Fritz: All Fritz/All Fritz.zip/All Fritz/FILES/GAME_CGA/NATION.LZH/UNI.DOC

Text File | 1988-08-18 | 27KB | 731 lines

                            UNIVERSE


                     a space adventure game
                  written in Turbo Pascal by :

                          Andy Marcuse
                       140 Greenwood Ave.
                      Waterbury, CT. 06704

     You are the commander of a starship of the United Federation
of Planets.  It is the most technologically advanced starship
ever built by the Federation, and is specifically designed for
your mission.  You will be released from a starbase in an
unexplored arm of the galaxy.

     Your mission is to explore the galaxy, bringing honor and
new members into the Federation, while destroying those who dare
oppose you.





















            (C) Copyright 1987. All Rights Reserved.
 YOUR SHIP
=============

     Your ship is the newest and most advanced ship in the fleet.
It is heavily armed and well equiped.  It was specifically
designed for solo, long-range, deep space exploration.  The ship
has the following functions:

- abandon ship                          A
- send a boarding/landing party         B
- use the ship's computer               C
- give a damage report                  D
- launch an exploratory probe           E
- inventory food supplies               F
- Help                                  H
- Impulse drive                         1..9
- list Known planets                    K
- long range sensor scan                L
- show Messages received                M
- launch a probe w/NovaMax warhead      N
- fire phasars                          P
- quit the game                         Q
- fire the experimental death ray       R
- short range sensor scan               S
- fire a photon torpedo                 T
- ultra-detailed scan                   U
- show version                          V
- warp drive                            W
- self-destruct                         Z
- Supervisor                          <esc>

The computer can do a variety of different things.  These are
described in detail in the chapter about the computer.

0 - eXit the computer and return to the command level
1 - show Score
2 - set Options
3 - Restore shields
4 - manipulate Manpower
5 - manipulate Damage control
6 - Insert dilithium crystals into energy banks
7 - show Knowledge
9 - sub-space radio Communication

     Each of these functions is called by typing the letter that
follows it.  You will then be prompted for additional information
that you must give.  Most of these commands can be aborted by
typing '-1' instead a normal response.

     Almost all of these systems are vulnerable to damage.  When
damaged they will continue to operate, but at a shorter range or
lower efficiency.  Fortunately, however, they can be repaired if
Damage Control is working.  Once Damage Control is destroyed,
well...
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF FUNCTIONS
=================================


A - Abandon ship

Abandoning ship means that you load all of your remaining crew
onto the shuttle and try to warp all the way back to your
starbase.  If either the shuttle or the warp drive is badly
damaged, you cannot abandon ship.  Even if the warp drive is
blocked, you may still have a chance of escape, depending on how
it is blocked.  There is always a chance of failure depending on
the distance to the base and on the energy remaining.


B - Board a vessel/send a landing party to a planet

This command send the ship's shuttle to a planet or vessel to get
various supplies.  The maximum range of the shuttle is four
sectors.  You are asked to give the target sector and how many
crewmen you wish to send.  It takes 10 units of energy per person
per sector traveled.  The men are assigned from the the Excess
Personnel grouping (see computer command #4).  You cannot send
more men then are in the excess personnel grouping.
     If you wish to dock at the base, simply board it as you
would a planet.  You will be refueled and resupplied if there are
supplies allocated for you.  You can check when supplies will be
allocated with the computer's knowledge command (#7).


C - use the ship's computer

This will call up the ship's computer.  The commands are fully
described in the next section.  Using the computer does not take
a turn and does not use any energy.  Note that the computer can
be damaged. When it operating at less than 25%, none of its
functions are available.


D - give a damage report

This will show the current status of all of the ship's systems,
the amount of food remaining, the number of dilithium crystals on
board, the number of exploratory probes left, and the total
number of people on the ship.  Note that the system is dependent
on the damage control systems being in operation.  If damage
control is not functioning at 25%, a damage report cannot be
given.  It is also interesting to note that when damage control
is completely destroyed, it cannot be repaired and cannot repair
anything else.


E - launch an exploratory probe

This will launch a robot scanner device.  It sends back a scan of
space within a three sector radius as it travels along its
trajectory.  The normal range is 15 sectors.  Launching a probe
requires 10 units of energy and it takes one turn for the probe
to complete its voyage.  Your ship is initially supplied with 15
probes.  Pressing the spacebar during an explorer launch will
cause the explorer to terminate at the current sector.  This is
useful if you wish to remember the exact co-ordinates of an
object seen by the explorer


F - inventory Food supply

This command checks how much food you have on hand and calculates
how long it will last, in StarDates.  It does not take a game
turn or use energy.


