Gold Fish 2/goldfish_vol2_cd1.bin/files/game/think/colconq/manual

Text File | 1994-08-24 | 51KB | 1,107 lines

     Colonial Conquest  II




     Colonial  Conquest  II  has  been  written  in  1993/94   by
     Christian Mumenthaler. This program is giftware, which means
     that you can make a donation to the author if you  like  it.
     All rights remain by Christian Mumenthaler, but everybody is
     allowed to copy it  for  other  people  as  long  as  he/she
     includes the "Copyright"-file and doesn't ask more than  the
     nominal fee of 4$ (5 Sfr/5 DM) for the disk. Please read the
     "Copyright"-file for more details and all exceptions!


     System requirements: Colonial Conquest is  a  PAL  game  and
     runs on all Amigas (tested on A4000, A2000,  A1000  &  A500)
     with MORE than 1MB of memory. It  runs  perfectly  with  all
     kinds of turbo boards and expansions. You'll have to  switch
     off your mouse blanker if you are running one as  CCII  will
     not run properly with it.



     Thanks to Paul Hickman for his precious help in making  this
     manual more readable.




     1. Introduction


     Colonial Conquest is a space-strategy game for  one  or  two
     persons. The  basic  idea  and  concept  have  been  heavily
     influenced  by  the  shareware  game  "Conquest"   and   the
     Microprose game "Civilization".
     The aim of the game is to spread your  civilization  through
     the 26 earth-like planets of the universe map and to  defend
     it from other civilizations  by  building  weapons  and  war
     ships.
     Unfortunately -  like  all  half-realistic  simulations  and
     strategy games - Colonial  Conquest  will  reward  primitive
     destructive behavior and colonial instincts without  leaving
     much room for cooperative actions and peaceful living.  Take
     it as a game!
     As Colonial Conquest is quite easy to handle, I suggest  you
     first have a look at the program before  returning  to  this
     long (and boring) manual with a lot of fresh motivation...


     BACKGROUND STORY:
     Hundred years ago, your ancestors fled in a huge colony ship
     from the GREAT EMPIRE, the only lasting "state-system"  that
     human kind had managed to keep upright  for  some  centuries
     since  the  beginning  of  star  colonization.  This  Empire
     however was not only  corrupt  and  totalitarian,  but  also
     extremely repressive against minorities of  thinking  people
     (thinking people are generally minorities, aren't they?).

     Anyway, your idealistic and valiant ancestors (others called
     them subversive and religious  fanatics)  founded  a  little
     colony very far away from the Empire and lived more or  less
     in peace until today. The  new  generations  (to  which  you
     belong, of course!) however, feel more and  more  frustrated
     to be confined on a small planet  while  the  universe  gets
     conquered at the same time by other  guys.  Adventure  calls
     and as you finally  come  to  power  on  your  small  planet
     (through corruption and intrigues), you immediately  show  a
     less wise behavior than your ancestors and start to  develop
     industry, military research and build a space fleet...

     You  also  recontact  the  Empire   as   you'd   like   some
     humanitarian help (which you would use to build weapons,  of
     course) for the development of your poor planet. The  Empire
     doesn't seem to be interested  at  all.  People  there  just
     amuse themselves  by  watching  violent  games  or  floating
     around in cyberspace and feel not  concerned  about  foreign
     politics. You realize that you'll have to start without  any
     help...




     2. Getting started


     After the title screen, three options  will  appear  on  the
     screen:


     - Start a new game.
     - Load saved game. (Only if you have a  saved  game  on  the
     disk!)
     - Create new universe. This menu allows you  to  change  the
     aspect of the planets as the program will choose all the  26
     planet  surfaces  among  the  pre-designed   ones   in   the
     "planets"-directory.


     If you start a new game, the program will  ask  you  if  you
     wish to play alone or with another  player.  Unnecessary  to
     say that it will be much more fun to play with a friend, but
     as these are not  always  present,  you  may  wish  to  play
     anyway. In this case, the game will simulate an  alien  race
     that colonizes planets like you.
     If you choose the two player option, you will have to answer
     two additional questions:
     1) Do both player  start  with  identical  planets?  If  you
     choose "yes", the planet of player 2 will look exactly  like
     the planet of player 1, which will  prevent one player  from
     having an advantage over the other from  the  beginning,  as
     some planets might be more difficult to start with.
     2) Give Empire rating at which  the  game  should  end:  (No
     limit, 800, 1200, 1600, 2000) As two player  games  that  go
     until the bitter end (No limit) usually last VERY  long  and
     get boring as soon as it is clear which player will win, you
     now have the possibility to give another aim  to  the  game:
     The winner will be the one who first  gets  incorporated  to
     the Empire, which will happen as soon as  a  certain  Empire
     rating is reached. By setting this aim, you  will  therefore
     have the possibility to win  without  annihilating  or  even
     attack the other player, which might  be  helpful  for  your
     personal relationship to her/him.
     After these questions, you will be asked for the  difficulty
     level of the  game  which  is  more  relevant  when  playing
     against a computer opponent who  gets  really  mean  on  the
     "suicide" level.
     Now the main screen will appear for player one. From now on,
     there will be game turns during which first player  one  and
     then player two can order some actions  that  will  then  be
     evaluated by the program. At the beginning of each turn, the
     players will get a report of everything that has happened.




