General Info about the game.

Currently there are 5 star systems:

• Alpha Centauri
• Barnards Star
• Sirius (newest discovered)
• Sol
• Tau Ceti

And another 7 are planned for the future...

All planets follow roughly circular orbits around the stars that they orbit. The orbits are calculated and created in 3D to provide some variance. Planets travel around their orbits at varying speeds, and have different year lengths as a result.

The game has been running since Jan 1st 2003.

Scores are worked out using a combination of your mission rating, current cash and value of your ship. Scores are updated at roughly 5 mins past each hour.

Here are the score markers points and the ratings at present:

Score	Rank
0	Harmless
1000	Mostly Harmless
2000	Poor
4000	Below Average
8000	Average
16000	Above Average
32000	Competent
256000	Dangerous
786000	Deadly
1500000	Elite!

Note: The asterisks by names on the top scores lists are players that you can attack (either they are within the score range or they are on the most wanted list).

A new feature added to the game are Restricted Planets.

Restricted Planets are much like normal planets however their authorities don't just let any old riff raff to dock.

Access to these planets will be granted to those who achieve certain tasks or achievements within the game, and they will receive a special invitation directly through the in-game message system, so keep you eyes peeled for one.

These planets all have exclusive features not found anywhere else in the game, so it is well worth finding out what you have to do to be granted access to them.

There are currently three restricted planets: Refuge (a pirate world in Alpha Centauri), Navy HQ (a navy base in Sol) and the mythical Bikini Model World (A tropical paradise in the Sirius System)

Note: How do I know if I have access?. Well if you have been granted access, navigate to the Encyclopaedia Planetary and click on one of the restricted planets. If you can travel there, the detail page will tell you so.

Note: How do I travel to the planet?. Upon getting access, you will notice an additional section available on the normal travel pages, where, in the drop down list of planets there will be a brand new section at the bottom called Restricted Planets, and it will list all the planets to which you have been granted access.

Note: The adventurous amongst you might consider navigating there by dead reckoning (using coords). It may work, it may not ;).

Note: Capsules. Players "fortunate" enough to find themselves in an escape capsule near a restricted planet will be granted temporary access to that planet whilst they remain in the capsule. It's worth noting that not every restricted planet will have a wide range of ships or even a shipyard, so you may find yourself off somewhere else afterwards anyway.

Travel is done through the Travel screen located in the left hand menu. Once there you can either enter the coordinates manually or you can select your destination from the pull down menu.

Stargates are used in the game to make traveling between star system much sorter. Your ship will automatically use a SG when you set a course to one of the planets within another star system.

Note (travel screen): Also on this screen is a time check and nearest planet option. To use the time check select the destination of where you might want to go and either select where you will travel from or leave it set to 'where I am', click on calculate and you will be told how long it will take to travel between the two locations using your current engine. To use the nearest planet option simply click the 'find!' button and you will be told the nearest planet to you (if you are currently at a planet this option will tell you the next nearest planet).

Note (Stargates): While in hyperspace (traveling between 2 stargates) you cannot engage another ship in combat.

Note (SG engines): Ships fitted with SG drives do not need to use the fixed stargates, once the travel coordinates have been set to another star system the ship will move to a safe distance from a planet and open its own stargate there, while also creating one near by your destination. These temporary stargates can only be used by the ship creating them and they will disappear after exiting hyperspace.

I've just seen a UFO!. All flashing lights and a strange 5-note repeating sound.

What was it and where was it from?.

No one knows anything about the UFO's. One minute there were none, then there were thousands and now there are none again. All very strange indeed

Details of reported ship specs to follow.

Links to mission-related FAQ.

All players in AoA have a mission rating. This is used to determine which missions are available to a player on the planetary mission boards.

A players exact mission rating is not visible within the game. Therefore you can only see how you rate relative to other players using the M/Rank, or Mission Rank. This is visible on the Top Scores pages

There are currently 14 different mission ranks.

• Brigand
• Robber
• Thief
• Not ranked
• Courier
• Trader
• Dealer
• Merchant
• Privateer
• Industrialist
• Entrepreneur
• Mogul
• Magnate
• Tycoon

Note: You need to have taken at least one mission before you will receive a rating other than Not Ranked.

Note: Brigand, Robber and Thief correspond to negative mission ratings, for example where the player has accepted missions but then sold the cargo without delivering it to the destination.

Note: There is an upper limit to the available missions above which a higher player mission rating will not reveal any more missions.

Well, you have. If you're asking this question then you've been late for a mission, but eventually delivered it.
When you become late for a mission you will receive a notice from the mission owner. At this point you are also "fined" by the mission owner, for the same amount of credits that you have been offered to complete the mission.
When you finally deliver the mission you receive the reward as normal. However because you've already been deducted the same amount of credits as you've just recieved, it appears at first as though you haven't been paid. But you have.
This is used as an incentive to make players deliver missions on time.

Put simply, you lose the value of the mission from your credits, your game mission rating decreases, and (UG missions only) the goods are confiscated, your legal status increases and you get fined by the police.

Each mission has a certain rating (other than its credit value), this goes towards your overall mission rating, if you fail a mission its rating goes against your player mission rating..

UG missions typically have greater ratings because of their nature and so failing or succeeding at one will give greater bonuses/demerits. Further more, being caught smuggling will increase your legal status

Your overall player mission rating is used to determine what kind and how many missions you will be given in future, so if you have a good rating you will have more options when you come to look in the missions section.

Note: You cannot view your exact player mission rating anywhere in the game.

