By Popular Request 2.0/By Popular Request 2.0 (Arsenal Computer).ISO/amiga_6/uwars100.lha/PLAYERS.DOC

Text File | 1994-06-15 | 27KB | 629 lines

                      UniversalWars player docs
                   -------------------------------

        ________________
       /                \    Copyright (c) 1993 by Paulo Laureano
      <  Universal Wars  >   All rights reserved worldwide
       \________________/    Xenolink BBS door version v1.00 docs





WELCOME
-=-=-=-

Welcome to a universe of blood and pain filled with power hungry rulers!
Command the forces of a empire, plan your campaign, colonize new worlds and
invade other civilizations! Your goal is simple: rule the known universe and
do whatever it takes to accomplish that!

Some of the features of Universal Wars:

   * Multi-player capabilities! Up to 15 players can play in a game. Call
the bbs as often as you like and change your moves between events as many
times as you wish!

   * Realistic action! Sophisticated simulation of planets growth,
espionage, battles and missions. Command 6 types of ships. Order your forces
on missions. Take full control of your empire planets: direct their
production efforts, set tax levels, build defenses, destroy their resources
if invasion is imminent!

   * Ease of use: Commands are hotkeyed for the best possible performance,
illegal values are never allowed, if you make a mistake you have all the time
(up to the daily event) to correct it! There is a built in database of
other players planets (both scouted & not scouted), full ansi maps, worlds
are named by players in order to be easy to remember what is happening in
regarding every planet (you can rename your planets anytime), you may
capture all game information anytime to allow easy access to list of planets
& fleets). Full ansi maps of the galaxy (both global and partial, with the
partial map centered around the fleet/planet you are examining/ordering on a
mission).

   * Advanced game design: allows players to play every day or just a couple
of times a month, and if they make their moves well both have a equal chance
of winning the game.

   * Advanced user interface: Full control of a database of fleets and
planets allow the user to have control over its empire. You can address
both fleets and planets by their unique ID or by their coordinates. Browsing
commands are incredibly optimized for speed (ANSI) to allow even players
with slower modems to play.



Background story
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

  A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
  Powerful empires ruled the galaxy for a long time. However due to an
incredible set of events they disappeared and anarchy became a reality in the
universe. Their unexpected absence led to the collapse of interplanetary
government.  Over the last hundred years, the galaxy has turned into a
collection of one-planet based kingdoms. On some planets internal wars lead
to the complete destruction of all life.
  Recently, the mood in the galaxy has shifted: The people desire the
greatness they once had.  They seek a leader who can bring them from civil
disorder to power.  But no one can agree on whom this leader should be.

  The planetary kingdoms held a galactic conference where each brought their
own candidate for emperor.  The conference failed completely and ended with
declarations of war among all rulers.  Only one will rule the galaxy and the
choice is doomed to be made in a bloody war.

  In this game, you are the leader of a planetary kingdom. Your people are
ready to follow you to victory (through your great charisma or your iron
fist).  The odds are against you, but if you survive, and plan your
strategies well, you may indeed attain the emperor's crown and become the
supreme ruler of the galaxy!



NUMBER OF PLAYERS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The game can be played with 4, 6, 8, or 15 players. The player that starts
each game decides how many players will participate.



AND THE WINNER IS...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The first player to own/rule a particular number of planets (depends on how
many players are participating. In a 2 player game you need to conquer 15
out of 20 planets, in a 4 player game you need to conquer 16 out of 30
planets, etc.



THE GALAXY
-=-=-=-=-=

 The galaxy is a square grid whose size depends on the number of players
(2 player game grids are 15 x 15, 4 player grids are 30 x 15, 6 player grids
are 30 x 30, 10 player grids are 60 x 60 and 15 player grids are 90 x 90).
Each SECTOR is 1 square light year and is either empty or contains a planet
or fleets.  The computer randomly generates the positions of the planet at
the start of each game.

 The planets provide the raw materials used to build your fleets and armies.
 Each planet has a different amount of potential resources for production,
that varies during the game (a bombed planet may loose part of its potential
forever). The planets range in potential production from 50 to 150 points
when the game starts.



WHEN THE GAME STARTS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 You begin with 1 planet having a current production level of 100 points per
turn (24 hour period).  You start with five fleets: one typical defense
fleet (with battleships, cruisers and destroyers, but no scout or transport
ships), two typical planet attack fleets (with transport ships along with
combat ships) and two fleets composed only of scout ships to spy other
planets.
 Set a tax rate (up to 50% is recommended) to generate credits.  Spend these
credits to build ships or planet defenses.  As you invade new planets you
will want to lower your tax rate to help the new planets develop their
current production up towards their maximum potential production levels. A
low tax rate will increase productivity, a high tax will decrease it.
The production level will start at 0 (zero) and will build up over a period
of days (and weeks) until the maximum potential is reached if the tax rate is
kept low to start. A high tax rate will slow this growth or halt it.


