General/Misc:

What is the range of detting?
Detting range is fixed for all ships.  This is easily verified by looking at defs.h:
(To get an idea of det range as opposed to other ranges, I left select #define's in....)

• #define GWIDTH 100000   /* galaxy is 100000 spaces on a side */
• #define WARP1 20/* warp one will move 20 spaces per update */
• #define SCALE 40/* Window will be one pixel for 20 spaces */
• #define EXPDIST 350/* At this range a torp will explode */
• #define DAMDIST 2000/* At this range a torp does damage */
• #define SHIPDAMDIST 3000 /* At this range, an exploding ship does damage */
• #define PLASDAMDIST 2500 /* At this range, a plasma does damage */
• #define DETDIST 1600/* At this range a torp can be detonated */
• #define PHASEDIST 6000/* At this range a player can do damage with phasers */

From getship.c:

• shipp->s_detcost = 100; /* assault */
• shipp->s_detcost = 100; /* battleship: */
• shipp->s_detcost = 100; /* cruiser: */
• shipp->s_detcost = 100; /* destroyer: */
• shipp->s_detcost = 100; /* scout:  */
• shipp->s_detcost = 100; /* starbase */

Detting is identical for any given ship. [Jerry Wieber]

How does a player choose which side of the planet to begin orbitting on??.
No, it's never a fluke or random.  Yes, you can control it.
     First, to convince yourself that you can control your planet hook, go to the center of a planet and stay there at warp 0.  Now pick a direction and hit warp 1.  Immediately hit 'o' for orbit and notice how you seemingly jump onto the side of the planet that you were headed for.  This is the basic concept behind the planet hook.
     Now, in practice you won't bother to slow down to warp 0, of course, since orbiting velocity is warp 2 and you may be under heavy fire.  That is, you only need to make sure that you have slowed down to warp 2 to be able to use 'o' to hook.  Basically, just dodge some torps as you near the planet and look for a "hole" in the torp stream trajectories so you can hook onto the planet and avoid all of the torps while you beam down armies or bomb.  Your mission will become difficult to carry out once there are more than 3 torp streams going through the planet and near impossible if one of the defenders gets a phaser lock on you before you reach the planet.
     The hardest part in taking a defended planet is to get on it in the first place.  If the defenders are orbiting the planet it will make your job easier since it is harder for them to see you on the galactic map.  Good defenders will space themselves apart around the planet in a circle and temporarily turn off the show-planet-names and show-resources on their tactical/galactic maps to make it easier for them to "see" you.
     An easier but less precise method of carrying out a planet hook is to use 'l' to lock on to the planet instead of 'o'.  Now, if you're an assault ship, you have to make sure that you are going at warp 4 as you enter the outer radius of the planet before you hit 'l'.  The assault ship will automatically slow down to warp 2 by the time you are at the center of the planet and at the last instant you can turn you ship so that it is slightly to the left or slightly to the right of center so you will hook onto that side of the planet.  Note that different ships have different deceleration rates so, depending on your ship type, you need to be going at different warp speeds when you hit the planet's radius before you lock on (otherwise you will not be at the center of the planet when you slow down to warp 2).
     Without the planet hook, you are as good as dead against clueful defenders because they know where you will orbit the planet.  The hook will buy you some time in orbiting the planet and you may even be able to take/bomb the planet from right under their noses.  (I remember bombing 13 armies from Rom against 5 defenders.  I had to lose  2 phaser locks on my way into the planet but once I got inside the  planet's radius I was home free.  They couldn't hit me for almost a full  revolution around the planet :)
     Oh, and about all this bull about "just try and do that under me", look, nobody is perfect.  I have taken agris in a cruiser under clueful defenders (yes, that means you too, CMU).  The truth of the matter is that sometimes people have an off-day, or they lose a packet at a critical moment, or they're not paying enough attention, or they're busy typing a message, or they're out of fuel, or their mouse slipped, or they simply miss. Sometimes it's a matter of luck.  However, using the planet hook is something that will tip the scales in your favor.  Above all, if you fail, don't lose hope.  Try again.  Your opponents will make a mistake sooner or later :) [Dan Su]

