AI War:CTRLS Button Overview

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The "CTRLS" Button replaces the old "Control Nodes" method of setting per-planet and galaxy-wide behaviors for ships and engineers.


  • You will find the "CTRLS" button in the lower-left corner of the screen next to the "STATS" button.
  • Inside the "CTRLS" button there are two tabs: Galaxy-Wide and Planet-Specific

Galaxy-Wide tab

  • On the "Galaxy-Wide" Tab there are a row of toggles down the left side that control a variety of unit behaviors wherever the units happen to be.
    • Use the mouse-over function to learn about each toggle.
  • Some of the more notable ones are:
    • Auto FRD Military -- sets all mobile military to Free Roaming Defender mode
      • Use with caution as your ships attacking a target on a hostile world will revert to FRD as soon as their command queue is empty. Your ships will then take off in whatever direction their favorite target is, likely scattering your fleet at the wrong time.
      • On defense you will not be able to assign mobile units to guard a specific location like a wormhole or command station. As soon as an enemy unit appears all FRD units will move to engage, leaving their assigned positions.
      • Consider setting your factories to produce units in FRD mode. Units can then be assigned to guard a particular spot or put on FRD in another area as required.
    • Auto FRD Engineers -- Engineers that are not assigned a particular task (assist factory,etc.) will move around the planetary map repairing or assisting-to-build your ships and structures
      • There are some specific engineer assist behavior modifier toggles on the right side of the Galaxy-Wide tab
        • Engineers Do Not Assist Allies
        • Engineers Do Not Assist Queues (You will need to assign engineers to assist the Starship/Fleet ship constructors)
        • Engineers Prefer Non-Military (Repairs to mobile military units are the lowest priority and will only happen if there are no other available tasks)
        • Engineers Do Not Assist Low Power Ships (Critical to stop FRD engineers from tanking your economy by assisting large projects like the Zenith Trader Power Station)
    • Disable Auto Manufactory Management (Useful if you are always running a large difference in crystal or metal production/consumption)
    • Focus-Fire (Forces an alternate targeting algorithm that tries for rapid-as-possible ship kills rather than maximum total damage)
    • Reclaimed Ships Rally To Rally Post (Used with "reclaimer class ships" like parasites,and Leach Starships)
  • Sliders on the right side are used to automatically maintain the selected number of Engineers and Remains Rebuilders on every planet you have a command station on.
    • Note: Sliders for the Mk2 and Mk3 engineers are disabled until they are unlocked at a science lab. **Ship caps may reduce the number of engineers actually maintained on any particular planet.

Planet-Specific tab

  • Used to set the number of engineers and remains rebuilders that will be maintained on the specific planet shown in the dropdown list.
    • Ship caps may reduce the number of engineers actually maintained on any particular planet.
  • Alert When # Enemy Units Present
  • Alert When # Aggressive Units Present
    • If set to something higher than zero, the alert window will note when the planet has >= the specified number of enemy or threat (respectively) units. This only works if you have scout intel on the planet (command station or scout drone provide that, among others).

Ship Design tab

  • Used to design the equipment load-out of modular Ships in the Game.
  • Design, Name, and Save your own custom combos.
  • The Raid Starship was the first modular ship added to the game.


AI War:AI War