From: hde+@cs.cmu.edu (Herbert Enderton)
Subject: Re: Hints for Beginners
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 01:45:01 GMT

Every once in a while I try to write down the half-dozen things I would
want to be sure to tell a novice netrek player.  Today I started to
jot down an outline of the main things to learn, and I was surprised
how many there are.  So here's the outline, roughly in the order
I think people should learn the stuff in.  Hope it helps somebody.
-- Red Shirt

1) How to start up the game
   A) Run "netrek -h <server-name>" to connect to a given server.
   B) "telnet charon.amdahl.com 3521" to list servers and players counts.
	i) Learn first on a nearly-empty server.
		a) Fight practice robots.
	ii) Play where you don't get much lag.
	iii) Avoid borg servers and non-standard servers at least at first.
   C) Peruse the "motd", the information shown by the server.
   D) Join the team with the second-largest number of players.
	i) Wait 15 seconds or so while the numbers fluctuate.
   E) Turn UDP on (bring up menu with `+').
	i) If you get motionless torps cluttering your screen, try `='.
   F) Consider using an improved keymap even before learning the default one.
	i) `h' brings up a window showing most commands with the default keymap
2) Basic flying controls:
   A) Setting course.
   B) Setting speed.
   C) Locking onto planets
   D) Slow down when you need to turn, otherwise consider going at max warp
3) Identifying friends and foes
   A) Know your race, and the enemy race.
	i) Declare peace with the two other races.
   B) Galactic map
   	i) See where you are.
	ii) See where the enemy ships are.
	iii) See where your teammates are.
	iv) See the cloakers, try to figure out who they are.
		a) Alert status indicates presence of nearby enemy ships.
   C) Tactical map
        i) Learn what the various ships look like.
   D) Player list
	i) Bring it up with `L' (or your .xtrekrc may do this automatically)
	ii) See who's who.
	iii) See who has kills.
4) Dodging torpedos.
   A) Friendly torpedos pass through you, but enemy torpedos hurt.
   B) Dodge by turning.
   C) Dodge by accelerating.
   D) Seldom move straight at an enemy ship--makes it too hard to dodge.
5) Phasering
   A) Hit nearby enemies with your phasers.
   B) Learn how close you need to be to do non-neglible (25+) damage.
   C) Ships have different strength phasers.
	i) E.g. at a given distance a CA's phaser does 15 more than a DD's.
6) Firing torpedos
   A) Learn the "physics".
	i) Understand why chasing an enemy ship is so dangerous.
   B) Preferred targets are enemies who are flying more or less straight at you.
   C) Learn to lead torps so as to hit enemies who don't change course.
   D) Get a feel for the eight-torp limit.
   	i) Learn how to abort your own torps when they miss.
   E) Good players will usually dodge your torpedos, so phasers are better.
7) Refueling and repairing.
   A) Read your fuel and damage gauges.
	i) If using the status graph, make sure you get a good .xtrekrc so
	   you don't have to place it with each new ship.
   B) Show resources on maps.
   C) Identify fuel and repair planets.
   D) Identify peaceful planets that you can use, and won't shoot at you.
   E) Lock onto the planet you want to use, and go at maximum speed.
   F) Enter repair mode once you're in orbit around the planet.
   G) Be prepared to raise shields and dodge if an enemy comes close.
   H) You can do repair mode out in empty space, but it's slow.
8) Using the message system.
   A) Show the message window with `?'.
	i) Split messages into the four categories if you want.
	ii) Customize your .xtrekc so you get more lines of messages.
   B) Learn how to send messages.
	i) With your mouse in the bottom of the two narrow windows below the
	   galactic map, type `t' (for team messages) and the message.
	ii) You can also use `A' for messages to ALL, ship-number for messages
	   to individuals, or F, R, K, or O to send to a team.
   C) Read and acknowledge team and personal messages.
   D) Try to notice messages as they come in.
   E) Be polite and friendly, but recognize that in a competitive game
      players probably won't take time to chat.
9) Understanding planet ownership and armies.
   A) See which planets are owned by your team, which are owned by theirs.
   B) See how many armies there are on a planet by pointing and hitting info.
   C) Notice the planet destroyed and planet taken over messages.
	i) Learn the names of the planets.
   D) Watch your team lose planets.  Wish you could help them gain planets.
