TradeWars 2002 Player Tips, Tricks, and Cheats

1.1. Getting the BEST price at ports

Originally by Eugene Hung

All ports have a best price, which one will get 5 experience points if one bids that exact number. The best price is determined by the number of holds, if uneven, then the best price is usually a fraction, though I am not sure, since I always get holds in groups of 5 and 10, up to my maximum. Some ports have just one best price, those are the easy ones. Let us say one is in a StarMaster with 70 holds(the most useful ship for robbing and attacking). Get a psychic probe to help determine the best price. The first time, either accept the port's initial offer for no experience, or bid a little higher than what they offer. The psy-probe will tell you how far you were off from the best price, then you steal the 70 equipment, and use your calculator to figure out the best price and nail it on the head for 5 exp. each time. However, most ports have more than one best price(which I will explain). You must use a different strategy for this, which is an extension of the strategy I just previously outlined.

Ok, so you have a psychic probe, and have just found out ONE best price. Port again, and look carefully at the initial offer. If the offer is within 20 credits or so of the previous time(when you sold 70 equ to them at an absurdly low price), the best price is the same as last time, and so you should bid your calculated best price from last time. You may be off a credit or two, but eventually you'll figure out the best price through the probe. Now, let us hypothesize that inital offer is substantially different than last time(around 50-90 credits). That means the best price has moved. But, after lots of testing, I discovered that the best price can only move up or down in multiples of a certain number, n. That number is the number of your holds. Thus, going back to the example, the port's best price can fluctuate up or down multiples of 70. Knowing this, you look at the initial offer, see whether it went up or down from last time, estimate how many multiples of n it went up or down, and bid the best price plus 70 * roughly how much it went up or down. This is a little confusing, so I'll illustrate:

Let us say the port offers 9600 credits for 70 equ. You accept the offer, and figure out with your psy probe and calculator that the best offer was 10199. You steal the 70 equ back. Now you port again. If the offer still is around 9600(9580-9620), bid 10199. Voila, 5 exp. If you continue to steal-sell, and the offer varies very little, this is a one-price port. However, if the offer ever deviates by 50 or more, it is NOT a one-price port. So let us say the 2nd time, the port offer 9665(65 more than last time). Since you have 70 equ to sell, the port's best price must have gone UP by 70 credits(since the offer went up around 70 creds). So one bids 10269, or 10199 + 70. You steal, and port. The port offers 9510 credits, or 90 below 9600. That's around 70 below the original best price, so you bid 10129, or 10199 -70. You steal, and port. The port now offers 9650, around 50 above 9600, so the best price is probably 70 above this time, so it's 10269. You steal, and port. The offer is now 9385. That's roughly 210 credits(70 * 3) below, so you bid 10199 - 210, or 9989 credits.

As you can see, all the best prices are related by the number of holds. This strategy also works in other ships, such as a Corp FlagShip with 85(bid up or down multiples of 85 from the first figure).

There is a flaw, though. One may not estimate the number correctly. In the previous example, what if the port offered 9635? One could not tell whether the best price was the same, 10199, or 70 up, 10269. in cases of doubt, overbid. What I mean by that is, bid the higher figure, in this case, 10269. If it WAS 10269, I get 5 exp. If it was 10199, the port will raise its bid by 20-21 creds(30% of # of holds), also raising the best price by 21 credits(30%). The best price changes through overbids, by 30% of the difference between the bids, towards your offer. So, let us say we misestimated, and bid 10269. The port now offers 9655, which means we were over by 70, so we bid 10199 + 21(30% of 70), or 10220. Bingo! Realize, if one underbids, the port will immediately accept the offer, and you will get only TWO exp, for being 99.31% off or so. So always choose the higher figure, when in doubt. And if you overshoot by 140, the port offer goes up by 40 or so, so the best offer goes up by 42 credits(30% of 140), and you should bid 98(140 -42) credits less to get the best price.

1.2. How do I steal?

Originally by David White

Question: What are the tricks to stealing?

