============================ ASCENDANCY! ============================ SHIP BUILDING FAQ/ITEM LIST V 1.0 Completed 2/10/05 Written and maintained by James Friel Copyright @2005 James Friel (eolsunder2@aol.com) This FAQ is solely intended for use on Gamefaq.com forum site, and may not be reproduced or duplicated without permission of myself. If you want to use or duplicate the FAQ, feel free on other sites, I really am not a greedy person, just make sure to credit the FAQ and myself when doing it. ASCENDANCY is a PC game published by Logic Factory 1995 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- TABLE OF CONTENTS =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I. Revision History II. Introduction III. Ship module inventory IV. Last Words ========================================= I. REVISION HISTORY ========================================= 2/10/05 v1.0 - FAQ started - Added Introduction - Added Ship module inventory - Added Last Words section [NOTE: My revision history starts at version 1.0 and each change will be noted as a .1 addition, so the 3rd revision, if it ever gets to that, will be the version 1.3] ====================================== II. INTRODUCTION ====================================== The Ascendancy Ship building FAQ is to help you figure out just what some of the weapons and items in the game do, and to give you some hints on how to layout your ships, what ships to build, how to deploy them, and bla bla bla. Now some info up front. There are 4 sizes of ships you can build, each size technology has to be researched in order to use it. Your first goal in the game is to start building ships to explore other planets and star systems. You will not win the game just sitting on one planet. The faster you can get out and start exploring and colonizing, the better off you will be. Each colonized system you control grants you the ability to have 1 ship, and your home system lets you have 2. You must have all the planets in a system colonized to have a ship slot. Thus if your home system has 3 planets, and you you have all 3 colonized, you have the ability to build up to 2 ships (providing you have Docks which you can build with). If you have 3 systems entirely colonized, you can build up to 4 ships (2+1+1). The first area you will learn will let you build small and medium hull ships. These will get you through the opening years of the game, but you will need to have larger ships in order to survive. Unlike other space games, since you are limited to the number of ships you can have, you cannot build up fleets of tiny ships to overwhelm your opponents. If you have 10 ship slots, its better to have 10 large ships than 10 small ships. Your goal of course is to research Giant sized ship hulls and have your fleet of a dozen or 2 Giant ships running about the galaxy. Once you start building ships, you will have to decide just what types of ships you want, and what items you want on them. Like before, you are limited to your total number of ships and often have to decide between what to build if you find yourself reaching your max. There is a large variety of weapons, shields, engines, generators, and especially misc items to put on your ships. Hopefully the following list will help you decide just what will work for you. SHIPS: SMALL SHIP: Has 5 item bays, one of your earlier ships, good for basic colonization and early exploring. Limited slots mean low power. MEDIUM SHIP: Has 10 item bays, this will be your early game workhorse, with faster exploring and colonizing. Basic protection abilities. LARGE SHIP: Has 15 item bays and will become your workhorse. Early on it will probably be used for battleships as your lesser ships will be falling behind in the power curve. GIGANTIC SHIP: Yea baby! This is the ultimate powerhouse with 25 item bays, thus a big jump up from the Large ship. Once you go gigantic, you never go back. Plenty of bays for anything you want. ========================================= II. SHIP MODULE INVENTORY ========================================= Here is is, the lists for what you can stick in your ship and what you can't. I will give a general list about each item and description, then you might see my personal suggestions and maybe some techniques on using them. Easier that way than putting said techniques after. Each device will be listed with POWER: How much each device requires to work, in terms of generators it lists how much each outputs. RANGE: The range that weapons or scanners will reach USES: The number of times each turn it can be used. 0 means unlimited. STRENGTH: For weapons its the damage power, Shields is defense power, Drives is distance, Scanners is range extension per turn SPECIAL: Any special powers or requirements the device needs ******************************* *@* ENGINES *@* ******************************* TONKIN MOTOR. POWER 1 ------------- STRENGTH 2 "The Tonklin Motor is a weak engine based on an elegant quirk of momentum theory. It is very inexpensive to construct." ION BANGER. POWER 1 ----------- STRENGTH 4 "The Ion Banger sucks in ions from surrounding space and smashes them into each other at high speeds, creating a propulsive force. It is significantly more powerful than the Tonklin Motor." GRAVITON PROJECTOR. POWER 3 ------------------- STRENGTH 6 "The Graviton Projector sprays a gravity field in front of a ship, pulling it perpetually forward. The Graviton Projector is more powerful than the Ion Banger." INERTIA NEGATOR. POWER 1 ---------------- STRENGTH 6 "The Inertia Negator generates an anti-mass field that allows a ship to float lightly through space. It is about as strong as the Graviton Projector, but it consumes much less power." NANOWAVE SPACE BENDER. POWER 5 ---------------------- STRENGTH 10 "The Nanowave Space Bender projects a wide-band field of nanoenergy that warps the space around a ship, allowing it to slide rapidly in any direction and it is a very powerful engine." [NOTES: basically with the engines, bigger is better. Pick the best one. You only need to maybe use the Inertia Negator over the Nanowave if you have specific low power ships, like if you are behind in the power generator department. I've always used the Nanowave benders of course] ******************************** *@* SCANNERS *@* ******************************** TONKLIN FREQUENCE ANALYZER. RANGE 25 --------------------------- STRENGTH 3 "The Tonklin Frequency Analyzer scans energy leakages from a ship to determine information about its status. Its range is relatively short. It is always active and consumes no power." SUBSPACE PHASE ARRAY. RANGE 50 --------------------- STRENGTH 3 "The Subspace Phase Array detects subtle variations in the space flow around a ship. It is able to detect a ship's status information at short to medium range. It is always active and consumes no power." AURAL CLOUD CONSTRUCTOR. RANGE 75 ------------------------ STRENGTH 3 "The Aural Cloud Constructor is a medium range scanner that projects an aural cloud through surrounding space, observing vibrations in the cloud to detect the status of other ships. it is always active and consumes no power." HYPERWAVE TYMPANUM. RANGE 100 ------------------- STRENGTH 3 "The Hyperwave Tympanum is a long range scanner that is able to detect the minutest variations in the hyperwave ether and analyze them to obtain status information about other ships. It is always active and consumes no power." MURGATROYD'S KNOWER. RANGE 200 -------------------- STRENGTH 3 "Mugatroyd's Knower is a very long range scanner that uses a combination of advanced technologies to determine the status of other ships. It is always active and consumes no power." NANOWAVE DECOUPLING NET. RANGE 1000 ------------------------ STRENGTH 3 "The Nanowave Decoupling Net harvests coupled nanowaves from surrounding space and analyzes them to learn the status of other ships. Its range practically is unlimited. It is always active and consumes no power." [NOTES: Uses the best scanner, you really only need 1 on a ship. The scanners do not show what items are on a enemy ship, only the levels of the ships weapons, shields, etc. Thus if you encounter a ship with one red weapon level, you probably won't fear its attack much. A ship with 3 red levels you will worry about more. I don't worry about scanners on small, medium or large ships unless they are SCOUT ships. I don't care what the enemy ship levels are, my attack craft are going to shoot them down anyway, better to use that slot for extra shields, etc. On