The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/pc/softdox/twtips.txt

Text File | 2003-06-11 | 80.3 KB | 1,383 lines

    Trade Wars 2002 has gathered quite a collection of addicts, casual
players and occasional dabblers.  I wrote this file for those who
love the game and want to play it on a regular basis.  I wrote it
because there is an awful lot of bad advice out there, a lot of rumors
and speculation, and the player who does not have a good knowledge of
basic strategy and how the game works is going to be destroyed every
time.  Most areas have one or two people who know how to play,
and those people routinely dominate every game.  As one of those players,
I hope that this file will increase the supply of quality Trade
Warriors and allow for greater competitive balance.
         One introductory note: The Martins will release version
1.1 soon, and that release will change some of the information and
strategy/tactics hints contained here.  When they release 1.1 and I have
had a chance to play on it for a month or so, I will update this file.
Apparently, according to a post by Gary Martin on his WWIVNet Trade Wars
2002 Discussion sub, the evil side is all coded, and he is adding the
last goodies for the Goods.  According to Gary's hints, the new
additions will be welcome to Good players.  I hope so, because the way
the game is now, competent evil players are nearly unbeatable.
      The file is divided into eleven sections:

I.    Getting Started
II.   Game Objectives
III.  The Choice: Good or Evil
IV.   Your Ship
V.    Survival
VI.   Corporate Life
VII.  Data Processing Wars
VIII. The Insecurity of Planets
IX.   Making Money
X.    Strategy and Tactics
XI.   Conclusion

      If you only want to cruise around the universe every so often, then stay
good, park in FedSpace every night, beware the Ferrengi and don't read
any further.  If you want to be a competitive player or even dominate
your universe (the true goal of Trade Wars), then read on and I will
tell you how.

I. GETTING STARTED

   As soon as your new ship is launched in sector 1, hit `V' for the
Game Configuration Screen.  This screen has a wealth of vital
information that you need to know in order to play the game correctly.
You want to know the turns per day, the number of ships per FedSpace
sector, the StarDock location, if displayed, the Photon Missile Wave
Duration, whether the game is registered or not (don't bother playing if
it is unregistered), the number of days running, and the information at
the bottom of the screen (more on that in "Old Game").
    After that, hit `I' to get your personal information.  Hi, there,
Civilian Space Scum!  Then, hit `C' for computer and then `L' for Trader
Rankings and `V' to rank the traders by experience point level.  See
what you're up against.
     Now that you have an idea of what the game is like, your next move
is to get established, start exploring, and get into your new ship.
There will be some differences in strategy based on whether you are
joining a fresh, young game or an old, established game.  Either way,
don't worry, because once you know what you are doing, you can be in a
competitive, if not dominant, position in less than a week.

A. New Game

   In a new game, the only big threat to your safety is the Ferrengi.
The assault traders roam the non-FedSpace universe looking for the weak
to pick on, and Ferrengal is often plopped down in the middle of a
significant space lane near FedSpace.  Many a new player discovers the
location of Ferrengal by losing his Merchant Cruiser to Ferrengi mines.
         If you happen to encounter a Ferrengi assault trader, surrender
and let him take your cargo.  It's good to travel with holds full of
equipment as much as possible early on, because if you have equipment
they will not take holds from you, otherwise they take 10% of your
holds, and that stinks because your holds are your life this early.
       So in a new game, the first thing I do is explore FedSpace.  I go
from 1 to 2 to 3... all the way until I have all ten sectors explored.
If I find a good Paired Port (see VIII. MAKING MONEY for an explanation
of Paired Ports) team, I work it for about 5 or 6 loops, then cruise
back to 1 and buy more holds, then come back, work it 5 or 6 more times,
run back to 1 and get holds then come back.  Once I have 30-40 holds, my
strategy depends on whether the sysop displays the StarDock location or
not.  (I think all sysops should since it defies logic that a space ship
captain would not know the location of the only place in the universe to
buy a ship!)  If he does display the location, then I stop going for
holds once I have 30-40, and work my paired port until I have about
30-40 k credits.  Then I go to StarDock and get my StarMaster (see IV.
YOUR SHIP for a discussion of the different ship types and why I
always choose the StarMaster at the start).
       If the sysop does NOT display the location of StarDock, then I
have to find it.  First thing I do is post a general announcement asking
for its location, then I check the trader listing and see if anyone is
in a ship other than a Merchant Cruiser or Scout Marauder and send them
mail asking for the location.
     Once sending the mail, I go back to pounding my pair, and work
until I have maximum holds in the Cruiser.  By this time the pair is
usually exhausted, so I see if maybe a couple of ports in fedspace are
almost paired and trade between them until I have enough credits for 400
shields.  If I cannot find a suitable couple of ports in fedspace, then
I cautiously explore around FedSpace to see if there is a pair nearby,
or if one of the non-paired FedSpace ports has a partner outside of
FedSpace.  Until I have max holds and shields on my cruiser, I hate to
venture out of FedSpace, because a Scout is not a very good jumping off
ship.
     Generally, on a board that does not display StarDock, I do not
leave FedSpace until the second day.  Once I have full shields on the
cruiser, I can withstand mines, and should survive an encounter with
Ferrengal, due to the peculiar way the Ferrengi offensive fighters are
coded.  Once my ship is ready, if I have not learned the location of
StarDock from some kind soul in response to my efforts the day before, I
venture out into the universe in search of StarDock.
        My theory of the best way to find StarDock is to go on long
auto-warps.  I start with sector 1000 as a destination, then 900, 800,
700 etc. etc., then back to 990, 890, 790 etc. etc.  The theory is that
StarDock is on the major space lanes, so auto-warping will eventually get
you there.  Once I have found StarDock I almost never use auto-warp because
it is more efficient at eating turns and getting you blown up than anything
else.
     So, once I know where StarDock is, I trade in the Cruiser on a
StarMaster, buy a density scanner first, then buy as many holds as I
can (saving 3-5,000 credits to buy product).  Once I have my density scanner
and my holds, then I start in on shields.  I won't be attacking anything for
a few days because it is vital for new players to conserve their resources
so that later they can go on a wild rampage and still be able to defend
themselves.
   The next goal is to explore the universe and find the ports.  I
single-step-scan everywhere, always looking for unexplored sectors with
densities of 100 and more than one warp.  If I find one I go there,
otherwise I look for an unexplored sector with as many warps as
possible, and go there.  There is a good chance an adjacent sector will
have a port.
     I trade as I go, and return at the end of the day to StarDock to
spend my money.  Until I have my bank account full I usually stash about
30% of the day's earnings and spend the rest.  I get full shields, then
I upgrade to a holo scanner, start accumulating cloaking devices, and
buy ether probes.  I usually do not buy fighters until I no longer want
to park in FedSpace.
   By now you should have a well-supplied ship and a good start.  If you
density scan everywhere you go you should not run into any unpleasant
surprises.  If you get a density reading of 7500 or more this early in
a new game, you have found Ferrengal.  Mark it as an avoid.

B. Old Game

   If I am joining an old game, my strategy is slightly different.  I
try to do the same as above, and am even more leery of leaving FedSpace
than in a new game because the players have had time to put out mines
and fighters, build quasar cannons, etc. etc. and the hazards are many.
So I explore FedSpace and hope to find a couple good ports.  Often in an
old game, the FedSpace ports are whipped and I have little luck.  What I
do then is head towards StarDock, trading, until I have 2000 credits and
cargo in my holds, and buy a density scanner for the cruiser.  Now I can
safely find ports to pound to get established like in the New Game
above.
      If the Sysop does NOT display StarDock, I stick to FedSpace and
environs the first day, and use the announcement and mail to try and
find the location as above.  If I do not have any mail the second day
telling me where StarDock is, I DO NOT PLAY.  In an old game, a new
player is at enough of a disadvantage already that he is severely
handicapped trying to find StarDock.  Most sysops now display StarDock.
      In an established game, the Game Configuration Screen (the V
Screen) offers a wealth of information  on the current status of the
game.  Look for the net worth of the ports.  A high number indicates
that a lot of trading has taken place, and an evil player can make
serious money robbing credits.  How many traders and aliens are there,
and what percentage of each are Good?  The number of planets and the
percentage with citadels also tells you how developed the game is, and
the more citadels there are the more fun an evil player can have.  Most
important is the number of fighters and mines in use, because that tells
you roughly how powerful the players are and how hazardous the universe
is.  Keep track of all this information as the game goes by, and
especially the fighters in use.  Compare what your corporation has to
what is out there as an idea of how secure you are.  Generally, my
business partner and I have half or more of all the fighters in the
universe, and the feds and Ferrengi account for most of the rest.
      The remainder of my game starting strategies depend on other
choices, so I will leave those discussions for after the next couple
sections.

