Home

I'm DWP (David to my parents) and this is my Player Page. It was last updated on Tuesday, 22 February, 2005 7:25 PM GMT so if this is getting old then send me a message and I'll try and update it.

I'm trying a new idea - a whole website in one page. Now it might seem like a ridiculous idea, but tuff!
The only problem might be I have a broadband connection and I know some people use 56k still (c'mon guys this is the 21st century) and it might be a tad slow to load.

Please note that this is in development and whilst I will at first probably copy and paste some stuff from the forums, I intend to rewrite and re-format much of what is there into a concise guide.

If anybody has any comments/questions/jokes that they think I should answer then PLEASE message me in game or e-mail me or send me a message on MSN.

e-mail and msn: powers1983@hotmail.com

For another look at this then go here:

http://ugwww.liv.ac.uk/~eg0u504e/

Disclaimer: Nothing in these pages is anything other than my or others personal opinion and/or observations. If you learn nothing then sorry.

Newbies

This section will cover in more detail how to build; what each building does; and why you need each building.

It will also cover basic ap conservation and possibly some other basic features.

Buildings Page

Building Plants (bp)

Cost:
10 minerals
10 power units

As mentioned in the Intro Section, the number of building plants you have determines the number of buildings you can build for each ap. With me so far? Good. You will see near the top of the Buildings page that it tells you: 'With you x building plants you can build y buildings foreach action point.'

For the mathematical among you, then formula goes y=(x+10)/10 and the answer is rounded down to the nearest whole number. Simple eh?

In slightly easier terms - for every ten bp you get 1 building and then on top of that you get 1 more FREE. So here's a few examples:

You get the idea?

As you can see - it follows that the best number of bp is a multiple of 10 - otherwise you are just wasting mins and not maximising your ap usage.

Now why do you need bp I hear you cry. Well the answer is back to this ap use. The more bp you have the more buildings you can build with each ap and the less ap you spend to upsize your hw.

A good habit to get in to early is to always build as many buildings as you can for each ap. If you can build 15 then build 15. You can build more than one building type at a time, so work out how many you want, then work out how many extra buildings you can build then see if you need anything else. Unless you are really low on mins then Power Storage(ps) is the cheapest building if you can't build anything else.

Spaceship Plants (ssp)

Cost:
10 minerals
10 power units

Spaceships plants can each produce 3 spaceship parts for each ap they are used. Your spaceship parts do not stockpile (extremely volatile and explode if not used) so any excess are lost each ap. This might seem confusing but will become clearer when spaceships are dealt with in more detail in another section.

There is no useful numbers or strange formula like the bp for these ones - it's simply the more you have the more spaceships you can build and so less ap you need to spend to get the same number of ships built.

Again, there are good habits you should try and fall into - some numbers when multiplied by 3 don't divide by 4 into a whole number - if building Star Destroyers then that is a needless waste (its only a tiny waste, but why bother if you can avoid it). Anything that is a multiple of 20 is a good number because all these problems are resolved.

Power Plants (pp)

Cost:
20 minerals
0 power units

Power Plants each produce 1 Power Unit for evey ap spent regardless of what that ap was spent doing. You get power whether mining, exploring, attacking, building or donating to your federation (more later).

Again there are no magic numbers but if some logical thinking is applied then you can come up with some of your own.

eg. If you have 220bp you can build 23 buildings per ap. If you are going to be building lots of ssp which cost 10mins and 10 power each then you will use 230 power units each ap. If you don't have 230 pp then you are going to run out of power pretty quick!

Power Storage (ps)

Cost:
3 minerals
0 power units

For each Power Storage you have you can store 10 power units. Nothing complicated or tricky there. Any excess power is lost in the next ap spent, so there is no point in having 500pp if you only have 10ps, now is there?

