UUSTART.TXT 1.0 Copyright (C) 1993 by DruId Software and Andrue C Carr ALL RIGHTS RESERVED! Welcome: -------- So you want to play Ultimate Universe! Well this simple starter document will help you get going. I've been playing this game for approximately 3 years now and each game is different due to a wide range of Universal variables set by the sysop or the players of the game. While this is not a guaranteed or perfect way to start it is a more or less trial and error way. I would like to recommend that you download the files: UUHELP.* and/or DEVICE.* which are more in depth than what I will get into. During this documentation I will assume that you are familiar with the basic commands found in the game by using a ? on the command line to get a listing of the commands available. Those include: M for move, S for scan, C for computer.... that type of thing. Starting out: ------------- To start out with you generally are loaned a ship by the Federation. You will owe money to the Federation on your ship and you can pay for it at port 10. You have a certain amount of days to pay or you will be fined for non-payment of debts. You can check on your ship debt by using the computer function: O for obligations. Dont use your money right away to pay for your ship, there are ways to get it paid for you.... see later info. In addition to the above, you are given a few "Devices" usually. Sometimes they are usefull sometimes they are not. See section on devices later. When you start the game you generally are "blind." That means that you can not really see what is happening in a sector. Your first agenda should be to aquire some "eyes." First of all, before you move anywhere ALWAYS scan before you move. This is accomplished by using the Scanning functions that are a part of your ship. S scans any adjacent sectors and displays information that you are capable of seeing in each sector. If you have a high speed modem and the info moves too fast you can use: SP which does a sector by sector scan with a pause for keystroke. An escape key will abort from it. Looking for Death: ----------------- The first thing to do is a scan of what is around you to start with. You should look for things that can destroy your ship like Blackholes, Fighters, Mines, other deadly items. Usually sectors 1 through 10 are pretty safe, but not always. If you dont see anything overtly destructive (you may see mines and attack drones from 1-9 which is normal as these are Federation defenses) you should immediatly jump to sector 6 and P (port). When in Port 6, you should familiarize yourself with its workings and do D (displays) on each department to see what is available. When you first arrive they will tell you that you have credit towards a device. generally its about 300,000 or so, with that you should first purchase a: STARTER PACK which is found in department 5, enter this command: B;161;Y that will purchase the device. That's about the best first device you can get, it will help you along the way. If your credit is higher you may want to try to purchase something worth more like a: 165 DANGER PACK which your going to want to buy anyway after you get the starter pack. After you get the starter pack, buy the DANGER PACK with this command: B;165;Y that device will then show you information about the fighters and mines to determine who they will attack. If you see any fighters or mines that are set to attack anything but cabal only DO NOT move to that sector! at this stage you are VERY weak and will likley be destroyed. Purchasing your starting devices: --------------------------------- After you purchase those devices your in better shape. At least now you can see some basic information about the sectors around you. While your in port 6 you may also want to purchase a couple other things. take a look around but dont spend too much, by that I mean anything over 300,000 after your initial devices is too much. Leave port 6 and move to sector 1 then sector 8 (maybe not in that order but get to sector 8). Port in sector 8 and get these 2 devices: 411 and 276 like this: B;411;Y;B;276;Y those will give you more information about the sectors around you and 276 (GOSUB) will let you pop back and forth from where you are to a predefined sector. A 'NO TRAIL' DRIVE SHIELDING device #: 293 is a good device to get. Quit port 8 and start your no trail drive shielding by this command: V;293 Now you wont leave a trail behind you where you go, as you can see happens by the trail you left getting to this point now that you have a device 411. Move back to sector 1. Port at Sol and buy all the cargo holds you can. cargo holds are needed to trade with, the more you have, the more you can trade. That means, you make more money on each trade with the more amount of cargo holds you have. Its real important on your first day to get as many cargo holds as you can. You have a 75% cut price on their true worth and you need to take advantage of that. Quit port sol and when you are back to sector 1 set your GOSUB on sector 1 with this command: V;276;Y from now on whenever you use your gosub you will pop from the sector your currently in to sector 1. then if you use it again you will pop back to the sector you were previously in before you got to sector 1. That is important so you can return to a "usually" safe spot to be able to move to any of the "Federation Strip" ports and sectors. Starting to Trade: ------------------ Now you are in a basic starting stance. You should now move to find ports to trade with. Try moving to sector 3 and do a scan and see if there are any areas you can safely go to with ports in them. If there arent any try sector 4,5,6 etc... When you see a sector you can move to go there, Port and trade all your stuff for what they have. then scan again and look for another sector with a port in it. Move to that sector and trade with that port... As you port and trade you will make money depending on the trading rates of the ports... one port will buy something at a