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    Star Command, 1988 Guide By Jason Leong aka jasonred

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A. Background:

Well, first off, a bit of info about this Star Command. This game apparently 
has nothing to do with Star Command : Revolution or Star Command : Deluxe. 
Unlike the other, newer two, this game was made in 1988 by Winston Douglas 
Wood and Eric Liebenauer. It's a turn based game, and the emphasis seemed to 
me to be on managing your funds and equipment, with actual combat fairly 
simple to get through, based on how you set up your stats, items, and ship.


B. Playing the game:

GET THE MANUAL!!! Without it, this game is impossible to play. You can 
download it at Home of the Underdogs www.the-underdogs.org.  They are 
WONDERFUL people, send them money!

Note: ENTER cancels commands!

First off, you need to create your team of pilot, co-pilot, and 6 away team 
members. The 6 are the only ones who actually do any fighting AND fire the 
ships guns. Create team members one by one, P is pilot, C is copilot, 1-6 
are away team. You will first roll their stats (reject until you get someone 
you like), then choose their areas of training. Note that they can fail to 
qualify and get assigned something else. There is also the chance of a 
random promotion each year of training. Then name the character.

Next, buy your ship. I recommend the cheapest one, and 3 hypervelocity 
torpedoes in slots 1,2,6. Which are the forward facing guns, by the way. 
(gun numbering is in clockwise order, starting from front). Give it some 
armor... 500 will do.

Next, buy weapons and armor for your crew. REMEMBER that everything is menu 
driven! ENTER cancels. Armor is a MUST in this game, price lists given in 
manual. Damage done and received is weapon damage - armor plus some 
randomness. So weapons which do 10 damage will be almost useless against 
armor of 10, weapons which do 12 will be almost guarantedd never to 
penetrate armor of 16.

Fuel your ship, Christen it, save game! Ask HQ for your next mission!


*****************************SPOILER***************************

You will be given 17 missions over the course of the game. But you can still 
play after completing your last mission.

*****************************SPOILER***************************


While running around space, you will invariably get in combat, in space and 
on foot. Both are simple, move and shoot, though moving only seems important 
in ship-to-ship combat to me... unless you want to run away of course, in 
which case high movement rate is VERY important.

It's a simple game to get used to, getting GOOD is another matter, but 
easily achieved by my splendid semi-step by step tips section.




C. Tips:


The pilot and co-pilot only need intelligence, as they mainly contribute 
with their Piloting and Decoding skills respectively, with additional duties 
of possible on-ship medic and repairman divided up between the two. For the 
6, you will probably want one ESPER, who MUST have 51 or above on his Psi 
roll. Preferably higher, but the max is 60. Refer to the manual for 
explanations of the other stats. For the other 5 guys, you want high 
Accuracy, Speed and Strength, in that order. Others are a bonus.
Train the pilot to Pilot skill level 3, the copilot  decoder level 3 and 
pilot level 1. Esper Psi 3, 5 others SHOULD get Heavy 3. One person should 
definitely be a marine, and train Scouting level 3.
You should also train your pilot and copilot in Repair and Medical, one 
each. LEAVE THEIR COMBAT SKILLS ALONE! Those two will NEVER step outside of 
their cockpits. Don't bother with astrogunner either, as they don't get to 
fire the guns... weird!
MAKE SURE to train your 5 fighters in Heavy weapons 3. Your ESPer should 
also get Astrogunner 3, as he's the only one able to learn and USE the 
skill.

Since the requirements for the pilot and co-pilot are so easy, I suggest you 
keep trying and retrying for them until you get characters with TWO random 
promotions. Send these characters to Officer School, and you'll start the 
game with them 4 ranks higher than normal! This is VERY useful, as this game 
is money intensive, and your wages are dependant on rank, with the highest 
rank being 12 promotions total, and giving 30 times the amount of money of a 
starting character.

Promotions:

You get promotions RANDOMLY at two times, when training your beginning 
characters, or upon completing a mission. I personally recommend saving just 
before completing the mission, and restoring if no one got a promotion. In 
my last game, I decided that I WOULD get my copilot to rank of Grand 
Admiral, and only accepted games where he had gotten a promotion. Since 
there are only missions in the game, your basic chances of getting a Grand 
Admiral are slim, unless you're stubborn like me.

Playing tip:

I abused Alt-Esc then closed window when things were going really badly, or 
when trying for promotions.

Missions:

Every time you request a mission, the game picks one from a choice of three. 
Which are often very similiar, if not exactly the same. The Princess 
Versilda one is a headache, unavoidable, and her location is chosen from 3 
spots depending which mission you got. (all have the same text, dammit!)
I used Alt-Esc sometimes when I didn't like my mission.

