Crawly Crypt Collection 1/crawlyvol1.bin/bbs/airdef31/air.txt

Text File | 1991-05-11 | 11KB | 253 lines

Air Defense Player Instructions

AIR DEFENSE
Written by:  Darel Schartman
Player Documentation
As Of:  7 April, 1991


  Welcome to Air Defense.

    a.  You are the Commanding General of your
country's Air Force.  You have three kinds of fighters
(Retaliators, Zephyers, and Spitfires), three kinds of
bombers (Deliverers, Lightnings, and Eliminators), two
kinds of reconnaissance aircraft for spy missions (Falcon 1
and Eagle II), two kinds of ground based radar (XEP-90 and
Grid Plus), three kinds of ground based anti-aircraft
(Grendle 12, Massh 33, and Laser/2), and three types of
facilities (Factories, Cities, and Bases).

    b.  Your mission as the Commanding General is to
destroy the Factories, Cities, and Bases of other players
while protecting your own Factories, Cities, and Bases.
You achieve this by initiating air raids against them with
your fighters and bombers and defending when they raid you
with your radar, anti-aircraft, and fighters.

    c.  The main menu has 8 items and appears as
follows:

    1.  Purchase Equipment        T] Today's News
        2.  Aircraft Maintenance        Y] Yesterday's News
    3.  Mission Control
    4.  World Powers
    5.  Diplomacy
    E]  Exit Stage Left

    d.  Everything in this game is real time.  What
this means is that any raids sent against you arrive
during your play.  Also, the missions you sent return
during your play.  Scoring is also real time.  Since
the objective is to destroy your opponents factories,
cities, and bases, your game score is dependent on the
number of these you have (or have left).  The "World
Powers" menu will reflect the current status for your
country and your enemies countries.  This means you can
increase your score, and perhaps your world standing,
by purchasing more factories, cities, and bases.

    e.  Aircraft have to be maintained or repaired
after flying raids or defending your country.  The
Aircraft Maintenance menu lets you buy spare parts and
repair aircraft, returning them to your combat ready
totals.  Aircraft in maintenance are not useable for
either defense or offensive operations.

    f.  You send raids or reconnaissance missions
against your opponents from the Mission Control Menu.
You select the target country, then the target within
that country, then select which aircraft and how many
of each will participate in the raid.  Raid targets can
be radar, anti-aircraft, factories, cities, or bases.
If you are especially successful in a raid, the
President will be pleased and will reward you with
extra goldbars.  You can send as many raids per day as
your assets permit.  Just remember that you won't get
them back until the next day or until the player
they're targeted against plays.  If the targeted player
hasn't played by the time you play the next day, a
special routine will process the raids and return them
to you.  Reconnaissance missions can be sent, but are
frequently either shot down or unsuccessful if
sufficient numbers of aircraft are not sent on the
mission.  When you do get a report on your foe's
status, you can save the results and update them as you
have other successes.  Reconnaissance allows you to
preserve game statistics for two enemies.

    g.  You can send messages to other players by
using the diplomatic function.  The message editor
works like Forem's and there is no limit on length.
Word wrap is automatic.  Incoming messages are
displayed as you enter the game, pausing between
messages or after 20 lines for a key press.  After the
message display is completed, you are given the
opportunity to reply.

    h.  The menu item "World Powers" will show you
where your country stands in comparison to the others.
Remember that this score is determined from the number
of factories, cities, and bases you have and will
fluctuate up and down as you gain or lose these assets.

    i.  To see what happened in the world today or
yesterday, check the Today's News or Yesterday's News
menu items.  These are updated as raids return.
Additionally, the Sysop may have also included the game
data files in the BBS database.  This external game
news will contain information not available from within
the game.  Don't forget to look for these files.  If
the Sysop of the BBS you are playing on has not
installed the data base files, encourage them to do so.

    j.  To stop play, select Exit Stage Left.
Remember than you can play as often as you want each
day, however, you only get paid once.

    k.  You start each day of play by being paid in
goldbars.  The amount of your pay is based upon the
number of factories, cities, and bases you have.  If
you want to earn more goldbars per day, buy more of
these.  Additional goldbars are included in your daily
play from the President for efficient operations if you
have maintained a 1:2:4 ratio or better between your
bases and cities and your cities and factories.  For
example, if your cities are more than or equal to twice
your bases and your factories are more than or equal to
twice your cities, you get this bonus.  However, the
President considers it inefficient of have more than
eight times as many factories as Military Bases.  This
means you cannot establish your 1:2:4 ratio and then
just buy factories.  Once the 8:1 ratio of factories to
cities is exceeded, your operation becomes inefficient
and the President pays no bonus.  You will know if you
receive a bonus for efficient operations by a notice
when you first enter the game.

    l.  You have five days of new player protection
from raids against you.  However, you can attack at any
time if  the country you select to raid is out of
protection.  Attacking while you are under protection
will void your own protection.

