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Monster Media 1994 #2
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README.DOC
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1994-06-15
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. . . :
. * + '. . +
. BAT SOFTWARE PRODUCTIONS , . .
. . + PROUDLY PRESENTS . . .. .
.
. ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓░.▓▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓░.
. ▓▓░.▓▓░ ▓▓▓░▓▓░.▓▓░ ▓▓░ .▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ . ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ . .
▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░▓▓░. ▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓░ .
. ▓▓░ ▓▓░.▓▓░▓▓▓░ ▓▓░. ▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓░ . ▓▓░▓▓░ . ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░
▓▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░.▓▓▓▓▓░
. + . . . .
▓▓░+ . ▓▓░ . ▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓░ + Version v1.00 for .
▓▓░. ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ . ▓▓░ ▓▓▓░ Amiga based.systems .
. ▓▓░ ▓▓░.▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓░ . .
▓▓░▓▓▓▓░▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓▓░ . ▓▓▓░ Created & coded by
. + ▓▓▓░.▓▓▓░ . ▓▓░ . ▓▓░ ▓▓░ ▓▓▓░ ▓▓▓▓▓▓░ . .Paulo Laureano ..
. . . . . . .
The ultimate multi-player on-line space wars strategy game is here!!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-> 2 to 15 players can battle for the universe! Up to 9 simultaneous games!
-> Universe size from 15x15 (225 different sectors for a 2 players) up to
90x90 (8100 different sectors for a 15 players game)!
-> Number of planets from 20 (2 players) up to 120 (15 players game) adjusted
to the number of players involved in the game!
-> On-line map display.
Partial map shows the map auto-centered on your current fleet or planet.
Global map shows the entire galaxy in shining ansi colour (including
both your and enemy fleets and planets)!
-> Large variety of ships, planets & possible missions. You can defend,
invade, scout, blockade & bombard planets. You can patrol any sector in
space for enemy fleets. The possibilities are endless! No two games are
remotely similar (planet locations are randomly generated as well as
production levels of each planet)!
-> Adjust tax rate levees on any planet or set global taxes for the empire.
-> Issue building orders for your planets & build planet defenses or ships
for fleets!
-> Advanced "database-like interface" lets you manage your empire with ease.
Includes "jump" functions (watch a fleet or planet at a certain location)
and highly optimized ANSI fleet/planet browsing interface.
-> Intelligent game management makes it possible to have all moves executed
simultaneously (makes no difference who plays first, so you don't have to
call at a certain hours to get an edge over other players, unlike other
on-line games that you're doomed to loose if you don't call the bbs at a
certain time, usually late at night).
-> You may change your moves as many times as you wish everyday or play just
once a week. Clever game design reduces the advantage of fanatical players
over the less regular caller and keeps the game exciting for all
nevertheless! You won't loose a game because you don't have time to
call/play every day!
-> Built-in players manual in the door for capture/reading without having to
look elsewhere in the bbs!
-> Very fast 16 colours ANSI based user interface! ESTERIAN CONQUEST fun
with a GLOBAL WAR look-a-like interface!
SysOp features!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-> Free of charge for xenolink sysops! No shareware fees! XenoFreeWare!
-> Shareware version for sysops using other software (please understand
that I don't run other software and if there is no incentive to make
a clidoor version I will simply stop doing it).
-> Built-in auto-pilot that takes over the empire of inactive players! If
those users that "join the game but never play" exist in your board the
gameplay will not be damaged for interested players! This allows smaller
systems, with "not all that regular" users, to have interesting games!
-> Self maintenance: Install the door and it will manage its files, delete
damage data, auto-process events (with no need for cron programs or
external utilities to be run at certain times) at different times for each
game.
-> Unlimited number of games if you install it several times (watch disk
space for each group of 9 games and read the manual chapter on multiple
installations).
-> Games that don't gather players to start are auto initialized (31 days).
-> Games that are not played are auto initialized (31 days).
-> Finished games are auto initialized after 31 days of exposure.
-> You can delete a game at any time (read sysop manual).
-> The door was developed using SAS/C & enforcer, it registers no enforcer
hits and seems quite stable with Xenolink. Bugs, if one is found, will
be fixed as soon as possible (I'll even send a updated version to the
first people that report each bug at my own expense).
-> The door is still being improved and you can expect new features every
month to keep your users interested/happy. Unlike many doors out there
this door was written for Xenolink from scratch and the number of
improvements possible is limited only by our imagination and the
netmails/messages I receive.
The registered CliDoor version will be, as much as possible, updated to
the latest specs of the xenolink specific version. The evaluation copy on
the other hand will have only major bugs fixed.
