Post by syraith on Apr 6, 2017 18:00:03 GMT
In this section we will go over some of the basic functions of the game to get you acquainted with a lot of what the game has to offer.
MAIN SCREEN
The tutorial goes over some of the basics but here we will examine things a little more in detail.
Starting with the "Chat" menu
Ahh the Global chat section. Here anyone from an intelligent and experienced mind to a 6 year old just telling stupid dumb guy and fart jokes all come together in this limited line of text. So far this is the only in game way for any player to communicate. Things like items for sale, general advice, advertising for alliances, etc. will occur here. As well as a lot of friends catching up and other general communication. The players account name will be displayed along with their current badge. The badge design indicates their rank within the games Trophy ranking system as well as any achievements they have earned. The color is an indication of their rank, the picture indicates the ship style they fly or if you see a star, this means that player has reached the rank of a top 100 player. New badge designs are expected to be added as the game develop.
Alliance chat is only available once you build an alliance room at lvl 4 and are accepted into an alliance. The chat here can be as random as Global, but usually a little more toned down as there is more familiarity and monitoring. When in an alliance you can watch and share PVP battle videos to help gain advice and learn from more experienced players. The chat rooms are good to keep in touch, but they only display messages that are recent. A lot of alliances use this and an external app program like Discord or Line to keep in touch as they offer more options to share information and don't auto delete the communication.
At lvl 3 you can research gBay, or the inner game market. The ability has additional training later on to increase the number of sales you can post but at the beginning you are allowed one at a time. A sale remains active for 24 hours unless it sells. You can sell anything in your inventory for any amount of gas, minerals or bux you wish to sell the item for. Be warned, only a limited number of sales are displayed and if yours rolls up past the top of the screen, it will not be purchasable and you will have to wait until the listing expires. You can make as many purchases you want in a day, and if you do not have the required currency available, it will prompt you to buy the remaining gas or minerals using bux or direct you to the bank if you require additional bux.
The "Friends" tab is for in game private messaging. To get friends all you simply need to do is click the players name in global or alliance chat and it will give you the option to add. A request will be sent and if accepted you can begin directly chatting with that person. BE WARNED!!! There is currently no way to remove someone from your friend list, so if you request, you are friends for life! The order of your friends is listed by ranking trophy count. As their count changes, they will move around in your list.
Any purchases you make, and gifts you receive, any payments, etc will end up in your game inbox. Like the other displays, this will only list up to 30 items, however, if you collect the items displayed, any that are beyond the top listing will drop back into view. Be mindful! Currently it is said that items will only remain in your inventory for 30 days and they will be deleted. You can also only hold up to 3 million gas and minerals in storage. Any additional will be deleted.
This one is pretty self explanatory. If you are new to the game the only difference is the button that says "New Account" will read as "Register." Until you attach your ship to an email address, if you log into another ship your current one will be lost. You can have multiple ships and login to each one at a time, but each ship has to be attached to a different email address. If you create "Alts" as they are referred to as, it is best to keep the email addresses similar for easy switching.
The little trophy is everything PVP rankings. The first tab is your battle log. This displays every battle you have engaged in and the results. It tells you how long ago the battle occurred, who the enemy was and the result of Destroye, Lost, Destroyed by or Defended. Destroyed and Lost are battles you engae in. Destroyed by and Defended are battle that occur when you are offline. On the right you see the resulting spoils of war in the form of minerals, gas and trophies won/lost. There are two to four symbols under each heading. The first camera image is simply to watch the battle video. The eye is to look at the exterior hull of your enemy. The next box with an arrow is if you are in an alliance, this shares your video in your alliance chat menu. BE MINDFUL! You only need to push it once, it does not display an acknowledgement screen for posting like "Video Shared." Many will just keep hitting it and end up spamming the chat. The final icon is a sword, this is a feature know as "Revenge." Any time you lose a defending battle (not one you engage in) you have the opportunity for a rematch. BE WARNED! You will go into the battle with your current health and the enemy will be at full when they may not have the first time! More on this later in "Battling." If you win, you regain half of the trophies lost. If you lose, the same number is lost. No resources are gained or lost.
The next tabs are pretty self explanatory. These show the current rankings of the yop ranked Players and Alliances. From the alliance tab you can click the "Browse" button to see who is in the alliance and their trophy count.
The game has a few rewards available for completing the basics. Complete each task to receive the bux designated for reward.
The final tab is a simple fun display of the crew you have collected so far, and a silhouette of all the crew available to unlock.
Missions are a daily fun way to pass some time. These are all player vs. computer that give you reward of resources and sometimes bux and crafting equipment. If there is a seasonal or special mission available, it will be on the top left. Any game "Story Mode" missions are the top right. When no seasonal missions are available, that will shift left. There are then two sets of missions that are different for each ship level. The higher you are, the more "difficult" the mission. They are mostly very basic though. Daily missions are refreshed every 24 hours from the time completed. There are two types of missions that will be covered in the "Battle" section later. The only other options on this screen are the little "i" buttons next to your League (PVP ranking) and next to the current month tournament. These will just display the scale of the PVP rewards for each rank of your ship, and the tournament payout for top placing alliances.