So again - no magic numbers but just common sense. If you are going to spend a lot of ap with no power cost then you are going to want more power storage so you aren't wasting the power you produce. If you waste power you are wasting the minerals and the ap it took to build the power plants in the first place. Obviously don't take this to extremes by having 6'000 ps for only 10pp and if you have enough power plants to cover the cost of anything you can spend power on, then you will need less storage.

Space Ports (sp)

Cost:
5 minerals
5 power units

For every 1 space port you have you can dock 3 spaceships. Simple. If you want 300 ships of any type (not including harvesters, torpedoes or mine grids) then you need 100sp. If you want 591 spaceships (you might, you never know) then you need 197sp.

Command Centres (cc)

Cost:
10 minerals
10 power units

This is where it starts to get a bit tricky. Your command centres determine your level of Fleet Control (fc) and whilst not restricting you in any way to do anything, it will be one of the values you watch closest.

To reach 100% fleet control you need 1cc for every 20 ships you have, but (simialr to building plants) you get 20 ships FREE! What this means in real terms is if you want to be most effective with 200 ships, you need: (200-20)/20 = 9 control centres. Repeat after me: "Always have 100% Fleet Control!" If you don't then you may as well give half your fleet away to charity, because you are wasting just about everything - the ap to build them and attack, the mins to build them and the time it took you.

Spaceship Page

Harvesters (harv)

Cost:
varies on how many harvesters already owned

A harvester is a big investment - your first one costs 600 spaceship parts, 1000 minerals and 500 power units so you better think before you build one. You can only build one at a time (hence the check-box), but can build other ships at the same time.

A harester is basically a guaranteed mineral income for every ap spent. Each harvester will give you a random number (between 3 and 15) of mins each ap - in the same way that power plants give power, harvesters give mins. The more harvesters you have, the more mins you will have and therefor less ap spent trying to get mins. You can win and lose harvesters in battle but they are indestructable so you can always get them back!

Fighter (f)

The fighter is the most common ship you will find in SC. It is the cheapest to build, the least powerful and the first destroyed. But that is it's beauty - your fighters will take damage before any other type of ship does. Because of this simple fact you will find yourself building these by the truckload!

Destroyer (d)

Destroyers are twice as expensive as fighters but with a much higher defense value. As they cost the same number of spaceship parts you can churn out just as many of these as fighters, so useful for defending when you have low ap (trust me - this will happen to you a lot)

Cruiser (c)

Cruisers are a medium strength all-rounder. They can provide service in both attacking and defending, but don't pack the punch of the heavier ships.

Bomber (b)

Bombers are the strongest attacking ship in the game. Their attack value is stronger than any ships defense value, so these should form the mainstay of any offensive fleet.

Shielder (s)

Shielders are the strongest defensive ship in the game. They also have an attack value of 2 which makes them useful for a quick counter-attack move.

Star Destroyer (sd)

The most costly ship available, Star Destroyers are impressive in both offensive and defensive fleets. For this reason you can find Star Destroyers forming a large portion of many fleets.

Torpedoes (torps)

Purely a weapon for attacking, you will fire all your torps when you attack. They will first be used to destroy enemy mine grids (1 torp destroys 1 mine grid) before boosting the attack value of your fleet. When used in large enough numbers, torps can turn the tide of battle and secure victory.

Mine Grids (mines)

Mine Grids are not a defensive ship as such, but if any survive your attackers torpedoes then a certain proportion will explode killing some of the enemy fleet. Mines make no difference when attacking but will last until destroyed by torpedoes or whilst destroying enemy ships.

Attack Page

When you decide to attack an enemy empire there are certain requirements that you need to meet:

1) You must have 200 ships to attack
2) You must have no more than twice your targets score
3) You must have no less than a third of your attackers score

You type in your targets Empire ID number and click 'Attack the scum'. You will then see a comparison of your scores and the ap cost to attack this empire. If you meet all the requirements then pressing 'Attack the scum' again will result in a battle!

Beginners

Now I shall attempt to cover some basic attacking and defending techniques