Copyright: Stefan Glasauer 1995


Dialogs

Dialogs of object details

Multiple object list dialog

Starmap options dialog

Message options dialog

Alliance Status dialog

PHOST command dialog

Config dialog

Hyperjump dialog

Line draw dialog

Load game dialogs

In most of the dialogs, help is available by pressing the help button and/or pressing F1.


Detail dialogs

Dialogs of object details

In most dialogs that show the details of an object, you can edit some of the properties. Unknown properties are left blank or are shown as a question mark.

The last turn in which information about the object was obtained is also shown.

Note that some parts of the info may be much older than the turn number.

For example, if you were engaged in a battle with an enemy ship, EchoView will remember the type of armament of the enemy ship and its weapon load after the battle (when using PHOST).

Of course, this information may have changed in the next turn even though the ship is still visible and the ship dialog therefore reports the actual turn number.

Ships : the owner can be changed manually. A notepad is available in which you can edit text, or copy text from the clipboard (by pressing <Shift Ins>, like in all Windows edit fields). If the cargo of a ship is known, the Cargo button will be shown. This button pops up a second dialog showing the ship's cargo.

Planets : the owner and whether or not the planet has a starbase can be edited. If there are actual starbase data, instead of the starbase checkbox a button appears which shows details about the base.

Mines : Everything except the ID can be changed.

Wormholes : You can enter the exit location of the wormhole. If there's a valid exit, a line will be shown in the starmap connecting the entry and the exit.

For UFO's and ion storms, nothing can be changed. If you use WinPlan or UnPack35, all information available to WinPlan will also be shown in EchoView. If you don't, UFO information is not available, but the ion storm info will still be retrieved from the messages.

Ship explosions (bangs) and mine hits don't have details.


Multiple objects

Multiple objects list

The List Dialog that pops up if more than one object is found after a double click in the starmap will let you choose the object for which you want to see details. This is accomplished by pressing Show, or by double-clicking on the list item.

If the option "Actual History" is selected in the starmap options dialog, selecting the desired ship and pressing OK will show the history of the selected ship in the map.


Load Game dialog

Load Game Dialogs

The first line shows the VGA Planets directory that you have selected during installation. It must be the same for all of your games.

The list box shows all games you have set up. You can create a new game entry or delete an old game entry by pressing the respective buttons. Press OK or double-click the selected game to open it.

The Edit button will bring up a dialog showing the game directory, the name of the game, and the number of the race you are playing. Editing the game name will have the same effect as inserting a new game.

Directory names and the race number must have valid entries, otherwise the game can not be loaded and an error message will be issued.

A game can also be loaded by selecting one of the last five loaded games from the File menu.

If your game is protected by a password, EchoView will ask you for it. You can press "Save" to save your password in the INI-file, if you don't want to be asked for the password everytime you load the game.


Starmap Options

All starmap options are game-specific. They determine which objects you will see on the starmap.

With Ship History selected you will see the path of all ships during their last ten turns.

Actual history will show the history of the ship selected by a right button click in a different color.

Note : all colors are configurable in the Options/Colors submenus !!! And you can select a different line style for objects without current information in the Options/Linestyle dialog.


Message Options

Default receiver of message : Unselecting this will make life more comfortable when writing planets messages: the default receiver of a New message will be the same as for the last message, the default receiver of a Duplicated message will be the next race in the list.

Filter Messages will filter out all scanned messages. To have this take effect, first close the incoming messages window and then re-open it.

Dump file names will determine where your incoming/outgoing messages are saved when you press Dump in the message dialogs. You can review old messages by selecting the Messages/Saved Incoming or Messages/Saved Outgoing menu.

Send Informer alliance information : check this if you want to send Informer alliances infos. See also Alliance Status.


Config options

Configuration Options

Currently, there are two options :

Restore desktop on load : will open automatically and tile all windows in the configuration which was saved using the Save Desktop command. If this is not selected, Echoview will maximize the starmap after loading the game.

