The Best of Select: Games 4

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ The Best of Select: Games 4 / CD_1.iso / games / gal-emp / readme.ge < prev

Wrap

Text File | 1992-01-18 | 24KB | 477 lines

G a l a c t i c E m p i r e s Version 6.0 by Richard J. Healy (C) Copyright 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 Originally based on an Apple II game by Tom Cleaver Computer opponent algorithms (C) Copyright Richard J. Healy 1991, 1992 Your nascent empire has just taken over another world after a bloody battle that left only three ships to defend this fledgeling outpost. Fortunately, you've sent a support fleet. But will it arrive in time? Will you have enough ships left to defend your homeworld? Your opponent is building up a force on a nearby outpost. Is he going to attack you or your other opponent or one of the neutral worlds? And just when you thought victory was in your hands interstellar intelligence detects a new renegade commader in the galaxy calling himself "The Mule". Galactic Empires v6.0 - For 1 to 10 human or computer-controlled players. A nominal $10.00 registration fee is requested. If you use this program send it to: Richard J. Healy 700 West End Avenue, Apt. 3a New York, NY 10025 CIS ID# 73007,2314 BITNET: cdrjh@nasagiss.giss.nasa.gov I'm more likely to see the BITNET mail. If you're logged on Compuserve you can send mail through BITNET and it's free. Comments: PLEASE DO NOT DISTRIBUTE THIS PROGRAM WITHOUT THIS DOCUMENT LEAVE THIS DOCUMENT AND THE MAIN PROGRAM UNCHANGED Files included: GE.EXE - Main program *HALLFAME.EXE - For Hall of Famers README.GE - This file (Please do not rename) Files created: *HALLFAME.GE EMPORERS.GE - List of names for computer controlled players. *This may not be included and is not necessary for game operation. If you would like HALLFAME.EXE to save the top ten winners send $10 to the address above. Setting Up the System Beginning with v5.0 there's no special setup needed due to the elimination of the need for screen files. But You might want to include an AUTOEXEC.BAT file to start the game right up if you're working on a floppy disk system. Invoking the game At the DOS prompt d>, type: GE filename + [RETURN] where filename specifies the name of a saved game. Filename is optional. Object of the Game The object of this game is to try to control the most worlds within a specified period of time (from 10 to 1000 years). To achieve this, each player is given a "home" planet, with an initial number of ships, that produces 10 ships a year. All the other planets are neutral and maintained by the computer and have randomly set producing capabilities from 0 to 20 ships per year. One year consists of each player sending out however many ships he chooses (no more than the number of ships on that planet) from any planet he owns. He may wish to send no ships at all. At the beginning of each year the players are prompted to enter this data and when he is done press "Q" <return>. For the menu screen press [F3]. The game is best played with two or more players (up to 10), one player can play in which the object of the game would be to get as most worlds in as little time. In this case the computer acts as a passive player for it cannot send out fleets against your worlds. After each player has entered his move the game goes to the attack/reinforce mode where any fleet that has arrived at some specified world attacks the ships on the world or if he owns that world he reinforces that world. You will be able to see the battle in progress as the defenders fight off the aggressors. Press [ESC] to slow down game. Press it again to speed up. After checking through each player the year is over and it goes back to the input mode. At the end of the game each player's total number of planets owned is displayed. Usually there is a clear winner before that time. To end the game sooner go to the main menu (by pressing F3) and select "Adjust ending year". The current year will be displayed and you will be asked for the year to end the game. You must enter a year greater than the current year and less than 1000 (current year < ending year < 1000). As the last player enters his move at the year before the ending year and the attack/reinforce sequence is over the game will return to the input screen displaying the worlds, production etc. A note at the bottom of the screen tells you to press return. If you have more than 40 worlds press return to see the second screen. The screen will then print the players, the total number of worlds owned by each, battles won, battles lost, and wins to losses ratio. The winner will be highlighted. If you have the file HALLFAME.EXE then the top ten winners will be displayed after hitting any key. If the winner of the present game's W/L ratio is higher than anothers or if the list is unfilled he will be added to the list . If a player has lost all his planets he will not be prompted to enter anything. This will continue either to the end of the game or until one of his in-flight fleets happen to take over a world. The time it takes to get to a particular world is proportional to the distance to that world from where the fleet was sent. So it may take as long as 14 years if a world is on the opposite side of the screen. The number to the left next to the planet number is the number of worlds owned by that commander and the number to the right is the player designation letter and total producing capability of that commander. When reading it refer to the letters instead of the planet numbers. The final score is proportional to the ratio of wins to losses and the number of worlds in your empire. The Menu +1.Trade ships/production for production/ships - If it isn't the correct year, the computer will tell you. 2. Look at production distribution - Gives current number of planets with a production ranging from 1 to 20. Asks you if you want to see number of ships on home worlds. 3. Reset Production - Reset the production of all worlds and number of ships on home worlds or just the production on non-home worlds. Press ESC to exit. Production of home worlds always is 10 at startup. 