ThreeStepsCampaign spoiler file: strategy
(Update 12-2013: This isn't a very good strategy. A better way to play this
mission is described on http://calezane.home.xs4all.nl/animisc/spacecam.htm.)

This campaign is childishly easy; the frustration is not in trying to win, but
in winning in a satisfying way. One constant condition for winning is keeping
all colonists alive, so if a job is dangerous, let an android do it.

Mission 1: Planet of Plenty
This planet is literally choked with resources, to the point that they have to
be cleared away before any building can be done. The mission starts with Venus,
Margaret and Charles, and zero money. Assign Margaret to energy/oxygen for now.
Put a nutrient harvester to the right of the bridge and assign Venus to it in
order to clear space for a new living dome. There are some weeds behind the base
and warehouses, so put a weeding post near the base and have Charles clear them.
On the second day, some extra supplies including pharmaceuticals are dropped.

As soon as there is enough money, i. buy a scavenger, put it close to the
nutrient harvester, to harvest the few iridium crystals close to the base (sell
it when these are cleared), and assign Barbara to it (the bridge can do without
her for a while) ii. buy a learning pod iii. train Barbara in cybernetics, iv.
buy a cybernetics lab and some electronics (Barbara should have mined some
iridium crystals by then) to start android production. Time is of the essence,
so don't buy too much for the colonists (they can share one bed, and won't need
sleep at all for the first three days) but do buy a mess hall, and a stair
climber or beer bar for Charles. A stair climber will also suit Venus and
Barbara, but the bar will later be essential to keep Stig's motivation up. If
there are messages about lack of energy, add lava plants over the available
vents, but be aware they will need repair.

As Charles makes room by clearing the weeds, add warehouses to a total of seven.
Then put down a silicon or iron mining facility wherever there is room and
assign him to that, optionally also giving him cleaning duty. Leave the rest of
the weeding to androids, preferably those that have less than 200 ticks to live,
as weeders will also tackle pyrocyns, explosive red toadstools that can kill. By
now Stig should have arrived, and the area around the bridge should be cleared
of weeds, so add a new dome for colonist comforts, a titanium miner for Stig and
a second cybernetics lab. The idea for the rest of the mission is to keep
popping out androids to get as much mining done as possible.

Shortly after, Ashia and Nailer, the last of the colonists, will arrive, almost
one week into the mission. There is a limit of nine training programs, and they
will be the only ones to participate in the next mission, so it makes sense to
train them, but Barbara is a hard worker and as such will put the training to
better use. My strategy is to train Barbara in iridium scavenging while the
androids make more androids, then train Ashia to maximum cybernetics to create
more skilled androids. The weeds should all be gone, so Nailer can divide his
time between a mining facility and the repair unit, although in practice he'll
spend all his time repairing. Ashia can mind the bridge between androids. By
this time, so many androids will be staggering around that three space bikes
will be a good investment.

Mining and trading strategy: the most important resources are titanium and
iridium. Put as many scavengers down as can fit and be manned, and don't sell
the iridium; use it for androids. Do sell the titanium, chiefly to make space,
but keep as much as you can. Also put in facilities for iron (one close to the
base), nutrient harvesting (wherever a space needs to be cleared), silicon (the
most abundant resource) and argon gas (a reserve post for androids waiting for
other androids to expire so they can take over iridium mining). Annoyingly, if
two titanium miners are put side by side, both robots will have to walk through
lava to collect the titanium, and be damaged or destroyed, so put one behind the
other, as far to the left as possible. (Sell any structures whose robots are
destroyed: they are taking up valuable space.) Sell all the iron and silicon
(unless you have time/space to have the silicon processed into electronics
on-site), and most of the nutrients. At the end of the mission, you get to keep
only 10% of the money you made, but all of the unsold resources, so keep the
iridium (more androids in the next mission), as much titanium as possible (sell
for quick cash in the next mission), argon gas (to get a headstart on next
mission's pests) and some nutrients. The reason to have only seven warehouses is
that the next mission's bridge also has seven, and any warehouse contents beyond
that will be lost in transition, so if you get the message "warehouse at maximum
capacity", simply sell to make space. A space-saver is to sell cheap silicon for
expensive electronics, to get more monetary value per warehouse; to condense the
stocks, as it were. On day 27, after the last androids are made, sell the
cybernetics labs before the warehouse drones can restock them with components,
as those components would only go to waste.

At the very sudden end of the mission, you will have achieved the objective of
making a huge amount of money for the next mission, and totally failed the
(fortunately unenforced) objective of stripping the planet of its resources.
(Really. I tried.)


