written by Peer Schmitz, University of Keele, May 1988.
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Welcome to the final frontier. Mpss is a multi player star trek, chase
adventure destroy game. Every terminal is one ships flight console.
To invoke mpss type '/usr/games/mpss'. If this fails to work, type '/usr/games/mpssclean', which will get rid of any loose files hanging around. If you try again, and it still
doesnt work, tell peer. Note that 'mpssclean' kills off any game that
is currently in progress. Sometimes, two games are created at once, if two
players enter at exactly the same instant. If this happens, one player is not allowed into the game, and must simply try again. ('mpssclean' is NOT a remedy for this.)
Once invoked, you are
allocated a ship and enter the game.
If you are the first player beginning a game, starting up can take
up to 1/2 minute. You will then see your console with various readouts
as well as a visual window which allows you to look into the universe.
Typing 'H' or '?' displays a help screen.
Your ship is in the middle of the cross displayed in the visual window.
The object of the game is to obtain the highest score by A) blasting
other players and B) exploring planets. If you get tired of the introduction,
type "mpss -i". This will avoid it.
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SAY WHAT TYPE OF TERMINAL YOU HAVE!!! / THE -t OPTION.
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To be able to talk to your terminal, mpss finds what your TERM variable is set to. If this value is catered for by the program, execution proceeds. If this
value is not catered for by the program YOU WILL BE ASKED what kind of terminal
you have. If your terminal is in the list, type which one you have and all is well. Now. If you do not know what terminal you have, type 0. This will make the
program search the /etc/termcap file for an entry of your terminal.
Only if this last resort fails (i.e. no entry is found in termcap), will you not be able to play.
In this case, you must modify the code so the program caters for your terminal,
and how this is done is described in the file INSTALLRULES.(see how to add
another terminal.)
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This order of events was chosen because if you execute mpss with a terminal
that the program knows about (i.e. NOT USING TERMCAP) execution speed is
much, much, faster.
If you use the termcap facility the program will run SLOW and
with 3 or more players it gets pretty boring. However, if you insist to use
termcap, specify the -t option. The program always tells you when it uses /etc/termcap.
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The mail file.
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In the directory '~/mpsslib' is a file by the name of 'mpssmail'. This file
is executed whenever a new game starts. So, if you wish to be told whenever
a game starts, edit the file, and put in an entry like :
"write <whatever your loginname is> Star Trek is starting!"
Make sure not to delete other peoples entries, as this will upset real trekkies.
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The universe.
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The universe is two dimensional and spans from X coordinate approx.0-890, and
Y coordinate approx.0-890. If you try to leave the universe, you will bounce
off the walls, and be sent flying in the opposite direction. Note that torpedos also bounce, so if you are near the edge, be careful not to shoot yourself.
Several
different objects exist in the universe.
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"K" - a KLINGON
"R" - a ROMULAN
"@" - a black hole.
"." - a star.
"*" - a starbase.
"O" - a planet.
"#" - a romulan warning buoy.
"k" - a klingon mevisic mine.
"o" - a plasmodic ustabitular time warp.
any other lower case letter - Another ship running with shields down.
any other upper case letter - The same ship running with shields up.
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The universe is divided into four sectors, as shown below.
In the middle of each sector is a starbase. Starbases are fixed in their
positions in every game, and their positions are always the same. Every
game has exactly 4 starbases. There are 40 planets which also have
fixed positions in every game. Black holes and stars are placed in random
positions. At the start of each game, you are placed close to the federation
starbase.
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MOVING USING THE WARP DRIVE.
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UP is "k",
DOWN is "j",
LEFT is "h",
RIGHT is "l".
DIAGONAL MOVEMENTS are "y","u","b","n".
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Be careful. Typing "l" once, sends you travelling at warp 1 right.
To stop yourself you must press "h" once. Keeping a letter pressed down
will result in accelerating. Hence to stop yourself flying right
at warp 5, you must press "h" five times. A quick way to stop, in whatever
direction/speed youre flying is to press "s". That will stop you
instantly. In the beginning of the game, your ship will only fly
WARP 1. This will change as you find matter-antimatter boosters on planets.
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MOVING USING THE MANOEVERING IMPULSE ENGINES.
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Keys : The same as for the WARP DRIVE but upper case, i.e. :
"H","J","K","L","Y","U","B","N" .
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The manoevering impulse thrusters are provided to manoever safely towards
objects, for example a planet, without crashing into it. Pressing "H" once,
will move you left by exactly one klick. Impulse thrusters can only be used
from a stationary position. Keeping your finger on the "H" key to cause a
repeat function results in an "impulse engine overheat" and you will be
stopped dead in your tracks. Only once stopped can you move again. So,
flying with "repeat key function impulse drive" is not possible.