Autosave data on exit : select this if you don't want EchoView to ask you every time you exit or load a new game whether you want to save your databases.


Alliance Status

Alliance Status Dialog

If your game is NOT a PHOST game :

Only the basic alliance level is available, which will cause EchoView to send out the Informer Allied Planets info to all races which have the "A" checked in the Offer To list.

The Offer From list will show which races have sent the Informer info to you this turn. Those races will appear in the starmap in the current ally color.

Note : "Send Informer alliance information" must be checked, otherwise nothing will be sent.

If your game is a PHOST game :

Your actual PHOST alliances are shown in a matrix of checkboxes. If the both the checkboxes at the character A in the Offer To and Offer From list are checked for one race, this race is an active ally.

You can change your alliances simply by checking or unchecking the Offer To list. Changes will be sent to PHOST automatically when you save your data.

The characters above the checkbox lists have the following meaning :

A: Active Alliance (this checkbox MUST be checked for an alliance !!!)

S: Ship Alliance Level

P: Planet Alliance Level

M: Minefield Alliance Level

C: Combat Alliance Level

V: Vision Alliance Level

Please read the PHOST documentation for further explanation.

If both the OfferTo and OfferFrom for a certain level is checked, this level is active.

For other PHOST commands, see the command interface dialog.

If "Send Informer alliance information" is checked, Echoview will send the Informer Allied Planets info to all races which have "Active Alliance" checked in the Offer To list, even if they didn't respond to your offer for alliance.


Command Dialog

PHOST command dialog

Currently, the following commands are supported :

- Language

Change the language of the messages

- More than 50 targets (BigTargets)

Determine, whether more than 50 targets should be included in the RST file. If you set this to yes,  you have to use VPUNPACK or any other unpack utility supporting more than 50 targets.

- Send configuration

Sends the PCONFIG.SRC file. This file will be extracted by EchoView and placed in your game directory.

- Racenames

Change your race names. PHOST will be notified about your choice, and if you are using PHOST 3.2 together with WinPlan or EchoView and UnPack35, racenames will be updated automatically next turn.

To send one of these commands to PHOST, check the checkbox and choose your settings. Press OK to accept your choice.

For alliance commands, see the alliance status dialog.


DISCLAIMER

All software and documentation in this distribution is copyrighted and must only be distributed in accordance with the terms below. The software and documentation is NOT in the public domain but remains the property of the program author. All users of this software are given a license to reasonably use this software subject to the conditions below.

If any part of this software and/or documentation is to be included as part of a compilation, including but not limited to a CD-ROM distribution, then the author of this software must be contacted and express permission must be obtained for the software and/or documentation to be included in the compilation.

The software and documentation may be used at no charge and may be distributed freely but must always be distributed intact and as a unit with all files present, including this file. The software and documentation may be modified for personal use but no modified files may be distributed under any circumstances. All copies of the software and documentation must be distributed at no cost, monetary or otherwise, except for a reasonable fee to cover the cost of physical media (if the copies are distributed on physical media) which may not exceed US$3.00 (three US dollars) in value (at current exchange rates, if applicable) per copy.

The software and documentation are provided "as is" without express or implied warranty including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will the author of this software be liable for direct, incidental or consequential damages of any kind, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

All files in this distribution are Copyright (C) 1995 by the program author:

Stefan Glasauer. All Rights Reserved.

EchoView was written using Borland-Pascal 7.0.

VGA Planets is a trademark of Tim Wisseman.

PHOST is copyrighted by Andrew Sterian, Thomas Voigt, and Steffen Pietsch.

INFORMER is copyrighted by Sean Martens.

Crystal Ball is written by Juha Pohjalainen

If you find any bugs or if you want to make any suggestions, please contact me.

Please report ANY problems you find.

Stefan Glasauer

E-Mail u7x31ah@sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de

Thanks a lot to Andrew for alpha/beta testing and for many many valuable suggestions. Without his help, the program wouldn't look like it does right now.

Thanks to Sean Martens for his support.

And of course : thanks to all the other beta testers for their great help !!!.


