Host Settings explained


To explain the hostsettings we'll go by them one by one, displaying the messagelines you'll receive in the game, with all hostsettings (options, ratios, values etc.) set to default. The settings which you'll really want to check to see if they're set to default or not are blue.

Colonize recycle rate : 75 % ^ ( minerals recovered from hull )
When you colonise a ship on a planet the crew takes the ship apart, and 75% (by default) of the minerals invested in the hull are regained and put on the planet's surface. As Feds with superrefit you won't be colonising a lot of ships, and a higher setting really only helps the other races, especially those who make a habit out of recycling SDSFs purely for the priority buildpoints or use this as a way to get hightech shipparts to starbases without the techlevels.

Odds of a meteor: 2%
This is the chance that one large meteor will hit one of the 500 planets. A higher or lower setting doesn't effect the Federation in particular. Personally I like large meteors and the minerals they bring, usually planets where they impact are a great place for a new base. Drawback is that a large meteor kills a big number of colonists on impact, and one might just hit your homeworld.

Antiship space mines YES
You can convert torpedoes into spacemines, which are a nice protection against incoming ships and apart from Lokis and Fascist Glory device ships the only way to protect yourself from cloakers. Your ships and your superrefit should make sure you're well able to sweep minefields, so minefields can do more for you than against you. You'll hardly ever see this set to NO, since the majority of the races have only minefields to protect them from cloakers and the Robots live by their large minefields.

Alchemy ships YES
This enables the alchemy functions for the Merlin (convert supplies into minerals) and the Neutronic refinery ship (converts supplies and minerals into fuel). When this is set to NO these ships become useless, and the use of Bovinoids is limited to selling the supplies they make. Without alchemy ships you'll have a hard time collecting enough minerals and fuel, but this option too is rarely NO.

Delete Old Messages NO
If you miss a turn, the messages you received that turn will be saved for you to read in the first turn you do play. If this option is set to Yes, those messages will be deleted.

Disable Passwords NO
There is no reason to have this setting to Yes, other than a corrupt host. It might happen that someone forgets his or her password, but there's a program with which the host can overcome that.

Rebel/Colonial/Robotic Build fighters in space YES
This is one of their race abilities. These races can build fighters onboard their carriers by using minerals and supplies only, without spending a single MC. The Feds benefit by this being set to No ofcourse, but it will never happen.

Odds of cloak failure 0 %
This is the percentage of chance that a cloaking device will fail. For Feds as for any non-cloaking races it's the higher the better, but this will rarely get raised to above 5%. So be sure to have enough Lokis and minefields.

Privateer rob cloaked ships NO
Privateers can rob ships of their fuel and cargo, but they can't rob cloaked ships unless this is set to Yes. Of minor importance to the Federation since we don't have cloaked ships.

Empire Dark Sense range 200
Means the Evil Empire's Dark sense tells him all about planets within 200 lightyears of his ship(s) on Dark sense mission. The lower the better ofcourse, but the Empire probably won't agree with that.

Ground Attack Kill Ratio (Fed 1:1 / Lizard 30:1 / Fascist 15:1)
All other races have a normal 1:1 ratio. This means that one Lizard clan dropped on your planet kills 30 Federation clans. You can lower this ratio by building defenseposts: 20 defenseposts will add one factor to your grounddefense. Needless to say, higher settings for any other race should be protested against, a higher ratio for the Feds is always welcome but won't happen.

Ships are visible at 300
Pretty simple, you can see all ships not orbiting enemy or unowned planets within 300 lightyears from one of your ships or planets and any other race can see your ships in deep space if they have a ship or planet within 300 lightyears. Higher or lower settings effect bothy you and your enemies: with a higher settings you can see ships coming from further away as long as they're not cloaked or planet-hopping, but your enemies can also see you from further away. A lower range offers interesting options, where incoming fleets can stay 'hidden' longer, only to expose themselves when they've almost reached their target.

Lizard hiss mission YES
Lizards can hiss planets to raise happiness of natives and colonists, it's one of their race-advantages. Would be great if it's set to NO, but it ain't gonna happen.