     3. Main screen


     On the main screen you will see all  earth-like  planets  of
     the universe.

     There are 5 types of planets:


     Unnamed: A world that does not belong  to  your  empire  and
     where you have no space ships orbiting.


     Named: A world you can access the planet surface screen  of,
     either because you have colonized it, or have some ships  in
     orbit.


     Green Circle: A world that you have colonized.


     Yellow Circle: A world where  a  conflict  may  be  imminent
     because the spaceships orbiting it do not belong to the same
     civilization as the people that live on it.


     Red Circle: A world where a combat is taking place.


     At the left side of the planet is a  yellow  point  or  line
     that signals the presence of space ships that belong to you.
     A similar line in red will appear just next to it as soon as
     enemy troops are orbiting the planet too. The length of this
     line is proportional to the strength of your fleet until  it
     reaches the maximal height of 15 pixels.
     Above this line, a tiny hammer-symbol will be drawn  if  the
     planet is currently producing something.
     Every planet has a number and name, but you  will  only  see
     the name of the planets that you can actually look at.
     At the bottom of the screen, you will find some  menus  that
     will be explained in the following:


     MOVE SHIPS: ("m" on keyboard). You have to select  a  planet
     from where you want to  send  a  space  ship  and  also  the
     destination planet. After this, all  available  space  ships
     will be listed and you can click on those you wish  to  send
     away. Once you have chosen, you can click on the "OK" button
     to get out of this menu.


     TRAVEL ROUTES: ("t" on keyboard). All travel routes  of  the
     ships actually in flight will be drawn on  the  screen  with
     red lines.  A  tiny  yellow  circle  will  show  the  actual
     position of the ships on this route. Ships traveling  trough
     stargates will not appear, but a yellow line will show their
     analogous route in normal space.


     FLIGHT STATUS: ("f" on keyboard). All ships in  flight  will
     be listed together with their source and destination planet.
     At the right,  the  remaining  turns  needed  to  reach  the
     destination will  be  shown.  The  ships  are  automatically
     listed in order of arrival. Ships that will  arrive  in  the
     next turn  are  highlighted  and  those  travelling  through
     stargates will have a red star at their right.


     PLANET LIST: ("l") All colonialized planets are listed.  You
     will see your real  population,  the  last  turn  population
     growth (in %), the Food/Material/Energy production  and  the
     object that the planet is actually constructing.


     REPORTS: ("r") The report that you get at the  beginning  of
     each turn will be printed again. This is useful if you  have
     forgotten its content.


     STATUS: ("s") Will show you your actual Tech-Level  and  the
     Research Status along with all the ships  you  own.  Besides
     this, you will see  your  actual  EMPIRE-Score.  This  score
     represents the judgement of your performances by the EMPIRE.
     Many factors are taken into account among which  the  number
     of  colonized  planets,  population,  production,  reserves,
     science, fleet force and the discovered life forms.
     Below this, you will see a list  of  all  planets  you  have
     explored and the life form you  have  discovered  there  (if
     any).
     After this, the program will give you the possibility to see
     where all ships of a selected type can be found.


     SPECIAL COMMANDS: ("c")  Here  comes  the  menu  all  action
     freaks have waited for! If you have hi-tech machines on  one
     of your planets, you will  be  able  to  give  up  to  three
     commands that will be executed at the end of the turn.  (The
     result will however only be shown at the  beginning  of  the
     next turn!). You can do the following:
     - Short Range Scan: (Needs Planet scanner). The space around
     your planet will be scanned in a range of 60 pixels and  all
     discovered spaceships drawn as little arrows pointing toward
     their aim. Enemy ships will appear in a flashing  color  and
     your own ships will be drawn in red.
     - Long Range Scan: Same as above excepted that the range  is
     120   pixels   which   allows   a   wide   view   into   the
     flight-activities of your enemy.
     - Energy Cannon Shot: (Needs Energy-Cannon). Three  focussed
     high-energy-beams will be fired toward  a  selected  planet.
     The impact will completely destroy one surface-unit together
     with the machine that has been built  on  it  (if  there  is
     any!). As I didn't want to make this game  too  bloody,  the
     colonists that worked on that surface-unit  will  always  be
     able to escape from the catastrophe!
     - Destroy Planet:  (Needs  Planet  Destroyer).  The  "Planet
     Destroyer"    belongs    to    the    class    of    hi-tech
     gravity-disruption-weapons and is a result of  the  advanced
     quantum-gravity-theory founded by Prof. Von Hirt. This  high
     energy weapon can cause the gravitational  collapse  of  any
     very  large  object  (like  planets!)  by  sending  focussed
     disturbing gravity-waves  that  interfere  positively  on  a
     calculated point and  cause  such  irregularities  into  the
     gravitational field  that  the  object  is  torn  apart  and
     explodes. This command is  therefore  the  ultimate  immoral
     command of the game as you simply blow away a  whole  world,
     possibly populated by thousands of  innocent  human  beings!
     So, if you play together with a friend, just don't use it if
     you still want to be his friend after the game! (I can  take
     no warranty for lost friendships!)


     ESPIONAGE:
     Through this menu you have  access  to  the  espionage  (spy
     mode) of other worlds with spy satellites.
     Spy satellites can be built  on  every  planet  that  has  a
     starport. They are however NOT sent  to  orbit  like  normal
     space ships (and do  therefore  NOT  appear  in  the  "orbit
     window" at the top right), but remain at the starport  until
     they are sent to a specific destination.

