Flatspace II: The Rise of the Scarrid

Greetings!

2005-11-11T10:15:00.000-08:00

Update - 21 February 2006

Weird and saddening news - the Anticlan Flatspace forum appears to have disappeared. Since they redesigned and restarted the forum membership and postings have dropped to near nothing, but this is still rather disappointing.

Fortunately this site continues - and will for some time to come (after all, blogs are far less effort to maintain). Other ways to support Flatspace include writing your own Flatspace stories - check out the Fan Fiction page (http://www.lostinflatspace.com/stories.php) on the Flatspace website - and of course telling your friends, family, coworkers and even complete strangers about Flatspace.

Update - 26 January 2006

Hello again. Today I've updated the blog with a page that Andy Kreuger left unpublished - I have no idea why as it's a brilliant idea. Mark gets enough comments about bugs and bits that people don't like but we never say what we DO like about the game. So go along and post your comments!

Greetings! - 21 December 2006

Hello there and welcome from the new custodian of this blog, Andrew Williams. Yes, another Andrew! Long time visitors may have seen my name in the comments before, answering Flatspace-related questions, and particular fans of Flatspace may even have seen me in the credits of the game itself.

Mr Kreuger has handed over the controls due to his own commitments and I hope to do this blog justice. I'm not planning on major changes - just some tidying up and adding new resources and areas to what already exists. I'm sorry to say that this announcement has been rather delayed while we sorted out access problems and then further delayed by my new daytime job - and that, as I'm away over Christmas, I'm unlikely to add anything else for a little while longer!

So for now - keep on flying, don't let the pirates bite and be sure to mention me to the bartender at the local Starcity...

--

NEWS FLASH: Flatspace II v.1.00 released!

Welcome to the first and only fan website for Flatspace II. The site is divided into five major sections, which can be accessed from the menu to your right. An introductory section explains the basics of the game and what it is all about. For the new player, there is a collection of helpful advice that will help you to get the most out of the early game. After that is a steadily-growing wishlist for additional features, and bugs that I hope will be fixed before the "major release" of the game in 2006. Finally, I will be adding resources and links to any Flatspace II information outside of this site as it appears.

New pages added: There's a page just for discussion of the game, especially for new players. Merchant Basics by Jon Parshall has its own page.

I hope Flatspace II players can find something useful here, and I encourage you to submit any of your own hints, tips, and guides so that we can build a community resource for the game. I'd love to post anything you want here with full credit, or at least let me know about it so I can link to it.

Recent updates
1/30/06: Flatspace II v.1.00 released!
"After two months of testing and feedback from the early adopter version, the first major release version of Flatspace II is now available. There have been about fifteen changes since the early adopter version including new guild levels, a few more tutorial windows and the ability to reload weapons from station stores."
1/23/06: Hey, there's a Flatspace forum now. Having a forum makes a lot more sense than a blog. I'm too lazy to set one up, so I'm glad somebody did it.
1/10/06: A discussion page has been added so that newcomers can post their questions about the game and get help from more experienced players. Hopefully this will help ease the learning curve a bit.
1/3/06: Commenter jonparshall wrote a fantastic guide to making money as a trader, and it was so good (and big) that it deserved its own page. So here it is!
12/4/05: New downloads on the Resources page: an improved stargrid map and a link button.
11/27/05: I haven't got anything to add, but there have been tons of great comments submitted on nearly every page! Thanks for the input, everyone!
I am really hoping someone will write a guide full of advanced advice for intermediate players (I could sure use that myself!) or an extended FAQ for this game like Silvermane compiled for the original one. Any contributions are welcome, though! Keep it coming!
11/20/05: Added a Stargrid download to the Resources page.
11/18/05: UI bug submitted by an observant reader; Playtesting page expanded into separate Wishlist and Bugs pages.
11/17/05: new advice in the tips section.
11/15/05: a bunch of new items on the wishlist.

Intro: what is Flatspace II?

