PCPP Game Guide 2

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Complete Hyperspeed Dox HYPERSPEED ~~~~~~~~~~ 1. INTRODUCTION TO HYPERSPEED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1.1 Your Mission ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1.1.1 The situation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The time: The distant future. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The place: Alien space. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The situation: Earth is an ecological wasteland. Nuclear meltdowns, climate alteration, species extinction; all have taken their toll. Humanity must evacuate its mother world, to give Earth time to recover from the devastation wrought by past civilizations. The solution: The human species has left Earth in immense transport ships of the Conestoga class. Each Conestoga transport vessel must find a habitable planet to colonize or every family aboard will die, lost forever in space. You mission: Save Homo sapiens. You are the pilot of a Trailblazer class dreadnought. Your ship has been sent ahead of a Conestoga transport to prepare an alien starcluster for human colonization. A robot base station is already there, prepared to assist you. If you take too long to finish your task, the colonists aboard the grossly overcrowded Conestoga transport will begin to die. Eventually, they will all die. Their only hope is you and your Trailblazer. 1.1.2 Your Purpose ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You must find a planet suitable for humanity and obtain the raw materials the fledgling colony requires to survive. Worlds habitable by humans are quite rare. It is often helpful to question aliens about such habitable worlds. The new colony requires resources to thrive. You must obtain these resource by mining them from unclaimed worlds or through interplanetary commerce with friendly aliens. You must make the cluster as safe as possible for human families by making friends. The new colony will only prosper if humanity has allies in the star cluster. To obtain allies, you can befriend some of the aliens in that cluster. The only way to assure their friendship is to sing peace treaties. The more peace treaties you posses in a cluster, the safer humanity will be in future years. Some aliens are not amenable to peace. Other may not be willing to sign a treaty if you have already signed with one of their enemies. If there is an alien which you believe will be actively harmful to the human colony, you must weaken or destroy this alien species. For instance, if you encounter an alien species that eats planets like popcorn, rid the cluster of them. It would be extremely unsafe to leave them in the same cluster as a world full of humans. 1.2 WHAT TO EXPECT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1.2.1 Political Puzzles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Every alien species has its own goals and play. Usually, the aliens are forthright about telling you what they want and what they think about the other aliens in the cluster. Almost every action you can take will change some alien's opinion of you, for better or worse. These actions need not be taken against the alien itself - for instance, if you attack and destroy an Automata ship in the Cerberus cluster, the Venge will be angry with you. On the other hand, if you DESTROY a Lutin ship in the Hyades cluster, the Broodmasters will actually be pleased. You must decipher the web of alien relationships and see a place to fit into the cluster's political intrigue. 1.2.2 Trading Puzzles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The best way to maintain your ship is by trading with aliens. If you want success, you must learn to make a profit in these trade deals. Once you know which aliens will deal with you, you should carefully plot your trade routes. For example, you can purchase a blaster at the Didinium for two data casings. Trade the blaster to the Broodmasters for a Vespucci navigator. A verspucci navigator is worth two accelerators to the Fel. You can then take those two accelerators to the Didinium, and get two blasters in exchange. Complete the trade circle again, and you have four blasters, then eight. Meanwhile you invest nothing but time, fuel, and the original two data casings. Of course, you may encounter obstacles. Space pirates may harass you, or an alien may demand that you help it in some way before it will trade with you. 1.2.3 Combat Puzzles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To succeed at the political game, and to protect yourself, you must periodically fight alien ships. Every alien species has its own unique types of ships. Many aliens have secret weapons, unknown to other species. All aliens have combat strategies based on their ship's strengths and weaknesses. You must figure out the correct technique to best each type of alien ship in combat. 2.3 INITIAL OPTIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When the game starts, it first goes through an introductory sequence. Use the space bar to skip to the next part of the sequence, or use the escape key to bypass it entirely. After the opening sequence, you are confronted with a menu of options as follows: ENTER NEW CLUSTER PLAY SAVED GAME PRACTICE COMBAT - HYADES VIEW STARSHIPS - HYADES Use the joystick, mouse, or arrow keys to select one of these options, then click on it with the enter key, joystick button one, or the left mouse button. ENTER NEW CLUSTER: This produces the Select Cluster menu HYADES CERBERUS SASSANID RAGNAROK Choose the name of the cluster you wish to play in. The Hyades cluster if best for a beginner. PLAY SAVED GAME: If you have previously saved a game and wish to return to it, select this response. PRACTICE COMBAT - Hyades: If you want to brush up on your combat skills, select this response. A menu of alien names from the Hyades cluster appears. Choose the alien you wish to battle. Press escape at any time to leave the battle and go back to the starting options. If you win the battle, you also return to the starting options. VIEW STARSHIP - Hyades: This option displays the spaceships native to the Hyades cluster, as well as your own craft. Press any key to move to the next alien ship, or press escape to finish viewing and return to the starting options. 3. HYPERSPEED TUTORIAL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3.1 STARTING OUT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you get to the starting options, choose enter new cluster. On the next menu, select Hyades. Once the cluster has loaded, you are immediately confronted by a small attacking ship. The easiest way to eliminate this enemy is to tap missile ( the G key). This launches a guided missile which homes in on the enemy vessel. Sit back and enjoy the pyrotechnics as it explodes. 