Gameplay

Being in development, Astrox Imperium in its current incarnation does not provide a story to follow. Rather, the main gameplay loop revolves around improving on the Pilot's gear and skills, optionally leading fleets and building structures, while exploring the universe.

The game provides concise, interactive and easy to follow tutorials on many of its gameplay mechanics, with some of them rewarding the player for completing them. The tutorials can be repeated anytime, taken in any order and stopped and started at will.

This page serves as a more detailed introduction, especially to those wanting to know more about the gameplay prior to playing for the first time or considering to purchase Astrox Imperium on GOG or Steam.

Verified for build 0.0124The following information has been verified for Astrox Imperium build 0.0124

## The Pilot

The Pilot is the player's in-game character. Among the properties a Pilot has are current level, skills, faction reputation, medals received and assets and credits owned. Some of these properties as well as other properties related to the Pilot are introduced in the following sections.

### Level

   The Pilot's character level is of no consequence to most of the universe. It has no impact on proficiency with gear or ships, all importance is focused on how skill points are gained and spent.

Level progression is achieved by attaining experience points (XP), which are granted for actions like successfully fulfilling mission contracts or even simply inflicting damage on other objects like asteroids (by mining them) or other ships (by hitting them).

Astrox Imperium will notify the player, if a new character level was reached, and provide skill points to spend on training skills at the players discretion.

The current level, number of experience points, number of experience points required to reach the next level as well as the number of available skill points are displayed in the PILOT DETAILS panel, which you sometimes also may see called pilot overview panel.

### Skills

Skills decide on the Pilot's proficiency with gear, market rebates, maximum number of ships in a fleet, capability to use improved gear, refinery and fabrication speed, mining yields, drone operation, and many more elements of Astrox Imperium's game mechanics.

#### Learning

Skills can be learned independent of the Pilot's character level. Skills are leveled, though, with skill levels usually improving on the effect the particular skill has.

In order to learn or improve on a skill, Pilots need to find a station university teaching the specific skill, and then spend skill points, credits and time in order to gain the desired skill level.

Some skills require other skills or certain levels in other skills as a prerequisite, with Astrox Imperium giving notice in such cases.

Learning a skill takes time with lower skill levels requiring about one minute real time. Learning time will run at half the pace, effectively doubling the learning time required, if the Pilot is not docked at a station while learning of a skill is in progress. Multiple skills may be learned at the same time. Note, that Pilots may disable the learning time requirement altogether by enabling the Instant Skill Training option in the EXTRA panel of the GAME OPTIONS.

Currently learned skills and their levels, as well as learning progress and time remaining can be displayed in the PILOT DETAILS panel, which you sometimes also may see called pilot overview panel.

#### Gaining Skill points

While credits needed for purchasing training courses will probably be of lesser concern at later game stages, gathering skill points through leveling up, fulfilling mission contracts or receiving medals can be time consuming.

Skill manuals provide a convenient way to instantly gain skill points, but may be hard to come by for starting Pilots, as they are usually kept by Raiders, whose ships need to be destroyed in order to obtain them. Unless Pilots want to try their luck using Burglary Drones.

Astrox Imperium will reward Pilots with a maximum of five skill points based on their activity for every 15 minutes real time played (if using normal game speed), with one major influence being the Life Support Drain Speed configured in the EXTRA panel of the GAME OPTIONS. Skill points automatically granted this way are informally known as "residual Skill points", in order to distinguish them from Skill points earned by other means.

### Credits

Credits are the in-game currency of Astrox Imperium. Credits are required for almost anything, from buying gear to paying warp gate tolls.

The game provides for a lot of opportunities to earn credits, ranging from successful completion of mission contracts over market arbitrage to simple, honest grinding of asteroids or derelict objects in space.

The amount of credits the Pilot currently owns can be displayed in the PILOT DETAILS panel.

### Faction reputation

Several factions exist in the universe of Astrox Imperium. Being in good standing with a faction brings several benefits, like reduced faction taxes on items purchased or the ability to hire mercenaries of that faction at space station lounges. Also, faction shipyards will offer ship models with improved technology to reputable Pilots.

