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BRIDGE CREW PLAYER GAME MANUAL For SHAREWARE VERSION SW1.12D INTRODUCTION Welcome to the world of computer assisted co-operative role-playing. Bridge Crew is the first of a series of computer assisted multi-player role-playing games designed to be played on the current generation of high power DOS PCs. Like all role-playing games, BRIDGE CREW is played with a game master who develops a scenario for the players and may get actively involved during the playing of the scenario. The players roll up characters just as they would in a normal role-play game. The players play the part of the crew of a starship. Each player is a bridge officer in a universe created by the GM. The typical players are Captain, Beam Weapons officer, Helm Officer, Missile Weapons officer, Communications officer, Security officer, Computer officer, Damage control officer, and others. Obviously most players have more than one function, so things can get quite hectic for the players. The PC's system console, which all players can see, reflects the starship's tactical display. Ideally this is an overhead projector which has a projection panel placed on it, or a large video screen. Most crews can't afford the expense, so they make do with a 14" monitor on a table. Whilst non combat scenarios can be built, it is essentially a combat driven game, hence most scenarios have starship combat. Each player has a computer terminal with which he/she can pull up various reports about the state of the ship and the state of the universe. He/she can also enter commands that relate to the player's assigned functions (e.g. the helm officer can set course and speed). Like the bridge of a modern warship, the captain gives orders and expects the crew to either obey or make sensible alternative suggestions. The crew is expected to run the relevant parts of the ship without specific orders. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 1 Main Console When the game is started, the monitor of the host PC (or the display panel, if one is available) will show the main display. Examples of the display are shown in DISPLAY1.BMP and DISPLAY2.BMP below, along with explanations of the objects found on the screen. HOW THE GAME PLAYS (OR THE COMPUTER AS A RULES LAWYER) Bridge Crew is a multi player co-operative role-play game in which the players role-play the crew on the bridge of a starship. Bridge crew is played by two or more players and a Games Master. A normal complement of players would be; three crew members, a captain (without a terminal) and a Game Master. In this configuration you will need four terminals or PCs daisy chanined see GETSTART.TXT for details of how to wire up BRIDGE CREW. A normal arrangement is to have the main system console/monitor at the end of the table and the other terminal/PCs set up so that all players can see the main system's console. The program, when running on a sufficiently powerful machine, will refresh the screen every 2 seconds. This 2 second interval is called a turn. Turns happen in real time i.e. 2 seconds = 2 seconds of real time. In one turn each player may enter and have processed by the computer, one command. A type ahead buffer is used to store extra commands, however only one will be processed each two seconds. SPACE For the purposes of this game, space has been divided into TSUs (Time Space Units.) The game universe is a square 999,999 TSU by 999,999 TSU. For simplicity's sake, space has been flattened into 2 dimensions (so forget about reality, this is a game). The universe is bounded by the points (1,1) in the bottom left hand corner and the point (999999,999999) in the top right hand corner. When quoting locations, the x co-ordinate is first (x=horizontal, y=vertical). Within the game, the notation used is a dot (decimal point between the co-ordinates). (E.g. the point (12,450567) becomes 12.450567) The speed of light in space is 10, which means that in 2 seconds light would travel 10 TSU. Because of the very long travel times (e.g. to travel 70 light years at eight times the speed of light would require about nine years) we have compressed space very significantly. This has been done to facilitate game play, so that journeys between stars can be completed in a three hour play session. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 2 DIRECTIONS All directions are entered in tenths of a degree e.g. a course of 900 = 90 degrees, as shown below : 0 3150 | 450 \|/ 2700<----+---->900 /|\ 2250 | 1350 1800 Some directions are absolute, which is to say that they are based on the directions shown above and others are relative to the heading of the ship (e.g. the AIM angle of weapons). Absolute directions are used in the issue of the commands COURSE and DIRECT as well as in the information returned from RECON and THINGS. Relative directions are also used when displaying the arc of fire of beam weapons and the initial heading of missile weapons. TIME Each milli-stardate tick occurs every 43 turns (86 seconds). There are 1000 milli-stardate ticks in a normal 24 hour day. The stardate is shown on the main display. The section after the dot on stardate shows divisions of day by thousands (milli-stardates). ENERGY MANAGEMENT Starships (hereafter known as ships) use energy to do things. How much energy varies from ship to ship. The tasks that require energy are: Cloaking the Ship to hide it Sensors Loading Missile Weapons Moving the Ship Charging the Shields Charging Beam Weapons Charging the Battery Using Transporters Energy is created each turn by the warp and impulse engines and is available for use in that turn. Unused energy is placed in storage in the battery (if the battery is full, excess energy is lost). If energy is needed then the energy will be taken out of this turn's supply. If there is not enough, then the battery will be depleted. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 3 Damage done to the functions associated with the impulse engines and the warp drive will reduce the amount of energy available in a turn, and can be seen with the command "report engines". The order in which energy is used is as follows 1. Cloaking the ship to hide it 2. Sensors 3. Loading missile weapons/using transporters 4. Moving the ship 5. Charging the shields 6. Charging beam weapons 7. Charging the battery If all of the ship's energy is used up by the first two functions (Cloaking and sensors) then the missiles will not load, the ship will not move etc. All of the energy using functions can be adjusted so they use no energy, Specifically: 1. Turn off the cloaking using the "CLOAK" command. 2. Turn off one or more sensors "SENSOR". 3. Don't load the missiles "MLOAD" or use the transporters "TRANS". 4. Reduce your speed "SPEED". 5. Reduce the charge to the shields "SHIELDS ALL 0". 6. Do not initiate the charging of the beam weapons "CHARGE" or "BCHARGE" 7. You can not stop excess energy going into the battery this has NO negative side effects on play. Energy will not be used unless enough is available to complete the operation for that turn. E.g. if the battery contains 200 EU (Energy Units) but it requires 300 to charge the beam weapons, then the battery will not be depleted to 0, because 200 is less than 300. MOVEMENT Each turn, ships move a number of TSUs equal to their speed in the direction of their current heading. Additionally, ships can rotate on their axis at a specific speed (depending on the ship) to put them in a different direction next turn. The turn rate of a ship is fixed, e.g. a Monarch will always turn at 10. However, dependant upon your speed, the distance travelled whilst you turn may in practical terms increase or decre Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 4 THE MAIN DISPLAY The main display has 2 modes of operation, TACTICAL and STRATEGIC. The helm officer may swap between the modes using the MODE command. The TACTICAL mode is suitable for combat and manoeuvre. It shows the direction and current location of all visible ships, starbases, planets, stars and visible missiles. The STRATEGIC mode is suitable for campaign planning and strategy conferences. It shows the last known location of the known starships and the correct location of the stars. In strategic mode, the direction in which the ships are travelling is not indicated by the ship silhouette (the ships are shown in direction 0). If a starship is shown as a red blob, this means that it is within sensor range of a sensor that does not provide a clear picture. Objects on the main display are not shown to scale. Their size can be changed with the "MAGNIFY" command. The scale of the main display can be changed with the "SCALE" command. The scale is the number of TSUs from the centre of the screen to the top of the screen (the radius of the circle with centre at the centre of the screen). E.g. "SCALE 5000" will display 5000 TSUs from the centre of the screen, i.e. 10,000 TSUs from top to bottom and 10,000 TSUs from left to right. TYPES OF OBJECTS The game has 5 kinds of objects that can be seen on the main console: Starships Starbases or Outposts Planets/Asteroids etc. Stars Missiles STARSHIPS If your ship's sensors can 'see' a starship (Use the 'RECON' command to see what your sensors are detecting) on the main display, and if SCALE, MAGNIFY, MODE and VIEW are set correctly then the main display will display the starships that can be seen by the sensors. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 5 PLANETS Planets are treated as starships with a zero movement allowance. Planets however, do not disappear when they are destroyed. Note that using the Scenario designer, it is possible to build a planet that has most of the properties of a starship; movement and weapons etc. STARBASES OR OUTPOSTS Starbases are treated as starships with a zero or reduced movement allowance. Note that using the Scenario designer, it is possible to build a starbase that is indistinguishable from a starship, with full movement and weapons etc. STARS The universe has a backdrop of stars. These are shown on the main display and may be listed by the use of the "SYSTEMS" command. The shareware version of Bridge Crew has only a few stars; the registered version has 46 stars. MISSILES If ships fire Missile Weapons, these can be shown on the main console. Note that using the Scenario designer, it is possible to build ships that fire invisible missiles. Three events are also indicated on the main console Missile weapon explosions or self destruction Beam weapons firing Hits on the players ship SENSORS A sensor only uses energy when switched on. It operates from the ship's current position in a radius around the ship as dictated by the sensor's range. There are two types of sensor. One which will give you a 'Clear Picture' - a proper silhouette on the main screen. The second type or 'Poor Picture Quality' will only give you a red blob on the main screen. Only a good quality picture can be used for locking missile weapons and for the 'ANALYSE' command. A poor quality picture will however, be sufficient for the use of beam weapons and for the 'SCAN' command. All sensors are limited to a speed range for detection purposes. In real terms this means that your sensor will only register ships within a Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 6 given warp range - e.g. WS Sensors cannot detect a ship going at under warp speed i.e. speed 10 or less. EM Sensors cannot detect ships travelling above speed 10. Each ship has a reflectivity for each type of sensor. If a sensor cannot detect a ship's reflectivity (based upon a ship's sensor cross- section) then the ship is invisible. CLOAKING Certain ships can cloak (hide from sensors). This process works by reducing the sensor echo for a given class of sensor. Ships with cloaking normally require energy to maintain the function. Cloaking is controlled from the strategy position and ships generally have one cloaking device for each sensor from which the ship is hiding. Cloaking devices come in several types, following the general rules laid out below: + They may or may not allow the firing of beam weapons while cloaked, depending on the type of cloaking device used. + They may not or may not allow the firing of missile weapons while cloaked, depending on the type of cloaking device used. + They may require several turns before they can be reactivated. + They may force the beam weapons to unload when decloaking. + They may force the missile weapons to unload when decloaking. + They may require energy to remain turned on. + They may not be powerful enough to hide from all ships (especially those with sensitive sensors) + If damaged they will not be as effective - they degrade slowly. When warp engines are asked to perform above the speed at which they can dissipate sufficient heat, they get hotter. When their temperature reaches 100 HSU then they have a probability of failure. The rate at which they reach these temperatures varies from ship to ship and can be quite slow or very rapid. When the temperature reaches 100 HSU, damage is done to the warp function. In blowing out, the warp engine cools and if not fatally damaged, the reaction will continue, usually resulting in a further warp blowout until the engine is sufficiently damaged to prevent further overheating. The effects of heat strain are only modelled in the game when the parameter overheating is set to on. (See the SETP and SETV commands for details.) MISSILES Missiles use energy for one turn in order to load (called the missile's "Energy to Load"). Missiles fire at an original aim angle relative to the starship from which they are fired. A missile will manoeuvre like a starship in terms of turn rate and speed. However, as each missile has its own sensor, once released it will operate independently of your Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 7 ship. The sensor in the missile is relatively unintelligent and will only track an object that it is already locked on to. This is why you must lock onto a target using the ship's sensors. Before being fired, a missile must be told how far away from the target to explode. This is called the proximity and is set with the "PROX" command. See the section on 'Granularity' for the effects of proximity. Missiles have a recognition signal keyed into them so that they will not deliberately explode when near friendly vessels. You cannot, therefore, attack friendly vessels with missiles. Neutral or hostile vessels can be targeted with missiles. Note that the missile will explode when it comes within proximity distance of any "non-friendly vessel." Missiles can therfore be blocked by "sacrifical" actions of other ships. Any given missile type has a blast radius, doing damage depending upon how close to the centre of the blast radius an object is. This means that if your ship is too close to an enemy ship when your missile goes off you will be damaged. The purpose of setting a proximity is to tell your missiles how close to another ship they get before exploding. A low proximity will inflict maximum damage; a high proximity will inflict little damage, but has an increased range and suffers less from the effects of Event Granularity. E.g. A Monarch Class vessel fighting a hostile vessel with a proximity of 10 will have a base range of 1210 and a damage of 300. The same missile with a proximity of 300 will have a base range of 1500 and a damage of one, if it detonates at extreme range. NB the Monarch class is included with the registered version of Bridge Crew All ships have a limited number of missiles which they can carry at any time. If a ship runs out of missiles it must go back to a starbase in order to be reloaded. Note that using the Scenario Designer's Kit, it is possible to build a ship which can reload itself and other ships. Missile weapons also move each turn and are checked to see if they are in proximity at the start and end of their movement. Granularity (or the Problem with Missiles) Put simply, Granularity is the amount of time or movement between events. In the case of BRIDGE CREW, this is 2 seconds. The Bridge Crew software only checks the position of a missile for proximity (and therefore detonation) before it moves the missile and after it moves the missile. The sequence of a turn is therefore: 1. Move ships. 2. Test missiles. 3. Move missiles. 4. Test missiles. Using this sequence, it is possible for a missile with a low proximity Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 8 to miss a target by moving over it. Here's how: Proximity 50 Missile speed 120 Target speed 10 (Towards the missile) Current distance 70 1. Move the ship. Current distance now 60. 2. test missile (outside proximity) 3. Move missile (distance now 120-60 = 60) 4. test missile (still outside proximity) 5. the missile now starts to turn back toward the target, but will, in most cases, miss. The golden rule here, is that proximity should always be set to greater than or equal to half the missile speed to ensure a detonation. Also with this sequence, it is possible for a missile with a low proximity to detonate against a non-facing shield by moving past the target. Here are 2 ways that this can happen: Proximity 50 Missile speed 120 Target speed 80 Current distance 60 1. Move the ship (Current distance is now -20 i.e. behind the target ship) 2. Test the missile (which is inside proximity, so it will detonate and attack the back shield) Proximity 90 Missile speed 120 Target speed 0 Current distance 100 1. Move the ship (Current distance is now 100) 2. Test missile (outside proximity) 3. Move missile (the distance is now (100-120) = -20 - i.e. behind the ship.) 4. Test missile (which is now inside proximity, so that it will detonate against the back shield). The golden rules here, are that to increase the chance of hitting the facing shield, proximity should always be set to greater than the missile speed and greater than the target speed. Because the ship moves before the missile when firing across the path of an opposing ship, a glance can occur where the ship moves into and out of proximity in one movement. This will tend to occur more with lower proximity and higher ship speeds. The golden rule here is that proximity should be not less than the target ship's speed. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 9 BEAMS A beam weapon is the space age equivalent of a cannon. This means that if you can see it, make the weapon face it and have it within range you can shoot it. Like a cannon, beams have a point blank range. If you are at point blank range you will do maximum damage. Damage will decrease as you move further away from an object, up to a point where no damage occurs, as you are out of range. Beam weapons require a number of turns to load, and use energy in every turn in which they are loading. TRANSPORTERS All transporters have a maximum distance at which they will work. In order to successfully use the transporters, you must maintain a speed equal to or lower than the maximum speed for your transporter type. Energy cost for using transporters is calculated per person or crew. Transporters also have a shield penetration value. If any shield is below this value (in points, not as a percentage) then they will be able to transport crew onto the vessel. If your transporter will not penetrate a shield, you can ask friendly ships to lower their shields using the 'ORDER LOWER' command. If you wish to transport to/from unfriendly ships, you must lower their shields by other methods. All transporters also have a maximum number of people they will transport at any one time. If you are unaware of your transporters capabilities then a 'REPORT TRANSPORTER' should respond with the information needed. SECURITY The game could not be played without this function. The security officer is the person who assigns the ships functions. It is also the job of the security officer to key in the ship's condition e.g. Red. Some ships will only obey orders under condition Red or Blue; please consult the world book to discover the appropriate times to declare a change of condition. When a condition red or blue is declared, then other ships may fall under your command. SHIP'S FUNCTIONS The ship is divided into up to twenty functions. Each of these functions has the following properties: 1. Each function has a certain quantity of native hit points. This is called original damage. As the function takes damage, the number of points remaining drops. When it drops below the failure point, the function will no longer operate at full capacity. When the hit points drop to zero, the function is totally destroyed. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 10 2. The function may additionally require crew in order to be operational. If it does not have sufficient crew, then it will perform at less than 100% efficiency. 3. If a function is damaged but still has at least one point of damage remaining, then any crew above and beyond those needed to make it 100% operational will start to restore the function to full operating potential. Different starships and different functions will all restore at different rates, so the same number of crew will restore the same function at different rates on different ships. 4. When a function has been damaged beyond easy restoration, which is to say its points have reached Zero, the function will need to be repaired. In order to do this spares will be required. If spares are not available then that function is crippled (which may cripple the entire ship). If the ship cannot repair itself, it will require the services of a starbase repair facility (only useful if one can be reached). On some occasions, if a ship is completely crippled, a repair ship may be sent. 5. In order to prevent the entire crew rapidly fixing a function an artificial limit has been placed into all functions allowing varying maximums of extra crew in each function. This maximum crew is the game's way of limiting skill bases and repair rates on each ship. 6. Each function has a physical space requirement limiting the maximum number of people allowed in the function, this includes passengers and crew. 7. One function may or may not be related to one weapon, or sensor. E.g. all 10 missile weapons could rely on one ship's function if the scenario (ship) designer designed it that way. COMMUNICATIONS Starships may send one line messages to each other over "warp space communications". Non-player Starships will automatically respond to the messages "HELLO", "ID" and "NEWS". Other communications that are sent by the players to non-player ships will be redirected to the GM's terminal. Most GMs do not like large amounts of idle chatter which they then have to read and in such circumstances may miss important messages that you send. The scenario designer can pre-program multi-line messages which can be read by any officer. (Future versions of bridge crew will have enhanced multi-line communications facilities). SHIELDS Starships have four shields. One at the front, one at the back and one on either side. For game purposes there are no gaps between shields. All attacks of any nature will be stopped by shields if the shields are up. (Note: there is a difference between a shield being up and a shield being charged). A shield is charged when it is at 100% of its shielding Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 11 capacity. It can, however, be below its full capacity and still be charged. Shields take energy to charge, however a fully charged shield takes no energy to maintain. A shield with a strength of 300 points is capable of taking 300 points of damage (DV). Any damage done to it above this amount will penetrate the shield and effect damage on the ships functions and cause crew casualties. Each turn, a shield that is down but is still capable of recharging will attempt to recharge itself in the following order; front, right, back and left. The shield officer may alter the rate of recharge of one or all shields to assist with starship energy management. E.g. If the shield charge rate is set to 100 for all shields and 250 EU are available and the current state of the shields is front 300, (100%), right 100, (30%), back 30 (10%), left 150 (50%) and the ship has a shield efficiency of 5%, then this turn the shields will recharge as follows: front 0 right (will take 100 points of energy and give 5 points) 105 back (will take 100 points of energy and give 5 points) 35 left (will not recharge at all as there is insufficient energy left to recharge i.e. 50) 150. This would be an undesirable situation if an enemy was currently on your left bow. A trained and efficient shield officer would reduce the charge rate on the right shield (assuming it is not facing an enemy ship) to 50 or less to allow the left shield to recover. Obviously this kind of decision is often made by the Captain as he or she knows which shields will be used next. SCIENCE The science officer is responsible for the sensor and the scanning and analysis of other ships. If objects are visible on the sensors then the science officer, with the assistance of the ships computer, may be able to ascertain information about various aspects of the object or ship. The basic rule is that scan will operate with poor picture sensors and analyse will only work with a good picture. The two functions i.e. scan and analyse are independent of each other and may or may not work at the same time. For general usage, if you can't scan it, analyse it; if you can't analyse it, scan it. In many situations, the two commands will give you virtually the same information, but this is not always true. BRIDGE OFFICERS HELM OFFICER The Helm Officer's main function is to steer the ship in the manner and speed directed by the captain. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 12 Instructions from the captain may be given in exact form or as general instructions. The Helm Officer should be flexible in approach. The Helm Officer is also responsible for the main view screen and should provide advice on views, scales and magnification at any time where it may be appropriate. This includes keeping the starship centred in the display with the VIEW command. A common abbreviation is the use of the term warp for speed. Speed is given in tenths of a warp, so the captain ordering a speed of warp four would be asking for a speed of 40. In the FIP universe, the Helm Officer is responsible for answering questions about direction and travel times to various objects. DAMAGE CONTROL The Damage Control Officer is responsible for assigning crew to repair stations. He or she should, without instruction, assign crew to damaged functions in the priority sequence desired by the captain, whilst the ship is in combat. When the ship is low on crew (e.g. as a result of combat) the DC Officer may need to recommend a sensible crew distribution in line with the general needs of the captain. BEAM WEAPON The Beam Officer is responsible for firing and loading the beam weapons. The Beam Officer should not lock or charge the beam weapons on his or her own initiative unless condition red or blue has been declared. If directed to "fire at will", the Beam Officer should fire at all possible opportunities. During a "normal" combat the captain must specifically authorise a list of targets. Beam Officers should be aware of the problems associated with charging the beam weapons during energy crisis situations, and adhere to the captain's needs in such situations. The Beam Officer should also advise the captain of beam firing opportunities and of manoeuvres that favour beam firing opportunities. The Beam Officer should decide on the beam firing ARC before combat and set it without recourse to the captain. Many captains like to be advised of beam hits made against enemy starships. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 13 MISSILE WEAPONS The Missile Officer is responsible for firing and loading the missile weapons. The Missile Officer should not lock or load the missile weapons on his or her own initiative unless condition red or blue has been declared. If directed to "fire at will", the Missile Officer should fire at all realistically possible opportunities, without unnecessarily wasting ammunition. During a "normal" combat the captain must specifically authorise a list of targets. A common command is to "keep lead in the air", which authorises the Missile Officer to fire even if a hit is not a certainty. The Missile Officer should advise the captain of missile opportunities and manage the use of missiles. It is common protocol to periodically advise the captain of the number of missiles remaining. The Missile Officer should decide on the proximity setting before combat and set it without recourse to the captain. Many captains like to be advised of missile hits made on other starships, since the main display is not to scale. COMMUNICATIONS The Communications Officer is responsible for the sending and reading of messages from and to other ships. He or she should bring any reports that may be relevant to the captain's attention. The Communications Officer should not send any unauthorised messages. The Communications Officer is also responsible for the sending of orders to other ships. COMPUTER OFFICER The computer officer is responsible for scanning the ship's computer for information that may be of use to the captain in the current scenario. The computer will normally contain extracts from the FIP charter, and from any relevant FIP treaties, along with scenario specific information. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 14 ENGINEERING The Engineering Officer is responsible for advising the captain on the state of the engines and transporter. Repairs will be needed at various times. The Engineering Officer will be responsible for their execution. Remember to liaise with the captain to ensure the optimum use of spares and starbase facilities. The Engineering Officer also performs any transportation of passengers and crew. SECURITY OFFICER The Security Officer is responsible for the allocation of bridge functions to the crew. Unless ordered otherwise, if the captain dies, he or she should assume command of the ship. He or she is also responsible for the safety of passengers, cargo and Prisoners on the ship. He or she should move rapidly to bring the ship to alert status of yellow, red or blue, on the captain's order. SHIELD CONTROL The Shield Control Officer is responsible for the raising/lowering of shields and the recharge setting on the shields. Given the serious effect that damaged shields have on energy management, he or she should advise the captain of the options available to him/her and be quick to respond to instructions given. SCIENCE The Science Officer is responsible for gathering information about the objects encountered during a mission and advising the captain of any anomalies. that are apparent. He or she should also control the ship's sensors as required. During combat he or she should offer advice to the captain on sensor usage and damage done to hostile ships. Many captains expect the Science Officer to constantly monitor the damage status of enemy shields and functions and to advise any changes of status. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 15 STRATEGY OFFICER This member of crew is a 'behind the scenes' advisor to the captain. His or her main function is to keep the captain advised of the strategic situation in which the ship is operating. POSITION UPDATES of vessels being tracked by Deep Space Fleet will be transmitted to the strategy officer who should assess them for importance and advise the captain accordingly. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 16 PLAYER COMMANDS Only the first four characters of a command need be entered. When entering function names or system names (i.e. anything that is shown in italics) the full word needs to be entered - abbreviations are not accepted. For example, to get a RECON, you only need to type RECO into the computer, but to get a report on your impulse engines you need to type "FUNC IMPULSE". ----------------------------------------------------- GENERAL COMMANDS The following commands are available to all players. DIRECT end_location [start_location] Reports the distance and heading from start_location to end_location. End_location and start_location can be either x.y co-ordinates or an Object Id. If an Object Id is used, then the last known x.y location of that object is considered. The default for start_location is your own ship. ETA start_location speed end_location Calculates an time taken to travel to end_location from start_location at constant speed. End_location and start_location can be either x.y co-ordinates or an Object Id. If an Object Id is used, then the last known x.y location of that object is considered. Speed is in TSU per turn. It also tells you the stardate based on the current stardate, plus the travel time to end_location, along with the elapsed play time, in minutes. FROM ship_id start_ship_id Lists known objects regardless of sensors relative to a specific ship. Objects include ships, starbases and planets. All known objects are stored in a list. The 'FROM' command will list up to 10 objects from this list starting from the start_ship_id. Ship_id specifies which ship to use as the origin for calculating Heading and Distance values. For example: FROM F2 will list the first 10 known objects relative to ship F2 FROM K1 X7 will list the first 10 ships starting from X7, relative to K1. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 17 The 'FROM' command is similar to the 'THINGS' command but calculates the listed Heading and Distance from a specified ship. An example of the report is shown below Id Heading Distance Xpos.Ypos Tagged F1 2992 1420 500090.196277 Tagged F2 1178 26 501353.195571 Tagged K1 123 10149 503500.205500 Tagged K2 195 9461 504500.204500 Tagged K3 177 10409 504500.205500 Tagged FUNCTION function_id Lists crew and damage status of a function. Report For WARP Crew Needed 65 Actual 65 Maximum 75 Damage at Start 100 Damage to Degrade 70 Current Damage 100 Current Performance 100% Repair rate 0 Spares held 2 Casualties 0 Passengers 0 Max People 76 The function_id can be found from the command REPORT FUNCTIONS. GET message number Retrieves the multi line message from the ships computer. Message 0 is usually the scenario orders. HELP command Where command is a player's command or security code. NOTE: This command is designed to assist only those players who are familiar with the game. It is not designed as a tutorial, or to tell the player what effect the commands will actually have. Its objective is to assist with the syntax of less commonly used commands. INTERCEPT ship_id [speed] Tells the players of the speed and course needed to intercept a given starship. In order for the command to be effective, the starship must be visible on sensors at the time that the command is given. LOG [text] Makes an entry in the ships log. Text is the message entered. This is stored in a file called BCREWLOG.DAT. If text is empty, the command lists the last ten logged messages. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 18 MACRO number text Sets up a user macro, where number is a number from 0 to 9, and text is the command that you wish to have available as a macro. For example, the Helm officer may set up macros for the command VIEW and certain headings as follows: Macro 0 View Macro 1 Course 0 Macro 2 Course 900 Macro 3 Course 1800. To recall the macro (and therefore enter the command in the macro), he or she can subsequently simply enter the number of the macro at the terminal. E.g. entering 2 will execute the command COURSE 900 at his or her terminal. Macro recall occurs on a 0 through 9 at the beginning of the line Macros may include %digit, which is evaluated to the digitth word in the player command. Digit can only be 0 through 9 Eg: MACRO 0 MLOCK %1 PT1 PT2 followed by 0 K1 evaluates to MLOCK K1 PT1 PT2 This is also known as parameterised macros (for those of you with a bent for programming.) MACGET filename Where filename is a digit between 0 and 9. This will restore a set of previously saved macros. See MACSAVE for details. The user must have entered their name using the ME command for this to work (the player must have entered the same name as when he or she did the MACSAVE). MACLIST Lists your macros: In the example given for the command MACRO, the following report would be returned. 