Games All/Games All - Over 500 Value - All Copyrighted Games - No Registration Fees (Affiliated Software Distribution)(1993).bin/docs/ccowc.doc

Text File | 1992-11-23 | 132KB | 2,954 lines

1.) Getting Started
2.) Title and legal information
3.) The Story So Far
4.) Hardware Requirements / What to Try if Corncob Crashes Your Computer
5.) Keyboard Controls: Inflight & Standing on the Ground
6.) Keyboard Play and How to Handle the Rudder
7.) Training Missions
8.) Combat Missions: Theaters-of-Operation
9.) Friendly Objects
10.) Enemy Defenses
11.) How to Take Off, Fly Level, and Land
12.) How to Turn Your Plane
13.) \(Dealing With the Air Density and Gravity Variations\)
14.) \(How to Use Your Missiles, Bombs, and Guns\)
15.) \(Defensive Flying & Coming Home With a Shot-up Plane\)
16.) Running Around -- Welcome the Assassin
17.) Scoring and Promotion Rules
18.) Commonly Asked Questions and Answers
19.) \(Game Play Hints\)
20.) The Corncob Program Itself
21.) Contacting MVP Software & the Corncob 3D BBS
22.) Using the Mission Builder


Getting Started

 Thank you for purchasing the Corncob Other Worlds Campaign!

  The game is easy to install and use.  To install Corncob, insert the
distribution disk into your computer's drive.  Type INSTALL, and press
<ENTER>.  Answer the questions on installation drive and directory.  After
the installation program is finished installing the software, type CORNCOB
to begin the game.


  If you just want to get in the cockpit and fly, then press <ENTER> at
the main menu. Doing so will bring up the Training Missions menu.  Just
press <ENTER> again, and you will receive the pre-flight report, which
gives information about the missions you fly.  You can exit the pre-flight
report with <ENTER>, and you will be in the cockpit.


  You may get help for the various submenus by pressing I.  For help
inflight, please use the F4 key.  If you are having difficulty flying and
turning, please read the documentation.




  Corncob 3D
  The Other Worlds Campaign










  A VGA Air Combat Game
  by
  Kevin Stokes




  An MVP Software Production


  For IBM and compatible computers
  1992 Pie in the Sky Software
  Printed in the United States


















  THIS SOFTWARE IS DISTRIBUTED ON AN AS IS BASIS.  MVP SOFTWARE AND
  PIE IN THE SKY SOFTWARE MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR
  IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
  TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
  MERCHANTABILITY.  ACCORDINGLY, THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE USE, RESULTS
  AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY THE USER.  IN NO
  EVENT WILL MVP SOFTWARE OR PIE IN THE SKY SOFTWARE BE LIABLE FOR
  ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF MVP SOFTWARE
  OR PIE IN THE SKY SOFTWARE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF SUCH DAMAGES.


  IF ANY OF THE PROVISIONS, OR PORTIONS THEREOF, OF THIS DISCLAIMER
  ARE INVALID UNDER ANY APPLICABLE STATUE OR RULE OF LAW, THEY ARE
  TO THAT EXTENT DEEMED TO BE OMITTED.  ALL OTHER PROVISIONS, HOWEVER,
  REMAIN IN EFFECT.





The Story So Far
  The date is August, 1949.  This is not the 1949 that we remember,
though.  In this 1949 WWII never happened (this is because among other
factors, Adolf Hitler was killed at the age of 19 when hit in the head by
a thrown beer bottle), but all was not peaceful in this alternate age.


  In 1938 aliens swept down out of the skies and began to set up
structures.  Although many attempts were made to communicate, the aliens
did not respond.  It soon became obvious that these creatures simply were
not interested in us, or in any other life on the planet.  When human
dwellings or sites were in their way, the aliens destroyed them and
continued their seemingly random construction plans.


  So in 1941 the world governments agreed to band together in an alliance
for humanity.  No attacks were launched until November 1941.  The plan
consisted of a simultaneous all out blitz against the extraterrestrials in
every part of the globe.  The battle was waged for over four years.
Finally the effort succeeded and the aliens were driven from earth.


  Now, however, they have set up residence on other planets in the solar
system.  Clearly they are planning another conquest of earth.  Once again
the world's governments are banding together, but this time to drive them
from the solar system.


  Your mission is critical in this plan.  You must go to other planets,
destroy several alien structures, and in the process, many aliens
themselves.  If you do not succeed the entire human effort will fail.




Hardware Requirements
  Corncob requires an IBM PC/AT-type computer with a speed of 12Mhz or
higher, a VGA color monitor, a hard drive, and 570K free RAM.  A joystick
is recommended but not required for successful game play.


  For music and inflight sound, you must have an ADLIB compatible sound
card installed in your computer.


What to do if Corncob Crashes Your Computer
  Corncob has been tested on a variety of systems and has run reliably
with no crashes for weeks of game play.  However, Corncob does do some
rather unorthodox things that may cause problems with certain TSR
programs.


  If you have a problem running Corncob on your system, reboot your
computer from a floppy disk, with no TSRs or other software loaded.


  NOTE: If Corncob fails during loading, please delete or rename the file
CCTITLE.EXE, and then let us know about it.  This will prevent the
animated title screen from running.




Keyboard Controls: Inflight
  NOTE: You can get key help during flight with by typing p to pause the
game, and then using the spacebar to cycle through help screens.


  F1 - Boss Screen (Customize your own boss screen by editing the BOSS.TXT
file).
  F2 - Intelligence Info (get mission info from radio).
  F3 - Check current score (gives your current mission score if you land
now).
  F4 - Help
  F5 - Center Joystick
  F6 - Detailed inflight precision information about everything in a
theater.


  ESC - End mission now (for best score, use near your airstrip tower).
  CTRL-C - abort mission (end mission, pretend mission never happened).

Keypad arrow keys (NEVER use cursor keys, use KEYPAD arrow keys only!)
  7,9 - left, right rudder control (Must use these for taxiing on ground;
tap lightly -- don't hold rudder keys down continuously in flight!)
  8,2 - nose down, nose up
  4,6 - roll counterclockwise, roll clockwise


  numlock - toggle between {keypad arrows = views} or {keypad arrows =
controls}
  left ctrl key - use with keypad arrow keys for views
  left shift key - hold down to switch gun mode to cannons
  left shift key - apply brakes (joystick control only)
  key pad 0 key - apply brakes (keyboard control); best operated with
thumb


  a - autopilot toggle on/off
  b - drop bomb
  c - fire missiles (keyboard control only)
  e - eject or step out of the plane (press space bar to pull ripcord)
  f - flaps toggle
  g - ground detail dots toggle on/off
  i - ignite rocket booster (15 second burn, 120 seconds recharge)
  m - map mode (arrows, Pgup=move down, Pgup=move up, shift arrows=change
angle)
  p - pause toggle (use spacebar to go through help screens when paused)
  r - toggle reverse window on/off
  s - toggle sound on/off
  t - hold down for accelerated time
  x,z - left/right rudder (Tap lightly; don't hold rudder keys down
continuously in flight!)
  keypad +/- increase/decrease throttle


  joystick button 1: fire guns
  joystick button 2: fire missiles


Keyboard Controls: Standing on the Ground
  d - detonate your planted assassin bomb
  m - go to map mode
  p - pause (same as inflight)
  s - toggle sound on/off
  t - hold down for advanced time
  v - radio for a rescue van
  j - hold down, release to jump -- the longer held down, the higher the
jump
  keypad 2,8,4,6 - turn your head down, up, left, right
  keypad 5,0 - run forward, backward in direction you are facing
  left ctrl - changes function of keypad arrow keys to operate views
  caps lock - toggles remote control mode -- fly plane from the ground
  space bar - fire handgun (keyboard control only)
  joystick button - fire handgun




Keyboard Play and How to Handle the Rudder
  A great deal of effort was put into Corncob to make keyboard play work
well.  The keyboard is interrupt driven, and your key presses are timed to
within 1/1000th of a second.  Also, Corncob has no problem detecting
keystrokes even when 3 keys are held down at once.


  The keys that even joystick players have to contend with are the rudder
keys.  The problem is how do you command just a little rudder?  If you
hold the key down the plane will go into a heavy sideslip, and eventually
stall.  The method of varying the amount of rudder desired is by rapidly
pressing and releasing the key.  The average amount of time in which the
key is down communicates to the game how much rudder is desired.


  This will take some getting used to, but when you get used to it, it
becomes second nature. To operate the rudder, the best finger position
leaves the left hand middle finger on the z key for left rudder.  This
leaves the right index finger on the x key for right rudder.  Now your 3rd
finger is well positioned for pressing the left shift key down for
cannons/brakes.  For lefties, the rudder controls are 7,9 on the keypad.


  For the keyboard player, the plane must be controlled from the keypad.
Put your middle finger permanently on the 5 key.  Use this middle finger
for both the 2,8 nose up/down keys, and use the index and 3rd finger for
your left/right roll keys.  It's very important always to use the above
fingers for best performance.  The reason is that in Corncob, you
frequently must use more than one arrow key at once to perform a maneuver.
 If you peck the keys with just one finger, your ability to react quickly
and use combinations will be limited.  It's best to force yourself to do
it the above mentioned way, or else you will be stuck at the harder
missions that require more precise flying.


  Remember that to apply gentle tweaks to the control, you must press keys
on and off rapidly, with the average time spent down being the desired
roll/pitch rate.  You have three displays on the front panel that show you
what you are presently sending to the control stick.  These meters are
just to the right of the ALT light.


  Don't forget to use the rudder with the left hand.  Using the rudder can
really help you pick off targets without having to bank and pull back on
the stick.


  NOTE: If the arrow keys suddenly appear not to be functioning properly,
perhaps you have bumped the numlock key.  Numlock chooses the mode in
which your keypad keys operate between control/views.  Note that the
numlock light will not change state as you switch between views, and
control.




Training Missions
  If you don't want to fight in an actual theater; i.e., you just want to
hop in a plane and shoot at aliens, then the Training Missions are for
you.  Use the menu to specify the number of enemy KLA sites, AAA
batteries, and ground vehicle sites, and you are ready to engage in
combat.


  You will be placed in a universe that is empty except for your airstrip
and the enemy field of operations.  The basic setup of the enemy territory
will always be the same.  There will always be an orb protected by
forcefields, and 15 fuel storage facilities.  The fuel storage canisters
(or Ticks, as the pilots call them) are always the primary mission
objective.


  If you are flying training missions with a non-trainee pilot, be aware
that your pilot scores will be affected by your performance on your
flight, and your pilot can be just as easily killed or captured as when
you are flying in a theater.


  This is why it is important to remember to fly the training mission as a
trainee if you just want to bomb around.




Combat Missions: Theaters-of-Operation
  To fly a mission a pilot first chooses in which theater of operations he
wishes to fly.  A theater of operations is a terrain filled with airports
and areas of enemy concentrations.  After opening a theater, select F from
the combat missions menu in order to fly a mission in that theater.


  A pilot selects his mission by either flying there from the airstrip or
simply pressing F2 to bring up a list of the local missions.  The pilot
selects the mission by using the arrow keys. Then by pressing the <ENTER>
key, he/she will be teleported right to the action.


  After you have completed your mission you must fly back to your airstrip
to get credit for your victory.  If you can land the plane, your points
will be much higher than if you quit during a flyby.


  Still, even if you cannot land the plane safely, quitting the flight via
the <ESC> key must be done close to airstrip to avoid losing a plane.  The
definition of close to your airstrip is when your airstrip's radar dish
is blinking.


  Most theaters of operation have nine airbases from which the pilot can
take off and in which he can land.  Each airbase has intelligence
information about the enemy forces in the vicinity. Intelligence info can
be gotten from entering the control tower on foot or by using your radio
(F2 key) when in the air.  The information you receive will always be from
the last airport you were in.


  If you wish to get intelligence info from a different airstrip, simply
do a flyby over the tower of the new airstrip.  Then the next time you use
your radio via F2, you will get the intelligence about the missions
surrounding that airstrip.


  For example, suppose you started a combat mission from the RDU airstrip.
 Once you hit F2 you realize that you have already completed all the
missions here, and you would like to fly the missions at the Crickety
Point airstrip.  So you simply fly due North until you make a sighting of
the Crickety Point airstrip.  Then you make a flyby of the tower, and as a
result the Crickety Point radar tower starts flashing.  Now when you hit
F2, your intelligence report will be from Crickety Point.


  One of the most important things about theaters is that they have a
history capability.  This means that anything a pilot has destroyed will
stay destroyed forever.  For example, say that yesterday a mission was
flown in which the Devil's Aquarium was demolished.  If that same theater
is flown in today the wreckage will remain.  This applies to friendly
objects as well as enemy objects.  Your goal in each theater is to
accomplish all the mission objectives listed in the intelligence reports.
Typically this will take many missions, and on your last few missions the
theater will be filled with destroyed alien targets.  If you use up all
your planes, you will have to open a new version of that theater (with all
alien bases intact) and start again from scratch.

This brings us to the topic of plane conservation.  Planes are a precious
resource that should not be wasted.  Each theater has only so many planes
parked at the various airstrips.  If a pilot is not careful and loses too
many planes via ejection, then the unfortunate pilot will find himself
with no airplanes left in the whole theater.


  The method to get the most points, and the way to get through a theater,
is by nearly always nursing planes back to the nearest airstrip.


  Even a heavily damaged plane can be repaired simply by landing and
strolling over to the control tower on foot.  If the pilot cannot land,
then ending the mission with a low flyby will assume a safe landing with
plane intact, and the next time the game is played the plane will be
repaired.  Please note that even a crashlanded plane can be repaired if
the wreckage is close enough to the airstrip tower.


