Battle group

A battle group is a group of one to fourteen ships, either spawned in HyperSpace or guarding a TrueSpace star system. It is treated as a single entity (represented in HyperSpace as a black "spoor" and in TrueSpace as a single, non-rotating ship of the respective race) and the ships constituting it cannot separate. Colliding with a battle group will initiate an encounter. If the battle group is encountered in HyperSpace, the encounter will take place in TrueSpace, in an area called "Deep Space" — and if the encounter turns hostile, a planet will still be present for the battle.

Battle group behaviour

• In HyperSpace, battle groups spawn randomly at most once a day and follow the Flagship. Notice that they simply head towards it, instead of heading a bit further to collide with it if it does not change course.
• In TrueSpace, battle groups circle at different ranges around planets, switching randomly between them. Most battle groups can only be seen in the closest zoom level (focused on a planet), though they may randomly switch back to the main zoom level.

If the Flagship gets close enough to a TrueSpace battle group, regardless of whether they are friendly, neutral or hostile, all battle groups in the system will head on an intercept course with The Flagship — including those at different zoom levels. After the encounter is finished, they return to patrolling unless they are hostile.

There may not be battle groups pertaining to different species in a single star system, even if their Spheres of Influence overlap on that star system.