Your AATRADE Quick Start Guide.

Welcome to Alien Assault Traders, the online multiplayer turn based game that takes place a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

If you are not familiar with online multipayer turn based games, don't worry, follow this quick start guide and you will be on your way to dominance of your virtual empire online, not to mention hours and hours of lost sleep to feed your addiction...

Ready? Let's go.


Step 1: Game Concepts

Now it's time to explain to you some basic concepts in the game. I know you all want to just dive right in and start playing, but take 2 minutes to read this, I promise it will make you a much better player while all the other people who skip this are getting confused and ready to get their butt kicked when they run into you later.

You are the captain of a space ship, your mission is to go from sector to sector trading different things in order to make a profit. Then when your profit grows, you go upgrade your ship and make it bigger so you can carry more stuff and make more money. You will find different planets as you move around, some are empty, some are owned by other players. You can claim empty planets and move people there and make it big, or you can attack other players' ships or planets if your ship has good weapon and armor. Everything you do well will earn you points, and at the end of the day, if you are not killed by another player and you have a high score, then you are learning to play the game...


Step 2: Logging In

Now you should be at the Log In page. If this is your first time playing this game, you need to create an account. Click on the button that says, "New Player".

Now you need to create a new player. You do this by typing in a name for your space ship and your character. You can name your ship and yourself whatever you want. Captain Justin of the Space Ship S.S. Timberlake? Captain Hook of the Space Ship Die Peter Pan Die? Anything you want!

After you create your player, it will take you to the final log in screen, just follow the link on that page and you are ready to begin!


Step 3: Getting Started

The Sector Screen is the main screen you will see normally. A sector is an area of the Galaxy you are in. There are a various number of sectors in each game. You start out in Sector 1 with a Pioneer class ship. All players start out with the same ship at the same level.

Take a close look at the template you have chosen. If you selected Paged menu you will see the command menu on the left and your cargo menu on the right. If you have selected the drop downs you will notice your commands are in drop down menus across the top of the screen, and your cargo is right below.
There are 5 different things you can carry in your ship, Ore, Organics, Goods, Energy, Colonists, which should all be 0 when you first started. You get 300,000 credits to start, that's the money you start with. In the middle of the screen is what's in this sector. There are 3 things that could be in the sector: Port, Planets, Other Ships. In Sector 1 there's a Upgrade Port and Shipyard. The wise player will upgrade their ship before beginning their first trade. Those who wish to trade immediately, skip the next section.



Step 4: Upgrade Your Ship

Now that you have a little bit more money, time to head back to Sector 1 and upgrade your ship! Using the "Warp To" menu on the lower right on the sector screen main menu, navigate your way little by little back to Sector 1. If you have been following directions so far, you shouldn't be too far away from Sector 1, maybe 10 - 20 turns away.

Once you are in sector 1, you can click on the Port: Upgrade link in the top left of the screen, and that will take you to the upgrade Port screen - this is where the fun begins! Don't be overwhelmed by everything on the screen, concentrate on the right side of the screen first.

Your first and most important thing to do is to upgrade the size of your Hull (don't let anyone tell you size doesn't matter, the BIGGER the BETTER, really! All the girls say so!) Hull size determines how much cargo you can carry, so bigger hull = more cargo = more profit on each trading trip!

The second most important thing to do is to upgrade your Engine. Engine size determines how fast you can fly from one sector to another in Real Space travel. So far you've been traveling using Warp links, they are great but you are restricted in which sectors you can visit. Once you have a big enough engine, you can go there directly. But I wouldn't recommend that until you have an engine size is at least 10 or more.

When you select the upgrades, the total is automatically calculated on the bottom. When you selected options more expensive then you can afford, it will tell you so. For every level of upgrade, the price doubles. So as you can see, it can get real expensive real quick. Concentrate on upgrading Hull and Engine and Sensors in the beginning, if you have credits left over, upgrade a few levels on your weapons, shields, computers, etc. IMPORTANT: Make sure you don't spend ALL your credits, you need some left over so you can continue trading!



Step 5: Your First Trade

The first thing you need to do is start exploring the other sectors and find things to buy and sell. There are 2 ways to move around in this game: Warp or Real Space. Warp is jumping from one point in the galaxy to another using "Warp Links". On the bottom right of the sector screen, there's a list of other sectors that you can warp to, keep in mind not all warp links are two way some warplinks are one way. So be sure to hit the scan and look at the links to see if there is a link back to where you came from. Clicking on the sector link will take you directly to that sector.

