Astro Galaxy - a realistic space exploration game

**This guide is made assuming you have followed all of the tutorial, if not GO BACK AND DO IT**

So you just finished your long hard tutorial, congratulations for sticking with it and surviving your first test, your patience. Now (depending on how frivolously you spent your solars during the tutorial) you have around 75-100k solars, a frigate and a Heavy frigate, your one step closer to universal domination. But what to do? Fear not i have some helpful hints and tips for your first steps out into the universe.

Now your first instinct depending on your personality may be to either go mining, or to go shoot something. DONT. Mining properly demands alot of time, and assets, what will most likely end up happening is your Mining modules being blown up, as well as any stations if you decided to place them near the planets. Secondly, its unprofitable. It takes over an hour to mine 1 cubic meter of material, there are only 5 materials that are profitable to mine at this point in the game, and i can gaurentee someone bigger, stronger, with more allies, or just better organized, has them claimed, mining is more of a passive continual income then your main money maker.

As far as combat goes? far be it from me to deny you going out and making a name for yourself as a pirate, but be warned at this stage in the game, you dont have enough power to have everyone else hating you, not to mention its also relativly unprofitable and inconsistant, you only salvage some of the material they may or may not have in thier cargo bay, or that were used to build the modules and stations. Yes you can raid ungaurded outposts but dont think thier going to forgive and forget if and when they do see you.

So you cant mine, you cant go all piratey, what can you do? Missions, and distress signals. Missions provide decent monetary returns for the time expended. I personally reccomend equiping one of your ships 2 FTL drives and the other with 2 Warmhole generators and an FTL drive.

The one with FTL Drives you keep in sol and fly interplanetary missions with during your active time. This allows you to make about 3k solars an hour-fuel costs. You will also need about 3 cargo holds for most interplanetary missions.

Interstellar missions have much higher Payouts, but require much more time. they usually pay between 6-10k solars, but take anywhere between 3-6 hours (with two Worm hole generators) once again you will also need at least 3 cargo bays, however in this case fuel will be the majority of your cargo. ALWAYS take enough fuel for a round trip, +30 (for moving within the system once you arrive)

Disstress calls: There are two types of Distress Calls SOS and COM. SOS missions are stranded ships in need of repair or fuel. For these missions usually must supply an amount of fuel, electronics, medicines, or food supplies (all available for purchase at a SOL commodity exchange), and get paid really good money. The issue is you never know how much or what an SOS will want till you get there. Now you could fly there, find out, fly back there, and then get your reward. Or if you intend to do distress calls, take about 100 of each rescource with you before you go. Chances are this will be enough to cover whatever it is they need.

COM distress calls are combat calls. Usually some ship that got capture by pirates or something or other. Regardless you have to go blow up the ship. These pay good money as well, but there is also the risk to your ship. Now COM missions are suppose to be scaled to your ships capabilities, but there is always the chance they will get lucky, In addition this ALWAYS requires 2 intersteller jumps. once to the distress signal, then to the enemy ship. Finally you also have the combat/engagement time. However though it takes more work and has more risk, these missions also pay the best.

Random Hints and tricks:

SHE KILLED ME WITH SCIENCE!!!!: and thats exactly what you must do, kill them with science. Science is your key to self efficiency, power, and intersteller capabilities. It is perhaps the most vital thing you can invest in when you start, as it directly impacts all other aspects of the game. If you have spare modual space, be it on a ship, station or planet, put a science modual there.

DONT BUY IT, BUILD IT!!!: It is always cheaper to build something then to buy it. If youve already researched how to make it, make it. Sure it takes 3 hours, but that 3 hours might save you a couple grand in solars. You can buy all the materials needed to produce something at a Sol commodity station.

POWER IN NUMBERS: in this game less IS NOT more, more guns, more ships, more mines, whatever it is having MORE of them is better then having a Higher rank of them. Sure you can research and build a mark 2 viper squad, but its the same cost as building 2 mark 1 viper squads, and weaker.
ex: MK 2 Viper squad. Total power: 2500
    2x MK 1 Viper squad. Total power, 4000
Now having two of them does increase space, and you DO have to buy more marines (mk2 uses 500 marines, having 2 mk1 uses 1000. But dont forget the added marines dont only increase the weapons damage, but also factor into your manpower during fights). Also dont forget that they DO take up an extra module slot on your ship, which may negate the benifits of the added fire power depending on your ships desighn.
Exceptions: Engines, the above does apply to engines as well. You will travel faster with 2 mk1s then a single mk2. However your Fuel expenditure also increases by doing so. Possibly outweighing the benifits of having 2 engines.


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Im not an expert, im not succesful so far, just some things i picked up while playing that i thought might be useful. This will be updated edited, modified, etc as my experiance grows and community input shapes and expands my knowledge. Feel free to comment :D if you disagree or dispute what ive said let me know

Thanks Bro. Been coming to many of the same conclusions myself, especially the science aspect.

I love the guide, Dev. The only thing I (sorta) disagree with is regarding mining. I wouldn't say it's unprofitable, the one thing to remember before all you newbies pack up your mining modules and head for your nearest Mineral Supermarkets, is that mining is Hit or Miss. You will not find $500k worth of Diamonds with the first planet you search. In fact, even finding $150k worth of a resource on your first try is extraordinarily lucky. My suggestion: if you've got the room, keep a Mining Module on your ship. And when you are doing those Intergalactic Missions that Devonus mentioned, scout out the planets a bit. If you've found a hidden gem? Great! Now you're making more money. But don't dump all your money into this one venture, because it is very likely all you will find is common minerals and dirt.

I will add some here too about mining.

