The World of Computer Software/World_Of_Computer_Software-02-385-Vol-1of3.iso/s/sre0990a.zip/UNPACK.EXE/DOCS/RESOURCE.DOC

Text File | 1993-01-09 | 22KB | 468 lines

                       ┌────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
───────────────────────┤                        │                          │
  ─────────────────────┤   SOLAR REALMS ELITE   │  Resource.DAT Reference  │
    ───────────────────┤                        │                          │
      ─────────────────┼────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┤
        ───────────────┤                                                   │
          ─────────────┤ * Format of the Resource.DAT file                 │
            ───────────┤                                                   │
              ─────────┤ * Different Resource.DAT files for each node      │
                ───────┤                                                   │
                  ─────┤ * System settings                                 │
                    ───┤                                                   │
                      ─┤ * Game settings                                   │
                       │                                                   │
                       │ * Menu customization                              │
                       │                                                   │
                       │ * Example color / menu customization              │
                       │                                                   │
───────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─
  FORMAT
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

The Resource.DAT file has on each line a parameter name on the left and
value(s) on the right.

Strings (text) should be enclosed in double quotes.

Numbers can be put in decimal or hexadecimal.  To enter a hexadecimal value,
prefix the number with '0x'.  (This is the format used by the C programming
language.)  The number 256 can be entered in hex with 0x100.

Boolean values can be entered in many ways:
        TRUE can be any of
                true  t  1  on  yes
        FALSE can be any of
                false f  0  off  no

You can comment out a line by putting ";" as the first character.  SRE will
ignore all lines that don't make sense to it, but they take up memory unless
you put the ";".

You can enter any of the Boolean-values resources on the command line.  For
example, if you want to run with Special Effects ON, you can do any of the
following:

        SRE /SpecialEffects
        SRE /SpecialEffects=T
        SRE /SpecialEffects=1
        SRE /SpecialEffects=Y

If you wanted to turn them OFF, you can do

        SRE /NoSpecialEffects
        SRE /SpecialEffects=F
        SRE /SpecialEffects=0
        SRE /SpecialEffects=N

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  MULTIPLE RESOURCE FILES
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

If you have multiple nodes, you may want to have different settings on each
node.  For example, if you have a high speed node 1 and a low speed node 2,
you can create a RESOURCE.DAT with all the common options, and a RESOURCE.1
for node 1 and RESOURCE.2 for node 2.  Then, in your batch file that runs
SRE, you can tell SRE to read the extra Resource file with:

        SRE -n1

or

        SRE -n2

Things that you may want to do are turn OFF special effects on high speed
systems and set the locked baud rate.  If you're bored, you can even define
different color sets for each node!

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  SYSTEM SETTINGS
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

CheckTimeLimit : Boolean = no
   Would you like SRE to read the time limit from the doorfile?  SRE
   expects the value in minutes; if your value is in seconds, SRE will
   give your users 60 times as much time as they should have.  I will
   add an option if there is a demand for it to take the value in
   seconds instead of minutes.  DORINFO1.DEF and DOOR.SYS both give
   time values in minutes.

LockBaudRate : Number = none
   You should use this to tell SRE at which speed your modem is locked.
   If you ran the INSTALL program, it has set this value for you.

ComN : (port) Number (interrupt level) Number
   You can define Com1 through Com8.  Normally, COM1 through COM4 are
   already defined.  You don't have to mess with this unless your COM
   port isn't the standard port 3F8/2F8/3E8/2E8 with IRQ 3/4/3/4.  Example:
              Com7                    0x3E8 4

TimeOut : Number = 300 seconds
   This is the number of seconds to wait before printing the warning
   "30 seconds before timeout!".  30 seconds past the amount you specify
   here, SRE will return to the BBS.

ExtendedSwapping : Boolean = no
   If this is 'yes', SRE will attempt to swap to extended memory instead
   of disk.  This or ExpandedSwapping will speed up the game a bit.

ExpandedSwapping : Boolean = no
   If this is 'yes', SRE will attempt to swap to expanded memory instead
   of disk.  If both Extended and Expanded options are selected, SRE
   will first try extended, and if that fails, it will try expanded.

StatusBar.Game.Name : String = ""
   If you want some sort of name to show up on the status bar, put it
   here.  This is so that if you run many games, you can 'name' each one
   so that you'll know which one is running by looking at the status bar.
   For example, if you're running a contest, you could write "Contest"
   in this string to have the status bar display that the game is a contest
   game.

StatusBar.Background : Number = 2
   You can change the status bar background color!  I know that the default
   green looks terrible on many systems; the "Display.VGA" makes it more
   readable, but if you don't want to use that option, you can change it
   here.  The background color can be from 1 to 6.  If you try other numbers,
   there will be unpredictable results!

