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T E R R A - F I R M A V E R 8.35 Player Instruction Manual **> This file is available for download from the Terra main menu along with the Whats.New file as a .ZIP file. If you don't want to waste your on line time reading this Manual, please download it. It is not large and will take only a minute or so at 2400 BAUD. Or you can capture it with your capture buffer quickly by pressing lots or returns. <** **> If you play on a Multi-Line BBS, there are some important things you should know to make this game more enjoyable. Please download the .ZIP file from the Main Terra Game Menu <** * Terra-Firma Player Instruction Manual Table of Context * Page 1. ---- Introduction and Quick Start for those who hate reading docs. Page 2. ---- Quick Start continued. Page 3. -----Start of Main Menu Options (From the bridge of the ship) Movement - Scanners - Transports - Computer - Dock Page 4. -----Main Menu Items continued Inventory - Orbit - Launch Scouts or Group Relay Link Page 5. -----Main Menu Items Continued Generate a report - Write a message Re-Read your Messages - Zmodem Download - Quit Co-Pilots! View Colonists On Board Page 6. -----Main Menu Items Continued Trade agreements How colonies can upgrade their planets Page 7. -----End of Main Menu Items Real Time Attacks! - When you are attacked Page 8. -----Start of Computer Menu Items Fuel Calculator - Colony News - Old News Launch Area Probe - Missiles Page 9. -----Computer Menu Options Continued Sector Protectors - Attack Colony Ship Attack Satellite Page 10. -----Computer Menu Options Continued Build Satellite - Death Probe - Eject Cargo Self Destruct - Where Am I Page 11. -----Computer Menu Options Continued Sector Probes - Read Last Sector probe - Player List Inventory - Game Instruction Page 12. ----Computer Menu Options Continued Sending an Interactive Online Message Banking/Loans - Player Protection Genesis Device Page 13. ----Computer Menu Options Continued Tractor Beams - Defensive Grids Selling Space Junk and Capturing Cargo barges Page 14. ----Docking At Planet or Space Station Menus Torpedoes - Bounders - Colony Ships Metals - Electronics - Anti-Probes Page 15. ----Docking at planet continued and other computer menu items Cargo Hulls Page 16. ----Satellite Fuzzy Options Explained Trading Partners - Robot Transports Online Multiplayer Interactive Trading Warp Drives Page 17. ----Satellite Options continued Logging on to your Satellite from your colony ship with sub-space radio as opposed to docking. Page 18. ----Political Menu from the computer Options Page 19. ----Stratagem Page 20. ----Stratagem continued...... Page 21. ----Hints and things not covered above ...... Page 22. ----Hints continued................ Page 1. Welcome to Terra-Firma. If you hate reading Doc files as much as I do then you will love this one! I have made it as short and pointless as possible. Do your self a big favor and read the playing tips at the end of this document. They are worth their weight in credits! If you can't spend the time reading the rest of the Docs at least read the next few paragraphs to understand the gist of the game. Terra-Firma is a multi-player interactive game in which the object is to colonize as many sectors of the Universe as possible. Terra-Firma has Ten Thousand (9999) sectors located in six different areas of the Universe. A player can attack other players Colony Ships as well as attack colonies made by other players. By doing so one player or more will become the richest and most powerful player(s) in the game. There are six distinct areas in the Universe. Each differing in size and the type of bad guys you will find there. I leave it for you to discover these on your own. You begin the game in the Sol Alliance with a Supplied Colony Ship level one (1). Each Sector in the Universe will either have a Star within it or it will be a barren area. Stars can be one of seven different types. Three of which are deadly for your ship: Neutron, Nova or Black Hole. Each star may have up to nine planets in orbit around it or none at all. You will find three different types of planets: Earth type, Harsh condition and barren. Earth type planets will be one of five levels and only Level five planets will have docking facilities for your ship. Beware you may have to fight your way through the planet defense to dock. Once docked you can buy supplies or take on colonists to transport somewhere in the Universe. Move your colony ship through the various sectors looking for level 5 planets..once found you can dock and pick up whatever supplies you need, with a group of Colonists. The group of Colonists will offer you a sum of credits to take them to a specific area of space and drop them off on a level 3 or below planet. You don't have to take them to the area they asked for before you drop them off, but you won't receive many bonus points or extra credits for going back on the deal you made with them. Of course just dropping colonist groups off at the closest planet will build your number of colonies fast which will increase your credits and bonus points. Once you have dropped off 9 groups of Colonists on a planet, you have created a full Colony. You will receive Bonus Credits and Trading Credits from that Planet every time you log on. Other players may destroy your colonies by Transporting a group of Mercenaries down to destroy it. (Which by the way, you can do back to them). You can protect your Colonies by Launching a Sector Protector in the Sector you want to protect or by having a Satellite at least one sector away. You will bump into Space Pirates of different races for which you receive Points for destroying. Beware of Erden Holy Zelots! They always attack regardless of the odds against them. If you are beaten by the Space Pirates, they will ransack your ship! There are also Pirate War lords with large forces of fighter ships beware! Page 2. You can attack other players by choosing the attack option while in the computer menu. Beware they may counter attack, if the computer thinks the odds are good of the other player wiping you out! A safe way to attack another player is to move out of the sector you found them in and send an attack group of fighters back. Use your scouts to survey all the planets in a sector. This is the quickest way to discover the level of planets and to find out if a sector is hostile. If your scout tells you this is a hostile sector then you will not be able to orbit any of the planets without being attacked by a defense force. A planet defense force will destroy your ship if you let it. You can send out a group of fighters to clear the defense group from the planet before you go into orbit around it. Area probes are sent out to find other players in a sector. The cost is inhibative and you can only buy them at a Space Station. Missiles are used