500 Game Surplus

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ 500 Game Surplus / XSurplus.iso / 466 / WARZONE.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1997-02-05 | 36KB | 728 lines

W A R Z O N E The Ultimate Battle Begins... Shareware Version 1.1 Copyright (c) 1997 Doug Jenkins Table of contents 1. Introduction 2. Starting a New Game 3. Game Play 4. Ships, Starbases & Depots 5. Planets 6. Battles in WARZONE 7. Game Options 8. Game Tips 9. Weapons 10. Credits 11. How to Register - Ordering Information and what you will get! 1. Introduction ....Millions of light-years from Earth a galaxy is in turmoil. Five empires fight for total domination. This battle weary corner of the universe is known as the WARZONE.... WARZONE is a space battle strategy game for 1 to 5 players (human and/or computer controlled). Each player starts at his/her homeworld with a rather meager sized fleet. With this fleet and a starbase, the goal is to control enough planets to build a galaxy conquering fleet! You can choose to have from 5 to 10 planets to fight over. Some planets will be worthless dust balls, while others will contain enough materials to support construction of several warships. If you have enough materials, you will be able to build ships ranging from a simple but fast scout ship up to a mighty starbase capable of building additional ships and protecting a planet from all but the strongest fleets. You can determine the winner by his score or play until the strongest fleet has shattered any remaining resistance. Be too aggressive and you might spread your fleet too thin, play it safe and other fleets could grow faster than yours. Test your strategy in the WARZONE! ============================================================================= 2. Starting A New Game Start the program by typing "warzone" and pressing ENTER. Once the title screen appears use the up/down arrow keys to select an option and then ENTER to implement that option. NOTE: The main keys you will use in warzone are the Left, Right, Up, and Down arrow keys as well as the Enter and Escape keys. Others keys are used but these are used most of the time for most menus and other selections. We want to play a new game, so press ENTER on the top line. You are now in the New Game menu. Here you can select the number of planets you want (5 to 10) and the number and type of players. For each of the five empires you can have: 1) No-Player, 2) Human Player, or 3) a Computer Player. To select which type press the first letter: 'n' for no-player, 'h' for human, 'c' for computer, or use the SPACE-BAR to cycle through these types. For a Demonstration: If you don't want to play, but just want to see what this game is like, pick a couple of computer players (no human players). Once the game has started you can pick how long the computer waits between turns under Game Options (see section 7). Sit back and watch the computers fight it out. It can be fun and instructional to watch computer controlled empires fight for domination! Use the Left/Right arrow keys to select the empire. Each empire has a name, a technology rating, and an aggressiveness rating. 2a. Technology Rating - abbr. TECH. The technology rating is based on an scale from 1 to 10. The technology rating affects the power of ships and starbases. However, planets use a rating system independent of an empire's technology. There are five empires that have a technology of 5 so you can have an even fight as far as technology goes. For a fair game, technology ratings should be about the same for all players. On the other hand, you can use this to give a player or players an advantage, or a disadvantage! If you find the computer controlled empires to be no match for you, give them a high technology and you a low technology. Yes, a few empires have ratings that break the upper end of the scale! 2b. Aggressiveness rating - abbr. AGRSV. This is easy! The aggressiveness (what a word) rating is based on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = docile and 10 = blood thirsty horde. NOTE: This rating only applies to computer controlled empires - Humans have aggressive tendencies which are unquantifiable. 2c. Starting the game. Once you have picked the empires and number of planets you want - go to the bottom line which says START GAME and press ENTER. Next there will be a map of the planets in the upper left of the screen. The homeworlds of the planets will be color coded. Each empire and its ships has its own color. This is helpful in identifying ships during battle. (Exception: The first empire's color is white but its ships are gray). Color ----- 1st Empire WHITE (ships are gray) 2nd Empire GREEN 3rd Empire RED 4th Empire MAGENTA 5th Empire BLUE You will be asked if you want a new map or not. Press 'y' if you want a different layout of planets. Press 'n' if you like the current setup. Next you will be asked if you want the computer players to start will a large fleet (that is if there are computer players). If you pick no for this option, the computer players will start with the same small fleet as the human players. However, if you choose yes the computer