From : Mike Magero To : All Planets ------- Each of the different planet types has a value, although some of them are only useful for creating Nav-Haz others are powerful weapons as well as safe havens for your ships. The type of planet you choose to build as your first planet should be a stable planet. Early in the game a race for the colonists will take place as everyone who is looking to build a planet attempts to get what they need and as many extra colonists as they can grab. You don't want to be putting your colonists on a planet that is killing them as fast as you can haul them in. For this reason it is reccomended you start with an Earth or Mountanious Type first. Then once you can afford to lose some people work on the Volcanic or Oceanic types. Of course you will still want to bring in people when they are available but don't let planet farming take up all your time and turns. Planets are wortless if you can't defend them, and defending them is going to cost alot of credits. Earn Credits then work on planets! 4.1 The Planets ---------------- Reading these charts is simple. Each planet type is listed with a short description of it's uses. The Death Rate is the formula for the number of colonists you lose each time you land or take a planet listing. The Citidel levels and the colonists and product needed as well as the number of days it will take to upgrade are next. Then we have the data on how many people and how much of the product each type of planet can hold. Then last but far from least is the data on fighter production. Note that in almost every case the most fighters can be created by only putting people in the Ore production slot. The Volcanic planet can not produce Org and any colonists you place there will die. The Gasious planet can not produce anything at all. Although you can store colonists and product on this planet and could upgrade it to Lv-6 why you would bother is another matter altogether. Class M - Earth Type -------------------- The Class M or Earth Type planet is the most frequent planet type and also the most stable type. People tend to grow on these planets and they never seem to suffer the landing losses that plauge other types. The best at producing Equ they are less useful for other roles but since they are extremly stable they are very useful for Planet Trading and everyday use. Don't pass up the chance to upgrade one of these types. Death Rate: Nil Level Days Total Colonists Fuel Ore Organics Equipment 1 4 4 1,000 300 200 250 2 4 8 2,000 200 50 250 3 5 13 4,000 500 250 500 4 10 23 6,000 1,000 1,200 1,000 5 5 28 6,000 300 400 1,000 6 15 43 6,000 1,000 1,200 2,000 Colonists needed to Produce 1: 3 7 13 Max Product Storage Levels: 100,000 100,000 100,000 Max Production of Product: 5,000 2,142 1,153 Max Colonists for each Product: 30,000 30,000 30,000 Optimum Number of Colonists: 15,000 15,000 15,000 Fighters: Ore Org Equ Fighters when at optimum production: 400 214 115 Colonists needed to produce 1 Fighter: 30 70 130 Max production of fighters per day: 829 Class L - Mountainous --------------------- The Class L or Mountainous types are the quickest building citidels to a defensable level. You can get a citidel here fast and build lots of Ore for your T-warp Colonizing runs. These planets make the most fighters when you only stock the colonists in Ore production. Colonists used only to create Free Fighters should only be placed on these types of planets. The landing losses this planet suffers are acceptable. They make a good planet for IG's and Q-cannon defenses. They can be used for PT and PTSS but the landing losses would warrent removing the colonists or selecting another type of planet. Death Rate: 3% chance of losing 2% population Level Days:Total Colonists Fuel Ore Organics Equipment 1 2 2 400 150 100 150 2 5 7 1,400 200 50 250 3 5 12 3,600 600 250 700 4 8 20 5,600 1,000 1,200 1,000 5 5 25 7,000 300 400 1,000 6 12 37 5,600 1,000 1,200 2,000 Colonists needed to Produce 1: 2 5 20 Max Product Storage Levels: 200,000 200,000 100,000 Max Production of Product: 10,000 4,000 1,000 Max Colonists for each Product: 40,000 40,000 40,000 Optimum Number of Colonists: 20,000 20,000 20,000 Fighters: Ore Org Equ Fighters when at optimum production: 833 333 83 Colonists needed to produce 1 Fighter: 24 60 240 Max production of fighters per day: 1,250 Class H -Volcanic ----------------- The Class H or Volcanic type is the "Big Gun" of Q-cannon shots. It's storage capasity allows it to shoot Maxed out