12. 3. Ports

The Port Raid is one of SMR’s most coveted and enjoyable features. It requires a bit of patience and is better to do with alliance mates. People attack ports for many reasons, a common reason is to raise or lower their alignment. To raise your alignment, one must successfully raid an enemy port, meaning that your race must be at war with the port’s race. To lower your alignment, you must attack a friendly port (e.g. attack your own race’s ports). The final reason is to improve upon or to destroy a trade route or to claim money that has been traded in the port.

By degrading the port, the ports nearby will raise their purchasing prices on goods that are no longer easily accessible. So if the port sold machinery and your raid caused it to downgrade, meaning it lost its ability to sell machinery, then the ports in its vicinity, which purchase machinery, will buy machinery for a higher price. You will also gain more experience points from the new trade route. But do not forget, raiding a port is very dangerous. Be well prepared.

Note: It is most unwise to raid a port above level 3 alone. Try to always raid with friends.

When you enter a sector with a port you will notice there are two buttons.
1) Trade
2) Raid

Note: If your race is at war with the race of the port in question you will only see the “Raid” button. Also note that it is wise to be in a ship equipped for battle. Do not attack a port if you are in a trade ship.

Now as you click the raid button you will see the following:

WARNING WARNING port assault about to commence!!
Are you sure you want to attack this port?

If you have a scanner you will also see the following (this is the scan of a level 1 port):

Your scanners detect that there are 2000 shields, 200 combat drones, and 2000 plates of armor.

Ports have 15 turrets, each doing 250 shield damage and 250 armour damage. The accuracy of the port depends on its level and there are 9 levels. The accuracy of the port turrets rise by 10% depending on its level so the amount of damage you receive can be slightly random. Ports also have different amounts of shields, combat drones, and armor. They differ through each port level.

You will still have the option to back out after hitting raid but after pressing yes you will do your initial attack. Raiding a port takes 3 turns per shot, the same amount of turns for attacking a trader or planet. You also hit for the full amount of damage specified on your weapons, not a fraction of the damage like when you attack a trader or a planet. After your initial attack you will have a limited time period to raid it before it replenishes its defenses. Remember it takes more than one attack to raid a port.

You must destroy all the ports shields, armour, and drones before you can loot it. When you fire your initial shot you will see something like this:

The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port fires a turret at Raider and misses
The port launches 200 drones at Raider and destroys 150 shields.
This port does a total of 150 damage in this round of combat.

Note: With higher experience the less are the chances of the port hitting you. In this case the port missed altogether. Do not expect that to happen! You will likely get hit badly. It is best to be with your fellow alliance mates when attacking a port so the damage is distributed evenly. While raiding the port you may notice that you are taking a vast amount of damage, the remedy for this is to go an “uno hardware shop” and replenish your shields (and armor if it too has been destroyed). While raiding a port higher than level 1 you may downgrade it. Downgrading causes the port to level down a level and to lose one trading good.

If you successfully destroy the port’s defences you will see the following options:
1) Claim this port for your race
2) Loot the port

Note: Claiming the port for your race still allows you to loot it also. Also beware of hunters; place a scout in the sector and possibly a mine (if you can). Looting the port allows you to loot the port, but without having to claim it

Note: The attacker who fires the final shot will always receive the money from the port’s treasury reguardless of whether you loot the port or not.