my gigantic ships i always have one since they have plenty of space.] ******************************** *@* GENERATORS *@* ******************************** PROTON SHAVER. POWER 2 -------------- STRENGTH 1 "The Proton Shaver is a power generator that operates by extracting small quantities of protons from heavy atomic nuclei and converting them to energy. It is inexpensive but produces little power." SUBATOMIC SCOOP. POWER 4 ---------------- STRENGTH 1 "The Subatomic Scoop sucks subatomic particles from surrounding space and converts them to energy. It is a stronger generator than the Proton Shaver." QUARK EXPRESS. POWER 6 -------------- STRENGTH 3 "The Quark Express uses a little-understood technology to squeeze energy from various sub-subatomic particles. It is a powerful generator. " VAN CREEG HYPERSPLICER. POWER 8 ----------------------- STRENGTH 4 "The Van Creeg Hypersplicer merges mixed-frequency hyperwaves and collects the energy bleed-off. It is a very powerful generator. " NANOTWIRLER. POWER 10 ------------ STRENGTH 5 "The Nanotwirler puts a stream of Nanogenergons into sympathetic resonant motion, and channels off the energy they release from each other. It generates even more power than the Van Creeg Hypersplicer." [NOTES: Power is good! Power Power Power! Power gives you weapons, engines, shields, items, what ever. Get the best generators and many of them. Power lets your shields stay up longer, lets you move more, lets you fire weapons more (when you get other items). If you have extra slots on your ship and are trying to figure out what to get, extra power generators are always my first choice.] ***************************************** *@* SHIELDS *@* ***************************************** ION WRAP. POWER 1 --------- STRENGTH 1 "The Ion Wrap is a low-grade particle defense shield. Like most shields, it only consumes power when it is active." CONCUSSION SHIELD. POWER 2 ------------------ STRENGTH 4 "The Concussion Shield surrounds a ship with a flexible energy barrier that absorbs kinetic impulses and spreads them over its entire surface. Like most shields, it only consumes power when it is active." WAVE SCATTER. POWER 0 ------------- STRENGTH 2 "The Wave scatterer is an energy dispersion mechanism that passively diffracts and scatters energy waves as they make contact with a ship's hull. The Wave Scatterer is a weak defense, but unlike most shields it consumes no power." DEACTOTRON. POWER 3 ----------- STRENGTH 10 "The Deactotron is a high-tech active defense module. When it detects the approach of particle or energy projectiles, it reacts by ejecting an appropriate countermeasure. Like most shields, it only consumes power when it is active. " HYPERWAVE NULLIFIER. POWER 6 -------------------- STRENGTH 13 "The Hyperwave Nullifier surrounds a ship with a space-distorting hyperwave field. The field causes incoming projectiles to slide around the hull of their target and miss it completely. Like most shields, the Hyperwave Nullifier only consumes power when it is active." NANOSHELL. POWER 3 ---------- STRENGTH 15 "The Nanoshell simply creates a dense barrier of Nanoenergons around a ship. Few weapons are able to penetrate it. Like most shields, it only consumes power when it is active." [NOTES: Shields are great, but are not needed on some ships. You might decide that SCOUT ships or colony ships are in no need of shields, I usually do not put them on mine. Only my attack ships have shields. If I do my job right, my colony and scout ships won't ever be in danger. Like my previous statements, POWER is great! I don't worry about no power low defense shields, I want them big, and protective. How much shielding depends on what type of ships you use. Some might use long range weapons so they try and destroy ships without taking much damage. Its better to pick up a extra power generator to pick up some much better shielding. *********************************** *@* WEAPONS *@* *********************************** MASS BARRAGE GUN. POWER 1 ----------------- RANGE 25 STRENGTH 1 USES 1 "The Mass Barrage Gun launches spray of projectiles from its electromagnetic accelerators. It is cheap to build and uses little power-the projectiles are low-tech spheres of solid metal that rely on kinetic energy to do damage. It is easy to deflect, slow to reload, and has a short range." FOURIER MISSILES. POWER 1 ----------------- RANGE 40 STRENGTH 2 USES 1 "Fourier Missiles use image recognition to identify vulnerable areas of a ship. They require little power to fire, but they reload slowly and don't do much damage." QUANTUM SINGULARITY LAUNCHER. POWER 2 ----------------------------- RANGE 25 STRENGTH 4 USES 1 "The Quantum Singularity Launcher generates and fires tiny black holes, infinitely small but incredibly massive objects that easily punch through an Ion Wrap field. The disadvantages of this weapon are its short range and long recharge time." MOLECULAR DISASSOCIATOR. POWER 2 ------------------------ RANGE 50 STRENGTH 4 USES 1 "The Molecular Disassociator generates a cloud that weakens the molecular bond in matter. This tends to corrode the target rapidly. Its main drawback is that it takes a long time to form a fully charged cloud." ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSER. POWER 1 ----------------------- RANGE 50 STRENGTH 1 USES 5 "The Electromagnet Pulser produces electromagnet pulses that disrupt delicate technological equipment. It does little structural damage but it strobes very quickly, producing many pulses in a short time that can overload and destroy the target ship." PLASMATRON. POWER 2 ----------- RANGE 100 STRENGTH 4 USES 1 "The Plasmatron fires extremely long range bolts of super-heated plasma. It takes a long time to recharge. UEBERLASER. POWER 3 ----------- RANGE 50 STRENGTH 6 USES 2 "The Ueberlaser is a high-power pulse laser that cuts instantly through an unshielded ship hull. It uses a lot of power but does heavy damage." FERGNAZ LENS. POWER 0 ------------- RANGE 35 STRENGTH 4 USES 2 "The Fergnatz Lens passively collects and focuses cosmic energies at its target. It requires no power to operate." HYPERSPHERE DRIVER. POWER 6 ------------------- RANGE 75 STRENGTH 10 USES 2 "The Hypersphere Driver creates unstable bubbles in spacetime that extend into higher dimensions. When these bubbles intersect normal matter they collapse, pinching off the matter inside another dimension. They have a very long range and inflict massive damage. This weapon is extremely expensive to produce and gobbles power." NANOMANIPULATOR. POWER 6 ---------------- RANGE 50 STRENGTH 13 USES 3 "The Nanomanipulator fires bursts of highly focused nanoenergon flux. The flux induces a chaotic nanowave upon impact that rips through the target, destructively jumbling alternate realities together. It is hugely destructive that fires in quick bursts, and uses a lot of power. [NOTES: Ah...weapons, how fun are they. There are alot of combinations here, its up to the player how they want to work. Do they want ships that are fast and fire long distances, or do they want ships that can go up close and personal and blast away at close range. Keep in mind the power requirements for weapons, you don't want a lot of weapons that will drain your power down extremely fast, don't forget you need your shields and some maneuvrability. Keep in mind the ranges of weapons also. Any weapon with a range of 50 or more has the slight edge of being able to fire upon enemy planets without being able to be attacked by basic planetary missiles. Only when a planet introduces Energy defenses do you have to fear. I think enemy missile defenses have a range of 40 or 45, thus you can barely squeak out of range and hit them. Plasmatrons have extremely long range. Great to get off a first shot, and extremely great for taking down planetary defenses without harm. But don't rely on them in hard battle. There are weapons that can fire faster, plus do more damage even though they don't have the range. ************************************* *@* MISC . WEAPONS *@* ************************************* This I put into a special category. These items are under your miscellaneous category, but are used as weapons, thus I have this half/half category. SMART BOMB. POWER 7 ----------- RANGE SPECIAL STRENGTH 7 "The Smart Bomb uses advanced empathic biosensor technology to determine the relationships between the ship using it and the other ships present in the star system. Once activated, it fires in multiple directions