You should be familiar with the shop from the tutorial. Each room category is divided up into a different section. Your ship upgrade and crew recruitment are also here. If there is a room available for purchase, the category will have an "!" in the top corner like the Shipyard does in the picture. If there is no "!" then you have no available rooms in that category to build. The only last note is in the crew purchase screen. The "mineral draw" as it's called on top will yield Common to Unique crew. Best practice is throw away EVERYTHING but Unique and above. How to delete crew is shown next below. The cost of the mineral draw is based on how many crew you have. The more you have, the more expensive the draw. It is completely random and can take hundreds of thousands of minerals to get a good base crew, but it is worth it!
The "Beer Draw" below that is for drawing higher powered crew. This is researched in the lab later on to unlock. Sadly, you can still draw uniques from the beer draw and with it costing bux as you also earn Epics and above, it can get VERY frustrating. Every draw you make that does not yield a Hero will increase the chance on the next draw. When you get one, the % on the right of the screen will drop back to zero.
To fire, or "Space" a crew member as it is also called, simply drag the crew into space outside your ship...
and it will ask you to confirm firing the crew member. Unique crew and below will return a portion of the crew's value in minerals, but Epics and above will return a small amount of bux that were paid for the crew.
The last notes will be on the left side of the screen. Here it displays your current stored Items, resources and bux. If you want to buy any of these you simply click on the icon (gas or bux for example as shown above) and it gives you the option to fill your gas or minerals to max using bux or go to the bank to use real currency to buy the in game currency.
The main screen is also a viable way to earn bux.
Flying across your screen randomly will be screen blimps and a random bux. Click the screen blimp to watch an ad and earn 3 bux and you get one for harvesting a floating bux. Every time you reach the main screen you will see the Dropship as pictured on top.
The dropship refreshes every 24 hours (around 8pm EST USA) but sometimes server issues delay or don't update at all. On the dropship you will see a box of bux that when you click on it will give you anywhere from 3-10 bux daily (same for every player. You will also see two crew available for purchase. Their price depends on their rarity and your current cost for crew in your shop. Since these are not random options they can cost up to 4 times your regular shop cost. If you dismiss the dropship it will reappear every time the main screen loads with whatever options had not been claimed for the day. So if you want the crew but can't afford them at the time, you can save up and purchase later but before they refresh.
This is all for the Main screen options.
BUILDING
There are a few notes to keep in mind when building and upgrading rooms early on. Most items were lightly touched in the tutorial for the game but we will try and expand on a few notes.
Early on, as noted in the tutorial, you can rush the upgrade on any room. Some rooms are instant (like armor) but others will take time to construct/upgrade. The amount of time is dependent on the lvl of the upgrade. ANY upgrade, training, etc. that is at 5 minutes or less will allow a free rush. The option will appear when the upgrade, etc reaches the 5 minute mark. If you do not want to wait for an action to be completed, the above message will appear. You can use bux to pay for time in the game. BE WARNED!!! It is in your best interest to NOT rush with bux. Patience can go a long way in the game and you can spend your bux in a lot better ways. Just wait it out. Upgrades will get longer and longer to include weeks for top level rooms and well over a month for ships. Just wait it out. Sometimes you learn a lot about your play style when you are temporarily crippled from an upgrade. You learn new ways to play and accommodate for the loss of a room or two.
At the beginning you can only construct/upgrade two rooms at a time. Additional slots open up in the lab to research. These are optional as they will require bux to research. It is HIGHLY recommended that you at least unlock the 3rd building slot, but after that it is purely optional. You don't necessarily want a lot of rooms upgrading, but it can help to knock out a bunch of upgrades at once.
Upgrading rooms increase their capacity (bedrooms and missiles/cannons) but with battle rooms it reduces their reload time (time between shots/recharge). Weapon damage from energy weapons DOES NOT change, only the speed in which they fire. As shown below...
You see displayed the time the upgrade will take under the weapon picture, the effects of the upgrade and cost. Idle rooms like reactors, lab, storage units, etc still function while upgrading. Reactors produce power, labs will research current RUNNING items (you cannot start research while lab is upgrading) and storage units will hold the same amount as before upgrading. Active rooms like weapons and shields WILL NOT opporate while upgrading. So keep this in mind while working on your ship. The weapons will not fire but can be shot, and the shields will be down. Plan wisely!
CREW
Crew are the lifeblood of your ship. You can have the biggest ship, all your weapons upgraded to max, and still fall short if your crew is not up to par. See the crew list orions.boards.net/page/crew to see everyone available to date.
Crew levels are ranked by rarity/power and they all have their own uses based on their stats.
Crew stats effect as follow...
HP: Do you need to ask?
Attack: Damage dealt per attack off the enemy health
Repair: Room HP repaired each repair turn
Ability: If the crew member has a special ability (Unique ranked crew and above) this value is attributed to the skill. If they can heal, critical or have dismantle, this number of points effects the targeted items health. Rush this number is a % of the room they activate it in's reload that is buffed. Abilities explained below in next sub section.
