Level 2 - Colony construction
 

 
Updated: 01.10.2023, 23:25 Uhr by Schatten EMPIRE (50) - URL: game.en.stne.net/Manual.aspx?id=88


Welcome to "SpaceTrek: The New Empire"!


You just colonized your first planet, a Standard Type M Planet. This is your home-colony - each settler can only colonize 1 planet of this type. Later on you will be allowed to colonize other, different planets and asteroids: Moderate-, Water-, Desert-, Ice-, Lava- and Rock-Planets and also 3 kinds of asteroid fields.

You are now on colonisation level 2. Your aim is to increase your level constantly up to the maximum of level 8. With each new level, you get access to new buildings and sometimes also new ships. To increase your colonization level, you have to increase your "Reputation within your Empire"(internal reputation). Your internal Reputation will increase according to your Population, the number of Natural Preserves you create, and the number of environmentalists you employ. The higher your internal reputation, the easier you will find it to keep your population happy and your workers working productively. The "Reputation across the Galaxy" (external reputation) is not important just yet.

Overview:
  1.   Resetting


  2.   Ship overview


  3.   Colony overview


  4.   Increase your colonization level


  5.   Set up your roleplay character


  6.   Explore your environment


  7.   Refuel your ships

    8.
  8.   The Subspace Communication Network (SCN)


  9.   The Future...


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1.   A fresh start (Resetting)


When you first start start out, you will inevitably make mistakes as you learn how to build your colonies. Don't worry about it - if you don't like what you've done, you can start again very easily, and as often as you want. If you select "Preferences" --> "Reset account" then your account will be set back to Colonization level 0, and you can start again, avoiding the mistakes you made last time. Most players will reset at least once early on. So don't be afraid to experiment as you read through this guide and learn the game.


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2.   Ship overview


But first things first. Let's take a look at your ship and your colony. Go to the main menu, and click on "Ships" to go to the Ship Overview screen:

You start the game with a single DY-500 class "Colony ship". Your ship overview shows you where your ship is: in this example, the ship is in Sector 514|503. Your ships start just above your home colony. After the location, you can also see other key pieces of information about your ship. From left to right, these are: the amount of energy the ship has: 50, the amount of deuterium on board (fuel): 123, the number of crew on board: 12, and the amount of food on board: 15. A colony ship can carry up to 20 people, and it allows you create new colonies elsewhere, and 'beam' down goods and people to get them started. "Beaming" down is a well-known mode of transport used in the science-fiction series Star Trek, and it uses energy. Your colony ship can beam 20 goods or 4 crew per unit of energy, to and from the colony.

Remember that on every 'tick' ship crews and colony inhabitants consume food, and ships burn fuel. (Ticks occur at 12, 15, 18, 21 and 23:30 UK time). Every 5 crew on a ship, or inhabitants on a colony will eat 1 unit of food (rounded up - in this case, 12 crew will eat 3 food per tick). And the reactor on your Colony ship will convert deuterium to energy at a rate of 1 fuel to 1 energy. A Colony ship's reactor can generate up to 10 energy per tick, and its solar cells can generate up to 4 energy more if in orbit of a planet. Always make sure your ships and colonies have enough food and deuterium aboard. If there is no fuel, the reactor will not generate energy. If there is no food, energy will be used to run the replicators (1 energy per food needed). But if the ship has no replicators (or no energy to run them) then the crew will abandon ship!

See also:
  Supplying ships  



Now click on the small picture of your Colony ship in the ship summary:

Here you can see the details of your ship. It has a fully intact hull, and its energy bank (EPS) if full so it will not need to charge in the next round/tick. The phaser has not been fired - its heat level is 0. The ship has flown 25 sectors so far, so it can travel another 75 this tick (if it has enough energy to do so). Next you see the ship's galactic position and the number of crew on board. The emergency backup battery is partially charged - 30 energy can be discharged and used if needed. When flying long distances, the ship can fly until its energy runs out, and then unload the spare battery in order to continue flying further. If all energy runs down to 0 or the engines overheat (run out of flight range), then the ship will have to wait for the next tick before it can move again. If energy has run down and there is no fuel aboard, you could be stranded! Parking your ship over planets is often a good idea - the solar cells help to charge EPS by up to 4 additional energy points per tick.