Faction reputation can be earned by successfully completing missions for the faction in question, which are available at space station lounges, as well as eliminating Raiders (or any other faction) attacking a sector owned by the respective faction.

Faction reputation is lost for attacking or even killing members of a faction. This includes loosing a mercenary, while they are on the Pilot's payroll in a fleet.

Factions currently known to the Pilot, as well as the Pilot's reputation with them are displayed in the FACTION tab of the PILOT DETAILS panel.

Visit the Factions page for a complete list of factions and their subfactions.

### Data journal

The Pilot's automatically managed DATA JOURNAL keeps extensive information about many aspects of the universe and the Pilot's activity. It also offers the Pilot keeping manual notes on whatever they deem noteworthy.

While some information is added to the DATA JOURNAL by for example visiting a station, information about about other objects is only added, if the Pilot actively scans the respective item, like for example a structure or a certain type of ship.

The DATA JOURNAL offers a convenient search function, which will scan available information for keywords entered, like for example finding on which stations a certain item is on offer.

### Getting killed

    The only way a Pilot can get killed is by the destruction of their ship. Destruction is triggered by losing all shields and armor, by self destruction or by exhausting Life Support (including the 60 seconds extension).

Upon destruction, the PILOT DEATH OPTIONS panel is displayed.

* QUIT TO DESKTOP will quit Astrox Imperium, allowing you to continue from your last save at at later point in time
* DEATH PENALTY will revert the Pilots ship to the DE-1 Basic Escort starter ship docked at Biostar University in Void Starcross. All contents of the previous ship's cargo bay are lost.
* LOAD SAVED GAME will continue from the last save game created

Astrox Imperium will automatically save the game, when:

* the Pilot docks or undocks
* the Pilot buys or sells a ship
* the Pilot moves a remote ship to a local shipyard
* the Pilot assigns a mercenary to a service position in a station
* the player saves manually

There is only one save game slot per Pilot, which gets overwritten every time the game is automatically or manually saved.

## Ships

    A ship is the pilots main means of movement and transportation in the universe of Astrox Imperium, and currently the only means of obtaining ships is buying them at station shipyards. While a Pilot can own more than one ship for personal use, only one can be flown at a time, while the others are stored at shipyard docks on stations.

Owned assets, including ships, can be viewed in the ASSETS tab of the PILOT DETAILS panel. Ships can either be switched by visiting the SHIPYARD of the station their parked on, or by having them taxied over to the Pilot's current location, which incurs a fee.

The game provides first and third person views, as well as manual and autopilot guided steering.

Pilots can lead fleets or remotely operate drones, though.

Many of a ship's properties as well as the properties of installed equipment can be improved by having the Pilot learn the respective skills.

### Properties

Ships come in a variety of sizes, types and classes with a number of properties and, at least to new Pilots, at horrendous prices. Ships have cargo space, hard points for equipment called Active Modules and other mounting points for equipment called Passive Modules.

Some ships provide built-in bonuses to a variety of other properties, like increasing weapon damage or the built-in cargo space of Drones, whith faction shipyards providing additional bonuses based on a Pilot's reputation.

While shields and armor decide on survivability in combat, energy represents the power reservoir available to the propulsion systems, weapons and other ship components.

The SHIP STATS panel, visible in the lower left of below screenshot, provides a condensed overview of vital ship statistics.

Visit the Ships, Active Modules, Passive Modules pages for more information.

### Modifying ships

Pilots may modify their ships purchasing (or crafting) a large variety of modules, ranging from reconnaissance scanners, improving manoeuvrability, powerful energy generators, extraction beams, more durable shields, extended cargo bays, torpedo launchers and many more.

Modifications can only applied when docked at a station providing the STATION GARAGE service.

Visit the Ships, Factions, Active Modules, Passive Modules and Weapons pages for more information.

