Devlin
Recruit
Reged: 11/04/03
Posts: 184
Loc: Near S. Louis, MO
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Advice for newbies looking to survive
#97200 - 09/03/04 12:17 PM (216.114.97.91)
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Many things about this game have changed recently. Below are a few tips on how to survive, and what your enemy might be doing that seems unfair but is really just "playing the system":
Need to hit a lower level empire but it costs too much? Take the units that are not going into battle and swap driver/gunner down to lousy skills. If you just leveled up, you may be able to level down this way. Declare war at the lower level, and then swap your units back up. Instant cheap costs!
Make sure your surrender rate is set to 50 percent. And have a nice big vehicle on standby to commision ASAP if you start to take vehicle losses. If you lose a 1 gun Striker, get the vehicle destroyed and keep the crew, and then commission a 1 gun Ontos, you will have no drop in peak from current level, and may even list as a boost.
Need some quickie income? Find a low level newbie raider in your neighborhood who is stealing pop. Hit a single undefended zone before the counter attacks come in. All you need is the Newbie Jeep you started with. You will have a small mobilization cost, and if the newbie raider gets to a high level before he is surrendered, you will get a SWEET surrender income for almost no cost.
You are in a small faction with a larger empire hitting you? Take 4 empires and each hit a city at the same time. He may not be able to run all the battles, and you may all get a portion of his infrastructure as well as the surrender income.
These are some of the tips I will be posting in here for you guys. As I find more ways to use the rules to your advantage, I will place them here. Check back freqeuntly! 
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It's only impossible until you do it, then it was easy
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NeverSayNever
Lieutenant Colonel
Reged: 11/18/02
Posts: 1655
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Re: Advice for newbies looking for ...
[Re: Devlin]
#97201 - 09/03/04 01:46 PM (172.177.227.24)
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... a new faction, instead of their default NOOB-faction?
Please don't wait too long and start asking around for a new home way before you hit level 2+ and get automatically kicked (AFAIK and IIRC) from your cozy little NOOB-faction / home.
The reasons?
If you're an unfactioned level 2+, especially with a high empire ID - indicating you're "fresh meat" / an inexperienced new player -, and with some nice amount of civilian population - maybe even concentrated in a single city, you might end up on the to-hit / to-do lists / menu-cards of many of the small specialized raider empires, looking for cheap / "free" additional civ pop, some reputation and or surrender income and such.
Some really weird (IMVHO) guys might even hunt down new players for "sports"  and or the "fun" aspect of killing other people's stuff and hard work  , especially when they know full well that they've got very little to fear in return . And of course some people, like some [censored] off former players, might be interested in scaring away / frustrating new players, trying to effectively erode Neveron's future playerbase .
BTW because of limited faction space quite a lot of the faction leaders with open slots for new members prefer level 1 empires as new members. You know the more new faction members they can recruit, the more new battleplayers  ! In addition level 1s tend to level up very very fast, which is really good for a faction's overall research bonus, which is based of the total number of levels within a faction (AFAIK and IIRC) and the faster the growth in total number of levels, the bigger the research bonus for all faction members .
Okay, enough good deeds for today. I can't believe I've been so nice and helpful to all you new players. Oh well, sigh, I'd better hurry back to good ol' sarcasm-mode    ...
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BigBoss
Recruit
Reged: 07/06/04
Posts: 135
Loc: Vancouver, BC
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Re: Advice for newbies looking for ...
[Re: NeverSayNever]
#97215 - 09/03/04 10:06 PM (64.12.116.210)
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Here's a tip, don't tick me off or I'm gonna get ya no matter what. IE I'm a noob killer...
/me pulls out his shotgun and looks for fresh faces
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Bringing Terror to the Comforts of Your Homes
~BB~
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Devlin
Recruit
Reged: 11/04/03
Posts: 184
Loc: Near S. Louis, MO
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Devlin]
#97233 - 09/04/04 02:53 PM (216.114.97.18)
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More newbie help ideas-
Forget research at first, unless you want to be a big producer eventually (tips on that in a bit). Research is long, tedious, and takes away people from your commercial pool. Make sure you build 4 residentials of equal size to every 1 commercial. That is a good ratio for maximum income. Also, you can make more money for better units that way. Research ONLY building sizes, and build as big as possible. The other research can wait for now. With money coming in, you can buy bigger and better stuff to defend and fight with.