IC's out of the sector! The production rate of Ore allows it to quickly refill and offers more Ore then most people will know what to do with. However this planet type has a major landing loss problem and you MUST move the colonists over to Equ production the very second you land and leave them there until you leave. This is not a planet type that you want to land on or take planet listings of. If you are worried about the loss of colonists avoid this type of planet. You WILL lose people on this planet and nothing will make that change. You have to accept this loss in return for the benifits. This planet is the cornorstone of the PTSS method evils may use. If they protect the colonists before starting out each day this planet can be T-warped hundreds of times each day. This planet type is also a very tough nut to crack when on the attack. The IG and Q-cannon will never run out of fuel if the storage bins are near max capasity! Note: I have noticed that when I have moved colonists from Equ to Ore I have lost 7% not the 10% stated here as landing losses. Death Rate: 7% chance of losing 10% population Level Days:Total Colonists Fuel Ore Organics Equipment 1 4 4 800 500 300 600 2 5 9 1,600 300 100 400 3 8 17 4,400 1,200 400 1,500 4 12 29 7,000 2,000 2,000 2,500 5 5 34 10,000 3,000 1,200 2,000 6 18 52 7,000 2,000 2,000 5,000 Colonists needed to Produce 1: 1 N/A 500 Max Product Storage Levels: 1,000,000 10,000 100,000 Max Production of Product: 50,000 0 100 Max Colonists for each Product: 100,000 0 100,000 Optimum Number of Colonists: 50,000 *NONE* 50,000 Fighters: Ore Org Equ Fighters when at optimum production : 1000 N/A 2 Colonists needed to produce 1 Fighter: 50 N/A 25,000 Max production of fighters per day: 1,002 Class O - Oceanic ----------------- The Class O or Oceanic planet is a planet farmers wet dream! The shear amount of Org it produces is tough to get rid of! The full production levels are near impossible to achieve but it can be done! Although the landing loss is minor it seems you will need a life time to max out one of these rabbit food producers. Despite the total possible production numbers for fighters your going to get a better colonist value by using a Mountainous type. Avoid using colonists on this planet type to produce anything but Org. Good Aligned traders will find a planet of this type very profitable if they can find ports willing to buy the organics. Fuel ore and Equipment for Upgrades should be brought in rather then produced on this planet. Fuel Ore for the Q-cannons, IG, and T-warp should be transfered over from another planet type or stocked on the planet by buying it from a port. The best way to stock Ore on this type of planet would be to upgrade a port that sells Ore and buys Org. Then just run the PT method of earning credits and your all set. Death Rate: 2% chance of losing 2% population Level Days:Total Colonists Fuel Ore Organics Equipment 1 6 6 1,400 500 200 400 2 5 11 2,400 200 50 300 3 8 19 4,400 600 400 650 4 5 24 7,000 700 900 800 5 4 28 8,000 300 400 1,000 6 8 36 7,000 700 900 1,600 Colonists needed to Produce : 20 2 100 Max Product Storage Levels: 100,000 1,000,000 50,000 Max Production of Product: 5,000 50,000 1,000 Max Colonists for each Product: 200,000 200,000 200,000 Optimum Number of Colonists: 100,000 100,000 100,000 Fighters: Ore Org Equ Fighters when at optimum production : 333 3333 67 Colonists needed to produce 1 Fighter: 300 30 1005 Max production of fighters per day: 3,733 Class K - Desert ---------------- The Class K or Desert types are decent planets and can be made to serve but they lack overall usefulness. They are not "good" at anything! The low landing loss rate makes them fairly stable but the lack of a "specility product" makes them a low pick on the G-torp wish list. Should you find yourself with out a mountianous type planet this planet will make a decent amount of Free Fighters and Fuel ore. Again this planet is one of those types where only Ore production has value. The high number of colonists needed to produce any other product are better used elsewhere. Death Rate: 2% chance of losing 2% population Level Days:Total Colonists Fuel Ore Organics Equipment 1 6 6 1,000 400 300 600 2 5 11 2,400 300 80 400 3 8 19 4,400 600 400 650 4 5 24 7,000 700 900 800 5 4 28 8,000 300 400 1,000 6 8 36 7,000 700 900 1,600 Colonists needed to Produce 1: 2 100 500 Max Product Storage Levels: 200,000 50,000 10,000 Max Production of Product: 10,000 200 40 Max Colonists for each