VGA Planets HOST 3.2 Beta 3a (The Final Beta) Copyright 1992 -- 1995 By Tim Wisseman HOST.EXE is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America and by International Copyright Law. The HOST.EXE program is owned by and remains the property of Tim Wisseman the copyright holder. All VGA Planets players and hosts are granted the royalty-free use of HOST.EXE. The HOST program may be distributed freely by all possible means. The VGA Planets server HOST.EXE and It's configuration program HCONFIG.EXE are royalty-free programs. They may be used and given out free of charge. You can download the latest version from the: The Tim Continuum BBS (209) 877-4921 cocomax@aol.com The VGA Planets client program PLANETS.EXE 3.00 is a shareware program. Players are asked to please register PLANETS.EXE. Planets Version 3.5 for MS-Windows is NOT shareware, there is no shareware version of it. There is only the registered version. Tim Wisseman PO Box 204 North Fork CA 93643 VGA Planets is a player supported program. My thanks to everyone that registered! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bugs fixed: SEE: H32FIX.TXT for a complete bug fix list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Host returns a DOS errorlevel 1 if there is a host crash. ------------------------- If the "Climate death rate" is greater than 0% then: Desert worlds now support at least 101 - ( planet_temp ) clans. Ice worlds now support at least 1 + ( planet_temp ) clans. ------------------------- FRIENDLY CODES: (Most of these codes will only work if you are a registered player) Codes dealing with deep space mine fields: These control then number of torpedoes that are coveted and laid as a mine field: "mdh" mine drop half your torps "mdq" mine drop one quarter of your torps "md1" mine drop 10 torps "md2" mine drop 20 torps "md3" mine drop 30 torps "md4" mine drop 40 torps "md5" mine drop 50 torps "md6" mine drop 60 torps "md7" mine drop 70 torps "md8" mine drop 80 torps "md9" mine drop 90 torps "md0" mine drop 100 torps "miN" will lay a minefield in an enemies ID, were N is the ID number of the enemy that you want the mines laid as. N = ( 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,a,b) These mines will not effect the enemy race, but they can and will damage you if you fly through the field. "msc" If you mission is set to mine sweep this code will cause the ship to scoop up the mines and convert them back into torpedoes. Glory device codes: "pop" This code will cause the D19 or Saber class starships to EXPLODE after moving, if they have fuel. "trg" This code will cause the D19 or Saber class starships to EXPLODE after moving, if they have fuel and any cloaked enemy ship is detected. "HYP" Hyperjump, this will cause a ship that has a hyperjump drive to jump 350 light years and burn 50 KT of fuel. The waypoint of the jumping ship must be greater then 20 LY and the ship must have at least 50 KT of fuel. It is best to set the warp speed to 1 for the jump. "mkt" Make torpedoes in space. Load your ship up with the items need to build torpedoes and your ship will construct them in space or over a planet. The items needed to build torps include one of each mineral type plus the megacredits required. Alchemy ship codes: "ald" Alchemy Duranium. This code will cause an alchemy ship to produce only Duranium. "alt" Alchemy Tritanium. This code will cause an alchemy ship to produce only tritanium. "alm" Alchemy Molybdenum. This code will cause an alchemy ship to produce only molybdenum. Planetary friendly code: "NUK" causes planet to attack all enemy ships in orbit. (note: some ships are immune to attack) "ATT" causes planet to attack all enemy ships in orbit that have fuel. (note: some ships are immune to attack) "bum" beam up megacredits to all ships in ships in orbit (including enemy ships). If more then one ship is in orbit then the megacredits will be split between all the ships. "con" Configure Message. Have the host send a listing of the current host configure settings next turn. "dmp" Dump old parts. If there is a starbase in orbit around this planet then most the parts in the starbases storage bins will be converted back into minerals and dumped to the planets surface. Torpedoes will not be dumped. Ship to enemy ship transfers: "btt" Beam Transfer Torps. This code will transfer torpedoes of like type from the ship with this code to all enemy ships at the same point in space that have the same make of torp tube. "btf" Beam Transfer Fighters. The code will transfer fighters from the ship with this code to all enemy ships at the same point in space that have fighter bays. "btm" Beam Transfer Megacredits. This code will transfer megacredits from the ship with this code to all enemy ships at the same point in space. "gsN" Give Ship. This code will give starship to N race, where N is the number/letter code of another race. When the starship has this code the race represented by N will take control of said starship on the next turn. A friendly code of gs1 would give your starship to the Feds on the next turn. The crew becomes crew members of the new controlling race. For this to work there must be an enemy ship belonging to race N with colonists at the same point in space as the ship with the "gsN" friendly. Only registered players can give ships away. Ship to enemy planet transfers: "bdm" Beam down Megacredits. This code will dump the megacredits from the ship to the planet that it is in orbit around, no matter who owns the planet. Other codes: "lfm" Load fighter minerals. This will load all the minerals and money onboard the ship to build as many fighters as possible and tells the ship to build fighters, regardless of the ships mission. This code will only work for the Robots, Rebels and Colonials. "cln" Clone. A ship code. This tells the starbase that you own and are in orbit with to make an exact copy of the ship with this code. The starbases' tech levels must be equal to or greater then the ship being cloned. This will in most cases cancel out the normal starship building on the starbase any turn that there is a starship with this code in orbit. The cost of cloning a ship (megacredits) is 200% of the original cost of building the ship. The Privateers and Crystal People can not clone. You can not clone ships that your race can already build. The money and minerals are beamed directly from the planet to space. The parts stored on the starbase are not used by the cloning process. "NAL" The alchemy function of a Merlin Class ship can be disabled with a friendly code of "NAL" ( No ALchemy ) ------------------------------------------------------------------ HYPERDRIVE SHIPS An experimental Hyperspace device has been added to 3 ship classes: PL21 PROBE B200 CLASS PROBE FALCON CLASS ESCORT To use the hyperdrive set the ship's waypoint to a point farther then 20 light years and set the friendly code to "HYP". The ship will jump about 350 light-years and burn 50 units of fuel. The ship will come out of hyperspace at speed zero and with no waypoint set. Ships in hyperspace avoid all minefields. The hyperdrive can not be used to escape a tow. This will not work if the ship is on an intercept mission. Hyperjump ships can not tow another during a hyper jump. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ENGINE TECH SHIELD BONUS: A switch in HCONFIG.EXE, The Engine Tech shield bonus. The power from higher tech engines increases the shield power of the ship. How much? At 100%, a ship with transwarp engines fights like a ship that is 300 kt more massive. The cost of one engine is added to the combat mass of the to ship take in to account of the effect of the higher tech engines powering the shields. This shield bonus is based on the tech of the engines and not the number of engines on the ship. The engine tech to not effect the charge rate of the weapons. The tech of weapons does not effect the rate of weapon recharge. The shield bonus does not apply to ships attacking planets. Remember if you don't like this turn it off. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- DATA WARNINGS: Warnings: ( >>>GREEN<<< , >>>YELLOW<< and >>>RED<<< ) When host runs it now gives a "Data Status Message" Green means the data from the player and in the host records are 100% normal. Yellow means that there is a slight glitch in the data or program. ( Bug? ) Don't worry about this error too much, it is mostly harmless. But still should not happen. The host has found that minerals or money are missing. Red means there is some sort of problem. From one small error from an unkown origin to wholesale cheating. This means that minerals or money has showed up in a player's empire and the host can know where it came from. The host will take action to "correct" the problem during a red data status. >>>WARNING<<< >>>WARNING<<< >>>WARNING<<< Running METEOR.EXE will cause a >>>RED<<< or >>>YELLOW<<< data status at random. There is nothing that can be done to prevent this. It is best not to run METEOR.EXE when using HOST 3.1x or HOST 3.2X, use the HCONFIG meteor settings instead. ---------- FRIENDLY CODE BATTLE ORDER: All ships have an attack order. They will fight in an order that depends on the friendly code. The friendly code can give an attack value from 1 to 999. To use attack values your friendly code must have a numerical value. The attack values will NOT affect the way in which a ships fights, it only effects the battle order. Your enemy's attack values will NOT effect your battle order. A attack value of 1 is the lowest possible attack value. Here are examples of attack values base on some friendly codes where "x" is any non-number character. Friendly code Attack values xxx 1000 1xx 1 10x 10 01x 1 999 999 123 123 18x 18 x23 23 xx2 2 x1x 1 The ship with the lowest attack value will attack first. If two ships have the same attack value the ship with the lowest ID number will attack first. ------- PLANETS ATTACKING SHIPS: The game can be configured so that the planetary friendly code "ATT" or "NUK" causes a planet to attack any enemy ship in orbit. This will override the matching friendly codes not fighting rule. ( ATTack or NUKe ). Some ship and race are immune to attack. DISABLE TORPEDO SYSTEMS: A ship may now disable it's torpedo systems by using the friendly code "NTP". ( No TorPedoes ) If two ships that are enemies use the "NTP" friendly code they will still fight. This is also a special case where matching friendly codes does not count. The "NTP", "ATT" and "NUK" must be all in uppercase. This will also disable fighter launches. -------- CHEATERS: Very bad things happen to people that try to cheat. . . The Tim Continuum is watching a little closer now. It sees money from nowhere, minerals appear, torpedoes turning into fighters, etc. . . -------- SCAN RANGE: The range that you can see enemy ships is now limited by a scan range that the host can configure. Ships beyond the scan range in open space can NOT be seen. An enemy ship in orbit around a planet that you do not own and do not have a ship in orbit around can not be seen. -------- NO fuel: Ships that have no fuel can not intercept or tow. The host can decide if he will allow ships without fuel to move short distances. ( The old no fuel "impulse" ship drift ) -------- WARP WELLS: All planets place a stress on the time space continuum for a distance of 3 light years (circle) in all directions. Any ship that warps within a distance of 3.0001 light years to a planet will fall into the planets warp well and end up at the planet. Ships with a speed of warp 1 are not effected by warp wells. Ships that have just dropped out of HYPER-SPACE are not effected by warp wells. --------- GROUND ATTACK: ( Dropping colonists ) The host can configure the ground attack and defense factors of all races. Every 20 defense outposts add a defense factor to the planet. ( 100 defense outposts would make a planet 5 times stronger then it's normal defense factor. ) --------- SENSOR SCAN RANGES: Ships can now have a very good chance of detecting all planets within the sensor range that have less then 15 defense outposts and has ether more then 15 factories or more then 20 mineral mines. Every defense outpost reduces the odds of being detected by 6.6666%. Any planet with no defense and more then 15 factories or more then 20 mineral mines will be detected. A planet with 15 defense outpost or more can not be detected by sensors. --------- DARK SENSE: The Evil Empire can now dark sense ALL planets within dark sense range that have enemy colonists, except for Rebel colonies. The Dark Sense is unable to find the Rebels. --------- CLOAKING SHIPS: Ships with damage greater than the amount of damage that prevents cloak can not cloak. If a cloaked ship hits a mine and its damage going beyond the amount that prevents cloak the ship will fall out of cloak instantly. Ships may have to burn fuel to cloak. ( This is up to the host. ) The amount of fuel that the ship must burn is based on the hull mass of the ship. When a cloaked ship is burning fuel to stay cloaked and it does not have enough fuel to remain cloaked the ship will decloak and not burn the cloak burn fuel. There are odds that a ships cloak may fail from time to time and be seen. The odds of