Date: Friday, February 7, 1997 12:31am Forum: TRADEWAR From: ML:Reisa@MMN Msg#: 1428858 To: ** ALL ** Re: Evil FAQ, Feb 97 ver 1/4 FEBRUARY 1997 VERSION OK, mostly cause I have far too much time on my hands...grins... I've written a little thing here called "FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT BEING EVIL"...I've gathered through my own experiences & TW forums. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE... If you find anything inacurate in this let me know IMMEDIATELY :) And I'd really like it if you sent me a quick note if you found it of great help :) hugs and happy stealing! If no one has any objections, I'll take everyone's hints and suggestions, add it to this file, and repost it in 30 days :) <<<<<<<<< ALL INFORMATION SHOULD BE ACCURATE FOR 2.00P >>>>>>>>> <<<<<<< MOST INFO SHOULD BE ACCURATE UP THROUGH 2.2Beta3 >>>>>>> *********************************************************************** FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT PLAYING EVIL IN TRADEWARS muhahahahaha *********************************************************************** First off...the most important things to remember: The whole universe will be out to kill you. And killed you will be. Expect it. Prepare for it. Brag about it. Laugh about it. AND MAKE IT VERY VERY EXPENSIVE :) Then turn around and wipe them out for killing you :) And NEVER WHINE about dying :) It's annoying and will lead to further destruction of your ships :) You are going to bust. Somedays it will seem like you bust A LOT. Get used to it. Brag about it. And look at them credits you have :) Who cares how often you bust if you just stole 2 million credits? And finally, the most important thing of all... remember, IT IS ONLY A GAME. HAVE FUN!!!! *********************************************************************** Q. HOW DO I BECOME EVIL? HOW EVIL DO I NEED TO BE TO ROB AND STEAL? In order to steal, you must have -100 alignment. You can run around, blowing up good traders and aliens to reach this, or attempt to break into corporations gaining -1 alignment each time. You can also go to Dock, and Curse the Grimy Trader (just say a four letter word hehehe) and your alignment will go down one point. I believe you have to leave dock and reenter dock each time... or maybe it only works once a day...not sure, will have to check (anyone check this yet?) Or if you already have a ship with more than 100 holds, just go to Terra or take some colonists off of your planet if you have one, and jettison them. Remember, you cannot jettison within Fed Space or, due to a bug, Sector 11. You will have to move out of the area to dump them. You can jettison to your hearts content, until you have reached -1 align or lower ... Then you will need to wait a day to jettison, or go to the Underground and buy the alignment. Go to the Underground at stardock, and Post a Bounty on any good character. For every 25,000 credits you post, your alignment will go down 100 points. If you are at 0 alignment, the cost is exactly 25,000 credits. If you are at +5 alignment, it will cost a bit more, 26,250 credits. In other words, for every 250 credits you post, you go down 1 alignment point. Q. WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BUSTS? WHAT CAN I DO TO AVOID THEM? You are going to be busted. Some days, you are going to be busted A LOT. Other days will be miraculously free of busts... and you'll be smiling all the way to the citidel... It also seems that you are most likely to get busted at a particular port pair when you have "gained" about 10% of the experience you started out with... this seems to happen often enough you can almost count on it. (I.e., you have 3000 experience points... when you have around 3,300 points, you will very often bust...) or as you near a promotion. Busts clear DAILY EXCEPT FOR YOUR LAST BUST. The ports tolerance to you stealing there is improved tho, if others are also stealing there. If someone else busts at YOUR last bust BEFORE maintenance, you are safe to steal there the next day :) However, for safety, you should just avoid stealing at your last bust the next day, since this can be hard to track. Also, busts from ROBBING, EXCEPT the last ROB port that busted you, clear daily during the