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- Blood Sport Presents - VGA Planets(tm) Version 3.0 (0.00) TABLE OF CONTENTS PLANETS1.DOC (0.01) ABOUT VERSION NUMBERS (0.02) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (1.00) INTRODUCTION TO VGA PLANETS (1.01) THE SCENARIO (1.02) HELP! (2.0) PLANETARY ECONOMY (2.1) MINERALS (2.2) MINERAL MINES (2.3) FACTORIES (2.4) DEFENSE POSTS (2.5) SUPPLIES (2.6) TAXES AND POPULATIONS (2.7) METEOR IMPACTS _________________ PLANETS2.DOC (3.00) STARSHIPS (3.01) TECH LEVELS (3.02) NEW SHIPS (3.03) WEAPON BANKS AND FIGHTER BAYS (3.04) FIGHTERS (3.05) WEAPON KILLING/DESTRUCTIVE POWER (3.06) STARSHIP FIX / RECYCLE (3.07) FUEL (3.08) CARGO (3.09) PRIMARY ENEMY (3.10) SHIP MISSIONS (3.11) STARSHIP NAVIGATION (3.12) FUEL (3.13) REPAIRS IN SPACE (3.14) COLONIZE MISSION (3.15) ALCHEMY SHIPS (3.16) MINE FIELDS (3.17) ORDER OF COMBAT (3.18) COMBAT LAWS/RULES (4.0) STARBASES (4.1) DEFENSE AND FIGHTERS (4.2) A BASE'S ROLE IN SHIP BUILDING AND ARMING (4.3) STARBASE ORDERS (4.4) PLANETARY / STARSHIP FRIENDLY CODE (4.5) STARBASE SCANNER (4.6) STARBASE FIX COMMAND (5.0) THE STARCHART ----------------- PLANET3.DOC (6.0) VICTORY CONDITIONS (6.1) LIST OF STARSHIP TYPES (6.2) A REVIEW OF THE RACE FLEETS (6.3) PERSONALIZED RACE NAMES (6.4) RACE.NM AND THE HOST (6.5) RACE.NM AND THE REMOTE PLAYER (6.6) RACE.NM AND THE LOCAL GAME (6.7) RACE.NM AND BBS SYSOPS (7.0) STARTING THE GAME (7.1) STARTING IF YOU ARE NOT HOSTING THE GAME (7.2) THE GAME FILES ( A BRIEF LIST ) (7.3) LIST OF PLAYER FILES (7.4) LIST OF ALL THE HOST FILES (8.0) SUPPORT (9.0) NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 3 ----------------- PLANET4.DOC (10.0) RACE ADVANTAGES (10.01) PLAYER 1 ( The Solar Federation ) (10.02) PLAYER 2 ( The Lizards ) (10.03) PLAYER 3 ( The Bird Men ) (10.04) PLAYER 4 ( The Fascists ) (10.05) PLAYER 5 ( The Privateers ) (10.06) PLAYER 6 ( The Cyborgs ) (10.07) PLAYER 7 ( The Crystal People ) (10.08) PLAYER 8 ( The Evil Empire ) (10.09) PLAYER 9 ( The Robots ) (10.10) PLAYER 10 ( The Rebels ) (10.11) PLAYER 11 ( The Colonies ) (10.12) A QUICK OVERVIEW (11.0) NATIVE RACE ADVANTAGES (11.1) HUMANOID (11.2) BOVINOID (11.3) REPTILIAN (11.4) AVIAN (11.5) AMORPHOUS (11.6) INSECTOID (11.7) AMPHIBIAN (11.8) GHIPSOLDAL (11.9) SILICONOID (12.0) NATIVE GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS AND TAXES (12.1) COLLECTING TAXES FROM NATIVES (12.2) COLLECTING TAXES FROM COLONISTS (12.3) TAKING OVER PLANETS WITH COLONISTS (13.0) DEFENSE AND ATTACKS (13.1) PLANETARY DEFENSE (13.2) GROUND WAR (13.3) SHIP TO SHIP MATH (13.4) SHIP DAMAGE EFFECTING WEAPONS AND ENGINES (14.0) SHIP WEAPON AND ENGINE STATS (15.0) MOUSE DRIVER SCALING FACTORS (16.0) HCONFIG.EXE (16.1) CONFIGURE STARSHIP RECYCLE RATE (16.2) CONFIGURE METEOR IMPACT ODDS (16.3) CONFIGURE MINE FIELDS (16.4) CONFIGURE ALCHEMY SHIPS (17.0) ERROR MESSAGES ----------------- PLANET5.DOC Appendix A: Ship hull spec list. Covers: Federation, Lizards, BirdMen, Fascist and Privateer. ----------------- PLANET6.DOC Appendix A: Ship hull spec list. Covers: Cyborg, Crystalline, Evil Empire, Robots, Colonies and Rebels. ----------------- (0.01) ABOUT VERSION NUMBERS This is version 3.0 and will NOT work with all previous releases. I will continue to support version 2.1 & 2.2 as long as there are version 2 games being played. (0.02) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS The game can be played on any IBM compatible with VGA graphics and a 286 or faster CPU with a hard drive. (1.00) INTRODUCTION TO VGA PLANETS VGA Planets is a graphical multiplayer play by turn war game that simulates combat in space between galactic empires. The game emphasizes mining, colonization and the construction of starships. The players compete against each other economically and militarily on a galactic scale. Although there is an economic component to the game, it is mainly a tactical and strategic wargame. Although the player with the best economy usually has the best potential to win, it's not the purpose of the game -- and the scoring system reflects this. The game system allows players to construct their own starships by selecting various components and placing them on a given hull type. This game can handle from two to 11 players. The game is designed to be a BBS or Net game. This game can also be played on one computer alone. The game can be played on any BBS that supports file transfers, with or without the sysop's help. Many people are playing VGA Planets over the NET using Email and UUENCODE. To begin the game, you are given a planet, a starbase, and two ships. You have to manage your planet's population and resources wisely. You can create more ships and expand your domain through colonization or conquest of neighboring planets. Of course, the other players are attempting to do the same thing. The game can also be set up so that players start with just freighters and no homeworlds. VGA Planets can be compared to a 11-player chess game in which all players move all their pieces simultaneously, one