All you need to start play and get into battle is shown here. The rest of the rules can be learnt as you play if that is your style.
Start by downloading Java and the Game Client.
Use
the Player menu, Join Game item to enter your details. Then send in the join
order by following the instructions. You will shortly receive a welcome email
with your playerid. Now use the File menu to get the turn report on-line. You
can now take your first turn.
You
have only a single ship - this is a tiny fleet, so start by ordering another
ship. Open the Fleet window, and purchase a ship. Choose a cruiser from the
precanned design dropdown. Cruisers only cost 5 pts, and you start with a pot
of 40. Send you orders in now.
Now
have a look at the star systems near your homeworld. See if any of them in a
direct line from your homeworld are listed as having potential colonies of size
10 or more. If you find one, then great! Use the clear and restart menu to clear
this turn and get orders online. You should have 2 ships now. Order another
cruiser, and select one of your existing ships and send it to the star system
you found with the potential colony in. (ie left click on the ship, then left
click on the solar system).
Next look at nearby open systems - ideally you want one containing some enemies. The system summary at the bottom tells you if any other races are in it. You can also use the map filters to show systems containing enemies. Move your other ship into this open system. Now send your orders in (send online menu option).
Again
use 'Clear and restart', followed by 'Get orders online' to load up your next
turn. You now have 3 ships, so I'd order another - any ship class you prefer.
Take a look at the 2 ships you jumped into systems - one in the open system
and one in the colonisable system.
In
the colony system move the ship close to the potential colony. At the same time
fire off a contruct drone. Hold down 'f' and left click near the edge of the
solar system, the drone dialog opens. Select a construct type drone, and set
the move rate etc. You may need to allocate more drone racks to get the points
you want for the construct drones move rate. In the next few turns you will
get close enough to the potential colony to launch a colonisation drone (only
allocate one population, each unit allocated will destroy a ship habitat). The
combination of the trade gate (from the construct drone) and the colony means
your colony will grow automatically and your fleet support points will grow
to more than 40.
To
move quickly click on the ship you want to move, then click on the spindizzy
units on the ship pane to activate them. Each unit gives you 6 move points,
but they only refill by 1 per turn, providing the ship does nothing noisy (spindizzy
move, fire drone etc).
Again, send in your orders, wait a few minutes and then get the turn report online again. You will notice that your ship in the system with the enemy may not have actually taken a turn. It will only move etc when the enemy has also sent in orders. But you can continue to play in the other systems and on the galactic. Look on the game website at the turn status page to see if systems holding your ships are waiting for orders, or have already prSocessed. |
That's it! You have a space fleet, a colony and you are at war. This should have taken you no more than 20 or 30 minutes and you can carry on, or wait for the enemy to play their turns. If you want to start again you can do, if you want to destroy some ships simply select them and hit 'd'. This will let you use their fleet support for the purchase of new (better?) ships.
The next things to read about are:
1) Ship and game client controls
2) Another example of game play
That is enough if you just want to play and find things out when you need to. If you want the next level of detail then read the sections below.
3 ) Dark Light
4 ) Epic Bloom
5 ) Combat
6 ) Ship design and ship classes
7 ) Solar system entry conditions and lockdown.
8 ) Economy and colonies
The
ship in the Open system has a different objective, you really want to
get into a fight. Ideally you want to get into a fight for the possetion
of an epic bloom. If you see any enemy in the system, click on them and
take a look - only some of their details are shown. To toggle map zoom
use 'alt-z'. To fire on the enemy you press 'f' and the left click on
the enemy. To unselect you right click. To move the map you right click
on it. The drone design window again opens, you can allocate as many drone
racks as you like to give the drone pts that you then spend on power,
movement, tracking, armour and so on. For now just spend the points on
power and movement and burn. The drone designer warn you if you haven't
spent enough to reach the target.
Once
you have moved and fired upon the enemy you can go back to the galactic
map and move your ship on the galactic to either a new system, or one
of the systems already holding one of your ships.