     In the spy mode, you'll see all the colonized  planets  with
     the usual planet icon. Planets with one or more of your  spy
     sats in orbit will have a small  blue  EYE  on  them,  while
     planets that you can't look at will appear in dark grey.  At
     the bottom, there will be a menu to quit the  spy  mode  and
     return to the normal view of the starmap.
     In spy mode, the planet  number  will  be  replaced  by  the
     number of sats that are currently in orbit or in your  space
     port. You can now click on all planets that have a  spy  sat
     present (EYE symbol). A small pop up menu will  appear  with
     different options:
     - VIEW. Every spy sat is equipped with a small  camera  that
     allows an optical view of the planet. You will see  a  rough
     image of the planet map  and the "real" view of the rotating
     planet from which the computer has constructed the  map.  As
     spy sats are kept far away from planets to be  undetectable,
     the image quality will not allow deep analysis, but  on  the
     other hand you can not be "seen" when using this  method  as
     no scanner beam is necessary.
     Your computer will automatically analyze  the  pictures  and
     detect nuclear power-plants and population (if above  5000).
     He will also try to detect alien ships, but as they might be
     orbiting the planet on the other side, chances are high that
     you won't detect all of them. In 50% of the cases  you  will
     not detect anything, even if there is a huge fleet  present.
     Besides this, you will not be able  to  tell  what  kind  of
     ships are present.
     - SCAN. To get a detailed view of the planet, you'll have to
     send a scanner beam out from your spy sat. By  getting  back
     the reflected part of this beam, your computer will be  able
     to reconstruct the planet surface with every  detail  unless
     some scan beam disturbers are in use on the planet. If there
     is a space port on the planet or any spy  sat  antenna,  you
     will be detected!!! If your enemy has some  space  ships  in
     orbit, your  satellite  will  be  destroyed,  probably  even
     before having been able to transmit all data. The same thing
     happens if planet defences are installed,  but  there  is  a
     chance that the ground cannons will miss you and loose  your
     position.
     As your enemy may have positioned  his  anti-spy-sat-antenna
     anywhere on the planet, you will have to choose  the  planet
     surface spot where the scan will begin. The beam scans  from
     left to right and from top to the bottom.
     - SEND. If you have a space port on the  planet,  you'll  be
     able to send the satellites to  other  planets,  which  will
     need a certain amount of energy depending on  the  distance.
     It is important to notice that the satellites have nearly no
     propulsion system and can therefore not  been  moved  around
     once they arrive at a planet with no starport. They also can
     not be detected with planet scanners and will not be  listed
     in the normal fleet flight routes and statistics.  They  are
     something separate and will only appear in the spy sat menu.

     Once a sat is sent somewhere, you'll see a  dotted  line  to
     the destination planet. If there were already  spy  sats  in
     flight when you entered the spy sat menu, their routes  will
     automatically be drawn. The part they have  already  crossed
     will be drawn as a full line.
     -EXIT. To exit this pop up menu.


     LOAD/SAVE:  ("L"/"S")  You'll  get  to  another  menu   with
     different options:
     1) SAVE GAME. Allows you to save the game  and  to  continue
     later by using the "Load game"  menu  at  the  beginning  or
     during the game. Please note that your file name should  not
     contain dots (i.e. type "GameSave" instead of "Game.Save")
     2) LOAD GAME: Loads a previously saved game. Note  that  (as
     only the actual GAME TURN) is saved to  disk,  game  control
     will always go to the player who actually loaded  the  game,
     regardless of which one of the two players has saved it! (If
     player 2 saves the game at turn 100 and player  1  loads  it
     again in turn 101, he will find himself back in turn 100!)
     3) GAME MANUAL. The ASCII file "game.manual" will be  loaded
     and displayed.  The  program  will  automatically  find  the
     titles and list them as indexes.
     4) QUIT GAME. Exits the game and returns to the Workbench if
     you have started it from there.


     END OF TURN: ("e" on keyboard). You end your turn  and  give
     the game control to your friend. If you are player two,  the
     game will first make the end of turn evaluation.


     NEXT IDLE:  (Return,  Right  mouse  button)   Once    you
     have colonized more  than  4  to  5  planets,  it  is  often
     difficult to remember which planets had events reported  and
     require some attention this turn. To help, a "duty-list"  is
     maintained of planets where:
     - A colonist has been produced.
     - Production of an object has completed, and planet has  not
     been  instructed to repeatedly produce the same object  with
     the "Permanent" option.
     When you press the NEXT  IDLE  button  (or  Return  /  Right
     Mouse), the planet surface screen for the  first  planet  in
     the duty list is displayed.  When you  return  to  the  main
     screen, and press NEXT IDLE again, the  planet  surface  of
     the next planet in the duty list is displayed.
     Please  note  that  once  the planet surface  is   displayed
     by the next idle button, it is removed from the  duty  list.
     If you accidentally  leave the planet  surface  screen,  and
     forget which planet it was, display the REPORT again.


     VIEW HIGH-SCORES: Press the ESCAPE-key to see the high-score
     list.




