Próby stworzenia strony poświęconej wyłącznie mrocznym elfom w dużej mierze kończyły się fiaskiem. Już powstałe witryny zawierają zwykle informacje przedrukowywane z jednej strony na drugą, często już nieaktualne a niekiedy wręcz błędne, chociaż ciężko posądzić dane osoby o celowe wprowadzenie zamieszania.

Ta miałkość sprawia jednak, że zwykły gracz posługuje się hasłami takimi jak Lolth wprost z Wikipedii. Na początek jest to zawsze coś, ale potem łapiemy się na tym, że to trochę za mało, by móc prowadzić wyraziste kampanie bez potrzeby zaopatrywania się w drogie podręczniki czy książki, które – jeśli brać pod uwagę ostatnią edycję – nie grzeszyły polskimi tłumaczeniami. Stąd też powstał pomysł Domu Yauntyrr.

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Abstrahując od tego, nie poddałem się i w końcu, dzięki pomocy redakcji portalu GameExe , od czwartku wystartował DY. Jest to strona poświęcona mrocznym elfom w całości, więc nie bedę się ograniczał do wąskiego pojmowania drowów jako fanatyków oddanych Lolth, którzy biegną do boju i zawsze ponoszą porażki. Plany są ambitne, ale od czegoś trzeba zacząć. Na początek więc opisy trech miast, jednego bóstwa i istot znanych jako Quth-maren. Kolejne aktualizacje ostatecznie podzielą zawartość strony wedle takich kategorii jak m.in miasta, zwyczaje, bóstwa, ekwipunek czy historia.

Strona jest już dostępna pod tym adresem . Chętnych do współtworzenia tego miejsca zapraszam do kontaktu ze mną. Wszak jedyne takie miejsce w internecie powinno być czymś, co przyniesie nam powód do dumy. A jej pomysłodawcy łaskę Lolth kiedyś, kiedy przyjdzie stanąć przed jej obliczem…

Tak pisze Courun Yauntyrr na swoim blogu na Polterze. Mogę z czystym sumieniem polecić stronkę i powiedzieć, że mam nadzieję, że uda mi się dogadać z autorem tej długo wyczekiwanej przeze mnie strony w kwestii współpracy.

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Istnieje znakomity MUD osadzony w świecie Forgotten Realms (Zapomniane Krainy). Ma on swój własny klient oparty na Java dla tych, którzy nie mogą sobie poradzić z aplikacją Windowsa. Jedyną wadą jest fakt, którym się zmaga cały ten gatunek – malejąca popularność. *Ty* możesz jednak ją zwiększyć, dołączając do gry. Nie jest wymagana wcześniejsza znajomość Forgotten Realms, chociaż jest ona zalecana. Niektóre kanoniczne wydarzenia miały miejsce, inne nie…. a to ty możesz stać się bohaterem Forgotten Kingdoms!

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Forgotten Kingdoms

2. Arcean System, Drengi System, First Invasion and Sirius System being put back in

3. Change the startup screen so that it doesn’t ask about the Nexus (it fools newbies into thinking the game REQUIRES you to be online to play offline)

4. Emperor renamed Lord and a rank of Emperor created at 750,000 prestige (half-way between the current Emperor rank and the Deity rank).

5. Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty setting, regarding AI behavior.

6. Warp the player to the starting point automatically upon victory (otherwise he’s usually surrounded by enemies immediately)

7. Autosave upon victory

8. Shuffle “summon all available lower rank pilots to join your fleet (high priority)” command to some other sequence of keys. Ctrl + Shift + j is a little cluttery, moreover it’s the only command that requires three keys to be pressed.

Stellar Frontier Tips and Tricks for Mid-Level Players
– Instalment Two —
7th January, 2001.

Flt. Adm. -Phoenix-
Fleet Command – H.O.P.E. & J.F.L.

:::Improving Your Kill Count:::

Kill count is simply a measure of how many enemy ships (including colonies and starbases) that you have destroyed. Roaming around the galaxy, looking to pick off enemy ships is not a good way to improve your kill count. Rushing into battles and not worrying about getting killed is also a bad idea. The AI system is set up in a way such that it responds to enemy activity. When you want to improve your kill count, and destroy a few hundred enemy ships in a short while, your need to get a steady stream of ships coming your way. This can be achieved by annoying your enemy, and making them believe that you are a serious threat. Attack colonies, and attack (or better yet, destroy) their starbases. The enemy AIs will respond, and will come streaming toward you. Be careful not to get killed however – if you do, then the enemy will think that the threat has been nullified, and all will return to normal. As your active kill count increases, the enemy AIs will get more and more angry with you, thus enabling you to rapidly increase your kill count.