Stamina: Higher the stamina, the longer the crew will "run" in battle.
The right side are room buffing (or reduces reload speed) skills but only when the crew is standing in that room...
Pilot: Buffs hanger (crafts come out faster)
Shield: Buffs shield (Shield points regenerate faster)
Engine: Buffs engines (dodge missiles better)
Research: Currently, this is a dead ability. It WILL reduce research times if your crew idle in the lab, but only minutes of a week research time.
Weapon: Buffs any firing wepon (guns/missiles shoot faster)
You also see an "Equip" option...
This will show you the slots available to have equipment on the crew and the items you HAVE had and what you do have. Each equipment piece is designed to buff a specific skill for your crew. The better the equipment, the better the buff. Equipment can be made or purchased/won. To make, click on a crafting material like Scrap Iron and click "Upgrade." This will show you the recipe for what else you need and how many to craft each item.
ABILITIES
Rush Command
(repair, defense)
The rush command ability speeds up the loading progress of the current room. For instance, if you place a crew member with the rush ability in a MLZ (mining laser) room and trigger his special command, he will cause the laser to power up and fire at your opponent more quickly. Rushers are often used in teleport rooms, among others.
Healing Rain
(repair, either)
When triggered, the healing rain ability causes a crew member to heal all of your crew members who are in the room, including him/herself. While healers can be used on either ship, they are most frequently used on your ship to heal repair crew. Good healers can make the difference between winning and losing the battle.
Urgent Repair
(repair, defense)
The urgent repair ability causes a crew member to repair the current room almost instantaneously. Urgent repair crew are not particularly popular among most players.
First Aid
(repair, either)
The first aid ability causes a crew member to heal him/herself. It can be used on your ship as well as your opponent’s ship. First aid is used in tank crew, those with high HP who can take a licking and keep on ticking, for hazardous duty (for instance, rooms like AA which are likely to be heavily targeted by enemy ships). However, First Aid isn’t as popular as healing rain, since it only heals that one crew rather than everyone in the room.
System Hack
(damage, offense)
Crew members with a hacking skill can only deploy their special ability when they are used as boarders (when they board your opponent’s starship using the teleport room). Therefore you will not be able to use the system hack special ability until you have built a teleport room. Even with a teleporter, system hack is not recommended for low level ships; hackers on these ships will typically not be powerful enough to survive very long.
Poison Gas
(damage, either)
Crew with the poison gas ability are able to release a poisonous gas when they are in the presence of enemy crew, causing instant damage to the enemy crew member(s). A strong gasser can often take out an entire room full of your opponent’s crew members in a single blow. They are most frequently used as boarders but can be used to protect your own ship as well.
Critical Attack
(damage, either)
Crew with critical attack have the ability to give a strong blow when they are in the presence of enemy crew, causing instant damage to the enemy crew member. Unlike gas, this is directed against only one enemy, but the attack is usually stronger than a gas attack. “Critters” are most frequently used as guardians on your ship but can be part of the boarding party.
Ultra Dismantle
(damage, offense)
The ultra dismantle skill is used by boarders to quickly dismantle (damage) a room on the opponent’s starship.
TRAINING (GYM)
Early on (as soon as you have control of your ship at lvl 2) you can construct the Gym. This is used to permanently increase the HP, attack, ability and stamina of a crew member through time and skill specific training with effectiveness being able to be increased over time through researching new training options.
Placing a crew member in the gym (only 2 max) will ad a new option for the crew.
In the middle you now see "Train"
This will open a menu that will display your current training regiments available. The screen will display the effect (shown as 1% HP increase, 2% ability and a little exp) for each selected. In the crew member's stats above it displays the result. Under the crew member's profile is a training bar. This shows how much training the crew member can receive in their life. Higher the rarity of the crew, the more they can train. Each higher level of training will take more time ranging from just minutes for a low yield at first, to up to 12 hours with greater potential results later.
Training a crew member DOES NOT guarantee the displayed results or any results at all. Only if the crew receives a skill boost does it count against their training points. If only exp is awarded, they do not lose a training point.
There are different theories on training effectiveness. Some say training in one type causes the effectiveness to go down over time and choose to rotate through different types of training and lengths. Others say keeping invested in one type (specifically the higher or lower) will get better results. No one method has been seen to work over another. Just do your best.
As to how you should train your crew, that is all subjective. Remember, these upgrades are a % of their current and total potential values. Training a weaker crew with a max HP of 6, with 100% training in HP will only ever get them 12 HP. You can get crew that have a max of 10 HP that are more worth while. But that 6 HP crew may have a 2.8 or 3 attack, training in that and/or their ability may be a better long term investment.
RESEARCH
Welcome to one of the most time consuming upgrade systems in the game.
Research gives you the ability to modify existing abilities/weapons by investing in their upgrades. Upgrading your missile launcher will add more storage and a faster reload time, but won't upgrade the effectiveness of the missiles themselves for example. That is done with the lab.