COMBAT:

This is the biggy in this game. First, let's start with ship to ship combat.

Movement is important when you want to board your opponent's ship. Either 
cause you can't beat them in ship to ship, but can on foot, or for the extra 
booty. Both are GOOD reasons. You'll need to be faster than them to get 
close enough though, as they like keeping a set distance. ALL robot ships 
have a movement of 6 and thus can never be boarded. (unless you bust their 
engines or something, but it's never happened to me) Lizard ships are DEAD 
slow. Also, you can only board the LAST REMAINING ship in each ship-to-ship 
combat.
Also, you need movement to TURN your ship, so if you have awful movement and 
only front facing weapons, you might be in trouble sometimes.

Usually though, firepower and defence are the key elements. Ship Armor is 
basically Hit Points, though it IS possible to penetrate when low, more 
common is it being reduced to zero or near zero and internals being damaged.
Damage= weapon power- Shield Defence in that region. The weakest weapons 
will NEVER penetrate the best shields, so you HAVE to upgrade at some point, 
no matter HOW good you are. Same for personal weapons.

You'll usually get by by just aiming your ship at an enemy and firing all 
forward guns at it. Later, with the bigger ships, more money, and tougher 
enemies, I bought guns for all 6 positions and fired backwards at the same 
time.
Against Robot ships, you'll have a hard time hitting them unless you aim for 
1-2 rounds before firing.


TACTICS:

Despite what the manual claims, the only tactics I used were face opponent 
and blast it, rush in close and board, and run away. I'll cover these in 
reverse order.

There are two ways to run away. The first is to move away from your 
opponent. You automatically escape when an enemy ship is more than 1.5 
screens away from you. Obviously, you have to be faster than your 
opponents... Note that this applies to EACH ship... you can reduce the 
number of enemies you face this way, but running until only one enemy is in 
scannable range, then fight/board him. Use the SCAN option!
The second way is Hyperspace. This works quite well, but it uses up 40 
fuel... which is a LOT for the smaller ships.

Rushing close and boarding, you have to move right up to them by the end of 
the movement phase. You'll need to be faster than them. Very good for 
defeating ships with superior firepower, and making money. ALSO NOTE!!! 
Early on, your fuel capacity is low. Capturing ships, or demanding fuel from 
them is the ONLY way to refuel when far from base (unless you are lucky 
enough to find a planet which sells fuel... there are a few.)

Blasting away is pretty obvious. Early on, I just get 3 guns facing front, 
and hammer away. IMHO, the ammo based weapons are much better than the beam 
weapons. Range, damage, hit rate... the only thing is, they use up ammo. 
BUT, the guns use up one Fuel per SHOT! This is makes the gauss cannon 
AWFUL, since it fires 5 times a round (for lousy damage), it uses up 5 fuel 
a round... Stick 6 of those on the smaller ships, and prepare to float 
around in space awaiting rescue...


SHIP ECONOMY:

This is probably one of the most important aspects of ship to ship combat! 
My advice is to try surviving with the cheapest stuff you can for as long as 
possible before each upgrade, as you lose a LOT on resale each time.

Recommendation: (ship type, armor, shields, weapons, defense system, missile 
killer)
I give the Acronyms for some weapons and Equipment here.


Start Game:		Hornet	500	-	3 Hypervelocity Rocket 	-	-

Early Game:		Hornet	500	-	1 Ranger Missile	-	-
(you need to penetrate some heavy shielding at some point!)

Mid Game  :Dagger/Salamander	999	4 SASS	3 Bofors Medium		MT 	-

As soon as you can afford it!!!:

Warrior	999	?	?	Inertialess Drives	-
(You'll be travelling FAR away, the fuel capacity helps loads. With all that 
fuel, you can go to hyperspace whenever combat is rough. Inertialess Drives 
make you harder to hit, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, they raise your movement to 6, 
so you can board enemy ships!

Final Set-up:

Warrior	999	4VSS	6 Antimatter Missile,	Inertialess Drives,	Skynet 
Antimissile



Final Note:

I STILL hate Robot Ships, and run away most of the time.



PERSONAL COMBAT:

It's all in the stats and equipment. Remember, Mindshock is a GUARANTEED HIT 
FOR FULL DAMAGE. Darn good against armor or hard to hit opponents.

Since I recomment boarding most of the time, you should buy personal weapons 
and armor before ship equipment.

PanzerJaggers are the best weapon, NO CONTEST. I suggest 5 of these, and 
your ESPer sticking to ESP. Give him a Lightsword, just for fun. You might 
also get him a slivergun, it's VERY useful for shooting down steel doors 
when your lockpicking fails.

