You have to enter the same password that you use in Planets.exe.
Planets
This will run PLANETS, if enough memory is available. The game-path will be added to the command-line and the playernumber and password are automatically passed, as if they were typed into the console.
Unpack
This will execute the command you entered in the configuration under decompress and after that, UNPACK will extract the information from the RST-File into the game-directory.
See also MAKETURN
Maketurn
This will run MAKETURN and after that it executes the command you entered under compress in the configuration-box.
See also UNPACK
DosShell
You can leave temporarily to the dos-prompt by executing this command. Type
and hit [Return] to get back to VPLRead.
Quit
Quit the program.
Outgoing Messages
Here you can read and edit the messages you have written to other players, you can also create new messages (including universal-messages) and delete the ones you do not like. The meaning of the various buttons is listed below: @
Previous : jump to the previous message, you can also use PgUp :
Next : jump to the next message, you can also use PgDown |
Save : save all the outgoing messages. Note: you cannot save individual messages, they have to be saved in total/as a file
Create : create a new message, you have to decide to whom the message will be send; use
the Universe
to address all the races b
Delete : this will delete the message currently in the editor, you will be asked if you are sure
See also Messagebase
Message
to...
Message to..
Pick one or more races to which your message will be send to. Use
the Universe
for all the races.
See also Outgoing
Messages
Messagebase
This is a dialog with the messages, that are in your messagebase. This includes outgoing-messages from previous turns and the incoming- messages you get from other players, the host and from your ships, planets and starbases. There are several buttons with various functions: d
only new : if this item is selected you will only be able to read the messages of the current turn e
outgoing/incoming : here you can select if you want to read your outgoing-messages or your incoming /
Print : the message will be printed instantly Q
Extract : you have to enter a filename to which the message will be appended to k
Search : all the messages will be searched for the string you have to enter here, it is not casesensitive
List : here you can quickly browse through all the messages, that fit your selection, giving you only the author and the subject; you can press [Return] on a specific message to load it into the reader or [Space] to tag the message
Tag : you can tag a message by clicking on this button or by hitting [Space]. There are a few functions you can perform with tagged messages (see
More : this will open a dialog box with some functions you can use on tagged messages @
Previous : jump to the previous message, you can also use PgUp :
Next : jump to the next message, you can also use PgDown
See also Outgoing
Messages
More
More
Pick one of the functions you want to use on your tagged messages, they are: ]
Delete : all tagged messages will be deleted from your messagebase; this can take some time e
Extract : you will be prompted for a filename to which all the tagged messages will be extracted to -
Print : all tagged messages will be printed )
Untag : this untags all tagged messages
About
Information about the version of the program, the date of release, the author and a few other things.
Ships
You can browse through all the ships that have scanned. It even shows you the ships from preceding turns. You can view your own ships and the ships of your enemies. By hitting [Return] on a specific ship or by selecting
View Detail
you can see the hull-specifications and all the information that is available about the ship. Needless to say, that the information about your own ships is quite more detailed. You can select a specific race, so only the ships of that race will be shown. And you can sort the list by Hull or ID.
See also Details
Ship
Details on Ship
Here you can see a detailed summary of your selected ship. With the button
History
you can view up to 15 previous ship-positions.
See also Ships
History
History on Ship
You can view up to 15 previous position of your ship.
See also Details
Ship
Planets
You can browse through all the planets you have information about. This includes planets you visited once, but did not colonize or they were taken by your enemies. It also shows you the planets that you scanned with sensor-sweep, dark-sense and super-spy. Depending on the way you got the information and the time that passed, the statistics are more or less accurate. A zero can mean, that the information is not available. Use the button
View Detail
or hit [Return] to get the extra information. If there exists a starbase on the selected planet, you can view details about the starbase by selecting the
button. This button is only available, when the planet belongs to you. You can select a specific race, so only the planets of that race will be shown.
See also Details
Planet
Details on Planet
You can see a detailed summary of the planet you picked. Most of the items are equivalent to the ones in planets. Some new ones are described below:
Undecided : the percentage of taxes your natives or colonists will stay undecided. In brackets you can see how many credits you would get if enough colonists are on the planet
Happy(+-) : this is a number for the Happyness of your natives/colonists. 100 means happy, <40 means rioting. In brackets you can see how the happyness will change with your selections. A negative value will decrease your happyness, a positiv value will increase it.
Growth : this is a percentage of how much your natives/colonists will grow in the next turn. This figure depends on the taxes, mines and factories, etc.
See also Planets
Meteors
All the meteors are listed that were scanned in the messages. The ID-Numbers belong to the planets they crashed onto. You can see the ore-contents of the meteor.
Minefields
Here you can see the minefields that were scanned from the messages. You can create, edit and delete minefields. Your changes will be shown in the starchart, they will only have effect on internal VPLRead- functions. When editing or creating minefields you have to enter the amount of mines in the field. The sqareroot of this number is the radius of the minefield.
Scores
The scores of the latest turn and the turns before is shown, so you can compare your strength with the others.
See also graphical
score
Graphical Score
The development of the score is shown as a chart, so you can easily see the changes that have occured in each turn. You can also decide which item you want to see, just hit the corresponding key or press the button:
Score : the whole score including starbases, planets, capital-ships and freighters. This is the score you can see in planets.exe (default) 7
Planets : the number of planets is used for the graph T
Capital Ships : the number of capital-ships (these are ships with weapons) is used .
Freighter : the number of freighters is used %
Bases : the number of bases is used
Cost Manager
Here you can calculate the costs of ships. This is done by clicking on the parts you want to have, the actual costs are shown in the lower right quater of the screen. The program just sums up all the costs and gives you the total in the bottom-line. You can also use it to view the specification of a certain hull by selecting this hull in the list-box.