  If desired, some older model planes can be brought out of storage, but
this should be used only when desperate.  These brown planes have reduced
performance specs.  The option for bringing these planes out of storage is
only available when you attempt to fly a mission from an airstrip that has
no airplanes available. Of course, if a pilot runs out of planes in a
theater, or would like a fresh start, there is always the option of
reopening a new theater.  A pilot can have up to 15 theaters open at one
time, so he may fly one mission in MILKRUN theater, then fly a mission in
FLATLAND, and so on.  Closing an undesirable theater does not affect the
pilot's record.  In fact even if a pilot is killed in action, he can be
resurrected.  The only cost of resurrection is the fact that the computer
keeps track of how many resurrections you did and places this number by
your name in all records.


  Each pilot has records kept both for his total career and his
performance in each theater in which he has flown.




Friendly Objects

Airplanes
  Every airstrip contains one or more airplanes you may fly.  To get into
a plane, simply walk up to it and enter.  To get out of a plane use the e
key.  There are three different plane types in the game.


  The blue-winged planes are the standard front-line ground attack planes.
 The brown-winged planes are older planes that have been brought out of
storage in the case of an emergency. These planes have less engine power.


  Lastly, there are experimental black flying-wing planes.  These planes
use the latest stealth technology, and there are some drawbacks.  First,
these planes are extremely heavy, so the ground crew cannot move them.
When you fly the missions you must find the plane yourself, and it should
be wherever you left it.  Also note that these planes will fall like a
rock when stalled.  You will have less than half the time to bail out
before hitting the ground in these aircraft.


  The high speed of these planes is actually faster than the initial speed
of their missiles. When you fire missiles you will see them fall behind in
the rear view.  But depending on your airspeed, they may pass you as they
accelerate towards the target.  Your gun tracers will appear to be
strangely affected also.  This too is a side effect of your great speed.

Control Tower
  Every airstrip has a control tower.  This tower contains the radio
equipment and intelligence officers.  If a pilot enters the door of the
control tower on foot, his plane will be repaired if close enough.


  If a control tower is destroyed it may be impossible to get intelligence
on future missions.



Radar Unit
  The radar tower watches for your safe return to home base.  If you want
to have your plane on the next mission, you must make sure the radar tower
is flashing before ending the mission with the escape key.  The radar
tower begins flashing when you get to within a certain distance of the
control tower.

Ending the mission with the radar tower flashing makes a big difference in
the computed pilot score.

Runways
  Runways are the ideal location for taking off and landing.  Your plane
can also do both on the grass, but the risk of crashlanding is much higher
when not landing on the runway.  Taxiing on the grass bounces the plane
about and can cause a crashlanding even at low speeds.

Rescue Van
  When a pilot is downed behind enemy lines he can be rescued by the
rescue van.  He must first eject from the plane and then use his handheld
portable radio to call for assistance.  (Press the v key.)  You may only
call the rescue van when standing on the ground.  The handheld radio will
not function in your plane or while floating to earth with your chute.


  When called, a rescue van will be dispatched and will appear shortly.
The van will approach you and stop when within a few feet of the pilot.
When the pilot enters the van the mission is over, and the pilot is
considered home safe.


  The rescue van is not indestructible.  The van will be destroyed if it
collides with another object on its way to pick you up.  It is up to the
pilot to maneuver himself so that there are no obstructions between the
approaching van and himself.

If the rescue van crashes you must call another one.

Spies
  Some missions require you to pick up information on foot from spies.
Spies are people who wear all black.  They give you the thumbs up when
you come close enough to grab the info. Consider your mission objective
complete when you get this hand signal from the spy.




Enemy Defenses

Force Fields
  Force Fields are passive defense systems used to protect resources by
shielding them from firepower, and preventing our aircraft from flying
through.  Some forcefields shimmer, others are solid colors.  Some fields
appear as a rectangular frame that may or may not vary in size with the
passage of time. The solid and shimmering force fields require the most
power and therefore only click on when needed.  When a bullet or missile,
or a plane itself comes near a solid forcefield, the forcefield will pop
into existence.  Almost all bullets and missiles are stopped by the
forcefields, as well as bombs.  Do not use missiles when your plane is too
close to field, as they will explode in your face when launched.  A
forcefield will cause damage to a plane at a certain rate during the time
in which the airplane is flying too close.  If a forcefield must be flown
through, then to minimize damage, fly through perpendicular to the
surface, and the higher the airspeed the better.


  Note that the shimmering solid fields are in fact opaque, even though
the optical illusion makes them look translucent.


  The force fields that vary their size and shape with time stay on at all
times.  The boundary of deadliness of these fields moves with the field's
image.  You can use this fact to eek in a few shots at protected targets.


  In almost all cases forcefields are powered by a local generator orb.
Therefore when you take out the orb, all the local forcefields will drop.


  Note that the enemy's fire can be stopped by forcefields also.  A
favorite technique of our pilots is to lure KLAs into a nearby field.
Also AAA shells are stopped by FFs, so sometimes they can work to our
advantage.


  Please note that although forcefields will damage your plane, they will
cause no damage to organic flesh, and in fact all forcefields can be
walked on with no ill effects.

Barrage Balloons
  Barrage balloons are huge membranes filled with a lighter-than-air gas.
They float up and down randomly.  Their purpose is simply to be in the
way.  They are organic and self-regenerating, so although they stop all
our firepower, they themselves are indestructible.


  Your plane can fly through them, but at a cost of many damage hits.  BBs
never go higher than a couple thousand feet.  Their colors show something
about the speed at which they rise and fall.

Bee Swarms
  Bee swarms are very similar to the barrage balloons discussed above.
They float up and down, but they are much harder to see, and it is more
difficult to determine their exact position due to their indistinct
appearance.

AAA Batteries
  These are one of the most threatening of the enemy's active defenses.
AAA sites track your plane and send up volleys of explosive shells that
burst in the air around you.  You do not have to be hit directly to take
damage from an AAA shell.  The shells are designed to explode into
fragments that tear through your plane, even if you are hundreds of feet
from the explosion.


  The AAA batteries vary wildly from site to site.  We have found that
there is a correlation between muzzle color and deadliness.  Usually the
brown AAA is the least threatening, while the white AAA is devastating.


  The AAA quality value affects several capabilities.  The lower quality
sites cannot turn fast enough to track your plane if you are flying past.
Also, quality affects the maximum firing rate, the accuracy of the shells,
and whether or not the AAA has the intelligence to lead the target.


  Note that AAA shells can explode KLAs.  In the early days before the
leading technology AAA sites were developed, the classic method of defense
against deathballs was to fly past AAA sites at a certain range.  All the
shells would fall behind your plane to where the chasing missiles were.


  Note also that ground-mounted AAA sites cannot fire horizontally.  If
they did, the AAA batteries would be destroying their own forces.  You can
use this to your advantage, if you have the ability to fly extremely low.
The closer you are to an AAA site, the lower you must fly.

KLA Deathballs
  These are enemy missiles that lock on to your plane and attempt to
explode when close enough.  They are launched either from missile sites or
from saucers.  These missiles have varying abilities which you can
determine from their color.


  When a KLA becomes active, it will show up as a green dot on your radar
screen.  When you see one visually you will notice that when it is pointed
at you it begins to flash.  At this point the KLA has a lock on you.  Most
KLAs will accelerate forward when they get a lock.


  Note that deathballs always head directly towards you, and do not lead
your plane, like AAA batteries do.


  When a deathball is close to you, you will hear a strange thrumming
sound.  The higher the pitch, the more deadly that KLA is.  The louder the
sound, the closer the KLA is to your plane.

Generator Orbs
  Generator orbs produce power for force fields and normally act as a
central structure to each concentration of enemy activity.  The process
used by the aliens to generate power has a strange disorienting effect on
humans when close to the orb.  Usually this effect decreases with
distance, but under certain circumstances can become independent of
position.


  The triangular base of the orb is indestructible, but the ball on the
top is not.  When attempting to destroy it, aim for the center of the
flashing ball.  These structures are tough.  It takes maybe ten missiles
or two bombs and a few missiles to destroy one. When an orb is destroyed
all the force fields in the immediate vicinity drop.  This makes them of
extreme strategic importance on some missions.  In some situations it is
wise NOT to destroy the orbs, since sometimes the aliens' force fields can
be used to our advantage.


  There is a special kind of orb that has an tractor beam that exerts a
pulling force on your plane.  This force is so strong that your plane can
be pulled backwards through the air in some cases.  This effect decreases
with distance, so be careful about flying too close to this type of orb.


  Some orbs have been designed to be invincible to normal weapons, and the
only effective way to take them out is via suiciding the plane into them.
Make sure you bail out before contact, or else you will be killed in the
ensuing explosion.  If you must bail a good way away from the target, hit
Caps Lock to control your plane remotely.

TRFRU
  Tetrahedral Radio Frequency receiving units, or TRFRU, are antenna
systems used for spying on all human military communications.  They look
like small black tetrahedrons spinning in the air.  Guns are the weapon of
choice for taking out tofu (tofu is the unofficial name).  Be especially
careful when attacking suspended tofu.  They are so small that many pilots
wait too long before peeling off to the left or right.  This can result in
a disastrous collision.

Mortars
  Mortars are simple devices that are mounted on the ground and spew
incendiaries when any human is near.  They are used to deny low altitude
flying.

Mind Benders
  Mind benders are small tofu-like structures that have a hallucinatory
effect on the human nervous system.  These devices blaze with flashing
colors and spin slowly about the ball in their centers.  They are
extremely tough, and can only be taken out with a bomb.  In many missions
they are unreachable from the air.  In this case a volunteer must land his
plane in enemy territory and proceed on foot to plant an assassin bomb on
the device, then blow it up remotely from a distance.

Aliens
  Aliens are very light and like to be in constant motion.  They rarely
are seen on open ground and must be approached on foot most of the time.
The hand gun is the weapon of choice for assassinating aliens.  Upon
death, chemical reactions take place that may cause the body to float up
into the sky.


  If an alien touches you while you are not in your plane you are
captured.


  In the game, aliens are inactive and undestroyable until you have
approached them on foot. Then they begin to bounce about and can be shot
with the hand gun.  Alternatively, the pilot may re-enter his/her plane,
and make effective strafing runs against them.  The cannons are more
effective than regular rounds.

Ground Transports
  These ground vehicles look like three wheeled radio controlled cars.
They are no threat to the airborne pilot; however it is a different story
for the pilot on foot.  These shopping carts (unofficial name) can capture
an ambulatory pilot.  Some of the higher quality carts are very
persistent.  There are two ways to avoid capture while on the ground.  One
is to use your handgun to destroy approaching carts.  The other method is
to lead them into some wreckage or other structure that will cause the
cart to turn onto its side and die.  Ground vehicles are notoriously
stupid and do not appear to be capable of avoiding obstacles.


  When a shopping cart comes near, a human on foot feels a force
inexorably pulling him towards the cart.  The human must escape this cart
or be captured and removed from Earth.


  Ground transports are exuded from triangular sites that appear to be
nothing but simple triangles lying on the ground.  The color indicates the
quality of the cart produced.  At any one time the number of carts in the
area should be roughly equal to the number of sites in the area.


  The shopping carts with the flashing white antennas are special elite
carts.  These vehicles can pass through obstacles with no damage, and can
only be destroyed with guns, bombs or missiles.

Flying Saucers
  Saucers are the primary vehicle for alien airborne transportation.  They
vary widely in self-defense capability.  Some have AAA built in, some have
missile launchers (KLA) aboard. All but the dumbest have the ability to
execute evasive maneuvers.  All saucers have the ability to make bombing
runs against airfields.  The color of the top ball on the saucer indicates
its intent.


  All saucers make a peculiar warbling noise.  As you damage the saucer,
the pitch of the noise will deepen, and quit altogether upon destruction.

Saucers emanate from saucer sites.  These sites look like large square
cookie tins with an x in the bottom.

Portals
  The aliens have developed a means of instantaneous travel.  Portals are
small force fields that look like rectangles with the corners clipped.
There are several different types of portals. Some are used by saucers to
appear directly over the home airstrip.  These can be used by the clever
pilot as a means of getting home when his plane is not serviceable enough
to fly back.


  Other kinds take you to a random place in the theater, depending on
whatever the aliens used it for last.  Others are placed as traps that
result in a destroyed plane, or worse, instant death. Flying through one
of these tiny portals can be difficult.  Do not point your gunsight
directly at it, especially at a low airspeed.  If you do so, you will
surely fly under it.  Remember that to keep a constant altitude, you must
keep your nose above the horizon to produce lift.

Fences
  Fences are harmless objects that appear to be a means to keep idiot
shopping carts from accidentally destroying other enemy structures.  They
have no effect on us except that a collision with one will destroy a
plane.




How to Take Off, Land, and Fly Level
  The key to success in Corncob is to become a good flyer.  Only when a
pilot learns the abilities and limitations of his plane can he make the
complex maneuvers required to make it to the rank of General.

Takeoffs
  Pulling your plane up into the air is the easiest part of flying.
Merely put the throttle to the maximum, and pull up on the stick when you
reach over 150 mph.


  However, there are some details of which the pilot should be aware.  If
your plane is not lined up on the runway, you will have to maneuver on the
ground.  To steer your plane while taxiing the joystick is useless.  The
joystick controls the tilt of the plane; it cannot turn the plane.
Therefore, use the rudder controls to steer while on the ground.  Keyboard
controls for the rudder are the x and z keys, as well as the 7 and 9 keys
on the keypad.


