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PHost Rules
The Portable Host
Version 4.0h

Index

Introduction

This document provides a high-level description of the game rules as implemented by PHost. It contains links to the more detailed descriptions. If you are new to the game, you should read this.

The things you can do also depend on the client program you use. Some will let you define multi-hop waypoints in advance. Some will automatically choose the right taxes or randomize friendly codes. Some include a report generator or a printable map.... All client programs should allow you to give all orders described here, although the presentation will differ.

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General

The game universe is either a flat plane with vast space outside the area populated with planets, or a wraparound map where the north and south borders are joined together, as well as the east an west borders. Coordinates are measured in light-years (ly). X coordinates increase from west (left) to east (right), Y coordinates increase from south (bottom) to north (top). Coordinates usually range from 1000 to 3000. Directions are specified in degrees, where 0° is north, 90° is east, 180° is south, and 270° is west. You do not have to compute directions yourself, but you'll get degree values when scanning ships or Ufos. See AllowWraparoundMap, WraparoundRectangle.

Usually, you see the positions of all planets in the universe. Foreign ships can be located only when they're close enough; ships which orbit a distant planet can't be seen at all. To get information about distant planets, to find minefields and wormholes, you have to use the Sensor Sweep mission. See SensorRange, ScanRange, MineScanRange, etc.

Speeds are specified as warp factors. The distance covered each turn is the square of the warp factor (i.e. Warp 8 means 64 ly per turn). Players have access to warp factors 0 to 9, that is up to 81 ly per turn (162 ly with gravitonic accelerator). Objects like Ufos may move faster.

There are four minerals. Their quantities are, like all masses, measured in kilotons (kt).

The currency unit in Planets is the Megacredit (mc). An additional resource, Supplies, is needed for various tasks. Supplies are also measured in kilotons.

Populations are usually counted in clans where one clan is 100 people and their belongings. One clan weighs one kiloton.

Every object has an Id number which identifies that object: at any given time, there can be only one "ship #127". Numbers are allocated separately for each type, so there will also be a "planet #127" and a "minefield #127". These numbers are required at several places. For example, the Transfer Credits to Ship mission needs the Id number of the target ship as a parameter.

Client/Server

VGA Planets is a client/server game. The part which you as a player will most likely talk to is the client program. There are quite a number of clients available. See also the relevant glossary entry. The server program is often called host in the VGAP universe.

The client program displays your empire graphically, and lets you enter your moves. For example, you can tell a ship to move to a particular planet. This is just an order, the ship will not yet start moving. You can at any time cancel that order. If you tell your ship to rob someone, you'll not immediately get their stuff - you don't even know what they have.

When you are done with your turn, you compile a turn file and send that to your game master. He'll use the server program (which is probably PHost) to generate new result files. Here, the ship will actually move and rob, and the server (or host) program will tell you what happened.

Some orders, however, are already processed by the client. When you transfer cargo between two of your units, that will be immediately be performed.

The rule is simple: if you know all details of the participating units, there's nothing which could go wrong, so the order is executed immediately. All other orders are processed host-side.

Players

There can be up to 11 players in a game. Each of them can play one of 11 races, or even a completely non-standard race, but usually, player 1 plays standard race 1, and so on. See PlayerRace, PlayerSpecialMission, Non-standard race assignments.

Players who do not submit a turn will be treated as if they had submitted a turn which contained no commands. Their units will continue their last orders. Only turns based upon current RST files are accepted, stale files cannot be used. Auto Tasks, as offered by some client programs, will not continue when the player misses a turn, they are handled by the client and are never seen by PHost.

Players can usually interact with the host by changing various protocol settings (bigtargets, bigminefields), their language (language, CPEnableLanguage), and their empire name (racename, CPEnableRaceName). They can also request some files from the host (send, CPEnableSend).

Players can send messages to each other, which can be anonymous or not. See AllowPlayerMessages, AllowAnonymousMessages.

Players can form alliances. PHost offers a rather sophisticated alliance system which is described on its own page. In addition, matching friendly codes can be used for access control.

