Difference between revisions of "V0.3 Quick Play Guide"

From FreeOrionWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
m (Tech Categories)
(Tree View)
Line 203: Line 203:
 
==Tree View==
 
==Tree View==
  
The largest section of the Research Screen is the tech tree view to the right of the queue.  This view shows the technologies in the game, connected by arrows to show their prerequisite relationships.  Most techs require one or more other techs to be researched before they can be enqueued.  To enqueue a tech, you can double click on it in the tree view, or you can single click on it, and then click "Add to Queue" at the top of the Research Screen.  The tree view may be scrolled similarly to the galaxy map, by clicking (not on a tech) and dragging with the mouse, or by using the scrollbars at the bottom and right sides.
+
The largest section of the Research Screen is the tech tree view to the right of the queue.  This view shows the technologies in the game, connected by arrows to show their prerequisite relationships; most techs require one or more other techs to be researched before they can be enqueued.  Each tech box on the tree view also shows the name of the tech, an icon at the top left to incidate the tech's category, as well as the RP per turn limit and minimum research time for the tech.  If a tech has been enqueued, is being researched, or has been completed, this is indicated in a sub-box at the bottom right of the tech box on the tree.
 +
 
 +
To enqueue a tech, you can double click on it in the tree view, or you can single click on it, and then click "Add to Queue" at the top of the Research Screen.  The tree view may be scrolled similarly to the galaxy map, by clicking (not on a tech) and dragging with the mouse, or by using the scrollbars at the bottom and right sides.
  
 
There are several view options for the tech tree.  Directly above the tree, there are tech category buttons.    Clicking these will limit the techs shown on the tree to techs in the appropriate category (or show all categories simultaneously, for "All").  Below the tree view, options are available to show only researchable, researchable and complete, or all techs, and only theory techs, applications and theories only, or all techs.
 
There are several view options for the tech tree.  Directly above the tree, there are tech category buttons.    Clicking these will limit the techs shown on the tree to techs in the appropriate category (or show all categories simultaneously, for "All").  Below the tree view, options are available to show only researchable, researchable and complete, or all techs, and only theory techs, applications and theories only, or all techs.

Revision as of 08:59, 28 October 2005

A Not-So-Quick Start Guide to Playing FreeOrion v0.3

See also: Quick Play Guide for v0.2

Title Screen & Main Menu

When you start FreeOrion, you will see the title screen with some exciting background art, as well as the Main Menu of the game. The buttons on the Main Menu may be clicked to

  • Start a new Single Player game, taking you to the Galaxy Setup Screen, then into the game itself
  • Start or load a Multi Player game, taking you to the Server Connection Dialog. After connecting to a server, or hosting a game yourself, you'll be taken to the Multiplayer Setup dialog, where a new multiplayer game may be configured, or a saved multiplayer game loaded.
  • Load Game previously saved (single player)
  • Open the Options window, allowing various game settings to be changed. Many of these require the game to be quit and restarted to take effect, however.
  • Read About the FreeOrion project (game licence and vision statement)
  • View the Game Credits, a listing of people who have made significant contributions to creating the game so far.

Galaxy Setup

When starting a new single player game, various options concerning how the galaxy will be generated for the new game are available. These include

  • Stars - The total number of stars in the galaxy. Use the spinner to adjust, or click on the number and type an amount.
  • Galaxy Shape - The shape the stars are arranged in.
  • Galaxy Age - Older galaxies will tend to have more blackholes, red stars and neutron stars, younger galaxies will have more blue stars.
  • Starlane Frequency - The number of starlanes per star. Ships in FreeOrion must travel by starlane.
  • Planet Density - The number of planets per star.
  • Specials Frequency - The frequency with which planets will be generated with specials when the galaxy is created.
  • Empire Name & Color - Self explanatory

After setting these options and clicking OK, the game will generate a new galaxy, and after a few moments, bring you into the game itself.

Multiplayer Connection & Setup

When starting or resuming a multiplayer game, initially you will be taken to the Connect to Server dialog. After hosting or joining a game, you will be taken to the Multiplayer Setup dialog.

Connect to Server

At the top of the Connect to Server diaglog, you may enter your Player name. Just below, you may select whether you wish to join an already existing game, or host a new game yourself.

If hosting, you need only click OK after entering a player name.

