Pustule Planet: a Space Colony campaign with pyrocyns.
By calezane (http://calezane.home.xs4all.nl/) 31-12-2015


Files:
-pustulep.txt: this file
-Pustule Planet.cam: goes in C:\Program Files\Firefly Studios\Space Colony\
campaigns
-PustulePlanet1.map: goes in C:\Program Files\Firefly Studios\Space Colony\maps
-PustulePlanet2.map: goes in C:\Program Files\Firefly Studios\Space Colony\maps
-PustulePlanet3.map: goes in C:\Program Files\Firefly Studios\Space Colony\maps
(Your game may be installed on a different drive or in a different directory,
but the "cam" file goes in subdirectory "campaigns" and the "map" files go in
subdirectory "maps".)


This planet was named after its pimply appearance and heavy rash of pyrocyns.
These must be cleared (watch the colonists fly to the bridge to get a clue about
how) and the mineral resources mined to make way for a hotel. The plant life
must also be eradicated. The animal life can't be completely wiped out, but
should be avoided for health reasons. Assigned to this job are the five most
brilliant colonists the game has to offer, which means none of them have basic
cleaning, mining or harvesting skills. There's plenty of time to learn skills,
but only a library to do it in, and building options are very, very limited. You
can't even buy replacement industrial machines unless your credit is high
enough. Neither can you trade in most resources until you've collected enough of
them. After finishing your first assignment, life gets a bit easier, but then
Daisy comes along and unleashes her inner eco-fascist on the colony.

This game was made with Space Colony HD, which is equivalent to the game patched
to "1.1" with the patch from the Firefly Studio site.


Strategy:

First of all, the game mimes new vegetal growth by using three similar but
separate maps, so don't buy too much stuff, it will be gone in the next mission.
Invest in supplies, which will carry over to the next mission, but don't
stockpile anything you can't sell (check in advance what is and isn't traded)
because you can't buy new warehouses (there's nowhere to place them, anyway) and
not leaving enough room to stockpile supplies needed for the mission means you
lose. Or at least, since there's no deadline, you can't win.

Mission 1
As stated in the game description, you have to sell off what you mine and
harvest, but you need to build up enough supplies before you can start selling.
How much you need to stockpile varies per resource (from 20 for iridium to 200
for silicon) so keep checking the trading window. Pharmaceuticals only have to
be stockpiled, but depending on how early you start with that and how many
colonists get a fatal disease from rodents, this will probably take the longest.

The planet is so peppered with pyrocyns that mining and harvesting equipment is
bound to suffer, which is why iron is buyable from the start. You are also given
two units of titanium and three argon gas canisters (all non-tradable) to prime
the manned laser and replace one (1) destroyed soldier unit, so be careful with
the soldiers. Replacement machines can't be bought until the credit balance is
at 9000, which is coincidentally the reward you get for clearing the humulus
lupulus. But at the start of the game, you won't have time for that, and it's
better to leave weed-burning to androids once they're made, since they do it
more efficiently and won't be grossed out at the slugs.

As soon as the game starts, pause it and sell buildings close enough to the
pyrocyns that they'll only be blown up: the front two space bikes, the space
defence shield at the bottom of the base, the electronics fabrication plant and
the light to the right of the space defence shield at the middle-bottom of the
screen, near the mass of iridium deposits. Also sell the manned laser and the
airlock nearby to keep the exploding population of rodents out of the base. This
gives you enough money to buy a lava plant to put on the vent near the volcano,
and a new airlock to place behind the four soldier units, who will deal with the
rodents. Zhang is already in the base, so send him to the library to learn
chicken farming, and assign him the bed close by for a much-needed snooze when
his training is completed.

All those space defence shields - protection against regular meteor showers -
are draining energy fast, so assign the first arrival, Dean, to power desk
immediately. Send Nikolai to the pharmaceuticals plant, because he's best at it
and in case a rodent does get past, have Hoshi man the engineering repair
facility so you don't lose the lava plant and let Kita build up some oxygen and
then have her train for something useful like cleaning, harvesting or two ranks
of power (this takes a while). Don't bother with weeding or mining, this is best
done by androids. Once the colonists are safely inside, sell the new airlock so
the rodents can't get at them.

When Zhang has finished his training and slept, put one airlock near the library
- but not too close to the pyrocyns - and send him to the checken farmer unit,
then delete the airlock. Let him produce about five units of chicken, as extra
units can't be sold, and he can make more later as needed.

