Reading the matrices

Section titled “Reading the matrices”

The tables on this page follow a selection of displayed values back to the state behind them. They cover the game date and the ship service clocks, the colony population, workforce, capacity and tax summaries, class statistics against individual-ship statistics, fleet location, speed, order work, cargo and support controls, contact and alien-intelligence displays, and geological and gravitational survey summaries. They do not list every value in every window, every designer control, every map overlay or every refresh.

Other pages own the underlying mechanics. Game time and state refresh owns the increment and subpulse timeline and the processing clocks. Colony lifecycle, production, wealth, ship design, readiness, movement, exploration, intelligence and colours own their formulas and wider limits. This page adds one question. What does a displayed value mean at the moment the window fills it?

Each value has a status that describes what the window reads when it fills the view:

  • Live means the state the game holds now. Values it depends on may still wait for their next recalculation.
  • Derived means the window calculates the result from its inputs while it fills the view.
  • Cached means the game holds the result of an earlier calculation, written by another step or by the same refresh.
  • Observed means what the viewing race knows, including remembered facts and facts gated by a threshold, rather than the true state of the world.

A value can have two statuses. A derived label can use a cached input. “No timestamp” means the display gives no date of its own for when the value was current. The tactical map title bar shows the race title, the current date and time and the racial wealth. That date is not the date of every statistic on screen. Text stays a snapshot until the window fills it again.

Each table row gives the display, the value behind it and its units, what its status and its time mean, and what updates it and what a save keeps. Save notes concern the stored records, not the text a window showed. The common save and load limits in Persistence and limits apply to every row.

Clocks and refresh boundaries

Section titled “Clocks and refresh boundaries”
Display Value and calculation Status and time meaning Update and save
Calendar date and time, in window titles, event lists and date columns 1 January of the start year (StartYear in FCT_Game) plus the game time in seconds. A game time above 1000 years (1000 x 31,536,000 seconds) is held at 1000 years. When the date cannot be formed, the display falls back to 1 January of the start year. The text is either a long date or a full date with time. Derived simulation date. Date-only text hides the time of day. Formatting changes only the presentation. The current game time in seconds is saved as GameTime in FCT_Game.
Game year Game time divided by 31,536,000 seconds, rounded down, plus the start year. Derived count of fixed years, not the year taken from the calendar date. Recalculated each time it is shown. The fixed year is 365 days (31,536,000 seconds), while the calendar date includes leap days. A fixed month is 30 days (2,592,000 seconds).
Time increment and subpulse buttons on the tactical map The selected increment length in seconds, the selected subpulse and, separately, the subpulse length in use (SubPulseLength in FCT_Game). Live settings. No elapsed-time timestamp. A click on a subpulse button only selects and highlights it. A click on an increment button selects that length, highlights it and advances one increment, or keeps advancing while automatic turns are on until something interrupts. When the subpulse is automatic, or would split the increment into more than 500 subpulses, the game picks a subpulse length from the increment length and rounds the increment down to whole subpulses. A subpulse longer than the increment is cut to the increment length. Shortening and rounding decide the work actually done. The highlighted button alone does not show how much time passed.
Event date in the Events window Each event stores the game time when it was logged (Time in FCT_GameLog). The increment that holds it has its own start time. Historical event time. It can be later than the start of its increment. Written when the event is logged, not when the window redraws. A save keeps the events of increments that started less than 5 years (157,680,000 seconds) before the current time. A load reads at most 10,000 event rows, newest increments first.
Deployment Clock on the Ship Design Display sub-tab of the Ship Overview tab of the Naval Organization window (Game time minus LastShoreLeave) divided by 2,592,000 seconds, a fixed 30-day month, shown with two decimals. Derived service age in months. The service date is not the time the window refreshed. Ship refresh. Commercial hulls show “-”. Shore leave and other service rules move the stored date. A reload restores the saved hull record in FCT_Ship.
Maintenance Clock on the same tab (Game time minus LastOverhaul) divided by 31,536,000 seconds, a fixed 365-day year, shown with two decimals. Derived service age in years, separate from the construction date. Ship refresh. Commercial hulls show “-”. A new ship starts with its construction date, LastOverhaul and LastShoreLeave all set to the game time of its creation. Loading restores the saved dates and does not build a new hull with new dates.

