Tutorial 17: Premium features

    • Update for Wiki

    • ==Compendium==

      - To use premium features, you first have to find, earn or buy Dark Matter
      - The Commander offers some additional functions to increase the game's practicality
      - Players who invest money in Officers, will get small advantages in game
      - With the Merchant you can trade resources without interacting with other players
      - Dark Matter can't be transferred from an account to another
      - Once activated, the premium functions can't be cancelled even if you have to enter in vacation mode or your account is banned


      As it's written on the welcome page, OGame is a game that everybody can play for free. You won't find any subscription fees or any other costs.
      But for those who want to grow faster, there are several premium features, which can be purchased using real money. We are often asked, which of the additional functions really help, and so we'll introduce them here and discuss their advantages.
      But I want to stress that this article is just for information, we don't want to give you any advice on whether to spend or not spend money for the commander or officers – it's your decision.

      ==Dark Matter – the premium currency==

      The currency, which is used to activate premium features in OGame, is called Dark Matter (DM). This can be acquired in different ways on the page “Recruit Officers”. It's advised to compare the different options of paying, because the easy options such as sms are often not the cheapest. If you know you're going to be playing your account for a long time then you should buy DM in larger quantities instead of smaller purchases, because the more expensive packages offer more for your money. If you buy Dark Mater for a specific account, it will not be possible to transfer it to another. Two special cases are Offerpal and Sponsorpay, these offer you Dark Matter for filling in surveys and subscribing to various things - but make sure to check the offer carefully to avoid any nasty surprises! Apart from these it's also possible to find small quantities of Dark Matter on Expeditions. Accounts that have unspent DM (bought DM) will not be deleted for inactivity (accounts that are not accessed for 35 days in a row will be deleted).


      ==Premium feature classic: the Commander==

      A long time ago the commander has been established and offers assertive only comfort-features, so the users won´t get any arbitrative gaming advantage. The main aspect of using the commander is to be free of advertising in the account. All banner ads and Layers will disappear by activating the commander. That makes OGame more comfortable and in part faster.

      Besides the advertisement free feature, the commander enables you to:
      - have access to the Empire View (giving you in one page a complete image of resources and infrastructure of all your planets and moons),
      - Improved messaging system (you can send unlimited messages )
      - Up to 50 favorite messages that can be stored unlimited time
      - You can make a building Queue with up to 5 buildings/researches that will be built in sequence if you have enough resources


      ==The Officers – game (pros) for pay==

      In contrast to the commander, the officers offer concrete game advantages (pros). If these pros are needed for you and your playing style, you have to decide on your own.

      The Admiral like the name suggests, offers advantages for active fleeters. By the use of this subscription, you will get two more fleet slots, whereby you can send more fleets, be it raids, attacks, deploy's or transports. Therefore, in a newly started Universe this is a great advantage and you can develop faster. For defensive miners or deffer of course this officer is not that appealing. But for those who want to play on top or farm a lot, the Admiral is useful has very good usage for the Admiral. Having the Admiral allows you to select a lower fleet escape ratio.
      Costs: 5.000 DM a week or 50.000 DM for 3 Month

      Different to the Admiral, the Engineer first of all offers advantages mainly to defense players because this feature halves the defense causalities. If a planet gets attacked, normally only 70% of the defense will be recovered, which can be a big attrition. With the engineer 85% will be recovered.
      Another benefit of the engineer is that it generates 10% more energy.
      You will have lower defense losses and increased energy output by 10%.
      Costs: 5.000 DM a week or 50.000 DM for 3 Month

      The Geologist is preferred by miners. He elevates the Resource production by 10% on every planet you have. As your mines get bigger so does the advantage of using the Geologist.
      Of course fleeters can also use the geologist to have a small extra income.
      Costs: 12.500 DM a week or 125.000 DM for 3 month.

      The Technocrat offers two very different advantages. First he elevates the espionage Technology by 2 levels. This is at first a great advantage while starting in a new universe where you can espionage earlier, that this is a way to minimize your risk while attacking other users.
      In the later run of the game, it´s also good to have the higher espionage level so you can espionage other players easier and with less probes while more espionage probes are needed to get information about you.
      The second Technocrat´s feature is a reduction of the research time by 25%. As you advance in game, every level of research the research time gets longer and longer. Against that the Technocrat is a fantastic investment. So this officer is very interesting for players who want to lead in the research/high score category.
      Costs: 10.000 DM a week or 100.000 DM for 3 month.

      ==Commanding Staff - the whole premium staff at once==

      This bundle provides you with not just one specialist, but an entire staff instead: Commander and all the Officers available in one shot. Using this premium feature, and next to the already detailed advantages you can obtain from Commander and Officers, the bundle will provide your Empire with some extra benefits, such as: 1 extra fleet slot to send more fleets at the same time; a 2% bonus in the energy production and a 2% bonus in your mines production in all your planets; and, 1 extra level of espionage research.
      Costs: 42.500 DM a week or 425.000 DM for 3 months.

