Balancing · Map
Space occupation
Plant beacons from orbiting fleets to claim Chebyshev disks of empty universe tiles. Fuel them with frurozin, paint the map, and unlock tiles your colonizer must stand in before a second world can be claimed.
Occupation is star-map territory, not planet ownership. Beacons live on empty universe tiles - the same layer fleets park on - and never on planet body tiles.
v1 geometry is simple on purpose: each active beacon claims one Chebyshev disk. There is no minimum beacon count and no link network to complete. Overlaps with your own disks are fine; foreign disks block colliding deploys.
Numbers below come from the live beacon occupation config and beacon module stats. When tiers change, the table updates with the code.
Alpha honesty
You cannot attack, capture, or overwrite a foreign beacon yet. Soft contest is fuel logistics - anyone on the beacon tile or adjacent can withdraw frurozin. Hard domination combat stays on the roadmap.
Colony hold after founding
A beacon is not just a colonize gate. Remote colonies stay yours only while at least one of the eight empty tiles around the planet body sits in your active occupation. The body tiles themselves are never occupied. Homeworlds are exempt - loyalty stays full there even if the field moves away.
Phases
Held
You have adjacent coverage. Loyalty sits at full. You have full control of the colony.
Draining
Coverage is gone. Loyalty falls linearly over 14 days. You keep full control while it is above zero.
Recovering
Coverage is back. Loyalty climbs from wherever it sits, at the same 14-day rate. Control returns as soon as the field is back.
Autonomous
Loyalty hit zero without coverage. Existing jobs continue. New commands are blocked until you cover the world again.
Ruins
Fourteen more uncovered days at zero wipe the colony and clear ownership. Reclaim is a normal colonize - scan, occupation, and colonizer gates still apply.
How rivals contest a hold
This is not combat capture. A rival cannot steal the colony by winning a fight. They deny your adjacent coverage, wait for ruins, then colonize the wreck if they still have a valid colonize path. Rivals with active intel can see drain, autonomy, and the ruins countdown. Soft contest on the beacon itself is still fuel theft - anyone on the beacon tile or adjacent can withdraw frurozin.
Lifecycle
Research the occupation track, craft a beacon module, park on an empty tile, stage fuel, deploy, then keep the tank topped or watch coverage collapse.
- Full-load burn
- 90 d
- Structure decay
- 10 d
- Fuel resource
- frurozin
Space occupation research
Unlock beacon tech tiers on the research track.
- Space occupation research unlocks beacon tech from mk1 through mk5.
- Higher research unlocks larger coverage modules.
Coverage shape
Chebyshev distance means the occupied set is a square aligned to the map axes. The diagram uses a tiny radius for teaching - live mk1 is radius 10 (21×21 tiles before planet holes).
Beacon marks
Higher marks need more research and more frurozin at deploy, but paint a much larger footprint.
| Mark | Radius (tiles) | Disk span | Min frurozin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mk 1 | 10 | 21×21 | 100 |
| Mk 2 | 25 | 51×51 | 200 |
| Mk 3 | 50 | 101×101 | 350 |
| Mk 4 | 75 | 151×151 | 500 |
| Mk 5 | 100 | 201×201 | 750 |
Rules that matter in play
Empty tiles only
Deploy only from an orbiting fleet on a free universe tile. Planet bodies are never beacon sites.
Foreign disk = hard block
You cannot place a beacon whose coverage would overlap another commander's active occupation. Soft contest happens through fuel withdrawals instead.
Fuel clock is virtual
Burn is computed from the fuel snapshot and the 90-day full-load constant - keep an eye on the beacons overlay rather than waiting for a surprise silence on the map.
Colonise inside your paint
Claim actions check that the fleet tile is inside your occupied set. Holding the approach corridors matters as much as building the colonizer hull.
Hold after founding
Remote worlds stay loyal only while one of the eight adjacent empty tiles is in your active occupation. Homeworlds are exempt. Uncovered loyalty drains over 14 days; at zero the colony goes autonomous. After 14 more uncovered days at zero, it becomes ruins and anyone with a valid colonize path can reclaim it.
Where domination goes next
v1 proves footprint and logistics. Contested systems and beacon combat stay explicitly future.
Hard contest
Attack, capture, or overwrite foreign beacons - Killer-loop territory, not live today.
Richer system flags
Stronger read of who dominates a star system beyond unioned disks - direction for round-two fantasy, still unfinished.
Next reads
Occupation feeds colonisation - both the founding gate and the hold after you land. Frurozin logistics feeds both beacons and fleet moves.
- Full-load duration is 90 days; structure decay after empty fuel is 10 days.
- Mk1 radius 10 covers a 21×21 tile square before planet body exclusions.
- Roadmap items in the yellow panel are not live systems.
- Remote colony hold: 14 days of loyalty drain, then 14 more uncovered days at zero until ruins. Homeworlds are exempt. This is not combat capture.