A player with -100 or lower alignment can steal credits and goods from ports. There is ALWAYS a chance of being busted while trying to rob a port, but some good guideline ratios are:

your experience / 20 = holds you can steal
your experience * 10 = credits you can steal.

1.3. The steal/sell cycle

Originally by Joel Downer

The basic steal-sell cycle works as follows: find a port that's selling equipment, and steal or buy 150 holds. (When you're using ports identified with EVILPAIR.COM, it's actually smarter to buy than steal your first load. Don't risk making a port angry with you when you may need to buy fuel ore there the same day!) Move to a port buying equipment -- preferably a port at 100%. Sell the equipment for the best price you can negotiate (see the section on the five-experience point trick, below. Now, port and steal back the equipment you just sold. Sell the equipment again, steal it, and repeat the process until you're caught or out of turns. When you get caught, you'll lose 13 holds (out of 150) and 10% of your experience. Sometimes you'll be caught more often than you like, but if you steal a sensible amount (no more than one hold per 15 experience points), you'll typically make more than enough to compensate for the trouble.

Important: When you get caught, write down the location and the date. You won't be able to port there for at least 14 days without getting busted again (even if you just port to *trade*, you may get nailed). After a couple of weeks, you can go back and work the ports again.

The five experience-point cycle works as follows. The first time you dock at a port, accept the port's first offer for your equipment. Write down the offer, and using a calculator and the results from your psychic probe to calculate and round off the best price. (E.g.: first offer was 19,200; psychic probe reports 96.69% of best. Best price = 19,200 / .9669 = (int)19857.2 = 19857.

Steal back the equipment and dock again. If the first offer if within half your number of holds (75 in a StarShip) of the first offer from last time (19125 - 19275) bid the number that you calculated last time (19857). If the offer is substantially higher or lower, adjust the best price by a multiple of your number of holds. If the offer is 19,325 (125 higher), bid 150 higher; if the offer is 265 higher, bid 300 higher; if it's 700 higher, bid 750 higher.

When in doubt, overbid. If the port refuses your initial offer, you can still often get the five experience points; just understand that the best price will *change*, by 30% of the difference between your offer and the original best price.

Example: The port offers 19,278, and you bid 20,007. Oops! The port tries to barter, telling you that you guessed wrong -- evidently, the best price was still 19,857. Your error has changed the best price by 150 * .30, or 45 credits, so the new best price should be 19,902.

This approach will not work at every port. Some ports don't seem to have a best price; at others, the initial estimate with the psychic probe will actually be a few credits low or high. If you master this technique, though, you'll be able to get five experience points on every sale at many ports, and on most sales at many others.

Price guidelines: very good equipment-buying ports will pay 22,000 - 23,500 credits for 150 holds of equipment. Spending tons of turns looking for the perfect port can end up wasting money, though, because every turn in a StarShip is worth at least 9,000 credits. (What's more, tooling around in a StarShip when evil is dangerous!) I'm usually content to work a port that offers 20,000 for 150 holds, and I'll sometimes put up with ports paying as little as 19,000. Ports that only offer 16,000 - 17,000, however, are taking things a little far... %ltgrin$gt

1.4. How do I get extra holds to trade with?

Originally by Joel Downer

The bug that makes this trick possible is not the infamous holds bug, which allows you to gain rather than lose cargo holds when you try to steal 365 units of equipment. You can use the holds bug to load your ship with max + 32 holds, but if you want any more, you'll actually have to buy them.

HOW TO OVERLOAD YOUR SHIP WITH HOLDS:

To load a ship with extra holds, you must be evil. You may choose any ship, but the best choices are the Imperial StarShip (because of TransWarp drive and combat capabilities), the Corporate FlagShip (because of TransWarp drive), and the Scout Marauder (because of turn rate and combat odds). If you're using a FlagShip or Scout Marauder, you can get a lot done with relatively little money. If you're using a StarShip, or if you want to load any ship with more than 250 holds, you'll need a great deal of money.

