ADVANCED CABAL SCANNING AND REPORTING TIPS

Hi, couple tips here.... 1st ill get into proper cabal hunting. then ill
talk about how to self destruct with dignity..
By the author of:
UUSTART1
UUSTART2
UUSHOOT1
 Andrue Carr (the definative player of Ultimate Universe)
-------------------------

   I am assuming (as i seem to always) that you know at least how to
move and survive in Ultimate Universe.  If not you should read UUSTART1
and other handy tips that are geared more to your level of play.

   This is an informative set of hints on locating Cabal and making the
most of the information you get.  They are by no means the only way
to work at Cabal hunting and are not meant to hold you from your own
style, however, they have been very effective for me.

   Needed items:
   -------------

   Basic scanning devices: (meant for safety reasons mostly)
     device#               Reason for need
     -------             --------------------
     164 or 165          depends on cash flow 165 is cheaper but 164 is
                         better, shows status of mines and fighter
                         programming, also shows some dangerous things
                         that may be in the sectors.  If you go with
                         164 make sure you have some other device
                         that has a blackhole detector in it. a #411
                         would fulfill that. and your gonna need a 411
                         anyway so you shouldnt worry.

     411                 has a couple things not in 164 or 165 and
                         shows last ship in sector trails if your into
                         following people around... watch out with
                         trails, i use them as traps.

     Thats the basic scanning devices for safety needed.. its handy and
safer to get a forward sensor array from sector 10 port and cram as many
sensor devices in there as possible like:  wire detector packs #170, device
bay platform detectors #88 or better still a Nordic warriar pack #179
(and garth thought that was joke pack, hah very useful device),
#114 hyperswap trigger detector, #332 navigator negator detector,
#419 the space madness pack, dont forget to get an Infected port
detector #363 which isnt included in the space maddness pack.

  There are a bunch others that you may want, depends on the cash you
have.  Also watch out on pack devices, garth plays games with them, he
leave vital detectors out of certain packs like the infected port
detector which isnt in the space madness pack. Its very important to
read the descriptions of the packs you get, if it isnt listed, then the
device isnt in there despite what the name of the pack is.

  Now onto more of what I'm here for this time: Cabal search & destroy!

   Devices needed to be effective:

    Device #            What it does for you
    --------            --------------------

     #176        The Fed pack allows you to report the cabal you
                 find directly to the C.E.C.C. without moving from
                 the sector your in currently. also gives you access
                 to banking functions.

     #276        The gosub. Standard device that gives you quick access
                 to fed strip if you initialize it in fed space you can
                 return there quickly by using it. sometimes needed if
                 you aquire a fine while scouting and need to pay it
                 at port 10.

     #174        Phantom Warp viewer and scanner. Allows you to
                 view Phantom warps. handy at locating cabal home
                 Worlds.

     #175        ORM pack.  Handy at looking and scanning down ORM links
                 and moving via ORM connections which is btw how cabal
                 do some of their moving.

     #102        Gate warp detector.  Wicked useful for locating
                 gate warps and possible connections to cabal home
                 worlds, use a device #14 to travel through a gatewarp
                 but use a device #113 to view it first!

------------------

MAIN THEORY:
------------

     Cabal seal themselves off with plasma warps etc and are hard to
locate.  The Cabal packs move out via ORM links and leave trails behind
them visible by mine clusters, phantom warps and infected ports.  With
the correct scanning devices and methods you can locate, report, and
kill cabal for fun and profit.  By using indirect detection or knowlege
you can locate  their home worlds and work on gaining access to and
taking a cabal home world.

BASIC STRATEGY:
---------------

   SCAN AND MOVE! Thats the important thing.  Remember here, your on
the offensive here and with that you have some risk involved.  Always
scan before you move, and dont move where your not safe to move. (did i
forget to mention that you need some firepower?  get a couple heavy
particle beams #132 like about: 5 which would kill up to 100,000 cabal)

   A good scanning plan is what you need to develop as a habit, here is
what i use usually:

    1.  I use the scanning function:  SC which shows you directly if
        any cabal are visible in the connected sectors to you.

