Playing The Game Without A Clue :)

[Battlestar]

I finally found the game for cheap (2 bucks) in a flea market but it didn't have the manual so I'm kinda flying blind here. Does anybody have any advice on how to get into the game quickly or have any hints? Any help would be great.

[Cain]

It is a window game try to excesive use the mouse and the ctrl

[Texas_Fett]

Howdy, Battlestar.

 

I read a bad review of this game somewhere that likened its gameplay to 'playing with a Star Wars-themed spreadsheet'. In the most general of terms, they are correct. That said, it's one helluva 'spreadsheet'!

 

The game's asset management is unlike most RTS games in that it is part RTS and part turn-based, due to the 'days' aspect of the timekeeping.

 

Here's some advice, though:

• *Click on everything.
   
  *Click

here to order the game's strategy guide; it'll provide you with a wealth of information. Or, click here to download a 21 meg .pdf of the manual, in greyscale, courtesy of swaaye. (Evanders, let me know and I'll gladly remove that last little bit)
 
*Realize that once you select something, the game then wants you to click somewhere else to tell it where you want that thing to happen/travel to/ etc.
 
*Read the encyclopedia entries of all the units, characters, ships, etc.
 
*Right click on everything and select 'status' to see the stats on the character (this is especially useful when trying to figure out when a unit will arrive at its destination).
 
*Use your characters; an inactive character is a waste. Keep them busy, but NEVER send them on a mission without support from a Special Forces Unit (again, look at the encyclopedia entries), and even then, be sure to use decoys.
 
*Use the icons display abilities of the interface (the 'computers' behind R2-D2) to display different assets.
 
*Right click on C-3P0 to bring up a menu; he has a lot of useful things to tell you (but once you're sick of him...and you WILL become sick of him...uncheck his 'translate counterpart' option to shut him up. Note that you can do the same for R2-D2). Note that asking him to 'Manage Production' or to 'Manage Garrisons' gives him proxy control of your construction yards and troop training facilities.
 
*Save often, if not every 'day'. You'll understand why very early in your Rebellion experience.
 
*Look at the top of your screen. The three boxes together display your mined material, refined materials, and maintenence points. Learn the costs of contructing your units, and the relationship between mined material (from mines), refined material (produced from raw material, it's the 'cost' associated with building a new unit; try to keep this number above '0' to avoid slowdowns in production), and maintenence points (1 mine + 1 refinery = 50 maintenence points; keep this number as high as possible; if it goes negative, you'll have to start scrapping things.).

 

Here's a quick starter tutorial:

Right click on an object to bring up a menu with a list of options for that object. Left click on objects to select them and to 'finalize' commands.

 

For example: Start a game as the Rebels. Listen to C-3P0's briefing, and take note of everything he says. Once he's done, right click on that field in the upper left that says '2'. This keeps track of game time, expressed in days. Right clicking on it brings up a menu that allows you to change the game speed. For now, set it on 'Very Slow'.

Now, run your cursor over the galaxy map until you find the Sumitra sector (middle right). Left click on it, and find Yavin. Double click the little turret icon in the lower left of the planet. This will bring up a menu box that will contain portraits of several characters, and by clicking on the tabs at the top, you can see the other assets the planet has to offer.

Right click on Han Solo. This will bring up a menu listing your current options for things to do with him. For right now, select mission. The cursor will change to a cross-hairs. Click on the open field below the characters. A dialogue box will open, asking you what type of mission you'd like to run on the planet. If you scroll down, you should see what his options are. Select 'Recruitment' and click the check mark. Han will now disappear, although a little Rebel icon will have appeared next to the planet on the lower right.

Congratulations! You've just issued your first order for the game. Get set for about a trillion more before you've beaten the game. You'll develop your own strategies and tricks that work for you along the way, but most of the game consists of selecting a unit and issuing it orders. It's pretty simple, but it can get hectic sometimes.

 

Sorry. I know that's a lot of very generalized information, but I hope it helps. Search GameFaqs for more detailed walkthroughs and analysis of ships and stuff. If you have any further questions, feel free to post them in the 'Questions from Newbies' section, or PM one of the moderators or any of the regular posters here.

 

Good luck!

[Battlestar]

Thanks for the advice. I'll be sure to check out the guide.

[the_mask]

That's a big WOO to you, TF.

 

After all these years, I can finally browse through the manual. I always planned to buy it again (got it used), if I saw it somewhere cheap, just to have the manual for once.

 

 

EDIT: and an even bigger WOO to you, swaaye for finding it in the first place and hosting it, at least temporarily.

Edited May 6, 2004 by the_mask

[Texas_Fett]

All 'woos', 'yays', and 'kudos' should be directed to swaaye and not me, I'm afraid. I've been e-mailing and PMing back and forth with him for several days now, trying to figure out how to best get his manual up for the community here after I saw his post here. I've PM'd Evanders about seeing if we could host it here, but he hasn't gotten back to me as of yet.

[swaaye]

About the manual. Please try to get it off emule first before using the hosted server I have it on. If you have the manual, you could help share it on emule. That would help others get it too.

 

So, emule link:

ed2k://|file|Star.Wars.Rebellion.Manual.pdf|54878397|D1959EA01BD6F467D29A7B9504B4F53F|/

 

http://www.emule-project.net/

 

Hopefully we can get it hosted on SWR.Com here and all problems getting the file will be solved.

[Guest Scathane]

Yes, we can get it hosted, although I don't think a 21 meg manual is very manageable. What we could do is post it in the site's FAQ or even put up a manual category on the site...

 

What do you think?

[ElvisMiggell]

Certainly we could post links to it in the FAQ

[swaaye]

Well, the manual that's on eMule is 50MB. I used some Acrobat magic to shrink it to 21MB. Problem is it's basically a compilation of scanned images, not OCR'ed text. Makes it really big. If I had the manual I would probably try to rescan it but I don't have it so this is the best I can do....

 

It would be great to have you guys host it though.

[ElvisMiggell]

What if some wonderful person were to type out the text and then you'd only have to scan in the pics? Would that cut the size down?

[swaaye]

There are like 176 pages! That's a lot of text

 

It would be best to just rescan the whole thing. I wish I could get my hands on the real manual.

[Texas_Fett]

I'll see if I can't find mine. I don't have access to a scanner, but I'd be happy to send it to someone who does...provided I can get it back.

[ElvisMiggell]

I'm sure one of our american friends can help you there TF.

[swaaye]

I just got done archiving a old sound card manual. I used OCR on it and the final file size for 50 pages was like 3MB. Granted, I couldn't do quite that well with a 180pg manual with lots of art, but it would definitely be less than 50MB and would look a LOT better

 

TF, PM me if you would like to do some temporary manual lendage. I'm also going to try to hunt down the game for cheap, but that seems to be nearly impossible these days. (Or, maybe, I'll just hunt down the friend I borrowed the manual to years ago )

[ElvisMiggell]

Nice one mate... good to see everyone working together ai?