Note: There are seperate mission boards on each planet.

Note: Your wanted status will decrease with time but at a slow rate.

Note: If you have a negative M/rank your mission score gradually returns to zero over a couple of days.

Probably because you have a low Mission Rating, as a consequence of failing too many missions. You will need to wait a little bit to have it go back up. In the meantime try trading or mining.

Becoming either of these is simple, select 'Assassinations Board' from the left hand menu and take up one of the missions listed (all non-cargo related missions are assassination missions ie if it says biographical or a player is to be inhumed it is to be considered an assassination mission). Failure to complete these missions will earn you a bad reputation and may lead to less and less missions being available.

Note: You need to have a Legal status of anything apart from Clean for assassination missions to be visible

Note: Completion of these missions may raise your criminal rating and will get you in trouble with the police (if no one is around then your rating will not increase, players in the area are given the choice to report you, NPC's will randomly report or ignore your actions).

Important Note: Assassination missions cannot be completed late. If you have not managed to shoot your target down by the mission deadline, you have effectively failed the mission and are punished as with late cargo missions. Shooting them down after the due date will not result in getting payment late (unlike cargo transport missions where you do get reimbursed for late missions), but will result in you gaining more criminal rating and you will lose even more mission ranking as they will now class as failed missions.

Information on a player/NPC is obtained through the 'Target Tracker' link in the left hand menu. Click this link and enter the name of the player/NPC you wish to find, if you have entered correctly and the person exists you will be asked for a payment of 1,500 Cr to find out the information, agreeing to this will allow you to see the information as to the targets current location and heading (if any).

Note: There is a chance this information may not be correct, the spy network while being wide and far spread can sometimes yield bad results...

Put simply, you've gone into orbit around the star. Sol is at 0.000,0.000,0.000 so when you moved to 0,0,0 your status changed to in orbit and you cannot attack whilst docked or in orbit around a planet/star

If you move to the exact coordinates of an object (planet, star, space station etc) then the game will dock you to it. This is hard to do for planets as they move and the game only gives the player 1 dp of coords so guessing the exact coords is tough. Because most stars are fixed and positioned to 1 decimal place, you can easily dock at a star by moving to its exact coords.

If you are docked at a star, the game marks you as being "in orbit" (it used to say docked, but someone pointed out that you couldn't dock at a star so andyb changed it to say "in orbit" instead)

Move as little as 0.001 coord in any direction and you should be able to attack the target. They are spawned near to 0,0,0 and not on exactly 0.000,0.000,0.000 so should be attackable.

All players in AoA can now earn ranks in the Navy. Navy ranks are attained for completion of military missions, available throughout known space on mission boards where the mission owner is a member of the military.

While a player's exact Navy rating is not revealed to them, the top score page has been updated to include another column called Navy Rank. This will be one of the following ranks, and will give some indication of their status in the military, and upon reaching a commissioned rank, the successful pilot will be granted access to the Navy HQ base in the Sol system where a range of unique features will be available to those of sufficient rank. You'll have to gain those ranks to find out what they are though!.

Occasionally special missions will be available and those will allow the successful player to advance through the ranks faster

There are 49 different Navy Ranks
Note: Navy Ranks are achieved automatically through the completion of the Military transport missions that are available throughout the mission boards on the various worlds

Note: Ranks below 2nd Lieutenant are non-commissioned ranks and do not entitle the player to dock with the Navy HQ in the Sol System

Note: Ranks from 2nd Lieutenant upwards in seniority are commissioned ranks and grant the player access to the Navy HQ in Sol, where a number of special features are available to those of sufficient rank!.

Note: Players who have a criminal rating will not be able to achieve a commissioned rank within the military, nor will they be granted access to the Navy Base.

Note: Players who gain sufficient rank and then get a criminal rating will be punished accordingly.

All players in AoA can chose to join the criminal underworld organisation known as the Ashen Alliance. The origins and home world of the alliance are shrouded in mystery. However there is a smugglers stronghold in the Alpha Centauri system where you will be able to discover more, but access is only granted to criminals who have proven their worth to the alliance by completing criminal acts

An indication of a players current alliance standing can by found on the score board and in the Badges section of the home page. This will be one of the following ranks, and will give some indication of their reputation in the Ashes Alliance, and upon reaching a certain level, the successful pilot will be granted access to Refuge in the Alpha Centauri system where a range of unique features will be available to those of sufficient rank. You'll have to gain those ranks to find out what they are though!.

Occasionally special missions will be available and those will allow the successful player to advance through the ranks faster

There are 33 known Criminal Ranks
Note: Your standing in the Ashen Alliance can be enhanced through the completion of illegal acts (piracy, assassinations etc.) or by completing smuggling missions that are available throughout the various worlds

Note: Refuge also plays host to a Pirate shipyard where unique ships and weapons will become available to the aspiring criminal, once they reach an appropriate level within the Ashen Alliance

Once a player reaches a certain rank with the Navy or standing with the Ashen Alliance they can chose to engage in combat missions. Combat missions come in two flavours, Assassinations and Legal Bounty Hunting.

Assassination missions are issued by the Ashen Alliance and involve the hunting down and elimination of enemies of the alliance, in the form of influential citizens, politicians and failed smugglers to un-bribable Police and Military officers who stand in the way of the Alliance's aims.

Note: Assassination missions are illegal and will incur the criminal records associated with committing crime.