4. Display Galaxy - Print the galaxy. Press F2 to highlight owned worlds of current prompted commander. Press F1 to display all empires. 5. Calculate time to different worlds - Does what it says for any world in the galaxy. *6. Offensive/Defensive point distribution - Every commander receives one point for every 100 ships he produces which can be used to add 3 percentage points to a specified world's fleet. (See New to version 3.1 below). Press F2 to backup to previous position. 7. Query Statistics - Displays wins, losses, and w/l ratio for each commander. 8. Begin New Game - Does what it says. If game is in progress you must exit the preogram and start again by selecting this option. 9. Save Game - Does what it says. Default is GAL.SAV. Default is changed upon entering new name. Press F1 to return to menu or F2 to see files on disk. 10. Fetch an old game - Does what it says. Default is GAL.SAV unless new name has been entered. 11. Adjust ending year - Change the year when game ends. 12 Jump to DOS - shell to DOS. Type EXIT to return. 13. End game and exit to DOS-Exits to DOS with confirmation. Saves game. TO SEE MORE INFORMATION ON GAME PLAY SEE THE NOTES ON NEW VERSIONS AT THE END OF THIS DOCUMENT. + At the start of the game this function can be eliminated by telling the computer to start this function the year the game ends. * Suggest this option not be used unless everyone is fully familiar with the game. If you have any questions or comments, or want the latest version of Galactic Empires and have paid your ten dollars, write to: Rick Healy 700 West End Avenue, Apt. 3a New York, NY 10025 CIS ID# 73007,2314 Suggestions Make a few screens for various amounts of players and save them under names which contain appropriate information. This will allow faster startup time for new games. You can make treaties with other, human, players, secret or not, that say no attacks on each other for a minimum number of years, for instance. Keep a steady supply of ships on your home world to protect from invasion (Use the Long Order command to do this. See below). It may be your only large producer. Don't keep any ships on zero producing worlds (Unless preparing for an attack, but that's a giveaway). New to version 6.0 (12/8/91) Up to ten computer controlled opponents. A twist and a few odds and a few ends. No, the computer doesn't have any inside information. Purely lobotomized. If it wasn't, you'd never win. However, it calculates a few statistical quantities that it doesn't share with you. Notes: * While computer is "thinking" press F3 to return to Main Menu when it's done. * The computer player cannot trade ships for production or vice versa and it doesn't know about advantage points. You may use this option if you think you need a handicap. * Option menu for color, sound, computer's thinking status, and pausing between attack/reinforce sequences. This will allow fast, untamed, play if the sound and pause is turned off and all players are computer controlled or if you're the only player. * File EMPORERS.GE can be modified to include a list of computer controlled players' names that you would prefer. Up to twenty names can be included (10 are there to start). Each name must be terminated by a carriage control. New to version 5.5 (11/14/90) * Ability to enter a long command The benefit of entering multiple launch commands on one line and to save these commands makes reinforcing home worlds or strategic worlds simpler. Of course, you can also launch multiple, repeated attacks against your opponents but the utility of that is questionable. Enter a long command by typing the letter O immediately followed by a number from 1 to 5, e.g., O2 at the FROM WORLD prompt. Next, enter multiple orders separated by the pound symbol,#. Launch world comes first. Followed by target world and then number of ships. Repeat until done or end of line. Example: Launch 5 ships from world 12 to world 16, 10 ships from world 7 to 22, 120 ships from world 76 to 5: #12#16#5#7#22#10#76#5#120 To execute this long order just enter the pound symbol followed by a number from 1 to 5, e.g., #2, at the FROM WORLD prompt. * Other minor modifications dealing with trite conveniences that make life a little simpler. New to version 5.0 * Minor enhancements dealing with cursor control. * A small Help Screen has been added in Input mode. Press Ctrl-H to activate. * The game is now saved as a binary file. * The need for a drive letter to save screens has been eliminated, producing faster game play. * Game checks CPU speed for appropriate speed to run. * Ability to load saved game at invocation. (at DOS prompt type: GE filename) New to version 4.0 * 10 player ability. * 80 worlds can be selected. Press F10 to toggle between screens. * Attack speed option. Press F4 in input mode to select. * Press [ESC] in attack mode to either speed game up or slow down. * Stats lets you display battles won, lost and w/l ratio. Also added upon request is a pause between attacks. Press any key to continue. The "P" option has been eliminated in favor of the speed selection. So ignore the description under 3.11 above New to version 3.11 With this version players can now have names. The game can also be paused during the attack/reinforce mode by pressing "P". Press "P" again to continue. A few other revisions have been made dealing with the exchanging of ships which I hope makes it easier. Eight player capability has been initialized. Version 3.0 never released New to Version 3.1C This is the compiled version which includes some new enhancements as well. New to this version is the option to add percentage points to its attacking or defending capabilties to any owned fleet in the galaxy stationed on a planet. There are a few restrictions built into the program. In order for a fleet to keep its added points the entire fleet must be sent and it must conquer the world it was sent to. If it reinforces a world then that reinforced world will hold the points and the entire fleet from that world must now be sent to keep the points. The old world will no longer contain those points. Whichever