3.2 SHIP CONTROL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now that the threat is past, you can sit back and examine your ship. You are in the main cockpit. Most of the view is taken up by the large central main view screen. This viewscreen lets you see out the front of your ship. At the moment it should be empty, except for a few stars. First, let's get used to driving your ship. Press maximum speed to start moving (hold down shift and tap the + key). Now try steering your ship left and right. If you have a joystick or mouse, just push it left and right to steer. On a keyboard, use the arrow keys instead (or the appropriate keys on your numeric keypad). Notice that moving the joystick or mouse up ( or pushing the up arrow key), noses down your ship, and vice-versa. These are airplay style controls, and seem more natural to many players. If you dislike this style of control, press the airplay-style controls toggle (hold down alt and tap the A key) to reverse the setting. You may wish to go back and forth between the settings a couple of times until you decide which feels best for you. Once you feel comfortable guiding your ship in empty space, stop it by pressing stop (hold down shift and tap the - key). If at some time during a battle you need more precise speed control than maximum speed and stop permit. Use increase speed and decrease speed keys ( + and - keys, respectively) to incrementally adjust your speed. 3.3 SENSORS AND INFORMATION SCREENS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beneath your main view screen is a darkened hollow section of the cockpit. This is split into the holographic viewer and the radar scope. The holographic view (on the left) gives you a close up view of the enemy you are currently targeting. Right now, the viewer is dark, because there are no enemy vessels present. Remember when you first entered the cluster, an image of the attacking ship was in this viewer, only to vanish when you destroyed that ship with your guided missile. The radar scope (on the right) has three green ellipses. When enemy ships are present, the will show up on the radar scope as dots. Your own ship is always at the middle of the radar scope. The lights up the left hand side of the main view screen are your ship systems readouts. If your ship's systems are damaged, one or more of the lights here will flash. One the right side of the screen, just under the main gun gauge, is the missile chassis readout. There are ten little missile icons here, nine of which should be bright, and one (the first) which is dark. At game start, you have ten missiles, You launched one to destroy the incoming ship, so now you have nine. If you accidentally hit guided missile more than once in the heat of action, you may have even fewer. Just beneath the missile chassis readout are two bar holograms. The left which measure speed, is currently at the bottom of the scale and the right which measure fuel is at the top. Tap maximum speed to watch the left hologram rise. Tape stop to see it drop back to zero. The right hologram (fuel) only drops if you turn on your spindrive for interstellar travel. 3.4 WEAPONS SYSTEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The trailblazer has five different weapons systems: the main gun, a defensive blaster, missiles, fighters, and kamikazes. The main gun and missiles are fired from the main cockpit. Fighters and kamikazes are launched from the main cockpit, but once LAUNCHED, immediately shift you into the cockpit of the fighter or kamikaze, which you then control instead of your big ship. The blaster turret has its own wide angle view from the turret. Now it is time to lean how to fight. Tap fire (hit return; you can also hit joystick button one or the left mouse button). Notice that when you fire, the main gun gauge in the upper right hand corner of the screen drops, then starts moving back up. You cannot fire the main gun again until the gauge reaches the top of the scale. Next, press go to next cockpit (the space bar). This takes you from the main cockpit to the blaster turret. You can't alter the speed or motion of your ship from the blaster turret, but you can move your point of view very quickly. Use your joystick, mouse, or arrow keys to slew around the turret in various directions for moment, then take some practice shots. The fire command is the same as in the main cockpit (return, joystick button one, or left mouse button). Fire off some shots as you swing your turret back and forth. The blaster turret is your final line of defense against incoming fighters and missiles. Don't confuse the light quick firing defensive gun here withe the powerful main gun available from the main cockpit. When done with the blaster turret, tap next cockpit (the space bar) to return to the main cockpit. You have already used a guided missile (to destroy your original attacker). If you try to tap guided missile again, nothing will happen - your ship cannot fire such a missile without a target. You can, however launch kamikazes and fighters. Let's launch a fighter. Tap fighter (the F key), and your screen instantly switches to the fighter's cockpit, as it launches at top speed from your ship's underbelly. The fighter is much faster than your big ship and is much more responsive. However, the controls of the fighter work just like the big ship. The fighter is automatically launched at its top speed, so there is no point in pressing maximum speed unless you have slowed down. Fire the fighter's blasters using the same keys you used to fire the main gun when in the main cockpit (return, joystick button one, or the left mouse button). Turn your fighter's nose around until you can see your mother ship. It is large, pale and somewhat disk shaped. Fly over and buzz it a few times. Be careful not to crash into it. If you do crash, note that the red line on the far right hand side drops a little. This red line indicates how much damage your fighter has taken. The lower this line goes, the greater the damage to your fighter. When you are finished cruising around in your fighter, tap return chassis (the R key). This automatically returns you to the main cockpit and returns the fighter chassis to your ship for future use (and repairs any damage the fighter has taken). The kamikaze key (K) permits you to launch a kamikaze missile, which is piloted in the same way as a fighter. However, the kamikaze is much slower, has no blasters, and explodes if it hits another ship. Kamikazes pack quite a punch, and are the weapon of choice in many situations. Tap the space bar to leave a fighter or kamikaze cockpit and return to the main cockpit. When you leave a cockpit in this way, you abandon the fighter or kamikaze, which holds to its course at its last speed. Once back in the main cockpit, tapping the space bar once takes you to the blaster turret, but tapping it again takes you to the cockpit of the first fighter or kamikaze in flight, repeatedly tapping the space bar takes you successively through the cockpits of each one, in the order they were launched. Once you have gone through each fighter or kamikaze cockpit, you can return to the main cockpit. 