Starkingdoms.com Full FAQ/strategy guide to Starkingdoms ------------------------------------ || New to the game || ------------------------------------ This is to start off by saying this is my first FAQ that I will be submitting, so if you find anything you'd like to add, e-mail me at crazygore@hotmail.com. My Intentions on this is to bring a little info about the game and some helping advice so that you won't get torn to pieces because you didn't know any better. ----------------------------------- || Background Info || ----------------------------------- This guide is brought to you by me, Crazy C Gamer. I like many others enjoy all types of games and love to play them as much as I can. This guide has been used by many of the game, and was told I can post this so that others could enjoy the game strategies as well This is how the great top players that finished #1 many games started and still abide by to this very day, without further adue, here is the guide. ----------------------------------- || The FAQ || ----------------------------------- I. The Guide 1.) Newbie Mode a.) Buildings b.) Military c.) Research d.) Explore e.) Rewards 2.) Managing Your Kingdom a.) Buildings b.) Military c.) Probes d.) Research e.) Missles 3.) Targets a.) Spotting Targets b.) Calculating your attack force c.) Risk Assessment d.) Retaliations II. The Units III. Planet Types a.) Land Description IV. FAQ guide V. Networth VI. Thanks and other Misc. ========================================= I. NEWBIE GUIDE v1.0 09-March-2001 1. Newbie Mode --------------- 1.a. Buildings ------------ You need to make the most of your income and build it as quickly as you can at this stage. Initially, build 32 Training Camps, 32 Factories, and rest into Starmines. The Starmines will boost your income, the Training Camps will lower your unit costs, and the Factories will build the probes that you will absolutely need later. Note: keep Training Camps at 10-11% of total land, ALWAYS!!!!! 1.b. Military ----------- Buy soldiers only at first. Wait for the Training Camps to finish and receive the full discount BEFORE you buy any military units. The top players seem to focus on Tanks, Tanks, Tanks. Though, some players swear that LD's can be put to good use. Try to maintain at least 1 scientist/land, you'll probably need even more later on. 1.c. Research ------------- This is where JIT (just in time) manufacturing/research gets tricky. At the end of Newbie, you want the top four projects to be maxed out. But at the beginning of Newbie, start working on Population and Money. This will boost your income. Then adjust so that you can maintain the max percentages and start on ADV Power Plant. 1.d. Explore ------------ Notice, that this is out of sequence from the Menus. That is because you should wait until now to insure that you do the others first before you spend what you have left to explore. Use any spare cash you have to explore. 1. e. Rewards -------------- The rewards are vital!! Each morning, collect the land and build. In the evening, collect the money. It seems that the percentage are better this way when your income has increased. 2. MANAGING YOUR KINGDOM 2.a. Buildings ------------- You're initially topheavy in Starmines and this will need to be scaled down as your Population and Income increases. Use the RAZE option for this. Increase your Military Residences as your units increase or they will move into Civilian Residences and you Population will decrease and then your INCOME will decrease. Bad Llama. Remember that Tanks take TWO spaces, not one like the others. Remember that military units take TWO power and monitor power usage accordingly. As your buildings and military grow, so do your power demands. Phase in your ADV Power Plants as quickly as possible. It really depends on terrain type and your personal strategy, but usually the ration of buildings/land sorts out like this: Civilian Residence: 25-30% Military Residence: 20% ADV Power Plants: 15-20% Starmines: 5-10% Factories: 15-25% Training Camps: 11% (I like to stay a little in front of the max in case of acquiring conquered land.) 2.b. Military ALWAYS make sure that you will receive the max discount BEFORE you purchase units. Otherwise, refer to 1.b. 2.c. Probes ------------ Probes are VERY important. Don't discount their importance. They gather intel on your prospective enemy. They can also rob them blind. Shield probes whenever possible to cut mission losses. Conversely, keep your cash low as you feel comfortable, becuase you are a target as well. 2.d. Research -------------- The first four projects will need increased hours as your land increases. As you expand, you will need at least 1 Scientist/Land, perhaps even more. Projects Population and Money require roughly twice as many hours as Power and Military, so allocate your Scientists accordingly. But, no matter what, make sure that Military is maintained at 25%. 2.e. Missiles ------------ Don't build any until you're rich!! Use carefully. Probably best saved in case of war. 3. TARGETS 3.a. Spotting Targets --------------------- Initially, you'll be cleaning up the Inactives in your own sector. But. eventually you'll branch out. Targets are there for the taking: *Enemies hitting our sector *Sector without NAPs *Tips from a friend Remember, whoever you are thinking of hitting, they probably have friends. (See Retaliations below) However you get this information, you must get intel on him/her. If you dive their NW by their land, you get a ratio. 