STARCONTROL II FAQ This is the UNOFFICIAL Starcontrol II FAQ (frequently asked questions) version 1.6 It was compiled by Krulle. This FAQ is (C) 1993, 1994, 1995 by Krulle. All rights reserved. You are welcome to make and redistribute copies, as long as minimal fee is asked and the interior of this file is unchanged. CONTENTS [1.0] General [2.0] The game [2.1] The story [2.1.a] The war [2.2] The alien races in the game and their situations [2.3] The starships [2.4] Alien homeworlds [2.5] Planets on which artifacts can be found [2.6] QuasiSpace -=> HyperSpace coordinates translation [2.7] What to do where and with what? [2.7.a] What should I do at start? [2.7.b] What should I do with the starfaring races? [2.7.c] What should I do with the different devices? [3.0] Melee [3.1] What is Melee? [3.2] Which files are needed for melee? ********************************************************************** * [1.0] General * ********************************************************************** First things first: Starcontrol II (tm) is a trademark of Accolate (tm) This is the first time I've compiled a FAQ-file, so please forgive me if I made some formal mistakes. Thanks! This FAQ isn't a substitution for the documantary or for any readme supplied with this game. I've been working on this FAQ for a while, but now it's completed! Comments can be send to: E-Mail: Krulle@redseven.de Throughout this FAQ, roman numbers indicate the planet in the solar system (counted as follows: the closest to sun is planet I, the nextclosest is planet II and so forth..) and the letter indicates the moon. In this FAQ, Speciality means the special-weapon-key and Fire the normal-weapon-key. For those who did not try to play the game before, this FAQ might not be the big help they need. This FAQ is designed to help those who got stuck in the game, although everything you need to know to complete the game is written down in this FAQ. ********************************************************************** * [2.0] The game * ********************************************************************** Starcontrol II is the first game I know with such a complex and logical story. There is a complete history behind the story. I can't tell you everything, it would be too much. Besides, if you knew everything, the game would not be any more fun to you. There is always something new you can discover. ********************************************************************** *** [2.1] The story * ********************************************************************** The game starts on the 17th of February 2155, when you, Captain SomeOne, enter the solar system at 175.2 : 145.0, better known as Sol, as a representative of the survivors of a research mission, which stranded at Unzervalt, the first planet in the solar system of Vela at the HyperSpace coordinates 334.5 : 193.1. You came in a Precursor starship, which was the only one built by humans in a Precursor starship factory. This factory was found beneath the surface of Unzervalt. Alas, there were not enough raw materials to build a second starship, so you made this trip with 50 of the best engineers. Your mission: Fly home to Earth, which is the third planet in the solar system you've just entered, and check if the war with the Hierarchy still rages, if it does, fight as well as you can for the Alliance and her partners. But when you arrive at Earth, you find Earth under a slave shield, which indicates that Earth and her partners must have lost the war. But there is no turning back, you don't have enough fuel to return to Unzervalt. This is the story so far. The rest of the story can easily be detected by yourself. This FAQ isn't thought as a replacement for the game, but as a supplement. It's the same with the documentary, which shouldn't and can't be replaced by this FAQ. You can look several things up if you can't get on with the game. ********************************************************************** ***** [2.1.a] The war * ********************************************************************** Maybe you know it already, but the reason why Earth is under a slaveshield, is that the Alliance has lost the war against the Hierarchy. The story of this war: 2098 first sign of Ur-Quans approaching received from the Ophiuchi- constellation by the Chenjesu. Since the Chenjesu did not know the Ur-Quan before, the Chenjesu didn't pay much attention at this. The Ur-Quan conquered the Umgah and shortly afterwards the Ilwrath. A fast assembled fleet of Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm turn aside the Ur-Quan, who turned their fleet against the Spathi, which were subjugated fast. 2112 The Chenjesu enter the solar system and make first contact with the human race. 2116 The Humans, Chenjesu, Mmrnmhrm, Yehat and the Shofixti sign a treaty, which forms the Alliance. The next day the Arilou suddenly appear near the moon and ask if they can be members of the Alliance too. Around this time, the Androsynth are enslaved by the Ur-Quan. 2119 The first contact between Vux and Humans. The Human starshipcaptain insulted the Vux in a way, which can never be forgiven. The