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Your first expedition

Create a room, invite a second signed-in account and Start expedition. Choose your home colony under Launch from your colony. Build three ships using Ships to build. Set Ships in this fleet group to three, choose a nearby destination, and press Dispatch fleet. Repeat with another destination to send a separate group. Both accounts press Ready; fleets travel and colonies produce income. Continue until your fleet arrives and captures the star, then build from your new colony.

Sign in to Tronsoft. Create a room and invite another account. Two humans must join before the host starts; add up to six computer empires, with eight empires total.

Each empire starts with a colony, 12 ships and 60 credits. Select one of your colonies to build ships (10 credits each), scan nearby stars (15 credits), or send a fleet. Research costs 40 + 20 × your current level, up to level 5. Technology improves fleet range, speed and combat strength.

Fleet range is 4 + technology hexes, measured across the wrapping map. Travel takes ceil(distance ÷ (2 + technology)) turns. Fleets move after all active humans press Ready. Colony income is then collected. You can Unready until the last commander readies. Building, research and dispatch are immediate confirmed commands; they cannot be undone.

Arriving fleets fight together. Power is ships × (10 + 2 × technology). A force must exceed all opposing power combined to survive. Ties annihilate all forces and leave the star neutral. Surviving ships capture neutral and hostile colonies automatically; friendly fleets reinforce. Research on a colony helps its defending ships; launched fleets retain their launch technology.

Uncharted stars conceal ownership, defenders and income. Explored star names and locations stay charted, but current ownership, ships and income require active sensor coverage. Enemy moving fleets remain hidden. The public roster shows readiness, presence and account names. Score is revealed at game end: colonies × 100 + ships × 2 + credits + technology × 25. Highest score wins after turn 40, or the last surviving empire wins earlier. Equal scores share victory.

There is no automatic timer. A host may mark a commander absent for more than 90 seconds ready for one turn. Hostship transfers to a present member after 90 seconds. Rejoin with the same account to resume; rooms expire after 24 hours of inactivity.

Information, controls and sensor coverage

The left sidebar holds empire information, commanders, fleets and the log. The right sidebar holds research, turn readiness and fleet commands. They stack beneath the map on narrow screens.

Exploring charts star locations and names. Current ownership, defenders and income are visible only at your colonies or within one hex of one, or within two hexes of a colony scanned this turn. Charted stars outside sensor coverage show no current colony or ship details. Enemy moving fleets remain hidden. The complete map is revealed when the expedition ends.

Home markers and scanners

Every starting home base keeps its original contestant color through fog of war. The marker does not report current occupation or ownership, ship counts or income. Passive colony sensors reach two hexes. A scan costs 15 credits and reaches four hexes from the selected colony until the current turn resolves. Technology does not increase sensor range. Distances wrap across map edges.