Immediately under the picture of the ship is the picture of your colony. You can rename your colony if you wish (we will come to that later).
To the right of the planet are several controls. The "Leave orbit" button shows you that you are not in space, but are in 'low orbit' around the colony. If you 'Leave Orbit' then you will still be located above your colony, but in 'high orbit' where you can then fly to neighbouring areas. Entering and leaving orbit uses energy.

Next you will see 4 small buttons which allow you, respectively, to scan the colony below, send energy to the colony, and beam goods and crew to the colony, or from it. When you visit another player's colonies, you may sometimes see a fifth orange button - if they have set up a subspace message for incoming ships, you can see it here. Pay attention to these - many colonists broadcast warnings about entering their space!

As you read through the various ship controls you may notice that many of them have '?' question marks beside them. Always pay attention to these as they provide useful reminders and tips. Also remember to refer back to the STNE manual from time to time as you progress.

Now, you will have noticed that your ship contains further sections of information that were not show above. We'll come to these next.

Just above the ""Information and Controls"" section that we have covered, there is a section called ""Helm Control and Long Range Sensors (LRS)"". The map shows the planets and sectors of space immediately around your ship, and the Long Range Sensors - or LRS - show you any nearby sensor contacts. Numbers in each box indicate how many ships (signatures) were detected by your LRS. Since you start with a Colony Ship and an Eagle class fighter, and there is (probably) nobody else nearby, the centre sector in your LRS map will most likely show "2" meaning the signatures of your own ships.

Immediately after ""Information and Controls"", you will find the ""Short Range Sensors (SRS)"". These displayed other ships that are in the same sector or orbit as you. If there are no other objects nearby, the display remains blank. If another ship is displayed, you can interact with it using a row of buttons similar to those shown above next to the colony. You can scan ships, send them energy, beam goods to and from them. Depending on the situation, you may also be able to send them messages, fire at them, engage tractor beam, and on on. If you send a message to a ship, the message will be sent to its owner. If you see a "debris field" next to your ship, it is a wreck. You can scan wrecks, and sometimes you may find there are goods you can recover or even escape pods containing crew needing rescue. (Escape pods can be recovered and then beamed to Federation Starbases - this will improve your Internal Reputation).
Short range sensors can be turned on or off. They will reveal the presence of nearby ships even when off, but if you want to interact with any nearby ship or colony, they must be on.

The last section of your ship display is ""Miscellaneous"". This section includes details of your cargo (if any). You should generally aim to keep some food and deuterium aboard - you can see how much you're carrying here. The Cargo Bay heading shows the total capacity of the cargo bay, and the amount of free space remaining. Over time, if you have food and fuel aboard, these will gradually be used up automatically and will need replenishing.

Finally... that self-destruct button? Don't worry about it. It requires confirmation using specific command code sequences, so clicking on it will never destroy your ship by accident.


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3.   Colony overview


Now click on the image of the planet to view your home colony directly. This will show you the surface of your colony, which is divided into 10 x 5 individual areas of different kinds. Hover your mouse cursor over each field to get a brief explanation of the different buildings and types of terrain. You will see meadows, forests, forests with natural parks, farms, solar cells, 1 base camp, as well as empty ice, water and desert areas.

The Base Camp is the central facility of the colony - click on the base camp to transfer energy to your ship in orbit, to beam goods to or from the ship, and to allocate "Beam Protection points". Beam Protection Points (or BPPs) protect your goods against theft by foreign vessels in your orbit.

At the top of your colony view you can see your population. There two numbers, e.g. 13/13, indicate your current population, and the housing capacity available. Click the question mark beside them to view the help text. If the number of inhabitants equals the housing available, there is no room for more so immigration will be zero. Inhabitants of colonies can have different jobs - you can see these in the "settings". Inhabitants can only be assigned to some jobs if certain buildings have been constructed first (e.g. scientists need research centres).

Your second aim will be to start developing your colony. Start with more housing, so that you can grow your population. Population can be beamed down from your colony ship, or you can wait and they will immigrate. However, for population to immigrate (and stay) there must be enough food to feed them. Building farms will create +4 additional housing, and will generate +2 food per tick - enough to feed 10 people. Once there is space and food available for people, they will start to arrive. It might be quicker, however, for you to beam them down from your colony ship. You only need 5 crew on board your colony ship most of the time.