GAME TIME UNITS (EACH "ROUND")
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

  Each round equals one year of game time.  The players enter their orders
for the year.  The game stores these orders and processes them
simultaneously during its daily maintenance period. Every 24 hours moves
are executed.

  You can enter and change your moves up until the end of the round. There
is no advantage to entering moves earlier or later so long as they get
entered before the round daily maintenance occurs.

  During maintenance, the game carefully plots all fleets movements and
battles.  In battles, it plays the movement of each army or ship in a fleet
individually.  It tallies the results and displays them on the personal log
that each player reads when he/she comes back the next day.



WHAT CAN YOU DO IN EACH ROUND?
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Manage your planets: order what the planet will build,
                     set taxes of the planet.
                     You can only do this after the
                     production has moved from zero and
                     you begin to show some income from
                     the tax.

  Order your fleets: invade, scout or bombard planets,
                     merge or detach ships from your fleets,
                     order fleets to perform missions.

Examine and compile reports, design new strategies, use the bbs message
bases to do some "political" negotiations with other players (some call it
stalling for the time that defense fleets need to get to a more vulnerable
planet), etc.



THE FORCES AT YOUR COMMAND
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

You control two groups of objects: Planets and fleets.

PLANETS provide the resources for building all sorts of ships, ground
        batteries and armies.  MAXIMUM PRODUCTION is the maximum number of
        credits that your planet could generate per turn if your factories
        were at full efficiency and they were taxed at 100%.
        CURRENT PRODUCTION is the number of production points that your
        factories can generate at their present efficiency level if taxed
        at 100%.
        You impose taxes on your empire to generate credits for military
        building (ships, planet defenses, etc.).
        For example, setting your planet-wide tax rate to 60% would generate
        30 credits for building next round on a planet with a current
        production level of 50 points (60% of 50 points).
        Planet defenses depend largely on fleets orbiting the planet and on
        ground forces.

        ARMIES defend your planets from enemy invasions. The only way to
        capture a planet owned by another player is to land armies on its
        surface and defeat his armies with yours. Armies cost 10 credits to
        recruit & train for battle.

        GROUND BATTERIES are land-based cannons that defend planets against
        hostile starships.  Even though they cost 50 credits, they offer
        more "firepower per credit" than a battleship. Their firepower is
        roughly equal to that of a battleship at half the cost. Their major
        disadvantage is that they cannot move and therefore are easier to
        hit.

SHIPS are organized into fleets and serve a variety of functions.  A fleet
        can be as small as one ship and as large as 1500 ships of mixed
        types.  A fleet moves as fast as its SLOWEST member.  For example,
        A Fleet of 10 destroyers (speed of 4) and 1 Starbase (speed of 1)
        has a maximum speed of 1.
        There are 6 types of starships -- 4 combat types and 2 specialized
        types.  Smaller ships are faster as a rule. Below is a list of the
        different ship types, their size (S,M,L), maximum speed (sectors
        they move per round), cost to build (in credits), and suggested
        uses.

        DESTROYER: A small, fast (speed=4), inexpensive (50 credits) combat
        ship. It is best for attacks on unarmed ships where it can overtake
        them. Its speed also gives it a chance to escape from more heavily
        armed fleets and allow "surprise attacks and bombing runs" on enemy
        planets.

        CRUISER: A medium size combat ship.  More powerful than a destroyer,
        they costs more (75 credits) and are slower (speed=3).  The cruiser
        is a good compromise between speed and power.  It's powerful enough
        to hit what it can't outrun (destroyers) and fast enough to outrun
        what it cannot outgun (battleships and starbases).

        BATTLESHIP: This large combat ship is the anchor of any serious star
        fleet. More powerful than a cruiser, it is more expensive (100
        credits) and slower than cruisers (speed=2). The battleship is
        however a very powerful war vessel.

        STARBASES are large and very powerful space fortresses. Very
        expensive (500 credits) this is the ultimate weapon for space
        battles! With more firepower than any other ship, a starbase alone is
        known to defeat large fleets! It moves very slowly (speed=1) and
        cannot attack planets (it is to big to dive in the planet
        atmosphere). Legends talk about starbases being taken for small
        moons and spreading panic on the galaxy (they are known as death
        stars among veteran star warriors).