Product: 40,000 40,000 40,000 Optimum Number of Colonists: 20,000 20,000 20,000 Fighters: Ore Org Equ Fighters when at optimum production : 666 13 3 Colonists needed to produce 1 Fighter: 30 1501 7507 Max production of fighters per day: 682 Class C - Glacial ----------------- The Class C or Glacial planet is near worthless and is often turned into nav-haz on creation. It has a high landing loss rate and poor production of products and fighters. If your looking for a useful planet this is not it! Death Rate: 5% chance of losing 8% population Level Days:Total Colonists Fuel Ore Organics Equipment 1 5 5 1,000 400 300 600 2 5 10 2,400 300 80 400 3 7 17 4,400 600 400 650 4 5 22 6,600 700 900 700 5 4 26 9,000 300 400 1,000 6 8 34 6,600 700 900 1,400 Colonists needed to Produce 1: 50 100 500 Max Product Storage Levels: 20,000 50,000 10,000 Max Production of Product: 1,000 500 100 Max Colonists for each Product: 100,000 100,000 100,000 Optimum Number of Colonists: 50,000 50,000 50,000 Fighters: Ore Org Equ Fighters when at optimum production : 40 20 4 Colonists needed to produce 1 Fighter: 1250 2500 12500 Max production of fighters per day: 64 Class U - Gaseous ----------------- The Class U or Gaseous type is worthless in every possible way! If you get one convert it to nav-haz before shooting your next G-torp! It is possible to store colonists and product on this type. The stuff won't fall off into space but landing loss may kill the colonists at an alarming rate. These types can be left in place to create a port however. This planet will NEVER produce anything! Death Rate: 8% chance of losing 12% population Level Days:Total Colonists Fuel Ore Organics Equipment 1 8 8 3,000 1,200 400 2,500 2 4 12 3,000 300 100 400 3 5 17 8,000 500 500 2,000 4 5 22 6,000 500 200 600 5 4 26 8,000 200 200 600 6 8 34 6,000 500 200 1,200 Colonists needed to Produce 1: N/A N/A N/A Max Product Storage Levels: 10,000 10,000 10,000 Max Production of Product: 0 0 0 Max Colonists for each Product: 3,000 3,000 3,000 Optimum Number of Colonists: N/A N/A N/A Fighters: Ore Org Equ Fighters when at optimum production : N/A N/A N/A Colonists needed to produce 1 Fighter: N/A N/A N/A Max production of fighters per day: NONE! Why Build a Planet ------------------ This is a silly question! Many people feel that you should build a planet quickly and defend it to the death. However, let me cover a few of the options and offer some suggestions for consideration. Alot of the "When, Where, How, and Why" to build a planet depends on your reasons for wanting a planet and the people you are playing against. Why you want a planet is simple! Lets look at the reasons just to be sure we understand all of the benifits. 1. Planets with citidels offer 2% interest on credits stored in the citidel treasure. They also allow easy access to these funds for Corp. members. Interest is important! 2. Planets with Lv-1 citidels can have Planet Transporters installed. This device is a major step in saving turns. 3. Planets with Lv-2 citidels are protected by Combat computers that offer 3-1 odds for defending fighters! This is 3 times the protection offered by sector fighters. 4. Planets with Lv-3 citidels have Q-cannons. Q-cannons are powerful weapons! A well stocked Q-cannon can shoot down a fully loaded ship creating a cloud of space dust where there once was an enemy trader. 5. Planets with Lv-4 citidels have Planet T-warp Drives allowing you to move your planet anywhere you want. This feature is another of the major turn saving benifits of owning a planet and is used in a few of the "advanced" credit earning methods. 6. Planets with Lv-5 citidels can be shielded and this offers alot of protection from would be planet invaders. 7. Planets with Lv-6 citidels have an Interdicter Generator that can grab and hold a would be invaders ship. 8. Planets produce FREE fighters on a daily basis! 9. Planets produce products that can used to upgrade citidels and that you can sell for a nice profit. This feature of a planet is used to provide products for fueling the Q-cannons, Planet Transporters, Planet T-warp Drive, and Interdictor Generator. This feature also forms the basis for several of the credit earning methods. 