  To bring the plane to a stop you must use the brakes.  These are the
left Shift key, the . key, or the 0 key on the keypad.  The plane must
be brought to a complete stop to qualify as a landing.


  Once you are lined up, bring the throttle up to max.  When you reach 100
mph, the tail of your plane will rise off the ground.  Keep the plane on
the runway by tapping the rudder keys if needed.  When you surpass 150
mph, pull back gently on the stick.  If you pull back too hard, the tail
will swing down so quickly that it will slam back down onto the runway,
thus kicking down your nose due to the bounce.  This can cause a crash, so
be careful.

Level Flight
  When in the air the most important thing is to avoid crashing into the
ground.  To achieve level flight you must keep your gunsight above the
horizon.  How high you must keep your nose depends on your airspeed.  Near
the stall speed of 100 mph, the nose must be kept much higher above the
horizon than when you are flying at 350 mph.


  There is an altimeter and a climb rate meter to help you fly level.  A
warning light will flash if your altitude drops below 150 feet. When
climbing, keep an eye on your airspeed.  If this drops below 100 mph, then
you may not have enough airspeed to fly.  This makes a stall possible.

Stalls and Advanced Aerodynamics
  A stall occurs when the air traveling over the wings becomes turbulent.
This results in a dramatic loss of lift, and unless corrected, the plane
will invariably fall to the ground.  Stalling can be brought about by
letting your airspeed drop below stall speed, or it can also occur as a
result of an imprudent aerobatic maneuver.


  Ordinarily one thinks of the wind striking a plane from directly head
on.  However in real flight the wind must be coming from a direction
slightly below the nose.  This is required because the wind must hit the
wings on the bottom surface to push the plane up to counteract the
downward pull of gravity.  The variation of the wind direction from the
directly head on direction is called the angle of attack.  The greater the
angle of attack is, the more the wind direction appears to be coming up
from below the nose.


  The greater the angle of attack, the more lift your plane feels.  When
you pull back hard on the stick, you are tilting up the nose of your plane
while tilting the tail downward.  This act changes the apparent direction
of the wind.  Before you pulled back on the stick the wind was coming
almost head on.  After tilting your plane's nose, the apparent wind is
coming from beneath the plane.  The wind hitting the bottom of wings is
what starts lifting the plane (accelerating the plane in the upward
direction).  As the nose lifts, you are increasing the angle of attack,
thereby increasing the lift, and the plane will begin to rise.


  Once the plane has accelerated in the upward direction, then the
apparent wind angle lessens. This is because the upward speed of the plane
has changed the apparent wind direction.  (Sailors are familiar with this
effect; the apparent wind direction depends on what direction and how fast
their boat is moving.)


  Stalls occur when the angle of attack is too great.  At this point the
air no longer travels smoothly over the wing.  This determines the lowest
flying speed of a plane.  The lower the airspeed of the plane, the greater
the angle of attack must be to maintain level flight.  If the airspeed is
too low the plane begins to lose altitude, thus increasing the angle of
attack (just as the upward motion of the plane decreases the angle of
attack).  If the pilot then raises the joystick in an attempt to stop
losing altitude, that angle of attack may go beyond the stall angle, thus
causing the stall.


  In a real plane a pilot can use his senses to judge when he is close to
the stall speed, but in Corncob there are just the instruments.  In a real
plane the pilot knows how much force he can put safely on the stick.


  However, in a computer simulation, the joystick tension does not reflect
the flight situation. Therefore, Corncob has in it an automatic stall
preventer that limits the stick travel to the maximum attainable without
causing a stall.  This does not mean that it is impossible to stall. The
stall preventer simply limits the control stick from causing a stall which
would be the result of pulling back too hard.

  The most common cause of a stall is simply that the airspeed dropped too
low to sustain flight.  Another common cause is excessive sideslipping.
The aerodynamic model that Corncob uses includes sideways motion of the
plane through the air.  When the rudder is used it kicks the nose of the
plane to the right or left, without necessarily changing the direction of
motion of the plane.  This changes the apparent wind direction to be
either to the left or right of head on. This sideslipping can also result
from turning the plane on its side, and letting gravity pull the plane
downward.  (You obviously cannot fly level with the plane on its side,
since then the wings' lift is not pulling against gravity.)


  If the plane is in a fast sideslip, and then the plane is quickly
righted, and the stick is pulled, the momentum of the plane can result in
the effects of left-right wind angle being added to the up-down angle of
attack, thereby pushing your angle of attack over the stall angle.


  Also, a damaged plane can be much more likely to stall.  Wing damage
will lower the lift of the wings, and control damage can make the stick
jitter beyond what the automatic stall preventer can handle.  Of course
engine damage will lower airspeed, and rudder damage will increase level
flight sideslip.

How to Get Out of a Stall
  To get out of stall means getting your forward airspeed up.  Since your
direction of motion is invariably down when stalled, the best idea is to
get the nose pointed down.  Of course your throttle should be place to
maximum also.


  Getting out of a stall can depend on interpreting the airspeed direction
indicator.  The red ball tells which direction the apparent wind is coming
from.  In level flight it should be riding not in the center, but below
center.  When you yank back on the stick you will see the red ball drop as
the angle of attack increases and the opposite when you slam the stick
forward.


  When you are slipping sideways the ball will go to the left or right.
Try hitting the rudder keys to watch as the apparent wind direction moves
to the left or right, then snaps back.  It snaps back because all stable
planes are balanced to have the plane automatically turn into the
sidewinds.  How fast it snaps back depends on your airspeed.


  So now that we understand the red ball, here is how it can help you.
When the red ball is somewhere near the center you are OK.  When stalled
the wind direction can be so far off center that it disappears from the
display altogether.  To become unstalled involves getting that red ball
back on the screen.  If you were doing a hairy maneuver at the time, try
just reversing the stick to try to undo whatever aerodynamic motion you
did last.  If you are below 1,000 ft, consider ejecting.  It takes time
and altitude to recover from a stall.


  Note that when the stall is so bad that your airspeed is nil, then you
have lost the ability to control the plane with the control surfaces.  In
fact, it is even possible for your plane to fly backwards with the
controls operating in a reversed fashion.  Even backwards airspeed is
better than zero.  If you are falling backwards, pull the stick back to
push the nose down.  Once the nose is down, hold her there until you get
some forward airspeed.

Landing
  This is one of the hardest parts of learning to fly.  This requires much
patience, but in time you will be able to swoop down from the vertical
direction and pop the plane down in seconds.


  The biggest problem for beginners is to get lined up properly.  One
point to remember is that you must not fly toward the middle of the
runway.  Fly towards the close end of the runway, or a point on an
imaginary line running the length of the runway and beyond.  Once you are
over that imaginary line, then turn your nose to point towards the end of
the runway.  Getting lined up is especially difficult in Corncob, due to
fact that the plane may be slipping sideways.


  When you get close enough to the runway where it starts to switch from
being drawn as lines, to being drawn with filled black rectangles, engage
the flaps, and drop your throttle to zero.  (But if your airspeed drops
below 100 mph you may need to bump it up again.)  At this point you should
be no higher that 1,000 ft.


  In Corncob your plane has automatic landing gear that pops down as
required.  (It's actually a force field gear using stolen technology.)
The pilot does not need to explicitly engage the gear.


  Now let the plane drop, shedding that altitude before you reach the end
of the runway. When you get to 100 or 200 feet, level the plane out for
the final drop to the runway.  If you are not lined up well, be ready to
punch the throttle and take off for another pass.  This is very important,
because with your throttle dropped, once you have leveled out, the plane
begins to decelerate.  As the airspeed drops below 100 mph your plane
becomes very unresponsive to the stick.


  If you are not perfectly lined up, but are low and over the runway, then
drop and steer with the rudder once your wheels touch.  The gear of your
plane is quite tough, and on the runway surface you can have your rate of
climb meter almost pegged negative and still survive.  Landing on the
grass can be done, but requires a much more sensitive touch down.


  It is a good idea to be holding down the brake key throughout the whole
landing process. The left Shift key is situated conveniently for the left
hand to operate the brakes and rudder controls.  For those that use the
left hand on the joystick, use the keypad rudder and brake controls.


  Once you have solidly touched down you may taxi about using your rudder.
 Be careful to keep your speed down while taxiing (especially if your
flaps are down) because it may cause you to lift into the air
inadvertently, and then cause a crashlanding.  Remember that on the
ground, the stick is useless, and you must steer with the rudder keys.
Pulling the stick over on the ground may cause your plane to flip and
cause death.


  There are two different types of crashes.  One is a fatal wreck and the
other type is a crashlanding.  A crashlanding is where your plane is
brought down too hard, and the landing gear fails.  The plane then spins
to a stop on the ground.  When it stops, your plane is dead and will not
fly again until repaired.  If you are close to your airstrip the repair
crew can fix it.  (Do this by entering the control tower through the door
on foot.)


  The other type of crash is the fatal crash.  This happens if you slam
into the ground too hard, or if your plane is so tilted during landing
that your wing tip hits.

Midair Collisions
  There many types of objects that will destroy your plane if you collide
with them.  When this happens your plane bounces and the damage indicators
immediately max out.  The screen border turns dark red, and the eject
light begins to flash.  At this point you should bail out, since it is
likely that you will die if you try to land the plane.  Don't bother
trying to make it back to base.  (Although landing such a plane has been
done on occasion, it most often proves to be a fatal mistake.)


  Some of the objects that will destroy your plane in a collision are:
saucers, fuel dumps, TRFRUs, and generator orbs.




How to Turn Your Plane
  A combat aircraft is a very heavy object.  (A Corsair weighs 14,000
pounds.)  Changing the course of such a massive object takes a huge amount
of force.  Negotiating a turn requires an aircraft to be pushed laterally
with a large force.  Although one might think that the rudder pushes the
plane through a turn, this is not true.  The rudder and the other control
surfaces only rotate the plane; to change the plane's flight path requires
using the force of lift from the wings.


  An airplane turns very differently than an automobile.  A non-skidding
car will instantly travel in the direction it is pointed.  A plane however
can easily slide sideways with little resistance.  Think of the plane as a
car with greased metal tires.  When the driver turns the nose of the car
it will simply slip sideways.  But if the driver could find a nice banked
curve, he could use the sideways force from the bank to provide the
sideways force needed to push his car around in a turn, thus turning his
car quickly without needing good traction.


  An airplane turns using this method. The pilot banks the aircraft, thus
using the tendency of the plane to sideslip to the downward side to
exactly counteract the sideslip caused by turning the plane's nose.  So
the sideways force needed actually to make the flight path of the plane
follow a turn is provided by making the huge lifting force of the wings
pull the plane sideways.

How to Turn Your Plane in Corncob
  Corncob's advanced flight model makes turning different than on many
commercial flight games that have simpler models.  With a little practice,
however, you will find the plane is just as maneuverable.


  To turn your plane simply move the stick left or right.  The plane will
begin to bank. Don't be too shy, give the plane a nice 45 degree bank.
Now that the wings' lift is no longer pulling straight up, you will lose
some lift, and your nose may drop.  Pull back on the stick to keep the
nose above the horizon.  You will notice that as you pull back on the
stick, your nose will be pulled into the turn.  To make a typical combat
turn, place the plane on its side, so that the horizon forms a vertical
line.  Then pull all the way back on the stick, and hold it there until
you have the compass reading what you desire.  Then simply flatten your
plane back to the level.  Be careful not to let the nose drop during the
turn.  You can always bring it up by unbanking the plane a little, and the
nose will lift since you are holding the control stick back. This method
of turning is actually easier than a slow coordinated turn.  The price for
the fast turn is airspeed.


  The fastest turns are done with the flaps engaged, since this greatly
increases the lift from the wings.  Be careful not to let your airspeed
drop too much.  Flaps increase drag also.


  Note that the amount of time required for the turn depends very much
upon your airspeed. (Just like in an automobile, when moving fast you
cannot make tight turns.)




Dealing With Air Density and Gravity Variations
  In the Corncob Other Worlds Campaign you will be flying missions on a
wide variety of planet types with different sizes and atmospheres.  Here
are some of the simpler ways your plane is affected by these variations.

Thin Air
  The plane will maneuver more sluggishly in thin air.  Your nose will
have to be kept much higher above the horizon to fly level, and stalling
is much easier.  Flaps are a must, as well as plenty of airspeed.  One
good thing about thin air is that the air drag is much lower, thus
enabling higher airspeeds and acceleration.

Thick Air
  Thick air improves maneuverability and increases air drag.  It is much
harder to stall.  Thick atmosphere is in some ways equivalent to flying
with the flaps engaged.  Maximum airspeed is lower in thick air.  Your
stall speed is lower, thus making landings easier.

Weak Gravity
  Weak gravity raises maximum airspeed of level flight, and the nose is
kept closer to the horizon.  Certainly climbing is much easier, and in
some cases, continous vertical flight is possible.  Caution must be
exercised, however, as the unwary pilot may find himself in orbit by
mistake.


  The good news is that in a stall situation the pilot will have more time
to get the plane under control before hitting the ground.

Heavy Gravity
  Strong gravity decreases maximum airspeed of level flight, and the nose
is kept farther above the horizon.  Certainly climbing is much harder.
Keep in mind that your stall speed will be much higher, and that could
make landings a little more difficult.


  The airspeed picked up in a dive will be more significant, and the time
you have to get out of a stall before plummeting to the ground will be
much reduced.




