1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 Nexus: The Jupiter Incident Guide Guide Version 1.0 by Andrew Cretella acretella@berkeley.edu Copyright 2005 Do not reproduce this without my express permission. =============================================================================== Index =============================================================================== A - Singleplayer A1 - Walkthrough A1a - Arrival to Jupiter A1b - The Ronin A1c - OSEC Encounter A1d - The Chance A1e - Kissaki Raid A1f - Shukenja Beta A1g - Raptor Raid A1h - The Chase A1i - Back to Earth A1j - Raptor Genocide A1k - First Blood A1l - Saving the Scout A1m - Sneaking A1n - Titan A1o - The Mechanoid A1p - The Locust A1q - The Siege of Avalon A1r - Peace Negotiations A1s - Locust Queen A1t - Alpha Gate A1u - Mechanoid Invasion A1v - The Fall of the Vardrags A1w - Bridgehead A1x - Blockade Breakers A1y - The Fight for earth A1z - The Nexus A2 - Ships A2a - Stiletto A2b - Madeline and Lightning A2c - Angelwing A2d - Brutus, Sparta, Thunder, Void, Silver, Arrow A2e - AValanche, Marco Polo, Sceptre A2f - Guardian and Crystal A2g - Colossus A2h - Thunder, Quicksilver, Tiger and Panther A2i - Gemini, Spark and Flash fighters A2j - Space Marines, Commando Squad, Cyborg Squad A2k - Sickle and Scythe Gunboats A2l - Meteor and Comet bombers A3 - Weapons and devices A3a - Lasers A3b - Gatling Guns A3c - Torpedoes A3d - Missiles A3e - Plasma Cannons A3f - Energy Shells A3g - Energy Torpedoes A3h - Energy Bombs A3i - Flak Cannons A3j - Blinder A3k - Energy Skeeter A3l - Siege Laser A3m - Shields A3n - Weapon Generators A3o - Other Generators A3p - Energy Cells A3q - Sensor Arrays A3r - Electronic Counter Measure Systems A3s - Electronic Counter Counter Measure Systems A3t - Datascanner A3u - Engines B - Multiplayer guide B1 - Getting started B2 - Ships, weapons and devices B2a - Basic overview and a note on naval lexicon B2b - Noah (human) B2c - Gorg B2d - Raptor B2e - Vardrag B2f - Old school human B2g - Ghost B2h - White C - Version History =============================================================================== A - Singleplayer =============================================================================== ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A1 - Walkthrough ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1a - Arrival to Jupiter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marcus Cromwell, SpaceTech captain of the Stiletto class corvette Stiletto (the first of its kind), has been assigned to escort two transports to the Michelangelo and Sunflower twin stations. During this mission, you'll basically be babied through the basics of movement and targeting. Most of the standard controls will not even be at your disposal. You'll only control the Stiletto for this mission and there is no combat at all. When the gameplay finally begins, your view will be centered on the Stiletto but you won't yet be able to control it. The dispatcher from the Michelangelo station will contact Marcus and tell him not to move yet because the station's minefield is active. Francis Delorain, an old friend of Marcus', will then contact him to say goodbye and taunt him in a friendly way. Eventually, the dispatcher from the Michelangelo will tell you to approach the designated navigation point, and suddenly the "Approach" button on the command panel will no longer be greyed out. Select the Stiletto by clicking on it, and then right-click NAV MICHELANGELO in the NPC Fleet list to move toward it. When you reach it, you'll get a message confirming the completion of the action and a cutscene will begin. The Sunflower's fighters will contact you so that they can also tell you that the Sunflower's minefield is active. Issue the Stiletto another move order, this time toward the Sunflower station. After a short while, the Sunflower fighter pilot will tell you to hold position because you have reached the minefield. The "Hold Position" button on the command panel will no longer be greyed out; immediately click on it and wait for the Sunflower to deactivate the minefield. Resume the move order toward the Sunflower once this has been completed. After a short conversation between Marcus and the Sunflower fighter pilot, the Sunflower will tell you that one of the mines failed to deactivate and that you need to run away from it. The "Run Away" button on the command panel will no longer be greyed out, but instead I suggest simply clicking hold position since it'll save you some time. Resume the move order once again after the mine is deactivated. Once you reach the Sunflower base, someone named Colonel Finn will greet Marcus and this boring mission will be complete. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1b - The Ronin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Colonel Finn will brief you about a cargo ship called the Ronin, which belongs to a corporation called the Kissaki Syndicate. He'll tell you to intercept the ship and inspect its cargo. This mission will baby you through the basics of combat. The "Guard" and "Recon" buttons on the command panel are now usable. At the start of the mission, there's nothing to do but select the navigation point and fly toward it. Eventually, the Stiletto's sensors will detect not one but two unidentified objects. One will be identified as the Ronin; the other will at first be erroneously identified as its sister ship. In a cutscene however, the other ship is shown to be clearly of an alien design, and within seconds it'll actually warp out of the immediate vicinity. Continue to approach the Ronin. When the Ronin and the Stiletto contact each other, an argument will ensue between Marcus and the captain of the Ronin. The Ronin will try to escape, so you'll have to open fire now that the "Destroy Hull" button on the command panel has become usable. Eventually the Ronin will ask you to cease fire; however, then the Ronin's captain will refuse to let accept the Stiletto's team. The Stiletto's officer then warns Marcus that the Ronin's flak cannon could destroy the marine landing craft; you'll have to disable it. Click on the weapons section of the target ship's device panel and then click on the flak cannon so that it is flashing. Now issue the device destroy order with the newly available "Attack Device" button on the command panel. Unfortunately, the Ronin will then deploy a wing of fighters to delay your progress further. Deploy your own fighters to destroy them. The repair panel will now be available but there's no real reason to tinker with it just yet. Once the fighter are destroy, you can finally send the commando unit to the Ronin. The commandos will find some unusual and illegal cargo aboard the Ronin; eventually the commandos will return to the Stiletto and the mission will be complete. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1c - OSEC Encounter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Colonel Finn will brief Marcus about an S.O.S. signal coming from a Kissaki base. Your objective is to inspect the base and send in a relief team. Other corporations will be trying to respond to the signal too, so you may run into some resistance. Although this is the mission briefing, you'll be sidetracked when you see a battle taking place. It's an uneven battle: the FSF Hawking, Francis Delorain's corvette, is under attack by two OSEC Longswords, the Dangerous and the Invulnerable. Francis will ask for your assistance. Your primary objective is to destroy the Longswords; your secondary objective is to save the Hawking. After two tutorials disguised as mission, this is the first time in the game where you'll be given free rein. You could start out by using the Stiletto's missiles to soften up those hardy Longswords, but unfortunately the Hawking isn't safely outside the blast radius. Fortunately, it is still possible to save the Hawking even without causing such massive damage to the Longswords. Issue an attack device order on the Invulnerable. The Dangerous will begin to head toward you, but the Hawking is attacking the Invulnerable, so you might as well coordinate your fire with it. Open up the power panel and the manual panel. Set weapons to 150% and Stiletto's Gatling gun target the Invulnerable. Once you get a sensor reading on its flak cannon, select it so that your lasers will target it. You can even send out your fighters to assist in this task, but try to have them land on the Stiletto for repairs before they die. Once you have destroyed the the Invulnerable's flak cannon, destroy the Dangerous. Continue your attack on the Dangerous until you've destroyed its weapon generator and both of its engines. Meanwhile, select the engines and the weapon weapon generator of the Invulnerable and send your commando squad to take those out. Make sure to press F1 to have your commandos return to the Stiletto if the amount of commandos left gets close to zero. If your commandos are eliminated, you will fail the mission. If you still have plenty of commandos left after the Invulnerable is rendered impotent, send them to the Dangerous to disarm and disable it too. This is all you need to do to beat the OSEC ships. The Hawking will continue to fire on them anyway and you can destroy them if you desire, but you can also head to the navigation point called "CONTINUE TOWARD SOS" to complete the mission. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1d - The Chance ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This mission is basically a continuation of the last so there's no real briefing. Your initial main objective is to find the Kissaki base called "Shukenja" and deploy a commando unit. At the start of the mission the base will not be on the NPC fleet list. The Stiletto's scient will upload a list of search points that'll allow you to find the base. Select Search point 2 and move toward it. Eventually the station will show up on screen and the search points will disappear. Begin moving toward the Shukenja base. You will receive an automated message warning you that the station's platforms will open fire and you will detect some of these platforms. Eventually you will also detect a ship called the Ashigaru, and you receive a new objective to deploy your commando unit to it. Press the Hold Position button to stop the Stiletto and deploy the commando unit now. While the commandos are inspecting the Ashigaru, open up the manual panel and use your missiles destroy some of the outer weapon platforms. Eventually the commandos will report that they've found a survivor. When they return, the survivor will inform you about the station's defense systems and how to go about deactivating them with certain deactivation codes that are only found on Kissaki warships. At this point the Stiletto's officer will inform you about a weak point in the station's defensive network. Begin flying toward it. Along the way, you'll detect a Kissaki warship called the Bushi. Hold position and send your commandos to the Bushi. Unfortunately, while the specialist aboard the marine landing craft will be able to deactivate the weapon platforms using the Bushi's deactivation codes, they'll be recalibrated in three minutes. Immediately start attacking the weapon platforms and dispatch your fighters to destroy them too. When you've destroyed all of the inner platforms, send your commando unit to the Shukenja base. After a ton of chatter on the commando leader's part, he'll report that he found an alien vessel within the Shukenja station. Marcus will tell the commando to board the vessel and pilot it out of the station. When the commando is ready, he'll ask if he should launch immediately or if he should wait until all platforms are destroyed. Tell him to wait. Once the platforms are destroyed the Angelwing will launch from the docking bay of the Shukenja on the mission will be complete. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1e - Kissaki Raid ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A small group of Kissaki ships is headed to attack the Sunflower base. You must protect it, and you must also prevent the Kissaki from recapturing the Angelwing. You'll have control over more than one ship for the first time in the game, although the Angelwing won't be much use since you can't yet equip it with any weapons. For the first time you can also customize the loadouts of your ships, although at this point the options are too limited to make a huge difference. Equip the extra fighters onto one of the light corvettes and the extra marine craft on the other. At the start of the mission the Angelwing will be underfire from the three Kissaki ships. Order it to move toward the Sunflower base and assign one squadron of fighters to protect it. During this time, the Sunflower station's computer specialist will report that an enemy hacker is hacking the station's weapon platforms. They will try to hit the Ming with a volley of missiles, but eventually the platforms will be fried and Colonel Finn will tell Marcus that their fate is in his hands. The strategy I will detail here will be similar to the one used in the OSEC encounter mission. Start out by taking out the flak cannons of each ship one-by-one. Start with the Ming and the Tenbatsu, then get started on the Yamamoto. Once all three flak cannons are down, target the engines and weapon generators of all three ships, send out one marine craft to the Tenbatsu and the other to the Ming, and start pounding on the Yamamoto with laser fire. Once all three ships are rendered inoperative, the mission should be complete. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1f - Shukenja Beta ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Colonel Finn will relieve Marcus of his command of the Stiletto and assign him to the Angelwing. He'll also tell you about another Shukenja station to be inspected: "Shukenja Beta." You will now control the Angelwing from this point onward, and you will never see the Stiletto again. You'll now have more options in the equipment screen, but the current selection will be rendered almost entirely obsolete by the next mission, so don't go obsess over it too much. Only the SpaceTech ECM system won't be replaced by something better by the next mission, and it's not very good anyway. For now, just load the fighter bay with Gemini fighters. A datascanner is attached to your ship and it currently cannot be removed. At the beginning of the mission, the Angelwing's officer (same as the Stiletto's) will tell you that in addition to the Shukenja Beta, there is also a wormhole and an unidentified artificial object, all of which can be scanned. Scan them in the following order: Shukenja, wormhole, artificial object. Now, at some point in this mission, the artificial object will start moving and open fire on the Angelwing in a cutscene. It does not occur at the same exact time every time you play this mission, and it is unclear as to what exactly causes it. Generally, if it hasn't start by the time you start scanning the object, it will happen then. However, it could happen as early as when you start scanning the station. Additionally, it seems to happen as soon as you open fire. To use the Datascanner, either select it from the manual panel or press the recon button on the command panel and select a target. Once the station is scanned, the Angelwing's scientist, Dr. Veltman, will say that there is a ship in its docking bay made from materials similar to the Angelwing's. There will now be a new objective to send your commando unit to the station. They will seemingly be immediately under attack once they land. You can recall them immediately to save them, or you can let them stay there and they will die. Now scan the wormhole. If the artificial object doesn't start moving at this point, it'll start once you try to scan it. The object will open fire and it will cause significant damage. An artificial intelligence interchangeably named Angel and Tenshi will transfer itself to your ship and activate its shields. She will tell you not to open fire on the object and that you must must go through the wormhole to escape. Finish scanning the wormhole and the artificial object if you haven't done so already. Once you've finished scanning, go through the wormhole. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1g - Raptor Raid ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Admiral Anderson will welcome you to the Noah system and invite you to join Commander Ironsight who, in the destroyer Chrome, will be escorting a group of transports to the Noah civiliation's central planet. She tells you that you can just relax and enjoy the ride, so naturally you can expect things to turn sour. The gameplay changes noticeably at this point; the introduction of shields is obviously a new dynamic, and in general it feels a lot faster and more involving. Now you'll really have a chance to customize the Angelwing to your liking and see what it's capable of. Equip a sensor array, both electron shells, both ring flak systems, both energy shells, both sliver gatling guns, and the neutron torpedo launcher. Replace two of those Gemini fighter wings with Spark fighter wings. At the start of the mission, the interplanetary (IP) drives of the entire convoy will stop, apparently unintentionally. Marcus will ask about what's going on. Order the Angelwing to guard or move toward the Chrome. Commander Ironsight will respond, saying that only the Vardrags are capable of doing such things, and that they usually wouldn't without an explanation. He says that it will take ten minutes for the IP drives of the ships to recharge. Immediately after he finishes that sentence, a fairly large group of apparently hostile ships appears and is headed straight for the convoy. Commander Ironsight will inform you that they are rogue Raptors, cybernetic Vardrags that have turned to piracy. Immediately start flying toward them, but do not target the Master class ship, the Annihilator. You cannot destroy it at this moment. Instead, you will be concentrating on the Hunters and the Killers. The Annihilator will deploy gunboats to harass the transports however, so deploy your own fighters to dissuade them. The Chrome is faster and thus it will engage the enemy ships before you. Your entire strategy, due to the the odds being stacked against you, will revolve around coordinating your fire with the Chrome. First divert reserve power to weapons to maximize the Angelwing's fire rate. At any given time, you should have the Angelwing attack the shields of the ship that the Chrome is attacking. Once its shields are down, open up the manual panel and open fire on that ship with both gatling guns and the torpedo; it should be toast in seconds. While inflicting hull damage, you should also use the manual panel to begin draining the shields of another ship. If you realize that the Chrome is attacking a different ship from the one you're attacking, switch your energy shells to attack the ship it's attacking. You only need to stall the enemy ships for ten minutes, but using this strategy you should be able to destroy all of the Hunters and the Killers without losing a single transport. Once again, don't even bother with the Annihilator. Just sit tight and wait for Commander Ironsight to activate the synchronized IP jump after ten minutes are up. Unfortunately, one of the transports will be left behind and will be captured by the Annihilator. Usually it's the Fat Lady, but not always. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1h - The Chase ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your objective in this mission is to rescue the captured transport ship. Rear Admiral Arthur Norbank will assign you to deploy a wing of Praetorian gunboats to achieve this tisk, and also to escort a wing of Noah destroyers so they can intercept the Raptor forces. There is an optional objective in this mission to scan a wormhole, so if you want to complete it, leave the datascanner equipped. Otherwise, I would suggest adding another energy cell in its place. You will have barely any resource points to alter your ship in this mission, but this fact is inconsequential since there is basically no new equipment. At the start of the mission, the destroyers will break formation to intercept a Raptor Master class ship. Immediately deploy the Praetorian gunboats and have them target all of the cargo carrier's engines. Send any fighters you have onboard to assist the Praetorians in this task. On your way to the transport, a small wing of Hunter ships will come to ambush the Angelwing. Immediately recall the fighters, and recall the Praetorians once they've finished destroying the engines of the transport. Once the Raptor ships are in range, open fire on one ship with all three energy shells. Once you begin to detect the devices of the other ships, have the Praetorians disable the shields of another Raptor ship. Open fire on each ship with gatling guns and torpedoes once shields go down. Once the three ships are destroyed, you can go to the wormhole and scan it if you want to complete the additional objective, but it's not required to complete the mission. Move to the transport and wait for reinforcements. Eventually more raptor ships will arrive, but so will the cavalry. Once they do the mission will end. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1i - Back to Earth ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rear Admiral Scheinmann tells Marcus that the status of Earth is currently unknown. The scout destroyer Whiskers failed to establish contact with the Noah colony after reaching Earth. Marcus will insist on going back himself. Equip the commando squad and the extra wing of Spark fighters before beginning the mission. The Angelwing will arrive at Earth sector, and there will be a large, black spherical object near the moon. It is of mechanoid origin. Dr. Veltman will report that virtually every ship and space station in and around Earth sector is under Mechanoid control. Angel will offer to investigate the situation on Earth. To do this, she'll need to use the relay station immediately in front of you. She says that she'll be back in ten minutes and that you need to protect the relay station. After a long-winded conversation between Marcus and Dr. Veltman, three ships will appear and start coming toward you: a Longsword class ship called the Fearless, a Stiletto class ship called the Razor, and the Noah's scout: the Whiskers. Immediately set a course for them. The Fearless will launch a volley missiles that will destroy the relay station. This is a scripted event that you can't prevent, so don't worry about it. All three ships are unshielded, so just open fire with hull damaging weapons on the Fearless and then the on the Whiskers. They should be destroyed very quickly. Use your gatling guns to render the Razor inoperative, but do not destroy it completely. Send a commando unit it to it; it will return to the Angelwing with a survivor. Once you've taken care of all ships, you'll receive a distress signal from the space station Northstar. They will report that they've been cut off from the universe because the station has been rendered basically inoperative by some sort of virus. Marcus will ask for a radio transmitter so that Angel can return and the survivors aboard the Northstar will board a shuttle and head for the Angelwing. After a lot of chatter, a mechanoid will appear and begin attacking the Angelwing while you're still waiting for to return. Immediately raise shields and set shield power to 200%. Turn off engines and sensors. Sit tight while the mechanoid attacks; Angel will eventually return, and she'll inexplicably drive the mechanoids away. Mission complete. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1j - Raptor Genocide ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rear Admiral Norbank will tell you that the Noah forces have found the Raptor Headquarters. Your objective is to provide cover for the battleships Rome and Athens while they destroy the station. At the equipment screen, swap the Hidron shield for the Layer shield. Also equip the Overload Energy Bomb in place of one of the Energy Shells. At the start of the mission, immediately charge the Overload Energy Bomb and launch it at the nearest group of Raptor ships. Use reserve power for weapons so that it'll charge faster. Follow the destroyers. Keep firing these energy bombs until the destroyers get in close firing range. The Angelwing's scientist will tell you that a message has been received from Vardrag ambassador, telling Marcus not to underestimate the Raptors. Marcus has the message forwarded to Rear Admiral Norbank, but he doesn't take it seriously. The destroyers will take care of most of the Killer ships, at least if you've helped them out with those energy bombs. Be sure to open fire with both energy shells and gatling guns and torpedoes once you get in range too however. After a while, a cutscene will ensue in which the Raptor station fires two missiles that destroy the Athens and the Rome almost instantly. Once the cutscene finishes, pretty much all of the Killer ships should be dead, or nearly dead. At this point, Marcus will take control of the fleet. It's possible that one of the destroyers died, especially on the higher difficulty levels, but you should have at least three ships to control. Have all three destroyers and the Angelwing fly to the unknown object in the distance. It is a Master class ship called the Den. Send out fighters to keep the Raptor gunboats busy. Hit the Den with an energy bomb and then close in while firing energy shells from all four or five ships in your fleet. Once the shield is down, tear the Den apart with gatling guns and torpedoes from all ships. After a while, the scientist will inform you of yet another message from the Vardrag ambassador, this time telling Marcus about a weak point in the Raptor station. You will receive an objective to scan the Raptor colony, but it's completely optional. At this point, a Vardrag ship called the Oracle of Ages will jump into the vicinity and actually take out the Raptor colony's leaking reactor itself. Mission complete. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1k - First Blood ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that the Raptors have been taken care of, Rear Admiral Norbank will tell you about the Gorgs. Your objective in this mission is to protect a support ship equipped with a Fortress shield, which Rear Admiral Norbank expects the Gorgs will mount an assault upon. He will also tell you that the Destroyers Brutus and Sparta have been placed under your command, and that a cruiser and two frigates have been placed temporarily under your command for just this mission. In the equipment screen, clear the Angelwing's fighter bay and load it with the new Sickle gunboats. Equip the Plasmastream engine. Have another Overload Energy Bomb fill the other heavy weapon slot, and remove the remaining energy shells and put gatling guns and Neutron torpedo launchers in their place. Use the Angelwing's remaining resource points to swap the regular sensor array for an advanced one. For both the Brutus and the Sparta, remove the weapon occupying the heavy weapon slot and replace it with a Magma plasma gun. On both, equip a Plasmatorch engine, a secondary Firecloud generator and an L1 Fusion support generator. Now equip the Brutus with an electron cell and the Sparta with a Deflection engine. As soon as the mission starts, five gorg ships will jump in to assault the Colossus. Now, this is a very easy mission if you just want to complete it, but it is very difficult if you want to complete the secondary objective, which is destroying all gorg ships. Normally, Once you destroy the two Gorg destroyers and one of the cruisers, or once you disable the battleship's Siege Laser, the remaining ships will activate their IP drives and flee. In order to complete the secondary objective, you'll have to disable the IP drives of both cruisers and the battleship, after destroying the destroyers. At the beginning of the mission, move all five ships in front of the Colossus using the shift move key so that they will draw some of the fire instead of the Colossus. Set the Angelwing's weapons to 200% and start charging both energy bombs. Have one bomb target the Sting, and the other target the Warbird. This will cause their shields to collapse immediately after they have been brought up. Now you can open fire with all six ships in your current fleet to rip apart the hull of the Warbird and the Sting in a flash. At this point the Colossus' fortress shield should activate, providing your entire fleet with cover. Unfortunately, the remaining Gorg fleet will retreat to a safe distance and begin charging the Siege Laser, which can penetrate the fortress shield. Start charging up the Angelwing's energy bombs again. Have your fleet move toward the Gorg battle group. Set shields to 200% on all ships. Have the Angelwing let those energy bombs loose on the cruisers. If you haven't yet detected all of the devices on all three ships, have the Angelwing use the recon command to gather data. After this is complete, use the Sparta, Brutus, the Quicksilver, and the Thunder, to take out the phalanx lasers of the cruisers since their shields should still be down. Deploy the gunboats that are aboard the Avalanche and the Angelwing to assist them, especially if the shields come back up. Take out out the phalanx lasers of the battleship after that. If at any time the Gorg ships reactivate the Siege Laser, temporarily disable, but do not complete destroy, it by selecting it under the weapons subpanel of the Valiant's devices. Once the phalanx lasers are down, your gunships should be able to work without any interference. Make sure the Siege Laser stays disabled, and begin taking out the IP drives of all three ships. If the shields prove to be too much of a hindrance, concentrate anti-shield fire with all six of your ships to take them down. Once the IP drives are gone, just knock out the shields and tear apart the hull to finish the mission. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1l - Saving the Scout ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rear Admiral Norbank tells Marcus that a scout ship has been damaged and it is hiding from Gorg ships in the ring of a planet. The Gorg ships are using an IP jammer to prevent it from escaping. Your task is to rescue it by either destroying the IP blocker or destroying all enemy ships. You won't get too many resources to alter your ship in this mission. Equip the Angelwing with a combat drive and a standard ECM system. Upgrade its gatling guns if they aren't already. Equip the Brutus with a deflection engine and the Sparta with a standard ECM system. This mission is incredibly easy on any difficulty level. There are only four ships to deal with, and they're all basic Gorg destroyers. If you choose to beat the mission by destroying the IP blocker, you need to find the ship with the IP blocker and destroy the blocker with lasers. To determine which of the ships has the block, you need to use the Brutus' datascanner. It is not always the same ship each time you play this mission. You'll immediately know if it's the right ship or not once you start scanning. Every scan you conduct will show a meter labeled SCANNED that will fill as the scan progresses. The ship with the IP blocker will have another meter labeled SECRET. Once you've found the right ship, simply target the device and take it out. Alternatively, you can beat the mission just by destroyinG all four destroyers, which is pretty easy too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1m - Sneaking ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rear Admiral Norbank tells you about the Theta Gate (a wormhole), which is protected by a Gorg minefield. The minefield is controlled by a nearby Gorg space station, aptly called the Theta Station. Norbank wants Marcus to fly the Angelwing near the base so that it can transmit Angel to the station so that she can reprogram the mines to be hostile to the Gorgs. The main catch is that you have to reach the base without being detected by any of the patrolling ships or sensor platforms in the station's vicinity. You'll receive some help from the Ghost liaison named Commander Sweetwater however, who will be able to camouflage (cloak) the Angelwing. Once the briefing is over, use the available resource points to replace the laser ring flak systems with laser globe flak systems. Now, as far as I'm aware, there is no absolutely foolproof method of completing the game's only stealth mission. However, there is a rather simple strategy that seems to work most of the time. At the start of the mission, Commander Sweetwater will tell you that the Angelwing can only cloak for a limited amount of time. This means five minutes, and you can actually recloak the Angelwing for five minutes again after a thirty second rest break. Start by moving to NAV 0. Once you get there, Commander Sweetwater will upload the complete reconnaissance database of the sector, which is all the information you need to get through the mission. Angel tells you that asteroid number three contains radioactive ores that emit strong radiation, which is ideal for camouflage, but potentially damaging to the ship's equipment. Head NAV 3. Once you reach NAV 3, the cloaking device will automatically deactivate. A counter will begin counting down from thirty. Once it reaches fifteen, tell the Angelwing to move toward NAV 7, which exhibits the same radioactive quality of NAV 3. The cloaking device should automatically reactivate once you've cleared the radiation, but if it doesn't, open up the manual panel and turn it back on manually. Once the Angelwing has reached NAV 7, order it to move towards the Theta Station after fifteen seconds. Once you have a minute or less left of cloak, or you're with approximately 10K of the station, deploy the commando unit to transmit Angel to reprogram the mines. A Gorg fleet will arrive the the Theta gate and basically explode almost instantly. Unfortunately, after a while, Angel will tell you that there are no more mines, and that not every ship has been destroyed. Start charging your energy bombs. Marcus will tell Commander Sweetwater to reactivate the cloaking device, but she says she is no longer capable of doing so. The remaining Gorg fleet, while damaged, is four ships strong, including a battleship, so they still outnumber you. Start approaching them anyway. You'll notice ghost ships beginning to attack the remainder of the Gorg fleet. Launch the energy bombs once the Gorg shields reactivate and just open fire with hull damaging weapons to complete the mission. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1n - Titan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rear Admiral Norbank tells Marcus that it's time to attack the Gorgs' Titan station. His battleships are equipped with energy torpedoes and are ready to go. Once you get to the equipment screen, remove the commando unit and load the Angelwing's fighter bay with two squadrons of gunboats and one wing of fighters. Start replacing the electron cells on the Angelwing with plasma cells. On the Sparta and the Brutus, begin replacing the Thornbird light lasers with Burningfist heavy lasers. At the start of the mission, only the Angelwing will arrive for some reason. Angel will report that the Gorg station has activated an IP blocker. Your first objective is to destroy it. Send the fighters and the gunboats in your fighter bay to complete this task. Once the IP blocker is disabled -- not even destroyed -- immediately return all of your fighters and gunboats back to the Angelwing. The rest of the Noah fleet will arrive. It will consist of two battleships, the Adamant and the Balthasar; a cruiser, the Marco Polo; two frigates, the Tiger and the Panther; and your ships, the Brutus and the Sparta. Have the Angelwing follow the Balthasar by guarding it, and have the Sparta and the Brutus target the cruiser Violence. Usually it seems the Balthasar and the Adamant head directly for the Titan station, while the Marco Polo, the Tiger and the Panther usually go off on their own to engage the gorg ships. Once the Brutus and the Sparta are in range of the Violence, have their lasers target its shields. If it's moving around too much, take out its engines. Once the shield is disabled, have them open fire with the plasma guns. The Marco Polo should do likewise. The Courage cruiser usually flies off in some weird, non-threatening course. The Bloodfeud usually goes after the battleships, so have the Brutus and Sparta go after it next. At some point the fortress shield of the Titan station will reactivate. It should happen long before the Angelwing and the battleships make it there. Meanwhile, a small battle group of one battleship and two destroyers will begin charging a Siege Laser from within the protective cover of the fortress shield. The battleships will begin firing energy torpedoes to take out the shield. If you help the battleships by firing energy bombs from the Angelwing, the shield should collapse soon enough, and the Siege formation will break. The Gorg destroyers will break off and start attacking the battleships. If you don't help the battleships, the Balthasar will be hit by the Siege Laser, and you'll receive a message from an officer aboard the Balthasar saying that Rear Admiral Norbank has been knocked unconscious. At this point, the officer will ask you to take command, and you'll have control over the entire fleet. So you'll be only in command of the Angelwing, the Sparta, and the Brutus for the most part if you take out the fortress shield more quickly, but if at any time in the mission the Balthasar sustains damage to the point where it has about 75% hull remaining, you'll receive command of the fleet. If you decide to take out the fortress shield more quickly, have the Angelwing launch its energy bombs at the Gorg destroyers and destroy them with its gatling guns. If the Bloodfeud is still active, take out the main engine and the shield with the Sparta and Brutus, and then have them head toward the Barbarian. Let the Angelwing finish off the Bloodfeud with its gatling guns and torpedoes. If you notice the Balthasar slowly losing its shield, have the Sparta and the Brutus abort their disabling of the Bloodfeud's shield and have them start disabling the weapon generator of the station. Then go for the weapon generator of the Barbarian. Eventually, the station will just go down from the plasma fire of the battleships. Of course, it's actually much easier to let the Balthasar take a bit of a pounding because gaining control of the entire fleet will allow you to use the ships far more wisely than the computer. You can just pretty quickly take out the shields of the Barbarian and the station with the energy torpedoes on the battleships, and the Marco Polo is equipped with a pretty sufficient supply of torpedoes for causing quick hull damage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1o - The Mechanoid ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commander Sweetwater informs you that an inactivate mechanoid has been found. She is eager to inspect it and so is Angel. You'll now assume command of the cruiser Avalanche, which you've commanded before in the First Blood mission. At the equipment screen, equip the Angelwing with an L2 Quark Support Generator, a Combat Firestorm Generator and a standard ECM system. Equip the Brutus and the Sparta with an L1 Quark Support Generator and a Tactical Firestorm Generator. Equip the Sparta with a plasma cell. The Avalanche is best equipped along the same lines as the Angelwing since it's the same ship class. Equip it with a Plasmastream engine, an L2 Fusion Support Generator and a Laserglobe flak system. Replace the energy shell in the heavy weapon slot with an Overload energy bomb. At the start of the mission, have all of your ships move toward the mechanoid and charge the energy bombs on both the Avalanche and the Angelwing. Have the Brutus scan the mechanoid. After scanning the mechanoid, Angel will transmit herself to it and take control of it. She'll start reciting poetry, and eventually a group of Gorg ships will jump in to attack you. Inevitably you will have to engage them. It would be easiest to sit at that starting position launching energy bombs, but unfortunately, doing so would cause Angel to lose her control of the Mechanoid, which would be disasterous. Instead, immediately have the Angelwing set a course for them, and have the rest of your ships guard the Angelwing so that they fly at its pace. The Avalanche won't be able to keep up unless you divert extra power to its engines, but it won't be that much slower. Have the energy bombs on the Angelwing and the Avalanche target individual gorg destroyers. Unload on the destroyers whose shields go down with the Angelwing's torpedoes and supplement them with Brutus' and Sparta's plasma guns. Have the Avalanche assist too if it's in range. You should be able to take out one or two of the destroyers very quickly if you do things right. Angel will tell you that she can use the mechanoid to assist you. Periodically she'll do things like overloading the weapon generators of particular ships, activating their IP drives, or giving you temporary control over their ships. Anything she does is obviously beneficial and worth exploiting. The best situation is whenever she gives you temporary control. There's little time to actually use the weapons of any Gorg ship to good effect, but you can go straight to the manual panel, turn off its shields, and activate its IP drive. If it doesn't leave the area before going back to enemy control, the combined torpedo fire of the Angelwing and the Avalanche should destroy it in seconds. Usually they'll regain control of the cruisers just in time, but the destroyers tend to warp out quickly enough. If you get control of the Bloodshed, it definitely won't have enough time to warp out, so just turn off its shields and engines, and have its torpedoes target one of the Gorg ships. After destroying one or two of the destroyers, you should be too close to the remaining one or two to use the energy bombs on them. Have the Sparta and the Brutus go after the engines and the shields of one of the cruisers with their lasers. Once they disable the shields, have the Angelwing and the Avalanche attack its hull. Repeat this process until you go through all of the cruisers, taking advantage of whatever Angel does during this time. Eventually Angel will lose control of the mechanoid, but inexplicably it'll only attack the remaining Gorg ships and not yours. If you've taken out all of the cruisers and Angel hasn't lost control of the mechanoid yet, have the Sparta and the Brutus start going after the shields and the engines with their lasers. If only a destroyer or two is left and Angel still hasn't lost control yet, take out their shields with energy bombs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1p - The Locust ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commander Sweetwater tells you that very coincidentally there happens to be yet another inactive mechanoid lying around. At the equipment screen, remove any gunboats or commando squads from the docking bays and replace all of them with fighters on every ship. Make sure you equip all the flash fighters, and make sure the fighter bays on every ship are full. With the remaining resource points, first make sure all ships are using the best flak cannons. Any remaining points on the Sparta or the Brutus after that should go toward upgrading the sensor arrays, plasma guns or energy cells. Get eliminator torpedoes on the Angelwing, and add an L2 Quark Support Generator and a plasma cell to the Avalanche. At the start of the mission, you'll see a cutscene in which a group of strange looking vessels are firing on the inactive mechanoid. Marcus tells the lieutenant to hail the fighters, but the lieutenant reports that there is no answer. Commander Sweetwater explains that those ships aren't fighters; they are themselves living creatures. Create a fleet group by pressing control and the one key, and have all four ships move toward the mechanoid in formation. Deploy all fighters and press F8 to have them patrol the entire fleet. Set shields on all ships to 200%. Eventually, the creatures will come to attack you. The Locust Workers will attach themselves to your shields, quickly draining them. If your shields go down, the Locust Warriors will attack your unshielded ships, causing severe device damage. By having the ships move in formation, they should provide cover fire for each other and the fighters should be guarding all ships fairly equally. Once the fleet reaches the mechanoid, simply have it endure the enemy creatures. After the initial attack, there will be two more. After that, the mission is basically over. Angel will assimilate the mechanoid into the Angelwing and the mission will be complete. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1q - The Siege of Avalon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vice Admiral Norbank tells Marcus that a Gorg clan is willing to sign a peace treaty. Norbank is suspicious so he plans to show up at the peace talks with some serious firepower. He assigns Marcus to guard the Avalon station while he is away. Naturally, Robert Wong, Commander of the Avalon station, will call a red alert because Gorg ships are attacking the Avalon station. Make sure the normal weapon slots of the Brutus and the Sparta are equipped with all heavy lasers if they aren't already, and equip them with Lightrider engines if you have the resources for both. Equip the Avalanche with one of the new Rad Energy bombs and the Angelwing with the other two. If you have any points left for the Angelwing re-equip one of the sickle gunboat squadrons. Make sure the normal weapon slots of the Avalanche are filled with two Particle gatling guns and two Eliminator torpedoes, and use any remaining points to replace those fighters with gunboat squadrons. The gorg force that is about to attack the station outnumbers yours. Sweetwater suggests retreating, but Marcus insists on holding the fort. Angel will alert him to an option that should turn the tide of battle: she has studied the mechanoids enough to imitate them, meaning she can deploy herself from the Angelwing as a mechanoid and fire on enemy ships with the powerful mechanoid laser. Once the gameplay actually commences, immediately pause the game. Turn off everything on the Angelwing: sensor, engines and shields. Set the Avalanche's weapons to 200% and begin charging its energy bombs. Have the Sparta and the Brutus sit tight for a while. You're going to see what Angel can do now as a mechanoid. Select her from the fleet list and have her target one of the Gorg destroyers. Follow her along by double clicking on her to watch her in action. After only six shots, you should hear the "target ship is being evacuated" sound. Have her target another destroyer. Unfortunately, the mechanoid angel can only fire ten shots each time it is deployed, and the Angelwing must recharge itself considerably after that. (That's why it's going to sit inside the cover of the fortress shield with everything turned off for the entire mission.) After her first run, let Angel return to the Angelwing. Once she returns, she should already be ready for another go. Send her out for the destroyers again, but immediately let the Avalanche release its energy bombs so that they knock out the shields of at least one of them before she reaches them. Immediately begin recharging the energy bombs. If you done things right, you should have reduced the Gorg force considerably. I managed to take out three of the Gorg
destroyers at one point, while severely damaging another.

