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Die Föderation - turn 1
Schiffe
Zeit eine Basis zu errichten
Einige strategische Überlegungen
Den Gegner verwirren und Ähnliches
OK, Du hast es geschafft den Host zum laufen zu kriegen. Nun wird es aber Zeit das Spiel zu beginnen. Es gibt 2 Rassen in Deinem Universum -
Player 1 sind "The Feds"
Player 2 sind "The Birds"
Dies sind recht gute Rassen für den Anfang. ABER, Du musst sie beide spielen.
Die Föderation - Turn 1
Starte das Planets4 Programm ...
Also auf den Knopf "1" klicken, der sollte neben dem Namen des SPiels stehen.
Dann solltest Du das sehen ... (Das Bild ist herangezoomt)
STOPP!!! Nichts machen und erst einmal lesen! Wirklich!!
Das ist wichtig!!! Zuerst sichergehen, dass Du das hier verstanden hast - es wird Dir sehr viel Frust ersparen!
Du kannst jederzeit während des Spiels das Programm schließen - Alle Deine
bislang getätigten Befehle sollten gespeichert bleiben.
ABER: Wenn Du das
Programm wieder öffnest, um weiterzumachen, wo du aufgehört hast, klicke NICHT
auf den "Unpack RST File" Button, sondern auf die Nummer der Rasse un dann auf
"Play Saved File". Wenn du "Unpack RST" betätigst, werden alle deine Befehle
veworden und du musst noch mal von vorne deinen Zug machen!!! Aaaargh! Ich habe das
gehasst!
Also, zum wiederholen:
Unpack RST: Verwerfe alle Befehle und starte den
Zug von neuem.
Play Saved File: Öffne eine gespeicherte Sitzung und mache
deinen Zug weiter.
Make TRN File: Beende deinen Zug (kann wiederholt
gemacht werden - die letzte Version wird verwendet werden).
Anm.: Hast du das grüne Rechteck für die Rasse bemerkt? Später ändert sich die
Farbe:
| grün: |
Es liegt eine neue RST-Datei vor - nur der
"Unpack RST" Button sollte aktiv sein. |
| grün, gelb: |
Die RST-Datei
ist entpackt und eingelesen - Der "Play Saved File" Button sollte auch aktiv
sein |
| grün, gelb, rot: |
Es liegt eine TRN-Datei vor - das heißt du hast
zuvor den "Make TRN File" Button gedrückt. Es können jedoch immer noch
Änderungen via "Play Saved Game" und "Make TRN File" gemacht werden. (Zumindest
solange der Host den Zug noch nicht ausgeführt hat) |
| grün, gelb, rot, blau |
Die TRN-Datei wurde per Email veschickt, ansonsten s.o. (ist für uns jedoch
irrelevant, da wir lokal spielen) |
OK - Wir fangen gerade einen neuen Zug an, also...
Wähle oben die "1" und damit Rasse 1 aus. Dann klicke auf "Unpack RST File" (wir
fangen einen neuen Zug an, also ist das OK, aber pass auf den Button auf!!)
Jetzt wird's spannend! Von nun an werde ich nur Bildausschnitte zeigen.
Lasst uns mal einen Blick auf dieses Ding rechts unten in der Kartenansicht
werfen...
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Hiermit wird eine Legende aller auf der Karte dargestellten Symbole
angezeigt.
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Zoomt die Karte größer oder kleiner (geht auch mit den +/- Tasten der
Tastatur)
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Schaltet ein Head-Up Display mit Informationen über ausgewählte Objekte - manche
Spieler stehen drauf (wir werden hier jedoch nicht näher darauf eingehen)
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Hiermit kann der Kartenauschnitt verschoben werden - probier es am besten selbst
aus, um zu sehen, wie es funktioniert.
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Nachdem du dich mit diesen Elementen genug vertraut gemacht hast, schauen wir
uns jetzt die Symbolleiste am oberen Rand an.
Hübsch, aber auch ganz schön verwirrend! Und manche sind nicht einmal
aktiviert...
Schau dir einfach mal die Namen und dann...
<<< current limit of Deutsch translation until page 4!!>>
But I'm getting a bit bored with this - lets do something... we'll come back to this later maybe?
In
a normal game I gather it's a good idea to start some Spy Activities as
an opening gambit - maybe get lucky. This would unfortunately chuck in
some "random elements" which may mess up this tutorial so we're going
to miss that out I'm afraid.
ALSO - it seems - many of
your resources start already loaded onto your freighters - don't ask me
why! We're going to need that stuff on the base so this is just to
redistribute the wealth!
SHIPS
In the middle of your star map you'll see a star with a green crosshair
on it - that's your base- you can either click on it or sweep a
selection box (left click and hold while sweeping an area) and the
"Hammer and Anvil" widow pops up
This is a slice of what I got.
