Both of my PT Boats have arrived (see mail notification above).
I proceed to assault island #55.
It's a nice looking island.
PT Boat #2 finds that there are inland waters in the NW corner of island #198. I don't want to SAIL around groping for a land sector to assault, so I use an option of the VIEW command (VIEW MINES). VIEW MINES is almost identical to VIEW RANGE, except that it also shows your mines. I've just gotten in the habit of always using the MINES option and not the RANGE option. You can specify a range with either of these options (e.g. VIEW RANGE 10). The default is a range of 5, which is fine, because I see there is land only 2 sectors to the east.
I assault, and this is what island #198 looks like.
I then sail PT Boat #13 down and assault island #142, this is what it looks like.
I go on an island naming spree, and when I'm done this is what my ISLAND INDEX looks like. There are still two undiscovered islands on my index, but they are widely separated and I don't want to use all my dock production building disposable PT Boats. I've got to build up 200 production in a bunch of docks to launch my long distance explorations ships.
I might be able to reach island #42 (Sysop's island) with PT Boat #2. I use the DISTANCE command to see if I can make it. The distance is 43.3 (as the crow flies) and I only have 3.2 fuel (enough to go 32). Next I'll calculate only the X Axis distance, to see if I could you the 1 sector at a time movement trick to save enough fuel to reach the island anyway. The X axis is only 28 away, well within my 32 range. I'm going to drop in on Mr. Sysop.
I use my spiffy 1 sector at a time move technique.
I'll have to finish up tomorrow.
A quick check of the NEWS reviles that the first hostility of the game has occurred, resulting in the death of Lord SiliconSorcerer[10]. Remember, sanctuaries only last 200 time units. The date is now 236, so Dorain[22] kept an eye on nation #10. When 200 time units from Silicon's date of birth passed, Dorain figured it was time to snag a couple hundred civies.
Time to quit for today. Still under 20 minutes.