      ==The Resource Market – resources fast and uncomplicated==

      In resource market you can find two main options: "Get more resources" and "Exchange resources".
      First option, “Get more resources”, allows you to refill your storage with 10%, 50% and 100% of your whole capacity for each type of resources but limited to 10M. The upper limit is smaller for fresh universes. If there is less than 50% or 10% of the storage capacity available, only the 100% variant is offered. This option is also visible in storage building menu.
      Related to this there is also the option to build constructions, ships& defense and so researches by using DM. The limit here is also the storage capacity (you can’t buy more resources than your storage capacity). If you cancel the construction or research ordered in this way, the resources will be returned.
      Second option is "Exchange resources". Trading resources with other players is not always the fastest and easiest way to swap your resources. For this reason you can call the trader for 3.500 DM. This feature swaps your resources for an unknown rate inside of a definite range, however you can modify the exchange rate for another 3.500 DM. Sometimes you can find a trader during an expedition. Everything you need to know about resource swapping you will find in the chapter “trade”.


      ==Scrap Dealer - recycling your ships and defense systems==

      The Scrap Merchant will buy your ships and defenses for a percentage of it's initial costs for free.
      If you want to get rid of some ships or defensive units, you won't have to crash them into someone else's planet anymore, the scrap merchant will offer you 35% of their value including Deuterium.
      You can sell as many ships as your storage space will allow you to cash in the resources.
      The premium "Bargain" button will increase the percentage of resources you get from selling your ships and defences. A bargain will increase the percentage with 5 up to a maximum of 14% every time to a cap of 75% of the ship's cost.
      The first bargains cost is 2.000 Dark Matter; each bargain after will have it's costs increased with 2,000 Dark Matter up to 10,000 Dark Matter per bargain.

      ==Import/Export - Unknown rewards waiting for you==

      Once a day Daily you have the chance to buy a surprise package. This package will contain a premium item [resource booster, kraken, newtron or detroid] but you will not know the contents until after you have purchased it. The object can be bought similar to an auction, exchange rates being 1 / 1.5 / 3 and honor points being equivalent to 100 metal. You can choose to take the object or to try and exchange it with another random object, but this will cost you 500 Dark Matter for a Bronze Item, 1,500 Dark matter for a Silver Item and 4,500 Dark Matter for a Gold Item. You can only do this change twice.

      ==The Auctioneer ==


      Auctions start every morning at 6AM and end every evening at 11PM.
      Auctions last between 35 and 45 minutes each.
      Time left until auctions end is an estimate of 5 or it's mathematical multiple [20 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes...] so you will never exactly know when an auction ends.
      Objects you can bid on are:
      Resource Boosters of all types [Bronze, Silver, Golden] and for all type of resources [Metal, Crystal and Deuterium], Krakens, Detroids and Newtrons of all types [Golden, Silver and Bronze].
      If you bid on an object and someone overbids you, the resource you have spent will not be refunded!


      ==Shop - Premium items for your Empire==

      Resource Boosters:
      At the ingame Shop you will be able to acquire some boosters to amplify the resource production of your planets.
      The Resource Boosters work for all 3 types of resources (Metal, Crystal and Deuterium).
      They can be activated on one planet or all planets and will last for 7 days, enhancing the production on the planet you chose to activate it on.
      Depending on the type of booster you activate, it will increase production by:
      10% for Bronze boosters
      20% for Silver boosters
      30% for Gold boosters

      Warning-Box:
      1. You can't activate two boosters of the same resource on the same planet at once [ex: one 10% metal booster and one 20% metal booster]
      2. You can use all the boosters on the same planet as long as they are not for the same type of resources [ex: one 10% metal booster, one 30% crystal booster and one 10% deuterium booster]
      3. You can use own boosters on all of your planets, they work only for the planets they are activated on.
      4. Boosters and the Geologist work together [ex: If you have a 1000/hour production and you buy a Geologist and a golden booster, your mines will work at 140%, producing 1400 resources/hour]

      You can buy boosters with Dark Matter from the store (or get them from an auction or by chance from Import/Export):
      Bronze boosters: 2.500 Dark Matter
      Silver boosters: 8.500 Dark Matter
      Gold boosters: 25.000 Dark Matter

      Planet Fields:
      Acquiring this type of items at the Shop, you will be able to expand the amount of fields that are available at your planets.
      After activation, their effect is permanent but there can be only one item activated on a planet; that means that no two planet field items can be running at the same time. Even so, a weaker item can be overwritten by a high-value item. For example, a bronze planet field item can be overwritten by a silver or gold item.

      You can buy boosters with Dark Matter from the store:
      Bronze Planet Fields(+15 fields) : 300.000 Dark Matter
      Silver Planet Fields(+9 fields): 150.000 Dark Matter
      Gold Planet Fields(+4 fields): 75.000 Dark Matter

      Moon Fields
      Similar to Planet Fields,you can buy them form the shop and they are increasing the building slots on a moon. After activation, the effect is permanent and lasts until the moon is destroyed or abandoned. Only one moon field item can be activated at a time. Two moon field items can't run at the same time. Higher items can overwrite lower ones but not the other way around.

