ThreeTimesNone spoiler file

This campaign consists of a string of missions spread over three planets. Most
don't have deadlines, so there's plenty of time to study, which will come in
handy when suddenly a deadline does pop up.


Planet 1: huge, but no space

The first planet has seen some volcanic activity in the past, judging from its
long canyons and valleys, but is relatively stable now. Despite being huge, it
is designed to allow space for three medium domes (two of which will be taken up
by a chicken farm and a tourist port) and lots of little ones dotted all over
the landscape.

The base is a bare bridge: no power source, no oxygent plant, not even a way to
enter the bridge. There is a warehouse, with some silicon and electronics to
imply how the last colonists made money. Sell the electronics to buy an airlock,
solar panels, an oxygen plant and two weeding posts so Kita and Hoshi can start
weeding. Bhoomi and Dean should immediately go to the oxygen and power desk.

Start weeding just behind the bridge to make room for two small bio domes and a
medium one to put a few living essentials in. The first volcanic vent is just to
the east of the base, the second is far to the east near another marker. (The
third, on an island, is unusable.) The markers, as well as the lupulus, are a
free source of weak light. There are a number of solar flares during the first
mission, but they stop after a while, so either the mission can be finished very
quickly to spare the power sources (lava plants and even volcanic vents can be
destroyed by solar flares) or the colonists can weather the flares and then use
the steady influx of credits to finish the weeding, light up the whole surface,
build as much as possible, including a chicken farm and some tourist buildings,
and have the colonists use up all training slots in the library, since a
training pod won't become available until just before the colonists leave.

After that, solar flares will only happen if the happiness level drops too low.

At the end of each mission, the colony gets 10% of its value and funds combined
to start the next mission with, so the more money is invested in buildings at
a mission's end, the more the colonists receive when the next mission starts.
Funding will be gradually cut, so it's best to invest while the money is still
there.

Once enough argon is mined, the remaining colonists will arrive. This will be
the team for the rest of the campaign.

There is very little warehouse space, and silicon can't be sold yet, so, to
empty part of the warehouse for argon mining, put down two electronics
fabricators in places where they won't obstruct later building, and the silicon
will be transported there. This is another mission with no time limit, so
collect the incoming money and do lots of library training, tedious though it
is. If Charles, the quick walker, is trained to four stars in cleaning, he'll
stand a good chance of keeping the many bits of base clean, while Kita and
Hoshi, the fast learners, should concentrate on electronics fabrication,
cylincsus harvesting, and scavenging; over the course of the missions, they must
have four stars in at least cylincsus harvesting. Bhoomi, the slowest learner,
is best off training up to the maximum in power and oxygen in her spare time;
this may take the entire length of the stay on this planet.

Part of what gets in the way of building is the cylincsus that the planet is
choking in, so the third mission allows the removal of a fixed amount of
cylincsus, just enough to make space for three more warehouses. Make sure that
the cylincsus is only being harvested from the area where the new warehouses
have to be placed, and sell whatever is harvested, as it can't be sold in the
next mission, and will use up valuable warehouse space until either the
warehouse under it is sold, or dot the landscape with small bio domes, put medi
bays in those domes and let the warehouse droids put parmaceuticals on them.
(This will have to be done later anyway, to get tourist ratings up.) As there
will be intensive cylincsus harvesting later, have three small bio domes added
onto the base for cylincsus-harvesting machines (hint: a library will fit right
next to them). For an example of how to construct and furnish the base, see the
included screenshot, ThreeTimesNone-1stplanet.jpg.

After that, it's time to start attracting tourists. Funding will be gradually
cut with each mission until no more money comes in, so as well as the three
tourist hotels (which will have to be fitted into available open spots and thus
will be connected to the tourist port with very long, winding corridors), have
Kita and Hoshi make electronics (while still training their skills) while
Charles and Vasilios mine argon. Alternatively, have Vasilios, the colonist that
works the longest hours, train to the maximum in nutrient harvesting while
Charles mines. Since the colony has to become self-sufficient, foodstuff will
soon no longer be for sale, so find room for a chicken farm, train Bhoomi for it
(only basic training is needed to produce chicken fast enough to keep the
restaurant supplied) while Nikolai or someone else reliable minds power and
oxygen, as these will drop quickly with all those hotels. Dean should train to
maximum in all skills related to medicine, and optionally in power, oxygen, and
outdoor repair; any activites that can be combined with frequently re-equipping
medi bays, which is what he'll be doing a lot of on the third planet.

How to deal with tourists: don't put in any airlocks that will let them escape
and enter the colonist base. Their rating depends on what objects are present,
not what objects they can reach, so fill up all the empty spots in the map with
small bio domes, without airlocks (so they won't get dirty and Charles won't
walk for miles around to clean them) containing luxury bars, restaurants,
personal hygiene pods, medi bays and fun objects to boost those stars. The fun
rating doesn't have to be ten stars yet, that will be taken care of in the next
mission when the golf course is added. If there is time before all the mission
objectives are met, start seeding a clump of GM bamboo and training Nikolai in
cybernetics.

An enormous amount of money should now be coming in from tourism, which will
mostly be grabbed by Blackwater at the mission's end, so to keep some of it for
a good start to the next mission, find spots where expensive buildings or
furnishings will fit, buy those just before the mission's end and sell them
again at the start of the next mission, when they are only slightly devalued.

Now comes a mission with a very tight deadline! A lot of cylincsus has to be
harvested in two weeks, and it takes three or four maximally trained colonists,
working round the clock, to do it. To keep production going non-stop, have the
harvesters attend to their needs while the little rocket is out collecting, so
they can be back at their post when it returns to pour out its black glop. A
good place to start harvesting is behind the base, to make room for another
small bio dome that will hold a training pod, once that becomes available. The
pharmaceuticals will sell for a high price at first, but the price soon drops,
so sell fast.

During the next mission, which is about mining a lot of nutrients, have all the
colonists become friends if possible, and stockpile up to 10 units of
electronics for future androids, and some nutrients, because the next mission is
another hectic one. Suddenly, the planet has to be mined dry of all mineral
resources! Yeah, right. The only way to win here is to cheat.

First, mine all the iridium. There have to be 20 units stockpiled, and there are
21 crystals. Then, put out three iron miners. Then, buy a training pod and train
three colonists in mining and optionally, one in cybernetics, and generally use
up all training programs, after which the training pod can be sold to make room
for a cybernetics lab. Meanwhile, three highly trained miners are of course
getting rid of the iron. The bottleneck is the small amount of warehouses, which
may not be able to handle such a high production. Only once the iron target is
met, which should be close to the deadline, start on the silicon. Or, better
yet, since the tourists are bringing in so much money, buy lots of silicon and
sell it again. This isn't possible with iron but it is with silicon, which,
after all, had to be bought before it could be mined in order to fabricate
electronics, and as the target is to sell rather than mine the silicon, it
doesn't matter whether you mine or buy it.

During the last mission, as well as making friends with everyone and leaving the
base clean, stockpile as much nutrients and chicken as you can, or the first
mission on the next planet will be a slow and painful one. Hopefully Charles or
someone was trained to four stars in cleaning prior to this mission, or this
sprawl of a base will never become spotless.


Planet 2: space, but no food

This planet has seen volcanic activity very recently, making everything red and
barren except for a sealed-off corner protected by a canyon. The pyrocyns are
very pretty, but a liability when it comes to tourism, which is the only thing
this planet is good for, as it has no mineral resources, the food that grows
there is not deemed fit for export, and importing food to this remote planet is
very expensive. Get ready for grumbling tummies.

First, the colonists have to harvest and sell hydromorphus. A planetary scan
shows that there is enough to meet the target AND feed the colonists, but
fiddlesticks, most of it is in that sealed-off canyon and can't be harvested. So
wait 28 days for a bio lab to become available (this isn't announced, so keep an
eye on the date) and if you have some chicken, get a chicken restaurant to stop
the colonists eating the precious green glop. Or, if you have 50 units of glop
ready, sell them all - but pass up the 50 training slots and the bio lab, which
will not become available again until later. The best thing is to have enough
nutrients ready, but let them sit until you've bought bio labs and nutrient
harvesters (neither will be available in the next mission), and used up all the
training slots, then sell the lot.

It is also a good idea to buy a chicken farm while it's still available, as
chicken and nutrient prices (and that means buying prices) are sky-high.

