Recovery Points

Recovery Points (RP) are the mod-side currency that funds a hero’s fleet rebuilding after loss. Every living hero accumulates RP over game time; every ship the mod builds for a hero costs RP. The system is designed to make recovery gradual, not instant — a faction that just lost an admiral’s fleet takes time to put a replacement in the field.

Accumulation

Every hero in state active or lost_flagship (with cooldown elapsed) gets RP on a 5-minute game-time cron tick. The rate scales with star rank:

Hero rank	RP per tick (5 min)
★	10
★★	20
★★★	40
★★★★	80

Higher-rank heroes accumulate faster — the design assumes senior officers have more faction support behind them.

Cap = 200 RP. Additional RP is thrown away — you cannot stockpile forever. This is deliberate: it forces the player and the mod to make choices about which ship to rebuild first, when to hold a wounded hero back to bank RP, and when to commit to expensive rebuilds.

RP does not tick during:

• Death cooldown — the period between a wounded / unscathed outcome and when the hero starts rebuilding. See Death cycle.
• Lineage vacancy — the period between KIA and when a successor spawns. The RP register does not exist yet for the future bearer.

Ship costs

Each ship class has an RP cost when the mod builds it for a hero:

Ship class	RP cost
S (fighter)	5
M (corvette)	10
L (destroyer)	40
XL (capital)	100

Ship cost includes full crew — captain, service, gunners. The mod handles it. The player never needs to supply the faction with a boarding party or logistics chain.

Rebuild pace

The spend logic is deliberate — the mod builds at most one ship per tick. On every tick, for each hero whose state allows rebuild:

1. If the hero has no flagship → try to build the flagship first. If $recovery_points >= flagship_cost → create ship, deduct RP, add to fleet group.
2. Otherwise, if the escort is short of expected count → try to build the largest missing escort ship (L before M before S). If enough RP → build, deduct.
3. Otherwise → nothing this tick. RP keeps accumulating up to the 200 cap.

Result: a hero at ★★★★ who needs to rebuild a full 1 L + 4 M + 4 S fleet (40 + 40 + 20 = 100 RP total ignoring escorts sub-costs) still takes at least 9 rebuild ticks = 45 minutes of game time even if RP is in surplus. There is no instant respawn.

This creates the “faction is regrouping” feel:

• The player sees the hero on the map with just their flagship and one escort.
• Ten minutes later, another escort has joined.
• Twenty minutes later, the second capital ship arrives.
• The fleet slowly re-forms over the course of an in-game hour.

Interaction with star rank

Higher-rank heroes recover faster in two dimensions:

• RP tick is higher (★★★★ = 80/tick vs ★ = 10/tick, 8× multiplier)
• They still need more expensive ships (★★★★ builds up to XL @ 100 RP; ★ tops out at L @ 40 RP)

Net effect: a ★★★★ hero recovers a full top-tier fleet in ~2 hours of game time; a ★ hero recovers a basic fleet in ~1 hour. Both feel meaningful because higher-rank losses are also bigger in absolute value.

Interaction with death cycle

• After a wounded outcome: 120 min cooldown → RP tick resumes → rebuild starts.
• After an unscathed outcome: 30 min cooldown → RP tick resumes → rebuild starts.
• After a KIA outcome: no rebuild. The successor (if any) starts with 0 RP and gets a full starting fleet as an initial grant (bypassing the RP system for the first spawn). Then normal accumulation resumes.

The initial-grant rule for new bearers is a design compromise. Without it, every succession would leave the faction with no admiral for another hour. With it, the faction always has a functional officer as soon as the lineage cooldown expires.

Player intervention (planned)

The concept doc calls out a future feature: player supplies RP directly to a favoured hero to accelerate their recovery. Not yet shipped. The interaction path will likely be a “Sponsor recovery” button on the hero detail page, gated behind player rep with the faction.

Once shipped, it will let the player:

• Save a favoured admiral from a slow rebuild
• Gain rep with the faction for the sponsorship
• Feel investment in the individual character, not just the faction

UI

The hero detail page shows:

• Current RP / cap (e.g. 160 / 200)
• Next expected build (which ship class, when the next tick will spend)
• Fleet status (flagship + escort composition, missing slots highlighted)

Related mechanics

• Death cycle — when RP starts / stops flowing
• Lineage succession — why new bearers get a starting-fleet grant
• XP and star progression — why higher-rank heroes accumulate RP faster