The Gorg battleships should start hitting the station with energy bombs, but 
the Avalon's fortress shield can take a lot of punishment, so don't get 
worried. Let the Angelwing recharge for Angel to deploy a third time even 
though the Gorg ships will probably begin a Siege Laser formation. She should 
be ready before they fire off their first shot. Let her loose on the 
destroyers and once again have the Avalanche launch its energy bombs 
immediately after. 

At this point, you should have destroyed all of the destroyers, leaving just 
two battleships and two cruisers. The energy bomb strategy doesn't work quite
as well on them since two of them won't knock out their shields instantly. 
Your sensors should have enough information by now to target the engines and 
shields of all ships. Have the Sparta and the Brutus begin working on one of
the cruisers and deploy any gunboat squadrons to assist. The Avalanche will be
your primary source of hull damage from this point on, but have the Angelwing 
continue to sit still and deploy Angel as you see fit. Try to have the gunboat
squadrons return to their respective ships before being destroyed. Go through
the cruisers first and then the battleships until the mission is done.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A1r - Peace Negotiations
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Admiral Anderson tells you that the Emperor of the reigning Gorg clan wants 
peace and that he has request Marcus to be the human diplomat.

You will only have the Angelwing for this mission (at least at first). You'll
have plenty of points, but unfortunately not much in terms of equipment to use 
them on. Equip the Torsion ECM system, make sure you've got as many gunboat 
squadrons as possible, and upgrade whatever else is not up to date.

You'll see only the Warcry in the cutscene at the start of the mission. The 
Angelwing will eventually uncloak and the peace talks will begin. Turn on the 
Angelwing's shield and charge its energy bombs. After the peace talks are over,
the Warcry will become a friendly ship and a group of enemy Gorg ships will 
jump into the area. Immediately send the mechanoid Angel out to even the odds 
a bit by getting rid of a destroyer or two. The Warcry will engage them, and 
inevitably, against Chief Zatuk's words, you will have to as well.

Immediately have the Angelwing head toward them and target the remaining 
destroyers with the energy bombs. with the Rad Energy bombs, most of the 
shields should go down. Quickly target the nearest destroyer with the 
Angelwing's torpedoes. Don't run any of the Angelwing's systems at more than
100% so that you can use it for battle and also use the mechanoid angel every 
now and then as well.

By the time you get to this, Commander Sweetwater will tell you that four Ghost
ships have actually been present (cloaked), and are willing to assist in the 
battle. You will have control over them, so basically you'll have already cut
down the Gorg forces a bit, and you'll have a fleet of five ships, meaning this
really won't be that hard of a mission. 

The Ghost ships are only equipped with lasers, but their lasers are far more 
damaging than the lasers of most of the other races. Have all four ships get
started on one of the battleships; have them take out its engines, shields and
weapon generator. You can have them cloak so that they get to their destination
more safely. If they encounter, and fire upon, ships on the way, don't be too 
surprised if they actually end up severely damaging or destroying it. Have them
take out these same devices on the cruisers if they're still around at this 
point. Have the Angelwing open fire with torpedoes and gatling guns on any 
ships rendered inoperative, and once the Ghost ships are done disabling devices
have them just concentrate all their laser fire on one ship.

I think this mission can be completed even if you let the Warcry die, but later
in the game Chief Zatuk decides to assist you in a pretty intense battle, and 
he proves invaluable, so it's worth the effort to save him and his ship.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A1s - Locust Queen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander Sweetwater tells you that the Ghosts have engaged the Locust Queen 
and that they desperately need help.

You will have a new ship for this mission: the Siege Battleship Guardian. 
Unfortunately, at this late stage of the game, you really won't be able to 
customize it completely to your liking. Just try to equip it with all the 
energy-supplying devices you can to power its powerful Siege Laser (the same as
what the Gorgs use). For the Angelwing, the Brutus, the Sparta, and the 
Avalanche, your first equipment priority is to load their fighter bays up with
as many fighters as possible. Use any remaining resource points on the 
Avalanche to equip a Torsion ECM system. Make sure the Brutus and the Sparta 
have Lightrider engines, and equip one or the other with a Nova plasma gun. 
Equip the Torsion ECM system on either one of them as well. For the Guardian,
just replace the L3 Fusion Support Generator with an L3 Quark Support 
Generator.

At the start of the mission, Commander Sweetwater will report that the Ghosts
are all dead. Immediately select every fighter and press F8 to have them patrol
the fleet. Set shields to 200% on every ship, and set the engines of the 
Guardian to 200% as well. Select all five ships and make a fleet group with 
control and the one key. From the group command panel, press F8 to have the 
Siege Laser target the locust queen. The ships will fly in formation, providing
flak cover fire for each other while the locust workers and warriors try to 
attack the ships. With enough fighters, you should be able to detain them 
without sustaining any damage.

Once you get in Siege Laser range, let it fire four times. After that 
immediately press F3 to have your ships cease fire. Have the Brutus scan the 
Queen so that you can get the weapon necessary for attacking the mechanoids.
After this, this simple mission will be complete.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A1t - Alpha Gate
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Admiral Anderson tells Marcus that the Vardrag station gatekeeper has not been
answering their messages, and that they have lost contact with their scout 
ship.

For some reason you won't have the Guardian for this mission. At the equipment
screen, you'll notice that one of the weapon slots on the Angelwing has been 
replaced with an energy skeeter, the only weapon capable of taking combating 
the mechanoids. Equip the Avalanche with one of these as well, but not the 
Brutus or the Sparta. After that you should fill the fighter bays of the 
Angelwing and the Avalanche with as many gunboats as possible again. Replace 
all Particle gatling guns with Anti-G Railguns, and make sure all the plasma 
guns are Nova plasma guns. Equip the Avalanche with a combat firestorm 
generator, a standard ECCM system, and a plasma cell. There's nothing in 
particular that you should do for the Brutus or the Sparta, but  you'll need
their lasers for this mission.

The mechanoids have taken control of all the Vardrag systems in this sector. 
You need to scan all three ships.

Your actions in this mission will determine what will happen in the following
mission. However, there are two courses of action that are specifically not 
valid. First, if you destroy all three ships, there will be no way to 
accomplish the next mission. Second, if you disable the shield of the Serenity
but don't destroy it, a bug will cause the game to crash. The best course of
action to take in this mission is to destroy the Serenity, destroy one of the
explorers, and render the other explorer completely inoperative (disable its 
shields, engines and weapon generator). However, by destroying the Serenity, 
you will miss out on some (completely optional) objectives in the following 
mission. It's all your call, but if you decide to destroy two of the ships,
you'll need to disable their IP drives at the same time so the mechanoids don't
let them escape. They will generally activate the IP drives after you destroy 
one of the ships, after you destroy the IP drive of one of the ships, or after
you've finished scanning all three. The strategy I will detail here will 
involve destroying only the Starblazer.

Have the Angelwing move toward the Pathfinder and have the rest of the fleet
guard the Angelwing. It will begin attacking you, and soon one of the 
mechanoids should become active. Attack the mechanoid with the energy skeeters
of the Avalanche and the Angelwing either by selecting it from the manual panel
or using the F9 key from the command panel. They will reactivate from time to
time. Just be ready to attack them with the energy skeeters and they should be
fine. 

Have one of the ships other than the Brutus use the recon command on the
Pathfinder so that you can gather all information about its devices. Once that
is complete, target the flak cannon of the Pathfinder with the lasers of the 
Brutus and the Sparta. Once the flak cannon is disabled, launch all gunboats
to finish it off, and then target the shields, the weapon generator, and all
engines. For clarification, the weapon generator is the "Armageddon" device
under the support subpanel. Once that's done, have all ships cease fire and 
have the Brutus scan the Pathfinder.

Move on to the Serenity after that. Go through the same routine again. Destroy
the flak cannons first, and then go after the weapon generator and all engines,
but NOT the shield. Scan the ship once you've disabled those things. Go through
the same process with the Starblazer, but this time, while you're scanning, 
concentrate all laser fire and gunship fire on the IP drive so that it cannot 
escape. Once the IP drive has been destroyed or the ship has been scanned, the
mechanoids should warp out the other two ships. If they don't, you can destroy
another one of the ships you want, but just make sure not to destroy all three.
Once you've destroyed the IP drive, have all gunboats return to their ships and
open fire on the Starblazer with hull damaging weapons. Just be careful because
the resultant explosion can be severely damaging. Activate your own IP drives 
to complete the mission after that.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A1u - Mechanoid Invasion
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: This strategy assumes the Pathfinder and the Serenity are alive, but not
the Starblazer.

Your fleet is wanted at the Starportal to protect it from Vardrag ships that
have fallen under mechanoid control. Your objective is to destroy the ships 
that are going to attack it.

You won't be able to customize your ships too much since there aren't many new
options. Equip the Angelwing and any other ship with Palantir sensor arrays. 
Equip one of your ships with a cyborg squad if you want to attempt the optional
objectives. Equip the Guardian with the three plasma cells.

The Starportal is a massive station with a fortress shield. However, despite
how intimidating it seems, if the escape pods of the mechanoid controlled 
Vardrag ships make it to the Starportal, they'll infect it, and you'll have to
destroy the Starportal too. Unfortunately, it's pretty difficult to destroy
the escape pods since there's no real way of targeting them.

Have all of your ships move as a fleet group towards the Serenity. If you 
followed my instructions in the last mission, neither of the ships should have
any working engines, so they'll have no real way of getting closer to the 
Starportal. If not, you can have the Sparta and the Brutus go after the engines
anyway.

When you get close enough to the Serenity (around 9K), Francis will report that
both ships are deploying Praetorians, and Marcus entertains the possibility 
that there may be survivors on board. Immediately press F3 to stop the fleet.
Deploy fighters to destroy the Praetorians, and deploy gunboats to disable the
shield of the Serenity. Send the Cyborg Squad to the Serenity once the shield
is disabled.

