Elysium Planet

An elysium planet (also called "ely") is a type of planet on nebulous and the highest valued planet in the game. There are few elyseum planets across the galaxy (considering the total amount of planets) and usually they are the backbone of faction conflicts.

Theory
It is uncertain what makes the Elysiums to be, these planets are usually filled with resources, such as iron, raw steel, protenium and galadium. However, what makes the elysium so special is the flow of energies in theire atmosphere. Many studies were made towards the composition of the atmosphere (different in any case, but never toxic to life and always usefull to cellular activity), and it was replicated several times, but with no results at all. It is demostrated that the energies have nothing to do wth the matter at all and that they are "just there". Acording to some theories, the energy would be some living-enegy entity inhabitating the planet. It has been usual to found alien monoliths within the elysium surface, usually in locations were these energies are specially strong, but in no case originating them, but probably making some ancient use of them.

Ingame
As any planet, Elysiums are generated by system spawn, this means they can be included in every system spawned by new players or restarting players. It is quite unlikely to see two or more elysium planets in one system, if not impossible without the intervention of an admin.

Elysiums have several uses regarding production, wich makes them so important.

Death Star
Elysiums produce those parts necessary to assamble death Stars. These massive ships vary thery bay number from 60 to 100, and are the backbone of any well armed fleet in nebulous. Each Elysium creates one specific kind of DS Part. Since a rescent modification, these parts rotate for each Elysium, so once they will make a Forward Array, then next they could make a Port Hull, then maybe a Phrame, and so on. Once the five diferent parts of the Death Star are gathered in one place, all owned by the same elysium owner (not necesarilly the elysium that created them), they can be assambled and merged into a death Star, with a random number of bays.

DS parts can only be created once a week and theire base cost is about 4 billion credits.

Modules
Also, Elysiums can arm a ship with special kind of modules.

Anti-Matter Fuel cells
These allow a ship to hold three modules for each Anti-Matter fuel cell, so instead of having the half of the ship holding regular fuel cells, only 1/4 of the ship can be sustained with A-M Fuel Cells. Theire base cost is 50.000.000.

Ship-to-ship Nukes
S2s nukes are used to damage enemy ships without exposing yourself to recoil, therefore, you can damage or destroy the enemy without any damage at all. They are a base factor in space battles, for can be very usefull to ambush the enemy.

Plague Bombs
Plague bombs can only be armed on Death Stars. This weapon unleashes the fury of the viral infection over a planet, descimating it`s population, but with no concecuences over the infraestructure of the planet. Therefore, the planet is easier to capture, but rebiulding later won`t be necesary.

Warp Boosters
As Plague Bombs, Warp Booster can only be armed on Death Stars. WB allow the ship to reach a destination within one jump distance in no time. Thought not usefull if you are jumping across the universe as usual, can be a saver if you need to take your DS to a certain location and you have anought WB. However, they should be used well, for warping in short lenght distances will still take one booster as if it was a long lenght, therefore it could be a true waste.

Life Time
Elysiums have a life cycle that can be easily identified.

Birth
Elysiums will appear inside a new player system or a respawning player system. Since a recent modification, spawning systems appear in random locations, and not in a circle order as it happened before, making elysiums quite easy to forsee.

Once the new system appears, the player holding the prime can make free use of it for a time range of 48 hours. During this time, the player and his system will be under divine protection, and it will not be touched. However, once the factions have identified the elysium, they will take theire ships to the system, so the player might see a whole fleet of wierd ships (he`s new to the game) in his system.

Since players can see the activity in the planet, and if there has been any development, they will determine if the new player owning an elysium is an active player or not. If active, messages form several factions offering protection will arrive, telling him he is in a "gold mine". It is likely this situation will outcome in a minor conflict between the factions for the membership.

If the Player is inactive, it will be evident for the factions and the countdown of 48 hours will start. within the last day, there will be a huge amount of ships orbiting the elysium, most of them with colonizing modules or invation modules, other armed with propper weaponry.

Unprotection and free life
Once the divine protection is off, the new player will be completely open to foreign attacks. If he joined a faction, this will send him ships so he can protect himself. If not in a faction, the others might respect his athority and let him be, but most likely someone will attack him. At this point, fighting against an experienced player is no way of victory, and having help from another player might be his only hope.

If the player is inactive, the planet and the system will have a new owner in a matter of seconds. This situation could rose up into a conflict within factions, originating a full scale war. however, this is unusual.

Defense will be the very characteristic of this first stage of free life.

Production.
At some point, the elysium will start producing. If a new player holds the sphere, we will see a process of arming the fleet with high level modules. If not, the elysium will inmediatly start producing Death Star Parts each week.

Conflict.
At some stage of it`s life, the elysium will be involved (if not the cause) in a conflict. The elysium at this stage may vary it`s production between DS Parts and modules. Since the protection tends to concentrate in elysiums, they might witness ghuge battles between battle stations, Ufos and Blueships. Eventually, the battle will be over and the owner might hold the planet, increasing the damaged defences, or the new owner might start producing whatever he needs to go on with the campaign.

Negociations.
Eventually, the conflict will be over and since elysiums are the main hold pretension of the factions, they will be the center of negociations. This negociations can be succesfull and take the Elysium back into the production stage, or a total failure, originating, in short or long term, a new conflict.

However, this stage can be reached without the conflict before it.