Opening moves?

[Zhuangzi]

The hull size has three little boxes nearby, and it should be in the range of 250 - 600 (much later in the game).

EDIT: I see the problem. The hull size and hit points are the same. 285 hit points equals 285 hull space.

[Zhuangzi]

To give an idea of what I consider to be a reasonable start, I am now up to Nov 3302 in my game, i.e. almost three game years. I started as a Peleng Merchant. This is on 143% difficulty, which is essential Hard but with normal Dominator strength. For most of this time, my money has hovered around 5,000 - 10,000, but I've finally got it up toward 15,000 now. This is still very small. I am now in a position to consider buying a new hull, because 285 is just too small.

I was able to do several 'fed-ex' missions due to my comparatively high jump distance (30 with Farstar micromodule). I have completely avoided attacking any ships, which means no hitman missions, and I've also avoided defending freighters etc. I usually pay pirates if I can't outrun them. One tip with the fed-ex quests: you can ask for easier or harder versions of the same mission. Quite often I found that the destination system was within my jump distance, which meant I could always reach it in less than a month. This meant I could take the harder option for more cash.

The other easy way to make money is doing the real-time battles. These are most commonly available in systems that have just been liberated from the dominators. So it can pay to visit a system that the coalition is attacking, try to shoot a small Dominator ship (like a Shtip) in order to get a reward AND then another reward for the RTS battles. Oh and you should be picking up Dominator equipment and selling them at science stations. But sometimes you will enter a system and see four Equentors (the biggest Dominators). Then it's time to run.

So I finally upgraded all the equipment I had, which means I have some fairly good stuff for this stage of the game, but now I need a new hull. Size 350 or 400 is required for now, and it's important to get one that has all the equipment modules. These are most expensive, of course.

EDIT: if you get stuck on a text quest, here are the solutions. This is from the now defunct Elemental Games forum. There are a few new text quests in Reboot that aren't covered here. I recommend trying all the text quests yourself, but a few of them are fiendishly difficult and may need a spoiler:

http://www.elementalgames.com/forum/...e=42&page=auto

[jake21]

Ack. The rts just got a lot harder and now i'm stuck

Green keeps rushing me with like 10 robots and whacking me good. Which weapon do you use on your robot - i've been using launcher (full stack) since it has both the greatest damage and longest fire range but maybe there is something better ?

[Zhuangzi]

2 launchers, 1 spitfire, 1 repairer. You don't want to let them shoot at your robots when they are stationary. The enemy AI is so poor that he will not usually bunch his robots before attacking, i.e. they will come in single file. What I like to do is to wait until I can see that the enemy will attack (eg there are 6+ robots hovering on the route to my base). I put my robots in the base behind the turrets, letting the enemy hit the turrets first. Then you lure them before they are ready with one of your robots. Usually the entire enemy force will be creamed without doing much damage at all, but if the enemy makes it into your base, try to retreat your robots a little. They will keep firing missiles as they fall back.

The other major tip is to be aggressive. There's no fog of war so you can see what the enemy is up to. You really need to capture the neutral bases and build turrets straight away. Having the hoverplane base to the robots helps speedwise.

[jfp3]

While I can't offer much in the way of advice myself yet, I suppose I should add my initial moves.

This is starting as a Human Trader.

With the opening trades in the tutorial, you will be instructed to buy goods on Earth, then deliver to Venus, and make the return trip with a new load of goods. You will make some 3-4k from this round-trip. Be sure you click the "info" button for trade info at each location. You are instructed to fly off to Beetlegiuse. (If anyone knows what they might buy for sale on this opening trip to BG, it would be good to know). Before you leave the Sun system, try landing at Mars and get the trade info there as well. Now you have info on all 3 trade planets in the Sun system so you will know what to bring home with you after the BG segment of the Tutorial.

At BG, you will get the Drone Kill tutorial. Use Auto because you will never catch that thing on manual controls. You will need to land and repair at least one time. Do so when you have reached about 50 hull points left. On the 2nd try you should be able to kill the Drone finally. You will get another reward when you get back to Earth -- but before doing so, stop at all the planets in BG system and get their trade info. Figure out which deals are best and load up for the trip back to Earth.

Try to hit planets that are in the proper rotation around the sun so you are not wasting days doing huge orbits that are un-necessary. You will find that even a couple days difference in your trips between Solar Systems will show a change in Trade prices. In fact, save your game after you kill the Droid and before loading up your ship with goods for the return as you might find that the "deal" you thought you would have back in the Sun system doesn't now exist. But it's definately worth a shot.

You will probably have an NPC offer to join you after you kill the Droid, but I've found he gets disappointed pretty quick and leaves you without direction (which you can't really give at this point anyway so no big loss). Don't worry about him. (If anyone has any other info on this NPC, please add it).

When you get back into Sun System, make your trade quick then hit Earth for reward and more info. Update the trade info you can wherever you may land on the way back to Earth.

