Written and maintained by James Friel
Copyright @2005 James Friel (eolsunder2@aol.com) This FAQ is solely
intended for use on Gamefaq.com forum site, and may not be reproduced or
duplicated without permission of myself. If you want to use or duplicate
the FAQ, feel free on other sites, I really am not a greedy person, just
make sure to credit the FAQ and myself when doing it.
ASCENDANCY is a PC game published by Logic Factory 1995
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
TABLE OF CONTENTS
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I. Revision History
II. Introduction
III. Ship module inventory
IV. Last Words
=========================================
I. REVISION HISTORY
=========================================
2/10/05 v1.0
- FAQ started
- Added Introduction
- Added Ship module inventory
- Added Last Words section
[NOTE: My revision history starts at version 1.0 and each change will be noted
as a .1 addition, so the 3rd revision, if it ever gets to that, will be the
version 1.3]
======================================
II. INTRODUCTION
======================================
The Ascendancy Ship building FAQ is to help you figure out just what some of
the weapons and items in the game do, and to give you some hints on how to
layout your ships, what ships to build, how to deploy them, and bla bla bla.
Now some info up front. There are 4 sizes of ships you can build, each size
technology has to be researched in order to use it. Your first goal in the game
is to start building ships to explore other planets and star systems. You will
not win the game just sitting on one planet. The faster you can get out and
start exploring and colonizing, the better off you will be. Each colonized
system you control grants you the ability to have 1 ship, and your home system
lets you have 2. You must have all the planets in a system colonized to have
a ship slot. Thus if your home system has 3 planets, and you you have all 3
colonized, you have the ability to build up to 2 ships (providing you have
Docks which you can build with). If you have 3 systems entirely colonized, you
can build up to 4 ships (2+1+1).
The first area you will learn will let you build small and medium hull ships.
These will get you through the opening years of the game, but you will need to
have larger ships in order to survive. Unlike other space games, since you are
limited to the number of ships you can have, you cannot build up fleets of
tiny ships to overwhelm your opponents. If you have 10 ship slots, its better
to have 10 large ships than 10 small ships. Your goal of course is to research
Giant sized ship hulls and have your fleet of a dozen or 2 Giant ships running
about the galaxy.
Once you start building ships, you will have to decide just what types of
ships you want, and what items you want on them. Like before, you are limited
to your total number of ships and often have to decide between what to build
if you find yourself reaching your max. There is a large variety of weapons,
shields, engines, generators, and especially misc items to put on your ships.
Hopefully the following list will help you decide just what will work for you.
SHIPS:
SMALL SHIP: Has 5 item bays, one of your earlier ships, good for basic
colonization and early exploring. Limited slots mean low power.
MEDIUM SHIP: Has 10 item bays, this will be your early game workhorse, with
faster exploring and colonizing. Basic protection abilities.
LARGE SHIP: Has 15 item bays and will become your workhorse. Early on it will
probably be used for battleships as your lesser ships will be
falling behind in the power curve.
GIGANTIC SHIP: Yea baby! This is the ultimate powerhouse with 25 item bays,
thus a big jump up from the Large ship. Once you go gigantic, you
never go back. Plenty of bays for anything you want.
=========================================
II. SHIP MODULE INVENTORY
=========================================
Here is is, the lists for what you can stick in your ship and what you can't.
I will give a general list about each item and description, then you might
see my personal suggestions and maybe some techniques on using them. Easier
that way than putting said techniques after.
Each device will be listed with
POWER: How much each device requires to work, in terms of generators it
lists how much each outputs.
RANGE: The range that weapons or scanners will reach
USES: The number of times each turn it can be used. 0 means unlimited.
STRENGTH: For weapons its the damage power, Shields is defense power,
Drives is distance, Scanners is range extension per turn
SPECIAL: Any special powers or requirements the device needs
"The Tonklin Motor is a weak engine based on an elegant quirk of momentum
theory. It is very inexpensive to construct."
ION BANGER. POWER 1
----------- STRENGTH 4
"The Ion Banger sucks in ions from surrounding space and smashes them into
each other at high speeds, creating a propulsive force. It is significantly
more powerful than the Tonklin Motor."
GRAVITON PROJECTOR. POWER 3
------------------- STRENGTH 6
"The Graviton Projector sprays a gravity field in front of a ship, pulling it
perpetually forward. The Graviton Projector is more powerful than the Ion
Banger."
INERTIA NEGATOR. POWER 1
---------------- STRENGTH 6
"The Inertia Negator generates an anti-mass field that allows a ship to float
lightly through space. It is about as strong as the Graviton Projector, but
it consumes much less power."
NANOWAVE SPACE BENDER. POWER 5
---------------------- STRENGTH 10
"The Nanowave Space Bender projects a wide-band field of nanoenergy that
warps the space around a ship, allowing it to slide rapidly in any direction
and it is a very powerful engine."
[NOTES: basically with the engines, bigger is better. Pick the best one. You
only need to maybe use the Inertia Negator over the Nanowave if you
have specific low power ships, like if you are behind in the power
generator department. I've always used the Nanowave benders of course]
TONKLIN FREQUENCE ANALYZER. RANGE 25
--------------------------- STRENGTH 3
"The Tonklin Frequency Analyzer scans energy leakages from a ship to determine
information about its status. Its range is relatively short. It is always
active and consumes no power."
SUBSPACE PHASE ARRAY. RANGE 50
--------------------- STRENGTH 3
"The Subspace Phase Array detects subtle variations in the space flow around
a ship. It is able to detect a ship's status information at short to medium
range. It is always active and consumes no power."
AURAL CLOUD CONSTRUCTOR. RANGE 75
------------------------ STRENGTH 3
"The Aural Cloud Constructor is a medium range scanner that projects an aural
cloud through surrounding space, observing vibrations in the cloud to detect
the status of other ships. it is always active and consumes no power."
HYPERWAVE TYMPANUM. RANGE 100
------------------- STRENGTH 3
"The Hyperwave Tympanum is a long range scanner that is able to detect the
minutest variations in the hyperwave ether and analyze them to obtain status
information about other ships. It is always active and consumes no power."