This is our first view of this thing - we'll probably see it later too
I suspect. Right now we can see a flashy bar at the top left? This
shows that the thing we're going to select will be a "hammer" object -
a "doer" - if we click on the blank grey area to the right of this it
will select the "anvil" side - the thing the "doer" does "whatever" to
- basically the
target. Make sure the hammer side is selected and then click on the
first Ship (the Medium Deep Space Freighter) in the middle window. (You
can use the green up/down arrows to scroll this list).
[If you don't get this image - left click to select the first freighter
in the centre list (to make it the hammer object) and right click
the Base (to make it the anvil) ]
A green ship
icon will appear in that yellow box between the "?" and the hammer
picture - click this to open the ship view page...
Aaargh! Too MUCH too SOOON!!!. Panic Not.
So
we're going to do some ship stuff! - those boxes at the top are buttons
- have a play looking at the various pages and then - click on "Trans" button
- and a new window will appear...
on the right
is a Transport target area - click on the box relating to the Base you
are Over.
This appears.
First - we're looking at the freighter "Express 3" here (well I was) - if we click
on the green up/down button at the upper right we can cycle through all
our ships - have a play and get back to "Express 3"
OK - the first issue here is all those supplies - 400 of them on the each freighter.
Way
too much for the ship - we need that stuff on the base. If we
click on the supplies box in the middle (the yellow bit) a new overlay
appears
we're going to transfer stuff DOWN (using the green right hand arrows) to
the base.
so send down
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| 30 of its fuel |
(around 100 is enough for now - they don't need much, and at the start of the game there will be free fuel
lying around on planets they visit anyway)
|
| 250 of its troops |
(ie most) of the troops (more useful on HW - 'scuse me, HomeWorld, a common
abbreviation, being trained into High Guard, or HG as they are often called.
HG are the officers who have special powers. In my example, I only have 8 to
start off with. We want, ultimately, thousands.)
|
| 300 (ie most) of the supplies. |
100 will be plenty to set up initial
colonies. The important thing at the start is not to bottleneck
production of things, which requires supplies, on your HW.
|
| 190 or all
the food |
You will only need food on colonies if population gets above about
50,000.
|
| All the Med packs. |
Actually these have been more or less written
out of the game now. They were felt to just be a complicating factor which
added nothing.
|
| All the ordnance |
freighters have no weapons, so it is
best stored somewhere it can be used. |
OK, having made some room, load onto the freighter from the base
|
| 300 cash |
to kick start your colonies. But
leave the bulk of your cash on your HW
|
| then fill it with with
colonists |
These eager volunteers will run your mines, sweat on your
off-world farms and for the privilege, send anything valuable home whilst
being eaten by sandworms and attacked or enslaved by alien races |
Then cycle through to "Express 2" and 1 and do the same
there.
- you can scroll through the
ships using the up/down green arrows in the top right corrner.
If
the freighters seem low on repair units - ie less than 100 units - you might
want to load some on board, though they're unlikely to need them.
Now we have that Nebula Class Cruiser to deal with?
The starting Fed Nebula can carry a little cargo, but not much.
Using the
TRANS screen, load it with:
400 cash,
200 troops,
ONE HIGH GUARD,
as
many colonists as it can hold;
and 50 supplies (for starting colonies. But
this is not its primary job.)
Note that we put a single High Guard on board - when we get to turn 3 maybe you'll see why?
Also,
fill it up with Ord (Ordnance - weapon stuff!) and
Repair units.
This baby is going to
have to do some fighting!
It wants a bit more fuel than the freighters,
say 200, as it may have to operate for a while with no refueling.
In
the ship's ATTACK screen, set it to
"Attack All Enemy Ships",
"Target
Dangerous",
"Delay Ship (Second Wave)", (this delays its entry into combat to the "Second Wave")
"Fire at ground targets".
In
the ship MISSION screen, switch on "Auto Intercept enemy ships" and use the
slide bar to set Intercept range to, say, 70.
Now
switch to the NAME screen of eachship. It is potentially useful to give
ships names. And fun too. I shall call my starting ships:
Assymetric Dog,
Giant
Mongolian Death Gerbil,
Whoop Whoop Holler!,
and
Planned Obsolescence - for the Cruiser
Other
folk use systems like "Freighter-Medium-MolyCarrier", but I think that is
dull.
|
| Oh, if you toggle click on the button legended "NAMES" in Space Command, it'll list
the items there alphabetically as names, or numbers |
Freighter transfers and naming done. Now move on to their movement.
On
the ship OVERVIEW screen, near the top right is a "Speed" box. this is
actually a slide control. Click on it and move Speed up to max.
Do the same for all the ships. And hit DONE
Now we need to send them somewhere - get the Hammer and Anvil (HA)
screen up again - by sweeping an area over the base or something.