     4. Planet surface


     If you click on a planet from the main map, you will see the
     planet surface together with three windows.
     (Important note: hit the HELP key there to get a screen with
     a short information about all menus!)
     On the  planet  surface,  you  will  see  your  colony  with
     everything that you have built there. Over every object, you
     will see the number of  food,  material  or  energy  (yellow
     lightnings) it produces and/or how much energy it needs (red
     lightnings). Some objects (as granaries) do not  produce  at
     all, but have other purposes. Some objects are automatic and
     need no human help to work (it is  therefore  impossible  to
     place a human on them!) while others  like  food-robots  and
     greenhouses need assistance.
     By clicking on a surface-square, you can place a colonist on
     it. You will see at once how much  food  and  material  this
     colonist will produce at this place. If  no  helping  object
     (as robots) is on this place, the production will usually be
     quite low, as the colonist will only have simple instruments
     for his work. Of course,  the  production  strongly  depends
     upon the terrain type.
     If you click on a colonist,   he  will  disappear  from  the
     surface window and appear in the window below  as  a  "free"
     colonist (red and white cloths) at the right of the  working
     colonists (blue cloths). "Free" colonists work in  the  city
     complex or in the colony station for the  science  research.
     Normally, each free colonist  produces  one  "science  unit"
     that will make progress research at each turn and rise  your
     TECH-LEVEL after a certain amount of time. The Tech-Level is
     important for the performance  of  your  fleet  (see  "Space
     battles") and also to build Hi-Tech equipment  (Battlestars,
     Stargates etc).
     It is important to note that each colonist  represents  1000
     real people (a planet with 6300 people will therefore have 6
     colonist units!).
     Below this,  you  will  find  the  food  production  (yellow
     symbols). Each colonist unit needs  one  unit  of  food  per
     turn. If you produce more, the surplus will be seen  at  the
     right. If you produce less, you will see green  symbols  for
     each missing unit. BE WARNED: If the food production is  not
     sufficient and no food reserves  present,  a  colonist  unit
     will die at the end of the turn!
     Besides this, you will see the  (raw)  material  production,
     the energy production (= energy of all  power  plants  minus
     all energy needed for machines  and  other  stuff)  and  the
     science "production".
     The reserves of the planet are listed at  the  bottom.  Note
     that there is always enough room to  deposit  raw  material,
     but if you want to make food reserves  or  energy  reserves,
     you will need special equipment (granary and energy  storage
     unit).
     At the right side of the screen, all  space  ships  orbiting
     the planet are listed above. The attack and  defence  values
     of the planet will also  be  printed  here.  In  the  window
     below, you will see what the planet  is  producing  actually
     and also find all accessible  commands  ("Install  stargate"
     etc). This window will be called "command window".




     4.1. Planet production


     The first button in the command window  is  the  "Producing"
     button. By clicking on it,  you  will  get  a  list  of  all
     objects, machines and space  ships  you  can  build  on  the
     planet. At the right, you will see how many  material  units
     will be needed to finish the work, how much energy  unit  it
     will cost at each turn once it is built (red lightning), how
     much energy it will produce  (yellow  lightning)  and  if  a
     colonist is needed to make it work (you will have to place a
     colonist on this machine!).
     Note that you can only build space ships if your planet owns
     at least one starport. The strength of each space ship  type
     will be listed near the "Fight" symbol (crossed swords).
     If you choose an object whose production  depends  upon  the
     surface type it is built on, an  extra  button  will  appear
     ("Help on") which will give you access to a "help-mode".  In
     this mode, the additonal production expected by  the  object
     will be written on each surface square (unless it  is  zero,
     of course!), which will make your decision much easier.

     Once you have selected an object and no  error  message  has
     appeared, the production will begin. A  white  bar  will  be
     drawn under the object  name  and  from  now  on  the  whole
     material production of the  planet  will  be  put  into  the
     construction of the  object.  Once  the  bar  is  full  with
     material symbols, the production will be finished.
     On a small button at the right, you will see in  percentages
     to what extent the production is completed. Clicking on this
     button will give you more detailed  informations  about  the
     material already invested in the production and  the  number
     of turns it will take to produce it considering  the  actual
     raw material production of the planet.
     If you have some raw material left in your reserves, you can
     use it to accelerate the production of  the  object.  To  do
     this, you have to click into  the  white  bar.  As  the  raw
     material in the reserves has to be re-worked to be used, you
     will need two units of material reserves to get one unit for
     the production! (It is therefore recommended always to build
     something with the material that  is  produced  and  not  to
     stock it in the reserves!).
     As space ships do not  need  to  be  assigned  to  a  planet
     surface square (like all  other  objects),  the  planet  can
     produce them permanently without your intervention.  If  you
     wish the planet to do so, click on the "Unique" button which
     will then change to "Permanent".


     4.1.1. Planet surface objects


     For reasons of pollution it is not  allowed  to  build  more
     than 35 objects on one planet! The number of objects already
     built can be seen in the "?" menu.
     Here is the list of all surface objects:


     Food-robot: Simple but very efficient help (irrigation etc.)
     for food production on fertile ground. Needs a colonist. The
     effect is dependant on the ground it is built on.


     Greenhouse: Complicated but  efficient,  very  important  on
     planets with no fertile ground. Needs a  colonist  to  work,
     but it will produce the same amount of food on every ground.



     Granary: Helps to store 200 units of food.