MURGATROYD'S KNOWER. RANGE 200
-------------------- STRENGTH 3
"Mugatroyd's Knower is a very long range scanner that uses a combination of
advanced technologies to determine the status of other ships. It is always
active and consumes no power."
NANOWAVE DECOUPLING NET. RANGE 1000
------------------------ STRENGTH 3
"The Nanowave Decoupling Net harvests coupled nanowaves from surrounding space
and analyzes them to learn the status of other ships. Its range practically
is unlimited. It is always active and consumes no power."
[NOTES: Uses the best scanner, you really only need 1 on a ship. The scanners
do not show what items are on a enemy ship, only the levels of the
ships weapons, shields, etc. Thus if you encounter a ship with one red
weapon level, you probably won't fear its attack much. A ship with 3
red levels you will worry about more. I don't worry about scanners on
small, medium or large ships unless they are SCOUT ships. I don't care
what the enemy ship levels are, my attack craft are going to shoot
them down anyway, better to use that slot for extra shields, etc. On
my gigantic ships i always have one since they have plenty of space.]
"The Proton Shaver is a power generator that operates by extracting small
quantities of protons from heavy atomic nuclei and converting them to energy.
It is inexpensive but produces little power."
SUBATOMIC SCOOP. POWER 4
---------------- STRENGTH 1
"The Subatomic Scoop sucks subatomic particles from surrounding space and
converts them to energy. It is a stronger generator than the Proton Shaver."
QUARK EXPRESS. POWER 6
-------------- STRENGTH 3
"The Quark Express uses a little-understood technology to squeeze energy from
various sub-subatomic particles. It is a powerful generator. "
VAN CREEG HYPERSPLICER. POWER 8
----------------------- STRENGTH 4
"The Van Creeg Hypersplicer merges mixed-frequency hyperwaves and collects
the energy bleed-off. It is a very powerful generator. "
NANOTWIRLER. POWER 10
------------ STRENGTH 5
"The Nanotwirler puts a stream of Nanogenergons into sympathetic resonant
motion, and channels off the energy they release from each other. It
generates even more power than the Van Creeg Hypersplicer."
[NOTES: Power is good! Power Power Power! Power gives you weapons, engines,
shields, items, what ever. Get the best generators and many of them.
Power lets your shields stay up longer, lets you move more, lets you
fire weapons more (when you get other items). If you have extra slots
on your ship and are trying to figure out what to get, extra power
generators are always my first choice.]
"The Ion Wrap is a low-grade particle defense shield. Like most shields, it
only consumes power when it is active."
CONCUSSION SHIELD. POWER 2
------------------ STRENGTH 4
"The Concussion Shield surrounds a ship with a flexible energy barrier that
absorbs kinetic impulses and spreads them over its entire surface. Like most
shields, it only consumes power when it is active."
WAVE SCATTER. POWER 0
------------- STRENGTH 2
"The Wave scatterer is an energy dispersion mechanism that passively diffracts
and scatters energy waves as they make contact with a ship's hull. The Wave
Scatterer is a weak defense, but unlike most shields it consumes no power."
DEACTOTRON. POWER 3
----------- STRENGTH 10
"The Deactotron is a high-tech active defense module. When it detects the
approach of particle or energy projectiles, it reacts by ejecting an
appropriate countermeasure. Like most shields, it only consumes power when
it is active. "
HYPERWAVE NULLIFIER. POWER 6
-------------------- STRENGTH 13
"The Hyperwave Nullifier surrounds a ship with a space-distorting hyperwave
field. The field causes incoming projectiles to slide around the hull of
their target and miss it completely. Like most shields, the Hyperwave
Nullifier only consumes power when it is active."
NANOSHELL. POWER 3
---------- STRENGTH 15
"The Nanoshell simply creates a dense barrier of Nanoenergons around a ship.
Few weapons are able to penetrate it. Like most shields, it only consumes
power when it is active."
[NOTES: Shields are great, but are not needed on some ships. You might decide
that SCOUT ships or colony ships are in no need of shields, I usually
do not put them on mine. Only my attack ships have shields. If I do
my job right, my colony and scout ships won't ever be in danger. Like
my previous statements, POWER is great! I don't worry about no power
low defense shields, I want them big, and protective. How much
shielding depends on what type of ships you use. Some might use long
range weapons so they try and destroy ships without taking much
damage. Its better to pick up a extra power generator to pick up some
much better shielding.
MASS BARRAGE GUN. POWER 1
----------------- RANGE 25
STRENGTH 1
USES 1
"The Mass Barrage Gun launches spray of projectiles from its electromagnetic
accelerators. It is cheap to build and uses little power-the projectiles are
low-tech spheres of solid metal that rely on kinetic energy to do damage.
It is easy to deflect, slow to reload, and has a short range."
FOURIER MISSILES. POWER 1
----------------- RANGE 40
STRENGTH 2
USES 1
"Fourier Missiles use image recognition to identify vulnerable areas of a
ship. They require little power to fire, but they reload slowly and don't
do much damage."
QUANTUM SINGULARITY LAUNCHER. POWER 2
----------------------------- RANGE 25
STRENGTH 4
USES 1
"The Quantum Singularity Launcher generates and fires tiny black holes,
infinitely small but incredibly massive objects that easily punch through an
Ion Wrap field. The disadvantages of this weapon are its short range and
long recharge time."
MOLECULAR DISASSOCIATOR. POWER 2
------------------------ RANGE 50
STRENGTH 4
USES 1
"The Molecular Disassociator generates a cloud that weakens the molecular bond
in matter. This tends to corrode the target rapidly. Its main drawback is
that it takes a long time to form a fully charged cloud."
ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSER. POWER 1
----------------------- RANGE 50
STRENGTH 1
USES 5
"The Electromagnet Pulser produces electromagnet pulses that disrupt delicate
technological equipment. It does little structural damage but it strobes
very quickly, producing many pulses in a short time that can overload and
destroy the target ship."
