Ratings and their scope

Section titled “Ratings and their scope”

This page follows the two ratings that each race keeps for every system it knows, the danger rating and the raid rating, from the rules that change them to the decisions that read them. It covers the increase from combat, the construction cycle decay, the protection values the ratings are compared against, the danger avoidance flags on fleets and operational groups, and the player, civilian and NPR decisions that use them.

Neighbouring pages own the topics around it. Jump-point network and galaxy topology owns the auto-route graph, the breadth-first expansion of reachable systems, the alien control test and the stabilisation standing order. This page restates those only where a danger rule sits inside them. Space combat resolution owns how attack records are built and resolved. Movement and logistics owns how route steps become transit orders. NPR strategic planning owns the NPR hostile ship threat rating and mobile defence rating, and NPR tactical and system behaviour owns the retreat doctrine that the danger avoidance filter feeds. Civilian economy owns freighter job selection. Standing orders owns the orders that use the auto-route search.

FCT_RaceSysSurvey.DangerRating and FCT_RaceSysSurvey.RaidRating are whole numbers on a race’s survey record for one system. Two races that know the same system hold two independent ratings. A newly created survey record starts both ratings at 0, because creation sets neither of them. When a population is granted independence and becomes a new race, each survey record of the new race is a copy of the parent race’s record for that system, and the copy carries both ratings over.

DangerRating records damage that the race’s ships took in the system. Combat raises it by the damage of each attack record, rounded down. The construction cycle lowers it by max(rating x elapsed days / 365, elapsed days), rounded down. Route searches, the galactic map read it.

No other rule in play writes either rating. Apart from the increases and the decay, the ratings are set only when a saved game is loaded, and the independence copy carries the values over without changing them.

Danger rating from combat

Section titled “Danger rating from combat”

Each combat pass works through the list of current attack records once, in the step that processes attack records and their aftermath. Every record starts with no survey record to credit and a damage total of 0. At the end of the record, when a survey record has been chosen, the game adds the damage total, rounded down to a whole number, to that record’s DangerRating. The rounding happens per attack record, so fractional damage from separate records does not carry over.

Only an attack on a ship chooses a survey record. That covers records whose target is a ship and that carry a weapon component, a missile type, the anti-air flag, the collateral damage flag, the acid penetration flag, or a ram by the attacker or by the target. The game looks up the target ship and skips the record when the ship no longer exists. Otherwise it chooses the survey record of the target ship’s fleet, which is the target race’s survey of the system where the target sits.

After the hits are applied, the game adds total hits x damage per hit to the damage total. Total hits is a whole number and damage per hit can be fractional. The sum counts every hit of the record, including hits that were never applied because the target had already been destroyed. A record with zero hits adds 0.

The danger therefore goes to the race that was hit, not to the attacker. Attacks by ships, missiles, STO ground units, rams in both directions, collateral damage and continuing acid all count when the target is a ship. The attacker’s own survey record gains nothing from the exchange, because the game always credits the survey record of the target ship’s fleet.

Other kinds of attack record never reach the increase with a survey record chosen.

  • Missile launches and point defence. Launch records and records that target missile salvos, including anti-missile fire, never choose a survey record, so they add nothing.
  • Shipyards. Attacks on shipyards add total hits x damage per hit to the damage total and use it for the diplomatic penalty, but no survey record is chosen.
  • Populations and ground units. Attacks on populations, ground units and STO units add the same product and use it for dust and civilian deaths, but no survey record is chosen.

The whole pass over the records runs as one step. An error anywhere in that step, including inside a record, shows error Function #311 and ends the attack record and aftermath step for that pass, so later records in the list add no danger.

Raid rating from recovery

Section titled “Raid rating from Eldar recovery”

Danger rating decay

Section titled “Danger rating decay”

Each time increment, the game measures the elapsed time since the last construction cycle as current game time - LastGrowthTime. When that exceeds the construction cycle time, it runs the construction cycle strategic updates and moves LastGrowthTime to the current time. A new game’s Construction Cycle Time (FCT_Game.MinConstructionPeriod) on the Game Information window defaults to 430,000 seconds.

