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TURBO TREK 1.0 USER MANUAL (ShareWare Version)
==============================================
0.0.0 Introduction
0.1.0 Overview
TurboTrek is basically a game of starship combat.
Players have a variety of starships from which to
command, each of these with different strengths and
weaknesses. Players may play preset scenarios or design
their own scenarios using the built in editor.
Combat may be directed against a computer controlled
opponent or a starship controlled by another player.
Fleet actions involving many ships are also possible.
EGA/VGA display, and mouse are required to run this
game.
0.2.0 Purpose of the game
This game's purpose is to attempt to simulate starship
combat in as plausible a way as possible. TurboTrek was
never designed or intended to be an arcade style game
where ships disintegrate upon taking one hit. Here,
ships are comprised of devices that can take damage
during combat. Such damage will degrade a ship's combat
effectiveness. It is your job, as the starship
commander, to manage these ever dwindling resources in
an effort to reach a favorable outcome.
0.3.0 Simulation Constraints
In this version, the "universe" is limited to one
playscreen and may contain no more than 30 objects.
Asteroids possess no net gravitational field in order to
speed calculations.
0.4.0 Software Installation
Copy all the files from the diskette to where you want
them on your hard disk. After this, you're done. To
start the program, type: TT or TT S (for the silent
version).
0.5.0 Credits
Design: John Garza
Programming: John Garza, Robert Gerami
Documentation: Jennifer Clark
1.0.0 The Basics
In order to play TT, you need to know the basics. This body of
knowledge can be broken down into 8 modules: Game Structure &
Philosophy, Simulation Control Screen, Energy Allocation Screen,
OPS Screen, Movement and Distance, Sensors/ECM, Weapons, and
Damage and Repair.
1.1.0 Game Structure & Philosophy
TurboTrek is a game of starships. These starships are
comprised of devices. Devices lie at the heart of
TurboTrek. Much effort was expended to try to make
device responses as plausible as possible. Very little
of TurboTrek is random. Each device has data which
describes its strength, energy requirements, range,
effects, reliability, and other factors.
Since TT was originally designed as a multiplayer game,
it was decided to have a segmented game turn. Each turn
is divided into 10 subturns. And within each subturn,
each ship gets one opportunity for action. This results
in each player getting several mini-turns per whole turn
and diminishes the coarseness of "I move everything - you
move everything".
A little terminology: each "game turn" is comprised of
an Energy Allocation Phase and an Operations Phase. Each
Operations Phase is comprised of 10 Subturns. Energy
Allocation and Operations will be discussed later in
this document.
1.2.0 SimCon - the simulation controller
SimCon is the first screen of TT. This is where you
select the desired scenario to play. You are provided
with a list of all scenarios showing (from left to
right) the filename, a short description, and the number
of objects in the scenario. The vertical cursor keys and
the pageup/pagedown keys are used to highlight the
desired scenario. A list of all available commands
appears on the message bar at the bottom of the screen.
Commands may be activated by typing the letter in
parenthesis.
1.2.1 Selecting/Running a Scenario
In order to get a visual perspective of a
scenario, move the highlight bar to the desired
scenario, then hit the "M" key. This displays
the game map for the scenario. You can hit any
key to return to the scenario file list. To run
the selected scenario, press the "R" key.
1.2.2 Robot ships
Some starships in certain scenarios are under
computer control. These ships can be identified
by the word "robot" appearing before their name.
For example: "robot Enterprise". These ships are
useful when you are playing solo and need an
opponent or when you are undertaking a large
fleet scenario and need some extra firepower
without the added burden of commanding another
starship. The algorithms controlling the robot
ships are fairly good, but a seasoned starship
captain can usually do better. If at all
possible, do the commanding yourself.
1.2.3 Multiplayer games
Multiplayer games in TT are very easy. Just
select a scenario with multiple ships and give
command of each to a seperate player. When a
ship's turn comes, give the keyboard/mouse to
the assigned player.
1.2.4 Creating/Editing Scenarios
This feature is available in the registered
version.
