ShareWare OnLine 2

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (10.0) RACE ADVANTAGES A version 3.0 feature is each race has their own advantages over other races. (10.01) PLAYER 1 ( The Solar Federation ) The Solar Federation is very good at making friends with the natives that they contact. Their members are more productive then the average. They collect twice the megacredits per turn per tax rate percentage point from both the natives and the colonists. The Solar Federation has a set of strict laws that are enforced by the universal environmental protection agency (UEPA). In order to follow all the laws the Solar Federation can only mine at half the normal rate. The Solar Federation is the only race that can upgrade the tech levels of old starships. If a Federation ship sets their mission to "Super Refit" and is at a Federation starbase for one turn. The chief engineer will remove the engines, beam weapons and torpedo launchers and replace the parts with the highest tech level parts available from the starbase's parts inventory. If a higher tech part is not available the chief engineer will not swap parts. Old parts taken off the ship will be placed in storage. (10.02) PLAYER 2 ( The Lizards ) The Lizards are a strong and powerful physically. Their skin acts as a very tough natural armor. They are very resistant to extreme cold and heat and weapons of all types. A ship with a Lizard crew can survive over 150% damage before blowing up. Lizards are 20 times more skilled at ground combat that any other race. Lizards love to take over colony worlds by just landing Lizard colonists. They are very good at extracting minerals from the ground. The weakest Lizards can toss 500 pound boulders around with ease. All Lizard mineral mines produce twice the minerals as any other race. Some small Lizard ships can cloak. The Lizards have a special "HISSSSSSSSSS" Mission that will stops civil wars by transmitting threatening radio and video messages to planetary populations. The fear of big Lizards stomping on their planet tends to calm them down. (Only ships with beam weapons can do the HISSSSS mission) (10.03) PLAYER 3 ( The Bird Men ) The Birdmen are very sneaky. Many of their ships can hide using a cloaking device built into the space frame (hull) of their ships. Cloaked ships do not show up on enemy scanners and protect them from enemy attack. Cloaked ships are 4 times less likely to hit a space mine then a visible ship. Cloaking does not protect a ship from web style mines. Ships that are out of fuel cannot cloak. The Birdmen are very good at spying on enemy planets. They can use their "Super Spy" mission to get a normal exploration report plus a "Spy" report that has the enemy's planetary friendly code, however 20% of the time the enemy will catch the spy team and be warned that the friendly code has been discovered. Any ship that can cloak will be cloaked during the "Super Spy" mission. (10.04) PLAYER 4 ( The Fascists ) Three of the Fascist starships can cloak. Fascist starships can plunder a planet for money and supplies. When a planet is plundered 20% of the population (native and colonist) is killed off and their personal belongings are converted into supply units. Plundering for around 6 turns will cause riots. Plundering for about 11 turns will cause a civil war, but very few of the inhabitants will still be alive. The reason it takes so long for the population to become upset and start to riot is that everyone in the population that starts trouble is killed. (10.05) PLAYER 5 ( The Privateers ) Privateers have the unique ability to fine tune their beam weapons to do 3X the normal damage to the enemy crew while still doing normal damage to the enemy's hull. This makes them very skilled at capturing enemy ships by killing off the crew. The Privateers are also very skilled at robing fuel and minerals from enemy ships using the "Rob Ship" mission. Enemy ships won't find out about being robbed until it is too late. Only ships with beam weapons can use the "Rob Ship" mission. The rob mission takes place before movement and combat. The Privateers is the only race that can build ships that have gravitonic accelerators. Three ships that have the gravitonic accelerators are the Meteor Class Blockade Runner, the BR4 Gun Boat and the BR5 Kaye Class Torpedo Boat. These three ships travel at a rate of twice that of a normal ship. At warp factor 9 these ships will travel 162 light years in one turn. These ships can also cloak. The major drawback of these ships is their very small size and cargo room. They are also unable to survive even a single impact with a space mine. (10.06) PLAYER 6 ( The Cyborgs ) The Cyborgs have some of the most powerful starships, the Cyborg Cube ships. The Cyborg ships are able to repair in space at a rate of 10% per month. A Cyborg ship that is repairing cannot move. When a Cyborg ship destroys an enemy ship the debris and fuel is beam aboard in the form of minerals. Cyborg