While very dangerous at the beginning and especially in the Sol system, mining can get extremely lucrative if you get out to one of the stars.

Just make sure you get enough marines and fire power with you, and find a nice rocky planet. Deploy your marines and mining / atmospheric facilities and a station with lots of cargo bays in orbit. I suggest at least 10 or more planet slots, of witch 5x should be marines, 5x for mining modules. You could also deploy a station in orbit, bigger station with 10+ slots and put the marine modules in there. That should enable you to deploy only mining facilities on surface. This will also enable you to defend gas giants or asteroid belts with enough firepower from the marines in orbit on the station.

Note that on station and planet, your marines will be 3x stronger then on a ship, so at this point you'll have a great defense force. Then just harvest the mining modules as they gather and assign a ship to transport and sell the resources. If you have VIP, you can even set the orbital station on auto-unload and when you get there with the ship it will have the resources in the cargo waiting to be delivered, sold or made into useful modules.

Good evening,
Thanks for the informative reading. I have been musing on the relative merits of different "career paths" and through learning by trying I have found it very profitable to raid a rival MIF and wipe out the orbital station... however, now I feel kinda guilty and have left the owner an apology and offered compensation... *sigh*Having a conscience sux sometimes!

I have just read through the posts here and upon my arrival back in SOL System, and graduation from the SEA, I will be trying out some of your advice. Thanks from a newbie.
Regards,
Hawkmoor

some informations in this thread are obsolete and other ones are simply wrong. for example, its never cheaper to manufacture something than to buy it. don't take things for granted and use your head.

This guide is should be the standard Bible for newbies..thank you all for the help :sweat

[Captain's log 06052013101]
Thanx Devonus for this guide.
[endoflog06052013101]

You say its cheaper to build vs. buy I didn't find that true

for example to purchase Science Module Mk1 - 7500

to manuf. one requires

44 m3 Aluminum + 10 m3 Gold + 35 m3 Oxygen      
      
qty   price/per   total      
44   80         3520
10   390         3900
35   50         1750
      
            9170 (grand total)

So in this scenario it costs much more to manuf. a science module vs purchasing one or were you speaking about mining or looting the resources?

But If you mine some or all of the needed ressources it will be much cheaper!

It can also be slower too. Though if you got a good mining operation in safe areas further out, it can be good.

Is it possible to expand an existing station? If so, how? If not, why not?  B-)

No it is not possible to do that.   I wish it was.

A quick word to new players from a new player:

It is very true that hauling passengers is the best way to make money early. I would go a step further and say that hauling passengers around Sol is better than interstellar. You can make several runs in a relatively short play time, and do so for far less fuel. The individual trips bring in a smaller gross revenue, but the margins are much higher. And if you can play off-and-on throughout the day, you can really rack up some cash, relatively speaking, over doing the star hopping thing. You can spend 300 on fuel, less than 12 minutes round trip, and get a paycheck for $1300. That is $4000/hour net profit.

The interstellar runs require huge amounts of fuel and time. Even with a couple of engines, you are going to spend hours calculating the jump, spend thousands of solars for fuel, cash a check for a few grand, and spend thousands to get home again. So, you can spend $8000 on fuel (round trip, Sol to Procyon is 135 fuel cells for one way, @ 30/cell, you are at $4050 on way) 4-5 hours on calculations one way, and get handed a pay stub for $12,000,(though usually less, I am being a bit generous and using my biggest payday to date) and then spend another 4-5 hours for your stupid computer to find its way back to exactly where it just started from. With any luck, you made a whopping $400-$500/ hour. (something SirEmi may want to take a look at?)

Bottom line all pun intended, follow their advice. Haul like a madman/woman until you can buy the next ship and station and etc...to grow your enterprise. Just know that, like any game, you have to be patient at the beginning and do the leg work to get yourself running. Once you have your own fueling station in place somewhere and can cut costs for those interstellar jumps, you will be better off. Just stay at it and build a piece at a time.  B-)

My math here is a tad bit generalized, but only a tad.

You are correct.  I always kind of shook my head at people who did the interstellar.  All you need is a decent FTL for interplanetary. Though not so high that it cuts into your profits with fuel cost.  I also don't recommend using more then 1 FTL.  Another thing to try to do is get missions to the same planet. You can always cancel the missions by talking to the mission people in your cargo. When your at Earth you can dismiss them for free.  Then go back and see what new ones pop up. At the very least try to get ones closer together. I personally was fond of moons of Uranus just cause they were so close together. By doing all this you ensure you spend out less money on fuel making extra stops.

Excellent strategy guide Devonus!  Your thesis saved me a lot of time, and It expresses the feel and frustrations that we noobs go through before graduation. I'm making nice solars, and having boo coo fun building modules, and completing intra/interstellar missions with the occasional battle.  Continue to stay safe and strong, and keep up the good work.   

I am sure he would be glad it helped you if he was actually still around. I don't think he plays the game anymore.

BTW welcome to the game. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

The Imperial Trade Organisation [ITO] is searching for new members. We will help you with ships, tipps and solars!

Wow!  I like your enthusiasm & friendly attitude Jazzbob. I sent you a friend request, and as soon as I complete the tutorial I'll apply to the ITO. Talk 2Ya soon.  Continue to stay safe & strong.  :)

welcome to the game, Xerxes.

if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.  Someone will help you.

'Sup sargas. copy that  :)

I don't know if this has already been said... But I have a bunch of mining facilities and atmospheric collectors in one system and then I go and get interstellar missions that take me to that same system. That way, I can complete three interstellar missions and collect my resources while only using one ship, one trip, and one fuel load. :)

You can basically pick and choose your missions by taking them, asking the passengers to leave, and then getting a new one.