Starflight Part 1

Pushing the limits of 1986 technology!

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Places of note

(Plot-relevant stuff is highlighted in Yellow, useful stuff is highlighted in Purple)

• 125,100 Planet 1 - Good place to earn cash early on.*
• 125,100 Planet 2 - Arth (Home base)
• 125,100 Planet 3 - Ruins and Endurium here.  After a certain date, a random ruin will contain a microfilm detailing the location of a Black Egg (see below).
• 123,101 Planet 1 - Colonizable!  35,000 Mu
• 123,101 Planet 2 - Ruins and Endurium here
• 238,189 Plant 3 - Black Egg at 52Nx16E

* You can mine Chromium, Promethium and Tungsten here.  All are relatively valuable minerals, and there are no dangerous life/planetary conditions to contend with on this planet.

Tips (will add more as we go)

• Endurium is essential to success.  It fuels your starship and sells for more cash than any other resource by a wide margin  (and is the only resource that has an equal buy/resell value).  Keep a sizable supply of it on hand at all times, and only sell when you're either at a far excess or in desperate need of money.  It is most often found near ruins, which are most commonly found on colonizable planets, so keep your eyes open for both of those.
• As the planets are re-generated each time you enter their orbit, so too are the resources upon them.  Collect Endurium from a planet, leave orbit, come back and you'll be able to find more.  Ruins tend to be on mid-level to low terrain while minerals tend to be in mid-to-high (mountainous) terrain.  If you're interested in such things, lifeforms tend to occupy lower terrain.
• Have one crewmember assigned to each role, and max out only the stat that pertains to that particular role.  Humans are good for Science, Veloxi for Navigation and Engineering, and Elowan for Communication and Medicine.  Skip the Thrynn (the Elowan race will be hostile to you with one onboard, plus the Thrynn are jerks anyway) and Androids (who cannot be trained and thus are only useful to a point).
• Before you set out on the main plot path, try to have your crewmembers' respective stats maxed and your ship well on the way there.  Class 5 engines are strongly recommended at a minimum, as they are by far the most fuel-efficient engine you can get.  Having some Class 5 armor and a decent shield probably isn't a bad idea either.  We'll worry about weapons a bit later.
• You can move diagonally via the numpad; just make sure Numlock is on on your keyboard!  In fact, you should do this pretty much constantly - you're moving two spaces for the price of one and getting double your fuel efficiency.

Terms

• Outward/Coreward - The horizontal axis on the star map (Outward is left, Coreward is right)
• Upspin/Downspin - The vertical axis on the star map (Up and Down respectively)

Colonizable Planet Criteria

• Temperature: Anywhere around Temperate or Tropical
• Gravity: 0.7 to 1.3 G's is ideal, but up to 2.0 G's is acceptable
• Atmosphere: Must contain Oxygen
• Hydrosphere: Must contain Water
• Weather: None, Calm or Moderate
• Biology/Minerals: Higher totals are preferable, but not necessary.

Colonizable planets are worth anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 Mu, depending on how desirable they are.

Random Messages

While I was doing some resource-gathering off camera, I came across this note on Planet 3 of the Arth system:

It'll be a while before we venture out that far, but make a note of it for later.

(I don't believe this note appears until you get a notice at Starbase on 10-01-4620 about ruins on the third planet of the Arth system.  It's appears in a random ruin after that date.)