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From !pagec5@cs.man.ac.uk Mon, 21 Apr 97 20:00:12 GMT X-SystemInfo: Demon: Explorer 2260 X-Message-No: 78 (database) From: Chris Page <pagec5@cs.man.ac.uk> To: Exp2260 List <a.thorn@stromstad.mail.telia.com> Subject: Features list..... Date: Mon, 21 Apr 97 10:27:01 Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.970421102958.10916A-200000@t9> Followup-To: poster Reply-To: pagec5@cs.man.ac.uk (Chris Page) Received: by nutts.uucp (V1.13/Amiga)id AA00000; Mon, 21 Apr 97 20:00:12 GMT Received: from relay-6.mail.demon.net by nutts with SMTPid AA00001; Mon, Apr 21 97 19:59:52 Received: from relay-6.mail.demon.net by mailstorefor dflaherty@nutts.demon.co.uk id 861618609:06:26569:20;Mon, 21 Apr 97 11:30:09 BST Received: from m1.cs.man.ac.uk ([130.88.13.4]) by relay-5.mail.demon.netid aa0520028; 21 Apr 97 11:29 BST Received: from t2l.cs.man.ac.uk by m1.cs.man.ac.uk (4.1/SMI-4.1:AL6)id AA25391; Mon, 21 Apr 97 11:28:13 BST Return-Path: <pagec5@cs.man.ac.uk> X-Sender: pagec5@t2l Mime-Version: 1.0 To: Exp2260 List <a.thorn@stromstad.mail.telia.com>, davids@cableinet.co.uk,dflaherty@nutts.demon.co.uk, dragon@zapcom.net, draught@earthling.net,elt93tso@mds.mdh.se, eoghann@thenet.co.uk, fegg@algonet.se,fredric.c@swipnet.se, ghornmoe@ASG.unb.ca, gormlai@post4.tele.dk,hfrieden@uni-trier.de, j.kempen@tip.nl, jay@blidworth.demon.co.uk,jgirvin@bfs.Unibol.com, martyn@brightstar.u-net.com,mcai5gk1@ist4.co.umist.ac.uk, mikael.westergren@mbox300.swipnet.se,myrtle@aztec.co.za, nik2@iland.net,Paul Branney <paul.branney@mcqueen.com>,peter.karlsson@trollhattan.mail.telia.com, rbclm@insula.bornbib.dk,slice@xgw.fi, snozz@zapcom.net, steve@seatac.demon.co.uk,tomasm@online.no, vaipen@dds.nl ============================================================================== Well, after a lot of typing here is the, nearly finished.. see below, features list. I think I've got most of the stuff in there except for The bits I havent done yet: Races. This is a big section and I think that, until I've got more of the background worked out, I can't really say that much about them. Maybe people would like to help with this? If so mail me. Technical. Most of this is just spelling out some of my approaches and is likely to be long and messy. Do you want it? Communication. Didn't get around to it. There are bit's I've left out (some of the more complex or obvious bits (well, I think they're obvious)) so if you don't see something which doesn't fall into the above three classes scream at me...... Chris ####### ######## ######## -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- # # # # Chris Page, Digital Anarchy Software # ### # #### # ##### Team AMIGA # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### URL: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~pagec5/index.html # # # # #### # # Computer Science Student at Manchester Uni. # ### # # # ##### # Explorer2260 is approaching.. the world is # # # # # # about to change ########### ########### -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ============================================================================== Content-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.970421112758.539A@t2l> Content-Description: the list Explorer2260 Features List V3.2 => Data added to 1.2, 1.3 (major rework) since 18/3 Here's the updated list of features. Some parts are directly taken from my website but most of it is either completely new or considerably different than the original lists (1, released onto the pamiga-list and 2 which is on my website). This is now more than a features list, it is the begining of the IIN information library......... a list of references is given at the end. Please note that much of this information will change dramatically for any network version of Explorer. For example there will be no speedup in network games so distances will be reduced. Details of network game features will be released at a later date. All my distances are given in miles. I know that most of Europe and Canada work in kilometers but.. well 1 mile is approx 1.6 Km My apologies to people to whom English isn't their first language. I'm not much good at learning spoken languages (I can just about read German and French if I read slowly) so I can't really translate this. Unfortunately, as English is my first language I suffer from a problem common among English speakers; I can't spell! Please excuse my lousy spelling as I haven't got time to run this through a spell checker. I will occaisonally slip into the past tense. This is usually when I am inserthing a bit of my 'history' of the game.. just bear with me as this document is not only to let you see what's going on but it's also helping me get my facts and history straight...... Nearly all of the features are either worked out in my head, on paper or in basic code. All I really need now is time.... A lot of it..... and an 060 (please :) ) Oh and one final note before the details: be warned; this is a VERY big document; I have included details on, more or less, everything in the game, occaisionally with quite a bit of technical background. You WILL have to read it all if you want to know exactly where the game stands. And that "more or less" is exactly what I say; I wouldn't tell you *everyting* would I... and I may have forgotten to include something: if you don't see something you want in the game here then tell me: I may have already thought it up but not included it :) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section 1: Background 1.1 "You now face a new world, a world of change. The thrust into outer space marks a beginning of another epoch in the history of man" - General MacArthur (1962) [REF: 1.1A] Some of you may recognise the source of that quote: Beyond Top Secret by Timothy Good. I am something of a conspiracy theorist (to say the least) and the history of Explorer2260 will reflect this. Sometime after Easter I will be releasing the first section of the history for feedback and it will include many of the stories which have been going around in conspiracy theory circles for some time. The quote is also very applicable to Explorer; it will be a new world, both for gaming and the Amiga.. especially because it is always changing. 