Best Sellers 25: Space Games Classics 2/cd_1.iso/bsspace2/space/nova30/instr.nv3

Text File | 1994-09-01 | 27KB | 644 lines

                                 Instructions

     This game involves tactical and strategic combat in space.  Your cruiser
 is equipped with missiles and lasers for weapons along with shields and flares
 for defense.  Advanced vectoring radar displays, a sophisticated transparent
 heads up display, artificial horizon and afterburner are also provided.  This
 new version has excellent graphics and sound.


                                 Requirements

     This game requires a 286/12MHz or better (20 MHz recommended), VGA
 graphics, a mouse, DOS 3.3, 310k available memory and at least a 720k floppy
 drive.


                               Instrument Display

     There are two types of instrument displays:  a panel display and a heads
 up display or HUD.  On the panel display to the right there are five
 horizontal bars, they are:

 LASR - Your laser strength.
 SHLD - Your shield strength.
 VLCY - Your velocity.
 ACCL - Your acceleration.
 FUEL - Your current fuel.

 Directly below:

 Count of unracked missiles and missile racks.
 Count of unracked flares and flare racks.


    There are three circles in the middle of the screen, they are:

 Left    - 2 dimensional radar.  Objects above you are orange and objects
           below you are green.

 Right   - 3 dimensional radar.  You are given a three dimensional perspective
           of where an object is in relation to your viewpoint.  Objects in
           front of you are green and objects behind you are orange.  Also, if
           a cruiser or acceleration mine is pointed in the same direction as
           your cruiser the vector will point up, otherwise it will point down.


           Objects are displayed as follows:

           Bases              - solid triangles.
           Cruisers           - vectors.
           Acceleration Mines - small blinking vectors
           Missiles           - blinking dots.
           Flares             - dots.


 Middle   - The small circle between the radars is the artificial horizon.
            Your roll and pitch are displayed as arcs.


     On the right are the:

 SCORE  -  In a strategic game the count of enemy cruisers and bases destroyed
           is given.  In a tactical game the count of enemy cruisers destroyed
           is given.

 ALARM  -  Whether the alarm is set or not.


     The instrument display provides 3 flashing warnings around the crosshairs,
 they are:

 Missile  -  This indicates that a missile is locked onto your cruiser.  This
             is to the lower left of the crosshairs.

 Mine     -  This indicates that an acceleration mine is locked onto your
             cruiser.  This is just to the left of where the missile warning
             appears.

 SR  -  This indicates that star refueling is not taking place because you are
        outside the star system.  This is to the upper right of the crosshairs.


                                Heads Up Display

     The second type of instrument display is the HUD.  This display gives you
 a wider field of vision along with being transparent so you can see your
 targets better.  The velocity, acceleration and fuel indicators have been
 moved to the right and the score and alarm are not displayed.  Also, the
 artificial horizon is not solid.  All of the colors that were used on the
 panel display have carried over.  The only new colors are the colors of the
 radar circles and the new artificial horizon.


                                Tactical Version

     The tactical version involves pure combat.  The game will start with the
 enemy cruisers within your radar range in a variety of patterns.

     The five patterns are:

     Dispersed Attack -  cruisers are in random positions.

     Lateral Attack -    cruisers surround you and are roughly level with you.

     Frontal Attack -    all cruisers are in front of you.

     Flanking Attack -   3 cruisers attack from the front, while one of three
                         flanking attacks occurs:

                         1 - 2 cruisers attack your right flank.
                         2 - 2 cruisers attack your left flank.
                         3 - one cruiser attacks your right flank while the
                             other attacks your left.

     Spherical Attack -  3 cruisers surround you laterally, with one above and
                         one below you.


     Normally, each time you return to the menu screen, the game cycles to a
 new pattern.  However, if you want to play a specific version type:

                             d - Dispersed Attack
                             l - Lateral Attack
                             f - Frontal Attack
                             k - Flanking Attack
                             s - Spherical Attack


                              Strategic Version

     In the stategic version you fight a strategic war against enemy cruisers
 and their bases.  The game begins with each side having three bases which are
 protected by acceleration mines.  The enemy begins with 5 cruisers spread
 across their bases.  All bases can build new mines and enemy bases can build
 new cruisers to replace ones that are destroyed.  The enemy employs a wide
 variety of strategies such as attacking your bases, setting traps and defend-
 ing its bases to accomplish its objective of destroying your cruiser.  Your
 objective is to destroy all 3 enemy bases.