:::Improving Your Game Score:::

Points are awarded for destroying enemies, colonising, capturing enemy ships (huge bonuses apply for capturing starbases) and conquering planets by blockading. During a game, you are awarded bonuses for the part that you have played in your side’s conquest of the system. When your side wins the game, you get an end of game bonus (usually between 100 and 5000 points), which depends on your bonus. Unfortunately, none of the players appear to know exactly how your game bonus is calculated, but the afore-mentioned things usually improve your end of game bonus. The short of this is, that you should actively colonise aggressively, win at least two to three games in a row in any one session, and do all this often, and your game score will move in leaps and bounds.

:::Tips and Tricks for Colonization:::

Dropping a friendly colony on a planet is not the only way of winning it over to your side. Blockading a planet is the alternative, and is often useful a useful technique for Pirates. Blockading involves orbiting a planet until that planet’s supplies run out, and they surrender to you. Not all planets can be successfully conquered by blockading – some planets do not need external supply, and are self-supporting. You can check a planet by reading the information on their navigational display. The easy way to do this is to orbit the planet, press N, and then read the letter in the bottom corner. An S indicates that the planet is self-supporting, and a B indicates that it can be blockaded. Once you have found it to be “blockadeable”, the following procedure will allow you to conquer the planet:

1.)                       Begin by checking the planet to see that it is not self-supporting.

2.)                   Be careful when orbiting an enemy planet, because the AIs treat this as an attack; the colony will begin to fire upon you, and enemy ships will come to its rescue.

3.)                       Continue to orbit around the planet, blockading the planet. You will see the supply readout on that planet’s navigational display gradually drop.

4.)                   Be careful that you don’t drift out of orbit, continue pressing O to maintain a tight loop around the planet.

5.)                   To avoid a constant barrage of enemy fire, you will probably need at least one friendly vessel to help you take care of any unwelcome visitors, and to keep the colony on the planet from firing at you. While orbiting, it will be very difficult for you to use weapons.

6.)                       When the planets supply hits 0% they will surrender, and they will turn to your race. Note that the colony’s population will remain the same.

7.)                   If you are lagging heavily, and you find that when you re-sync the supply for the planet jumps back up again by twenty or more percent, give up and use other methods – this is one thing which you need small lag in order to achieve.

If you are using colonies to drop onto planets, there are some tricks that you may find useful. Any game has an upper limit for the maximum number of colonies that can be in play at any one time – this is why the “Colony Available” sign on a planet will switch off when you obtain a new colony from it. If you take as many colonies from one planet as you can in the space of a few seconds, then you will quickly take up the full quota, thereby denying the enemy of any colonising activity while you get to work yourself. Be careful with this, because your friendly AIs are stupid, and often send the colonies that you created to their doom.

If you find an AI with a colony that you would prefer to take, you can steal their colony in the following way:

1.)                       Tractor the friendly ship, which is dragging the friendly colony, and dock with it. They will most likely immediately undock with you.

2.)                       When you dock with the friendly ship, it will have to let go of the colony.

3.)                       Before they have a chance to regain the colony, be sure to tractor and dock with it yourself.

Do not use Minor colonies for colonisation – they have little to no defensive capabilities. You may want to go one step further, and remove all Minor colonies from the moons of your planets when you start a new game. In addition to colony type, you should also consider colony size. Each planet which gives up colonies, will give colonies of a specific size. Usually in each system, only two or three planets give colonies of a decent size (starting at 500 million). It is important that you know which ones these are, and only use these for colonisation (and make sure they have Major colonies on them). If you are unsure of what size colonies a planet will give; the population count for a colony given by a planet is equal to ten percent of that planet’s optimal population figure (optimal population is shown in the navigational display).

Another source for large colonies is existing colonies themselves. Entire groups of planets and moons can be rapidly colonised by taking one friendly colony with a population in excess of five billion, and just dropping it one planet at a time, each time conquering the enemy forces. (To pick up a colony directly from a planet, simply use your tractor beam). You should be very careful when doing this, because enemy AIs quickly respond to an empty planet, and will rush to colonise it while you are trying to move the gigantic colony across space. You should be especially careful when human players are around, as the elite players are always on the lookout for empty planets. The AI behaviour for colonising empty planets can also be used for your advantage, however. When you clear out a group of enemy colonies by successively moving and dumping a huge colony on top of them, your friendly AIs will also rush to colonise the newly vacated planets. As long as you make sure that the enemy does not re-take the planets, this method can be the quickest – even if not the most secure – way of winning a game.

Finally – when you are nearing the end of a game and have captured nearly all planets, keep an eye on the timer (press R to access the census display). When the timer hits zero, and the game resets, you do not want to be attached to a starbase or colony, as they tend to blow up, often destroying your own ship.

—End of Instalment Two.—

Stellar Frontier Tips and Tricks for Mid-Level Players
— Instalment One —

Flt. Adm. -Phoenix-
Fleet Command – H.O.P.E. & J.F.L.

:::Preliminary Remarks:::

After getting used to the general idea of SF, and getting accustomed to flying around, engaging in battles, colonizing, etc., players generally begin to become interested in playing for the purpose of gaining higher ranks. The aim of this guide is to assist players with techniques for improving their game score, and their kill count, which are the two primary factors in determining a player’s rank.

Over the coming weeks I shall be submitting a group of instalments on tips and tricks, each time focusing on specific topics.

:::Tips and Tricks for Refitting:::
Refitting your ship with the right equipment for the task that you wish to carry out is an essential skill in SF. You will very quickly learn that even an un-refitted Dreadnaught is no match for a properly refitted Scout. The exact combination of equipment you may choose can vary greatly, as can your choice of craft – there is no one “winning” combination which will always defeat any other vessel – some of the highest-ranking players in the game use Destroyers or even Scouts, and others, such as myself, use Dreadnaughts. No matter whether you choose to aim for speed, for high shields, or for great fire-power, make sure that you are aware of your decision, and that it is in line with what you wish to do in the game. For example, Destroyers are often very useful in colonisation, because of their great speed, allowing you to move colonies faster than in the larger (and slower) ships.

You should sell equipment that you don’t want, and replace it with equipment that you do. Do sell a piece of equipment to a starbase, press <Shift>-\. To scroll through the entire list for new equipment that you may purchase from a starbase, press <Shift>-<Enter>. If there is an opponent who is using guided missiles against you, you can use this method to pick up a new counter-measures device, or perhaps a cloaking device.

If you are short of cash (and lets face it, those shield sixes or boost threes aren’t cheap) you may want to try the following trick to quickly gain credits: 1. Downgrade your equipment at a starbase to gain credits. 2. Pick up some equipment from power-ups at a large planet. 3. Go back to a starbase, and sell off the equipment you picked up. 4. Repeat this until you have enough credits for what you want. This usually works very fast for me – I tend to wait till I get a shield 6, drop down to a shield 1 at a starbase, get another shield 6, sell it, etc. and after doing this five or six times I have plenty of money.

Okay, so the question remains on what weapons to purchase. I have personally found no useful role for the standard issue Mass Drivers found in ships. If anything, at least upgrade them to Plasma Torpedoes (this includes Stingers and Disruptors, although I will be referring to weapons by their Terran equivalents). Plasma Torps are the most versatile weapons in the game – many of the elite players use these as their staple weapon, often filling all five weapon bays on a Dread with these. Using five sets of Plasma Torps means that if one of your shots connects with an enemy, chances are that the rest will, too, however it also means that pressing the space-bar three times will probably deplete all your power resources. Some players, including myself, tend to use only their rear weapon bay for Plasma Torps. This allows them to send a steady stream of fire towards an enemy (similar to how starbases fire), and by using the rear bay, they can use the mouse to fire backwards (directional firing shall be covered later in this paper).