Note that when orbiting a planet you must type "o" to orbit first.
This switches all engines off. To leave a planet you must invoke
the aft impulse thrusters first. This is done by typing "i", andhas nothing to do with Manoevering impulse thrusters. After having pressed "i" to leave
orbit, you can WARP away, or use Manoevering Impulse thrusters to get away.
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The READOUTS.
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QUAD- this shows your current Quadrant/ x,y position. To show position
type "q". Usually, the position is NOT automatically updated. Only if
you are flying through space and there is nothing to see on your screen,
is the position updated. "q" - This will always tell you the right position
at any time.
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WARP - This shows you x/y velocity. Warp is not automatically updated.
To show your warp type "w".
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ENERGY - This shows your energy. The energy is not automatically
updated. To get an update type "e". HOWEVER-if you energy drops below 100,
this is shown. (In which case its usually time to panic.)
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MAXENERGY - This shows the maximum amount of energy you are alowed to
hold at any time. This changes at various times throughout the game,
and IS automatically updated.
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CLOAKING DEVICE - Use "c" to switch it on/off. If on, others will not
see your ship, but you will use up more energy. You cannot cloak during
an ion storm,
while docked, in orbit, or while your'e in the Mutara Nebula.
This IS automatically updated.
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SHIELDS - Use "v" to switch on/off. This will change your ship to
appear as an upper case letter to others. The advantage is that when attacked,
you only get half the hammering otherwise incurred. If your energy drops
below 200 though, your shields collapse. (And then your'e in for it!!)
Shields are automatically updated. While your shields are up, you can not
be scanned by other players. (See Scanning below.) Shields don't work
if your'e docked, in orbit or in the Mutara Nebula.
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WEAPONS......
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Phasers or Photon Torpedos are available. Torpedos are circa 50% more powerful.
For each weapon, its range (i.e. How far you can shoot) is shown. If the
range of phasers is say, 6, in any DIAGONAL direction it is only half that,
i.e. 3. MAX shows how many shots/torpedos you can hold. PHASERS/TORPS shows
how many you still have left. An attribute of weapons not shown is their
POWER. This varies depending on skill. (It usually increases.) At the start
Phaser power is 40, and torpedo power is 60. (These values are subtracted
from the energy of the ship that is hit. If shields are up, only half will
impact.) All weapons statusses are automatically updated. The little
"s" beside either Phasers or Torpedos shows which weapon is currently
selected. "p" is used to change the weapons. Phasers look like this :
< > - | / \\. Photon torpedos look like this : + . Fireing does NOT
cost you energy. When something explodes beside you, it is possible
to be hit by debris which will damage your ship. Debris looks like
phaser shots. (Its usually the ammo chamber blowing up.)
Use 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9 to fire in the desired direction.
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STATUS AND SCORE.
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STATUS shows what youre doing at the moment. If a function, ex. SHIELDS
does not seem to work, LOOK AT STATUS. You are then probably not allowed
that function in that status. Ex. Youre in orbit and wish to put on shields.
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SCORE is updated as you go. Killing someone is worth 100 pts!!!.(plus
a pint of Romulan ale.) exploring a planet successfully is worth 10 pts, plus
any bonuses that particular planet can give you.
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ENERGY CONSUMPTION.
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If you stand still with cloaking devices and shields off you gain energy.
If you stand still with either cloaking devices or shields or both on,
your energy stays the same. When moving at warp 1 with devices off your
energy stays the same.
When moving faster than warp 1 you loose energy. When moving faster than warp 1
with devices on
you loose even more energy. When zapping thru the galaxy at Warp 10,
cloaked and with shields up, youre dead!
Shooting does NOT cost energy.
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ALIENS
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Romulans (R) and Klingons (K) will be present ONLY if you are the
only player in the game. Killed aliens will be reinstated somewhere
else in the Universe. To avoid being attacked by aliens, RAISE SHIELDS.
To lure an alien to attack you, shoot anything that is in either the
Klingon sector or the Neutral Zone. You get 100 pts for killing
an alien. Do not mistake (R) and (K) for other players.
Romulans, are rare, and more powerful when they get you.
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STARBASES AND DOCKING.
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To dock at a starbase you must be exactly over it. Then type "d".
This refills the ammo and energy. If MAXENERGY is smaller than
500, it is updated to
500. If MAXENERGY is greater than 400, it is left alone. To leave a starbase,
type "f" to FREE yourself. (i.e. undock.) When docked the other players
will see the starbase, not you. You can fire when docked.