    2.  then i do a phantom warp scan if there are phantom warps.
               V;174
    3.  Then i would use my ORM pack to check the orm links...
               V;175;1 would give you a scan of the adjacent
                       ORM link
               V;175;3 gives you a full ORM path scan... this
                       is the best scan available really....
                       and i dont think garth knows how powerful
                       this is or he would charge you a turn
                       for each link scanned.  (now that he
                       has read this dont expect this to last into
                       the next versions, exactly why i dont like to
                       give this info out but ive used it long enough)
     4. Then i do a full paused scan just to check for any deadly stuff
        out there with the:  SP command.

    Thats a full blow down on scanning technique... The choices you
make are based on the info recieved from the scans above.

     Info gotton from the scans above are these things:

     0.  Actual Cabal packs sitting there waiting for action!

     1.  Infected ports:  only visible in the current sector.  If you
         see an infected port signal:   (blue flashing)  
         (flashing blue nun, hah thats interesting)  anyway, that tells
         you that probably a pack of Cabal have moved through the
         Current sector.  this is a way of knowing basically where
         they are traveling around.

      2. Low Fed mines and large Fed drones, this usually indicates that
         Cabal have attacked that sector.

      3. Fed drones but no mines,  sometimes that indicates that
         there was a fed take over of that sector and cabal were there
         like yesterday.

      4. Cabal mines and no drones, probably a pack went through there
         or they dumped their mines directly off their planet... look
         for phantom links and if there are some try to blow the mines
         out of the sector with an attack drone coordinator #125. then
         go in there and check the phantom link with your viewer.  I
         think garth has countered this but the home worlds used to
         dump their mines and no fighters on most of the links that were
         gated from the main home world... so if you found large mine clumps
         with no fighters it had a chance of being gated to a home world
         if you have ever gotten into a home world sector and scanned
         you would understand what i mean by this.  I think he has
         corrected this.  make sure you run a Gate warp detector on
         the sector when you get in there:  device #102  and use
         a #113 to view the sector.

       5. If you see any phantom warps move into the sector if its
          safe and view the phantom warp with #174

       6. If you see any cabal when you do an ORM link scan particularly
          one with the 3 choice then you can use the ORM pack to
          move down the ORM links to the sector they are in by using the
          1 choice of the ORM pack... always do your normal scanning
          technique described above as you go cuz you will probably find
          other things along the way.
----------------

HOW TO REPORT AND DESTROY:
-------------------------

     V;176;4;1    is a macro you can set to get to the report function
                  then you just plug in the sector.  a better function
                  to lock in for a macro would be:  V;176;4;1;%1;Q
                  the %1 will then ask you for the sector as that is
                  a "data requested variable" that you can use anywhere
                  for generic input in a macro that asks for specific
                  info when you need to enter it.

      V;176;4;3   can be used to aid in killing the cabal by having
                  the feds send out an equal amount of drones as what
                  you put up.  so you get full credit but at only 1/2
                  the drone expendature.

      Of course you can always just do direct killing with your heavy
particle beams... they kill about 20,000 although i think its actually a
tiny bit less so always allow for some smaller amount of cabal in
there.... if there are too many cabal in the sector to kill with your
available fire power then use the kill macro above to destroy the amount
you need to get it down to... so if there were 240,000 cabal in the
sector and you had 5 heavy particle beams you would do something like
this:   V;176;4;1;%1;3;%1;75000;Q    that would report the sector then
send 75,000 drones there to wipe out 150,000 of the cabal leaving 90,000
for you to walk in and destroy with your particle beams... then you just
use your normal scanning technique again and start over from there.