1.2 The Universe Today. The galaxy is a vast place, far too big to model accurately. In Explorer I will attempt to model, with as much accuracy as possible, star systems within several hundred parsecs of Earth (about 150,000 systems). This gives a good balance of size v complexity. Space, as we know it, is only one of a myriad of dimensions which science is beginning to accept. The most relevent of these to Explorer is hyperspace.... I have at present the positions for some 2,000 stars. I would be grateful if anyone with access to star data, or knows anyone who does, would mail me...... 1.3 The Nature Of Hyperspace. Hyperspace technology was originally brought to the human race by the Mogensen. Although they gave very little in the way of details as to the physics of hyperspace they, apparently, have very little data as well. It is not known how Hyperspace was discovered or which race made the breakthrough. Of the old races only the Vaipen (YES! A name which starts with a V but isn't Vo**on!) and Ovaska apear to be highly advanced in hyperspatial travel but very little is known about either race, or their origins..... As a result Earth scientists have been trying to fathom the mysteries of hyperspace for some time , with mixed results. 1.3.1. The most important aspect of hyperspace is the fact that time and space are not related in the same way as in normal space: in hyperspace one parsec of normal space is equal to about 200,000km. This means that a fast ship can make the journey from Earth to AlphaCentauri in about 5 hours hours (40,000Km/h = 11.1Km/s) whereas most normal ships will take about 10 to 20 hours. 1.3.2. Hyperspace is distorted by objects in the real world according to the Branney-Girvin boundary effect which states that objects under a critical mass of 5*10^10Kg will have little or no effect on hyperspace whereas objects over the critical mass will exert a gravitational distortion explonentially greater than in normal space due to the compaction of distance in hyperspace. This means that ships must be guided by special beacons, known as guide beams, generated by each jump point and relay station (See section 1.3.4) The gravitational distortion produces effects similar to black holes when a very large gravity well is present. Ships which leave the guide beams are likely to go off course and be destroyed by grvitational tidal effects or by the next hyperspace phenomenon. 1.3.3. Hyperspace exerts a drain on all electromagnetic signals. The source of this drain, know to earth science as the Hornmoen Effect (one for you George!), is unknown but it's affects can be fatal. All ships entering hyperspace, with the exception of some organic technologies developed by the Vaipen and Ovaska, are subject to this drain which depletes all electrical energy sources, including bio-neurological signals. If allowed to continue this drain will not only deplete a ship's whole power resever but also kill all it's occupants. To overcome this ships must periodically return to normal space to recharge ('charge-jumps'). The Average exposure level is about 1 day: some races can survive longer but there only the Ovaska can stay in hyperspace for over a week. There have been reports of a race which apprears to live in hyperspace but there have been no confirmed sightings. 1.3.4. During investigation of jump-gate technology (see section 1.4) by the Mogensen and Stabo it was discovered that certain forms of EM radiation, when modulated correctly, could cross the realspace/ hyperspace boundry (it has been speculated that it is by a derivative of this method that the Ovaska can enter hyperspace without jump points). Without this fact interstellar communication would be impossible. 1.3.5. As hyperspace is subject to massive gravitational distortions electromagnetic signals can only travel so far before they become lost or distorted beyond recognition (or depleted into nothing). As a result signals sent through hyperspace, by the method described in 1.3.4, must be boosted regularly. All outposts act as relay stations and, where there are no outposts for a considerable distance, specially constructed relay stations boost the signal and provide basic services for ships undergoing a charge jump (a bit like motorway services). Ships which move out of range of relay stations are effectively cut off unless they are equiped with laser communications systems (which give double the range of normal signals but require an open jump-point to enter hyperspace through, as well as specialised equipment and permits) or comms drones. Comms drones are small probes which must be given the required message and are then launched into hyperspace where they lock onto the nearest guide beam and transmit the message. They can wait for a reply or return to the ship. They signal the ship which launched them to open a jump point so that they can be retrieved. 1.4 JumpPoint technology. [REF:1.3A & 1.4A-E] It was noted by science in the century that below the so-called Planck-Wheeler length - which is 1.62*10^-35m or 20 orders of magnitude smaller than an atomic nucleus - quantum gravity fluctuations become so violent that space itself actually 'boils' and becomes a quantum foam containing short-lived quantum wormholes. When the Mogensen introduced jumpgate technology to Earth science they also brought with them a material with very strange properties; Hyspiridan60, as it became known, when exposed to a very high strengh electric field modulates the field to exactly the correct frequency to enlarge quantum wormholes. For some reason, still undetermined to this day, the resonace created in the field boundaries forces one end of the wormhole into normal space and the other into hyperspace. Provided that a strong enough field is applied the wormhole will expand to a diameter of aproximately 2 miles for as long as the field is applied. When the field is removed the energy which forced the wormhole open disipates as light and radiation into normal space and electrical energy into hyperspace. A side effect of the jumppoint creation process is that all jumppoints are one way: attempting to enter a jumppoint from normal space into hyperspace which was created for a ship entering normal space from hyperspace will result in your ship being torn apart by quantum graviatational tidal forces. Due to the enormous energies needed jumpengines and jumpgates must be given the exact mass of any ship (or the total mass if there is more than one ship) which will be passing through the jumppoint so that exactly the correct amount of energy is used to open and maintain the jumppoint: too little energy will result in the jumppoint collapsing as the ship(s) enter, completely destroying them. Too much energy expenditure is wasteful and is normally avoided unless the mass is not determined exactly. 