OGame Noob to Pro Guide

OGame Noob to Pro Guide by CrystalClear

I finally decided to write something of my own ogaming experience. This is not just another regular ogame guide, it’s something different. Here, I’ll try to explain to you some various tactics and some things that most (even top ranked players) don’t know. When some other tactics and tips come to my mind that many players don’t know, I’ll post it here.

3 A.M. SERVER REFRESH AND ACTIONS ON PLANETS

If you didn’t know at 3 a.m. (servertime) every single player gets loged off, and has to relogin. Once you login, at your homeworld * sign appears. So, you wait 3 a.m. login, and start searching for players that DON’T have * on their homeworlds (it means they are 100% OFFLINE!). On this way you can easily attack top ranked players, and even their moons. I use this tactic very often.

• How to trick the system?
  Let’s say, you are too tired to be awake at 3 a.m. Other players will notice you don’t have * on your homeworld and will raid you. If you don’t want that happens, you can simply send one flleet (consisting of 1 small cargo for example) to arrive to your homeworld soon after 3 a.m.
• How to trick players that try to trick the system?
  If you think someone is using one of his fleets to cover up his sleeping, phalanx him. If you see one fleet coming to his planet soon after 3 a.m. make sure that before arrival time no * appears, and that exactly 15minutes after arrival of that fleet (15min) appears on his homeworld. If not, he is probably online (another proof is because top100 players noone attacks, neither spies).
• How to trick players who try to catch you tricking the system?
  Organise in your alliance, or with your ingame friends, that one of you is always online after 3 a.m. Then all he has to do is send 1 fleet towards each homeworld of other his friends that are sleeping, and recall it asap. AFTER THE FLEET LANDS BACK ON HIS PLANET, AN * WILL APPEAR ON TARGET PLANET EVEN TOUGH THE FLEET NEVER ARRIVED TO TARGET PLANET! (this is true) So, player that phalanxes you has less than 5sec to see 1 esp probe aproaching your planet, before it’s recalled. On that way noone will know you sleep.
• Actions on planets.
  Actions on planet means when * or minutes (15min-59min) appear on someone’s planet. When does this happen? When some fleet reaches your planet, when you lounch one of your fleets from planet, WHEN YOU CLICK IN OVERVIEW ON THAT PLANET, WHEN SOMEONE’S FLEET THAT WAS DIRECTED TOWARDS YOUR PLANET RETURNS TO SENDING PLANET, WHEN IN BUILDING QUEUE (COMMANDERS) FIRST BUILDING FINISHES, AND SECOND BEGINS TO BUILD. (I think that’s all – when building fleet and deffence * DOESN’T appear)
• How to increase a chance noone attacks you while you are offline?
  Just send some ships to travel from and to your planets, or tell someone to do the trick with 1 esp probe.
• How to make a ninja if an * appears when you click on planet (and attacker is attacking your planet not your moon, because when on the moon * doesn’t appear ever)?
  If you see someone’s spying you, and you have enough time to move your fleet, then you quickly move most of your fleet, and leave just a bite. After espionage probes hit the planet, you recall your fleet. Then select one of your moons (or most “hidden” planet you have; for example in g9, g8 or g7), and wait. If player attacks, click every 30sec on overview and if he sends his probes, wait last
• How to trick players that attack always after 3 a.m.?
  Let’s say you don’t have anyone stronger than you in your solar system. You spy your enemy and see his technologies. Then you calculate how long it takes for him to arrive to your moon with fastest ships (cruisers), and you put your fleet to arrive at that time (he wont send exactly at 3 a.m. his fleet), and leave a bite. After you get logged off at 3 a.m. you don’t login until 4:30, and then you check what happened.
• How to make players spend deuterium?
  You simply login at 3:40 (after you leave your fleet laying on the moon), and look at the overview.

ESCAPEING A PHALANX IN 3 SECONDS?

