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Bean
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander


Joined: 07 Oct 2002
Posts: 59
Location: one person to another

 Post Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2002 4:27 pm    Post subject: Newbie Guide
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Newbie Guide
Welcome to the wonderful world, or worlds I should say, that is Space Trace. As you are new, you might want to know the basics of and your way around the game. Now this game is like chess, but with a spin of science fiction. In other word, strategy is the most important part of the game, and if you’re not willing to use your brain, you’re in trouble.

Battling
This is what makes the game go round. And for this, you need ships. For ships, you need research.

Ships

Here in lies the strategic part of the game. You can have many different combinations of ships. You will need to build ships according to situations. But seeing how you are new, you can build your first set of ships however you see fit. (tip: just try not to overdue the mother ships.)

Research
In order to gain all the fancy ships the game has, you need to research. Just hit the research button on your navigation menu. But first, you might want to read about all the basic researches you can start with.

Movement
In order to move, you need a warp capable ship. But all you really need is one mother ship and a set of cords to make a fleet move. As you progress, you will come to know all the warp capable ships out there.

Navigation Menu

Com
Here is where the games communication lies. You can send in game messages to players you have comlinks with.
Players You Know: One of the sub categories in the com menu. Players whose fleets have com with in range of you planet are place here. Cords not included.
Battle Contact: Some one who battle you.
Already Scanned: When you send probes out, all the active planets and their cords are place here.
Messages: All the messages that have been sent to you, and you have not deleted, are saved a stored here for further use.
IRC: This is like Space Trace’s own chat room. You can go here to talk to other players and get questions answered.

Planets
In here, you will find two different types of planets.
Abandoned Planets You Know: Players who have not signed on to their account for more than eight days, are thought to have abandoned their planets, which is what you see here.
Pre-Warp Planets: These are planets that do not have warp capable ships. Hence the name. Though, they may have other sorts of ships or technologies, so you might want to send a fleet to them to check them out.

BR (Battle Reports)
After a battle, you get what is known a battle report. It contains what went on during the battle. Ships lost, enemy ships destroyed, ect. When you click on the BR tab, it will only show you a summary consisting of only yours and the enemy’s losses and also your score. You can, however, click on the date and time that appears in the upper left hand part of the summary report for a more extensive report. You can also delete battle reports here by clicking the delete button.

HQ
This is your head quarters. It contains all the information about your planet. It has your score, you cords (tip: don’t give your cords out to just anybody, make sure you can trust them first), the race in which you have chosen, and the population of your planet. You can also set your alliance tag here. In order to join an alliance, you must have the name and the password. Or you can start one yourself.
*appears only when you have joined an alliance
View Position In Galaxy: Clicking here shows you a picture of the galaxy and puts a red circle around the part of the galaxy where you are.
3D View Of Galaxy: Clicking here brings up a 3D view of the galaxy (bet you would of never guessed). It shows your planet and the planets you have scanned.
*Alliance Incomings: Here you can view all the incomings of your allies.
*Alliance: This is sort of the same as your HQ, but it deals with your alliance.
Alliance Statistics: Here you can see the stats of all the alliances of the game. You can also see who the top ten players are and who has control of the Black Hole.
Battle History: When you battle someone, you can come here to see if they were in an alliance or not.
Ship Statistics: Here you see all the statistics of the games ships. Such as, the average amount players have and such.

Production
Here, all the production of ships, probes, and buildings takes place. This is pretty much your shipyard. You can also see how many of each ship and probe you have and all the buildings you contain.

Manual
This is the games own manual. It’s where you can find all about ships, probes, buildings, and researches. I would suggest looking over the manual while wait for the production of your ships or the arrival of your fleet to another planet.

Probes
You can build investigation probes from the beginning on. They are good for exploring the universe and finding other inhabited and not inhabited ("pre-warp") planets.(tip: don't send them too far away as then it will take more time for the probe and also for your fleets to reach the scanned planets.) Very important is the deep scan probe. It shows the rough structure of enemy fleets.

Fleets
This is where you move and organize fleets. You have three different fleets. You don’t have to use all of them though. Most players recommend using one or two main fleets. But you can do as you feel you need to.

