Comprehensive Manual - Survival Guide: Dust Settles

Survival Guide - Dust Settles: Frequently Asked Questions

Purpose:

This page is intended to go ahead and answer some questions that the admins have either received multiple times or that we have anticipated.

Sign-up and Validation - Recruiting and Exploration - Construction and Staffing - Resources - Research - Battle - Alliance - Focus - SpeedPack - DailyWheel Member Account - Purchasable Items - Miscellaneous

If you are just looking through the FAQs before posting a suggestion, check this list for things we will NOT implement.

How much does it cost to sign up?
It is free. The whole game. Really. We don't mind making money, though. In fact, since the game has grown we offer nifty add-ons for small amounts. These are not essential or even needed for winning. We have had numerous top seat camps that haven't donated a dime and numerous page 3/4/5 camps who have paid $5 or more. In the end these items can help, but they won't come close to winning the game for you.

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My friend told me about this game. How do I add him/her as a referrer?
In order to give your friend credit for referring you to this game, make sure your friend already has an account before you sign up. Get his/her player ID, which can be found at the top of the screen beside his/her camp name. Now remember this number and enter it into the appropriate text box during the sign-up process. Once you reach turn 350, your friend will receive 1 game credit for referring you.

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Do I have to give you an e-mail address?
In order to validate your account and have access to the entire game, yes. You cannot receive an e-mail with a validation code if you do not enter a valid e-mail that belongs to you.

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Do I have to validate?
Unless you want to play the entire game missing out on key features, like alliances, messages, the forums, and certain late-game features, yes, you will have to validate. If you sign up for a DailyWheel account and validate it before signing up for a game account, you will not have to validate separately. Though, if you sign up for a game account before a DailyWheel account, you will have to validate both.

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It's been 2 or more hours since I signed up for the game, and I still haven't received my validation code. What should I do?
People who use a Hotmail e-mail address especially, though Yahoo and Gmail occasionally will catch the e-mail, seem to miss their validation e-mail. Check to see if it went to your spam box by mistake. If it's not there, send GameAdmin an e-mail. Please remember to include your CAMP NAME in the e-mail. We'll get you your validation code ASAP after that.

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What's the difference between choosing ___ class or ___ terrain?
Each class and each terrain has certain advantages and disadvantages in the game. Check Classes for information on the differences between each class and Terrain for the differences in terrain types.

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I sent out 25 people last turn and only found 1 survivor. Is something wrong with recruiting?
No. Recruiting survivors is a very unpredictable, random chance occurrence. More than just the number of people you send out will affect how many you bring back. After all, even if you sent out 100 people, you might only come back with say 3 if the conditions were right (stormy weather, rough terrain, etc.)

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Why can I only send out ___ buses?
There are multiple limitations on the number of buses that you can send out. The most obvious is, of course, how many buses you have. You cannot send out more than you have, nor can you send the same buses for exploring and recruiting. Next, you have a limitation of how many people you are sending. You can only send 1 bus for every 50 people sent exploring or recruiting. Third, you have a limit based on how much gas you currently have in storage. If you don't have enough gas to cover your needs, the total will automatically be adjusted to what you can fuel after you click "now." Along with the gas limit, if your garages are not staffed on the Construct screen, there won't be anyone to put that fuel in the buses. Remember staffing is not the same thing as manning on the Garage page. See the question below for more information on that. Finally your current land size and Vehicle Transport research will limit how many buses you can send out, as well.

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How much land/population/resources should I have at ____ point ?
This is a frequently asked question by new camps that doesn't really have a "good" answer. If you have ended more than 2,000 turns and you have less than 1,000 people, then you're lagging. To give you some ideas to start with, camps with top population and land typically end with around 23 to 25 million total people in their camp (population, army, ops, and officers included) and 23 to 27 million total land. Check the past stats under Total Population, Citizenship, and Land to get some other end-round numbers. Another good practice is to recruit and explore with at least a few people every turn. Recruiting gives you more people to do more things and land from exploration gives you more space to build on, not to mention the fact that as you gain more land you can cover more land while exploring and recruiting to help increase your returns. You can always use the forums, the IRC, private messages, and the player-made wiki to find out more information.

