ROIDRACER FIELD MANUAL

RoidRacer is a tick-based browser strategy game inspired by Planetarion-era space wars. You run one planet, mine resources from roids, build fleets, research upgrades, and steal enemy economy through precision raids.

• Tick interval: 30 seconds
• Round length: 20,160 ticks
• Win condition: highest score when the round ends

1. Create an account with username, planet name, email, and password.
2. Log in and review the Dashboard tick box for server timing.
3. Build early light ships to secure map pressure and scouting.
4. Use Research to unlock stronger classes before rushing capitals.

Tick-based games reward planning over speed: queue production, queue research, and line up arrival windows.

Resource	Use	Pressure Point
Gold	General ships, core economy, broad research spend	Main bottleneck for fleet refill during wars
Crystal	Advanced hulls, military/intel research	Midgame composition pivot resource
Plutonium	Specialist/capital hulls and expensive tech	Hard gate for late-game power spikes

Roids are your economy engine. If roids drop, your per-tick income drops immediately.

Target priority controls what classes are preferred in combat targeting.

Name	Class	Cost (G/C/P)	Build	ATK	DEF	SPD	Target Priority	Special	Research Unlock	Strategy Tip
Scout	Light	200/100/50	1	0	2	10	none	Intel-only unit	Open	Send cheap scout probes constantly.
Mosquito	Light	250/150/0	1	6	3	8	small	Fast rebuild swarm filler	Open	Use in bulk to absorb losses and pressure weak fronts.
Wasp	Light	350/250/30	2	8	7	7	small	Balanced light brawler	Open	Mix with Mosquitos for cleaner early trades.
Venom	Light	450/350/0	2	10	5	9	small_mid	Raider swarm profile	Open	Use as fast pick unit to shred fragile screens.
Dragoon	Medium	2000/1500/200	5	40	30	5	small_medium	Anti-swarm medium anchor	Advanced Weapons Lv.2	Core anti-light answer; scale with fleet lines.
Raptor	Medium	2200/1800/250	5	35	35	4	medium_large	Balanced pursuit hull	Advanced Weapons Lv.2	Use to bridge medium into capital transitions.
Phantom	Medium	1800/2000/300	6	25	45	4	all	Defensive medium tank	Advanced Weapons Lv.2	Great attrition ship when defending multi-wave attacks.
Sentinel	Specialist	3000/2000/1000	8	20	60	3	all	2x defense while stationary	Advanced Weapons Lv.4	Park at homeworld to punish incoming raids.
Claymore	Specialist	4200/4200/1500	10	80	40	3	large	Capital hunter	Advanced Weapons Lv.4	Primary answer to Thor/Zeus fleets.
Hydra	Specialist	6000/7000/3000	14	60	80	2	medium_large	Defensive siege profile	Advanced Weapons Lv.4	Heavy staying power in extended defensive fights.
Thor	Capital	22000/18000/8000	25	140	120	2	all	High-impact titan	Advanced Weapons Lv.7	Commit only with escort; rebuild time is long.
Zeus	Capital	27000/24000/10000	30	170	140	1	all	Top-end flagship	Advanced Weapons Lv.7	Use as finisher after Claymore threats are softened.
Roidracer	Economy	800/400/50	3	0	5	6	none	Chance to steal 1 roid/tick; dies on success	Open	Send in bulk against roid-rich targets; each successful steal costs one racer.

Target priority shorthand: none, small, small_mid, small_medium, medium_large, large, all.

Tick-by-Tick Resolution

1. Each fleet applies attack according to target priority.
2. Defense modifiers are applied (including tech and Sentinel stationary bonus).
3. Kills are resolved immediately; destroyed ships no longer fire later in the same tick cycle.
4. Surviving Roidracers steal roids each tick of successful attack presence.

Fleet Waves and Defense

• Up to 3 attack waves can be sent in one mission setup.
• Planet ships auto-defend; alliance defense fleets can reinforce.
• Defense fleets travel faster than attack fleets.