At this point I found that Earth will offer a couple of great deals on things, and I made 4 or 5 very quick trips shuttling goods in the Sun system before anything else. These were quite lucrative. Just watch it when you "overload" a certain destination with the same goods -- the profits will drop quite quickly.

Once you see that it's going to be hard to make any quick profitable trades in the Sun System (4 or 5 runs did it for me), then take the 1st Tutorial of the RTS (I got it offered on Earth). It is easy enough that you won't need any of the "help" offered so be sure to take it at hardest level so you take highest profit, and most experience points.

So barring the unforeseen, you should now have about 10k in your pocket and you can go shopping. I bought a Probe right away (from the Ranger Base), and set it to work on Mercury. I think the only one offered was a "Plains" one, and in the Sun System, that is the only place you can use it. It will run for 3 months, and will make you at least as much as you paid for it for this 1st try. But -- during these 3 months you should be visiting the other systems in the Sector and getting the "lay of the land"

I have found that the "News" screens give you a good hint as to what is going to be a good trade route. Be very careful if you venture too far away from the Sun System Sector. I haven't yet bought any ship upgrades so I can't give any advice to enhance the advice of the other posters to this thread.

So that's it from me for now, hopefully this will give some newcomers some very specific opening moves in the game.

Cheers!

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

I kind of like this game but it's hard work. trading is kind of boring and fights are ok if you have a good ship with good weapons, but they cost lots. The game hinges on only two things, trading and missions it seems.

I'm going to persevere a bit more and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I understand Galian gear is the best and sometimes i cant join in fights against dominators as the fights are far away, sometimes.

ANyway, what should I do

[grunt3]

Here are my starting moves (It might be exploiting a bit -- you decide):

1.) I start a game I make sure the starting ship is one of the larger starting sizes. 400 is the max size for an easy luck start. I also make sure to there is a good low weight branch engine around, which I will be buying soon.
2.) Head to the nearest Medical center and get Time Gaalistra if available.
3.) Get the max loan from the closest business station.
4.) Search and buy any medicine with price around 40 or under. Sell all that medicine to the medicine station in your starting system. This may take several trips.
5.) Now finally start the first medicine tutorial quest by talking to the governor. This lowers all the prices of the medicine in the medical center to about 30.
6.) Make 3-way trips between the Medical station, sick planet and start planet and never talk to the governor, while trading. Continue until the medicine and equipment are exhausted. You should have from 30-40k now and maybe 6 months in.
7.) Go buy that new engine, frag cannons etc... upgrade equipment and start taking on dominators for profit.

[jake21]

What is a Time Gaalistra? Is it a piece of equipment ?

Originally Posted by grunt3

Here are my starting moves (It might be exploiting a bit -- you decide):

1.) I start a game I make sure the starting ship is one of the larger starting sizes. 400 is the max size for an easy luck start. I also make sure to there is a good low weight branch engine around, which I will be buying soon.
2.) Head to the nearest Medical center and get Time Gaalistra if available.
3.) Get the max loan from the closest business station.
4.) Search and buy any medicine with price around 40 or under. Sell all that medicine to the medicine station in your starting system. This may take several trips.
5.) Now finally start the first medicine tutorial quest by talking to the governor. This lowers all the prices of the medicine in the medical center to about 30.
6.) Make 3-way trips between the Medical station, sick planet and start planet and never talk to the governor, while trading. Continue until the medicine and equipment are exhausted. You should have from 30-40k now and maybe 6 months in.
7.) Go buy that new engine, frag cannons etc... upgrade equipment and start taking on dominators for profit.

[jake21]

The first time I played I had to start 5 or 6 times to get a 'good' game going. I found that it was a huge mistake to attack anything early on (esp pirates). The tricky part is that some missions require that you attack something to complete them - i learned to avoid those missions.

On the converse side once you become 'too' powerful the game balance tilts too much to the other side. You can single handedly take on full fleets of dominators - but it takes a while to get to that point.

I think it is a fun game ('cept for the rts which i've no success). I wish they would add more text games - some of those are a *lot* of fun.

Originally Posted by Kings Bounty Hunter

I kind of like this game but it's hard work. trading is kind of boring and fights are ok if you have a good ship with good weapons, but they cost lots. The game hinges on only two things, trading and missions it seems.

I'm going to persevere a bit more and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I understand Galian gear is the best and sometimes i cant join in fights against dominators as the fights are far away, sometimes.

ANyway, what should I do

[grunt3]

Time Gaalistra is the best buff from the medical station and it really really helps early on. RTS missions are easy once you figure out the strategy for each map, but then they get boring and repetitive. Once a RTS mission is offered save before you complete it. If you don't get a good micromodule or any at all, try it on all the other planets and see if one gives you a good micromodule. For robots make I only make 2 types. Get one with 4 launchers, mortar, dynamo; the other has a mortar, 2 launchers, and 2 repairers. If you are defending a point use the best turret backed up by two mortar/2 launcher/2 repairer robots, which will keep itself healed. Always watch the map and try to manual control in fights.