1.0 Background on the Guide

1.1 First Things First

1.2 Reputation

2.1 Base Design Theory

2.2 Empire Design

2.3 Rover Design and Use in Theory

2.4 Practical Rover Design

2.5 Theory of Terrain

2.6 Solo Raiding Theory

2.7 Base Defense

3.0 Mutual Defense Networks

3.1 MDN Raiding and Defense Theory

3.2 MDN Leadership

3.3 War and Peace

4.0 Visitor Dollars

4.1 TU Management

4.2 PVE/Guardians

5.0 Getting Help

5.1 Hints and Tips

5.2 Emergencies

5.3 Joining The Community

6.0 Common Terms

6.1 Abbreviations and Slang
 
 

1.0 Background on the Guide

    Help in writing and re-writing the guide came from a number of people:

    This guide was originally written by a Project Visitor player with too much spare time who goes by the name of EtherealMist.
    KaiserMike proofread the guide and came up with a number of useful suggestions which I've tried to work in to the guide.  Thank you Kaiser.
    A number of people noticed bad grammar which came from modifications to the original six sections of the guide, cutting parts from one section to create another, removing some concepts and adding others to create the current guide.  It's difficult to read the same thing over and over and over and over...so I wasn't aware of the problem.  Thanks to those who took the time to read the guide.

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1.1 First Things First

    What is it you want in a game?  Never thought about it?  Maybe you want to command an assault against frantic defenders in realtime, on the ground in the midst of it all in real 3D terrain with forces you've designed and built.  Or maybe you'd rather spend your time acquiring and fortifying your own little empire and then watch as your opponents throw themselves senselessly against your defenses while you plot their destruction.  Then again maybe you're a simulation fan and like creating an operation which fills your pockets with money and your warehouses with rare and valuable  items. Whatever it is you want in a game, odds are Project Visitor has it.

    What types of games you like to play and how you like to play them will be a major influence on how you play Project Visitor simply because in it virtually anything is possible.  You want to break your enemy's forces with a reckless charge?  Forge alliances so that a massive conflict will break out if your little MDN is attacked?  Build up a mighty empire, the ruins of which will stand in vis camps long after you're gone?  Amass a fortune so vast you can buy as much of you want whenever you want?  Want to play general (ok, what's the word for someone who does this?) and layout the perfect camp with perfectly overlapping fields of fire that will rip up anything that enters their range?  If you can think it you can do it in Project Visitor.

    Before you get into the game you might want to think a bit about what you enjoy in a game and focus on that aspect in Project Visitor.  Nothing says you have to play any part of your MDN's politics if you don't want to nor do you have to spend countless hours in financial wheeling and dealings if that isn't what you enjoy.  In fact new players only need to focus on learning the game and simply surviving...which is fun enough in itself!  It's only players who have found their footing and managed to secure a bit of safety who begin to specialize into those potentials which help to make Project Visitor one of the most elaborate and compelling games made to date.

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1.2 Reputation

    One thing new players never quite realize is that Visitor is a virtual planet populated by real people. They aren't emotionless computer A.I.'s who ignore insults and have no memory. Those are real people you're playing against who will remember if you cheat them or become annoyed if you're a jerk...and most of them will be a whole lot bigger than you and more capable in the ways of Visitor. Almost no one is alone, everyone has others they can call on to defend or attack with, trade with or just talk about the latest wars with. It is as much a community as it is a game since everything comes from the players. Wars start over dishonest business deals, rivalries lock players in days of hour long struggles. If you mouth off to that guy in the UN when it's only you and him at 2 AM on a Monday morning you aren't really alone. Behind him stands those he knows while you, the newbie, are utterly alone. Don't do this if you want to survive. If your camp is being demolished, be a good sport about it...until you have the experience and the abilities to take them on your own terms.

    Just like the real world, everything you say and do in the game will be remembered, both the good and the bad.  This is the basis of you in-game reputation.  Your rep will be your ticket to a better MDN than the ones you'll flit through while you're a newbie so you should try not to upset too many people (at least those in your own corp) or else you could find yourself isolated and unwanted by the other players.  Your skill at raiding, your willingness to be a team player and defend the camps of the other MDN members will enhance your rep and will eventually help you in your dealings with other players.  Whether you're trying to find or create a new MDN, switch corporations, trade, or even just trying to avoid being taken for a newbie, how you're thought of by other players help or hinder you depending on how you've acted in the past.

    Some people like to play the evil pariah while others prefer to be the noble, reliable bulwark of their corp.  How you choose to play is up to you but always remember that your reputation will determine how the other players interact with you, how they trade, how they raid you, how they defend you and what they think of you overall.

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2.1 Base Design

    For the purposes of this strategy guide I've divided camps into six basic categories; main, TU, NC, production, storage and "uber-camp". Each serves a specific function and how you build your camps should be a reflection of how you want to play the game.

    Your main is the camp your first log into whenever you enter the game. Whenever you log off this camp will be "locked", closed off to everyone.  Any enemies already in your camp when you log off will be able to continue raiding though, so always remember to clear your main of enemies before logging in out or you could lose it while offline.  You should store the bulk of your rovers and valuable jitters in your main so they will be safe while you are offline.  All other camps will be open to attack.  Usually the camp you originally claim will be poorly suited to defense but until you are knowledgeable enough about the game it to move it to a better site you will have to make due with what you start with.

    As you play and advance in levels, you will become less secure in this camp so you should try to move your main to a camp where all the transium hotspots are as close together as you can find.  Why?  Well, camps where the hotspots are spread all over the map will require defense at each location, which will mean your defenses are spread out and their strength is thus diluted.  If the wells are close together then you can have that same amount of defense in a smaller area which, of course, means more firepower in a smaller area. Obviously you want this.

    Some people go to an extreme and build mains with tons of rovers and turrets, so many that the TU production rate is massively negative (see 4.1 TU Management for more on prod rates).  They have to buy TU anytime they want to teleport or build something or allow their turrets to have TU to fire when it is being raided. This takes enormous sums of money and several million can be spent just keeping the turrets firing when it is under attack or over the course of a number of teleports.  Why do this?  Because so long as the massive number of turrets and rovers have TU the camp is extremely well defended.  If he runs out of TU or forgets to buy it, the camp will fall to the attackers.  Only more experienced and wealthy players should attempt to maintain negative mains.

    TU camps are the camps you build for the purpose of building up a supply of TU to sell and there are two basic theories to building them.  The first is to build a camp with good defense and stock it with the maximum number of silo's.  This allows you to make the most of your camp. The downside here is that these kinds of camps make excellent targets as the hotspot placement usually isn't so good that an experienced raider can't find and exploit any weakness in the turret placement and take the camp down.  This means that camps with exceptionally poor hotspot placement usually don't make good camps to put turrets in.  Those camps are more suited to the second class of TU camps--UN Turret TU camps.  These types of camps have three things in common; poor, spread out hotspots, UN class turrets and the maximum number of wells.  Since the hotspots are so difficult to defend and the camp so easy to take down, it isn't worth packing it with good turrets and silos that you'll only end up losing anyway. Instead you simply use UN turrets of which you should have a large supply anyway and can afford to lose.  Lacking any silos, the camp is still somewhat productive due to the number of wells. These types of camps will add a modest amount to your overall V$ generation, but will cost you next to nothing and you won't be risking your more valuable items.  They also increase the number of camps you own so your TU exchange rate is increased slightly.

    The third type of camp, NC camps aren't exactly TU camps but they do have an effect on V$ generation.  These camps are just what the name suggests, they only contain NC's.  Why do this?  Well each camp you own increases your TU exchange rate so if you don't have the supplies to max out your camps with normal or UN-turret camps but still do it with NCs you'll have your maxed out TU exchange rate.  This applies to all your camps, which means you'll get a bit more money from each camp than you would have without the NC camps.  They indirectly make the rest of your camps more productive and do so only the risk of losing a single NC.

    Production camps are just what you'd think.  They're used for producing mods and rovers and contain good defenses, close hotspots, a few warehouses and production buildings.  Some people store a few of the components of their most commonly built combos while others will keep all their supplies in their main.  It depends on your tolerance for losing jitters, on their trust in their MDN's defending skills and on your opinion of the camps defense.  And of course it's always easier building rovers in the camp if you don't have to haul in everything you need first.  Generally you'll want your production camps to have a reasonable production rate so that you won't have to spend a lot on TU...that defeats the purpose of having a prod camp since you might as well just build out of your main.

    Storage camps are something which only very secure and experienced players will build. These camps are depositories for valuable jitters for which there is no more room in their main. They are usually heavily defended with good hotspot placement and often possess a valley in which the warehouses can be safely tucked from view since if they're seen the raiders will often increase their efforts to take down the camp.  The only real time you need storage camps is when your main is already full.  If you are secure enough in the quality of the defense of a particular camp and fear losing your main, you might want to store enough jitters in it to help you keep on your feet should your main ever fall.  The major disadvantage here is that unlike your main, your storage camps wont lock after you go offline so there is always the risk that you'll lose them.

