Trader Information

Planetary Collisions

You can overload any sector (except sector one) by just shooting off gtorps. It forces players to put up sector defenses instead of relying on planetary defenses alone. Photons disable sector defenses allowing players to shoot off gtorps without defeating the sector defenses This is an excellent tactic to use to destroy an enemy’s high level planet without much expense

Photons

A side from the consideration mentioned above, when a photon is launched into a sector where a player is staying in a citadel they lose their turns (turns drop to 0, and regen at the top of the hour) Also when you fire a Photon into a sector that a trader is cloaked in it will de-cloak them making them vulnerable to attack.

Planetary Transporters

You can install a Planetary transporter on any planet with a citadel. It costs 50,000 credits to install the transporter and 25,000 credits per sector to upgrade the transporter. These credits are taken from the funds on your ship not from the citadel. The planetary transporter transports both you and your ship. The rules are the same as for TWARP. If you transport to a sector with 1 or more of your personal/corp fighters, to an empty sector, or to fedspace if commissioned, you’ll be safe. It uses fuel ore to power itself, using 10 of ore units per sector and takes the fuel ore from the planet. Transporting requires one turn and you must have a turn or you can’t do it.

TWARP

The TWARP Drive is bought at the Hardware Emporium On Stardock it costs 50,000 creds (although with TWpro there is a TWARP 2 which costs 40,000 after you have bought TWARP 1 or 80,000 if you buy both at one time and allows for TWARP Towing, 2.01a makes the price of these Sysop configurable) You can Transwarp your ship to any sector in the universe (within the ships twarp range). TWARP is completely safe as long as you jump to a sector with at least 1 of your own corp or personal fighters or the sector is COMPLETELY empty, if there is ANYTHING in the sector (unless you have a fighter down) you will lose your ship to Atomic Fusion (referred in the game as “Fusing” a ship) and end up in a pod (and you will still be in the sector you were trying to jump from) Blind jumps are jumps made to sector NOT containing at least 1 of your fighters. Blind Warps are hazardous because of Limpet mines which don’t show up on holoscans or EPROBE, also there is a chance that an alien, Ferrengi or another player could warp into the sector before you can complete your warp. So don’t Blind warp if you have ANY doubts, you may yourself in a pod and fusing a ship can be quite embarrassing.

LIMPET MINES

Limpet mines sometimes (if the player doesn’t already have a limpit on their ship *HINT*) attach to the ships which enter the sector where they are deployed. SD will offer to remove Limpets for a fee of 5000 credits but can’t tell who they belong to. Attached limpets will reduce the trade in value of a ship. If limpet mines you leave do not get removed then you can tell where they are, and thus where the ship they attached to are by doing a mine scan (K). Mine disrupters will not get rid of deployed limpets. You can get rid of limpets by repeatedly entering and leaving a sector and having them cleared from your ship. If someone else’s limpets are in a sector you will not be able to leave limpet or armid mines of your own. As with armid mines, limpet mines cannot be deployed in fedspace and will be removed from Major Space Lanes.

Cloaking Devices

Cloaking failure is Sysop configurable. If the cloak fail rate is set above 0% then the can fail at 2 times; 1) the fail at extern (BBS cleanup) and 2) when you engage them (make sure you see the “cloaking device engaged” message when you exit. The cloaking failure rate is Sysop configurable and can be set to 0% in which case cloaking failure will not happen. Unfortunately, this setting is not displayed on the V screen. You cannot attack a player who is cloaked but they will show up on a density scan as an anomaly and you can then Photon the sector and they will decloak. Limpet mines also show up as an anomaly but if you attempt to put a mine in the sector and the game lets you then there are no limpets there (limpits also have a density, cloaked ships do not), and there must be a cloaked player.

Major Space Lanes (MSL’s)

The space lanes are from sol (sector one) to Stardock and back. From SD to RYLOS and back. From SD to Alpha Centauri and back. And From Rylos To AC and back. Also Rylos and Alpha Centauri are themselves MSLs. The following diagram illustrates:

Sector 1
SOL (Fedspace)
|
|
Stardock (Fedspace)
/
/
/
/
Rylos Alpha Centauri
(MSL) (MSL)

*NOTE* remember that because of one way warps the path from one sector to another and the the return path are not necessarily the same.