at every ship it has determined to be hostile, doing heavy damage comparable to that of an Ueberlaser. One use expends it." [NOTES: The smart bomb is great for cleaning out enemy battlefleets, but its a one use item, and normally you won't find a large number of enemy ships grouped together, at least not if your doing your job.] MYRMIDONIC CARBONIZER. POWER 4 ---------------------- RANGE 40 STRENGTH 20 USES 1 "The Myrmidonic Carbonizer fires a burst of energy that grows in strength for a while then dissipates. There is a ideal range for the Carbonizer, at which it is the most powerful weapon known. It is a complex and expensive piece of machinery." [NOTES: Very powerful but close range, damage varies. I perfer regular weapons, but if you have a chance to get this early, try it out!] DISINTEGRATOR. POWER 25 -------------- RANGE 25 "The Disintegrator ejects a cloud of infinitesimal bubbles of alternate reality that cause a chain reaction in the target ship, spreading it atom by atom across infinite alternate timelines. The cloud has no substance and cannot be blocked by normal defenses. The Disintegrator can be used only once, is extremely expensive to build, and uses an immense amount of power. It must be used at close range." [NOTES: A very very powerful item, but requires alot of power so you can usually only use it on big ships. You must be very close. The problem I ran into using it was that it was hard to chase down enemy ships when I eventually received it. Plus you had to get close, which means that enemy ships have a chance to open up on you before you get close. Hopefully you have more energy than the enemy ships so you can outlast them in movement, then close in for the kill.] ************************************** *@* MISC ITEMS *@* ************************************** LANE BLOCKER. POWER 3, RANGE 40, USES 1 ------------- "The Lane Blocker is fired into a star lane opening where it sits, elevating the inherent gravitational turbulence of the opening to the point where Star Land Drives and Star Lane Hyperdrives can no longer overcome it." [NOTES: Never used it. It does what it says, stops movement in a star lane. Bad side is it stops you also. I consider it alot easier to just blow up any bad guys comming through, but you might use this item if you are being overwelmed in a area and need a breather. Rating 1/5. Not used much. MOLECULAR TIE DOWN. POWER 7, Range 25, Uses 1 -------------------- "When fired at a ship, the Molecular Tie Down temporarily immobilizes it by damping the reactions powering its engines. This affects all known normal engines--even the powerful Nanowave Space Bender." [NOTES: This device immobilizes a ship, keeping it from running around. This is really only good if the ship in question has short range weapons so you can keep it from moving while you blast it. Good for using a Disintegrater on also. Also can be used for keeping ships from escaping. Not really used alot, Computer AI is dumb so they don't really run alot, plus your engines are usually up to par to keep up. Rating 1/5. Not used much.] INTELLECT SCRAMBLER. POWER 7, RANGE 25, Uses 1 -------------------- "When fired at a ship, the Intellect Scrambler partially wipes the minds of that ship's crew, eradicating their skills and memory of the recent past. It can turn an experienced crew into a group of bumbling rookies." [NOTES: Not a bad device, it screws up the ship a little, which is always great, especially when a gigantic battleship heads towards you. Personally I find my basic tactics are superior to the computer AI anyway, so I never used this device much. I just blow up the enemy instead. Rating, 2/5. Ok, but better tactics.] BRUNSWIK DISSIPATOR. POWER 15, RANGE 25, Uses 1 -------------------- "When the Brunswik Dissipator is fired at a ship, it temporarily drains the target ship's generators, leaving it powerless. It is costly to construct and power hungry." [NOTES: A nice device, draining enemy ships keeps them from making the max use of their shields, weapons, and movement. Trouble is, it is a very short range device, so the enemy can maybe run or shoot you some before you get close. I'd use it on good movement ships with the power to handle the device. Rating 3/5. It would be alot better if the range made it worth using during the whole battle, but its a nice device to use on gate guarding ships.] RECALLER. POWER 7 --------- "The Recaller creates an unstable shunt through star lane space to a ship's home system. The ship using the Recaller moves instantly into the shunt and arrives immediately at its home system." [NOTES: Yea, a instant recaller. Nice huh? Well, at first this device does seem to be very useful, until you actually play the game and find out otherwise. First, as you play the game, you realize that getting a ship back from somewhere isn't the hard part, actually getting a ship from your base to someplace is the long, hard part. For colony ships and Invader ships, you can simply use up your colonies/invaders and distroy the ship, thus freeing up a dock to create another one. Later on you can get some Refit docks made far away so your ships can simply reload instead of remaking them. You will also find out that by the long time a ship leaves your base and actually reaches the front lines (like with war ships), its best just to have them die in battle because their systems and weapons are usually outdated. This device does do alot of good once you have gigantic ships with good weapons/items. You can be out in battle and if you are close to dying, you can pop back home for outfitting. But before then its alot simpler to just remake a new current ship or outfit your ship out near the front lines. Rating..2/5. Kinda useless early on, only good late in the game. DISARMER. POWER 5, RANGE 40, USES 1 --------- "The Disarmer was first designed as a weapon of peace--it selectively destroys weapons without causing other damage. It uses visual pattern recognition and analysis of energy output to identify a weapon on the target ship, then it causes that weapon to overload and destroy itself." [NOTES: Here is your first awesome add-on. This device distroys a weapon on a enemy ship each turn which is very useful. Of course its not useful on a ship without weapons, but then again, you can just blow those up without problems. This can be a extremely powerful addition in battle. Imagine a battleship fighting you with 3 Uberlasers. You can instantly reduce its offensive power by 33% the first turn, and 50% the 2nd turn. A ship with no weapons is just a big target. I always have 1 or 2 of these on my big war ships. On a side note, watch out for enemy ships using them. The computer AI usually isn't good enough to have enemy ships using them (I've never seen one) but if you start seeing it, make sure to carry multiple weapons. Rating, 4/5. A great addon. GRAVITY DISTORTER. POWER 4, USES 1 ------------------ "The Gravity Distorter creates a gravitational wave front that emanates from the ship using the device. This pushes small objects, such as space ships, away from the ship that used the Distorter." [NOTES: A nice device which keeps enemy ships away, but really only useful if you have long range weapons and want to keep ships in your range, and out of theirs. Not really useful. You cannot shoot and use this device at the same time, so a enemy ship moves towards you, you push them back, they move again. This tactic is only good if you have multiple Gravity Distorters to make the enemy ship use up power to keep trying to get close to you. Much better to use other add-ons instead. Enemy ships with long range weapons will make this device useless, plus your taking up alot of room with multiple Gravity Distorters. Better to just have better power and shield items. Rating, 1/5. ] FLEET DISPERSER. POWER 5, RANGE 100 ---------------- "The Fleet Disperser is fired at another ship. Its effect is similiar to that of the Gravity Distorter in that it creates a gravitational ripple that repels other ships away from its target. It has a extremely long range." [NOTES: A device similiar to the Gravity Distorter, it has a little bit more usefullness than the Distorter, but not by much. Instead of repelling ships from you, you repel them from another vehicle. You can use this device in a tag team effect. This method works sometimes, but is much more trouble than its worth. Rating 2/5. Works, but other methods of fighting are alot easier. ] X-RAY MEGAGLASSES. POWER 7, RANGE 50 ------------------ "Passive, always in effect, takes no power. The X-ray Megaglasses allow you to view the contents of any ship you can scan. They require no power to maintain but are fairly expensive to build. Used in conjunction with powerful scanners, they can be very informative." [NOTES: A nice device for scout ships, but I would never use it on a war ship or colony ship. If you have a scanner on your ship you can view the general power of the ships devices. If you have a scanner AND the X-ray Megaglasses, you can see the actual devices. My method is usually to blow up the enemy no matter what they have, so scanners and such don't matter much for me, I'm going to hit them with everything anyway. If you find yourself falling behind in the war ship department, or a specific race seems to be making life hard for you, make up a scout ship to see what they are carrying. Then adjust your ships to compensate. Like I said, I think I used them once, but after a while you can generally tell what enemy ships are using/packing by their methods. Rating, 2/5. Good on a scout ship, but not really needed alot. CLOAKER. -------- "The Vibrating crystals of the Cloaker produce a broad spectrum of noise and interference that blocks all sensors from gathering information about the cloaked ship. The device requires no power and is always in effect once it is added to a ship." [NOTES: A worthless add-on. The computer doesn't have the brains to adjust their tactics based on your ship layout, so who cares if they see what your ships are carrying. Hell, are they even programmed to actually use sensors? Well, kinda, but nothing you will notice much, or care about. Just buy a big gun and shoot them. Rating, 0/5. STAR LANE DRIVE. POWER 0, STRENGTH 1 ---------------- "The Star Lane Drive is the key to interstellar exploration. This device is activated by the energies emanating from the opening to a star lane, and requires no power to operate. It allows the ship to overcome the barrier of gravational turbulence at the opening and slip into star lane space. The more Star Lane Drives a ship contains, the faster it will slide into star lane space." [NOTES: Rating 5/5. A must have device if you want to play. nuff said.] STAR LANE HYPERDRIVE. POWER 0, STRENGTH 2 --------------------- "The Star Lane Hyperdrive is a more powerful version of the Star Lane Drive that improves speed through star lane space. Although regular Star Lane Drives allow slow travel through red links, the Hyperdrive makes the use of red links practical. Star Lane Hyperdrives are much more costly to produce than Star Lane Drives." [NOTES: rating 5/5. A must have device to play the game in later stages] POSITRON BOUNCER. POWER 2, RANGE 60, USES 1 ----------------- "The accelerators inside the Positron Bouncer produce a high-momentum blob of particles. When fired at a ship, the particles impart their momentum to the ship, buffeting it away without damaging it. The Positron Bouncer consumes little power and is cheap to build." [NOTES: Another "movement" device that has real little practical use. The Bouncer moves enemy ships away from you, kinda useful if you have weak shields and long range weapons, but since you cannot fire and use this device at the same time, all you do is push the enemy away, and they come back at you. Good if you have multiple devices to make the enemy use up their power, but overall, about as worthless as other movement devices. Rating, 1/5. GRAVIMETRIC CATAPULT. POWER 3, USES 1 --------------------- "The Gravimetric Catapult causes the ship using it to experience temporarily exaggerated gravitational force. The ship is pulled toward the strongest gravity well in the vicinity--the nearest sun. The ship whips past the sun, stopping opposite its previous position when it has run out of momentum." [NOTE: This little device actually has some value for fun, but you can get around very easy without it. If you are on one side of the screen and want to get to the other side, this device will easily send you quickly to the other side. This device is nice for slow ships who want to attack something on the other side, or scout ships wanting to quickly bypass the planets to get to a gate on the other side of the system without being shot. Again, easy to work around with decent engines. Rating, 1/5. I've had enemy ships use this some, to really no effect what so ever as I blew them up.] CONTAINMENT DEVICE. POWER 5, RANGE 40, USES 1 ------------------- "The Containment Device destroys one colonizer or invasion module, just as the Disarmer destroys one weapon. It is intended to be a peaceful weapon- like the Disarmer. It only causes harm to machinery--used to protect planets from invasion." [NOTES: Pretty much a worthless device, unlike the extreme usefulness of the Disarmer. Why eliminate a single colony unit when you can just blast the annoying ship out of the skies. Rating 0/5. Get a big gun instead.] SHIELD BLASTER. POWER 7, RANGE 25, USES 1 --------------- "The Shield Blaster temporarily shuts down the defensive systems of the target ship, leaving it vulnerable to attack." [NOTES: A good add-on, especially for war ships of course. Lead off with a Disarmer or 2, followed by the Shield Blaster, and fire away. Only problem, you need to be up close and personal to use it. Rating 4/5. A must have to take down enemy war ships easy if you like the offensive route.] BACKFIRER. POWER 10, RANGE 25, USES 1 ----------- "The Backfirer causes all the weapons aboard the target ship to simultaneously unleash their destructive potential-unaimed, uncontrolled, and chaotically. The more weapons the target ship carries, the more it is damaged by its own weapons." [NOTES: Another nice war add-on, especially when you go against later game large and gigantic war ships. Another device you have to be up front and close to use, but well worth it. Rating, 3/5. It of course doesn't do jack vs big weak armed ships. Regular weapons can harm all ships.] LANE DESTABILIZER. POWER 7, RANGE 25, USES 1 ------------------ "When fired at a star lane or red link opening, the Lane Destabilizer induces gravity waves at the resonant frequency of the star lane. This causes the ships inside the star lane to be thrown quickly toward their destination point. The Lane Destabilizer itself is destroyed in the process." [NOTES: The hidden underdog of the game, you might overlook this must have item in your bid to cause interplanetary mahem. When used on a starlane it causes any vehicles in it to instantly appear 1 day from the other side, "pushing" them through at high speeds. Later in the game when you have to traverse great great distances which seem to take forever to get too, ships with Lane Destabilizers helping you to get there are a incredible boost that saves dozens, if not hundreds of travel "years". They are pretty cheap to refit also. Rating, 5/5. A must have item later in the game.] TRACTOR BEAM. POWER 3, RANGE 100, USES 1 ------------- "The Tractor Beam allows a ship to pull another ship toward it. It has a very long range and uses little power." [NOTE: Well, not much else to say about this add-on, cept it works. It pulls a ship towards you. Trouble is, with decent engines, you can simply fly to enemy ships in a round or 2. Really the only use for this device is if you have a big fleet in wait for enemies. You can sit across from the enemy stargate, and bring enemy ships across to you to blow up one at a time. Bad part is, the rotten enemy computer AI usually attacks only 1 ship at a time, so that tactic usually never is used. Rating. 