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What are key items and why don't I ever find any?
Key items are an idea that was thought up in the very early days of game development, but not implemented. As time went on the ideas progressed from rewards to be given for different achievements or assistance to items that could be sponsored by companies to many other ideas, but nothing has ever quite been finalized. Currently, you will never see anything but 0 because none have been implemented. When we make a final decision on what to do with them we will announce their implementation or removal as appropriate.

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I just built ___. Why is it not working?
Check on your Construct page to see if it the new buildings are staffed/active. Just about every instance of some building not working is because of a lack of people or power (or some other resource) needed to run the building. Another cause might be a same-turn storm that destroyed a few of that building type, thus causing all to become unstaffed. The unstaffing icon that appears just above the mid-section of your game screen will give you a one-glance notification when something is unstaffed or otherwise inactive.

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Why can't I staff/man my garages?
First off are you having problems staffing your garages or manning them? There is a BIG difference. Garages are staffed through the Construct screen in the big table showing the buildings in your camp. These buildings are manned through the garage page where you set people to construct vehicles. If you cannot staff your garages, make sure you have enough power and free people. If you can't man your garages, make sure all of them are staffed.

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Why do large gens/gas gens/etc. appear before I can build them?
These items will appear in the Your Buildings Table to give you (and especially new players) an idea of what you can expect to find in the game as you progress. Instead of only showing you some 14 buildings to start with. All possible buildings are visible so you can see what's there and note any buildings that you definitely want to check out and possibly open later.

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Why did my construction workers skip over the 5 medical facilities left in the queue to build 6 light posts?
In order to avoid wasted workers during any given day, the construction queue will skip any leftover items in a queue that they could not complete in a day and will work on whatever they can in following queues. For example, in the question, each medical facility takes 16 workers to complete in a day. So, enough workers were assigned to build all but 5 of the medical facilities in one day with 6 workers left over. Since they can't build the next medical facility in one day, they go on to the next thing in the queue that they can, in this case lights which only take 1 worker apiece.

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Can I make my own disposables/building supplies/power/etc?
You can make most of resources through your own camp. Check Consumable Resources for food, disposables, building supplies, and gas. Check Non-consumable Resources for power and Advanced Resources for ores.

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I've been exploring for ___ turns now and still haven't found any ore deposits. OR I have ___ total land and still haven't found an ore deposit. Is this normal?
Ore is very difficult to find in general. The first thing you should look at is what terrain type you are on. If you are on city, then you should be prepared to have a hard time finding any ore deposits. Not being on city, though, does not mean you have run across an error. Before you can find any ore deposits, your explorers must be able to search enough land during their trip to justify looking for a deposit. If they don't cover enough, they won't even look. Even if they cover enough land to justify a search, you only have a small chance adjusted by any terrain bonuses or deficits, thus you still probably won't find any. Just to give you an example, one camp in the city did not find a single mine until he reached 72,000 total land units. It happens. Just be patient and keep looking. In the meantime you can always purchase ore off the Trade Market or from a merchant camp.

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Do I have to search for anything specific in order to find ore deposits?
No. Any time you send out explorers, if they are able to cover an appropriate amount of land in their search, then they will perform a quick look for ore deposits. If they don't cover enough land, they won't even look. You can improve your chances by searching for land specifically.

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How do I open ___?
The two main places you should look to find out what research combinations allow you to open specific buildings, research topics, or other things you might want/need are the Basic Research page and the Advanced Research page. There are a few charts in those pages in yellow showing you the combinations and totals needed for anything that you can open.

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I have ___ number of labs and I'm barely going up .002 each turn. Why is it so slow?
First, make sure all of those labs are staffed through the Construct page. Now, if you are still getting slow returns look at both your total number of labs and your total amount of research. Fewer labs means slower research. More overall research means slower new research. Also the total amount of research done on that specific topic will slow your research speed, so a topic that you are attempting to get a mastery in will increase more slowly than a topic that you have very little research in. Advanced research does count into the total research. Also be sure to remember that you have a decreased research speed if you are Popular.

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How many labs should I have for ____ land/population/turns used/etc?
This is a question that often comes up in the minds of newer players. While there is no definite answer, having over 100K labs at the end of the round is not uncommon. This doesn't mean that you necessarily need that much, but more labs will always mean more research. You just have to balance the amount of research you gain with what else you could use those people for. We have had people go for 2 to 3 million staffed labs by round's end, but this is not for everybody. The best advice is to start as early as you feel comfortable with at the beginning of the round and build up as much as you can at first without killing yourself. Once you're decently self-sufficient (whatever that might mean for you) or at least comfortable and ready to expand in other areas, start allocating your resources towards other goals. You can always turn to the forums, private messages to other players, the IRC chat, and the player-edited wiki for more advice.