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EXPLORING PLANETS AND MISSIONS.
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There are 30 planets in the game to explore. To orbit one you must
be EXACTLY 2 places away from it. If you orbit to close, you bounce off the
atmosphere. To orbit type "o". Then, to beam doen type "z". Some
planets are surrounded by energy shields which make it impossible to beam
down until you have been to other planets. Once down on a planet,
you will find things that can improve your ship, or give you tactical hints.
Press "z" to beam up again, and "i" to invoke aft impulse thrusters
to leave orbit. You can fire when in orbit, but not when your'e on a
planets surface. All planet scenarios to do with star trek, have
similarities to the real episodes/films. Some planets have been
brought in from other sci-fi movies/stories to add a bit of spice
to the game. There are several planet missions to complete, the largest one
of which is very rewarding.
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SCANNING OTHERS.....
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The hyperventilated long range sound track scanners allow you to scan
other ships. To do that, type "S" and you are in scanning mode.
Then type the lowercase letter of the ship you wish to scan, and the
scan will inform you about the position and status of other players.
You can only scan someone if their shields are down. Otherwise the
pulse waves are reflected. The only way to leave scan mode is
to press "S" again. When scanning a ship, it tells you its PREFIX CODE.
For all those of you who have had the misfortune of not seeing STAR TREK
II - The Wrath of Khan, if a FEDERATION ship receives its prefix code,
it will lower its shields and cloaking device automatically. To send a
prefix code type "P", the ships lowercase letter, and the 5 digit code, then
return. Hey presto, his shields will go down. Only federation vessels
have a prefix code. Klingon/Romulan/shuttle vessels dont have one and
you cannot lower their shields.
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The COM LINK.
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To send insulting messages to enemies Starfleet has provided a COM LINK.
Type "C", the lower case letter of the destination ship, and
a one line message and return.
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Tractor beams.
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When you are directly over an object you can press "t" followed by a
number between 1-4. This will lock you on to the object. (perhaps a
player or a starbase.) If later you wish to return there type "a"
for auto-pilot, and the tractor beam number. When locked on to a player,
the auto pilot takes you to him whereever he is. "T" will show you what
your tractor beams are currently locked on to. The auto-pilot always travels
at warp 1. To stop the auto-pilot, press any key. You can lock on to
any position in the universe. (i.e. you mustnt be over something.) The
Auto pilot also tells you what you have locked on to. The auto-pilot does
not avoid obstacles, so be on the lookout for things like planets in your
path.
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OTHER COMMANDS
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HELP - Press '?' to get the instant help sheet.
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WHO - press 'W'. Shows you who else is in the game. If others are running
with shields up, they are displayed in uppercase characters.
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REDRAW SCREEN - press 'R' to do that.
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BEEPING ON/OFF - To switch beep on or off type 'G'.
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QUIT - Type '+'. This will activate your ships self destruct mechanism, no questions asked.
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ION STORMS...
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These occur at random intervals. When up, Cloaking devices are
inoperative. You are not told, when an ion storm stops.
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THESE RULES..
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are all your'e gonna get. The rest is up to you and your experience.
if you want a quick reference sheet for the commands, print out these rules.
(see below).
.ce 2
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER.
P. Schmitz, May 1988.
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SUMMARY OF KEYS......
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+ => Self destruct ship/Quit (AND THIS DOES NOT ASK IF YOU ARE SURE!),
G => beep on/off,
R => Redraw Screen
WARP DRIVE :
h,j,k,l => left,down,up,right,movements
y,u,b,n => diagonal movements,
s => full stop
MANOEVERING IMPULSE THRUSTERS :
H,J,K,L,Y,U,B,N => one klick at a time in the same direction as the WARP drive.
AFT IMPULSE THRUSTERS :
o,i => orbit/cancel orbit
d,f => dock/undock,
z => beamto/from planet,
1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9 => fire weapon,
p => weapon select
q => show quadrant,
w => show warp,
e => show energy,
c => cloaking device on/off,
v => shields on/off
t<1,2,3,4> => lock tractorbeam,
a<1,2,3,4> => auto-pilot to beam
T => show tractorbeams
W => who is playing?,
C<A> => Comlink/send message,
P<A> => send Prefixcode
S<A> => Scanship on/off (This will show prefix codes.)
? => the help function.
Key to command notation:
<1,2,3,4> => a number between 1-4 inclusive,
<A> => a shipname in the form of a lowercase letter.
NB:If a function doesn't seem to work,you cannot do it