Legal Bounty Hunting missions, on the other-hand, are issued by the Galactic Police and Naval Forces and involve the shooting down of known petty criminals and suspected smugglers, through the Thugs and Enforcers, all the way up to the shadowy leaders of the Ashen Alliance itself.

Note: Legal Bounty Hunting missions are legal, and will not generate criminal ratings. You should also invest in a Bounty Hunter License to gain additional credits.

Occasionally special missions will be available and those will allow the successful player to advance through the ranks faster

There are 25 known Bounty Hunter Reputations
There are 25 known Assassin Reputations
Note: Unique weapons will become available to the aspiring assassins, once they achieve sufficient reputations with the relevant organisations. These will be available on Refuge or Navy HQ depending on the path you have taken.

Note: Your reputation as an Assassin is shared between the legal and illegal branches and you can take on and complete missions for whichever faction you currently qualify for. Unique rewards are however faction specific.

Got an itchy trigger finger? The following FAQ's relate to combat.

This symbol by a player name simply denotes a player that you can attack (they are within your score range or they are on the most wanted board).

You may only attack another player or NPC (Non Player Character) if all the following conditions are met:

• You and your target must both be out of your 3 day 'grace' period (The first 3 days from when you signed up are considered your 'grace' period where by you cannot attack anyone nor can anyone attack you). Once your ship has been destroyed your new grace period will be 72 hours
• You and your target must be away from a planet
• Your target must be within your weapons range (if you have bought a better scanner you may be able to detect other craft further out but your weapon may not be able to fire that far)
• Your targets score must be in the range of 60% to 167% of your score (This does not apply to NPC targets or the top10 MW). To find out your score or your targets score check the 'Top Scores' link from the left hand menu)
• The players who you can attack are marked with a *.
  
• Neither you or your target must be in hyper-space, the speeds involved make it impossible to shoot

If all these conditions have been met you may attack a target. To do so, from the main page ('Details' in the left hand menu) click on the link where it says 'Your scanner has detected X ships within scanning range' (where X is the number of ships currently within your scan range). From there you will be able to see a list and some details about the other craft around you.

If you are able to attack any of them an 'Attack' button will appear on the right hand side by that person. Clicking on this will start you attacking that person. You may only fire a limited number of times every hour, the number of shots you have remaining is shown at the bottom of the screen.

Warning: Attacking another player/NPC without first purchasing a 'bounty hunter license' will result in your criminal rating going up, if your criminal rating becomes too high any local police will begin to follow and fire upon you, also the bounty on your head will increase.

Your Grace Period lasts 72 hours from when you signed up and 72 hours from after having your ship destroyed, within that time you cannot attack nor be attacked.
You can however elect to release the grace period, but be aware there is no way to switch it back on afterwards if you change your mind.

Any damage you sustain during flight will be reported on the details page, if you manage to survive the attack and get to a planet this damage can be repaired for a small cost of 10 credits per point of damage.

If your ship is destroyed it is assumed that you manage to get to an escape pod moments before the final blow and you will find yourself in your pod heading towards the nearest planet at the pods fastest speed. When you are destroyed all of the cargo you had in your hold will be left to float in space for a while before eventually disintegrating although any stocks in warehouses and any money you have will be left untouched. Once you return to a planet you are then free to purchase a new ship as normal.

Note: Banks take a shine to those who have been destroyed and so if this does happen to you and you do not currently have a loan out the bank will give you a loan of minimum 40k credits.

Note: Any missions that you had in progress are failed, and your mission rating decreased accordingly.

So, whilst quietly minding your own business (or to put it another way you were shooting at anything that moved), you actually hit the other ship. Now you might have been lucky and destroyed it completely, or perhaps it was only "a few scratches", either way what happens now?

Well, you are a marked pilot for the next 7 days (168 ticks). They can now shoot at you regardless of any score limitations or being on the MW or not, but only for those 7 days. After that you are safe again, providing you steer clear of that trigger

If you were attacked (and hit) by two or more players, you now have revenge periods against all of those players. Likewise if you have attacked multiple targets, say several MW, at the same time, they all now have 7 days of revenge periods against you. Space is littered with the fragmented remains of the ships whose pilots forgot about this...

Note: Normal laws remain in effect during revenge periods, so if you can't legally attack your revenger normally, you will still gain criminal ratings under revenge periods

Note: You can be in multiple revenge periods at any one time, with different players.

Note: Automatic return fire does not (AFAIK) create a Revenge period.

Note: Revenge periods only apply to other players not Police, NPC or Aliens

No, you cannot either attack or be attacked while in hyper-space or "at a star gate".
For players with SG class engines the remote star gate will disappear as soon as you leave hyper-space, and therefore you are subject to the normal attacking rules.

You need to be within 0.25 coordinates.

Factories, Farms, Outposts, Ships, Competitions etc.

Trading is done through the 'Market' link in the left hand menu which only appears when you are in orbit of a planet. From there you can purchase any of the items sold at that planet (providing you have the money and the cargo space) and also sell any items you may have in your cargo hold (providing the planet buys that item and that they are currently in need of it). Planets carry limited stocks of items and also have limited requirements, these requirements are updated hourly. For information on which planets sell/buy what check out the 'Encyclopaedia Planetary' in the 'Help' option in the left hand menu.

Tip: There are several trade routes between planets, look out for them to take make the most money from trading.

The Stock Search is a tool you can use too find out what planet sells/buys what and for how much and how much you can buy/sell, for buying you simply click on the drop-down menu and click on the item you want, then click search, the same goes for if you want to sell something.