II. OBJECTIVES

    A player's objectives for his game will determine all the rest
of his choices.  As I said before, if you just want to fly around every
so often, don't waste your time with the rest of this file.  Trade Wars
has a bias for the player who plays every day, and only those who want
to play every day will be able to be top Trade Warriors.  Others can
succeed if they have different objectives, but if you do not play at
least two-three times a week, there is not much you can do.
      Other possible objectives are to be the Roaming Marauder who warps
around the galaxy, trading and robbing only as much as is necessary to
obtain fighters for alien hunting and mothing players.  Or, you might
want to be a builder, a Good trader who devotes his energies to building
and colonizing planets.  Or, you might want to be a destroyer, one who
builds nothing, keeps his assets on his ship in the form of fighters and
shields, and roams the galaxy looking for ships to destroy (any, you
don't care) or, the ultimate prize, planets to conquer then demolish.
Or, like me, you might want to be Emperor of the Universe, the Dominant
and Supreme Power of all Trade Wars!  This file is directed most towards
those who share my objective, which is to "win" as I see it.
      I will try to direct tips and hints to all of the above types of
players.  The ideal situation is to have a corporation with two or three
of the types on it, so that each player has a job he enjoys that
contributes to the overall team effort (see VI. CORPORATE LIFE).  In
this fashion, a corporation can become the dominant power, thus
satisfying the goals of everyone on the team.
       The first choice dictated by the player's objectives is whether
to be good or evil.

III. THE CHOICE: GOOD OR EVIL?

     You cannot sit on the fence in Trade Wars.  Every day you enter the
game your alignment goes up by 1 point, so you cannot sit at zero.  Each
side of 0 has its advantages, but I, like many others, think that the
advantages of evil FAR outweigh the advantages of good.  The good trader
must work extra hard, and if he desires to have planets he stands almost
no chance of keeping a planet against competent evil players unless he
is part of a large, coordinated corporation.  The good trader who wants
to stay alone and doesn't care about planets will fare better.

A. Why Good? -- A Good Question

   Let me first catalogue the advantages of Good as they have been
advanced by players on the two major national Trade Wars message bases
(National Trade Wars Echo on FidoNet and National Trade Wars Discussion
on WWIVNet, hosted by the authors of the game at Castle RavenLoft), then
discuss each of them in depth and then go into other reasons for playing
Good.
     First advantage that comes to mind is FedSpace protection.  A Good
player can rest in FedSpace between playing sessions, and he is immune
from attack (see below!).
     Second advantage is the Imperial StarShip.  This ship is the
biggest money-maker and the most awesome military power available to
traders.  With its 30,000 fighter capacity, its 1.5-1 fighting odds, and
its ability to use Photon Missiles, the StarShip is unrivalled as a
planetary invader and the most impressive way of projecting force.  Its
150 cargo holds and transwarp drive make it the best trading and
colonizing ship available.  Depending on the number of turns per day in
your game, a StarShip can TransWarp colonize up to 1.5 million colonists
per day.  More about the StarShip later.
    Third advantage is... well, the ability to collect bounties.  Anyone
can post a bounty on a bad guy, but only Goods can collect.
Unfortunately, the best bad guys are almost never blown up.
    Fourth advantage is... um... well... I can't think of any more.
Until 1.1 is released with its hinted-at goodies for Goodies, there are
not many advantages to playing Good.
    When you look in depth at the "advantages" they look like less than
before.  FedSpace protects you only until you have 1000 experience
points, then your enemies may attack you in FedSpace.  Also, you cannot
have more than 50 fighters on your ship when you park there, or you will
be towed out into the middle of space when the Extern maintenance program
runs.  Lots of traders get blown up that way.  Also, only a certain number
of ships (sysop configurable, check the Game Configuration Screen) can remain
in any single FedSpace sector overnight, so you have to get to a sector
without the maximum already there, or you will be towed.  FedSpace,
therefore, is of small overall value to any serious, regular player.
       The StarShip is a powerful advantage, but it is expensive to buy,
more expensive to equip, has only a limited number of turns, and can
lead to a false sense of security.  StarShips seem to be destroyed at
alarming rates in established games, which is not catastrophic if you're
Good, because you can go buy another one, but it is expensive and
disillusioning.  Great care must be exercised with the TransWarp drive
or other traders will laugh when they see "Space Scum's Imperial
StarShip was destroyed by atomic fusion at 12:21:54 on 12/25/91" in the
daily log.  The StarShip, while a great ship and a tremendous asset, is
not by itself a reason to stay Good.
    The bounties play a minor role in the game since most of the big
bounties are never collected.  They do, however, help the ambitious
trader hoping for a Federation Commission and a StarShip.  This trader
can find an evil player, usually some yoyo with 5 xp and -7 alignment in
an escape pod in some dead end, or some poor schnook with the wrong
password for a corporation sitting in FedSpace with a -1 alignment
because he doesn't know anything about the game, post a huge bounty on
him (gaining 1 alignment point for each 1000 credits), get the alignment
boost towards the 500 needed for a Commission, then go blow the dork up
and collect the bounty he just posted.
    If you tote up the "advantages" of being Good, they do not amount to
much.  When weighed against the advantages of being Evil, it does not
appear to make much sense to be Good.  Many players, however, still
decide to be Good for a variety of reasons.  It could be for the
challenge of trying to survive, prosper and even conquer as a Good
player given Evil's greater ability to make money with ease.  It could
be because the player wants to play a character of honesty and integrity
who stands as a bulwark against the evil hordes seeking to slaughter the
innocent.  Or it could be because the player is more interested in play
balance and wants there to be Good players in the game.  Each of these
reasons is sound and respectable.  I will attempt to outline what I hope
is a winning strategy for Good players -- although I think that even
that will fall against an Evil corporation applying my strategies for
Evil.

B. Why Evil?

   Just like with Good, I will begin by cataloguing the advantages of
being Evil, then launch into a discussion of the choice and why I
usually choose Evil (unless for one of the intangible reasons in the
previous section I have decided to play Good for a change).
   First and most important, Evil can make far more money than Good with
less work.  A part of this advantage is that Evil players never run out
of ports, which Good traders will.  Evil can trade like Good when
necessary, but he can also rob credits from ports that have traded a
lot, or even steal products and sell them right back to the same port.
This one advantage more than makes up for the advantages of Good,
because the Evil player can buy enough fighters to overwhelm the
StarShip, cloaking devices to render him impervious to attack, and he
has no need of collecting bounties.
    A secondary advantage is somewhat related to the first: Evil players
are not taxed.  While a Good player who quits the game with 50,000 or
more credits on his ship will be taxed 10% upon re-entry to the game,
Evil players are never taxed.  An Evil player can have as many credits
as he desires on his ship without losing any of it to the stinking Feds.
    Those are all the advantages that come to mind, but they are big.  A
good Evil player can make 50-100% more money per day than a comparable
Good player, but there are hazards to watch out for.  One, when you get
busted and lose cargo holds, that is a cost.  Two, when busted you lose
10% of your experience and that can cut into your money-making ability
as well as your status.  Three, once busted in a port you cannot port
there again until two weeks have passed, or someone else has been busted.
There is a rumor flying around the national echo that a port that has busted
someone before thereafter busts people more often, so as the game wears
on it is possible that the Evil players will have a harder time finding
good ports to rob or steal.  There is no empirical support for the rumor
however, other than the impressions of a few Evil players.  I myself
have my doubts.
     I almost always play Evil because of the earning power, and also
the constant tension of "Will I get busted???"  I have more fun robbing
and stealing than I have trading.  Also, I like to invade planets and be
the chief power in any game I am in, so I need to take advantage of the
extra money.  I have macros that do the tedious work so I can
concentrate on strategy and the fun stuff.

IV. YOUR SHIP

    The second main choice that has to be made is what ship you will use
for most of the game.  Some players will switch ships frequently,
jumping from task to task and choosing the ship that meets the task.
While this method may work pretty well, one weakness of it is that you
never get as much in the trade as you paid for the equipment on your
ship, so the more you trade the more money you lose.
      Of the 15 different ship types in the game, there are 3 good
general use ships, 3 good "role-players", and 9 more or less useless
craft.  I will start with the 3 general purpose, as these will form the
backbone of a corporation, or be the most likely and effective ships for
the solo player.

