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Setting Up A Fribulan, Competing or Inactive Base

When you open the Planet Editor, the Players button is set to Player by default. The word "Player" appears at the top of the screen indicating that every structure you choose from the Buildings menu belongs to the main base. Depending on the nature of your campaign, you may also want to include a Fribulan base, a base with a competing crew or an inactive base. This is done in both the Planet Editor and Campaign Editor.

IMPORTANT: Missions with a second base require extra play testing, since there are factors over which you have no control once the mission starts. So be sure to play these missions several times to make sure things work the way you planned.

Setting Up A Fribulan Base

First use the Planet Editor to create a map with the features you want. Use a fairly large map to accommodate both player and Fribulan bases. With the Players button still set on "Player", construct the main base.

Then click the Players button and choose "Fribulan". Note that the label at the top of the screen changes to "Fribulan". From now on everything you build will belong to the Fribulan base.

Fribulan structures must be built on crater water, so choose that from the Landscape menu and paint in areas of crater water. Also choose Landscape > Escaping Gas to add argon gas vents, since Fribulan Lungs can only be built on gas vents.

Click the Fribulan button to select and place various Fribulan structures. You must include a Birthing Pod (i.e., Fribulan mother) since this serves the same function as the bridge in a human base. You'll also need several Fribulan lungs. The rest of the Fribulan horde is hatched from the mother. The more lungs the base has, the faster the Fribulan mother will be able to produce soldiers, harvesters, etc. Spitters and Marsh Fairy Hatchers are optional but aid in the defense of the Fribulan base.

You will probably also want to add dense vegetation, rock formations and other landscape features to create a believable base. It may help to imagine you are a Fribulan general planning your base's defense. How would you set things up to foil those annoying humans?

The military missions The Fribulan and Spineweed show a working Fribulan base. The reference page on Aliens includes more information about each Fribulan creature.

When you start playing a mission with a Fribulan base, at first only the Fribulan mother is visible. It takes a while for the Frib to build up their defenses, so you may want to establish the Frib base inside a forbidden zone for part of the mission. (See Forbidden Zones for details.)

You will also need to do several things in the Campaign Editor to bring your Fribulan base to life:

  • On the Conditions & Actions screen, set Fribulans to Active at the start of the omission (or whenever you choose).
  • Set Fribulans Attackable to Off, Normal or High. (I'm not sure if there's any difference between Normal and High.)
  • Set Fribulan Ogres to On or Off. (The default setting is off.)
  • I'm not exactly sure how the action Fribulans Receive Resources affects a mission. If you have information, please let me know.
  • If the goal is to defeat the Fribulan, couple the Fribulan Base Destroyed condition with the Win action.
  • Or, if you want the Frib to compete with the player's crew for resources, set the Acquire Resources condition coupled with the Win action, and set the same Enemy Acquire Resources conditions coupled with the Lose action.
  • In a competition for resources, you may also want to use the Harvestable Resources condition coupled with a Lose action. This prevents a no-win situation where the necessary resource is depleted before either base has harvested enough. Otherwise be sure to include more than enough of the resource and make it unsellable under the Trading Resources button.

Set up the remaining options, conditions and actions as you would for any other campaign.

Setting Up A Competing Base

This section covers setting up a competing base with a human crew, like the one that appears in the Civilian mission Contract Race. To set up a mission where the player competes with the Fribulans, see the section above.

First use the Planet Editor to create a map with the features you want. Use a fairly large map to accommodate two bases. With the Players button still set on "Player", construct the main base.

Then click the Players button and choose "Competing Base". Note that the label at the top of the screen changes to "Competing Base". From now on everything you build will belong to the other base. Be sure to include basic structures, such as the bridge and shuttle pad, lights, oxygen and power plants. But remember you also need to include all the furniture and other objects the competing crew will need, since they'll be on their own when the mission starts.

The competing crew can replace structures that have been destroyed, but it seems as if they will not build new structures on their own. So if, for example, you want them to mine ore, you'll need to place some ore extractors at the start.

You will also need to do several things in the Campaign Editor to bring your competing base to life:

  • Under People Availability, set members of the second crew as "Competing".
  • On the Conditions & Actions screen, set Competing Base to Active at the start of the mission (or whenever you choose).
  • Don't forget to set the win/loss goals. For example, couple an Acquire Resources condition with the Win action, and the same Enemy Acquire Resources condition with the Lose action.
  • In a competition for resources, you may also want to use the Harvestable Resources condition coupled with a Lose action. This prevents a no-win situation where the necessary resource is depleted before either base has harvested enough.
  • Or, couple the Competing Base Destroyed condition with the Win action.
  • When the player beats the competitors, you may want to include the Take Competing Base action. The takeover causes the competing base's bridge to be destroyed, killing any operatives there. So you'll probably want to use this at the start of a new mission. Under the People Availability button, set the competing crew members as "Not Used" and they should automatically be added to the player's crew.
  • Another way to handle this transition is to use the Remove Competing Base action and then have the competing crew arrive on a separate personnel shuttle, using the Arrival 1 action.
  • You may want to set an action to determine what happens under the Competing Base Destroyed condition. This may be a Win or something else.
  • Set the Aliens Can Attack Other Company condition as active or inactive.
  • Set the Player Can Attack Other Company condition as active or inactive.

Set up the remaining options, conditions and actions as you would for any other campaign.

Setting Up an Inactive Base

This section covers setting up an inactive base, like the one in the military mission Is anyone hearing this? Please help! There are still a few things I don't fully understand about this type of mission, so if you have made one, please let me know.

First use the Planet Editor to create a map with the features you want. Use a fairly large map to accommodate two bases. With the Players button still set on "Player", construct the main base.

Then click the Players button and choose "Inactive Base". Note that the label at the top of the screen changes to "Inactive Base". From now on everything you build will belong to the other base. Be sure to include basic structures, such as the bridge and shuttle pad. Then flesh out the base with any other structures your campaign requires.

There are various conditions you could use to trigger a Win or Lose action in a mission with a distressed base. Get Venus To Distressed Base and Bridge Destroyed (Distressed Base) are just two.

  • The action Take Inactive Base puts the player in control of an inactive base, simultaneously removing all structures belonging to the original base. It seems to only work if you use it at the start of a new mission.
  • The Replenish Inactive Base action seems to work if you use it prior to the point where the player takes over the inactive base. That is, you can see resources being delivered to the other base. But once the Take Inactive Base action is triggered, those resources are no longer available. It's easy enough to just work around it using the Credits Given and/or Get Resources actions.

Set up the remaining options, conditions and actions as you would for any other campaign.

Click to return to the Planet Editor or Campaign Editor page.



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