How to Use Your Missiles, Bombs, and Guns

Aiming
  Your main goal in Corncob is to destroy alien forces.  You accomplish
this by using your guns, missiles, and bombs against enemy targets.  In
addition, you must sometimes use your offensive weapons for self-defense.
(For example, your guns can explode approaching AAA shells, and enemy
missiles).


  The most obviously important requirement for successful gunnery is
aiming.  Your gunsight shows where the bullets will strike a non-moving
target.  There is much technique involved with holding the gunsight on
target, since your plane has to follow the rules of aerodynamics.  This
technique will have to be developed over time and cannot be learned by any
other way but experience.  However, don't be afraid to use the rudder.
The rudder is an excellent way of turning your nose fast for a quick shot
to the side.  An experienced pilot who uses the rudder can destroy twice
as many targets as the pilot who uses the stick alone.


  As far as shooting moving targets, don't forget to lead your target
properly.  By the time your bullets reach the target, most likely the
target will be somewhere else.  When attacking a KLA for example, try to
judge where it will be when the bullets get there, and fire ahead of it.

When shooting at ground targets the most important thing to remember is to
watch your altitude.  Remember that you must keep your nose above the
horizon to maintain altitude, so that means you can only shoot at the
ground for a limited time before breaking off to regain altitude.


  Both your guns and missiles can be used continuously, but after an
initial burst, the firing rate will drop to a slow plodding beat.  If you
want a better chance of taking out something quickly, wait until you are
on target, and release a volley.


  An important consideration when attacking fixed targets is rate of
closure.  To destroy something in the least amount of time, you would like
to make as few passes over it as possible. If you come screaming in over
the target at 350 mph, then chances are you will get in only a few shots
before you must pull up and around for another pass.  That's why it is
sometimes a good idea to cut the throttle, and throw down the flaps when
engaging a ground target.  With an airspeed of 150 mph you have twice the
amount of time to pound the target.  Many times this gives you enough time
to take out the mission objective in one pass.  If you do this, however,
be sure keep an eye on your airspeed.  As soon as you level out or start
to climb, your airspeed will quickly fall below stall speed unless you
remember to slap the throttle back up.

Guns vs. Missiles
  When should you use guns, and when should you use missiles?  Guns are
fast, delivering a stream of destruction.  Missiles take time to
accelerate and deliver isolated punches of firepower.

Although missiles have more punch, they have a tendency to blow up in your
face if used at the wrong time.  Missiles explode when any object is
within their proximity.  This makes them less sensitive to aiming errors
but also dangerous to use.  Never use missiles when close to a forcefield.
 The fields will often blow your missiles up us soon as they leave their
launch tubes, thus causing brutal damage to your plane.  This can happen
even though your plane is well away from the forcefields.  Never use
missiles alone to engage AAA sites.  The shells from the AAA will be
flying so near you that the missiles may explode directly in front of you
as they encounter AAA shells.  The combination of guns and missiles works
well, though, since the guns explode the shells long before they come near
your plane.  Be sure to open up with guns first, then start the missiles.
Never use missiles when you are too close to the target.  The explosion
will damage your plane.


  Your guns are almost always safe to use.  Although the bullets may also
explode when they contact forcefields, they are safer to use.  Most
explosions caused by gunfire are safe to fly through, so it is the weapon
of choice for close engagements.  They are particularly good for taking
out KLAs, since they are easier to aim when leading the target and send a
stream of firepower, rather than discrete charges.  If a KLA is charging
down your throat, use guns, not missiles.


  Most of the time a combination works well.  On tough targets, use the
guns first, and when you start getting hits on the target, send a volley
of missiles.
  Bombs
  Although your plane can create unlimited bombs, they regenerate at a
slow pace.  Your bomb display shows how many you have available to you.
The maximum number of bombs available at any time is three.


  These bombs cause an initial impact, and then release clusters of
bomblets that cause additional damage.  As you watch your bomb explode in
the rear view, you can see the yellow bomblets take to the air, then fall
back to earth.  So although you need a direct hit to cause serious damage,
the bomblets can damage neighboring targets.  If the bomb detonates near
the ground, a crater is formed.  This crater is very hot, and will
continue to damage targets in contact with the crater at a constant rate
until the crater disappears.


  The bombs are very light for their volume and decelerate quickly once
they leave the plane. There is a lot of technique for making successful
bombing runs.  In Corncob, most of the bombing is divebombing, since there
is no bomb sight for high altitude bombing.  Most of the time your plane
is at about 200-600 feet, and just as your target disappears from your
view as you pass over it, release your bombs.  Then pull up fast to get
away from the blast and to watch the bombs hit in the rear view.  The
craters will tell how close you were to the target.


  Note that exactly when to release depends heavily on your airspeed and
altitude, as well as your direction of flight during the drop.  This will
simply have to be learned via trial and error.


  As with missiles, bombs are proximity devices.  This means you should be
careful in the presence of forcefields or AAA shells.  Bombing
high-quality AAA sites is not always such a good idea, since the AAA
shells can explode the bomb in your belly, and also because you are a
perfect target as you fly away.


  Be careful when dropping bombs at low altitude, especially when your
airspeed is low.  The bomblets reach hundreds of feet into the air.


  Bombs have been successfully used against KLAs that are right on the
tail, and against saucers, but this sort of bombing is very tricky.
Bombing shopping carts is great sport, because you can take advantage of
the fact that some kinds of them follow your plane fairly well.


  Bombs can be dropped from any position, even while inverted.  The bomb
delivery mechanism is very flexible.




Defensive Flying & Making it Home With a
  Shot-up Plane Bringing your plane back to base is necessary to earn a
good score.  Although any clown can make effective suicide runs into enemy
targets, it takes a seasoned pilot to weather the enemy storm, and still
make it back to base.


  The two most important air threats are deathballs and AAA sites.  To
avoid being shot out of the sky by AAA requires some facts about AAA.  In
Corncob the aliens' AAA shells glide slowly up from the AAA sites, without
gravity effects.  The shells can be seen as brown dot or spheres fly
upwards towards you.  Coming near anything will set off the AAA shells,
and bullets will certainly do the job.  If you are attacking a lone AAA,
or a close bunch of AAA, your best defense is a good offense.  Blowing
away those approaching shells with gunfire is the most effective defense.
This technique is limited in the presence of KLAs however, since you
cannot stay flying in a straight line when deathballs are charging up on
your tail.  This method will also fail for widely dispersed AAA, since the
shells coming from the side will be pounding you as you stay locked on
another installation.


  These shells are equally capable of destroying alien targets as well.
As result of that fact, ground based AAA will only fire so low.  Anything
on the ground should be safe from AAA. It is possible to fly under their
range of fire.  This means flying under 150 feet (or lower if you are
close to the site).  This method is also limited in the presence of enemy
KLAs, since you will need room to do evasive maneuvers.


  AAA sites have the same problem as any other gunner does when the target
is moving. This is the problem of leading the motion of the target, so
that you are actually firing at where the target will be, not where it is
now.  The aliens have 8 different qualities of AAA.  The lower 4 qualities
do not have to ability to lead targets.  Therefore, if you can always be
flying with the AAA on your side, you will not be hit if you keep your
airspeed up.  The higher quality AAA can lead, so to avoid them you must
change your flight path often in such a way as to make them anticipate
incorrectly.  The target-leading AAA assume you will fly in a straight
line at your present speed.  If the AAA is on your side, and you fly up
and down, you may lessen the hits.  In the case of high-quality AAA,
however, the only techniques that work well are the first two.


  KLAs are not hard to evade no matter what their quality is, provided
there is only one of them in the area.  Deathballs are enemy missiles that
always try to fly directly at you.  Since they do not lead their target,
they will invariably end up chasing you from behind.  When a KLA has a
lock on you it will flash.  In addition to flashing, it will also turn on
its maximum thrust, and try to come screaming in to finish in a blaze of
glory against your hapless plane.


  Although this death charge can be very effective, it can also be used as
a defense for you. If you wait until the last second before impact, and
then pull up as hard as you can, the KLA cannot turn fast enough to follow
due to its high speed.  The spitball will then pass under you, enabling
you to snap your nose down and blow it up with your guns.  If there are a
number of foes forming a train behind you, this technique will lead to
disaster.  Although you will have evaded the first in the train, his
friends will surely eat you alive when you punch your nose back down.

The solution is to pull up, but continue the loop in hopes of shaking the
whole train.  In a sky full of missiles, this works for a while, but you
must eliminate their sites, because eventually you will become toast
unless you can dwindle their numbers.  Knife fighting like this with
deathballs is very dangerous in the presence of AAA sites.  Your airspeed
will drop quickly with this much maneuvering, and a fumbling plane in the
air is an easy low-deflection target for even the stupidest AAA.


  When your plane has been trashed miles from the nearest friendly
airstrip, don't despair, plenty of pilots have made back to base with
planes that were just about as flyable as a big stone.  (Landing a plane
that has collided with a saucer has even been done, but landing a plane
that has more than 100 hits depends a lot on luck.)


  The two most important factors when you are trying to make it home are
airspeed and altitude.  The worst possible situation is to be very far
from your base flying 100 mph at 500 feet.  Usually there will also be
more KLAs in the area, and evading them with a damaged plane can be
impossible.


  But even in the worst situation all hope is not lost.  The clever
designers of your modern plane have installed a rocket motor, which can
give you the altitude and airspeed you need to make it back.  Look at your
turbo boost gauge.  The needle should be green, indicating the rocket is
charged and ready.  Hit the i button and start climbing.


  If your flaps are engaged, tap them off, but only after engaging the
rocket motor, since it is possible you could stall just by pulling back
the flaps.


  Your rocket motor will burn for 15 seconds.  The turbo boost gauge
needle will be red during the boost and go to blue when the charge is
spent.  It will take about 120 seconds to recharge the booster.


  Now concentrate on keeping the slowest descent possible while
maintaining airspeed.  If KLAs are screaming up on your tail, it may be
best to let them hit you, if you think you will certainly stall.  Don't
forget to try dropping a bomb when they get very close.  Many times this
will take them out without having to maneuver.


  When the turbo boost gauge needle goes back to green, you may want to go
for another rocket thrust.  Never use the rocket thrust while on the
landing approach, since you cannot stop it once you have started a burn.
Unless of course you wish to abort the landing attempt, and need airspeed
quickly to avoid a stall.




Running Around -- Welcome the Assassin
  Part of your job as a pilot will be on special forces missions.  In
these missions you may have to land your plane in enemy territory and
engage the enemy on foot.


  When you leave your parked plane and venture into enemy territory on
foot, you are taking the risk of being captured or killed.  You can be
killed by AAA shells or KLAs.  You can be captured by shopping carts or
aliens themselves.


  To defend yourself, you take a handgun with 20 rounds of ammo, and one
assassin bomb. The plane has an inexhaustible supply of these, so you may
always go back to the plane to resupply yourself.  You can even retrieve
handgun ammo and bombs from crashed planes.


  To move around when standing, turn yourself with the keypad arrow keys,
and move the 5 key and walk in reverse with the 0 key on the keypad.  If
you want to go far, hold down the advance time key t simultaneously.


  You also have the capability to jump.  Hold down the j key, and you will
see a magenta bar on the side of your screen.  The longer you hold down
the j key, the higher you will jump when you release the key.  Jumping is
a capability that is necessary for some mission that take place on
air-based structures, and you have to jump from one pad to another at
20,000 ft.  You have the unique capability of changing direction or
stopping and starting horizontal movement while in the air.  When jumping
off something down to the ground, be careful not to jump too high, or else
you may be killed.


  Some objects will support your weight and others won't.  Horizontal
forcefields, fuel dumps, platforms, and control towers will support your
weight.


  Enemy ground transports seek you out, and when they are close, start to
drag you towards them.  You can evade them by defensive gunfire, hopping
to safety, or by luring them into your crashed plane or perhaps one or
their own structures.


  Aliens just bumble about randomly and are not much of a threat, but
watch your back.


  Your assassin bomb is planted with the ; key.  When you plant a bomb it
will remain where you planted it until it is time to detonate with the d
key.  The bomb will stay suspended in the air if that is where you have
placed it.  The d key will not directly detonate the bomb; however it will
be armed, and it will begin to drop when the d key is pressed.


  The most common use for assassin bombs is against mindbenders.  These
devices are vulnerable only to bombs.  Adjust your position until you are
standing in the center of the device. Then plant the bomb, and walk away.
When you are satisfied that you are far enough away, detonate the bomb
with the d key.




Scoring and Promotion Rules

Scoring
  Your score for a mission is determined by a formula outlined below.
Your raw score (which depends on how much stuff you killed) is multiplied
by 3 factors.  These three factors depend on what happened during your
mission.  For example say your raw score for a mission was 1,000.  Further
suppose that you returned from your mission, and landed your plane safely
at an airstrip.  Then your final mission score would be:

5 * 5 * 1 * 1,000 = 25,000

But say you ejected in combat and had to be rescued by the rescue van.

4 * 1 * + * 1,000 = 2,000


  Here you can see that bringing your plane home increased your score by
10 times.


  Now let's say you brought your plane back but didn't have the guts to
try and land it.

5 * 1 * 1 * 1,000 = 5,000


  So you can see it is worth it to learn how to land the plane.  It may be
impossible to get a Stellar Cluster without landing your plane.


  If you make multiple flights during your mission, the multiplier
reflects the worst thing you did.  For example, if you crashland a plane,
but then take another into the air (without quitting the mission) and do a
great job, and even land beautifully, your multiplier will reflect the
fact that you crashlanded.  The fact that you also landed will not affect
your score.


