@database 0034f250-0 @master CosmicBattles.guide @$VER: 2.20 @author "Eric Smith" @(c) "Electrolyte Ind." @node "Main" "Cosmic Battles" @next "Intro" Electrolyte Industries Presents Cosmic Battles A tactical space combat simulator for the Amiga based on the game Cosmic Balance from SSI and Rapid Fire @{"Introduction" link "Intro" 0} ... What this game is about @{"Requirements" link "Requirements" 0} ... Do I have what it takes? @{"Getting Started" link "Start" 0} ... How to start playing @{"The Scenarios" link "Scenarios" 0} ... Description of the built in scenarios @{"Ship Design" link "Design" 0} ... Details on ship designing @{"Combat Arena" link "Combat" 0} ... A tour of the command center @{"Battle Phase" link "Battle Phase" 0} ... FIRE! @{"End Game" link "End" 0} ... Who wins and why @{"Credits" link "Credit" 0} ... Credit for those deserving it @{"History" link "History" 0} ... What took me so long anyway @{"Close" quit} ... I'm done @{"Registration" link "Registration" 0} ... How to get it all @{"Bugs" link "Bugs" 0} ... I hope not @{"Notes" link "Author's_Notes" 0} ... babble @{"Legal" link "Legal" 0} ... Covering my back @endnode @node "Intro" "Introduction" @next "Requirements" @prev "Main" Cosmic Battles is a tactical combat simulator based on the game Cosmic Balance . In the game, you design ships and send them into combat. There are two distinct parts to the game. The design lab, where build your technological wonders; and the battle zone, where you watch those wonders burn in space. I have included some designs with the game. You can edit them, but can not save them. They are "locked" designs. The designs are from the included scenarios in the game. As I mentioned above, there are six included scenarios in the game. These are Escape; Sector 12; Classic, which is the classic scenario Cosmic Balance between the Enterprise and Reliant; Gamma Encounter, which is a new scenario involving Star Trek ships; The Coal Sack; and Escort. If the references to Star Trek begin to give anyone ideas of suing me, then warn me first so I may strike the references from this game. I am not in the business of being sued. "If regulations are not clear and orders not thoroughly explained, it is the commander's fault. But when they have been made clear, and are not carried out in accordance with military law, it is a crime on the part of the officers." --- Sun Tzu (Sun Tzu, The Art of War) @endnode @node "Requirements" "Requirements" @next "Start" @prev "Intro" Cosmic Battles requires:- - Amiga computer - 1Meg Chip Ram - 3M total Ram (May operate in 2M RAM) - 680x0 processor - WB/KS 2.0+ - 4M HD space * Floppy installation not recommended @endnode @node "Start" "Getting Started" @next "Escape" @prev "Requirements" Installation: Installation is easy. Copy all the files to wherever you want them. You do not have to install on a hard drive, but you will probably be sorry if you don't. You will need to copy the CB font to the FONTS: directory. If I can find a way to avoid having to do this, then I will put it in a later version. That way, you can easily install and uninstall Cosmic Battles and not wonder where the devil that CB.font came from. Once the game is installed and you've cleared up most of your chip your ready to go. Click on the Cosmic Icon and the game will begin. Cosmic Battles finds a problem with moving in, a requester will appear tell you what went wrong and then the program will clean up itself as best Beginning the game: Once the game has started, you will be presented with the title screen. In the center of the screen are your choices. You can go to the ShipYard, where you construct your new ships; you can Refit an old ship design; you can pick one of the built in scenarios to play; or you can quit. You may also select one or two player mode. Clicking on the One Player button for a second time will turn it red. In this way you can choose which side you will control once the game starts. There are two choices in the scenario box that require further explanation. These are External and Custom. The External selector is for expansion sets of more scenarios. None exist at the time of this writing. Custom is not a complete scenario designer, it is a method of using ships in a scenario. When Custom is selected, you must tell the computer what ships you wish to use for each side. Then the game will begin usual. "'Weapons are tools of ill omen.' War is a grave matter; one apprehensive lest men embark upon it without due reflection." --- Li Ch'uan (Sun Tzu, The Art of War) @endnode @node "Scenarios" "Scenarios" @next "Escape" @prev "Start" Scenario Descriptions @{"Escape" link "Escape" 0} @{"Sector 12" link "Sector12" 0} @{"Classic" link "Classic" 0} @{"Gamma Encounter" link "Gamma Encounter" 0} @{"Escort" link "Escort" 0} @{"The Sack" link "The Coal Sack" 0} @endnode @node "Escape" "Escape" @next "Sector12" @prev "Scenarios" Escape: Player One: Nothing to report today. You turn your small fighter to return home. While you stare out into cold space, thoughts of a warm supper and relaxation come to mind. Suddenly the proximity alarm blares. "Unknown vessel detected to starboard.", the computer reports. "Scanning vessel. Ship size: 5. Dreadnought class. Disposition: Hostile." So much for that relaxation. There is no way you can stand against dreadnought alone. Your only hope is to get back to base, report incident and get help. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Player Two: What a silly idea. What is command thinking? Your orders are to warp deep into alliance space and attack an alliance colony. You are to do so alone. Once the colony is secured you are to hold it until more ships arrive. Rediculous. That deep into alliance space, you are surely to be met greater force than even a dreadnought can withstand. However, you your orders. "Coming out of warp space, commander!" "Shields up. Battle ready status. Any contacts to report?" "No sir. Wait, one. It's a small two man attack craft." "Is that all? Just the one small ship?" Maybe command knew what it was doing after all. "Move to attack." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Victory Conditions: Player one is in a size 1 vessel. To win the scenario, the vessel exit the right side of the battle field or destroy the dreadnought. Player two is in command of a size 5 dreadnought. Destroy the attack craft and the battle is yours. @endnode @node "Sector12" "Sector 12" @next "Classic" @prev "Escape" Sector 12: Player One: CAPTAIN'S LOG: We were sent out to investigate pirate activity on the upspin rim space. It has been two days without any contacts. I have allowed the ship's engineer to power down the shields in order to repair an overheating problem in the emitter coils. "Captain, contacts to fore and aft." "How many, Ensign?" "Three, four... six. Six contacts of sizes two and three. They pirate vessels. At least one may be armed with disruptors." Jehosaphat. Six ships, one of them may have disruptors, and we have shields. "Engineer, I need those shields back now!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Player Two: Hovering in witch space is an old tactic. The alliance has sent out dreadnought class ship to catch us. We will just wait here for opportunity. "Commander, their shields have been down for some time now. Shall attack?" The alliance vessel lowered their shields almost 6 hours ago. wouldn't do that in potentially dangerous territory unless something wrong. "Make the jump into normal space. We attack." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Victory Conditions: Player one is in a size 5 dreadnaught. You begin the scenario shields powered down. You must destroy the pirate vessels in order to Player two is in command of six vessels. Four of size two, two of three. You must destroy the dreadnought in order to win. @endnode @node "Classic" "Classic" @next "Gamma Encounter" @prev "Sector12" Classic: This is the classic encounter between the Enterprise and the Reliant. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Victory Conditions: Player one is in command of the Enterprise. It will start in a random location in the battle field. You must destroy the Reliant in order to win. Player two is in command of the Reliant. It will start in a random location on the battle field. You must destroy the Enterprise to win. @endnode @node "Gamma Encounter" "Gamma Encounter" @next "Escort" @prev "Classic" Gamma Encounter: This scenario is inspired by the television show, Deep Space Nine . It from the first episode in which we see the J'em Hadaar. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Victory Conditions: Player one is in command of one size four ship, the Oddessey; and three size two ships, Run Abouts. One of the Run Abouts is damaged. You escape off the left side of the battle field with the Oddessey and damaged Run About. It will not be easy. Player two is in command of seven J'em Hadaar vessels. Four are in close range to the damaged Run About. You must destroy all the Federation intruders to win. The vessels are all size 3. @endnode @node "Escort" "Escort" @next "The Coal Sack" @prev "Gamma Encounter" Escort: Player one: You are on the last leg of your journey. The three cargo transports made it this far without any problems. Now you have entered the Katan nebula, a favorite ambush site for pirates. As expected, as soon as enter the nebula, your scope shows several pirate vessels approaching. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Player two: The transport group must come through the Katan nebula, there is no other way. You have readied a rabble of pirates from your local sect to ambush the group. Knowing that the nebula will hamper the Escorts' electronics, this should be an easy raid. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Victory Conditions: Player one is in command of three escort ships and three transports. must get the transports to the bottom edge of the battle field in order Player two is in command of five pirate vessels. You must prevent transports from reaching the bottom edge of the battle field. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Environment note: This scenario takes place in a nebula. Shields will be less effective at deflecting damage. The map scanner can only identify targets up to half normal range. @endnode @node "The Coal Sack" "The Coal Sack" @next "Design" @prev "Escort" The Coal Sack: This scenario is inspired by "The Gripping Hand" (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Victory Conditions: Player one is in command of the MacArthur and Sinbad. You must get Sinbad off the right side of the battle field or stop all the motie ships from exiting the left side of the battle field. Player two is in command of four motie ships of varying sizes. You get any or all of the ships off the left side of the battle field to ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Environment note: This scenario takes place in a nebula. Shields will be less effective at deflecting damage. The map scanner can only identify targets up to half normal range. @endnode @node "Design" "Ship Design" @next "Combat" @prev "The Coal Sack" Ship Design 101: If you chose ShipYard from the title screen, you will be asked to select hull size and a technology level. These attributes will effect how space your ship has , how fast it may accelerate, how much damage it take, how effective it's weapons are and so on. In places where techlevel and size may effect your decisions, they will b e noted. For now, the bigger the ship, the more massive it is. The higher its technology level, the more effective it's systems and the more space some of them will take up. A good ship design depends on what you want from it. You may design 'jack-of-all-trades ' sort of ship, but this will not be as good as specially-designed, side firing transport escort. On the other hand, side firing escort is more vulnerable to front and rear attacks. brings to mind a few things to remember. Know your enemy and know yourself. Match strength against weakness and defend your vulnerabilities. The design panel is broken up into two parts. On the left side of screen is an information panel. It contains constantly updated information on your current ship design. On the right side of the screen is the current design aspect you are working on. There are three design aspects. The first one you see is the equipment panel. The other two are weapons and shields. First we will discuss the design panel. At the top, under the design name, is a box containing information on the amount of hull space left, crew efficiency, ship's mass, its maximum speed and acceleration. In addition, the box displays power output and rack space. Below this box are two large gadgets. The one with the disk is for saving the current design, the one with the door is for leaving the design facility. Beside these two large gadgets are three gold bordered gadgets. These are used to change to the other design aspect panels. The top one is entering the equipment panel. The gadget depicting a clenched fist is the weapons panel, while the third one, enblazoned with the image of a green shield, is for the shield panel. Equipment Panel The panel shows the number of each of several systems your ship design have. Each is described below. In addition, the box at the lower part the design panel contains a brief description of each device. Clicking anywhere within the borders of a particular piece of equipment will change the description to that of the requested device. WARP DRIVES: Warp drives will allow you to escape a battle scene during combat phase. Escaping from a battle will only allow you to keep a certain number of victory points since losing your ship altogether will add nothing to your score. A ship without warp drives may be towed by a ship with warp drives in order to allow it to escape. Space Required: One @{"Tech Sector" alink "TechSectors" 0} CARGOBAYS: Cargo bays are for carrying supplies. Their only use in this is to make a ship more realistic or to use up some space for a special design. Space Required: One Tech Sector FIGHTERBAYS: Fighter bays are launch bays for fighter groups. These fighter groups act as a guided weapon and will continue to attack the target vessel until either the group or the target is destroyed. Fighters have no range limit. Space Required: Two @{"Tech Sector" link "TechSectors" 0}s HULL: Each ship must have a minimum hull space. This is for crew quarters and workspace. Increasing the hull space will increase the crew efficiency and thus the general efficiency of your ship. Additional hull spaces are also required for marines. Each marine requires one hull space for living quarters. The minimum requirements are listed in the following table: Ship Size Min Hull Space 1 1 2 2 3 5 4 10 5 20 An increased efficiency will increase the range and damage of beamed weapons since your crew will target them more accurately. Also, an increased efficiency will transfer to your marines and will help them to fight off or to overtake another vessel. To increase the efficiency to two, add one half times more than the minimum required hull space. To increase the efficiency to three, add twice the minimum amount of hull space. Space Required: One Sector RACKS: Racks hold the targeting and launch hardware for guided missiles. Each rack will hold either four light seekers or two heavy seekers combination of the two. Each rack will give your ship four rack spaces. light seeker will take up one rack space, while a heavy seeker requires rack spaces. Space Required: Two Sectors LIGHT SEEKERS: Each light seeker requires one rack space. A light seekers is missile that homes in on the subspace emmisions of a target vessel. Light seekers are effective against enemy shielding. Space Required: One Rack Space HEAVY SEEKERS: A heavy seeker is similar to a light seekers but it has greater damage capability and a shorter range. Space Required: Two Rack Spaces ENGINES: Engine generate power for your ships systems and drives. engine installed will output eight power units. The power output engines is the amount of power available to you during