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Sherrick & Morris' C L A S S I C * ******************** ********************** * * ********************* ** ** * ***** *** *** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** * ***** ***** ***** *** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *** ***************** ** ****** ****** * RADE **** **** ** ** * * ARS VERSION 2 SysOp Reference for Release 11.14 The most popular door game of all time! From the Creator of the original TradeWars game: Chris Sherrick Software & Documentation updates by John Morris Copyright (c) 1989 - 1992 by John Morris All Rights Reserved Page 2 SOFTWARE LICENSE TradeWars 2 is not public domain software. It is released as Shareware. You are free to copy and distribute TradeWars 2 freely, but if you use the program on a regular basis you are encouraged to register your copy. By registering TradeWars 2, you are helping the author to continue providing a quality piece of software. See REGISTER.DOC for information on registering TradeWars 2. WARRANTY TradeWars 2 is provided as is, with no with no warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. TradeWars 2 is guaranteed to occupy space on your disk. RETRACTION I apologize for and explicitly retract any and all comments or writings of mine pertaining to Tradewars 2002, Marteck Software, or Gary or Mary Ann Martin. I expressly affirm that Tradewars 2002 does not infringe any copyright or trademark associated with my version of Tradewars or any copyright or trademark owned or created by Chris Sherrick or John Morris. Signed, John Morris Well... enough of the legalities. Onward & Upward. Page 3 'BEHIND-THE-SCENES' FEATURES OF TRADEWARS 2 o Runs under nearly any BBS program as a door program. o Many different BBS interface options: Support for DORINFOx.DEF Support for CALLINFO.BBS Support for PCBOARD.SYS Support for DOOR.SYS Support for CHAIN.TXT Support for SFDOORS.DAT Support for LASTUSER.BBS & more! o Support for RBBS door monitor type programs. o Supports 'local only' mode for operation without a BBS. o Full network support using SHARE for file sharing and record locking. o Chat between players function on multi-node BBS systems. o Support for up to 256 BBS nodes under PCBoard & Wildcat! o Support for attacking & killing other players while on-line. o Support for sending messages to other players who may be on-line. o EGA & VGA graphics mode using GGGraph (the TW2 graphics shell program). o Number of messages in message base limited only by space on disk. o Configurable language. o Optional password protection for each player. o Contains its own ANSI.SYS driver. o Support for FOSSIL communication drivers. o Support for non-standard comports. o Multi-tasker aware. (Desqview, DoubleDOS, & DOS/Windows/OS2 idle calls) o Keeps track of time used. o The users time remaining can be changed transparently. o Support for DOS I/O so the game can be 'redirected' to the com port. o Supports Flow control for high speed modems. o SysOp can chat with user. o Contains its own carrier detection routine (no watchdog program needed). o Supports full command stacking (multiple commands on 1 line). o Support for immediate log-off of unwanted user. o Support for networking 1 game between many different BBS's. o Fully configurable playing options. o Creates a bulletin of 'Top Ten Players'. o Editor program is password protected for security. o Debug mode for use in tracking down configuration problems. o Program support by the author by BBS, or voice phone. o Programs protected against hacking by PKLite Professional 1.12 & Many others! HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR TRADEWARS 2 o Any IBM PC compatible computer with at least 256K memory. o DOS 3.1 or above (3.3 or higher recommended). o Approximately 600K of disk space available. o Plenty of DOS file handles in CONFIG.SYS. (FILES=30 is recommended) Page 4 TRADEWARS 2 VERSIONS TradeWars 2 is brought to you by the Authors of the original TradeWars games, Chris Sherrick, and John Morris. We've been bringing you new releases of TradeWars 2 for 6 years now! My, how time flies when you're having fun! The versions of TradeWars we have come out with are: TradeWars - The original game with 60 sectors.. no planets, no teams, not much except trading, and fighting with other players. TradeWars 2 - This is the version of the game that has been coming out for the last 6 years. Originally TW2 had 99 sectors, and the first sighting of the evil Cabal, & planets. Also for a short time, TW2 was known by some for the number of sectors it had: TradeWars 200 (remember when that was a lot of sectors?) TradeWars 500 The first TW2 with teams. But, after that brief interlude, we went back to the name TradeWars 2, and just added a release number onto the end of it: TradeWars 2 Release 6.31 (last release written in BASIC) or, TradeWars 2 Release 11.14 *** Neither Chris or I are affiliated with any TradeWars game not listed *** *** here. *** ABOUT THIS MANUAL This manual is intended to inform you of all the features of TradeWars 2, tell you what the features do, and how to implement those features. Not all of these features are needed for everyone. Most are used only in special cases, when nothing else will work. In general all you have to do is tell TradeWars 2 where to locate your BBS interface file, and that BBS information file will tell TW2 everything it needs to know. MANUAL CONVENTIONS This manual contains the following conventions: [option] Any information inside double square brackets is OPTIONAL. Keep that in mind when you read this manual. Okay, now on to an explaination of those features! Page 5 TRADEWARS 2 COMMAND LINE SWITCHES The command line is the information following the program name at the DOS prompt. Command Line options must ALWAYS separated by space! If there isn't a space, then the command line parameters will be missed! TW2 [node#] [options] Node # - Optional. Is always the first command following the program name. For RBBS-PC SysOps, there are 36 possible nodes. A node number is a single character. The following characters are valid: 1-9, 0, A-Z or, 1234567890ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1 would be node 1. Z would be node 36. For PCBoard or Wildcat users, you would simply put the node number as the first parameter. (no letters please) Numbers up to 256 are allowed. The following options are always preceded with a '/' (forward slash) or a '-' (minus sign) B[ATCH] - Tells the programs to run in batch mode. This is a special case when you don't want the programs asking you any 'questions'. That way when you run that program in a batch file, your batch file won't be interrupted by the program wanting to know, for instance, what your name is. 99% of the time, you will only use this option when running TWMAINT.EXE in an event batch file. You could also use this option when running TWEDIT, but that isn't recommended. Cv[,ww,xx,yy,zz] Communications port information. You will not need to use this command unless, 1: it specifically says to for your BBS program, or 2: You are using a non-standard communications port. (usually COM3 or above) v - com port you wish the program to use. The following information is optional, and is only used when using non-standard communications ports. ww - Base address, in HEX format, of your UART chip. For example: COM1 uses 0x3F8, COM2 uses 0x2F8 xx - IRQ number you wish to use in decimal format. For example: COM1 uses 4, COM2 uses 3 yy - Base address, in HEX format of your 8259 interrupt controller chip. In the IBM PC/XT or compatibles, this is ALWAYS 0x20 In the IBM AT there is a second 8259 located at the address 0xA0 Page 6 The first 8259,at address 0x20,has IRQ numbers of 0 thru 7. The second 8259 chip, found in AT class machines at address 0xA0, contains IRQ numbers of 8 thru 15. zz - Interrupt vector number. For example: COM1 uses 12, COM2 uses 11. At this point you are probably thoroughly confused! Not to worry! There are some general rules to follow in order to set up your non-standard com port. If your IRQ number is in the range 0 to 7, your 8259 address is always 0x20. If your IRQ number is in the range 8 to 15, your 8259 address is always 0xA0. If your IRQ is 3, then your interrupt vector MUST be 11, and vice versa. If your IRQ is 4, then your interrupt vector MUST be 12, and vice versa. Your modem or serial port board manufacturer will supply you with the correct IRQ and UART base address. For Example: Your COM3 serial port is located at 0x2E0, and your IRQ is 4. Remember, IRQ 4 is on the 8259 located at 0x20, and interrupt 12 is always associated with IRQ 4. Your /C command line parameter would be: /C3,0x2E0,4,0x20,12 Another example. Lets say your BBS program doesn't supply communications port information in the information file that TW2 reads. You would then need to specify that com port on the command line. Lets say you need com 2: /C2 COM2 is a standardized port, so you don't need to specify the additional port info! D[OSIO] - Use DOS/BIOS for input and output only. This should enable you to redirect TW2's input and output rather than TW2 doing it. This is for BBS programs which take over the com port and send all console I/O to the com port automatically. This will also cancel the time remaining display on line 25. This feature has -not- been tested, but feel free to try it if the above case comes up. F[OSSIL] - This will force the program to use FOSSIL driver for input and output. This command is superfluous because TW2 will automatically search for a FOSSIL driver and use it if it is found. Using /F will cause TW2 to skip the search, and simply try to use the FOSSIL. If the program fails to find the FOSSIL driver, it will switch to its own com port routines. Page 7 What is a FOSSIL driver? A FOSSIL driver is a device driver loaded into your computers memory when it boots up. Usually in your CONFIG.SYS file. It is a standardized way for programs to interface to your communications port. It also makes it easier for a programmer to do his job, because they don't have to mess around with writing a new communications driver for every program. Instead they just use the FOSSIL driver. G[RAPHICS] - This switch forces ANSI color on. This is used in Local-only mode, or by Opus 1.03 SysOps. L[OCALMODE] - This forces TradeWars 2 to operate in Local-Only mode. This is how you can play the game locally. You also use this switch to run TWMAINT in an event batch file, along with the /B switch. TWMAINT /L /B which basically means 'Run TWMaint locally, without asking me any questions.' M[UZAK] - The M switch tells TW2 that it is alright to play music on the local computer. In some multi-tasking environments you don't want TW2 to use your speaker, so the default is 'speaker off' Note, as of version 11.10 music is only played in the EGA & VGA graphics modes. P:filename - This is the most frequently used command line parameter. The P command is used to tell TW2 where to locate the BBS interface file. This switch is used by every BBS mode, except for RBBS and QBBS modes. This is because the DORINFOx.DEF file is the default. For instance, if you're using Wildcat! 