colonists that are placed on a planet that has native population will convert the natives into Cyborg colonists. The natives are converted to Cyborg at a rate of one native for every Cyborg on the planet. (10.07) PLAYER 7 ( The Crystal People ) The Crystal People can lay WEB MINES in space that cause starships to come to a dead stop for one month. (SEE MINE FIELDS) for more details on mines. Any ship that is in a web mine field loses 25 KT of fuel per turn trying to keep the shields up. (10.08) PLAYER 8 ( The Evil Empire ) The captains of all ships in the Evil Empire can use the "Dark Sense" to detect enemy colonists living on planets within 400 light years. There is a 20% chance that colonists on a single planet will be detected. The "Dark Sense" is never wrong! Nothing can hide a planet from the "Dark Sense." (10.09) PLAYER 9 ( The Robots ) Can lay mines far better then all other races. They can make four times more mine units per torpedo. This makes their mine fields 4 times as larger then normal. However, only one robot ship can lay mines, the Cat's Paw Class Destroyer. All robot ships with fighter bays can build fighters in space using 3 tritanium, 2 molybdenum and 5 supply units per fighter. (10.10) PLAYER 10 ( The Rebels ) The REBEL GROUND ATTACK MISSION (sabotage planet). Any of the Rebel's ships can land a very small team of saboteurs onto the planet's surface. The team will destroy 30% of the planet's money, 40% of the planets supplies, 20% of the defense outposts, 60% of the mineral mines and 30% of the factories. In doing so 20% of the colonists on the planet will be killed off. This will really upset the colonists! If there are any natives on the planet they will be very pleased about everything being destroyed. Rebels can "self-destruct" their own planets if they wish by using this ground attack mission. They have many small friendly robots on board all their fighter carriers that build fighters when ever they can find 2 tritanium, 3 molybdenum and 5 supply units laying around, whatever the ship's mission. (10.11) PLAYER 11 ( The Colonies ) The colonists can use fighters to sweep for mines. Each fighter can destroy 4 mines per turn. If the ship doing the mine sweeping has beam weapons then the ship will also use the beam weapons to destroy mines simultaneously. The mine sweeping fighters can travel 100 light years from the carrier when on a mine sweeping mission. Colonist ships that have fighters bays can build fighters in space using 3 tritanium, 2 molybdenum and 5 supply units per fighter. (10.12) A QUICK OVERVIEW PLAYER 1 ( The Solar Federation ) Super Refit ( update tech of old ships ) 2X income from planetary taxes 0.5X ore extraction rate and 25 PLAYER 2 ( The Lizards ) Ship with Lizard crew can take 150% damage before blowing up 20X ground combat! 2X ore extraction rate The Lizard HISSSSSS! mission ( stops civil wars ) Cloaking ships PLAYER 3 ( The Bird Men ) Cloaking ships (Including a cloaking battleship) Super spy mission while cloaked PLAYER 4 ( The Fascists ) Plunder natives and colonists for money and supplies Cloaking ships PLAYER 5 ( The Privateers ) Rob enemy ships 3X Crew kill when using beam weapons Cloaking ships Three ships with gravitonic accelerators PLAYER 6 ( The Cyborgs ) Assimilate natives (turn natives to Cyborgs) Recover minerals and fuel form the hull of defeated enemy ships Repair self in space 10% per turn while stopped PLAYER 7 ( The Crystal People ) Web space mines that entrap enemy ships and drain fuel PLAYER 8 ( The Evil Empire ) The Dark Sense ( can detect the location of enemies remotely ) Starbases build 5 free fighters per turn using minerals only. PLAYER 9 ( The Robots ) 4X Space mine laying bonus ( 4X the number of mines per torp ) Can build fighters in space PLAYER 10 ( The Rebels ) Can sabotage planets ( destroy structures and start a civil war ) Can build fighters in space PLAYER 11 ( The Colonies ) Can use fighters to mine sweep Can build fighters in space ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (11.0) NATIVE RACE ADVANTAGES Every native race has an advantage or behavior that in most cases can be used for your advantage. (11.1) HUMANOID Any starbase that is built around a humanoid planet will have tech 10 hull technology automatically. (11.2) BOVINOID Every 10000 Bovinoids will produce 1 supply unit per turn. To collect the supplies you must have 100 colonists (one clan) for every supply that you collect. (11.3) REPTILIAN If there are 100 or more Reptilians living on a planet then your mining rate will be doubled. They will gladly help your colonists mine and move large boulders. (11.4) AVIAN Are quick to forgive you for overtaxing them. They will allow you to slightly overtax them without growing unhappy. ( They are some what dumb) (11.5) AMORPHOUS The Amorphous lifeforms eat 500 colonists ( 5 clans ) per turn. They will not pay taxes and will become upset if you try to tax them. The Cyborg cannot assimilate them. (11.6) INSECTOID Insectoids produce twice the normal amount of credits per turn per percentage as other native races. (11.7) AMPHIBIAN Any starbase that is built around an amphibian planet will have tech 10 beam weapon technology automatically. (11.8) GHIPSOLDAL Any starbase that is built around a ghipsoldal planet will have tech 10 engine technology automatically. (11.9) SILICONOID Any starbase that is built around a siliconoid planet will have tech 10 torpedo technology automatically. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (12.0) NATIVE GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS AND TAXES None : no taxes may be collected Anarchy : 20% of normal may be collected Pre-Tribal : 40% Early-Tribal : 60% Tribal : 80% Feudal : 100% (same as colonists) Monarchy : 120% Representative : 140% Participatory : 160% Unity : 180% (12.1) COLLECTING TAXES FROM NATIVES To collect taxes from native races you must have 100 colonists ( one clan ) for every megacredit taken. megacredits available from natives = ( native population ) * ( tax rate % ) * ( government factor % ) * 0.001 EXAMPLE: PLANET : Kzin 8,000,000 natives 10% native taxes Humanoid / Tribal 1200 colonists ( 8000000 ) * ( 0.10 ) * ( 0.80 ) * 0.001 = 640 megacredits If you have 64000 or more colonists ( 640 clans ) you will be able to collect the 640 megacredits from the native. Since you only have 1200 colonist on this planet you can only collect 12 megacredits. The natives will keep 628 megacredits and may still become upset with you for taxing them at a rate of 10%. (12.2) COLLECTING TAXES FROM COLONISTS megacredits available from colonist = ( colonist population ) * ( tax rate % ) * 0.001 EXAMPLE: PLANET : Kzin 7,000,000 colonists 10% native taxes ( 7000000 ) * ( .10 ) * 0.001 = 700 megacredits (12.3) TAKING OVER PLANETS WITH COLONISTS You can take over a planet by dropping off one or more clans from a starship using the starships "<C>" command. Colonists don't always survive on the planet's surface. They may be killed off by amorphous natives or a harsh climate. Colonists need supplies to survive on planets that have an arctic or desert climate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (13.0) DEFENSE AND ATTACKS This is a list of the details of space combat. (13.1) PLANETARY DEFENSE Planetary defense systems are very weak when compared to the defense systems of even a medium sized starship. The firepower of the planet is added to the fire power of the starbase. The number of fighters that a planet can launch is the number of fighters that on the orbiting starbase plus the SQR( defense outposts ). The number of fighter bays that a planet has is the SQR( defense outposts ). If the planet has a starbase then the planet gets 5 extra fighter bays. If a fighter from a planet side based fighter is hit by enemy fire he is beamed back to the planet .001 milliseconds before the fighter explodes. He is then ready to attack the next incoming ship in a new fighter if the planet survives the attack. Fighter pilots from a starbase are unable to beam out. The tech level of the beam weapons on a planet is SQR( ( defense outposts ) * 0.5 ) or the tech level of beam weapons of the starbase ( the greater of the two ). The number of beam weapons that a planet has depends on the SQR( ( defense outposts + starbase defense ) * 0.3 ). Shield power and resistance to damage in KT/SHIELD is 100 + ( defense outposts ) + ( starbase defense ) You can compare this number to these ships: B200 CLASS PROBE 30 KT/SHIELD OUTRIDER CLASS SCOUT 75 KT/SHIELD MISSOURI CLASS BATTLESHIP 395 KT/SHIELD BIOCIDE CLASS CARRIER 860 KT/SHIELD MERLIN CLASS ALCHEMY SHIP 920 KT/SHIELD GORBIE CLASS BATTLECARRIER 980 KT/SHIELD (13.2) GROUND WAR You may attack an enemy planet by dropping off colonists. Your colonist and the enemy colonist will fight it out until there is only one group of colonists left. The kill ratio is one of your colonists will kill one of theirs. Who ever has the most colonists left after the fight owns the planet. The exception to the above rule is the Lizards. One Lizard colonist will kill 20 enemy colonists before being killed. You may take over unowned planets by beaming down one or more colonists. The following turn the planet will belong to you. (13.3) SHIP TO SHIP MATH The strength of the shields and the ship's armor is determined by the mass of the ship's hull. The mass of cargo, fuel, weapons and engines does not count toward stronger shields. The percentage of energy lost from a shield that is hit by enemy fire follows the formula: LOSS% = Tetawatts * ((80 / hull_mass ) + 1 hull_mass is empty hull mass in kilotons For a list of weapon energy output stats see (14.0) All torpedoes have a 35% chance of missing their target. The percentage of damage done to a ship's hull follows the formula: DAMAGE DONE % = Tetawatts(E) * [ ( 80 / (hull_mass + 1) ] ^2 + 2 CREW KILLED = Tetawatts(K) * [ ( 80 / (hull_mass + 1) ] High tech weapons do no