### Life support property

    This property represents the Survival aspect of Astrox Imperium. Life Support support effects can be switched off by setting the Life Support Drain Speed in the GAME OPTIONS panel to zero.

Life Support is tied to a Pilot's ship, optionally improved by their Life Support skills, and consists of four slots for the respective support items:

* Food Synthesis (resistance against: Luminous Flux)
* Water Filtration (resistance against: Hydrospheric Density)
* Thermal Regulator (resistance against: External Temperature)
* Waste Management (resistance against: Bio Toxicity)

Each of these will add to the Life Support of the Pilot's ship. None of these items are consumed, they merely represent rechargeable resistance pools against environmental hazards in sectors. If the hazard levels of a sector are higher than the resistances of the respective Life Support items of a ship, Life Support will begin to drain at a rate proportional to the difference.

Docking at a station automatically recharges Life Support, also Life Support can be recharged at certain structures. The remaining time until Life Support ceases operation is given in minutes/seconds in the SHIP STATS panel.

Astrox Imperium will notify the Pilot, if Life Support is running low. If Life Support operation time reaches zero, a separate panel will pop in, counting down 60 seconds. The Pilot now has one more minute to reach safety or the ship will be destroyed.

Note, that even the starter ship is quite capable of surviving even the most hazardous sectors long enough to reach the next warp gate or point of safety. More versatile pilots may even be able to have a stab at fetching valuables, before escaping to safety.

Visit the Support page for a list of all Life Support items, and the Life Support Skills list for all related skills.

### Navigation and targeting

    Ships can be steered manually by the player in first and third person, but are usually flown by locking onto an acquired target like a station, an asteroid or a warp gate and then let the autopilot do its thing.

Warp gates are the main means to navigate between sectors, some of which may require a Passkey. Alternatively, for already discovered sectors, Pilots may use a Warp Drive for instantaneous travel.

Note, that acquiring or locking on a target, while also identifying it, is not the same as scanning a target, which will provide more detailed information about the target.

    All ships have built-in TACTICAL SENSORS (toggled by SPACE), an invaluable tool for revealing hostiles, friendlies, stations, warp gates and other objects alike. In contrast to the ship's scanners, TACTICAL SENSORS have unlimited range, and allow Pilots to identify targets hidden behind obstacles. The sensors provide visual clues about the type, class and faction affinity of an object by displaying coloured icons.

TACTICAL SENSORS will also display mission specific information, like pointing the Pilot to the respective asteroid to mine for obtaining special ores.

    The current settings for the autopilot can be changed in the AUTOPILOT panel, while acquired targets are displayed in the TARGETING panel. Clicking on a ship or any other target in the main view will acquire, try to identify and then add the object to the list displayed in the TARGETING panel. Clicking on an already actively tracked target will activate the autopilot. Double clicking not yet identified and / or tracked objects will also program the ship's autopilot. Actively tracked targets will have various information displayed next to them.

If the maximum number of actively tracked targets a ship can manage is reached, no more targets can be acquired, until active tracking for at least one target is disabled by clicking the small X next to it in the TARGETING panel. Targets not actively tracked do not count against the maximum number of targets a ship can acquire, but will remain in the TARGETING panel target list.

In conjunction with the built-in GPS (Galaxy Positioning System), the autopilot will also pass sector boundaries, and if a ship's afterburners are enabled (toggled by SHIFT-LOCK, or used for temporary boosts by pressing SHIFT), there's usually nothing to seriously endanger the ship.

The GALAXY MAP provides for sector to sector navigation (double clicking a sector programs the GPS) between already explored sectors. It will also display several key properties of a sector. Pressing "M" will bring up the GALAXY MAP. Pressing "M" again will close it.

If the Pilot's ship is equipped with a Warp Drive, direct, instantaneous jumps to previously discovered sectors are possible, if the drive has enough fuel. Warp Drives can only be activated, if the Pilot's ship is not currently docked. Selecting a target on the GALAXY MAP while undocked will offer the option to activate the Warp Drive, and give more information about distance and fuel requirements.

