GETTING STARTED

Basic Instructions

The Game: Empire is an online real time strategy game. This means that the game is played over the Internet and runs all the time, whether you are logged on or not. It is a game of varying complexity and depth and you will get the hang of what to do in the first few minutes, but you will find out new things all the time, even after playing for some months! The object of IE is to take over and hold as much of the northern continent of Nespanona as possible during the game time (typically 3 weeks). You will find that the other players seem to think that this is their aim as well so might not take too kindly to your expansion! IE is set on the northern continent of Nespanona - a planet that has had its core collapsed to a very dense ball. The crust has been broken in to thousands of pieces of varying sizes and held up by gravity generators. You are one of the many COG tribes that have traveled to the northern continent and you have discovered that most of the islands are uninhabited. As the leader of your tribe you must build an empire to occupy these islands before any of the other tribes. You do this by building fleets of mining vehicles, warships etc. and mining the resources found on these islands to build more warships to occupy more islands and so on. There are a variety of ships and buildings for you to build each having its own unique capabilities.

QuickStart: If you read nothing else in this guide, follow steps 1-10 to help you get started with Infinity Empire:
1.On first downloading IE and logging on you will find there is a quick intro to the game, read this then click on the button below that says 'click here to go to your home island'.

2.Click on your HQ and build 2 upgraded Defense Turrets and 1 upgraded Artillery Turret - this will greatly improve your home island defenses.

3.Next go to the Silo and toggle the ¡®auto-fill constructor¡¯ so that the Silo will automatically transfer resources to your vehicle constructor.

4.Now go to the Vehicle Constructor and click on the Mining Transport menu option about 6 times - this will queue and build 6 mining transports for you. You can also queue a couple of Scouts and Quantum Traders so that they are built after the mining transports.

5.Find one of your Scouts, click to select it and send it into the nearest grid square by using the ¡®Head in Direction¡¯ command - this will start your exploration of the space around your home island.

6.Click on the Empire View button in the top right of the screen - this will take you to the Empire View. Next click on the small round button below the Empire/Detail view button (Center camera on home island) which will move the camera to directly above your home island - this will help you see where your home island is on the map and if there¡¯s any unclaimed islands, enemies etc. in nearby grid squares (provided you¡¯ve got a ship or building in nearby grid squares). Empire view will become increasing more useful to you as you explore more of your section of the map.

7.In Empire View, there¡¯s a button, which will take you directly back to your home island - it¡¯s the last small button on the right-hand side of the screen (go to home island).

8.If all has gone well, you should now be well on your way to building up your home island defencesdefenses, increasing your mining production, starting to explore your local area and you should be able to switch between Detail and Empire views. Next read about the Deserted Empire (below) and what to do about it.

9.One top-tip - do not give out your gate code, or any details of your location to any other players unless you fully trust them, otherwise you made find your home island is visited by a fleet of warships.

Deserted Empire : If you are a demo player, or playing in the Beginners game, then you will see a blue, unclaimed island near to your home island which has a few enemy ships surrounding it. DON¡¯T PANIC - this is not another player - it is all that¡¯s left of an old empire and is there for your practice. If you right-click on the blue island in the Radar Display, then you will jump to directly above the island - very handy for viewing what is on and around an island. Go back to your Home Island and start by sending your medium and large warships over to the Deserted Empire¡¯s island - once they arrive at the island, they will open fire and take out the small and medium warships. Don¡¯t worry if you loose one of your ships - they are cheap and quick to replace. Once the enemy defense vehicles are taken out, send your warships back to base and send your Boarding Party over to the Deserted Empire¡¯s island. When the Boarding Party arrives at the island, you can use the ¡®Take control of enemy object¡¯ menu option to take over the remaining vehicles and claim them, as you own. Once you¡¯ve taken control of the Mining transports, Crystal Moss Miner and the Scout, claim the island and build an Outpost, then send them all back to your home island so that they can help mine from your island and also benefit from the protection of your defenses. The Crystal Moss Miner is very valuable, as it will mine crystal moss for you, which is worth 8x as much as water.

Quick Start (In-Depth) :On first downloading IE and logging on you will find there is a quick intro to the game, read this then click on the button below that says 'click here to go to your home island'. You are now in Detail view. You will see some ships and buildings around and on the island.

N.B. You may have been started as a Nomad Player - it will say this on the start-up screen. If this is the case then you will also need to read the Nomad Quick Start Guide, located in your Infinity Empire folder.

Click on a few of the objects and look at the menu that comes up for each of them.

Looking around the screen you will see some icons at the top; they bring up the Scores, Summary, Session, Players and allow you to switch between Empire and Detail view. To the right of those icons you will find icons that make the id text disappear from the vehicles and buildings, allow you to set up email alerts etc. Below those you will find a House icon. This button will take you straight to your home island.

To the top right of the screen you will see the Radar View. This is a North-orientated map of your local grid square, which shows islands and objects. Right clicking on an object in the Rader view will move your view to above the object. Left clicking will adjust your camera to look at the object from your current position.

You can move your camera by holding your wheel mouse button down and moving the mouse. If you get lost then just left click onto your island in the Radar View, or click on the Home Island (House icon). You can also move the camera around by holding down the right mouse button in Detail and Empire views. The left mouse button will also allow you to move around in empire view and all the camera controls are also mapped to your keyboard arrow keys and also your number-keypad keys. Page up and Down can be used on the keyboard to zoom in and out (just like the mouse scroll-wheel). As you can see, there¡¯s several ways of moving the camera position around - have a play so that you can move the camera around with confidence as this will help you orientate yourself in-game. There is also a guide to the camera and how it works in the Guide section of our web site. More...