200:1 probably well defended 100:1 - 150:1 is 'Land Fat' and targetable. We're all 'Land Fat' in the beginning, but at some point, we slow down and build that military. Next is probe intel. You want to hit them when their military is out hitting someone else. If you gain 100 land per 2k-4k tanks, then you are getting good value on your attacks! 3.b. Calculating your attacking force ------------------------------------ There are SK calculators available. www.calccentral.cjb.net www .skcalc.freeurl.com 1. Assume like yourself, the enemy has full military research. 2. Add up the enemy defence points according to the Game Help 3. Take into account any bonuses. (Terrain) 4. Add an extra 10% to break them. 5. Divide the total by nine to get the number of tanks needed. 3.c. Risk Assessment --------------------- This is where you find out if you gamble TOO much. When you are new, greed clouds your thinking. Keep AT LEAST 60% of your military home for defence. 3.d. Retaliations ---------------- When someone hits our Sector, it's nice to hit them back. However, if their Sector is strong, then the cycle continues and war occurs. This is a very gray area. Sometime land grabs are unavoidable. Pick your targets, intel them, and keep your defenses up. II. Unit Name p/t cost Info Housing Costs (power/toughness) =================================================================== Soldier 1/1 150 Basic unit, no specialty. 1 Trooper 4/0 350 Soldier trained in offensive tactics. 1 Dragoon 5/0 450 Cyborg offensive unit. 1 Laser Trooper 0/4 400 Soldier trained in defensive tactics. 1 Laser Dragoon 0/5 550 Cyborg defensive unit. 1 Tank 9/9 1750 Heavy armoured vehical. 2 Tactical Fighter 10/4 1800 AI controlled Jet Fighter. 0 Scientist 0/0 1000 This unit can not attack or defend, but can be used to research. 1 III. Planet Types Advantages Disadvantages Free Ability ====================================================================== Forest and Wilderness +10% Population +10% Attack Time Desert Wasteland +15% Offensive Power -5% Population Start with Dragoons Volcanic Inferno No Power Required -15% Population Start with Fusion Technology and Energy Core already researched Mystical Lands -40% Attack Time -10% Offensive Power Start with S.C.O.U.T.E.R. Mountainous +20% Income -15% Power Production Start with Laser Dragoon Oceanic +10% Defensive Power +30% Research Required Terra Form +50% Research Eff. -10% Income Multiple Terran None None III. a) Land Description Forest and Wilderness This tropical planet is covered with dense tree's and shrubbery. Although there are a few good flat plains for building on, most of this planet has huge amounts of tree's. This makes obtaining wood, and food quite easy as you have plenty of tree's for wood, and plenty of animals to hunt for food. Many people seek this type of planet for the beautiful forests and lush greenery. Because food is abudant and comes at a low price, it makes living here a lot easier then many other places. On average, you will see Forest and Wilderness type planets with 10% more people then any other place. Due to the small amount of flat plains to build on, and the abudant amount of wood, people have designed multiple story houses, capable of accomodating the additional 10% population in such a small place. There is a big downfall however.Because the tree's and forest area is so dense, it makes it very easy to get lost in it. It isn't uncommon to hear of someone who wandered out into the forest and never returned. Some say they were abducted by aliens, but for the most part, people realize it's purely an issue of the inability to find your way once lost in the forest. Because the trees are so thick, there are few places in the forest that you can even see up past the branches to get a good look at the stars and figure out which direction you must go. The forest also slows down the military a lot. Traveling through this type of land, especially with big units such as tanks, makes it difficult with so many trees to weave around. Between that, and the ease of being able to get lost, it often takes military longer then expected to return home from battle. On average, you can expect the military to arrive 10% later then normal. Desert Wasteland - This sandy planet type is usually within 2-3 planets from the sun. It is known for having frequent sand storms, that sometimes cause the cost of lives. Because of this unfortunate factor, people living on this planet type usually suffer a casualty loss of 5% total population per year.Desert Wasteland can form a very powerful army however. Because of the sand storms, military units are trained to live, and fight in a harsher environment then those of any other planet type. They can handle the weather on almost any planet type, and they can fight better in any condition then any other army can. The people of Desert Wasteland also feel that military is power, and thus they have spent their time researching more powerful technology. They receive a 15% bonus to their attacks, and have also completed the research on Dragoon Technology. Volcanic Inferno - Volcanic Inferno is one of the hottest planets, always within the first to second planet from the sun. The entire planet consists of active volcano's that errupt frequently. There are many places on these planet types where you can find lava rivers flowing; Truly a sight to see.Due to the extreme heat and