Welcome to Starsphere, and Loki!

Apparently I'm considered a veteran having played in three normal rounds
of Starsphere and one speed round. (that spans more than a year of
Starsphere playing now.  So here's my guide to playing Starsphere
successfully.

First of all, remember that energy is your lifeblood.  Nothing is more
important than having enough energy.

Primative is the other primary resource.  It does nothing by itself.
Starsphere is confusing in that primative is combined with an *EQUAL*
amount of Energy to make Composite.

Composite is used to make everything in Starsphere.  Everything also
costs Energy.  Now, if you're paying attention, you'll notice that
Energy appears twice.  This means that you need to factor how much
energy you need in multiple times.

The most important thing in Starsphere is having enough energy to build
ships and still be able to launch your fleet.  If you get that right,
everything else follows much more smoothly.

The key, as I have found it, is to have ideally, energy production equal
to double your composite production.  If you do some math, you'll find
that this means you need 50% more energy production than primative.

(Quick explanation: 1 primative + 1 energy = 2 composite.  To have
energy equal to 50% of your composite, you need 1 extra energy.  1
energy + 1 energy = 2 energy.  So, 1 primative requires 2 energy
production.)

That's lesson 1.  It's the important one.

Now, other things to remember:

A mobile fleet is almost always better than having lots of defenses.
(Exception - defenses can help a lot in speed rounds.) Why?  A mobile 
fleet can defend other people.  If everyone has half their worth tied
up in fixed defenses, the alliance only has half the fleet with which
to defend itself.  Also, defenses can't run away when you get bashed.
Defenses can't go out on attack, so you won't be able to attack people
with a net worth similar to yours.

In Starsphere, combat does not occur when the eta reaches 0, it occurs
when the eta has been 0 for a round.  (Actually, I think combat happens,
then fleets move - either explanation works.)  Remember that if your
fleet is coming home at the same speed that an enemy fleet is coming in
- you'll have a tick to run if necessary.

The way to attack is traditionally: Bash or scare them off - then loot.

When attacking in groups - make sure everyone knows how many pods
(thieves) to send in both the attack groups and looting groups.  Don't
get too annoyed if people have or want to send large numbers of pods in
kill fleets - pods are cheaper than ships in similar categories and thus
are frequently used as chaff (cheap, high armor targets that save hits
from your real ships.)  Try to have enough extra pods to be able to send
round numbers like 100 of each (early game) 500 or 1000 of each type
later.  In very very long rounds, sometimes 2000 or 5000 of each will be
used, but that's unusual.  Having that many extra around in case a fleet
gets wiped out isn't a bad investment (and is pretty insignificant.)

A few other things, less related to the game and more related to how to
fit in:
	Stay active on IRC

	Communicate with your galaxy.

	Help defend whenever you can!  The ally you defend today
	will be the one that defends you tomorrow.

Lastly, remember that having a fleet and no economy is better than having
neither - you can rebuild while being a very bad target for others.

Thanks for listening to me ramble,

Ryan Anderson
aka Pug Majere
ryan@michonline.com