    The final category of camps is the most rare and generally aren't used for maximizing V$ generation. Uber-camps have extremely close hotspots, are loaded with uber-turrets and take the concentrated effort of an experienced MDN several attempts to take down.  Generally only experienced players who have been around and exploring for months will find these camps, recognize their potential and build the camps defense accordingly.  You'll recognize these camps by the fact that when you are seeing the enemy camp, you'll be seeing all of it, right in one small area.  The hotspots are so close together you can see most or all of them from one location.  Avoid these camps and move on to something easier until you're experienced and have a good enough MDN to back you up and take it down.  The loss of one of these camps is usually extremely frustrating, both for the people who take it down and for the person who loses it.

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2.2 Empire Design

    When you are playing for the very first time, you will be asked to stake your claim. You'll want to pick a spot near others of your corporation so that you don't stand out on the world map.  You could pick a spot in the middle of a group from another corp but then you'd probably be raided more often and as a newbie you don't want to be raided.  Once you've gained a bit of experience you might try making more of a target of yourself to make things more exciting, but for the moment you want to try to blend in with the rest of the crowd.

    Your first TU camps will probably be a vis camp you spot near your main.  If you claim one which is too far away you'll end up wasting TU tele'ing.  Also, since your first TU camp will probably be destroyed within a few days anyway there's no point getting too fancy with its defenses.  As a newbie you probably won't have enough good turrets to outfit it well enough for it to survive anything but another newbie's attack.  Just try for a UN Turret Camp as seen in 2.1 Base Design for starters.  Enough properly modded turrets that can keep avatars with mags or marks at a safe distance should be enough for most camps until you level up enough for rovers to come in.  Since you probably won't have any silos to put in it (try to max out your silos in your main first), you should put whatever spare wells you have in it to increase the amount of TU that can be stored in it.  This will increase the amount of money you can make when you go there to sell TU and you should be going there often to sell.  Whenever it fills you should pop in and sell off all but 1000 so that you don't run your turrets out of TU (on the off chance someone decides to attack right after you sell).  Do this enough and your money will slowly increase but just one TU camp won't make you rich.  To get rich you need *lots* of camps.

    As you advance in levels you'll be able to claim more camps which helps increase your potential V$ generation. There are some problems that come up as your empire gets larger though.  The first is that you have to decide just what kinds of camps you want to claim (see 2.1 Base Design for how to tailor the type of camp you want to build to the terrain).  You'll have to decide what is more important to you, security or cost.  If you spread out across all the sectors then you'd best be prepared to spend large amounts of money buying TU to tele'ing around the world to defend your camps.  This will deplete your supply of V$ and unless you can afford it you could be crippling yourself.  However if you build a compact empire you and your MDN will need to be vigilant since the camps near your main probably won't have very good hotspot layouts so the defenses will be vulnerable to experienced raiders.  A compact empire won't cost you much, if anything to defend though, since the camps are all so close to your main.  What you choose to do will depend on how you want to play the game.  If you want to build a strong empire, you'll need to have a spread out empire since camps with good layouts are scattered around world and will not be found in one small area.  If you are only interested in making money though, you can build a large number of UN Turret camps around your main and save money both on turrets and on the cost of TU to tele to defends.  Expect your MDN members to become annoyed with you when called to defend your camps if you go the cheap route.  If they go to defend a camp they have a right to expect that the camp should be worth defending, and while in theory, all camps are worth defending (see 3.1 MDN Raiding and Defense Theory), in reality people do not want to buy 10k TU to tele to a camp filled with UN turrets and was half taken down by the raider in the minute they took to get their rovers to their tele.  They'll understand if you are a newbie but as you get more experienced and into a better MDN you'll be expected to maintain more better defended camps.

    Other things to keep in mind are the locations of the majority of your MDN members and proximity to the established sectors which will have the most wealthy players and thus the most profitable camps to raid.  The location of your MDN members will generally be scattered around the world, but if possible you should try to set up near where a couple other members are located.  This makes defending a bit cheaper for everyone but there really isn't anything you can do if everyone is scattered.  Setting up near the established (older) sectors is something you should do once you're skilled enough to raid properly and are in a good enough MDN to tackle other major MDNs.  This makes it easier to raid for profit and makes things more exciting for you.

    A few things you can do to help you out in the long run is to write down the numbers of any good camps you come across.  This way when you want to set up a well defended camp with a good hotspot layout you know where to go for one and won't have to waste time exploring vis camps.

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2.3 Rover Design and Use in Theory

    The types and style of the rovers you design will depend on your needs and how you want to play. If you plan on raiding heavily you'll want to build large groups of raiding rovers. If you're going to spend time defending, you'll build rover killers. Your style of play will also influence whether you want a few uber rovers or more numerous heavies with you on a raid.

    Your choices fall into several general categories which have been arbitrarily created for the purposes of this guide. Light rovers, Medium, Heavy, and "Uber Rovers". Light are firmpoint 1 and 2, medium are firmpoint 3, heavies are firmpoint 4 and the uber rovers are firmpoint 5. Their uses are outlined below, with the exception of "medium" rovers. It's been my experience that for the most part, fp3 rovers are good for only fooling around with, not for any "serious" purpose. They're fun to build and play with though.

    Light rovers are useless for raiding but if equipped with the right weapons they work extremely well in an anti-ava role. Large numbers of these cheap, fast rovers can send up a hail of weak fire, the sheer volume of which will take down and ava's hitpoints quickly. The main strength of these rovers is their speed so you'll want to try to enhance this through the proper armors and mods. Slow them down with heavy armor and you'll reduce their effectiveness. Also the accuracy of most light rovers isn't that great so you might want to enhance the accuracy rather than distance or damage the on the weapon.

    Since their hitpoints are so low any confrontation with other rovers will end disastrously.  The key to their survival is their maneuverability so take advantage of their speed.  Try to keep them in valleys or otherwise out of sight of enemy rovers and use the terrain to get them in up against the enemy ava. They require a lot of attention to keep out of trouble and into a position where they'll be able to do their work against the enemy ava and the more experience you have at handling rovers, the better they'll work for you.

    Heavies work well for either attack or defense depending on the rover type, armament and modifiers. This is the only class from which you can build rover-killers--rovers designed with the express purpose of seeking out any other group of rovers (other rover-killers, raiding rovers, defender's rovers, anti-ava) in the field, away from defenses and destroying them. Lighter rovers can't mount the firepower, nor do they have the hitpoints to last against the uber rovers while heavy rovers don't have the speed to maneuver enough to be a threat to other rover groups which are avoiding contact with them. Heavies though, have the right mix of speed, armament and hitpoints to allow them to take on any other group of rovers so long as you have the experience and the skill to handle them properly.  Being able to maneuver them is the key to being able to win with them.

    Rover killers are highly versatile, serving as escorts to friendly groups of arty, as the defenders of camps or as solo harassment groups which seek out enemy defenders on their own ground. Their trademarks are high speed, good accuracy, good weaponry and high hitpoints. Their only downside is that the weapons you decide will work well against enemy rovers generally won't work well against enemy turrets as their range will be inside most turrets unmodified firing range. This limits their use to anti-rover roles (escorts, defenders, "raiding for rovers").

    The successful use of rover killers requires a detailed understanding of how best to use the layout of the terrain to your advantage and to your enemy's disadvantage. Taking advantage of their speed to maneuver them into a position where they'll have an advantage over their target is as much a part of the battle as is the actual firing of shots (see 2.5 Theory of Terrain).  The key to doing well with this type of rover group requires learning the strengths and weaknesses of the rover group you'll come up against so that you'll know how best to approach them and where to avoid them.  Knowing the same for your own rover group will tell you in what situations you can confront the enemy, when to maneuver for a better position and when to either fall back to defenses or else retreat from the camp.

    Outfitted properly, heavies can also serve extremely well in an attack role. Often this will mean mounting artillery onto them and then range modifiers on the weapon.  However certain line of sight weapons will also serve well if used with skill against the right kinds of targets, on the right terrain. While they lack the extreme firepower of the uber rovers they have the strength of both increased numbers and maneuverability. Again maneuverability is the key to the survival in a hostile environment. Take advantage of their speed by maneuvering to the weak points before the enemy can respond to the attack, discover the situation, move into position and act accordingly, either staving off your attack or running out entirely.  Heavies equipped with arty will have to run if any defenders shot but raiding heavies with line of sight weapons have the advantage of being able to engage enemy rovers with varying degrees of success depending on just what particular combos are involved.

    Uber rovers are the ultimate rovers. They can take a huge amount of punishment, can carry weapons which deal out devastating blows with the potential for extraordinary accuracy. The downside is their low speed makes them vulnerable to multiple groups of rover killers which can isolate them from their controlling ava and take either him, or the rovers down. Also the weapons built for the uber rovers take large amounts of TU to keep firing so they are unable to operate in enemy territory for long, unsupplied.

    Those points aside, once they are in a defensible position (or are defended by friendly escorts in the case of uber rover/arty) they can be extremely difficult to approach, let alone take down.  Once they are committed to a battle though, there is generally no retreat for them.  They win or they lose.  Therefore these rovers operate best with a friendly escort which can help cover them in the event they must retreat or else use them as a secure point from which to attack the enemy or retreat to in a battle.  Due to their TU consumption rates it is generally advisable to have someone supplying their owner with a constant supply of TU and in most cases you will never want to operating uber rovers without a friendly escort.