After you build your lab you will see a list of items you can research. The top ones are usually the most non-essential and usually cost bux to invest in. Everything else will require gas to upgrade. Things like the ship paint option for example, really cool to color your own ship, but the bux can be invested elsewhere for a better return on the investment.
Research displays the same as with building/upgrading. It will display the cost, the ability to rush using bux and the result of the upgrade. Note, while weapons only reduce the load time (and storage capacity) the more they upgrade, researched upgrades upgrade not only the speed of the items traditionally, but the damage as well.
BATTLE!!!
We will cover the basics of battling here. More advanced training is available in the other areas of this forum and from your own research. AI commands for example we have throughout the forum but more advanced techniques are reserved for full members or you should join your own alliance to learn more. Technique is different for every player, and some secrets are best kept to oneself.
Missions
As mentioned earlier, all missions are purely player vs. computer. There are two forms of missions. Ship battles and away team battles using your crew vs. an unknown enemy crew.
There are times you will be given an option. The text will be worded along the lines of "Engage the enemy ship" for a ship battle, send a party to investigate for a landing party mission or sometimes offer an option to escape. Most missions will force you into one or the other like below...
Again, as your ship is upgraded, the enemies will get increasingly difficult. Treat the ship battles like any other in PVP using your own tactics. The away team missions are a little different.
Your current crew on your ship will line up across the bottom. Their HP will be displayed above their head. A silhouette of the "Boss" at the end will be on the right. Select the best crew you have and it will let you engage. If you surrender, you forfeit the match and lose the daily mission. Only if you select cancel at the beginning to you have the ability to replay it without waiting 24 hours.
Once started, you will begin a good old 8-bit RPG style battle. Only one crew member attacks. Once that crew dies, the next comes to the front. "Charge" charges your attack for the next turn to add a multiplier of 2 toward your next attack. If you charge, you are left open and if the enemy attacks, you will receive full damage and lose your charge. You can charge multiple times adding to the power of the attack. After the first charge, a successful attack will damage an opponent even if they are defending. Defending creates a shield around your crew member that will counter an attack and take no damage if it is a regular attack. If a charged attak is used, you will not return fire but will take reduced damage. Attack is as said. You fire and cause the damage your crew is set at.
All missions will provide rewards. On an average of once a 24 hour period (sometimes twice) you will come across this guy...
Look familiar? I hope so! It is exactly what you think! You get to raid the dropship!
At early levels, the ship is unarmed. Later on it gets a mining laser and a missile launcher, but it is always easy to destroy. When you do...
You can get a pretty nice payout based on your level. No crew though, you still have to buy them.
PVP
When you select the PVP option the screen will display random targets according to a system in the game to match you with appropriate targets. You will usually end up with a lot of ships under your level and a rare equal or greater target to your current rank.
When you see the ship screen there is a bit of information to take note of. Top left it will display the level of their resources as compared to YOUR current storage. They are from greatest to least, Jackpot, Wealthy, Medium, Poor and Barren. The higher the value, the better the reward.
Under that is their rank compared to yours. Higher, Even, or Lower. The trophies you earn/lose are based on how you compare to your target. If you face a lower opponent and win, you will only get one or two trophies. If you lose however, you can lose up to 40. Not all lower levels are that far off from you though so be careful going into any battle. Some lower opponents will still potentially reward you with 16 or 17 trophies if they are just under the even level.
Next, if you have researched the ability to Scan a ship, the option is in the top right. You pay two bux and the player collects one for every scan. This gives you the ability to see inside the ship to know the crew, layout and potentially find a weakness before engaging. Pictured below.
Next along the bottom in "Run Away" where you will be taken back to the main ship screen, "Attack" (duh) and "Keep Looking" where it will cycle you to another target if that one is not to your liking.
A scanned ship.
Once you attack, the battle plays out as it did in the tutorial and you will win or lose. Any HP your SHIP incurs in battle will need to be repaired. The repair time depends on your ship level. Early levels it only takes seconds or a minute or so, later on it can take almost an hour to recover fully. Be mindful of your targeting but be ready for the fight. It is nice to go from one to the next but run yourself too thin and you will pay if you're not careful.
Now, on that note... do NOT judge every book by its cover too harshly. PVP is the EASIEST way to earn resources in the game in many ways. You earn a bonus based on your PVP rank at the end of each battle and some ships may look nasty, but as you play you will start to learn to pick out the real baddies from the goldmines. For example...
This guy looks real nasty for a lvl 4 ship (on any for that matter) to attack. But imagine the haul from a ship like that listed as Jackpot. These ships are risky unless you pay to scan each time, you don't know what you are walking into. But if you see these in the lower trophy range, the chance of them being an over upgraded, weak lump of metal are pretty good.
In this case, the crew was WAY underdeveloped, they only had one reactor and low shields. I just shot at his reactor, took a little damage from weapons before they shut down and after a bit of of pounding his hull...
I took in quite the haul! Now, my storage was no where NEAR able to hold it all, but I maxed out very fast. Ships like this are candy for later in the game especially.
