new guy: questions

[Facetious]

Hi all!

Before I ask my questions I wanted to say that this looks like a great community here! thanks in advance to all the experienced players for helping out the newbies like me

I've ordered the game and should have it by the weekend but I was wondering if there is a place on the web where I can read the html manual. I haven't played too many of these types of games and getting a head start on the manual would be great.

I'm playing the demo for now and I'd like to know, if I build a satelite or a weapons platform are they automatically in orbit around my planet? If not, could someone take a moment to explain the procedure.

Also, has anyone suggested that the designers should implement the use of a wheel mouse? I find myself trying to use it alot as I'm scrolling around the menus in the game.

Thanks

[Taqwus]

On manual -- I doubt it. But almost everything it tells you, you can learn in the demo anyway...

Sats, mines, weapon platforms, etc -- any unit -- gets placed in the cargo area of a planet. Weapon platforms stay there (they're planetary defenses) unless you put them in a transport and move 'em to another planet; satellites should be launched (either by planets or by ships with satellite launchers). If you built the sats at the same planet you want them to defend (although defending a warp point might be a better choice, often), you should be able to select the planet and then hit 'launch units' ('L', IIRC). Or transfer ('Transfer Cargo' button) onto a ship w/ at least one sat launcher (you can launch as many as you want with only one launcher, outside of combat; having more doesn't help except in combat mode). Other units (fighters, mines) get specialized bays as well; for fighters, you actually want many bays because normally you're launching them in combat.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night