Pre-Warp Age

The age before the warp drive

Your civilization has mastered spaceflight, but interstellar travel is still out of reach. You run a space corporation, starting out with limited capital. Your goal is to invent the warp drive and make the first warp jump.

Generated star systems

Every game takes place in a new star system. Generation follows astronomical models: star classes, orbital zones, planets and asteroids. What you know about the Solar System will serve you well here.

Explore

Uncrewed missions have already given your civilization the basics: you can see which world sits where and what type it is. Only exploration reveals what lies beneath the surface, and a world cannot be settled without it. The farther a world is from your home planet, the more it costs to explore.

Extract resources

Every generated system offers its own set of resources: some are plentiful, others scarce. Distribute your workers wisely to cover your shortages. Build colonies, trade, and grow your output. Warp technology will demand enormous resource reserves.

Research technologies

At first, hot and icy worlds are extremely hard to settle, and distant planets are all but out of reach. Solving these and many other problems takes stronger drives, new materials and new equipment.

Crises and opportunities

The road to warp is never straight. Random events force you to adapt and revise your plans: solar flares, market shocks, labor strikes, comets, asteroids and more. Sound decisions help you avoid problems or soften the damage. A risky decision can end in disaster.

Choose your mode

• In “Meditation”, you can settle a star system at a relaxed pace without an overall turn limit.
• “Classic” plays more like earlier Clarus Victoria games, with a turn limit and challenging gameplay.
• “Hardcore” combines the pressure of “Classic” with the scale of space exploration by making actions take multiple turns to complete.