Zodiac Super OZ/MEDIADEPOT.ISO/FILES/06/REX210.ZIP/REX.DOC

Text File | 1995-02-02 | 136KB | 2,428 lines

IMPERIUM REX v2.10 - DOCUMENTATION (February, 1995)
---------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 1989-1995 Brainstorm Software


0. PRELIMINARIES

Concept development, programming, and testing by Glenn Robins.
Concept development, testing, and story writing by Jens Winslow.
All documentation (this manual and on-line help) written by Glenn Robins.

This is FREEWARE:  You may freely distribute this program so long as it is
distributed in its entirety and is unaltered.  Please read LICENSE.TXT
before continuing.

If there are any questions or comments, please address them via e-mail to:
[e-mail]
If your mail is returned as undeliverable, or if you have not received a
response, please try
[e-mail]

If this game is interesting to you, it would be wise to register by sending
a brief e-mail message to me.  I may then be able to notify you if problems
are found, or if a new version is released.  There is nothing else involved
with registration, and you are not obligated to pay or do anything!  I am
only encouraging registration so that I may have an idea of how many people
are playing the game, so I know whether or not it is worth continuing with
this project (to which I contributed 6 years of part-time effort so far).
FYI, approximately 30 people are known thus far to have tried this game at
one point or another, to my knowledge.  I hope this is only because a
select few decided to register.

The following two FTP sites have accepted v1.01 for archiving:
archive.umich.edu:/msdos/games/strategy/rex101.zip,
ftp.funet.fi:/pub/msdos/games/strategy/rex101.zip.
The following FTP site has accepted v2.00 for archiving:
ftp.funet.fi:/pub/msdos/games/strategy/rex200.zip.
For some reason, umich has not accepted the update.  I will try them again
for v2.10.  I will also upload this game to:
wuarchive.wustl.edu:/pub/msdos_uploads/games, as rex210.zip, but uploads to
this site are purged after roughly 4-6 weeks I believe.

You may also wish to FINGER me at [e-mail] in the event
my plan file has anything interesting to say about the game, or anything
else.  I will also try to follow the COMP.SYS.IBM.PC.GAMES.STRATEGIC
newsgroup (which I have failed to do lately), if anyone tries to contact me
that way.  I don't know how much longer I will have the QUCDNTRI account,
but will try to forward my mail automatically when I obtain another one, or
to the FREENET account.

This game will cost you NOTHING to play, except time.  Be warned that
depending on the setup, it could take months until the state of the game
reaches a point where someone, or everyone resigns.  It is NOT a game that
can be completed during a lunch hour (well, unless you don't know what
you're doing).

The rest of this manual has not changed from v2.00 to v2.10.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

      1. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
      2. INSTALLATION - GETTING STARTED
      3. GAME DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES
           3.1 STANDARD ORDER OF EVENTS
      4. BUILDING AND PLAYING GAMES
           4.1 BUILDING A GAME
           4.2 TYPICAL START TO A GAME / PLAYING TIPS
           4.3 REMOTE PLAY PROVISION AND PASSWORDS
      5. USER INTERFACE CONVENTIONS
           5.1 FILE SELECTION MODE
           5.2 KEYBOARD INPUT MODE VS. MOUSE INPUT MODE
      6. ON-LINE HELP
      7. GENERAL INFORMATION ON OBJECTS
      8. NAMING OBJECTS
      9. OBJECT SPECIFICATION TABLE
     10. DETAILED OBJECT DESCRIPTIONS
     11. TRANSPORT TABLE
     12. OBJECT SPECIAL-ATTRIBUTE TABLE
     13. MAP DISPLAY DESCRIPTION
     14. MAP FEATURE OBJECTS
     15. GRAPHICAL WORLD MAP VIEWS
     16. MOVE MODE
     17. RAIL TRANSPORT (SCHEDULES AND MDT)
          17.1 RT SCHEDULE (RTS)
          17.2 MINIMUM DISTANCE TRACKING (MDT) ALGORITHM
     18. GAME PARAMETER TABLE
     19. PLAYER MESSAGES
     20. TECHNICAL INFORMATION
          20.1 WORLD MAP SAVE FORMAT
     21. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES / CLOSING COMMENTS



1. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

     - Any 80x86 processor will do (there is no processor-specific
     optimization), although a 386 or above would be nice for faster
     reaction times for screen painting, on-line help retrieval, etc.

     - As inferred by the above, no math co-processor is required, nor
     would it be used anyway since no floating point arithmetic is done!

     - At least 500K of DOS RAM is required (maybe a little bit more).
     Upper memory is not accessed (i.e. no extended or expanded memory is
     required).

     - Sound cards are not supported - just the PC speaker is used.

     - VGA is required (just regular VGA with 512K of video memory - no
     fancy stuff).  Most of the interface is based on an alternate-
     character-font text mode.  320x200x256 graphics mode is also used.

     - If you don't have a colour monitor by now, get one!  (In other
     words, a colour display is mandatory).

     - The program should be installed on the hard drive for faster access.
     Space requirements are minimal for the program itself (around 1000K),
     but game files are around 232K each.

     - A MOUSE is STRONGLY recommended, although not required.  If there
     are any problems with mouse cursor movement or anything else, it may
     be that your mouse driver is too old.  I am using a Dyna-Mouse driver,
     version 9.06.  Only the 2 buttons are used (for those of you with 3-
     button 'mice').

     - I believe there is no restriction on the DOS version (assuming you
     have version 2 or above (!)).

     It is suggested that you do not run this program under Microsoft
     Windows, or any other multi-tasking OS.  It will most likely work
     without significant problems, but you may find that sound delays are
     too long or short - each time you begin the editor or player, a delay-
     loop counter is set based on the system clock and is compared to a
     reference count acquired on my machine, which will account for machine
     speed differences; with a multi-tasking environment hooked onto the
     timer tick interrupt and doing funny things in the background, this
     could produce a misrepresentative delay-loop count.  Perhaps there is
     a better way to produce sound, but I haven't looked into it much -
     it's not really important in this game anyway.  However if the sound
     delays are not as they should be it could become irritating.  In any
     case, the sound can be turned off in the game player.



2. INSTALLATION - GETTING STARTED

     The following are all the files that should be included in
     distribution:

     REX     .EXE   - Game player
     REX     .HDX   - On-line help index for game player
     REX     .HLP   - On-line help for game player
     REX     .DOC   - Off-line program documentation (what you're reading)
     REXEDIT .EXE   - Game Manager/Editor
     REXEDIT .HDX   - On-line help index for game editor
     REXEDIT .HLP   - On-line help for game editor
     LICENSE .TXT   - Software license agreement
     CITNAMES.REX   - Neutral Player city names
     WINNING .REX   - NP messages sent to players if doing well
     LOSING  .REX   - NP messages sent to players if losing
     CHARFONT.REX   - Character font
     DATAFILE.EXE   - Creates text file from data files (DATAFILE.TXT)
     AWORLD  .MAP   - Sample world map (by Jens Winslow)
     JUSTLAND.MAP   - The above map without extra surface types
     SWORLD  .MAP   - Small sample world map (by Jens Winslow)
     IWORLD  .MAP   - Sample map with scattered islands (by Jens Winslow)
     RWORLD  .MAP   - Map suitable for 2-plr region game (by Glenn Robins)
     REVISION.TXT   - Revision history
     OBJSPECS.REX   - Object specifications data file
     GAMEPARM.REX   - Game parameter data file
     IMPORT  .EXE   - Program to import v1.0 or v1.01 data files
     GAMEINFO.EXE   - Provides summary information for a specified game
     PRACTICE.      - Practice game (one-player)
     PRACTICE.TXT   - Description of practice game
     MAPEDIT .EXE   - Map editor
     MAPEDIT .VML   - Graphics library
     MAPEDIT .BML   - Graphics library
     MAPEDIT .FNT   - Character font
     MAPEDIT .DOC   - Program documentation for map editor


     The following additional file is created when you run the game editor:

     OPTIONS .REX   - Game player sound option memory


     The first thing you should do when you obtain the distribution copy is
     to make sure that the above options file is NOT present - if it is
     present, this means you have acquired a used copy.  Otherwise, run the
     Game Editor (REXEDIT) which will not only create this file needed to
     run the Game Player, but it will also perform an integrity check of
     all distribution files (except CITNAMES.REX, WINNING.REX, LOSING.REX,
     OBJSPECS.REX, GAMEPARM.REX).  However, don't let these checks give you
     a false sense of security - it is always possible that someone hacked
     around with the files and redistributed them.  Also note that
     CITNAMES.REX, WINNING.REX, and LOSING.REX are exceptions to the
     License Agreement LICENSE.TXT, as they are meant to be modified by the
     user at will.  If the integrity check fails due to one or more corrupt
     files, the Game Editor will not run.  Since the integrity check was
     performed because the options file was missing, the Game Player will
     not run either.  You must obtain an original distribution copy in this
     case.  Please remember that the sample maps are checked as well so
     make sure you do not make any changes to them (or if you do, save them
     under different names).

     It is recommended that you keep a copy of the original files somewhere
     else, in case one or more of the working copy files are accidentally
     altered.

     The Game Manager/Editor is used to create/edit world maps, to build
     new games, and to edit the object specification and game parameter
     tables.  The Game Player is used solely to play a current game.

     The Map Editor program is an enhanced world map editor which can be
     used in place of the one built into the Game Editor.  For more
     information, read the manual for this program - MAPEDIT.DOC.

     The Datafile program creates a formatted text file with information
     contained in the game parameter table and the object specification
     table.  It is this text file, <DATAFILE.TXT>, that should be printed
     so that a hard-copy reference is available while playing the game.
     You will be asked for the particular data entry to extract to file
     from either or both of the data files.

     The Gameinfo program will provide some general information about the
     specified game file, such as a list of players, playing time, turn
     number, current player, etc.  Note that the estimated playing time
     that is shown here and in the General Report of the Game Player will
     wrap around to 0 if it exceeds 255 hours and 59 minutes.  I suppose
     that if you have been playing the game this long, you won't care
     anymore.

     If you add the command-line parameter '?' after any of the programs
     provided (REX, REXEDIT, GAMEINFO, DATAFILE, IMPORT, or MAPEDIT), it
     will present you with a list of command-line parameters that can be
     used.  A parameter for REX and REXEDIT that should be mentioned here
     is '/m', which will tell you how much memory is left once the program
     is loaded.  This indicates how close you are to not being able to run
     the program, which is of special consideration if you are planning on
     adding more TSR's or whatever.

     It is mandatory that you read and understand the Software License
     Agreement <LICENSE.TXT> before using this software.



3. GAME DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

     This is basically a world domination game:  Your goal is to take over
     and rule all of civilization (for the good of the people).  Strategy,
     tactics, and logistics all play a role in the success of your empire.
     You will start by ruling one city and having ownership of just a few
     objects.  Then, you will seek out the establishments of your opponents
     and forcefully persuade them to follow your cause (since there is no
     time to reason with them).  However, the largest and most powerful of
     your prey are an alliance that stands for freedom and independent
     rule, and resists change with all their might: the Neutral Player
     (NP).  The actual introductory story is presented to you as you begin
     a new game - the one presented here is an extremely abbreviated
     version.

     There is a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 human players, and always
     one Neutral Player that is played by the computer.  Playing with only
     one human is considered to be a practice game, as there is no threat
     by a human opponent, and more importantly, the introductory story will
     be inconsistent!  It is a good idea to play a practice game for a
     while individually, to get a good feel for the game before engaging in
     a real contest.

     A player is officially out of the game when all objects are destroyed
     and all cities lost.  It may be more often that a game is declared
     over when all but one player resigns.

     Player 1 is always WHITE in foreground colour (but not necessarily
     good); Player 2 is always BLACK (but not necessarily evil); Player 3
     is always YELLOW (but not necessarily cowardly); and Player 4 (NP) is
     always RED (no comment).  Colours cannot be chosen at will - players
     are activated in sequence from 1 to 3 (i.e. Player 3 can not be chosen
     for an individual in a two-player game).

     A key to your growth and development is the exploitation of resources.
     There are three types:  Grain, Mineral, and Oil (see MAP FEATURE
     OBJECTS).  Cities and Settlements may collect these resources each
     turn if they are scanned and in collection range.  Cities can produce
     objects that constitute your offensive and defensive forces.  However,
     to produce any object costs resources and MegaCredits (1 MC is a
     million credits, where a credit is the standard global currency).
     MegaCredits are obtained mostly from tax revenue (proportional to your
     total tech-level) and profit from transactions on the global market.

