To The Stars

At an early point in the main campaign, two wormholes appear on the map. If you go through those, you'll come out at other star systems. However, if you do so before completing the main campaign, your ship will be damaged and you'll have little choice except to return to the Solar System and get it fixed because there is no place to dock in those systems.

## Stars and wormholes

The stars and the wormholes that connect them are hard-coded, so they're the same for everybody.

The wormholes form two trees. There is only one path from one star system to another; there are no shortcuts or loops.

The only significance of the wormhole to Luyten 726-8 having a jumpgate is that you have to pay 10 credits to go through, and your ship suffers very little damage. No jumpgate is available for the return trip, nor for any other wormhole.

## Planets, asteroid belts, and moons

The astronomical content of the star systems is hard-coded, so it's the same for everybody. The same planets with the same names, the same asteroid belts, and the same moons are always present.

Each star system is made up of clones of Solar System objects, but usually in a different order and with different names. There's a depressing lack of new imagery, which mainly consists of over a half-dozen Earth-like designs for moon bases and some recolored versions of Jupiter.

There are a ton of asteroid belts. Each system has one, and most systems have three. As with the Solar System, rocky planets orbit nearest the star while gas and ice giants are farther out.

## Stations

### Overview

When you finish the main campaign, the last mission is to go through the jumpgate. When you do that, the stations are procedurally generated. The stations are different for each player. The station names have two randomly generated parts, and it *is* possible to have duplicate names.

All stations that you can dock at outside of the Solar System belong to either Theta or Concordia. All stations at any one planet belong to the same company.

Each star system should have at least one station that produces a given commodity type, and at least one station that demands a given commodity type (if it can be demanded).

Rocky planets have room for three orbiting stations (space stations or minimoon bases), with Mars clones also having a clone of Red Core on the planet surface. Some rocky planets also have a moon, which can have two orbit slots of its own and a surface station. It's common for one or more station slots to be taken by an outpost, or sometimes left totally vacant.

Gas and ice giants without rings (clones of Jupiter and Neptune) can have up to five moons. There can be as many as seven orbiting stations, pretty much in a line, plus two outposts positioned a bit closer to the star. Gas and ice giants with rings (clones of Saturn and Uranus) are much less common, and they don't have nearly as many moons.

### Buyable stations

In every star system, Concordia will sell you a ground base that produces 4x water and 3x metal ores. Theta will sell you a ground base that produces 4x oxygen and 4x water.

Except in the few star systems that don't have any gas or ice giant planets, Concordia also will sell you a space station that produces electronics, while Theta also will sell you a space station that produces space suits.

Because all stations at a planet belong to the same company, the most you can hope for is that a planet has both the ground base and space station offered for sale by the company. It's possible but *extremely* rare for Theta to have both of its buyable stations at one planet and for Concordia to have both of its buyable stations at another.

Other buyable stations will appear later on, if you play in a star system for long enough.

### Pirate-owned stations

Every star system will have two pirate-owned stations, typically an outpost and a depot. These *usually* are both at the same planet.

If the stations are at two different planets, you can choose to rid one of the planets of the pirates by destroying the station there. The destroyed station can then reappear at the same planet as the other pirate station, where any destruction of it will only result in it reappearing at the same place as soon as you leave the area.

## Exploration

### General

The Solar System was already well-explored before the start of the game, but with the opening up of the wormholes comes the opportunity to explore other star systems.

Exploration in *Star Commander: War and Trade* isn't a parade of wonders like it is in some games. Rather, it's like an Easter egg hunt. There's an awful lot of sameness, and you're looking for the few things that are different. Sometimes the differences are easily overlooked.

### Stars and wormholes

Mapping out the wormhole network is a straightforward affair. There's no particular need to map the entire network, but it's something you certainly can do.

The stars and wormholes are hard-coded, so they're the same for everyone. The stars are, in fact, the actual stars known to be within five parsecs of Earth, in their actual positions. The game automatically fills out the star map as you go through each new wormhole.

### Planets and moons

The planets and moons are basically clones of the ones from the Solar System. They're jumbled up a bit, but generally recognizable. As in the Solar System, the rocky planets will be closer to the star, with the gas and ice giants being found farther out.

Some of the planets are modified a bit from their Solar System relatives, and those are the Easter eggs in this category.

The planets, their names, and their moons are hard-coded for each star system, so they're the same for everyone. The game doesn't track exploration of planets and moons.

### Stations

There is a discouraging repetitiveness to the stations. There are the axle and disc space stations, and mostly airless Deimos/asteroid ground bases. Occasionally you'll find a clone of Mars, which comes with a clone of the Red Core environment, or a clone of Titan, which comes with a clone of the Excalibur environment. Rarely you'll find an Earth environment with green grass, water, and blue skies with white clouds.

The Easter eggs are few and far between, but they're out there. The aerial station might be the most rare, with only about half a dozen to be found across all of the stars (more can appear later). Something else to watch for is that the outposts come in a number of variations, so consider stopping by them to look for new variations you haven't yet seen.

Space stations and ground bases are different for each player. The game doesn't track exploration of stations.

### The map

Some of the Easter eggs can be spotted on the star map if you know what to look for. If you want, you can spend some time learning to pick up on the little details.

## Related pages

* Notable star systems
* Production in other star systems