The best way to start is to get your ship to max + 32 using the holds bug: let's say you're now in a FlagShip, and you now have 117 holds. Go to Terra, and pick up a full load of 117 colonists. Now, find the nearest port that sells equipment. Try to steal 364 (yes, THREE HUNDRED SIXTY-*FOUR*) holds of equipment. You will lose 32 cargo holds, but, due to a bug in the game, you will still be carrying 117 colonists. Next, find a port that sells organics (you don't want to use fuel ore, because using fuel ore will make your ship incapable of TransWarp; you might choose differently if you're overloading a Scout). Steal one hold of organics (what you're actually getting is -64 holds of organics, but don't worry about this). When you're done, you will have 53 cargo holds, and 117 holds full of colonists, with zero empty holds. Now you can go to Sol and buy 32 more cargo holds: doing so will leave you with 85 cargo holds, 117 holds full of organics, and 32 empty holds, for a total of 149 cargo holds.

You can pick up more colonists and repeat as often as necessary. I'm not aware of any limit on the number of cargo holds, but two warnings: (a) the price of holds increases geometrically as you buy more and more -- buying a thousand holds would cost millions upon millions of credits, and (b) you need to think carefully about how many holds you can effectively use.

The caveats about this trick are the same as for loading your ship with max + 32: if you surrender to a Ferrengi, get busted, get blown up, or try to buy or sell the commodity you used to "cement" your extra holds (usually organics, sometimes fuel ore), you'll lose them. Obviously, if you're using a heavily overloaded ship for the steal-sell cycle, you're going to lose a great deal of money each time you get busted, because you're going to have to repeat all the busts and repurchase all of those holds. However, (a) with the right combinations, the risk can be *very* worthwhile, and (b) I can think offhand of many other interesting uses for this bug.

1.5. What happens when I get caught stealing?

Originally by David White

Question: If I'm busted, can I ever return to that port again?

Yes, your name will be removed from the port's records in 14 days or as soon as another player is caught there, whichever comes first. Until then, do not try robbing or trading at that port.

2.1. Super attack method

Originally by Albin Gersich

If you are landing on a planet that has a military reaction of anything other than 0%, and you don't use a photon, and you have more than 6666 Hex (more than 26214) fighters, then the military reaction of the planet will react at 100%. The funny thing about this is that all the fighters on the planet will be lost while trying to destroy you, whether they were all needed or not.

Dan pretty much covered it. Normally only an ISS can have more than 26214 fighters, and usually they go in during a photon wave so this bug would not come into play. With the overloading of fighters bug any ship could have this many fighters. What matters is how many fighters the invading ship has left after the shields and quasar cannon. This is when the fighter attack routines go into effect. If the ship has at least 26215 fighters and the military reaction level is non-zero, even 1%, then all fighters on the planet will attack at 2:1 odds. When this happens all fighters will be lost. Normally only the number of fighters that are required to destroy the ship are lost, or all of them if there are not enough. When this bug takes effect all the planetary fighters are gone, even if there should have been some left.

Since the photon wave temporarily sets the military reaction level to 0%, this bug will not take effect if the wave is still in effect when the planetary fighter attack routine is reached.

From the planets owners point of view, you most likely would destroy his ship so he can not reload, but your planet is now wide open and it cost you more than it should have. From an invaders point of view this bug can foil your plans. Even if the planet has a level 2 citadel this bug will take effect. If you go in with a fully loaded ISS to invade a level 2 citadel and wanted to soak off some of the fighters by landing and retreating repeatedly, you will instead be destroyed.

2.2. Getting extra holds for colonist/product transport

Originally by Robert Mudryk

2.3. What are the settings for planetary defenses?

Originally by David White

Question: What are all the settings for my planetary defenses?

Examples:

Military Reaction level: 20% -- 20% of all the fighters on the planet will attack (at 2:1 odds) any player who moves into your planet's sector. The remaining 80% of the fighters will attack (at 3:1 odds) only if the player attempts to land on your planet.