Near the end of that cycle, after the wealth history entries, the cycle runs the danger decay with the full elapsed time. No other step runs the decay. The topology danger rating section describes the same rule.

For every survey record of every race with a positive DangerRating, elapsed days = elapsed seconds / 86400, with the fraction kept. The decay is DangerRating x elapsed days / 365, raised to at least the elapsed days. The rating loses the decay rounded down to a whole number and is clamped at 0. The topology page works the rule through for a rating of 1,000.

The two terms meet at a rating of 365. Below 365 the rating falls by about one point per elapsed day. At 365 or above it falls by rating / 365 per day, which is proportional loss. The rounding applies once per cycle, so a cycle of 4.98 days removes at most 4 points from a small rating.

Protection values

Section titled “Protection values”

Four protection measures appear next to the danger rating. They count different things.

Measure Definition Used by
Class protection value, FCT_ShipClass.ProtectionValue Starts at 0 each time the class summary is recalculated, then adds component size x number of components over the class’s beam weapons (laser, particle beam, meson cannon, railgun, carronade, high power microwave, gauss cannon), missile launchers and fighter pod bays System fleet protection, the galactic map figures
System fleet protection Sum of the class protection value over every ship of every fleet that belongs to this survey record, so only the survey race’s own fleets, bases included The too-dangerous test
Fleet protection Sum of each ship’s current protection, which is 0 for a commercial class and otherwise counts undamaged weapon components except CIWS and decoy launchers, times component size
Map protection Class protection value summed per system for the galactic map, over the race’s ships with a maximum speed above 0 Security status label

System fleet protection uses the class value, so damage to weapons does not lower it. It also counts commercial and stationary ships whose classes carry weapons. Fleet protection falls as weapons are destroyed. These four measures are the only protection measures that the danger rules use.

The too-dangerous test

Section titled “The too-dangerous test”

The too-dangerous test decides whether a route search may enter a system. It applies three rules in order.

  1. NPR threat level. When the survey record carries an NPR system assessment and the assessed threat level is above adjacent to hostile system (2), the system is too dangerous. The levels above that value are hostile presence (3), hostile ships known (4) and recent hostile ships (5).
  2. Zero rating. Otherwise a DangerRating of 0 is safe.
  3. Protection. Otherwise the system is safe only when the system fleet protection is strictly greater than DangerRating. An equal value is too dangerous.

An error during the test shows error Function #2544 and returns not too dangerous, so the system reads as safe.

The NPR threat level comes from the NPR strategic pass. Each pass reads the race’s hostile contacts updated within the last year (31,536,000 seconds) and resets every survey record of the race to clear (1). It then marks neighbours of systems with known hostile ships, reached through explored jump points with or without a gate, as adjacent to hostile system (2). It marks systems with hostile population, ground unit, STO or shipyard contacts but no ship contacts as hostile presence (3), systems with hostile ship contacts from that year as hostile ships known (4), and systems with hostile ship contacts updated within five days (432,000 seconds) as recent hostile ships (5). Later assignments overwrite earlier ones. NPR strategic planning places this reset in the strategic order.

A new NPR system assessment starts at clear (1). Player survey records have no assessment, so for a player race only rules 2 and 3 apply.

Independence attaches the new assessment to the wrong survey record. When the new independent race is an NPR, the game builds a fresh assessment for each copied record but attaches it to the parent race’s record instead of the copy. The parent race’s record therefore resets to threat level clear and system value insignificant, and rule 1 stops firing there until the parent’s next strategic pass. The copy keeps the parent’s old assessment, because the copy takes every value of the parent’s record, and that assessment still belongs to the parent’s record.

The test never looks at the system the search starts from. Both route searches filter only the neighbours they are about to enter, so a fleet inside a dangerous system can still route out of it.