As for other weapons, Flames are extremely useful against enemy colonies. Installing any more than three Flame II weapons is pretty much a waste of time, because your ship will constantly be running out of power, and your Flames will be running at less than their full capacity anyway. I find that Rapids are extremely useful in combating enemies from afar. Rapids are probably the most under-appreciated weapon in the game, however despite the fact that they aren’t as powerful as Plasma Torps their great speed assists in compensating for a slow ship. Grenades are a weapon which mid-level players believe are used for packing a powerful punch at an enemy. This is one of the uses for Grenades, but by no means the only use. Grenades can often be used to “blow away” enemy fire. A possible scenario could be where: 1. An enemy engages, and sends a volley of torpedoes your way. 2. You respond by firing a grenade, and exploding it between you and the enemy vessel, “blowing away” their torpedoes. 3. Before they have enough time to regain power from their previous fire, you can fire your own weapons at them. As a side issue, the use of Grenade threes is considered to be in bad taste by most players. They are extremely powerful, and are too easy to use, and newbie players often have difficulties in avoiding total destruction when a G3 explodes nearby.

There is a great variety of weapons that I have not mentioned here. You should experiment for yourself to find the weapons that you are comfortable with. Once you find that combination, install it on the ships you fly, and lock in your weapons by selecting them on your Status display, and then pressing the backslash key, to avoid having them upgraded. Be careful when a game resets, or when you re-sync with a server, because you can often lose the system lock settings for your ship.

One more thing – five weapon bays are a lot. If you have a Dreadnaught, consider using a mixture of different weapons. Don’t forget though, that Scouts have three weapon bays, and three sets of torpedoes is often quite enough to do some damage.

— End of Instalment One. —

Newbie Guide:.

[resource taken from Anaxian Research & Fabrication Institute]

Introduction

The game comes with a comprehensive guide. The official guide is very good. It has good tips for beginners at the end. This playing guide will make more sense after you have read the official guide. Because the game grew faster than its documentation, you may find this essay based on one player’s perceptions offers an additional mix of useful tactics and tips to help you more quickly get up and enjoying playing Stellar Frontier. There’s plenty more where this came from, and questions, comments and suggestions will be gladly and gratefully received by the author, Anaxis, at anaxis@stellarfrontier.com. If this essay proves to be helpful to you, please be kind to other new players and pass on these tips and those you discover on your own.

Object of the game

You are accumulating credits and points toward ever bigger and better ships and components.

Your “credits” spend at your Starbase to upgrade your ship’s weapons and other features.

Your points *and* your credits qualify you for promotion to higher ranks.

Higher ranks get you bigger ships. (An announced but not implemented feature: buying the Stellar Aces will get you ships not otherwise available.)

To get promotions, you have to get two things: kills and “points”, not to be confused with “credits” which are what you use to buy better ship components at Starbases. All three (kills, points and credits) are important to you.

You get the most points (anywhere from 50 – 1000, depending on how much work you did) by being on the winning side of a game “win”. You get a few points (anywhere from 3 – 20) and also credits when you kill an enemy ship or successfully conquer an enemy planet.

A game win is when one race “conquers the system” as the message reads when it happens. In general, you plant colonies on vacant worlds and asteroids until your side has the magic number (Press R to see a screen that summarizes the race to conquest by colonizing). You can get “points” for other things in the game, I see them from time to time, but I don’t understand this part and it’s not significant compared to “conquering the system”. Press Shift + R to see how the Rank / Promotion ladder works – you need both the kill number and the points (“TS”) number to advance. When you get promoted, you get a message (upper left corner of screen) saying you are promoted and can proceed to nearest Starbase to upgrade your ship.

Colonizing

Your ship needs its Tractor for this operation. To pick up a colony you orbit a planet that says planet available, press J and a colony is generated and attached to your ship. Pressing J again will increase the population of your colony if the planet can spare the colonists for you. Now you are ready to carry it to its destination. You can press N, then parse through the possible destinations with the , and . keys, and click “conquer” on your selection to make the AI ships (we all just call them robots) carry colonies there too. Your number pad keys 5 and 8 make you go, although you can use the N (navigation) screen to select the destination and click Go or press G and your ship’s “computer” will automagically drive you there on auto pilot, albeit at normal engine speed, whereas if you drive yourself, so to speak you can press 8 and use Boost speed until you run out of it. When you get there, you fly over the destination and press the / key to release the colony onto its destination. Try to get a nice hit, it’s easy after a few practice runs.