On Death and Dying
     I hear a fair amount about this subject from other good players, but no one has really written anything authoritative on the subject.  Nevertheless, death is something that happens to all of us no matter how good, and now matter what our ranks.  So it is a subject which deserves some looking into.
Why do I want to die?
     There are a number of reasons to want to die, but they all amount to the same thing -- I am better off in a new ship at home than in my current ship, here.
     The most obvious reason to feel this way is because your ship is damaged or out of fuel.  This is a perfectly legitimate reason.  You want to look at your current position and make sure that your ship is not more valuable where is currently is than at home (ie.  A crippled empty Cruiser will do more to stop the planet taker than nothing.). However, much of the time, the reason that your are crippled or out of fuel is because you have already attempted your mission and are suffering from the results.  In this case, death is often the best option.
     There are also many times when you are needed at or near the home-world quickly.  Perhaps a valuable player is being Ogged there, or the planet is being, or about to be bombed.  In many cases, the mission at home is more important than the mission you're on.  In this case, also, it is often worth dying.  It can often be a tough decision whether to die or not.  Try to rank possible missions in terms of how important, and how immediate they are.
     Once in a while, you are just out in the boonies.  There could be an one of a number of reasons for this, but it happens.  Normally, it's best to get back is quickly as possible, and that means death.
     Sometimes you want to die right away just so you don't die later and give kills to the wrong person.  Or you may be surrounded and know that you are going to die really soon.  Again, there are people who you want to kill you, and those who you don't.  That brings up the next question.
How do I die? (Seems easy, no?  Just turn off shield and det.)
     Having decided to die, you want to make sure that you do as little damage to your team as possible.  So you don't want to give kills to potential planet takers, and you don't want to blow up on team-mates unless they also want to die.  The latter is almost always case dependent, so I'll talk about the former.   If you can die to a team-mate, DO.  This can be very hard.  Basicly, you have to fly over an out-of-fuel opponent while your team-mate shoots at him.  There's about a 50/50 chance that your team-mate will get the kill.  This often isn't possible, so don't worry if you can't pull it off.
     Give your kill to the enemy SB.  The plan is so well known that good SBs make a habit out of not killing ships that try this.  So you need some tricks to *make* the SB kill you.  The most obvious one, is to fly at her firing.  Of course, that's so obvious, that she should be expecting it, and presser you away.  Therefore, I find that there are 3 things to do to make a SB kill you.  First, go into repair mode, or at least slow down enough to gain fuel quickly.  The SB will not know how much fuel you have, and may get paranoid.  After this, when you turn to attack her, she may decide to kill you after all.
     Second, try cloaking.  A lot of a SB's power comes from its tractors and pressers, so you take a lot away by cloaking.  If it pressers you as you cloak, run until you're outside presser range and return. Otherwise, just fly right over it.  No base likes that.  Third, you can shoot at some of the flunkies who always hang around bases pretending to escort it, but really just trying to get kills.  Pick one who has a kill already, because she, more likely to panic and try to bet the base to help her.
     Just as good a a base to give kills to is a robot.  Iggy doesn't exist on all servers, and isn't around all the time on servers that do have him, so it pays to plan ahead and bring in a couple of Guardian-type 'bots.  Be at peace with them until you need to die, and then declare hostile.  This play doesn't work everywhere, but if you're on the outskirts of neutral space, it is certainly a viable alternative.   Enemy or neutral planets make a good graveyard.
     The disadvantages are that they often take too long, and they require that you get to them.  The advantage is that you can bomb them while you're there, and either kill enemy armies, or bring in a 'bot to kill you later.
     Let kill scums rack it up.  If someone has a bunch of kills, it doesn't hurt to give away one more.  There is no friend of the about to die like plasma.  If it's going to miss, phaser it as it gets close.   Scout bombers are not completely safe to give kills to but are better than a lot of people.  Normally, they aren't interested in using the kills that they get.  On those occasions when they are willing to carry, at least they are no longer bombing.  There are times when giving a bomber a kill in order to get her off of bombing is actually a good idea.
     If you can convince an enemy Ogger to kill you, you're often in good shape.  Not only have you gotten them to waste fuel, but, like the bomber, you have tempted them with the option of changing roles.  Lots of times, it's hard to get an Ogger to kill you.  Be aggressive.   Give                           a kill to a "pure" dogfighter.  There are often some bozos around who will never be troubled to pick up armies, letting along deliver them.  These guys have the added advantage that they are often crawling all over themselves to kill you.
     Give a kill to a terrible planet taker.  Some people seem to have a knack for not avoiding Oggs.  There are some so bad that it's easier to give them kills and then Ogg them than to bomb (Army hotel: Armies go in.  They don't come out.).  Go for it.  Of course, you should then Ogg them, or let your team know that they will soon carry.
     Give the kill to an incredible hotshot.  This sounds silly, but there are some people who will always have kills no matter how hard you try to keep them from getting them.  It's not *good* to give them kills, but the worst person to give kills to is someone who is good at                           planet taking, but is having trouble getting kills tonight.  Don't give kills to mediocre players.
"With my last breath I spit at thee."
     As you go down, you might as well make it count.  Try to hurt someone who doesn't want to be hurt, kill someone who doesn't want to be killed, or suck the fuel out of someone who your team-mate is Ogging.  Often, the best way to die is to Ogg someone -- successfully or not.  This is especially true if you have to give your kill to someone who you don't want to have it.  Remember that an explotion right on top of someone does 100 point of damage in anything but a SC (which does 75).  Take advantage of it. [Timothy C. Worsley]