3.5 ENGINE ROOM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tape engine room (the E key). This view is full of pulsing, spinning components. The engine room controls the capabilities of your warship. Move your cursor around the engine room using the joystick, mouse or arrow keys. The display in the lower right hand part of the screen tells you the general function of that sector (main gun, blaster turret bay, ect). Managing the engine room is complex, and we won't get into all the details of it here ( for more info see section 4.6). In general, the more components you have in a sector, the more effective that sector is. You can move components around the engine room, enhancing some parts at the expense of others. A component can fit only into a slot designed to accept it. Try clicking on some components and moving them around. To do this, put your cursor over a component and tap return, joystick button one, or the left mouse button. The component is removed from that slot and popped in the hold (the pale area on the far right hand side of the screen) and is available for placement. To move a component, put your cursor over an empty slot and press return, joystick button one, or the left mouse button. If you have an appropriate component in your hold, it will zap into the slot. If you remove the central navigator from your spindrive, be sure to return it before leaving the engine room, because you can't go faster than light without it. As you experiment, notice that when certain key components are removed, other components cease functioning until the key component is restored. Initially, your ship has many empty slots. It can be more powerful than its starting configuration - if you can find more components. In battle, damage to your ship is expressed as destroyed (burnt out) components. To make repairs, you remove a ruined component and replace it with a new one. To upgrade your ship, put new components into previously empty slots. You can get additional components in two ways. First, you can attack alien ships and scavenge components from their wreckage. Second, you can negotiate and trade with friendly aliens. When you are done with the engine room, tap escape to return to the previous view. In general, use the escape key to leave any screen for a previous one. However, the escape key will not get you out of the blaster turret, the main cockpit, a fighter, or kamikaze. To leave those ares, you must use the space bar. 3.6 INTERSTELLAR NAVIGATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tap navigation (the N key). Your main viewscreen changes to a rotating 3-d representation of the Hyades star cluster. Each glowing dot represents a different star system. Your own vessel is a different colored dot with a small square around it. Notice that a line extends from your ship to a nearby star. Tap select next star system (the > key, joystick button two, or right mouse button), and the line switches to another star. Tap select previous system (the < key, joystick button one, or left mouse button), and it switches back to where it was before. The star system that the line is heading towards is your ship's currently selected destination. If you go into spindrive (your ship's faster than light system), your ship will target on that star system. In the lower right hand corner of this screen you see your remaining fuel. In the lower left hand corner is the fuel needed to reach your current target destination. Never, never, never go to a system that costs more fuel to reach than you currently possess! This will strand your ship in space! You're then reduced to using the escape pod (shift-escape) to get an entirely new vessel. Now tape select next star system several times in a row to watch the line go wandering throughout the stars. Using the next and previous keys, select the system that requires exactly 102 units of fuel to reach - it has a sun and two small planets. Once you have found it, tape spindrive (the S key) to start you on your way. It is possible that you may encounter an alien ship while in spindrive. If the message just under your main viewscreen reads "UNKNOWN ALIEN ATTACKING", use emergency spindrive (hold down Alt and tap the S key) to continue without a fight. If you get the message "PROXIMITY OVERLOAD. PRESS ANY KEY TO ATTACK", do nothing. Just sit quietly. In a few seconds the proximity overload goes away and you can begin traveling again. 3.7 MINING A SYSTEM AND RETURNING HOME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now you have arrived at a star system. Nothing appears to be here. This usually means that the system is uninhabited. Tape probe (the P key) to make sure. Your probe will go spinning away. Soon the main viewscreen will display what the probe encounters in the information screen. You'll see that, in fact, nobody was living here. You can mine the planets with impunity. However, if an alien race were present, you would not be allowed to perform mining operations. Move the joystick, mouse or use arrow keys to select one of the system's two planets. When you have done so, tap mine (the M key) to mine that world. The image of the planet in the main viewscreen now states that you are mining its supply of water. Now select the other planet and mine it too, following the same procedure. You have now mined two units of water. Since your ship can only carry three mining complexes, you can only mine one more world before needing to return to your home base to get more colonies. Now let's go home. Returning will fill your tanks with fuel and replace all missile chassis you used. First, leave the information screen by pressing escape. You are now in navigation. As long as you're there, tap home (the H key). This zeros your navigation line to your home base. Tap spindrive to get back home. Once more, use emergency spindrive to evade aliens that try to stop you. There is a remote possibility that too much use of the emergency spindrive could damage your navigator, leaving you lost in space, unable to escape. If this happens, use your escape pod (shift-escape) to go back to the start and get a whole new ship. 3.8 TALKING WITH ALIENS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you finish the automatic ship refit at your base, return to the navigation screen (via the N key), and, using the next and previous keys, find the system that costs exactly 201 fuel units to reach. Now, use your spindrive to get there, using emergency spindrive as needed to avoid intruders. When you arrive at the alien system. you will see the alien starbase come whirling up out of the gloom. BE CAREFUL! If you launch any weapon, even a fighter, they will attack. Also, if you try to move closer, they may assume you are maneuvering to attack. If you actually