2005-11-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

In case you're new to the party, let me tell you briefly what the game is all about.

Flatspace II: The Rise of the Scarrid is an open-ended top-down "space adventure" game for Windows that involves trading, combat, and exploration. After selecting a race (human or Scarrid) and a character class that determines the starting ship (trader, scavenger, assassin, etc.), the player enters the game and is free to play the game however he or she wishes. For example, you can earn money by trading, mine for minerals from asteroids, hunt down other ships, or transport people and goods from one station to another. The game can be "won" by destroying every Scarrid base in the galaxy if you are a human, or vise-versa, but the player is free to ignore the goal and pursue others.

The player can purchase ships and upgrades, and customise an individual ship. Larger ships can take on a crew, install turrets, and even contain smaller fighter ships. There are many Rogue-like aspects in the game, such as the choice to play in a random universe map that must be explored, the variety of character classes, the "death means death" mode, and other random elements. Options can be set at the start of each game to customize the map. You can remove the humans or aliens, change the distribution of bases, or play in a more peaceful or lawless universe if you wish.

Flatspace II is the sequel to the original Flatspace. It is built on the same engine but with major changes such as the addition of an alien race and all-new graphics and ship models. Both games were created by Cornutopia Software.

There's a detailed description of the original game (which is more like the sequel than not) here. The official website for Flatspace II is lostinflatspace.com.

There's a lot of great stuff in the original Flatspace, like the open-ended gameplay and the sweaty-palm feeling of true danger that I get when I play in "death means death" mode. Plus the fact that I can run the game at all on my dinosaur of a PC when I've given up on commercial games years ago. All of that is still present in Flatspace II, plus a lot of exciting new additions that I've barely scratched the surface of at this point. The guild system. The alien race. The improved graphics and added ships. The official secrets. Even the simple ability to rename your own ship is a much appreciated gesture.

Flatspace II is a great little game and absolutely worth the $24 asking price for registration. It's not perfect, but it's damn fun. On the other hand, a lot of the things that I like about the game are the same things I see other people complaining about on the messageboards. Obviously, your mileage may vary. But don't take my word for it. Download the game and judge for yourself.

Getting Started: tips and tricks

2005-11-10T13:05:00.000-08:00

Flatspace II can be an intimidating game to jump into for some players. Despite its open-ended nature and the plethora of things to do, it can seem to the beginning starpilot like there is nothing to do except get killed by pirates. Other than the combat training mode, the game doesn't offer much in the way of a tutorial, although things will go much smoother for you if you read the official game manual and at least learn the keyboard controls before getting started.

After that, the best way to get the hang of it is to jump in and play for a while. There do seem, however, to be some common snags that frustrate new players and provoke them to give up the game before enjoying all that it has to offer. Some of the minor gameplay and interface issues are discussed elsewhere on the site, and they might be fixed or not. In this section, I'll talk about solutions to the major obstacles that you'll encounter early on and offer suggestions to get you on your way as a career space cowboy.

Disclaimer: I don't want to spoil anyone's fun, so if you enjoy figuring things out on your own then by all means I encourage you not to read this page! My purpose is not to lay out all the secrets of the world for you, however, but rather to smooth out the speedbumps that have been known to annoy new players. Once you've mastered these basics, there is still a whole wide game world out there for you to explore. Get to it!

STAYING ALIVE
Flatspace II is a dangerous space. Keep in mind that survival is more important than blowing up bad guys, and you will last long enough to improve your ship and your skills. Unlike arcade blasters and most other combat-oriented games, Flatspace does not coddle you with an artificially superior ship or equipment. You will encounter enemies who are faster, better armed, and better shielded than you. When that happens, the smartest thing to do is run. Hyperspace out of there as soon as you can. If you can't get away, try to nail them with a missile before they can gun you down: you may lose money on the deal (those missiles are expensive!) but it's worth it if it gets you out of a tough situation. Also, go ahead and use the default 50% damage option at first, until you feel better able to take on the baddies on a level playing field. I won't tell anyone.

