Started but Outdated Game FAQ from OGame.de

Personal Back-Up (PBU) – What is this? Do I get one?

A personal back-up is the possibility to transfer an account into a stage which it was at a certain point in the past. Until November 13th 2005, personal back-ups were used in a case of point loss after a bug. On this day, this was abandoned as some people felt disadvantaged or that others were preferred.

Today, PBUs are only possible if the Gameoperator causes the loss. If this happens, you can contact your Gameoperator, who will check your request together with a Gameadministrator.

Planets – What are the differences between each position?

Positions 1-3
• very small
• lots of energy
• judgement: because of its size, these planets shouldn’t be used

Positions 4 – 5
• medium size
• much energy
• judgement: useful

Positions 6 – 10
• large
• medium energy available
• judgement: very useful even in the long-term

Positions 11 – 12
• medium size
• some energy
• higher deuterium production
• judgement: useful

Positions 13 – 15
• very small
• not much energy at all
• high deuterium production
• judgement: because of its size, these planets shouldn’t be used

Some people really like the increased deuterium production on cold planets, but usually it is better to buy deuterium from others in the late game and the planet size is simply not enough. You should always keep in mind that you are looking for a position you can keep for multiple years.

A detailed list of the advantages and disadvantages of all planets can be found here

Planets – Help! My planet is very small (<100 fields), should I give it up immediately?

When colonizing, you should keep in mind that only planets with minimum 150-200 fields can be of long-term use. At the beginning of a universe, it can be an advantage to keep small planets first to get some of its production in order to finance more colony ships. This should only be done with 2 or maximum 3 planets. Later, they should be replaced by bigger planets.

See also: Planets – What are the differences between each position?

Planets – Can I give up my planets?

Yes you can, but only your colonies. Your home world cannot be given up.
There are two ways to give up a planet. Both can be found in the overview.
• The lowest point in the list of the planet details is called “give up/rename”
• Alternatively click on the icon next to the planet name

In both cases, a window opens where you can give up or rename your planet. Once you clicked on “give up” and confirmed with your password, the colony is lost.

Attention:
• You cannot give up the planet of there is own fleet movement from or to it.
• All buildings, the complete defence and all ships stationed on the planet or its according moon are deleted. This means that all these points are lost.

Planets – How do I rename my planets?

There are two ways to rename a planet. Both can be found in the overview.
• The lowest point in the list of the planet details is called “give up/rename”
• Alternatively click on the icon next to the planet name

In both cases, a window opens where you can give up or rename your planet.

Production factor – What’s this?

The production factor shows you the performance of your mines. He depends on the available energy provided by the solar planet, the fusion reactor and the solar satellites and the amount of energy used up by the mines. The highest factor is 100%. This means that enough energy is available for all mines.
If the factor is lower, there are two ways to improve it:
• Produce more energy
• Turn-down the production of your mines

Points – How are points calculated?

For every 1.000 resources used (in buildings, ships, defence, research), you get one point. Ships found on an expedition are calculated normally. Deuterium lost through fleet movements does not count. Once defence or fleet is destroyed, those points are lost. This also counts for buildings, which are taken down.

Attention – resources needed to tear down a building do not give you points.

Pushing – What is this?

Pushing is the term used for all actions done by a small player to the advantage of a bigger one. In most cases, this is done through resource transports without any reward. Moon shots also fall under this rule: If a weaker player destroys his fleet by a stronger one to give him a moon chance, the stronger player needs to pay him all the lost resources back.

More information about the pushing rule can be found in the rules. You can also ask your Gameoperator

Rockets – How do Anti-ballistic missiles work?

Anti-ballistic missiles work on their own. Once hostile rockets hit the planet, one anti-ballistic missile destroys one attacking interplanetary missile.

Rockets – How do interplanetary missiles work?

Interplanetary missiles can be send out be clicking on the icon of the target planet in the galaxy view. By clicking on the icon, a window opens, where you can chose the number of missiles and the primary target. Subsequently, the missiles are sent out.

A detailed explanation of interplanetary missiles can be found here.

Rapidfire – What is it and what effect does it have?

Rapidfire is the term for the probability of a ship shooting more than once per turn. In general, every ship shoots at one other enemy ship. But if it has a rapidfire against it, there is a probability of it hitting again. This is repeated until a ship is hit, for which the attacking ship has no rapidfire.

How is the probability of another shot calculated?

Probalility = 100 * (rapidfire-1)/rapidfire

Keep in mind: Rapidfire does not mean that a ship destroys exactly this number of opposite ships per round.