After each increment the game refreshes a fixed list of displays. They are the tactical map, every open Events window, the selected race display of every open Economics window and the selected fleet controls of every open Naval Organization window. This is a named list, not a refresh of every open window.

Game time moves forward by one subpulse before that subpulse’s movement and sensor work. Strategic processing has its own gate. It runs when the game time minus LastGrowthTime exceeds the Construction Cycle Time option in the Game Information window (MinConstructionPeriod in FCT_Game), and it then sets LastGrowthTime to the current game time. Ground combat runs on a third clock (LastGroundCombatTime). A current calendar date therefore does not prove that production processed every second since the previous strategic update. The game time and state refresh page gives the full increment and subpulse timeline.

Colony population workforce capacities and taxes

Section titled “Colony population workforce capacities and taxes”

Selecting a colony in the Economics window refreshes the selected population display. The colony summary runs first. The governor, industrial project, shipyard, ground training, mining, wealth and research displays fill after it. One screen can therefore combine live quantities with annual estimates recalculated on the spot.

Display Value and calculation Status and time meaning Update and save
Surface Population on the Summary tab The colony population in millions of people, rounded to two decimals (an exact half goes to the even neighbour) with “m”. A colony with surface population only shows the row as “Population”. Live quantity. No timestamp. Growth and colonist transport change the amount. Selection reads it. Saved as Population in FCT_Population.
Orbital Population and Total Population Before the rows fill, the summary updates the orbital population of every colony on the same body from orbiting ark-ship fleets and totals the body’s population. The rows show surface, orbital and total population, each rounded to two decimals (an exact half goes to the even neighbour) with “m”. A colony with orbital population only shows “Orbital Population” alone. Live amounts plus a locally refreshed orbital count. No separate date. The summary updates the orbital counts of all colonies sharing the body. At the end of a load the game also updates every colony’s orbital count from ark-ship fleets.
Planetary Suitability (Colony Cost) and Maximum Colony Cost The body’s colony cost for the species, calculated with orbital extremes included and stored as the colony’s current and maximum cost. The current cost shows four decimals, “Not Habitable” for a cost of -1, and “LG” when the body’s gravity is below the species minimum. The maximum row appears only when it exceeds the current cost. Cached values recalculated for the summary. Selection recalculates the costs. The strategic environment update calculates them with orbital extremes left out. These are two different refresh rules.
Agriculture / Environmental workers Required fraction = 0.05 x (current colony cost + 1), capped at 1. The second set of figures uses the maximum colony cost in the same formula. Each fraction times the surface population gives the workers in millions. When the total population is above 0, both fractions are then expressed relative to the total population. The row label shows the percentage with one decimal. Cached derived workforce. “m” is millions. No date. The summary runs the workforce breakdown after the cost and growth calculations. The saved population amount alone does not store the derived rows.
Service Industries and Manufacturing workers Service fraction = sqrt(sqrt(total population x 100,000)) / 100, capped at 0.7. When service plus agriculture exceeds 1, service becomes 1 minus agriculture. Manufacturing is the total population minus agriculture minus service, with a fraction of 0 when that is not positive. When current and maximum colony cost differ, values show two decimals, one decimal above 20 million people and none above 100 million. Cached derived allocation. The required and current figures can differ. The summary and the strategic environment update both recalculate it. No row-level date.
Manufacturing Efficiency Modifier Colony efficiency x 100, shown as a percentage with two decimals, with the efficiency from Efficiency in FCT_Population. Cached multiplier shown as a percent, not output already produced. The summary recalculates efficiency. Efficiency is also saved. Loading alone does not promise to recalculate every value it depends on.