When the cyborgs land, they'll report that they've found a Vardrag survivor who
has been merged with the machinery of the ship. At this point you'll receive 
several choices. You can tell them to leave immediately, in which case nothing
will happen. You can tell them to kill the Vardrag to end his pain, which will
actually result in the objective being completed. The third option is to try
to pull him out of the control panel, which will beget three more choices. One
of the choices is to use up the ship's remaining Cataclysm missiles, but this 
won't actually work if the weapon generator is destroyed, which is what I 
advised you to do in the last mission. Another choice is to simply bring the 
Vardrag back to the ship alive. The final choice is to have him initiate the 
ship's self-destruct sequence. The main reason you might want to do this is 
that the escape pods that would normally infect the Starportal get caught in 
the blast.

Besides all that convoluted secondary stuff that you can actually overlook 
entirely, you can pretty easily get through this mission just by blasting 
everything with the Siege Laser, especially if the engines are destroyed. In 
the case that the Starportal does get infected, you'll have to destroy it too,
which is actually pretty easy with the Siege Laser since the fortress shield
will go down, and there's no real penalty for doing so.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A1v - The Fall of the Vardrags
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A transmission the Noah colony received from the Vardrags was interrupted. 
Admiral Sanderson wants Marcus to go to the system of the Vardrag homeworld to
investigate. She says that Rob Scheinmann is there on ambassadorial duties, and
that you should pull him out of there if you deem it necessary.

There are mechanoids in this mission so it may be to your benefit to equip a 
few, if not all, ships with energy skeeters. You can technically get through 
the mission without one, but I would suggest that you give one at least to the
Brutus, which will need to perform an important scan. Other than that, equip 
Integrity shields onto the Angelwing, the Avalanche and the Brutus. From this 
point in the game and onward, individual weapons don't matter so much since 
you'll be relying more on the Siege Laser. Equip the Lasernet flak systems 
primarily to the cruisers. You'll no longer need to do any device disabling 
either, so start switching out the lasers on the destroyers for the Anti-G 
Railguns. Equip a Battle Firestorm generator onto the Guardian, and fill out
the energy cell slots. If you've got enough points left, remove the gunboat and
fighter squadrons aboard and replace them with bombers.

At the start of the mission you'll see a lot of Vardrag ships, which are under
attack by mechanoid controlled Vardrag ships and regular mechanoids. The 
officer aboard the Angelwing will alert you to the presence of the Sunrider,
the ship that Rob Scheinmann is aboard. One of your objectives is to save him,
but unfortunately there seem to be some problems with this objective. Sometimes
you can actually save the ship but the objective won't complete. It seems like
you need your fleet close to the Sunrider when the mechanoid controlled ships 
near it are destroyed.

Immediately send the mechanoid Angel out to do some damage to one of the 
mechanoid controlled Vardrag ships that has lost its shield. If you want to try
completing that objective (it's optional), immediately head toward the Sunrider
and engage the ships near it in close combat, but be careful to make sure the
Brutus and the Sparta don't caught in the blast of the Horizon or the Oblivion.
If you don't care, have all five ships target the Nemesis with the Siege Laser
since it's about to attack.

Once you've taken care of the Horizon and the Oblivion (the two ships harassing
the Sunrider), and the Nemesis, send the Brutus to scan the mechanoid entity. 
If a mechanoid begins to attack it, use the energy skeeter. After you scan the
entity, scan the wormhole behind it. Use the IP drives to have the ships warp
out after all scans have been complete.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A1w - Bridgehead
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Admiral Anderson tells you that she wants your fleet to be the first to go 
through the Alpha Gate to test the anti-mechanoid shield and inspect the 
situation on the other side.

You will now have a support ship in your fleet: the Colossus. Unfortunately, 
it's not a very effective combat ship. The only purpose it really serves is to
carry the anti-mechanoid shield. Load it with three wings of bombers and use 
the remaining eight points to replace the Crisis Energy Torpedo with a Big Bang
Missile. Remove all energy skeeters since you won't need them anymore and 
replace them with the appropriate weapons: Anti-G Railguns for the destroyers,
and either Anti-G railguns or Eliminator torpedoes for the cruisers. Equip
the Guardian with an Antimatter engine, an Integrity shield and a Lasernet Flak
system. Equip the Angelwing with an Antimatter engine, a Lasernet Flak system 
and a Crystal cell. Equip the Brutus with a secondary Firepower generator, a 
Crystal cell, and a Palantir sensor array. Equip the Sparta with an Integrity
shield, a secondary Firepower generator, and a Crystal cell. Finally, equip the
Avalanche with a Crystal cell, a Palantir sensor array, and an advanced 
targeting system.

Mechanoids will begin to close in on your ship at the start of the mission.
Quickly pause the game with the space bar and the shields on all ships to 200%.
Also, have the Colossus fire a Big Bang missile at the weapon platforms.
Endure the mechanoids until the anti-mechanoid shield activates and destroys 
them.

A cutscene will interrupt afterward and a ship will fly out of the Shukenja and
then disappear. Eventually, a bunch of them will start attacking your fleet, 
and their weapons will punch right through the shields of your ships. 
Fortunately, their ships are all unshielded, so you can just make sure all of 
your ships are set to aggressive so that they'll automatically attack enemy 
ships. Set weapons to 200%. You can of course manually order them to attack so
that their fire will be more concentrated. You just have to destroy a few ships
and the mission will be complete.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A1x - Blockade Breakers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Admiral Anderson says some of the fleets ran into a control field that caused 
their anti-mechanoid shields to collapse. Angel says she has located the source
of the field in Mars sector. There is a smaller mechanoid entity there that 
must be destroyed, but only the Angelwing and the Ghost ships can go into the
field. The Angelwing will need to deploy generators that will neutralize the 
field so that the rest of the fleet can come in and destroy the mechanoid 
entity. Two Ghost ships will escort the Angelwing.

At the equipment screen, equip at least one of your ships with a cyborg squad.
Fill all of the Angelwing's energy cell slots with Crystal cells. Equip the 
Avalanche with an Antimatter engine and fill its energy cell slots with Crystal
cells. Also fill out the energy cell slots of the Sparta and the Brutus with 
Crystal cells. Equip the Guardian with a Lasernet Flak system and whatever else
you want. At this point, whatever else you choose to equip it with won't make
much of a difference. Equip the Colossus with an Antimatter engine and a wing 
of Flash fighters; the rest doesn't matter much.

At the start of the mission, you'll have control of just the Angelwing, a Ghost
cruiser and a Ghost destroyer, all of which will be cloaked. You will need to 
deploy the blocking generators at four specific points in the area. Only the 
Angelwing can deploy them, so the Ghost ships are just meant for escort. 
Together, the three of them can also overpower one of the patrolling cruisers 
if your ships are detected. You can deploy the generators in any order. Simply
order the ships to move toward a given navigation point. At some point, you 
will detect the Balthasar, Norbank's ship.

Once all of the generators are in place, the rest of the fleet will jump in. 
Form a fleet group with the Guardian, the Exterminator, the Avalanche, the 
Brutus, and the Sparta, and have them target the Balthasar with the Siege 
Laser. Make sure they don't kill it, but have them damage it until you receive
the message that it is being evacuated. Deploy your bombers to attack the 
Rampart. Have the Angelwing and the Ghost ships take care of any remaining 
cruisers. Once the Balthasar is in the red, deploy the cyborg squad to rescue
Norbank. Next, send the Exterminator to the entity to destroy it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A1y - The Fight for earth
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now this is one hell of a mission. You'll have a fleet of eight ships for it, 
but the enemy force you'll face easily dwarfs your fleet. You'll have to endure
a few waves of mechanoid controlled ships with a smaller force. I have heard of
many different strategies for this mission, the most common of which involves
equipping all ships with hull damaging weapons and opening fire upon the enemy
ships as soon as they emerge from the wormhole. The strategy I will detail here
involves the use of two Siege lasers with missile volleys for cover fire. It is
safer and a little more interesting.

At the equipment screen, start out by removing any gunboats from the Angelwing 
and the Avalanche, and replacing them with fighters. Next, remove the energy 
bombs on the Angelwing and put Tremor torpedoes in the heavy weapon slots. 
Remove the cyborg squad from whichever ship held that and put a wing of 
fighters in its place. For the Crystal, the new light battleship in your fleet,
arm it with as many missiles as it can possibly fit, removing any other heavy
weapons already equipped. For the Sceptre, the new cruiser, equip a combat 
Firestorm generator, an L2 Quark support generator, and as many energy cells as
possible. If you have Meteor bombers aboard the Guardian, swap them for Comet 
bombers. The rest doesn't really matter.

At the start of the mission, you'll see the earth, which is undergoing a 
transformation by the mechanoids. Angel says she can reverse the process, but
she needs to use one of the relay stations in the area to get to earth. 
Unfortunately, mechanoid controlled earth ships will start destroying them. 
Your first objective is to stop them. 

For now, have every ship in your fleet sit still near this starting point, 
except the Brutus and the Sparta. The earth ships consist of four groups of 
two. Send the Brutus and the Sparta to the two farthest groups; divide your
bomber force in half and send one group of bombers to each of the remaining 
groups of earth ships. Once all ships are destroyed, return the Brutus and 
the Sparta to the main fleet, and send the Angelwing to the nearest relay 
station. Start charging the missiles in the Crystal and the Colossus. While the
Angelwing is flying toward the relay station, form a fleet group consisting of
the Guardian, the Avalanche, the Sparta, and the Brutus. This will be your 
primary Siege Laser group. 

As soon as Angel has been transmitted through the relay station, have the 
Angelwing rush back to the main fleet because mechanoid controlled Gorg and 
Noah ships will begin appearing from the wormhole. Set its engines to 200%. The
Gorg fleet will be nearly 40k from the starting position. Soon, the Warcry, 
Chief Zatuk's ship, will jump in if you saved it, and it will assist you. 
Create a second fleet group consisting of the Angelwing, the Sceptre, and the 
Warcry. Set the Warcry's engines to 200% and have it move toward the position 
of the rest of the fleet.

Once you have all of the ships in your fleet together, the combined enemy Gorg
and Noah fleet should be anywhere between 23K and 27K from your fleet. Have 
your Siege Laser groups begin targeting enemy ships just before they get into
Siege Laser range. Maximum Siege Laser range is approximately 20K, so have your
Siege Laser groups begin targeting ships at around 22K or 23K. Have the 
Colossus and the Crystal target the nearest ships with their missiles. Keep 
firing missiles while the lasers go off, and deploy your fighters and have them
patrol the fleet. Set the shields of all ships to 200%. In general you should 
be using the lasers on the big ships and the missiles on the smaller ones.

Yet another wave of ships will emerge from the wormhole nearly after you've 
finished destroying the the first wave. You should be running somewhat low on
missiles by now, so deploy all of your bombers and have them begin attacking 
the enemy fleet before they even get into maximum siege laser range. Have them
target destroyers first, then cruisers, then battleships, and then the Vardrag
ships. Once they begin to get in Siege Laser range, have both Siege groups 
attack the same battleship. Some time in the middle of this wave, the mission 
will mysteriously end if you've endured to this point.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A1z - The Nexus
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a pretty underwhelming last mission. You'll only have the Angelwing for
it, you won't be able to customize it, and your shields won't work.

The only thing you have to do in this mission is close the five gates with the
Disruptor. Begin by closing down the earth gate that you just emerged from. 
After you close it, a Vardrag cityship will emerge from one of the gates and
deploy its gunboats to attack you. Deploy your fighters to destroy them. Charge
the Angelwing's torpedoes and have them target the cityship. Once it gets in 
range, the Angelwing should destroy it.