MISSILE DEATHS
Flatspace II shows its Rougelike roots in the face that you will die frequently, especially before you get the hang of the controls and ship handling. That's part of the game, and it makes it more enjoyable for me: the fact that each enemy encounter could result in my permanent death gives me the feeling of an actually dangerous world, and much more satisfaction on those occasions when I do survive. But it sucks to die and feel like you had no way of preventing it.

Enemy missiles are the most frustrating in this regard. They lock onto you, and just about any starting ship can be destroyed by a single missile hit. Luckily, there's a really easy way to avoid them. Just equip your ship with a flare launcher and flares. As soon as a missile is fired (your red alert will trigger automatically to warn you of it), release a flare by pressing 'e.' You still might die in the firefight, but it buys you a chance to escape from the dreaded missile. I hated Flatspace until I figured this out, and the Flatspace II demo makes it even easier on the player by enabling you to purchase flares as a cheap upgrade.

MINING
Playing as a scavenger is probably the least rewarding career even once you figure out what you're doing. It is much worse if, like me, the mechanisms of mining are not immediately obvious to you. It should be fairly clear that you have to break apart asteroids to a small enough size for harvesting, or else find a small enough piece. You will know it's the right size if you shoot it and it's destroyed completely--now find another one that size. To suck it in, you have to target it with the 't' key and then use your tractor beam. You can move and still suck in rocks at the same strength--don't be confused by the way your beam trails behind you when you're in motion; it's still attracting whatever you've targeted.

Before I learned to do this, I was pointing my tractor beam all over the place and didn't understand why it wasn't working!

DELIVERY MISSIONS
Missions are a great way to make money, especially early in the game. But choose them wisely! Before you accept a delivery, look on the map to know how far away you will have to travel. Some ships can jump farther than others and can travel more quickly, but at first you might try only accepting missions that are one or two quadrants away. They won't pay as much, but they also won't take as long, and won't require travelling through potentially dangerous territory. Now, this tip really should be obvious, or so I thought until I read a reviewer complaining that he had accepted a mission halfway across the universe and it was taking him too long time to get there! Be smart and consider what type of mission best suits your needs.

GO FOR GLORY
The previous tips assume that you want to stay alive, and advocate playing it safe. That's a steady and reliable path to success. On the other hand, in a brand-new game you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain, so there's no better time to take a risk. Go ahead and accept the assassination mission with the huge bounty (and proportionately high level of danger). If you fail and die, it only cost a few minutes of time; but if you succeed, you'll be flush with cash for upgrades and well on your way to the top of the high score table.

What I like about Flatspace II

2005-11-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

Hey, all. While tidying up the blog I discovered this little posting, as yet unpublished. It seemed too good to let it rot in the bowels of cyberlimbo so here it is - feel free to add your own favourite things about Flatspace.

So here's the original blog editor's own words:
---

There's a lot of great stuff in the original Flatspace, like the open-ended gameplay and the sweaty-palm feeling of true danger that I get when I play in "death means death" mode. Plus the fact that I can run the game at all on my dinosaur of a PC when I've given up on commercial games years ago.

All of that is still present in Flatspace II, plus a lot of exciting new additions that I've barely scratched the surface of at this point. The guild system. The alien race. The improved graphics and added ships. The official secrets (I got one!--[uh-uh! No secrets here! - AW]). Even the simple ability to rename your own ship is a much appreciated gesture. I want to come out firmly saying that this is a great little game and absolutely worth the $24 asking price for registration. It's not perfect, but it's damn fun.

On the other hand, a lot of the things that I like about the game are the same things I see other people complaining about on the messageboards. Obviously, your mileage may vary. But don't take my word for it. Download the game and judge for yourself.

Q & A: game discussion page

2005-11-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

Have you got a question about Flatspace II that isn't answered elsewhere on this site? Than you've come to the right place!

