Czarwars is a multi-player space war game where players fight it out for military and economic control of the universe. The universe is very large and is separated into a number of galaxies of various shapes and sizes. There is a universal government that simply calls itself 'The Government'. The Government does not allow the deploying of military forces within the area that it controls - currently the innermost 50 sectors and possibly other areas. Your mission is to take your ship out into the vastness of space, build up great economic and military power, and unite the entire universe under your not-so-benevolent rule. This task is not simple, however, since there are others who dream of the throne. Some hints for beginners: Until you have substantial military power, hide as best you can and be patient. Form alliances with others - its better to be a member of a ruling oligarchy than a dead would-be monarch. If you plan well your time will come... Good Luck! When you first log on you will be issued a flagship, a few fighters, some cargo holds, some antimatter (fuel), and a bit of cash. After christening the flagship with an appropriate name, you will start in sector 1 near the Hardware port, "Cosmos". You can buy additional holds, fighters, and antimatter at Cosmos. Other ports deal in ore, organics, and equipment. All ports buy the two commodities that they don't sell. You can make a profit by trading at ports in order to buy more holds and fighters. A point about prices at ports: Selling prices decrease as the amount of goods for sale increase. Supply and demand also controls the prices that ports pay for goods. Planets differ from ports in that they don't buy anything. They produce all three commodities and give them up freely. Like ports, they produce only a limited amount of goods per day. Another way to make money is to win it from gamblers. Most Ore ports have gamblers at them, but they are rare in the sectors near the government. The more remote the port (larger sector numbers) the greater the chance of encountering gamblers. Since the government outlawed gambling eons ago, these fellows are pretty paranoid. Sometimes they disappear for no obvious reason. Anyway, when you can gamble the odds are heavily in your favor. You can make almost as much money this way as you can by trading but make sure you have enough money to avoid going broke right away. A third way to raise cash is to invest in signs. Although you normally get only 90% of your investment back when you remove a sign, on stardays that end in the digits "00" sign refunds and sign prices double. Therefore, if you invest in a sign at the normal price (say, 1000 credits) on stardate 12345 and then remove it on stardate 12400 you will be refunded 1800 credits - an easy 80% profit. Also, signs are the only investment that you can make that survive the destruction of your flagship. The fourth way to acquire wealth involves using the oll option when you place fighters on guard. For example, you can place 100 fighters on guard in a sector and tell them to charge everyone who passes a toll of 1000 credits. For each player who enters that sector and pays the toll you will be paid 60% of the toll - in this case 600 credits. You can also use your fighters to attack other players' ships. When you attack fighters or ships you will be asked how many fighters to send into battle. Every fighter that you send will face an enemy fighter and will win 50% of the time. This continues until all the enemy fighters are destroyed or all the fighters you sent have perished in the fight. If you destroy an enemy flagship you can salvage up to 50% of its cargo holds. The number you can salvage is limited by the number of fighters you kill in the same attack that destroys the flagship. For example, if you destroy a ship guarded by 100 fighters you will get more holds than if you destroyed a ship with 50 fighters. Therefore, if you attack the ship in multiple waves, the number of holds you can salvage is limited by how many fighters you destroyed in the SAME WAVE THAT DESTROYED THE FLAGSHIP! If you plan to completely destroy a player's ship, then you should do it in a single attack to maximize the number of holds that you can salvage. Unfortunately, when you attack another player's flagship, they will be briefed on the attack when they next log on. A flagship is limited in how many cargo holds it can contain. Once it is fully upgraded, you will not be able to salvage or purchase additional holds. Depending on an option set by the Sysop, it may be possible to upgrade your ship to a higher class which can be carry more holds than a standard issue Class "F" vessel. In addition, superior ships may be issued larger daily rations of antimatter. If this option is permitted, you will be able to upgrade your ship at any Hardware port (such as Cosmos in sector 1) but ONLY after you have reached the maximum hold capacity of your current ship. When you port at any Hardware port it will notify you if your ship is full of holds and, if you aren't already upgraded, it will tell you the price to upgrade by one ship Class. Fighters left guarding a sector will not allow any other player to enter with the following exceptions: 1) When you leave fighters in a sector you get the option of giving them a password. If you give them a password and tell it to another player then that player will be able to enter the sector, dock at ports and land at any planet there. He can also simply pass through the sector unharmed. 