I wrote this up for a friend of mine when i realized that there was nothing like it in the forums...
i hope it helps people

Moon Creation:

Moons are created when a large Debris Field (DF) is made outside your planet... each time you are attacked there is a 1 - 19% chance that you will get a moon. The chance of getting a moon is raised with every 100k resources in the DF. For example if there was 400k metal and 100k crystal in a DF than there would be a 5% chance of getting a moon. If there was 1 million metal and 800k crystal in a DF there would be a 18% chance of obtaining the moon. Any DF larger that 1.9 million resources still has only an 19% chance.

Uses of the moon:
One the moon you can build two special buildings which are VERY useful, a phalanx sensor and jumpgate. A phalanx sensor lets you see click on somebodies planets and see any fleet movement that might be happening. A jumpgate makes it possible to Jump your fleet from your moon to another moon of yours with a jumpgate. Also on a moon you must build a lunar base BEFORE you build anything else. A lunar base supplies your planet with a few extra field so that you can build new buildings on your moon.

Moons and Deathstars

Moons can be destroyed (also know as popping a moon) by deathstars. The diameter of your moon determains how hard it is to destroy to destroy your moon. The larger the diameter the harder to pop and the more deathstars it will take. To pop a moon the deathstar(s) must first last through 6 rounds of combat against and defense or fleet that may be on the moon. To view the diameter of a moon mouse over it in the galaxy view.

Moonshots

Sometimes players purposely send a fleet towards their friend knowing that it will be destroyed, the reason for this is they are attempting to give their friend a moon.

Pardon the double post, but regarding Moon Formation: the DF has to be created instantaneously; moons aren't created by just leaving them sitting around you planet. Always rec your DF.

Just a couple things to add to this as well:

Don't build storage buildings on a moon. Storage is for production. Moons don't produce any res. Therefore, DO NOT build storage structures on a moon.

Also, I believe that if there is an ACS depot on your planet, you do not need one on your moon as well. This could use confirmation from someone as I'm not 100% sure on that.

Missions involving a moon (either as starting point or destination) are invisible to phalanxes. This is why moon to moon fleet saves are best.

Increasing the level of your jump gate reduces the recharge time by half. There has been some confusion on this in the past, but this is now confirmed.


That's all I can think of right now. If anything pops into my head, I'll edit.

One thing to note about moons - any buildings created on the moon do not count toward your overall score. However, defenses do count. (strange!!)

As of Sept. 28 2010, buildings on your moons count towards your total building points.
-neoshagrath

Well, so how many SSats should I build to get 18% for moon creation?

Or, actually - what is the cheapest way for the moon creation
and safest one


then... how many times usually does it takes to actually succeed?

The cheapest and safest way is to get somebody to send 50 Battleships at your planet. That would be called a moonshot.

100 Espionage ships gives you a 2% chance so 900....

acewoonder wrote:The cheapest and safest way is to get somebody to send 50 Battleships at your planet. That would be called a moonshot.

Another method, which I've seen used more than a couple of times, is where people use esp. probes to moon shot.

It's not the cheapest, but I would consider it the safest seeing as they can be destroyed in an esp. mission even if there are no defenses on the ground. It's also a lot faster than battleships, obviously.

My bad. I meant the cheapest. The safest way would be esp. probes.