Main Window - Command Panel

Description

| This panel allows you to control your entire empire and bring up windows with different reports. This window is divided into 3 sections called the Command Buttons, Order Buttons, and Selection Buttons. Most of the buttons in this section have corresponding hotkeys which can be pressed to active them. See the Orders section for more general details about orders. |

Controls

| None |

Buttons

| Command Buttons | These buttons allow you to bring up windows to view and manipulate your empire. You can press these at any time during the game.
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|  | This button brings up the Game Menu Window. This window allows you to save and load games, set game options, and set computer control of players.
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|  | This button brings up the Designs Window. This window allows you to create new designs, view enemy designs, and engage in simulated combat.
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|  | This button brings up the Planets Window. This window displays all of the planets throughout the galaxy that you have seen.
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|  | This button brings up the Colonies Window. This window displays all of the colonies in your empire.
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|  | This button brings up the Ships\Units Window. This window displays all of the ships, units, and fleets that you control.
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|  | This button brings up the Construction Queues Window. This window allows you to view and change all of the construction queues for your planets and ships.
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|  | This button brings up the Research Window. This window allows you to research new technologies.
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|  | This button brings up the Empires Window. This window allows you to send messages to other empires, perform intelligence actions, and view comparisons of the different empires.
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|  | This button brings up the Log Window. This window displays all of the news events that have happened since your last turn.
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|  | This button brings up the Empire Status Window. This window allows you to view your economy and change overall settings for your empire.
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|  | This button brings up the Help Window. This window displays all of the different components, facilities, and ship sizes that you have discovered.
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|  | This button will end the current turn. Once you select this, the various panels of the Main Window will become disabled until all of the computer players have completed their turn.
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| Orders Buttons | These buttons allow you to give orders to your ships and planets. When you select a specific object in the System panel of the Main Window, the orders that can be executed for that object will become lit-up. See Orders for more information.
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|  | This is the "Move To" order. This order will cause your ship to move from its current location to a location that you specify. When you select this order, the game will request that you select a destination point. This point can be in either this system, or some other system.
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|  | This is the "Move To Waypoint" order. This is order allows you to select a waypoint to have your ship move to. It displays the Select Waypoint window when pressed. This order is the equivalent of giving the Move To order.
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|  | This is the "Attack" order. This orders tells your ships to attack a location. Since a ship will automatically attack a location just by moving into it, the attack order only serves a purpose if you are trying to attack the same location that your ship is currently at (if there are enemies at that same location).

The Attack order serves another purpose in a Simultaneous game, where it gives your ships the order to seek and attack a target. This is useful since your ships will actually seek no matter where the target moves during the turn.

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|  | This is the "Resupply At Nearest" order. This order will give your ship the Move To order to the nearest location where you have a Resupply Depot facility.
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|  | This is the "Clear Orders" order. Your ship may have several unexecuted orders that it has in its orders list. This selection will clear all of the unexecuted orders that your ship has.
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|  | This is the "Warp" order. This order will cause your ship to warp through a warp point. When you select this, you will be requested for a location to warp through. Since a Move To order will cause your ship to warp through a warp point as necessary, this order is only really needed if the warp point is linked to an unexplored system.
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|  | This is the "Colonize" order. This order will request that you select a planet to colonize. Your ship will be give several orders. First, it will try and load population from any planet at that location. It is important that your ship has some population in its cargo bay so that they can be placed on the planet when it is colonized. Next, the ship will be given orders to Move To the planet. And finally, the ship will be given the Colonize order.

When your ship colonizes a planet, the ship will be deconstructed for raw materials. Any population or cargo being carried by the ship will be placed on the planet. It is very important that your colony ship carry population when it is colonizing a planet. Without population, a colony will still be created, but it will have no people. A colony without population will not be able to construct any facilities.

