Spawning

Spawning is the unique ability that allow avatars to reappear in the universe after death of its injuries or using the Recall Home ability.

Spawning causes the avatar to appear in the universe somewhere. There are several possible locations at which it can spawn. Selecting a spawn location is called spawn tieing.

Exception: Demiavatars (or half-avatars) can not respawn after death, but they are still able to use the Recall Home ability.

Spawn Location

The avatar spawns in the universe at one of five possible locations, in the following order of precedence.

Spacecraft Berth

Your berth is your primary spawn location. You spawn tie to a spacecraft by joining the roster, either as a crew member or a passenger. You will not spawn aboard a ship if the empire that owns the ship is no longer friendly or neutral toward your empire, or if the ship is destroyed, or if the ship's life support system is not functioning. Your character spawns in a bunk, unless the ship has no bunks at all, in which case your character spawns at a randomly selected location inside the ship.

Your character spawns lying in the bunk. Mouse movement rotates your body between four facing positions while lying in the bunk. The bunk provides life support and enables access to your personal sea chest. Items inside your sea chest may be needed to survive the environment outside your bunk. Press E to exit your bunk when you are ready.

Home city

Your home city is your secondary spawn location. You declare a city to be your home by standing in the city and pressing the Declare Home City button on the primary button bar, or by pressing Alt + Shift + ~ (that's a tilde, the little squiggly character). Your first city is automatically set to be your home city, either by spawning there for the first time or by creating your first town square. You can only spawn at a city if it is controlled by an empire that is friendly toward your empire. Your character spawns in the development in which it was standing when you spawn tied to the city. If that development no longer exists, your character spawns in one of the homes of the city, selected at random each time, or the town square if there are no homes.

You appear at a random location in the development, this means that if it is a building with no exits, you could be stuck. There for it is recommended to spawn tie to Town Squares or Military Flags.

Capital city

The capital city of your empire is the next spawn location, when a berth and a home city are not available. Your emperor selects the capital city of your empire. You can only spawn in your capital city if it is controlled by your empire. Your character spawns in one of the homes of the city, selected at random each time, or the town square if there are no homes.

Randomly selected city

When no berth, home city, or capital city are available, a city of your empire is chosen at random in which to spawn.

Empty world

When just starting as a new emperor, or when your empire is being crushed out of existence, or simply decaying away, your empire may have no cities at which to spawn. The last fallback spawn location is an empty habitable world somewhere in the galaxy. If you are already on an empty habitable world, you will respawn where you fall.

Recall Home

Recall Home is an ability all avatars are born with. It allows the avatar to be force it to spawn as if it died.

In short, Recall Home is the same as dying, but without losing random equipment.

Trance

The avatar enters a trance, awaiting the recall to its spawn location. During this trance, it is vulnerable to the environment and its occupants. It can be seen, injured and killed by any hostiles while awaiting spawn-recall.

The length of the trance is random, but depends on the avatar's lineage:

• Demiavatar, 30 to 45 seconds
• Avatar, 15 to 45 seconds
• Highborn, 5 to 15 seconds

It is also possible to cancel the spawn-recall while in the trance.

Galactic Transit

Equipment and money are lost if you recall to a different galaxy than the current one.

Sea chest contents are not lost; each galaxy has its own sea chest that is totally separate from the next.

How to use

To use the Recall Home ability, simply click "Recall Home" button on the button bar or pressing Alt + Backspace.

The screen will begin to pulse with grey runes while in the trance before spawn-recalling the avatar.

Cancel recall by pressing the Recall Home button while the trance.

Common uses

Recall Home is most commonly used to easily get across great distances with the tactic known as Berth-a-Port.

Other uses include getting unstuck from door-less buildings and spacecraft, and get home when stranded on an alien world or in space.

Spawn Tieing

There are two forms of spawn tieing, spacecraft berth and home city.

Gaining a spacecraft berth is done by requesting a berth on the comm. The captain or an officer aboard a spacecraft can then accept the request. Requesting a berth while inside a spacecraft will automatically be accepted if commerce rules allow it.

To declare a city the home city of an avatar, simple use the Declare Home City ability while standing in a city.