Vux-press is heating the crowd against a partnership with the humans. This delays the entrance of the Vux long enough for the Vux being conquered by the Ur-Quan. While the Yehat and Shofixti hold the line, the Mycon ask the Ur-Quan if they can become a battle thrall. The Mycon are the only race known, which became a member of the Hierarchy by own will. The Syreen had to enter the Alliance, because they were fleeing with their slow moving habitants from the Ur-Quan. Their homeplanet has been destroyed, so they had to join the Alliance to find help. About 2134 The research mission was sent to Vela. 2135 The Ur-Quan found the weak spot of the Chenjesu and attacked Procyon. The Chenjesu and the Mmrnmhrm were defeated and had to surrender. Shortly afterwards, Earth fell. When Earth fell, the Arilou decided that the humans are save enough and vanished to their own dimension/reality. The Shofixti and Yehat redrew to Delta Gorno to defend themselves and didn't want the Syreen to follow. The Syreen capitulated. The Yehatqueen decided to change sides and ordered all Yehat Terminators to return home and leave the Shofixti. This is an embarassment for all Yehats. Especially after the Shofixti, who became a civilization-lift-up by the Yehat, showed courage and trapped the approaching Ur-Quan with the 'blaze of glory', in which the Shofixti made their sun explode in a super-nova, destroying every life in their own solar system Delta Gorno. The Ur-Quan were the only winners of this war. Shortly after the war with the Alliance was ended, the first doctrinal war begun (which is a different part of the story), which still rages, while you try to assemble a fleet strong enough to bring the Ur-Quan down to their knee-equivalents. ********************************************************************** *** [2.2] The alien races in the game and their situation * ********************************************************************** Androsynth: Before the war, the Androsynth have been held as slaves by the humans for over fifty years. In the war, they've been enslaved by the Ur-Quan around the time the Alliance was established. Now they are extinct. They've found a Precursor artifact which allowed them to look into another dimension. They hoped to find a faster way to travel through space than HyperSpace. They called this InterDimensional Fatigue (IDF). By making this *slippy place*, as the Orz call it, the Orz were able to *smell* the Androsynth and the *heavy* space. The Orz like to *dance* (fight) with other races and nobody knows, what they've done to the Androsynth. Arilou: The typical alien. They visited Earth for a long time. They like the Humans and try to protect them from races like the Orz. They do this by visiting Earth and changing the *smell* of the Humans. They like the name the Celts gave them, the Arilou Lalee'Lay. Burvixese: Extinct alien race. Killed by the Kohr-Ah. They had contact with alot of races, but when the Gg (not from this region of Space) told the Burvixese of the danger (the Kohr-Ah) which is coming towards the Druuge, the Burvixese alarmed the Druuge, who shut down all hyperwave transmissions, broke down each contact and set up a strong hyperwave transmitter on the moon of the Burvixese. This attracted the Kohr-Ah and the Kohr-Ah changed direction towards the Burvixese and killed these. What a way to say thanks, huh? Chenjesu: Big crystal beings. The Humans are not sure, wether the siliconbased beings are artificial or natural. The Chenjesu were the leaders of the Alliance, although they formally never accepted the title. They do not use Hyperwave Casters, because they have the biological ability to send Hyperwavetransmissions. Their natural receivers are a lot better than human transmitters. Right now they live under a slave shield together with the Mmrnmhrm. Druuge: The Druuge are traders. Everything has a price. Because they need life during battles, they trade everything for slaves. But everything on the Druuge planet is owned by "the Corporation" and "the Corporation" is the only place you can get work as a Druuge, which results in a hard way of life: A Druuge is a slave of the Druuge people. But the moment you're fired due to recessions, you're not allowed to breath (remember: everything is owned by "the Corporation"). Thanks to the Burvixese, they are still alive, although they've lost friends, the Burvixese. Alas, friends do not count anything in their world. Humans: Enslaved and under a slave-shield on Earth. At the same time, there are some humans on Unzervalt in the solarsystem Vela. By the time you've arrived at the solarsystem, this last free human colony has been put under a slave shield too. So you are the last free human. Ilwrath: Hostile but weak spider-like beings. At the beginning of the game they are at war with the Pkunk because their twin gods of evil and darkness, "Dogar" and "Kazon" ordered it. Kohr-Ah: Another, even more evil Ur-Quan race! During the game, you can have luck and they'll tell you why they've decided to walk the "path of now and forever" which means for them, that the Kohr-Ah have decided to kill all sentient life-forms (the