want to attack, that's fine - but usually (like right now), you just want to talk and maybe trade. To talk to the aliens, launch a probe (the P key). Within moments, you will see a new screen, the translator screen. An alien appears at the top or side of the screen. His message is displayed on the central readout. Your possible responses are listed below, with a button by each response. If you have followed the tutorial instructions correctly, you should be at the home of the Fel, a rather proboscidean species. He is saying: WE ARE THE FEL. WHAT DO YOU WISH? Underneath are your possible responses: * information * leave * trade * fight * peace treaty To communicate, use your joystick, mouse, or arrow keys to highlight the buttons next to each response. Click on that button to activate that response. Experiment by pressing information and peace treaty and going through some choices. Whatever screens you reach, try not to press trade, leave or fight. When you've learned what you can by exploring your options, then press trade. This shifts you to the universal trading display. 3.9 TRADING WITH ALIENS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The trade screen is used to trade with aliens. You use the same interface with all. At the right side of the screen are listed the components which the alien is able to sell to you. On the left side of the screen are the components that you have in your ship's hold. At the moment, you probably only have data casing, worth 1 trade unit each. At the bottom of the screen are a number of buttons used to enact trade or get information. As you move your mouse or joystick, a selection box appears around the various components. If you are not using a mouse, tap the space bar to shift your control from the top half of the screen to the bottom half ot there screen. When the selection box is around a component, or one of the buttons is highlighted, use return to select that component or button. Click on your data casings once. The total number of data casings in your hold decreases by one and an image of that data casings appears to the right, in the central trading area. Now click on the lowermost item the alien has for trade - fuel. The fuel icon will vanish, and appear in the central trading area, but on the alien's side of the screen. Now click on accept trade deal. You will lose the data casing, and your fuel tanks are topped off. Buying fuel from an alien always fills 'er up to the top, no matter how much or how little fuel you have. Let's do some more! Select the second component from the top of the alien's side of the screen (it is an accelerator). Move your selection box over to your data casings and click twice, moving two data casings to screen center. Now click on accept trade deal. You have now acquired a new accelerator in return for two data casings. If you make a mistake you can get rid of the potential deal by clicking on cancel trade deal and start over. Now selever view engine room, and you will be moved to your ship's engine room where you can install your new component. Move your cursor over to your rear screen generator, and click one on the accelerator shaped slot therein (the accelerator should pop into place). You have now enhanced your rear screens. Use the escape key to leave the engine room as normal. You have now successfully traded. Click on exit trade to leave the trade screen, then click on leave to depart the Fel. Once back at the main cockpit, notice that your fuel level has returned to normal. Congratulations! You have now completed the tutorial. You may either restart the game or keep playing from here. Good Luck 4. OPERATING YOUR SHIP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4.1 MAIN COCKPIT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4.1.1 Screen Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Main Viewscreen: Located right in the middle of the cockpit, and filling almost half the screen, this gives you a view out of the front of your vessel. For maximum efficiency and minimum confusion, it only points straight ahead. To look all around your ship, switch to you blaster turret and spin around. The crosshairs in the center of the screen show where your main gun's blast will strike if you fire. They also indicate that you are out of range. If the ship near the crosshairs comes within range, the crosshairs change to a flashing reticule. Place the reticule over the target ship to aim your main gun at it. Also usually visible on the main viewscreen are the targeting brackets. These indicate which enemy ship is currently targeted. Main Gun Gauge: Located in the upper left hand corner of the screen, the left side of this gauge is a simple readout of your main gun's current status. When your main gun fires, there is a delay of 3 to 13 seconds before it is ready to fire again. The right side of the gauge shows you how close your main gun is to fire capability. When you fire, the display goes dark. As it recovers energy, the display lights up, from bottom to top. When the top line is lit, your main gun is ready to fire. Missile Chassis: You ship can carry a maximum of 10 missile chassis. This simple readout located under the main gun gauge tells you how many chassis you have left. Launching a kamikaze, a fighter, or a missile uses up one chassis per launch. As you fire them off, the little chassis icons go dark. Speed Bar Hologram: The left bar shows your ship's current speed. The higher the bar, the faster your ship is moving. Fuel Bar Hologram: The right bar tells how much fuel you have left. The higher the bar, the more fuel you have. If you need an exact number for your remaining fuel, go to the navigation starmap (the N key) and look in the lower right hand corner. The Radar Scope: It is beneath the main viewscreen, a little to the right. This show all the objects around your ship. The scope is always centered on your current ship, and faces the same direction as your ship. Other ships or significant objects appear as dots on the viewer. The ship you have currently targeted has a box surrounding its dot. Ships above or below you ship's plane have a line extending up or down from your central plane to the ships. The largest ships are signified by slightly larger dots than lesser vessels. Guided missiles and weapons fired in combat are signified by dots of a different color, and have no line extending from the central plane. Holographic Viewer: It is located beneath the main viewscreen, and a little to the left. When you are facing alien ships, one of them is always targeted. When you first enter a combat, your ship's computer automatically selects one alien ship as the target. You can alter the targeted ship by pressing target change (the T key). The targeted ship appears in the holographic viewer, which is under the main viewscreen, to the left of the radar scope. Above the target ship is a glowing line. The length of this line indicates