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FRONTIER HELP - HOW TO USE SERVICES


1. Buying and Selling on the Stockmarket
2. Upgrading your Ship
3. Buying New Ships
4. the Bulletin Board
5. Other Shipyard Services


Using the Stockmarket

You need to go to a city or space station in order to trade on the stockmarket. You cannot trade in flight but at least you will be safe whilst trading.

Select the Communication icon F4 at the bottom of your console. and a list of options will appear

Select Stockmarket from the menu, and you will be presented with a selection of items. Click on the down More... arrow and any remainder of the list will be given.

The screen displays Buy and Sell buttons, price per tonne, stock on the market and the amount of cargo (in tonnes) that you have at present in your hold

Before trading read the information on the items below. Note that only legal items will be listed. For illegal goods you will have to use the private market.

Buying

To buy one tonne of a chosen item, activate the button corresponding to the item of your choice in the Buy column. Your console will show the item you have selected. One click will auto load one tonne into your hold. Holding down the button will buy multiple tonnes at an accelerating rate.

If you want to revise your transaction, the Sell button will subtract from your stock. There is no charge for changing your mind during trade but you must make a decision reasonably quickly.

Unsuccessful Transactions

You will be unsuccessful if:

Your cargo hold is full (indicated at the bottom left of the screen under Cargo Space).

You have insufficient money (indicated at the bottom left of the screen under Cash)

The stock is not available.

Information on all situations will be displayed on your console.

Selling

This is a similar operation to buying, but using the Sell button. Your stock level will be automatically decreased as you sell. A mistake can be changed using the Buy button or which there is no charge but if you delay too long, someone else may buy first.

You will be unsuccessful if your own stock runs out, which will be shown on your console.

Stock And Prices

The stock level indicated on the console is that on the stockmarket, not the private market which has its own separate holding. Prices are brought to you by Zebulon Intergalactic Trading Corporation (ZITCO), and are updated each midnight Galactic Mean Time (GMT). Galactic time was adopted after the signing of the treaty between the Empire and the Federation. Hostilities between them cannot be conducted if one party does not turn up because they have calculated the time incorrectly. If the stock level falls due to demand, the local price may rise. If a ship arrives with a large cargo of grain say, when it sells this onto the market, the price of grain may fall at the next midnight price adjustment.

Trading And The Stardreamer Time Control

Prices are changed every midnight which may be a bit frustrating if you are in a hurry Use of the Time Control icons activates the Stardreamer which will appear to speed up time. Remember that your enemies are also going to be sped up so only use this when it is safe to do so, though even on an open air station, you will be protected by the station's own defences. Remember also that the station makes a small charge every midnight for your stay.

Cash

Your funds are indicated under Cash at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. They are safe if your ship is destroyed thanks to an automatic banking system. If you run out of cash you could sell your ship for a smaller one or sell off a piece of equipment.


Upgrading The Ship Or Removing Parts For Cash

Having first pressed the Communication Icon (F4) and selected the "Shipyard" option, click on Upgrades. The screen will show items for sale with options to Fit or Remove them and the prices for doing so.

Select Fit or Remove buttons for the item of interest, and your cash total at the bottom left of the screen will change accordingly.

If the complete list of available items is too long to be shown in its entirety, use the More... arrows to look through it.

Use of the Go Back... button will return you to the Shipyard and the Communications icon F4 will return you to the Services list. Equipment is fitted or removed while you wait and the process is fully automated.

Note For Fitting Guns

For guns, if your ship has more than one mounting you will be asked where you want the gun fitted. Old campaigners may recall that left and right mounts were once available but this was outlawed after so many people found that they were accidentally shooting their own their friends or, more embarrassingly, the police, due to the impracticality of using them.

Deciding What To Buy Or Remove

Each ship has only so much space in the hull and out of this, room has to be made for the engine, guns, fuel, cabins, cargo and so on. The proportion that these items take up depends on your needs, for example a fast courier ship's engine will dominate the hull.

Alternatively, if you are interested in having a more deadly ship than a fast one, engine size can be sacrificed for weapons. All items are rated for weight which is equivalent to the space they occupy, any space left can be used for cargo. If a particular shipyard does not sell a piece of equipment, repairs or removal cannot be carried out because the tools required will not be available either.


Buying a New or Reconditioned Ship

This mode allows you to part exchange your ship for another. It is standard procedure to strip a ship of its extras before selling it, as the only optional item which affects your trade in value is the Hyperdrive. New ships come with 1t of the appropriate fuel in the internal tank, whatever the size of the tank.

Via the Comnmunications icon F4 select Shipyard followed by New and Reconditioned Ships

The ships on offer will be listed with sale details.

You may elect to Buy or to View the ship first. Note that the types of ship on offer in a system will differ according to political allegiance, population and types of visitor.