3.x and you needed to tell TW2 where to find your DOOR.SYS file, which is on drive C in the path \WILDCAT\NODE1 then you would do it like this: TW2 /P:C:\WILDCAT\NODE1\DOOR.SYS Remember, the '/P:' is always followed by the BBS info file. Sxxxx - This is used to tell TW2 at which speed to operate. If the program saw /S19200 It would open the com port at 19,200 bps. The S command used infrequently, and is only needed in certain situations. If you aren't sure whether or not to use it, don't. Most BBS interface files provide the bps rate for TW2. Txx - The T command is used only by Opus 1.03 SysOps! It tells TW2 how much total time this user is allowed this session. Lets say a user logs on and is given a 45 minute session limit, then uses 20 minutes reading messages before logging into TW2. You would tell TW2 that the user has a 45 minute limit like this: TW2 /T45 Page 8 TW2 would see that the user already used 20 minutes, and limit their time to 25 minutes. Remember, most switches never need to be used. The only switches you may frequently use are: /B[atch] (for TWMaint) /L[ocal] (for TW2, TWEdit, and TWMaint) /G[raphics] (for either TW2 or TWEdit to enable ANSI color) /P:filename (to tell TW2 or TWEdit where to find your BBS interface file, when running TW2 as a door program) TradeWars 2 assumes it is running under RBBS-PC as the default. Therefore it recognizes the DORINFOx.DEF file automatically. So you don't ever need to tell TW2 where to find the DORINFO file. Lets say you are running a single node RBBS and you want to run TW2. Since you are running a single node, TW2 will automatically search for the DORINFO1.DEF file, and you won't need ANY command line switches! This is all you would need to run TW2: TW2 And that's it! (The DORINFO1.DEF should be in the TW2 directory) If you are running a multi-node RBBS, then you would need to specify the current node number. For instance, lets say TW2 was about to be run on node 3: TW2 3 would be the proper command line. If you are running GAP, or Wildcat! 3.x, you would need to tell TW2 where to find the DOOR.SYS file. Do it like this: TW2 /P:DOOR.SYS Of course, you might need to include a drive and pathname too. If you are running multi-node, TW2 should extract the node number directly from the DOOR.SYS file. If you are running PCBoard, you would need to tell TW2 where to find the PCBOARD.SYS file, like so: TW2 /P:PCBOARD.SYS Don't forget the drive and path (if needed) If you want to run TW2 locally, then you would type in: TW2 /L at the DOS prompt. TW2 /L /G would run the program locally with ANSI color enabled. To run TWMaint in an event batch file, you would use the command: TWMAINT /L /B This completes information on command line switches. Page 9 TRADEWARS 2 SYSOP FUNCTION KEYS TradeWars 2 has a few function keys enabled so you can control certain aspects of the current session. F1 - Pressing the F1 key will the programs to immediately terminate the current session. It will not drop carrier on the user, but simply end the game, and return to DOS. F2 - Shell to DOS. Since this is so infrequently used it isn't set up very well. You must have COMMAND.COM in the current directory for this to work. Type EXIT at the DOS prompt to return to TW2. F9 - This toggles the local display on and off. RBBS-PC and PCBoard SysOps will be familiar with this feature. By pressing F9 you simply change the display status of TW2 not the display status of your BBS. F10 - This invokes the SysOp chat mode. Hit ESCape to exit back to TW2. PGDN & - These two keys are used to DECREASE a users time limit. PGDN CTRL-PGDN will subtract 1 minute from the users time limit. CTRL-PGDN will subtract 10 minutes for each press! The results are shown to you in the lower right hand corner. PGUP & - PGUP and CTRL-PGUP are used to INCREASE a users time limit. CTRL-PGUP Pressing PGUP once will increase the limit by 1 minute. Each press of CTRL-PGUP will increase time left by 10 minutes! As above, the results can be found in the lower right-hand corner. End of Function Key Section. SETTING UP BATCH FILES TO RUN TW2 To run TW2 as a door you usually need to set up a small batch file. This batch file needs to do 4 or 5 things. These are the steps: 1: Change directory to where TW2 is located 2: Optional. Copy the BBS interface file to the TW2 directory 3: Run TW2 4: Change directory back to your BBS 5: Re-run the BBS batch file (if needed) Step 2 is optional, because in many cases you can tell TW2 where to find the BBS interface file instead of copying it. A sample batch file, lets call it TW2.BAT, you're running RBBS, node 2, and you are using COM3, a non-standard port. CD\DOORS\TW2 COPY C:\RBBS\DORINFO2.DEF TW2 2 /C3,0x3E8,3,0x20,11 CD\RBBS You would need to modify this for your set-up, but you can see how simple the batch file is. End of Batch File Section. Page 10 BBS INTERFACE FILES RECOGNIZED BY TW2 / BBS MODES TradeWars 2 recognizes several different BBS interface files. These files are the way your BBS program lets door programs know who is on, along with lots of other information. Unfortunately most every BBS program has a different file format from the rest. Different interface files are recognized in different 'BBS modes'. You will TW2 which BBS mode to operate in when you run I.EXE, or TWEDIT.EXE. Mode 0 - RBBS-PC mode. RBBS-PC mode is slightly different from the other modes in that TW2 will look for two files in which to get information from. These two files are DORINFOx.DEF (where 'x' is the node number) and your main MESSAGES file. (sometimes called MAINM.DEF) Since the DORINFOx.DEF file is the default BBS interface file recognized by TW2, you do not need to use the /P: command line parameter. TW2 will look for the DORINFOx.DEF file in the TW2 directory. This usually means that you will have to copy the DORINFO file to the TW2 directory when your door batch file runs. If you are running a single node RBBS, TW2 will look for DORINFO1.DEF in the TW2 directory. If you're running a multi-node RBBS, and you supplied a '3' as the node number on the command line, then TW2 will look for DORINFO3.DEF in the TW2 directory. In mode 0, TW2 will also look for your MESSAGES file. You supply the drive/path/filename for message when you run the init program. (You can also change it by using the editor) TW2 gets the current display (SNOOP) status from the node record in the MESSAGES file. If you don't want TW2 to access your messages file, then use mode 3, QBBS mode. Setting up a door under RBBS should be fairly simple, but don't feel bad if you can't get it running, you're not the only one! The main things you want to do is create a TW2 batch file. One that looks similar to this: CD\DOORS\TW2 COPY \RBBS\NODE1\DORINFO1.DEF TW2 CD\RBBS Remember the 4 or 5 steps in your door batch file (as shown in the batch file section, if you don't remember the steps, you might want to go back and review) If you named your batch file TW2.BAT, then you will need to add 'TW2 ' somewhere in your MENU5 file. Usually you would have something like this in your MENU5: TW2 - TradeWars 2 Release 11.13 This section is not intended to be the all-knowing reference to setting up TW2 under RBBS. For more information on how to set up a door under RBBS, see the RBBS-PC manual, Section 13. TW2 will also sense the existance of GMon the Door Monitor program if you are running it. GMon will copy the DORINFO file for you and make a 'fake' MESSAGES file for TW2 to look use. Page 11 Mode 1 - PCBoard mode. In PCBoard mode, TW2 will require a PCBOARD.SYS file in PCB 14.x format. PCBOARD.SYS formats before 14.x simply will not work with TW2 anymore! The formats are completely different. If your BBS program makes an older format file, you will need a conversion program to make it into the PCB 14.x format! In your TW2 door batch file you need to tell TW2 where to find your PCBOARD.SYS file, like so: TW2 /P:C:\PCB2\PCBOARD.SYS Remember the 4-5 step door batch file: CD\DOORS\TW2 TW2 /P:PCBOARD.SYS CD\PCB BOARD If you are using Searchlight, you might need to use a conversion program on the PCBOARD.SYS file it creates. To tell the truth, I'm not sure. The newest versions may create the correct file automatically. In your Searchlight DOORS.DEF you will need the following line for TW2: 10;0;0;?;TradeWars 2 Release 11.14;C:\SLBBS;TW2.EXE /P:PCBOARD.SYS ? is the security level required to run the door, and may vary. Remember to include the complete drive/path for the /P: command line parameter. Mode 2 - Opus 1.03 mode. Opus 1.03 mode is basically a kludge. The door interface for Opus at the time was pretty bad. My first suggestion is to upgrade to a newer version of Opus. This makes it easier for you and me. First, you must tell TW2 where to find the LASTUSER.BBS file. You use the /P: command for this. You must also tell TW2 which com port to use. To do this you use the /Cx command. If your modem is locked at a certain BPS rate, you must use the /Sxxxx command to tell TW2 the locked speed. If you wish to turn on ANSI color, you must use the /G command. This means that you'll probably need two doors. One that doesn't use the /G (regular text) and one that uses /G (ANSI color) You also need to tell TW2 that total time that the user has for this session. To do this you use the /Txx command. /T45 would tell TW2 that the total session time limit is 45 minutes. So, if the user logged on, and spent 25 minutes reading messages, then opened the TW2 door, they would be given 20 minutes to play. An example command line would look like: TW2 /C2 /S19200 /P:C:\BBS\LASTUSER.BBS /G /T60 This would mean use COM2 at 19200 BPS, Total time limit of 60 minutes, and ANSI color ON. Page 12 Mode 3 - QBBS mode. This mode is similar to mode 0, RBBS-PC mode. Only in this mode TW2 will only look for and use the DORINFOx.DEF file. You do NOT need to use the /P: command. Simply copy the DORINFO file into the TradeWars 2 directory and then run TW2. Mode 4 - Wildcat! 2.x mode. In this Wildcat! mode, TW2 will look for the CALLINFO.BBS file. Use the /P: command to tell TW2 where to find the CALLINFO.BBS file. TW2 /P:C:\WILDCAT\CALLINFO.BBS If you are running Wildcat 2.x and multiple nodes, you need to tell TW2 the node number on the command line also. Remember that the node number is always the first command line parameter. For node 3 you would do it like this: TW2 3 /P:C:\WILDCAT\CALLINFO.BBS Mode 5 - GT Powercomm mode. To run under GT Powercomm, you will need to use several command line parameters. You need to use the /P: command to tell TW2 where to find the GTUSER.BBS file. Specify which COM port to use with the /Cx command. And lastly, if your modem is locked at a constant BPS rate, then you need to tell TW2 that rate using the /Sxxxx command. Do it all like so: TW2 /C2 /S19200 /P:C:\GT\GTUSER.BBS This would tell TW2 to use COM2 at a LOCKED BPS rate of 19,200. TW2 /C1 /P:C:\GT\GTUSER.BBS This would tell TW2 to use the BPS rate contained in the GTUSER file, and use COM1. Mode 6 - Phoenix mode. In Phoenix mode, you simply need to specify the location of your INFO.BBS file. You would do it like this: TW2 /P:C:\PHOENIX\INFO.BBS Mode 7 - GAP & Wildcat! 3.x mode. In this mode TW2 will use the DOOR.SYS file for the information it needs. Just tell TW2 where to find the DOOR.SYS file. TW2 /P:C:\GAP\DOOR.SYS TW2 will extract the node number from the DOOR.SYS file, so you shouldn't have to specify it on the command line. Mode 8 - Spitfire mode. Spitfire SysOps, tell TW2 where to locate the SFDOORS.DAT file. Do it something like this: TW2 /P:C:\SPITFIRE\SFDOORS.DAT Mode 9 - WWIV mode. To run TW2 under WWIV you need to use the shrink from memory option, otherwise things'll lock tight. You also need to tell TW2 where to find the CHAIN.TXT file. Like so: Page 13 TW2 /P:C:\WWIV\CHAIN.TXT Mode 10 - Opus 1.10 (or higher) mode. This Opus version made my life a lot simpler. You only need to tell TW2 where to find the LASTUSxx.BBS file. The 'xx' is the node number in HEX format. Use the /P: command to specify the file. TW2 /P:C:\OPUS\LASTUS00.BBS Final thoughts on the different BBS modes. If the directions to your specific BBS program don't mention certain command line parameters, then you most likely do not need to use those them! Keep that in mind. Don't make it any tougher than it actually is. Most BBS programs write the info that TW2 is looking for in their BBS interface file. The BBS programs which DON'T write out all the needed info are the ones where the extra command line parameters are used. If you don't see your BBS included in the list, and it uses a different BBS interface file than the ones listed, then let me mail, gimme a call voice, whatever. Let me know, and I'll try to include your BBS program in the list. Also, if your BBS program tells TW2 which COM port to use, and you are using a non-standard port (COM3 or above) you will need to use the /C command line parameter. The only exception is when you are using a FOSSIL driver. In that case, you tell the FOSSIL driver where to find the com port. HOW TO INTERFACE YOUR