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Can I improve my duster efficiency?
No. Dusters are currently not linked to any research topic that will directly increase their efficiency. Power generation research and mastery can help you build more with less generator construction, but will have no direct effect.

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What is the point of battle?
Primarily to gain score. Battle will give you victory score based on 1. your opponent's score and 2. the amount of troops (and mechs if applicable) that you lose. You will receive a base victory score based on a percentage (up to a certain max.) of your opponent's score, so the larger their score, the more score you can win. Also you will gain a score equal to the amount of points that you lost due to troops and mech losses. Beyond gaining score from victories, your opponent (or you if you lose) will lose a score based on a percentage of the winner's score pre-attack. Beyond just gaining score, you will be causing damage to your opponent helping him/her to lose other score as well and setting them back a bit as they have to rebuild. In the end this is a PvP game where the primary goal is to gain 1st place in score. Battle acts as another means to help get you there.

Population and land theft during battle will NOT be implemented. There are multiple reasons for this ranging from balance issues to conflicts with reality to coding difficulties. These topics, among others are not up for further discussion and argument.

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Why can't I steal land or population in battle?
Population and land theft during battle will NOT be implemented. There are multiple reasons for this ranging from balance issues (ex: what kind of limits should exist to make it worthwhile without killing the defender) to conflicts with reality (ex: why would people ripped from their homes happily begin working in your camp or how can you protect land that is 3 days away from your camp) to coding difficulties (ex: if more land is stolen than the camp has available, what happens to the buildings/nukes/etc that are on it). The examples in parentheses are just a few of the problems that have been brought up in discussions among the admins and in conversations on the forums, IRC, etc. We want you to have some understanding of why these won't be implemented, which is why we explain things or offer examples, but for topics listed here, we do not want or need any more arguments, pleadings, justifications, work-arounds, etc. nor will we accept any more.

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Why didn't any of my soldiers pick up a single weapon?
Most likely because you didn't assign them. Because of the number of different weapons and the different roles they play in battle, there is no way we could create a system to automatically assign weapons for you to act as a backup in case you forget (after all assigning all tanks first might not be useful if the attacker decided to expect this and brought a heavy recoilless rifle contingent). (Suggestions of how we could do this aren't needed.) Be sure to set up an appropriate defense configuration using your Defense page and update it as needed when you add new troops, send or return from an attack, or any other time you want or need to update things a bit.

A second reason that your army might not have picked up any weapons is the possibility that you didn't have any at the time of the attack. For example, they may have been destroyed in a previous attack or may have been assigned for an attack on another camp and thus not been in your camp.

A third possibility is the fact that you could be referring to your militia instead of your army. Militia will automatically pick up weapons, but ONLY close range (they can have automatic assignment because they pick up 1 class and all weapons in that class are in essence just improved versions). If you have no close combat weapons in storage (swords, pistols, or shock pistols), then your militia will have no weapons to fight with and will fight unarmed.

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Why can't I assign weapons for defense, the button never seems to be active?
The primary reason people have a problem assigning weapons for defense (the only weapons your army will use if your camp is attacked) is that they try to assign more than one weapon per army unit. You can assign any combination of weapons for your army to use to defend you camp, IF you assign no more weapons than you have army and if those weapons are currently available in storage. This means that you could assign 50 swords and 50 bows for a 100 person army, but not 51 swords and 50 bows. You will also not be able to assign 50 swords to your army if you only have 49 in storage. The weapons in your storage will ONLY be used by your militia in the event of an attack. Also remember to take into account the fact that heavy weapons and most vehicles have a multi-unit crew. If you are assigning these, you will have to keep in mind the crew requirements as you are setting up your defenses.

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Why can't I send my militia to attack another camp?
Militia are civilians given a very basic training on how to properly keep a lookout for approaching forces and infiltrations and how to use basic weaponry. These people are kept on constant notice to act as the last line of defense against an invading army if the home army fails or is away. Militia serve as your camp's defense. They are not trained to attack another camp and would be slaughtered by the defending camp's defenses with their poor training. You will use army and special ops to attack other camps.