Eventually I'd like to set up a wiki with a real discussion area. In the meantime, please use this page for posting general questions about Flatspace II, and our crack team of veteran players will help you out.

Merchant Basics by Jon Parshall

2005-11-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

Merchant Basics 101

I became interested in the basic mechanics of how to make the most money as quickly as possible as a merchant, and while I am but a lowly Manager, I offer this basic analysis. Sorry for its length.

The Very Early Game
As a Trader, your first problem is that you're basically a capitalist at heart, yet you have no capital. $100 isn't going to get it done in terms of having working capital to buy/sell goods. So, the first thing you need to do is get some money. The easiest way to do that is to find some jobs transporting Item X to (preferably faraway) point Z. Doing several of these delivery jobs will provide you with a nice little bankroll that you can settle down and start working a good little trade route and start buying bigger ships (more on that in a minute).

Look for jobs that will take you to a reasonably small portion of the map, but one that is far away. So, if you're starting in the neighborhood of (27,2), find something that takes you to (27,24), but then eschew similar jobs that want you to go to (2,3). Why? Because the Entrepreneur Mk.1 is a putzy little ship with no legs, and it will take you forever to do those missions. And time, of course, is money. So be disciplined: pick a direction to head, and head only that way, with a 2-3 sector deviation at most along the vector, picking up odd jobs aimed at the same neck of the woods all along the way.

As you go, you will explore a swath of the map. Take careful notes. What are the trading parameters (Ag, Mineral, Light, Heavy, Tech--both Import and Export) of every city and station along the way? Which sectors are full of bandits? Make a map (I use an Excel spreadsheet) and write it all down.

Save often. Your ship is pathetic, and you can't really fight very well. Put at least a Mk. 4 cannon on there, but shields and radar and all that are a waste because hold tonnage = money and you need every single ton you can get a hold of, because even one ton less cargo space *now* equates to hours of extra playing time trying to make it to the next bigger ship later.

Once you've reached the terminus of your initial galactic jaunt, start looking for jobs that will take you back to whatever trading locus you've identified as being the place you want to settle down for a bit. Hopefully, you'll come back home with $20-$30K in your pocket, and enough working capital to start running regular routes.

What To Look For In Trading Bases
The Holy Grail for traders is to find two bases that are adjacent (within 1 jump) to each other that have Import/Export classes of (Tech, Light) and (Light, Tech) respectively. Why? Because the items in the game that have the highest prices (and hence the highest potential margins) are Light Industrial [Artwork/Antiques and Relics] and Tech [Medical Bio., Robots, Rec. Drugs, and Weapons]. Optimally, you would establish a run where you're trading those items on each leg.

In reality, you're unlikely to find this pairing. I haven't. So the next best thing is to find at least one matching pair of Import/Export-- i.e. a base that wants Tech, next to a base that exports Tech--and then suck up the low-profit return leg. My particular trade node was a pair of adjacent (Tech,Min) and (Heavy,Tech) tradestations. Regardless, as a general rule of thumb, one of the legs of the round trip has to be selling Light or Tech goods to a matching Import need. If you don't have that, you'll have thinner margins for both profit and error. (I play on a random map, BTW, so no idea what the standard map has to offer in that regard.)

Bigger Ships are Better
Here's where the MBA in me comes out. Let's say for the moment that the goal is to purchase our own trading station. Depending on the size of the joint, that can be anywhere from $4M to $12M. Let's stay conservative and shoot for $4M. Seems unattainable with the Mk.1, doesn't it? How then to make that much moola as rapidly as possible? Answer: get a bigger ship.

Let's run some basic numbers. Ship prices vary wildly, and generalizations are hard to make. So these numbers won't be exact, but they illustrate the principles I want to discuss. Some basic trading vessel costs are roughly as follows:

Entrepreneur Mk.1: Free
Entrepreneur Mk.2: $100K
Intertrader: $200K
Cargo King: $500K
Cargo Flyer: $1M

[Note, I blew off the Phoenix, Cargo Walker and Crawler, but the basic maths would be about the same, I'd guess.]

