alt.games.gb Frequently Asked Questions (Part 1 of 2)
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Last-modified: 06/20/2006
Galactic Bloodshed FAQ Version 4.4 - Part 1 of 2
FAQ Originally written by Doug Ingram
FAQ versions -->4.1 by John P. Deragon and Evan Koffler
FAQ 4.1 --> 4.2 Old and wrong information corrected. New psmap help.
FAQ 4.2 --> 4.3 New addresses and information about current server codes.
Info about GB mailing list. New section: newbies deadly sins.
All addresses checked 1.6.97. Tapsa. (ra...@alpha.hut.fi)
FAQ 4.3 MAY 1997 by Tapio Ranta-aho (HTML format by Evan Koffler).
FAQ 4.4 March 2005 updates and reformatting by Michael Wilkinson
------------------------------
Subject: 1. Introduction
This FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) was written to answer questions for
those interested in playing GB. It is oriented to those who are just getting
started with GB.
The latest version of the FAQ is available on SourceForge:
<http://gbp.sourceforge.net>
** This is the first of two parts **
Part 1 -- Frequently Asked Question
Part 2 -- Advice from GB vets for novices
------------------------------
Subject: 2. Table of Contents
(+) Indicates a new subject for this version
(*) Indicates an updated subject for this version
** PART 1 **
1. Introduction
2. Table of Contents
-- Section I. Getting Started
3. What is GB?*
4. What is HAP?
5. What is GB+?+
6. Where can I get the client and/or server code?*
7. What are the different versions of the server?*
8. What are the different versions of the client?+
9. What if I have problems compiling something?*
10. How can I find out more about gb?*
11. Where are the current games running?
12. Is there a mailing list for GB?*
13. Do I need a client to play gb?*
14. How can I start playing a game?
15. How much time does it take to play gb?
16. Is there a newsgroup for GB?
-- Section II. The Game Set-Up
17. What is a racegen?+
18. What race should I choose?
19. What's the difference between a normal and a morph?
20. Which is better, morphs or normals?
21. What kind of planet should I choose?
22. What sector preferences should I take?
23. What happens if I get a rotten home planet?
24. How can I get a postscript map?*
-- Section III. Playing the Game
25. What is a move seg?
26. What is an update?
27. What strategy should I use?
28. How do I change scope?
29. How do I talk to others?
30. What should I do first?
31. How do I interpret the maps?
32. How do factories work?
33. What tax rate should I set?
34. What's the difference between military and civilians?
35. What should I set my mobilization level at?
36. How do planetary guns work?
37. How do atmosphere processors work?
38. What's the quickest way to jump to other systems?
39. How do I get hyperdrive on board ships?
40. How do I build ships in space?
41. How come I don't have any resources yet?
42. My pods didn't explode when they reached their destination.
43. How do I get a list of where my crystals are?
44. How do I get crystals?
45. How do I get a list of ship types I can build?
46. What are the worst mistakes I may do?
47. Final Warnings and Advice
** PART 2 **
48. Advice from Veterans
-- Section I. Setting up your race
49. Should I choose a metamorphic race or a normal race?
50. What type of home planet should I choose?
51. How should I spent my remaining points?
52. What sector preferences should I choose?
-- Section II. The Beginning of the Game
53. What should I do before the first update?
54. What is the first ship I should build? The second?
55. What can I do to increase my resource production on a given planet?
-- Section III. Later in the Game
56. Should I colonize the planets in my own system first, or
should I focus on arriving in other systems before opponents
can?
57. What should I do when I see another ship other than my own?
------------------------------
Subject: 3. What is GB?
GB stands for "Galactic Bloodshed", it is a piece of Internet history.
GB is one of the original update-based client-server multi-player 4X
Internet text games. Expand your empire and exterminate your opponents
as you explore the galaxy and exploit its many resources.
GB was first written in 1989; it presented an alternative to the very
complex game 'Empire'. Both are 4X games, however, GB appealed to sci-fi
fans. It never quite gained the popularity of Empire, however, those that
played GB were hugely fanatical about it. The game itself required less
daily time to play than Empire and dealt more with combat and less with
starving civilians. GB is one of the first true examples of Open Source
on the Internet; most admins that ran the game also contributed to the
code.
GB is a game played over the Internet by several users at various sites.
The remote site, where the game and its database reside, is generally
referred to as the "server". To connect to a game, players use a program
called a "client" that is run from their local computer.
------------------------------
Subject: 4. What is HAP?
"HAP" stands for "Heuristic Astronomy Project." HAP is a close
relative of GB, but there are many very important differences between
the two. Rather than go into the differences here, I suggest you
continue reading through this and then log in to one of the games
yourself. Ask around and experiment and decide for yourself what you
like best in a game. Both "flavors" of GB (original and extra crispy,
if you like) approach the game in a different way. For example, in HAP
games, communication among players who have not met is restricted
while on GB, global communication is the rule...thus for help, it
would be best to try a GB game first where players can hear you. Of
course, on the original HAP game, the deity and developer of HAP, Clay
Luther, is around most of the time, and there are no restrictions on
communicating with him in the game. As a general rule, HAP tries to
incorporate many of the best changes from new versions of the original
code while bowing more to "realism" where possible.
------------------------------
Subject: 5. What is GB+?
GB+ has extensive rewrites over the original GB. There have been many
flavors of GB that branched from the original GB. GB+ was created and
maintained by the GBDT (Galactic Bloodshed Development Team) mainly
as a code reorganization, bug fix, and architecture change effort.
However, many God players made their own mods to this (in the tradition
of HAP). Some of these mods where MarVin, Balanced Treehouse, Jekyll &
Hyde, and Vengeance of Solkan. After the GBDT ceased operations and a
period of inactivity GB+ was renewed by some Finnish students under their
own mod, HUT. HUT had some major bug fixes and additions. Finally in
2005 GB+ has found a new home at SourceForge. The newest GB+ now contains
most modifications, bug fixes, and enhancements ever conceived and
written into the various above-mentioned mods.
When playing a GB game you're actually connecting to a GB+ server.
------------------------------
Subject: 6. Where can I get the client and/or server code?
Both the client and server code is available under the Galactic Bloodshed
Project at SourceForge. <http://gbp.sourceforge.net>
The code you'll find there is tarred and gziped, so you'll need to know a
little bit about manipulating Unix files in order to set things up.
*** IMPORTANT ***
When you are ftping a binary file (ie: ends with .gz), you MUST set the
file transfer mode to binary! Most ftp programs and web browsers will
handle this automatically. However, if, for some reason, you do not
transfer the file in binary mode, it will be corrupt. If you experience
a problem unzipping or uncompressing a file, this is the problem 99% of
the time. Simply re-download the file in binary mode.
Here's a helpful example: Suppose you ftp gbII-2.6.0.tar.gz
First: gunzip gbII-2.6.0.tar.gz (gives you gbII-2.6.0.tar)
Next: tar -xf gbII-2.6.0.tar (separates out all the files)
Then: delete the original tar file if you wish.
Info on these processes can be found in your system's help files, but
if you continue to have problems, post your questions to alt.games.gb
newsgroup or connect to one of the running gb games as guest and ask
around for help. This is usually the first best thing to try when you
have any problems. After all, the players have all had to go through
the same things you will in order to get set up in gb.
Once the files are in your directory in a conventional format, there
will be help files and so forth included. It's a good idea to print
the help docs out and have them handy when you play.
------------------------------
Subject: 7. What are the different versions of the server out?
There have many different GB servers, almost every deity made their own
modifications. These were some of the good ones:
GB+ by the GBDT.
MarVin code by Ralf Zessin.
GB 5.0 HUT by a Finnish developing team.
V1.7.5 Balanced Treehouse (Valentines Day code) by Greg Merrill
However, the newest GB+ (6.0) available at SourceForge has brought together
all the mods and hacks that were available in the above servers.
------------------------------
Subject: 8. What are the different versions of the client?
Just like GB was the original name for the server, the first client for
GB (after telnet) was simply called gb. Then Evan Koffler (aka Keeshans)
wrote gbII for the Unix platform. Note that the gbII client successfully
compiles only on Unix machines or a close derivative of Unix (like Linux).
Scott Anderson (later modded by Rich Fitzgerald) wrote an X-windows
extension to gbII that displays map using an X display. This is now
included by default in the latest gbII (2.6.0).
There is/was also a version of a PC based client for GB available, written
by Chris Fodor (aka Feepness), however, at this time it is MIA and not
available at SourceForge (yet).
Additionally there's the Jurmunian Java Client, however, at this time it
is also MIA.
------------------------------
Subject: 9. What if I have problems compiling something?
As mentioned earlier, the first thing you should always try is to log
in to one of the existing games as a guest and start asking around.
There will often be someone on who can help you with simple problems,
but if they can't help you, you have a couple of different recourses:
The GB listserver <mailto:g...@towerravens.com> has a few folks savvy
with compiling the client on a few different platforms. When posting
to this list be courteous, give him informed questions rather than
just helplessly whining.
If you're having a problem with a bug in the server code, a good
bet is to post to alt.games.gb. There are enough users out there
familiar with the code to help you deal with whatever problem you're
experiencing.
There are also forums available on the Galactic Bloodshed Project's
SourceForge page. However, these are fairly new.
When posting to these groups be polite and clearly describe your compiling
problem. In other words, don't just write and say "It doesn't compile on
the NeXT and crashes when I try to boot it." At the least, run the code
through a debugger of some kind to get a line number within a routine
or at least get some kind of output sequence. This gives the person
helping you some reference point from which to track the problem down.
------------------------------
Subject: 10. How can I find out more about gb?
The Galactic Bloodshed Project's SourceForge page:
You can also try a google search for more information or (because it's
an old game) try www.waybackmachine.com on some old URLS:
GB Documentation Page:
<http://www.hut.fi/~rauta/gbhtml/thump/gbpage.html>
Gardan's HUT Page:
<http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~jkoi/gb>
Jurmunian Java Client Page:
<http://www.iki.fi/~kse/gb/JavaClient>
GB Server development history:
<http://www.idle.com/~evank/gb/gbhistory.html>
Aldan Game Page:
<http://aldan.netvision.net.il/~sasha/gb>
Kaos Game Page:
<http://orion.unm.edu/gb>
Valentine's Day Massacre Page:
<http://www.halcyon.com/merrill/gdm/gb/gbtoc.html>
J & H Page: (Has VB and Java Clients)
<http://www.incenter.org/gb/index.html>
Try logging in to one of the current games running. Some games have a
guest account set up specifically for new users to find their way
around and ask questions. When it asks for a password, simply type
"guest" or "guest 0" in most places, and you'll be logged in to the
game. There's no guarantee that there will be someone on who can help
you and/or has the time, but during the evening is generally the best
time to try.
There is also GB mailing list. See below.
------------------------------
Subject: 11. Where are the current games running?
I used to keep a list of this, but it's just too much of a pain. The
best way to keep track of which games are running (or about to be) is
to watch the alt.games.gb newsgroup. It's very low volume, so that
should be no problem. The FAQ gets out of date too quickly and easily
in any case.
Once you get a server address and part, use the following examples to
connect you to a game with telnet if you're not using a client. If
you're using a client, simply replace "telnet" with "gbII" or whatever
you've named the client executable in your directory. on Unix: "telnet
pooh.caltech.edu 2010" or "telnet 131.215.48.30 2010" or, on VMS:
"telnet pooh.caltech.edu /PORT=2010" etc.
Note: Some of these games are chronically off-line for one reason or
another; others are only up at certain (unknown to me) scheduled
times. Don't be surprised if you get a refused connection by more than
one game. If you want to enter one or more of the games that have not
started yet, check alt.games.gb for announcements about where to send
your requests.
Other games will be announced in alt.games.gb as they are started,
including periodic "blitz games" run by various people. A blitz game
is essentially a gb game in which the updates are squeezed down into 5
to 20 minute intervals as opposed to the usual 1 or 2 per day. If
you're wondering what an "update" is, read section III about playing
the game.
------------------------------
Subject: 12. Is there a mailing list for GB?
Yes. This list is made for general conversation about the game.
Please post information about: new games / running games / thoughts /
problems / server ideas / scripts / etc... Or anything else GB related :-)
How to sign up to the Galactic Bloodshed mailing list:
To subscribe to the list, mail a message to majo...@towerravens.com.