    Armors, modifiers and weapons can make or break a rover combo. Some add to the defensive strength, some to the damage of the weapon, to the accuracy, to the speed of the rover and all weapons have their strengths and their weaknesses. You'll want to specialize your rovers, complimenting the natural strengths of the rover. It is possible to try to cover some of the rover's weaknesses by using the appropriate armors, weapons and mods but generally it is better just to improve the strengths and simply be aware of what situations where the weaknesses will come into play and avoid them.

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2.4 Practical Rover Design

    Each item in the game has strengths and weakness and to do well you'll need to learn to balance each off of the other to end up with the abilities that you want in a rover.  Using only the items (rovers, armors and mods) which give you the most hitpoints won't neccessarily get you a useful rover combo.  There will be weaknesses in the items you use which will lead to unwanted defects and to get what you want you'll need to learn how to avoid this.  You'll also have to think about the kinds of weapons you'll be facing as well as what you'll be using yourself.  What works well against one type of rover combo might not work as well against another or against turrets.

    Before we get into actually designing rovers there are a few concepts you'll need to understand.  The first is weapon classes.  Each weapon falls into one of four classes, ballistic, beam, flame, or special.  Each rover can only mount specific class(es) of weapons.  It varies with each rover.  What's the point of classes?   Well, each armor has a level of damage resistance against some or all weapon classes.  Some armors might lessen the amount of damage done by flame or beam weapons by five percent, others will lessen ballistic/beam by ten percent.  What classes and by how much depends on the specific armor.  These damage resistance levels can be modified by adding mods to the armor, increases the amount of resistance or adding resistance to more classes.  Complicated?  No, in-game it's actually simple enough, but the possibilities for you are endless.  You can create rover groups tailored to resist specific, commonly used weapons or you can create all-purpose units.  You never know just what the enemy is using on his rovers just as he doesn't know what you are using which creates endless possibilities in combat and increases the fun-factor of Project Visitor enormously.

    Each fully built and outfitted rover should have a weapon, a weapon modifier, armor, an armor modifier, and a rover modifier.  The number of possible combinations available to you is enormous.  Some work well against other rovers but not turrets, some work against turrets but not rovers, some will be too slow to work in certain situations whereas some which are fast might not have the accuracy you want.  To do well in Project Visitor you need to design rover combos that will work well for what you need and that will fit your style of play.  Normally you'll try to use groups composed exclusively of one type of combo but at other times you'll need to improvise.  As a newbie you'll have to improvise with your rovers often and to do this well you'll need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the more commonly used items.

    A bit more on damage resistance (you can skip the technical part with no real harm).  Each rover has a "real" number of hitpoints but damage resistance adds to them creating an "effective" number of hitpoints.  The effective number of hitpoints don't show on the rover information but they are there in battle for all intents and purposes.  Don't shake your head, I'm not pulling your leg.  Here's the explanation.

    Let's say you have a rover with 500 hitpoints, armor with 200 hitpoints and damage 50% resistance against all weapons.  That gives you 700 hitpoints, right?  Of course not.  The 50% damage resistance means that you effectively get 350 extra hitpoints (700*0.50=350), effectively giving your rover 1050 hitpoints, even though it only says 700.  If you want to see which armors will give you the best results, use the following equation:

 Hr + Ha + ((Hr + Ha)(Dr) = He

    Where Hr is the rover's hitpoints, Ha is the armor's hitpoints, Dr is the total damage resistance of the armor and mod expressed as a decimal, which gives you He...the effective number of hitpoints.

    Try to keep in mind just what classes of weapons your armor/mod resistance applies to.  Building rover groups with the maximum amount of damage resistance against a particular class of weapon is only useful if you know you will be facing that class of weapon.  Come up against a different class and you'll be fighting without any damage resistance.  Obviously this could be disastrous but if you keep a rover group designed to resist a popular rover combo (lets say gol/mojo) and you get word from another MDN member that there is a rover group raiding somewhere you'll be set to take them down with ease.  One variation on this would be to use a rover which isn't often used (say any firmpoint 3), build them to offer maximum resistance against a particular rover combo, and when the enemy sees you using a "poor" rover group they will attack.  With some luck and even more skill you'll be set to give your opponent a real surprise.  You might want to wait until you no longer consider yourself a newbie before you attempt this though.

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2.5 Theory of Terrain

    When a camp is first claimed it's number is plugged into the game's terrain generator and the camp is created. Each camp has a unique number which leads to a unique, randomly generated camp.  Some are extremely hilly consisting of sharp drop-offs leading to towering peaks.  Others have large plains with a few gently rolling hills.  The placement of the hotspots is also determined by the camp's number so in the end each camp presents both unique challenges as wells as opportunities for both those who would build the defenses, those who would try to take it down and for those will end up going in to defend it.

    Terrain can be broken down into a few important facets which you'll need to think about when raiding, defending or laying out defenses.  These are plains, hills, valleys, slopes, ridge lines and the telewall.  Each can help or hinder you depending on just what you're trying to do and how aware your are of how they relate to the terrain you're moving through.

    Plains are the wide open areas with little or no variation in height. Line of sight weapons from either rovers or turrets that are on the ground have a real weakness here: the shots that miss will tend to go past the target and impact harmlessly in the distance. Aerial rovers (kitty, Ronin) mounting line of sight weapons have the advantage of firing at a downward angle which means any shots which miss will impact the ground around the target causing damage by the splash of the explosion. Plains also offer long range visibility for avatars though once enemy rovers close in it becomes difficult to see past the approaching rovers.

    Hilly terrain offers the greatest opportunity for both attackers and defenders. They can shelter turrets and rovers from enemy line of sight weapon fire and help keep their numbers and types from being seen by the enemy. The best thing to remember here is that what can't be seen can't be targeted which adds to the strength of units defending here (rovers or turrets).  Chaos or arty turrets/rovers will benefit from the restricted view but line of sight turrets and rovers have their fields of fire severely restricted which limits their effectiveness.  Line of sight turrets will have "blind spots" where enemy rovers can advance without being fired upon.  Because of this, line of sight turrets shouldn't be used in extremely hilly terrain or if absolutely necessary they must be backed up by arty or chaos turrets.

    One of the important things to note about hilly terrain is that it possesses slopes, ridge lines and valleys all of which offer unique possibilities for rover maneuvers and combat.  Depending on what kind of terrain the target is on, the terrain between you and them and the terrain your own forces are on, your best choices can be to charge, retreat or to perform an of a number of maneuvers.  To know what to do you must know how each part of the terrain will affect your turrets or rovers.

    Slopes are the hillsides and can offer either shelter or be a poor strategic position depending on the location of enemy rovers and defenses.  Turrets on a slope have a considerable portion of their field of fire restricted but they are also somewhat protected from artillery firing from the reverse side of the slope. The artillery shells which overshoot will fall down the slope and impact below the turret minimizing damage from splash damage.  The flip side of this is that rovers with line of sight weapons that approach from the side of the bottom of the slope will be able to do a good deal of damage.  These shots will do splash damage while the splash from the turret's fire, being at a slightly oblique angle, won't be as much of a factor.

    In maneuvering rovers you will generally want to avoid having your forces caught up against a slope while the enemy is on the plains below and will instead try to have your forces on the plains. There is a very important exception to this you will find in the section dealing with ridge lines.

    Slopes are also useful for chaos turrets. Since they can't be seen from the reverse side but can still fire and because of the marginal protection from artillery, slopes are excellent places on which to place chaos turrets. However if the enemy is able to circle around and attack from the side which slopes down, the advantage is eliminated.

    Ridge lines, the areas right along the top of any slop are desirable positions to either fortify or else have your rovers on. This is because so long as the enemy isn't approaching along the ridge line any shots which miss the turrets or rovers will fly off into the distance and impact harmlessly. As well, any shot fired from turrets or rovers along a ridge line down at a target will have a steep trajectory which means that misses will impact the ground in and around the enemy, causing splash damage. This is one of the best possible positions you can find yourself in and before engaging any force of enemy rovers. Always be aware of the ridge lines around your location and be ready to move to one when enemy rovers are nearby.

    Valleys are regions of depressed terrain and includes any pits or similar formations. You'll want to avoid engaging enemy rovers while your own are in a depression or you'll find yourself on the wrong end of the situations described in ridge lines. However because your rovers will be shielded from enemy line of sight fire, these are good regions to regroup and heal in. Doing this hides your forces from the enemy, preventing him from acquiring information on just how damaged your rovers are.

    Because units in valleys or depressions are usually sheltered from enemy view, they make excellent regions to place chaos and artillery turrets. The chaos snaps on, surprising units inside its range and the artillery pounds units that close in to attack. Line of sight turrets in pits are extremely vulnerable to artillery fire and have their fields of fire severely restricted and so should not be placed here.

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2.6 Solo Raiding Theory

    When raiding alone there will be many things you'll need to think about.  The layout of the enemy camp, how best to attack, how to deal with any defenders, how to keep up your supply of TU and just what your objective is in attacking the camp in the first place.