Why should you go after planet takers? Well, if not to protect your team's planets (a damn good reason by itself), there is an additional incentive for the self-centered: You get bombing credit for 5 times the number of armies shot down. Any AS carrying 10+ armies == 50+ armies bombed == a very juicy target.
You can tell when you have killed somebody with armies because you are awarded 1.0 kills for the kill plus 10% of his kills (e.g., 0.3 kills if he had 3), plus 0.1 kills per army dusted. [Terence M. Chang]

A question for a.g.x. readers first: Why the increase in suiciding? Just because it's easier/too easy? Or is there a greater awareness of the value of this tactic?

I think some adjustment in strategy is required. First, the value of an escort in terms of deterring suiciders is high -- if you have a competent escort. I haven't seen many planet takers asking for assistance... too macho to request help, I guess. Second, whoever takes the planet can no longer stay around to guard it -- the enemy should be trying to ogg him. This means other players have to prevent the freshly taken planet from being overrun.

I've tried some new tactics that work well:

Non-Ogg: Stay in a fairly quiet/neutral area and rack up kills. I was consistently drawing 2 enemy oggers while doing this.

Army-Ogg: Amble down in neutral space down to enemy space with a fast ship. Keep the engines cool. Then bomb. This also draws aggressive players. Ogg whoever rushes in to kill you (you need fuel for this). This way you don't give away kills.

Anti-Ogg: Play rescue. Watch for teammates that just got a kill but are hurt. Intercept would-be oggers/scavengers. To be good at this you have to learn how to torp and phaser cloakers.

Planet-Moof: Take a planet when they don't expect it. After applying tactic #1 a couple times, enemies will tire of chasing you. Pretend to apply tactic #2 but while carrying armies.

None of this require the help of teammates. But if enemy suiciders are bogging the team down, working cooperatively may fix that. [Terence M. Chang]

Now that I've been playing for a few months, I thought I'd jot down some simple strategic ideas that I would tell a player who has learned the interface and how to shoot and dodge, but is still basically flying around aimlessly when not in combat. My own playing style is of course
reflected in these coments. Perhaps some of you experienced players will care to add to or correct this list; there's probably a lot I don't know about the game still.

