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S t r a t a G e m Version C 1.80 Programming, graphics and sound fx by Oskari Koskimies Tunes by Mandarin Software Written in STOS Basic (C) Oskari Koskimies 1991 Requires ST with colour monitor or TV and at least 1 MB of RAM This program and its utilities Mapper and Typedit are Public Domain, all rights reserved etc., so don't sell it for profit, change the code, omit any of the files when copying, or lie to your mum, or the bogeyman will come and get you. Naturally I accept no responsibility for anything whatso- ever, especially if it has anything to do with this program. Comments, suggestions and reports of outrageous (and other) bugs can be sent to: okoskimi@kruuna.helsinki.fi The Real Word (TM) address is: Oskari Koskimies Karstulantie 8 E 75 00550 Helsinki Finland but if at all possible, please use E-mail. The programs were mostly written for the fun of it, but of course it's always nice to be appreciated (And frankly, writing manuals is a bore). So if you have some loose cash and like the program, I'd be most grateful for any donations. (Because, in my opinion, one received donation means about a thousand happy users). Should you for some reason want the source code for the programs (As I said, it's in STOS Basic - which by the way is a great piece of software, gotta hand it to JAWX), send me an envelope with your name and address on it, a formatted empty disk and enough of the green stuff to pay for the postage and make it worth my while, and I'll send you the stuff. Be warned, though: you "forget" any of the above, and I'll forget about you. Disk Configuration STRATAGE.PRG M U S T be in an AUTO folder. This gives some additional free memory which is absolutely necessary. Otherwise the program is liable to show some strange quirks (You'll get errors when trying to load a map). If you have more than 1 MB of RAM you can move STRATAGE.PRG away from the AUTO folder and run it from Gem, which will make it simpler to use the Typedit and Mapper programs. On the Program disk should be the following files: CITNAMES.DAT MAPPER .DOC MAPPER .PRG MAXVALUE.DAT SOUNDFX .MBK STRATAGE.DOC STRDATA .DAT TYPEDIT .DOC TYPEDIT .PRG The type and map files are on the Scenario disk. There should be at least the default WORLD.CIT, WORLD.MAP, WORLD.NEO and WORLD.TYP files. Others may be there as well, depending on how much time I have had to create new ones. Introduction StrataGem is a two player strategy game, in which the objective is to destroy all the units and cities owned by the other player. In the beginning the players do not know their surroundings. They must explore the terrain and conquer as many cities as possible to produce more units. Sooner or later the forces of the two players will hit together and the battle begins. Those of you who noticed a certain similarity of idea with Empire aren't totally wrong; I was always pissed off by the absence of nukes in Empire. The absence of a one-player option has a simple reason: I don't know how to program a smart computer opponent in a game this complex, and I never much liked Empire as a one-player game anyhow. Anyway, apart from the basic idea the games are largely dissimilar (or not). Note: As this manual mostly just goes through the different functions of the game, it's mostly a reference manual. So I'd recommend you print it and try playing the game with the manual at hand. Start The first thing you see when the program has loaded is the "presents" screen (the one with the Suicide sample). Press a key to skip. The title screen is shown for a short while while the program reads data. Then the File Selector prompts you to choose a type file. Insert the Scenario disk (You might want to remove the Program disk first, but as I'm not responsible for anything, what the hell) and select the type file you want. (Incidentally, if you want to load another set of types when you have finished one game you will have to Quit the program and then start it again (Variable dimensioning is specified in the .TYP file, you know the sort of thing). However, other maps can be loaded without restarting.) Now you get to load a map in a similar manner (Pressing quit allows you to load an old game, if you have saved one previously). When the map has been chosen, it is loaded (and decompressed, if needed) and its cities are loaded. Then a presets menu will appear. If the first item is ON, city population affects production times. If the second item is ON, so do city resources. The third item determines whether or not city population is zero (or very low anyhow) when conquered, and the fourth has a like effect on cities just built by Town Builders. When you have made your selections, the program asks for the names of the players. These cannot be changed later. Then the game starts. Note: When the cities start to load, you might get an alert box informing you that the Type and City files are incompatible, and you are returned to the File Selector. This means simply that the number of available types differ in the two files. You must use the Mapper program to convert the map so that the City file includes the new types (or excludes the deleted ones). Please see Mapper documentation (Load Map) for details. Of course, you can also edit the type file with Typedit. Gameplay At the start of a turn an alert box informs you which player's turn it is and how many turns have gone, the current