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TACTICAL! v2.31 The Tactical Star Trek Battle Simulator By Paul Broman This game simulates battles between Federation, Klingon Klingon or Romulan Ships from the popular television series Star Trek. Star Trek and The USS Enterprise are copyrighted by Paramount Pictures. Much attempt at detail was made, so the game should be pleasing to Star Trek fans or strategic gameplayers. Ship classes used are from FASA's Star Trek the RPG. HARDWARE REQUIRMENTS: o MS-DOS 2.0 or more recent o ANSI.SYS installed o Color Monitor (recommended) o Hard Drive (recommended) FILES YOU SHOULD HAVE: TACTICAL.EXE - Main Game File GAMEPLAY.EXE - File used by game. DO NOT RUN! CHAINS.EXE - File used by game. DO NOT RUN! SHIPS.DAT - Datafile of Starships FEDSHIPS.TXT - Listing of Federation Starships KLISHIPS.TXT - Listing of Klingon Starships ROMSHIPS.TXT - Listing of Romulan Starships GORSHIPS.TXT - Listing of Gorn Starships ORISHIPS.TXT - Listing of Orion Starships INDSHIPS.TXT - Listing of Free Trader Starships SHIPXX.SHP - (93 Files) Starship Shillouettes TACTICAL.DOC - This documentation file REGISTER.TAC - File explaining how to register SCREEN.COM - Display Window used by game PLACE.COM - Display Window used by game BEGIN.COM - ANSI Picture used by game ENDGAME.COM - ANSI Picture used by game TITLE.COM - ANSI Picture used by game HISTORY.TAC - Text file showing the history of the diffrent versions of Tactical IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ALL THESE FILES THE GAME WILL NOT RUN PROPERLY. Please Inform the person/BBS/Shareware dealer you got this from about the missing files. Any missing files can be obtained at The Neutral Zone BBS (904)/725-0731. (4pm-11pm). GAMEPLAY ======== Start the game by executing TACTICAL.EXE. Make sure the NUMLOCK key is ON. You will then be taken to the startup menu. You may select one of the 5 options: 1) Begin Gameplay - Start the simulation 2) Place Starships - Setup the scenario 3) Select Fleet Nationalities - determine who will be Fed, Klingon, etc. 4) Load a Saved Game - just that 5) Edit/Create Ship Class (REGISTERED only) 6) Quit - Return to DOS The first thing you should do is select the fleet nationalities. you will then be told who Player 1 and Player 2 will be and asked which one you wish to change. After selecting who to change, you are prompted who to change it to. Possible selections are UFP (United Federation of Planets, or the Federation), The Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Gorn Alliance, the Orion Colonies, and Free Trader ships. (NOTE: This game is geared towards the original and move Star Trek, NOT Next Generation.) You MAY give both players the same nationality to make a Fed vs. Fed type thing (re-enactment of Star Trek II?) etc. After selecting the nationality you will be asked whether a human player or the computer will control that fleet. After selecting nationalities you should then return to the main menu and select Starship Placement. Then you are taken to a display screen with a lightbar menu at the bottom. The ligtbar selections are Place, Delete, Ships, and Quit. The Placement screen will show a map of the battlefield area, a lightbar on the bottom, and info on the fleets on the left, showing the number of ships each fleet has, each fleet's odds of winning, their total ship's WDF (power) rating, whether that fleet is Human or Computer Controlled, and what type of Fleet (Fed, Rom, etc.) it is. Lightbar Options: Place : Place a Starship on the board (more on this later.) Delete : Delete a Starship from the game. Ships : See a listing of everyone's Starships. Quit : Return to the main menu. PLACE: ------ After selecting Place, you will be asked to which player this ship should be given. After answering that question, you will be given a list of the diffrent starship classes his fleet has to offer. Each class has a diffrent weapons arrangement, shield strength, etc. Then you will be prompted asking which class this new ship should be from, or whether to view the rest of the list, or whether you want information on a class. If you ask for information on a class, you will be shown various data on the starship, including: SuperStructure Points : Amount of punishment a ship of it's class can take after the shields are down before being destroyed Shield Strength : Amount of punishment the shields can take before going down Total Power : Total power units the ship generates Warp Power : Amount of power generated by the warp drive Impulse Power : Amount of power generated by the impulse engines Crew Complement : Number of crew members Cargo Capacity : Cargo Capacity, where 1 = 150 tons. On the next page, you find: Phaser Firing Arcs (directions phasers can fire, where F = Forward, FP = Forward/Port, P = Port, AP = Aft/Port, A = Aft, AS = Aft/Starboard, S = Starboard AP = Aft/Port) Torpedo/Plama Firing Arcs (directions torp/plasma can fire, where F = Forward, FP = Forward/Port, P = Port, AP = Aft/Port, A = Aft, AS = Aft/Starboard, S = Starboard AP = Aft/Port) After deciding which starship class to use, select it's number from the previous menu. Then you will be asked where on the map to place it, where 1,1 is the upper lefthand corner and 100000,100000 is the lower righthand. (To give an idea of the vastness of this area, at warp 1 you move through 150 "sector" location areas per turn.) After completing the placement questions, you will be asked what you wish to name the ship, and what ID number to use. (like the Enterprise's ID number is NCC-1701-A.) Finally, you will be asked what heading you wish the ship to be facing at the beginning of the simulation. Valid headings are 0-359 degrees. DELETE: ------- If you wish to delete a starship from the game, select this from the lightbar menu. Then you will be given a listing of some of the starships in the game. You can use the N and L commands to cycle through the list. When you see the starship you wish to delete, select it from the list. Then it is deleted. SHIPS: ------ This lists out the ships in the game, in much the same format as the listing in the DELETE command. GAMEPLAY: ========= After placing the ships on the gameboard, you are now ready to begin the actual gameplay. Select BEGIN GAME from the main menu. You will then be transported to a display much like the one in the place command, except the lightbar options are diffrent. They are: End Turn : Pass Play to other player Ships : Listing of all ships in the battle Fire : Fire Phasers/Torpedos/Plasma Move : Change Heading or Warp Speed Destruct : Self-Destruct the Ship Scan : Get info on a specific Starship Range : Change the range on the viewscreen. Select : Select ship you wish to control Cloak : Activate/Deactivate Cloaking Device Repair : Repair a damaged Starship Save : Save the game and resume play later. Quit : Exit the game and return to the main menu. DISPLAY SCREEN: ______________________________________________________ [ _______________o__________________] [ Shields Weapons [ ]] [ _______ _______ [ ]] [ [ ] [ ] [ ]] [ [ ] [ ] [ ]] [ [ ] [ ] [ ]] [ [ ] [ ] [ Prompts and ]] [ [_____] [_____] [ ]] [ [ Tactical Display ]] [ _______________ [ ]] [ [ Warp/Heading] [ ]] [ [ ] [ ]] [ [ ] [ ]] [ [_____________] [________________________________]] [ ]] [ Lightbar menu here ]] [___________________________________________________]] The Shield Display shows a sillouette of your Starship with the diffrent shield arcs around it. Colors denote shield stength. From highest to lowest the colors are Green, Light Green, Yellow, Light Red, Red, Blinking Red, and Black (down.) The weapons display tells you how many working weapons you have in each firing arc. a "D" denotes a damaged firing arc. The Warp/Heading Display tells you your current and requested Warp Speeds, and your current heading. The Tactical display window shows your starship and all other starships within the current display range. Max display range is 100000 radius. So, when range is set at 50000, every ship for a 50000 kilometer radius is shown on the display screen (unless cloaked.) Also, torpedos and plasma weapons fired will also be shown on the tactical display. Starships are displayed by showing the first 3 letters of the name of their ship on the display. The letters will be in one of various colors. White denotes the ship you are currently controlling. Green denotes ships on your side. Red denotes ships on the other side. Blinking Red denotes ships which are self-destructing, and Grey denotes ships which are cloaked and are on your side. In addition, a yellow circle located along the border of the display denotes your heading, where the upper-right is 45 degrees, lower-right is 135 degrees, lower-left is 225 degrees, and upper left is 315 degrees. Also, at the bottom of the display the current range setting and turn are shown. GAMEPLAY: ========= END TURN: --------- Each time one of your ships performs a major function, like firing it's weapons or cloaking, it will have "used up" it's move. When you end your turn, you pass play to your opponent. When you get control again, your ships will again be able to perform another major function. After you pass play, ships, torpedos, etc. are moved, self destructs count down, etc. If your opponent is controlled by the computer you will be given information on what he is doing for his move, like whether he's pursuing you, or fired at you, etc. SHIPS: ------ Listing of all ships in game, this is identical to the ships command in Ship Placement. FIRE: ----- This option will allow you to fire your weapons on those bothersome