Warning: This is a slow game, it takes weeks not hours - you play by visiting occasionally, not in one single session. If you are after quick thrills go play something else!

Introduction

In 'A tractor' your goal is to live a long life and get rich.

The game is a social economy - the world continues on while you're not playing and what you need to do depends on what other players are doing and what has been built in the past. Generally, things unfold slowly over the course of many weeks and months (although there are various, more immediate, subgames and diversions) - you don't play in a single long session, instead you visit occasionally, collecting money you've earned while you were offline.

To survive you'll need to eat regularly - either by stocking up on food and drink (your character will eat and drink automatically when you're offline) or by visiting a local restaurant. It also helps if you have somewhere to live.

Making money

You'll need to make money to survive long. The game's economy is dynamic, driven by trade between players - so when you buy bread from a bakery you are paying the wages of the players who made the wheat, milled the flour and baked the bread. There's very little artificial influence on supplies, prices etc, so sometimes there are shortages and sometimes you'll get ripped off.

The game's currency is sheckles and denari. 100 denari = 1 sheckle.

There are a few different ways you can make money :

• Collect imports from the port
• Manually chop logs and mine rocks
• Transport goods from one building to another
• Win prizes in minigames
• Running your own business, selling products or trading items
• Help construct buildings by delivering construction materials
• Renting out buildings you own

Getting Started

At the very start of the game, you'll probably need to do a little bit of manual labour to earn a few denari. Visit the Logging Site near where you started and follow the instructions there. Once you've earned a bit, and assuming other players have built up an economy, trading goods from one building to another is usually the next step.

Skills

When you've gathered a bit of money together, you'll probably want to look at getting a skill which will allow you to construct and run a new building. Normally, skills take a few hours or days (real-time) to learn (Of course you don't need to be in the game all that time - your character continues learning things while you're offline) but your first skill is cheaper than normal and you'll get it in a few minutes rather than a few hours.

When you've got a skill, you'll need more money to be able to construct a building, so make sure you've got plenty of cash left over. Before you choose your skill, it might be worth asking around - if there are any other players online they'll often be willing to help you decide.

Once you're ready, head to the school in the central government area (near the big statue and the wind turbines) and get your skill.

Trading

One of the key ways to make money is to trade items between buildings, buying at low price and selling higher. The 'Town Trades List' button (bottom left) helps you do that:

Items highlighted in this list are opportunities for immediate profit. In this example town, you can pick up some 'Refined Oil' for 50d, then take it to another building that will pay you 52d for it - though note that theres only demand for 2 items at the moment. A better trade might be the Bread - fill up your vehicle at 39d and theres enough demand to buy it all off you at 40d.

There are often other trades available that don't show up on the Town Trades List ; For example, trading items from one town to another (or to the exports port on the north side of the island). Often these will be significantly more profitable.

Fuel

Whenever you are driving around the world, your vehicle consumes fuel. The basic tractor you start with is a terrible gas-guzzler, so upgrading to a more efficient model is a good idea as soon as you can afford it.

If you run out of fuel, you might end up being stuck for a while. If anyone else is online you'll usually be able to find someone willing to help you out.

Homes

Renting or buying a home is an essential step in living a long life. Get in to the habit of returning to your home whenever you leave the game - doing so slows the rate of hunger and thirst increase and prolongs your lifespan significantly.

Note: If you have purchased a Residence Permit, you are allowed to own up to 6 different retail or production buildings, and up to 15 houses. (If you haven't got a residence permit, you're only allowed 1 of each).

Hunger and thirst

Whether you're online or not, you'll always be slowly getting more hungry and thirsty. If you're in your house and have stocked up with supplies you'll eat and drink automatically to keep your health up. If not, long periods without food and drink will lead to short- and long-term damage to your health.

If you're poor, you can get free food and drink from the Soup Kitchen (in the central government area near the wind turbines) at regular intervals. If you're desperate you can also drink from the well (marked on the map, F5) - however this does not do any good for your longterm health.

Wellbeing

Not currently active. The lack of wellbeing currently has no effect.

Death

At some point, you're gonna die. Properly die, not just tractor-exploded-respawn type of die.

Exactly when that is depends on a number of factors ; how well you've eaten, how often you've been left starving or had to sleep in your vehicle (etc etc). If you take particularly good care of yourself you could easily get to well over 100 years old (i.e over 8 months, realtime).

When you do die, you'll lose all your posessions, cash, skills and property ; but you can keep some things around if you've set up a trust fund. (See 'Banks').

Running a business

Whether you own or rent a business, you'll need to know a bit about how the economy is running in order to make a healthy profit.