Output.Comma : Boolean = yes
   If 'yes', commas are shown for numbers 5 or more digits long.  If 'no',
   no commas are output.  If you wish, you can specify a one-character
   string as a replacement for the comma.  For example, in many countries,
   the convention is to use a period (".") instead of a comma; to do this,
   you can use:
        Output.Comma                    "."

Output.Time.Separator : String = ":"
   Time is usually shown as "hh:mm"; you can change this for your country's
   conventions to any other one-character string.

Output.Time.24Hour : Boolean = no
   If you set this to 'yes', times will be shown in 24-hour format instead
   of AM/PM format.

Display.VGA : Boolean = no
   If 'yes', SRE will change the colors using the VGA's palette switching
   capabilities.  If you don't want the colors changed, or if you are
   running a multitasking system where the change in colors will affect
   other programs on the screen, leave this off.

System.BlankLocalScreen : Boolean = no
   If 'yes', SRE will blank the local screen while a remote user is playing
   the game, so that the sysop won't be able to watch the user play.

System.Unregistered : Boolean = no
   If 'yes', it indicates that you do not plan to register this game.
   SRE will no longer display "This game is unregistered" before the
   user returns to the BBS.

UserBreak : Boolean = yes
   If 'yes', SRE will allow the user to break out of the program with ^C
   or ^D.  If your users are abusing this feature, you can disable it.

System.SaveOften : Boolean = yes
   If 'yes', SRE will save the user's data often.  If 'no', SRE will run
   faster because it won't be saving 20 times a turn.  If you find that
   your users are cheating by hanging up, you may want to turn this on.

SpecialEffects : Boolean = on
   For locked baud rates, it's not always good to keep special effects
   (the pause cursor) on, since it might overflow the modem buffer and
   cause sluggish displays for users on at low speed.  You should try
   leaving it on, and if users complain, then turn it off.

Display.Video : String = "direct"
   If you set this to "bios", SRE will write to the BIOS instead of to
   the screen.  It makes it "well-behaved" according to DesqView and
   MS-Windows.

ANSI : Boolean (or -1) = -1
   The default is -1; if you set 'yes' or 'no', SRE will force ANSI or
   non-ANSI modes.

IBMCharacters : Boolean (or -1) = -1
   The default is -1; if you set 'yes' or 'no', SRE will force output
   of IBM characters or output of only the low part of the ASCII set.
   (If you like to experiment, try running with ANSI, but without
   IBMCharacters to see some unusual combinations!)

System.Multitasker : Boolean = false
   If you are running a multitasking system, you may want to _try_ this
   option.  I have not tested it too much, but it is supposed to make the
   game give up CPU cycles to DESQview, MS-Windows, or OS/2.  This should
   speed up the system because it won't be sitting in busy loops waiting
   for input.

   Be warned!  This option may not do anything for you!!!  Try it and
   watch to see if it messes anything up!

Game.Log : String = none  (filename)
   If you want to record the last user's actions, you can define a LOG
   file.  This will write everything the user does into the file you
   specify.  Each time SRE runs, it will overwrite the previous LOG
   file, so if you wish to preserve them all, you can add to your
   batch file:
                        TYPE logfile.LOG >>allusers.LOG

Local : Boolean = off
   If this is 'on', SRE will force local play, regardless of the COM
   port specified in the doorfile.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  GAME SETTINGS
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Diplomacy : Boolean = on
   If this is 'off', no diplomacy will be allowed.  Remember that diplomacy
   is required for trading, so trading will be effectively disabled as well.

Treaty.Neutrality       : Boolean = on
Treaty.FreeTrade        : Boolean = on
Treaty.MinorAlliance    : Boolean = on
Treaty.ArmedDefense     : Boolean = on
Treaty.CruiserDefense   : Boolean = on
Treaty.TotalDefense     : Boolean = on
Treaty.Break            : Boolean = on
   These control which treaty options are allowed.  By default, all of
   them are shown on the menu (they are all 'on').

Attacks.Nuclear  : Boolean = yes
Attacks.Chemical : Boolean = yes
   These control (individually) whether nuclear & chemical attacks are
   enabled.  These work ONLY if you are registered.

Attacks.Maximum : Number = -1
   This is the number of attacks (other than pirate raids) that a player
   may make in each maintenance interval (usually a day).  -1 is no limit.

FoodMarket.Name : String = "the Solar Food Market"
   This is the name of the food market.  It defaults to "the Solar
   Food Market".

Messages : Boolean = yes
   If 'no', messages are disabled.

Trading : Boolean = yes
   If 'no', trading is disabled.

Trade.Expire : Integer = 4
   This is the number of days a trading deal can sit there before being
   sent back to the sender.  This prevents empires from keeping their
   items in a trade deal for a long time, because they don't have to pay
   for maintenance while it's in trading.