that ship's hull strength. As the target ship takes damage, a flashing color creeps in from the outer ends of the hull strength line, showing how much damage it has taken. When the target ship is destroyed, your ship's computer immediately switches to another target. Ship's Systems: Up the left side of the main cockpit is a representation of your ship's internal systems. Once you are familiar with the layout of your engine room, these diagrams will be instantly recognizable. From top to bottom, the systems represented are screen generators, spindrive, blaster turret bar, and thruster bay. The main gun is on the right side of the screen, just left of the main gun gauge. Each component in these readouts is a bright color when present, and dark when absent. If a component is inactive, it remains visible, but is darker than an active component. If a component is destroyed and burnt out, it flickers brightly until replaces. You cannot replace or adjust components from the main cockpit. The ship systems display is solely informational. To fix your systems, you must go to the engine room. 4.1.2 Thruster Controls ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your ship is equipped with rearward-firing thrusters for sublight maneuvering. Their operation is quite simple. To start moving, press increase speed (the + key). To further accelerate, press increase speed again. If you wish to get to top speed as soon as possible, use maximum speed (hold down alt and tap the + key). To slow down, use decrease speed (the - key), or stop (hold down alt and tape the - key). Steer your ship with the arrow keys, joystick, or mouse. Your ship is initially set for airplane style controls, so when you push up, the ship actually noses down. If this is counterintuitive to you, use the airplane type controls toggle (hold down alt and tap the A key). You can make your ship barrel roll by holding down joystick button two or the right mouse button while simultaneously trying to turn left or right. Your ship's nose will remain pointing in the same direction while it turns on its long axis. 4.1.3 Main Gun Firing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fire the main gun by pressing enter, joystick button one, or the left mouse button. The main gun takes several seconds to recover between shots. 4.1.4 Missile Firing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Launch a guided missile by pressing G. Launch a kamikaze by pressing K. Launch a fighter by pressing F. Each time you launch a guided missile, kamikaze, or fighter, your supply of missile chassis is reduced by one. The hostile electronic environment of deep space combat is severe. Your ship cannot control more than four chassis at once. A guided missile homes in on the enemy targeted in your holographic viewer. If the enemy vessel is destroyed before the guided missile strikes, the missile self destructs. A kamikaze or fighter is controlled by yourself. 4.1.5 Jettison Cargo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you are attacked by space pirates, they demand a certain number of components. If you jettison cargo (tap the J key), your ship's hold loses that number of components and the pirates leave without attacking. If you do not have enough in your hold to satisfy the pirates, they take components from your engine room instead. Jettison cargo costs less components than emergency spindrive but is not useful against some aliens. 4.2 NAVIGATION STARMAP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4.2.1 Screen Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Before you can claim a world for humanity or set up mining colonies, you must find suitable worlds. From the main cockpit, tap navigate (the N key) to see the navigation starmap. The navigation starmap shows the entire cluster spinning slowly in space. You can use zoom and unzoom (the Z and X keys, respectively) to move the view in and out on it, plus you can use the arrow keys or joystick to change the direction in which it is spinning. The system in which you are currently located has a box around it. Once you have been to a star system, future examination of your starmap displays already visited systems in a new color. 4.2.2 System Data Screen Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you select a star system, and then press information (the I key), the starmap is replaced by detailed information about that system. By using the arrow keys, joystick, or mouse, you can select individual planets in that system, and see detailed information about the. The information screen gives you each world's type, temperature, and atmosphere, as well as any resource that world possesses, and whether or not the world is habitable. It is possible for a world to have equitable temperature and a breathable atmosphere, and yet not be habitable for humans, for any number of reasons. In one famous case, a world was perfectly livable except that the air stank! The cause of the stench was never discovered, and the world was never colonized. The exact amount of information you receive on a system varies. If you have never been to a system, the information screen only tells you the number of planets and the type of sun. If you have visited a system, but not probed it, you can know everything about that system except for any resource it contains. If a system is inhabited, you cannot probe it - any probes you launch are intercepted by the inhabitants and used to communicate with you. Only if you have probed and uninhabited system do you receive full information about it. 4.2.3 Course Selection ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you press the select solar system keys, a linear flight path is projected from your current system to other systems. As you select through there other systems, a simple diagram of each system appears in your video monitor. To see more information about that system, tap information for more data (this only works, however, if you have already visited the system and probed it). The navigation starmap also has a fuel usage display. The lower right corner of the screen shows you how much fuel you are carrying, and the lower left corner of the screen shows how much fuel it cost to travel to the system indicated. Press spindrive to travel to the selected system. Emergency spindrive can also be activated from the navigation starmap, if you need to flee a losing combat. Press the escape key to leave the navigation starmap and return to the main cockpit. When you leave the navigation starmap, the last system selected remains in the memory of your ship's navigation system. Whenever you press spindrive your ship automatically heads toward that system. Beware of leaving the wrong destination in memory especially a destination beyond your current fuel supply! 