Armor is CRUCIAL! I started off with the Microbonded, since it was cheap 
(but HEAVY!) Then Stabilized Neutronium Plated Armor, I got that around the 
same time as my PanzerJaggers. Eventually, you'd want Electroactive Armor 
(probably, but you could stick with SNPP)

Once you get good armor and weapons, put all your points from training into 
accuracy and speed. Speed to help you fire first. I use offensive terrain to 
get combat over with quickly.

Movement rate sucks sometimes, as I rarely get into hand to hand combat. It 
affects fatigue though, and higher amounts make your character harder to 
hit...

There are many COMPULSORY fights... running away means you have to return 
and try again. So, speed's not that good.

Make sure one of your landing party has medical skill! Also, remember to 
repair your weapons, and switch to them once they're repaired.


General Tips:

Later on, ALWAYS use motion and radiation detectors when exploring!
There is no penalty for cowardice, running away, bribing opponents...
There is also no penalty for attacking civilians and their ships! Kill em, 
rob em!
Though the game doesn't say so, you DO get money as spoils from battle, not 
just from bounty from your base.
I recommend spending at least 2 months each mission, as you get more salary 
that way.
Having a Grand Admiral by mission 9 is GREAT, you get an extra 90,000 per 
mission...
Remember to use the training sessions you get from completing missions! 
Train your 5 fighters in Heavy Weapons, and your ESPer in ESP and 
Astrogunner. Give one of your landing party Medical skills too.
I ALWAYS save before completing a mission, and reload if my future Grand 
Admiral doesn't get promoted.
I also save before asking for a mission, and reload if I didn't like it.
The power of the ship doesn't seem to correspond much to the power of it's 
crew defending it... BOARD THEM!
Torches are USELESS!!! just buy a slivergun and ammo for it, it's cheaper, 
more effective, weighs less, and you can also use it to shoot. Torches are 
inferior in EVERY way!
You won't need the oxygen stuff until mission 11.
You won't need radiation detectors until mission 6.
You can go on Espionage Missions on High-Tech Planets. You'll find items, 
there are 8 items you can get from each species (robot, human, lizard, 
insect) You get a couple of thousand credits for each item brought back to 
base, not bad!
You can also get The Insect Battle Plans and Robot Battle Computer from the 
Bar at 11,22. which are also espionage items.




WALKTHROUGH: Spoilers Galore!


S
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W
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Get your first mission, I recommend reloading until you get the Vaccine 
Mission. Waste 2 months after collecting the vaccine, save game. Deliver the 
vaccine, return to base. Reload if your "promotion" character hasn't been 
promoted. (We're aiming for a Grand Admiral by mission 9, so we need to 
start with 4 promotions and one per mision)

Second mission, waste 2 months, save, blow em all up. They're defenseless, 
so don't bother boarding, and you don't have to buy good weapons. Just one 
HyperVelocity Rocket will do.

3rd, the ship DOES have some defensive systems. If you're lucky, you got the 
"engineless" mission. Just circle around to his back and blow him apart at 
leisure.
Or just board him.

4th, you had BETTER have the PanzerJaggers and armor. If your scout fails to 
picklock the vault (buy a picklock kit!), you could just shoot it with the 
slivergun... alternatively, just go to the console in the opposite corner of 
the station, and ask the robots to clean the vault... evidently, they forget 
to lock it when they leave...
Before accessing the console, return to base and save. Find out about 
Blackbeard from console, return to base. Reload if no promotion. (known as 
RINP henceforth)

5th, Save game. You fight 2 privateers, regardless of actual mission. 
They're not too tough, just make sure to fight them one at a time. I usually 
board the second one. RINP.

6th mission, if you leave the base and return before killing Blackbeard, 
you'll fight ANOTHER Corsair. I didn't care, since I just boarded it and 
towed it back home for mucho money.
The actual base is quite fun. MAKE SURE to use a RADIATION DETECTOR though.
Swipe the money from the alien! Whee, what fun! IGNORE the acidic slime 
things.
There are 2 ways to get at Blackbeard himself. First is blowing up the 
gambling machine, then making your way past SEVEN titanium doors with 
ridiculous amounts of hp. I lockpicked 3, failed one and shot it up, 
lockpicked another, then gave it up as a loss. You might be luckier or more 
persistant though.
The second, and more fun way, is to go to the bar and buy the Supernova. 
look at it... take it, DO NOT DRINK IT!!! Go west, pour it into the drill, 
(ENTER COMMAND: FUEL, DRINK) go north. (I returned to base and saved game at 
this point) Whack Blackbeard!
Return to base, get MAJOR reward. RINP.
After that, go back to the base, there's 50,000 credits in the NorthWest 
Corner.

7th, pick up stuff, go to base, save. Waste time for two months, Save. 
Deliver stuff, RINP. DEAD EASY.