By default, players see each others' scores, and the names of foreign ships on their sensors. See ScoringMethod, AllowShipNames.

Add-ons

PHost has extensive support for add-on programs. Add-ons can heavily change the behaviour of the game. For example, there are add-ons which allow you to move minefields, to destroy planets, or to transport starship components with freighters. All rules in this document (and the rest of the documentation) are valid only for standard PHost, use them with care if add-ons are in the game.

See Manipulating the Host Sequence.

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Ships

Specs

Ships have a hull type which defines the shape, cargo capacity and fuel tank capacity of the ship. Every player can build up to 20 different hulls, some of them are exclusive to his race. Most players can also clone captured ships. The hull mass also is the most important component of a ship's battle mass (weapon resistance).

Ships have engines. The number of engines are defined by the hull, you cannot build this hull with more or fewer engines. There are 9 engine types with varying efficiency. All engines can move the ships at all speeds from Warp 1 to Warp 9, but cheap engines burn much fuel doing that. Usually, you want the best possible engines. Engines can have an effect on the ship's battle mass. See AllowEngineShieldBonus and relatives.

Depending on their hull, ships can be outfitted with weapons. Except for fighter bays, you can outfit the ship with fewer weapons than the ship could carry; you can even leave them out completely.

No ship can have torpedo launchers and fighter bays at the same time. Beams are also called main weapons, and torpedoes and fighters are also called secondary weapons.

The components built into the hull (engines, weapons) are fixed when the ship is built, and cannot be changed afterwards. The Super Refit mission is the only exception.

Some ships have special devices which are part of their hull. See Hull functions.

Ships have a crew. They can operate correctly as long as there is at least one crewman. However, when all crew is killed in combat, the ship gets captured.

Ships have a cargo bay. They can carry the three minerals (Tritanium, Duranium, Molybdenum), supplies and colonists, as well as ammunition for their secondary weapons. Ships can only carry ammo which matches their weapon: torpedo ships can carry just their torpedo types, and carriers can only transport fighters.

Ships also have a fuel tank to store Neutronium fuel as well as a locker in which they can carry up to 10000 mc.

Players can choose the names for their ships.

Ships can be under remote control. Remote-control ships will belong to their real owner during hosting, but will appear to belong to the player who is in control during playing. See under remote control for more details.

Starship crews have experience. Experienced crews are better at certain tasks than others.

Orders

Ships have a friendly code. This code may trigger special actions. The friendly code also selects the ship's battle order, and is used for access control with matching friendly codes.

Each ship can perform one mission at a time. There are standard missions (those already offered by the original HOST program) as well as extended missions. See Missions for details.

A ship can have a primary enemy which is a standing order to attack units belonging to that race. Ships that do not have a primary enemy and not the Kill mission will not attack others, but they will defend themselves when attacked. See Order of Battle.

Ships have a movement order, consisting of a waypoint and a warp factor. The ship will attempt to move towards its waypoint at the given speed. The fuel required for the move depends on the distance covered, and the total mass of the ship. If a ship is towing another ship, the towee's mass affects the fuel consumption as well. Instead of specifying the target coordinates, you can also intercept another ship. Intercept is a mission, so you cannot cloak or tow or do other interesting things while intercepting.

Interaction

Ships can transfer cargo to exactly one foreign ship each turn. Only the four minerals as well as colonists and supplies can be transferred this way, but there exist extended missions to transfer money and ammo as well. If not all of the cargo fits on the receiving ship, you'll get it back into the normal cargo hold. If you do not have fuel, you cannot use the transporter, either. The Privateers can rob such transfers in transit. This does not apply to transfers between same-race ships. Those have no limit, and are performed instantly.

Ships can also unload cargo to a foreign or unowned planet. Likewise, only the four minerals, supplies and colonists can be transferred this way, but there is an extended mission to beam down credits. The Privateers can rob such transfers, too. Dropping colonists to an unowned planet colonizes the planet (you own it next turn), dropping colonists to an enemy planet triggers ground combat.