Quasar cannon sector level: 30% -- 30% of all the Ore on the planet will be used to fire on a player entering the sector with your planet, causing 1 point of damage to the player per 3 units of Ore used.

Quasar cannon atmosphere level: 60% -- 60% of all the Ore on the planet will be used to fire on a player who attempts to land on your planet, causing 1 point of damage to the player per 1 unit of Ore used.

Taking over Ferrengal

Originally by Kris Lewis

Ferrengal itself is usually a Level 4 planet (Level 3 Citadel - Quasar Cannon). It is usually located in a dead end, and the Nebula name will always be "The Ferrengi Empire". The planet itself usually starts with the following: Colonists: 600 per area, 10000 Ore, some (low) amount of Organics and Equipment, 5000 Fighters, 100,000 credits in the Treasury, a Military reaction level of 40%, and Quasar levels of 30% (atmosphere) and 0% (sector). Destroying or invading Ferrengal by itself will not prevent the Ferrengi from regenerating. The sector defense force must also be neutralized and replaced. Once destroyed, Ferrengal will not regenerate. If the planet is taken over and the sector defense force is replaced by that of a player, then the Ferrengi are out of the game, aside from the ships that are still at large. Once destroyed, they will no longer regenerate. Taking the planet and not deploying your own fighters in the sector is an easy way to get every Ferrengi ship to attack you on sight, and they will still regenerate.

As an aside, the Ferrengi ships base the number of fighters with which to attack you upon the number of fighters you carry. If you're being hounded, carry a small number of or no fighters and maximum shields. You can then pretty much ignore them.

3.1. Using just enough fighters

Originally by Kris Lewis

How to calculate the minimum number of fighters to attack with:

                (his ftrs) * (his odds)
(your ftrs)  =  -----------------------
                     (your odds)

Ex; If he has a Scout Marauder (2.0:1) and 200 Ftrs, and you have a BattleShip (1.6:1), you need to attack with (250*2.0)/1.6, or 312.5 (313) fighters. This assumes no shields on his craft and does not account for the slight random factor in the calculations the game uses. Shields are at 2:1 odds, regardless of shiptype (I think!)

Ferrengi ship's odds:
Assault Trader - 1.0:1
BattleCruiser - 1.2:1
DreadNaught - 1.4:1

Alien ship's odds are the same as player ships of the same type.

3.2. Overload your ship with fighters

Originally by David White

Question: What's the fighter overloading trick?

Join a corporation, then go to the same sector with a corp member with at least as many shields/fighters as you want. Transfer a negative amount of fighters/shields to the corp. member. Repeat as often as you like up to a maximum of 32,767 fighters/shields. This trick is especially useful with a Scout Marauder, which fights at 2:1 odds. Docking at a port, however, will cause the excess shields/fighters to vanish.

3.3. Get extra shields on your ship

Originally by David White

Question: What's the shield overloading trick?

Use the above technique, or transfer a negative amount of shields to a citadel that already has as many ship shields (planetary shields * 10) as you need. Docking at a port still causes you to lose any extra shields, however.

3.4. Can I kill federals?

Originally by David White

Question: Can I kill the Federals?

No. Zyrain, Clausewitz and Nelson are indestructible. However, you can trap them in a dead-end sector by placing a fighter right outside the dead-end, since Federals will not travel into a sector that has deployed fighters in it. As long as the fighter stays there, all three Federals can be trapped, though Captain Zyrain will automatically warp out of the sector to rescue players who qualify for protection in FedSpace.

3.5. Can I be killed while cloaked?

Originally by David White

Question: Can I be killed while my ship is cloaked?

No, while you are cloaked, you are absolutely invulnerable until your next login (contrary to the documentation, cloaks do not lose their effectiveness over time.) However, if some player were to figure out which sector you were cloaked in, he or she could mine your sector. The mines would explode as soon as you logged back on.