The bank in the game is similar to a bank in real life, you can only access the bank screen if you are at a planet at which time the Bank link will appear in the left hand menu.

Banks are used to obtain loans, allowing you to purchase more goods or buying that upgrade you've been needing. When you are in the bank screen you will see a list detailing the current loan rates, under this will be listed your maximum loan amount that you are eligible to take out. This is based on several factors such as score/mission rating/current cash/etc. And will be anywhere from a minimum of 2,000 credits to 50,000 credits.

Once you have decided how much you wish to take out you can enter the amount in the box then select over what time period you wish to make repayments, after that click submit. You will be then asked to confirm your choice after which you will be given the money and told details of your transaction.

After obtaining a loan the game will automatically take payments from your account every week, from the time you started the loan until the loan is repaid. If you wish to pay the loan back sooner this can again be done through the bank page, just go to the bank and enter in the box the amount you wish to repay, that amount will then be deducted from your cash and cleared from your loan.

Note: If you already have a bank loan you can access the bank at any time to get details of your loan but you can only make payments at a planet (you can make repayments at any planet, you do not have to return to the planet you got the loan from).

Note: If your ship has recently been destroyed and you are in your capsule you will automatically be eligible for a 40k loan (provided you don't already have a loan out).

Note: You may only take out one loan at a time, you cannot take out another loan until the first one is repaid.

Warehouses are used to store any items that you do not want to carry with you. They are planet based so if you leave items in a warehouse on Venus and travel to Earth you will not be able to access the same items again.

Any items can be placed in a warehouse as long as the amount of items you are placing there does not exceed the capacity of the warehouse.

Warehouses are primarily controled through the Details page. If you are at a planet and you do not currently own a warehouse there you will be given the option to purchase one. The link to do this is "Rent a Warehouse" and appears as the last link on the right hand side of the main window, beneath the notice board.

Note: The Buy Warehouse link will only be visible if you have more than 2000 Credits, the minimum initial cost of buying a warehouse.

Note: If you already have a warehouse at the planet the link will take you to the warehouse management page.

Once you have purchased a warehouse you will be taken to the warehouse management page were you will be able to buy more storage (through the plus and minus buttons), place cargo into the warehouse from your hold or move cargo from your warehouse to your hold.

To move cargo to and from your ship simply fill out the boxes with the amounts you wish to transfer and click the 'transfer' buttons.

Note: You can view what stocks are in all of your warehouses by selecting My Warehouses from the left hand menu, this will give you a list of all the warehouses you own and there current stock levels. You cannot alter stock from this screen.

Note: Warehouses are rented and you will be subject to a weekly fee for using the service. This fee is dependant on the size of the warehouse, but is fairly small.

What do the colours mean in the facilities menu?

This indicates to you whether the facility has enough funds to buy your trade goods or not.

• white = not enough funds to buy any of the required amount
• red = enough funds to buy 0-30% of required amount
• yellow = enough funds to buy 30-80% of required amount
• green = enough funds to buy >80% of required amount

Factories? How?, What? etc. Factories - build bits and bobs yourself.

There are several parts to the new update

1) Factories can only be built on planets.

2) Build a factory. They cost different amounts in different places so shop around to find the best deal. Ok so it's not cheap, but you can possibly make a lot of money off it, so stop complaining about the cost already! ;) The first link you'll need is off the details page, down the bottom right hand corner, underneath the warehouse link (if you have it)

3) Transfer cargo to and from your own factory. This is via the cargo screen when you are docked at a planet.

4) And for those who haven't noticed (or use screen readers) the cargo screen has changed as well. From here you can now transfer cargo between your ship, warehouse and factory. Which direction you transfer in is determined by the drop down box. You can also dump cargo from here, as before.

The "warehouse" and "factory" headings (if you have them, because you won't if you don't have a warehouse or factory at this planet) are links to the warehouse and factory screen.

5) Buying and selling at other players factories. At a planet with any factories other than your own, you will have a new link in the left nav bar which links to a page with all of the factories belong to other players at that planet, along with details of what they are buying and selling (currently producing)

So make some money buying and selling other players goods and selling or buying at markets. It's simple!

6) Your factory production. There are 2 different pages for your own factories. First there is a link in the left nav to list "my factories" this lists all of your factories. If you are at a planet that has one of your own factories on it there will also be a link underneath the planet name to take you to that factory. The same link exists from the details page once you have purchased your factory.

7) Setting up production. Each factory can only produce 1 item at a time. You set the item being produced and the price you want to sell it at in the top part of the screen. Setting the produced item will also list you the items that need to be purchased to build that item, down the bottom of the screen.

Your factory automatically come with space for 50 containers of items. If you want to buy more simply fill in the box and click the increase button, selling space is similar (refunded at half the price you paid for them)

But to make your factory produce anything you need workers :)

And they don't come cheap, in fact they are paid by the hour, so make sure you don't employ too many at once!! Worker costs also depend on the item being produced. The more expensive the item, the higher the cost. Oh and you can only employ up to a maximum of 100 workers.

The amount of workers you employ also determines how many containers per hour of you production item you build. Again the more expensive the item, the less per hour you'll build, and the production rates per item are listed here : Worker Production Rates

8) The safe. You need to deposit money into your safe to pay the players that sell you items. And any money made from selling your produced goods will also be deposited back into your safe. Workers wages are also paid from your safe. If you don't have enough money to pay them, nothing will be produced.

