Each ship can perform one of eight various missions that include exploration, lay mines, mine sweep, kill, sensor sweep, colonize, tow and intercept. Some ships can cloak.
The exploration mission orders the ship to spy on planets to see if any enemy colonists are living there and if they have a starbase.
The lay mine mission reprograms the all torpedoes onboard a starship to become deep space mines and lays them in a circle around your current position ( if the Host has enabled the minefield option ).
The mine sweep mission has the ship fire its beam weapons set on wide. The more beam weapon and the higher tech the weapons the greater the number of mines that can be destroyed per turn. The mine sweep mission will not destroy mines that belong to you, but it will give you the location and size of the nearest minefield that you own.
The Sensor Sweep Mission scans planets within the sensor scan range for any readings that might suggest enemy activities. There must be at least 15 factories or 20 mines on the surface before the sensors can begin to detect the activity. The percentage odds that an enemy planet will show up on a scan are:
(100% - Defense Outposts * 6.66%)
For every enemy planet within the sensor scan range.
Any planets with 15 defense outposts cannot be picked up on Sensor Sweeps.
The kill mission orders the ship to attack all ships of any race race other than your own that are located in the same position in space as your ship. Ships with the kill mission will always fight first in a battle were there are ships attacking under order of primary enemy. Most matching friendly code will override the kill mission, as well as the primary enemy setting
The colonize mission orders the ship to disassemble the starship when it reaches an unowned planet and to use the ships parts to make supplies for the colonists after unloading any colonists, cargo and fuel on the ship to the planet's surface. Most of the time it is best not to use the colonize mission. It is usually better to beam the colonists down to an unowned planet using the <C> ship command. That way you can reuse the same ship again.
The tow mission orders the ship to lock a tractor beam on a ship that is at the same position in space. The amount of fuel the towing ship will burn is proportional to the sum of the masses of both ships. If the ship that is the target of the tractor beam has a warp factor greater than the ship using the tractor beam the target ship will break free of the tractor beam if the waypoint setting of the ship trying to break free is set to a range that will take more than 1 month to travel to. If both ships are using tractor beams on each other, the ship with the higher warp factor will tow the ship with the lower warp factor.
The intercept mission orders the ship to intercept ships by ID number. You can use list and view commands to find the ship ID number of the ship you wish to intercept. Your ship will follow the intercept target ship until your ship runs out of fuel, the target ship disappears behind a planet or cloaks. The intercept mission does not order the ship to attack the ship it is intercepting. It will attack the ship if the Primary Enemy is set to the race of the ship that it is intercepting. You may intercept your own ships, if you wish.
Intercepts Attack - Under HOST.EXE Version 3.20 ( and better ) ships with a cloaking device on an intercept mission will attack their intercept target ship first. The highest ID ships on an intercept mission attack before the lower ID ships on intercept missions. Anytime a ship on an intercept mission goes into combat it looses its intercept lock. REMEMBER: You must set your primary enemy to the race of the ship you are intercepting if you wish to attack them.
Most races have an extra mission that is all their own. Ships must have fuel to do this extra mission.
No matter which mission a ship is on when it enters a battle, the ship will do its very best to win the fight. Mission in no way affects the way in which a ship will fight.
These are the ships that have a cloaking device.
Reptile Class Destroyer
Lizard Class Cruiser
Saurian Class Light Cruiser
White Falcon Class Cruiser
Swift Heart Class Scout
Fearless Wing Cruiser
Dark Wing Class Battleship
Resolute Class Battlecruiser
Bright Heart Class Destroyer
Deth Specula Class Frigate
BR4 Gun Boat
BR5 Kaye Class Torpedo Boat
Red Wind Class Carrier
Meteor Class Blockade Runner
D3 Thorn Class Destroyer
Dwarfstar Class Transport
D7 Coldpain Class Cruiser
Ships without fuel cannot cloak.