Ships in free space can jettison cargo. You can only jettison stuff when you have fuel. You can jettison minerals, supplies, and colonists. Some Winplan-compatible clients also let you throw away torpedoes, fighters and money.

Many of the starship missions interact with other ships, too. Ships can be repaired (and re-crewed) or recycled at starbases.

Processes

Damaged starships will automatically repair themselves when they have supplies on board. 5 kt supplies repair one damage point.

Rebel carriers will automatically build fighters as long as they have the appropriate amounts of minerals available (5 kt supplies, 3 kt Tritanium, 2 kt Molybdenum).

Fueled ships which reach a planet which you don't own will send you an exploration report.

Some ship functions will permanently operate, for example, anti cloak or alchemy.

Hints

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Planets

Specs

Planets have a position in space and a name, which can not be changed during the game. Normally, you see the complete map from the start of the game on. The popular ExploreMap add-on provides a dynamic map, that is, you only see planets you're close enough - like for ships.

Planets have varying amounts of the four minerals in their core, as well as already-mined minerals on the surface. Only the surface minerals can be used for building things. The core minerals must be extracted using mineral mines, depending on their density, you can extract minerals at different speeds.

Planets have a temperature which affects the maximum population on the planet. The temperature can be changed by terraforming.

Each planet can either be unowned or owned by one player. No planet can be shared by two races. A planet is owned when the player has at least one colonist clan on it. When that clan dies or is taken away, the planet gets unowned.

There can be a native population on some planets. Natives can have one of 9 races and a government. The race determines how beneficial the natives are for you, the government determines how "civilized" the natives are which affects your taxation.

Native Race Benefit
Amorphous Don't pay taxes, eat colonists
Amphibians Give you free Tech 10 for beams when you build a starbase
Avians Don't get unhappy so fast when you tax them
Bovinoids 100 clans give you one extra supply each turn
Ghipsoldals Give you free Tech 10 for engines when you build a starbase
Humanoids Give you free Tech 10 for hulls when you build a starbase
Insectoids Pay twice as much taxes as others
Reptilians Double your mining rate
Siliconoids Give you free Tech 10 for torpedoes when you build a starbase
Government Tax collection Number
Anarchy 20% 1
Pre-Tribal 40% 2
Early-Tribal 60% 3
Tribal 80% 4
Feudal 100% (as colonists) 5
Monarchy 120% 6
Representative 140% 7
Participatory 160% 8
Unity 180% 9

You can tax colonists and natives in order to earn money. This affects their happiness. If you overdo it, the population will riot or even start a civil war. Colonists and natives have separate happiness, so it can happen that natives fight and colonists not, or vice versa. You need colonists to collect the native taxes. Normally, one colonist clan collects one megacredit, everything above is lost. Benefits from Insectoid natives and improved NativeTaxRate apply after this limit (i.e., on an Insectoid planet, each colonist clan can collect two mc).

Note that the percentages given in the above table affect the amount of money you get, not the maximum tax rate. When taxed at 15%, a Participatory population gives you twice as much as the same population in Tribal form.

You can build structures on planets. The amount you can build is determined by the colonist population.

Many mines or factories can make the population unhappy. Planetary structures cannot be destroyed when they are no longer used, so build with care.

Planets have experience. Experienced planets are better in combat.

You can build one starbase per planet. The starbase will then orbit the planet. It does not affect the population on the planet.

Processes

Trans-uranium decay adds a small amount of minerals to the planet's core each turn. Meteorites that strike the planet also add some minerals. See TransuraniumDecayRate, MeteorShowerOdds.

Sometimes, a large meteor hits a planet. This will add large amounts of minerals, but also do damage to the planetary structures and make the population unhappy. The resulting explosion is so big that everyone in the universe will detect it. See LargeMeteorsImpacting, RandomMeteorRate.

On temperate planets, populations grow. High tax rates reduce the growth rate. See RaceGrowthRate, CrystalsPreferDeserts.