Avoid-danger flags

Section titled “Avoid-danger flags”

FCT_Fleet.AvoidDanger is the fleet’s danger avoidance flag. Every newly created fleet starts with it set. The sibling flag AvoidAlienSystems starts clear.

The flag changes in these places.

  • Naval Organization window. The Check Danger Rating checkbox does nothing when no tree node is selected. For a fleet node it refuses a fleet with any civilian function with the message “Danger settings cannot be changed for a civilian or computer-controlled fleet”. Otherwise it copies the checkbox into AvoidDanger and refreshes the destination list. A node that is not a fleet shows “Please select a fleet”.
  • Fleet selection. Selecting a fleet in the Naval Organization window writes its AvoidDanger into the Check Danger Rating checkbox, and the checkbox starts checked when the window opens.
  • Shipping-line ships. When a new ship belongs to a shipping line, the game sets AvoidDanger and AvoidAlienSystems on the new ship’s fleet.
  • Single-ship division. Dividing a fleet into single-ship fleets detaches every ship without a mothership into its own fleet and copies both flags from the divided fleet. The Divide Fleet into Single Ships and Transit and Divide Fleet move actions divide a fleet this way.
  • NPR strategic pass. Each pass copies the operational group’s DIM_OperationalGroup.AvoidDanger onto every NPR fleet.
  • Reload. Loading a game restores the saved value.

No other detach or creation path in play copies the flag, so other new fleets start with it set. Fleet organisation lists the paths that detach ships.

The Exclude Alien-Controlled checkbox behaves differently from the danger checkbox. It ignores a civilian fleet silently instead of showing a message.

DIM_OperationalGroup.AvoidDanger is a true or false flag on each operational group, read from the database when a game loads. Of the 91 rows in the game database as shipped, 31 set it.

OperationalGroupID Description
2 Geological Survey
3 Gravitational Survey
7 Stabilisation Squadron
8 Terraformer Group
14 Tanker
16 Collier
17 Orbital Miner Group
18 Civilian
19 Harvester Group
21
31
33
43
44
45 Diplomatic Ship
48 Stabilisation Squadron - Beam Escort
50 Harvester Group Beam Escort
52 Terraformer Group - Beam Escort
68 Orbital Miner Group - Beam Escort
74 Stabilisation Ship
75 Harvester Group - Large Escort
77 Terraformer Group - Large Escort
78 Beam-Armed Geological Survey
79 Beam-Armed Gravitational Survey
81 Orbital Miner Group - Large Escort
88
89
90
91
92
93

Row 50 has two spaces in its description in the game database as shipped. Every battle, scout, defence, raider, salvage, troop and carrier group has the flag clear.

Player and civilian route consumers

Section titled “Player and civilian route consumers”

Auto-route destination list. When the Naval Organization window shows destinations in Autoroute by System mode, it builds the list from the fleet’s system after its queued orders. It runs the reachable-system search with the fleet’s AvoidDanger and AvoidAlienSystems settings and drops the starting system.

The reachable-system search expands ring by ring over the auto-route edges, with the filters that the topology reachable systems section lists. When danger exclusion is on, it drops neighbours that fail the too-dangerous test. A dropped neighbour never joins the frontier, so systems behind it are unreachable unless another path exists.

Route search. The nearest auto-route destination search runs the same ring expansion with its own filter set, which the same topology section lists. It filters dangerous neighbours only when the fleet’s AvoidDanger is set.

Every standing order with an auto-route fallback, an Autoroute by System move added in the Naval Organization window and NPR route planning use that search and then queue the jump route to the destination it finds. When none is found, a player fleet logs an “unable to carry out its standing order” event (the Orders Not Possible event, a DIM_EventType row) if the request asked for one. The Autoroute by System move does not ask for one. A dangerous target system is itself a filtered neighbour, so the search cannot end there. Standing orders lists the orders with that fallback.

Stabilisation standing order. The Stabilise Nearest Jump Point standing order applies the too-dangerous test directly to the far side of the jump point under the fleet. That test does not read the fleet’s AvoidDanger, so a fleet with the flag clear still refuses a dangerous far side. The topology standing order section owns the rest of that order, including its inverted alien check.

