(You have just come from here - the Bird's Turn 1 page)
The Feds - Turn 2
VCR
Right - Down to Business!
Starting Colonies
Buying Tech Levels
Base Screen
Wings
Preparing for Ship Building
Intelligent Use of Resources
The Bird's - Turn 2.
Ships / WIngs
Right. Change of
plan.
Bird's Base
HQ screen
The Feds - Turn 2 - At Last!!
Let's see what's happened to the Feds for Turn 2.
Start
planets4.exe
Select FILES, then slot 1 (the button next to the legend
"Testgame")
Select the green box/button for race "1" that appears. (Both race boxes should be green!)
Hit that (rather dangerous) "Unpack RST
file". It's OK!
If you get the same error thing again - just click OK - restart Planets4 and use the Play Saved Game button again...
Right - the first thing you'll notice is that a lot more stars
have turned yellow on the map, because you've now scanned them.
Note
that even though we know the Birds are on Wayne's World, the Bird base is
not visible there (rubber-band that area and look at the list of objects in
Space Command - it is very unlikely to be there). BIRD BASES have a special
power: they are very well hidden (cloaked!). (Actually I got to see it - (Olly) sorry!)
However, in the example I
ran, two Bird ships are visible just north of Wayne's World. I can tell
they're enemies because they appear as little "red"
crosses.
Because of the random nature of scanning, you
may see more than is shown in the example screenshot. Or less.
Hey! COMBAT happened!!!
Remember how we ruthlessly sent the Fed
cruiser to Shaddan, and also a Bird ship? With "Attack Enemies" set?
If
you look on the top toolbar you will see a new button.
It looks like a red
and green triangle facing each other . We have a battle to review!
Click that button .
VCR
Up pops a new screen titled VCR (Visual Combat Recording). This
lists the battles you've had when Host ran the last turn, and plays movies
of them for you. Click on Event 1. Then click on START VCR.
It can
take a few moments for anything to happen....aaaand for some reaon, I think you
need to move the mouse to start things going - a minor bug.?
We have a new
screen pop up. This is actually an entirely separate, specialised program
(VCR.exe) which Host has called in a new window.
Hitting the button called
REPORT brings up a summary window, which quickly tells you some details
without having to sit through the entire movie. Click on the Fed ship, shown
as [Planned Obsolescence] in the list in this REPORT screen. [The square
brackets mean it is one of your ships.] The details show you that it ended
the battle with bugger all damage. Woo hoo! Kick that Romulan
butt! - ehem - Birdie Butt!!!
Drop out of the REPORT screen by clicking DONE and we return to the
VCR screen. See how te controls in the bottom right are sort of like a tape
recorder? (Hmm - showing my age there - I mean a video recorder - er,
DVD player - oh sod it.) Hit PLAY, the big button with one triangle on
it.
Impressive Music Starts!! Or should. If not, don't worry about it, there are
a couple of sound card settings we can tweak (ask the Newsgroup). A
spiderweb pattern is visible around the central planet (Shaddan). This
is a guide to ranges. The combat field is about 2,000 km across. Weapon
ranges vary from about 100 to 900 km and are an important factor in
choice of weapons, when you come to build ships.
At first nothing
seems to be happening?, but a counter is counting up rapidly. Once it hits
300, things start happening at last. This 300 "tick" delay is because we set
both ships to arrive on "second wave".
Two ships appear. They have little
bars next to them - these are little indicators to show how much health they
have left. The top bar is Shields. Once those are worn through, weapons
begin eroding the second bar, Armour. Once that's gone, they begin damaging
the third bar (hull).
Once that's gone, so is the ship.
If you click
on a ship as it moves around the field of battle, some status info will
appear to the right.
Eventually, after about 1100 ticks in my case, the
Fed Nebula vaporises the Bird ship. Hurrah! Eat phasor death, Romulan
scum!