only for the destruction of Sector Protectors. They will not home in on anything else. If they are fired into a sector without a sector protector in it, the Missile will be lost. You can buy a Satellite and put it in orbit around just about any planet you choose. You can then load it up with Fighter Ships, Mercenaries, etc. You can also choose one trading partner from among the other players in the game. This player can dock at your satellite and drop off or pick up items from the satellite just like it was one of their own. Satellites constantly scan two sectors in every direction around them. If another players ship comes within one sector of the satellite and the satellite has more than 100,000 fighter ships aboard, the satellite will send 50,000 FIGHTER SHIPS to attack the approaching players ship. This is a great way to defend a group of sectors. Remember to leave your ship in the same sector as one of your satellites when you exit the game. Other players have to destroy or take over your satellite before they can get to your ship. If your satellite has many fighters and TORPEDOES aboard, the attacking player is going to have a hard time getting to your ship. A players ship parked in the same sector as his satellite is always under the protective sphere of that satellite. One last IMPORTANT thing. Avoid sectors with Neutron Stars, Novas or Black Holes. Always check out a sector with your scanners before moving into it. If you do happen to blow yourself up or somehow destroyed by a planetary defense Fighter Group, the Full Colonies you have made will always be yours unless another player has destroyed them. The next time you sign back on you will still receive the bonus points and credits for the Full Colonies you have made. Lets quickly go through the game menu options so you can get into the game. I believe it's more fun to discover most of the game on your own. : MAIN GAME MENU : Page 3. : Move : You will be prompted to input a new sector to move to. The Universe is a 1000 by 1000 grid so you can map your way around using graph paper. Sectors begin at 0001 and end with 9999. When entering data for a move, you need not enter leading or trailing zeros. For instance sector 0001 could be entered as 1. Each sector costs one unit of fuel to cross so don't let your ship run out of fuel. A warning will be flashed on the screen when your ship goes below 20 units of fuel. You may also just input the # of the sector from the main input without the M. : Scanner : You have three options in scan: 1. Scan adjoining sectors, which will scan all sectors around the sector your ship is currently in. This scan shows number of planets, star type, Satellites present, Active Colonies, Sector Protectors and other players. If you notice a 01 under the enemy fighter heading it may be a Colony ship. 2. Scan Planets, Which gives you a quick non-detailed look at each planet to help you decide what planet in a sector to orbit. 3. Scan individual Planet, Will give a more detailed look at the planet but you must be in orbit around the planet first. Launching a scout ship to do a planet survey will give you a detailed look at every planet in a sector. Including and more importantly if the planets are in a hostile sector : Transporters : This option is used to transport either Colonists down to a planet or Mercenaries. this depends on whether you want to colonize a planet or attack an existing Colony. Follow the prompts and you will be told whether there are any existing colonies on the planet. How many and who they belong to. You cannot attack your own colonies. A Full Colony consists of nine groups. Full colonies will earn you trading credits and bonus points when you sign into the game each day. : Computer : This option calls up the Computer options. They'll be explained a little later. : Dock : Dock at a Star base, Level five Planets, satellites or a satellite another player has given you access to. Pick up supplies or New groups of Colonists. The prices will not change during the day. They are constant throughout the Universe for one Solar Day. They are determined at the start of each day by the Galactic council according to the rules of universal supply and demand. Page 4. : Inventory : A complete listing of everything aboard your Colony ship. Including how many Colony groups you have on board to Transport and how many Full Colonies you have made. Your Rank is also included in the Ship Inventory. : Orbit : Use this option to orbit a planet. Any planet may be orbited. You may want to send out a Scout Ship to do a survey of all planets in a sector before orbiting. Some sectors are Hostile areas and the planets in a hostile sector will have a defense force of fighters which can destroy your ship. Because of this reason, while operating in a hostile sector you may want to Launch a Fighter Group to destroy the defense group before you take your Colony ship into orbit. : Launch A Scout or Fighter Group : A scout ship can survey all planets in the sector your Colony ship is located in or you can send a scout to another sector to check it out before you move your Colony ship. If your scout encounters other ships of any kind it will report back and attempt to evade them. A Group of FIGHTER SHIPS can be launched to destroy a planet defense force before you go into orbit around the planet. Or you can launch a Fighter- Group to another sector to attack another player or their satellite. : Relay Link : Once you are in orbit around a planet that has a Satellite you may Link up with the Satellite via your Ship board computer. This only works of course if the Satellite belongs to you or you are at a trading partners satellite. Once your Ship computer has logged on to the Satellite computer you will see a menu of options. The menu is a straight forward way to transfer goods back and forth between your ship and the Satellite. The options are considered more fully under the Satellite options. : Write a Message : The message section is in the process of change. Folks have been asking for a full screen editor which I am reluctant to put in. Sometimes I think people forget it is just a game. The message editor is now the same one I wrote for Who-Dunit. While nothing fancy, it gets the job done. If you find that you need more than three lines for your messages, please let me know as this could be easily accomplished. As far as operation is concerned, it is a very straight forward affair. The names of the other players will be listed and you just need to choose one of them or All. If you choose all, everyone who signs into the game will be able to read the message and it will stay up for 4 days. If A private message then of course the player it is sent to will have to delete it. Page 5. : Generate a Report : This report will let you know where all your Satellites, Colonies and Sector Protectors are located. I