radiation level, and if your forces were attacked last turn (At this point the other player should look away, read a computer magazine, or otherwise keep his eyes off from what the player is doing). After that you will get a notice if your cities have been attacked (Mayday call) or destroyed (Contact lost). Then all cities are processed and the player is informed of any newly produced units. If a message informs you that a unit has been produced and you press the left mousebutton after receiving the message you will be able to name the unit. Otherwise (Right button) it will be solely referred to as "1st Tank" or some such. Then the units are processed and when there is one without orders, the screen will centre on it and you can give it new orders. The unit will have a brown rectangle around it. If the orders you are going to give requires a target, you must point at the target with the mouse and press the left button, so that a crosshair appears on that place, before giving the order. If the unit's status is "No Orders", clicking at the map will automati- cally give it a "Move To" order. If you wished to give some other order, just give it - the target coordinates will remain the same. However, if this annoys you, just turn the "Auto Move" option off in Settings (see below). If the desired target is outside the screen, the screen can be moved either by moving the mouse pointer to the screen border (the menu bar may be in the way, but pointing at the text window and pressing the left mouse key also scrolls upwards) or by using the arrow keys (a bigger jump) or by using World Map in the Reports menu (See below). Then the appropriate order is given using the Commands or the Other menu. If you do not wish to give orders to the unit this turn, press the space bar. Location information about the place you are currently viewing, the target point (if selected) and about the unit is displayed below the menu bar. The unit info can be scrolled using the "+" and "-" keys on the numeric keypad. When ready, press the right mousebutton and the unit will execute the orders. When all units have been processed, an alert box will ask you if you are finished. "Not yet" lets you change orders or view reports etc. However, orders given now won't be executed before next turn. Keyboard commands Some menu items can be activated by keyboard commands. The relevant keys are listed in the menus. Other keys are: Cursor keys: Move area to be viewed Number pad 1-9: Move 1 step (5=skip unit) Space: Skip unit, i.e. go to next unit although the current unit hasn't used up all its moves. Number pad + - Scroll Info line Both mouse keys and Q Cheat mode on Both mouse keys and W Cheat mode off Both mouse keys and M Get map <Help> Show free memory and disk space <A> Auto Move on/off Menus INFO About StrataGem Displays credits. FILE New Game, Load Game, Save Game, Quit Obvious. A saved game requires quite much space, as three maps (64 kB each) and two map pictures (32 kB each) are saved with it. About 300 kB should be sufficient. Note: You may have changed the type data (with Typedit) since you saved a game. If the number of types differ, you will not be able to load the previously saved game. You will be told the number of types in the saved game and those currently present. Please delete or add types so that the correct amount is achieved (With Typedit). You might also have tried to load a game saved with an earlier version of StrataGem. In that case you will be informed about the fact. REPORTS World Map Displays a map of the world as known at the moment. Friendly cities are flashing. There is also a flashing rectangle which represents the area you are currently viewing. Another flashing rectangle has replaced the mouse pointer. You may choose another place to view by setting the mouse pointer at the desired place and by pressing the left mouse button. The right button exits the map. If you want to flash other sorts of terrain, use the following keys (the rectangles will cease to flash): Unexplored F 1 Sea F 2 Shallow F 3 Reef F 4 Field F 5 Forest F 6 Hill F 7 Nuclear Waste F 8 Mountain F 9 Depends on which player you Vulcanic F 10 are. Desert F 11 || Road F 12 \/ Player 1 City F 13 / F/E (Friendly/Enemy) Player 2 City F 14 / F/E (Friendly/Enemy) Neutral City F 15 / N (Neutral) City Ruins F 16 Status Report Displays a report of how many units of a certain sort are currently being built, when the first one is ready, how many are in action, how many you have destroyed and how many you have lost. The display is in split in parts to fit in all the unit types. Press left mouse button to flip between the parts. Right mouse button shows you a general report about the amount of cities conquered, combat evaluation, radiation level, city and unit condition and the estimated effects of the radiation. If the radiation reaches 30 % it will start to affect the population of the cities and a graphic representation of the population (green) and the radiation percentage (red) will be shown (x-axis:time. y- axis: radiation/population as a percentage of the current popula- tion). The yellow line simply denotes the 30%-limit. Inciden- tally, if the radiation reaches 80 % it will start to affect units. A hundred percent radiation signals the end of the game, and as the radiation only decreases one percent every other turn, it is worth to be careful when using nuclear weapons. Right button takes you back to