The Best of Select: Games 3

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (3.00) STARSHIPS Starships are built at starbases out of three basic minerals, Tritanium, Duranium and Molybdenum. The starships travel at very high speeds between planets performing various missions. The funds needed to build starships is taken directly out of the planetary economy. Starships can be used to transport cargo money and colonists. They can also battle enemy ships. (3.01) TECH LEVELS There are four different tech levels at every starbase. These four tech levels are, starship hulls, starship engines, starship beam weapons and starship torpedoes. The tech levels range from 1 to 6 in the evaluation version of this game and 1 to 10 in the expanded registered version. You must spend megacredits for each leap in tech level you take. The cost of each jump in tech levels increases as you move up in tech levels. Your choice of starship components increases as you increase your tech level. The cost of high-tech starship components is far more then the basic low tech version of the same components. Every starbase's tech levels are independent of all other starbases. When you build a new starbase all four tech levels normally start at level 1. Four of the native races give a tech level 10 bonus for building a starbase. (SEE 11.00) (3.02) NEW SHIPS The most important part of a starship is the hull. At hull tech level one you have a choice of only about 3 different types of hulls. At higher tech levels you may have as many as 20 different types of hulls, depending on the race you are playing. The hull is the spaceframe that all other starship components are mounted on to form a ship. Hulls require anywhere from one to as many as ten engines depending on the type. As a rule smaller ships have only one or two engines. The amount of damage that a ship can withstand depends on the ship's mass. The more massive the ship the greater number of hits the ship can take and the more powerful the ship's shields will be. Some hulls come with fighter bays. These ships can carry and launch fighters. Some ships have areas that you can mount torpedo launchers. Starships that have torpedo launchers can carry and fire torpedoes at enemy ships. There are 10 different types of torpedoes and torpedo launchers. Most ships can have beam weapons. These are the main weapons used on starships. There are 10 different types. Beam weapons are very useful at destroying enemy fighters as well as firing directly at the enemy ship. From the starbase's starship building screen you are given a chance to pick the components that you wish to put together to form a ship. If you lack a part you can call a sub screen that allows you to build a new part, such as an engine, a weapon or even a starship hull. After you have selected all the parts to put together to form a new ship your plan is submitted to the starbase. Your new ship will be completed the following turn. (3.03) WEAPON BANKS AND FIGHTER BAYS There are different types of weapons systems that a ship may have. The main weapon system is a beam type weapon ( lasers, phasers, etc. ). A beam type weapon draws its power from the ship's engines, so as long as an engine is working the weapon will have energy to fire. The auxiliary weapon systems can be torpedo launch tubes or fighter launch bays. A fighter takes up one kiloton in the cargo hold. In combat the fighter is moved from the cargo hold into the fighter launch bay to be fuel and armed. A ship with many fighter launch bays can get more fighters into combat sooner. Fighter bays are designed into the hull and unlike torpedo launchers cannot be added. Some races ( such as the federation ) have very few, hull designs that include fighter bays. A starbase has room for up to 60 fighters to be used in defense or to be transferred to a ship with fighter bays. The torpedo launch tube aims and arms standard torpedoes. Torpedoes take up one kiloton of cargo space each. In combat the torpedo is moved from the cargo hold into the launch tube. (3.04) FIGHTERS For use on starbases as a long range defense against attacking enemy starships. Starships with fighter launch bays can carry fighters to attack enemy ships at ranges far greater then torpedoes or beam weapons. A starbase can hold up to 60 fighters. Some larger carriers can hold over 200 fighters. All fighters fire very powerful, tightly focused energy beams that do a good job of wearing down an opponent's shields and can punch holes in vital parts of enemy ships. Fighters are very good at defeating very large and heavily armored ships. In some cases a fighter can do more damage then even the best torpedo and if the fighter survives, it can be used again. Fighters can be destroyed by enemy fighters that can gain a weapons lock as the fighters passes within close range of each other as they close in on the enemy ship. An enemy ship can fire a beam weapon at a fighter to destroy it. Very few ships, however, can defeat a large scale fighter attack with beam weapons along. (3.05) WEAPON KILLING/DESTRUCTIVE POWER The damage done to an