Some other points about the VCR screen: the >> and <<
fast forward / back buttons, will skip the battle forward / backward 100
ticks. (Just like a regular 8-track, Paul !! (Olly))
When you drop out of the VCR.exe program back to the "VCR" screen
of Planets4.exe, you will see a weird looking button in between "Start VCR"
and "Done". This is meant to look like a star map and youwill see it on
various screens from time to time.
Press it. See how the main map jumps to
centre on Shaddan, the point where the action occurred. This can be
useful for players with many borders, when trying to figure out where a
battle happened.
Anyhow, hit "Done" onthe VCR screen. Now let's look
at the messages ("Read Incoming Email" icon  , top toolbar").
Note that one
message is titled "Destroyed ship" and reads:
The ship: Black Knight
A
Skyfire Class Cruiser
class starship has been destroyed
At: ( 2002 ,
1974 )
Ship ID Number was: 507
The ship belonged to race: 2
See
now why you should check your messages each turn?
See also how when you
open this message, that funny starmap button is there again. You could jump
right from that message to the area of interest, on the map.
Anyway
The reason our "heroic" Nebula won was because, although it had crap weapons, it was
pretty massive. Now let's see what happens when it goes up against a real
tough target. Set Planned Obsolescence's waypoint for Wayne's World and
let's see how it handles those 50 fighters and the other Bird homeworld
defenses!
Right - Down to Business!
STARTING COLONIES
By now, the Fed
freighters are still trundling through space at top speed and haven't quite
got anywhere.
But our victorious Nebula Cruiser is above Shaddan, and can start a colony. From
the Nebula's Overview screen, bring up the TRANS screen. Select the transfer
target: "The planet we are over".
(If it isn't in the Trans list - go back to the Hammer Anvil screen and select Shaddan as the Anvil object - then choose The Anvil Object in the Trans screen when you go back there.)
To make a colony, we need first PEOPLE.
Also SUPPLIES and MONEY to build structures.
So transfer down
10 troops,
all the Colonists (if any),
150
cash and
35 supplies.
(A real colony needs several hundred, or a couple of
thousand colonists to mine minerals at a reasonable rate. But the Nebula doesn't carry many passengers. In the meantime, 1 troop, or whatever, can
build structures while we await the arrival of more colonists.)
While we're
at it, let's beam UP from the planet's surface, 50kT of fuel (if they have it).
At
first sight you might think the freighters can't do anything this turn. Not
so. You can pre-program them to do a flyby of a planet and do a transfer.
This means the colonies get set up when Host runs, and will be ready to
control next turn, and the freighters will be half way to their next target.
No need to hang around planets to set up colonies!
So let's click on
Whoop Whoop Holler!, the freighter north of our HW.
(Note that just clicking
on something on the map is an alternative way to select it. If there are
more than one thing there and Planets4.exe is not sure what you are
referring to, it will pop up a list to select from.)
Having brought
up Whoop Whoop Holler!'s TRANS screen, select the transfer target as "planet
at next waypoint".
Transfer DOWN:
half the colonists, cash,
supplies
Transfer UP: anything not securely nailed down, particularly
fuel, metals
(moly, dur, trit) and Repair Units.
Leave supplies and food for the
colony.
In FUTURE! Freighter stuff is up to you!
This is a tutorial. I could detail what to
do with the other 2 freighters, but it wouldn't teach you anything.
Basically, dump about 150mc, some supplies and colonists on the worlds you
pass. After establishing a couple of colonies, return home with the metals
and stuff you've accumulated, dump them on the homeworld and stock up with
more
colonists, supplies and mc for another colonisation run.
BUY TECH LEVELS
(HQ screen - TECH) 
Upgrade:
Small Weapon Tech (if it isn't at 2 yet);
Point Defense;
Generator;
Engine;
Hull;
Shield.
Note: there is no real point increasing Small Weapon Tech above tech
2 for a long time. Tech 2 gives a very effective weapon, the Pulsed Laser.
