Survival Guide - Dust Settles' Main Screen: The Top Bar

Table of Contents:

Purpose:

The top bar on the main screen is where most of your major counters, displays, and basic camp information can be found. The information contained on the top bar is generally considered to be some of the most important information that you will be dealing with throughout the game. Many of these displays will be useful every turn.

Depending on your class and the season, the main person on the left and the overall color scheme could be different, but the layout will be the same no matter what.

After you end a turn, this bar will move down and your initial end-turn display will be shown above this. The top bar will return to its top position after you click the link for the main page again or for another page. The top bar will remain at the top of the page throughout the entire game and will continue to show the same information.

Note: The values on this page are from Valhalla's account during an earlier round. All of the images are up to date, but there may be some things that seem inconsistent with reality while you are playing. Valhalla is one of the primary game admins and admin accounts are often used as test subjects during rounds to make sure that nothing is going wrong or to check out an error report for repeatability. As such, admins often have artificially inflated or deflated scores and usually don't get to really play the game.

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Basic Camp Info:

At the top of this part of your screen, you will see the image that represents whatever class you have chosen for the round. In this instance, the admin, Valhalla was a Scout. The color scheme of this main image and the entire page will change depending on the season. Beside the image of the Scout, you can see your camp name, player ID, and what class you are. To the right of this is the Survival Guide logo and version number. Overall, this part of the top bar is as much for looks as information.

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Server Time and Sr-90 Displays:

At the top right corner of this image, you will see one or two large ovals. The first oval shows the current server time (which is Eastern Standard or Daylight Time depending on the time of the year), so that you can always have an idea of what time it is according to our server. The second oval may or may not be visible, depending on whether or not you have a weather station constructed. This is the Strontium-90 (Sr-90) fallout display. Once your weather station is up and running, you will be able to keep track of how high or low the radiation levels are so that you can better know why so many pop are being lost to radiation and so that you can judge whether or not you might want to build some dusters.

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Logout Button:

If you decide that closing your browser window is just not enough of a disconnect or if you want to change to a different camp without having to close that browser window, then you can click the Logout button found on the very right of this top image. This will instantly clear your login cookie. You will still be shown as active for 15 minutes because we only log recent activity. This means that if you have clicked a page in the last 15 minutes, whether you have logged out or not, you will be shown as active.

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Turn Counter:

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Day Counter:

To the right of your turn counter, you will see a counter showing you how many days have passed since the apocalypse. You start on Day 1 after the apocalypse, and each day after will move you forward through time, changing seasons as needed. With a little less than 4,000 possible days in a round, you will run your camp for around 6 game years.

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Score:

As your score increases and decreases, the changes will be displayed just below your turn counter on the top bar. Usually this value will only really change after you end a turn, but if you are attacked mid turn, your score will change with the next page that you click, when the battle results will show up at the top of your screen. Towards the beginning of the game, your score may not seem to change very much at all, but as you progress through you will be able to watch your score increase faster, especially once you start building nukes and participating in major battles. For more information on score calculations please see the explanation on the Winning and Score page.

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Rank:

One of the main things you are competing for in this game is overall rank based on score. Just as your score will update after end-turns and attacks, your rank will update, whenever you are bumped up or down. This may mean when you click between pages before ending a turn if another person close to you is playing as well.

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Population Counter:

Here you will be able to find out how many people you have, total, in your camp. As your population increases you will see the changes displayed here. This number and your number of available people, which is not displayed on the top bar, will be two of your most important population numbers.

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Research Display:

In order to give you a bit of a break, you will find a research display at the top of your page under your score counter. This research display will show you what your basic labs are currently assigned to research and what level that topic is currently at. You won't have to worry about checking your Learn page every turn to see how close you are to reaching a specific goal.

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Construction Display:

This display will show you whether you currently have buildings in the construction queue or whether that queue is empty. This is useful for those times when you have a lot to build and not enough population to assign as workers so that everything can be built at once. You can see whether your workers still have things to build or whether you can change an assignment, say adding something new to construct or assigning those workers to a different post.

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Morale Display:

At the end of this row, you will be able to keep track of your population's morale. Morale has numerous effects on your camp's daily actions, from your returns after recruiting or exploring to your ability to even do certain activities, like build nukes. You can keep your eyes on the basic morale display here to make sure that it is not dropping too low.

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Land Counter:

As you progress through the game, you will gain land through exploration. Beside a small image of a desert-like horizon on the left, you will see two counters, one showing how much total land you have and the other showing how much of that land is available for use.

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Shelter Counters:

Shelter is a very important resource to keep track of as you progress through the game. Without available shelter, you will not be able to increase your population. The two counters beside the small image of a tent will show you how much total shelter you have and exactly how much of that shelter is available for new people. The display below "Your Camp" gives you a quick note of how full your total shelter space is. The closer this number gets to 100%, the fewer people you will be able to add to your camp. Obviously as you get larger, 2% available shelter can mean 5,000 or more available spaces.

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Food Counter:

Your food storage is displayed right on the top bar beside a picture of a hamburger, so that you can keep a close eye on how much food you have in storage as you are making your choices of what to do for that day(s). You will see both how many total units of food you have in storage and the percent of your available food storage that is being used.

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Disposable Counter:

In order to help you keep track of your disposables in storage, you can look beside the picture of the roll of toilet paper on the top bar to see two counters meant for this purpose. The top counter will show you the total number of disposables that you have in storage and the bottom number will show you how much of your disposable storage space is in use.

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Supply Counter:

Your excess building supplies held in storage are displayed in the counters beside the hammer. The top number shows you exactly how many supplies you have in storage, and the bottom number show how much of your storage space is in use.

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Comm Facility Display:

Below the main resource counters, you will find your comm facility display. This display will let you know in brief how you stand on communications coverage. Depending on the message displayed, you will know whether you need to build more immediately, build more soon, or whether you are perfectly covered.

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Waste Display:

Advanced Research Display:

Just under the comm facility display, you will find your Advanced Research display. This display will show you how much research you currently have in the topic your advanced labs are set to research. This is very useful when you are going for a specific level of research before switching to a new topic. You will only be able to see this display if you are researching something in your advanced labs.

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CEP Counter:

The final piece of your top bar is your CEP counter. This counter is displayed below your waste buildup counter and shows you how many total CEPs you have. Just as with US dollars, you can have a part of a CEP, so this display shows your CEP's to 2 decimal places (think pennies).

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