The Ship Limit

UPDATE: As of Year 0044 there is a new Production Queue system in some games, be sure to check which queue is in use. New documentation can be found here: Production Queue

There is a maximum of 500 total ships that can be built in any game. This limit is imposed to prevent the game from becoming to big and to force players to begin fighting in order to build more ships. Once their are 450 ships in a game the priority build queue starts to come in to effect to decide who gets to build the next ship when a slot becomes available.  

Ship Limit Build Queue


Once at the 450 ship mark the priority points build queue comes into effect. It works as follows:
  1. Check priority build points (PBP) for players with more than 20.
  2. For each player with more than 20 build a ship and use points. The player with the most points always gets the build.
  3. Once no player has more than 20 priority build points commence the "normal" build queue based on starbase id number (planet id).  
  4. The normal cycle continues from turn to turn from lowest id number to highest.
Example:

There are 5 starbases in a game with the IDs: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500.  The game reaches the ship limit of 500 ships on turn 30.  

On turn 31 two ships are killed.  Starbase 100 and starbase 200 get the build (if set to build a ship).  On turn 32, one more ship is killed. Starbase 300 gets the build. On turn 33 two ships are killed by the federation player who owns starbase 100 and he now has 21 priority points. Starbase 100 gets the first build and uses up some priority points so they now have less that 20.  Starbase 400 gets the other build because they are next in line. 

This cycle continues. If a starbase is not set to build the queue just moves past to the next starbase in id order.

Priority Build Friend Codes

When you use a priority build it is possible to determine which starbase of yours you would like to get the priority build by setting the planetary friendly code to "pb1".  This continues with "pb1", "pb2", "pb3" etc.  

How to get Priority Points


Every time you destroy 100kt of enemy starship hull you earn 1 PBP. Ships under 100kt count as 1 point. If you have more than 20 PBPs you get to build new starships before anyone else with less PBPs than you. This bypasses the normal starbase build queue. Every build make or every clone you make will cost you 1 PBP per every 50KT of hull that you make. Ships under 50kt will cost you 1 point. If you have more than 20 PBPs you might be able to both clone and do a normal build at the same starbase at the same time, if your PBPs don't drop below 20 during the builds/clones.

You also get 1 PBP if you set off a glory device or recycle a ship.