                                Star System

     The game takes place in a system of stars.  The system is circular al-
 though most of the stars are located in a narrow horizontal plane.  Any
 cruiser within the system is able to continuously absorb 50 units of fuel
 from the surrounding stars.  This method is called star refueling.  50 units
 of fuel is enough to maintain 2/3 of your normal engine acceleration.


                               Weapons Racks

    Missiles and flares must be racked before they can be fired.  It takes a
 certain amount of time after you fire to rack a new one.  The count to the
 left on the instrument displays is the number that are available to replenish
 the racks.


                                   Radar

     All cruisers, bases and acceleration mines have radar of the same range.
 This range extends in a sphere around the object.  There is one exception to
 this range.  Whenever a missile or acceleration mine is locked onto a target
 it will be able to track it even if it goes beyond this range because its
 homing radar is of greater range than its searching radar.  This most often
 happens when acceleration mines fire at targets only in their bases radar
 range.


                                 Performance

    All cruisers have the same maximum acceleration and velocity under normal
 engine acceleration.  However, only your cruiser has an afterburner which
 doubles your acceleration and gives you 25 percent more velocity.  Also, your
 cruiser is more manueverable than enemy cruisers.


                            Laser and Missile Locks

     To fire your lasers or missiles you must have a lock on a target.  Your
 laser and missile locks extend for the same angle from your line of sight.
 Also, only your lasers have the ability to lock onto missiles and acceleration
 mines.  Enemy missile locks extend for an angle from their line of sight while
 laser locks are line of sight.  Although you never lock onto your bases or
 flares, they can still interfere with you getting a lock on something behind
 them.  Also, there is a certain minimum distance that a cruiser or base needs
 to be in front of you to get a lock while you can get a lock on a missile or
 acceleration mine nearly point blank.

 Note:  Your weapons will not fire if you had a tenuous lock.  That is, you did
        not have a lock the next time around when the keyboard or mouse command
        was processed.  Try firing just before you expect to get a lock.


                            Laser and Shield Energy

     Your cruiser automatically exchanges energy between lasers and shields for
 maximum survivability.  Enemy cruisers do not have this ability.  Energy is
 automatically moved between the shields and the lasers as needed.  For
 example, whenever the shields are below 100 percent they will transfer laser
 energy to get them back up to 100 percent.  If you try to fire the lasers and
 there isn't enough laser energy, the energy will be taken directly from the
 shields.


                                Fuel Consumption

    Fuel is used for acceleration and to regenerate shields and lasers.  Your
 cruiser carries twice the fuel that enemy cruisers do and is able to consume
 fuel at more than twice the rate.  Any cruiser that runs out of fuel outside
 of the star system will gradually lose its shields until it is destroyed.


                                  Afterburner

     Only your cruiser has an afterburner, which injects fuel into the exhaust
 system to generate extra acceleration.  Using the afterburner doubles your
 acceleration and increases your velocity 25 percent.  However, this additional
 acceleration requires double your normal fuel consumpution for the engines.
 To use the afterburner you must have at least one unit of normal acceleration.


                                  Collisions

     If cruisers collide with each other they cause 1 unit of damage to each
 others shields.  If enemy cruisers collide with either themselves or you, they
 will maneuver out of the collision.  You do not collide with bases.


                                    Alarm

    Using the alarm will alert you to the presence of enemy cruisers that enter
 your radar range.  It enables you to cruise without having to constantly look
 at your radar screens for enemy cruisers.  It does not alert you to enemy ac-
 celeration mines since these make a loud sound when fired.  The alarm cannot
 be reset until your radar is clear of enemy cruisers.


                               Flight Overlays

     At all times your flight stick and the flight stick home along with the
 left and right boundaries are displayed.


                               Weapons Overlays

     Weapons overlays consist of the crosshairs, border, missile lock, laser
 lock and targets shield strength.

     Crosshairs help frame the area in which you get a laser or missile lock on
 a target.  There are three types of crosshairs available.

     The border helps frame the screen and instrument displays.  It can be
 turned on and off.  The panel and heads up displays have seperate borders.

     If you have a missile lock on a target a circle will appear around the
 target.