have added a pause so that you may turn on your capture buffer, (or use print screen if playing local) to have a hard copy. : Your Messages : This option will let you re-read your messages. : ZModem Download : This option lets you download a copy of the PLayer.docs and the what's new file in one small .ZIP file called TERRADOC.ZIP. Your SysOp must have this option enabled before you can use it. : Quit : You may not quit in a sector already occupied by another player, in a sector which has a STAR BASE or a Home World Planet. Star bases are found only in the Neutral Zone where it is safe. By the way, STAR BASES are the only place you can buy Area Probes or Death Probes. There is one Home World Planet in each of the Five different areas of the Universe. Each areas Central government is located there. : Co-Pilots : You can purchase a Ship Co Pilot at the low price of 50,000 credits at any nearby Star Base. Ship Co Pilots will colonize sectors you choose. As many as your ship level allows. At Level 1 you can colonize 1 sector full of planets. The amount of sectors you can colonize goes up by 1 with every 10 levels of colony ship. So a level 30 colony ship will be able to colonize 4 full sectors over night while you are off line. Co Pilots are a great way to increase your colonies. Co Pilots always work hard to get the best deals on Colonists and always drop colonists off at the planets they requested. You choose the sectors and the Co-Pilots find the colonists to match the planet at the best prices. With the highest paying colonists around 900 credits per group per passage. That's around 8200 credits per full colony. Plus the bonus paid and 500 credits from the Universal council for colonizing, you're looking at around 10,000 credits per full colony. Not counting the credits you will earn from Colony trading profits when you sign in. Lastly, Co-pilots are worth their weight in credits, when it comes to colonizing hostile sectors! : View Colonists on board : Use this command to review your on board Colonists and to plan where you need to head next. Page 6. : HOSTILE sector trade agreements : A trade agreement can be made with any sector. There is no advantage to you as the player unless it is a hostile sector. In a hostile sector you cannot orbit a planet unless you first send out a fighter group to that planet and clear out the protecting fighter ships. Well, you can orbit but you are taking a chance on the number of attacking fighters from the planet. If you loose, you will die while in orbit. Also, when you leave that sector the planets involved will re-build their fighter ship force. So the next time you re-enter that sector you will have to contend with them again. In Terra-Firma ver 8.20 you can now make a trade agreement that will allow you access to the sector without the worry of planetary defenses coming after you each time you orbit. In fact a trade agreement turns a hostile sector into a friendly sector. The trade agreement will involve your paying a fee of something around 25,000 credits. The sector council will also demand a percentage of the daily earned credits from any colonies you build there, or are already there. It doesn't amount to much, maybe 5% of the total daily output for that sector. Turning a hostile sector into a friendly sector can come in very handy if that sector contains the only level 5 planet around. It will also help greatly when you are looking for a sector to build a defensive grid. : How colonies can upgrade planets : They do automatically! <G> It takes 8 solar days for a colony to upgrade a Terra-Formable or earth normal level 1 to a level 5 planet. When you sign into the game each day your colonies will be upgraded as needed. You must sign into the game for this to work. As your colonies gain in levels they will make more and more credits. You earn a percentage of these credits when you log into the game. When a full colony reaches level 8 and the planet on which it resides has reached level 5, you will also start to earn a profit from any business done on your colonies level 5 planet each solar day. Again this only works if you sign into the game each day. Once you colony has reached level 4 it will be immune to attacks from other players mercenaries! This is due to the beefed up defensive nature of higher level planets. Death probes however will still vaporize your colonies. Page 7. : On line Attack : This attack routine is completely different from the normal attack routine. When you discover another player on line with you. You can attack them from the same sector or send an attack Fighter Ship group from another sector (which is safer, as you may know where they are but they may not know where you are). As things stand now in the BBS world file sharing must be used with Multitasking BBs's or bbs's running on a LAN. This makes real time games a mite difficult to program :). When you institute an online attack. The program must wait for the other users response. The defending player upon receiving an attack message will end up in a routine where he has to respond. Even with this, ensuring a response is impossible if the player who has been attacked decides to drop carrier. The attack routine will scan for a response for 90 seconds. If none is forth coming the attack will end. When a player is attacked, he has two options. One is to leave the sector. A colony ship CAN outrun a Fighter Attack force. Or he can engage the Attacking Fighter Group. You, as the attacking player will receive messages according to the choices made by the player being attacked. Once the initial battle has been fought you as the attacking player will be informed as to win/loss status. If you win, you will have to decide to destroy the other player or just leave him scarred and broken. You of course will receive points and credits for Fighter Ships destroyed if you win. Or points for destroying a Colony Ship. There is now a 3 in 10 chance that the defending player will be able to escape from the sector. Also ship computers can now trace the ION trail from the Fighter attack group back to the sector from which it was launched. So if you are attacking another online player watch out as they will know where the attack came from. : When you are attacked Online : Don't panic! You always have the option of leaving the Sector. One thing you should keep in mind. When warping to another sector to escape an attack you will not be able to scan ahead to see if the sector if safe. So in a multinode game where other players are online with you, it would be prudent to always have some bounders on board. If you are attacked the number of attacking Fighter ships will be shown to you. You can then decide to fight or flee. If you decide to fight your ship computer will automatically launch your fighters. If the attacking player fighters overwhelm yours, your ship computer