Sector Entry Flow

Not everything that moves in a sector triggers combat. Understanding the difference between player warps and NPC movement is critical to reading the battlefield correctly.

What Triggers the Entry Pipeline

The entry pipeline runs only when a player ship warps into a sector. It does not run when:

NPCs move into a sector on their own
You log in while sitting in a sector

When another player warps into your sector, the entry pipeline runs for the arriving captain only. It does not run again for captains who were already in the sector.

The Entry Steps (in order)

When you warp into a sector, the game checks these six steps in sequence:

Step	Trigger	What Happens
1. Cloak check	Active Cloaking Device	May bypass hostile mines, Q-cannons, and fighter patrols if not detected.
2. Mines	Hostile limpet or armid mines	Limpets can attach; armids can damage or destroy your ship.
3. Q-Cannon	Hostile planet with citadel ≥ 3	Automatic cannon fire. Can destroy you instantly.
4. Fighter Encounter	Any hostile deployed fighters	Depends on fighter mode (see below).
5. Ship-to-Ship PvP	Hostile player ships present	PvP encounter prompt.
6. NPC Encounter	Hostile raider NPCs present	You choose: attack, flee, or bribe.

If any step destroys you, you respawn in FedSpace immediately. The pipeline does not continue.

Important: Mines and Q-Cannons are automatic. Fighters, PvP, and NPCs can pause for your choice depending on the encounter.

Cloaking Through Chokepoints

Cloak charges are bought at StarDock. Activating a charge lasts up to 3 warps or 10 minutes.

When you enter a hostile defended sector while cloaked, the server rolls detection based on the defenses present. If you are not detected, hostile mines, Q-cannons, and fighter patrols are bypassed for that entry. If you are detected, cloak breaks and the normal entry pipeline runs.

Cloak breaks when you expose yourself through actions like combat, trading, StarDock services, deploying fighters or mines, planet management, or launching torpedoes.

Fighter Modes Explained

When you enter a sector with hostile fighters, the mode of those fighters determines what happens:

Mode	What Happens When You Enter
Defensive	You get a choice screen: Attack, Retreat, Surrender, or Pay Toll (if tolled fighters are also present).
Offensive	Same choice screen — unless all hostile fighter groups in that sector are offensive. In that case, combat auto-resolves as a surprise attack with no player choice.
Tolled	You get a choice screen with a “Pay Toll” option. Toll = 5 credits per tolled fighter. If you can’t pay or refuse, combat begins.

Tolled Fighter Quirk

Evil-aligned players (alignment ≤ -100) are not tolled by other evil or Fremen-aligned owners. They must fight or retreat — no toll option.

What NPC Movement Does NOT Trigger

NPCs (traders, raiders, patrols) move via an hourly background cron job. Their movement is a simple database coordinate update — no entry logic runs.

Event	Fighters React?	Mines React?	Q-Cannon Fires?
Player warps into sector	Yes	Yes	Yes
NPC moves into sector	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Another player warps into your sector	❌ No for you; the arriving player runs their own entry pipeline	❌ No for you; the arriving player runs their own entry pipeline	❌ No for you; the arriving player runs their own entry pipeline

Why Your Fighter Count Doesn’t Change

When Nora the Trader (or any NPC) moves into your sector, your deployed fighters sit unchanged. That’s because fighter encounters are tied to player warp events, not NPC coordinate updates.

The same applies to raider NPCs. When a Sardaukar raider moves into your sector during the hourly tick, nothing happens to your fighters. But if you warp into a sector where a Sardaukar is already sitting, you trigger the NPC encounter prompt.

Reading the Sector Header

The sector info bar shows what is present right now, not what will happen on entry:

Display	Meaning
`🛡 Your fighters: 12,000 (offensive)`	You own 12,000 offensive fighters here. They will attack any player who warps in.
`💣 ~500 hostile mines`	An enemy has ~500 mines deployed. They will trigger on your next warp into this sector.
`⚔ 2,000 hostile fighters`	Another player has 2,000 fighters. They will engage you on your next warp in.

Strategy: The sector header is a snapshot of static defenses. It does not predict NPC movement — NPCs can wander into the sector after you arrive, and your fighters will not auto-engage them.

Summary

You warp in -> Cloak check -> Mines -> Q-Cannon -> Fighters -> PvP -> NPCs
❌ NPC moves in → Nothing. They update coordinates silently.
❌ You sit still, NPC arrives → Nothing. Fighters only trigger on your warp, not on arrivals.
⚔ Offensive fighters only auto-attack if all hostile groups in the sector are offensive.

If you want fighters to engage NPCs automatically, that would require a new feature — NPC-vs-fighter combat resolution in the background tick. Post in #feature-requests if the beta group wants it.

TW 3002 AI