Construction Capacity on the Industry tab Annual construction capacity = race construction rate x production output modifier x construction capacity of installations + race construction rate x ground formation construction modifier x construction rating of the colony's ground formations BP, where the race construction rate is ConstructionProduction in FCT_Race. The ground formation construction modifier is economic production modifier x radiation production modifier. The label adds the installation counts and an “Engineer Contribution” in BP. Cached annual BP capacity. No date of completed output. The summary recalculates the annual capacities. Production applies elapsed years later. Each active project that is not paused receives capacity x elapsed years x its percentage / 100.
Capacity Available on the GU Training tab Ground formation construction capacity x (100 - allocated percentage) / 100, shown when less than 100% is allocated. The capacity is race rate x number of Ground Force Construction Complexes x governor's ground construction bonus x (1 + (sector governor bonus - 1) / 4) x species production modifier x economic production modifier x radiation production modifier x efficiency x stability x political status production modifier. The race rate is GroundFormationConstructionRate in FCT_Race, and the sector governor term is a quarter of that governor’s bonus. The Ground Force Construction Complexes, the sector governor bonus and the political status production modifier are described on their own pages. Cached annual BP and derived free share. The summary recalculates the capacity. Training queue progress is separate.
Fuel Annual Production and Fuel Reserves on the Industry tab Annual production = fuel production capacity / 10^6, with “m”. The capacity is race fuel production rate x production output modifier x refinery count, with the rate from FuelProduction in FCT_Race. Reserves = FuelStockpile / 10^6. Stopped production shows “Annual Production 0m” and a Start button. Cached annual potential plus live stock. “m” scales the display. No date. Summary rebuild. A production tick adds the output. The stock is saved separately from the annual estimate.
Maintenance Annual Production and Maintenance Stockpile Annual production = race rate x production output modifier x maintenance facility count x 4 MSP, with the race rate from MSPProduction in FCT_Race, against MaintenanceStockpile in MSP. Cached annual potential plus live stock. Summary rebuild. The Start and Stop toggle (MaintProdStatus) changes the annual wording to 0 MSP without erasing the stock. Stock and status are saved.
Annual Worker Taxes and Annual Financial Centre Value on the Summary tab Worker taxes = taxable workforce x efficiency x wealth modifier. Financial centre value = Financial Centre capacity x efficiency x wealth modifier. The taxable workforce is the shipyard workers plus the workers of installations that pay tax. The wealth modifier is political status wealth modifier x race wealth creation rate x radiation production modifier x governor wealth creation bonus x quarter of the sector governor's bonus, with the race rate from WealthCreationRate, and it is also multiplied by stability when the colony has unrest points. Each row appears only when above 0. Cached annual estimates, not income already credited. The summary calculates annual wealth before it refreshes workforce and efficiency, so the estimate can use inputs from before this refresh. Actual collection is separate strategic work.
Income and expenditure totals on the Wealth tab Sum of the race’s wealth records (Amount in FCT_WealthData) whose TimeUsed is later than the current time minus the selected period. The periods are One Month (2,592,000 seconds), Three Months (7,776,000), Six Months (15,552,000) and One Year (31,536,000). Each type shows its share of the total with one decimal. Derived historical flow with a strict lower bound. A record exactly one period old is left out. Selecting a colony or changing the period rebuilds the rows. They are race-wide records for the period, not capacity forecasts for the selected colony.
Shipping Line Tax Rate on the Wealth tab Race shipping line tax x 100, two decimals, with “%”. The tax is ShippingLineTax in FCT_Race. The edit prompt “Enter Shipping Line Tax Percentage” divides the entered percentage by 100 and raises a negative result to 0. Live configured fraction, not a dated receipt. A confirmed edit changes the rate and the text at once. It does not recalculate past income records.

The summary also rebuilds the colony’s mineral usage breakdown and projection ledgers for construction, ordnance, fighters, shipyard modification, shipyard tasks, ground training, refinery Sorium, maintenance supplies and total projected usage. Projected refinery Sorium use is the annual fuel production divided by 2,000. These are estimates, not proof that minerals were consumed. Live stock, the mineral snapshot taken at the start of each production tick (the LastDuranium to LastGallicite columns of FCT_Population), change records and projected usage serve separate purposes. Production mechanics owns the capacity rules.