H - Help

This calls a menu that lists all of the commands that are
available and prints an angle chart to help you orient yourself
for giving the correct angle to a specific target.  This list can
also be obtained by typing '?'.


K - list Known planets

This checks the computer database which maintains a record of all
the planets that have been scanned.  It will not be available
when the computer is damaged.

L - Long range sensor scan

The long range sensors are a means of seeing beyond the range of
the short range sensors.  It does have several disadvantages,
however.  First, the identity of the object cannot be determined,
only its location.  Second, it requires one turn.  The long range
sensor will scan the region between 5 and 12 sectors when
operating at 100%.


M - show Messages received

This lists all sub-space radio messages that have been received
recently.  The time and probable place of the message are also
recorded.  This function depends on the computer and will cease
to function when the computer is down.

N - Launch a exploratory probe with a NovaMax warhead.

This is an exploratory probe that is armed with a NovaMax
warhead.  The NovaMax warhead is probably the single most
powerful weapon at your disposal.  It is an explosive device of
enormous size, and can destroy virtually everything.  It explodes
at the target sector, destroying everything in a three-sector
radius.  It is launched in exactly the same fashion as a regular
explorer, but with a maximum range of 10 sectors.  You will be
asked when you wish to have the warhead detonate.  Note that this
number is actual distance units, not number of sectors, so be
careful when launching at middle angles.  The warhead can be
detonated prematurely by pressing spacebar.  This will not
decrease the amount of damage it causes.  If the explorer is
destroyed before it detonates (by collision etc.), the warhead is
lost.  You are initially supplied with 3 NovaMax warheads.


P - fire Phasars

The phasars are one of the most important weapons at your
disposal.  It consists of a beam of pure energy that can be
directed at any target.  When using the phasars you will be
prompted about whether you wish to use the single or multiple
targeting mode.  The multiple targeting mode will automatically
prompt you for each vessel within range that the computer has
deemed hostile.  You will be given the location and the energy
required to destroy the vessel.  The multiple targeting mode will
not select planets, however.  The single target mode is used
primarily against planets and friendly vessels.  You must check
(in the upper left corner of the screen) to see how much energy
you have remaining.  Using more energy than you have will result
in the destruction of your ship.  The efficiency of the phasars
depends on the distance to the target.  The farther away, the
more energy required.  The exact formula is :

                  HIT = FIRED / SQRT( DISTANCE/2 )

This is computed for you automatically in the multiple targeting
mode.


Q - Quit the game

This is used when your mission is complete or you have decided to
leave. It can only be done from the starbase (your original
docking point), and if the starbase is destroyed, you must self-
destruct (Z).  You are not allowed to quit before the end of your
mission.  This time can be seen with the computer's knowledge
base (command #7).
R - Experimental Death Ray

The death ray is a weapon of awesome destructive power.  It will
destroy all living things within a certain range using minimal
energy. It is fatal to all known life forms.  The primary problem
with the death ray is that you do not wish to kill yourself.  The
special equipment designed to prevent the death ray from killing
you is purely experimental, as is the death ray itself.  The
death ray is known to have problems when operated in the presence
of large quantities of energy, such as energy banks, shields, and
stars.  It is therefore advisable to use it only in the most dire
emergencies, when the only alternative is destruction.


S - Short range sensor scan

The short range sensors are the means of seeing space around your
ship.  The sensors give a visual identification to everything
within 6 sectors of your ship.  When they become damaged, you
will see less.  If they are operating at less than 25%, your ship
is essentially blind.

This is an example of a short range sensor scan, with examples of
some of the mmore common things found in the universe.

     ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
     ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~   E - Your ship
     ~ ~ ~ ~ . . . . . . . ~ ~ ~ ~   f - freighter
     ~ ~ . . . . . . . . . . ~ ~ ~   B - Federation Starbase
     ~ ~ . K . . . . R . . . . ~ ~   K - Klingon Battle Cruiser
     ~ ~ . . . . * . . . . . . ~ ~   R - Romulan WarShip
     ~ ~ . . . . . . . . . . . ~ ~   * - star
     ~ B . . . . . E . . . . . . ~   O - planet
     ~ ~ . . . . . . . . . . . ~ ~   ~ - space out of sensor scan
     ~ ~ O . . . . . . . . . . ~ ~       range
     ~ ~ ~ . . . . . . . . . ~ ~ ~
     ~ ~ ~ ~ . . f . . . . ~ ~ ~ ~
     ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
     ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A short range scan is done every turn automatically.  If you use
the short range sensor command it will clear and then redraw the
screen.  It will not take a game turn.
T - fire photon torpedo

Photon torpedoes are the other main weapon available to you.  A
photon torpedo is a warhead consisting of a matter-antimatter
charge held apart by a magnetic field.  When the torpedo
detonates, the two combine unleashing a devastating amount of
energy.  The torpedos travel close to the speed of light, and
will travel their full range (usually 9 sectors) in a single
turn.  If the torpedo does not hit something, it will
automatically detonate when it reaches its maximum range.
     You start the game with 75 torpedoes and will get more if
you return to the base for resupply.  It is not advisable to run
out in the middle of a game.


U - Ultra-detailed scan

The ultra-detailed scanner is a very precise scanner that will
scan an object and search the computer database for all
information concerning it.  You will be given all the information
that the computer has in addition to any results of the physical
scan.  It has a maximum range of 5 sectors and it does takes one
turn.
      The last ten planet scans are recorded in the computer's
knowledge base (command #7) and the planets need not be scanned
again.


V - show Version

This command prints the current version of Universe that you are
using.


W - engage Warp drive

The warp drive is the main means of faster-than-light travel.  It
is not a very reliable means of transportation, however.  It is
not accurate- you will frequently miss the target sector by
several sectors.  There can be trouble entering hyperspace or
while in hyperspace.  If you enter hyperspace too close to a
large mass, the ship can disintigrate.  Once you get into
hyperspace successfully, there may be ion storms or tractor
beams.  An ion storm will cause the ship to be launched on an
uncontrollable random trajectory.  You may end up anywhere in the
galaxy.  A tractor beam will put you more or less wherever the
user of the tractor beam desires. If you land on top of something
when you exit hyperspace, your ship will be annihilated. The
maximum range of the warp drive is 50 sectors.

Z - self destruct

This command will cause your ship to self-destruct.  You will be
asked to confirm the command, after which the ship will explode.
The damage caused by the explosion will depend on the energy
remaining in the shields and energy banks.  The more energy, the
larger the explosion.  This command cannot be damaged and will
always work.


<esc> - Supervisor

Hitting the escape key will clear the screen and bring up a fake
DOS prompt.  Hitting return will cause a fake error message to
appear.  Hitting <esc> a second time will return
to the game.  This can also be activated by pressing a function
key or a cursor key.

7 8 9
4   6  - Impulse drive
1 2 3

The impulse drive is the primary means of sub-lightspeed light
movement.  It is quite slow, but involves none of the risks of
warp travel.  To use the impulse drive you simply press the
number on the numeric keypad and you will move one space in the
appropriate direction.  On a standard IBM PC keyboard, you should
hit the NumLock key to change the cursor keys to numbers.  If you
do not hit NumLock first, the program interprets the cursor keys
as <esc>, and will go into the supervisor mode.  Moving one
sector under impulse drive takes one turn and uses 25 units of
energy.


 The ship's COMPUTER
=======================

C - use the ship's computer
This will call the ship's computer, a supercomputer designed for
extreme survivability in battle situations.  Note that when it is
operating at less than 25% none of its functions will be
available.


Here is a list of its different commands:

0 - eXIT the computer and return to the game
1 - show SCORE
2 - set OPTIONS
3 - RESTORE shields
4 - manipulate MANPOWER
5 - manipulate DAMAGE control
6 - INSERT crystals into energy banks
7 - show KNOWLEDGE
8 - sub-space radio COMMUNICATION
9 - tractor BEAM
+ - show original difficulty level

Note that they can be summoned by pressing the letter that is
capitalized as well as by the corrosponding number.

The detailed descriptions are :


0 - eXit

This simply brings you back into the main command level.


1 - show Score

This shows the current score. This is not your cumulative score,
but your score for this game.


2 - set Options

The only option you have a choice of setting is the AutoTarget.
This will print the possible targets for certain function with
the associated sectors and angles, if appropriate.  It can be
turned off if desired.