     There are three categories for the application of technology: Terra-
     Tech (non-aquatic terrain-based objects), Aero-Tech (objects in
     flight), and Hydro-Tech (aquatic-based objects).  Moreover, there are
     five levels of technology for each category (1 is the most primitive,
     and 5 is the most advanced).  Cities, over time, may advance tech-
     levels in each tech-type if sufficient funds are invested in the
     city's intellectual growth.

     There are different surface types which affect the performance of
     objects in different ways.  These surfaces are:  LAND, WATER,
     MOUNTAINS, SWAMP, and JUNGLE.  There are also infrastructure types
     that may be built on some of these surfaces, which are:  RAIL, ROAD,
     and CANAL.

     The global market is a virtual economy in which the exchange of
     resource units takes place.  If transactions are made carefully, you
     may make a lot of money.  It is also a secondary source for resources
     if your own pool is low in a particular resource type (if you have the
     money to spend).

     It is important that you read the entire manual before playing.
     Writing this manual has been an interesting exercise in collating
     information - whether or not it deserves a passing grade is up to you.
     It is however my best effort given time constraints.

     This manual and the on-line help are complementary - it is important
     that you also read the on-line help for every new situation while
     playing the game, and while exploring the game editor.  It is the on-
     line help that is devoted to explaining game details and user input
     options as you play.  The purpose of this off-line documentation is to
     provide an overview and to define all terms referred to in the game,
     as well as being a reference.

     3.1 STANDARD ORDER OF EVENTS

          A couple of terms need to be defined:  A ROUND is that which a
          player uses to give orders and move objects; A TURN is a
          collection of rounds - one round for each player.  Rounds are not
          simultaneous events - they occur consecutively in game time for
          each player, in order of player number.  The Neutral Player is
          always the last player to move in the turn.  It is only in the
          very beginning that a player may be advantaged by this - during
          normal play, the advancement of turns is relatively transparent
          since rounds are continually cycled in the same order.  For a
          human player, the normal sequence of events in a round is as
          follows:

               - Player messages are read
               - The global market status is examined (checked for change)
               - Objects that run out of fuel are destroyed or fueled up
               - Damage report is presented
               - Destruction of owned feature object(s) is made known
               - The age of enemy objects is incremented
               - Satellites are moved and scanned for
               - Resources are collected
               - City production is updated, repairs are made
               - Movement points are set for objects
               - Cities may attack in-range enemy objects
               - <Player activity>
               - Market transactions are performed at end of round

          I hope this gives an appreciation of the complexity of this game!



4. BUILDING AND PLAYING GAMES

     4.1 BUILDING A GAME

          Before a game can be built, a world map must be chosen.  There
          are some sample maps provided, each having a different
          arrangement that depends on the type of game you want to play,
          and the number of players.  It may take some fun out of playing
          if you already know the layout of the world, but so far no decent
          random map generation algorithm has been found or developed.  In
          any case, it will probably take a few games before you have the
          maps memorized.  If you are unhappy with the provided maps, you
          can create your own using MAPEDIT, or by using the editor
          provided with REXEDIT.

          Once you know which map you will use, run REXEDIT and then LOAD
          the particular world map into memory (via map editor functions).
          If you have been playing around in here before, and the map in
          memory has been used, then clear it first.  That is because
          LOADing a map into memory will not clear everything such as
          object positions (if a game has been loaded previously).

          Once the map is loaded, you will have to decide which set of game
          parameters and object specifications to use for this particular
          game.  You may want to browse the data tables, especially the
          game parameter tables which contain parameters used during the
          process of building a game such as number of cities to place,
          scattering factors, number of resources to place, etc.  You will
          find that the number of island, coastal, and inland cities will
          depend on the type of world map you are planning on using.

          Choose the build game option from the main menu, where you are
          asked to enter the names of the players.  From now on, always
          check the on-line help for every new option you are asked to
          select - especially for the pooled resources and regions options.

          If you chose a non-region game, you will be asked for the
          filename.  If you cancel at this point, the game built will be
          lost and you must start over.  If you chose a region game, you
          will be thrown into the editor where you will have to save it on
          your own.


     4.2 TYPICAL START TO A GAME / PLAYING TIPS

          If you play a normal non-region game (you'll know what that is
          when you read the on-line help when building a game), you will
          automatically be given a Fuel Depot, and a Hover-Scout.  These
          are the two most important and useful objects that you can have
          as you start, since you are now able to locate resource deposits.
          It is possible that more resources might surround your HQ (other
          than the four that are deliberately placed there) since the
          immediate area has not been scanned by a Hover-Scout.  Scouting
          your immediate surroundings is also a good idea, to make sure
          there isn't a city just outside your city scan range (or some
          other nasty surprise).  Knowing the surrounding terrain early in
          the game will enable you to quickly determine your strengths and
          vulnerabilities with respect to your own location, and such
          knowledge may dictate what type of objects you should focus your
          production on.  Make sure that your scout moves along the map
          diagonally, forming a triangular or diamond-shaped search pattern
          - this is the most fuel-efficient scheme for patrolling the
          maximum area.

          If you happen to find a Neutral city near you, concentrate on a
          quick but dedicated effort to take it.  The longer you wait
          taking a city, the more difficult it will be to take it, and the
          more potential production time will be lost.  Do not send an
          object on a lost cause - they are very valuable in the beginning.
          If you intend on taking a city, make sure it is taken in one
          combined assault - attacking in bits and pieces will cost you
          more time and resources than it will cost the city to repair
          itself.  You will discover the proper balance with experience, as
          with all causes.  Make sure that before you attack, you click on
          the city in TACTICAL when its age stat is 0 to know what the tech-
          levels are for that city (immediately after scanning it).  This
          way, you will know what kind of objects it can produce, and the
          maximum number of guards it can sustain which determines its
          damage potential, and maximum hit points.

          It is also a good idea to produce guards early on - it is
          something that can be easily forgotten until it's too late.

          Try to take coastal cities so that you can build destroyers or
          submarines.  This will give you an edge for defense and offense.
          Keep in mind that the computer will build these too, so you need
          to be ready for them anyway.  Concentrate on a strong defense
          once you take a city - make one or two photon cannons and build
          up the guards (very important).  When you take a city, you may
          expect things thrown at you continually so you need the defense.
          The spreading and quantity of the cities affects the game
          considerably.  If there are many cities close by, you can expect
          a continual (or even continuous) onslaught.  To alleviate this,
          you may want to ensure the cities are sufficiently spread apart
          (base this on fuel range of objects the NP can produce); you can
          also change the max. age of an NP city to something a bit lower,
          so that they start out less developed (lower tech-levels).  Try
          making a lot of gun boats and armies - they are hard to hit and
          having the quantity will distract the NP and give it more things
          to shoot at, prolonging the battle so you may move in or produce
          reinforcements; it's surprising how effective a large force of
          not-so-powerful objects can be.  You may even choose to sacrifice
          some hover-scouts, which can make all the difference.

          It may sound like you need to produce a lot of objects which will
          cost more resources than you have; it really depends on how lucky
          your setup is in terms of resource allocation.  It is advisable
          that you play a couple of games with POOLED RESOURCES first,
          which will solve many of your infrastructure problems.  Pooled
          resources will allow any of your cities to have instantaneous and
          unlimited access to all resources in your HQ, so there is no need
          to transport resources.  This is also VERY convenient for when
          you take a new city that isn't self-sufficient (being able to
          collect one or more of each and every resource type).  It will
          otherwise take a long time to establish a proper defense by way
          of production, if you first have to ship resources to the city.
          If you are not playing pooled resources, you should plan on
          shipping the required resources to the city you are about to
          take, possibly having them already loaded onto a transport and
          waiting outside the battle zone around the city.  This brings up
          another important point: you really ought to resource-scout the
          collection area of a city you are hoping to take.  Knowing the
          resources it will collect when and if you take it, is vital
          information - it may even lead to a decision of not wanting the
          city.  If you discover it is self-sufficient, you will want to
          invest all you can to take it.  You may question the tactics of
          flying a hover-scout all around an enemy city - the point is to
          do it carefully without being spotted or shot at, which may
          require fuel and patience, both of which you may find lacking!

          Aero-porters loaded with photon cannons are handy - fly near a
          city and unload one or two of them just outside the city's attack
          range (the guard's AR) and cover them with a couple of aero-
          fighters (or even a destroyer if possible).  I know it takes time
          to produce these, but there's no real hurry to go out and pound
          the NP - as long as you can keep up your defenses, you should be
          OK.  You'll never be able to charge and take all the cities
          before the NP can make a Battle Cruiser, so stop trying (if you
          are, that is).  By the way, make sure you produce at least one
          submarine and keep it handy in case of an encounter with a battle
          cruiser.  The NP isn't smart enough to escort a battle cruiser
          with a destroyer or submarine, unless it happens by coincidence,
          so you're submarine can pound on it without being spotted until
          it decides to go home for repairs.  A human player, however, may
          not be so careless as to let its battle cruiser sail away without
          such protection.


     4.3 REMOTE PLAY PROVISION AND PASSWORDS

          The remote play provision is a feature that allows you to save
          and quit the game in-between player rounds, so that the game file
          may be transferred to another location and played at a later
          time.  If the game file is transferred by modem or by e-mail, it
          may be wise to compress the file first, using your favorite
          compression program.  Playing by e-mail will most likely require
          a UUEncoder and UUDecoder so that the file may be sent as ascii
          text, unless your mailer allows you to attach binary files.  This
          remote play provision mode may be turned on or off in the Game
          Options window during a player's turn.  It is a good idea at the
          beginning of a game to get together with all the players and
          spend a day playing on the same computer (with this mode off of
          course) so that the length of the turns will become longer for
          when you play remotely.  By the way, the Neutral Player will do
          its turn immediately after the last human player in the turn ends
          his/her round, and the game will save and quit when the NP
          finishes.

          There is no reason to be concerned with regard to playing the
          same game on different computers with their own installations of
          Imperium Rex - all the necessary information for purposes of
          consistency are stored in the one game file.  Having different
          sets of specifications stored to OBJSPECS.REX or GAMEPARM.REX
          will have no effect as all this information has been copied to
          the game file for independent access during the game building
          process; and having different NP message files (WINNING.REX,
          LOSING.REX) only implies that the randomly chosen messages that
          the NP sends people may be different.  Changing the game sound
          option is a local effect, and is not stored with the game file.

          The passwords feature may only be turned on or off in the Game
          Editor (in the main edit menu after selecting the game to edit).
          When turned on, it will ask each player for a password which is
          necessary to type each time that player's round begins.  It is
          also required that all players type their passwords before anyone
          is able to edit the game.  Passwords may be changed from within
          the Game Options window during a player's round.  The passwords
          option may of course only be turned off when editing the game,
          which requires everyone's passwords - it is therefore very
          important that no one forgets their password.  It is also
          important that any player who resigns the game either surrender
          his or her password to everyone else, or at least clear it by
          changing it to nothing (just hit ENTER for a password);
          otherwise, the remaining people in the game will not be able to
          turn the passwords off if they need to (or edit something).
          These passwords are of course stored in the game file in an
          encrypted form.



5. USER INTERFACE CONVENTIONS

     This section describes all the user input terms used in all the
     documentation (including on-line help), and some general tips on
     getting used to the input interface.

     "<LB>", "CLICK [ON]", "SELECT":
          These terms refer to the LEFT MOUSE BUTTON, if using a mouse, or
          the following keys if in keyboard mode:  ENTER/RETURN,
          INSERT/INS.

     "<RB>", "CANCEL":
          These terms refer to the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON, if using a mouse, or
          the following keys if in keyboard mode:  ESCAPE/ESC, DELETE/DEL.

     For all item selection input modes, where a list of items is presented
     and a status and button line appears at the bottom of the list, the
     following inputs are accepted:
          KEYBOARD:
               UP and DOWN ARROW keys - to move the selection bar through
               the list one item at a time,
               PGUP and PGDN keys - to move the selection bar up or down
               the list a page at a time,
               ENTER/RETURN - to select the highlighted item, or
               ESCAPE/ESC - to leave the list (cancel).
          MOUSE:
               Clicking on one of...
               The arrow pointing left (second button from left) is the UP
               key,
               The arrow pointing right (third button from left) is the
               DOWN key,
               The larger arrow '<' pointing left (first button) is the
               PGUP key,
               The larger arrow '>' pointing right (last button) is the
               PGDN key,
               or Clicking on an item in the list (doesn't have to be
               highlighted) will select that item,
               or Clicking <RB> (CANCEL) will leave the list.

