Monster Media 1994 #1

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (10.0) RACE ADVANTAGES A version 3.0 feature is each race has their own advantages over other races. (10.01) PLAYER 1 ( The Solar Federation ) The Solar Federation is very good at making friends with the natives that they contact. Their members are more productive then the average. They collect twice the megacredits per turn per tax rate percentage point from both the natives and The colonists. The Solar Federation has a set of strict laws that are enforced by the universal environmental protection agency (UEPA). In order to follow all the laws the Solar Federation can only mine at half the normal rate. The Solar Federation is the only race that can upgrade the tech levels of old starships. If a Federation ship sets their mission to "Super Refit" and is at a Federation starbase for one turn. The chief engineer will remove the engines, beam weapons and torpedo launchers and replace the parts with the highest tech level parts available from the starbase's parts inventory. If a higher tech part is not available the chief engineer will not swap parts. Old parts taken off the ship will be placed in storage. The Federation has two terraforming ships: Bohemian Class Survey Ship: Will make planets warmer until climate type 50 is reached. Eros Class Research Vessel: Will make a planet cooler until climate type 50 is reached. (10.02) PLAYER 2 ( The Lizards ) The Lizards are a strong and powerful physically. Their skin acts as a very tough natural armor. They are very resistant to extreme cold and heat and weapons of all types. A ship with a Lizard crew can survive over 150% damage before blowing up. Lizards are 20 times more skilled at ground combat that any other race. Lizards love to take over colony worlds by just landing Lizard colonists. They are very good at extracting minerals from the ground. The weakest Lizards can toss 500 pound boulders around with ease. All Lizard mineral mines produce twice the minerals as any other race. Some small Lizard ships can cloak. The Lizards have a special "HISSSSSSSSSS" Mission that will stops civil wars by transmitting threatening radio and video messages to planetary populations. The fear of big Lizards stomping on their planet tends to calm them down. (Only ships with beam weapons can do the HISSSSS mission) They have the plans to one Fed research vessel that the like to use for scouting out minerals and cooling hot planets. Eros Class Research Vessel: Will make a planet cooler until climate type 50 is reached. (10.03) PLAYER 3 ( The Bird Men ) The Birdmen are very sneaky. Many of their ships can hide using a cloaking device built into the space frame (hull) of their ships. Cloaked ships do not show up on enemy scanners and protect them from enemy attack. Cloaked ships are 4 times less likely to hit a space mine then a visible ship. Cloaking does not protect a ship from web style mines. Ships that are out of fuel cannot cloak. The Birdmen are very good at spying on enemy planets. They can use their "Super Spy" mission to get a normal exploration report plus a "Spy" report that has the enemy's planetary friendly code, however 20% of the time the enemy will catch the spy team and be warned that the friendly code has been discovered. Any ship that can cloak will be cloaked during the "Super Spy" mission. (10.04) PLAYER 4 ( The Fascists ) Three of the Fascist starships can cloak. Fascist starships can plunder a planet for money and supplies. When a planet is plundered 20% of the population (native and colonist) is killed off and their personal belongings are converted into supply units. Plundering for around 6 turns will cause riots. Plundering for about 11 turns will cause a civil war, but very few of the inhabitants will still be alive. The reason it takes so long for the population to become upset and start to riot is that everyone in the population that starts trouble is killed. (10.05) PLAYER 5 ( The Privateers ) Privateers have the unique ability to fine tune their beam weapons to do 3X the normal damage to the enemy crew while still doing normal damage to the enemy's hull. This makes them very skilled at capturing enemy ships by killing off the crew. The Privateers are also very