     Mining-robot: Helps colonist to  get  raw  material.  Effect
     depends upon ground.


     Energy collector: Transforms radiation energy from  the  sun
     into electric  power.  Efficiency  depends  on  the  ground.
     (Efficient in deserts, not efficient in forests!).


     Coal power-plant: Produces 4 units of energy.


     Nuclear power-plant: Produces 8 units of energy.


     Fusion power-plant. Produces 16 units of energy.


     Energy Storage Unit: Stores up to 300 units of energy.


     Colony Station: Basic unit carried by each colony ship.  The
     integrated greenhouse produces enough food for two  colonist
     units (only if one colonist stays there!).



     City Complex: Provides room for 8000 people. Needs energy.


     Spy Sat Antenna. Allows you to detect a  beam  sent  by  any
     enemy spy sat. This information will automatically  be  sent
     to all ground defence units and to all space ships in orbit.
     They will try to destroy the satellite.  If  you  have  only
     ground defences, you may miss the sat and loose its track.


     Scan Beam Disturber. Will permanently  send  out  disturbing
     beams that will prevent spy sats  to  scan  a  certain  area
     around the scan beam disturber (about two other  objects  in
     each direction). This will allow you to make sure that  your
     enemy will under no circumstances see secret  installations.
     The exact range of these disturbers can bee seen with a menu
     on the planet surface.


     Irrigation Unit. If you have  a  colony  on  a  planet  with
     deserts and half-deserts, you may  wish  to  transform  this
     desert  into  more  fertile  ground  by  using  this  energy
     consuming object. After the installation, the eight  squares
     next to the unit  will  be  improved  every  4  game  turns.
     (Desert -> 2/3 desert -> 1/3 desert -> grassland)


     Snow Melting Unit. This is the analogous of  the  irrigation
     unit for planets with cold climate. (Ice -> 2/3 snow ->  1/3
     snow -> grassland)


     Ground Defence Unit:  Automatic  ground  defence.  Not  very
     strong, but quite resistant. (Attack: 2, Defence: 12).  Will
     allow you to win some time if a very  strong  enemy  attacks
     your planet.
     Planets without ground defence automatically fall  into  the
     hands of the enemy once you have no  space  ships  in  orbit
     anymore!


     Barracks: Following my own  experience,  barracks  have  the
     most ugly icon of the game. It  is  probably  impossible  to
     imagine nice barracks as this  seems  to  be  a  paradox  in
     itself.
     Barracks are here to train new army  units.  Every  barracks
     unit can  form one new army unit every  turn.  (=  poor  and
     pacifist students  that  get  trained  to  be  killers).  If
     barracks are destroyed, the armies  will  not  be  disbanded
     automatically, as I  assume that tough guys like these  will
     be able to camp outside of barracks.


     Planet Scanner: Will allow you to scan the space around your
     planet. Requires Tech-Level 6! (See "Special Commands"!)


     Energy Cannon: This heavy  energy  gun  will  give  you  the
     possibility to shoot from  one  planet  to  another,  making
     craters on the planet surface where nothing can be built on.
     If the energy beams hits any machine or object, this will be
     completely destroyed!
     Requires Tech-Level 7! (See "Special Commands"!)


     Planet Destroyer: Can destroy a whole planet of your  choice
     if you have 1000 energy units left. Requires  Tech-Level  8!
     (See "Special Commands"!)
     Planet Defence. This is an efficient defence against  energy
     cannons and planet destroyers, provided you have 1/2 of  the
     energy that was used to attack your planet in your reserves.
     This energy will be used to absorb and reflect the attack.



     Medical Center: If the population of a planet  grows  beyond
     8000 people,  chances  for  a  plague  to  arise  will  grow
     rapidly. A medical center will prevent all sorts of plagues.



     University: Increases the science production  for  up  to  5
     free people. (If you have no free  colonists,  a  university
     will not help anything!)


     Space Port: A space port is  necessary  for  building  space
     ships and sending them into orbit!




     4.1.2. Space ships


     Provided your planet has a space port, you will be  able  to
     construct different kinds of space ships:


     Colony ship: Allows you to send up to 4 colonist units (4000
     people)  to  another  planet  where  you  will  be  able  to
     establish a colony. It can also be used to transport  people
     from one planet to another.


     Stargate ship: Allows you  to  install  a  stargate  on  any
     planet. Requires Tech-Level 5! See "Install stargate" in the
     next section for more details.


     Transport ship: Allows you to transport food,  material  and
     energy to another planet.


     Exploration Ship: When sent planets with no  colonies,  this
     ship will explore it and sometimes  find  interesting  stuff
     like alien life forms! Of course, you would  discover  these
     things if you would establish a colony on  the  planet  too,
     but the difference is obvious: With  exploration  ships  you
     are faster and can explore more planets in a given number of
     turns. Every planet that is  explored  for  the  first  time
     gives a special bonus in the EMPIRE  ranking.  If  you  find
     intelligent life forms, this bonus is going to be very high!



     Troop Transporter: Allows you to  transport  up  to  4  army
     units. In some way it is the same as  the  colony  ship  for
     normal people, but as it doesn't need the stuff necessary to
     build a colony station,  the  production  costs  are  lower.
     Besides this, these ships have  better  defence  and  attack
     values than colony ships.