    You might be attacking for any of a number of reasons.  Maybe you need more turrets for your own camps or for trading, maybe you're looking to acquire more rovers or maybe you're attacking as part of an ongoing war.  If you just want turrets or silos it isn't necessary to take down the entire camp, just to take down what you need.  This is generally looked down upon though makes good sense as you're not wasting time doing what you don't have to.  The only thing here is that no one will know you attacked the camp.  This may or may not be desirable depending on whether you're trying to "send a message" or wish to avoid retribution.

    Taking down several camps can enhance your reputation as a raider or it might just annoy the target bringing on retaliatory raids.  Your opinion of how far you take your raids will depend on whether or not you are secure with your own defenses and whether or not defenders show up.

    If your objective is to acquire rovers then you have entered into the realm of rover battles. The first step is to design and build a group of rovers which fall into the "rover killer" category (see 2.3 Rover Design and Use in Theory).  Then you teleport to an enemy camp and await the defenders.  Often defenders expect a raider to bring artillery and so they rush their rovers toward you regardless of terrain.  If you take note of the terrain and defenses upon entering the camp and move to an advantageous position, you'll be set to surprise the defender, catching them unprepared for a thought out engagement.  Some defenders are more cautious and if they see you simply sitting in a good position they'll either wait you out, maneuver for a better position or else call for reinforcements.  To avoid this you should make token movements near the site of your "ambush" as though you're trying to get into a better position.  The enemy may try to take advantage of your "unprepared" state and rush you.  This would be when you fall back to your chose position, turn and attack.  If all goes well you'll have a pile of jitters and items below you and an upset enemy ava scowling at you from a safe distance.

    Rovers aren't the only target in a rover battle though.  Since it is the enemy avatar which supplies the TU for the rovers and also the orders, taking the enemy avatar down can severely reduce the effectiveness of the enemy rovers or eliminate them as a threat entirely depending on whether it is his own camp he's defending or whether the defender brought a rover capable of hauling TU.  The enemy ava as a target should take priority over his rovers when possible because of the rover's vulnerability without him.  Most people will keep their avatars where they have a good field of view and are out of range of the enemy, however occasionally they'll make a mistake, underestimating the enemy and move their ava within your range.  When this happens you should take them out regardless of whether or not you're already engaging their rover.  Once he goes down the rovers will be easy pickings. Just don't let your rovers chase him.  If he didn't go down under a few volleys from your rovers then he wasn't close enough to present a good target and you shouldn't have opened fire in the first place.  When this happens your rovers are just losing hitpoints while the enemy rovers aren't.  An attempt on an ava must be prompt and decisive or you risk losing rovers.

    Something to watch for is for signs that the enemy is going to retreat.  Retreating rovers present extremely easy targets as they aren't firing back so always push on retreating rovers and take down what you can.

    Another thing to remember when engaging enemy rovers is to target one rover at a time.  Nothing is more disconcerting or more likely to cause the enemy to run than his hearing several "rover destroyed" alerts.  By targeting only one rover at first and then letting them pick their own targets once it is destroyed dilutes your firepower and the enemy receives a slight psychological reprieve by not hearing those consecutive alerts.  The idea is to panic him and force him into retreating to save what rovers he can where you will then do the real damage by overwhelming the fleeing rovers.  Keep a close eye on the battle and select a new target after the previous one is destroyed.  Another way to improve your chances of taking down rovers quickly is by first targeting an enemy rover around which there are several other enemy rovers.  This way the splash damage from your misses is doing damage to multiple enemy rovers, helping to take them all down more quickly.

    Since retreating rovers are so tempting a target one tactic which can sometimes work is to appear to retreat when the enemy draws near.  This will cause him to send his rovers after yours where they will "string out" as they chase.  You cancel the retreat when your rovers are at a terrain feature suitable to their weaponry and attack the strung out enemy rovers.  Those enemy rovers in the rear will take a moment to catch up and add their fire to the rest by which time you should have heavily damaged the first few by direct fire and splash.  If done properly the enemy ava will be surprised and may hesitate a moment before deciding on his next course of action.  For it to work properly the enemy rovers must be "strung out" to begin with and the terrain your rovers are on is unsuitable to engaging them just then.

    Another way to deal out damage is to catch the enemy in the middle of moving his rovers.  While moving, they won't fire so if you have the chance it is sometimes better to hit them regardless of the type of terrain you're in.  The only real time you'll want to this though is if you know the enemy is trying to get his rovers to a different position where you won't be able to hit them, when the enemy ava isn't nearby to see them being hit and so cancel their orders, or else when terrain is already in your favor.

    If you have confidence in your ability to take on the enemy rovers and either force them to retreat or destroy them outright, you should maneuver your forces between theirs and the telewall, cutting of their retreat and providing your rovers with a greater opportunity of taking them all down should they try to retreat.

    Setting your ERTs (if any) to "hold fire" near the site of any battle will stop them from running in and getting underfoot or shot at but they will still heal any units in range. This helps to preserve them.

    If a couple of defenders show up it is sometimes possible to deal a decisive blow to one while the other is still closing.  You then either have the option of grabbing what you can and retreating or else turning on the second enemy and attempting to take him down.  In most instances it will be better to run.  Usually the enemy will taunt you for running but when the circumstances aren't in your favor you should avoid combat and if that means running, then so be it.  Better to run and attack a different camp, forcing them to respond there where circumstances may be more in your favor than attack a greater force and lose your rovers.  Grit your teeth and think about how you're going to make them regret that.  :)

    If you aren't raiding for rovers then you're going for the turrets, either to acquire them or to take down the camp which generally requires artillery.  When you enter the camp scout out the enemy defenses, looking for the weak points and blind spots where you can move your artillery to.  If anyone shows, retreat otherwise begin your attack on the weak point.  Weak design generally comes from blind spots in the enemy defenses so take full advantage of any you find.  To avoid taking damage from enemy artillery you should learn to use your avatar to decoy the enemy.  This takes a bit of practice to get down and you should always have armor and a couple of regenerators on you.  While you decoy the enemy turret order your rovers to attack the target or, if it is sheltered behind hills or in a valley, order your rovers up to the point at which you first detected the turrets on your Heads Up Display.  They should automatically pick up the enemy turrets and open fire on them.  If not, order them in a bit closer, always remembering to keep your ava decoying the turret.  This one procedure is enough to take down most camps.

    Some rovers, specifically heavies with long range line of sight weapons work well in place of artillery, however they will tend to take more damage and won't be able to take down chaos which are in depressions or are otherwise out of site.

    With the uber rovers you should keep them near the telewall until you are sure no defenders show unless your combo also works in an anti-rover role.  Your primary concern when using these rovers will be keeping a supply of TU to keep those heavy weapons firing and to this end you should go after targets which will offer up a good supply of TU, specifically the wells.  Those weapons outrange most turrets so distracting them with your ava won't be necessary in most cases.

    One final note on raiding.  Each camp runs off it's wells on hotspots so obviously these make good targets.  Take down all the wells and then once the silos (if any) run out of TU the camp will be defenseless.  This means that if your objective is to take down the camp you don't need to take down all the turrets.  All you need to do is take down the wells and the camp will be easy pickings.  Even taking down just a couple can send the camp's tu production rate negative...if there are a large number of buildings and turrets.  Knowing when to try for this or when there is no need requires both a "feel" for camps and a fair amount of experience.  It's a subjective call, one you'll learn to make as you grow more experienced.

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2.7 Base Defense

    When you're happily pressed up against your OU listening to that neat sound it makes, nothing can be more of a shock than the "your camp N is under attack by X alert".  The alert tells you which camp is being attacked and by whom.  This is very crucial info as from this you'll decide whether you should go ava only, with rovers, or get on your buddy list and scream for help.  You'll know from the camp number if it's one you've had for a long time or if it is just another UN turret camp and from the name you might be able to automatically tell if it is a newbie attacking or a more experienced player.  If not, you can look up the name through the world map and find out what level, MDN, and how many camps the person has.  A  war can be avoided if you notice that the person's MDN is one you're at peace with and you tell the raider this.  If the raider is an experienced player you'll want to get in there as quickly as possible with your best anti-rover group but if it's a newbie, you can go ava only just to make sure they don't hurt themselves on the turrets.  ;)

    Once there you should locate the enemy and see what kind of rovers he has.  If it's arty just shoo him away and he should run but if it's an anti-rover force you aren't sure if you can handle then stick to the defenses and wait for him to charge or retreat or for circumstances to become favorable as outlined in 2.4 Theory of Terrain or the anti rover section of 2.5 Solo Raiding Theory.  Of course you could always go directly to him and try to find a good position to attack from but when you have the advantage of friendly turrets you should make use of them rather than risk your forces.  Once you're confident enough in your abilities to offer battle no matter what the circumstances you can forget about sticking to friendly turrets.  Even if you are going to try to run the enemy out quickly you should take advantage of the turrets by using them as cover while you learn what you can about the enemy's rovers.

    If there is more than one attacker and they are far enough apart you can try to deal with one or the other but if they link up you have the undesirable choice of either calling for reinforcements or else taking them both on yourself.  Your MDN should be glad to assist but the people on your buddy list will look down upon being called.  Eight people showing up to defend a camp being attacked by only a couple people will be annoyed at the waste of their time.  Taking on more than one person, while possible through an extreme skill with maneuvering and the targeting of avatars, should not be attempted by a newbie.  You'll know when you're good enough because the double alerts won't bother you and you'll deliberately not call your MDN because you'll want all the attacker's rovers, weapons and mods for yourself.  You'll look forward to the challenge.