3.6. How can I track an enemy?

To track someone talk to the Grimy Trader in the Tavern. Ask him about TRADER. He'll say I can tell you : answer no. Then he'll say "Well, is it a particular trader your interested in?". Say yes and enter the name.

3.7. The sequence of events in a defended sector

Originally by Albin Gersich

When you enter a defended sector, the sequence of events is:

 1:  Mines detonate.
 2:  Quasar cannons fire at sector level.
 3:  If there are fighters in the sector:
         If offensive, they attack.  If toll, the player may pay
         the toll or attack.  If defensive the player may attack.
         After the toll is paid the quasar cannons fire at sector
         level again.  If the player attacks the fighters, after
         each attack round, even if 0 fighters were used in the
         attack, the quasar cannon fighters sector level.  If the
         player does get all the fighters in one shot and attacks
         five times the quasar will fire all five times.  Continue
         until the toll is paid or there are no fighters in the
         sector.

     When the ship attempts to land:

 4:  If the citadel is level 5 and has at least 1 shield, the
     quasar cannon fires at atmospheric level.
 5:  If the citadel is level 5 and has at least 1 shield, the
     player must destroy the shields to continue.
 6:  If the citadel is level 3 or higher, the quasar cannon fires
     at atmospheric level.
 7:  If the citadel is level 2 or highter, the planetary offensive
     fighters attack.  If the ship has 26214 (hex 6666) or less
     fighters, the number that attack is determined by the military
     reaction level.  If the ship has 26215 or more fighters AND
     the military reaction level is not zero, then ALL planetary
     fighters attack and are lost.
 8:  If the citadel is level 2 or highter, any fighters left on
     the planet defend.  The attacker must destroy them to land.

During a photon wave, only steps 5 and 8 are in effect. All others are nullified. If the photon wave runs out part way through the sequence, the remaining steps will be in effect.

4.1. May I keep my Corperate Flagship when I leave the corp?

Originally by Joel Downer

Question: If I am a CEO and I buy a Corp Flagship, then I quit the corp, do I get to keep the flagship? Wondering if corp members could all be CEO for a day and buy flagships and then rejoin the corp, each retaining the prize ship?

(1) Yes, you could keep the FlagShip when you quit, but (2) no, no one with a FlagShip is allowed to join another player's corp.

5.1. Goals for the first few days of play

Originally by Joel Downer

Question: In a new game, what should be your goal in the first few days?

Let's assume a corporate strategy, for a corp of 3-5 players, to keep this simple. (That's what I've usually been playing these days anyway.) Let's also assume that we're playing a game with no treaties or rules about the shield bug.

I plan on playing evil wherever I play. I expect to find the StarDock the first day of the game -- if it isn't displayed in the Game Status screen, I or one of my corp-mates will run FINDSGA to locate it. As soon as we find StarDock, we trade in our Merchant Cruisers for Scout Marauders (with the trade-in value of the average Merchant, you can buy a Scout with 25 holds and a density scanner, and have a little left over with which to go out to dinner ). The Scout is the single best ship in the early stages because of its move rate.

My choice from that point depends on the game configuration. If FedSpace is open to squatters, my teammates and I will spend the first 3 - 4 days parking in FedSpace and working trade pairs to build up experience. I like to use the evil Imperial StarShip, so I will try to upgrade to a StarMaster the second day, a Mule the third or fourth, get my commission by the fifth or sixth day, and keep the StarShip from then on. My teammates will typically turn evil by the fourth day (after you have about 375 experience, stealing will be *substantially* more profitable than trading); one way I'm likely to get a quick commission is to coordinate logins with one of my future teammates so that I can blow my future teammate up.

Objectives for the first 4 - 7 days (depending on the turn rate): to get myself into an Imperial StarShip with slightly less than 1,000 experience, and to get the team members who won't be in StarShips stealing in StarMasters with at least 1,100 experience. We do not usually set aside turns for exploration; when we need to find new trade pairs or dead ends, we use ether probes.

