PHost - Starship Missions

Index

• Introduction
  • Mission Parameters
  • Setting Missions
  • For Hosts
• Standard Missions by Number
  • 1 - Explore
  • 2 - Mine Sweep
  • 3 - Lay Mines
  • 4 - Kill
  • 5 - Sensor Sweep
  • 6 - Colonize
  • 7 - Tow
  • 8 - Intercept
  • 9 - Special
  • 10 - Cloak
  • 11 - Gather Fuel
  • 12 - Gather Duranium
  • 13 - Gather Tritanium
  • 14 - Gather Molybdenum
  • 15 - Gather Supplies
• Race-specific Missions
  • Race 1 (Fed): Super Refit
  • Race 2 (Lizard): Hiss
  • Race 3 (Bird): Super Spy
  • Race 4 (Klingon): Pillage
  • Race 5 (Priv): Rob Ship
  • Race 6 (Cyborg): Self-Repair
  • Race 7 (Crystal): Lay Web Mines
  • Race 8 (Empire): Dark Sense
  • Races 9,11 (Robot/Colony): Build Fighters
  • Race 10 (Rebel): Ground Attack (RGA)
• PHost Extended Missions
  • 20 - Build Torpedoes from Cargo
  • 21 - Lay Minefield
  • 22 - Lay Web Minefield
  • 23 - Scoop Torpedoes from Minefield
  • 24 - Gather-Build Torpedoes
  • 25 - Beam Down Credits to Planet
  • 26 - Transfer Torpedoes to Ship
  • 27 - Transfer Fighters to Ship
  • 28 - Transfer Credits to Ship
  • 29 - Standard Super Spy
  • 30 - Cloak
  • 31 - Special
  • 32 - Gather-Build Fighters
  • 33 - Beam up Credits from Planet
  • 34 - Beam up Clans from Planet
  • 35 - Beam up Multiple
  • 36 - Lay Mines In
  • 37 - Lay Web Mines In
  • 38 - Training
  • 39 - Exchange Crew
  • 40 - Repair Ship

Introduction

Starships can perform a variety of missions. They can do exactly one mission at a time. PHost provides the standard set of missions (which all VGA Planets programs support), as well as a range of extended missions.

Mission Parameters

Missions can take up to two numeric parameters. Historically, these are called "I" (for Intercept) and "T" (for Tow), because they are used for the parameter to Intercept and Tow, respectively.

Client programs will prompt you for these parameters in some way when you set a mission that needs one.

Throughout the PHost documentation, we will use the "neutral" names "Parameter 1" and "Parameter 2" for the parameters.

Some missions can be modified by using special friendly codes. For most of those, PHost provides a replacement extended mission which allows you to specify these parameters in the "Parameter 1" and "Parameter 2" slots, usually with greater precision than what friendly codes allow.

Setting Missions

The standard missions can be set in all client programs. There are two exceptions, however. When you are using a custom ship list where ships can cloak which can not in the standard list, some clients may refuse to let you set the cloak mission. You then have to use the cloak extended mission. The same holds for the special mission in games with non-standard PlayerRace assignments, and on remote-controlled ships, for which you would use the extended special mission as a replacement.

Note that DOS Planets splits mission selection over two menus. The first ten missions are on the "Mission" menu (key M), the "Gather"-type missions are on the "Gather" menu (key G). Both menus change the mission of the ship. If you use both menus, the ship will perform the mission selected last, not both.

That aside, setting a standard mission is similar in most clients: you choose a mission, and the client asks you for its parameters if it needs some. Client programs automatically know all the 15 standard missions.

The procedure to set extended missions differs in client programs, and you may need to tell the program about the extended missions first.

Some games have extended missions disabled. In those, a ship told to perform an extended mission will either do nothing special, or continue its previous mission. Check the AllowExtendedMissions parameter to see whether extended missions are enabled in your game.

Winplan

Winplan players should place the mission.ini file that comes with PHost (or an alternate file provided by the host) in the VPWORKx subdirectory being used for the game. When you wish to give an extended mission order to a ship, bring up the mission menu for the ship and click on the "Extended Missions" button at the bottom of window. You will now see the list of missions to choose from in a selection window. Click on the mission you wish to perform.

Depending upon the mission you've chosen, you may be told that there is an "Intercept Required" and a "Tow Number Required". These are the parameters 1 and 2. Enter the desired values in the respective edit fields. Click "OK" to confirm.

VPA

VPA supports the mission.ini file in the same way as Winplan does. Place it in the game directory to let VPA know about the extended missions.

When you go to select a ship's mission, you will see the extended missions listed along with the normal missions. Enter the optional parameters if prompted.

Note that VPA 3.50a has a slight bug in this interface. If you enter a parameter value that is 0, VPA will ignore the extended mission. To work around this bug, do not enter extended mission parameters with a value of 0. This bug is fixed in VPA 3.51 or higher.

PCC

PCC knows about the PHost extended missions and will automatically offer them along with the standard missions when applicable. PCC also supports the mission.ini file.

DOS Planets

DOS Planets does not know about extended missions, and does not know about mission.ini, so you will need to enter new missions using the extmission command processor command. Briefly, the syntax of the command is

extmission <ship> <mission> [<parm1> [<parm2>]]

where <parm1> and <parm2> need only be specified for missions that require parameters. For example, to perform the Transfer Credits to Ship mission, which is number 28, you would send the command

extmission 105 28 317 5000

This will tell ship #105 to transfer 5000 mc to ship 317. Since planets.exe won't let you edit messages afterwards, it makes sense to collect these commands on a sheet of paper and send them afterwards as a group.

