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PeriIntro.DOC
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Perihelion 2.0
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Created by Craig Dorrell
Written in Modula-2, Compiled with M2Sprint
Designed to operate online using "BBX",
a bulletin board system written by Steve Tibbett
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NOTE: This text contains only introductory documentation. The complete
game instructions are available as an archive for downloading under the name
PERIDOX2.LHA.
Introduction:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perihelion is a strategic space combat simulator. Your objective is to
bring the entire galaxy under your rule through military and economic
domination. Troops loyal to your cause must bring hostile planets under
your control, while massive basestars defend your territory. Successful
players will amass fleets of warships and support ships as personal escorts
or to perform independent missions - defending your territory or invading
that of hostile alliances.
You are responsible both for the piloting and immediate control of your
own ship, and for giving orders to the planets, basestars, and ships of your
alliance. While these will automatically repair themselves, choose targets,
or withdraw from combat, they will defer to you if they are sufficiently
loyal.
Getting Started:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Upon entering the galaxy, you will be given a weak ship with limited
power reserves, weapons, and shield capacity. One of your first objectives
should be to locate a merchant base operated by the Galactic Merchantile
Alliance (GMA).
The GMA always operates a merchant base in the cease-fire zone at the
center of the galaxy, and several others dispersed randomly. At the start
of the game you will also find TERRAN and LOKHAR merchant bases, but these
do not offer the same range of services as the GMA. Later in the game,
alliances controlled by human players may also have constructed merchant
bases.
After (D)ocking with a GMA merchant base, you will be able to spend your
personal credit to purchase a new ship and to enhance your existing systems.
Upgrading to Range 5 sensors and adding hypercoils to increase your movement
range are both advisable. Each of the available weapons has advantages and
disadvantages - the best tend to be quite expensive, while the cheap weapons
are generally less accurate and less damaging. It is also worth considering
that projectile weapons require projectile restocking, but beam weapons
require more power.
Credit, in the form of Standard Monetary Units (SMUs), is required for
these purchases. If your personal credit runs low, transfer credit from the
alliance account (using the Credit transfer function in the (U)tility menu
or while docked). Additional alliance credit can be obtained through a loan
from the Joint Intergalactic Resource Development Association (JIRDA) using
the appropriate command in the (U)tility menu.
Reinforcing Your Territory:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once your ship is sufficiently upgraded for the time being, it is wise to
begin setting up defences for your territory and searching for nearby
planets to conquer. The backbone of your defences will be basestars, which
fire on any hostile targets which enter their range (and permit your ships
to dock for repair and restocking, depending on the basestar class).
Proximity jammers (which disrupt the targetting systems of hostile objects),
Immobilizers (which hamper the mobility of enemy ships within their range),
and Gravitic mines (which detonate when ANY vessel passes over them or
emerges from hyperspace adjacent to them) are also very useful.
All of these objects are deployed from your ship using the (L)aunch
command. To build a basestar, for example, launch a BCU (basestar
construction unit) at the coordinates where the basestar should be built.
The creation of a class 1 basestar requires 10 turns, and will proceed while
you move on to other tasks (it's a multitasking universe, after all :-).
Launching additional BCUs at a basestar or basestar construction site will
upgrade it to a higher class basestar, provided that a transport relay (also
(L)aunchable) is present within 6 sectors. The transport relay provides
access to the resources on your stockpile planet which are needed for
basestar expansion.
Going On The Offensive:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you decide to capture a planet that you have found, it is important
to check that you have soldiers on board (check personal status (R)eport)
and that you aren't making enemies that you cannot deal with. It is wise,
for example, to leave the TERRAN and LOKHAR alliances alone until you have
established yourself as a strong player. Ideally, you should look for a
neutral planet, as these will be poorly defended and cannot summon warships
to their defence. You may wish to (A)ttack the planet's orbital defences
until they are destroyed, preventing the planet from firing on you while you
move in to deploy troops. Alternatively, you can move in to deploy troops
and move back out of planetary weapon range, thus avoiding the need to
repair the planet's orbital defences once you have captured it. To properly
assess the garrison defending the planet's surface, you must move into orbit
(adjacent to the planet) and use your sensors. If the garrison is rated as
larger than "Small-None" you may wish to find an easier target. Once you
are satisfied that your troops can do their job, deploy them on the planet
surface with the (B)oard command. They will immediately engage the garrison
and you will receive turn-by-turn battle updates. To assist your troops you
may wish to fire on the planet garrison from orbit. As the game progresses,
planetary defence garrisons tend to be larger. Attacking 20,000+ troops
with the 100-400 soldiers which your ship can carry becomes unpleasant,
necessitating the use of Invasion Carriers - specialized support ships which
can carry up to 10,000 soldiers each.
Administrative Duties:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Alliance (U)tilities menu contains a few options which you should
begin adjusting almost immediately. Your (P)lanet development budget sets
the number of resource units which will be used each day to increase the
development level of the planets you control. Since development level
determines the quality of the weapon the planet uses to defend itself and
the number of resources, soldiers, ships, or manufactured goods (depending
on planet Function) created by the planet, this is quite important. Try to
keep the development budget high, but less than your stockpile - you need
to have some resources left at the start of the day for basestar upgrading
and weapon projectile synthesis.
Also keep track of your (I)nter-alliance relations, so that you remember
who your current allies and opponents are. You will also wish to set your
default posture towards (N)eutrals. This setting determines what your
forces will do when a new player (with whom you have NEUTRAL relations by
default) enters your territory. To monitor your resource and credit
expenditures during the previous day use the (F)inancial report command.
Good Luck!
~~~~~~~~~~
This should give you enough information to get started. Bear in mind
that this document is not even close to being complete, however - unless you
have the complete documentation available for reference, expect some big
surprises :-). Don't be afraid to dive in and start looking around,
however. Experimentation, combined with questioning of more-experienced
players, is the best way to learn to play.
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