      Gold Moon Fields (+ 6 fields) : 100.000 DM
      Silver Moon Fields (+ 4 fields): 50.000 DM
      Bronze Moon Fields (+ 2 fields): 30.000 DM

      M.O.O.N.S.- moonshots at your frontdoor
      M.ercenary O.nslaughts O.ffering N.ew S.tars

      One M.O.O.N.S item is giving only a 20% moonchance, forming of a moon is possible but not guaranteed.
      Once you are positioned on the planet you want to get a moon, you make sure you have the necessary amount of DM and resources and also the defense and ships on your planet to be able to destroy the 1667 LFs. You can buy & activate a M.O.O.N.S. item in order to have a fleet of 1667 Light Fighters to crush on your planet defense or fleet stationed there. The attack is initiated from the position 16 in your system. The techs are 0 0 0 (player space) and the fleet is traveling from position 16 with 100% speed (Combustion Drive Level 8).
      These items can be activated as often as you want and several at the same time. Once activated, you can’t cancel them. Attacks won't be visible by phalanx and NO debris will be created during the battle.
      Attack will start after a warm up phase.

      You can buy these articles from the shop. If the planet you are in the moment you buy a M.O.O.N.S item already has a moon, you will have only the option to buy. If the planet has no moon and has the required amount of resources, you can buy&activate the item, one or more in a row. At each activation of the item the resources are deducted.
      Costs:
      Gold M.O.O.N.S.- Warm up: 1h
      Costs : 100.000 DM, and 2.500.000 Metal, 850.000 Crystal

      Silver M.O.O.N.S.- Warm up: 18h
      Costs : 50.000 DM, and 3.000.000 Metal, 1.000.000 Crystal

      Bronze M.O.O.N.S.- Warm up: 1d 18h
      Costs : 30.000 DM, and 3.500.000 Metal, 1.150.000 Crystal


      ==Acceleration Button - Building and researching in two clicks==

      This feature allows you to speed up the construction time of a building by 50% of it's initial construction time with every click, so you will be able to finish a building/shipyard queue/research in two clicks by paying Dark Matter fees; the first activation will halve the initial construction time, and the second will finish the building/shipyard queue/research
      Every single activation will cost an amount of Dark Matter based on the initial building/researching time, following the rate 30min / 750 Dark Matter.
      Examples-Box:
      1. Building X takes 10 days to be built. The first activation will reduce the time to 5 days, and the 2nd activation will reduce the time by 50% of the initial construction time, which is 5 days [not 2.5], meaning, the second activation will finish the construction.
      2. Building x takes 10 days to be built, it still has 6 days until it's done, by activating the feature, it's construction time will be cut by 50% of the initial construction time, 5 days, meaning that the building will be done in 1 day.
      3. Building X that takes 10 days to finish has 3 days until it's done; activating the feature will finish the building, but the price you pay is the one for a 50% reduction.

      As mentioned before this feature requires Dark Matter to be used. It needs huge amounts of Dark Matter.
      The price is set according to the initial building/research time, but it has minimum and maximum limits from 750 Dark Matter to 108.000 Dark Matter per click

      Buildings and shipyard queues need a minimum 750 Dark Matter up to a maximum of 72.000 Dark Matter per click (exact price is set based on the initial building time).
      Research need a minimum of 750 Dark Matter up to a maximum of 108.000 Dark Matter per click (exact price is based on the initial research time).

      ==Relocation - Moving around the Universe==

      The relocation allows you to move your planets to a different position in a preferred system.

      While you are on the planet you intend to move, go to galaxy view, select the desired new location, click on the small icon named “relocate” and in galaxy view at the selected coordinates you will see a 24 hours countdown until the planet will be moved. The same countdown will appear on the moving planet's overview. During this time you can use your planet as normal. When the countdown finishes, the planet is moved to the new location. The relocation will be canceled if any construction, research is under development or fleets from that planet are in flight at the time the countdown ends.

      When the relocation is successful, the buildings and all stored resources on the planet and the moon (if there is a moon attached to the relocated planet) are moved immediately. The fleet will automatically fly to the new coordinates on speed of the slowest ship. The fleet will be invisible to phalanx. In the case that a Jumpgate is present on the relocated moon, it will be deactivated for 24 hours.

      Warning-Box:
      1) You can start building/research/fleet development immediately after relocation of your planet as usual.
      2) You can also use your phalanx immediately after relocation.
      3) Planet temperature and picture will be changed; however, planet size stays as it was. That means that a relocation switching 1-3/13-15 position will result into a change on the solar satellites energy and into the deuterium productions.
      4) Before launching a relocation it is important to keep in mind that:
      - You can only move to an empty position,
      - you can move between 1-3 and 13-15 slots.
      - You can move across the 4-12 slots.
      - You can't move from 4-12 to 1-3 or 13-15 slots but you can move from 1-3 or 13-15 slots inside the 4-12 slots.
      5) The slot you're moving to is blocked to other missions as soon as you start the relocation.
      6) You can cancel a relocation, but the planet will have a cooldown time of 24 hours while you will not be able to launch another relocation.

      A planet relocation costs 240.000 Dark Matter. Only when the planet relocation process finishes successfully the Dark Matter is charged. The payment will be done when the countdown finishes.