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My military far outnumbered ________'s, yet he still beat me. I think battle's broken.
There are a large number of factors beyond shear numbers that go into battle calculations. Things like levels of research, weaponry, and army competency can cause a much larger camp to be beaten by a smaller one if the larger one cannot match up. If you are still having doubts, give an admin a message with your battle results.

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I killed all of ____'s army after they go into the walls. Why did I lose?
In a military battle, if the attacking army is able to defeat your entire defending army and break into your walls it is considered a victory. At this point, whether they are killed before they leave your camp or not, they have entered your camp and have the ability to begin destroying buildings and killing citizens. This is enough to meet what the attacking camp wanted to do at the base level, thus resulting in a win for the attacker.

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Why can't I build weapons?
First, check to make sure you have done enough Weapon Design research. To even build swords and bows, you will have to research this topic to at least 10 to gain the ability to make them in your barracks. Next, make sure your barracks are staffed with 1 civilian and fully quartered with 50 non-officer troops. Even 1 officer in a barracks will cause it to not produce (officers don't build weapons). Third make sure you haven't assigned more weapons for production than your barracks can actually produce. This will halt all production. Finally, make sure you aren't trying to produce ranged fire weapons (bows, rifles, rails) while you have a minting license. Part of having that license is the agreement that you cannot produce offensive weaponry, only defensive.

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How can I have more than 10 people in my alliance?
There is no way to have an alliance with all the benefits that come with one that has more than 10 people. That is a coded limit. Now, people will mention mega-alliances and the like where 40 to 50 people banded together against someone or made attacking more difficult for all, but those were merely meta-game style politics and the assigning of friend alliances. It has happened before and might happen again, but these people only get the "benefit" of fewer attacks (the quotes are because this can also be a curse in the sense that you won't have as many targets since friend alliances usually forbid attacks on one another). There have also been a few sub or secondary alliances made. These in a similar fashion, are times when a person invites a decently large group of friends to play and can't fit them all in one alliance or an alliance becomes popular enough that not all of the people who want to join can fit in one. Once again, these alliances can only set themselves as friends and will not share any of the alliance specific benefits (like shared masteries).

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How can I limit or diminish the damage caused by the raiders attacking my alliance aid caravans?
Random marauders will always have a comparable number of troops to the units in your alliance escort pool, though their numbers will usually be larger. Also, they will have comparable weaponry, with the exception of mechs. If you want to improve your chances against the raiders, keep a well-supplied army (especially using mechs) or set an alliance as your foe. Foe alliances might have a larger escort army than yours and even possibly better weapons, but they will give up on the raid faster than the random marauders, thus possibly saving you from a round or two of battle.

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How can I reserve my camp name?
If you want to reserve your camp name so that no one else can grab it at the start of the next round, then you need to have a DailyWheel member account and link it. DailyWheel accounts are free and are easy to sign up for. On the main login screen you can click the Sign Up link on the Members bar at the top of the page or the link in the blue box on the right side. Once you have signed up for and validated your account, you can link a current camp through your member's page.

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What happens if no one builds any nukes?
There have been multiple ideas tossed about how to deal with this "issue." These ideas range from the NEC deciding to end the world to an admin flipping out to an alternate focus based end. For now, the actual answer is still a secret. We haven't yet had a round where no one went nuke, and only when we do will this actually become a reality.

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Why is the Weapon Design requirement for building mechs lower that the requirements to open the focus path?
The original idea and stats for mechs was created before they were linked as being one of the military path's specific benefits. Once it was decided that the military path should get the sole ability to produce mechs, it was just never adjusted. Overall, you can't build mechs without being set on the military path so the working requirement is 40 in WD.

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I have people assigned to work on my nukes/gold/etc. Why am I seeing no progress?
Assuming that you've checked to make sure that the people are still assigned properly (these workers will be among the first unstaffed when you have a shortage), check to see where your morale is. If your morale is below Fair, then you will not be able to build any focus-related items.