• Attack planet-takers. Look at the player list to see which enemy players have kills. Look at the galactic map to find one of these ships heading towards one of your planets. Always keep an eye out for cloakers on the galactic map. It's usually more important to kill enemy planet takers than to take planets yourself. [Herbert.Enderton]
• Read your messages. Split them up into separate windows. Ideally you should notice right away when a new team or personal message appears. It's really fun when you have a couple of team players that can respond instantly to messages. [Herbert.Enderton]
• When the enemy ship is more valuable than your own, close with it. The usual result will be that you both blow up. Valuable ships include those carrying armies, those with kills, those threatening to bomb (especially assault ships), and usually any ship a long way from home. [Herbert.Enderton]
• Bomb. This is easy, and very useful. If there are lots of planetswith 30+ armies, as in the start of a new game, use an assault ship. Usually the direct approach works fine: fly at maximum warp towards a planet that isn't heavily guarded, cloak, bomb, die, and repeat. If you are heavily damaged, try to get killed by the planet. Limping off to repair is a waste of time. Later in the game, deep-bombing in a scout is fun. It not only kills their armies, it distracts their ships. If you can get two ships chasing you around, that's great. Just keep an eye on your fuel gauge. [Herbert.Enderton]
• Use phasors. Learn where the 30 point range is. If your opponent is too good at dodging your torps, e.g. if you're a novice and he's an admiral, you can still hurt him by phasoring him and blowing up in his face, if he lets you get close enough. Phasoring cloakers is great because it also tells you and your teammates exactly where the cloaker is. [Herbert.Enderton]
• Beginners are often advised to fly battleships and cruisers, but I think scouts are the simplest to fly. They have wimpy tractors, pressors, and phasors, so pretty much all you have to think about is dodging and torpedoing. Scout torps do less damage but go faster (warp 16 compared to cruiser torp's warp 12), and have a shorter range so you don't need to abort them when you miss. But keep that fuel tank filled, so you can do enough damage when there's an assault ship you need to kill. [Herbert.Enderton]
• Always join the side with fewer players. Wait a few seconds before picking a team when you first join, because the numbers fluctuate when people die. [Herbert.Enderton]
• The enemy is easiest to kill when he is coming towards you at high speed, so (a) give him a reason to chase you (e.g. bomb) or (b) figure out where he wants to go and get in his way. Don't chase a ship without good reason. [Herbert.Enderton]
• When you're ogging a starbase, try to time it so that you come out of cloak and start shooting from one side at the same time as one of your teammates appears from a different angle. (This is hard.) [Herbert.Enderton]
• The easiest planets to take are the ones the enemy has just taken. Often one kill (two armies) is enough. Actually the easiest are the independent planets; if you see a "planet destroyed" message in your team message window but the planet is still in bold, it's independent (as you can verify with the `i' key). [Herbert.Enderton]
• Things you can (and should) do while cloaked include bombing, beaming down armies, and detonating enemy torps. If you're bombing or taking a planet, cloaking is crucial when there is an enemy ship nearby because it prevents him from tractoring you off the planet, and of course makes it harder for him to shoot you. [Herbert.Enderton]
• Don't cloak when approaching or in orbit around one of your own planets without telling your teammates; they might think you're an enemy and drop everything to come waste fuel on you. [Herbert.Enderton]
• Set "update galactic map frequently" so you can pinpoint cloakers.[Herbert.Enderton]
• Flying around behind the enemy lines is an excellent way to create chaos. This will allow your teammates to bomb and take planets more easily. Even if you don't have kills, if you cloak and approach an enemy planet you can often draw their best defenders to you. [Herbert.Enderton]
• Fly at maximum warp when there's somewhere you want to get to (and there almost always should be). In general, don't waste time; if you dawdle your team is effectively playing at a man disadvantage. [Herbert.Enderton]
• Pick your targets, especially if you have a fast ship. Don't just fly around looking for a fight. If you engage a ship that is a threat to your team, you can be satisfied even if all you do is damage it or slow it down long enough for reinforcements to arrive. [Herbert.Enderton]
• Some players (like me) send a distress call when they are engaging an enemy planet taker and need help killing it. If you see a distress call from a player with no armies, that might be the reason. [Herbert.Enderton]

Two features of netrek that I just learned this last week, after months playing the game:

• If you detonate the enemy's torps, they won't hurt your teammates at all. Useful to know when you're escorting a planet-taker. The explosions will hurt you, of course. They also seem to hurt your enemies (other than the guy who fired them?).