the unit report. Pressing both mouse keys simultaneously exits. Production Map In this mode no units are shown, and the cities are shown as the unit types they are currently producing. If you wish to change the production of a city, point at it with the mouse and press the left button. A selection window will appear. The title displays the name of the city and the time it takes to end the current production. As the window only has place for 20 choices, and there are more types of units (if you use the default type file), there are "Previous" and "Next" buttons to switch between the "pages". However, a city may not be able to produce all units (no water available in the near vicinity, for example). In this case one "page" is sufficient and the "Previous" and "Next" buttons are disabled. The type currently being produced has a "»»»" marker to the left. The others have the time it takes to produce them (The times vary from city to city, due to different resources and population sizes). Select the type you wish to produce. The window title will change accordingly. Right button exits the selection window, and also the Production Map. Please note that once you change the type being produced, the factories of the city immediately start to produce the new type. For example, if there's still two turns left before a destroyer is ready, and you want to produce submarines instead, then have second thoughts and switch back to destroyers, the production will start from scratch and you must wait for the full production time. A city that is Resting will increase its population twice as fast as others. All Production Goes through all the cities, displaying production info and allowing changes to be made. Follow on-screen instructions. Display Map Allows all the Ballistic and Tactical missiles that are not yet launched to be primed, except for the stored ones. Missiles in flight are shown as a normal line and primed missiles as dotted lines. The effect of the hit is shown as a circle around the target. The flashing may be controlled as in World Map. The missile currently being set has four outgoing arrows around it. The mouse pointer has the form of four ingoing arrows and is used to set the target. Other controls are: <SPACE> Flip between missiles. <C> Clear missile target setting. <Q> Clear all missiles (except those already launched). <S> Shows enemy missiles (in flight) as arrowheads. This option can only be used if you have a satellite in orbit. <RETURN> exits. <L> Launch missile. An alert will ring until you press either <RETURN> to confirm the launch or any other button to cancel. <U> Display units. Friendly units are shown as slowly pulsating blue dots and enemy units as similar but red ones. Pressing the left button gives you info about the point under the mouse pointer (If the point is near one of your own satellites and an enemy unit is located in it, you will get exact info about the unit). Right mouse- button exits. <P> Set production. Click at the city that you want to set with the mouse. Right button exits. This may also be done by pressing <U> and clicking at the city, and then pressing "Set Production" in the info box. Both mouse buttons used simultaneously exits. Note: As I said, stored missiles cannot be primed. To do this, unload the missiles (even on water), then prime and launch them either directly or from the Display Map. COMMANDS Clear Orders Clears unit's orders (and stack). IMPORTANT: With this command they keyboard shortcut and the menu item differ. Pressing <C> clears both orders and stack, whereas selecting the command from the menu only clears the unit's orders. Move To Unit will move to the target point if possible to do so. If target point is at an enemy unit your unit will attack it (And remember - it's always better to attack than to be attacked!). If a friendly unit is at the target point your unit will load into the friendly unit. If the unit has not used up all its moves when reaching the target point, you will be allowed to give new orders. When moving the unit also gathers info about it's surroundings (terrain type), including the existence of enemy units. However, enemy land units will not be displayed if they are within a forest, unless you are looking with a satellite. Enemy mines, submarines and stealth planes are also invisible except to satellites. Sentry Unit will watch for enemies in its observing area and if enemies appear it will give you the choice of attacking them, firing at them (if the unit is capable of long-range fire), clearing the old orders and going on "sentrying". The unit will not need further instructions while in sentry mode, and this command is used to put the unit away for a while. However, if the unit is airborne it will continue to use up fuel, and in any case its morale will go down. A unit that has been set to sentry will also detect "hidden" units (land units in forest, submarines, stealth planes) if they are next to it. Follow Unit Unit will follow the unit in the target point, and, if it is an enemy, eventually attack it. Fire at Co. Unit will fire at target point until told to do otherwise or till it runs out of ammo. The chance to hit is calculated as follows: Hit prob. = basic hit prob. * (fire range - distance) / fire range If you hit an enemy unit the enemy will be displayed on your screen, even if it wasn't visible before. Fire at Unit Unit will fire at enemy unit in target point until