

Stellar Emperor FAQ v0.14



General



Gameplay



What is Stellar Emperor?

     The galaxy awaits a conqueror in Kesmai's Stellar

     Emperor. Thousands of solar systems sleep, unexplored,

     as your scout relentlessly scours the stars for the

     suitable candidates for mining and colonization.

     Exploration done, your colony ships arrive to establish

     planetary bases in an attempt to build the most

     prosperous economic empire. But wealth breeds jealousy,

     and soon you are engaged in wars of conquest as well as

     fights for survival.

     

     Stellar Emperor features real-time ship-to-ship combat

     in which battles range from individual duels to large

     pitched battles for control of the colonial worlds.  In

     addition to skill in flight, captains must also be

     skilled in the management of their colonial economies.

     Whether the colony is to become an economic power, a

     defended fortress or a base for staging assaults on

     neighboring worlds is the choice of their founder.  The

     production of advanced military hardware is only

     possible by wise management of planetary assets.

     Battleships are only built by the most advanced

     colonial shipyards.

     

     Captains must form alliances for protection and for

     war. The most powerful will seek to expand their domain

     and plunder the wealth of the galaxy.  Once

     successfully captured, a colony's owner will need their

     allies still, as a newly conquered colony is the

     weakest.  When the war is ended, the leader of the most

     prosperous alliance in the galaxy is crowned Emperor.

     

     Stellar Emperor comes from a long heritage of Kesmai

     multiplayer game development.  It is a direct

     descendant of the game MegaWars III, with which Kesmai

     pioneered multi-player gaming on consumer networks in

     1982.



How long does a War run?

     A War runs for four weeks exactly.



What if I enter a War late?

     Entering a War after the first few days is perfectly

     allowable, but may put you at a disadvantage to those

     who began building colonies right from the beginning.

     If you wish to win the game, try to get in early.

     Wars will be started frequently in order to allow

     everyone to enter a game from the outset. As demand

     rises, Wars will begin more and more frequently. All

     Wars will last four weeks from their start date.



Do I have to play on a team to compete effectively?

     That depends on what you mean by compete effectively.

     If you wish to be the Stellar Emperor, you will almost

     certainly have to be on a team. If you wish to win the

     title of Warlord, you may be able to do so working

     alone.

     Teams certainly have an advantage in many areas: mutual

     defense, scouting, planetary attacks, etc. but if you

     simply wish to have fun, flying solo may be all you

     ever need.



How do I get a ship?

     A Scout ship is always available to you for free at any

     of the four Imperial Bases. In addition, you may choose

     to switch to any of your own ships produced by your own

     shipyards.

     From the main menu, click on the third option to select

     a ship. If this is your first time in the War, you will

     be asked to name your ship (this will be your handle in

     the game). You will then be asked to place it at one of

     the four Imperial Bases, or you may choose to have it

     placed randomly among them. Once you have finished

     registering your ship, you will be returned to the main

     menu.



How do I start flying?

     Simply click the fourth button on the main menu to take

     your ship into flight. The Flight Interface will

     appear, with the Galaxy Map overlaid on top. Hit Escape

     to remove the Galaxy Map from view. If you have just

     obtained a Scout from the Empire, you will be in orbit

     around an Imperial base. Otherwise, you will be where

     you were when you last exited the game.

     Everything on the screen is clickable, and many things

     are right-clickable. Experiment to get a feel for the

     interface. The circle in the upper left is the

     navigation wheel. You can click on the outer circle to

     change your direction. The bar third down from the top

     left is the velocity gauge; click on that to set your

     speed.



How do I orbit a planet?

     Just click on the planet and then click the ENTER ORBIT

     button that appears to the left.



How do I fight?

     When you click on a suitable target (another ship,

     missile or probe), the buttons on the left will reflect

     the appropriate combat choices. The faster you fire

     your lasers, the less time they have to recharge, and

     the weaker they are. When you fire a torpedo, you must

     reload by clicking on the inner ring of the circle in

     the upper right. The middle ring of the circle on the

     upper left shows your shields, with green meaning

     intact, yellow meaning damaged, and red meaning

     critical. The inner ring of the upper left circle uses

     the same colors to reflect your hull damage.



How do I start a colony?

     When you are in orbit of a suitable planet, select the

     BASE option under the COMMANDS menu. One of the buttons

     that then appears will say COLONIZE. Click this, and

     you will start a new colony.



