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Most players will start out playing good for one simple reason.. it is easier. You can park safely in FedSpace if you have less than 1000 experience and have a positive alignment. This can be crucial in the first few days of a game. Even better, once you have 500 positive alignment, you can apply for your Federation Commission, and warp safely over all the blockades into FedSpace and StarDock. An evil player (or Red) is never safe in FedSpace. Yes, you may make less money in the early days of a game, but for long games or stock setting games, you may come out ahead. There is no one right way to play good (or evil). The best way to learn is to play.. make mistakes.. and ask questions. Rather than come up with some hard and fast rules, here are some general guidelines that will work in most games and let you get in and get your feet wet. The life of a Good player is mostly spent in trading, building sector defenses and hunting down the evils of the universe. Crucial to your success will be that all important commission so that you can warp to Terra to grab colonists. Your first days will be spent almost exclusively in trading so that you can apply for your commission ($500,000 if you can just go post at the Police Station), and buying your warpable buggy. An ISS is awesome, but if you can't afford it, at least get a Havoc. With the current trend of blocking StarDock and FedSpace, this may well save you. You need to be able to warp as soon as possible to survive! Some ways of getting that magic commission:
If your alignment drops below 1000, go reapply and the nice policeman will restore your commission for you, no charge (as long as it is at least 500). Be careful while your alignment is low, taking out fighters belonging to other corps can really hurt and so can blowing planets. Always keep your eye on that experience... going over 1000 can be deadly in the early stages. Of the 5 methods above for gaining alignment, only 2 will not add to your experience - posting and paying taxes. Using the others can easily put you over the mark. If you have not gotten a commission yet, you can drop your experience in half once a day by guessing at the password to the underground. You will lose all of the credits you had on you, so bank it or spend it first. You may need to try 4 or 5 times - and you need to stop once you see your experience drop. I also strongly suggest to new players that they always carry a cloak and limpet. If you get caught out away from a safe area, you can drop the limpet before you cloak. Anyone scanning will just see the density of 2 with the anomaly, and may avoid the sector. You do run a risk of being photoned and uncloaked, but it is better than just cloaking. Okay.. so now, you have managed to get your commission, and into a warpable ship. This means you have found quite a few trading pairs. You have been trading with your haggle off so that you keep your experience down low, right? Along the way, you may have found some likely areas for a good home base. Some players drop thousands of fighters all over... do drop a few so that you can warp away if needed. DO NOT LEAVE A TRAIL OF FIGHTERS TO YOUR HOME SECTOR! Pick a spot out of the way, and try for a good mix of planets. When your planets are started, you will want to create ports, too, so that you can upgrade the ports and do planetary trades later on. If you have found a bubble, you can warp from sector to sector, trading off your million units of organics for a ton of money. There is a lot of discussion on this, and different schools of thought. Most will agree that L's and H's are where it is at for both goods and evils. These will give you the best defenses with the more powerful cannons. L's also tend to produce more fighters, but this can vary, especially with the trend towards edited games. I usually like to have 1 Class O around... they make such nice money. And yes, I am one of those that will build an M. The argument against it is that it is too expensive at a stock 13 colonists to build 1 unit of equipment, but... in many games colonists are cheap. You will have to be the judge here. And, when it comes down to it, a planet with a full cannon, 50,000 shields, and an interdictor is going to be hard to beat, no matter what it is. Make a few of these smaller decoys and leave them as easier pickings... let your opponent waste time and resources trying to take these lesser planets. It may give you some warning, and let you get your stuff out to a safe location. I have also had fun building Vaporous and Glacials into warpables and then dropping them on the unsuspecting.. It is your game... have fun with it, and don't be too hung up by the "rules" or "strategy" early on. Many tips apply to both goods and evils, and you will find them on the Tips page. There are lots of websites out there with info. If you are motivated, do read the info on the Dragon's Keep (Guardian's Page) and The Cabal's Secret Hideout. These are not gospel (no page is!) but are great reference points for you to get started. Post questions in the various forums, and ask your corpies for help. |