Playing The Game

Your Objective

You will start in each new sector with a well established complex on a fertile world. This complex produces the raw and finished materials you need to expand to other planets. Your objective is to claim all of the planets in this sector for your empire. As you will soon discover, there are others with the same plans. Three opponents will be fighting for the same small group of planets. The only sure way to defeat an opponent is to destroy all of its colonies and freighters, halting its expansion efforts in this sector.

Expanding Your Empire

To expand your empire, you must simply visit the planet of your choice and land there, planting a flag in the dirt and claiming it as yours. There are two different types of planets in the galaxy. Green planets are habitable and can build a colony which produces the finished goods which supply your empire. Gray planets are generally either close to the sun or on the extreme outer fringes of the system. Though unsuitable for human colonization, they serve as strategic outposts and build tech facilities which increases your chances of developing an upgrade. Since they can't build a colony complex, they depend on imported goods via merchant traffic from green worlds near and far. Your transports will attempt to keep the world supplied when materials are depleted from battle damage or if the resources are used to build a new fighter. Once you have successfully landed, freighters from your empire will automatically be dispatched to do the hard work, that of digging sewers, making buildings, and otherwise scratching up a good place to call home.

Once a ship construction facility has been completed, the new complex is capable of building freighters and fighters. As the war ensues, you may decide to have new fighters constructed closer to the action. New fighters are constructed by Tech Centers and by Space Docks. To instruct a ship construction facility to be the fighter manufacturing location, you must visit there personally. After you have landed there, future fighters will be constructed there.

Landing Your Fighter

One of the most challenging manoeuvres you must perform is landing your ship. There are two locations at which you can land your fighter safely, the flight deck of a Startbase and the surface of a planet. The beginning player will find landing on the surface of a planet much easier than the Starbase. The Starbase has the advantage of being able to fix structural damage to your ship much more easily. Due to the zero-g conditions, repairs are made much faster on a starbase. Planetary facilities can repair your fighter also but it takes considerably longer. In either case, supplies must be available at the facility in order for repairs to take place.

To land on a planet or Starbase, you must move your fighter into contact at the correct rotation and at a slow enough velocity. In either case, you must rotate your ship so that both thrusters are firing against the force of gravity. Allow the planet's gravity to draw your ship toward the landing site, firing thrusters as necessary to keep your speed down. The ship's velocity indicator lights up a bright green when your speed is slow enough to land safely. If your ship is rotated incorrectly, it will be damaged and often settles to a stop in the proper orientation. Excessive speed will cause the immediate destruction of your ship upon landing.

View Window

The view window provides the primary view of your fighter and other ships. This window maintains a view of one of your ships at all times; it is scrolled automatically to keep the selected ship in view. Using the mouse in this window, you can select ships or facilities in your empire to watch. With the exception of fighters, the selected unit is drawn in white to set it apart from others of its kind. A view of your opponents' fighters can be selected using keyboard commands. The selected unit will appear in the Radar Display surrounded by a white box. The selected unit is also shown with white text in the Ship List.

Radar Display

Opponent Status - The row of four colored boxes indicates which opponents are still battling for this sector. As opponents are defeated, their corresponding colored box will turn black. When your labs have a new development ready, this box will flash

The radar display provides a reduced view of the entire sector. Stars are shown as large yellow dots. Planets are shown as medium-sized green dots or gray dots. A colored box will appear around explored planets, indicating which player has claimed it. Ships are displayed as small colored dots. All freighters appear in the same color regardless of allegiance as they are strictly commercial vessels. The selected ship in the View Window will appear surrouned by a white box in the Radar Display. The selected ship appears in the Ship List with red text.

Status Indicators

The status indicators show the overall condition of your fighter. From left to right and top to bottom, the following brief descriptions detail the display.

Clock - This shows your current system time. If it's incorrect, you should check your Control Panel.

Weapon Type Indicator - Different weapon types have different attributes. The type of weapon currently installed on your ship is indicated by color. A bar splitting this indicates rapid fire technology.

Fast Turn Indicator - With the new Fast Response Side Thrusters, you'll be able to out-maneuver your opponents with lightning fast turning ability...well, maybe not..

Rocket/Missile/Bomb Count - If your fighter has been fitted with rockets, missiles or bombs, your remaining ammunition will be displayed here.The color of this display will correspond to the type of munition installed. Purple indicates rockets; white is for missiles and yellow indicates planet buster bombs.

Fighter Orientation - This displays the current orientation of your fighter. This is useful for navigating your fighter when your display is zoomed out.

Shields Indicator - A bright circle around your fighter indicates a type of shields have been installed on your ship. When shields become low, friendly starbases and planetary facilities are equipped with Emerson Coils which will quckly restore your shields to factory original. If your shields are completely gone however, the control module has burnt out and you have to wait for your Tech Centers to engineer you a new one. It's been rumored that a new null-shield weapon is being developed which is unaffected by shields.

Nearest Star Indicator - The yellow indicator always points to the nearest star to your fighter.

Nearest Planet Indicator - The green/gray indicator always points to the nearest planet to your fighter and indicates the type of planet by color.

Nearest Enemy Indicator - The red indicator always points to the nearest enemy unit to your fighter. The indicator will turn bright red when you are near an enemy unit.

Velocity Indicator - An arrow indicates your speed relative to your maximum speed. You will find that accelerating to full speed and decelerating to a complete stop will take a considerable distance. The indicator bar will turn bright green when you are moving slowly enough to land. The small bar at the slow end of the Velocity Indicator is the landing speed mark.

Damage Indicator - A solid purple bar indicates no damage. As your ship accumulates damage, segments of this bar will become red. When this bar is completely red, your fighter is destroyed. Your fighter has six structural points.

Ship List

The ship list shows information about all of your units, except your fighter. Each list entry is composed of three lines of information as follows:

Unit name - This information identifies the unit type. If a friendly unit other than your fighter is selected in the view window, this text will be displayed in white and scrolled into view. Space Docks and Sensor Arrays will appear under the starbase to which the unit is attached. If a unit is attacked or damaged, it will go on Red Alert status and call for help. The text will remain red until visited by your friendly fighter at which time they will declare all clear and return to normal status. Red Alert does not affect the unit in any way it is only an indicator so you know when someone is being attacked.

Damage Indicator - This indicator shows damage accumulated by the unit. When the bar is completely red, the unit is destroyed. In this list, the damage indicators are scaled such that the relative strengths of the various units is apparent.

Materials Indicator - This bar shows the amount of materials stored by the unit. In the case of Freighters and Colonies, this is a measure of 'raw' materials. For Bases and Starbases, this is a measure of 'finished' materials. Refer to The Economic Model of Gravity Well for a description of how materials are manufactured and expended.