Tower designs are nice- the Randytech stealth tower (15710) that you start with is a basic stealth tower- useful for slowing your enemies and pirates down, telling you what is hitting you, spotting for larger, more mobile units, and giving the appearance of solid defense. It has no weapons, so unless you research rocks as a valid weapon, it usually dies if solo in a zone. Mess around with the tower designer- it is instructional. Don't research anything until you know what kind of zones you will put them in and what kind of costs for parts you are looking at. In my opinion, ALWAYS add stealth, ECM, sensors, and range to your towers- even if it is just 1 each. It gives a bit of an edge for no extra cost except less armour.
Want to be a research empire? Stay in the NooB faction for a long time and stay below level 1. The research bonus is great, and you can get all the way up to making your own repair bay level 1 before you go onto a bigger faction. Then, when you jump over into a faction, you have a great start already and are set to begin really making headway will little risk other than pirates. Just watch the public mails and come to regular chat and watch there. You can figure out which alliances to join and not to join that will fit your needs.
As for Newbie killers like Big Boss thinks he is- they are a real threat. HE isn't- he runs his mouth better than any fighting machine he has handled, but others are. They kill for the sport of it, to chase newbies off, and to make themselves feel big and bad. It is a wise idea to have a faction waiting for you when you are ready to leave the Newbie faction.
It is not always necassary to join a faction if you want to make your own, but it is (unfortunately, in my opinion) the best way. If for whatever reason you do NOT want to join a faction, find one that you can ally with. If they aggree to protect you, you can change your name to have their abbreviation in your name (example- HoC Deadly Darlings). This will not deter EVERYONE, but most intelligent players will at least think twice before they try something. Rename your largest city as well (example- Protected by HoC) and they will get the idea. Just remember that a faction usually has good repair bays and can send you money, as well as trade discounts. If you stay unfactioned and survive until you hit level 5, you can make your own faction- but that is for another post.
That's all for now- I was just filling the time between Neveron's daily crashes. More to follow, as always . . .
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It's only impossible until you do it, then it was easy
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Kanil
Captain
Reged: 03/13/03
Posts: 1028
Loc: Head Chef, Archon's Kitchen
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Devlin]
#97234 - 09/04/04 03:07 PM (24.48.173.44)
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Thank you for voicing your opinion about Big Boss.
Oh, by the way, BB, might you give me your empire name, and maybe a few coords? Thanks..
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"The better news is that we are outnumbered, four to one."
- Clanners, and their whacked view of the world.
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Stalker17
General
Reged: 06/24/02
Posts: 2581
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Devlin]
#97237 - 09/04/04 05:35 PM (65.82.235.219)
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Mess around with the tower designer- it is instructional. Don't research anything until you know what kind of zones you will put them in and what kind of costs for parts you are looking at. In my opinion, ALWAYS add stealth, ECM, sensors, and range to your towers- even if it is just 1 each. It gives a bit of an edge for no extra cost except less armour.
about adding sensors: IMO it's bad to add sensors to a tower that's made for combat. like you mentioned it takes away armor, ie: survivability. It's very cheap just to put a sensor tower or three in the zone to do the spotting. just make sure that they aren't in positions where they can be quickly destroyed (look for holes).
also, just putting 1 of each sensor attribute really isn't gonna do anything. range 1 is gonna give you a maximum detection range of 16 hexes. stealth 1 won't do much, neither will 1 ECM.
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"Insanity is just another word for true creativity"
da SEXY Stalker17, out
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Jenner
Corporal
Reged: 04/11/03
Posts: 64
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Devlin]
#97239 - 09/05/04 02:39 AM (80.135.233.182)
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Devil, nice idea to post some newbie ideas and hints.
Here are some nice ideas, but with some i disagree. Now some comments to both posts.
Good idea to change driver gunner, in some cases you will drop a level, but i doubt it will be happen too often. But if it works, will are fine.