UNSUPPORTED BBS TO TW2 I suggest two different methods of interfacing to TW2. Both are simple text files. One is more complex than the other, but contains more complete information on the user. First I'll cover the DORINFOx.DEF standard, then the DOOR.SYS standard. The DORINFOx.DEF file. The 'x' in the filename is always the node number. So for a single node BBS, the file would be named: DORINFO1.DEF For multi-node BBS programs, the file would be named like so: DORINFO1.DEF for node 1. DORINFO2.DEF for node 2 etc. This file is an RBBS-PC standardized file, and there are only 36 node numbers supported. the 36 nodes are numbered like so: 1234567890ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ So, node 10's DORINFO file would be DORINFO0.DEF, node 36's would be DORINFOZ.DEF TW2 accepts a command line parameter to specify the current node number. It is always the first command following TW2. So, if your command line read TW2 8 TW2 would look for DORINFO8.DEF. Get the idea? Now we move onto the format of the file itself. Page 14 The format of the DORINFO file is as follows: BBS Name SysOps First Name SysOps Last Name Com Port BPS Rate and Parity RBBS Network type Current Users First Name Current Users Last Name Current Users City/State Graphics Security Level Minutes Left in Session FOSSIL Driver present All lines are in capital letters. I'll give you two examples of what the file typically look like: Example 1 Example 2 THE ABANDONED LAND THE ABANDONED LAND JOHN JOHN MORRIS MORRIS COM2 COM0 2400 BAUD,E,7,1 9600 BAUD,N,8,1 0 3 JOE SYSOP BBS RENO, NV RENO, NV 0 2 5 20 57 119 0 -1 In example 1, the remote user is at 2400 BPS, even parity, with 7 data bits. No graphics (regular text), and RBBS is not using a FOSSIL driver. In example 2, the local user is the SysOp. ANSI color is on, and a FOSSIL driver is present. There are several 'quirks' in the DORINFO standard. They are as follows. 1: A local user is online when the com port is set to COM0 Also, TW2 will recognize a BPS rate of '0' as a local user, but this is not the standard method. 2: When the SysOp is using the game, the 'Current Users First Name' is "SysOp" (without the quotes), and 'Current Users Last Name' is "" a null string. (the only chars found on that line are a carriage return/linefeed combo) Also acceptible is setting the Users first and last name to match the SysOps first and last name exactly. 3: Graphics are off when a 0 is found in the graphics field. RBBS-PC uses a 1 when the user can accept IBM high bit chars, and 2 for ANSI color. When in RBBS mode, a 2 is needed to turn on ANSI color in TW2. When in QBBS mode, a 1 in the graphics field will turn on ANSI color. This difference is due to different BBS's doing slightly different tweakage to the DORINFO standard. TW2 tries its best to cope with these differences. Page 15 4: Note the BPS Rate and Parity field. Whatever the BPS Rate and Parity is, it must match the format shown! Here are some more examples: 300 BAUD,N,8,1 1200 BAUD,E,7,1 19200 BAUD,N,8,1 TW2 will parse out the " BAUD" part of the string, and go from there. 5: TW2 doesn't use all the fields in the DORINFO file. Here are the fields TW2 DOES NOT use: BBS Name, SysOps first or Last name, Network type, Users city, Security level, and FOSSIL driver. These lines are not used, but must still be present in one form or another. 6: Everything in the file should be in CAPS. 7: The space seen in front of the numbers is due to the way BASIC writes numbers to disk. They may or may not be present. Doesn't matter really. This file is small and simple, and I like it. The only real drawback is the limited number of nodes, and lack of complete information on the RBBS system it is running under. But it does what it set out to do, run doors, and it does that just fine. The DOOR.SYS file. The DOOR.SYS file is also a text file but contains more information about the system it is running on, and more information on the user too. The DOOR.SYS file always keeps the same name. It is just found in different subdirectories for different nodes. So when you run TW2, you need to tell it where to find the DOOR.SYS file for that node. You use the /P: command to do it. We'll drop to the next page to explore the file format. Page 16 The format of the file is as follows: (with some notes on exact format) Com Port (COM1: for com port 1. COM0: is used for local user) BPS Rate (Speed user called in at 300-38400) Parity (7 or 8) Node Number (1 to 99) DTE Rate (actual com port speed to use) Display On/Off (Y=On N=Off) Printer On/Off (Y=On N=Off) Page Bell On/Off (Y=On N=Off) Caller Alarm On/Off (Y=On N=Off) Full User Name Users City/State Home Phone Data Phone Password Security Level Total Times On Last Date Called Seconds Remaining This Call Minutes Remaining This Call Graphics Mode (GR = Graphics, NG = No Graphics, 7E = E,7,1) Page Length Xpert Mode (Y = Expert, N = Novice) Conferences Registered In Conference In When Opened Door Expiration Date (mm/dd/yy) User File Record Number Default Xfer Protocol (C, X, Y, Z, Etc.) Total Uploads Total Downloads Daily K-Bytes Downloaded Daily Maximum K-Bytes To Download Callers Birthday (mm/dd/yy) Path to User File Path to GEN Directory (?) SysOps Name (as on BBS) SysOps Alias Event Time (hh:mm) Error Correcting Modem (Y or N) ANSI Supported By User but Not Being Used (Y or N) Use File Locking (Y or N) Default Color (IBM type color code.. 1 to 15) Time Credits In Minutes (this can be positive or negative) Last New Files Scan Date (mm/dd/yy) Time Of This Call (hh:mm) Time Of Last Call (hh:mm) Maximum Daily Files Available Files Downloaded Today Total K-Bytes Uploaded Total K-Bytes Downloaded Comment On User Doors Opened Messages Left By User As you can see, this file has a LOT of information in it. TW2 will not use even a sixth of that info. But the DOOR.SYS file is intended as a standard for all BBS's to use. And hopefully more of them will use it in the future. On the next page, I'll give you an example of what a DOOR.SYS file might look like. Page 17 On this page I'll give you an idea of what a DOOR.SYS file might look like. COM2: 9600 8 1 19200 Y N N N Joe Bbs Reno, NV 702 746-1364 702 746-1365 BAGEL 10 125 01/01/95 2701 45 GR 24 Y 1,2,3,4 3 01/01/96 54 Z 0 15 100 1024 12/31/60 C:\BBS C:\GEN John Morris E-Male 02:00 Y N Y 12 -5 01/01/95 03:47 05:12 20 1 0 2314 Likes To Play TW2 176 18 Just another ordinary text file. Most of the information conatined in the file makes life easier for file transfer doors to work. (lots of file xfer info contained in the file) Page 18 Some notes on the DOOR.SYS file. 1. Like the DORINFO file, a local user is specified by saying COM0: (note the different format of the com port string. The DORINFO file uses COM0, while the DOOR.SYS file uses COM0: a colon is added.) 2. Use the DTE rate line to give the speed to open the port at. There is a difference between the BPS rate and the DTE rate. Say your BBS modem is locked at 19200 at all times. Some guy calls in at 2400. The BPS rate would be 2400, but the DTE rate would be 19200. 3. TW2 will use the 'seconds left in session' field to get the time remaining. 4. TW2 will use field 4 to get the node number instead of you having to specify it on the command line. That is pretty much the extent of it. When making the file make sure you fill in all the info, even if it is faked! Every line has to be there so TW2 won't get out of sync with the contents of the file. GETTING STARTED WITH TW2 Installing TradeWars 2 should be pretty painless. First create a directory where you want to put the TW2 files. Then use PKUNZIP to unZIP the files out of the TW2 ZIP file. After you have unZIPped the files you then need to unZIP the file I.ZIP Once you have done that you can run I.EXE the TW2 Install/Initialization program. The program will ask you some general questions on your current BBS set-up, and it'll need some input on how to customize TW2. We'll go thru each question: Editor Password: This is the password needed to enter the TradeWars 2 Editor program from a remote location. It can be any combination of letters or numbers from 2 to 11 characters in length. Allow Aliases: Should the game allow the players to use aliases? When a player can use an alias, they tend to be a little free'r in their play. Top Ten Bulletin: TradeWars 2 will create a bulletin file containing a list of the top ten players. Here you input the exact filename you wish TW2 to create. Idle Timeout Time: This is the time that TW2 will wait for a user to input information. If this time expires, TW2 will exit. Max Time Limit: This is the total time that a user can play TW2 per day. SysOps Name: This is the SysOps full name. (usually you!) BBS Name: The name of the BBS you wish TW2 to display when the user logs in. Locked Com Port Speed: This is used ONLY for SINGLE NODE systems! If you have a modem with the com port locked at a certain speed, you would enter it here. If you have more than 1 node, type 0 for none. Page 19 BBS mode: Here you will tell TW2 which BBS interface to run. You will see a list of BBS programs, and their respective interface files. Enter the number of the BBS mode. At this point, the program will remind you how to run TW2 (and an example command line) External Maintenance: Here you tell TW2 when the maintenance program should be run. If you tell TW2 to run maintenance, it'll be run when the first user logs on that day. Though I haven't takens lots of time to have a fast maintenance program, sometimes the maintenance will run slowly, and the user won't want to wait. In that case, set up TWMAINT to run under your nightly event. Tell TW2 that maintenance will be run at event time. The command to run TWMAINT at event time would be: TWMAINT /L /B Network Mode: Are you running TW2 under a network? If so, TW2 will use DOS & SHARE to do its file and record locking. When in network mode TW2 will check for the existance of SHARE, if TW2 doesn't find it, TW2 will exit to DOS. If you say 'Yes' then TW2 will ask you how many nodes you're running. Message Subdirectory: This is the subdirectory where TW2 will store messages. At this point the program will start creating the necessary dat files which TW2 needs. It will then ask you what percentage of warp routes to fill. What that means is this. The standard 'galaxy' has 1000 sectors, and about 5800 possibly warps between sectors. You are asked what percentage of 5800 warps to fill. A lower number will result in more 'one-way' warps between sectors. (warps from one sector to another, but you can't go back the way you came) 100% means you won't have any 1 way warps. All warps that can exist, will. 65% means you'll have lots of one-way warps, and a galaxy semi-difficult to navigate in. In other words, it would take more thought when moving from one place to another. The program will then fill the warp routes, create a map, and then try to run the maintenance program automatically. If there isn't enough memory then you'll have to run the maintenance program yourself. I.EXE will tell you how to do that. If you are running a registered version, then you are asked if you want more than 1000 sectors. Up to 32000 sectors is possible, though I don't recommend going overboard. Registered users are supplied with the means to go to 4000 sectors. You will be asked how many more 'planes' of 1000 sectors you want. if you say you want 1 more, then you'll have a 2000 sector game. A question I.EXE will ask is how many warps should hook planes together. The planes of sectors can be visualized like so: I'll use a 3000 sector +-------------+ map as an example. / / (3 planes of 1000 / /--+ sectors) / 1 0 0 0 / / / / /--+ / SECTORS / / / / / / / /Plane 1 / / / +-------------+ / / /Plane 2 / / +-------------+ / /Plane 3 etc./ +-------------+ Page 20 You want to pick the number of warps which connects each two-dimensional plane of sectors. These are always one-way warps. So the user must find another route back to the plane of sectors they came from. A lower number of hook warps means it will be tougher to find ways from plane to plane. TW2 will only hook adjacent planes