1.4.1 Jumpgates. Excluding the Ovaska all races have to create jumppoints to enter hyperspace. Only large ships have enough room for bulky jumpengines so smaller ships must enter hyperspace through jumpgate generated jumppoints. Jumpgates consist of 4 oval rings, 5 miles by 3, connected by 1.5 mile gantries. Each gate has 8 deuterium/ tritium fusion reactors supplying 24 Hyspiridan60 field generators. Gates need to be constructed well away from other constructions due to the intense radiation created when a jumppoint collapses and are held in position by 16 hydrogen reaction thrusters. Gates are constructed by specialised constructor ships or deep-space explorers. Despite the number of fusion reactors the gate can take up to 5 minutes to recharge for another ship. 1.4.2 Jumpengines. Large ships can be fitted with jumpengines provided that the ship already has a powerful reactor fitted. Jumpengines exploit one of the most unusual properties of Hyspiridan60: if it is suspended in a supercooled medium (liquid helium is normally used) and the field modulation section is aligned correctly the modulation focus can be directed to a fixed location (normally to the side or rear of the ship for tactical reasons) to create the jump vortex. Jumpengines have a default calibration based on the maximum mass of the ship it is housed in, plus a small leeway. It it possible, provided that enough power has been built up, to make larger jumppoints but this requires a very large, dedicated, fusion reactor and is thus only normally available on large military ships and high cost transports. 1.5 StarNET. This could really be a completely new section but it is mostly background so it is included here. Many communication systems exist in the present universe ranging from simple laser comm systems up to the hive intelligences of the Vaipen and, to a lesser extent, the Reticula and Nosnerual. Many races communicate over a standard comms network called StarNET, the interstellar equivalent of the 'internet'. StarNET is based around an interconnected series of high strength narrow band microwave and realspace/hyperspace transceivers which link nearly every net server in known space: More or less every computer in known space is linked to StarNET. StarNET, and it's associated subsections, will only be accessable while in dock or at a relay station. 1.5.1 The Infrastructure. Space is a big place and light is, in interstellar terms at least, somewhat slow. Were it not for the fact that high energy Stable Baryon Transcievers can penetrate the realspace/HS boundry (after correct modulation) interstellar, and long distance interplanetary, communication would be impossible. While short distance (ie: ship - ship, ship - planet) comms are via normal maser links, interstellar communication can be accomplished in one of two ways: maser link to a relay station, which converts the microwave message into SBT format which is then transmitted through hyperspace, detected by a station in the recipients local space and send to the recipient via maser. Very large ships may have SBT equipment fitted, in which case direct communication is possible. 1.5.2 The NET. All stations, and relay stations, must remain in constant contact to provide guide beams for ships in hyperspace. Many races exploit this to form a stable network known as StarNET. Each race converses in it's own language over StarNET so all net software has built in translation capabilities which can convert nearly every known language into the native language of the user. StarNET provides several services; real-time comm channels (vid links/ voice links), email and BBSs. However, built alongside these services is the IIN. 1.5.3 The Interstellar Information Network. The IIN was, according to Eckerts "History of the major races", originally started by the Munkvold in 260BC (earth years) but it only attained it's widespread status in the last 300 years thanks mostly to the efforts of the Mogensen and Nosnerual. The IIN has evolved, through human computer engineering, to a highly complex network spanning most of known space. The IIN is a standard interface to information on nearly every major server much like the www. In Explorer the IIN will not consist of millions of nodes, though the way the systems generates the sites will make it appear so. The IIN (and StarNET to a lesser degree) will adapt to the player and the universe so that it evolves with the DUM. StarNET is the major meeting place of millions of people and as such is used not only for communication but also for advertising and notices. As such StarNET will be the place where the player can look for jobs, ideas or warning that they are being hunted. Some of the things which will appear on SterNET are: => Escorts. The player is asked to join an escort fleet for a ship passing through dangerous areas of space. => Adverts. These will range from simple junk mail (oh yes, there's nothing quite like junkmail to give a sense of reality) up to job advertisements, corporate ads and so on. => Companies. Many comapnies will have sites on the IIN (as well as lesser services on StarNET). Here companies will ply their wares and occaisionally post job notices or escort requests. => Finance. You can't escape them even in an imaginary universe! Here you will be able to open bank accounts, get loans or insurance and many other bank type nightmares. => Email. The player will recieve email! Junk mail will, as ever, will continue to be the bane of net life (though I will include an option to turn it off) but the player will recieve email from associates or companies, as well as security forces and individual characters. In the net version I hope to release pleayers will be able to mail each other in the explorer universe. => Info servers. These are the libraries of Explorer. I will be including all the game background, physics, theories and technical details along with sections on the denizens of the Explorer list (hell, you lot deserve some credit beyond you names appearing) as well as the reasons I am writing Explorer and why I set out to involve as many people as possible. 