Additional ship information is provided when selecting View including mountings crew and hyperspace range.

Crew

When you buy a larger ship, it may require extra crew in order to fly it. Without them it will not be able to take off. It is not necessary to buy extra cabins because they come with the ship if it needs multiple personnel. You must hire the crew members through the Bulletin Board (see below for more details).


The Bulletin Board

This is a collection of small advertisements for trading, services and requests for passage, amongst other things. You will find other types of advertisements so it is worth a browse. It is also possible to contact the military, its allegiance depending on the system you are in.

Trade In Legal Items

Some individuals trade on the Bulletin Board in preference to the Stockmarket, and taking a risk with them may benefit you. There may be ads for specific items which a person needs urgently that cannot be bought on the Stockmarket, so they are prepared to pay over the odds for them. You may earn more money this way than simply selling directly on to the Stockmarket.

Select the Communications icon F4, select Bulletin Board and look for advertisements stating WANTED.

Trade In Illegal Items

Of course being a law abiding citizen you will not be engaging in this, but in order to understand the criminal mind better you ought to know the typical procedure.

Select the Communication icon F4, then select Bulletin Board and took for advertisements stating Goods Bought and Sold Though there may not be any in a particular place or that day, The More... arrows will allow viewing of the ads which on a given day don't fit on the screen.

Click on the button for the Goods Bought and Sold advertisement you are interested in and a list will appear of all the illegal goods available.

Trade in a similar way to the stockmarket.

The police, although aware of this practice, will not shut it down. Not only do they take a cut in profits but they often use it to their advantage. Traps are laid in the form of advertisements and the astute criminal will get to know their characteristics. once successful trading has taken place, there is always the threat of customs officials, not that you will ever have anything to hide of course.

Carrying Passengers

People may place ads asking for passage for themselves or a group to a stated destination. If you want to do this, you need sufficient cabin space on your ship, which may mean extra outlay for you.

Taking Up A Request

On the bulletin board via the Communication icon F4, look for the appropriate advert and select it.

Choose one of the responses presented to you, for example one response might ask why they are prepared to pay so much.

The answer comes up on the console at the bottom.

If you want to make a deal, click on "OK- agreed" at the top of the list of responses

The passengers will appear on your passenger list.

Payment is normally made on arrival at your clients' destination, although some will pay half up front or even all!

Carrying Packages

To act as a courier, negotiate in the same way as for passengers after finding adverts for transporting packages. A package is deemed to take up negligible space in your cargo hold and of course does not need a life support system.

Taking On Crew Members

When you buy a larger ship, it may require extra crew in order to fly it. Without them it will not be able to take off. It is not necessary to buy extra cabins because they come with the ship if it needs multiple personnel. You must hire the crew members through the Bulletin Board using the Communication icon F4. When they are hired, a page called Crew Roster appears in the inventory mode (Inventory icon F3), and will list all crew members. You can also fire them using this page, but only when you are in dock.

Crew members will cost you - the fun of the ride isn't enongh. Wages will be deducted by direct debit from your bank account. Wages are sometimes negotiable but are generally quite high because there is a certain amount of danger for crew members. For example, should you decide that you need to use your escape capsule, the crew are left behind. Remember, you get what you pay for.


Other Shipyard Services

Contact Local Police

At the Shipyard, you can contact the local police to pay outstanding fines. Click on the Communications icon (F4), then shipyard and finally "contact local police". If you have outstanding fines, you will be taken to a screen with the following options:

- "I didn't do it"

The Police do not accept this excuse, and raise your fine as a result. NB there is a cheat associated with this response - click here for more details.

- "I didn't know it was illegal"

The Police do not accept this excuse.

- "Pay fine"

You pay the full fine to the Police force. Note that this only pays for the fines incurred in that police force's area of operations - if you move into a different force's territory you may still have outstanding fines.

- "offer a XX Credit bribe"

Depending on where you are and the amount of money you owe, the bribe needed is higher or lower. If you attemt to bribe too little, you will get an additional fine for attempted bribery, but if you succeed all your fines are cancelled (although your criminal record remains). In general, the more advanced a system is the more money you need to bribe it's police officers.

Repairs and Servicing

Equipment is usually very reliable but will become more unreliable with age, so servicing is important. It can be done at any time, and the longer you leave it the more likely a problem is to occur, so delay at your peril. Shipyards vary in the service they give, so you may find that your ship suffers from poorly fitted parts and shoddy repairs. If an item of equipment breaks down it will not function and will be shown on the Ship`s inventory page (Inventory icon F3) in faded text until is has been repaired. If a particular shipyard does not sell a piece of equipment, repairs cannot be carried out because the tools required will not be available either.

Having a piece of equipment repaired or serviced:

Select the Communications icon F4.

From the list choose Shipyard followed by Repairs and Servicing.

You will be presented with a list of servicing options.


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