If joining a LAN game, clicking Refresh list should list any games on the local network waiting for players. Select one of these and click OK to join.

If joining an internet game, you need to enter the IP address of the game you wish to join, then click OK.

If the connection is made successfully, you will then be taken to the Multiplayer Setup dialog.

Multiplayer Setup

After connecting or starting a new server, you will be taken to the Multiplayer Setup screen, where the game may be configured and players assembled before a game begins. At the bottom left of the Multiplayer setup screen, you may enter chat messages which will be sent to other players in the game, and seen in the column above.

New Game

If you are hosting a new game, you should ensure that the "New game" option at the left side of the Multiplayer Setup dialog is selected (which it is by default). Adjacent, various options may be set to configure how the game generates the galaxy for the new multiplayer game, just like the single player Galaxy Setup dialog. If you have joined a game that another player is hosting, these options will be disabled, though you can see what settings the host has chosen for the game.

When you join or host a multiplayer game, your player name and all other players' names are listed at the bottom of the multiplayer dialog. Each player needs to pick a unique empire colour and enter a unique empire name before the game can be started. Note that occasionally the game might crash if you enter an empire name and press enter, so instead just type the empire name without pressing enter when done.

After all players have chosen unique empire names and colours, the host may click Start game, at which point game will generate a new galaxy, and after a few moments, bring all players into the game itself.

Load Game

If resuming a previously saved multiplayer game, the host can select the "Load game" option (instead of "New game") and then specify which save file to load in the drop-down list.

Players that join need to select which empire they will be playing in the saved game. Each player needs to pick a different empire before the host can start the game.

The Galaxy Map

Clicking with the left mouse button and dragging will move the map around. The scroll wheel zooms the map in and out. Alternatively the plus and minus key on the numeric keypad, or the E and R keys, may be used to zoom the map.

There are numerous stars on the map, but at the start of the game only one star is explored: your home-system. The name of explored systems appear below the star picture on the map. The names of systems in which you control a planet are coloured with your empire coloured. Any starlanes connecting systems to their neighbours are shown as white lines. Any fleets you know about in a system are shown by and accessed by clicking on the empire-coloured triangle(s) at the top right corner of the star picture; each empire's fleets get their own fleet icon at each system on the map.

When playing multiplayer, press “Enter” to type a chat message to the other players. Press Enter again to send the message.

Game Menu

Pressing the menu button in the extreme upper left of the screen or pressing F10 will open the game menu. From this menu you can

  • Save or Load games
  • Resign (quit your game and go back to the title splash screen and menu, where you can exit the program)
  • Access the Options window, where you can change a variety of game options including
    • Autosave settings
    • UI appearance (colours, font and text size, main window size)
    • Sounds and Music
    • Directories (where games are saved, where data files are found when the game starts)

For many of the controls in the Options window, you have to quit and restart the game before they take effect. Enabling and disabling sound and music should happen immediately, however.

SitRep

Pressing the SitRep button in the upper left corner of the screen or pressing F2 will open (or close) the "Situation Report". This is a listing of events that occured in your empire during the last turn. On the first turn, nothing has happened, so this will be empty. On later turns, if something worth noting happens, the SitRep will automatically pop up when a turn starts.

The names of ships that appear in SitRep entries can be clicked to take you to the relevant ship by opening the Fleet Window and selecting the ship. Similarly, names of planets may be clicked to take you to the relevant planet by opening the System Sidepanel to the system containing the planet. When Technologies are researched, you can click their names in the SitRep to open the Research Screen with the new tech selected. If something can be clicked in a SitRep entry, it will underline when the mouse cursor is placed over it. (Note that buildings, which are not yet clickable, will also underline when moused over).

System Sidepanel

Clicking on the home system or any other star with the left mouse button will pull up the System SidePanel (though there may be a short delay while the game first loads planet textures for the first time). The system sidepanel lists information about the contents of a system. At the top of the sidepanel is the system name. Below is a list of all planets in the system, and information about those planets.

Once you have two or more systems under your empire’s control, you’ll be able to quickly move to them by clicking the arrows on either side of the system name, or you can click the system name itself to choose a system to jump to from the drop-down list. Alternatively, the X and C keys will walk through each star system with colonies owned by your empire, and the the D key will open the sidepanel to your empire's home-system. Using the keyboard shortcuts in this manner also centres the galaxy map on the system shown.