1.6 The Dynamic Universe Model. Most trading games suffer from one huge limitation; the universe is essentially static: borders are constant and nothing really ever happens. Everyone knows that real life is not like this but no-one has ever tried (well, that I've ever heard of) to implement a dynamic universe (and I am beginning to understand why!). In a dynamic universe NOTHING can be taken as constant; there will be several major influences on the DUM: The game seeds; large numbers used as the basis for the pseudo- random number generators. Race data; races will be defined by the model in many ways including the technology level, propensity to engage in conflicts, tactical levels, intelligence levels and their rate of expansion etc... each race will influence the models determining the system ownerships, military models, StarNET and many other game systems. Conflicts; The outcome of conflicts can widely affect the DUM, from the system onership levels all the way up to the destruction of a race or the start of another conflict. Player Actions; The effect the player will have on the universe will normally be small but there may be occaisions when the player could save or destroy the universe.... 1.7 Stations (ground based and space stations...) Here I must admit to cheating a little: My space stations will just be large ships either attached to the surface or in orbit. This means that several features will be available: => Stations CAN be destroyed or damaged!!! Unlike in Frontier where you could blast away for hours with the biggest gun you could get and nothing would happen it will be possible to damage stations because of the fact they are ships I can use exactly the same routines for calculating damage levels. If you use a really big weapon (asteroid mast driver for example) you will effectively be able to destroy a station. Stations will also be able to repair themselves or (in the case of spacestations) moved out of orbit. Reports of attacks on stations will appear in the news sites on the IIN... => You can 'move around' inside them. By this I don't mean a first person perspective walkabout game but rather the object data will be used to create a wireframe representation of the station with areas which you can visit highlighted. This map will be rotatable and scalable so that you can select the area you want to enter, => Spaceships can function as stations. This is how I will get large military ships (or interstellar passenger cruisers) to operate: in a military ship the game works exactly as if it was a spacestation with only military areas available. On a passenger cruiser the same is true except that services will be restricted. => I will implement defense systems for stations; All the weapons available to any large battleship can be fitted to a spacestation (so if you'r in a tiny little fighter trying to attack a 7 mile long spacestation you *will* die... believe me...) When the player requests docking permission from the station the player can either be brought in directly (under control of the station computers) or asked to adopt a holding position outside the station while other ships are delt with. Once in the station a fee wll be deducted from the player's account for docking charges. If the player is going to spend more than 3 hours in dock then an additional fee must be paid for holding area space. Stays of more than 24 hours (All time will be measured in Earth standard for simplicity, irrespective of your race, but the time will be available in your race's standard) will require a daily fee (paid in advance) and a room must be rented by the player (or 'alternative arrangements....') the player will be charged for every day the ship remains in dock *at the end of the stay* 1.7.1 Station Facilities. Space stations and ports are more than docking ports, all of them provide other services from basic accomodation and network access up to shipyards, shops and hospitals. 1.7.1.1 Accomodation. As I said above, if the player wants to remain on a station for more than 24 Earth hours then the player must rent a room (or cabin). If the player is willing to pay for the more expensive accomodation then the player's health will improve slightly, otherwise the player's health will slowly decline.... 1.7.1.2 StarNET Access. All stations, however basic, provide some form of StarNET access. Some will have local networks as well. 1.7.1.3 Docking services. These will range from just somewhere where your ship is parked up to repair shops and refit services provided by the station. 1.7.1.4 Shipyards. Some stations will have shipyards where you can buy ships. You may own several ships but you can only fly one of them. 1.7.1.5 Shops. Depending on the location and size of the station you are at the variety, type and availability of goods will fluctuate. Stations in, or near, a warzone will be affected by blockades and transport difficulties by reduced availability and higher prices.Many shops wil appear on the local network but many will be accessable in the station 'malls' (in cases like these the Wireframe which represents the station will show a large block for the mall, when the user selects the mall the view will zoom in and the mall will be replaced with a selection of polygons which can be selected to enter shops. 1.7.1.6 Medical sercives/ Hospital. In Explorer the player's health will be an integral part of the game. Depending upon the player's chosen race and actions visits may be required to medical bays on stations. In some places these services will be free, in others they must be payed for... 1.7.1.7 Security services. If you get up to no good then your likely to end up here sooner or later. These guys mean business and there's none of the 'you'r fined x' that appeared in Frontier. If you get caught then you can be fined or send to prison or both. Sentancing will be done via a jury system, not by an individual officer, and many races will have extradition treaties. The security services will be able to freeze your assets (sounds painful) if you evade capture..... 1.7.2 Station procedures. 1.7.2.1 Docking. When a player appoaches a station the docking procedure will vary according to the player's ship type. (see section 2.1 for ships) Smaller ships will be taken into the docking tunnel (once any backlogs are cleared of course) but larger ships must either enter zero-g loading areas (for medium sized freighters) or send out shuttles to dock with the station. Only smaller ships can approach a ground station as larger ships may be damaged by gravitational or atmospheric effects. When the player docs at any station or capital ship the craft will be guided automatically to a transport pad... a diagram always helps; diag1.iff shows a docking port situated on a planet or small station. The ship enters the docking tunnel, under the control of the docking computers and is moved over a docking pad. Once on the pad the pad will be lowered into the dock bay and moved to a free space: the user then has to go through customs and security before entering the station. In ground based stations ony one shaft can be used. In spacestations or large ships two or four shafts may be used; see diag2.iff 1.7.2.2 Post Docking. Here the player must submit a manifest of his cargo in case of a customs search. This is normally the same as was compiled upon leaving the last station (see later) normally this isn't checked but if it is, and the manifest doesn't match the cargo, the player may be tried for importing illegal goods or smuggling. The player will also have to pay the standing charge for docking. No more dock charges must be paid until the player leaves. 