        SCOUT: A good spy ship.  It is small and fast (speed=4) with
        excellent sensors and stealth capabilities.  It costs 50 credits to,
        build and is the only kind of vessel useful to probe planets for
        defenses and production capabilities. No other ship can do its job,
        however scout ships have no weapons and must either be protected
        from enemy fleets or avoid confrontations.

        TROOP TRANSPORT: This ship is required for invading planets. A small
        size, high speed ship (speed=4).  Costs 50 credits to build and is
        used to move armies to a planet surface.  It holds one army and is
        not armed. This ship will drop an army on a planet during an
        invasion and is capable of avoiding enemy batteries fire.



SPACE BATTLES
-=-=-=-=-=-=-

A fleet with one or more combat ships (destroyer, cruiser, or battleship)
can engage in battle (attack other fleets). Usually, the stronger fleet
wins, but sometimes a weaker fleet may do more damage to the stronger
fleet than it takes... or maybe damage that will allow another fleet to
overtake it later...
Space battles are frequent these days. Carefully plot your space voyages in
order to avoid unwanted encounters.



SHIP MOVEMENT
-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Ships move according to their speed, diagonal moves first. Experienced
players soon learn to use well chosen paths to their target destinations!
This is very important since not only your opponents may be tracking your
fleets but also because you may "by mistake" pass right thru the heart of
some enemy empire.



EXPECTED TIME OF ARRIVAL
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

On the fleets display the E.T.A. of ships at their destination sector is
displayed in rounds (game years / 24 hours period), followed by the ship
fleet under parenthesis. You can reduce the E.T.A. by detaching slower ships
from the fleet (fleet speed increases and E.T.A. decreases).



POSSIBLE FLEET MISSIONS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

PATROL A SECTOR (All vessels can do it): The fleet will patrol a sector and
report (or attack) any other fleet that enters it. Patrols on a sector with
a enemy planet on it implicates fighting all that planet builds as soon as
it takes of the surface (this is called blockading a planet as its a
strategy used by experienced players to prevent new fleets being built from
joining other fleets). Patrols on sectors with one of your planets is a
defensive action (defending a planet).

BOMBARD A PLANET (requires destroyers, cruisers or battleships). Fleets will
attack a planet, bombard it until planet batteries are destroyed, in the
process they generally are able to kill several armies making invasion much
easier. Bombarding a planet also seriously reduces its production (both
current and potential (a planet subjected to continuous bombing may become
useless in terms of potential production to its owner).

BOMBARD & INVADE A PLANET (requires destroyers, cruisers or battleships and
troop transports). Bombard a planet and after bombarding its done deploy
troops on the surface for invasion.

INVADE A PLANET (troop transports). Deploy armies on the surface and fight
defense forces on the ground. This does not destroy planet potential or
current production but its more risky since there was no bombing to reduce
the number of planetary defense armies...

SCOUT/SPY ON A PLANET (requires a scout ship). Scan the planet for its
production potential defenses.



GOVERNOR OF EACH PLANET
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The governor of each planet will make limited management of the planet *IF*
you don't play the game for more than three days in a row. The only actions
a governor takes (without your direct orders) is to decrease taxes in order
increase planet production, or if planet production reaches its limit while
you are away it increases the taxes to 50% (maximum allowed without making
production levels drop).



WARLORDS
-=-=-=-=

Warlords are top military leaders. *IF* you don't play for more than three
days in a row Warlords take the liberty to make defensive decisions (if they
find it necessary). They will report directly to you when you get back. *IF*
you don't play for more than 10 days in a row (forgot the name existed, went
away for hollidays, or whatever) Warlords become more important, and more
greedy for power: they will start making plans of their own, build fleets,
attacking planets, etc. You can ALLWAYS pick up the game again at any point,
and once you return their behaviour gets back to normal (i.e. doing what you
order, and only that).
Warlords can be very successfull or a complete disaster... you may find that
they actually conquered some planets and made some wise choices. Since you
have a Warlord on each planet you will probably find that some are very
wise and some are not. Each one has its own strategies for each part of the
galaxy so things should be "balanced" on the empire considered as a whole.



TIPS & TRICKS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The amount of possible tactics is almost unlimited. Some players will
explain other why a strong fleet can raise havoc among empires, others will
tell you that many smaller fleets can be more productive. There is no right
answer, it will all depend on both your opponents and each specific game!

