This guide is designed to teach you everythign you need to know about
ShadowOps so
you can play it very effecient.
This is V8 of the Game Guide.
And Is Created by -=ALIBAGDAD=- ™
=Player Tips=
Some players in ShadowOps have given some time to make up helpful
guides
and tips for new players. Simple to the point comments sometimes and
others
are longer full guides of how to play
=Warsome=
Topic: Tips
-------------
Don't piss off people who will eventually be bigger than you are at the
start of the round....
Be nice to your mother... and be very nice to me :)
HERE IS IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO PLAY THAT I KNOW..
it is different for attackers/explores etc
First some tips:
USE THE BLACK MARKET LIKE A STOCK MARKET
go heavy in one type of resource and sell it
EXAMPLE
make a lot of deterium... it sells between 3-6 ALL game.. always a good
recourse to go heavy in and sell
researchers.. PUMP THE SELLABLE POINTS LIKE A MAD HATTER! and sell them on
the market for 30-60 each...
BUILD 40% supplies and have a HUGE fleet... (only way to win)
HAVE MANY HOMES!!!!!!!! for crew
those that like to play on the wild side like me...
i have 0 markets as soon as i have reactors and det makers... and I PUMP the
Deterium makers (1.1 reactor for every 2 Deterium makers for power needed)
DO NOT EVER HAVE 0 MARKETS AND RELY ON YOUR POP FOR YOUR MONEY... BAD IDEA!
USE THE BLACK MARKET OR HAVE MARKETS...
pop comes and goes very fast, especially is someone uses clocked bombers on
your residences... if your not playing the market...
HAVE MARKETS...
however, if your selling pop. Then by all means go for it... pop sells for
600-500 rather well
ATTACKERS... here is how u make your money...
ATTACK some Big players or Bots... build on 1/2 the stations.. sell the
other 1/2 and use the money u earn to build a fleet
early stage of the game, platforms sell from 15,000 to 20,000 each...
so VERY good... especially if you attack often.
explorers that's probably a good idea for you. at first sell your land, but
later in the game it becomes cheaper to buy it from the market than to
explore it yourself
MY station ratio...
Residence........13%
Fighter Pads.....13%
Supply Deports...33%
Deterium Mine.....0%
Solar Panels.....0%
Markets...........3%
Missile Silos.....0.1%
Probe Silos.......11.9%
Turret Support...1%
Deterium Maker....12%
Power Reactor.....13%
You may notice i have no markets, this is because I make all my money
selling deterium and population...
however, that makes me reliant on price in the market and that it sells.. so
not the best way to play.. but it made me win a few rounds but things are
harder now...
(only works if limited people do it, but there are other things that sell)
=Reaper=
Stay in protection mode for the full 72 hours. Get most of your research
done as soon as posable, but dont train too many researchers. There is no
need to build missile silos untill you are out of protection mode.
To build more station, click "platforms" Platforms are also gained when you
successfully starship attack someone. Platforms are needed for everything to
be built on.
"What are Ships?" :
Starships are your most important weapon/defence. They can stop attacks (if
your ships are more powerfull) and attack people to steal their platforms
and resources
"What are Fighters?" :
Fighters are also important, fighters can be sent in to destroy ships
(including your starships). If someone sucessfuly fighter attacks you, you
will lose some starships too, so build loads of these too.
You can build fighters, starships and turrets by clicking "shipyards"
Build ships for when you get out protection mode and start off by attacking
inactives only. Not being able to attack may seem boring, but once you can
attack people, people can attack you too so watch out.
Probes are VERY helpfull. Probes can tell you exactly how many ships an
enemy has, can steel resources such as cash, deterium, power and population.
So build say 5000 of these. To build probes you need to have some probe
silos.
To start of with you should build about 100 of these and then more when you
need to.probes can also be used to destroy your target.
if you bombard them they will lost their residences and loads of population
and then use your probes to steal his last population ( works better with
more ppl helping)and once he is out of pop he will be destroyed
Allways read the sector, system snd galaxy forums and news, bet especaily
the system forums as that is where most are posted.
And they are always helpfull with things
If you are ever need help then contact your sector or system leader. Most of
them are nice kind people who are allways willing to help and aid those who
are in need of help or advise.
You are able to contact them by clicking "your sector" and scrolling through
untill you find the name of the person you are looking for. You then click
on their name (make sure it is on the name and not anything else), then type
your message in the box and click transmit.