9) You will also need to set up maximum stock amounts of each item that players will be selling to you and a price that you will give them to the item, otherwise no one will be able to sell you things. Although you can still transfer cargo to your factory yourself from the cargo page.

10) Factories cannot create any item that is saleable to the planet the factory is on.

11) Factory owners pay workers less money per tick if there are not enough source materials to produce the manufactured item

12) Those lazy workers. If the factory owner is docked at the planet where the factory is, the workers work harder. Much harder in fact.

Each tick you remain at that planet, your factory will produce 150% more goods than normal (giving 250% total production), but for the same hourly wage.

13) Final note - 1 factory per player per planet...

Farms, feed the masses and make a fortune. So the lure of getting up with the dawn, milking the herds and ploughing the fields attracts you ?

Step this way and smell the countryside!.

Farms work just like factories, except they are cheaper to buy and run. You will need to decide what you want to farm, how many farm labourers you want to hire to run it for you as you zoom around the galaxy, and the prices you wish to sell your produce for.

There are several parts to the Farms

1) Farms can only be built on planets. Just imagine the complicated space suits that cows and sheep would need otherwise!.

2) Build a farm - cost 50K. This is about 1/10 the cost of a factory. The first link you'll need is off the main page, down the bottom right hand corner, underneath the warehouse and/or factory link (if you have it)

3) Transfer cargo to and from your own farm. This is via the cargo screen when you are docked at a planet where your farm is.

4) And for those who haven't noticed (or use screen readers) the cargo screen has changed as well. From here you can now transfer cargo between your ship, warehouse and farm. Which direction you transfer in is determined by the drop down box. You can also dump cargo from here, as before.

The "warehouse" and "farm" headings (if you have them, because you won't if you don't have a warehouse or farm at this planet) are direct links to the warehouse and farm screen.

5) Buying and selling at other players farms. At a planet with any farms other than your own, you will have a new link in the left nav bar which links to a page with all of the farms belonging to other players at that planet, along with details of what they are buying and selling (currently producing)

So make some money buying and selling other players goods and selling or buying at markets. It's simple!

6) Your farm production. There are 2 different pages for your own factories. First there is a link in the left nav to list "my farms" this lists all of your farms. If you are at a planet that has one of your own farms on it there will also be a link underneath the planet name to take you to that farm. The same link exists from the summary page once you have purchased your farm.

7) Setting up production. Each farm can only produce 1 item at a time. You set the item being produced and the price you want to sell it at in the top part of the screen. Setting the produced item will also list you the items that need to be purchased to produce that item, down the bottom of the screen.

Your farms automatically come with space for 50 tonnes of items. If you want to buy more simply fill in the box and click the increase button (at 500 credits per tonne), selling space is similar (refunded at 250 credits/tonne)

But to make your farm produce anything you need workers :)

And they don't come cheap, in fact they are paid by the hour, so make sure you don't employ too many at once!! Worker costs also depend on the item being produced. The more expensive the item, the higher the cost

The amount of workers you employ also determines how many tonnes per hour of your production item you build. Again the more expensive the item, the less per hour you'll build.

8) The safe. You need to deposit money into your safe to pay the players that sell you items. And any money made from selling your produced goods will also be deposited back into your safe. Workers wages are also paid from your safe. If you don't have enough money to pay them, nothing will be produced.

9) You will also need to set up maximum stock amounts of each item that players will be selling to you and a price that you will give them to the item, otherwise no one will be able to sell you things. Although you can still transfer cargo to your factory yourself from the cargo page.

10) Farms cannot create any item that is sellable at that planet.

12) Those lazy workers. If the farm owner is docked at the planet where the farm is, the workers work harder. Much harder in fact.

Each tick you remain at that planet, your farm will produce 150% more goods than normal (giving 250% total production), but for the same hourly wage.

13) Final note - Those big empty fields don't grow on trees, so only 1 farm per player per planet...

Mining Outposts are finally here.

Much like the farms and factories, mining outposts are player owned and run manufacturing plants, available on every planet in the galaxy. Their primary purpose is to extract resources from the hidden depths of the planetary crust, and provide them for easy access to all traders for profit and further refinement in factories and farms

Mining outposts work just like factories, except they are cheaper to buy and run. You will need to decide what you want to mine, how many miners to employ, and the prices you wish to buy and sell resources and products

There are several parts to Mining Outposts

1) Mining Outposts can only be built on planets.

2) Build a Mining Outpost - cost 50K. This is about 1/10 the cost of a factory. The first link you'll need is off the main page, down the bottom right hand corner, underneath the warehouse and/or factory link (if you have it)

3) Transfer cargo to and from your own mining outposts. This is via the cargo screen when you are docked at a planet where your mining outpost is.

4) And for those who haven't noticed (or use screen readers) the cargo screen has changed as well. From here you can now transfer cargo between your ship, warehouse and mining outpost. Which direction you transfer in is determined by the drop down box. You can also dump cargo from here, as before.

5) Buying and selling at other players Mining Outposts. At a planet with any mining outposts other than your own, you will have a new link in the left nav bar which links to a page with all of the mining outposts belonging to other players at that planet, along with details of what they are buying and selling (currently producing)

So make some money buying and selling other players goods and selling or buying at markets. It's simple!

6) Your mining outposts production. There are 2 different pages for your own outposts. First there is a link in the left nav to list "my outposts" this lists all of your mining outposts. If you are at a planet that has one of your own on it there will also be a link underneath the planet name to take you to that outpost. The same link exists from the summary page once you have purchased your mining outpost.

