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However if a person is caught breaking one of the game rules then his/her account will be either:

1. Suspended indefinately.
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Rules:

1. You are not allowed to have multiple game accounts. If you have more than one player account in the game then the rules are being broken. However we do understand that you may have a relative playing from the same location. If this is the case contact Admin and it will be noted.
   
   
2. No exploits or programs allowed. If caught breaking this rule then the user involved will be banned from accessing the site immediately.
   
   
3. No cursing or Foul Language in the beacons or the forums.
   
   
4. If you find a bug it is against the rules to exploit it even though it is Admin's error. You must report it right away to Admin via the Forums or Email. Bug Reporters Do get rewards for Reporting.

These are some Advanced Strategies to help you get started. These aren't set in stone, and are very general, but should give you an idea of what tactically works and what doesn't. There are of course many more strategies, but since this is a relatively new game these should help you on your way to playing "Game-Name"

Special Note: For all of these strategies I am assuming that you have already survived your first couple of days in the game. If you are still a newbie, read the New Player Guide first.

The Trader Strategy is based on trading in the ports. The best thing to do is to find a "goods" port and an "ore" port in adjacent sectors.
Trade back and forth until either you can afford a hull upgrade and larger engines or the port's prices are no longer very good (they do vary with trade activity).
When you're engines are large enough for realspace travel (this varies dependent on the galaxy size, usually anywhere from 14 to 18 start doing trade routes between goods and ore ports. They don't have to be adjacent at this point, but be sure to buy a fuel scoop if you're going to realspace trade (trade route).

Be sure to have the maximum amount of EWDs and an escape pod at all times to ensure survival incase attacked outside federation space. You don't have to upgrade any techs except for:
Hull
Energy and engines.

Everything else is good for basic combat or colonizing. Your military techs can be zero as the EWDs are your primary means of survival.

PROS: Quick rise in score. Good to play catch up if you enter the game late.

CONS: Lack of planetary empire means that you'll lose out in the long run. This tactic is only effective up to a hull level of around 18, but is probably a lower level in reality.

The Creator Tactic is mainly concerned in building a planetary empire. He should first build his hull to a level 15-16. Then either create a planet using a "Genesis Torpedoe" or Occupying an Existing Planet in a sectore.
Colonize planets to about 25-50 million before moving on to the next planet. Do NOT fully colonize a planet Fully! The reason for not fully colonizing a planet is that you want the colonists to procreate for as long as possible. They stop when there are 100 million people on a planet. Shortly After it is possible for colonists to start dying due to famine and disease due to lack of resources such as food (organiscs)

On upgrading when you hit a 15-16 hull level, upgrade everything to within 4 of your hull except for sensors and armour as this tactic wont require them. Always have full EWDs and an escape pod. Every time you upgrade your hull, upgrade the other techs accordingly. Quit upgrading engines when you can realspace anywhere in 1 turn and your well on your way to a powerfull empire.

As far as colonizing is concerned realspace to a "special" port. Pick up a full load of colonists, fighters, and torps. Realspace to your new planet. Drop off colonists, fighters, torps, and the energy you made from realspacing. On each new planet, set the energy production to 5% and all other productions to zero. You'll need the energy to power planetary shields and beams.

Colonize constantly. Use the money made by your planets to buy the stuff to supply your planets. You don't really need to trade much in this strategy.

PROS: You make lots of cash in the long run.
CONS: Kind of slow to start. Conqueror Strategists can easily take your planets.

The Banker builds one planet to full capacity. Upgrade as though you were a builder. Be sure that the planet is well defended. Keep adding fighters. If you think that the planet has a ridiculously high number of fighters, then it's probably the right number. I'd recommend spending something like 5-10% of your turns adding more fighters and torps to the planet.

Ok, here's the way the Banker makes his living. Put all your money on the planet and then land on the planet. It should be well defended enough to survive any attacks. Wait 600 turns, during which the money will earn interest. Play the 600 turns as though you were a Trader. At the end, put the new money on the planet and wait another 600 turns before you play again. The important thing is to let the money sit around and gain interest for as long as possible.

This strategy works fairly well if you combine it with a Builder, i.e.. Build a bunch of planets, but Bank on one of them. Harder to defend your empire this way.

PROS: You can make a metric buttload of cash if you're patient.
CONS: You can only play every couple of days and you don't have many planets to produce for you.

The premise here is that you build up your military techs (shields, armour, computers, torps, and to a lesser degree sensors) and use them to take other people's planets. You then use the money acquired from these new planets to upgrade even further. You end up with lots of ill gotten colonists and planets this way. They will make money for you and you will gain an empire similar to that a Builder might create.

Be sure to stock every new planet acquired with plenty of fighters and torps to be sure that the former owner won't come and try to take the planet back. Trust me, that sucks.

PROS: You can get a whole lot of colonists using a small number of turns.
CONS: Everyone will hate you and it's sometimes hard to defend new "acquisitions".

This is more a list of what not to do, as it will cause you to Suck soo badly.

