Pinned Retro server Guide

  • Retro server Guide

    It has been a long time since we used to play this version of OGame. We think it is possible you need a refresher.

    1. How it looks and what you can do










    Overview is the place where you can see most of things happening to your empire:

    In the upper side you have the drop down menu enabling you to visit your planets ( after you have at least a colony) and the three resources: Metal, Crystal and Deuterium

    In the central part of the screen you can see the event list : hostile is red, own is green

    Below the picture of your planet you can see if you have any building in construction. You can also see the number of fields used by your buildings, temperature range of your planet and last your points and your rank in highscore.


    The left hand menu:
    - Overview - you can return to overview at any time to check the event list
    - Buildings - you can order buildings from this menu : It is important to select the building you need to construct, not the building you have. If you are using the wrong building sequence this can make the difference between being a top account or just one in the row.
    -Resources- you can manage resource production versus energy
    Research- you can develop the technologies
    Shipyard- build ships
    Fleet- opens the fleet dispatch menu
    Technology - you can see requirements for different buildings, technologies, ships and defense
    Galaxy- opens the galaxy view, traveling between systems will cost you deuterium
    Defense- you can build defense

    Alliance- opens the alliance menu
    Statistics- opens the highscore
    Search- you can search by player name and alliance

    Messages- you can read fleet messages and player / alliance messages
    Notes- opens the personal notes menu
    Buddylist- you can manage your buddies
    Options- opens the options menu
    Logout - logs you out
    Rules- link to the rules
    Legal Notice- link to the T&C



    2. What to do first - Building Order

    All in OGame is about being the first or being the best.
    One measure of this is to have as many points as possible. You get a point each time you spend 1000 resources . Points can be permanent ( points in buildings and technologies) and not permanent ( points in fleet and defense)

    When you first start to play and the universe is fresh, everybody is eager to advance the faster possible. OGame is a strategy game, what to build , when to build is very important. Here is a suggestion from a veteran :


    When you just begun with ogame, and your planet is completely empty, there's a building order that proved quite good for developing your planet:
    1. Solar Power Plant Lvl. 1
    2. Metal Mine Lvl. 1
    3. Metal Mine Lvl. 2
    4. Solar Power Plant Lvl. 2
    5. Metal Mine Lvl. 3
    6. Metal Mine Lvl. 4
    7. Solar Power Plant Lvl. 3
    8. Crystal Mine Lvl. 1
    9. Metal Mine Lvl. 5
    and so on...

    The reason for focusing on the Metal Mine is that you need very large amounts of metal at the earlier game stage. You won't need much crystal or deuterium at the beginning, so go for sure and increase your metal production as fast as you can until your Mine reached lvl. 7 or 8. First then you should build your crystal mine at higher levels.



    3. Expanding
    Try to research everything needed to build colony ships as fast as possible. If you have your first colony ship, try to colonize a planet of the position 4, 5 or 6. The best chances to find a big planet are given at this positions. Then your colony is founded, construct your buildings like i wrote in Building Order" to develop your colony quickly. Try to colonize at least 6-7 other planets, but save the last colony slot (you can only have 8 colonies + 1 main planet), you'll need it as a mobile base for your fleet in the later game. For people who focus on raiding other players it might be helpful to save 2 colony-slots, so that your fleet gets a higher mobility. Colonies will increase your income of resources rapidly when they are build correctly - and with your income of resources, your amount of points will also increase more rapidly ;). Later you can send the daily production of your colonies to your main planet, to convert it there into ships, research, defense and buildings.





    4. Raiding in the early game
    Try to raid! It's one of the main aspects of the game. By raiding, you can increase your daily income of resources, and you get sure that your neighbors won't develop that quickly than you do. Before you attack any planet, send an espionage at first: Send enough Espionage Drones that you can see his researched technologies. If you only see the resources on the planet, be careful: You've found a player who's probably stronger than you and who might take revenge for your attack. The amount of energy displayed by the resources is also a possibility to estimate his strength: The higher the energy, the higher are his mines - and the result of their production. If you send more drones, you might be able to see his fleet and defense. Send a fleet that is able to transport the stolen resources but keep in mind that you can only steal half of the resources on the planet. Transporters are useful because your small battle ships haven't much room for transporting resources ;).
    Be sure you send a fleet that's strong enough to destroy all ships and defense structures on the other planet. Even if only one Rocket Launcher survives, you won't get any resources!
    There are some battle simulators that can help you see the probable result of the fight before sending the attack.