Note that the word extmission can be abbreviated up to the letter e.

The extmission command overrides the normal mission setting. If you set a mission on the regular ship screen, and send an extmission command, the ship will only perform the mission set using extmission.

For Hosts

Standard missions are usually all available. Their behavior can be modified with some configuration options, and some can even be disabled completely. The mission descriptions will contain appropriate notices.

Hosts will normally not have to do anything to support extended missions. Hosts may wish to disable extended missions, perhaps if they are upgrading a game from HOST to PHost and do not wish to unbalance a game in progress. The AllowExtendedMissions config option can be used to disable extended missions.

The only thing hosts may need to consider are other programs that also make use of the extended mission (M.I.T.) interface. If the missions used by another program overlap with those used by PHost, then the mission numbers must be changed to eliminate the overlap. For PHost, the extended mission numbers can be moved by manipulating the ExtMissionsStartAt parameter. As of this writing, there is no known add-on which could cause conflicts. We strongly advice you not to change ExtMissionsStartAt without a serious reason; this will most likely only confuse your players.

The only program known so far which also uses extended missions is FHost; it uses numbers starting with 200.

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Standard Missions by Number

Simple "do-nothing" mission. The ship will move around, send you exploration reports, and only fight when attacked or when it finds a ship or planet matching its primary enemy.

In earlier host versions, you needed this mission to get an exploration report when you orbit a foreign planet. This does now happen all the time, so you can use a different mission for ships that don't do anything special, for example, Mine Sweep or Sensor Sweep.

Preconditions: ships must have fuel to be able to generate exploration reports.

Relevant PControl Stages: ShipExploration

The starship will search for minefields. This mission actually can do three different things:

• When the ship does not have weapons, it can only scan for mines. You will receive appropriate reports. The same holds when the ship is armed but out of sweep range.
• When the ship has beam weapons and is in sweep range of an enemy mine field, it will fire the beams at the mine field, and try to destroy it. The number of mines destroyed is Beams * BeamType^2 * MineSweepRate. Carriers can also use their fighters to sweep the field (FighterSweepRate).
• When the ship is inside an own minefield, is set to the friendly code msc ("mine scoop", registered-only), and has torpedo tubes, it will gather up all the mines and convert them back into torpedoes. The number of torpedoes you get back is the same as the number you would need to lay the mine field with this ship; it need not be the same as the torpedo type actually used to lay the field. This will collect as many torpedoes as possible.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship is within MineScanRange from minefield
• for sweeping: ship has beams and/or fighters and is within respective sweep range to use them
• for scooping: ship has beams and torpedo launchers, and is inside the minefield
• if IonStormsHideMines is enabled, a minefield cannot be scanned or swept if its center is covered by an ion storm, and the ion storm is larger than the minefield. Minefields owned by the ship owner can always be seen, though.

Related Mission: Scoop Torpedoes from Minefield

Relevant Configuration Options: AllowColoniesSweepWebs, FighterSweepRange, FighterSweepRate, MineScanRange, MineSweepRange, MineSweepRate, WebMineSweepRange, WebMineSweepRate.

Relevant PControl Stages: MineSweeping (scanning), MinefieldScan (generation of messages).

Relevant Formulas: Mine Sweeping.

This mission instructs a ship with torpedo launchers to convert the torpedoes into mines. The mines are laid in a circular mine field around the starship position. If the ship already is inside a "compatible" mine field, that field is enlarged (PHost chooses the mine field with the lowest Id, while HOST chooses the one with the nearest center).

The number of mines laid is Torps * TorpType^2 * UnitsPerTorpRate. The radius of the mine field is the square root of the number of units. For details, see Mine Laying formulas.

The actual mine laying order differs between PHost versions, see description of the MineLaying stage.

If the new minefield overlaps an enemy minefield, overlapping mines will explode. With AlternativeMinesDestroyMines enabled, this will happen immediately after the new field is laid; with that option disabled, all overlaps will be resolved at once in MinesDestroyMines.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has torpedoes
• mine laying limits not exceeded (MaximumMinefieldsPerPlayer, NumMinefields, MaximumMinefieldRadius)

Relevant Friendly Codes:

• miX (registered only): lays a mine field that belongs to race X.
• mdX (registered only): lays the specified number of mines only.

Related Missions:

• Lay Web Mines
• Lay Minefield
• Lay Mines In
• Mine Sweep

Relevant Configuration Options: AllowMinefieldIdentity, AllowMinefields, AllowMinesDestroyMines, AllowMinesDestroyWebs, AlternativeMinesDestroyMines, MaximumMinefieldRadius, MineIdNeedsPermission, UnitsPerTorpRate.

Relevant PControl Stage: MineLaying.

Relevant Formulas: Mine Laying.

This mission is a standing order to attack enemy ships. In terms of battle order, the ship can become an aggressor. This will not affect the way the ship fights, only whether it will initiate combat or not.

This mission can be used on any ship, but obviously it makes little sense on freighters.

To behave hostile only to a particular race, set your ship to a particular Primary Enemy, not mission Kill. Kill attacks all enemy races, i.e. everyone you don't have offered a combat alliance.

The "Kill" mission also affects the Glory Device.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel (otherwise it can't become an aggressor, nor can it fight other ships)

See also: enemies command

The ship will scan for foreign planets within range, and report you the results:

• Owner of the planet
• Industrialization degree (minimal, light, moderate, substantial, heavy)
• If the ship has bioscanners, it will report the native population and the temperature of the planet

Industrialization increases a planet's probability to be seen on enemy sensors, defense reduces the probability.