Eternal Doctrine) except the Ur-Quans. The Ur-Quan races Kohr-Ah and Kzer-Za were one time the same race, brownish in color, but when scouts of the Ur-Quan landed on a planet, they found an evil being, which had the power to control your thoughts! The Dnyarri subjugated the ship, then the Ur-Quan and then the Sentient Milieu, an alliance of several star-faring races including the Ur-Quan. The Dnyarri liked the Ur-Quan for several reasons and tinkled with their genes and created a green "thinker" and a black "doers" Ur-Quan race. Somehow the black Kohr-Ah found out that the controlling skills of the Dnyarri can be blocked by immense pain. So the Ur-Quan wore an iron-ring with sharp needles on their head. Then they fought the Dnyarri and tinkled with their genes and made them their "Talking-Pets". That's why the Dnyarri are extinct. To never make this happening again, the two races decided to walk the "path of now and forever" under their leaders and the green ones named themselves after their leader Kzer-Za and the black ones named themselve after the one Ur-Quan, who made their fight for freedom possible : Kohr-Ah. Kzer-Za: The better known, green Ur-Quan race. They walk the "path of now and forever" too, but a different one. The reason is the same. Their way is to make all intelligent life-forms slaves or battle-thralls. They dislike the way the Kohr-Ah treat alien races and try to stop them, which resulted in the doctrinal wars. Although they know how important it is that they win, they hate it if anyone interferes in this war, even if the interferors only attack the Kohr-Ah. In the first war between the Kohr-Ah and the Kzer-Za, the Kzer-Za found the Sa-Matra, a huge Precursor battleplatform which abled the Kzer-Za to stop the Kohr-Ah destroying all members of the sentient milieu and other sentient life. But the Kzer-Za decided to not kill their brothers and sent them into one direction of the galaxis and then the Kzer-Za went the other way. When the two races would meet again, they would fight against each other. The winner would receive the Sa-Matra and the looser would have to stand aside and let the other one go his "path of now and forever". Melnorme: Traders. They are not from this part of the galaxy, but like the Druuge they sell everything, even their own starshipdesign (which is quite expensive, you'll never be able to afford it). They take the coordinates of "Rainbow-Planets" and the information on life-forms in payment. Mmrnmhrm: Artificial, but highly intelligent machines. The Mmrnmhrm were factured by a "mother ark" which was sent by another race into the starregion. When the ark broke down and didn't manufacture any more, the Mmrnmhrm did not repair the ark. Nobody knows why. They are close friends of the Chenjesu and live together with them on Procyon under a slave shield. Mycon: Everything is Juffo-Wup and Juffo-Wup is everything. All else is void. Somehow, the Mycon are nuts. They asked the Kzer-Za if they can become Battle-thralls. They use the right to fly between the stars to expand their power as fast as possible. And they have the ability of "thinking mutation and it is mutation" with their own boddies. When the Umgah tried to find out why they're able to mutate their bodies by mere willpower, they've found out that the Mycon are not a product of any natural evolution. Orz: They come from *under* and found this dimension/reality thanks to the Androsynth. They hate the Arilou, because they Arilou are always first and come from *above*. A hint: Never talk with them about the Androsynth, or they'll *dance* with you. Pkunk: Bird like beings, which can see into the future, the past and all around. They see themselves as the "brothers" of the Yehat, because they were once the same race before the Pkunk mutated. They are at war with the Ilwrath. They know that Dogar and Kazon do not exist and someone made a joke with the Ilwrath. Shofixti: After the "blaze of glory", the Shofixti were nearly extinct. One old fighter survived and some ladies deep-frozen in the collection of a Vuxcommander. Slylandro: Gas-Bags on a gas-giant. Unable to build anything, they bought an automatic starship from the Melnorme. Because they didn't have any experience with anything harder than air, they didn't have any experience how to program an automatic starship either. But they are nice guys. Spathi: Cowards! They hate to die or to fight, but somehow they became battle-thralls. They prefered to live under a slave-shield. The Umgah made this "joke" to them. Supox: These intelligent plants are allies of the Utwig and free from the Ur-Quan. But they are playing second banana to the Utwig. One of they're favored meal is a hot dog. Syreen: Quite happy under a slave shield. After they've surrendered to the Ur-Quan and decided not to fight for them, the Ur-Quan gave them a new home-world and the Syreen are quite happy for this. Thraddash: Power is the only thing what counts. If you're stronger, then you are their master, if you're weaker, you're their foe. Tell them to attack the enemy of their master and they'll attack the Kohr-Ah. Currently they are battle-thralls and they'll