     If you have a laser lock, 4 lines will appear around the target.  If you
 have both a laser and a missile lock on the same target only the missile lock
 is displayed.

     Whenever you have a lock on a cruiser or a base it will display that
 targets shield strength below and to the right of it.


                                Tactical Overlays

     When tactical overlays are on, cruisers, acceleration mines and bases will
 be highlighted in the following ways:

    Cruisers will be highlighted with 4 diagonal lines.  The lines will blink
 if the cruiser is out of your radar range.  This will happen when it is in
 radar range of one of your bases or acceleration mines but not you cruiser.

    Acceleration mines will be highlighted with 3 lines.

    Bases will be repesented with triangles.  Yours are green, the enemies are
 red.

     When you get very close to cruisers and acceleration mines the overlay
 will not be displayed.  When you get within radar range of a base the overlay
 will not be displayed.


                               Strategic Display

     The strategic display shows the location of bases, acceleration mines and
 cruisers.  Bases are solid triangles, yours are green and the enemies are red.
 Cruisers are large vectors, yours is bright green and the enemies are bright
 red.  Acceleration mines are small blinking vectors, yours are bright green
 the enemies are bright red.


                                    Colors

     Bases and cruisers are given random colors each game.  They can be red,
 blue, green or violet.  The color given to a base carries over to its
 acceleration mines.  The color of enemy laser fire is derived from the
 cruisers color.  Also, the color of an explosion is derived or partially
 derived from the cruiser, base, or mine color.  Enemy missiles oscillate in
 color between red and green but always explode in red.


                                   Outcome

     Both the tactical and strategic games must be played to their finish for
 an outcome to be determined.  The possible outcomes are:

                                Tactical Game

 Your cruiser survives and destroys:

           5 enemy cruisers         Decisive Victory
           3 enemy cruisers         Marginal Victory

 Your cruiser is destroyed and destroys:

           5 enemy cruisers         Tactical Victory
           4 enemy cruisers         Marginal Victory
           3 enemy cruisers         Enemy achieves a Marginal Victory
           2 enemy cruisers         Enemy achieves a Tactical Victory
         < 2 enemy cruisers         Enemy achieves a Decisive Victory


                                Strategic Game

 Your cruiser survives and destroys:

           all 3 enemy bases        Decisive Victory


 Your cruiser is destroyed and destroys:

           all 3 enemy bases        Tactical Victory

           2 enemy bases and        Tactical Victory
           10 or more enemy
             cruisers

           2 enemy bases            Marginal Victory


           1 enemy base and         Enemy achieves a Marginal Victory
           10 or more enemy
             cruises

           1 enemy base             Enemy achieves a Tactical Victory

           No enemy bases           Enemy achieves a Decisive Victory


 Note:  Whenever one of these outcomes occur, the game will end except under
        the following conditions:

            If a missile or acceleration mine is locked on a target the game
        will continue.

            In a strategic game if you have destroyed the last enemy base and
        there are enemy cruisers in your radar range you must destroy or outrun
        them for the game to end.


                         Changing the Configuration

     This game allows the user to customize the game by changing options such
 as colors on the instument display, speed of the game, mouse buttons, type of
 crosshairs, etc.  You may change these options during a game by hitting the
 appropriate key.  To make your changes permanent you must type F9 to write
 these changes to the configuration file.  Finally, there is the F10 key which
 restores the default configuration to the current game.


                                   Demos

     This game comes with two demos.  The first one is of a tactical game and
 the second one is an attack on a defended enemy base that occurs during a
 strategic game.  They are meant to show some basic examples of manuevering
 your cruiser in combat, locking onto targets and firing your weapons, using
 the flares, reading your radar displays, etc.  These demos can be changed in
 only one way:  they will match the speed of the game as set in your
 configuration file.


                          Miscellaneous Information

     The mouse can be set so that you can use any combination of the mouse
 buttons to fire the missiles and lasers.  First, use the F5 key to tell the
 program whether you have a 2 or 3 button mouse.  Second if it is a 3 button
 mouse and you are left handed use the < key.  This allows you to use the 2
 buttons on the right rather than the left.  Third, to reverse the functions
 of the buttons use F6.  The quickest way to test what you have selected is to
 type f from the menu screen to get a frontal attack pattern.