enemy Starships. Once you select this, you will be asked which weapon to use. Phasers are found on most starships. They are intense beams of laser energy which disrupt the atomic structure of the enemy starship. Torpedos are found on most Federation and Klingon Starships. They are bottles filled with antimatter which detonate when they come within 1200 kilometers of an enemy starship. Plasma is found on Romulan starships. Plasma is plasma energy which is fired at the enemy. However, though plasma is very powerful, it cools rapidly in the frozen temperatures of space and therefore becomes weaker as it has to travel more distance to hit a target. After selecting which weapon to use you are asked which enemy ship you wish to unleash this barrage against. After selecting the starship to fire upon, your weapons will be fired, unless: o You don't have any weapons to fire with in that firing arc. o The enemy is out of range. Weapon ranges vary from ship class to ship class. Phaser range is usually 15000 - 25000 kilometers. Torpedo range is usually 5000 - 15000 kilometers. Plasma range is usually 5000 - 13000 kilometers. If you fired using phasers, the phasers, which travel extremely fast, will hit immediately and you will be told the outcome of the attack. If you fired Torps or Plasma, it will be launched, but the enemy will be given a chance to evade. If a Torpedo or Plasma does hit, you will be told during a turn change. Firing your weapons takes up that ship's turn until you get control of the game again. MOVE: ----- Move is a handy little function which lets you change your heading, pursue an enemy ship, elude an enemy ship, or change your current warp velocity. Performing any of these functions takes up that ship's turn. Changing your Heading: Simply select Change Heading from the menu. Then enter the heading you wish to move at. Because of the bulk of starships, your ship will not attain that new heading immediately. Each turn change your ship will gradually come onto the new course. The better your ships manuverability is, the faster it will come on course. Pursuing an enemy Ship: The pursue option lets you pursue (head directly towards) an enemy ship. You will be asked which ship you wish to pursue and then the course will automatically be computed. Once you pursue an enemy ship the computer will automatically correct your course each turn so you stay on course, even if the enemy ship moves. Like manual heading changes, your ship will gradually come on course. Elude an enemy Ship: This option lets you elude (head directly away from) an enemy ship. You will be asked which ship to elude, and like Pursue and manual heading changes, your ship will gradually come onto course. Changing Warp Speed: This lets you change your speed. Your ships maximum speed depends on it's class, and whether it has damage or not. You will be told that exceeding a certain speed can be dangerous. If you do exceed that speed, the ship may buckle due to stress causing structural damage, or then again, it may not. DESTRUCT: --------- If one of your ships is in hopeless shape, you can self destruct it. 7 turns after destruct is activated the ship will explode, causing major damage to nearby enemy ships, and your ships. The closer a ship is to the destructing ship, the more damage it will take. Self-destructing takes up a ships turn. If you select the self destruct command and your ship is already counting down to a self-destruct you will be asked if you wish to abort the self-destruct. SCAN: ----- Scan is a handy command which lets you get detailed information on any Starship, yours or the enemys. To use, select scan off the lightbar menu. Then you will be asked which ship you wish to scan. Then you will be given all the available data on that ship. NOTE: Enemy Cloaked starships cannot be scanned. RANGE: ------ The range command lets you change the radius of view on the tactical display. Sometimes enemy ships are all so close to you you need to lessen the range to see the area clearly. This command lets you do it. You will be asked what radius to display at after selecting this command. Valid ranges are 500-100000 kilometers. SELECT: ------- The select command lets you switch control to another one of your ships. You must be currently selecting the ship you wish to use the fire, cloak, move, etc. Commands on. Also, switching to another ship gives it's status in the status windows on the left of the display. To use this command, select select off the lightbar menu. Then you will be asked which one of your ships you wish to control. CLOAK: ------ This command lets you activate or deactivate your cloaking device, if you have one. 20% of all Klingon and 40% of all Romulan ship classes have cloaking devices. No Federation ships have them. Once a cloaking device is