Help: Introduction and Overview of the Game of DECWARs.
DECWAR is a real time space battle game designed to be
played by from 1 to 10 people. The object of the game is to
destroy all enemy bases and ships, and capture all enemy
planets, before the enemy does the same to you. Each person
plays on a separate terminal, and enters the game by selecting
8 DECWAR (on the MultiPlayer Host)
Players are free to enter and leave the game as desired, since
each has his own job and therefore won't interfere with the
other players (the jobs interact through a shareable high
segment).
Besides the enemy (Federation or Empire), the following may
also be a threat to your well being.
1. Romulans are nasty beasts that beginners are better off
without. However, if you're the only person playing,
the Romulan is your only competition. Romulans tend to
make for shorter games but when there are 3 or less
players a Romulan will be included. After the fourth
player joins the game, a Romulan will not be re-created
once he is destroyed. include Romulans in the game.
2. Black holes are annoying, since if you are displaced
into one, you're dead. They also tend to gobble up
stray torpedos. There is a 25% chance of black holes
being included in the game.
There are two primary opposing forces in the galaxy --
Humans (Federation) and Klingons (Empire). As you enter the
game for the first time, you get to choose which side you'll
join (unless there is a large imbalance in the team sizes). If
you are subsequently destroyed and later reenter the game, you
automatically rejoin your old team.
You get to select the ship you want to control from a list
of remaining ships on your side. There are 5 ships on each
side:
Federation ships Empire ships
---------------- ------------
Lexington Cobra
Nimitz Demon
Savannah Hawk
Vulcan Jackal
Yorktown Wolf
Due to continuous espionage activities, present front-line
ships of the Federation and the Klingon Empire are identical in
strength and weaponry. These ships can move from sector to
sector using either warp or impulse engines, can attack enemy
installations and ships using either photon torpedoes or
phasers, and can defend themselves against such attack using
their deflector shields. All ships also possess sub-space
radios which keep them in touch with friendly starbases and
other ships.
The various devices of a ship are subject to damage. This
damage may be due to enemy attack or to over use. These
damages, unlike total ship damage (see ship attributes below),
may be repaired while underway. If damage on a device is less
than 300 units, its performance is degraded. If damage is 300
or more units, the device is inoperative. A ship possesses the
following devices:
1. Warp Engines -- These engines are the normal mode of
travel for starships. The maximum speed is warp factor
6, with warps 5 and 6 risking potential damage to the
engines. If warp engines are damaged (less than 300
units) the maximum speed is warp factor 3.
NOTE
One warp unit is equivalent to one horizontal
or one vertical grid movement. A diagonal
movement is equivalent to the hypotenuse of the
horizontal and vertical sides.
2. Impulse Engines -- These engines are basically for
emergency use while the warp engines are critically
damaged. Impulse engines move the ship at warp factor
1.
3. Photon Torpedo Tubes -- Used to fire photon torpedoes.
If these tubes are damaged, the accuracy of torpedo
bursts is impaired. The maximum torpedo range is 10
sectors.
4. Phaser Banks -- Each ship possesses two phaser banks,
with a single phaser control. Damage to this phaser
control or to the ship's computer reduces the strength
of the phaser hit.
5. Deflector Shields -- The deflector shields of a ship
protect it from damage from phaser and photon torpedo
hits, and shield it from the energy released when a
star goes nova. The percent shield strength indicates
the percent of the incoming hit which will be
nullified. In addition, strong deflector shields may
deflect photon torpedoes with little or no damage.
NOTE: If a ship's shields are up, the amount of energy
expended during movement is doubled.
6. Computer -- The ship's computer is used for computed
firing, computation during ship movement, and for
phaser control. If the computer is inoperative,
navigation during warp and impulse movement becomes
inexact.
7. Life Support -- If the life support units of a starship
are inoperative, the ship must either repair this
damage or dock within 5 stardates. If this is not
accomplished, the crew will die.