enemy target is measured in two different ways, killing power and destructive power. Killing power is a measure of how deadly the weapon is to the crew of an enemy ship. If a crew is killed off the ship is rendered helpless and is easily captured. The destructive power is a measure of how much damage can be done to the superstructure, engines and weapon systems of an enemy ship. The greater the mass of the HULL of a ship the greater the ship's resistance to the destructive power of enemy weapons. More massive ships also have more powerful shields then less massive ships. (3.06) STARSHIP FIX / RECYCLE After a starship has returned from a mission or has just been constructed you can use the starbase to fix the ship. The fix command will repair all the damage done to the ship in one game turn. The star base fix mission will not upgrade the tech level of any parts of the starship. When you fix a ship you have the chance to load torpedoes or fighters onto the starship if it can handle them. Use the transporters to beam fuel and cargo onto and off the ship. New ships begin the game with no fuel, unless the starbase primary mission is set to refuel. Player one (The Solar Federation) is the only race that can upgrade the tech levels of an old starship. Their ships can set their mission to "Super Refit". (See 10.0 RACE ADVANTAGES) The Starbase can also recycle old ships. When a ship is recycled, using the recycle command, all the ship's weapons and engines are removed and placed into storage. The hull is converted into minerals and stored on the planets surface. (3.07) FUEL All starships use neutronium for fuel. Neutronium is a superdense material found at the core of many planets. It is also known as "neutronic" fuel. Fuel is millions of times denser then common elements such as lead or gold. The fuel must be stored in a very powerful inertial damping field to prevent damage to the starship's superstructure. The amount of fuel that a starship can carry is limited by the strength of the inertial damping field only and not the cargo room available on the ship. Starships without fuel cannot attack enemy ships. Enemy ships are not allowed to attack ships that are out of fuel, due to the treaty of Nimbus 7. The treaty states "No ship may attack or destroy a ship that is out of fuel. Such ships are helpless and unable to protect themselves. Destroying helpless ships would be a tragic and senseless loss of life." Starships without fuel cannot cloak. (3.08) CARGO The cargo that a ship may carry includes supplies, colonists, tritanium, duranium and molybdenum. If a ship has one or more torpedo launchers the ship may carry torpedoes. If the ship has one or more fighter bays the ship may carry fighters. You can have the ship unload cargo onto a world that you currently do not own. After one or more colonist clans are unloaded onto a planet that planet then becomes yours the following turn, unless there are enemy colonists already on the planet, in which case a planetside war will take place. Bad climates or amorphous natives may also kill off colonists. *** When beaming cargo up or down hold the <ALT> or <SHIFT> *** *** down to beam 100 units at a time. *** Cargo can in an emergency be jettison into deep space to make the ship lighter so the ship can travel faster or to prevent an enemy from seizing the cargo if the ship is in danger of being captured. Ships can transfer cargo from and to any other ship located at the same location in space. The command is designed mainly for fuel tankers so they can transfer fuel to ships that are in need of fuel. (3.09) PRIMARY ENEMY You can set the primary enemy of each ship. This is a standing order to attack any ship that belongs to the primary enemy race that is located in the same position in space. A matching friendly code will override the primary enemy setting as well as the kill mission. Cloaked ships may not attack. The cloaking mission overrides the primary enemy setting. (3.10) SHIP MISSIONS Each ship can perform one of eight various missions that include exploration, lay mines, mine sweep, kill, sensor sweep, colonize, tow and intercept. Some ships can cloak. The exploration mission orders the ship to spy on planets to see if any enemy colonists are living there and if they have a starbase. The lay mine mission reprograms the all torpedoes onboard a starship to become deep space mines and lays them in a circle around your current position ( if the Host has enabled the mine field option ). (SEE MINE FIELDS 3.16) The mine sweep mission has the ship fire its beam weapons set on wide. The more beam weapon and the higher tech the weapons the greater the number of mines that can be destroyed per turn. The mine sweep mission will not destroy mines that belong to you, but it will give you the location and size of the nearest mine field that you own. (SEE MINE FIELDS 3.16) The Sensor Sweep Mission scans planets within 400 light years for any readings that might suggest enemy activities. The percentage odds that an enemy planet will show up on a scan are: SQR( Mineral_Mines + Factories ) * 0.2 - SQR( Planetary_Defence ) For every enemy planet within 400 light years. Any planets with 100 defence outposts cannot be picked up on Sensor Sweeps. The kill mission orders the ship to attack all ships of any race other then your own that are located in the same position in space as your ship. Ships with the kill mission will always fight first in a battle were there are ships attacking under order of primary enemy. A matching friendly code will override the kill mission, as well as the primary enemy setting The colonize mission orders the ship to disassemble the starship when it reaches an unowned planet and to use the ships parts to make supplies for the colonists after unloading any colonists, cargo and fuel on the ship to the planet's surface. Most of the time it is best not to use the colonize mission. It is usually better to beam the colonists down to an unowned planet using the <C> ship command. That way you can reuse the same ship again. (SEE COLONIZE MISSION 3.14) The tow mission orders the ship to lock a tractor beam on a ship that is at the same position in space. The amount of fuel the towing ship will burn is proportional to the sum of the masses of both ships. If the ship that is the target of the tractor beam has a warp factor greater then the ship using the tractor beam the target ship will break free of the tractor beam if the waypoint setting of the ship trying to break free is set to a range that will take more then 1 month to travel to. If both ships are using tractor beams on each other, the ship with the higher warp factor will tow the ship with the lower warp factor. The intercept mission orders the ship to intercept ships by ID number. You can use list and view commands to find the ship ID number of the ship you wish to intercept. Your ship will follow the intercept target ship until your ship runs out of fuel, the target ship disappears behind a planet or cloaks. The intercept mission does not order the ship to attack the ship it is intercepting. It will attack the ship if the "Primary Enemy" is set to the race of the ship that it is intercepting. You may intercept your own ships, if you wish. Most races have an extra mission that is all their own. Ships must have fuel to do the extra mission. No matter which mission a ship is on when it enters a battle, the ship will do it's very best to win the fight. Mission in no way affects the way in which a ship will fight. These are the ships that have a cloaking device. Reptile Class Destroyer Lizard Class Cruiser Saurian Class Light Cruiser White Falcon Class Cruiser Swift Heart Class Scout Fearless Wing Cruiser Dark Wing Class Battleship Resolute Class Battlecruiser Bright Heart Class Destroyer Deth Specula Class Frigate BR4 Gun Boat BR5 Kaye Class Torpedo Boat Red Wind Class Carrier Meteor Class Blockade Runner D3 Thorn Class Destroyer Dwarfstar Class Transport D7 Coldpain Class Cruiser Cloaked ships cannot attack or be attacked. Ships without fuel cannot cloak. (3.11) STARSHIP NAVIGATION Your starship can be in orbit around a planet or in deep space between the planets. Your ships that are traveling through deep space will show up are green dots on all your maps and charts. Your ship will also show up as a red dot on all enemy charts in the same way enemy ships will show up on your maps as red dots. The navigation map shows planets as white dots. Any planets that you own will have blue circles around them. If you have any ships in orbit around any planets they will show up as green circles. Cloaked enemy ships are invisible. The WAYPOINT is a point in space that you are setting a course to travel to. The waypoint shows up on the navigation map as a green circle with a green line running to your current location. Use the arrow keys or the mouse to set a new waypoint. If you set your waypoint on an object such as a planet or a starship the green circle will turn yellow and the name of the new waypoint will appear under the navigation map. Starships with more then 89% damage ( except Lizard ships ) are unable to move. Distance is the number of light years to your current waypoint. The number of light years a ship will travel in a turn increases as a square of your warp factor. Speed Distance traveled in a game turn Warp factor 1 1 light year Warp factor 2 4 light years Warp factor 3 9 light years Warp factor 4 16 light years Warp factor 5 25 light years Warp factor 6 36 light years Warp factor 7 49 light years Warp factor 8 64 light years Warp factor 9 81 light years Your E.T.A. is your estimated time of arrival at your waypoint in months (game turns). E.T.A. is based on your speed and distance. There are three ships in the game that have GRAVITONIC ACCELERATORS These are the Meteor Class Blockade Runner, the BR4 Gun Boat and the BR5 Kaye Class Torpedo Boat. These three ships travel at a rate of twice that of a normal ship. At warp factor 9 these ships will travel 162 light years in one turn. Please note ships are moved when the Host runs HOST.EXE. The commands that you are inputting into the ship display screens in PLANET.EXE are just that, commands. If the ship