     Fighter: Small warship. Attack: 4


     Dreadnought: Huge warship. 4 times stronger  than  Fighters.
     Attack: 16


     Cobra Ship. These powerful ships are an  intermediate  stage
     between the Dreadnoughts and the Battlestars. Attack: 32


     Pulsar Destroyer. Huge Warship. Attack: 50


     Battlestar: Incredibly  powerful  combat  station.  4  times
     stronger than Dreadnoughts! Requires Tech-Level  6!  Attack:
     64


     Mothership:  When  you  play  against  a  computer-simulated
     enemy,  you  will  once  encounter  the  most  powerful  and
     terrifying of all space ships ever  built:  The  Mothership!
     Ten times stronger than one of your mighty Battlestars, this
     enormous space station has been designed to  cause  fear  to
     human  minds.  As  it  will   stay   orbiting   around   its
     planet-colony, you will have to face and destroy it one day,
     to be able to conquer the planet and win the game!
     The mothership is the only space ship in the game  which  is
     able to repair itself.




     4.2. Commands


     If some actions are possible  on  the  planet,  the  command
     menus will appear right under the production button. Here is
     a list of the possible commands:


     Establish Colony: If you have a Colony ship in orbit and  no
     colony is presently installed on the planet, you can do  so.
     The ship will land on the chosen place  and  be  transformed
     into a colony station unit that will provide room for up  to
     four colonist units. The internal sun-energy collectors will
     provide enough  energy  for  the  internal  greenhouse  that
     produces 2 units of food if one of the colonists is  put  on
     it. This way, you will have at least  one  of  the  colonist
     free to do some mining or research.


     Install stargate: If you have a Stargate ship in orbit,  you
     will be able to transform it into a stargate.  As  stargates
     have to be controlled from the surface of  the  planet,  you
     will have to colonialize or conquer the  planet  before  you
     can install the stargate! The high-energy  singularity  will
     be taken out of the Möbius-box and placed into  a  hexagonal
     Von-Hirt-field.  Thanks  to  the  principle  of  singularity
     convergence, it will automatically be connected to all other
     singularities of the universe and  therefore  to  all  other
     stargates which will allow all ships to travel at  zero-time
     from one Stargate to another.
     Note that due to the complicated physics that are behind the
     phenomenon of singularities captured in Von-Hirt fields, you
     need to control BOTH stargates if you want to use them  with
     your ships! (For the interested reader: It has  to  do  with
     the quantum fluctuations of the singularity that have to  be
     compensated for at least one nanosecond with  a  fluctuation
     resonance beam sent from the planet surface,  to  allow  the
     ships  to  travel  through  the  zero-space  without   being
     annihilated.)


     Load Transporter/Unload Transporter: If you have a Transport
     ship in orbit, you will be  able  to  transfer  your  planet
     reserves to the ship or unload the content of  the  ship  to
     the planet reserves.


     Show Transporter: Allows you to have a look at  the  content
     of the Transport ships that are actually in orbit.


     Load Colony Ship/Unload Colony Ship: You will get a list  of
     all colony ships in orbit. This menu allows you to  evacuate
     people from the planet to every colony ship that is occupied
     by less than 4 colonists, or to bring  back  colonists  from
     the ship to the planet. Colony ships can therefore  also  be
     used for the simple transport of colonists between colonized
     planets.


     (Dis)embark  Troops.  This  menu   will   show   all   troop
     transporters that are currently orbiting the planet together
     with the troops on board. You can now  embark  or  disembark
     solders from and to the planet surface.  Disembarked  troops
     are put to the rest of the army if  the  planet  belongs  to
     you, or will invade the planet if it is  colonized  by  your
     enemy.
     You will only be able to disembark troops on an alien planet
     if it's defence has dropped to zero and if the  enemy  fleet
     orbiting the planet is more than 4 times weaker than yours.


     Attack Planet/Stop Attack: Once  you  have  your  own  ships
     orbiting a planet that has been colonialized by your  enemy,
     your ships will not automatically attack the planet surface.
     This allows you a larger number of different strategies when
     you are playing together with  a  friend.  If  you  wish  to
     attack it (or to stop a current attack!), you will  have  to
     click on this menu.




     4.3. Icon menus


     At the right side of the screen you will find  some  buttons
     with icons that symbolize different actions that concern the
     planet surface:
     - STAR MAP : Go back to the main screen
     - WHAT IS...? : The program will open  a  little  window  in
     which it will constantly  write  the  name  of  the  surface
     square the mouse is above together with the object that  has
     been built on it.
     - DESTRUCT : You can destroy objects  that  you  don't  need
     anymore. Note that  you  cannot  destroy  objects  that  are
     producing energy which is currently used  on  the  planet  -
     you'll have to destroy the energy consuming objects first! A
     destroyed object brings back 1/4 of the material units  that
     were necessary to build it.
     - SCAN BEAM DISTURBERS: You can  see  which  parts  of  your
     planet surface is invisible for spy satellites  due  to  the
     disturbing beams of your scan beam disturbers.
     - MILITARY OPTIONS : Provided you have some ugly barracks on
     your planet, you will have the possibility with this menu to
     make or disband army units. To make  one,  you'll  need  one
     free colonist unit, 30 units of material  and  20  units  of
     energy. (Yes, an army is a waste of material and energy...!)