Hold Tonnage for these models is roughly as follows:

Entrepreneur Mk.1: 10t
Entrepreneur Mk.2: 20t
Intertrader: 40t
Cargo King: 100t
Cargo Flyer: 160t

Like as not, you're only going to be making decent money on one of your roundtrip legs. Hauling Rock Chips or Metals back to your Tech city to load up on Robots again will basically pay your landing fees. How miners make money in this game, don't ask me. Let's assume, too, that you're writing down prices and movement (up or down) for your target city on every trip (I do, with a crib sheet and a grease pencil), so that we can get a pretty good feel for price movements. Generally speaking, you can expect to make an average of $500/ton profit over time. Sometimes you'll make double that, sometimes you'll make only $250 or so. But on average, let's say $500/ton. That means that our Average Round Trip Profit for each of these vessels (based on their nominal hold size listed above) is as follows:

Entrepreneur Mk.1: $5K
Entrepreneur Mk.2: $10K
Intertrader: $20K
Cargo King: $50K
Cargo Flyer: $80K

With a nominal price tag of $4M, our shiny new space station will take us the following number of round trips to purchase:

Entrepreneur Mk.1: 800 round trips
Entrepreneur Mk.2: 400 round trips
Intertrader: 200 round trips
Cargo King: 80 round trips
Cargo Flyer: 50 round trips

Obviously, at say 15 minutes / round trip, the Mk.1 is a path to madness. So, a bigger ship is clearly the way to go. Of course, those big ships aren't free, and the money we have to spend buying them is money we can't spend buying our space station. Is it always worth it? Answer: yes, and here's why.

Let's assume that when we buy a new ship, we need to have 30% of the cost of the new ship left over as working capital, so that we can still afford to fill up that new, bigger hold with goodies. That means that our adjusted target prices for those bigger vessels is as follows:

Entrepreneur Mk.2: $130K
Intertrader: $260K
Cargo King: $650K
Cargo Flyer: $1.3M

So, for a Mk.1 driver to afford a Mk.2 with something left over, s/he's going to have to make $130K/$5K = 26 round trips to afford the new ship. That same basic principle holds for the larger models as well:

Mk.1-->Mk.2: 26 trips
Mk.2-->Intertrader: 26 trips
Intertrader-->Cargo King: 32 trips
Cargo King-->Cargo Flyer: 26 trips

Armed with these figures, we can now finally do the math for how long it takes to reach that $4M price point including the monies we'll have to spend to get the bigger ship. And we'll express it in terms of average round trips (which correlates roughly to how much of my life I have to spend playing this silly game to get my spacestation).

For example, with the Mk. 1, the math is simple: 800 trips. For the Mk.2 it's 400 trips (see the table above) plus the 26 trips I spent making enough dough to buy the Mk.2 = 426 trips total. For the Intertrader, it's 200 trips plus the 26 trips I spent to buy the Intertrader plus the 26 trips I spent to buy the Mk. 2 before that, which equals 252 trips total. You can see how that works--the purchases are cumulative with respect to the intermediate vessels. In total, to reach $4M in profit:

Mk. 1: 800 trips
Mk. 2: 426 trips
Intertrader: 252 trips
Cargo King: 164 trips
Cargo Flyer: 160 trips

In other words, by the time we get to the Cargo Flyer, we have less time to repay that investment before a Cargo King would have gotten us to the $4M anyway. However, if our goal were to buy a Star City for, say $12M, the Cargo Flyer is (of course) the vastly preferable ship to the Cargo King. Taking that math to the $12M mark, you get:

Mk. 1: 2400 trips
Mk. 2: 1226 trips
Intertrader: 652 trips
Cargo King: 324 trips
Cargo Flyer: 260 trips

Bigger is always better.

