RETURN TO SWITCHBOARD |
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12A. Asteroid |
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12K. Teleport |
Return to Add-On Sub-Menu |
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12B. Jump
Gate |
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12L. Machines
of Yore |
1. Introduction to VGA Planets |
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7. Minefields
Sub-Menu |
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12C. Raceplus |
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2. Race Information Sub-Menu |
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8. Combat
Sub-Menu |
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12D. Starbase
Plus |
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3. Friendly Codes Sub-Menu |
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9. Ion Storm
Sub-Menu |
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12E. Tachyon |
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4. Planet Information Sub-Menu |
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10. Misc.
Information Sub-Menu |
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12F. Fortress
Host (Fhost) |
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5. Starbase Information Sub-Menu |
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11. Strategy and Strategy Guides |
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12G. Nemesis |
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6. Ship Information Sub-Menu |
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12. Add-on Information |
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12H. Gryphon |
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12I. Jupiter |
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12J. Banzai! |
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JUPITER ADD-ON: |
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JUPITER An Add-On for
VGA Planets V3.5 (Host 3.2x) |
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Jupiter is copyright Oleg
Shvartsman |
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VGA Planets is a
trademark of Tim Wisseman |
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Overview |
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# Introduction. |
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This
add-on program is an attempt to better the famous game of VGA Planets. With the many new racial |
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special
abilities and a few universal ones, this program will add a new dose of spice
and excitement to any |
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game
it’s included in. The new abilities,
ranging from Planetary Cloaking Shield to Genesis Device and |
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from
Advanced Terraforming to Cloak-Towing will surely add depth and cause new
feats of strategy in the |
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all-time
favorite space strategy game. It was
written in 386 protected mode to allow me to fully exploit the |
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architecture of newer
processors and more power and more abilities than ever. Jupiter is the most feature- |
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rich
add-on to VGA Planets, providing new abilities designed for power and
convenience. With MANY |
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configurable
options and a special TEAM game switch, the host can customize the game to
his preferences |
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and
the players may use the team game to exchange ships and racial special
abilities. And yes, it does |
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support Phost. |
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With Jupiter, you will
never lack an appropriate tool to rain destruction on your opponents! |
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This is the doc file for
version 1.00. Jupiter will display its
version number every time Jupiter1.exe is run. |
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Jupiter
comes Winplan-enabled, which means that Jupiter icon will appear next to
Jupiter messages, and |
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that
several special abilities with area effect which naturally lend themselves to
being shown on a map will |
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be shown as UFO
objects. These abilities are: |
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Fascist Deep Space
Missiles (dark green squares) |
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Viral Fields (Bright
blue circles of proper radius with bright blue squares inside). |
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Rebel Deep Space Bases
(aqua squares) |
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Interdiction
fields (Bright red circles of proper radius with bright red squares
inside) |
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Antimatter Missiles (dark
green squares) |
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Missiles will show
proper warp speed and direction. |
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TimHost
version 3.22.008 or later or any phost version that supports UFOs is required
to run Jupiter. You |
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can download new host
for free from www.vgaplanets.com. |
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You
can always find the most recent version of Jupiter at
http://www.deathsdoor.com/stardestroyer; if you |
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obtained
this distribution from elsewhere, please be aware that this might be an older
version and there |
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could be
improvements/bug fixes/etc on the "official" site. |
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For European players,
there is a mirror site at http://www.darkforce.dk/std/ |
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# What’s New |
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Everything! This is the first release of Jupiter. |
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New Game Setup |
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# Installation. |
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You
must install and configure the add-on to run in certain directories. If you have a multi-directory |
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VGAP
universe, it would be possible to specify what directories you want Jupiter
to run and even have a |
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separate configuration
for every one. |
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To
configure Jupiter for a specific directory, type the command JCONFIG
<directory-name>. The
program |
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will
let you specify a variety of options and then place JUPITER.CFG into the
specified directory. If |
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Jupiter
cannot find this file when it runs, it will abort, so be sure to configure
the Jupiter before using it. |
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You
should run the JCONFIG just after running MASTER and before running HOST for
the first time. |
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You can re-configure
JUPITER as many times as you want. |
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Optionally,
you can use the Windows-based configuration program, JWConfig, which lets you
set all the |
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options with a more
user-friendly interface. It will also
automatically edit aux*.ini files for you, |
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inserting Jupiter into
its proper place in auxhost run.
JWConfig is free of charge for registered owners. |
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To
install Jupiter and to tell it which directories to run in, use the
appropriate section. If your host |
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executable
program name is host.exe, then you are running Timhost; if the name is
phost.exe, then you are |
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running Phost. |
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a) |
Timhost installation. |
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Unless you
are running JWconfig, you must add the line |
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Jupiter1.exe
<full-path-to-game-directory> into your auxhost1.ini file, |
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Jupiter2.exe
<full-path-to-game-directory> to
your auxhost2.ini file, and |
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JupiterB.exe
<full-path-to-game-directory> into the auxbc.ini file. |
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Do
not type the quotes. Full path means
the _complete_ path to the directory, starting with the drive letter. |
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These
files must be in the VGAP GAME DATA directory, where your game data files
reside. If these files |
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do
not exist, create them. If they
already exist and you run other add-ons, be sure all of them are listed
in |
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mirror
order, i.e. if you run Jupiter and then Jupiter in your auxhost1, run Jupiter
and then Jupiter in AuxBC |
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and
auxhost2. You should put the Jupiter1,
Jupiter2, and Jupiterb.exe files into the planets program |
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directory,
where host.exe resides. Host version 3.22.015 is required for Jupiter to
run. VGAP 4.0 will be |
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supported and an upgrade
will be provided free of charge after the new version is released. |
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If
you ARE running Jupiter config, this is taken care of for you when you create
the config file for the first |
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time. |
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b) |
Phost installation. |
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This
add-on will only work for Phost versions 3.2.x and higher. You should use the same instructions
as |
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for host.exe, taking
particular care of running any add-ons in mirror order (if you have multiple
add-ons). |
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In
addition, Jupiter supports the Timhost convention of placing alternate hull,
engine, torpedo, and beam |
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definitions into the
host directory, not the game directory.
Please place hullspec.dat, engspec.dat, |
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beamspec.dat,
and torpspec.dat into the same directory as phost.exe. This add-on has not
been given the |
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same
amount of testing with phost as it was with host; bugs may exist or some
abilities may not run. If you |
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find
something that is not working properly, please bring it to my attention and I
will resolve it as soon as |
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possible. Colonial Subspace Bubble does NOT run with
Phost. |
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Game Info |
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The
following is the explanation of some of the options in the JCONFIG. Some options are not explained |
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here;
their names are very descriptive. If
there is an option you would like more explanation for, feel free |
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to
contact me by e-mail at stardestroyer@deathsdoor.com (use
stardestroyer@geocities.com if the first |
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address does not respond
for some reason). |
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You can press Enter key
to accept the default value. |
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*) |
If
you encounter a message "runtime error 003 at xxxx:xxxx" it means
you are trying to run JCONFIG |
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on a non-existing game
directory. You have to run MASTER.EXE
before running JCONFIG. |
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*) |
Fed
sweet-talk success rate: what chance a single Fed ship will have to
successfully sweet-talk an |
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enemy. Diplomacy class cruiser will have 4x that
rate. Enter 0 to disable. |
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*) |
Fed
aggressiveness ratio: the bigger the number and the more torps a Fed ship
has, the less a chance of |
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sweet-talk. A ratio of 2 and 30 torps will decrease the
chance by 3%. Enter 0 to disable
aggressiveness. |
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*) |
Genesis
device temp variation: defines a temerature range that allows the use of
Genesis device. The |
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greater
the number, the wider the range. For
example, with default 25, the Genesis Device may be |
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used
between 0 and 25 and between 75 and 100 degrees, and with 10, between 0 and
10 and between |
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90 and 100 degrees. Enter 0 to disable it and 50 to allow its
use on all planets. |
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*) |
Lizard
chemical strike kill factor: what percentage of the population is killed
following a successful |
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chemical strike. 0 to
disable. |
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*) |
Growth
at temp 50 worlds: how much faster the Lizard colonists would grow on temp 50
planets. |
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Setting
10 will cause them to grow 10 times faster, 1 would keep them growing at the
same rate as |
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host.exe does. |
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*) |
Birdman/non-Birdman
cloaking shield failure: a failure % of a cloaking shield. Enter 100 to disable |
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planetary cloaking
shields. |
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*) |
Missile speed. Enter 0 to disable missililes. |
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*) |
Sweep
factor: The chance that a 10-heavy-phaser ship will have of sweeping a
missile. Enter 0 to |
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disable sweeping. |
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*) |
cloak
tow engine degradation: how many tech levels an engine degrades after a
cloaked-tow. Default |
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is 0. Enter 9 to disable cloak-tow. |
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*) |
Anti-Genesis device: The
greater the number, the more Amorphs will be created by the device. 0 to
disable. |
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*) |
Strip
planet minimum defense: enter a minimum number of defense outposts that will
protect a planet |
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from being stripped by a
Quietus. 0 to disable. |
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*) |
Advanced Terraforming:
how much additional heat an Onyx would deliver. |
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*) |
BMR
mineral: Enter the first letter of the mineral that, combined with 1 supply,
will produce 1 Robotic |
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clan. |
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*) |
Viral field radius:
enter a number of light years 0 to
disable. |
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*) |
RSM
money factor: the greater the number, the more money the Rebel ship will get
after doing the |
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Rebel Support Mission. |
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*) |
Colonial fighter range:
Enter a number of light years. |
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*) |
Colonial
pilot skill: the greater a number that you enter, the more Defense outposts
will be destroyed |
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and the more fighters
will survive. |
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*) |
Fed
Goodwill factor: up to how many tens of clans will join the Federation
colony. The default is 3 = |
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up to 30 clans. |
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*) |
Native
Cryo hold capacity: this is the multiplier for cryogenic holds in Banshee
class native mover. |
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The default is 20 = 1600
clans. |
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*) |
Refit money factor:
multiplier for the cost of super-refitting components in flight. |
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*) |
Lizard
decay percentage: what percent of colonists in Cryogenic chambers die every
turn in the |
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Saurian. |
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*) |
Cryo
hold capacity: this is the multiplier for cryogenic holds in Saurian class
troop carrier. The default |
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is 10 = 1500 clans. |
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*) |
Anti-fighter
defense: the more it is, the more fighters will be destroyed during a T-Rex
anti-fighter |
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mine explosion. |
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*) Fascist missile sweep probability: what
probability a 10-heavy-phaser ship will have to sweep an |
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incoming missile. |
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*) Number of mines created: determines the
minefield size. The radius is equal to
the square root of the |
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number of mines, making
the default 30 ly in radius. |
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*) Bio missile effectiveness: what chance
EACH colonist has of dying of toxin poisoning. The more it is, |
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the more people will die. |
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*) Anti-fighter missile effectiveness: the
higher this is, the more fighters will die following the anti- |
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fighter missile
explosion. |
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*) Base defense increase factor: the higher
this is, the more difficulty the Coldpain troopers will have |
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penetrating the
base. 100 turns base boarding off. |
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*) Martial law happiness decrease: The
higher this is, the more the colonists' happiness will decrease |
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following the martial
law (to prevent gambling). Set it to 0
to turn gambling off. |
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*) Ravius Beam effect: by how much an Onyx
will raise the temperature of a remote planet (=the Onyx's |
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fuel use). |
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*) Share Hyper-Moscow: set this on to allow
other races to use the hyperdrive capabilities of the Moscow |
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Class Star Escort. Set to off to allow only the Imperials to
use it. |
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*) Probability of correct race detection by
a Pawn: the probability that the cloaked ship's race reported is |
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in fact the cloaked
ship's race. |
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*) Cost factor of Rebel deep space bases:
This is multiplier to get the mineral/money cost to build a deep |
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space base. Multiply this factor by 10 to get the
amount of minerals and money. |
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*) Range of DSB detection: how far the enemy
ship must be in order to detect an active DSB. |
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*) Share Hyper-Sage: set this on to allow
other races to use the hyperdrive capabilities of the Sage Class |
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Frigate. Set to off to allow only the Rebels to use
it. |
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*) Skill of Colonial fighter pilots: the
multiplier (percentage) by which Colonial fighters are better than |
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the
defending fighters. Set it to 100 to
make them just as good, to 200 to make them twice as good, |
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and to 50 to make them
twice as bad. |
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*) Sale of defenses/mines: How much money is
received from a sale of 1 defense post or a mineral mine. |
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You also get 1 supply
unit plus (by default) 50% of the original cost. |
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*) Sale of starbase: What percentage of the
original construction+tech upgrade price is received from a |
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sold starbase, both in
minerals and money. |
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*) Warp factor to be slowed to by
Interdictors: what is a maximum speed that an enemy ship in an |
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Interdiction field can
attain. Own ships can go two warp
factors faster. |
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*) Antimatter launcher cost: how many
thousands of units of minerals it would take to build a launcher. |
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Multiply
this factor by 1000 to get minerals and supplies, and by 2000 to get the
money. This factor |
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times 2000 is also used
to calculate how much money a missile launch will cost. |
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*) Tank and ComBot strengths: the equivalent
number of colonist clans necessary to defeat a |
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tank/ComBot. Set Tank offense and defense to 0 to
disable tanks for that race; set ComBot defense to |
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0 to disable ComBots for
that race. |
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*) |
Team
game: very important. This ability
changes race specials into ship specials;
ships can then be |
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traded for the specials
between the races. |
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Any
player can use a planetary FC
"con" to receive the list of Jupiter config options next turn in
the mail. |
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It
is very similar to Planets’ own "con" Friendly code. When an item is yes/no, 1 signifies yes and
0 - no. |
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In
BMR, 1 is Duranium, 2 is Tritanium, and 3 is Molybdenium, 0 is disabled. |
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#
Federation: |
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Genesis device. |
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The Federation
scientists have finally found a way to stabilize |
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protomatter. From now on, the Genesis device has become
available, |
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and all Federation ships
will come with this device installed.