turn at a time. (1.01) THE SCENARIO Ten years ago a small fleet of freighters left your home world in a quest to find new worlds to colonize. Half way through your journey you lost all contact with fleet command. You then begin to fear the worst, a full scale galactic war may have broken out and your small fleet may be the last of your race. You left home with four very special ships that were equipped with tech 17 Bussard Ramscoops which gather low grade matter from the interstellar medium and converts it to antimatter fuel. The tech 17 Bussard Ramscoop Fuel Ships served you well until you lost the last one a year ago when the final cobalt-lanthanide-boronite fractionator coil (CLBF coil) burnt out, your fleet was then forced to make the rest of the journey burning low grade neutronic fuel. Your fleet finally arrived at your goal, the small Echo open star cluster on the outer tip of third major arm of the Milky Way. This open cluster contains 500 planets that are all named after the stars from your home star sectors. The last fuel base you passed is over 7000 light years away and you are unable to build new CLBF coils. In fact, the only know source of CLBF coils is small super high tech research station ran by a group of Andromedians near the galactic core 30000 light years away. The coils are shipped to all the major homeworlds by Endoane traders. A shipment of supplies which included 20 new CLBF coils was following one year behind your fleet until it was lost to an unknown band of pirates. The highest tech level ever achieved by your race has been tech 10, so it is really very unlikely that you will ever be able to build any CLBF coils on your own. Unless you reestablish contact with your homeworld or a supply shipment shows up you can regard this as a one way mission. Upon arrival at the first world you came to all your starships were landed on the planet's surface to be converted into raw materials for the building of mines, factories and one low tech starbase. A small local system freighter and a small capital ship were built when your starbase was completed. You soon learn that you are not alone. Moving across your starcharts are enemy races that have followed you to this star cluster. You must now put every effort into building the most powerful fleet of war ships possible before you are attacked. Your best hope is to send small freighters in every direction to drop off colonists and supplies so that they can grow in numbers on new planets and extract the minerals that your starbase needs to build more ships. You need to act fast because your enemies will most likely be trying to expand also. Pay close attention to the starchart, because you can see your enemy's ships as they travel between planets. Good luck . . . (1.02) HELP! In the game you can press <H> on most screens to see a help screen that explains this part of the game to you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (2.0) PLANETARY ECONOMY The planetary economy is based on mining, factory production, taxes and population. (2.1) MINERALS There are 4 types of minerals: Neutronium is the super dense mineral used for fuel on starships. It is far too unstable for use in building ship components. Duranium is a very strong mineral used to build the frame work of starship components and the armor skin of starbases and fighters. Tritanium is a mineral that can withstand very high pressures and temperatures. It is used widely in starship construction. Molybdenum is used mainly in high power energy wave guides. It is important for weapon construction and engine construction. High tech components tend to use greater amounts of molybdenum then lower tech components. All unexplored planets will have some minerals sitting on the planet's surface along with minerals buried in the planet's core that can be mined. (2.2) MINERAL MINES Mines extract minerals from the planet's core as long as one of the four minerals are present. If no minerals are present, mines are completely useless. The cost of building a mine is 4 megacredits and a supply unit. The maximum number of mines that can be constructed on a planet is limited by the size of your colonist population. Mines only remove minerals from the ground, they DO NOT produce minerals out of thin air, they will stop giving you minerals when the planet runs out of minerals. When a planet runs out of minerals all the mines on the surface become useless junk that cannot be recycled. Mines are permanent scars on the planet's surface and will add to the planet population's discontent. Starships and colonists can take a mining survey of the planet that will show you a graph of the amounts of minerals remaining unmined in the planets core and a listing of the amounts of ore that have been mined so far and are ready for use. The survey will also tell you the number of mines present on the planet. The rate that your mines can extract ore out of the ground depends on the concentration of the ore. There are five grades of mineral concentration. 