Clicking on empty space on the galaxy map or pressing the S key dismisses the sidepanel.

Planets

Planets in a system are listed in a column on the sidepanel. Extra planets that don't all fit at once can be seen by moving the scrollbar at the far right of the screen and sidepanel. All planets on the sidepanel have a name, size (eg. medium), and environment (eg. terran).

Populated planets have a population shown by the white icon resembling two people standing next to each other is Population. The first number is current population, the second is max population on that planet. If the first number is green, the planet’s population is growing normally. Unpopulated planet just have a size number, which is what the max population of the planet would be if you colonized it.

To change the name of a planet your empire owns, right click it and select "Rename".

If you have a colony ship in a system, an uncolonized planet that can be colonized will have a "Colonize" button. Clicking this button will create a new colony on the next game turn, though will consume the colony ship in the process. After clicking to colonize, if you change your mind, you can click the "Cancel" button to recover the colony ship. Terran planets make the best colonies, followed by Ocean and Desert which are the next best. Gas Giants and Asteroid belts can’t be colonized or otherwise used in v0.3.

On the system sidepanel, for each planet your empire controls, there will be a box with five pictures, two rows of horizontal bars, and some numbers below. These are the focus selector and meter indicators. The icons in the boxes represent the five resources in FreeOrion. The bars represent the current maximum values of the meters for the resources on the planet, and the numbers the change in the current meter value in the next turn.

Resources

  • The yellow icon resembling wheat is food. Planets need one unit of food every turn for each unit of population. Excess food is automatically shipped to needy planets that aren’t growing enough food.
  • The green icon resembling a test tube is research. Research points are used on the Research Screen, which is accessed by clicking the "Research" button at the top right of the screen. By researching technologies, you can unlock buildings and get various bonuses for your empire.
  • The red icon represents minerals. Minerals are used to fuel industry — you need one mineral point and one industry point to generate one Production Point.
  • The blue gear represents industry. Industry is used with minerals to to calculate Production Points. You need one mineral point and one industry point to generate one Production Point. Production points are used on the Production screen, which is accessed by clicking the "Production" button at the top right of the screen. By producing ships and buildings, you can explore the galaxy, defend your empire, conquer other empires, and get beneficial effects for your planets.
  • The orange icon represents trade. Trade does absolutely nothing in v0.3.

Note that the amount of each resource produced in a system is shown at the top of the system sidepanel, and the total resource production for your empire is shown at the top of the screen, to the left of SitRep and other buttons. The first number for all five resources is the amount your empire is producing. The second (bracketed) number for resources which have it is the surplus or defecit of that resource. Having too little food can result in starvation and population loss. Having too little minerals results in less Production Points being available than your industry point total. Having too little trade has no consequence in v0.3.

The total Production points and Research Points produced by your empire are also shown on the Production and Research screens, respectively.

Focus

You can control how much of each resource is produced by a planet by “Setting Focus”. Left clicking on any resource will set the “Primary” focus of the planet to producing that resource. Right clicking on any resource will set the “Secondary” focus. Left or right clicking on the numbers or bars below the resource icons will set a planet's primary or secondary focus, respectively, to balanced.

The primary focus resource of a planet is shown in colour, while the secondary focus is more brightly outlined. If balanced primary or secondary focus, all resource are coloured or outlined, respectively.

Primary focus is a planet's main activity, and will have the biggest influence on how much of each resource a planet produces. Secondary focus is a planet's other, non-main activity, which has a much smaller effect on what resources are produces. Planets that are focused on a particular resource will produce more of that resource than others. Balanced focus planets produce some of each resource.

It's important to realize that changing a planet's focus doesn't immediately change the resources it is producing to correspond to the new focus. Rather, a planet takes some time to reconfigure its infrastructure to produce the new resources whenever a focus change is made. The previous focus production is immediately lost when a focus change is made, however, so it's not wise to change focus often. The effects on resource production of changing focus only take effect after a turn is processed, so you can change focus during a turn, then change it back, without losing anything.

The specifics of how focus and resource production work depend on the concept of meters.

Resource Meters

Resource meters are essentially two numbers: a Maximum (max) value, and a Current value. The current value of a resource meter can never be higher than the max value. If the current value of a resource meter is less than it's maximum value, the current meter will increase over time until it reaches the maximum value. This represents the time it takes for a planet's infrastructure to change and adapt to produce more of a particular resource.