8. Sub-Space Radio -- The sub-space radio is used to
communicate with other ships, of either side. Bases
under attack also use the sub-space radio to call for
help and notify their team's ships of their
destruction.
9. Tractor Beam -- The ship's tractor beam is used
primarily to tow damaged friendly ships away from
danger. The beam can not be used unless both ships
have lowered their shields.
In addition to the individual devices discussed above, a
newly commissioned ship (or a fully repaired and rearmed older
ship) possesses the following attributes:
1. 5000 units of ship energy. Ship energy is used during
movement and phaser firing. It is also decreased each
time the ship gets hit with phasers or photon
torpedoes. If this quantity ever reaches zero, the
ship is dead. A ship possessing 1000 units of ship
energy or less automatically goes to yellow alert, and
a warning bell sounds after every move.
2. 2500 units of shield energy. This energy is stored in
the ship's shields (whether up or down), and is
separate from the ship energy. However, energy may be
transferred between these two energy reserves as
needed. If shields are up, their energy is decreased
each time the ship gets hit.
3. Zero units of ship damage. During battle, a ship
collects hits from enemy installations and ships. If
these accumulated hits ever reach 2500 units of damage
or greater, the ship is destroyed. Ship damage may be
reduced only by docking.
The galaxy is arranged in a grid of 75 by 75 sectors.
Players can move freely throughout the galaxy in search of
enemies, which come in several categories:
1. Romulan. This can be the most dangerous thing to come
up against, and fortunately there is a maximum of 1
Romulan in the game at any given time. The Romulan
moves around concealed by his cloaking device until he
comes across a suitable target (Federation or Empire
ship or base) which he immediately proceeds to attack.
An infinite supply of torpedoes and energy make him a
formidable foe. If you kill one, another will
eventually appear somewhere in the galaxy.
2. Enemy ship. This is the second most dangerous thing to
come across, since all enemy ships are backed by human
intelligence. All ships are created equal, and so the
outcome of a clash between two ships is usually due to
skill on its captain's part, although some other
factors do come into play.
3. Enemy base. These aren't dangerous unless you come
within range (4 sectors) since they are immobile. If
you ARE foolish enough to get within range, however,
their overwhelming phaser power will quickly pound you
into rubble! Destroying a base is useful primarily
because this removes it from use by your enemy (bases
are used as supply stations and as a refuge in times of
stress). A damaged starbase will slowly build itself
back to full strength if it is not completely
destroyed.
4. Enemy planet. These are just like enemy bases, except
that they are weaker (how much weaker depends on how
many fortifications the enemy has built on them), and
they can be captured. Their firing range is only two
sectors, and they can re-supply the enemy less rapidly
than can a base.
5. Neutral planet. While these aren't strictly classified
as enemies, they will take pot shots at you (their
range is also 2 sectors), so be wary of them. You can
capture neutral planets and win them over to your side.
When playing the game, all commands can be abbreviated to 2
characters, and some can be abbreviated to 1 character (you can
use the shortest unambiguous abbreviation). For a list of
commands type
HELP *
and for a description of an individual command type
HELP command
The help on individual commands will be read from this help file
(that's what the periods in column 1 are for in the long
description of each command). The legal commands are:
1. BASES -- List information on friendly and known enemy
bases.
2. BUILD -- Develop installations on a planet, and
eventually build it into a base. The planet must first
be captured.
3. CAPTURE -- Win a neutral or enemy planet over to your
side.
4. DAMAGES -- List damaged devices and their current
status.
5. DOCK -- Dock at an adjacent base or planet. This
increases your energy, replenishes your torpedoes,
repairs your ship a little, and reduces your ship
damage.
6. ENERGY -- Transfer energy between two ships.
7. GRIPE -- Record bugs, comments, suggestion, etc. in
the file GAM:DECWAR.GRP, which is periodically reviewed
by the implementors.
