YPA: Your Privacy Assured/YPA.ISO/other_goodies/games/fleetv1.lha/Fleet V1.0/FLEET.DOC

Text File | 1994-07-08 | 20KB | 584 lines

*****************************************************************************

                  FLEET V1.0
                  ----------
                     By:

                 Doug Stastny
                      &
                 John S. Wells


 Copyright June 1994
*****************************************************************************

TO OBTAIN SHAREWARE UTILITIES AND LATEST VERSION OF FLEET
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER $10 U.S to:

John S. Wells
1565 Surfside Blvd.
Merritt Island FL, 32952
USA

Comments and bug reports can be sent to the authors to above address or
Email - [e-mail]           <INTERNET>
    D.STASTNY                            <GEnie>











SECTIONS
--------
I.   Overview
II.  Game Mechanics
III. Registered Release
IV.  Disclaimer




I. Overview
----------------------------

United Stellar Council
Situation Brief #11144
Date 2450, Jan 26 (EST)

Subject:First Contact

It has been two hundred and fifty years since humanity first breached the
confines of Terra  solar system.  We have expanded our sphere of influence
over two hundred light years and colonized over 200 planets.  Although we've
encountered various life forms none have been sentient.

On 2449, December 25 the USC FG-S Newton, a science frigate encountered a
group of alien spacecraft while surveying planets in the Garada Sector.
Cpt. Savage of the Newton according to procedure implemented USC Directive 1,
which defines rules of engagement for First Contact with a sentient life form.
The alien vessels respond with hostility.

On December 30, 2449 the USC created the United Stellar Defense Fleet.


II. Game Mechanics
                  Rules of Play

1.0 Introduction

Game play centers around the main map screen which contains the Chronometer
displaying the elapsed game time.  At the bottom of the screen is the main
icon bar which is how players interact with their ships. The actions of the
icons are as follows in order from left to right on the screen.

Navigation      : Navigate ship
Weapons         : Arm/fire weapons
Power           : Allocate energy resource/Adjust Shields
Computer        : Display Ship Status
Orders          : Automate control of ship
Sensors         : Changes map resolutions
Auto-Center     : Center map on current ship

Moving the cursor to the map edge allows the map to scroll in that direction.



1.1 Sequence of Play

Each game 'turn', i.e. each tick of the game clock, consists of the following;

A. Orders Phase
   * input orders for each ship requiring new orders that turn

B. Movement Determination Phase
   * resolve movement orders
   * resolve terrain damage, (mines, asteroids, supernovas, etc.)

C. Direct Fire Weapons
   * resolve damage from any direct fire weapons scheduled to fire

D. Seeking Weapons Phase
   * resolve damage from any seeking weapons which struck their target



Remember that FLEET revolves around ships, not players.  Players are asked
for input whenever one of their ships is in need of additional orders, (as
opposed) to the traditional player 1 up, player 2 up, etc.)  As such, it is
quite possible for one player to be asked for orders for numerous ships
while his or her opponents stand around and watch.  It is important to learn
the Orders functions, as these provide the mechanisms for rapid game
play.

 1.2 Begin Play

After starting the game from the Workbench the user is presented with the game
configuration screen, (see below)

         ************  In SHAREWARE      ***********

First, select a ship by clicking (using the left mouse) in the add a ship box.
From the ship selector, choose a starship for combat (via. clicking).  The name
of the ship will appear in the matrix.  After the ship has been selected, the
player # to be associated with that ship can be selected by clicking on the
player # box next to the ship name.

         ************ P.D Version      ***********

Players will select from dialog box one of the predefined scenarios.

The first time try Run Like Hell or The Duel

1) Run like Hell - the USCF FG-S Newton encounters 3 alien vessels.
   FILE: RunlikeHell(CvsH).SCN

   Computer is Side A
   Human is Side B

   Human player must move ship NEWTON to X coordinate > 30.
   (Player can reference ships coordinate under Computer option)


2.0 Movement

The movement screen provides all the functionality to navigate your starship
around the cosmos.  The rosette in the middle of the screen is used to input
what direction you wish the ship to take.  The icon of the ship in the
middle of the rosette  is facing in the ships current heading.

2.1 Speed
The speed function(located to the right of the rosette) allows the player to set
the ships speed. Maximum game speed for a ship is 10 (forward or reverse).
A ship may accelerate at double current speed or 1 whichever. Ships can
decelerate 1/2 current speed or 1 which  ever is greater. To go in reverse
ship must stop first.

2.1 Turn Mode
The turn mode (located to the right of the rosette) refers to the distance
the ship must travel forward before becoming eligible to change heading.