Informer info
Informer alliance info : A message sent to your allies containing a list of your planets and starbases.


EchoView objects
Objects : All items shown in the EchoView starmap : Ships, planets, minefields, wormholes, ship explosions and mine hits, starbases, ufos, ion storms and user-drawn lines. Most objects can be listed in a list window.


Allies
Allies : Allies are determined by the PHOST alliance commands if playing a PHOST game, or by sending Informer alliance infos if not playing a PHOST game. Allied planets and ships are shown in a different configurable color.


PHOST
PHOST : A portable host program which can replace the original host program. It offers many useful additional features and is highly recommended for use with Echoview.


Index

EchoView version 1.0

Welcome to EchoView !!!

EchoView is a Windows player utility for VGA Planets. VGA Planets is a play-by-email game for the IBM PC written by Tim Wisseman.

Index :

What's different from other player utilities like Crystal Ball ?

Changing from using Crystal Ball to EchoView

More nice features

Which HOST versions are supported ?

Installation

Overview

Disclaimer

EchoView was written by Stefan Glasauer.


What's different

What's different from other player utilities like Crystal Ball ?

- full PHOST compatibility (versions 3.15.1.x through 3.2.2.x)

All UTIL??.DAT records, not only a few, are supported by EchoView !!! No more relying on message scans ! EchoView will read the UTIL.DAT information and use it to automatically update its databases and the starmap. Now, all of the information about your allies will show up in the map.

An integrated alliance command interface makes PHOST alliances much easier.

- full Host 3.2 compatibility

This means, for example, that UFO's and ion storms will be shown in the starmap.

Special mission messages like bio scanner messages will be used to update EchoView's database.

The configurable, integrated message scanner was tested with Host 3.14 through Host 3.2.

And even if you don't have WinPlan, UnPack35, a Dos utility distributed with EchoView, will let you access all of the information available to WinPlan !!!

- integrated Hyperjump utility

Calculation of reachable planets and double jumps. No need for additional hyperjump utilities.

- thats not all, there are more nice features !!!


Changing from Crysball

What happens to my Crystal Ball database if I change to EchoView ?

No problem !!! EchoView reads Crystal Ball databases from version 2.12 through 2.35 (the current version). Nothing will be lost.


Features

More nice features :

- easy installation, no editing of INI files required

- integrated message editor

- databases for ships, planets, minefields, wormholes, ion storms and UFO's

- unlimited ship history

- reads TARGET??.EXT files generated by VPUTIL/VPUNPACK version 3.0 or higher. EchoView will show as many scanned enemy ships or allied ships as are included in the RST file or the UTIL.DAT file. There is no 50-ship limit!

- direct drawing of lines on the starmap using the mouse

- databases and the starmap will be shown together; switching from the database lists to the location of the object on the starmap is as easy as clicking the right mouse button

- notepad for ships in the ship dialog

- PHOST alliance interface and command interface : user-friendly support for the PHOST command processor

- automatic updating of INFORMER allied planets messages into the map. EchoView lets you also send INFORMER allied planets messages by selecting allies in the alliance status dialog.


Installation

Installation :

EchoView is distributed with the following files :

ECHOVIEW.EXE	the Windows executable

UNPACK35.EXE	a Dos unpack utility extracting Host 3.2 information from the RST files (has to be run before normal unpacking)

SCANMESS.DAT	an ASCII file containing the message scanner definitions

SCANMESS.EXE	a DOS utility generating PHOST UTIL??.DAT files (not necessary to run EchoView)

SCANMESS.DOC	documentation on SCANMESS.EXE

README.TXT	a readme file with installation instructions

CHANGES.TXT	a file decribing the bug fixes and changes since the last version

ECHOVIEW.HLP	a Windows help file

CTL3DV2.DLL	a Microsoft DLL for those who do not already have it (the "3D" look of dialogs)

Echoview will create E*.DAT database files in the game directory and the ECHOVIEW.INI file in the Windows directory.

How to install :

Place ECHOVIEW.EXE wherever you want.