controlled empires will start with more than half of their entire fleet! - Use this option if you need a challenge - and you will certainly get one! If you find you want to change one of these options just press ESCAPE to return to the previous option. Good luck... ============================================================================= 3. Game Play Turns proceed in a consecutive order until all players have had a chance to play, then the cycle begins again. (One cycle is equal to a week.) Each player has several options available and his/her turn ends only when the player is done and presses 'n' for 'nothing' more to do. Press the letter of the option you want. Most of the options available have their own prompts and instructions to help you. However, the following list explains the major options available to you: 3a. Deploy Ships - option 'd' Probably the most important option available. This is where you send ships to explore unknown worlds, reinforce your planets, or attack enemy planets. First, press the letter of the planet of ORIGIN. This must be one of your worlds and must have at least one ship in orbit. Second, press the letter of the planet to be the DESTINATION of the fleet. This can be any planet, even the planet of origin. Next select a SPEED for the entire fleet. Once you have entered these three items, a list of available ships for the fleet will be given to you. Use the Left/Right arrow keys to preview the ships. Press ENTER to add the displayed ship to the fleet. Press the SPACE BAR to send the ships already selected. If you wish to cancel the fleet, press ESCAPE. NOTE: If there is only one ship available, pressing ENTER will send that ship with no option to cancel it. It is a good idea to cycle through all the ships available so you have an idea what kind of fleet you can send! NOTE: The list of ships given to you to make a fleet are only the ships that can go as fast as the speed you picked. You might have to pick a slower speed if you want more ships to be able to join your fleet. 3b. Starbase - option 's' Likely to be the second most important option you'll use. This is where you can build ships for exploration, defense, and offense. There are many basic as well as subtle points in using a starbase effectively so I will try to cover all the bases. 1) The name of the starbase is on the top line. If you have more than one starbase you can switch to any of the bases by using the Left/Right arrow keys. 2) The next line looks something like this: Duracite: a , d Lacktite: a , d where 'a' is the amount of that material that you currently have, and 'd' is the net production of that material. Duracite is mined every week, but Lacktite can be mined only once every 3 weeks because its delicate structure must be preserved for its power producing properties. 3) Each of your starbases has two bays where construction of ships takes place. Each bay will show you the name of the ship being worked on, its class, and percent completed. NOTE: If a bay is empty or if there is not enough material to work on a ship in that bay, the information for that line will be displayed in light gray signifying that the bay is inactive. If the line is white, there is sufficient materials and it IS being worked on. 4) Press '1' or '2' for the bay you want. If the bay is empty, then a list of available ships that can be constructed will be given. Press ENTER to select the ship you want to build in the bay selected. If the bay already has a ship that is partially built, you have the option to scrap that ship and re-use all the materials used to build it so far. 5) Each ship uses 10 units of Duracite each turn. ONCE THE SHIP's STRUCTURE IS COMPLETE, IT WILL REMAIN IN THE BAY UNTIL THERE IS ENOUGH Lacktite TO POWER ITS ENGINES! 6) Bay '1' has priority for materials over Bay '2' just as Starbase 1 has priority for materials over Starbase 2. 7) Once a ship has been completed, the construction bay will automatically start construction of a new ship of the same class if there are ships available for that class, otherwise the bay will remain empty. This makes it easier to maintain steady production. You can of course change the ship under construction at any time. 3c. Start Starbase - option 'b' You can begin construction of a new Starbase as long as the following conditions are met: 1) The PLANET you want to build the base around has a TECHNOLOGY rating greater than or equal to 80. (For more on planet TECHNOLOGY see section 5). 2) You must have at least 10 units of Duracite. (If you don't have this amount your are so poor in materials that you shouldn't even be thinking about building a new base!) Starbases under construction use 10 units of Duracite just like ships, but have lower priority for materials than ships under construction. *** IMPORTANT *** A shield projected from the planetary DEFENSE center (see section 5) is the only protection a starbase under construction has. The stronger the DEFENSE rating of the planet, the better your partial starbase will be protected. NOTE: Starbases under construction are powerless and will be a prime target for attacking fleets - guard them well! 3d. Review planets and ship classes - option 'r' This option always you to view important info on planets, just press the letter of the planet you want. A brief list of stats for each ship class can be seen by pressing numbers '1' through '8'. 