it is destroyed or the unit is given new orders or runs out of ammo. The enemy unit may, however, move out of range or -sight, where it can't be fired at. The unit will resume firing when the enemy unit comes in range and sight. Load The unit will load every suitable unit (must be either without orders or "sentrying") close by. Unload A selector will be displayed for the units that may be unloaded. You can then select a unit and the place you want it to be unloaded to. After placing the unit you will return to the unit selector so that you can unload another unit. Pressing right mouse button exits. If the unloading unit is a Tanker the units will also be resupplied. Build Pioneers will build a road to the target point, but they will move at half normal speed. Mine Searchers will make the waterways deeper, also at half speed. Town builders will build a town at their current location. However, this will take some time. The time left is displayed on the unit's info. When ready the unit will disband and inhabit the town. The town's resources depend on its surroundings (the more different terrain types the better, especially mountains), and its initial population is the Town Builder unit's strength * the city strength value in the STRDATA.DAT file (default 5000). The resource values are: Minimum 50 Mountains or volcanos +20 Sea or reef or shallow +10 Forest +10 Desert (for oil) +10 Rare are indeed the towns that boast a resource value of 100! The next five commands can only be used with missiles, with the sole exception of launch; that is also used to launch satellites: Dive To Used only with Cruise missiles. The unit will dive to the target point and detonate. Set Target Sets the missile's target and primes it. All primed missies (Ballistic and Tactical only) will be launched if Launch All is used. Launch Launches the missile (or a satellite). Launch All Launches all primed Ballistic and Tactical missiles. You will be asked for confirmation. OTHER Other Unit Lets you give orders to the unit at the target point. Press right mouse button to return to the original unit. Info Gives you information about the target point. If there's a city there, you will also get a chance to change it's production. Info about enemy units is very restricted. However, if you access "Info" while giving commands to a Satellite, you will get exact info about those enemy units that are near enough. Pressing info with no destination point selected (i.e. a unit with no orders) automatically gets info about the current unit. Find Unit Displays the units (names if available) and lets you select one of them. The screen will then centre on this unit. Find City Similar to Find Unit. --- Stack commands --- The commands may be stacked, so that they are executed in a row (one per turn). This is done by selecting "Begin Stack". An "S" appears at the line number up left. Then give the unit an order in the usual manner. Now pressing the right button will stack the order ("Check" will be shown) and you can give a new order and stack it and so on. "+" and "-" at the numeric keypad will scroll through the stacked commands. Pressing <ENTER> (Num. keyp.) will switch between the usual infoline and the stack list. "Quit Stack" finishes, "Delete Item" deletes the stacked command currently shown and "Add Item" will insert a command after the current one. To allow for patrol routes etc. a loop command exists. It can only be set as the last of the stack (But once you have entered it you can enter more commands after it). First you must scroll to the command you wish to loop to. Then press the "(" key in the numeric keyboard. You will be asked for number of times the command will loop back (0=infinite), and then the loop is set. If you, for example, want a unit to patrol between X1,Y1 and X2,Y2 you move it first to X1,Y1, then stack the commands "move to X2,Y2" and "move to X1,Y1". Then you scroll to the "move to X2,Y2" command with the "-" key and press the "(" key, and enter "0" as the number of loops to be made. However, be careful that a patrolling unit won't run out of fuel. The systems of a unit without fuel will slowly detoriate (a "Unit is affected by lack of supplies" message will appear) and the unit will ultimately be destroyed. Another "extra" command is "Wait One Turn". Pressing the ")" key puts this command as the currently last in stack. The command is useful when you want your units to refuel, because refueling occurs only when the unit stays "over a turn" in a city, i.e. merely travelling through a city won't do. One more thing to remember: The next command in the stack won't be executed before the last one is completed, i.e. if there weren't any stacked commands the unit would ask for new orders. So if you stack a "Sentry" command somewhere in the middle, the commands after that won't be executed before you abort the sentrying. (And please note that "Clear orders" also clears the stack when using the keyboard shortcut) Discard Allows you to discard single machines from a unit (deducts strength) while keeping their fuel, thus enabling the remaining ones to go further. Use "+" and "-" to set the amount that will remain and press return to exit. You may not discard all machines, and you won't be able to use this command if the unit in question does not consume fuel. Exchange Allows you to change machines and supplies between units of the same type, or between a refuel unit and a compatible