Vehicle loses. In LW you will often lose something. But i doubt many empires could afford a new 50 million tank in the armory unless they donate for that tank. More important is to have some cash at the hand to recover the loses. But also keep in mind, we are talking here about level 1 to 3, or something like that. !0 million are a lot for this empires.
Taking some infra from low lvl raider could work, but don't count the infra in unless you hold it a couple of days. I would retake my cities from everyone if i can afford it, no matter who holds the cities.
And don't hope to often for surrender fees. If you are get some, be happy. If not, who cares.
Research. I totally disagree with Devil in this point. Don't build anything others than Resis and Research facs in the first zone. First you will never research so fast like in the newbie faction, and second is the SES (Small Empire Subsidy). The SES will be the biggest part of your income for a long time (unless you take some nice cities from someone else) and for every 2$ you make yourself the SES will drop by 1$. So the first commercial buildings will not help your income much.
Research larger buildings first, don't touch anything other than buildings and towers unless you have 100cf buildings and you want your own repair fac and/or producing some stuff.
Towers. Sensors in combat towers makes not too much sense in my eyes, beside you think they have too much armor. IMHO it make no sense to construct tower with a lot tasks. So _DON'T_ add always stealth, ECM and sensors. Better you get Towers with range, Towers for close combat and towers with eyes. It's more cost efficent. And alway count the maintenance in. Towers are expensiv.
ECM and stealth makes sense if you have towers for holes. It's a way to hold your enemy longer in a zone and maybe he will get boring and leave you alone.
Factions. Hmm, maybe it's better to be alone than in a bad faction or alliance. It's also not every time better to be in a big faction than in a small one. But the best is, stay in a good and active faction. It will make sure, you can survice at Neveron.
Now a hint from me.
A very good way to make money is the arena system. You only need to win the duel. 
New or old arena it doesn't matter, bot have advantages and disadvantages. With the old system you can calc the earning, the range of BV is closer to your BV (only +/-10 percent), you know your opponent, at least if you are the attacker and if you win, you earn money, moral and rep. But if you lose, you lose your unit.
The biggest adventage of the new System is that you can always forfeit the duel if you think you can't win.
But if you start duel in the arena, please only use unit which you can afford to lose. Even with the new system.
I hope this helps a little.
Jenner
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Greetings Jenner
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Toontje
Colonel
Reged: 01/18/04
Posts: 2578
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Jenner]
#97244 - 09/05/04 05:03 AM (82.73.138.10)
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Quote:
Want to be a research empire? Stay in the NooB faction for a long time and stay below level 1. The research bonus is great, and you can get all the way up to making your own repair bay level 1 before you go onto a bigger faction. Then, when you jump over into a faction, you have a great start already and are set to begin really making headway will little risk other than pirates. Just watch the public mails and come to regular chat and watch there. You can figure out which alliances to join and not to join that will fit your needs.
You can even go to lvl 1 and still retain the bonus (I am doing this with 1 empire). Already did 100 CF, and got 6 in 125 and 3 in ACS, and 230 mill saved to try and go for a NooB Tech complex. Total 1 RP a realweek, so in 4+17+20 = 41 weeks I'll have a doubled TC at 5 mill tooling/tech. (Whoot! Now that'll get me in a top faction!)
If I'm exterminated atm, it'll cost what, 25(zone)+24(res)+32(rf)=81 mill to rebuild to current.
But better do this with your non-primary faction, as it's not that exciting to watch.
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Rather to blow up, then.
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Stalker17
General
Reged: 06/24/02
Posts: 2581
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Toontje]
#97245 - 09/05/04 05:19 AM (65.82.235.219)
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whoa, that's, interesting. most of the time we laugh at people that try to get to tech complexes with a NOOB empire....
of course, 41 RL week is still a long time (4/5 a year)
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"Insanity is just another word for true creativity"
da SEXY Stalker17, out
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Stalker17
General
Reged: 06/24/02
Posts: 2581
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Jenner]
#97247 - 09/05/04 05:24 AM (65.82.235.219)
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I woudl recommend teh new arena system for noobs. it costs less you get started (you just need a unit), you have more control over who you fight (I only enroll when there's already someone enrolled) and you can get out if you're about to get killed.
the last one is VERY important, especially now that NOOBs have access to repair facilities.