The |
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Genesis Device allows
ships to convert hostile planets into habitable ones |
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(50 degrees), seed them
with natives of choice and even have pre-built |
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structures. The only
requirement is that the ship has to have more than |
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49 colonist clans
aboard. To use the Genesis Device, set
the FC to |
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"@XY", where x
is structures, y is natives. |
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X: |
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D 50 defenses, F 50
factories, M 50 mines. |
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Y: |
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A amphibious, B bovines,
a amorphous, H humans, G ghipsoids, S silicons, |
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R reptians, I insects, V
avians. |
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For example, to have a
planet with 50 degrees, 50 factories and Bovinoid |
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natives, set the ship FC
to "@FB". The number and
government of natives |
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are set at random. As a matter of course, the use of this
device is only |
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allowed on non-owned
planets with no natives and within a set temperature |
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range, to prohibit its
use as a weapon of destruction. |
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Genesis device will add
a large meteor's worth of minerals to the planet |
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and set mineral density
of all minerals to 100%. |
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Move Natives. |
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The Fed Banshee class
ship can transport batches of (1600) native clans |
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in its modified and
improved version of Lizard Cryo-Hold (see below for |
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details). With an FC of
"LNR", a totally empty (except for fuel) Banshee can |
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load and store in its
cryo holds the native clans of any race excluding the |
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amorphs (hard to catch)
and the reptians (very strong family ties). The number |
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of native clans is
determined by multiplying the cargo hold of a Bashee by |
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(20), configured
capacity of Federation CryoTanks. It can then |
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take
them to any Federation or allied planet and unload with a FC of
"UNR". |
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Three things can occur: |
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if the planet has no
natives, the native clans will unload
and populate the |
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planet; but as a result
of the move and accompanying chaos, their government |
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decreases
by 1. |
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If there already are natives of the same
race, the natives add |
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to the already existing
natives; the government is set to the lower of the two |
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and the happiness is set
to 100 as a result of happiness of the reunited clans. |
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If there are natives of
another race on the planet, nothing would happen, |
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since natives don't live
well together in VGAP. |
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Just be careful not to
load anything (besides fuel) onto the ship while the |
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natives are loaded, or
the cryogenic units would break down and all natives |
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would die. |
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NOTE: it is possible to
"steal" natives from planets owned by another race, |
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if their happiness level
is lower than 80%. |
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Native Cooperation. |
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Seeing the kindness and
the order of the Federation colonists, a variable |
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number of natives might
decide to join the Federation colony as full citizens. |
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The happiness must be
greater than 80% and the native race cannot be amorph. |
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To stop native clans
from joining, you can set your planetary FC to begin with |
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the letter "S". |
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SuperRefit in Flight. |
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Federation starships no
longer need a starbase to perform their super refit |
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function. As long as a ship has sufficient
minerals/money and FC of "UFP", the |
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ship can do the
superrefit. Set the first letter of
the ship name to "E" if |
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you want to up your
engines, or "T" for torps, or "B" for beam weapons. The |
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old parts are too bulky
for storage, so they are ejected into space. |
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NOTE: due to some
strange technological barriers <wink, wink> ships cannot |
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raise their engines,
beams and torps from tech 6 to tech 7, and engines from |
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tech 7 to tech 8. (This is done to protect Tim's
registrations). If the host |
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desires, he can increase
the money cost of the upgrade. For example, with the |
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factor of 2 it costs
twice as much money to upgrade the parts as from a base. |
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The default value is (1). |
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NOTE: If you have any
torps on the ship and are upgrading launchers, |
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the torps are upgraded
too, but 50% of them are disassembled to upgrade |
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the other torps. |
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NOTE: This is an
UPGRADE, not a new component installation.
You cannot |
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built a ship with no
torp launchers and then try to add launchers using UFP. |
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At least level 1
launchers have to be present on the ship. |
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Bonus Refit. |
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This is a super-set of
superrefit-in-flight. Federation ships
in orbit |
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around
Federation or allied planets with "special" natives (human,
silicon, |
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etc.)
can get their ships superrefitted up to level 10 without a base! For the |
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normal
amount of minerals and double the (money factor) (for presents to |
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natives),
FCode "UFP", the ship can do the bonus-refit. Set the first letter |
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of
the ship name to "E" if you want to upgrade your engines, or
"T" for torps, |
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or
"B" for beam weapons. If you
are upgrading torps, any torps presently on |
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the
ship are now useless (too low-tech) and are discarded, so transfer them
to |
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another ship or lay
and scoop them as minefield. |
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NOTE:
This is an UPGRADE, not a new component installation. You cannot |
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built a ship with no
torp launchers and then try to add launchers using UFP. |
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At least level 1
launchers have to be present on the ship. |
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Sweet Talk. |
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The peace-loving Fed
captains do not like to fight. They
would much |
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rather take their ship
on a diplomacy mission by setting the FC to "SWT", |
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Sweet-talk. If the captain is successful, the captain
of the enemy ship |
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would be sweet-talked,
or persuaded, into doing nothing, including |
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attacking, building
fighters, torpedoes, or using any of the functions |
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included in this
add-on. However, the enemy ship is
allowed to attack |
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any of the other races'
ships in the same location, or the Fed ships that |
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are not on a diplomacy
mission. The suggested success rate is
25%, |
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or it would require 4
ships to have 100% success in diplomacy missions. |
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The sole exception to
that is the Federation's Diplomacy Class Cruiser, |
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which, thanks to its
luxurious accommodations and conference rooms, has a |
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4*(success rate) chance
to persuade the enemy. So, with the
default 25%, |
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a sole Diplomacy will
suffice to keep an enemy ship at bay. |
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Federation captains
cannot sweet-talk the Borg because they obey the |
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collective, not the
emotions of individuals. |
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A special config option
allows the host to configure "aggressiveness |
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ratio". It decreases the chances of successful
sweet-talk outcome |
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with the higher number
of torpedoes. The more |
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torpedoes and the
greater the ratio, the less chance of successful |
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sweet-talk For example, 30 torps and the ratio of 2
will decrease |
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the sweet-talk chance by
3% per ship. |
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To activate it, set FC
to "SWT" and intercept the target enemy ship. |
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Note: sweet talk cannot
be given away in a team game. |
|
|
Clarification: Enemy
ships at Fed bases at the start of the turn can |
|
|
be sweet-talked into
SURRENDERING if the base has FCode SWT and mission |
|
|
Force Surrender and
there are enough ships on sweet-talk mission to |
|
|
sweet-talk the
enemy. This was there from the
beginning but people |
|
|
thought it was a bug. |
|
|
#
Lizards: |
|
|
Chemical Strike. |
|
|
The Lizards simply love
their ground-attack capabilities, and they are |
|
|
constantly seeking ways
to make it harder for the enemy to survive. |
|
|
Therefore, the Reptile
class destroyer has been equipped with a toxin |
|
|
device, that takes 45
supplies and converts them into toxins for |
|
|
spreading onto enemy
planets. After the toxins are spread,
a set amount |
|
|
of planetary population
dies out. To use Chem Strike, set FC
to "CHx", |
|
|
where x is any character
(to prevent base force surrender), and |
|
|
have at least 45
supplies aboard. You must also have
more ships than the |
|
|
enemy orbiting the
planet, to provide cover for the Reptile using Chem |
|
|
Strike. Only one Chem
Strike per turn per planet is allowed. The Reptile |
|
|
must not be damaged. |
|
|
Multi-Purpose Eros. |
|
|
Eros class cruiser will
be able to heat planets up as well as cool them |
|
|
down. The terraform rate is the same: 1
degree/turn. Just like with |
|
|
default Eros ability, no
special FC is required, no minerals or fuel are |
|
|
expended. |
|
|
Super Growth. |
|
|
Because the Lizards are
Reptilians, they particularly like warm worlds (50 |
|
|
degrees) and this
temperature is especially good for breeding.
Therefore, |
|
|
their growth rate would
increase 10 times on such worlds, but only if there |
|
|
is no overpopulation
(2,000,000 colonists or more) The
growth rate is |
|
|
configurable. |
|
|
Cryogenic Cargo Holds. |
|
|
The Lizards have
developed a way to cryogenically freeze their warriors |
|
|
aboard a Saurian class
ship and beam them out onto enemy planets or to |
|
|
supplement their
colonists on planets. The Saurian class ship has to be empty |
|
|
of all cargo (besides
fuel) and be orbiting a Lizard planet.
With the FC |
|
|
of "LCH" the
ship can Load its Cryo-Holds with cargo space of Saurian times |
|
|
(10), the default load
factor. Therefore, in a default game
with a standard |
|
|
ship list, the max load
is 1500 clans; that can do a good deal of damage |
|
|
in Lizard hands. The clans can be unloaded normally (beam
down colonists |
|
|
mission); in the end of
the turn, other colonists will be defrosted |
|
|
and put into colonist
quarters. |
|
|
NOTE:
this means only 150 clans per turn would be able to be beamed down. |
|
|
Every turn, (5%) of clans would die from
Cryogenic storage accidents. |
|
|
NOTE:
You cannot use any of the "beam up minerals" functions; that
would |
|
|
disrupt the
cryo chambers and all colonists would die. |
|
|
NOTE:
other ships cannot beam minerals to the Saurian, or the same effect would
occur. |
|
|
You can safely beam
up/transfer money and fuel. |
|
|
You would get a message
every turn advising of cryo-chamber status. |
|
|
T-Rex Antifighter Mines. |
|
|
A T-Rex class battleship
can choose to convert some of its torpedoes |
|
|
into mines just before
battle. These mines would explode into
small |
|
|
pieces of shrapnel and
damage incoming fighters. Depending on the first |
|
|
letter of the FC, 'Q'
will convert a quarter of torpedoes, 'H' will |
|
|
convert a half, 'T' will
convert three fourths and 'A' will convert all |
|
|
of them. If the first letter of the FC is not one of
these letters, |
|
|
no torpedoes will be
converted. The more torps you use and
the higher |
|
|
the tech level, the more
mines will be created. Strength of the
torpedoes |
|
|
can be adjusted in the
JCONFIG program. This is done after
movement, but |
|
|
before combat; you must
have primary enemy set to something (anything) or |
|
|
kill mission for this
ability to work. The formula for the percent of |
|
|
fighters destroyed is |
|
|
(FOURTH_ROOT
(#_of_torps_used)^2 * (torp_tech)^2 * (config_strength)) / 100 |
|
|
per enemy ship. |
|
|
Use FCode
"xyz" to use this ability, where x is Q, H, T, or A for quarter, |
|
|
half, three quarters,
and all torpedoes, y is "A" or "a", |
|
|
and z is "F"
or "f". The case variations
of the last two characters |
|
|
is to help avoid ships
not fighting due to matching FCodes.