(v4.0:) When ExtendedSensorSweep is enabled (default), the Sensor Sweep mission will also report mine fields (like mine sweep) and wormholes (like WRS) in range.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel

Relevant Configuration Options: AllowBioscanners, DefenseForUndetectable, ExtendedSensorSweep, FactoriesForDetectable, MinesForDetectable, SensorRange.

Relevant PControl Stages: MineSweeping, SensorSweep, WormholeScan.

Relevant Formulas: Sensor Sweep, Scanning for Wormholes.

(also "Decommission", "Land & Disassemble") When the ship reaches an unowned or friendly planet next time, it will land to colonize the planet. The ship will be disassembled and turned into supplies for the colony.

You do not need this mission to colonize planets. Normally, you use the regular cargo transfer and drop colonists onto a planet to colonize it. Use this mission only when you actually want to scrap the ship.

When the ship colonizes an unowned planet, the planet starts with the experience level of the ship. When the planet is already inhabited, the ship's experience is lost.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• planet is unowned or friendly (friendly code match only accepted in 3.4d and higher)

Relevant Configuration Options: PALRecyclingPer10KT, RecycleRate.

Relevant PControl Stage: ColonizeMission

Relevant Formulas: Colonizing.

Tow the ship specified in the "T" parameter. The ship must be at the same position as your ship. Your ship will use more fuel to move the mass of both ships, and take the towee with it (just locking a tow beam doesn't cost anything). The ship that tows will move normally. In particular, it can run on mines while the towee will be safe from mine hits while being towed (if it breaks free, because the tower explodes at a mine or runs out of fuel, it can use the remaining time to move normally; during that time it will no longer be safe).

When you're a Crystal or Privateer, and the towee is out of fuel, you'll take over the ship by towing it (boarding). To prevent this (maybe because you're towing a friend's fuel-less ship), set your friendly code to nbr.

Preconditions for all tow-related actions:

• you must see the towee to set this mission. You can only tow a cloaked ship if you see it (that is, if it's yours, or if its owner offered you a ship-level alliance) or showed you the ship.
• towee must be at the same place as the towing ship.
• tower must have fuel.
• your ship must be able to tow:
  • PHost 4.0i and later: this is defined by the Tow function
  • PHost up to 4.0h: your ship must have at least two engines. One-engine ships can only tow if AllowOneEngineTowing is enabled.

Preconditions for Boarding:

• tower must be able to board
  • PHost 4.0i and later: has boarding function
  • PHost 4.0h and below: ship must be Crystal or Privateer (PlayerSpecialMission) and boarding must be enabled for his race (AllowPrivateerTowCapture, AllowCrystalTowCapture)
• tower's friendly code must not be nbr
• towee must belong to a foreign race which did not offer you ship-level
• towee must not have fuel

Preconditions for Towing:

• you must not hyperjump
• you cannot tow a ships which you do not see unless AllowTowCloakedShips is enabled (this rule applies when you set a tow mission, and the ship later cloaks. By default, you will then lose the tow lock)
• ship must fulfill all restrictions of tow conflict resolution. In particular, your ship must not itself being towed

Breaking free off a tow: When TowedShipsBreakFree is enabled, the towed ship can break free off the tow if the towing ship does not complete the mission successfully. This applies in two cases: the tower hits a mine and explodes, or it runs out of fuel. In neither case, the tower can keep the tractor beam up, so the towed ship can again move freely. It will move towards its waypoint for the remaining time of movement. For example, a ship with warp 9 tows another one with warp 6. Unfortunately, the tower runs out of fuel after 60 ly = 74% (of 81 ly) of its movement. The towed ship can now move approx. 9 ly = 26% (of 36 ly) of its normal movement. A ship can only break free if that would allow it at least one lightyear of movement. Ships with Warp 1 and normal engines therefore never break free.

Relevant Friendly Codes:

• nbr: no boarding

Relevant Configuration Options: AllowAlternativeTowing, AllowBoardingParties, AllowCrystalTowCapture, AllowPrivateerTowCapture, AllowOneEngineTowing, AllowTowCloakedShips, TowedShipsBreakFree, TowedShipsCooperate.

Relevant PControl Stages: BoardingParties, TowResolution, Movement.

Relevant Formulas: Boarding, Towing.

Intercept the ship specified in parameter 1. Essentially, instead of moving normally, the interceptor will wait until the target moves, and will then move towards the target. All the other normal movement rules still apply: interceptees burn the normal amount of fuel, and can run onto mines like anyone else, too.

If the ship you want to intercept disappears from your sensors, the mission will be cleared after performing it.

When the ship has a cloaking device, and its primary enemy matches the intercept target (directly or via enemy setting), it will attack the target first, before normal battle order (Intercept Attack, XA). The interception itself happens uncloaked.

Preconditions:

• you must see the intercept target to set this mission
• the target ship must remain visible for you to perform this mission (i.e. if it cloaks, you lose the intercept lock)
• interceptor must have fuel

Relevant PControl Stage: Movement, Combat.

Relevant Formulas: Movement, Intercept Resolution.

Each race has a special mission. These are described below.

This mission can only be used on ships with a cloaking device. It will enable the cloaking device, so that the ship disappears from enemy scanners. Otherwise, this mission is like Explore, i.e., nothing special.

Preconditions:

• ship has cloaking device
• ship has sufficient fuel to cloak
• ship is not too badly damaged

Relevant Configuration Options (selection only!): AllowAntiCloakShips, AllowCloakedShipsAttack, CloakFailureRate, CloakFuelBurn, DamageLevelForCloakFail.

For a more detailed description, see the section about the Cloak hull function.