After population you can see your colony's energy level - Current/Maximum, and the amount of energy that will be gained or lost per tick. Colonies EPS work differently from ships - buildings consume energy when they are online, and you can build a variety of energy sources. If your display shows, for example, 5/7 +2 then this means that your energy reserve is 5 units out of a maximum of 7, and that you are generating 2 units of energy more than you are consuming every tick. Excess energy is stored each tick and is used to beam goods to and from ships, to recharge ships, or for constructing more buildings.

As you construct buildings (you should follow the tutorial when you start out), you will need more energy. Initially, you will only be able to build Solar Cells, but later on you gain access to more efficient energy sources.

Below the population and EPS is your colony map. The space squares are 'orbital' spaces. You will be able to build orbital satellites and defences there later.

Further down, below the map is your colony storage readout. On the left it shows you how much storage you have used, and on the right it shows how much space is left. Initially your Base Camp will be providing you a small amount of space (150). You will want to expand this by building a Storage Compound. These store both goods and energy, increasing the free space available and the colony's maximum EPS.

Below the storage heading is are rows showing all the goods you have on the planet. The figures on the left show your current stocks. The figures on the right show how much of these goods you are producing or consuming. Your farms will be producing food but your population will be eating it. If you have 3 farms producing 6 food, and you have population of, say, 20 eating 4 food, then your storage will be showing you +2 food per tick.

Remember that you will need steel on your colony for buildings. When you start, you are given a small amount of steel to start you off. Make sure that you build yourself a steel factory before you use up all of your steel on other things!

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4.   Increase your colonization level


When you start, you have access to a limited set of buildings, but you can gain access to more advanced structures by rising through the levels. Your third aim, and one of the first things that the tutorial will show you how to do, is to apply to increase your colonization level. Each increase (up to maximum level 8) gives you access to more technology.
Click on the "Help" option in the main menu. Then choose "Apply for higher level". (You can also do this from the "Main Screen"). If your internal reputation is sufficiently high, you will be promoted to the next colonization level. You can read more about different colonization levels here: [colonization levels].

In order to gain levels you will need to increase your internal reputation. You can do this by building "Nature Preserves" on vacant wooded areas. When you have built a Nature Preserve, you'll receive 10 internal reputation immediately, and +1 reputation per tick. Once you have a nature preserve, you can assign unemployed colonists as Environmentalists - each will give you a +0.2 reputation bonus per tick.

For a preview of the new and interesting buildings available at each new level, see the "Database" --> "Levels & Buildings" option.

Help is also available from the Federation which supplies you with various free ships, and you can also choose a "First Step Manager" who will act as a mentor, and can advise you personally as you progress through the game.

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5. Set up your roleplay character


"Space Trek: The New Empire" (STNE) is an economic simulation, a strategy game, and a role play game (RPG).

Your fourth aim is to choose your own identify. Take a moment to imagine who you are, and what you're doing in the Delta Quadrant. Are you an explorer, seeking a new life on the frontiers of space? Perhaps you're a refugee or criminal, fleeing from war or the forces of justice. Or you represent a local race that has only just achieved warp flight. Once you have some ideas your 4th aim is to choose an appropriate name for yourself (you can change it anytime in "Preferences"), and fill out a description of yourself and your background. There is no requirement to do this, but many players like to do so, and some will relate to you and RP with you better if you give them some hints on who your character is and how you plan to play.


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6. Explore your environment


Your fifth aim should be to explore your surroundings and make friendly contact with your neighbors. Go to your colony ship and leave orbit. Now click the"Stellar cartography" button next to the LRS map: it will open a new browser window with the star map. Scroll down and set the displayed width and height so that the visible portion of the map fits neatly in your browser ("full screen" is recommended). From the little pull-down menu below the map, choose "ship signatures" and click on "Show". Now you have a map of the local area, with a gray box around the location of your ship. Hover the mouse pointer over the various symbols on the map for information on planets, nebulae and various types of spatial anomaly. Each box represents a sector of 1 x 1 light year.