     For menu items, which may be vertically or horizontally arranged, the
     following inputs are accepted:
          KEYBOARD:
               UP or LEFT arrow keys - to move the menu bar up or left,
               DOWN or RIGHT arrow keys - to move the menu bar down or
               right,
               TAB key - to cyclically move the menu bar down or right,
               ENTER/RETURN or INSERT/INS keys - to select the menu item,
               or
               ESCAPE/ESC or DELETE/DEL - to cancel or leave.
          MOUSE:
               Click on a menu item to select it, or
               CANCEL (right button).


     All other input modes are directly sensitive to where you click on the
     screen.  It is a good idea to use the on-line help to be familiar with
     all input options for each input context.  Generally, CANCEL will move
     up a level of input or abort an operation.  Also, if in MOUSE input
     mode, keyboard commands will normally not respond in these other input
     modes (which are non-item-selection-oriented).

     5.1 FILE SELECTION MODE

          A special mention of file selection is warranted here, although
          it wasn't supposed to be complicated, but could be if not
          careful.

          The same file selection window/user-interface is used for all
          file operations.  The current, default directory appears on the
          top line; an input box appears on the left-hand side of the
          window; and a list interface appears on the right.  The list
          interface is always the first to be active whenever the window is
          opened - this means that all input commands are intercepted by
          the file selection interface.  Therefore, you may not just click
          on the input box on the left to enter in a filename manually.  To
          do this, you must use CANCEL to exit the list interface and bring
          you to the manual input box.  Once you are in this manual input
          box, you cannot directly move back to the list interface - to do
          this, you will have to CANCEL, which will bring you to the
          options on the bottom where you can CANCEL again (in which case
          you will need to re-select the option that brought you here), or
          select OK (in which case it is most probable that an error will
          occur which upon acknowledgement will bring you back to the list
          interface).

          Read the on-line help when you get to this window!  It may take
          some playing around before you get completely used to it.  It
          wasn't meant to be this difficult - it is really a programming
          problem where multiple input-types wasn't really anticipated for.
          Sorry!

          Another thing to mention is that directory/drive selection has
          been omitted to discourage file access and storage in places
          other than the program directory, and for simplicity.  There is a
          requirement that the program directory be current at all times
          during program execution, so that the necessary files can be
          accessed transparently.  However, you may still provide a full
          pathname for loading and saving files in the input box.


     5.2 KEYBOARD INPUT MODE VS. MOUSE INPUT MODE

          If KEYBOARD input mode is enabled using the command line switch
          '/k', all MOUSE controls are disabled.  This should only be used
          if you do not have a mouse, and/or the auto-detection of the
          presence of a mouse driver is incorrect, or if for some reason
          calling the mouse driver will interfere with something else.  It
          is strongly recommended however to use MOUSE input mode whenever
          possible.  One particular instance where '/k' must be used is if
          you are running either the game editor or player in a DOS Window
          (under Windows).  As mentioned previously, it is also strongly
          recommended that you do not run this program under Windows.

          In KEYBOARD MODE, special keys have been designated to emulate
          the mouse.  Whenever you are in an input mode that is sensitive
          to clicking at a particular screen location (other than option-
          selection-oriented input modes), the following keys will be
          checked:
               UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT ARROW keys:
                    Moves the 'mouse' cursor around the screen.
               INSERT/INS or ENTER/RETURN:
                    Same function as LEFT MOUSE BUTTON (Select).
               DELETE/DEL or ESCAPE/ESC:
                    Same function as RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON (Cancel).

          In MOVE MODE (only in KEYBOARD MODE) when asking for movement
          orders, the special purpose buttons in the status/control box can
          be selected by pressing the corresponding letter on the keyboard,
          such as 'S' for STANDBY.  Although this may be a convenient
          feature, it is not available in MOUSE mode (sorry!).



6. ON-LINE HELP

     This help feature is context-sensitive.  It can be invoked at any time
     by clicking the '?' button at the extreme bottom-right corner.  This
     will open a window and present a brief description pertinent to the
     particular context that you are in.  There is always only one page
     presented for any context.  To acknowledge the help (leave the
     window), you can click anywhere or cancel anywhere except directly on
     the '?' button (an exception is placed in the code to prevent
     recursive calls to the help procedure).

     If in MOUSE mode, you may not use the keyboard controls to exit help.
     If in KEYBOARD input mode, on-line help is not accessible in all
     option-selection-oriented input contexts (due to the fact that the
     mouse cursor is not maneuverable under these conditions to select the
     '?' button).

     If there is no help for a particular context, the help based on the
     higher-level context is presented.  This should not happen often -
     except for cases where the context is so obvious that no extra help is
     warranted, or for other cases where I just missed out on entering a
     help description for.  If you happen to find a context for which no
     help is available and believe that some more information would be
     helpful, please let me know.



7. GENERAL INFORMATION ON OBJECTS

     An object is any independent entity that can move or be moved so as to
     appear on the map (including cities and settlements, which strictly
     speaking do not fall under this criteria).  All objects are owned by a
     particular player.  There is a hard-coded maximum of 300 objects that
     can be owned by any one player.  It is impossible to exceed this
     boundary, unless there is a bug in the code.  From time to time, you
     should check how many objects you own by reading the General Status
     Report, Page 1.  If you have at least 280 objects, an option in the
     Orders menu is available to Disband an object.  You are not allowed to
     disband cities or non-empty transports, or objects that are inside
     cities or are loaded.  You are not permitted to create any new objects
     if the resulting total will be at least 290 - this includes resource
     containers!  (This gives a safety margin of 10 in the event that there
     may be a bug).  If, for whatever reason, you end up with more than 300
     objects (or have an object with object number 300), save your game
     right away under a different name, and let me know!  Otherwise, the
     results could be catastrophic.  (Honestly though, it shouldn't happen
     - but who knows?)

     Keep in mind that this restriction also applies to the Neutral Player,
     and that all its cities are included in the object count.

     The following are the types of orders that can be given to an object:

          MOVING/MOVE TO LOCATION (x,y)
               This is an order to move to a specific location (given in
               MOVE MODE).  This order cannot be given if the selected
               location to move to is outside the object's fuel range.
          STANDBY
               Do not ask for orders any more.  The object will do nothing
               except scan once a turn.  For objects that can crash if they
               run out of fuel over water, this order is cleared if the
               amount of fuel is 5 or less units, to warn you of the
               potentially life-threatening situation.
          WAIT
               Do not ask for orders this turn only.  It will ask again
               next turn.
          FOLLOW
               By clicking on one of your own objects in MOVE MODE, the
               object will follow the selected object.  If the selected
               object is a city, settlement, or transport, it will attempt
               to move inside once it arrives.  This order is sometimes
               referred to as GOING HOME (for cities and settlements).
          LOADED
               This means that the object is loaded onto a transport.

     In all cases except LOADED, if the object scans an enemy, its orders
     are cleared.  Cleared orders, or NO ORDERS, means that it awaits
     orders, and will probably ask you for orders in MOVE MODE if it still
     has movement points.  If you leave an object in this state, it will
     still scan once a turn.



8. NAMING OBJECTS

     All of your objects can be given a name, which may have up to 19
     printable characters.

     A name may be entered for an object in two ways.  One way is in MOVE
     MODE, where clicking in the name field (second line on the left) for
     an object that is asking for movement orders will edit its name; names
     cannot be edited in this way for all other objects, such as cities and
     settlements.  Another way is in TACTICAL MODE, where clicking in the
     name field before selecting an object will enter NAMING MODE.  This is
     a TACTICAL "SUB-MODE" where by selecting a location where one or more
     objects reside will cycle through each object there and ask if you
     want to change its name.  You know you are in NAMING MODE when "Select
     Object..." appears in the name field in TACTICAL.  To exit this mode,
     click in the name field to return to TACTICAL; or CANCEL to exit
     TACTICAL MODE entirely.

     Neutral cities are named automatically as they are placed on the map.
     These names are taken from the file <CITNAMES.REX>, in sequence from
     the first one in the file, down to however many are needed.  If you
     wish to add your own names, insert them at the top of the file using
     any text editor and they will be chosen first as cities are placed.
     When inserting your own names, make sure they are not longer than 19
     characters long (or if they are longer, they will be truncated
     anyway).  Make sure there are no blank lines in the file.  If there
     are not enough names in the file for all the cities to be placed, the
     remaining cities will have blank names.



9. OBJECT SPECIFICATION TABLE

     This table is displayed in the game editor.  All object specifications
     are stored in a file (OBJSPECS.REX) which is common to all games that
     are played.  If this file is missing for some reason, the game editor
     will create a new one with default settings once invoked.  Although
     specifications can be changed if desired, it is not recommended to
     change too many of them at any one time.  It took years of playing
     experience (as the game was developed) to decide on a set of
     reasonably optimum parameters such that there is a proper balance.  A
     balance in power of objects is essential for fair playing, and to the
     effectiveness of all objects in the table.  If you change some
     specifications but wish to restore the original values, rename or
     delete the current OBJSPECS.REX file and run the game editor.

     To edit this table, just click on the number to change; or click on
     the surface type to toggle "survivability"; or click on a tech-type to
     change it.

     Listed below are the specifications and their meaning.

     HI
          This is the number of HIt points the object has if fully
          repaired.  If this number drops to 0 for whatever reason, the
          object is destroyed.  During attack, one damage point inflicted
          is one hit point lost.
     DP
          This is the Damage Potential of an object.  If attacking, this is
          the number of times the object may fire on the enemy.  If you are
          lucky, you may hit every time thus delivering a maximum of 'DP'
          points of damage.
     FR
          This is the Fuel Range of an object.  If fully fueled, you may
          travel a maximum distance of FR units.  It always costs one fuel
          unit to move from any location (except for some non-movement-
          associated objects).  This value can have an alternate meaning in
          some instances which are explained in the object descriptions
          section.
     PT
          This is the Production Time in turns required to make an object
          in a city.
     WT
          This is the WeighT of an object (in weight units) if it is
          transportable, or the carrying capacity (in weight units) if it
          is a transport.  It may also have other meanings in some
          instances which are explained in the object descriptions section.
     G, M, O
          These are the Grain, Mineral, and Oil resource units required to
          build the object.
     MC (The symbol that looks like an M inside a C)
          This is the amount of MegaCredits it costs to build the object.

     The following specifications are dependent on the surface type where
     the object resides.

     PBH
          This is the Probability of Being Hit by another object that is
          firing at you.
     POH
          This is the Probability Of Hitting an enemy object if firing at
          it.
     AR
          This is the Attack Range of the object in distance units.  An AR
          of 1 will allow the object to only attack another object that is
          immediately adjacent.
     SP
          This is (indirectly) the SPeed of the object.  It has special
          meaning for the LAND surface type.  SP (LAND) is the number of
          movement points (MPs) assigned to an object at the beginning of
          the turn.  All other SP entries are the number of MPs it costs to
          move FROM the corresponding surface.  It always costs 1 MP to
          move from LAND.  There are some exceptions to these rules for
          RAIL and ROAD.  Road is treated as LAND only for movement (it
          will only cost 1 MP for any object to move from road, without
          regard to surface type).  The exceptions for rail pertain to the
          Rail Transport (RT) and the Rail Constructor.  Objects of speed 0
          are termed "non-movement-associated" which means they cannot move
          on their own accord - their movement is restricted so they can
          only be unloaded, loaded, moved into a city/settlement directly
          adjacent, or moved out of a city/settlement to a directly
          adjacent empty surface.  They are not capable of moving from its
          own location (outside) to another empty surface.
     SR
          This is the Scan Range of the object in distance units.  Enemy
          objects that move within your SR, or are in your SR when you
          move, will have a chance of being scanned.  If an object is
          scanned, its AGE STAT will be set to 0 (displayed beside the
          enemy object) - this is explained in the section on object stats
          (map view).
     POS
          This is the Probability Of Scanning an enemy object.  If a
          scanning check is done due to movement, this is a factor in
          deciding if you scan the enemy.
     PBS
          This is the Probability of Being Scanned by an enemy object.  If
          a scanning check is done due to movement, this is a factor in
          deciding if the enemy scans you.

     For each firing attempt, the probability of an object being hit is the
     product of POH of the attacking object and PBH of the object being
     attacked (well, actually, it's POH*PBH/100).  The same applies to POS
     and PBS with respect to scanning.  A scan takes place after each
     movement of one distance unit for all objects to check if you see an
     enemy, and to check if an enemy sees you.  (A standard uniform random
     number generator is used).