This is it for this portion of the guide. More will be added as time allows on topics like AI and strategy. There are already a bunch of links in the forum to these categories but we will add more to simplify the basics here.
MAIN SCREEN
The tutorial goes over some of the basics but here we will examine things a little more in detail.
Starting with the "Chat" menu
Ahh the Global chat section. Here anyone from an intelligent and experienced mind to a 6 year old just telling stupid dumb guy and fart jokes all come together in this limited line of text. So far this is the only in game way for any player to communicate. Things like items for sale, general advice, advertising for alliances, etc. will occur here. As well as a lot of friends catching up and other general communication. The players account name will be displayed along with their current badge. The badge design indicates their rank within the games Trophy ranking system as well as any achievements they have earned. The color is an indication of their rank, the picture indicates the ship style they fly or if you see a star, this means that player has reached the rank of a top 100 player. New badge designs are expected to be added as the game develop.
Alliance chat is only available once you build an alliance room at lvl 4 and are accepted into an alliance. The chat here can be as random as Global, but usually a little more toned down as there is more familiarity and monitoring. When in an alliance you can watch and share PVP battle videos to help gain advice and learn from more experienced players. The chat rooms are good to keep in touch, but they only display messages that are recent. A lot of alliances use this and an external app program like Discord or Line to keep in touch as they offer more options to share information and don't auto delete the communication.
At lvl 3 you can research gBay, or the inner game market. The ability has additional training later on to increase the number of sales you can post but at the beginning you are allowed one at a time. A sale remains active for 24 hours unless it sells. You can sell anything in your inventory for any amount of gas, minerals or bux you wish to sell the item for. Be warned, only a limited number of sales are displayed and if yours rolls up past the top of the screen, it will not be purchasable and you will have to wait until the listing expires. You can make as many purchases you want in a day, and if you do not have the required currency available, it will prompt you to buy the remaining gas or minerals using bux or direct you to the bank if you require additional bux.
The "Friends" tab is for in game private messaging. To get friends all you simply need to do is click the players name in global or alliance chat and it will give you the option to add. A request will be sent and if accepted you can begin directly chatting with that person. BE WARNED!!! There is currently no way to remove someone from your friend list, so if you request, you are friends for life! The order of your friends is listed by ranking trophy count. As their count changes, they will move around in your list.
Any purchases you make, and gifts you receive, any payments, etc will end up in your game inbox. Like the other displays, this will only list up to 30 items, however, if you collect the items displayed, any that are beyond the top listing will drop back into view. Be mindful! Currently it is said that items will only remain in your inventory for 30 days and they will be deleted. You can also only hold up to 3 million gas and minerals in storage. Any additional will be deleted.
This one is pretty self explanatory. If you are new to the game the only difference is the button that says "New Account" will read as "Register." Until you attach your ship to an email address, if you log into another ship your current one will be lost. You can have multiple ships and login to each one at a time, but each ship has to be attached to a different email address. If you create "Alts" as they are referred to as, it is best to keep the email addresses similar for easy switching.
The little trophy is everything PVP rankings. The first tab is your battle log. This displays every battle you have engaged in and the results. It tells you how long ago the battle occurred, who the enemy was and the result of Destroye, Lost, Destroyed by or Defended. Destroyed and Lost are battles you engae in. Destroyed by and Defended are battle that occur when you are offline. On the right you see the resulting spoils of war in the form of minerals, gas and trophies won/lost. There are two to four symbols under each heading. The first camera image is simply to watch the battle video. The eye is to look at the exterior hull of your enemy. The next box with an arrow is if you are in an alliance, this shares your video in your alliance chat menu. BE MINDFUL! You only need to push it once, it does not display an acknowledgement screen for posting like "Video Shared." Many will just keep hitting it and end up spamming the chat. The final icon is a sword, this is a feature know as "Revenge." Any time you lose a defending battle (not one you engage in) you have the opportunity for a rematch. BE WARNED! You will go into the battle with your current health and the enemy will be at full when they may not have the first time! More on this later in "Battling." If you win, you regain half of the trophies lost. If you lose, the same number is lost. No resources are gained or lost.
The next tabs are pretty self explanatory. These show the current rankings of the yop ranked Players and Alliances. From the alliance tab you can click the "Browse" button to see who is in the alliance and their trophy count.
The game has a few rewards available for completing the basics. Complete each task to receive the bux designated for reward.
The final tab is a simple fun display of the crew you have collected so far, and a silhouette of all the crew available to unlock.
Missions are a daily fun way to pass some time. These are all player vs. computer that give you reward of resources and sometimes bux and crafting equipment. If there is a seasonal or special mission available, it will be on the top left. Any game "Story Mode" missions are the top right. When no seasonal missions are available, that will shift left. There are then two sets of missions that are different for each ship level. The higher you are, the more "difficult" the mission. They are mostly very basic though. Daily missions are refreshed every 24 hours from the time completed. There are two types of missions that will be covered in the "Battle" section later. The only other options on this screen are the little "i" buttons next to your League (PVP ranking) and next to the current month tournament. These will just display the scale of the PVP rewards for each rank of your ship, and the tournament payout for top placing alliances.
