Vorton Invasion 121 Help

Vorton Invasion 1.2.1 Help

How To Play

When starting Vorton Invasion for the first time on iPhone, you may be directed to login to Apple's Game Center. It is recommended to use this feature in order to play in the VS game mode and to save your high scores to the leaderboard. Players can still play the Explore and Battle modes without logging into Game Center. (Login not required on Windows.)

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The Menu...

is the first screen displayed and gives access to the game modes and other features:

The settings control takes you to the settings screen where you can control attributes of the game such as music on/off.

The information icon displays the credits screen.

Tap stats to see your accumulated rewards. Once in the stats screen, you can access the Game Center leader boards. You can also backup your data in order to restore it in case of a glitch. XeroLanu Games is not responsible for lost data.

To easily earn more coins, use the coins button and catch the bouncing coin.

Buy jewels with coins by tapping the jewels button.

The help button takes you to quick help and provides a link to this help page.

In the center of the menu is the game modes/star system circle. Use the left and right buttons to scroll to VS mode, Explore mode and the star systems for Battle mode.

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Above the modes circle is the level indicator. You can play on any level that you have achieved by using the + and - buttons.

Tap Free Gift to receive a free jewel every hour.

After completing level 0, and every 12 hours thereafter, cards go on sale at 1/2 the normal jewel price.

Tap Upgrade to use coins to purchase ship upgrades.

Once a game mode has been selected, tap Play to start the game.

The Card Shop is where you can purchase cards with coins or jewels. You can also sell cards for half price.

Tap Free for a countdown leading to a free jewel.

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Game Modes

There are three game modes in Vorton Invasion.

Explore: Relax without fighting enemies. You can explore the solar system and the star systems closest to Earth. Earn coins by orbiting planets and jewels by shooting asteroids. The only way to lose in Explore Mode is by getting too close to a star.

Battle: Select Battle Mode by scrolling to a star system in the menu. Once you've defeated all the enemies in a system, you'll receive coins and the next system will unlock. Each new system adds an extra enemy and the mother ship produces new enemies faster. Your level increases and you'll receive 100 jewels when you clear every system in the list. The game becomes more difficult with each level increase. You can also earn coins and jewels by orbiting planets and shooting asteroids. You do not receive coins or jewels if you are defeated.

VS: Play against the CPU. The highest star system in your level will be selected automatically. Your level will increase if you win playing the last system. The mother ship does not produce new enemies and you won't receive coins for orbiting planets or jewels for shooting asteroids. If you win, you'll get both your coins and the CPU's. Possibly, in a future upgrade, this mode may become a head to head battle against another player.

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Take control of the I.S.S. Olympia and conquer the invasion!

Notes for Windows Players:

Keyboard Controls:

"C": Aim at closest enemy

Spacebar: Fire Torpedo

"F": Fire Laser

+/- : Zoom Sector Map

Mouse:

Right Click replaces Double Tap

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The Ship's Controls

Mastering the ship's controls is vital for successful play!

Your user name is displayed at the top of the screen along with your coin and jewel count. If playing in VS Mode, coins and jewels are replaced with the CPU's score.

Tabs:

Tap a tab to open or close the corresponding overlay that is displayed on top of the view screen.

The Vitals tab shows the current status of the ship's vitals, including shields, laser, hyper drive, jump drive and thruster strength in percentage values. The torpedo count and amount of fuel are also displayed.

The Data tab opens a data display that shows the ship's speed in kps and light speed factor, c. The current time and date is shown for the ship and for the Earth. Since the ship can travel at enormous speeds, the standard time dilation formula is used to calculate ship time. The ship's position is shown in Cartesian coordinates.

Explore Mode Only: Tap the Star Map or Systems tabs to show a map or list, respectively, of the closest star systems. Tap a system name to engage the jump drive and instantly warp to the system.

Tap the Map tab to see a 2D overlay of the current star system in full screen. The ship is represented by a blue arrow. Planets and stars are shown as dots with the celestial body's name in a corresponding color. Asteroids are tan dots. Moons are not displayed. White dots represent objects that may be in the outer edges of a system (such as those in the Kuiper Belt) but are not shown on the ship's view screen. Enemy Mother Ships are light blue dots and enemy saucers are light red/orange. Single tap a planet or star to plot a course toward it or double tap to instantly warp to it. Pinch to zoom in or out and swipe left/right to steer. Up or down steering is not available on this screen. Basic speed controls are on the bottom right.

The List tab presents a list of the bodies in the star system. An additional tab will appear that toggles the list between planets/stars and moons. Single tap to plot a course or double tap to warp. The space dock is listed with the planets and stars. Go to the space dock when you need to regenerate the ship's vitals.

In addition to displaying overlays and objects in front of the ship, the view screen can be used to steer like an airplane. Swipe left or right to steer left/right. Swipe up to steer down. Swipe down to steer up.

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Tips

Controls/Indicators directly below the view screen:

Yaw and pitch indicators represent the corresponding value in respect to the planetary plane. The five colored rectangle indicators show the condition of the ship's shields, jump drive, hyper drive, thrusters and fuel. The Auto button will toggle the auto pilot function if it is available. The count and types of enemies in the system are displayed in the green rectangle. Tap the Panic button to instantly warp to the space dock. The status of the laser is next, followed by the amount of charge. The next indicator represents the torpedo count. If the spread capability is available, it can be toggled on/off with the Spread button. Radiation levels are indicated on the next dial, followed by the ship's roll indicator.