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3.0 Mutual Defense Networks

    Mutual Defense Networks or MDNs are an integral part of Project Visitor.  An MDN is a group of up to 20 people of varying personalities and skills all of whom will ideally defend each other's camps and war together against other MDNs.  It's one for all and all for one.  Sounds swell, doesn't it?  Well, things aren't always that ideal.  Some people don't play very often and so they're kicked out because of inactivity, some people are selfish or don't defend other's camps very well, some players are extremely poor and won't risk much in either raids or defends.  Some players don't get along due to conflicting personalities and some leaders are more concerned with the fact that they're number one than they are with effectively leading their MDN.

    All MDNs will have their problems but those MDNs composed entirely of newbies will have more than most. This is because experienced players learn that to survive and prosper requires a great deal of mutual support among the group's members (hence the name "Mutual Defense Network").  Newbies on the other hand, due to their usually being extremely poor and nervous (about losing rovers/camps), don't have either the resources to risk losing in a battle or the confidence to take that risk which is so essential to establishing victories and thus an MDN's reputation.  And an MDN's reputation is as much a defense against raiders as its members are.  Mediocre and newbie MDNs tend not to mess with the most active MDNs and when they do, it's at their own peril so it is best to learn just what MDNs are fierce, active and experienced.

    Some of the things which influence an MDN's rep are the policies it requires of its members to follow, it's relations towards other MDNs and its raiding practices.  Its rules are one of the most important factors in determining how its members interact with both each other and other MDN members in all corporations.  Whether they swear, are rude, make unproven claims of superiority, or impotently threaten enemies will tell other players just how strict the MDN is and when they compare it against their raiding and defense abilities, will know if you're all talk or whether there's some bite to your bark.  Also, how well your MDN supports and defends friendly MDNs will help determine how they respond to you when you're the ones in need of assistance.

    The most important factor by far, is an MDNs reputation for defending its camps and its reputation in war.  Obviously those that are known to defend its camps well or wage war effectively will be left alone more than one where the people only sometimes defend the MDN's camps or will attack just a couple enemy camps before withdrawing back to their own territory.  On the flip side if your MDN is known as being good then other MDNs that are considered good might take you on just for the challenge.

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3.1 MDN Raiding and Defense Theory

    As an MDN's reputation for raiding is so crucial to their standing among the rest, the strategies and tactics involved demand a bit of thought and cooperation by those involved.  You can't raid effectively if several of your members are never online to help.  These should be replaced.  You can't raid effectively if members don't know how to raid properly or have the supplies to do so.  They should be taught by engaging in a war with a newbie MDN where their supplies will be increased and experience gained with little threat to your own MDN.  You can't war effectively if everyone wants to raid at their own discretion, are continually unprepared, or refuse to help out on defends.  The entire MDN should be warned about the need for at least some cooperation and if dissent continues the worst violator or two should be booted.  Newbies generally don't see the benefits of actually playing together with their fellow MDN members.  Following these basic rules should give you an MDN which is at least on the path towards being something other than a newbie MDN.

    Once you have an MDN which has proven itself by surviving a few wars with other newbie MDNs you can being thinking about asking more from your members and begin using the strategies and tactics the experienced MDNs use.  If you try any of these with an unblooded newbie MDN you'll end up with a chaotic mess as the members will not recognize how much working together is worth (not to mention fun) and so resist co-operation in favor of more solitary playing.

    The first thing to remember is that you only want to war with one other MDN at a time.  Fighting 20 other people of varying skill is difficult enough without adding 20 more by provoking a second MDN or yet another 20 by hitting a third.  To avoid this MDN members must follow the ground rules decided by the leadership (don't mouth off to people, talk trash, raid MDNs you aren't at war with and other common sense rules...they should be obvious enough).  If they don't your MDN risks being overwhelmed when several MDNs become annoyed with yours and attack.  Also there are what are known as "multi-MDNs" where groups of two or more MDNs band together effectively creating one massive MDN with 40+ members.  Here each MDN reports up to one main MDN which acts as leader and it determines who to war against.  The sub-MDNs in a multi-MDN don't have the power to start major wars but generally are allowed to raid newbie/mediocre MDNs as each wishes.  Hit one of these and you could end up being crushed.  A single MDN as the target makes the most sense.

    Having decided on the target and being confident that your MDN is at least somewhat disciplined and will respond to your commands, you should pick out an individual within the enemy MDN for your own MDN to target.  This serves a number of purposes.  It provides your own MDN with a touchstone to their progress.  They can look up the person and see how many camps he has lost since the start of the conflict.  It also spurs your members on by creating a rivalry among them to see who can do the most damage.  It becomes a matter of pride for them to say, "I took down another of X's camps!"  Besides enhancing your MDN's raiding progress by concentrating on a single person, it also demoralizes the targeted MDN and shakes their confidence in their ability to defend themselves.  They see one of their own get stripped of camps and realize any of them could be next.

    Early on in the assault your members should identify the target's main and avoid attacking it.  It will be the one in which the target is most often found; there should be a large number of rovers (more than can be teleported) as well as extremely good defenses.  Instead everyone should focus on the target's TU camps.  The decisions on which camps to hit should be mostly left to the members though pairing or tripling up should be encouraged.  Some members will insist on raiding alone but if too many do this the hitting power of your MDN will be severely compromised.  Try to encourage group raiding since this is the most effective way to take down camps.

    When all of the target's TU camps are down and only his main is left the leader or most experienced person online has a choice to make--whether or not to hit the target's main or leave it be and pick out a new target from the enemy MDN.  Hitting a main is a difficult decision to make.  Usually the defender will have as many of his MDN members who are online to defend as well as those attracted by the corporate network (corp net) and their buddy list.  It will be difficult to take down requiring your entire MDN's efforts and a good deal of co-ordination and co-operation.  If you win your MDN's confidence in each other will be heavily reinforced but if you lose it will be shaken.  Putting in so much effort and losing so many rovers and then losing can cripple an MDN's war effort if it isn't composed of experienced players.  In a newbie MDN this can be devastating so the leader should know the status of his members so that he'll know whether or not to attack.

    As well as targeting only one person at a time you can show decisiveness and discipline by launching multiple, co-ordinated attack all at once.  This tactic demands a bit more discipline than just hitting one person.  It requires the leader to be able to effectively order his members to prepare to attack, to divide them into groups, to order them to hit specific targets and to keep hitting them.  It throws the enemy off balance to see multiple alerts coming from several different camps.  They've then got to scramble from what they were doing and organize some kind of defense.  These types of attacks spread out the enemy defenders while giving your own members a bit of pride at being part of such an MDN that can make such an attack.  Generally these attacks break down after a while as members pause to rebuild rovers, or sell off spoils but for as long as they last the leader should keep appraised of how each attack is going and when one fails either getting the members to return or assigning them to a different camp.  It is also wise for at least one member to stay on defense should the enemy try to draw off attackers by attacking in return.

    This brings up one of the easiest ways to defend against an enemy attack.  Simply attack one of the camps owned by the person raiding one of your MDN's camps.  This will either force him to retreat or else call for defenders to check out his camp, however any time one of your MDN's camps is attacked someone must respond.  Sometimes a prompt response by several members will tell the attackers that your MDN is active and not to be messed with.  If it is the member of a multi-MDN or an experienced MDN that is testing you, that prompt response can avert a major, potentially dangerous war.  If no one responds or just one person shows up and only after a long delay, your MDN will be marked as being weak so it is crucial for all your MDN's members to understand that responding to defends has priority over everything else.

    One of the more specialized styles of attack is to assign one member of the group as being the "arty", one as the escort and the rest as arty, escorts or TU carriers/ERT as appropriate.  This is particularly useful during multiple, co-ordinated attacks against a number of enemy camps where there are multiple groups of two or more engaged in raids.  This prevents groups from automatically retreating due to being only arty and having no escorts, running out of TU or else having to retreat for being too heavily damaged.  These roles should be decided by the group's members themselves before the battle begins.

    Immediately upon entering a camp the group should link up, massing their forces.  Those acting as escorts should stick close to the arty and keep a running dialogue with others in the camp acting as escorts, communicating enemy location, type, movements, and their own TU levels, their intentions and especially if they're going to either retreat or attack the enemy.  Nothing is more annoying than realizing when you're in the middle of a fight that your backup retreated or that he didn't realize where you were or that you were going to attack the enemy.  Doing this greatly increases your effectiveness and is often just more fun.  The more members take part in raids like this, the more they'll see the benefits of working together.

    At the end of every battle the camp should be divided either evenly or according to how much support each participating member gave to the attack.  When defending someone's camp or after an unsuccessful attack you should return any jitters lost by members of your own corp to the proper owner.  No one likes a thief and the suspicion that you are on can hurt your reputation.  Newbies tend to take what isn't theirs more often than not (since they're usually poor), so they'll be suspected more than most.  Honesty pays...but so can theft (see 1.2 Reputation and then decide if you want to be known as a thief).   I wouldn't recommend it since you'll end up losing the trust of members of your own corporation.