Civilian shipping. No danger check was found in the shipping line rules themselves. Civilian fleets meet danger in two places, both in fleet routing.

  • Freighter contracts. The idle freighter step skips races whose SpecialNPRID is above 0, the standard race type. For idle freighter fleets of player and standard NPR races, it runs the inter-system freighter transfer search, for installations and for trade goods, when no in-system job exists. That search drops neighbours that are too dangerous, alien-controlled by a non-treaty race, or military-restricted (MilitaryRestrictedSystem systems and neighbours reached only through a restricted jump point), without reading AvoidDanger.
  • Civilian standing orders. Shipping-line fleets run default civilian standing orders. Their auto-route fallbacks go through the nearest auto-route destination search with the AvoidDanger value set when the ship was created, and the Naval Organization window refuses to clear it.

In-system freighter jobs run before either search and do not test the fleet’s own system. The civilian economy page owns the restriction rules around these jobs.

Galactic map security status

Section titled “Galactic map security status”

The galactic map “Security Status” checkbox is stored per race as FCT_Race.chkSecurityStatus. Its tooltip reads “Danger Rating and naval presence - affects civilian traffic”.

When the option is checked and a survey record’s DangerRating is above 0, the galactic map draws the danger rating, a slash and the map protection under the system marker, for example “80/0”. The text is light yellow, or red when the map protection is below DangerRating.

Each time the game refreshes the galactic map figures for a race, it resets the map protection to 0 on every survey record of the race. It then adds the class protection value for each ship of the race whose class has a positive value and a maximum speed above 0.

The map value and the route test disagree in two cases. The map excludes ships with no speed, and the route test includes them. The map turns red only when protection is strictly below danger, and the route test also treats equality as dangerous.

NPR consumers

Section titled “NPR consumers”

Strategic copy. Otherwise every NPR fleet takes AvoidDanger from its operational group each pass, so NPR route searches follow the group’s database flag. The NPR fleet danger check that the retreat uses reads the same group flag directly. An error there shows error Function #88 and the check reports that the fleet does not avoid danger.

Retreat from known hostiles. When the race has systems with recent hostile ships , the strategic pass orders a retreat from each system with known hostile ships, and that retreat applies a fleet filter. That retreat keeps fleets in the system whose operational group avoids danger or whose mission availability is below mission capable (3). It drops fleets with a maximum speed of 1 or less and rolls an escape timer for the rest. The other retreats skip that filter for the fleets they are given. They are the rally retreat and the full retreat. The NPR tactical page owns where the chosen fleets go.

The NPR redeployment step for a system collects fleets in the system with a positive escape timer and no redeploy order.

Otherwise every candidate scores d10000. With fewer than 10 candidates after scoring, the deployment ends without dispatching, so the RaidRating path needs at least 10 surveyed candidates.

The deployment walks the targets by score, highest first. A surveyed system is skipped when its DangerRating is greater than the fleet protection of the current head raider. Each dispatch removes the head raider, so later targets compare against the next strongest. The special race page owns the pool, the gate creation and the POI waypoints.

A fleet group’s emergence delay of 0.01 x (d300 + d300) years is divided by 3 for orbital defence groups (MainFunction 4), by 2 for orbital missile base groups (MainFunction 20), and otherwise by 1.5 when the group has AvoidDanger. The delay is added to the tomb’s base emergence time. The tomb scheduling section owns the rest of the schedule.

NPR route searches. NPR fleets reach the nearest auto-route destination search through the strategic and system-level planners. With AvoidDanger set, the search skips systems at threat level hostile presence (3) or above, as well as systems with a positive rating that the race’s system fleet protection there does not strictly exceed. The NPR fleet readiness page describes the NPR destination gate that runs next to it.

For an NPR survey record, the alien-control test treats the system as alien-controlled when the NPR’s SystemValue for the system is None (0), without checking for a controlling race. The freighter contract search and the destination list are the paths that run it for NPR fleets.