What do the colours mean?

RF from a ship is displayed in red
RF against another ship is displayed in green

Saving – Why should I save?

It is important to save as stationed fleet can be an easy target for enemy fleets. A potential enemy can see the fleet in his spy report and prepare an attack.
This means: in the case of an attack, not only resources, but also the fleet is lost, causing a loss of many points.

Often, the fleet itself is the target of an attack, as its resulting debris field provide a high profit for the attacker. To prevent this, you need to protect your fleet. This is done best by sending it away. As long as the fleet is in the air, it cannot be destroyed. NEVER hide your fleet behind defence or trust in the strength of your fleet. There is always someone with a fleet big enough to destroy yours. And if not, some players put their fleets together and attack combined.

How to save best can be read here.

Saving – How do I save best?

Without a moon, you save best by sending your fleets by deployment from planet to planet. Chose the time of arrival so, that you are online when the fleet arrives. If you are not intercepted by someone, who has seen your fleet in his sensor phalanx, you can still react. In this case, you can simply abort the flight. Aborted deployments have a special feature: they are invisible in the sensor phalanx. This makes it extremely difficult to intercept it. If you are not attacked, you can just let your fleet land normally and use it.

With a moon, it is much easier to save. Since moons cannot be phalanxt, you can easily send your fleet away to collect a debris field, for example. Debris fields also can’t be viewed with a sensor phalanx. This method is therefore quite safe. But there is still a risk, because an attacker can destroy the moon or watch the target debris field disappear. Against the last option, you can send out “shadow recycler” to hide the point of harvest of your main fleet. These shadow recycler harvest the same debris field before your main fleet so that it is impossible to view, when the actual fleet reached the debris field.
An even saver way is the deployment between two moons. This has the big advantage that you can abort the flight even if the target moon gets destroyed.
None of the ways are 100% save, but the risk sinks enormously, if the tips are followed.

Shield Dome – Does the shield dome also protect my other units?

No. the shield domes are also just units, but because there are only 2 of them, they are hit rarely. No enemy unit has a rapidfire against it, so they perfectly act as rapidfire breakers, which can help achieve a tie against small fleets. You can build each shield dome only once.

Sensorphalanx – How does it work and what do you see?

The sensor phalanx is one of the special buildings which can only be built on a moon. You can see hostile fleet movement with it. To do this, just go from your moon into the galaxy view and click on the planet you want to phalanx. In general, only flights which have the planet as a target will be shown.

Phalanx of the target planet:
Here you see the remaining of the flight until it reaches the target

Phalanx of the origin
The shown time is calculated by adding the time until it reaches the target, the time it acs defends and the time it takes to fly back together. Aborted flights with deployment as their mission are not visible.
The fleet composition is always visible and follows the same rules as the overview – how do I see which ships attack me?

Moons cannot be phalanxt.

More information about the sensor phalanx can be found here.

Sitting – What I need to pay attention to

Sitting simply means “watching” over someone else’s account. This can only be done with certain restrictions.

The maximum sitting time is 12 hours. The Gameoperator needs to be informed in advance. During this time, the sitter is not allowed to move any fleets. Resources laying around can only be invested in buildings or research, not in defence or ships. In the case of an attack, which could cause a lot of damage on the target, the sitter is allowed to save the fleet to one of his own positions (planet, moon, df).
Account sitting can only be done once every 7 days. Furthermore, a sitter can only watch one account of the same universe at a time.

The rules give a more detailed overview of what is allowed and what not.

Anything else needs to be discussed with your Gameoperator. How you reach your Gameoperator is said here. Also keep in mind: How do I contact my Gameoperator

Spying – What is to take into account?

A spy report is always built up the same way.
1. resources – all units of metal, crystal, deuterium and energy
2. activity – a display of the last activity on the target planet /moon
3. fleet – all currently stationed fleet including all acs defending fleets. A distinction between both is not possible
4. defence – all defence stationed
5. buildings – all buildings
6. research – display of all the research done by the player

The spy report always contains the values of the currently available or finished units. Currently processing units are not shown. The areas “resources” and “activity” are always shown; the others only if enough spy probes were sent or the espionage technology is high enough. If one of the areas (for example defence) is missing, it does not mean that there is no defence.

More information can be found here.

What does counter-espionage mean? This only shows the probability of the spying probes getting discovered and attacked. The spying player always gets a report, no matter if the probes survive or not.

Tactic – How should I play my account?