"How do I establish a colony?"

     Orbit the planet.  Press F7 then click colonize.



What is considered a good planet to colonize?

     1.   A planet with a 90+HAB and 90+MET rating.  Later in the

       war you might have to settle for lesser planets.

     2.   A planet with no colony.  This means no people even if

       the planet is unowned.



How do I improve my colony?

     You must do that back at the menus you saw at the

     beginning of the game. To get back to the menu, enter

     the orbit of a planet and type END.



How do I get a ship if my old one is destroyed?

     Anytime your ship is destroyed, you may get a free

     Scout ship from the Empire, using the same procedure

     you used to get your first ship.

     If you have built a new ship in one of your colonies'

     shipyards, you may elect to take one of those, instead.



How do I get a better ship?

     You have to build one in one of your shipyards. The

     Empire only makes Scout ships available for free. To

     build one in your shipyards, you need to allocate labor

     and engineers to your shipyards, allocate enough mining

     labor to produce the necessary building materials, and

     set your shipyard duties to the ship type you want

     produced. After that, it is a matter of time, and

     protecting your colony from attack long enough to build

     the ship you want.



What can I buy with money?

     Money can buy ship repairs at the IMP and open team

     bases.  They can also buy missiles and torps at the

     same.



How do I form a team? How do I join an existing one?

     If you wish to form a team, simply go to the Main Menu

     (not in flight) and select the Alliances button. Click

     the button to send an invitation to another player and

     fill in the appropriate ship number. This will send a

     message to that player asking if he wants to join your

     alliance. If he accepts, you have begun an alliance.

     If you wish to join an alliance, you must either

     receive an invitation from another player or send a

     request to the leader of another team, using the

     appropriate choice on the Alliance menu.

     Either way, once you have joined or formed an Alliance,

     you will have access to the Alliance functions on this

     menu, and your team score will be available from the

     Mail/Scores menu.



How do I attack a planet?

     To attack a planet, you must transport Fighters to that

     planet and send them into combat against the planetary

     defense guns on the surface. Once the fighters achieve

     air superiority, continued attacks will result in the

     destruction of industry, and the deaths of enemy troops

     and population. Generally, however, once air

     superiority is achieved, the fighters are used to ferry

     your troops down to the planet surface to finish the

     conquest and occupy the base.

     

        You attack a base by giving the ATTack command

     (enter ATT on the command line while in orbit of the

     planet). This sends down your fighters. An attack

     always takes 10 seconds. After entering the ATTack

     command, the message "Attack in progress..." will be

     displayed. Following the attack, you will be told of

     the results.

     

        Once air superiority is achieved, the base can be

     OCCupied (enter OCC on the command line, while in orbit

     of the planet). The OCCupy command sends troops down to

     the surface of the planet in your fighter ships.  Each

     fighter carries 8 troops in addition to its 2 pilots.

     When you OCCupy, you will be told of the effect of your

     troops in surface fighting.



         If the populace no longer resists, they may accept

     you as their leader, and you will have a new planetary

     base as a colony.  Of course, this means that the first

     thing you must do is defend it against its previous

     owner!



How do I win?

     There are several different ways to win a war,

     depending on what you wish to accomplish and which

     title you are trying for.

          -- The title of Warlord of the Galaxy is awarded

          to the player with the highest adjusted combat

          score. If you are trying for this title, you

          should make sure that you have a steady supply of

          good fighting ships and armaments.

          -- The title of Ravager of the Galaxy is awarded

          to the player who has taken the most planets

          (bases). If you are trying for this title, you

          should make sure that you have a steady supply of

          Fighters and ships to transport them, in addition

          to plenty of occupying troops.

          -- The title of President of the Galaxy is awarded

          to the player with the highest individual score.

          If you are trying for this title, you will need to

          be good at planetary management.

          -- The title of Emperor of the Galaxy, or the

          Stellar Emperor, is awarded to the leader of the

          team with the highest team score. If you are

          trying for this title, you will have to be able to

          coordinate a winning team.



Where do I deposit my tax money?

     You can deposit the tax money at any of the four

     Imperial Bases.  You can find the IMPs on the galaxy

     map . Alt-G



Technical



What kind of system do I need to run it?

     At present, the minimum system is:

     

          486DX66 running Windows 95

          8 MB RAM

          Mouse or other pointing device

          20 MB HD space

          9600 baud Hayes-compatible modem

          Standard keyboard

          

     Recommended system is:

     

          Pentium 60 or faster running Windows 95

          16MB of RAM

          Mouse or other pointing device

          20 MB Hard drive space

          Soundblaster-compatible sound card

          PCI Video Card with 2MB+ of video RAM

          14.4k+ baud Hayes-compatible modem

          Standard keyboard



Does it run on Windows 3.11?

     Not at this time. A Win311 version is planned.



Does it run on a MacIntosh or PowerPC?

     No. At the time of this writing, only Windows-

     compatible versions are planned.



What does multiplayer mean?

     Multiplayer games allow users from all over the world

     to connect to a single game and compete against each

     other in a shared environment. Stellar Emperor can

     handle hundreds of simultaneous players in a single

     galaxy.



I get a `emperorKDTT==NULL' message when I try to enter the

game.

     Delete the game and its directory and reinstall the

     game. In addition, make sure that the helper app you

     set up in Netscape points NOT to the Emperor executable

     but to the KLNCH32.EXE located in your WINDOWS

     directory



It says `No base established' when I tried to establish a

colony. What happened?

     Either one of two things.

     1.   The planet has no HAB or MET rating.

     2.   There is a colony already there.  Use the Planet Survey

       feature to check.



I get a fseek error when I am in the game.  How can I fix

this.?

     Go to the bugs section of the newsgroup and look for

     the subject `fseek error'  I uploaded a file named

     Emperor.cfg.  Place this file in your Emperor

     directory.  Make sure you have the latest version of

     this file.  I will try up upload a new copy with each

     new front end.



When I try to enter the game I get a `Product Monitor Denies

Access', what is this?

     This happens when the host thinks you already have a

     ship in the game.  It can be caused by you being booted

     while in flight.  Under normal circumstances the host

     will reset your ship in 10 mins.



THE FRONT END



Gameplay



Now that I am at the IMP how do I deposit my money?

     You must be orbiting the IMP.  Next make sure you are

     in `Command mode' and enter the command . BAN <amount>

     . To withdraw fund use the command . BAN -<amount>



How do I refuel?

     You can refuel a ship several ways.

     1.   You can refuel your ship at your base, an open team

       base, or an IMP.  Once in orbit bring up the ship buttons

       (F3 or click left green circle), select "Dry Dock" then

       select "Repair Ship".  If your ship is damaged or has its

       shields down, you may need money to Repair (refuel) at a

       base that is not your own.

     2.     Find a gas giant and scoop up Hydrogen.  Use the

       Geology keys to check for a gas giant (usually orange).  If

       a planet has over 40% hydrogen you can refuel there.  Just

       orbit the planet and type SCO at the command line.

     3.   If you are in a scout, just get a new fully loaded

       scout at one of the IMP bases.



"How can I turn off the GNN?"

     Click the large button at the bottom until it says

     `Radio CH C' then click . Tune . and enter 0 for the

     new frequency.



 "Why does the Users list more players than actually show

using the Ships in Flight function?"

     Users include all players in the game including those

     in the menu area.



"How do I communicate with other players? Every time that I

typed a message and clicked send. The game gave me a

`command not understood' error."

     There is two ways to send a message.

     1. Have the bottom button on Command and enter your

     message in the following format... a/<message>

     2. Have the bottom button say Radio CH A Freq 1.  If

     you are in this mode you only need to type and hit

     return.



"How do I get out of the radio room?"

     You can either exit to the menu area or enter the game

     from the radio room.

     To exit the game bring the communications window down .

     ALT-G . then hit . F3 . and click . Exit Ship.  To

     enter the game make sure you are in command mode then

     use the command . FLY



"All I see is numbers.  Is there any way to display the name

of the person on the com line?"

     No there isn't.  You can get a listing of the players

     currently in the game by hitting . F3 . then click

     .Ships in Flight.



"I cannot fire my torpedoes.  All I get is a `target not

acquired' message"

     This is called the targeting bug.  It normally affects

     only your torpedoes, missiles and lasers should still

     work.  My suggestion is avoid fighting that one ship.

     This bug normally affects only a few of your targets.



"When in heated combat I sometimes enter too many commands

in the buffer.  How can I clear the commands that I have

sent previously?"

     When you are in `Command mode' you can hit the . `-` .

     key several times.  This will send a clear buffer

     message to the host.



Technical



"Sometimes I see two lasers coming from my ship.  How do I

know that I am hitting the correct ship?"

     This bug will be fixed in the future.  Check your

     status window (bottom right) to see who your lasers are

     hitting.



"Someone said that my ship number was not being displayed on

my com messages.  How do I fix this?"

     Exit the game and close the front end.  Reentering the

     game has fixed this in the past.



"I have found the manual commands but some of them don't

work."

     All manual commands (command mode) will be going away

     in the future.  Some have been turned off already.



"When I type I cannot see what I am typing. What is up?"

     Check your display setting, it should be set to small

     fonts.



"I know I have a ship at this base of mine but it won't let

me get out of this transport!"

     This button command is broken.  You will have to use

     the manual command from command mode.  The format for

     the command is . DRY <Ship Type> . where ship type can

     be SC, DD, CR, TR, BC or BS.



"I destroyed a ship in the starspace, there was no music and

no kill was added to my score."

     This is caused by the `no number bug'. Exit the game

     and close the front end.  Reentering the game has fixed

     this in the past.  Once back in check with other

     players to see if you number is showing up in your com.



PLANETARY MANAGEMENT



Gameplay



"How do I manage my planets?"

     I would suggest you read the help file included with

     the front end.  Also, get the PM Help file in the

     newsgroup called Pitchnomics.

     Its a good idea to fully read Pitchonomics.  If you

     want a quick start, begin reading at the PM Stages

     section of the manual.

     This manual will be rewritten once all the PM screens

     are completed.



"My people are leaving and there is looting in the streets.

How do I stop this?

      If you are having any of the following problems...read

     this...

     1.   Population going down

     2.   Metal Stock going down

     3.   Looting

     There are signs of a very serious PM problem.  If you

     selected your planet well (80H 80M Minimum) you should

     be able to correct these problem.

     Here is the labor settings you should try first.

     Agriculture 4% (With a metal shortage never try Special

     K)

     Mining - Set to what Mining Capacity is

     Eng - 3.5%

     Arms - 1.0%

     Shipyards - 0.0% for now

     Housing - Subtract your setting above from 100%

     After 4 hours check your planet to see if you metal

     stock is increasing and if the population is coming

     back.  If your metal stock increase is greater than

     your population increase.  It would be safe to move

     some labor from housing to shipyards.  First try to set

     your shipyards at half the available capacity (take the

     labor from housing).

     Your Engineering Construction Effort should be as

     below.  Use these settings for 24 hours...After that

     move 20 - 25% from mining to shipyards if you wish.

     Mining - 40%

     Engineering - 60%



Technical



"I am getting an illegal syntax error in the PM menu area."

     Make sure the large button at the bottom of the screen

     says `Command' instead of `Radio.'.  Clicking this

     button should cycle you through the radio channels so

     you can get to the right mode.



"I have tried several times to update my settings in the

labor area but they won't stick"

     Try this.  When you are in the labor area only work on

     once column at a time (labor or Engineering

     Construction Effort).

     Enter the figures you want in the labor column.  Click

     the level button on the right then click the level

     button on the left and then click the Update button.

     Look for a "base updated" message.

     Next go back to the labor menu and this time enter the

     figures you want in the Engineering Construction Effort

     column. Click the level button on the right then click

     the level button on the left and then click the Update

     button.  Look for a "base updated" message.

     Some say they don't have to do this but it seems to

     work for me.



"My assigned labor settings on the economic report is

different than what I just set it."

     You may see a slight decrease in all your settings.

     This is due to a bug which does not include government

     workers in the 100% calculation.  They are take out

     after you update your planet.

     This will be fixed.  My suggestion is to use a slightly

     higher (0.50% more) mining and engineering setting to

     make sure you will be covered.



ALLIANCES



Gameplay



"I cannot send a message to my alliance from the alliance

menu"

     Try using the message function in the Mail/Score area.

     Also make sure you are in command mode when you are in

     the radio area.



Technical



"I can't join an alliance.  I am typing `Y' at the

invitation message but it always says I declined"

     Make sure the large button at the bottom of the screen

     says `Command' instead of `Radio.'.  Clicking this

     button should cycle you through the radio channels so

     you can get to the right mode.





