another ship is 100%. EMP resistance is present though.
Combat happens over 1 tick - only 1 tick of attack and defence is allowed.
There's no PDS (YAY!)
No such thing as a military scan any more - there's a fleet scan, which shows all non-cloaked ships.
Researches and Constructions have changed - all previous researches and constructions are now just researches, and as such are free. Constructions are buildings you make on your planet to enable ship production or give some form of benefit to your planet.
Scans are different - you don't have to buy them in advanced, they're just there. There's no more wave scans to discover uninitated asteroids, they're just *there* and you initiate through the mining screen.
Wave Amplifiers and Distorters/deflectors/reflectors are now constructions, and have a straightforward formula - either you can scan, or you can't.
Cluster ETA bonuses have been removed.
There's a new race, called Eitraides. Eitraides have at least one of each of the steal, cloaked and EMP ships, as well as normal ships. Their special ability is to trade with the universe fund for a lesser price.
Round 10-10.5
Combat has changed : no more disturbance stuff, pods are back! We have 6 classes of ship, and they all take different ETAs to send again.
XP is capped.
Round 11- present
most changes are in the
manual
feel free to suggest more changes