Note, however, that the preceding analysis assumes that your trading ports can accomodate 250ton or 500ton vessels (the smaller stations can't). If you have that situation, you need to find a new route.

Hope this was useful to any aspiring merchants out there. I'll hope to modify it as I learn more.

Wishlist

2005-11-10T06:48:00.000-08:00

Ideas that I think would improve the game. These aren't things that are necessarily broken or missing, but rather additional concepts for expanding the game experience. I'm no programmer, so I'm not sure how many of these ideas are realistic or even possible, due to the constraints of the engine which is the same as the original Flatspace. Hope springs eternal that they might be put into place, if not in this game, then perhaps in the next one.

Less intrusive map. When I'm flying around with cruise control on and hit the spacebar to pull up the map, why does my ship stop? Everything else keeps moving, after all. I wish I could consult the map and continue moving toward my destination.
More map functionality. Detailed information should be displayed for quadrants I have visited, especially the specific station types and import/export data (once scanned).
Hyperspace waypoints. I can see how these might be tricky to implement, but it would be nice not to have to plot out each new jump on a long trip across the universe. Plus, I wouldn't have to keep pulling up my missions screen to remind myself where I was headed.
Target tracking. Maybe it's an upgrade I haven't found yet; but a scanner/radar that tracks individual ships within a quadrant would be very useful to such as assassins and mercenaries. A little icon that floats around your ship (perhaps a >>) similar to the targeting reticule could point the way.
Calls for backup. When another cop is chasing a criminal, I would like to hear a request for assistance and get the target marked on my screen so that I can join in on the action. One potential drawback to this is that most firefights out of visual range would probably end before the player could arrive on the scene, but at least then they still might be able to scavenge cargo or escape pods.
More chatter. Similar to the last point, I would like to receive all the kinds of calls that I am able to send out. I want to hear demands for surrender, warnings that I am being chased for a bounty, and requests for help from other ships. This feature could spice up enemy encounters immensely. For example, a pirate might demand that I release my cargo and then leave me unharmed after scooping it up.
Advanced mission types, such as escorting a capitol ship, would add depth to the gameplay. I'm not sure that this concept would gel with the tone or style of the current game, however; maybe we'll see it in Flatspace 3?
Six million ways to die. In Rogue-likes, dying is a big part of playing the game, and uncovering a sumptuous menu of ways to die makes the process a bit less painful. The graveyard list could be improved with more detail, especially on 'accidental' deaths by classifying them further (i.e., "struck by asteroid," "rammed by another ship," "collided with base," "errant missile/fire," etc.). This way, when you are the victim of yet another stupid death, at least you'll have a permanent, embarassing reminder of exactly how it happened. (Note, some of these messages have been incorporated into the game! As it gleefully informed me last night, I was, in fact, killed by bumping into a tiny asteroid just as I was about to dock for repairs.)
Scrollbars on the in-game menu lists.

Bugs

2005-11-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

On this page, I'm collecting a list of bugs, glitches and other strange behavior that I come across as I play Flatspace II. These may be valid problems with the game, or simply the quirks of my system/installation, but I'm collecting them here in any case. I hope they won't happen any more when the next patch is released.

The jitter-bug. Some ships get 'jittery' when I am hitting them with the machine gun or laser fire. Their ship sort of wiggles rapidly, and it looks weird.
A space station moved. I had a simple trade route going from one quadrant into another, and suddenly on one visit the base was in an obviously different place (directly next to another base, instead of on the opposite side of the sector where it was originally). It was still in the new location the next few times I came back, but eventually it returned to its former spot.
Scarrid ships docking at human stations has been known to occur in very rare situations. I don't see it as a hinderance to gameplay, although it would certainly look strange!
Ship/Station button toggle. When docked at a station, the Ship/Station buttons on the top left of the screen don't always swap correctly. Sometimes when I switch to the Ship menu, the Station Button remains highlighted, and vise-versa. Sometimes neither of the two is highlighted. Clicking again on the same button often corrects the problem. (submitted by Andrea Menga)

If you observe some strange behavior while playing Flatspace II, please let me know about it and I'll add it to the list. Even better, you can just email the developer directly, and he will get right on it.