0 VIEW 1 COURSE 0 2 COURSE 900 3 COURSE 1800 Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 19 MACSAVE filename This command will save the macros currently used by the player to a .BCM file. In order to use this command, the player must be logged on using the ME command. Filename is a number in the range 0 through 9. E.g ME fred MACSAVE 2 ME name Registers the character (or player's) name at the terminal, so that it can be used for log reports and for saving macros. PORT [port_number RESET] This command can be run on any terminal. If it is run with no parameters, it will list the status of all active terminals that the Bridge Crew program is aware of. Its main use, however, is to reset the communications line to a particular port after a failure has occurred (eg someone tripping over the cable and unplugging it). Eg: PORT lists the status of all ports that the Bridge Crew program beleives a terminal is attached to. PORT 2 RESET Restarts communications to port 2. READ message_number Displays a message that was received in the players' queue. RECON List all objects detected by the sensors on that turn. Objects include ships, starbases and planets. Ships outside the range of the sensors or that are effectively cloaked for that turn will not be listed. An example of the report is shown below Id Heading Distance Id Heading Distance F1 3320 836 F2 830 810 Note: if more than 30 objects are visible, only the first 30 will be shown. To list all ships regardless of sensors use the 'THINGS' command. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 20 REPORT CREW Lists the status of your ships crew. An example of the report is explained below. Function Needed Actual Spare max Function Needed Actual Spare max HELM 15 15 0 25 DC 1 45 44 50 PH1 20 20 0 30 PH2 20 20 0 30 PH3 20 20 0 30 MIS1 25 25 0 35 MIS2 25 25 0 35 COMMS 5 5 0 15 WARP 65 65 0 75 IMPULSE 25 25 0 35 SHIELD 20 20 0 30 COMP 5 5 0 15 TRANS 5 5 0 15 SENS0 20 20 0 30 SENS1 20 20 0 30 SENS2 7 7 0 17 HULL 1 1 0 10 OTHER 0 7 7 10 Function identifies the ship functions that crew are assigned to. Needed refers to the minimum number of crew needed for normal operations of the system at 100% efficiency. Actual refers to the number of crew are currently assigned to the functions. Spare calculates the number of 'Actual' crew over the 'Needed' crew for each function. These 'extra' crew could be restoring damage and are not necessarily spare. Max The maximum number of crew that can be assigned to the function. Function OTHER represents miscellaneous functions. REPORT CLOAKING This command reports on the status of the cloaking devices, if any are featured on the players' ship. REPORT COMPUTER This command lists the multi-line messages in the computer and lets you know which ones you can access. REPORT CROSSSECTION Lists the sensor echo for your craft for all of known frequencies. The example crosssection report is shown below: EM 69 WS 78 SR 69 SE 67 PS 77 ZZ 66 Note: In the current release, frequency ZZ is not actually used. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 21 REPORT ENERGY This report simply lists the energy required to maintain various speeds. Energy management is critical at high warp speeds. Normally the warp engines provide surplus power that is used in the ships power grid. At high warp speeds they may consume more than power than they create. The meagre output of the impulse engines and battery reserves are needed to supplement this. This table assists the crew in managing energy and determining the amount of energy needed. REPORT ENGINES Lists the current state of the engines Current Energy Generation 1500 Current Maximum Speed 80 Impulse Energy Available 400 Warp Energy Available 1100 Engine Temperature 0 Warp Max speed (safe) 80 (60) REPORT FUNCTIONS Reports on damage status of ships functions. An example of the report is explained below. Function Orig remain fail perf Function Orig remain fail perf HELM 100 100 50 100% DC 100 100 20 100% PH1 100 100 80 100% PH2 100 100 80 100% PH3 100 100 80 100% MIS1 100 100 50 100% MIS2 100 100 50 100% COMMS 100 100 70 100% WARP 100 100 70 100% IMPULSE 100 100 30 100% SHIELD 20 20 10 100% COMP 100 100 10 100% TRANS 100 100 80 100% SENS0 100 100 90 100% SENS1 100 100 90 100% SENS2 100 100 90 100% HULL 500 500 100 100% OTHER 100 100 100 100% Function identifies the ships functions. Orig is the amount of damage a function can sustain before being destroyed when undamaged (i.e. ignoring current damage). remain is the amount of damage a function can sustain before being destroyed allowing for current damage. fail is the value which 'remain' has to fall to or below for the system to fail. perf is a percentage of effective performance allowing for current damage. Function OTHER represents miscellaneous functions. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 22 REPORT PEOPLE Reports on casualties amongst crew and passengers. An example of the report is explained below: Function Crew Pass Invade Casual Function Crew Pass Invade Casual HELM 15 0 0 0 DC 45 0 0 0 PH1 20 0 0 0 PH2 20 0 0 0 PH3 20 0 0 0 MIS1 25 0 0 0 MIS2 25 0 0 0 COMMS 5 0 0 0 WARP 65 0 0 0 IMPULSE 25 0 0 0 SHIELD 20 0 0 0 COMP 5 0 0 0 TRANS 5 0 0 0 SENS0 20 0 0 0 SENS1 20 0 0 0 SENS2 7 0 0 0 HULL 1 0 0 0 OTHER 7 0 0 0 Function identifies the ship functions. Crew refers to the number of crew assigned to that function. Pass refers to the number of passengers assigned to that function. Invade refers to the number of invaders performing a boarding action. Casual refers to the number of casualties taken in that function. Function OTHER represents miscellaneous functions. Note: Invaders are not included in the current release, so the column with heading Invade will always contain 0. REPORT SECURITY This report lists each of the security positions along with the terminal that is allocated to that position. REPORT SHIP A quick summary of your ship's damage status. An example of the report follows. Damaged Functions 0 Casualties 0 Damage Remaining 2120 Failure Point 585 Hull Before Fail 1535 Damage Functions is the number of ship's systems that are currently subject to any damage. Casualties refers to casualties amongst the crew and passengers. Damage Remaining is the damage remaining in all functions. In role play terms, this is the ship's current hit points. Failure Point when 'Damage Remaining' falls below this point, the ship falls apart. Hull Before Fail is 'Damage Remaining' minus 'Failure Point' and is the amount of damage in DV that you can take before the ship falls apart. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 23 REPORT TRANSPORTER Reports on the properties of the ship's transporters. Transporter Features : Maximum Range 400 Energy per person 50 Shield Penetration 20 Capacity in people 5 Maximum Speed 9 SYSTEMS start_system Lists star systems in the current sector (game play area). Star systems are stored in a list. The 'SYSTEMS' command will list up to 10 star systems from this list starting from the start_system. For example, SYSTEMS SOL will produce the following report: Name Heading Distance X.Y SOL 2492 524404 10000.10000 XING 3523 787341 394688.975699 ALPHA_CEN 2507 453093 72667.46326 PROXIMA 2511 455525 69507.48027 MENKENT 242 347792 643265.512640 PLATO 170 650166 690899.817163 ARISTOTLE 269 624878 784087.752323 EINSTEIN 3152 474395 165830.531725 SCARAB 47 643722 554254.836974 PLANCK 3389 316940 385945.491014 The registered version of Bridge Crew (which contains 46 stars) will show the first ten stars; the shareware version will show less as the shareware universe has less than 10 stars. TELL system Reports on the status of a star system. TERM [BS|ECHO ON|OFF] This command configures the terminal characteristics for the port that the player is on. If entered without any parameters, it will display the current characteristics for the terminal. The characteristic BS is used to control the printing of the Backspace character. When this option is switched on, it will echo a backspace as character 8. When the option is switched off, it will use an ANSI escape sequence. The terminal characteristic ECHO controls whether the command is echoed back by the Bridge Crew program. This allows for easier development of Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 24 "smart" terminal emulators to provide a better/friendlier user-interface than the 'dumb terminal' currently used. Eg: TERM BS ON Sets the backspace character echo to character '8' for this terminal. THINGS ship_id Lists known objects regardless of sensors. Objects include ships, starbases and planets. All known objects are stored in a list. The 'THINGS' command will list up to 10 objects from this list starting from the ship_id supplied. If no ship_id is supplied, it will start from