together. In other words, 1 and 2 will be hooked, and 2 will be hooked to 3, but 1 and 3 won't be hooked. If you wish to have warps going from, lets say, 1 to 3, then you will have to use the TradeWars 2 Editor, and add them in yourself. This will make for more interesting and wider variety of play though! Each plane will have 3 'Sol-type' ports. Or ports at which to buy Holds, Fighters, Probes, etc. So the user doesn't have to go back to plane 1 everytime they wish to by goods like that. Each plane is controlled by its own regional Cabal hoard. It will move independantly compared to the other planes. Once all sectors, and files have been initialized, and the TradeWars 2 maintenance program has been run, the game is generally ready for play. You might want to customize the program some more before use though, and to do this, you will want to use the TradeWars 2 Editor program, which we will cover in the next section. TRADEWARS 2 EDITOR PROGRAM The TW2 Editor is a program to help you customize TW2 to your needs, and to help you fix any problems that might creep up. That is all it should be used for, and care should be taken when using this program. TW2 was designed to run without much SysOp intervention, and I recommend using the Editor sparingly. But, the choice is up to you. When trying to run the program from a remote location (ie. over the modem) you will be required to enter the editor password, which is the first thing you specified when running I.EXE. This is a safety precaution. If you need to run TWEdit from a remote location, I recommend setting it up as a door that can be accessed only by yourself. We don't want a user gaining access and playing around with the game. Once you are in the editor, you will simply see a command prompt. Press the [ENTER] key to see a list of different 'editors' and functions. A - Main Editor Options The main editor options help you customize play of TradeWars 2 game. I'll go thru and explain each option. Some options will proceded with a star (*) which means that that option is available only in the registered. A - Change Editor Password. This is where you change the password needed to enter the editor from a remote location. It is the same password you typed in when running I.EXE. You will be asked to type in the old password before you enter the new one. Remember that case is significant! In other words: MyPassWord is NOT the same as MYPASSWORD Case must match exactly. Page 21 B - Turns per day. This is the maximum number of turns given to a user per day. It is set to 60 as a default. C - Initial Fighters. This is the number of fighters a player will start the game with. They are given this amount when they are a new player, and everytime they log on after being 'killed'. The default is 25. D - Initial Credits. This is the number of credits given to a user to trade or buy things with. They are given this amount when they are a new player, and everytime they log on after being killed. The default is 400. E - Initial Cargo Holds. This is the number of cargo holds given to a user to transport goods with. They are given this amount when they are a new player, and everytime they log on after being killed. The default is 25. F - Maximum Days of Inactivity. This is the number of days that a user can be inactive (not play) before being deleted from the game. The default is 21 days. G - Maintenance Last Run. This is last day that the maintenance program was run. The maintenance program should be run every day, but you can use this command to effect the way the maintenance program runs. You can set it so the maintenance program won't be run for a week, or you can tell the program that it wasn't run today (even if it already has) This only affects the program when the maintenance is run 'internally' by TW2, and not in an event batch file. When TWMaint is run in an event batch file with the command TWMAINT /L /B then TWMaint is forced to run, even if maintenance has been run several times that day. H - Todays Fighter Price. This price changes everytime TWMaint runs. So changing this field only has a short term effect. It is provided as a convenience. I - Messages to TW2 SysOp On/Off. This actually controls the 'Galactic NewsPaper' If you have this set to off, then nothing is written to the galactic news. This remains in the program from the good ol' days before the program was able to trim the news file to a certain length (according to the number of days to keep the news) In most cases, you will want this turned on, and you can control the size of the file with the J command. J - Delete News Older Than xx Days. This will delete 'old news' and keep the TWNEWS.DAT from becoming an ever-growing monster of a file. The default is 7 days. Any news older than that will simply be trimmed from the file. K - Maximum Number of Holds. This is the maximum amount of holds a user can obtain. The more holds a player has, the faster they can become powerful. To keep things from getting out of hand, the default is set to 50. L - Maximum Planet Production of Ore. If a player makes a planet, he/she can have that planet produce goods for free. The simply need to put money into the planet to increase its production. This is the maximum production of Ore Page 22 per day in units. It is set to 20 as the default so the planets wont outproduce the ports by too much. M - Maximum Planet Production of Organics. If a player makes a planet, he/she can have that planet produce goods for free. The simply need to put money into the planet to increase its production. This is the maximum production of Organics per day in units. The default is set to 20 so the planets won't outproduce the ports by too much. N - Maximum Planet Production of Equipment. If a player makes a planet, he/she can have that planet produce goods for free. The simply need to put money into the planet to increase its production. This is the maximum production of Equipment per day in units. The default is set to 20 so the planets won't outproduce the ports by too much. O - Password Required Yes/No. You can specify whether users must input a password each time they play. This is used more in environments where everyone plays locally (as in a LAN) so it protects the players from someone playing around. P - Allow Players to Use Aliases Yes/No. When players are allowed to use aliases they tend to be a little wilder with their play, thus making the game more interesting. You originally set this option when you ran I.EXE, but if you are having any second thoughts, you can change it here. Q - Allow Planet/Fighter/Hold Sales Yes/No. This is set to off by default. If you turn this option to On, then on rare occasion (chosen at random) a player may receive big discounts on the prices of Planets, Fighters, or Holds. When these sales occur cannot be predicted or controlled. Lots of people like this option turned off because all players have to pay an equal price for those goods, therefore no one gets an advantage due to random luck. R - BBS Type. This is the BBS program that TW2 is running under. When you choose this option, you are given a list of valid options. If you are running this game locally without a BBS, then the BBS type doesn't matter, because the /L (local) command overrides the BBS type. S - External Maintenance Yes/No. This controls what runs the maintenance program. If this option is set to yes, then you must run TWMAINT in an event batch file everyday. If set to no, then TW2 will automatically run TWMAINT when the first players logs on that day. I have gone thru great lengths to make TWMAINT run quickly, but in some cases, such as having more than 1000 sectors, TWMAINT will take some time to complete its duties. If TW2 runs TWMAINT, the user must wait for it to complete before they can play. And lets face it, most users don't like to wait! T - Todays Bank Interest. Like the fighter price, this changes everytime TWMAINT is run. So any changes won't last long. It is provided for convenience only. U - Input Timeout In Minutes. This is the amount of minutes TW2 will wait before logging a user off for not typing anything. Usually this is in the three to five minute range. When TW2 times out, it will act just as Page 23 if the user had used the Q)uit command. It will rank players, and exit back to DOS. V - Maximum Time Allowed In TradeWars 2. This is the total time allowed per day in TW2. I consider 45 to 60 minutes plenty of time (for the 60 turn default) Even if the user has more time in the door area itself, they cannot exceed this time limit in TW2. W - Use Network Mode Yes/No. This controls TW2's file & record locking scheme. If you are running under a network, I suggest turning this on (you originally specified this when you ran I.EXE) TW2 requires the use of DOS's SHARE.EXE to do its file sharing. TW2 will search for the presence of SHARE. If TW2 can't find it, it will exit with an error message. X - Use Debug Mode Yes/No. Turning this option on will cause TW2 to display several items containing debugging information. It will show you what it found on the command line, the info it received from the BBS interface file, etc. Also shown will be a display of memory usage. This should always end with an 'All is okay' message. This mode was put in while I learned to program in 'C'. I learned to program in C by converting TW2 from BASIC to C.. (admittedly not the best way to teach yourself a new language.. but what the heck, ya know?) The original C versions (10.x) had multitudes of bugs.. and the debug mode was more important. Nowadays, you can genrally leave this off, unless you are having problems with interfacing with your BBS, then TW2 may be able to tell you the problem. Y - Are You Using GMon Yes/No. This option is for RBBS-PC SysOps using GMon. If you aren't using GMon, keep this optin turned off. If you are using GMon, it will provide a quicker method for returning to it after the user plays TW2. Z - Player Rankings File Name. Here is where you can change the name of the file containg the Top Ten Player rankings. This is usually the name of a bulletin file, viewable on your BBS. 1 - Special BBS Info FileName. Again, used only by RBBS-PC SysOps. You would tell TW2 what the name of your main message file is here. If you aren't running in RBBS-PC mode, then ignore the existance of this option. 2 - BBS Name. You edit your BBS name here. It is shown to the user when they first log into TW2. 3 - BBS SysOps Name. This is usually your name, and is shown right below the BBS name. 4 - Modem Speed Locked At xxxxx. This must only be used on single node systems where the BBS interface file does not tell TW2 about the locked comport. In some cases it can be used instead of the /Sxxx command. Usually it is set to '0', or Unlocked. 5 - Communications Port xx. This must only be used on single node systems where the BBS interface file does not tell TW2 which com port to use. In some Page 24 cases it can be used instead of the /Cxxx command. Usually it is set to '0' or Not Used. 6 - Allow Surrendering Yes/No. This controls whether or not surrendering is allowed. What the heck is surrendering you ask? Well, let me tell ya about it. If a player runs into a sector defense force and the player has overwhelming odds (and I mean overwhelming) the defense force may surrender itself to the player. That way a player can gain a few fighters without having to do anything but appear strong. 7 - Maximum Number of Nodes. This is valid only in when network mode is on. This is the numbers of nodes that your BBS has, or the numbers or workstations on your LAN which might run TW2. 8 - Show Dead In Rankings Yes/No. This determines whether or not 'dead' players are shown at the end of the rankings. 9 - Allow Kloaking Yes/No. This switch toggles the availability of the kloaking device. The default is off, which makes the game more of a dog-eat-dog kinda thang.. In other words, the players can't make their ship invisible, and therefore harder to find and attack, each night. * ! - Fat Cats Restricted Yes/No. This is for games with more than 1000 sectors (registered version) if a player gets above a certain strength limit, they are banished from the first 1000 sectors. That way less powerful players won't have to deal with the 'fat cats'. In theory, this gives the new players a bit more of a chance to get powerful, without having to worry about being killed easily. When you turn this on, you will be asked what the ranking level should be to get banished. 