Combat Matrix (Kills per Tick per Unit)

Attacker	Mosq	Wasp	Venom	Dragoon	Phantom	Raptor	Claymore	Thor	Zeus	Hydra	Roidracer
Mosquito	1.0	0.5	0.6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.0
Wasp	1.5	1.0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.5
Venom	1.2	0.8	1.0	0.3	0.2	0.3	0	0	0	0	1.5
Dragoon	4.0	3.5	3.0	1.0	0.8	0.9	0.2	0	0	0	1.5
Phantom	2.0	2.0	2.0	0.8	0.5	0.7	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.2	1.0
Raptor	2.5	2.0	2.0	1.0	0.7	1.0	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.4	1.2
Claymore	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.8	0.7	0.6	0.5
Thor	3.0	2.5	2.5	1.5	1.2	1.3	0.3	0.5	0.4	0.5	2.0
Zeus	4.0	3.5	3.0	2.0	1.5	1.8	0.2	0.6	0.5	0.6	2.5
Hydra	1.5	1.5	1.5	1.0	0.8	1.0	0.4	0.3	0.2	0.5	1.0
Sentinel	1.5	1.2	1.1	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	1.0

Roid Stealing Rules

• Max per tick: 20% of defender's total roids can be stolen per combat tick.
• Steal chance per Roidracer: scales with target's roid count:
  • 100 roids → ~2% chance per racer
  • 500 roids → ~10% chance per racer
  • 1,000+ roids → 15% chance (capped)
  Formula: min(0.15, totalRoids / 5000)
• Roid Magnetism research adds +2% steal chance per level (max 30% total).
• Sacrifice: Each Roidracer that successfully steals a roid dies in the process.
• Stolen roids transfer immediately to attacker economy (random type, weighted by target distribution).
• Strategy: At low roid counts, stealing is inefficient. At high counts (1,000+), Roidracer raids become devastating — protect your economy!

Level N cost = base × 1.8^(N-1)

Current runtime has 13 active research techs. A 14th design slot is included below as a planned expansion entry for balancing documentation.

#	Tech	Branch	Base Cost (G/C/P)	Base Ticks	Purpose
1	Efficient Mining	Mining	300/300/100	2	Income growth
2	Deep Core Drilling	Mining	500/500/200	3	Plutonium scaling
3	Roid Magnetism	Mining	700/700/400	4	Raid economy pressure
4	Advanced Weapons	Military	800/900/500	4	Ship attack boost + class unlock gates
5	Reinforced Hulls	Military	900/800/500	4	Ship durability
6	Warp Drive	Military	1000/1000/900	5	Travel speed advantage
7	Fleet Coordination	Military	1100/1200/1000	5	Fleet throughput and command tempo
8	Long Range Scanners	Intelligence	500/700/300	3	Improved scout intel
9	Stealth Technology	Intelligence	700/900/500	4	Concealment from enemy scouts
10	Early Warning	Intelligence	600/800/400	4	Earlier incoming fleet awareness
11	Shipyard Efficiency	Economy	400/300/200	3	Lower build ticks (minimum 1)
12	Resource Compression	Economy	700/700/500	4	Storage and economy stability
13	Trade Routes	Economy	800/500/400	4	Passive economy bonus
14	Asteroid Prospecting	Mining	1000/1000/500	4	Unlocks roid mining; reduces mining time per level

Cost Multipliers by Level

Level	Multiplier
1	1.000
2	1.800
3	3.240
4	5.832
5	10.498
6	18.896
7	34.012
8	61.222
9	110.200
10	198.359

Developments (4)

Development	Requirement	Cost (G/C/P)	Build Ticks	Role
Planetary Shield	Reinforced Hulls Lv.3	4000/4500/2500	8	Defensive soak layer
Orbital Cannon	Advanced Weapons Lv.5	7000/6000/3500	10	Planet defense pressure
Cloak Generator	Stealth Technology Lv.5	5000/7000/4000	10	Intel denial
Hyperspace Beacon	Warp Drive Lv.7	6500/6500/4200	12	Rapid reinforcement posture

Research Priority Guide

1. Open with Efficient Mining and Shipyard Efficiency for tempo.
2. Rush Advanced Weapons 2 to unlock medium warships.
3. Move to Advanced Weapons 4 before committing specialist lines.
4. Push Advanced Weapons 7 only when economy can sustain capital losses.