will automatically launch a torpedo barrage. If you win you will be awarded points and credits for withstanding an online attack and any enemy fighterships you may have destroyed. If you loose you are at the mercy of the attacking player. He then has the option of destroying you or letting you live. Page 8. : Computer Options: : Fuel calculator : The fuel calculator will compute how much fuel it will take for your Colony ship to jump to another sector. It will also let you know if you don't have enough fuel for the jump. : Colony News : The news will let you know who has signed into the game, what they were up to while they played and if they did anything of interest. After three days, the entire news file will be transferred to the Old News File. : Old News : The old News will let players who haven't signed in for over three days catch up on what occurred during their absence. Old news is kept for three days and then discarded. : Launch a Area Probe : You will be asked which one of five areas you want your probe to search. A single probe is only good for searching one area of the Known Universe. They are expensive (50000) credits and can only be bought at a STAR BASE. Probes have a single purpose which is to find other Colony ships. : Missiles : Missiles cost 3000 Credits apiece and are used only to destroy Sector Protectors. Missiles are specially designed to hunt out Sector Protectors and cannot be used against other ships. If fired into a sector without a sector protector in it. The missile will be lost. page 9. : Sector Protectors : Sector Protectors cost 500 credits apiece and are launched into the sector you want to protect. If another players ship enters a sector in which you have placed a Sector Protector all personnel aboard his ship (mercenaries, colonists) will be destroyed due to the Neutron factor involved with a Sector Protector. He will also loose 10% of his fighter ships and loose 1 ship level. Because of this, the enemy player will be unable to Transport Mercenaries down to destroy your Colonies. Obviously the other player can destroy your Sector Protector with a missile. The costs involved are in favor of the defending player. The enemy player will not be harmed by the Sector Protector due to the shielding around the bridge of a Colony Ship. Once a Sector Protector is launched only the player who launched it will be safe to enter that sector. If you wish to have a trading partner at one of your satellites be sure not to drop a sector protector off in that sector or your trading partner may get a bit miffed at you! : Attack a Colony ship : When you move into a sector which is already occupied by another player you may choose this option and attack the other players ship. Be careful, if you attack and do not completely destroy the other player he may counter attack! You can protect yourself from a counter attack by launching a fighter group from another sector. You can only attack a Colony Ship if it is parked by an off line player. As of yet there is no interactive attacking of other Players. (It's being alpha tested for the next Version. The scan will let you know if the ship Captain is off line. : Attack a Satellite : You can attack another players satellite with this menu option. A satellite will only defend itself and will not counter attack your ship. Be careful attacking satellites as there is no way to ascertain before hand it's strength. During the Defense a Satellite will launch every thing it has at the attacking ship unless it is sending a group of fighters from another sector. The Satellite will also exhaust it's supply of TORPEDOES before giving up. Once you have beaten all the Satellites defenses, the Satellite will send it's access code to your ship computer. In essence the satellite becomes yours and the original owner can no longer log on. You can also attack another players satellite from another sector by launching a fighter group to the sector containing the satellite. Which by the way is much safer. Page 10. : Build a Satellite : If you are in orbit around a planet and have purchased a Satellite you can use this option to set it up. Once you populate the satellite with worker robots and drop a few supplies on it like Metals and Electronics, the satellite will start producing. The more robots you have on a satellite (up to 500) the more Fighter Ships and TORPEDOES they can produce in one day. A satellite at full production will produce 5000 FIGHTER SHIPS a day and 500 TORPEDOES. You can buy a Satellite and put it in orbit around just about any planet you choose. You can then load it up with Fighter Ships, Mercenaries, etc. You can also choose one trading partner from among the other players in the game. This player will then be able to dock at your satellite and drop off or pick up items from the satellite just like it was one of their own. Satellites constantly scan two sectors in every direction around them. If another players ship comes within one sector of the satellite and the satellite has more than 100,000 FIGHTER SHIPS aboard, the satellite will send 50,000 FIGHTER SHIPS to attack the approaching players ship. This is a great way to defend a group a sectors. Please read Being on a Satellite with a Trading partner in interactive mode under the Satellite options. : Launch Death Probe : The Death Probe has incredible destructive power. As of this time there is no known defense (at least in this Version). Death Probes are constructed in total secrecy only on STAR BASES and of course are available only at STAR BASES. One Death Probe can search a 25 X 25 sector area in 12 hours. During this time it has enough Energy to Destroy 25 Colonies, 25 Sector Protectors, 5 Satellites and 5 Colony Ships. It will not destroy anything it finds belonging to the player who launched it. ALL other players are subjects for destruction including Trading Partners. Death Probes cost 1 million credits each! : Where Am I? : Pressing this computer option will give you a list of where the Home World Planets are located in each area of the Universe. One STAR BASE will also be listed. You will have to find the other STAR BASES. Rumor has it that there may be others in the Neutral Zone... : Eject Cargo : This option will allow you to dump anything in your cargo hold into space. : Self Destruct : Game players have used this option for many reasons. One of the most frequent is stranding themselves in deep space without any fuel units. Page 11. : Launch Sector Probe : A sector Probe differs from an Area Probe in that the sector Probe will check for EVERYTHING in each sector it passes through. An Area Probe only checks for other players and only in the area you choose. A sector Probe will output to the screen and a file that you can re- read using the 'R' Prompt from the Computer Menu. You choose if you want the Probe to do a full or Partial Scan in