Crawly Crypt Collection 1/crawlyvol1.bin/games/startrek/trek0404.doc

Text File | 1993-04-04 | 15KB | 363 lines

             Star Trek: The Klingon War  (Version 04.04.93)
                         By: James S. Sellers
                      GEnie Address:  J.SELLERS2

                             4 April 1993


Star Trek:  The  Klingon War  (ST:TKW) is a Star Trek battle simulation.
As Captain  of  the  USS  Enterprise,  a  battlecruiser  class starship,
your  mission is  to  utilize  all your  starship and starbase assets to
destroy  an  Klingon  invasion fleet. You command a  top rated crew that
will carry  out  your orders  in  controlling weapons, shields, sensors,
displays, warp and impulse drives, probes, and navigation.

Currently the Federation is at war with the Klingon Empire. The war does
not  go  well for the Federation.  Many  Federation  Starships have been
lost.  The  Federation has  fewer  ships  but  they  are  well armed and
protected  with  tritanium  hull  armor and defensive force shields. The
Klingon  force  consists  of smaller  and  quicker attack vessels with a
greater  firing  range.  Odds  are  normally  3 to 1 against you in each
battle.


STARBASE:

Protect your Starbase. You can only do so much self repair and your Main
Power Banks  will not last forever.  Watch  for  Klingons in quadrant 1.
Do not let these invaders get to your Starbase.

DOCKING AT STARBASE:

Visits  to  the  Starbase  should  be made  when you  need battle damage
repaired,  power banks  recharged  or photon  torpedoes reloaded.  While
repairs are being made time is greatly sped up.


WEAPONS SYSTEMS:

The Enterprise is equipped with two weapons systems;  Phasers and Photon
Torpedoes.

Phasers:

There are  three  banks  of phaser weapons. Each phaser bank will fire 1
phaser  shot  per firing  sequence.  In  order to  use the phaser weapon
you  must first "ARM PHASERS" from  the main screen or go to the weapons
screen  and  individually  power  up  each   phaser  bank.  There may be
occasions  when  you  would  want  to  conserve  power  by not firing or
recharging  all phaser banks.  Phasers  will  destroy  any target if you
can hit it enough. Phaser  energy  output  can  be  controlled.   Higher
energy output will cause more damage but will also drain the phaser bank
quicker.  Photon torpedoes will do more damage per hit.

Photon Torpedo:

Photon  torpedoes  create  a  matter/anti-matter explosion. Anything not
protected  by force  shields or special armor plating will be destroyed.
The  Enterprise loadout is 100  photon  torpedoes.  During  battle  some
of  them  may  be damaged  and rendered  unusable.  Photon torpedoes are
reloaded at the Starbase. Both weapon systems can be damaged beyond your
crew's  ability  to  repair. The weapons guidance system consist of tar-
geting  and  magnification  controls.  You  must TARGET THE ENEMY VESSEL
BEFORE  FIRING  or else  you  will  just fire the weapon off  into empty
space.  The magnification control makes targeting easier.


SENSORS:

The  ship  is equipped  with sensing devices that are linked in with the
main computer.  The  sensors  can  determine  specific energy levels and
damage  inflicted  on  enemy  ships.  This  information  is displayed on
your  main  view  screen  as long  as  the  sensors  are operational and
activated.


Active Sensors:

Active  Sensors  are  used  for detecting  cloaked Klingon warships. The
Active  Sensing  devices are  mounted  along the perimeter of the saucer
section. When in use they emit a strong sensor beam that is continuously
analyzed  for  anomalies  in nearby space. Once a anomaly is detected, a
concentrated  active  sensor  scan  is directed into that area. The main
computer  projects  an  overlay  of  the  scanned  area onto the weapons
officer's display screen.  The overlay is used for targeting.

Passive Sensors:

Passive  sensors  do  not  emit  sensing beams. They are collectors. The
information  collected  is  processed  through  the  main  computer  and
displayed when requested.


SHIELDS:

Also identified as deflectors.  Shields are an energy barrier that absorb
and deflect  hostile energy and objects away from your ship. Shields will
gradually  wear  down  and  more  energy  will  get through them to cause
damage.  Make  sure  your  shields  are  fully  charged before going into
battle  and  while  in battle recharge them as necessary. If your shields
become too damaged they will not be able to recharge.  If your shields go
down in mid battle you should consider evasion tactics immediately.

The  current shield power level is displayed in the center of the shields
activation switch.