Meter values are restricted to the range 0 to 100.

The max and current value of each resource meter for a planet is represented graphically by the horizontal bars below the resource's icon for each planet on the sidepanel: max on top, and current below. Changes in the max meters are shown, with red indicating a decrease and green an increase expected on the next turn. Changing the planet's focus settings should result in visibile changes to the max meter bars. The current meters only change between turns. Current meter changes are also indicated by the numeric value below the bars, which shows the change in the current meter since the previous turn.

Setting the focus of a planet applies bonuses to the planet's maximum resource meter values. At the start of the game, these bonuses are:

  • +15 to a Resource Max Meter when Primary Focused
  • +3 to all Resource Max Meter when Primary Balanced
  • +5 to a Resource Max Meter when Secondary Focused
  • +1 to all Resource Max Meter when Secondary Balanced

Later in the game, researching technologies or producing buildings can apply additional bonuses to resource meters on planets with certain focuses, depending on other conditions, or to all planets.

Planetary specials may also give bonuses to resource meters on planets. In particular, the homeworld special, which your homeworld has, give significant bonuses to all resource meters, among other benefits.

Resource Production

Changing a planet's focus does not directly control its resource meter production. Rather, changing focus changes the bonuses to the (maximum) resource meters of that planet. The (current) resource meters are used with the planet's population to determine the actual resource output. The formula for resource production is:

(Resource Production) = (Current Meter Value) * (Planet Population) / 10

For example, a planet with population 20, a current farming meter of 30 and a max farming meter of 50 would produce 30 * 20 / 10 = 60 food. The max farming meter does not affect resource production directly.

Fleet Window

There will be a tiny triangle hovering near your home-system. This is a "fleet icon" or "fleet button". Every system has a fleet icon for the fleets of each empire you know has a fleet in the system. Additional fleets owned by the same empire are shown by a single fleet icon.

You beging the game with two scout ships and a colony ship in a fleet called "Home Fleet". Since no other empires have any fleets in your home system at the start of the game, your empire's is the only fleet icon that appears next to the system.

Clicking on the fleet icon will open up the Fleet Window. While the fleet window is open, right clicking on empty space will dismiss the Fleet Window, as will left clicking the tiny X in the upper right corner. The V and B keys will walk through each fleet owned by your empire. The F and G keys can be used to walk through each fleet owned by your empire that is idle (as in, not moving).

The top half of the fleet window is a listing of fleets at the current system. Every ship is in a fleet. Clicking on a fleet will display the ships contained by that fleet in the bottom half of the fleet window.

Clicking and dragging a ship from the bottom of the fleet window to the top, and dropping it onto a different fleet will transfer the ship between the fleets. The fleet labelled "New Fleet" is a special fleet; if you drag a ship onto this fleet, a new fleet is created for that ship (you don't actually have a fleet called "New Fleet"). You can also select multiple ships to drag by clicking on each ship: clicking once selects the ship, clicking again deselects the ship. When you drag a ship, if multiple ships are selected, all the selected ships will be dragged together. You can also drag-drop entire fleets; dropping a fleet into or onto another fleet will merge the dropped fleet's ships into the new fleet, deleting the dropped fleet.

Just like planets, you can rename fleets and ships by right clicking on them and selecting “Rename”.

You can move fleets to new systems by selecting the fleet in the fleets window, then right clicking on the star you wish the fleet to move to. When you do this, the fleet icon for the will move to the bottom left corner of the star picture, and you’ll see an animated dashed line marking the path the fleet will take. There must be a known starlane leading to a star system in order to move ships to it. Fleets can be ordered to move to star systems many starlane hops away from their present location. The fleet will automatically follow the shortest path from where it is to where you tell it to go. If you uncover new starlanes that make a new path shorter while the fleet is en route, the fleet's path will update accordingly.

Each turn, you’ll see the fleet triangle move along the starlanes to its destination. When a fleet enters (or passes through) an unexplored system, your galaxy map will update with newly discovered starlanes and system name.

If a military ship enters a star system containing ships or planets belonging to another empire, combat occurs. In v0.3, there is no tactical combat. For now, you’ll just receive a brief overview of the combat results.

New ships may be built on the Production Screen.

