Orbital Dominion

Orbital Dominion is the endgame alliance content in Orbitarion. Where Nebula War plays out inside each galaxy, Dominion plays out on a single shared Star Map that every alliance fights over together. The closer to the center you push, the more Valor Points your sectors generate per tick.

The reward for dominating the Star Map is steady, compounding VP — enough to push an alliance from Gold to Diamond if you can hold the inner rings for long enough. The cost is sustained coordination across the entire alliance: garrisons, fleet timing, and sector adjacency planning across many ticks.

When Dominion opens

Dominion is locked during the first 72 ticks of every season. Before that point, no alliance can unlock a sector — the system stays dormant while players build economies and form alliances.

At tick 72, the Star Map opens. From that tick onward, any alliance can begin claiming sectors. Battles on those sectors resolve at tick 96 at the earliest (a 24-tick "first battle" floor enforced regardless of when the unlock was requested).

The 72-tick lock exists to keep early-game focus on planet building, scanning, and Nebula War. Dominion is endgame content — it should feel like endgame content when you start engaging with it, not be a distraction from your first economy push.

Map structure — six rings, 91 sectors

The Star Map is a hexagonal layout with 6 concentric rings around a single central sector. Every season uses the same structure:

Ring	Name	Sectors	VP per tick per sector
0	Stellar Core	1	50
1	Inner Worlds	6	20
2	Mid Reach	12	12
3	Outer Drift	18	7
4	Frontier Edge	24	4
5	The Veil	30	2

91 sectors total. The outermost ring (The Veil, ring 5) is the entry point. The innermost sector (Stellar Core, ring 0 — also called "the Crown") is the most valuable single objective in the entire game.

VP economics — why ring matters

VP is awarded every tick to the controlling alliance, for every sector they hold:

A Veil sector: 2 VP/tick × 30 sectors theoretical max = 60 VP/tick if you held every Veil sector
A Stellar Core (Crown): 50 VP/tick — a single sector matches 25 Veil sectors

The exponential VP scaling means pushing toward the center is always worth more than spreading out across the rim. An alliance with 3 Inner Worlds sectors (3 × 20 = 60 VP/tick) outproduces an alliance with 25 Veil sectors (25 × 2 = 50 VP/tick) — despite controlling 8× fewer sectors.

Sector states

State	Meaning
shadowed	Sector hasn't been unlocked. Invisible to all players. Default state at season start
unlocked	An alliance has claimed it; the battle to take ownership is pending (resolves at a future tick)
controlled	An alliance owns the sector and is earning VP from it every tick
locked	The sector is in a cooldown window after a battle. Owner keeps it but can't be challenged for the duration

Sectors flow: shadowed → unlocked → controlled → (potentially locked) → controlled again, or back to unlocked if someone challenges.

Claiming a sector

To claim a sector, an alliance officer (founder or war_commander) calls the unlock action. The sector transitions from shadowed (or controlled by another alliance) to unlocked, and a battle_resolves_at_tick is set for some future tick.

Where you can claim

Three rules govern where a new claim is legal:

First claim must be a Veil sector. An alliance with zero sectors held cannot just walk into the middle of the map — they must start on the rim (ring 5). Error code: first_claim_must_be_veil.
Crown requires inner ring. Stellar Core (ring 0) can only be claimed if your alliance already controls 6 Inner Worlds sectors (the full ring 1). Error code: core_requires_inner_ring. This is the longest path in the game — you have to fight inward through 5 rings of opposition.
Adjacent sectors only. After your first Veil claim, every subsequent claim must be adjacent (in hex-grid distance) to a sector your alliance already controls. You can't leap across the map; you grind ring-by-ring inward. Error code: not_adjacent.

Battle timing

When you unlock a sector, the battle doesn't resolve immediately. The battle_resolves_at_tick is set to:

battle_tick = MAX(96, ceil((current_tick + 6) / 24) * 24)

In plain terms: - Minimum 6 ticks of prep time between unlock and battle - Battles always resolve on a 24-tick cadence (so they pile into the same tick across the map — coordinated combat) - Never before tick 96 (the first-battle floor)

The 24-tick cadence is the heartbeat of Dominion. Every 24 ticks, all pending battles resolve at once, VP is awarded to controllers, and the map advances.

Active sector slots — tier-gated

An alliance can only have a limited number of sectors in the unlocked state simultaneously. This forces alliances to focus on individual battles rather than spreading themselves thin.

Tier	Max active unlocked sectors
Unranked	1
Bronze	1
Silver	2
Gold	3
Platinum	4
Diamond	5

Stellar Core (ring 0) counts as 2 slots. So a Diamond alliance with 4 outer pending unlocks can't also queue Stellar Core — they'd be at 4 + 2 = 6 > 5 cap.

Once a sector transitions from unlocked → controlled (battle resolved in your favor), it stops counting against your slot cap. You can then queue the next claim.

This is the most direct mechanical reason to push tier — a Diamond alliance can run 5 simultaneous campaigns where a Bronze alliance is bottlenecked to 1.

Battle resolution

When a sector's battle_resolves_at_tick arrives, process_starmap_tick resolves it via resolve_starmap_battle. The flow:

Gather all garrisoned ships at the sector (both attacker's incoming fleet AND any existing defender's garrison)
Run the standard combat engine (same engine as PvP / Nebula)
Determine winner by total_attacker_value vs total_defender_value
Award VP, log a star_map_battles row, transition sector state
Apply a locked_until_tick window so the new owner has breathing room

Battles can have three outcomes:

Result	Meaning
attacker_won	The unlocking alliance takes control of the sector
defender_won	The previous owner (or NPC garrison) keeps control
draw	Indecisive — defender retains by default

After a successful capture, the new alliance starts earning VP the very next tick.