PROBES:

Probes  are  used  to  collect intelligence about the presence of Klingon
warships.  Launch  a  probe  into  each  system  you  patrol. Information
collected  by  the  probes  will  be  displayed  on your Tactical Scanner
screen.  With  the  use  of  probes, you can assess Klingon strengths and
weaknesses and plan your battle  strategy.


TACTICAL SCANNER:

Displays sector, quadrants, your location, starbase, probe placement, and
Klingon  ships  the  probes have detected.  The Tactical Scanner displays
two screens.  The  first is an overview of the entire sector.  The second
is  a  quadrant  view  that  shows specific locations of probes, systems,
Klingon ships, and your location.


NAVIGATION:

The Navigator's position is used to move from one star system to another.
The destination  system  is  selected  by  pointing and clicking with the
mouse. Known information about the system will be displayed at the top of
the screen.

You must also select the warp speed.  If you do not have enough energy to
maintain  the  warp  field at the desired warp speed to your destination,
you will not be able to engage the warp engines.

While in transit from one system to another real time is greatly sped up.

Warp  engines are very vulnerable to battle damage so keep an eye on warp
drive availability (43% and greater). You may find a need to be somewhere
else fast and no  means of getting there until your crew can fix the warp
drive. It doesn't take a graduate from Starfleet Academy to see that this
could be disastrous during a battle.


HELM:

The  helm  is  used  to  move  short  distances  to  the starbase and for
maneuvering during battle.  To  select  a course of travel you must first
click on "TRACKING". This will cause the helmsman's screen to display the
Enterprise and Klingon ships as points.  The  starbase  will be displayed
as a small gray square if its in your current star system  and if you are
close enough to it.  From where  the points are plotted  you can tell the
speed and direction of travel of your ship and any Klingon ships that are
in tracking range.

The "AUTO" control  is  used for automatic piloting and will set a direct
course  to  the  Starbase.  "AUTO"  can  be used in "VIEW" and "TRACKING"
modes.  Clicking  on  "VIEW"  will  turn  off the "TRACKING" screen and a
normal view screen  will  take  its place. Your ship will continue on its
present course.  If  your  ship has  suffered battle damage the AUTO will
require monitoring to ensure docking.

Within  the  "TRACKING"  screen  is  a  gray frame. To travel beyond your
current tracking  screen  you  must position the red + outside the frame.
When the + is positioned  within the frame, the Enterprise will travel to
that point and stop. The Enterprise  will  move until it reaches the + or
runs out of impulse energy. The impulse  engines  are  recharged from the
Helm position from energy stored in the main power banks.


MAIN COMPUTER SCREEN:

The  Main Computer  Screen  is  used to access most functions of the ship.
Status  report,  arm weapon systems, scanners, sensors, shields, engineer-
ing, damage report,  launch  probe, auxillary power and communications can
all be accessed from the main computer screen.

RECHARGE:

The main screen's "RECHARGE" button is used for recharging the Phasers (if
they are activated) and the Shields.

AUXILIARY POWER:

During  the  course  of the simulation you may want to move your available
power to other systems.  Such  as  from Phasers to Warp or perhaps Warp to
Shields.  This  switch  will  draw  selected  power  back  into  the  main
power  banks  for later redistribution.  Be careful when you use this, you
wouldn't  want  to  drain  the shields when you are under attack... unless
you are diverting the shield energy to the warp drive to make your escape.


LOG (F5 key):

Shows  status  of Captain's war career and current mission statistics. You
access this screen with the F5 function key.


REVIEW ORDERS (F6 key):

For  another  look at your orders depress the F6 function key.  The orders
will  be  displayed  until  another  keypress  is  made or mouse button is
clicked on.


SIMULATION CONTROLS:

Before  the  simulation begins  you have several game options to consider:

Start New Game
Restore a Saved Game
Quit
Unit History

If New Game is selected you must decide on the game parameters.

TRAINING:  Use  this  feature  to  learn  how  the starship's  systems and
controls work.  You cannot be destroyed while in training mode.

Maximum Klingons:   Enables  you  to select a reduced or maximum amount of
enemy warships.  The minimum  is 10 and the maximum is 30 Klingon vessels.

Simulation Level:  Here you have 3 options, Ensign, Lieutenant, and Captain.
Ensign is the easy level for beginners.  The  Klingon  ships  do not fire as
much at this level.  When  you've  mastered all the game controls move up in
level for more competitive play.

KEYBOARD CONTROLS USED DURING THE GAME:

A - Abort Game.  Aborts game in progress and allows you to start over.