Scores.File.ANSI : String = "SRESCORES.ANS"
Scores.File.Text : String = "SRESCORES.TXT"
   You can define where to write SRE's score files.  If you set one or both
   to an empty string ( "" ), SRE will not write that score file.

DeleteDeadPlayers : Boolean = yes
   If this is 'yes', the maintenance will delete dead and non-active players
   so that your game will not become cluttered with empires.  If you are
   running a tournament, you may wish to set this to 'no' so that players
   that are dead are left on the scores list.

InactiveTimeOut : Integer = 10
   This is the number of days for which a player can be inactive before
   getting automatically deleted by SRE.  This prevents the game from
   filling up with players that never play.

News.FailedCovertOps : Boolean = true
   If this is 'true', the News Team will report all failed covert operations
   in the News file.  This will allow all players to know who has been
   performing covert ops.  However, it may clutter up your news file, so you
   may want to remove it.

News.AttackVictim : Boolean = true
   If this is 'true', the news files will have the name of the person who
   was attacked.  Some sysops do not want this in the news file because
   other players will see that the victim is weak and attack him.  This
   creates the 'vulture syndrome', where all the players attack that empire
   until it collapses.

News.PirateRaids : Boolean = false
   If this is 'true', news files will have pirate raids in them.

Points.SolarMaster : Number = 5
Points.PlanetMaster : Number = 1
Points.WeaponsMaster : Number = 1
   At the end of each day, the system may pick a "Solar", "Planet", and
   "Weapons" Master.  These are the players with the most score, planets,
   and net worth, respectively.  If you have set up a tournament, the
   player is given points for being a Master for a day.  You can change
   the settings here.  For example, if you wish to base the tournament
   purely on size, you can set the SolarMaster and WeaponsMaster points
   to 0.  At the end of the tournament, the empires are ranked based on
   the number of points they have accumulated.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  MENU CUSTOMIZATION
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

One new feature of SRE 0.990 is the ability to modify all of the menus!
All of the menu resources have the this format:

Menu.«MenuName».Title                        title
Menu.«MenuName».Colors                       (t l b k d c1 c2)
Menu.«MenuName».«Item».Name                  description
Menu.«MenuName».«Item».Colors                (b k d c1 c2)

The title and description are strings; the rest are numbers from 1 to 15,
where   t = title
        l = line
        b = brackets
        k = key
        d = description
        c1 = column 1
        c2 = column 2

If you set the Menu.«MenuName».Colors, it will be the default color set
for that menu, unless you have defined colors for the menu items, or if
SRE has set colors for an item.  The ordering is:

                SRE's default menu color
                Your menu color
                SRE's color for each item [only used on select items]
                Your color for each item

Not all menus have two extra columns; if you define colors for them, they
will be ignored.  If you set the description to "", the menu item will be
accessible but it will not be displayed on the menu.  Some menu items are
invisible, but you can find them below and make them visible by setting
their descriptions to non-empty strings.  (Visit bank and See covert ops)

The Menu names and valid item numbers (and actions, where the key pressed
is not the same as the action number) are:

System          1 2 3 4 13(Preferences)
Sysop           1 2 3 6 7 10(Empire edit) 11(Player edit) 12(Pirate edit)
Galaxy          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10(Join game) 11(Tournament results)
Operations      2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10(Advisors) 11(Tax rate) 12(Production)
                13(Preferences) 14(Instructions) 15(Help) 16(Abdicate)
Preferences     2 3 4 6 7
Production      1 2 3 4 8 9
Diplomacy       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Covert          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 80(Visit bank) 81(See covert ops)
DoubleSpy       1 2 3 80(Visit bank) 99(Quit)
Attack          1(Conventional) 2(Guerilla) 3(Pirate Raid) 4(Spy on Pirates)
                5(Nuclear) 6(Chemical) 80(Visit bank)
Pirates         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
PirateSpy       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 100(Header line)
Buying          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 100(Header line) 10(Sell) 11(Operations)
                80(Visit bank) 99(Quit)
Selling         1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 100(Header line) 10(Buy) 11(Operations)
                80(Visit bank) 99(Quit)
BuyPlanets      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (Planets P E T F R O G U S A)
SellPlanets     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (Planets P E T F R O G U S A)
Trading.Offer   1 2 4 6 7 8 9 100(Header line)
Trading.Demand  1 2 4 6 7 8 9 100(Header line)
Bulletins       [1 through the number of bulletins]
Help            [1 through the number of help topics]

The Bulletins and Help menus are special in that
    1   They don't have keys, so the key color and bracket color are
        ignored.
    2   The help topic / bulletin name is column #1, and the number
        is the 'description', so please keep that in mind when
        assigning colors.

The Production menu isn't really a menu, but it is displayed as if it
were one, so you can still change the colors.