     With the above info you can effectivly raise your
scan/move/report/kill ratio from what a "Normal player" or someone who
hasnt read this file yet.  I am sure you will find this useful!   As
usual i have probably left out a bunch of stuff that i do that i take
for granted, however, i use common sense where possible so if you can
follow the above info and apply it then im sure you can figure out what
to do that i have forgotten to mention.

INDIRECT INFO:
--------------

   There is some indirect info that is inherant with the above scanning
that you can use other techniques to figure out.   One thing is that
for the most part sectors link to the sector above and the sector below.
so like you should see this pattern:

Sector: 1405
Warps lead to: 78-2401-1404-1406-2637-2700

so you should be able to move one sector up or down from your current
spot.  Now this changes with Entropy but the chances are greater that
a sector that has no downlink or uplink has been sealed off for some
reason from the one its not connected to... if there is no phantom warp
it is probably one that started from the formation of the universe or
else there are all 8 links in there and it wont show them anyway. but
its useful to take a look at the unlinked sector  so in the above
example if you see something like this:

Sector: 1405
Warps lead to:  78-2401-1404-1934-2637-2700

you should try to take a look at sector 1406, it may contain a cabal
homeworld, another persons home planet, or some other point of interest.
one way to do that is to use the Computer scan function... if it comes
back and says:  No available information, thats a good sign that some
drones are in there but whos?  well the next thing you can do is remove
any fed drones from the sector by going to port 10 and using the request
federation removal function and if it says that there wernt any fed
drones that leads you to info that something else is in there... then
you should get as close to the sector as possible and use an attack
drone coordinator on it, send like 1 drone and follow the path to make
sure it actually got in there before it was destroyed, if it didnt, move
around a bit or scan the path it took to see what destroyed it... it was
on its way to the sector but couldnt make it because something destroyed
your drone....  if it gets there and is destroyed then it was either
cabal or someone elses drones or mines that did it...
the next thing to do would be to check the uplink from the sector you
want to see.  do a computer scan on the sector just above that one or
below if its a downlink.   so above you would scan sector 1407 and see
if it connects to 1406.  if you get no report keep trying to look up the
chain till you find one that is safe to move to... then plasma or
gatewarp to that sector and backtrack down till you get to the sector
above it...  if it doesnt link to the above sector then its probably
sealed off pretty well... send a radio message to yourself to remind you
of the sector and the info you have about it and go about your travels
until you find some sector that is a phantom link to it or an ormlink to
it.   (I only suggest this because i was caught by doing the next info)
If your feeling on top of the world cuz Warping is a mine setting, then
you can plasma warp or gatewarp to the sector and see whats there,
sometimes warp shielding will stop you so give up and remember the info
as above.

TACTICAL CABAL TRAPPING:
------------------------

    Well another piece of info about Cabal is that they keep a
"Hitlist."  This hitlist is usually about 30 peices of info about
sectors to keep pounding on.  They tell eachother what the sectors are
and where to go to start pounding it and the will keep this behavior up
till they take the sector... its an ingenius cabal tactic and also an
incredibly stupid one!  Sure they use it to keep an attack going on you
or the feds until they overcome.  but in their mindlessness they forget
that you can use this to your advantage both as a defense and as an
offence against them.

    Defense purpose:  By doing the next strategy you keep their hitlist
                      pointing away from anything you hold dear like a
                      planet or mine field.

    Offensive purpose:  If you use the next strategy in a strip area
                        you can draw the cabal in and know where they
                        will hang out every day you log on.

   2 Techniques:   Randomity pattern, Strip mining pattern.

   Randomity pattern:
   What you want to do is draw the hitlist in on you in as many places
as possible.  As your moving around and you see cabal spots drop a mine
and about 100 fighters and set them to kill cabal or others or whatever
its not important...  keep doing this in spots where there is port
infection or places you found cabal and destroyed them.  The Cabal will
eventually find your stuff and put you on the hitlist, its a small price
to pay to keep thier attention averted from your real stuff.  a good
macro for this is:   D;1;1;Q;F;100;1;Q     just keep plunking them
down... make sure your moving randomly and not leaving a trail with this
though as someone could track you via this way.... its kind of difficult
to describe but keep your best tracking senses going while your out
there and try to figure out a way to track yourself down by your actions
and if you can then your too obvious.

