[ THE GAME ] [ OVERVIEW ] [ BEGINNER’S GUIDE ] [ RULES ] [ PLAYER TYPES ] [ FAQS ] [ INPUT TURNS ] [ THRESHOLD ARCHIVE ]

TAKAMO BEGINNER’S GUIDE

Let’s face it. Takamo is a complex game. There are nearly 150 action codes you can use to give orders to your planets and fleets, and the first time you look at the web-based input program, you probably are thinking, “I CAN’T FIGURE THIS OUT!!!” Well, fear not. This Beginner’s Guide will help get you through those first few turns and alleviate some of the anguish you’re sure to feel as you navigate the Input Program and game rules.

GETTING SET UP

STEP ONE

If you haven’t done it yet, you need to go to the OVERVIEW page. The link is directly above this guide. Look over the eight possible player types. Choose one. Go to the SETUP EMPIRE link, click on it and fill out the setup form. Setup and play are free for the original Takamo. We will receive your setup request immediately after you submit it and we will set up your empire within 24 hours.

STEP TWO

While you wait for your player setup to be processed, you should make the best use of that time by reading the rules of the game on this site. The rules are in PDF format.

STEP THREE

Once your setup is completed, we will send you a setup file attached to an e-mail. That file is a text file containing all the information you will need to run your new empire. Your empire consists of two Terraformed Worlds, a Home World ( also Terrafomed ) and three Colony Worlds. All three Terraformed Worlds are fully built up. Your three colonies have 2 population units each but there are no colony bases.

Readouts of all planets in the systems you occupy plus a sector scan of your home sector are included in your player setup.

Review your setup and become familiar with your planets and the other planets in your home systems.

You may want to watch these tutorials to get familiar with Takamo basics:

STEP FOUR

Now click on the INPUT TURN link. The Input Program will open in your browser.

The menu bar is located at the top of the screen to help guide you through the process of entering your turn.

You can click on the “Action Codes” button to bring up a pop-up menu displaying the action codes you can use to enter in the corresponding column below.

If you have received results from a previous turn from our team, you can click on the “Choose File” button under the “Choose Turn Results to Upload” header. Once you have selected the appropriate file, click on the “Load Turn Results” button. Once you have done this, you can click on “Show Turn Results” to display your previous turn. You can also click on the “Planet List” button to display all of your planets and “Fleet List” button to display your fleets.

If you would like to load a previous turn (maybe to avoid retyping in the same action codes over and over again), you can click on “Choose File” under the “Choose Turn to Load” header. Select the appropriate file and click on “Load Turn.” This should display your previous turn orders in the table below.

Under “Galaxy Designator” enter “E,” under “Player ID” enter your player ID and Empire Name under “Empire Name.” You should be able to find these in your original empire setup file. Enter your turn number under the “Turn Number” header.

You enter orders by entering an action code and then filling out the relevant boxes depending on the type of action that you want to do. You continue to do that for up to 50 actions. You can do as few actions as you want in a turn. If you miss a turn, you will still get turn results because your empire will still produce RUs and report on any contacts made during that turn run.

Take a look at the end of the Rulebook to find all of the available actions and all the fields that are required for that particular action. Once you have filled out your turn, you will click on the “Save Turn” button in the upper right-hand corner. This will create a .TAK file. Attach that file to an email and email the turn to us at pbem@takamouniverse.com

HELPFUL HINTS FOR YOUR FIRST TURN

Here is what you should concentrate on during the first turn. Look at the current RU’s you have in the bank. Do not spend them all, tempting as that might be, on planet defenses. Rather, do as much exploration as possible early. Build a number of explorer ships and send them to “Safe” subsectors in your home sector to see if there are any stars. Stellar clouds may have stars but you must actually send the ship to the system location to see if the star exists. “RIFTS” and “SN” subsectors are hazardous. Do not go there. YOU SHOULD ALSO REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN NOT SEND A FLEET TO A SECTOR LOCATION (A three letter coordinate). Fleets can only be sent to Subsector (Three letters plus three numerals) or System (Three letters plus four numerals) or Planet orbit (Three letters plus five numerals).

You should have in your setup a report on the number of planets in your system or systems. Each player entering the game receives one homeworld, two teraformed worlds and three colony planets to start the game. (Except Nomad Empires which receive three platforms and three colony worlds.) You should also have information about several systems in your home subsectors that you can immediately begin to explore.