1.3.0 Energy Allocation
Before any operations occur in
a turn, all players are taken to the Energy
Allocation Screen and must distribute energy to
their ship's devices. Energy is the main
resource of starships during combat. The
effective commander knows where and when to
direct energy. On the Energy Allocation Screen,
all ship's devices are listed on the left. The
amount of energy required to power a device is
shown to the right of the device name. You
mouse click on the "+" or "-" buttons on a
particular device line to allocate or deallocate
energy to that device. The power box on the
right shows how much energy is available to
distribute. When you're finished, click on the
"DONE" box, and the Energy Allocation Screen for
the next player (if any) is displayed. When all
players have undergone Energy Allocation, you
are taken to the Operations Screen.
"How much energy should I allocate?" is a common
question from new starship commanders. This answer only
comes from experience. But there are some guidelines:
Most devices have a fixed number of energy points
required for operation. Photon Torpedoes are an
example. To arm one and fire it usually requires 4
points. If you allocate 8 points to Photon Torpedoes,
you get 2 Photon Torpedoes to fire. Sensors, on the
other hand, being low power devices, only require 1
point to use them an unlimited number of times during
the turn. High power equipment, such as Warp Drive or
most weapons, can be considered "energy sinks". Once you
fire all your weapons banks, you can't fire again unless
you recharge the device at the next Energy Allocation.
Similarly, if you warp across a region of space, the
energy used to do so is lost. This is due to the large
amounts of power required to operate the device as well
as the slower cycle time for high power hardware. But
never fear, starships are usually bristling with
multiple banks of weapons.
Deflectors are switched on or off in the Energy
Allocation Phase simply by allocating (or not
allocating) energy to them. Most starships require 5
energy points to operate Deflectors at the minimum
level. Deflectors can be "overcharged" to achieve
greater performance. If you allocate more than the
minimum 5 points, the Deflectors are activated as well
as reinforced. If you are new to TT, it's a good idea to
always keep your Deflectors reinforced.
1.4.0 OPS screen
OPS means "Operations". The OPS Screen is the screen
you see when you are actually playing a scenario. The
majority of the screen is devoted to the map display.
Individual game objects (ships, missiles, planets, etc.)
are reduced to icons and placed in their appropriate
positions on the map. Ships with operational deflectors
have a dim white bubble around the ship icon. Ships with
deflectors damaged below 50% operability show blue
bubbles.
At the lower left is a list of available function keys:
F1 - Halt F3 - Grid
F2 - ID Tag F4 - Status
(F1) When running a scenario with robot ships, the F1
key acts as a halt mechanism. In large fleet scenarios
involving robots, it is handy to be able to stop the
game quickly. When pressed, you are given the option to
Continue the game, Save the game, or Exit without
saving.
(F2) The F2 key changes the ID tag indicator. This
indicator appears to the upper right of all ships. The
indicator is yellow for the active ship, cyan for all
others. The key cycles the ID tag from ship number, to
name, to configuration, and finally to no tag on
successive presses.
(F3) The F3 key toggles a grid overlay for the map
display. This is sometimes useful when calculating
distances.
(F4) The F4 key is the Status Key. It displays a short
status report for the active ship.
To the right of the function key list is the Movement
Annunciator. This indicates whether or not the active
ship is allowed to move during this subturn.
Next on the right is the Name Annunciator. It displays
the name of the active ship.
On the far right is the Turn/Speed Indicator. It shows
the current subturn and the speed of the active ship.
At the very bottom of the screen is the OPS Bar /
Message Bar area. The OPS Bar is a row of mousable
buttons listing all currently available commands to the
player of the active ship. Any command can be activated
by clicking the button or pressing the capitalized
letter. In addition to the self-explanatory commands
such as "Phaser" or "Warp", there are 3 non-device
related commands:
R - Relinquish
+ - Relinquish All
E - Exit Simulation
! --> (R) The "R" key allows you to relinquish control
to the next player. This is ALWAYS done after you are
finished with your operations for the current subturn in
order for TT to pass control to the next player.
(+) The "+" key relinquishes control for all the remaining
subturns in the turn. This is a time saver when you
have nothing planned for the remainder of the turn.
(E) The "E" key allows you to exit the scenario.
Occasionally, you may see a red background message bar.