100000 might be a good ranking to start with, but experiment. @ - Default Language Extension. This determines the default language that TW2 uses. Currently, only English and German are available. ENG is for English text GER is for German text MAIN EDITOR OPTIONS PAGE 2 A - TradeWars 2 Subdirectory. This is the directory that TW2 resides in. In 99% of the cases, this field will be blank! B - TW2 Network Directory. This is where TW2 will keep all of its networked-between-BBS data files. (registered version) This is usually a directory right below your TW2 directory. For instance, if your TW2 directory is: C:\DOORS\TW2 Then your net directory would be: C:\DOORS\TW2\NET This can be any directory you wish though. Make sure the subdirectory exists, TW2 won't give an error message if it doesn't, the files will simply not be created. Page 25 C - Message Subdirectory. This is where the TW2 message base files are stored. The TW2 message base is very similar to a fido-style message base, in that each message is in its own file. Because there can be many messages, you should put the message base in its own directory. For instance, if your TW2 directory is: C:\DOORS\TW2 Then your msg directory would be: C:\DOORS\TW2\MSG Any directory will work though. Make sure the subdirectory exists. TW2 will give no error messages, but will not make any message files, if the subdirectory isn't there. D - Maximum Players Allowed In Game. This can be any number up to 200, which is the absolute limit. E - Non-FOSSIL Communication Input Buffer Size xxx. This is only used when not running a FOSSIL driver. A FOSSIL driver sets up its own input and output buffers. The default input buffer size is 256. A lerger size will take memory from TW2, and really won't serve much of a purpose. The buffer is used to gather characters when TW2 isn't ready to accept input. Since there never is a long period of time when TW2 is NOT ready for input, the small size is okay. F - Non-FOSSIL Communication Output Buffer Size xxx. This is only used when not running a FOSSIL driver. A FOSSIL driver sets up its own input and output buffers. The default output buffer size is 1024. Since most of TW2's time is spent output data to the user, this buffer should be a little bigger than the input buffer. The maximum size is 4096 bytes. Even with a large output buffer, it will sometimes get filled up, and the game will sometimes stop, and wait for it to empty out a little. This will only happen with high speed modems. G - Is TradeWars 2 Networked Between BBS's Yes/No. This switch turns the networked-between-BBS functions on and off. (registered version) With this turned on, TW2 will output the necessary data which is shared between different BBS running the same TW2 game. See TW2NET.DOC for more info on the networking functions. H - Is This The TW2 Network Host Yes/No. This goes with option G. In a game that is networked between BBS's, there needs to be a network host game. This is the game all others are based on. See TW2NET.DOC for more info on the networking functions. I - TradeWars 2 Network Node Number. Each node in the TW2 network game has to have its own unique number. That way each node knows where the data came from. The host game is usually node 1, and the Host SysOp will set up each individual node number. See TW2NET.DOC for more info on the networking functions. J - Network Number (used in message base). This is used in the message base for your game, and is not always necessary. You can leave it blank if you'd like. Page 26 K - Node Number (used in message base). This is used in the message base for your game, and is not always necessary. You can leave it blank if you'd like. L - Nodes in Network xx. This is the total number of nodes which are running the same game of TW2, and is set by the network host. See TW2NET.DOC for more info on the networking functions. M - Is Attacking Allowed In The Union Yes/No. If set to 'No' then the Union Sectors can be considered a safe haven for new users. By default, only sectors 1 thru 7 are in the Union, but you can make any sector a union sector using the sector editor. N - Is Sound Allowed On This Computer Yes/No. This turns local sound on and off. If you are running a multi- tasking environment, then I suggest leaving this off! Music and multi-tasking environments don't always mix very well. O - Are Graphics Allowed Locally Yes/No. This switch here is used for same reason as the sound switch. TW2 when in true graphics mode, will switch your screen into EGA mode 16, which may wreak havoc with your multi-tasking environment. When you turn this off, the game will run normally, except graphics will not be shown on your screen. The output will seem a bit jumbled, but you'll be able to see what's going on. Note, the jumbled screen effect will only occur if the remote player is using the game in graphics mode. P - Chat file subdirectory. This is where TW2 will place the internode chat data file. I supplied this option just in case someone wanted to put the file on a RAM drive to speed the chat up. This is for network operation only. Q - Make Sure Data Is Written To Disk Yes/No. In a network situation, you might want to make sure data is written to disk in order to be sure you have the most current data on the disk itself. Usually your data will reside in a disk buffer (in memory) before actually being written to disk. This option will tell TW2 to tell DOS to 'commit this data to disk'. I suggest using DOS 3.3 or newer if you turn this option on. This will slow down file access a wee bit.. not much. Thus completes the main editor options. Page 27 B - Player Editor This editor will allow you to create, delete, and just plain edit players. Use it sparingly if possible. A - Real Name. This is the name passed to TW2 by the BBS interface file. In other words, the BBS/Real name. It must exist for the user record to be valid, and in fact it is the command you would use on a blank record to create a player. B - Alias Name. This is set to equal the Real name if you have aliases turned off. The alias name is the name the game always uses when it displays the players name. C - Password. If no password is present, then the user does not need to enter a password to enter the game. Only if the password is present does the program ask for a password. D - Last Day On. This is the last day the user was on the game. You can set this so the game won't allow a player on for a certain period of time. (maybe as some kind of punishment) or you can set it to just about any day you wish. E - Killed By. This is the person who killed this player. If the name of the killer is the same as the player, then that player somehow managed to commit suicide. F - Turns Left. This is the amount of turns left for today. A fairly simple concept I hope. This is reset to the max turns per day the first time the player logs in on a new day. G - Sector In. This is the sector that the player is currently in. H - Last Sector In. Mainly used when a player needs to retreat. It is the last sector that they occupied. I - Bank Credits. This is the amount of money the player currently has in the bank and earning interest. If the player has over 5 million credits in the bank, interest is no longer paid! J - Trading Credits. This is the amount of 'credits on-hand'. And is used mainly in ports when trading goods. K - Fighters With Ship. This is the number of fighters which are part of the ships fleet. They are used for attacking other players, protecting the ship, and can be allocated to sector defense forces. L - Player Mines. This is the number of sector mines the player currently has. Mines are placed into sectors to inflict damage to someone who might run into them. They can be set to avoid killing players that they shouldn't (like team mates) Page 28 M - Kloak Lasts xx Days. If the kloaking option is turned off, then this field doesn't apply. When a player gets his/her ship it is equipped with a kloaking device. But they must buy energy for it. This field tells how many more days the energy will last. N - Player Probes. This is the number of sectors probes that the player currently has. Sector probes are sent from the sector the player is in, to a destination sector, telling the player what it finds along the way. O - Player Holds. This is the number of cargo holds that the ship has. The more holds the faster the player can gain wealth, and power. P - Holds Of Ore. This is the number of holds that contain Ore. Q - Holds Of Organics. This is the number of holds that contain Organics. R - Holds Of Equipment. This is the number of holds that contain Equipment. Ore, Organics, and Equipment are the three goods which are produced by Ports, and Planets, and are traded at ports to make money. S - Team In. This is the team that the player is a member of. It says 'None' when the player doesn't belong to a team. T - Real-Time Attacked By. This field is used in a multi-node situation to record real-time attacks. Say a user on node 1 attacks a guy currently playing on node 4. The attacker is recorded here. This field is usually empty because the program will be on the look-out for a real-time attacker, if it finds one, it reports it, then resets this field to 0. U - Day Player Quit Team. The program records the day a player quits a team for a few reasons. Mainly I want to prevent users from stealing from one team, joining another and destroying their old team. So, when a player quits a team, they must wait a day before they can join another team, or create a new team altogether. V - Currently Kloaked Yes/No. This reports the current status of the players kloaking device. If you are wondering whether it is on or off, this will tell ya. W - Graphics. This will tell you what the players graphics situation is. None, Graphics, Graphics w/ music. X - Using TW2 Now Yes/No. Is the player playing the game right this minute? This will usually say no, unless you are running a multi-node system, and some other people are playing the game. This could also report 'yes' if, lets say, the power went off while in the middle of a users session. It is reset when a user plays, or when you modify their record with this command. Page 29 Y - Super-Search Uses Left xx. The super-search module is a tweak to the normal auto-pilot. Instead of finder the shortest possible route to a sector, it will find the shortest route to a sector without running into any defense forces. The player buys this module at Sol-type ports. Z - Real-Time Msg From. This works in the same way as a real-time attack. This field gets set when a player sends a message (in the message base) to a player currently playing on another node. That player is then informed of the mail, and this field is then reset to 0. * 0 - Is Banished Yes/No. This is used only when you have the 'Fat Cats Restricted' option turned on. This field tells whether or not the player has a ranking high enough to be banished from the first plane of sectors. 1 - Time Used Today xx. This is the total amount of time used by the player today. 