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1995-04-04
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13KB
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272 lines
VGA Planets Score Builder v1.11
by Alex Ivlev, The ShareNet Trolls
(c) 1995
CONTENTS :
==========
I. Purpose
II. Registration
III. Disclaimer
IV. Usage
V. Form Files
VI. Trouble Shooting
PURPOSE
=======
VPSB is a configurable score display program for VGA Planets. It was
designed for use by SysOps, however, players can also use this program to
keep track of changes in empires from turn to turn. Future versions will keep
track of empire changes for the entire game. VPSB has several variables the
user can configure in whatever color or location they wish. The original
idea of VPSB was to allow the user to customize how the score is displayed.
In short VPSB offers :
- Uses either player files or host files, so both sysops and players
can use VPSB
- User defined colors and location of score data
- Tracks player data and reports + and - in player stats turn to turn
- 13 basic variables, plus
- a sum of totals for all of the 6 race variables
- player's score percentages of the total game totals
* - tracking score totals to display difference between the value of
the previous turn and present turn
- support for any combination of the above
- Uses RACE.NM and supports alternative race names
* - Supports team scores and ranks each TEAM rather than each player
- Output can be in any type you create (e.g., ANSI, ASCII, AVATAR,
@-CODES)
* Registered Only
REGISTRATION
=============
Registration is $5.00 US dollars. We won't be mailing out any keys, ALL
REGISTRATION KEYS will be available for download on ShareNet BBS. When you
are ready to register fill out the orderfrm.txt file and mail in your money.
Once we receive it, we will attach your registration key to you in a message
on ShareNet. The shareware version has all the functions of a registered
version except for tracking player score changes for players at the top of
the score and team scores. Once registered, you can receive free upgrades to
all future versions of VPSB.
DISCLAIMER
==========
This won't mess up your computer as far as we know, but if it does we
won't be responsible. Hey, it creates an ANSI file, how much harm could it
do?
USAGE
======
Command Line:
VPSB xxxx.FRM [PATH TO GAME] OUTPUT FILE
e.g., vpsb score.frm d:\bbs\vga\game3 d:\bbs\bull\bull105.bbs
This will use the form file `score.frm' for creating the output file
bull105.bbs. This will contain info from game 3.
* This is the simplest use of VPSB. If you have more than one game
and want all the scores in one bulletin you can do something similar
to the little batch file I created called score.bat:
cd \vpsb
vpsb score.frm d:\bbs\vga\game3 score3.ans
vpsb score.frm d:\bbs\vga\game4 score4.ans
vpsb teamscor.frm d:\bbs\vga\game7 score7.ans
copy clear + score3.ans + score4.ans + score7.ans \bbs\bull\bull200.bbs
The file `clear' is just a plain file with a clear screen code so
when somebody views the bulletin it clears the screen first. For
bbs boards, you'd simply have in your clear file:
@CLS@
This creates a nice bulletin with all your game scores.
Note: You may want to customize the score for each game. For example,
you might want to have the game name in each score, like `BORGDOOM' or even
just `GAME 7 of the Hot Heads'. To do this you need a separate form file for
each game, so you might have a borg.frm and game7.frm. The command line is
the same as above, just use the game's specific form file. To create and edit
form files, see below.
FORM FILES
==========
It isn't necessary to make your own files, both a regular individual game
score form file (score.frm) and a team score form file (teamscor.frm) are
provided. If you have troubles understanding what's below, referring to how
those two files are set up may help.
The `form' files are like templates that VPSB uses to map data onto. By
editing/creating different form files, you can create different ways VPSB will
display your game scores. When making your form files, or templates if you
prefer, there are several variables at your disposal.
There are two basic groups of variables. One set involves formatting and
printing instructions, while the other set contains the actual score
variables. There are 5 format-related variables, and 8 score-related
variables.
Format Related Variables
------------------------
~FORMAT : Defines the format (e.g., color, spacing) that will be used
in either the ~PRINT or ~CYCLE lines. Note that `#' are used
to define the number of characters to use for a given field.
~PRINT : This defines the fields to use in your `#' created above.
The only statements you will use after this command are score
related variables.
~CYCLE n
~CYCLE TEAM : This defines the number of races to cycle through (print
data). ~CYCLE 1 will run through one race. ~CYCLE 5 will
run through the first 5 races (if it's the first cycle
command). ~CYCLE TEAM will run through the first set of races
you defined in the ~TEAMS. The difference between ~PRINT and
~CYCLE is that ~CYCLE n relates to n races, where the ~PRINT
command relates to all races. Thus, one would use only ~TURN
or other race-independent variables (see below) with the
~PRINT command.
