Frontier: First Encounters 2 Contents
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Frontier: First Encounters 2 Contents Credits v Preface vii Quick start ix 1 Tutorial 1 1.1 Your first view . 1 1.2 You and your ship (Inventory mode) . 2 1.3 The galaxy . 3 1.4 Where to go, and what to do there . 5 1.5 Getting out of here . 9 1.6 Arriving . 11 1.7 On landing . 14 2 The controls 17 2.1 Welcome to your Saker Mk III . 17 2.2 Ship instrumentation, and how to use it . 17 2.3 The View Panel (F1) . 19 2.4 The Inventory Panel (F2) . 22 2.5 The Map Panel (F3) . 25 2.6 The Communications Panel (F4) . 28 2.7 The Scanner . 30 2.8 Fuel Gauge and Temperature Gauges . 31 2.9 Warning Lights . 31 2.10 Dual Console . 32 2.11 Options . 35 3 Flying a spacecraft 37 3.1 Basic flight controls . 37 3.2 Fly-by-wire — an idiot’s guide . 38 3.3 Launching and docking procedures . 39 3.4 Flying between star-systems . 44 3.5 Flying within a system . 46 3.6 Intra-system flight without an autopilot . 49 3.7 Manual flight, and relative velocities . 51 3.8 Your pilot’s test — a revision guide . 55 3.9 Basic combat controls . 57 i ii CONTENTS 3.10 The combat drill . 59 3.11 Combat techniques . 63 3.12 Interception techniques . 68 3.13 Planetary combat . 70 3.14 Full manual flight control (Advanced) . 73 4 Careers 77 4.1 Bulletin Boards . 77 4.2 Deliveries . 79 4.2.1 Parcel courier . 79 4.2.2 Taxi cab . 80 4.3 Combateer . 81 4.3.1 The Elite Rating . 81 4.3.2 Bounty hunter . 82 4.3.3 Assassin . 83 4.3.4 Pirate . 85 4.4 Military . 86 4.4.1 Rank and medals . 89 4.5 Trading . 89 4.5.1 Some popular trade routes . 91 4.5.2 Combat trade routes . 95 4.6 Mining . 98 4.6.1 Asteroid mining . 98 4.6.2 Planetary mining . 100 4.7 Mission glitches . 102 5 About the galaxy 105 5.1 The factions . 105 5.1.1 The Federation . 105 5.1.2 The Empire . 105 5.1.3 The Alliance . 106 5.1.4 Independents . 111 5.2 Who’s Who . 113 5.3 Police . 119 5.4 Maps and tables . 121 5.5 Where to find equipment . 121 5.6 Some interesting systems . 124 5.7 Populated systems list . 151 6 Equipment and Ships 165 6.1 Servicing and maintenance . 166 6.2 A bounty-hunter’s equipment list . 167 6.3 A bounty-hunter’s ship list . 169 6.4 Ship comparison chart . 171 6.5 Non-offensive equipment list . 174 6.6 Weapons list . 189 6.7 Combat Electronics list . 197 6.8 Ship list . 202 Index 247 List of Tables 1 Keyboard shortcuts . xii 2 Scanner colour codes . 31 3 Stardreamer settings and speeds . 49 4 Combat ratings . 82 5 Military Ranks . 88 6 Military Medals . 89 7 Federation systems . 106 8 Imperial systems . 107 9 Alliance systems . 108 10 Noteworthy independent systems . 112 11 Equipment availability . 123 12 Ship identification chart . 173 13 Hyperdrives . 184 14 Lasers . 191 15 Missiles . 195 iii iv LIST OF TABLES Credits Frontier: First Encounters is the third in a science-fiction game series, all of them set in the same universe. The first of the trilogy, ‘Elite’ (by David Braben and Ian Bell) was released in 1984. The second, ‘Frontier’, was released in 1995. First Encounters has now been released as Shareware by Frontier Developments. The original First Encounters only ran on DOS. John Jordan reverse-engin- eered it to produce JJFFE — basically the same game, with a few extra features, but running natively under Windows and Linux. • Download the game from http://www.eliteclub.co.uk/download/ and unzip it. • Download JJFFE from http://www.jaj22.demon.co.uk/ and unzip it over the top of your FFE directory. This manual is based on the original manual for the game Fronter: First Encoun- ters, written by Tony Dillon and Manda Scott, and (c) 1995 by David Braben. An scanned-and-OCRd version can be found at http://www.mdibb.net/lotf/- dl.html. Parts are also taken from the manual of the original game Frontier, also (c) David Braben and available at the same address. A substantial amount of additional material came from the web site of Gra- ham ‘Jades’ Thurlwell, at http://www.jades.org/ffe.htm. This material in- cludes the systems list, the technology levels map, statistics and reviews and graphics for the ship list, parts of the equipment list, systems of interest, Who’s Who, trade routes, career guide, and more. Other people whose work is included on his site and made it’s way into this manual include Schwempa, Matt Dibb, hsch, Dylan Smith, and Bee-Team. A substantial amount of additional material also came from the web site Life on the Frontier of Matt Dibb, at http://www.mdibb.net/lotf/. This material includes the