The vessel size and speed are both factors in the  determining the ships
turn mode.

2.2 Turn In
The turn in (located to the right of the rosette) refers to the number
of hexes forward the ship must move until the  ship completes its turn
mode, and becomes eligible to turn.

2.3 Game Time
The game time (located to the right of the rosette) refers to the value the
Chronometer must read before the ship will move.

2.4 Move Modes
There are two basic navigational modes, manual and automatic

2.4.1 Manual Mode
The rosette is used to choose the desired heading the ship will move in.
The side slip buttons, located to the left and right of the navigation
rosette, allow the ship to move forward and to the left or right.  This
allows for more maneuverability

2.4.1.1 Snap Turn
This function (located to left of rosette) provides a mechanism to reset the
turn mode to zero and allow the player to change headings immediately.  This
maneuver is not recommended except in emergencies as it is liable to result
in structural damage to the vessel.

2.4.1.2 Turn In Place
This function (located to right of rosette) allow the ship to maneuver at
speed while remaining in a hex.


2.4.2 Automatic modes (Icons located bottom right of navigation screen)

2.4.2.1 Intercept Ship
This function (first icon on left) automatically navigates the ship towards
the target displayed in the selector on the left of the screen.  Note: This may
crash you into a planet.

2.4.2.2 Intercept Hex
This function (second icon) automatically navigates the ship towards a target
hex selected by the player. Pointer will change to marker when option is
selected.

2.4.2.3 Evade
This function (third icon) automatically navigates the ship away from the
selected target ship.

2.4.2.4 Emergency Stop
This function (fourth icon) brings the vessel to immediate stop. This will
cause damage based on how fast and how large the ship is.

2.5 Engage
Accepts current selections and closes screen.

2.6 Cancel
Cancel any changes made since Navigation Display opened and closes screen.


3.0 Weapons
The Weapons screen provides all functions necessary to control ship
offensive systems. The display in center of screen lists each of the
ships weapons. If the ship contains more than eight weapons the list
can be scrolled with the up/down arrows. This list contains three
fields: Weapon, Status and Target.

3.1 Weapons Fields
Selecting the weapon name brings up a weapons description panel on
the right side of the screen. This displays the capabilities of each
weapon.

3.2 Status Fields
Selecting the weapon status will change the current functional mode
for that weapon. The modes are:

3.2.1 Empty
Weapon is not ready to fire, not currently arming.
3.2.2 Arming
Weapon is being charged with energy or a missile is being reloaded.
3.2.3 Ready
Weapons is fully charged and ready to rock!
3.2.4 Fire
Weapon will fire this turn at the selected target!

3.2.5 Destroyed
Weapon is destroyed and will not function.

3.3 Target
Selecting this function brings a targeting display which shows the relative
position of the target, as well as the firing arc for that weapon. The
selector allows the target to be changed. Accept or Cancel.

4.0 Power Allocation
The Power Allocation screen provides the functions to allocate energy
resources to the ship's various systems. The systems requiring power
are: Navigation, Power, and Shields. Power is allocated to each of
these systems via the up and down arrows (located on the right of the
screen.)  The energy required for each of the systems is displayed
as a yellow line in the field above the up and down arrows.  Power allo-
cated to a system is represented as a green bar.  Ideally, the green bar
will match the  yellow line.

4.1 Navigation
The power need for navigation is determined by the speed of the ship
which was set in the Navigation Screen.  Power MUST be allocated up
to the yellow line.

4.2 Weapons
The energy required to fully charge weapons which have been selecting for
arming in the Weapons Screen are represented by the yellow line.  It
is NOT required to fully allocate energy to the weapons.  If less
than the required amount is allocated the last weapons will not be charged
as quickly.  Energy can however be "stored" in a weapon.  This allows you
to pause the arming process without losing the energy already allocated.


4.3 Shields
There are two defensive systems used in Fleet, shields and armor.  Shields
are essentially an energy field which protects a certain section of the ship
from damage.  Power to shields is allocated on the right of the power
allocation screen, armor requires no power allocation as it is incorporated
into the ship when it is constructed.  For each unit of energy allocated to
shields, six points of shield strength can be allocated to an individual
facing.  This is done on the left part of the screen labeled SHIELDS (using
the up and down arrows.)

5.0 Ships Computer
The ships computer is the resource that each player uses to determine the
functional characteristics of his or her ship. The computer contains displays
for shields, power, weapons, and damage.  This screen will dump just about
all the data associated with a ship.  One important piece of data is the
ships position located on the shields display.