8th, THIS IS A HEADACHE, especially if you want a promotion for it! Being 
stubborn, I saved after accepting the mission, found her, wrote down where 
she was, then followed the RINP rule. aargh.
This mission will be MUCH easier if you upgrade to a ship with at least 200 
fuel. It's doable if you take fuel from other ships though. there's also 
some planets where you can buy fuel from.
To find the silly girl, jump in a black hole. Don't worry, you take no 
damage. What's bad is there is more than one black hole, and they each lead 
to a differnt place...
Princess Versilda is on one of the planets nearby. (there's often a LOT to 
choose from). When you scan the correct planet, you will receive a 
transmission. You don't have to be able to decode it, just cargo pick up.
Interestingly enough, you will have Princess Versilda in your cargo hold for 
the rest of the game. You can even sell her... this MUST be a bug.
Grand Admiral, 45,000 a month, woohoo!!! Wanna get another?



9th. If you've been lucky so far, this will be your first encounter with the 
ROBOT SHIPS. Don't bother trying to board them, or any other fancy flying 
manuevers, including running away. (only Hyperspace will work). Worse, this 
is a FORCED combat, so you MUST defeat them. Hyperspace and bribing are only 
temporary escapes.
They've got STRONG forcefields, it was at THIS point that I upgraded to a 
RANGER Missile and sold off my HyperVelocity Missiles for good. (before, I 
had either run away, or boarded stronger opponents)
They are hard to hit, so you'll have to AIM for a round before shooting. I 
also put my ESPer in charge of that gun, so his Astrogunner skill came into 
play.
You might need some shields too, since they're pretty accurate and hit hard.
Not too hard, if you're properly equipped. Which you SHOULD be, if you 
followed my "Get a Grand Admiral" plan.


10th mission is another pick up and deliver. If you're lazy, just save 
before requesting mission, and reload until you get the Guagle Fish Mission, 
as you can get the Fish from the lab planet itself via Scientific 
Investigation...

11th mission, you MUST get the full oxygen set for all 6 people. Visit 
unique location to access the base.
ATTACK the insects before they can wake up fully!
This base is fairly simple. You can ask the Insect about "You", "insect", 
"Base" and "Door"
To unlock the vault door, just set both dials to 0. Simple!
DON'T try blowing up the computers, as you get blasted.

12th, you've got to negotiate the maze and get the gems in the 3 corners, 
then return to the Hermit in the NW corner. Ask him about "Insect"
This place is full of robots, which are tough. Fortunatly, there's a good 
chance of a truce for most of the combats. And ESP works on them for some 
reason.


13th, the bar is in 11,22 (6,3). As gotten from the computer in the first 
base you visited.
LOTS of fights here, I hated  this stage. Anyhow, the human player will give 
you info when you lose a hand to him. Pretty useful.
Based on what he told you, you should go to the stores outside the bar and 
get the Dosnebian Brandy. (you can do it without talking to the human) Play 
21 with the lizard until he falls over. Search him. Joy!
Search the ships outside. There are enemies in some ships. The codes for the 
robot ships are 2468 and 1357.
Watch out for the Security Systems!


14th. The birds are just for fun. The coins have a trap, you can find it by 
SEARCHing. 30,000 credits, not bad.
Again, blow up the insects before they can wake up.
Do NOT enter the sourthernmost door, it is full of radiation bombs! Leave 
immediately!
Take the fork, later on. Use it in the Armored room, and take the cover. Use 
the cover in the corridorwhen the nozzle appears.
The password can be found by using the ESP skill VIEW in the NW corner of 
this base. Other methods MAY be possible. Or, I could just tell you, it's 
THPI.
Either shoot the computer, or tell it to DETONATE.
Run like heck.

15th. You had better have a good ship by now, as you have to fight your way 
past the insect fleet to find and destroy their flagship. Good money blowing 
up the armada ship by ship though.


16th. Ask about Insect. Space Hermit will direct you to a lizard base, which 
is fairly simple. Just get eggs from the broken incubator, use eggs on the 
statue. You'll get captured at some point, but clever use of electrical 
wires will get you free.
Get the Death Gem, return to the Hermit and Ask about Insect.

17th. Final Mission, so make sure your have the best gear. The Queen's ship 
seems to be random, it's speed is sometimes 6, and 5 others. I boarded it 
the other times. Face my PanzerJaggers! Or just blow the ship up.
Note: If you board the ship, kill the queen, then surrender to the remaining 
enemy, if any, they evidently resurrect the queen, cause the ship will 
appear again, with the queen alive!


Return to base, and celebrate your victory!


Thanks to Underdogs for the introducing me to the game, and to the 
developers for this simple, yet fun game!

