Getting around in Planetarion:
The header of each pages has these fields:
- Metals, Crystals, Eonium: the amount of these resources you own at the moment the page is requested.
- Score: a score calculated out of several components; indicates your planets' strength somewhat.
- Mailbox: becomes a link to "messages" when you receive a private message
- News: becomes a link to "private news" when there are any
- "Enemies"/"Allies" - lit in red/green when you got fleets incoming from outside, indicating which type.
- The current date and time, unified for all players.
Please note the time given at the top of the page is the one you should use when communicating with other Planetarion players about time.
It is the same for every PA player, regardless of the continent or timezone he/she is living in.
Now, I just list the menu points:
overview:
- on the overview screen, you can see some summaries about your planet.
- Message of the day: this message of the day is set by the Planetarion team itself
- Military status: if you have attacking or defending fleets incoming, they are listed here.
- Construction: shows what your construction facilities are building at the moment.
- Research: same as Construction, just for research.
- Unit Count: lists all your units, summed per type
- Planetary Defense System: same for PDS
- Asteroids: lists the number of asteorids you've got per type
galaxy news: what happens in your galaxy in general. This contains information not listed elsewhere.
You can see who sends fleets when and where, and got fleets from where, and when.
private news: news that concern only you. The more interesting type is you can see here - and nowhere else! -
if you have been scanned by somebody.
messages: messages you have received so far.
journal: messages and notes you saved.
politics: the discussion boards you are just reading.
affairs: here you can vote for GC and donate resources.
Donations go to the MoD, who is responsible for administrating and handing out the donations he received.
production:
Here you can build ships and other space vessels. What ships you can build depends on your facilities.
construction:
the one type of "technological advance" you can do. Both types work together. You can chose here what facility to build next.
There can only one be built at a time.
research:
the same as construction, only for research. See the "Tech Tree" at http://metal.planetarion.com/manual/images/depmap.gif
for details.
resources:
this is where you can "initialize" asteroids, so they start producing results for you.
pds:
here you can build units that are stationary defense. It is similar to production.
waves:
in waves, you build both units that help you with wave stuff, and scans, and perform scans.
Scans come in several flavours. The most important for starters is "astro scan", which scans for asteroids around
your planet. Other scans are directed at other planets so you can find out more about them.
This is a pretty large topic; details elsewhere.
military:
or Fleet management. Here you arrange and command your fleets.
You have one base fleet, three fleets you can send away, and the
Galactic Defense Fleet you can participate in. More about that later, too.
galaxy:
gives you an overview of your galaxy.
universe:
a top 100 of galaxies and players.
irc:
opens an web-based IRC client. If you can use a real IRC client, do so. You have much more options there. This is intended for those player who can't operate or install an IRC client.
preferences:
you can change your passwort here, your alliance tag, and your ICQ# if you have one.
You can go in vacation mode, and finally leave the game by deleting your account. Ask if you need details on this.
Use with care.
logout:
just logs you out of the current session. Nothing more.
What you should build first
First three things you should build
- construction: Mining center,
- research: energy patterns
- construction: scope amplifier
Note that those constructions and researches cannot be taken from you or destroyed, according to the current rules.
So, you benefit in any case.
Building ships as a start is very unwise - you can't stop a fleet of several thousand ships with the few you can come up with,
it's a waste anyways. Later though, you will build large fleets yourselves.
