Help and Technical Support
There are a lot of ways to get help in this game. We hope that before you ask for help or explanations, you'll go through the walkthrough and read the entire help section, which includes complete rules. But if you need more help, please ask for it!
This Help System
Which, obviously, you've already found. The HELP button on the top bar calls up the index of help topics, and there's a search interface at the head of the index. Type in your subject, and it will return a set of links to the help topics that include your search string.
Click on the help icon - ![[help]](/help/img/q.gif)
- anywhere it appears in the game, for help about that particular page.
Jumping In Headfirst: The Solo Game
By creating a solo game, you can give yourself a sandbox in which to try out all the commands. Your permanent profile keeps track of how many solos you have completed. It doesn't record how long you take or what mistakes you make while learning. Have fun experimenting!
Practice With Friends: PUB Games
Subscribers can play against one to five other people (more, for Elite) in the PUB (Private Universe Battle) games. Some players prefer these small games to the massive ones. If a friend introduced you to UltraCorps, ask him to play against you in a PUB game . . . perhaps even one on one, so he can critique your strategy as you go.
The Forums
For general strategic advice, explanations for "how a game goes," and so on, your best resources are the other players.
UltraCorps has a lot of forums, using its own custom software. There are general forums, and each game has its own private forums accessible only to that game's players. It's a good place to ask a question like "Why do WarMeks suddenly cost 20 in this game when I've never seen them above 15 before?" or "Why didn't my homeworld build as much as I expected it to?" - as well as more general questions like "What's the biggest fleet of Power Suit Troopers anybody ever saw?" This is also the place to make suggestions for improvements in the game. By putting these in the forums rather than in private mail to referees, you will get immediate comment from your fellow players. The referees DO read the forums, and if a suggestion draws a lot of favorable comment, it will be noticed!
Account Questions
For a problem with a paid game subscription – such as "You made a payment but it hasn't been credited" or "Your subscription has ended before you expected it to" – contact the folks at orders@sjgames.com. Remember to put UltraCorps in the message title. Note that these folks are not the referees, and can't help you with rules issues, but they are experts at the arcane issues of credit cards, PayPal, and the like.
Bug Reports
If you think you see a bug, please check the Known Bugs page to make sure we don't already know about it. If it's a new one, report it on the bug forum. We appreciate your help in perfecting the game!
Rules Issues
Please start by asking on the forums. If you need a rules clarification and can't get an answer on the forums, ask the admins. It will help if you make your question as specific as possible, and tell us whether the problem is "can't find any rules about this" or "found the rules and they don't make sense." If you don't understand something, please quote the part you don't understand!
Send mail to help@ultracorps.com. In most cases, the admins will reply to mail within 24 hours.
Complaints About Other Players
If you have a problem with another player, report it to the admins: help@ultracorps.com. Issues to report here include anything prohibited in our Social Rules, including:
- Offensive or abusive player aliases, fleet names, or homeworld names.
- Offensive or abusive chat, UltraMail, or forum postings.
- Multiple-account cheating (MACing). If a player has more than one alias in the same game, and the two aliases have any interaction at all (let alone just sending the fleet of one as a gift to the other), that player is cheating.
- Anything else that appears to be a cheat.
Things Not To Complain About!
The following things are NOT cheating or infractions of our social rules . . . please don't send complaints about them:
- Attacking you. This is a wargame, duh. You're going to get attacked.
- Lying to you. If someone breaks a treaty, by all means, tell the other players, but the referees don't enforce deals between players.
- Mismanaging a PUB game. The owner of a game can do as he likes with it, even if it's stupid and no fun. Your remedy: don't play with him again, and next time you join a game, check the owner's PUB Game Reputation first.
- Breaking "clan rules." If players choose to join a group, that's their own business, but the leaders of the group have no more real authority over them than any other players, which is to say, none!
- Ignoring you. Players are not required to answer their mail.
- Becoming inactive. If a player drops out, you should consider his empire to be up for grabs by the strongest neighbor . . . but that player has not broken any rules.
- The Last Great Act Of Defiance. If a player has fought well, and gone to the wall, and sends his last fleets as gifts to an ally instead of letting them be crushed . . . that's not cheating. It happens in the real world too.