A. StarMaster

   Version 1.00 had 5 new ship types, one of which was the StarMaster.
The StarMaster radically changed the complexion of the game, and soon became
the ship of choice, with good reason.  The Corellian Battleship, previously
a great favorite, has been relegated to the background by this elegant
combination of speed, power and earnings capacity.
         No other ship has the StarMaster's combination of moves, combat
ratio, fighter and shield capacity, and cargo capacity.  While it can be
tedious to pound paired ports with the number of turns a StarMaster
gets, it is extremely profitable, and for the Evil trader, robbing and
stealing are even more profitable.  With 1.4-1 combat odds, 5000
fighters and 1000 shields, the StarMaster will conquer all but the
StarShip, Battleship and Flagship, and will give even those behemoths
pause.
      While not the best for planetary invasions, the StarMaster will
effectively conquer most young planets.  Once a planet has a quasar
cannon, however, the StarMaster becomes less effective, and one of the
larger ships might be in order.  Still, for most planetary invasions the
StarMaster is plenty.
      For early game, the StarMaster is the best choice, and for most
traders, it is also the ultimate choice.  Get in a StarMaster early and
stay in it.  I usually am in a StarMaster by the end of my first day in
a game, and I keep it until I get my StarShip (if I get a StarShip).  I
take advantage of its large number of turns for exploration, and sniff
out numerous pairs.  Generally I will loop a pair five-ten times when I
find it, then move on.  In that way I get a good compromise between
hard-core trading and straight exploration.
       I can't really think of any drawbacks to this ship, although for
particular jobs there might be better options.  The solo player,
however, is probably best-served by a StarMaster, accepting its
limitations as a trade-off for its astonishing versatility.  For
corporations, the StarMaster is a necessary part of your fleet, even if
you are a Good corporation and have StarShips.  The StarShip needs the
TransWarp to be truly efficient, and a teammate in a StarMaster can sow
lots of toll fighters around the universe to make the TransWarp most
effective.  The StarShip needs to husband its turns, so the StarMaster
can be the one to check things out.  A Scout can do so also, but the
StarMaster can carry the firepower with it to take advantage of most
situations, or at least pave the way for the StarShip.

B. StarShip

   The Imperial StarShip is the only ship I rate as a worthy competitor
for the StarMaster as a bread-and-butter ship.  The solo player can do
quite well in a StarShip, and the Good corporation must have at least
one of these monsters.
    Many people make the mistake of getting the StarShip prematurely,
and of being careless with it.  It costs a million credits to fully
outfit a StarShip, and half a million just to get started.  The ship
is 128,000 credits, the additional 110 holds are about 200-250,000
credits, the TWarp is 50,000 credits, the holo scanner 25,000, the planet
scanner is 30,000 credits, the 2000 shields are about 300,000 credits, and
the 30,000 fighters are about 6 million, although for 500,000 credits you
can get about 2500 fighters on it and be in business.
     Once outfitted, though, the StarShip will make a bundle of money.
Paired Ports go fast with 150 holds, and a good trader will make
100,000 credits every 25-30 turns.  After a few days of serious trading,
you will find a scarcity of good trading pairs.  That's okay, because
unlike any other ship, the StarShip can TransWarp trade profitably (see
Flagship) by finding class 4 and 5 ports, posting fighters in them, then
transwarping from 5 to 4 to 5 to 4 to 5 and trading organics for
equipment along the way, buying enough fuel for the next jump at each
stop.  Everyone else is scrambling to try and squeeze a few credits out
of worn out ports.
   A team with a StarShip would benefit from having a Scout or a
StarMaster to roam around and post fighters all over the place so the
StarShip pilot does not have to warp here and there, wasting valuable
turns.  If that technique is used, the StarShip's only drawback -- lack
of turns -- is overcome.  A caveat: BE CAREFUL WITH THE TRANSWARP!!!!!!
More StarShips than you would think get blind warped into a port or
planet, and are no more.  It is a highly distressing occurrence.
    In combat, the StarShip is unparalleled.  Ship-to-ship combat is
generally in your favor, because only the Scout and the Battleship have
higher combat odds than the StarShip's 1.5-1, and neither can carry as
many fighters.  The Scout would be more formidable if it could carry
more than 250 fighters and 100 shields, a mere burp for the typical
StarShip.  So a StarShip can usually destroy any ship it's captain wants
to fight.
   Planetary invasions are where the StarShip demonstrates its true
power.  Photon missiles and large numbers of fighters can overwhelm
almost any planet.  Make sure, however, to clear ALL mines and enemy
fighters out of the sectors approaching the planet before you buy a
photon, because a single battle point of damage will make your photon go
off and leave you stranded with 0 turns.
    The Good player who wants to be a solo flyer should get a StarShip,
buy cloakers every day, and keep his assets on his ship in the form of
fighters.  Doing that, he can survive and even be a force to be reckoned
with.  The Good team that wants to win should have everybody except the
scouter in StarShips.  The StarShip is the best available for trading,
colonizing AND combat, so there is no need for anything other than
one StarMaster or Scout Marauder.

C. Corporate Flagship

   The Flagship used to be a far more impressive ship before the
StarMaster came along.  Yes, the Flag carries four times as many
fighters and 500 more shields.  Yes, it has 15 more cargo holds.  Yes,
it has a TransWarp drive.  But the StarMaster has one-third more turns,
higher combat odds, and very few traders ever have more than 5000
fighters on their ship anyway.
   The Good corporation has no need for the Flagship.  Its chief virtue
is its relative proximity to most of the capabilities of the StarShip.
Goods get StarShips, Evils can have Flagships.  But the Flagship cannot
fire photon missiles, its 85 holds make TransWarp trading of minimal
profitability and TransWarp colonizing a tedious matter, and its combat odds
of 1.2-1 are not great.
   Every Evil corporation should have one Flagship.  The TransWarp drive
comes in handy, and it is usually the best colonizer available to Evils.
The Mule and other cargo carriers have many holds, but they must travel
through regular space, thus unless you build close to sector 1, you
cannot haul as many colonists.  Planets close to 1 are usually found
swiftly and not very secure.
        The firepower is also nice for an Evil corporation, and with 85
holds it is good for paired port trading early on, and stealing later.
When an Evil corporation goes on an invasion, the Flagship usually
delivers the coup de grace.
         The solo Evil player can do well in a Flagship, but solo
players usually cannot take advantage of the TransWarp as well as teams
can, so the StarMaster is probably still the best option, although you
might hit a point where you want to be able to carry more than 5000 fighters.
The battleship carries 10,000 and has 1.6-1 odds, but less turns than the
Flag, and no TWarp.

D. Taurean Mule

   The Mule is another of the ships that the Martins added in the
long-awaited Version 1.  Of all the cargo carriers, it is the most
efficient, but the Good corporation should have no need for it, since
the StarShip has the exact same Holds/Turns ratio.
    In comparison with the CargoTrans and the Colonial Transport, the
Mule comes out ahead.  I have developed a factor for measuring
money-making potential called the Holds-Turns Calculus.  I take the
number of turns per day, subtract it by 20 to reflect travel time to and
from ports, then multiply that number by the number of holds.
     For an example, lets do the calculus for 100 turns/day, my favorite
setting.  The Mule gets 83 turns, so its calculus is 63 x 150 = 9450.
The Colonial Transport gets 58 turns, so it comes out to 38 x 250 =
9500.  The CargoTran gets 67 turns, for 47 x 125 = 4875.  The Merchant
Freighter is 130 x 60 = 7800.  As a comparison, the StarMaster works out
to be 113 x 70 = 7910.
   The Colonial Transport's calculus is slightly higher than the Mule's,
but I believe that edge is offset by the additional investment the extra
100 holds represent, the extremely low number of turns, and the fact that
often more than 20 turns will be spent in transit, so the more turns in
transit, the more the Mule gains.  The CargoTran does not even compete,
and the Merchant Freighter's other disadvantages (including the tedium
of trading 150 turns!) remove it from the game.
   The Mule can make good money and haul lots of colonists, but it
cannot spend much of the money since it only holds about 300 fighters
and does not carry mines.  It really only helps the corporation that has
a citadel for money transfers, or that wants it purely for colonizing.
But in that role, it can be effective.  Still, there are better choices
(see above).