1/5. Not many uses to use this item.] CANNIBALIZER. POWER 0, USES 1 -------------- "The Cannibalizer is a emergency device that allows a ship to convert some of the mass of its own hull into an energy reserve. This is destructive to the ship, so it is usually used only in a last ditch effort to survive." [NOTES: Huh? The object of not dying is to not take down your hull points. Why would you want to damage yourself? Simply ignore this device and put in another power generator. DUH. Rating 0/5. Worthless.] MOVING PART EXPLOITER. POWER 10, RANGE 25, USES 1 ---------------------- "Through a combination of ultrasonic vibration, spacetime micro-distortion and luck destabilization magitechnology, the Moving Part Exploiter causes devices to break down explosively. The more intricate and advanced the equiptment on the target ship, the more internal damage it suffers from equiptment malfunction. This device is costly to build and consumes a lot of power." [NOTE: Another close range destruction device very useful against higher end bigger ships. It really doesn't do much vs smaller craft, but use it on a large or gigantic ship with lots of gadgets, and whammo. Similiar to the Backfirer. Bad side is you have to be in close range. Rating 3/5. Useful, but I think regular weapons work just as well.] HYPERSWAPPER. POWER 3, RANGE 100, USES 1 ------------- "The Hyperswapper creates a standing hyperwave field between a ship and its target, producing a massive space disturbance that causes them to swap position. It operates at an extremely long range, uses little power, and is cheap to produce." [NOTES: A movement device that kinda is similiar to other movement devices, kinda worthless. The only reason I can think of to use this device is to have it on a big scout ship or Invader, so you can bypass any planetary War Ships. Rating, 1/5. I don't see much use for it myself.] GRAVIMETRIC CONDENSOR. POWER 5, USES 1 ---------------------- "The Gravimetric Condensor momentarily increases the gravitational field of a star, causing all the ships in the system to be pulled toward the star with great force." [NOTES: Another movement device that doesn't have much value to it. You can use it if you have a warship with close range weapons, since gathering up everyone around you helps with shooting. But since you cannot move and fire at the same time, you just give the enemy the first shot. Can also be good if you have a very strong Planetary defense with energy weapons, you can have a ship draw enemy ships toward the planet to be blasted. Of course, computer AI is dumb anyway so they usually just fly into your range with or without your help. Rating, 1/5. Like many movement add-ons, not alot of use, and simple good engines do the same thing.] ACCUTRON. POWER 7, USES 1 --------- "The Accutron is a massive space analysis and targeting system that increases the effective range of all the weapons on a ship. It is fairly costly to build, but can provide a strong advantage in battle." [NOTES: Yep, a device that makes your cool weapons fire at greater distances. Hey, what can be better! Rating 5/5. If you have a big warship, you want one of these on it.] REMOTE REPAIR FACILITY. POWER 10 ----------------------- "The Remote Repair Facility allows a ship to repair damage without having to enter Orbital Docks. It consists of automated systems spreading throughout the ship, engineered so finely that the repair process resembles organic healing. It uses alot of power when activated, and adding it to a ship is an expensive project." [NOTE: A good add-on module, especially for a warship far away from any dock. Considering how long it takes sometimes to get back to your repair areas, this will allow you to stay out a tad longer. I might consider this on a gigantic warship far on the outskirts of my domain, but usually at that point my colonies are doing pretty well and a repair facility isn't far away. If you don't have anything else to fill a slot, this can never hurt. Rating, 3/5. Good add-on, but with good picking of power and shielding and half way decent combat tactics, you should easily be 2 or 3 times as good as any enemy ships.] SACRIFICAL ORB. POWER 3, RANGE 50 --------------- "The Sacrifical Orb is a magitechnological device that allows a ship to repair damage to another ship by absorbing that damage itself. It should be used with caution--some inattentive captains have managed to scuttle their own flagships with it." [NOTES: A decent add on, but with very very limited use. The object is to not take any hull damage, why have one ship lose points while the other gains them. You still have the points loss. You never want this on a warship, but it will do good if you have it on a support craft. Maybe a huge colonizer or invader, something that is in the same system area as your war ships, yet really have no use after you use up their colonies. Have it on a giant Invader ship, use up your colonies and Invasion modules, and before you self terminate or recall, repair a near by war ship that might have hull damage. Rating 1/5. I don't mind losing war ships as long as I can take a good ratio of enemies with me, I'd rather have a extra Invader module or colony module. Nothing worse than trying to Invade a planet and find out that your 4 modules didn't do it, but If you had 5 you would have won.] LANE MAGNETRON. POWER 10, RANGE 25 --------------- "The Lane Magnetron frees the ship using it from the gravitational turbulence-induced drag normally encountered in star lane space, allowing the ship to slip through the star lane almost instantly. The lane Magnetron uses fully as much power as a Nanowirler produces and can is used once." [NOTES: This is a nice device problem is it takes up a spot on your ship which can be used for more important devices. You can use it in an emergency when you need to reach a place super fast to save maybe a planet area or warships. Sorta a Kamakazee ship. Personally having a Gateship using Lane Destabilizers is alot better than taking up space on all your other ships. Rating, 1/5. A great device but its one time use, especially far out in the outskirts, leaves you vulnerable.] LANE ENDOSCOPE. POWER 10, RANGE 25 ---------------- "The Lane Endoscope allows astronomical instruments to penetrate star lane space and scan the system at the other end of a star lane or red link opening. It requires a lot of power to use." [NOTES: Not a bad device, but personally I just send a ship or scout ship to other systems to explore. I want colonies and Invaders to be setting up, just sitting back looking doesn't do it for me. Rating, 1/5. Seeing a star system you are heading too is ok, but I just find out when I get there, plus it doesn't cost me a slot on my ship.] TORROIDAL BLASTER. Uses 1 ------------------ "The Toroidal Blaster gives the ship using it a huge boost in engine performance, but it is hard on the engines and usually damages some of them. It draws all the power it needs from the engines and needs no generator power." [NOTES: Another add-on, with the same response.. Why put add-ons that will damage your ship, while other modules will not. Like other like modules, there isn't much use I can see in this device. It might work on a Kamakazee ship that you are trying to rush to a certain area, but I've never had to do that. If I have a system on the outskirts that is in trouble, I will eventually take it back. The computer AI isn't tough enough for me to have to rush so fast to an area. Rating 1/5. Yea it works, but it damages your ship. Duh.] GIZMOGRIFIER. POWER 4, RANGE 40, USES 1 ------------- "Like the Disarmer, the SPeciality Blaster, and the Containment Device, the Gizmogrifier is specialized to damage equiptment without inflicting any other harm. It performs a general purpose version of this concept, and it will destroy the first major device it locks onto." [NOTES: Like the Containment Device, pretty worthless. Why worry about disabling one ship device when you can pick a big gun and blow up the entire ship? Rating 0/5. Who cares if you disable one of their engines, or their scanner. They are still there, and still shooting you.] REPLENISHER. POWER 8, USES 1 ------------ "The Replenisher fully recharges all of the weapons aboard a ship. Its installation is involved and expensive, but it can be a lifesaver in an intense battle." [NOTES: Livesaver? How about being about 2x as powerful on offense than not having the device. Got a ship with alot of power, this device will practically double your firing ability. A MUST HAVE on any big warship. Rating 5/5. Why be able to fire 6 times when this one device will let you shoot 12 times. No brainer.] SPECIALTY BLASTER. POWER 5, RANGE 40, USES 1 ------------------ "The Specialty Blaster destroys one specialized device, just as the Disarmer destroys one weapon. Like the Disarmer, it recognizes a particular type of device and disables it with precision and a minimum of destructive force." [NOTES: Again with the kinda worthless destroyers, trying to compare themselves to the Disarmer. Hulk says Disarmer good, all others bad. This device does have a limited use if you are against a high tech enemy that is using Misc items to attack you, like the powerful Disintegrators or something similiar, but rarely is the computer that smart. Rating, 1/5. Pick up a Disarmer, its much
            better to knock out a enemy warship weapon than maybe knocking
            out a misc item. ]