fleet has the most points (defensive plus offensive points) will replace the old points. Conquered worlds will lose their points. Don't worry. The computer will keep track of everything.To receive these points a total of 100 ships must be produced for any particular commander. For each point you get 3 percentage points which can either be offensive or defensive. If offensive it will be added to your attack percentage, etc. Although you may exceed 100 percentage points for a single world's fleet the probability of either hitting or being hit never exceeds 99%. You can now manipulate your galaxy upon game startup. This is done by answering the questions and then moving the world you want using the cursor keys. To exit without the last change being made press <ESC>. Press <P> to reprint the galaxy. Press return when you've found a position you like. If it's on top of another world you will hear a beep. If you try to go off the screen you will hear a buzz. Example of Advantage points Let's say Commander Boris has 200 ships on world 1 with 18 offensive points and 9 defensive points. Commander Natasha sends her whole fleet of 250 ships from world 2 to world 1 controlled by Boris that has 12 offensive points and 21 defensive points. Thus the effective points would be (in Boris' point of view) 18-21 offensive points or -3 percentage points added to his ability to hit any one of Natasha's ships, in other words 3 points subtracted. In Natasha's point of view it would be 3 points added to her ability to defend herslf. Similarly Boris would have 9-12 defensive points or -3 percentage points added to his ability to defend himself, or 3 points subtracted. In Natasha's point of view she has 3 points added to her ability to hit any one of Boris's ships. Clearly, Natasha has the advantage. She will probably win and so world 1 becomes hers and Boris' advantage points are replaced by hers. If she had left but one ship back on world 1, Boris' advantage points would be replaced by nothing; world 2 would be owned by Natasha with no advantage points. New to Version 2.3 1/30/87 A number of minor revisions has been made including faster screen save, highlighting owned worlds in the galaxy map (press F2), and saving the game without going to the menu by pressing F9. An unnoticable but rather major restructuring of the program has been made to the storing of fleet destinations which will make the program run a little faster and makes for better programming and more memory space to play with in future versions I realized recently that after version 2.2 came out it could no longer be played on a color computer. This has been fixed by specifying which you have at game startup. (No longer necessary) If you want the screen to be saved faster boot up a virtual disk and specify its drive in the beginning. I'm sure a fixed disk would be just as fast, also. New to version 2.2 The screen is now saved to disk enabling players to go to the menu without telling everyone how many ships you sent out upon returning to the input mode. Note: at least 4500 bytes must be free on the disk to do this. (No longer done. See v5.0 above) You can now only exchange ships for production every five years starting on the year selected at startup. This makes it a more strategic game. But you can still exchange production for ships any time after that initial year. New to version 2.1 This update came rather quickly but was necessary because I realized that the number of years to wait until exchanges could be made was not saved when saving the game. Thus this version is not compatible with previous version's scenarios and saved games. I also came up with the idea of a new menu system, realizing the old one was susceptible to mistakes made by players. I just thought this new menu system would be better. If I hear enough complaints I will probably change it back. Use the up and down arrows to make selections. New to Version 2.0 The biggest revision is the option after a certain number of years (selected at startup) to exchange either ships for larger production (max. 20/year) at an exchange of 10 ships per production unit or you may exchange production for ships at a cost of 1 production unit for 5 ships. This adds a whole new dimension to the game by letting you pillage a planet's production for ships. You can now display the number of years from a particular planet to every other planet by selecting the option at the menu and typing in the source planet. The galaxy is now smaller. What used to take 20 years to cross the galaxy now takes 14. Thus the game won't take as long. Note the screen size and number of planets remains the same. The number of defenders left is now displayed during battle just as the number of attackers was in previous versions. The "Black Hole" that used to make what looked like a 2 or 3 year journey into a 20 year journey has been fixed. You can highlight all the worlds owned during input mode for the particular commander whose turn it is by pressing [F2]. Press [F2] again to bring it back to normal. (Disabled during computer's move) Enjoy the game! List of command keys: F1-1. Used in save/restore option to return to menu. 2. Used during Display option to print all empires in designated letters (a,b,c,...,j). F2-1. Highlights controlled worlds in input mode. 2. Highlights empire in print option. 3. Used in save/restore option to see files on disk. 4. Used in exchange/advantage points option to return to menu. F3 - Used in input mode to go to menu. F4 - Used in input mode to set speed of attack sequence. F5 - Option menu for -Color -Sound -Computer's thinking status -Pausing between attack/reinforce sequences (Press [ESC] while in att./rein. mode to negate.) F9 - Used in input mode to save game under default name. F10 - Used in input mode to toggle between screens. Q+<RETURN> in input mode to end player turn. Ctrl-H Activates Help screen in Input mode. [ESC] Used at various times to return to menu. Also used to speed up attack sequence. P - Used during moving worlds to re-print galaxy. Use cursor arrows to move planets and select choice. If all else fails try [ESC].