E. Scout Marauder

   Excuse me, but let me first advise you of one of my stronger biases:
I HATE the Scout Marauder.  Nevertheless, it is a useful role-player for
a corporation.  The Scout's claims to fame are its turns and its utter
expendability.  Your Scout Marauder blew up.  Who cares?  Trade in your
pod for a new scout and make a grand on the deal.
    The Scout is perfect for scouting, mothing, running hither and yon
on errands like posting fighters, collecting tolls, running down the
busiest ports list for credits to rob, and the like.  For a corporation
that has a couple of the more sensible ships, the Scout can fill a
worthwhile role.  For small corporations, the StarMaster might make more
sense as a compromise, since it still has a lot of turns but can also
make money and carry firepower at the same time.
     For the solo player, the only time to be in a Scout Marauder is
when your first Merchant Cruiser hits mines and you can't buy a new ship
yet.  As soon as possible, you get out of the Scout and into a
StarMaster.
           Some players like Scouts, and if they stay Good and keep
their experience below 1000, they can park in FedSpace and have their
fun as solo players.  Such a player will never be a threat to a powerful
player.  Such a player, however, is a perfect corporate member who can
do what he likes, have the power and wealth of a corporation behind him,
and be part of a competitive if not dominant enterprise.

F. Battleship

   Before the StarMaster came out of Markham Space Tech, the Battleship
was my ship of choice.  It has 80 holds for decent money-making, and it
packs quite a whallop.  Its 10,000 fighters and 1.6-1 combat odds make
it a threat to nearly any ship in the universe, and for the player or
corporation unable to get a StarShip it can be an effective planetary
invader.
        The Battleship is no more than a bit player, but can be a
positive factor in a corporation.  Solo players can do fairly well in
Battleships, but they will find that in the long run the StarMaster
makes more sense because it makes more money and covers more ground.
The combat odds on the Battleship are the best (excluding the Scout),
but not dramatically better than the StarMaster.
    I cannot really think of any situations when I would want a
Battleship.  I would choose the StarShip or the StarMaster, or perhaps
the Flagship if I were the CEO of an Evil corporation.  But given the
variety of tastes, I can see how some players and teams would want to
have one.  The ship is serviceable, and beats any of...

G. The Rest.

   Don't bother buying any of these.  For whatever one of these ships
does, one of the 6 above does it better.  Especially DO NOT BUY THE
THOLIAN SENTINEL.  It does not work.  It only gives the 4-1 odds if the
invader hits `L' for land before `A' for attack.  Even if the invader
does not know about the Sentinel, he is likely to say to himself, "Well,
I have to destroy it before I can land anyway, so I might as well skip the
L and go straight to A then L."  That was how I discovered the problem with
the Sentinel.  I went to invade a planet guarded by one, attacked the ship
first, psychologically prepared to lose 4000 fighters, then was pleasantly
surprised when I only lost about 800 fighters.
          The Merchant Cruiser is okay -- until you trade in your first
one on the StarMaster.  The Havoc GunStar is cute, but anyone who has a
need for and can use the TransWarp can buy a Flagship or StarShip.  Some
evil players on the Echo rave about the money they make in their
Colonial Transports, but they are in high-turns games, and the numbers
they throuw around are not much more than I would make in other ships
given the same base turn rate.  The others.... why waste words?

V. SURVIVAL

   Now that you have defined your objectives, chosen the Good or the
Evil Way, and selected your ship, you have to survive.  Most Trade Wars
players have no concept of survival, so they show up on the log time
after time, on the wrong side of the flashing red DESTROYED.

A. FedSpace

   When you first start the game, FedSpace is your key to survival.  I
detailed the ins and outs of FedSpace earlier, but I want to reiterate:
when you are just starting out stay Good, keep your fighters below 50,
and GET TO FEDSPACE EVERY NIGHT.  There is no excuse for getting caught
out in space.  If you have to, come back with 10 turns to spare.  You
can always find some way to muck around FedSpace and use those turns.
    When you go Evil, or over 1000 experience, it is time to leave
FedSpace and move on to the other survival methods below.  When you just
have to buy more fighters but still want to park in FedSpace, try to
find a dead end sector in some deep, dark corner of the universe and
stash your fighters there, on toll.  Be advised, however, that it is
probably just more cost-effective to buy a cloaking device.

B. Cloaking Devices

   Unless you are parking in FedSpace, the cloaking device is your best
bet for security.  Some people can park in a planet citadel, but unless
you have no reason to fear a sudden invasion by a more powerful entity,
parking in your citadel is risky.  The cloaking device is the most
secure way to park for the night, and well worth the 25,000 credit per
day investment.
    I cannot believe how many people do not cloak, and park here and
there out in the universe.  You would think they would learn after
getting blown up for the 17th time in three months, but they don't.  If
you are using competent money-making techniques you can afford 25,000
credits a day for security.
    The only thing to worry about with the cloaking device is the slim
possibility that someone guessed your location, and planted 99 mines and
3000 offensive fighters in the sector.  The only way for that to happen,
pretty much, is if you trade a port down to your last turn and cloak
there.  Someone coming along could see your ship on the docking log and
guess that you are cloaked there, then plant his trap.  Park one or two
sectors away.

C. Citadels

   I will talk about citadels in greater depth in a bit, but for now it
is enough to mention that a level two or above citadel can be a secure
place to park.  Try to stay aware of the current balance of power and
assess your risk of invasion before deciding to park in your citadel.  I
have destroyed many players after evicting them from their own citadels.
When you can feel secure about your citadel, it is nice not to have to
pay the 25,000 credits every day, and it is a good feeling to wake up in
the morning on your home planet, tend to your colonists and military
disposition, then grab what you need and blast off for a new day.  For a
corporation, it is convenient if most of the team members stay in the
citadel because then you can trade credits, exchange ships if necessary,
and better coordinate your activities.

D. Density Scanners

   You are auto-warping along from nowhere to oblivion when

50 Space Mines detonate near your ship
Fighter Attack!
Quasar Blast!

Your Escape Pod is functioning normally.....

     The density scanner is the best way to avoid such inconveniences.
Rather than auto-warping where you go, single-step and density scan
along the way.  If you get a reading of more than 180, and the sector is
not in FedSpace, you know that there is a potential hazard in that sector.
If you have a holo scanner you can see exactly what is in that sector, but
if you don't you can just go around it and mark it down.
     I density scan everywhere I go, unless I am on my way from here to
there and I KNOW that the way is clear because I have been that way
before.

E. Other

   Common sense.  Use your common sense.  If you get stuck for some
reason and have no cloakers, cannot get back to FedSpace or home to your
planet, use common sense.  If you have 8 turns left and it takes 9 to
get back to FedSpace do NOT make the attempt.  The sectors near FedSpace
are high traffic areas where the likelihood of getting found is great.
Find a dead end FAR from FedSpace, hide out there, and if possible try
to get on at midnight and get yourself moved.
   If you are part of a team and you get stuck, try to get a hold of a
teammate who has not played yet that day and have them tow you to
safety.  Or they might be able to transfer a bunch of fighters to your
ship to make it harder to attack, and that might deter most from making
the attempt.
    Still, there is no excuse for getting caught like that.  Yes, it
happens to everyone on occasion, but there is no excuse.

VI. CORPORATE LIFE

    Corporations have many benefits and one or two hazards for Trade
Warriors.  A game with two or three powerful corporations in it can be
thrilling and highly competitive, while a game with only one powerful
corporation swiftly degenerates into boredom.  For those who want to
"win" at Trade Wars by being the most powerful with the most planets,
forming a corporation and working together is essential.
        Corporations can be tricky to form and run, and if you are not
careful about who you let into your corporation, you could wind up #SHIP
DESTROYED# with all your assets gone.  A great deal of trust and
communication are required to make a corporation work.