is able it will do it's best to carry out your orders. Under HOST 3.13 there are also 3 Hyperdrive ships. PL21 PROBE (Empire) B200 CLASS PROBE (Cyborg) FALCON CLASS ESCORT (Rebel) To use the hyperdrive set the ship's waypoint to a point farther then 20 light years and set the friendly code to "HYP". The ship will jump about 350 lightyears and burn 50 units of fuel. The ship will come out of hyperspace at speed zero and with no waypoint set. Ships in hyperspace avoid all minefields. The hyperdrive can not be used to excape a tow. This will not work if the ship is on an intercept mission. (3.12) FUEL The amount of fuel needed to reach your current waypoint is dependent on the ship's mass, warp factor and the type of engine that the ship has. Tech one engines (stardrive 1's) are very poor engines and waste large amounts of fuel at speeds above warp factor one. Tech six engines are very fuel efficient at speeds up to warp factor 6. At speeds above warp 6 the engine begins to waste large amounts of fuel. The engine construction screen will show you a graph of the fuel efficiency curve of each engine type that you have both the engine tech level and materials to construct. It is a very good idea to invest the best engine technology possible. With high tech engines your ships can travel very fast and use very little neutronium fuel. Engines may be the most important factor in expanding your empire faster then your enemies. The weight of your ship is the sum mass of all parts that make up your ship. Mass includes the hull, engines, weapons, cargo and fuel. The amount of fuel your ship needs to burn to move increases proportionately to your ship's mass. The max weight is the maximum mass your ship may have when it has a full load of cargo and a full fuel tank. (3.13) REPAIRS IN SPACE Starships can repair damage in space using supplies. Five supply units will repair 1% of ship damage. To repair a ship just load the damaged ship with supplies and the ship will be repaired next turn. (3.14) COLONIZE MISSION A NEW feature of version 3.0 is the starship recycle rate. The Host person can set the recycle rate to any thing from 0% to 100%. Default setting is 75%. The Host person can set the recycle rate using HCONFIG. This is the percentage of the minerals that are recovered from a starship that colonizes a planet. The minerals that were used to build the hull and weapon systems are transformed back into minerals and laid out on the planet's surface. Money spent to build a ship cannot be recovered. Fighters are recycled. FOR EXAMPLE: You have a very old battleship with tech 3 engines and laser beams and mark 1 torpedoes. You feel this ship is outdated so you set the mission to "Colonize". The Host program will unload all the fuel and cargo from the ship and then convert a percentage of the minerals that were used to build the ship back into minerals. The torpedo launchers, laser beams, engines and hull are all converted back to a percentage of the original minerals. (3.15) ALCHEMY SHIPS The Host person may allow alchemy ships to perform their alchemy function or you may disable the function and the ships will behave as standard freighters. HCONFIG will configure the HOST to allow or not allow alchemy ships. There are two classes of alchemy ships, the Neutronic Refinery Ship and the Merlin Class Alchemy Ship. The NEUTRONIC REFINERY SHIP can convert minerals plus supplies to neutronic fuel (neutronium). Here are three alchemy reactions that a refinery ship can use: 1 * ( duranium ) + 1 * ( supply unit ) ---> 1 * ( neutronium ) 1 * ( molybdenum ) + 1 * ( supply unit ) ---> 1 * ( neutronium ) 1 * ( tritanium ) + 1 * ( supply unit ) ---> 1 * ( neutronium ) The neutronic refinery ship will automatically perform the refinery function if all three of the following conditions are met. The ship will continue to refine fuel until one or more of the conditions are no longer met. (A) There is at least one KT of duranium or molybdenum or tritanium on board the ship. (B) There is at least one KT of supplies on board the ship. (C) There is at least room for one KT of fuel in the fuel tank. The neutronic refinery ship is a tech 9 ship with 10 engines and 1050 KT of cargo room. Fuel tank will hold 800 KT of fuel. The hull is very massive, 712 KT. The ship is armed with 6 beam weapons. This ship can produce up to 525 KT of fuel per turn. The ship hull costs 970 magacredits to build. To refine fuel, first unload fuel or transfer fuel to other ships. Load the ship with half supplies and half minerals (any type or mix of). Now you just wait until next turn and the fuel will be produced and stored in the refinery ship's fuel tank. ----------- The MERLIN CLASS ALCHEMY SHIP can convert supply units into minerals. Here is the chemical reaction: 9 * ( supply unit )----+---> 1 * ( duranium ) +---> 1 * ( tritanium ) +---> 1 * ( molybdenum ) 9 KT units of supplies yield 1 KT of duranium and 1 KT tritanium and 1 KT molybdenum. The ship will continue to convert the supplies to minerals as long as the following condition is met: (A) There is at least 9 KT of supplies