radiation from the sun, nobody can live unprotected in this environment. New technology was created that gave the people control of their climate. Although they can't control the entire planet's atmosphere, their cities have huge bubbles enclosing them which are controled through devices centralized in each city.The problem came about that these devices required huge quantities of power that Nuclear Power Plants simply couldn't keep up with the demand. They spent the time researching Fusion Power Plants, and Energy Core Technology, but still that wasn't enough to do as they needed. Finally they figured out how to harness the heat from their local volcano's and convert it into power. These massive Power Cells were enough to power their Climate Control Stations, and all of the cities surrounding them. Due to the fluctuating power income from the volcano's however, they were unable to use the power to feed their planetary shields and shield their probes. Any kind of shielding always requires a constant feed of non-fluctuating power, which just wasn't the case of the Volcanic Power Cells. In order to continue shielding of anything, they still require the use of power plants.Due to frequntly errupting volcano's, Volcanic Inferno planets usually lose approximately 15% of their population from deaths due to explosions and erruptions along with lava rivers. It truly is not a safe place to live for the people, but some just like the excitement of living in a dangerous place. Mystical Lands - Mystical Lands are unknown as to their origin. They are known as Mystical, as they simply seem to just appear in a galaxy when they were not there the day before. Their people are also very strange. Of all planets, people of the Mystical Land appear to be the most lazy. They are always looking for the quickest and easiest way to do things. Their military goes through training as fast as possible leaving a lot of the "unimportant" stuff out, and they always do things half way. Because of their efforts to want to get things done quickly, they spent their time researching the use of S.C.O.U.T.E.R.'s which allowed them to accurately pin point the quickest way to get from their home planet, to their target's planet. In addition, when attacking, they were always quick to run, usually causing them to miss a part of the resistance and having a second wave have to be sent in to finish off the remaining resistance. Because of their rushing strategy, they return home 40% faster then any other army would, however they suffer a 10% reduction in their military strength due to them having to send in second waves to clean out what the first was too lazy to take out in the first place. Mountainous - These planets are usually found about 4 to 5 planets away from their sun. They have mountain ranges as far as the eye can see, and the gold fever is constantly alive here. Within each of these mountains is tons of gold, just waiting for someone to be lucky enough to find it. Most people who live here are quite stingy with their money. Money is the only thing that is on people's minds on this land type. That, and protecting their money.Because so much time has been spent trying to retrieve the gold hidden within the mountain ranges, little time has been spent researching methods of better power sources. Because people want to save money, they use the cheapest fuel they can find to burn in the power plants, thus making it's output reduced by 15% efficiency. Although this environment is rich with gold, many people choose not to come here due to the polution from the poor use of fuel in the power plants. Because Mountainous have so much gold within their mountains, they decided it was nessecary to build up some kinds of defense for it. They didn't want to invest the time however, in trying to research new defensive technology, so they simply purchased the Laser Dragoon Technology from another nearby planet. This planet isn't the greatest for starting a family, but it's great if you are looking to make some money. Oceanic - This planet type is almost completely covered in water, with only a fraction of a percent of the land actually peaking out of the water. Within the water are huge cities completely encased within gigantic domes of air. These subterranean cities are amazing, with breathable air constantly being produced within the bubble and light being channeled through lasers, powered by huge solar panels floating on the surface of the water. From these lasers, the light is channeled to the dome's optical array, and the laser is fractioned off into billions of light beams, lighting the entire city. Don't let all of the amazing architecture and technology fool you however. It took them a lot of work to get to where they are. Because of the environment they are living under, they've had to spend atleast 30% longer than anyone else trying to develop these new technological advances. Unlike everyone else, these new structural developements, and units had to be capable of breathing and functioning underwater. Power plants are not run within the city's bubble dome but outside of it, channeling water through canals and pulling out the oxygen content in order to keep the plant running. Units who are out defending often have to spend weeks underwater without a source of oxygen to keep them alive. With each new developement, they had to implement a way for it to create it's own oxygen source, and they had to make all electrical