Move the CTL3DV2.DLL to your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory, if it's not already there (important : don't leave it in the same directory as EchoView).

Put UNPACK35.EXE and SCANMESS.DAT into your planets directory.

That's all !!!

Now start EchoView.

Select "Load Game" from the File menu.

A dialog will ask you to enter the path of the planets directory.

Press "OK" to continue.

The next dialog will ask you to enter a name for your game (EchoView supports multiple games), your race number (1-11) and the game directory.

Press "OK" again.

If there was an error, a message box will appear.  In this case, select "Load Game" again and check whether your directory and race settings have been properly described (press "Edit" to see them).

If your game has a password, EchoView will ask you for it.

Now the fully maximized starmap of your current game should be visible.

Hint : Read the mouse section to learn about all the different ways to use the mouse in EchoView. This is the most important section of the manual.

Note : if you play with alternative race names, maps or ship lists, EchoView looks first in the game directory for the RACE.NM, PLANET.NM, XYPLAN.DAT and *SPEC.DAT files.

If you have been using Crystal Ball, select Files/Load Crysball data. All of the information in the Crystal Ball database will become available in EchoView.

Note : When your host uses Host3.2 or PHOST3.2 but you don't have WinPlan, use UnPack35 (see below).

Have fun with EchoView !!!


UnPack35

Installing and using UnPack35 :

UnPack35 is a small Dos utility which will extract the KORE??.DAT file containing Host 3.2 information (ion storms, bangs, minefields and UFO's) and the RACE.NM file from the RST files. Both files will be placed in the game directory.

UnPack35 works like UNPACK. It must be called before UNPACK, since UNPACK deletes the RST files. UnPack35 also works with PHOST 3.2.2.x RST files.

Usage : unpack35 <game-directory>

UnPack35 does not replace UNPACK or VPUTIL/VPUNPACK !!! UnPack35 only extracts the KORE??.DAT files from the RST files, nothing else.

Note : the KORE??.DAT files produced by UnPack35 have not been tested together with WinPlan. If you use WinPlan, you don't need UnPack35.


OverView

A quick overview of EchoView :

The Menus

File

Options

List

Messages

Window

Help

The Toolbar

The Starmap

Mouse Usage

The Dialogs


Toolbar

The Toolbar

The toolbar looks like this:

These are the toolbar buttons in order of appearance:

- Help

- Load Game

- Reload game

- Save Game

- Starmap Options

- Zoom In

- Zoom Out

- Restore Desktop

- Distance Mode (a toggle button)

- Line draw Mode (a toggle button)

- Hyperjump help (a toggle button)

- Exit EchoView


File menu

Load game : brings up the load game dialog where you can select a game, add a new game, delete a game, or edit a game's information.

Save game : saves the databases of the current game.

Reload game : reloads starbase/planet/ship information from disk and updates the database.

Load Crysball data : loads the Crystal Ball database into EchoView.

Print : will print the part of the starmap currently visible in EchoView. If you have a color printer, the output should be in color (on a white background). If you don't have a color printer, you should select "all colors to black" in the printer setup.

Printer setup : does what it says.

Exit : exit EchoView. This will ask you whether you want to save your database first. EchoView can be configured to save the data automatically on exit in Options/Config.

Below Exit, the last five games will be shown by name. Select one of them to load it.


Options menu

Select Allies : select your allies from the list. Objects belonging to allied races will be shown in a different color. You can select multiple races as allies. If you use PHOST, allied races will be updated automatically depending on your PHOST alliance status.

Note, that changing the allies in this dialog will only affect the colors, but not change your PHOST alliance status !!!

Alliance Status : If your game is a PHOST game, this dialog the PHOST alliance command interface where you can easily select your allies. A warning will be shown after loading the game if your alliance status has changed.  If your game is NOT a PHOST game, you can select allies to send them Informer alliance infos.

Zoom In / Zoom Out : Starmap zoom.

Distance : switch to the distance mode. See below for more info.

