Maintenance Costs
Maintenance costs serve as a mechanism to limit the maximum fleet size in HEGA.
For years, absurdly large and continuously growing fleets have been considered a major issue by both players and the support team. Ongoing fleet growth or sudden bulk purchases by active fleeters (prior to version 4.4) made it difficult or even impossible for many players to catch up or compete on equal terms. Losing your fleet in the mid or late game often led to frustration, resets, or even account deletions. New players who didn't join right at the round start faced overwhelming challenges in Open Zone (SZ 8). Without enough helpers (producers or defenders), they quickly became easy targets. The resulting fleet loss typically ended in a reset or deletion of their account.
Numerous forum discussions on "mega fleets" led to the introduction of the maintenance cost system, designed to reduce fleet size disparities.
Unrestricted fleet growth without maintenance costs also led to ship counts far beyond what is familiar from the "Star Wars" canon.
(click to expand)
Maintenance costs are not a fixed limit but adjust dynamically to a player's playstyle, giving players control. If a player is willing to invest more in fleet upkeep, they can maintain a larger fleet than someone with limited credit income. A fleet "allowance" exists to cover a portion of the fleet without any maintenance costs. This allowance can be increased by upgrading your command buildings.
Note that defense structures also incur maintenance costs!
All space units exceeding the allowance will require maintenance fees.
The unit costs are based on their credit value. An Executor-class ship will therefore cost more than an X-Wing.
The calculation is global across all planets and deducted directly from your credit income.
Be careful: your credit income can go negative and deplete your credit balance!
Ways to cover maintenance costs:
- Sell resources for credits
- Sell ground units for credits
- Sell space units for credits
- Increase credit income
If you can no longer pay your maintenance costs (e.g. your credit balance hits 0 due to negative income), some of your ships will land on the planet and become unavailable for use. Only as many ships as necessary will be deactivated to balance your income. You can use the "Details" button in the "Economy" menu to set the priority of which units are deactivated first. It is generally advisable to deactivate transporters last, as they are often needed for saving resources.
Additionally, a 15-minute timer (900 seconds) will freeze the current activation status of all ships, regardless of the player's credit balance. This timer is triggered when the number of owned units decreases. It is visible in the maintenance overview and highlights the maintenance table in yellow when active.
You have the following basic values:
Credit income: 1,000/h
Credit reserve: 9,000 credits
Allowance: 400
Deactivation priority: Corvettes / Destroyers / Bombers / Fighters
Space Units:
| Type | Amount | Maintenance / Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Fighters | 100 | 2 |
| Bombers | 100 | 4 |
| Corvettes | 30 | 20 |
| Destroyers | 10 | 50 |
All values in this example are for illustration only and not tied to actual in-game values.
Maintenance cost per hour for the above fleet:
100 Fighters * 2 + 100 Bombers * 4 + 30 Corvettes * 20 + 10 Destroyers * 50 - Allowance
--> 200 + 400 + 600 + 500 - 400 = 1,300 credits
You now have a negative credit income of 300 credits (credit income - maintenance costs)
Your 9,000 credit reserve, without other income or expenses, will last:
9,000 / 300 = 30 hours
After these 30 hours, maintenance will stop being paid in the specified priority order until the deficit of 300 credits is resolved.
With the above priority:
300 / 20 (corvette cost) = 15 corvettes will land and be removed from active fleet calculation until enough credits are available again.
Units that are not maintained (intentionally or not) land on the planet and are unavailable for combat or any fleet movements. These inactive ships can be destroyed by ground assaults with little resistance.
If your fleet is in flight when funds run out, all ships of a type with even a single unpaid unit will turn around and fly back at max speed. For example, if a fleet of 10 ships of a type has 1 unpaid unit, all 10 will return. Factions that rely on carriers will have their fighters return at the carrier's speed.
To prevent cheap fleet-saving during space-only battles, ship deactivation follows the set global priority and is applied evenly across all planets. Changing deactivation priority in the maintenance overview is only allowed when no flights are active. You also cannot manually deactivate ships that could still be afforded.
Note: Your **main planet can now be attacked by ground forces**. However, **occupation of the main planet is still not possible**!
Combat Report Expansion
Attackers and defenders now receive a message alongside the ground combat report, listing all destroyed or deactivated units of the defender.