The second mission seems easy - make friends and get the base habitable - but is
again an invaluable if tedious opportunity to train all colonists, especially in
electronics. Spend whatever money is left at the end of the mission on silicon,
by way of raw material.

From now on, the colonists will make lots and lots and lots of electronics.
While doing this, they will also have to run a tourist operation. Part of the
tourist operation will be the obligatory golf course, so if you did get the bio
labs, start the slow job of greening the planet's surface now. In the mission
which requires a golf course, if you didn't have a bio lab yet, bio labs will
become available as soon as the credit balance is at 100000. This, again, is not
announced, so keep an eye on the available buildings.

The previous campaign should have been good practice in how to boost tourist
ratings and avoid being inconvenienced by said tourists, however... the last
target in the tourist operation is attracting 30 of them at a time, which will
unleash an earthquake and meteor showers. So as soon as that target is met, sell
off a number of items that boost the tourist rating until it's down to 7 or 8
stars, which is good for a regular arrival of 20 to 25 tourists. (Also, keep the
base clean to avoid the rodent investations and disease associated with these
tourists.) The money that these tourists bring in should be immediately spent on
more silicon, or iridium; ideally, there should be 240 units of iridium to take
to the next planet.

The last mission on the red planet is again a resting and recovering mission to
prepare for the final destination: a scenic little green hell.


Planet 3: food, but no safety

What a lovely, lush, fertile, green little planet this is! The environmentalists
agree, and have fenced off parts of it so the horrible colonists don't
exterminate all native life, as they so often do. What grows in these little
nature reserves, stays there; but they regularly unleash pests, both harmless
and dangerous, every few days, and the invasions become worse with every
mission.

You did bring 240 units of iridium from the last planet? Only iridium can power
all the high-power force field posts (don't bother with ordinary ones) and
automatic lasers and other weaponry that will keep the colonists safe and mostly
undistracted. It's also good for making androids. Finally, a stockpile of
iridium can be sold quickly to end a mission, because from now on, the missions
will be almost exclusively about money.

But, to start: there are nasties and they need to be killed NOW. Put some
instantly active weaponry - hoverbombs, sentinels - near the gorilloid, rock
hopper queens and eggs. Surround the protean worm (you don't want that thing
near the base!) with force field posts, adding more as they are destroyed; it
will kill itself bit by bit from contact with the force fields. Quickly scavenge
what iridium there is (and a raptor egg or two), then put in as many argon
miners as will fit, around four electronics fabricators, and a bio lab, nutrient
harvester and chicken farming unit for food. Next, expand the base, add an
engineering repair facility or two, toss out any surviving hoverbomb
installations and tightly surround the nature reserves with high-power force
field posts and automatic lasers, which will be automatically supplied with
argon gas as it is mined.

If you don't have any yet, the second mission will urge you to put in some medi
bays and stockpile all the cylincsus you can harvest, because every mission
starts with a rodent infestation, and the rodents carry a deadly disease. A
cybernetics lab is also needed - see ThreeTimesNone-3rdplanet.jpg for an example
screenshot of the base layout - because apart from electronics, the only
resources available (argon gas, nutrients, chicken) don't bring in a lot of
money, so lots of helping hands are needed to meet each mission's ridiculously
high target, a credit balance of ultimately 100000, especially when invading
monsters keep breaking stuff, necessitating expensive replacement. Don't let
colonists waste their time manning lasers, unless you're really swimming in
android labour; surround the nature reserves with military robots, and be
prepared to lose a couple.

When the message is heard that the target is met, rather than losing all that
money, quickly pause the game and buy as much iridium and silicon as will fit on
the warehouses (add a few if there's room); the silicon will be converted to
electronics and the iridium can be sold again to shorten the time needed to
reach the target. In particular, store more than 100 units of iridium for the
last mission.

In the very last mission of the campaign, you are expected to attain a credit
balance of 100000 in a week; okay, in ten days, but after a week, in addition to
the burnflies and gorilloids and mechanoids and orox (the other pests are
effortlessly dispatched by the military robots) the environmentalists will
unleash death angels. All this stress can be avoided by saving up 100 units of
iridium and selling them all at the beginning of this mission. Well done! Now
you can all go home.