Draw Line : switch to the line-draw mode. See below.

Hyperjump : show the hyperjump help window.

Font : select a font for the text appearing in the starmap.

Colors : select starmap colors. Almost all of the colors are configurable. Note that for lines and circles only solid colors can be selected. The dithered colors are not available. This is a Windows feature, not a bug in EchoView.

Note : the selected color will be used for all color settings EXCEPT for the ufo colors. The sixteen possible ufo colors will be taken from the user defined color table in the dialog, NOT from the selected color. Therefore, if you don't like the ufo colors, change the 16 user defined colors in the ufo color dialog.

Linestyle : minefields, ionstorms and wormholes without actual data from the current turn can be shown in a different line style in the starmap. Note: for some graphic drivers, the dotted and dashed line styles do not work properly !!!

Starmap : shows the starmap options dialog which determines what you see in the map. This item is available as a toolbar button.

Messages : dialog with some configs for the message reader/editor.

Config : a configuration dialog with some settings for starting and exiting EchoView


List menu

Ships, Planets, Mines, Wormholes, Ion Storms, UFO's, Bangs : opens the respective list windows. If there are no items in the lists, the menus will be grayed out.

Utildata : shows a list of all PHOST UTIL??.DAT records. If you play a Host game, one line will appear for each scanned message, giving a short summary of the information updated into the starmap.

Scores : show the Planets scores and the number of ships currently in the game (if your host didn't blank them).

Delete : if you are in a list window, this will delete the selected item.

Search Planet : Select a planet from the list and press OK. The cursor will jump to the planet.


Messages menu

Incoming : the incoming messages dialog. Use the dump button to save a message to the ASCII file specified in the Options/Messages dialog. Use the Copy button after selecting text to copy the text to the clipboard (same as pressing <Ctrl Ins>). Move through the messages with the scrollbar.

Outgoing : the outgoing messages dialog. Select the message receiver from the drop-down list. Compose your message. Select New to start a new message, Duplicate to duplicate the current message, Dump to save it to an ASCII file (specified in Options/Messages), and Delete to delete the whole message. After writing your messages, press Save to save the messages to be sent, or leave the dialog by pressing OK which will also automatically save all messages. Messages will also be saved when you select Save from the File menu.

Note : pressing <Shift Ins> will let you paste text from the clipboard. Selected text is copied to the clipboard by pressing <Ctrl Ins>.

PHOST commands : Interface for the PHOST command processor. Only available in PHOST games.

Saved Incoming/Outgoing : review messages that were previously dumped. This editor will only show files up to approx. 40k. Larger files will be truncated.


Window menu

The usual window menu and :

Save/Restore desktop : After tiling all of your lists and the starmap window in a desired desktop configuration, you can save the window information and restore it later. Once the desktop is stored, Restore will automatically re-open all of the lists and the starmap in the same positions.

The desktop can be restored automatically when loading a game by selecting the respective option in Options/Config.

You can also use the Restore Toolbar button.


Help menu

Shows the index of this help file and the About dialog.

Most dialogs have a help button. In most of the dialogs, in the menus and in the windows, context specific help can be invoked by pressing F1.


Mouse usage

Using the mouse

Most of the functionality of EchoView is only available by using a mouse.

In the Starmap mouse clicks bring you to objects in the map like ships, planets, etc. depending on the current mode. Double clicks open dialog boxes showing detailed information on the object.

See specific mouse usage for

Normal starmap mode

Distance mode

Line draw mode

Hyperjump help

In the List windows a right button click moves the mouse cursor to the object's location in the map.


The Starmap

The starmap window will show all items selected in the Options/Starmap dialog. Scroll around by clicking on the scrollbars, by dragging the scrollbar buttons, or by holding down one of the mouse buttons in the window and moving beyond the window borders.

The starmap looks like this:

The status line reports the (X,Y) co-ordinates at the mouse position and the objects at that location.

If you don't like the colors, they are configurable via the Options/Colors menus. Some objects, like minefields, can be shown in a different line style if their data come from a previous turn.