Map
This is pretty much like the 3D galaxy view, but it a map. You will see the names of planets you have scanned with probes. You can change the center view, which you should use your cords. You zoom by holding down the shift button and clicking and dragging your mouse. To change the view, just let go of the shift key.

TCC
TCC stands for time travel calculator. You use this when you want to see how long it will take to go somewhere use a certain warp speed.


here is a summary for the navigation:


this is the standart navigation seen, when you log in first



you can see

com (communication menu, send mails to other players, join irc-chat, store known players coords)
hq (control your planet, check out some statistics, join an alliance)
production (here you produce your ships, try it like smod told)

fleet (here you control your fleets, construct them and send them away)
probes (scan the universe with some probes)
research (here you start to research new technologies)

manual -> check it, there should be most info you need there

the arrows
If you click on the left arrow and then on a link, the screen will appear in the left frame, if you click on the right one it will appear in the right frame.
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admin
Board Admin
Board Admin


Joined: 09 Jan 2002
Posts: 2938

 Post Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2002 8:55 am    Post subject:
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there were a lot of postst already and i added them to the first topic, so we get a consistant n00b guide, if anything is missing, just post it here (or @Bean: you can add it directly to your post)

[ This Message was edited by: admin on 2002-11-01 08:56 ]
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Manyac
1st Lieutenant
1st Lieutenant


Joined: 03 Dec 2002
Posts: 47

 Post Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 9:38 am    Post subject:
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This game is not about growing, like most of the other games. It's just about strategy! It's the goal to build a successful fleet setup within a given amount of resources! So, even a noob can win a Battle against a Player, who has been playing for ages! So the Chances are the same either for noob and experienced players! This game is just about tactics and score and not about collecting as much ressources as possible and then flaten every enemy with a huge fleet!
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mdellis
1st Rear Admiral
1st Rear Admiral


Joined: 12 Mar 2004
Posts: 296
Location: Aldershot, UK

 Post Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 1:56 pm    Post subject:
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Just want to say that its really good that there is now a proper newbie guide written by someone. Well done, bean. One thing I'd like to add.

Quote:
Ships
Here in lies the strategic part of the game. You can have many different combinations of ships. You will need to build ships according to situations. But seeing how you are new, you can build your first set of ships however you see fit. (tip: just try not to overdue the mother ships.)


Try to go sensible on your first fleet. BIGGER SHIPS ARE NOT BETTER SHIPS! Unless specifically stated a ship cannot spread its attck points (AP) over several ships. Ie. if you have a cruiser (100/100) and your opponent has 101 fighters (1/1) the cruiser will NOT deal 1 damage to 100 fighters, it will deal 100 damage to 1 fighter (ouch that's gotta hurt!) The fighters remaining then have enough AP between them to bring down the mighty cruiser. This way, you loose 1 cruiser (60pts) and your opponent looses only 1 fighter (1pt!). This is a net gain gain for your opponent of 59pts. Not good.

So you see, you need to build a fleet which has the right combination of class 3, 2 and 1 ships. Big units need fast attack and support vessels, just like in a real army. So DON'T go build 70 cruisers, 2 destroyers and a fighter to start with, cos your newbie bashing neighbour will first attack you with a fleet with just one cruiser, and a handfull of fighters and destroyers, destroying all YOUR class 1 and 2, then attack you with a massive fleet of fighters, cutting up your big ships and earning 1000s of points!

I find that a good all round starting fleet which is pretty safe on attack and defence has about 2 dozen cruisers, maybe less, about 100-160 destroyers, and about 1000-2000 fighters.

Oh, and one more thing. The core ships you get at the start of the game are just that; core ships! They DO NOT get obsilite as you progress, since all ships are balanced by their manpower (mp) value. You will find them usful and forming the core of your force throughout the game.

Hope that's helped all newbies out there, and hopefully experienced players wont be too pissed off at me for talking in depth about tactics. Really, these are very simple tactics, and there are many more... its always good to keep something up your sleeve...
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admin
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Joined: 09 Jan 2002
Posts: 2938

 Post Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 3:28 am    Post subject:

this is a nice and compact alternative to the manual. It needs some refreshment

feel free to add more sections (please don't use signtures here)
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