never forget what the Kzer-Za did to them: The Thraddash were not allowed to participate in the war against the Alliance! Umgah: Masters of genetic manipulating. These blobby creatures are quite funny and nice, but they can change their mind rapidly. They like jokes, like talking to the Ilwrath, pretending they are Dogar and Kazon and give orders to the Ilwrath. Battle thralls of the Kzer-Za. Ur-Quan: See Kzer-Za (Green) and Kohr-Ah (Black). Utwig: Allies of the Supox and free too. But the wearers of the mask are not sure if life is worth living. They've lost everything which is important to themselves: the Ultron. This device seemed to give the Utwig immense abilities. Vux: They hate Human beings (see The War [2.1.a]) and they are battle-thralls to the Kzer-Za. Actually they hate everyone who doesn't look like a Vux. Very intolerant beings. Yehat: Battle-thralls and very loyal (to old friends, allies and to the Queen, who decided to make the Yehat battle-thralls). To most of the Yehat, the leaving of their friends, the Shofixti, when they needed them and the blaze of glory of the Shofixti, is the biggest shame ever. Zoq-Fot-Piq: Young starfaring races (3 races: the Zoq, the Fot and the Piq). Nearly living in the middle of the doctrinal warground, but they are still free and they need help oh so much! The only thing they can offer is everything. All informations and their starship design as well as an alliance. Their scouts can collect extremly worthy informations for you. ********************************************************************** *** [2.3] The starships * ********************************************************************** Androsynth Guardian: A typically hit-and-run weapon. Normally a slow ship, whose blurps are slow and searching with the chaos-tracking. Speciality: Turning into a red flame, which is a fast ship, as long as the energy supply lasts. To kill the enemy in this state you must touch him. Kabonky kamikazers! NOT EXISTANT IN THE GAME ITSELF. It is available in Melee, though. Ariloulaleelay Skiff: THE classical UFO! No gravity, small, round and fast! A small, automatically aiming laser. Speciality: Warp! Warps at a random chosen place in the fightarena. Chenjesu Broodhome: Slow and heavy. Sends out a bulkshot which splits into 6 smaller shots the moment fire is released. Speciality: Energydogs. They search for the enemy, try to touch him and by touching stealing a vast amount of energy. NOT EXISTANT IN THE GAME ITSELF. It is available in Melee, though. Chmmr Avatar: Very heavy and quite slow. Has three satelites who shoot at any enemy whith a little laser. The Avatar itself shoots with a laser which costs a tremendous amount of energy. The battery is reloaded very fast. Speciality: Gravityfield. The Avatar generates a gravityfield which sucks your enemy just in front of your laser. YEEHA! Druuge Mauler: Slow. Very strong shot which makes the Mauler jump backwards. The battery is loaded extremely slow, so the Speciality: is to load the battery. The cost for this is one live! Human Cruiser: A typical human piece of technology: Heavy, slow but a high turning rate. A powerful and fast seeking atomar missile which has a low turning rate and which can easily be defended. Speciality: Pointdefense laser. Ilwrath Avenger: Slow, but always a dangerous opponent! Spits short-range fire like a dragon which can melt any weapon within seconds! Speciality: Invisibility! (NOT Invincibility!) Kohr-Ah Marauder: A slow and heavy destructor. Sends small turning razor-blades into space, which keep on going as long as fire is pressed. Speciality: A ring of fire, very effective defense. Melnorme Trader: Funny weapon. Shoots an energycrystal. When keeping Fire pressed, the energy won't refill the battery but make the crystal more dangerous. When you release Fire the crystal will be shot. Speciality: Plasmashot, which will make the opponent spin round and round. The opponents steering and speciality won't work while spinning around. Mmrnmhrm X-Form: Transformer. Has two forms: 1. A small, slow fighter which has a high turning rate and a dangerous short-range laser. 2. A small, fast fighter which has a low turning rate and some self-seeking nearly harmless missiles which are fast with a low turning rate. Speciality: Transform from one form to the other form. NOT EXISTANT IN THE GAME ITSELF. It is available in Melee, though. Mycon Podship: Slow. Powerfull searching energypods. The farther the pod has to travel, the less effective it gets. The weapon can hit the Mycon. The Podship can get tremendous speed by passing the planet with a minimum distance. When you're fast, DON'T fire forward, only backwards! Speciality: 4 crewmembers can be quick defreezed (equals 4 members more). Orz Nemesis: Wonderful weapon. The Nemesis can let little, intelligent fighters (*Go-Go*) follow the enemy when Specialty and Fire are pressed together. Normal shot is a shot in the shooting direction. Speciality: Turn the shooting direction. Pkunk Fury: Extremely light and extremely fast starship. Shoots in three directions (front, left and right). Speciality: Refill energy by swearing. Shofixti Scout: Light and fast starship. Has a glory device, which is the only weapon in the Scout which is good. Normal shot is just an undangerous shot to the front. Speciality: On the closeup view of the Scout on the right side of the screen are in the lower right corner three switches and a light. Normally, the light is green, if the first switch is turned, the light turns yellow, next time red and with the third switch the glory device will be activated, which results in a big explosion. The speciality is switching the switches. KAMIKAZE! Slylandro Probe: Fast, automatically moving starship. Uses flashes to kill the enemy. Speciality: When bumping into an asteroid while Speciality is pressed, the asteroid will be materialized and the battery of the Probe will be reloaded. Spathi Eluder: Big, but fast starship. Has a small machine gun in front. Speciality: Slow, automatically seeking missiles. Supox Blade: My favorite weapon. Spits some shots in front, just like a machine gun. I call it Spitfire. Speciality: Press right to fly sidewards to the left side and vice versa. Press forward to fly backwards. Works only when the specialkey is pressed. If you're able to control it good, it can win against ANY weapon, INCLUDING the Avatar, sometimes even the Marauder. Syreen Penetrator: Light orange rocket. Sends a small shot in front. Speciality: Sing the enemycrew into space and collect them! Reload your own crew! The captain can't be sung out, only shot out! Thraddash Torch: Normally slow. Has a small shot, which reaches quite far. Speciality: AFTER BURNER! Can get very fast and leave some flames in space. These flames can kill any enemy if he flies over it! Umgah Drone: Very slow. Antimatter field in front, which uses no energy. Can also be used as a shield against other weapons. Speciality: Fly extremely fast backwards. (Do not press forward at the same time!) Ur-Quan Dreadnought: Slow and heavy. Has a powerful fusion blaster. Speciality: Small fighters, which can easily be destroyed. Utwig Jugger: Slow and heavy, but a high turning rate. Shoots six times with one shot. Uses no energy! Speciality: Energy absorbing shield. To reload battery, use the shield to absorb shotenergy. Very good against the Dreadnought, the Marauder, the Mauler, the Terminator and the Avatar. VUX Intruder: Slow and a low turning rate. Gigawatt laser. Speciality: Slime balls which slow down the enemy. Yehat Terminator: Slow, but has two effective machine guns. Speciality: Energy shield. Zoq-Fot-Piq Stinger: Fast. Only a short range weapon. Shoots some very small shots which won't go straight forward. Speciality: Tongue. This tongue can kill any enemy within a short time. Unluckily, you need to be VERY near (kiss) the enemy. ********************************************************************** *** [2.4] Alien Homeworlds * ********************************************************************** Arilou 043.8 : 637.2 between 17th and 20th each month Their planet is the one in the upper right corner. Chenjesu,Mmnrhmmh 074.2 : 226.8 II Procyon Druuge 946.9 : 280.6 I Zeta Persei Ilwrath 022.9 : 366.6 I Alpha Tauri Humans 175.2 : 145.0 III (Earth) Sol Melnorme They are nearly at all the bigger Solarsytems on the Starmap Mmnrhmmh,Chenjesu 074.2 : 226.8 II Procyon Mycon 629.1 : 220.8 I Epsilon Scorpii Orz 371.3 : 253.7 I Gamma Vulpeculae Pkunk 052.2 : 052.5 I Gamma Krueger Shofixti 290.8 : 026.9 Delta Gorno Slylandro 033.3 : 981.2 IV Beta Corvi Spathis 241.6 : 368.7 I A Epsilon Gruis Supox 741.4 : 912.4 I (Earth) Beta Librae Syreen 412.5 : 377.0 I Betelgeuse Thraddash 253.5 : 835.8 I Delta Draconis Umgah 197.8 : 596.8 I Beta Orionis Utwig 863.0 : 869.3 I Beta Aquarii Vux 433.3 : 168.7 I Beta Luyten Yehat 492.3 : 029.4 I Gamma Serpentis Your world 334.5 : 193.1 I (Unzervalt) Vela Zoq-Fot-Pik 400.0 : 543.7 I Alpha Tucanae ********************************************************************** *** [2.5] Planets on which artifacts can be found * ********************************************************************** Androsynth Ruins 358.7 : 256.6 II Eta Vulpeculae Aqua-Helix 277.6 : 867.3 I Zeta Draconis Bomb 850.0 : 937.2 VI B Zeta Hyades Burvixese Ruins 964.5 : 579.1 I Arcturus Caster 964.5 : 579.1 I A Arcturus Clear Spindle 052.2 : 052.5 I Gamma Krueger Mycon Egg case fragment 600.8 : 263.1 I (Syra) Beta Copernicus 647.9 : 206.2 I Gamma Scorpii 638.4 : 272.9 I Gamma Brahe there may be more... Rainbow-Planets 602.0 : 297.9 I Gamma Kepler 283.6 : 785.7 I Epsilon Draconis 862.5 : 700.0 I Alpha Andromedae 039.5 : 745.8 I Beta Pegasi 543.7 : 827.0 I Epsilon Lipi 766.6 : 866.6 I Beta Leporis 853.4 : 879.7 I Gamma Aquarii 996.0 : 904.2 I Groombridge 741.6 : 508.3 I Gamma Reticuli 468.1 : 091.6 I Zeta Sextantis Rosy Sphere 946.9 : 280.6 I Zeta Persei Sa-Matra 620.0 : 593.5 Delta Crateris Shofixti Ladies 422.1 : 198.6 I Alpha Cerenkov Sun Device 639.5 : 231.2 I Beta Brahe Syreen Ships 593.7 : 393.7 I A Epsilon Camelopardis Taalo Stone 372.1 : 261.9 II C Delta Vulpeculae Talking Pet 197.8 : 596.8 I Beta Orionis Ultron 741.4 : 912.4 Beta Librae Ur-Quan Wreck 056.2 : 800.0 VII Alpha Pavonis Vux-Animal 570.4 : 979.5 I Delta Lyncis ********************************************************************** *** [2.6] QuasiSpace -=> HyperSpace coordinates translation * ********************************************************************** 448.0 : 504.0 -=> 565.7 : 971.2 458.0 : 492.0 -=> 860.0 : 015.1 466.0 : 514.0 -=> 230.1 : 398.8 476.0 : 496.0 -=> 611.6 : 413.3 468.0 : 464.0 -=> 921.0 : 610.4 476.0 : 458.0 -=> 409.0 : 774.8 502.0 : 460.0 -=> 318.3 : 490.6 516.0 : 466.0 -=> 567.3 : 120.7 492.0 : 492.0 -=> 005.0 : 164.7 544.0 : 532.0 -=> 036.8 : 633.2 506.0 : 474.0 -=> 190.9 : 092.6 (nearest to solar system) 520.0 : 514.0 -=> 011.1 : 940.9 (upper left corner) 488.0 : 538.0 -=> 973.5 : 315.3 (near Druuge) 520.0 : 540.0 -=> 584.9 : 621.3 (middle of map) 530.0 : 528.0 -=> 775.2 : 890.6 (upper right corner) 613.4 : 590.0 Arilou Homeworld To use less fuel during faster travel, use the Vortex Device (Portal Spawner) as soon as you've left the solar system (do not use auto-pilot) and fly to the QuasiSpace coordiantes which bring you to the nearest spot in HyperSpace, then start the auto-pilot. ********************************************************************** *** [2.7] What to do where and with what? * ********************************************************************** ********************************************************************** ***** [2.7.a] What should I do at start? * ********************************************************************** Q: What should I do right at start? A: Give yourself a name, name the FlagShip. Fly to Pluto and collect the Spathi, fly to Jupiter's first moon and collect some minerals. Fly to Earth's moon and visit the moonbase, then fly to the starbase. For those who don't know it, these are the planets of our solar system in this order: Mercure - Venus - Earth - Mars - Jupiter - Saturn - Uranus - Neptune - Pluto Q: How can I convince the Spathi to join my crew? A: Talk with the Spathi about the Earthguard and ask him why he is alone. Also talk with him about his life and his wishes. Ask him if he is happy with all these monsters in space, if he's feeling safe and so on. Then ask him to join. Q: How can I assign more crew to the Spathi Eluder before fighting the Ilwrath Avenger? A: Menu: MANIFEST-ROSTER-ASSIGN to send more crew to the ship chosen, MANIFEST-ROSTER-RECALL to get crew of the other ships. Q: What should I do with this damned Ilwrath? A: Just kill him. Works best with the Eluder or the Cruiser. Q: Where can I get the best mineral resources? A: You can find good resources in the Volantis starsystems. ( between 065.0 : 164.6 and 097.7 : 184.7 ) This is a good start, because it is near and easy to reach at start. Best if you had some training against the Ilwrath Avenger with the Spathi Eluder or the Human Cruiser. (Use Melee for training) Q: Where can I find the best lifeforms? A: Throughout the galaxis. There is no best or worst place. Q: What's all the talk about QuasiSpace? I can't find it! A: Simply visit the Arilou and you'll know! ********************************************************************** ***** [2.7.b] What should I do with the starfaring races? * ********************************************************************** Q: What should I do with the Arilou? A: Ask them for help. And bring them the warp-pod of the Ur-Quan wreck. Afterwards you can use QuasiSpace for faster and less fuel-using travel. Q: What should I do with the Chenjesu and the Mmnrhmmh? A: They can tell you what your most important task is. Q: What can I do for the Chenjesu and the Mmnrhmmh? A: Take the sun device to the close-up view and use it. (Menus: MANIFEST-DEVICE-SUN DEVICE) Q: How can I talk with the Chenjesu and the Mmnrhmmh? A: Use the Caster when you're in close-up view of Procyon II. Q: What should I do with the Chmmrh? A: Establish an Alliance. If you have the bomb and the talking pet, just ask for help. Q: What should I do with the Druuge? A: Bring the Mycon Egg case fragments here and trade the first against the rosy Sphere. Or, if you're wealthy, give the Druuge 100 Crewmembers and be a slavetrader! Trade the other Egg case fragments for a shiny new Mauler. Don't trade any more with them, especially not the Caster, the Bomb or the Vortex device (Portal Spawner). Q: What should I do with the Ilwrath? A: Take the caster to their home star system and when you've entered their solar system use the caster to send them against new enemies. Q: What should I do with the Humans? A: Free them! Q: What should I do with the Melnorme? A: Bring them information about life-forms and the whereabouts of the rainbowplanets and buy technology or fuel or (if you want) information, especially about other races. You will need the technology to win the game. The Melnorme sell technology to protect your landers against hot spots, alien life-forms,... Q: What should I do with the Mycon? A: Talk with them about the "Deep Children" if you don't want to buy the information from the Melnorme. Send them into the Syreen trap and fetch the sun device. Q: What should I do with the Orz? A: Talk to them about everything, join the *party* and become a *happy camper* if he wants you as a *relative*. Never