Garrisoning ships

Once your alliance controls a sector, any alliance member can garrison ships there to defend it. Garrisons:

Travel from your home planet to the sector (ETA depends on hex distance + your race's ETA bonuses)
Stay stationed indefinitely once they arrive
Auto-defend if the sector is challenged

Garrisons are the actual fighting force of Dominion. Unlock + garrison is the full claim cycle — unlock starts the timer, garrison ensures you have ships to win the resolution battle.

Garrison slot capacity

Each sector has a per-slot capacity for garrisons. Like nebula slots, sectors can host garrisons from multiple alliance members up to a fleet value cap. Members can split garrisons across multiple slot positions to coordinate defense.

Auto-return on sector loss

If your sector flips to another alliance, all your garrisons there auto-return to their home planets. You don't lose the ships — but they're tied up in transit for the return ETA, so timing matters.

Lockdown — defender breathing room

After a sector changes hands, it enters lockdown for a configurable number of ticks. During lockdown:

The new owner is earning VP each tick
No other alliance can challenge the sector
The sector shows as locked instead of controlled

Lockdown gives the new owner time to consolidate — garrison fresh ships, build economy, plan the next push. Without it, alliances would lose sectors immediately after winning them in exhausting back-to-back battles.

The lockdown duration scales with ring (inner rings have longer cooldowns since they're more valuable).

VP accumulation — every tick, all controlled sectors

Unlike Nebula, where holding VP is awarded every 24 ticks, Dominion VP is awarded every tick. The process_starmap_tick job sums vp_per_tick across all sectors an alliance holds (in controlled or locked state) and credits the alliance's star_map_vp + total_vp.

A real example: an alliance holding 1 Inner Worlds sector (20 VP/tick) + 3 Mid Reach sectors (3 × 12 = 36 VP/tick) earns 56 VP/tick × 1 920 ticks remaining in season = ~107 000 VP by season end — enough to reach Diamond from a Bronze start.

Compare this to Nebula's 24-tick cadence — Dominion is 24× more frequent, which is why Dominion dominates VP totals in the late game.

Why the inner rings are precious

The mathematical truth of Dominion:

Holding	VP per tick	VP per day (48 ticks regular season)	VP per week
1 Veil sector	2	96	672
1 Frontier Edge	4	192	1 344
1 Outer Drift	7	336	2 352
1 Mid Reach	12	576	4 032
1 Inner Worlds	20	960	6 720
Stellar Core (Crown)	50	2 400	16 800

A single Crown sector held for one week generates more VP than an entire ring of Veil sectors. This is why the central push is the central question of Dominion — and why the adjacency + Crown-requires-inner-ring rules force a long, structured campaign rather than a single jump.

Strategy notes

Form alliances before tick 72. Dominion opens at tick 72 — alliances that exist before then can pre-plan their Veil claim path. Late-formed alliances lose 1–2 days of strategic positioning.

Pick your Veil entry point deliberately. Your first claim locks your path inward. Veil sectors at "corners" of the map have fewer adjacent options; sectors near other strong alliances will face contested fights immediately. The Veil ring has 30 sectors, so there's room to spread out — pick a Veil sector that gives you the longest uncontested adjacent chain into ring 4.

Hit Gold tier before pushing inner rings. Gold (20 000 VP) gives you 3 active unlock slots — enough to run a parallel campaign on multiple fronts. Trying to push Mid Reach with only 1 active slot is glacial.

Plan the Crown push 200 ticks ahead. Stellar Core requires all 6 Inner Worlds sectors. You'll need to be Platinum or Diamond to have the slot cap to claim them in parallel, and you'll need garrisons ready for the resolution battle. Plan backward from the battle tick.

Garrison every controlled sector immediately. A controlled sector with no garrison is just waiting to be flipped at the next 24-tick battle wave. The first action after winning is always to redeploy ships from home to fill the new garrison slot.

Lock down your Inner Worlds before reaching for Crown. Losing an Inner Worlds sector mid-Crown-push is catastrophic — you lose Crown eligibility instantly. Hold all 6 with redundant garrisons before claiming Stellar Core.

Quick reference

Concept	Detail
Dominion opens at	Tick 72
Earliest battle	Tick 96
Total sectors	91 (1 + 6 + 12 + 18 + 24 + 30)
Battle cadence	Every 24 ticks
Minimum prep time	6 ticks from unlock to battle
VP / tick — Stellar Core	50
VP / tick — Inner Worlds	20
VP / tick — Mid Reach	12
VP / tick — Outer Drift	7
VP / tick — Frontier Edge	4
VP / tick — The Veil	2
First claim must be	A Veil sector (ring 5)
Crown requirement	Control all 6 Inner Worlds
Adjacency requirement	Each new claim adjacent to an existing controlled sector
Sector slot cap by tier	Unranked 1 · Bronze 1 · Silver 2 · Gold 3 · Plat 4 · Diamond 5
Stellar Core slot cost	2 slots (counts double)
Battle resolution	Standard combat engine (same as PvP / Nebula)
Auto-return on loss	Garrisons return home automatically
Lockdown after capture	Scales with ring — inner rings longer
VP behavior on loss	VP never decreases; tier is permanent
Battle log table	`star_map_battles`
Sector state table	`star_map_sectors`

Documentation reflects Orbitarion v2.0. Last updated: 2026-06-07.