1. Scan over and over and over. It is a waste of turns. Don't scan ships or planets unless you actively plan on attacking them. For one, it's a waste of turns. Also you will be marked if you scan someone more than once and the user alerted to possible threat of attack (expect retaliation from the player you scanned to prevent the attack)
   
2. Waste your time trading energy or organics. Ore and goods will give you the greatest returns.
   
3. Realspace move unless you can get somewhere in 1 or 2 turns. You could probably move from sector to sector and find a special port using less turns. Plus you might find other planets or trading ports along the way.

If I think of more, or you Email Admin, or Visit theOfficial forumand they will be added to this list.

This section contains information on the in-game mechanics. For example, if you want to know how many units of organics your planet can make in a turn, you could probably find it here.

1. Before you attack a planet check to see if it is set to sell. If it is, buy all the energy. The planet's beams and shields will be made useless.
   
2. If you need to go to a special port and don't particularly care where you go afterwards, shop at sector 0. After you're done wait around and let the update that runs every 6 minutes place you in a random sector. You effectively get a free move. Of course, this only works if you're hull is over the allowed Protected Space limit. I call this the "sol bump".
   
3. Whenever you buy an EWD, buy a warp editor to go along with it. That way, if you get attacked you can easily create a link back to wherever you were before. If being there is important that is.

All of the commodity production rates for Planets assume you're producing at 100% capacity. If you're putting 50% towards a commodity, for example, it would take twice as many colonists to make the same number of said items.

1. Colonists reproduce at the rate of 1.0005 * your current population each turn. So, it takes 2000 colonists to have one baby each turn.
   
2. Money left on the planet will increase at the rate of 1.0005 * current money on planet each turn. In other words, you get .05% interest on your cash every turn.
   
3. It takes 20,000 colonists to make 1 fighter each turn. The number of fighters produced is as follows: number of colonists * .005 * .01
   
4. It takes 20,000 colonists to make 1 torpedo each turn. The number of torps produced is as follows: number of colonists * .005 * .01
   
5. It takes 800 colonists to make 1 unit of ore each turn. The number of ore units produced is as follows: number of colonists * .005 * .25
   
6. It takes 400 colonists to make 1 unit of organics each turn. The number of organics units produced is as follows: number of colonists * .005 * .50
   
7. It takes 800 colonists to make 1 unit of goods each turn. The number of goods units produced is as follows: number of colonists * .005 * .25
   
8. It takes 2000 colonists to make 1 unit of energy each turn. The number of energy units produced is as follows: number of colonists * .005 * .1
   
9. It takes 67 colonists to make 1 credit each turn. The number of credits produced is as follows: number of colonists * .005 * 3.0

This list will show you how many items you can store in your holds. This list also represents armor, shields, beams, torps, and fighter capacity. I show up to tech level 24 That's the highest I've ever gotten to. The formula for figuring out the capacity of your holds or other tech levels you will have is 100*(1.5^(the tech level in question)). Round off that number and you have your answer.

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This is a listing of how much it costs to upgrade to a certain tech level. For example, upgrading from 0 to 1 costs 1,000 credits. Each new Level is double the previous level

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One very important thing to stress is this. In a fight, you use 100% of your fighters. You only use 2% of your torps. This is because the torpedo launchers mounted on your ship can only launch a salvo equal to 2% of the maximum torps you can carry.

Combat requires energy for beams and shields. If you have 20k energy on your ship and your beams can support 25k beams and your shields are at 25k shields, you'll actually get 20k beams and 0 shields. The reason is that beams use energy before shields do. In this example, you'd have to have 50k energy on hand for beams and shields to both be at max power.

Ship to Ship Combat

Ship to ship combat happens in a very straightforward manner. Ill be using the following method to determine who is the attacker and who is the defender:
a_shields is attacker shields.
d_shields is defender shields.

1. First, a_engines and d_engines are compared. A chance to attack is determined by this formula: success=(10-d_engines+a_engines)*5. This number is then compared to a random number between 1 and 100. If the random number is higher than the success number, the attack goes on. Otherwise you get a message saying "Target out maneuvered you!".
   
   Here's an example. If your engines are 13 and his engines are 16, then we calculate the success rate as (10-16+13)*5. The result is 35. Hence, you have a 65% chance (35% chance to fail) to succeed.
   
   
2. Second, a_sensors and d_cloak are compared. A chance to attack is determined by this formula: success=(10-d_cloak+a_sensors)*5. This number is then compared to a random number between 1 and 100. If the random number is lower than the success number, the attack goes on. Otherwise you get a message saying "Unable to get a lock on target!".
   
   Here's an example. If your sensors are 7 and his cloak is 3, then we calculate the success rate as (10-3+7)*5. This result is 70. This means you have a straight 70% chance of success.
   
   I know this looks the same as the above engines check, but here you get the success percent right away. There you have to subtract from 100. Looks like two different people wrote this code. Incidentally, there's always at least a 5% success or 5% failure chance. Nothing is certain.
   