each sector it passes through. Then you choose the direction you want to launch the probe. A full scan will give you detailed reports on every planet in the sector, including any Colonies located on the planet. A partial scan will skip the planet/Colony data. : Read Last Probe Data : Your ship computer will keep on hand a file of all the data your last Probe sent out collected. You can re-read it from the computer prompt 'R'. Once you launch another Probe it will write over the previous data. If you need a more permanent file then use your text buffer in your communication software and capture the file. : P = Player list : This list is a rundown of all Players in the game and lists their Rank, number of Full colonies and total score. Your score consists of all inventory aboard your ship and number of colonies multiplied by your Rank + Ship Level. Your Rank is increased by one (1) each time you earn your rank multiplied by 1000 in points. You earn points by Transporting Colonists, fighting Space Pirates, destroying other players colonies or destroying their ships. For instance if you are a level 2 player you must earn 2000 points to become a level 3 Player. Each time you move up a rank your points are reset to zero (0) irregardless of the number of points over the required amount. Full colonies are increased by 1 every time you fill a planet with colonists. You must transport 9 groups of colonists To fill a planet. : Inventory : Same as in Main Game Menu. : Game Instructions : Your reading them. I will improve these doc files as I discover what parts of the game are confusing to players. Let me know what you need explained in more detail. Page 12. : Search and or send an Interactive Online Message : This option is not the same as the Message option from the main menu. If your SysOp is running a Multi line BBS and has Terra set up on more that one node then Interactive Messaging is possible. This Option will let you see what other players are on line at the same time as you. If the computer finds another player active in the Terra-Firma Universe it will ask if you want to send them a message. The only time you or another player will receive an incoming message from another online player is when you are on the Main screen and not in the Computer options or Satellite options menu. If you send another player a message you will not see his return message if any until you return to the Main Menu Screen. Obviously there are many uses for this option within the game. If Players enjoy this feature I will increase the interactive portions of the game. : Banking : Banking is done while docked at a level 5 planet. You will find it as option 0 from the menu. The first time you enter the banking menu you must make a new account. From then on banking is easy with the Universal Yankee 24! <G>. You can also access another players bank account if you know his account number and how to spell his game name. You will NOT find the banking option on the Main game or Computer menus. It is available only while docked. New in version 8.00 is the option to accept a 100,000 credit loan from the Universal council when logging into Terra for the first time. As a 0% interest loan it is a great deal! You will only have to begin repaying the loan when you start receiving profits from your full colonies. Terra will deduct 2% of the daily total from your colonies to repay the loan. It doesn't hurt at all and does help a great deal in starting the game with extra cash. : New Player Protection : New players will be under the protection of the Universal Council for ten (10) days. Other players will not be able to attack a new player while they are off line. However, this does not effect real time attacks! : Genesis Device : A genesis Device can be purchased from any participating Star Base dealer. When launched at a BARREN planet the Genesis Device will tranform it into an Earth normal level 1 planet. This will be very helpful in two situations. When you can't find a sector with 7 good planets to build a defensive grid and when colonizable planets are getting hard to find. You can thank Mr Spock for this one...... : Exit the computer : Do I need to explain this! (This means leave the computer options VanGlutburg!) Page 13. : Tractor Beams : A Tractor beam is used to pull in cargo ships or space junk you may find while wandering through the universe. From time to time your colony ship will run across these items and your ship computer scanners will auto- alert you. Your ship computer will attempt to scan and identify these objects as well as give you the opportunity of engaging your Tractor Beam to capture them. From the computer menu you will find a Release Tractor Beam command. I have no idea what this would be used for except for some type of emergency? Some of the items you may come across are serious junk. However, you may get lucky and find some VERY valuable items. Also, there are many robot cargo transports wandering around. These transports are used to re- supply level 5 planets and Starbases. You can then re-sell the cargo at any level 5 planet. It's a great way to build up your credits. You will find a NEW command from any level 5 planet buying screen. This command is used to sell anything you may have in tow. You can purchase a Tractor Beam and have it installed at any participating Starbase. Tractor Beams are not allowed in the Un-Registered versions of Terra-Firma. : Defensive Grids : With a Defensive Grid in place you will be fully protected in this version of Terra-Firma! NOTHING can penatrate a defensive grid! Other players will NOT be able to scan your defensive grid sector. Sector probes will NOT enter it. Death Probes will not enter it. Other colony ships will be vaporized if they enter it, unless they have a bounder on board for warning. Other players can NOT launch a scout ship into it, nor can they launch a fighter group into it. If you have a satellite in a sector with a defensive grid it to will be fully protected. Always leave your Colony Ship orbiting in this sector at log-off and you will be perfectly safe. You can purchase the necessary equipment to build a defensive grid at any participating Starbase. They are stored in your Cargo Hold until released into the sector of your choice. At 1,000,000 credits it's a bargain! You must find a sector with a least seven (7) colonizable planets. It takes the power of 7 full colonies to power up a defensive grid. The grid consists of newly developed killer laser satellites arrayed in such a way as to maximize their destructive power. All other players entering a sector with a defensive grid except the builder will be vaporized. Including trading partners! So be careful! Now you have more than just Novas and such to contend with ..... Page 14. : Docked at a level 5 planet or Space station : : Buying Goods and or supplies for your Colony