6.0 Orders
The purpose of the special orders function is to speed up game play.  These
orders essentially set up wait states for each ship such that many clock
ticks can go by without that ship requiring further orders. Due to various
conditions, some wait states may not always be available.  The large
Engage function confirms all orders input this clock tick and ends user
input for this ship.

The following is a list of the possible wait states.

6.1 No Wait
The ship will require further orders next clock tick.

6.2 Wait on Recharge
The ship will not require further input until the next weapon is fully
charged.

6.3 Wait on Move
The ship will not require further input until the ship performs it's
next movement.

6.4 Wait on Turn
The ship will not require further input until the ship can turn.

6.5 Wait on Range
The ship will not require further input until it is within the range to
the target specified in the range selector.  Target is selected above the
wait state selector.

6.6 Recharge All
The ship will not require further input until ALL weapons have been fully
charged.

6.7 Wait on Time
The ship will not require further input until the number of clock ticks
shown in the range selector has passed. (kludgy but works for now.)

7.0 Scanners
The scanner function provides each player with the big picture.  Selecting
this icon will toggle the map display between small scale and large scale.

8.0 Autocenter
This function centers the map on the ship currently being processed.



III. Registered Release


The registered release provides utilities to create your own ships and
also design scenarios.  The notes on the ship builder are included to
demonstrate the complex design and to assist in answering the
question "How do they calculate that?"


****************   Shareware utilities  ****************


1.0 Ship Builder

The Ship Builder is a separate program which allows the user to modify existing
ship designs as well as construct new ships from scratch.  This program is
invoked from the workbench icon.  Ships are loaded from and saved to the
directory df0:ships/ (or wherever you have installed the Fleet game)

1.1 Steps to Ship Building

A. Size Class

Pick ship size class from menu.  Fleet size classes range from 1 to 10.
Each size class corresponds to a number of construction units based on the
following formulae:  MAX_#_CUs = 10*SIZE_CLASS
note: CUs = Construction Units

Size Class 1 -> 10

1       2       3       4       5       6       7       8       9       10
|       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
<fighter>       <frigate>               <----cruiser---->          <star base>
    <-escort>       <----destroyer-->                       <battle-
                                  ship-->

B. User Input Functions                         COST    (CUs)   DAMAGE
                           ----    -----   ------
 a. Select Ship Image                           N/A     N/A     N/A
 b. Slider to set power                          10      1       1
 c. Slider to set amount of armor per facing     1      1       1
 d. Scroll gadget to enter energy weapons        AA
 e. Scroll gadget to enter missile weapons        BB
 f. Slider to set # of batteries                  5
 g. Slider to set # of shield generators          8      1       1
 h. Slider to set reactor tolerance              CC
 i. Set ship name                               N/A     N/A     N/A

AA. Cost depends on weapon selected
BB. Cost depends on missile type
CC. Cost = 10%*(Power cost for a 10% boost)
       No CU cost for this function
       Not damageable

1.2 Facts and Formulae

A. Power

 * Maximum Power = 50% of total CUs
 * Output = 1 unit of power for each CU devoted to energy
 * Reactor Tolerance (modifies output)
 * 1 Battery = 1 CU
 * 1 Battery = 5 units of energy storage

B. Speed

 * Maximum Game Speed = 10(SHIPS missles are 20)
 * Maximum Ship Speed = 3*(Total_Power_Output/Size_Class)
 * Current Ship Speed = 3*(Power allocated for Speed/Size_Class)

C. Sheilds

 * Maximum CUs devoted to Shield generators = 40% of total
 * Maximum of 50% of Total Shield Energy can be channeled into a single shield
   facing
 * 1 CU of shield provides for 10 points of damage protection in a single
   facing.
 * 1 CU of shield is activated by 1 unit of power allocated to it.

D. Systems Overhead (Critical Hits)

Systems overhead accounts for 20% of the total CUs available for ship
construction.  These CUs are removed from those available when the ship
size class is selected at ship construction time, (i.e. these CUs are
automatically allocated according the percentages below.)  It is important
to remember that these systems are damagable items, hence they can be thought
of as "critical hits".  The larger the ship, the more of these critical hits
it will be able to take.

 * Sensors = 20% of CUs devoted to systems overhead
 * Control Spaces (Bridge, Engineering, etc.) = 10%
 * Crew = 40%
 * Computer = 10%
 * Shield Channel = 20% (lose one shield facing when hit)
 * Communications = 10%

E. Repair
(NOTE: NOT IMPLEMENTED)
Every ship in the Fleet universe has the ability to repair itself to some
degree during combat.  This ability is quite limited and obeys the
following formulae:
    1 Repair Unit = ability to repair 1 CU
    1 Repair Unit = 10% of total crew complement

F. Damage

1 Point of sustained damage = 1 destroyed CU
Note: the CU damaged is NOT hittable a second time, that CU is lost.

If the CU damaged is part of Systems Overhead then it is hittable multiple
times, with damage accumulating against that system until that system is
destroyed.