skilled at robing fuel and minerals from enemy ships using the "Rob Ship" mission. Enemy ships won't find out about being robbed until it is too late. Only ships with beam weapons can use the "Rob Ship" mission. The rob mission takes place before movement and combat. The Privateers is the only race that can build ships that have gravitonic accelerators. Three ships that have the gravitonic accelerators are the Meteor Class Blockade Runner, the BR4 Gun Boat and the BR5 Kaye Class Torpedo Boat. These three ships travel at a rate of twice that of a normal ship. At warp factor 9 these ships will travel 162 light years in one turn. These ships can also cloak. The major drawback of these ships is their very small size and cargo room. They are also unable to survive even a single impact with a space mine. (10.06) PLAYER 6 ( The Cyborgs ) The Cyborgs have some of the most powerful starships, the Cyborg Cube ships. The Cyborg ships are able to repair in space at a rate of 10% per month. A Cyborg ship that is repairing cannot move. When a Cyborg ship destroys an enemy ship the debris and fuel is beam aboard in the form of minerals. Cyborg colonists that are placed on a planet that has native population will convert the natives into Cyborg colonists. The natives are converted to Cyborg at a rate of one native for every Cyborg on the planet. (10.07) PLAYER 7 ( The Crystal People ) The Crystal People can lay WEB MINES in space that cause starships to come to a dead stop for one month. (SEE MINE FIELDS) for more details on mines. Any ship that is in a web mine field loses 25 KT of fuel per turn trying to keep the shields up. They own a ship that will turn all planets into deserts. Onyx Class Frigate: Will make any planet turn into a hot boiling pool of rock and desert (temp 100). (10.08) PLAYER 8 ( The Evil Empire ) The captains of all ships in the Evil Empire can use the "Dark Sense" to detect enemy colonists living on planets within a configured range. The "Dark Sense" is never wrong! Nothing can hide a planet from The "Dark Sense." (10.09) PLAYER 9 ( The Robots ) Can lay mines far better then all other races. They can make four times more mine units per torpedo. This makes their mine fields 4 times as larger then normal. However, only one robot ship can lay mines, the Cat's Paw Class Destroyer. All robot ships with fighter bays can build fighters in space using 3 tritanium, 2 molybdenum and 5 supply units per fighter. (10.10) PLAYER 10 ( The Rebels ) The REBEL GROUND ATTACK MISSION (sabotage planet). Any of the Rebel's ships can land a very small team of saboteurs onto the planet's surface. The team will destroy 30% of the planet's money, 40% of the planets supplies, 20% of the defense outposts, 60% of the mineral mines and 30% of the factories. In doing so 20% of the colonists on the planet will be killed off. This will really upset the colonists! If there are any natives on the planet they will be very pleased about everything being destroyed. Rebels can "self-destruct" their own planets if they wish by using this ground attack mission. They have many small friendly robots on board all their fighter carriers that build fighters when ever they can find 2 tritanium, 3 molybdenum and 5 supply units laying around, whatever the ship's mission. (10.11) PLAYER 11 ( The Colonies ) The colonists can use fighters to sweep for mines. Each fighter can destroy 4 mines per turn. If the ship doing the mine sweeping has beam weapons then the ship will also use the beam weapons to destroy mines simultaneously. The mine sweeping fighters can travel 100 light years from the carrier when on a mine sweeping mission. Colonist ships that have fighters bays can build fighters in space using 3 tritanium, 2 molybdenum and 5 supply units per fighter. (10.12) A QUICK OVERVIEW PLAYER 1 ( The Solar Federation ) Super Refit ( update tech of old ships ) 2X income from planetary taxes 0.5X ore extraction rate and 25 Crew bonus ( weapons repaired in combat, shield boost ) Terraforming ships PLAYER 2 ( The Lizards ) Ship with Lizard crew can take 150% damage before blowing up 20X ground combat! 