Rebel ground attack YES
One of the Rebel's special abilities, see the "fighting the Rebels" section for details. This too will always be YES ofcourse.

Fed super refit YES
Do we even need to explain this one? If it's no, don't play unless you like a big fat challenge.

Web mines YES
The Crystallines can lay webmines instead of normal minefields. Ships have a bigger chance of hitting a mine inside a web, and webmines drain ships of fuel. Would be nice to see this set to No, but it won't happen.

Ground Defense Kill Ratio (Fed 1:1 / Lizard 10:1 / Fascist 5:1)
Means you'll need 10 clans to kill one Lizard clan if you try to drop clans on one of his worlds; you'll need even more if he has built defenseposts. Same as the Ground Attack Ratio: higher settings for Fed would be nice, lower settings for the others would be nice too. But none of those are likely to happen. Higher settings for the others should be protested against.

Cloak fuel burn per 100 kt: 5
This number is the amount of fuel used to stay cloaked per turn, per 100 kt of hullmass. This does not apply to the Resolute and the Darkwing which don't use any fuel to stay cloaked. If it's higher, the cloaking races need more fuel, which benefits you nicely. A lower setting helps the cloakers in their fuel-department, not a good thing for you.

Range of sensors 200
This is the range of the sensor sweep mission, including the bioscanner. If it's higher you'll be able to scan planets further away, but your enemies will also be able to scan your planets from further away. You can build defenseposts to protect your planets from being scanned: 16 will block a normal sensor sweep, 20 will block a bioscanner.

New Natives YES
With this set to Yes you'll sometimes see natives come out of hiding on planets which didn't have natives yet. Mostly it's a small number that comes out of hiding, but they just might give you that free techlevel for the starbase you were about to build. If you really want to be anal about it NO benefits the Federation more, since you should have enough money to raise techlevels where your enemies might not. I've heard of one case where Amorphous worms came out of hiding on someone's homeworld......

Planets attack ships YES
Using the NUK or ATT friendly code the planet can use it's fighters and beams to attack enemy ships. If this is set to no it's easier for you to check out enemy planets, but this would also make it easier for the other races to scout your territory since ships would be the only way to stop them. Also, when this is set to NO, starbases won't start fighting enemy ships. For the Federation this setting is best left to YES; NO would benefit the Lizards most, who then wouldn't even have to cloak to drop huge numbers of clans (can you say: Large deep space freighter?) on your planets.

Assimilation rate 100 %
This is the rate in which the Borg assimilate natives. With 100%, ten clans assimilate ten natives, the next turn the now 20 clans assimilate 20 natives etcetera. A lower rate gives the Borg a smaller number of colonists, but it benefits them to have a lower rate because then they'd have more time to construct a base with a free techlevel before assimilating the last natives.
100% is fine for the Federation.

Free fighters at starbases (Fed 0 / Empire 5)
The Evil Empire gets 5 "free" fighters per starbase per turn, which means five fighters built from minerals and supplies only. All others do not get any free fighters. It would be nice if you got some too, but then the other races would protest a lot - and ofcourse you'd protest if any of the other races got free fighters even more. The default setting is fine, because of all the races who don't get free fighters you have an economy capable of buying you fighters, and some of the others with large carriers in their shiplists would benefit more from free fighters.

Web mine decay 5 %
Five percent of the mines in a webmine simply vanish through natural causes like flying spacejunk and those sort of things each turn. The higher this is set the better, but then the Crystals would surely protest as it doesn't do the effectiveness of their webmines any good.

Mine decay 5%
Same story as for webmines: five percent per turn decays. You actually benefit from this at a lower setting, because you've got ships with plenty of beams plus the superrrefit and money to equip them with hightech beams, so you can sweep mines where others who are not so good at minesweeping would like the mines to decay faster.

Max mine radius 150
This is the maximum radius (not diameter, radius) of a (web)minefield. That's a lot of mines and applies mainly to the Robots. A lower setting hurts the Robots, doesn't really hurt or help you unless you're facing the robots. As long as the Robot player is paying any attention to his hostsettings there's no way this can be set lower.