This diplays information or asks for input. For example,
if you press "P" on the OPS Bar to activate Phasers, you
get a Fire Control message asking you to specify the
target. Another common message is the "End of Turn"
message. This gives you the option to continue with
another turn, save the game, or exit the scenario
without saving.
1.5.0 Movement and Distance
TT is played on a two dimensional map. Each display
pixel corresponds to 250000 square kilometers of space.
Ships may move at speeds up to warp 10. Each warp
factor corresponds to 40 pixels linear distance on the
map. If a player moves his ship at warp 10, he gets 400
pixels of "movement points". Since TT uses segmented
game turns, the player can not use all 400 points at once.
Instead, he can move 40 pixels in each of the 10
subturns. Someone moving less than warp 10, is allowed
to move on fewer subturns; one movement per warp factor.
So a player moving at warp 3 is allowed to move 3 times
per turn. You only have to watch the Movement Indicator
at the bottom of the OPS screen to see if your speed
allows movement on the current subturn.
When you want to move, you may choose either Warp or
Impulse drive from the OPS bar. Impulse engines are
basically sublight backup propulsion systems.
Warp drive is capable of much greater speed, and is
almost always the preferred means of propulsion
(especially in combat). When either mode of propulsion
is chosen, you will be prompted to click on your target
destination. Since TT rations movement points over
time, you will see a red circle around your ship showing
the maximum allowed travel distance this subturn.
Players may combine Warp and Impulse movement within the
same turn and even within the same subturn.
1.6.0 Sensors/ECM
TurboTrek players are subject to limited tactical
intelligence. All starships are capable of detecting
the existence and general location of other starships. A
starship may or may not be within another starship's ESR
(Effective Sensor Radius). If a target ship is beyond
your ESR, you may detect that ship, but if you fire your
weapons, they will be highly inaccurate, so much so that
it would be a waste to fire them. Two things commonly
affect your ESR: damage to your Sensors, and an enemy
using a Cloaking Device. Cloaked ships have no icon on
the map, but they may have an ID tag indicating their
presence. Direct fire weapons, like Phasers, are useless
against a cloaked ship. Some area effect weapons, like
Photon Torpedoes, have a slight chance of hitting a
cloaked ship if the attacking ship has sophisticated
sensors and advanced torpedoes.
Sensors, if selected from the OPS bar, first prompt you
to select the target for the Sensor scan. After you
click on the target, you are provided with tactical
data on damage levels of devices on the target ship,
and, if the sensor suite is sophisticated, data on power
distribution within the target ship.
1.7.0 Weapons TT has 5 major types of weapons. There are minor
variations within each weapons type depending on the
size of the host ship and its civilization of origin.
When you activate a weapon from the OPS Bar, you will
see the Fire Contol Message prompting you to select the
target. You may select multiple targets. Left mouse
click on a target to allocate one round, right mouse click
to deallocate one round. The total number of rounds on
each target is displayed in green to the upper left of
each object icon. Then click on "Fire" or "Escape" on
the message bar as appropriate.
1.7.1 Phasers
Probably the most universal weapon in the game,
Phasers are the ultimate evolution of laser and
particle beam technology. You can count on all
spacefaring civilizations having some type of
phaser weapon. They have very long range,
although their power will diminish sharply
with the distance traveled. They are at their
most deadly at close range. Starbases and
planetary bases have large mega-phaser
installations. These devices are as large as a
small starship and are capable of damaging enemy
starships from a considerable distance. They
make excellent standoff weapons.
1.7.2 Disruptors
Disruptors are used primarily by the
Klingons. These devices were designed to provide
a long range weapon for Klingon ships.
Disruptors impart a violent kinetic energy
oscillation to the target, and thus cause
damage. Disruptors degrade slightly with
distance traveled, but they have a good
probability of hitting the target.
1.7.3 Photon Torpedoes
Space Torpedoes predate even the Phaser. The
modern Photon Torpedo is a sophisticated device
pioneered by the Federation. It is a hyper-warp
driven antimatter bomb. It does much more
damage than the Disruptor, and since the warhead
is encased, it does not degrade over distance.
