The Game Master (3rd Edition)/The Game Master 3rd edition.iso/files/game_vga/ns10/ns10.exe/INS.C

Text File | 1992-04-11 | 18.9 KB | 429 lines

                                NOVA STRIKE

    Nova Strike is a flight simulation combat game which takes place in space.
The object of the game is to destroy enemy ships and their bases through a
combination of tactics and strategy.  You are given only one ship which has
superior performance and weapons to accomplish this.  Their are 6 difficulty
levels, each progressively harder.  Each one has a corresponding number of enemy
ships and bases.  You will be given an equal number of bases.  This game
requires a 80286 or greater, 210k of free memory, VGA graphics and a mouse.


                              BEGINNING OF GAME

    When game begins each ship will be positioned behind one of its bases.  The
positions of these bases are randomly chosen each game.  The location of enemy
ships and bases is unknown to you.  You must cruise around and find them.  While
you are doing this enemy ships are attempting the same.


                                  OUTCOME

    When either your ship or all enemy ships are destroyed the game will end,
unless there are missiles in flight.  If so, the game will continue only until
they detonate.  Game can end in a win, lose or draw.


                             INSTRUMENT DISPLAY

    When game begins you will be position directly behind one of your bases
and your instrument display will be on.  On the right there are five horizontal
bars, they are:

VLCY - your velocity
ACCL - your acceleration
SHLD - your shield strength
LASR - your laser strength
FUEL - your current fuel

    Their two more items displayed as text, they are:

MISSILES - your current count of missiles.

AUTOFIRE - whether autofire is on or off.  If on it will fire lasers anytime
           you have a laser lock on a target.  It is extremely useful because
           it is difficult to get and maintain a laser lock long enough fire,
           especially at long ranges.  Remember to turn it off when approaching
           one of your bases.

    There are three circles in the middle of the screen, they are:

2D       - top down radar.  Objects above you are red and objects below you
           are green.

3D       - 3 dimensional radar.  You are given a three dimensional perspective
           of where an object is in relation to your viewpoint.  Objects in
           front of you are green and objects behind you are red.

           On both radars bases and ships are displayed constantly while
           missiles blink.

Artificial Horizon - the small circle between the radars is the artificial
                    horizon.  Your roll and pitch are displayed as arcs.

LOCK     - If a missile has a lock on your ship the word "LOCK" will appear
           below the artificial horizon.

     Finally, on the right there are:

STAR REFUELING     - if you currently whithin the star system this will be on
                     and you are continuously gaining 25 units of fuel.

DIFFICULTY         - the difficulty level of this game.

REMAINING BASES    - the remaining enemy bases.

REMAINING SHIPS    - the remaining enemy ships.


                                STAR SYSTEM

    The game takes place in a system of stars.  The system is circular although
most of the stars are located in a narrow horizontal plane.  It is here that all
bases are located.  The stars are not active in any way except as a frame of
reference when flying and continuously supplying 25 units of fuel to any ship
within the system.


                               FLIGHT OVERLAYS

    At all times your flight stick, the small square and the flight stick home,
the small cross are dispayed.


                               WEAPONS OVERLAYS

    There are two types of crosshairs.  One is the regular one with horizontal
and vertical lines and the other is a circle with a dot in the center.  Also you
can toggle them off.

    If you have a laser lock on a target a small box will appear in the center
of the crosshairs.

    If you have a missile lock on a target a large circle will appear around
the crosshairs.  If you have no missiles this circle will not appear since it
is distracting when you have no missiles to fire.

    If you have a lock on a target it will display that targets shield strength
below the crosshairs.


                           LASER AND MISSILE LOCKS

    Laser locks require that a ship or base be in your line of sight while
missile locks extend for a certain angle from your line of sight.  Normally, a
missile lock will be on the closest ship within that angle, however, if you have
a laser lock on a target the missile lock will also be set to that target.  To
get either type of lock you must aim for the center of the ship.  Finally, you
must have a lock to fire a weapon.

Note:  Occasionally you may have a lock on a target and the weapon won't fire.
       This is because you didn't have the lock the next time around when the
       keyboard command was processed.  You can avoid this with "AUTOFIRE" for
       the lasers and by attempting to fire the missiles just before you expect
       to have a missile lock in a combat situation.


                                TACTICAL OVERLAYS

    When tactical overlays are on, bases and ships are designated by triangles
and circles respectively in the following conditions:

    Your bases are displayed as green triangles.  If a base has been discovered
by the enemy it will blink.

    Once you have discovered an enemy base it will be displayed as a red
triangle.

    Enemy ships will have a circle around them, this aids in acquiring the
ship quickly if it is very small.  If the circle is blinking it means that
the ship is out of your radar range and in the radar range of one of your
bases.  When the ship is very close to you the circle will not appear.


                            STRATEGIC OVERLAYS

    Strategic overlays will display a map of the entire system.  Bases will be
displayed the same as in tactical overlays.  The location and direction of
ships are displayed as small vectors.  Your ship is yellow and enemy ships are
orange.  You can change the magnification of this map and also toggle the
shield strength of your bases and any enemy ships or bases in your radar range.