Select the freigher "Whoop Whoop Holler" in the middle window
of the Hammer/Anvil window again and then click the  icon (bottom row, far right) and then click on
"Boring Planet" ( - you should get something like this?)
Firstly you will notice a new waypoint icon has appeared in the
top toolbar? This is so you can create a chain of up to 6 waypoints.
The Blue triangle on the trackline allows you to add a new point inside
the current track. Click (and hold the button down) on the blue
triangle and drag to the star in between "Cango". You should get something like
this -
[ By the way - if you need to clear your waypoints for a particular ship go to the
ship's NAV screen - (select the ship and hit that green ship icon on the
hammer side of the hammer/anvil window)
Select the NAV box - and click the button "Clear" on the right...]
Also - if you nead to get out of waypoint selection mode - click on the normal pointer icon at the top 
Select the other freighters and send them as follows
Assymetric Dog - south to "Mann"
When I did this - this thing popped up
Since Mao and Mann are so close together you need to select which one you mean - click on
"Mann Unexplored Planet #488" in this box
then send
Giant Mongolian Death Gerbil - south-west to "Lacerta Prime"
Finally
Send the Cruiser "Planned Obsolescence" North-East - to "Shaddan"
Having set speeds and waypoints, you could leave the ships now, and they would
travel towards their waypoints when the turn is run. However, there are a
handful of other things to do with the ships first:
Click on the MISSION
screen. Turn on Long Range scanner and Planetary scanner for all ships. Otherwise you won't be able to see
the details of the new planets you arrive at. Don't turn on Running Lights.
Those are a decoy beacon thing you sometimes use to delierately make a ship
more visible (for traps).
The Auto Pilot switch on this screen does
nothing. It is for a future tool which will help reduce the micromanagement
of running ships.
You don't want the freighters to auto-intercept ships.
That's a warship's job. Leave that alone.
On the ship DAMAGE screens for each ship,
turn on all REPAIR options (the top 7 switches).
This will help them survive
battles.
|
OK - Time to set up the Base
Now - we need to do some base stuff - and build things.
So - click on the Base Command Icon  and this thing appears...
Another complex thingy - but...
Most of this is status... Planet name - nice picture, name , type, soil, blah blah blah.
That's the overview page. There are a bunch of boxes (buttons) at the
top here too where you can do stuff. Have a quick click through them...?
We need to build some things:
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| A Government Centre
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This is vital in order to increase tech levels.
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Mineral Mines
|
These turn ore (See the Base MINERALS screen) into metals, which you'll
be using for building ships later.
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Farms
|
These make food and a little money, but unfortunately there is a build limit of 10
per turn. |
Factories
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These make things! Heck, they're factories!
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Another
Training Centre
|
this is required for turning those troops into those valuable "High Guard". It also
promotes colonists (breeders) to crew (for ships), crew to troops. Later,
we'll build more to accelerate the process, but they're quite expensive and
we actually don't want too many as breeding colonists is the priority right
now.
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Cities
|
These will your main source of income in a few turns.
|
SO - select the Struct button
and you get this screen
What is this saying? - basically - it identifies what structures I
have in this base. Green ones I can build - the red ones I can't -
yet.
I note that I have 0 Government Centres... click this. And it opens up
an upper area showing that I have a Current Count of 0 and none
pending. We need to build one. Click on the Build 1 red button - you'll notice a blue circle thing appear at the bottom?
Next - while we're here select Farm and then Build 10 of those (the maximum allowed).
Next - build
400 Factories,
another Training Centre,
10 Mines and
as many Cities as you can with the supplies available - I managed 6.
Right - lets check a few things are ON that should be.
Click the Switches box at the top right of this window.
Then click on the Factories box on the left...
This thing defaults to 100 supplies per turn - click on the 1K X button and use the slider bar to select 10000 supplies per turn (maximum).
Click on the Terraformers box and switch these ON if they are off - these keep the planet
farmable. You need food - or people
get unhappy and riot, etc.
Click on Ship Repair Shop and use the sub screen to convert 10 Duranium a
turn into Repair Units. You won't need many for a long time.
Click on
Air Attack Base, and then "Form Airwing" on the sub screen that comes up.
This brings you to a new screen. Use the slider bars to make a Wing
consisting purely of 50 "Io" fighters, and press "Activate Wing". This will
help with homeworld defense, because you're sending your starting warship
off somewhere else
Then click the Switches button at the top again (as there doesn't seem to be an exit button for this page)
Now click on the Base Shield box - make sure it is ON. Basic advice is - Don't Switch This Off!!!
Click the Anti-Aircraft Gun box and make sure these are ON. They cost nothing unless something happens....
Finally - let's put the Base on an aggressive stance. Click on the Military tab/button
and click on that Kill! Kill! Kill! option!