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3.2 MDN Leadership

    Good command skills by the leaders are required for any MDN to last.  If he isn't likable and the members don't trust in his abilities they won't stay or at least will begin to think about leaving.  It's difficult to say what makes a good leader but mostly it comes down to the power of observation.  He has to know the state of his members, their individual skills, willingness to work together, etc., and how this all bears on the MDN's abilities.  He has to know which players need to be given "suggestions" and which don't.  He has to be at times diplomatic, at others, firm.  He has to be able to tell which enemy MDNs are weak enough to be taken on and which are to be avoided.  He has to be able to pick competent people to act in the number two and three positions and let them make the decisions they think best when he isn't around (and even sometimes when he is).  A good leader must know how to stand back and let everything come together on it's own, interfering as little as necessary.

    Faulty leadership can kill off an MDN.  When the leaders aren't involved enough, are too controlling, lack control, or make poor decisions, the MDN will be in trouble.  Good leaders need to carry their weight in wars and defends and if possible they need to do it better than the rest of the members.  This helps to inspire confidence and will make it easier for the members to listen to you.  If you don't follow the MDN's rules as you expect others to or if you make "special exceptions", then your members will lose respect for you.  Making poor decisions can also be disastrous.  Everyone makes mistakes but when you refuse to admit you were wrong, you're making a bad situation worse.  A good leader owns up to his mistakes and doesn't look to blame other members.  If he starts a war and things go poorly then it isn't the fault of the members...he shouldn't have hit so strong an MDN.  It is his responsibility not to get his MDN into a situation they aren't able to handle.  Ordering people about, trying to control their actions can also kill off an MDN.  Project Visitor is a game and while sometimes you'll need to say something like, "I want you quit raiding solo so much and start working with others" to keep the MDN functional, it isn't something you should try to do all the time.

    Most of all a good leader has to be able to tell when to exercise his leadership and when to leave well enough alone.  Above all else Project Visitor is a game and games aren't played so that you can be bossed around or excessively restricted.  It is played to have fun.  Sometimes all that leadership of an MDN means is letting the members go into a war that they want even if things aren't quite in your favor.  Taking those kinds of risks is what it's all about.

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3.3 War & Peace

    Waging war is a major part of Project Visitor and as a leader of an MDN you'll want to keep a degree of control over who your MDN goes to war with.  You won't always be able to decide who to war with, sometimes they'll pick you but there are a few things you can do to minimize the risk of getting into a war you don't want.  These include making sure that your members know who you are at peace with and who you just aren't at war with (there is a difference) and making sure that they know what MDNs they can attack and which once they can't.  You don't want them to hit powerful MDNs that will almost certainly respond or to attack out of boredom.  Wars deserve a moment of thought.
    The decision to start a war shouldn't be make by the leader on his own.  They should begin when the majority of members want to start one.  The leader must help decide just who to attack though.  Pick an MDN that you think your own will have a good chance at fighting successfully.  For actual tactics and suggestions see 3.1 MDN Raiding and Defense Theory.

    Eventually you're going to find yourself in a situation where you want to end a war.  Sometimes wars will end by themselves, with raids and counter-raids slowly decreasing until there's no longer any fighting but at others times more direct action is needed.  The best way to get out of a war is to get another MDN to help yours.  This can be hard to do, but there aren't any real alternatives other than just telling the other MDN that they've won and you want it to end.  Sometimes you can pay them off (or at least the leader) and get out that way but more often an MDN that knows it has the advantage will press it until the other breaks up.  This can be difficult but there is an alternative to watching your MDN break up.  What you do is tell the MDN that is at war with your own that they've won, then start up a new MDN (with a different name) for your members to jump to.  Make sure the members in the new MDN know not to attack the one which you were just at war with.  Often this will take a few days and your new MDN won't be as strong as it was before but the only alternative is to try to get into an established MDN.  If you can then you could try to get the MDN's leader to accept the better players from your broken MDN and try to keep it together that way.  Sometimes it's the only option but there's no guarantee there will be room or a need for more active members in the MDN you join.

    Every player should try to keep track of the ongoing wars.  This will tell you how threatening the different MDNs are at any particular time, if they're vulnerable or not, are riding on a wave of victories or suffering yet another defeat.  It's only by keeping track of who is fighting who and how well they do that you'll learn which MDNs are good and which aren't.  The UN is a good place to hang out if you're trying to get information on current wars and there's a quicker way to get information that to just sit back and listen.  Money will open mouths that would have otherwise remained shut but you can't be too obvious about it.  Say you'll pay X amount of money for information on who all is in a particular MDN, what times they are normally online or what ever particulars you're after.  Ask people to message you in private or if you want you can send this message, person to person rather than in the open, to someone you would be willing to talk.  Newer players or players who have just switched corporations make good targets since their loyalties are quit set yet and as a bonus they might not have much money.  There's no guarantee you'll be given good info but if you do this often enough you'll get a good list of reliable contacts.  Remember to write down the information you receive and who you get it from so you'll know when you check the info out if the contact is reliable or not.

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4.0 Visitor Dollars

    There are two real ways to make money in Project Visitor.  The first is to manage your camps individual requirements for making visitor dollars and optimize them accordingly, the second is to raid and sell what you acquire.  To optimize a camp for V$'s you build enough defenses to keep it alive but not so much that it lowers your V$ generation. Maximize your TU capacity as well. Make sure you build as much capacity in to the camp as possible as this increases the amount you make. Keep TU production as high as you can as well. Have to find the right balance between making a lot of V$ and being able to keep the camps around. Many players build several varieties, some high risk camps but with high V$'s generated and other camps to balance it out with less risky camps but better defenses so they last longer. This is probably a safer approach in the long run.  How you choose to make money is up to you.  Some people build their maximum number of camps and make them all as high in V$ production as possible(but that means they are weak and open to attack).  This is a relatively easy way to make money so long as you can keep your camps but it means you can lose them all very quickly.  Raiding, something you'll be doing anyway and selling any surplus you don't need is a more lively way to make money.  It won't make you as rich...but it is more fun.

    There are a few things to remember when trying to trade at the UN.  The first is to always sell in bulk, except for the commonly sought, big value items.  There is always a market for the uber-turrets but the more common rovers, weapons, armors and mods won't be sold in small quantities.  Only newbies who don't have much money or supplies will try to sell small numbers of common items or try buy one or two of them.

    Also, it is best to sell during "prime time", when the most people are online and in the UN. Even with a number of people to sell to, there won't necessarily be anyone who wants what you have.  Sometimes you have to wait a while for someone to show up.  You might do this or else just make more frequent trips to the UN, sell what you can and return later.

    The UN is usually pretty chaotic with some saying what they want and others saying what they have to sell and others chatting about MDNs or wars.  As a newbie you should go there to learn the prices of the more commonly sold items so that you won't either be accused of trying to rip someone off or be ripped off yourself.  If you just sit and watch you can get a general idea of what things are generally worth.  Of course you can always jack up your prices a bit just because there is always someone willing to buy but doing this tends to annoy people and makes them dislike you...which isn't good when you're a newbie.

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4.1 TU Management

    As a newbie you'll need to worry about the levels of TU in your main since you'll be building your rovers, mods, armors, weapons and frequently adding turrets or moving them around.  It's easy to run out and since you're probably not rich you won't be able to afford buying more.  You'll need to go and siphon TU from someone else's camp (UNrep or an enemy camp) when you run out of TU or else wait for it to build up.  You can't siphon from camps owned by people in your own corporation.  Ideally you'll want to siphon from a UNrep's camp (saves you from potentially being raided), but if you have to siphon from an enemy camp and someone shows, you *might* want mention that you're a newbie.  Some people will help you, others might take advantage of you (newbies are easy prey) but if you don't take the risk, you won't get any rewards.  To get the most TU you should bring a mule or three and fill them and then your avatar before returning to your camp.

    When you're running out of TU too often though, there is probably a problem.  Your TU production rate is probably too low or possibly even negative.  What is a production rate you ask?  Well each camp has five hotspots which will produce transium when you have wells built on them.  Each turret, building or rover you build requires transium to maintain and this comes from the camp (called the item's "burn rate" or the more formal "upkeep").  The more you build, the less spare transium you have going into storage.  If you build too many it can even go negative, which means no more transium will build up in your wells or silos and your turrets and rovers won't fire unless the camp gets more TU.  You'll have to either buy more or pick up some transium crystals and put them into a silo or well if you want them to work again.  To get a quick idea of just what your camp's prod rate is just look at the fluctuating bar which is right above the chat window on your HUD.  Move the cursor over it and you'll get a specific number.  There are modifiers which can lower the burn rate for buildings but these generally won't significantly increase the camp's prod rate.  You'll need to learn to watch the prod rate and see just how many turrets you can build (and of what kinds) as well as how many rovers and still keep your main positive and producing enough TU to handle the upkeep required by all the items.  If your prod rate is too low you'll have to buy TU when you need to tele, build items, or for your rovers and turrets to fire.