The top of the lower console:

Use the Closest Target button to aim at the closest enemy ship. The score (in coins) is printed in cyan, followed by the ETA to the last celestial body plotted toward is shown in Days:Hours:Minutes:Seconds. A radiation readout completes the row.

The lower console:

Just like the view screen, the Joystick works like an airplane's. Drag left or right to steer left/right. Drag up to steer downwards and up to steer down. Steering can be fine tuned by tapping the Fine button.

Swipe the Sub light speed control up or down to increase or decrease sub light speed. Press Min to go to the minimum sub light speed and Max to reach maximum sub light. Press Stop to cease momentum.

The Enemy Scanner shows the positions of enemy displayed as red dots when in front of the ship and blue when behind.

The Hyper Drive controls operate like the sub light controls. Tap Rev to go in reverse.

Use the blue U-Turn button to reverse course. Adjust the ship's roll with the Roll Controls.

Fire the laser with the Fire button on the left and torpedoes with the one on the right.

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Cards

Use coins to upgrade the Olympia as soon as you can.
Purchase cards with jewels or coins to gain an advantage in higher levels. It can be difficult if not impossible to defeat the enemy in high levels without cards.
Use the Closest Target button to aim at enemies.
Enemies that are out of range will appear as dots on the view screen. (Red for saucers, blue for mother ships.) Conserve weapons and fire only when they can be seen.
Mother ships have better defense screens than saucers. Fire rapidly.
Use the 2D map to estimate your distance from enemies.
If the Olympia's shields go below 30%, an alert will sound and flash.
Use the panic button to jump directly to the space dock when the ship's shields or weapons are low.
Stay away from stars. The Olympia will be destroyed if it gets too close.
Some systems have flare stars. These stars can momentarily emit massive amounts of radiation that can destroy the ship. The view screen will flash white when the star flares.
Torpedoes will lock on enemies that travel through the crosshair. Torpedoes do not lock onto asteroids.
The laser inflicts damage only when a target is in the crosshair. Laser hits accumulate more points than torpedoes.
Steer toward a planet or moon and approach it to go into orbit. Once in orbit the sub light Min button will flash. To leave orbit, tap the flashing button or hit Rev.
If in reverse and a planet or moon is close enough to orbit, the Olympia will sound a brief alert and start moving forward. Planets can only be orbited when they are forward of the ship.
The jump drive requires a safe distance from a planet or moon to operate.
The Min and Max speed buttons require more fuel than the speed controls that are swiped.

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Cards can be selected at the beginning of a Battle or VS round after completing level 0.Except for the Spread card, the use of cards can result in lower scores.

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Laser card: Greatly increases the laser's power and doubles its duration.
Torpedo card: Destroy a saucer with one hit. Depending upon the level, it may take more hits to obliterate a mother ship.
Shields card: The ship becomes virtually invincible to enemy fire. Radiation damage is reduced.
Spread card: Enables the Spread button to allow firing multiple torpedoes at once. This card is very powerful when used in combination with a torpedo card. The Spread card also increases the coin score as many hits are registered at once. Enemies will be hit even if they are out of normal range as long as they are in front of the Olympia. Can not be used in combination with the Auto card.
Auto card: Enables the Auto button. The Olympia will seek out and destroy enemies without player input. The Auto card includes the Laser, Torpedo and Shields cards automatically. It can not be used in combination with the Spread card.

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Scientific Stuff

For those interested:

The moving star field is not a true representation of what traveling in space at super speeds would look like. It is used in the game (and in movies and television) to create the illusion of movement. And of course, the sounds of ships exploding would not be heard in the vacuum of space.

According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, faster than light travel is not possible. However, the Alcubierre drive proposed by Miguel Alcubierre could produce a warp bubble or warp ring that collapses space in front of a space craft and expands space behind it. The ship wouldn’t move, but space-time would, allowing travel faster than light. This is the theory behind the Olympia’s Hyper Drive.

The ship’s Jump Drive allows arrival at a destination instantly. The concept is based upon the use of Einstein-Rosen Bridges (or wormholes) that create a tunnel through space-time.

Based on the work of Paul Schlyter, the positions of the planets in our solar system are calculated to reflect their actual current positions every time the Sol system is entered. This allows accurate travel times between planets and a true representation on the solar system map. The orbital positions of moons are not calculated but are placed at approximately the correct distances from their mother planets.

There are too many objects in our solar system to include all of them in the game. For instance, Jupiter has at least 67 moons. To reduce the amount of game assets, only the major solar system objects are represented. The asteroids shown do not reflect their numbers or appearances, however, the area of the asteroid belt is approximately the correct distance and size. The approximate area of the kuiper belt is shown on the 2D map.

The other solar systems used in Vorton Invasion are the actual systems closest to Earth. A planet with a lower-case letter in its designation indicates that it is an exoplanet that has been discovered by astronomers. The other planets are imaginary.

Radiation levels are calculated with the inverse square formula.

Ship vs. Earth time is calculated with the standard time dilation formula.

ETA is calculated using the standard time, rate distance formula.

1 AU (the mean distance from Earth to the Sun) is approximately 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles. The game world space uses 149, 600 kilometers as a constant for AU if you want to convert the ship's Cartesian coordinates.

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