Selecting the Full scan will bring up a "Long Range Scan" screen. This screen tells you what's in the sector that you are scanning. Under the heading "Links", it tells you if that sector can link back to the one you are in right now. For example, you are in sector 1, and you just scanned sector 2, you see that there's a link back to sector 1 (which is not always the case), so when you move there, you can rest assured you can easily get back to where you started. Also see if there's a Port, because you want to buy and sell stuff, so you want to find a sector with a port that sells Ore, Organics, Goods, or Energy.

Since you are a beginner, and you don't want to be lost in space, don't warp around too far. Follow the order of sectors, i.e. go from 1 to 2 and look for warp links that are two way so you can easily make your way back with the least amount of turns spent... until you find a sector that sells something, for example, Energy. You move there by clicking on the => 2(or whatever number it is) sign in the "Warp To" menu on the lower right of the main menu. Once you are in that sector, click on the link in the top middle of the screen next to the words "Trade Port", in this case, the link says "Energy".

The Trading screen will come up, it will list which item the port is selling, and which items the port is buying. Every port has only one item to sell, and it always buys the other 3 items. The computer will automatically fill in the numbers for the best trade, and most of the time it is right, and since you don't know any better at this point, just click the "Trade" button and be happy.

Now that you just bought 100 units of Energy or whatever you were buying, you need to find a place to sell it and make a profit. So you return to the main menu, and using the "Warp To" menu, go to another sector , until you find a sector that has a port that sells something else. (It doesn't do you any good to go to another port that produces the same item you are trying to sell, they won't buy yours.) For example, you leave sector 2, and go to sector 3, and you find an Organics Port. You click on the Organics link and go to the trade window, the computer fills in that you sell the 100 units of Energy you bought from the last sector, and you buy 100 units of Organics here. Click "Trade" button, and Tahh Dahhhh!! You made a handsome little profit! (Don't panic if it costs you more money in the transaction, it doesn't mean you lost money, it just means you bought higher valued cargo which you can sell for even higher later, makes sense? No? Don't worry about it and just trust me then.)


Step 6: Make a Trade Route

Because you are just starting out, you should spend a little time going from port to port exploring a little bit. Go from sector to sector trading until you find a Goods port, now do a scan and see if any warp link connects it to another sector that sells anything else, preferably Ore, because Goods and Ore are the two items with the highest profit margin. Make sure both sectors has Warp links connecting each other, sometimes the link is one way, and you can't get back to the starting sector, that is NOT good in the beginning of your game. So keep moving to the next sector number until:

  1. You find a Goods or Ore port
  2. From that sector you can warp to another sector with a different port
  3. By scanning the other sector, you see a warp link back to your current port
When you have found 2 sectors with 2 different ports, linked together thru warp links, it's time to set up a Trade Route. Trade Routes are shortcuts you set for yourself to speed up the trading process. For example, say you've found Energy in Sector 9 and Goods in Sector 10, to set up a trade route, click on the "Trade Control" link in the "Trade Routes" menu on the lower right of the main menu sector screen, you will be taken to the Trade Routes screen. Click to create a new trade route. Input the number of the sector you are in currently in the first Port box, enter the number of the other sector in the bottom Port box, in this case, you enter Port: 9 and then Port: 10. Then select "Warp" and "Both Ways", which means go between the sectors using Warp links, and trade at both ports and return to the first port when done. Click "Create" when ready.

When you finished creating that, follow the links to go back to the Trading Route screen. You will see now you have a trade route set up. In the example, you are trading Energy from Sector 9 and Goods from Sector 10, the "Move" column indicates how many TURNS it takes you to complete one full circle. It should be NO MORE than 4 turns. If at any point you have any Trade Route set up that takes more than 4 turns to complete, delete it and find a new route. Before I show you how to do mass trading based on the trade route you just set up, you need to take a little time to understand how Turns work in this game.



Step 7: Turns

This brings up the concept of Turns. If you have followed my direction so far, you should be in good shape and ready to learn to manage the most precious thing in the game - TURNS. Each player is given a limited number of "turns" every day . Everything you do takes away turns. Buying something costs a turn, warp to somewhere costs a turn, doing a full scan costs a turn (individual sector scans don't cost turns, so use that instead of the "Full Scan" option), when you use up all your turns, you can't play any more for the time being. When you are not playing, you can't make money, other players could attack you, plus lots of other bad things. So keep an eye on the Turn counter, which is located on the top left of the screen near your player info. of the main menu sector screen.

Here are some good news: