I'm a newbie and freshly out of the witless protection program. How do I fleet save? And what's the value of ACS Defend? My ships seem to engage in defense even if they're on the ground.

There is indeed a FAQ that can be found in the "Player's Guide" section of the forums.

ACS defend allows you to defend other people's planets as well as your own. It stands for Alliance Combat System.

several ways to fleet save but the safests is moon to moon.

regardless if you do not have a moon, a moon MUST be involved in the mission or it will be seen by someone using phalanx from their moons.

In ZorgEmpire ANY mission involving a moon is invisible,so with this you need to either launch an attack or if the planet of that moon has an acs depot launch a zero stay acs defend at that moon and adjust the % from 100 to as little as 10% whatever suits you for time you will be gone from game.Also remember that time that shows is one way so need to times it by 2 to give yourself the correct time that fleet will be gone.

Rule of thumb is add extra time as it is better to lose a little raid time than to lose your fleet because you fleetsaved and did not return back to game before it returned.

if you do not have a moon to launch from and have no friends currently with a moon than i suggest finding a moon of at least 9789 or higher on an inactive to attack(that 9789 represents the current size moon safe from a 100% moon destroy mission from myself)and cross galaxy FS'n is recommended if you have the deut to do so.

Also not keeping all your eggs in 1 basket is a wise choice,breaking you fleet up into 2,3 or more equal or unequal pieces and spacing them out by a minute or so and even doing the same point A to point B save could save a total destruction of your fleet should the moon or moons be destroyed.

This also robs the attacker of that 'Big' TD that most fleeters like to see.

anyhow i personally would steer clear of leaving your fleet on any planet via acs defend and go with as much as possible moon to moon or acs zero time to moon.

advice on obtainning a moon if you don't have any friends is build a small fleet and leave a little go go juice with it and eventually someone will come along and destroy the ships and give that moon chance..and 5 cargo ships is not gonna do it but doesnt mean leave 1000 BS there either

Another way to get MS is to ask around. People tend to be friendly if you offer return shots as well.