each turn of combat phase. You do not want to under power your creations. Space Required: Two Sectors DRIVES: Drives propel your ship. The amount of acceleration and speed drive will give your ship depends on the ship's mass. Space Required: Four Sectors TRANSPORTERS: Transporters are used for transporting marines to another vessel. This is the way in which you may have marines board an enemy vessel to take it over or a friendly vessel in order to help defend it. Each transporter can transport up to two marines at a time. Space Required: One Sector TRACTOR BEAMS: The tractor beams are used for towing crippled vessels out danger. Their only use in the game is to warp crippled ships out of combat arena and thus save some victory points. Space Required: Four Sectors ARMOR: These are extremely hard metal plates capable of deflecting enemy fire. A section of armor will absorb all damage from an enemy attack. a plasma torpedo can destroy a section of armor. This does not mean that an armored ship can not be damaged by normal weapons. The armor plating only absorb damage if it is hit. Space Required: One Sector MARINES: Marines will help defend a ship if it is boarded. Additionally, they may be transported to another ship to either defend it (if it is friendly) or to overtake the crew (if it is an enemy). Space Required: One Hull Space (in addition to minimum) BELTS: Belts are electromagnetic generators and point defense weapons capable of destroying launched weapons. Belts remain charged until used, at which point they may be charged again. Each belt has a chance to shoot down a fighter or a seeker as well as reducing the strength of a plasma torpedo. Space Required: One Sector The Weapons panel: Each ship may have up to twelve weapons installed. Each weapon may have firing arc in any combination of eight firing arcs. No one firing arc contain more than a certain number of weapons (dependant on ship size). firing arcs correspond to the octants of the complete circle (each arc has a 45 degree range). Below is a chart matching arc with its relation to the ship. Arcs also used in shield naming. The arrow indicates the front of the ship. 8 1 7 /\ 2 6 -- 3 5 4 The arc correspond to the small lights around the grey triangle in weapon block. If the light is green, that arc is selected if it is red, the weapon is not installed in the arc. In order to select a weapon for a ship, click on the left or right arrows below the weapon's name. The computer will change the weapon type to next weapon for which you have room. In order to select which arcs install a weapon on, either click on the arc light to toggle installation click on the corresponding numbered button at the bottom of the panel. The help box in the design panel will display information about current weapon type. The computer will skip some weapons if you do not have the room to install them. Also, a weapon arc may not light up if it will exceed the maximum weapons per arc as given in the following chart: Ship Size Maximum Weapons per Arc 1 2 2 4 3 6 4 8 5 10 Each weapon requires a minimum amount of space for the targeting and power converting hardware. Each additional arc added to a weapon requires additional space. Space required is given in two numbers. For example: 1/2 , 3/16 means that the first arc will require one half sector while any additional arcs will require 3/16ths sectors each. The space remaining slot on the design panel will only show integer values. The damage values are given as a number and a typical range ( damage range) followed by a note. If a d follows the damage value, then the weapon will drain additional points from the enemy shielding. The damage and range values are for an average ship design. The actual points will vary depending on distance fired, crew efficiency, ecm/eccm conflict and technology level. Refer to figure 3.1 for a chart of the damage to range ratios. (figure 3.1 is an ILBM file included with the docs). Weapons descriptions: LIGHT PHASER: A high energy beam weapon which melts through the outer skin of a enemy ship. Damage: 10 @ 15 Space Required: 1/2 , 3/16 HEAVY PHASER: A larger, more damaging version of the light phaser. Damage: 14 @ 20 Space Required: 1 , 3/8 SIEGE PHASER: Siege phasers are the most damaging class of phaser. They designed for destroying fortress starbases along contested boundaries. Damage: 20 @ 30 Space Required: 2 , 3/4 PHOTON TORPEDO: This isn't a real torpedo in the sense of a launched weapon. Instead, it is a beam weapon that fires multiphasic (varying frequency) pulses thus overtaxing an enemies shields. Damage: 14d @ 20 Space Required: 2 , 3/4 DISRUPTOR: The disruptor is slow charging, but has the longest range of any weapon. It is less accurate than the other beam weapons and can be evaded by a fast moving ship. Damage: 12+TechLevel @ 100 (effected by speed of target) Space Required: 2 , 3/4 PLASMA TORPEDO: The plasma torpedo generator has one launch emitter and always has 360 degree firing arc. The weapon requires three rounds of charging before the torpedo is ready to fire. Once it is fired, it will home in to target vessel releasing extreme amounts of energy. A plasma torpedo is only weapon that can destroy armor. Damage: 60 @ 32 (looses power at longer ranges) Space Requried: 15 , 0 (all arcs available to each plasma emitter installed) Shields: Shields are not required, but are a nice thing