Ship : The docking purchase menu at any level 5 planet or Space Station is a very straight forward affair. When you choose any item from the menu, you will be shown how many you now have aboard. How many your level Colony Ship can hold and how many of that particular item you can afford. Your Colony Ship can hold increasing numbers of items as it's level goes up. Following are a list of items not covered in Main, Computer or Satellite menu options. : TORPEDOES : TORPEDOES are basically a defensive weapon. If you are overwhelmed in an attack your TORPEDOES are your last defense. This holds true on board your satellite as well. Again, TORPEDOES are not an offensive weapon and can not be launched by you. Only your ship computer can launch TORPEDOES and will only do so when your Fighter Ships have been over whelmed. : Bounders : Bounders are new for Version 7.00. Folks were complaining that a mere slip of the finger could send their ship to certain doom, If they ended up in a sector with a Nova, Black holes etc.. So, Bounders were developed. Once you have some aboard your Colony Ship they zip into the sector your ship is heading for and warn your ship computer if they sense danger. If you in- advertently send your ship into a bad sector and you have a Bounder aboard, your ship will not leave the sector you are presently in when it receives the danger warning from the bounder. Your Bounder will be lost however. : Colony Ships : Colony Ships can be purchased up to level 99. You start with a level 1 Colony Ship. Level 1 ships can only transport 1 group of Colonists so it will take you 9 trips back and forth between the Level 5 planet you are picking up Colonists at and the planet you are transporting them to, to get credit for one full Colony. This obviously is time consuming and not very productive. One of the first purchases you make you should be at least a level 9 Colony Ship. Of course the higher level your ship the more Fighter Ships and TORPEDOES you can carry. : Metals : Metals are raw materials your Satellites need to produce Fighter Ships and TORPEDOES. The next version of Terra will allow for pro- gramming a Satellite to produce whatever you wish. This was a great idea someone just sent in to me and I want to add it as soon as possible. : Electronics : Electronics are goods and raw materials that your Satellite needs for production. Your cargo hold can contain 1 Unit or 50 weight in this material. The same for Metals. You need at least 10 weight on your satellite along with at least 10 weight of Metals for your Worker Robots to produce Fighter Ships and TORPEDOES while you are off-line. So 1 Unit or 50 weight of this product will last you for 5 days of production. Page 15. : Cargo Hulls : Due to popular demand Cargo hulls were added to version 8.30. I never intended to have them as they reminded me of Tradewars! Also, I had created Robot Transports and Co-Pilots so I never saw the need for them. However the players wanted them so.......As I said, I never intended Terra to have extra cargo hulls so the data files were not built for them. To make a short story shorter. Because of the data file limitation there are some restrictions on the cargo hulls. You will gain one (1) cargo hull for every 10 levels of your ship. So a 0-9 level ship will have one cargo hull. A level 10-19 ship will have 2 cargo Hulls and so on. A level 99 ship will have 10 cargo hulls. The other limitation is that you can only have one type of cargo in your hulls at a time. If you have a level 99 Colony Ship you could have 10 satellites aboard as cargo, but you can not have 5 satellites and 5 Robot Transports at the same time. Have fun! : Tactical Nukes : A new tactical nuke device can be purchased from any Star Base at the low low price of only 2,000,000 credits. A tactical nuke will take out a defensive grid. They do however have some limitations. They must be launched within 1 sector of your intended target. This may cause you some problems if the player who's defensive grid you are attacking has also protected this area with some well placed fully loaded satellites. Beware! The tactical nuke is really seven warheads in one with a computer tracking device on board. After launch the warheads will seperate and seek out their seperate targets. All seven orbiting power stations which funnel their power from the colonies below must be taken out. The small warheads cannot carry enough fuel for an extended journey plus the small on board computer recives most of it's info from your ship computer which is why your ship needs to be close by the defensive grid sector. Page 16. : Satellite Menu : Most of the Satellite options are straight forward and involve transferring goods back and forth between your ship and the satellite. The options and Interactive tip that should be discussed follow: : Trading Partners : Once you choose a trading partner by entering their Player Number. That person can log onto your Satellite and do anything on the satellite you can do. Your Trading Partner is immune to attacks from your satellite. : Robot Transports : Once you purchase a robot Transport and have docked it at your satellite. you can program the transport to make 10 runs in 24 hours to the nearest STAR BASE and buy whatever you wish and bring it back to your satellite. This will take some of the tedium out of building up your Satellites. Ten (10) Robot Transports are allowed per Satellite. If you have 20 Satellites you can have 200 robot transports running back and forth while you are OFF LINE! This is new for version 8.00. Older versions only allowed one Robot Transport per satellite! : Being on a Satellite in Interactive mode with your Trading Partner : If you are online with your trading partner and both of you have docked into the same satellite some explanations are in order. Once you log on to the Satellite and have the inventory view on your screen it will not be updated unless you use one of the options and then go back to the main inventory screen. For instance, If your partner is dropping off fighter ships for you to pick up, and you are already at the main inventory screen. They will not show up until you either sign off the satellite and back on, or use one of the menu options and go back to the main screen. Using one of the menu options of course would be the easiest thing, since you can always enter nothing when asked if you want to drop off or pick up any inventory item which sends you directly back to the main inventory screen. At which time anything your partner has loaded on your Satellite will show up. : Warp Drives : Once you have bought and installed a Satellite Warp Drive you can move your satellite to whatever sector you choose as long as there is a planet there to orbit the satellite around. The warp drive menu will ask you which sector and which planet to orbit your satellite in and