3e. Fleet Review - option 'f' Use this to see where your ships are and what condition they are in. NOTE: If '(Base Access)' appears after the location of a ship, it means that that ship has access to a starbase and will repair faster, replace dead crew members, and replenish torpedoes - its a nice place to be! 3f. Empire Data - option 'e' Shows you who your opponents are and their Technology rating (Tech.), and Aggressiveness rating (Agrsv.) ============================================================================= 4. Ships, Starbases and Depots There are 8 classes of ships. A Starbase can be thought of as a 7th class of ship, just one that can't move. A Military Depot can be thought of as an 8th class, just one that doesn't move. Each class has several important characteristics. Here is a brief description of each ship class. 1) SCOUT - small, extremely fast, easy to build, good for exploration, lousy fighters, that sums it up. 2) TECHSHIP - slow, not designed to fight, reason for existence: upgrade a planet's TECHNOLOGY and DEFENSE rating by as much as 20% (see section 5), requires no Lacktite! 3) LIGHT CRUISER - moderately fast, decent fighters (especially in groups), good enough to take on a few scout and techships at once. 4) HEAVY CRUISER - almost as fast as a scout, very good fighting ship, powerful, but doesn't take forever to build. 5) *DESTROYER - quite fast, good for defense, eats light cruisers and smaller ships for lunch. 6) *DREADNOUGHT - fast as a heavy cruiser, built for destroying things unlucky enough to be in the way, however takes a very long time to build and takes tons of Lacktite to power. 7) STARBASE - can't move, ultimate defense of a planet - can take on a small fleet with help from planetary defense, builds and repairs ships!, more powerful than a dreadnought, what more can be said? 8) *MILITARY DEPOT - similar to a STARBASE but builds SUPER WEAPONS instead of ships! (See section 10 to learn more about SUPER WEAPONS.) * These classes are available only in the registered version of WARZONE. See section 10 to see how to order and soon you will have the DESTROYER, DREADNOUGHT, MILITARY DEPOT, and much more! The following table lists the specs of each ship class: Class | Max. | + Power | Weeks to | Required | Number of Name | Speed | (GW) | build | Lacktite | torpedoes --------------+--------+-----------+--------------+-------------+----------- SCOUT | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 --------------+--------+-----------+--------------+-------------+----------- TECHSHIP | 4 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 --------------+--------+-----------+--------------+-------------+----------- LIGHT CRUISER | 6 | 20 | 6 | 5 | 8 --------------+--------+-----------+--------------+-------------+----------- HEAVY CRUISER | 8 | 45 | 10 | 8 | 12 --------------+--------+-----------+--------------+-------------+----------- *DESTROYER | 7 | 65 | 16 | 12 | 16 --------------+--------+-----------+--------------+-------------+----------- *DREADNOUGHT | 8 | 80 | 25 | 18 | 24 --------------+--------+-----------+--------------+-------------+----------- STARBASE | 0 | 120 | 50 | 30 | 64 --------------+--------+-----------+--------------+-------------+----------- *MILITARY | 0 | 150 | 50 | 50 | 100 DEPOT | | | | | + The Power values in the above table are for ships belonging to an Empire with a Technology of 5. To obtain the Power of a ship for different technologies, just multiply the power value given in the table by the technology of the ship's empire and divide by 5. For example, a Light Cruiser belonging to an empire with a technology of 4 would have a power = 20 * 4 / 5 = 16 GW. While a Light Cruiser belonging to an empire with a technology of 10 would have power = 20 * 10 / 5 = 40 GW. (GW stands for a GigaWatt, which is 1 billion watts!) NOTE: The above values should be used only as a guide. Actual ships will be different due to damage, technology differences, etc. It is possible to build 5 ships of each class except for starbases (max. of 2.) Therefore the maximum fleet size is 22 ships in the shareware version. Each ship which survives a battle will earn one experience point. An experienced ship will be able to use its weapons more effectively and position itself to take less damage in a battle. Experienced ships can give you a win in a closely matched battle! Ships will slowly repair themselves on their own. It may be worthwhile to send a heavily damaged ship (especially an experienced one) to a planet that has a starbase for faster repairs. Ship Systems: Each ship and starbase has several key systems. 1) Warp Engines: The main source of power and propulsion. Once these are damaged severely a ship is slow and helpless. The warp engines are used for traveling between planets and directly affect the maximum possible speed. The warp engines produce 80% of the ship's total energy. 