to have on your ship. Shields are assigned to arcs. As with weapon firing arcs, shield arcs cover a 45 degree section of your ship. The circle on the shield panel building shield power on your ship's design. Each shield strength requires eight shield batteries. Each shield battery requires 1/64 space. The number displayed is the actual shield strength for a given arc. For example, a value of eight in the area of arc one means that shield arc one has a maximum shield strength of eight. To change the value of a shield arc, click on the lighted box below arc you wish to alter. Clicking the up or down arrow next to the shield control will increase or decrease the shield strength by one. When you are done: When your done making a ship design, you can save it or scrap it. If click on the exit gadget without saving your design, it will be scrapped. To save your design, click on the large gadget depicting a disk and blueprint. You will be presented with a file requester to save your design with. The requester will only show directories and file which are designs. Do not panic if your word processing program does not appear on the file list, it does not show up because it is not a ship design. The name you give for the file will become the ship's design name. Two things happen when you save a ship design. If enough space remains on your ship, the computer will add more shielding. If all the shield arcs are full, the computer will add layers of armor. The second thing that will happen is that the computer will weed out the empty weapon blocks. If you have some empty weapon blocks between full weapon blocks, the computer will move the full weapons up. This does not effect the functioning of the weapons, it simply keeps things neat. You may leave the design lab by clicking the exit gadget. "Now an army may be likened to water, for as flowing water avoids heights and has tens to the lowlands, so an army avoids strength and strikes weakness." --- Sun Tzu (Sun Tzu, The Art of War) @endnode @node "Combat" "Combat Arena" @next "Battle Phase" @prev "Design" Note: if anyone has any ideas of suing me for using Star "things" in this game, let me know and I will immediately remove references. I am not using these "things" as a selling point. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Combat This is the normal playing mode of the game. Once you select a scenario or saved game, the game will begin. First, the screen will notify you of which player's turn it is. The other player should leave the room, but it isn't required. Any keypress or button click will bring the player to the ship command area. The screen will have a red palette if the ship currently under your control is nearly destroyed. There are four command screens. Even though they cover different aspects of the ship, they all share some characteristics. One of these characteristics is the gold bordered gadgets. Every screen will have these six gadgets on them somewhere. These are used to go to the varios games screens. ------------------- | A | B | C | | | | | ------------------- | D | E | F | | | | | ------------------- A - depicts CRS and a rainbow line. Go to Navigation console. B - depicts a clenched fist. Go to Weapons console. C - depicts a white cross on blue. End this turn of commands. D - depicts blue graph with DCON. Go to Damage Control console. E - depicts green shield. Go to Shield console. F - depicts floppy disk. Save game and possibly quit. Another common characteristic is the tabs at the top of each screen. These are used to select among your ships to command. Simply click on one of tabs and that ship will be ready to recieve your instructions. The Map Two control screens contain the map. The map controls are described here. The top portion of the map is the actual visual display. Your current ship is portrayed by a blue square, usually in the center of the display. The map may contain several other symbols each of which have a different meaning. Below is a legend. Blue square - Current vessel. Green square - Friendly vessel. Red square - Enemy vessel. Yellow X - unknown or out of zoom range. White circle - Plasma torpedo. Blue circle - Heavy seeker. Red circle - Light seeker. Grey hash - fighter group. 4 Brown dots - asteroid. The map display also serves as a target plotter. If a red square is the current display, you may click on it to make it the current target. information will be displayed below the map in the target information block. The map console is very full of information. In addition to the display and information, there are several buttons for handling predictions. There are also the gold bordered screen gadgets. Two of the additional tools on the map are ovoid gadgets depicting magnifying glass. These are used to zoom in and out as labeled. The will only go out to a zoom factor of 5. Each zoom factor is approximately 2 times the area of its previous fact Next to the magnifying glass is another number. Beside which are two gadgets. A plus and a minus. These are used to predict the location of objects on the display during a given turn segment. You can click on these gadgets to get an idea of w The current power readout is also on the map console. It is simply measure of available power for this turn. Navigation Console The navigation console consists of the scanner map and a navigational array. The map has already been described. On the navigation console you will find two lists of 16 numbers. These are your current ships course and speed for the 16 segments of the next turn. You will also notice a dark area with a small green anchor next to one of the rows of the lists. This Connected to the lists of numbers is a box containing a circle within which are some blue buttons and a number. These four buttons are used change the course of your ship. They correspond to the compass directions. 