The best tactics are the one that produce results and you may never repeat
the same result with a previously winning tactic. So... it's up to you! The
smartest player will prevail! Always! May the force be with you!



STRATEGY HINTS FOR THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

PRINT OUT A STARMAP. From all menus you can use the [G]lobal map option and
have the complete galaxy map displayed. You can use your modem program to
capture the display and then print the map. A word of caution: check what's
the best way to mess with your capture option to capture all pages of the
galaxy map.

INVADE OTHER PLANETS THAT APPEAR TO BE EMPTY. Send scout ships to nearby
planets and if they are either empty or easy to invade send transport ships
(with or without coverage from combat ships) to invade them. Everybody
starts the game with only one planet, the faster you conquer more the better
are your chances of starting the game with an advantage over your
competitors. You may even risk invasion of unscouted planets to get this
initial edge.
Experienced players use clever tactics like making 6 fleets with transports
by separating the initial 6 transports you have on two fleets (3 on each).
All it takes to colonize a deserted planet is one transport ship! This way
some players manage to own around seven/eight planets after their first
turn!

SET THE TAX RATE FOR YOUR EMPIRE. You build equipment by spending the tax
revenue you get on your planets. Every planet has its own tax and it should
be set according to both its potential and current production levels. You
can set a tax rate from 0 to 100%, but we don't recommended setting it
higher than 60% as planets production may suffer. There is a trade-off in
setting your tax rate.  High taxes give you more points to spend on
equipment. However, newly colonized planets start with CURRENT PRODUCTION
much lower than the planet's MAXIMUM PRODUCTION.  These current production
levels grow much faster when taxes are low.  Thus, you have to choose
between getting immediate revenue by setting taxes high, or greater long
term production by keeping tax rates low. Taxes above 50% tend to make the
current production levels drop, taxes bellow 50% tend to make them rise.
Experienced players generally get their production levels very high before
raising tax burdens! A tax of 0% is recommended for planets with a production
level lower than 20 points, since it will increase the production levels
much faster.

BUILD PLANETARY DEFENSES (Ground Batteries, combat ships, and armies). Spend
a good number of credits defending your planets. After the first few days,
your neighbors may discover your planets.  Later in the game, they may send
their fleets to attack you. Never leave your planets unprotected either by
ground forces of fleets.

BUILD COMBAT FLEETS.  Use some resources to build fleets containing combat
ships.  These fleets can initially guard your planets and later conquer
your opponents planets. Don't let however the number of fleets grow into a
number larger than you can control, this depends largely on how experienced
with the game you are but its very easy to loose track of your fleets. Make
specialized fleets (for attacks, defensive, scouts, invasions, etc).
Sometimes is a good tactic to have a defensive fleet on each planet and only
two or three multi-purpose fleets (capable of all missions).



SOME MIDDLE TO ENDGAME STRATEGY HINTS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

GET TOUGH. There are no empty planets available for easy invasion. The only
way to get more planets is to take them away from other players.  Naturally,
they are looking forward to do the same to you.  Develop both offensive and
defensive forces. Some diplomacy can be very helpful in neutralizing
threats, but beware of possible betrayals. The bbs message base may be more
powerful than the most powerful of fleets, used well it may just get you
the time to prepare or avoid an invasion.

DEVELOP PLANETARY DEFENSES. Defending your planets becomes much more
important now.  Keep a number of armies on your planet or your opponents
will invade you.  GROUND BATTERIES (cannons) will fire on invading ships
but they are useless against transport ships, this alone should be taken
under consideration since you can be invaded without a single bomb being
dropped at the planets surface!

BUILD OFFENSIVE FLEETS. Use these fleets to take planets away from your
opponents. Remember to build many troop transport ships to capture planets.
Another good tactic is to keep bombing enemy planets until they become
incapable of producing large amounts of armies/batteries and invade them a
few days later.

BUILD SCOUT SHIPS TO SPY ON PLANETS. The scout ship observes enemy forces
and reports their numbers. If you know the planet's strength you can
calculate in advance whether your invading fleet is strong enough to win
against the enemy (This is better than finding out the hard way!).



MENU COMMANDS BEFORE ENTERING A GAME
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Besides entering a game (by selecting is number), you have two more options
on the games menu:

"Q" - Quit to bbs

"R" - Shows the players manual.

"B" - Begin a new game. As the first player you get to choose the size of
      the game universe and number of players that may participate.

Selecting a game number enters the selected game. If the game is waiting
for more players you have the option to join in, if the game is running you
will be shown a status screen (and will be allowed to play if you are one
of the players), if the game is over you will be presented the status of
all players and the name of the winner.