Fighting Planets

You can’t drop a colony on an occupied planet without a fight from the colony on it and from ships from its side. So you need planet-reducing weapons. Flames were invented for that, and Rapid1 and Laser1 aren’t too bad either. You need a good Shield if you are going to try to fly over with a colony in tow that has a bigger population than the target planet’s colony. I like to zoom over and release and run, saves time reducing the target population, but it depends on circumstances what’s best.

Fighting Ships

Ai robot ships will attack you and you will have a “dog fight”.

If you win the encounter, or go around attacking AI ships, it seems they try to gang up on you and come at you as if for revenge. This is wonderful if you are prepared for it, because you don’t have to hunt them down when you are trying to rack up some kills. Notice I did say if you are prepared for them.

Human players will seek you out as prey, too, of course, and you will seek out them, too. Some players are very touchy about being killed and whatever tactic you use that wins will draw their often angry denunciations. This is part of the fun. On the other hand if your tactics permit them to win, they will consider that their tactics are divinely inspired and greatly to be envied and praised, and tell you so.

This too is part of the fun. Some players are more in good sport vein and will give you (and expect) the equivalent of “Touché” when one of you wins a fight.

So how to win a fight? Well, the T key tells you what your ship is targeting, the A key acquires a new target, the , and . keys cycle through the targets after you press T or A. Having chosen a victim (be optimistic), pressing F (for Fight), lets your ship’s autopilot take you there and fire your weapons. Against AI opponents this may be all that’s necessary. Against other players, more cautious tactics will help keep your Kill/Loss ratio positive.

Details on tactics appear in the next section, but a word about strategy first: it’s a Darwinian universe out there. The big fish eat the little fish and the little fish that learn when to run away live to be big enough to eat other little ones in their turn.

Resist invitations to stand toe to toe with someone in a fight.

Usually, they will have some advantage you don’t know about and you’ll just be a positive statistic in their K/L ratio in a few seconds.

Tactics and Key Game Controls

Everyone has a different idea about the best fight tactics. That’s what makes it a game.

First learn a few controls. Pressing F1 in the game can identify some controls not covered here. Then scroll through the list of command keys and their short descriptions. Other players you meet in a game may be willing to explain any you don’t understand. Ask.

Main Screen

The – and = keys on the top row of your keyboard zoom the main screen in and out. I find two taps of the – key do wonders for keeping the surrounding area in view. You have to zoom all the way in to be able to see your, you hope, Green shield indicator around your ship. So you zoom back and forth as needed.

Radar Screen

The – and + keys on the right side of most keyboards zoom the radar screen in and out. I find that zoomed out so you can still see the triangle symbol that displays a ship location is useful. You can zoom out more from time to time to check the neighbourhood for planets and asteroids.

Q-Space

You set a destination any of several ways in your Nav computer, then press G or F or to have your autopilot take you there. If you set a destination far enough away, and if you have Q-Drive, and if your ship has a mass low enough to allow Q-Drive, you’ll enter Q-Space and fly there unseen and unexposed to any dangers from other ships. If you always have a destination set that is far enough away, you can Q-Drive away quickly enough to avoid enemy fire. I try to have my Nav computer always pointed to a planet or asteroid my race controls so that I can press G if I get damaged and go there to refresh and recharge my ship by orbiting it. You have one more advantage for this preparation however. When your ship is entering Q-Space you see an animated flash on your ship. If you press the 5 key on your number pad during this flash, your trip will be suspended temporarily and you will be frozen in Q-Space, safe from enemy fire, but still at the scene of the fight and able to see all that’s going on.

In a few minutes your ship will recharge itself anyway, so it can be a good idea to do it this way. Or you can see things develop around you that make you use this as an opportunity to set a new destination or a new target.

Curious why it’s “Q-Drive”? Game developer Doug Hendrix posted this in May 2001:

“I asked Neil if we could have a Warp Drive. He came back with a Q-Drive. After a while of using it I finally asked, what is a Q-Drive? The answer . . .

Quantum Drive

It uses the energy in the background Quantum photon field that we exist in (but can’t measure) to power the ship. In case, anyone is wondering, this is a real thing. Look up a book or a webpage on Quantum Field Theory for reference.”

Weapons

You have to pick the weapons that suit your mission.

If you are colonizing, if no one else is playing against you, you might choose a pair of FlameII weapons to reduce the population of target planets.

