NOTE: The shipbuilding process at Planets.nu uses four different systems, each briefly described in the Build Queues page. Check your game's Settings to make sure you are in a Planetary Production Queue (PPQ) game before going on.
In the Nu Year 0107, the Echo Cluster saw the Evolution of the Q(ueue), and the races were thrust into an era of nuanced shipbuilding. These new methods of crafting space vessels empowered leaders who were able to master planetary control; the more planets an empire monopolized, the more ships they produced.
As of January 1st 2021, all Standard games feature the PPQ (sometimes referred to as the New Nu Queue). This Build Queue functions as follows:
In system-generated matches, there is a soft ship limit of 500 total starships (This amount can be changed for Custom games.). The purpose of such a restriction is twofold: to prevent the game from becoming too complex and to encourage players to begin fighting in order to build replacements. Once the ship limit has been hit, it is now possible to continue to build ships by spending Priority Points (PPs).
On the subject of Priority Points, players should consider the Planetary Production Queue as an evolution of the Production Queue; PPs are earned and spent in the same manner.
Before spacecraft construction is restricted, every starbase with a build queued will have that starship built. Vessels produced in this manner will not consume PPs, unless they are constructed in bases using a pbN code. Space docks which do not have a build queued will accumulate two Priority Points (This is a default setting, which can be changed for Custom games).
A special casePPQ transitions back and forth between unthrottled (Early) and throttled (Late) states. This move seamlessly occurs when there are enough ship slots to allow all builds to happen. Early builds are assigned to a random starbase.
Players can use Priority Points to build new starships at any time regardless of the number of starships in existence. As long as there exists a legal ship number (up to 999) and a player has enough priority points, the vessel can be built.
After the starship limit has been reached, normal cloning will be disabled.
The first subphase of every build phase processes Priority Builds in order of Priority Build Points, until either the hard ship limit is reached or there are no more Priority Builds that can be built.
After the Priority Builds have completed, if there are any ship slots open, a regular build subphase will occur.
At the start of this subphase, a minimum of ten builds will be allocated, which could cause the number of ships to exceed the hard ship limit. The number of allocated increases if more than ten builds are needed to return to the ship limit. These builds are distributed according to the percentage of owned planets each player controls (The term "owned planets" refers to the planets currently controlled by the players and not the total amount of planets on the map.). Regular builds can be directed to specific starbases with the RB# Friendly Code. The builds in this subphase are allocated throughout three stages, which unfold as follows:
If a player is allocated a build but doesn't have a build queued, the build will be returned to the pool and be reallocated in the third stage.
When a player wins a build, they are removed from the lottery. A new ratio is created based on the leftover percentages of the remaining players. The lotteries continue until all players have won a build or the allotted builds have been used up.
In the following example, the game has 500 planets and a ship limit of 500. The players' planets are as follows:
In Example 1, the number of ships drops to 496, causing 10 builds to be made available. In Example 2, the number of ships drops to 487 causing 13 builds to be made available.
Example 1 Example 2 Player Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 1 Stage 2 Player 1 2 builds 6/20 3 builds 6/17 Player 2 0 builds 8/20 1 builds 1/17 Player 3 3 builds 2/20 4 builds 4/17 Player 4 3 builds 4/20 4 builds 6/17
All regular builds in this late build subphase can be directed to whichever starbase the player designates. This can be done by setting the starbase Friendly Code to RB1, RB2, ..., RB9, and they will build in ascending order. Multiple starbases may share a code, but if any does and lacks a build this may confuse the ship-building system.
If a build is not directed with the RB# Friendly Code, it will be allocated to the starbases with the heaviest hull mass. If there are multiple starbases with the same heavy hull, the build will be randomly allocated among them.
For more detailed information about the specific timing of shipbuilding, please refer to the page on The Host Order Of Shipbuilding.