Ogame has two fundamental game tactics: The fleeter and the miner.

Fleeter are players, who invest a lot in their fleet. Almost all of their account points are put into their fleet. Therefore, their fleet is extremely big which enables them to attack others profitably and gain many points quickly. But this tactic also has some disadvantages. A fleet account is very time consuming. Basic production is very low and almost all resources come from other players. In addition, such a big fleet attracts other players with an even bigger fleet, which will try to destroy it in order to gain profit out of the debris field. A loss of the fleet usually means a heavy loss of points and main source of income. Hence, this tactic is primarily for more experienced players, who wish to invest more time into Ogame.

Miners are players investing almost all of their resources into their mines. This also brings advantages and disadvantages with it. Their biggest advantage is that they cannot lose a lot in the case of an attack. Mines and other buildings can’t be destroyed; hence most points of miners can’t be lost. Another advantage is the time expense. You only need a couple of minutes to manage such an account appropriately. A miner has a regular income without having to do a lot, but they are unable to gain points very quickly. This tactic is good for beginners and players, who don’t have a lot of time.

These are the two fundamental types. A lot of combinations of these types are also very popular. Each player has to decide on his one what suits best for him.

Team – Who does what?

Game

Trial – Gameoperator
He is currently trained to become a full Gameoperator and prepared to administrate a universe. After approximately 2 weeks, he is assigned to a universe where he is incorporated under supervision of another Gameoperator

Gameoperator
is responsible for an assigned universe and the first person to talk to players. The easiest way to contact him is by ticket-system. In urgent cases, he can also be asked for in the irc. A list of all Gameoperators and their assigned universes can be found here.

Super Gameoperator
Manages multiple universes and is the first contact person for Gameoperators. Any discomforts about a Gameoperator should go to his Super Gameoperator. Other than that, the Super Gameoperator should only be contacted in special cases or if none of the responsible Gameoperators is currently available. At this point, please keep calm. Gameoperators also have free time and cannot be available all the time. Answers in the next 48 hours are acceptable.

If you haven’t received an answer after 48 hours (72h during weekends), you can contact your Super Gameoperator.

A list of all Super Gamoperators and their assigned universes can be found here.

Game Administrator
He is the highest authority for Ogame. He cares about new hires, makes critical decisions and leads the game-team. The Game Administrators should not be contacted. They will talk to you, if it is required.

Forum

Trial – Boardmoderator
He is currently trained to become a full board moderator. At the beginning, he has no areas, for which he is responsible for. He focuses more on getting to know the game-team and learn to know his future tasks. After a week, he gets an area assigned where he learns to manage the forum-software under supervision.

Board moderator
He is responsible for his assigned areas. There, he gives assistance and cares for the created threads. He is also responsible for making sure that everyone follows the forum rules. He is able to impose warnings and bans.

Who is responsible for which area can be read here.

Board Super Moderator
He is responsible for a certain category with all its forums. He is mainly the contact person for all the board moderators stationed there. Users can express complaints about moderators talking to him. He can also change nicknames or delete user accounts.

Who is responsible for which area can be read here.

Board Administrator
He is the highest authority in the forum. He cares about new hires, keeps the forum business going and leads the forum-team. He judges over unbans, changes nicknames and deletes forum accounts. In any other cases, administrators should not be contacted.

IRC

The irc team has been internationalized. It is therefore no single component of ogame.de anymore. It is more a team of its own.

IRC supporter
He is the first contact person for any questions involving the OnlineGamesNet. They are found in the channel #help

IRC operator
He is responsible for the network, cares about attacks on the server, channel takeovers and insults. They should not be mistaken for channel operators.

IRC administrator
Contact person for the irc team, but not users.

Gameforge

Gameforge Community Management

He is the connection between the teams of single games and countries and Gameforge. His also helps the team as an advisor. The CoMa is an employee of Gameforge and therefore has authority over the whole game-team. In general, the CoMa is no contact person for users.

Debris field – How can I find and harvest debris fields?

In the galaxy view, DFs have their own column. Each position has an icon displaying the DF. If it is lightened, it contains resources. Its size and composition is shown in its tooltip.

To harvest a DF, do the following steps:
• enter the fleet menu
• chose the appropriate number of recycler
• click next
• enter the coordinates of the DF
• over the coordinates, click on the DF to chose it as target
• possibly change the speed (optional)
• click next
• chose mission “harvest”
• send the fleet

If you have a commander, you can send recycler directly from the galaxy view simply by clicking on the word “harvest” in the tooltip of the DF