Isotope TUDR 5
The rate by which new minerals appear inside a planet. For the actual number of KTs that appear this has to be multiplied by the density first. E.g. on a planet with a 60% density of Duranium 3 KTs will appear every turn. The higher this number is set the more minerals you'll have later on in the game. This does not harm or benefit you especially.

Structure decay 1
The number of mines, factories and defenseposts is limited by the number of clans on a planet. When there are insufficient clans to support the number of structures, one of each will disappear each turn until the new maximum is reached. A setting higher then one doesn't really benefit you. It could be profitable to leave a planet a couple of turns when this is set very high so a number of structures will disappear so you'll be able to tax higher, but with a low setting it's very nice to take over Borg planets and have a large number of mines/factories for a long time.

Mining rates (Fed 70 / Lizard 200)
All other races get 100. A higher rate for Feds would be nice (some kind hosts give us 75%), a lower rate for the rest would be nice too, but it ain't gonna happen. You'll have to live with it.

Eat supplies? NO
When this is set to Yes, clans which would normally die from the temperature on the planet can eat supplies to survive. This would make colonising iceballs and deserts easier, but somewhat downgrades the use of your terraformers. For a stronger negotiating position in shiptrades, No would be better. For easer colonising: Yes.

0 Fuel ships move? YES
Means that ships without fuel can move a couple of lightyears, depending on their mass. Extreme example is the Neutronic Fuel Carrier, which can travel 81 LYs on an empty tank to make a great moneyrunner. With this set to Yes Privateers and Crystals will have slightly (but only very slightly) more work in tow-capturing your empty ships. So go for Yes, what the heck...

Mine odds per LY 1 %
This is the chance of hitting a mine for each lightyear that you fly through a minefield. The higher the better, since this will increase the safety your minefields provide you while you're quite well-equipped to sweep enemy minefields.

Web odds per LY 5 %
Same story as for normal minefields. Only here it's the lower the better, since you don't have any webmines.
The Crystalline will disagree again ofcourse.

Detect mine range 200
The minesweep mission will detect minefields withing 200 LY, even though you can't sweep that far. If this is set even higher you'll be able to scan enemy fields further away, but your enemies will also see your fields from further away. Personally I'd say lower is better, though not lower than 81 lightyears - you want to be able to scan minefields before you hit them, right?

Tax rates (Fed 200)
Nice setting. Don't let anybody get more than 100% unless you get something in return (higher mining rate for example), same goes for you getting anything lower than 200%.

Mines destroy mines YES
Means you can lay minefields overlapping enemy fields to blow them up, and ofcourse your enemies can get rid of your mines this way as well. If set to No, Robots in particular can't come your way and whipe your minefields by overlaying them with some huge minefields. And since you should be quite well-equipped to sweep minefields instead of having to overlap them with fields of your own, No would be a very nice setting indeed.

Engine-Shield bonus NO (E-S Bonus rate 50 %)
Don't let the 50% fool you; if it's No it's No. See the ES Bonus section for details.
In short: you want this set to Yes and to 35% at least.

Col Fgtr Mine sweep 20
Means one Colonial fighter can sweep 20 mines, assuming that Colonial fighter sweep mines is set at it's default YES. Makes minelaying to stop the Colonials pretty useless. A lower rating would be fine, but it's not going to happen. Protest against an even higher rate.

Col Fgtr Web sweep NO
Colonial fighters cannot sweep webmines. Doesn't influence you a lot unless the Colonials are your allies or if they decide to come after you because they can't go after the Crystals. YES would benefit everybody except the Crystals, and it's not likely to happen.

Mine Sweep Rate 4
One beam can sweep it's "position" ^2 * 4 mines. This setting is fine. A higher setting would benefit races with few beams or lowtech beams, so for the Federation it's best left at four to stay on top in the sweeping-department. After the Colonials ofcourse.

Web Sweep Rate 3
One beam can sweep it's "position"^2 * 3 webmines. The higher the better ofcourse, but it won't happen.

