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Multi-Trek Introduction Multi-Trek is a real time, multi user game in which up to eight people can play against each other. Each player commands his own ship and may direct his ship and utilize his ships wea- pons to score points by damaging alien ships. The universe is a 100 by 100 array of positions and every object in the universe has an integer position. The universe has wrap-around, so a ship leaving the top of the universe will enter the bottom. The universe is a large and wounderful place. It is big enough that a starship can travel for many minutes without en- gaging in battle with, or even seeing, another ship. Hyperspace ports exist at fixed locations in the universe, and are a fast and cheap way to travel. When a ship docks at a hyperspace port, the letter "H", his ship emerges at one of the other five hyper ports, depending on his "hyper set" number. 1.0 Starship chararistics Each player in the game has his own terminal which is the control center of his starship. The screen becomes a real time display showing ship indicators and the sensor scan of local space. Commands to the ship are very concise and so are not echoed back to the player. Most commands have two valid forms. The first form of command is called a default command consisting of a command letter followed by a carriage return. The default "warp" command, a "W" charater followed by a carriage return, is used to stop starship the engines. A standard command constists of a command letter, numbers, and a carriage return. An example of a standard command would be the "P" character, followed by a number "9", followed by a carriage return, which would fire the ships phasers at a course of 9. Some commands, such as "F", are immediate mode and because they do not use a number argument they execute immediately. The "F" command is used to activate the cloaking device so the ship becomes cloaked as soon as the "F" key is pressed. A "control-U" will abort regular commands, and the delete key removes the last character from the command buffer. Typing "control-Z" will cause the program to exit, and will protect the ship from alien attack until the ship is reac- tivated. Each ship has a limited energy supply of 10000 units which may be distributed between the ship and the shields. It costs energy to use warp drive and fire phasers and energy is lost if a ship runs into a star, alien ship, or other such object. Ship shields have maximum strength when at least 1000 units are stored in them and both shield and ship energy are decreased by hits from alien phasers and torpedos. Multi-Trek PAGE 2 The facts of life and death 2.0 The facts of life and death There are three unique ways a starship can be destroyed. Anytime a starship's ship energy reaches zero, that ship is des- troyed. If this condition was caused by a hit from an alien starship, the alien scores 1000 points in addition to points he scored for the weapon hit. A ship's energy may become zero as a result of the use of the ships warp engines, cloaking device, or phasers. The only way to get more energy is to dock at a star- base, the "B" character. Docking at a base charges the ships energy banks to 10000, sets shield strength to zero, and stocks the ships photon torpedo supply to the maximun of ten. Additionally, the ship is stocked with a maximun of one anti-matter device. If a ship docks at a star base after firing an anti-matter device, but before detonating it, the old pod self destructs without damage to surrounding aliens, and the docked ship gets a new pod. Another way to for a starship to be destroyed is for it to be within a two character radius of an anti-matter device when the pod is detonated. The last way one may be destroyed is to be captured by the moving black hole; it is the one natural antagonist of the un- iverse. The black hole shown as the "#" symbol and moves in a straight line torwards the nearest active starship, usually at warp three. There exists only one known way to destroy the black hole. Though the black hole will eat any anti-matter dev- ice he encounters, a detonation close enough to him will destroy him, and he will then reappear at some random point in the univ- erse. Destroying the black hole is worth 1000 points each time and takes 1000 points from your score if it gets you. 3.0 Weapons There are three kinds of weapons that may be employed aga- inst alien ships. These weapons are used to damage other ships energy supply and shield strengh, and score points. Destroying an alien ship in battle is worth 1000 points and getting des- troyed costs 1000 points. The first weapon, and least harmful, is the phaser. It takes 50 units of energy to fire phasers. Phasers fire in three parallel bands, and so one may hit three targets with a single shot. Damage to alien ships as a result of a phaser hit is pro- portional to the distance between the recipent and attacker, and the score an attacker receives for a hit is equal to the energy the alien ship lost. While a single phaser hit is minor, repe- ated phaser hits can incur a great deal of damage and points, and it should be noted that phasers can be used to hunt for clo- aked ships. Multi-Trek PAGE 3 The facts of life and death The next and more deadly weapon is the photon torpedo. The symbol for the photon torpedo is the plus sign, and each ship holds at most ten torpedos which may be fired one at a time. A torpedo travels at warp ten, and a hit by a torpedo does consid- erable damage to an alien ship and also gains the attacker 500 points. An unshielded ship will suffer a loss of about 4800 units of energy while a fully shielded ship may only lose 1000 units. The last and most interesting weapon is the dreaded anti-matter device. The symbol for an anti-matter pod is the "at sign" and pods should be treated with great respect. Each ship carries one anti-matter pod and can launch it like a torpe- do by using the "Z" command. A pod will travel at warp five until its owner detonates it by hitting the "X" key. The pod then explodes and destroys ships, stars, random space warps, torpedos, black holes, and other anti-matter pods within a two character radius including the ship that launched it, if within range. Multi-Trek PAGE 4 Sample screen Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . . X: 26.4 Y: 79.5 . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heading : 6.00 . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . Warp : 0.00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . Ship Score Energy : 7615.5 . . . . . . . . B . . . @ . . . . . . . . 1* 2306 Shields : 1920.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0 Hyper set : Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 Torpedoes : Nine . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . 4 0 . . + . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . 5* 1716 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 0 . . + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7* 511 . . . H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 0 12-Apr-81 12:15 am . . 5 . . . * . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pod launched. * Hit on shields! This is an example of a ship display. 4.0 Sample screen Here is an example of a starship display during the game. The "*" character next to the ship number shows an active ship. One may locate and attack only active ships. 5.0 List of characters Here are the characters of the known universe: 1 thru 8 Starships + Photon torpedo @ Anti-matter device B Starbase * Star H Hyperspace port R Random space warp # Moving black hole Multi-Trek PAGE 5 List of commands 6.0 List of commands This is a list of valid commands. Some have defaults, some are immediate mode. All other characters are inproper as com- mands. A - Appear: Enable the cloaking device. Immediate mode. _________ ____ C - Course: Set course using a 12 hour clock. Default is null. F - Fade: Disable cloaking device. Immediate mode. _________ ____ H - Hyperset: Change hyperspace setting. Default is null. L - Locate ship: Gives approximate course to the specified alien ship. Default is null. P - Phaser: Fire phasers. Default is to fire phasers on the same course as the ships setting. R - Reset: Clear and redraw display. Immediate mode. _________ ____ S - Shields: Add or subtract energy from the shields. Default is null. T - Torpedo: Fire a photon torpedo. Default is to fire a torpedo on the same course as the ships setting. W - Warp: Set warp drive. Default is to stop engines. X - Explode: Detonate anti-matter device. Immediate mode. _________ ____ Z - Launch: Launch anti-matter device. Default checks the status of the anti-matter pod, but does not fire it. DEL - Delete: Delete the last character typed. You may not delete immediate mode commands. Immediate mode. _________ ____ ^U - Kill line: Flush input buffer. Immediate mode. _________ ____ ^Z - Exit: Leave the game. Immediate mode. _________ ____