     If a surface type for an object is highlighted in blue, then the
     object may move to this surface.

     The tech-type of the object is the one highlighted in blue.  The tech-
     level of the object is underneath the tech-types, and may range from 1
     to 5 (from primitive to the most advanced).

     Of course, the symbol to the left of the object name is the standard
     tactical symbol for that object.



10. DETAILED OBJECT DESCRIPTIONS

(There is no logical order to the following list, except for the most part
being in the order of conception.)

ARMY UNIT
     An army is a group of soldiers, with light artillery.  Producing an
     army involves standard training of militia or civilians (whoever is
     "available") that are present in the city.  Population in cities or
     the morale of the people is not an issue in this game.

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

CITY
     This is an establishment that is reasonably permanent, used to sustain
     your population, and produce and repair objects.  A city can be taken
     over by an enemy but such an act will bring the city down to tech-
     level 1 for all tech-types.  There is no restriction on the number of
     times a city can change owners.  A city may only be destroyed by a
     CITY DEVASTATOR.

     Objects are repaired by a city whenever they are left inside at the
     end of the turn; they are put into STANDBY at this time and orders are
     cleared when repairs are complete.  The number of objects repaired
     each turn is not restricted - they all gain one hit point per turn.
     Repairs may be ceased and the object used at any time by clearing its
     orders and moving it outside the city.

     Resources that are within a radius of 3 units will be collected by the
     city at the beginning of your round, so long as they have been scanned
     (are actually visible on your map).  There is a collection and
     processing fee of 1 MC per unit of resources.  There is no way to
     prevent collection and thus prevent the payment of these funds once
     resources are scanned in the vicinity - if you run out of MCs,
     resource collection will then halt.  It is expected of the leader of
     the city to provide employment to the people if such work is
     available.  They will not allow you to prevent the exploitation of
     resources if they are indeed accessible.  Of course, they will not
     work for free if you happen to run out of MCs!

     If a resource deposit is in collection range of more than one
     city/settlement, it will be collected only by the city/settlement that
     has the lowest object number.

     There is no limit to the number of objects that can exist inside the
     city, but if the city were to be taken over, all of your objects
     inside will be instantly destroyed.  Objects inside cities cannot
     attack, or participate in the city's defense in any way.

     Cities are able to spot submarines and satellites (within scan range
     of course).

     If at the beginning of your round, a city has spotted one or more
     enemy objects within attack range of your guard(s), you will be
     alerted and will be given the opportunity to attack them (see GUARD).

     The maximum number of guards sustainable in a city is HI + (guards per
     TL * (highest TL of city-1)).

     The following specs are redundant:  DP, FR, PT, WT, G, M, O, MC, PBH,
     POH, AR, SP.

SETTLEMENT
     This is a colonization of a small area, primarily for the purposes of
     collecting and processing resources.  They are volunteers who seek
     profit from the exploitation of any surrounding resources (in a radius
     of 3 units).  However, an agreement is established before-hand, that
     if you choose to suspend their operation, you will still accommodate
     the needs of the colony for survival.  In return for your services and
     the generous payments you make for the collection of resources, they
     have agreed to provide shelter to those objects that happen to move
     into their settlement.  However, if their settlement is destroyed,
     they will not accept liability for the destruction of the (cowardly)
     objects that chose to take cover instead of moving outside to defend
     them.

     If a resource deposit is in collection range of more than one
     city/settlement, it will be collected only by the city/settlement that
     has the lowest object number.

     Settlements have no intrinsic offensive capability - they are easily
     destroyed without protection!  However, if a repair unit is left
     inside at the end of the turn, it will repair one unit of damage (one
     hit point will be restored).  If more than one repair unit is left
     inside, only one will perform repairs.  There is no way to prevent
     damage being repaired, unless you deliberately move all repair units
     outside.

     They are built by SETTLER UNITS, and cannot be moved.  There is no way
     to destroy your own settlement (unless you politely ask your opponent
     to do so).

     A HYDRO-SETTLER UNIT will build a settlement on water, which can be
     thought of as an artificial platform (such as an oil rig is in our
     world).  This can actually form a bridge between two adjacent terrain
     surfaces, although any objects that wish to pass over this "bridge"
     must enter the settlement first, which will usually result in the loss
     of some movement points.

     Settlements cannot be built directly adjacent to another settlement or
     a city (in case you thought of it, if this restriction was not in
     place, you could build ships in a city that is not beside water and
     build this "artificial and protected channel" to transport your ship
     to the water - this is what we have canals for).

     DP, POH, AR, and SP must be set to 0.  FR, PT, WT, G, M, O, and MC are
     redundant.

PHOTON CANNON
     This is a non-movement-associated offensive/defensive object.  It can
     move onto transports or into cities or settlements that are adjacent,
     but cannot move on its own accord.

     FR and SP must be set to 0.

CITY (HQ)
     In addition to being a city, this is your designated headquarters.
     All global market transactions are associated with the resource pool
     in your HQ.  If your HQ is taken over, you must select a new one from
     your group of cities.  If you have no other cities and you lose your
     HQ, the first city you take over will be your HQ.

GUNSHIP
     This is a heavily armed attack helicopter.

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

ANTI-SAT BUILDER
     This is a construction unit that can move on its own accord to a
     location where you wish to build ANTI-SAT DEFENSE.  It is permitted to
     build ANTI-SAT DEFENSE inside a city or settlement.  It was conceived
     to have no offensive capability, so DP, POH, and AR should be set to
     0.

     WT is redundant.

MINE LAYER
     This is a small mine laying unit that is designed to move on any
     surface and lay its mine.  Once a mine is laid, the mine layer is
     dismantled.  It was conceived to have no offensive capability, so DP,
     POH, and AR should be set to 0.

SETTLER UNIT
     This is a settlement construction unit that can move on its own accord
     to a location where you wish to build a SETTLEMENT.  It was conceived
     to have limited offensive capability (namely, lots of men with tools).

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

BATTLE CRUISER
     This is a very big, ugly, and offensive boat, as the name implies.  It
     was conceived to be the most powerful object of any tech-type.  The
     attack range (AR) was deliberately set to be longer than the scan
     range (SR), due to the very large and powerful gunnery that can
     "transport" a shell over a very large distance.  Beware that battle
     cruisers CANNOT detect submarines - this can prove to be very
     dangerous (you may want to consider an escort, such as a destroyer or
     submarine).

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

AERO-PORTER
     This is a reasonably large cargo aircraft.  See the transport table
     for a list of objects that it can carry.

     WT in this case is the total number of weight units that this
     transport can carry (it is not the weight of the transport itself).

AERO-FIGHTER
     This is a very agile scout/fighter aircraft.  They are valuable for
     instances where a quick and responsive attack is required, as they can
     travel large distances in a short time.  Typical preys would be
     bombers, aero-porters, fuel depots, and other objects that have poor
     defensive capability.

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

HOVER-SCOUT
     This is a very useful scouting object, and the only object that can
     detect resource deposits.  If you do not have one of these objects for
     any reason, be sure to produce one right away.  They are your key to
     resource exploitation and thus the expansion of your empire.  They are
     also useful for destroying rail or road, or fuel depots.  They can
     also set off mines (to use as an inexpensive mine sweeper, even if
     they might get killed).

     As the hover-scout moves, it automatically scans the surrounding area
     (within its scan range - SR) for resource deposits.  If a location has
     been successfully scanned, it will show as highlighted when a resource-
     scanned area observation map is displayed.  The game parameter table
     has an entry that specifies the probability that the hover-scout will
     detect a resource deposit.  If it failed to scan, the location in
     question will not be highlighted.  In MOVE MODE, there is an H button
     that if pressed, will display the resource-scanned area.  This is an
     option that you should use often as you move your scout, to be sure
     that all area in its scan range has successfully been scanned.

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

ANTI-SAT DEFENSE
     This is an establishment that continually scans the skies for an enemy
     satellite (at the beginning of your turn).  SR is the range that this
     object can scan for a satellite, and AR is the attack range.  If a
     satellite lies in-between AR and SR, you will be notified of the
     intruding satellite's presence, but cannot attack it.  If the
     satellite is within AR, it will be destroyed on your order.
     Destruction of a satellite costs one missile, and the defense is
     dismantled when the last of its missiles has been fired.

     It has no defensive capability.

     DP must be set to 1; FR is the number of missiles this defense is
     given once built; AR and SR need only be set for LAND.  PT, WT, G, M,
     O, MC, POH are redundant.  Surface selection is also redundant (it may
     be wherever the builder can go).

DETECTOR PLACER
     This is a mobile unit that can plant detectors on any surface type.
     It has no defensive capability - DP should be set to 0.

     WT is the number of detectors it is given once produced.  This object
     is dismantled when it has placed its last detector.

     POH and AR should be set to 0.  As it is an object with a very narrow
     purpose, it has been given no scanning capability, so SR was set to 0
     (although it could be changed).  If SR is 0, POS is redundant.

LASER TANK
     This is a very sturdy and heavily armoured vehicle with a reasonably
     powerful cannon.  It is a standard land-based attack unit.

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

SPY SATELLITE
     Satellites are useful for quickly mapping out the world.  An
     advantageous side effect is that it can also give you a good idea
     where your enemy is, as it has the capability of distinguishing the
     ownership of objects below it.  Satellites of any ownership cannot
     collide into each other.

     They are equipped with maneuvering fuel, specified by FR.  Each time
     the orbit is changed, one fuel unit is lost.  If there is no fuel
     left, the orbit of the satellite can no longer be changed (unless you
     deliberately destroy it).  They can move in a direction based on 45
     degrees ("horizontally", "vertically", or "diagonally" across the
     map).  They may also be placed in a synchronous orbit in which they
     continuously scan the same area.  Normally, the world is non-wrapping
     to objects.  However, satellites DO wrap from one side to the other.

     Once produced, a satellite may be launched in TACTICAL MODE only, by
     clicking on the city that produced it and finding its object window,
     where the launch button may be pressed.  Grounded satellites (ones
     that haven't been launched yet) will appear in the Satellite Report
     (under the REPORTS menu).

     They are detectable by cities and anti-sat defense only.

     Satellites can see submarines.

     It may be helpful to be aware that the Neutral Player will not produce
     satellites.

     AR should be 0; HI, DP, PBH, POH, PBS are redundant.  SP (LAND) is the
     distance moved at the beginning of each turn.  Surface selection is
     redundant.

TERRA-PORTER
     This is essentially a convoy of transport trucks.  See the transport
     table for a list of objects that it can carry.

     WT in this case is the total number of weight units that this
     transport can carry (it is not the weight of the transport itself).

HYDRO-PORTER
     This is a reasonably large transport ship.  See the transport table
     for a list of objects that it can carry.

     WT in this case is the total number of weight units that this
     transport can carry (it is not the weight of the transport itself).

ROAD CONSTRUCTOR
     This is a construction unit that places road segments.  It has limited
     defensive capability.

     This unit has an auto-placement (A-P) mode where a segment is placed
     automatically each time the object is moved to a new location with no
     feature object already present.  Placement will only occur at the
     location it is moved TO when this mode is on.  There is also a manual
     placement command that can be used to place a segment at its current
     location, without using up its movement points.

     WT is the number of road segments that is given to the object once
     produced.  It is dismantled when the last of its road segments is
     placed.

GUARD
     A guard is an abstract object - it exists inside its city and cannot
     be moved.  Guards are used to defend their city against enemy attack.
     They absorb hits when the city is attacked, and they can deliver
     damage to an enemy object in their attack range (AR).  Each guard has
     its own hit points - when they are all lost, the guard unit is killed.
     If all guards are lost, the city is handed over to the attacker.  If a
     guard unit is being produced when an existing guard has lost points,
     that guard will have an added hit point per turn.  If the number of
     hits points exceeds the maximum for the guard, a new guard is
     produced.  A simpler way to calculate the number of guards in a city
     is:  guards = (total hit points of city / max. hit points per guard) +
     1.  If you have reached the maximum number of guards that can be
     sustained in a city, but do not have maximum hit points, there is no
     way to bring the city to maximum hits (the injured guards are there to
     stay until the bitter end).

     WT, FR, SR, SP, POS, and PBS are redundant.