Objectives for the next 2 - 4 days: to build a well-concealed planet and stock it with 3,000,000 colonists. I will deploy a fighter in a dead-end sector and create a planet there. I will frequently ask my future evil teammates to deploy fighters and mines in the sector immediately adjacent to the dead-end. The fighters and mines protect the planet; I enter and exit the sector using TransWarp.

Objective for the succeeding 1 - 3 days: to assemble the corporation in final form. I dump colonists to turn evil, start stealing conservatively, and "bust planets" (create and destroy empty planets) to try to build my experience up to 2,250, where I can steal 150 holds. My teammates steal aggressively.

Objective for the succeeding three weeks: to build a planet to level five, preventing our enemies from building or defending a planet to a level II citadel. We use ether probes and search aggressively whenever new citadels appear in the game status screen (find as many uses as you can for TWView's OFFLINE program, using version 0.91 if you can; you also may want to look at my FINDHOLE utility). Because of my p-missile capabilities, I can destroy any planet that doesn't have a level II citadel at a trivial cost. We upgrade our single planet aggressively, placing the maximum defenses on it at any given time (32,000 fighters; 1639 shields the day it turns level V). If the relative strengths of the teams in the game justify the move, we may invade Ferrengal and either (a) destroy it, or (b) defend it, to prevent our enemies from seizing a ready-made level III citadel.

End-game objectives: If we have a level V citadel, and we can prevent our enemies from building or defending a planet, we expect to control the game. We continue to steal full-speed, and stockpile money in our shield-bugged citadel until the combination of our stealing and treasury interest is overwhelming.

Originally by David White

Question: How can I find Stardock?

6.1. What is FedSpace for?

Originally by David White

Question: What is FedSpace for?

Any players with a non-negative alignment, less than 1000 experience points, and less than 50 fighters can log off overnight in sectors 1-10 and the Stardock sector completely safe from being killed by other players.

6.2. How do I Transwarp (T-warp)?

Originally by David White

Question: What are the rules to successfully Transwarp (T-warping)?

Transwarping your ship to a sector that contains at least one of your fighters is always safe. Blind ship transwarps are possible only if the destination sector is completely empty of anything. Blind planetary transwarps are not possible. Ship transwarping costs 3 units of Ore per sector jumped, and planetary transwarping costs 400 units of Ore per sector jumped. Transwarping takes 1 turn regardless of distance traveled.

7.1. How do I get commissioned?

Originally by David White

Question: When can I be commissioned?

You can be commissioned if you have an alignment of at least +500.

7.2. How do I change my alignment?

Originally by David White

Question: How can I alter my alignment quickly?

To become evil quickly, get a load of colonists,take them out of FedSpace, jettison them, log off Trade Wars, log back in, and repeat (-1 alignment per colonist jettisoned.) To become good, attack evil traders/aliens/Ferrengi, or post a reward on a trader in the Police HQ at Stardock (+1 alignment per 1000 credits posted.)

7.3. Can an evil player have an Imperal StarShip?

Originally by David White

Question: Can an evil player have an ISS (Imperal StarShip)?

You must be commissioned to purchase an ISS, but after you have it, you can become evil and still keep the ISS. Running into any of the three Federals (Zyrain, Clausewitz, Nelson) however, means certain death.

Originally by Joel Downer

To keep an Imperial StarShip when evil:

Avoid FedSpace as completely as possible. Never travel through sector 1-10, and only travel to the StarDock using the strategy described below. Be very careful in all areas adjacent to FedSpace, and spend as little time on the Major Space Lanes as possible.

Deploy single toll fighters wherever possible when you travel. The Feds cannot travel through sectors with fighters in them, so (a) when you're in a sector with a fighter in it, you are completely safe from the Feds, and (b) the more fighters you have scattered outside the Major Space Lanes, the less the Feds will be able to travel outside the Major Space Lanes. Imprisoning Admirals Nelson and Clausewitz would be wonderful, but an evil StarShip captain should *never* try it him/herself. It's altogether too dangerous.