  Basic Concepts.

    a.  Your facilities (Factories, Cities, and Bases)
are protected in defense by your fighters, radar, and
anti-aircraft.  The effectiveness of your defense, as
in real life, will depend on how many of these
defensive assets you have in relation to the facilities
you want to protect.  Obviously, 50 of each won't do
well protecting 500 facilities.  When you reach a
certain proportion of radar and anti-aircraft per
facility, you will be notified of an incoming raid,
told how many aircraft are in that raid, and given the
opportunity to select how many of each type of fighter
to scramble.  If you don't have more than the magic
ratio, the game will simply announce an air raid and
scramble a percentage of your fighters in defense.
There is an exception to the 20% scramble rule that is
discussed below.

    b.  When you send an air raid against an opponent,
damage to your raid and the target are computed using
real life factors.  Bombers require fighter escort.
Insufficient escort will be paid for in shot down
aircraft.  Further, any raid has to penetrate the enemy
defenses enroute to the target, brave heavy defenses at
the target, and run through them again on the way out
of the country.  Losses will be assessed for each of
these phases and you will also shoot down enemy
fighters with your escorts.  Remember that part of the
defenses are ground based radar and anti-aircraft.
Based upon the total number of defenses per targets and
the numbers you are attacking with once you reach the
targets, the enemy's loss of radar, anti-aircraft,
factories, cities, or bases are assessed.  Notice the
plural used in "targets".  This highlights that if you
are attacking factories, and your opponent has 600 of
these, a raid of 200 aircraft can't possibly cover all
600.  But this limitation goes for the defender as
well.  Their ground based defenses of radar and anti-
aircraft are spread between their factories, cities,
and bases.  In summary, you will be shown what has
returned, how many aircraft you shot down, and how much
of your target was destroyed.  The News will report
your enemies claim of what he shot down of yours.  The
above discussion of how damaged is assessed, will help
you configure both your defense and your raids
accordingly.  Spend your goldbars wisely.

    c.  If your score drops below 500 points during
game play, your country will collapse.  You will have
to re-enter the game and start over.  Since a new
player starts with a score of 600 and has five days of
protection to build, droping below your starting point
will cause the citizens of your country to not only
declare you a failure, but shoot you full of holes
besides.  Your countrymen reward heros.  They have no
room for bad Generals.

    d.  Daily play is important.  Not only do you not
get paid if you don't play, raids sent against you will
be processed anyway after one day of non-play.  Also,
instead of the normal percentage of your fighters
scrambling in defense, a lesser number will defend if
the maintenance routine has to process the raid.  A
word to the wise, don't let your wimps fly in defense
while you are absent.

    e.  Successful raids against factories, cities,
and bases may be rewarded by the President with extra
goldbars.  Successful raids against radar and anti-
aircraft are not rewarded, however they are useful in
helping your other raids survive.

  Tips on Strategy.

    a.  Coordinate alliances with others and then
coordinate your attacks.

    b.  Reducing radar and anti-aircraft before
hitting factories, cities, or bases may improve your
raid's success and decrease your losses.

    c.  Remember that the more expensive an aircraft
is, the more effective it is.  In short, you get what
you pay for.  This equates to fewer expensive aircraft
being equal to more cheap aircraft.  However, numbers
do count, so don't leave your bombers bare as they
enter foreign territory.

    d.  Small raids do small damage and suffer heavy
losses.  Large raids do more damage and may also suffer
heavy losses (see tip b above).


  Notes.

    a.  If you have any ideas for improved game play,
please pass them on.  If you have the privilege on your
BBS of sending fnet email, you can send ideas in email
to Darel Schartman at Node 224.  Make sure you spell
the name correctly or the email will not be delivered.

    b.  We will not worry about or even consider
multiple BBS play until the game is sound in the local
mode.  Let's concentrate on ways to make the game
better, more fun, and more realistic.  However, please
bear in mind that while not all suggestions will be
accepted, the suggestion may stimulate other ideas that
will be.  Your participation will be greatly
appreciated.

Game Documentation written by:

Dick Pederson
AKA DOC HOLIDAY
FNET Node 224, Flash BBS
US Robotics HST Modem
[phone]
PC Pursuitable at 2400 Baud through MOSLO