maintenance, except for the last Rob bust. Once you have busted at a port, you are mostly banned from that port until the bust clears. You can take a chance and port there to buy or sell something, but there is a chance (I have calculated about a 60% chance) that you will busted there JUST for trying to port there...much less steal again. After one maintenance cycle you can sell or buy there again, and if it wasn't your last bust or someone else has busted there, you can steal there again. >> VERY IMPORTANT: NEVER STEAL AT A PORT YOU HAVE JUST STOLEN FROM. >> You WILL be Busted the moment you try to steal or rob there. You CAN port and buy or sell stuff at a port you just stole from, provided you have not busted there. But don't steal there until you have stolen at a different port first! You will gain some negative alignment. Busts do not affect your credits. Most of us seem to bust about 4 or 5 times per 800 turns. Don't be surprised to have some days where you never bust, or others where you bust 8, 9, 12 times. Q. HOW MUCH CAN I GET AWAY WITH ROBBING AND STEALING? How many holds of equipment to steal: Experience divided by 20 = number of holds If you are less than about 6000 experience, you may want to try stealing at Experience divided by 22 = number of holds to steal (Thanks Shark! You were right that this seems to work better at the lower exp levels grins) This seems to increase overall profit by a slight reduction in the frequency of busts... it's not a BIG difference, but enough to make it worth checking out a bit :) And YES, you CAN be busted for stealing TOO LITTLE. How many credits can I rob? Experience multiplied by 3 to 10 = number of credits to steal Experiement with these equations, you may have better luck or profit by changing them a bit. I personally like to rob at experience * 5 while under 10k experience, experience * 7 up to about 20k exp, experience * 8 up to 50k exp, and experience * 10 at any experience level over 50k. >>> Continued to next message --- þ SLMR 2.1a þ It's only a hobby ... only a hobby ... only a --- Sent via MailLink, 05-FEB-97, 00:13:48, from: (MMN)Metropolis Downtown - (913)663-3333 Many Cities, Midwest (R)eply, (E)mail reply, (T)hread, (P)revious or (N)ext message? Date: Friday, February 7, 1997 12:31am Forum: TRADEWAR From: ML:Reisa@MMN Msg#: 1428859 To: ** ALL ** Re: Evil FAQ, Feb 97 ver 2/4 >>> Continued from previous message Q. HOW DO I SELL-STEAL-MOVE? (SSM) The VERY basic method for getting lots of credits for the Evil is SELL-STEAL-MOVE. It's very similar to pair trading in the Goods. This is recommended when you are at say, 1,000 experience until you are about 2,500 or 3,000 experience. In a 800 turn game, you can expect between 300K and 900K credits, depending upon your experience and the number of hold you are stealing at. You need to find two ports, both BUYING equipment, right next to each other. This is called a Steal Pair. (for example: SSB-BSB). Your profit will be best if they are at 100% BUYING equipment, or nearly 100%. You also need to have your ship loaded up with the proper amount of equipment for you to sell-steal. See the equations above to determine the proper amount for you to sell-steal based upon your experience. Situate yourself at the first port. Port and sell the equipment. Then port and steal the equipment back. Voila! Go to the next port. Port and sell the equipment. Then port and steal the equipment back. Go back to the first port, and sell and steal again, then back to the other port, sell and steal again...grins... back and forth...watch those credits grow. ATTENTION: TWAR USERS PLEASE READ! The macro in the current version of TWAR (beta C) DOES NOT DO SELL STEAL THIS WAY... TWAR uses a pair port, like what the Goods trade at, sells and buys product at one port, moves to the other port, sells and steals... it DOES NOT steal at both ports. You may want to do SSM (Sell steal move) by hand or go directly to SST (sell steal transport) for better profit. (Would some Twar user write to the author about this?) *** Note: I've been told this has been fixed in TWAR...does anyone *** know for sure?? Q. WHAT IS SSR? (Also known as Sell-Steal-Move-Rob, SSMR) Sell-Steal-Rob. This is basically like SSM (sell-steal-move) except you do this