combat unit (supplies only). You may move all the machines in to the other unit, in which case the other supplies are automatically transferred to the remaining unit. This command can be used either to refuel units or to create powerful superunits with more than normal strength. Use the keys <4> to <9> on the numeric keypad to exchange supplies and <ENTER> to exit. Note: A unit with, say, three times the strength of an ordinary unit is very deadly indeed. You see, the frequence of the firing is determined by the fire rate. However, each time it's the unit's "turn" to shoot, all the machines in it get one shot. And in this case that means three times the normal firepower. This will considerably decimate the enemy unit, and its return fire will therefore be diminished. In fact, a 3X unit can very easily destroy a normal enemy unit of the same type without getting a scratch. It's also a good idea to use 2X or 3X units when conquering towns - you won't lose as many machines then. Populate City Allows you to add one Infantry unit to a city, thus increasing the population somewhat (2000 * strength). Essential when your city has been bombed to ruins but not yet invaded, as the population will not increase once it has been reduced to zero (logical, ain't it). The Infantry unit must be in the city. Settings Lets you set unit sound, mushroom cloud (At large-scale nuclear attacks the "mushroom cloud" which takes some time to develop can be quite an annoyance. Therefore this option lets you reduce the explosion to a mere flash.), Auto Move (Automatic Move To - command when giving orders to a unit with a "No Orders" or "Moving" status and clicking at a location on the map) and radiation (When the Radiation option is turned OFF the radiation level is not increased when a nuclear warhead detonates, so that you can freely throw nukes at each other) on/off. UNIT TYPES Please note: This list may not be completely correct, as the type file may have been edited later. "Cargo:" lists the units this particular type of unit may carry. Infantry Only type that can conquer cities. Fast to produce, but reduces the population of the city. (If a city refuses to produce Infantry, especially a newly-conquered one, it might be because it hasn't enough people. One Infantry unit requires 20,000 soldiers.) Cargo: Land mines. Light Artillery Lightly armored, can move relatively freely. Short range fire. Heavy Artillery Heavily armored, slow, can't move through forests. Long range destructive fire. Laser Tower Extremly cumbersome, heavily armored. Very accurate long range fire but with little destructive capability. Used against mis- siles. This type has a very long sensor range and if it's in sentry mode, it will let you shoot down any missiles passing over (A Ballistic Missile moves 25 steps/turn, and the sensor area of Laser Towers has a dia- meter of 26 steps). However, a missile aimed directly at the unit may well hit (as the RADIUS of the sensor area is only 13 steps). Tanks Standard fighting equipment. Cannot fire over distances. Pioneers Poor fighters, used to sweep mines und build roads. Cargo: Land mines. Town Builders No better at fighting than Pioneers, used to build new towns. Slow and cumbersome move- ment. When the town has been built, the unit disbands and inhabits it. Radar Stations Position these at your borders, and enemies will be detected when they approach, except of course for the "invisible" types and the land units that are in a forest. The stations are unable to move by themselves, and must be dropped off other units. Transport Vehicles Heavy duty transport trucks that can carry most land units. Travels only over roads and fields, though. Cargo: Infantry, Light Artillery, Heavy Artillery, Laser Towers, Tanks, Pioneers, Town Builders, Radar Stations, Land mines, Mini-Missiles. Supply Trucks Carries ammunition and fuel to land troops. Virtually worthless in battle, though. Travels over any terrain except sea and reefs. Land Mines Invisible to enemy except to satellites, cannot move by themselves. Fast to produce. Light Transporters Can go up rivers, payload restricted. Cargo: Infantry, Light artillery, Tanks, Pioneers, Sea mines. Heavy Transporters Cannot enter rivers, heavy payload. Cargo: Infantry, Light & Heavy artillery, Laser towers, Tanks, Pioneers, Town builders, Radar Stations, Transport vehicles, Sea mines, Satellites, Helicopters, Mini-Missiles. Tankers Carry fuel and ammunition for sea vessels. Not very good fighters. Submarines Difficult to hit, but are easily sunk once it happens. Slow fire rate, but high impact. Invisible to enemy except to satellites. Also used as mobile missile bases. Cargo: Sea mines, Cruise missiles, Ballistic missiles, Tactical missiles, Mini-Missiles. Destroyers Fast attack vehicle, mainly against transpor- ters and aircraft. Can traverse rivers. Short range fire. Cargo: Sea mines. Cruisers Take over when the destroyers get in trouble. Medium range fire. Cargo: Sea mines, Helicop- ters, Tactical missiles, Mini-Missiles. Battleships Floating fortresses. They are slow but their destructive potential is awesome. Long range fire. Cargo: Sea mines, Helicopters, Cruise missiles, Ballistic missiles, Tactical mis- siles, Mini-Missiles. Carriers Mobile base for aircraft. Slow movement, defends itself with its aircraft. Cargo: Sea mines, Fighters, Helicopters, Bombers, Stealth Fighters, Stealth Bombers, Helicop- ters, Spy planes, Cruise