  Therefore you can see that flying against multiple mission objectives
may raise up your score, but you are jeopardizing the points you have
already earned by risking a crashlanding or worse. Of course you'll never
top the high score list without taking some chances.


  Technical Score Calculation
  The score is a product of four factors.


  score = pmsf * msf * nplf * mobf


  pmsf is Present Mission Status Factor  (KIA, MIA, HOME, RESCUE).


  msf is Mission Status Factor (unhome-crshlnd,eject
inflt,crsh-home,land-home).


  nplf is number of Planes Lost Factor, which = 1/(number of planes lost +
1).


  mobf is Mission Objective Factor (number of kills).

Promotions
  One of the most exciting aspects of Corncob is the possibility of
promotions and medals. Once you have started a character, he can progress
up the ranks, with the ultimate goal of achieving general.  Making general
with a pure character (i.e. one that has not been killed and
resurrected) is the ultimate challenge in the game, and will rank you at
the absolute top in bragging rights.


  Promotions in Corncob are based on the number of completed mission
objectives (MO), and go as follows:
  2nd Lieutenant:  0  MO.      (You start at this rank.)
  1st Lieutenant:   1  MO.
  Captain:         8  MO.
  Major:          20 MO.
  Lt. Colonel:     20 MO in at least 2 different Theaters-of-Operation.
  Colonel:        20 MO in at least 3 different Theaters-of-Operation.
  General:      ALL MO in ALL required Theaters-of-Operation, plus
successful completion
      of the Secret-Mission.


  Note: Required Theaters-of-Operation are marked by a Yellow Block in the
list at the upper-right hand side of the Theaters-of-Operations menu.

Medals
  Medals are based on a variety of criteria.  Medals are listed in the
pilot summary shown in the roster, and T-of-O menus when a pilot or
theater is viewed.  In this case, the Medal is listed as a short
abbreviation, such as BS for Bronze-Star.  If the pilot has more than
one of the medal, the abbreviation is followed by a suffix indicating how
many such awards the pilot has, such as BS:2 for 2 Bronze-Stars.


  A complete list of all the medals and their abbreviations follows:


  Purple Heart: PH   Awarded for ending a mission with more than 27 units
of damage to
      your plane, without losing your plane, and without crashing unless
at home.

  Service Award: SA   Awarded for surviving 10 or more missions.

  Bronze Star: BS   Awarded for achieving a score of 10,000-19,999 points
in a mission.

  Silver Star: SS   Awarded for achieving a score of 20,000-49,999 points
in a mission.

  Gold Star: GS   Awarded for achieving a score of 50,000-99,999 points in
a mission.

  Stellar Cluster: SC   Awarded for achieving a score of 100,000 points or
more in a
      mission.  (This is really exceptional!)


  Distinguished Service Cross: DSC   Awarded for accomplishing 5 or more
mission
       objectives in a single mission.


  Theater Combat Medal: TCM   Awarded for completing ALL mission
objectives in a
       single Theater-of-Operation.


  Distinguished Flying Cross: DFC   Awarded for completing ALL mission
objectives in a
     single Theater-of-Operation without losing a plane.  This takes a
real hot pilot, as well as
       some consistent luck.


  Combat Master: CM  Awarded for completing ALL mission objectives in ALL
of the
       required theaters.  This is a prerequisite for making General.




Commonly Asked Questions

> Sometimes I can't get back into my plane.  I just go right through it.

  There are two possible reasons for this.  One is that you must walk at
least a couple plane lengths away before attempting to reenter.  This is
to avoid popping back into your plane before you had a chance to walk
away.

  The other possibility is that you walked too far from your plane.  If
you stray so far from your plane that it has shrunk to a point, then the
plane will engage the automatic security system, and lock itself up tight.
 In none of the missions is it imperative to walk anywhere near this far
from your plane.


> Sometimes when I eject or crashland, there is a continuous tone that
never fades.

  Under certain conditions, the stall indicator sound can get stuck on.
Just tap the s key twice to reset the sound system.


> Sometimes the game refuses to take me to a mission via F2, even though I
select it properly, and my plane has no damage.

  Each mission which can be teleported to has a line in the intelligence
briefing that starts with Sxyth.  When this line lights up, then you
are ready to teleport to that mission. Sometimes when mission briefings
are short, two Sxyth lines from different missions can be on the screen at
the same time.  In this case, the top Sxyth line will light up, and it is
this mission which you be teleported to.  If you desire the mission that
is lower down on the screen, you must move down with the arrow keys until
the mission above is scrolled off the screen.

  By the same token, if the description of the mission is very long, and
you have scrolled the Sxyth line off the screen while reading the
description, the teleport will not work.  Teleportation will always bring
you to the mission with the lit-up Sxyth only.


> When first lifting off the ground, why does the nose lift for a second,
and then seem to knock back down?

  If you pull back too hard on the stick while lifting off, your tail
wheel will be slammed back down onto the pavement, and when it bounces
upward, your nose appears to bounce downward.  It is possible to crash and
burn as a result of this, so pull back on the stick gently.


> Why does the stall light go on sometimes when I'm taxiing on the runway?

  The stall detector is looking at the airflow over the wings.  It is
calibrated to detect stalls when the plane is flying.  When on the ground,
the weight of the plane is held by the landing gear, thus making the stall
detector give incorrect readings.  Just ignore it.


> Why doesn't the plane steer worth a bean when I'm on the runway?

  Don't try to use the joystick to steer a grounded plane.  The control
stick left/right controls mostly only the roll (left/right tilt) of the
plane.  You must use the rudder controls to steer on the ground.  These
are the x and z keys, or the 7 and 9 keys on the keypad.


> Why don't the brakes appear to work?

  In Corncob, the brakes do NOT toggle on/off.  To stop you must hold down
the brake key until the plane comes to a complete stop.  For joystick
play, this is the left shift key, or keypad 0.  For keypad play, it is .
or keypad 0.


> Why doesn't the t key appear to work?

  In Corncob, the advanced time mode does NOT toggle on/off.  To fly in
advanced time, hold down t, and release it to return to normal flight.
Note that the time compression is directly related to your computer speed.
 To advance time to the fastest, increase the frame rate by using r and g
to turn off ground detail and the rear view.


  > Why does using the rudder in flight just make me stall?

  Unlike other flight sims, Corncob's flight model includes the capability
of your plane to slide sideways through the air.  The rudder causes your
nose to flip to the side, without necessarily changing the direction of
motion of the plane.  Using too much rudder (by holding the key down too
long), will cause the plane to turn to the point where it is hurling
sideways through the air. Note that as soon as you release the rudder, the
sidewind makes the nose tend to flip back into the sidewind, thus
restoring the original orientation of the plane.  The rudder is useful for
flipping the nose a little to the side for a quick shot at a side target
without the need of negotiating the slow process of turning the plane.


> How do I know when to end the mission?

  A large part of Corncob is bringing your plane back to the base.
Therefore you must bring your plane to a friendly airstrip, or else when
you go to fly again, you will have one less plane in that theater.

  To exit without losing a plane, exit the program with escape when you
are flying low over your airfield (with the radar tower flashing white),
or else land on the air strip.  Landing on the airstrip will give you a
much higher score multiplier, so it is worth an attempt if you think you
can do it without crashing.

  To find an airfield, use the map that is brought up with the m key.


> How do I zoom down closer when in map mode?

  When in map mode, the KEYPAD 9 key will zoom down, and the KEYPAD 3 key
will zoom up.  Use the joystick or keypad arrow keys to move around.  To
make the map jump back to your present position, hit the KEYPAD 7 key.


> Why do I die every time I eject, regardless of altitude?

  Ejecting successfully from a flying plane requires two keys: E to eject
and <SPACE BAR> to pull your ripcord.  If you don't pull your ripcord, you
will die when you strike the ground. If you bail out at 20,000 feet, wait
until you get closer to the ground before pulling your ripcord; otherwise
you will be stuck in the air for a long time.


> Why are some generator orbs seemingly indestructible?

  Some orbs have been designed to be invincible to normal weapons, and the
only effective way to take them out is via suiciding the plane into them.
Make sure you bail out before contact, or else you will be killed in the
ensuing explosion.  If you must bail a good way away from the target, hit
caps lock to control your plane remotely.  The indestructible orbs are a
light shade of blue/green.

> Why does the complete light refuse to go on even though I know the
mission is completed?

  The mission objectives have to be given some geometric scope via the
mission builder when the mission is created.  Almost all mission complete
sensing is done via the generator orbs.  If you have completed a mission,
but the complete light doesn't go, make a flyby of the mission's generator
orb (or it's remains), and many times the complete light will belatedly
light up.  Note that if your complete light never lights, you will not get
credit for accomplishing an objective.


> Sometimes my plane goes into a mode in which my keypad arrow keys stop
working, and something weird happens.

  Numlock toggles the keypad arrow keys between views and control of the
plane.  Note that the numlock light on the keyboard will not change.  If
you would like to use the views without changing the mode of the arrow
keys, hold down the left ctrl key to temporarily change the function of
the arrow keys to view, the normal function of the keys returns when you
release the left ctrl key.


> I can't find any way to put down the landing gear!

  The plane has landing gear that comes down automatically.  From a game
standpoint, it seemed unnecessary to have something that doesn't add to
the fun of the game and can cause pilots to be killed.  We all get
punished in life enough for being absent-minded; why be punished when
playing a computer game?

> Why can this Corsair do a loop directly after take off?


  Because the number one priority in this game is to have fun.  That meant
increasing the thrust of the engine by a factor of four.  For those sim
buffs who will criticize that, how many flight games keep the realistic
figure of 10-15 minutes just to climb to 10,000 feet?  Who wants to spend
1 hour of his life just sitting there watching your computer plane climb?


> I have completed all the mission objectives in a theater, but the
computer insists there is still one more.

  Many times you really have forgotten a mission.  Use the map to make
sure all the targets are destroyed.  Remember that many missions don't
show up unless you have zoomed down for a close up with the Pgup key.

  Most things should show up when one grid is about the size of the
screen.

  Another possibility is that a mission-objective type saucer has wandered
away during the melee, and is now somewhere unexpected, perhaps 10's of
miles away from the original mission site.  Track it down with the map
feature.  The new tower screen from the fly mission menu should tell you
to which airstrip the saucer is closest.

  Also, you can get exact info on every enemy object in the whole theater
with the F6 key inflight.  Your mission object should show up there, with
directions on how to get there from your current airstrip.

  Many times a secondary mission objective is mentioned in the mission
briefing.  This secondary mission also must be completed before a theater
is complete.  Often this is a generator orb.  All orbs with a black base
must be destroyed to finish a theater, whether the mission information
directs you to do this or not.




General Strategy and Flying Hints

Attack Priorities
  When attacking an installation protected by both KLAs and AAA, first
attack the high-quality AAA.  These defenses will chew you up quickly when
you attempt evasive maneuvers.  Then go for the top-notch KLA sites.  Once
these threats have been dealt with, proceed with the rest of the defenses
at your leisure.

Don't stray too far from targets during battle.
  Because of the way Corncob keeps track of various objects in the game,
any object that gets too far away from yourself goes into suspended
animation.  This is simply so that the computer doesn't get bogged down
with animated objects that are too far away to matter anyway.  A side
effect of this is that objects that are left far into the distance are
frozen.  When you return to them these objects come back to life, but
their damage levels have been reset to their original value.


  Therefore, beware of using advanced time to fly very far away between
passes on an orb or saucer.  You may be causing the target to be repaired
between each pass! Use the half barrel roll to ease blackouts quickly.
When a high-g turn blacks you out, the quickest way to get that blood back
into your brain is to do a quick high-negative-g turn.  Simply easy up on
the stick, and flip your plane around upsidedown, and push forward on the
stick.  If you managed to flip the plane correctly, you should still be
turning in the desired direction, and your vision should return very
quickly.


Use dumpy planes to do high-risk platform missions.
  When you have to land on a suspended airstrip and proceed on foot to a
difficult assignment, it is not unusual to fall off a platform, and to
leave your plane abandoned up on the airstrip. You may want to ferry your
late model planes away from one of the airstrips in the theater. Then when
you fly again from the planeless airstrip, the program will ask you if you
want to pull a dumpy plane from storage.  Take the dumpy plane to the
suspended mission, so you won't lose a good plane if you fall.

Avoid bounce-back on suicide missions.
  Some missions involve suiciding your plane into a generator orb.  Be
aware that your plane will bounce backward upon impact.  It is not
uncommon for the plane to bounce back toward you so that you find yourself
back in the cockpit after collision, hurtling toward the ground in a ball
of flaming wreckage.


  Be ready to eject again in case this occurs.  Take care to time your
ejection correctly so this doesn't happen.  Note also, the hint given
above about using dumpy planes for dangerous mission applies to suicide
missions also.

Beware of flying low over craters.
  To make bomb craters be effective against enemy structures, they had to
be given a collision-radius that extends significantly above the ground.
As a result of their deadliness against enemy objects, they are also
deadly to you and your plane.


  Even when flying low over them, you may find your plane in collision.
The prudent pilot avoids flying low over craters.


Use rudder to reduce airspeed on runway.
  Sometimes when landing on suspended runways it is imperative to come to
a quick stop. Hold down the brake key, and simultaneously work the rudder
back and forth.  The swishing of the tail will help you slow down, as well
as making your path longer to the end of the runway. Take care not to
direct the plane off the edge.


Use barrel roll to reduce airspeed on approach.
  When making a high-speed landing approach, you sometimes want to drop
your excess speed. Dropping the flaps, and cutting back on the throttle
many times isn't a big enough effect, especially if your angle of descent
is too steep.  In this case, try pulling the stick all the way back, and
fully to the side.  The plane will travel in a barrel roll and end up in
approximately in the same flight path, but with the airspeed down
significantly.