The normal starmap mode lets you view objects like ships, planets, wormholes, etc.

In the distance mode you can additionally measure the distance between objects. You will also see a waypoint setting in the status line, indicating a waypoint that you can set to travel from the first object to the second.

The line-draw mode lets you draw lines in the map.

The hyperjump mode will open a floating dialog for automatic hyperjump calculations.

Open one of the list windows to get an overview of currently known objects.


Normal mode

The normal starmap mode

Left button click : will move the mouse to the closest planet/minefield/wormhole/ionstorm/UFO/bang. Information about the object is shown in the status line.

Left button double click : brings up a dialog with details about the object under the mouse. If more than one object is found, a list will pop up in which you can select the desired object.

<Shift> and left button click : centers the starmap at the current mouse position.

Right button click : will move the mouse to the closest ship. If "Ship History" is selected in the options,  a right button click will also move the mouse to the last known location of a ship that is currently not visible.

If more than one ship is at the location, the status bar will report "Multiple Ships" and the specification of the ship with the lowest ID.

Right button double click : brings up a ship details dialog, or a list, if more than one object is found.

<Shift> right button click : pops up a local menu at the mouse position.


Distance mode

The distance mode

Mouse buttons function normally in distance mode, but you will see a line extending from the last mouse location to the current loction.

Hold down the mouse button to measure the distance to an object. The distance is indicated in the statusbar.

Moving the mouse further than 150ly away from the start of the distance line will in addition give a waypoint (between 100 and 150 ly from the starting location) which points in the direction of the desired ending location. This waypoint can also be used for hyperjumps.


Line draw

The line draw mode

In this mode, the cursor will change to a pen. Now you can draw lines in the map. You can change the color of the lines in the Options/Colors/Lines menu. Changing the line color will not affect the color of existing lines.

Left button click : start a line. Hold down the button. Releasing the button will end the line.

Right button click : moves the mouse to the next planet or line start/end. This will also work while holding down the left button.

Right button double click : if you are at a line start or end, a line dialog will show up. Now you can manually enter the start or end positions of the line, or you can delete the line.

<Shift> right button click : pops up a local menu, as in normal mode.


Hyperjump

The Hyperjump mode

All mouse buttons work as in normal mode, but additionally, every right or left button click will enter the mouse coordinates in the Position or Destination line of the dialog. The first click will fill the position co-ordinates, the second click will fill in the destination.

Once you've entered the position coordinates (manually or by clicking in the starmap) you can press the Planets button to see all planets which can be reached in exactly one jump.

When both the position and destination co-ordinates are filled in, press Jump to see two possible double-jumps from the position to the destination.

The possible paths will be shown in the starmap, in the current line color.

The result text can be copied to the clipboard via Copy. Use it to paste the result to the ship notepad (by pressing <Shift Ins> in the notepad).

Leaving the Hyperjump dialog will also erase the possible paths.

You can also use the distance mode to find a waypoint for a jump close to an arbitrary target.


List windows

The List windows

Every line indicates one object (ship, planet, etc.) of the selected database, or of the scanned messages/utildata.

The databases are saved by selecting Save from the file menu, when leaving EchoView, or when loading another game. Each type of object is saved in a separate file in the game directory. All database files created start with the character "e" and have the extension ".dat".

In a list, pressing <Del> or selecting Delete from the list menu will delete the selected object from the database.

In the minefield list, you can insert a minefield by pressing <Ins>. The new minefield will be assigned the first available ID. The ID cannot be edited.

Colors will indicate the status of an object :

Blue	: your planets/ships/minefields (info is current)

Green	: unowned planets or planets with unknown owner (info is current)

Red	: enemy planets/ships/minefields (info is current)

Black	: planets/ships/minefields with old info

In all other lists, objects infos are shown in black.

Mouse usage :

Left button click : select an object.

Left button double click : open a dialog with details of the selected object.

Right button click : moves the mouse to the location of the object in the starmap, or, in case of the scanned messages list (Utildata list), to the location of the event.