PLASMATRON. POWER 2
----------- RANGE 100
STRENGTH 4
USES 1
"The Plasmatron fires extremely long range bolts of super-heated plasma. It
takes a long time to recharge.
UEBERLASER. POWER 3
----------- RANGE 50
STRENGTH 6
USES 2
"The Ueberlaser is a high-power pulse laser that cuts instantly through an
unshielded ship hull. It uses a lot of power but does heavy damage."
FERGNAZ LENS. POWER 0
------------- RANGE 35
STRENGTH 4
USES 2
"The Fergnatz Lens passively collects and focuses cosmic energies at its
target. It requires no power to operate."
HYPERSPHERE DRIVER. POWER 6
------------------- RANGE 75
STRENGTH 10
USES 2
"The Hypersphere Driver creates unstable bubbles in spacetime that extend into
higher dimensions. When these bubbles intersect normal matter they collapse,
pinching off the matter inside another dimension. They have a very long range
and inflict massive damage. This weapon is extremely expensive to produce
and gobbles power."
NANOMANIPULATOR. POWER 6
---------------- RANGE 50
STRENGTH 13
USES 3
"The Nanomanipulator fires bursts of highly focused nanoenergon flux. The flux
induces a chaotic nanowave upon impact that rips through the target,
destructively jumbling alternate realities together. It is hugely destructive
that fires in quick bursts, and uses a lot of power.
[NOTES: Ah...weapons, how fun are they. There are alot of combinations here,
its up to the player how they want to work. Do they want ships that
are fast and fire long distances, or do they want ships that can go
up close and personal and blast away at close range. Keep in mind the
power requirements for weapons, you don't want a lot of weapons that
will drain your power down extremely fast, don't forget you need your
shields and some maneuvrability.
Keep in mind the ranges of weapons also. Any weapon with a range of 50
or more has the slight edge of being able to fire upon enemy planets
without being able to be attacked by basic planetary missiles. Only
when a planet introduces Energy defenses do you have to fear. I think
enemy missile defenses have a range of 40 or 45, thus you can barely
squeak out of range and hit them.
Plasmatrons have extremely long range. Great to get off a first shot,
and extremely great for taking down planetary defenses without harm.
But don't rely on them in hard battle. There are weapons that can fire
faster, plus do more damage even though they don't have the range.
This I put into a special category. These items are under your miscellaneous
category, but are used as weapons, thus I have this half/half category.
SMART BOMB. POWER 7
----------- RANGE SPECIAL
STRENGTH 7
"The Smart Bomb uses advanced empathic biosensor technology to determine the
relationships between the ship using it and the other ships present in the
star system. Once activated, it fires in multiple directions at every ship
it has determined to be hostile, doing heavy damage comparable to that of an
Ueberlaser. One use expends it."
[NOTES: The smart bomb is great for cleaning out enemy battlefleets, but
its a one use item, and normally you won't find a large number of
enemy ships grouped together, at least not if your doing your job.]
MYRMIDONIC CARBONIZER. POWER 4
---------------------- RANGE 40
STRENGTH 20
USES 1
"The Myrmidonic Carbonizer fires a burst of energy that grows in strength for
a while then dissipates. There is a ideal range for the Carbonizer, at which
it is the most powerful weapon known. It is a complex and expensive piece
of machinery."
[NOTES: Very powerful but close range, damage varies. I perfer regular
weapons, but if you have a chance to get this early, try it out!]
DISINTEGRATOR. POWER 25
-------------- RANGE 25
"The Disintegrator ejects a cloud of infinitesimal bubbles of alternate
reality that cause a chain reaction in the target ship, spreading it atom by
atom across infinite alternate timelines. The cloud has no substance and
cannot be blocked by normal defenses. The Disintegrator can be used only
once, is extremely expensive to build, and uses an immense amount of power.
It must be used at close range."
[NOTES: A very very powerful item, but requires alot of power so you can
usually only use it on big ships. You must be very close. The
problem I ran into using it was that it was hard to chase down enemy
ships when I eventually received it. Plus you had to get close,
which means that enemy ships have a chance to open up on you before
you get close. Hopefully you have more energy than the enemy ships
so you can outlast them in movement, then close in for the kill.]
LANE BLOCKER. POWER 3, RANGE 40, USES 1
-------------
"The Lane Blocker is fired into a star lane opening where it sits, elevating
the inherent gravitational turbulence of the opening to the point where
Star Land Drives and Star Lane Hyperdrives can no longer overcome it."
[NOTES: Never used it. It does what it says, stops movement in a star lane.
Bad side is it stops you also. I consider it alot easier to just
blow up any bad guys comming through, but you might use this item
if you are being overwelmed in a area and need a breather. Rating
1/5. Not used much.
MOLECULAR TIE DOWN. POWER 7, Range 25, Uses 1
--------------------
"When fired at a ship, the Molecular Tie Down temporarily immobilizes it by
damping the reactions powering its engines. This affects all known normal
engines--even the powerful Nanowave Space Bender."
[NOTES: This device immobilizes a ship, keeping it from running around. This
is really only good if the ship in question has short range weapons
so you can keep it from moving while you blast it. Good for using
a Disintegrater on also. Also can be used for keeping ships from
escaping. Not really used alot, Computer AI is dumb so they don't
really run alot, plus your engines are usually up to par to keep up.
Rating 1/5. Not used much.]
INTELLECT SCRAMBLER. POWER 7, RANGE 25, Uses 1
--------------------
"When fired at a ship, the Intellect Scrambler partially wipes the minds of
that ship's crew, eradicating their skills and memory of the recent past.
It can turn an experienced crew into a group of bumbling rookies."
[NOTES: Not a bad device, it screws up the ship a little, which is always
great, especially when a gigantic battleship heads towards you.
Personally I find my basic tactics are superior to the computer AI
anyway, so I never used this device much. I just blow up the enemy
instead. Rating, 2/5. Ok, but better tactics.]