2) Fusion Engines: Are used for slower than light travel. During battle there are the main back-up for the warp engines. The Fusion engines produce 20% of the ship's total energy. 3) Sensors: In battle, the Sensors track and target enemy ships. Once damaged the aiming of the ships weapons is compromised. Particle weapons such as the Lasers do NOT rely heavily on input from the sensors, they can be aimed roughly by sight. However torpedoes are extremely dependent on targeting information from the Sensors. Badly damaged Sensors can result in torpedoes going completely astray - sometimes even hitting a friendly ship or starbase. 4) Lasers: Standard ship weapon (see section 9 for more info). Once damaged Laser effectiveness is reduced. 5) Torpedo Tubes: The ship's torpedoes (see section 9 for more info) are fired through the Torpedo Tubes. When damaged, the number of torpedoes that can be fired at once is reduced. 6) Structure: This percentage gives the condition of the ship's overall superstructure or framework. ** IMPORTANT - ONCE A SHIP'S STRUCTURE FALLS TO ZERO THE SHIP IS DESTROYED!!! ** Damage to a ship's Structure takes a long time to repair unless the ship is docked at a starbase. 7) Life Support: Keeps the crew alive. When damaged, sections of the ship become uninhabitable. The main factor during a battle is that crew members find it difficult or impossible to gain access to damaged sections of the ship in need of repair. 8) Main Computer: Correlates data from ship systems. A damaged computer can give false targeting information. Don't be surprised if a ship with a malfunctioning computer may not be able to fire at all! 9) Shields: The main defense for a ship, starbase, or depot. Shields are an energy field surrounding the ship which block (try to block) incoming energy and matter. Shields get their energy from the warp engines and are supplemented by power from the fusion engines. Once the shields are damaged, only a percentage of this power from the engines can be used to repel incoming fire. (See section 6 for more on shields and shield strength.) Casualties: Once a ship is hit there unfortunately will be casualties. Injured: These crew members have been taken out of action until they heal enough to return to duty. Dead: These crew members will never return to duty and can be replaced only at a starbase. The more injured and dead a ship has, the less efficient it will be at repairing ship damage. ============================================================================= 5. Planets Planets are the spoils of war and are the source of true power. They are the only source of the materials needed to build ships. The important aspects of a planet can be summed up with the following quantities. 1) TECHNOLOGY RATING - this number ranges from 0 to 100 and gives the level of development for that planet. This is most important in the area of mining of materials as explained in 3) and 4) below. This rating can be increased by 20 by sending a fully functional TECHSHIP to the planet. 2) DEFENSE RATING - this ranges from 0 to 100 and gives the power of the planet's defensive shield and weapons. The power to the defense shield and offensive weapons is the same and is equal to the defense rating. For example, a planet with a Defense Rating of 50 will have 50 GW of shield energy and 50 GW to use for its weapons. Unlike ships, this power is not affected by a technology rating. This rating can be increased by 20 by sending a fully functional TECHSHIP to the planet. 3) DURACITE RATING - ranges from 0 to 10 and gives the amount of Duracite the planet contains. The production of Duracite is equal to the Duracite Rating times the Technology divided by 50. The Duracite RATING is the FIRST number displayed and the Duracite PRODUCTION is the SECOND number displayed, see example below. For example, when you review a planet with a Duracite Rating of 5 and Technology of 20 you will see a line that looks like this: DURACITE RATING: 5, 2 4) LACKTITE RATING - ranges from 0 to 10 and gives the amount of Lacktite the planet contains. The production of Lacktite is equal to the Lacktite Rating times the Technology divided by 100. The Lacktite RATING is the FIRST number displayed and the Lacktite PRODUCTION is the SECOND number displayed, see example below. For example, when you review a planet with a Lacktite Rating of 5 and Technology of 20 you will see a line that looks like this: LACKTITE RATING: 5, 1 Remember: DURACITE is mined every turn, but LACKTITE can only be mined once every 3 weeks (turns). ============================================================================= 6. Battles in WARZONE Whenever an enemy fleet reaches a planet with at least one defender there will be a battle! Enemy ships take turns firing on each other until only one fleet remains. The number of defenders and attackers will be updated and displayed in the upper right hand window after each firing turn. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- You will be able to identify the target ship by its shields, if it has any. There will be a circle around the target ship showing the relative power of its shields. Here is what the color of the shields mean: WHITE: Shields in excellent shape - 80% to 100% of full LIGHT GRAY: Shields still pretty good - 60% to 79% of full DARK GRAY: Roughly at half capacity - 40% to 59% of full LIGHT RED: Starting to hurt now! - 20% to 39% of full DARK RED: Shields critically low! - 10% to 19% of full INVISIBLE: Hull taking almost or all of incoming fire. - 0% to 9% of full ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You can press ESCAPE during the battle and you will be given the option to 1) change Battle Mode, 2) Turn sound on/off, or 3) Quit the game. There are three Battle Modes which define the speed of the battle, but NOT its outcome. The three modes are: 1) Normal Mode, 2) Fast Mode, and 3) Super Fast Mode. Normal Mode will give you the most information, the name of the attacker and who was hit. Fast Mode will not give you much information during the battle but is good when fleets are big and you don't want to sit through a long battle. Super Fast Mode is so fast you will see ships blowing up and that's about it, use this mode if you are tired of watching battles or the fleets are huge! NOTE: If a TECHSHIP is part of an attacking fleet that wins control of the planet the TECHSHIP will NOT upgrade that planet's technology and defense. If you want to help that planet you will have to send the TECHSHIP to the planet again. The reason for this is that there could be times when TECHSHIPS may be all you have to fight with (if that is the case you are probably not doing very well) or the planet you just won isn't worth helping. In either case you don't want to lose your TECHSHIP. ============================================================================= 7. GAME OPTIONS - press ESCAPE in the main menu during the game This menu allows you to load and save games, turn sound on/off, or quit the game. Use the arrow keys to change the options available. Press ESCAPE when you are done. The only option that probably needs explanation is the one labeled 'WAIT'. This setting gives you control over how many seconds you want the computer to wait for you to read a screen before going on. Use the Left/Right arrow keys to change this from a value of 1 second up to an infinite wait time. (You can always continue immediately, usually by pressing 'c' - just follow the instructions.) ============================================================================= 8. Game Tips and Questions In the beginning of a game the most important thing is survival! Build up the technology and defense of your homeworld before looking for planets to conquer. You start with one Techship so you can send this ship from your homeworld to your homeworld (this sounds strange but it works, it can also be used to make it look like you have more ships than you actually do!) Once you have a reasonably developed homeworld, build and use scouts to explore the planets closest to you (that's a scoutship's main function - kinda in the name). This is a good time to build techships as well. If you start building warships too early you will often find they sit in the construction bay waiting for materials! Use any warships you have to protect your homeworld. ************************************************************************** ** The Key to winning WARZONE is in constantly building up your worlds' ** ** technology and defense and building ships as fast as you can! ** ************************************************************************** When deploying ships, it is a good idea to make the fleet as large as you can. A single ship (even a very powerful one) has little chance in a battle with a fleet of several ships. Even if you can only send scout ships with a warship, the warship will have a much better chance since the scouts will take some of the enemy's fire! Balance the importance of planets with the size of your fleet. If a planet is extremely rich in materials but it is costing you most of your fleet to get or keep, it probably isn't worth it. Try to take planets that are close to planets that you already have. This cuts down on the time it takes to bring in reinforcements and makes for a good defense. After the war has gone on for while, you will probably be able to figure out your enemy's weaknesses. Use this to your advantage. Your opponent(s) will usually not be able to protect all of their planets adequately. Try to keep your opponent(s) off balance by attacking these weaker planets. QUESTIONS: 1) When building ships, starbases, or depots, why do they say they are still under construction even when they are at 100% ? Check to make sure you have enough LACKTITE. Any ship or base under construction can't be finished unless the required amount of LACKTITE is available. Starbases and Military Depots require tremendous amounts of LACKTITE so plan accordingly - you might have to conquer new planets to get the materials you need! 2) Why does my fleet lose even when it is the bigger fleet? Several factors may play a part. A bigger fleet may not be the strongest fleet (it sure helps though!), the enemy's fleet may have ships of a higher class for one thing. Another factor is that your opponent's ships may have more battle experience than yours. Lastly, your opponent may have a higher TECHNOLOGY rating than you which always gives him/her a greater advantage since their ships are stronger! For example, if you have a TECHNOLOGY of 5, but your enemy has a TECHNOLOGY of 10 an enemy heavy cruiser will laugh at the strength of one of your heavy cruisers (same with all other classes). ============================================================================= 9. Weapons Every ship has two standard weapons: LASERS and TORPEDOES. LASERS consist of a highly focused beam of light. The destructive power is directly related to the amount of power that is input. Therefore the larger class ships will have stronger lasers than the lower class ships. For example, a SCOUTSHIP can put out about 5 GW while a HEAVY CRUISER can generate about 45 GW so its lasers will be about 9 times stronger. Torpedoes contain a small amount of anti-matter and are NOT dependent upon the power a ship can provide. Therefore a SCOUTSHIP's torpedo has the SAME amount of destructive power as a HEAVY CRUISER's torpedo, and so on. However, a higher class ship can fire MORE torpedoes than a lower class ship. Torpedoes can go astray, especially if a ship's sensors are severely damaged. A torpedo will damage any ships near the point of explosion. Ships will usually fire torpedoes (until they run out) over lasers since they are usually stronger. torpedoes will be replaced slowly by ships, but are re-stocked faster if the ship is stocked at a starbase. NOTE: One torpedo is equivalent to about 15 GW (Gigawatts) ============================================================================= 10. Credits: - To Ethan Brodsky whose code (smixc127) made loading and playing the sound effects in this game so much easier! - To Steve Moody for testing the game and letting me borrow his programming books. ============================================================================= 11. How to Register - Ordering Information and what you will get. ************************************************************************* * The best way to order the registered version of WARZONE is to print * * the "order.frm" file, fill it out, and then send it in. * ************************************************************************* If you opt not to use the order.frm, here are the essential steps in ordering: 1) Include your NAME and MAILING ADDRESS 2) The NUMBER of copies of the registered version at $15.00 each plus $3.00 shipping charges in U.S.A ($6.00 shipping charge outside U.S.A.) - PA residents add 6.0% sales tax - 3) Specify 3.5" or 5.25" disks 4) A CHECK or MONEY ORDER (drawn on a U.S. bank) for the correct amount payable to Doug Jenkins 5) Mail your order to: Doug Jenkins P.O. Box 584 Wellsboro, PA 16901 ****************************************** * Do NOT send your order through E-mail! * ****************************************** However, if you have any questions about ordering the registered version of WARZONE feel free to ask me via E-mail at hood1707@epix.net or through the good ol' post office. **************************************************************************** T H A N K Y O U F O R R E G I S T E R I N G ! ! ! **************************************************************************** Once you have registered you will receive the full version of WARZONE which includes: 1) The ability to build the DESTROYER and DREADNOUGHT class warships. (No more skirmishes with light cruisers, your fleet means business now!) 2) The ability to build MILITARY DEPOTS which are even stronger than a starbase and allow you to build ADVANCED WEAPONS listed below: a) HYPER LASERS: The standard ship lasers increased by 30% b) LO-GRADE P.C.: No, not a slow computer, P.C. stands for Plasma Cloud. A cloud of plasma which dissipates to almost zero with distance. Equivalent to 10 torpedoes at close range. c) HI-GRADE P.C.: No, not a fast computer, P.C. again stands for Plasma Cloud. Equivalent to 30 torpedoes at close range. d) RICHO-CHARGE: A high energy, spinning torpedo which bounces off an enemy ship, then targets a new enemy ship. Each ship hit takes some damage, but the charge losses energy with each hit until it dissipates to zero OR destroys a ship. e) SHIELD SHREDDER: Rips away enemy shields leaving enemy ship defenseless. (No damage otherwise.) f) ANTI-PROTON BEAM: Makes lasers and hyper lasers look like dim flashlights. g) NOVA DEVICE: In one shot gives up to 3 ships a crippling blow of the ANTI-PROTON BEAM !! If you can survive long enough to build a MILITARY DEPOT, these new weapons could make even a rag tag fleet something to talk about! 3) The option to play with up to 26 planets instead of just 10 as in the shareware version. 4) More aggressive computer players. So you think the computer controlled empires in the shareware version are wimpy? They are! Order the registered version and you may never want to leave your homeworld - the computer will stop at nothing to destroy any human strongholds. You will truly have to fight for survival and play it smart or you will become another extinct race in the WARZONE.