this is up to the host and can range from 0% to 50%. The cloak fail rate works as set in HCONFIG.EXE. The odds are within a few percentage points of the set rate. The HOST.LOG now will tell you how many cloak fails took place out of how many ships are cloaked. --------- ANTI-SHIP MINE FIELDS: The number of mines that a ship can sweep can be configured in HCONFIG.EXE The host has the option of letting overlapping enemy mine fields destroy each other. Both mines and web mines have a decay rate at which they disappear do to natural causes. The default is 5%. There is a maximum size that mine fields can be. If a ships tries to expand a field beyond the maximum no more torpedoes will be converted to mines. If a ship keeps it's mission to lay mines the mines lost to decay will be replaced by new mines so long as the ship has torpedoes. Mine fields of the same race may overlap. Mine fields and web mines may overlap. The odds of hitting a regular or web mine can be changed by the HCONFIG program. Minefields no not merge. There is now a limit on how far you can you can detect mine fields, however you will now get a report on all mine fields within this detection range. Both yours and enemy minefields. You will NOT receive sweep information from enemy mine fields that have friendly codes that match your ship's friendly code. --------- MINERAL MINES: The mineral mining rates of all races can be adjusted in the HCONFIG program. --------- ISOTOPE TRANS-URANIUM MUTATION RATE The HCONFIG can set the rate at which new minerals are formed in the planetary core of all worlds. The new minerals are formed by the natural isotopic break down of uranium into trans-unranium elements. Density ranges from 100 ( Large Masses ) to 1 ( Very Scattered ) More minerals are formed on planets with higher mineral densities then on planets with lower mineral densities. This takes place every turn. If set to 5 (default) and a planet has a density of 100% (Large Masses) 5 kt of each mineral will appear each turn in the planet's core. This must be extracted by mineral mines to be used to build ships. --------- TAXES: The amount of taxes that a race can collect per turn can be adjusted in the HCONFIG program. However, if the rates are changed they will not match up with the amount projected by the PLANETS.EXE / WINPLAN.EXE programs. These programs expect the Federation player to get double the credits and all other players to get normal credits. --------- NEW NATIVES: There is a switch in HCONFIG that that allows native races to be discovered from time to time on worlds without native life. They will be found only on worlds that do not already have native life. --------- LONG RANGE SENSORS AND DISTRESS CALLS: Starships that explode in battle will now be detected by all the other races in the game. They will detect the (x,y) location of the explosion and the name of the ship given in the distress call, but nothing else. Ships that are captured and planets that are taken over can not be detected on the long range sensors. --------- ENEMY PLANETS: Enemy planets can not be scanned for minerals by a ship in orbit any longer. The enemy colonists are able to jam enemy starship sensors. --------- HOST LOG: The host.exe saves a record of the screen output of the last run to a host.log file in the hst data directory. Everything that was sent to the screen will be in the file. --------- STRUCTURE DECAY: You can set the rate at which structure on a planet decay when there is not enough manpower on the planet to maintain them. The rate is the number of undermanned structures that can be lost in a single turn. If it is set to 3 then up to 3 of each type of structure can be lost in a single turn on a planet that does not have enough colonists to support. --------- NO MONEY FIGHTERS: The number of "free" fighters that each race gets at each starbase each turn can now be configured. The default is 5 for the Evil Empire only. The fighters still require minerals to build them. Each fighter requires 3 tritanium and 2 molybdenum units to build. --------- CYBORG ASSIMILATION RATE: The rate at which the Cyborg player turns the native population into Cyborg colonists can be set from 0% to 100% of the current number of Cyborg colonists on the planet. The Cyborg player has no control over the assimilation rate, only the host can change it using HCONFIG.EXE. --------- PASSWORD DISABLE: If the passwords are disabled then all the players in the game will have their passwords set to "NOPASSWORD" every turn. --------- SCIENCE SHIPS: (Climate changers) The climate temps of all planets range from 0 (ice planet) to 100 (hot desert). A climate type 50 is the best at supporting all forms of humanoid life. The Crystals and the native Siliconoids do best in hot desert climates. In case you are wondering, the climate number works out to be the average daytime temperature F. There are three ship classes that are able to transform a planet's climate just by orbiting it. Each ship will change the climate type by 1 each turn. Bohemian Class Survey Ship: will make planets warmer until climate type 50 is reached. Eros Class Research Vessel: will make a planet cooler until climate type 50 is reached. Onyx Class Frigate: Will make any planet turn into a hot boiling pool of rock and desert (temp 100). --------- CLIMATES: All humanoid type races do best on a type 50 planet ( Temperate - warm ). The Crystal race does best on temp 100 ( Desert World ). ( If Crystal people like desert worlds = YES ) The Siliconoids also like temp 100 worlds. The Lizards are unable to regulate their body temp so they to like type 50 planets the best. Rebels: Surface temp 19 and lower (ICE) Maximum clans that can survive: at least 200 Fascists and Robots: Surface temp 81 and higher Maximum clans that can survive: at least 60 All other races can only have one clan on a desert or arctic planet. (Temp 0 or Temp 100) --------- GLORY DEVICE: Two ships in the game now have a device built into the hull called a glory device. These two ships are the D19 and the Saber Class starships. The device emits deadly berthold rays during its explosion. When one of these ships set off the glory device it does 1 mine hit of damage to all ships at the same point in space and destroys the ship using the glory device. The glory device does less damage to your ships then enemy ships. The D19 will do 20% normal damage and the Saber will do 10% damage to ships that you own. If the explosion takes place over a planet it can also kill a large number of enemy colonists and natives as well as destroy objects on the ground, such as factories. Siliconoid, Reptiles, Bovinoids