Player's Guide  Slaves

Slaves

Like the laundry machines of the 20th century, humans of this age have Artificial Intelligence slaves to do perform their most tedious jobs. These creatures can carry out the simple orders of their masters, such as following along, defending a position, or buying and selling goods in various places. Of course, these machines are less skilled than the humans they endeavor to replace, but what they lack in raw intelligence they make up for in tireless dedication.

Making a Slave

The first step in setting up your own slave is to outfit a new spaceship. Pick an engine, shield etc just as if you were making a ship for yourself. The last item you must purchase is a Controlbot. This is found in the "Item" section in the trade screen of a large space station. When you equip this item, the ship will become your slave. It will disappear from your ship list at this moment. As soon as you undock, the slave will undock alongside you, and you can then proceed to give it orders. You will see that your slave has a name based upon yours. So, if your name is "Foobar," the slave will have a name something like "S833Foobar." You will now also see the slave in your Possessions screen.

Slave Control

Controlling your slave begins with target options. So click on your slave to make it your current target. Punch the 'X' key. This will present you with various choices:

• Status Report - how many credits, the hull space, shields, what order the slave is following, and the last "Slave Error"
• Do Not Fight/Fight Enemies - this can be toggled. Choose whether or not you want your slave to attack whomever he perceives as most hostile.
• Don't Stay Close/Stay Close - when following you, whether or not to stay close to your ship at all times. If the slave is staying close, it will not attack enemies that aren't around you.
• Attack My Target - the slave will attack the last enemy that you either shot or tractor beamed. Note that if you have your slave on "Do Not Fight" but you also have "Attack My Target" selected, he will attack only people that you attack first rather than whomever he feels like.
• Dock and Deactivate - this is how you stop a slave. After you select this option, the slave will try to dock and turn itself off at the next station you dock at. It will then become one of your docked ships.
• Follow Me - try to stay as close as possible to your ship. If you jump, the slave will follow.
• Guard Location - guard the spot the slave is currently at
• Guard Object - guard an object you can specify from a list. If this object is moving, it will follow it.
• Follow Orders - follow a specified list of orders. More on this later.
• Give Money - give the slave credits. These get taken back upon slave deactivation if unused.
• Take Money - take credits from your slave. Useful if they've made lots of money for you by trading.
• Edit Orders - Set up the order list. More on this later.

Slave Limits

You can only have a certain amount of slave ships. This is how it's determined: you get a "Slave quota" to start, which is equivalent to your level in the Remote Control skill. If you are level 11, your Slave Quota is 11. Each slave ship takes up a number out of your quota that's equivalent to the ship's tech level divided by 2, rounded up. So if your slave is a Rosburst, with tech 4, it takes up 2 from your quota.

Slave Orders

Slaves can be given an list of orders to follow for automated trading. This can be used on the big space stations controlled by the computer teams, or for trading with yours or someone else's user bases. Select the "Edit Orders" command from target options. (And when you're finished, make sure you give your slave money and tell it to follow orders). You will get a window with a list of orders. Mostly, the interface is intuitive, and there is some instruction in this window. Some finer points: make sure a Buy or Sell order always directly follows a Dock order. Do not end with a dock order, or your slave might get stuck.

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