Bases

Bases are the core of your empire in AstroEmpires. They allow you to make money, research technology and build fleet. When you begin your journey in AE you will have only one base and will found more as you grow in the game. Free accounts are limited to nine bases, and upgraded accounts have no base limit; However as you build new bases the raising costs of creating new ones creates a natural limit. Accounts that are upgraded with more than nine bases that have their upgrade expire and become free accounts keep all their bases, but cannot construct new ones until they upgrade again.

You build structures on your base to allow you to improve production, construction, economy and your ability to research. These structures each have their own advantages and costs, have a look at the structures page details.

Costs[]

The cost of bases starts cheap for your first few bases but rises dramatically as you get more. Building a new bases requires an Outpost Ship which costs 100 credits and is consumed upon building a base. The cost of building depends on the version of the game you are playing on. On version 1 servers, a base starts at 50 credits and doubles every base. (50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600..). On versions 2 and 3, base costs follow a pattern of double, double, double-and-a-half, giving a slightly more expensive pattern (50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000..).

The following graph shows building costs for version 1.

Disbanding a base gives you a 75% discount on reconstructing the base, as well as an additional discount for the base and the structures on it. For example, if your next base costs 2,000,000 credits, and you disband a base giving you 75,000 credits off, your replacement base will be 175,000 because 1,000,000 (instead of 2,000,000 for having one less base) divided by 4 is 250,000, minus 75,000 discount is 175,000. Disbanding bases early in the game when you have few bases may cause enough of a discount to make your replacement base free.

For more information about disbanding bases, check out the Disbanding section.

Construction[]

This number is used for figuring out how fast a structure can be built. Your construction can be improved by several different methods. The first of these would be new structures being constructed on your base. Different structures raise your construction, sometimes by a set value, other times by the value of metal on the Astro.

Construction commanders also affect your construction, lowering the cost of all structures by 1% per level. This then in turn lowers the time it takes to construct the structure. The formula for construction is (Structure Cost/Construction Cap)*60. Basically this means that whatever your construction is, your base can build that much in an hour.

For example, if a base had a construction capacity of 42 and you wanted to build a level 1 shipyard (5 credits), to figure out the building build time the server would do (5/42), which gives us 0.119 to 3 decimal points. We then multiply that number by 60 to convert it into time, which gives us 7.14 minutes.

Many structures you can construct add to your economy. As such they have aPayback Time. This should be considered when selecting your next construction project.

Production[]

This number is used for figuring out how fast a ship can be built. Your production can be improved by several different methods. The first of these would be new structures being constructed on your base. Different structures raise your production, sometimes by a set value, other times by the value of metal on the Astro. Production commanders also affect your production, lowering the time it takes to build the ship by 1% per level. Finally for every level of Cybernetics your production is increased by 5%.

The formula for production is (Unit Cost/Prod Cap)*60. Basically this means that whatever your production is, your base can build that much in an hour.

For example, if a base had a production capacity of 42 and you wanted to produce a cruiser (200 credits), to figure out the unit production time the server would do (200/42), which gives us 4.761 to 3 decimal points. We then multiply that number by 60 to convert it into time, which gives us 285 minutes, just shy of 5 hours.

An older player should have a production capacity roughly equal to their economy, so they can continuously produce fleet.

Research[]

This number is used for figuring out how fast a technology can be researched. Your research can be improved by several different methods. The first of these would be Research Labs being constructed on your base. These labs improve your research by 6 per level.

Research commanders also affect your research, lowering the time it takes to research the technology by 1% per level. This number is used for figuring out how fast a technology can be researched. The formula being (Tech Cost/Research Cap)*60.

For example, if a base had a research capacity of 42 and you wanted to research level 1 laser (4 credits), to figure out the research time the server would do (4/42), which gives us 0.0952 to 4 decimal points. We then multiply that number by 60 to convert it into time, which gives us 5.712 minutes.

Population[]

Population is effectively the people on your base. For any structure you require 1 population to run it. Population does not increase over time but is increased by the development of Urban Structures or Orbital Bases. These raise your bases population by the level of fertility or 10 respectively.

Although it doesn't raise population directly Biosphere Modification is used to raise a base's fertility stat. This is retroactive and thus rises your population by the number of urban structures you have as they all give 1 additional population.

Population is displayed on the Base Hud

Income[]

[To read the main article on income in AE go to Economy]
Your base is the main source of income for your empire. Structures and Trade Routes will allow you to make continued income without any effort beyond building them at first. Many structures increase your hourly income, some by a set amount (i.e., Economic Centers) while others increase it by an Astro value (i.e., Crystal Mines).

Trade routes allow you to trade with other players and gain further credits. You get a trade route for every 5 Spaceports you build and one for the first. The income is determined by the distance, the lower economy bases economy and the number of players you trade with.