A. Teamwork Is the Key

   Some corporations are nothing more than a few individual
traders with the same number in brackets after their names.  The best
corporations have a great deal of communication, sharing of resources and
division of labor.
         The ideal corporation has at least three people who trust each
other, where one can, say, scout and explore, another colonizes, and
another makes money.  When an opponent is found, the different players
fill their respective roles in the assault plan.  Then, after a while,
the members can trade off assignments if they desire, since colonizing
is not the most fascinating part of the game, and pounding ports can be
tiring.
       As well as a rational division of labor, communication and
sharing of data set a good corporation apart from a poor one.  (See VII.
Data Processing Wars below).  If one member finds Ferrengal, or an enemy
planet, he warns everyone else.  If the scout finds a great pair or
great port for robbing, he informs the money-maker.  This communication
makes everyone more effective at his job, and makes the team as a whole
more powerful.
     The building and defending of planets is where the benefits of
corporations are most noticeable.  While one guy colonizes, another
earns money and buys fighters and mines, and another is out there
finding more ports, finding and harassing the enemy, and increasing the
corporation's knowledge of the universe.  A solo player has a hard time
having to go from one task to another, and often he either has a
well-defended planet that is undeveloped, or a lightly-defended planet
that he has spent a great deal of time putting colonists on and building
a citadel.  Either one is vulnerable and easily taken.
  Imagine a three-man Good corporation with two StarShips and a
StarMaster.  One StarShip is out pounding pairs and TransWarp trading,
making 250,000 credits and buying 1200 fighters each day.  The
other StarShip is bringing in a million colonists a day.  The StarMaster
is feeding the moneyman new ports every day, and maybe finding enemy
homes and harassing them with the 2000 fighters he has from his own
travels.
        Such a team could only be beaten by an Evil corporation that
communicated and shared labor as well as the above Good team.  Evil
teams, however, don't need more than two players to be extremely
effective, because each player can make so much money.  With one member
in a Flagship and the other in a StarMaster, the Evil team can cover a
lot of territory, make a lot of money, and have plenty of firepower.  If
they had a third member, say with a Mule for colonizing and stealing,
they would be virtually unstoppable.

B. A Knife in the Back

   Trust is a wonderful thing, but it better not be misplaced.  I have
seen good people let someone into their corporation, then within a few
days, they are all floating in escape pods while the person they let in
has all their fighters, shields and planets.  Kind of takes the fun out
of the game.
   The best way to avoid the knife in the back is to only form a corp.
with people you know personally.  The other way is to play in an area
for a while until you get to know the players by how they play.  Then
you can usually figure out who is good to be a teammate with.
    I have one business partner I incorporate with on all different
boards.  We cooperate well, we plan, and we know that we will not screw
each other over.
     If you have to form a corporation with someone you are not sure you
can trust, keep all your assets on your ship, and cloak every night.
Only when you cloak do you deny corporate members access to your stuff,
and protect your back.

VII. DATA PROCESSING WARS

     Everyone who plays Trade Wars even moderately seriously takes
notes.  Those who are quite serious organize their notes and supplement
them with a data program of some form.  Many such programs exist, but
the consensus seems to be that one, TWVIEW88.ZIP is the best.  TWVIEW is
the one I use and it usually tells me what I need to know.
    He who best uses the data at his disposal wins.  It's all about
making money and converting that money into power.  The way to make the
most money is to know where the money is and get there in the minimum
amount of turns.

A. TWVIEW

   TWVIEW is a database program written by Robert Weaver, also
affectionately known as Oob the Rhox.  This program provides a list of
the "Paired Ports" with quantity information and a factor that measures
the pair's relative profitability, a list of the busiest ports, lists
of the ports and sectors nearest to a sector you specify, the path
between any two sectors you have explored, and has a transwarp menu that
is invaluable to the StarShip or FlagShip skipper.
   The paired port listing tells the good player the best places to go
to make money.  The busiest ports list will help the evil trader find
the best ports for robbing credits, and the nearest ports list helps
everyone to find the certain port that will fulfill the current need,
with the least amount of travel.  The transwarp menu will tell you the
shortest way from here-to-there using your transwarp fighters and
regular space travel.
        TWVIEW can be confusing to use at first, but once you have
gotten the hang of it (write a macro to make your data file, and one to
view it online.) it will multiply your effectiveness.  Update your data
files daily and use them offline to make a plan for the next day's game
session.  That technique will allow you to use every turn effectively
and make the most money possible.  The good players do not waste turns.
Use it online when you need to find a port to buy equipment at, or need
to find the quickest way to get to StarDock.
    The program also has other features, such as a listing of dead end
sectors checked for back doors.  Beware, however, that this check is
fallible because the program can only check with the sectors you have
explored.  The better way to check for back doors in tunnels is to go
into the Crai computer, mark the opening of the tunnel as an avoid, then
use the course plotter to try and plot a course from sector 1 to the end
of the tunnel.  If the computer cannot find a course in, you know that
you have a true dead end.
    The dead end listing can be an effective way of finding the
opposition.  Print out the list and start shooting ether probes into all
the dead ends, starting with the deepest and working back towards
one-sector dead ends.  When you get "Probe Destroyed" go investigate
with your holo scanner.

B. Ether Probes

   By themselves ether probes seem like a waste of money, but when used
in conjunction with TWVIEW, they provide a great competitive advantage.
Once an ether probe has been through a sector, it is as if your ship
has been there and the data goes into your computer.  Then when you use
the Computer Interrogation Mode to make a TWVIEW data file, the data
gathered by the ether probes goes into the data file, and you have
access to all port information.
       Filling out a TWVIEW data file is the most obvious and powerful
use of ether probes, but they have other uses as well.  One is finding
aliens and/or traders to blow up for experience (if evil) or alignment
(if Good and seeking a Federation Commission).  One suggestion for using
ether probes in this way is to shoot them to unexplored sectors and
accomplish two purposes at once.
      Another objective for ether probes is to find your enemies' home
bases.  Take the TWVIEW data file and use the OFFLINE.EXE program or the
DECOUNT.EXE program to get a listing of dead ends.  Then you fire a probe
to each dead end, starting with the longest, and the chances are excellent
that you will find something.  Remember, if the probe self-destructs, it
means it reached its destination, but if it says "Probe Destroyed!" that
means it encountered hostile fighters posted in a sector.  This could mean
a defensive force, or merely one toll fighter for somebody's transwarp
drive.  You won't know until you investigate with a holo scanner.

C. Holographic Scanners

   Like the ether probes, the holo scanner display puts the scanned
sectors into your explored sectors list if previously unexplored.  Holo
scanning can be an effective technique for building a data file, but
each scan costs a turn, so do not use the holo scanner profligately.  My
technique is to single step and density scan, then when I come to a
sector with a curious density reading, or with a number of unexplored
sectors leading off it, or with a number of adjacent ports, I use the
holo scanner.
     If your density scanner yields a reading in the hundreds (a number
ending in 0,1,5 or 6 -- any other ending indicates a fed), by all means
holo scan before entering the sector.  You might be saved a nasty shock!
Furthermore, a holo scanner does not alert anyone else to its use, so if
that density of 4521 is your enemies' front defenses, you can scout
their setup without letting them know that you know where they are and
what they have.
     A density of 40 or 80 usually means one or two ships, and then you
may want to holo scan to see if it is a target worth pursuing.

    Data is an integral part of the game.  The player who is
sophisticated in his gathering, processing and use of data will have a
great competitive advantage over the players who make no effort to
collect and employ data.  TWVIEW, ether probes and holo scanners find
ports for making money, and enemy forces for destroying.

VIII. THE INSECURITY OF PLANETS

      Planets are a large part of the game, and one way of measuring
power is by the number of well-developed planets a trader or corporation
owns.  Planets also provide income and military power, but they
represent a huge investment and must be defended.  Planets are difficult
to defend until they reach the level 5 citadel, when they become
extremely tough to overwhelm.
      You do not have to build or own planets in this game, but I think
that the player who does not involve himself with real estate is not
really playing the game.  It is easy to cloak every night, keep all your
assets on your ship in the form of fighters, and apply all your
resources to destroying what others build, but then you are not really a
part of the game.  You miss out on the thrill of property ownership, and
the nagging question: "Will someone invade my planet and take everything
I own?"  I generally cloak my ship, but get into the real estate market.
      Corporations almost have to have a planet if they are to operate
as a unit.  A citadel is the best way to transfer credits and fighters,
and the production provides products for sale.  Without a citadel, a
corporation is almost limited to using the bank for transferring
credits, or they must make themselves vulnerable to their enemies by
remaining uncloaked.