It is very important in this game to always try and make friends. It is
always easyer to learn how to play the game if you have a friend who has
played it before, to show you what to do.
NEVER use bad language and always be nice, kind and polite. This is
important because it will earn you a good reputation.
Never be afraid to ask questions. Thay will never sound stupid.
Respect other players and listen to advice as the person giving it usualy
knows what thay are talking about.
For the newbies who dont know or haven't guessed, Warsome is the
administarator of the game and must always be worshiped.
You can contact him by messaging Warsome~vill in (16 : 1), or e-mail him at
" admin@shadowops.net". But dont bug him unless it is very important.
For game help you can also msg your nooby advisor or system Comander.
Or ask Alibagdad ( chinezo@hotmail.com ) or msg ingame
And one last bit of info is when ever you see a coordinate e.g. (16 : 1)
this is the location of a selected person. It means:
the firs number (16) is the system that they are in and the second number
(1) is the sector they are in.
=Kern County=
Topic: Tips
-------------
Don't concentrate solely on Fighters, or Solely on Starships.
You can FAVOR Starships, but don't forget to build the other and vice versa.
This is important because if you lax in one area. You will die during a war.
So do whatever you like, Fighters or Starships but always have enough in
reserve to defend yourself.
That's the number one priority
=Serrano's Dynasty=
Topic: Tips
-------------
Learn to use the Black Market, don't always go for the first price u c,
chances r somebody will sell for a cheaper price, this is always for plats
and ships.
Also, learn to use your cash, Deterium and power wisely, don't spend it as
it comes, their may come a time when u might need it, and u don't have it.
Don't grow at an exceptional rate ( buying plats that is) cause if u have a
lot of plats and no defence, then u will b destroyed...
Concentrate on both defence and offence alike.
Last but definitely not least, learn to use the Game Help option, it has
been a lifesaver for me, and I'm positive for several other of the big ppl.
Good luck, and have a great game!
=Battle School=
Topic: Market/Platform growth basic
-------------
Get a sense of the high and low prices of the Black Market...
research pts go from 6-30 a piece depending on how far the round has
progressed, I usually sell for 24, 14 or 8.
Once the round has progressed a fair amount, people have much of their
research already done, so prices go down to
the 6-12 range.
I rob cash and pop. Since I sometimes rob as much as 45k pop at a time, it is
worth it to sell some.
Pop goes for 750-2000, and usually is at 1000 a piece. I can get 6-10 mill
cash per rob. So, if I rob 5k pop,
and sell it for 1000 a piece, that's 5mill(minus system taxes). In other
words, if you have enough probes, getting
large amounts of pop is easier(more pop than money on bots usually, but
depends). So often robing pop and selling
it is more profitable than robbing cash. Make sure and do the math though,
as stealing cash is usually better.
Watch platforms, I have seen them at 40k a piece early in the round, but
they drop to the 10-15k range.
If they drop below 10k spend some extra cash(if you have any) on them. If it
drops to 6k or less that is a
comparatively cheap way to grow.
Of course attacking inactives is much cheaper land, if you calculate the
value of your lost ships you can compare.
i.e. get 40 land at the loss of 10 ships. Lets say 1,200 a piece for ships,
plus 900 det.
That's roughly 2-3k per ship(det is worth 1 or 2 credits on the market). So
that's 20-30k for 40
land(plus pop, cash, and det.). Considering you can get at least 100k cash
per hit EASY, most hits
should end up with more platforms as well as more NW(due to pop and cash).
=Eks=
Topic: Diplomacy in ShadowOps
-------------
Shadow ops is not only about making attacks on smaller or bigger targets any
time you have more ships than your
enemy. Diplomacy is a key factor in growth for a system, and this is why it
is preferable to have a system
commander who has a certain sense of diplomacy as he handles the system's
external affairs.
Having a System Commander who is too much of a hothead could easily get the
whole system in trouble.
It's not because your SC is in the top 10 that the system is ready to go to
war, and the game is not about
sheer mathematics (ship stats, return times, etc). Remember, every kingdom
is a person which reacts like a
person and not like a computer!!!!
Basically, have common sense. Good relations with other systems, contacts in
all systems, having allies and
knowing who your enemies are should be diplomatic priorities. Without
allies, you are alone against many enemies.