For example, |
|
|
QAf or Qaf or QAF or QaF
will use 1/4 of torpedoes. |
|
|
WARNING: the program
does not detect if the ship is actually in combat. |
|
|
Do not use xAF if you
aren't sure you'll fight, or you will waste torpedoes. |
|
|
Note: to avoid xAF
working two turns in a row in case a player missed |
|
|
his turn and forgot to
reset the FCode, the ship has to be at warp factor |
|
|
higher than 0 to use
this ability. In the end of the turn,
xAF will |
|
|
reset warp factor to 0,
so that to use it on the next turn, the player |
|
|
will have to manually set
the warp factor. |
|
|
Note:
the mines do not damage Lizard ships and fighters, as well as allied |
|
|
ships and fighters. |
|
|
#
Birdmen: |
|
|
Planetary Cloaking
Shields. |
|
|
Being a sneaky cloaking
type, the Birds have greatly missed not being |
|
|
able to hide their own
planets. But now they can, with the
help of the |
|
|
planetary cloaking
shield. Of course, it is quite
impossible to |
|
|
make the planets totally
disappear from view, but it is possible |
|
|
to fool the enemy
sensors for them not to be able to achieve a transporter |
|
|
or a weapons lock. Therefore, no enemy ship will be able to
fight |
|
|
or ground-assault the
planet, making it extremely tough to take over. |
|
|
To the Birds'
disappointment, all the enemy computers are different, |
|
|
making it harder to fool
them. Therefore, only one race at a
time can be |
|
|
blocked, making it
necessary to have an alliance to take over Bird |
|
|
planets,
unless you want to wait for a failure (suggested rate: 10%) |
|
|
to occur. Failure is
computed for each individual ship, so the more |
|
|
ships you have the more
chance you get of penetrating the cloak. |
|
|
Any Birdman ship can
build a cloaking shield with the FC "BCS", |
|
|
using 50 of each mineral
and 100 MC taken from _the planet's surface_, |
|
|
while staying at warp
factor 0 and not towed. |
|
|
From then on, the
cloaking shield will protect the planet.
The cloaking |
|
|
shields are permanent
installations, so they will not be destroyed during |
|
|
an invasion. One more benefit for the Birds is that
their ships can |
|
|
build the cloaking
shields over any planet, not necessarily Birdman. |
|
|
So it is possible to
sell the shields to allies, getting money/minerals/ |
|
|
ships in return. One catch here: the installed cloaking
shields on allied |
|
|
planets will be totally
ineffective against the Birds themselves. |
|
|
To activate an installed
cloaking shield, use FC "CSa", where is a race |
|
|
number to use against,
1..9, a, or b. The "CS4"
will protect against the |
|
|
Fascists and against
their missiles (see below). Cloaking shield uses 20 |
|
|
units of fuel per turn
of use. All Birdman planets with 200
colonists or |
|
|
more get a free cloaking
shield built automatically. |
|
|
Star Bases at the
planets CANNOT set their missions to "force surrender". |
|
|
Otherwise, the shield
will NOT work. |
|
|
Planets WILL protect
against ships going into their warp wells. |
|
|
Fuel Efficiency. |
|
|
The Birdmen must use
enhanced energy management features in order for |
|
|
the cloaking devices to
work. Cloakers can't just go around
expending |
|
|
energy since that can be
detected by the crudest scanners. Now
they can |
|
|
use the same
energy-management techniques on a Neutronic Fuel Carrier |
|
|
and the Large Deep Space
Freighter, making them twice as energy-efficient |
|
|
as before (and burning
one half the fuel it did before!) No
special FC is |
|
|
required. The ships cannot to or intercept to enjoy
fuel economy. |
|
|
Remote Identification. |
|
|
This ability is shared
with the Privateers. A Skyfire class
starship on |
|
|
an intercept mission and
warp 0 can use its targeting scanners to thoroughly |
|
|
scan the target
ship. With FC "RID", the
ship will report the other ship's |
|
|
drivetech, number and
tech of beams and torp launchers, number of torps or |
|
|
fighters, mission,
primary enemy, damage, different kinds of cargo, fuel and |
|
|
the
FC. The default range for both races
is (162) ly. The ship being
scanned |
|
|
does not get any notice
or warning of the scan. |
|
|
Beacon Minefields. |
|
|
Birdman ships can
convert their torpedoes into deep space mines and, instead |
|
|
of deploying them into a
minefield, place a remote-response beacon on them |
|
|
and hide them under a
small portable cloaking shield. After
receiving a |
|
|
signal, the beacons
collapse the cloaking fields and deploy the mines into |
|
|
regular minefields. For an added bonus, the Beacon minefields
allow one |
|
|
mine field totally
inside one another! The deploying ship must have the |
|
|
FC of "DBx",
where x is "H" for half of torpedoes, "Q" for a quarter
of tor- |
|
|
pedoes, "A"
for all torpedoes, and "T" for three fourths of torpedoes. |
|
|
The max total amount of
beacons in the universe is 100. |
|
|
The minefield size is
determined with standard minefield size calculation, |
|
|
#-of-mines=(#-of-torps-used
* (tech-of-torps)^2). After |
|
|
deployment, the beacons
remain linked to the ship that deployed them; when |
|
|
that ship uses FC
"UMB", all beacons that ship has created will be |
|
|
converted into regular
minefields. If the deploying ship is
destroyed, the |
|
|
Birdmen must get another
torpedo ship with the same id number to deploy |
|
|
the beacons; otherwise,
the beacons will remain floating about, unclaimed. |
|
|
The Imperial Mig class
scout can detect and destroy the beacons; see |
|
|
its appropriate section. |
|
|
NOTE: the deploying ship
may stay cloaked for the entire time! |
|
|
Honor Device. |
|
|
Birdmen have the Honor
Device installed on all ships with more than 10 |
|
|
crewmen. See the Universal section on the Honor
device for details. |
|
|
Warp Interdictor. |
|
|
In addition to the
universal Planetary Warp Interdictor, the Bird |
|
|
ships can have a
Ship-based Warp Interdictor installed into the hull. |
|
|
Just like the Planetary
Interdictor, the Ship Interdictor is installed by |
|
|
joining the ship with a
Neutronic Refinery vessel; However, by default |
|
|
it is less powerful and
uses less fuel than the planet-based device. To |
|
|
install the Interdictor
device, the ship must be at the same location |
|
|
as a Neutronic Refinery
ship and have the FC of "BWI".
To engage the |
|
|
ship interdictor, use
the ship FC of "EWI"; you must have more than (20) |
|
|
fuel units to use the
device. When the device is engaged,
all ships of |
|
|
all
other races are slowed down to warp (4); the Birdman ships and their
allied |
|
|
can
tweak their engines to go up to two warp factors higher than the other |
|
|
races' ships. |
|
|
Therefore, the Birds
within the field can go the max of warp (6). |
|
|
Ship-based Interdictors
are destroyed if ships are captured by another race. |
|
|
Sneak Attack. |
|
|
The Birdmen, needing a
combat advantage, can use their |
|
|
ships' stealth to help
them defeat unsuspecting opponents.
The Bird ships |
|
|
can keep themselves
cloaked until the last possible moment, and come |
|
|
out of cloak firing all
weapons, not giving an enemy ship time to |
|
|
detect them and raise
their shields. Therefore, a Birdman
ship can |
|
|
take one enemy ship by
surprise by setting its mission to cloak, a |
|
|
numeric FCode, and
having the first three letters of the ship name |
|
|
be the ID number of the
enemy they want to ambush. The ship
must have |
|
|
warp factor 0 in order
to minimize their drive emissions and stay |
|
|
concealed from
detection. The Federation ships have
slightly better |
|
|
sensors and can detect
the Birdmen ship powering up its weapons before |
|
|
other races can, so they
have time to raise their shields to (25%). |
|
|
A special configuration
option lets the game host allow or disallow |
|
|
the Romulan Sneak Attack
against ships that are towed by any other race |
|
|
than the ship's owner
(if a ship of the same race tows them, they can be |
|
|
attacked,
regardless). For example, if the
setting is set to allow, the |
|
|
Birdmen can tow out a
ship to a waiting Dark Wing; if the setting is |
|
|
disallow, they
cannot. This ability cannot be given
away in a team game. |
|
|
Steal Fighters. |
|
|
The Birdmen share the
Red Wind fighter Steal ability with |
|
|
the Privateers. See the appropriate
sectionpriv_fightersteal for details. |
|
|
#
Fascists: |
|
|
Deep Space Missiles. |
|
|
Deep space missiles. |
|
|
In their infinite
pursuit of destruction, the Fascist government |
|
|
authorized its ships'
captains to install long-range deep space missiles |
|
|
on all ships tech 6 and
above. From now on, any ship that has
missile |
|
|
launchers available and
is orbiting a Fascist planet will be able to launch |
|
|
three types of missiles:
Orbital, X-Ray, and Planetary. Each
missile costs |
|
|
10 of each mineral and
20 fuel and moves at a set warp straight |
|
|
toward its target, which
has to be an orbit of a planet. To
launch a mis- |
|
|
sile, the ship has to be
of tech level 6 or above, be orbiting a Fascist |
|
|
planet, have the
necessary minerals in the cargo hold, warp factor 0 and |
|
|
set a waypoint to the
target planet. |
|
|
The FC for Orbital
missile id "LOM", Launch Orbital Missile. This kind of |
|
|
missile does half a minehit damage to any
and all ships orbiting the |
|
|
target planet. |
|
|
To launch an X-Ray
missile, set the FC to "LXM".
This missile would |
|
|
kill
1/3 (default) of the crew of any and
all ships orbiting the target |
|
|
planet. |
|
|
To launch a Planetary
missile, set FC of "LPM".
This missile would |
|
|
destroy
1/3 (default) of all planetary structures, including mines, |
|
|
factories, and defense
outposts. It will also kill colonists |
|
|
and reduce their
happiness levels. |
|
|
The
launch an Anti-Fighter missile, set FC "LFM". This kind of missile seeks |
|
|
out groups of fighters.
If no ships with fighter bays or no ships |
|
|
with fighters are found,
the missile has no effect; otherwise, it separates |
|
|
into many small
warheads, each with individual targeting capabilities. Each |
|
|
warhead one of four
things, with equal probability: |
|
|
1: completely
misses. It would report "ship
undamaged" |
|
|
2: destroys a few
fighters. It would report "X fighters destroyed" |
|
|
3: destroys a lot of
fighters (hit a squadron on patrol).
It would report |
|
|
"X fighters
destroyed" |
|
|
4: follow a group of
fighters into the ship and explode in a fighter bay. |
|
|
In that case, a
fighterbay is completely destroyed. (so now it is |
|
|
possible to see a Gorbie
with fewer than 10 bays, for example). |
|
|
NOTE: it is impossible
to detroy a carrier's only or last fighter bay. |
|
|
To launch a Biological
missile, set the FC to "LBM".
This missile would |
|
|
release bio-toxins into
the planet's atmosphere and have a (15%) chance |
|
|
per colonist to kill
him. Therefore, the effects are
largely |
|
|
unpredictable; the
missile might either have no effect or decimate the |
|
|
entire population, but
on average it will kill 15% of the population. |
|
|
To launch a Minefield
missile, set FC of "LMM".
This missile would |
|
|
deploy
a (900)-mine-units minefield, with a radius of (30) ly. |
|
|
NOTE: the minefields can
be contained entirely inside one another!
