The World of Computer Software/The World of Computer Software.iso/scontrl.zip/STARCON.DOC

Text File | 1990-08-01 | 16KB | 287 lines

                        S t a r    C o n t r o l

                              Documentation












Docs written by The Byter.  This has been an Alternative Release.



Star Control is, at its very basic core, a modern version of the arcade classic
"Space War".  Star Control gives you the option of choosing from a number of
ships, different depending on which "side" of the game you are playing, and
provides a strategic game as well.

The first menu displays the player setup for each side - the Hierarchy (bad
guys) on one side, and the Alliance on the other.  Control indicates who does
the playing, and Using indicates keyboard or joystick (for a human player).
The options available from this menu are:

Practice     --  Action battle between two ships.  This is good for getting to
                 know how one ship will fare against another.  The battles will
                 continue until you press F10 to exit.  When one ship is killed,
                 another of the same type will replace it.
Melee        --  Practice battle - one fleet against another fleet.  You and
                 your opponent get one of each type of ship, and match them up
                 against each other.  When one of your ships is destroyed, you
                 get to pick the replacement.  A ship will remain in battle
                 until it is destroyed, or no enemies remain.
Full Game    --  Strategic planning as well as battles.  See the section below.
Set Players  --  Choose player setups.  See below.
Quit         --  No fun.  Self-explanatory



The first option you will use is Set Players.  The screen is replaced by a
similar menu, showing Hierarchy on the left, Alliance on the right, and a box
marked "OK" in the centre.  Moving to the left allows you to choose who plays
the Hierarchy forces (and vice-versa to the right).  You can choose one of four
choices for the player - Human (human controls strategy and battles), Computer
(Computer controls strategy and battles), Cyborg (Computer controls battles,
human controls strategy), and Psytron (Computer controls strategy, human does
the battles).  When Human is selected, you can choose keyboard or joystick
control.  When one of the computer or computer-assisted players is chosen, you
get to choose the skill of the computer player.  Make your choices for both
sides, and hit the OK button in the centre of the screen.