Class and individual ship statistics

Section titled “Class and individual ship statistics”

Selecting a ship in the Naval Organization window fills the individual ship summary on the Ship Design Display sub-tab of the Ship Overview tab, and the class pane on the Class Design Display sub-tab of the same tab. The class pane is not the damaged hull’s present capacity.

Display Value and calculation Status and time meaning Update and save
Class summary in the Class Design window Recalculates the selected class’s summary with the display settings. With Show Bands checked, the target speed and range band entries feed the summary. Derived and cached design statistics. No hull observation date. Selection and edits rebuild the class statistics. The saved class and component records are inputs, not the generated text. Ship and station design owns the design rules.
Class Design Display tab of the Naval Organization window Recalculates the summary of the ship’s actual class with no target speed and no range bands, then shows that class summary text. Design state, separate from the damaged hull. Selecting a ship can rewrite the actual class’s stored summary statistics from this window.
Ship Design Display tab The game makes a display copy of the class. It copies the ship’s actual missile load into the copy, clears the copy’s small-craft templates and sets each copied component’s undamaged count to the ship’s own undamaged count. It then builds the summary with the tab’s target speed and range band entries. Derived presentation copy using the current hull damage and load. Ship refresh. Adjusting the copy does not change the class’s component counts. Making the copy uses up a new ship class ID from the class ID counter and clones the class’s component entries. Damage and ordnance are separate saved hull inputs.
Armour on the Ship Design Display sub-tab of the Ship Overview tab (class armour cells - sum of armour damage) / class armour cells x 100, rounded to a whole percent (an exact half goes to the even neighbour). Class armour cells = ArmourThickness x ArmourWidth of the class. Derived current damage ratio. Ship refresh. A save keeps the damage records, not the ratio text.
Shields CurrentShieldStrength / (undamaged shield capacity x OverhaulFactor) x 100, rounded (an exact half goes to the even neighbour). Shows “-” when that capacity is 0. Derived ratio, not the class maximum or an alien’s observed maximum. Ship refresh reads the strength and current capacity. Shield recharge runs once after the last subpulse of each increment, using the length the increment actually ran. Damage runs separately.
Engines Effective maximum speed / class MaxSpeed x 100, rounded (an exact half goes to the even neighbour). Effective maximum speed = undamaged engine power x OverhaulFactor / (ship's size x 1000), whole km/s, at most 270,000 and at least 1. Towing with a tractor beam adds the towed ship’s size, or a towed shipyard’s capacity divided by 25, then multiplied by its number of slipways. The speed is 1 km/s while the ship is itself towed, under overhaul, has no working engines, or belongs to a player race and has no fuel. Derived comparison of operational and design speed. Ship refresh. It does not show that the fleet’s ordered speed equals this maximum.
Current Range Fuel endurance = Fuel / (effective engine power x class FuelEfficiency) hours. Range = endurance hours x effective maximum speed x 3600 / 10^9 billion km. Effective engine power is undamaged engine capacity x OverhaulFactor. Shown with two decimals. Derived estimate. The refresh also stores the engine power and the remaining range. Each ship refresh recalculates it. When engine power is 0, the refresh returns 0 before it stores the remaining range, so the text and the stored range can differ.
Fuel Amount and Maint. Supply Points Fuel and CurrentMaintSupplies, as formatted quantities. Live stock with no timestamp. Selection and refresh read the stocks. Use and transfers change them. A reload restores the hull state from FCT_Ship.
Crew Morale and Fleet Training CrewMorale x 100 as a percent. TFPoints / 5, rounded (an exact half goes to the even neighbour), as a percent. Derived scaling. Morale is stored as a multiplier and training as points. Formatting grants no shore leave and no training time. The saved hull values are separate from these strings.

Construction Date shows the ship’s construction time (Constructed in FCT_Ship) as a date. The service clocks subtract their own service dates. A new ship starts with all three dates equal to its creation time, but their meanings diverge later.

Fleet position orders cargo and support

Section titled “Fleet position orders cargo and support”

Selecting a fleet in the Naval Organization window has the fleet build its overview, then fills the movement orders list and the transported items tree. The visible orders show queued intent. The simulation spends the transfer and survey time.