are immune to Glory Devices' effects. The resulting Berthold rays will kill ALL Amorphous life on a planet that occupies the same point in space as the exploding starship. This will cause all of the Amorphous natives to be converted directly into supplies. They will be converted at a rate of 1 supply unit per 1000 natives. Glory device codes: "pop" This code will cause the D19 or Saber class starships to EXPLODE after moving, if they have fuel. "trg" This code will cause the D19 or Saber class starships to EXPLODE after moving, if they have fuel and any cloaked enemy ship is detected. The enemy is determined by primary enemy or a kill mission (all cloaked ships). --------- SUPER SPY DELUXE The Birdmen's super spy has been enhanced. When a player selects the Super Spy mission it will now have two parts. The Super Spy portion of the mission will remain the same. It will still go after movement, but the new part of the mission will go before movement. It has the following effects. Each Bird Man starship performing Super Spy will effect this mission whether it is desired or not. The Birdman starship will remain cloaked while performing this mission if it have can cloak. Damage or lack of fuel might prevent cloaking. The starships will each have a 20% chance of changing the planets friendly code to match the friendly code of the Bird Man starship. This effect is cumulative and five starships can effectively control a planets code. This means that if are 5 starships the Bird Man will can control the planets friendly code. Birdman starships on a super spy mission are immune to the surrendering functions of starbases as long as they have at least one unit of fuel. If the Birdman ship switches to a mission other then super spy it will surrender to a starbase if it's friendly code matches the planet's. --------- LOKI CLASS DESTROYER The Loki Class Destroyer will now attack cloaked starships. This vessel will detect and attack enemy cloaking starships. The Loki emits a tachyon pulse that causes all cloaked ships within 10 light years of its' position to come out of cloak. Cloaked FED and LIZARD ships are not effected by the Loki. They will remain cloaked. --------- COBOL CLASS RESEARCH VESSEL (Colonial fuel scooper) The Cobol Class Research is equipped with a simple Ram Scoop as a part of it's hull design. The Ram Scoop will produce 2 KT of Neutronium per light year traveled by the starship. So if the Cobol traveled ten light years it would generate 20 KT of fuel. So in theory, if it used less than 20 KT of fuel to go that 10 light years the starship would experience a net gain in fuel. The Cobol Class does not scoop fuel when it is on an intercept mission, being towed and towing. The HCONFIG can set the scoop rate at 0kt, 1 kt, 2 kt, 3 kt or 4 kt of fuel per light year. The default is 2kt. --------- BIO SCANNER The Cobol, Pawn and Brynhild class starships are capable of detecting native life on other planets. If the starships mission is a sensor sweep this ability will be activated. The range of the native life detecting is the same as the sensor sweep range. The bio scanner will be able to lock onto about 20% of all planets in range per turn. The mission will tell you the type and number of natives that are living on a planet with in its sensor range. It will also tell you the climate of a planet with native life. The mission will not tell you which race, if any, owns the planet. Twenty or more defense outposts will shield a planet from the Bio Scanners. You can bio-scan unowned planets, if they have less than 20 defense outposts. --------- ARIES CLASS TRANSPORT The Aries Class Transport is an advanced alchemy starship. The Aries will convert minerals into Neutronium. It will do this at a rate of one unit of fuel per unit of any other mineral that in placed in the starships cargo holds. So if one unit of Tritanium is loaded onto this starship it will be converted directly into one unit of fuel. This process requires neither supplies or megacredits to be performed. The only way to prevent the alchemy process from occurring is to have the starships fuel tanks full. If the tank is less than full the starship will convert enough minerals to fill it or until it runs out of minerals. --------- LADY ROYALE The Lady Royale is a pleasure starship. When there are clans on board this starship it will generate one megacredit per clan on board from gambling earnings. You can collect money from a group of colonists on a Lady Royale the same turn that they beam down to an unowned/enemy planet. If 160 colonist clans beam down to a planet that you do not own you will find 0 colonist clans plus 160 megacredits onboard the ship the next turn. --------- SUPER STAR DESTROYER The Super Star Destroyer can perform an "Imperial Assault." Any race that owns this starship can use this ability to their benefit. To perform this attack the starship needs to drop ten clans on an enemy planet. Once this is accomplished the planet will be captured as that turn processes. The only defense against this is actually damaging the starship before it can drop clans. This will work against starbases, Cyborg planets and homeworlds. This starship is immune to the planetary ATT and NUK friendly codes. The Super Star Destroyer can not perform this mission if it has no fuel or any damage. Any race owning a Super Star Destroyer can perform this mission. The Super Stardestroyer is immune to all NUK / ATT attacking planets if the Imperial Assault mission is turned on (HCONFIG). It does not matter which race owns the Super Star Destroyer, it is immune. --------- MINE FIELD FRIENDLY CODES Mine fields have friendly codes. The mine field's friendly code will be the same code as the planet that is nearest its center that belongs to the race that owns the mine field in question. So if you laid a mine field at Nixon and Nixon's friendly code is "Q1m" and you own Nixon the mine field would have a code of "Q1m". Any starship with that friendly code would be able to travel through the mine field and not activate any mines. If the planet's friendly code is changed the mine field's code will change to match it. The minefield friend code takes effect as soon as the mines are laid and change anytime you change the friendly code of the planet controlling the mine field. You will not sweep enemy mine fields that have friendly codes that match the friendly code of your ship. Web mines do not drain fuel from ships with matching friendly codes. --------- ION STORMS Ion storms are large charged plasma sub-space temporal anomalies. Ion storms will appear at random and can