Relevant Formulas: Cloaking.

The ship will try to beam up fuel from the planet it is orbiting. It will gather as much as fits in the fuel tank. You can only beam up from friendly planets.

The ship does not need fuel to perform this mission.

Relevant PControl Stage: GatherMission.

Like Gather Fuel, but will gather Duranium instead of Neutronium.

The ship does not need fuel to perform this mission.

Relevant PControl Stage: GatherMission.

Like Gather Fuel, but will gather Tritanium instead of Neutronium.

The ship does not need fuel to perform this mission.

Relevant PControl Stage: GatherMission.

Like Gather Fuel, but will gather Molybdenum instead of Neutronium.

The ship does not need fuel to perform this mission.

Relevant PControl Stage: GatherMission.

Like Gather Fuel, but will gather Supplies instead of Neutronium.

The ship does not need fuel to perform this mission.

Relevant PControl Stage: GatherMission.

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Race-specific Missions

Each race has a mission that is special to it. The mission which corresponds to your "mission 9" is specified with the PlayerSpecialMission parameter. By default, that parameter is identical to PlayerRace, which in turn is equal to your player number by default. This defines eleven standard races with special abilities and each with their own special mission.

The Federation can upgrade ships. Super Refit will replace the ship's engines, torpedo launchers and beam weapons with better components. The starbase must have these components already in storage. In addition, Super Refit replenishes the ship's crew.

By default, Super Refit upgrades weapons to a full complement. You can use Super Refit to "fill up" a partially armed ship (i.e. a Nova you gave only one beam can be upgraded to bear 10).

(v4.0h:) You can specify the components you wish to place in the ship using the refit command. This way, you can equip a ship with less-than-maximal equipment, and you can easily refit multiple ships with precisely assigned components.

If the ship has torpedo launchers, it will unload its torpedoes into starbase storage first, and then attempt to fill its cargo room with torpedoes of the new type.

Preconditions:

• ship must have fuel
• ship must be at starbase, at a friendly planet
• starbase must have a full set of parts in storage (i.e. if the ship can hold a maximum of 12 beams, there must be 12 beams of a better type in storage). If you used the refit command, you must have the ordered components (need not be a full set in this case) in storage.

When the starbase does not have enough components to support Super Refit and its build order, the build order takes precedence.

Relevant Configuration Options: AllowSuperRefit, CPEnableRefit.

Relevant PControl Stage: SpecialMissions_1.

Lizard ships with beam weapons can Hisssssss. When orbiting a planet, they'll send frightening video transmissions and other fine things down to the planet. The population, scared by the thought of mighty Lizards stomping through their cities and hissssssing at everybody will make them pay their taxes and be happy (sort-of) instead of starting riots.

Hissssing increases the happiness of the planet by HissEffectRate per hisssssing ship. This happens before actual taxation, so it will first bring happiness up before taxation brings it down again.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has beams
• ship is over a planet (no matter who owns it)

Relevant Configuration Options: AllowHiss, HissEffectRate, MaxShipsHissing.

Relevant PControl Stage: SpecialMissions_1.

Relevant Formulas: Hiss.

Bird Men ships can espy enemy friendly codes. Super Spy consists of two parts:

• After movement, the ship's crew will gather information about the planet. You will be told the number of planetary structures (mines, factories, defense), resources (credits, supplies, minerals) and the friendly code.
  However, there's a chance that your spies get caught. Having multiple ships spying at a planet does not increase your chance to see something (because it is 100%), but your chance of being found. When you were found, the enemy will know you were there, but you'll not know he knows.
• Before movement, in the next turn, your ship will attempt to change the planet's friendly code. This is known as Super Spy Deluxe. Each ship has a 20% chance of succeeding in changing the friendly code. Chances are cumulative, so five ships super spying at the same planet are guaranteed to change the friendly code. The friendly code will be set to the friendly code of the lowest-Id ship spying. Thus, you can, for example, beam cargo off the planet using friendly code matching.
  When you change the friendly code of a planet, the enemy has a 20% chance to generate an Ionic Pulse. This will pop all ships that orbit the planet out of cloak. When the Birds try to set the friendly code to something starting with "mf" (=universal minefield friendly code), and AllowUniversalMinefieldFCode is enabled (default), the Ionic Pulse will always be triggered. The planet needs 30 defense posts to be able to do generate a Pulse; 10 of them will be destroyed by energy overload.

Ships that are doing Super Spy will cloak if they can. Super Spy ships are immune to a base's "Force surrender" mission, even when they have a matching friendly code. Note that this immunity will stop when you change the mission.

Preconditions for Super Spy:

• ship has fuel
• ship orbits a planet (after movement)

Preconditions for Super Spy Deluxe:

• ship has fuel
• ship orbits a planet (before movement)
• planet is owned by a player other than the ship owner
• ship's friendly code does not start with "X" or "x"

(v4.1:) Super Spy Deluxe is performed in per-player Id order. In case multiple players (which must all play a Bird Man race, of course) perform Super Spy Deluxe on the same planet, they will together try to change the planet's friendly code. The ship which ultimately defines the new friendly code for the planet is the one with the lowest Id among one player's fleet. For example, if one player spies at a planet with ships #10, #140 and #390, and another one with ships #231, #480 and #490, it will be either ship #231 or #10 which defines the new friendly code. In PHost before version 4.1, it would always have been ship #10 which was chosen.

Preconditions for Ionic Pulse:

• planet has 30 defense posts or more

Relevant Configuration Options: SpyDetectionChance, AllowUniversalMinefieldFCode, AllowDeluxeSuperSpy.