Next decent small weapon is tech 9. Save the money for now, buy those 7 tech
levels later - some are quite expensive.
BASE
SCREEN STUFF 
SWITCHES sub screen:
Click on "Government Centre".
On the sub screen, click on "1K X". Now slide the slider bar up to max
This will transfer a full 10,000mc to the central account this turn, for tech
upgrades.
STRUCTURES screen:
Build another 10 farms and several
cities. I managed another 4
There is no point building cities unless you have 100,000 people to
put in them, but we started with a population of 5 million and it will be a
while before we have 50 cities. By which time the population will have
grown.
Hit DONE
WINGS
Rubber-band the area round the Fed Home World - Odionia. There is a weird thing
like 3 green triangles in the centre list there. This is the Fighter Wing we made last
turn.
Wings are made of Fighters. They can be as small as 10 fighters and
as large as 2 million (gasp... never seen one larger than 10,000 myself,
but I know of one player who's experimented with those). One thing to
understand is that FIGHTERS cannot operate in space (away from a planet)
unless they are formed into a WING. So a base mayhave 200 fighters, but
unless a ship comes and fires at the planet point-blank, they won't do
anything. But we formed these fighters into a Wing, we can
control it very much as we do a ship:
If you click on the Wing in
Space Command and bring up its overview screen, which can be done by
clicking on the large green button in the Hammer/Anvil view with a representation of
the Wing on it (2 green triangles), you see a screen similar to a ship's.
Let's go through the options here.
On the overview screen, set the speed
slider bar to max (110 LY/turn).
At the bottom right of this screen is a
slider bar for range and a switch - "auto intercept". Switch this ON and set auto-intercept range to 50. The Wing will now attack any enemy ships it sees
within 50LY.
(NOTE: if you set its range beyond half its max range, there's
a danger of the Wing ending up out of fuel in deep space on the return
journey.)
(You can also do this through the MISSION screen.)
Still
on the Overview screen, set the following attack options ON: in the middle lower section
Attack
Enemies (it may already be SET ON!!!)
Quick Strike (zoooooom takatakataka flyby eeeeeeoooowww can't hit me,
I'm back out of range while I recharge my lasers)
Ground Strike (kill
enemy bases)
Below this, click on "Targeting" to get "Attack Deadly
First". That way if any of those horrid Bird ships come by, the Wing will
take out the worst one first.
Click on the NAME screen. Name:
"Fighter Wing". Boring. Change to "Momma's Boy".
Hit DONE
The nice thing about
Wings is, you need different weapons to shoot Wings than to kill ships. So
if you attack someone with a mix of Wings and ships, he's got to mount some
weapons to kill fighters. Otherwise...
well, I once saw 20 fighters kill two
T Rex's (the hardest Lizard ship there is, which is pretty
hard).
Wings aren't too important for Feds in the early game, but you
need to begin preparing for Ugly Visitors like the Evil Empire (EE), who may
be ready as early as turn 8 to attack your homeworld with Wings. We'll need
to build some defences against that. Later.
PREPARING FOR SHIP
BUILDING
Bring up your homeworld base overview
screen (click on the Base in Space Command).
Click on the Parts subscreen
and then the SMALL WEAPON button. The screen shows an inventory of the small
weapons in your base. The words "Laser" and "Pulsed Laser" should be in
green.
Click on "Pulsed Laser"and use the buttons in the bottom right to
queue 6 for manufacture this turn.
The general idea of ship building is
to build parts one turn, then fit them together into a ship next turn.
(There is another way called Quick Build, which we'll explain later when you
understand the fundamentals.)
Sadly, the only things you can build right now
are so awful that - apart from a few pulsed lasers - it's not worth building
any parts.
Fortunately, we have some free bits and pieces. Next turn, we'll
be able to build a hull tech 2 ship.
INTELLIGENT USE OF
RESOURCES
Now we know there are some rivals
nearby, it becomes important to settle the best planets as quickly as
possible, so as to cart off as much loot as we can, as quickly as we can.