0 315 o 45 \ | / 270 o- xxx -o 90 / | \ 225 o 135 180 The red arrows are also buttons, which correspond to their respective compass directions. By clicking these buttons, you can change the number in the box toward value the blue button represents. If you double click the button, the value will immediately become the button's representational value. The number between the blue buttons is the current desired course change. Clicking on it will activate the course change. You may not be able to move to the desired value in the time allowed during the next turn. It depends on your speed, available power and number of functioning drives. The course change will begin at the segment immediately following green anchor. So if you wish to start a course change at segment 8, would click in the space next to the 7th row of the course list. The green anchor will move to that spot. Above the course changer are pictures of a turtle and a rabbit. number beside each represents the minimum and maximum speed your ship attain in this turn. The rectangle with the purple spot in it is used change the speed. Clicking on it near the rabbit will increase your speed while clicking near the turtle will decrease it. Also, you can engage the warp drive from the navigation screen. This only possible if you have some warp drives remaining and it is after number 10. Engaging the warp drive will cause your ship to escape the battle scene, but not necessarily win the scenario. Lastly, the navigation screen contains a nameplate for your ship. serves no practical purpose. Weapons Console The weapons console contains the map console. The map has already described. On the left of the screen is a bank of weapons your ship has. Blocks are shaded are damaged weapons, these are unavailable to you. Blocks contain the EI logo are empty weapon blocks, they represent no loss. Finally, there will be blocks containing information. ------Weapon Name------ Arcs Charge F C D Status target information ----------------------- The arc circle displays the available arcs the weapon can fire in. triangle represents your ship. Green lights indicate a go status, while ones are not in the firing arc. The charge status indicates the readiness of the current weapon. If it a green light, you may fire it in this turn. Some weapons require more one charge before they can be fired. In these cases the charge status indicates how many charges rema A weapon can only be charged once per turn. This is done with the button. A weapon will not hold its charge for more than one turn, so if do not fire it when it is ready, you will lose the charge. In the case plasma and disruptors, the charge Weapon Power Light Phaser 1 unit Heavy Phaser 1 unit Siege Phaser 2 units Photon 5 units Disruptors 2 units for 2 turns (4 units in all) Plasma 5 units for 3 turns (15 units in all) If you have charged a weapon and decide you do not want it to be charged, you may drain the weapon. This is done with the D button. In this case, any power put into the weapon during this turn will be taken back out. Finally, you can fire you weapon. you may only fire a weapon if status is green and you have a target aquired on the map. An aquired target need not be showing. The aquired target is the one which the map's target information block is displaying. The target information will help you decide what and when to fire. displays the range of the target at the beginning of the turn. It contains a display called Arc. The two numbers are the target's shield facing your current ship and the c Damage Control Console This screen displays information on the amound of damage your vessel sustained. It also shows the number of crew members, drives, engines, cargo holds and missile racks remaining. Most important of these are the three boxes labeled damage, extra and crit. Damage is the percentage of damaged space your ship has sustained far. The larger this number is, the more extraordinary damage your ship recieve. Extra represents the amount of extraordinary damage your ship recieved. Extraordinary damage is caused through the loss of crew members, marines or jammer/sensor equipment on board. The more extraordinary damage you recieve, the higher your chance to recieve Critical damage. Crit represents the number of critical points your ship has remaining. When this reaces 0, your ship is destroyed. Shield Console The shield console is used to charge jammers and belts. It is also to order the transport of marines and towing of vessels. In addition, it is used to manipulate shields. Ecm and Eccm are similar devices. Ecm will jam an enemies targeting capability, making it less accurate. Eccm is a jammer jammer. It counteract the enemy's Ecm, possibly neutralizing it. Charging your Eccm can mean the prevention of damage. Belts can also be charged here. Ecm, Eccm and belts are all manipulated in the same way. The left arrow will decrease a charge while the right