Without contacts, you have almost no chances of making stable alliances, and
without good relations, you can usually
kiss your contacts good bye. Basically, be polite and respectful of even the
smaller players (they may be bigger
than you one day, and trust me, most will remember your affronts ) and if
you really want to backstab someone,
make sure that kingdom isn't strong enough to survive...
Read The Prince by Machiavelli if you can lol, really has nice tips
=Eks=
Topic: More Diplomacy
-------------
A great weapon for the diplomat is the System Treasury. A small system can
have an large sum of resources
in its treasury if the system leadership doesn't squander the resources for
personal use. The key is to donate
often (even small amounts) and to set a tax rate.
The treasury can be a good tool for diplomacy. Simply put, a small system
could buy itself out of a war,
or buy someone's services in fighting for them. However, one has to be
careful to not be stupid enough to
give resources and be back stabbed by the receiver. Know your enemy well,
such mistakes can be fatal.
=Dreams=
Topic: Tips
-------------
Bribe fund lowers your threat level, if your threat level is above 2 bots
will attack you, if it is below 2
then they will leave you alone. If it is above 2 there are a number of ways
to get it down,
putting and keeping enough money in your bribe fund reduces your threat
level by 2, some bigger players
who have been hit a lot and have no threat level also use it as a bank.
=Dreams=
Topic: Random stuff
-------------
Ok, so one way or another you've come and you've found the shadow ops
webpage, and you want to play (we hope).
Unfortunately you have no idea what to do and are too lazy to read all the
help guide. The first thing you have to
do is choose a play type, there are 6 play types, Standard, Attacker,
Economist, Explorer, Miner and Researcher.
I can tell you now that I am yet to meet someone who has a standard account.
First off the mark is always Explorers, from the start they are always huge,
basically because they've got so much land, the problem is they cant attack.
If you want to be an explorer you will be big, but you wont really be able
to attack people and you have to concentrate on defence.
There will always be attackers, attackers are really the main fighting force
in the game, as suggested by the name.
By the end of any round most of the top 10 will be made up of the best
attackers in the game.
The other as I have no experience of so I cant help you with them. I can
tell you however that miners and
researchers play the game strategically, and some do it very well, a system
full of miners and explorers is
hell to hurt, because they have so many resources, they can get so many
missiles, and they can use those resources
to buy other systems help.
Anyway the remainder of this guide is aimed at attackers. Once youve signed
up you find your self with a bit of
everything spare, and on par with everyone else, you look at the scores and
you see some guys have got quite high
about 1-2k higher than others (before ticks start). This can be for a few
reasons, the main one is that other
people have concentrated solely on starships when they used their crew,
these people built fighters first.
You can do either, but sooner or later your going to have to choose which
you are going to use most,
fighters or starships. Once you have made your choice you now have to build
your space stations.
Everything you need, except from missile factories, you'll only need them
later on so don't build any yet. Make sure
you get a fair amount of supply depots as if you don't you cant build any
more ships. Also get the rudimentary stuff,
money (markets), population (residence), power (solar panels/ power
reactors), deuterium (det mines and det makers),
also don?t forget about fighter pads and probe factories, all of these are
very important
Next thing to do is build platforms, these are essential as for the next 72
hours its all you can build on, and if u cant build you cant grow. After
this is done sit back an wait for ticks to start. This is a good time to
make friends in your system, find allies and enemies, you can easily find
who's very unpopular by checking the galaxy forums, people will already be
taking the piss out of poosville. Diplomacy is very important in this game.
Once the ticks get started make sure you get some scientists in, these are
very important as research can really add to your net worth later on. Once
you get going just keep this up and don't slack off on your defences, once
out of newbie mode hit inactives and bots, this is the best way to get land.
Also probe bots, you can get essential resources easily off them. By this
stage you should have a rough idea of what to do, just keep updating your
ships, get the newer bigger ones from research and build them. Bigger ships
are better for nw and take up less space. Don't slack of on any of these
points and stay active, soon you'll have discovered things on your own and
have your own strategy. Many people prefer to have no markets and just sell
deuterium as a source of income. This is just a guide to get you started, if
you need any more help just ask your system commander, he will be an
experienced player and hopefully willing to help you.
One last tip: Put all your scientists on sellable research points, you can
apply them where and when you want.
=Battle School=
Topic: Tips
-------------
some 'all-purpose' answers:
one of the key things to rememebr is that time is one of the major factors,
often one that people forget. Calculate the revs it takes to do
something(i.e. buy cheap off the market and then sell high), who cares if
you make 200% profit, if it takes you 2 days.