To complete the mission, just close down the other four gates. Make sure to get
to them by using the secure points that the officer marked. After you've done
all that, you'll have completed the game.c

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A2 - Ships
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2a - Stiletto 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander: Marcus Cromwell

Device Slots:

1. Normal Weapon / Datascanner
2. Normal Weapon
3. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
4. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
5. Flak Cannon
6. Main Engine
7. Secondary Engine
8. Other Generator / Support
9. Support
10. Support
11. Support
12. Energy Cell
13. Energy Cell
14. Weapon Generator

The Stiletto is the ship you'll control for the game's first few missions. As 
much as they seem to make a big deal about Stiletto class vessels in the game, 
they aren't particularly spectacular. Even when compared only to the other old 
school human vessels, its performance seems roughly equal to the others, and it 
probably doesn't even have the staying power of the Kissaki Frigate or the OSEC
Longsword. It's sufficient for the purposes it'll have to serve in the early 
missions in the game, but in nearly all respects -- speed, firepower, 
maneuverability -- it's pretty mediocre. It has ten docking slots, which 
enables it to carry a few fighters and a marine landing craft.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2b - Madeline and Lightning 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander: Francis Delorain and Xiao Lee respectively

Device Slots:

1. Normal Weapon / Datascanner
2. Normal Weapon
3. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
4. Flak Cannon
5. Main Engine
6. Secondary Fire
7. Support
8. Support
9. Support
10. Support / Other Generator
11. Energy Cell
12. Energy Cell
13. Weapon Generator

You'll control these two ships during the Kissaki raid mission only. The 
Madeline and Lightning are grouped together because they are the same ship
class: SpaceTech light corvette. Like basically all of the old school human 
ships, the light corvette is nothing spectacular. It is predictably faster,
more maneuverable and less armored, but none of these effect any significant
performance differences. It only has six docking slots, which is enough for 
either two squadrons of the early Gemini fighters or a single marine craft.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2c - Angelwing 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander: Marcus Cromwell

Device Slots:

1. Normal Weapon / Datascanner
2. Normal Weapon / Special Weapon
3. Normal Weapon
4. Normal Weapon 
5. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
6. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
7. Flak Cannon
8. Flak Cannon
9. Mechanoid Angel
10. Shield
11. Main Engine
12. Secondary Engine
13. Special Engine
14. Stealth Drive
15. Support 
16. Support / Other Generator
17. Support / Other Generator
18. Support / other Generator
19. Cloaking Device
20. Energy Cell
21. Energy cell
22. Energy Cell
23. IP Drive
24. Weapon Generator

The Angelwing is a cruiser of alien origin. The game never really explains 
these origins, but the ship's performance is a testament to its incredible 
design. The Angelwing is the most versatile ship in the game, which is 
particularly good since there are times when you need to operate alone. 
Compared to the standard cruiser, it is only marginally faster, but it is far
more maneuverable, which contributes to its versatility since it can rotate and
move around quickly enough to be a reasonably effective ship for taking out 
enemy devices. Personally however, I prefer to use it with gatling guns and 
torpedoes occupying the normal weapon slots, while energy bombs occupy the 
heavy weapon slots. It cannot put out as much firepower as the normal cruiser
however, since it cannot carry nearly as many torpedoes, but its speed and 
manueverability make it the better ship overall since it has a far better 
chance of escaping dangerous situations, and it is less prone to lagging 
behind. It can equip a datascanner, but this actually becomes unnecessary once
you acquire the Brutus. Once you acquire the mechanoid angel, its firepower 
will actually eclipse that of the standard cruiser. It is also the only 
non-Ghost ship that is capable of using a cloaking device in single player. The
Angelwing is sort of a jack-of-all-trades-but-master-none ship, which actually
means it's very good. It's too bad you can't use it in the multiplayer.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2d - Brutus, Sparta, Void, Thunder, Silver, Arrow
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander: Rudolf Veltman (Brutus) and Francis Delorain (Sparta)

Device Slots:

1. Datascanner (Brutus) / Whitelight Heavy Laser (Sparta) (can't be removed)
2. Normal Weapon / Special Weapon
3. Normal Weapon
4. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
5. Flak Cannon
6. Shield
7. Main Engine
8. Secondary Engine
9. Special Engine
10. Support
11. Support
12. Support / Other Generator
13. SUpport / Other Generator
14. Energy Cell
15. Energy Cell
16. IP Drive
17. Weapon Generator

The Brutus is a scout destroyer while the Sparta is a tactical destroyer. This 
supposedly means that the Brutus is more useful for stealth and reconnaissance,
while the Sparta is better suited to taking out the devices of a ship. In 
reality, you can configure both of them pretty much to your liking. The only 
restriction is that the Brutus is permanently equipped with a datascanner while
the Sparta is permanently equipped with a Whitelight heavy laser. The main 
strength of the destroyer is its speed; later in the game, with the best 
possible engines equipped, it can even outrun the game's fighters. A 
destroyer's armament is very limited however: it only has four weapon slots, 
only one of which can be used for heavy weapons. In the case of the Brutus and
the Sparta, one of these slots can't even be configured. I suggest making them
both tactical destroyers, with heavy lasers filling out the normal weapon slots
and a plasma gun to fill the heavy weapon slot. The Void, the Thunder, the 
Silver, and the Arrow are four destroyers you'll control only in the Raptor 
Genocide mission after the battleships Rome and Athens are destroyed. All are
equipped with two energy shells, a Sliver gatling gun and a Neutron torpedo
launcher.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2e - Avalanche, Marco Polo, Sceptre
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander: David Cole (Avalanche), Frederick Goose (Sceptre)

Device slots: 

1. Normal Weapon
2. Normal Weapon / Special Weapon
3. Normal Weapon
4. Normal Weapon
5. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
6. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
7. Flak Cannon
8. Flak Cannon
9. Shield
10. Main Engine
11. Secondary Engine
12. Special Engine
13. Special Engine
14. Support
15. Support / Other Generator
16. Support / Other Generator
17. Support / Other Generator
18. Energy Cell
19. Energy Cell
20. Energy Cell
21. IP Drive
22. Weapon Generator

The Avalanche, the Marco Polo and the Sceptre are all cruiser class vessels, 
like the Angelwing. Therefore they have comparable speed and armament. 
However, there are also some significant differences between the Angelwing and
the standard cruisers. While the Angelwing is only marginally faster than the 
standard cruisers, it is far more maneuverable. The Avalanche will always lag 
severely behind the Angelwing, the Brutus and the Sparta if you issue all of 
them a move order that requires them to turn in the opposite direction. The 
other significant difference is that standard cruisers can carry twice the 
amount of ammunition for weapons with finite ammunition supplies (torpedoes 
and missiles). In a sense, a way to broadly express the difference between the
the Angelwing and the standard cruisers is to say that the standard cruisers 
are "heavier" even though in the late stages of the game the Angelwing 
actually has a more durable hull. At just about any time in the game however,
if you exclude the mechanoid angel for the purpose of this analysis, the 
standard cruiser ultimately has more firepower than the Angelwing. You'll 
receive the Avalanche after the Titan mission. You should take advantage of 
its ammunition capacity by leaving the two Eliminator torpedoes it comes with
equipped. Energy bombs should go in the heavy weapons slots. The Sceptre is a
ship you'll only control in the Fight for Earth mission. You can customize it,
but by that time of the game you won't have much time or resources to really
customize it that much. The Marco Polo is a ship that you'll only control in 
the Titan mission. It is equipped with two bubble energy shells, two Eliminator
torpedo launchers, a Particle gatling gun, and a magma plasma gun. The cruiser
has fourteen slots in its docking bay, which is less than the Angelwing, but 
still enough for two wings of gunboats or three wings of fighters.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2f - Guardian and Crystal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander: Hilary Carson and Morris Drake respectively

1. Normal Weapon
2. Normal Weapon / Special Weapon
3. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
4. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
5. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
6. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
7. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
8. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
9. Siege Laser
10. Flak Cannon
11. Flak Cannon
12. Shield
13. Main Engine
14. Secondary Engine
15. Special Engine
16. Special Engine
17. Support
18. Support / Other Generator
19. Support / Other Generator
20. Support / Other Generator
21. Support / Other Generator
22. Energy Cell
23. Energy Cell
24. Energy Cell
25. Energy Cell
26. Energy Cell
27. Energy Cell
28. IP Drive
29. Weapon Generator

The Guardian and the Crystal are both battleship vessels, the most powerful 
warships of a fleet. They are able to equip eight weapons in total, six of 
which can be heavy weapons. Virtually any combination that you can think of to
outfit it with is probably devastating. You could equip them with some energy
bombs, some missiles and some plasma guns. Well, unfortunately you won't have
too much opportunity to do that with these ships in the singleplayer. You get
both pretty late in the game, and you won't have too many resources to 
completely customize them. It's best to equip the Guardian just with devices 
that supply energy so that you can make the best use of its Siege Laser. The
Crystal you'll only have for the Fight for Earth mission, and my strategy for 
that mission has it take advantage of the heavy weapon slots to equip a lot of
missiles. Unsurprisingly enough, battleships are slow and not very 
maneuverable, so they aren't particularly good for equipping lasers and 
destroying enemy devices. They can't keep up with anything faster than another
battleship, so they'll have trouble targeting exactly the right spots on 
cruisers and destroyers. Like I said, in the singleplayer you won't be able to
customize either of these ships much, but if you can find someone to play the 
multiplayer with, you'll have plenty of chances to have fun with battleships.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2g - Colossus
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander: Daryl Sanderson

1. Normal Weapon
2. Normal Weapon / Special Weapon
3. Normal Weapon
4. Normal Weapon
5. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
6. Normal Weapon / Heavy Weapon
7. Flak Cannon
8. Flak Cannon
9. Flak Cannon
10. Flak Cannon
11. Anti-mechanoid Shield
12. Main Engine
13. Secondary Engine
14. Support
15. SUpport
16. Support / Other Generator
17. Support / Other Generator
18. Energy Cell
19. Energy Cell
20. Energy Cell
21. Energy Cell
22. Energy Cell
23. Energy Cell
24. Energy Cell
25. Energy Cell
26. IP Drive
27. Weapon Generator

