Experience
There are many ways to play SMR, and many different aspects of the game to enjoy - but experience points are important whether you play with a high ranking as a goal in itself, or whether you see it as just another tool to help achieve other goals.
Experience (xp) is gained through both trading and combat, but trading is by far the most effective and efficient way to accumulate experience (especially early in a game). Refer to the trading section on this message board for details, but the best way to get lots of experience fast is to trade long routes with perfect trading relations. This is not always possible, and often dangerous (and you lose significant amounts of xp when you die), so it is often a good idea to look for decent traderoutes but stay off the best ones.
The main benefits of experience are:
1) Higher weapon accuracy when you fire, and lower weapon accuracy for your opponents.
2) The ability to cloak from lower ranked players.
3) Demonstrating the ability to accumulate and keep a good experience level. This last benefit is especially important for new players since climbing the rankings and avoiding too many deaths will get you noticed.
Newbie Help Alliance message board
Last edited by Ardbeg on Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ships
Everything you do in SMR is done while you are flying some kind of ship - it can be anything from an escape pod to a huge IkThorne mothership, but you are always the pilot of something. In addition to the neutral ships, each race also has unique ships that only race members can purchase. You can find the SMR shiplist here:
http://www.smrealms.de/manual.php?52
It is important to choose ships to match your budget and your needs, and the biggest or most expensive ships are not always the best ones for all purposes.
Make sure you are buying the right ship before you hand over your cash to the ship dealer since you only get a partial refund for the ship you are selling, which means that you lose some money every time you switch ships.
Ships fall into a few basic categories, and I will try to give you a basic overview here - but I encourage everyone to look at the shiplist themselves, experiment with different ships, and talk to experienced players about what they recommend buying.
Trade ships: This class of ships emphasizes trading capacity over fighting ability. They generally tend to be relatively slow, have good cargo capacity, very limited combat ability, and varying defense. These ships are basically only used for trading, and should run from pretty much any fight.
Warships: These are the largest and most heavily armed ships in the game, and are ideal for combat situations where you expect someone (other ships) or something (ports and planets) to be firing back at you. This class of ships inculdes the racial warships and the Federal Ultimatum.
Hunting ships: These combat vessels are slightly smaller than the warships but are usually faster and have the added ability to carry scout drones for gathering information and tracking other ships. Hunters are useful for killing tradeships or other hunters, but should generally avoid combat with warships.
In addition to these basic classes, many ships are especially good at specific things like clearing mines, transporting forces or exploring the universe.
Some of the ship concepts you should be familiar with:
- Cost. Unless you have a lot of spare cash, buy a ship to suit your budget. The most expensive ship is not always the best choice, especially if buying it leaves you with no cash reserves.
- Defense. Ship defense is made up of shields, armor and combat drones. The higher the defense, the harder you are to kill so more is better.
- Offensive capability. Ships attack (and defend) using weapons and combat drones. Weapons are mounted on the limited number of hardpoints (HP) a ship has, meaning that more HPs give a higher offensive capability.
- Speed. Ship speed determines how fast your ship will accumulate turns. Faster ships gain more turns per hour and vice versa.
- Hardware. Most ships can use one or more hardware items, each of which adds certain capabilities to the ship. These are Scanners (see scanner thread), Cloaks (invisibility from lower ranked traders when activated), Illusion Generators (the ability to disguise your ship), Jump Drives (allows you to jump from place to place without travelling through the sectors between), and Drone Scramblers (improved defense against combat drones).
- Restricted ships. There are restrictions on who can buy certain ships. These include racial restrictions, top racial restrictions (the top racial ships cannot be purchased until you reach fledgling status), and alignment restrictions (Underground and Federal ships require you to be evil or good respectively, Federal ships also take half damage from forces).
Everything you do in SMR is done while you are flying some kind of ship - it can be anything from an escape pod to a huge IkThorne mothership, but you are always the pilot of something. In addition to the neutral ships, each race also has unique ships that only race members can purchase. You can find the SMR shiplist here:
http://www.smrealms.de/manual.php?52
It is important to choose ships to match your budget and your needs, and the biggest or most expensive ships are not always the best ones for all purposes.
Make sure you are buying the right ship before you hand over your cash to the ship dealer since you only get a partial refund for the ship you are selling, which means that you lose some money every time you switch ships.
Ships fall into a few basic categories, and I will try to give you a basic overview here - but I encourage everyone to look at the shiplist themselves, experiment with different ships, and talk to experienced players about what they recommend buying.
