WWC snapshot of http://www.msi.umn.edu/paradise/everything.html taken on Sun May 28 22:56:25 1995

Your ship

Engineering

Impulse

Impulse drive is used for combat and short-distance driving.

Afterburners

Afterburners are used when you need quick accelleration.

That cloaked thing was really a warbase!
You aren't moving fast enough to dodge the torp stream!
That buttorper is about to go into warp and you aren't in tractor range yet.

Use it sparingly. It burns fuel and heats your engines very quickly

Warp

Warp drive is used for covering long distances. It costs some fuel to initiate, and takes a few seconds to power up. Normally you can't fire while warping or during the prep period. Normally you can't cloak during the prep period.

If you are being tractored or pressored when your ship is done with warp preparation, the warp field will be disrupted.

Your ship has tractor and pressor beams. The strength varies, being stronger on the bigger ships.

Navigation

Your ship will turn to match the course you've set. It turns faster at slower speeds. Very few ships can turn noticably above warp 8.

In addition to being able to set any heading, you can lock on to players and stellar objects. You will then continuously adjust course to head directly toward the player or stellar object. If locked on to a base or a stellar object, you will decelerate and automatically dock or go into orbit when close enough.

Weapons

The basic weapons are phasers and photons all others are special and are not normally available when you get a new ship.

Phaser: The basic weapon. It is direct fire and therefore can't be dodged. However, its damage decreases with range.
Photon torpedo: This is not a direct fire weapon. You have to lead your target. Any idiot can dodge photon torpedos at long range. Good players can often dodge photon torpedos at medium range. However, it's hard to dodge when driving extremely fast and a well-led stream can be the death of your opponent. Photon torpedos wobble in flight so their accuracy decreases with range. However, damage is not range dependent.
Plasma torpedo: Slower than a photon torpedo, these will track opponents, even cloaked ones. They do massive damage, but cost lots of fuel. Typically these are not available on most ships till the owner has a few kills an returns to a shipyard for a refit.
Missile: These are the slowest missile weapons available, but therefore have a better turning radius. They have sensitive tracking sensors and can home on cloaked opponents. Their damage is similar to a photon torpedo but their cost is much greater. Like plasma torpedos, most ships do not come equipped with missiles. The owner must get kills and refit. Most ships only carry a limited number of missiles and must refit when the supply is exhausted.
Fighters: These are not normally available. They are small vessels that carry one photon torpedo. They are launched from the mother ship and track a target. When they enter firing range they launch their torpedo and return to base. While the mother ship is guiding the fighters it can not fire photon torpedos.
The mother ship does not start with a full fighter bay, it must beam up armies from a planet. One army converts to a fighter squadron of 6. Surviving fighters may be beamed down to return the armies.

Most missile weapons damage everyone except the teammates of the firer when they explode on impact. We do not offer any treknology to explain this and we laugh at anyone who attempts to. Plasma torpedos damage everyone upon detonation.

You may detonate your own torpedos and fire another salvo. This is useful when you've missed with a salvo. This causes no damage to anyone. Missiles will be detonated if no photon torpedos are in flight.

Fighters can be recalled to base with the detonation key.

Countermeasures

Enemy photon torpedos within a certain radius may be detonated by your ships close-in defenses. This results in reduced damage to you, but might result in the explosion of torps which would have otherwise missed you. These detonated torps now only cause damage to you and the firer's teammates.
(It is considered clueful to detonate enemy torps that would strike a valuable teammate. Bases typically detonate enemy torps that would strike ships docked on them.)

Enemy plasma torpedos may be phasered. This causes them to detonate prematurely, causing damage to everyone.

Missiles may be detonated much like photon torpedos.

Fighters may be phasered.

Weapons in Action (or: the ballad of R2 getting his butt kicked)

R2 is being phasered and torped by two enemies. He will last about half a second longer.

R2 is cloaked and trying to reach Yosemite in order to bomb it, but F0 has other plans for him. Since the missiles point right at him, the base will soon get a phaser lock and then our hero is doomed.

R2 has just got himself in a world of trouble. While attempting to scout Yosemite he encountered the warbase again and this time it's put a white-hot plasma torp on his tail. He can afterburn to outrun it or dodge it, but he'd better get out of the neighborhood.

Defenses

Your ship has shields and hull. If the shields are active and have not been destroyed then they prevent damage by absorbing it. If the shields are down or insufficient to protect you from the full damage of an attack, then the damage accumulates on your hull. If your hull sustains too much damage your ship and crew are destroyed.

Shields are always repairing. Hull is only repaired while shields are down. Your ship may enter repair mode in which state it repairs faster, however, your shields are down, you are at full stop, and can not fire. To exit repair mode increase speed or raise shields.

Tractors

Your ship is equipped with tractor and pressor beams. Tractor beams pull you and the target closer together. Pressor beams push you apart. Tractor beams can drag you out of orbit and they can also disrupt the warp preparation process.

Armies

Most ships can carry armies. Most ships require that the player have kills before he can carry armies. The number of armies you can carry is usually linearly dependent upon the number of kills you have.

Armies can be beamed up from planets and beamed down to planets. They may also be transported to and from some bases.

Hiding from the enemy

All ships can cloak. In this state you are not visible on the enemy's tactical. Your approximate position is available on the galactic.

Planets

Planets have four major attributes that players need to be aware of.

Armies

These armies can be beamed up and down by ships on the same team as the planet. Enemy players can beam armies down to your planet and each army beamed down will kill one enemy army until there are none left. Planets without armies can be taken by beaming armies down. Then the planet belongs to your team.

If there are a lot of armies on a planet (>4) then they can be bombed by enemy ships. This is a lot simpler than beaming armies down.

Atmosphere

Planets have different atmospheres. They are listed from best to worse here:

Standard
Thin
Tainted
Toxic

The better the atmosphere, the faster armies grow. Toxic planets actually kill off armies. It's best to just leave them for the clueless enemy.

Surface Properties

Many planets are worthless hunks of rock, but some have surface properties.

Metal: These planets can develop a repair station and a shipyard.
Dilithium: These planets can develop a fuel depot.
Arable: These planets can develop an agricultural complex.

Armies on a planet use surface properties to build facilities. An orbiting starbase also helps.

Facilities

A few of your planets start out with facilities. The rest have to be built from surface properties.

Repair: Planets with this facility can repair orbiting ships faster.
Shipyard: Planets with this facility can let you refit and take a new ship. Refitting is also the way you get special weapons.
Fuel: Ships orbiting a planet with a fuel facility refuel faster.
Agri: Planets with this attribute grow armies much faster.

Facilities can be bombed by the enemy. It is usually a good idea to protect key facilities using a base.

Revolt

If you don't leave enough armies on a planet, it can revolt. The guerillas will slowly slaughter your armies until all are gone and the planet becomes independent. Listen for messages from the PREFECT. You must bring enough reinforcements to crush the rebellion. The current safe level is 3 armies.

Other balls of dust

Planets aren't the only things floating in space. There are also stars (and plans for even stranger astronomical objects).

Don't get too close to a star. It will melt your hull.

Paradise Netrek Hackers / paradise-workers@reed.edu