The subject line may be blank, but in your message text, type in:
subscribe gb
Leave the rest of your message blank (remove sigs, etc.)
------------------------------
Subject: 13. Do I need a client to play gb?
If you're going to play seriously, then the answer is yes.
Theoretically, one could get by using only telnet, but only the client
will process maps correctly and enable you to encrypt your
conversations, which is a convenient way to communicate at no cost
without being overheard on the game.
Additionally the newest GB+ server can optionally require CHAP (Challenge
Handshake Authentication Protocol) authentication. If the GB server you
connect to requires this then you will require a client. Right now, only
the latest gbII (2.6.0) supports CHAP authentication.
------------------------------
Subject: 14. How can I start playing a game?
There are two ways to do this. First, you can wait until someone
announces the beginning of a game. The alt.games.gb newsgroup is where
you'll see such announcements. The person in charge of the new game will
either include (or point you to) a racegen program which you can then use
to specify what kind of race you want. Then you log in to the game and
start playing when it starts! Read on for more details on what racegen
is and how it works.
Another way to get into a game is to log onto a currently running game
and ask. In most big games, there are "sleepers," or races which have
dropped out for one reason or another (it's not always due to
weakness, sometimes time constraints are involved). Also, many players
with big races tend to look for people to help them out since playing
a big race in gb can be very time consuming.
Games now run with the "governor" code. This allows for races to have
one major leader who can delegate authority over given ships and
systems to his governors, who are independent players recruited by the
race leader. This is a great feature for those of you out there who
want to play gb but lack the immense amount of free time that leading
a fully active race requires.
If you see an announcement for a new game starting, but don't want to
run your own race, your best bet is to post to alt.games.gb asking if
anyone needs a governor.
------------------------------
Subject: 15. How much time does it take to play gb?
That depends entirely on the number of updates per day. For a
reasonably large race (say, control of 40 planets) in a game with 70
star systems or so (3-8 planets per system), it will take you at least
one hour of playing time per update (this is vastly dependent upon how
efficient you are...use macros!). This can go way up if you are
actively waging war with another player. This time tends to increase
as the game goes on and you grow in power, but the main variable in
the whole time equation is simply how active _you_ want to be. It
takes a very active race to come out on top in gb; even on a one
update per day schedule, it can eat up your time, so consider yourself
warned. GB 5.0 HUT server includes many time saving features, so it is
easiest version to play if time tends to come a problem.
Players who join only to play for a little while and then drop out,
leaving all that they've built to fall into ruin, are generally
frowned upon. Sometimes it is unavoidable, but all deities ask that
you plan ahead. Don't get yourself involved in more than you can
handle. Drop-out players who don't get replacements can seriously
upset the game balance, ruining the game for many other players.
The advent of team races may offset both of these disadvantages, but
it's still best to be aware of them.
------------------------------
Subject: 16. Is there a newsgroup for GB?
Yes, alt.games.gb
This newsgroup is for the discussion of everything that has anything
to do with Galactic Bloodshed, including game announcement, rules
discussion, game editorials, etc.
This is NOT a GAMEBOY group.
There is also alt.games.galatic-bloodshed, which was actually started
before alt.games.gb, however, the name was too long for some UNIXes (at
the time) so the official group was moved to alt.games.gb. This FAQ is
cross-posted to that group, however, alt.games.gb should be used in favor
of the other.
------------------------------
Subject: 17. What is a racegen?
Every new game that is coming on-line is accepting races generated by
a program called "racegen". Use racegen to generate your race and
automatically send it to the appropriate "deity".
Normally, you'll be asked to use your client to connect to a special
racegen daemon on the eventual gb server machine. This greatly
simplifies the old process of game registration since you don't have
to have your own copy of racegen, just your gb client. Watch for specifics
on connecting to the game's racegen given with new game announcements.
Use your gb client or telnet to connect to racegen on server machine
then you are ready to go!
OLD (STANDALONE) RACEGEN NOTES:
If you need your own copy of racegen (highly unlikely), you may still be
able to get a copy from one of the old URLs mentioned above; it compiles
pretty easily on most UNIX systems. Note that you usually have to compile
a whole new version with the proper destination address (for sendmail) in
the code, but this is easy...just find the destination address line (#TO,
I believe) in the code and change the address with your editor, then
compile. This standalone racegen is so rarely needed nowadays that it is
not clarified in this FAQ anymore.
------------------------------
Subject: 18. What race should I choose?
The creation of new races is controlled by the person hosting the
game. Player #1 (the first player enrolled into the game) should
always be given deity status, as many of the game default operations
are placed in player #1's control. Other players may be designated as
having deity status during the enrollment procedure, but this isn't
recommended (or needed in most cases).
Race generation is often done using a rather complex point based
system, the idea being that you must spend a limited number points to
get better attributes. The program that you do this creation process
with is called "racegen". There are five types of data associated with
each race that the player can choose:
* Name, password, and other profile information -- While none of these
have any direct effect on game play, they add interest. Name and
password can be set with racegen before enrolling in the game. All of
the others can be changed as needed; see also: name, personal, profile
* Home planet type -- A race's home planet can drastically affect its
game. Jovian home planets are the most costly type, because jovians
are huge planets with big % the sector area of the universe on them.
Jovians are the only worlds with gas sectors on them; gas tends to be
resource-poor but fertile. Class M (Earth-type) home planets are the
next most useful, with a good balance of fertility and resources.
Forest and water worlds are like class M's and generally more fertile,
but they are also smaller on average. Desert worlds have high resource
content but are not very fertile. Iceballs and airless worlds are too
small to make very good home planets, but they are very common in the
universe as a whole.
* Racial type -- There are two main racial types in GB: normal races
(think of humans, Klingons, Wookies, Pierson's Puppeteers, etc) and
metamorphs (Alien, the Thing, body snatchers, etc.) The primary
difference between these two race classes is that only metamorphs may
have pods. A secondary difference that is rather harder to notice is
that the price of various attribute combinations is slightly different
for normals and morphs in racegen, especially for some of the
attributes' extremes.
* Compats -- The planets found in the GB universe are represented as
arrays of sectors of various types: ice, land, sea, etc. Various races
may have varying degrees of compatibility with these sector types,
which will affect the amount of population they can grow on that
sector type, and other things too.
* Attributes -- Attributes are quantizations of a race's abilities.
Currently there are 11 basic attributes for each race:
** Absorption -- Only metamorphs may have this attribute, which allows
them to absorb enemy troops and civilians in combat if the morph wins.
Combined with pods, it allows metamorphs to replace alien population
on planets when pods burst.
** Adventurism -- This described how willing a sector's population is
to move and explore other sectors. High value tend to settle planets
on their own far more efficiently. If you have a low value, you can
order movements with the 'move' option.
** Birthrate -- This factor determines how rapidly the population in
the sector will converge to the maximum population supportable on the
there. High values mean that the population multiplies faster.
** Fertilize -- This attribute represents the percentage chance that a
race will increase by one percent the fertility of any sector it owns.
Any race may take advantage of space plows for a similar effect, once
it gets to tech level 5.
** Fighting Ability - Higher values mean that the race is more likely
to kill an alien than a lower value. Races with lower values will
usually need to have larger forces to win in direct combat over a high
fighting ability. It is important to note that this effects only land
combat and ship boarding strengths, and not ship to ship fighting.
** IQ -- The raw growth rate of a race's technology is governed by the
race's intelligence. The technology increase per update is IQ/100.
Additional technology gain is available by technology investments on
the individual planets under the race's control.
** Collective IQ; IQ limit -- The intelligence of a race with
collective IQ is related to the race's total population, as follows:
IQ = IQ_limit * [ (2/PI) atan(population/50000)]^2. [Note: Be careful
with this one! If you can't build pods, then having a collective IQ
could be disastrous as you won't have the knowhow to build *any* kind
of useful ships for a looooong time.]
** Mass -- Each race has a mass. The heavier the individual, the more
fuel it will take to launch and land ships full of the race.
** Metabolism -- This value controls how industrious the race is.
Higher metabolism races will produce resources more rapidly than lower
metabolisms, and also increase the efficiency of sectors faster.
** Pods -- Pods are small ships, available only to metamorphs but at
tech level 0, buildable instantly on the surface of planets. Each one
may carry a single crew-thing; this makes them ideal for settling
other planets. Pods which enter a system after having frozen in deep
space will warm and eventually burst, possibly leading to spores
landing on worlds in the new system. If a spore lands on a sector, a
ton or more of biomass will be created, resulting in a new colony for
the podding race. Note that spores may never land on alien occupied
sectors unless the podding race has absorption.
** Sexes -- Each race has a number of sexes. This represent the
minimum population that a sector must have in order to be able to
reproduce. Lower values are preferable to high values for colonization
efforts. It is not recommended to have more than 3 to 6 sexes at the
outside, unless you are really looking for a challenge
------------------------------
Subject: 19. What's the difference between a normal and a morph?
A "morph," or "metamorph," is described in the standard docs as the
type of race you'd see in John Carpenter's "The Thing." The major
differences between morphs and normals can be summarized like this:
-- Morphs can absorb enemy bodies when they attack a sector
-- Morphs can build spore pods on planetary surfaces
-- Morphs' IQ is determined only by their population
It used to be the case that morphs had a very high metabolism and very
high fighting strength to go along with all of this, but the advent of
racegen has changed that considerably. Now, morphs can have all of the
basic characteristics of normal races -- but the three attributes
mentioned above are only available to metamorphs. The disadvantage
that offsets this option is that some items will be more expensive in
racegen.
I'll discuss these three items in reverse order: First, morph IQ is
based on some exponential population formula. In all games, this means
their IQ starts at 0, and the maximum possible morph IQ can be set by
the player in racegen. A common practice is for morphs to spend a
great deal of tax money investing in tech to offset this disadvantage,
but it still takes a while to "take off." The low IQ means that morphs
cannot rely on shuttles (which require some minor tech ability to
build) to ferry them around to colonize planets early in the game.
Morphs, however, have the ability to build spore pods. These pods
require no tech to build and are very cheap.
The major advantage to spore pods is this low cost and the fact that
they can be built right on the planet's surface (while most other ship
types require factories which need resources to be turned on and time
to repair before actually building any ships). The drawbacks to pods
are that they are slow and that they explode upon entering star
systems. That's not _always_ a drawback, but early in the game, it
will mean that several pods must be sent to a system in order for you
to have a good chance at landing morphs on a planet or two. The
success rate of spore pods (ie. whether they explode harmlessly or
result in a colony) varies from game to game from 20% to 40%.
The other major difference between morphs and normals which is
mentioned above is morphs' special combat ability. If a morph attack
force defeats another race in ground combat, a large fraction of the
defeated enemy will be "absorbed" by the attacking morph race,
enabling morphs to actually _increase_ their population through
attacking. Thus, late in the game when all planets are covered and
well-defended by other races, morphs still have a chance to do some
serious damage by showering an enemy system with pods and perhaps
landing enough morphs in the system to cause a lot of problems, if not
to take over a planet or two.
------------------------------
Subject: 20. Which is better, morphs or normals?
This is debatable. Each race type has its own advantages and
drawbacks. It also depends upon the modifications made for the
particular game you are in. Generally, each race type can be led to
success by a good player, and alliances between morphs and normals are
quite common and can be very effective (since the normals generally
have the high tech levels while morph's pod launching ability and
generally high metabolism and/or fighting strength can help the
alliance).
------------------------------
Subject: 21. What kind of planet should I choose?
This is covered in large part in the above racegen docs, but I can
make some comments about common questions that arise. Of all types of
planets, class M's are chosen for homeworlds around 75% of the time.
This is because they are the largest of any type planet except
Jovians. Thus, they can support a high population (for taxation and
tech purposes), and they usually have a fairly high number of
resources. Another common choice is desert, since it is on the same
order of size as a class M planet. Deserts have more resources, but
are less fertile and are rarer in some games than class M's (also, you
should take 100% desert as a sector preference, which means you can't
spend as much on the other, more common, sector types).
Big planets have two big advantages:
1) The larger the planet, the faster you will produce resources from
it once you have covered the planet. So the more sectors you have, the
better. Races that select small home planets tend to get left behind
early on in the race to build the first ships for this reason.