Mission 2: Pleasure Planet
When the briefing speaks of leaving the mission in Greg's capable hands, you
know it's going to be bad. At the start, he will be there with Ashia and Nailer,
and over time more colonists will trickle in, handicapped by lack of skills
and/or lack of energy and/or high demands. This mission's crew features diamonds
like Tami, Babette, Slim and Candy; better start the android production! I
refrained from putting plants in the base to avoid having to hear Tami bitch
about them. She is the reason I almost removed the condition of keeping all
colonists alive. But working with misfits is one of the challenges of this
mission.

What this planet lacks in resources, it makes up for in space. The conditions
for winning are twenty tourists staying at the same time and total tourist
satisfaction, ie. 10 out of 10 stars for safety, entertainment, hygiene and
food/drink. There are two ways of winning: quick'n'dirty or truly making the
planet into a green paradise with a golf course. Whichever way you choose, I
advise immediately selling the tourist port connected with the bridge. Buy a new
one, and put it and its buildings (hotels, garden dome, other domes) away from
the bridge, with no airlocks. That way, the tourists won't interfere with the
colonists. Strangely, the tourists seem to rate "entertainment" by the number of
colonist base recreational facilities even if they can't get at these
facilities. Next, put down extra domes for the colonists before the rodents
start hopping around and making building impossible. Light up the left side of
the planet and discover some weeds (put Nailer on the nasty ones, leave the rest
and the pyrocyns to androids), volcanic vents and lots of Venusian slugs. Did
you build up a supply of argon gas? Then now is the time to put automatic lasers
at regular intervals. There is a lake nearby for an argon gas rig to be manned
by Greg, once Tami and Babette have planted their lazy, whining asses on the
bridge. I also recommend at least one space bike, as the base starts with none.

The quick'n'dirty method means leaving it at that: put down a tourist port with
several hotels in the narrow lit-up strip, add domes with facilities until the
ratings are at maximum. Tourists go by quantity, so plopping down a big biodome
and filling it with medi-bays and showers will make the hygiene rating shoot up
to 10. In this way, both objectives can be quickly met, and the mission ended.
(Goodbye Tami!)

The thorough method means lighting up and greening the whole map, and since
there are some nasties in the dark area, you may have to postpone the tourist
buildings and invest in some combat units first. (If you made a huge fortune in
the previous mission - it is possible to come away with 130 units of titanium -
you can buy both.) The dogbot and common soldier are cheap, but the commandos
have the speed needed. Buy two and put their units near the base, where they
can't be damaged. Now you may have to ignore the colonists while dealing with
the nasties, so buy enough facilities (nutrient miner, chicken processing plant,
all the recreational facilities) to keep them occupied. There will be nine of
them in all, so put nine beds in a medium dome bedroom. Have a jacuzzi, boxing
ring, beer bar and chicken restaurant nearby for the special snowflakes (the
restaurant will fill Babette's fun and food bars at the same time); a disco and
stair climber will satisfy the other colonists; and of course Bhoomi needs her
relaxation pod. Also, pause the game whenever an android is finished, to assign
it to a task so it doesn't waste its costly but short life. Having androids man
the bridge while the lazies are sent out to shoot slugs is a good way of
avoiding critical energy/oxygen lows.

The campaign is easy but frustrating, and so are the nasties. There are two
small herds of hyrascus, and a gorilloid, in an area with metaflaxus plants that
will proliferate and damage structures unstoppably if not destroyed within the
first ten days. Since the manual says that hyrascus become violent around
lasers, the intended challenge was to shoot the gorilloid, so that lights and
weeding posts can be installed, without angering the hyrascus; then I found out
that not lasers, but lights and structures will make hyrascus violent. They will
migrate to every light or marker in their line of vision (so they can't be
contained within an electric fence), and destroy it with an earthquake attack.
This is why the commando base units should be far away from where the fight is.

All nasties are at the far right of the map, so I make the commandos run there.
Their handicaps is that they need light to lock on to their victims; a few
missiles aimed at the dark spots would solve the problem in moments, but, of
course, a missile silo is the one item not available in this mission. So, while
the game is paused, I have the commandos run to a hyrascus, make a long trail of
lights towards it until it is visible, then delete all but the last two lights.
Chances are that these will be destroyed in the fight; if the hyrascus are close
enough, the commandos will keep shooting until the hyrascus die, else they will
become inactive and more light needs to be supplied. There are two herds, one in
the north with the gorilloid and one in the south; the northern one should
preferably be eradicated first so that metaflaxus extermination can start. Once
the big nasties (eight in all, unless the hyrascus are left for long enough to
reproduce) are gone, put a weeding post at a safe distance from the metaflaxus
plants - expect the burnflies to destroy a few lights - and station the
commandos to shoot slugs.