                                PERFORMANCE

    Enemy ships have 25 percent less maximum acceleration and velocity than your
ship.


                                  SHIELDS

    Both ships and bases have shields.  However, only ships have shields that
can regenerate. Shields take damage from missiles, lasers and in the case of
ships, collisions.  Bases take only one fifth the damage that a ship would take
to its shields.  Once either takes damage that takes the shield strength below
0, they are destroyed.  Ship shields are regenerated by consuming fuel.



                                  LASERS

   All ships have lasers.  It takes eight units of energy to fire your lasers
and each shot causes ten units of shield damage.  Enemy lasers take four units
of energy to fire and cause five units of shield damage.  Also, enemy ships can
fire their lasers at only one fourth the rate your ship can. Lasers are
regenerated by consuming fuel.  If you have insufficient energy to fire your
lasers your laser strength will blink.


                                  MISSILES

    All ships can carry up to 3 missiles.  Missiles can only be fired if their
is a missile lock on a target.  Once fired they will home in on their target
even if another ship passes in front of them.  Only if they lose a lock on the
target or if the target is destroyed before the missile reaches it will a
missile attempt to lock on to another ship.  Missiles can fly only a certain
amount time after which they detonate.  When missiles detonate they cause damage
to any ship or base near them regardless of what the target was.  All missiles
have twice your ships max acceleration and max velocity.  Enemy missiles cause
between 0 - 30 units of damage while your missiles cause between 0 - 120 units
of damage depending on how well they intercept a ship.  Best way to limit the
damage caused by a missile to have a high velocity and pull up or down before
they hit.  Also flying towards the missile creates a very high closing speed and
makes it harder for it to get a good intercept.  One other way is to outrun
a missile.  If the missiles are fired from near your max radar range and you
have a high velocity and you can fly directly away from them then they might
not reach you before they have to detonate.

Note:  Often when you fire missiles they appear to fly off the screen.  This is
       because they are out of your field of vision, they are still homing in
       on their targets.


                               FUEL CONSUMPTION

    Fuel is used for acceleration and to regenerate shields and lasers.  All
ships have the same amount of fuel but your ship is able to consume fuel twice
as fast if necessary for acceleration and regeneration of shields and lasers.
The amount of energy that goes towards regenerating your lasers and shields is
your maximum fuel consumption minus your acceleration.  Also while you are in
the star system you will gain 25 units of fuel which is enough to maintain 25
percent of your maximum acceleration.  Be careful not to run out of fuel
outside of the system or you will be stuck.  A max fuel load is approximately
enough to get you from one end of the star system to the other and back.


                                  RADAR

    All ships and bases have radar of the same range.  While bases cannot attack
an enemy ship, they do transmit the shield strength and position of an enemy
ship.  For example, if enemy ships are within the radar range of your base but
not your ship it will be displayed on the strategic display and tactical
overlays.


                                  COLLISIONS

    If ships collide with each other they cause 1 unit of damage to each others
shields.  If enemy ships collide with either themselves or you they will break
off the collision.  You do not collide with bases.


                                   BASES

    Bases consist of two horizontal triangles.  Yours are green and the enemies
are red.  Bases are passive, they cannot attack and you cannot collide with
them.  They are used to refuel and rearm.  They do have radar which allows any
ship on its side to know if it is being attacked and if it was destroyed.  Their
shields do not regenerate, instead they take take damage until they are
destroyed.  Since bases do not move once an enemy base comes within your ships
radar range its location will be known from then on, and you can see it on your
tactical and strategic displays.


                                  DOCKING

    To dock with a base you need to fly through the center of it at a low
velocity.  If your tactical overlays are on fly directly at the triangle.
You will replenish your missiles and fuel as well as having your shields and
lasers regenerated.  However, if you have any missiles in flight when you dock
you can replenish your missiles only up to the number of missiles that are not
in flight.  You cannot fire weapons when you are docking and you cannot dock at
an enemy base.


                                    SOUND

    There are different sounds for firing missiles, firing lasers, exploding
missiles, exploding ships, and collisions.  Exploding ships sound only slightly
different than exploding missiles.  There is no distance limitation for a sound
except the sound of a collision.  You will only hear this sound if your ship
collides with an enemy ship.


                           MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION

    - When enemy ships attack your bases they use their lasers only.  They save
      their missiles for your ship.

    - When you're upside down, objects will rotate towards you from the opposite
      direction as shown on the 2D radar.


                               FILE SAVING

    If you are using the registered version of this software you can save
games and the configuration.  Filenames can be from 1 to 8 characters including
the letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and the underscore.  You must also enter the
extension ".10" for the version of the software.  You may save as many files as
you wish but the directory list can only list 100.

Note:  Letters are displayed as upper case even though caps lock is off.

    You can also save the configuration which are the defaults you are allowed
to change such as colors on the instrument display and the mouse speed.  From
then on whenever you begin a new game you have the new defaults.