2) The planet is much harder to conquer. Even if an enemy manages to
field a temporarily superior force to your planetary population, odds
are he won't have the AP's necessary to take the whole thing in one
update, so you have time to marshal reinforcements if you're in a
bind.
Here's a brief summary of the various planet types. The relative sizes
of each of these planets, as well as the benefits (and % of races
which choose each type of planet, etc.)
! will vary from game to game !
When using racegen, you'll typically pay (or get a bonus) for the type
of planet you choose to start with, and the deity will try his best to
see that your points are fairly spent.
Class M - - These planets are usually about 60% water, 20% land, and
an even mix of everything else. Once in a while, you'll find a class M
with an abnormal atmosphere (like heavy in methane content).
Jovian - - These planets are 100% gaseous, and they are usually twice
as large as the typical class M planet. They tend to be very high in
fertility, too, so you can easily build up a large population for
taxation and tech purposes. Also, ships in orbit around Jovians add
fuel to their holds every update (tankers are twice as efficient at
this), so even if you're not a Jovian-type race, having one of these
nearby can be a tremendous asset.
Water - - These are largely water planets, and I've found that they
are generally resource poor. They can be quite large, ranging up in
size to class M quality, but they are usually about 40% smaller. On
some versions there is also mountain sectors. That will raise the
resource depository a lot.
Desert - - These planets are usually 80% desert and 15% mtn/land. They
are _very_ nice as far as resource content is concerned, and their
size range is much like Class M planets.
Forest - - These planets are almost entirely covered in forest, which
is the rarest sector type. Resource content is fairly good. Size range
is between Water planets and Class M's. Fertility is higher than on a
normal class M.
Iceball - - These planets are generally small (1/5 the size of class
M's or less), and they consist of around 75% ice and 25% mountain.
Relative to their size, they are resource rich, but the small number
of sectors means that resources will come more slowly.
Airless - - These planets are mostly land (75%) with some mountain and
ice sectors. The atmosphere is almost always hostile, of course, but
these planets are probably the most resource rich relative to their
size (ie. 1/3 the res of a typical class M but 1/5 the size).
Asteroid - - These are just floating rocks in space, not good for a
heck of a lot. They don't count as planets in victory conditions, and
they usually have very few resources, and the small number of sectors
make it very difficult for most asteroids to ever contribute to your
cause, though having colonies on them have other advantages, such as
morale bonus. Sector types are random but range among land, desert,
ice, and mountain.
------------------------------
Subject: 22. What sector preferences should I take?
The most common sector type besides gas is water, but this is
misleading since there are so many water sectors on Class M's (in
addition to those on waterball planets). Running a close second is
land terrain, which is found on just about every planet type. Forest
is probably the least common, making it an unusual and often strategic
addition to your list of preferences (remember, you pay for both the %
compatibility and an overhead cost for each of your sector prefs).
Mountain is convenient to have since it is usually high in resource
content and found in small amounts on many planets, and ice is also a
common choice.
I've also noticed that taking a combination of desert and a choice of
mountain, land and/or ice in your sector prefs somehow entices the
server into making your race a "methane breather" some of the time (or
maybe it's just bad luck). The problem with this is that most planets
will be extremely incompatible with your race, meaning your pop will
grow very slowly and often leave you vulnerable to invasion. You'll
find yourself at a rather large disadvantage until such time as you or
an ally can build atmospheric processors (at a pretty high tech level,
so it takes a while). Some games (with my strong approval) are phasing
out the possibility of methane breathing races except by request.
This is not to say that you should always choose water, land, and
mountain as your sector prefs. In many cases, alliances are made based
on sector incompatibility. In other words, a morph who loves water and
forest would rather ally with a desert/mountain/land loving normal
than another water loving normal, so don't be afraid to choose an
unusual sector type. It may enable you to exploit planets which other
races wouldn't mind giving away.
------------------------------
Subject: 23. What happens if I get a rotten home planet?
As it says in the help docs, a good home planet or system can really
make or break your race. In some games, the deity actually goes around
before the game and manually sets up everyone so that they can more or
less start off on an equal footing. If this isn't happening, though,
and you start with a crummy home planet, be ready to fight your way
out of it. This makes it all the more important that you establish
yourself throughout both your system and the surrounding ones. Look on
it as a challenge. :)
------------------------------
Subject: 24. How can I get a postscript map?
"psmap" is a program written in C which, given the output of your
race's "stars" command, will produce a nice looking PostScript map
which looks really peachy keen on laser printers. :-)
GBII USERS:
The most recent version of gbII (2.6.0) comes with psmap built in. To
use it simply type 'psmap'. The output of gbII's psmap is a bit keener
than the original stand-alone psmap. Users of the gbII client will find
this a snappy feature.
HOW TO OBTAIN THE PROGRAM:
You can download the file containing actual PSMAP code from GB-page at
address <http://www.hut.fi/~rauta/gbhtml/others/psmap.c> (you may need
to grab it from a web archive). How the actual downloading happens depends
on your favorite netbrowser. Please do notice the file you will be
downloading is a source code written in C.
HOW TO COMPILE:
(The following instructions should work at least in Unix-environments!)
To turn psmap.c-sourcefile to executable program you need to compile
it. The following syntax (or one which closely resembles it) in
unix-shell should do the trick:
cc -o psmap psmap.c
It will produce you an executable file named psmap. Please do remember
you could use you favorite C-compiler (like gcc) instead of cc.
HOW TO MAKE POSTSCRIPT MAP:
This one has two phases: 1) to get star-listing from the server and 2)
to turn that listing to the postscript format by using the program you
just compiled.
PHASE 1:
You need to get the output of "stars"-command from the server. The
easiest way to do it is to log it into file (You are using the client,
aren't you?) by typing after client prompt: stars > star.list This
will produce a file named star-list to your unix-directory. This
star.list should look something like this:
GB II Log File: Wed Feb 19 09:30:44 1997
( 0) Bambi ( 0, 0) 108676
( 1) Fomori ( -27761, 9231) 88864
( 2) Indus ( -29082, -10185) 107207
( 3) Callisto ( 5868, 31080) 87259
( 4) Tammuz ( -27412, -14362) 111664
( 5) Ascella ( -29025, 8470) 89218
( 6) Hofstader ( -41276, 35805) 59642
[the rest is deleted]
PHASE 2:
You should give starlist as input to your psmap-program which you
could by typing in the unix shell the command:
psmap 1 <star.list> psmap1.ps
or
psmap 2 <star.list> psmap2.ps
The command does process the listing of stars in file star.list and it
will generate a postscript file named psmap1.ps or psmap2.ps. The
difference between these two cases is: with argument 1 you get a neat
map with circles around your homesystem at 50000 unit intervals (good
for judging distances from your home system). With argument 2 you get
a plain map with just a names of the stars. psmap1.ps or psmap2.ps
file should look something like this:
%!PS-Adobe-2.0
0.5 72 mul 10.5 72 mul translate
/drawcircle
{
newpath 0 360 arc stroke
}
def
/drawstar
{
/starname exch def
/ypos exch def
/xpos exch def
xpos ypos 2 drawcircle
4 xpos add ypos moveto
starname show
}
def
[the rest is deleted again]
HOW TO PRINT IT:
Just print it with your postscript-printer. If you don't know how to
print it try to become acquainted with lpr-command or its equivalent
(man lpr :). If you still have problems just contact you system
administrator.
HOW TO USE YOUR NEWLY PURCHASED PS-MAP:
It will help you to outline the form of the galaxy and help you to
contact other races...Just kill 'em all! :)
------------------------------
Subject: 25. What is a move seg?
A move seg (or movement segment) is a procedure during which the
server updates the positions of all ships in the game based on their
current orders. For example, if you have a ship ordered to move toward
a particular star, planet, or ship, this process moves your ship
closer based upon the ship's speed. You'll receive messages from the
server when you arrive at your destination, at which time your ship
stops moving.
Repairs also occur at move segs. This means that every time there is a
move seg, any of your ships which are currently trying to repair them-
selves, regardless of how they incurred damage, will have their damage
percent reduced by some amount. For more information on how to repair
ships and so forth, see the help docs.
------------------------------
Subject: 26. What is an update?
An update is a "glorified move seg." Basically, everything that
happens in a move seg happens here PLUS the following:
- Production occurs at your colonies
- Ships attempting hyperspace jumps either jump or charge in
increments toward a level where they can jump.
What this translates to is this: The pace of the game depends almost
entirely on how often these updates occur. There will always be a
given number of move segs (usually anywhere from 2 to 6) between
updates, but updates are the real pulse of the game. Also, you should
note that the period right after updates is usually when the most
frantic action in the game takes place.
This is important when choosing what game you wish to play in. For
example, if you live over in Europe and the update schedule is such
that updates always occur at 4 am for you, you might want to pass on
the game. If you aren't on at updates, enemies often get the chance of
jump into your system and start attacking while you aren't on to
defend yourself. This can have disastrous effects.
------------------------------
Subject: 27. What strategy should I use?
This sounds like a pretty hairy question, but I will try to answer
this in a limited fashion for beginners. What you're basically looking
for is some simple-minded strategy that will get you through the first
20-30 updates while you're still learning the ropes of the game. Try
to follow these two basic principles: Produce and colonize. Your first
and foremost need is to produce resources on your home planet so that
you can start building ships. The fastest way to start producing is to
spread out and cover your home planet as quickly as possible. This
will be the sum total of your turns for the first several updates.
Once you have resources, you get to start building ships. If you're a
metamorphic race, that means you get to build pods. This is something
you should do as soon as you get resources. This is one of the major
advantages to playing a morph...pod-building ability. The nice thing
about pods is that you don't need factories to build them, which means
they can be built on the ground and launched immediately. Since pods
are slow relative to most ships, however, it is imperative that you
launch them quickly so that you have a fighting chance to win the race
to all of the unoccupied systems.
If you're a normal race, you should build a factory as soon as
possible and then modify it so that it can start producing cheap
shuttles. After you've played a game, you'll realize why it is so
important to win the race toward unoccupied planets: it is far, far
easier to take an unoccupied planet than to kick a hostile race off of
that planet.
The best advice I've heard yet is that you should be sure to
understand the commands in the game so you can use them to your full
advantage! It takes time and experience to learn the game, and it will
be a rewarding and fun experience if you approach it in the right way.
------------------------------
Subject: 28. How do I change scope?
That's the cs command. Scope works just like directory trees in Unix.
If you want to go to the top (Universe) level, you type "cs /". To go
to a given planet, you'd type "cs /starname/planetname". To change
scope to one level higher, you use "cs ..".
------------------------------
Subject: 29. How do I talk to others?
There are three basic ways:
br - This broadcasts a message that will appear on all active player
screens except those players with a "gag" in place (you can see that
in the who list). On HAP, if you broadcast, only those players who
know something about your race will be able to "translate" your
broadcast or your messages (see send).
ann - This is the same as broadcast, except that it limits your
audience to those players in the same stellar scope as you. This is a
good way to carry on a more sensitive conversation, but there's no way
to be sure whether you're being overheard.
send - This sends a telegram to the named player at a cost of 1 AP.
There is no cost for communicating this way with the game deity.
There is also a "cr " command available with the gbII client, but it
is discussed in the client Help just fine.
------------------------------
Subject: 30. What should I do first?
Once you get into the game and have connected using your password (and
your governor password, if applicable), type "help". Read through all
of the concepts listed first and then branch out from there. You'll
find some topics in the main list have no help files listed. The docs
always tend to suffer from game advances which outpace anyone's
ability to update them, but they are definitely useful for the basics.
------------------------------
Subject: 31. How do I interpret the maps?
Well, the stellar system maps and the galaxy map should be pretty
simple to figure out. Objects on the map which are darkened completely
are those in which you have people, either on ships or planets.
Objects which are partially darkened are those which you have data for
but no people present.
The planetary map is a grid. When you refer to a given sector, be sure
to use (column,row) and not vice-versa. If your toggle switches (see
"help toggle") are set in the default way, the highlighted sectors are
those with your people on them. Any sectors with numbers on them
represent sectors occupied by other players. Sectors with letters or
symbols on them imply the presence of a ship with that symbol.
Also as a part of the map, it lists how many sectors on the planet you
own, whether any aliens are present on the planet, what your
population is, the planetary compatibility (which depends upon
atmosphere and temperature), and a few other things that you can look
up in the help docs...it changes from game to game.