7) Setting up production. Each mining outpost can only produce 1 item at a time. You set the item being produced and the price you want to sell it at in the top part of the screen. Setting the produced item will also list you the items that need to be purchased to produce that item, down the bottom of the screen.

Your mining outpost will automatically come with space for 100 containers of items. If you want to buy more simply fill in the box and click the increase button (at 50 credits per tonne), selling space is similar (refunded at 25 credits/tonne)

But to make your outpost produce anything you need workers :)

And they don't come cheap, in fact they are paid by the hour, so make sure you don't employ too many at once!! Worker costs also depend on the item being produced. The more expensive the item, the higher the cost

The amount of workers you employ also determines how many containers per hour of your production item you build. Again the more expensive the item, the less per hour you'll build.

8) The safe. You need to deposit money into your safe to pay the players that sell you items. And any money made from selling your produced goods will also be deposited back into your safe. Workers wages are also paid from your safe. If you don't have enough money to pay them, nothing will be produced.

9) You will also need to set up maximum stock amounts of each item that players will be selling to you and a price that you will give them to the item, otherwise no one will be able to sell you things. Although you can still transfer cargo to your factory yourself from the cargo page.

10) Mining outposts cannot create any item that is sellable at that planet.

12) Those lazy workers. If the outpost owner is docked at the planet where the mine is, the workers work harder. Much harder in fact.

Each tick you remain at that planet, your mining outpost will produce 150% more goods than normal (giving 250% total production), but for the same hourly wage.

13) Final note - there's only room for 1 mining outpost per player per planet...

Some players like to preserve some elements of secrecy about their wealth or score. As credits stored in facility safes are accessible, they contribute towards your score.

A strongroom is simply a large vault on a planet where you can "store" credits as piles of cash. This essentially removes those credits from your bank account, and as such is only accessible upon the planet it is created on.

You can transfer in or out as many credits as you like.

Credits stored in strongrooms will not count towards your score as a reflection of their inaccessibility.

As normal one strongroom per person per planet. Oh and they are free.

In AoA ships are of a set size and cannot be increase through upgrades. The only way to increase your cargo size is to buy a bigger ship, this can be done through the 'Ship yard' button in the left hand menu while docked at a planet.

Note: Buying a bigger hull DOES NOT increase your cargo hold size, it merely increases the amount of armour your ship has.

Note: You first have to sell your old ship before purchasing a new one, further more you cannot sell your ship if it is currently being repaired/upgraded, or if it has any cargo on board.

Note: When you sell your ship, any upgrades currently on it are included in the selling price, so you do not need to sell them separately.

It depends, if you don't think you have enough cargo space, choose ship, if you have enough, choose engine, but, it really depends on if you want speed or better weaponry.

Ship upgrades are done through the 'Ship yard' button in the left hand menu while docked at a planet. Simply go through the menus and select the upgrade you wish to buy (press 'trade' beside the item you wish to buy and your current version will be traded in and replaced with the new version provided you have the funds). Upgrading your ship takes time (varies depending on the upgrade), during which you will not be able to leave the planet. Upgrades can be queued, so you can buy an engine and a weapon, the game then upgrades one then the other.

Note: Changing your ship is done by first selling your old ship then selecting the new one you wish to purchase.

You can only sell your ship if your cargo bay is empty and it is not damaged. However in each system there is one planet with a special repair dock. This will allow you to sell a damaged ship. However it still needs an empty hold.

The Bar is the place where player-to-player transactions happen. Here you can transfer money and/or cargo from one player to another player. To initiate a transfer, click on either the "transfer cash" or "transfer cargo" links adjacent to the player to whom you want to transfer too.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Players transferring credits or cargo from one of their own accounts to another of their accounts (even indirectly through other players) will have all accounts deleted, as per the rules of the game. ALL transfers are logged and checked thoroughly. We will notice.

Note: All transfers are taxed. The current tax rates are as follows:

Credits transferred	Tax
1 to 249,999	15%
250,000 to 499,999	12%
500,000 to 749,999	10%
750,000 to 999,999	8%
1,000,000 to 4,999,999	6%
5,000,000+	5%

Once in the Bar players remain in the Bar as long as they are visiting one of these other pages. If you are classed as being in the Bar, (In) will appear in the menu next to "The Bar" link:

• Cargo
• Personals
• Journal
• Main details page
• Mail/messages
• Missions, Smuggling Missions & My Missions
• Most Wanted
• Message board
• My Warehouses
• Options
• Stock Search
• Top Scores
• Target Tracker

Note: All other pages require the player to leave the Bar and this happens automatically.

Note: You do not need to stay logged in to stay in the bar. As long as the (In) message is displaying when you leave AoA, you will be in the Bar area.

Important Note: Lotteries advertised on the personals board are not an official part of the AoA game and as such players should be aware of these points.

1) All players entering Lotto's do so at their own risk. You have been warned.

2) You may get cheated out of your Cr or Cargo. That is one of the risks that the players take.

3) If 2) happens to you, you are perfectly entitled to seek revenge on the organiser/s directly. Hire hit men/women, chase them down yourself etc., but you must do so off of your own back. Don't complain to us. We won't do anything about it for you. See 1) again.

4) Not all Lotto's give back all of the entry fees as prizes. Often the organiser benefits more than you do, so you should consider if you really want to give them free stuff.

5) Players are reminded that all transfers occurring via the bar feature are taxed as outlined on the Bar pages. Your entry fees and winnings will therefore be subject to these taxes.