10. Planets are required to build a port. You must have a planet in order to create a "new" port in sectors with out a port. Ok.....So now your convinced you need one, want one, and have simply got to have, a planet of your own! So... how, when, and where do you get one. Free Starting Planets --------------------- Many of the sysops will have the "Free Starting Planets" option on. When you first enter the game your given one! Trouble is 99% of the time this planet is in a very poor location. If you attempt to build it up real fast your going to be wasting your turns stocking colonists and extra product on it and the chances are some other trader is going to be stumbling onto it long before you have it up to a defensable level. Most "experts" will tell you to simply take what you can use from the planet and ignore it or blow it up. This is sound advice because the odds of getting this planet upgraded to a defensable level are slim. However depending on the people your playing against it might just be possible! If you decide to attempt building up this planet DO NOT put alot of effort into the process. Only bring in enough Colonists and Product to start the upgrade. DO NOT waste any more of your turns or large amounts of your resources defending it. Your taking a risk and hoping that it pays off. If your discovered you can expect the enemy to destroy it. You don't want to put alot of effort into this planet just for that reason. This planet is out in the open and until it reaches Lv-4 you can not move it to a safe location. If it's invaded and held hostage blow it up yourself rather then let the enemy keep it. Remeber this planet should only be worked on if you feel the other players are going to let you get away with it! It's a big risk so don't get upset if it fails. You were warned! Selecting a Location -------------------- This is the single most important step in building your own planet! The location you choose will form the basis of the defenses you will need. One of the most overlooked and most important steps in building a plaent is selecting a good location. Many players will be looking for a sector with a certin kind of port already in it. VERY BAD CHOICE!!! If you have found a nice dead-end and it has a port in the sector you want to build a planet in, you no doubt will want to put fighters over the planet to aid in it's defence and to provide you with a "T-warp Beacon." Looks good right? WRONG! What you have done is sent advance warning to every player who has already exploried that sector, that someone has moved in. How???? Simple. When you place a fighter over a port you block the ability of the other players ships computers to generate a Port Report for that port. This assumes that they have already been there or have exploried that sector either by holo-scan or E-probe. Your sending up a big flag that says <> Players with player aids will know about it the very day you place a fighter there! You have several options. They are as follows and need no further explanation. 1. Do it anyway and hope and pray you get away with it. 2. Find a new location without a port. 3. Blow the port up and wait a few days for anyone who might come looking to show up look around and leave. This option works best if you also blow up a few ports in other dead-ends to cover your real reason for blowing up that one port. 4. Build there anyway but don't put sector fighters over the planet. (This is a real pain. One mistake and it's over) This is a tough call. You have to base your decision on the skill level of the other players and your ability to defend the sector from anyone who may come looking. Depending on how early in the game you find your location you may be able to get away with it. It's up to you.... However you would be better off if you select a location that has very few or no ports in it at all. There are 3 real good reasons for this. 1. You avoid all the problems mentioned above. 2. You can select the type of port you want to have over your planet. 3. Ports you construct tend to pay better prices then the ones that the game scatters around the universe. Testing For Backdoors --------------------- There is a way to test your dead-end location or tunnel to determine if there is a "backdoor" or 1 way into your area that you have not yet discovered. To do this you must determine which sector or sectors are the "key" sectors. "Key" sectors are those sectors that someone MUST pass through in order to gain access to the rest of the area you have selected. To test your area you first enter the ships computer and clear ALL of your avoids. You then set the "key" sectors that you know about as avoids. You then attempt to plot a course to a sector IN your area FROM sector 1. Be sure and choose a sector