Display Value and calculation Status and time meaning Update and save
Fleet location and system on the Fleet tab The known system name plus the fleet’s current location description, taken from the fleet’s actual state. Without orders the line adds “No Orders”, the overhaul status and the shipyard task count. Live own-fleet location, not alien last-seen evidence. Overview rebuild. Coordinates, previous positions, increment-start positions and movement and transit times are saved separately in FCT_Fleet.
Travel Time Required Total distance of all move orders divided by the fleet Speed, in seconds. Below 170,000 seconds it shows hours with one decimal, below 1,700,000 seconds days with one decimal, and otherwise days. The line also shows All Orders Distance. Derived estimate from distance and speed, not proof of all future action or delay time. The overview calculates it before the same refresh clamps the speed. No arrival time is saved.
Speed and Max Speed The stored fleet Speed in km/s, and the live maximum of the fleet, or of the selected sub-fleet or squadron. Max Speed appears only when the speed is below it. Live ordered speed plus a derived maximum. The overview sets the speed to the maximum when it is higher. It never raises a lower speed. The speed is saved in FCT_Fleet.
Next-order delay on the tactical map, with Fleet Next Order checked The order’s remaining delay (OrderDelayRemaining), shown after “Delay” as a duration without seconds. Live remaining simulation seconds, abbreviated. Movement counts it down. Redraw formats it. Saved in FCT_MoveOrders separately from the configured delay (OrderDelay).
Work left on an arrived order, in the same map label “SP Required” (SurveyPointsRequired, one decimal) takes precedence when above 0, otherwise “Time Required” (TimeRequired) as a duration. The fleet’s speed label is hidden. Live remaining points or seconds, shown for an arrived order. The order’s work is spent each subpulse. Replacing the order discards its progress. Both values are saved in FCT_MoveOrders.
Geo Survey and Grav Survey on the Fleet tab Current sensor capacity x admin command survey bonus x Survey Speed / 100. The survey bonus is the admin command bonus for the system, and Survey Speed is the option in the Game Information window (SurveySpeed in FCT_Game). Derived points per hour, not necessarily the rate the survey uses. Overview refresh. A geological survey recalculates its rate each subpulse. A gravitational survey keeps its rate and recalculates it only when the stored rate is 0. Points spent per subpulse = rate x seconds / 3600.
Cargo and ordnance list on the Ship Design Display sub-tab of the Ship Overview tab The ship’s actual missile load replaces the design template in the display copy. The list shows missiles, installations, trade goods, components, colonists and minerals. Live inventory, separate from the class template. Selection rebuild. On arrival, load, unload and transfer orders set the time the operation needs, and the cargo moves when that time has run out. Refuelling and resupply transfer progressively.
Installation and component cargo amounts The item amount, with two decimals. Live item quantities, not free cargo tons. Ship refresh reads the inventories. Amounts can hold decimals and are not whole units only. Movement and logistics owns cargo capacity and timing.
Colonist cargo The number of people, as a whole number. Live cargo people. Unlike the colony population, this is not in millions. Ship refresh reads the cargo without changing it. Loading converts colony millions to people (millions x 1,000,000).
Refuel, resupply and ordnance transfer status lists Visible when the class is a tanker (FuelTanker = 1), a supply ship (SupplyShip = 1) or a collier (Collier = 1). The selected entry comes from RefuelStatus, ResupplyStatus and OrdnanceTransferStatus. Live policy and role, not proof of enough stock or of a completed transfer. Ship selection rebuild. Idle tanker support each subpulse considers only tankers whose refuel status is not None, whose fuel is above the class minimum fuel and whose fleet has no move orders.
Annual MSP on the Fleet tab Sum of the class Cost of the fleet's independent non-commercial ships x 0.25. Derived annual planning quantity, not carried MSP. Overview refresh. Current MSP is each ship’s own stock, not this estimate.

Own-fleet positions and contact positions come from separate records. Detection copies the actual fleet position into the observing race’s contact. An old contact is not a projected copy of its live ship.