Battles
~~~~~~~
Once you have set the players up, you will want to start a battle.  Select
Practice to get some combat experience.  You will be prompted for one ship
and then the opponent.  If your opponent is a computer player, the computer
will randomly select a ship.  Pressing the "Special Action" key (or button #2
on the joystick) will give detailed information about the ship.  Pressing the
"Fire" key (button #1) will select that ship for the battle.

Once you begin the battle, it is to the death.  There is no withdrawl (although
you may hit F10 to abort it).  Control is the straightforward "Asteroids" type
control - left, right, thrust, fire, and "Special".  The special ability varies
from ship to ship, and can be quite useful.

Battles take place on a starfield and a planet.  Moving off the edge of the
screen will move the players onto another section of the starfield.  Avoid
planets for the most part, as they do have a strong gravitational pull which
can pull a ship to its doom.  Planets can be used for a speed boost if you
approach them in a slingshot manner, and can also be used to "hide" behind
if an enemy with guided missiles is after you.

Only one ship can square off at a time against an opponent.  If there are a
number of ships in a battle, they will take their turn, one at a time.

To the right of the battle screen, there is a status display showing the
Hierarchy ship on the top, the Alliance vessel on the bottom.  This display
will show a diagram of the ship, the race of the crew, and the name of the
ship.  On the left side is a black bar with green dots stacked inside.  This
is a measure of the maximum crew the ship can hold, and the green dots show
the current crew compliment.  If your ship looses all its crew, it will be
destroyed.  On the right is a similar black bar, but this one contains red
dots.  This indicates how much fuel the ship has.  Fuel is used for firing the
main weapons and for using the special ability.  Fuel will regenerate as time
goes on.  At the bottom of the vessel diagram is a cockpit view of the crew.
This serves no practical purpose, but it gives you a feeling for what kind of
being serves aboard a certain vessel.


Strategic Game
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the strategic game, you will play one of the packaged scenarios or one
designed with the Scenario Editor.  You will be presented with a three-
dimensional rotating star map which will show the relative distances between
stars as it rotates.  It may take some getting used to, but once you figure it
out it is quite easy to understand.

Each star is represented by a dot on the screen, and each can have a different
planet composition.  These are:

Dead World   -  These can be fortified to build a barrier against enemy forces,
                but are useless for resources.
Live World   -  These can be colonized to provide a source of additional crew
                for damaged ships.  They are represented by a diamond (blue for
                Alliance, red for Hierarchy) once they have been colonized.
Mining World -  Building mines provides the local currency - StarBucks - for
                use in building new ships.  A completed mine is represented by
                a plus sign.

Ships and Starbases may only move where there is a world, and can only jump
from one planet to an adjacent one.  Any planet may be fortified, which puts a
small box around the planet (enclosing the diamond or plus, if any) to indicate
that it is fortified.  A fortification must be destroyed by enemy forces before
they may pass beyond it.

When you choose a ship to control, you have a few options.  The first one is
to move to another location.  When you select this, one to four blue lines
will appear connecting the current star to available destinations.  The light
blue line is the currently selected one.  Pressing the fire button will move to
the selected star, moving left/right moves the selection, and the Special key
will abort the move.  The status of a currently selected ship will be displayed
with the ship type, name, and crew/fuel status.

Occasionally, when moving into an unexplored sector, a ship may uncover some
artifact left by the Precursors.  These give better thrusters, more crew
capacity, fuel capacity, and the like.

Other options include COLONIZE or MINE, if it is an uninhabited world suitable
for either purpose, RECRUIT if the ship is low on crew and orbiting a colony,
BESEIGE if the ship is orbiting an enemy fortification, FORTIFY, which attempts
to build a fortification around the current planet, and SCUTTLE which will
destroy a damaged vessel.  Options in black are not available for selection.
Options in red are "currently in process", and should not be disturbed.
Options shown in white are currently available.  Starships also have the option
to BUILD new starships.  At the bottom of the screen are three yellow jewels,
which indicate how many "moves" the player has left.  Some actions, such as
moving a starship, require all moves for that turn.  Other actions, such as
moving a Shofixti, require a fraction of a move.


Strategic Scenarios
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are about 9 scenarios which are packaged with the game, and more can be
developed with the included Scenario Editor.  The victory conditions for the
various scenarios vary, but are usually "Destroy the Enemy" in some form or
another.  Here are some brief descriptions of the canned scenarios:

Beginner's Luck  - The Hierarchy has an Androsynth Starbase, and the Alliance
                   has a single Syreen starship.  The Syreen must quickly
                   destroy the starbase before more Androsynths can be built.
                   Time is on the Hierarchy's side, as they can produce more
                   ships.  The Syreen must act quickly and decisively.
Escalation       - The game starts with two starbases, and nothing more.  Each
                   side must build forces, colonize worlds, build mines, and
                   ultimately destroy the enemy starbase.
Total War        - No starbases exist for either side.  Each side has a full
                   fleet containing ONE ship of each race.  Match your ships
                   against the opponent they will be most effective against.
First Encounter  - Each player begins with a starbase, three battleships, and
                   one colony and one mine.  Expand and produce, or quickly
                   trounce the enemy while his defenses are weak.
The Art of War   - Each side has a starbase and a few battleships.  The
                   Alliance can only build Syreen and Arilou ships, while the
                   Hierarchy has access to Androsynth and Mycon vessels.  Each
                   ship type is valuable against an enemy type, and nearly
                   totally defenseless against the other.
Proving Ground   - The Alliance begins with a starbase, a few battleships, and
                   a number of colonies and mines.  The Hierarchy has a base
                   and a few Spathi cruisers.  The Hierarchy must destroy the
                   poorly defended mines and colonies with only Spathi ships,
                   and the Alliance must defend against the threat with its
                   supply of Mmrnmhrn vessels.  The Alliance may build non-
                   Mmrnmhrn vessels if it has the StarBucks.
Exterminate!     - The Hierarchy has one Ur-Quan dreadnought which must invade
                   the Alliance sector populated by the Shofixti.  The Shofixti
                   must somehow destroy the dreadnought with their tiny vessels
                   and may build additional Shofixti to help.
Onslaught        - The Hierarchy has five Ur-Quan dreadnoughts with which to
                   invade Alliance space and destroy the poorly defended mines
                   and colonies.  The Alliance has a starbase to build extra
                   Alliance vessels to defend itself and destroy all the Ur-
                   Quan ships.
Counter Attack   - The Alliance has one Chenjesu ship (and a starbase) with
                   which to attack Hierarchy space.  The Hierarchy has a base,
                   a few ships, and a shitload of mines and colonies.  If too
                   much time is spent, the Hierarchy will be able to build a
                   massive fleet.


The Vessels
~~~~~~~~~~~