Use teleportation to get out of trouble.
  This is a bit of a cheat, since it is an unrealistic way out of
impending doom.  The purists will not want to do this, since it twists a
convenience feature of the game into an irrational combat advantage.


  If you are in deep doo-doo and are worried that you will not get out of
this situation alive, simply hit F2, and select a new mission.  If you are
somewhat damaged, you may want to choose a mission that is close to your
airstrip.  Also, you might want to choose a mission that you have already
completed.


  Note that to keep this feature from being abused, there is a rule that
you cannot teleport if your plane has sustained serious damage.


Use autopilot when heavily damaged.
  When your plane is a flying scrap, and you are having difficulty keeping
your plane in the air due to excessive control damage, try turning on the
autopilot.  This should help you keep the plane reasonably level.  The
autopilot will react faster than you, and can make the difference needed
to make it home safely.


  Beware that the autopilot will interfere with attempts at evasive
maneuvers.  If you are going to try to dodge a KLA, make sure you
disengage the autopilot first.


  Use the emergency rocket booster to full advantage. When you are
surrounded by KLAs, and you have taken too many hits to risk continuing,
hit i to ignite the rocket booster.  If you are at low altitude, pull the
nose up to vertical to get the maximum altitude gain from the rocket.
However, be sure to push the nose back to the horizontal BEFORE the
booster runs out.  This is because you will really need the airspeed in
addition to the altitude.


  If you already have good altitude (for instance if you are in a high
altitude mission), then use the rocket booster for pure speed.  Disengage
the flaps to maximize airspeed, put yourself in level flight, and let her
rip.  You can outrun almost any of the KLAs with the booster.


  Note that it is generally a good idea to get the plane headed towards
your airstrip before engaging the rocket.  Tight turns with the booster
running will hurt your gained airspeed by quite a large amount.


Blast distant airborne KLAs.
  When approaching a mission from afar, many times there will be KLAs
already airborne and approaching from the front.  Frequently, these
pre-launched KLAs will be of higher quality than any of the nearby KLA
sites.  Therefore, it is usually a good idea to blow these approachers out
of the sky with missiles and guns.  Since they are advancing upon you
head-on, it is an easy zero-deflection shot.


When NOT to shoot KLAs.
  Keep in mind that KLA sites will only produce KLAs when the number of
active KLAs presently flying is less than the number of sites.  Therefore
if you shoot them, the sites will make more.  The key here is to only
shoot the high-quality deathballs.  There is a good chance that the next
site to create a replacement will be a lower quality site.  Thus by
shooting the high quality KLA, you have traded it for a low quality model.


  Of course, for the same reason, you should NEVER shoot a poor quality
KLA if there is a variety of sites around.  A high quality site may make
its replacement.


  Remember that the lower quality models pose almost no threat to the
seasoned pilot.


Shoot at KLA sites at every chance.
  When a KLA site takes some damage, it is prevented from production for a
period of time. Therefore, even if you haven't enough time to get in
enough hits to destroy the site, even one hit with a bullet is enough to
keep it out of commission for tens of seconds.


  When you see a clump of KLA sites, always spray a hail of bullets and
missiles over them just to stunt their output for a while.


Come into missions using Advanced Time:
  The KLA sites spit out KLAs after so many animation frames have been
displayed.  This is NOT keyed directly to real time.  This was implemented
to make game play easier for those users with slower computers.  Those
users need extra advantages to make up for the sometimes chunky animation
and slow response.


  The point of this is that the player change the relationship of real
time to animation frames by holding down the t key.  This will make the
plane travel much farther per frame.  Therefore, use this key while
approaching missions.  This will get your plane into the action before the
sites generate the first wave of deathballs.


Get KLAs to fly into enemy structures.
  Corncob was designed so that enemy objects can collide with each other.
A useful technique for dealing with a long string of tailing KLAs is to
simply trick them into flying into their own structures.  For example, it
is possible even to blow up a generator orb by leading deathballs into it.


  For best results keep your airspeed up, and make only gentle 180 degree
turns to avoid dispersing the stream.


Destroying strings of KLAs with your runway.
  If you have used all your bombs, and there is a long string of KLAs
about to hit you on your landing approach, there is no need to worry.  The
materials used in the runway will cause the KLAs to detonate prematurely
if they get close.


  Even if you have no intention of landing, a low flyby over the runway
will cause the trail to explode as they follow your lead over the runway.


Get rid of a KLA stream by dropping a low bomb.
  Certainly you can take out a single KLA that is very close to your tail
simply by dropping a bomb.  You aren't required to do any maneuver, just
drop the bomb.  However, you will frequently find that you have a long
string of them behind you, and only three bombs.  By flying low, and
dropping a bomb, the debris flying up from the explosion can take out
almost the whole string as they attempt to fly through the explosion.


Keep your airspeed up around AAA.
  The higher quality AAA will attempt to lead your plane so that the slow
moving shells will arrive on target despite the forward motion of your
plane.  Thus, the higher your airspeed, the more dispersed the enemy
shells will be.


  Letting your airspeed drop due to maneuvers is the fastest way to get
blown out of the sky by AAA.  When you drop your flaps to mix it up with
the KLAs is when they will get a bead on you.  Eliminate all the top notch
AAA before getting into knife-fights with the deathballs.


Stay low to avoid AAA fire.
  Ground-based AAA batteries cannot fire very low to the ground, for fear
of taking out their own structures.  It is possible to stay under their
firing angle by flying extremely close to the ground.  The closer you are
to the AAA site, the lower you must be to avoid fire.


Stay level with suspended AAA.
  AAA shells are programmed at firing time to explode at a certain
altitude.  Since the enemy is attempting to kill you, they program each
shell to explode when it reaches the altitude of your plane.  The exact
altitude of detonation is randomly distributed around the target altitude.


  The result is that if you manage to fly level with the AAA, the shells
are already at their detonation altitude before they even leave the AAA
muzzle!  Therefore the shells will almost always detonate before hitting
your plane.


Always use bullets and missiles when attacking AAA.
  The bad news is that AAA shells will explode your missiles as you fire
on an AAA site. Since the AAA site will be sending a continuous stream of
shells at you, then it is unlikely for your missiles to make it to the
target.


  The good news is that bullets will explode approaching AAA shells.
Therefore the best technique is to let loose a volley of bullets to take
out the slow-moving approaching AAA shells. Then send a group of missiles
together with more bullets.  That way the faster-moving bullets will take
out the AAA shells, clearing the way for the powerful missiles.


Never fly with your tail to the AAA.
  AAA works best on zero-deflection targets.  If you cannot use your
weapons to clear the air of approaching shells, then your best bet is to
be flying fast and perpendicular to the the AAA. You are most vulnerable
when flying directly away from the AAA site.  Then the AAA can shoot
directly at you with no target-leading or anticipation, and the rate of
closure is the slowest to ensure an accurate blast.


Avoid bombing AAA unless desperate.
  Many a pilot has been toasted by his own bomb while attempting this.
The AAA shells will detonate your bomb in the air.  For lower quality AAA,
the pilot can sometimes get lucky when the firing rate of the site is
fairly low.


Keep up your airspeed.
  When dealing with saucers with AAA, you must be aware of the fact that
you will not be able to down the saucer with one pass.  Therefore after
passing the saucer, it will chew you up as you attempt to fly away in
order to make another pass.  Your only defense is fly as fast as possible,
so that the time in which your tail is turned toward the saucer is
minimized.


  In addition, the faster your airspeed, the faster your missiles will
reach the target.  The launch speed of your missiles affects the
acceleration to max velocity in a positive way.  With a moving target like
a saucer, the faster your ordinance travels the better.


Keep level with the saucer.
  For the same reason that you should stay level with suspended AAA, you
should stay level with AAA fitted saucers.  This is especially true when
you are pulling away from the saucer.


  Try to time the oscillations of the saucer's movement. You will notice
that the saucer's evasive maneuvers are very periodic.  Therefore if you
notice that your missiles are always missing because of the saucer's
motion, try shooting where you think the saucer will be when the missiles
arrive.   If that isn't working, just spread your missiles around the
whole area through which the saucer is swinging.


Try to get behind the saucer.
  At any moment, all the saucers are traveling in a horizontal direction.
You want to approach in the same direction as the saucer is moving.  This
gives you a slower rate of closure, so that you can get more shots in
before you have to peel off to avoid collision.  It is possible to down a
saucer in one pass using this technique.


Do not fight saucers in close.
  Fighting a saucer up close usually ends in disaster.  The evasive
maneuvers it constantly executes make it too unpredictable a target at
close range.  In addition, there is a great risk of collision.  Upon
collision with a saucer, your plane becomes a ball of twisted wreckage.


  Although collision will take out the saucer, the brass doesn't look at
it as an even trade. Perhaps for the desperate, it may be worth suiciding
a dumpy plane for a top-ace saucer, though.


Keep your distance from ground vehicles.
  Ground vehicles do much random zipping around.  If you are up close,
those movements will cause you to go through wild aerodynamic gyrations in
order to keep those critters in your sights.  This is very likely to end
in a fatal stall, since when attacking ground targets you are probably
flying too low to recover.


  From a prudent distance, however, the cart's erratic movements can be
tracked with minimal difficulty and danger.  Use the plane's rudder to
spray bullets and missiles into a cloud about the vehicle.  Shopping carts
are not very tough, and in just a few lucky hits they will fall over dead.


Lead the top-notch carts into traps.
  The top-notch shopping carts will follow your plane with uncanny
ability.  It is almost impossible to get a clean shot at them because they
are always directly underneath your plane.


  If they are the variety that do NOT have flashing antenna, then your
best bet is to fly directly a fence, tick, or other structure in order to
lead them to their own destruction.


Climb and shoot.
  The high-quality flashing antenna carts can be defeated by climbing
high, dropping the flaps, and then come straight down at them with guns
blazing.  Make sure to break off before you pile into the ground.


Vertical bombing.
  Ordinarily, bombs are not effective against the agile carts.  However,
in the case of the high-quality models, you can use their tenacity against
them.  Fly exactly straight up.  Your pitch gauge should show your plane
as being straight up.  Then drop three bombs, and remain vertical until
the bombs explode.  If you are lucky, the shopping cart will have stayed
directly below you doing a little dance while the bombs rained down.


  Note that if you stall and fall out of your straight up climb before the
bombs reach the ground, then the shopping carts will have followed you and
moved out of the target area by the time the bombs fall.






Attack shopping cart sites first.
  As with KLAs, it is a losing battle to try take out all the carts first,
and then the sites. Instead, ignore the carts until all the sites are
history.  Then have fun tearing up the panicked vehicles.


Get away from the plane after leaving it.
  When you are outside your plane, you are very vulnerable to enemy
weapons.  Contact with a KLA, or AAA shell results in instant death.
Since both weapons will attack your plane, not yourself, it is a good idea
to get far way from your plane very quickly after ejecting.


Keep moving at all times if there are shopping carts around.
  The shopping carts are like the KLAs in that, despite their erratic
motions, they always head directly toward you.  Unlike the AAA, they do
not lead.  Therefore if you run in a straight direction, they will always
end up chasing behind you.  If you stay put, they will wander in from all
directions until you have no direction that is safe.


Look down at your feet when jumping platforms.
  When hopping from platform to platform, tilt your head down 30 to 40
degrees from the horizontal.  Otherwise when you jump, you will not be
able to see the platform you are attempting to jump onto.  Jump high into
the air, and hold an release the keypad '5' key to move forward just the
right amount to land you on target.


  Watch the far edge of the platform you are jumping to.  As long as you
don't pass over that edge, you will make the jump.  Keep that far edge
within your view, and you should have no troubles.


Use proper vertical angle with the handgun.
  Don't always assume that you should aim for the center of an object when
shooting with the handgun.  Some targets take more hits with the game
aimed high.  If you see grey spheres appear where the bullets hit, then
the bullets are striking the ground before damaging the target.


Experiment with position if the assassin bomb fails.
  The object-object collision algorithms used in Corncob were designed for
fast-moving objects colliding with stationary targets.  Assassin bombs
will not always detonate their targets correctly because of the design of
the game engine.  For instance, if a mind bender is sitting on a force
field, then a tricky situation can result.  Both the force field and the
mind bender can detonate a bomb.  Therefore, when the detonate command is
given, either the force field or the mindbender can be the cause of the
bomb's detonation.  If by chance the force field detonates the bomb first,
then the mindbender will remain intact through the bomb's detonation.


  Which object causes detonation is determined by the exact positioning of
the bomb relative to the target and the person.  Before collision
processing, all objects are sorted by distance from the observer, then
objects that are close together in the sorted list are compared for
collision. So if your bomb fails, try the next bomb in a position closer
or farther away from the target. Make sure the center of the force field
platform is not approximately the same distance as from you to the target,
etc.


Use your parachute to get extra hopping distance.
  Your parachute can be used even when jumping into the air.  If you are
particularly nervous about a jump, you may pull the chute string at the
height of your jump, and then float down slowly.  The disadvantage is that
you will swing for a bit, which can be disorienting.






The Corncob Program Itself
  Corncob 3D was written by Kevin Stokes, with a lot of additional
programming by George Welch.  The program documentation was written by
Kevin Stokes.  Original music was written by Jim Collymore, A.S.C.A.P.
All music in the game is copyright 1986-1991 James L. Collymore, and the
use of the three music files for any purposes except for Corncob 3D is
strictly illegal. The music is contained in the following files:
VOYAGE.ROL, DAYBREAK.ROL, and HEAVENS.ROL.  These files cannot be legally
copied or distributed without the author's permission.