3 - Restore shields

This will allow you to transfer energy from your energy banks to
the your shields.  The efficiency of this transfer depends of how
well your generators are functioning and how many Dilithium
crystals you have;  with the generators at 100% operation and 10
Dilithium crystals, the generators will change 100 units of
energy into 1% shield strength.


4 - manipulate Manpower

This allows you to move personnel from one system to another.
The number of people in a system does not reflect how fast the
system can be repaired, but rather how efficiently it operates.
If there are less than the minimum number of people in a system,
it cannot operate at maximum efficiency.  Damage control cannot
repair a system to beyond this limit until more personnel are
assigned to the system.


5 - manipulate Damage control

This allows you to move personnel in the damage control systems.
This will change the repair rate of that system.  The more people
that you have assigned to a system, the faster it will be
repaired.  Note that damage control itself is subject to damage,
which will effect the rate that all systems are repaired.


6 - Insert dilithium crystals into energy banks

*** NOT CURRENTLY FUNCTIONING ***

This is a very risky operation in which you try to place some of
you dilithium crystals directly into the energy banks.  Normally
you can change 1 dilithium crystal into 500 units of energy, if
the operation is successful.  There are two things that can go
wrong.  One is that the crystal cannot be used for conversion,
and will be ruined when you try to convert it.  The other is that
it will not convert properly.  This will cause the complete
destruction of the ship.


7 - show Knowledge

This will call up the computer's knowledge base for you.  It will
contain the location of your original docking point, the minimum
length of your mission and any other relevant information.  It
will also record the last 10 planets that you have scanned.

8 - send sub-space Communication

*** NOT CURRENTLY FUNCTIONING ***

This will send a sub-space radio message to Federation Starfleet
command. There are several disadvantages to sending a message.
First is that it uses huge amounts of energy (500 units, average)
to send it beyond ~20 sectors.  Second is that it will reveal
your position to any ship that is scanning sub-space radio
frequencies.  The third is that there is a signifigant time delay
until any response can be received.

   The main messages are :

HELP, which asks federation command to send any available help.

LOCATE, which asks for the location of any enemy fleets that
Intelligence knows about.

CHALLENGE, which issues a challenge to any enemy vessels that are
in the vicinity.  Issuing a challenge uses three times the normal
energy requirement, since it must be broadcast in all directions.


ASK, which sends StarFleet ommand a request for instructions and
orders about a situation or problem you have encountered

Note that due to the delay in response time, your ship must
remain in the general vicinity of where the message was sent in
order to receive a reply.


9 - tractor Beam

   *** NOT CURRENTLY FUNCTIONING ***


+ - show original difficulty level

This will show you the difficulty level of the game on a scale of
1 to 10.  A game of level 1 is virtually empty and ludicrously
easy.  A game of level 10 is suicidal.  A game of level 5-7 is
normal.

 The Scoring System
====================

     Universe has two separate ranking methods.  One is a simple
score, which calculates the total number of points which you have
acquired in playing Universe.  This method gives points for each
enemy destroyed (the number dependent of the type of enemy) and
for each goal accomplished.  For the common enemy ships, the
points are :

     Romulan                    10
     Klingon                    25
     Vesarus                   100
     Curidian                  150

There are other enemies, for which StarFleet command will award
you mission points.  You will also receive mission points for
successfully following out certain additional missions.

There are also penalties which you may incur :

     Destruction of the ship  -500
     Abandoning ship          -100
     Disobedience             -100 to -500
     Cowardice                -250 to -750
     Treachery                -500 to -1000

     StarFleet command determines what applies to the latter
three catagories.  Fortunately there is no penalty for stupidity
other than what the enemy wrecks upon you.

     The second method is a ranking of player skill.  The current
version of Universe uses four primary factors.  The first, your
raw rating, is the average in points per turn.  A rating version
of Universe uses four primary factors.  The first, your raw
rating, is the average in points per turn.  A rating of 100 would
be about 7 points per turn. The second, the save rating, is how
many help calls you have responded to successfully.  A 100 for
this would indicate saving 90% of all help calls.  The third, the
major kills rating, is how many large enemy vessels you destroyed
per game.  A score of 100 would indicate an average of 6-7 per
game.  The final rating is the survival rating.  A score of 100
would mean you survived half the games you played.  This is not
valid for beginning players without enough experience.  It is
hopefully a more accurate measure of a player's actual skill.
 The Technicalities of the System
==================================

     The game program consists of two main programs UNIVERSE.COM
and UNIPLAY.COM, and several sets of overlays (used to avoid
Turbo-Pascal's 64 Kb limit on code size), and a datafile,
UNISTAT.DAT.  These are the essential files needed to run
Universe.  The source code consists of 12 files with the .INK
suffix.  They all start with the three letters 'UNI'.