on board. The Merlin Class Alchemy Ship is a tech 10 ship with 10 engines and 2700 KT of cargo room. The fuel tank can hold 450 KT of fuel. The ship's hull has a mass of 920 KT, which makes it one of the largest ships in any fleet. The ship is armed with 8 beam weapons and costs 840 magacredits to build. The ship can produce a maximum of 900 KT of minerals per turn ( 300 KT duranium, 300 KT tritanium and 300 KT molybdenum ). To transform minerals, just load the ship with supplies and wait till next turn. The supplies will be turned into minerals automatically. The alchemy fuction of a Merlin Class ship can be disabled with a friendly code of "NAL" ( No ALchemy ) (3.16) MINE FIELDS The Host person may choose to have mine fields or choose not to have them. The Host person can use the HCONFIG program to turn the mine fields off and on. A mine field is a small area of space that is peppered with warheads that track and launch themselves at passing enemy ships that are unlucky enough to trigger one of them. Mine fields are formed when a starship with torpedoes chooses the mission "Lay Mines". All the ships torpedoes are taken apart by the ships chief engineer and reprogrammed to serve as deep space mines. High tech torpedoes are divided into several smaller units that can cover a greater area of space. If a ship lays mines inside an established mine field, the new mines will become part of the existing mine field if the mine field belongs to the ship's race. The number of mine field units = number of mines * ( tech level )^2 The radius of a mine field = SQR( number of mine field units ) Example: (100 tech 6 mines would yield 3600 mine units) (the mine field would have a radius of 60 light years) (the mine field would be 120 light years across) An enemy ship has a 1% chance of hitting a mine for every light year traveled. It is very likely that a ship that travels through the above example mine field (all 120 light years of it) will hit a mine, but there is still a slim chance that the ship won't. The amount of damage done to a ship depends on the mass of the ship's hull. Cargo and fuel masses will not help to save the ship. Damage% = 10000 / ( the hull mass ) A ship with a hull mass under 100 KT will be destroyed by a single mine. Most battle ships are over 500 KT so they can take 5 or more mine hits before being destroyed. A ship that is under tow (being towed) cannot be hit by a mine. Web mines are much smaller then normal mines, but are much more difficult to travel through. There is a 5% chance of hitting a web mine for every light year that you travel through. A web mine does 10% of the damage of a normal mine but causes your ship to become stuck in the web and your ship will be forced to stop moving. Next turn you may set a new waypoint and warp out of the web mine field and hope you don't hit another web mine. Web Mines Damage% = 1000 / ( the hull mass ) Web Mine fields drain fuel from all enemy ships within the field at a rate of 25 KT per turn, per field. Starships with beam weapons that are inside one or more enemy mine fields can destroy the mines using the "Mine Sweep" mission. The ship will fire its beam weapons at random and at a wide setting to blanket an area of space with energy that will knock out the mine field. The mine field will shrink in size as the outer mine units move inward so that the same level of protection is constant throughout the mine field. Starships must have fuel to mine sweep or lay mines. The number of mine field units that are destroyed per turn by a ship doing a mine sweep depends on the number of beams weapons and their tech level. number of units destroyed = ( number of beam banks ) * ( beam tech )^2 Examples: A Battleship with 10 heavy phasers ( tech 10 ) can destroy 1000 mine field units per turn A Scout with 2 X-Ray Lasers ( tech 2 ) can destroy 8 mine field units per turn One mine field unit is destroyed per turn through natural causes. (3.17) ORDER OF COMBAT They will now fight in an order that depends on three things the mission, the primary enemy and the friendly code. The friendly code can give an attack value from 1 to 999. To use attack values your friendly code must begin with a number value. The attack values will NOT affect the way in which a ships fights, it only effects the battle order. Your enemy's attack values will NOT effect your battle order. A attack value of 1 is the lowest possible attack value. Here are examples of attack values base on some friendly codes where "x" is any non-number character. Friendly code Attack values xxx 1000 1xx 1 10x 10 01x 1 999 999 123 123 18x 18 x23 1000 xx2 1000 x1x 1000 The ship with a "KILL" mission the lowest attack value will attack first. If two of your ships have the same attack value then the ship with the lowest ID number will attack first. The ship with a "PRIMARY ENEMY" set and the lowest attack value will attack after all the "KILL" mission ships are done. Ships with their mission set to "KILL" will fight as a first group. Ships with a mission other then "KILL" and the primary enemy set will fight as a second group. All other ships will be protected by the "KILL" and primary enemy ships until those ships are destroyed or captured. Ships that are not on a kill mission and don't have a primary enemy set will defend themselves in an order based on the friendly code attack values. (3.18) COMBAT LAWS/RULES 1. Amount of damage done to a ship decreases as the mass of the ships hull increases. 