Disclaimer
-=-=-=-=-=
First of all the disclaimer. I take no (zero, niente, nada) responsibility
for what this door can do to your system. If anything gets lost, destroyed,
goes crazy, escapes to hawaii with your wife/husband, hits your dog, it's
up to you to insure payment of any damage caused by this door (material or
otherwise). You, the sysop, user, whatever, take full responsibility for
using this software.
As far as I can tell it registers no enforcer hits or does anything that
appears remotely dangerous, BUT as I've said previously it's your problem.
Your risk. I made an option to lead a very dull life and can do quite well
without the emotions of a court room.
If you are not willing to accept all responsibility and risks; delete the
software, don't use it, don't pay for it.
FILENAMES AND CONTENTS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
CUWARS - CLIDOOR version of UNIVERSAL WARS.
This works on well on C-Net. Should also work on DLG, Excelsior
and every other bbs package capable of running generic CliDoors.
It also works well on Xenolink (CliDoor mode), but since there is
a xenolink specific version (that takes advantage of Xenolink)
there is no point in running the generic version.
XUWARS - Xenolink version of UNIVERSAL WARS, for use only with Xenolink.
NOTE: Some software authors (and users) claim that their software
package run xenolink doors. This is *impossible* unless someone is
stealing Jonathan Forbes' Xenolink code, which I doubt. If you do
not have xenolink try the clidoor version; don't bother with this
one.
CliSysop.DOC - Manual for sysops running other software (not xenolink).
XenSysop.DOC - Xenolink sysops manual.
ReadMe.DOC - This file, containing generic info about the game, the logo,
version history, etc.
Players.DOC - Manual for players. Place this for download or at a bulletin.
Update.DOC - Contains some notes on upgrading from previous versions. You
also have this information in the sysops manuals.
How to install
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
SEE: CliSysop.DOC - Manual for sysops running other software (not xenolink).
OR
XenSysop.DOC - Xenolink sysops manual.
MAINTENANCE
-=-=-=-=-=-
None hopefully. All game datafiles have the same size, if one gets
corrupted just delete it. The game runs the events when users enter it, no
cron programs are necessary.
Turns are made daily, games that are not played for 31 days are deleted,
once victory is achieved in one game it will be available after 31 days.
DELETING ONE/ALL GAMES
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
To delete a game simply delete the Game#.dat (where # is the number of the
game to be deleted).
To delete all games simply all Game#.dat (where # is the number of the
each game) files.
IF A FILE GETS DAMAGED
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
All game#.dat have exactly the same size. If a file has a different size
simply delete it since it is damaged/corrupted (the door will do that for
you when a user atempts to enter that particular game).
How can I report bugs & problems
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
By netmail to 2:362/4 (Paulo Laureano in Portugal/Europe) or 1:228/75
(Jim Foley in the U.S.A.) whichever turns out to be cheaper for you, if
you are a registered user you can also use the support echo (if you have
a bbs near you with the echo you may use it without being registered).
VERSION HISTORY (AMIGA VERSIONS)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
16-07-94
v1.00 - Due to lack of time I decided to drop many of the original plans
for version 1.0 of the game. Also I plan to port this version "as it
is" to ms-dos based bbs systems so new features are not likely to
appear for a while (depending how long it takes to actually port it
and to write the I/O for the pc door and interfaces to the major
bbs packages). Many new features were introduced in 1.00 so it
is possible that some bugfix versions will appear if bugs are found.
- Manuals from version 0.07 had some spell checking done by Tom Moore,
also the main menu had "below" with two "L"'s... English is not my
first language so if you spot mistakes please tell me! Since the
manuals were also upgraded new spelling errors were probably
introduced for version 1.00 (newer stuff) manuals.
- New feature: Partial maps can now optionally be full screen or as
before showned in the small window.
- New feature: Global maps can now be filtered to only display pages
with planets and/or fleets (empty pages are not showned with this
option). This is a must for biiiig maps in 10/15 player games that
may have several "empty" pages. The old mode also remains available.
- New feature: On the fleet management menu you can now merge all
fleets in the current sector (shortcut for multiple use of the
"merge" option; without prompts, etc).
- Improved planets display to report how many of your fleets are in
the sector orbiting the planet (listed as planet defenses).
- Improved fleets display to report if there are other fleets are in
the sector, and if so to give their ID's (new field on the fleets
display: O.F.I.S., which stands for "other fleets in sector") for
easy cross reference via "i" option (which by the way had a bug,
see next line).
- Bug fix: finding fleets by ID was not working at all, it is now.