I.E. you can |
|
|
have two minefields at
[2000:2000] and not have them join together. |
|
|
The missiles can be
swept when they reach the target point, or at any |
|
|
point along its path
(only in the end of turn). To attempt |
|
|
to destroy the missile,
you must set ships' missions to mine sweep.
The de- |
|
|
fault chance of
successfully sweeping a missile is TotalNumberOfBeamWeapons |
|
|
times
BeamWeaponTechLevel times (100%). For
example, a Biocide with 10 |
|
|
heavy phasers will have
10*10*(100%) or 100% chance. One
Patriot |
|
|
with 2 Heavy Blasters
will have 2*6*(100%) or 12% chance. |
|
|
The planetary defense
(not starbase defense) outposts also participate in |
|
|
this missile sweep. No special FC is required; the defenses
will auto- |
|
|
matically attempt to
sweep all approaching missiles. However, their effect |
|
|
is much smaller than
that of ship-based weapons (each 10 defenses are |
|
|
equal to one ship-based
laser). |
|
|
The damage levels are of
course configurable. If the missile is
detected in |
|
|
space (i.e. it has not
yet reached its target) then a scan message is sent |
|
|
to the owner of the
target planet every turn the missile is in flight |
|
|
(provided that the
missile is in range), as well as to the missile's owner |
|
|
advising of its status. |
|
|
A player who owns the
missile can destroy it at any time using planetary |
|
|
FCode "Dxx",
where xx is the missile's ID number. This ability |
|
|
is transferred to
non-fascist players during team game, but with a catch: |
|
|
the Fascists, showing
uncommon foresight, have built-in an override frequency |
|
|
into each missile
control unit they give away in their ships. A Fascist |
|
|
player can "push
the big red button" for any missile in flight, whether |
|
|
launched by him or by
someone else. |
|
|
Board Base. |
|
|
The Fascists from a
Coldpain class Cruiser can board a base of an enemy race. |
|
|
If the assault is not
repelled by the base troopers(the probability of the |
|
|
assault being repelled
is number-of-defense-posts divided by 2 minus 25% |
|
|
plus (25%) from the
JCONFIG program), the base is damaged (25%), |
|
|
all base fighters are
smashed, half the defense outposts are broken, |
|
|
and all built components
(hulls, engines, beams, and launchers) are destroyed. |
|
|
In addition, all stored
torpedoes are beamed out into space. Some Fascist |
|
|
crewmen are killed
during the assault; since only a fully-crewed Coldpain can |
|
|
do the board mission,
the ship must return to a base to pick up additional |
|
|
crew. The Coldpain have FC of "BBx",
where x is anything (to prevent the |
|
|
capture of the ship),
not be cloaked, warp 0, and not be towed. |
|
|
NOTE: the damage to base
is progressive; that means the first ship will damage |
|
|
a base to 25%, the next
ship to 43%, the next to 58%, and so on.
It is next |
|
|
to impossible to
completely destroy a base by boarding it repeatedly. |
|
|
# Privateers: |
|
|
Cloaked Tow. |
|
|
It
is widely known that the towing of ships while cloaked is not allowed |
|
|
because of extreme power
requirements. However, the captains of
Meteor |
|
|
Class Blockade Runners
with Transwarp Drives have an option of foregoing |
|
|
the ship's safety levels
and attempting a cloaked-tow. Because the safeties |
|
|
were compromised, the
ship's engines can burn out and degrade to lower tech |
|
|
drives. The default chance of degrade is 33%. |
|
|
To cloak-tow a ship, set
the FC to "CLT", warp factor to 9, |
|
|
a waypoint of less than
160 ly away, and mission to tow. You
will also |
|
|
need extreme amounts of
fuel, so be sure to carry at least 120 kt of |
|
|
Neutronium (depending on
the towee's mass, shape, and crew; ranges from 50 |
|
|
for a lowly probe to 160
for a Gorbie) when attempting a cloaked-tow. |
|
|
The formula for fuel
burn is: round(40*ln((hull
mass+cargo)/10)); |
|
|
this formula is further
adjusted by enemy crew experience levels and the |
|
|
MBR's fuel and cargo. |
|
|
In addition, when
cloak-towing, the tower will avoid all mine and web mine |
|
|
fields laid by the
towee's race. This is because the IFF
indicators of the |
|
|
mines pick up a friendly
transponder signal of the towed ship but no |
|
|
unfriendly signal from
the tower (because it's cloaked) and do not explode. |
|
|
It is not possible to
cloak-tow another Privateer or an ally. |
|
|
Anti-Genesis Device. |
|
|
Some time ago, a
privateer ship has robbed and captured a Federation |
|
|
starship on a Genesis
mission, and the Genesis Device itself has fallen |
|
|
prey to Privateers. The Privateer scientists were able to
understand its |
|
|
functions and
reverse-engineer it. Now, they have
constructed their own |
|
|
version of the device
and called it the Anti-Genesis. As
much as the Fede- |
|
|
ration wanted to make
planets fit for life, the Privateers want to spoil |
|
|
them to make them unfit
for enemies. The Anti-Genesis will
plant the |
|
|
amorphous life-forms on
the planet and disrupt its temperature, however |
|
|
the Privateers were not
able to overcome the original's limitations.
So, |
|
|
the Anti-Genesis can
only be used over planets that are un-owned and |
|
|
un-populated by any
native life-form. Any Privateer ship
can use the device, |
|
|
the only requirements
are warp 0 and a FC of "-@x", where x is the |
|
|
temperature desired for
the planet. If x is 1, the planet will
turn into |
|
|
a freezing tundra, and
if x is 9, it will turn into a hot desert.
Anything |
|
|
in between 1 and 9 will
result in the planet retaining its temperature. |
|
|
For example, FC of
"-@1" will seed the planet with amorphs and decrease its |
|
|
temperature to 0 degrees. |
|
|
Remote Identification. |
|
|
Exactly the same as
Birdman feature; see Birdsbird_rid section for details. |
|
|
Lady Royale Gambling
Supervessel. |
|
|
The Royale can now go to
planets of other races and perform its gambling |
|
|
function there, with one
exception: the proceeds go to the Privateers, not |
|
|
the planet's owner. The colonists beam up in the beginning of
the turn |
|
|
and return in the end;
they do not pay taxes and are not present to work at |
|
|
the factories and
mines. The Royale would need the fc of
"GXX" and warp 0. |
|
|
The Royale cannot be
towed or attempt to leave the planet: if the colonists |
|
|
find out the ship is no
longer at the planet, they will revolt and destroy the |
|
|
Lady Royale. Warning: do not try to attempt the gambling
mission during the |
|
|
ion storm. The storm may pull the Royale off the
planet. |
|
|
The owner of the planet
may institute martial law on the planet;
With the |
|
|
FC of "xML",
where x is any character, the police and special forces would |
|
|
prevent the citizens
from leaving. However, this would drop
their happiness |
|
|
level by (25%) due to
lost civil liberties. NOTE: the planet
cannot be taken |
|
|
by ground assault or
space assault during the time the colonists gamble. |
|
|
Otherwise, the returning
colonists would announce what was done to them and the |
|
|
invading colonists would
join the colony of the old race! for
Example, a |
|
|
Lizard colony has a
Royale in orbit. On the same turn, a
Fascist takes |
|
|
over the planet with
ground assault. When the Lizard
colonists return, the |
|
|
colony ownership would
go back to Lizards, with all the Fascist troops joining |
|
|
the Lizard government. |
|
|
Red Wind Fighter Steal. |
|
|
The Red Wind class ship
that belongs to either Birds or Privateers can |
|
|
broadcast
subspace messages to enemy fighter carriers at the same location |
|
|
describing
the beauty of the pirate way of life. This may convince a random |
|
|
number
of fighter pilots up to (30%) to desert and join the Privateer Red |
|
|
Wind,
or (20%) to join the Birdman Red Wind fighter team. Multiple ships |
|
|
can
steal fighters; however, the number of fighters stolen does NOT increase |
|
|
with
the number of ships. Rather, only the
capacity of fighters that can be |
|
|
taken away is increased. |
|
|
The fighters that do not
find enough space will return to their "home" carrier. |
|
|
Stolen fighters are
taken aboard Red Winds in ID number order.
Cloaked |
|
|
carriers may not be
robbed, however the Red Wind may be cloaked while robbing. |
|
|
Carriers on SuperSpy MAY
be robbed, even if they can cloak. |
|
|
The Red Wind must have
fuel and use the FC "SFx", where x is any alphanumeric |
|
|
character (to prevent
matching FC on combat ships). The
mission is done |
|
|
during the AUXBC phase:
after movement, but before combat. |
|
|
NOTE: this ability
cannot be given away in a team game. |
|
|
Note: allied ships do
not get their fighters stolen. |
|
|
#
The Cyborg: |
|
|
Moving Mines. |
|
|
The Cyborg ships can
order any Cyborg minefield to move up, down, left, or |
|
|
right on the starmap at
warp (5) using the FC "MMX" and: |
|
|
the first three
characters of the name must be the minefield's ID number. The |
|
|
fourth character of the
name must be the direction to go, "D" for down, "U" |
|
|
for up, "L"
for left, and "R" for right.
For example, FC "MMX" and name |
|
|
023D will cause the
minefield 23 to move down. The
controlling ship |
|
|
must have the warp factor
of 0. |
|
|
Super Intercept. |
|
|
Both cube ships can
greatly speed up in their pursuit of an enemy vessel. |
|
|
Whenever the ship is
intercepting an enemy and is not close enough to |
|
|
get to him in the
regular movement phase, the ship will accelerate to twice |
|
|
its regular speed to
cover twice as much distance burning the same amount |
|
|
of fuel! The cube's web/mine hit probability is
halved, because the ship |
|
|
moves so fast the mines
cannot lock on. The ship has to be
undamaged, |
|
|
have engines of tech 8
or higher, be on an intercept mission, and have the |
|
|
warp factor EQUAL the
engine tech level. |
|
|
NOTE:
interception of another Borg vessel or an allied vessel will not |
|
|
increase the ship speed. |
|
|
Planet Strip. |
|
|
The Cyborg have found
another use for their ships' |
|
|
cutting beams. Now the Quietus Class Cruiser can strip the
planet of all |
|
|
its structures and
assume ownership of the planet, all without fighting. |
|
|
In addition, the
StarBase that's orbiting the planet will see the terrible |
|
|
destruction unleashed on
the planet and surrender, also without a fight. |
|
|
So a single Quietus
would be able to capture an entire planet with stocked |
|
|
StarBase, all without
firing a single shot! All the
planetary structures |
|
|
are cut up into pieces
and converted into construction minerals, 3 per |
|
|
building. So if a planet has 200 factories, 100 mines
and 50 defenses, it |
|
|
will get (200+100+50)*3
or extra 1050 kt of every mineral. |
|
|
Use FC "STR"
on an undamaged Quietus to "strip" the target planet |
|
|
(the planet at the
waypoint). |
|
|
Ships on the strip
mission will avoid enemy mines and may not tow or |
|
|
intercept another ship. |
|
|
Each use of this mission
will raise planet's temparature by 10 degrees. |
|
|
Ships can not strip
planets belonging to their race. |
|
|
The greater the number
of enemy defense posts is, the higher the change |
|
|
for mission
failure. The number of defense posts
indicated in JConfig |
|
|
is for 100% resistance. |
|
|
Ships can not strip
planets belonging to the same race or an allied race |
|
|
A2S Device. |
|
|
The Collective has
decided to do something about those pesky amorphs |
|
|
who are impossible to
assimilate. Now, all their ships with
over 50 |
|
|
crewmen have an a2S
device that solidifies amorphs into siliconoids. The |
|
|
resulting silicon
population will be totally confused (in the state of |
|
|
anarchy) and quite
unhappy. Moreover, a set percentage of
them will not |
|
|
survive the
solidification process and die.