FUEL DEPOT
     Fuel depots can exist inside cities or settlements, or be carried on
     transports, or can be partly concealed outside, on any surface.  They
     are the only means for fueling up objects.  An object can fuel itself
     to maximum by moving to it if the depot is outside, or by moving into
     a city with fuel.  If a transport is carrying a depot and runs out of
     fuel, it will fuel up from this depot.  Objects moving onto a
     transport that has a fuel depot will fuel up automatically; however,
     if an object wants to fuel up from a depot inside a transport, but is
     not a compatible load, the depot must be moved off the transport
     first, and then have the object move to it.  If there are more than
     one fuel depots at the same location (either in a city or settlement
     or in a transport) and an object will choose to fuel up, it will take
     fuel from the most empty depot first.  Depots that are completely
     emptied will be dismantled at the end of your turn.  Any object that
     fuels up from a depot will lose all its remaining movement points for
     that turn.

     You may transfer fuel from one depot to another by giving the
     receiving depot orders to fuel up (from the other depot) - this may
     save room on a transport if two containers are only half full for
     example.

     One fuel unit will be lost from the depot if moved outside a city or
     transport.  However, no fuel is lost when loading onto a transport or
     into a city.

     If objects that require fuel are produced in a city with no fuel, they
     will be stranded until a depot is moved in, or until a depot is
     produced in that city.  Once a fuel depot exists by either method
     inside the city, all objects with zero fuel (only) will automatically
     fuel up at the beginning of the round.  Therefore, objects cannot fuel
     up the same round that the depot was produced, unless the depot is
     moved outside the city and then each object that is empty is manually
     ordered to fuel up from that depot.  This alternative is not
     beneficial though, since it still takes a turn to manually fuel up.

     Fuel depots have no defensive capability, but have limited scanning
     capability.

     DP, AR, POH, and SP must be set to 0.  FR is the amount of fuel given
     to a depot once produced.

STEALTH BOMBER
     This is a long-range bomber.  It is sometimes referred to as a
     transport, as it has a similar window interface and loading/unloading
     mechanisms.  However, the only object type that can be carried is a
     bomb.  Bombs are dropped to an immediately surrounding area using the
     bomb button in MOVE MODE.  Bombs can be dropped on an enemy object, or
     on a rail or road (owned by anyone).  If an object is destroyed by a
     bomb, and rail, road, or canal is at the same location, it is
     destroyed as well.  A bomb dropped directly on a rail or road segment
     will guarantee its destruction, whereas dropping a bomb on a canal
     will destroy it with probability as given in the Game Parameter Table.
     It costs one movement point (MP) to drop a bomb.

     A bomber can carry a total weight determined by WT.  If each bomb
     weighs 1 unit, then WT is the number of bombs that can be carried.

RESOURCE CONTAINER
     These are only available in non-pooled resources mode of play.  They
     are created by packing resources in cities or settlements.  There is a
     hard-coded limit of 5 resource units per container.  The weight of a
     container is specified by WT and is set by default to 5 (one weight
     unit per resource unit).  An empty container cannot be created.
     Containers are the only means of transferring resources from one
     location to another, other than by using an RTS (Rail Transport
     Schedule).  They may only be unpacked in a city or settlement that has
     room in its resource pool for the resources in the container.
     Unpacking a container automatically dismantles it as well.  They may
     contain a mixture of resource types.  Containers are independent
     objects that can exist outside cities, but are extremely vulnerable to
     attack.  They are not capable of moving on their own accord, or
     attacking (it's literally just a container).

     DP, AR, SP must be set to 0; SR should be set to 0; FR, PT, G, M, O,
     MC, POH, and POS are redundant.

DESTROYER
     This is a well-armoured and reasonably powerful attack ship.  It is
     also useful for scouting, as it is the fastest water-based unit.

     They can see submarines.

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

SUBMARINE
     This is a submersible attack unit.  It has the advantage of being
     difficult to hit, and difficult to spot (by objects that are capable
     of seeing a submarine).

     Submarines can only be seen by cities, satellites, destroyers, and of
     course submarines.

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

REPAIR UNIT
     This is a mobile object that is capable of repairing damage to any
     object (other than guards).  A repair unit cannot repair its own
     damage - however another repair unit could.  The act of repairing is
     initiated by having the object to repair move to it (click on the
     repair unit in MOVE MODE).  Each time the object is moved to it, one
     unit of damage is repaired.  An object being repaired in this way will
     lose all remaining movement points in the turn.  A repair unit may
     only repair one object at a time.  There is a maximum number of hit
     points that may be restored by any one repair unit, given by WT.  WT
     also doubles as the actual weight of the repair unit for transport.
     The repair unit is dismantled when the last of its repair units has
     been expended.

     This unit should not be capable of offensive action, so DP, POH, and
     AR should be set to 0.

RAIL CONSTRUCTOR
     This is a construction unit that places rail segments.  It has limited
     defensive capability.  The speed of this object, if moved from rail,
     is given by SP (LAND).  If this object is moved from a location with
     no rail, all movement points are used (thus it has a speed of 1 when
     not on rail).

     This unit has an auto-placement (A-P) mode where a segment is placed
     automatically each time the object is moved to a new location with no
     feature object already present.  Placement will only occur at the
     location it is moved TO when this mode is on.  There is also a manual
     placement command that can be used to place a segment at its current
     location, without using up its movement points.

     WT is the number of rail segments that is given to the object once
     produced.  It is dismantled when the last of its rail segments is
     placed.

RAIL TRANSPORT
     This is a rail transportation unit, often referred to as an RT.  It
     may only travel on rail (and can of course move into cities or
     settlements), and it does not matter who owns the rail.  There are two
     modes of movement that may be set in MOVE MODE that governs the
     behaviour of the RT with respect to path selection: Minimum Distance
     Tracking (MDT) can be turned on or off.  If MDT is off, the RT will
     ask you which rail segment to move to at every intersection, in the
     form of a request to give a direction to avoid an obstacle.  An
     intersection is defined such that the number of rail segments
     immediately surrounding a given location is greater than or equal to
     3.  The RT remembers where it came from during movement, so as long as
     there is only one choice of rail to move to (other than where it came
     from), it will move there without question.  If MDT is enabled, a
     certain degree of intelligence is applied (well, the best I could do
     given memory constraints).  MDT is automatically turned on when the RT
     is assigned a schedule (RTS), so that the RT may move from city to
     city (or wherever) without asking you for directions each time.
     Theoretically, so long as the rail layout is reasonably uncomplicated,
     the RT in MDT mode should find its way to its destination.  See the
     section on the MDT algorithm for a more detailed description of its
     "intelligence".

     The Rail Transport Schedule (RTS) is a very handy method for the
     regular transport of resources around a large area.  This is described
     in another section.  The RTS is obviously useless if playing in POOLED
     RESOURCES mode.

     WT is the total weight that this transport can carry.

BOMB
     Bombs are individual, independent objects, like resource containers.
     They may only be transported by the STEALTH BOMBER, and of course may
     only be dropped and detonated from a bomber.  They have no offensive
     capability on their own (you cannot unload a bomb beside a city and
     then detonate it).  Bombs are produced individually as well, by
     cities, as any other object.  Bombs inside a city may not be directly
     loaded onto a bomber inside the city - they must be loaded as any
     other object is loaded, by moving into it.  In this case, the bomber
     must be placed just outside the city and have all the bombs load into
     it from inside the city.  If they are just left outside, they are of
     course very vulnerable to attack.  You may regard this unit as being a
     single bomb, or a group of bombs - it really doesn't matter.  The
     number of bombs that can be loaded onto a bomber is only determined by
     the weight (WT) of the bomb and the weight capacity (WT) of the
     bomber.

     DP is of course the damage potential the bomb can do if dropped on top
     of the object.  SP must be set to 0; FR, SR, POS should be set to 0.

GUN BOAT
     This is a small, lightly-armoured and not-so-powerful boat.  It is
     generally the equivalent of an army except it floats.

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

HYDRO-SETTLER UNIT
     This is a settlement construction unit that can only move on water on
     its own accord to a location where you wish to build a SETTLEMENT.  It
     was conceived to have limited offensive capability (namely, lots of
     men with tools).

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

CITY DEVASTATOR
     This is an independent, mobile unit that is used to completely destroy
     one of your own cities.  It cannot be used to devastate a city you do
     not own!  To devastate a city, you must move it inside and give it
     orders to devastate.  All objects inside the city will of course be
     destroyed as well (if you are silly enough to leave them inside).  You
     will probably only use this if your city is about to be taken over,
     and there isn't much of a chance of taking it back.  Be aware that the
     Neutral Player is quite capable of building and using these - if you
     are attacking one of its cities and it suddenly disappears, you'll
     know why.

     There are no special exceptions in the specification table.

CANAL CONSTRUCTOR
     This is a construction unit that places canal segments.  It has
     limited defensive capability.

     WT is the number of canal segments that is given to the object once
     produced.  It is dismantled when the last of its canal segments is
     placed.



11. TRANSPORT TABLE

     This table shows which objects can be carried by each transport type.

OBJECT               TERRA-P   AERO-P   HYDRO-P   RAIL TRANSPORT   BOMBER
Army                    X         X       X            X
Photon Cannon           X         X       X            X
Gunship                                   X
Mine Layer                                X            X
Settler Unit            X                 X            X
Aero-Fighter                              X
Laser Tank              X         X       X            X
Fuel Depot              X         X       X            X
Resource Container      X         X       X            X
Repair Unit             X         X       X            X
City Devastator         X         X       X            X
Bomb                                                                 X



12. OBJECT SPECIAL-ATTRIBUTE TABLE


OBJECT                ROAD      LOSES FUEL    CAN BE HIT    CAN BE
                      BONUS     OVER WATER    BY A MINE     BOMBED     NP
Army                    X                         X           X        X
City                                                          X
Settlement                                                    X
Photon Cannon                                     X           X        X
Gunship                             X                                  X
Anti-Sat Builder        X                         X           X
Mine Layer                                        X           X        X
Settler Unit            X                         X           X
Battle Cruiser                                    X           X        X
Aero-Porter                         X
Aero-Fighter                        X                                  X
Hover-Scout                                       X                    X
Anti-Sat Defense                                  X           X
Detector Placer                                   X           X
Laser Tank              X                         X           X        X
Terra-Porter            X                         X           X
Hydro-Porter                                      X           X
Road Constructor        X                         X           X
Fuel Depot                                        X           X
Stealth Bomber                      X
Resource Container                                X           X
Destroyer                                         X           X        X
Submarine                                         X                    X
Repair Unit             X                         X           X
Rail Constructor        X                         X           X
Rail Transport                                    X           X
Bomb                                              X           X
Gun Boat                                          X           X        X
Hydro-Settler Unit                                X           X
City Devastator         X                         X           X        X
Canal Constructor       X                         X           X

ROAD BONUS
     This object can be moved to any surface provided that road is built on
     it.  It also has a bonus if moving from the road, such that movement
     only costs 1 MP.  Objects that are non-movement-associated and are
     capable of existing on all surfaces, do not receive any special
     treatment moving to or from road (Fuel Depot, Bomb, Resource
     Container).
LOSES FUEL OVER WATER
     This means that if this object, at the beginning of the turn, is
     placed in STANDBY or just left with no orders sitting above water, it
     will lose one fuel unit.  If the object happens to run out of fuel at
     this point, it is immediately killed.
CAN BE HIT BY A MINE
     If this object moves on top of a mine, it is detonated.
CAN BE BOMBED
     This object can be bombed by a stealth bomber.
NP
     Neutral Player cities can produce these objects (assuming they have
     reached the required tech-level).  The NP has an unlimited source of
     fuel and resources in each of its cities.  However, unlike human
     players that can produce one object for each tech-type at the same
     time, the NP cannot have concurrent production (in any given city).



13. MAP DISPLAY DESCRIPTION

     The world is rectangular of size 100 rows and 150 columns.  Because of
     this limitation, distances are not as they may appear.  For example,
     moving from location (0,0) to (2,0) in a vertical direction, i.e. from
     (0,0) to (1,0) to (2,0) takes the same amount of time and fuel as if
     moving along diagonals, i.e. from (0,0) to (1,1) to (2,0).  In other
     words, the Pythagorean Theorem is violated!  It is important to keep
     this in mind - you may then find that your movements are in a diagonal
     nature if your intent is to scan as much area as possible while losing
     a minimum amount of fuel.

     A player map display is a rectangular grid, with each location unit
     occupying two text columns.  The row location numbers are listed to
     the left of the map, and the column location numbers are listed on the
     bottom, where the first, leftmost digit of the column number is
     aligned with the first text column of the corresponding locations (it
     becomes obvious when you see it).