6) If you run a lotto via the personals page, You should :-
a) Make it clear in the advert what the prizes are going to be.
b) State what the entry fee will be.
c) Say when and where the winner will be announced and paid.
d) State what's the players have to submit as their entry (eg their guess etc.).
e) Don't change your rules midway through the lottery. Stick to what you advertised initially.
f) To safeguard against cheating, "Guess the lucky number" lotteries winning lucky number should be told to an independent arbitrator when the advert is placed. PM it to tiggr if you want, and tiggr will not enter that Lotto, nor disclose the numbers to any other players.

Alliances where tried within the game but it was found to bring in a rather bad element and were thus removed. Further public in game alliances are banned but if players form one outside the game and do not advertise or mention it within the game then they are free to do so.

AI traders are game run ships that travel the systems trading with player facilities and markets (though either the buy or the sell has to be at a player facility). There are two types, local ones that just trade in one system and galaxy wide ones that trade across all systems.

The primary purpose of these ships is to keep the lower end items trading where typically a player will not trade due to lower profit margins. An AI trader will only buy goods where it can sell the item on another planet. It will only trade at a profit and only work one trip at a time. So it will not see it can buy 10000 units and sell 4000 at one planet and 6000 at another. Volume is a key component to the calculation. Buying 10000 units with a 10cr profit margin each is more preferable to these traders than 1000 units with 100cr profit margin each.

In general these ships do not trade in items in the upper half of the price range of items. But it is not hard and fast and market conditions and facility settings can also change this. The best advice is to experiment and if it doesn't work then try something else.

Get stuff for free. Mostly.

Mining is available on any planet, however you need to purchase a system or galaxy-wide mining license first. Go to the My licenses page to do that. To begin mining you have to be at a planet. Once at the planet you will see the 'Mining' link in the left hand menu. Clicking on this link will take you to the mining page and start you mining.

Note: You have to remain at the planet for the duration of the license to be able to mine the resource from the planet, if you move away mining will cease until you return. If at any time you wish to stop mining for what ever reason you can return to the mining page and select to stop mining.

Note: Once your cargo hold is full you will automatically stop mining, so be sure to leave plenty of room!

Gas clouds are simply pockets of accumulated oxygen or hydrogen in space. You can scoop these up as long as you have a scoop by simply going to the coordinate of the cloud and selecting scoop on the details page.

Gas clouds have a limited amount of resources within them and they will also disappear after a while so you will have to be quick if you want to harvest them.

Note: To increase profit from gas clouds you can purchase a 'Gas Converter' from the ship yard which will convert the gas into liquid form, this is worth more when you come to sell it at market. (The gas converter will work automatically during scooping as long as it is switched on in your options screen).

Note: Once your cargo hold is full you will automatically stop scooping, so be sure to leave plenty of room!

Note: The locations of Gas clouds are displayed in the AoA Express paper and you also have the option of receiving email or message alerts about them on the Options page.

Not everyone wants to obey the law. This section is for you.

So, you decided to commit some crimes. But now you've been caught, and the police have given you a criminal rating. What does it all mean?.

Well, there are five different criminal ratings, in addition to being clean:

• Clean:
• Offender:
• Criminal:
• Outlaw:
• Desperado:
• Fugitive:

Clean. Who me officer?, I don't think so!. If you are clean in the eyes of the law, then you can buy bounty hunter licenses and help to rid the scum of the universe.

Offender. Most likely you have been caught smuggling. Its a small fine and will only take a few days to be removed from your record

Criminal. Its getting a bit more serious now. You've probably attacked someone, player/NPC/Police, and have a bounty that will take weeks to clear. From here on upwards, any player can now attack you, although if you are not on the MW list, they will get criminal ratings too.

Outlaw. So, itchy trigger finger then. Probably still only attacked a few ships, there still time to turn it around

Desperado. Very itchy trigger finger, you've even shot a few cops. it will take a long time to clean up your act.

Fugitive. You've shot down four police ships today, and its not even time for breakfast. This is you. It will take years for this to go away. Cops don't like it when you shoot their buddies down. They don't forget quickly either.

It is illegal to dump your cargo, if you are seen doing it you will automatically be charged a small fine depending on how much you have dumped, however, if you are not seen you will not suffer any ill effects.

There is no firm and "correct" answer here.

As a suggested course of action, run away very fast, and locate the nearest silica processing facility and cover your head, ears, and eyes in a shallow manner. One may learn quite a great deal and some rather disturbing habits in emulation of the Terran Ostrich.

Secondly, note the names of the shooter and the victim and check your ship scanner list under the 'Details' screen. You should be able to click the number at 'There are [X] ships within scanning range' link and see whom is shooting and being shot at.

A player may be bounty hunting a 'Most Wanted' listee, shooting at NPCs (Non-Player Characters) or just trying to see what happens when they click the the 'Attack' button. You may feel an obligation to report any infractions of the Weapons Safety course or the Space Pilot Operational Guidelines manual.

However, the SPOG policies are not "Rules", but "Guidelines". If the shooting victim is a NPC the perpetrator may already see the consequences, as other NPCs will at random decide for themselves whether or not to report the incident. If you decide to report a shooting, the instigator will certainly receive an "upgrade" to their legal status.

NPCs are robotic remote controlled craft for mining, couriers, or possibly AoA assassination mission-generated entities, and when destroyed, there is no harm nor loss to any kind of sentient life form.

Reporting these infractions is optional, hence the 'Notices' report survey. Depending on personal opinion, the circumstances, and the "rules violator", you may or may not feel the need to report the incidents. Its a judgment call.