However, the result will be |
|
|
achieved: the Cyborgs
will have a planet of Siliconoids to assimilate! |
|
|
To use the a2S device,
set the FC "a2S" and have warp factor 0. |
|
|
Sweet-Talk Immunity. |
|
|
Borg ships are immune
from the Federation sweet-talk. See
Sweet-talk |
|
|
for details. |
|
|
#
The Crystals: |
|
|
Self-Destruct. |
|
|
The Crystals know very
well what is done to the crews of ships that are |
|
|
forced to surrender:
they are beamed into space. Now, the
Crystals, |
|
|
wanting to avoid painful
deaths when their own ships' capture is imminent, |
|
|
found an easier
alternative: they can detonate their ship, preventing |
|
|
the capture. All Crystal
ships, including freighters and captured ships, |
|
|
have been rigged with
the Self-Destruct device. To activate
the device, |
|
|
set the FC of the ship
you want to detonate to "SDS".
No other special |
|
|
requirements are
necessary: it will work with or without fuel, with or |
|
|
without damage, any warp
and waypoint. |
|
|
Team game note: only the
Opal, Ruby, Emerald, Flame and Thunder can be |
|
|
self-destructed if the
team game is on and the ships do not belong to |
|
|
Crystals. The crystals still can self-destruct all
their ships. |
|
|
Advanced Terraforming. |
|
|
After
numerous complaints from many race Leaders, Presidents, Dictators, |
|
|
and Emperors, the
Crystal Scientific Community have finally decided |
|
|
to improve their
Terraforming ship. The Onyx has
received a new lease |
|
|
on life; its
terraforming ability will increase 50 times!
This does |
|
|
not come without cost,
however; a tankful of fuel is required |
|
|
for needed heat-up. To use Advanced Terraforming, set the |
|
|
Onyx's FC to
"ATF" and make sure that your fuel tank is full. |
|
|
The Advanced
Terraforming rate is configurable. |
|
|
Super Alchemy. |
|
|
An Emerald class
battlecruiser at warp 0 can transmute minerals from one |
|
|
to another or to money
without penalty. To use Super Alchemy,
set FC of |
|
|
the Emerald to
"a*b", where a is: |
|
|
N: fuel, M: molybdenium,
T: tritanium, D: duranium |
|
|
and b is: |
|
|
N: fuel, M: molybdenium,
T: tritanium, D: duranium, S supplies, $ MC. |
|
|
For example, load it
with 200 fuel and set FC to "N*D" to get 200 Duranium. |
|
|
One note-worthy thing:
the Emerald can transform any mineral (or fuel) to |
|
|
megacredits getting 5
times more money than the amount of the mineral. |
|
|
For example, 200 fuel
and "N*$" will result in 1000 MC. |
|
|
The Emerald can
completely replace both of the ridiculously expensive |
|
|
alchemy ships: Merlin
and Neutronic Refinery. To emulate
them, |
|
|
the Emerald must have
supplies and use FCode "S*m" to emulate a Merlin |
|
|
and "S*N" to
emulate the NR ship. As with the
Merlin, 9 supplies |
|
|
are
converted into 1 of each mineral. The
NR rules have slightly |
|
|
changed: since minerals
can safely be transmuted into supplies, |
|
|
to simplify the process,
2 supplies can be converted into one fuel unit. |
|
|
Since
this process is all-or-nothing, if more fuel is made than there |
|
|
is empty space in the
tank, the excess is vented out into space. |
|
|
The Super Alchemy is
done after movement, and combat, so if you are |
|
|
transmuting
fuel into something you shouldn't worry about net being able |
|
|
to fight. You can also
load supplies and use S*N to refuel in the end |
|
|
of movement (after some
fuel is used up). |
|
|
Move Web Mines. |
|
|
This ability is similar
to the Cyborg move mines ability. The Crystalline |
|
|
ships can order any
Crystal Web minefield to move up, down, left, or |
|
|
right on the starmap at
warp (5) using the FC "MMX" and: |
|
|
the first three
characters of the name must be the minefield's ID number. The |
|
|
fourth character of the
name must be the direction to go, "D" for down, "U" |
|
|
for up, "L"
for left, and "R" for right.
For example, FC "MMX" and name |
|
|
023D will cause the web
minefield 23 to move down. The controlling ship |
|
|
must have the warp factor
of 0. |
|
|
ComBots. |
|
|
The Crystal can build
ComBots to defend their planets. See
the Universal |
|
|
abilities section on
ComBots for details. |
|
|
Ravius Beam. |
|
|
The Onyx class starships
have been outfitted with the Ravius Beam, designed |
|
|
to increase a planet's
temperature at a distance. As long as
the Onyx has |
|
|
fuel, FC of
"RAV" and has a waypoint set on one of the planets, the Onyx |
|
|
would increase that
world's temperature by (1) degree per turn, burning |
|
|
(1) unit of fuel. NOTE: if the host sets the temperature
increase rate |
|
|
to more than 1, the fuel
use will increase accordingly. |
|
|
The range of this
ability is the ship's engine tech squared times 2. |
|
|
Honor Device. |
|
|
The Opal class and the
Topez class ships have Honor device installed in |
|
|
their hulls. See the Universal abilities section on the
Honor Device for |
|
|
details. |
|
|
Crystal Oscillator. |
|
|
The Crystal Thunder
Class Carrier has installed an Oscillator device. When |
|
|
engaged in the AUXBC
phase (after movement, but before combat), it will |
|
|
destroy all fighters in
the forward-facing fighter bays of the enemy |
|
|
carriers at the same
location by inducing oscillations which shatter the |
|
|
fighters' sensors and
central computer processor units.
Exactly (33%) of |
|
|
all fighters of the
primary enemy race are destroyed. Use
the FC "OSC" to |
|
|
use this ability. You need at least 1 colonist clan on board
the |
|
|
Crystal Thunder to
operate the device. |
|
|
NOTE: to avoid enemy
ships setting FC to OSC and not fighting the Crystal |
|
|
Thunder, you can also
use FCodes Osc, OSc, and OsC. |
|
|
#
The Empire: |
|
|
ComBots. |
|
|
The Empire can build
ComBots to defend their planets. See
the Universal |
|
|
Abilities section on
ComBots for details. |
|
|
Hyper-Moscow. |
|
|
Moscow class Star Escort
has had a hyperdrive installed. Just
like default |
|
|
hyperdrive-capable
ships, the Moscow will burn 50 units of fuel and jump |
|
|
(350) light years in the
direction of the waypoint. Just set
the "HYP" FC |
|
|
and warp factor to
greater than 0. NOTE: Because of the
size of the ship |
|
|
(it is much larger than
the probes) there might be a small inaccuracy in |
|
|
targeting (1-3 ly, at
random) so do not count on exact results every time. |
|
|
Note:
Moscow-class ships will NOT hyperjump if towed. |
|
|
Note:
even if share hyper-moscow is off, races the Empire is allied with can |
|
|
still use the
hyper-capabilities. |
|
|
Imperial Pacification. |
|
|
The Super Star Carrier
with 100 or more fighters in its bays can instantly |
|
|
improve morale of any
Imperial planet's natives or colonists to 69% |
|
|
if it drops below
69. The ship has to be at warp 0, have
FC "PAC" and not |
|
|
be towed. |
|
|
Mig Mine Detection. |
|
|
The Mig class scouts
will automatically detect and destroy all Birdman mine- |
|
|
field beacons that are
(20) ly from the ship's position at the start of the |
|
|
turn. |
|
|
Imperial Probe Droids. |
|
|
Imperial Probe Droids. |
|
|
Any Imperial ship with
more than 100 crewmen will be able to send out |
|
|
Imperial Probe Droids to
planets by setting FC
"IPD". It uses 20 fuel, |
|
|
1 of each mineral, 1
supply unit and 1 MC. Set the Warp to
0 and |
|
|
waypoint to a target
planet less than 100 ly away, and next turn you |
|
|
will receive a message
telling you the number of colonists, population, |
|
|
type of natives, number
of factories, defenses and mines, |
|
|
minerals, money and
supplies on planet and the number of ships orbiting |
|
|
the planet. The probes will even penetrate Planetary
Cloaking Shields! |
|
|
However, they can be
shut down by defenses; a planet with 100 defenses |
|
|
will shoot down a probe
50% of the time, and 200 defenses will almost |
|
|
guarantee safety since a
great number of planet's fighters can be |
|
|
assigned to patrol around
the planet. |
|
|
Of course, you can
launch the droids toward un-owned planets, serving as |
|
|
advance recon units. |
|
|
Due to space limitations
and requirements for short-burst transmission, the |
|
|
following numbers
represent the type of natives: 0 none, 1 humans, 2 |
|
|
2
bovines, 3 reptians, 4 avians, 5 amorphs, 6 insects, 7 amphibians, |
|
|
8 ghipsoids, 9 silicons. |
|
|
Gorbie Capture Beam. |
|
|
The Gorbie Class
Battlecarrier, being the biggest ship in the universe, |
|
|
has
a non-standard method of capturing enemies.
Instead of lowering the |
|
|
shields and beaming
enemy crew out, this ship pulls the ship into its huge |
|
|
hangar and captures the
ship with stormtroopers. This way, the
Gorbie |
|
|
can capture any ship of
tech 7 and below with the loss of some crew using |
|
|
its capture beam (FC
"CPB"). The amount of crew
lost is a half of the |
|
|
enemy ship's crew due to
superior training of Imperial stormtroopers. |
|
|
In addition, the Rebel
crews fight even less vigorously than average, |
|
|
and when capturing
Rebels the Gorbie loses only a quarter of enemy |
|
|
ship's crew. For example, capturing a 322-crewman
Birdman Valiant Wind |
|
|
would cost a Gorbie 161
crewmen, and a Rebel 172-crewman Patriot will |
|
|
only cost 43
troopers. The captured ship will have
10% damage as a result |
|
|
of fighting in its
interior. |
|
|
To use the Capture Beam,
set the Gorbie's FC to "CPB", warp factor 0, and |
|
|
mission
intercept. The Gorbie has to be
undamaged and have Transwarp |
|
|
drives for most powerful
tractor beams. |
|
|
The Gorbie will use half
of target's hull mass (just hull, no cargo, |
|
|
weapons, etc) in fuel
during this operation. |
|
|
# The Robots: |
|
|
Cloaker Detection. |
|
|
The Robotic Pawn class
Baseship may detect the computer emissions of enemy |
|
|
cloaked vessels
nearby. With the FC of "DEC"
and warp factor 0, a |
|
|
Pawn may detect cloaked
ships of all races and super-spying Birds up to |
|
|
(49) ly away with (50%)
probability. The computer chief will
also report |
|
|
the warp factor the ship
is under, and will attempt to identify the race |
|
|
that owns the ship. That cannot always be accomplished, though,
and in |
|
|
(50%) of the cases, the
computer chief will report a randomly chosen race, |
|
|
that may or may not be
the correct one. (in the other 50% of the cases, |
|
|
the correct race will be
reported). The host may choose if the
race of the |
|
|
cloaker receives a
message about detection. |
|
|
NOTE: The Pawn on this
mission cannot be towed. |
|
|
Mass Drivers. |
|
|
As an alternative to
small/medium/large Deep space freighters, the Robots |
|
|
may now use Mass Drivers
to transport minerals or supplies to distant |
|
|
planets. This requires that a ship with hull mass
over 100 is stationed |
|
|
above the
"source" planet. The ship
must use the FC "MDx", where x is |
|
|
the mineral to
transport: "M" for moly, "D" for duranium, "T"
for tritanium, |
|
|
N for fuel and
"S" for supplies, have more than (20) fuel, and set the |
|
|
waypoint to the
"target" planet. The next
turn, (100) units of the mineral |
|
|
requested would be transported
over. |
|
|
NOTE: the target planet
must be closer than (100) ly. It does
not have to belong |
|
|
to the Robots. |
|
|
Viral Field. |
|
|
Due to their very
nature, the Robots are proficient with computers. They |
|
|
have
just found a way to establish a viral field.