that is not one of the avoids. This will test the area for other ways into the area that bypass the "key" sectors you have used. You may find a 1 way in that you didn't know about. You can also test for a 1-way out of the dead-end by simply attempting to plot a course from a sector in your area TO sector 1. Although you should have explored your area already making this last test only a precaution. The Major Space Lanes & FedSpace -------------------------------- The Federation has "claimed" several areas of space. You can build a planet in most of them but it's ability to upgrade is severly hampered and EVERYONE in the game will no doubt find it quickly. The Feds also have set up "patrol routes" that they clean every day. These routes are known as MAJOR SPACE LANES or MSL"s they follow the following routes: * Terra Terra to Stardock | Stardock to Terra | Stardock to Alpha * Stardock Alpha to Stardock / \ Stardock to Rylos / \ Rylos to Stardock / \ Rylos to Alpha Alpha *-------* Rylos Alpha to Rylos Rylos and Alpha are not "Fedspace" but since the MSL's are ALWAYS as shown above they are part of the MSL's and are swept at "extern" each night by the Feds. Any planets left in a MSL will be reduced to a LV-2 and will never be allowed to upgrade past LV-2 again. All Fighters, Mines and Nav-Haz will be removed at extern. It's my understanding that the clearing of Nav-Haz is a sysop definable option and may only clear at a set percentage rate. The games defualt setting is 100 percent clearing of the MSL's and FedSpace at each extern. I beleive the defualt rate for the rest of the universe is 3% per day. Due to one way warps the routes to and from any given location may be different. For example the route from Terra to Stardock may be different then the route from Stardock to Terra. Both routes are still MSL's The FEDSPACE sectors are as follows: Sectors 1 through 10 and Stardock. Only these sectors are considered Fedspace! You can not deploy Fighters, Armid Mines, Limpet Mines, or Beacons in these sectors and any attempt to do so will summon Captian Zyrain. He will come T-warping into the sector and procede to warn you about your attempts to litter up his space! Only these sectors may be used to T-warp to a Fedspace beacon! If you find sectors marked with a "Fedspace" beacon and it is not 1-10 or Star- dock someone is playing a trick on you. Never T-warp into Fedspace unless you have a "lock" on a beacon. It is possible to build a planet in sectors 2-10 and Stardock but you can not build a planet in Sector 1. For obvious reasons you would not want to build a planet here but you could put one in to build a port. The other reason to launch a G-torp in Fedspace is to create a Nav-Haz. ** WARNING ** DO NOT T-warp a planet into a MSL and leave it there. When Extern runs your planet will be downgraded to Lv-2 forever! Where to Build -------------- There are several different options to choose from when selecting a place to call home. I will first list them and then go into the details on them. Latter in this section I will go over how to defend your planets and the location you picked. 1. Single Sector Dead-ends 2. Multipule Sector Dead-ends 3. Cluster Type Dead-ends 4. Phoney Dead-ends 5. Hidden Loops 6. Seldom Explored Sectors. 4.51 Single Sector Dead-ends ----------------------------- This type of sector is the most common of dead-end types. A dead-end is a sector with with only 1 way in and out of the sector. Below is a simple drawing of a single sector dead-end the numbers represent the sector number and the sector in perentisies represents the dead-end itself. 372 4930 I / (401)-- 252-- 4502 --1642 I I \ 542 932 \ 3586 As you can see sector 401 is out of the way. Sector 252 has 4 warps leading in and out of it and sector 4502 has 5 warps leading in and out. These sectors will be traveled by people moving about the univerese. The 401 sector is not a busy place, someone would have to scan or decide to go there on purpose to find you. Of course this will not protect you from someone E-probing the Dead-ends looking for planets or from the guys who scan before they move, but you are at least out of the traffic paterns of open space. These types of sectors are good locations to build your first planet. I suggest you select this type of location to build your first planet. Latter you can move it to a different type of location. Any defenses you decide to place in the sector should only be put in sector 401 so as not to provide any extra