8. HELP -- List or describe the legal commands.
9. IMPULSE -- Move using impulse engines.
10. LIST -- List various information about ships, bases,
and planets.
11. MOVE -- Move using warp engines.
12. NEWS -- Tell about any new features or enhancements
described in the file GAM:DECWAR.NWS.
13. PHASERS -- Fire phasers at a target.
14. PLANETS -- List information on friendly and known enemy
and neutral planets.
15. POINTS -- List your score breakdown so far.
16. QUIT -- Get out of the game.
17. RADIO -- Turn ship's sub-space radio on or off; ignore
or restore communications from individual ships.
18. REPAIR -- Repair your damaged devices a little.
19. SCAN -- Display the galaxy with the default range set
to maximum (10 sectors in each direction from your
ship).
20. SET -- Set various input and output defaults.
21. SHIELDS -- Transfer energy to or from your shields;
raise or lower your shields.
22. SRSCAN -- Display the galaxy with a default range of 7
sectors (1 greater than the maximum warp factor).
23. STATUS -- List your ship's current status and supply
levels.
24. SUMMARY -- List various information on ships, bases,
and planets.
25. TARGETS -- List targets (enemies within range) and
their current locations.
26. TELL -- Send messages to other ships using the
sub-space radio.
27. TIME -- List information on run time and elapsed time.
28. TORPEDOES -- Fire photon torpedoes at a target.
29. TRACTOR -- Use tractor beam to tow friendly ships.
30. TYPE -- List current input, output, and game
characteristics.
31. USERS -- List the names and other information known
about the players currently in the game.
.INPUT
General INPUT information
- Only the first 5 characters of each input word are stored.
Any characters beyond that are ignored.
- Input words may be separated by spaces, tabs, or commas.
- The input line can be terminated with <CR>, <LF>, <VT>, <FF>,
<ESC>, or ^Z.
- ^G toggles echo. At the beginning of each input line, echoing
is turned on. Typing ^G turns it off, the next ^G turns it
back on, etc. Echoing is always turned back on at the end of
an input line, or if ^U is typed.
- Multiple commands may be given on a single command line by
separating the commands with / (slash). If the TELL command
is given, it must be last on the line.
- Anything after ; (semicolon) is treated as a comment and is
ignored (but TELL rescans the line and takes the text after
the first ; as the message to send).
- <ESC> (escape, or altmode) entered as the first character in
response to the command prompt (even before ^H, ^U, or ^R)
repeats the previous command. This is useful when building a
planet, docking, repairing, firing torpedoes, etc. Altmode
can't be used to repeat a TELL command.
- Any ship name can be abbreviated to 1 character.
- Any command or keyword can be shortened to the shortest
unambiguous abbreviation, which is never more than 2
characters.
- Many commands require a coordinate as an argument (PHASERS,
TORPEDOES, CAPTURE, BUILD, etc.). The required coordinate(s)
can be specified in one of three ways:
Absolute - the default coordinate input type, which is simply
an absolute vertical position followed by an absolute
horizontal position. The coordinate may be preceded by the
keyword ABSOLUTE, but this isn't necessary unless the
default coordinate input type has been changed by SET ICDEF
RELATIVE.
Relative - the keyword RELATIVE, followed by a relative
vertical distance and a relative horizontal distance. A
positive distance is either up or right, and negative is
either down or left. The absolute coordinate is computed by
adding the relative distances to your current position. The
keyword RELATIVE isn't needed if the default coordinate
input type has been changed by SET ICDEF RELATIVE.
Computed - the keyword COMPUTED followed by a ship name. The
coordinate used is the location of the given ship. This
type of coordinate computation is available only to captains
controlling their ships through slow terminals (< 1200
baud), and requires an operational computer.
The keyword ABSOLUTE, RELATIVE, or COMPUTED is only given one
time for each set of coordinates. For instance, the TORPEDO
command can accept up to 3 coordinates, but the keyword
describing the coordinate input type is given only once, and
all coordinates must be of the same type.