The field wipes the |
|
|
enemy
ship's computer core, erasing the ship's name, resetting the FC to |
|
|
"VRF", erasing
destination, warp factor and transporter info. The ship |
|
|
that
is caught in the viral field is effectively stopped dead in its |
|
|
tracks,
unable to move, beam anything up/down and even cloak. In addition, |
|
|
the
existing cloaking shield is no defense; Robotic viral field penetrates |
|
|
the
cloak. Therefore, the Cybernaut, which is the only ship equipped with |
|
|
the
viral field generator, can easily disable an entire enemy fleet and |
|
|
cause
the enemy to assemble another one as the first fleet's ships drift |
|
|
helplessly
in space. To activate the Viral Field,
set the Cybernaut's FC |
|
|
to
"VRF", warp 0, and the enemy race to disable as primary enemy or
mission |
|
|
kill for all races. The Cybernaut loses 5% of its crew to
short-circuits |
|
|
as
the enemy fights for control of its computers. The Cybernaut has to |
|
|
have at least 100
"crew-bots" to establish the field. |
|
|
The Cybernaut can
neither move nor be towed if the field is to be maintained. |
|
|
In order to prevent the
creation of an impenetrable defense around the |
|
|
Robotic empire, no 2
Cybernauts can be present within 100 ly of each other. |
|
|
In this case, the Viral
field will not work on both. |
|
|
In order to prevent an
"unreachable" Cybernaut, the device cannot be |
|
|
operated from within a
planet's warp well (1-3 ly). |
|
|
Note: races that the
Robots are allied to will not be affected by a Viral Field. |
|
|
Build More Robots. |
|
|
Any
Robotic ship has an opportunity to build more robot colonists from |
|
|
minerals and
supplies. The JCONFIG lets you specify
which mineral to use; |
|
|
1 of that mineral, 1
supply and FC "BMR" will build more robots. For |
|
|
example, if JCONFIG is
set to Tritanium (default) then a ship having |
|
|
100 tritanium and 100
supplies will construct 10000 shiny new robots, |
|
|
or 100 clans. |
|
|
This ability cannot be
given away with teamgame. |
|
|
# The Rebels: |
|
|
Hyper-Sage. |
|
|
Sage class Frigate ship
had had a hyperdrive installed. Just
like default |
|
|
hyper ships, the Sage
will burn 50 units of fuel and jump (350) |
|
|
light years in the
direction of the waypoint. Just set
the "HYP" FC and |
|
|
warp factor to greater
than 0. NOTE: Because of the size of
the ship (it |
|
|
is much larger than the
probes) there MIGHT be a small inaccuracy in |
|
|
targeting (1-3 ly, at
random) so do not count on exact results every time. |
|
|
Note:
Sage-class ships will NOT hyperjump if towed. |
|
|
Note:
even is Share Sage config option is off, races that the Rebels are
allied |
|
|
with can still use the
hyper-capabilities. |
|
|
Starbase Sabotage. |
|
|
Rebel saboteurs can
infiltrate the starbases of enemy races and reduce their |
|
|
hull, engine, and tech
levels. Any Rebel ship with more than
10 crew, at |
|
|
warp 0 and not towed,
with FC "SBx", where x is any character, can beam in a |
|
|
few saboteurs and if
there is an area that has a tech level above 1, it will |
|
|
be reduced by 1 level.
The area is chosen randomly among those that are |
|
|
above
1. |
|
|
NOTE: If there is a
native race on that planet that originally |
|
|
helped to develop that
technology, they will help to upgrade it back |
|
|
to level 10 and the
mission will have no effect. For
example, if there |
|
|
are ghipsoidal natives
on a planet and the Rebel ship sabotages engines, the |
|
|
Ghipsoids will push the
engine tech level back up to 10. If
that happens, |
|
|
the host will have a
message about it in the log file, but the Rebel player |
|
|
will NOT receive a mail
message. The Rebel ship may not be
cloaked. |
|
|
The Rebel ship will
sustain some crew casualties during this mission. |
|
|
The ship must return to
a "real" Rebel base (not one of the DSBs, see below) |
|
|
and be "fixed"
before it can do a Sabotage mission again. |
|
|
Deep Space Bases. |
|
|
Rebel ships can
construct and maintain Deep Space Bases on asteroids |
|
|
floating in deep
space. They cost 10*(5) units of each
mineral, supplies |
|
|
and money. Any Rebel ship with FC of "DSB"
and the required minerals on |
|
|
board can build a base
at any point in space, not necessarily in Rebel |
|
|
space. At least 1 clan of colonists must be |
|
|
inside the ship; they
will build the base and then transfer over to |
|
|
administer it and work
on it once built. The base cannot be
built at the |
|
|
same location as a
planet, because a sun's gravity makes the asteroids |
|
|
there too unstable. The builder-ship must not be cloaked, but
it |
|
|
may
be moving. The base, once built, will
repair any Rebel or allied ship at |
|
|
the same location
instantly and at no cost and will provide 1 free torpedo per |
|
|
turn
to every Rebel or allied ship stationed over that base, built from |
|
|
materials collected from
nearby asteroids. |
|
|
If an enemy ship starts
its turn within (25) ly from the base, it will send |
|
|
a subspace message to
the ship's owner informing him about the base. |
|
|
The radar technicians on
the base will also inform the Rebels of the base's |
|
|
detection. |
|
|
Any enemy ship with
mission kill or primary enemy Rebels and possessing |
|
|
beam weapons can destroy
the base by moving to it. The base is
not armed |
|
|
and is unable to offer
any resistance. |
|
|
A maximum of 100 bases
can exist at any one time. |
|
|
Honor Device. |
|
|
The Sage class and the
Deep Space Scout ships have Honor device installed in |
|
|
their hulls. See the Universal abilities section on the
Honor Device for details. |
|
|
Rebel Support Mission. |
|
|
A Rebel ship can do a
Rebel Support Mission when orbiting an enemy planet. |
|
|
Just set the FC to
"RSM", and some public speakers from the ship will |
|
|
land on planet's surface
and persuade colonists to support the Rebel cause. |
|
|
Many of the colonists
will defect to Rebels, beaming up to the ship |
|
|
and becoming Rebel
colonists. Many others will also do
monetary contribu- |
|
|
tions,
supplying the orbiting Rebel ship with money.
The amount of money |
|
|
the
ship can get is directly proportional to the population and then |
|
|
colonist
level of happiness; if they are unhappy the ship can easily collect |
|
|
10,000 MC in a single
turn. The ship is also completely
fixed by the Rebel |
|
|
sympathizers. The planetary taxes are set to 0, and some
of the money |
|
|
from the treasury is
stolen and turned over to the Rebels as a contribution. |
|
|
However,
the informants from the planet will send a message to the |
|
|
government telling
information about the ship's armament, number and tech |
|
|
level of beams, torpedoes
or fighters. |
|
|
The ship may not be
cloaked. RSM may not be given away in
a team game. |
|
|
Rebel Defenses. |
|
|
Any planet that belongs
to the Rebellion will get 21 defense outposts for |
|
|
free and
automatically. The defenses will also
regenerate; for example, |
|
|
if some are destroyed by
a Colonial KDP mission, they will regenerate back |
|
|
up to 21. |
|
|
# The Colonies: |
|
|
Kill Defenses Posts. |
|
|
A fully loaded Colonial
Patriot class carrier can send its fighters |
|
|
on an anti-defense
mission. The fighters will cross the
space and attempt |
|
|
to
destroy enemy defense outposts, if the Patriot's FC is set to
"KDP", |
|
|
Kill
Defense Posts, warp factor to 0, waypoint to an enemy planet and the |
|
|
primary
enemy to the race that owns the planet.
A number of outposts will |
|
|
be
destroyed and a number of fighters will be shot down, depending on |
|
|
fighter pilots' skill as
set in JCONFIG. Do not forget that
only a full |
|
|
Patriot can do this
mission. The Patriot must also have fuel. |
|
|
Please be advised that
the planet's population will build decoys when |
|
|
the number of their
defense outposts comes down. When the
planet is |
|
|
completely stripped of
its defenses, it will display its decoys to lure |
|
|
the fighters in. THERE IS NO WAY that the Colonial fighters
will be able |
|
|
to detect these
decoys! If a planet has no defenses
left and a Patriot |
|
|
sends the fighters on a
KDP mission, they will report destroying x number |
|
|
of
defenses, however all they got were decoys and no real damage was |
|
|
caused. |
|
|
KDP cannot be given away in a team game. |
|
|
Subspace Bubble. |
|
|
THIS IS TIMHOST-ONLY
MISSION. IT CANNOT BE DONE WITH PHOST. |
|
|
Any starship that belogs
to the Colonies has a bubble device that |
|
|
can create a subspace
bubble around the ship and propel it forward, in any |
|
|
direction. The ships enclosed in these bubbles are
partially out of this |
|
|
universe and exhibit
some special properties. Their
properties include BUT |
|
|
ARE NOT LIMITED to: they
totally ignore any and all mine and web mine |
|
|
fields; they do NOT
engage in combat at the end of their movement phase; |
|
|
they are not affected by
ion storms (unless they end their move in the |
|
|
middle of one, in which
case they will be subject to normal ion storm |
|
|
movement/damage); they
can resist towing (including cloaked-tow); they are |
|
|
not affected by fascist
missiles (unless they end their move on a target |
|
|
planet); they cannot be
forced to surrender; they are not affected by |
|
|
gravity wells of planets
(this means a colonial ship can end its move 1 ly |
|
|
away from a planet);
they cannot be robbed. |
|
|
To create a subspace
bubble, starships use fuel. The fuel
use formula is: |
|
|
new_fuel=round(fuel-20-(hull_mass+cargo+fuel+#_of_torps_or_fighters)/(drive_tech_level+1)) |
|
|
As evident from the
formula, the distance travelled does not matter; ships |
|
|
moving 1 ly use as much
fuel as those that move 80 lys. The
maximum amount |
|
|
travelled within a
bubble is 81 ly, disregarding the drive_tech_level. |
|
|
The waypoint must be
between 1 and 80 lys away and warp greater than 0 |
|
|
in order for the space
bubble to work. You can't use the
bubble to sit |
|
|
in one spot! The FCode to use it is ISB, Initiate
Subspace Bubble. |
|
|
Team game note: due to
the many common ships between the colonies and other |
|
|
races, only the
following ships are available in team game for |
|
|
non-colonials: Cobol,
Aries, Virgo, Scorpious. Colonials can
still use |
|
|
all their ships. |
|
|
Note: The cobol class
ship will NOT make any fuel while in the bubble. |
|
|
Fighter Base Attack. |
|
|
WARNING: this mission
needs host 3.2.015 to allow for base destruction. |
|
|
With prior versions of
host, the base will be damaged but not destroyed. |
|
|
The colonial ships can
send fighters to attack enemy bases.
Several ships |
|
|
can join their fighter
squadrons to attack a base at an enemy planet by |
|
|
using the FC
"FBA", setting the warp factor to 0 and waypoint to the |
|
|
target planet. The attack value of an attacking fighter is
4 * (120%). |
|
|
The defensive value of a
fighter is 4, a defense outpost is 1.
