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- Xconq 0 -+---- Futuristic period from Jay Scott
- Period 0
-
- "around 2200 AD" period-name
-
- "h" "hovercar" "easily built, moves fast and captures cities" utype
- "g" "groundcar" "slow but tough, captures cities" utype
- "s" "saucer" "moves fast, easy to build, but short range" utype
- "d" "destroyer" "heavy aircraft that defeats subs and saucers" utype
- "c" "constructor" "builds bases anywhere" utype
- "m" "mother ship" "carries aircraft and ground units" utype
- "t" "transport sub" "quickly built, carries ground units" utype
- "a" "attack sub" "attacks cities and carries rockets" utype
- "R" "rocket" "missile that can kill most units and hit cities" utype
- "/" "base" "airstrip + port but no production" utype
- "*" "town" "produces but easily captured and may revolt" utype
- "@" "city" "metropolis - hard to capture" utype
-
- "F" "fuel" "used for both movement and combat" rtype
-
- "." "sea" "sky blue" ttype
- "," "shallows" "cyan" ttype
- "=" "swamp" "dark gray" ttype
- "+" "plains" "green" ttype
- "%" "forest" "forest green" ttype
- "~" "desert" "yellow" ttype
- "^" "mountains" "sienna" ttype
- "_" "ice" "white" ttype
- ":" "vacuum" "black" ttype
-
- true [ swamp vacuum ] dark
-
- t* t* nuked ; most terrain won't actually change
- desert [ plains forest ] nuked
- mountains ice nuked
-
- [ 0 69 70 70 70 70 95 99 0 ] t* min-alt
- [ 69 70 72 95 95 95 99 100 0 ] t* max-alt
- [ 0 0 50 20 80 0 0 0 0 ] t* min-wet
- [ 100 100 100 80 100 20 100 100 0 ] t* max-wet
-
- ice edge-terrain
-
- [ / * @ ] "cities" define
- [ h g s d c m t a R ] "movers" define
-
- "hovcraft" h icon-name
- "tank" g icon-name
- "saucer" s icon-name
- "delta" d icon-name
- "builder" c icon-name
- "mothrship" m icon-name
- "sub" t icon-name
- "sub" a icon-name
- "rocket" R icon-name
- "saucerpad" / icon-name
- "town22" * icon-name
- "city22" @ icon-name
-
- [ 1 5 25 ] cities territory
-
- [ 0 2 1 ] cities in-country
- 100 * density
- @ first-unit
- h first-product
- 100 [ plains ] [ * @ ] favored
-
- [ 4 6 2 10 10 20 7 12 8 ] movers @ make
- [ 4 6 2 10 10 20 7 12 8 ] movers * make
- 3 / c make
- true [ * @ ] maker
- 20 u* startup
- 50 [ d m ] startup
- 100 c startup
- 300 R startup
-
- 10 fuel cities produce
- [ 30 40 16 16 30 40 200 150 30 500 1000 2000 ] fuel u* storage
- 1 [ s d ] fuel consume
- 1 u* fuel consume ; not plausible, but helps machine players
-
- -1 u* movers out-length ; so low-capacity units don't lose fuel
-
- 100 t* cities productivity
-
- [ 3 1 8 4 3 6 2 3 10 ] movers speed
-
- 0 plains h moves
- 1 shallows h moves
- 0 [ plains desert ] g moves
- 0 t* [ s d c m ] moves
- 0 [ sea shallows ] [ t a ] moves
- 0 t* R moves
- 0 t* / moves ; allows base to be constructed on any terrain
-
- 1 fuel movers to-move
-
- [ 6 4 10 2 1 ] [ h g s d c ] m capacity
- 4 R a capacity
- [ 2 1 ] [ h g ] t capacity
- 10 u* / capacity
- 100 u* [ * @ ] capacity
-
- 0 [ t a ] visibility
- true cities always-seen
-
- [ 1 1 1 2 2 5 2 2 1 10 20 40 ] u* hp
-
- [ 65 60 40 50 50 50 5 5 50 99 99 99 ] u* h hit
- [ 80 60 50 40 50 50 10 10 50 99 99 99 ] u* g hit
- [ 50 40 70 10 70 90 10 10 99 99 99 99 ] u* s hit
- [ 10 10 65 20 70 70 50 50 20 99 99 99 ] u* d hit
- [ 20 20 10 5 20 10 0 0 20 0 0 0 ] u* c hit
- [ 15 10 20 5 40 40 0 0 30 0 0 0 ] u* m hit
- [ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ] u* t hit
- [ 40 60 10 10 20 20 60 20 0 99 99 99 ] u* a hit
- [ 99 99 60 80 90 90 70 70 20 99 99 99 ] u* R hit
- [ 10 10 10 20 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 ] u* / hit
- [ 30 30 30 40 0 0 0 20 0 0 0 0 ] u* / hit
- [ 50 50 50 50 0 0 0 50 0 0 0 0 ] u* / hit
-
- 1 u* u* damage
- 3 cities a damage
- 4 u* R damage
- 10 cities R damage
- 2 u* @ damage
-
- [ 80 70 20 ] cities h capture
- [ 90 80 30 ] cities g capture
-
- true R self-destruct
-
- 1 fuel u* hits-with
- 1 fuel u* hit-by
-
- true movers can-disband
- true / can-disband
-
- true cities neutral
-
- -50 neutrality
-
- begin{notes}
- A science fiction xconq period.