arrow will increase it. Belts will remain charged until they are used, Ecm and Eccm must be charged each turn Clicking the tractor beams will pop up a list of vessels in tow vessels available for towing. The number on the display represents number of remaining, functioning, tractor beams. The column of red names those ships on the current vessel's tow list. When a ship escapes using drives, any vessels in tow will go with it. A ship may tow one other for every functioning tractor beam it has. A ship may only be on one list at a time. Clicking the yellow checkered gadget will close the tow display. The transporter is operated with the left and right arrows. To order transport of marines, you must click the right arrow. This will increase number of marines to transport. The current target, displayed at the top the screen, will be the transport target. If the target is friendly, these marines will join those of the target vessel. If the target is an enemy vessel, they will attempt to overtake the crew. Weapons fire does discriminate between enemy and friendly marines. Firing upon a boarded vessel may result in the death of some of the boarding party. The circle occupying the left portion of the screen contains shield information. Each number represents the current charge of a shield arc as well as the number of uncharged batteries. Batteries will become discharged from absorbing weapons fire. The number on top represents the current shield charge while the number on the bottom of each box represents uncharged batteries. To manipulate a shield arc, click on its display box, a requester will appear. ____________ | xxx | | | | n | | mode | | | | t | | | | yyy | | | | ok cancel| ------------ xxx represents the maximum number of power units available for the current mode. n is the shield arc which you are manipulating. mode is one of three types - charge, drain or transfer. t is only important during a shield transfer. It is the arc you wish transfer power from. yyy is the number of energy units you wish to apply to the current mode. ok and cancel are self explanatory. There are three modes of operation - charge, drain and transfer. Charge means that you want to charge yyy batteries of the current arc. maximum represents the number of batteries left to charge or the number power units available to charge them with. Whichever is smaller. Drain is useful if you need emergency power. It is inefficient, maximum represents the number of charged batteries. yyy is the number batteries you wish to drain. The amount of power you recieve will only be in every four units. So if you drain 16 batteries you will get 4 power units. Transfer is a more effiecient way to charge another shield arc with power from the current shield arc. It is not a 1:1 ratio, but it is better draining then charging. The power transfered will be half the number batteries you drain. The number at the top of the requester is the actual maximum number of batteries you can charge with power from the selected shield arc. So if you transfer 16 units from shield arc 4, shield arc 4 will be drained by 32 units. Ok to make it so, cancel to change your mind. When you are done entering orders for this turn, click on the bordered gadget with the white cross. This will allow the next player enter commands. When the second player is finished, the battle phase begins. "If wise, a commander is able to recognize changing circumstances and to act expediently. If sincere, his men will have no doubt of the certainty of rewards and punishments. If humane, he loves mankind, sympathizes with others, and appreciates their industry and toil. If courageous, he gains victory by seizing opportunity without hesitation. If strict, his troops are disciplined because they are in awe of him and are afraid of punishment." --- Tu Mu (Sun Tzu, The Art of War) @endnode @node "Battle Phase" "Battle Phase" @next "End" @prev "Combat" Battle Phase At the beginning of each battle phase, you will be asked which ship center the action on. After selecting a ship, the next turn of battle begins. The battle screen contains few controls. There are two magnifiers zooming in and out, a pause button and a display of the center ship's name. You may zoom in and out at any time during the game, paused or not. After all 16 segments are over, the display will stop and a new button will appear. Press this continue button to go to the next round of entering commands. You may also use this time to study the situation. Pausing is disabled at this point, since it is pointless. "All warfare is based on deception." --- Sun Tzu (Sun Tzu, The Art of War) @endnode @node "End" "End Game" @next "Credit" @prev "Battle Phase" At the end of the game, a screen will display the scores and declare a winner. The winner is the player who meets the requirements of a scenario such as removing ships from the battle area or destroying all enemy vessels. If both players meet their respective requirements, the game is declared a draw. The scores are dependent on the amount of ship each player has remaining at the end of the encounter. Column one shows the amount of score each player began the encounter with. The second column shows how many points were lost due to damage; and column three is the total score remaining at the end of the scenario. Pressing continue will return you to the title screen. When you grow tired of playing Cosmic