The same inventory list mixes missile rounds, installations, trade goods, components, colonist people and mineral quantities. A number has the unit of its row’s item, not one cargo unit. Free cargo capacity is a separate calculation from carried stock. It is cargo hold capacity - (installation cargo points x amount + components x size x 50 + trade goods x 2,500 + minerals x 2) tons, floored at 0 and rounded down to whole tons.

Contacts and remembered intelligence

Section titled “Contacts and remembered intelligence”

A contact holds a snapshot of coordinates, strength, detection method and last update time (LastUpdate in FCT_Contacts), alongside a link to the actual object. That link does not make every displayed fact current. The viewing race, the detection method and the age limit of the display all matter. Intelligence mechanics owns how tracks and hull histories form.

Display Value and calculation Status and time meaning Update and save
Track position and continuity on the tactical map Stored Xcor and Ycor, Speed, previous position and increment-start position. A detection exactly one subpulse after the last update extends the track (ContinualContactTime grows by the subpulse length). A gap resets it to 0 and records the time in Reestablished. The map draws a track line from the increment-start position only when LastUpdate equals the current game time and the increment-start position is not (0, 0). Observed snapshot. The last update is the detection time, not the paint time. Detection refreshes the snapshot and continuity. Coordinates and times are saved in FCT_Contacts with the object IDs, which a load links to the actual objects again.
Contact tree on the tactical map, the galactic map and the Intelligence and Foreign Relations window Ship contacts of the observing race in the system, grouped by alien race, whose LastUpdate is at or after the current time minus the age limit. The limit is 31,536,000 seconds with Lost Contacts 1 Year checked, 2,592,000 with Lost Contacts 1 Month, 86,400 with Lost Contacts 1 Day, and otherwise 0, which lists only contacts updated at the current time. Observed recent history, broader than an exact-current match. Refreshing the tree or changing the age setting changes what is listed, not the detection date or the target’s movement. Saved tracks are separate from this display filter.
Ship contact label Built from the viewing race’s hull intelligence (“Unknown Ship” when there is none) and its tracks of each method inside the age limit. An active sensor track adds tons (strength x 50, with “BIO” for races with biological ships). A thermal track adds “Thermal” with the engine code and strength. A shield track adds “Shields” with strength divided by 30. EM tracks add the matched sensor names. A transponder track adds “(TP)”. The ship’s actual current speed in km/s ends the label. Mixed observed and live presentation. The freshness of a track does not date the speed at the end. Formatting detects nothing. It stores the tracked contact, a freshness state and the label text. The state is Current when every track updated at the current time, Lost when none did and Partial when some did.
Alien hull Current Contact or date on the Known Class tab of the Intelligence and Foreign Relations window Hull history LastContactTime, Destroyed, Salvaged and last system (LastSysID) in FCT_AlienShip. Remembered hull history. “Destroyed” when the hull is destroyed, with “ (S)” added when it was salvaged. Otherwise “Current Contact” when the last contact time equals the current time, and the date of the last contact when it does not. The system shows “Unknown” when none is known. Date-only text hides an age below one day. Each observation sets the last contact time, system, position and speed. This is separate from each contact’s LastUpdate. Saved in FCT_AlienShip.
Maximum Observed Speed (km/s) and Active Sensor Signature (tons) Class intelligence MaxSpeed. TCS x 50 shown as tons. Observed class capability and signature, not the current speed or a guaranteed true hull mass. Each contact raises the maximum speed when it is faster, and an active sensor track raises TCS when it is stronger. Maxima can outlive the track.
Maximum Observed Shield Strength and Maximum Armour Penetration Stored ShieldStrength and ArmourStrength in FCT_AlienClass. A shield track raises the shield strength to its strength divided by 30 when that is higher. Historical evidence. No per-row date. Combat, contacts or full revelation write them. Full revelation copies the actual class’s armour thickness, maximum speed and shield strength. They are not the current shield pool or armour health.
Alien Population and Total Installations on the Known Population tab Remembered PopulationAmount and Installations in FCT_AlienPopulation. Shown when the current intelligence points (AlienPopulationIntelligencePoints) or the highest points reached (MaxIntelligence) exceed 100. Observed snapshot. Green when the current points exceed 100, otherwise red when only the maximum qualifies. While the current points exceed 100, intelligence copies the actual total population and the count of installations with a cost above 6. Opening the details applies the gates and colours and copies nothing new. Saved in FCT_AlienPopulation.
Alien Factories and Mines Remembered counts, shown when the current or highest points exceed 200. Factories count construction, ordnance and fighter factories. Observed threshold state. Exactly 200 fails the strict “above” test. A qualifying update rewrites the counts. The spaceport and cargo station flags only ever become true, so they are not a reversible live inventory.