You should be familiar with the shop from the tutorial. Each room category is divided up into a different section. Your ship upgrade and crew recruitment are also here. If there is a room available for purchase, the category will have an "!" in the top corner like the Shipyard does in the picture. If there is no "!" then you have no available rooms in that category to build. The only last note is in the crew purchase screen. The "mineral draw" as it's called on top will yield Common to Unique crew. Best practice is throw away EVERYTHING but Unique and above. How to delete crew is shown next below. The cost of the mineral draw is based on how many crew you have. The more you have, the more expensive the draw. It is completely random and can take hundreds of thousands of minerals to get a good base crew, but it is worth it!
The "Beer Draw" below that is for drawing higher powered crew. This is researched in the lab later on to unlock. Sadly, you can still draw uniques from the beer draw and with it costing bux as you also earn Epics and above, it can get VERY frustrating. Every draw you make that does not yield a Hero will increase the chance on the next draw. When you get one, the % on the right of the screen will drop back to zero.
To fire, or "Space" a crew member as it is also called, simply drag the crew into space outside your ship...
and it will ask you to confirm firing the crew member. Unique crew and below will return a portion of the crew's value in minerals, but Epics and above will return a small amount of bux that were paid for the crew.
The last notes will be on the left side of the screen. Here it displays your current stored Items, resources and bux. If you want to buy any of these you simply click on the icon (gas or bux for example as shown above) and it gives you the option to fill your gas or minerals to max using bux or go to the bank to use real currency to buy the in game currency.
The main screen is also a viable way to earn bux.
Flying across your screen randomly will be screen blimps and a random bux. Click the screen blimp to watch an ad and earn 3 bux and you get one for harvesting a floating bux. Every time you reach the main screen you will see the Dropship as pictured on top.
The dropship refreshes every 24 hours (around 8pm EST USA) but sometimes server issues delay or don't update at all. On the dropship you will see a box of bux that when you click on it will give you anywhere from 3-10 bux daily (same for every player. You will also see two crew available for purchase. Their price depends on their rarity and your current cost for crew in your shop. Since these are not random options they can cost up to 4 times your regular shop cost. If you dismiss the dropship it will reappear every time the main screen loads with whatever options had not been claimed for the day. So if you want the crew but can't afford them at the time, you can save up and purchase later but before they refresh.
This is all for the Main screen options.
BUILDING
There are a few notes to keep in mind when building and upgrading rooms early on. Most items were lightly touched in the tutorial for the game but we will try and expand on a few notes.
Early on, as noted in the tutorial, you can rush the upgrade on any room. Some rooms are instant (like armor) but others will take time to construct/upgrade. The amount of time is dependent on the lvl of the upgrade. ANY upgrade, training, etc. that is at 5 minutes or less will allow a free rush. The option will appear when the upgrade, etc reaches the 5 minute mark. If you do not want to wait for an action to be completed, the above message will appear. You can use bux to pay for time in the game. BE WARNED!!! It is in your best interest to NOT rush with bux. Patience can go a long way in the game and you can spend your bux in a lot better ways. Just wait it out. Upgrades will get longer and longer to include weeks for top level rooms and well over a month for ships. Just wait it out. Sometimes you learn a lot about your play style when you are temporarily crippled from an upgrade. You learn new ways to play and accommodate for the loss of a room or two.
At the beginning you can only construct/upgrade two rooms at a time. Additional slots open up in the lab to research. These are optional as they will require bux to research. It is HIGHLY recommended that you at least unlock the 3rd building slot, but after that it is purely optional. You don't necessarily want a lot of rooms upgrading, but it can help to knock out a bunch of upgrades at once.
Upgrading rooms increase their capacity (bedrooms and missiles/cannons) but with battle rooms it reduces their reload time (time between shots/recharge). Weapon damage from energy weapons DOES NOT change, only the speed in which they fire. As shown below...
You see displayed the time the upgrade will take under the weapon picture, the effects of the upgrade and cost. Idle rooms like reactors, lab, storage units, etc still function while upgrading. Reactors produce power, labs will research current RUNNING items (you cannot start research while lab is upgrading) and storage units will hold the same amount as before upgrading. Active rooms like weapons and shields WILL NOT opporate while upgrading. So keep this in mind while working on your ship. The weapons will not fire but can be shot, and the shields will be down. Plan wisely!
CREW
Crew are the lifeblood of your ship. You can have the biggest ship, all your weapons upgraded to max, and still fall short if your crew is not up to par. See the crew list orions.boards.net/page/crew to see everyone available to date.
Crew levels are ranked by rarity/power and they all have their own uses based on their stats.
Crew stats effect as follow...
HP: Do you need to ask?
Attack: Damage dealt per attack off the enemy health
Repair: Room HP repaired each repair turn
Ability: If the crew member has a special ability (Unique ranked crew and above) this value is attributed to the skill. If they can heal, critical or have dismantle, this number of points effects the targeted items health. Rush this number is a % of the room they activate it in's reload that is buffed. Abilities explained below in next sub section.