On planets with extreme climate, large populations will eat supplies to survive, or die. See ClimateDeathRate, AllowEatingSupplies, ClimateLimitsPopulation.

Sometimes, new natives are discovered on a planet. See NewNativesPerTurn.

When there are too few colonists on a planet to support all the planetary structures, the structures will decay. See StructureDecayPerTurn, StructureDecayOnUnowned.

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Starbases

Specs

Starbases are built in orbit of a planet which you control. Every planet can have at most one starbase. Starbases use resources (cash, minerals) from the planet, and inherit its friendly code.

Every starbase has four tech levels, for the areas starship hulls, engines, beams, and torpedoes. You need an appropriate tech level to build starship components. At tech 1, you can only build the most simple components. You can buy upgrades for money. Registered players can buy up to Tech 10, unregistered players can buy only Tech 6. Starbases start with Tech 1 in all areas when built, but some native races give you a free Tech 10 on one area. Tech levels are local to each base. To build parts on many bases, you have to buy the appropriate tech level on all of them.

Starbases have storage for starship components (hulls, engines, beams, torpedo launchers) as well as ammunition (torpedoes, fighters). You can build these components and store them on the base.

Every starbase can have one of six primary orders. One of these is to repair starbase damage. A starbase which is damaged in combat loses some tech levels.

Starbases can have up to 200 defense posts. When the planet is involved in battle, the starbase will improve its battle power. The starbase defense will allow more weapons, the tech levels will improve the weapons' types, and torpedoes and fighters from starbase storage will also be used.

You cannot scrap a starbase. The only way to get rid of a base is to remove all colonists from the planet so that it is unowned for one turn. This will remove the base. Sometimes it can be useful to do that, for example, when the base got heavily damaged, or when beneficial natives were discovered on the planet.

Orders

The main task for a starbase is to build ships. You first put the required components into storage, and then assemble the ship. The ship will be built as soon as possible, using the build queue if needed.

Starbases can also fix (repair) or recycle (scrap) one ship per turn.

Starbase primary orders can also interact with ships. There are six primary orders: (these orders are supported by PHost as well as the original HOST; there are no "extended" missions (yet))

Starbase Mission 1 - Refuel Ships

This mission will refuel all ships which are in orbit of the planet, to which this planet is friendly: your own ships, ships with matching friendly codes, and ships whom you have offered the planet level of alliance.

Ships are processed in Id order. It does not matter whether they are cloaked or not. This mission is particularly useful because it happens after movement but before combat. You can thus refuel a dry ship in order to have it fight anyway.

Relevant PControl Stage: BaseMissions_2

Starbase Mission 2 - Maximize Defense

The starbase will automatically build up starbase defense. There is no difference between building defense using the appropriate client function and this mission, but this mission will save you time every once in a while. In particular, each starbase defense post will cost 10 mc and 1 kt Duranium.

The starbase will build as many defense posts as it can.

Relevant PControl Stage: BaseMissions_1

Starbase Mission 3 - Load Torpedoes onto Ships

The starbase will load torpedoes onto ships. It will give torpedoes to every ship to which this planet is friendly: your own ships, ships with matching friendly codes, and ships whom you have offered the planet level of alliance.

Ships will be processed in Id order, including cloaked ships. This mission will only give away torpedoes from the starbase storage, it will not itself build them.

Besides the Beam Transfer Torpedoes mission, this is a quick way to give torpedoes to allies.

Relevant PControl Stage: BaseMissions_1

Starbase Mission 4 - Unload Freighters

The starbase will unload incoming ships. It will unload all ships to which the planet is friendly: your own ships, ships with matching friendly codes, and ships whom you have offered the planet level of alliance, including cloaked ships.

This mission will unload Tritanium, Duranium, Molybdenum, Supplies, Colonists and cash. It will not unload Neutronium or ammunition.