Setting your buy and sell prices correctly is key to a successful business ; the 'Set Prices' screen give you information to help that process.

For example: a Bakery may make 1 bread from 5 flour every 10 minutes. If the flour costs 4d each, making one bread will cost 5 x 4d for the flour = 20d. If you set your sell price for Bread to 22d you'll be making a 2d profit for each loaf sold.

When products are sold from a business, the money paid goes back into the investment. If you've set your prices right, and are selling above the cost of materials then the amount of investment should slowly rise as products are sold.

When a building requires materials to make stuff (like the flour required by the Bakery in the example above), you can either deliver it yourself or set a 'buy price' and allow other people to sell to your building. This latter method means your building can be active and producing new goods even when you're not around, so can be the best way to make large amounts of money.

When people sell goods to your building, they are paid from the building investment, so you need to make sure you've got enough invested to cover the cost of source materials and the wages to pay your employee.

If you want your building to be very active, aim to set your buy prices for source materials a denari or two above the price they're selling at elsewhere - that way, other players who are in need of a bit of cash can make a small profit by delivering goods from building to building. The source building benefits from selling its goods, the delivery player benefits by making a small profit for transporting things and your building benefits by getting a regular supply of source items.

Farms

Arable farms work a bit differently from normal buildings. There are 3 stages to the farming calender:
1) On Oct 1st, seed is purchased using money from the building investment. Up to a limit defined by the size of the farm, the more investment you have, the more seed you will get.
2) Anytime from November to March you can add fertilizer to your farm to improve the yield.
3) Anytime from July to September you can harvest your crops. The closer you are to the end of August the more crops you will harvest.
If you add no fertilizer and do not manually harvest before the end of September, an automatic harvest will get you 1 crop for every 4 seed planted.

Restaurants

Restaurants provide a quick and cost-effective way of quenching your hunger and thirst - providing they have supplies. Different types of restaurant provide slightly different effects - some will be more beneficial to your long-term health and wellbeing than others, some will do better at quenching your thirst (etc). Sometimes the restaurant owner can vary the meal ingredients ; so beware that suspiciously cheap burrito, it might not be that good for you!

Construction

Building decay

Building decay is currently disabled but will be activated later in the game.

Towns

New towns can be added by players (usually wealthy players) when the world population reaches certain thresholds.

The owner of the town has control of the local construction and sales taxes through which he can potentially receive a significant income. The town owner can also control some settings that determine where (and what type of) buildings can be constructed in the town.

Banks

Banks appear later in the game. They will provide accounts to earn interest and 'Trust Funds' which allow you to retain some of your wealth after death.

RC

RC drones hover a few metres off the ground and like to blast other RC drones to bits.

RC units feed off a single energy source, which is drained by using extra thrust, firing weapons and when taking hits from other RCs.

Depending on your RC type it will come equipped with a variety of weapons:

• Standard bullets ; low energy, low damage, standard weapon. (Usually on CTRL key).
• Plasmas : high energy requirement, high damage weapon (Usually on TAB).
• Repels : Any nearby RCs and incoming weapons are briefly forced away.
• Mines : Drop mines and the hover in place, exploding if an enemy RC comes too close
• Portal : Drop the portal beacon and it will hover in place for a short period. Activate the portal weapon again and your RC unit will be teleported back to the location of the beacon. (Useful for avoiding an Impending Death Scenario (IDS) ).
• Afterburners : Short-lived extra speed boost.

Bongochimp

The Great Descending Bongochimp is your host for a range of special events, subgames and general silliness. With his magical powers he is able to trigger various short-lived activities ; bonus weapons, vehicles, games etc etc. Often these events will include prizes, with the amount of prize money available depending on the number of people taking part in the event.

If you need a little diversion from the grind of farm life, or of trying to build a vast retail empire, join in the bongochimp worship by typing 'bongo bongo' and join the games when prompted.

Pub

The pub contains a number of diversionary activities ; a basically functional poker table, a couple of primitive arcade games, a sometimes-usable chess table. It may also offer beer and if you're very lucky someone with a midi piano might be online and willing to entertain you for Large Amounts of Money.

Racing Booth

Not currently functional.

The Quite Bad Lands

'The Quite Bad Lands' are an area of the world where players can blow each other up. On entering 'The Quite Bad Lands' your tractor is transformed into a heavily armed killing machine/tractor, and you can earn cash by destroying other tractors in the area.

Hornball

All I can say is Hornball was written at least 7 years before anything to do with Rocket League came along, and Rocket League is lots better. But (sometimes) not quite as funny.

Fishing

Fishing in the little lakes is a slow, but simple way of earning a bit of money (you can sell the fish caught at a fish market).