Travel by TransWarp whenever possible. When you must travel by conventional warp, use the following pattern: move-deploy-scan, deploying a toll fighter immediately in each sector you enter. Whenever you visit the StarDock, buy a full complement of ether probes and cloaks: ether probes are necessary for blind TransWarp, and cloaks can bail you out if you get stuck somewhere (even Zyrain can't attack a cloaked ship!). Carry at least 750 shields and keep mine disruptors, in case someone tries to mine you to death; don't carry more than a few thousand fighters -- they won't help you if you run into the Feds.

Find out how many entrances the StarDock has -- usually, it'll have one or two. If it has one, the approach to the StarDock is pretty simple: fire an ether probe into the StarDock, blind TransWarp into the completely empty sector nearest SGA. Deploy a fighter immediately, warp in, and do your business. If you see one of the Federals at or near the StarDock, put off your business until he leaves the vicinity -- you may want to restock your shields or holds at Rylos or Alpha Centauri. Don't try to deploy a fighter AT the StarDock; DO deploy a fighter at Rylos or Alpha Centauri when you go there.

NEVER, unless you have some special reason (e.g., hiding the path to your planet, remove your fighters when you're done in a sector. Forget about the 200 credits. You won't miss them.

BEWARE OF MARKER BEACONS!!! Marker beacons and wandering aliens are the two greatest dangers to blind TransWarp. Never place them, and destroy them when you can.

Don't take unnecessary risks with corbomite. If someone leaves you bait -- e.g., if a hated enemy parks in a major transit sector with 0 fighters in a Scout Marauder, politely decline the invitation. Well, not TOO politely. Leave 99 mines in the sector to let him/her know you still care... ;>

When you choose stealing sites, look for places where a port that sells equipment, a port that sells fuel ore, and a port that buys equipment are in close proximity. TWView and my "EVILPAIR" utility are both useful for finding these ports.

7.4. Hidden options at the StarDock

Originally by David White

Question: What are the hidden options in the Stardock?

"U" -- Underground, where players with 100 or less alignment can change their name, and post and collect bounties on other players. (To get the password to the underground, talk to the trader at the bar about mafia or underground.)

"+" -- Library, useful only for determining which ships are currently being used by the Ferrengi. Data on alien derelicts is useless.

"B" -- Single's Bar, where you can get robbed. Nothing more.)

7.5. How do I win Tri-Cron?

Originally by David White

Question: What's the secret to winning Tri-Cron?

Contrary to what the Grimy Trader says, the winning numbers seem to be completely random.

7.6. What is Computer Interrogation Mode (CIM)?

Originally by David White

Question: What is Computer Interrogation Mode (CIM)?

7.7. What do density scans represent?

Originally by Kris Lewis

Any density not ending in a 0, 1, 5, or 6 is a Federal.

7.8. What are the specs on different ship types?

Meanings:

#: Ship number:			Cost: Price at shipyard Odds: Attack odds Mine: Maximum number of mines Bcn: Maximum beacons Gen Tor: Maximum genesis torpedoes X: Transporter range L: Long range scanner? P: Planet scanner? T: TransWarp Drive? Pho Mis: Photon Missile?
	1. Merchant Cruiser 2. Scout Marader 3. Missile Frigate 4. BattleShip 5. Corperate Flagship 6. Colonial Transport 7. CargoTran 8. Merchant Freighter 9. Imperal StarShip 10. Havoc GunStar 11. StarMaster 12. Constellation 13. T'Khasi Orion 14. Taurean Mule 15. Interdictor Cruiser

8.1. There is no computer upgrade

Originally by Kris Lewis

In version 1.03, there is no such thing as a "computer upgrade" proven. Current belief is that it's in the programming as either a timesaver when Gary works on 1.10, where it might exist, or as a red herring to those who read the game data files.