Starchart
This will show you a chart including the planets and ships that you scanned. The planets and ships will have different colors according to their owners. There are a few keys that are important: %
+, - : zoom in (+) and zoom out (-) 9
P.(N)ames : switch to show all the names of the planets
(S)hips : show ships i
(A)ll Sh. : view all the ships, this will add the ships from turns before (
show ships
must be set on)
Sh.(I)D : show ship-IDs
(M)ines : show minefields 1
(F)ind : find planet, you have to enter the ID#
(B)orders : show borders 1
(D)istance : calculate distances (mouse needed)
S(t)ats : show graphical statistics of planets. This button is case- sensitive, a capital "T" will open a dialog-box where you can edit which items will be shown. A "t" will show the statistics
T(r)aces : show traces. This Button is case-sensitive, use "R" to view all the traces of a single ship (you have to enter the ID#); use "r" to view three traces of all the ships
[Space] : toggle Zoom/Select @
Another function that is not available via button is the Highlight-function for a specific ship-type. To use it, you first have to switch to the selct-mode. Then just select a ship by using the right mouse-button. By pressing "h", you will highlight all ships of this type, that are currantly visible on the starchart. <
Use the cursor-keys (also on the keypad) to scroll around! r
With the new version of VPLRead you can (an for a few functions you must) use the mouse. On case-sensitive buttons the right-mouse-button corresponds to the capital letter. With the left-button you can zoom in on the starchart or you can select planets. This depends on your selections (Zoom/Select). With the right-button you can zoom out or you can select starships.
See also Borders %
History
Minefields
Tools
This will start the utility you entered in the utilities-setup.
See also Utilities-Setup
Configuration
Here you can edit the individual configuration of your game.
See also:
Hold
Messages
Mines
Scanrange
Add
Scanned
Messages
Sticky
Mouse
Change
Colour
XYPLAN.DAT
PLANET.NM
RACE.NM
UNPACK
MAKETURN
Compress
Decompress
Hold Messages
Enter the amount of turns you want to keep old messages (0 means not limited).
Mines Scanrange
The range how far ships can scan for mines. If you do not know how far it is set, ask your Host! The default is 200 lightyears. This will enable VPLRead to determine if minefields still exist.
Add Scanned Messages
Add all the messages to the messagebase, even those that are scanned for. I recommend turning this switch of, because you can save a lot of diskspace.
Sticky Mouse
Use Sticky Mouse in Planets.exe.
Change Colour
Use the changed colourtabel in Planets.exe
Name of XYPLAN.DAT
Enter the name of the XYPLAN.DAT for altered universes. With the filename you can enter a path, so if your XYPLAN.DAT is located in a subdirectory, you just have to write:
SUBDIR\XYPLAN.DAT
Name of PLANET.NM
Enter the name of the PLANET.NM for altered universes. With the filename you can enter a path, so if your PLANET.NM is located in a subdirectory, you just have to write:
SUBDIR\PLANET.NM
Name of RACE.NM
Enter the name of the RACE.NM for altered universes. With the filename you can enter a path, so if your RACE.NM is located in a subdirectory, you just have to write:
SUBDIR\RACE.NM
Name of UNPACK.EXE
Enter the name for a replacement of UNPACK.EXE. Or a different path.
Name of MAKETURN.EXE
Enter the name for a replacement of MAKETURN.EXE. Or a different path.
Decompress Command
Here you can enter a command that will be executed before UNPACK. This could for example be just a simple copy-command so the files are moved to the proper directory. You can also enter a batch-file, that you want to be executed, use this if you want more than one command to be executed.
See also Compress
Compress Command
Here you can enter a command that will be executed after MAKETURN. This command could for example zip the compiled TRN, so it can be transfered faster, or it could move the TRN to a certain directory. If you have to enter more than one command, you have to use a batch-file. If the batch-file is located in the same directory as VPLRead -that is your Planets-directory- you can omit the path.
See also Decompress
Signature
Enter the signature you want to add to your messages. It will be saved to the configuration-file, so you do not have to enter it each time you want to use it. To use it, go into the editor for outgoing-messages and place the cursor on a free line of the message. Then press Shift+Ins and your signature will be added to the message.
See also Outgoing
Messages
Borders
You can enter the planet-IDs of your borderplanets to other races. They will be shown in the starchart to help you not to cause trouble by entering foreign space. Each ID is seperated by a komma. A 0 within the definition seperates two different border-lines.
For example: )
Fed: 123,342,221,423,122,0,152,386,252 f
This will draw a Line among the planets 123,342,221,423,122 and another one from 152 to 386 and 252.
Change Player
With this Menuitem you can change the player, if vplread can find more playerfiles than just one. You will be asked for the password, if the password is different from the one you have entered before.
Setup Utilities
Here you can enter the names of your utilities you want to integrate in VPLRead. The file containing the parameters of your utilites will be located in your planets-directory, so you do not have to enter all the utilities for each game. First enter the menuname, this name will appear in the submenu
Tools
. If you want to use one character of the name as a hotkey then enclose it in two tildes (~), e.g. ~V~PUtil. Under name you have to write the name of the program, including the full path. You do not need to enter the path, if the program is located in your planets-directory. Finally you have to specify the parameters of the program. There exist a few macros you can use to automate certain functions. These macros are: 5
%d : the directory will be added to the commandline
%n : the playernumber will be added to the commandline
%nt : the playernumber will be simulated as a keystroke
%r : [Return] will be simulated as a keystroke
%p : the password will be added to the commandline
%pt : the password will be simulated as keystrokes
(no [Return] will be entered, you have to use
a %r at the end)
%c : the modified XYPLAN.DAT/RACE.NM/PLANET.NM will
be exchanged with the original one, use this
switch if your are playing with an altered universe
(.txt)