Once the enemies are gone, and all the map is lit up (more energy plants will be
needed, and a lot of oxygen plants because of the tourist domes) it's time to
put bio research labs in place to sow much grass, and some patches of GM bamboo.
(I dotted them all over the place only to find that the more there were, the
less they worked. A bug?) By now Billybob should be processing chickens for the
restaurants, and a modest income can be had from selling food and argon gas.
After enough shooting, all the slugs will finally be gone, and the automatic
lasers can be sold, or left as quaint landmarks. Androids can man the labs, but
this mission allows "unlimited" (ie. 50 programs) training, so train some of the
more useless colonists for a job that will get them out of everyone's face.
Bhoomi, useful for prepping medi-bays and thereby raising the hygiene rating,
can be trained to harvest the available pharmaceutical plants; in fact, since
she will be present at the next mission, all her skills can be trained to the
maximum, as the colony should be swimming in money by now.

It is now also time to get the colonists friendly with each other, as Nailer may
have started punching people. Making two colonists fall in love briefly boosts
their productivity. Candy and Slim are a match made in teenybopper heaven,
Babette isn't lying when she tells Greg that they have a lot in common, and
Billybob is blind enough to fall for Tami's charms. Only Nailer and Ashia don't
seem to mix, but they work hard enough by themselves not to need the boost. For
the perfectionists, it's possible to build zoos, art galleries, and a tourist
metropolis; but remember that the mission is over when total tourist
satisfaction is achieved, so delay this by, say, keeping the number of hygiene
pods low. Once the golf course is finished, (or once the facilities in the
tourist area break down and need to be repaired) the tourists will need an
airlock, and so will be able to invade the colonist base, providing a reason to
finish the mission quickly before Nailer attacks them. (He won't do so if kept
happy, though, and otherwise there's always the detention facility.)

However you play, make sure to have a comfortable sum of money and a pile of
argon gas canisters for the next mission. Sell anything that won't fit in the
first warehouse, though, as the next base has only one warehouse and excess
supplies will be lost.


Mission 3: Every Inch Counts
The objective of this mission is to mine 600 units of argon gas. If you can't
meet this objective, the game is open-ended. This small planet was once green,
but volcanic eruptions have made most of its surface lava and destroyed the
original landing pad, so the new one is far from the bridge. Even the Orox
didn't want to stay here. (The map initially had Orox, but they destroyed the
bridge so fast that the mission was unplayable.) Making this planet profitable
is such a challenge that only idealists would undertake it, therefore every
candidate with an ounce of idealism signed on, so now there are too many
colonists to comfortably house.

In this mission, the big enemies are volcanoes and lava. When the mission starts
(you did build up a small fortune in the last mission?) IMMEDIATELY place space
bikes around the landing pad. Otherwise, the colonists will kill themselves
walking across the lava, and the game will end very quickly. Then, make a basic
living dome, and add shields against the volcanic eruptions. Next, place what
warehouses you can (although the map is laid out to make this difficult) and
position automatic laser guns against the lava beetles. (There is an old dogbot
that can also help out.) Let the game run for a bit so they can be supplied with
gas, then place as many lava plants as will fit (for the frustration factor,
there are vents on which a plant can't be placed) to feed the hungry shields.
The first colonists will be Bhoomi, Kita and Hoshi; the rest will arrive a few
days later. Put a RELIABLE character on energy, ie. not Bhoomi unless her energy
skill is at four stars; not until and only as long as energy is supplied, will
the shields work, and I've started one game with placing a space bike that was
instantly destroyed by falling rocks, so that's how vital it is to keep the
shields working. Bhoomi's medical skills will no longer be needed, as Dean is
part of the crew.

With no resources other than argon gas and what the colonists can grow (there
are some metals, but they're in a protected valley where the bots can't come,
nyaah nyaah) making a profit, or just breaking even, is a challenge. The energy
problem can be solved with iridium plants in safe places, if you can afford the
iridium; I advise sticking to lava plants and keeping the engineering repair
facility permanently manned. The few sprigs of giant spineweed can be swiftly
dispatched with cluster bombs. There is lupulus that can't be eradicated, except
with a missile, which will destroy any buildings placed too close; the best
thing is to save up for a missile silo, get rid of the weeds (this may take two
missiles, or three if the weeds grow back faster than the missile restocks) and
sell the silo and start building after they're gone. By using space
economically, small-scale tourism is possible, but don't expect high ratings.
After mining what little iridium there was, I've managed to combine a small
tourist business, a chicken farmer unit and a silicon processing plant, with
Zhang making androids to man all the argon gas rigs that keep the lasers primed.
The grassy valley is accessible by the nutrient harvester's bot, so that's a
good place to seed GM bamboo.
