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.