BRUNSWIK DISSIPATOR. POWER 15, RANGE 25, Uses 1
--------------------
"When the Brunswik Dissipator is fired at a ship, it temporarily drains the
target ship's generators, leaving it powerless. It is costly to construct
and power hungry."
[NOTES: A nice device, draining enemy ships keeps them from making the max
use of their shields, weapons, and movement. Trouble is, it is a
very short range device, so the enemy can maybe run or shoot you
some before you get close. I'd use it on good movement ships with
the power to handle the device. Rating 3/5. It would be alot better
if the range made it worth using during the whole battle, but its
a nice device to use on gate guarding ships.]
RECALLER. POWER 7
---------
"The Recaller creates an unstable shunt through star lane space to a ship's
home system. The ship using the Recaller moves instantly into the shunt
and arrives immediately at its home system."
[NOTES: Yea, a instant recaller. Nice huh? Well, at first this device does
seem to be very useful, until you actually play the game and find
out otherwise. First, as you play the game, you realize that
getting a ship back from somewhere isn't the hard part, actually
getting a ship from your base to someplace is the long, hard part.
For colony ships and Invader ships, you can simply use up your
colonies/invaders and distroy the ship, thus freeing up a dock to
create another one. Later on you can get some Refit docks made far
away so your ships can simply reload instead of remaking them.
You will also find out that by the long time a ship leaves your
base and actually reaches the front lines (like with war ships),
its best just to have them die in battle because their systems and
weapons are usually outdated. This device does do alot of good
once you have gigantic ships with good weapons/items. You can be
out in battle and if you are close to dying, you can pop back home
for outfitting. But before then its alot simpler to just remake a
new current ship or outfit your ship out near the front lines.
Rating..2/5. Kinda useless early on, only good late in the game.
DISARMER. POWER 5, RANGE 40, USES 1
---------
"The Disarmer was first designed as a weapon of peace--it selectively
destroys weapons without causing other damage. It uses visual pattern
recognition and analysis of energy output to identify a weapon on the
target ship, then it causes that weapon to overload and destroy itself."
[NOTES: Here is your first awesome add-on. This device distroys a weapon
on a enemy ship each turn which is very useful. Of course its not
useful on a ship without weapons, but then again, you can just
blow those up without problems. This can be a extremely powerful
addition in battle. Imagine a battleship fighting you with 3
Uberlasers. You can instantly reduce its offensive power by 33%
the first turn, and 50% the 2nd turn. A ship with no weapons is
just a big target. I always have 1 or 2 of these on my big war
ships. On a side note, watch out for enemy ships using them. The
computer AI usually isn't good enough to have enemy ships using
them (I've never seen one) but if you start seeing it, make sure
to carry multiple weapons. Rating, 4/5. A great addon.
GRAVITY DISTORTER. POWER 4, USES 1
------------------
"The Gravity Distorter creates a gravitational wave front that emanates from
the ship using the device. This pushes small objects, such as space ships,
away from the ship that used the Distorter."
[NOTES: A nice device which keeps enemy ships away, but really only useful
if you have long range weapons and want to keep ships in your
range, and out of theirs. Not really useful. You cannot shoot and
use this device at the same time, so a enemy ship moves towards
you, you push them back, they move again. This tactic is only
good if you have multiple Gravity Distorters to make the enemy
ship use up power to keep trying to get close to you. Much better
to use other add-ons instead. Enemy ships with long range weapons
will make this device useless, plus your taking up alot of room
with multiple Gravity Distorters. Better to just have better power
and shield items. Rating, 1/5. ]
FLEET DISPERSER. POWER 5, RANGE 100
----------------
"The Fleet Disperser is fired at another ship. Its effect is similiar to
that of the Gravity Distorter in that it creates a gravitational ripple
that repels other ships away from its target. It has a extremely long
range."
[NOTES: A device similiar to the Gravity Distorter, it has a little bit
more usefullness than the Distorter, but not by much. Instead of
repelling ships from you, you repel them from another vehicle. You
can use this device in a tag team effect. This method works
sometimes, but is much more trouble than its worth. Rating 2/5.
Works, but other methods of fighting are alot easier. ]
X-RAY MEGAGLASSES. POWER 7, RANGE 50
------------------
"Passive, always in effect, takes no power. The X-ray Megaglasses allow you
to view the contents of any ship you can scan. They require no power to
maintain but are fairly expensive to build. Used in conjunction with
powerful scanners, they can be very informative."
[NOTES: A nice device for scout ships, but I would never use it on a war
ship or colony ship. If you have a scanner on your ship you can
view the general power of the ships devices. If you have a scanner
AND the X-ray Megaglasses, you can see the actual devices. My
method is usually to blow up the enemy no matter what they have,
so scanners and such don't matter much for me, I'm going to hit
them with everything anyway. If you find yourself falling behind
in the war ship department, or a specific race seems to be making
life hard for you, make up a scout ship to see what they are
carrying. Then adjust your ships to compensate. Like I said, I
think I used them once, but after a while you can generally tell
what enemy ships are using/packing by their methods. Rating, 2/5.
Good on a scout ship, but not really needed alot.
CLOAKER.
--------
"The Vibrating crystals of the Cloaker produce a broad spectrum of noise
and interference that blocks all sensors from gathering information about
the cloaked ship. The device requires no power and is always in effect
once it is added to a ship."
[NOTES: A worthless add-on. The computer doesn't have the brains to
adjust their tactics based on your ship layout, so who cares if
they see what your ships are carrying. Hell, are they even
programmed to actually use sensors? Well, kinda, but nothing you
will notice much, or care about. Just buy a big gun and shoot
them. Rating, 0/5.
STAR LANE DRIVE. POWER 0, STRENGTH 1
----------------
"The Star Lane Drive is the key to interstellar exploration. This device is
activated by the energies emanating from the opening to a star lane, and
requires no power to operate. It allows the ship to overcome the barrier
of gravational turbulence at the opening and slip into star lane space.
The more Star Lane Drives a ship contains, the faster it will slide into
star lane space."
