◆ SPAR Sector

How to Play

Five steps from zero to “actively losing Solari to a bad trade route.” You’ll need to be a member of a Discord server where the SPAR Sector bot is installed. All commands are scoped to the channel you run them in.

1. Create or Join a Game

In the channel where your crew plays:

/ssnewgame game_name:"Outer Rim Inc" max_players:6

The host gets a game bound to this server + channel. Everyone else joins it:

/ssjoin

Joining provisions your starter package:

  • A base hull with bridge + 100 IHu cargo hold + Fusion Reactor (Small) + Basic Shield Generator + 2x Gauss Cannon turrets, plus a free BMB001 Bridge Memory Bank (50 dIHu) so you can trade data goods from turn 1.
  • A T1 StarDrive (warp capable, 3 AP per jump at base mass).
  • A Tier-1 Commercial License for Sector 4 (Frontier).
  • 10,000 Solari in your ship wallet.
  • A random spawn somewhere in the explored frontier (three jumps plus Zone 0 revealed).

Run /ssstatus to confirm you’re in.

2. Open Your Console

/console

The console is the cockpit: navigation, assets, comms, ship fitting, cargo, and turn controls. Use /ssmenu when docked at a hub for the Trading Floor, ISP Bank, Shipyard, and Pub. Most play happens in these two menus; slash commands are the backup.

3. Make Your First Trade

Dock at a hub (console → Navigate → nearest hub, or /ssdock), then open the Trading Floor. The two-level category nav walks you through 765 materials across 49 prefixes; only things your licenses authorize will actually transact.

Manual trades for speed:

/ssmarket
/ssbuy material_id:ELM023 quantity:50
/sssell material_id:RFM001 quantity:20

Prices update once per turn at the ECONOMY compile boundary using a continuous supply/demand formula. Trades shift supply levels; the compile translates those into the new price. There are no static spreads to grind - margins come from moving goods between systems with different supply/demand profiles. The /ssticker arbitrage scanner ranks opportunities by % margin (not absolute SOL profit) so the top rows are always the best return on whichever constraint binds first - your hold or your wallet. Default scope is your docked system plus any Bourse subscriptions you hold; the legacy Economic Computer subscription unlocks all-explored scope.

4. Deploy an M-SPAR

An M-SPAR is an autonomous mining asset. Buy one at a Starport Ship Yard, then deploy it on a resource body in your current system:

/ssassets
/ssdeploy asset_name:Alpha body_name:"Kepler IV"

The PRODUCTION phase of every turn compile will run extraction using the body’s ratio table. Output accumulates in the SPAR’s output hold. Move it to a Trade Floor manually, or…

5. Set a MULE Route and Run a Turn

A MULE is an autonomous cargo hauler. Point one at your SPAR’s output and at a profitable market:

/ssmuleroute mule_name:Bravo origin:"Kepler IV M-SPAR Alpha" destination:"Proxima Hub" material_id:RFM001

Multi-leg milk runs use /ssmilkrun. When everyone’s ready, the host compiles the turn:

/ssprocess

The compiler runs all seven phases (navigation → production → logistics → economy → combat → settlement → advance), writes everything to PostgreSQL, then posts the turn summary. You can also burn AP between compiles with /sswait to trigger automation ticks without moving.