Trade ships: This class of ships emphasizes trading capacity over fighting ability. They generally tend to be relatively slow, have good cargo capacity, very limited combat ability, and varying defense. These ships are basically only used for trading, and should run from pretty much any fight.
Warships: These are the largest and most heavily armed ships in the game, and are ideal for combat situations where you expect someone (other ships) or something (ports and planets) to be firing back at you. This class of ships inculdes the racial warships and the Federal Ultimatum.
Hunting ships: These combat vessels are slightly smaller than the warships but are usually faster and have the added ability to carry scout drones for gathering information and tracking other ships. Hunters are useful for killing tradeships or other hunters, but should generally avoid combat with warships.
In addition to these basic classes, many ships are especially good at specific things like clearing mines, transporting forces or exploring the universe.
Some of the ship concepts you should be familiar with:
- Cost. Unless you have a lot of spare cash, buy a ship to suit your budget. The most expensive ship is not always the best choice, especially if buying it leaves you with no cash reserves.
- Defense. Ship defense is made up of shields, armor and combat drones. The higher the defense, the harder you are to kill so more is better.
- Offensive capability. Ships attack (and defend) using weapons and combat drones. Weapons are mounted on the limited number of hardpoints (HP) a ship has, meaning that more HPs give a higher offensive capability.
- Speed. Ship speed determines how fast your ship will accumulate turns. Faster ships gain more turns per hour and vice versa.
- Hardware. Most ships can use one or more hardware items, each of which adds certain capabilities to the ship. These are Scanners (see scanner thread), Cloaks (invisibility from lower ranked traders when activated), Illusion Generators (the ability to disguise your ship), Jump Drives (allows you to jump from place to place without travelling through the sectors between), and Drone Scramblers (improved defense against combat drones).
- Restricted ships. There are restrictions on who can buy certain ships. These include racial restrictions, top racial restrictions (the top racial ships cannot be purchased until you reach fledgling status), and alignment restrictions (Underground and Federal ships require you to be evil or good respectively, Federal ships also take half damage from forces).
Last edited by Ardbeg on Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Alignment.
Alignment has a couple of functions, the main ones being for trading purposes and determining which restricted ships and weapons you can buy.
If you are evil (alignment -100 or lower) you can trade evil goods, buy underground ships (Thief, Assasin, Death Cruiser which are all cloaked) and buy the underground level 5 weapon (nuke). If you are neutral (between -99 and 99 alignment) you can become evil by signing up as a gang member at Underground HQ. Evil players cannot enter federal (racial) HQ's.
If you are good (alignment 100 or higher) you can buy federal ships (Federal Discovery, Warrant and Ultimatum which all have jump drive and take half damage from forces) and buy the federal level 5 weapon (holy hand grenade). If you are neutral (between -99 and 99 alignment) you can become good by deputizing at any racial HQ. Good players cannot enter the underground HQ.
Alignment also affects the attack ratings you can have and still be federally protected in fed space. At neutral alignment you can park with an attack rating of 3, and the protected rating goes up 1 for every +150 alignment and down 1 for every -150 alignment. You are always protected with an attack rating of zero.
Alignment has a couple of functions, the main ones being for trading purposes and determining which restricted ships and weapons you can buy.
If you are evil (alignment -100 or lower) you can trade evil goods, buy underground ships (Thief, Assasin, Death Cruiser which are all cloaked) and buy the underground level 5 weapon (nuke). If you are neutral (between -99 and 99 alignment) you can become evil by signing up as a gang member at Underground HQ. Evil players cannot enter federal (racial) HQ's.
If you are good (alignment 100 or higher) you can buy federal ships (Federal Discovery, Warrant and Ultimatum which all have jump drive and take half damage from forces) and buy the federal level 5 weapon (holy hand grenade). If you are neutral (between -99 and 99 alignment) you can become good by deputizing at any racial HQ. Good players cannot enter the underground HQ.
Alignment also affects the attack ratings you can have and still be federally protected in fed space. At neutral alignment you can park with an attack rating of 3, and the protected rating goes up 1 for every +150 alignment and down 1 for every -150 alignment. You are always protected with an attack rating of zero.
Weapons
SMR has a wide variety of weapons with which to arm your ships, and information on weapon capabilities can be found here:
http://www.smrealms.de/manual.php?53
There are a few things to consider when choosing weapons, and the weapon combination that works for one player may not be suited to the style or the needs of another.
- Cost. If your resources are limited (especially if you need to sell your weapons each time you log off) then buying the expensive big guns is not always the best choice. If you shop around, you can often get decent firepower relatively cheaply.