at a port pair that a good has basically wiped clean of product... like a SSB-SBS. You sell, steal at the SSB port, move to the SBS port, port and rob it. Then go back to the SSB and sell, steal again. You can easily do this from 1000 experience on up... if you are over 3000 exp you will want to do Sell-Steal-Transport-Rob to maximize your credits per turn. SSR is an excellent choice when your experience is above 6000, as you have the stability of SST, and the slightly higher profit of robbing, and you use one turn less per cycle. SSR is something you will have to play around with to see how you like it. I know players that NEVER SST, they ONLY SSR, right from the beginning of a game, and swear by it. Others never touch SSR. I use it quite often from 6k experience until I exceed 10k experience. Q. WHAT IS SST? AND WHAT IS RTR? Sell-Steal-Transport (SST) is the most consistant, reliable, profitable form of stealing an evil can do, until they have exceeded 10,000 experience or so. It is also the most stable in regards to experience. Although you can SST from even lower exp, it's usually most profitable once you are above 5,000 exp. It varies, but I usually SST until I have over 12,000 experience, then I begin RTR, Rob-Transport-Rob. At 5,000 exp, in an 800 turn game, you can expect to make between 5,000,000 and 8,000,000 credits (using Colonial Transports) (or think of it as about 1 million credits per 100 turns...and usually, sigh, one bust per 1 million credits) You take two ships, usually Colonial Transports. You make sure you have BOTH ships loaded with the proper amount of equipment that you plan on stealing. You place each ship at a port that is BUYING equipment. Make sure they are within transport range of each other...7 sectors. (Watch out for them one way sectors!) Then you port, sell, steal. Transport to the other ship you have out, port, sell, steal; transport to the first ship, port, sell, steal, transport to the other ship, etc., etc. You can do this with Robbing, also... just port, rob, transport, port, rob, transport, etc. This is called RTR, Rob Transport Rob :) RTR is one of the most unlimited methods of making credits. The only thing holding you back is how many credits are on a port, and your experience. It uses a measly 4 turns per cycle also :) Q. ANYTHING I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ROBBING? While robbing can be very profitable, even at low experience, and it can be a good way to get yourself the credits you need to buy those Colonial Transports you need to SST in, I have found it's usually not as profitable as SST until you are at or over 10K exp. (I actually wait till about 12,000 experience). The best thing about robbing is you can fly around in a FAR better ship than a Colonial Transport or a Cargo Tran... Rob in a ship with a lot of fighters and a lower turn-per-warp ratio to maximize your profits, do rob-transport-rob when you can also. Now, if you happen to be aligned with a Good corporation, you won't have to worry much about finding ports to rob at :) Most players seem to share about half the credits they rob from a Good's ports with them, and keep about half for themselves. Q. WHAT ARE THE BEST PLACES TO STEAL OR ROB? Ones that you won't be found at :) OK, best places to rob are equipment selling ports that are at a low quantity of product left (i.e., SBS that is at 12% equipment selling) They will usually have several hundred thousand credits waiting for you to rob. Look for pairs that the goods have traded down. The best ports to STEAL equipment from are equipment BUYING ports that are at or near 100% of inventory, as you will get the better prices there than if they are at say, 23%. Ports that have a higher total quantity or have been upgraded tend to give better profit also. If you have a planet, and especially if you have a level 6, you will want to consider creating your own personal Stealing Area. Basically block off a nice long tunnel or a big bubble and create SBB or SSB or BSB ports in there... and set up your CT's and voila! You're own safe stealing haven :) It has been my corporation's experience that the ports we have created and upgraded are far more tolerant than game generated ports. I.e., they let us SST for a longer time