This is so that it is more effective if attacked in "ground combat".
And finally - click on the Name box at the top and give it an
interesting name - it amuses the enemy and helps you to remember what's
yours!
We're done with the base so click DONE
Some strategic things we should and can do...
I
say "should" because we're noty going to do it all in order to
make sure random elemenst don't mess up this tutorial's "flow"... So...
Now click on the HQ button  on the the top menu bar. And then click on the SPY menu item.
In a real game we would probably try to use our Spies as an opening gambit to destroy the enemy's base.
Like this???
This WOULD be a good thing to do BUT PLEASE DON'T!
- it may add random factors that could mess up this tutorial!!!! But
remember that this sort of thing "may" help when you do play against
someone else.
This would be a lucky chance thing - worth trying - may not work - but
it's all part of tactics. Right now we're just learning the buttons and
such.
BUT - there are some things we can do without messing this all up
Click the "Select Target Race button" and choose race 2 (then hit DONE in the sub-window)
and then switch ON the "Gather Intelligence" button on the Spying window
also
Click on the Green arrow beside the "Funding" box so that you select 100mc spent per turn.
Right. Now we're rolling! But nothing's happened yet!
It won't - were just writing the orders... it'll all happen when the turn is submitted and the host resolves it...
We're going to do a bit of Tech Level shopping - but what you buy
depends on how much money you have in the Central Bank...
In the HQ subwindow - click TECH
This all looks pretty cheap - but we're going to be a bit stingey here... click on the box for
Small Weapon Tech
It would probably be a good idea to bump up most of the other cheap
stuff here in a real game - if we have the money (like we do at the
moment) but please DON'T! This scenario needs a little mucking about with to make it interesting!!!
Hit DONE
Now - Let's look into "Taunting your Enemy" and such things
One of the fun things to do is taunt other players. And in a PBEM game, you
don't always know WHO the other players are. There is an in-game messaging
system so you can arrange alliances, etc. Let's try it:
Click on the
"Send a Message"  button, which looks like a red radio tower thing on the top
toolbar.
Up pops a new screen. Click on "2" (ie "I want to send a message
to player 2, the Birds.") And "New Message". Type in something like: "Psst
- over here" in the Subject line, and "We Know Where You Live" as the
message. Finally, click "Anonymous" so the Birds don't know who sent it.
(Pointless in a 2 player game, but we are trying to illustrate what is
possible 8) )
Whilst we're at it, let's Read our incoming
messages. You should do this every turn, some interesting things pop up.
Click on the top toolbar icon which looks like a letter  . You get a list of
messages:
TAX REPORT - this is what you've managed to swindle out of your
population this turn. It is already in your account. There are 2 types
of money:
Money in bases, which you can spend (or transfer to the
central account with Government Centres); and
Central Account money,
which is only usable for increasing tech levels and Spying, and which
cannot be transferred back out.
RESOURCE REPORT - don't worry about this.
Sometimes games have Too Many Objects, ie more than 20,000 (!), whereupon
this becomes significant. That is unlikely to happen before turn 50!
And
so on.
Most messages are self-explanatory. However the KING OF THE HILL and
VICTORY POINTS ones need explaining... one day!! It is sufficient to say at this point that the target of the game is NOT always killing everyone else - there are also "targets" which can come "into play"
Click the HQ button and click on the ID button (the one with
the green fingerprint image). And type in a new Commander's
Identity? I used "Ensign Cannon Fodder".
Last Checks! Click on the "Pending Orders" icon 
- it was one of those blank ones before... be sure to select your
base doing the building before (as Hammer object) - It should confirm
that New Fighter Wing command you entered earlier?
OK - that was possibly a bit confusing? I know I found it so!
There are so many buttons? !!
Actually it isn't that
bad (apparently!) - this was just one way to give orders, there are
other ways, using different controls that do much the same thing
- this is so that players can work it their own way? This game has been
Beta Tested for over 3 years now - so quite a few people have requested
their own changes....
Let's finish this turn!
Click the "FILES" button in the top left.
This takes us back to the select a
game opening screen of Planets.
Once again though!?
Beware of this screen and the "Unpack RST file" option! Touch NOT ! (Well not yet!)
There's a bit more detail on this in this footnote - here
Anyway
Whilst on the FILES page, with the "1" button highlighted, hit the "Make TRN
File" button to ensure Host can read player 1's moves. (Ie, this compiles a
Host-readable list of the Fed orders in a file called player01.trn). [A bit dull that... but true]
AND!
From this point on this tutorial is going to get a bit less verbose,
sorry! !
This page has most of the basic "knobology" instructions so if
you need to refer back to it - open the next page link using a "Open In
New Window" type option
Next - the Birds!
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![[Ooops]](../all/battle1aS_unmarked.jpg "Now we're cooking on gas!")