------------------------------
Subject: 32. How do factories work?
Well, first you build one, then you cs to it by typing "cs ". Next,
you use the modify command to get everything just the way you want it,
from ship type, to crew capacity, etc. Once it is the "perfect" design
for you, type "order on". It will take a few updates for the F's
damage level to go from 75 down to 0, and you can only build ships
(with the build command) at F's which are undamaged. Once you've
turned a factory on, you can't change the basic design of the ship, so
plan carefully! You can modify the ship later at double the cost
differential (which is new cost - original cost) provided you can fit
the necessary resources into the cargo bay of your ship. This means
that ships with 0 cargo capacity cannot be modified.
------------------------------
Subject: 33. What tax rate should I set?
After you've covered the planet and are on the verge of building
ships, start it off with a few percent. This may vary depending on
your race, but I think it is a good rule of thumb. This small amount
will pay for your ships and keep you from losing morale. Later on,
when you're not so worried about increasing your sector efficiencies,
you can up the tax rate (but watch out for insurgencies!). Note that
the higher the tax rate, the less chance you have to increase in
efficiency, and the average
------------------------------
Subject: 34. What's the difference between military and civilians?
Civilians have a fighting strength equal to your race's fight.
Military have fighting strength 10 times stronger than your civilians.
Contrary to what you might think, military _cannot_ pilot ships _or_
fire guns...only civilians can do that. Thus, if you have 5 guns on
your explorer and 2 mil and 3 crew, you will only be able to fire 3
guns at a time. Also, if you have only mil on board a given ship (ie.
your only civ on board gets killed by a lucky shot from an enemy), you
cannot order the ship to any destination.
------------------------------
Subject: 35. What should I set my mobilization level at?
I've found that it's a good idea to mobilize only a few very large
planets that you may own. The reasoning for this is long and involved,
but you'll learn through experience that mobilizing small planets (as
opposed to building weapons plants there) only makes them more
vulnerable to a metamorph invasion force. Mobilizing big planets still
leaves you vulnerable to a ground assault (your high mob allows enemy
troops to arm just as easily as you can if they bring their own
destruct and absorb a few hundred civilians, for example), but big
planets require a lot of AP's to take and require a lower mobilization
in order for planetary guns to come into effect.
Another popular method is set mobilization level to 100 everywhere.
This will increase your destruction production so high, that you don't
need any weapons plants and save a lot of resources. You can also
easily arm defending military round your empire.
------------------------------
Subject: 36. How do planetary guns work?
You don't have to load them. These guns will take destruct directly
from your stockpiles (provided you have some dest there). You can
actively use them against ships in orbit around your planet by using
the "defend" command (in the help files). These guns will also
_automatically_ fire on any non-allied ship that tries to land on your
planet...even a couple of medium caliber planetary guns is better than
nothing. Also, the ship may not be destroyed, but if it is damaged,
there is a chance that it will crash land, thwarting the attack. You
get a certain number of planetary guns proportional to how many
sectors you own on the planet and how high your mob level is.
------------------------------
Subject: 37. How do atmosphere processors work?
To put it simply, it doesn't matter who builds a processor... only who
currently owns it. A processor will slowly change the atmosphere of a
planet (rate inversely proportional to planet size) to the ideal
preferences of the owner of the processor at a cost of 3 fuel per
update, which must be loaded into the processor. The last time I
checked, processors will continue to eat up 3 fuel per turn if they
have fuel to burn even after a given planet is perfectly
atmospherically compatible with the owner, so it's a good idea to
scrap processors once you reach this goal.
------------------------------
Subject: 38. What's the quickest way to jump to other systems?
Since you receive jump technology level, your best bet is to have a
ship ready to modify once you get there. If you're going to build a
large fleet of jump ships, you'll save a lot of res by just building a
factory and starting it up AFTER you've been able to design the ship
with jump included. Some players, though, prefer using a few heavily
armed explorers which they modify for jumping as soon as they can,
saving a few updates by not having to wait for a factory to come on
line.
------------------------------
Subject: 39. How do I get hyperdrive on board ships?
In order to get hyperdrive aboard ships such as e's and d's, you must
first have a given number of resources in the cargo bay. The amount
depends upon the new cost of the ship with hyperdrive minus the old
cost (double that to get the cost of the upgrade). That means you must
be able to fit that many resources _on_board_ your ship to make the
upgrade. For e's, big cargo holds aren't very common, so you might
find that you have to "bootstrap" your way up by upgrading the size of
your cargo hold. See the "upgrade" command in the help files for more
info. In case the help files aren't very enlightening, here's an
example of how to build a jump capable destroyer:
> land d 2,2 (let's say this gives you d #1456 in sector 2,2)
> load #1456 r
> cs #1456
> upgrade hyper (now you've got hyperdrive capability)
> load #1456 r (assume you want to add a crystal mount)
> upgrade mount (now when you jump, you'll do it in one update, and you'll
use a _lot_ less fuel, if you've got a crystal in the mount, of course)
> load #1456 x 1 (assuming you have a crystal on the planet)
> mount #1456 (now you can take advantage of your xtal mount)
Say I wanted to increase the hanger capacity of my d, here's how I
would do it:
> cs #1456
> load #1456 r
> upgrade hanger 6
------------------------------
Subject: 40. How do I build ships in space?
Well, the way to do this is get a ship into orbit with the resources
you need. You can use just about any ship, but a shuttle works just
fine. You can load it with an infinite number of resources, but you
just can't land an overloaded shuttle...so you _don't_ need ships with
huge cargo bays to build some of the larger structures like H's, O's,
S's, etc.
You can get resources onto the shuttle by ferrying them up from the
surface with another ship. Once you have done that, change scope to
your shuttle, and type "build ". This will create a new ship docked to
your shuttle. You can then launch it or do whatever you want with it
(but be careful about trying to land damaged ships! Some ships are
built with a certain damage level that must then be repaired...others
can't land at all).
------------------------------
Subject: 41. How come I don't have any resources yet?
Often, races with low metabolisms and/or small homeworlds or worse, a
combination of the two, will take painfully long to start generating
any resources. You can help alleviate this problem by buying a
reasonably high metabolism. I usually find that 1.0 gets me off fairly
quickly, but if I have the points to spend, I'll go higher. High metab
isn't so crucial for Jovian races since they start with huge
homeworlds, so this minimum could go down to around 0.85 or so, in my
opinion.
------------------------------
Subject: 42. My pods didn't explode when they reached their destination.
Speaking from personal experience only, pods can explode at an update
or a move seg. The chance of this happening for each pod at each
update/segment is around 25%. Thus, if your pods arrive at a system,
go ahead and set them on course for nearby planets. Some might
actually get there before exploding, giving you a new colony in the
early parts of the game.
------------------------------
Subject: 43. How do I get a list of where my crystals are?
Once you are at crystaltech, you'll be able to see the location of all
crystal sectors on planets you have explored. At times, these sectors
will be covered by structures built by you or someone else (such as
F's, a's, Y's, etc), but you can get around that problem by using
"toggle geography" and than viewing the map.
------------------------------
Subject: 44. How do I get crystals?
If you occupy any crystal sectors, you have a chance, depending upon
that sector's efficiency, to mine a crystal at every update. Once
you've mined from around 1-6 crystals from a given sector over time,
it will revert to a "normal" sector.
------------------------------
Subject: 45. How do I get a list of ship types I can build?
Try "build ?" which is described under "help build." This will give
you a summary of ship types. If you want detailed info on a specific
ship, type "build ? x" where x is the letter that represents that ship
type.
------------------------------
Subject: 46. What are the worst mistakes I may do?
NEWBIES DEADLY SINS IN GB
What are the worst and most lethal mistakes a newbie player might do
while trying to survive among more experienced players?
* Remember destruction.
You need des if you want to shoot a gun. Destroyer with 15 guns is
totally useless if it doesn't have any destruction to shoot. When you
build mine of missile in factory it's still empty and you have to LOAD
DESTRUCTION in. Empty missiles/mines will not do any damage.
* Don't overestimate the value of victory/powerlist.
Even if you are above someone else in victory list it doesn't mean
that you are more powerful for sure. There is lot of things that
affects your standings in that list. Jovian players will usually take
early leads because they have lot of population and a large
homeplanet. Deserters tends to take the last seats, since they are
very poor in population. Still deserter might be more powerful (with
the highest resource depository and good production rate) than that list
leading jovian. Vic list begins to show some true information
somewhere after update 30. But it will NOT EVER reach the status of
absolute truth.
* Don't sit on your resources.
Key words are explore and expand. It is lot easier to take over empty
planet than 10 updates later try to kick another player out from
there.
* Inhabit all compatible sectors, even if population can't survive on them.
When you find a empty planet, all sector efficiencies are 0. That means
low fertility sectors (like desert, mountain) can't feed your people
(^pop = 0). But if you inhabit that sector anyway, it's efficiency and
perhaps even fertility will rise. Second generation most likely will
survive now. If you just sit and wait, you can be sure that someone
else comes and takes it. (NOTE: compatible sectors only).
* Remember cargo room.
Most ships have some damage when they come out from factory. And they
need loaded resources to repair. If you modify all cargo space out,
your ships won't ever repair themselves. And believe me.. 50% damaged
destroyer or light carrier IS USELESS. (NOTE: In GB 5.0 HUT this is
not important since ship repair can use planetary stockpile, but it's
in GB 5.0 HUT only).
* The FIRST step of the game is to spend all your
APs to colonize the compatible sectors on your home planet. (You will
probably own your whole home planet before you get the 50r for a
factory)
* It is (almost) never a good idea to build default ships.
Modify some parts smaller and some parts larger depending on what you
intend to do with the ship. Knowing exactly what to modify takes
experience. Important: the default shuttle has 2 hangar space. Get rid
of it. You shouldn't use a shuttle with hangar space for exploration.
* Sending shuttles to every system within 50K is probably a good idea.
They will typically arrive before you reach hyperdrive (with a techie
race). If you are playing a morph, the suggested distance may be a bit
larger. There may still be empty planets available by the time your
shuttles arrive. Empty planets are much easier to colonize than full
ones.
* Do not underestimate the power of domes.
On anything but a jovian planet (or possibly an airless or ice
homeworld), you can even consider to put one dome on every sector.
* Note that you can start repairing factories before you
have the technology for them (with the exception of "discoveries" like
hyperdrive, crystals, lasers, and CEWs). This means most ships can be
designed for higher tech than you currently have. (If not playing a
collective IQ race, this is *at least* 3*IQ+current tech if factories
are built with 75% damage); (with a collective IQ race, just look at
your tech gain last update and multiply by 3. Your tech in 3 updates
will be higher than this unless your race is rapidly being destroyed.)
* Don't build quarries.
If resource depository is not infinite quarry will be just a waste of
resources. And it is bad investment even if depository is infinite.
* Take 100% sector preferences. Less than 40% preferences are almost
useless. They will not produce resources quickly enough to have any use
for you. And resos are what you need to build ships and enlarge your
empire. So it's much MUCH better to have 2-3 100% sectortypes than 5-6
less than 40% sectortypes.
------------------------------
Subject: 47. Final Warnings and Advice
If you see a bug, tell the deity in charge. Period. Many games are
thrown out of balance by players who find bugs and exploit them. If
you're really in this to have fun and play the game well, you
shouldn't need to cheat to win. You can use the 'bug' command to
report bugs you find.
Remember that some types of ships are built with damage that takes a
few updates to repair. This means that you'll have to plan ahead, and,
more importantly, don't try to land these or any other damaged ships
unless you want to risk losing them! You have a percentage chance
equal to the ship's damage of crash landing and possibly destroying
your ship!
Use the "tactical" command often to check for the presence of enemy
ships which may not show up on your map. Remember, to check an entire
system for enemies, it might be better to do a "tact g" rather than
just a "tact." This gives tactical reports for your planets only
(which is still full coverage most of the time) and avoids repetitive
tact reports from every single one of your ships in system. Also, be
careful what orders you give in Universal Scope (the top
level)...sometimes, asking for tact reports from all of your ships (or
even just stock reports) can tie up the game and waste a lot of
everyone's time.