- Bug fix: If you sent several fleets to invade (bombard or scout) a
enemy planet, with diferent E.T.A.'s, if one of the fleets happened
to achive its mission (i.e. invade the planet) the others (arriving
later) would still invade (scout or bombard) your own planet, which
was a pretty stupid thing to do. Fixed! Now missions of fleets that
arrive after the invasion are set to "patrol the sector" of the
planet they were previously set to invade (bombard or scout).
- New feature: On the fleets menu you can now "spread" one fleet
forces into many fleets of similar strength (user definable).
- New feature: Real time (faaast... no delay at all!) sorting of
fleets by LOCATION (the default), DESTINATION or MISSION. This allows
much easier maintenance of all fleets in your empire since you can
change with a keypress the way fleets are ordered for browsing!
- Improved ANSI display when browsing fleets or planets, it is now over
150% faster.
- Improved ANSI display on GLOBAL map views (filtered or otherwise), it
is now over 2000% (20 times) faster.
- Improved Warlords decision making (both on fleet creation & in
ordering invasions). Absent players will now be more dangerous.
- Added progress report "animation" (close...) on maintenance events
- Reduced unregistered version delay to 6 seconds and added some text
that changes every two seconds to keep users entertained.
- Fixed data size allowed for the user name to make data files
from the clidoor version compatible with the xenolink version.
- Created code to handle key file for the generic clidoor version. If
the registered version has a valid keyfile in the game directory it
will work, otherwise it wont. Note to pirate crackers: don't bother
atempting to "register" evaluation versions, part of the code is not
there so this will make it easier to write a complete door than to
crack this one. Registered users receive both a new executable AND
the key file. Their version displays the owners and/or bbs name.
v0.09 up to v0.91 were never publicly released...
16-04-94
v0.08 - Released only to Xenolink sysops and registered Clidoor sysops
(there are no registered Clidoor sysops so this version was not
compiled for those systems).
- Bug fix: When building orders consisted of only CRUISERS the "abort
building orders" option did not work. Now fixed...
- Improved game selection menu to feature more information on each
game. It now features "completed games" and "games that player can
actually play" bars. The old menu was too confusing for people that
were involved in multiple games (considering how much time it
actually takes to play a single game I had overlooked the
possibility of players being active in many games), it is much
better and clear now.
- Changed code that was used on "Detach ships"; it now checks if
mission would be possible for both fleets, if not it replaces the
mission by one as similar as possible (on the fleet that could not
perform it). Examples: when detaching ships from a fleet ordered to
"bombard & invade a planet" if one of the ships has no transports
it would have its mission settings changed to "bombard a planet" (if
it had ships capable of doing that) or "patrol a sector" (the same
sector of the target planet).
The same code also handles situations with scout ships missing,
etc. I think everything was covered by the new code, contact me
if you find otherwise...
- New feature: Each planet now has a GOVERNOR that handle TAXES if
the player does not play regularly (more than 3 days betwen calls).
The governor of each planet reports directly to the player concerning
its actions. Governors have diferent actions depending on whatever
planet their are managing (you can find greedy governors, generous
ones, etc).
- New feature: WARLORDS. Warlords make limited military decisions
concerning defense of planets, building of ships and even attacks on
nearby planets. Defensive decisions are only made if the player does
not connect to the game for over three days and are minimal (building
one defensive army to a planet every 24 hours until the warlord itself
considers the planet secure). Building fleets and ofensive moves are
only made if the player does not play for over 10 days.
This virtually allows players to have their vacations and not being
obliterated from the game. Warlords have diferent actions concerning
diferent planets (as a rule they are more protective of planets with
higher potencial productions), they develop their own atack
strategies, etc.
Your warlords will not win any game by themselfs, they may however
compensate for those days you have been away, or did not notice that
the game had started...
Warlords as well as governors will certainly be a pain in the butt
for loads of active players, since they will make the game almost
"play by itself" if other users are not active. This feature alone
makes this door "a whole new ball game". 15 player games even if
half the players "don't actually play" (they have given up or forgot
they ever entered the door) are tremendous fun. This applies to all
games, but the more players are involved the more this feature shows
itself.
26-03-94
v0.07 - All manuals were updated to reflect the changes in this version
and to correct mistakes. You should overwrite old manuals on each
upgrade. As a rule they get upgraded along with the software.
- Fixed a display bug; when entering some values (building orders,
number of ships to transfer, etc) delete would not position the
cursor properly and left a "1 space offset" which was sort of
"weird behaviour" for a cursor.
- Global map displays can now be "stoped" on any page; typing "q"
or "n" aborts the map display. Players no longer need to view all
pages of the global map (this was a must for biiiig maps).