more hull damage to ships with masses over 500 Kilotons then low tech weapons, but they do a much better job of dropping the enemy shields. The damage done to an enemy by a fighter does not depend on the mass of the enemy ship at all. A fighter does 4 points of damage to the enemy ship's hull or drops the shields by 4 points. It does not matter if it is a 30-kiloton scout or a 900-kiloton battleship. (13.4) SHIP DAMAGE EFFECTING WEAPONS AND ENGINES A damaged starship may loose some of its firepower and shield strength. SHIELD STRENGTH = 100 - ( SHIP_DAMAGE ) MAX BEAM BANKS = 10 - ( SHIP_DAMAGE ) * 0.1 MAX FIGHT BAYS = 10 - ( SHIP_DAMAGE ) * 0.1 MAX TORP TUBES = 10 - ( SHIP_DAMAGE ) * 0.1 A damaged starship must slow. MAX WARP SPEED = 10 - ( SHIP_DAMAGE ) * 0.1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (14.0) SHIP WEAPON AND ENGINE STATS Starship torpedo and beam stats: *Gamma radiation kills enemy crew *Explosive yield damages enemy ship's hull *Energy is measured in TetraWatts TECH COST KILL EXPLOSIVE Mark 1 Photon: 1 1 4 5 Proton torp: 2 2 6 8 Mark 2 Photon: 3 4 3 10 Gamma Bomb: 3 10 15 2 Mark 3 Photon: 4 12 9 15 Mark 4 Photon: 5 13 13 30 Mark 5 Photon: 6 31 17 35 Mark 6 Photon: 7 35 23 40 Mark 7 Photon: 8 36 25 48 Mark 8 Photon: 10 54 35 55 Laser: 1 1 10 3 X-Ray Laser: 1 2 15 1 Plasma Bolt: 2 5 3 10 Blaster: 3 10 10 25 Positron Beam: 4 12 9 29 Disruptor: 5 13 30 20 Heavy Blaster: 6 31 20 40 Phaser: 7 35 30 35 Heavy Disruptor: 8 36 50 35 Heavy Phaser: 10 54 35 45 Engine Specs TECH COST MAX SAFE WARP StarDrive 1: 1 1 1 StarDrive 2: 2 2 2 StarDrive 3: 3 3 3 SuperStarDrive 4: 4 10 4 Nova Drive 5: 5 25 5 HeavyNova Drive 6: 6 53 6 Quantam Drive 7: 7 170 7 Hyper Drive 8: 9 200 8 Transwarp Drive: 10 300 9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (15.0) MOUSE DRIVER SCALING FACTORS Some users may find it hard to control the movement of the mouse. There are many different types of mouse devices all of which have different levels of sensitivity. There are two kinds of scaling factors built into most mouse drivers. One is sensitivity (or speed) and the ballistic gain. Sensitivity is measured from 1 to 100 (100 being the fastest) Mouse sensitivity switches /S sets both horizontal and vertical sensitivity /H sets the horizontal sensitivity /V sets the vertical sensitivity For example: /S50 is an average speed mouse Ballistic gain profiles number from 1 to 4 /M1 select ballistic profile 1 (slow acceleration) /M2 select ballistic profile 2 (moderate) /M3 select ballistic profile 3 (fast) /M4 select ballistic profile 4 (no acceleration) Most users like the setting when playing planets: MOUSE /S30 /M1 You can set your mouse sensitivity by editing it in your CONFIG.SYS file. For example: DEVICE=C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.SYS /S50/M1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +--------------------------------------+ | Strategy Hints for VGA Planets 3.0 | +--------------------------------------+ Things to remember . . . Don't WASTE your fuel! (HINT: Don't fly around at warp 9 with low tech engines, that is VERY stupid) Have your freighters bring fuel home. High technology engines are very important. Your planets will quickly run out of minerals. There is only a limited amount of minerals in to core of each planet. It is very important for you to search for new planets with minerals and bring the minerals back home to your starbase. 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 a permanent scars on the planets surface and will add slightly to the planet population's discontent. Molybdenum is the rarest mineral of all. Be careful not to run out of any one mineral or you won't be able to build any new ships. Don't leave your friendly code set to "AAA" or else enemy ships will very easily steal fuel and minerals from your planets and enemy starbases my force you to surrender. Think of the friendly codes as the planets or ships "password" that allows access to the starship transporters and planetary defense shields. Also two ships or a ship and a planet of different races will not attack each other if they have matching friendly codes. Change the friendly code on the starships that are defending your planets. If you don't enemy ships can set their friendly codes to "AAA" and fly right past the ships that are guarding your planet and attack your planet. It is very dangerous to be next to an enemy STARBASE if they know your friendly code. This gives the power to the starbase to drop your shields and beam your whole crew off in a matter of seconds and force your ship to surrender. Do as much exploring as possible. Small freighters are great scout ships and they are dirt cheap. Send them out to parts of space where nobody will bother you. Attack enemy freighters with small warships (capital ships). This will really cause great pain to your enemies. Be aware of your special race advantages and use them. Be aware of your enemies special race advantages.