* Originally by: Joel Downer

Question: If I am a CEO and I buy a Corp Flagship, then I quit the corp, do
 I get to keep the flagship?  Wondering if corp members could all be CEO for
 a day and buy flagships and then rejoin the corp, each retaining the prize
 ship?

(1) Yes, you could keep the FlagShip when you quit, but (2) no, no one
with a FlagShip is allowed to join another player's corp.

Question: In a new game, what should be your goal in the first few days?

Let's assume a corporate strategy, for a corp of 3-5 players, to keep
this simple.  (That's what I've usually been playing these days anyway.)
Let's also assume that we're playing a game with *no* treaties or rules
about the shield bug.

I plan on playing evil wherever I play.  I expect to find the StarDock
the first day of the game -- if it isn't displayed in the Game Status
screen, I or one of my corp-mates will run FINDSGA to locate it.  As
soon as we find StarDock, we trade in our Merchant Cruisers for Scout
Marauders (with the trade-in value of the average Merchant, you can buy
a Scout with 25 holds and a density scanner, and have a little left over
with which to go out to dinner <grin>).  The Scout is the single best
ship in the early stages because of its move rate.

My choice from that point depends on the game configuration.  If
FedSpace is open to squatters, my teammates and I will spend the first
3 - 4 days parking in FedSpace and working trade pairs to build up
experience.  I like to use the evil Imperial StarShip, so I will try to
upgrade to a StarMaster the second day, a Mule the third or fourth, get
my commission by the fifth or sixth day, and keep the StarShip from then
on.  My teammates will typically turn evil by the fourth day (after you
have about 375 experience, stealing will be *substantially* more
profitable than trading); one way I'm likely to get a quick commission
is to coordinate logins with one of my future teammates so that I can
blow my *future teammate* up.

Objectives for the first 4 - 7 days (depending on the turn rate):  to get
myself into an Imperial StarShip with slightly less than 1,000
experience, and to get the team members who *won't* be in StarShips
stealing in StarMasters with at least 1,100 experience.  We do *not*
usually set aside turns for exploration; when we need to find new trade
pairs or dead ends, we use ether probes.

Objectives for the next 2 - 4 days:  to build a well-concealed planet
and stock it with 3,000,000 colonists.  I will deploy a fighter in a
dead-end sector and create a planet there.  I will frequently ask my
future evil teammates to deploy fighters and mines *in the sector
immediately adjacent* to the dead-end.  The fighters and mines protect
the planet; I enter and exit the sector using TransWarp.

Objective for the succeeding 1 - 3 days:  to assemble the corporation in
final form.  I dump colonists to turn evil, start stealing
conservatively, and "bust planets" (create and destroy empty planets) to
try to build my experience up to 2,250, where I can steal 150 holds.  My
teammates steal aggressively.

Objective for the succeeding three weeks:  to build a planet to level
five, preventing our enemies from building or defending a planet to a
level II citadel.  We use ether probes and search aggressively whenever
new citadels appear in the game status screen (find as many uses as you
can for TWView's OFFLINE program, using version 0.91 if you can; you
also may want to look at my FINDHOLE utility).  Because of my p-missile
capabilities, I can destroy *any* planet that doesn't have a level II
citadel at a trivial cost.  We upgrade our single planet aggressively,
placing the maximum defenses on it at any given time (32,000 fighters;
1639 shields the day it turns level V).  If the relative strengths of
the teams in the game justify the move, we may invade Ferrengal and
either (a) destroy it, or (b) defend it, to prevent our enemies from
seizing a ready-made level III citadel.

End-game objectives:  If we have a level V citadel, and we can prevent
our enemies from building or defending a planet, we expect to control
the game.  We continue to steal full-speed, and stockpile money in our
shield-bugged citadel until the combination of our stealing and treasury
interest is overwhelming.

Through this process, we probably spend 95% of our turns stealing from
ports.  We use the five-point stealing cycle, but we don't otherwise
worry about experience unless our score is low enough to interfere with
our stealing.  We kill only when absolutely necessary:  we expect
competent opponents to stay cloaked unless they have a reason to *want*
to be attacked.