2) You can select the Spy option and the fighters will spy for you. Other players will be able to pass freely by 'spy fighters' but their passing may be reported to you. The more spy fighters you deploy in a sector the better the chance of sighting ships. (1 spy sights 10%, 100+ spies sight 100% of travelers). 3) When you encounter fighters charging a toll you will be able to pay the toll and then enter the sector. Of course, flagships parked in a sector with ANY fighters on guard cannot be attacked (except by the owner of the fighters) until all the sector guards are destroyed. Some antimatter is used every time you move to a new sector. Also, antimatter is used to dock at ports, launch sector signs, land on planets, and each time you place a bet when gambling. Extra antimatter is expensive and is usually purchased only in emergencys. The amount of antimatter required to move to another sector or to dock at a port varies with how many holds your ship has and with the amount of cargo you are carrying. The nformation... command will tell you how much antimatter is used by these operations. There are three phenomena in the universe that are useful in traveling intergalactic distances: Black Holes, Pulsars and Wormholes. Entering a sector containing a Black Hole will usually cause your ship to be warped to the other half of the universe. Some of your fighters may lose their lives in the jump so be careful. Entering a Pulsar does not carry the same danger to your fighters but it will require quite a bit of antimatter to control your orbit around the Pulsar itself. A Pulsar will normally warp you between the 1st and 2nd quadrants if you are in the first half of the universe. If you are in the top half you will be warped between the 3rd and 4th quadrants. A Pulsar will only warp you into sectors that end in the digits 01-50. Wormholes are unstable warps that connect sectors that aren't usually connected. There are only two Wormholes in the universe - a two-way and a one-way. The two-way Wormhole will connect two sectors for 24 hours. At midnight one end of the Wormhole will move to connect to a different sector. Since only one end moves each night, any given appearance of a Wormhole entrance will stay for two days. It is always the oldest end that moves. Therefore, a player can 'follow' the Wormhole as it moves around in the Universe by always parking his ship at or near the newest end. The new end is always the one on the left of the Wormhole message. In the message "WORMHOLE! - connects 123 to 456" the new end (the one that will be there tomorrow) is 123. The one-way Wormhole works the same way except that the connection only allows you to move in one direction between the connected sectors. For example, the message "WORMHOLE! - one-way to 789" means that you can move directly to sector 789 from this Wormhole entrance - but you can't get back. Also, it indicates that tomorrow there will be a Wormhole entrance from sector 789 to some other sector. As you can see, it is also possible to 'follow' a one-way Wormhole around the Universe. Another way to quickly cover long distances is by using a Hyperspace Crystal. If you have enough money, you may be offered one of these when you dock at an Equipment. The price varies depending on the size of your ship. To use one of these you simply type a sector number that isn't connected to the sector you are in. After the 'You can't warp there from here.' message you will be asked if you want to use a Hyperspace Crystal. If you answer yes, you will be immediately transported to the sector you requested. Commands can be executed by typing the capital letter in the angle brackets <>. The following are the commands that can be executed from the "command? (H=Help):" prompt. elp: lists available commands. move to sector <2>: enables you to move to another sector. Simply entering the sector number by itself moves you to that sector (if a warp connects to it). dock at a

ort and trade: used to dock at ports to buy and sell goods or, in the case of Hardware ports, to buy fighters, holds and antimatter, or to sell fighters. nformation about your ship: lists your flagship name, how many fighters you have with your ship, how many holds your ship has, what you have in your holds, and how much time and antimatter you have remaining. list ther players: lists other active players, their ship names, and their military rank. Rank is determined by wins versus losses in battle. For more information, use alculate player strength under tilitys. take/leave ighters: this command allows you to deploy fighters in a sector or to take fighters left in a sector (by leaving 0 fighters there). You get the option of giving the fighters a password that can be used to allow other players to pass. You can also instruct the fighters to charge a toll to all who enter (you will get 60% of tolls paid to your fighters). For a report on all your fighters left in the entire universe, use ighter report under the tilitys menu. Also, if you encounter fighters guarding a sector, you will be confronted with the fighters and the following menu: ttack, etreat,