[NOTES: Rating 5/5. A must have device if you want to play. nuff said.]
STAR LANE HYPERDRIVE. POWER 0, STRENGTH 2
---------------------
"The Star Lane Hyperdrive is a more powerful version of the Star Lane Drive
that improves speed through star lane space. Although regular Star Lane
Drives allow slow travel through red links, the Hyperdrive makes the use
of red links practical. Star Lane Hyperdrives are much more costly to
produce than Star Lane Drives."
[NOTES: rating 5/5. A must have device to play the game in later stages]
POSITRON BOUNCER. POWER 2, RANGE 60, USES 1
-----------------
"The accelerators inside the Positron Bouncer produce a high-momentum blob
of particles. When fired at a ship, the particles impart their momentum
to the ship, buffeting it away without damaging it. The Positron Bouncer
consumes little power and is cheap to build."
[NOTES: Another "movement" device that has real little practical use. The
Bouncer moves enemy ships away from you, kinda useful if you have
weak shields and long range weapons, but since you cannot fire
and use this device at the same time, all you do is push the enemy
away, and they come back at you. Good if you have multiple devices
to make the enemy use up their power, but overall, about as
worthless as other movement devices. Rating, 1/5.
GRAVIMETRIC CATAPULT. POWER 3, USES 1
---------------------
"The Gravimetric Catapult causes the ship using it to experience
temporarily exaggerated gravitational force. The ship is pulled toward
the strongest gravity well in the vicinity--the nearest sun. The ship
whips past the sun, stopping opposite its previous position when it has
run out of momentum."
[NOTE: This little device actually has some value for fun, but you can
get around very easy without it. If you are on one side of the
screen and want to get to the other side, this device will easily
send you quickly to the other side. This device is nice for slow
ships who want to attack something on the other side, or scout
ships wanting to quickly bypass the planets to get to a gate on
the other side of the system without being shot. Again, easy to
work around with decent engines. Rating, 1/5. I've had enemy ships
use this some, to really no effect what so ever as I blew them up.]
CONTAINMENT DEVICE. POWER 5, RANGE 40, USES 1
-------------------
"The Containment Device destroys one colonizer or invasion module, just as
the Disarmer destroys one weapon. It is intended to be a peaceful weapon-
like the Disarmer. It only causes harm to machinery--used to protect
planets from invasion."
[NOTES: Pretty much a worthless device, unlike the extreme usefulness of
the Disarmer. Why eliminate a single colony unit when you can
just blast the annoying ship out of the skies. Rating 0/5. Get
a big gun instead.]
SHIELD BLASTER. POWER 7, RANGE 25, USES 1
---------------
"The Shield Blaster temporarily shuts down the defensive systems of the
target ship, leaving it vulnerable to attack."
[NOTES: A good add-on, especially for war ships of course. Lead off with
a Disarmer or 2, followed by the Shield Blaster, and fire away.
Only problem, you need to be up close and personal to use it.
Rating 4/5. A must have to take down enemy war ships easy if you
like the offensive route.]
BACKFIRER. POWER 10, RANGE 25, USES 1
-----------
"The Backfirer causes all the weapons aboard the target ship to
simultaneously unleash their destructive potential-unaimed, uncontrolled,
and chaotically. The more weapons the target ship carries, the more it is
damaged by its own weapons."
[NOTES: Another nice war add-on, especially when you go against later game
large and gigantic war ships. Another device you have to be up
front and close to use, but well worth it. Rating, 3/5. It of
course doesn't do jack vs big weak armed ships. Regular weapons
can harm all ships.]
LANE DESTABILIZER. POWER 7, RANGE 25, USES 1
------------------
"When fired at a star lane or red link opening, the Lane Destabilizer
induces gravity waves at the resonant frequency of the star lane. This
causes the ships inside the star lane to be thrown quickly toward their
destination point. The Lane Destabilizer itself is destroyed in the
process."
[NOTES: The hidden underdog of the game, you might overlook this must have
item in your bid to cause interplanetary mahem. When used on a
starlane it causes any vehicles in it to instantly appear 1 day
from the other side, "pushing" them through at high speeds. Later
in the game when you have to traverse great great distances which
seem to take forever to get too, ships with Lane Destabilizers
helping you to get there are a incredible boost that saves dozens,
if not hundreds of travel "years". They are pretty cheap to refit
also. Rating, 5/5. A must have item later in the game.]
TRACTOR BEAM. POWER 3, RANGE 100, USES 1
-------------
"The Tractor Beam allows a ship to pull another ship toward it. It has a
very long range and uses little power."
[NOTE: Well, not much else to say about this add-on, cept it works. It
pulls a ship towards you. Trouble is, with decent engines, you can
simply fly to enemy ships in a round or 2. Really the only use
for this device is if you have a big fleet in wait for enemies.
You can sit across from the enemy stargate, and bring enemy ships
across to you to blow up one at a time. Bad part is, the rotten
enemy computer AI usually attacks only 1 ship at a time, so that
tactic usually never is used. Rating. 1/5. Not many uses to use
this item.]
CANNIBALIZER. POWER 0, USES 1
--------------
"The Cannibalizer is a emergency device that allows a ship to convert some
of the mass of its own hull into an energy reserve. This is destructive
to the ship, so it is usually used only in a last ditch effort to
survive."
[NOTES: Huh? The object of not dying is to not take down your hull points.
Why would you want to damage yourself? Simply ignore this device
and put in another power generator. DUH. Rating 0/5. Worthless.]
MOVING PART EXPLOITER. POWER 10, RANGE 25, USES 1
----------------------
"Through a combination of ultrasonic vibration, spacetime micro-distortion
and luck destabilization magitechnology, the Moving Part Exploiter
causes devices to break down explosively. The more intricate and
advanced the equiptment on the target ship, the more internal damage it
suffers from equiptment malfunction. This device is costly to build and
consumes a lot of power."