    If you had success in raiding a planet, espionage it every day, and when there are enough resources that a worth raiding the planet, attack it again! Maybe you won't get as much resources as at the first time, but if you do that with more than one planet, it'll work and you get an extra income of resources every day. That's called "farming" - you get sure that a part of the resource income of another player is added to your own income by raiding. And if you find enough planets to farm, it's like you've got more colonies than the other players. But be sure that you raid each planet only once a day (don't forget to espionage first!), so that the other player has a chance to play, too. And of course because you needn't to bash other players ;).



    5. Raiding in the midgame
    Now it's time to get the feeling for "real" raiding. Most players don't raid because because in most cases there are only a few resources and they would have to raid many planets to get a real amount of resources. So they look for other player's fleets - to annihilate them.From a destroyed fleet you will be able to recycle up to 30% from the orbit of the planet you attacked . So build enough recylcers and a strong fleet and go on the hunt! Especially battleships will prove useful, so get a big amount of them as fast as possible. A guideline is that you should build 2 Recyclers for 5 Battleships, that you can collect all resources your entire fleet will "produce" when destroying another fleet. High levels for you weapon, armor and shields are also very helpful.
    How to attack another fleet:
    First of all: Espionage. Try to find other fleets. Most inexperienced players keep it on their main planet, so if you're looking for hostile fleet, look over there for it. You can find out what planet another player's main planet is, by clicking on the message for "send message to this player".



    6. Phalanx
    In the late game, you'll have to face a few problems: First, there won't be much other fleets near your main planet if you were hard-working ;). And that's the moment were the phalanx enters the game and proves very useful! The problem: You can construct this building only on a moon. And to get a moon can be quite difficult: A moon is only created when fleet is crushed in the orbit of a planet. So, to get a moon there are three possibilities:
    1. Somebody destroyed your fleet
    2. Somebody attacked you, but you blasted his fleet to the stars ;)
    3. You paid somebody to attack you with a fleet only to get a moon
    For each 100.000 resources floating in the orbit, there's a chance of 1% to create a moon. But the maximal chance is 20%, regardless of how much garbage is floating out there after the battle ;).
    The second possibility is the best of course, but unfortunately the rarest, too.


    Once you've got a moon, take resources to it with your transporters, and start to construct a moon base, to get place for your phalanx. The range of the phalanx is the following: x²systems - 1system, where x is the phalanx's lvl.
    When you've got your moon and your phalanx ready, scan other planets with it - each scan will cost you 5.000 deuterium, so get enough deuterium on your moon in time. The phalanx scan displays other fleets moving or coming from the scanned planet - elapsed time included! Note the time and strength of the fleet and the defense on the planet where it'll arrive and look how long your own fleet needs to fly to that planet.


    An example:
    Display Spoiler
    The scan shows that the enemy fleet needs 4h 34min to fly to that planet. The enemy fleet consists of 345 Battleships 50 Destroyers, on the other planet is an defense of 400 Rocket Launchers and 600 little Lasers.
    The fleet you'll need to sacrifice in order to destroy this fleet with a good profit is at least 2.500 light fighters . Don't get scared by the high amount of little ships you'll lose - they're only cannon fodder so the enemy fleet can't focus on your expensive battleships - and your losses of resources are smaller - believe me :). To gather the debris after the battle you will need ~425 Recyclers - as you see, the guideline i told you earlier isn't that bad, right? Your recyclers will need much more time to fly to this planet than your fleet. In our example we examine that they need 3h and 50mins, so wait 30 minutes, and then send them to that planet, to gather resources. If the option isn't available, send a probe to that planet with the attack-order. After it's "impact" the option for gathering should be available. By doing this, you get sure that no one will steal the resources you've fought for! Back to the example, our fleet needs 1h and 10mins to fly to the targeted planet. Wait 3h and 30min or more until you send your fleet, so that it's as shortly arriving at the planet as possible. Real good players get times of less then 3secs so that it's impossible for the attacked player to save his fleet even when he's online!