There are over 19 menus and 150 menu items available --- and you can change the
color and text of each one!!!  (Have fun!)

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  EXAMPLE OF NEW MENUS
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

This set of resources will make your SRE game look like BRE!!!

; BRE-Emulator is just a hack right now; in the future, it will
; be expanded so that you can define your own text substitutions.
; For example, SRE could be translated to another language by
; writing text and substitutions that are to be made from English
; to the other language.
BRE-Emulator                            yes
StatusBar.Background                    1

Menu.Galaxy.Title                       "BRE Emulator"
Menu.Galaxy.Colors                      (15 1 1 9 15)
Menu.Galaxy.4.Name                      "Play Game"
Menu.Galaxy.5.Name                      "Empire Status"
Menu.Bulletins.Title                    "List of Bulletins"
Menu.Bulletins.Colors                   (7 1 - - 7 15)
Menu.Diplomacy.Title                    "Diplomacy Menu"
Menu.Diplomacy.Colors                   (15 2 2 10 7)
Menu.Diplomacy.5.Name                   "Tank Defense Plan"
Menu.Diplomacy.7.Name                   "Declaration of War"
Menu.Production.Title                   "Industrial Production"
Menu.Production.Colors                  (15 4 - - 7 14 7)
Menu.Production.1.Name                  "Troops"
Menu.Production.2.Name                  "Jets"
Menu.Production.3.Name                  "Missile Bases"
Menu.Production.4.Name                  "Commanders"
Menu.Production.8.Name                  "Tanks"
Menu.Buying.Title                       "Spending Menu"
Menu.Buying.Colors                      (15 4 4 12 15 14 15)
Menu.Buying.1.Name                      "Troops"
Menu.Buying.2.Name                      "Jets"
Menu.Buying.3.Name                      "Missile Bases"
Menu.Buying.4.Name                      "Commanders"
Menu.Buying.5.Name                      "HeadQuarters"
Menu.Buying.6.Name                      "Regions"
Menu.Buying.8.Name                      "Tanks"
Menu.Buying.10.Name                     "Sell"
Menu.Buying.10.Colors                   (4 12 15 14 15)
Menu.Buying.11.Name                     "System Menu"
Menu.Buying.11.Colors                   (4 12 15 14 15)
Menu.Selling.Title                      "Spending Menu"
Menu.Selling.Colors                     (15 4 4 12 15 14 15)
Menu.Selling.1.Name                     "Troops"
Menu.Selling.2.Name                     "Jets"
Menu.Selling.3.Name                     "Missile Bases"
Menu.Selling.4.Name                     "Commanders"
Menu.Selling.8.Name                     "Tanks"
Menu.Selling.10.Name                    "Sell"
Menu.Selling.10.Colors                  (4 12 15 14 15)
Menu.Selling.11.Name                    "System Menu"
Menu.Selling.11.Colors                  (4 12 15 14 15)
Menu.BuyPlanets.Title                   "Regions"
Menu.BuyPlanets.Colors                  (7 13 5 15 14 15)
Menu.SellPlanets.Title                  "Regions"
Menu.SellPlanets.Colors                 (7 13 5 15 14 15)
Menu.Operations.Title                   "System Menu"
Menu.Operations.Colors                  (15 1 1 9 15)
Menu.Operations.Columns                 1
Menu.Covert.Title                       "Covert Operations"
Menu.Covert.Colors                      (15 3 3 11 15 7)
Menu.Attack.Title                       "Attack Menu"
Menu.Attack.Colors                      (14 6 6 15 7)
Menu.Pirates.Title                      "Select Pirate Team"
Menu.Pirates.Colors                     (15 8 7 15)
Menu.Trading.Offer.Title                "Stuff to Send"
Menu.Trading.Offer.Colors               (7 6 6 14 15 12 15)
Menu.Trading.Offer.1.Name               "Troops"
Menu.Trading.Offer.2.Name               "Jets"
Menu.Trading.Offer.3.Name               "Missile Bases"
Menu.Trading.Offer.4.Name               "Commanders"
Menu.Trading.Offer.8.Name               "Tanks"
Menu.Trading.Demand.Title               "Stuff to Demand"
Menu.Trading.Demand.Colors              (7 6 6 14 15 12)
Menu.Trading.Demand.1.Name              "Troops"
Menu.Trading.Demand.2.Name              "Jets"
Menu.Trading.Demand.3.Name              "Missile Bases"
Menu.Trading.Demand.4.Name              "Commanders"
Menu.Trading.Demand.8.Name              "Tanks"
Scores.Colors.Title                     14
Scores.Colors.Line                      6
Scores.Colors.Key                       15
Scores.Colors.Brackets                  6
Scores.Colors.Col0                      7
Scores.Colors.Col1                      14
Scores.Colors.Col2                      15
Scores.Colors.Col3                      4