As money slowly trickles in, buy the following: a space defence shield for the
lava plant; a new airlock behind the soldiers; five units of electronics so
Zhang can make an android; and rows of solar plants, anywhere you can safely fit
them under the space defence shields, to replace the iridium plant. The planet
contains only slightly more of every resource, particularly iridium, than you
need to sell, and once a resource becomes sellable, it also becomes buyable in
case you need extra to fulfil the quotum, but at an outrageously high price. As
soon as you hear the message that the iridium plant has used up its fuel, and if
you have enough solar power plants placed, delete the iridium plant unless you
want to spend a fortune on iridium later.

The first two androids should weed (which may take some time) and then man the
power desk and engineering repair facility, as mining and harvesting is still
too risky. In fact, while weeding, have them keep a distance from the pyrocyns
so as not to lose them (you can't buy or mine iridium to make new ones, at this
point). It is now necessary to destroy the pyrocyns around the weeds and iridium
deposits before extraction can start. There are two ways to do this: with the
soldier units, or with the space bikes. This is best done in combination.

Once Dean is off power, have him ready the medi-bay and train for cleaning. Once
Hoshi is off repairing, have her fly across fields of pyrocyns by telling her to
go somewhere. This will pop the pyrocyns that the space bike flies over, with no
harm to either colonist or space bike, unless you drop her too close to the
pyrocyns or have her walk into them - but that's what the medi-bay is for! Try
not to kill her; it won't lose the mission, but every colonist is needed. Keep
making her fly over pyrocyn patches, and clear up the hard-to-hit surviving
pyrocyns by having a soldier walk into them. The soldier will take damage, but
that's what the engineering repair facility is for. Try not to destroy the
soldier; there is just enough titanium in your warehouse to replace it just
once. Keep three soldiers at the door at all times against the regularly
returning rodents. Venusian slugs also frequently slime up the surroundings, but
you can ignore them.

When all pyrocyns around the iridium deposits are gone, have Kita start
scavenging while Hoshi (and Dean, who has some spare time between cleaning and
readying the medi-bay) clear up the rest of the pyrocyns, so Zhang can make more
androids. Money should be piling up now, so buy more electronics units - don't
bother with buying an electronics manufacturing plant to replace the deleted
one, it will be back in the next mission anyway - and a second scavenger closer
to the iridium so that Hoshi and Kita can scavenge together. The aim is to not
only meet the iridium quotum, but make iridium buyable so you can get more of it
if you need to make androids. Also buy more lights and space defence shields to
light up dark spots in case they hide more pyrocyns, more solar power plants to
power them, an extra silicon miner and whatever you need, and can fit in the
map, to make the mission end sooner. But profit from its duration by having
colonists study whatever comes in handy: for instance, oxygen for Zhang so he
can keep himself occupied at the oxygen desk while the lab is being restocked.
Don't bother with mining or scavenging, which will play no part in the next
missions. Nikolai doesn't have to learn anything, but have him train for an
extra star in pharmaceutical extraction when he gets bored, because training
fills his fun bar. Also assign the bed to him and let him eat in the mess hall;
this way, he will rarely have to leave the little room at the end of the base.

Stockpiling pharmaceuticals is painfully slow. When all the other quota are met,
and you don't need more androids, sell the cybernetics lab to make room for up
to two extra pharmaceutical extractors. Just before you're done, buy as much
iridium as you can afford to hold onto some of your capital. The whole mission
should take between 30 and 60 days.


Mission 2
The briefing states that another team has cleaned up after the campaign's team
while they were on holiday, which means that all minerals and extra buildings
are gone, while anything that was sold has been put back in place. The pyrocyns
and weeds are gone, but boy, where did all the hydromorphus come from. And the
cylincsus is back! All of it must be harvested and sold, although if you still
have supplies of either from the first mission, you've got a headstart.

Training pods are now available, so immediately, before a unit of iridium is
dropped into it, delete the cybernetics lab so you can put a training pod there.
Or you can delete it and move the pharmaceutical extractor, bed and mess hall to
this room so Nikolai won't have to walk so far to the bridge when assigned to
harvesting cylincsus. The room at the end of the base, so annoying to walk to,
is then empty, so move the medi-bay there (since colonists should rarely need to
use it) and put the training pod where the medi-bay was; once the training slots
are used up, replace it with the cybernetics lab or something else useful. (An
added advantage of putting the medi-bay in an out-of-the-way location is that
this part of the base will rarely get littered, so the cleaner won't have to
walk there, and cleaning won't take as long.) You can also delete the library (
it'll be back in the third mission, ooh yeah) or use it to train colonists in
the easy first levels of skills for free.