from anywhere. When they appear that can be of any size and power. Ion storms move along semi-predictable paths at a warp factor ranging from 1-10. These storms will not render Chunneling or hyperdrive systems inactive, although if you use these systems while in an Ion storm there is the possibility of some unpredictable results. The Ion storms will cause cloaking systems to fail completely while within the storm. If the storm is powerful enough it can completely disable shielding systems while within the storm. Smaller starships do not handle Ion storms as well as larger ships. Although a starship's crew experience will help moderate (lessen) the damage that is caused by an Ion storm. If the crew is experienced enough they may help the starship to avoid damage altogether. There is only four things that will gain a crew experience. These four things are movement (the larger the starship's mass the more experience that will be gained), surviving combat, performing alchemy missions, and surviving an Ion storm. There is not any way that you can tell how many experience points a ship has. This information is kept secret. Ion storms will cause mine fields to be cloaked from your sensors. This means that while a mine field is covered by an Ion storm you will be unable to detect it or sweep it. The only exception to the no sweeping rule is the Colonials. The Colonial fighters can sweep mine fields that are covered by Ion storms. Ion storms have movement vectors that change at a relatively small rate, therefore their path is somewhat predictable. Ion storms are a configurable switch in the HCONFIG. The number of active ion storms can be set. There can be from 0 to 50 storms active at once in the game. Ion disturbances can form in the deep void of spaces just outside of the echo star cluster. They are normally prevented from forming by the stellar winds radiating from the stars of the echo cluster. They are area high speed charged particles that are bounded by a natural warp shell that enables them to travel at faster then light speeds. The energies within the disturbance are constant through out the disturbance. Disturbance have two phases: The power increase phase: The disturbance's voltage and speed will slowly increase as the size of the disturbance decreases to a smaller diameter. The weakening phase: The disturbance's voltage and speed decreases as the diameter of the disturbance increases. Sometimes a weakening disturbance will suddenly increase in size while loosing a great amount of both speed and energy. These effect is commonly known as "pan caking". The heading vector of a ion disturbance can not change more then 20 degrees per turn. There are five classes of disturbances, the class is determined by the voltage of the disturbance. ION Disturbances Class 1: ( Harmless ) Voltage is less then 50 meV Class 2: ( Moderate ) Voltage ranges from 50 to 99 meV Class 3: ( Strong ) Voltage ranges from 100 to 149 meV ___________________________________ Storm Level Class 4: ( Dangerous ) Voltage ranges from 150 to 199 meV Class 5: ( Very Dangerous ) Voltages at or above 200 meV ___________________________________ Storms and disturbances will not harm planets, only starships. All starships can navigate a class 1, class 2 or class 3 ion disturbance with full shields. All ion disturbances and storms make cloaking impossible. Class 4 and class 5 storms can damage or destroy a starship. They can also kill the ships crew. When a storm enters a class 4 or class 5 ion storm the ships shields will be rendered inoperative. Solid matter acts as a damper against the effects of voltage fluxes. If you must travel through a ion storm, be sure to load the ship with as much fuel and cargo. Class 4 and class 5 ion storms will drag starships along with them. The drag speed is 75% of then speed of the storm. There have been reports of ion storms with voltages over 451 meV having an unexplained effect on starships. Starships that have entered storms of that power and have ether been destroyed or have vanished, never to be seen again. --------- CHUNNEL Chunneling is the process where a Firecloud Class Cruiser uses a temporal rift in the subspace time continuum. This rift is a maelstrom of tachyon energy formed in the shape of a tunnel. To open a Warp Chunnel a Firecloud needs to have at least 50 KT of fuel. It then selects its friendly code to the ID number of another Firecloud. This causes a targeting subspace signal to be generated. The firecloud then projects a stream of accelerated tachyon particles that cause a rift in the subspace time continuum. The generation of this high energy beam uses up 50 KT of fuel from the projecting Firecloud. This rift is anchored to the destination Firecloud. Once the Chunnel is generated the Chunneling Firecloud moves into the Chunnel. This causes the Chunnel to collapse. As the Chunnel collapses it pushes the Firecloud (and most other starships that were in the same point is space as the Firecloud) along in front of it as it collapses. This movement expends uses no fuel on the Chunneling starship(s), since they are being pushed along by the collapsing Chunnel (subspace temporal rift). Needless to say, traveling through a high energy rift comprised of tachyon particles can have an adverse effect on your starship systems. Any starship completing a Chunnel will exit subspace with its shielding systems inoperative. The Chunnel, in effect, strips the starship(s) of their shields for that turn. By the next turn the shielding systems will be functioning again. How to Initiate a Chunnel To start a Chunnel, as stated above, the traveling (or initiating) Firecloud needs to set its friendly code to the ID number of the Firecloud it wishes to travel to. Both Fireclouds need to have their warp factor set to zero (0). If the warp factors are not set to zero or the Fireclouds are under tow the Chunnel will not occur. Chunneling happens as part of the movement phase of the host. It is the last segment of the movement phase. So it is possible for starships to move to the Firecloud before it Chunnels and then move with it. A ship belonging to a race other than the race of the Firecloud opening a chunnel at the same point in space as the firecloud must have a warp speed of 0 to enter the chunnel (way point setting does not matter). The chunnel ship's race can enter the chunnel at any warp speed. For Example: If fleet of enemy ships that warp onto a planet that is hiding a firecloud with its chunnel engaged only the enemy ships with a warp speed of 0 will enter the chunnel. The only ships that can move onto a planet with a warp