Mass Driver Basics

More about Orbital Devices

General Planet Topics

Mass drivers provide a fuel-free method of transporting mineral cargo packets between planets, and, secondarily, can act as an effective long-range weapon. Mineral packets are bundles of Ironium, Germanium and Boranium. Mass drivers fling mineral packets at high rates of acceleration. This prevents you from flinging Fuel, which would explode, or colonists, who would, well, also explode.

In the Scanner pane, the mass driver appears as a purple dot orbiting the planet.

Building a Mass Driver

A mass driver occupies the Orbital slot in a starbase hull. You'll have to research Energy--the requirement for each type of driver is listed in the Orbital section of the Technology Browser.

Once you complete your research, upgrade your starbase hull design to hold the driver (or design a new starbase hull that includes the driver). To upgrade a hull and add the driver:

1.        Select Commands (Ship Design...) to open the Ship Designer.

2.        Under Design, click on Starbase.

3.        Select the design you wish to upgrade from the dropdown.

4.        Click on Copy Selected Design. The dialog changes, offering the design and a component list.

5.        Select a hull picture and type in a new name, or use the defaults shown in the dialog.

6.        Drag the driver from the component list to an Orbital slot in the design. Subtract and add any other components as you wish.

7.        Click on OK. Then click on Done to close the dialog.

8.        Open the planet's Production queue and add the new design.

Flinging Packets

⇒        Target a mass driver by clicking on the Set Dest button on the Starbase tile, then selecting a target in the scanner.

The path to the mass driver target is then displayed in the Scanner. You can also target the mass driver by SHIFT-clicking on the destination planet.

For the packet to arrive safely, the target must also have a driver of equal or greater capacity. If the planet has a lesser mass driver, or no driver at all, the packet destroys colonists and installations on the planet surface.

The gauge in the Starbase tile allows you to control the speed at which packets are flung. You can purposefully fling packets at a slower speed if your receiving planet isn't equipped with an accelerator that's high tech enough to catch the packet at full speed.

You may fling packets at speeds up to three Warp levels above the rated speed. Packets flung above the rated speed become unstable, decaying at 10% per year for one warp level above the rated speed, 20% for two warp levels, and 50% for three warp levels. For players with the Packet Physics primary trait, decay rates are half the stated levels. Packets decay in the year they are launched and in the year they arrive at a planet proportional to the distance they travel in those years.

During a packet's first year out, it travels only half the normal distance, then the normal distance in any following years of travel. Since production happens all year long, the packets could be launched at any point. Stars! simplifies this by averaging it out to a half-year's travel.

Building Packets

Mineral packets are built and flung as a function of the Production queue. The Production inventory will list a packet for each mineral and a mixed packet that contains all three minerals. When you click on a packet type in the inventory the numbers below the inventory show how many kT of each mineral the packet contains. Once a packet is built, the driver automatically flings them at the destination you've set. If you don't set a destination, the packet disintegrates.

The Scanner pane shows mass packets within your scanner ranges, regardless of who the packets belong to (unless you have the Packet Physics primary trait).

Packets as Scanners

For races with the Packet Physics primary trait the mineral packets have the added feature of behaving like a planet-penetrating scanner. The radius of the scan is equal to the square of the packet's warp speed.

Packets Perform Terraforming

For races with the Packet Physics primary trait, the mineral have a 50% chance per 100kT of minerals to terraform the planet's environment toward the race's ideal value. There is a lesser chance that it can permanently alter the planet's environment, allowing you to move it even further.

You Can't Attack Packets

You can't attack mineral packets. You can only intercept them and transfer their contents to your fleet, as described below.

Stealing Mass Packets

If you can intercept a mineral packet in flight you can steal from it. When a packet is at the same location as your selected fleet, it appears in the Other Fleets Here tile. Use the Cargo button and the Cargo Transfer dialog that appears to transfer minerals from the packet to your fleet.

Building Two Mass Drivers on a Starbase

You can build up to two identical mass drivers on the same starbase (assuming you haven't used an Orbital slot with a stargate already). This has two advantages: 1) you can catch incoming packets at one warp speed greater than the driver's nominal rating; and 2) overflung packets from dual drive starbases decay as if they were flung at one warp speed lower.

Packets as Weapons

Packets flung at planets with a lesser mass driver or no mass driver damage the planet and kill inhabitants. A warp 13 mineral packet is about as close as Stars! comes to a doomsday weapon.

Learn about:

Flinging MIneral Packets

Mineral Packet Bombardment

The Guts of Mass Drivers