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|  | This is the "Fleet Transfer" order. This order will display the Fleet Transfer Window so that you can create new fleets, and add this ship and others into the fleet.
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|  | This is the "Repair At Nearest" order. This order will give your current ship orders to Move To the nearest location where you have component repair capabilities. The order in which the components is actually repaired is specified in the Repair Priorities Window.
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|  | This is the "Build Queue" order. This selection will display the Set Construction Queue Window.
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|  | This is the "Cargo Transfer" order. This selection will display the Cargo Transfer Window so that you can transfer cargo between ships and planets at this location. This order is not available in Simultaneous Games.
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|  | This is the "Load Cargo" order. This selection will display a window asking to you select a cargo type. Then you will be asked for a location. This button will give your ship orders to Move To the location specified, then attempt to load all of the cargo it can of the type chosen. Your ship will attempt to load the cargo from a planet or base that you own at that location. If you have nothing that can hold the cargo at that location, then the order will not be executed.

Usually, you will use the Cargo Transfer order to move cargo. You would use this order if you want to perform the load sometime in the future.

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|  | This is the "Launch Units Remotely" order. This selection will display a window asking to you select a unit type. Then you will be asked for a location. This button will give your ship orders to Move To the location specified, then attempt to launch all of the units it can of the type chosen.

Usually, you will use the Launch/Recover Units order to launch units. You would use this order if you want to perform the launch sometime in the future.

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|  | This is the "Sentry" order. A Sentry order causes the current ship to stay at its current position and wait until an enemy comes near. A ship on sentry will just skip its turn until an enemy ship comes into the same system, at which point it will clear its orders.
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|  | This is the "Set Partrol" order. When you select this button, you will be asked to entry the patrol points. Each of these points is a location on the map that you want your ship to patrol through. The final point should be the location where your ship is now. This selection will also turn on the "Repeat Orders" option so that your ship will continue to patrol indefinitely.
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|  | This is the "Launch/Recover Units" order. This selection will display the Launch \ Recover Units Window so that you can launch and recover units from this location in space. This order is not available in Simultaneous Games.
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|  | This is the "Drop Cargo" order. This selection will display a window asking to you select a cargo type. Then you will be asked for a location. This button will give your ship orders to Move To the location specified, then attempt to drop all of the cargo it can of the type chosen. The destination for the cargo will be a colony you have or a base. If you do not have something that can hold the cargo at the location, then the order will not be executed.

Usually, you will use the Cargo Transfer order to move cargo. You would use this order if you want to perform the drop sometime in the future.

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|  | This is the "Recover Units Remotely" order. This selection will display a window asking to you select a unit type. Then you will be asked for a location. This button will give your ship orders to Move To the location specified, then attempt to recover from space all of the units it can of the type chosen.

Usually, you will use the Launch/Recover Units order to recover units. You would use this order if you want to perform the recovery sometime in the future.