2 - Last Message Read. This is the number of the message the player last read (always the highest message they have read) This will probably change daily, so this is provided only as a convenience. End of the Player Editor dealie.. Page 30 C - Sector Editor Sectors are the areas players occupy as the move thru the galaxy. each sector has a possible six warps leading to other sectors. The sector a warp leads to may or may not be physically next to the sector with the warp. You can visualize warps below. The numbers in parantheses () is the number of the warp (1 thru 6) (3) 0004 -----0003 (2) / \ / \ / \ / \ (4) 0005 -----0001$-----0002 (1) \ / \ / \ / \ / (5) 0006 -----0007 (6) So in this example, sector 1 has six warps leading out of it. The first warps leads to sector 2, the second warp leads to sector 3, and so on. If a warp is warp leads to '0' then that warp is disabled, and does not show up on a players display. If you edit the warps, your actual galaxy will no longer match your map that I.EXE created. Just a warning. A - Warp Route 1. This is where the first warp leads to. B - Warp Route 2. This is where the second warp leads to. C - Warp Route 3. This is where the third warp leads to. D - Warp Route 4. This is where the fourth warp leads to. E - Warp Route 5. This is where the fifth warp leads to. F - Warp Route 6. This is where the sixth warp leads to. Remember, if any of the warps are set to 0, that warp is disabled, and is never shown to the user. G - Port In Sector. This is the Number and Name of the port which resides in the sector. If set to 0, then there is no port in the sector. H - Planet In Sector. This is the Number and Name of the planet in the sector. If set to 0 there is no planet in this sector. I - Mine In Sector. This is the mine which may be placed in the sector. This field will contain info as to what type of mine it is. If set to 0, then the sector is not mined. J - Defense Force Fighters. This is the numbers of fighters protecting this sector from entry by unauthorized players. Page 31 K - Owner Of Defense Force. This is the player who left the defense force in the sector. Note, this option only appears if there is a defense force in the sector. L - Defense Force Orders. This the command given to the defense force when it was left in the sector. Valid defense force commands are: Team - The fighters can be picked up by anyone on the same team as the player who left the fighters. It acts as a normal defense force otherwise. Attack Anyone - This defense force will attack anyone except the player who dropped the fighters in the first place. It will even attack players on the same team as the player who left the fighters in the sector. Attack No One - This defense force will attack no one, and cannot be attacked by anyone. (that may change though...) Attack Certain Player - This defense force will attack only the player it was told to attack. Kind of like a hit squad in waiting. Attack Certain Team - This defense force will only attack members of the team it was told to attack. Everyone else gets thru. Normal - This is the normal defense force mode. It will attack anyone coming into the sector, except for the player who left the fighters, and team mates (if any) of that player. This option only appears if there is a defense force in the sector. M - Part Of The Union Yes/No. This is where you can set other sectors besides 1 thru 7 to be Union sectors. Optionally, the Union will not allow attacking, and you can never enter the Union with more than 2x the number of starting fighters. So if you told TW2 the starting fighter total is 25, then a player can never enter the Union with more than 50 fighters. End of the Sector Editor. Page 32 D - Port Editor Ports are where the user trades goods in order to make money. Ports tend to be complex creatures, and it is not recommended that you change them too much. A - Port Name. This is the name of the port shown to the user. B - Class. This describes the type of port it is. There are four different classes. 0 - Sol-type port. Sells fighters, Holds, probes, etc. Doesn't trade any goods with user. 1 - This type of port sells Equipment, and buys Ore, and Organics. 2 - This type of port sells Organics, and buys Ore, and Equipment. 3 - This type of port sells Ore, and buys Organics, and Equipment. Commands C thru K are only shown when the port is not a class 0 port. C - Ore Units & Price. This is the number of units of Ore that the port currently has and what the price of each unit is. It will also tell you whether the port is buying or selling that item. D - Organics Units & Price. This is the number of units of Organics that the port currently has and what the price of each unit is. It will also tell you whether the port is buying or selling that item. E - Equipment Units & Price. This is the number of units of Equipment that the port currently has and what the price of each unit is. It will also tell you whether the port is buying or selling that item. F - Ore Productivity. This is the number of units of Ore that the port will produce in a day. G - Organics Productivity. This is the number of units of Organics that the port will produce in a day. H - Equipment Productivity. This is the number of units of Equipment that the port will produce in a day. I - Ore Maximum Change In Cost (%). This is the deal the player gets when they trade for this item. The item is discounted more if the units reaches the maximum a port can contain (10 days worth of productivity) The fewer units of an item a port contains the less of a deal the player gets. J - Organics Maximum Change In Cost (%). This is the deal the player gets when they trade for this item. The item is discounted more if the units reaches the maximum a port can contain (10 days worth of productivity) The fewer units of an item a port contains the less of a deal the player gets. Page 33 K - Equipment Maximum Change In Cost (%). This is the deal the player gets when they trade for this item. The item is discounted more if the units reaches the maximum a port can contain (10 days worth of productivity) The fewer units of an item a port contains the less of a deal the player gets. The above is simply a case of supply and demand. It can be based on the following graphs: "Fair price per unit" vs. "The number of units being sold" Port is: Selling Buying (Price) ^ Price ^ | Sp*Mp | Sp-o Sp + ----- -+ o |o 100 | o | o <- Curve | o <- Curve Sp*Mp | o |o Sp - ----- -+ o Sp-o 100 | | +---|------>(# of units) +---|--------> (# of units) 0 d*10 0 d*10 Mp = Maximum change in cost (in percent) Sp = Standard Price per unit (Ore=10, Org=20, Eqp=35) d = The daily production rate Things to keep in mind. Ports will produce goods only until they have reached a maximum of 10 days production of units. So if the port produces 65 units of Equipment per day, the maximum units of equipment that port can contain is 650. Production ceases when the max of 10 days of production is reached. If the port is traded at every day, and the total units is kept below max, it will always produce. End of the Port Editor. Page 34 E - Planet Editor Planets are made by the players for the players. They can produce their own Ore, Organics, and Equipment. A player can also build a fighter factory on the planet this factory, when supplied with raw materials and money, will produce fighters. There is a large chance that the factory will waste most of the goods given it. There is one ideal setting of money and materials which produces the most fighters without waste.. The players have to fiddle with the combination to get it right.. I won't document the exact correct ratio. A - Planet Name. This is the name given to the planet by the user. There must be a name for the planet to exist. B - Owner Of This Planet. This is the player who spent the money to create this planet. It is not always the same player who may be using the planet. C - Ore Units. This is the current Ore stock in units. D - Organics Units. This is the current Organics stock in units. E - Equipment Units. This is the current Equipment stock in units. The three goods can be taken by the user, and traded to a port to make more money, or they can be fed into a fighter factory. F - Ore Productivity. This is the number of units of Ore that the planet will produce in a day. G - Organics Productivity. This is the number of units of Organics that the planet will produce in a day. H - Equipment Productivity. This is the number of units of Equipment that the planet will produce in a day. Goods production is increased when a player gives the planet enough money to increase production. Maximum productivity can be set in the main editor options. You don't to set the maximum too high because the chance of completely stripping a port of all its resources jumps up real high. In other words, the player would have a ton of goods being produced at the planet, and if they traded all of those goods with a port, then that port would reach its maximum level in units and stop buying. I - Fighter Factory Active Yes/No. This tells you whether or not there is a fighter factory on the planet. J - Number of Factory Workers. This is the number of workers building fighters. There is always an over supply of workers, so you can always hire them. But there is a maximum number of workers the factory can handle. Also, you can have too many workers, and you can pay them too much! Page 35 K - Salary per day for each worker. This is the number of credits given to each worker per day. You can over pay workers. So it is best to fiddle with the number of workers, and the pay of each worker to find the best combination. L - Factory Cash On Hand. This is the payroll from which the factory pays the workers. There should be plenty of cash in it, because the workers won't work if there isn't enough money to pay them. M - Factory Ore Inventory. This is the number of units of Ore that the factory has in order to produce fighters. N - Factory Organics Inventory. This is the number of units of Organics that the factory has in order to produce fighters. O - Factory Equipment Inventory. This is the number of units of Equipment that the factory has in order to produce fighters. Factories use 25 units each of Ore, Organics, and Equipment per day to priduce fighters. There must be enough raw materials or no fighters are produced. P - Factory Fighter Inventory. This is the number of fighters the factory has produced and are waiting to be picked up by the user. Q - Defense Force Fighters. This is the numbers of fighters protecting this planet from landing by unauthorized players. R - Owner Of Defense Force. This is the player who left the defense force on the planet. Note, this option only appears if there is a defense force in the planet. S - Defense Force Orders. This the command given to the defense force when it was left on the planet. Valid defense force commands are: Team - The fighters can be picked up by anyone on the same team as the player who left the fighters. It acts as a normal defense force otherwise. Attack Anyone - This defense force will attack anyone except the player who dropped the fighters in the first place. It will even attack players on the same team as the player who left the fighters in the planet. Attack No One - This defense force will attack no one, and cannot be attacked by anyone. Attack Certain Player - This defense force will attack only the player it was told to attack. Kind of like a hit squad in waiting. Attack Certain Team - This defense force will only attack members of the team it was told to attack. Everyone else gets thru. Normal - This is the normal defense force mode. It will attack anyone landing on the planet, except for the player who left the fighters, and team mates (if any) of that player. Page 36 F - Cabal Editor The Cabal editor allows you to edit the location, destination, and number of fighters in each Cabal group. Cabal Groups 1 and 2 are the HQ are Secondary Defense Force. The player needs to destroy in order to defeat the Cabal. There should always be large amounts of fighters in these two sectors. The rest of the Cabal groups wander around wreaking havoc. Type 2 groups have a specific destination, and move to it 1 sector per day. These groups have a goal. The rest of the groups have no goal shown. This is because Type 3 groups pick a destination every day, and move all the way to that sector. On the main Cabal editing screen, you are shown the individual group information. You can edit the groups as you see fit. You also have the 'Edit Cabal Options' command. O - Cabal Options. This is where you can edit the specific Cabal options. A - Cabal Headquarters Location. This is the Cabal HQ. You shouldn't really edit this location unless you really need to. B - Cabal Secondary