Remember that some types of ships can't be built in factories, most
importantly ships such as Stations and Habitats. To build something
like this, you can overload a shuttle in orbit! Also, be sure you know
what the rules are for Habitats in your game (ie. do they produce
extra resources every turn? If so, how many?).
If you've got "smart guns," learn how to use them and take advantage
of them! Don't get caught off-line at an update only to have
everything you hold dear destroyed simply because you didn't set up a
protection network.
The beginning of the game is a critical time when you need to get your
race started off and several updates occur very close together in
order to get things moving. When you sign up for a game, be sure you
can make this first update "blitz" or you may find yourself hopelessly
behind.
********************* I M P O R T A N T ***************************
Finally, remember that the deity of the game is there to help you.
If it weren't for him/her, you wouldn't be playing GB at all.
So don't whine. Be polite. Make constructive comments.
It'll be easier for everyone that way.
********************* I M P O R T A N T ***************************
*** RELAX. IT IS ONLY A GAME. ***
------------------------------
TR FAQ Manager
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 11/15/2006
Subject: 48. Advice from Veterans
Galactic Bloodshed FAQ Version 4.4 - Part 2 of 2
This posting serves as an appendix to the alt.games.gb FAQ sheet. It
has a series of ten questions asked to several gb veterans by Mike
Varney and their responses. These questions and their responses are
designed for novice players. They don't cover many aspects of the
game, but they can be very helpful. Unlike the first posting of the
FAQ, this one is unlikely to change over time.
Editorial comment:
* These answers are not all necessarily right. There may be several
misleading and some totally wrong answers in here, so take these
with a grain of salt. These strategies are not foolproof.
* As you will see from the wide range of answers for each question,
everyone has their own playing style and their own opinions on how
newbies should proceed.
* A balanced view of the game, in light of all the different
viewpoints, is hopefully presented.
* The original responses were edited where necessary to make them
more readable, either by slightly rewording a vague sentence,
making the format more readable, changing grammar here and there, etc.
In sum...you have been warned.
Legend of Shorthand Used by Respondents:
GB Name Real Name GB Name Real Name
------- --------- ------- ---------
Feepness Christopher Fodor NB N. Boutell
Lestat Kevin Martin TheCulture Petri Wessman
Keskiolut Toni Kotinurmi Froos Jerry Liu
Neue Regel Derek Jewhurst Griffons Paul Daniels
Garfel Jari Koivikko Pillarian Scott Donavan
Cylons Rob Nesius Tao Jukka Sinisalo
Thing David Fernandez Empire Samuli Suomi
Muu Dan Andersen ??? Link Baker
Fnebish Legion Doug Ingram Greenies Mitch Ferguson
Microbians Jason W. Solinsky Zurgithian Mike Simmonds
Tribbles Shire
------------------------------
Subject: 49. Should I choose a metamorphic race or a normal race?
Feepness -
Normal for me. With high IQ, and try to max out
metabolism.
Lestat -
Metas are more work because they are able to send
pods out fairly early in the game. Typically, they
will have a large number of pods out at most times.
Since they need to get ahead early, you really have
to pay attention to them.
Keskiolut -
Whatever, not too specialized race is the main
point. If you have a specialized race, you MUST
know what you're doing.
Neue Regel -
Normal
Garfel -
I prefer normal 'cause i get lot of tech
Cylons -
The concept of a 'normal' race might be more
comfortable for a newbie. There are a number of
pros and cons to consider. The normal races, also
referred to as 'techies', start out with their IQ
at a high number. Their tech then increases roughly
at the rate of IQ/100. Which means it grows at a
linear rate. Morph's intelligence, on the other
hand, is based on their population. So, before a
Morph can increase it's tech, it must increase it's
population. In consideration of this, Morphs have
the ability to build 'pods' at zero tech, and
launch them to other planets, thus letting them
expand throughout their home systems at a
comparable rate to the 'techies'. Morph's usually
have a higher 'fight' than 'normals'. It is
possible for Morphs and Techies to be allies. The
game is not 'morphs' against 'techies'.
Thing -
If you want to get the higher tech toys first, get
a normal race with a high int; otherwise, a meta is
a better choice. They start out slow but can catch
up quickly.
Muu -
Well, as a newbie, I would start as a normal race.
They get a technological advantage over the meta's
right from the start. They are also much more
straight forward to play. Meta's can get get very
complex and very time-consuming in the beginning.
Also, Normal's tend to attempt to enslave Meta's as
soon as possible. Therefore, if you are not very
experienced, you will not be able to keep a Meta as
a free empire.
Fnebish Legion -
Choose metamorphs if you want to concentrate more
on ground fighting and a more dynamic (and
time-consuming) game. Choose a normal race if you'd
rather experiment with building ship types, with
the ultimate goal of finding a good metamorphic
ally to do the "dirty work" for you. Both types of
races can just as easily win the game, and they're
both just as difficult to learn how to play well.
Microbians -
You can have fun with both types of races. I've
always found the HAP racegen to favor normal races
and the GB racegen to favor metamorphs, but the
universe will always need a mixture of both. In my
experience metamorphs have represented a
considerably greater time consumption than normals,
so you should take this into account. (of course
any race will take a long time if you occupy to
much of the galaxy). On the GB racegen you can
create some interesting crosses between metamorphs
and normals (like races with collective IQ's but
neither pods nor absorb.) Most of these
combinations are disastrous, but others (like a
collective IQ, no pods Jovian) can be both
interesting AND playable.
Tribbles -
I would suggest a normal race, they tend to have
less ship to worry about, and a lot less
complications. A meso to be effective must know
about tech investments, how to maximize
population, and uses of pods.
NB -
If you want to explore all the nifty ship types of
the game, I would suggest you not be a metamorph.
Also, being a metamorph successfully requires
either tireless fingers or an understanding of
macros!
TheCulture -
Depends on whether you want to side with the
"Techs" or the "Morphs"... Metamorphs can build
pods very early in the game, so they get a head
start on the normal races, who have to wait until
they can build a shuttle to get off their home
world. Morphs have a collective IQ, which means
that in the beginning their technology level will
increase *very* slowly. Since your tech level
determines what kind of whiz-bang stuff you can
build, it will take a while until your average
Morph race gets its first shuttle up in the air.
Things even out later in the game.
Froos -
Depends on your playing strategy. If you enjoy
spending a lot of time playing with ships and
fleets I'd choose normal. If you don't want to
spend a heck a lot of time and don't mind spending
your time on planet surfaces, choose morph.
Griffons -
It really depends on the game that you are
playing.. If you are playing in one of the Clarkson
games it is a must. With the HAP games you really
aught to start out with a tech race. Choosing a
normal race will allow you to build better ships
earlier, in general, while the meta races tend to
allow you to have nice things like higher fighting
capability, etc. With the Clarkson enrolling system
the meta's are the strongest races, you can make a
meta with the same characteristics as a top line
normal cheaper, giving you more points to use for
increasing your abilities.
Pillarian -
This is entirely up to individual tastes, If you
are just starting then flip a coin.. try that type
then next game swap.. then perhaps make a decision
as to what you will play...
Tao -
I'd say normal. If for no other reason but because
many don't like them...
Empire -
It depends of which tactics you are going to use:
if you want to be good in man to man-fight, choose
meta (because of absorption), if you want fast
developing tech from the very beginning of the
game, choose normal ( with IQ like 170..) and so
on...
Link Baker -
I have only played metamorphic races. I like the
fact that they can send up pods immediately and
don't have to wait for tech. They are more
challenging. You don't have the technology of a
normal race. Also, you can take a planet without
having to destroy it (absorb). That takes skill.
Anyone can bomb someone into the stone age.
Greenies -
Normal for the first games, it all makes much more
sense.
Zurgithian -
Well I almost always go for meta, but I depends on
the time you have to play or the number of friends
you have to help play your race. Metas take time
(you need macros as well, but I have done well
spending hours podding before I discovered macros),
to come in the top 5 of a big game you will need
1-2 hours per update if you know how to use macros.
------------------------------
Subject: 50. What type of home planet should I choose?
Feepness -
A high resource, low fertility planet (desert or airless) You
can always increase fertility later with resources.
Lestat -
Consider the sector compatibilities which are easiest for a
given planet type (they're usually marked with a * by
racegen). Planet types such as iceballs and airless are more
difficult because they tend to be smaller and have less
resources, making your race slower in getting underway. Note
- choosing Earth (Class M) planets may seem tempting, and
it's not a bad idea. However, in some universes, there are
many Earth inhabiting players. This means there will be more
competition against your race for these planets.
Keskiolut -
Pick a planet that is rather large ( desert,forest ) because
you are not likely to get many planets in your first game...
Neue Regel -
Class M / Earth
Garfel -
1. Desert 2. Forest 3. Earth (you need too many sector
preferences to use this planet effectively)
Cylons -
This primarily depends on the sector compatibilities you
choose. Jovian planets (gas giants) are very large, and have
the ability to fuel up ships (so I hear). Half of the sector
space in a galaxy is gas. Jovians are few and far between.
Their resource content is not very rich, but passable.
Whether or not Jovian races should be allowed to terraform
sectors to gas is being debated. Class M's are primarily like
earth. Don't be fooled, they have LOTS of water...usually. If
you have water as a compat, class M is not a bad choice.
Water balls are usually small but not too bad for resources.
Iceballs are few and far between (I think) but also not too
bad for resources.
Thing -
Picking planets is tough. I like to start on a Class M or
desert since they are usually large. Large home worlds are
good because they can be taxed, and a big planet has more res
than a small one.
Muu -
I would go for the generic M-type planet. They aren't the
most common, but they are really useful. As another option,
you could go for a desert planet. These are GREAT for
resources, but are generally very rare. Forest planets are
also good, as they produce decent amounts of resources and
your population will explode. As for other planets, such as
asteroids, airballs, iceballs, and jovians, I would not
advise choosing any of these as they all have problems
associated with them, such as smallness, lack of resources,
and rarity (for the jovians).
Fnebish Legion -
Choose either a Jovian, a desert planet, a Class M, or a
forest planet. All the other types are too small to start
with, and you'll find yourself having a hard time producing
resources since production on a given planet goes as
_the_power_ "number of sectors owned." Producing resources
quickly on your home planet is crucial.
Microbians -
Personally, I like forest and desert planets. They have very
good resource concentrations and despite much of the
documentation, they are often quite large. To a certain
extent, planet choice is moot because planetary size, and
atmosphere have a much greater effect on the game than the
planet type. Just make sure you are compatible with the vast
majority of sectors that appear on your planet. (One reason I
dislike class-Ms is because most races don't have enough
sector preference diversity to colonize greater than 90% of
the sectors, and the uncolonized sectors stick out like a
sore thumb.)
Tribbles -
To start out with, use either forest or desert. Higher
resources, and costs less in racegen; you can thus pick other
sector pref's. I prefer a forest planet myself.
NB -
I tend toward earthlike planets. Jovians are fun too if you
don't mind being somewhat separated from the mainstream of
the game.
TheCulture -
Again a matter of taste :-) I personally love desert worlds,
since they have an extremely high resource content (i.e. you
can build huge amounts of stuff from them). On the down side,
desert worlds are low on fertility, so your population
increases quite slowly. The "basic" home world is a "Type M"
(Earth-type) planet, which is pretty even in all respects --
a pretty good choice for your first game. Other choices are
the Water world (not that great), Iceball (avoid!), the
Forest world (low resources, high fertility), and the Jovian.
Jovians are unique in that they automatically make your race
a gas-breather (which rules out any other sector
preferences). This make for a division in the game between
the Jovians and all the other races, as neither can use each
other's worlds (although Jovians *can* terraform normal
worlds into gas ones -- this could be considered a bug). You
probably shouldn't choose a Jovian for your first game,
although if you're feeling brave go for it!
Froos -
Doesn't really matter too much. Just don't pick an iceball or
asteroid since those usually are kind of small and puts a
constraint on your earlier expansion. Don't choose forest
worlds, either. There aren't too many of those.
Griffons -
It really depends on what you want out of your home planet.
For cheap compatibilities, you should choose a forest. For
high populations, forest or water then earth. For resources,
desert. The best way is to fiddle around with the enroll
system until you have enough points to do what you want. You
will find that the cost for compatibilities change as your
home planets do. This cost has eliminated iceballs from being
a viable starting planet.