Relevant PControl Stages: DeluxeSuperSpy, SuperSpyMission.

Relevant Formulas: Cloaking.

Klingons can plunder a planet. A pillaging ship will kill about 1/5 of the planet's population. Their possessions (money, supplies) will then lay scattered across the planet's surface. The ship will beam aboard supplies and money from the planet, supplies that don't fit on the planet will be converted into money.

When CumulativePillaging is enabled, multiple ships pillaging a planet will multiply the effect. Otherwise, only one ship can pillage a planet each turn.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has beams
• planet is owned

Per-player Id order is used to choose between ships which ground attack or pillage a planet. If cumulative pillaging is disabled, only the first ship trying to pillage a planet will succeed.

Effects:

Supplies_made =
   Trunc((Colonist_clans + Native_clans) / 100)

Money_made =
   Trunc((Colonist_clans + Native_clans) / 100)

Colonist_clans_survived =
   Trunc(Colonist_clans * 0.8 - 20)

Native_clans_survived =
   Trunc(Native_clans * 0.8 - 120)

Colonist_happy_change =
   -10

Native_happy_change =
   -10

After the planet was affected by these formulas, the pillaging ship will beam up all money and supplies from the planet, until its cargo or money capacity is exhausted. If the cargo room is full, but there is still room for money, remaining supplies are sold (converted into money) and then beamed up.

Relevant Configuration Options: CumulativePillaging.

Relevant PControl Stages: SpecialMissions_2.

Relevant Formulas: Special Attacks.

The Pirates can rob enemy ships. They will steal Neutronium, Tritanium, Duranium, Molybdenum, Colonists, Supplies and Money, in this order. Pending ship-to-foreign-ship and ship-to-foreign-planet transfers are intercepted and stolen, too (if the victim did a ship-to-own-ship-or-planet transfer, that one will be resolved client-side and can't be stolen).

The most common use of this mission is to await the victim with a few cloaked ships, and rob him dry and board him next turn. Tow and Rob will happen uncloaked, though.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has beams

Ordering:

• Robbing happens in per-player Id order at each place.
• Each robber tries to rob its victims in Id order.
• From each victim, resources are taken in order Neutronium, Tritanium, Duranium, Molybdenum, Colonists, Supplies and Money.
• Of each resource, the Pirates steal the regular cargo room first, then the ship-to-planet transporter, and finally the ship-to-ship transporter.

Relevant Configuration Options: RobCloakedChance, RobCloakedShips, RobFailureOdds.

Relevant PControl Stages: RobMission.

Cyborg ships can repair themselves in space. This mission will repair up to 10 damage points per turn. The ship must not move at its own while repairing itself, hence it will have its speed set to 0.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel

Relevant PControl Stages: SpecialMissions_1.

This mission is like Lay Mines, but the ship will lay the dreaded Crystalline Web Mines instead of normal mines. Web Mines will catch enemy ships. They will not do much damage, but drain fuel from the ships. This will finally make them helpless victims to boarding.

See the Lay Mines mission for mine laying details.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has torpedoes
• mine laying limits not exceeded (MaximumMinefieldsPerPlayer, NumMinefields, MaximumWebMinefieldRadius)

Relevant Configuration Options: AllowMinesDestroyWebs, AllowWebMines, UnitsPerTorpRate.

Relevant PControl Stage: MineLaying.

Relevant Formulas: Mine Laying.

Imperial Captains have a Dark Sense which can be used to gather information on alien planets. When you use this mission, the ship will find out the following about planets in range:

• Owner of the planet
• Total mineral amounts (you don't know how much of this is already mined, though)
• Cash on planet
• Whether the planet has a starbase.

Dark Sense does not find the Rebels.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel

Related Missions: Sensor Sweep.

Relevant Configuration Option: DarkSenseRange.

Relevant PControl Stage: SpecialMissions_2.

This mission is available to Robot and Colony carriers. The ship will build fighters for 3 Tritanium, 2 Molybdenum and 5 supplies each (configurable, ShipFighterCost); these costs will be taken from the cargo room.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has fighter bays
• ship has minerals/supplies as needed

Related Missions: Gather-build Fighters, lfm friendly code

Relevant Configuration Options: AllowBuildFighters.

Relevant PControl Stage: BuildFighters.

This is a plundering mission. When you use it to attack a planet, rebels will destroy cash, supplies, and planetary structures. They will as well kill colonists, which makes them unhappy. Seeing all that damage done to their conquerors, sarcastic natives will get happy.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has beams (if configured, RGANeedsBeams)
• planet is owned (if configured, AllowRGAOnUnowned)

Per-player Id order is used to choose between ships which ground attack or pillage a planet. If several ships attack the planet using RGA, only the first ship will successfully perform the mission.

Effects:

Money_remaining =
   Trunc(Money * 0.7)

Supplies_remaining =
   Trunc(Supplies * 0.6)

Defense_remaining =
   Trunc(Defense_posts * 0.8)

Mines_remaining =
   Trunc(Mines * 0.4)

Factories_remaining =
   Trunc(Factories * 0.7)

Colonist_clans_survived =
   Trunc(Colonist_clans * 0.8)

Colonist_happy_change =
   -60

Native_happy_change =
   +40

Relevant Configuration Options: AllowRebelGroundAttack, AllowRGAOnUnowned, RGANeedsBeams.

Relevant PControl Stage: SpecialMissions_2.

Relevant Formulas: Special Attacks.

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PHost Extended Missions

The following missions are only available when AllowExtendedMissions is enabled. The mission numbers are derived from the ExtMissionsStartAt option. The numbers shown here correspond to the recommended default value of 20.