### Bookmarks

Lastly, the SYSTEM NAV panel in the upper left corner of the screen allows for bookmarking positions complete with a title and a note, which may come in handy at times. Bookmarks may be created anywhere in space at the ship's current position by clicking the "Add GPS bookmark" icon. Once created, the titles of bookmarks created in a sector will be shown in the sector details on the GALAXY MAP.

Bookmarks are only visible, if in TACTICAL SENSORS view. They can be modified or removed by clicking the the small circle with dot symbol (⊙) below their flag shaped icon.

### Ship-to-ship communication

The Pilot can initiate ship-to-ship communication with any vessel encountered, provided they get within approximately 750 meters distance.

Conversations revolve around a large variety of topics, ranging from patronizing burps and valuable hints to receiving well-payed missions.

### Combat

    Initiating ship combat is as easy as activating a ship's weapon systems and then acquiring and locking onto a target. All available weapon systems will automatically follow that target, with most of them opening fire automatically, if the target comes into range. Their rate of fire is governed by their cycle time, while their mobility range defines the maximum ranges of rotation and elevation. A ship's turn rate, mass and thrust have a substantial impact on its maneuverability and thus its ability to bring itself into good firing positions.

All weapons consume energy during firing a salvo, even those firing projectiles, missiles or torpedoes. Various types of ammunition are available, which need to be replenished, with laser and beam weapons using pure energy instead of projectiles, missiles or torpedoes. Defensive systems like cloaking or ECM devices also are available, and generally work similar to offensive systems.

Weapon systems are Active Modules, and their status is displayed in the bottom of the screen as seen in the screenshot. Activation and deactivation is done individually by clicking the respective Active Module, pressing the corresponding module slot number key (holding ALT to toggle slots above 10), or as a whole by pressing CTRL-Z. Deactivation can similarly be done by clicking them individually, using number keys or using CTRL-X to disable all of them at once.

Friendly targets can not be fired upon, unless systems are configured to do so with the respective button below the Active Modules (moving your mouse to the screen border below the Active Modules will make a button bar pop up).

    Destruction of a ship will leave behind a Ship Loot Box and junk, containing whatever is left from the target. While Ship Loot can be accessed from withing 600m distance, junk will need to be salvaged using Salvage Beams or specialized Drones.

    Ship Loot Boxes will persist, even if emptied and thus may hamper continued loot collection. Astrox Imperium conveniently provides for a way to destruct Ship Loot Boxes by triggering self-destruct on them using the exploding box icon displayed upon accessing a Ship Loot Box.

While a Pilot's ship is routinely controlled by the autopilot during combat, Pilots can either disable the autopilot altogether or assist by temporarily overriding the autopilot's steering, by for example manually using the afterburners to gain distance, or turning the ship into a circling hostile for attaining a more favourable firing position.

Pilot's need not fight alone. If the Pilot leads a fleet of mercenaries, they can be ordered to take part in combat. Additionally, a number of combat oriented drone types are available as an alternative or a supplement.

Visit the Ships, Active Modules, Passive Modules, TACTICAL SENORS, damage and resistances and Weapons pages for more information.

## Fleets and Drones

Pilots are able to lead fleets of Mercenaries, and make use of Drones.

See Fleets and Drones for more information.

## Building structures

    This is a rather new feature of Astrox Imperium with currently limited functionality.

Aside from using pre-existing structures, Pilots may also build their own structures floating in space for providing shelter, resupply or storage, up to and including fully fledged space stations. The Player as well as ships of the Player's fleet will be able to make use of these structures.

Structures can be placed anywhere in space using a previously purchased Generic Construction Platform.

See Buildable structures for more information.

### Missions

    Missions may be acquired in a space station's lounge, if they provide for one. Missions pay in skill points, XP, credits, and faction reputation. While missions earn reputation with one faction, they may reduce reputation with another. Missions usually require an insurance deposit, so Pilots should bring some credits to the lounge.