Missiles, Tactical missiles, Mini-Missiles. Sea Bases Seaborne castles that can destroy virtually everything that comes close enough. They can also shelter and resupply other sea units. Cargo: Light Transporters, Submarines, Destroyers, Cruisers, Mine Searchers, Sea Mines, Fighters, Stealth Fighters, Helicop- ters, Spy Planes, Cruise Missiles, Ballisti- cal Missiles, Tactical Missiles, Mini- Missiles. Mine Search Poor fighters. Used to sweep mines and dig rivers deeper so that bigger vessels may enter them. Cargo: Sea Mines. Sea Mines The sea version of Land Mines. Fighters The airborne version of Tanks. Cargo: Tacti- cal missiles, Mini-Missiles. Bombers Slow fire rate but high impact. Cargo: Air Mines, Tactical missiles, Mini-Missiles. Stealth Fighters Like Fighters, only invisible to enemy units except to satellites. Cargo: Tactical Missiles, Mini-Missiles. Stealth Bombers Like Bombers, only invisible to enemy units except to satellites. Cargo: Air Mines, Tactical Missiles, Mini-Missiles. Transport Planes Used to carry troops. A lousy fighter. Cargo: Infantry, Light Artillery, Tanks, Pioneers, Radar Stations, Supply Trucks, Land Mines, Sea Mines, Air Mines, Cruise Missiles, Ballistic Missiles, Tactical Missiles, Mini- Missiles. Satellites Used for exploration. Once launched, they remain in air till their fuel runs out and they crash. They have scanners which enable exact information to be gathered about enemy units in their vicinity. They are also armed with a few rounds of inertia slugs, which are quite effective because of the high impact speed. Helicopters The only airborne unit type that is able to land outside the cities and can thus be set to sentry for an indefinite period. Medium armament. Cargo: Mini-Missiles Spy planes Long range rekognaissance planes. Air Mines Air version of Land Mines. Cruise Missiles Once launched they may be moved around as ordinary units as long as their fuel lasts. When near target, select it and use "Dive To". This type of missile is used when you do not know the exact location of your target. Ballistic Missiles Fast and deadly. Tactical Missiles Short range missiles with a small nuclear warhead. Mini-Missiles Can only take out one unit, but the one is taken out rather thoroughly. The missiles are characterized by their high destruction potential. Ballistic missiles have the biggest warheads and the Mini-Missiles the smallest. The warhead is in direct proportion to the effect the detonation will have on the radiation level. UNIT PROPERTIES There are a few properties that might not be immediately self-evident: Strength: Number of machines left in the unit (In infantry 1 strength point is 2,000 men). Orders: There are a few that have not been explained (I think) elsewhere. Flying Missiles that are flying to destination. Stored Actually you shouldn't ever come across this, because stored units cannot be inquired about their info. Anyway, it's the order or "state" that loaded units have/are in. Hovering Cruise Missile and Satellite version of "No orders". Going in The unit has been ordered to go and get itself loaded (into another unit, that is). Experience: The better the experince, the better the units fight (They hit more often). They get experience - how else - by fighting (and winning, of course). Incidentally, firing at cities won't increase a unit's experience. The different levels are: Green Rookie Fighter Veteran Elite Moral: The moral is increased by winning fights and by staying in cities. When outside cities, it will steadily go down. The different levels are: Panicky Uneasy Steady Good Excellent At start every unit has a rating of "Excellent". It will drop during the game, and a unit with a rating of "Steady" or lower will be very choosy when picking its fights. FIGHTS When you try to move your unit in the same place with an enemy unit, the usual result is battle, unless: - The enemy unit is too heavily armored for the attack to be meaningful. - The enemy is stronger than you, and your unit has a lousy morale, so it refuses to attack. If the battle is joined, but seems to go badly, pressing the right mouse button enables your unit to flee. However, its morale will suffer a serious blow AND the enemy will get a free shot at your escaping unit, often destroying it anyway. The most important factors when determining a unit's worth in battle are its fire rate, strength, HP, hit probability, evasion probability and damage values. These can be studied (and edited) with the Typedit program. Fire rate determines how often the unit gets to shoot. Strength determines how many shots go off each time. Each time a shot hits there's a small explosion shown on the stricken unit. If a machine is destroyed (The unit's strength is reduced) a "boom" sound is heard. And do remember: The locations of the attacker and the "victim" are not without importance. For example, striking from a forest at a unit in a field has definite advantages. For more exact information, see description of the STRDATA.DAT file below. MISCELLANOUS Pressing <Return> when faced with an alert box has the same effect as "pressing" the topmost button. The mouse pointer may disappear sometimes. This usually happens if you make hectic mouse movements in the upper parts of the screen. I'll be damned if I know why, but pulling downward and pressing the mousebutton gets it back (The downward pull is in order to avoid making accidental menu