the player ship. For example: THINGS will list the first 10 known objects (starting with the player ship). THINGS F2 will list the 10 known objects starting at F2. Objects are listed with their last known position, updated from your own and other friendly sensors. At any time during the game, the ships' true positions may be nowhere near their last known position. An example of the report is shown below Id Heading Distance Xpos.Ypos Tagged F0 0 1 500500.195500 Tagged F1 3306 790 500111.196188 Tagged F2 797 758 501246.195639 Tagged K1 167 10440 503500.205500 Tagged K2 239 9848 504500.204500 Tagged K3 218 10770 504500.205500 Tagged Note: The "Position updated ..." messages received by the strategy officer indicate that the last known position of the starship concerned has changed. The 'FROM' command is similar to the 'THINGS' command, but calculates the listed Heading and Distance from a specified ship. A more graphical display of the last known location of known objects is obtainable by switching to strategic mode and selecting a large scale. WHO Lists who you are, your terminal and your current security assignments. An example of the report follows. port 1 HELM DC BEAM MISS COMMS ENG SEC SHIELD SCI STRAT COMP Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 25 The port number is the terminal number. The codes are explained below: HELM Helm Officer BEAM Beams Weapons Officer COMMS Communications Officer SEC Security Officer SCI Science Officer COMP Computer Ops Officer DC Damage Control Officer MISS Missile Weapon Officer ENG Engineering Officer SHIELD Shield Operations Officer STRAT Strategy Officer Note: The name entered by the 'ME' command will also be shown. VERS Will tell the player the current version of Bridge Crew that is running. ZONE location Reports who owns the space at location. Location can be either an x.y co-ordinate or an Object Id. If an Object Id is used, then the last known x.y location of that object is considered. Ownership may be currently contested. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 26 Helm Officer The following commands are available only to the Helm Officer. AUTOVIEW [ON|OFF] If this command is entered without parameters it will display the current AUTOVIEW setting. This command switches the main display into and out of auto view mode. When in AUTOVIEW mode, the players' starship is automatically centred on the screen each turn. This mode makes it difficult for inexperienced players to tell if the player ship is moving. AUTOVIEW can be disabled by the GM for any given universe. COLOUR number This command changes the colour scheme of the main display. Its major use is with mono monitors or liquid crystal displays. Values for number are: 0 Full colour (16 colours) 1 Grey ships (suitable for grey scale LCD displays). 2 Black & blue (0,1) (mono). 3 Black, blue, green, cyan (0, 1, 2, 3) (4 colours) 4 Black & white (0, 15) (mono) COLOUR 1 sets the colours for the display. COURSE angle Sets the ships course, in tenths of a degree. Angle can be any number from 0 to 3599. See the diagram below: 0 3150 | 450 \|/ 2700<----+---->900 /|\ 2250 | 1350 1800 MAGNIFY number Sets the magnification of ships. Number can be any number between 1 and 300. Some examples of MAGNIFY are: MAGNIFY 130 The default; i.e. normal size. Ships will be shown this size when the game starts. MAGNIFY 50 Small MAGNIFY 200 Large Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 27 A large magnify can be used to take a good look at a previously unknown ship, thereby providing clues to its origin. MODE TACTICAL|STRATEGIC Sets the main view screen mode. The TACTICAL mode is suitable for combat and manoeuvre. It shows the direction and current location of all visible ships, starbases, planets, stars and visible missiles. The STRATEGIC mode is suitable for campaign planning and strategy conferences. It shows the last known location of the known starships and the correct location of the stars. In strategic mode, the direction in which the ships are travelling is not indicated by the ship silhouette (the ships are shown in COURSE 0). If a starship is shown as a red blob, this means that it is within sensor range of a sensor that does not provide a clear picture. SCALE number Scales the viewport size in TSU measured from the centre of the screen to the edge. The view screen is a square with sides twice the length of the scale. A command of SCALE 5000 will give a view screen that is 5000 TSU from the centre to each side, and 10 000 TSU from top to bottom and left to right. SPEED speed Sets the ship's speed. Speed 1 1 TSU/turn Speed 10 10 TSU/turn Speed 100 100 TSU/turn STARS star size Sets the size of stars between 1-100. The default star size is 20. TRACK ship_id Sets the ship that is being tracked on the main screen. VIEW location Sets the centre of the view screen. If location is left blank, then the current location of the players' ship is used. If location is used, then the centre of the view screen will be the ship, system, or x.y co-ordinates of the location parameter. E.g. if the helm officer enters VIEW F5, and F5 is not currently visible, the screen will be centred on F5, and the players' ship will not be shown on the screen. This is a good way to confuse the captain. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 28 DAMAGE CONTROL ASSIGN function1 number function2 This command moves a number of crew from function1 to function2. For example: ASSIGN WARP 3 SHIELD will move 3 crew from the function warp to the function shield. A situation where this might be required would be if the shields were damaged, but the warp engines were fully functional. Use the REPORT CREW command to see which types of crew members (and how many) can be moved to a different location. Note that if the Damage Control function is damaged, you can only order crew to and from the HELM (Bridge) until DC is repaired. REPORT DC This useful report is only available to the Damage Control officer and is as follows: Function Damage Fail Spare Perf Function Damage Fail Spare Perf HELM 1 0 0 0 100% DC 9 0 0 44 100% PH1 0 0 0 0 100% PH2 0 0 0 0 100% PH3 0 0 0 0 100% MIS1 0 0 0 0 100% MIS2 0 0 0 0 100% COMMS 0 0 0 0 100% WARP 2 0 0 0 100% IMPULSE 1 0 0 0 100% SHIELD 1 0 0 0 100% COMP 0 0 0 0 100% TRANS 0 0 0 0 100% SENS0 0 0 0 0 100% SENS1 0 0 0 0 100% SENS2 0 0 0 0 100% HULL 0 0 0 0 100% OTHER 0 0 0 7 100% Function the id of the ships function. Unlabeled field the number of spares - the report will not show more than nine spares. Damage the total points of damage done to the function. Fail the points needed to be repaired to make the function perform at 100%. Spare the number of excess crew assigned to the function. If the figure is negative, then it shows the number of crew needed to bring performance to 100%. Eg a spare of 2 means that there are two crew 'extra' assigned to the function; a spare of -5 means that five more crew members are needed for 100% performance. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 29 BEAM WEAPON OFFICER ARC angle weapon_list Sets the dispersion angle of the beam weapons. In the current version of Bridge Crew, no advantage can be gained from setting it to anything other than the default (10). BLOCK target weapon_list Locks a list of weapons functions via the ship's sensors. The Beam Weapon Officer cannot lock onto the target ship unless it is visible on the ship's sensors. Weapon List is an abbreviation of the beam weapons - the beam weapons for your ship can be found by using the REPORT BEAM command. E.g.: BLOCK K3 LP FP RP will lock the beam weapons LP, FP, and RP onto target ship K3. Prior to combat, you will often know which ships are potential targets. This command would normally be loaded into several macros (one for each target) to maximise the firing opportunities for the Beam Weapon Officer. If there are numerous targets, a parameterised macro would be useful. Eg - load the macro: MACRO 3 BLOCK %1 LP FP RP to lock onto another ship, say, X4, type: 3 X4 this will execute the command BLOCK X4 LP FP RP. BFIRE weapon_list Fires the weapons in the weapons list. E.g. BFIRE LP FP RP will fire the beam weapons LP FP and RP. This command would normally be loaded into a macro to maximise the firing opportunities for the Beam Weapon Officer. If the ship being fired upon is not within the firing arc of the weapons, no shot is fired. BUNLOCK weapon_list Unlocks the weapons in the weapons list. Eg BUNLOCK FP RP unlocks beam weapons FP and RP. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 30 CHARGE weapon_list or BCHARGE weapon_list Initiates a charge sequence which uses energy for a significant number of turns. E.g. BCHARGE LP FP RP will charge the beam weapons LP FP and RP. This command would normally be loaded into a macro to maximise the firing opportunities for the Beam Weapon Officer. REPORT BEAM Provides a report of the beam weapons: Id Arc Firing-Arc Function Perform Dam Aim Status Lock LP 10 2699-1 PH1 100% 300 0 Empty NONE FP 10 3149-451 PH2 100% 300 0 Empty NONE RP 10 900-0 PH3 100% 300 0 Empty NONE End report Id The weapon identification string. Usually meaningful (e.g. LP = Left Phaser). Arc Dispersion Angle (set by the 'ARC' command). Firing-Arc The firing arc of the weapon relative to the starship heading. Function The ship's function that governs the beam weapon. Perform Current performance (misfire chance) based on damage and crew. Dam The damage it will do at point blank range. Aim Manual aim angle (for future expansion). Status Charged, charging, or empty. Lock The current target ship. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 31 MISSILE WEAPON OFFICER LOAD weapon_list or MLOAD weapon_list Initiates a missile load sequence. This uses a missile from the magazine and also uses energy. E.g. MLOAD PT1 PT2 will load the missiles PT1 and PT2. This command would normally be loaded into a macro to maximise the firing opportunities for the Missile Weapon Officer. MFIRE weapon_list Fires the weapons in the weapon list. E.g. MFIRE PT1 PT2 will fire the missile weapons PT1 and PT2. This command would normally be loaded into a macro to maximise the firing opportunities for the Missile Weapon Officer. If the weapon is damaged, a misfire can occur. A misfire will either unload the launcher or reduce the speed, turn rate and endurance of the missile. In many ships, misfired missiles may travel more slowly than the ship that fired them. MLOCK target weapon_list Locks a list of missile weapons' functions. Weapon List is an abbreviation of the missile weapons - the missile weapons for your ship can be found by using the REPORT MISSILE command. E.g.: MLOCK K3 PT1 PT2 will lock the missile weapons PT1 and PT2 onto target ship K3. Prior to combat, you will often know which ships are potential targets. This command is normally be loaded into several macros (one for each target) to maximise the firing opportunities for the Missile Weapon Officer. If there are lots of targets, a parameterised macro is useful. MUNLOCK weapon_list Unlolcks the weapons in the weapons list. Eg MUNLOCK PT1 PT2 unlocks missile weapons PT1 and PT2. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 32 PROXIMITY range weapon_list Sets the proximity range on the missile weapons. E.g. PROXIMITY 90 PT1 PT2 See the Chapter How the Game Plays (sub-heading Missiles) for advice on the setting of proximity, along with the section on Granularity. RELOAD starbase Allows you to reload your missiles provided you are within transporter range of a starbase or tender ship. REPORT MISSILE Provides a report of the missile weapons: Id Prox Ammo Function Perform Dam Sp End Aim Status Lock PT1 0 30 MIS1 100% 300 120 10 0 Empty none PT2 0 30 MIS2 100% 300 120 10 0 Empty none End report Id The weapon identification string. Usually meaningful (e.g. PT1 =Photon Torpedo 1). Prox Current proximity. Ammo Number of missiles ready in the magazine. Function The ship's function controlling damage to this weapon. Perform Current performance (misfire chance) based on damage and crew. Dam Damage done if a direct hit is scored. Sp Speed at which the missile will travel. End Endurance (number of turns before the missile self-destructs). Aim Initial launch direction relative to the ship. Status Loaded, loading or empty. Lock Current target. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 33 Communications Officer DELETE message_number Removes a message from the queue to make room for new incoming messages. Only twenty messages can be held in the queue at any one time. DETAIL ship_id Lists intelligence information about the ship given in shipid. The resultant report is shown below: Ship class COOK CLASS Delloits Attack Rating 104 Delloits Defence Rating 155 Ship Name LASAGNE mission TO PATROL THE QUADRANT The mission is only given if the ship is in your command. The following three commands (MODIFY, MODSPEED and ORDER) are related; the explanatory notes follow the command definitions. MODIFY dsf_ship angle distance Changes the station-keeping parameters of a ship. MODSPEED dsf_ship speed [rotate] Modifies the speed of a starship under your command. ORDER dsf_ship mission details Orders a ship to a specific mission type. Explanatory notes for MODIFY, MODSPEED and ORDER: dsf_ship is a Deep Space Fleet ship under your command. angle is an angle in tenths of a degree. distance is a distance in TSUs speed is the requested speed and can be a number from 0 to 300, or the following text messages: FULL the starship's maximum warp speed SAFE the starship's maximum safe speed rotate is an angle to "orbit the selected craft by". It is in tenths of a degree per turn and may be in the range -450 to 450. Negative numbers rotate anti clockwise. It is an optional parameter. mission details a list of commands for the subject starship to follow. Permitted commands are in the table below: Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 34 Command Meaning wait Do nothing till further orders but attack hostiles. escort ship Escort and defend trade location location Move to and from pausing to load/unload shadow ship Follow, hide, don't attack (Works best for captain 20) attack ship Attack patrol location location Defend and watch scout location location Just watch goto location Go there fleet ship Join a fleet and keep station lower Lower your shields for 10 turns for us to transport crew retreat location, Get the hell out of here location can be an object id (i.e. a ship or system) or an x.y co-ordinate. Examples: order f2 attack k1 Order ship F2 under your command to attack enemy ship K1. order f5 retreat Order ship F5 under your command to retreat (get out of there!) order f3 patrol Xenophon 12378.12345 Order ship F3 under your command to patrol between Xenophon (a star-system) and the point 12378.12345. Order will only work on vessels under your command. Some merchant ships will react to your commands if you call a condition red or blue. To get an escort to circle you, try the following: order f1 escort f0 modspeed f1 safe 50 modify f1 900 1000 QUEUE Shows messages that are waiting to be read and their status. READ message number Displays the message on the user's console. This command is actually available to all players. SEND ship_id message Sends a message to an object via the comms function. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 35 The command will not return anything if the COMMS function on the receiving ship is damaged. Standard messages are: ID Gives ship ID HELLO Opens friendly communications QUERY Request object mission Must be in your command or will not return factual data NEWS Request scenario relevant news STATUS How bashed up are you? (Must be in your command) Any non-standard messages will be passed on to the GM's queue. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 36 COMPUTER OFFICER NOTE in sw1.12d the ships computer is rather empty GET and REPORT COMPUTER are general commands, able to be performed by anyone. REPORT COMPUTER This command lists the ten multi-line messages in the computer and lets you know which ones you can access. GET message_number Retrieves the multi line message from the ships computer where message_number is a number between 0 and 199. Message 0 is usually the scenario orders. SEARCH key1 [key2] [key3] Lists the first ten entries with the key or keys, for use with a subsequent Gecommand. FIND key1 [key2] [key3] Finds the first occurance of a record with matching keys and retrieves that record. SHIPS ENGINEER REPAIR starbase function Allows you to repair a function if within transporter range and speed of a starbase, repair ship, or planet. REPAIR also allows you to repair yourself if you have that ability -to do this enter your own ship_id in place of starbase. REPAIR S5 Shield Repairs the function Shield when within range of starbase S5. TRANSPORT CREW crew TO|FROM ship_id ship_function Provides for the transport of crew to and from a specific area of another ship. TRANSPORT PASSENGERS pass TO|FROM ship_id ship_function Provides for the transport of passengers to and from a specific area of another ship, were pass is the number of passengers. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 37 SECURITY OFFICER CONDITION GREEN|YELLOW|RED|BLUE Allows the alert status to be set. green normal yellow man stations red under attack blue seriously damaged The play effect of setting alert status is that some starships are programmed to accept your orders only when your condition is red or blue. Other effects of changing the alert status are up to the Games Master. GIVE security_id port Assigns ships functions to the crew (i.e. the players). Each player (except the captain) has a terminal (or PC running a terminal emulator) which is connected to a port on the computer running Bridge Crew. The ports have ids 0, 1, 2, 3 etc. Security Ids are HELM DC (Damage Control) BEAM MISS (Missile) COMMS (Communications) ENG (Engineering) SEC (Security) SHIELD SCI (Science) STRAT (Strategy) COMP (Computer) The Game Master assigns Security to the relevant officer; it is up to the security officer to assign the rest. E.g. the command GIVE COMMS 1 will assign communications to the player at the terminal (or PC) attached to the computer's port number 1. Note that the WHO command will give you the current port number. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 38 SHIELD CONTROL OFFICER REPORT SHIELDS Lists the current status of the shields. SHIELD ALL|FRONT|BACK|LEFT|RIGHT charge_value Sets the charge rate for the various shields. SHIELD ALL|FRONT|BACK|LEFT|RIGHT UP|DOWN This command raises and lowers the relevant shield. Up to raise, Down to lower. Note that shields do not lose any strength when they are lowered, they just don't stop any damage. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 39 SCIENCE OFFICER ANALYSE LIFE|FUNC|BEAM|MISS|GEN ship_id [via_ship_id] Provides a detailed scan of the object, showing only those functions which the federation has the ability to analyse. The ship must be clearly visible by the ship doing the scan, or by the ship referred to in the via_ship_id clause. The reports for each type of scan are shown with the corresponding command to scan your own (ie the players') ship - the same as this command, with ship_id omitted.. ANALYSE GEN Provides an analysis of the players' ship. The resultant report is shown below: Front : 560 100 100% UP Right : 560 100 100% UP Back : 560 100 100% UP Left : 560 100 100% UP Battery 462 Energy 0 Class COOK CLASS Race Human Course 237 Speed 60 End scan F1 ANALYSE LIFE Provides an analysis of the players' ship. The resultant report is shown below: Function Crew Pass Function Crew Pass HELM 15 0 DC 50 0 PH1 20 0 PH2 20 0 PH3 20 0 MIS1 30 0 MIS2 30 0 COMMS 12 0 WARP 55 0 IMPULSE 25 0 SHIELD 20 0 COMP 5 0 TRANS 5 0 SENS0 20 0 SENS1 20 0 HULL 1 0 OTHER 2 0 ANALYSE BEAM Provides an analysis of the beam weapons on the players' ship. The resultant report is shown below: ID Damage LP 180 FP 180 RP 180 Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 40 ANALYSE MISS Provides an analysis of the missile weapons on the players' ship. The resultant report is shown below: ID Damage PT1 180 PT2 180 ANALYSE FUNC Provides an analysis of the functions on the players' ship. The resultant report is shown below: Function Status Function Status HELM 100% DC 100% PH1 100% PH2 100% PH3 100% MIS1 100% MIS2 100% COMMS 100% WARP 100% IMPULSE 100% SHIELD 100% COMP 100% TRANS 100% SENS0 100% SENS1 100% HULL 100% OTHER 100% REPORT SENSOR Lists the status of the various sensors. The resultant report is shown below: Id State Sensitiv Cost Range Speed Perform Function 0 SR ON 40 300 9500 0-100 100% SENS0 1 SE ON 40 100 6000 0-180 100% SENS1 2 EM ON 40 20 3500 0-9 100% SENS2 SCAN LIFE|FUNC|BEAM|MISS|GEN ship_id [via_ship_id] Initiates a scan of the requested ship (ship_id), which need only to be visible as either a ship silhouette or as a blob. The via ship is any friendly ship which can see the target ship. The scan command can scan for; Life, Function, Beam Weapons, Missile Weapons or do a General Scan. SENSOR ON|OFF sensor_id Switches a given sensor on or off. See the REPORT SENSOR function for examples of sensor-id. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 41 SHIPS STRATEGIST CLOAK ON|OFF cloak_id|ALL This command controlls the cloaking devices on the ship. Use the 'REPORT CLOAK' command to get the names of your cloaking devices. Eg: CLOAK ON SE will switch on the SE cloaking device Eg: CLOAK OFF ALL This command will decloak the ship (switch off all cloaking devices). DETAIL ship Lists intelligence information about the ship given in ship. The resultant report is shown below: Ship class COOK CLASS Delloits Attack Rating 104 Delloits Defence Rating 155 Ship Name LASAGNE mission TO PATROL THE QUADRANT The mission is only given if the ship is in your command. SCAN LIFE|FUNC|BEAM|MISS|GEN ship_id [via_ship_id] Initiates a scan of the requested ship (ship_id), which need only to be visible as either a ship silhouette or as a blob. The via ship is any friendly ship which can see the target ship. The scan command can scan for; Life, Function, Beam Weapons, Missile Weapons or do a General Scan. See SCAN under the Science Officer commands for a full description of this command. TAG ship Displays the id of the ship on the main viewer. UNTAG ship Removes the display of id from the ship on the main viewer. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 42 Glossary Clearly Visible A starship that is visible to a sensor that can resolve the ship's outline. Course A direction between 0 and 3599 in tenths of a degree. DV Damage Value.The amount of damage done by a weapon or stopped by the shields. For internal damage, 1 DV - one point of damage to one function. Energy An imaginary amount of energy measured in units called EU (Energy Units). Energy Crisis When a ship is using more energy each turn than it is generating and its battery is flat, it is said to be going into energy crisis. EU See energy. Granularity The amount of movement each turn. HSU Heat Strain Units. The warp engines of a ship that exceeds its maximum safe speed generate excess heat measued in heat strain units. A ship that reaches 100 HSU runs the risk of permanently damaging its warp drive. Ship Throughout this document, the word ship refers to space faring ships, i.e. starships, not vessels that float on water. Speed A number representing the number of TSU travelled in a two second turn. Tag A note on the main console showing the ship ID of the ship silhouette. TSU Time Space Unit Visible A starship is said to be visible if it can be detected by 1 or more sensors of the players' ship. A starship may be visible but still shown as a blob if it is no being detected by a sensor with good picture resolution. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 43 Warp A speed of 10 equal to the speed of light e.g. warp 2 would be a speed of 20. Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd 1993, 1994, 1995 All Rights Reserved Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 44 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION..............................................1 Main Console..............................................2 HOW THE GAME PLAYS (OR THE COMPUTER AS A RULES LAWYER)....2 SPACE.....................................................2 DIRECTIONS................................................3 TIME......................................................3 ENERGY MANAGEMENT.........................................3 MOVEMENT..................................................4 THE MAIN DISPLAY..........................................5 TYPES OF OBJECTS..........................................5 STARSHIPS...............................................5 PLANETS.................................................6 STARBASES OR OUTPOSTS...................................6 STARS...................................................6 MISSILES................................................6 SENSORS...................................................6 CLOAKING..................................................7 MISSILES..................................................7 Granularity (or the Problem with Missiles)................8 BEAMS.....................................................10 TRANSPORTERS..............................................10 SECURITY..................................................10 SHIP'S FUNCTIONS..........................................10 COMMUNICATIONS............................................11 SHIELDS...................................................11 SCIENCE...................................................12 BRIDGE OFFICERS...........................................12 HELM OFFICER............................................12 DAMAGE CONTROL..........................................13 BEAM WEAPON.............................................13 MISSILE WEAPONS.........................................14 COMMUNICATIONS..........................................14 COMPUTER OFFICER........................................14 Copyright Mithril Software Pty Ltd Page 45 ENGINEERING.............................................15 SECURITY OFFICER .......................................15 SHIELD CONTROL..........................................15 SCIENCE.................................................15 STRATEGY OFFICER........................................16 PLAYER COMMANDS...........................................17 GENERAL COMMANDS........................................17 Helm Officer............................................27 BEAM WEAPON OFFICER.....................................30 MISSILE WEAPON OFFICER..................................32 Communications Officer..................................34 COMPUTER OFFICER........................................37 SHIPS ENGINEER..........................................37 SECURITY OFFICER........................................38 SHIELD CONTROL OFFICER..................................39 SCIENCE OFFICER.........................................40 SHIPS STRATEGIST........................................42 Glossary..................................................43