[NOTE: Another close range destruction device very useful against higher
end bigger ships. It really doesn't do much vs smaller craft, but
use it on a large or gigantic ship with lots of gadgets, and
whammo. Similiar to the Backfirer. Bad side is you have to be in
close range. Rating 3/5. Useful, but I think regular weapons work
just as well.]
HYPERSWAPPER. POWER 3, RANGE 100, USES 1
-------------
"The Hyperswapper creates a standing hyperwave field between a ship and its
target, producing a massive space disturbance that causes them to swap
position. It operates at an extremely long range, uses little power, and
is cheap to produce."
[NOTES: A movement device that kinda is similiar to other movement
devices, kinda worthless. The only reason I can think of to use
this device is to have it on a big scout ship or Invader, so
you can bypass any planetary War Ships. Rating, 1/5. I don't
see much use for it myself.]
GRAVIMETRIC CONDENSOR. POWER 5, USES 1
----------------------
"The Gravimetric Condensor momentarily increases the gravitational field
of a star, causing all the ships in the system to be pulled toward the
star with great force."
[NOTES: Another movement device that doesn't have much value to it. You
can use it if you have a warship with close range weapons, since
gathering up everyone around you helps with shooting. But since
you cannot move and fire at the same time, you just give the
enemy the first shot. Can also be good if you have a very strong
Planetary defense with energy weapons, you can have a ship draw
enemy ships toward the planet to be blasted. Of course, computer
AI is dumb anyway so they usually just fly into your range with
or without your help. Rating, 1/5. Like many movement add-ons,
not alot of use, and simple good engines do the same thing.]
ACCUTRON. POWER 7, USES 1
---------
"The Accutron is a massive space analysis and targeting system that
increases the effective range of all the weapons on a ship. It is fairly
costly to build, but can provide a strong advantage in battle."
[NOTES: Yep, a device that makes your cool weapons fire at greater
distances. Hey, what can be better! Rating 5/5. If you have a big
warship, you want one of these on it.]
REMOTE REPAIR FACILITY. POWER 10
-----------------------
"The Remote Repair Facility allows a ship to repair damage without having
to enter Orbital Docks. It consists of automated systems spreading
throughout the ship, engineered so finely that the repair process
resembles organic healing. It uses alot of power when activated, and
adding it to a ship is an expensive project."
[NOTE: A good add-on module, especially for a warship far away from any
dock. Considering how long it takes sometimes to get back to your
repair areas, this will allow you to stay out a tad longer. I
might consider this on a gigantic warship far on the outskirts of
my domain, but usually at that point my colonies are doing pretty
well and a repair facility isn't far away. If you don't have
anything else to fill a slot, this can never hurt. Rating, 3/5.
Good add-on, but with good picking of power and shielding and half
way decent combat tactics, you should easily be 2 or 3 times as
good as any enemy ships.]
SACRIFICAL ORB. POWER 3, RANGE 50
---------------
"The Sacrifical Orb is a magitechnological device that allows a ship to
repair damage to another ship by absorbing that damage itself. It should
be used with caution--some inattentive captains have managed to scuttle
their own flagships with it."
[NOTES: A decent add on, but with very very limited use. The object is to
not take any hull damage, why have one ship lose points while
the other gains them. You still have the points loss. You never
want this on a warship, but it will do good if you have it on a
support craft. Maybe a huge colonizer or invader, something that is
in the same system area as your war ships, yet really have no use
after you use up their colonies. Have it on a giant Invader ship,
use up your colonies and Invasion modules, and before you self
terminate or recall, repair a near by war ship that might have
hull damage. Rating 1/5. I don't mind losing war ships as long as
I can take a good ratio of enemies with me, I'd rather have a
extra Invader module or colony module. Nothing worse than trying to
Invade a planet and find out that your 4 modules didn't do it, but
If you had 5 you would have won.]
LANE MAGNETRON. POWER 10, RANGE 25
---------------
"The Lane Magnetron frees the ship using it from the gravitational
turbulence-induced drag normally encountered in star lane space, allowing
the ship to slip through the star lane almost instantly. The lane Magnetron
uses fully as much power as a Nanowirler produces and can is used once."
[NOTES: This is a nice device problem is it takes up a spot on your ship
which can be used for more important devices. You can use it in
an emergency when you need to reach a place super fast to save
maybe a planet area or warships. Sorta a Kamakazee ship. Personally
having a Gateship using Lane Destabilizers is alot better than
taking up space on all your other ships. Rating, 1/5. A great
device but its one time use, especially far out in the outskirts,
leaves you vulnerable.]
LANE ENDOSCOPE. POWER 10, RANGE 25
----------------
"The Lane Endoscope allows astronomical instruments to penetrate star lane
space and scan the system at the other end of a star lane or red link
opening. It requires a lot of power to use."
[NOTES: Not a bad device, but personally I just send a ship or scout ship
to other systems to explore. I want colonies and Invaders to
be setting up, just sitting back looking doesn't do it for me.
Rating, 1/5. Seeing a star system you are heading too is ok, but
I just find out when I get there, plus it doesn't cost me a slot
on my ship.]
TORROIDAL BLASTER. Uses 1
------------------
"The Toroidal Blaster gives the ship using it a huge boost in engine
performance, but it is hard on the engines and usually damages some of
them. It draws all the power it needs from the engines and needs no
generator power."
[NOTES: Another add-on, with the same response.. Why put add-ons that will
damage your ship, while other modules will not. Like other like
modules, there isn't much use I can see in this device. It might
work on a Kamakazee ship that you are trying to rush to a certain
area, but I've never had to do that. If I have a system on the
outskirts that is in trouble, I will eventually take it back. The
computer AI isn't tough enough for me to have to rush so fast to
an area. Rating 1/5. Yea it works, but it damages your ship. Duh.]
GIZMOGRIFIER. POWER 4, RANGE 40, USES 1
-------------
"Like the Disarmer, the SPeciality Blaster, and the Containment Device,
the Gizmogrifier is specialized to damage equiptment without inflicting
any other harm. It performs a general purpose version of this concept,
and it will destroy the first major device it locks onto."