Consider building a number of explorers and step down their aggression level. I don’t know what you start at but lets say you start at aggression level 60. By using action code 21, giving the fleet number in the “Flt #1″ box and putting the number 30 in the “Spec #” box, you will effectively reduce the aggression level of the fleet to 30. Thirty less than your starting level is the greatest reduction in aggression level that is allowed. Two empires will only open fire on each other if the combined aggression level is 100+. So in effect this requires the other empire to have an aggression level of 70+ to open fire on you. This goes for NPC (computer operated) empires as well and you are much more likely to run into an NPC empire than a player empire.

So build a fleet of one explorer, step down it’s aggression level, and send it out to explore. If you send the ship to a planetary orbit, that should be the only thing you do with that fleet because, if the ship is destroyed in the first action, you will waste any orders given to that fleet for the rest of the turn. Instead, build a second fleet, step down the aggression level, and explore some other system or subsector. Remember also that you can not send fleets to sector space. Fleets can only go to subsectors, systems and planets.

If you send the fleet to a system in a stellar cloud, again, do not move it until you know it arrived safely. The fleet might run into a black hole and be destroyed while moving around in the stellar cloud. An explorer that goes to a SAFE subsector location does not have to have its aggression level reduced. There is no combat between fleets in deep (subsector) space unless fighters range out to attack you, which is extremely unlikely in your first few turns.

As far as your planet defenses are concerned, concentrate on fighters and marines. These are useful on defense but are also useful in other ways. They can be moved and used for offensive purposes as well. Fighters can be transfered to other planets anywhere within the subsector. A common tactic in Takamo is to use action code 78 just to see if a planet is occupied or not. It is especially useful for exploring stellar clouds. But more on that later.

To help you fill out your first few actions use the following as an example:

A C	Location #1	Flt 1	Qty	Bld	Empire Ship Name	Flt 2	Location #2	Spec #
3	XXX11231	1	1	1	Explore			1
21		1						30
2	XXX11232	1
3	XXX11231	2	1	1	Explore			2
2	XXX232	2
3	XXX11231	3	1	1	Explore			3
2	XXX1211	3

In the above example, actions one through three builds an explorer at a planet you own (XXX11231 in the example), steps down the aggression level by 30 and sends the fleet to scan the planet next to your planet. The next two actions builds another fleet and sends it to a subsector that, for purposes of this example is listed as “SAFE” on the sector report on your setup. Note that you do not have to step down the aggression level as there is no ship to ship combat in deep (subsector) space. But if the explorer goes to a planet orbit you might consider stepping it down before sending it in harms way. The next two actions builds another explorer and sends it to system orbit to scan the system for planets. This could be because subsector 121 is a stellar cloud and you wish to see if the cloud has any stars or planets. Sending in ships or probes to explore is the only way to find out. The locations listed above are for example purposes only and they do not actually exist in the game. Substitue the locations of your actual worlds as shown in your setup.

Send out lots of explorers. Find out what’s around you.

Other things to do that are important on your opening turns:

BUILD POPULATION – You will find these useful for recruiting marines and for trade and expansion. Unless of course you are cyber, then you will find them useful for execution. But don’t destroy all of them even if you are a cyber. They are required for improving the tec level on any world.

TAX – Taxing the population can give you some quick revenue. But don’t tax more than 19% or they may get unruly and revolt.

BUILD MARINES OR HEAVY MARINES – Marines are useful for invading other worlds and keeping smugglers and pirates off your world. Heavy marines are useful for defeating invading armies.

These should be done in exactly the above order on each planet. Build POP, TAX, Build MU’s. This is a programming limitation that will be removed in the future but for now, each planet is limited to one of each of these actions per turn and there was only one date code active in the planet record. Thus, each can be done only once per turn and MUST be done in that exact order for all of them to work properly. Someday when you get some trade routes going the Sell and Buy orders will be have to be put between the TAX and the BUILD MU’s actions. For the first turn don’t worry about it yet unless you decide to get some trade going between you terraformed planets and your colonies.

The following example illustrates how a BUILD POP action, a TAX action, and a BUILD MUs action will look:

A C	Location #1	Flt 1	Qty	Bld	Empire Ship Name	Flt 2	Location #2	Spec #
3	XXX11231		1	261
51	XXX11231							19
3	XXX11231		100	262

Don’t worry if you put in a number in the “QTY” field that is higher than the POP on the planet. In that case the computer will build the maximum allowed and no more. So if there were 91 POP on the planet then only 91 MU’s would be built. The program adjusts automatically to the upper limit if you exceed it.

Keep all your past turns because this allows you to access a current data base of your planets and fleets through the web-based input program. A data base feature that will track all explorations, contacts, etc. is under development. This database will list all locations your empire has encountered It will be able to show you a “history” of your explorations.

If you find a bug in the program or something you just don’t understand, contact pbem@takamouniverse.com.