Relevant PControl Stage: BaseMissions_2

Starbase Mission 5 - Repair Base

This mission repairs 5 points of damage on a starbase. This is the only possibility to repair a starbase (other than scrapping and rebuilding it). Repairing a base does not cost anything.

Relevant PControl Stage: BaseMissions_2

Starbase Mission 6 - Force Surrender

The starbase will attempt to lower the shields of enemy ships in orbit, in order to take them over. A ship will surrender if it fulfils one of these conditions:

Surrendering counts as ship giving: A ship which is ungiveable can not be taken over by surrendering. If you try it anyway, the ship will explode; if you're offering planet level, the ship will stay there in orbit.

This mission is useful to take enemy ships: When you find a fuel-less ship, tow it to your starbase and have it surrender (unless you can do tow capture, of course). It is also frequenly used for ship trading.

Relevant PControl Stage: BaseMissions_1

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Minefields

Specs

A minefield has a fixed position in space. Once laid, its position can't be altered. Minefields are circular, the radius is the square root of the mine units laid into the field.

Minefields have an owner which is determined when the minefield is laid and can't be changed afterwards.

There are normal and web mines. The type of minefield is determined by the mission used to laying it, and can't be changed afterwards. Normal mines just damage ships when they go off. Web mines do less damage, but have much higher hit odds. A ship which hits a web mine must stop and burn some fuel. Web mines also drain fuel from ships which just sit in the field.

Only Crystals can lay web mines, but everyone can lay normal mines. To lay a minefield, you need a ship with torpedoes; the torpedoes are converted into mines. Each torpedo converts into a number of mines which equals the square of the torpedo type (i.e. one Gamma Bomb, which is type 4, yields 4*4=16 mine units). Robots are more efficient at this, they get four times as many units. See UnitsPerTorpRate.

New minefields cannot be laid inside an existing minefield of the same type, but you can enlargen your existing minefields to make them overlap.

Players who submit their turn with Winplan or a compatible program will automatically see all their minefields. Others will only see minefields they scan this turn. See MineScanRange, ExtendedSensorSweep.

Processes

Minefields decay slowly. See MineDecayRate, WebMineDecayRate, MinefieldDecay stage.

When two hostile minefields overlap, mine units from both fields explode until they do no longer overlap. Normal mines usually don't destroy web mines and vice versa. See AllowMinesDestroyMines, AllowMinesDestroyWebs, AlternativeMinesDestroyMines, MinesDestroyMines stage.

Interaction with Ships

Ships moving through a minefield risk running on a mine unless the minefield owner offers a mine-level alliance to the ship owner. For every light year inside the minefield, a dice is rolled whether the ship hits a mine. Cloaked ships have a lower risk of hitting normal mines than uncloaked ships. For web mines, it doesn't matter whether the ship cloaks. The mine hit odds may depend on the ship's speed and experience. See MineHitOdds, MineHitOddsWhenCloakedX10, WebMineHitOdds, EModMineHitOddsBonus, and MineOddsWarpBonusX100 and friends.

Ships moving slower than a particular speed are safe from mine hits. By default, only ships which do not move are safe. Ships which do not move normally (hyperdrive, gravity wells, chunnel, being towed) are safe, too. See MineTravelSafeWarp etc.

Ships which hit a mine (normal or web) take damage and must possibly slow down. See HullTechNotSlowedByMines, MineHitDamageFor100KT, WebHitDamageFor100KT.

Ships which hit a web mine must stop their movement and burn fuel. See WebHitFuelLoss.

Ships which are in a web mine before movement lose fuel, for just being inside the web. See WebDrainFuelLoss, WebDraining stage.

Ships can sweep mines using their beam weapons. Ships can also scoop up mines owned by the same race and build torpedoes. See MineScanRange, MineSweepRange, WebMineSweepRange, MineSweepRate, WebMineSweepRate.

Some races (Colonies, usually) can use their fighters to sweep mines, too. See FighterSweepRate, FighterSweepRange, AllowColoniesSweepWebs.

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This document is maintained by The Portable Host Project (support@phost.de).

Last updated 11 July 2004.