What is Tradewars
2002? Sector
: 1 in The Federation. Command [TL=01:07:34] (?=Help)? Old Mad Jackson is still hanging out here in FedSpace, you see. Well, you just found out from another trader that the StarDock is in sector 561. Hopefully he was telling the truth, because these traders have been known to lie about these things. Better go check it out now. So at the command prompt you type 561 and the computer says... <Move> Computing
shortest path... Transmission
complete, ready for warp calculations. The
shortest path from sector 1 to sector 561 is: That's not too far. You hit enter to say, yes, I want to engage the auto-pilot, and you're off... <Auto Pilot Engaging> Auto Warping to sector 4 Sector
: 4 in The Federation. Auto Warping to sector 617 Sector
: 617 in Cymbeline. Auto Warping to sector 174 Sector
: 174 in The Slogovian Estates. Auto Warping to sector 996 Sector
: 996 in The Slogovian Estates (unexplored). Stop in this sector (Y,N,E,I,R,S,D,P,?) (?=Help) [N] ? R The first bunch of sectors are all empty, nothing to see, no reason to stop, so the auto-pilot just keeps going. But then you reach sector 996 where there is a port, Ucella. Ucella is a class 1 port, which means it sells equipment, and buys fuel ore and organics. The computer asks you what you want to do. Do you want to stop? You type R to get the current port report. The computer reports..... Commerce report for Ucella: 07/16/03 11:45:32 AM Items Status Trading % of max OnBoard Stop in this sector (Y,N,E,I,R,S,D,P,?) (?=Help) [N] ? P Ucella is buying organics,
which happens to be what you have in your holds. So it is
worth your while to port and trade in Ucella. So this
time, at the prompt "Stop in this sector?" you
answer P for port and trade..... Enter
your choice [T] ? {T is the default so hit enter for
trade} Docking... Commerce report for Ucella: 07/16/03 11:45:40 AM -=-=-
Docking Log -=-=- Items
Status Trading % of max OnBoard You have 640 credits and 0 empty cargo holds. We
are buying up to 860. You have 10 in your holds. After you decide to trade (attacking space ports is not advised), the computer tells you how many turns you have left, then who the last ship was to dock in the port, then it gives you the port report you just saw. You have organics and they are buying. They ask how many holds you want to sell, and the amount in your holds is the default value. To sell all 10 holds worth of organics, you hit enter, and the computer names a price. You then proceed to haggle with the port buyer.... Agreed, 10 units. We'll
buy them for 785 credits. We'll
buy them for 788 credits. You have 1,470 credits and 10 empty cargo holds. Hehehehe, you laugh,
because you got a good price out of that bastard, and
received 2 experience points for your efforts. Not to
mention the tremendous profit on this moldy produce you
paid 150 credits for yesterday in sector 631. Now you
have 1,470 credits and 10 empty holds, it is time to fill
those holds for the next trip..... We
are selling up to 980. You have 0 in your holds. We'll
sell them for 342 credits. Our
final offer is 339 credits. You
have 1,150 credits and 0 empty cargo holds. Now that you've made money and filled your holds with equipment, which brings in more cash than any other commodity, you're ready to continue on your way, so you say N for no to the prompt "Shutdown Autopilot and stay here?" and the autopilot takes off..... Auto Warping to sector 710 Sector
: 710 in The Slogovian Estates (unexplored). Auto Warping to sector 561 Sector
: 561 in The Federation (unexplored). Command [TL=01:10:28] (?=Help)? You've arrived! Much to your satisfaction, that trader -- Hell's Puppy as a matter of fact -- was telling the truth. Unfortunately, you really don't have enough money to do anything at the moment, so you might as well go on and find someplace where you can make some more money. You go on by typing in the number of a sector you want to go to, whether because you know there is something good there, or just because you haven't been there before, and might run into some good ports along the way. So you cruise on around for a while, buying and trading, until it is time to head back and find a place to stop for the night. Being new in the game and with only a few fighters, FedSpace is the obvious location. So from your current sector, you punch in 1 at the command line to engage the auto-pilot for sector 1..... Command
[TL=01:08:08] (?=Help)? 1 Computed. The
shortest path from sector 888 to sector 1 is: <Auto Pilot Engaging> Auto Warping to sector 949 Sector
: 949 in The Maxentian Empire. Auto Warping to sector 868 Sector
: 868 in The Maxentian Empire (unexplored). Stop in this sector (Y,N,E,I,R,S,D,P,?) (?=Help) [N] ? You have a few turns left, so you decide to see what this port has to offer you. You type R for the port report, and the computer displays..... Commerce report for Nutema: 07/16/03 11:55:32 AM Items
Status Trading % of max OnBoard Stop in this sector (Y,N,E,I,R,S,D,P,?) (?=Help) [N] ? P Well, they will take the equipment off your hands and you can buy some fuel ore here, so you decide to port and make the transaction. You dock and..... <A>
Attack this Port Enter
your choice [T] ? Docking... Commerce report for Nutema: 07/16/03 11:56:54 AM -=-=-
Docking Log -=-=- Items
Status Trading % of max OnBoard You have 1,150 credits and 0 empty cargo holds. We
are buying up to 1010. You have 10 in your holds. Well, cool! No other ship has docked here, so you pick up an easy 1 experience point. Now that you are here, you start the process of bickering again. After trading you don't want to stay here, and on your way you go....... Auto Warping to sector 366 Sector
: 366 in The Ghengis Empire (unexplored). Auto Warping to sector 246 Sector
: 246 in DragonStar (unexplored). Auto Warping to sector 10 Sector
: 10 in The Federation. Auto Warping to sector 2 Sector
: 2 in The Federation. Auto Warping to sector 1 Sector
: 1 in The Federation. Command [TL=00:17:34] (?=Help)? So now you are back where
you started out this morning, almost out of turns, and
with your holds empty. You made a little money, found out
where StarDock is, scouted a couple of the other traders
(in 1 and 561), and explored a few new sectors that you
hadn't seen before. All in all, not a bad day's work.
With this little scout marauder and not many fighters,
you are in no position to go attacking aliens, so it is
probably a good thing you didn't run across any Ferrengi,
and you didn't miss out by not seeing any aliens. Now you
might go into your computer and check out the trader
listing, or the aliens listing to see if there That was a short run just to give you an idea of what happens in a typical game session. It all happens pretty fast in the game, bang bang, you go here and here, port, trade, bargain, go on, do it again, and you watch the numbers go. As a beginning player you will probably stick to auto-warps and trading where you wind up along the way. When you run into an alien, if you have the fighters, you might attack, or you might prefer to leave him alone, not sure if he is a good guy or a bad guy (later you will know by his title), and fearing that he may have stuffed his ship to the gills with corbomite. If you run into Ferrengi, the best thing might be just to surrender and let them take your cargo. As you get into the game, you will learn to do more. This text
was excerpted from twtips.arj, originally compiled by
Frederick R. Polli |
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