Additional Resources

2005-11-09T06:06:00.000-08:00

LINKS

Silvermane's Flatspace FAQ

There is a ton of great information from the original Flatspace in this FAQ by Silvermane, and a lot of it still applies in Flatspace II. It's worth a read-over for sure! Maybe some enterprising individual will write an updated FAQ for the new game.

(GameFAQs does not allow direct linking, so copy this URL and paste it into your address bar to access the Flatspace II FAQ. Thanks.)
http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/flatspace.txt

Previews:
Game Tunnel preview interview
Fragtopia preview interview

Reviews: coming soon?

DOWNLOADS

Flatspace Stargrid

Exclusive new download! Mark Sheeky has created a print-quality stargrid for all you kids to use. You can print out this official map template and record data on the quadrants you visit while playing Flatspace II.

Link button
Got a blog? Livejournal? Personal website? Use our snazzy new button image to link back to this page and show your support.

General Tips - How To Succeed At Flatspace.

2004-11-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

Given the direction that the Getting Started post has gone, I thought it would be good to help new and struggling players with some general strategies that help you to live long and prosper in the Flatspace universe. Please feel free to add further posts with more strategies. Meanwhile, here's a few of mine to start you off:

USE A NOTEPAD - Seriously, if you want to develop in Flatspace you need to make notes. Stations will stock the same equipment and trade the same items every time you visit, so if you find something you want to remember, make a note of it. Then when you want to buy that new weapon you saw a few hours ago, you won't need to trawl about looking for it.

You can also map the galaxy with a printed out grid, downloadable from the game website (www.lostinflatspace.com).

PICK YOUR FIGHTS - Especially the case if you prefer to play for keeps (not undead). You start out in an small, unshielded, weakly armed vessel and virtually everyone else out there is going to blow you to bits if you cause any aggro. So don't go around blasting everyone! When you start out, take advantage of your lack of reputation to look around, earn some cash and get some decent equipment. If you attack everyone with a criminal record, you'll soon meet someone better armed than you expected.

General hints here - stick with safer sectors (those with police or trade stations) whenever possible, and remember that there is no shame in hyperspacing away from a fight you can't win. Invest in the best anti-missile system you practically can. And avoid all fights until you have a shield, or at least a good chunk of armour!

CONSERVE ENERGY - Your generator is the most crucial bit of kit you have. Without it you have no engines, no weapons and no shields. Bear in mind that all three will drain power - and the more of these systems you're using at any one time, the faster it will drain. Scanners and ECM systems also use power. Keep an eye on your power gauge and don't let it get too low!

In combat, short bursts are better than sustained blasting. Energy weapons, especially at the higher end of the scale, will suck your batteries dry very quickly, so you need to pace your shots. You may also struggle if you fly and shoot at the same time. Need to recover? Stop moving. Note that turning does not require power.

ENERGY WEAPONS vs AMMO - One of the big debates in Flatspace is which kind of weapon to use. Energy weapons never run out, but drain your power rapidly. Machine guns, rocket launchers and so on use no power, but have ammunition constraints - so they can be tricky to reload if you're far from a station with ammo supplies.

There is no right answer here - generally, weapons that use ammo are better for smaller ships with small generators, and for those who don't get into combat much. If you're blasting a lot of targets - especially if you go mining! - ammo is a real problem, and energy weapons are more effective. The basic Ion Cannon is an effective and cheap energy weapon with little punch but low power drain.

SHIPS - Remember that ships vary in speed and ability, and that bigger is not necessarily better. If you like trading, you'll want something with plenty of space but where speed is not an issue. Those in combat situations will do best with something light and fast. The Battlestation is the biggest and baddest of ships - but it's also slow, clumsy and easy to dodge or outrun, making it useless for chasing fighters.