If you are dog fighting, you might choose missiles or torpedoes. If you won’t be carrying colonies for a while, if you can dock at a Starbase you can select the Tractor (press S, then , or .) and then press Shift + \ to “sell” it to the Starbase and open up that slot for something else in your ship’s “load out”. You get 7 million credits for your Tractor. That will buy a lot of guns or shields.

Your own experience and tastes will tell you what weapons you want.

As a general guide, in the game, as in real warfare, the object of weapons is to concentrate as much fire as possible on the enemy.

The “BigOne”, essentially a massive, 10,000-strength warhead on a 5 second fuse, is a timebomb with a real kick, introduced with the .99.99 version update. Its volume (1,000) is so large, you have to give up something in order to carry it. You only get one at a time. But if you drop it and qdrive out of there in time, very little in the immediate area survives. (Unless it’s activated in the DAT file of the game you play, you won’t see it available as an option. Game developer Neil Hillis told me he put it in as an ethical test of mod makers and the players of their mods: when available, would they use the “ultimate” weapon? Short answer: of course!)

Even beginners can pilot an extremely lethal ship with the BigOne. If you are nimble, you can transform a Scout into a deadly weapon, able to kill anything in the game.

The BigOne will just fit in a Scout if you sell back to your Starbase your Sensor, your Boost, your Cloak, and your Tractor.

Configure your remaining systems as shown in the table below.

As long as you get close enough to your victim, err, target, and as long as you can qdrive out of there immediately after depositing the BigOne, you can kick some serious butt and accumulate some serious kill numbers — and credits. You have to get within 100 pixels of a Starbase to be certain of a kill, but what’s gameplay without a little challenge, daring and excitement?

Less extreme methods of concentrating fire provide possibly more flexibility.

Consider the 3 missiles, smart, heat and dart. Their warheads are 180, 400 and 150, respectively, but their speed of fire and speed of travel are different. You might hit a target with more darts than you could with the slower flying heats. So darts might be the better choice; certainly they cost the most, even though they have the lightest warhead and you only get x of them. Smarts, on the other hand, provide you with 300 shots and they fly at a medium speed. If you are planning on firing them at the rear (an often less protected area on a ship) of a target ship, smarts might do a better job. It depends on which weapon will score the most hits and that depends on the target and the circumstances.

Or consider the 4 torpedoes shown in the table.

·  Torpedo Table

Torpedo 1 has a warhead of 150 and a launch speed of .6 c.

Torpedo 2 has a warhead of 500 and a launch speed of .35 c.

Torpedo 3 has a warhead of 100 and a launch speed of .7 c.

Torpedo 4 has a warhead of 400 and a launch speed of .8 c.

Torpedo 4 has a high mass and volume. Only Starbases or Dreadnoughts with very little else in them can carry them. The other torpedoes will generally fit in regular ships, depending on other components being carried at the same time.

So let’s restrict this comparison to Torpedoes 1 to 3.

If you are in a Scout, you might consider carrying 3 of Torpedo 2 if you are going to attack ships you could hit with most of these relatively slow moving torpedoes. Other ships carrying colonies, for example, make pretty good targets for this weapon, especially if you attack them head on or directly from behind. A Scout is the fastest ship, the smallest target and the most nimble. It has the least protection, too, but nevermind. If you are attacking faster craft than colony carrying Scouts and Destroyers, perhaps Torpedo 3 may make more sense, or even Torpedo 1, if they are more likely to hit the target.

If you fire 20 shots of Torpedo 2 at a target, but only a few hit because of the target’s speed and evasive tactics, if a faster torpedo could land more hits, it might be a better choice.

Cannon achieves more “hit points” than the others. Cannon “costs” you more mass and volume. A Torpedo 2 achieves 500 “hit points”. Only two Torpedo 2 shots would seem to need to hit before you are ahead of the damage a Cannon can do. Except a Cannon hurts Armor more than the other torpedoes. So, you have to try the possible mixes of weapons (“load outs”) and see what works for you.

Defenses

Shields and Armor and your recharge times (Power and Engine levels determine these) and your ship’s speed (the smaller, the faster) are your given defensive factors. Your skill in anticipating shots and in maneuvering are your individual defensive factors. Shields come in 7 strengths. Each increase in Shield power takes up more volume and raises your ship’s mass. The newly introduced “Armor” comes in 3 levels, each progressively bigger in volume and heavier in “mass”. Every ship component does this, of course, so “loading out” a ship is a juggling act.