     If you want to regenerate the shields and lasers quicker, you can turn off
 the afterburner.  This will nearly double the rate at which the shields and
 lasers build but will harm your cruisers performance.

     When attacking an enemy base make sure you give priority to taking out its
 acceleration mines.  Just one of these can destroy your cruiser.

     Although there are keyboard commands to fire the missiles and lasers it is
 better to use the mouse buttons to do this.  They allow simultaneouse firing
 of both weapons and don't store old commands like the keyboard buffer does
 when the keys are hit too quickly.

     In a tactical game should the enemy cruisers lose contact with you they
 will return to the center of the star system.  You can use the strategic
 display find this.  This situation very seldom happens.

     When you get a missile lock on a cruiser the tactical overlay will not
 appear.  When you get a laser lock on an acceleration mine the tactical over-
 lay continues to appear to help you differentiate it from a missile.

     Occasionally the vector repesenting your cruiser on the strategic display
 will appear a little off from what you are seeing on the screen.  For example,
 you are flying towards a base and on the strategic display your cruisers
 vector is angled a little to the left or right of it.  This is because the end
 points of the vector rotate in a very small group of pixels causing a loss of
 precision.

     When a variety of sounds are occurring at the same time you will hear the
 sound occuring closest to you.

     No two games are exactly the same.  In stategic games the locations of the
 bases are randomly generated each game.  In tactical games the positions of
 the cruisers are completely random or slightly random depending on the
 pattern.

     This program was developed on a NEC PowerMate 286 Plus running at 12MHz
 (0 wait states), 640k memory, built in VGA graphics and a Logitech mouse.


                                 Problems

     If you have problems running this software try the following:

     If you aren't reading the mouse buttons correctly, the problem is most
 likely the button assignment.  A two button mouse should have the button
 assignment LR.  A three button mouse should have the button assignment LMR.
 Set the mouse driver for these.

     If your running from a DOS shell, reboot the computer and run the program
 directly from DOS.

     Remove any TSR's other than the mouse driver before running this program.

     Systems that have a turbo mode should be run in turbo mode.

     This game must be played with the Caps Lock off.


                                  Mouse

     The mouse controls your flight stick.  Moving the mouse backward increases
 the pitch, moving it forward decreases the pitch.  Moving it to the right
 rolls to the left, and moving it to the left rolls to the right.

     If you move the flight stick more than a few pixels past the right or left
 boundaries you will be upside down.  If move the flight stick to touch or move
 past the left or right edge of the screen it will appear at the corresponding
 opposite side.  This allows you to roll 180 degrees.

     You can change the rate of angle changes your mouse causes, whether it is
 a 2 or 3 button mouse, reverse the mouse buttons and whether you are right or
 left handed.

     The left mouse button fires the missiles, just click it.  The right mouse
 button fires the lasers, keep it pressed down as long as you want to fire.


                               Keyboard Commands

     This game must be played with the Caps Lock off.  Only a few of the keys
 that change the configuration are upper case and you can Shift to select
 these.

 t - Toggle tactical overlays.
 r - Fire missile.
 e - Fire lasers.
 w - Increase engine acceleration.
 q - Decrease engine acceleration.

 g - Toggle instrument display.
 f - Toggle afterburner.
 d - Set engine acceleration to maximum.
 s - Set engine acceleration to 0.
 a - Toggle alarm.

 v - Fire flare forward.
 c - Fire flare backward.

 Space Bar  - Toggle strategic display.

 F1 - Quick instructions.
 F2 - Instructions.
 F3 - Toggle sound.

 F4 - Combat Hot Key, sets engine acceleration to maximum and turns afterburner
      on.  Also, sets the HUD or panel display (change using the " key), and
      turns off the strategic display.

 Esc - To quit.


                The following keys change the configuration:


 F5  - The program needs to know if you are using a 2 or 3 button mouse.  For
       example, if you have a 3 button mouse you can use the middle button to
       fire instead of the right one.

 F6  - Reverse mouse buttons.  Reverses the left and right buttons.

 F7  - Decrease angle changes.  Decrease the angle changes caused by the flight
       stick.

 F8  - Increase angle changes.  Increase the angle changes caused by the flight
       stick.

 F9  - Save configuration.  Save current configuration to the configuration
       file so that whenever you begin a new game you will use the new values.