10) Bombing
   A) Learn what planets are good to bomb.
	i) Only bomb enemy planets (not third-race planets)
	ii) Only bomb when it's t-mode (4 on 4 or whatever)
	iii) Can only bomb planets with 5 or more armies
	iv) Best to bomb undefended planets
   B) Lock onto a planet to bomb and get there as fast as possible.
   C) Enemy planets damage you when you're within a certain range.
   	i) Keep your shields up when close, unless actually bombing.
	ii) It's okay strategically to let the planet kill you.
   D) Once in orbit, hit `b' to commence bombing.
   E) Watch the bombadier's messages to know when you're done (4 or fewer).
	i) When done, raise your shields and get out of there.
		a) Ideally you've picked out your next target, and can
		   immediately lock onto it and hit max-warp.
   F) Cloak when trying to orbit an enemy planet, so you can't be tractored off
   G) Use an assault ship for bombing planets with many armies (or exactly 5)
	i) AS bombs 0 or 2-4 armies per half second instead of 0 or 1-3.
   H) Use a scout ship for running around bombing deep in enemy space.
   I) Even if all the enemy planets are "flat" (4 or fewer armies on each),
      it's useful to wait back near them so that when they "pop" to 5 or more
      you can race to bomb the armies before enemies beam them up.
11) Taking planets
   A) Learn each ship's carrying capacity.
	i) Most ships can carry two armies for each kill they currently have
	ii) Assault ships can carry three armies per kill
	iii) Maximum load of 2 for SC, 5 for DD, 6 for BB, 10 for CA, 20 for AS
	iv) One usually shouldn't carry more than 6 armies.
   B) Learn beam up and beam down commands for picking up armies.
   C) When you beam up armies, send one distress call to inform your team.
   D) When you're carrying, the enemies will be out to get you.  Avoid them.
   E) Lock onto an undefended enemy planet, cloak, orbit it, bomb it if it
      has 5 or more, and then beam down all your armies.
   F) Don't dilly-dally.  The team wins which takes planets fastest.
   G) Some planets are better to take than others.
	i) Fuel planets are obviously good.
	ii) Agricultural worlds produce armies faster.
		A) Get info on each planet so you know which are "Agri".
		B) They produce armies very fast when they're at less than 4,
		   so don't expect to take one over in two trips.
	iii) There are other strategic considerations, but don't fret over them
		A) This is a common source of pointless arguments
12) Using tractors and pressors
   A) When fighting
	i) Tractor to close with an enemy ship, esp. when mutual death is good
	ii) Pressor to dodge torpedos (moving yourself away)
	iii) Tractor enemy into your torp stream
   B) To pull enemy out of orbit
	i) Instantly stops them from bombing, beaming, fueling.
   C) Don't leave tractors on too long or you'll run out of fuel.
   D) Each ship-type has a different tractor-beam range and strength.
13) Mechanics of cloaking
   A) Cloakers don't appear on the tactical map, so watch the galactic
   B) Enemy cloakers within yellow- or red-alert show as ?? on the galactic map
	i) Also they're shown if they orbit a planet they don't own
	ii) When it's not t-mode they're always shown
   C) Friendly cloakers show as ?? on the galactic map always
   D) The position of the ?? is slightly randomized
   E) You can't fire weapons when cloaked
	i) You must come fully uncloaked before firing
   F) You can't use tractors or phasers when cloaked
	ii) But you can use them the instant you start to uncloak   	
   G) You can bomb, beam, raise shields, detonate torps, and many other useful
      useful things while cloaked.
   H) A cloaker can't be tractored, but if a ship is tractored and then
      cloaks, the tractor beam stays on it.
   I) A phaser hit will reveal the location of a cloaker on the tactical map.
14) Attacking enemy army-carriers (aka ogging)
   A) Know which enemies can carry by examining the player list.
   B) Track potential carriers on the galactic to see if they pick up armies.
   C) Predict what planet they'll go to.  Try to intercept them.
   D) Cloaking
   	i) To achieve surprise against unwary opponents
	ii) To help avoid getting killed as you approach
   E) Close in and fire quickly.  Use tractors, phasers, torpedos, and your
      own ship's explosion to kill the target.  Mutual destruction is good.
   F) Always try to dodge torpedos, so you can live long enough to kill.
	i) Don't fly exactly straight at the target, or he'll kill you easily
   G) You can defend a fuel planet against a cloaked enemy by orbiting
      it and firing.
	i) Otherwise, many players will stay cloaked and dodge until you're
	   out of fuel, and then orbit and take the planet.