    One last note.  Mules aren't just for hauling TU when you're siphoning.  They also have a use in battle.  You can fill them with TU and the extra bulk in the teleport won't significantly affect the number of rovers you can take with you.  If it does cut into the number of rovers you can take you can fill up the remaining available bulk with ERTs.  They're especially useful on raids since the extra tu and healing will significantly extend your raiding time.  Assuming your raid is successful then you'll also be able to dump the TU at the end and fill it with jitters rather than have to dismantle your own armor or weapon to make room in your inventory.

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4.2 PVE/Guardians

  In Project Visitor we do provide a PVE experience. PVE camps are protected by the Guardians, the owners of planet visitor. PVE camps are created when you explore visitor camps. Occasionally, Guardians will show up to defend the camp.
On the screen you will see a Guardian count, this is the number of Guardians left to destroy before the camp reverts to a visitor camp.
Guardians show up in waves, and these waves are announced in your chat.
Each wave comes in a fixed time interval, and they continue until you destroy them all or they force you out of the camp.
As you destroy Guardians you are awarded points, these points can be used to buy Uber packs.
Also, as you destroy Guardians you can be awarded packs and items that are delivered directly to your backpack.
As the waves progress, and get harder, the awards get better.
If you leave the camp, when you return the waves will begin again at wave 1.
If you leave the camp for a long period of time (say 7 to 14 days) it will revert to a visitor camp.
Raiding Guardian camps also contributes to your stats, that will show up on the Project Visitor web site.
The Guardians are difficult and require lots of trial and error, remember that the more you bring into the camp the larger the number of units will be in each wave. Try raiding with a smaller number of rovers to get a feel for it first.
The rewards are substantial the further you get. If it gets too hard, teleport out and back and start again. The overall number of Guardian to kill will continue to go down until you have finished them all off.

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5.0 Getting Help

    Lots of people will be willing to take a few minutes to help out a newbie who asks for help and the UN is the best place to go for this.  If you're lucky (or show a bit of promise) you might get accepted into a decent MDN, get some good advice, or even some free jitters should you happen to run across one of the many helpful people in the game.  Regardless of whether you get helped out or insulted (not everyone is helpful), you'll need to go to the UN in order to make your first steps into the Project Visitor community.  It's only here that you'll begin to get to know the other players and become known to them.

    If you require technical support or have a question about the game you can also jump to the UN chat channel in the game and ask for help.  When you do this make sure to say you're a new player.  It should help get a reply (so long as one of the UN reps are online).  The UN reps who are a part of the UNSA program (that just means they're supposed to help people), will usually be holding a contest or be at the UN so their chat displays will be filled and your single query could slid by un-noticed so be patient and if no one replies after a minute or two try again.

    The best way to get help though is to hop onto one of the message boards at a fan site.  To find one go to www.ProjectVisitor.com and check out the community section. This takes a bit longer than just asking in-game, but odds are you will find a post made by someone with the same problem and replies suggesting solutions.  Make sure you check out the posts for one dealing with your problem before you create a new post.

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5.1 Hints and Tips

    A simple pad of paper is a useful thing to have near your computer when you're playing Project Visitor.  If you write down the numbers of camps with good layouts, a list of camps owned by a player your MDN is stripping of camps, names of players in an MDN you're at war with, and other bits of information you wouldn't be able to remember, you'll have an advantage over players who don't.  Doing this gives you information at a glance, without having to go into your NC to look up names on the world map or asking someone else to do it.

    Learning the keyboard shortcuts will also give you a bit of an edge in-game.  Clicking on rovers or buildings and then clicking on the command you want takes way too much time when you're in the middle of a firefight where a second might mean the loss of a rover or two or their being able to retreat.  Get to know how to cycle through the chats, hold fire, retreat rovers, change from mouse free-look to cursor and other commonly used events.  You'll be able to do what you more quickly and more efficiently.

Waypoints for rovers isn't something you'll hear much about, though it is possible to do in Project Visitor.  By pressing shift (or is it ctrl?) and then clicking where you want waypoints to be while you have rovers selected, you can have your rovers move around obstructions (buildings, built items, stay out of range of turrets, move around enemy rovers, etc).  They can be extremely useful, especially when you're maneuvering rovers in your own camp from camp view.

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5.2 Emergencies

    Ok, so you're online alone or with just one or two other people and all of a sudden alerts start coming in from all over.  What do you do?  When in panic or in doubt run in circles scream and shout?  No, that won't help.  What you should do is start defending what camps you can and call out on your buddy list to get them to defend the other alerts.  Try to keep a running conversation with them keeping them appraised of what camps are under attack (how many are there), which ones need more people, which are cleared and what you're doing.  You'll probably lose a camp or two (operating with buddy lists isn't as easy as with your own MDN...they'll be busy doing other things, and might not be able to come, some will be offline and you won't know, etc), but with the help of your buddy list the losses won't be as bad as they would have been.

    As a newbie your buddy list probably won't be filled with the best possible people to have on it, and those who are on it might not know you well enough to want to help.  Try to pick people from a number of different MDNs who are online around the same times as you are and make sure that they're active.  Also try to ask their permission.  Some people don't like to be on buddy lists.

    Another type of emergency situation you might find yourself in is losing your main.  Usually it takes a monumental battle involving large numbers of people to take down a main but as a newbie your main will probably be weak and vulnerable.  Taking it down will require more skill on the part of raiders than numbers since you probably aren't too experienced at placing turrets (see 2.5 Theory of Terrain for more on turret placement) or defending with rovers.  What should you do when you realize you're about to lose your main?  Keep calm and try and grab all your most valuable jitters, teleport to the corporate headquarters in your sector and slap the jitters into the warehouses there, teleport back to your main and grab some more jitters.  Your jitters will be safe in your corporation's headquarters but anyone from your corporation who goes there will have access to your jitters.  People don't normally go to them though, so the jitters should be safe.  Another option you have is to load a mule with jitters, take it to the camp of a friend or fellow MDN member, dump the jitters and try to go back to your main for more jitters.  When you do this you should always make sure the person knows that you're putting jitters in one of his camp...and only use this option when you trust the person.  If you're feeling really spiteful and can't teleport anywhere (say they took down your teleporter), you might consider corp'ing all your good jitters.  At least this way they won't fall into the hands of the raiders.

    My own experience with losing mains is somewhat limited (lost a main the first day I played in open beta...but never since then), so I'm not sure just what happens when you lose a main now.  If your avatar is killed in the battle for your main, and you log off, you should wake up in the corporate headquarters in your sector.  If you don't come to in your corporate headquarters then you should tele there so you can use the NC to search for a place for a new main.  From what I've heard you are automatically given enough jitters to build a basic camp so all you have to do is tele to a vis camp, slap down a nerve center and you have a new main.  If you have jitters being held by a friendly or in a corporate headquarters you should go and get them.  So now you've got a main and maybe a few jitters.  What now?  Now you ask your MDN members for help.  They should help you but if you don't get as much of you need you can always head to the main UN (1000005).  Now prepare to act pitiful...read on.

    Go into the UN, say you're a newbie, recall your epic battle against the worthless scum, the treacherous dogs, the oportunistic leeches who attacked and newbie-locked you.  Say they swiped your jitters, beat you up and left you lying in a gutter, penniless.  Be descriptive.  Make it good enough (but not vindictive) and some kind hearted soul will help you get back on your feet.

    Losing your main can be devastating to your game.  It means you've probably lost most or all of your items and all you have left is your money.  You'll have to start over.  If you've played for a while you should have contacts or people who can help you out but even if you don't you can still goto the UN and explain your situation.  It will be difficult to rebuild, but try to think of it as a challenge rather than a set back and accept help from wherever you can find it.  One last note:  write down the names of the people who took down your main.  It might help motivate you in rising from the ashes.  ;)

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5.3 Joining The Community

    Ok, so maybe you're feeling a bit lost.  It's a big wide world and you're sitting in your camp wondering just what the game is all about?  Maybe you've teleported to a few nearby camps and no one showed or else they just told you to leave.  You're starting to think that maybe this isn't a good way to spend your time.  Stop that.  When you first play you aren't going to be known to anyone and if you wan't to fully join the game you're going to have to make yourself known.   There are a few ways to do this.  You can teleport to the main UN at 1000005 and talk to people but the UN is used for trading so the people there will be more interested in that than in talking.  Say that you're a newbie and are trying to figure out the game and you should get a response.  Most people will take the time to talk to you and help you out a bit with jitters or advice and if you're really lucky you might get into an MDN.  You *need* to get into an MDN.

    To join an MDN you click on the MDN chat, then on edit.  This should bring up a list of MDNs where you can search for those which have openings and have people online to accept you.  Try applying to one.  If no one responds in a minute or two, try applying to a different one.  Eventually someone will accept you.  You're now on your way to becoming involved in the community.  Your MDN is there to help you and probably contains players with more experience than you.  Use the opportunity to learn from them.

    Another way of becoming known is to watch the corporate network and go to raids or defends.   Generally people will become annoyed if you raid them but if you help on defends you'll get to be known to people in your own corporations which could pay off by getting you into a better MDN.  It never hurts to have the good opinion of those in your own corporation but when you go on the raids which show up on the corporate network you'll be annoying people from other corporations.  This can be dangerous when you're a newbie and until you're comfortable with your MDN, you should try to avoid starting fights on your own.