1.7.2.3 Once on the station the player can either quickly sort out whatever he/ she wants to do and leave or rent a room. Rooms can only be paid for in daily or weekly amounts and their price depends on the station, the room and the person the player rents the room off. If the player doesn't rent a room after 24 hours then the player's health will begin to suffer and some administrations may charge the player extra for docking fees. The player will also be unable to, legally, access any station services except for the docking port, security service or rental agencies. 1.7.2.4 When the player is leaving cost of housing the player's ship must be payed and a cargo manifest must be compiled. The player doesn't have to compile a maifest which is exatly what is carried in the player's ships but the weight MUST be the same otherise the player's ships may be destroyed in a jump gate collapse and it makes it much easier for security to detect the manifest deception. When compiling the manifest list the player will be presented with a screen like the one shown below (I will be releasing an actual picture in a few days) +---------------------+ +-------+ +-------------------+ | Your hold contents | | Add | | The Manifest List | +---------------------+ +-------+ +-------------------+ | | +-------+ | | | | | Del | | | +---------------------+ +-------+ | | +---------------------+ | | | * merchandise list | | | +---------------------+ | | | | | | +---------------------+ +-------------------+ The merchandise list gives a list of ALL possible merchandise..... The player will have to make sure that the weight of you manifest matches his/her ship weight (as it's easy to tell if you fake the manifest otherwise) If the player submits a false manifest and the local security force is good the player will be caught and prosecuted (poss 2 year jail sentance and 10,000 credit fine) otherwise the plyaer's ship will be lifted back into the dock tunnel by the station lift and then can proceed out into open space. If the player has arranged to pick up the goods he/she may have to go to a relay station (out in the boonies somewhere), another station or a large ship which can be docked with. Docking fees will *NOT* be constant, even within the same station; matters like where the player's ship is docked, it's type and size and the amount of traffic will change the price asked. For example: a station where there is a lot of traffic can charge less for docking as it has more cash to work with, docks with low traffic must charge more to make up the shortfall. If the player has a large ship then he/she must pay more because he/she is taking more space up. Some stations will have better facilities in specific docking bays, for which the player must pay more... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 2.1 Ships. Each race (see section XX.XX) will have it's own distinctive ship design and technology. Some will use fairly simple technology whereas some will use technology hundreds of thousands of years more advanced than the average. The technology will start at a level where hyperspatial travel is attainable as I have assumed that any race capable of sustainable spatial travel will inevitably contact a race with hyperspace technology. Ships will be build from a variety of materials depending upon technology level ranging from simple metals to highly complex metal/organics and true organic technologies. In this section I will mention hyperspace and hyperspatial travel. These terms are explained in section 1.3 and 1.4. The major ship groups will include the following types. Only private craft, shuttles and log-range shuttles can be purchased from dock yards. Larger ships, or ships designed with specialised military purposes, can only be bought from specialist yards, or not at all. Despite this it will be possible to fly, or at least command, nearly all of the ships. The player WILL NOT be able to fly ships developed by the Vaipen or Ovaska among others. The reasons for this are given in the section on races. BioTech craft are considered in a sepearate section as they are very hard to classify. Private Craft: Single pilot or small crew ships, small in size with limited range, cargo and weapons capabilites. These craft will normally be used within a single system or neighbouring systems. Due to their small size they may only enter hyperspace via jumppoints created by a jumpgate or large ship. These ships will be favoured by pirates which have a large base ship to provide firepower support due to their relative cheapness and availability. Private fighters: Custom or ex-military craft which are normally only available on the black market. Often owned by pirates, raiders and bounty hunters or by Shuttles: These craft range in size from ships similar to private craft up to transport vehicles capable of carrying up to about 200 passengers with some cargo room. They are not suited to long-haul flights, only being able to carry enough fuel and resources for about 36 hours travel. Shuttles are the main form of transport between space stations and surface ports, as well as between space stations and ships too large to enter the station docking tunnel. Only the largest shuttles can create their own jumppoints and none of them have very good weapon capabilities. L.R. Shuttles: Long range shuttles are more suited to the demands of long distance travel than standard shuttles. They have better EM damping, allowing longer periods in hyperspace, and larger fuel stores and power plants. L.R shuttles can take between 400 and 2000 passnegers and are used by many tansport lines for interstellar package holidays. Again, only the larger craft have jump engines but only the smaller craft can dock with stations. The larger shuttles require 'ferry' shuttles to load and unload passengers. These are either provided by the station or are carried in the shuttle's docking