OgameBlog

Picking a universe isn’t simple or in any case shouldn’t be randomly chosen. The fist thing needed to be said is that all universes are different. Some differences include:

number of players, how old a universe is ( you can tell by looking in the statistics, look at how many points the best player has. The more points the older the uni.), what kind of alliances are there (lets say you are Australian, maybe you want to join a Australian alliance, or maybe start one?), rules of selected universe ( some universes are for example anniversary universes with different rules like, debris fields can be made out of ships and defense ), look what kind of buildings are available, do you know anyone in this uni.? how resource hungry are other players ( meaning do they raid you a lot?) what about ACS (Alliance Combat System, a system allowing an alliance’s members to station their fleets at another member’s planet, currentlyin  universe 5, 32, 13, 18.

Those are just some major differences that come to my mind right now. Picking a universe that is right for you is critical, it can make you love or hate ogame! So choose wisely. I would recommend setting up a couple accounts (on different universes see my rules page), see which one works best for you. Join a alliance and talk to members to find out more about your selected universe. When you decide which universe is right for you, forget about the other accounts and just stick with the one you picked. The other accounts you set up will be banned after a number of days of being inactive, But before they get banned they will be much appreciated farming material for other starting players. So it works out for everyone.

From my personal experience its good to join a universe were you know somebody. If you don’t that’s ok, just look for a good alliance, maybe a country alliance or an alliance that has the same values and goals in common.

Every player has different goals but most of us would probably say that being the best player is the ultimate goal. Well if you choose a old universe than forget about catching up to the best players! I’m not saying its impossible but probably just wont happen. The best players in old universes have insane amount of points, and remember that points grow exponentially.

Sometimes when you are signing up for a new account ogame recommends universes [ universe # (recommended) ], they do that because the number of players is low (many reasons why). You would think that new universes are recommended because it needs new players, but that’s not the case, usually when a new universe is started new players flock just to have a head start, greatly increasing their chance of being the bets player or at least being in the tops of the statistics.

So these are just some aspects to consider when picking a universe, I hope these ogame tips will improve your game play.

If you have any tips or know of anything that should be added, please share.

by: Hzarz_Kar

Recyclers and Debris Fields
Another way to obtain additional Metal and Crystal in OGame is to go to the sites of space battles and collect the debris fields left over from the battle. The only ships in the game that can do these are Recyclers.

To locate debris fields, switch over to the Galaxy View again. You will see a column called Deb. If a particular planet has a debris field orbiting it, you will see a small graphic in this column. To check the size of the field, hover your cursor over the field and you will see the amount of resources left in the field. Once you have a likely candidate, just note down the coordinates.

To send out your recyclers to the field, go to the Fleet screen, select recyclers and punch in the coordinates as usual. However, instead of selecting “Planet” in the target field, select “DF’, which stands for Debris Field. The recycler will then go to the debris field orbiting the planet and harvest the debris there. (Note: If you have Commander, you can send out your recyclers from the Galaxy View).

Harvesting missions are invisible (except in certain situations) so, the player around whose planet the debris is orbiting will typically not be able to know whose recyclers are harvesting the debris. Debris fields found in this manner can be a useful supplemental source of income but the chances of harvesting can be somewhat low as recyclers are very slow, so chances are that somebody closer may get there first. So, you will have to decide whether your fleet slots are best used for harvesting, or for raiding.

However, as debris fields are formed by destroying ships and fleets, many players target to destroy other player’s fleets and collect the residual debris to obtain a profit. In OGame language, this is called ‘fleetcrashing’. Most players time their recyclers to arrive just after a battle to obtain the debris.

Points Calculation and Newbie Protection
Just a last note about points. In Ogame, there are four types of points:

Normal points:
The amount of points you’ve got is very simple to calculate: You get 1 point for 1.000 resources used. You can have a million resources on your planet but it will not add to your point score until you use them to build or research things. One example: an colony ship costs 10’000 metal, 20’000 crystal and 10’000 deuterium. That’s altogether an amount of 40’000 resources, with the result that every colony ship you own gives you 40’000/1’000 = 40 points in the stats. If you lose a colony ship (because of a combat or you’ve colonised a planet with it) you will lose that amount of points. This means that ships and defensive structures aren’t a permanent investment for points – you can lose them at any time when you lose your ships or defenses because other players destroyed them while raiding you.

Other investments like buildings are “semi-permanent” investments – other players can’t destroy them and cause a reduction of your points – you can lose them only when you erase your planet or downgrade your buildings. The last investment are research and technologies: Once a tech is researched and you have gained points from it, nobody can take them away from you.

Fleet points:
Your fleet points are calculated in a simpler way than your normal score: One point for each ship you own – a death star counts as much as a light fighter or a solar satellite. The fleet points of a player gives you an indication of the quantity of his or her ships – not of the type.

Research points:
Similar to the fleet points, you get one point per researched technology or upgrade of it – how much it cost to research or upgrade that technology isn’t essential.

Alliance points
These points are calculated like the normal points, but this time all points of all alliance members are added together and then divided by 1000. I.e. when you have used 1’000’000 resources to build something, that gives 1000 points for you and 1 point for your alliance.

Normal points are important to take note of in the early game, because of something called ‘Newbie Protection’. This was introduced in order to give new players a chance, to learn the game without being abused but will not entirely protect you from all attacks.

The rules are as follows:

Under 5000 points you can’t attack players who have more than 500% or less then 20% of your own points. Contrawise, these players also can’t attack you.
Over 5000 points, you can attack all players who have more points than you and you can also be attacked by them, but players who have less than 20% of your own points still can’t be attacked or attack you.
Over 25000 points you can attack or be attacked by all players who have more than 5k points.

Therefore, by the time you reach 5000 points, the honeymoon is over and you can be raided by stronger players. By that time, you need to be at least relatively aware how to deter attacks on your worlds and colonies.

To do that, I strongly recommend you sign up as an Strategic Insomniacs OGame Alliance member on these forums, and you’ll have the benefits of access to our more detailed guides and discussions.