     The first text column of any particular location unit will either show
     the object tactical symbol if an object is present at that location,
     or the surface type icon.  The second text column (to the immediate
     right of the first) shows the object stat if an object is there, the
     surface type icon again if nothing is there, or a feature object
     symbol.  Feature objects are described in another section.

     An object stat is a statistical number related to the object.  If you
     own this object, its meaning depends on the object type and the chosen
     statistic to display for that object type:  If the object is a city,
     it will either display the smallest of the number of turns before an
     object in the city is produced, or the number of guards in the city;
     otherwise, it will either display the number of hits the object has
     left, or the amount of fuel it has left.  The buttons for choosing
     which information to display can be found in TACTICAL MODE (the
     information type displayed is shown by a check mark).  If you do not
     own this object (it belongs to the enemy), the number displayed is
     always the age stat of the object.  The age stat is the number of
     turns since you last scanned that particular object - an age stat of 0
     indicates that it is definitely at the location shown because you just
     saw it there.

     The object stat, if greater than 9, will always be a '+' sign.  Since
     there is no room to display a two-digit number, this character is used
     to tell you that the object stat is 10 or above.  In the case of an
     enemy object, the age stat is recorded up to a value of 63 - clicking
     on the object in TACTICAL MODE will tell you the actual age stat
     value, or will indicate if it is above 63 (you will have the option of
     removing this object from your map entirely, if you believe that it
     will most likely not be there anymore - regardless of the actual age
     stat value so long as it isn't 0).



14. MAP FEATURE OBJECTS

     This is a category of objects that are for the most part intrinsic to
     the surroundings.  There cannot be more than one of these objects at
     any one location:  For example, it is not possible to build a road on
     a mineral resource.  This restriction is mostly due to display and
     memory limitations.  Note that in MOVE MODE, the feature object symbol
     is displayed beside the surface type for any given object at its
     current location.  The map feature objects are listed below.

     GRAIN
          This is a resource deposit, called grain, but is more generally a
          food source.  For example, a "grain" deposit on water may be
          considered an area with a high concentration of seafood.  The
          symbol is supposed to look like a wheat field with the letter
          'G'.
     MINERAL
          This is a resource deposit, called mineral, which is generally an
          area that can be mined to yield any type of metallic elements for
          the purposes of construction of objects.  The symbol is supposed
          to look like a pickaxe with the letter 'M'.
     OIL
          This is a resource deposit, called oil, but is more generally an
          area that can be exploited as a fuel source (oil, coal, or
          natural gas).  The symbol is supposed to look like an oil rig (or
          pump) with the letter 'O'.
     RAIL
          Railroad can only be placed by a Rail Constructor.  It is only
          used by Rail Transports (RTs), and will most likely be built to
          connect cities for the rapid and efficient transport of
          resources, and other objects.  The symbol is a filled circle.
     ROAD
          Road can only be built by a Road Constructor (and will appear
          around neutral player cities wherever the surface is not water or
          land).  It will allow objects to move to a surface that they
          cannot normally move to.  If a surface has road built on it, for
          movement purposes, the surface will be treated as land.  However,
          all other specifications will be chosen based on the original
          surface type; these include POH, PBH, POS, PBS, AR, and SR.
          Therefore, it is important to make sure that specifications for
          surfaces that the object cannot normally move to are set
          properly, in the event that they are able to move to that surface
          because of road (except for objects that are not supposed to
          exist on land).  Obviously, it doesn't make sense to build road
          on land.  The symbol is a hollow square.
     MINE
          A mine can only be laid by a Mine Layer.  The mine is visible
          only to its owner, but will detonate if an object of the same
          owner moves to it.  There is no way to disarm a mine - it must be
          detonated by coming into contact with an object.  POH for a mine
          is 100 and DP is 1 - therefore, the probability of an object
          initially receiving one damage point is PBH of that object.  If a
          hit is received, the mine gets another attack using the same
          rules; if it hits again, it will try yet another attack.  It is
          therefore theoretically possible (although not likely) for a mine
          to sink a Battle Cruiser!  If a mine is detonated, the location
          is clear - a mine can actually be thought of as a mine field
          where if one mine is detonated, all are detonated simultaneously
          (by some transmitted signal, or whatever).  The symbol is
          supposed to look like a water mine with the letter 'M'.
     DETECTOR
          This can only be placed by a Detector Placer.  It is for the most
          part a passive device that is sensitive to the movement of enemy
          objects within its scan range.  It is generally concealed to the
          enemy, except that in the event that this device scans an enemy,
          there is a possibility that the enemy will detect the warning
          signal transmitted by the detector.  If this is the case, the
          detector has the means to detect an interception of its warning
          signal, in which case it self-destructs to prevent capture.  If
          you are alerted to the presence of an enemy object within its
          scan range, the actual location of the enemy is still unknown.
          The specifications of the detector reside in the game parameter
          table.  Note that the scan range of a detector does not appear in
          the View scan range mode.  The symbol is supposed to look like
          some sort of scanner with the letter 'D'.
     CANAL
          This can only be constructed by a Canal Constructor, on LAND.  It
          is an artificial waterway that will permit water-based objects to
          move inland.  When in the canal, the object's surface
          specifications will be land-based, not water-based.  As a
          movement penalty, all movement points will be used to move from a
          canal (however there is no penalty when moving into a canal).  It
          is still possible to move from water into a canal and then back
          into water in the same turn, depending on the speed of the
          object.  Of course, all other objects that can move on land will
          be able to transverse a canal (by whatever means: bridges,
          ferries, etc.) since the primary surface type is still land.  The
          symbol is not easily described - except that it doesn't look like
          any of the above, so by the process of elimination, it should
          become apparent (it's some sort of square-like pattern I made
          up).

          The following objects can move in a canal:  Gun Boats, Hydro-
          Porters, Hydro-Settler Units, Battle Cruisers, Destroyers, and
          Submarines.  Note that a Settlement cannot be built on a canal.



15. GRAPHICAL WORLD MAP VIEWS

     A graphical world map view uses the 320x200x256 VGA mode to display
     various aspects of your world, using colour codes to distinguish
     between objects.  The legend on the right shows the object symbol and
     its corresponding colour as it appears on the map.  The following are
     the different types of maps that may be obtained through the game
     options and menus, mostly from the Observation menu:

     OBJECTS
          Displays locations of all objects belonging to a particular
          player that you have scanned, as they appear on your player map.
          There is no distinction in this view as to the age of the object
          (how recently you scanned it).

     KNOWN RESOURCES
          All resources that you have scanned appear in this view, and are
          colour coded according to resource type.  This view does not
          indicate collection status of resources - another view is
          dedicated to this.
     INFRASTRUCTURE
          Displays the locations of the following objects:  CITY,
          SETTLEMENT, HQ, RAIL, ROAD, CANAL, MINE, and DETECTOR.
     COLLECTED RESOURCES
          Displays the locations of collected and uncollected resources
          that you have scanned.  They are colour coded as such, but
          resource types cannot be distinguished in this view.
     HIGHLIGHTING (sometimes abbrev. HILITING)
          This is a view category, not a specific map view.  It is obtained
          through options such as SURVEYED AREA, VIEW SCAN RANGE, and VIEW
          ATTACK RANGE.  Your objects are shown as BLACK dots, and the
          highlighting colour codes are essentially the same as the normal
          surface colours with the intensity increased.

     Pressing <RB> anywhere will exit the view without changing your player
     map view location.  Pressing <LB> anywhere on the map itself will exit
     and will move your player map view location so as to be centered about
     the location you clicked on.

     LEGEND OPTIONS
          If you move the mouse pointer on top of any of the legend
          symbols, the corresponding colour will flash.  This may provide
          more clarity of the positions of any particular object, since
          some colours may not be easily differentiated.

          There is always a BMP button at the bottom right of the screen,
          for any view.  This is described further in the next subsection.


     15.1 BMP SCREEN CAPTURE

          This function will copy the entire contents of the screen to a
          Microsoft Windows 3.0 (or later) device-independent bitmap (DIB)
          .BMP file, with no RLE compression since for some reason the
          Paintbrush program is not able to decode RLE (although most of
          you probably have a better picture viewer than that).

          It uses roughly the same RGB intensities as the default DAC
          register settings for that video mode, with some minor
          adjustments to provide a reasonably good grey shading equivalent
          for most of us without colour printers.  It is therefore a 256-
          colour bitmap, and appears almost exactly the same as the screen
          view using whatever picture viewer you have in Windows, so long
          as you have a 256-colour video driver.  It will print nicely from
          Paintbrush, but since it is only 320x200 remember to adjust the
          scaling - a 300dpi laser at 100% scaling will give you a nice one-
          inch or so map!  Scaling 500% or so provides a reasonable size at
          that printer resolution.  If your software will support it,
          choosing Best Fit would work well too.

          The BMP capture is activated by pointing to it and clicking <LB>.
          The process is initiated when the symbol lights up and a sound is
          heard.  It is finished when it darkens again and another sound is
          heard.

          The filename that it writes to is hard-coded, and must be
          creatable in the current, default directory.  The file size will
          always be 65,078.  The naming convention is as follows:

               P#T##MMM.BMP, where:
                    P# is the player number, from 1 to 4 (NP);
                    T## is the last two digits of the turn number;
                    MMM is the map type:
                         OBJ - Objects
                         RES - Known Resources
                         INF - Infrastructure
                         COL - Collected Resources
                         HIL - Highlighting view
               or WORLD.BMP, if it was a world map view from the MAP EDIT
               function of REXEDIT.

          These files will be overwritten if the particular map view
          satisfies the same criteria.  For example, a BMP made from
          viewing SCAN RANGE will be overwritten by another BMP request
          from viewing ATTACK RANGE.  If it is necessary to have these two
          separate views recorded, you will have to capture one view, save
          and exit the game to rename the file, and run the game again for
          the other view.

          As a note of caution, there is no security mechanism integrated
          in bitmap files, and so be careful not to leave them accessible
          to other players, who may be of a less-honourable nature, or just
          clumsy enough to accidentally view them.  So be careful to look
          for the player number in the filename, and remember what number
          you are!

          If you are curious as to the format of the DIB, look in your
          favourite Windows GDI reference under the following data
          structure names:  BITMAPFILEHEADER, BITMAPINFOHEADER, BITMAPINFO,
          and RGBQUAD.



16. MOVE MODE

     Move mode must be entered manually every turn.  This mode consists of
     a number of movement phases, consisting of two cycles.  In the first
     cycle, orders are requested (if needed) for all objects, one at a
     time; generally speaking, orders are asked for objects that have no
     orders and have at least one movement point (MP).  An order can be
     movement-related, or it can be an attack order (by just clicking on an
     enemy object within attack range).  Note that once you make an attack
     on an object, all movement points are used up.  In the second cycle,
     actual movement takes place.  It is in the second cycle where
     collisions may occur (generically speaking) where you are asked to
     indicate an alternate location to move to to avoid an obstacle.

     It may be of course that in a movement phase, it may only appear to
     execute the second cycle, but it does execute the first cycle each
     phase in the event that an object may clear its own orders for a
     variety of reasons:  it reached its destination; it encountered an
     enemy object within scanning range; or it is running low on fuel
     (below a safety margin) in which case the object will have to be
     guided to wherever it is going each movement phase, which will
     hopefully prevent accidental destination orders that will cause it to
     run out of fuel.

     As long as there is an object that is capable of moving this round,
     and has orders to move, new movement phases will be executed until
     that object runs out of movement points.  Move mode will then end on
     its own when it decides that no more movement phases are required.

     Since it is possible to exit move mode prematurely (by clicking in the
     designated area), it is wise to make sure you enter move mode again
     before ending your turn.  It is for this reason that a warning may
     appear before you confirm end of turn that indicates that there is at
     least one object that is capable of moving (whether or not it has
     orders).

     For the most part, you need not be concerned about the actual order of
     operations that are described above.  However, there is one good
     reason for understanding this, which pertains to loading objects onto
     transports:  If you intend on loading one or more objects onto a
     transport, and have the loaded transport move in the same round, you
     will want to be sure that the objects have indeed loaded themselves on
     first.  If not, the transport will move and then the object to be
     loaded may either move to the prior location of the transport, or it
     may not be able to move at all.  You will then have wasted precious
     time, having to move your transport back to where it was.  In order to
     prevent this, there are two procedures that are recommended:
          1.  Assuming the transport has its orders cleared and is capable
          of moving this round, first give the loading orders to the
          appropriate objects, and when the transport asks for orders,
          click on "Other Orders" (the area to click in is designated in
          move mode) and examine the current payload of the transport:  If
          these objects to load are not there yet, exit this window and
          press <RB> to temporarily skip this object and wait until the
          next time the transport asks for orders, at which point the
          objects should be loaded; otherwise if they are there, you may
          now give movement orders, confident that you are not leaving your
          cargo behind!