around and then make sure it is safe. : Anti-Probes : Anti-Probes will keep you ship safe if another player launches a death probe into or near the sector you have parked your Colony Ship for the night. Page 17. : Sub-Space radio contact with your Satellites : New in version 8.30 you can contact your satellites from the computer menu of Terra-Firma. There are however some limitations. You can transfer credits due to the wonders of electronic banking. You can also launch your Robot Transports from sub-space radio. To use any of the other Satellite options you must be docked at the Satellite. You must be docked at the satellite to utilize the Warp Drive as well. This is because the satellite uses your colony ships computer to navigate. I almost forgot that you can also change your trading partner from sub-space. Page 18. : Political Menu : Version 8.30 marks the beginning of the political options for Terra-Firma. As of this version a player can control one of the six areas of the universe by having the most colonies in that area. 5% of ALL items bought in that area will be added to the player's account who controls that area. This includes all items sold at Starbases in the Neutral Zone. (sounds like a good sector to control, no?) A player can control as many areas as he wants. Terra-Firma version 8.40 is presently in alpha testing and includes War between the 6 areas in the Terra universe. Players who control one of the six areas in the universe will be on the Universal Council. They will vote on things like tax rates in the games, who should be allowed to build protective grids and war between the areas. In the next version of Terra, players will have to choose their alliance for an area in the universe. Page 19. : STRATAGEM : Well Stratagem may be a misnomer used here. Possibly Tips may be a better description. People who read all the way to here in these docs deserve some extra help! Get/Help your SysOp to register Terra-Firma as Co-Pilots and Tractor beams do not work in the unregistered version and really make a difference in game play. It's only $20.00......<G> Buy a level 9 Colony ship when you first enter the game and get some fuel! Making Colonies is a whole lot easier with a level 9 ship! If you die for whatever reason (there are lots of them in this game) don't give up hope. You can sign in again the next day with the added bonus of not having to start all over. All the Colonies and satellites you have made will still be yours the next time you sign in. As well as anything you may have put in the Bank. The Game will not delete you for 30 days and this is the only way to loose your colonies or Satellites. Never NEVER move to a sector without knowing what lies ahead! Unless you have bounders on board! Three types of stars are deadly! Nova, Black Hole and Neutron. If another player has launched a Sector Protector (don't you just love that name?) and you blindly move into the sector with it, all your Colonist on board and all the Mercenaries that you paid for will be gone! The use of Bounders will save your butt! When going after another Player, Remember that they may have LOTS of TORPEDOES on board as you cannot tell what level ship the player has! After the players FIGHTER SHIPS are destroyed you still have to break through his torpedo defense. Which is 1 torpedo for 1 fighter ship. After you ascertain how powerful the other player is, and armed with this information you still feel the need to destroy them, then move out of the sector in which they are in and send a fighter group back to fight. This way the other player cannot counterattack if your offense proves inadequate. Always leave Sector Protectors after you fill up a sectors planets with Colonies. Make the other players waste credits on missiles if they want to destroy your colonies. Wait until Mercenaries are on sale for 1 credit before buying them. You don't need them to play the game. If you wait until the cost for them is minimal, it will be cost effective to destroy other players Colonies with them. Use your Scouts to check out a sectors planets after you enter it. This is much easier than orbiting each planet and using the planet scan. Fill up your satellites when the cost of products is low. Just keep filling up your ship and dropping them off. Before you sign off launch your Robot Transport. I have found that even though you don't get as many points and credits for dropping colonists off in areas they didn't ask for, building up your full colonies as fast as possible works wonders for your cash flow. Speaking of cash always remember to put your credits in the Inter-Universal Yankee-24 before logging off each day. This is a great way to earn free credits as the interest rate is very good! Page 20. Even though Teams didn't seem appropriate for this game, you can still have what amounts to team play by giving someone access to your bank account. This could be a way for a new player to gain a high level ship and supplies quickly! You can also choose a trading partner for your satellites. In fact all this amounts to what I consider better then Team play. With the above options you can play as if you are on a team with someone and no one else playing the game will know it. If you are really feeling sneaky you could play on two or three different secret teams, and play everyone else off against each other and no one would ever be the wiser! Remember to leave your ship in the same sector as one of your satellites because another player has to destroy or take over your satellite before they can get to your ship. A players ship is always under the protective sphere of one of his own satellites. So if you load up your satellites with fighters and TORPEDOES another player is going to have a hard time getting to your ship! Once you have found the location of your hated enemies, A Death Probe is the way to go! Make sure your Trading Partner is NOT in the 25 X 25 Area of the Death Probe search. Also Death Probes will not operate unless the Terra-Firma is Registered. Keep your satellite full of goods and robots so they produce goods while you are offline. Robot transports and Co-Pilots are the way to go! That's it have fun! Terra-Firma Copy write (c) 1994 Author Dave Wendling N.U.G.I. ConSorTium BBS (413)-443-8788 FiDoNet 1:321/227 Internet "nugicon@delphi.com" 49 Hull Ave Pittsfield, MA 01201 Give me a call to try the latest Version of Terra-Firma running on my BBS. First time callers have free and unlimited access. Please feel free to give me call and report bugs. Or to give me another great idea to incorporate into Terra-Firma. I also monitor the DoorWare, DoorGames and DDS echoes in FiDoNet. I wrote my own BBS, Multitasking under windows so call at your own risk! <G> Page 21. Terra-Firma Ver 8.30 Hints It is VERY easy to get wasted in the Terra-Firma Universe! This file will make it a bit easier to