port. Cruisers: These ships can carry up to 5000 people and the largest is a mile long. All of them can create their own jumppoints and can stay in hyperspace nearly as long as military ships. None of these ships can dock directly with a space station and they normally carry between 10 and 15 shuttles to load and unload passengers. Traders: Traders range from shuttles with the passenger spaces replaced with cargo space up to custom traders which will accept cargo modules (large, normally sealed, modules which are attached to pylons on the ship). None of these ships have built-in jump engines, although some could accept them if cargo space was sacrified. Traders rarely have good weapon systems, relying more on escorts or blind chance. Nearly all of these ships can dock directly with stations, although only the smallest ones can enter atmospheres or high-g wells. Bulk traders: Larger relations of traders which have integral jump engines, large cargo holds and cargo module pylons as standard. These ships also have much better offensive and defensive weapon systems than traders. Their size prevents them from docking with stations, or entering atmospheres, so loading and unloading is normally done in zero-g docking areas or in a holding position outside a station. D.S Traders: Traders and bulk traders do not have the capability to travel very long distances, usually no more than 48 hours travel. Deep space traders have modified power plants, more powerful EM damping hulls and nearlt twice the fuel reserves of their smaller cousins. This gives them almost 96 hours flight time (even though the ship must make a charge jump every 24 hours). D.S traders are usually much larger than normal and bulk traders (the latest model from XianTech is 2 and a half miles long and can carry over half a million tonnes) and can be narly as well armed as a small military cruiser. Explorer/Mapper: These ships are exclusive to Earth and are among the largest ships in the known universe (nearly as big as a Vaipen Hiveship, the largest seen was 12 miles long) with the largest, Excaliber, at just over 7 miles long. These ships are used by companies for deep space mining and exploration and by the Earth government for jumpgate and station construction. These craft can stay out of contact for over five years without difficulty and can house over 200 ships. Despite the fact that there are only 30 of them in use (4 are in construction as of 14 Jan 2260) all but 8 of them are owned by corporations, the other 8 being owned by the government and either in deep space or on loan to one of the other races. These craft have weapon systems as good, if not than, any of the ships in service in the Earth Stellar Forces and can carry as much as 2 or 3 deep space traders. It has been suggested that one of the ships in custruction, provisionally called 'Archon', is going to be bigger still and may be used by the military as a mobile caommand station. Colony Ships: These ships are similar to explorer ships but normally only about half the size. They are primarily used to transport colonists and their equipment to new outposts which are not suitable for passenger cuirsers. These craft have integral jump engines and docking facilities so they can function as orbital stations while the final outpost is being constructed. Ship suggested by Karl A Rostrup. Military Ships. These are only very basic classifications as in many races the lines between the craft types are blurred. Recon/ Patrol: Small, lightly armed, very fast craft with no jumpengines or cargo/ passenger space or other capability. Normally only used when quick recon missions are required. Fighters: These range in size from craft barely larger than recon ships up to well armed, powerful heavy fighters. None of these craft have jumpengines and the weapons capabilities are dependant upon the ship type and race. Troop Transports: Modified deep space shuttles which are used to move ground troops and milirary hardware around. All the following craft have jumpengines and heavy em damping hulls for prolonged hyperspace immersion. Battleships: Well armed craft with limited fighter storage facilities. Normally used as escort firepower for Destroyers, Heavy Cruisers, Dreadnoughts and SuperDeadnoughts. Destroyers: Heavily armed craft which can carry up to 30 fighters and recon craft. Normally they also have troop transportation space and cargo areas. Heavy Cruisers: Fighter transport craft. These ships also include cabins for piolts and engineers. The space restrictions this poses means that these ships do not have brilliant weapons systems and must have a battleship or destroyer escort. Dreadnoughts: Very well armed ships which can carry up to 100 fighters, their pilots and engineers, troops, hardware and still have room for fast, powerful drive systems. S.Dreadnoughts: SuperDreadnoughts are among the most powerful ships in the galaxy. Each can carry over 200 fighters and a crew of nearly 1000 people. The weapons systems these can carry can literally flatten the surface of a planet or destroy space stations. 2.1.2 Organic technology. This is still an emerging field of research and very little is understood about life which can survive in space without difficulty. Only the Vaipen and Ovaska appear to have mastered organic spacecraft and the appear to follow more or less the same trend; the smaller ships look very similar to the larger ones, and there have been some suggestions that that is exactly the case; the smaller ships are just younger relations of the larger ships. Organic technology has many advantages over normal technology, not least in that it repairs itself and can reproduce (although no-one knows how... the Vaipen and Ovaska are very secretive and no-one who has even come close to finding out much about them has ever been seen again). What is known is that these ships have a symbiotic relationship with the pilot (although this link can be broken) and, in the case of the Vaipen and probably the Ovaska, they are part of a single, race wide, hive mind. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 3.1 Weapon systems. Due to the large number of races in the Explorer universe it is not possible to give exact classifications to the weapons sytems. What follows is a rough outline of the general types of weapon and defense systems. Small ships will either be unable to accept weapons (some private craft) or will have a single, possibly rotating, weapon pylon. Larger ships can have many weapons pylons (20-30 on a Super Dreadnought). The turrets will be controlled by the computer unless the player takes over control. One problem with weapon systems is that they take power.. a lot of it, so if all the weapons are in use then the ship's jumpengines will have to be taken offline (and it can take up to 15 minutes to get them back on again) 3.1.1 Offensive systems. Blasters: Small, low power weapons which are not much use for anything except as a last resort. Normally based around laser technology or low energy plasma generation. Cannons: Range from small lasers not much bigger than a blaster up to lasers capable of generating pulses in excess of a terawatt. The largest cannon available is the Todhoeman650 which is a gigawatt beam laser with petawatt (10^15 watts) pulse activator (ie: it has a continuous beam at 120 gigawatts and a pulse capability up to 2.5 petawatts, even during beam generation) Projectile: These systems fire unguided missiles of various types and sizes. All these require ammo stores. All projectile weapons will have built in self destructs which will stop them causing too much damage to surrounding planets. Shells: These are basically hull piercing metal 'bullets'. Some have explosive charges. Mass drivers: fire everything from small metal spheres up to large lumps of rock. The largest of the family is the planetary bombardment driver, banned in nearly every system (but proclaimed as a holy weapon by the Dervishes of Eie). Masers: Microwave lasers. Produce extreme heating upon contact which can cause the hull of a craft to melt or explode. Very useful on organic technology. Missiles: Guided projectiles with high explosive charges. Magnetogravitic: Use magnetic and gravitational fields to disrupt the electronics and control systems of another craft. Requires large amounts of energy! Particle Beam: Fires a highly charged stream of particles, to remove ECM protection, followed by a high explosive projectile. Only any use against slow moving targets. Positron Cannon: Fires a pulse of positrons (anti-electrons). As you can imagine this is rather destructive.... :) Fry Cannon : A very thin cable is shot at the target and, upon contact, the full power of the attacking ship's power plant is sent down the cable, fusing all the other ship's systems. Only useful agains small, slow moving, close range targets. Mines: Proximity and contact mines, some carry explosive charges others have large batteries that discharge through the mine casing upon contact (like the Fry Cannon) Atmospheric Incinerators: Highly reactive substances are launched into the atmosphere of the planet resulting in atmospheric ignition and the depletion of oxygen and other gasses. Nerve Gases/ Biological agents..... guess! 3.1.2 Defensive systems. Interceptors: Projectile cannons which fire specially designed rounds consisting reflective coatings, defraction gratings and explosive charges which destroy, diffuse or slow and weapon they get in the way of (in theory at least). These are normally fitted to highly sensitive scanners (see section 3.1.3) ECM: Static fields which upset the guidance systems of missiles and can prematurely destroy explosive charges in unguided missiles. Useless against lasers, masers or mass drivers. EM Dampers: Not really defensive, these devices reduce the speed at which hyperspace drains e.m energy. This allows ships to spend longer in hyperspace (about 10 or 15 percent longer) Decoys: Self explanitory really... AMsystems: Anti-missile systems consist of missles which are designed to intercept other missiles in flight be they guided or unguided. These weapons are only partially effective against mass drivers. Stealth: Reduces the overall visibility of the craft. This is either in the form of a visual cloak or IR/EM cloaks. Systems with visual cloaks must be specially designed to take such systems... and they are VERY expensive. 3.1.3 Detection Systems. IR/EM: Various devices for detecting the infra-red/ electromagnetic signatures of other craft. More advanced forms of this technology can even detect the hearbeats of the crew of a ship at close range! HS detectors: Hyperspace propogates em radiation much faster than normal space so it is possible to detect the firing of missiles or lasers before they are visible. Most interceptor cannons rely on these systems. Visual: Erm... looks for other ships.... 3.2 Organic Technology. Organic technology is much more diverse than normal technology, and many variations exist. Many of the weapon types outlines above have organic technology counterparts in addtion to: Worms: Teeth with tails. These are fired from the host ship towards a target which suddenly becomes dinner for several hundred mouths. Any ship caught in the way of these voracious beasts will find itself full of holes... EBeam: A favourate weapon of the Vaipen these are something of an enigma. They appear to be a single beam of electrons at high speed and energy. No-one knows how the ships manage to produce these beams, or how they are controlled into a cohesive weapon. Several other form of organic technology have been reported but no more information is available. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 4.1 Exploring and Mining. Mining in Explorer is a bit more convoluted than in other such games. Firstly, unless you want to run the risk of having your claim stolen you must get a permit to mine and/ or explore a system. Once you have one of these (which don't come cheap) you will need a *big* ship! In addition you will need the following equipment: orbital mapping probes, surface prospectors and several mining rigs. Orbital mapping probes aree also required for mapping systems. To explore or mine a system you will nearly alwasy need a ship with it's own jump enginesas it is rare for a jump gate to have been constructed in an unexplored system. It is quite common however for explored systems to still have unused resources and unmapped planets but these will require permits from the system's owners before mapping or mining can be started (and you often have to pay for the rights to sell the mined material) Anyway, to work... once the player has arrived in the system the orbital probes can be launched. Each one can have it's own destination (although sending several to the same planet will increase the speed at which that planet is mapped). When the probes have mapped the planet the player will be informed to that effect. The player can either recall the probes and head back to civilisation to register the maps and possibly name the planet/ system or launch a surface prospector from the