   
3. Okay, now combat is a go. If the defender has an Emergency Warp Device, it is used and the defender is sent to a random sector between 1 and the max sector number, which is 5000 in this game. Combat, of course, would end. If the defender has no Emergency Warp Devices, combat is continued.
   
   
4. First, beams are exchanged against fighters. The a_beams will destroy up to half of the d_fighters and vice versa.
   
   For example, you have 20,000 beams and he has 14,000 fighters. Your beams will take out 7,000 fighters (half) and leave you with 13,000 beams left over. If you had 20,000 beams and he had 47,000 fighters, you would take out 20,000 fighters. That would leave you with 0 beams and leave him with 27,000 fighters.
   
   
5. This step only happens if either player has any beams left. Assume we have beams left. The a_beams will go against d_shields. If the beams are higher, they will negate all of the shields and there will still be some beams left over. The same thing goes for the defender's beams against your shields.
   
   For example, you have 7,000 beams left over from the previous step. Your opponent has 20,000 shields. Your beams would take away 7,000 shield points and your beams would be done. If he had had only 6,000 shields, your beams would have taken away all shields and left you with 1,000 beams left over.
   
   
6. This step also only happens if there are beams left over from the previous two steps. In this step, a_beams are matched up against d_armor. If your beams are greater than his armor, then he is going to die. If your beams aren't high enough, you just take away that many points of armor.
   
   For example, you have 3,000 beams left over and the opponent has 40,000 armor. You'll take away 3,000, leaving him with 37,000 armor. If he had 3,000 armor or less, he would die in the conflict. Death equates to an armor rating of 0 or less.
   
   
7. Now we have an exchange of torpedoes. In this version of the game (blacknova.net 3/6/01) torps have a damage rating of 10. This is something that can be changed in the config file, so it might not always be the same. First off, torp damage is calculated by multiplying the number of torps you have by the torp damage rate. So, if you had 400 torps, your torp damage would be 4,000 (400*10).
   
   If the defender has any fighters left, the torp damage will take out up to half of them. It's basically the same as with the beams. So, if your torp damage is 4,000 and d_fighters is 5,000, you will take out 2,500 fighters. That'll leave you with 1,500 worth of torp damage to work with. If he had had 10,000 fighters, you would have taken out a full 4,000 of them. You wouldn't have any torp damage left though.
   
   
8. If you have any torp damage left, it is applied to the defender's armor. So, if you had 4,000 torp damage left, you'd take away 4,000 armor.
   
   
9. Now, fighters attack. Your original fighters total is subtracted from his fighter total, and his original total is deleted from yours. This might not seem immediately intuitive, but it is. I'll give some examples.
   
   You have 40,000 and he has 36,000. You'll end up with 4,000 left over and he'll end up with 0.
   You have 20,000 and he has 20,000. You'll both end up with 0.
   You have 15,000 and he has 27,000. You'll end up with 0 and he'll end up with 12,000.
   
   
10. If there are any fighters left, they are applied to the defender's armor. So, if you have 34,000 fighters left, you can do 34,000 damage to d_armor. If the defender doesn't have enough armor left, too bad.
    
    
11. The last step is to test whether or not either player is dead. If either player has armor of 0 or less, they are dead. If you die, life sucks. You learned a hard lesson. If your opponent dies and you live, you get some money based on salvaging his ship.

Ship to Planet Combat

This works almost exactly the same as above. If the defender's ship is not on the planet, then the planet is considered defeated if its shields and fighters are reduced to 0. The planet has no armor, so skip the part where you attack the opponent's armor.

If the planet's owner is on the planet, then things are somewhat more complicated. You should understand how combat works from the above listing, so heres a list the order in which things happen.

1. Your beams can take out up to half of the planet's fighters.
2. Planet beams take out up to half of your fighters.
3. Owner beams take out up to half of your fighters.
4. Player beams go against planet shields.
5. Planet beams go against your shields.
6. Owner beams go against your shields.
7. Your beams go against owner armor.
8. Planet beams go against your armor.
9. Owner beams go against your armor.
10. Your torp damage takes out planet fighters.
11. Your torp damage takes out up to half of the owner's fighter.
12. Planet torps take out up to half of your fighters.
13. Owner torps take out up to half of your fighters.
14. Your torp damage goes against owner's armor.
15. Planet torp damage goes against your armor.
16. Owner torp damage goes against your armor.
17. Your fighters go against planet fighters.
18. Your fighters go against owner fighters.
19. Your fighters go against planet shields.
20. Your fighters go against owner armor.
21. Planet fighters go against your armor.
22. Owner fighters go against your armor.
23. If your armor is 0 or less, you die. Bozo.
24. If owner armor is 0 or less, he dies. Good job.
25. If you're alive, he's dead, and the planet has no fighters or shields, you win and get the planet. Well played.

If you have any more questions about this game there are a few methods of finding information out other than this manual.

1. You can send a message to one of the top 50 players in the game. They should know the answer to your question, but they may not bother to reply.

2. Visit the Official forum and post on the help section.

3. Alternatively you can talk with other players about the game at our Official Chat-Room

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