Only |
|
|
fighters and defenses of
a starbase participate in defense. The
following |
|
|
is the algorithm used to
determine the outcome of the battle: |
|
|
while (there are
attackers) and (there are defenders) do begin |
|
|
if (random
(attackers*skill-of-pilots) > random(defenders) then |
|
|
increment base's damage |
|
|
if (random
(attackers*skill-of-pilots) > random(defenders) then |
|
|
decrement defenders |
|
|
if (random
(attackers*skill-of-pilots) <= random (defenders) then |
|
|
decrement attackers |
|
|
if base's damage >=
100 then |
|
|
kill all defenders |
|
|
end |
|
|
if there are no defenders
left then |
|
|
destroy the base. |
|
|
The surviving fighters
DO NOT RETURN from the mission. |
|
|
NOTE: To prevent this
ability's abuse in the end-game, it is performed |
|
|
in auxhost2 phase, after
movement and combat. |
|
|
Ion Control. |
|
|
Any Colonial ship of
tech level 6 or above can now manipulate ion storms. |
|
|
for Ion Control, use the
FC "IOC" and a ship name corresponding to |
|
|
the operation you
want. The first character of the name
is the operation |
|
|
code, and the 2nd and
3rd characters are the ID number of the storm, 01-50. |
|
|
The following are the
different operations on the storms and corresponding codes: |
|
|
a) Create a storm: "N" |
|
|
b) Increase the storm
radius: "I" |
|
|
c) Decrease a storm
radius: "D" |
|
|
d) Strengthen a storm:
"S" (increase voltage) |
|
|
e) Weaken a storm:
"W" (decrease voltage) |
|
|
f) Turn approximately 90
degrees clockwise: "R" |
|
|
g) Turn approximately 90
degrees counterclockwise: "L". |
|
|
For example, to weaken
storm 17, have a ship with FC "IOC" and the name "W17". |
|
|
If the storm does not
exist, it will be ignored on call to weaken, increase |
|
|
radius, or decrease
radius, and created on strengthen, with random location |
|
|
and radius. With a call to New, a small ion disturbance
will be created |
|
|
at the location of the
calling ship. |
|
|
The ship must be (50) ly
from the outer storm edge to operate on the |
|
|
storm; if the host sets
the range to 0, the controller ship must |
|
|
be INSIDE the ion storm. |
|
|
There is a percent
chance that the controller-ship will lose control of |
|
|
the storm and be
destroyed in an electromagnetic feedback flux. The |
|
|
default value for this
chance is 0%, but it can be adjusted upwards. |
|
|
NOTE: multiple ships can
operate on one storm. For example, you
could |
|
|
turn the storm 180
degrees, strengthen it, and increase radius, all in one |
|
|
turn, with 4 ships. |
|
|
NOTE: to dissipate an
ion storm, weaken it ("W") until it's gone. |
|
|
NOTE: when creating a
new storm, its ID will be the first one available, |
|
|
not the ID you have
indicated in the name. |
|
|
NOTE: Artificial ion
storms will weaken slightly every turn if untended. |
|
|
# Universal Ability: |
|
|
Planetary Warp
Interdictor. |
|
|
All races can build a
Planetary Warp Interdictor devices on |
|
|
planets. The Interdictor is installed by dismantling
a Neutronic Refinery |
|
|
vessel and converting
its parts to build the device; to install the |
|
|
Interdictor device, the
planet must have an orbiting Neutronic Refinery |
|
|
ship and have the FC of
"BWI". To engage the
Planetary Warp Interdictor, |
|
|
use the ship FC of
"EWI"; you must have more than (40) fuel units to use |
|
|
the device. When the device is engaged, all ships of
all other races are |
|
|
slowed down to warp (4);
the ships of the race that owns the device and its |
|
|
allies
can tweak their engines to go up to two warp factor higher than the |
|
|
other races' ships. For example, the Birds within the field
Birdman-planet- |
|
|
generated
Interdiction field (at the beginning of the turn) can go the max of |
|
|
warp (6), while other
ships can go up to warp (4). Planetary
Interdictors are |
|
|
destroyed when the
planet is captured by another race. |
|
|
Orbital Defense
Satellites. |
|
|
The Orbital Defense
Satellites are designed to make the planets much harder |
|
|
to take over. Any planet can build up to 5 of the
Satellites using the |
|
|
FC "BDS". Each satellite, when built, is taken into
orbit and placed in |
|
|
standby mode. One can
activate them with the FC "ADS".
Each satellite, |
|
|
when activated, will
engage a search pattern for enemy ships.
If none |
|
|
are found, it will
return back to standby. However, if
any enemy ships |
|
|
approaching the planet
are found, all the present satellites will detonate, |
|
|
each causing 40% of a
mine-hit to any and all enemy ships(own and allied |
|
|
ships
are safe). Thus, the maximum damage to
an enemy fleet is 2 full mine hits. |
|
|
In
addition, the combat will NOT occur in the same turn. For example, |
|
|
an
Emerald is 20 ly away from a Fed planet, going at warp 9. The planet has 5 ODS's. |
|
|
The planet's owner sets the FC to
"ADS". Next turn, the
Emerald arrives at |
|
|
the planet, ODS's
explode, causing 56% damage to the Emerald.
After that, |
|
|
the Emerald DOES NOT
fight the planet. The Emerald's owner
will find it |
|
|
next turn sitting right
over the planet, even with mission KILL! |
|
|
Only the biggest ships
will be able to withstand the explosions and have |
|
|
enough firepower left to
defeat a well-defended planet.
However, there |
|
|
is a catch to that. Some ships have a chance of avoiding the
damage |
|
|
from the ODS's. The larger the ship is, the better its
chances are. |
|
|
There is nothing anyone
can do to prevent this "immunity" or to increase |
|
|
a ship's chances. |
|
|
In addition, there is an
extra option open to a planet with all 5 |
|
|
satellites present. If you issue the FC "EDS", the
satellites will |
|
|
unconditionally explode,
causing damage to all enemy ships in orbit in |
|
|
the beginning of the
turn, doing only 50% of a minehit to each (total), |
|
|
but it would apply to
cloaked ships as well. So for example
you have |
|
|
some Birdman ship in
orbit around your homeworld |
|
|
with Super spy
mission. Your homeworld has 5
ODS's. You set the FC to |
|
|
"EDS", the
satellites explode, causing 50% of a minehit to all cloakers. |
|
|
They come out of cloak
and are now ready for taking. |
|
|
Each ODS costs 50 of
each mineral, 50 supplies and 100 MC. |
|
|
You can count the number
of your satellites and check the presence of a |
|
|
planetary cloaking
shield by using planetary FC "CDS", count defense |
|
|
satellites. |
|
|
Super Star Destroyers
are immune to ADS and EDS. |
|
|
Anchoring. |
|
|
Many captains and race
leaders have complained about the motion effect of |
|
|
the Ion storms. I am also not an exception: it is extremely
annoying |
|
|
if you can't keep your
own fleet at your own planet.
Therefore, I am |
|
|
introducing anchoring: a
free and easy way to keep your ship in place. |
|
|
Any ship orbiting a
planet can set its FC to "ANC" and warp to 0 and |
|
|
voila: the ship has not
moved! No other special requirements
exist. |
|
|
Ships using anchoring
cannot escape Tractor beam tow. |
|
|
Native Gifts. |
|
|
Some of the natives are
more friendly to races that are like them. |
|
|
Siliconoids like
Crystals, Humanoids are fond of Colonials, Avians adore |
|
|
Birdmen, and the
Reptilians just love having Lizards nearby.
In these |
|
|
four cases, the natives
give money presents to colonists, not depending on |
|
|
tax rate and
happiness. This does not decrease the
native happiness |
|
|
levels. The more natives and colonists there are,
the more money they |
|
|
will bring, up to the
maximum of 1000 MC/turn. |
|
|
Give Planet. |
|
|
Use the planetary FC
"xGa", where a is 1..9 or "a" or "b" to give
the |
|
|
planet to the
corresponding race. That race must
have a ship in orbit. |
|
|
10 percent of the
population is killed in riots that follow the change in |
|
|
government and happiness
of colonists drops 30 points. The base
is given |
|
|
along with the
planet. No base or structure damage
results. |
|
|
Any starship hulls in
store on the base are ejected into space. |
|
|
Since in Timhost Birdman
ships with FC beginning with the letter "x" cannot |
|
|
change
FCodes of enemy planets, Fcode xGa, where a is 1 through 9 or "a"
or |
|
|
"b"
should alleviate the worries of hosts who worry about empires |
|
|
surrendering to Birdmen
due to players who miss turns. |
|
|
Beam Up Planetary Codes. |
|
|
To supplement
"bum", 6 new planetary FCs are introduced. Use the FC |
|
|
"BUM",
"BUD", "BUT", "BUS", "BUN", and
"BUC" to beam up molybdenium, |
|
|
duranium, tritanium,
supplies, fuel, and colonists respectively. |
|
|
It is done after
movement and combat, proportional distribution |
|
|
to all starships' cargo
holds. For example, if there is 400
fuel |
|
|
on the planet and an
LDSF and a SDSF are in orbit, the LDSF
would get |
|
|
300 and the SDSF will
get 100 additional fuel. At least 1
colonist will |
|
|
always stay on the
planet. |
|
|
For all you Fhost users:
To avoid conflict with FHost's BUM, you can use |
|
|
BuM FCode as a
substitute for Jupiter' BUM. |
|
|
Note: ships whose FCode
begins with letter 'X' will not receive |
|
|
anything. This was done because some people were
using beam-up codes |
|
|
as cloaked ship
detectors. |
|
|
Tanks and ComBots. |
|
|
The Tanks and ComBots
(Combat Robots) are additions to VGAP's weak |
|
|
system of ground
combat. Now, in addition to using
colonists to defend |
|
|
and attack planets,
(all) the races can use tanks to defend and attack |
|
|
and (Crystals and
Empire) can use ComBots to defend their planets. The |
|
|
default attack value of
a tank is equal to (10) clans and a defense value |
|
|
is (5) clans; one tank
takes up 2 cargo spaces on a ship. A
Combot is |
|
|
equal to (50) clans on
defense, and it cannot be used for offense (because |
|
|
they are too big to be
transported on starships). Each planet
can build |
|
|
up to square root of the
population of tanks and ComBots; for example, |
|
|
a planet with 400 clans
can build 20 tanks. 1 tank costs 10
units of all |
|
|
minerals and 50 MC; 1
ComBot costs 50 of each mineral and 200 MC.
Use |
|
|
a planetary FC
"B1C" to build 1 ComBot (if a race can) and "B1T" to |
|
|
build 1 tank. With an empty ship (excepting fuel and
money) use |
|
|
FC "LTN" to
load as many tanks as would fit into the ship from a |
|
|
planet; use FC
"UTN" to unload tanks. If
tanks are unloaded to a friendly |
|
|
planet, they are added
to the current stock; if they are unloaded to an |
|
|
enemy planet, combat
ensues. First, the tanks fight the
ComBots (if any); |
|
|
then, tanks fight tanks
(if any); then, tanks fight defending |
|
|
colonists. NOTE: during the ground combat involving
these new war machines, |
|
|
the defending side DOES
NOT get any bonuses from the colony defenses or |
|
|
the colonists' natural
combat abilities: the inborn strength or ferocity |
|
|
means nothing next to
tons of combat armor. |
|
|
NOTE: if a ship lands
assault troops to a planet, they first fight ComBots, |
|
|
then tanks, then
colonists. |
|
|
WARNING: if a ship
carries tanks, it CANNOT carry any other cargo (besides |
|
|
money). If you load
anything else, all the tanks are DESTROYED. |
|
|
NOTE: when landing
troops, all tank landing battles are resolved before |
|
|
any colonists from any
ships are landed. |
|
|
NOTE: tanks alone cannot
take control of the planet. You need
to beam down |
|
|
at least one clan to do
that. |
|
|
Ground Bombardment. |
|
|
Ships can choose not to
engage the ground defense posts in combat and use |
|
|
orbital bombardment
instead. This will allow you to
capture planets with all |
|
|
defense posts intact and
with colonists already on the planet, ready to work |
|
|
and pay
taxes. Assault factor is determined as
follows: |
|
|
#-of-colonists
killed = (#-of-beams-corrected-for-damage * tech-of-beams * 2)- #
of-defense-posts (dps). |
|
|
NOTE: with phost, the
max damage to the planet is 100. |
|
|
1 factory + 1 mine are
destroyed per 5 colonists killed. The
ships take damage |
|
|
from defense
outposts on planets; damage determined as |
|
|
(#-of-dps
minus (tech-of-engines + tech-of-beams)*4)/2. |
|
|
Therefore,
a ship with heavy phasers and transwarps can ignore up to 80 dps |
|
|
with
no damage, and add 0.5% of damage per dp thereafter. If the planet has a |
|
|
base
or over (200) defenses, then orbital bombardment is not allowed. There is |
|
|
a
chance for surrender of all colonists to the race that bombards, equal
to |
|
|
20%
plus (number-of-colonists-killed times cowardice-factor) / 125. |
|
|
So
a ship with 10 heavy phasers bombarding a planet with 80 dps can hope for
a |
|
|
78%
chance of survivors surrendering. All
damage to ships is done before any |
|
|
damage
to the planet, so that small ships could not bombard heavily defended |
|
|
planets. Damaged ships would not use all of their
beams. |
|
|
To initiate orbital
bombardment, have a ship orbiting an enemy planet with less |
|
|
than (200) dps and no
starbase at warp 0, FC "GRB" and not towed. |
|
|
Antimatter Doomsday
Missile. |
|
|
The Antimatter DoomsDay
Missile is the ultimate weapon in the VGAP universe. |
|
|
It is a huge missile,
filled with antimatter, that moves at warp 9, cannot |
|
|
be swept, and that
totally destroys a planet and all life and all structures |
|
|
on it, converts it to
100 degree desert world, destroys the starbase and |
|
|
all ships up to 1 ly
away, and damages all ships up to 100 ly away. |
|
|
Unfortunately,
antimatter is very expensive and takes a long time to produce; |
|
|
therefore, the launcher
takes (10) turns and (5000) units of every |
|
|
mineral and (10000) MC
to build; the planet has to have more than |
|
|
1000 colonists, a
starbase, and FC "BAM" to start building the launcher. |
|
|
Every race in the galaxy
gets a progress report on building from its spies. |
|
|
NOTE: the launcher is
destroyed whenever the planet changes ownership. |
|
|
Therefore, the best way
to survive a missile is not let it finish building. |
|
|
You have to keep the
first letter of the FC "B" if you want to continue |
|
|
building launcher; the
building will be suspended if the first letter is not |
|
|
a "B". |
|
|
After (10) turns, the
launcher is built and you can launch missiles. Each |
|
|
missile costs (10000) MC
and (1000) units of fuel; it also takes (3) turns |
|
|
to aim/launch. Every race in the galaxy receives a spy
report on a planet |
|
|
preparing to launch a
missile. To launch, have all the
required |
|
|
money/fuel available and
set the FC of the planet to the ID# of the planet |
|
|
you want to pulverize
and keep it until the missile is launched.
