In StarDrive, players can wage war against enemies both in space and on the ground.
Enemies[]
In addition to other races that are vying for control of the galaxy, the player can run into hostile Minor Races, Pirates, Remnant forces, and Space Monsters.
Space combat[]
Space combat involves the management of ships, the formation of fleets, and deployment of defense platforms to defend and expand your empire.
Each of the races has their own unique style of ship. These ships come in different size classes as follows:
- Fighter
- Corvette
- Frigate
- Cruiser
- Battleship
- Titan (Capital)
Ships and platforms can be fully customized through modules. For more information, see shipyard. Ships can also be organized into groups called fleets. Fleet composition generally varies depending on the purpose of the fleet (i.e. hit and run, supply, ground assault).
- Additional information
- A ship is considered destroyed when its internal hull reaches 30%.
- Internal hull is all modules with the "I" restriction, therefore it is possible for a ship to be disabled but not destroyed.
- Each ship is capable of six basic combat behaviors that can be set by:
- designating a default while designing a ship in the shipyard
- override default by clicking on the ship and selecting a command
- assign a custom combat behavior via the fleet editor
- Ships will automatically attack hostile ships when in proximity
- specific targets can be chosen manually
- a ship will not choose a new target unless its target dies
- Ship experience: ships gain experience by defeating opponents; the bigger the opponent, the greater the experience.
- Can gain a maximum of five levels
- Levels are indicated in the ship selection window (one star per level)
- For each level, a ship gains +5% bonus to all damage from weapons, ship turning speed, and repair rate
Ground Combat[]
- See also: Troop Ground Combat
Ground combat involves sending troops (through troop shuttles) to the surfaces of planets in order to take control. Planetary bombardment can also be employed to reduce enemy infrastructure and defenses to rubble. A colony destroyed in this matter will need to be re-colonized.
- Additional information
- To view ground combat and/or issue commands, select the planet and press the flag icon in the selection panel.
- To land troops on a planet (After clicking the flag icon) click the troops button on the drop menu in the top left corner. After selecting it a list of troops within orbit of the planet will appear, you may click and drag a selected unit to an open tile, or you have the choice of hitting "Land All" and all the orbiting units landing at the same time on any open tiles. (Units will only land on open tiles; if more troops are orbiting than are able to land the excess troops will remain in orbit)
- Ground troops and combat buildings have four main attributes:
- Class - indicates whether it is a hard (building, structure, mech) or soft (humanoids) target
- Strength - hitpoints and how strong it is in combat
- Hard Attack - used against hard targets
- Soft Attack - used against soft targets