The Colossus is called a support ship. Unfortunately, it's not really good for
much besides deploying the anti-mechanoid shield in the singleplayer game. It
is even larger and slower than a battleship, but it is only capable of carrying
as many weapons as a cruiser. It does have the largest fighter bay of any ship
in the fleet, but it can still only equip three wings of bombers, which is the
same as a battleship. The remaining slots can only fit a wing of gunboats or
or fighters. In the end, the Colossus isn't really worth much even though it
seems intimidating.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2h - Thunder, Quicksilver, Tiger and Panther
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Thunder and the Quicksilver are two frigates that you will only have for 
the First Blood mission. You will not get to configure their loadouts at all.
Frigates are small and weak, but fairly fast and maneuverable ships. 
Unfortunately, they are so small and weak that they really actually aren't that
good. They are fast, but not much more so than the destroyers, and their 
armament is even more limited, so at best Frigates can only serve supplemental 
escort purposes because they can't really do anything on their own. All four 
ships are equipped with a Particle Gatling Gun, a Bubble Energy Shell, and a 
Burningfist Heavy Laser.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2i - Gemini, Spark and Flash fighters
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The primary purpose of fighters is to take out other smaller ships. This
includes bombers, gunboats, marine landing crafts and other fighters. Their 
secondary purpose is to take out the devices of bigger targets. They are armed
with precision lasers to do this, which come in a limited supply. However, each
fighter comes with a thousand of these precision laser shots, and they can 
reload by landing on their carrier ship. The bigger reasons not to use them as
device disablers however, are that these lasers don't penetrate shields, and 
that they aren't nearly as effective as gunboats. Gemini fighters are only 
available early in the game, before the Angelwing enters the wormhole that 
sends it to Noah colony. The Spark and the Flash fighters are the fighters of
the Noah fleet, and they are both more effective than the Geminis.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2j - Space Marines, Commando Squad, Cyborg Squad
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The primary purpose of all three of these ships is to activate certain story 
events that require them. Other than that, they aren't very useful, which is 
why it's no surprise that they don't even appear in the multiplayer. They do 
serve another purpose, but it's extremely limited: they can disable the devices
of an enemy ship. This is only useful very early in the game, when ships don't 
have shields and when gunboats aren't available. They lose their use later on
because they can't get through their shields, and it's much more effective to 
use gunboats to disable devices anyway.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2k - Sickle and Scythe Gunboats
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The primary purpose of gunboats is to destroy the individual devices on ships.
They do this by using precision torpedoes, which are powerful enough to 
penetrate shields. These torpedoes come in a somewhat limited supply, but they
have a thousand shots, and they can reload by docking at their mother ship. 
Gunboats can only be equipped on cruiser class ships or bigger ships. Scythe 
gunboats are an upgraded version of the Sickle gunboats.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A2l - Meteor and Comet bombers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The primary purpose of bombers is to actually destroy larger ships using 
powerful bombs. If you deploy multiple wings of bombers, they can actually 
pretty easily destroy enemy capital ships even if their flak cannons are still
active, so long as they don't deploy fighters to destroy the bombers. These 
bombs can damage hull even through shields, but they come in a fairly limited
supply. The meteors can only carry seventy bombs, while the Comets can carry 
a hundred. They can, of course, reload by docking at their motherships, but 
usually this is just enough to take out a group of ships. The secondary 
purpose of bombers is to destroy the devices of a ship using precision 
torpedoes similar to those on gunboats. In fact, it seems like it functions 
basically the same as a gunboat in this respect, although I can't say for sure
if it functions with the same effectiveness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A3 - Weapons and devices
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3a - Lasers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lasers are low power, precision weapons used for destroying the individual 
devices of a ship while causing minimal hull damage. Lasers do actually cause 
hull damage, but the effect is weak enough to be negligible. I'm not sure why 
the astronomical laser is even included in the game since you'll start out with
the SpaceTech lasers, which are unequivocally better. The heavy lasers are 
emphatically better than the light lasers because they can penetrate shields. 
All lasers are normal weapons. 

Astronomical Laser
Damage: 1
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 2

Burningfist Heavy Laser
Damage: 5
Rate of Fire: 5
Precision:5

Crystalpin Light Laser
Damage: 3
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 6

Mirroreye Light Laser
Damage: 4
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 6

Silverlance Heavy Laser
Damage: 6
Rate of Fire: 5
Precision: 5

SpaceTech Laser
Damage: 1
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 4

Thornbird Light Laser
Damage: 2
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 6

Whitelight Heavy Laser
Damage: 4
Rate of Fire: 5
Precision: 5

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3b - Gatling Guns
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gatling guns are the most basic hull damaging weapons in the game. The damage
they deal is modest, but they are fast-firing and accurate, and when several of
them are firing at the same time, they can tear ships apart quickly. Early in 
the game they are considered heavy weapons, but after the Angelwing enters the
wormhole to the Noah colony, they are considered normal weapons. 

Anti-G Railgun
Damage: 3
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 6

Linear Gatling Gun
Damage: 1
Rate of Fire: 5
Precision: 3
 
Sliver Gatling Gun
Damage: 2
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 5

Particle Gatling Gun
Damage: 3
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 5

Uranium Gatling Gun
Damage: 1
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 4

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3c - Torpedoes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Torpedoes are close-range weapons that cause substantial hull damage, even 
through shields. They are not as accurate or fast-firing as gatling guns, but 
they are considerably more powerful. This extra power comes at a cost: 
torpedoes always come in limited supply. Because of this, they are always best
equipped on bigger ships, which can carry more torpedoes. The Eliminator 
torpedo is ultimately the best because even though the Tremor causes more 
damage, it must be equipped as a heavy weapon, whereas the Eliminator is 
considered normal. 

Neutron Torpedo
Damage: 4
Rate of Fire: 4
Precision: 2

Eliminator Torpedo
Damage: 5
Rate of Fire: 4
Precision: 3

Tremor Torpedo
Damage: 6
Rate of Fire: 4
Precision: 4

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3d - Missiles
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Missiles are long-range artillery weapons that cause massive hull damage, even
through shields. Like the torpedoes, this power comes at a cost, and the cost
for missiles is far greater. Besides coming in an even more limited supply,
missiles take very long to fire and they can also be shot down by enemy 
fighters and flak cannons. Missiles also erupt with powerful explosions, and 
the blast doesn't distinguish between friend or foe. Missiles must be equipped
as heavy weapons. 

Big Bang Missile
Damage: 6
Rate of Fire: 2
Precision: 6

Diffuse Missile
Damage: 4
Rate of Fire: 2
Precision: 6

Pulsar Missile
Damage: 5
Rate of Fire: 2
Precision: 6

Tornado Autolock Missile
Damage: 3
Rate of Fire: 1
Precision: 6

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3e - Plasma Cannons 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Plasma cannons are general purpose weapons that don't excel at anything in 
particular. The description in game says that they are "destructive," which is 
the same description given to gatling guns, torpedoes and missiles, and they do
indeed cause hull damage, but they will also fire whenever you issue a shield
drain order. It seems that plasma cannons double as hull damaging weapons and
shield draining weapons, but not with the effectiveness of the weapons that
serve an exclusive purpose. The hull damage it does actually seems a little
greater than that of gatling guns, but this is offset but the plasma cannon's
slow rate of fire and less than excellent accuracy. One good thing about them
is that they are effective at fairly long ranges (10K). They must be equipped
as heavy weapons.

Magma Plasma Gun
Damage: 4
Rate of Fire: 3
Precision: 1

Nova Plasma Gun
Damage: 6
Rate of Fire: 3
Precision: 2

Volcano Plasma Gun
Damage: 5
Rate of Fire: 3
Precision: 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3f - Energy Shells
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Energy shells are your most basic shield draining weapons. They are not 
particularly powerful, but they make up for this by being fairly accurate and
fast-firing. It's usually difficult to achieve good results with just a few 
energy shells, so the best technique when using them is to have multiple ships
concentrate their fire on one ship. Energy shells are normal weapons. 

Bubble Energy Shell
Damage: 2
Rate of Fire: 4
Precision: 3

Delektron Shell
Damage: 3
Rate of Fire: 4
Precision: 4

Energy Shell
Damage: 1
Rate of Fire: 4
Precision: 2


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3g - Energy Torpedoes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Energy torpedoes are extremely powerful shield draining weapons. Unfortunately,
they actually end up being very useless due to their horrible accuracy. They do
far more damage than energy shells, and even more than energy bombs (and 
without the huge splash damage), but this tends to be rather inconsequential
since it's impossible to hit anything but the largest targets with them. They
are heavy weapons. 

Crisis Energy Torpedo
Damage: 6
Rate of Fire: 2
Precision: 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3h - Energy Bombs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Energy bombs are also extremely powerful shield draining weapons. They are not
as powerful as the torpedoes, but they are guaranteed to hit and they erupt 
with a huge explosion, causing any ships caught in the blast to suffer shield
damage. They are immensely useful, but often impractical at close range since
your ships will be caught in the blast. They are heavy weapons. 

Ion Scream Bomb
Damage: 6
Rate of Fire: 1
Precision: 6

Overload Energy Bomb
Damage: 4
Rate of Fire: 1
Precision: 6

Rad Energy Bomb
Damage: 5
Rate of Fire: 1
Precision: 6

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3i - Flak Cannons
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flak cannons are quick-firing, very low power lasers that are primarily for 
destroying enemy fighters, bombers, gunboats, and marine landing crafts. They
aren't sufficient for taking out groups of fighters if you have only one ship,
but they are good for supplementing your own fighters. There are slots on every
ship reserved for flak cannons. 

Laser Ring Flak System
Damage: 2
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 3

Laserglobe Flak System
Damage: 2
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 4

Lasernet Flak System
Damage: 3
Rate of Fire: 6 
Precision: 4

SpaceTech Flak System
Damage: 1
Rate of Fire: 6
Precision: 3


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3j - Blinder
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The blinder is a weapon that was received from the Ghosts. It blinds enemy 
sensors, allowing a ship that is trying to be stealthy to escape if it is
detected. This device is not particularly useful since stealth isn't all that
useful. The only mission where it might be of some use is the Blockade Breakers
mission, but you can pretty easily get by without it. 

Blinder
Damage: 0
Rate of Fire: 1
Precision: 6

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3k - Energy Skeeter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Energy Skeeter is the only weapon that can combat the mechanoids. It 
renders them inactivate but it does not destroy them. It is only necessary in a
few missions. 

Energy Skeeter
Damage: 3
Rate of Fire: 5
Precision: 6

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3l - Siege Laser
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Siege Laser is an extremely powerful weapon that requires the combined 
energy of at least three ships to fire. The maximum amount of ships that can
be used in a Siege Laser formation seems to be 5. The Siege Laser has a maximum
range of about 20K, and while it technically has no minimum range, it is
impractical for close quarters battle. To form a Siege Laser formation, you 
need to create a fleet group with control and one of the first four number 
keys, and then you need to press F8 to target a ship with the Siege Laser.

Siege Laser
Damage: 6
Rate of Fire: 1
Precision: 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3m - Shields
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shields are extremely important since they allow your ship to absorb damage 
while suffering reduced or no hull damage. They can recharge, while hull 
cannot, with the exception of the Angelwing's. The better the shield your 
choose, the better your ship is protected from its own destruction.

Hidron Shield, Big
Defense: 3
Integrity: 3
Emission: 4

Integrity Shield, Big
Defense: 4
Integrity: 5
Emission: 5

Integrity Shield, Small
Defense: 2
Integrity: 4
Emission: 5

Jamming Shield, Big
Defense: 4
Integrity: 4
Emission: 3

Jamming Shield, Small
Defense: 2
Integrity: 2
Emission: 3

Layer Shield, Big
Defense: 4
Integrity: 4
Emission: 4

Layer Shield, Small
Defense: 2
Integrity: 2
Emission: 4


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3n - Weapon Generators
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weapon generators are needed to provide energy to the weapons of the ship. 
Without a weapon generator, it is impossible for your ships to fire. The better
the weapon generator, the more weapons you will be able to fire at a given 
time.

Battle Firecloud Generator
Efficiency: 4
Size: Large
Emission: 0

Battle Firestorm Generator
Efficiency: 5
Size: Large
Emission: 0

Combat Firecloud Generator
Efficiency: 3
Size: Medium
Emission: 0

Combat Firestorm Generator
Efficiency: 4
Size: Medium
Emission: 0

Tactical Firecloud Generator
Efficiency: 2
Size: Small
Emission: 0

Tactical Firestorm Generator
Efficiency: 3
Size: Small
Emission: 0

Weapon Energy Generator
Efficiency: 3
Size: Large
Emission: 0

Weapon Energy Generator
Efficiency: 2
Size: Small
Emission: 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3o - Other Generators
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The other generators include general purpose generators that supply energy to
every device of the ship and backup weapon generators.

Support Generator
Efficiency: 1
Size: Medium
Emission: 0

L1 Fusion Support Generator
Efficiency: 2
Size: Small
Emission: 0

L1 Quark Support Generator
Efficiency: 3
Size: Small
Emission: 0

L2 Fusion Support Generator
Efficiency: 3
Size: Medium
Emission: 0

L2 Quark Support Generator
Efficiency: 4
Size: Medium
Emission: 0

L3 Fusion Support Generator
Efficiency: 4
Size: Large
Emission: 0

L3 Quark Support Generator
Efficiency: 5
Size: Large
Emission: 0

Secondary Firecloud Generator
Efficiency: 2
Size: Medium
Emission: 0

Secondary Firepower Generator
Efficiency: 3
Size: Medium
Emission: 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3p - Energy Cells
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Energy cells supply extra energy to a ship's devices.