Many “senior” players who are eligible to fly Dreadnoughts enjoy flying a scout or a destroyer. Dreadnoughts are powerful but they are bigger targets, too, and slower than smaller ships. Watch (press the P key to see the Pilots screen) who’s playing and when you see a player with a fantastic Kill/Loss ratio, say 10 to 1 or better, notice (use your targeting computer by pressing T and select their ships) what power, shield and engine settings they are using. I often see these players using a 4-4-4 pattern, or a 5-5-3 pattern, or a 4-5-3 pattern, depending on their preferences and the rest of their load out. I believe your power and engine settings affect your recharge time and your firing rate.

Ship Load Outs

A Deadly Scout

Scouts have a vacant “slot”, so you can dock at a Starbase when you get/find/earn at least 10 million credits and buy armor for that slot.

Example: A fairly deadly Scout can be equipped with Power 4, Engine 4 (or Power 5 and Engine 3), Shield 4, Armor 3, Qdrive 2, Sensor 3, Boost 3, 1-Stinger, 2-Stinger, 3-Stinger. Note omission of Tractor.

Useful Freighters

The game’s developers added the Freighter after demands from those who thought beginners would find it useful or even exciting as an easy target when the Artificial Intelligence pilots (or “robots”) fly them. The Freighter, a one-weapon tube ship design, has the hull volume of a Dreadnaught. Because beginners can select a Freighter, this ship can be thought of as a one-weapon tube Dreadnaughtj. The real Dreadnaught requires a player to accumulate points and kills to qualify to fly it. The Freighter even flies at the same speed as a Dreadnaught. So here we have an extremely interesting unit, if you apply some imagination to it.

Hospital Ship:

Power 5
Shield 5
Engine 4
Armor 3
Sensor 3
Boost 3
Tractor
Laser 1, Blaster or Stinger
Midrange
Factory
Cloak

Siege Ship:

Power 5
Shield 4
Engine 4
Armor 3
Sensor 3
Boost 3
Tractor
Laser 3
Midrange
Cloak

Other Considerations When Equipping Your Ship

Shields don’t protect you when Cloaked, armor does.

Armor burns off quickly in combat – so if you snooze, you lose!

Other ships have all 12 “slots” taken with components. You have to swap in and out while at the Starbase, depending on your supply of credits. If you aren’t carrying colonies, as already mentioned, you can “sell” the Tractor for 7 million credits and create 400 units worth of room in your ship’s volume.

Remember, maximize Power and Engine to maximize rate of fire.

Grenade 1 and Lasers set to Auto can be good defenses against missiles.

Counter is “counter measures”. You press the ‘ key, if you include a Counter in your ship’s load out, and any enemy missiles within 100 pixels of your ship will have their autopilots “scrambled” and fly back at who sent them. When you are zoomed all the way in with the = key on your main viewer screen, 100 pixels is approximately half way or less across the viewing area. The LaserI range is 200 pixels, as another comparison of distance. Cloak, if you have room for it, can be useful in concentrating your fire on your target. You cloak, glide right up to within 100 or 200 pixels of your target, press C to uncloak and, if you were in attack mode (the F key), unload a volley right into your target. If your volley is composed of the Torpedo 2 weapon, and if you are close enough so that most of them hit, you may destroy your target with that one pass. But beware, your shields don’t work when you’re cloaked and some senior players can tell where a cloaked ship must be . . .

Practice Ideas

Create a “throw away” character and choose “Play Against the Computer”.

Then when you are ready, join an online game. When you are pretty good (comes quickly), create a new character and “campaign” this identity in the Stellar Frontier universe.

Game Chat Precautions

Have fun! Oh! I always go to Qspace before typing in the chat window. It’s very easy to get distracted by an interesting conversation in the chat window and get killed if you leave your ship exposed.