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"Insanity is just another word for true creativity"
da SEXY Stalker17, out
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Toontje
Colonel
Reged: 01/18/04
Posts: 2578
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Stalker17]
#97269 - 09/06/04 01:53 PM (82.73.138.10)
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Quote:
of course, 41 RL week is still a long time (4/5 a year)
recalculated, it's 1.4 RP/week, so 30 weeks. 1/2 year should be doable. Then the main problem, the cash...
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Rather to blow up, then.
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Devlin
Recruit
Reged: 11/04/03
Posts: 184
Loc: Near S. Louis, MO
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Jenner]
#97291 - 09/07/04 12:32 AM (216.114.97.39)
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First- DEVLIN: named so after the infamous IRA gunman Liam Devlin of legend and lore. Get my name right people. Only Randy can call me the devil!
Changing the driver is only a small hint. Most of these are small hints. But when you start to overlook the small stuff and the basics, THOSE are what get you killed.
Vehicle losses and the new tank. A Vangurad A-3 or a Striker 00 can be had on the market cheaply enough. I was using the Ontos as a point only. A 1 gun Striker 00 is a nice BV bump at low level empire status. If you lose the 1 gun Pike, throwing that driver into the 1 gun Striker is a nice way to stay above surrender. That was the only purpose for that. As for who can afford to do these things? With Randy's new rules, you had better be able to afford SOME sort of quick boost, as well as the attack on the city costs.
The suggestion was not to hit the Low Level raider's city he just swiped- just an empty zone he used to pass over to it. Under the surrender rules, if I attack an empire that gets surrendered, I get a portion of the surrender income. If a low-level raider is in action near you, all I suggest is hitting an undefended zone and waiting for the big guys to wipe him out. You get the surrender income and that's it, but it costs so little to do, it is worth it.
I did state that if you did NOT want to be a research empire, don't build them. Later, I stated to stay there if you did. Read the whole thing, guys. 
The advantage of 1 in each electronics category of the towers is debateable. I simply advise it for the reasons of "He who knows best, does best". As far as striping armour off of them for it: I have seen towers take a 1 point LRM hit to a side where there is 48 armour and detonate or get the crew killed. I think towers are more crit-happy than vehicles, and therefore it is worth it to guide your weapons and other mobile units at the enemy rather than spending a small amout of money for a bit of extra armour that is more than likely to get blown sky high. And a small bit of stealth may get you 1 extra round of firing against him when he can't see you. Since most low-level empires don't have Ravens in them, the chance of a suprise hit is worth 3 points of armour off of each facing of a crit happy tower.
Thanks to all for the feedback- and keep it coming. If we can teach the noobs a better way, they will be better faction members when they join up.
More to follow in a bit . . .
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It's only impossible until you do it, then it was easy
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Guy
Sergeant
Reged: 02/24/04
Posts: 182
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Devlin]
#97325 - 09/07/04 09:35 PM (24.66.94.142)
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just my opinions on some of this stuff:
towers: dont add the extra sensors and crap, if you arent on abr with your tower it has no chance anyways (unless you are no longer a newb and have a decent tower) and the extra electronics do nothing for you on abr.
hitting raiders: if you are lvl 0 I wouldnt do this, it makes it so they can attack you. any raider who knows what they are doing sets to 50% surrender and 3days anyways so even if they surrender you get nothing and they get to declare war on you.
just something that bugged me: new newbs wont have 1 gunners. stop saying put a 1 gun into a blah blah blah.....you can only train to 2gun and i doubt many people skill down further than that in jeep arenas...
as for the veh idea, below lvl 3 i would rather be surrendered than hold it off. especially now that you can set the time yourself. just set 50% and 3 days and dont worry about it. the longer you hold it off, the more you will lose in the end. and as far as that goes, i would rather start the fight with an extra striker, it would make me less likely to have something killed.