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I just downloaded the SpeedPack, so why is it not showing the Speed Friendly icon beside my name?
Once you download the files, you have at least one more step before you've fully activated the benefits of the SpeedPack. First, you must activate the SpeedPack in your profile. When you visit your own profile, look for the last set of options on the darker green background. Click the radial button beside the appropriate operating system and click update. This will swap your account from calling the images from the server to calling them from your computer and will put the Speed Friendly icon beside your name on the stats page. Depending on what browser you're using, you could now see a number of broken images. If you are using FireFox, check the explanation on this page to get things fixed. If you are having trouble finding the Application Data folder or are not using Windows 2000 or XP/Vista check this question. If you are using FireFox and NoScript, see this fix to get both the in-game JavaScript and the SpeedPack to work. If you are using IE7, you will need to set DailyWheel as a trusted site, click this link to find out some basics about setting this.

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I've downloaded and activated the SpeedPack in my profile, but the images are all broken in FireFox. How can I fix it?
FireFox has certain security settings that will not, by default, allow a page to call local files. You can set preferences that will allow certain sites (such as DailyWheel) to load local files. To do this, you will need to create a user.js file that will include your "trusted" sites and upload it to your FireFox profile folder. Please see this for a detailed explanation of how to set this up.

If you are having problems finding the Application Data folder or are using an OS other than Windows 2000 or XP/Vista, see the question below or the information at the bottom of the explanation on setting up the user.js. If you use NoScript, setting up the SpeedPack to work will cause some JavaScript problems, even if you have already set DailyWheel as allowed for JS. To make sure both the SpeedPack and JavaScript will work, follow these steps.

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Where is the Application Data folder?
If you are using Windows 2000 or XP/Vista (possibly for earlier versions as well) make sure you are able to see hidden folders. If you do not have your windows set up to show hidden folders, then Application Data will be invisible. If you do not know how to set your computer to show hidden files, follow these instructions.

First open a standard window like the "My Computer" folder. Next click Tools in the main bar. Click Folder Options to open a new window. Click the View tab and look through the options until you see a folder (usually the first subfolder) that says "Hidden files and folders" beside it. Make sure the "Show hidden files and folders" option is selected. Click OK. You should now be able to see the Application Data folder.

Note: Because the folder where the user.js file belongs is hidden, you will not be able to save directly to that folder. Instead save the file to your desktop or another easily accessible folder and copy or move the file to the randomly named folder inside the Profiles folder after saving.

Now for the actual path to the profile folder where you will copy the user.js file to (as found at http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/edit#profile):

On Windows XP/2000 - C:\Documents and Settings \ [User Name] \Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[random file name].default
On Windows 95/98/Me - C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[random file name].default
On Linux - -/.mozilla/firefox/[random file name].default
On Mac OS X - -/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/[random file name].default

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I'm using IE7 and the SpeedPack images are all broken. How do I get them to work?
With some of the new security settings that came with IE7, your browser will not, by default, be allowed to call local files (it's a phishing preventative). To get the SpeedPack to work, you will need to set DailyWheel as a "Trusted" site, allowing your account to call the images that come in the download. You will need to set this in the Security Internet Options. More information about setting this up properly can be found here.

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I bought some dollar credits, but they're not showing up on my account. How long does it take to get them?
As long as you've followed all of the directions, then they should show up instantly. There are really only 2 times that they don't if you've actually paid the money (a.k.a. your card wasn't rejected or something). First, when you enter the information needed to pay for the credits, you should have seen a link saying "Return to Merchant" on the next page. If you did not click this link, the information needed for our sever to automatically update your account with your new credits never got sent. Second, did you change your PlayerID in the box showing your PlayerID during checkout? Your ID can be found at the top of your screen in the parentheses beside you camp name as well as the page where you clicked to purchase credits. If you changed this number or you entered more than this number (i.e. your camp name, login name, etc.), then the server can't apply the credits to your camp. Also if you changed the number, there's a high chance that someone else got your credits.

Now if you didn't get your credits appropriately, send an e-mail or private message to GameAdmin. Though it may take some time, he can check the PayPal account to see what was donated and to make sure your account wasn't properly credited. If everything checks out, we can fix it.

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Do I get to keep my spy/scribe/other purchases next round?
No, at least nothing more than unused dollar credits will roll-over and only then if you have your current camp name linked to a DailyWheel account. Spies, scribes, and CEPs are one-round items and will not roll over to any following rounds. If you want a spy for next round, pay for one then or save enough dollar credits to buy one and make sure your camp name is linked to a DailyWheel account.