Where to Go Next

  • Banking - /ssdeposit to park Solari in ISP (safe, one-turn settle); /sswithdraw to pull it back. Interest accrues on bank balances.
  • License upgrades - /sslicenses to see the ladder. The Guild License Store at starport hubs sells the next tier and sector authorizations.
  • Factions and standing - /ssfactions (or the console Factions panel) shows your standing from -5 to +5 with all ten factions. Run a faction’s Pub jobs to climb with them and sink with their rivals; the job board previews who you please and anger before you accept. About a quarter of populated systems are faction-controlled (scattered, and drawn as colored rings on the star map): favored ports give cheaper buys, better sells, and free docking; disliked ports add a surcharge and a docking fee. The rest are neutral. A system scan reveals a port’s controlling faction and price climate before you dock.
  • Ship layout - the console Ship Layout button renders a top-down schematic of your carrier (a Base Trader Hull, Star Class Freighter, or Deep Space Heavy Hauler) with every fitted module on its hardpoint (turrets swivel-aimed, fixed launchers neutral), plus a Back Mount panel for the underside fittings.
  • Scan and comms - the console Scan button sweeps your current system for derelict salvage, other captains’ deployed SPARs and MULEs, and anomaly sites. The Comms hub has three channels: Quantum (alerts from your own assets), Guild Feed (market news — the biggest price swings across systems you’ve explored), and Fat Wire (direct messages to another captain by their ship name).
  • Refining and manufacturing - add R-SPARs and X-SPARs to turn raw ore into finished goods worth an order of magnitude more.
  • Combat - jump into a hostile system and a button-driven encounter dialog opens automatically: target buttons, Auto-Target (focus-fire), Auto-Target Dispersal (round-robin weapons), Retreat, Cloak, Shields Up, plus parley buttons (Hail / Bribe) for the encounter types that allow them. /ssfleets shows NPC groups before you commit; /sspvp initiates against another player.
  • Weapons and ammo - energy weapons (lasers, plasma, particle beams) run on reactor power and never need resupply. Kinetic and ordnance weapons (railguns, gauss, missiles, mines) burn ammunition you have to keep stocked. Kinetic guns share five slug grades - Standard, Armor-Piercing, Explosive Tip (strips shields), Depleted Uranium (wrecks hull), and Antimatter Sabot - and a heavier gun draws more rounds per shot. The console Magazine button shows your ammo by grade and lets you pin which grade to load, or leave it on Auto (fire the best grade in stock, fall back cheaper when it runs dry, hold fire when empty). Buy ammo at military Trade Floors, build it with an X-SPAR, and haul it on MULEs like any cargo.
  • Combat drones - if you fit a drone bay (micro rack, combat bay, or repair bay), the encounter gets a Launch Drones button. Light Strike and Combat drones join the fight and attack each round right after your own guns. Flip Combat drones to Defend and they screen the carrier, soaking incoming fire before your shields (your point defense against missiles, drones, and swarms) - they take the hits and some get shot down. Emergency Repair spends a repair drone to patch hull mid-fight; it costs your action that round, but your drones keep firing. Drones are self-powered (no ammo); you buy, build, and haul them, and only lose the ones destroyed.
  • Wreckage and scavenge - killing things drops things. Monster kills roll loot from the bestiary table directly into your hold (e.g., a Minar drops one of PSB008 / ELM006 / PLZ001 per kill); cargo overflow drops as floating salvage. Ship kills leave wrecks carrying SHA001 hull-armor scrap sized by how shot-up the ship was at the killing-blow moment: a near-wreck finished off yields peak scrap (catastrophic band), a healthy ship one-shot yields the least (vaporized/atomized), and the middle range is heavy. Captured ships go to a separate captured-vessels track instead of leaving a wreck behind. /ssloot opens the salvage menu - pick a wreck and Scoop selected, or Scoop all to rake in the lot subject to cargo space. The menu respects partial-scoop semantics (leaves the remainder in the wreck for next time) and routes by containment class - data goods to your Bridge Memory Bank, exotics to your xPod, regular cargo to the hold.
  • Captain progression - /sscaptain shows your in-game reputation across seven axes (combat record, diplomat, bribery, blackmail, outlaw, trader honor, bounty status) and a panel of lifetime badges that persist across every game you play on this server. Badges award at game end.
  • The map - /ssmap local|full|all for a rendered PNG view.

Tips

  • Trade first, then fight. You will lose combats you did not need.
  • Repair Microbots are healing potions, not nanites. Buy an FGE020 / 021 / 022 module at a Shipyard, install it on a hardpoint, and the Repair button on your ship console will burn one charge to patch your hull between fights. Charges are finite. Refill them at any Shipyard with the Refill Microbots button. Doesn’t work mid-combat - this is post-fight repair, not battle regen.
  • Keep cash in ISP. Ship wallets are looted when you die.
  • Licenses cap growth. Buying a sector authorization opens an entire new market.
  • Fog of war matters. Run WISKER probes into unknowns before committing a MULE.
  • Read the Changelog. The economy is evolving fast.
  • Trade Floors differ. Not every hub carries every material. If a material doesn’t show up, try another system type - mining, refinery, research, industrial all stock different shelves. See the Materials page for who buys and who produces what.
  • Data rides free. Blueprints, models, datasets, and intel live in your Bridge Memory Bank (BMB), not your cargo hold. The starter BMB001 holds 50 dIHu - plenty for early trade. Upgrade to BMB002 (250) or BMB003 (1500) when you start moving real volume.
  • Containment classes are real. Shielded plutonium needs a Shielded hold variant. Exotic plasma needs an xPod. Data lives in a BMB. The Trade Floor refuses with a friendly “install at the Shipyard before buying X” message when a slot’s missing - not a bug, a gate. Refit your MULEs and SPARs via the Shipyard’s Refit menu so they can carry the cargo too. Same rule applies on autonomous routes: a regular MULE can’t haul shielded isotope, full stop.
  • Crystals are crystals. A few stable solids in the exotic prefixes (Time / Axion / Phonon / Photonic Crystals, Spin Ice, Dilithium, Aetherium Fragment, Lattices, Substrates, Composites) stay regular IHu. Only active-state matter (plasma, antimatter, dark-matter trace) needs the xPod.
  • The frontier is sparse. A lot of S3/S4 systems have no hub at all. WISKER first; don’t send a MULE into a dead system.
  • Twenty-one platform types. Each has a distinct buy/sell profile. A system with a Smelter and a Nano-Fab trades very different material than one with a Pharma Compounder and a Data Archive. Read the hubs before committing a route.