Utopia


 PLAYING TIPS:

 Starting Out
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 There are two possible opening strategies that you can adopt.
 Which ever one you choose will dictate how the game develops for the
 first few hours, and it may well decide your ultimate fate. You can
 embark upon a plan of rapid expansion, developing your military skills
 early, and adopting an aggressive stance towards any aliens who happen
 to share your planet. Or alternatively, you can take a more passive
 stance, merely repelling enemy attacks, and placing your citizens'
 Quality of Life (QOL) as your primary concern. I favour the former
 strategy, so that's what I'll describe here.
 Establish laboratories within the first month, and start building
 spaceship factories. Start labs off with a grant of 10,000GR and
 ensure that, from the word go, each one has the maximum complement of
 scientists. This will slow down construction, but the weapons that'll
 be developed will make it worth your while. Commence work on larger
 spaceships as soon as possible. Once built, they're going to need large
 supplies of fuel, so buy this whenever the market is favourable.
 Don't bother with tank, landmines will suffice.

 Arms race
 ~~~~~~~~~
 At this stage build as many weapons as you can, as quickly as you can.
 Pay particular attention to the defence of your colony; once the enemy
 becomes aware of you, they'll attack with frequency. Surround your city
 with alternating rings of laser turrets - plasma guns later on - and
 landmines. The latter are particularly useful because you can watch the
 enemy attack then drop the mines in their paths.
 Although useful against air attacks, missiles are far too costly and can
 only be used once. The other disadvantage is that you have to launch them
 manually, whereas turrets automatically shoot at any airbourne raider who
 strays within their range. But don't just leave laser and plasma turrets
 to rotate on their own. Position them so that they're all facing outwards
 and primed.
 The sooner you send out spies, the sooner you'll receive useful
 intelligence about the enemy. When financing intelligence operations,
 you'll have to provide a constant kitty of over 20,000GR to receive the
 highest level of information.
 As you'll have gathered, this aggressive policy requires a lot of money
 to implement, so raise the tax-rate to at least 20%. Although in the
 short-term this will annoy your citizens, it helps to bring long-term
 stability. Or why not trade? Every item on the computer undergoes price
 fluctuations. Buy cheap and sell high!

 Trading Prices
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Item         Max    Min   Buy Below

 Fuel:         20     04       13
 Food:         20     05       08
 Ore:          10     01       05
 Gems          275    64       120
 Weapons:      30     01       10
 Tech Goods:   30     01       10

 Population Explosion
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 It also helps if you accept all offers of additional colonists from
 Earth. Although you have to pay for them, they represent additional
 tax revenue, builders, technical staff and procreation material!
 Whilst your colony is growing, try to keep your citizens as happy as
 possible. If you allow their food, power or air supplies run out
 frequently, you'll hamper their growth. Visit the Administrator often;
 if Production falls below Usage, immediately build more of whatever
 is needed.
 If you're trying to locate ore or fuel using the global map, it can
 often be difficult to find the mineral deposits once you return to the
 game screen. If you position markers over the deposits on the enlarged
 global map, they'll be much easier to find.

 On Manoeuvres
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 When you discover the location of the enemy's base, don't immediately
 sendall of your forces in for a do-or-die assault. Your spies can glean
 valuable information from the defeat of a small number of your men, which
 enable you to gain a more decisive victory later. After the initial buzz
 of activity, I tend to take things very gradually, slowly building my
 armies and resources until I feel ready to launch my ultimate assault.
 Perhaps you can do things differently, but hopefully these tips will
 give you the start you need.

 Genaral Tips
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Some of the information available on the Adviser Information Panels is
 not updated until the beginning of a new month. Get into the habit of
 looking at one or more of the advisers on the second of each month.
 It's particularly useful to view the Psychiatrist and Administrator
 reports and determine your priorities for the month ahead.         