between busts compared to ports that are system generated. Most importantly though, they give us a higher price and better profit (usually 39,725 per 250 holds) :) :) :) Q. WHAT IS SDT OR SALTING? SDT, Steal-Drop-Transport or SaLTing, Steal, Land, Transport are the same thing, different names. This is stealing with a planet. Actually, two or more planets usually :) >>> Continued to next message --- þ SLMR 2.1a þ It's only a hobby ... only a hobby ... only a --- Sent via MailLink, 05-FEB-97, 00:14:04, from: (MMN)Metropolis Downtown - (913)663-3333 Many Cities, Midwest (R)eply, (E)mail reply, (T)hread, (P)revious or (N)ext message? Date: Friday, February 7, 1997 12:31am Forum: TRADEWAR From: ML:Reisa@MMN Msg#: 1428860 To: ** ALL ** Re: Evil FAQ, Feb 97 ver 3/4 >>> Continued from previous message You upgrade an equipment BUYING port OR use one that is at less than 100% buying product. You port and steal 250 holds of equipment from the port, land on the planet, leave the equipment on the planet, then using the planet's Tpad, you transport to another sector, and do the same thing there... Port and steal equipment, land on the planet, leave the equipment, tpad to the first sector. After you are done, you sell all the equipment that you have stolen, at a nice tidy profit :) There is MANY variations on this. You can do this at a equipment SELLING port. You can just move the planet back and forth. You can transport between two ships, instead of using the tpad on the planet. The benefits to this method are many. First off, it uses less turns than SSTing... four per cycle vs. six per cycle when ssting. You can do this virtually ANYWHERE in the universe, and are not limited to the 7-sector transport limit of the colonial transport. And of course, you are not limited by the port regen rate, as you would be if you were planetary trading. A BUYING port at 25% has lots of equipment to steal... you will notice that as you steal it off the dock, the percentage goes up. When it's at 100%, you simply sell off all the equipment back to the port, and start stealing it from them again :) And you have some mighty fine protection under you if you are outside your own bubble :) Grins... Q. I'M IN AN ISS AND I'M EVIL!!! Well...whatever you do, DON'T get killed by the Feds :) >>> >>> >>> DO NOT MOVE. STAY WHERE YOU ARE... <<< <<< <<< Immediately TRANSPORT to another ship that belongs to you or your corporation. Have a corp member transport to your ISS to use it or sell it. Or transport out and tow it to dock and sell it. Q. I'M EVIL AND DON'T WANT TO BE. What? And miss out on all those credits? Sheesh... If you have made friends with an Evil that you trust, and he or she happens to have LOWER alignment then you, capture (pod) eachother till you go good. (TRUST an Evil? grins) Or you can upgrade ports until you go good. Can be expensive. upgrade 100 units of ore = $25,000 credits Gain 10 experience points and 5 align. COST: 5,000 credits per 1 align point upgrade 100 units of organics = $50,000 credits Gain 20 experience points and 10 align COST: 5,000 credits per 1 align point upgrade 100 units of equipment - $90,000 credits Gain 30 experience points and 15 align COST: 6,000 credits per 1 align point Say you were Good, and attacked another Good, and ended up evil to the tune of -560 align. It's gonna cost you 2,800,000 to get back to 0 or 1 alignment... Then you will still have to regain your +1000 align in order to get back in your ISS. If you blow up planets, you may go MORE evil. If you attack Ferengi, your alignment will NOT be affected at all. You can attack evil aliens. If your alignment is above -100, you may want to try and see if the Police will still let you into their station. If so, just go in there and post a bounty. I'm not sure at exactly what alignment level the police will no longer let you into the game, as I have heard it's changed with the latest versions of MBBS TW... ************************************************************************* * EVIL FAQ APPENDIX * ************************************************************************* I'm now starting to include particular info that others post that is of great interest to the Evil Trader. Going to call this our Evil FAQ Appendix :) Feel free to send stuff to me that you would like to include! OK, Dragon posted his own Robbing equations he had in this Tradewars sub...I've captured it and am now including it in the FAQ...hope he doesn't mind... But at least I'm crediting it! Don't know how much help this will be to ya'll but I found it interesting...Here it is, unedited. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: Thursday, January 11, 1996 9:23am From: Dragon@HDC Msg#: 1264457 To: ** ALL ** Re: Robbing Formula Someone once asked me for some of the formulas I said I had.. I forget who, but there's my Robbing one: Exp = E(1+R/2000)^i - (E(1+R/2000)^i)/10 This Equation assumes you rob for the most you can each time you rob (it changes after each rob because you get more exp) Where: Exp = Final Exp E = Initial Exp R = Rob Factor (like robbing 6 times your exp, 6 is the rob factor) i = Number of successful robs (if you rob 3 times and get caught on the 4th, then i = 3. If you DONT get caught then cut off everything after the minus sign before computing) Example: Player has 50,000 exp at start, he robs for 6 times his exp every time he robs. He sucessfully robs 10 times and gets caught on the 11th time, what is his final experience? (remind you of school daz or what?) Exp = 50000(1+6/2000)^10 - (50000(1+6/2000)^10)/10 = 50000(1.030408) - 50000(1.030408)/10 = 51520 - 5152 = 46368 is his final Experience. Example #2: Player has x exp, and wants to have twice that (2x). If he robs for 6 times his exp everytime he robs, how many times does he have to rob to accomplish this, assuming he will get caught? 2x = x(1.003)^i - x(1.003)^i/10 ;notice you can divide each side by x ;x no longer is in the equation This is a little complicated to solve step by step so I'll just output the end answer, if you dont believe me then check the math yourself: i = 266.568 so he's gotta rob about 267 times without getting caught, then get caught on 268th time. >>> Continued to next message --- þ SLMR 2.1a þ It's only a hobby ... only a hobby ... only a --- Sent via MailLink, 05-FEB-97, 00:14:18, from: (MMN)Metropolis Downtown - (913)663-3333 Many Cities, Midwest (R)eply, (E)mail reply, (T)hread, (P)revious or (N)ext message? Date: Friday, February 7, 1997 12:31am Forum: TRADEWAR From: ML:Reisa@MMN Msg#: 1428861 To: ** ALL ** Re: Evil FAQ, Feb 97 ver 4/4 >>> Continued from previous message -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- OK, Frodo posted here in the sub, his own personal Chart of Bust Zones, that he has determined through his own experience. I'm posting it here for ya'll to check out :) It's unedited :) Hope you don't mind me including this, Frodo! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Date: Monday, January 22, 1996 4:02pm /TW2002 From: FRODO@ANX Msg#: 4893255 To: TORQUE@AXE Re: Am I getting busted too much? Here is a rough chart of my bust spots, which I tracked over several games. These are areas where I usually get my busts 90 percent of the time, in *every* game: 1800 exp robbing and stealing 2400 stealing 9000-11000 robbing and stealing 13500-15000 robbing 31000 robbing (by then I usually am planet trading and robbing, and am not stealing anymore) 50600 robbing 58900 robbing 67980 robbing 72360 robbing 80468 robbing 125000-131000 robbing I have been higher ranked, but not often enough to chart it and be sure that the numbers would be good. The chart does not try to track other busts which are random, or are fake busts due to carelessness. The most direct way to see if it was random or not, is to watch the experience. Note where you got busted (experience). Trade, steal, or rob back up to that point. If you always get busted at one point, either trade past it, or blow a few planets. Again, this chart seems to work for me. I have not asked other people to test it for me. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- OK, that's it for the February Edition of Evil FAQ :) Send me your ideas, suggestions...etc... And the next time someone asks you a basic Evil question, send them a capture of this if you think it's helpful! Hugs and smiles, Reisa --- þ SLMR 2.1a þ It's only a hobby ... only a hobby ... only a --- Sent via MailLink, 05-FEB-97, 00:14:34, from: (MMN)Metropolis Downtown - (913)663-3333 Many Cities, Midwest