This mission is intended to replace the mkt friendly code. It performs the very same function: torpedoes are built from available material and credits in the cargo room. Torpedoes cost the same amount they code normally.

Preconditions:

• ship has torpedo tubes
• ship has minerals and cash to make torpedoes
• ship has fuel

Relevant PControl Stage: BuildTorpedoes.

This mission is intended to replace the miX and mdX friendly codes.

It allows a minefield to be laid with the exact number of torps desired and it also allows the field to be laid in another player's name. Setting parameter 1 to 0 means that all torps will be converted to mines. Setting parameter 2 to 0 means that the mine will belong to the same race as the ship's owner, as usual.

The miX and mdX friendly codes are not evaluated when this mission is used. For unregistered players, this mission is equivalent to the Lay Mines mission.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has torpedoes
• mine laying limits not exceeded (MaximumMinefieldsPerPlayer, NumMinefields, MaximumMinefieldRadius)

Related Missions: Lay Mines.

Relevant PControl Stage: MineLaying.

Relevant Formulas: Mine Laying.

This mission is intended to replace the miX and mdX friendly codes.

It allows a web minefield to be laid with the exact number of torps desired and it also allows the field to be laid in another player's name. Setting parameter 1 to 0 means that all torps will be converted to mines. Setting parameter 2 to 0 means that the mine will belong to the same race as the ship's owner, as usual.

This mission is available to the Crystal People only.

The miX and mdX friendly codes are not evaluated when this mission is used. For unregistered players, this mission is equivalent to the Lay Web Mines mission.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has torpedoes
• mine laying limits not exceeded (MaximumMinefieldsPerPlayer, NumMinefields, MaximumWebMinefieldRadius)

Related Missions: Lay Web Mines.

Relevant PControl Stage: MineLaying.

Relevant Formulas: Mine Laying.

This mission replaces the msc starship friendly code: gather mines from a mine field and convert them back to torpedoes. The first parameter contains the number of torpedoes to scoop (from each matching minefield); 0 gathers as many as possible. The second parameter specified the minefield to gather from. If this is a valid minefield Id, only this minefield will be touched. When this is zero, it will scoop from all your minefields in range.

Since this mission is a variant of the Mine Sweep mission, a ship set to Scoop Torpedoes from Minefield will also scan for enemy minefields and destroy them if possible.

Preconditions: (same conditions as scooping with msc)

• ship has fuel
• ship has beams and torpedo launchers
• mine field belongs to ship owner
• ship is inside an own minefield

Related Mission: Mine Sweep

Relevant PControl Stages: MineSweeping.

Relevant Formulas: Mine Sweeping.

This mission has no counterpart among friendly codes. When the ship is above a friendly planet, it will beam up minerals and cash, and make torpedoes from them. The number of torpedoes is limited by the mission parameter; with parameter 0, it will build as many torpedoes as fit in the cargo room (limited by the available resources, of course).

This mission is not just a replacement for mkt (that's Build Torpedoes from Cargo). It does not require the minerals and cash to fit into the ship, so it can build a whole cargo load of torpedoes at once. Also, this mission will not use minerals or cash which already are aboard the ship.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has torpedo tubes
• ship is orbiting a friendly planet

Related Missions: Build Torpedoes

Relevant PControl Stages: BuildTorpedoes.

This mission is a replacement for the bdm friendly code. The ship will beam down money, as specified in the parameter, to the planet it orbits. If the parameter is zero, all money is beamed down. This mission can complement the normal ship/foreign-planet cargo transfer which itself can't transfer money.

(v4.0h:) You can also use the unload command instead of this mission.

Preconditions:

• ship is orbiting a planet
• no fuel required

Relevant PControl Stages: CargoDump.

This mission is intended as a replacement or addition to the btt friendly code. Parameter 1 is the Id number of the ship to receive the torpedoes. It must be at the same position as the giving ship, and have the same torpedo launcher type. Parameter 2 specifies the number of torpedoes to transfer. Setting this value to zero will transfer all torpedoes. When the receiving ship doesn't have enough cargo space, the sender will keep the excess torpedoes.

(v3.4b:) In PHost 3.4a and before, the two ships can not belong to the same race. In 3.4b and later, ownership doesn't matter.

(v4.0h:) You can also use the transfer command instead of this mission.

Preconditions:

• both ships have torpedo tubes of the same type
• both ships are at same position
• no fuel required

Relevant PControl Stage: BeamTransfers.

This mission is intended as a replacement or addition to the btf friendly code. Parameter 1 is the Id number of the ship to receive the fighters. It must be at the same position as the giving ship. Parameter 2 specifies the number of fighters to transfer. Setting this value to zero will transfer all fighters. When the receiving ship doesn't have enough cargo space, the sender will keep the excess fighters.

(v3.4b:) In PHost 3.4a and before, the two ships can not belong to the same race. In 3.4b and later, ownership doesn't matter.

(v4.0h:) You can also use the transfer command instead of this mission.

Preconditions:

• both ships have fighter bays
• both ships are at same position
• no fuel required

Relevant PControl Stage: BeamTransfers.

This mission is intended as a replacement or addition to the btm friendly code. Parameter 1 is the Id number of the ship to receive the money. It must be at the same position as the giving ship. Parameter 2 specifies the amount of money to transfer. Setting this value to zero will transfer all money. When the receiving ship doesn't have enough credit space, the sender will keep the excess cash.

(v3.4b:) In PHost 3.4a and before, the two ships can not belong to the same race. In 3.4b and later, ownership doesn't matter.

(v4.0h:) You can also use the transfer command instead of this mission.