G. Structural Integrity

The number of structural integrity units = maximum number of CUs the ship
                       started with

H. Movement

Movement cost =(Ship speed*Size class)/3
Turn mode     =(((0.5*Size class)+2)*(Abs(Ship speed)/10))

I. Armor

One CU of armor will absorb six points of damage
There are no construction limits on armor

K. Weapons

Weapons Table
 CLASS = 1 => BEAM WEAPON
 CLASS = 2 => TORPEDO
 CLASS = 3 => DRONES
 CLASS = 4 => ENERGY BASED SEEKER
 CLASS = 5 => POINT DEFENSE

                      Ranges         To Hit        Damage        Energy Rate
             Class 1  2  3  4  5  1 2 3 4 5  1 2 3 4 5  Rechage Rate       # of CUs

Laser Type 1    1, 3  6  8  0  0 10 8 7 0 0  3 2 1 0 0      1         5        1

Laser Type 2    1  3  7  9  0  0 10 8 7 0 0  5 4 2 0 0      2         10       2

Laser Type 3    1  4  8  11 0  0 10 8 7 0 0  7 5 3 0 0      3         10       3

Fusion          1  2  4  6  0  0 10 7 5 0 0  9 9 9 0 0      2         15       2

Phase Cannon    1  5  10 16 0  0 10 9 8 0 0  8 8 8 0 0      3         15       4



Disruptor       2  5  9  15 0  0 10 9 8 0 0  6 4 2 0 0      1         10       3

Particle Cannon 2  4  8  12 16 0  9 7 6 4 0 10 9 8 7 0      2         15       3

Hell Beam       2  4 10  18 0  0  9 7 6 0 0 14 108 0 0      3         15       3

Splash Canon    2  5 12  20 0  0 10 9 7 0 0 20 128 0 0      4         20       7
Note: splash cannon damage= (1/2 * facing shield, 1/4 * ajacent shields)

Enveloping Ray  2  5 12  20 0  0 10 9 7 0 0 30 18120 0      5         20       8
Rem envelping ray damage = 1/6 * all shields


Missiles
                    Flight                    Damage   Reload
            Class  Duration  Damage  Speed  To Destroy   Rate  # CUs

Drone Type I  3       60      20      15        8        10      2

Drone Type II 3       60      15      15        6        10      2

Drone Type II 3       60      10      15        4        10      2



Torpedoes
           Duration  Damage   Damage      Duration        Recharge  Total
       Class   Speed Taken  1  2  3  4  5  1  2  3  4  5    Rate    Energy  # of CUs

Type I   4  60  20   100   20 16 12  8  6  5 12 22 36  60     5      30      10

Type II  4  60  20   100   15 12 8   6  4  5 12 22 36  60     3      20      6

Type III 4  60  20   100   10  8 6   4   3 5 12 22 36  60     2      10      4


Point Defense Weapons

                      Ranges         To Hit        Damage        Energy Rate
             Class 1  2  3  4  5  1 2 3 4 5  1 2 3 4 5  Rechage Rate       # of CUs

Type I         5   2  3  4  0  0 10 9 8 0 0  3 2 1 0 0    1           2       1

Type II        5   1  2  3  0  0 10 9 8 0 0  2 1 1 0 0    1           1       1





1.2 Scenario Builder
Allows players to create there own scenarios.


1.3 Caveat

If anyone who plays this game thinks there is ANYTHING silly about the way the
authors have implemented the physics associated with game play then the
authors will be happy to change whatever game characteristics are required.
Simply send the appropriate MIL-SPEC documentation for a working combat
rated inter-galactic warp drive engine to the address on the box.  Note:
changes will be incorporated in the next game release, however the full
MIL-SPEC documentation set must be received at least six (6) months prior
to program release.




IV. Disclaimer
The authors grant permission to distribute the contents of this archive
freely. It may only be included in collections that are distributed for
monetary gain with the express written consent of the authors.

We do not guarantee the function or performance of this software in
any way it is distributed "AS-IS". We don't assume an liability from damages
to hardware or data in using this software.


Additional Graphics
----------------------------
Ken Johnson

Additional Programming
 & Support
----------------------------
Guy Savage