User Guide

PROTOTYPES
Any time you order construction of a unit with untried components, that unit
is a prototype. If you have already built a laser crawler and an impact rover,
your first laser rover (which consists entirely of components found in the pre-
vious units) would not require a prototype. But if you discovered the missile
launcher and decided to build a missile rover, the new missile launcher com-
ponent would make your first missile rover a prototype.
Prototypes require a great deal of research and development. Therefore, a pro-
totype costs 50% more minerals to complete than subsequent units of this type
will. On the upside, all prototype units get a +1 to morale, since new tech-
nologies are usually put in the care of elite forces. Note that the Spartans do
not have to prototype new units due to their expertise with military hardware.
OBSOLETE UNITS
As new versions of components are researched, old ones become obsolete.
Units with obsolete components disappear from your Production Readout and
are replaced by the newer models. You can also declare units of a given kind
obsolete from the Design Workshop.
UPGRADES
When an old unit becomes obsolete, you don’t have to junk it or let it wheeze
around. When you discover a new version of a component, you are given the
option of upgrading all the units that discovery has made obsolete. You must
pay an energy charge for each obsolete unit in your possession in order to
upgrade them. If you don’t want to spend the energy to upgrade all your units
of a given sort at once, you can also upgrade one at a time, using the Upgrade
command—csU on the Action menu (see p. 92). (Note that you can
also disband a unit at a base, and receive half its original cost in minerals.)
COLONIZING PLANET
CHAPTER 4
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