Defending your base[]

[To read the main article on base defences go to Defences]
Your world can be defended in two ways. With ships, or defensive structures. Both of these should be used to defend your Astro, either of them on their own are weak. There are different types of planetary defences which are listed on the Defences page. Take a look at them.

For these defensive structures there are three types. Turrets (which includes rings), shields and Command centres. Turrets are simple, they blow up enemy ships. Shields assist defence over multiple rounds of attacks and Command Centres increase the fleet in orbit attack power by 5% per level. Each have their place in defending your base. For more information look at the defences page, command centres page on structures or some of the guides available at Guides on Wheels.

Base Commanders[]

[To read the main article on Commanders go to Base Commander]
Commanders can be added to your base to improve various aspects of base operations. Construction, Research, Production, Defense, Tactical and Logistics. Each commander type has its own advantages to offer, see what they are on the Base Commanders page.

Commanders can also be killed when your base is attacked or pillaged so be careful with them and remove them from the base if at all possible if it is going to be attacked or under occupation.

Free account limits[]

[To read the main article on Free accounts go to the Upgrade article]

There are of course two types of game accounts in AstroEmpires. A free account and the upgraded account which you have to pay an upgrade for. Upgraded accounts have unlimited numbers of bases, well unlimited as far as they can afford. Free accounts however have a maximum of 9 bases they can build. The cap is only on the ability to build new bases, you do not lose bases over 9 if your account goes from upgraded to free.

This is the main reason there is such a push in your first week as your accounts first 7 days are upgraded for free. The How to build 10 planets in 7 days! guide helps do exactly that and is a must for all new AE players.

Occupied bases[]

[To read the main article on Occupation go to Occupation]
When an enemy fleet attacks your base and overwhelms your defences / fleets your base is occupied. This has some serious negative implications for your base, but is completely reversible if you liberate your base. It is not possible to destroy bases and structures when attacked.

When your base is first attacked the attacker takes a pillage from both your base and your current credits. This will drop that bases economy by 1/3 for the time it is occupied. Once your base is liberated the economic damage isn't immediately removed either. Your economy will grow back at a rate of 1 credit every 12 hours.

Once your base is occupied your production, construction and research are all automically halved. This will make doing much of anything on your base very difficult and much more time consuming than it normally would. Unlike your economy when your base is liberated your production, construction and research will return to normal immediately.

For advice on how to fight off an occupation please visit the Occupation article.

Disbanding a base[]

If you choose to disband an existing base you will receive a certain amount of credits as a discount on the cost of your next base construction. This discount amount depends on the cost of your existing base, and the cost of structures that are currently on the base. Remember that bases cost little at first and become more expensive as you go along. So, if you disband your second base you will receive less of a discount than if you disband your tenth base. However, you do not get full value as a discount so disbanding base 10 and rebuilding it somewhere else will cost you credits. It is not clear exactly what percentage of value you receive, and exactly how the disbanding credits structures under construction. Remember that your income falls as soon as you disband, so you might want to wait until after the next hour.

The only 3 reasons you would want to disband a base, these are:

1) You have high defences (p-rings/p-sheilds) but your enemy takes it over anyway, by doing this you limit the number of credits your enemy gets from you while maximizing the losses for your opponent. this may give you an opportunity to strike against you opponent because he just lost a large chunk of fleet and they did not make very much money to make another one.

2) you put a lot of outdated things on you old base and now you have more efficient ways to get it..... say you used to build a lot of solar plants, and in the process you used up a lot of space. then along came antimatter plants, the much more effeicicent way to get energy. by the time these things started to make a difference you ran out of space on your astro. you could then disband your base and start over with the more efficient stuff that you now have.

NOTE: There is a blindly obvious work around which may help you out down the road if you choose to take it that far.

Say you have a base with 200/200 area, 200/200 pop and 210/210 power. Now this is the worst case for a base that has reached its limit and you have better options now. But the solultion is still blindly obvious. Just look at your current buildings and pick one you can do without for a little bit say you have level 15 robot factories that is 30 production or construntion whichever you chose to look at. Disband one level now you have level 14 robot (28 prod/con) 2 production is not going to kill you in fact in a case like this losing that 2 production will help has you can now build a antimatter plant, which in turn lets you disband more then a few solar plants, which in turn lets you build metal factories (max 3 production), or nanite (4 production) or andorid factoies (6 production) all of all better then a robot factory.

Now why did i say this may help you if you choose to take it that far. Disbanding structions give a discount on a new base so if you keep disbanding structions with high patince you can get even base 25 for free.

3) You made a low level mistake and built/started a base on a astro that had horrible stats, or you built in an area with overwhelming enemy presence. In either case you simply do not want to expend any additional resources on that astro.

WARNING: only do this if your econ can support you needs for this new stuff without this planets econ to provide!