The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Ok, I used to think I was a moderately intelligent person.  However, I've given up on that and am getting ready to have myself committed.

My question is, how the heck do I sell my crap to get RUs and buy things.  The ion bolt cannon, I need it, so I don't die in the first fight.

I've read some facts, some help, etc.  They all say, go to the Earth Starbase and you can get it there.

How!?  I go there.  The Cpt. just wants to talk and wants me to go to the moonbase.  Well, if I do that, its gonna bring in the fighter and I don't have a gun yet!  

So, yeah, I feel like an absolute moron, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to do this.

So, anyone who can explain probably the basest part of the game to me, thanks.

* Minor Spoiler *

Your Flagship starts out with an Ion Bolt cannon.
The Earthling Cruiser is ample for many of the early melee fights. If you mess around with the menus, you should have a "Manifest" option. This allows you to transfer crew between ships. Early in the game, your Flagship wont be strong enough for most fights, so its better to use it as a storage unit for crews. IE- The first Slylandro Probe you run into will be best fought with your Earthling Cruiser, but it will take damage, be sure to use the Manifest Roster to replenish its crew!

To get RUs, you talk to the starbase commander and select the dialog option "I have minerals to offload." The minerals will be offloaded. After you finish talking to Hayes (The starbase commander) a menu should show up that lets you outfit your starship and manage your fleet; however, you don't get these options (or the ability to unload minerals) until AFTER you clean the Moon up.

Go to the moon, do the Autoscan and you'll see a bunch of robots on the surface. Your Planet lander HAS a gun, and can roam the surface of the moon shooting the robots, picking up what few resources there are, and then finally going to the Moonbase.

In the scanning process, on occasion  there will be 'energy' objects. These are typically the equivalent of 'items' and whenever an energy object is collected or contact is made, there will be a text box explaining what happened and then the lander will immediately return to the ship (thus, to save fuel, it is always recommended to get 'energy' objects after you're done doing other things on the surface).

After you clear the Moon Hayes will be very happy and will outfit your starship and allow you to manage your fleet.

The Starbase isn't available until you kill the Ilwrath. And while the flagship is pretty worthless at this point in the game, you do have one escort ship which is more than capable of dealing with the already damaged Avenger.

Oh lord thank you.   I still feel like a bit of a moron, but this made it all so much clearer.

It sure is easier to blow up the enemy when you know you have guns...    :-\

Edit:

Ok, the game is awesome now.  lol   I see why it is ranked so high.  I'm gonna have some fun now. 

Thanks so much for pointing out very politely what I had been missing.  :)

Enjoy. :)

Also, just a little tip- if you didn't catch it based upon your conversation with the Ilwrath or you didn't bother delving too far into information known about each race via the Starbase, you may not notice that there's something strange about pluto...

I don't think either of those things alert you to Pluto. The commander says something if you don't go there right away, though. But really, you should probably go there as part of cleaning out the resources in the Sol system.

Dont feel stupid, I think the game has a bit of a steep learning curve probably because its rather open. When I first got it, I couldnt understand what to do and I found it so irritating.

Hey there, just registered to ask some questions.

Is the point-defense module capable of intercepting missiles and torpedos? I saw somewhere that it could keep fighters away.. but can it do the same against missiles?

Can the flagship be equiped with missile weaponry.. eventually?

Where is the so-called emmergency warp-button-taht -cost-5-fuel? Cant find it.

The traders.. they dont stay in a system very long do they? I had once i was seeing on a regular basis , and he just vanished later.

The.. evil-spidey-things, their cloaked ships...  no matter what i do i just cant beat them without dying or losing massive ammout of ressources/ irremplacable ships... And they are quite frustrating to fight.. since all i can do is lose and lose some more, and when i succeed i get pocket change as salvage. Is there a "radar" module or some gimmick that break their cloacking ability? I noticed the camera "hint", and try to use it, but its aint helping much, just delaying my inevitable defeat.

So far, i explored quite a bit of the sectors surrounding SOL, about a dozen clusters, won a few battles here and there.. and the game is quite fun if a bit slow paced and quite brutal to begginers. Cant wait to get upgrades to my ground vehicle.. my crew started to call it "redshirt express".

Twad - You're asking for quite a spoler'y answer ...
point defence - it all depends on the missile's "HP" and the strength of your point defence (amount of modules)
flagship missiles Warp button is the [ESC] on your keyboard
Traders "Spiders"
general spoiler :

I believe so.

Well, technically all its weapons are missiles. They're energy missiles, though, so perhaps not what you meant.

No, they are always there. If you don't see them, look around the various planets. They're always there somewhere.

I hate them too. Therefore I avoid fighting them altogether. If I meet one, I flee.

Ilwrath are very easy to fight with Thraddash, Spathi, Shofixti, Zoq-Fot-Pik, and Yehat. You just need to stay out of the Ilwrath's range and fire at them with your primary weapon as you run away.

Thanks!! Very helpfull tips.

Actually, I think once I got the Hellbore Canon I was able to kill them almost instantly... it helps that they're not particularly fast.

There is a module that you can get from the melnorme that gives your weapons a homing ability. If you have your first two weapon slot modules filled and the homing module you'll have a pretty ridiculous damage output (I assume this is what he was asking in regards to the 'missile' weapon). It won't work on the ilwrath though.

No, you need to be able to kill them in one hit from a distance with proper aim. Which also means that if they warp in close, you're out of luck. (When fighting them with the flagship, that is – if you use a Spathi or Thraddash, you could probably get out of the way.)

i always found vux hunting to be a very fruitful way to accumulate rus (if you can't be bothered scouring the galaxy for treasure planets)

i don't know how to put in those nifty spoiler buttons so i'm not even going to attempt to give you hints on how to find them or where

suffice to say that they're VERY aggressive towards humans and, with the right ship, easy pickins so fighting them is both profitable and somewhat satisfying

Why does everybody insist that Ilwrath are so tough? Earthling Cruisers shoot them down if you angle them right. Okay, it's a tough battle but the easiest way to own them is with the Supox.

Supox! Really! Nobody seems to use them. It's really easy.

1. Dive toward the Avenger.
2. Use the Blade's backward drive and shift side-to-side.
3. Hit those stupid spiders with the glob gun while moving, so that you cover a wide area while facing the same direction, and those fool bugs keep chasing you.

The glob gun has a green splash, so it's actually easy to see where they are so that you can pick 'em off.
It's easier with the Supox because you don't need to turn around and there's a much smaller chance of error with the nifty Blade Drive.

As for RUs... Get the self-destruct from the Sylandro, but DON'T GO BACK.

The Probes never decrease and you can FEED off their RU's!

I've been spending my time wishing for a forum like this and it turned out it was here all along.

Not going back doesn't stop the gradual deterioration of the presence of Slylandro Probes. It starts when you get the self-destruct code.

JSYK, Avenger is well accepted to be a counter to Earthling Cruiser, and to be very weak against most other ships.

I actually thought that Mahar was right, based on the dialog. But I checked the code, and I can confirm that jaychant was right: as soon as you get the destruct code, the Slylandro Probe numbers will begin to decrease.

I could have confirmed it from experience, too; I remember the probes decreasing after I got the destruct code.

Ahh curses. Why haven't they disappeared? I still can't go four AUs without one of 'em popping in front of me. Maybe because I took to long.

Who woulda guessed that the GAS GIANT was the one I was supposed to look in?
I thought the Zoq-Fot-Pik had gone nuts.