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From: kkeranen@kontu.utu.fi
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: re: Reach For The Stars
Message-ID: <1991Apr11.153556.38061@kontu.utu.fi>
Date: 11 Apr 91 15:35:56 GMT
Lines: 99

>There sure are.  Sometimes entire task forces will just disappear
>for not reason.  This pisses me off.  It happens fairly frequently,
>and I sent that tape back with a fairly detailed description of the
>bug, and they just sent me another copy of the same disk.  Oh well.

I had this problem and some other weird bugs. Most of them have been
history since I began NOT to restore previous turns while playing. If
I want to restore game I always reboot the machine. My version 3.01 
still has some annoying features like awfully sticky windowing. 

 	And now some answers to Ken

>I have, however, noticed a bug in the amiga version.  If you run under
>1.3, it crashes when you try to save the game (it comes with WB 1.2 on
>the disk, and seems to work ok under that).  

My version (3.01) works fine with 1.3 . I have even installed the game
on my hard disk.

>I would also like to know if it is possible to change the amount of 
>global RP's that you start the game with - you used to be able to change
>this on the C64 version.  As far as the interface goes, to be honest, I
>prefer the C64's a little.  The information is better organized on the
>C64 version.

Yes, the interface is sticky... There is no direct way to change global RP's ,
but if you have newzap (or other disk editor), do this: Save current game
and newzap this save_game_file. Global RP data is located at sector 16, 
position 1DA,1DB. Now just change this hex-value, save file back to disk
and resume game.

I always play with random star setup, advanced scenario and enchanced
veterans ( I may have also other options). Enchanced veterans made good
resistance in the beginning but now they are no match to me. Here is my basic
strategy:
Consentrate early in the game expanding and building your economic base 
(unless you discover enemy planet very early, when you should use all your
efforts to totally wipe him out). I start investing on ind. tech at the 
first turn by cutting initial army to 2 (leaving 4 PDBs) and not spending
all RPs on planetary industrial level. Don't waste your RPs on nav tech
or ship tech unless it's vital. The idea is to first increase ind tech to 3
and then, with more resource points, rapidly increase ship tech to 3. This
stage is usually critical since you probably have enemy contact before 
reaching ship tech 3. You may need to leave some of your newer planets under
enemy control for the time being, in order to gain more time to fortifying
your border planets. It's important not to panic under enemy advance. Once
I had to fall back so far, that I had only three planets left. I heavily
fortified these three planets (80-150 PDBs, Mk III) and computer opponent
focused on other enemies. So I got time to build up to MK IV and I eventually
won that game.

I use the following methods when colonising new planets: I drop the first 5
colonists on the planet during the movement only turn. I keep the population
low (5-6) until environment reaches 40.(BTW, you should't colonise planet
if you don't have RPs to fully invest on social environment. If planetary
env. is low, invest on it, too). At this point it's best to increase
environment to 90. Having environment level at 100 is NOT profitable until
ind tech 3 and planetary industrial level 107 (or ind tech 4 and planet
ind level 92), that's easy to calculate. I have found this matter very
significant. Also reserve enough global RPs to support planets industry.

The first principal stage was expanding. The second one is fortifying which
I described briefly. During the second stage you should prepare for the
final stage, the offensive stage. When you have secured your borders ( I
usually build a medium size MK III war ship navy for backup defensive force
if I'm not sure my PDBs can stand attacks) you should still colonise new
planets. The colony size is in the end the only thing that counts. If there
are no good planets nearby, you can use two different techiques. 
1. Colonise one poor planet(in the edge of your territory) for one turn in 
order to use this planet as temporaly base. From this planet you might be
able to send task forces (with enough transports!) to unexplored planets.
If you don't support this temporal base, you lose only 5 transports.
2. Send 15 or more transports (maybe with escorts) to planet where exists
enemy war ships. When the battle begins do NOT crush the enemy, but choose
to withdraw. Now you can withdraw your ships to most planets in the galaxy,
even outside the navigational range.

The final phase begins by increasing your industrial tech and ship tech to
4. Now you can build your attack force(s) based on MK IV ships. While
first conquering back those planets that you lost before, increase nav tech
to 4, if it's not already. Now it's time for the final offensive. If you
don't have enough native planets, you can choose one enemy planet and kill
the enemy population in the following way: first bombard the PDBs down (It's
important to notice that PDBs can't effectively resist MK IV warships). Don't
drop too much soldiers on the planet, just enough to wipe the enemy out.
This should have happened during movement only turn. Now comes the 
production turn. Do NOT use RPs on ANYTHING, that is: army support=0, pop.
service=0. So remove all RPs that are more than 0 by dafault. Next turn
you should have at least 10 MK IV warships and 1 transport in orbit. As
you have no garrison left on the planet, you may attack the planet and
the population decreases. Because you don't support population either,
social environment and industry decreases and that also decreases population.
You can go on like this by attacking planet every turn and dropping one
soldier at even turns in order to own the planet during production. Finally
there are no enemy left. The drawback with this method is that if planets
industrial is above 100, it will cut down to 100.

                     
			Kimmo