Hiss effect per ship 5
Each Lizard ship with at least one beam set on the Hisss mission will add 5 points to the colonist and native happiness on the planet it's orbiting, giving the Lizards all the cash they need. A higher setting makes them even more powerful, and they won't agree with a lower setting.

Rob fail rate 1
This is the chance that the Privateer rob mission will fail. The higher the better, but someone will disagree.....

ATT/NUK attack Reb / Fas NO
Planets can not attack Rebel or Fascist ships. This is so that their Rebel Groundattack and Pillage mission can be used with  effect. If this is set to YES life becomes very hard for these races (Falcon hyping in to perform RGA gets blown out of the sky because the planet was set to NUK), and it's not likely to happen.

Mine Sweep Range 5
You'll have to be within five lightyears of the edge of a minefield in order to sweep that field. A higher setting means you can sweep fields from further away, but your enemies can also sweep your fields from further away. Five lightyears is fine.

Web Sweep Range 0
Simple: you have to be inside a webmine to be able to sweep it. Any value higher than zero will reduce the effect of webmines greatly, making the Crystals very weak.

Science Missions YES
These MUST be set to yes. This settings enables your terraformers. When this is set to NO, you'll have to protest like hell because you'll lose one of your advantages. Lucky for you the Lizards and Crystals will protest with you.

Cloaked Mine Odds .5 %
Cloaked ships run a lower risk of hitting a mine per lightyear than other ships. The higher this setting the better ofcourse since you don't have cloakers anyway and you DO want to get them away from your planets, but it's not likely to be changed. So don't rely on your minefields alone to stop the cloakers.

Cloak Prevent Damage 1 %
As soon as they have 1% damage or more cloaking ships cannot cloak. Some hosts use higher settings to enable the larger Bird ships to take one minehit and stay cloaked (In one of my games it's actually 50%). Ofcourse for the Federation 1% is favourable.

Fed Crew Bonus YES
The Federation Crew bonus makes sure you get some very nice bonusses, like three extra fighter bays on each carrier, 25% shieldrepair between battles and the full use of all weapons regardless of damage. Make sure it is YES.

One engine ships tow NO
This simply means ships with only one engine (Outrider, Nocturne, MDSF, Brynhild) can't tow. This is fine as long as you weren't planning on towing anything with these ships - including asteroids.

Hyper drive ships YES
Enables ships capable of doing hyperjumps. Since the Feds don't have any NO would be fine, but it won't happen.

Climate Death Rate 10 %
The higher this setting, the lower the number of clans that can live on desert or arctic planets. Which is fine because of your terraformers. The default 10% rarely gets changed. If it's lowered it also helps you, but takes away some of the value of your terraforming ships.

Gravity wells YES
Each planet has a warwell around it, which pulls every ship withing three lightyears into orbit. This can help you save some fuel as well as offer a refuge, since you can only fly Warp 1 inside the well without getting pulled into orbit. For further use of gravity wells see the warpwell section.

Crystal desert advant YES
The Crystallines who love desert temperatures have a higher growth rate on hotter planets. This isn't likely to be set to NO.

Mines destroy webs NO
Normally minefields layed over webmines won't destroy the webs. For the Federation it is a plus if this is set to YES, but Crystalline protests will make sure it stays at NO.

Climate limits pop YES
This means that on planets with a temperature below 15 degrees or above 84 the number of colonists that can live there is limited. YES is fine for the Federation: terraformers make sure those planets can support unlimited colonists pretty soon while other races have problems.

Max income per planet 5000 mc
On each planet you can earn a maximum of 5000 MCs from the natives. On planets with a lot of natives with good governments you might be able to earn more. You can ask the host to set this higher, not many people will protest it. It's not a problem when it stays at 5000; you'll just have to tax lower and more often. Don't forget the amount earned Winplan projects gets doubled, so remember to keep the predicted earnings below 2500 per turn.

Ion Storms 5
The number of Ion storms. Ion storms can damage ships and pull them off their course, will decloak all cloakers except for the Resolute and the Darkwing and can also hide minefields. This can be used in your favour, though the ships pulled off their course can be annoying. But it's another aid in the war against the cloakers, so five is fine; a lower number is okay too, since you'll have to have some luck with having a storm at the right place in the right time anyway.