Pillarian -
Most choose a class M (All sector types except gas) simply
because it enables the player to parallel their race against
the thinking of a modern day situation.
Tao -
Maybe earth or forest (if this is asked). Both have fairly
good fert and resources. Not desert, because fert is so low
there.
Empire -
In earth-,forest- and joviantype planet your population grows
faster... In desert-type planet you have relatively greater
resources... Of iceballs and Airlesses I have no
experiences..
Link Baker -
Earth type planets. Their size can support a decent
population (Meso's need population for tech). They have
pretty good resources.
Greenies -
Desert, or Earth. Both are fairly large size planets, have
plenty of resources, and can be found in just about every
system.
Zurgithian -
Desert, Earth or Forest (Jovians are good too, but try the
others first), as a meta you can have 1 guy live on any
sector type so even if you are on an Earth type with
incompatible sectors you can still mine resources there.
------------------------------
Subject: 51. How should I spend my remaining points?
Feepness -
Fiddle around, trying different things every game... that
makes it fun.
Lestat -
Metabolism is important for producing resources at a
reasonable rate, especially early on; many players recommend
at least 0.95 or 1.0. Adventurism encourages your people to
spread out without your help. IQ is useful for developing
tech. They're all useful, of course... which to emphasize the
most is your personal preference. Just be sure, in your first
few races at least, not to cripple any one stat too greatly,
or you may regret it.
Keskiolut -
Metabolism is great, at least 1.0, and fight should never be
below 3 or 4.
Neue Regel -
IQ will take most of them. Good IQ is about 150-170, 200 if
you really want to spend the points.
Garfel -
Raise IQ to at least 180 and metabolism to 0.9. Drop
adventurism to 0.05, birthrate to 0.6 (or maybe 0.5; it's not
important to have it high), and get a little fertilize.
Cylons -
Metabolism is a good place to put points. This represents how
active your race is. A race with a low metab(.8 is considered
low) will build up fuel, and resources(res) at a slower rate
than a race with a 1.0 metab. You don't absolutely need a
high metab. Lower metab is still playable, but it requires
shrewder planning and foresight on the part of the player.
Birthrate should be high. Adventurism need not be high. It
represents the chances of members of your race deciding to
expand the 'frontier'. For techies, IQ is usually a good one
to boost up. Don't take more than 3-6 sexes required to
reproduce.
Thing -
Always try and get a metab of 1.00 or great. I like to have 1
sex, since it makes colonizing easier. Concentrate on either
a smart race or a good fighter type race.
Muu -
A high IQ is nice, as this allows your technology level to
increase more quickly. Sector preferences are also really
nice. For a normal race, the other stats aren't as important,
in my opinion. A low mass is useful, and sometimes you can
save a lot of points by reducing your adventurism to as low
as possible. This has the effect of having to move all your
population manually... They will not move on their own.
Fnebish Legion -
Get at least three sector preferences, but don't go for the
"common" choices. It's best to find an unusual mix. You'll
work much better with potential allies since you won't be
wanting the same types of sectors. Also, make sure your metab
is _at_least_ 1.0 unless you're a Jovian race (in which case
0.9 is a good minimum). If you're not going to spend the
points on a high IQ, spend 'em on fight or metabolism. Don't
try to max things out too much...at high levels of any
attribute, then the cost rises much more quickly than the
attribute, but you want something high to give your race a
distinct edge, if possible.
Microbians -
It's up to you. Generally, its not possible to take over the
universe on your own, so you should make sure that you have
something to offer potential allies. A perfectly well-rounded
race, may not have much to contribute
Tribbles -
For a first time player, try to only add sector prefs, go
with the default setting for the most part. They're not
great, but they're not bad either. I would try to have these
sectors pref's: Forest, Water, Desert, and land. Also drop
your # of sexes to 1. It make metabolism a little cheaper.
NB -
Fight ability is good, but I tend to think reproduction
(minimizing number of sexes) is more important.
TheCulture -
Hmmm... depends heavily on the type of play you're going to
foll. If you're a "tech" then you can downplay the "fight"
and invest in IQ, and vice versa if you're going to go for
the "Wood Clubs & Brute Strength" -department :-) I
personally like investing a lot in IQ (tech).
Froos -
Make sure you have decent IQ (~150), reasonable birthrate
(>0.6), good metabolism(1 or so), and try to be compatible
with as many sectors as you can.
Griffons -
Well that really depends. To pull out the maximum res you
need both a high pop and a high metab (res is required for
the building of ships). Also Birth is good and so are
compatibilities to sectors; likewise, someone with fight 10
troops is really nasty to come across. The only way to really
tell what you need is by your playing style. That only comes
with experience... Go for a basic race that populates well
and has 180 tech... it is a good start for a beginner.
Pillarian -
Again it depends on what race you chose. If metamorph then
fight would be useful followed by birth, then sectors
(preferences). You may wish to sacrifice some of the IQ tech
level for other things. If techie, then perhaps higher IQ.
Fight is not highly required but a fight of one is a major
loss. With such a low fight most techies would be (initially)
at the mercy of meso pods. Then you can choose between birth
and metab.
Tao -
I usually drop my fight a little, buy metabolism and then
just sort of spread the rest evenly (no use taking too much
fertilizing or adventure though. If you won't be able to play
in the start, then that advantage might help). Be unisex if
you have the points.
Empire -
Take higher fight,metabolism and iq... IMHO don't waste your
points to get better fertilization; after the tech-level 5,
the Space Plows will have the same effect...
Link Baker -
Metabolism is very important. After that a meso should go for
fight. Birthrate is fine at 50 - 60 %. Spend extra points on
met and fight. Maybe sector compat. also, but it's expensive.
Greenies -
Desert, or Earth. Both are fairly large size planets, have
plenty of resources, and can be found in just about every
system.
Zurgithian -
Metas need a good fight and metabolism. In a blitz game you
will need adventurism more than .25 (unless you have a
population spread macro) otherwise have .1, a very high birth
rate is needed to take planets quickly (metas like me are
greedy, take all those sectors, ask Feep :-). If going for a
low IQ meta then have some (.25) fertility, pods and absorb
are a must!!! If playing HAP go for metab of 1.8-2.0, in one
game I had 6 planets after only 2 and a bit updates cos I got
some res and fuel after the first update! You can afford to
be pretty heavy as you will not be using techie ships for a
while.
------------------------------
Subject: 52. What sector preferences should I choose?
Feepness -
Definitely water, desert, land, and mountain. When playing a
"Jovian" race, you really can't go wrong since there is a
very high percentage of gas giants out there.
Lestat -
Always choose the ones which are best for your planet type;
those are cheapest. I don't recommend buying more than one
other sector compat, if even that, since the *number* of
compatibilities you have is a factor in point cost as well.
Keskiolut -
Main preference plus one or two another ( take 100%, because
they're cheap after the first 30% or so... ). So, maybe a
desert and forest. Or another good choice: desert, land and
mountain.
Neue Regel -
For a Class M planet, take land, water, and ice. These are
very common to the other planets too. Forest can also be a
good choice.
Garfel -
with desert: land/mountain; with forest: land/mountain/water;
with earth: land/water/mount (mount is not important but has
high resource content).
Cylons -
Recommendations for these are plated, land, and water. You
should have compatibility with these three sectors before you
choose others. You don't need 90-100% on every sector type
you do choose. You can select 50% or lower so you can make
use of the few odd sectors, or asteroids, forest planets,
etc. . . Ice is a good one, since it shows up on iceballs and
most class M planets on the poles.
Thing -
Pick as many sector prefs as you can; get them to at least
25%. The best ones in my opinion are home planet sector,
desert, mountain, land, forest, water then ice.
Muu -
If you don't have a sector preference in a certain sector
type, you effectively can't live on those sector types. So,
if you can afford it, buy some compatibility in all, or most
of the sectors. They don't have to be bought at 100%. 10%-20%
should do for most of them. Be sure to get one or two
sector-types at a high compatibility, such as 90%-100%. If
you live on a Class M, I would suggest land, water, forest,
and a little desert. Again, if you can, get at least a little
in all the sector types.
Fnebish Legion -
I mentioned this a little bit before. Land and forest have
the highest fertility (I'm not mentioning gas since, if you
take a Jovian race, gas is your only viable option), hence
can support more population. This is good for races with
collective IQ. Mountain and desert have high resource content
but low fertility, so they're good for races with high metab.
Ice is useful since it is found on almost all the planets in
at least some small amounts, and water is a good choice for a
race starting on a class M, though it is generally poor in
resource content. Select an unusual mix and you'll find
working with allies much easier.
Microbians -
Similarly it's not a good idea to be compatible with every
kind of sector. MANY alliances are based on sector
incompatibilities.
Tribbles -
See comment to question 3.
NB -
Land, forest, and water are my favorites.
TheCulture -
100% for your "home" sector type (i.e. water for water worlds
etc.), and at least 50% on a couple of others. "Land" and
"Mountain" are pretty good choices, since they are quite
common. Again, this depends on your play style. You can
either invest a lot in sec. preferences and be able to
utilize pretty much anything right at once, or you can invest
in tech and build Terraformers as soon as possible (with
Terraformers you can change sector types into your own
preferred sector type.
Froos -
Try to include either land or mountain because many of the
asteroid/ iceball type planetary bodies will have one of
these two sectors on them.
Griffons -
Totally dependent on your home planet. The more the better
but you will find that some sector preferences cost too much
due to you being on a planet that does not have the sector
much. You will get the idea if you try having a desert home
and water compatibility. Water tends to be one of the most
common (generally supports high pop but low res production).
Forest is the same as water but supports a higher pop and is
very rare (throughout the universe, that is). Land, is
incredibly common with average pop and res production. Ice is
common, supports little population but high than average res.
Gas is only good if you are a Jovian race: low pop/sector and
low res. Mountain his high res and low pop. Desert same as
mountain but generally more res.
Pillarian -
Depending on what race gen is being employed will depend on
you avenues of decision. These mainly being that you will
require 100% of the main sector(s) of what ever planet type
you have chosen. Ie class M land(*) or mountain (^) on the GB
enroll system. Variances have and will occur in the 2 main
race gens available.. (GB's { code, and Clay's port driven
system).
Tao -
I've had quite a good start with starting on earth and being
able to use water, desert and land. Deserts could be changed
to mount, maybe. That way you can land on most planets, get
resourceful sectors (desert) and still can spread well on
your home planet (water).
Empire -
As many as possible so you have wider basement when you start
to colonize other planets..... Mountain is
resource-rich and quite a non- rare sector type, but it costs
points. If you take gas, you don't need to take any other
sector types.. :)
Link Baker -
Water is pretty abundant in the universe. Forest is rare.
Choose water, and then land or mountains. Stay away from rare
sector types.
Greenies -
Besides your planet type sector, definitely choose mountain.
There are mountains on every planet, and asteroid.
Zurgithian -
The primary sector type must be 100% i.e. on Water planets
have water 100%, forest 100% on Forest planets etc. On Desert
planets you can usually have desert, mountain or ice as 100%.
For metas it is good to have some compat with forest as your
population grows fast because of the high fertility. Always
go for some on land ! If playing HAP have some mountain as
there is lots around.
------------------------------
Subject: 53. What should I do before the first update?
Feepness -
Beg for an update. It doesn't make much of a difference to
unload people from the government center.
Lestat -
Unload a few people from your government center to join in
the first reproductive pass. Be sure to leave at least one in
so you'll get APs! Spend the APs you have moving a few people
around diagonally from your starting sector, to encourage
widespread colonization. Decide if you want a tax rate
(lowers efficiency I believe) or mobilization (eventually
produces destructive capacity at the expense of resources).
Chat some with other players.
Keskiolut -
Unload @, spread the ppl to next-to-@-sectors. Because you
NEED as much ppl as possible and they do _not_ reproduce
without you spreading them. Even if you have high adventurism
this is recommended.
Neue Regel -
Get your MIN-SEXES to as many sectors as you can. You will be
limited by both AP's and total population. I tend to unload
4-6 people from my @ before the 1st update. Load them back in
after the update though.
Garfel -
Unload your @ (load #number c -10). Depending on your number
of sexes, that number of people to the highest fertility
sectors so you have a lot of people after the 1st update.
