Planet X16 PC

Harvest resources and erect defenses on Planet X16 before the Protoids launch their assault in this PC strategy game. Build smelters near rocks and crystals to process minerals, power stations with surrounding solar panels for energy, and gas refineries atop volcanoes. Fortify positions with walls and rocks, deploy sentry tanks in guard mode, and construct radar stations to track units on the mini-map. Command units via mouse clicks to move, attack, or select multiples, while balancing cheap fast ATVs against slow heavy tanks and costly missile silos with hex coordinates. Protoids defend aggressively, rebuild bases, and adapt across easy, normal, and hard difficulties, where they build extra bases or skip factories. Strategy fans master unit mixes and timing to outpace enemy buildup.

NOTE: If you are using Proton you may need to set the launch options to:
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

General Control of the Game

SHIFT+L: Load Game
SHIFT+S: Save Game
Ctrl+C / Pause Key: Pause Game/Exit Level
Left Click: Select Unit or Building
SHIFT+Left Click: Select Multiple Units
Double Left Click: Select all similar units in view
Right Click on Map: Tell unit(s) to go there.
Right Click on Enemy: Tell unit(s) to attack unit or building
Escape: Abort whatever unit/building is doing
A: Attack unit, building, or terrain
Left Click Mini-map: Change view area to that part of map
Right Click Mini-Map: Send selected unit(s) to that area
Mouse at Screen Edge: Scroll Viewing Area
Cursor Keys: Scroll Viewing Area

First Priorities

You have between 9 and 10 minutes before the enemy will
attack. Use that time to start harvesting resources and
building up defenses.

Minerals - You will need to build a smelter (Hotkey T) near
where you see rocks and crystals. Use the builder to pick
up minerals and drop them along sides of the smelter
building. The smelter will automatically pick them up and
process them as it needs.

Start with the crystals first, as they are the highest
value resources. When those run out, you can process the
rocks, starting from the largest to the smallest.

Solar Power - You will first need to build a power station
(hotkey A) somewhere on the map. Once it is finished, you
can build up to 8 solar panels around the power station.
If you need more than 8 panels (which you probably will)
then build an additional power station.

Gas Refinery - Build the refinery (hotkey G) on top of
volcanos. The more volcanoes you tap, the more gas you'll
have available.

Setup Defenses

You can move rocks or build walls to fortify the areas
most vulnerable to attack. Then build sentry tanks at the
factory and move then a few spaces behind your wall, as
they have a very long firing range. Be sure to set them
to sentry mode (hotkey S). If they aren't spinning, then
they aren't going to defend!

Build A Radar Station

This game does not employ a fog of war, and you can always
see anything in the main view area. However, if you want to
be able to see both player and enemy mobile units live on
the mini-map, a radar station must be present. Player units
show up in white, while Protoid units are yellow.

Balance Of Units

Obviously not all units are equal. Some are slow, some are
fast. Some are cheap, and some are expensive. A small
group of heavy tanks, for example, could decimate your
opponent's base. However, they are expensive, take a long
time to build, and they are slow to move. On the flip side
of that, ATVs are cheap and fast, but not very powerful.

In time, you will learn which units are best suited for
different strategies.

Missile Silo

Missiles can devestate your opponents base easily. But be
warned, they are expensive and slow to build. You must
also build a new missile for each launch.

The coordinate system used is based on how many spaces
relative to the silo the target is. So, if you have more
than one missile silo, the coordinates will not be the same
for each one. Also the coordinates are shown in hexa-
decimal.

The Protoids

It is good to know your enemy. The Protoids will typically
not attack your base until their army has reached a certain
size. However, they will always rush to defend the base if
you attack them.

They aren't too bright when it comes to navigating the map
to attack your base. However, their tanks will blast
through terrain objects that are in the way, or even build
bridges over water, thus allowing the rest of the units
a path to your base.

Protoids do rebuild their base if pieces of it are
destroyed. So don't wait too long after a partially
sucessful attack, or you may have to start all over again.

Difficulty Levels

There are three difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard.
There are numerous things that change with each level. Some
things are small, such as the ratio of tanks vs soldiers
that are built. Also the number of sentry pods that the
Protoids build varies. It is as little as 4 pods per base
in easy mode, to 12 pods in hard mode.

In easy mode, the protoids will not even build a factory,
hence no tanks will be made. And with no tanks, the Protoids
will not cross water or create paths through forest or
rocks.

In hard mode, the Protoids will build two bases at the
start of the game.