Given the reintroduction of Quests to Planetarion again, it seems sensible to write something about what they are, how to do them, and how best to make use of them to get your planet off to the best start.
I think if you have suggestions for new quests, or think that the existing ones should be changed in some way, that would be better debated on the
Suggestions Forum, as this thread is designed to be a guide for players both new and old to use them.
Beginner Quests
At the moment, there is only one "Branch" of quests. My understanding is that work on intermediate and more advanced quests will be introduced in future rounds. There is a list of what the quests are,
here. This guide seeks to show how to complete them, and discuss extra things to do, namely how to benefit the most from the rewards.
TO BEGIN YOUR QUESTS, you need to click on the "Begin Quest" Button on the top of the OVERVIEW page. Otherwise you wont get rewarded for doing these things.
So, there are a number of quests that can be done before Tickstart, eg as soon as you sign up your planet. We'll call these Tick 0 quests just as a general catch-all term.
1. Tick 0 Quests.
These quests can be done as soon as your planet starts, before even the first Tick of the new Planetarion Round.
These include;
1) Initiate Asteroids (+3 Asteroids of each type)
To complete this quest, literally just go to the Mining page, and initiate as many asteroids as you can (but 3 of each type at a minimum) to receive 1000 resources of each type. Which you can then use towards initiating more asteroids.
2) Sent Message (PA Mail 1:1:1)
Literally send a message to co-ordinates 1:1:1, you can do this either by clicking on the MESSAGES page, type in 1:1:1 into the box, and say "hello!", OR you can go to the GALAXY page, typing in 1:1 into the box, then click on the Rulername of the first planet in Galaxy 1:1, then send the message. Either way works.
3) Vote for GC (GC is a Galactic Commander).
To complete this quest, click on the POLITICS page, and select someone who you think would be a good Galactic Commander. If you have no idea about anyone, then most people just choose the existing GC. For the purposes of the quest, it doesnt matter who you choose, including yourself!
4) Say Hello (Posting on the Galaxy Forum)
Getting to know your Galaxy is critically important for your planet's survival in Planetarion, and knowing how to post on the Galaxy Forum will help here, plus because its a quest you get a handy little reward. Isnt life wonderful?!
5) Join an Alliance (in-game Alliance features).
Similar to Galaxies, Alliances are of critical importance to your planet's survival in Planetarion. Alliances are generally your major group of friends who stick together round after round - you generally go out attacking together, you send defence to one-another, you laugh over success and experience defeat together. In order to complete this Quest, you need to click on the ALLIANCE page, and select any alliance from the list and "apply to join", however if you're not serious about joining this alliance, then immediately cancel your application - you will still complete the quest. However, i strongly encourage you to have a look at the
Alliance Recruitment forum, find some alliances that capture your interest, and talk to them on
IRC.
Congratulations, you've now done all the quests that can be completed before tickstart!
2. Later Quests
6) Research Lab (Constructions in Planetarion)
The purpose of this Quest is to show how to start a Construction.
A Research Lab is generally the best way to start your planet, so a Research Lab as your first construction is highly advisable. This Construction, however, will take some time to complete (5-12 ticks), so you wont be rewarded until it is complete.
7) Asteroid Technology (Research in Planetarion)
This quest is to show how you are meant to do Research in Planetarion. Again,
researching Heavy Cargo Transfers as the first item of research is the recommended way to start your planet. This will also take a few ticks to finish researching (somewhere between 10 and 14 ticks).
8) Research Figher Class Hulls (Ship Research)
The point of this research is to give your planet the technology to build ships before Protection ends; so if you get attacked you can at least build something. However, if you are Eitraides, you do not have any Fighter or Corvette classed ships to build (Round 27), but you need to do this research anyway to get Frigates. To complete this quest, you just need to do the same thing as Resource Handling, click on the RESEARCH page and start it. However, you might not want to start this research right away - there are other important researches to do first, as I described in the
Generic Startup Guide (mk2) thread.
9) Ship Factory
In order to actually build Fighters and Corvettes, you need a Light Factory. You can build one on the CONSTRUCTIONs page like your Research Lab. Again, you might not want to do this right away, as there are other important things to do - see the discussion in the
Generic Startup Guide thread.
10) Security (Construct a Security Centre)
This is to give players some protection from enemy Covert Operations directed against your planet, and you can complete it by going to the CONSTRUCTIONs page. Again, you might not want to do this immediately.
11) Explore Space (Send in-gal Defence)
This is an excellent quest, by not needing to research Jumpgate (which makes your ships faster), you essentially get 16 ticks of research for free! To complete this quest, simply have any ships that you have built launch a defence mission to anyone in your Galaxy (ie, anyone who shares the same two co-ordinates, 5:8:1 and 5:8:9 are in the same Galaxy). To do this, you need to have at least one ship built which you can do on the PRODUCTION page before Protection ends. Then, once Protection is over, click on the Fleets page and "move" that ship from your Base fleet to Fleet 1, 2 or 3. Then, go to the Missions page, and select that ship's fleet to defend someone in your Galaxy, and hit the Launch button. You can recall it once it has launched (ie, the following tick).
That should complete the Basic quests.
I intend to talk a bit about how to use these quests to speed up your start, through the Generic Startup Guide, soon. But if you want to contribute in such issues as "when is the best time to build the Security Centre" then go for it!
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