  The VGA directory (created the first time Corncob 3D is run) contains
all the digitized artwork in the game.  These photos were extensively
retouched using the excellent program MVP Paint, by David Johndrow.  You
can order your own copy of this extremely useful program from MVP
Software.

  Corncob 3D was written in assembler and C.  The excellent library of
routines Spontaneous Assembly was used in developing the program.

  This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG
Group.




Contacting MVP Software & the Corncob BBS
  Call our 24-hour BBS (2400,n,8,1) and download the latest shareware
version of Corncob on the first call.  This is also the best way to get
technical help.  Call [phone].


  To contact MVP Software, call [phone] or write us at 1035 Dallas
SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49507-1407.  We can be reached on CompuServe at
70363,15.


  Corncob's author can be reached on Prodigy at DWHC72A, through Internet
at [e-mail], and on Genie at K.STOKES1.




Using the Mission Builder


  Theater Files and Tower Files
  When you play Corncob, all flying action is done by the program 3.EXE.
During flight, the player can use the map feature to locate objects.  The
mission builder is an extension of that map feature in 3.EXE.

  Normally you play the game by running the CORNCOB.BAT batch file.  This
batch file calls MOAG.EXE which in turn calls 3.EXE when Fly is chosen
from the menu.

  The theater files that came with the game are all named *.DEF, and they
reside in the DEF subdirectory of your Corncob directory.

  When you want to use the mission builder, you must run the 3.EXE program
directly. Before you do this you must have a valid universe file by the
name of 3UNIV.DAT in the current directory.  3UNIV.DAT is the only theater
file that the mission builder can operate on. It is up to the user to copy
that file to another name. Say you want to make a change to the universe
file FLATLAND.DEF.  First copy the file FLATLAND.DEF into the same
directory as 3.EXE, and change this file's name to 3UNIV.DAT (copy
def\flatland.def 3univ.dat).  Now run 3.EXE with the command line options
-rs.  Then make your changes, and upon exiting back to DOS, your 3UNIV.DAT
file is now different.

  You may want to copy it back into the DEF directory with the name
FLATLND1.DEF. Note that the file's extension must be .DEF, or else Corncob
will not include the new theater in the list of available theaters.

  NOTE: You must now copy the 3UNIV.DAT file back to a filename with a
.DEF extension. If you play the game without saving this 3UNIV.DAT that
you have just modified, it will be overwritten.  When you play the game,
Moag will delete any old 3UNIV.DAT file left sitting in the \Corncob
directory, so make sure you copy your newly modified 3UNIV.DAT file to
somewhere else.

  For every .DEF file in the DEF subdirectory there is a corresponding
.TWR file.  The .TWR file contains intelligence information that the user
will see when he requests it via F2, or at the beginning of the mission.
The tower files are just normal text files with 9 formfeeds (Control-L).
The body of text between each formfeed is a block of text that the user
will see when he starts from that particular airstrip.  The easiest way to
create your own tower file is to modify and existing tower file, rewriting
only the actual mission info, and leaving the airstrip names and formfeeds
alone.

  The start positions for the missions are programmed into the tower
files.  Each mission description has a line with the characters Sxyth in
it.  The numbers following these 5 characters contain the x, y, z, and yaw
angle.

  To program your own start coordinates, simply use the Map mode to
position the viewpoint where you want the pilot to begin the mission.
Hold down the left Shift key, and use the keypad arrow keys to change the
angles of the view point.  When you are satisfied with the position and
angle, copy the x,y,z and yaw angle numbers off the bottom of the screen.

  Then edit the tower file and insert these numbers after the Sxyth
characters.  Leave spaces between the numbers, and don't put any extra
spaces at the beginning of the line. Note that you can only set the yaw
angle (compass heading type) of the plane's start.  You can't change the
initial pitch or roll; i.e., you can't make the plane start out flying
anything but level at the start of a mission.  You can only change the
compass heading with which the user will start.

The Sun Position, Air Pressure and Gravity
  Tower files can start out with a line like the following:

X 6000 300 12 -48 10000 0 1500


  The X marks that the numbers on this line specify the sun size, position
and color.  Also specified is the gravity, air pressure, star flag, and
atmosphere extent.

How to Use the Mission Builder
  To start a fresh universe copy DEFAULT.DEF to 3UNIV.DEF.  DEFAULT.DEF is
a universe with just airfields in it.  Put the universe file in a file
called 3UNIV.DAT in the current directory. Then start the game with 3 -rs.


  When sitting on a runway in a plane, type m to go into map mode.  Make
sure the joystick is not drifting; use trim if needed.  Zoom in on the
area to be edited with Joystick/Arrow keys, and Pgup and Pgdn to change
the height.  When close to surface, hit b to enter the mission builder
mode.  When in MB mode the gunsight disappears.  This means that you can
tell mission builder apart from map mode by checking for the existence of
the gunsight on the screen.


  Close to the surface is a height of about 30,000-60,000 cm.  The numbers
on the bottom of the screen read X,Y, and Z in cm.  (Z is height.)


  When in MB mode the Joystick/Arrow keys will change the viewing
direction, just as if you are an ejected pilot.  Just like an ejected
pilot, the numpad keys 5, and Ins will move you forward or backward in the
direction in which you are facing.  The constraint that you remain on the
ground is however lifted.


  When you're slewing around in this method the non-keypad number keys
will change your walking rate.  For example, 1 makes you move slowly, 8
makes you move quickly.  Caps Lock will instantly level you out, so you
are looking at the horizon.  This is useful when you want to move in a
perfectly level direction.


  Now to select an object for moving/deletion/changing, you must bring up
the 3d cursor.  Do this by tapping the left Shift key.  A rotating ball of
spheres should appear in front of you.  If you move about, the cursor
remains in its position of creation.  Do not move too far away from the
cursor, or the program will become confused because it cannot operate on a
cursor that is in far object memory.  Be careful when using Pgdn
especially.  If you are going to move a far distance, turn off the cursor
with the left Ctrl key first.


  If you wish to move far away, tap the control key to make the cursor
disappear.  Also, you may return to the map mode with the cursor either
lit or unlit, and move around in map mode, and then back to builder mode
via the b key.


  The cursor can be moved with the Joystick/numpad arrow keys, if the the
Alt key is held down while doing so.  Pgup and Pgdn will move the cursor
up and down; however your viewpoint will also change height at the same
time.  (When you move the cursor up or down by holding down the left Alt,
and pressing Pgdn or Pgup, the cursor will remain at a fixed position
relative to you, but you AND the cursor will move up or down.)


  When you turn on the cursor, note that the numbers come back onto the
bottom of the screen.  These are no longer the viewing coordinates; these
are the coordinates of the cursor. The number 21 is the object type.  When
the cursor is displayed, the number is always 21.  The last number in the
list is the object quality.  This can be the wickedness of an AAA, or in
the case of a Headquarters orb, this defines the mission objective.  As
with many types of objects, the quality of the cursor is ignored.


  When you are near the ground, and the cursor is on, tap the c key to
create an object. The default object is a headquarters orb.  It should
create an orb at the cursor position that is big and blinking.


  Each type of object has an object number.  Object number 0 is a
generator orb.  Object number 1 is a mind bender, object number 2 is a
plane.  A list of objects and their type numbers is included below.


  Use the non-keypad += keys to cycle through the available objects.  The
current object should be sitting there blinking slowly.  Each time you
press the non-keypad + key, the object will change to the next object
type.  For example the HQ orb will turn into a mindbender.  As you cycle
through all the different objects, they will appear at their default
height above the ground.


  As long as the object is blinking you may move it around with the arrow
keys just like the cursor.  To make the keypad arrow keys operate on the
object instead of moving yourself, just hold down the left Alt key while
you press the keypad arrow keys.  The number keys will affect the motion
rate just like when moving about.  Be careful not to lose track of where
the object is.  If the object doesn't appear to moving in the direction
you are requesting, try tapping the non-keypad 1 key, thus setting the
speed to slow.


  Note that objects will always move in a horizontal plane when moving
them with the arrow keys.  An object's height can only be changed with the
Pgup and Pgdn keys.


  A blinking object will be deleted if the d key is pressed.  This means
that the current object you have just created (or selected) can be removed
from the universe with the d key.


  To make your blinking object a permanent object press the left Shift
key.  The currently selected object will stop blinking and is now a
permanent object just like any other object in the universe.


  If you wish to make changes to existing objects you must first make that
object become the current object; i.e. make the thing blink.  To select
your object move the cursor close to the center of the object, then hit
the space bar.  The space selects the object closest to the cursor.
BEWARE: Do not use the space bar if there are no objects close to the
cursor; you may get kicked out of the program with a critical error.


  Make sure the correct object is blinking.  If it is not, then probably
some other object (which perhaps you can't see from where your looking) is
selected, and all changes you make will be happening to the poor hapless
object that you have unwittingly selected.


  Objects can be rotated in place by holding down the a key, and then
using the arrow keys/joystick to rotate them.  To lock the object to the
nearest 90 degree plane, press the apropriate key.  NOTE: All objects can
be rotated, but non-circular objects such as forcefields should NOT be
rotated because the rectangle of collision of the forcefield will not be
rotated with it's image.


  Some of the objects have a special bit that can be set with the
mission builder.  For example, if a generator orb has its special bit set
it will be a gravity orb.  If a shopping cart has its special bit set,
then it can only be destroyed by a human weapon, and will never die via
collision with another object.  This special bit is set with the F9 key.
When an object's special bit is set, the object type number on the screen
bottom will turn purple.


  Like the special bit key, the F10 key will set an object's complete bit.
 The complete bit matters in only a few objects.  This is the bit that
keeps track of whether a mission objective has been accomplished.  If you
set the complete bit of an object, then the object type number at the
bottom of the screen will flash.


  One use of the complete bit is to make portals that would ordinarily
count as a mission objective, not count.  For example, say you wanted to
make a mission where you had to fly by a bunch of portals on the way to
your real mission objective.  If you just create the portals, then all of
them would count as mission objectives.  If you set their complete bits
ahead of time, then they will count has having been already flown through.

Zlocking
  Often one wants to create many objects all at the same height.  This can
be accomplished with zlocking.  Simply put the first of these objects at
the desired height.  Then while that object is still selected, press the
left Alt and the h key.  This records the present z coordinate into
zlock-height register.  Now create your next object.  To force it to be
the same height as the zlock-height, press h.  The z coordinate number at
the bottom of the screen should turn black, and the object should be the
same height as the last one.


  The z coordinate number should turn black whenever the present selected
object's z coordinate matches those of the zlock-height register.

Notes on where to build
  Each theater is made of an 8x8 grid of tiles.  These square tiles each
can have a maximum of 100 or so objects.  This limitation should never be
approached, as this will create a critical error, thus propelling you
swiftly out of the program will all your changes lost.


  The tile boundaries are mapped out with survey markers that can be seen
on the ground and also show up in map mode as a grid of yellow or black
dots.


  During game play, only the objects in the nearest 4 tiles will be
displayed.  Therefore you can see that when the user is flying in the
middle of a tile, this is always when one tile is swapped in and another
out.  In other words, the computer will have to do some extra work to swap
out a tile and read in a new one when you cross the middle of a tile.  For
this reason, it is a good idea not to put missions in the centers of
tiles.  If you do, then the game play will be continually interrupted for
tile swapping during the acrobatics.


  Note that this applies to both the up/down and left/right tile centers.
Picture a square tile with a + sign on it, where the plus sign is big
enough to cover the whole tile.  The imaginary lines of this plus sign
show the areas where tile swapping will occur.  Therefore, your missions
should always be closer to the corners of the tile than the centers of the
tile.


  Notice that the frame rate will suffer dramatically if you try to put
too much stuff close together on neighboring tiles.  For example, you
might want to make a mega-mission at the intersection of 4 tiles.


  You could put up to 100 objects in each tile and still have it all fit
together as one mission. However, in reality, calculating and drawing so
many objects would lead to an absoulutely terrible frame rate and an
unplayable mission.


  You must also be aware that even if you don't have 100 objects in a
tile, you could still end up with a critical error during game play.  The
reason is that passing KLAs, AA shells, and shopping carts all count as
objects in that tile, even if they were created in one tile, and migrated
to the other.


  If you look at the default theaters that came with the game, you will
notice that most all of the bigger missions are made to be at corners of
tiles and well away from the airstrips.  This is simply because of the
need to keep the frame rate up.  This is especially important for those
players with machines slower than 25Mhz.


  You will notice that the frame rate is not so great at Sweetly Bending
in Flatland because the missions were too close to the airstrip.  This
makes landing there difficult.



Notes on What to Build
  Usually start with a generator orb.  Set the quality to corresponding to
what you want the mission object to be.  Keep in mind that many players
will be bored with just a bunch of KLAs and deathballs.  What makes a
mission fun is not just a challenge but a challenge that takes strategy to
lead to victory.  An example of this is a mission in which there are
shells beneath an orb, so that if the player tries to take down the
forcefields first by destroying the orb, then the shards that fly off the
orb will trigger the shells, thus bring a whole slew of enemies upon the
unwary player.


  How about putting shells down on the ground where they wouldn't normally
be in danger of triggering, but then put some high quality vehicles on the
outskirts, where they will follow the plane in, and set off the shells
even if the flyer doesn't shoot the shells himself.