- Delay on unregistered Clidoor version reduced from 30 to 20
seconds... 30 seconds was way to much on a door program.
- Improved log file browsing, now it asks the users if he wants to
proceed and allows non-stop mode.
- On-line players manual is now available, this solves lots of
problems for sysops; having to update bulletins (or file for
downloading), converting the text format to CR+LF terminated lines
in order for PC (non-windows) users to read them, making the users
find the files, etc.
This will only work if the manual is present at the game directory,
sysops using multiple instalations should have the players.doc file
on all directories.
- Xenolink sysops have a bonus; the door now detects the user page
length on the bbs and uses it on both manual and log reading.
CliDoor users have a fixed page length of 23 lines.
- Fixed bug that would allow on mission selection starbases to
bombard planets (they would not actually do it but the option would
appear on mission selection).
- Planet pruduction levels now change at diferent rates depending on
the number of players. 2 player games have "faster" planet production
variations, 15 player games are the slowest. This is necessary since
the entire game speed is faster/slower depending on the number of
players.
18-03-94
v0.06 - Players manual was updated to reflect changes in this release AND
some corrections. You should to place the newest version for download
or at a bulletin, otherwise it can get confusing for current players!
- Some code cleanup (to make the code more portable; pc version raises
some problems that needed to be solved...)
- Scout and transport ships can now be ordered to patrol sectors (this
was a major flaw in game design, it looked and felt like so much like
a bug I decided that it "was" one... now fixed/changed)
- When ordering a fleet to patrol a sector coordenates are now entered
as "x,y" like when setting other missions using coordenates. It's
faster and much more pleasing this way. Another game design flaw that
is trashed, in this particular case it was a interface thing only.
- When merging two fleets IF there are only two fleets on the sector
the computer auto-locates both fleets. If there are more than two
fleets the player is prompted for the fleet id of the other (not on
display) fleet.
- When transfering ships among two fleets IF there are only two fleets
on the sector the computer auto-locates both fleets. If there are
more than two fleets the player is prompted for the fleet id of the
other (not on display) fleet.
- Added UWARS.CFG to handle software that does not pass the complete
door path to the door. This is only used if a valid path is not
provided (see section on the manual concerning the instalation).
This is required for XenolinDoors starting with version 1.90 or
higher. Be sure to read the XenSysOp.DOC manual!!!!!!!! This is the
first version that is ready to handle newer versions of Xenolink IF
properly installed: check if it creates the data files on the right
directory instead of "Xusers:your_name/"!!!!
- Provided the "version" (cli command) support string, you can now
"version door_executable_name" and get the version number.
07-03-94
v0.05 - CLIdoor version for non-xenolink systems completed!
- Starting with this release the archive contains both the Xenolink
version (fully operational since its XenoFreeWare) and the generic
cli door version (unregistered evaluation version since its
shareware). Sorry folks that run other software but I run xenolink
and your version is a pain in the ass to maintain and gives me no
fun at all, so the shareware fee must compensate the extra work.
- The doc files were renamed (XenSysOp.DOC, for xenolink sysops, and
CliSysOp.DOC, for sysops running other software).
- Bug fix: log files of completed games are now erased!
05-03-94
v0.04 - Changed text "Merge this two fleets", now reads "Merge these two
fleets".
- When browsing planets option "i" (jump to a certain planet) now
allows using either the planet ID or its coordenates (instead of
just the ID).
- When browsing fleets option "i" (jump to a certain fleet) now
allows using either the fleet ID or its coordenates (instead of
just the ID). If coordenates are used the fleet with lowest ID, at
those coordenates, is displayed (unlike planets, there may be many
fleets at a certain sector).
- User names are now pseudo-capitalised by ulibNiceName() just in
case some stupid door/utility messed with them while the user was
on-line (i.e. "jOaO CArVaLHo" becomes "Joao Carvalho"). If you were
running a previous version you must probably correct some names in
uw.dat using a binary editor, otherwise some users may be locked
out of the game. BE CAREFULL! keep a backup of uw.dat just in case!
If you don't have a clue about what I'm talking about just forget
it, do nothing...
- Severely optimized ansi display during transfer ships operations
among fleets (this shows with commands "Detach ships" & "transfer
ships").
- Optimized code size on some functions (map related ones).
- Improved reports and gave them some colour.
- After drawing fleets on the map (both global and partial) the
cursor no longer remains besides the last drawn fleet, it moves to
22,80 as it does in other parts of the game...
