FEDERATION OF FREE TRADERS PLAYTING GUIDE ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ First things first: the objective is to score in excess of 9,000 points and thus reach the highest rank possible, progressing from humble Cadet through Commander to Admiral. Shooting hostiles scores points. However there are over 32 different types of craft to be found, all of differing degrees of intelligence and aggression. Don't antagonise - just fight to survive. The best way to earn points is to embark on and complete one of the 15 different missions. The higher your rank,the tougher the mission, and the tougher the mission, the greater the reward. Before you can buy anything, you need money. You start with a mere 150 credits, so proficient trading is the order of the day. Use the money to improve your ship, and the better your ship, the better your chance of rising through the ranks. Bear in mind: there's a one per cent handling charge on all purchases of equipment, so don't look too surprised when you get stung for more than you thought. MISSIONS IMPOSSIBLE ------------------- Press f8 to access the on-board computer, and at the prompt type 'NET'. Once in the net, press 'T' and when the message "Enter user to transmit to" appears, enter 'FOFT' [CR]. Federation Hq will now give you details of your mission. Note ALL the details and keep them to hand. The numbers will be of use when you access the navigation computer to plot your course. Now press 'Q' to leave galnet followed by 'QUIT' to leave EDI and get back to your view-screen. A brief explanation of the first eight missions.... 1) Take a message to a specified system for 50 creds. 2) Proceed to a specified system and contact HQ for further instructions for 10 creds. 3) Patrol a specified system and destroy any hostiles, but do not engage any unidentified ships for 100 creds. 4) Escort a convoy to a specified system then report back for 100 creds. 5) Rendezvous with a convoy at a specified system then escort it to another specified system for 100 creds. 6) Search for a lost ship in a specified system and recover any survivors for 100 creds. 7) Investigate strange losses in a specified system then report back for 150 creds. 8) Destroy a defective satellite in a specified system for 100 creds. The other seven missions will have to make a secret for the time being.... SETTING A COURSE ---------------- The galactic map has some keys to please.... The joystick is used to spin the galaxy. HELP - Galaxy map Zoom in. DEL - Galaxy map Zoom out. CURSOR KEYS - Move crosshair. RETURN - Lock course. D - Decode planet statistics. S - Short range scan. SPACE - Exit. Press f6 to activate the navigation computer and view the spiral galaxy. A highlighted route is displayed if there is a mission to perform. Press D for a schematic view of the system you are about to visit. Usefull information is shown to the left of this display, So make use of this if you intend to trade with the locals upon arrival. Press the space bar to return to your view screen. The joystick is used to rotate the map and adjust your position. To lock onto a course press RETURN. If you cant lock onto a course,its due to the distance between you and your target. Either you dont have enough fuel, or your engines aren't capable of such a big jump. Trade on the Net to earn enough money for fuel or to buy bigger engines. If money is a real problem cut your journey into smaller stages. The cursor keys move the white crosshair on the galaxy display. Once locked on course press SPACE to look out of your cockpit,open the hangar doors by pressing BACKSPACE if docked and finally H to enter hyperspace. (tip: Dont aim at a planet when hyperspacing..You tend to DIE!) PAY ATTENTION... ---------------- ...To all planetary information as it's essential to trading, for example... o A planet with a high government or law level is not the best place to sell weapons. o Planets with high populations will always need food - especially those of a small diameter. o Mining communities are your best bet for cheap ores and minerals. o Planets with little or no atmosphere are unlikely to support humanoid lifeforms - other than the military who are always interested in spare organs. o High populations would suggest races of robots. (who obviously dont need food). o Little or no water on a planet means that chances are there's a healthy market for agricultural goods as the natives cant grow food. o Buy hi-tech equipment from hi-tech planets and sell them to lo-tech planets. RADAR ROMPS ----------- The coloured stalks on the radar show what is at the location in question. The following should help you distinguish the good from the bad. WHITE - Space station,or convoy member. GREY - Satellite or unknown. RED - Hostile. BLUE - Unknown. TELEPHONE NUMBERS ----------------- When aimed at a spaceship (friendly) a number appears to the left of the screen. Note this down,access the net and transmit,at the prompt to who, type this number for a chat,and black market trading with others. THE DILITHIUM CRYSTALS CANNAE TAKE IT CAPTAIN! ---------------------------------------------- Damage control is the place to be when things are going wrong. Remember, repairs take time, and time is money. You can always buy some more efficient droids (finances permitting),but at the end of the day effective droid management is of the essence (i.e. dont put too many droids on one job). Better still avoid getting damaged in the first place. The Keys? here you are then... f7 - Activate the damage control screen. RETURN - Activate the selector. + - Add free droid to the highlighted system. - - Remove droid from the highlighted system. CRSR UP/DN - Move highlight. SPACE - Exit. READY EDI --------- Stay in the space station for protection and access galnet (press f8 to activate EDI,the ships computer,and type NET (RETURN) at the ready prompt ). At the welcome prompt type HELP (RETURN) and enter your name when asked. The reply to the 'NEW GAME' prompt is irrelevant if you have just loaded a game. However, if you are mid-game a 'YES' response terminates your game in favour of a new one. Once you have been given your ID number, the net's yours to explore and exploit. Available commands are then listed by pressing the H key. The option to download only works if you know the name of the file you wish to download. This information is only found out by playing the game. NOT SO FREE TRADING ------------------- When conversing with other traders, dont call them names. Its a good idea to mention trading in some form "Do you want to TRADE/BUY/SELL" is a good question to