Battles, press escape while on title screen. Your computer will be restored to its previous state. "The dead cannot be restored to life." --- Sun Tzu (The Art of War) @endnode @node "Credit" "Credits" @next "History" @prev "End" Amiga Programming and art work - Eric Smith Using SASC/C++ v6.51, DeluxePaint IV, Imagine 2.0, and the Perfect Sound digitizer. I used Heddley, by Edd Dumbill to write the original AmigaGuide document. I would like to thank Al Grossman of JingleSmith Studios for helping me find some of the sound effects. If you like the game, please consider a $25 donation to the following address. I will send you a floppy with the latest version. A registration form is provided for your convenience. You may send suggestions to this address or my email address. Eric Smith 1304 Comer Clovis, NM 88101 Email: No email address FIDO: Eric Smith@1:318/19.0 or Eric Smith@1:318/25.0 @endnode @node "History" "History" @prev "Credit" History is in an external file. @endnode @node "TechSectors" "What's a Tech Sector?" A tech sector is an amount of space equal to the ships technological level plus nine. For instance: a ship of tech level 3 would mean that a tech sector would occupy 9+3 or 12 sectors. @endnode @node "Registration" "Registration" The unregistered version of Cosmic Battles has a play limit of 8 turns well as all save features being disabled. I would like to just give away game, but I have spent a considerable amount of time writing it and society imposes financial responsibilites on everyone. The requested registration fee is $25.00 US. If you feel you wish more. I won't complain. Payment may be in cash, check or money order. It is not recommended that you send cash. If you do, the post office suggests you send it in an envelope which no one can see through or wrap it so that it is not visible. With the paid fee, I will package the registered version and mail it to Included with this will be an 68030/68881(2) version. Registered versions will be sent in a timely manner. Registration requests should be sent to: Eric Smith 1304 Comer Clovis, NM 88101 Thank you. @endnode @node "Bugs" "Bugs" In the event that you do find a bug, please report it to me at USPS: Eric Smith 1304 Comer Clovis, NM 88101 EMAIL (FIDO): Eric Smith@1:318/19.0 or Eric Smith@1:318/25.0 (INTERNET): So sorry, our town has no access to the internet. Be as precise as possible when making bug reports. I must be able to repeat the bug here in order to track down the problem. @endnode @node "Author's_Notes" "Author's Notes" Many years ago, I played a game called Cosmic Balance. I found it to be interesting and fun but I've only seen it on the 8 bit machines. When bought my Amiga 2000 in 1990, I decided to write a version for the generation of 16 and 32 bit machines. The first incarnation worked, it had sound effects and some graphics. It worked on my machine, though. I never figured out why. The project got packed up and promptly lost. Meanwhile I continued to study for my Bachelors Degree. Near the end of my studies, I found that others were interested in this game. So, I took up the keyboard again and set out to create a second incarnation. This one I had up to an early alpha-beta stage. It was playable to a point and I even distributed to several people spread over the US. Alas, finals and studies came up and the second try at Cosmic Battles had a bug in it I just could not chase down. Now, I have graduated. While looking for a job during the summer, I found that I had much spare time on my hands. Time enough to finish my art work. So, Cosmic Battles 2.00 project began. This time, there were no stops. would not settle for anything less than perfection. I also decided implement my variations on the theme. So, I began work. Responses from the second version (that first one had no version since really didn't go anywhere), of Cosmic Battles helped in my redesigning of interface. My practice and study of art work in other games has helped me in creating the art work in Cosmic. My friend, also owner of a professional sound studio, helped me to find and create sound effects. My new 030/33Mhz accelerator made the wait time on ray trace rendering and compile time livable. The title screen of Cosmic Battles v1.00 took 8 days. Now, it takes less than an hour. All of these ingredients have come together to make the game you see today. "Treat the captives well, and care for them." --- Sun Tzu (Sun Tzu, The Art of War) "All the soldiers taken must be cared for with magnanimity and sincerity so that they may be used by us." --- Chang Yu (Sun Tzu, The Art of War) @endnode @node "Legal" "Legal" Electrolyte Industries reserves the right to make improvements in the product described in this text at any time and without notice. This text, and the software described in this text, is copyrighted. All rights are reserved. The unregistered version of the described product may be freely distributed so long as the original archive contents are intact. Electrolyte Industries makes no warranties, express or implied, with respecto to this text, its quality, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. This text, and the described software, is provided "as I am not responsible for any damage caused by this software. Nor am I responsible for any mental anguish caused by same. This software is shareware. If you use it, please consider registering @endnode