Mining lets you grow your economy by prospecting new roids. Requires Asteroid Prospecting research (level 1+).

How It Works

• Mine one roid at a time (gold, crystal, or plutonium).
• Each mining operation costs resources and takes several ticks.
• When complete, you gain +1 roid of the chosen type.

Bitcoin-Style Difficulty

Mining cost increases exponentially as you accumulate roids:

difficultyMultiplier = 1 + (currentRoids / 50)^1.5

Current Roids	Multiplier	Cost (G/C/P)
40 (start)	~1.7×	~850 / 850 / 340
100	~3.8×	~1,900 / 1,900 / 760
500	~32×	~16,000 / 16,000 / 6,400
1,000	~90×	~45,000 / 45,000 / 18,000
2,000+	~280×	~140,000+ / 140,000+ / 56,000+

Strategy: Mine early when it's cheap (under ~500 roids). Beyond 1,000 roids, stealing from enemies becomes far more efficient than mining. This is by design — wars drive the late game.

Mining Time

ticks = (5 + floor(currentRoids / 100)) × (1 - prospectingLevel × 5%)

Asteroid Prospecting research reduces mining time by 5% per level.

• Create or join alliances for defense and tactical communication.
• Use alliance chat for wave timing and target calls.
• Send defense fleets to allies for rapid shared defense posture.
• Alliance score aggregates member performance and fleet value.

• Universe is organized by galaxy, system, and slot coordinates.
• Travel time depends on distance band (same system, same galaxy, cross-galaxy).
• Scouts provide intel snapshots; scanner and stealth tech alter visibility quality.
• Use map scanning each session to find weak economies and idle targets.

Total Score = ShipScore + RoidScore + ResourceScore + ResearchScore + KillScore

• ShipScore = total fleet value (garrison + fleets) × 1.5
• RoidScore = total roids × 50
• ResourceScore = (banked gold + crystal + plutonium) ÷ 3
• ResearchScore = total research investment × 0.7
• KillScore = destroyed enemy value × 1

Fleet value includes all owned ships — both garrison and ships traveling in fleets.

Rush

Flood lights early, pressure neighbors, then pivot quickly into Dragoons.

Turtle

Bank economy, establish Sentinel/Phantom layers, punish overextensions.

Balanced

Mix offense and defense, keep tech parity, and rotate raid windows with alliance support.

Alliance Tactics

Coordinate 3-wave attacks and stagger defense arrivals to deny enemy timing reads.

This section mirrors concepts from SHIP-BALANCE-v0.1.md in the repository and the current runtime constants.

• Research gates prevent immediate medium/specialist/capital rushes.
• Capital ships are expensive long-term commitments (Thor/Zeus now 1.5x pricing).
• Core counter loop: swarm pressure, Dragoon anti-swarm, Claymore anti-capital.
• Roid theft capped at 20%/tick; steal chance scales with target roids (2%–15%); Roidracers die on successful steal. Mining follows Bitcoin-style difficulty — cheap early, forces stealing late game.

Quick links: Gates | Capitals | Counters | Roid Economy

Architecture Snapshot

• server/tick-engine.js: tick loop, queue processing, fleet movement, combat, roid transfer.
• server/combat.js: combat resolution and matrix interactions.
• server/constants.js: ships, research, developments, matrix values.
• server/routes/game.js: shipyard/research/fleet endpoints and unlock validation.
• public/js/app.js: SPA rendering, shipyard UI, forms, SSE hooks.

How to Modify Balance Safely

1. Update ship/research constants first.
2. Enforce new gates in API endpoints before exposing UI toggles.
3. Reflect new values in manual and frontend labels.
4. Run through attack/defense, build queue, and unlock edge cases manually.

Keep combat matrix edits conservative; small coefficients produce large meta shifts over many ticks.