IN GAME MENUS - OPTIONS AVAILABLE ON ALL MENUS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"G" - View global map. Shows the entire galaxy map, using as many pages as
     necessary. To abort at any page you may use "N" or "Q".
"F" - Filtered global map. The same as option "G" only empty pages (with no
     ships or planets) are filtered out.

"V" - View partial map. Shows a small (faster to display) map of the galaxy
     centered on either the current fleet or the current planet, depending
     on which menu you're using at the moment.
      NOTE: if you have not entered the fleets/planets sub-menu there is
     nothing to center the map on so the command does not work.
"B" - Full screen partial map. Same as above but with a full screen map
     display (centered on your fleet/planet).

"Q" - Quit to games menu. Exit the game to the games selection menu.

"0" - Goes to main menu
"1" - Goes to planets menu
"2" - Goes to fleets menu



IN GAME MENUS - THE MAIN MENU
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"T" - Set a global tax rate. Sets a tax rate on all your planets.

This menu also has capture options that allow you to prepare your moves
off-line, use them on line (with a review buffer if your terminal program
has that option, etc. It is possible to capture lists of planets, fleets,
reports, etc.



IN GAME MENUS - THE PLANETS MENU - THE DISPLAY
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The display is self explanatory, the only less clear line is the DEFENSES
field where "B" stands for batteries, "A" stands for armies, "F" stands
for the number of your fleets orbiting the planet.



IN GAME MENUS - THE PLANETS MENU - THE OPTIONS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

">" or "." show next planet
"<" or "," show previous planet
"i" jump to planet (with a certain ID or at a certain location)

"(" show planets belonging to other players (not scouted)
")" show planets belonging to other players (scouted)
"*" show planets that belong to player

"T" Tax rate on planet. Sets the tax rate applied to the planet on display.

"D" Scorch this planet. Destroys all planet factories (reducing current
    production to 0. Reduces planet maximum potential production.
      May be used several times in a row, literally turning the planet into
    nearly a dead useless piece of rock in terms of potential. This is a
    option to be used only on eminent planet invasions to avoid capture of
    any goods. Off course if you reduce maximum potential too much even if
    you re-capture the planet it will be as useless to you as it will be to
    your enemies.

"S" Specify build orders. Determines what the planet builds will be for the
    round. The prices are:

    ARMIES       10 credits
    BATTERIES    50 credits
    TRANSPORT    25 credits
    SCOUT        50 credits
    DESTROYER    50 credits
    CRUISER      75 credits
    BATTLESHIP  100 credits
    STARBASE    500 credits

"A" Abort build orders. Aborts previous build orders, credits will be
    returned to the player and new build orders may be issued.

"R" Rename planet. Changes the name of the planet on display.



IN GAME MENUS - THE FLEETS MENU - THE DISPLAY
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Two fields may not be "all that clear":

-> E.T.A. means expected time of arrival in days. The speed of the fleet
appears in front of the E.T.A.

-> O.F.I.S. stands for "Other Fleets In Sector", on this field are
displayed the ID's of other fleets in the same sector as the fleet on
display at the moment.



IN GAME MENUS - THE FLEETS MENU - THE OPTIONS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

">" or "." show next fleet
"<" or "," show previous fleet
"i" jump to fleet (with a certain ID or at certain coordinates. If you use
                  coordinates the fleet with the lowest ID at those
                  coordinates is displayed. Remember that several fleets
                  may be located at the same sector).

"*" Sort fleets by their current location (default)
")" Sort fleets by their destination coordenates.
"(" Sort fleets by missions.

"D" Detach fleets. Detaches ships from current fleet (on display) forming
   a new fleet.

"T" Transfer ships. Transfer ships to an existing fleet. If there are more
   than two fleets on the sector you must know the fleet ID of another
   fleet (the one on display is used). If there are only two fleets on the
   sector both fleets are auto-selected by the computer.

"S" Spread a fleet into multiple fleets. Spreads the ships of the current
   fleet into as many fleets as the player defines.

"M" Merge with other. Merges this fleet with other fleet. If there are more
   than two fleets on the sector you must know the fleet ID of another
   fleet (the one on display is used). If there are only two fleets on the
   sector both fleets are auto-selected by the computer.

"A" Merge all fleets in the current sector.

"O" Order fleet on a mission. Sets a new mission for the fleet on display.


       *********************************************************

       NOW STOP READING AND PLAY!  THERE'S A GALAXY TO CONQUER!!

       *********************************************************


 Have fun,

 Paulo Laureano