Contract

File:Contract screen.png

The Contract screen as seen in the game

Contracts are jobs that players can accept to earn money. Aside from a few story missions, contracts are procedurally generated from a collection of mission types. Two contracts are automatically accepted at the start of the game - 'Make your new ship ready for flight' and a sector objective to destroy enemy forces somewhere in the first sector.

Story Contracts

Make your new ship ready for flight

This contract is automatically accepted at the start of every game.

• A Reactor, generating power.
• Engines capable of propulsion.
• Test the engines from the TACTICAL screen
• Life support to make the interior habitable
• An FTL Drive capable of Hyperspace jumps
• Jump to the marked destination

Special missions

Analyse Anomaly

Analyse mission progress

Collect data on the expanding void. You will be provided with Hyperspace Sensors that must be installed on the ship's hull. During FTL jumps, these sensors collect data. You will receive $1000 per data at each magnitude of collection: 10, 100, 1000, etc.

Evacuation

Create a ship capable of holding planetary citizens looking to escape the void. Pick up as many evacuees as possible and bring them to new worlds in other sectors. You will receive money for each magnitude of evacuees picked up.

Nomad

Design a self-sufficient ship that will allow you to continue to run from the void forever. Bring as many people with you as possible and have them live permanently in your fleet. You will receive money for each magnitude of permanent residents in your fleet.

Procedural Contracts

Courier mission

Cargo must be delivered to a specific system in a particular sector. This contract may or may not come with a time limit. The cargo is delivered via a shuttle to the player's ship upon accepting the contract. The cargo is then retrieved via shuttle when the contract is turned in.

Cargo lost, delivered late, or delivered to the wrong location will be deducted from the payment. The supply boxes from failed Delivery contracts will remain on your ship until the next shuttle brings contract supplies.

Urgent passenger transport request

Passengers must be transported to a specific system in a particular sector. This contract may or may not come with a time limit. The civilians are delivered via a shuttle to the player's ship upon accepting the contract. The passengers are then retrieved via shuttle when the contract is turned in.

Passengers lost, delivered late, or delivered to the wrong location will be deducted from the payment. The passengers from failed Transport passengers contracts will remain on your ship until the next shuttle brings contract supplies.

A player docking with a Stranded Ship

Rescue civilians

A ship has become stranded or damaged, and its crew must be rescued by docking with the ship. This contract may or may not come with a time limit. If it does, the engines on the damaged ship explode when the timer ends, killing the remaining crew onboard.

Ship docking is currently limited to Rescue contracts and cannot be done with arbitrary ships or other ships in the player's Fleet.

To dock with a ship, the player must be in Tactical view and must line up their docking port with the docking port of the stranded ship. A ship's docking port appears as a large rectangle connected to a small square with a line. The player's docking port will be yellow with the large rectangle where the port is, while the stranded ship's docking port will be red and flashing with the small square where the docking port is.

Once the civilians are onboard, they must be delivered to a starbase or colony, where they will depart the ship via shuttle. Any civilians that do not reach the shuttle safely will be deducted from the payment.

Combat

Hostile ships are harassing civilian ships in a system and must be taken care of. The threat can be a small group of fighters, a fleet of ships with fighters, or a large weapons platform.

Fighters are small and agile, dealing small amounts of damage very quickly. Ships have similar capabilities to average player ships. Weapons platforms are large and slow, with armor and heavy weaponry.

If overwhelmed, hostile forces may attempt to retreat. Ships that successfully retreat will be deducted from the payment.

Asteroid mining

Tilium is used to create the FTL Charges for evacuation ships to travel away from the void. The Tilium Ore must be mined from an asteroid belt and, in some cases, smelted into Refined Tilium. The Tilium Ore or Refined Tilium must then be taken to a trading post for delivery via shuttle.

Asteroid belts may contain hostiles or be in the path of a meteor shower, requiring ship defenses to perform the mining successfully. It is a good idea to review the available Combat contracts to see if any are in the same system, as that may indicate the level of hostile activity to expect.

History

• Update 1.rc2: Introduced.
• Update 2.rc1: Certain Contracts require a minimum Rating in a particular category.
• Update 2.rc1: Contracts for systems where you already have existing contracts are highlighted with a light blue diamond.
• DEMO2B: Many changes. See Version History.