ask. BLACK MARKET ------------ Black market items to look out for include: Class 4 missiles,Towels,Mega-blasters (huge planet busting ghetto blasters), Digital watches,SIMPLE manuals (and you need them) and mega-gin (plus other assorted intoxicating substances). Note: Whatever you do DO NOT buy GPP ROBOTS,No-one will buy these from you, and you are stuck with them! --THE EARL-- FAST BUCKS ---------- To make money quickly buy,then sell almost immediately. Look for something fairly cheap and then buy it in bulk so that the market has no other supply except you, Wait for a few seconds for the price to rise and then sell,sell SELL (for a reasonable price). But remember theres a 1% handling charge,so your profit may not be as large as intended. DOCKING ------- The quickest way to dock is this: zoom in or out on the radar until you see a white line. Fly towards it at full speed. When you are in range a light on the panel will flash,indicating you should activate the docking computer. PLANET ------ The fastest way to land on a planet is to dock with a space station then launch immediately. Pull back (down) on the stick and line up with the planet. The space station will allow you to time skip when you leave it. Why do you need to land? for trading prices or because a mission demands it. LANDING ------- Practice makes perfect so try this when you first begin the game: press Backspace to leave the space station, use the ALT key to reduce your speed (shown to the right of your heads up display) from 020 to 000. you are now stationary (a negative number means you are in reverse). At the bottom left of the screen is your attitude adviser. The arrow heads show the position of the nearest docking station or planet. There should be only one arrow head pointing down. Push forward (up) on the joystick to tilt the crafts nose down. Shortly you should be facing the planet. The attitude adviser becomes a diamond when you are on course. increase your speed to 010 then hold down the J key to time skip - unless enemy craft are present,in which case you should enter navigation computer, lock on course to the intended planet and then return to the main view and engage the hyperspace engines. watch the attitude adviser in case you drift off course. The screen should turn red with the heat as you enter the atmosphere. Use that attitude adviser to line up with the runway and when you are over it, point the nose down into a shallow drive. If everything is safe,the on-board systems will take over and land the ship for you. It takes time to reach a runway. Should you miss it,your best bet is to pull back and leave the atmosphere before attempting re-entry. You can either fly high and safe or low and dangerously. Keep level at roughly the height shown,then when the need to shoot something arises,tap forward (up) to briefly dip the nose and move the cursor to the floor and fire. Now pull up - PULL UP! GENERAL TIPS: COMBAT -------------------- Install a third weapons system as soon as finances permit. Use missiles whenever possible. Drones are usefull. When in direct combat shoot your way through your weapons system. If all else fails RUN FOR IT. TIME SKIP --------- The time skip function is tied to speed at which you travel. Flying at 0 and using the time skip wont get you anywhere. Travel at full speed for maximum effect. Also bear in mind that space stations actually stop time skipping. HOW TO BUY ANYTHING ON THE BLACK MARKET FOR 1 CREDIT. Load the game. Enter the net. Type help, and get yourself an id number. Logoff the net. Press the backspace at the bay doors. Blast off into space, and find a spaceship for you to trade with and get his I.D. number. Enter the net, logon, and press T and return. You should be now in communication mode with the alien. Say hello, have a chat, keep pressing a key or whatever until he offers you some goods, such as Hypermint for example. At the prompt, straight after he has offered you something to buy, enter '1' (without quotes) and press return. He will say something like no chance, or sign off. logoff. Now everything you BUY or SELL, you will BUY or SELL it for 1 credit, even if you put 100 credits as an offer, you will still BUY or SELL it for 1 credit. This only applies to BLACK MARKET trading, it will not work at a planet or space station. Try it. press T and return to talk to the alien again. Say hello, keep pressing a key until he offers YOU something. eg, Eh Guvnor, I have some business, do you want to buy some excellent Bath towels ?? I couldn't let them go for less than 1100 credits, what do you say ? Now a prompt comes up again as normal. >Y Enter 'Y' as above and press return. He will now say something like 'You have been done mate' or 'Thanks, bye' Look at your inventory, and at the end you will see 'TOWELS', now check your credits, and you will see that you have 149 credits left. HOW TO SELL ANY OF YOUR GOODS FOR LOADS OF MONEY Now here is the clincher, how to get rich quick using the above method. press T and return to talk to the alien again. Now keep at him until he offers you something. eg, Listen, I'm a businessmen and I have got some Exquatle Hypermint that I couldn't let got for less than 2000 credits ? Make me an offer. Enter a large number, larger than the offer above, say '200000' and press return. He will say, you have insufficent funds, and logoff. Now when you BUY or SELL anything, you will be buying/selling it for '200000'. It is like a counter, that the programmers have forgot to reset so that you can make it equal anything, is it a bug or what ? Now, press T and return, to talk to the alien, make certain that you have got something to sell. Keep pestering him, until he says something like, 'Have you got anything to trade'. Tell him what you have got, say 'BATH TOWELS' for example. Now he says something like, 'name your price' Enter 10 and press return. It doesn't matter what you enter, as it is set at 200000 anyway. Now logoff and check your credits, you should have something like 200149 credits, wow, go splash out on all that new weapons and stuff. BUT DON'T FORGET, IF YOU WANT TO BUY ANYTHING OFF OF HIM, YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE TOP ROUTINE, TO GET THE COUNTER BACK TO 1 CREDIT. The top routine, is only to be used in BUYING, as it is no good trying to buy something, when it is set at 200000 eh ?? Likewise, the bottom routine is only used for SELLING, as you are a bit stupid if you try to sell your wares for 1 credit !! I hope you have understood the above method, fi you haven't, you want shooting !! Anyway, it makes FOFT easier to explore anyway.