This is also good for creating a large spy file on you, the more you do
the greater your spy file will be, if anyone can afford to pay for the
info then what you do own that you wished didnt get into the spy record
will be less discernable then if it was the only thing in the file.  i
also use it to get people to pay out cash for bad info on me... they
will pay it every day to find my stuff but it is usually pretty useless info


   Strip Mining pattern:

   Go to a sector you know have cabal in it,  plunk your fighters and
mines down so they can see it. then you move up or down from the sector
in a strip for about 30 sectors or so, if you cant get to the uplink or
downlink sector use plasma or gate warps to make a straight path.
then as you go up this strip you keep your 1 mine and 100 fighters
deploying as you go... the cabal will see this and drop on it like
flies to fly bait!    all you do is move into the area each day, report
and kill any existing cabal and replenish the field with new drones and
mines...  do this for a couple days and i guarantee that you will build
up quite a Cabal following!   instant daily money and hazzard pay...
another thing you can do if you have lots of cash to burn is seal the
strip off from others using plasma warps and isolator devices, and spy
wards... the cabal wont care they will find it anyway but others may
not see it as easily... this is a blatant thing and very obvious when
it gets going cuz it gets reported to the newspaper and anyone moving
around will likely find something like this.... its best to keep a
randomity pattern going in addition to this if it breaks down.

this thing also gets reported to the spy record.... so others reading
that info will probably see whats up and take advantage of it.

----------------------

CONCLUSION:
----------

   Well that was way more than i really wanted to put into this so im
going to do another one on the self destruction with dignity later...
Watch for other UUSTART files... ill keep these with the numbering
system i have going for now it should be ok... i may change it in the
future but ill put the info in the UUSTART9 packet on what i plan on
doing.

--------------------------------------
   You may contact me via these means:

   Andrue Carr
   Box 473
   West Tisbury, Ma 02575

     hay, btw i could use some donations to keep my board going... if
     you feel inclined please make checks or money orders payable to
     the above info.

   Network addresses:
      Fido:    1:331/201
      sl_net:  250:502/1294
      ISGnet:  91:5/201
      Acmenet: 400:508/201

    BBS number:
      Over Board BBS  (508)693-5344 14,400bps 8,n,1 24hrs

    I monitor these conferences:

     ISGnet:   I_UU or ULTIMATE depending on the naming structure.
     Fido:     TRADEWARS
     RIME:     COMMON, TRADEWARS, SYSOP
     ACMENET:  ACMECHAT
     SL_NET:   SL_CHAT, 30PLUS, SL_SYSOP

    look for my other helpful Ultimate Universe files:
     UUSTART1.ARJ   (beginning start/day stance to get a good start)
     UUSTART2.ARJ   (Effective Planetary cash farming)
     UUSTART3.ARJ   (This one)
     UUSHOOT1.ARJ   (helpful installation trouble shooting)


     MAGIC NAMES FOR FREQ'ing:
     UU        current shareware UU version
     UUAI      the current AI package
     UUSTART   all the UUSTART info files
     UUPACK    all the files related to ULTIMATE UNIVERSE i have on my
               board, this includes 3'rd party utils etc that start
               with the UU naming convention.  This will be rather
               large so watch out when you use it... i think currently
               its about 20 minutes at 14.4


     I am willing to discuss any strategy as long as i am assured it
     wont get back to Garth Bigelow, he and i are competative players
     and i dont want him to find out what i can do.  Drop me a line with
     any questions or comments and i will try to help you out somehow.

    Thanx
    Andrue Carr
---
   Over Board BBS (508)693-5344  Life support for the monkey!