–Anaxis

Wiki

Guide and documentation / Poradnik i instrukcja

Gameplay video / Filmik z rozgrywki

Version 1.4 download / Wersja 1.4

Version 2.0 (community made) download / Wersja 2.0 stworzona przez fanów

Statystyki do Pathfindera.
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Trzy gatunki zwierząt są często sprowadzane przez elfy i fey z Faerie – fey wilki, orły i kruki. Elfy za przykładem fey zwą je Bestiami Walki albo Trzema Zwiastunami Śmierci. Stworzenia te można spotkać praktycznie tylko w towarzystwie wysoko postawionych elfów lub fey. Pozostali muszą się zadowolić duchami ich normalnych pobratymców.

Orzeł fey
Ten orzeł, o złotym lub srebrnym upierzeniu został sprowadzony przez elfy i fey z Faerie, pradawnej ojczyzny tych ras. Żywi się małymi i średnimi zwierzętami – kotowatymi, psowatymi. Jeśli ich nie ma, uzupełnia dietę myszami, pająkami, karaluchami itp.
Orły fey podobno przynoszą szczęście i ostrzegają przed śmiercią, toteż są częstymi zwierzęcymi towarzyszami elfów i fey.

Fey orzeł, CR 2
Small fey, hp 5 (1d8+1), Init +4; Speed 20 ft., fly 90 ft. (average) AC 18 touch 15 flat-footed 13 (+5 Dex, +2 natural, +1 size) Base Atk +0; Melee 2 talons +4 (1d4), bite +3 (1d4) SA death curse; SQ low-light vision, darkvision 60 ft., DR 5/cold iron, SR 12; AL CN; Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +3; Str 10 Dex 19 Con 12 Int 12 Wis 17 Cha 11
CMB –1; CMD 11
Skills Fly +8, Perception +10, Bluff +6, Stealth +6, Sense Motive +3; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception Feats Weapon Finesse
Spell-like abilities 1/day: charm person, faerie fire
Languages: Elven, Sylvan

Organization: solitary or pair
Treasure: none

Wilk fey
Ten dumny drapieżnik o złotej, srebrnej lub metalicznej sierści został sprowadzony przez emigrantów z Faerie.
Wilki fey, w przeciwieństwie do swoich pobratymców z innych światów, są raczej samotnikami niż zwierzętami stadnymi.
Mówi się, że wilki przynoszą zwycięstwo w bitwie i śmierć wrogom, toteż są częstymi zwierzęcymi towarzyszami elfów i fey.

Fey wilk, CR 2
Medium fey, hp 13 (2d8+4), Init +4, Speed 60 ft. AC 15 touch 13 flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +3 natural) Base Atk +1; Melee bite +2 (1d6+1 plus trip) SA death curse; SQ low-light vision, darkvision 60 ft., scent, DR 5/cold iron, SR 12; AL CN, Fort +5 Ref +9 Will +2 Str 13 Dex 19 Con 15 Int 12 Wis 14 Cha 10
CMB +2; CMD 14 (18 vs. trip)
Skills Perception +10, Stealth +10, Survival +5 (+9 scent tracking), Bluff +4; Racial Modifiers +4 Survival when tracking by scent
Feats Skill Focus (Perception)
Spell-like abilities 1/day: charm person, faerie fire
Languages: Elven, Sylvan

Organization: solitary, pair, or pack (3–8)
Treasure: none

Kruk fey
Ten mały, wszędobylski padlinożerca o tęczowych piórach został sprowadzony przez przybyłe z Faerie ludy. Kruki te są uważane za bardzo mądre stworzenia, toteż są częstymi zwierzęcymi towarzyszami i chowańcami elfów oraz fey. Mówi się, że potrafią odwrócić klątwy, ale też przynoszą wieści o śmierci i wyjadają to, czego nie zjedzą wilki.

Fey kruk, CR 2
Tiny fey, hp 3 (1d8–1), Init +4, Speed 20 ft., fly 50 ft. (average) AC 15 touch 15 flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +2 size, +1 natural) Base Atk +0; Melee bite +6 (1d3–4); SA death curse, SQ low-light vision, darkvision 60 ft., DR 5/cold iron, SR 12; AL CN; Fort +1 Ref +6 Will +3 Str 2 Dex 19 Con 8 Int 12 Wis 17 Cha 11
CMB +0; CMD 6
Skills Fly +6, Perception +6, Sense Motive +5, Bluff +6, Stealth +8 Feats Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse
Spell-like abilities 1/day: charm person, faerie fire
Languages: Elven, Sylvan

Organization: solitary, pair, flock (3–12)
Treasure: none