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|  | This is the "Explore" order. This order will cause your ship to Move To the nearest system which is unexplored. It also takes into account whether any other ships are already on their way to a system as well.
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|  | This is the "Repeat Orders" order. This toggle will cause your current list of orders to repeat indefinitely. Normally, when an order is completed, it is deleted from the orders list for that ship. With repeat orders toggled on, the orders are not removed and will cycle through when they reach the bottom. This is a useful order to set up patrols, or cycling orders for a transport to load and drop cargo.
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|  | This is the "Stellar Manipulation" order. This selection will display the Stellar Manipulation Window. Through this window you can execute any stellar manipulation components you may have on your ship (Create Planet, Destroy Star, etc.).
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|  | This is the "Scrap / Analyze / Mothball" order. This selection will display the Scrap Window. You can use this window to scrap your ship, deconstruct and analyze it, mothball it, and more.
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|  | This is the "View Orders" order. This selection will display a window which will allow you to view all of the UN-executed orders for this ship.
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|  | This is the "Scrap Facilities" order. When selected, the Select Facilities Window will be displayed so that you can choose which facilities on this planet that you would like to scrap.
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|  | This is the "Cloak" order. If your ship contains an operational cloaking device, then this order will cause your ship to cloak itself. A ship that is cloaked cannot be seen by any other players unless they have sensors equipped to detect them. If other players cannot see you, you can pass through locations where their ships sit without engaging in combat. While cloaked, many normal orders are not available. See Sight for more details.
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|  | This is the "Change Name" order. When selected, a window will be displayed to allow you to enter a new name for this ship or planet.
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|  | This is the "Change Formation \ Strategy" order. If you currently have a fleet selected, then you can select this to change the fleet's formation and strategy.
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|  | This is the "Sweep Mines" order. If your ship has an undamaged mine sweeping component on it, you can select this order to have your ship sweep the mines at a location. Now your ships will automatically sweep mines any time they move, but you may want to use this order to give an area a special "going over".
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|  | This is the "Jettison Cargo" order. This order will jettison the cargo that your ship or planet is carrying. When you jettison cargo, it is removed from your ship and destroyed when shot into space.
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|  | This is the "Decloak" order. This is the reverse of the "Cloak" order. If your ship is currently cloaked, then you can select this order to cause the ship to decloak.
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|  | This is the "Use Component" order. This selection will display the Select Component Window so that you can choose a component to use. Some components have a single use and then they are destroyed. Some examples are the Emergency Resupply Component and the Emergency Energy Component.
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|  | This is the "Abandon Planet" order. This order will cause your people to abandon your colony and leave the planet. When you abandon the planet, you have the choice of whether you want to scrap the facilities on the planet or leave them as they are. You may want to leave them if you think that you will eventually be back to recolonize the planet. Be sure that you use your transports to remove all of the population on the planet before you abandon it.
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|  | This is the "Play Movement Log" order. This order is only available in Simultaneous games. This will play the movement log from the movement that the host executed. It will show all of the ships moving over the course of the month. The movement of all players is simultaneous. This is merely a replay of what happened. You can change the current system you are looking at and then replay the log again to see what happened in that system. This replay will progress from beginning to end automatically.
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|  | This is the "Play Movement Log Stepped" order. This is similar to the Play Movement Log except that it will only step one day of the log with each press of the button. You can use this to view the movement log in a slower and more detailed manner.
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|  | This is the "Use Facility" order. This selection will display the Select Facility Window so that you can choose a facility to use. Some facilities have a single use that can be executed in a turn.
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|  | This is the "Convert Resources" order. This selection will display a window which will allow you to convert resources from one type to another. Any conversion from one resource to another is not perfect, there is some loss of material when converting. For example, if there is a 50% loss of material, you will use 3000 minerals to get 1500 organics. This order is only available if the currently selected planet has a facility with the resource conversion ability.
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|  | This is the "Toggle Minister Control" order. This selection will set the currently selected ship or planet under minister control (or turn it off if it is currently on). Individual minister control means that the computer will control this ship or planet and will use it as it sees fit. This is very useful for you to reduce micromangement since you can put your less important ships on a kind of "auto-pilot". This minister selection must be used in conjunction with the minister selections in the Ministers window (under Empire Status). The selections you make in the Ministers window will tell the computer what kind of operations this ship can be used for.
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|  | This is the "Play Movement Log For Ship" order. This is similar to the Play Movement Log except that it will play the entire movement log for each of your ships. So instead of just viewing all of the movements within just one system, this will allow you to follow and watch the movements of all of your ships.
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|  | This is the "Rewind Movement Log" order. As you use the Play Movement Log Stepped order, you may want to rewind the log back to the beginning. This order will move the movement log back to Day 1.
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| Selection Buttons | These buttons allow you to cycle through the various ships, planets, and fleets of your empire.
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|  | These buttons cycle through the ships at your command. In a Turn-Based game, the cycle will only include ships which have movement remaining. In a Simultaneous game, the cycle will include only those ships which do not have orders.
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|  | These buttons cycle through the fleets at your command.
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|  | These buttons cycle through the planets at your command.

Special Notes

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Related Areas

| Main Window |