GYRO-INDUCTOR.                     
--------------
   "The Gyro-Inductor allows a ship to generate power when it travels up the
    gravitational gradient of a planet. When the ship leaves orbit, the
    Gyro-inductor creates power. It uses no power and takes effect automatic."

   [NOTES: I never have tried out this device, I don't see much need for it. 
           If you have a ship with good layout and good power generators, what
           exactly will this do for you? The only function I can think of for
           this add-on is that maybe during a battle in a star system, if you
           are low on power and close to a planet, you can enter orbit and
           then leave, refilling some power. Personally I'd just drop this
           device and stick in a extra power generator if you are that 
           strapped for power. Rating, 1/5. You won't be using it much if you
           actually pick it up.]


PLASMA COUPLER.                    POWER 4, RANGE 50, USES 1
---------------
  "The Plasma Coupler allows a ship to beam some of its power to another ship
   across a distance."

   [NOTES:  Not really a add-on you will use. Again, good power management 
            will keep you with plenty of power. You might use this if you have
            a support ship that is with a fleet, something that can repair
            and give power to front line ships. But I'd rather just drop this
            Add-on and pick up another power generator. Rating 1/5. Really
            only useful on a support ship.]


INVULNERABLIZER.                   POWER 20
----------------
    "The Invulnerablizer sets up a temporary high-magitechnology shield around
     the ship using it. While it lasts, the shield will not allow the ship to
     come to harm. It consumes little power but is costly to build and can
     only be used once."