Today I managed to get away from 2 seconds phalanx, but it was a luck. 3 seconds is possible in most casses. First of all you have to play ogame in firefox and have foxgame installed (Google it). Right click on background of ogame => Configure foxgame. There you have to mark with ‘X’ AutoCopy, and sellect missions (esp, att, rec, trans, depl).

You can also remove fleet return time, and two distance travel time, because it slows down reading the page. (You can also in firefox’s tools => options mark square “Search for the text when I start typing” – on this way by pressing ‘O’+Enter, it’s the same as if you clicked with your mouse on overview; ‘B’+Enter = Buildings;….most important is ‘F’+Enter = Fleet! – now all you have to press to refresh fleet screen is Enter). Now you copy in your clipboard coordinates of a closest planet to the one where your fleet will land (it doesn’t matter who is the owner of the planet). Last 20sec you keep clicking Enter (to refresh fleet screen), and when your fleet arrives, you quickly click on all ships => Tab => Enter => Enter = Enter.

• How is this possible?
  Well, with tab you switch from all ships to continue button, then you click Enter to continue, then you have to choose coordinates, coordinates you keep in your clipboard will already be chosen and button continue will be marked again. Then you press Enter again to confirm coordiantes and to continue. At the last screen mission is already selected, and button continue is marked. You press enter, and pray to God.
  NOTE: Players with commanders can’t click all ships => Tab => Enter. Because of standard fleets. In this case it’s the best to create a standard fleet, that consists of returning ships, named with letters that are not used anywhere else in ogame fleet screen and left frame (for example: QQQ). You must enable “Search for the text when I start typing” in firefox options. In last 20sec you press ‘F’+Enter and continue to press Enter to refresh fleet screen. When your fleet arrive, you quickly press ‘Q’+Enter+Tab+Enter => Enter => Enter.
• I think this still works:
  Leave 1 ship of every kind on a planet to which your fleet is returning (and is being attacked in phalanx). Go to fleet menu and instead of putting number 1 in number of selected ships, you put for each ship number of ships you have in fleet that is returning. Now you count until zero (time when your fleet should return), and click continue, continue, continue. Don’t click first continue BEFORE your fleet lands.
• How to escape manual phalanx on recalled deployment?
  When someone attacks your whole fleet on deployment, tell your friends in that uni to spy you with 1 probe (of course you have to be online BEFORE your fleet arrives), on this way you will create big mess in enemy’s phalanx (make sure your friends’ probes arrive before your fleet lands). Recall your fleet, and imediately send another from-to the same coordinates (if possible). On this way enemy will see that scroll bar is of the same size and will wait until it gets bigger – one posibility).
• How to catch players that try to escape manual phalanx on deployment?
  In firefox select “Search text when I start typing” and every time you click on planet in order to phalanx, write quickly the time of when his fleet is arrivig (foxgame time, which is always the same and colored green).

Update:

• How to raid top ranked players (and others at moons) durring the day?
  You have spied someone’s moon, but you don’t dare to attack. You need 500 cruisers (example) to destroy his fleet. Send 700 cruisers in first wave, and in second wave send 500 cruisers and enough amount of small cargos to collect ress from first wave. When your 700 cruisers get too near to target, send probes to spy 5-10 sec before hit, and 1sec after hit. 1-5sec before hit, recall first 700 cruisers, and see if your enemy has tried to ninja you. If he didn’t let the second wave hit…(this can’t work always, but if player is online, and he sees your tactic, do the same thing second time on him, but this time let the first wave hit )
• How to make a perfect invisible ninja?
  This is just one of my theories, I never succeded in doing this. When on mobile colonies, with deployment you can do whole disorder and confusion on players that are phalanxing you. Send 90% of your fleet from one colony to another (or even better to your moon), and in last few seconds recall it. No one will notice you recalled in last few seconds, and will think your fleet is far away. Try to make your fleet arrive back to starting colony after 3 a.m. (if possible few minutes after 4 a.m.). Send remaining 10% of your fleet (a bite) to arrive at exact time when the rest of your fleet arrives to that colony. Don’t log in at 3 a.m. (if you have someone to phalanx your planet to make sure you won’t loose your whole fleet, would be great). Log in at 4:20, and if you were lucky you will have ninja hof.