cope. This small file is in two parts. Part 1 being how to stay alive! Part 2, How to best put some of the more obscure features to good use. Section One: How to stay alive....... ** IMPORTANT ** Always check ahead to the next sector you are planning to visit! There are four very good reasons for this. One is that the sector may contain a Black Hole, Nova or Neutron Star. Your Colony ship is not designed to be any where near these type of stars. Because of this Bounders were developed. Bounders are designed to jump ahead into the next sector and check for these types of conditions before your onboard ship computer lets your ship enter. Bounders are great but limited! They will not help you with Space Pirate attacks or Satellite attacks. The second reason is Space Pirates! Most of the time they travel in small groups of under one hundred ships. Which your Colony fighter ships can easily handle. However there are Space Pirate War Lords cruising through the Universe and they can be very tricky! They may let it look like there are just a few Pirates in the sector, but hidden behind Planets and Moons could be a rather large fleet! Be careful! These fleets have been known to be over 20,000 Space Pirate fighter ships! Thirdly, be on the alert for other players Satellites. Once a Satellite has more than 100,000 fighterships on it. The Satellite will scan for two sectors around it and attack anything that enters those sectors! Once your Colony Ship has reached a level where you can carry 50,000 or more fighter ships. You are fairly safe from being destroyed by Space Pirates or Satellites. However, you must be on a constant guard for the three star type sectors mentioned above. Fourth, if you are out Colonizing or just planning to orbit a planet for supplies you MUST know if you are in Hostile Sector or not! The various scanners will report on whether or not you have entered a hostile sector. Most Hostile sectors will let you pass through unharmed but if a sector is considered hostile, it is because the planets have banned together in an effort to stay safe. Some planets will of course be more able to defend themselves and will be able to launch more Fighterships in defense. In the Terra-Firma Universe it is very unlikely for a planet to launch more than 30,000 fighterships. Never orbit a planet without first sending a scout out to survey the planets. If it is hostile, leave or make a trading pact with them. (from the main menu) Remember to leave your ship in the vicinity of one of your Satellites as other players must get through it's defense force before they can get to your ship. A protective grid is the best as there is no known offense that can penatrate it. (at least in this version) Page 21. Section Two: Obscure and strange things I have found about the game........ To win Terra-Firma or just to become the most powerful player, you need supplies from one of three space stations in the Universe. The location of only one of these Space stations is known. So if one were to block off the access to these Space Stations by orbiting powerful Satellites in the near by sectors, one could control access to these Space Stations! Co-Pilots have some undocumented (except here) features. Whether this is due to planning or some strange programming quirk will never fully be understood or known? Colonizing hostile sectors can be expensive in fighter ships. Not to mention dangerous! Co-Pilots can colonize these sectors for you while you are off line. For some strange reason they can get in and out of these sectors without a problem......Also, the planet defenses don't seem to affect things either! Copilots can also sneak around Space Pirates without a problem. Obviously, the builders and programmers at the Space Stations know something we don't. That however doesn't matter. What does matter for us is that it works! Not only does it work for the above but seems to be true of sneaking around Satellites loaded with fighter Ships! A few things to have in mind before you move, Make sure you have some bounders on board as they are destroyed when they hit a bad sector! Make sure you have scanned ahead. I always scan ahead to check for Space Pirates. If I fly into a new sector, the first thing I do is launch a scout ship to check the planets out. This scout ship will report back anything it finds including whether or not you are in a Hostile sector! In the normal scanner report you will see a heading titled ships. If there is a (00) double zero the sector is safe from pirates. If you see a (01) it may be one Space Pirate or another player. Anything over (01) will be a fleet of Space Pirates. Remember that this may be a ruse, as there could be other unscanned Pirates hiding. Another undocumented feature is that when you bribe pirate fighter ships to join your fleet they are not considered part of your compliment of fighters. Their number will be added to the number of fighters you have on board during an inventory check but they are actually outside the ship and travel with you using fuel from your ships stores. The limit of fighters on board a level 99 ship is 99000 but you can efectively add to this number by bribing pirates to join your fleet. This is a great way to protect your ship from two fully loaded satellites that may be protecting the same sector and simultaneously launch 50,000 fighter ships at you. This feature may come in real handy if you need to get within 1 sector of a players defensive frid to launch a tactical nuke. The player may have protected his grid sector with multiple satellites just waiting to strike out at some unsuspecting colony ship that comes within their protective sphere. It will aloso be a great surprise to use on another player who never reads doc files! Page 23. Also rememer that in version 8.35 with tactical nukes the defensive grid is no longer invincible. One of the best strategies I can think of would be to place a fully loaded satellite within the defensive grid sector. Also place some around the defensive grid sector. This way a player who wants to destroy your defensive grid has to deal with simultaneous multiple attacks from your satellites before he can launch a tactical nuke at you. He would then have to destroy the all the surounding satellites before he could get to your ship. Ending thoughts: Terra-Firma is a dangerous place. As is real life. I and many others who have gotten into the game believe it is more realistic this way. It lends an element of danger to the game, that other Space games may not have. I love player suggestions and incorporate many of them into the game. Please let me know if you have a great original idea. I do not except suggestions that are anything like other Space games. Dave Wendling Voice 413-442-7296 FiDoNet 1:321/227 BBS 413-443-8788 I also monitor DOORGAMES and the DOORWARE FiDoNet Echos. Internet "nugicon@delphi.com"