The Hierarchy vessels at your disposal are:

Mycon Podship - large ship with long-range homing plasma blast.  Slow.  Can
        grow additional crew.
Spathi Discriminator - medium sized crew, small fuel bays.  Replaces fuel
        slowly.  Fires short range missiles from the rear (good for fleeing)
        and has a weak blaster.  Very quick and agile.
Androsynth Guardian - Attacks with homing "bubbles" which are a pain to evade.
        Can also turn into a "comet".
Vux Intruder - Very slow and has a large fuel capacity.  Has a VERY powerful
        short range lazer which destroys nearly anything.  Can also generate
        leeches which attatch to enemy ships causing navigational problems.
Ilwrath Avenger - Quick at turning and accellerating.  Has a short-range flame
        thrower which does moderate damage.  Has a cloaking device which makes
        it invisible.
Umgah Drone - Small, weak, and slow, but turns quickly.  Has a very short range
        Anti-Matter cone weapon on the front.  Very fast forward-firing
        thrusters for quick escapes.
Ur-Quan dreadnought - huge ship and rather slow.  Powerful front-firing weapon,
        and can release small fighters as a special weapon.  Stores a lot of
        fuel and a large crew.  Has a very long range weapon, and regenerates
        fuel quickly.

Alliance ships include:

Chenjesu Broodhome - Slow and large, but boasting a long range and powerful
        crystal weapon.  Hold down the fire button as long as you want the
        projectile to travel.  When you release the button, it will burst into
        smaller shards which do less damage, but can hit on a shot which would
        otherwise miss.  Can generate "sheep dogs" which will bump against an
        enemy vessel draining it of fuel and knocking it off course.  Sometimes
        the dogs will even drive a ponderous enemy into a planet and destroy
        it utterly.
Yehat Terminator - quick and agile, and boasting rapid fire twin missile
        launchers.  Very agile, and can activate a protective sheild.
Mmrnmhrn Xform - Two ships in one.  In its first form, it is slow ship with a
        powerful laser.  In the second form, it has much quicker thrusters, but
        cannot turn quickly.  In the second form, it has two homing missiles
        with medium range.
Ariloulaleelay Skiff - Small and extremely quick, this craft features an
        inertialess propulsion system (no coasting after you end thrust).  It
        has a short range auto-aiming laser, and has a quick hyperspace option
        for getaways.  Takes some time to get the control down.
Syreen Penetrator - This ship (the phallic shape is intended) has a normal
        navigational system, a poor quality forward-firing ejaculation
        weapon, and low fuel capacity.  It has a large crew capacity, however
        it starts out with a skeleton crew.  The special ability of the Syreen
        is to send out a signal which causes enemy crew to abandon ship and
        join the Syreen.  Hit the feature button when you're close to an enemy,
        and a number of little green dots will "bail out" of the enemy craft.
        Swing around and pick these up, and add to your crew.  Destroying an
        enemy colony with a Syreen will garner a full crew.
Earthling Cruiser - A slow and ponderous ship.  It carries a supply of homing
        nuclear missiles with a long range, and do considerable damage.  For
        short range (and defense) there are the point defense lasers, which
        can be used most effectively against other missiles and projectiles.
        This ship can turn quickly, and is one of my favorites.
Shofixti Scount - A tiny extremely fast ship.  Has a short range weapon.  Its
        special ability is self-destruct, which can damage enemies or even
        destroy the massive Ur-Quan Dreadnought at close range.


Different ships have different capabilities and are strong against different
enemies.  Experiment with them, and find out which ones you like for specific
enemies, and how to control them.

Excuse any typos or slight mistakes in this file.  It was a quicky, so to
speak, and not as polished as my other doc efforts have been.

Greetings to everyone out there and their brothers.  Special greetings to
Sir Reginald B. Magillicutty for releasing this fine ware.

Call some of these cool systems:

The Lexicon              (714)
Computer is your Friend! (415)
The Slave Den            (904)

And any other exceptional quality systems I may have missed.