[NOTES: Like the Containment Device, pretty worthless. Why worry about
disabling one ship device when you can pick a big gun and blow up
the entire ship? Rating 0/5. Who cares if you disable one of their
engines, or their scanner. They are still there, and still
shooting you.]
REPLENISHER. POWER 8, USES 1
------------
"The Replenisher fully recharges all of the weapons aboard a ship. Its
installation is involved and expensive, but it can be a lifesaver in an
intense battle."
[NOTES: Livesaver? How about being about 2x as powerful on offense than
not having the device. Got a ship with alot of power, this device
will practically double your firing ability. A MUST HAVE on any
big warship. Rating 5/5. Why be able to fire 6 times when this one
device will let you shoot 12 times. No brainer.]
SPECIALTY BLASTER. POWER 5, RANGE 40, USES 1
------------------
"The Specialty Blaster destroys one specialized device, just as the
Disarmer destroys one weapon. Like the Disarmer, it recognizes a particular
type of device and disables it with precision and a minimum of destructive
force."
[NOTES: Again with the kinda worthless destroyers, trying to compare
themselves to the Disarmer. Hulk says Disarmer good, all others
bad. This device does have a limited use if you are against a high
tech enemy that is using Misc items to attack you, like the
powerful Disintegrators or something similiar, but rarely is the
computer that smart. Rating, 1/5. Pick up a Disarmer, its much
better to knock out a enemy warship weapon than maybe knocking
out a misc item. ]
GYRO-INDUCTOR.
--------------
"The Gyro-Inductor allows a ship to generate power when it travels up the
gravitational gradient of a planet. When the ship leaves orbit, the
Gyro-inductor creates power. It uses no power and takes effect automatic."
[NOTES: I never have tried out this device, I don't see much need for it.
If you have a ship with good layout and good power generators, what
exactly will this do for you? The only function I can think of for
this add-on is that maybe during a battle in a star system, if you
are low on power and close to a planet, you can enter orbit and
then leave, refilling some power. Personally I'd just drop this
device and stick in a extra power generator if you are that
strapped for power. Rating, 1/5. You won't be using it much if you
actually pick it up.]
PLASMA COUPLER. POWER 4, RANGE 50, USES 1
---------------
"The Plasma Coupler allows a ship to beam some of its power to another ship
across a distance."
[NOTES: Not really a add-on you will use. Again, good power management
will keep you with plenty of power. You might use this if you have
a support ship that is with a fleet, something that can repair
and give power to front line ships. But I'd rather just drop this
Add-on and pick up another power generator. Rating 1/5. Really
only useful on a support ship.]
INVULNERABLIZER. POWER 20
----------------
"The Invulnerablizer sets up a temporary high-magitechnology shield around
the ship using it. While it lasts, the shield will not allow the ship to
come to harm. It consumes little power but is costly to build and can
only be used once."
[NOTES: A great device here, and powerful, but really extremely limited
use. This item will give you supremely temporarly protection,
which doesn't last long but you can survive anything. Maybe some
uses for it. If you find a heavly defended star area with strong
defenses, have a shield ship with this device lead the way into
the area to take the brunt of the first attacks. This way, it
has all the enemy forces lose their attacks and survives, then
your backup ships swoop in and clean up. Rating 1/5. I would
have rated it alot higher except for its one time use. One of the
few devices that can protect you from super items like the very
powerful Disintegrator.]
PHASE BOMB. POWER 4, RANGE 25
-----------
"The Phase Bomb is launched at a planet and destroys structures on the
planet's surface. It can be used only once and has short range."
[NOTES: The object of taking over a planet is NOT to destroy it while
doing it. You want to take it over with its items intact. I
consider this item useless, pick a Invader module to help take
over the planet. Much more practical and useful. Rating. 0/5. The
Invasion modules are 100 percent more useful and effective.]
COLONIZER. POWER 5
----------
"The Colonizer allows a ship to creat a colony on a unoccupied planet. Bla
bla bla"
[NOTES: Rating 5/5. A must use item during the game. ]
SELF DESTRUCTOTRON STRENGTH 20
-------------------
"The Self Destructotron is a desperation device. It destroys the ship
using it by converting most of the ship's mass to energy, creating a huge
explosion that greatly damages other ships nearby."
[NOTES: Well, again, the object is to NOT damage your own ship. While this
device does do nice damage, the enemy usually doesn't amass big
fleets on which to use this. Kinda worthless to self-destruct when
your against only 1 or 2 ships. Rating, 0/5. You won't encounter
mass fleets, and only rare Kamakazee attacks would need such a
silly item. ]
INVASION MODULE. POWER 10
-----------------
"The Invasion Module transports a planetary infiltration team to a planet's
surface from orbit. It can be destroyed by a planetary Surface shield
unless multiple Invasion modules are introduced. Bla bla."
[NOTES: Rating 5/5. A must have item during the game. Bring a big ship
with lots of modules to quickly take over those annoying planets.]
MASS CONDENSOR. POWER 8, RANGE 100
---------------
"The Mass Condensor operates as the Gravitational Distorter, except that
it is targeted at a ship. All ships will be attracted toward the affected
ship. It works at a long range and consumes alot of power."
[NOTES: Kinda useless unless you are doing the tag-team attack, with one
support ship and one or more attack ships. Like most movement
add-on's of this type, simple better engines will do just as
good. I suggest dropping this and getting something good.
Rating 1/5. Really isn't useful in battle. Computer ships usually
come to you anyway.]
HYPERFUEL.
----------
"Hyperfuel is a one-time-use power reserve of great capacity. It is a cheap
disposable source of power."
[NOTES Not bad, but again, if you pick your ship decent you won't have
any power problems. Better to drop this and pick up an extra
power generator, or a Replenisher for combat. Rating 1/5.]
========================================
III. LAST WORDS
========================================
Thats about all I know about the items. I've been doing some basic sleuthing
and I think I figured out alot, hopefully the numbers are pretty close to
what they actually are. Its alot fun to play around with the ships and build
them, but sadly the game isn't that difficult and you won't really have a
good opponent to test out all your theories on.