units water tight. There is an advantage to living in a city like this however. Due to it's depths underwater, finding the city for anyone trying to invade it was near impossible. Even with all of their technology, they find that their units just aren't cut out for underwater ventures. Electrical devices aren't quite water tight and short out frequently, troops have to keep a constant air supply on them in order to continue their invasion, and aren't conditioned for under water battles like the people of the Oceanic planet are. This gives the advantage to those who dwell within these bubble cities, as they can see the enemy coming from miles away, while the enemy wanders helplessly about in the general direction that their equipment last told them to go prior to it shorting out. On average, you will find Oceanic units 10% better at defending their land then anybody else. Terra Form - This planet is like none seen before. This planet is man made by a powerful missile designed to form sort of a Black Hole, sucking raw material from areas far and wide. The Black Hole begins to break apart as it gets cluttered with space debris, forming a core. This core begins to grow until it's formed an ozone layer and an atmosphere. These planet types were designed purely as research planets. A scientist's dream home, these planets were created by people with a lot of money and a strong belief in science. These planet types always have the best, state of the art equipment that can ever be found for research. Because of how well the scientists are treated, and the pure materials they are given to work with, research is on average 50% faster then any other research facilities. This however takes an impact on society. The equipment is upgraded weekly, and costs a pretty penny to keep stocked. An average of 10% of all income is usually invested directly into the science fund in order to buy more pure material, and more powerful equipment. This is definately not the place for the poor to live, but to a wealthy science lover, this is a dream home. Multiple Terrain - The ideal place for starting a family, these types of planets are a mix of a few volcanos, a few mountain ranges and some deserts. There is some gold to be had in the mountains, good places for military bases and training grounds, and ideal temperature for people. This land has spread it's resources pretty evenly throughout all technology. They haven't advanced in anything, nor have they declined in anything. If you had to choose where you wanted your children to grow up, it would more than likely be here. IV. FAQ guide This is a few answers to misc. questions you might have about the game incase your stuck. Why am I losing Power? Unless you are using a Volcanic Inferno planet type, everything in your kingdom requires power. As you build more buildings, more military units, and gain more civilians, your power needs will raise. What once could be powered on 100 power plants may now need 200 power plants to power. You also consume power with your shields when activated. If you turn your shields on, and have them set too high, it could cause you to start losing power. Be carefull, as if your power drops down to 0, you receive a -20% to both your offensive and defensive attack power. How did I get succesfully attacked by someone who sent less than half the amount of units that I had? When attacking with 4 generals, it automatically splits your units into 4ths, and makes some generals come home faster then others. The person who attacked you probably attacked you with 4 generals, thus is why his largest army out is only a 4th the size of yours. See attack help for more information on how this works. Where can I go to post my idea's or bugs I've found? Go to the Public forums, and choose the Bugs and Suggestions forum. There you can post your idea's and any bugs you may have found. The link to is is www.starkingdoms.com How do I change my email address? Unfortunately, you are currently not able to change your email address due to the fact that it would promote account swapping by others who want to get in specific sectors. Why does my networth go down when I purchase units or buildings? Your networth consists of everything you currently own including soldiers, military troops, money, power, land, buildings, and anything else you can think of. When you decide to train military units, you lose 2 things. You lose the money you spent on them, and you lose the soldiers you started to train. Until those soldiers have completed training, you are short the money, and the soldiers. Once the soldier finishes his training into whatever you decided to train him to do, you will gain your score back, plus a little more for investing into a better unit. Anytime you spend your money your score will go down temporarily as you are losing money and not gaining anything in return until the building finishes it's construction, or the unit gets out of training, or you finish exploring the additional land. Why does my research go down? Your research for Money bonus, Population bonus, Power bonus, and Military bonus are all based on how large your kingdom is. The more land you have, means the more power plants you have to keep upgraded, the more jobs you will need to provide for people to pay taxes, the more population you will have to deal with, and the more military you have to keep on their toes. Because of this fact, your scientist's jobs are never finished. You