 Keep a good spread of Flux Pods throughout your colony so that you can
 build freely. In particular, build Flux Pods around the edge of your
 colony allowing you to quickly expand outwards.
 With a high population, several Hospitals have a greater effect upon
 Quality of Life than just one.
 Put Income Tax straight up to twenty percent at the start of the game,
 and lower it a few percent at a time as you build up your money.
 Once you're rich, remember to reduce tax to zero percent to make your
 populous really happy! 
 If you're short of money, build lots of Workshops and Stores, and
 regularly sell the Tech Goods you produce. The same can be done with
 Chemical Plants and Fuel Tanks. 
 Invest in Scientific Research early, by building Laboratories and
 recruiting Scientists, and make sure you maintain adequate Reseach
 Grants via the Finance Screen.
 Obtaining inventions takes time, so don't waste it.
 When putting money into Research Grants, it's best to increase the
 Military and Civilian Grants by equal amounts.
 To easily stake out the location of an Ore deposit, enter the Map Screen
 and position one or more markers over a patch of Ore. Then Exit to the
 main game screen and simply build a mine over the markers that you see.
 Easy, eh? The same process works for fuel deposits, of course.
 If possible, avoid building Power Stations since they severely affect
 Quality of Life by producing hazardous waste products. Instead, try to
 build lots of Solar Panels. You'll have to build lots of Flux Pods too,
 to store power during Solar Eclipses. Another advantage is that when a
 Solar Panel is destroyed by the enemy, you only lose two megawatts of
 power generation rather than fifty megawatts of power generation if your
 power station is hit.
 Once you're at war with alien opposition, construct one or more backup
 Command Centres. You're severely hampered if your one and only Command
 Centre is destroyed. Don't forget these are critical to the security of
 your colony and are a primary target for an alien invasion force.
 Several important functions are unobtainable without an active Command
 Centre.
 When sending tanks and spaceships to attack the alien city, remember
 that large groups have a greater effect than sending just one or two
 tanks at a time. For the best results, amass tanks and ships on the edge
 of the map and then send them all off together. Another good idea is to
 build one or more Tank Yards near the edge of the map, so that you can
 send the tanks immediately to the enemy city.
 As soon as they've actually been invented, don't forget to drop Land
 Mines in front of enemy vehicles as they approach your colony.
 Learn the directions the aliens attack from and put extra defences in
 those sectors. Where terrain permits, seal off 'valleys' with a row of
 Laser Turrets or Land Mines, so that enemy land vehicles cannot pass.
 If you have a power shortage and are under attack, build Missile
 Launchers instead of Laser Turrets, since the latter require a lot more
 power to operate.
 At the start of the game build a Hospital and increase the Birth Rate
 to High, so that your population increases quickly. This gives you more
 colonists available for construction and industry. Once you're happy with
 your population size, reduce the Birth Rate back to Medium, else you will
 be forever building new Living Quarters and Hydroponics. 
 Use the quick way of placing markers, using keys [1] to [8] as described
 on page twenty in the manual.
 Regularly check your Intelligence Grant by assessing the Spy Report
 screens every few months, even if you haven't recieved any reports.
 It's best to keep your level of spying to at least normal. 
 To get extremely large radar coverage, construct Flux Pods in all
 directions, building each Pod about ten spaces out from the last, so that
 you end up with a grid of Flux Pods ten squares apart. Then build a radar
 by every Flux Pod. Your radar should now cover almost the entire map!
 If the colonists realise you don't give a toss about them you'd better
 throw in a Security HQ and recruit more security personnel.
 Build Tank Construction Yards around the perimeter of your colony so
 that tanks are ready to engage the enemy from whatever direction they
 choose to attack.
 When the space around the Tank Yard is full of tanks, move some of them
 to unprotected parts of your colony to act as sentries.
 Ideally you should have small groups of tanks everywhere so that there
 is no weak point for the enemy to use.
 Be careful of tanks getting into trouble moving around obstructions.
 Maintain 'highways' of at least two spaces wide throughout your colony
 so that tanks can move about without restrictions.