Force Location. This is the group of Cabal that protect the HQ from attack, and usually is the largest group of Cabal in the galaxy. Again, I don't recommend changing this value unless you have to. The next six locations are places where the Cabal tend to hang-out. You can modify these without too much trouble if you wish. C - Cabal Location 1. D - Cabal Location 2. E - Cabal Location 3. F - Cabal Location 4. G - Cabal Location 5. H - Cabal Location 6. I - Number of Type 2 Cabal Groups. As mentioned before, type 2 groups are assigned a destination sector (at random) and move 1 sector towards that goal each night. When they reach that sector, they are given a new goal and the process starts over. You can assign the number of Type 2 groups. The total number of groups must not exceed 50. (this includes defense sectors, type 2 groups, and type 3 groups) J - Number of Type 3 Cabal Groups. Type 3 groups differ from type 2's in that each group is given a new goal each night, and the group will move sector by sector till they get to that goal the same night. Therefore, type 3 groups cover a lot more sectors per night than type 2's. The total number of groups must not exceed 50. (this includes defense sectors, type 2 groups, and type 3 groups) Page 37 K - Cabal Strength Level. This determines how nasty you want the Cabal. A higher number means more Cabal. The lowest level is 1, highest 10. You can consider 10 to be 100% strength. I recommend 3 to 4 on the meter to be a good level (30 to 40% full strength) L - Cabal Bounty For Today. This is the amount of credits given to a user for destroying 1 Cabal fighter. It changes daily, so if you change it, it won't last long. Note, when a player defeats an entire group of Cabal, then the bounty is doubled. M - Cabal Regeneration. Cabal are capable of regenerating themselves. With this command you determine how many Cabal fighters are regnerated per day. The higher the regeneration the more fighters will inhabit the galaxy. End of the Cabal Editor. Page 38 G - Game Report This is a method by which you can keep track of the game. A game report will list stats on all players, and whats going on in the sectors. When it lists the players, it writes them in order of their current rankings. A Game report can be sent to three places, Screen, Printer, and/or Disk. You choose where you want it to go. By printing the report, or writing it to disk you will receive more information than if you do it just on the screen alone. You choose the output when the screen says: S - Screen only. P - Screen & Printer. D - Screen & Disk. A - Screen, Printer, & Disk. When the player information is written you will see many fields of information. Be low I'll describe what the information is. Fields beginning with a star (*) are only seen in the disk file, or on the printer. Rnk - Player Ranking P# - Player Record # T# - Team In (0 if not on team) Alias - Alias Name Real Name- Real (BBS) Name Day - Days Since Player Was Last On. KB - Killed By (who killed this player) Trn - Turns Left Today Loc - Sector Player Is In Ftrs - Fighters With Players Ship B Credits- Banked Credits * T Credits- Credits On Hand * Hld - Number Of Cargo Holds * Ore - Holds With Ore * Org - Holds With Organics * Eqp - Holds With Equipment * Mns - Mines On Players Ship * Prb - Probes On Players Ship * Klk - Kloaking Device Energy Left * Tim - Time Used Last Day On * SS - Super-Search module Uses Left The game will then tell you how many players there are. Next comes the sector report. You will be shown sectors with defense forces, mines, and planets. And who owns what. End of Game Report Section. Page 39 H or ? - Help You will be given a list of valid editors, and other valid main TWEdit commands. J - Team Editor The team editor will allow you to create, delete, and edit teams. You will also need to use the player editor to complete team editing info. (you must assing each player the correct team number if they aren't already in a team.) A - Team Name. This is the name of the team given by the player who created the team. (The Captain is the guy who created the team) B - Password. This is the password needed when a player wishes to join a team. Case is significant. If a player doesn't know the password, they cannot join the team. Passwords are usually given out by the team captain thru the message base. C - Number of Members. Teams can have a maximum of 4 players (to avoid an overwhelming majority.. I hope..) D - Team Captain. This is the player who created the team. His/Her player record, and name are given. Teams can be fleeting things when all is said and done. It takes commitment from the team members to keep the team alive. Advantages to teams are varied. They can give each other fighters and/or credits if one of the members is in a bad way. They can also get thru certain defense forces, and pick up some defense forces which werent theirs to begin with (as long as the guy leaving the fighters says so) Team players will have a slight disadvantage when attacking non team players. The kill ratio is slight against them, but not enough to offset the advantages of team play. End of the Team Editor. Page 40 K - TradeWars Log This command will display the galactic news file. The only difference is that error messages which may have been saved will be printed also. Error messages always begin with three stars (***). When you reach the end of the log, you will be asked if you wish to delete the log. L - Pack TWPLAYER.DAT File If you TWPLAYER.DAT has grown prett large, you can have the program eliminate any extra player records, and pack it down to a smaller file. This is needed only very rarely, and in most cases, never needs to be used. You will be asked what the maximum number of player records should be. If the number you input is more than the number of valid player records, the total number of records will be the lower number of valid player records. When this function packs the TWPLAYER.DAT file, it 1. creates a file called TWPLAYER.NEW. 2. It then packs TWPLAYER.DAT into TWPLAYER.NEW. 3. It renames TWPLAYER.DAT to TWPLAYER.OLD 4. It renames TWPLAYER.NEW to TWPLAYER.DAT 5. It then asks if you wish to delete TWPLAYER.OLD (the original player file) M - Change Sector Plane This is for registered games with more than 1000 sectors. Above I mentioned how a TW2 game with more than 1000 sectors consists of several 'planes' of 1000 sectors. When you first log into TWEdit, you are on plane 1, which contains sectors 1-1000. If you wish to edit sectors, ports, or cabal on another plane of sectors, you must change sector planes. If you wish to load sectors 1001-2000 you would tell the program to load sector plane 2. Sectors 2001-3000 would be plane 3, and so on. The program will tell you which sector plane is loaded if it is above plane 1. You can then go about and edit just as you did on plane 1. R - Read/Kill Messages This function can't be called a message editor, because you can't edit messages. What it does do is this. It will display all messages (dead or alive) and allow you to delete any messages you like. All killed messages are purged each time maintenance is run. So, if the message base seems to be getting overrun with a ton of messages, you would use this function to clean things up. You will notice that it is very similar in appearance to reading messages in TW2 itself, but it will show you extra things like whether or not the message is public or private..etc. When you first enter this function you will be told when the program is loading the message base. This consists of seeing which message files exist, and then sorting them in ascending order. The program will Page 41 tell you how many messages it found, and what the highest message number is. After that is the message read prompt. Msgs 1 - 15. [Q]uit, L)ist, or message #? Here you are shown that there are 15 messages numbered from 1 to 15. If you press Q, or [ENTER] you will quit this function. If you choose L you will get a list of messages in this format: 1. The Cabal -> Joe Bbs Thee slo deemize That is, Message Number, Message From -> Message To Subject You can read forward and backward. Like entering a number like '1+' will read message 1 and all messages after it. Entering '15-' will read message 15, and all messages before it. If you pick a message number then you are shown the message: Msg #: 1 (pvt) From: The Cabal Date: 01 Jan 99 00:00:01 To: Joe BBS Rcvd: No Subject: Thee slo deemize Maibee neckst tim yoo wil fite better hoo-man --- TWMaint 11.13 Most of the message is in a format which you should understand. Also shown is whether or not the message is public or private (pvt). And whether or not the receiver has read the messages (Rcvd: Yes/No) After the message you have the end of message prompt: More? [Y]es, N)o, A)gain, K)ill? Y)es is the default (if you hit [ENTER] then Yes is assumed) and you chose read forward or backward (with the + or - signs after the message number. you will be shown the next message. If you didn't choose the read forward or backward options, then you will exit the message reading area. Choosing N)o will cause the program to exit the message reading area. Using the A)gain option will tell the program to redisplay the same message over again. K)illing the message will delete the message. Once again, in the editor, you can read/kill ANY message. So be careful. Page 42 T - Go To TradeWars 2 Using this command will cause TWEdit to exit and TW2 will be run using the same command line as you used to run TWEdit. X - Exit TWEdit This command will tell TWEdit to close all files and exit to DOS. Th-Th-Thats the end of the TradeWars 2 Editor Documentation! TRADEWARS 2 VERSION HISTORY History on TradeWars 2 written in BASIC (anything before 10.00) is condensed. TradeWars version 2 first released in June 1986 TradeWars 2 Release 5.x (May/June 88) Several parts of the game have been completely (and I mean completely) rewritten to run more logically, and reduce the risks of bugs. Cabal maintenance was one of the areas that went through this. The Cabal are now more ruthless that ever before, and to keep things interesting all 20 Cabal groups are active at least as long as the maintenance program is running. Some groups won't survive the maintenance program, but they are active while it is running. Cabal Regeneration now means what it says, so be careful how high you set the regeneration per day. Before, there was 'sort of' a limit on how many total Cabal were wandering around in the galaxy.. This is no longer so. Featuring the first rendition of the multi-BBS interface. About 6 or 7 different BBS interface files dirrectly supported. TradeWars 2 Release 6.1 (10/23/88) The Cabal are now totally configurable. you can set the amount of groups (up to 50). The Cabal are still VERY ruthless in the game, and it really takes a good player, or good team to make it up high in the rankings. You can set the Cabal difficulty ratio, which you'll find in the [G]eneral edit area of TWEDIT. This level can be from 1 to 10, and a good setting is 3 or 4.. You can also set the sectors the Cabal can reside in! no more 83-85 restriction! This really makes the game interesting. There are 8 Cabal sectors in all. TradeWars 2 Release 6.2 (01/08/89) Most important feature added in 6.2 is true record & file locking using DOS's SHARE. If you specify Network in the TW2.DAT file, SHARE must be loaded in every partition you plan to run TW2 in! Along with the file locking a couple real time mods were added. When you are playing the game and run into another 'actively playing user' you will see a '*' in front of their name! The game also checks to see if the user has been attacked by an active player, and will kick 'em out if they were killed! Page 43 TradeWars 2 Release 6.3 (04/09/89) Added more ANSI graphics with the addition of a third 'graphics mode'. The first mode is plain text, second mode is ANSI colored text, and third is ANSI color/graphics. Only the higher speed modem users will want to use this mode (unless they are suckers for punishment). Also cleared up are a few ambiguities and/or irregularities. Added is an appendix explaining how you can interface to TW2 from your BBS system (if it does not already have an interface built in.) TradeWars 2 Release 6.31 (05/30/89) Some minor bug fixes to 6.30.. but still, as it turns out, on the buggy side. TradeWars 2 Releases 7.x 8.x 9.x (4/01/89 to 7/01/89) Used only at the Abandoned Land during the rewrite of TradeWars 2 from BASIC to C. None released to the public. TradeWars 2 Release 10.0 (12/17/89) First release of TradeWars in the C language. Some former 'features' were nuked in favor of new techniques to be used in the future. For instance, graphics are gone until a suitable method (in other words: a FAST method) is completed. Added is support for more BBS types, Dynamic Cabal (they can move *while* the user is on-line), and internal support for a wide variety of future options. The game is much faster in many areas.. and about the same in others. The EXE file is currently 60K smaller than the last BASIC version (and 40K in the current EXE file is support for a wide variety of communication options including FOSSIL, Non/FOSSIL support w/ BPS rates of up to 115200). (so, I'm thinking ahead..) Also, The C version is uncrash- able when you think in terms of 'Hit any key to return to system' seen when a BASIC program encounters something it doesn't like. Any possible error should result in a graceful exit. TradeWars 2 Release 10.01 (01/14/90) Maintenance Release Only! Many bugs fixed! I'll try to list them: 1: Eliminated the negative trading price bug.. (worst of the bunch!) 