some other newb tips:you can restart your empire just by unclaiming everyone. atleast i think you can, i havent tried it in awhile.
that said, its worth starting as many times as it takes to get a good location with a few lvl 1 or 2's.
once you get this location, atack them as fast as you can with your newb jeeps (i find 3am is a good time to pull this off...but whatever turns you on) with a little practice you can basically decimate anyone lower than lvl 3 with your newb jeep company if you are fighting against the nev ai . after you are done killing your new neighbours scrap the jeeps so you dont pay maintenence. lvl 3 and above you should avoid because by then people have generally set their surrender rates and it isnt worth your time even if you win (especially because there is no chance that you can hold what you take at this point) depending on how angry you made the people around you and the amount your making in surrender income it may be worth your time to sit around and collect 50mil or so then destroy everything you have, change your empire name, and start fresh somewhere new with some play money. people tend to hate you and call you dirty names if you do this, but it will save you a good month. oh avoid people in factions, low levels in factions are alot better off than non faction or newb people and generally have a mech or 2 to spare at lvl 2.
oh one last tip: attack location 0,0. if several million of you noobs do this, i may get to see if randy and ww took the time to do some programming or just hardcoded 1st Nev Com Royal Guard into the new arena system.
oh. as far as using arenas to get money, i dont know what people who say that are smoking...the old arenas pretty much come down to random chance more than skill if you are playing vehs but if you do win, the payouts generally cover the cost of repairs and the entrance fee. the new arenas are a joke for profit. in mech arenas the winner is lucky to win 5mil. betting on the new arenas is good money, but i wouldnt recomend risking any units to them at low lvl (unless you just want to learn what your doing for cheep, but expect to lose)
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Use promo code "I love cheese" and I will love you long time.
Edited by Guy (09/07/04 11:19 PM)
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mattbuck
Eeyore
Reged: 02/13/04
Posts: 3285
Loc: Nottingham, UK
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Guy]
#97354 - 09/08/04 04:20 PM (81.79.16.197)
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Technically, you could have 9 TCs in a lvl0, pay 0 in tooling, and not have to worry about pirates.
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Haha, you people think admins still look at these forums.
Visit the Platonian! Updated! Stuff! Things! Click!
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davion76
Lieutenant Colonel
Reged: 08/07/02
Posts: 1605
Loc: Ridgecrest CA, USA
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: mattbuck]
#97358 - 09/08/04 11:49 PM (12.219.246.45)
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And then put them in a doubled research zone =)
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Kit_fox
Colonel
Reged: 09/16/02
Posts: 3054
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: davion76]
#97375 - 09/09/04 02:21 PM (129.138.30.194)
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That is a lot of DP to be spending, and you would have to be absoutely sure that you loged in once a week or else your empire gets deleted. Sure would suck donating for 9 TC only to lose them a week later because you forgot to log in. 
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The RNG mugged me in a dark street, killed my dog, and cancled Christmas.
When the winds of change blow hard enough the most trivial of things can become deadly projectials.
Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.
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Mithicar
Corporal
Reged: 02/10/04
Posts: 87
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Kit_fox]
#97380 - 09/09/04 07:17 PM (128.180.237.131)
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If you're sending in that much DP already, leave one dollar on the account and it will never delete.
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Kit_fox
Colonel
Reged: 09/16/02
Posts: 3054
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Mithicar]
#97385 - 09/09/04 10:55 PM (129.138.30.194)
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I don't believe that is correct as someone in the Technal Questions was talking about having his level 0 autodelete even though he had DP on it (at least that is how I understood what he said).
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The RNG mugged me in a dark street, killed my dog, and cancled Christmas.
When the winds of change blow hard enough the most trivial of things can become deadly projectials.
Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.
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Mithicar
Corporal
Reged: 02/10/04
Posts: 87
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Re: Advice for newbies looking to survive
[Re: Kit_fox]
#97464 - 09/11/04 04:16 PM (128.180.237.131)
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My apologies, I could be working with bad information. Thought I heard it somewhere here in the forums, but then it isn't the kind of thing you generally test out.
Though actually... is this still a serious conversation?
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