2X ore extraction rate The Lizard HISSSSSS! mission ( stops civil wars ) Cloaking Ships One terraforming ship. PLAYER 3 ( The Bird Men ) Cloaking ships (Including a cloaking battleship) Super spy mission while cloaked PLAYER 4 ( The Fascists ) Plunder natives and colonists for money and supplies Cloaking Ships PLAYER 5 ( The Privateers ) Rob enemy ships 3X Crew kill when using beam weapons Cloaking Ships Three ships with gravitonic accelerators PLAYER 6 ( The Cyborgs ) Assimilate natives (turn natives to Cyborgs) Recover minerals and fuel form the hull of defeated enemy ships Repair self in space 10% per turn while stopped PLAYER 7 ( The Crystal People ) Web space mines that entrap enemy ships and drain fuel A Desert Terraforming ship PLAYER 8 ( The Evil Empire ) The Dark Sense ( can detect the location of enemies remotely ) Starbases build 5 free fighters per turn using minerals only. PLAYER 9 ( The Robots ) 4X Space mine laying bonus ( 4X the number of mines per torp ) Can build fighters in space PLAYER 10 ( The Rebels ) Can sabotage planets ( destroy structures and start a civil war ) Can build fighters in space PLAYER 11 ( The Colonies ) Can use fighters to mine sweep Can build fighters in space ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (11.0) NATIVE RACE ADVANTAGES Every native race has an advantage or behavior that in most cases can be used for your advantage. (11.1) HUMANOID Any starbase that is built around a humanoid planet will have tech 10 hull technology automatically. (11.2) BOVINOID Every 10000 Bovinoids will produce 1 supply unit per turn. To collect the supplies you must have 100 colonists (one clan) for every supply that you collect. (11.3) REPTILIAN If there are 100 or more Reptilians living on a planet then your mining rate will be doubled. They will gladly help your colonists mine and move large boulders. (11.4) AVIAN Are quick to forgive you for overtaxing them. They will allow you to slightly overtax them without growing unhappy. ( They are some what dumb) (11.5) AMORPHOUS The Amorphous lifeforms eat 500 colonists ( 5 clans ) per turn. They will not pay taxes and will become upset if you try to tax them. The Cyborg cannot assimilate them. (11.6) INSECTOID Insectoids produce twice the normal amount of credits per turn per percentage as other native races. (11.7) AMPHIBIAN Any starbase that is built around an amphibian planet will have tech 10 beam weapon technology automatically. (11.8) GHIPSOLDAL Any starbase that is built around a ghipsoldal planet will have tech 10 engine technology automatically. (11.9) SILICONOID Any starbase that is built around a siliconoid planet will have tech 10 torpedo technology automatically. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (12.0) NATIVE GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS AND TAXES None : no taxes may be collected Anarchy : 20% of normal may be collected Pre-Tribal : 40% Early-Tribal : 60% Tribal : 80% Feudal : 100% (same as colonists) Monarchy : 120% Representative : 140% Participatory : 160% Unity : 180% (12.1) COLLECTING TAXES FROM NATIVES To collect taxes from native races you must have 100 colonists ( one clan ) for every megacredit taken. megacredits available from natives = ( native population ) * ( tax rate % ) * ( government factor % ) * 0.001 example: planet: Kzin 8,000,000 natives 10% native taxes Humanoid / Tribal 1200 Colonists ( 8000000 ) * ( 0.10 ) * ( 0.80 ) * 0.001 = 640 megacredits If you have 64000 or more colonists ( 640 clans ) you will be able to collect the 640 megacredits from the native. Since you only have 1200 colonist on this planet you can only collect 12 megacredits. The natives will keep 628 megacredits and may still become upset with you for taxing them at a rate of 10%. (12.2) COLLECTING TAXES FROM COLONISTS megacredits available from colonist = ( colonist population ) * ( tax rate % ) * 0.001 EXAMPLE: PLANET : Kzin 7,000,000 colonists 10% native taxes ( 7000000 ) * ( .10 ) * 0.001 = 700 megacredits (12.3) TAKING OVER PLANETS WITH COLONISTS You can take over a planet by dropping off one or more clans from a starship using the starships "<C>" command. Colonists Don't always survive on the planet's surface. They may be killed off by amorphous natives or a harsh climate. Colonists need supplies to survive on planets that have an arctic or desert climate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (13.0) DEFENSE