Need some help with Utopia (Intellivision)

[Nognir]

The topic says it all..

 

I need something like a tutorial for the game. I tried to build something, but I always get the sound effect that I'm doing something wrong.

I read the manual, but couldn't figure it out either. Can someone introduce me a bit to the gameplay please?

[Ransom]

Try going somewhere on your island, pressing the crops (3) key, then pressing the Enter key. Do you still get the raspberry?

[Nognir]

Hmm it worked. Maybe I was just too stupid to position the cursor in the right place

 

Is there anyway a guide how to score big points? Or is a pro here somewhere?

[Video]

Utopia is an awesome game, but it;s been darn near a decade befor I even had the Intv hooked up. (I foun d atariage and lots of classic systems kinda dissappeared when Is tarted getting new 2600 games)

[intvnut]

Hmm it worked. Maybe I was just too stupid to position the cursor in the right place

 

Is there anyway a guide how to score big points? Or is a pro here somewhere?

 

Now keep in mind, my brother (or father) and I tended to play maximum turn length for maximum number of turns.

 

The strategy I follow:

 

Plant lots of crops early in the game and get a fishing boat. During your "down time" in a turn, pass the time chasing fish. After a couple turns, buy a factory. In a couple more buy a house. Always replenish crops as they die but only EARLY in a turn. (It helps to know the rainy areas are if you have to pick where to put crops.)

 

Keep an eye on your census and try to keep 1 house for every 500 people in the long run. In the short run, it's ok to be behind by one house though for a couple of turns. In the beginning it's ok to be behind by two or more, but not for more than a dozen turns.

 

I try to keep a ratio of house : factory : school : hospital of around 1 : 1.3 : 0.5 : 0.25

 

That is... for every 1 hospital, have around 4 houses, 2 schools, and 5 or 6 factories. Tweak to suit personal preference. And with spare cash, keep buying up fishing boats, and keep your spare land full of crops. Boats net you 1 gold bar per turn if you do NOTHING with them, so if you buy one with more than 25 turns left in the game, it's pure profit.

 

Forts: They protect the 8 squares that abut them. Once you have a few fishing boats, put one on a piece of land that juts out so that most of those squares are in the water, and practice parking fishing boats around them. That'll prevent pirates from nabbing your fleet. NOTE: Do *not* use the tips of the islands that point toward each other along the central channel. That's hurricane alley.

 

As you develop your island, you'll probably notice what areas are most likely to get rain. As you develop, put houses, factories, hospitals, schools, etc. on the NON-rainy areas, and try to keep crops on the rainy areas. As you build up, you will have fewer and fewer crop areas as the game progresses. In a longer game, you will end up with none. Therefore, make sure to keep at least a few fishing boats to ensure your people stay fed. (1 per 500). Of course, once you start running a surplus, you can start buying fleets of fishing boats with ease.

 

If you play a REALLY long game, you can start to line the borders of the screen with PT boats and try to keep the pirates out. It mostly works.

 

 

That should help get you started.

 

Oh, and a fun fact. If you get really good at it, you'll discover the game has numeric overflow issues. If you play a large number of turns with a long turn length and your round score gets around 93, don't be surprised if your score drops precipitously at some point and you get a rebel. As best I can tell it's some internal score variable overflowing. You need to have like 30 or more fishing boats, a bunch of PT boats, a couple hospitals, tons of houses, schools and factories and no room for crops.

Edited March 19, 2008 by intvnut