Hi Everyone,
First off, for those of you reading this weeks or months later wondering how I got this game early ... here's what happened. Stallion over at onemilliongamerscore.com posted a link to Harbor Master about a month ago. If you went to that link on your WP7, it took you straight to the try/buy screen for the game. I bought it then. A day or two later MSFT must have realized this was going on and took down the link. Looks like there are about 12 of us on TA who managed to snag the game early.
Onto the guide.
For my 500 cargo units I used the Cyclone level. The first level gets too crazy for me with only two docks, and I didn't want to mess with multi-colored cargo, monsters, or pirates on the later levels. When things start getting hectic the last thing you want to worry about is something other than your ships and docs. Granted, the Cyclone level does have cyclones, but they're not too difficult to deal with and don't crash a ship if you run into them.
Here's my tips.
1) Practice. It's a no brainer right? With Harbor Master, it' a must if you want Admiral to pop. It took me until around 10,000 total cargo units delivered before I could pretty frequently get over 200 per game. It was around 20,000 total before I first broke 400. But by this time I could get over 200 almost every single game and over 300 every 3rd or 4th game. Then, around 30,000 I finally got 500. If you start on the Cyclone level with the intent of hitting 500 from the get-go, you'll probably hit these targets sooner than me.
2) Difficulty Maxing. On the cyclone level it appears that the difficulty maxes out once you hit around 225-250 cargo units delivered. The "waves" of ships keep coming, but there doesn't ever seem to be more on screen simulatenously than the amount there is when you're around 250.
3) "Waves" of Ships. The ships come in waves. Once you get to around 100 cargo on a level you will usually see two of the large freighter ships on screen at the same time. That's usually around the start of a wave consisting of around 7-10 small ships, 5-7 medium ships, and 3-4 freighters. Usually towards the end of a wave I find myself parking my final big freighter along with a final medium ship or two. When the wave dies down it's also a heads up that another wave is about to start. This is a good time to pause if you need to take a break.
4) Back That Freight Up. Freighters can be annoying due to how slow they move, but that's also one of their biggest assets. When one comes on screen I usually try to do one of the following things:
* Have it circle in place near a corner.
* Immediately direct it to a port.
They move so slow that even if you immediately direct it to a port you can still get one or more of the smaller ships to that port before the freighter docks. Also, as it gets close, you can back it up so that squeeze a couple smaller/faster ships in if you need to. Because of how slow it is you can pretty easily have the freighter "idle" in place by occassionally moving it forward then backwards. Trust me, having a freighter idle is a lot easier than continuing to "circle" smaller ships while they're waiting for docks to open up.
5) Smallest in First. Why are you going to crash ships? Usually it's because you have a bunch of ships circling waiting for a dock to open up. Once you get over 200 cargo you'll want to adopt this method: Always give the smallest ships the right of way. If you have a freighter or a medium ship en-route to a dock and a flurry of smaller ships come on screen, back them up and get the small ship in. They'll be in and out in no time, and the larger, slower moving ships are a lot easier to manage while waiting for docs than the small quick ones.
6) Pause = Friend. After around 200-250 cargo is can get pretty hectic in the middle of wave. If you start to lose your groove, pause the game after the ships die down. A nice feature is that it will resume your last paused game when you come back to it, whether your phone times out and locks, or you go back with the back or home button. Take a break. Come back in a couple minutes or a couple hours.
If anyone has any questions/tips/additions feel free to let me know! Good luck ... :)