AND ATTACKS This is a list of the details of space combat. (13.1) PLANETARY DEFENSE Planetary defense systems are very weak when compared to the defense systems of even a medium sized starship. The firepower of the planet is added to the fire power of the starbase. The number of fighters that a planet can launch is the number of fighters that on the orbiting starbase plus the SQR( defense outposts ). The number of fighter bays that a planet has is the SQR( defense outposts ). If the planet has a starbase then the planet gets 5 extra fighter bays. If a fighter from a planet side based fighter is hit by enemy fire he is beamed back to the planet .001 milliseconds before the fighter explodes. He is then ready to attack the next incoming ship in a new fighter if the planet survives the attack. Fighter pilots from a starbase are unable to beam out. The tech level of the beam weapons on a planet is SQR( ( defense outposts ) * 0.5 ) or the tech level of beam weapons of the starbase ( the greater of the two ). The number of beam weapons that a planet has depends on the SQR( ( defense outposts + starbase defense ) * 0.3 ). Shield power and resistance to damage in KT/SHIELD is 100 + ( defense outposts ) + ( starbase defense ) You can compare this number to these ships: B200 CLASS PROBE 30 KT/SHIELD OUTRIDER CLASS SCOUT 75 KT/SHIELD MISSOURI CLASS BATTLESHIP 395 KT/SHIELD BIOCIDE CLASS CARRIER 860 KT/SHIELD MERLIN CLASS ALCHEMY SHIP 920 KT/SHIELD GORBIE CLASS BATTLECARRIER 980 KT/SHIELD (13.2) GROUND WAR You may attack an enemy planet by dropping off colonists. Your colonist and the enemy colonist will fight it out until there is only one group of colonists left. The kill ratio is one of your colonists will kill one of theirs. Who ever has the most colonists left after the fight owns the planet. The exception to the above rule is the Lizards. One Lizard colonist will kill 20 enemy colonists before being killed. You may take over unowned planets by beaming down one or more colonists. The following turn the planet will belong to you. (13.3) SHIP TO SHIP MATH The strength of the shields and the ship's armor is determined by the mass of the ship's hull. The mass of cargo, fuel, weapons and engines does not count toward stronger shields. The percentage of energy lost from a shield that is hit by enemy fire follows the formula: LOSS% = Tetawatts * (80 / (hull_mass + 1 )) For a list of weapon energy output stats see (14.0) All torpedoes have a 35% chance of missing their target. The percentage of damage done to a ship's hull follows The formula: DAMAGE DONE % = Tetawatts(E) * SQR [ ( 80 / (hull_mass + 1) ) ] CREW KILLED = Tetawatts(K) * [ ( 80 / (hull_mass + 1) ) ] (13.4) SHIP DAMAGE EFFECTING WEAPONS AND ENGINES A damaged starship may loose some of its firepower and shield strength. SHIELD STRENGTH = 100 - ( SHIP_DAMAGE ) MAX BEAM BANKS = 10 - ( SHIP_DAMAGE / 10 ) MAX FIGHT BAYS = 10 - ( SHIP_DAMAGE / 10 ) MAX TORP TUBES = 10 - ( SHIP_DAMAGE / 10 ) A damaged starship must slow. MAX WARP SPEED = 10 - ( SHIP_DAMAGE / 10 ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (14.0) SHIP WEAPON AND ENGINE STATS Starship torpedo and beam stats: *Gamma radiation kills enemy crew *Explosive yield damages enemy ship's hull *Energy is measured in TetraWatts TECH COST KILL EXPLOSIVE Mark 1 Photon: 1 1 4 5 Proton torp: 2 2 6 8 Mark 2 Photon: 3 4 3 10 Gamma Bomb: 3 10 15 2 Mark 3 Photon: 4 12 9 15 Mark 4 Photon: 5 13 13 30 Mark 5 Photon: 6 31 17 35 Mark 6 Photon: 7 35 23 40 Mark 7 Photon: 8 36 25 48 Mark 8 Photon: 10 54 35 55 Laser: 1 1 10 3 X-Ray Laser: 1 2 15 1 Plasma Bolt: 2 5 3 10 Blaster: 3 10 10 25 Positron Beam: 4 12 9 29 Disruptor: 5 13 30 20 Heavy Blaster: 6 31 20 40 Phaser: 7 35 30 35 Heavy Disruptor: 8 36 50 35 Heavy Phaser: 10 54 35 45 Engine specs TECH COST MAX SAFE WARP StarDrive 1: 1 1 1 StarDrive 2: 2 2 2 StarDrive 3: 3 3 3 SuperStarDrive 4: 4 10 4 Nova Drive 5: 5 25 5 HeavyNova Drive 6: 6 53 6 Quantam Drive 7: 7 170 7 Hyper Drive 8: 9 200 8 Transwarp Drive: 10 300 9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (15.0) MOUSE DRIVER SCALING FACTORS Some users may find it hard to control the movement of the mouse. There are many different types of mouse devices all of which have different levels