                             KEYBOARD COMMANDS

` - set roll to 0
1 - set acceleration to 0             r - fire missile
2 - set acceleration to max           e - toggle autofire
3 - fire lasers                       w - increase acceleration
4 - toggle sound                      q - decrease acceleration

a - toggle tactical overlays          z - toggle instrument display
s - increase magnification            x - save configuration (if registered)
d - decrease magnification            c - restore default configuration
f - toggle strategic display          v - toggle shield strength

              Esc - to quit or save game and quit (if registered).

           Pause key will halt the game, hit the spacebar to continue.


                         Changing the Configuration

6 - cycle instrument display          y - cycle radar center
7 - cycle text                        u - cycle warp
8 - cycle increment                   i - cycle acceleration
9 - cycle top of horizon              o - cycle shield
0 - cycle bottom of horizon           p - cycle laser
- - decrease delays                   [ - decrease mouse speed
= - increase delays                   ] - increase mouse speed

h - cycle fuel                        n - cycle missile lock
j - cycle crosshair type              m - cycle ship overlays
k - cycle crosshair                   , - toggle speed moderation
l - cycle flight stick
; - cycle flight stick home
' - cycle laser lock


    The mouse controls the roll and pitch changes.  Moving the mouse backward
increases the pitch, moving it forward decreases the pitch.  Moving it to the
right rolls to the left, and moving it to the left rolls to the right.


                                   MORE DETAIL


CYCLE INSTRUMENT DISPLAY 6
This changes the color of the instrument display.  You are prevented from
changing the color to either top or bottom horizon color.  However you may
blank out other items by changing this.

CYCLE HORIZON COLORS 9 0
When cycling these colors you are prevented from changing them to the color of
the instrument display.

CHANGE MAGNIFICATION f d
This changes the magnification of the strategic display.  The three lowest
settings magnify in respect to the center of the star system, the rest in
respect to your ship.

SET ROLL TO 0 `
This will enable your ship to fly perfecty straight.  Without this, even if your
artificial horizon shows you as straight you still may have some roll.  This
will only work if the roll is within certain range of 0 to begin with.

TOGGLE SHIELD STRENGTH v
With this on you will see the shield strength of your bases and any ships in
their radar range and any ships or bases in your ships radar range.

DELAYS - =
Setting delays will slow down the game.  This may be necessary if program runs
to fast on your computer.  Also if the top of the screen or the mouse stick
flickers excessively you will need to increase this.  The default is 0.

CYCLE SHIP OVERLAYS m
This is the color of the circle that surrounds and enemy ship when tactical
overlays are on.

CHANGING MOUSE SPEED [ ]
Changes the rate the roll, pitch and yaw change in regard to your flight stick.
The minimum value is 5 and the maximum is 25. The default is 15.

TOGGLE SPEED MODERATION ,
When this is on the computer attempts to keep the speed of the game constant for
the difficulty level.  With it off the game will get faster as you destroy
ships.  Normally this would be on, but if your computer runs slow at a high
difficulty level you can use this to increase the speed as you destroy enemy
ships.  Then if it starts running too fast you can increase the delays to slow
the game down.


                             POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

MEMORY - this program needs about 15k of memory free in addition to the size of
         the executable for memory allocations.  Insufficient memory will cause
         file or alloc errors.  To correct this problem remove anything other
         than DOS and the mouse driver from the lower 640k memory.

SCREEN FLICKER - because of the speeds of different CPU's and VGA cards, the top
                 of the screen or the whole screen or just the flight stick
                 might flicker.  To stop this increase the number of delays
                 "=".

FILE ERRORS - if you get an error reading or writing a file the program will
              abort.  Most likely cause is that there is not sufficient memory
              to allocate a file buffer or room on the disk.  Also the file
              could be corrupted or had the permission changed.

ALLOC ERRORS - there is insufficient memory for a memory allocation.

FLASHING TEXT - when toggling the instrument panel from "OFF" to "ON" or when
                changing the configuration to quickly you may end up with
                flashing text on the instrument display.  This is caused by a
                variable changing its value at the same time.  To get rid of
                this simply toggle it "OFF" then "ON" again.


                            TECHNICAL SUPPORT

    If you are a registered user of this software and have a problem or a
question, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to the same address you
registered it.  Please give as complete a description of the problem as
possible along with a discription of the system your running on.  Also include
your serial number.


                          DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

This software is licensed solely on an "as is" basis.  No warranties, either
express or implied, are made by the developer with respect to the software,
its merchantability, or its fitness for a particular purpose.  The entire risk
as to the quality and performance is with the licensed user of the software.


                                 WARNING

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROTECTED BY U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW (TITLE 17 UNITED STATES CODE).
UNATHORIZED REPRODUCTION AND/OR SALES MAY RESULT IN IMPRISONMENT OF UP TO ONE
YEAR AND FINES UP TO $10,000 (17 USC 506).  COPYRIGHT INFRINGERS MAY ALSO BE
SUBJECT TO CIVIL LIABILITY.


                       Copyright (c) 1992 Michael Kline
                       All Rights Reserved