~TEAMS : Used to rearrange races in a team game. Each team is
defined on this line. For Example, the line ~TEAMS 123 456
789 AB would result in 3 teams (Team 1:feds, lizards, birds;
Team 2: fascists, privs, borg; Team 3: crystals, empire,
robots; Team 4: rebels, colonies). When the ~CYCLE TEAM
option is then used, VPSB will look at the race whose in first
place and put whatever team that race belongs to on the top of
the score. For example, if the borg have the highest score of
all 11 races, then Team 2 (fascists, privs and borg) will be
at the top. Then, say the fascists have the second highest
score, since they're already listed, the third highest score
will be looked at and so on until all teams are displayed.
Score Related Variables
-----------------------
~TURN : Simply the current turn number
~RACE : Race Name. Watch out how many `#' you define for
the race name. ####### will result in Crystal instead of
Crystalline.
~SCORE : Race score. Same as in the game.
~PLANETS : Number of planets owned by race.
~BASES : Number of starbases the race has.
~CAPSHIPS : Number of capital (war) ships the race has.
~FRSHIPS : Number of freighters.
~ALLSHIPS : Sum of capital ships and freighters.
In addition, there are *, %, and + prefixes you can add to each of the
above score related variables. The shareware version will only use the +
prefix variable for the last placed half of races.
Prefix Function
* : Is used to obtain a sum of all races variables. For
example, *PLANETS displays the overall number of colonized
planets in the universe by all races. *ALLSHIPS displays the
number of ships built so far in the game.
% : Similar to * prefix, but gives the percentage or
proportion a race has to what all races have. For example,
%PLANETS displays the percentage of a race's planets to the
total planets colonized. The value will be 33 if the race has
colonized 1/3 of the total planets (e.g., 20 of 60 total
planets, 10 of 30 etc..,).
+ : The shareware version will only recognize this for races in
the bottom half of the score. This calculates the difference
between this turns value and last turns value. For example,
+PLANETS shows the number of planets colonized or lost by the
last turn. +SHIPS shows the number of ships a race either
build or lost (or captured) this turn.
Any of these prefixes can be combined with one another if you wish. For
example, *+ALLSHIPS will display the number of ships built or destroyed by all
11 races last turn.
Some simple examples:
---------------------
~FORMAT
Borgdoom Game. On Turn : ###
~PRINT
TURN
Will result in (if on turn 37):
Borgdoom Game. On Turn : 37
-------------------------------------------------------
| Race | Score | Planets |
~FORMAT
|************ | #### | ### (###) ##% |
~CYCLE 1
RACE,SCORE,PLANETS,+PLANETS
Will result in (with whatever are the proper values):
| Race | Score | Planets |
|Cyborg | 1561 | 37 ( +2) 11% |
----------------------------------------------------------
Meaning the Borg are in first place (if this was the first ~CYCLE, have a
score of 1561, own 37 planets, which is 2 more than they owned last turn, and
37 planets is 11% of the planets owned by any race in the game.
This is only one level of VPSB. All the above are plain colors, all the same.
What makes a bulletin attractive, however, is adding color. Using any ANSI
(or whatever) creator like THE DRAW, you can color the above info to display
in color. NOTE!! The Draw, and perhaps some other such programs sometimes
add color codes where they aren't supposed to be! There are really only three
restrictions you need to worry about when creating your customized display:
1. One line with registration information is added, centered, as the
first line of your output. Since the maximum lines a screen can be for most
BBSs without getting a `pause' or `more' prompt is 24, you want your form file
to produce 23 lines of output (maximum). Since one line is added, this gives
you > 22 lines to print what you want.
2. An 80 column wide display can sometimes create line breaks. The
easiest way around this is to simply make the display 79 characters wide.
3. All variables (e.g., ~FORMAT, ~CYCLE, RACE, TURN) must be at the
BEGINNING of the line and must NOT have any color codes before them. The
easiest way to do this is to put the codes at the beginning, and don't color
those lines.
Thus, your form file should conform to printing all of what you want in a page
22 lines long, 79 characters wide. In addition, all your variables must start
at the beginning and not have any color codes before them (you can check the
color codes with most ASCII editors and simply remove them if they appear).
TROUBLE SHOOTING:
=================
Here are some things to check if your form file isn't displaying
properly:
- Make sure all variables are at the beginning of the line. You may have to
look at the form file with an ASCII editor to check.
- If you get ?? in a field or not enough of the info, make sure you have
enough ####s to properly display the field. For example, ## will display ??
for the +CAPSHIPS field if the race has either an increase or decrease of
more than 9 ships.
- The +VARIABLE only displays info for the bottom scores. Simple, you haven't
registered it, or you don't have your VPSB.REG in the same directory as
VPSB.EXE.
- You don't understand this documentation. Ahhh...sorry, I'm not a writer,
but I tried! You can ask either Alex Ivlev or Red Troll anything that is
unclear in VGA.PLANETS, a Fido Backboned echo conference.
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