     The program has several quirks.  One of the most important
is that keyboard input is not buffered.  What this means is that
anything you type while the computer is occupied will be lost.
This should not be important, since everything is fairly quick,
but it is noticable while using the numeric keypad for moving
under impulse drive for an extended distance.  This is a specific
modification, and it can be disabled.

     Another quirk is the program's use of the numeric keypad in
the numeric mode and not in the cursor mode.  Pressing a cursor
key will probably be the same as typing <esc>.  To get out of
this just hit <esc> and then NumLock to get into the numeric
mode.  Hopefully a future version will NumLock automatically.

     The game uses a coordinate system with the X-axis horizontal
and the Y-axis vertical.  The sector <1,1> is in the upper left
corner and the sector <100,100> is in the lower right corner.

               <1,1>    ...   <125,1>
                 :      ...     :
                 :      ...     :
               <1,125>  ...   <125,125>

When you need to give an angle or bearing, the following chart
applies with relation to the short range sensor scan :

                     90
                 135  |  45
                     \|/
              180 ----E----- 0
                     /|\
                 225  |  315
                     270
USING THE UNIVERSE SHELL
========================

The shell program is very simple.  You have a choice of 9
commands :

0 - eXIT
1 - PLAY a game
2 - show SCORES
3 - show RATINGS
4 - show TOP 10
5 - show CURRENT
6 - show VERSION
7 - ADD player
8 - DELETE player
9 - print to FILE


0 - eXIT the shell

This will return you to the operating system prompt.


1 - PLAY a game

This will chain to the game program, and you will have to enter
your name and password, after which you will immediately start
fighting to try to save your skin.


2 - show SCORES

This lists the scores of all current Universe players.


3 - show RATINGS

This lists the ratings of all the current Universe players.


4 - show TOP 10 games

This lists the scores from ten all-time highest scoring games.
5 - show CURRENT ships

This tells you what each players ship has by way of additional
engineering features that they found during the course of
previous games.  These will be lost the next time their ship is
destroyed.
      The possiblities are :
 food     double-capacity food storage
 energy   double-capactiy energy storage
 xtal     double-capacity crystal storage
 lwarp    75 sector warp range
 probe    30 sector probe range (and 20 sector Novamax range)
 Awarp    accurate warp
 gen      double efficiency generators


6 - show VERSION

This prints the current version of Universe that you are playing.


7 - ADD player to Universe system

This adds a player to the list of current Universe players.
There is currently an arbitrary maximum of 255 players.  This can
be changed by changing the MaxUser constant in the UNITYP.INK
file.


8 - DELETE player from Universe system

This deletes a player from the list of current Universe players.
Note that this deletion is permanent and that you must know the
password in order to successfully perform the deletion.

9 - print complete scores to a FILE

This prints 3 files to disk which contain a complete list of all
available statistics on the players.
     The three files are SCORE.DOC, KILL.DOC, and SAVE.DOC.
SCORE.DOC contains a list of the most common statistics.
KILL.DOC contains a list of all the various enemy kills.
SAVE.DOC has a very detailed list:
  planets subdued
  help calls received \
  help calls saved     > for planets, artridean, base, other
  help calls lost     /
  how many times you caught the virus
  derelicts boarded
  games longer than stardate 00.05.00
  games longer than stardate 00.10.00
  games where you cleared all hostile forces
  times you abandoned ship
  times you used the death ray
  times you self destructed
  number of driden waves encountered

     This program has been released into the Public Domain.
Permission is hereby granted for the copying, distribution and
modification of this program for recreational purposes, provided
that all references to the author are retained.
     Any use of this program for commercial, promotional, or any
other situation where profit may be considered an objective, is
strictly forbidden.

     The original VAX FORTRAN Unvierse game was by Rajiv Sud of
MIT, to whom credit is due for the basic foundations of this
game.  I have the FORTRAN source to his game if anyone would like
to see it.