- Improved "fleet to fleet" battles realism (when odds are slim a
weaker fleet inflicts less damage, if any, to stronger fleets than
when the two fleets have similar sizes/forces).
- Executable size reduced around 24k!
28-02-94
v0.03 - Improved "patrol a sector" mission descriptions.
- Manuals grew up...
- Fixed screen display bug when detaching ships from a fleet (this bug
was introduced in v0.02)...
- Fixed bug on fleet browsing display that would delete the "D" out
of "destination" when printing the E.T.A. (this bug was introduced
in v0.02)...
- Fixed the infamous spelling error "buid" instead of "build" bug that
I thought had been fixed on v0.02 (multiple errors on multiple strings,
I had fixed the first one and was careless not to check the others).
- Fixed a bug that would allow "planets" to appear misteriously on the
game map (they had no ID, did not belong in the game, but appeared
nevertheless...).
- Fixed random numbers generation bug, the rnd routine had no seed so
it allways generated the same numbers... noticed this as soon as I saw
two games in diferent boards with exactly the same map... kind of an
incredible coincidende if it was not a bug... it was a bug...
- "+"/"-" were still the options in the starting game procedure, they
were replaced by "<" and ">" (or "," and ".") as within the browsing
planets/fleets menus. See v0.02 changes release notes for the reasons.
- When defining missions you can now select planets by their coords or
by their ID, instead of just their ID...
26-02-94
v0.02 - Manual grew up, some manual "bugs" fixed from v0.01 release. It is
still quite incomplete at this stage...
- Major optimization of both fleets and planets browsing (ansi thing),
hopefully it works and its 600% faster (users with slower modems will
love this...)
- Optimized some displays on some operations (build, abort builds, etc)
- Spelling error fixed ("buid" instead of "build")
- Fixed bug when showing partial map, it would redraw the entire screen
on exit instead of the portion that needed update.
- Changed "+"/"-" combination, because three consecutive "+" would
cause most modems to go into command mode...
24-02-94
v0.01 - First release
PERSONAL THANKS GO TO
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My family for the patience they have with this hobby of mine (writting code
that not only does not make money but in fact costs money in calls & time)
Michael Santos for all testing, suggestions, comments, running the game at
his board, all the phone calls, etc.
Alexandra Salgueiral & Joao Carvalho for the beta testing.
Daniel Frost for the hundreds of atempts to install the game on Xenolink
1.90... sigh... things have changed from the version of xenolink I have at
this point in time (17-3-94) so it's not that easy to make things work with
the new xenolink. Hopefully this ends as soon as I make my upgrade.
Jim Foley for hosting the first Universal Wars 6 player game of all time at
his board and for being my only help on the sales department! Also done the
spell checking on version 1.00!
Tom Moore for the v0.07 manuals spell checking!
Jose Peixoto, for wanting this door converted to C-net (he runs a C-net
based board)... Here's the "next best thing" to a C-net version which is
a generic clidoor version...
WASP, IRON MAIDEN, MOTLEY CRUE, RATT, VINCE NEIL, AEROSMITH AND UGLY KID
JOE for the music I've heard while coding the game!
Jonathan Forbes for the wonderfull Xenolink!
COMMENTS TO UNIVERSAL WARS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Looks like a really -=*>GREAT<*=- game so far"
- Jim Foley (Xenolink SysOp)
"BTW, game looks very well done... Good ansi too!"
- Glenn Thomson (Xenolink SysOp)
"btw UWars is great! Keep up the good work!"
- Scott Le Brun (Xenolink SysOp)
THE FIRST FILE REQUEST OF THE GAME
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
* 05-Mar-94 20:40 | Answering modem
* 05-Mar-94 20:41 | CONNECT 14400
X 05-Mar-94 20:41 | EMSI - 2:251/41.0 39:134/14.0 76:80/0.0 76:80/10.0
| 05-Mar-94 20:41 | BBS: Mostly Harmless - For all your AMIGA Needs!
| 05-Mar-94 20:41 | Sysop: Lee Sanders
| 05-Mar-94 20:41 | Location: Havant,Hampshire,UK
| 05-Mar-94 20:41 | Telephone: with V32terbo!
| 05-Mar-94 20:41 | Software: Xenolink 1.0 Z.3a
| 05-Mar-94 20:41 | Capabilities: ZAP,ZMO,ARC,XMA,FNC
| 05-Mar-94 20:41 | Zmodem Receive: 00000000.REQ (26 bytes) - 18 CPS
| 05-Mar-94 20:42 | Zmodem Send: UWARS002.lha (59177 bytes) - 1007 CPS
| 05-Mar-94 20:42 | Session completed