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Can I buy more turns?
No. While the idea of offering turns for purchase seems quite appealing to many people, in the end buying more turns would give a person with the ability to spend a large amount of money a significant and unfair advantage against someone who couldn't afford to buy even one turn (or someone who just didn't want to). In the end this is a free game. We offer small items for purchase to help pay for hosting costs and the costs of advertising (we have to keep increasing the number of people playing somehow), but none of these items will actually give a person the kind of advantage that would really be unfair to someone who didn't want to or couldn't pay.

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Why should I get a DailyWheel account?
There are many reasons to get a DailyWheel account. First, you can link an existing or created camp name to your account to reserve it for your use. Second, this account provides a stable place that doesn't get wiped between rounds so that you can keep trophies earned over multiple rounds. Third, you will gain access to the DailyWheel forums and member's blog area where you can post and blog without fear of it being lost after a round ends. You will be able to use your DailyWheel account to link names for other games as well and may need this account to access certain features of future games. Also if you purchase in-game credits and don't use them all in a single round, those credits will roll-over to the next round ONLY if you have a DailyWheel account connected to your camp.

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I earned ___ trophy last round. Why is it not showing up?
How long ago did the round end? If it only ended a few minutes or hours ago, then we may not have had the chance to link it to your account, yet so be patient. If this is well after one round ended and you can see other people with trophies from that same round, then you probably didn't have a DailyWheel account linked to your camp name. We will not go back and add trophies that you earned in previous rounds, so if you want any trophies linked, make sure you have a linked DailyWheel account.

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I really messed up. Can I restart this camp or create a new one?
Sure. Just go to your Camp Setup page, linked in the left-hand column on the game screen. In this screen you will see two options. The first option will allow you to change your terrain within the first 9 turns. The second option will allow you to kill your current camp and set things up so that you can start a new one. You will need to make sure that both checkboxes are selected and then click the button. Once you've done this, there will be no going back. Your camp will be dead and you will not be able to log in again. You will be able to go to the sign-up screen and create a new camp, though.

If you are killed during the round by some other force, you can restart as a new camp if you'd like, just send an e-mail to GameAdmin@DailyWheel.com with two pieces of information. First we will need your camp name. Second we will need your IP address. You can find this by going to the sign-up screen and clicking to create a new camp. You will receive a warning telling you that multi's are not allowed. Within this message, you will find "(acct: xx.xx.xx.xx)." This number is your IP address. Be sure to e-mail us using the address that you signed up with. This will allow us to verify that you are the person requesting this.

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Where can I go for strategy advice?
There are multiple places to look for strategy advice. Between alliances, the forums, the IRC, and private messages, you have many in-game locations to look. There is also a player-run wiki that you can go to for strategies that do and don't work. If you want to edit the wiki, look to the forums, admins, and even the news or another in-game source for the password.

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Can you add buying/selling population/buildings/defensive structures/power/land/something-else-I-can't-currently?
No. Each of these fall into our list of rejected ideas. Like with theft of land or population sales of these things have their own realism and coding problems not to mention the fact that sales of people, no matter what you want to call it is slavery. Buildings and defensive structures are too immobile to be traded and power, beyond the easily destroyed/damaged infrastructure that would be required to run power lines from your camp to a camp 3 days travel away, is too easy to produce, especially late round.

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I just got hit by ___ storms in a row. Are storms broken?
No. Different terrain types have different storm severities, which means a rating of "high severity" indicates that your camp will see more severe and damaging storms on average than camps on other terrain types. Beyond this, storms are based on a random chance. This random chance is generated by a random number generator. This means that you may get a lucky roll for some 10 -15 turns and not see a single turn and then you might get hit with 5-8 or more storms in a row.

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Have you guys considered adding birth rates to the game to increase population?
Yes, we have. This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions/requested changes. The only problem is that with the game lasting 28 days, the initial number of turns you get and the number of turns that you can possibly get during the game, there is only the possibility of your camp experiencing some 3,988 days (4,088 with mastery) during any given round. This is only about 11.6 years. When you think about the fact that even if your entire camp at the very beginning of the round is made up of very pregnant women, the children born would only be barely close to being of age to work by the end of the round. In the meantime, you would have all of those extra people to feed that could produce nothing. When you also consider births mid-round where a pregnancy lasts 9 months in and of itself, you would end up with a lot of extra people in your population, but none of them useful. In the end we replaced births with random survivors wandering into your camp. You get similar results (sudden population increase from a source other than recruiting) with better effects (people of age to work). This suggestion is among a small list of ideas that have been rejected for one reason or another and do not need any more discussion. Check here if you are curious about others.