Q - Quits and goes to Desktop.

R - Restore a Saved Game.

S - Save current game.  All current game variables will be saved in a file
    called GAME.00?.  Information is saved and the game continues.

SPACEBAR - Toggles Pause on and off.

Function Key Commands:

F1 - Main Computer
F2 - Weapons
F3 - Navigation
F4 - Helm
F5 - Log
F6 - Review Orders

SIMULATION NOTES:

Controls:  Controls  are  selected by POINTING AND HOLDING DOWN the left
mouse  button  until  your  command  is accepted.  The right button will
de-select.  The keyboard commands are listed above and can be used while
the simulation is in progress.

Monitor: Adjust your brightness for the darkest background and then your
contrast.  The game will look much better.

Mouse:  If  you  are having trouble selecting options with your mouse it
may  just  need a  good cleaning (button switches and rollers) mine did.

Battle Sequence:   At present, the  Klingon ships can do 5 things;  fire
disrupters, fire plasma charge, cloak (or uncloak), change course, or do
nothing.  While  the Klingon  is  firing or cloaking you cannot use your
controls for  that  brief  period.  While the Klingon ship is cloaked it
cannot fire at you, but another Klingon  ship may uncloak and resume the
battle  while  the  other  ship(s)  recharge  weapons  and shields.  For
programming reasons, only 1 Klingon ship will be able to fire at a time.

The  Klingon's  actions  are decided by shield strength, weapons charge,
hull damage,  and random numbers.  Some ships may seem very hard to kill
and  others  easy.  All  can  be dangerous if you take too many hits and
your shields go down.

To make the game harder to win, I made the Klingon ships faster and gave
them a longer firing range than the Enterprise. The Enterprise has a max
firing  range  of  50  and  the  Klingons max is 50 + random(20).  So be
careful  when  you are closing in for a kill.  A Klingon may have you in
firing range well before you have him.


DISCLAIMER:

I've  been  writing and running this program for months on my ST with no
ill  effects.  If your  system  decides  to fry while loading or playing
ST:TKW I will not be held responsible.


FREEWARE:

This  game is freeware.  Feel free to upload it anywhere.  Just leave it
as is.

If  you want a latest version you'll have to send me $10.00 to cover the
cost of me  buying  a new disk, disk mailer envelope, postage, and misc.
If  you  have  a  modem  send me enough cash to cover the phone call (or
$10.00  if  the  phone  cost is less than $10) and I'll upload it to you
at 2400 baud.  Don't  forget  to  include  your  name  and phone number.
(Although  the  game is  freeware I won't move for less than ten bucks.)

;)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version Notes:

12.07.92  :  Second release after a rewrite.  Changed Klingon ship
graphics.

12.18.92  :  Switched to a later version of GFA Basic (3.5E). Playtester
(R. Gregory) reports less lockups for TOS 1.4.  Thanks for the help Rob.
Added Phaser Power Output select and another magnification level.

02.26.93  :  Changed graphics.  Made larger view screen.  Revised aux
power.  Killed a bunch of bugs.

03.14.93  :  Cleaned up some graphics and currently experiencing a
writers block about what to do next...

04.04.93  :  Put in levels of play and trainer mode.  Changed scoring
system.  Aggressive play is rewarded.  Level and probes are used as
score multipliers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Programmer's Notes:

Yes, I  know some things are not very realistic and "they didn't do that
in  the  TV show...", I've  changed a few things for entertainment value
alone.

This game still isn't completely finished. I still have a few more ideas
that  I  want  to  put  in  (separate missions, more graphics, different
ships, better animation...)  and  there are a few bugs running around in
there  that  I'll  have to fix.

Remember one thing while playing - you and the Klingons TAKE TURNS.

You  can't  do anything until its your turn.  So don't get frustrated if
your commands are not instantly accepted and acted upon.

Programming is my hobby.  You  are  not  under any obligation to send me
shareware money.  You  can  play  this game for as long as you want in a
completely  guilt  free  manner.

I  want  to hear from you. Write me your comments good or bad and let me
know  about  any BUGS you find.  I  only know how to play this game "the
right way", I probably haven't tried some weird stuff that you may have.

I'm  always  working on improving my programs so if you have a good idea
for this game let me know about it.

Mail Address:

James Sellers
332 32nd St.
San Pedro, Ca 90731


Comments  and suggestions can be sent through GEnie mail to J.SELLERS2 or
regular mail to the address above.  For quick response include your phone
#. The better suggestions may be included in the next update.

Have fun and keep your shields up!