Firecloud Chunnel YES
The Cyborg Firecloud Class Cruiser can create a chunnel in which an unlimited number of ships can be moved burning only 50 kts of fuel on the chunneling Firecloud. This way the Borg can move an entire fleet of cubes around very easy. For the Federation it would be a good thing if this was set to NO, but that would weaken the Borg very much. Won't happen.

Super-Spy Deluxe YES
The Birds can use their superspy mission to spy on your planets and control minefield friendly codes. Same as Borg chunnel: it would be great if it were set to NO, but it won't happen.

Ion Storms hide mines YES
There's not much to explain about that one. Leave it at YES and be careful when flying into an Ion storm. Use the storms to your advantage if the opportunity is there.

Fascist Glory Device YES
The Fascists have Glory Device ships which they can set to explode after movement or upon detection of enemy cloakers. The default setting of YES is fine and is not about to be changed.

Loki anti-cloak YES
What's there to say? Make sure it is YES, or your Lokis are useless and you become easy pray for the cloakers.

Loki decloaks Bird Men NO (since host 3.22.021)
Since host version 3.22.021 the Birdmen are immune to the Loki, this became host-configurable in host version 3.22.022. Unfortunately this extra boost to the Birdmen was created to somewhat balance their lack of power, so it'll probably be NO by default. Good thing is if it comes to a vote you'll probably get it to YES without much trouble with at least the Lizard on your side, but you should still be able to defeat the Birdmen if it stays NO.

Lady Royale Gambling YES
The Privateers and Colonials have the Lady Royale in their shiplist, capable of producing 160 MCs per turn if it has 160 clans onboard. Let them have their cash, with your double taxes you'll have more anyway. And there's no way of getting this to NO.

Cloaked ships attack YES
This setting enables cloaked ships to attack their Primary Enemy even if they have the Cloak mission set instead of kill. This way the cloaked ships can orbit one of your planets with you set as PE, stay cloaked and attack any freighter that comes by. This is a fundamental part of the cloaking races' strength, so it's not likely you'll get this set to NO.

Ship cloning YES
Very important: most races can clone enemy ships for double the costs in MCs. As long as this is YES you too can clone ships you've captured or traded, something which can help you a great deal - especially combined with superrefit.

Crys/Priv Boarding YES
The Crystalline and Privateers, capable of draining ships of all their fuel, can capture ships via boarding parties by simply locking a towbeam on them. This way they don't have to drag these ships all the way to their bases to surrender, thus revealing the location of their bases. This setting too will not likely be changed to NO.

Imperial Assault YES
The Evil Empire's Super Star Destroyer can take over a planet by simply dropping ten clans. Very nasty, but it's a ship-ability so if you can get your hands on one you can do the same. The Empire in particular won't agree with NO.

Cobol fuel per LY 2 kt
The Colonial Cobol scoops up fuel from space while flying. At this rate it scoops up more fuel than it uses. Even higher wouldn't really matter because the Colonials have fuel enough already, lower wouldn't exactly go well with the Colonials.
This too is a ship-ability, so can also be used by you if you can get your hands on a Cobol.

Hull tech mine slow 7
Hulls from techlevel seven or higher are not slowed down by a minehit. Since your main ships (Diplomacy, Missouri, Nova) are all tech eight at least this setting is fine. A lower setting would mean even smaller ships can fly on at the same speed -if they survive the minehit- and is not exactly favourable for the Federation.

Aries makes fuel YES
The Colonials have another special fuel-ship: the Aries. This one makes fuel out of minerals without needing supplies; an improved version of the Neutronic Refinery. This makes for a great trading ship for the Colonial and a nice ship for you to get your hands on as well, and it's not likely you can get or even want this set to NO.

Bioscanners YES
Pretty simple. The Brynhild, the Cobol and the Pawn have bioscanners which scan for natives and temperature of all planets within scanning range, as long as this is set to YES. You want this at YES, so you can use or trade your bioscanner.


Back to main guide page
Back to index