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6.0 Common Terms

    This covers the basics terms you'll need to know in Project Visitor.  

Project Visitor--www.ProjectVisitor.com Best game around...
Alert--An alert is either an automated warning telling you that a specific camp number owned by an offline MDN member is under attack or else it is an alert sent out by an online MDN member who is requesting assistance.  Alerts should always be responded to.
Ambush--Never use the word ambush in-game.  Other avatars will raise their eyebrows, pick up a brand and burn a "n00b" onto your forehead.  I use it in the guide to help describe a tactic I found useful on occasion, but it isn't a term used in-game.
Avatar--This is "you" in the game. It is the character you load with weapons, armor and TU.
Bulk--Bulk is a kind of measure for the mass of any given item.  You can only teleport so much (depending on the level of the person you're raiding and your own level).
Camp--The smallest possible region of the world map.  Each camp is a confined are which can be teleported to or from, be conquered or lost depending on the circumstances.  Owning atleast one camp is essential to playing Project Visitor.
Claim--To claim a camp is to take it as your own.  This is done by building a nerve center.
Corporate Headquarters--This is where you end up when you lose your main.  Only members of the corporation can enter any of its headquarters.
Corporate Network--A network which monitors all raids in progress on Visitor and alerts players according to the levels of the person being raided and your own level.  A useful way of becoming involved in the game for newbies.
Firmpoint--Used to indicate the size of weapon a rover can mount (or the size of rover required for a weapon...which is the same thing).  Each weapon and rover has a number of firmpoints.  A firmpoint 3 rover can only mount weapons of firmpoint 3 or less.
Gears--Gears are anything from medical kits to masher grenades.  They are items which are used by avatars.  They cannot be placed on rovers, though regenerators and medical kits can be used to repair rovers.
Hotspot--A hotspot is a circular formation of green, semi-transparent crystals on which you place wells in order to mine transium.
Jitter--A jitter is what you need to put into the proper building to build that item. If you don't have a zeus jitter you won't be able to build a zeus. They can be bought, sold, traded, won, or lost. You want these things.
Jitter Pack--What you buy from the corporate market screen.  Gives you 10 random jitters.
Main--Your main is the one camp you own which locks when you go offline.  It is the camp you will always enter first when you log on.
Modifier--A modifier is something built to be applied to a weapon, hoverboard, armor, rover, turret gun or building in order to alter the basic statistics for that item.
Multi-MDN--A group of 2 or more (usually 3 or 4) MDNs which loosely act as a single MDN, warring together and defending together.
Mutual Defense Network--The heart of Project Visitor.  An MDN is a group of up to 20 players who choose to play together.  MDN members support each other on raids and by defending each other's camps.
Nerve Center--This is the building which you must enter in order to access the world map, teleport, corporate network or help screens (help can also be accessed by pressing F1).
Rover--The mobile units you build, equip and control in the game.
Rover Combo--A rover combo refers to a combination of armor, weapon, mods, and specific rover which are used together.
Telewall--This is what marks the boundary of a camp. You cannot pass through.
Teleport--How you travel/take units to other camps.
Telepost--These are the posts near the tele wall which mark the area beyond which you must be in order to tele out of the camp (if it isn't your own).
Transium--This is the main resource in the game. It powers turrets, rovers and weapons, is used for teleporting and is required to build any item.
Transium Unit--A crystal of transium.
Turret--Static defenses in the game. Can be obtained in jitter packs.
Uber-Turret--Refers to the most powerful of all turrets (Zeus, Orbital Uplink, etc)
UN--United Nations.  UN areas with camp numbers above 1000000 (1 million) are safe areas where weapons will not fire.  In UN rep camps weapons can fire however, so be aware of which type of camp you are entering.  The main UN is 1000005.
UN Rep--Not a member of the Project Visitor design or support staff.  These are players who are granted special accounts on the condition that they help those with problems and are allowed to hold events or contests.
Visitor--A planetoid which wandered into Earth's solar system.  The world of Project Visitor.
War--A sustained conflict between two or more MDNs.
Weapon Class--Each weapon has a class which is used as a part of determining damage done against a specific target.

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6.1 Abbreviations and Slang

    Over its evolution, Project Visitor has come to be filled with abbreviations and slang referring to the items and events in the game.  For a newbie it can be confusing and hard to know just what is being sold the first time you go to the UN at 1000005 and hear "I've got 20 trans skel, 5 bals and I'm looking for some mojos" or when you hear an MDN member say "There are 6 moths/del and some tit/bal at that alert".  It is easy enough to tell what's what (del stands for deliverance, dis for disintegrator, etc) and you'll catch on in no time.

Abs--Used to refer to infrastruct's absorbent armor.
Active--A person who is active is someone who is online often.
Adopt-a-n00b--Something more people should do.  If you see a newbie, help them out with a few jits and some advice.
Arty--Artillery.  Ok, maybe this one is too simple to include.
Ava--Avatar.  Your digital counterpart.
Bal--Ballista.  A Brute Force weapon.
BF--Brute Force.  One of the corporations in the game.
Cherry--Cherry Bomb.  A Toyco weapon.
Corp--Corporation.  The factions in Project Visitor which war with each other.  Also refers to the act of selling jitters back to the corporate market.
Conspiracy--Ask anyone and they'll tell you that there is no conspiracy.  Don't believe them.  Not too long ago a routine survey mission in one of the many unopened sectors on the far side of Visitor came across something...wierd.  All contact was lost with the survey team and a special UN task force was sent in to investigate.  This has never been acknowledged by the UN and you will be able to find absolutely no information on this subject.  The cover-up is near total.  There was once a pitiful lunatic (said to be a survivor of the survey mission) to be found at 1000005 who would mumble incoherently about alien biotechnology, coverups and conspiracies.  The lunatic also shouted wild theories of how current advances in technology on Visitor have been derived from alien tech.  Most disturbing was the rumor that an alien facility was under the control of a shadowy organization and within was a displacement gate of unbelievable potential...a doorway to...somewhere else...
Combo--Rover Combo.
Del--Deliverance.  A Brute Force weapon.
Dis--Disintegrator.  A Toyco rover.
Dread--Dreadnought.  A Brute Force rover
EX--Extreme.  One of the corporations.
FAE--Fuel Air Explosive.  An Extreme weapon.
FK-Flower Kitty.  Toyco rover.
FP--Firmpoint.  A rover statistic.
Gol--Goliath.  An Infrastruct rover.
Hades--Hades Horn.  An Extreme weapon.
Hell--Hellfire.  An Extreme rover.
HUD--Heads Up Display.  This is the "object" which has the chat interface, info on yourself, on chat lists, inventory and other information.  Also shows the general location of enemy and friendly units at the top of the screen.
Infra--Infrastruct.  One of the corporations.
k--Thousand.  1k of TU is 1000 units of TU.  Ditto for visitor dollars.
Kat--Katana.  A Toyco weapon.
Log--see Log Off
Log Off--The act of exiting from the game.
Mag--Short for Magrail.  A Brute Force weapon with a long range.
Mark--Marksman.  An Infrastruct weapon.
Mat--Materials Upgrade.  A UN modifier.
Micro--Microhydraulics Upgrade.  A UN modifier.
Mojo--Mjollnir.  An Infrastruct weapon.
MDN--Abbreviation for Mutual Defense Network.
Mod--Abbreviation of Modifier.
Moth--Short for Behemoth.  An Infrastruct rover.
Negative Main--A main in which the prod rate is negative (i.e. the turrets, buildings and rovers require more TU to support than the camp produces).
n00b--see newbie
NC--Never center.   A building.
Newbie--If you're reading this guide, you're one. Newbie is slang to refer a new player. It can be considered an insult if the person being called a newbie, isn't one.
Newbie Lock--To newbie lock someone is to take down all their camps.
Newb--see newbie
OU--Orbital Uplink.  A TC uber-weapon.
Prod--Production camp.  A camp used to build rovers and other items in.
Prod Camp--See Prod.
Prod Rate--TU production rate.  This is the amount of tu produced by a camp after the upkeep required by all turrets, rovers and buildings is deducted.
Prot--Protector.  A BF turret.
TC--Toyco.  One of the corporations.
Tele--Can either refer to the act of teleporting or to an actual teleporter.
Tit--Titan.  A Brute Force rover.
TU--Abbreviation for Transium Unit. Used to refer to transium in general.
TU Bandit--someone who runs around the UN and puts tu into other people, filling up their inventory.  "TU Bandit" is also a term somehow associated with a shadowy organization, operating at odds to the conspiracy created by those in the UN, bent on the complete and utter domination of Visitor and obtaining alien tech found during the routine survey of a distant unopened sector of Visitor...  (I'm not crazy...it's true I tell ya, it's true!)  There's also a rumor that they may know the location of the facility believed to be the source of the alien tech...
TU Camp--A camp built for the purpose of selling TU from.
The UN--When people refer to "the UN" they are referring to camp 1000005 which is the one used most frequently for trading.
Uber--Uber anything means it's the best of whatever is being talked about (camps, turrets, etc).
Vis--Visitor.  The world of Project Visitor.
Ves--Short for vesuvius.  An Extreme rover.
Wares--Warehouses.  Storage buildings.
Wep--Weapon