     [NOTES: A great device here, and powerful, but really extremely limited 
             use. This item will give you supremely temporarly protection, 
             which doesn't last long but you can survive anything. Maybe some
             uses for it. If you find a heavly defended star area with strong
             defenses, have a shield ship with this device lead the way into
             the area to take the brunt of the first attacks. This way, it 
             has all the enemy forces lose their attacks and survives, then 
             your backup ships swoop in and clean up. Rating 1/5. I would
             have rated it alot higher except for its one time use. One of the
             few devices that can protect you from super items like the very
             powerful Disintegrator.]


PHASE BOMB.                        POWER 4, RANGE 25
-----------
  "The Phase Bomb is launched at a planet and destroys structures on the 
   planet's surface. It can be used only once and has short range."

   [NOTES:  The object of taking over a planet is NOT to destroy it while 
            doing it. You want to take it over with its items intact. I 
            consider this item useless, pick a Invader module to help take 
            over the planet. Much more practical and useful. Rating. 0/5. The
            Invasion modules are 100 percent more useful and effective.]


COLONIZER.                          POWER 5
----------
   "The Colonizer allows a ship to creat a colony on a unoccupied planet. Bla
    bla bla"

    [NOTES: Rating 5/5. A must use item during the game. ]


SELF DESTRUCTOTRON                 STRENGTH 20
-------------------
   "The Self Destructotron is a desperation device. It destroys the ship 
    using it by converting most of the ship's mass to energy, creating a huge
    explosion that greatly damages other ships nearby."

    [NOTES: Well, again, the object is to NOT damage your own ship. While this
            device does do nice damage, the enemy usually doesn't amass big
            fleets on which to use this. Kinda worthless to self-destruct when
            your against only 1 or 2 ships. Rating, 0/5. You won't encounter
            mass fleets, and only rare Kamakazee attacks would need such a 
            silly item. ]


INVASION MODULE.                    POWER 10
-----------------
   "The Invasion Module transports a planetary infiltration team to a planet's
    surface from orbit. It can be destroyed by a planetary Surface shield
    unless multiple Invasion modules are introduced. Bla bla."

   [NOTES:  Rating 5/5. A must have item during the game. Bring a big ship
            with lots of modules to quickly take over those annoying planets.]


MASS CONDENSOR.                    POWER 8, RANGE 100
---------------
   "The Mass Condensor operates as the Gravitational Distorter, except that
    it is targeted at a ship. All ships will be attracted toward the affected
    ship. It works at a long range and consumes alot of power."

    [NOTES:  Kinda useless unless you are doing the tag-team attack, with one
             support ship and one or more attack ships. Like most movement
             add-on's of this type, simple better engines will do just as 
             good. I suggest dropping this and getting something good. 
             Rating 1/5. Really isn't useful in battle. Computer ships usually
             come to you anyway.]


HYPERFUEL.                       
---------- 
   "Hyperfuel is a one-time-use power reserve of great capacity. It is a cheap
    disposable source of power."

    [NOTES  Not bad, but again, if you pick your ship decent you won't have
            any power problems. Better to drop this and pick up an extra
            power generator, or a Replenisher for combat. Rating 1/5.]




========================================
  III.  LAST WORDS
========================================


  Thats about all I know about the items. I've been doing some basic sleuthing
 and I think I figured out alot, hopefully the numbers are pretty close to 
 what they actually are. Its alot fun to play around with the ships and build
 them, but sadly the game isn't that difficult and you won't really have a 
 good opponent to test out all your theories on. 

  Now, some Ideas of mine you can use, or not use. 

  SHIP TYPES.

  WARSHIP. This is your typical battle craft. Its not made to do anything 
     except blow stuff up, and protect your other ships. A warship must be the
     most balanced thought up ship you have, since you need to balance it 
     with weapons, engines, shields, power, and items. Bigger ships allow more
     cool items, and you eventually want those gigantic ships to allow for the
     best ratio of items and gadgets. The following misc items I consider a 
     major benefit to any large and gigantic warship.
    
