Quick tips
- Never sleep on the street in a low-law city. Your ship, your pod, a hotel and the world map are all safe.
- Use parking lots. A pod left on the street gets towed in high-law cities and robbed in low-law ones.
- Carrying lots of cash draws muggers: every 2,000 Cr makes one more likely.
- The pod is four times faster than walking, in the city and on the world map.
- Train stations take you to the planet's other cities, but on foot: the pod stays behind.
- On foot, a public teleport jumps you instantly to any point in the city. It's cheapest in poor, high-tech systems.
- Park on the street in a high-law city and the pod is towed to the Robolok lot, where you pay to get it back.
Getting around
Time
In a city, every 10 steps costs 4 game minutes on foot, or 1 in the pod. On the world map it's 4 hours on foot, or 1 hour by pod. Walking costs only time: your condition bars change on the hourly update, and there's no day or night.
Strangers
Only on foot in a city. Each pass of the movement loop has a 1-in-1000 chance of an encounter (2 in Enlie), even if you stand still. The street tile under you sets the odds of a mugger, beggar or dealer. Every 2,000 Cr of cash you carry makes a mugger more likely. Law cancels muggers (law ÷ 20), wealth cancels beggars and tech cancels dealers. You can escape by walking out of the window before they reach you.
Parking
Parking lots are always safe. A pod left on the street is checked when you come back. In high-law cities it gets towed to the Robolok lot quickly, and the fine at the city's Uniteller is (minutes ÷ 120 + 3) × (law + wealth) Cr, from 10 to 1000, doubled in Enlie. In low-law cities it gets robbed instead, sometimes all ten slots at once. In Enlie your pod can even be moved while you're out of sight.
Teleports
On foot, a public teleport takes you instantly to any point in the city. It costs 10 + 4 × wealth − 2 × tech Cr, never less than 10, so it's cheap in poor, high-tech systems and up to 68 Cr in rich, low-tech ones.
Sleep
It's safe on the ship, in the pod, in a hotel room or on the world map. On the street or in a public building, each block of sleep risks a theft: while the minutes left are more than the law level, a theft happens if law × random 0–8 is below the minutes left, then 10 minutes are counted off. Each theft takes all your cash, or one carried item.
Every city's layout is fixed, because the game seeds its random generator from the city record. The colony grows as the game advances.
The fruit machine
Some bars have a fruit machine. It's the game's own: the same picture, the same reel strip, the same odds and payouts, decoded from its code. Press PLAY, on the machine or below it. The stake depends on the system you're in, and Luck tilts the reels a little.
Play money: you start with 10,000 Cr. Stakes run from 100 Cr in a safe, poor system to 250 Cr in a lawless, rich one. At Luck 5 the machine pays back 89% of what goes in; even at Luck 100 it's only 97%, so in the long run it always wins.
| Symbol | Chance per reel, Luck 5 | Luck 100 | Two alike | Three alike |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UFO | 5.1% | 7.5% | ×10 | ×100 |
| Star cluster | 5.0% | 5.0% | ×10 | ×100 |
| Sun | 10.0% | 10.0% | ×2 | ×50 |
| Planet | 10.0% | 10.0% | ×2 | ×50 |
| Ringed planet | 10.0% | 10.0% | ×2 | ×50 |
| Moon | 20.0% | 20.0% | ×1 | ×5 |
| Asteroid | 20.0% | 20.0% | ×1 | ×5 |
| Comet | 19.9% | 17.5% | ×1 | ×5 |
Pays are multiples of the stake. Any two reels count as a pair, including the left and right ones.
How it works
- Each reel rolls a number: random 0–1999, minus a random amount up to your Luck (counted as 5 to 100), kept between 1 and 2000.
- The number picks the symbol: below 100 the UFO, 100–199 the star cluster, then 200 each for the sun, planet and ringed planet, and 400 each for the moon, asteroid and comet. So Luck moves results from the comet, the commonest symbol, to the UFO jackpot. Playing doesn't use your Luck up.
- The stake is 50 × (1 + (wealth + 17 − law) ÷ 6) Cr, rounded down. It's taken first; a win pays the stake times the rate back, so a ×1 pair just returns your money.
- The reels stop right to left. Each one turns at least 5 to 20 symbols, then on until it reaches its result, and every reel to its left turns with it.
- If the stake is more than your cash, the display shows "No Cr" and nothing happens.