career guide, rank and reputation, quick start, mining guide, undoc- umented features, trade routes and more. The quick start also benefited from material by Telepath, http://www.geocities.com/Area51/6107/elite.htm. A substantial amount of additional material also came from the web site Alioth.net of Dylan Smith, at http://www.alioth.net/. This material includes all of the advanced flight and combat guides, ship and equipment summaries for combateers, combat trade routes, system descriptions for Alliance planets, descriptions of the main factions, ship reviews for craft in the Alliance Joint Navy, and more. Much material also came from the First Encounters FAQ, written originally by Jeroen van Drongelen and now produced by Jades, available at http://- www.jades.org/ffefaq2.htm. This includes problem-solving information for v vi LIST OF TABLES flying and hyperspace, mission descriptions, bugs and glitches for missions, and more. The artwork for ships and some weapons comes from the First Encounters Art Page at http://www.hooplah.com/encounters/. The credits for the game itself are as follows. Programming: David Braben, Andrew Dunn, Mike Edie, Peter Elliot-Green, Peter Irvin, Ran Mokady, Jonathan Roach, Chris Sawyer. Shapes: Aggy Finn, David Braben, Jonathan Griffiths, Peter Irvin. Ship Interiors: Danny Flynn. Planet Design: Jonathan Roach, David Braben. Music: ‘Quality Quartet’ Am- sterdam, Dave Lowe. Sound Driver: Mike Edie. Intro Sequence: Aggy Finn. Story: Manda Scott, David Braben. Short Stories: Julian Flood, Jude Jones, Martyn Taylor, Moira Sheehan, Kathy Braben, Manda Scott. Journal Entries: Manda Scott, Fullan Flood, Jude Jones, Suzannah Oliver, Tony Gallucci, Mar- tyn Taylor. Video Production: Dave Jordan, Manda Scott. Video post production: Kathy Braben. Representation: Jacqui Lyons of Malacq. Video Actors: Eliz- abeth Arbaud, Peter Edan, Tony Gallucci, Jason Graham, Steve Gorman, Sarah johnson, David Jordan , Brendan Kavanaugh, Clyde Kellett, Susan Kelly, Dorian McFarland, Michel Moalem, Jason Myers, Rob Patterson, Chris Pa- ton, Piers Pitcairn Pooni, Phil Purves, Mark Reading, Thomas Skinner, Rose Thomas, Keith Vogel, Simon Watkins. Preface To J. Jameson Jnr From Messrs. Sue, Cripple and Sneer 51a, South Dormitory Solicitors Fish Processing Plant 3142 Windrush Tower Sirocco Olympus Village Merlin Mars Ross 154 Sol System -1/0Rs2a S16 0/0SO4 OL1 31.12.3199 To whom it may concern, It is our duty to inform you of the death of your grandfather Commander Peter Jameson. The wreckage of his ship was found in the Reidquat system on November 11th 3199. He was presumed killed in combat after a ‘misunder- standing’ over some stolen goods according to the local press. A last will and testament was prepared on February 3rd 3198 and section 4.1 below has been circulated to all living grandchildren as instructed by our late client. If you have any queries do not hesitate to contact us. The normal fees of fifty Credits per hour (including service tax) apply. Yours sincerely, Mr Edmond Sneer Section 4.1 of the Last Will and Testament of Commander Peter Jameson. Welcome to life on the Frontier! — a way of life that is very different to the dull, planet-bound existence you have probably led up to now. It is a way of life that I loved and want you to experience. I want you to feel the freedom of flying your own ship and being able to explore the vast galaxy. Whatever your aims in life (I settled for wealth, power and fame) there is an occupation for you. Try your hand at trading, following established trading routes or making your own. Maybe doing odd jobs is more your style, buzzing from one place to the next, never working for the same person twice. What about mining? later perhaps. I know that some of you will succumb to a criminal existence, so I may as well say that piracy, bounty hunting and mercenary work will suit you. I won’t tell you to place your allegiance with the Federation, the Empire or the vii viii PREFACE Independents but be careful; they all use you for their own aims. No amount of treaties will change the fact that they dislike each other. Space has changed a great deal since I was your age. No, I am not going to harp on about everything being cheaper and friendlier in the past; people were just as bad then as now. But we now have better technology and humans have spread further, so there is more scope. Your abilities as a pilot will be tested to the full, especially in combat, so before you upset anybody, get in some practice.