4.2.4 Spindrive Operation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Normal travel via spindrive is uneventful. You simple zip through space to the selected system, expending fuel as needed. However, if another ship is near your route, its spindrive may interfere with yours. If any ship crosses your path, you'll see an image of the alien ship appear in the holographic viewer. If the alien ship is hostile, under the main viewscreen will appear the message "(alien name) SHIP ATTACKING" and you will be forced to pop out of spindrive and fight. Sometimes the alien waits to see what you are going to do. In this case, you receive the message "PROXIMITY ALERT. PRESS A KEY TO ATTACK". You may now choose whether you wish to attack the alien ship or not. If you choose to attack, tap any key and the enemy ship is forced out of spindrive to fight you. If you do not wish to attack, do nothing, and after a few seconds, the opportunity will vanish. If you have a peace treaty with an alien species, your computer will not bother to alert you to their ships' presence. In effect, you will cease encountering them in deep space. After you have dropped out of spindrive and fought an alien ship, you may return to the starmap. Note that your ship is partway along it route. You can change your destination if you wish, or you can simply strike spindrive to continue to your destination. When you are traveling near an alien's world, encountering that type of alien becomes more likely. Hence, if you continually meet a particular alien's ships partway along a certain trade route, this could be a clue to the location of that alien's secret base. 4.2.5 Emergency Spindrive Operation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you are clearly outclassed by an enemy vessel, you have a last ditch defense mechanism. By hitting emergency spindrive (hold down alt and tap the S key), you can leave a battle at faster than light speed, negating any possibility of pursuit. Emergency spindrive has a cost, however. If overburdens your ship's internal systems, and will destroy many components. So reserve it for true emergencies. If you have not selected a destination, and try to use emergency spindrive, you ship will signal an error. Select a nearby system, then use emergency spindrive. 4.3 BLASTER TURRET ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your Blaster turret can be reached from your main cockpit by hitting the space bar. Strike the space bar again to return to the next active cockpit. Hitting the space bar will then cycle through all active cockpits until you get back to the main cockpit again. 4.3.1 Screen Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The blaster turret is almost devoid of clutter, for maximum visibility. At the bottom of the screen is a radar scope, which works just like the main cockpit's radar scope. The crosshairs in the center of the screen show where your blasters are aimed. They are also an indication that you are out of range. When a ship or missile comes within range, and is more or less close to the crosshairs, the crosshairs change to a flashing reticule. Center the target within the reticule to aim at it. Your blasters have an additional feature associated with the rangefinder. The blaster bolts are aimed so that they automatically converge at the nearest target's exact range. 4.3.2 Controls ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To aim your blaster turret, just slew it around using the arrow keys, joystick or mouse. Fire the blasters using the enter key, joystick button one, or the left mouse button. You can spin the turret in place without changing your point of aim by holding down joystick button two or the right mouse button as you turn left or right. 4.4 FIGHTER/KAMIKAZE CONTROLS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A fighter is a small spaceboat armed with blasters. Its function is destroy enemy fighters and small ships. It can also be used to destroy vulnerable spots on large ships. The kamikaze is a small spaceboat carrying a large warhead. It can be used to destroy any size of enemy ship, but several kamikazes may be needed to eliminate the largest vessels. The kamikaze actually rams the enemy ship and explodes. Hence kamikazes are not reusable, unlike fighter. When you launch a fighter or kamikaze a subspace link is set up between your main ship and the smaller craft, so you can pilot these ships directly. However, if the chassis is destroyed, you yourself are not harmed. Instead, you are returned to the main cockpit. Fighters and kamikazes are only used in combat, against enemy vessels. 4.4.1 Screen Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Blaster bar: The leftmost bar indicates the readiness of your fighter's blasters. When the bar is at its height, you can fire a lengthy burst (by pressing enter, joystick button one, or the left mouse button). As you fire, your blasters rapidly heat up, the bar drops. Once the bar reaches bottom, your basters are too hot, and can only get off shots intermittently. If you refrain from firing to let your guns cool off, the bar gradually rises. In general, you get more impact from your shots if you fire single bursts rather than emit a continuous slow barrage. Kamikazes have no blasters. Speed bar: The center bar tells you how fast you are going. The higher the bar, the greater your velocity. When it is at the top of its scale, you can't go any faster. If you are flying a kamikaze, you will notice that the center hologram will not rise above halfway. This is because kamikazes have a lower maximum speed than fighters. Damager bar: The rightmost bar indicates how much structural strength your fighter retains. As your fighter takes more damage, the bar drops. You will never actually see the bar reach the bottom. When that happens, the fighter is destroyed. A kamikaze posseses the damage indicator, but any hit on a kamikaze will explode its deadly cargo; it never loses any structural strength without being totally destroyed. Radar Scope: This works identically to the main cockpit's radar scope. Main Ship Damage Readout: This diagram provides a graphic indication of how much damage the Trailblazer is suffering while you are in the fighter or kamikaze. Portions of the diagram change color as they are damaged. At the bottom of the readout, text appears on which system was just damaged. If you get concerned about the damage the trailblazer is taking, you may jump back into the main cockpit and take control, abandoning the fighter or kamikaze to its fate, or returning it with return chassis (tap the R key) to the mother ship's hold for future use. Crosshairs: These work identically to the crosshairs in the blaster turret. 