Consumer summary

Section titled “Consumer summary”
Consumer Reads Gated by the fleet’s AvoidDanger
Reachable-system search for the Naval Organization window list Too-dangerous test Yes, the fleet’s flag turns the danger exclusion on
Nearest auto-route destination search Too-dangerous test Yes
Stabilise Nearest Jump Point far side Too-dangerous test No
Inter-system freighter transfer search Too-dangerous test No
Galactic map security label DangerRating, map protection Not a fleet path
NPR retreat from systems with known hostile ships Group AvoidDanger Group flag, when the retreat applies the fleet filter
Group AvoidDanger Group flag
RaidRating, DangerRating No
DangerRating No
Group AvoidDanger Group flag

Worked examples

Section titled “Worked examples”

These cases are worked from the rules above.

Case Result
Beam record, 4 hits at damage per hit 3.5, on a player ship Damage total 14.0. The player’s survey of that system gains 14. The attacker’s survey gains nothing.
Three missile records on one ship, each 1 hit at 2.5 Each record rounds 2.5 down to 2, so the rating gains 6, not 7.
Missile record with 6 hits that destroys the target on hit 2 The sum still uses all 6 hits.
500 damage on a population The damage total reaches 500, but no survey record is chosen, so no rating changes.
Danger 200, 432,000 s elapsed 200 x 5 / 365 = 2.74 is below 5, so the decay is 5. New rating 195.
Danger 3, 432,000 s elapsed Decay 5. The result is negative and clamps to 0.
Danger 100, 430,500 s elapsed Days 4.98. The floor decay is 4.98, rounded down to 4. New rating 96.
Chain A to B to C, B danger 50, own ships in B with class protection 30 and 20 Protection 50 is not strictly greater than 50. B is too dangerous, and with AvoidDanger set neither B nor C appears in the destination list.
Same chain with AvoidDanger cleared Both appear. The stabilisation far-side test still refuses B.
Danger 80 in a system that holds only an armed base, class protection 100, speed 0 The route test sees 100 greater than 80 and calls the system safe. The map label reads “80/0” in red.
210 x 3 x 0.3 = 189, rounded down, adds 189 to RaidRating. Wreck minerals of 1,234.6 add 1,234.
Skipped, and the deployment moves to the next target with the same head raider. A head raider of 600 would pass the test.
25 is not above 30, but 40 is below 60, so the support fleet transits.
0.01 x 300 = 3 years, divided by 1.5, gives 2 years of delay.

Persistence and reload

Section titled “Persistence and reload”
Table Columns Saved Restored
FCT_RaceSysSurvey DangerRating, RaidRating With each race’s system survey records As whole numbers when a game loads
FCT_Fleet AvoidDanger, AvoidAlienSystems With each fleet As true or false when a game loads
FCT_ShipClass ProtectionValue With the class With the class
DIM_OperationalGroup AvoidDanger Database data, never written by a save Read when a game loads
FCT_Race chkSecurityStatus With the race With the race

Loading a game skips a survey row whose race is missing and a row whose system is missing, so its ratings are lost with it. A surviving row restores both ratings exactly.

These values are not saved and are rebuilt.

  • NPR threat level. A loaded NPR survey record gets a new NPR system assessment at threat level clear (1), with its system value restored from FCT_RaceSysSurvey.SystemValue. Until the next strategic pass, rule 1 of the too-dangerous test does not fire.
  • NPR fleet flag. The saved AvoidDanger of an NPR fleet lasts until the next strategic pass copies the group flag.
  • Map protection. Each time the game refreshes the galactic map figures for a race, it recomputes the map protection, starting each survey record at 0.
  • Raid score. Each system’s raid target selection score is rewritten on every raid planning pass.
  • Decay clock. The decay depends on LastGrowthTime, which the game time page covers with the rest of the cycle state.

Concept map

Section titled “Concept map”

Resources

Section titled “Resources”

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