assword, or elf-destruct. Entering an "A" will enable you to attack the fighters. Entering an "R" will cause your ship to retreat to the LAST SECTOR YOU OCCUPIED. If you know their password (assuming they have one!) you might enter a "P". With the proper password, the fighters will permit you to enter the sector normally. Last, there is the suicide option: "S". Sometimes a particularly treacherous enemy will put fighters in your path of retreat, trapping you between 2 fleets of fighters. Assuming you don't have enough fighters to fight your way out (or a Hyperspace crystal), you might enter the "S" to self-destruct. The explosion of your ship may kill some of the attacking fighters. When you self-destruct, you will lose a day's antimatter ration by not being able to log on for 24 hours. If you encounter fighters charging a toll (of, say, 1000 credits), you will get a menu containing "oll ( 1000 )". In this case, pressing the "T" key would deduct 1000 credits from your account, deposit 600 into the account of the owner of the fighters, and allow you to enter the sector. leave ign in sector: this option allows you to leave a sign of up to 32 characters in a sector. Signs are expensive but you get reimbursed for 90% of the cost when you remove one. It also takes some antimatter to launch a sign. To locate signs that you have left throughout the universe, use ighter report under the tilitys menu. NOTE: signs are the ONLY investment that you can make that will survive the destruction of your ship. NOTE: signs 'expire' if not removed within 56 days (8 weeks). emove sign: use this command to remove a sign that you left and you will be given a refund of 90% of the going price of the sign. You can also use this command to remove signs left by others but it is quite expensive. and at a planet: this allows you to take equipment, organics and ore from a planet's surface. ettison cargo (dump holds): this command allows you to empty your cargo holds - say, when you get an opportunity to haul something more profitable or just need to increase you fuel economy for a long trip. ttack fighters or ships: use this command to attack other players flagships or enemy fighters guarding a sector. ommerce report on port: C123 gives quantities needed and goods for sale at port 123. This command defaults to the current sector if no number is entered. Don't put a space before the number. (wrong: C 1234 ... correct: C1234) uy fighters mail-order: the expensive way to get extra fighters. Use this when you need fighters and can't make the trip to a Hardware port. Sometimes you may lose a few fighters in shipping with this one. anufacture or upgrade a Starbase: this will build (or upgrade) a Starbase in the current sector. Once built, you cannot remove a Starbase. It will guard the sector against all other players and requires an attack of 125 to 4000 fighters to destroy it. There is a chance that a player self-destructing in the sector will damage or destroy the Starbase (the chance varys inversely with the size of the Starbase). These defensive devices are usually cheaper than the equivalent number of fighters but are only useful for guarding a sector (and whatever it contains - ships, planets, etc). Unlike fighters, you cannot give a Starbase a password or instruct it to charge a toll. Type 1 Starbases=125 fighters strength, 2=250, 3=500, 4=1000, 5=2000, 6=4000 oggle starbase to/from auto-attack: this will change a starbase from a defensive device to one that attacks all intruders. It will attack each player who enters its sector with force of 20% of its defensive strength. There is a chance it will be destroyed each time it attacks a player. Note that it will NOT prevent players from entering the sector. You can change it back to the defensive mode at any time by using this command again. tilitys menu: allows you to send mail to other players and to change your password. It also lets you see statistical information on yourself and others. avigation info on sector: N97 lists the sectors that connect to sector 97. reisplay sector: This will redisplay the current sector. uit the game: This is what you do when you run out of fuel. The ; key can be used to enter multiple commands at once. For example, to move from sector 1 to 2, land at the planet there, then on to 3, port there, then back to 2, and then to return to 1 you could enter: 2;L;3;P;2;1 To repeat that sequence (or the last command containing a semi-colon) simply type the / key by itself and press .