Pilots are advised to make use their ship's TACTICAL SENSORS for identifying mission targets in a sector.

The more missions a Pilot completes successfully, the higher the level of missions offered will become. The following types of missions are available:

* Mining special ore
* Transporting cargo
* Acquiring and delivering goods (including pizza)
* Scanning objects
* Collecting debts
* Straight out murder, regardless of how it's camouflaged by the ordering party
* Escorting a ship
* Recovery of an object
* Defeating raiders

### Trading

    Stations with a marketplace are open for trade. Prices and availability of goods can vary sharply between sectors and stations, and is subject to change by events displayed in the station's lounge NEWS panel. Additionally, all items traded are subject to possible discounts as well as base and faction taxing.

Stations will buy any goods offered by the Pilot, but will pay only change for goods not listed in their market. All STATION MARKET panels provide a MARKET ECONOMY view (displayed by clicking the SHOW ECONOMY button), which allows for supply and demand prices to be compared to the respective base prices, which helps identifying lucrative trade opportunities. Also, a log of previous transactions is provided.

Apart from trading a quantity of a particular item, markets also trade in sell and buy orders for items. These are basically package deals containing items of various type and quantity, with the market either ordered to sell packages to the Pilot or offering to buy packages from Pilots.

**Sell Orders**

Sell orders bundle items of different types and quantities into a package for purchase by the Pilot. Once the Pilot has bought the package, all items contained in the package will be transferred to the ship's cargo and/or to the space station storage rented by the Pilot.

**Buy orders**

Buy orders bundle requests for items of different types and quantities into a package. Pilots wanting to fulfill the request need have all goods in at least the specified quantity in their cargo or the space station's storage.

### Mining and salvaging

    Miners shoot rocks in space, salvagers shoot ship wrecks and other derelict objects. While mining requires extraction beams or mining drones, salvaging requires salvage beams or salvaging drones. Alternatively (or in addition), members of the Pilot's fleet may be ordered to mine or salvage, provided their ships are properly equipped.

Mining and salvaging can be very lucrative occupations, especially if combined with the proper skills. Stations paying over 600 credits for a single piece of Zai Ore are not unheard of, for example.

See the resources page for more information.

### Refining and fabrication

    Refining is the process of breaking down resources into their respective materials. Fabrication is the process of combing resources, materials and components into higher value items, but requires recipes called documents to be purchased at station markets. Space stations may provide refiners and fabricators for use by the Pilot, but will charge per item broken down or fabricated.

Some resources can be sold at a higher profit margin after being broken down, while others may lose in value. Fabricators may equally raise or lower value, but can add to the Pilot's self sufficiency by producing otherwise scarce goods for consumption like ammunition, or ship enhancements and even weaponry.

Refiners and fabricators provide their own storage, and their effectiveness can be improved by obtaining the respective refining and fabricating skills. Both can be stopped and restarted mid-process in order to remove or add items, and they will continue processing, if the Pilot is not docked at the respective station, albeit at half their normal speed.

Note, that if a STATION MARKET does not have a specific item on offer, creating at least one of its kind in the station's fabricator will have the station add this type of item for trade. Refining a module will yield random components of the same level as the module refined.

As a sidenote, Pilots in need of storage space can abuse the storage local to refiners and fabricators instead of renting additional storage from a station.

See the resources, materials, components and the documents page for more information.

### Piracy

    While the ancient art of taking someone elses possessions unnoticed can be tried by using Burglary Drones on unsuspecting targets, the less subtle way of blowing up the target's ship, and then looting its remains is a viable option, too.

    Some of the missions available on space stations call for the elimination of a target, but Pilots determined to a pirate's life can simply pick their own.

Pilots not keen to start a full on war with all factions of the Astrox Imperium universe might want to focus on Raiders, which frequently enter lower security sectors to wreak havoc. Other ships may even assist in taking these Raiders down, while at times generously leaving any loot they leave behind untouched.

As an additional bonus to the loot and the XP gained, eliminating Raiders will also raise the rating with the faction owning the sector.