Green colony reliability means enough current intelligence points for the threshold. It is not a dated guarantee that every value was gathered at this moment. Red remembered intelligence and a red hostile contact mean different things. A contact marker takes the colour of its race’s contact status, or the hostile colour when no race is known. Semantic status colours lists those colours.

Survey knowledge and displayed progress

Section titled “Survey knowledge and displayed progress”
Display Value and calculation Status and time meaning Update and save
Discovered in the System Generation and Display window The Discovered date text, set when the race first learns of the system, with the time in seconds as DiscoveredTime. The system age in GY (billions of years) is separate. Stored discovery date against physical age. Neither dates the latest mineral data. The window reads the stored values. Saved in FCT_RaceSysSurvey.
Jump Point Survey Number of the system's survey locations the race has surveyed / 30 x 100, rounded to a whole percentage with an exact half rounded up. Derived knowledge fraction. No per-location timestamp here. Each rebuild recounts. A completed gravitational survey records the race on that survey location. Surveying locations does not explore every jump point connection.
System Body Survey Bodies of the system the race has surveyed / bodies in the system x 100 (surveyed bodies from FCT_SystemBodySurveys), rounded to a whole percentage with an exact half rounded up. A system with no bodies shows 100%. Derived observer fraction, different from the automatic survey flag GeoSurveyDefaultDone. The summary recounts the knowledge. The memberships are saved per race and body in FCT_SystemBodySurveys.
Mineral survey report in the Mineral Text window, opened from the System Generation and Display window When the race has surveyed the body, the current amount and accessibility (two decimals) of each deposit. “No Survey” otherwise. Observed access gate to the live physical deposits, not a snapshot from the discovery date. Reopening can show depletion or new deposits without another orbital survey. Membership and deposits are stored separately.
SP Required on the tactical map The order’s remaining survey points, one decimal. Live per-order work, not the system percentage complete. Queuing a geological survey sets the body’s required points, and queuing a gravitational survey sets the system’s points per survey location. The survey debits partial work. A save keeps the points. The stored gravitational rate follows a different lifecycle.

These two labels in the System Generation and Display window round differently from the stored system-summary percentage, whose exact halves go to the even neighbour. With 1 of 8 bodies surveyed, the System Body Survey label shows 13% while the stored summary is 12%.

GeoSurveyDefaultDone is set when the standing orders Survey Nearest Body, Survey Next Five System Bodies or Survey Next Thirty System Bodies find no eligible body in the system, or when the nearest one lies at or beyond the distance limit. The limit is 10,000,000,000 km by default, or the fleet’s standing order distance. Eligible bodies leave out bodies the race has surveyed, bodies already queued for geological survey by the race or by a race it holds a geological survey treaty with, banned bodies and the placeholder bodies made for deep-space colonies . A system with no bodies starts with the flag set. The flag can therefore mean there is no eligible local target after bans, treaties, queues and limits, and it need not match the survey percentage. Completing a survey location, charting a jump point and exploring its connection are separate knowledge changes. Jump-point knowledge is stored in FCT_RaceJumpPointSurvey. Exploration surveys and discovery owns the survey rules.