speed of 0 are ships that are being towed. None of the ships that moved their under their own power will enter the chunnel, but any ships that they are towing will. Cloaked starships moving through a Chunnel will remain cloaked. . . For Example: In a game somewhere there is a Cyborg player asking himself: Hmmm. . . wow I wonder how all these Meteor Class Blockade Runners ended up at my homeworld. . . A pair Fireclouds can not use a chunnel if ANYSHIP with fuel locks a tow beam on ether one, the warp speed and waypoint setting of the ship locking the beam does not matter. The minimum range of a chunnel is 100 LY. --------- TOW CAPTURE The Privateers and Crystals can capture starships in space that are out of fuel. To capture the helpless enemy starships they need to lock a tow beam onto the enemy starship. When they do this the capturing vessel beams over armed crew members to take over the enemy starship. When the starship is secured (all the enemy crew jettisoned into space) half of the capturing starship's crew or a full compliment for the captured starship (which ever is less) will beam over and man the captured starship. (i.e., Say starship A has 500 crew and captures starship B which normally has a crew of 1000. 250 crew member from starship A will man starship B. If B had only required 100 crew members to be full only 100 crew members would have beamed over to run the starship). As stated above the crew of the captured starship is ejected into space except for Solar Federation, Privateer, Evil Empire and Colonial starships. With these races some of the crew members will rather go traitor than be ejected into space. the following shows the percentage of original crew members that grovel well enough to be kept on as lesser crew members. Race %traitor Feds 90 % Privateer 100 % Empire 40 % Colonial 70 % --------- UNHAPPY NATIVES Natives will accumulate loose happiness points each time their planet is attacked. The more a planet is exchanged between players the lower the happiness of the natives. --------- RUNNING OUT OF FUEL Ship out of fuel will show up under the view command as having the speed of warp 0. Ships without fuel can not beam cargo down to an unowned planet. --------- CLOAKED SHIPS CAN ATTACK A ship that is cloaked can attack starships belonging to its primary enemy race. Cloaked ships will not attack enemy planets, unless they are damaged in an attack on an enemy ship and are forced to decloak over an enemy planet. --------- HIDDEN MINE FIELDS All races, except for the Colonies of Man, can not see or sweep a minefield that is inside an ion storm. They can sweep mines in an ION storm with fighters. --------- NO HIGH ASCII FCODES You can not set your FCODE to any non-printable ASCII code. If you do it will be reset to "AAA" --------- EXPLODING TOW SHIP If a ship that is towing another ship explodes from damage caused by mine field hits, the ship that was under tow will be dropped at the position of the explosion. --------- FORCE SURRENDER The starbase's force surrender mission takes place before ship movement. --------- NEW RACE NAMES If the host person changes the name of the races and places the new RACE.NM file into the universe directory (where the *.HST are), the new names will be transferred to all players using the version 3.5 WINPLAN.EXE for MS Windows client program. --------- SHIP BUILD QUEUE When a game reaches the 500 ship game limit the new ships will be build in a queue order. If starbase ID # 347 builds ship number 500 this turn then starbase ID # 348 will build the next ship as soon as one is destroyed. --------- BUILD PRIORITY POINTS (PBP) This ship build queue can be bypassed using priority build points. Every time you destroy 100kt of enemy starship hull you earn 1 PBP. Ships under 100kt count as 1 point. If you have more then 20 PBP's you get to build new starships before anyone else with less PBP's than you. Every build make or every clone you make will cost you 1 PBP per every 50 kt of hull that you make. Ships under 50 kt will cost you 1 point. If you have more then 20 PBPs you might be able to both clone and do a normal build at the same starbase at the same time, if your PBPs don't drop below 20 during the builds/clones. You get 1 PBP if you set off a glory device or colonize/scrap a ship. --------- IONIC PULSE If a planet detects that it is a victim of a super spy mission and it has more then 30 defense outposts, it can burn up 10 of the defense outposts to emit an ionic pulse that will uncloak all cloaked ships in orbit. A planet has about a 20% chance of pulling this off if it was the victim of a super spy mission. --------- MINE HITS MAY SLOWDOWN STARSHIPS Starships below a HCONFIG set tech level that hit a space mine will be slowed by 10 LY if it has more than 10 LY to travel when it hits the mine. (default tech level = 7) --------- MESSAGES SENT TO HOST Any message sent to the HOST (WINPLAN.EXE can do this) is stored in the HOSTMESS.TXT file. --------- MISC. INFO A ship with one engine can always be towed by a ship with two or more engines. Pillage mission will report native and colonist populations Terraforming ships will report surface temp. 100 = desert, 0 = ice Ships that surrender have their mission set to nothing. No population can be over 25,000,000. No population will grow larger after it has reached 10,000,000 The Siliconoid name race have the maximum growth rate on desert planets. Explore missions now report on the planet's climate. All ships explore, even cloaked ones. The explore mission is not needed. --------- HCONFIG SETTING EXPLAINED: HCONFIG.EXE now makes a CONFIG.TXT file in the hst data directory that it is configuring when you save. This a text file is a listing of the current config settings being used in the game. Recycle rate of colonizing ships The percentage of minerals recovered from the hull of a ship that is crashing on to a planet on a colonize mission. Odds of a large meteor impact The percentage odds that ONE large meteor will hit one of the 500 planets. This setting has NOTHING at all to do with the last full screen of meteor settings. Mine fields YES/NO Allows new mines to be dropped. Will NOT turn off mines that already exist. Web Mine Fields YES/NO Allows new web mines to be dropped. Will NOT turn off mines that already exist. Alchemy Ships YES/NO Allows alchemy ships to do their job of alchemy/fuel making. Or do nothing. Delete old messages YES/NO Deletes old unread messages each turn. Disable all passwords YES/NO Turn off passwords every turn. Ground combat ratio The number a race will kill when attacking an enemy by dropping (beaming