Stamina: Higher the stamina, the longer the crew will "run" in battle.
The right side are room buffing (or reduces reload speed) skills but only when the crew is standing in that room...
Pilot: Buffs hanger (crafts come out faster)
Shield: Buffs shield (Shield points regenerate faster)
Engine: Buffs engines (dodge missiles better)
Research: Currently, this is a dead ability. It WILL reduce research times if your crew idle in the lab, but only minutes of a week research time.
Weapon: Buffs any firing wepon (guns/missiles shoot faster)
You also see an "Equip" option...
This will show you the slots available to have equipment on the crew and the items you HAVE had and what you do have. Each equipment piece is designed to buff a specific skill for your crew. The better the equipment, the better the buff. Equipment can be made or purchased/won. To make, click on a crafting material like Scrap Iron and click "Upgrade." This will show you the recipe for what else you need and how many to craft each item.
ABILITIES
Rush Command
(repair, defense)
The rush command ability speeds up the loading progress of the current room. For instance, if you place a crew member with the rush ability in a MLZ (mining laser) room and trigger his special command, he will cause the laser to power up and fire at your opponent more quickly. Rushers are often used in teleport rooms, among others.
Healing Rain
(repair, either)
When triggered, the healing rain ability causes a crew member to heal all of your crew members who are in the room, including him/herself. While healers can be used on either ship, they are most frequently used on your ship to heal repair crew. Good healers can make the difference between winning and losing the battle.
Urgent Repair
(repair, defense)
The urgent repair ability causes a crew member to repair the current room almost instantaneously. Urgent repair crew are not particularly popular among most players.
First Aid
(repair, either)
The first aid ability causes a crew member to heal him/herself. It can be used on your ship as well as your opponent’s ship. First aid is used in tank crew, those with high HP who can take a licking and keep on ticking, for hazardous duty (for instance, rooms like AA which are likely to be heavily targeted by enemy ships). However, First Aid isn’t as popular as healing rain, since it only heals that one crew rather than everyone in the room.
System Hack
(damage, offense)
Crew members with a hacking skill can only deploy their special ability when they are used as boarders (when they board your opponent’s starship using the teleport room). Therefore you will not be able to use the system hack special ability until you have built a teleport room. Even with a teleporter, system hack is not recommended for low level ships; hackers on these ships will typically not be powerful enough to survive very long.
Poison Gas
(damage, either)
Crew with the poison gas ability are able to release a poisonous gas when they are in the presence of enemy crew, causing instant damage to the enemy crew member(s). A strong gasser can often take out an entire room full of your opponent’s crew members in a single blow. They are most frequently used as boarders but can be used to protect your own ship as well.
Critical Attack
(damage, either)
Crew with critical attack have the ability to give a strong blow when they are in the presence of enemy crew, causing instant damage to the enemy crew member. Unlike gas, this is directed against only one enemy, but the attack is usually stronger than a gas attack. “Critters” are most frequently used as guardians on your ship but can be part of the boarding party.
Ultra Dismantle
(damage, offense)
The ultra dismantle skill is used by boarders to quickly dismantle (damage) a room on the opponent’s starship.
TRAINING (GYM)
Early on (as soon as you have control of your ship at lvl 2) you can construct the Gym. This is used to permanently increase the HP, attack, ability and stamina of a crew member through time and skill specific training with effectiveness being able to be increased over time through researching new training options.
Placing a crew member in the gym (only 2 max) will ad a new option for the crew.
In the middle you now see "Train"
This will open a menu that will display your current training regiments available. The screen will display the effect (shown as 1% HP increase, 2% ability and a little exp) for each selected. In the crew member's stats above it displays the result. Under the crew member's profile is a training bar. This shows how much training the crew member can receive in their life. Higher the rarity of the crew, the more they can train. Each higher level of training will take more time ranging from just minutes for a low yield at first, to up to 12 hours with greater potential results later.
Training a crew member DOES NOT guarantee the displayed results or any results at all. Only if the crew receives a skill boost does it count against their training points. If only exp is awarded, they do not lose a training point.
There are different theories on training effectiveness. Some say training in one type causes the effectiveness to go down over time and choose to rotate through different types of training and lengths. Others say keeping invested in one type (specifically the higher or lower) will get better results. No one method has been seen to work over another. Just do your best.
As to how you should train your crew, that is all subjective. Remember, these upgrades are a % of their current and total potential values. Training a weaker crew with a max HP of 6, with 100% training in HP will only ever get them 12 HP. You can get crew that have a max of 10 HP that are more worth while. But that 6 HP crew may have a 2.8 or 3 attack, training in that and/or their ability may be a better long term investment.
RESEARCH
Welcome to one of the most time consuming upgrade systems in the game.
Research gives you the ability to modify existing abilities/weapons by investing in their upgrades. Upgrading your missile launcher will add more storage and a faster reload time, but won't upgrade the effectiveness of the missiles themselves for example. That is done with the lab.
After you build your lab you will see a list of items you can research. The top ones are usually the most non-essential and usually cost bux to invest in. Everything else will require gas to upgrade. Things like the ship paint option for example, really cool to color your own ship, but the bux can be invested elsewhere for a better return on the investment.