A. Location, Location, Location

      As in real life, the three most important factors for real estate
are location, location and location.  Do not build a planet in the
middle of a space lane, in a sector with six warps, and expect it to
last.  Planets should be located in out of the way corners of the
universe.
         The ideal location is an arrangement of sectors with one way in
and two ways out, with a long tunnel leading to a y-ending.  For
example:

                        \ | /
                       --100--
                          |
                   250---125---320
                          |
                         234
                          |
                         400
                          |
                         500
                        /   \
                      600   700

     This area has many sectors for defenses and production planets, and
an enemy would have a long trip through mines and defensive fighters,
maybe with a couple quasar cannons as well, before reaching your home
planet in sector 700.  It is even better if there are a number of ports
present in the tunnel.  Because it ends in a y, it shows up on the
TWVIEW dead end list as two separate one-sector dead ends, rather than
the 5-sector deep tunnel it really is, so your enemies are less likely
to find it that way.
      If the start of the tunnel is relatively close to sector 1 it
makes colonizing easier and faster, but the flip side is that it is more
likely to be discovered earlier.  Relative proximity to StarDock is also
nice, but the space around StarDock is always heavily traveled and
planets situated close to that magnet of traders don't stay undiscovered
for long.  At the same time, if you are at the remote end of the
universe, colonizing will be long and slow, and it will take ten to
twenty turns a day to get to trading areas.  Find a happy medium.
Usually you are okay if your home planet is between 10 and 15 sectors
from 1.
     The above diagram will be used to illustrate the principles and
strategies to follow in this section, so you may want to jot it down on
a piece of paper and refer to the diagram as you read.  The numbers will
make more sense when you have them in spatial relation to each other.

B. Sector Defenses and Sweating It Out.

   A planet cannot defend itself until it has a level two citadel with a
Combat Control Computer.  Until then, sector fighters and mines are the
only forms of defense available, and they are not very efficient.
Sector fighters fight at 1:1 odds, so an opponent with a StarMaster or
StarShip has considerably better odds against your sector fighters.
Figure it out: if you have 1000 fighters on defensive in a sector, a
StarMaster can destroy those 1000 fighters at a cost of about 720, while
a StarShip will lose about 670 fighters.  Not good odds for the
defender!  Put those same 1000 fighters on a planet, and the StarMaster
will lose about 2150, and the StarShip will lose about 2000 fighters.
     Mines do nice damage and are a pain in the butt for an invader, but
they can be disrupted, and only about half of them go off at any one
time.
     Offensive fighters are the worst.  One, they hit shields and not
fighters, so they leave the invasion force.  Two, they don't destroy
ships.  Three, like mines, they are mothable.
     So what should you do?  Before the computer, your best defense is
not being detected.  Maybe put 1000 defensive fighters in sector 125,
hoping that other traders will pass by an empty sector 100 and not probe.
The 1000 fighters act as a deterrence to most traders, and make a good front
wall.  Then I would put 200-500 fighters and 99 mines each in sectors
234, 400 and 500, and 1000 fighters in sector 700 with the fledgling planet.
The powerful, determined invader, will penetrate these defenses, but
they will pay a price, and if you start early enough in the game, very
few, if any, traders will be powerful enough to get through your
defenses.
    Make sure you have a couple thousand fighters before starting a
planet, and don't waste time, because the earlier you start the more
secure you will be.  The evil players cannot really begin to make
serious money until they have over 1000 experience points, so if you get
a head start you have a good chance at having that computer by the time
they can start taking advantage of their evil ways.  The 3:1 planetary
defense odds make up for the 2 or 3 to 1 earnings advantage of stealing
over trading.
     So, let's use an example.  After three or four days, I have found
this tunnel, and I have 1500 fighters on my StarMaster.  I put 1000
fighters in sector 125, and launch a genesis torpedo in 700.  Sector 500 has
a class 7 port so I can buy the commodities there that I will need for the
citadel construction.  After a day or two of colonizing and moving
product, I start the citadel.  Then, I get out there and make money.
Over the next four days I put 200 fighters in 234, 200 in 400, 500
fighters in 500 and 500 fighters in 700.  Then I put 25 mines each in
sectors 234, 400 and 500 and 99 mines in 700.
      Then I spend another day or two getting colonists to a million and
the produce to upgrade the citadel to level 2.  Once the computer is
started, I spend the next few days trading and buying fighters.  As soon
as the computer is done, I put those fighters on the planet surface and
start working on the quasar cannon.  Once the quasar cannon is going, I
continue piling fighters on the planet surface, and might add a few
mines to each sector.  I usually don't add any more fighters to the
sector defenses given the superior odds on the surface.
       Whatever you do, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE avoid doing two things:
       1) Do NOT NOT NOT NOT buy the Tholian Sentinel.  It does not work
and an experienced player will take advantage of you for it.
       2) Do NOT park your ship in the sector to defend the planet.  You
will merely lose your planet AND your ship.  Keep your ship cloaked out
in space until your citadel is EXTREMELY secure.

C. Colonize, Colonize, Colonize

   Colonists mean production, and production means money and fighters.
If you are a solo trader, it is tough, but if you are a member of a
corporation, have one guy colonize while the other guy makes money, and
you can do a good job.  The faster you get the colonists on board the
faster you upgrade your citadel and the faster that quasar cannon will
have 10,000 fuel ore to blast any foolish invaders with.
     Once we have our main planet going, my business partner and I start
working on production planets.  What are they?  They are planets with a
million colonists on fuel, and that's it.  We can use the fuel ore for
transwarping, or quasar cannons, but the main purpose is the fighters.
One million colonists on fuel produce 33 fighters per day; two million
on organics and equipment produce 21.  So the same 3 million colonists
on three different planets produce 99 fighters a day, as opposed to 54 a
day on one planet.
    So, first we will get a base going in 700, then we will start two
production planets in 700.  After that, we start a citadel planet in
sector 234 that we will upgrade to a level 3 citadel.  At that time, we
pull all the colonists off organics and equipment and put them on
production planets.  After the "bug zapper" planet is fully colonized, we
start filling the back sectors with production planets.  Within a couple
weeks, we are building 500-1000 fighters PER DAY without doing anything.
Add that to what we buy with the cash we make stealing or trading
(usually I trade and he colonizes), and we build up rapidly.
         The evil player really doesn't need to do more than build his
one planet (if that).  This whole section is really directed towards the
Good players, who cannot make as much money in the ports and need to
supplement it with the income from planets if they want to compete.  For
goodness sake, form a corporation and colonize!  Make sure somebody goes
around to all the production planets each day, every other day at the
least, and collects all the fighters.  They are up for grabs on the
production planets.
           It is vital to get the 3 million colonists on your home
planet as fast as possible.  If at all possible, get into a StarShip and
"TransWarp colonize."  A StarShip can move up to 1.5 million colonists
per day.  Once the home planet is colonized, you have a lot of options.

D. At Last!  The Computer!

   On that day when you land on your planet and it says "Planet has
Level 2 Citadel" you should REJOICE!  Your period of maximum
vulnerability is over, and now you can start building defenses for real.
   As soon as the computer is completed, I get a couple thousand
fighters there in a hurry, then get at least a half a million credits in
the treasury to start accumulating interest.  At 4% per day, it will
double every 18 days.
       Get your quasar started.  It is nice to start it right away, but
the quasar is not as important as the computer.  Without a computer, you
are defenseless.  A quasar cannon can be mothed, or disarmed by a photon
missile.  Defensive fighters  on the planet MUST be destroyed before an invader
can land.  Always leave military reaction to 0% -- planetary defensive fighters
get 3:1 and offensive get 2:1.  Even when you have a shield on the planet,
the backbone of your defenses is the planetary fighters.  So if you have to
choose between getting the colonists and produce for the quasar or a couple
thousand fighters, get the fighters. The quasar can wait.  Again, a corporation
is at a GREAT advantage.  The first time you try to develop a planet, or a
tunnel like our example's, by yourself, you will appreciate the benefits
of teamwork.