ABBREVIATIONS:

AL = Alignment
ORE = Fuel Ore
EQ = Equipment
ORG = Organics
PT = Planetary Trading
SSM = Sell/Steal/Move
SST = Sell/Steal/Transport
MJ = Mega-Jettison
MSL = Major Space Lanes
MBBS = The Major BBS
PIG = Planetary Interdictor Generator
Colt = Colonial Transport
CTran = Cargo Tran
ISS = Imperial Starship
Merc = Merchant Cruiser
MF = Merchant Freighter
IC = Interdictor Cruiser
IG = Interdictor Generator
Sent = Tholian Sentinel
Figs = Fighters

TERMINOLOGY

Alignment from 0 to 99 and you’re considered “neutral” (you still have fedspace protection, and can enter the underground), above 99 and you are considered “good” and below 0 and you’re considered “evil”.

Mega-Jettison

Using a macro at an SSS type port to haggle for and purchase small amounts of each product (14 fo, 8 org, 2 eq) whereby generating an average 4-6 experience points using only 1 turn. Then jettisoning the product (or depositing on a planet in the same sector) and repeating. With this method its not un heard of to gain 5,000 exp in a single day

Planet Farming

Loading a planet with colonists to gain Fuel Ore, Organics, Equipment, and/or Fighters. Done mostly with class O planets for organics.

Planetary Trading

Warping your planet into a sector containing a port. Taking product from your planet to sell to the port, then porting and selling that product, buying another type product, then depositing the product on your planet. Repeat the process until the port is sold out, then move the operation to the opposite type port and start all over again. Used in conjunction with an evil trader to rob ports this is a VERY lucrative means of making credits!

Sell/Steal/Move (SSM) Evil tactic for gaining $$$. (See Playing “Evil”)

Sell/Steal/Transport (SST) Evil tactic for gaining $$$ (See Playing “EVIL”)

Steal/Dump/Transport (SDT) or Sell/Steal/Dump/Transport (SSDT) Evil tactic for gaining $$$ (See Playing “EVIL”)

Twarp Tow Towing a ship via the TWpro available in 2.01a and later versions

0 Turn Colonizing

The method of moving colonists from one planet in a sector to another planet in the same sector without costing the player any turns Density Readings:

Reading/Meaning

0 = Empty Sector or Ferrengi Dreadanought
1 = Marker Beacon
2 = Limpet Type 2 Tracking Mine
5 = Fighter (per Fighter)
10 = Armid Type 1 Mine
21 = Navigation Hazard (Per 1 Percent)
21 = Destroyed Ship (Due to 1 Percent Nav-Haz)
38 = Unmanned Ship
40 = Manned Ship, Alien or Ferrengi Assault Trader
50 = Destroyed Starport (After 25 Percent Nav-Haz Clears)
100 = Starport or Ferrengi Battle Cruiser
210 = Destroyed Planet (Due to 10 Percent Nav-Haz)
462 = Federation Starship under Admiral Nelson
489 = Federation Starship under Captain Zyrain
500 = Planet
512 = Federation Starship under Admiral Clausewitz
575 = Destroyed Port (Before 25% Nav-Haz Clears)

Anomaly Readings:

Reading/Meaning

Yes/density = Limpet Mine (Shows 2 density per mine)
Yes/ no density = Cloaking Distortion
No = Nothing

Gaining Exp. Rapidly

Go to a Class 7 Port and buy 14 Ore, 8 Org and 2 Equ Trade for 2 points each time. Jettison the stuff and repeat. In theory you can earn 6 points of Exp per turn (it works out closer to 5 points) so in a 1000 turn game you can earn 5000 points of Exp in one day! Exp and Align can be bought with credits!

Formula For 1 Attack Ship Captures

Enemy Fighters x Enemy Ships Combat Odds = Real Fighter Strength Real Fighter Strength / Your Ships Combat Odds = # of Fighters to Use.

If you have combat computers on your ship you need to know the following:

Max Shields for Enemy Ship x Percentage Reported = Shields on Enemy Ship

Gaining Exp. Rapidly

Go to a Class 7 Port and buy 14 Ore, 8 Org and 2 Equ Trade for 2 points each time. Jettison the stuff and repeat. In theory you can earn 6 points of Exp per turn (it works out closer to 5 points) so in a 1000 turn game you can earn 5000 points of Exp in one day! Exp and Align can be bought with credits!

Formula For 1 Attack Ship Captures

Enemy Fighters x Enemy Ships Combat Odds = Real Fighter Strength Real Fighter Strength / Your Ships Combat Odds = # of Fighters to Use.

If you have combat computers on your ship you need to know the following:

Max Shields for Enemy Ship x Percentage Reported = Shields on Enemy Ship Enemy Shields x Enemy Ships Combat Odds = Real Shield Strength Real Fighter Strength + Real Shield Strength = Enemy’s Real Defenses Enemy’s Real Defenses / Your ships combat odds = # of Fighters to Use