    7. Saving your fleet and resources
    No, this doesn't mean you have to handle savegames with oGame ;). To save your fleet, first you have to know how long you will be offline. In my case, that are 20hours. Then, take all your fleet (recyclers included!), and type in some coordinates as destination spot. Don't click on continue! Just look at the elapsed time. Set the speed to 10%, and look how the elapsed time will grow. Increase or decrease distance of the destination point from the point where you're fleet is located, until the time is half of the time you want to be offline. In my case, i'll look for an elapsed time of 9h 50min and 10h 30min. Half of the time you want to be offline, because the fleet will have to fly the way there and back, but the shown time is needed for 1 way, not for 2. When the elapsed time is alright, click on continue. Now you have to give your orders what to do at this spot. Because of you've got recyclers with you, you have the option to gather resources. Chose this mission for your fleet and fill in the resources in the boxes you want to save - normally it's all you've got ;).
    If you done everything correctly, your fleet will come back (with all the saved resources...) when you're back online and is waiting for new orders! While your fleet is doodling around, no one is able to attack it, because in oGame moving fleets can't be intercepted. Why should you save your fleet? Simply answer: not to lose it. Other players want 30% of the resources you've paid for it, too. And so they will try to kill your fleet. Be sure you stay on the right side of this food chain! Even when a weaker player will scan you, there's the possibility to get killed when he passes the scan to another player!



    That is for tonight, see you in game :)


    Keep your fleet safe!



    ( acknowledgment to Sardaukar for using his guide, posted initially here: Getting started )
  • Frequently asked questions

    How long will last this universe?

    Where can i find the rules?

    How do i see if i'm under attack ?
    In Overview, at eventlist , hostile fleets are marked with red. If your espionage technology is higher than 5, you can see type of attacking ships


    My mines are not producing resources. What to do?
    check your energy level and production in the resource menu ( after vacation mode, production is automatically set to 0 and you have to set it back to 100% )


    How I can change the skin?
    --- go to options and add the link to the desired skin, default skin is ogame1304.de/epicblue/, below you can find a collection of other nice skins

    phrozenbyte.com/ogame-retro-skins/


    Highscore and how it works

    The Highscore and your points updates 0:05 8:05 and 16:05. So don´t wonder if you build something and still have same points, wait until the update is done. Ships are added by the amount e.g. 1 spy probe = 1 highscore point, no defense will be shown. The alliancehighscore works with 1k steps, so you need at least 1k points to be listed


    How to rename a planet ?

    Klick on the Planetname on overview to rename your planet


    How to abandon a planet ?

    Click on the Planetname on overview, there you can abbandon your planet

    My buildings are not automatically finished and I have to do it manually !?

    That was a fix in this version, so it´s working like that :/

    How to spy a moon ?


    How to collect the debris ?


    How i can change the password?

    Changing password is not possible, because of security reasons


    What happens if the planet /moon I'm attacking gets deleted during the fight ?

    Your fleet will be beamed back to the starting planet/moon


    There is any noob protection? How it works?

    You are in noob protection only if you have under 5.000 points. When you step over 5.000 points you are getting out of noob protection.


    Why i can't enter in vacation mode?

    If you have something in flight, building something up ( this includes also ships and defense, not only buildings) or if you research something you can´t enter the vacation mode.


    I'm under attack, can i enter vacation mode in this time?

    For sure, you can enter the vacation mode, but be sure that the attack will go through normally.


    I can't enter the game, what can i do?


    I'm banned, what now ?


    What i can see in eventlist ?


    When do destroyed planets dissapear ?
    1 day plus the time to server reset ( 1:20 )
  • Hi

    I`ve got just one question - automatic refresh on screen.

    As far as I could notice I need to click on overview every time to see recent ress quantity. I`m not too sure whether this is the nature of this server or it`s my browser won`t let m do it.
    If this is a server, would I know if someone`s attacking me without refreshing the screen?

    Thanks for your attention

    Regards