          2.  If not already, put the transport in STANDBY (or WAIT) mode,
          and then give the appropriate loading orders.  Wait until move
          mode finishes, enter Tactical mode, click on the transport, and
          clear its orders.  You may then enter move mode again to move
          your transport.  This will ensure that sometime during move mode,
          the objects to load will have moved onto the transport.  The risk
          of doing it this way is that you may forget about the transport
          altogether - once it is in STANDBY, it won't come out of it until
          something nasty happens at which point it could be disastrous!

     Note that pressing the <RB> when an object asks for orders will only
     skip it until the next movement phase, if any!  Since move mode ends
     when nothing happens in the second cycle (during movement), it is
     possible that by continually skipping this object every phase, move
     mode will end and you may forget about it.  This is the primary reason
     for the warning message described earlier that may appear when
     choosing to end the turn.  It is handy to skip giving orders to an
     object in the event that another of your objects is in the way - the
     obstructing object will then hopefully move in the second cycle of
     this phase, and you will be able to give your object movement orders
     next phase.  In any event, skipping an object will not under any
     circumstances inhibit its abilities this round.  However, you may not
     carry over its movement points into the next round!  An exception to
     this is in a different situation, where an object that already has
     movement orders does not have enough movement points to move from
     where it is, in which case its remaining movement points ARE carried
     over into the next round (quite transparently).  An example of this is
     if a Laser Tank with 1 MP inside a Jungle (where 2 MPs are required to
     move from it) wants to move somewhere, it won't move this round, but
     it will carry over the 1 MP to the next round.  It will then have 3
     MPs (more than usual), but will move right away and use up 2 MPs doing
     it, leaving it with 1 MP again.

     You may notice that for each type of object, a particular set of
     options appear in the status window (top-right corner) when in MOVE
     MODE.  These options are identified by their first letter being boxed
     in.  An example is the [S]tandby order, which appears for every
     object.  These options may be selected with the mouse pointer by
     clicking in these small boxes, or may be accessed directly via the
     keyboard whereby pressing the key corresponding to that boxed in will
     activate that option.  Note that CAPS LOCK should be OFF, as these
     keyboard commands will only accept lower-case input.  That is, 's' is
     for Standby, but 'S' won't do anything.  The following are extra
     keyboard options that are not shown in the status window:
          [c] - Position the main map so that the object in question is
          centered (helpful if you wandered off somewhere using the scroll
          bar and don't know your way back!),
          [w] - Give orders to WAIT.  Note that this order may also be
          given by selecting the Other Options field at the top to open the
          object's window where the WAIT option is available.



17. RAIL TRANSPORT (SCHEDULES AND MDT)

     17.1 RT SCHEDULE (RTS)
          An RT Schedule is a means of automatically shipping resources on
          a regular schedule to various cities.  Once your empire is large
          enough, this system can save a lot of playing time and
          frustration if the schedule is set up properly - resources that
          cities need can be delivered to them on a regular basis so that
          production can hopefully proceed without long delays (while
          waiting for resources it doesn't collect).  There is a maximum of
          15 schedules, and 16 order entries per schedule.  Note that an
          implied entry exists (but does not appear) at the very end of the
          orders list which instructs the RT to loop back to the top of the
          list to retrieve its next order.  The time it takes for the RT to
          complete one loop in the order entry list is called the Round
          Trip Time (RTT) and is displayed at the top when examining this
          list.  To activate a schedule, you must ASSIGN a particular RT to
          the schedule, at which point it will begin at the current order
          entry.  Assigning an RT will enable its MDT; note however that
          MDT is off when the RT is produced, which you may want to turn on
          if you plan on navigating an RT on a regular basis but without
          using an RTS.  The following are schedule order entry options:

          MOVE TO CITY/SETTLEMENT
               This order will direct the RT to move to the specified
               city/settlement.  In this order entry, you may give loading
               and unloading orders for each type of resource.  All
               operations are done when the RT moves into the
               city/settlement.  It will then spend the rest of the turn
               inside, and proceed to the next order entry next turn.

               You may also tell the RT to load a priority object and
               deliver it to another city/settlement.  A priority object is
               one that will be loaded first, before resources are loaded,
               to be delivered to a destination; if there still isn't room
               on the RT, resources at random will be unloaded at the city
               until there is enough room for it.  This is a temporary
               order and will clear itself once the item is delivered.
               Note however, that unless you specify otherwise, the
               schedule will still be followed according to the entries
               listed even before the priority item has been dropped off.

          MOVE TO LOCATION
               This is an order to move to an absolute location, which is
               supposed to be at an empty area - in other words, the RT
               must somehow be able to get to the specified location
               without having an object sitting there.  This order is only
               practical for adding an exception to the MDT algorithm if
               the RT does not follow the appropriate railroad tracks,
               and/or if you want the RT to wait at this particular
               location, possibly to allow another RT to pass by.

          WAIT
               This is an order to wait a specified number of turns at the
               current location.  This delay may be necessary for a proper
               time balance in the delivery schedule.


          The current order entry is pointed to by an arrow in the entry
          display window, and may be changed manually if necessary.  For
          example, if the arrow points to an entry that corresponds to a
          city (which may or may not have loading/unloading orders), it
          indicates that the RT has orders to proceed to this city.
          However, if you decide that a priority item needs to be delivered
          to another city later in the orders list in a hurry, you can
          bypass all orders in-between by manually changing the orders
          pointer to point to this destination.  The schedule will then
          resume normally after the priority item has been delivered.

          It is important that you read the on-line help for the orders
          entry list window when you get there, to be informed of all the
          options that are available to you.


     17.2 MINIMUM DISTANCE TRACKING (MDT) ALGORITHM
          This is an algorithm that can be used to guide an RT along the
          network of railroad tracks to a particular destination.  A term
          that needs to be defined is a 'lonely track', which is a railroad
          path from the source to the destination with no other rail
          segments branching from it (other than the immediately
          surrounding areas of the source and destination which are
          probably rail intersections).  Another term to be defined is
          'distance', which is the MAX(separation in rows, separation in
          columns).  The 'perpendicular distance' is the MIN(separation in
          rows, separation in columns).

          Find a lonely track with the first rail segment at a minimum
          distance to the destination.
          If one is found, proceed to the first rail segment of the lonely
          track.
          If no lonely tracks are found:
               Find a rail segment of minimum distance to the destination.
               If there are at least two:
                    From the last two found, choose the one with closer
                    perpendicular distance.
               Else if there is just one, proceed to that rail segment.

          If there is a problem at an intersection with deciding which rail
          segment to proceed to (it chooses the wrong path), try placing an
          extra rail segment at the location that is closest to the
          destination (if it makes sense in your particular context).

          This algorithm is only applied when an intersection is reached,
          defined to be an area such that there are more than 2 rail
          segments immediately surrounding a given location.  Once the RT
          has chosen a path along a lonely 'section' of track (where there
          are only two options of movement), it will proceed in the same
          direction, as it will not move to a rail segment that it just
          came from.  However, once the RT reaches its destination, this
          information is cleared.

          If an object is obstructing the path of an RT, the algorithm will
          be implemented the same way except that the segment of rail that
          the obstructing object is on will be ignored.  If this occurs in
          an area where there is no intersection, the algorithm will
          conclude that the track ends here and will ask what to do about
          the obstacle in the way.  If this occurs at an intersection
          (where it will have an alternate rail segment to move to other
          than where it came) it will always move there, whether or not
          that segment will eventually lead to the desired destination
          (although it will choose the best one to move to if there is more
          than one choice).  This is not really a good thing, but in other
          situations it will allow the RT to pass objects on the rail if
          the rail is doubled along a path.  If this problem persists (at
          intersections), you may want to place some more rail segments in
          the intersection - it will then likely choose the segment in the
          right direction to move around the object.  It may get confusing
          if you have many RT's sharing the same track - but this is not a
          railroad network simulator that will solve all your traffic
          problems!  Railroad in most cases will be a convenience if not
          abused; otherwise it could become detrimental.

          It is a good idea to make sure that rail layout for linking
          cities makes sense (with respect to this algorithm).  A railroad
          linking a city to the south-west should have its first segment to
          the immediate south-west of the source city (or at least make
          sure that all other rail segments are at a larger distance from
          the destination than the segment meant for the destination).  If
          this logic is applied to all rail layouts, the MDT should not
          make any errors.  If it does make an error however, it may be
          wise to use the MOVE TO LOCATION option of the rail schedule (if
          using one) to point it in the right direction.  Note that you are
          able to attack your own rail - you may need to in the event of
          "restructuring" your network.



18. GAME PARAMETER TABLE

     The parameters in this table have effect over all current games.  They
     are stored in the file <GAMEPARM.REX>.  If this is not in the default
     directory when the game editor is run, it is created with default
     settings.  A '[D]' before the parameter name indicates that it only
     has effect when creating new games.  A '[P]' before the name indicates
     that it only has effect when playing a game.

     GAME PLAYER PARAMETERS - [P]:

     TURNS TO ADVANCE TO TECH-LEVEL x
          (x ranges from 2 to 5).  This is the number of turns a player
          needs to wait before being able to advance to the next tech-level
          of a particular tech-type.
     PROBABILITY OF RESOURCE BEING SPOTTED
          This is the absolute probability that a Hover-Scout will spot a
          resource deposit during scanning.  POS of the Hover-Scout plays
          no role in this case.
     PROBABILITY OF RAIL/ROAD BEING HIT
          This is the PBH equivalent for rail and road segments.  The
          absolute probability of an object hitting rail/road is the
          product of POH (object) and this parameter value.  Attacking
          rail/road is done in MOVE MODE by using the 'A'R button.
     DETECTION RANGE OF DETECTOR
          This is the SR equivalent for a detector.
     PROBABILITY OF DETECTING ENEMY OBJECT
          This is the POS equivalent for a detector.  The absolute
          probability is the product of the object's PBS and this POS.
     PROBABILITY OF DETECTOR BEING SPOTTED
          This is the PBS equivalent for a detector.  The product of this
          PBS and an enemy object's POS is the probability that if the
          detector has detected the presence of the enemy object, that the
          object will intercept the warning transmission, and thus result
          in the self-destruction of the detector.
     INCREMENT IN MAX. GUARDS/TECH-LEVEL
          The number of guards a city can sustain is the base number plus
          (this value * (highest tech-level of city - 1)).  The base number
          is HI of the city - see City description.
     MEGACREDIT REVENUE PER TECH-LEVEL
          You collect a tax from your population according to the total
          number of tech-levels of all your cities.  The tax revenue is the
          product of this total number of tech-levels and this parameter
          value.  Since the most primitive city has a total of 3 tech-
          levels (1 for each type), the minimum revenue per turn is 3 *
          number_of_cities * this_parameter_value.
     NUMBER OF RESOURCE PACKS IN DEMAND FOR 1 MC INCREASE (Global Market)
          A resource pack is a group of 5 resource units of the same type.
          There is a maximum of 50 packs of market inventory for each type.
          The value of a pack is 1 + (50 - number of packs in inventory
          currently) / (this parameter value).  The amount of MC you will
          receive for selling a pack is the value as computed above.  The
          cost to buy a pack from the market is this value plus a
          commission - described next.
     PERCENT COMMISSION FOR SELLING (Global Market)
          To buy a resource pack from the market, you must go through a
          broker who charges a handling fee.  The extra amount of
          commission to pay is (value as computed above * this parameter /
          100).  Commission can be turned off by of course setting this
          parameter to 0.
     MAX WAIT (TURNS) FOR NP TO PLAY (Global Market)
          The Neutral Player will choose a random time in turns between 1
          and this value to play the market (arbitrarily but restricted by
          parameters below).  A new time will then be decided on once a
          transaction is done.
     MAX NUMBER OF PACKS FOR NP TO BUY/SELL (Global Market)
          The Neutral Player will randomly choose a resource type to buy
          from or sell to.  The number of packs for this transaction is
          restricted by this parameter value.
     PROBABILITY OF NP REACTING TO BUY/SELL (Global Market)
          If in the last turn at least one transaction was performed on the
          market, this is the probability that the NP will react with a
          transaction of its own.
     MAX NUMBER OF PACKS FOR NP TO BUY/SELL (Global Market - Reaction)
          This has the same meaning as the one above except that it only
          relates to the NP reacting to a transaction.
     COST TO ADVANCE TO TECH-LEVEL x
          (x ranges from 2 to 5).  This is the cost in MC to attempt to
          advance a tech-level.  If the attempt failed, the funds are still
          lost, and will have to re-invest the same amount to attempt
          again.
     PROBABILITY OF SUCCESSFULLY ADVANCING (tech-level)
          This is the probability (for all tech-levels and tech-types) that
          you will successfully advance a tech-level if attempted by
          investing the funds above.
     PROBABILITY OF NP ADVANCING A TECH-LEVEL
          This is the probability that the NP will successfully advance a
          tech-level.  An attempt is made as soon as the required number of
          turns for advancement has passed.  If the advancement failed, the
          NP will choose a random time between 1 and TURNS TO WAIT FOR
          ADVANCEMENT to wait before attempting to advance again.  The NP
          may advance tech-types independently and concurrently as a
          regular player can.
     PROBABILITY OF NP SENDING MESSAGES
          This is the probability that the NP will decide to select a
          message at random from the appropriate file to send to a player.
          These messages are strictly sent in reaction to an attack, either
          by or on the NP.  See the section on PLAYER MESSAGES.
     PROBABILITY OF CANAL BEING HIT
          This is the PBH equivalent for canal segments.  The absolute
          probability of an object hitting a canal is the product of POH
          (object) and this parameter value.  Attacking canals is done in
          MOVE MODE by using the 'A'R button.
     PROBABILITY OF NP SENDING PATROLS
          This is the probability that the NP will send a Hover-Scout on
          patrol, if
          it has nothing else to do.  This decision is evaluated every turn
          for every inactive Hover-Scout.  The higher this parameter is,
          the more likely you will be discovered by the NP early in the
          game.
     PROBABILITY OF NP MINING IF ON WATER
          This is the probability that if a Mine Layer happens to be on
          water, it will lay its mine right there, even if it originally
          had orders to lay it somewhere else.  This decision is evaluated
          each time it moves to water.  If this parameter is set high, it
          is more likely that the coast line will be mined as opposed to
          other surfaces.  It will also be more likely that mines will be
          laid very close to island cities (see below).
     MINIMUM DISTANCE FROM HOME TO MINE WATER
          The above test for laying a mine on water will only take place if
          the distance of the Mine Layer from its home is at least the
          distance specified here.  This parameter is important for island
          cities in that it will hopefully prevent the city from mining
          itself into a closet!  For this reason, it is a good idea to set
          this value to be at least 3, so that exceptions for mine laying
          on water won't take place until the Mine Layer is at a reasonable
          distance away from its city.  This has no influence on the
          original decision on where to mine - only on the exception
          explained above.
     (1P) MINIMUM NP MARKET REACTION
          For a one-player practice game, this provides an additional form
          of market transaction damping.  This is the minimum number of
          resource packs the NP will buy or sell in immediate response to a
          transaction, so long as at least this number were sold or bought,
          respectively.  If the transaction for a particular resource type
          involved fewer packs, no minimum reaction will occur.  However,
          the NP will always react by a random amount as described next.
     (1P) PROBABILITY OF FURTHER REACTION
          Related to the above, this provides another addition form of
          reaction on top of the minimum, if any.  An additional resource
          pack will be bought or sold (corresponding to sold or bought by
          the player) each time the probability test succeeds.  It will
          cease to react further the first time it encounters a failure.
          Therefore, DO NOT set this probability parameter to 100!!!


     GAME EDITOR PARAMETERS - [D]:

     NUMBER OF EACH RESOURCE
          This is the minimum number of resources of each type that will be
          placed on the map.  If building a game without regions, four
          extra resources will be placed around each HQ.  Therefore, in a 2-
          player game, the total number of resource deposits (of all types)
          will be 3 * this_value + 2 * 4.
     NUMBER OF IN-LAND CITIES
          This is the number of Neutral Player (NP) cities that will be
          placed in-land.  In-land is defined to be a location where the 8
          immediately adjacent (surrounding) surfaces are anything but
          water.
     NUMBER OF COASTAL CITIES
          This is the number of NP cities that will be placed in coastal
          areas.  Coastal is defined to be a location where at least one of
          the 8 immediately adjacent (surrounding) surfaces is water.
     NUMBER OF ISLAND CITIES
          This is the number of NP cities that will be placed on an island.
          An island is defined to be a location where all of the 8
          immediately adjacent (surrounding) surfaces are water.
     CITY SPREAD FACTOR/CITY DISTANCE FACTOR
          The way that cities are placed on the map can be further
          customized using these parameters to govern inter-city distances.
          The placement algorithm is such that if a location for a city is
          chosen to be within a distance of CITY DISTANCE FACTOR of another
          (already established) city, that the city will NOT be placed
          there given a probability of CITY SPREAD FACTOR.  Therefore, to
          spread cities further apart from each other, you would want to
          raise CITY SPREAD FACTOR and drop CITY DISTANCE FACTOR.
          Obtaining a good balance is difficult for giving the desired
          distribution of cities, so experimentation of these parameters
          should be done first before building a game for playing.
          Experimentation should be done as follows:  Set the values
          accordingly; Clear the current world map; Load a new world map;
          Build a new game using Regions; Once built you will be placed in
          the editor - select the Neutral Player; Select the Objects option
          to display a graphical world map to observe the locations of the
          cities; and Repeat if necessary.
     PROBABILITY OF x RESOURCES AROUND CITY
          (x ranges from 1 to 5).  All 5 of these parameter values MUST add
          to 100!  The results otherwise will be strange at best.  When a
          city is placed, these probabilities will be used to decide how
          many resource deposits (of completely random type) will be placed
          within collection range of the city.  It is important that the
          parameter NUMBER OF EACH RESOURCE is set high enough to
          accommodate the number of cities that will be placed.  Otherwise,
          some cities may find that they have no resources in collection
          range!  If after all cities have been placed, there are resources
          still left to place according to the parameter just mentioned,
          then they will be distributed randomly over the world.  It is
          therefore possible for a city to have more than 5 resources in
          collection range.  Also notice that the way the probabilities are
          set in this group of parameters will determine the degree of
          clustering of resources about cities.  If it is set such that it
          is most probable that only 2 resources will be placed with a
          city, there will be more resources left over after city placement
          to be distributed uniformly over the world.  Using the opposite
          parameter settings will force resources to cluster around cities,
          which may place more of an importance to cities for resource
          collection purposes and less of an importance to settlements, for
          collection away from cities.
     MAX AGE (10's OF TURNS) OF N-CITY
          The age of a city when placed is randomly chosen up to this
          maximum.  The age will have a direct influence on the level of
          technology of the city at the start of the game:  When the city
          is placed, a simulated run over the number of turns specified by
          the age is performed which accounts for tech-level advancement
          decisions as would normally occur during play.  This gives the
          cities a head-start in production capability.  This parameter is
          closely tied to the probability of NP advancing, and the waiting
          time to advance a level - it is difficult to obtain a good
          balance.  Note that since parameter values must be byte-sized
          (may only go up to 255), this parameter is entered in 10's so
          that theoretically the maximum age will be 2550 turns - which
          would definitely ensure very well-developed NP cities!  Note that
          production does not take place during this simulated run - only
          tech-level advancement.



19. PLAYER MESSAGES

     Players may send one-line messages to each other, that will appear at
     the very beginning of each round.  Sending messages to the Neutral
     Player will have no effect, unless you want to write yourself a memo
     (if you remember to check it).

     Depending on the probability set in the Game Parameter Table, the
     Neutral Player may decide to send a particular player a message.
     These messages are taken randomly from either <WINNING.REX>, if the NP
     attacks this player; or from <LOSING.REX>, if the NP is attacked by
     this player (which has precedence over the former).  You may freely
     add messages to these text files, so long as they are no longer than
     78 characters long.  Only the first 255 messages in each file will be
     considered - the rest will be ignored.  Also, be sure that there are
     no blank lines, especially at the very end of the files.



20. TECHNICAL INFORMATION

     Most of the source code was written in C and compiled using Borland
     C++ 3.1; the rest of the source was written in assembler for lower-
     level operations and was assembled using Turbo Assembler 3.1.  The
     total size of all code segments in the Game Player is about 120,000
     bytes; the rest is data.  The total size of all code segments in the
     Game Editor is about 60,000 bytes; the rest is data.  The code size
     described here does not include the startup code or any other Borland
     library code that is linked in from the standard library, which adds
     an overhead of about 16000 bytes.

     It is a good idea to use a file compression utility to archive non-
     current games (or to back up a current game) as by nature these games
     files are very predictable in content (the same bytes recur for a long
     time).

     20.1 WORLD MAP SAVE FORMAT

          I thought it would be a good idea to describe the format in which
          world maps are saved.  This would be useful to anyone who would
          like to write a program to generate world maps, if they happen to
          know or make up a good algorithm.  I haven't put much thought
          into a method for randomly generated maps with all feature types
          - mainly because I don't have time.  I have a reasonably good
          algorithm for generating only land/water maps, but is not
          completely developed.  If anyone happens to write a good map
          generator, I would be pleased to know about it.

          Each location corresponds to one byte in the map file.  The map
          is stored in a sequence from the top left to the bottom right as
          in this for-next loop:
               FOR i = 0 to 99 DO
                    FOR j = 0 to 149 DO
                         WRITE MAP BYTE FOR LOCATION (i, j)
                    END DO
               END DO
          (i is the row number and j is the column number, ranging from
          (0,0) to (99,149)).

          The file size must therefore be exactly 15,000 bytes.

          The map byte is defined as:  X7 X6 X5 X4 X3 S2 S1 S0 (in order of
          MSB to LSB).  The X's are used for storing information other than
          surface type, and must be initialized to all 0's when creating a
          new map.  The following is a table of surface types:

               SURFACE TYPE          S2 S1 S0
               Land                   0  0  0
               Water                  0  0  1
               Mountains              0  1  0
               Swamp                  0  1  1
               Jungle                 1  0  0

          As can be seen, there is room for 3 more surface types.  However,
          do not invent another one - these surface types are hard-coded.
          Let's just say that 101, 110, and 111 are reserved for the
          future.

          So it's really just a matter of writing either a 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4
          as a byte value for each location.

          You may even choose to write a program to print out a map based
          on this information, if the current BMP method is unsuitable.

          It would be far too complicated to try to explain how player map
          information is stored - it took a long time to develop, including
          several revisions of my data structure to accommodate new
          features, etc.



21. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES / CLOSING COMMENTS

     If there is enough interest, I may consider adding some more features
     to this game (provided I have the time).  Some of which may be the
     following:

     - Make the world wrapping in the east-west sense.
     - Add spying/intelligence:  able to obtain random information about
     the enemy, or promote insurgence; costs MegaCredits to support spies
     and counter-intelligence (currently half-developed).
     - Make the NP more intelligent (or change certain aspects of its
     behaviour) - depends on specific reactions from people.
     - Allow the NP to produce bombers and perform bombing runs.  This may
     make practice games more interesting once the immediately surrounding
     cities are taken.
     - Add natural disasters.
     - Add more object types.
     - Add real-time modem/network support (maybe in another lifetime).
     - ... or any other suggestions.

     The truth is, I never originally intended on this game to get so
     complicated:  I am therefore running out of conventional memory!  I
     may be able to add a few things, but cannot do anything drastic.

     Someone may comment that the user interface isn't really up-to-par
     with the latest releases of software - this is primarily because six
     years ago the approach seemed like a good idea at the time.  As I
     haven't envisioned releasing this publicly, I wasn't very concerned
     about a having a well-thought-out and consistent interface - I just
     took scraps of code here and there and what you see is what you got.
     I apologize for this (in some sense) but to be blunt, this is what you
     get for free (I've wasted enough of my life already).  By the way, I
     couldn't see myself charging anyone for this, so I decided not to
     release it Shareware - I figured it would only aggravate people if I
     started building in restrictions in the code (such as abruptly
     stopping the game at turn 100) to persuade people to register and send
     money.

     In any case, I hope someone out there enjoys this game!



-------------------------------------------------------------------
Borland C++ and Turbo Assembler are trademarks of Borland
International, Inc.  Microsoft Windows is a registered trademark of
Microsoft Corporation.

<END OF DOCUMENT REX.DOC>