– He attacked my whole fleet (which was stonger), with small cargos, LIGHT FIGHTERS, heavy fighters, cruisers and battleships.

– Few minutes later he sent his follow ups since he sent only small cargos which are faster than light fighters and will arrive before if sent imediately. I was online the whole time but didn’t say a word. I hoped he won’t check combat reports (will be away from computer), and that I will crash his follow ups.

– While I was waiting I quickly calculated flight times for his small cargos with impulse lvl 10, 11, 12 and 13 (I guessed he would have one of these). I waited 1min before hit with his main fleet, and did a fleetsave (to escape his bigger first wave). He spied me 30sec before hit (he didn’t go afk) and started recalling.

– While he was recalling his follow ups, I was pressing “Overview” button, and saw exactly in what second he recalled his 2k small cargos. Those cargos were sent AFTER his main fleet, therefore they traveled less time. I spied him and saw he has impulse 10. Calculated flight time with speedsim (if you don’t know how, send me a PM), and sent my counter-attack. He couldn’t do anything and left without his 2k small cargos. He collected DF, but I don’t think he will attack me so soon next time.

Here’s the link to a HoF at Balkan OGame:
http://board.ogame.com.hr/thread.php?threadid=137134

It’s best (if you don’t have solar sats on attacked planet), not to say anything and in last 2 minutes do a fleetsave. It can always happen that one of your friends suddenly pops up on MSN and you tell mu of situation. If someone spies you on your moon and planet, but attacks only planet. If the fleet on your moon is small fleet and can be used as a bite, DON’T DO ANYTHING. The player will raid your planet and guess you are offline and try to raid your bite. You will just jump and BOOM you have ninja+revenge hit

• How to login and stay logged in even if you go out?
  If you have connection that is always connected (with same IP), then you can, while using Mozilla Firefox, stay logged in for a whole day! If you don’t have a connection that is always on (your IP changes if you reconnect), then you have to keep your computer turned on (and your connection).
• How to do this?
  Once in Firefox go to Tools => Options => Main => When Firefox starts: “Show my windows and tabs from last time” and when you reopen Firefox, you will be logged into your account imediately. It’s the best to be on the moon, on that way when you reopen Firefox, you won’t get an * on any of your planets.There’s another way to do this if you don’t want to change things in your options. When you’re loggin off windows, or shuting down your computer (this only with permanent connection), DON’T close Firefox. Windows will close it automaticly (upon logging off, or closing windows). Next time you run Firefox, it will ask you if you want to Restore last session (open all opened tabs you had last time).

  On this way you can pretend to be offline for a whole day. Enjoy!

Espionage

I never thought I’ll have to put “How to espionage” in a pr0 guide! I noticed that many so called pr0 players spy with 5 probes. It’s pure waste of probes. Equal esp levels mean 3 esp probes to see fleet and defence. If your opponent has +1 esp lvl (he has 1 level higher esp tech than you do) then with 4 (FOUR) probes you see his fleet + def.
+2 esp lvl = 7 probes
+3 esp lvl = 12 probes
+4 esp lvl = 3+16=19 probes
+5 esp lvl = 3+(5)^2=3+25=28
…
To see buildings you will have to add 2 more probes, and to see research another 2. Enjoy your probing!