1. very scattered ( ten mines can extract a KT per turn ) 2. scattered 3. dispersed ( three mines can extract a KT per turn ) 4. concentrated 5. large masses ( one mine can extract a KT per turn ) The amount of minerals in a planet is rated at five different grades. 1. none ( 0 KT ) 2. very rare ( 0 to 99 KT ) 3. rare ( 100 to 599 KT ) 4. common ( 600 to 1199 KT ) 5. very common ( 1200 to 4999 KT ) 6. abundant ( 5000+ KT ) Most planets can be mined clean in just a few turns, but planets with abundant minerals will produce minerals for a very long time. If you build a great number of mineral mines the population on the planet will unhappy and you will be forced to drop the tax rate to keep them happy or else face the risk of riots and war. Mineral mines and factories risk showing up on enemy sensors unless the planet has a planetside defense of more then 100. (2.3) FACTORIES Factories produce one supply unit each turn. The cost of building a factory is 3 megacredits and one supply unit. The maximum number of factories that you can build on a planet is limited by the size of your colonist population. When a planet becomes over populated at (somewhere around 11,000,000 on your homeworld) the colonists will be forced to eat and use supplies to keep from starving. Some planets can reach a state of over population at around 1,000,000 colonists if they have an arctic or desert climate. If you notice that your supply production has stopped or slowed then you are having an over population problem. There are a few desert and arctic planets were the climate is so bad that 1 clan is considered over populated. (2.4) DEFENSE POSTS Defense posts protect the planet from attacking starships. Cost of building a defense post is 10 megacredits and one supply unit. The maximum number of defense posts you can build on a planet is limited by the size of your colonist population. Defense posts will screen the planet's industrial activity from long range sensor sweeps by enemy ships. The odds of detection are (100 - NUMBER OF DEFENSE POSTS )%. The number of fighters that a planet can launch to defend the planet from enemy ship attacks equals SQR( NUMBER OF DEFENSE POSTS ). Fighters from a planet are regenerated after each attack. (2.5) SUPPLIES The supplies produced by your factories can be carried by starship to new planets to be used to build new factories, mines and defense posts. You can also sale supply units for one megacredit each. Alchemy ships can use supplies to make minerals and fuel. (2.6) TAXES AND POPULATIONS By taxing the colonist and native populations you can generate megacredits for building mines, factories, defense posts, a starbase and starship components. The populations will become upset with you if the tax rate is too high or there is over population. They may become upset if there are too many mines, factories or defense posts due to environmentalist movements begins within the population. Over several turns the populations of a planet may become very unhappy. If they ever become too unhappy they will start a riot or even a civil war. If this happens they will kill each other and destroy your mines, factories and defense posts. If a riot starts the tax rate will be instantly set to 0% to prevent a civil war. A high tax rate slows the birth rate. You can use this factor to prevent over population. Keep in mind that a population with a tax rate of 0 will cause the population to expand at the maximum rate. A planet's climate will also affect the maximum population and the birth rate. Temperate warm planets provide the best possible conditions for all lifeforms. Desert and arctic planets are the worst possible conditions for life. If the population is ever greater then the population that the planet's climate can sustain the colonists will consume supplies to survive. If the climate is too harsh you may have to make regular freighter runs of supplies to the planet to keep the colonists alive. (2.7) METEOR IMPACTS The Host person can set the odds of ONE very large meteor crashing into a planet by using the HCONFIG program. When a meteor strikes a planet, massive amounts of new minerals and fuel ore will be buried deep in to planet's core. That planet will then become a mineral rich world and a very good place to build mineral mines. Many bad things happen to a planet that is hit by a meteor. A great number of the population will be killed. Many mines, factories, and defense outposts will be destroyed and the planet may be plunged into a civil war. Your starbase and all ships in orbit will be safe from the effects of the meteor. When a meteor hits the resulting explosion is so large that all the races will know which planet was hit (everyone will receive a message). This could trigger a "mineral rush" to get to that planet first and setup a colony there first. The impacted planet should have enough minerals buried in it to build a starbase and many new ships. That makes the planet impacted a real prize. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ Continued . . . SEE PLANETS2.DOC ]