VI: Diplomacy
Now for the Diplomacy Tab. This where all the interaction with other countries takes place. Here you can manage your Allies and Enemies lists (Which at the moment do not affect game play).
You can view received messages and send others. You can also join/create groups from this tab by going into the 'Start/Join Group' page. You are only allowed to lead one group at any time.
On the groups page you can view/manage the groups you are currently a member of by selecting the group from the 'your group' drop down menu. There are four kinds of group, they are trade, bank, military and space group. Trade groups can buy and sell resources on the resource exchange.
Bank groups ban loan money to other countries and earn interest on the loans. Military groups are capable of having their own armies and allow a group of countries to work together to defend each other, fight alien invasions or take down a dominating country.
Space groups are capable of building a space station and later a jump gate that will allow instant travel to any other jump gate, these are incredibly expensive and normally require countries to work together to buy one. At some point you will get the chance to elect a group to represent the planet.
VII: Military
The military tab governs your army. Here you buy your attacking and defending units which will help your country survive the ages. In the army page, you can buy attacking and defending units.
The attack page gives you a list of people who you can attack based on the size of the country and their military power compared to yours, if you have no military your country will be protected from attack.
The defence page shows your defending army and defensive buildings. You can also buy defensive buildings (i.e. Castles, Nuclear Bunkers) to add to your defence. Late you will be able to build and control energy shields to protect your cities here.
The military units shows information for each unit you can build at the present time. This list will grow as you research new units.
The special weapons page is used for WMD attacks. You will need to research the first WMD the Fire Bomb first though. More special weapons will be unlocked later as well as some planet-specific special weapons.
When attacking, your unit's stats will affect the outcome of battle. Each unit has different attributes and it is up to you to find the best combination of units. The attack stat will be countered by the enemy's defence. Health will determine how much percentage the attacking and defending units will lose.
Speed governs the amount of land taken which can be countered by the enemy's speed and defence. It is also important to consider the type of unit (Land, Sea, Air) and what type it can attack. For example if your enemy has air units and you have nothing that can attack them your attack will grind to a halt and you will make no progress.
VIII: Research
The Research tab shows what technologies you have researched and a list of new ones you can research. There are a few types of research. Military technologies affect your military units. Farming affects your Soil in Agriculture. Business techs will affect your average income and employment. After you finish researching, more options will appear.
Research also causes your world to move up ages, once your country has completed most the research from an age your country will unlock the next age. Once most countries on your planet have unlock the next age this will cause the planet to move to the next age, this process can be speeded up by selling/sharing research through the tech exchange.
IX: Trading
The Trading Tab is where countries go to share their goods. Here you can buy and sell military units, gold, land, resources, exchange technology, check your countries transactions and transfer money and resources to other countries.
It should be noted that with some research, the effects will not be placed on your country if bought, such as farming and business research, to gain the benefits of this research you have to restart the research.
Buying Gold will enable to keep a hidden income which can be sold at a later date. The price to Buy/Sell Gold will rise as the planet goes up in ages and the worlds average income increases.
The amount of land you can buy or sell is limited you can buy or sell as much as the limit each day. The land exchange has a global limit so if every one is selling land and no one buying it will run out and you wont be able to sell any more until people start buying.
X: Intelligence
The Intelligence Tab is unlocked when you research 'Spying'. It enables you to buy spies and check on other countries. You can find information on a country's Military, Resources, Power and WMDs, the results from spying will be displayed on the intelligence page. You will gain new, better spies as you research spying techs.
The missions page allows you to steal and sabotage things from other countries. To unlock missions you must first spy on the country to find what targets are available. You can sabotage power plants, mines and WMD launchers and you can steal WMDs, resources and technology.
XI: Space
During the space age you will be let loose from the restraints of your planet and allowed to explore the galaxy, trade, colonise and conquer the universe! However, first you will need the new technologies available for you to research.
There are many types of propulsion that come with their own advantages and disadvantages:
Propulsion Types:
- Jump hole propulsion... This is the fastest kind of propulsion but it costs the most fuel and the ships haven got much space for trade or weapons.
- Ion propulsion... This is probably the best all rounder type of propulsion,lt;strong>Trade:
When you reach space age you can start to use ships to trade resources and military to other planets (note you need a colony on the planet to trade military)... gold costs different amounts of money on different planets so if you choose wisely you could make a large amount of profit from trading gold from your country to different planets for a higher price than it cost you to acquire the gold.
The only military you would really be able to trade is planet specific unit types (i.e. Ski Troops). It is possible to blockade a planet if you wanted and with the help of other people, this would disallow the planet trade with other worlds but this may not be that detrimental to their profit margins anyway.
Colonisation:
You can colonise other planets with the use of a colony ship, you can get colony ships with multiple different kinds of propulsion for different specifications (e.g. Jump Colony ship is fast but cant take much resources or people with you).
You can only colonise a planet that has reached modern age, this is to help the native countries of the planet to be able to fight back any invading armies. You can only take 5 researches with you to your new home and you can only have 3 colonies so choose wisely what you take and to where.
Space Menu Options:
- Colonies: This button only appears when you create your first colony and allows you to move seamlessly to and from your colonies.
- Defence: This button leads to where you can build Structures, Platforms and Vehicles to defend your country and planet from invading ships.
- Dock: This tab only appears when you research the 'Space Dock' research, from here you can build, name and supply ships.
- Search: You can only access this area once you have researched 'telescope' and later on 'radio telescope', originally you have to buy the telescope and can later upgrade it to a radio telescope these allow you to search the galaxy for planets and asteroids (radio telescope does it faster).
- Shuttle: This button allows you to see all ships currently in orbit around your planet, it also allows you to put resources onto and of the ships.
Spaceship Control Options:
- Command: In the command section you can dismantle or abandon your ships, you can only dismantle when the ship is orbiting a planet with your country or a colony on it, for colony ships it is also where you colonise a planet from (further options appear).
- Load: In this area you can load and unload resources and military onto/from ships, and with colony ships colonists (people).
- Navigation: In the navigation panel you can add fuel, set the coordinates of the destination and (if you have researched 'sensors' see a 5x5 block area around your ships. You can also see if any objects were found within the sensor range by looking at the 'Planets Found' and 'Ships Found' lists.
- Weapons: In the weapons panel you can add and take weapons away, you can capture abandoned ships for this section and this is where the battle reports are when the ship enters into a fight.
Searching The Universe:
In the search section you will see search location boxes along the top, with these you can set the x and y coordinates for your telescope to search, the galaxy is 100,000 by 100,000. with radio telescopes you can select nearby galaxies to search and set the area for the telescope to search (1x1, 3x3, 5x5, 7x7, 9x9, 11x11) this helps to search areas quicker and easier.
Don be let down if you find it difficult to find planets, asteroids or moons just remember the galaxy is 100,000 by 100,000 or 10,000,000,000 square blocks and you can only search one block at a time. Once you do find celestial bodies they get organised into one of three lists 'Worlds Found', 'Moons Found' and 'Asteroids Found' where you will see their location, their status and the distance between it and you.
To the right of it all you will see either 'Make Public' or 'Public', if it says it is Public it means that your whole planet is aware of its location, if it says 'make public' then that means you and possibly others know of its position but haven made the coordinates public knowledge, if you select make public you will be credited as the discoverer.
Now you know the basics to play this game. But just remember, its not all about numbers and statistics. Its about having fun at the end of the day