down) one colonist on an enemy with a ground defense ratio of 1. Ground defense ratio The number a race will kill when defending against an enemy with a ground combat ratio of 1 that is dropping (beaming down) colonists on them. Free starbase fighters The number of "no money" fighters made at that race's starbases each turn. (Each fighter requires 3 tritanium and 2 molybdenum) Mineral mining rate The percentage of normal that a race's mines extract minerals from the ground. Taxes collected The percentage of normal that tax money is collected from the colonists and natives. Rebels build fighters in space YES/NO Rebels build fighters in space aboard ships with fighter bays and 5 supplies/3 tritanium/2 molybdenum for each fighter built? Colonies build fighters in space YES/NO The Colonies of Man can build fighters in space aboard ships with fighter bays and 5 supplies/3 tritanium/2 molybdenum for each fighter built. Robots build fighters in space YES/NO Robots can build fighters in space aboard ships with fighter bays and 5 supplies/3 tritanium/2 molybdenum for each fighter built. Cloaked ships may be Robbed YES/NO The Privateers can rob money, fuel and minerals from ships that are cloaked. Empire's Dark Sense range The range of the dark sense will work from an Empire ship to an enemy planet in light years. Lizards can use hiss mission YES/NO Lizards can use the HISS mission to claim down the natives. Rebels can use ground attack YES/NO Rebels can use the ground attack mission to mess up enemy planets. The Feds can super refit YES/NO The Feds can fix up old ships by putting new parts on them using the Super Refit mission. Super refit requires a full set of parts for the ship to work correctly. For Example: To super refit a Nova Class you need at least 10 beams of any one type on the starbase and at least 10 torp tubes of any one type on the starbase. Normal ship building takes place before the super refit, so if some other ship uses the refitting ship's parts before hand, the super refit will not take place and the ship will be left with no weapons. NOTE: If the Nova has 10 torp tubes and 10 beams before the super refit, it will have the same weapons after if there were not a full set of better parts on the starbase. Cyborg assimilation rate The percentage rate that the Cyborg colonists can convert native races to Cyborg. At 100% the number of natives converted equals the number of Cyborg colonist or the number of natives, which ever is the smaller of the two. Colonial fighter mine sweep rate The number of mine units one Colonial fighter can sweep in a turn at a range of up to 100 light years. Colonial fighter can sweep webs YES/NO If yes then the Colonial fighters can sweep web mines as well. Effect of HISSS mission The number of "Happy Units" that a HISS mission hits a planet with per ship. A planet's "Happy Units" range from 100 (Happy) to 0 (WAR!) to -300 (AARRRGG!!!!!!) Rob mission failure rate The percentage of the time that the rob mission does nothing. Planets can attack Rebel ships YES/NO A planet can attack a Rebel ship in orbit using the "NUK" / "ATT" Friendly codes. ( This takes away the Rebel ground attack ) Planets can attack Fascist ships YES/NO A planet can attack a Fascist ship in orbit using the "NUK" / "ATT" Friendly codes. ( This takes away the Fascist pillage attack ) Science ship bonus YES/NO The "Bohemiam", "Eros" and "Onyx" class science ships are allowed to change the climate of planets that they are in orbit around. Fed crew bonus YES/NO All Fed ships get a 25% shield boost between battles. All Damaged weapons are still able to fire. Odds that a cloak will fail The percentage chance that a ship's cloak fails to work. Fuel used to cloak The amount of fuel in kilotons needed to cloak 100 KT of ship hull. (Cargo and weapons don't count) Ships without fuel can move YES/NO Ships without fuel can move without fuel on "impulse power" alone. Ship visible range (StarCharts) The range in light years that a ship that is not cloaked and not behind a planet can be seen. Sensor mission range The range in light years at which ship sensors will work to detect enemy mines and factories. New natives will appear YES/NO One planet is picked. If it has no natives then a new group of of natives will appear. Planetary 'NUK' friendly codes YES/NO Planets can attack a ship by setting their friend code to "NUK" or "ATT". Planets will attack even if the ship is out of fuel. Overpopulations eat supplies YES/NO Planets will eat supplies to survive when the planet becomes overpopulated. If set to NO the supplies are continued to be produced and the population stops growing. Isotope Trans-uranium Mutation rate The number of KTs of new minerals produced in the cores of all planets from the break down of natural uranium. This is the number of KTs that would be produced on a planet with a mineral density of LARGE MASSES per turn. The amount of new minerals is less on planets that have a lower mineral density. Planetary structures decay rate The number of surface structures that disappear each turn when the number of structures on a planet is greater then the maximum number of structures allowed. Web mine decay rate The percentage of Web mines that are lost each turn from each field. Mine field decay rate The percentage of normal mines that are lost each turn from each mine field. Odds of hitting a mine per L/Y The odds that you will hit a mine per light year the ship travels. A die is rolled for each light year traveled. Travel 100 light years through mines the die will be rolled 100 times (You might make it). Odds of hitting a web per L/Y The odds that you will hit a web mine per light year the ship travels. A die is rolled for each light year traveled. Maximum mine field radius The maximum radius that a mine field can have in light years. Mine detect range The range at which enemy ships will detect the mine field in light years during a mine sweep mission. Mines destroy enemy mines YES/NO When two (enemy) mine fields meet they blow each other up. Engine tech boosts shield power YES/NO The power from higher tech engines increases the shield power of the ship. Engine tech boosts shield power % The percentage of boost that an engine will boost the ship's shields. Mine field sweep rate The number of mine units that one x-ray laser can sweep in a turn and how many hundreds of units a heavy phasor can sweep in a turn. Web mine field sweep rate The number of web mine units that one x-ray laser can sweep in a turn and how many hundreds of units a heavy phasor can sweep in a turn. Mine field sweep range (LY's) How close in light years