         DISARMER. Easily reduces enemy weapons and is a huge tact advantage.
         SHIELD BLASTER. No defenses, quicker kill. You might not need this
           if you have great weapons and good shields of your own.
         ACCUTRON. Longer weapon ranges. Yep, got to have that.
         REPLENISHER. have your weapons replenished to use again? heck yea.

  COLONY SHIP. You can figure this one out yourself. Its a ship loaded up with
         colony modules. You want basic engines, power and space drives. Other
         than that, colonies. Run into systems, set up your colonies, and 
         either refit, abandon, or recall home to refit. I never have any
         weapons or shields on this ship.

   INVADER SHIP. Similiar to the colony ship, this ship is made to take down 
         planetary defenses and take over the colony. You want basic engines,
         power and space drives. You want 1 good long range weapon 50 range or
         better. This is to whittle down the planetary defense so you can 
         land. The rest is for INVADER modules. Again, once used up you can
         refit, abandon, or recall home to refit. I personally keep my invader
         ship around until I absolutely need another ship. This way they can
         guard my new planet for a while. Heck, even one little weapon might
         help.

   GATE SHIP. This is a specialized ship. You want to plant this ship in the
         big hub of alot of planets, so you can load up with a bunch of Lane
         Destabilizers and quickly speed your ships through to other areas.
         It is especially good if you are in a system that has a refit planet,
         so you have a unending refit balance of them to use. Basic engines, 
         drives and power, rest fill with Lane Destabilizers. Remember, the
         Quick movement works both ways, enemy ships will be pushed also. If 
         there are enemy ships in the lane(s) make sure you have some war 
         ships nearby to take care of them when they exit the lane. 

    SCOUT SHIP. Yep, this ship is used to move about fast and explore. 
         You want all engines, gate drives, and power to fuel them. Later in
         the game when you get bigger ships, you can adjust your Scout ships
         into Recon vehicles. Adding in Scanners, X-ray Megaglasses, or 
         what ever you can keep general track of what your enemies are putting
         on their ships. I only do this if I experience trouble with a enemy
         fleet. If you seem to be blowing them up fine, who cares what they
         are outfitting.

    TECH SHIP. This ship you might want to consider at the start of the game.
         The object is to hunt down and drop colonies on planets with those
         nice planetary dig sites so you can learn advanced technology fast.
         Have fast ships, a few colony modules, and ignore any planet without
         a dig site. Later on you might want to put some disposable add-ons
         that might make your movement easier. A used dig site is worthless, 
         you want to run in as fast as possible and take them. It doesn't 
         matter if your planet is overrun later, the site info is already
         yours. 

     SUPPORT SHIP.  Great to have in colonies far far away. Your spread out
         and far from your home. No repair bays nearby. You have a couple big
         warships trying to keep some strategic lane open but the constant 
         battles are wearing you down. A nice support ship repairing your guys
         will do wonders. 

  There are probably other type of ships you can think up, but those will 
 give you a idea of things you might try. 




************************************
*@*          QUESTIONS           *@*
************************************



   Q) I DID OK EARLY ON, BUT NOW MY FORCES ARE SPREAD FAR OUT ACROSS THE 
      GALAXY, AND IT TAKES FOREVER FOR A SHIP I MAKE TO GET THERE. ANY WAY 
      TO SPEED UP THE MOVEMENT PROCESS.

   A) Well, Gateships are always a great way to speed up the process. Having
      one based near major red lanes and hubs, you can speed up the movement
      process of your ships in those lanes from 20-50 days or more, to 2. A
      repair bay nearby to refit when your out of Lane Destabilizers is nice
      also.
      Another way that works is if you have some refitting orbital bays near
      the area you want to go. Build ships in your big shipyards with maximum
      engines and star lane drives and power, and have them move to your 
      outskirt colonies. once in those colonies they can refit and pick up the
      items they need. A few disposable misc modules might help them get there
      quicker.

   Q) I HAVE USED UP ALL MY COLONIES AND NEED TO GET MORE, WHAT DO I DO.
 
   A) Well, a few things. If you have a planet with a Orbital Dock you can
      refit and pick up new items. If you have a decent tech level on that
      planet you can refit fast. Usually even with a low tech level you can 
      refit alot quicker than getting a new colony ship out to that area. You 
      can also abandon that ship and build a new ship at a building area. 
      Finally if you have a recall device on your ship, you can pop back to 
      your starting planet and refit. 

   Q) I HAVE TRIED TO INVADE A ENEMY PLANET BUT NOTHING HAPPENED. MY INVASION
      MODULES ARE GONE. WHAT GIVES.

   A) The planet has in place surface shields that destroy your Invasion 
      modules. Basic shields distroy one Invasion module before being 
      destroyed. So if a planet has 3 surface shields, you will need 4 of 
      the Invasion modules to take it. Also, don't forget if a planet has a 
      orbital shield around it, you need to take it down in order to enter
      the atmosphere. All your Invasion ships should have one long range 
      weapon to take down planetary defenses.

   Q) MY SHIPS WERE IN STAR LANES, BUT THEY SUDDENLY WENT BACK TO THE START
      OF THE SYSTEM. OTHER TIMES THEY COULDN'T ENTER. ANY IDEAS?

   A) Certain misc items on a starship can affect your movement through the
      starlanes. Enemy ships might use blockers or something similiar to keep
      you out. Also some Races have special racial abilities that can prevent
      star lane travel, they might have used their special abilities to keep 
      you away. Just keep trying, they can't keep you out forever.

   Thats about it so far, hope the above into helps you out in some way. 
   Ascendancy is a very fun game, but does have some drawbacks. Make sure you
   download the AI patch with the game to fully enjoy its gameplay as much as
   possible. 

    If you have any other questions feel free to email me, or if you have
   additional info on any of the above items, or strategy ideas by all means
   send them in. Eolsunder2@aol.com.