of sensitivity. There are two kinds of scaling factors built into most mouse drivers. One is sensitivity (or speed) and the ballistic gain. Sensitivity is measured from 1 to 100 (100 being the fastest) Mouse sensitivity switches /S sets both horizontal and vertical sensitivity /H sets the horizontal sensitivity /V sets the vertical sensitivity For example: /S50 is an average speed mouse Ballistic gain profiles number from 1 to 4 /M1 select ballistic profile 1 (slow acceleration) /M2 select ballistic profile 2 (moderate) /M3 select ballistic profile 3 (fast) /M4 select ballistic profile 4 (no acceleration) Most users like the setting when playing planets: MOUSE /S30 /M1 You can set your mouse sensitivity by editing it in your CONFIG.SYS file. For example: DEVICE=C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.SYS /S50/M1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (16.0) HCONFIG.EXE The host utility program HCONFIG.EXE allows the host to change the set up of the game. The HCONFIG.EXE will except a path to game data directory in the same way as HOST.EXE does. For Example: HCONFIG GAME1 This will configure the game in game data directory GAME1. When host is ran it will look for the host configure file HCONFIG.HST and process the game data as you configured it. The HCONFIG.EXE program configures the HOST.EXE in four different areas. (16.1) CONFIGURE STARSHIP RECYCLE RATE This is the percentage of the minerals that are recovered from a starship that colonizes a planet. The minerals that were used to build the hull and weapon systems are transformed back into minerals and laid out on the planet's surface. Money spent to build the ship cannot be recovered. Fighters are recycled. FOR EXAMPLE: You have a very old battleship with tech 3 engines and laser beams and mark 1 torpedoes. You feel this ship is outdated so you set the mission to "Colonize". The Host program will unload all the fuel and cargo from the ship and then convert a percentage of the minerals that were used to build the ship back into minerals. The torpedoes, their launchers, the laser beams, the engines and the battleship hull are all converted back to a percentage of the original minerals. (16.2) CONFIGURE METEOR IMPACT ODDS The odds of a very large meteor crashing into one of the 500 planets. This is meant to be a way for the game host to inject new minerals into the game, if they feel there is massive shortage of minerals or if they want to make the game a little more interesting. The odds run from 0% to 100% that ONE large meteor will strike a planet. When a meteor strikes a planet, massive amounts of new minerals and fuel ore will be buried deep into the planet's core. That planet will then become mineral rich world and a very good place to build mineral mines. Many bad things happen to a planet that is hit by a meteor. A great number of the population will be killed. Many mines, factories, and defense outposts will be destroyed and the planet may be plunged into a civil war. Your starbase and all ships in orbit will be safe from the effects of the meteor. When a meteor hits the resulting explosion is so large that all the races will know what planet and the amount of minerals that were in the meteor (everyone will receive a message). This could trigger a "mineral rush" to get to that planet first and setup a colony there first. The impacted planet should have enough minerals buried in it to build a starbase and many new ships. That makes the planet a real prize. (16.3) CONFIGURE MINE FIELDS You may have mine fields or choose not to have them. A mine field is a small area of space that is peppered with warheads that track and launch themselves at passing enemy ships that are unlucky enough to trigger one of them. Mine fields are formed when a starship with torpedoes chooses the mission "Lay Mines." All the ships torpedoes are taken apart by the ships chief engineer and reprogramed to serve as deep space mines. High tech torpedoes are divided into several smaller units that can cover a greater area of space. The number of mine field units = number of mines * ( tech level )^2 The radius of a mine field = SQR( number of mine field units ) Example: (100 tech 6 mines would yield 3600 mine units) (the mine field would