While the weeds seem gone, there are a few new ones lurking in the shadows, so
light up the planet, protecting the lights against falling meteors, and have
Dean destroy them. Put Nikolai on power while the other colonists arrive. One of
your goals is to attract tourists, for which you need a hotel, so put down the
biggest hotel you can afford before the empty space above the tourist landing
pad is overrun by hydromorphus.

If you've bought plenty of iridium in the last mission, there's no need to
delete the iridium plant now, although you can still add a lava plant plus space
defence shield over the vent. For now, there are no rodents, but they will
appear in time, so once the colonists are inside, it's a good idea to delete the
airlock and put one behind the soldier posts again.

This mission is all about harvesting like crazy. Don't put out too many
harvesters at a time, or the warehouse droids won't be able to keep up. Due to
rodents, it may be safer to leave the nutrient harvesting to androids and let
the colonists concentrate on  learning and doing whatever can be done inside the
base, although if you train the colonists to 4 stars in harvesting, no androids
should be necessary. Alternatively, dot the landscape with automatic lasers. If
colonist morale drops too far, management will send a shipload of oomas.

The tourists will come in groups, though there's not much to amuse them, and
hardly any room to expand their resort, but whatever you do, don't let them go
outside. That's it; sell enough stuff, wait until enough tourists have visited,
and you're done. Don't forget to convert your capital to titanium or electronics
(not iridium!) just before the game ends, keep a pallet of pharmaceuticals and
sell off any chicken units, for reasons which will become clear in the next
mission.


Mission 3
The overgrowth is gone, and the planet's original flora is cautiously returning.
Could that be... photocyns? Any lights or other structures you added in the
previous mission will be gone again, as will everything to do with meat
consumption, fossil fuels, violence and crass capitalism. Because management
picked what they thought would be the ideal manager for a resort in such a
fragile ecosysteem, Daisy has come to put the "eek!" in "eco". Weeding and
shooting at lifeforms is now forbidden, and the eco-resort now only has a garden
dome for tourists to sleep in. Thanks to Daisy's hippie ideals, rodents have
made their home in the bowels of the base, popping up every so often, and the
only tourists visiting are Fribulans.

Weeding is now also forbidden, so better put up a barrier against the burnflies,
and be prepared to repair or replace it often! Alternately, put force field
posts around the swarms until they extinguish themselves and don't seed new
plants (delete the force field posts when they are no longer needed). Similarly,
you can put force field posts around the few remaining slugs until they are
dead, to stop them becoming an infestation.

The only resource the planet now offers is argon gas, which can be extracted for
extra funds. As a concession to technology, Daisy will allow the production of
electronics, but apart from that, the only industry allowed is the growing and
harvesting of genetically manipulated (another form of technology that Daisy
accepts) bamboo. This nonsense will only end once someone dies - preferably
Daisy, who has also outlawed cryogenic pods as they are "against nature" and "
stop people from becoming one with the universe". So you can meet this mission's
goal under her strict rules, or refuse to heal her after a bite from those cute
little rodents - if so, be quick about that, because, over time, the colonists
become less sensitive and finally immune to the pathogen. There are at least
three colonists that can man the bio lab without needing training (Daisy doesn't
allow training pods, only "natural learning", so training would take ages
anyway) and the others should have been trained in nutrient harvesting in the
previous mission.

(On a side note, I'm as environmentally conscious as the next person, which is
all the more reason to be annoyed by the people that Daisy is a caricature of:
they are more self-deluding creepy cultists than actual environmentalists.
Besides, this campaign is all about imposing silly and frustrating
restrictions.)

There is a slightly less extreme way of reversing Daisy's decisions which I'll
let the player figure out (hint: it has to do with the hippie ideal of "free
love").

If you manage to attract twenty tourists, you get a warehouse's worth of
supplies: 20 silicon units and 20 pharmaceuticals. Raise the tourist rating up
to 8, and you get something similar: 20 electronics units and 20
pharmaceuticals. Build an android, and androids will become a commodity to trade
in. And if morale drops too far, which is likely given the circumstances, oomas
will be delivered to help combat the Nirvana virus.