But since the Torpedo can be tracked, it may
sometimes be evaded by the target ship. The
Photon Torpedo is a good area effect weapon due
to the massive energy burst caused by the
matter-antimatter reaction. This can be
especially effective in defending against an
incoming swarm of closely spaced missiles.
1.7.4 Missiles/Drones
Before Disruptors and Photon Torpedoes, the
Space Torpedo, or Missile, (or Drone) reigned
supreme as the long ranged weapon of space.
Many civilizations still use these as a last
resort weapon or launch them as target drones to
sharpen gunner's skills. Klingons in
particular, carry a wide assortment of missiles,
used both as target drones as well as an aid in
combat by soaking off enemy fire that would have
otherwise been directed on the Klingon starship.
Missile warheads have a yield similar to modern
Photon Torpedoes but are much easier to kill
since they are not hyper-warp powered. Missiles
use conventional warp packs, so the target ship
usually has enough time to avoid or destroy the
missile before it hits.
1.7.5 Plasma Torpedo
Perhaps the ultimate in torpedo technology, the
Plasma Torpedo, invented by the Romulans, is the
single most powerful ship mounted weapon in the
game. The Plasma requires tremendous amounts of
energy to arm and fire. Most ships that carry
them are capable of launching only 1 or 2 per turn.
The Plasma Torpedo is basically a directed
plasma fireball. Although not a hyper-warp
weapon, it moves at warp 10, making it difficult
to outrun. The warhead degrades considerably
with distance and can be weakened, or sometimes
even detonated, by firing upon the torpedo
itself.
1.8.0 Damage and Repair
In the course of a TT scenario, you most certainly will
receive damage to your starship. All starships have
some ability to repair themselves. This is called
Damage Control or DamCon, for short. You can allocate
energy to DamCon, up to your ships maximum DamCon
rating, which is shown on the Energy Allocation Screen.
Most ships in TT have DamCon ratings of 4,5, or 6. Each
ship receives "repair points" equal to the square of the
ship's DamCon rating. For Example, a Federation heavy
cruiser (type FCA) allocates 6 points to DamCon, his
maximum rating. He receives 36 repair points to
distribute to any ship devices of his choosing. Each
"repair point" increases a device's operational rating
one percentage point. In our example, let's say the FCA
has Phasers at 80% operational. He then chooses to
distribute 20 of his 36 points to Phasers. His Phasers
are now at 100% operational and he has 16 "repair
points" left. He may choose to use these points now, or
later in the turn; but in any case, points may not be
accumulated from one turn to the next. Use them or lose
them. Note that there is some random variation in the
expected cost of repair and the actual number of repair
points needed to repair a particular device. This was
done to enhance realism.
It is worthwhile to note that some devices, if robust in
design, can be "over-repaired". This shows as an
operational level above 100%. It represents hasty
jury-rigging and special coaxing by the ship's engineer
to get a device to outperform its specs.
Damage Control may be activated by pressing "C" on the
OPS bar. You then see the DamCon popup screen. Its
operation is similar to the energy allocation screen:
you click on the + or - symbols next to a device to
allocate or deallocate repair points. If not using a
mouse, you see the DamCon Prompt: "(S)elect (R)epair
(Escape)" and the number or repair points available. At
this point you should press "S" , for Select, and you
will see a list of devices. You then select the device
to repair by typing the parenthesized letter of that
device (P for Phasers, W for Warp, etc.). Next, you are
prompted to enter the number of repair points to give to
that device; just type the number followed by the Enter
key. Now you may select more devices or hit "R" to
perform the selected repairs. As always, the F4 key may
be used to check your ship's status.
***********************************************************************
Registration:
TurboTrek is copyright 1990 JDG Simulations, Inc. It is
currently being distributed as shareware so that users may
have a chance to play the game before purchase. If you
like the game, we strongly recommend that you register it,
not only for our benefit, but for yours as well.
Registered users will receive one free upgrade and will be
kept abreast of the latest TurboTrek developments
(including new ships, scenarios, and devices).
Registration cost is $15. Send check or money order
payable to JDG Simulations, Inc. to the address below:
JDG Simulations, Inc.
P.O. Box 2294
Spring, TX 77383-2294