E. Don't Waste the Quasar

   A quasar cannon is a powerful weapon, but if misused it will not be
an effective part of your defenses.  And remember -- the photon missile
disarms a quasar!  If your opponent has Imperial StarShips, do not rely
on your q-cannon; rely on your defensive fighters.
   There are two settings for the Quasar cannon: Sector reaction level
and Atmospheric reaction level.  Sector shots consume three units of
fuel ore for each unit of damage inflicted, while Atmosphere blasts
inflict 2 units of damage for each unit of fuel consumed.  You can see
which you prefer!
      The maximum sector shot is 3333 battle points, and the maximum
atmoshpere shot is 10,000 battle points.  My business partner and I will
put our bug zapper q-cannon in 234 on 30% sector and 100% atmosphere.
Suppose we had 10,000 fuel ore on the planet and an invader came in
without photon missiles.  He enters the sector and BOOM!  1000 battle
points of damage.  We have 7000 units of fuel left.  Then he goes to
land and BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!! 7000 battle points of damage.  Anything
smaller than a battleship, and he is space dust.  We still have 3500
units of fuel left.  That's right: 100% sector uses 100% fuel, but 100%
atmosphere uses 50% fuel.  Atmosphere shots always use half the fuel of
the percentage set.  For example, a 50% atmosphere shot uses 25% of the
fuel.
     Later in the game when we probably have two planets in 700 with
quasar cannons, we will set the Qcannon on Home Planet to 7% sector and
60% atmosphere.  The other planet we probably set on 100% sector.
What's the theory?  Let me explain.
       First, make Home Planet the earlier planet, so that Home Planet
is, say, planet number 3 and the other quasar planet is planet number 8.
That means that when an invader enters the sector, the quasar on Home
Planet fires first, and the other quasar only fires if the invader
survives the first blast.  That way, if the invader is a moth -- a
lightly armed scout marauder sent in for the sole purpose of getting
blown up and draining the quasar cannons -- the first shot should get
him and the other quasar does not waste its fuel.  If it is a serious
invader, he will be stinging from the 3333 battle point shot.  If he
survives, he is severely weakened for his invasion.  Since the other
planet has no credits, colonists only on fuel, no transwarp drive, and
several thousand fighters, it is not worth his while to take it.  And if
he does, the planet will not have any fuel, so you won't get blasted by
your own quasar.  He will also be in poor shape to invade your more
heavily-armed Home Planet.
        Make sure that you have at least one sector of mines and
defensive fighters in front of any quasar cannons.  That way the
small-fry moths can't drain the fuel ore.  If you have a few production
planets stocked with fuel ore in the sector with your front quasar
cannon, you can move fuel from the production planets to the quasar
planet to replace what a moth might happen to drain.  When he comes back
tomorrow and gets hit as hard as he did today, he will get discouraged!

F. Level 4 and Beyond

   After the quasar cannon, a planet gets a Planetary TransWarp Drive,
then the last level of the citadel is the Planetary Defense Shielding
System.  The most vulnerable time of a planet's life, after the computer
is completed, is the time between completion of the TransWarp and the
completion of the shield system.  During that time, an invader can take
your planet and TransWarp it right out of your tunnel to his
headquarters.  Do not start the TransWarp drive unless you know you will
be able to start the shield right away, and have several thousand
fighters.
    What are some good ways to use the planetary transwarp?  Well, one
thing you can do is use it as a massive cargo ship.  Load up with
organics and equipment from your other planets, if they have any, and
transwarp to a class 3 port.  Sell off the org and equ, and warp home.
If there is more than the port can handle, maybe you want to buy fuel
from the port and go to another port to finish it off, then take it back
home.
     Another possibility is warping your Home Planet out of the tunnel
to another hiding place if an invader finds you and you think he will be
able to take you out.  That, however, is not likely to work for long,
because someone with those resources will be able to find you again, and
take you, and you will have spent the fuel for the quasar.  If he has
photon capability, however, that fuel is no loss.
       For the most part, though, the TransWarp is not a huge advantage.
The Planetary Defense Shielding System, on the other hand, is a
wonderful system for a planet.  For one thing, as soon as the system is
completed, even before you add any shields, enemies will not be able to
scan your planet.  Also, each planetary shield (made up of ten regular
ship shields) has 20:1 odds.  That comes out to 2:1 per purchased
shield.
       Notice that defensive fighters get better odds.  When you get the
shield system, you will have to pay close attention to the prices of
fighters vs. shields at the class 0 ports.  If fighters are more than
3:2 the price of shields, buy shields.  If less, buy fighters.
    One thing I do with the shield system is use it as a reservoir of
ship shields.  When I park for the night I put my ship shields in the
planet system because they get better odds there than on my ship.  When
I leave in the morning for work, I take what I need.
    That's about it for planets.

IX. MAKING MONEY

    The name of the game is Trade Wars.  As in the real world, it is all
about making money.  Money buys fighters.  Your goal is to make as much
money as you possibly can.  There are three main ways to make money:
trading, theft, and planets.

A. The Honest Way

   The Good player has to make the bulk of his money by trading.  His
goal is to find paired ports and pound them all day.  The pairs that he
wants to find are:

       Equipment for Organics -- most profitable
      1) Class 1 or Class 5 -- Class 2 or Class 4

       Equipment for Fuel -- next most profitable
      2) Class 1 or Class 6 -- Class 3 or Class 4

       Organics for Fuel -- least profitable
      3) Class 2 or Class 6 -- Class 3 or Class 5

      As the game progresses, good pairs will get hard to find,
especially if there is more than one corporation trading.  So make the
most of your money early, and do not blow up anything or anyone you do
not NEED to blow up.  Get as much money in your treasury when the
computer is built as you can.  It will get hard to find a living out
there.
      When the pairs are pretty much exhausted, the Good player needs to
turn to TransWarp trading.  Get in your Imperial StarShip, and find all
those Class 4 and Class 5 ports not paired with anything that you put
fighters in and TWarp from one to the other, buying the fuel to get to
the next port from this port, and trading equipment for organics as you
go.
   For example: 100, 300 and 500 are all sectors with standalone Class 4
ports, each with one of your fighters.  Sectors 200, 400 and 600 have
solo Class 5 ports with fighters.  At 100, buy 21 fuel to make the seven
hops to 200, and fill up with organics.  TWarp to 200, and sell the
organics, then buy the 12 holds of fuel to get to sector 300, then fill
up with equipment.  Then hop to 300 and..... you get the picture.
TransWarp trading is not quite as good as trading a good pair next to
each other, but it is still quite profitable.
     One more thing about trading: Always haggle with the ports.  Some
players will tell you not to haggle, but they are wrong.  Haggling has
two benefits that are vital for you: you make more money because the
port prices do not deteriorate as rapidly as they do if you whack the
carriage return at every transaction, and the harder you haggle the less
cash you leave in the equipment selling port for evil traders to rob.