4.4.2 Controls ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Speed controls for fighters and kamikazes are almost identical to those of the main ship, maximum speed, stop, etc. all work. The one major difference in controls is match speeds (the M key), which enables your chassis to match the speed of an enemy ship which is currently in your target crosshairs. This ability is very useful for a fighter which wishes to cruise along behind a slower ship and pump fire into the enemy until he explodes. It is less useful for a kamikaze, but is still available. To fire a fighter's blasters, just tap enter, joystick button one, or the left mouse button. The space bar returns you from the most recently launched chassis back to the main cockpit. From there, you can tap the space bar again to get to the blaster turret, and from there you can tap it again to go to the oldest chassis in action. Tap the space bar again to go the the next oldest chassis, etc. Once you have cycled through all your current chassis, your tapping the space bar once more gets you back to the main cockpit again. 4.5 ENGINE ROOM DISPLAY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tips: Engine Room ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Except for linkages, components that do not pulse or spin are useless - separated from the rest of their system they may as well be in the old. * Then converters siphon power from the spindrive to other systems. The more powerful your spindrive, the better those systems are. 4.5.1 Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From the main cockpit or blaster turret, tap engine room to receive a top down view of your ship's vitals. The engine room is divided into five different bays, each holding a variety of components. Some components can be used in more than one bay. At the top left hand corner of the engine room is the screen generator. It holds slots for up to 12 components, but only has 10 at game start. The top right hand corner has the blaster turret bay. It can contain up to 13 components, but only has 7 at the start. Below the blaster turret bay, in the lower right hand corner, is the thruster bay, capable of holding 10 components and starting with 6. Just to the left of the blaster turret bay, and running vertically up the middle of the engine room, is the main gun, which has slots for 7 components, all of which are filled. To the left of the main gun, under the screen generator, and in the lower left hand corner of the engine room is the circular spindrive. It has room for 13 components, starting with 7. The large round component in the center of the spindrive is the navigator, the most important component you possess. Your ship's hold is to the right of the screen. The hold contains components that are not in use, either because you are saving them for trade, or because all the slots for that type of component are filled. The hold can carry and enormous number of components. No matter how many components you trade for or scavenge, you do not have to worry about running out of storage space. Combat damage destroys components. You can repair damage by visiting the engine room and replacing burnt out or missing components by new ones from your ship's hold. To interact with the engine room, use the mouse, joystick, or arrow keys to place the cursor over a component slot. Click on that slot with the enter key, joystick button one, or the left mouse button. If the slot currently holds a component, clicking moves that component to your hold, and empties the slot. If the slot is empty, clicking on it fills it with a matching component from your hold. If you have no matching components, clicking on that slot is futile. Placing the cursor over a component slot in the ship's hold tells you how many such components you possess. Some components come in more than one flavor. If you have more than one flavor of component in your hold, clicking on the appropriate slot brings a different flavor to the top. Then, when you click on an appropriate slot elsewhere in the engine room, the correct flavor pops into the slot. 4.5.2 Thruster Bay ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The thruster bay controls your sublight engines. The components that make up this bay determine your ship's maximum combat speed. Your initial configuration is composed of two burners, each connected to a converter and a turbine. At the start, there is room for two more burner, each potentially controlled by a secondary. Your ship is an immense battleship. No matter how powerful your thrusters are, it moves and maneuvers in a stately fashion. If you crave speed and responsiveness, jump into one of your ship's fighters. 4.5.3 Spindrive ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The spindrive's primary function is to move your ship faster than light. Without a spindrive, your vessel is totally incapable of accomplishing its mission. Therefore, it is the single most important system in your ship. The spindrive is composed of a central Vespucci navigator, surrounded by three turbine/accelerator pairs. It can be enhanced by adding up to three more turbine/accelerator pairs. The turbines and accelerators must be matched in pairs to be effective. A lone turbine or accelerator is valueless in the spindrive. The spindrive is controlled by the centrally located navigator device. This device ia actually capable of propelling your vessel through faster than light drive all by itself. However, the addition of matched pairs of turbines and accelerators permits you to drain off power to be used by the rest of your ship and also enhances the drive's efficiency, so that it takes less fuel to travel through the cluster. 4.5.4 Main Gun ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The main gun is your ship's primary armament. Its sole function is to destroy enemy vessels and starbases. The main gun is composed of an accelerator, a converter, two linkages, a radiator, a secondary, and a turbine. Though the main gun is usable with less than this optimum setup, initially your layout is complete and cannot be increased. 4.5.5 Blaster Turret Bay ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The blaster turret bay is an important defensive system. The blaster turret is used to DESTROY or break up incoming missiles and energy bolts, as well as enemy fighters. The initial configuration is composed of a Cody targeter, two linkages, two blaster, and two radiators, which gives you a twin barreled effect. The bay can take two more linkages, blaster, and radiators, giving you up to four barrels when engaged in battle. Each linkage/blaster connection to the central targeter gives you one working blaster. Your targeter controls the firing sequence of the blasters. It is the key component to your blaster turret bay, and without it, no blasters can fire. The damage rating for a single hit from a blaster is 0.15. A damage rating of 1 means that if the weapon hit your own ship, and was not stopped by screens, it would destroy 1 component. A damage rating of 2 would destroy 2 components, and so forth. If as blaster lacks a radiator, it can only get off three shots in a row before overheating. An overheated blaster fires much more slowly than one with a radiator. 