I had read somewhere, and always been told if you capture a capital, then the AI losses his whole space-ship part projects and has to restart. However, last night I ended up trading a capital for a round, and there was no effect.

I am not sure if this is a bug, or if there is a special rule for needing to HOLD that capital for x-amount of turns? This is not well documented anywhere.

Thanks.

I've never noticed that the AI loses spaceship progress when you take his capital. (Even if you keep it.)

Maybe he only loses the spaceship if it has already launched.

woody is right. the space ship can be destroyed after launch by taking the rival's capital. Prior to the launch this does not occur...

Alright, thanks for clearing this confusion up, and it is consitant now to what I have observed. So, rule #1 is to only attack AFTER the launch. Hmm.