B. The Way to Riches

   Evil.  Rob and Steal.  Sad but true, you make a lot more money
stealing than trading in this game.  I guess it's like real life
again..
       Theft is broken down into two acts: Robbing credits and Stealing
product.  Once your alignment drops to -100, the port menu has a fourth
option: (R)ob.  Success at thievery is tied to experience.  A good safe
formula for robbing credits is rob 6 times your experience.  If you want
to push it however, you can rob ten credits for each experience point,
but, hey let's not get too greedy.  For stealing product, you can
generally take 1 hold of equipment for every 20 experience points.
          In my experience, I have noticed that when I first turn to
Evil ways I have no success stealing product.  It is only after a day or
so of robbing credits that I can get away with product.  I don't know if
there really is anything to it, but it seems that way, so I always spend
two days draining credits.
    For robbing credits, TWVIEW has a wonderful tool: the Busiest Ports
list.  Look up that list and hit all the equipment selling ports on it;
they are the ones with cash.  Once you have robbed for a couple of days,
and the net worth of the ports (the V screen) drops much below
1,000,000, robbing is not worth it.
    As soon as you have the experience to get away with stealing
equipment, devote your turns and energy to running the Steal-Trade Loop.
Robbing credits looks great in the beginning, but once those big hoards
are gone, you spend so many turns going from port to port for a few
thousand credits that you rarely make any more than you would trading.
    Ah, but stealing equipment, THAT is highly profitable work.  With
1500 experience and a StarMaster, 3000 and a Mule or 5000 and a Colonial
Transport, you can steal equipment, go to an equipment-buying port, sell
the equipment, steal it back, sell it back, steal it back, sell it
back.... etc etc until you get busted.  At 10-30,000 credits every two
turns, you can see how the credits pile up.
       When you get busted, you lose ten percent of your experience, and
one hold for each experience point you would have gained had you
succeeded in your theft.  If you run the steal-trade loop for a living
you will get busted frequently, so you will stay in a certain range of
experience, but it is worth it for the money.  When you get busted,
avoid that port for two weeks.  The port remembers you for two weeks, or
until someone else gets busted.  One player on the Fido echo, Joel
Downer (one of the more intelligent and experienced Trade Warriors in
the nation), claims that ports are more suspicious, and bust you faster,
when someone has just been busted.  For instance, you get busted on
Monday.  Your name stays on the port's (internal -- players don't know
this) log for two weeks.  If I come in Tuesday to steal, I am more
likely to get busted than I would have been the Sunday before you got
busted.  Once I get busted, you can steal (or trade) again without
automatically getting busted, but because my name is now on the log, you
are more likely to get busted than you were three days ago.
    Now for the final plum of stealing equipment: there is a method by
which you can earn five experience points selling back to the port
almost every time.  Each port has a best price for each transaction, and
you earn experience points for getting close.  If you get within 98% of
the best price, you earn 1 experience point, you earn 2 experience for
getting 99% of the best price, and you get 5 experience if you hit the
best price exactly.
     The best price changes as you trade a port down, but if you are
doing the steal-trade loop, every time you steal the product the
quantity goes back to 100% and the best price stays about where it was.
Now, some ports have more than one best price, and a few don't have any.
The way to hit the best price follows:
    Buy a Psychic Probe at the Hardware Emporium.  When you first sell
the equipment to the port, take their first offer and see what the
percentage is from the psychic probe.  Divide the transaction price by
the Probe result, and that is the best price.  Example:
    You have a StarMaster and sell 70 holds of equipment.  The port
offers 9500 credits.  You hit enter and sell, and the P Probe says
%93.75 of best price.  9500/.9375=10133 (drop the decimal).  So, 10133
is the best price.
   Next time you come in to sell, check the port's offer.  If it is
within 10 or 20 of 9500, the best price is the same.  Offer 10133.  You
should get 5 experience points.  Now, if this is a port with more than
one best price, the port's offer might be more or less than the original
first offer of 9500.  The best price always goes up or down by a
multiple of your holds.
         Say the second time you port they offer 9550.  The offer is
almost one set of holds above their offer the first time through, so the
best price this time is 10203.  If they offer 9630, the best price is
10273.  If they offer 9450, the best price is 10063.
        If you are not sure which price it will be, say they offer 9535
and you can't decide whether to go with 10203 or 10133.  Offer the
higher number because if you overbid they raise the best price by 30% of
your number of holds.  Thus, if you offer 10203 and the best price was
10133, the best price is now 10133 + (.30 x 70) = 10133 + 21 = 10154.
       That's the basic procedure.  If it sounds complicated, well, at
first it is.  Walk through it and try it out.  A caveat: this works most
of the time.  If you just cannot get the 5, go to another port.
Remember, figure the price on the first offer of the first time through,
compare all future offers to that first one, and raise or lower the best
price accordingly.  Bid high, and if you have overbid, hit the step up.
Try it out.
    Using the 5-point method (discovered by Eugene Hung, another
stalwart of the Fido echo), you can minimize the effects of getting
busted.  For a while, until your experience hits about 6000 (in a
StarMaster), you will gain experience despite getting busted.  Once you
hit about 6-8000, you will start losing experience steadily, until you
get down to 4-5000, then you will stay close.

C. Oh Yeah, Planets

   The last main way of making money is from your planets.  One form of
money we have already talked about: the fighters produced.  The products
can also bring money, but until you have your citadel developed to its
fullest you should let the produce build up for that.  Once you have the
citadel fully developed (if you plan on having one on that particular
planet), then you can start selling the produce.  If you have a port in
the same sector, you can sell to that port, or you can build one.  I
recommend not selling fuel because you want it for quasar cannons,
although once you hit 10,000, you may as well sell the daily produce.
         It doesn't seem to be worth investing too much money in
upgrading ports, or in spending a lot of effort on the produce from
planets.  If you have your production planets just making fuel, you may
have some fuel buying ports and sell some, but again, I prefer to keep
it for quasar cannons.  Use the fighters and be glad.
   The best way to make money on your planet is to feed the citadel
treasury of Home Planet.  Get a million credits in early, and leave it.
Gradually feed the treasury, maybe make a policy of half the earnings in
the treasury and the other half into fighters for defense.  Let that 4%
interest work for you.
         Good players, by making use of the citadel interest and the
production planets, can supplement their trading income to the point of
being competitive with evil players.  Evil players, by using the same
techniques, can crush everyone.  My business partner and I use these
techniques to devastating effect.  Hopefully, some of you will be using
them against us in the near future.  ;)

D. Other Means

   Deserving mention, although not recommended as a major part of your
money-making endeavors, are a couple other methods of making money.  One
is the bounty from killing Ferrengi.  Yes, the feds pay bounties for
Ferrengi fighters and ships destroyed, but rarely will the bounty cover
the cost of the fighters.
    Then there are the bounties for Evil players.  They can be nice, but
don't stake your game on them.  The competent Evil players who rack up
the big bounties (I've had them over 2 million credits on me) almost
NEVER get blown up by other traders.  They cloak every night.  If you
hit a bad guy, go to StarDock, and count yourself lucky.
    Then there is the moth's profit: the escape pod is worth 1000 creds
more than the scout marauder he trades it in on.  This is probably the
least recommended way of making a profit.

X. STRATEGY AND TACTICS

   What more is there?  This section will mention a few things about
conserving and intelligently using your forces.
   The first tip is never to attack another ship unless you need to for
some reason.  Blowing up aliens, traders and Ferrengi costs fighters,
fighters cost money, and you cannot afford to waste money or fighters.
Who is your enemy?  Save your force for your enemy.
    Always try for the best odds.  It's better if you can make your
enemy try to come for you, and use his fighters against your planetary
defenses.  Once he has weakened himself, then strike.
    Another good tactic is to watch the V screen.  Let's say you find a
planet, and you know there is no citadel on it.  Remember where it is,
and watch the V screen.  When another citadel appears on the screen (the
%age will go up), start counting days.  Four days later the second level
will probably be started and four days after that, they get the
computer.  On day 7, invade.  You get the advantage of the poor odds
their sector fighters have, and the next day you will have a computer
for your fighters.  ;)  Sneaky, eh?
    Whenever possible, use photon missiles for invading planets, and
NEVER try to land on a hostile planet without a planet scanner.  For
photons, choose the StarShip because the Missile Frigate is an extremely
limited ship.  If you're Evil.... ;)
        When dealing with mines, you can disrupt them, or go through
them.  Often I will drive through 99 mines, making half of them explode,
then disrupt the rest.  Sometimes it pays, because you can only carry 10
disruptors at a time.  Be careful of leaving mines behind you when
penetrating your enemies' defenses.  You may not have enough fighters
left on the way out to absorb the damage.  More than one invader has
bulled his way through four sectors of 99 mines, a couple thousand
fighters, taken a quasar shot in our home sector, then had his ship
destroyed on the 50 mines he left behind in one sector, and his pod
destroyed by the mines left in the next sector.
          When dealing with Ferrengi, usually the wisest course is to
surrender.  If you have full holds of equipment or organics they just take
the product and leave.  Give it to them.  If you don't have equipment or
organics, they will take 10% of your holds, so if the fighter ratio is on
your side you may want to fight.
     One more piece of advice: when in the Hardware Emporium looking at
the goodies, if you can't figure out any good use for one of the
products there, think about it some more.  Everything there has some
good use.  I always thought the Psychic Probe was a waste of money.  Now
I use it all the time.  Same with ether probes.

XI. CONCLUSION

    Trade Wars is an awesome game; fast, exciting, and of greater than
expected subtlety.  It is not an arcade game; it is a strategy game.
You win with your mind, and by being willing to do some work.  Conserve
your forces and you will do better.  The guys who blow up everything in
sight in the beginning never last long.  The guys who quietly rise in
the experience charts early without showing on the daily log are doing
it by making money.  Those are the players who romp in the end.
    You may want to investigate macros for trading, stealing and the
other "work" aspects of the game.  Experiment with your comm program's
macro language.  If you have one with a script language and can figure
it out, you may want to write some scripts for trading, etc.  The BEST
solution for macros is to download COMMO51.ZIP from a local BBS, and use
that for your comm program.  {COMMO} has a macro programming language
that is simple, flexible and powerful.
     If you already use {COMMO} or if you take my advice and switch to
it, you may want to use my macros.  The shareware version is pretty
good, but the registered version is better.  I have macros that haggle
at paired ports, haggle for a single transaction, automatically run the
5 point steal-trade loop, rob all the credits from a port,
transwarp trade, transwarp colonize, shift materials or colonists from
one planet to another, invade planets with photon missiles (especially
useful on boards that set the missile wave duration for 15 seconds or
less!), etc etc.  Check out the shareware version, and if you want the
real thing, it is $10.
     Well, happy trading, good luck, and I hope this file helps.  May
you prove worthy competition!!

                                   -- Frederick R. Polli
                                      The Galactic Scourge of
                                      Lane County, Oregon