a ship must be before it can sweep enemy mine fields. Web mine field sweep range (LY's) How close in light years a ship must be before it can sweep enemy web mines. Cloaked ship will hit mine odds Odds that a cloaked ship will hit enemy mines per light year traveled. (Cloaking does not effect a ship's chances against web mines) Amount of damage that prevents cloak If a ship has this or greater amount of damage then it can not cloak. Ships with one engine can tow If set to no a one engine ship can not tow another ship and can always be towed by a ship with two engines. Hyperdrive ships If set to yes then the 3 ships with hyperdrive are allowed to use it. Climate death rate The percentage of population that dies on a desert or arctic planet until the population reaches 1 clan. (Some races have a climate bonus on desert or arctic planets). Planets have gravity wells If yes all ships that come within 3.0001 light years are pulled in to the planet. Crystal people like desert worlds If yes the Crystal People have a max population on desert worlds. A max pop of 5,000,000 on temperate-warm worlds. Normal mines destroy web mines If yes and mines destroy mines switch is also yes then normal mines will destroy web style mines when they overlap. Default is NO. Climate limits populations If set to yes (default) the climate of a planet will limit the number of people that can live on the planet. If set to no you can pack up to 25,000,000 on all planets, including ice and desert planets. Maximum Income This is the maximum amount of megacredits that a planet can produce in a single turn. Ion Storms The maximum number of active ion storms in the game, these number can range from 0 to 50. Chunnel If yes the Firecloud will be able to make a Warp Chunnel. Spy Boost ( Deluxe Super Spy ) If yes the Bird Men will be allowed to change the friendly code of the planet to match the friendly code of their ship. Ion Storms Hide Mines If yes the ion storms will hide deep space mines from mine sweeps. Glory Device If yes the D19 and Saber class ships will be able to engage a device that causes their ship to explode. Loki Anticloak If yes the Loki class ship will cause all ships within 10 light years to decloak. Lady Royal makes money. If yes the Lady Royal will make 1 megacredit for every colonist clan on board the ship. Cloaked ships attack. If yes all cloaked ships can attack any visible enemy ship that matches its primary enemy. Clone If yes all races, except the Privateers and Crystals can clone captured enemy ships at a 200% cost of normal. Boarding Parties If yes the Privateers and Crystals can capture any enemy ship that is out of fuel, just by locking a tow beam on the enemy ship. Imperial Assault If yes the Super Star Destroyer will capture any enemy planet just by dropping 10 clans onto its surface. Cobol fuel scoop This is the amount of fuel that a Cobol class ship will extract from the near-vacuum of space for every light year that the ship travels (range 0 to 4 ) default = 2 Aries Alchemy If yes the Aries class starship will convert minerals into fuel. Bioscanners If yes the Cobol, Pawn and Brynhild class starships are capable of detecting native life on other planets. If the starships mission is sensor sweep this ability will be activated. Mine Hit Tech Slowdown This is the tech level of starship hulls that are not slowed down by a mine hit. Ship hulls at this tech level and above will not be slowed by a mine hit. Ship hulls below this setting will be slowed by 10 LY when they hit a space mine. (range 1 to 10 ) default = 7 --------- These setting have nothing to do with the setting on the first screen for one meteor impact. I feel that it is best that you don't ever use this last page of meteor settings. If over used these tend to spoil the game by overloading the universe with too many minerals. This will cause the 500 ship limit to be reached too quickly. Odds of small meteor impact on all The odds that a small meteor will hit a planet. A die is rolled for each planet. (500) Number of LARGE meteors impacting This number of large meteors will hit. Send Meteor Messages YES/NO A message will be sent to each player for each large meteor to hit anywhere and a message for each small meteor to hit a planet that the player owns. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: External Meteor programs may cause errors in host 3.2 When starting a new game in a new directory copy a HCONFIG.HST into the new directory or run host one time then run HCONFIG.EXE to change the default HCONFIG.HST made by the HOST.EXE when it doesn't find a HCONFIG.HST file. WARNING: Do not use CPLAYER version Alpha 1 or Alpha 2 with any of the 3.1x / 3.2 versions of HOST.EXE. Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 will cause fuel and mineral dumps to explode. Use version 3.01 or higher only. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOFTWARE ORDER FORM FOR 1995 and 1996 Name______________________________________________________________________ Address___________________________________________________________________ City______________________________________State_________ZIP_______________ Country (if outside USA) __________________________ Circle disk size: 5 1/4" 3 1/2" 1.2M 1.44M | Europe USA | Asia Which item(s) do you wish to order. North | Africa America | Australia [ ] VGA Planets 3.00 DOS ( shareware ) ( $2 ) | $4 Air [ ] VGA Planets 3.00 DOS registered version ( $15 ) | $17 Air [ ] Planets 3.5 for MS-Windows BETA Test ( $20 ) | $20 Air (Plus final release version when finished) | | [ ] VGA Planets starcharts set ( four 8 1/2" X 11" ) ( $3 ) | $3 Air ____ additional starchart sets ( $1 ) | $1 Air | [ ] 16" X 16" Plastic starmap ( $9 ) | $12 Air | [ ] VGA Planets Complete Users Manual ( $23 ) | $35 Air or 8.5" X 11" 129 pages in color | $23 Surface By: Dave Killingsworth | Mail | [ ] VGA Planets Source Book ( $22 ) | $30 Air or (Artwork and Players Guide) | $22 Surface 8.5" X 11" 75 pages in color | Mail NOTE: VGA Planets requires a 286 or faster IBM compatible, VGA graphics card and a hard drive. The price includes normal postage. [ ] Two day priority mail $3 extra ( USA only ) Amount enclosed: $__________ Mail to: Tim Wisseman P.O. Box 204 North Fork, CA 93643-0204 Internet Email: cocomax@aol.com VGA Planet Support BBS: (209) 877-4921 Important: Make checks payable to "Tim Wisseman" I would like to update my list of BBS's where planets is being played to help new planets players find a place to play. Do you know of a BBS where Planets is being played? BBS NAME/NUMBER____________________________________________________________