Energy Cell
Efficiency: 1
Size: Small
Emission: 0

Electron Cell
Efficiency: 2
Size: Small
Emission: 0

Plasma Cell
Efficiency: 4
Size: Small
Emission: 0 

Crystal Cell
Efficiency: 6
Size: Small
Emission: 0


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3q - Sensor Arrays
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All ships are equipped with passive sensors that very slowly scan the immediate
vicinity for information. Passive sensors are ultimately impractical, so it is
important to equip sensor arrays, which greatly expand the radius in which 
you'll receive new information, and allow you to more quickly target the 
devices of an enemy ship. Sensor efficiency is decreased by active shields,
which is why the shield of ship will deactivate whenever you use the recon
command.

Advanced Sensor Array
Efficiency: 4
Size: Medium
Emission: 3

Palantir Sensor Array
Efficiency: 6
Size: Medium
Emission: 3

Sensor Array
Efficiency: 2
Size: Small
Emission: 3

ST Sensor Array
Efficiency: 1
Size: Small
Emission: 3

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3r - Electronic Counter Measure Systems
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Electronic Counter Measure (ECM) systems supposedly jams the sensors and 
targeting systems of enemy ships, make your ship harder to hit. In practice,
it is difficult, if not impossible to notice any difference between having an
ECM system equipped and not having one, but you might as well equip them 
anyway since you'll generally have the resources to do so.

SpaceTech ECM System
Efficiency: 2
Size: Small
Emission: 3

Standard ECM System
Efficiency: 3
Size: Small
Emission: 3

Torsion ECM System
Efficiency: 5
Size: Medium
Emission: 3

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3s - Electronic Counter Counter Measure Systems
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Electronic Counter Counter Measure (ECCM) systems supposedly jams the ECM
systems of other ships, but much like the ECM systems, it's generally not
possible to observe any difference in performance between having it and not
having it. 

Advanced Targeting System
Efficiency: 4
Size: Medium
Emission: 0

Standard ECCM System
Efficiency: 2
Size: Small
Emission: 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3t - Datascanner
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Datascanner works like a normal sensor in the sense that it can gather
information on a ship's devices. Other than that, its uses are confined
entirely to triggering story events, in which you must scan particular objects.

Datascanner
Damage: 0
Rate of Fire: 0
Precision: 6

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A3u - Engines
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Engines are obviously needed to propel a craft. It is important to note however
that all ships in Nexus are capable of equipping at least two engines, and some
can equip as many three or four. There are two reasons for having multiple 
engines. The first is to have a backup just in case one engine is destroyed. 
The other is that the engines serve different purposes. Generally your ships
will have a primary engine, which is the fastest, a secondary engine for 
emergencies, and a special combat drive for extra maneuverability.

Antimatter Engine
Speed: 6
Size: Large
Emission: 1

Chemical Engine
Speed: 2
Size: Large
Emission: 3

Chemical Engine
Speed: 2
Size: Small
Emission: 3

Combat Drive
Speed: 2
Size: Medium
Emission: 4

Deflection Engine
Speed: 3
Size: Small
Emission: 4

Fusion Engine
Speed: 4
Size: Large
Emission: 2

Ionstream Engine
Speed: 3
Size: Large
Emission: 4

Ionstream Engine
Speed: 3
Size: Small
Emission: 4

Lightrider Engine
Speed: 6
Size: Small
Emission: 3

Plasmastream Engine
Speed: 5
Size: Large
Emission: 5

Plasmatorch Engine
Speed: 5
Size: Small
Emission: 5

Secondary Chemical Engine
Speed: 1
Size: Medium
Emission: 3

Secondary Fusion Engine
Speed: 2
Size: Medium
Emission: 3

Secondary Ionstream Engine
Speed: 1
Size: Medium
Emission: 4

Secondary Plasma Engine
Speed: 2
Size: Medium
Emission: 4

Stealth Drive
Speed: 3
Size: Medium
Emission: 1

===============================================================================
B - Multiplayer guide
===============================================================================

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
B1 - Getting started
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you try playing a Nexus game over the Internet, you're going to keep getting
the message "waiting...connecting...waiting," etc. Unfortunately, it seems like
the Nexus master server is eternally down. In order to play, you either have to
play on a Local Area Network, or you have to create a virtual Local Area 
Network with the program Hamachi, which can be found at http://www.hamachi.cc.
The main Hamachi server for Nexus games is called Nexus TJI and the password is
Nexus. This is the network set up by someone at the Nexus forums. Hamachi
servers have a limit of sixteen people, so remove yourself from the network
whenever you are done playing. As of now, Hamachi is the only way to play Nexus
over the Internet. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
B2 - Ships, weapons and devices
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B2a - Basic overview and a note on naval lexicon
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will not list every single ship and weapon here. They are generally the same
as in the singleplayer.

Futuristic space combat games usually very loosely classify ships based on the
naval lexicon of the past one hundred years or so. Battleships are the biggest
warship of a given fleet. Cruisers are powerful ships capable of engaging 
multiple targets, but they are supposed to be faster and more maneuverable than
battleships, and they are supposed to be the smallest ships capable of 
operating on their own. Destroyers are supposed to very small, very 
maneuverable ships that are primarily for escort purposes, and usually require
the support of other ships. The term Frigate is a highly versatile term that
has been applied to ships as small as a destroyer and as big as a battleship.
A carrier is a ship that is primarily meant to deploy aircraft. A corvette
usually refers to a small, maneuverable ship like a destroyer, but I am unclear
as to what the difference is between the two.

Compared to many other games, Nexus probably follows all of this better. The
only abberation is that it doesn't really have any carriers for the most part.
The closest thing it has to one is the Noah support ship, but it's hard to
consider it one since it has only a marginally larger fighter bay compared to
battleships. Otherwise, you can use this to get a general idea for the purposes
of each ship. Battleships are big, powerful ships and are probably the best
source of pure firepower. Cruisers are considerably more maneuverable, and can
still dish out plenty of firepower. Destroyers are extremely fast and 
maneuverable, but they can only serve supplemental purposes at best.

As far as equipment is concerned, nearly all of the same types of equipment 
that exist in the singleplayer also exist in the multiplayer. The main 
difference is that they won't have multiple versions of each type of weapon,
e.g. rather than having an Overload Energy Bomb, a Rad Energy Bomb, and an Ion
Scream Bomb, there will simply be an energy bomb. There are still different
shields and engines however. Additionally, you can use some of the other races
in the multiplayer, all of which generally have race-specific equipment. Also,
some races simply don't have certain types of weapon or equipment.

In general, it seems like the multiplayer isn't as tactical as the 
singleplayer, and firepower seems to count more than anything else. Missiles
aren't very useful since they're likely to be shot down, and lasers aren't very
useful either since you'll have to endure the shield-draining and hull-damaging
weapon of someone else's ships while you're just trying to wait for your 
sensors to detect their devices. Battleships seem to rule the battlefield, with
cruisers being able to compete to some extent.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B2b - Noah (human)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Noah fleet consists of the most comprehensive, balanced selection of ships
available in the multiplayer. This is hardly surprising since they were
probably originally developed for use in the singleplayer. Additionally, they
also have a far greater selection of equipment. Nearly every kind of weapon is
available. They don't really excel in any particular way, but their versatility
does make them very useful. 

The only real weakness is that there really isn't much use for the frigate or 
the support ship. You're completely free to use them, but there's no reason to.
The frigate is much weaker than the destroyer while being only slightly faster,
and the support ship is only a little more durable than the battleship while
carrying only as much armament as a cruiser. With that said, both the 
battleship and the cruiser make excellent ships to use in the multiplayer. The
destroyer may be of some use, but it's very limited. It's weak, and the 
armament it can carry is very limited. If you do actually want to try using
lasers for tactical use, the destroyer is definitely the ship to do it with.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B2c - Gorg 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Gorg fleet is nearly identical to the Noah fleet, with the obvious 
differences being that they have no support ship or frigate, neither of which
is a bad thing since neither ship is particularly useful. The other ships they
have are the basic ships you'd except: destroyers, cruisers, and battleships.
They seem to have basically as wide a selection of equipment and weapons as the
Noah fleet, with the slight exception of the fact that there are no Gorg 
gunboats. This isn't a terrible loss however, since Gorg bombers can function
as gunboats.

The Gorg fleet isn't terribly different from the Noah fleet, so you can have a
game in which one team is Gorg and the other is Noah, and it won't be
noticeably unbalanced. Ultimately, the Gorg fleet is actually arguably better
than the Noah fleet, because the slight differences between them usually
reflects the Gorg's natural inclination to warfare. Their ships are somewhat
slower and less maneuverable, but they also tend to be more durable, and their
weapons are a bit more powerful. Firepower seems to count more than anything 
else in multiplayer, but the Gorgs also have basically the same tactical 
options as the Noah fleet.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B2d - Raptor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Raptor fleet consists of small, fast, lightweight ships only. Given that,
their use is pretty limited, and you should use their ships in conjunction with
ships from other races. They don't use the standard military ship 
classifications, so understandably it can be difficult to figure out what types
of ships they are. The Hunter and the Killer are almost exactly identical, and
while they are about the size of the Noah frigate, they are statistically and
functionally more like the Noah destroyer. They are very fast and maneuverable,
and they can carry armament comparable to a destroyer's. The Killer even has 
two heavy weapon slots, but this actually ends up being inconsequential since
the Raptors have no heavy weapons.

Ultimately, what really holds back the Raptors from being tremendously useful
isn't their lack of a battleship-sized vessel, but their lack of heavy weapons.
Initially I thought the Raptor Master was comparable to a battleship, but it
really turns out to be more of a light cruiser with a very large fighter bay.
Given the amount of weapons it can mount, its speed and maneuverability, and
the amount of gunboats it can equip, it really should be an excellent ship, but
it's basically crippled by the fact that the Raptors have no heavy weapons,
which means no energy bombs or anything like that. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B2e - Vardrag
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Vardrag fleet is rather strange. On the one hand, you get the sense that
they aren't fond of war because their ships don't look or feel as though they
were designed for combat. They look like mobile space stations, and they aren't
very maneuverable at all. On the other hand, they are massive ships, and they
are about as durable as they look, which means they can take a much stronger
beating than either the Gorg or the Noah battleship can before going down, and
their weapons, although fairly limited, are very powerful.

The Vardrags have only three weapons, one of which is so powerful that it 
should simply not be used in any game versus other players because it is not
conducive to an enjoyable experience. The Cataclysm missile cannot be shot 
down, shoots something that knockouts out the shields of enemy ships, and 
causes ridiculous hull damage. The result is an instant kill on most, if not 
all, ships. The only other weapons they have is a plasma gun and a laser.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B2f - Old school human
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The old school human fleet is fairly useless and cannot be used in a balanced
multiplayer game unless it involves only old school human ships. All of them
are very weak, and the weapons they can equip are also very weak. You can equip
them with shields in the multiplayer, but there's no point since they don't
have any shield-draining weapons. A game with only old school human ships would
probably be more conducive to tactics than a game with the other ships, but 
it'd also probably be very slow and boring.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B2g - Ghost
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ghost fleet consists of the same basic ship types as the Gorg fleet, but
the Ghost fleet is a very fast, light one with very limited use. Even though 
they have a battleship, it isn't quite like the Gorg and Noah kinds, since it
doesn't even of the staying power of the Gorg cruiser. The only weapons the
Ghosts have available are heavy and light lasers. Their lasers are better than
any other lasers in the game, but they are lasers nonetheless, and are more
suited to disabling devices than anything else. The Ghost ships are also
definitely the ships to use if you want to try making use of the cloaking
device, but the cloaking device's use is pretty limited too.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B2h - White
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is only one white ship: the cruiser. It can't even equip a shield and it
only has two types of weapons: a "crack gun," which is a hull damaging weapon
that ignores shields, and a laser. The White cruiser is in some ways 
impressive, and in other ways pretty obviously bad. The weapons are pretty
powerful and it's pretty maneuverable too, but the lack of any shield is a huge
weakness.

===============================================================================
C - Version History
===============================================================================

Version 1.0 - Single player and multiplayer guide.