Infinite Space Myths Revisited: Flotillas of Five and Lone Wolves

Infinite Space Myths Revisited: Flotillas of Five and Lone Wolves

Most of the time in Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars, five recruitable allied ships (three capital ships, initially scouts or similarly sized vessels, plus two fighters) will spawn on the randomly generated map when you start the game, thereby allowing you to have six ships in your fleet (including your starting ship) at a time. However, very rarely, there will only be four such ships spawned at the start of the game, leaving you with a maximum of five ships in total. This situation can only occur under the following set of circumstances:

• No special allies (Damocles or Kestrel - both of these ships are only available as part of their respective quests) are present on the map.
• One of the two fighters must be a Muktian fighter; the other one must be a Zorg fighter. These ships can only spawn on a map containing their factions' respective home worlds (Bandur for Muktians, Loryx for Zorg).
• One of the two capital ships must be Terran (Moon Marauder); the second capital ship must be Garthan (Bloodfang). This will leave no room for a sixth vessel (in the form of a fourth capital ship) in the fleet.

If all three of the above conditions are met, you will only be able to field a maximum of five ships in your fleet instead of six. This ties in with the next myth: is it possible to fully complete a game without ever having added any capital ships to your fleet, leaving you with only your starting Terran capital ship (not including fighter escorts)? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. However, there is only one way for this to occur: by destroying all of the systems where the capital ships (or their crew, in the case of the Calatians) are found using a Limited Vacuum Collapser. (Given that the Calatians become your allies the moment you rescue their stranded crew, this won't work if said crew is present on the map and is found before the LVC has detonated.)

In any case, this only works if the LVC can be detonated in a place such that all of those systems are engulfed in the blast. It is easier in the above scenario, though, since you only have to destroy two systems harboring capital ships instead of three. Moreover, if one of the ships destroyed is vital to a particular quest, the game may become impossible to complete fully. Finally, even if it is still possible to actually complete the game, doing so will be more difficult: whereas Terran frigates and destroyers have six equipment slots each (plus three and four weapon slots respectively, Terran scouts and corvettes have four and five such slots respectively, with the latter also having two weapon slots compared to the scout's single weapon slot. Thankfully, all Terran capital ships (except for scouts and survey ships) can be retrofitted with a rear-facing turret for a small fee.

That's one more reason to think twice about detonating a Limited Vacuum Collapser: In addition to having to avoid destroying your own fleet in the process, you could risk annihilating potential allies before you've even met them, leaving you with fewer wingmen in your fleet than intended (or even worse, none at all). Fortunately, this is a rare occurrence, and under certain circumstances can even be exploited if your fleet already has enough firepower and protection to survive hostile encounters, rendering the extra allies unnecessary.