will find that you constantly have to keep your scientists working on these if you want to keep them maxed. What does it mean when someone has a negative amount of tanks home? This is caused when someone sends out all of their tanks to attack someone, and then after attacking, they choose to disband their tanks. Because they can't yet send the tanks out to be dismantled until the tanks arive back home from their war, the person will have a negative amount of tanks left at home. Once the tanks return home, they will be dismantled until that number goes to 0. Why do I have to wait 24 hours before my account is deleted? This does two things for you. It allows you the time frame to recover your account in case you didn't want to delete it, or recover it incase another got access to your account and tried to delete it. It also allows people time to retaliate on those who decide to suicide all of their units and then delete. Why do I have to wait 24 hours before my account goes into Vacation Mode? Vacation mode was added as a convenience for those who have to go on trips and such, not allowing them to gain access to computer. We do not want vacation mode to be taken advantage of by someone attacking, and then going into vacation mode instantly after, so that the enemy can not retaliate. With the 24 hour time period, if someone decides to attack you and go into vacation mode, their account is still vulnerable for the first 24 hours, so you can still retaliate if you wish. After that 24 hour period has past, the account will go into vacation mode and be safe from attacks. Is there any way to defend from Missle Attacks? Yes. You can activate shields to defend against Missle Attacks and even Military Attacks. The amount of power you supply will determine the percentage of defense you will have. Why can't I research Energy Core? You must complete research on Fusion Technology before Energy Core will be visible to research. How long do kingdoms stay in dead status before they are removed from the sector? Kingdoms stay in dead status for a period of 5 days, or until the user tries logging in again to find their kingdom is dead (whichever comes first). If the user logs in before that 5 day period, they will get a message stating their kingdom has been killed off and the kingdom will be deleted immediately afterwards. If the user does not log in within the 5 day period, the account will be deleted after the 5 day period is up. I probed somebody and it showed they had a negative number of military units. How is this possible? This person more then likely made an attack recently, and then chose to disband some of their army. If they attacked with all of their units, and then disbanded half of them, it would show them as having a negative amount of units at home, and a positive number of units out with a general. When that general returns home with the units, the two will cancel eachother out, giving you the actual remaining units. I think I found a cheater. How do I report him? Currently we have methods of catching people with multiple accounts, so if you think someone has multiple accounts, there is no need to report it as we will more then likely catch them with our tools if they are truly cheating in this way. If you think you have found a bug, or something that someone has been exploiting, giving them an unfair advantage that others did not have, you are more then welcome to report it in the bugs and suggestions forums. How can I cancel units in training/buildings in production? Currently there is not a way to cancel troops in training/buildings in production. One may be implemented in the future, but for right now, your best bet is to make sure you have the correct number in the box before you submit your request to train/build. IV. Networth Money , Probes, and Units each have a certain amount of networth this networth is from Game 7 and some of it still might be effective. Land - 25 NW Building (including in Construction) - 25 NW Tank - 22 NW Tactical Fighter - 19 NW Scientist - 10 NW Laser Dragoon - 8 NW Laser Trooper - 7 NW Dragoon - 7 NW Trooper - 6 NW Soldier - 3 NW Population - 1 NW Money (500) - 1 NW Probes (1000) - 1 NW Power - Not worth anything Missiles - Not worth anything V. Thanks and other Misc. This is the part where I would like to personally thank those who have made this FAQ possible. Mav and Bcart who provided the FAQ , and the planet types. Fantasmagori for the Networth, along with deathonswiftwings who pointed to me at how to find the networth A very special thanks to a man who would like to be unknown, who has produced 75% of the guide, in which I added more info to. He is also been seen at #1 for a game, and place #2 in 4 of the games. If anybody has questions about this guide, then email me at crazygore@hotmail.com or just find me around the message boards as Crazy C Gamer. ----------------------------------- || Legal Disclaimer || ----------------------------------- Do not put this FAQ up on your site. All you have to do to have this up on your site is to email me at crazygore@hotmail.com and I will be happy to let it up, so I know how many of you wonderful people are actually more then excited to have my info up on your pages. I have no beef with any sites yet, so anybody may ask . ------------------------------- || Copyright stuff || ------------------------------- This has been a Crazy C Gamer production. All rights reserved. Copyright November 13th, 2001