2: Fixed GTUSER.BBS interface.. (I never did find the bug, so I rewrote the whole thing. 3: If the SysOp did not have ANSI.SYS loaded, the local screen would not have ANY text printed to it! SO I rewrote the local screen routines.. They are 4 to 5 times faster now! 4: Fixed team bug. Team info was not recorded when user [M]ade a team. To get teams back on track, simply eliminate all teams in the editor, and make sure everone does not belong to a team, then let them create the teams from scratch. 5: On systems inited after 01/01/90 TWMAINT would delete all users even if they were on that day.. The program was insisting negative numbers were greater then positive.. so I rewrote a few lines.. 6: Removed unsightly debugging code in trading area. 7: Made sure when a SysOp specifies a comm port in TWEDIT that the program actually uses that port number! 8: Made sure bulletin was completely printed out every time! Page 44 TradeWars 2 Release 10.10 (05/01/90) Lots & Lots of bug fixes.. some pretty apparent, others not so apparent. Added to the program are an Opus 1.10 interface, and a way for players to chat across nodes. Also starting with release 10.10 TW2 will be 'Auto- Verified' everytime you unZIP the package. This is using the authenticity verification feature of PKZip 1.10. If you didn't see an auto-verify message when you unZIPped the file, then I'd do a couple things. First, I wouldn't use the files (this is for security reasons). Second, I'd complain to the SysOp of the bulletin board system that modified the file. The Auto-Verify message serves one main purpose: It makes sure that the file has not been modified since I ZIPped it up. This should make us both breathe a little easier. My thanks to Phil Katz for that wonderful feature! TradeWars 2 Release 10.20 (08/26/90) Main change.. Two versions. Registered, and unregistered. With the registered version you get the possibility of more than 1000 sectors. Added was multi- language capability. Fixes: Rankings completely rewritten to be a lot faster, this is because with the possibility of many sectors, rankings could have taken FOREVER in their former incarnation. A couple BBS interface bugs were nuked, included therein are the Spitfire minutes->seconds bug, and a rewrite of the GTUSER.BBS interface (I'm keeping my fingers crossed) Flow control problems were fixed (when NOT using a FOSSIL driver) except for the problem where the program ends before the buffers are cleared.. I'm working on that.. On multi-node systems, teams, planets, and players could get cross linked, for instance, sector 12 and sector 783 could have the same planet. This happened when two players on separate nodes would make a team or create a planet.. TW2 now checks to make sure it gets a separate record. (note, TW2 won't fix the problem if already done, that must be done manually). I redid the stack command routines. Try some stack commands, and tell your users about them. Also fixed, Messages to TEAMS sometimes being seen by users not belonging to that team. Porting in a sector that has no port, after sending a probe to a sector with a port. Surrenduring actually works when turned on. Reports of fighters remaining weren't correct in the beta releases of TW2 10.20.. fixed for the real release. TradeWars 2 Release 11.00 (02/10/91) New message base, and BBS networking capabilities. Fixed Super-Search screw- up. 'Dynamic Cabal' are now much more dynamic considering they weren't working at all. Worked on modem flow-control, team data errors, duplicate planet names. Maintenance is now more 'talkative'. Cabal maintenance has more checks for fighters, and now must attack a DF (defense force) before entering a sector or attacking a planet. Fixed 'I' program so its upper sector limit is now 32,000 sectors (registered ver.). Also added are planetary defense forces. TradeWars 2 Release 11.10 (08/04/91) One major addition.. Graphics Mode. TW2, in conjunction with another one of my programs, GGGraph, will display true graphics to the remote caller. (The remote caller must be running GGGraph to see the graphics) GGGraph operates in video mode 16 (640x350,16 color mode) so the user must have an EGA or VGA adapter. GGGraph is not specific to TW2. This will mean that even if TW2 changes the graphics the users will see from time to time, they will most likely never need a new version of GGGraph. They will just need the graphics command file from that new release of TW2. Wrote a sound subroutine similar to BASIC's PLAY statement. A user using GGGraph can also receive this music. Page 45 Bug fixes: Once again, new com port routines. Apparently, not all modems work the same, and the CTS signal is sometimes worthless. TW2 now checks to see how many bytes are left in the output buffer, and doesn't try to write anything to the com port unless there is room. Also, I rewrote the FOSSIL driver interface in C and 'in-line assembler' using MSC 6.00A. Rewrote the 'Dynamic Cabal' routine. The roving Cabal group was destroying any existing defense forces. Date now being completely overwritten in the lotto log. Kloak no longer displayed at Sol if not allowed. Msg base was skipping a message if you killed a msg while reading forward. TWMaint was generally screwing up when the Cabal attacked and/or destroyed a planet. Put in some more error checking into the networking-betwixt-BBS code. TW2 will now accept node numbers upwards of 256 in PCBoard or Wildcat! mode. All EXE files are compressed with PKLite Pro, and cannot be uncompressed. TradeWars 2 Release 11.11 (11/13/91) Maintenance release. Fixed a bug when the user would enter the gambling computer, and it would try to write some graphics commands.. I don't know how this bug was missed it was way too obvious. Started using the rewritten file access routines that I didn't want to throw into 11.10. I'd say file access will be a wee bit more slow, but a lot more bullet proof, with smaller code size. Also, some of the mid-level input and output routines were reworked. The program will act slightly different in some situations, but the job will eventually get done the same way. I eliminated possible recursive calls where I didn't think they were appropriate. Also broke the routines into smaller pieces. Time keeping was slightly tweaked. When in local mode, TW2 wouldn't exit when time ran out. This has been fixed. Docs rewritten from scratch. SYSOP.DOC, and TWEDIT.DOC were combined into one unit. More info has been supplied on all of the features of the game. TW2 wasn't correctly recognizing local mode when using a DOOR.SYS file.. This must have been present for 2+ years and I didn't hear about it! (Skipped 11.12 because a beta got out!) TradeWars 2 Release 11.13 (05/25/92) Another maintenance release. Fixed chat mode problem. Also changed the way attacks may take place. ie. Defense forces which were set to attack no one could not be attacked themselves. You can now attack them. I'm working on ideas for an upcoming release. If you have any suggestions for changes or improvements, please let us know! TradeWars 2 Release 11.14 (07/20/92) Made the "network between BBS's" option available to everyone. You are now free to network TW2 between different BBS's. Try it and see what you think. Included a version of TW2.H which will show the various file formats used by TW2. Page 46 THANKS I would like to take a time-out and thank everone who has helped put TradeWars 2 together. Chris Sherrick - The creator of the original TradeWars 2 game. Jim Leenan Andrew Hoag Rick Hines Roger Reesor Paul Waldinger Charlie Smith Gary Funk David Friedman Rob Lerman Eric Carr John Zimmerman George Lungu Rich Hackney Rick Box Dikran Garabedian Patrick Logan And everyone else who contributed to the cause. There are too many of you to list by name! Thanks again! UPGRADING TO RELEASE 11.14 If you are running a release of TradeWars 2 with a release number below 10.10, then you must start from scratch. Delete all of your old files, and unZIP the new TW2 files into your directory, and run I.EXE. Also see the GETTING STARTED section found previously in the docs. If you are using TradeWars 2 Release 10.10 or later, then you simply need to replace your EXE files, and any other files contained in TW2-1114.ZIP which are newer than the ones on your disk. Also, any files which are in TW2-1114.ZIP that aren't on your disk should be unZIPped also. Then run the maintenance program. This will convert over any data which needs to be updated to a new format. Then go into the editor, make sure things appear to be correct, and if they are, then the program is ready to run. If you are starting from scratch, see the GETTING STARTED section shown previously in this document. I'M HAVING PROBLEMS WITH TRADEWARS 2 First of all, don't ever assume that I know about every bug. Always assume I DON'T know about ANY bugs. Its better to inform me of a bug I may know about, than not to report it at all! When you discover a bug, please try and get a capture file which shows the bug in action. As someone anonymous once said: "Gather enough information, and the solution will be obvious" I can't stress the importance of that enough. I also will need to know the release number, the BBS program you're running, and a complete description of the problem. I can only support the TradeWars program I am affiliated with, which is TradeWars 2. I can't help with any other TradeWars program. Page 47 HOW TO REACH ME I support this program to the best of my ability. There are several different ways of contacting me. Mail: John Morris 1718 Woodhaven Ln. Sparks, NV 89434 Netmail: RBBS-Net 8:919/1 or 2 -OR- Fidonet 1:213/760 or 761 Echomail: The TW-ECHO & TW-BETA echomail conferences. I am not affiliated with the TRADEWARS echo. BBS: The Abandoned Land (702) 359-1138 (702) 359-0629 Voice: (702) 359-1303 If I'm not at home, and you have a bug report, you can leave a message about the bug on my answering machine. As you may hear on my answering machines message, I don't get a chance to return many phone calls.. maybe 1 in 100.. thats it. I wish I could return more of them, but this program is just a hobby at the moment, and I have lots of other things I need to do. Its mainly a lack of time. I always return mail left to me on my BBS. So if you must have a reply, e-mail me on The Abandoned Land. FINALLY No more preaching. In previous TradeWars 2 documents, I made comments about several different items, and I almost got sued because of it. Thus the the removal of my 'editorial' segments from the TradeWars 2 documentation. End of TW2.DOC