Cylons -
Move your people around. It's important to get your planet
covered as much as possible. Move them around in small groups
so you use fewer action points. Soon, your people will start
making resources and fuel. HINT: Use the 'analysis' command
to determine which sectors are your most resource rich. It's
probably not a good idea to unload people from the government
center. You need people there to maintain efficiency, which
is a very important aspect of sector stats. The more
efficient you are, the faster you pump out res. And the more
efficient your government, well. . . think about it.
Thing -
On the first update, take enough people out of your @ and
move them 1 space away from your @. This will help you spread
out faster, but you will not get as many AP's as fast. After
the first update, load the @ to full again.
Muu -
The most enjoyable thing to do, and sometimes really useful,
is to meet all the people. Potential allies and enemies
always pop up. You should also look at your position and
determine possible routes to nearby stars. That's about all I
usually do before the update, except for unloading the @. On
the very first update, I usually unload five(5) crew from the
government center. I then spread them around to five nearby
sectors. After the first update, one should always reload the
center with crew, as an insufficiently manned center does not
produce Action Points(AP's), which, as you will find out,
limits the number of actions you can do. AP's are vital in
the beginning of the game.
Fnebish Legion -
Nothing, unless you want to try unloading your government
center Raising tax rates and mobilizing should come after
about the 6th or 7th updates, IMHO. If you will be on at the
update so that you can reload your center after the first
update, go ahead and do it. Unloading your center at the
beginning, taking 4 crew out, is nice because it gives you a
head start on your expansion at the cost of only a couple of
AP's (this is not entirely clear to me due to conflicting
information, but I'm told that centers probably _don't_
produce fewer AP's with less crew inside...still, you might
as well keep it fully loaded after the first update).
Microbians -
If you are playing in a game where you start out with 1200
people, You probably want to colonize the four sectors on a
diagonal from your start sector. (I assume here that all
races have six sexes or less) If your race has one sex move
one person into each sector, otherwise move six. This will
use your APs most efficiently. If you are playing in a game
where you start with one person, you might want to unload the
government center, but never unload more than 5 and reload it
immediately after the first turn.
Tribbles -
Drop the # of civ's in capitol by half. Use extra population
on the planet. Remember to load up the cap again later. Also,
spread people over sectors, just put your # of sexes in each
sector that you have AP for. ample. I have 1 sex, thus I move
1 pop into all but one of the surrounding sectors, I then
move all but one in orig sector into the one empty sector,
then I repeat the process again until planet is covered. If
you have over 40 pop in a sector though, move only half. If
costs too much AP to move more than 20 pop.
NB -
Not much! Try out commands, read the help extensively, and
try to communicate via broadcasting with other players. I've
never tried to unload my @! Hey, maybe I'm not all that far
from a newbie myself.
TheCulture -
Unload the crew of the government center (@), and move people
to nearby sectors that look promising (high resources and
compatible sector type). Chat with the other players. Try not
to think of the million other things you should be doing
instead of playing this (altogether too addictive) game....
Froos -
Spread your people out. I usually unload my @. For a morph,
dump off about 3 or 4. You only have 5 AP's to start out
with, and it costs one to move one guy, so dropping off more
really doesn't help.
Griffons -
Unload your @ and spread the pop out, but don't forget to
load the @ back up after the update
Pillarian -
First, unload 5 crew from your capitol (ship number of your
capitol will be equal to your race number)...eg, "load @ c
-5" or "load #shipnum c -5". Once you have done this, you
spread out the 5 pop (one at a time as you have only 5 AP's
before the first update. Make sure you don't move the pop
onto incompatible sectors. This is, of course only if you are
a one sex race; you would have to modify the numbers for how
many sexes you have. As long as you move a whole "breeding
group" you are okay. The good point of this: It helps get
your pop increasing faster; fert and eff on those sectors
will already start to increase. Bad: You will get half the
AP's that update, so I suggest after the first update you
load your gov center back up. Remember that a capitol or gov
center will only produce AP in relation to its current level
of crew (ie. 100% crew gives you 100% AP, etc.). The next
thing you should do is have a look at the number and
distribution of the planets in your home system. Next, go to
the global scope and have a look at where you are in the
universe (this is important as your position will determine
as a whole your further strategy). Other things you may
consider doing: naming your governor, perhaps changing your
password, appointing a second governor (more for your
convenience than anything). I would also (if you are willing
to, that is) place your email address in your "personal" this
helps when you "run" into other races. It makes the politics
much simpler. However in a HAP game this is regarded as a BIG
nono. Next, I would think about the possible access to a
postscript printer. If you have access to one, then I
strongly suggest that you pipe a copy of the stars list to a
log file, then generate a stars map (the program to do this
is available all over the place. Then I would just wait.
Tao -
Not much that you need to do. Talk to others and ask stupid
questions... They'll help you. I usually unload people from
my government center and spread them out.
Empire -
Use command: help and if theres still something unclear use
broadcast and ask it from other players, theres always
experienced players around. Unload people from your @ so you
can start to populate more quickly.
Link Baker -
View the maps of your home planet, system, and your location
in the universe. Unload @ and spread the people around. Find
out how close neighboring systems are, which one's you want
to explore 1st. Unload all but one crew from your @ so you
still get some AP's. Spread 'em around. Load it back up after
the 1st update. You should have plenty of pop unless you have
a really shitty birthrate. Get that planet covered A.S.A.P.
Greenies -
Get all but one of your people out of the Gov Center, and do
spread them around it. Look to see where in the universe you
are, just for curiosity.
Zurgithian -
As a meta with 1 sex you can take 6 sectors on the first
move, unload 8 crew from the @ and move 5 pop 1 sector in
different directions. Load up the @ again after the first
update. No tax yet, but have mobility at 25 or so after the
first update.
------------------------------
Subject: 54. What is the first ship I should build? The second?
Feepness -
If you are impatient and have lots of r, you can build a
ground telescope and survey your system, otherwise wait and
build a factory for shuttles.
Lestat -
If you are a meso, the first and second ship you should build
is a pod ;) If you are a normal race, build a factory (F) as
soon as you can afford it, and teach it to build shuttles (cs
#factnum; make s). If your res production is going to
outstrip your tech, use "modify" to make the shuttle lower
tech. Put people in the factory, turn it on, wait for it to
repair. Use the "fact" command (if present on the server) to
keep an eye on the factories over the segs and updates. When
it's finished, use "build #" to build # of ships while in
that factory.
Keskiolut -
First to build is F. Modify it to make s's, as cheap and FAST
as possible, maybe carrying nothing but 1 cargo (for
upgrading later) and SEX-number of people plus as much fuel
as possible.
Neue Regel -
Make a factory as soon as you can. Have it produce stripped
down shuttles so you can get to as many planets as possible.
Garfel -
One ground telescope as soon as you get tech 5 and 2 res then
aim at the nearest planets, then a Factory to build shuttles
with a modified speed of at least 6.
Cylons -
A good choice for a first ship for a techie is a Factory. Use
the factory to build a shuttle to send out to the other
planets in the solar system. Also, while your factory is
fixing itself,(it starts with 75% damage and needs time to
repair.) build a ground telescope so that you can see what
the planets in your system are like, and don't send your
first shuttle to an incompatible planet.
Thing -
The first ship you should build is a factory; do not build
it, though, until you have enough res to turn it on. Wait
until you have at least 33 res before building it. You want
the shuttle to hold only the minimum number of crew, no guns,
no destruct, and no resources. This will let you pay less per
shuttle and spend more on speed. If you are a meta, just
start building and launching pods as soon as you get the res
and fuel to do it.
Muu -
The very first ship I would build is a telescope. That way,
you can examine the other planets in your solar system and
see which ones you should target for colonization first. The
second should probably be a Factory to build colonization
shuttles. These should have 5-10 crew and 10 crew if
possible. Remember, when you construct a ship design on a
Factory, you don't have to be at the given tech of the ship
until you want to build them, which is as soon as the Factory
comes online (about 3-4 updates after activation).
Fnebish Legion -
If you're a metamorph, build pods like crazy until you have
the tech capability to build shuttles with speed 4 or so (you
can experiment with a factory to find out what tech you
need). Other- wise, build _nothing_ until you've built your
factory and turned it on. Don't even build a little
telescope. You want that factory turned on ASAP, even if you
have to set it to building really crappy and cheap shuttles.
Once you have something built, you can always modify it later
(when you can afford it)...the important thing is getting
that F turned on. Once you've spent your res doing this (it
costs 23 plus twice the cost of the ship design to build and
then turn on the factory), you can build a telescope to
survey surrounding planets in your system.
Microbians -
Pods for a Meso, shuttles for a normal. A lot depends on your
strategy, your race, your start planet, and (especially with
Ts) the rules of the game.
Tribbles -
Hmmm.... This is questionable. It really depends on the race.
For the normal player I would say shuttles and then
explorers. Though I've designed races to skip shuttle
production before. Remember shuttles are for in system
exploration mostly while explorers are for other systems
NB -
The first ship is almost invariably a shuttle from which the
weapons systems and so on have been stripped that can carry
your minimum number of sexes to another planet in your system
for colonization. The second? Another one! Later you should
build some shuttles with a bit of destruct on board, to give
you a chance of snuffing out unwanted alien colonies at the
beginning of their existence. Of course, if you're a morph,
you'll build pods first.
TheCulture -
In GB a "ship" is anything that you build, so in GB terms the
first ship you should build is (a) a pod, if you're a morph;
(b) a ground telescope if you're a normal race. With this
gadget you can view your solar system and get some picture of
your position so you can send your shuttles to the right
places. The second ship type you should build is a factory
(F). When you have enough tech and res, you can order it to
produce shuttles (for instance) and in a couple of updates,
you can start spreading out.
Froos -
If you're a morph, pods. :-) If normal, shuttle, then maybe
explorer.
Griffons -
Depends on what you can build pods are good for a meso. a
shuttle factory for all those who do not have pods.
Pillarian -
Again it depends on what race you are.. Meso .. You pod like
crazy.. if you are a techy then I suggest that you build a
telescope (gives you something to do more than anything) then
save up for a factory.. the second for a meso.. (second type
not the second ship) would be K's (Space plows..) at tech 5
..
Tao -
First ground telescope to see what planets there are in your
system. Then shuttles...
Empire -
Perhaps the Ground Telescope would be best as a first ship...
With it you can survey other planets in your star system...
Second would be a factory to produce shuttles to get
colonization to start... Don't forget to set your tax to about
5 percent, 'cause maintaining of the ships takes money and if
you don't have money your morale drops...
Link Baker -
1st) For a meso, a pod. For a techie, a factory (To build
shuttles) 2nd) Meso - pod. Techie - whatever you have the
tech for while you are waiting on the shuttles. Domes help
the planet and you.
Greenies -
A factory, for shuttles. Then a ground telescope, to check
out your system.
Zurgithian -
Find out how many planets there are in your system using the
explore command and build a pod for each one (only need 1
fuel) when you have the res. Send the pod to a planet, land
it on a good sector (use analysis to find one and scrap the
pod, hey presto another colony :-) As soon as you have the
res and fuel send 5-10 pods to your 10 nearest stars (send
them in waves, 1 update apart) you will need 1 fuel per ~8000
distance depending on your race's weight.
------------------------------
Subject: 55. What can I do to increase my resource production on a given planet?
Feepness -
Cover every sector.
Lestat -
Get a higher metabolism, get more population.
Keskiolut -
Build Y's. Nothing much else.
Neue Regel -
Build Y's or q's. Y's have an added effect of producing
plated sectors which make it harder for any ships landed on
that sector to be hit. q's produce extra toxicity but give
more resources in the beginning. As your sector efficiency
goes up, q's become less useful.
Garfel -
You could use quarries, but i don't recommend it. They cost
res to build and make the planet more toxic.
Cylons -
You can increase resource production with 'quarries'. Beware,
you can generate 'toxicity' with quarries, but they will
probably help you out very much. Also, I believe Domes can be
helpful.
Thing -
To increase res production, use domes (Y), and start out with
a good metabolism. Make the domes on sectors that have the
most res in them; use the analysis command to find out which
sector has the most res. Also make sure you can live on that
type sector.
Muu -
Generally, get as much population as possible. Cover your
homeworld as soon as possible. And build Domes (Y's) on a few
sectors to get their efficiency up (which affects resource
production).