selections). Another strange quirk is a "ghost" alert box. The mouse pointer disappears and when you press the mousebutton you hear a ring like when you are faced with an alert box and are clicking away outside it. I suppose the interrupt-driven on menu-commands somehow manage to jump in the middle of the alert box subroutine. Anyway, just press <Return> and you are out of the invisible alert box. If the memory runs low (<3000 bytes) you'll get a message to that effect. You'll also get a chance to erase unit names, a massive use of those being one of the main causes of memory shortage. Other things that use up memory are stacked commands and cargo units, neither of which should be a problem. One other way to get more memory is to save the game, quit, change the values in the MAXVALUE.DAT file and then restart the program and load the game. However, be careful that you do not make the values too small (your units and cities must fit in). There isn't a lot about the different types of units in this text. The simplest way to find out about their relative speeds, fire ranges etc. is to check the .TYP file (and print it) with Typedit. CHEAT MODE: Both mouse buttons must be pressed at the same time. <Q> Set cheat mode on <W> - " - off <M> Gives you the complete map. The world map, however, is not available directly, therefore you have the option to load a .NEO picture if such is available. Press the <QUIT> button if this is not the case. Cheat mode lets your units travel anywhere, about 100 steps at a time, and when you set city production the time is always set to zero. This can be used to se up a starting situation, for example. Version Update The Mapper utility can now pack the maps and thus reduce the disk space needed. StrataGem will load both packed and unpacked maps. However, saved games won't be packed (The routines for that were too slow, and they took up too much memory). Land units moving in forests are now invisible until you run into them, and the Ground Mine and Air Mine metatypes have dual natures, so that they can also be used as metatypes for invisible sea and air units, respectively (=Submarines and Stealth Planes, see Typedit documentation for more info). The info option now gives you info when you try to get info about a enemy unit that isn't anymore at the spot it was last seen at. However, you won't get info about what an enemy unit is doing anymore, unless you are using a satellite. Radiation now affects cities less. It's now possible to have the armour pierce value of the attacking unit and the armour of the defending unit affect the damage effect of a shot, i.e. damage = full damage * (armour pierce - armour) / armour pierce. To do this you must enter a negative damage value with Typedit. The Prime option has been removed, and Set Target now automatically primes a missile (actually Set Target was removed and Prime renamed, as I needed the memory and Set Target was pretty useless anyhow). Terrain now affects the outcome of a fight. More about that later. City evasion, hit probability, shell damage, fire rate and strength values can be edited. Ditto. Four preset options has been added. The order of the info lines had been changed to a more convenient one. The Mapper's default cities are now in an editable file. The maximum number of cities and units has been reduced to 500 and 900 for memory reasons. This can be changed by editing the MAXVALUE.DAT file, but you are advised to check the amount of memory with the <Help> key when starting to play. You should have at least 10 kB of free memory when starting. A few new unit types have been added. Please check the type file with Typedit for info about them. Scrolling upwards can now be done by pointing at the text window and clicking. The fire rate is now handled properly in the battle routine. Extensive cosmetic work has been done. And last and least, the intro now uses samples. Sorry, now room for 'em in the program itself. (Well, there's a 2 Meg version of this game that does use samples - E-mail me if you want it and are prepared for a bloody big uuencode file) The MAXVALUE file The file MAXVALUE.DAT consists of two numbers (in ASCII), 500 and 900 as default. They are the maximum numbers of cities (total) and troops (per player), respectively. If you have more than 1MB of memory and want to have a truly massive setup, you can change the figures more to your liking. The STRDATA.DAT file STRDATA.DAT is also an ASCII file. It consists of city evasion probability, hit prob., armour, shell pierce, shell damage, fire rate and strength values, two sets of descriptions of different orders, names for different terrain types, descriptions of experience and moral levels, the number data for the unit movements in the eight directions, the menu data, the keyboard shortcut data, and the terrain effect data. The number data should NOT be tampered with, all other things can be edited. However, you should only edit lines that already have text on them and NEITHER DELETE NOR INSERT LINES! Contents of the STRDATA.DAT file Here's what the different parts are: The first seven values (first line, default 1, 40, 0, 50, 4, 10, 5000) are the cities' evasion, hit, armour, shell pierce, shell damage, fire rate and strength values. They are the same for all cities, and they correspond to the values that the different types of units have (see Typedit documentation for more info), except for strength, which is the number