Now, some Ideas of mine you can use, or not use.
SHIP TYPES.
WARSHIP. This is your typical battle craft. Its not made to do anything
except blow stuff up, and protect your other ships. A warship must be the
most balanced thought up ship you have, since you need to balance it
with weapons, engines, shields, power, and items. Bigger ships allow more
cool items, and you eventually want those gigantic ships to allow for the
best ratio of items and gadgets. The following misc items I consider a
major benefit to any large and gigantic warship.
DISARMER. Easily reduces enemy weapons and is a huge tact advantage.
SHIELD BLASTER. No defenses, quicker kill. You might not need this
if you have great weapons and good shields of your own.
ACCUTRON. Longer weapon ranges. Yep, got to have that.
REPLENISHER. have your weapons replenished to use again? heck yea.
COLONY SHIP. You can figure this one out yourself. Its a ship loaded up with
colony modules. You want basic engines, power and space drives. Other
than that, colonies. Run into systems, set up your colonies, and
either refit, abandon, or recall home to refit. I never have any
weapons or shields on this ship.
INVADER SHIP. Similiar to the colony ship, this ship is made to take down
planetary defenses and take over the colony. You want basic engines,
power and space drives. You want 1 good long range weapon 50 range or
better. This is to whittle down the planetary defense so you can
land. The rest is for INVADER modules. Again, once used up you can
refit, abandon, or recall home to refit. I personally keep my invader
ship around until I absolutely need another ship. This way they can
guard my new planet for a while. Heck, even one little weapon might
help.
GATE SHIP. This is a specialized ship. You want to plant this ship in the
big hub of alot of planets, so you can load up with a bunch of Lane
Destabilizers and quickly speed your ships through to other areas.
It is especially good if you are in a system that has a refit planet,
so you have a unending refit balance of them to use. Basic engines,
drives and power, rest fill with Lane Destabilizers. Remember, the
Quick movement works both ways, enemy ships will be pushed also. If
there are enemy ships in the lane(s) make sure you have some war
ships nearby to take care of them when they exit the lane.
SCOUT SHIP. Yep, this ship is used to move about fast and explore.
You want all engines, gate drives, and power to fuel them. Later in
the game when you get bigger ships, you can adjust your Scout ships
into Recon vehicles. Adding in Scanners, X-ray Megaglasses, or
what ever you can keep general track of what your enemies are putting
on their ships. I only do this if I experience trouble with a enemy
fleet. If you seem to be blowing them up fine, who cares what they
are outfitting.
TECH SHIP. This ship you might want to consider at the start of the game.
The object is to hunt down and drop colonies on planets with those
nice planetary dig sites so you can learn advanced technology fast.
Have fast ships, a few colony modules, and ignore any planet without
a dig site. Later on you might want to put some disposable add-ons
that might make your movement easier. A used dig site is worthless,
you want to run in as fast as possible and take them. It doesn't
matter if your planet is overrun later, the site info is already
yours.
SUPPORT SHIP. Great to have in colonies far far away. Your spread out
and far from your home. No repair bays nearby. You have a couple big
warships trying to keep some strategic lane open but the constant
battles are wearing you down. A nice support ship repairing your guys
will do wonders.
There are probably other type of ships you can think up, but those will
give you a idea of things you might try.
Q) I DID OK EARLY ON, BUT NOW MY FORCES ARE SPREAD FAR OUT ACROSS THE
GALAXY, AND IT TAKES FOREVER FOR A SHIP I MAKE TO GET THERE. ANY WAY
TO SPEED UP THE MOVEMENT PROCESS.
A) Well, Gateships are always a great way to speed up the process. Having
one based near major red lanes and hubs, you can speed up the movement
process of your ships in those lanes from 20-50 days or more, to 2. A
repair bay nearby to refit when your out of Lane Destabilizers is nice
also.
Another way that works is if you have some refitting orbital bays near
the area you want to go. Build ships in your big shipyards with maximum
engines and star lane drives and power, and have them move to your
outskirt colonies. once in those colonies they can refit and pick up the
items they need. A few disposable misc modules might help them get there
quicker.
Q) I HAVE USED UP ALL MY COLONIES AND NEED TO GET MORE, WHAT DO I DO.
A) Well, a few things. If you have a planet with a Orbital Dock you can
refit and pick up new items. If you have a decent tech level on that
planet you can refit fast. Usually even with a low tech level you can
refit alot quicker than getting a new colony ship out to that area. You
can also abandon that ship and build a new ship at a building area.
Finally if you have a recall device on your ship, you can pop back to
your starting planet and refit.
Q) I HAVE TRIED TO INVADE A ENEMY PLANET BUT NOTHING HAPPENED. MY INVASION
MODULES ARE GONE. WHAT GIVES.
A) The planet has in place surface shields that destroy your Invasion
modules. Basic shields distroy one Invasion module before being
destroyed. So if a planet has 3 surface shields, you will need 4 of
the Invasion modules to take it. Also, don't forget if a planet has a
orbital shield around it, you need to take it down in order to enter
the atmosphere. All your Invasion ships should have one long range
weapon to take down planetary defenses.
Q) MY SHIPS WERE IN STAR LANES, BUT THEY SUDDENLY WENT BACK TO THE START
OF THE SYSTEM. OTHER TIMES THEY COULDN'T ENTER. ANY IDEAS?
A) Certain misc items on a starship can affect your movement through the
starlanes. Enemy ships might use blockers or something similiar to keep
you out. Also some Races have special racial abilities that can prevent
star lane travel, they might have used their special abilities to keep
you away. Just keep trying, they can't keep you out forever.
Thats about it so far, hope the above into helps you out in some way.
Ascendancy is a very fun game, but does have some drawbacks. Make sure you
download the AI patch with the game to fully enjoy its gameplay as much as
possible.
If you have any other questions feel free to email me, or if you have
additional info on any of the above items, or strategy ideas by all means
send them in. Eolsunder2@aol.com.