If you lock on to a player and then he cloaks, you stay locked on. This can be useful if you're moving very slowly (say you're just trying to defend a planet) and he tries to fly circles around you. You turn with him, tracking much better than you can possibly do by looking at the ?? on the galactic map. Phasor straight forward and you've got him. [Herbert Enderton]

Hi Everyone,

Well, people don't seem to mention that warning flags are very useful in many areas of netrek. Now, what are the flags you say? Well, they are the G, Y, and R symbols under the heading 'Flags'. On the tactical, it comes in different designs of the border.
The G (Green) flag has the white border and signals that there are no enemies in or just around your tactical.
The Y (Yellow) flag has the gray border is a warning that an enemy is near or just on the border of your tactical. The R (Red) flag is the danger flag has the white dashed border, (the only exception to this is when you enter the game in a new ship where the border is dashed white but the flag is green things return normal as soon as the yellow flag comes up), this flag tells you that there is an enemy in your tactical close enough to attack you.
Now, how are these flags useful?
Well, the flags can he used in all parts of the game.

• Planet taking: When in any ship, you gain fuel or lose less fuel uncloaked then cloaked. So since cloaking is really mostly only effective in the tactical, you come in towards a planet that has enemies, you then would look at your border and then start cloaking as SOON as it turns Grey (Yellow Flag). So that's why Andrew has the name Grey Elf :-).. Now if you take an undefended planet take it uncloaked which saves you fuel (Unless you are a DD or a AS, then it doesn't matter). If you are a planet taker you are a DEFINITE ogg target. So to help then you suddenly see the Dashed borders (Red flag) come up. You are being ogged and just cloak and run.
• Bombing: Bombing in the beginning of the game is crucial to the game and bombing as many planets in one trip is important. So the flags are a great way to approaching a planet to be bombed. There are times I would of been able to bomb another planet if I had the fuel to cloak onto the planet instead of being exposed a killed instantly. Bomb the planet uncloaked in the white border (Green flag) and then cloak if the border changes the enemy might pass without noticing. Now with the fuel you have and hopefully not too damaged ship you go bomb the next planet. When I am highly damaged bombing I always try to kill an enemy nearby so I don't give up kills and I take someone with me.
• Ogging: Ahh the art of ogging. Maybe Terence would write (the Exxon Valdez Guide to Ogging)? Anyway, I use the flags when ogging too.. I pinpoint my target and go in at the highest warp possible without losing fuel (Warp 6 on a CA). I then look at my borders and cloak right when it changes to grey (Yellow flag). I then have a good amount of fuel to tractor, phaser, torp... KABOOM!!! Sound familiar guys? :-) :-)....
• Starbasing: Very helpful in that I am usually always in repair mode in the White border (Green Flag) the reason I am in repair mode is that an SB usually doesn't have a destination to go to so repairing is helpful for survival. The Yellow and Red flags are helpful in getting your attention and getting enemy oggers. Also you can save a few heart attacks and Wtemp when you check to see that there is a cloaker near you and the green flag is up signifying a teammate. [Tom Holub]

Games to play when it's not "t mode"