All |
|
|
computing resources of
the world are required to move the missile and evade |
|
|
destruction; therefore,
each planet can have a max of ONE missile in flight. |
|
|
NOTE: if ownership of
the planet is changed during the missile flight, both |
|
|
the missile and the
launcher are destroyed. |
|
|
Honor Device. |
|
|
Selected ships (all
Birdmen, Opal, Topaz, Sage, and Deep Space Scout) |
|
|
have the Honor Device
built into their hulls. This device
will explode |
|
|
the ship if it is
captured, damaging all ships nearby by (1) mine hit and |
|
|
damaging other ships of
the ship's previous owner at the same location by |
|
|
(20) percent of a mine
hit. The operation is automatic, no special FC |
|
|
or other requirements
are necessary. For example, an
Imperial task force |
|
|
attacks a Birdman planet
with a Deth Specula in orbit (uncloaked) and a |
|
|
cloaked Swift
Heart. If the Deth is captured, it
will self-destruct, |
|
|
all surviving Imperial
ships will get a mine hit's worth of damage, and |
|
|
the Swift Heart will get
20% of a mine-hit worth of damage. |
|
|
Ship Exchange. |
|
|
This ability would
improve an otherwise painful process of exchanging |
|
|
ships under
Timhost. With Jupiter ship exchange,
you no longer need 3 |
|
|
ships, 2 turns, and
clans on board; you are also protected
from |
|
|
betrayal from the other
player: if the other player does not want to give |
|
|
his ship, he won't get
yours either. |
|
|
To activate, set FCode
of a ship to "EXx", where x is any character. Next |
|
|
turn, the
next-higher-ID-numbered ship from another race with |
|
|
IDENTICAL FCode will be
swapped with yours and FCodes of both ships |
|
|
will reset to QQQ. Neiter ship can be cloaked during transfer
of ownership. |
|
|
If there are no other
ships with identical ID, the exchange will not |
|
|
occur (you may want to
see that your opponent does not set a EXx on a |
|
|
worthless ship, giving
it away for something potentially good of yours). |
|
|
Sell Structures. |
|
|
You can sell mines,
defenses, factories and starbases on planets where you |
|
|
don't want them or when
they run out of minerals. The FC is
"SDx" for sell |
|
|
defenses,
"SMx" for sell mines, "SFx" to sell factories, and
"SSB" for sell |
|
|
starbase, where x is the
number of units you want to sell divided by 10. |
|
|
For example,
"SM5" will sell 50 mines.
NOTE: if the planet has less than |
|
|
50, none will be
sold. Note: "SD0",
"SM0" and "SF0" will not sell anything. |
|
|
You will get back (50%)
of all money and minerals and 100% of supplies back |
|
|
when you sell
structures, and 50% of money that went into tech upgrades; |
|
|
however, if a planet has
(for example) humanoid natives and hull tech of 10, |
|
|
you will not get any
money for the hull tech. Sold
factories will get |
|
|
the same amount of money
as a sold mine. To prevent Birdman practical |
|
|
jokes (don't really need
that starbase at the Birdman border, do you?), a |
|
|
ship of yours has to be
orbiting that planet with FC "YES" for the |
|
|
structures to be sold. |
|
|
# Team Game |
|
|
The
host can configure Jupiter so that it uses team game rules. It is a very |
|
|
important
configuration item. This ability
changes all race specials into ship |
|
|
specials; ships can then be traded and preserve their
special abilities. For |
|
|
example,
with team play a Fed player can give a Nebula to a Borg and then the |
|
|
Borg
would be able to use the Genesis Device just like a Fed. Only certain |
|
|
ships
are transferable: only the original, race-designed ships would do. For |
|
|
example,
a Borg Victorious bought from the Fascists would be able to launch |
|
|
missiles,
but a Deth Specula would not, since the Birdmen can also build that |
|
|
ship. Therefore you should always check before
buying a ship to use a race |
|
|
special. The following are the abilities that cannot
be transferred in a team |
|
|
game: Sweet-talk, lizard growth, Eros, rebel
defense regeneration, and |
|
|
Colonial
KDP mission. All others, including
build cloaking shield, are |
|
|
transferrable. |
|
|
# Gameplay Notes. |
|
|
BE
VERY CAREFUL when assigning your ships destructive FCs. Many of them work on your own |
|
|
planets/ships as well as
the enemy. |
|
|
This
add-on has been given a good amount of testing. I am pretty sure it’s bug-free, but if you
find |
|
|
any, please e-mail me at
stardestroyer@deathsdoor.com and you will be the first to receive the fix! |
|
|
This
add-on will create a file called JUPITER.LOG in the planets game directory
and will log most |
|
|
Jupiter actions there
for debugging purposes. |
|
|
Warning:
In using the subspace bubble and cloak-tow, I am utilizing a bug in the
movement phase of |
|
|
host.exe. Due to this bug, combat is possible BEFORE
MOVEMENT in both of these cases, i.e. if a |
|
|
Colonial
ship tries to use the bubble when escaping combat (such as, for example,
departing from an |
|
|
orbit
around an enemy planet with ISB FCode and the planet has NUK) or when being
cloak-towed out |
|
|
of
the location where enemy ships are present.
There is no way to get around this; the only way is to |
|
|
get
Tim to fix the bug, but it would totally disable the Bubble, which is why I
have not reported it to |
|
|
Tim. |
|
|
This add-on will create
a file called JUPITER.LOG in the planets game |
|
|
directory and will log
most (not all) JUPITER actions there. |
|
|
Credits |
|
|
Design and Programming:
Oleg Shvartsman |
|
|
REGISTRATION INFORMATION |
|
|
# Shareware/Registration. |
|
|
This addon is being
distributed as full registered version only.
This means you will not get the full- |
|
|
featured
program until you register. There are
two methods you can use to register.
To register by |
|
|
mail,
send a check, cash, or money order for 15 American dollars plus a form found
in the file |
|
|
JORDER.FRM to: |
|
|
Oleg Shvartsman |
|
|
29631 Westbrook Pkwy. |
|
|
Southfield, MI 48076 |
|
|
USA |
|
|
You
can also register online, by phone, by e-mail, or by fax. Please see |
|
|
http://www.deathsdoor.com/stardestroyer/order.html
or http://www.darkforce.dk/std/order.html for details. |
|
|
# Contacts: |
|
|
If
you have any questions, please e-mail me, stardestroyer@deathsdoor.com, or,
if the message is bounced, |
|
|
stardestroyer@geocities.com. The main Jupiter web site is at
http://www.deathsdoor.com/stardestroyer; the |
|
|
European mirror is at
http://www.darkforce.dk/std |
|
|
# Alt Tech |
|
|
It
is possible to use Jupiter with various alternate tech files out there. However, there are some |
|
|
restrictions: |
|
|
* Number of planets HAS
to be 500. |
|
|
* Number of possible
hull designs HAS to be 105. |
|
|
* Number of Hull tech
slots HAS to be 10. |
|
|
* Number of Engine,
beam, and torp designs HAS to be 9. |
|
|
* The map HAS to be
equal to or below 4000x4000 ly in size. |
|
|
If
any of the above are violated, the results are unpredictable. Other than that, alt techs are OK,
though |
|
|
some
side effects may develop: for example,
if an alt hull file redefines an Emerald (hull number 61) |
|
|
to
Coldpain's slot (36) and team game is in effect, the Emerald would start
boarding bases! Or, if a |
|
|
banshee
is redesigned to have 500 cargo hold, it will hold millions of natives. You have to keep hull |
|
|
reassignments in mind
when deciding what alt tech file to use and when configuring Jupiter. |
|
|
#Thanks: |
|
|
To Tim Wisseman for the
wonderful game. |
|
|
To
M.Ederveen@cd.hse.nl for many suggestions and planetary codes. |
|
|
To Armin Trott: for
hosting beta game, many ideas and a lot of help. |
|
|
To brianlg@primary.net
for web server space. |
|
|
# Table of Contents |
|
|
# intro |
|
|
# Whatsnew |
|
|
# Installation |
|
|
# genesis_device |
|
|
# Move_Natives |
|
|
# Native_coop |
|
|
# Superrefit |
|
|
# BonusRefit |
|
|
# swt |
|
|
# CHM |
|
|
# eros |
|
|
# Super_growth |
|
|
# LCH |
|
|
# AFM |
|
|
# BCS |
|
|
# fuel_efficiency |
|
|
# bird_RID |
|
|
# beacons |
|
|
# bird_honor |
|
|
# bird_interdictor |
|
|
# Sneak_attack |
|
|
# bird_stealfighters |
|
|
# fascist_missiles |
|
|
# bbx |
|
|
# clt |
|
|
# anti_genesis |
|
|
# priv_rid |
|
|
# priv_royale |
|
|
# priv_fightersteal |
|
|
# borg_movemines |
|
|
# cube_intercept |
|
|
# STR |
|
|
# A2S |
|
|
# borg_sweettalk |
|
|
# SDS |
|
|
# ATF |
|
|
# super_alchemy |
|
|
# move_webs |
|
|
# crystal_combots |
|
|
# RAV |
|
|
# crystal_honor |
|
|
# OSC |
|
|
# Empire_Combots |
|
|
# hyper_moscow |
|
|
# PAC |
|
|
# mig |
|
|
# IPD |
|
|
# GCB |
|
|
# cloakerdetect |
|
|
# massdrivers |
|
|
# VRF |
|
|
# BMR |
|
|
# hypersage |
|
|
# rebel_sabotage |
|
|
# DSB |
|
|
# rebel_honor |
|
|
# RSM |
|
|
# Rebel_defenses |
|
|
# KDP |
|
|
# ISB |
|
|
# FBA |
|
|
# IOC |
|
|
# univ_interdictor |
|
|
# ODS |
|
|
# ANC |
|
|
# nativegifts |
|
|
# give_planet |
|
|
# beam_up_codes |
|
|
# univ_combots |
|
|
# GRB |
|
|
# BAM |
|
|
# univ_honor |
|
|
# ship_exchange |
|
|
# sell_structs |
|
|
# team_game |
|
|
# contact |
|
|
# notes |
|
|
# shareware |
|
|
# alt_tech |
|
|
# thanks |
|
|
|
|
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