Space Colony v1.1 Patch

Space Colony – Readme
V1.1 

Section 1 - Background
Section 2 - Additional features
Section 3 - Military Equipment
Section 4 - How to get into a relationship
Section 5 - Starting the game
Section 6 - Useful web addresses
Section 7 – Space Colony FAQs
Section 8 - Changes for the patch
Section 9 - System requirements

Section 1 – Background

2153 A.D.

Earth is no longer economically viable so the planet has been evacuated.  The real money is now in the orbital mega cities, advertising and most of all basic resource acquisition.

Every two-bit company in the galaxy is running a Lander operation, setting down on a new planet, killing off anything endangering the profits, sucking up every resource the planet has to offer and then moving on.
 
The galaxy is split into two, those who have credit and those who don’t.  Those with credit live in the luxurious orbital mega cities and are known as Spacers.  Those who don’t have credit are often tempted to carry out these dangerous resource acquisition operations and are affectionately called Landers.

The acquisition teams are usually made up from the dregs of society, drifters, loners and stargazers.  Many of them have little to live for so chance their luck in an attempt to get rich quick.  The loss of life is high.

Space Colony follows the story of Venus Jones, a 23-year-old veteran of three outings.  She needs one more successful trip and then she is out of there, retired, set up for life, in credit.  She is praying for a nice easy six-month mining assignment, what she’s going to get is a completely different story…


Section 2 – Additional features

Delete Jobs Tool

You can delete your primary or secondary job.  To do this click on the small trash can icon on the colonists panel (which appears once you have click on the colonist), a new pointer will be shown, now click on the job you wish to remove and the job will be deleted.

Guard Duty 
(Guard Duty is only available on certain levels)

Once you have selected a colonist a small picture of a space helmet will appear over the pointer, now click outside and the colonist’s primary job will change to guard duty (space duty).  The colonist will always go to this location when they are in work time and defend against any alien attacks.

MP3 Player

You can access the MP3 selection screen though the options, either through the main menu (setting’s) or through the in game options (spanner icon) screen.

Select a drive or drives you wish to scan for MP3 and press the scan button (small green arrow).  A scanning for MP3’s window will appear and it will start searching for MP3 files. You can now select the MP3’s you wish to play in the game.

You can select the files in a number of ways either by left clicking on the MP3 or using the green arrow with a + on it to add an MP3.  Or use the CTRL key to toggle the selected files on or off.  If you wish to select a group of files select one file and then hold down the SHIFT key and select some more files further down the list and add them using the arrow and green arrow with the + sign.

At the top right of the screen you can choose the amount of time before the next track is played either: 10 seconds, 30 seconds or 1 minute.  You can also choose to have the tracks played randomly or in alphabetical order.

Event Warning

An explanation mark (!) appears near to the radar screen when certain events are happening.  You can click on the explanation mark (!) to go to this event.


Section 3 – Military Equipment

Force field post and Hi-power force field post

The large force fields uses up more power and can take more damage from aliens than the smaller force field.  You can always repair the damage using the engineering repair facility.

Smaller alien’s can go under the force field whereas the airborne alien’s can go over them.

Small force fields are good for stopping bees, whereas the large force field would be better used against the rock hoppers.  

Manned Laser’s

The Manned laser’s can hit more frequently, than the automatic laser, depending on the skills of the person using the laser and it’s much more powerful than the automatic laser.

Sentinels

Sentinels are a useful defence against flying alien’s e.g. Acid Wings.  You control the movement of the sentinel by placing Sentinel patrol markers.  The Sentinel’s will move between the markers and the Sentinel post.

Hover mine delivery system

These use a lot of power, but will deal out plenty of damage, which includes damage to flying aliens, such as the Acid Wings.  Make sure you are careful with their placement as they can cause damage to your base. 

Cluster Bomb

The Cluster bomb fires a bomb, which creates a powerful arch of destruction and can cause damage to your base.

Missile Silo

The missile requires plenty of resources to build, but it allows you to target anywhere on the map, and does damage to a large area.

Military Radar

The Military Radar gives advanced warning of incoming alien attacks, before they arrive on the map.

Space Defence Shield

The Space Defence Shield gives protection against falling lava rocks and incoming meteors.  You can click on the Space Defence Shield to show the radius, which it protects.


Section 4 – How to get into a relationship

If you wish to get one of your colonists to fall in love, you’ll need to think carefully whom you choose for them as a suitable partner.  Picking the right person will make things much easier for you. Also you need to think about who is going to ask whom.
Slim has little chance of dating Venus, will usually be receptive to an advance from her!

Choose your colonist, and then click on the heart icon. You are now on the romance panel. Here you can either pop the question immediately (‘will you be mine’ icon) or try and improve your overall chances by inviting them to hang out together first. Each of the 6 invitations has a chance of success depending on the person asked. Look over the probabilities and make your choice. If you are successful the 2 colonists will go off together and engage in their chosen activity.   You will also see that the probability of a successful relationship has improved (you can improve this 3 times, once for each of the 3 hearts).
Note you can also improve your chances by making the 2 colonists better friends (enemies have no chance of becoming special friends).