4.5.6 Forward and Rear Screen Generators ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The screens protect your ship from combat damage. Your Screens are always on and consume no fuel. The components of your screen generators are arranged in a y-shape. The right and left arms of the y are the forward screen generator. The rearward pointing base of the y is the rear screen generator. The forward screen generator protects only the front hemisphere of your Trailblazer. The rear screen generator protects only the rear hemisphere of your Trailblazer. The forward screen generator can be more powerful than the rear screen generator. A pair of linkages connect the forward screen generators to the rear screen generator, and do not directly enhance the activity of either generator. However, the absence of a linkage prevents operation of the connected arm of the forward screen generator. At the start, your forward screen generator is composed of two complete arms, each containing one accelerator, one converter, and one radiator, for a total of two of each component. There is no room for expansion beyond this. However your rear screen generator just has a converter and a secondary. There is room for an accelerator and a radiator, should you wish to upgrade your vessel's rear screens. 4.6 ESCAPE POD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can use the escape pod (hold down shift and tap the escape key) to abandon your main ship and launch a sub space capsule, which carries you unerringly back to your home base. Once there, a distress signal is sent to Earth and a new Trailblazer ship is dispatched to the home base for your use. The disadvantage of the escape pod is that is costs you considerable time. The Conestoga colony ship must therefore wait even longer before getting its colony established, and this may mean the death of colonists. 4.7 HOME BASE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To assist you in your mission, a large robot home base has been constructed in the star cluster you will explore. Because the star clusters teem with hostile aliens, a security program has been instituted to conceal the home base's presence from those aliens, as much as possible. After you visit the home base, it will fire you away from itself, a parsec or two into space. Thus, when you travel to an alien world, the aliens will not be able to figure out the home base's location by extrapolating your flight route backwards. The home base has a navigation beacon to make it easier for you to find. To zero in on this beacon, use home (press the H key when in the navigation starmap). This automatically targets your home base for spindrive navigation. When you visit your home base, your fuel tanks are automatically filled from the base's extremely large supply. In addition, you receive more missile chassis and mining complexes, if you have expended some since your last visit. One of the most important functions of your home base is that it continually manufactures computer disks for use in trade. These computer disks are universally valued, and you can use them as trade goods with every alien species known. On each trip back to your home base, you will receive one or more of these computer disks, and you will be able to use them to your advantage in obtaining useful components from friendly aliens. 4.8 MISSION END AND EVALUATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You must find a planet suitable for humanity and obtain the raw materials the fledgling colony requires to survive. Worlds habitable by humans are quite rare. 4.8.1 Colony Planet ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The colony cannot survive without a habitable planet. All the clusters selected for your exploration are know to contain at least one habitable planet. It is often helpful to question aliens about such habitable worlds. When you find such a world, claim it for humanity by launching a mining complex, which will begin the terraforming process. 4.8.2 Resource Requirements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The new colony will require resource to thrive. You must obtain these resource by mining them from unclaimed worlds or through interplanetary commerce with friendly aliens. The amount of resources needed for a particular colony depends largely upon its distance from Earth. The number of resources required for the clusters you are to explore is given below: Hyades 5 resources of each type Cerberus 10 resources of each type Sassanid 4 resources of each type Ragnarok 9 resources of each type 4.8.3 Safety Factors ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You must make the cluster as safe as possible for human families by making friends and eliminating enemies. The new colony will only prosper if humanity has allies in the star cluster. To obtain allies, you can befriend some of the aliens in that cluster. The only way to assure their friendship is to sign peace treaties. The more peace treaties you posses in a cluster, the safer humanity will be in future years. Some aliens are not amenable to peace. Other may not be willing to sign a treaty if you have already signed with one of their enemies. If there is an alien which you believe will be actively harmful to the colony, you must weaken or destroy this alien species. 4.8.4 Time Requirements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Despite its huge size, the colony transport ship is still overcrowded. You are under time pressure. The longer you take to finish preparing the colony world, the more colonists will die. Eventually they will all die. On the other hand, abandoning a bunch of hapless colonists on a world with insufficient resources in a star cluster teeming with enemies is a death sentence for them all. All thing being equal, it is better to spend the time to get an extra peace treaty or exterminate a species of implacably hostile aliens than to bring in the colonists prematurely. 4.9 SAVE GAME TECHNIQUES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Like any roleplaying game, you'll want to save your game to disk periodically, and then restore it later. You can only do this from the main cockpit, if you are not moving or engaged in combat. Just use save game (hold down alt and press the G key) to bring up a screen which you can type your saved game's name into. To bring back a game, use load game (hold down alt and press the L key). A screen appears on which all the saved games are listed. Colony status screen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The colony status screen (hit the C key) gives you an ongoing check on your progress through the star cluster. It lists the amount of each resource you carry. This screen lists aliens with whom you have signed peace treaties, and all aliens you have exterminated or driven from the star cluster. It also tells you of any special non-component cargo you are carrying in your hold.