2. Fighters are launched first. Torpedoes are armed second. Beam weapons fire last. 3. Ship shield strength is carried over from the last battle during the same turn. 4. Beam weapon banks with more then 60% energy will fire at enemy fighters. 5. When a ship's crew is dead the ship is captured if it is fighting an enemy ship. Planets can not capture ships. The ship will continue to fight the planet until it explodes. 6. Fighters tend to do more damage to larger ships then torpedoes. 7. Torpedoes and beam weapons tend to do more damage to smaller ships then fighters. 8. Ships with the same friendly code WILL NOT FIGHT. (With the exception of NTP) A ship may disable it's torpedo systems by using the friendly code "NTP". ( No TorPedoes ) If two ships that are enemies use the "NTP" friendly code they will still fight. This is also a special case where matching friendly codes does not count. Matching friendly codes overrides the kill mission and primary enemy settings. 9. Ships without fuel cannot attack enemy ships. 10. Ships without fuel cannot be attacked by enemy ships. 11. The more massive a ship the stronger the shields are. 12. The planetary friendly code of "ATT" will cause a planet to attack any enemy ship in orbit that has fuel. 13. The planetary friendly code of "NUK" will cause a planet to attack all ships in orbit, even ones without fuel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (4.0) STARBASES Starbases perform many important functions. They can construct one new starship per turn if they are ordered to do so and they add to the planets defenses by being a fighter base and defense platform. (4.1) DEFENSE AND FIGHTERS You may add to the starbase's defense strength through the use of duranium and megacredits. The higher the defense strength of a base, the better able the base is to adsorb damage from attacking enemy ships. You may build and store up to 60 fighters in a starbase and you may put fighters on board any starship equipped with fighter bays. The fighters onboard a starbase will be used to defend the base and planet against attacks from enemy starships. If a planet comes under attack the fighters on a starbase and the fighters on the planet's surface are launched against the attacking ship. Defense posts on the planet's surface and the defense weapons on the starbase will be fired against the attacking ship. The higher the defense strength of both the planet and the starbase, the greater number and power of the planetary beam weapons. The defense_factor = 100 + starbase_defense + planet_defense You can compare this defense factor with starship defense factors, which are equal to the empty hall mass of the ship. Defense factor is the resistance to enemy fire, in both shield strength and damage resistance after the shields are down. The number of beam weapons that a planet/starbase has equals the square root of one third the defense factor. number_of_beams = SQR( defense_factor / 3 ) The tech level of the beam weapons is the square root of one half the defense factor or the beam tech level of the starbase, which ever is higher. tech_of_beams = SQR( defense_factor / 2 ) (4.2) A BASE'S ROLE IN SHIP BUILDING AND ARMING Each starbase has four independent tech levels. The four areas of technology are starship hulls, starship engines, starship beam weapon and torpedo launcher construction. The starbase can fix one damaged ship per turn that is in orbit around the same planet as the starbase. Starbases may also recycle one ship per turn. When a ship is recycled the engines and weapons are placed in storage and the hull is converted to minerals. Starbases can build both torpedoes and fighters. The starbase can load torpedoes and fighters onto ships that are equipped to handle them by using the "fix" starbase command. When you build torpedoes remember to build only the torpedo type that matches the launcher types that you are using on your ships, otherwise the torpedoes will remain in storage. Starbases can construct one starship per turn from starship components in storage. You can also construct and store new starship components such as hulls, engines and weapons for use at a later time. (4.3) STARBASE ORDERS You can give a starbase a primary mission order. The primary base order instructs the base to take one of five automatic actions. 1. Refuel: The base will load neutronium onto any ship at the bases location that is of your race or has the same friendly code as the planet. 2. Max defense: The base will automatically build up starbase defense strength to max. 3. Load Torpedoes: The base will automatically load torpedoes of the proper type onto all ships that have torpedo launchers at the base location that is of your race or have the same friendly code as the planet. 