ever talk with them about the Androsynth, or you'll have to *dance*. Q: What should I do with the Pkunk? A: Say thanks for the Clear Spindle and ask them for help. Q: How can I stop the Pkunk from running into their death? A: Intercept them and tell them about your most mystical device, the ouija board or tell them about the poor moon. Q: What should I do with the Shofixti? A: Insult the lonely fighter and use the FlagShip in the fight. DO NOT shoot at him! Take distance and use ESC, talk to him again and insult him again. ESCape again and so on, until he remarks that you are not an Ur-Quan, then give him the ladies. Fly away and don't disturb him any more. A few months later, crew will be cheap and if you want half the Yehats as allies, then buy a Shofixti scout and start a Yehat revolution. Q: What should I do with the Slylandro? A: If you've had a first encounter with their probes and a little chat, you can talk with them about their probes and the probes behaviour and the probes programming. Then ask for a self-destruct code. Until that moment you have to fight their red probes. Afterwards you can talk to them and send the self-destruct code and collect the 550 RUs! Q: What should I do with the Spathis? A: Talk with the one on the moon orbiting Spathiwa, afterwards you can help them to get rid of the Big Evil, then insist upon the promised alliance, the alliance of the kind, where they do what you say! After a while, they'll vanish under a self-made slave-shield. If you don't want to permit this, don't insist upon their promise. Q: What should I do with the Supox? A: Get the broken Ultron and bring it repaired to the Utwig. They play second banana to the Utwig, so they are of no direct use for you. Q: What should I do with the Syreen? A: Convince them that the Mycon have destroyed their planet and bring the syreen officers to the Syreen ships and help them getting revenge. Q: How do I convince the Syreen to help me? A: Bring them the Mycon Egg case fragment if you have the information of the "Deep Children". Q: What can the Syreen offer me? A: Getting rid of the Mycon at the Sun Device, their starships and Talana has something special to offer! Alas this isn't a virtual-reality game ;) Q: What should I do with the Thraddash? A: Kill several battle-groups and you'll be their master. OR send them against the enemy of their master. Then collect the Aqua Helix. Afterwards they'll be your declared enemies (if you talk to them, else you can keep being master) ! (must be a bug.... no talk=no war) Q: What should I do with the Umgah? A: After being at the Arilou and having the Taalo Stone, visit the home-planet and talk. Then kill about ten ships. Q: What should I do with the Utwig? A: Bring them the repaired Ultron and ask them for help. Then get the bomb. Q: What should I do with the Vux? A: Bring the Vux-Animal to the Vux-Commander Zex and get the Shofixti Ladies. Q: What should I do with the Yehat? A: Talk with them about old times as allies and friends and ask for information. You won't really need them. Or start a revolution with the proof of the replenished Shofixti. (You'll need at least one Shofixti ship docked to your FlagShip.) BTW, if the revolution has begun, you do not need to stop the Pkunk flying to the Yehat. If the Pkunk reach the Yehat before the revolution starts, the Yehat will kill the Pkunk, if the revolution has been won, the Pkunk Queen will become the Queen of all Yehat too. Q: I can't find my homeworld's Unzervalt solarsystem Vega! A: Vega is a small solarsystem. On the Starmap you can only find it after you've zoomed in a bit. (Zoom in with Insert, zoom out with Delete.) It's quite near to Zeeman. Q: What should I do at Vega? A: Nothing, except having a quite save encounter with the Kzer-Za, because one Dreadnought will fly around your homeplanet. Q: What should I do with the Zoq-Fot-Piq? A: Offer them help and ask for help, information and an alliance. Visit them regulary, because they are the one's who know how much time is left until the Kohr-Ah won the doctrinal war. Besides, they can give you valuable information about special planets. If you're familiar with the game, you won't need them at all. Q: The Zoq-Fot-Piq cry for help, what should I do? A: Depends, if you don't like aliens, or if you're intolerant, let the Kohr-Ah destroy the Zoq-Fot-Piq, but if you're brave and want to be a hero, go to the Zoq-Fot-Piq and visit their planet to encounter one singular Kohr-Ah Marauder. ********************************************************************** ***** [2.7.c] What should I do with the different devices? * ********************************************************************** Q: What should I do at the Androsynth ruins? A: Just inform yourself about the Androsynth. Collect some minerals and some information about life-forms. Q: What should I do with the Aqua-Helix? A: Use it to repair the Ultron. (Menu: MANIFEST-DEVICE-HELIX) Q: What should I do with the bomb? A: Don't give it to the Druuge. Never use it and just keep it. Q: What should I do at the Burvixese ruins? A: Nothing, except inform yourself. Q: What should I do with the Caster? A: In HyperSpace you can use it to call for help and the Melnorme will come to help you. You can use it to get rid of the Ilwrath at Procyon, of the complete Ilwrath race, to free the Pkunk and to get rid of the Thraddash just by flying into the Ilwrath starsystem and pretend you are Dogar and Kazon and send them against new enemies/prey. At Procyon II, you can use it to talk to the Chenjesu and the Mmnrhmmh. Q: What should I do with the Clear Spindle? A: Use it to repair the Ultron. Q: What should I do with the Mycon Egg case fragments? A: You can tell the Syreen of the Deep Children (only if you know about the Deep Children, the information can be bought from the Melnorme [aliens] or you can get the Mycon tell them) and use any Egg case fragments to convince the Syreen that they have to help you. Then bring the Syreen officers to the Syreen ships. The others can be traded against the Rosy Sphere or against a shiny new Mauler. Q: What can I do with the Rainbow-Planets? A: You can sell the information of the locations of these planets to the Melnorme after you've visited them. The Melnorme give you 500 Credits for each planet found. Q: What should I do with the Rosy Sphere? A: Use it to repair the Ultron. Q: What should I do with the Sa-Matra? A: Destroy the red things around the outer Asteroids, then use your Flag-Ship to fly into the Sa-Matra. By the way, Sa-Matra means Big Trophy. Q: How can I fight the Sa-Matra best? A: After the Chmmr brought you home, equip your FlagShip with 50 crew, one high-effective fuelsystem, one A.T.S. (AutoTrackingSystem), two Shiva furnaces and one Hellborne cannon in the second slot. Why the second slot? To shoot a double shot. Dock only Chmmr's at the FlagShip's hull. When you've entered the solar-system ask the talking Pet to do his job, then fly to the planet the Kzer-Za's and the Kohr-Ah's have been surrounding and attack the thing orbiting the planet. I always use the FlagShip to fight the Kohr-Ah's and the Kzer-Za's. Keep distance and shoot in the direction of the remaining Sa-Matra guards. To fight the Sa-Matra itself, I always use the Chmmr. When you have destroyed all 8 red shield generators, destroy the remaining enemy weapons, ESCape and take the FlagShip and fly through the opening in the asteroid shell, sit back and relax. Q: What should I do with the Shofixti ladies? A: Bring them to the lonely Shofixti fighter. Q: What should I do with the Sun device? A: Use it in the close-up view of Procyon II. Q: What should I do with the Syreen ships? A: After you've convinced the Syreen to help you, bring the Syreen officers to the Syreen ships and fly back to the Syreen station and trap the Mycon. Then fly back to the Syreen station and ask the Syreen to become allies. Q: What should I do with the Taalo stone? A: Nothing, it'll protect you against the psychic power of the Dnyarri. Q: Who are the Dnyarri? A: You'll find out, you'll need one of them, more are (luckily) not alive. Q: What should I do with the talking Pet? A: Let him alone in your cargoroom and just use him to get rid of the Sa-Matra guards when entering the solar system in which the Sa-Matra is located. Q: The Umgah are killing me, although I've freed them! I can't get away from their planet! What should I do? A: Fly with your FlagShip into a fight against an Umgah and take distance - then use the ESCape button. Q: What should I do with the Ultron? A: Repair it and bring it to the Utwig. You'll need three devices to repair the Ultron: the Clear Spindle, the Aqua Helix and the Rosy Sphere. Q: What should I do with the Ur-Quan wreck? A: Just investigate it, rip the warp-pod out and then visit the Arilou. Q: What should I do with the Vux-Animal? A: Catch it by killing it, then bring it to the Vux-commander Zex and give it to him. Don't be scared, you shall lay your hands on the Shofixti Ladies. Just sit back and listen/read. ********************************************************************** * [3.0] Melee * ********************************************************************** ********************************************************************** *** [3.1] What is Melee? * ********************************************************************** Melee is an extra program which allows you to fight against friend or foe or computer just to practice. You can test several starships, including the Kohr-Ah and Ur-Quan. In fact, you can mix yourself a battlegroup mixed from all 25 starships available in the game (see section [2.2]) and save this battlegroup in a .MLE file. ********************************************************************** *** [3.2] Which files are needed for Melee? * ********************************************************************** If you don't have that much space on your harddisk or you want to test a new big game, but you do want to be able to continue playing Melee, this might be helpful for you: For MELEE following files are nessessary : MELEE.EXE the file to run KEYS.EXE the file to (re-)configure your keys DISKFREE.EXE SNOOP.EXE MELEE.CFG MELEE.PKG SETUP.PKG STARCON.PKG *.SHP 25 different Spaceships Optional, but handy: *.MLE different Battlegroups