INITIAL SETUP | OPTIMIZING MINING OPERATIONS | TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH
Quick Start, Step-By-Step Tutorial
The purpose of this document is to provide you with a general introduction to TERRITORIES 3069. It guides you through some of the important tasks you need to complete as you start playing the game. Once you understand why you should perform these actions, you will understand how to play TERRITORIES 3069: Star Siege enough to continue playing on your own.
Unless your game server does not allow Solar Federation protection, you begin the game in a protected state. You can not attack other players and they can not attack you. You can leave this protected state manually by selecting the Leave button at the top of the Star Command screen - or simply wait for it to expire naturally. Use this period of protection wisely to build your empire and be prepared for battle soon after it ends.
Setup Mining - At the beginning of the game you control all of the planets in your initial solar system. You will need to mine resources from the planets in your solar system and deliver those resources back to your habitable world. From Star Command | Select (your first home planet) | Assign Drones. This screen allows you to 1) rename, 2) order mines to be built on and 3) assign drones to transfer resources from all of the planets assigned to this habitable world. Typically you will use all of the land available on these planets for mines.
Tip! It will take one or more turns for the mining facilities to be constructed on the remote mining planets. You can check the construction progress on the planet's main display screen.
Build Research Facilities - From Star Command | Select (your Home Planet) | Select Build Facilities | Enter a number of research facilities to build. Although you will need most of your initial mineral supply to build mines on the other planets in your solar system, if you start with more than 40,000 units of each resource, you can probably spare some to build more research facilities. Once you have a steady in-flow of minerals, you can always more facilities.
Tip! All facilities built on a habitable world are instantly created.
Assign Research Tasks - From Star Command | Select Research. You will need thousands of research facilities to efficiently research much of the technology in the game. However, no turn is wasted so start research tasks right away. Focus on the technology you will need initially such as:
- Planet Technology | Drones | Thrust improves the speed of your droves. The faster your drones, the more minerals that can be delivered during each turn.
- Ship Technology | Fighters | Thrust improves the speed of your fighters (both existing and those you build in the future). You will need to explore nearby solar systems soon so having ships get their quickly can be an advantage.
- Ship Technology | Fighters | Maneuverability improves your fighters' ability to dodge enemy weapons.
- Specialist Skills | Field Operative is the first of several specialists that are used by your espionage facilities to execute operations launched on your enemies.
Build Observatories - From Star Command | Select (your Home Planet) | Select Build Facilities | Enter a number of observatories such that you have a total of sixteen (16) available. This will improve the efficiency of your astronomers in finding the next closest solar system.
Tip! Do not waste habitable world land by building defenses until you are no longer under the protection of the Solar Federation. Then you will definitely need to protect your planets using defenses and turrets.
Some players may also build one or more ships and, using the rally point system, try to explore the universe by having their ships randomly scout a direction away from their initial habitable world.
Your single-most important task is to get a steady flow of resources to your habitable world. Resources are used constantly for research, espionage, building ships and other important tasks so having a steady flow early in the game is key.
Initially you were instructed to research drone propulsion. Drones are the primary factor in determining how fast resources are delivered back to your habitable world. The faster your drones, the more resources you will have delivered back to your home world. Fast drones also allow you to build mines on remote planets faster.
As your initial turns progress, the mining facilities you have ordered will be delivered on the remote mining planets. You'll see the mines both on the Star Command list as well as on the planet displays screen. After the mines are delivered, they start working immediately - but the minerals stay on the remote planet until you assign drones to go pick up the minerals. This is setup on the home planet that the remote planet is assigned to. From Star Command | Select (your Home World) | Assign Drones. This screen shows each of the planets that are assigned to deliver to this home planet, the number of mines on each planet, the distance and allows you to set the total number of drones servicing the planet. The total number of minerals being delivered each turn is calculated based on the number of mines and the number of drones you assign. You need to manage drones in a way that the amount being taken from a planet each round does not exceed the amount being mined.
Your goal is to have an in-flow of 1000-2000 units of each resource being delivered to your home planet every turn. While you may not be able to build that many initially, every little bit helps. As drone propulsion improves, you will need fewer and fewer drones making the trip because they can do it faster. Once drones can make the trip in one turn to each of your planets, you will only need as many drones as you have mines.
After you have established a constant flow of resources, you can begin tackling the problem of technology research. There are a wide variety of shields, weapons, armors and other technologies that will be extremely important to winning the game. Much of that technology is not available to your race until you have researched it. Once researched, you can typically make use of the technology but you'll also need to focus on improving it's attributes to make it more powerful, efficient and effective.
As you research certain technologies, new technologies will be unlocked. The tree is not extremely deep but there are important technologies further down the tree worth researching for. Typically, technologies unlocked by researching other technologies are more powerful and valuable.
QUICK START, STEP-BY-STEP TUTORIAL | INITIAL SETUP | OPTIMIZING MINING OPERATIONS | TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH
