World of Ham Radio 1994 January

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Chapter 2 page 1 STARTREK THE COMPUTER PROGRAM By Joe Kasser CHAPTER 2 2.1 The Programming Exercise The programming example chosen in this book as the learning application is the game of Startrek. It is a complex simulation with a minimal amount of i/o, and is thus ideally suited for a training exercise, because the i/o can be customized for any machine by the student. First written for teletypewriter terminals and later modified for CRT terminals it comes in numerous incarnations ranging from simple to highly sophisticated. The game is supposed to be based on the highly acclaimed television series. Usually the only resemblances are that the names of the crew and the enemy are those used in the TV show and that the player assumes the role of Captain Kirk, the commander of the Starship Enterprise, The rules of the version of the game we are going to discuss are as follows. 2.2 Rules of the Game The Federation is currently at peace with the Klingon Empire by virtue of the treaty of Organia. There are however other borders which may or may not remain peaceful, such as the truce with the Romulans. There is also always the remote possibility of conflict with a yet unknown race from the unexplored section of the galaxy. Students at the Starfleet Academy are thus currently required to undergo periodic training on a war game simulator. In order not to antagonize any paranoid neighbors who may find out about this training program, the program in the simulator is written assuming a Klingon enemy even though the Orgainians have made war with the Klingon's all but impossible. 2.3 Background You are assigned the role of the commander of the starship Enterprise your mission is to search the galaxy to seek out and destroy the enemy. The two dimensional representation of the galaxy is organized as a matrix of 64 quadrants arranged as 8 rows by 8 columns, and numbered accordingly as shown below. Copyright (c) Joe Kasser 1989 Chapter 2 page 2 STARTREK THE COMPUTER PROGRAM By Joe Kasser 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** COMPASS DIRECTION 4 3 2 2 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** \ ! / 3 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** \ ! / \ ! / 4 *** *** *** *** *** +206+ *** *** \!/ 5 ----.---- 1 5 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** /!\ / ! \ 6 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** / ! \ / ! \ 7 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 6 7 8 8 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** The numbering is given as row, column so that for example Quadrant 4,6 (shown scanned) is the quadrant that is located four rows down and 6 columns across the map. Each quadrant is itself split up into 64 sectors also arranged as an 8 row by 8 column matrix. Your mission is to search the galaxy, locate and destroy or capture the enemy who are called Klingons, making sure that they don't destroy you in the meantime. In order to do this you are equipped with weapons and sensors. You have two kind of sensors (Short range and Long range) and two kinds of weapons (Energy and Projectile) as described below. When the game begins; the Enterprise is located at a random quadrant within the galaxy when it receives a Code One warning message from Starfleet Command telling you that the exercise has begun. In order to make your mission as difficult as possible you are not told anything about the galaxy. You do not know the location of your starbases or any of the enemy vessels, you are however told how many have been detected entering Federation territory. As you travel through the galaxy or even outside it, you are able to scan the quadrants you pass through using your Short Range Sensors and neighboring ones using your Long Range Sensors. You can also send out Long Range Probes to scan distant quadrants in any desired direction. You thus locate the enemy and your starbases by moving and scanning. Data concerning the scanned quadrants are stored in your ship's computer when it is working (ie. undamaged). Traveling through the galaxy uses energy (fuel). The physics of faster than light travel are such that it takes approximately one Stardate to travel anywhere at warp speed. The energy you use up however is a function of the distance traveled. You may thus cross the galaxy in one stardate using a lot of energy, or take two days to do the trip and use less than half the amount that the fast journey required. Traveling time is not wasted however because your Engineering section may utilize it to make necessary repairs to any part of the ship that has been damaged. Copyright (c) Joe Kasser 1989 Chapter 2 page 3 STARTREK THE COMPUTER PROGRAM By Joe Kasser When you encounter the enemy, you are to destroy or capture them. You may attempt to capture a Klingon by using your phasers to beat his shields down to a low value. The Klingon captain decides to surrender, self-destruct or fight on, based on how powerful he perceives you to be, effectively basing his decision on the amount of energy in your shields. You may fight the enemy with your Phasers (Energy weapons) or Photon torpedoes (Projectile weapons). You may also refuel, effect repairs and resupply at your nearest starbase, however, efficient as Starfleet Command is, it still may takes about half a stardate for them to check over the ship and replace any malfunctioning system. As you progress through the game, you will find that most moves cost you either time or energy. As captain of the starship you have a number of moves at each turn as follows; NAV Navigation SRS Short Range Sensors LRS Long Range Sensors PHA Phasers (Energy weapon) TOR Photon Torpedoes (projectile weapon) COM Computer SHE Shield control LRP Long Range Probe SHU Shuttlecraft TRA Transporter DAM Damage Control VIS Visual observation RES Resign MAP Galactic Map KST Klingon Status SAV Save the state of the game LSG Load a Saved Game These moves are described in detail below. 2.4 NAV NAVIGATION Navigation gets you around the galaxy. The compass is set up as follows; 4 3 2 \ | / \ | / \|/ 5 ---0--- 1 /|\ / | \ / | \ 6 7 8 Copyright (c) Joe Kasser 1989 Chapter 2 page 4 STARTREK THE COMPUTER PROGRAM By Joe Kasser Thus for example direction 3 is to the top of the CRT, direction 1 is -> way etc. You may also use fractional directions such as 1.4 to travel in any direction you like. You move from place to place by setting the warp speed. The warp factor is the distance which you travel across the galaxy. Thus warp 1 will move you a distance of 1 quadrant (horizontal or vertical) while warp 6 will move you 6 quadrants. For traveling around inside a quadrant (ie. to a different sector within the quadrant), use fractional warp velocities. Traveling on the diagonal, you will have to allow more warp speed (remember Pythagoras). Traveling at warp speed, you take about one stardate to get anywhere, irrespective of the warp factor. Warp factor thus has no bearing on time, but has a tremendous influence on the amount of energy you use to get anywhere. The faster you go, the more energy you use. 2.5 SRS SHORT RANGE SENSORS Short range sensors display the contents of the particular quadrant in which you are situated at any time as well as game status information. The display shows up as a matrix of 8 X 8 sectors. Each sector may contain only one object at a time. An example of such a display is as follows; SHORT RANGE SENSORS IN QUADRANT 4,6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 SCORE 5 1 . . . . . . . . TIME LEFT 23.9 2 * . . . . . . . CONDITION RED 3 . . . K . . . K SHIELDS 255.6 4 . . . . . . . . ENERGY 3456.0 5 . . . . * . . . PHOTON TORPEDOES 3 6 . . . * * . * . STARBASES 2 7 . . . . . E . . KLINGONS LEFT 21 8 . . . . . * . . KLINGONS CAPTURED 0 Things that may be displayed inside the quadrant are as follows; . Blank sector * Star E The Enterprise (you) K A Klingon ship (enemy) B A Starbase (refuel depot) The Short Range sensor display also contains the game status display as follows; SCORE your score at any time. The score is a function of the amount of time survived so far, and the number of Klingons destroyed and captured. TIME LEFT the amount of play time left in the game. CONDITION the state of the Enterprise. There are 3 possible Copyright (c) Joe Kasser 1989 Chapter 2 page 5 STARTREK THE COMPUTER PROGRAM By Joe Kasser conditions, RED Battle area, enemy in quadrant YELLOW Something is damaged, or the Energy level has fallen to below 400 units. GREEN Everything is fine, no enemy detected, no damage, and sufficient energy aboard the ship. SHIELDS the amount of energy allocated to the ship's shields. If this energy level is ever beaten down to zero by the enemy, the Enterprise is destroyed and you lose the game. ENERGY the amount of energy on board the Enterprise. If this ever falls to zero, the Enterprise becomes a derelict in space, and you lose the game. PHOTON TORPEDOES the number still on board the Enterprise STARBASES the number of starbase in the galaxy, even if you have not located them all. KLINGONS LEFT the number of enemy ships in the galaxy. When you have destroyed them all, you win the game. KLINGONS CAPTURED the number of enemy vessels you have captured. Each one captured is a bonus multiplier on your score. 2.6 LRS LONG RANGE SENSORS Long Range sensors show the contents of the neighboring quadrants but in minimal detail. An example of a long range sensor scan is shown below; LONG RANGE SENSORS FOR QUADRANT 4,6 001 012 104 002 206 307 717 001 003 The Enterprise is located in the quadrant shown in the center of the display. The contents of each quadrant are described as a three digit number with the following convention. The 100's digit = number of Klingons the 10's digit = number of Starbases the 1's digit = number of Stars, thus for example, 317 means that the quadrant contains 3 Klingons, 1 Starbase and 7 stars. Quadrants that are outside the galaxy show up as "***" on the display. Copyright (c) Joe Kasser 1989 Chapter 2 page 6 STARTREK THE COMPUTER PROGRAM By Joe Kasser 2.7 PHA PHASERS Phasers are energy weapons. You tell the ship's computer how much energy to fire at all the enemy ships in the quadrant and it divides that amount of energy by the number of enemy ships. It then locks on to the enemy ships and fires the same amount at each ship. Then if your short range sensors are working, the computer will tell you how much energy hit the Klingon, and how much it has left in its shields. When the Klingon begins to run out of energy, it may surrender or self destruct. If it surrenders you have to board it and place a prize crew aboard. It takes about half a stardate to transfer prisoners, documents and make the arrangements for the prize crew. Captured enemy vessels are multipliers on your score. 2.8 TOR PHOTON TORPEDOES Photon Torpedoes are projectile weapons. The Enterprise can normally carry only 10. When you have used some,you may replenish your supply later at a starbase. You can however only carry 10 at any one time. You instruct the computer as to which direction you want the missile fired and it does. It also prints out the track of the torpedo as it travels across the sector. Torpedo take 0.01 Stardates to travel across a sector. Torpedoes are homing devices they thus usually hit the occupant of a sector. Thus if they enter a sector containing a star they will tend to home in on it and be absorbed by the star. Should they be traveling to fast to be deflected enough to actually hit the star, they will come out of the sector on some new course, having been deflected by the star. if they enter a sector containing a starbase, they will always home in on the base and destroy it. Destroying a starbase with its shields up is not normally possible with any weapon as yet known to the Federation. Your ability to destroy one in this simulation, penalizes you for sloppy aiming. Note that there is nothing to stop you from destroying your only starbase. 2.9 MAP OF GALAXY The map of the galaxy resides inside the ship's computer. The map shows an example of the two dimensional representation of the galaxy as follows Copyright (c) Joe Kasser 1989 Chapter 2 page 7 STARTREK THE COMPUTER PROGRAM By Joe Kasser MAP FOR QUADRANT 4,6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 2 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 3 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 4 *** *** *** 001 012 104 *** *** 5 *** *** *** 002 +206+ 307 *** *** 6 *** *** *** 717 001 003 *** *** 7 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 8 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** All quadrants that have been scanned show up as three digit numbers in the same manner as the long range sensors. Quadrants that have not been scanned show up as "***". The computer automatically updates the map as long as it is undamaged when a short range scan or a long range scan is ordered, or when information is received from a Long Range Probe. The quadrant shown bracketed by the "+" signs (+206+) is the one currently occupied by the Enterprise. 2.10 SHE SHIELD CONTROL Shield control allocates some fraction of the ship's power to the ship's shields. Should the shields become damaged, you will not be able to allocate any energy to the shields. They will still however work normally in all other respects. Namely they will absorb a Klingon phaser blast. Klingon phaser blasts draw energy from the shields of the Enterprise so that in a fight the shields may have to be replenished from time to time. If a massive phaser blast is received, and a temporary overload occurs damage to one of the ship's sub-systems may result. Klingons also leave space mines floating around for you to run into. This is a departure from the scenario of the TV series but logical. If the Enterprise runs into one of these, energy is used up in the shields, just as if the Enterprise was hit by a phaser blast. Klingon Space Mines are put into the game to make you travel with your shields up. Note that you may require up to 400 units of energy to cope with a Klingon Space Mine explosion. 2.11 LRP LONG RANGE PROBES Long Range Probes are a means to find out what lies beyond the range of the Long Range Sensors without moving. You can fire a probe in any direction just as you would fire a photon torpedo. The probe speeds away at about Warp Factor 10, as such it takes about 0.1 stardates to cross a quadrant. The probe sends back a status report in the same format as the long range sensor/map data, as it enters each new quadrant. The data received from the probe is automatically placed into the Copyright (c) Joe Kasser 1989 Chapter 2 page 8 STARTREK THE COMPUTER PROGRAM By Joe Kasser computer, if the computer is up at the time that the data is received. The communications technology used by the probes give it a limited range however. The signal grows too weak to be received when the probe is about five quadrants away from the Enterprise. If the probe enters a quadrant containing Klingons there is a probability that they may detect and destroy it. The probe may also collide with a star and be destroyed. The more stars there are in a sector, the greater the probability that the probe will collide with a star (and be destroyed) when it passes through the quadrant. Should you try and launch one when in a battle situation, the simulator will stop you. 2.12 TRA and SHU TRANSPORTER and SHUTTLECRAFT The Transporter and the Shuttlecraft allow you to possibly obtain energy and spare parts/materials without docking at a starbase. You can use the computer to scan the quadrant you are in and possibly locate sources of energy and materials or parts. You cannot however stock up on parts to expedite future repairs, you can only obtain parts to repair anything damaged at the time. The Enterprise is a starship not a freighter. Should you mine a lot of energy, and have an excess when you dock at a starbase, the base will relieve you of the excess and send you on your way with the standard amount. The Transporter allows you to beam a landing party down to a star system. The Shuttlecraft allows you to send a landing party to the system. The transporter uses energy, the shuttlecraft uses time. Once the landing party have reached their destination, Mr. Spok will notify you how much time the landing party have to spend on the ground to achieve their aims. The function of the landing party depends on where they are. If they have been landed near a source of Dilithium crystals, they will mine the crystal and then purify them using some equipment that Mr. Scott will lash together. Mr. Spok will give you an estimate of the amount of energy that you can expect to receive from the crystal that can be mined in a day. You then decide how long the mining operation lasts, they stay there for that amount of time and then return. If the landing party is on an inhabited planet, they will make a quick estimate of the amount of parts and materials that they can find so that the repairs to the Enterprise can be expedited. You will again be asked to decide how much time the landing party is to spend on the ground. They will stay there for that amount of time, and then return. The Transporter cannot be operated, or the Shuttle launched if the shields are up. On board sub-system repair goes on while the landing party are doing their thing. Copyright (c) Joe Kasser 1989 Chapter 2 page 9 STARTREK THE COMPUTER PROGRAM By Joe Kasser 2.13 DAM DAMAGE CONTROL Damage control allows you to examine the state of repair of your ship's sub-systems. Engineering also gives you an estimated time for repairs to be completed. You may then decide to stop where you are in space and effect repairs, or continue on your way making repairs as you move. Mr. Spok sometimes comes up with a new repair technique and speeds up the process. If you are in the middle of a battle, you cannot stop to effect repairs, because the enemy is not going to wait around for you. 2.14 VIS VISUAL OBSERVATION Visual observations are the way in which you determine the contents of the neighboring sectors in the quadrant if the short range sensors are damaged. You are shown the contents of two sectors on each side of the Enterprise, but are not shown the sector location numbers. A typical visual observation is as follows; . * K . . . . . . . * . E . B . * * . . $ $ $ $ $ Sectors outside the Quadrant are represented by dollar signs. In the above example, the Enterprise is obviously located close to the bottom of a quadrant. Visual observations are normally only used when the short range sensors are damaged. 2.15 RES RESIGN This is the way you end the game. If you are in the middle of a battle, the enemy will not accept your resignation (surrender) and you must fight on. 2.16 The Enemy The enemy are known as Klingons. They have taken up positions in various quadrants of the galaxy. They may travel alone or in fleets of up to seven vessels. Each Klingon you encounter may have up to 1000 units of energy aboard. Weapons technology in the Klingon Empire is almost at par with the Federation. Klingons are thus armed with phasers and photon torpedoes. During a battle, should your photon torpedo hit a Klingon it will be destroyed. Klingon's however take evasive action when they detect the torpedo coming at them and can sometimes dodge Copyright (c) Joe Kasser 1989 Chapter 2 page 10 STARTREK THE COMPUTER PROGRAM By Joe Kasser them. The Federation however has superiority in photon torpedo technology. If the Enterprise is hit by a Klingon torpedo, it usually suffers damage to the area of the ship closest to the point of impact. A Federation torpedo, on the other hand will always destroy a Klingon ship if a hit is scored. Klingon phaser blasts draw energy from the shields of the Enterprise so that in a fight the shields may have to be replenished from time to time. If a massive phaser blast is received, and a temporary overload occurs damage to one of the Enterprise's on board sub-systems may result. The enemy also leave space mines floating around for you to run into. This is a departure from the scenario of the TV series but a logical one. If the Enterprise runs into one of these, energy is used up in the shields, just like being hit by a phaser blast. Klingon Space Mines are put into the game to make you travel with your shields up. Note that you may require up to 400 units of energy to cope with a Klingon Space Mine explosion. Copyright (c) Joe Kasser 1989