- It's weirder and wilder than the historical periods provided with the game.
- Lots of things happen faster, so the game is often shorter.
-
- This is in the public domain.
-
- ----- ----- the units ----- -----
-
- Hovercar. A fast-moving ground unit that easily captures towns. A
- hovercar floats on an antigravity field, so it can maneuver easily
- even in mountainous terrain or shallow water (though not deep ocean).
- Hovercars are invaluable in an invasion for their ability to take
- cities quickly, but they are easily destroyed by flying saucers or
- groundcars.
-
- Groundcar. A slow-moving unit which travels on treads, like today's
- tanks. It can afford to carry a large shield generator, which makes
- it tough to destroy. It can negotiate forests by pushing down the
- trees, or burning them away with its gun, but it can't move in
- mountains. Groundcars are ideal for defending your homeland from
- invasion. If you have enough on hand, you can often bounce back even
- after many of your towns are captured.
-
- Saucer. The flying saucer is a weak but fast-moving aircraft. Saucers
- are very cheap to produce; one use is to overwhelm stronger units with
- mob attacks. They can even bombard a city to rubble, unless there's
- a Defender around. Saucers are also good for recon, within their limited
- range.
-
- Defender. A heavy, delta-wing aircraft that's your only safe defense
- against the enemy's swarms of saucers. It uses aerodynamic lift to
- supplement its drive, allowing it to carry relatively massive
- antisubmarine equipment. But it's an easy target for ground units.
-
- Constructor. An automated airborn factory that can build a base from
- on-site materials in only one turn. It can build a base anywhere, even
- on water or ice. That means, for instance, that you can build bridges
- between islands for ground units. The constructor is the only way
- to produce the sophisticated equipment needed for a twenty-second
- century base (you don't know how hard it is to refuel those saucers :-).
- But it's vulnerable to attack, especially from saucers.
-
- Mother ship. Expensive to build, but the only way to mount a major
- invasion. A mother ship can carry lots of saucers, lots of ground
- units, a couple Defenders and a constructor, all at once. (The constructor
- is useful for building stepping stone bases toward the enemy.)
- A mass attack is sure to bring down a mother ship, so it deserves
- saucer patrols--but you may have to forego patrols if you're trying
- for a surprise invasion.
-
- Transport sub. Carries only a few ground units, but much cheaper to
- produce than a mother ship. This is how you get your troops to another
- island early in the game. And since, like subs in the WWII period,
- it's invisible until bumped into, it's good for sneak raids on isolated
- outposts. A transport submarine can't attack anything by itself.
-
- Attack sub. Strong against transport subs, and, if they're on the coast,
- ground units and cities. It stays underwater and pokes its weapons out,
- which makes it relatively invulnerable to counterattack. It's faster
- than a transport sub, and good for wide-ranging exploration. And to top
- it off, it can carry several rockets to within easy range of enemy cities.
- On the other hand, all submarines have to be careful of Defenders.
-
- Rocket. Actually a remotely guided missile, which does a lot of damage
- to its target but vaporizes itself in the process. One rocket is
- enough to take out most units--it's not quite enough by itself
- to down a mother ship. Three rockets together are sufficient to pound
- a town back to a base. Only occasionally will a rocket miss its target.
- Besides stomping cities, they're useful for eliminating enemy groundcars
- and Defenders just before an invasion. Since rockets are easily
- shot down if spied in mid-flight, it's sensible to launch them from
- attack subs near their targets. [Because of the way xconq works,
- messages about rockets don't always make sense.]
-
- ----- ----- strategy ----- -----
-
- The game is designed so you need to have at least a few of every
- kind of unit to do well in a full game. (You may be able to get by
- without transport subs if you start out on a big continent.) If
- anybody finds they can consistently do well without some kind of unit,
- I want to hear how so I can fix it!
-
- Every unit has at least one nemesis which can destroy it relatively
- easily. Your goal should be to fight every battle at an advantage,
- pitting each unit against its natural prey--saucers against hovercars,
- defenders against saucers, hovercars against defenders.
-
- Rockets ensure that the game doesn't drag on too long. Invasion is
- risky, but when it works the invader wins quickly. Rockets by contrast
- are a slow but steady way to nibble at the enemy production base.
-
- Machine players are especially easy to defeat in this period. If you're
- lucky enough to start near one, you can blitz it with hovercars and
- saucers and win in short order. It takes longer if you're far from
- the robot. Gaining air superiority is usually the first step.
-
- The game hasn't been played by enough people for me to tell what
- strategies are best in different circumstances. If I've done my
- job well, the best plan will depend in detail on the opponent and
- the situation, and you'll have to think hard.
-
- I'd appreciate any comments.
-
- Jay Scott, August 1987.
- ...bpa!swatsun!scott
- ...seismo!bpa!swatsun!scott
- end{notes}
-
- end
-
-