Scripts and the Firewall

A breach without explosions

Another player's ship is still never a target, and their station can be neither seized nor destroyed. But every station has a terminal, and all the colonists of the Exodus share the same protocols. While no copy of the owner stands in the system, their colony can be breached with a program.

A successful script gives temporary access, the kind an ally has: refuel at someone else's fuel plant, print at someone else's factory, or pay for your own orders from someone else's warehouse. The materials don't move into your warehouse: they are spent on the spot, on your order.

Study and assemble

A script is written by a copy, and the knowledge for it is a branch of that copy's own tree. You need a protocol, that is, what exactly to open, and the target's operating system: each branch of the Exodus has its own. A script for the wrong OS won't work.

A script is assembled on board, on the "Scripts" tab of the "Ship" screen: it takes game time and crystals from the warehouse of the system where the copy stands. Assembly runs alongside research, and a finished script lies in that copy's hold and dies with it.

The terminal

A working station of another player has a "Terminal" button on the "Object" screen. It is a guest console: you can read the station's details and its log, then pick your copy in the system and run a script from its hold.

The script burns out whatever the outcome. A failure doesn't explain what stopped it: a foreign colony's defence can't be seen from outside. So every run is a bit of a bet, and the console honestly holds a pause before letting you down.

How long access lasts

About a game year, that is, a few hours of real time. The owner closes it sooner: as soon as their copy appears in the system, every breach against them goes dark. Presence is the best defence.

A breached station is marked for everyone who sees the system: what is open, by whom and until when. The owner gets the notification "a colony was breached".

The firewall

A colony is defended by its data centre. Without one, the colony is open to the simplest script. A data centre puts up a level-one firewall, and the next levels are opened by research and installed with crystals, never above the data centre's rung. The level is held separately against each branch of the Exodus, and a script gets only through a firewall no higher than its own level.

A breach won't empty the warehouse: part of the stock stays untouchable even for an intruder. And a breach gives nothing but access: the stations stand, the copies live, the owner stays the owner.

On the same "Firewall" screen the owner also decides peaceful things: which branches get the fuel plant and the warehouse, and down to what threshold other players' orders may draw on the stock. A rule applies to a whole branch at once: neighbours have no names here, only branches.