orbital probe to map the mineral deposits. Once again the player will be informed once the area requested has been mapped and can either recall the probes or send out the mining drones. If the player leaves the system any orbital probes or surface prospectors which have been left behind will self destruct (to prevent others from raiding them for their data) mining machines are not similarly affected. The positions of all mining probes is recorded in the player's logbook automatically (including systems name, coordinates, entry point and planet id and coordinates) When the player wants to retrieve the mining drones he/she must enter the system and signal them. If they have enough fuel left inside them then they will come to the surface, lift off and travel to the player's ship. If they do not have sufficient fuel to lift off they will come to the surface (all mining probes will remain below the surface to prevent detection) and signal the player to come and pick them up. All probes have individual signal codes which the player can set (as can other miner's) so it is possible, if the player can get hold of someone else's codes, to hijack the other's machines. Mining machines can be configured to stockpile the materials which have already been processed and can make several trips to and from the player's ship to transfer all the materials. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 5.1 Military Service. "Join the army they said, it's a man's life they said..." Thats exactly what you can do. Occaisionally the armed forces of each race will start recruitment drives on StarNET. When the player answers one of these adverts, provided background checks come up ok, he/she will become a member of the local fighter pilot corp. The player's ship will be sold off (the player can do this before joining to get the best deal). After a period of training and testing (which is shorter for experienced players and only needs to be taken the first time you join up) the player will be put on operational service. If the local area is quiet then the player will, if possible, be transfered to another station (the player has to fly there in his/her own, military issue, ship). Missions are issued every one or two days and will not consist of single tasks in most cases. The possible types of mission include: => Patrol. Fly around the designated area making sure everything is ok. => Recon. Get in there and get some info. => Hunt. Information shows that x is in area y but we aren't sure of the exact location. Find it. => Destroy. Guess => Follow. Find out where x is going but don't be seen! => Attack. Guess.... => Escort. => Protect. => Run Away! Run Away! => Undercover. I can't tell you for security reasons. Each mission will consist of one or more of the above tasks string together by the DUM/mission generation system. Promotion and awards depend on your sucess and the difficulty of the game (medium difficulty gives the fastest promotion whereas easy and hard games take forever). Promotions are also affected if you leave the armed forces. Every year (except during wars...) the player will be given the option to leave the armed forces. Doing so will allow the player to continue as normal but it does mean that if he/she joins the forces again then his/her rank may not increase as quickly as it would otherwise. If you are on a station which is taken over you stand a good chance of being killed. If the station breaks away from it's government you will have the option to leave and move to another post or to remain and 'defect' to the station command. Sometimes you will be posted to a capital ship rather than a station in which case the location of your base will be constantly changing. This will be accounted for by the navicomp. Players will be able to be put in charge of stations. This will mean that players can (but not must) have control of the day-to-day running of the station. It will also be possible for players to expand the station, especially ground based ones. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 6.1 The Races -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 7.1 Technical Ok... heres the fun part. Explorer will be based around a small bootsrap loader which will start up the library code. All the functionality of Explorer, it's gfx routines and so on will be implemented via libraries. This means that it will be easy to produce different versions of the code. As things stand at the moment I am considering writing versions of the libraries for AGA and RTG. (as a combined AGA/RTG lib is too slow on AGA and clumbersome on RTG) However, because of the structure of the libraries it should be possible for 3rd parties to develop ECS routines. 7.1.1 The engines. The 3D engine will be a lightsourced, shaded, texturemapped engine which will include variable lighting, transparency and fog effects (you waon't believe how easy fog is once you get your head around it). The user will be able to select the detail levels, rendering method (plain polygon up to full rendering) and rejection systems (I will be using a painter algorithm which automatically adjusts itself, thanks to some tricky queue code, to keep the speed up at the expense of detail, this can be turned off if you don't mind slowdown in complex views.) I will, probably, be using Kalms CPU3BLIT1 c2p routine in the AGA version for best performance. The other graphics engines will render onto a normal intuition screen (minus titlebar and gadget of course) for maximum OS compatability. Input devices are interpreted by control modules which watch the ports and produce signals which the user can configure in the game controls editors. Each ships will have it's own actions and movement definitions which can be triggered by user defined keys. 7.1.2 The modules. Each one of the control modules will monitor a certain port. The modules are specifically written to take certain port states and produce defined results. These results ae fed into the control interpreter which maps module outputs to control states using user defined settings. References: 1.1A Beyond Top Secret, Timothy Good (Sidgwick & Jackson) Page: 540 1.3A Branney and Girvin, 'Hyperspatial Dynamics' Foreman Press #2189.4354 1.4A New Scientist, issue 2022 'Planes, trains and wormholes' 1.4B New Scientist, issue 4324 'Fly me to the stars' 1.4C Jackson and Moss, 'Theories of interstellar travel', Blackson 1.4D Maclean, 'Harnessing Quantum Gravity', Lewis Associates, June 2134 1.4E "Hyperspace, jumppoints and related matter" translated from Higher Mogensen.