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Text File | 1980-01-01 | 18KB | 307 lines

STARSHIP: Invasion copyright (c) October 1984 by Thinking Machine Associates. I. INTRODUCTION: STARSHIP: Invasion is a real time simulation of starship combat. As the captain of the H.I.M.S. Stinger, you must intercept an invasion fleet and delay it as long as possible so that the rest of the Imperial fleet may have time to prepare against it. At the same time, you must protect the six starbases in the sector which will serve as your re-fueling and repair stations. II. THE H.I.M.S. STINGER: The Stinger is one of the latest generation starships to come out of the ship-yards of the Sword Worlds. Like its predecessor, the INTREPID class, the new EXCALIBUR class uses both a warp engine for long-range travel, and a sub-light engine for maneuvering and combat. In the new Excalibur class, the sub-light engine is further improved for increased speed. In addition, to complement its phaser and photon torpedo weapons systems, a new anti-matter missile launcher has been installed. This triad of weapons, in conjuction with a mark IV Aegis deflector shield generator should make this starship the match of even an enemy Enforcer fleet. III. THE DISPLAY: The display screen of the Stinger has many components, each of which is by itself very simple. In practice, however, when all the displays are flashing and relaying information, it is very hard to concentrate on fighting. These displays are very important, however, as they tell the status of each system of the starship. Below is a schematic representation of the screen: ####### SHIELDS/DAMAGE LRS -5-4-3-2-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 100 GENERATOR o o o 000 000 000 5 5 100 # 100 |||||||||| o o o 000 000 000 4 4 ### oooooooo o o o 000 000 000 3 3 100 ###### 100 |||||||||| +-----------+ 2 2 ### ]ooooo | | 1 1 100 # 100 MGe Wdr Sdr ]ooooo | | 0 VIEW 0 100 Shi Dam ]ooooo | SRS | -1 SCREEN -1 WEAPONS DISPLAY ]ooooo | | -2 -2 ]|||||||||||||||||| SrS | | -3 -3 ]ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo LrS | | -4 -4 ]OOOOO +-----------+ -5 -5 -5-4-3-2-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 Pha Pho AMP +-----------+ BASES Co-ordinates = 6, 7 Trillum = 32456 | | 1: 8,7 Sector = -10, 6 Energy output = 000000 | | 2: 7,9 Shields = 00000 | MAP | 3: 4,2 Sub-light Drv = 000 | | 4: 2,2 Warp Drv = 00000 | | 5: 5,8 | | 6: 1,9 +-----------+ IV. VIEWS: There are four displays that show you what is around your ship. The main viewscreen in the center is where most of the action will take place. Here your ship will appear in the center as a small triangle pointing to the left. As your ship moves, the view around it will change, but the ship will always be in the middle of the screen. To the left of the viewscreen is the SRS, or short range scan. Like the viewscreen, your ship is in the center. The SRS will display all the ships in the quadrant, but will not show what type of ships they are. Right above the SRS is the long range scan. Like most standard LR scans, this one shows the contents of the quadrants immediately surrounding the quadrant you are in. The first two digits ( {00}0 ) tell you how many enemy ships are in that quadrant. The last digit ( 00{0} ) tells you what starbase is in that quadrant. For example, 050 means that there are five enemy ships (05), and zero starbases (0). 074 means 7 enemy ships with starbase 4, and 101 means ten enemy ships with starbase 1. If the LR scan is damaged, you may get garbage instead of digits. Finally, the map shows an overall view of the whole sector that you are in. Your ship (not in the center) appears as a blinking block. Enemy ships appear in gray (normal intensity,) and starbases are white (high-intensity.) Next to the map are the co-ordinates of the six starbases. If a starbase is under attack, these co-ordinates will start blinking. V. MAIN GENERATOR: The main generator powers the entire ship. The generator display, in the upper-right corner of the screen, display two things. The bars on top and bottom indicate the maximum capacity of the generator and the center bar indicates the present load of the generator. If the present load ever exceeds the maximum generating capacity, the generator will overload. At first, an overload will only damage the generator, but since a damaged generator will produce less power, a chain reaction will soon occur, and the reactor will explode. In addition to this display, the energy board (below the viewscreen) will tell you how much power is being used. The energy output is the present load on the generator. Under normal circumstances, the generator should be able to handle loads of up to 18500 +/- 500, but this will drop if the ship is damaged. Underneath, the amount of power currently used by the shields, sub-light drive, and warp drive is displayed. NOTE: Most reactor explosions occur because the warp generator was brought on-line while the generator was already at maximum with the shields. Because the warp drive generally requires up to 12000 units, it is important to lower the shields (which may take up to 14000) before warping. VI. SHIELDS: The mark IV Aegis shield generator has eight separate plates each protecting a different side of the ship. The shield/damage display shows the value at which each of the plates is set (in the diagram, 100.) It is important to realize that each component of the starship is in a different location. The engines and main generator are in the back and the weapons systems are in front. Because of this, and because the shields can not always be kept at maximum, you should select the shields appropiately. i.e. if you are about to engage in a frontal attack, raise the front shields, or if the main generator is damaged, raise the rear shields. In addition to shields, this display will also show any structural damage. If the shields are pierced, and the ships is damaged, the figure of the ship will blink in the damaged area. VII. WEAPONS: The Stinger has three types of weapons each with its own advantages and limitations. The phaser weapon is an single omni-directional projector with a range of five sectors (to the edge of the viewscreen). Although there is no limit to the number of shots it can fire, the projector gets hot after repeated shots. The top bar in the weapons display shows the phaser overload status. The higher it gets, the hotter the phasers are. In general it is good to wait until they cool down, as repeated firings will overload it and possibly destroy the phasers. The photon torpedoes are roughly twice as powerful as the phasers, but they move slowly (well below the speed of light) and in that time their target can move away. Unlike phasers, the ship only has twenty of them. The middle bar in the weapons display