have a radius of 60 light years) (the mine field would be 120 light years across) An enemy ship has a 1% chance of hitting a mine for every light year traveled. It is very likely that a ship that travels through the above example mine field (all 120 light years of it) will hit a mine, but there is still a slim chance that the ship won't. The amount of damage done to a ship depends on the mass of The Ship's hull. Cargo and fuel masses will not help to save the ship. Damage% = 10000 / ( the hull mass ) A ship with a hull mass under 100 KT will be destroyed by a single mine. Most battle ships are over 500 KT so they can take 5 or more mine hits before being destroyed. A ship that is under tow (being towed) cannot be hit by a mine. Web mines are much smaller then normal mines, but are much more difficult to travel through. There is a 5% chance of hitting a web mine for every light year that you travel through. A web mine does 10% of the damage of a normal mine, but causes your ship to become stuck in the web and your ship will be forced to stop moving after hitting the mine. Next turn you may set a new waypoint and warp out of the web mine field and hope you Don't hit another web mine. Web Mines Damage% = 1000 / ( the hull mass ) Starships with beam weapons that are inside one or more enemy mine fields can destroy the mines using the "Mine Sweep" mission. The ship will fire its beam weapons at random and at a wide setting to blanket an area of space with energy that will knock out the mine field. The mine field will shrink in size as the outer mine units move inward so that the same level of protection is constant throughout the mine field. The number of mine field units that are destroyed per turn by a ship doing a mine sweep depends on the number of beams weapons and their tech level. number of units destroyed = ( number of beam banks ) * ( beam tech )^2 Examples: A Battleship with 10 heavy phasers ( tech 10 ) can destroy 1000 mine field units per turn A Scout with 2 X-Ray Lasers ( tech 2 ) can destroy 8 mine field units per turn One mine field unit is destroyed per turn through natural causes. (16.4) CONFIGURE ALCHEMY SHIPS You may allow alchemy ships to perform their alchemy function or you may disable the function and the ships will behave as standard freighters. There are two classes of alchemy ships, the Neutronic Refinery Ship and the Merlin Class Alchemy Ship. The NEUTRONIC REFINERY SHIP can convert minerals plus supplies to neutronic fuel (neutronium). Here are three alchemy reactions that a refinery ship can use: 1 * ( duranium ) + 1 * ( supply unit ) ---> 1 * ( neutronium ) 1 * ( molybdenum ) + 1 * ( supply unit ) ---> 1 * ( neutronium ) 1 * ( tritanium ) + 1 * ( supply unit ) ---> 1 * ( neutronium ) The neutronic refinery ship will automatically preform the refinery function if all three of the following conditions are met. The ship will continue to refine fuel until one or more of the conditions are no longer met. (A) There is at least one KT of duranium or molybdenum or tritanium on board the ship. (B) There is at least one KT of supplies on board the ship. (C) There is at least room for one KT of fuel in the fuel tank. The neutronic refinery ship is a tech 9 ship with 10 engines and 1050 KT of cargo room. The fuel tank will hold 800 KT of fuel. The hull is very massive, 712 KT. The ship is armed with 6 beam weapons. The ship can produce up to 525 KT of fuel per turn. The ship hull costs 970 megacredits to build. To refine fuel, first unload fuel or transfer fuel to other ships. Load the ship with half supplies and half minerals (any type or mix of). Now you just wait till next turn and the fuel will be produced and stored in the refinery ship's fuel tank. ----------- The MERLIN CLASS ALCHEMY SHIP can convert supply units into minerals. Here is the chemical reaction: 9 * ( supply unit )----+---> 1 * ( duranium ) +---> 1 * ( tritanium ) +---> 1 * ( molybdenum ) 9 KT units of supplies yield 1 KT of duranium and 1 KT tritanium and 1 KT molybdenum. The ship will continue to convert the supplies to minerals as long as the following condition is met: (A) There is at least 9 KT of supplies on board. The Merlin Class Alchemy Ship is a tech 10 ship with 10 engines and 2700 KT of cargo room. The