higher rate than the port you bought it from originally etc... The best trading ports are usually ports that trade water and power. If you can find a port that is selling Water next to a port that is Selling Power you will probably make a good chunk of cash from them... its not the only way but usually the best... Look for a port that is selling water around 20.0 and buying power at around: 20.0 or above, and a port that is selling power around: 16.0 and buying water at around: 26.0 or above. Thats a good trading rate... Trading Macros: --------------- If you find that type of port then just move back and forth and port between them to raise cash. You can use a "macro" like this one: M;293;P;;Y;;Y;M;376;P;;Y;;Y\ 293 and 376 being the ports you are trading with not these exact numbers, replace 293 and 376 with the sector numbers you are going between. Then when you get that on the command line hit an Enter key. after it moves and ports etc you will then be able to use Control-N to repeat the steps you just did. Saving key strokes is the point here. Keep trading for a while to raise cash, but watch your fuel. if you see a message saying you have 30 turns left you should use your GOSUB to return to sector 1. When you get back to sector 1 you should port there and buy up at least 50 turns by buying A like this: A;50 if you did well trading and you can purchase like 120 turns you should do this: A;70;B;; which will buy 70 turns and all the cargo holds you can It's important to do a percentage deal on turns and cargo holds, when you return. You should buy about 60% turns and the rest in cargo holds. for example if you are able to purchase 100 turns, you should buy 60 and then invest the rest into cargo holds... This way, each time you go to trade you can make more money per turn in order to increase your cargo holds and turns each time you return.... Raising cash: ------------ After you have more turns and cargo holds, quit port sol and use your gosub again to return to your trading route... Keep trading and returning to sector 1 for more turns and holds as you did above untill you run low on time( anything less than 9 minutes is concidered low on time). If your doing well trading you will get to a point where you have all the holds you can possibly carry. at this point in time if you have lots of time left you should buy all the turns you can up to about 300 and go back to your trading route and burn it out (the point where there is nothing else to trade or one port stops selling or buying and you wind up trading only with one port). Then go and find another trading route that is good and do the same thing there. At this time you are clearing cash which you need to establish a sector. Closing up shop if your low on time: ------------------------------------ If you are real low on time, which is usually the case, at this point you would best move back to sector 1. It would probably be best to port now at sol and purchase some fighters, usually about 100,000 is ok to start with, get what you can but dont buy more than 300,000 if you have plenty of cash but no time left. Establishing a home: -------------------- If you have lots of time left, 15 minutes or so, you should try to establish a "home" sector which you will control. Not the only way but a good way, you should look for a sector that has a port that is selling: ALL. Go there. If you have a genesis device use it by this command: G;Y this will start to create a planet... tell it the name you want. If you dont have any genesis devices return to sector 1 with your gosub and buy 1 at port sol After you have created a planet, you should now use your gosub to return to sector 1, then move to sector 8 and port. buy an Isolator neat and tidy, device#: 255, IF YOU DONT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY SEE IF YOU CAN GET ONE OF THE OTHER ISOLATION DEVICES in that department. While your there by a device# 309 SENSOR DAMPER. also while your there get a device# 275 GOTO and perhaps another gosub 276 Quit port 8 and move to port 6 via 7 or 1. port there and buy a couple device# 66 ADVANCED SPY WARD. 3-10 would be good they are cheap. use your gosub again to return to your home sector. When you get back to your planet seal the sector off with this command set: V;255;Y;V;309;Y Then set up your spy wards with this command: V;66 use it till your out of spy wards. Then set your GOTO to the current sector with this command: V;275;Y now you can use your goto to return here whenever you want Getting your planet going: ------------------------- You have probably run out of time by now so you will have to do this tommorrow, but your atleast fairly safe now from hostility. if you were efficient in trading then you have some cash left over and some time. Land on your planet with L and first set your defenses with this command set: A;D use a V to see what your planet looks like and a ? to see what you can do with it.... If you have any cargo transfer it all into the planet by using the insert command: I if you have: command to use Ore I;1;; Organics I;2;; Equipment I;3;; Power I;4;; Water I;5;; Now if you have any cash left over dump it all into your planet by quiting back to the sector and porting to get all the stuff you can and landing on the planet and transfering it all into the planet.... If you are in a sector that is selling: ALL this is a pretty standard command set you can use as a macro: from the sector: P;;Y;L;I;1;;Q\ then just use your control-n to continue the macro till you run out of cash. Youll notice that your production levels will rise as you do this... Summary: -------- Thats about it... Your first day is key to your survival... If you get set up well on your first day you will survive longer usually. These are the basic starting steps in summary: step devices port sector 1. Obtain some eyes 165,161 6 2. mobility 276,293 8 3. more eyes 411 8 4. cargo holds B 1 5. lock your gosub in sector 1 6. trading (trading route to gain cash) 7. increase holds