- Damage type. Weapon damage is classified by armor/shield damage, and a good weapon setup generally has these pretty evenly balanced. However, be aware that it is sometimes preferable to load up on weapons with a specific damage type in specific circumstances (for example, forces are killed by armor damage weapons so these are preferable for mineclearing).
- Accuracy. Weapon accuracy (modified by trader level) determines how likely it is that your weapon will hit your target on any shot. In ship to ship combat, higher ranked traders get accuracy benefits over their lower ranked opponents. There is (and always has been since the dawn of this game) an ongoing debate about when it is better to use either high accuracy low damage weapons or low accuracy high damage weapons.
- Rating. There are restrictions on how many weapons of certain ratings you are allowed to arm yourself with. Weapon rating is determined by accuracy and damage, and higher is better. You are allowed up to one level 5 weapon, up to 2 level 4 weapons, and up to 3 level 3 weapons.
- Availability.Weapon choice when arming is sometimes determined by the availability of certain weapons. Racial weapons are only available to the owner race or races that have peaceful relations with them; weapons may be sold at weapon shops that are not safely accessible; or the number of turns it would take to acquire all the weapons you would like may be too high.
SMR has a wide variety of weapons with which to arm your ships, and information on weapon capabilities can be found here:
http://www.smrealms.de/manual.php?53
There are a few things to consider when choosing weapons, and the weapon combination that works for one player may not be suited to the style or the needs of another.
- Cost. If your resources are limited (especially if you need to sell your weapons each time you log off) then buying the expensive big guns is not always the best choice. If you shop around, you can often get decent firepower relatively cheaply.
- Damage type. Weapon damage is classified by armor/shield damage, and a good weapon setup generally has these pretty evenly balanced. However, be aware that it is sometimes preferable to load up on weapons with a specific damage type in specific circumstances (for example, forces are killed by armor damage weapons so these are preferable for mineclearing).
- Accuracy. Weapon accuracy (modified by trader level) determines how likely it is that your weapon will hit your target on any shot. In ship to ship combat, higher ranked traders get accuracy benefits over their lower ranked opponents. There is (and always has been since the dawn of this game) an ongoing debate about when it is better to use either high accuracy low damage weapons or low accuracy high damage weapons.
- Rating. There are restrictions on how many weapons of certain ratings you are allowed to arm yourself with. Weapon rating is determined by accuracy and damage, and higher is better. You are allowed up to one level 5 weapon, up to 2 level 4 weapons, and up to 3 level 3 weapons.
- Availability.Weapon choice when arming is sometimes determined by the availability of certain weapons. Racial weapons are only available to the owner race or races that have peaceful relations with them; weapons may be sold at weapon shops that are not safely accessible; or the number of turns it would take to acquire all the weapons you would like may be too high.
Planets and Terrritory.
Except for your ship and what it carries, a planet is the only thing in SMR that you can claim for yourself or your alliance. This means that planets and planet galaxies are often the main focus of the rivalries and wars between alliances.
At the beginning of every game planets are weak and planet galaxies are easily accessible, but as a game progresses planets become stronger (the strongest planets will regularly kill attacking warships even when being attacked by a full fleet) and some galaxies (alliance territory) become heavily fortified by minefields. Planets become parking spots for fully armed warships as well as being used to generate cash, and therefore become attractive targets for enemy alliances.
Kill counts and experience are important measures of success, but many veteran players feel that the only true measure of success in alliance wars is the ability to hold and/or take territory from enemy alliances.
It is important to note that weakly defended planets should NOT be considered safe parking spots.
Except for your ship and what it carries, a planet is the only thing in SMR that you can claim for yourself or your alliance. This means that planets and planet galaxies are often the main focus of the rivalries and wars between alliances.
At the beginning of every game planets are weak and planet galaxies are easily accessible, but as a game progresses planets become stronger (the strongest planets will regularly kill attacking warships even when being attacked by a full fleet) and some galaxies (alliance territory) become heavily fortified by minefields. Planets become parking spots for fully armed warships as well as being used to generate cash, and therefore become attractive targets for enemy alliances.
Kill counts and experience are important measures of success, but many veteran players feel that the only true measure of success in alliance wars is the ability to hold and/or take territory from enemy alliances.
It is important to note that weakly defended planets should NOT be considered safe parking spots.
I often message the whole alliance ingame, and make sure to remind them sometimes that the alliance MB is there.Poca wrote:is there away where you can set it so it send them an alliance message with all of that...i bet half of the newbs wouldnt know how to use the message board or know what it was..
