Frontier: First Encounters - Hints

(For further hints, extensive tables of prices or ship capabilities,
or the full text of possible missions, mail me at
stip2@andor.wiwi.uni-karlsruhe.de)

Pressing Shift-F1 after having saved a game returns to the game
directly, with low Stardreamer setting.

Regarding ships:
Buy a Viper for $87K once you'll have enough money to afford good
equipment. A fully equipped Cobra MK3 (for $124K) is enough for most
missions. A Harrier costs $174K, but I've never flown one.
But hey, on october 3252, Mic Turner's Requiem date, you'll
eventually be offered a *much* better one. See below.

In the beginning, you'll be travelling around trading, smuggling,
and/or completing military missions on either side. You'll learn
how to shoot pirates, shoot military satellites, and land on a
planet by hand - you'll need these skills later.

Dont forget the Cargo Bay Live Support if you plan to trade slaves
- they could turn into fertilizer...

So here are the locations of the military unions: =

Alliance:    Gateway [-1,4]
Federation:  Sol [0,0]
Empire:      Achenar[1,-4]

Later in the game, you will be given a really good ship, and here's
where you're going to travel:
Pleione 4b         [32,32]
Polaris 3d and 4a  [0,76]
Miackce            [37,144]

As that ship is fitted with a Military Class 4 drive, be warned
that it drinks 44 tons of fuel for 72 map units, so the journey
Miackce-Sol would require 91 tons of fuel. Keep that in mind!

As for the missions:
Dont take part of the Wiccan Race. It doesn't pay.
Hitchhikers are spies, of course. You have been warned. (I didn't
say not to take the mission...)
I dont know what happens if you succeed in killing Dentara Rast,
leader of the Valhallan Democratic Peace Party - I only know they
pay $50.000 for the death of the assassin!

And now, to the tough parts:
Read the newspapers and be in New Rossyth (Alioth system [0,4]) for
Mic Turner's Requiem. Donate no less than $10.000 for Mic...
That's the straightforward method. The game has several other 'very
special missions' if you miss this one.
You need a nuclear missile for the first thargoid quest to [32,32]
- by now, you know where to get one... And buy some more fuel.

You'll need at least 150 tons of fuel to complete the second thargoid
mission, so swap your large plasma accelerator for a small one.
Eventually, you'll have to wait a while till you get a message from
the thargoids. Use your navigation computer to fly to their mother
ship. If you plan to help the thargoids, dont land in Alioth on your
return. You will have to detroy the bunkers on the planet they tell
you in order to be able to mine the vaccine.

I dont know exactly what happens next. For what I've read, INRA
wants you to exterminate the thargoids with a hyper-mycoid, but
that doesn't mean you'll have to use it...

-- =

Brilliant trading route which is totaly safe!

   1: Go to sol (system)
   2: Sell all equipment except for autopilot nav computer and
      atmospheric shielding
   3: Buy enough fuel for a trip to Bernards star (near Sol)
   4: Fill up remaining cargo space with luxury goods
   5: Hyperspace to Bernards star
   6: Go to a station (use miller depot)
   7: Sell all luxury goods
   8: Buy enough fuel for a trip back to Sol.
   9: Fill up remaining space on Robots or Computers
  10: Hyperspace to Sol
  11: sell Robots or Computers for huge profit (look on bulletin board
      for special buyers)
  12: repeat until very rich

Undocumented Features:

- If you want to know what version of the game you're playing, press
  SHIFT-v a few times during the intro, while the Thargoid ship is
  shooting down the Turner and the Viper MKII.
- Before you start the game, if you press '5', it will take you straight
  to the loading commander screen, so you don't have to start every time
  by first loading the initial commander, and then your present one.
- Pressing '4' should give you your last saved commander, but doesn't
  always work.
- Pressing '1' starts you off in Ross 154, with 100 credits, and an Eagle
  MKII. Just like the recommended starting point in Frontier.
- Pressing keys 1-4 will usually select the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th option
  of an option list if you're in a space-station (or when you communicate
  in space.) This can greatly save you in mouse-clicks. Also, the arrow
  keys will scroll you through the bulletin board.
- Prt-Screen will dump a .bmp file of your screen to disk.
- You don't need to activate the Transmission jammer, no matter what the
  mission description says.
- In the galactic map, you can use SHIFT together with the cursor keys to
  speed up scrolling. Very useful in certain cases...
- Pg-Up/Pg-Dn allow you to scroll through the message area. (And the
  papers... Simultaneously.)
- If you want to change your name from commander Jameson to something
  else, go to the save page, and click on the place where it says
  Jameson. You can now change it. It's very satisfying to do this just
  after your (old) name has appeared in the paper, as the entire history
  of the universe will have changed!
- If you don't like the standard bitmaps provided as background-screens,
  you can edit cabin0.bmp-cabin6.bmp. Changes will not take place
  immediately, you need to buy a ship with a different cabin so that your
  new bitmaps are loaded.