1. One-on-one dogfights. The main problem is that runner-scumming gives one a huge tactical advantage, so this leads to insults and arguments. Another problem is with third parties interfering.
2. N on M fights, i.e. unstructured fly around shooting at the other team, playing for ratio or bragging rights or something. This has the same problem with runner scumming. There's also sometimes a problem with peace declarations. Generally if the action is in Fed space, it's more fun if the Feds are declared hostile to everybody, so everyone can fuel at their planets.
3. Two on one fights, where the one is "allowed" to run. I.e. the one player is content just to live, and the two have to work together to trap and kill him. This can be kind of fun.
4. Starbase ogging. Get four people on one side so somebody can check out the starbase, then everybody switches to another team to og it. Well, maybe one escort stays behind. The base should move far enough forward that it is in serious danger.
5. King of the Hill. This is my personal favorite. Designate some fuel planet near the center as "the hill", and whoever is closest to it at a given time is King (or Queen). We had a really fun King of El Nath game on bronco last week. If too many people declare peace with each other it gets kind of lame. The owner of the planet should not be at peace with any other race because everybody is going to want to be able to refuel there. Other than that, anything goes: cloaking, runner-scumming, starbases, whatever. It's also fun just one-on-one.
6. Push 'em back, push 'em back, waaaaay back. Two teams. Where the "front" is indicates who is winning. This makes the most sense if everybody stays kind of near the line between the two home planets, and is kind of ill-defined when there are players behind the enemy front lines.
7. "Planet-taker" versus defender. One version for two players: designate two adjacent planets as targets. The planet-taker wins by orbiting either of them for three seconds. The defender wins by killing the planet taker (even if the defender is also killed). I haven't really play-tested this one. Depending on the players it might be fun with just one target planet. Could be fun with more players too.
8. Border patrol. Imagine a line between two adjacent planets. One player wins just by crossing the line and surviving. The defender tries to stop this. I haven't play-tested this at all, maybe it's lame.
9. "Puck". I forget who came up with this idea, I think somebody on the Pitt server. Set up a dummy player named Puck (in a scout perhaps) at peace with everybody. Everybody declares peace with Puck. The goal is to tow Puck to your home planet. In the one game I played on bronco, Puck often died from nearby explosions.
10. Robot-bashing. Bomb just to create a Guardian robot, and then kill it. Or take a planet on bronco or rwd4 to generate Terminators and kill those.
11. Ogger versus survivor. A one-on-one "dogfight" where the ogger wins by killing (mutual destruction is satisfactory), and the survivor just by living, i.e. he runner-scums. It might make sense to limit the area that the survivor is allowed to roam in, or to give the survivor a goal of touching some planets. [Herbert Enderton]

I define courage, in netrek, as the willingness to go into enemy space (i.e. near their planets), especially in advance of one's teammates. Say the enemy Feds are down to their core, and are primarily flying around within that core attacking any who dare to enter it. The player who leads the attack wave by entering enemy space ahead of his or her teammates, and then either gains temporary space control over a planet so a carrier can zip and drop armies, or decoys (e.g. cloaks to Vega) to confuse the defenders, that player has courage. (This player is often a bomber, and so is doubly heroic.)
Note that this is not the same as flying down ahead of everybody and mutualing with an enemy ship. That may sound brave, and certainly indicates a willingness to die, but it's basically just foolish. Dying isn't the goal, and so courage should not be equated with a willingness to die. Get in their space, and then runner-scum your head off if you like, and I'll admire your playing; indeed, running and butt-torping are usually correct tactics once you are in hostile territory. But if you don't enter their space at all, you are a coward. Cowards are not only useless, they often actually hurt their own team in two ways: (1) by killing oggers (thereby transporting them to their home planet and giving them fresh ships) and (2) wasting the time of brave escorts and decoys who are busting their balls  creating openings for the cowardly carrier. In the military, cowardice is traditionally a capital offense. [Herbert Enderton]

If a planet (non AGRI) has <4 armies it pops 33% faster. So by beaming down on a friendly planet with few armies, you are hurting your army production slightly. But, you probably have better odds of reinforcing than delivering to an enemy planet so it evens things out a bit. Also, if the planet in question is important (fuel and/or repair) reinforcing is a good plan. [Joseph E. Beck]

Reinforcing is extremely important in almost every game. However, there is a correct time to reinforce and an incorrect time. As far as my opinion goes, the following are my definitions of 'correct and incorrect' times.
Reinforce your planets when :

1. You're battling over your front and the other team is slightly superior.
2. You're battling over your core.
3. You're battling over the enemies core and they have an agri left.
4. You have a kill and are hurt and a planet has armies near another weak planet.
5. You have more armies then them and hold their front. Basically this is an inl strategy where you force them to waste armies on retaking their front line.