 F10 - Restore default configuration.  Restore all defaults to the current
       game.


 y - Cycle radar center color.
 u - Cycle velocity color.
 i - Cycle acceleration color.
 o - Cycle shield color.
 p - Cycle laser color.


 6 - Cycle instrument display color.
 7 - Cycle top of horizon color
 8 - Cycle bottom of horizon color.

     There is a restriction in changing these colors.  You cannot change the
 instrument display color to either the color of the top or bottom of the
 horizon and vice versa.

 9 - Cycle above color.
 0 - Cycle below color.

     These are the colors used on the 2d and 3D radar displays.  The above
 color is the color that objects are when they are above you in the 2D radar
 and behind you on the 3D radar.  The below color is the color that objects
 are when they are below you on the 2D radar and in front of you on the 3D
 radar.

 [ - Increase speed of game.
 ] - Decrease speed of game.
 : - Show maximum speed that game can run.  Use this to find if your computer
     can match the speed that you set.

     The [ ] keys set the speed by limiting how fast the that the game runs.
 You can set any speed between 120 - 220.  The lower the number the faster the
 game runs.  The default is 170.  If your computer cannot match this speed, it
 will run as fast as it can up to this speed.  You can check how fast your
 computer can run this program by typing the : key.  This tell you the maximum
 speed that your computer can run the game at - this value may vary slightly
 each time you check it, but will give you a good approximate value.

 " - Toggle the type of instrument display the combat key sets.

 h - Cycle fuel color.                n - Cycle missile lock color.
 j - Cycle crosshair type.            m - Cycle laser lock color.
 k - Cycle crosshair color.           , - Cycle shield strength color.
 l - Cycle flight stick color.        . - Cycle border color for panel display.
 ; - Cycle flight stick home          / - Toggle border for panel display.
     and boundary color.              > - Cycle border color for HUD display.
                                      ? - Toggle border for HUD display.

 Y - Cycle radar circle color on heads up display.
 U - Cycle artificial horizon color on heads up display.
 I - Cycle strategic display color.
 O - Cycle star refueling warning color.
 P - Cycle text color.  This is the color of the text on all the screens except
     the instructions.
 { - Cycle missile warning color.
 } - Cycle mine warning color.


 H - Cycle missile color.
 J - Cycle flare color.
 K - Cycle score color.
 L - Cycle alarm color.
 N - Cycle default starting instument display.  The default is to start a
     tactical game with the HUD and a strategic game with the panel display.
     You can change this to any combination you wish.
 M - Toggle equalization of speed.  Normally, a tactical game is slowed down
     to match the speed at which a stategic game runs which is slower.
     However, this can be turned off.
 < - Left or right handed mouse.  If you have 3 mouse buttons this allows you
     to use the 2 right buttons rather than the 2 left buttons.


                              Technical Support

     If you are a registered user of this software and have a problem or a
 question, fill out the technical support form, file "tech.nv3" and send along
 with a stamped self-addressed envelope.  You may print out this form using the
 DOS print command.  Please make sure that you have read the instructions
 thoroughly before doing this.


                          Distributing This Software

     You are free to pass the UNREGISTERED version of this program around.
 This includes posting it on bulletin boards and shareware distribution lists.
 Please remove any previous versions of this program.

     If you are a shareware distributor please write me to let me know that you
 are adding it to your shareware distribution list.  This will put you on my
 mailing list for upgrades and new programs.


                                   Demo Mode

     This game can be set so that it automatically cycles between the two
 demos.  Just type "nv3 sound" or "nv3 nosound".  The "nosound" argument will
 suppress the sound only when the demos are automatically played.  At any time
 while demos are playing the user can type "Esc" to go the menu screen and
 select an option.  When the user has finished, the program will revert to
 automatically cycling between the two demos.


                           Disclaimer of Warranties

     This software is licensed solely on an "as is" basis.  No warranties,
 either express or implied, are made by the developer with respect to the
 software, its merchantability, or its fitness for a particular purpose.  The
 entire risk as to the quality and performance is with the licensed user of
 the software.


                          Trademark Acknowledgments

     Logitech is a registered trademark of Logitech Corporation.
     NEC and PowerMate are registered trademarks of NEC Corporation.


                   Copyright (c) 1992-1993 Michael Kline
                           All Rights Reserved