hints to passersby that you are there. Make them scan or E-probe to find you. Multipule Sector Dead-ends -------------------------- These types of dead-ends are very similar to the single sector dead-end but there are fewer of them and those traders who use E-probes to locate planets will most often shoot there probes at these types of dead-ends first. For this reason single sector dead-ends offer more protection. Using the same map as above you can see the differance between these two types of dead-ends. Shown below is an example of a 2 sector and a 3 sector dead-end. 372 4930 (2673) 372 4930 I / I I / (4120) -- 401 -- 252 -- 4502 -- 1642 4120 -- 401-- 252 -- 4502 -- 1642 I I \ I I \ 542 932 \ 542 932 \ 3586 3586 As you can see the extra sectors in front of the last sector can be used to provide extra sector defenses. Mines, Fighters,and even Planets can be used to prevent would be invaders from reaching the last sector in the tunnel. In the case of a 2 sector dead-end (drawing on the left) you might not want to put defenses in the 401 sector that way passersby who are using scanners will not see anything to hint at your location. In the case of the 3 (or more) sector dead-ends (drawing on the right) you can put your sector defenses in both 2673 and 4120 and again leave 401 empty to fool anyone who is scanning from sector 252. In order to find you in this way they would have to enter the tunnel on purpose. These types of dead-ends allow you more room for building extra planets and for building a port or two for your private use. However due to the reason stated above concerning E-probing I suggest you wait until you can defend your planets before you attempt to build new planets in this type of dead-end. Cluster Type Dead-ends ---------------------- These dead-end types offer the most options and may even contain a few single sector dead-ends. Finding these types of dead-ends really requires a special search that may or may be part of your player aid. Below is an example of what a Cluster type dead-end looks likes. 2345 \ 578 \ I (456) \ I / 584 <-<- 121 -- 345 -- (4713) / I I / I 2156 -- 3912 -- (4029) / 678 I 3657 912 I (4998) From this drawing you can see that sector 121 is a busy sector but it "protects" several small dead-ends. Sectors 456 and 4713 are 1 sector dead-ends and sectors 4029 and 4998 are 2 sector dead-ends. By defending sector 345 or 121 you can protect 4 dead-ends totaling 8 or 9 sectors! This type of dead-end is perfect for Corps who want to build there own ports and build several planets. By starting small in one of the 1 sector dead-ends you can remain hidden yet still have alot of room to grow. Since there are no 1 way warps in or out of this dead-end the only traffic entering the area will be traders looking for ports, or a dead-end to build in themselfs. These are the "BEST" dead-end types as they provide the room to grow and the security of a single sector type dead- end. If you can find one of these types definitly consider using it! By placing mines and fighters in every sector of your cluster you force an invader to deal with alot of stuff and provide him with alot more chances to make a mistake and get himself into trouble. Once you have several Lv-5 or Lv-6 planets defending the cluster anyone entering this type of dead-end to invade will discover it to be extreamly dangerious and costly! 4.54 Phoney Dead-ends ---------------------- These type of dead-ends can be found in any of the types described above. They are not really dead-ends they have 1 way warps into or out of them. Some players will tell you they want these types of dead-ends. I strongly advise against them! Anyone out warping around the universe may stumble on your dead-end when there ships computer decided that the shortest route to travel comes through your dead-end! Unless your prepared to pay the costs for replacing mines, sector fighters, and you have a few Planets you can use to defend the entrance sector you will find this type of dead-end far to costly to maintain and you may regreat your decision to build here. Below is an just one example of a Phoney Dead- end. They come in many different shapes and sizes. 