Fnebish Legion -
First, cover every single sector you are compatible with.
Next, if you have spare resources, you can build domes to
increase the efficiency of some sectors, which will increase
your overall average efficiency, which will, in turn,
increase production without hurting your planet. I've found
that quarries are a real waste of time and resources.
Microbians -
Well, you are going to have to wait a while before you get
any significant production. If you are a non-Jovian and you
have the tech and resources to spare, you might want to
consider domes. Either way, KEEP THE TAXES LOW.
Tribbles -
You can build quarries, though I never do. You can also
increase your population using K's and build Y's(domes) to
increase it's efficiency. If your real brave you can design
your race to have a real high metab, like 1.5. Thus you'd
never have to worry about resources.
NB -
Spread your population thoroughly (make sure you're
compatible with the sectors you put people on however), and
build domes when you have the available time and resources;
domes increase efficiency greatly.
TheCulture -
Move people to the sectors with the highest resource
contents, build domes (Y) on the best sectors, and possibly
build a space plow (K) to increase sector fertility so that
more people appear there. If the planet has the wrong type of
atmosphere or temperature you can use atmosphere processors,
space mirrors, dust canisters and greenhouse gas to good
effect.
Froos -
You could build quarries, or try to put your guys on high res
sectors.
Griffons -
Increase the average efficiency(through doming) or increase
the pop through space plows etc.
Pillarian -
Well the bets way to increase r production is to increase you
efficiency. you can o this by Doming sectors.. Believe me it
is worth putting r into domes!!!!
Tao -
Build domes, quarries, terraformers, space plows...
Empire -
You can build Domes after tech-level 5, they increase your
sector efficiency on which depends your
resource-production....
Link Baker -
Get that entire planet covered! After that you'll have to
increase the efficiencies of the sectors with domes. Other
than that there's not much else you can do. That's why it's
important to have metabolism.
Greenies -
Wait. Quarries are overrated.
Zurgithian -
Cover the whole planet, even sectors you don't like, build
domes on these sectors as soon as possible so that you can
plate them. I don't use quarries; they're nasty.
------------------------------
Subject: 56. Should I colonize the planets in my own system first, or should
I focus on arriving in other systems before opponents can?
Feepness -
Concentrate on other systems, except hit the high fertility
planets in your system at the same time. An enemy could breed
on a class M ten times faster than on an iceball.
Lestat -
Yes.
Keskiolut -
Because you are a beginner, take your own system first.
Neue Regel -
Depends on how close the neighboring systems are. I try to go
for the neighboring systems first and get a shuttle to my own
planets after I have sent out 2 or 3 s's to the other
systems. If systems are very close (< 10K) it would probably
be better to get those first shuttles to your own planets.
Don't forget to build a telescope and check out your own
planets. This can save you a lot of time by not having to go
to every planet.
Garfel -
Both if possible. Colonize only the best planets of your own
system, like those over 40% compatibility and go fast to the
nearest systems!
Cylons -
Try to colonize your own system first, and establish a good
population base and fleet. Throughout the beginning, you may
talk confidentially to other players, or publicly to
everyone. If you can get a crypt set up with another player,
feel free to ask questions. Also, God is an experienced
player who can give advice, but don't run to him before
trying to figure it out on your own. Otherwise he'd be
swamped. It's good to establish friendly relations with other
players, and even better ones with races who are in a
position to mess with you. Try to get on peoples' good side.
Even if you are going to backstab them. :-)
Thing -
Do both. Use one ship to colonize the planets in your star.
Use a telescope to save time by aiming it at the planets and
seeing if you can live on them. Use your remaining ships to
colonize the nearest stars to you.
Muu -
Generally, get as much population as possible. Cover your
homeworld as soon as possible. And build Domes(Y's) on a few
sectors to get their efficiency up(which affects resource
production).
Fnebish Legion -
Use a telescope to check out the planets in your system if
you have the tech to do it. Colonize those you are compatible
with, but always send your first dozen or so ships out of
system so they can get a head start on the race with the
other players to arrive at and colonize unpopulated systems.
If waiting to colonize your planets allows some other race to
sneak in, odds are it will be quite easy for you to kick that
player out since you will have the resources nearby to build
the necessary ships to do it. This is a last resort of
course, since you should always ally with your neighbors if
at all possible.
Microbians -
Contrary to most of the advice I've been given, I usually
colonize my home system first. It costs less in time, and
after you colonize your home, you can use the same ships to
arrive at other systems.
Tribbles -
BOTH! You start off colonizing your planet until you get
enough tech to build speed 6-7 shuttles. Then use upgrade (cs
into ship scope have resources on ship and use "upg speed
7"). When you can do this then send some shuttles to other
systems. When you can build explorers, do so and send them to
other systems. An awesome race would have the ability to skip
shuttles, go to explorers and thus explore out space the same
time as it colonizes its home planets, but it's risky even
for experienced players.
NB -
Colonize your own system quickly! Arriving in other systems
early is fine if you can build some speed 9 shuttles to zip
to the nearest stars, but hyperdrive will arrive before your
slower shuttles reach places much further than a star or two
away. If you're a 'morph, of course, you should be firing off
pods from the very first updates!
TheCulture -
I'd say focus on the other systems. The primitive ship types
(pod, shuttle) move slowly, so you have to be fast if you
want to make it to the best spots before anyone else does.
You'll always have time later to focus on your own system.
Froos -
Do your own first. Easier and faster and it'll give you
additional supplies to conquer other systems with.
Griffons -
The latter, the more territory that you can gain early the
more that you will not have to fight over later
Pillarian -
Again everything is relative.. But my answer would be YES!
You should colonize your system first. You must at least
devote your first inter- scope ship to the task.. then work
out from there.. if you have close neighbors.. and they get
to you first.. and you haven't colonized your system, you
could be inviting disaster.
Tao -
I'd say it depends on what kind of planets you've got. If you
have great planets in your own system (the telescope!), send
the first ones there. Otherwise sort of divide your forces...
Empire -
IMHO, colonize your planets first before somebody else do
it...
Link Baker -
Everybody should have their own strategy regarding this.
Greenies -
Usually the competition for other systems doesn't happen for
a while. Definitely go for your own system first.
Zurgithian -
Both at the same time, pods are cheap in res so if you have a
high metabolism you can send out lots and lots. After the
first 10-20 updates you should have podded all the systems
within 100000 dist of you, if you have the time !
------------------------------
Subject: 57. What should I do when I see another ship other than my own?
Feepness -
Talk first... don't give away too much. If it's named
something nice like "Friendly" then you can assume it's going
to be OK. Also, if it is a size 1 shuttle you don't have much
to worry about in any case, but a size 6 d, you should
definitely make friends if you aren't going to be able to
destroy it immediately. Put yourself in the other person's
place (he is just trying to colonize and will be pretty
pissed if you blow away his ship for no reason other than he
exists.) Also keep in mind that this person is probably very
near you as well. A close-in fight like that can be
disastrous in a game.
Lestat -
Find out who owns it, try to communicate with that player if
you wish. If you're aggressive or foolish, attack it. If it's
a colonizing pod, blow it away. This is all more a matter of
personal style than learning the rules.
Keskiolut -
Talk, negotiate. Do not shoot first, you'll be losing most
probably.
Neue Regel -
Don't try and destroy them right off. That person could be
your best ally later on. If you see another ship early in the
game, it means that someone else is close by. If you start
into a war right away, you will have a really hard time
building up at all. The other players who are not fighting
right away have more time to expand to other systems.
Garfel -
Try to negotiate armistice if he is in a high place in power
list, or if you have good allies near then splat that
bastard.
Cylons -
When this first happened to me, I panicked somewhat. After I
calmed my self down and thought it out, I realized that the
ships were not a major threat, and that they couldn't know I
was here, so it's not a personal attack on me the player.
Open up a duologue. If there is a planet you can't use but
they can, let them in exchange for permission to colonize in
their own system. YOU CAN'T WIN GALACTIC BLOODSHED ON YOUR
OWN. FIND OUT ABOUT 'ALLIANCES' AND BLOCKS. THESE ARE WHAT
CAN BE DECIDING FACTORS IN WINNING THE GAME.
Thing -
If you see another ship that is not yours, send a telegram to
the ship's owner. If he is hostile, capture it. If it is in
your home system, capture it no matter what.
Muu -
That really depends on you. If you want a war, then by all
means, do what you will. However, it can be REALLY profitable
to team up with a Meta, if you are a norm. They generally
produce more rapidly, and make great troops. Be careful,
though, they are not as easy to suppress as some might lead
you to believe. Thinking of him as "my Meta" might just get
you into a nasty little fight. Again, its really up to you
and the situation.
Fnebish Legion -
Try to find out what player number owns it by using "tact."
If it is your own pod and you see the other ship on a map,
tact won't work, but there is a trick for seeing who owns
other ships which appear on your map but are too far away for
a tactical command to work on them: Use the "highlight"
command to run through the list of players, generating a new
map for each new highlighted player. As soon as the other
ship lights up, you'll be able to see who owns it. It's best
to talk to that person since he's probably a neighbor. If you
want peace, don't start by making demands or claims of "I was
here first." That gets you nowhere. Of course, as a general
rule, I only let the _most_ trusted allies colonize my home
systems. Players should understand that being allowed to
place a colony in another's home system is probably a pretty
big act of trust. A lot of full-scale and crippling wars have
been fought simply because one player refused to leave
another's home system. Deal with this as you see fit.
Microbians -
Diplomacy. Declare neutrality if you have the APs and start
talking to the owner. Look for an alliance and try to
ascertain the enemy's experience. Oh, and one other thing.
I've done EXTREMELY well in my first two games and the secret
to my success has been (with the exception the deity of
course) NEVER EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, LET ON THAT YOU
ARE A NEWBIE!!!!
Tribbles -
Talk first, shoot later. Besides, the first ship you see will
most likely be in a place where you can't do much any way.
Allies can be more powerful than enemies. *grin* Think about
it.
NB -
If it's in your own system, or one just adjacent to it, don't
shoot right away (unless it's a missile - ALWAYS shoot
missiles, and be sure to give their owners a hard time about
it in the future!) Try to communicate with the owner. If
you're seeing them relatively early in the game, then they're
probably a neighbor, and you need to negotiate with neighbors
to avoid counterproductive wars. You may have a planet
useless to you that would be useful to them - and vice versa.
When pods burst in your system, talk to the owners *quick.*
If they don't respond, snuff out the one - man invasion that
results on whichever planet it showed up, and do it quickly,
because 'morphs reproduce like, well, 'morphs. Bunnies can't
hold a candle.
TheCulture -
If it's a pod it might be a good idea to shoot it down (at
least if its in your home system), otherwise talking is a
*very* good idea. Making too many enemies too fast in the
game can lead to your home planet being turned into a nuclear
test site :-)
Froos -
This really depends on the individual context. Try to talk to
the owner, perhaps.
Griffons -
Close to find out who owns it and then try to parley with
them. Successful parleying can allow you to have a good
relationship or give you time so that you can backstab later.
Pillarian -
Find out who it belongs to (ie tact)! Then the best idea is
to talk to the owner (ie email to him) or send him a
telegram, etc., then decide between you two what you are
going to do. Then progress from there.. However you have to
remember that generating a fair trust level in this game is
difficult.. if you mess up explain the mess up.. else you
could invite war at the drop of a hat.. this could be good..
but then again :)
Tao -
Send him a message and say Hi!
Empire -
Try always negotiate first, you need allies to be good in this
game... And GOOD LUCK! ..we may meet sometime...
Link Baker -
Do a 'tactical' on it to see what it is, who owns it, etc . .
. If it's an enemy and you have an armed ship around, blast
it (fire command). If you are close enough board the ship and
capture it (Assault command). Any alien ship in your system
is a threat. You might want to telegram the person and find
out what his intentions are before taking action. A pod is
trouble; it means a meso is looking to colonize.
Greenies -
Send a message offering them one of the planets you don't
use, or tell them that you live there already.
Zurgithian -
As a meta there is not much you can do, arm up some military
on each planet so that they can not kick you off (high fight
is important). I usually go the diplomatic route send them
some telegrams, you will need a techie ally and they will
probably want a meta friend as well. Always check the tactical
report in your home star !
------------------------------