activated, the enemy cannot see you on the tactical display, cannot fire at you, and cannot scan you. However, due to the extreme power it takes to turn on this device, you cannot fire either. If you do not have sufficient power to use the cloaking device, you cannot turn it on. To turn it on, select cloak from the lightbar menu. If it was already on when you selected cloak, you will be asked if you wish to turn cloak off. If cloak was off when you selected, you will be asked if you want to turn cloak on. Cloaking or De-cloaking takes up your starships move this turn. (NOTE: Cloaking devices are not perfect, and sometimes scanners, etc. can see through cloakign devices.) REPAIR: ------- The repair command allows you to use repair docks and repair tenders to repair another starship. To use this command, you must have a repair dock or tender within 1000 kilometers of the ship you wish to repair. Once repair operations are started, they cannot be stopped, and neither ship can do anything in the meantime. Repairs will take 9 turns. After repairs are completed, the ship which was repaired should have all it's systems at 100%, but dead crewmembers cannot be replaced. The repair command takes up the repairing starship's move for this turn. SAVE: ----- This option allows you to save the scenario into a file so that you can resume play later. After selecting this option, you will be asked what filename (NO extension) to save the savegame file as. LOADING A SAVED GAME: --------------------- This option is not found on the lightbar menu, but loading a saved game is an option in the startup menu. To load up a saved game, select Load a Saved Game from the startup menu. Then you will be asked what filename (NO extension) the game was saved under. Then it will be loaded, and play can be resumed by selecting Begin the Simulation from the starup menu. QUIT: ----- This option returns you to the startup menu. Unless you saved the game, the game will be lost when you do this. Well, I hope you enjoy the game! Here are some strategic hints: o Cloaking Devices and Plasma were meant to be used together. Cloak, get in real close, and fire. This will allow you to get the maximum damage on a plasma device. o Use torpedos in areas where there are numberous enemy ships all in one area, since on torpedo could cause damage to many ships if they are all in the blast range. o Use torpedos at long range because phasers tend to miss at long ranges. o Remember, self-destructing causes serious damage to all ships within 5000 kilometers, so it may be wise to destruct a ship in an area where there are alot of enemy ships. o When attacking a defense outpost, take advantage of the fact that an outpost cannot move by moving out of range and then waiting for your shields to regenerate, or have your ship repaired. o Remember, repair tenders and docks were not meant as fighting machines and can be easily destroyed, so be sure to keep them away from the front lines. REGISTRATION ============ If you enjoy this program, and wish to see others like it, then please support shareware and register this program. Registration is only $20 and $25 if you want major new versions mailed to you. All registering users will recieve a module which allows you to edit ship classes. 3.5 users, you will have to download the module from my BBS as I have no 3.5 drive. Registrations can be sent to: Paul Broman 8119 Jamacia Rd N Jacksonville, FL 32216 Thank you. PREVIEWS ======== Here are some of the new features upcoming in the next version of Tactical: o Power Distribution Menu - a place for the realistic control of your ships power. Allocate it to systems, use it in phasers, etc. o Modem Play - hopefully a modem play option will soon be available. o Planets - in an upcoming version there will be planets to invade/control! o New Ship Classes - in an upcoming version there will be new classes like Assault Ships, Monitors, and more! This and more, in the next version! Look for it! SPECIAL ACKNOLEDGEMENTS: Paul Broman..................Programming and Concept Stephen Lobrano..............Playtesting and Technical Support Benjamin Adams...............Playtesting and Technical Support Jason Dittmer................Playtesting Andrew Palmer................Playtesting Paul Lim.....................Playtesting Timothy O'Brien..............Playtesting Eddie Brown..................Playtesting Charles McCoy................Playtesting James Abbott.................Playtesting END OF DOCS If you need further help, or wish to report a bug, write me at the above adress or call me at (904)/724-8612, or call: The Neutral Zone BBS (904)/725-0731 4pm-11pm 40MB (2400 Baud) WWIV 4.12 FCAnet @9439 Located in Jacksonville, Florida OR, send me mail through National WWIVnet. I can be reached by emailing TREKIE @9400. Thanks!!