Preconditions:

• both ships are at same position
• no fuel required

Relevant PControl Stage: BeamTransfers.

This mission is exactly like Super Spy (see there for details), except that it does not attempt to change the planet's friendly code. Thus it does not take the risk of getting caught by an ionic pulse. There's still the chance that the spies are discovered (SpyDetectionChance).

This mission is identical to the Cloak mission, see there for details. It is provided simply so that ships not recognized by client programs (DOS Planets, for example) as having cloaking devices can still cloak, assuming that PHost recognizes them as being able to cloak. This may occur when the hullfunc.txt interface is used to give cloaking capability to traditionally non-cloaking ships.

This mission is is intended for client programs that do not have explicit PHost support. If your client program does support PHost, it will most likely let you use the normal Cloak mission.

The Cloak extended mission can also be set using the extmission command.

This mission is identical to the ship's usual special mission (code 9), see there for details. For example, for a Federation player, this mission is Super Refit, for a Crystal this is Lay Web Mines.

This mission is intended for client programs that do not have explicit PHost support. If your client program does support PHost, it will most likely let you use the normal Mission 9 to do your special mission.

If your client program does not support PHost, this mission has two uses:

The first is to reduce some confusion when playing in a nonstandard-race game (i.e., the PlayerRace config option is used to redefine racial assignments). Rather than seeing the built-in mission names for their race (which may be incorrect since the player may be playing another race), you can simply modify the name of this extended mission in your copy of mission.ini to be consistent with your true special mission.

The second purpose of this extended mission is to allow all qualified ships to perform the special mission, not just those ships which are recognized by the client program as being able to perform the special mission. For example, the DOS Planets client program will not allow player #11 ships to perform the special mission (nominally Build Fighters) for ships without fighter bays. But if player #11 is playing race #10, he actually wants to perform the RGA mission which does not need fighter bays. The Special Mission extended mission allows you to perform his special mission even when the client program will not allow it.

The Special Mission extended mission can also be set using the extmission command.

This mission is a replacement for the lfm friendly code. Like lfm, it has two parts:

• First, it loads minerals for the fighters into the ship's cargo hold. Each fighter requires 3 kt Tritanium, 2 kt Molybdenum and 5 supplies (configurable, ShipFighterCost). When the mission parameter is not zero, it will load minerals for at most that number of fighters. Otherwise, it will load as much as fits into the ship.
• Second, minerals in cargo space will be used to build fighters. In particular, this will also process minerals you loaded manually (and may thus build more fighters than specified in the mission argument).

Preconditions: (same as for lfm)

• ship has fighter bays
• ship has fuel
• fighter building is enabled for ship owner (AllowBuildFighters)
• ship is at a friendly planet (otherwise, only minerals from cargo hold will be processed)

Relevant PControl Stage: BuildFighters.

If the ship is in orbit of a friendly planet, the ship will beam up money from the planet. The first parameter specifies the maximum amount to beam up; if it is zero, as much as possible is gathered.

Preconditions:

• ship is orbiting a friendly planet
• no fuel required

Relevant PControl Stage: GatherMission.

If the ship is in orbit of a friendly planet, the ship will beam up colonists from the planet. The first parameter specifies the maximum amount to beam up; if it is zero, as much as possible is gathered.

Note that, as a safety feature, at least one clan is left on the planet by this mission. This mission will not remove the last clan from a planet (which would make the planet unowned).

Preconditions:

• ship is orbiting a friendly planet
• no fuel required
• beaming up colonists is allowed (AllowBeamUpClans)

Relevant Configuration Option: AllowBeamUpClans.

Relevant PControl Stage: GatherMission.

With this mission, the ship will attempt to beam up stuff from a friendly planet. The amounts requested must be specified separately using the beamup command. This mission has no effect when no beamup command is sent.

Cargo is beamed up in order: Tritanium, Duranium, Molybdenum, clans, supplies. If a ship becomes full before beaming up all specified resources, no more resources are beamed up. This does not interfere with beaming up fuel and megacredits, which have separate cargo holds.

Note that, when beaming up clans, at least one clan is left on the planet by this mission. This mission will not remove the last clan from a planet (which would make the planet unowned).

Preconditions:

• ship is orbiting a friendly planet
• no fuel required

Relevant Configuration Options: AllowBeamUpClans, AllowBeamUpMultiple.

Relevant PControl Stage: GatherMission.

This mission is like Lay Mines, but you can specify the minefield to add the mines to.

Parameter 1 specifies the number of torpedoes to lay; it may be zero to lay all torpedoes.

Parameter 2 specifies the mine field Id to add to. This must be a valid mine field number, and your ship must be inside the field; a new minefield will not be made if the specified minefield Id is nonzero! When parameter 2 is zero, this mission is no different than the normal mine laying mission.

(v3.4c:) The miX friendly code is ignored when parameter 2 designates a valid minefield Id. In PHost version 3.4b and below, the friendly code must correspond to the minefield owner if you're enlarging someone else's minefield.

The mdX friendly code is not evaluated when this mission is used. For unregistered players, this mission is equivalent to the Lay Mines mission.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has torpedoes
• ship is inside the designated minefield
• mine laying limits not exceeded (MaximumMinefieldsPerPlayer, NumMinefields, MaximumMinefieldRadius)

Relevant Friendly Code:

• miX (registered only): lays a mine field that belongs to race X. Only used when parameter 2 is zero.

Related Missions:

• Lay Mines
• Lay Minefield
• Lay Web Mines In

Relevant Configuration Options: (see Lay Mines mission)

Relevant PControl Stage: MineLaying.

Relevant Formulas: Mine Laying.