   H) Enemies are most vulnerable when in orbit
	i) They can't dodge well
	ii) You know more or less where they are
	iii) So fire at the planet while they're trying to bomb or beam down
	iv) You can also sometimes nail ships while they're beaming up armies
15) Defending armies against bombers
   A) Look to kill them as they start to orbit.
   B) Chasing bombers is usually futile.  Better to stay near the
      armies you want to guard.
	i) Tell your team which planet you're defending, so they know
	   not to duplicate your effort.
   C) Killing bombers is sometimes a good way to get a kill or two, but then
      switch to planet-taking or shuttling.  Don't lose sight of the goal.
   D) Shuttling armies from outlying planets to your home world (or to
      your starbase) is sometimes a good way to save them temporarily.
16) Detonating enemy torpedos
   A) Learn the detonation range (somewhat server-dependent).
   B) Usually wise to detonate any torpedos that would otherwise hit you.
   C) Important to detonate if very near to other ships.
   D) Especially useful when orbiting.
17) Clearing planets for army-carriers on your team.
   A) Attack enemies in the vicinity of the target planet
	i) Kill them or drive them off
	ii) Sometimes enough just to distract them by your presence.
	iii) Try to detonate torpedos that would hit the carrier.
   B) Attack ahead of your carrier.
   C) Once your carrier is in orbit about the target planet, avoid making
      violent torpedo and ship explosions in that area.
   D) Communication is important, so the carrier knows when you are
      going to crash the planet, and you know when he's ready for it.
18) Helping army-carriers in other ways
   A) Intercepting oggers.  Get between your friend and the attacker,
      and shoot the attacker as he tries to get by you.
	i) Ideally you want to cripple but not kill the ogger.  If you
	   kill him he just comes back with a fresh ship.
	ii) On the other hand if you kill him, you can go pick up armies
	   and present him with a second target to worry about.
   B) When your army-carrier is approaching to attack the enemy home world,
      don't kill enemy ships except those near the home world.
   C) Decoys and double-attacks.  Attack or pretend to attack a planet other
      than the planet your friend is planning to take, and hope to draw the
      enemies towards you.  Stay cloaked so they don't know who you are.
19) Helping to take break last planet stands
   A) Teamwork becomes essential.  Use the message window.
   B) You want one (or perhaps two) carriers, and the rest of the team
      should concentrate on helping them with a well-timed suicide run.
   C) Synchronization is important, so set up roughly in a circle around
      the target and charge when the carrier calls `go'.
   D) Avoid engaging the enemy anywhere but right within shooting range
      of the target planet.  You must get there to be of any help.
	i) Exception:  if no one on your team has kills, get one.
	ii) Another exception:  if your carrier is retreating to refuel
	    and/or pick up armies, he'll probably appreciate some cover.
20) Refitting to another ship-type at your home world
   A) You have to mostly repair and refuel before it will let you refit.
   B) If you have 2+ kills and refit to a BB, CA, or DD, you get plasma.
	i) There's a special command for firing plasma.
	ii) Plasma torps costs a lot of fuel, but are big and track.
	iii) They can be exploded by phasers.  Best used against cloakers.
	iv) When they explode, they damage everybody nearby.
21) Starbases
   A) Each team gets one starbase.  If it dies, there's 30 minute wait.
   B) You need Commander rank or higher to pilot a starbase.
   C) Starbases are strong, but slow, and they can't bomb or take planets.
	i) Mainly they serve to control a region of space.
	ii) Also they can hold up to 25 armies.
   D) Killing them usually requires a simultaneous attack by several ships
      coming in from different angles.
22) Genocide
   A) When a race's last planet gets destroyed they're genocided.
   B) When re-entering after being genocided, don't join the victors.
   	i) Instead join the race diagonally opposite from your old race.
   C) When a race owns every planet in each of four quadrants, they win.
	i) At that point the galaxy is reset and all players are ejected.
23) Team organization; Roles
   A) A good team often has 2 scout bombers, 3 oggers (who also clear planets),
      and 3 planet-takers (who also kill bombers).
   B) Volunteer for the role you like, and tell your team.
   C) Most players don't like being told what to do, but they like knowing
      what you're planning to do so they can coordinate with you.
24) Places to get other information
   A) rec.games.netrek newsgroup
	i) The FAQ answers are posted regularly.
   B) jch's archive