UH, how do I play this game???

[The BortiiS]

Is it me, or does this game have a horribly cumbersome interface???

Also, the game seems to be in 800x600 or higher, is there a way to LOWER the resolution, OR, increase the font size? For some reason, the lettering seems awefully small for this game, or maybe just font type is a bad choice.

UH, anyways, so I got this game, and it's alright, I guess, so far (I don't care for the crappy music, it sounds like it was done on some cheesy 10-year old synthesizer, it reminds me of the music in some very early 90s PC game using Adlib before CD-ROM games. UGH!).

So I got some questions I hope some can help with:
HOW DO I MAKE MORE MONEY?
I have only three scout ships, and I'm at like $-14 or so.
I built some facilities that would increase this but apparently, my homeworld has a limit to how many things on it can be built, is there any way to build more cities and stuff on yer homeworld? Any way to build a big fleet?

How do I colonize? I'm looking the manual and I don't see anything useful (the manual is very terse, and like most aweful manuals, is out of touch with the game, and tells you to do things but uses different names of things that don't match the ones in the game, so you have to play a big "guessing game", figuring out what the heck it's trying to tell you.).
When one of my scout ships encountered a uninhabited world, it gave me the option to colonize it. But it would not to this for other worlds (and no, they were not gas giants).
Do you need to build special colony ships, and if so, HOW?
I researched all sorts of technologies TO DEATH, with only weapons needing to be researched.
I researched Colony Pod but cannot put them on ships or do anything to colonize.

On a side note, I think the fact that you NEED to collect artifacts totally ruins, in fact, sabotages the game. I'm in the Atomic Age and already found a Planet Killer artifact. Just absurd.
I suppose the work around is starting out in a higher-tech age, the game is nicely quite customizable.

How do I get more money (cuz I can build bigger ships, but don't have the money to do so, apparently)?

Also, is there a way to SCRAP ships?

ALSO, most annoyingly, is sometimes I get a message saying something like: "(ship name here) has top out crew.", or something like that.
The game pauses until I click the message-acknowledgement button.

WHAT THE HECK IS THIS MESSAGE?
What is the significance?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
This is a mysterious game.
Is it stopping the entire game to tell me that the ship's crew has reached its max?
And if so, then why the heck didn't it have a max crew in the first place?
And if it does now, then why stop the game to announce it?

Also, when I collect artifacts, some ships return to my homeworld to drop them off, but other ships don't. They just sit there asking for new orders, or, they fly back, but then sit there and ask for orders. I see no way to make them do what the other ship is doing.
One ship, when ordered to hold position, after awhile, would stop the game to ask me for orders again!

Is there a way to disable all the alerts and such or set "Hold Position" or some mission as "default" mission/command for ships?

Also, I can't create fleets. I see "1st Fleet", and that's it, can't group ships or anything. Kinda self-defeating in this kind of game. When I used the "1st Fleet" command/thingy/whatever, it didn't save as "1st Fleet" or whatever. This doesn't make any sense.
Don't they have radios in the future?

Also, is there a way to disable all the game pauses-for-messages?
Some would not even let you continue to play unless you clicked to acknowledge them or gave a ship new orders.

What the heck is a "Holy Relic"? Says in some ship missions that I need it to get the artifact or whatever, yet, no mention in the manual or anywhere as to what this is. Is this something I need to research?

Considering how much this game makes incredibly simple things HARD to due (I blame the crappy interface), and considering you can't have large fleets, or assigned fleets, maybe it should be renamed "STARSHIPS LIMITED". I've still yet to see what this game "is all about", or why people like it, it's cumbersome and frustrating, and that's fine, alot of good games are like that, but where is the pay-off with this game?
Starships Limited.

[EricLarsen]

The Bortiis,
First you need to set up resource routes to good resource systems you find during the initial easter egg hunt phae of the game. Don't pick every rinky dink system, just the ones that give you $10 or more a year. Don't waste all your initial money building ships, just build one more scout right off the bat. I go with 2 computers on my first ship to open up what I can see and explore early on, then back to 2 drives to get around quicker. I don;t use any automation except the combat automation.

Research - I like to go for the computer first, then drive, then power plant, then a shield, then lightning beams. That way I can have ships that have good defense and good offense against artifact sentinels. I really go after artifacts early on as there are some very useful ones. While you're at the lower techs those planet killers are really the only way to take out a planet early on so yes they are useful early on and by the last age you just don't need them anymore. Religious relics help you get planet killers, killer beams, and wisdom artifacts.

To colonize you need to empty out at least 2 slots for a colony pod, ofcourse first you need to research colony pods. I use the colonize planets list but I like to go for huge type 1 or 2 planets as they allow for the most slots and because they have larger populations which increases the speed of production and research. After you gotten a ship with two empty slots hanging out over your homeworld go to the colonize list and pick a planet then the program will ask if you want that ship to colonize the planet selected. Then wait a while while the ship gets it's colony pod and heads for the planet it will colonize. This is crucial to winning as you'll need multiple worlds to produce and research and to keep your resource routes short and efficient.

There is a routine for scrapping ships that also allows for changing it's name and putting it in a new fleet. You don't create fleets, just assign ships a new fleet number and the fleet is "created" for you.

Don't use the random events unless you're very bad and need help. Once you get good all random events does is whack you periodically for playing well. Hopefully with the upcoming 2.1 patch random events will be truly random. I think once you understand what all the buttons do you'll find the interface isn't quite so clumsy.
Eric Larsen

[gunny]

for colonizing I look for a suitable planet in another system. One without heavy gravity or radiation. Click on that planet. Then go to the orders menu of a ship, clear its present orders if any and the colonize planet option should now be available.

[The BortiiS]

THANKS!

Your info helped ALOT!

I've had to put off playing the game some more cuz I got sick later that night on the day I got the game (gosh, I hope it wasn't imported from China! DOH!). Kinda hard to get into a game as "different" as this while all sick and stuff.

Anyways, I'd played it some more and stuff, and it's, uh, "different", but I like that, I like games that try for originality like this one.
So far so good.

And I've heard people around giving thumbs down to the graphics, but I actually find them alright, especially the combat seeing the ships manuever around zapping each other, or attacking a planet (yes, I already tried that with a fleet of a whopping one whole scout, two gunboats, one corvette), and it looked kinda cool, almost funny, in a good way.

So, anyways, thanks for the tips!