4. Unload Freighters: The base will automatically unload all cargo from ships at the base location that are of your race or have the same friendly code as the planet. 5. Repair Base: The base will repair damage done to the base by enemy ships. 6. Force a Surrender: This will force any enemy starship at the starbase's location to surrender to the starbase's race if the friendly code of the enemy ship and the planet match. The base will also force a surrender of ships that have no fuel. Lack of fuel overrides friendly codes that don't match. (4.4) PLANETARY / STARSHIP FRIENDLY CODE The friendly code is used when your ship is in orbit around an 'enemy' planet with a matching planetary friendly code and a starbase that has it's primary mission orders set to refuel, load torpedoes or unload all freighter cargo. Ships with the same friendly codes will NOT attack each other. Ships with the same friendly code as the planet will NOT attack the planet. ( Except for the friendly codes "NUK" and "ATT" ) A starbase with the primary mission orders set to refuel acts as an automatic refueling station to all ships that stop there that have the same friendly code as the planet. This is so different races can share fuel and torpedoes in the event they form an alliance against a common enemy. A planet side transporter cannot transport cargo to an "enemy" ship. A ship's transporter can transfer cargo to an "enemy" ship. Starships may choose a "gather" mission. If the friendly code of the ship and the planet match or you own the planet the ship will search the surface of the planet for a mineral and beam the mineral back aboard the ship until the ship is out of cargo room. You may gather (beam up) neutronium, duranium, tritanium, molybdenum and supplies. Ships will lock onto and beam up only one mineral type per turn. The gather missions are meant mainly for trading. A freighter can fly up to an enemy planet with the same friendly code and drop off a full load of one type of mineral and pick up a full load of another in a single turn. (4.5) STARBASE SCANNER The starbase scanner is the same as the planetary scanner. You can move the scanner beam around with the arrow keys or a mouse. You can use the beam to view or list enemy and friendly ships traveling through open space or in orbit around any of your planets. The circle at the end of the beam is green, but when you move the beam locks onto a planet or ship it turns yellow. Enemy ships show up as red dots and friendly ships show up as green dots. Planets with blue rings are ones that you own. Planets with green rings have one of your ships in orbit around them. Enemy ships can hide behind planets that you do not own and do not have a ship orbiting. SCAN RANGE: The range that you can see enemy ships is now limited by a scan range that the host can configure. Ships beyond the scan range in open space can NOT be seen. An enemy ship in orbit around a planet that you do not own and do not have a ship in orbit around can not be seen. After locking onto a planet that you own you may hit the <X> key to jump to the other planet. (4.6) STARBASE FIX COMMAND Will repair all damage to the one starship. The repairs will be finished next turn. If the ship has torpedo launchers or fighter bays and cargo room, you may load torpedoes or fighters onto the ship. You may load torpedoes and fighters onto as many ships per turn as you wish, but you may only repair the damage of one ship per turn. Refit will NOT upgrade the engine or weapon systems of a starship. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (5.0) THE STARCHART The planets always have the same names and positions in space, only their stats are different in every game. The starchart map shows planets as white dots, your ships as green dot and enemy ships as red dots. Any planets that you own will have blue circles around them. If you have any ships in orbit around any planets they will show up as green circles. Use the arrow keys or the mouse to move around the starchart. When you move the red cross in the middle of the screen on top of a planet or a starship, a pair of arrows from the sides of the screen will indicate a lock on that object. The name of the object will appear in the information box. If you press the left mouse button you will lock onto the nearest planet. If you are very near a ship in deep space the right button will lock onto that ship. When the object you have locked onto is one of your ship's you may press the <F1> button to switch to that ship's control screen. If the object is a planet that you own you may press the <F5> to see a mineral / native life survey or you may press the <F2> button to switch to the planetary control screen. If you have a ship in orbit around an enemy or uncontrolled planet you also use the <F5> button to see the mining survey. The <S>earch command allows you to search for any planet by ID number (1-500). After giving an ID number from 1 to 500 the starchart will lock onto that planet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ Continued... SEE PLANETS3.DOC ]