                            TREK-N HINTS

Here are some hints based on responses from players.

There seems to be some confusion about how the navigational compass
works. As any Starfleet cadet can tell you, the compass provides the
heading to the starbase. This is the angle, measured clockwise in
degrees, from the direction the ship is going to the direction of the
starbase. Thus if the compass displays "0", the starbase is straight
ahead; if it displays "180", the starbase is behind you; and if it's
"90", the starbase is starboard. (Of course you do know what "starboard"
means, don't you?)

Sometimes novices are also confused by galactic map nomenclature. "420"
means that the quadrant contains 4 Klingons, 2 dilithium crystals (handy
for refueling the matter/antimatter reaction chamber), and no tribbles.
When there are more than 9 objects, the alphabet is used. For instance
"B3" means there are no Klingons, 11 crystals, and 3 tribbles.

If your goal is to save tribbles then use your scanner to avoid Klingons.
Since there are many more tribbles at the higher levels, you might not
want to waste time at the lower levels. Use your compass to quickly find
the starbase. 

If you're like me however, you like to take out a day's frustrations on
those nasty Klingons. It's much easier to attack Klingons when moving
from side to side than up and down. If a Klingon attacks you, immediately
fly away from him, wait until he's directly behind you, then turn around
and let him have it. Since the Enterprise is a little faster, you can
outrun the Klingons if you want. 

At the lower levels (less than 7) the Klingons attack along your lines of
fire and are easy to slaughter. At the higher levels, they avoid your
lines of fire. However, you can use this strategy against them by getting
a bunch to chase you and zigzagging up and down until they're all fol-
lowing in a line. Turn around and blast 'em!

Here are some more hints. Don't take chances when your energy or shields
are low; go get some dilithium crystals. Don't waste crystals if your
energy and shields are already at maximum. Don't waste energy by firing
your phasers too often. When attacking Klingons, make sure you have a
place to retreat to. Strategy becomes important at the higher levels.
Choose your path carefully. It's like finding your way through a maze. 

Shooting at an angle is a problem for some keyboards that don't recognize
three keys held down simultaneously. You can get around this by using the
7, 9, 1, and 3 keys on the keypad to move at an angle.

The jiggling of the printer is intended as a special effect. Of course
you can always turn the printer off if it annoys you.



NUMBERS OF OBJECTS AT EACH LEVEL

Level:  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17
Tribs:  3   5   9  17  33  64 128 256 512 ----------------------------->
Klns:   8  16  32  64 128 256 512 ------------------------------------->
Xtals:  2   8  18  32  50  72  98 128 162 200 242 288 338 392 450 512 ->
Kln tactics:    ----------- (smarter and meaner) ++++++++++++++++++++++>


HI-FI SOUND

The sound is produced using a technique called pulse-width modulation. If
you know anything about the sound circuitry in the PC, you know it's not
easy to get hi-fidelity (unless, of course, you pop in a Sound Blaster).
The reason a fast CPU is required is because of the sound routines, which
interrupt 20,000 times per second. You cannot hear this rate, but the
widths of these 20,000 pulses per second are varied at a slower rate that
you can hear, such as: "Open the pod bay doors, Hal."

Hope this helps.