and turns (trade till low on fuel, return to 1 and buy 60%turns the rest in holds) 8. max out on holds and gain cash! keep trading after you have holds 9. gain control over a sector 255,309,275,276 8 10. more control over your sector 66 6 11. start a planet E (genesis device) 1 12. set planet defenses A,D 13. build up planet production through transfer of product to planet. Along with building up your sector you should perhaps buy 1000 or so sector mines from sector 1 and deploy them to attack all but you. It depends on how much cash you raise in trading... a good starting level for securing a sector would be approximatly 30,000,000 to 70,000,000 credits before you go buying anything after your initial trading round.... DEVICES AND HINTS: ------------------ There are about 500 devices available. Above I tried to indicate the essential devices needed to start out with, however there are quite a few more that are very usefull on your first day... the above is the economy route.... if you are doing well on cash you may want to purchase a couple other devices which will increase your cash intake in the long run. These are some of your possible optional device numbers: device description port sector 172 trading pack (automates trading) 6 178 Report silencer pack (speeds up trading) 6 363 Infected port detector (not usually needed on your first couple days but later perhaps 8 32 Nearby port locator ultra locates ports and displays routing to those ports 6 Flea Market: ------------ Sector 7 has a flea market... you can get some good deals on devices in there which will save you some cash... if you want to get started fast go with the above route, if you have lots of time you should check out the flea market for devices you need that will be cheaper to save you cash. Paying your debt: ----------------- Your initial debt varies depending on what you ship is worth to start with but will hover somewhere around 5-9 million credits and usually be due paid in full within about 10 days... you can see what you owe and how long you have to pay it by using the computer function O for viewing your obligations. from the main command line do this: C;O You will notice in there that you get credit for cabal killed. You should be careful doing this but you can kill cabal several ways. the easiest way is to get some fire power and walk into the sector they are in... start off small though! and DONT GO WALKING WHERE THERE ARE MINES! get some particle beams or lasers... the devices tell you how many cabal they will eradicate successfully.... also buy up plenty of fighters. a good idea is to buy about 3 or 4 heavy particle beams device# 132 in the port in sector 6. each heavy particle beam will kill about 20,000 cabal.... so if you have 4 of them you can kill up to 80,000 cabal without any damage... make sure there arent any mines in there cuz mines arent effected by particle beams and they are devestating to you if you set any off... As you kill cabal you will be awarded a daily credit that is applied to your debt at first then after your debt is paid off you will net that in cash each day... the more you kill the more you get each day... this can add up... i usually average about 300,000,000 credits a day in a good game. Another way to eradicate cabal is to team up with the Federation and have them kill half and you kill half... you need a device to access a port or go to port 9 and request a cabal engagement coordination effort. you can do this from any sector if you have something that accesses the C.E.C.C. port, device 176 will do this, also device 281 does this directly. IF you know a sector with cabal in it you should also try to report it first before you attack them, cuz you get credit for reporting them to port 9 also.... reporting cabal: DEVICE OF PORT COMMANDS ENTER THIS port 9: 1 enter sector number device281: V;281 enter sector number device176: V;176;4;1 enter sector number attacking via C.E.C.C. port 9: 3 enter sector, enter amount of fighters device281: V;281;3 enter sector, enter amount of fighters device176: V;176;4;3 enter sector, enter amount of fighters When you attack cabal via C.E.C.C. they use the amount of fighters you put up and supply the same amount to the attack so if you want to kill off something like: 240,000 cabal in a sector you would put up like: 120,000 fighters and they would all be wiped out. a good idea is to bring it down to the amount that your particle beams will take care of. so if you had 3 heavy particle beams you can put up like: 100,000 that would leave 40,000 in the sector and you can easily walk in there and kill off the rest with your 3 particle beams. In Ending: ---------- There is SO much to this game it would take me days to describe it and i wouldnt be finished then and it all wouldnt really matter cuz each game is different and requires different strategies. I tried to give basic pointers to get started with though.. This is a very short version of what I consider hints and tips on the game... It is not necessarily the best route for you to take nor is it the only route to take... If you wish to discuss more on strategy or the meaning or point of the game you may contact me via the below means: Happy Cabal Hunting to you all, Andrue Carr DruId Software Over Board BBS (508)693-5344 in Mass. Fido net address: (1:331/201) Sl_net address: (250:502/1294) ISG_net address: (91:5/201) Andrue Carr P.O. box 473 West Tisbury, Ma 02575 I monitor the following networks: Fido, Sl_net, ISG_net, Rhyme There is a Nationally Echoed conference set up in the ISG network called: I_UU that is for the discussion of Ultimate Universe haveing to do with any bug reports, idea suggestion, or general discussions reguarding the game. I would be more than happy to discuss anything strategically with you (well maybe not) but i can certainly give you pointers and hints and clear up anything you need to know about the game... dont hesitate to let me know you need help i wont attack your ship till your debt is paid off.