View builders that write state

Section titled “View builders that write state”

Several refreshes are more than a read:

  1. Colony selection rewrites the body totals, orbital population, colony costs, growth estimate, workforce, efficiency, capacities, signatures and research output. It also rebuilds the projections without advancing time.
  2. The fleet overview lowers the actual fleet speed to the maximum of the selected fleet, sub-fleet or squadron when needed. The location and travel-time text is built before that write, so one refresh can contain an estimate that used the previous speed. This follows from the order of the refresh steps and is not a reported defect.
  3. Ship selection stores the engine power and remaining range, recalculates the actual class’s summary statistics and uses up a ship class ID for its display copy.
  4. Contact formatting stores the tracked contact, the freshness state and the label text, while it combines aged observations with a live speed at the end of the label.

These refreshes do not run the full movement, combat, production, research, service or intelligence phases. A component repair can change the live undamaged capacity before the stored tactical effectiveness, speed and sensor values refresh. Those stored values have their own update steps.

The summary’s growth calculation uses one year with overcrowding unrest off. Strategic processing uses the actual elapsed years and applies overcrowding unrest. The summary’s ground construction rating includes fortification engineers, while production preparation leaves them out. Opening a colony is therefore not the same as a production tick. Colony output and income cycle follows the same refresh from the economic side.

Current stale and reload examples

Section titled “Current stale and reload examples”
Example scenario Result
Engine damage leaves the fleet speed above the new maximum, then the overview opens. The overview lowers the actual speed. Its earlier location and travel-time line used the previous speed. The next rebuild uses the new speed.
Fuel changes after the ship pane was filled. The fuel can be current while the visible Current Range text waits for the next rebuild. A refresh estimates range and grants no fuel.
Colonists transfer before the next colony summary refresh. The amount can change before the workforce and capacity recalculation. Selection runs local calculations without granting a production interval.
A colony’s current intelligence points fall below 100 after exceeding it. The population and count rows can stay visible in red because the highest points still qualify. Opening the details does not reveal the fresh real population.
A ship loses its sensors but the track stays inside the selected age window. The contact tree can still list it while every exact-current check fails. The hull date and the class maxima can remain.
Mining depletes a surveyed body. The rebuilt report shows the current deposits, not the discovery amount. Survey membership still gates the report.
Save and reload in the middle of a survey order. The remaining points and timers come back. FCT_Fleet has no column for the stored gravitational survey rate, so the preserved work is separate from the rate, which is recalculated when it is 0.
Save before the strategic construction gate is crossed, then reload. The saved GameTime and LastGrowthTime keep the accumulated time. Loading alone neither uses it nor grants output. Later advancement can cross the gate when the elapsed time exceeds the Construction Cycle Time.

Persistence and limits

Section titled “Persistence and limits”

Saved state is not a screenshot. Loading a game rebuilds the definitions, objects and links and does some reconstruction work, such as orbital positions and orbital population from ark-ship fleets. It does not run the advancement steps. The tactical map then opens and can rebuild some views. A local recalculation at load time is not elapsed simulation time. When no game is chosen at start, the game with the highest LastViewed value opens. A save sets that flag on the saved game and clears it on all others.

The population save keeps amounts, stocks, toggles, efficiency and the named columns of FCT_Population, not every projection or summary. The fleet save (FCT_Fleet) keeps positions, speed and times. The order save (FCT_MoveOrders) separately keeps the arrived state, remaining delay, work and timers. Saved quantities, values held only while the game runs and generated text each come back by different rules.

The contact save (FCT_Contacts) keeps coordinates, strength, continuity and dates alongside the object IDs. Alien hull, class and colony intelligence lives in the observing race’s records (FCT_AlienShip, FCT_AlienClass and FCT_AlienPopulation). The actual class, ship and population those records point to can hold facts beyond what the windows show. That is not what a player sees. The time a colony’s intelligence last gained points is held only while the game runs. FCT_AlienPopulation has no column for it.

A view shows what its last refresh wrote. Nothing here shows that every action reaches every display or that every change refreshes every stored value, and a stale view is not always a defect. To explain a mismatch, look at the exact view that was open and the change that reached the value.

Concept map

Section titled “Concept map”

Resources

Section titled “Resources”

Related community documentation and developer posts. These may describe a different game version.