• ACS – good or bad?
  Acs is completely new aspect of game. It gives more life in the game, but many players don’t like it because either they don’t want to FS or they never actually tried it (this is most likely).
  About 1 month ago I got my first acs uni account from tottigol. I discovered some new tactics and learnt some from my friends (and enemies also)
• How to do a phalanx hit on deployment?
  This is how I do it: I send my fleet to arrive 5-10 sec BEFORE player’s deployment, and then slow down my fleet with 1 esp probe in last minute. It can happen that player logs in, notices you missed phalanx and don’t look in the last minute that you actually slowed down your fleet.
• Acs attacks – when, and when not?
  If you’re going to enemy’s nest (where many players from the same alliance have built up their planets (and probably have moons), with your friend in order to crash someone from that group, it’s always best to have 1 player that won’t launch his fleet in your acs attack, but will remain and do acs defense if needed. I almost lost my fleet because we didn’t have anyone to do acs defense for us.
• How to Counter-attack acs attack?
  Player RIP knew we will attack him, so he waited 3am, just like we did. After he got logged off at 3am, he didn’t log in. He knew it will take us more than 1h to arrive with our fleets to his planet (attack). So he waited, and logged in at 4am. He saw we sent attack at him, and after we recalled, he sent counter-attack at me (because I was the only one without the moon, and he could phalanx me). I managed to do a FS, but the most important thing is how he tricked us.

TOP100/TOP10/No.1 impossible??? => check this out:

• What do you need to be a TOP100?
  RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID, RAID.
• How to raid?
  Many players think they know how to raid good. They do a great job, no doubt, BUT this is the easiest way – raid with Small Cargos and Heavy Fighters. I use this combination:- (Rocket Launchers + Light Lasers + Heavy Lasers + Ion Cannons) x 3 = number of Heavy Fighters I’ll send with my cargos.
  – When someone has Gauss Cannons, I send the same amount of Small Cargos as Heavy Fighters (I use Small Cargos as fodder)
  – When defender has Plasma Turrets, I send lot of Light Fighters + Heavy Fighters + 100 Battle Ships and Large Cargos needed to collect 100% resources
• What about raiding turtles with Destroyers or Bombers?
  Too much deuterium consumption. It’s not bad, but I don’t like it. I prefer more using my Light and Heavy Fighters.
• What ships to build for my fleet?
  Depends on what you want. If you want to crash smaller fleets for extra profit, build lots of Battleships, Destroyers and Battlecruisers. If you want to crash fleets of your size (huge hits with descent profit), you will need good fodder and cruisers.

I prefer this type of fleet:

• Small Cargos 5k would be fine
• Large Cargos 1.2k, or more if you feel you need to cary big amounts of ress to long distances
• Light Fighters : Cruisers : Battleships = 2 : 2 : 1
• Heavy Fighters enough to send 15 raids (assuming you could need more than 300 per raid it would be 4.5k) – they can be used in big fights sometimes, too
• Colony Ships always have them around, you’ll never know when you have to leave your planet/moon to help someone, to destroy someone,…
• Recyclers : Battleships = 1 : 1
• Espionage Probes at least 100 on each moon you have (or on the planet you attack from)
• Bombers zero
• Destroyers zero (or use them as main fleet, and Battleships as fodder. In that case as much Destroyers as you can build)
• Deathstars at least 2 for fleetsave on your own DF (this will be explained later if you didn’t understand why 2 Deathstars)
• Battlecruisers ships that do much damage with small looses. I love them. Battlecruisers : Battleships = 1 : 2 (or even more if you have deut and crystal)

Where to begin? First of all, try to always arrive home before your fleet lands! If you are not sure will you be able to arrive home at some time, send your fleet to travel more.

• Fleet save from planet
  Deployment – That’s the whole story!
  Note: When your fleet deploys successfully, you will gain half of deut consumed to send your fleet
  Note 2: Fleets on deployment always arrive few seconds later. Maybe you will see the same time in your messages that you saw in fleets screen, but your fleet arrived later. If you want to check this, send 1 Espionage Probe on deployment. Don’t do phalanxed deployment attacks on 1-3 seconds. Try 4 or more.
• Fleet save from moon
  Deployment, Harvesting, Transport to your other moon and ACS Defend to your friend’s moon with hold time 0
  What I always do with my main fleet. I first send 10 recyclers to a DF I decide to go with my fleet, and after 30sec-1min I send my fleet. I saw many players do the same thing. The only difference is that they send fleet more than 1min after the recyclers. This is not good, because if someone is watching DF, when you collect it with your recyclers, he will send 2 probes on attack mission to that planet and then you will collect DF with your fleet, and he will catch you in Blind phalanx.