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You know, this is the apocalypse, could we have zombies/mutants because of the radiation?
There will never be permanent zombies or mutants in this game. We're not interested in following that relatively remote possibility here, though we reserve the right to use interesting or off the wall style subjects and inclusions for special occasions.

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Are the admins all the same person?
No. This is another question that has been asked frequently. Each of these admins are very different people. GameAdmin (Robert) is the person who originally came up with the concept of this game and is the primary creator. Nupsiphi (Richard) has been doing a great deal of work on the game along the way as the secondary coder. Valhalla (Valerie/Val) has been acting as an admin since the game was in beta. The O RLY Factor (Zack) was a top seat player for many rounds who now spends his time as an admin. If you're interested in any more information about these people, you can visit the DailyWheel Members List to view their profiles (Valhalla, GameAdmin, Nupsiphi, and O RLY).

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Do you guys have any other games?
At the moment, we only have Survival Guide: Dust Settles and the mini-game inside the game. We do have a number of other ideas for more games that we want to create in the future. We have game ideas that will stick to the Survival Guide theme, surviving something major that changes the course of history, and some that will be very different. All of our games will be produced through the Parallel Game Studios and any related games will have the SG Universe labeling. Who knows? In a couple of years you could be playing an SG Universe game on your favorite home console. Keep your eyes open for announcements.

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When I try click/log-in/etc, it tells me that I've been banned! What happened?
Most likely, everyone has been temporarily banned while we are updating something. Generally, any mid-round updates will occur on Sunday evenings at around 10 pm EST (though this may change due to delays in coding, etc.) You should have seen a news update reminding you of this (and alerting you if the update has been put off a day or something) and even a Message of the Day if you were online when we gave a warning about it. A couple of times, we have had to ban everyone for a bit after a server problem so we could check entries and make sure nothing was corrupted or lost. This is usually announced on the main page or at the least in the IRC.

If you have seen no such announcement, check your e-mail to see if you have received a message explaining why you were banned. When we ban a player, we always send an e-mail explaining why and for how long. These reasons and the duration are not up for argument. Be sure to check your spam box as well since some spam filters get a bit overzealous about filtering out messages from our server (due to the automatic validation codes sent at sign-up). Obviously if you put in a fake e-mail account, you will not receive this message, though your account will still be banned if earned.

If you still cannot figure out why your account has been banned, check the IRC to see if you're the only one and e-mail us if all else fails. We will tell you why, whether it's a true account ban or just a temporary one while we update/fix something.

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What does a 901/903/904 error mean?
Each of these errors involves a problem with your cookies. 901 errors mean your browser is having trouble writing cookies, and generally appears when you double-click or click on another link while a page is still loading. 903 errors occur when you cookies don't match (generally only found when you've actually edited them yourself). 904 errors happen when your cookies can't be read, generally because your cookies are not turned on. Depending on the cause of the error, the solution could be as simple as logging back in and avoiding the previous mistake (as with a 901 or 903) or you could have to make some changes to your browser configurations. If you are getting a 904 error, you'll need to turn on cookies for your browser before logging back in to get the game to work for you.

One of the few other times that you might get a 900 error is if you've recently run out of memory for your browser. In this case deleting temp files, cookies, and form data will usually fix it, unless you're seriously low on overall hard drive space. Be sure to include the form data as well when reclaiming some of that space. Browsers like FireFox and IE7 will store form entries to offer as suggestions later, and with a game like this one where you're entering in numbers frequently, clearing those old numbers can free up quite a bit of space.

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Game Overview +/-

Getting Started +/-

Units and Resources +/-

The Main Game Screen +/-

Camp Activities+/-

Research +/-

Economy +/-

Attacking a Camp +/-

Alliances +/-

Focus Paths +/-

Camp Information +/-

In-Game Communications +/-

Extras +/-

Newbie Guide!
FAQs
Downloadable PDF Version