Research

Clicking the Research button at the top right of the screen opens the research screen. Clicking the button again closes the research screen. Pressing F3 similarly opens or closes the research screen. You can also open the research screen by clicking on a link from a SitRep entry.

Research Model

Technology research in FreeOrion works according to the model that each tech has a certain Research Point (RP) limit per turn, and takes minimum number of turns to research. Each tech can have at most it's RP limit applied towards it each turn. You can spend less than the limit, which often happens to the last funded tech in the queue. If underfunded, a tech will merely take longer than it's minimum research time.

Summary Panel

The top left research summary panel shows how many Research Points your empire is producing, how many of these points are being wasted by not being spent to research a tech, how many techs you are currently actively researching (how many are reciving RPs this turn), the number of RPs going to the underfunded project (often the last funded project on the queue does not receive its RP limit each turn) and how many research projects you have enqueued total.

Research Queue

Below the summary panel is the research queue itself. Multiple techs may be enqueued simultaneously, and available RPs are applied to techs in priority sequence from top to bottom, up to each tech's per turn RP limit. The name of a tech appears at the top of its box on the queue. Below, a progress bar fills up to indicate visually the progress being made in researching the tech. At the bottom left of the tech box is the RP limit per turn and minimum number of turns required to research the tech. At the bottom right, the estimated number of turns to finish the tech is shown (at current RP production levels). This estimate takes into account the time required to finish techs higher in the queue before the tech in question receives partial or full funding.

Tree View

The largest section of the Research Screen is the tech tree view to the right of the queue. This view shows the technologies in the game, connected by arrows to show their prerequisite relationships; most techs require one or more other techs to be researched before they can be enqueued. Each tech box on the tree view also shows the name of the tech, an icon at the top left to incidate the tech's category, as well as the RP per turn limit and minimum research time for the tech. If a tech has been enqueued, is being researched, or has been completed, this is indicated in a sub-box at the bottom right of the tech box on the tree.

To enqueue a tech, you can double click on it in the tree view, or you can single click on it, and then click "Add to Queue" at the top of the Research Screen. The tree view may be scrolled similarly to the galaxy map, by clicking (not on a tech) and dragging with the mouse, or by using the scrollbars at the bottom and right sides.

There are several view options for the tech tree. Directly above the tree, there are tech category buttons. Clicking these will limit the techs shown on the tree to techs in the appropriate category (or show all categories simultaneously, for "All"). Below the tree view, options are available to show only researchable, researchable and complete, or all techs, and only theory techs, applications and theories only, or all techs.

Tech Categories

Each tech in FreeOrion is categorized by its primary use to an empire. The categories are:

  • Learning - techs that increase Research Point production, or are major prerequisites for multiple techs in other categories
  • Growth - techs that increase Farming meters (and thus food production). Later this category will also include techs which improve planet Health meters, though this is not yet implemented
  • Production - techs which increase Industry and Mining meters, which are both necessary to generate Production Points
  • Construction - techs that increase Construction meters, which determines how fast current resource meters grow upwards to their corresponding max meter values. Later this category will also include techs that are prerequistes for many buildings.
  • Economics - techs that increase Trade meters. Later this category will also include techs that unlock various means of economic warfare.

Future versions of FreeOrion will likely add additional tech categories.

Production

Defense Bases

  • Defense Bases You can’t build defense bases until your empire has finished researching ‘em. They defend the system from attack.

Ships

  • Scout A fast civilian ship, cheap to build. They are good for exploration, but can’t fight.
  • Colony Ship You’ll need colony ships to colonized planets.
  • Mark I Attack ships. Eventually, your empire will research more powerful attack ships, labeled Mark II-V.

A green bar indicates the progress of the current project. When a project is completed, you’ll receive notification and a new ship of the same type will begin building.

You can also select a build project from the right side of the planet information window. Click on any colonized planet to summon this window.

Victory

In v.3, victory is achieved by eliminating all planets belonging to other empires. There is no AI currently implemented, so computer players will just sit around and wait for the inevitable.

Last Word

Have fun experimenting with this early demo of FreeOrion, and thanks for helping test it.

Feel free to drop by the FreeOrion forums if you have questions, want to share you experiences playing the game, or want to pitch in and help build the next version of the game.

If you discover bugs in the game, please use the Sourceforge bug tracker to report them.