     Every barracks unit can only train one  new  army  unit  per
     turn. If you want to have 6  army  units,  you'll  therefore
     need two barracks and  three  turns  to  form  them  or  one
     barracks unit and six turns. Army units will  not  make  any
     research, of course.





     5. Aliens


     There are two classes of aliens in the game. The  first  one
     will  be  referred  to  as  "Alien  life  forms".  They  are
     life-forms that have never built technologies,  even  though
     they might be very intelligent. They represent no danger for
     the players.
     The other class consists  of  a  very  aggressive  and  also
     intelligent life form  that  will  play  against  the  human
     player in the one player mode.


     5.1. Alien Life Forms on Planets


     Depending on the planet surface  (mostly  desert,  water  or
     ice), some life forms may  have  come  to  existence  on  it
     during the last billions of years. When you land on a planet
     for the first time to build a colony or to explore  it,  you
     will possibly discover one of these life forms. This will be
     rewarded by the EMPIRE, as  people  there  are  always  very
     interested in curious things.
     There is a common IQ rating system with 5  different  levels
     that is applied to  every  life  form  discovered,  where  1
     stands for low IQ (Insect-like animals) and 5  for  high  IQ
     (Human-like). Of course, level 5 beings are very rare, maybe
     even inexistent in your current game!
     To explore a planet without building a  colony  on  it,  you
     will need an exploration ship  that  you  can  send  to  the
     planets of interest.  Every  exploration  ship  orbiting  an
     empty planet will explore 25% of it per turn. Once you  have
     fully explored it, you will know  if  there  are  any  alien
     life-forms. To  which  extend  a  planet  has  already  been
     explored by you will appear below the planet surface in  the
     planet view screen. If a scientist appears at the left,  the
     planet is currently being explored (and therefore  at  least
     one exploration ship in orbit). Every  planet  can  only  be
     explored ONCE by one player. If it has already been explored
     by your opponent, this will be noted.
     When a life form is discovered, Riktors Ashen, chef  of  the
     Dept. of Foreign Affairs, will contact you and  ask  you  if
     you prefer to be rewarded  with  resources  or  with  combat
     ships. If you choose the first one, a transport ship will be
     hyperspaced to the planet of your choice (the EMPIRE  has  a
     more advanced technology that allows  teletransportation  of
     whole ships  without  Stargates!).  The  transportship  will
     contain  food,  energy   and   raw   material   in   amounts
     proportional to the  interest  of  your  discovery.  If  you
     prefer to have combat ships, you will get one of these ships
     (depending on the IQ of the discovered life  form):  Fighter
     (IQ=1), Dreadnought (2), Cobra Ship  (3),  Pulsar  Destroyer
     (4) and Battlestar (5).
     There are about 50 different life-forms in the game.


     5.2. The MECHS


     If you play the game alone, the computer  will  simulate  an
     alien race, the MECHS, called so by humans as they  seem  to
     be just machines... huge, frightening, aggressive machines.
     In contrast to Colonial Conquest v1.05 they  now  have  some
     intelligence - a few hundred lines of code make it possible!
     A  gigantic  spaceship,  ten   times   stronger   than   one
     Battlestar, the "Mothership", can now  colonize  planets  by
     installing an Alien Central Unit on them, which is  a  fully
     automatic  material  producing  unit.  The  planet  is  then
     independent  and  starts  to  build  Nuclear   Power-Plants,
     Defence Units, Tripods, Troop  Transporters,  Fighter  Ships
     etc.
     The Mechs are now capable to perform coherent  actions,  for
     example the coordinated attack and invasion of one  of  your
     colonies!

     If one of your home-worlds is conquered by the  Mechs,  some
     buildings  will  be  destroyed   at   once:   Barracks   and
     Universities. The Mothership will then  be  called  for  the
     installation of an Alien Central Unit. During this time, the
     humans will be forced  to  work  as  slaves  for  a  maximum
     material production (yes, I told you: The  computer  is  now
     intelligent!). As long as there is food in the granary, they
     will not be allowed to produce enough new food.  The  humans
     will be treated without any mercy and if there are too  many
     people for the mining activities, they will be exterminated.

     Once the Alien Central  Unit  is  installed,  the  remaining
     human slaves will be executed. MECHs prefer to be  alone  on
     their planet.





     6. End of turn


     Once both players have given  their  commands,  the  program
     will calculate the effects of these commands. Here  are  the
     main points of this procedure:


     6.1. Ground combats


     If troops have been disembarked on a colonized planet during
     the game turn, a ground battle will now take place. A window
     will pop up showing the two armies standing  face  to  face.
     During the  following  battle,  the  players  will  have  no
     opportunities to influence the outcome  of  the  fight.  The
     battle will last until  the  complete  annihilation  of  the
     defender or the invader.
     Hit the "Escape"-key to fasten up the battle.