tell you how many torpedoes you have left. The most powerful weapons of all are the anti-matter pods. These weapons are ten times more powerful than photons, but there are only five on board, and their range is very limited. In general, one must be nearly next to a ship to be in range. The last bar in the weapons display tells you how many pods you have left. VIII. DAMAGE DISPLAY: The indicator lights around the board (MGe, WDr, SDr under the generator display, for instance.) will give the damage status of all the systems. If they are blinking, that system is damaged. If they are on, but not blinking, then the system is destroyed. The various systems are: MGe main generator WDr warp drive SDr sub-light drive Shi shields Dam damage control Pha phasers Pho photons AMP anti-mater pods SrS short range scan LrS long range scan IX. WARP DRIVE: Once the warp drive is engaged it will have to build up power to approximately 12000 units. If either the warp drive or the main generator is damaged, it may take a while to build up. Always watch the generator display as the power builds up. If the power exceeds the generating capacity, turn off the shields, or abort the warp. Once in warp, you will see the blinking block on the map move from quadrant to quadrant and the LR scan update. X. COMMANDS: The movement of the ships in sub-light can be controlled using the cursor keys. The rest of the commands are entered through the keyboard, but you must make sure that the keyboard is set to LOWERCASE, and the cursor keys are active. You have the following commands: W : Engages the warp drive. Once it is engaged, it must build up power to 12000. When the signal WARP WHEN READY appears, hit 'W' again to warp, or the space bar to abort the warp. Once in warp you can use the cursor keys to change the direction, or the space bar to end the warp. T : Once you hit this you must hit a direction with the cursor keys to fire a photon torpedo. Hitting the space bar will abort this operation. P or Y : Same as photons. This command fires phasers. A : Same as photons. This command fires anti-matter pods. S : Raises every shield plate up 100 units. O : Turns all shields to 0. R : When followed by a direction (with cursor keys) this command raises one plate 100 units. D : This command drops one plate 100 units. Q : Pass. This lets the enemy ships move, while repairing some damage in your ship. X : Self-destruct. Once activated, type '#' (shift-3) to continue, or any other key to abort. XI. DOCKING: If you are in the same quadrant as a starbase you may dock with it to re-fuel and repair damage, but be aware that your shields are down while in dock, and that it takes time to repair damages. It is not recommended to dock while under attack. If your starbase is destroyed while docked, your ship will be destroyed as well. XII. THE ENEMY: There are six types of enemy ships, each progressively more powerful: '#' ASSAULT SHIPS. These ships are fast and maneuverable, but not very dangerous. '@' LIGHT CRUISERS. These ships, mainly designed as command ships for groups of assault ships, have photon torpedoes. - HEAVY CRUISERS. These ships look like small triangles (like your ship) but they point to the right. They more heavily armoured than light cruisers. '*' ENFORCERS. These ships are fast and powerful. They generally concentrate on your starbases first, so its a good idea to destroy them as soon as possible. - AVENGERS. These missile ships look like small boxes. Their phasers are weak, but their photon torpedoes can track you. - WORLDKILLERS. The height of technology, these ships are large and powerful. In addition to tracking torpedoes, they have powerful phasers and shields. They sometimes travel in wolfpacks of three. XIII. HINTS: For the first couple of games get the feel of the ship. Move around, warp, fire your weapons and make sure you are familiar will all the displays. This is particularly important, since the information they provide is often vital. The enemy ships come in waves. At first there are only two groups on the map, then three come, and so on. In general the enemy fleets move towards your starbases, the first fleet going after the first base, etc. In practice, you will not be able to keep all your starbases alive, but it is imperative that you keep at least one alive. As long as you have a starbase, you can keep on re-fueling and repairing your damage. If you have an undamaged generator, you can usually warp with all you deflector shields set to about 300 without overloading the generator. Once you get to an enemy quadrant you can then raise your shields. Remember that phasers use up a lot of energy too, so make sure that you do not set the shields too high. XIV. ABOUT THE GAME: Originally I came up with this game because I was very disappointed with the Star Trek games. Even if they were not in real time, they were not very complicated. As far as I know, mine is the only version with multiple shields, overloading generators, and moving ships. That plus the real time aspect really made a difference. In general, I like complicated games over simple (and mindless) arcade games. I don't think STARSHIP: Invasion can really be called a thinking game, but I know that if you don't like involved games, you're not going to like this one. Admittedly I'm not totally satisfied with the game as it is now. I definitely have to write a version for the color card (when I get a color card) and perhaps a version with more intelligent ships. Certainly a good sequel would be STARSHIP: Penetrator, in which you must go into enemy territory and destroy an enemy starbase, or something. In case you're interested, I wrote the game in TURBO Pascal (a language for which I have nothing but praise) and the source code came out to be over 70k. (I had to split it into two files.) And in case you're really interested, I will provide you the source code if you register your copy. XV. ABOUT OTHER THINGS: If you really like this game, why not support the people who bring you these games and register your copy for the modest fee (modest compared to $40 for a store bought game) of $15. After all, how can we continue without user-support? In exchange for registering I will send you the source code in TURBO Pascal (on disk), and will be glad to answer any questions which you may have concerning it. In any event, enjoy this game in the spirit in which it is written, and if perchance you should find that my efforts have not been wasted in its writing, please send me a message at the Boston Computer Society Bulletin board, I would be very glad to hear your comments. (Even if you don't like the game I would like to hear your comments.) Please register your game by sending $15 to: George Moromisato 15 Whittier Rd. Natick MA 01760 Who knows? I may even write a sequel.