of inhabitants which equals one unit of strength (for example, a city with 75000 inhabitants and a strength value of 5000 has a battle strength of 15) Then come the order descriptions (16 + 15 lines). The first set is used to say what the unit is doing, the second is used with stacked commands. After that come the terrain descriptions (16 lines) and the experience (5 lines) and the moral levels (another 5 lines). Then comes the movement data (9 lines). DO NOT CHANGE THESE! Next is the Menu data (52 lines). After each part (Info, File, Reports, Commands, Other) comes an empty separator line. The "ααααααααααααααα" parts are the lines between the menu items, and should not be changed, as the program won't recognise them then. You may change the names of the menu options if you wish, but DO NOT INSERT OR DELETE LINES!. Then comes the keyboard shortcut data (3 * 16 lines). The first 16 lines is for the Reports, the second for the Commands and the third for the Other menu. To enter a keyboard shortcut, count which line the item has in the menu (for example, Production Map is number three and Quit Stack is number seven). Then you just enter the letter on that line in the relevant data section (for example, Quit stack would be the seventh line in the third section, i.e. the letter would be placed on the 2*16+7= 39th line in the keyboard shortcut data, where Q is at the moment). However, be careful that you do not use keys already reserved (<A> is used by Auto Move, by the way). The last jungle of numbers is the terrain battle effect data. The first line affects what happens on sea, second on shallow waters, fourth on field and so on (see Mapper documenta- tion for complete list). The numbers on each line consist of three groups of two numbers. The first group affects cover, the second firing at land/sea units and the third firing at air units. Of each group, the first number is the weight limitation for the effect. If the number is positive, a machine in a unit must weigh no more than that if the effect is to take place. If the number is negative, a machine's weight must be at least as much as the absolute value of the number (a machine's weight = the unit's weight / the unit's strength). A value of 0 means "never" and -1 means "always" (of course). The second group is a modifier that is multiplied with the relevant unit's chance to hit an enemy unit, thus either lessening or improving its chance to hit. If the number is positive, it is multiplied as such. If the number is negative, the effect is calculated as follows (p=original hit probability, P=new hit probability, l=weight limit, w=a machine's weight): P = p * ((modifier-1) * (l-w) / l + 1) Of course, if the weight limit was negative (a lower limit), the first calculation method is always used. As an example, you could look at the seventh line: -1, 1.3, -1, 1.2, -1, 1.1 1st pair: Cover 1st value (-1): The effect happens always (or with every machine that weighs at least 1 ton, i.e. all). 2nd value (1.3): The chance to hit a land unit that is in this kind of terrain is multiplied with 1.3 (air units cannot get any cover, naturally). This is because a nuclear waste is an open space, and anything moving there is relatively easy to hit. 2nd pair: Shooting at land units 1st value (-1): The effect happens always. 2nd value (1.2) The chance to hit any land unit FROM this kind of terrain is multiplied with 1.2 (air units are not affected). This is because it's also easier to shoot when you are in an open space. 3rd pair: Shooting at air units 1st value (-1): The effect happens always. 2nd value (1.1): The chance to hit any AIR unit from this kind of terrain is multiplied with 1.1. The same reason applies. or the eighth line: 20, -0.5, -1, 1.8, -1, 1.2 1st pair: Cover 1st value (20): The effect happens with every land or sea unit that weighs no more than 20 tons / machine. 2nd value (-0.5): The chance to hit a land unit that is in this kind of terrain is multiplied with 0.5 - 1.0, depending on its weight (See formula above). This is because a mountains are liable to offer a lot of cover. 2nd pair: Shooting at land units 1st value (-1): The effect happens always. 2nd value (1.8) The chance to hit any land unit FROM this kind of terrain is multiplied with 1.8 (air units are not affected). This is because it's very easy to shoot somebody from above (if the target unit is also in mountains, the effect will be negated by the fact that the target unit will also have a hitting advantage). 3rd pair: Shooting at air units 1st value (-1): The effect happens always. 2nd value (1.2): The chance to hit any AIR unit from this kind of terrain is multiplied with 1.2. This is because shooting at air units is a bit easier from high ground. Final note: Different people like different games. Some might be annoyed by the long time it takes to produce troops, others think some types of units are totally useless and ineffective, or even worse, absolutely invincible (probably true, this game hasn't been really field-tested yet), and still others think that the graphical representation stinks. Well, it's up to you to make it better. The Typedit and Mapper utilities can be used to change all these things, and a few more. So, instead of complaining - why not make it better yourself instead? And of course, one can make virtually any kind of units, like a fantasy wargame setting, medieval or futuristic troops, etc. Enjoy! Oskari Koskimies