Be careful as you fly around - you should avoid nebulae for now, and fly only in empty space or visit planets. Some nebulae are dangerous or even fatal, or cause loss of energy. Refer to the "Database" --> "Starmap Legend" or the manual ([Spatial anomalies]) for full details on the various environments you will encounter in space.

In stellar cartography you can choose alternative views of the galaxy ("View Map (Dynamic)" or "ViewMap (standard)"). Try these out to get a feel for the layout of the galaxy on a wider scale.


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7. Refuel your ships


Your colony ship needs deuterium which the reactor uses to generate up to 10 energy per tick. Whenever your stock of deuterium on board gets low (below 50) you need to obtain more. Your Colony ship has Bussard Collectors which enabled it to collect deuterium. The best places to collect deuterium are inside the red deuterium nebulae; collecting deuterium requires energy so don't leave it until you have already run out. You can absorb more fuel per unit of energy in a dense deuterium nebula than a sparse nebula but note that in dense nebulae, your sensors - SRS and LRS - will fail. You can turn them on again, but they will fail again after the next tick. Turning sensors on uses 1 energy each time.

You can collect deuterium by clicking on "Bussard collectors" and choosing how much energy to use to collect deuterium. In the ("Information & Controls" section of your ship display, you will see a ""Gas Density"" readout. That tells you how much deuterium you will get per energy used. Your colony ship has a +1 bonus, so in a Dense Deuterium Nebula, with gas density 5, your colony ship will gather 6 deuterium per energy used. Note, you need to have free space in your cargo bay to hold the deuterium once collected.

Note that you can get free ships from the Federation which are specialised deuterium collectors. They do not have solar panels whereas your Colony Ship does. So your Colony Ship is best used as a cargo transport, so that your deuterium tankers can stay in the dense red nebula, while your colony ship travels back and forth, and recharges over your planet where it can use its solar panels to collect extra energy free.

Different planets allow ships with solar cells to gather different amounts of extra energy per tick:

If you plan to leave your colony ship in orbit of your planet for some time, it may be worth turning off the LRS and shields. The energy saved per tick from not running them could then be freely transferred to the colony or to other ships.

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8. Subspace Communication Network (SCN)


Now click on the "Communication" link in the main menu:

The four channels above are all publicly accessble and have specific purposes and rules.

The Main channel is where settlers can publish general policy statements and other announcements. Inside you will see the current political debates and conflicts going on between the settlers in the Delta Quadrant. After a while you will begin to get a handle on the relationships between individual settlers and even entire alliances. Later, you will probably publish your own announcements here.

In the example above, a bookmark has been set in the Main Channel. This helps you keep track of what you have read and what you have not. If you set a bookmark (view the channel and click the "Bookmark" button on one of the posts), then you can jump straight to that post later. The number of new messages will only show new messages since your bookmark. It's difficult to keep up with all the latest posts without using bookmarks (or reading everything several times!).
The Main Channel is set to Roleplay=yes. This means that you should not make reference to terms like "channels", "players", or "ticks", but instead say "subspace frequencies", "settlers/colonists", and "cycles/time units" and so on.

The Archive of historical documents is just like the first channel, except that instead of current announcements, this is for settlers to publish reports, their background stories, and so on. Players often role play here, sometimes in multiple installments.

The S.O.S. Emergency channel is an RPG channel where ships and colonies can make Mayday transmissions seeking help from anyone nearby. Ships that have become stranded, perhaps after falling foul of some [spatial anomaly], will often publish coordinates here in the hope that another settler can send a ship to the rescue.

The last channel Game help, does not require RPG. This is for asking questions about how the game works. Please keep your questions as specific and clear as possible, and more experienced players will try to answer them. The bookmark feature is especially useful here if you want to return to your own question later, to see if there has been an answer. Most questions are answered quickly. For more detailed and complex questions, please post in the STNE Forum using the button below.
  STNE-Forum  

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9.   The Future...


It's time for your new empire to make its way into the galaxy! Good luck!


---> See also:
  Supplying ships  
  Colonization Levels  
  STNE Forum: http://forum.uk.stne.net/  


Continue to the next section:

  "Level 4 - Extentions" Level 4 - Extension  


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