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? Area: TRADEWARS DI ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Msg#: 17 Rec'd Date: 03-05-94 20:05
From: Stephen Whitis @1:124/211 Read: Yes Replied: No
To: All @1:124/3114*4 Mark:
Subj: 1.03D NP INFO #4 3/4/94
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In the early part of a game, when you are using Fedspace for protection,
you can drop extra fighters (over the 50 ftr limit) in a sector outside of
fedspace, to pick up later. Someone *may* kill them, and if you leave
them in a major space lane (such as the route to Stardock from Terra and
back) the feds will remove them. But it's an option I find useful.
Don't go evil until your experience is at least 375-400. Then you can
jettison colonists or post bounty's in the underground to turn evil. You
need to have a -100 or less alignment to Rob/Steal. Some players prefer
to keep trading (or triple-trading) until their experience is much
higher, say over 1050, so they can steal-sell 70 holds in a starmaster.
Once you've turned evil, FedSpace isn't going to protect you, so start
cloaking every night. (In some games it may not be needed, but in
general, plan on it. Once you start running a Steal/Trade system, you can
easily afford it.) If you divide your experience by 20, you have a good
idea of how many holds of equipment you can steal without getting caught.
Exp / 15 is a little more risky, but still pretty safe. Regardless, there
is *always* a chance of getting busted. If necessary you can steal
equipment several times to fill your holds, and sell it all at once.
To run the Steal-Sell loop, start with equipment in all of your holds. Go
to a port which buys equipment. Sell your equipment. Steal equipment
(5%-6.6% of your experience or so) until your holds are full. Sell it
again. Just keep doing that, and always bargain prices. Your experience
will go up as you do this, so eventually you will be able to steal more at
a time. Five point trading means selling your equipment for 100% best
price every time. It's maximum profit, and raises your experience five
points each time you sell, so it's worthwhile. It will be explained
elsewhere in the FAQ.
I keep using the scout until I have enought experience to steal 70-85
holds at a time safely, and then move to another ship. Usually your
choice is between a starmaster and a corp. flagship, if you are head of a
corporation. If not, the starmaster is almost always the best ship. For
advanced players, the evil ISS is the way to go.
Whenever you buy a new ship, you should have enough money to buy the ship,
maximum holds, a new density scanner (or holo scanner), and a cloak.
Otherwise, you should probably stay in the ship you are already in a
little longer (unless it's an escape pod. Never stay in an escape pod.
You can trade it in for a scout right away, and you should.)
When you buy a ship you plan to keep for awhile, buy a holo-scanner.
Cloaks don't fail unless an external utility is causing them to, and you
should cloak nightly unless you qualify for fedspace. Even in games where
cloaks do fail based on a low %, use the cloaks. But if they can fail,
you may want to move to a dead end to cloak.
Use the density scanner any time you are moving to a sector you haven't
visited, and use it when the surrounding sectors are unexplored. It will
tell you when a port is adjacent, and help locate dead ends, planets, and
other ships.
If you (or a corp. member) plan on using a ship with transwarp you should
drop single fighters regularly. Especially in dead ends, where they will
tend to survive longer. These fighters will also slow your opponents who
try to Eprobe to explore. I drop them even when I don't plan on using a
ship with Twarp capability.
Once you've located stardock, don't use a lot of turns exploring. 95% of
the time (or more) you want to be making money with your turns. This is
very basic, but many players use turns warping around, chasing aliens, or
being sidetracked by Ferrengi. Use your turns to make money. To explore,
spend money on Etherprobes and use them.
The database utilities will allow you to get a list of sectors which not
only have you not explored, but which no sector you *have* explored has a
warp to. By eprobing these sectors, you will gain info on at least two
sectors. If you use the computer F command with ANSI on, you can look for
paths with lots of unexplored sectors, which is useful mainly in the early
stages of the game when you haven't explored very much.
In a corporation, usually only one person needs to do much exploring...
The other players just make money. Eventually, you'll need that money!
Your long term goal is to develop a well defended planet, while keeping
your opponents from doing the same. Ideally, your planet will be shield
bugged. In games where shield bug isn't allowed, you want max shields and
32,000 fighters on the planet. With a well defended planet, you can stock
money in the citadel, which will gain 4% interest a day. When that amount
is high enough, no one without a similar source of income will be able to
harm you. If you can shield bug a planet, you probably only need 1. If
you can't, you may need a few, but most player build more planets than
they need, and as a planet is partially developed, it's high-risk. An
opponent may steal a level-4 planet, Twarp it away, and then all your work
is in their hands...
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