3784 372 4930 | | / 467 <-<- (4120) -- 401-- 252-- 4502--1642 | | | \ 278 42 932 \ 3586 The warp path between sector 4120 and 467 is a 1 way warp you can leave the 4120 sector and go to 467 but you can not go back to 4120 from 467. Anyone who is in sector 4502 who wants to go to sector 278 will come into your dead-end and discover your planets. Unless your looking to have alot of un-expected guests, I strongly suggest you avoid this type of dead-end. Althogh there are many different types of Phoney dead-ends all of them have 1 way warps involved in some way. Remember that these 1 ways may be useful to you as an Escape hatch but to other players it may be the shortest route to Terra or Stardock. For the most part these types of dead-ends make better traps then planet building locations. Hidden Loops ------------ These types of locations are not dead-ends they often have 2 ways into and out of them. However they are out of the way, seldom if ever entered sectors. Below are just two examples of a hidden loop. 2956 / \ 404 -- 592 -- 2358 -- 683 or 694 -- 832 1956 -- 153 \ / \ / 4712 21 In the first example (drawing on the left) we can see that sector 4712 is not on the path from 404 to 683 anyone moving along this path will have to enter the sector manually, the ships computer will never choose to enter 4712 as the shortest route. So unless your scanned or E-probed in most cases no one will ever know your there. In the second example (drawing on the right) we can see that both 2956 and 21 are along the path between 694 and 153. Depending on how the ships computer selects shortest routes one of these sectors may never be selected as a path. Shown below are 2 more examples of hidden loops. 404 -- 3693 -- 4512 -- 73 or 919 -- 742 -- 2957 -- 4285 I I I 1946 -- 629 496 / \ 1539 3419 \ / 618 In the first example (drawing on the left) we see a 2 sector "side street" if you will. Sectors 1946 and 629 are out of the main steam of traffic and will not appear on any Dead-end list. Although a player who is passing by, and scanning, as they move will spot you. Again the Ships computer will never select the route through this area as the shortest path between 404 and 73. Someone would have to choose to go there. In the 2nd example (the drawing on the right) we see a "Cul-de-sac" or "true" loop. These are real nice but extreamly rare and if you find one grab it! Again this offers an out of sight location that is not on any dead-end list. However these 4 types of loops are very rare and only a few of the player aids offer an option to find them them all. They don't offer alot of room to use sector defenses but the main advantage of these loops is that they are not on the dead-end lists that are often used to E-probe the universe when searching for planets. An E-probe would have to be shot directly at the sector to explore it. Those probes shot down the main path towards a nearby dead-end would never enter a loop. There chief strenght is in "stealth", not the overwelming sector defenses as you might encounter in a cluster type or multipule sector dead-end. These loops also come in "Phoney" versions with 1 way jumps in or out of them. Phoney Loops suffer from the same problems as phoney dead-ends and I suggest you avoid using them for planet locations and consider them as potential trap locations. Seldom Explored Sectors ----------------------- These type of locations are out in open space. In other words your going to hide your planet in the most obvious loction....Right out where anyone can find it! Anyone who has gone through the trouble of shooting E-probes at ALL of the dead-ends should have noted that there are still alot of sectors left, that were never explored by the probes. I can tell you that if you want to find a planet out in open space it's going to cost ALOT of credits and take a long time. Simply shooting E-probes at the dead-ends may leave as many as 3000 sectors unchecked. That's alot of room to search. This concept is the reason that building your free starting planet sometimes works. The key to getting away with this is knowing that the sector you have picked is not on the path from Stardock to the dead-ends. Unless you know the sectors (from shooting the dead-ends with probes yourself) you can't be sure your in a good spot. I suggest you save this method of hiding out in the open until such a time as your desprate and need to stay out of sight with your weekly defended Lv-4 or better planet. After all not everyone is going to be using E-probes to hunt for planets, these are the guys that are likly to find you. If your attempting to hide from them your wasting your time. But this option can frustrate those who rely on E-probes, and expect everyone to hide in a nice little dead-end. GuruIBM.zip offers a way to locate these areas. þ