     6.2. Space ships & Space battles


     All space ships are moved by one unit.  If  they  arrive  to
     their destination planet, the program tests if enemy  troops
     are there. If so, a  space  battle  will  take  place.  This
     battle is invisible for the player and only the result  will
     be shown, but here is how the battles are simulated:
     Each ship type has an attack value and a defence value.  For
     simplicity, these values are equal in Colonial Conquest. The
     attack value represents the number of shots that  this  ship
     can fire toward the enemy, the defence value represents  the
     number of shots  that  the  ship  can  absorb  before  being
     destroyed. This value is therefore decreased at each hit and
     once it is zero, the ship will explode.
     In the battle, each side can shoot once until all  ships  of
     both sides have fired all their guns. Each shot hits with  a
     chance of 15% plus the Technology-Level of the owner of  the
     ships! (In other words: if you have a Tech-Level of 10,  the
     chances of your ships to hit an enemy ship are 25%!)
     If    the  planet  where  the  battle  is  taking  place  is
     colonialized, the enemy side will have  the  possibility  to
     attack  it  (see  "Attack  planet"  menu  of    the  command
     window!). The attack and defence values of the  planet  will
     then be added to the total fleet force. Once the defence  of
     the planet has dropped to zero, the planet will  be  without
     defence and invading troops will  have  the  possibility  to
     disembark soldiers in the following game turn.
     The player will see the result of all battles in the  battle
     report that will be shown at  the  beginning  of  every  new
     turn.


     6.3. Population growth & Production


     On the planets, the population will grow depending upon  the
     food surplus that is produced at each turn. In  addition  to
     this, the food reserves of the planet will have  a  negative
     influence if there are not at least 4 units left  for  every
     colonist. The growth rate will never be higher than 5%.
     At the beginning of the game, you will have 5000  people  on
     your planet represented by five colonists. For all next 1000
     people you will get one colonist more.
     As people need room to live, you will  have  to  build  city
     complexes (8000 people each) to enlarge the natural capacity
     of the planet (4000 people). If there is no room  left,  the
     population will not grow anymore!
     Once your population has reached 8000 people, chances for  a
     plague to break out will rise. It  is  therefore  useful  to
     build a medical center at this time.
     At every turn, all material will be used to build the active
     object. If no object is chosen, all material  will  go  into
     the reserves. Once the object is built, you will see  it  in
     the planet window.




     6.4. Game End and High-Scores


     Once  one  side  has  lost  all  its  planets  and  all  its
     spaceships or if one of the players has reached  the  Empire
     rating needed to be incorporated to the Empire (see  Section
     2), the game will end. A normal message will appear  at  the
     end of your monthly  report  informing  you  that  you  have
     won/lost. You will then  have  time  to  look  at  all  your
     planets and space ships (if you are the winner) or to switch
     off the Amiga before the final screen appears  (if  you  are
     the (bad!) looser). Once both players have seen the  results
     and ended their turn, a final graphic screen will appear  to
     celebrate the winner. After a few seconds you will  be  able
     to click on your mouse and  the  game  will  return  to  the
     Workbench if you are in the two player mode.
     If you were playing in the one player mode,  the  high-score
     list will be loaded and displayed. In this list, the players
     are ranked by the number of turns they needed  to  beat  the
     alien opponent. If you made it into the list,  you  will  be
     able to give your name (max. 9 characters) and  the  program
     will take you into the  list.  Please  make  sure  that  the
     device "ColonialConquest:" is NOT  write  protected  as  the
     program has no possibility to check that!
     If you want to clear the list one day, just delete the  file
     "Hiscores" from the disk. The program will realize  that  it
     misses and create a new and empty list  after  having  asked
     you.





     7. Last Word


     Wow! I admit that this manual is  quite  long!  Sorry!  It's
     just because the game rules got more  and  more  complicated
     during the programing, and I couldn't resist the  temptation
     to implement all new ideas I got during the hours of  boring
     game-testing. Fortunately, I think that Colonial Conquest II
     is very easy to handle and the rules are quite intuitive. If
     you are used to play this kind of strategy games,  you  will
     probably not have to read the whole manual - just start  the
     game and have a look! (That's the way impatient people  like
     me do it usually!)


     For all of you who would like to  know  a  little  bit  more
     about the making of Colonial Conquest, I  have  written  the
     following few lines:


     This program has been written with the fantastic AMOS  Basic
     (v1.36) and compiled  with  the  AMOS  Compiler,  both  from
     Europress Software.  It  contains  more  than  8000  program
     lines. The title picture was created with Imagine  v2.0  and
     all icons were painted with DPaint IV. It has been  designed
     on a A4000 and was therefore always very fast. I  hope  that
     it will not be too slow on smaller machines.
     Colonial Conquest II has been written to be a  nice-looking,
     easy to use immoral  strategy  game  to  be  played  with  a
     friend. I hope you will enjoy it!


     At this point I would like to  thank  Armand  Hirt  for  his
     incredible Icon-Map-Editor and Michael Unternährer for  game
     testing and continuous support. I would also like  to  thank
     all beta-testers who helped me to develop Colonial  Conquest
     II. Without them, the game would be unplayable!
     A big thank you also goes to everybody who develops  PD  and
     Shareware  for  the  Amiga!  Now  that  the  future  of  our
     favourite machine seems uncertain, I think that it  is  more
     than ever important to stick together.


     Comments, donations, postcards, bug reports etc. to:


     Christian Mumenthaler
     Langgrütstr. 178
     CH-8047 Zürich
     SWITZERLAND


     E-mail:  [e-mail]


     PS:  Please  read  the  "Copyright"-file  too!  It  is  very
     important!


     Zürich, 25. October 1993
     Revised for Colonial Conquest v1.05 : Zürich,  19.  December
     1993
     Revised for Colonial Conquest II: Zürich, 1. August 1994