Getting started

Once you have logged in to Netropolis by entering your username and password and entered the town you've chosen to play in, you'll see the Netropolis game console on your screen with a map of a small section of the town on the right hand side. In the bottom left corner of the console you'll see a smaller map which represents the whole city.

Netropolis is very simple to learn. The buildings, hot dog carts and other little pictures on the big map represent other players' businesses. Empty spaces represent land which is up for sale. All you have to do to get into business is click on an empty plot, buy it, and choose a business to set up on it - just follow the on-screen instructions (or check out the help pages) to find out how. It's best to build near roads, rivers, lakes and trees, if there are any free spaces there. If a town is completely full your best bet is to buy or simply move into derelict buildings, demolish them, then rebuild.

Once you've started a business or two you'll be able to see them on the map, alongside all the other players' businesses. The only difference is that yours will be coloured blue so you can spot them easily, while the other players' will be red.

Every 5 minutes or so the profits your business or businesses are making are calculated. You can check how profitable any business is by clicking on it on the map, whether it's yours or another player's. In theory, you can just sit back and get richer, occasionally buying more land and starting more businesses.

If you really wanted a life like that you'd have become an accountant, right? To really get on in Netropolis you'll need to get rid of the competition, which is where the Dirty Tricks come in. If you click on a business and choose the Dirty Tricks option, you'll see the various Dirty Tricks you can do. Initially they're not too destructive, but as you get richer and more powerful you'll find you can annihilate a business in one fell swoop if you feel like it. If you do decide to pull a Dirty Trick, be ready for retribution. Your victim will soon find out what you've done, so don't start anything unless you're sure you can win.

The point of the game is to get rich and move to the top of the pile in your chosen town. Part of the fun is making alliances and meeting other people. You're not playing this game against a computer - your opponents are real people, so visit the forums, get known and make friends. If you've got what it takes, you'll be able to move to a big city and play with the real mean boys.

Money

To start you off you'll receive £50,000. and you can see how much you have at any time by looking at the top left of the game console. If you decide to sell up and move to another town, you'll find the bank will limit how much money you can bring with you. So remember - if you want to be a big shot anywhere, you have to earn it there!

The game console has seven buttons as well as the two maps:

Help - Brings up these help pages.

Map - Toggles the large map between the normal, zoomed in view of the town, showing individual buildings, and a satellite view showing all the buildings in the town. Your buildings will be coloured blue.

HQ - Takes you to your a page with links to every part of the game. You can do everything from here, including sending and reading messages, getting game stats, and adjusting various game options. After you've been playing for a short while, you'll earn the right to an HQ building - a building on the map which is your operations centre.

Comms - Presents you with options to send email, participate in forums or chat, send a Netropolis memo or read the town newspaper.

Events - Tells you what you've been doing and what's been done to you

Stats - Displays the profit (or loss) that each of your businesses are generating, and a list of how all the other businesses in the town are doing.

Satellite view / last actions - Toggles the small map between a view of the town and a list of the last five actions you've performed.

The topics listed above mainly deal with new users to Netropolis. If you have any problems that are not stated in this list please email us at game_producer@tiscali.co.uk.