Research displays the same as with building/upgrading. It will display the cost, the ability to rush using bux and the result of the upgrade. Note, while weapons only reduce the load time (and storage capacity) the more they upgrade, researched upgrades upgrade not only the speed of the items traditionally, but the damage as well.
BATTLE!!!
We will cover the basics of battling here. More advanced training is available in the other areas of this forum and from your own research. AI commands for example we have throughout the forum but more advanced techniques are reserved for full members or you should join your own alliance to learn more. Technique is different for every player, and some secrets are best kept to oneself.
Missions
As mentioned earlier, all missions are purely player vs. computer. There are two forms of missions. Ship battles and away team battles using your crew vs. an unknown enemy crew.
There are times you will be given an option. The text will be worded along the lines of "Engage the enemy ship" for a ship battle, send a party to investigate for a landing party mission or sometimes offer an option to escape. Most missions will force you into one or the other like below...
Again, as your ship is upgraded, the enemies will get increasingly difficult. Treat the ship battles like any other in PVP using your own tactics. The away team missions are a little different.
Your current crew on your ship will line up across the bottom. Their HP will be displayed above their head. A silhouette of the "Boss" at the end will be on the right. Select the best crew you have and it will let you engage. If you surrender, you forfeit the match and lose the daily mission. Only if you select cancel at the beginning to you have the ability to replay it without waiting 24 hours.
Once started, you will begin a good old 8-bit RPG style battle. Only one crew member attacks. Once that crew dies, the next comes to the front. "Charge" charges your attack for the next turn to add a multiplier of 2 toward your next attack. If you charge, you are left open and if the enemy attacks, you will receive full damage and lose your charge. You can charge multiple times adding to the power of the attack. After the first charge, a successful attack will damage an opponent even if they are defending. Defending creates a shield around your crew member that will counter an attack and take no damage if it is a regular attack. If a charged attak is used, you will not return fire but will take reduced damage. Attack is as said. You fire and cause the damage your crew is set at.
All missions will provide rewards. On an average of once a 24 hour period (sometimes twice) you will come across this guy...
Look familiar? I hope so! It is exactly what you think! You get to raid the dropship!
At early levels, the ship is unarmed. Later on it gets a mining laser and a missile launcher, but it is always easy to destroy. When you do...
You can get a pretty nice payout based on your level. No crew though, you still have to buy them.
PVP
When you select the PVP option the screen will display random targets according to a system in the game to match you with appropriate targets. You will usually end up with a lot of ships under your level and a rare equal or greater target to your current rank.
When you see the ship screen there is a bit of information to take note of. Top left it will display the level of their resources as compared to YOUR current storage. They are from greatest to least, Jackpot, Wealthy, Medium, Poor and Barren. The higher the value, the better the reward.
Under that is their rank compared to yours. Higher, Even, or Lower. The trophies you earn/lose are based on how you compare to your target. If you face a lower opponent and win, you will only get one or two trophies. If you lose however, you can lose up to 40. Not all lower levels are that far off from you though so be careful going into any battle. Some lower opponents will still potentially reward you with 16 or 17 trophies if they are just under the even level.
Next, if you have researched the ability to Scan a ship, the option is in the top right. You pay two bux and the player collects one for every scan. This gives you the ability to see inside the ship to know the crew, layout and potentially find a weakness before engaging. Pictured below.
Next along the bottom in "Run Away" where you will be taken back to the main ship screen, "Attack" (duh) and "Keep Looking" where it will cycle you to another target if that one is not to your liking.
A scanned ship.
Once you attack, the battle plays out as it did in the tutorial and you will win or lose. Any HP your SHIP incurs in battle will need to be repaired. The repair time depends on your ship level. Early levels it only takes seconds or a minute or so, later on it can take almost an hour to recover fully. Be mindful of your targeting but be ready for the fight. It is nice to go from one to the next but run yourself too thin and you will pay if you're not careful.
Now, on that note... do NOT judge every book by its cover too harshly. PVP is the EASIEST way to earn resources in the game in many ways. You earn a bonus based on your PVP rank at the end of each battle and some ships may look nasty, but as you play you will start to learn to pick out the real baddies from the goldmines. For example...
This guy looks real nasty for a lvl 4 ship (on any for that matter) to attack. But imagine the haul from a ship like that listed as Jackpot. These ships are risky unless you pay to scan each time, you don't know what you are walking into. But if you see these in the lower trophy range, the chance of them being an over upgraded, weak lump of metal are pretty good.
In this case, the crew was WAY underdeveloped, they only had one reactor and low shields. I just shot at his reactor, took a little damage from weapons before they shut down and after a bit of of pounding his hull...
I took in quite the haul! Now, my storage was no where NEAR able to hold it all, but I maxed out very fast. Ships like this are candy for later in the game especially.
This is it for this portion of the guide. More will be added as time allows on topics like AI and strategy. There are already a bunch of links in the forum to these categories but we will add more to simplify the basics here.