Det is 'that other thing' you need cash and det to make just about
everything.
Depending on strategy, you either make enough for yourself, enough to sell
extra, or none at all.
I find that not making any works for me, since I can steal it and buy it
from the black market.
Turrets, They are the best defence for the first 1/3 of the round. After
that most ppl have better ships. They will help destroy bombers as well. In
my opinion most of strategy in this game is about your stations, and how you
alocate your building space. Turrets require support platforms, so they need
more station space than ships. But thats just me.
=Spira=
Topic: Tips
-------------
Become acquainted with your System Forums. When you access it, one of the
options is "View Recent SOM's". a SOM is a Status Of Memeber.
Whenever someone in your system successfully pulls a "Scan" with probes, the
results are posted in the System Forum under this heading.
You would NOT believe how great it is to see someone who has less probes
than you, but enough credits or population, to make a probe raid worthwhile.
Remember, in a successful raid, you get 10%.
Defense...INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT!!! I really had to bring up my Defense.
Remember, this is a STRATEGY game. There are some people who can do Strategy
on the fly, for the rest of us...it's time to break out the pencil, paper
and calculator.
figure out how much of your Networth will be made up of Defense. 20%? 30%?
You pick.
Once you have that, think in terms of how it should be made up. Remember,
this is the team that will always STAY AT HOME. You will NOT be sending them
out. 1 Space Station converted to Turret Support= 10 Turrets= 500 Networth
Defense (throw in 0.5 Supply Depot, someone has to man the things).
Make use of the GAME HELP, "Shipyards" Section, along with the "Space
Stations" section to plan things out.
Pardon me, I've got some fences to build.
If you're new to the game, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO MESSAGE ANYONE FOR
TIPS/HELP!! The big players (for the most part) are more than happy to send
you some pointers.
Heck, we all like our recognition. Until yesterday I was in the top 10 for
most losses. Thanks to the tips I've gotten from various Sector Leaders
around the game, those losses don't happen so much anymore. I CAN still be
hit, and probably will be, but things are much more enjoyable now.
=Xel'durath=
Topic: Tips
-------------
find that the computers calculator application (unless your OS doesn't have
one), and a text editor is preferable to a sheet of paper, as then the
results are already on your computer, and through use of the copy and paste
functions, there can be not mistakes made when inputing the values. but then
again, I'm paranoid about doing that.
Another bit of advice to new players, is to think ahead. plan out your over
all stratdgy, and then follow through, don't just act on instinct. by
executing a well laid plan, rather then a random set of actions, you can
achive far better results. also, DON'T underestimate probes as a reasource.
In my opinion, these units are the most important part of the game, and can
determine your very survival, and allow you to gather the information needed
to create a plan of action. I have been able to consistently maintain my
Threat level at 4 or above, and have suffered minimal losses, allowing me to
grow close to 3,000,000 net worth in the 3 weeks I have been playing(thats
right, I'm a n00b) because of a well laid plan. having more probes then your
foe allows the status of your forces to remain unknown, well allowing you to
gather full information about him. armed with this, you can strike him where
and when he is weakest, and emerge victorious from battle with a foe many
times your size.
=Fragilian=
Topic: Tips
-------------
The best tip I can give for newbie is to enjoy the game no matter how hard
to win a war. And remember not to destroy people who are friendly enough for
you, because I rather choose friends than enemies even in this game.
And don't feel sorry if you don't land even on top 1,000,000. As long as you
enjoy and you don't cheat, it's worth the effort you give. You can learn the
game through patience.
"It's not winning the game that most...
...but it is how you play the game."
=Drake/Sly=
Topic: Tips
-------------
AT the Start of the round or whenever u join DO NOT build Tigers.
there a waste of resources just research Kadanator's and Lithinator ASAP
and build them and DO NOT build Heavy Kadanator,Heavy Lithinator or Interceptor
there are all a waste of resources and dont give you that much n/w and offernce/defence for the crew they use
so just keep building kads and liths until freedoms
=Light Of Palor=
Topic: Tips
-------------
For miners... it is important to never produce your own power
but rather trade with an economist ... with your structure of buildings.
u should at any time... only have 5 buildings:- fighter pads- supply depos- detty makers - probe silos.. and ofcourse missile silos... to help with ur tl.
never build any cloak seekers... as when bots attack you with cloak bombers.. they will always succeed