This mission is like Lay Web Mines, but you can specify the minefield to add the mines to.

Parameter 1 specifies the number of torpedoes to lay; it may be zero to lay all torpedoes.

Parameter 2 specifies the mine field Id to add to. This must be a valid web mine field number, and your ship must be inside the field; a new web mine field will not be made if the specified minefield Id is nonzero. When parameter 2 is zero, this mission is no different than the normal web laying mission.

(v3.4c:) The miX friendly code is ignored when parameter 2 designates a valid minefield Id. In PHost version 3.4b and below, the friendly code must correspond to the minefield owner if you're enlarging someone else's minefield.

The mdX friendly code is not evaluated when this mission is used. For unregistered players, this mission is equivalent to the Lay Web Mines mission.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship has torpedoes
• ship is inside the designated minefield
• mine laying limits not exceeded (MaximumMinefieldsPerPlayer, NumMinefields, MaximumWebMinefieldRadius)

Relevant Friendly Code:

• miX (registered only): lays a mine field that belongs to race X. Only used when parameter 2 is zero.

Related Missions:

• Lay Web Mines
• Lay Web Minefield
• Lay Mines In

Relevant Configuration Options: (see Lay Mines mission)

Relevant PControl Stage: MineLaying.

Relevant Formulas: Mine Laying.

The ship crew will not work for you this turn; instead they will learn and educate themselves to gather experience. Ships which are on training will not be able to move this turn, they can not initiate combat (primary enemy will be cleared), and they will start combat with zero shields. Training costs supplies; you can use up to 10000 supplies per turn per ship for training.

The exact operation is described in the Experience Training chapter.

Preconditions:

• ship has fuel
• ship is orbiting a friendly planet
• experience is enabled (NumExperienceLevels is not zero)
• ExperienceLimit not yet reached

Relevant PControl Stages: Training (mission), Experience (experience upgrades).

Relevant Formulas: Training.

This mission is only valid on Academy ships. It will attempt to exchange crew between the academy ship and a target ship. Usually, the result will be that the inexperienced or decimated crew from the target ship will be replaced by experienced crew from the Academy ship. This mission will be handled like all other crew changes.

Parameter 2 specifies the number of crewmen to exchange. You cannot specify more than your academy ship has crewmen. If the specified value is less than the number of crewmen on both ships, crew will simply exchanged in a straightforward manner. If it is larger than the number of crewmen currently on the target ship, the complete crew from the target will be removed, and replaced by the given number of people from the academy ship. The academy ship will never receive more crew than it gives.

Examples: The following examples assume that the academy ship "A" has 3000 crewmen, and the target "T" has 500 out of 1000.

Experience changes through this mission take effect immediately. New experience will be computed according to the usual formulas on both sides (Crew_experience, Tech_experience).

Example: Assume that the Academy ship has 3000 crewmen with 2500 EP; the target has 500 with 100 EP, and we're exchanging 1000 crewmen (example 2 from above). EPRecrewScaling is at the standard value 30%. This will lead to the following computation:

Academy ship:
   New_crew
       = 500                        taken from target
   Old_crew
       = 3000 - 1000                original crew minus given crew
   Crew_experience
       = ((Old_crew * Old_experience) + (New_crew * New_experience))
           / (Old_crew + New_crew)
       = ((2000 * 2500) + (500 * 100)) / 2500
       = 2020                       weighed average of the two
   Tech_experience
       = 2500
   New_experience
       = 30% * 2500 + 70% * 2020    combination of Tech_experience and Crew_experience using EPRecrewScaling
       = 2164

Target ship:
   New_crew
       = 1000                       taken from academy ship
   Old_crew
       = 0                          everyone went to academy ship
   Crew_experience
       = ((Old_crew * Old_experience) + (New_crew * New_experience))
           / (Old_crew + New_crew)
       = 2500                       weighed average of the two
   Tech_experience
       = 100
   New_experience
       = 30% * 100 + 70% * 2500     combination of Tech_experience and Crew_experience using EPRecrewScaling
       = 1780

That is, the target's experience rose substantially, whereas the Academy ship's experience dropped a little.

Note that in the target ship's computation, the weighed average equals the experience of the new crew members from the Academy ship, because all old crew members leave the ship, so only new, experienced members remain. However, because those new, experienced crewmen now enter a ship so far run by greenhorns, the ship's experience will start below the Academy ship's experience. Also, the Academy ship's experience will drop a little because it now has those greenhorns aboard, and must teach them proper tactics first.

Preconditions:

• ship has Academy function
• ship has fuel
• target ship exists and is not the same as the academy ship
• target ship is at same location as academy ship
• both ships are owned by the same player, have a bidirectional ship-level alliance, or matching friendly codes

Relevant PControl Stage: CrewExchange

Relevant Configuration Option: EPRecrewScaling, NumExperienceLevels

This mission can be used to repair another ship. The ship using this mission must have the Repairs function.

If the ship doing the repair mission is undamaged, it will repair all damage on the target ship. If the repairing ship is damaged, it will not be able to fully repair the target ship: if the repair ship has 10% damage, the target ship will only be repaired up to a damage level of 10%.

The repair ship and the target ship cannot move themselves while they are working. Their speed will be reset to warp 0. They can be towed or chunneled, though.

Preconditions:

• ship has Repairs function
• ship has fuel
• target ship exists and is not the same as the repair ship
• target ship is at same position as repair ship
• both ships are owned by the same player, have a bidirectional ship-level alliance, or matching friendly codes
• ship has less damage than target

Relevant PControl Stage: SpecialMissions_1

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Last updated 31 May 2015.