Announcing Release 1.0 of Outpost Trader Helper Outpost Trader Helper is a players TERMINAL PROGRAM with a GRAPHICAL INTERFACE that maintains an ONLINE DATABASE of sectors with their outposts, warp to, and other information. Several commands are available to utilize this information in addition to automating most of the repetitive processes and a GRAPHICS MAPPING capability. Outpost Trader Helper not only makes playing more enjoyable, it makes you much more effective. The file name is OTHELP12.ZIP. It can be downloaded on the first call from Monty's Place BBS (801) 944-8636 or Rocky Mountain Software (801) 963-8721 and logging on as "Just Fun" with a password of "Software". The file size is 240K and 14,400 bps capability is available. Please just log on, download and log off. The main features of Outpost Trader Helper are discussed below. Many of these features and capabilities are available to registered users only. VGA monitor and mouse required for Graphical User Interface. The features are: An optional Graphical User Interface (GUI) that can be activated simply by clicking a mouse button! Several gauges and readouts are displayed along with a graphics map of the current sector. In addition you can click on any of several buttons to activate OTHELP or OT commands. You gotta check this out! It's truly like being in the cockpit of your own spaceship! Automated cross trading between paired outposts incuding firearms and spice. You can even cross trade between nonadjacent sectors with or without the HyperSpace Drive. Of course you must find the best outposts to trade at so there is not only the ability to locate specific outpost types and paired outposts, but also nonadjacent trading pairs and other specialized combinations. You don't just trade all the time, you want to travel around and explore the OT universe, right? Just enter the /u command to see the paths to the five closest unexplored sectors or, better yet, just enter /e and have OT Helper take you to the nearest unexplored sector! Concerned about mines or other enemy forces? No problem! Just tell OT Helper to dynamic scan each sector before moving you into it. OT Helper can even move from one unexplored sector to another, stopping only when your direct involvement is required! And it can optionally and automatically MRI scan, deploy fighters and/or trade along the way! Then there are the E-probe routines that can launch an E-probe to an unexplored sector not warped to by any other known sector, launch to an isolated sector, or launch so as to pass thru the maximum numbers of sectors not visited during the current session. This, like many features in Outpost Trader Helper, can be accomplished quickly and easily only with a terminal program accessing an online database. Other features include showing sectors with fighters closest to a dest- ination sector, showing isolated sectors, automated colonizing of a planet, automated buying and conveying of product to a planet, automated hauling of colonists or product between planets, automated mine disruption, merging another traders database, accessing a scroll back buffer and creating a capture file. And if all this weren't enough, Outpost Trader Helper provides a graphics (EGA/VGA) mapping capability with mouse or keyboard interactive controls. A specific sector and its adjacent sectors to any level can be graphically displayed or the path between two sectors can be mapped. Controls include the ability to change levels, scale, contents, and separation to present the most useful layout. In addition to being able to click on any sector in the map, the sectors resulting from many of the other commands can be selected using the mouse. Whether used online or offline this graphics mapping capability makes strategic planning both more effective and more enjoyable. Since an example database is provided in the zip file, you can take a look at the graphics features and many of the commands and displays without ever going online or initializing your own database! Simply click a mouse button to see the Graphical User Interface or enter /G to view the complete graphics map. Try it, and see for yourself that why, with Outpost Trader Helper, you "See the Graphics! Feel the Power!"