Let's scan around and look at planets.
WARNING: the distribution of Natives, minerals and
contraband is randomised every time you set up a game. You aren't going to
find the same as me when you scan planets.
Click on a nearby planet.
In the screenshot, I have clicked on Cango and brought up its DATA PAD, by
clicking on the words "Data Pad" in Space Command. Running through the
subscreens here, one thing caught my eye.
This planet has natives.
Your game will be different here but have a look about and find somewhere with some natives? I found some on Altair
Not only
that but they are the valuable Insect type (hard workers, triple taxes).
I
mark this planet with a Note.
(Me? --- I found some Ghips and such on Altair on one playtest of this)
(and on a later playtest I found Insectoids on Shaddan)
Anyway - a Note is created by clicking the button that
looks like an open book  on the top toolbar (6 right from the FILES button).
This brings up the Notepad screen, where you may type a short memo. A flag
appears, attached to the planet (see it?). You may colour code the flag with
the green, yellow, red rectangles in the "Notepad" screen. This changes the
colour of the flag. I use red flags for bad things and green for good.
Notes (flags) can be attached to just about anything. You can attach
them to your own ships ("Unload at planet A, then travel to planet B");
enemy worlds ("Fleet seen here on turn 23"); and so on.
The other
thing to look for is large stockpiles of contraband (more than 2000T on a
planet). That's worth a bundle.
(Hey! I found 6,234 illegal CDs on lacerta Prime - the little devils! (Olly))
I think that's the Feds' 2nd turn done!!!?.
Hit the FILES button and, on the
Files screen, hit Make TRN File.
Now we move on to the
...
The Bird's - Turn 2.
Still on the FILES screen, click on the green "2", and then
"Unpack RST File". The Bird move opens up.
First thing I notice on
the Bird map is several red (enemy) things down south. In particular,
there's an enemy Base. (Due to the randomness of scanning, you may not see
this.) Clicking on it (the base itself) and calling up its Data Pad from Space Command, I can
see an amazing amount of detail; too much, some say. I note that they only
have a few cities. My economy will outstrip theirs.
Next thing I
notice is the Combat button on the top toolbar is active.
[The red-and-green
triangles button is no longer greyed out.] I gleefully call up the VCR
screen, then shout in rage and stomp off to kick the cat.
B*%#8&d Feds!
Next thing to do is check
my messages. Click on Mail icon on top toolbar. I see there is an anonymous
taunt. Shout in rage and go off to eviscerate cat. ( a bit un-Romulan [TM] like?? (Olly) )
Ships / WIngs
Right. Change of
plan. Need to kill that big Fed ship, and take out his freighters. My ships
obviously cannot match his, but examining the VCR Report screen I see the
Fed Nebula is armed with paltry Flake Cannon, Heavy Lasers and Disruptors.
Excellent. Easy meat for my free flying Wing of Voltar G's. The Flake Cannon
will probably kill a few of them, but it will be worth it to remove the Feds'
major fighting ship; it is a tech 6 hull, they won't be able to field
another for ages.
[I know it is tech 6 because I just checked using
raceview.exe, a utility which comes with Planets4. (Not covered here - sorry!]
Click on my Wing.
NAME screen: rename as "Revenge of the Birds".
Overview screen: set speed to
max, auto intercept ON, auto-intercept range MAX (I don't care if it gets
stranded, I can send a ship to refuel it later, I want BLOOD). Switch on
Attack Enemies (careful there, if it is on already, don't switch it OFF!),
Quick Strike, targeting = Attack Deadly First.
Finally, just to be
sure, WE COULD just send it south to Shaddan. Now, we could use a simple waypoint, or
click in the mini-map in the Wing Overview screen, but here's a new trick
(since it is a Tutorial). We're going to intercept the specific object
we're interested in.
RIGHT Click on the enemy ship "Planned Obsolescence"
- assuming it is visible. (If not simply send the Wing south to Shaddan.)
Right-clicking makes the enemy ship the ANVIL. The Wing should still be the HAMMER.
Bring up the overview screen of the wing. Now go to the Wing's NAV
screen. Next to the word "Intercept", near the top, click the button
labelled "SET". This brings up a screen which offers 3 ways to select an
intercept target. Inside the box next to "Lock on to Anvil object",
click on "OK".
This hops us back to the NAV screen of the Wing, which
should show us set-up to intercept Nebula Planned Obsolesence.
Further revengeful machinations by the Birds are in serious order here!:
this is a wargame and we
see juicy, vulnerable freighters down south!
SHIP "DEAD
PARROT"
Is over Gieneh. Let's dump folk here to start a
colony. Transfer down:
4000 colonists
200 cash
50 supplies
10
troops
1 food
Transfer up:
Any fuel and repair units lying loose on
the planet. We're heading south to kick some Fed ass.
Set waypoint
south-ish towards Feloktoriah at max speed (fuel burn: approx 61.)
Now HOLD
THE SHIFT KEY DOWN, and DRAG THE WAYPOINT INTO DEEP SPACE about 20LY to the
left of Feloktoriah. (Heck - what's 20LY? Just send the sucker a bit right of south and nearly as far as Feloktoriah)
This illustrates how you can set waypoints in deep
space.
The idea is to head generally south, but skirting the hard Fed
ship we know is present at Shaddan.
SHIP
"LUMBERJACK"
Is near Lacedodia but I can colonise that
later.
We can see Whoop Whoop Holler heading NW towards Cango. Possibly! (Well if we can't - we can pretend!)
It is a
good guess that it will then continue in that rough direction. We want to
interecept it, but if we simply set it as an intercept target our ship
may veer dangerously close to the Fed warship and get auto-intercepted
itself. So lets's head for Boring Planet, then swing towards Cango.
Hopefully we'll come near the Fed cargo vessel and kill it.
Set
waypoint for Boring Planet, down south; then set SECOND waypoint as Cango by
clicking on the "Waypoint 2" icon (top toolbar, red target with number "2"
overlapping it) and then clicking on Cango. (I also set it to Max speed)
BIRD BASE - TURN 2
Build (Structures screen): 10 farms. 5
cities.
Switches: select the government centre screen and transfer
10,000mc into the central account (like with the Feds).
Parts screen, select Small
Weapons: build 18 pulsed lasers.
and..
select Fighters, build 20
Volta G's.
This is insurance in case that cursed Nebula dodges or defeats our
avenging Wing. These fighters cost 2000mc, but are more powerful than
any ship we can build right now, and will help our homeworld if it's attacked.
Unlike the Feds, who have a paltry 6-7 cities, we can afford this. Cities
generate 100mc / turn and we have 31 (shortly: 36).
HQ screen
-->
Tech subscreen: increment the following techs:
Shield,
Hull,
Engine,
Generator,
Point Defense,
Small Weapon.
Some of these because they are
cheap. Others, like Hull, to help in the upcoming arms race, which has gone
critical. Since we have more cities (money) than the Feds, I chose to
increase Small Weapon tech too, though the improvements are
miniscule.
Send a Message screen (red radio tower icon on top toolbar  )
--> let's send a taunt of our own back to the Feds. I'm pretty sure the
Wing will kill his only warship.
"Greetings Federation scum! Think you can
finish what you started?"
Now exit to the FILES menu and hit MAKE
TRN.
Exit Planets4.exe (the Client), open Host, hit button 1 (ie game 1, our Testgame) and then the SCAN TRN button. Check that both "lights" go/are red,
ie the TRN files (list of orders for Birds and Feds) are compiled
OK.
Hit RUN HOST
Once Host has run, Exit it and run Planets4.exe again.
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![[Fed Battle]](../all/fedbattle3watermarked500.jpg "Feds meeting their match???")