Finally, once they are romantically entangled, they will benefit from permanently full happiness. Relationships don’t always last forever however in Space Colony they certainly don’t, with some lasting only a day and others... well? 


Section 5  – Starting the game

Play the tutorial first! It isn’t too long and really helps explain the games main concepts.  Once you have finished the Tutorial move onto the play Space Colony section.

Don’t forget to use the hints and tips section available in each mission, if you get stuck in the game.  You can access them by clicking on the flashing light bulb next to the radar screen.


Section 6 - Useful web addresses

Developer’s Homepage:

http://www.fireflyworlds.com 

Official Space Colony Website:

http://www.spacecolonygame.com

Official Space Colony Forum:

http://www.gathering.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=53

Links related to Firefly’s games:

http://www.lordwibble.com


Section 7 – FAQs

Q. I can't work out how to build the Pharmaceutical Extractors? 
A. The Pharmaceutical Extractor need’s to be built inside Bio Domes.

Q. Is there anyway of getting more supplying robots in the warehouse? (Resources gathering is very slow)
A. Placing more warehouses will give you extra warehouse droid’s to pickup good’s.

Q. Every time I try to scan for MP3s the game crashes to desktop?
A. You can copy your MP3s manually into the “Space Colony\fx\mp3” folder and when you reload Space Colony they will be shown again. The default location for MP3’s is “C:\Program Files\Firefly Studios\Space Colony\fx\mp3”.

Q. Is there a Strategy Guide available?
A. The strategy guide is available from Bradygames: http://www.bradygames.com/detail_brady.cfm?item=0744003342

Q. I don’t seem to be able to save a game.
A. Try creating a new user, creating a user with special characters, which Space Colony doesn’t recognise, could cause the problem.  You should particularly avoid using ‘\’ (backslash), ‘/’ (slash), ‘*’ (asterisk), ‘ “ ‘ (quotes), ‘?’ (question mark), ‘<’ (left angled bracket), ‘>’ (right angled bracket), ‘:’ (colon) and the “¦” (pipe).

Q. There doesn't seem to be a way to delete structures or furniture?
A. You can delete buildings using the sell option.  Just click on the dollar symbol on the left interface panel and then click on the object to sell.  Click the right mouse button to clear the sell cursor.

Q. Can the objects be moved after their initial placement?
A. Yes, click on the object that you want to move and an interface panel will be shown, within this panel you will be able to see the move icon (four arrows in a circle), click on this to move your object around.  Objects normally placed outside of Bio Domes (lasers, nutrient extractors etc..) cannot be moved after initial placement.

Q. A Fatal Exception has occurred OE ….: …….. VXD + ……. the program will terminate.
A. The following web site may help to track down the cause. http://www.all-windows.com/win_exception.html

Q. When will there be a forum or a place to share user made campaigns?
A.  Links to Fansites with downloadable maps and campaigns can be found by going to www.lordwibble.com.

Q. Space Colony will run for a bit and become slow and choppy. 
A. The following information may help you: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=815069


Section 8 – Changes for the patch

Dogbots, Soldiers and Commandos can be located by clicking on the icon, which appears just above the Colonist’s faces in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

The following Galaxy mode missions have been updated: Abayomi, Aelfwine, Batuuli, Caerl, Ceolwulf, Pakendorf and Von Funck.

Colonists cannot be moved around outside when they are mad.

The issue with grass not being placed around golf holes has been fixed.

Characters no longer shoot at aliens inside the base when they are mad.

The disco music is now linked to the music option and not the speech option.

If you used the F1 key to save the game, the interface would be hidden, this has been fixed.

Speech has been added when you tell a character to repair certain items.

Sometimes Colonists repeated the same set of speech, after already saying it, this has been rectified.

The issue of the mission not completing when playing an 18-hole golf course has been fixed.

Fribulan could use equipment, which required maintenance this has been fixed.

You can now assign a Colonist to a different task when they are shooting at Rodents.

Venus could go mad but carry on working.

The issue has been resolved with the Iron Extractor walking through the base.

Venus can't get into the Nutrient Extractor.  Instead she is going around it all the time.

The Vaatz Galaxy mode map has been updated. 

An issue was found which allowed colonists to train but the training availability count didn’t go down.

Removing a Sentinel after it has been built didn’t change the status of the condition.

The Fribulan tourist faced the wrong way when greeted by a colonist.

The issue with the Mechanoid suddenly freezing has been fixed.

Occasionally the green beam, which is displayed when items are being maintained, was shown across the whole screen.
	
When the Anti fun league condition ran, it left behind the food chute when the restaurant had been removed.

An issue with the Hover mine targeting weaker aliens first has been resolved.
	
Occasionally an objective was ticked even though it hadn't been reached.

Tourists attempted to play golf when the grass wasn’t planted.

The text will display correctly on Japanese versions of Windows.

Various other issues have also been resolved.	

	
Section 9 - System requirements

OS:	Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP.
CPU:	800mhz (1.2Ghz+ Preferred)
RAM:	64 MB (128MB Recommended)
HDD:	850 MB
VIDEO:	4MB, DirectX 8.1 compatible (800x600 upwards)
SOUND:	DirectX 8.1 compatible
CD-ROM:	8X Speed


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