  The force fields open up a whole lot of possible structures that the
pilot must navigate to successfully complete the mission.  Beware of
overuse of the solid or solid-shimmering fields, as they soak up the cpu
time to draw.  Use the wire frame versions where possible.

Mission Builder Questions and Answers > Why does it seem impossible to get
the height of objects right when they are pretty
        high up?

  The mission builder makes the Pgup and Pgdn keys have an effect
proportional to the height of the object.  When the object is relatively
high up, the vertical steps are huge.  This can be gotten around via the s
key.  When this key is depressed the Pgup and Pgdn keys will always move a
relatively small distance (1,000 cm) irregardless of the object's height.


> Why are the objects always the wrong color, and sometimes the wrong
shape when I go into the mission builder or map?

  The qualities of objects don't matter when in the mission builder.  This
is because the code that makes the object the correct color is the same
code that makes the object move, shoot etc. Therefore if that part of the
code were turned on during the mission builder, then the objects would
begin to move and fire as soon as they were created.  So you will have to
trust the quality number on the bottom of the screen to see the actual
quality of the object.


> I worked for two hours on a mission, and when I tried to get out of the
mission builder mode when finished, I got critical error 70 and lost all
the changes.

  The mission builder can be finicky, and it is best only to make small
changes and then exit and back up the 3UNIV.DAT file.  This process is
relatively quick, and all the default theaters that came with the game
were created with the same mission builder that is available to you.
Occasionally you may lose stuff, but if you never stay too long in the MB,
and don't keep skipping back and forth between map and MB mode, you should
never lose too much.


> What are the things to avoid doing in the mission builder?

  During game play and mission creation, the computer can only deal with
the objects that are relatively close.  When an object gets too far away
to the observer it is placed into the far object table.  Objects in the
far object table are inactive and are stored in compressed form. The
mission builder can operate on near objects only.  Far away objects cannot
be processed by the builder.  It is VERY important that you never ask the
builder to act on an object that is out of the near range.  This will
cause unpredictable behavior and critical error codes.

  Say you create an object on the ground and then zoom your viewpoint up
to 40,000 feet. Then you start moving the object around on the ground.  If
you move that object too far away, you will trap your newly created object
in limbo, and you will be risking a critical error.  Try to stay near your
current (blinking) object at all times.

  Be careful if you start to build a mission and then decide to scrap it.
Deleting the last object will get you a critical error, since there are no
objects at all to process.

  Or say you are using the keypad + and - keys to cycle through the near
objects.  You get impatient, and hit the - key repeatedly very fast.  If
you cycle through all the near objects, then the poor mission build tries
to pick up a far object and trouble ensues.

  Remember only to make one mission at a time, and make backups of the
theater to another filename after every mission.  Don't flip back and
forth between map and mission builder mode. Start the program, make your
changes, and exit back to DOS between each change.  Take care not to move
too far away from the current blinking object, and never travel any great
distance within the mission builder.  If you want to move somewhere else
in the theater, exit the program completely and start it up again.

  To exit the mission builder, you can hit Esc or m to return to map mode,
then escape or space bar to return to flying mode.

  Do not fly after returning from the mission builder; just exit, then
copy 3UNIV.DAT to CARL.DAT or whatever.  It's a good idea to make backups
in case of unexpected critical errors.

  The following is taken from the source code of Corncob.  This is the
definition tables for the objects.  Use these tables to get the object
number of what you would like to create and what quality you would like to
assign that object.

; number after the semicolon is the object type number


templatetable  dw @dataseg:objhq ;0 Headquarters orb
      dw @dataseg:objstet      ;1 mindbender
      dw @dataseg:obj5da       ;2 plane  qual2=dumpy  qual3=Stealth
      dw @dataseg:objrdr       ;3 radar
      dw @dataseg:objtw        ;4 radar base
      dw @dataseg:roadpiece    ;5 Runway piece  qual2=no stripes
      dw @dataseg:tower        ;6 Control tower
      dw @dataseg:objman       ;7 Ground crew
      dw @dataseg:objshard2    ;8
      dw @dataseg:objshard     ;9
      dw @dataseg:objincend    ;10
      dw @dataseg:objdbst      ;11 KLA site
      dw @dataseg:objvech      ;12 Vehicle spec bit=bullet only
      dw @dataseg:objvest      ;13 Vehicle site
      dw @dataseg:objwallz1    ;14 Force fields
      dw @dataseg:objwallx     ;15
      dw @dataseg:objwally     ;16
      dw @dataseg:objwallz     ;17
      dw @dataseg:fltsm1puff   ;18
      dw @dataseg:fltsm1boom   ;19
      dw @dataseg:fltsm1bomb   ;20
      dw @dataseg:fltsm1mis    ;21
      dw @dataseg:fltsm1aashell ;22
      dw @dataseg:fltsm1aa     ;23 AAA site
      dw @dataseg:fltsm1dball  ;24 KLA
      dw @dataseg:fltsm1       ;25
      dw @dataseg:fltsm2       ;26
      dw @dataseg:gms          ;27 Fuel dump
      dw @dataseg:obj5d        ;28 (Do not use!)
      dw @dataseg:objprop      ;29 Propeller
      dw @dataseg:bullets      ;30
      dw @dataseg:objsurv      ;31 Survey marker
      dw @dataseg:crtr         ;32 Crater, qual 1=permanent
      dw @dataseg:smgms        ;33 Destroyed tick
      dw @dataseg:objhut       ;34 Tower doorway
      dw @dataseg:objroadend   ;35 runway endpieces
      dw @dataseg:objroadend1  ;36
      dw @dataseg:objfn1       ;37 Fences
      dw @dataseg:objfn1a      ;38
      dw @dataseg:objfn1b      ;39
      dw @dataseg:objbb        ;40 Barrage Balloon
      dw @dataseg:objbbsm      ;41 Bumble Bee
      dw @dataseg:objmort      ;42 Mortar
      dw @dataseg:objdhq       ;43 Blown up HQ
      dw @dataseg:objlwallz1   ;44 Line-type forcefields
      dw @dataseg:objlwallx    ;45
      dw @dataseg:objlwally    ;46
      dw @dataseg:objlwallz    ;47
      dw @dataseg:objrv        ;48 Rescue Van
      dw @dataseg:objshell     ;49 Shell
      dw @dataseg:objbmr       ;50 Saucer
      dw @dataseg:objbmrst     ;51 Saucer Site
      dw @dataseg:objtet       ;52 Tet
      dw @dataseg:objbmrmo     ;53 Saucer that is a mission objective
      dw @dataseg:objslwallx   ;54 Smaller line-type forcefields
      dw @dataseg:objslwally   ;55
      dw @dataseg:objslwallz   ;56
      dw @dataseg:objal        ;57 Alien
      dw @dataseg:objxp        ;58 Portal
      dw @dataseg:objstep      ;59 Small step forcefield
      dw @dataseg:objpstep     ;60 Small step forcefield Filled


      ; the following are the definitions of the different qualities of
      ; portals.  Ex: qual 3 takes us to
      ; base, but damages us.


      xpqtbl dw 4
      quality 1 dw 11,11+10h,1,0 ; takes us back to base
      quality 2 dw 3,9+10h,255,0 ; takes us to random place
      quality 3 dw 12,11+10h,1,1 ; takes to base, but damages us
      quality 4 dw 0,11+10h,1,-1 ; kills us instantly
      quality 5 dw 11,11+10h,101h,0 ; takes us to base, fufills mission
      quality 6 dw 11,11,1,1 ; takes to base, but no flashes
      quality 7 dw 7,11+10h,0,2 ; repairs plane, doesn't xpose
      quality 8 dw 10,3,100h,0 ; doesn't move us, miss obj


      ; the following are the mission objectives of the different
      ; headquarter orbs.  Example: a quality
      ; 1 orb counts as a mission objective when you blow it up, a quality
      ; 4 orb will count as a
      ; mission objective when all the vehicles and vehicle sites are
      ; gone.


      hqtbl dw 2
      1) dw 0,@codeseg:killme
      2) dw 6,@codeseg:killticks
      3) dw 7,@codeseg:killdbaa
      4) dw 3,@codeseg:killvechs
      5) dw 9,@codeseg:killmetough ; must suicide plane to destroy
      6) dw 13,@codeseg:killbmrst
      7) dw 4,@codeseg:killstets ; kill all mindbenders
      8) dw 14,@codeseg:killal ; kill aliens


      ; the following shows what qualities of shell will turn into what.
      ; I don't think qual=8 works


      shellqtbl dw 3 ; table of qualities for dballsites
      1) dw 13,0,6 ; vech stite
      2) dw 42,6,7 ; mortar
      3) dw 11,7,3 ; dball site
      4) dw 23,3,9 ; aa site
      5) dw 40,9,13 ; barrage balloon
      6) dw 41,13,11 ; bee swarm
      7) dw 27,11,0 ; a tick
      8) dw 23,2,2 ; 0= random


      ; The following is a table of various properties of objects.  You
      ; cannot change any of these
      ; settings, it is just here for reference.  The numbers in the table
      ; are sums of attribute bits.
      ; These number are powers of two.  Example 512=2^9, so +512 means
      ; that this object will
      ; capture you if you touch it.  Example: object 10  (incendiary from
      ; bomb, or mortar)  2^0=1
      ; 1=disappears when goes off into the distance, not saved in far
      ; tile ram 2=Skip over this
      ; object when in mission builder, who'd want to create this?  4=If
      ; you fly through it, object is
      ; terminated  4=bit 2  IE 2^2=4
      ; 1 ; bit 0 means do not xfer to medium table
      ; 2 ; bit 1 means skip over when doing misson builder creates
      ; 4 ; bit 2 means terminate object if plane hits it
      ; 8 ; bit 3 means it is forcefield type object
      ; 16 ; bit 4 means it is a runway type object
      ; 32 ; bit 5 means object is a portal
      ; 64 ; bit 6 means object is standonable
      ; 128 ; bit 7 means object kills you
      ; 256 ; bit 8 means object walk height is collision + z coord
      ; 512 ; bit 9 means object captures you
      extendedtypetbl dw 0+4 ;0
      dw 0            ;1
      dw 0+4          ;2
      dw 0+4          ;3
      dw 0+4          ;4
      dw    0+4+16+64 ;5
      dw   0+4+64+256 ;6
      dw 0+4          ;7
      dw 0+2          ;8
      dw 0+2          ;9
      dw 1+2+4        ;10
      dw 0+4          ;11
      dw 4+512        ;12
      dw 0            ;13
      dw 0+4+8+64     ;14
      dw 0+4+8        ;15
      dw 0+4+8        ;16
      dw 0+4+8+64     ;17
      dw 1+2          ;18
      dw 1+2          ;19
      dw 1+2          ;20
      dw 1+2          ;21
      dw 1+2+128      ;22
      dw 0+4          ;23
      dw 128          ;24
      dw 1+2          ;25
      dw 1+2          ;26
      dw 0+4+64+256   ;27
      dw 0+2          ;28 skip over obj5d, so cursor don't dis
      dw 1            ;29
      dw 1+2          ;30
      dw 0            ;31
      dw 0+128        ;32
      dw 0            ;33
      dw 0            ;34
      dw 0+16+64      ;35
      dw 0+16+64      ;36
      dw 0+4          ;37
      dw 0+4          ;38
      dw 0+4          ;39
      dw 0+128        ;40
      dw 0+128        ;41
      dw 0+4          ;42
      dw 0            ;43
      dw 0+4+8+64     ;44
      dw 0+4+8        ;45
      dw 0+4+8        ;46
      dw 0+4+8+64     ;47
      dw 1+4          ;48
      dw 0            ;49
      dw 4+64+256     ;50
      dw 0+64+256     ;51
      dw 0            ;52
      dw 4+64+256     ;53
      dw 0+4+8        ;54
      dw 0+4+8        ;55
      dw 0+4+8+64     ;56
      dw 0+512        ;57
      dw 0+4+20h      ;58
      dw 0+4+8+64     ;59
      dw 0+4+8+64     ;60


      ; Special bit definitions, hit F9 to set an object's special bit
      ; The object's type number will turn purple to indicate that it's
      ; special bit is set.


      ; 1.) Orbs with the special bit set will be gravity-attraction orbs.
      ; 2.) Vehicles with the special bit set will be destructable with
      ; bullets or bombs ONLY, objects
      ;     will last forever.  The antennas of these vehicles will flash.
      ; 3.)  Mindbenders with this bit set will be suseptable to damage
      ; only from
      ;      assassin bombs, and are invulnerable to plane-dropped bombs


      ; Complete bit (F10 toggle), is usefull with the following objects
      ; When the complete bit is set, the objects type number blinks
      ; white/black.

      ; 1.) Orbs which you need, but you don't want them to be mission
      ; objectives in any way.  If
      ;     you make one, but preset it's complete bit, then the player
      ; will not need to accomplish
      ;     that orb's objective to finish a theater.  This is usefull
      ; when you want an orb to power
      ;     the local force fields, but you don't want the pilot to make
      ; the mission to be trivial
      ;     because he can just blow the orb to drop the force fields.
      ; The solution is to make a
      ;     kill-me-tough orb with it's complete bit already set.  Then
      ; the pilot can't kill it without
      ;     sacrificing a plane, but the player doesn't NEED to kill that
      ; orb to complete the theater.


      ; 2.)  Portals which may be desired, but not count as mission
      ; objectives.  Just preset their
      ;     complete bits in order to make portals which the the player
      ; may use, but do not have to
      ;     be flown through to satisfy an MO.

      ; 3.)  Mission objective-type saucers where you want one to stay put
      ; like a mission objective
      ;      saucer, but you don't want it to count as an MO.