fuel tank can hold 450 KT of fuel. The Ship's hull has a mass of 920 KT, which makes it one of the largest ships in any fleet. The ship is armed with 8 beam weapons and costs 840 megacredits to build. The ship can produce a maximum of 900 KT of minerals per turn ( 300 KT duranium, 300 KT tritanium and 300 KT molybdenum ). To transform minerals, just load the ship with supplies and wait till next turn. The supplies will be turned into minerals automatically. ( SEE HOST314.DOC for more info on HCONFIG.EXE and HOST.EXE ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (17.0) ERROR MESSAGES HOST ERROR MESSAGES ----- Fatal Program Error or Hard Drive IO Error (bad clusters)" Host program stopped before completion. BASIC Error number : ?? Very bad hardware / software related errors. RUN CHKDSK / F(MS - DOS) OR CHKDSK / M(DR - DOS) just to make sure your hard drive is well. Then report the error to the author as a major bug. Player #? TRN file is stale! A player has used data from a past turn to produce his current turn file. This player may have messed an earlier turn and then forgot to download a new result file. ----- ERROR: ALL 500 SHIP SLOTS ARE FULL!!! 500 ships are the limit. I have never heard of this happening, but you never know. No new ships may be built until some ships in that game are destroyed or scraped. ----- Disk read/write error The host is reading data from the disk that it does not understand. ----- ERROR: Player ? Tried to build a ship without an engine Player #? .TRN is trying to cheat! ERROR: The file has been corrupted! Race Message ERROR ? message #? ERROR: Bad file size! ERROR : Data transmission error (or HACKER WARNING!) ERROR : File has been garbled . . . will try to fix. . . ERROR IMPOSSIBLE ENG SPECS ERROR! Impossible Hull specs! Player #? Warning: ??? has bad warp speed data. Errors caused by the strange data in the incoming TRN files. There is no easy fix for these. ----- WARNING: Towing ship and tow target have different (X,Y) A ship that is being towed may be trying to tow a third ship. This is not really a problem. The player is trying to do the impossible. ----- WARNING: Host Ship data file Corrupted! Fixing... Host Ship data files Corrupted! FATAL ERROR! Something strange has happened to the host's HST data files. ----- ERROR: Data fragments from old game files are in conflict There is data from another game in this game's directory or the host data files have been edited. ----- Player #? registration error This player has given away their registered copy of planets to another player or has a stolen copy of the registered version. They will be attacked by the Tim Continuum . . . ----- ERROR: Player #? is CHEATING! ( money from nowhere has appeared ) ERROR: Player #? is CHEATING! ( minerals from nowhere ) ERROR: Player #? is CHEATING! ( impossible tech upgrade on starbase ) ERROR: Player #? is CHEATING! ( impossible tech upgrade on starship ) The host is 99.9% sure that this player has cheated in the above manner. Host will destroy the offending planet or starship. All other players will be warned of the cheater in a message from the Tim Continuum. The person cheating will not be told that he has been found out. ----- PLANETS ERROR MESSAGES ERROR: Data file XYPLAN.DAT has been tampered with Program terminated to avoid a security breach ERROR: Main data files have been tampered with. Program terminated to avoid a security breach. DATA files may be missing, edited or there are bad clusters on your hard drive. ----- Switching PLANETS.EXE programs in the middle of a turn is not allowed. Switch to a new PLANETS.EXE program just after you run UNPACK.EXE or before you run UNPACK.EXE This is to prevent errors and cheating ----- ERROR! : UNRECOVERABLE DATA ERROR The player data files unreadable by the program. This may be caused by hacking, bad clusters on the hard drive. The problem may also be caused by the computer being cut off or rebooted while the program is writing to the hard drive. ----- MAKETURN ERROR MESSAGES ----- ERROR: Data hallucination! DATA from another game is in this game directory. Run SWEEP.BAT to fix. ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ VGA Planets Dictionary Capital Ships Any ship that has weapons (torpedoes, beams, fighters). Waypoint The location in space that a starship is going to travel to. .RST files The "Result Files" are the files compiled by the HOST.EXE program on the BBS the files are labeled PLAYERx.RST ( x = 1 to 11 ). These files are DOWNLOADED by players (one each) and converted to data files by the UNPACK program. The data files are used by the PLANETS.EXE program. .TRN files The "Turn Files" are the files that are compiled by the MAKETURN.EXE program by the players on their home computers. The MAKETURN.EXE program scans the data and looks for any new commands that were ordered by the player when the player was running PLANETS.EXE. MAKETURN.EXE compiles a file that is a list of new commands. These files are labeled PLAYERx.TRN. These files are uploaded to the host BBS. Host The computer/person/BBS that is running the HOST.EXE program. Where the RST and TRN files are uploaded to and from. Player One of eleven people that are playing the game. They upload one TRN file each to the Host before the HOST.EXE runs and download one RST file from the Host after the HOST.EXE runs. The players run UNPACK.EXE, PLANETS.EXE and MAKETURN.EXE. Warp Factor The speed of a starship. The distance traveled per turn increases as a square of the warp factor. The number of light years traveled per turn is (Warp Factor)^2. Supplies Common hardware and goods produced by factories. One supply unit is produced per factory per turn. Colonists use the supplies to build mines, factories and defense outposts. Supplies can be sold and carried on starships to other planets. Colonists on overpopulated planets consume supplies to survive. Fighters Very small craft that take up one cargo space on starships. A starship must have fighter bays to carry fighters. Megacredits Money. Megacredits may be moved from planet to planet on starships. Every ship can carry up to 10,000 Megacredits ( MC ). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +--------------------------------------+ | Strategy Hints for VGA Planets 3.0 | +--------------------------------------+ Things to remember . . . Don't WASTE your fuel! (HINT: Don't fly around at warp 9 with low tech engines, that is VERY stupid) Have your freighters bring fuel home. High technology engines are very important. Your planets will quickly run out of minerals. There is only a limited amount of minerals in to core of each planet. It is very important for you to search for new planets with minerals and bring the minerals back home to your starbase. Mines only remove minerals from the ground, they DO NOT produce minerals out of thin air, they will stop giving you minerals when the planet runs out of minerals. When a planet runs out of minerals all the mines on the surface become useless junk that cannot be recycled. Mines are a permanent scars on the planets surface and will add slightly to the planet population's discontent. Molybdenum is the rarest mineral of all. Be careful not to run out of any one mineral or you won't be able to build any new ships. Don't leave your friendly code set to "AAA" or else enemy ships will very easily steal fuel and minerals from your planets and enemy starbases my force you to surrender. Think of the friendly codes as the planets or ships "password" that allows access to the starship transporters and planetary defense shields. Also two ships or a ship and a planet of different races will not attack each other if they have matching friendly codes. Change the friendly code on the starships that are defending your planets. If you don't enemy ships can set their friendly codes to "AAA" and fly right past the ships that are guarding your planet and attack your planet. It is very dangerous to be next to an enemy STARBASE if they know your friendly code. This gives the power to the starbase to drop your shields and beam your whole crew off in a matter of seconds and force your ship to surrender. Do as much exploring as possible. Small freighters are great scout ships and they are dirt cheap. Send them out to parts of space where nobody will bother you. Attack enemy freighters with small warships (capital ships). This will really cause great pain to your enemies. Be aware of your special race advantages and use them. Be aware of your enemies special race advantages.