The status or points change may raise a player's standings enough to be placed on the 'Most Wanted' list, increase the value of their bounty (and the interest of bounty hunters accordingly) if they are already "Wanted", and further delay a return to "Clean" legal status if they are simply trying to remain "on the Q.T." or "on the lamb".

Bounty hunter licenses allow a player to fire upon criminals legally and collect the bounty on the person if they succeed in killing them.

These rewards are only paid for the Galaxies top ten MW

To purchase a bounty hunter license click on the 'Most wanted' link in the left hand menu, this will give you a list of the 10 ten most wanted players in the game and will also display the bounties you can receive if you kill them. If you are at a planet then at the bottom of the page will be a button for buying the bounty hunter license, at present these cost 100,000 credits and last for 30 days from the time you bought it, during which time you may attack and kill any of the players on the list to claim the bounties.

Note: Bounty hunter licenses may not be purchased by players on the wanted list, you must have a positive score and an almost positive mission rating. Also the license only covers players who are on the list at that time, if a player subsequently drops off the list and you kill them then your criminal rating will increase and you will not receive a bounty. Further more, bounties are only paid out at there current value, you will not be paid at the value listed when you first bought the license, this value changes depending on the players criminal activities.

Note: Bounty hunter licenses are revoked if your legal status drops to anything other than Clean. They are reinstated when the status returns to clean, but remain valid only for the initially purchased time frame (i.e. you lose the time when you were not Clean)

Having a a technical problem with parts of the game? These questions might help

If you see the following error on the Java IRC screen:

*** Failed to launch Ident server : access denied (java.net.SocketPermission localhost:113 listen,resolve) Connecting...
Unable to connect : access denied (java.net.SocketPermission irc.chatster.org resolve)

Then the most common reason is that your version of IE is set up to use it's own Java VM, which won't work unfortunately.

To fix this problem, open up Control Panel, then the Java Plug-in applet. Under the browser tab, uncheck the Internet Explorer box.
Close and restart Internet Explorer and open the Java IRC window again. All should now be fixed. If not send me your OS & browser version to bugs@ashesofangels.com and I'll look into it when I've got time.

The 3D galaxy and system maps require you to have a VRML plugin installed. The maps have been designed to work the the Cortona VRML Plugin. If you get a blank page try visting http://www.cortona3d.com/Products/Cortona-3D-Viewer.aspx where you can find the appropriate plug in for your browser.

2D SVG maps are also available of the various systems. They should render with no plugin on all modern browsers (tested with Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari). Internet Explorer will need a SVG plugin, the link is on the page where the image is displayed.

If you still have problems please feel free to post a message in the bugs forum.

Please read the bugs board on the portal (http://portal.ashesofangels.com) to see if it's already been mentioned. If not please start a new thread giving as much detail as possible, and try to make the subject short but descriptive.

Miscellaneous FAQs

The easiest way is to just go to the page you want, set any filters and hit filter, then click the add this page? link and the difficult bit will be done for you.

Other tips.
You've only got 100 character for the full url, so ignore the pr.ashesofangels.com/ bit as that will be added automatically. Some of the page filters are more than 100 chars, so skip some bits (see the missions bit below for an example). The format is

• page_name.php?something=value&something_else=value2

The pages sort into alphabetical order automatically. if you want them in a different order prefix the short-cut in the description box with a number as numbers will display in numerical order. for example

• 1 Tracker
• 2 Scanner
• 3 Farms

I'll give you these ones as you might not have come across them

if you want to quickly filter missions by system, use the following

• missions.php?filter=1&planet=-1 for Sol
• missions.php?filter=1&planet=-3 for AC
• missions.php?filter=1&planet=-4 for TC
• missions.php?filter=1&planet=-5 for Si
• missions.php?filter=1&planet=-8 for BS

do the same for UG missions

• ug_missions.php?filter=1&planet=-1

etc.

You can use the target tracker, if you include the &p=1 at the end it also takes you straight to the getting of coords bit and auto charges the finding fee.

• tracker.php?name=Raving+Maniac&p=1

Example of a stock search:

• stocksearch.php?search=1&item=precious+metals
• stocksearch.php?search=1&item=minerals

Examples of facility searches:

• facility.php?type=factory
• facility.php?type=farm
• facility.php?type=outpost

Yes, simply message tiggr via the in-game message system or pm him over the forum and he will reset your account.

Note: This will be a complete reset, all of your warehouses/cash/everything will be set back to their starting values.

He has a life too you know! ;)

Seriously though, I do have a full time job and a family to take care of. So I can't be in the game constantly. But please be patient. Any PM's or emails your send me will get answered as soon as I can.

Check the in-game message board, available from the "- Message Board" link. You may find your question has already been asked and answered.

Before posting, please be sure to read the "Use of this Message Board" and any other "Sticky:" items, keeping with those important reminders and guidelines for message content and appropriate topics may avoid embarrassing situations.

When posting, be sure and use a Subject line that is descriptive but brief, to help ensure a speedy and more accurate response for your query.

Also, the AoA Portal Message Boards are available with specialised areas for posting suggestions for the game, bug reports, and general (not directly AoA game play related) discussions at http://portal.ashesofangels.com, just use the "- AoA Portal" link in-game to open a new web browser window. Please note that the Portal is a separate web site, and requires a separate login.

Suggestions or corrections for this FAQ, the Guide, and site content here or the AoA Portal may be emailed to suggestions@ashesofangels.com