POINT Software Programming

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Text File | 1994-04-10 | 13.5 KB | 287 lines

============ Language War ============ Object of the Game ------------------ It is the year 2394. The galaxy is dominated by the evil forces of the C empire. Programmers' minds are being enslaved to the C language. Your objective as commander of the Euphoria is to rid the galaxy of the 50 C ships and spread euphoria throughout the galaxy. 40 of these evil ships are regular (K&R) C ships, 9 are the more powerful ANSI C ships, and a single ship, lurking somewhere in the galaxy is the extremely powerful and terrifying C++. You will encounter other ships in the Galaxy as well. These are the BASIC ships and the Fortran ships, remnants of previous empires. While it is not your prime objective to destroy these ships, they will at times attack you and you will want to eliminate them. This is particularly true when they threaten friendly bases and planets. Start at the novice level -- type 'n' Enter to start the game. When you are able to win at the novice level, move up to the expert level. If you try the expert level right away you will be "blown out", and will be very frustrated. This game has pushed grown men to the edge of tears! It can be more fun to watch someone else play than to play yourself. Moving the Euphoria through space --------------------------------- The galaxy consists of 49 quadrants arranged in a 7x7 grid. Due to the curvature of space, when you travel off the edge of the galaxy you will arrive in the quadrant on the opposite side. At any one time you can only see the action taking place in the current quadrant that you are located in. When you move past the edge of the screen you enter an adjacent quadrant. The ship moves at a certain warp speed from 0 to 5, and a certain direction from 1 to 8 as shown below. directions 3 4 | 2 | 5------+------1 | 6 | 8 7 To move at warp 3 in direction 2 you would type w 3 2 (or 2 w 3) i.e. entering a number from 1 to 8 by itself will set your direction. You cannot move in a fractional direction. Your current direction is displayed in the navigation box in the lower left of the screen. This box also serves to remind you of the directions for firing weapons. Weapon Systems (in General) --------------------------- Ships fire phasors with a certain amount of input energy. The impact of the phasor diminishes with distance to the target but the enemy always loses more energy than was put into the phasor. A ship loses energy when it fires a phasor, whether the phasor hits or not. Torpedos pack a 4000 unit impact regardless of the distance to the target. A torpedo will be neutralized by a torpedo deflector, if one exists on the target ship. Weapons on board the Euphoria ----------------------------- The Euphoria comes equipped with conventional phasors and torpedos. It can also fire an extremely powerful antimatter pod. The Euphoria stores a maximum of 30000 units of energy, and must be refueled at either a base or a planet. It carries up to 5 torpedos and 3 torpedo deflectors. Weapons and deflectors can only be replenished at a base. They appear on your screen as *****, DDD and @. You can fire a phasor with any amount of input energy from 000 to 900 units. This input energy is deducted from the amount that the Euphoria has left. To fire a 900-unit phasor in direction 1.0 type: p 9 1 0 To fire a torpedo (*) in direction 3.4 type: t 3 4 To fire an antimatter pod (@) in direction 2.1 type: a 2 1 (... then press Enter) Exactly 1 decimal place is required on directions for weapons. The antimatter pod will head out from the Euphoria in the direction you have chosen. It will pass through any matter in its path. At the precise moment that you want it to detonate, press Enter. A powerful explosion, equivalent to a 1000-unit phasor blast in all directions, will spread out from the point of detonation. As with a phasor, the damage inflicted will decline with distance from the epicenter. All objects in the quadrant, including the Euphoria and any bases or planets, will be affected. The pod is clearly a double-edged sword in your arsenal. You should try to detonate it in the middle of a large number of C ships and other enemy ships, as far away as possible from the Euphoria and any planets or bases. The Euphoria initially carries one pod. Each base will provide one additional pod the first time you dock with it. Canceling a Command ------------------- To cancel a command, you can stop, part way through the command, and start typing a new one, or you can type 'x' which will clear the command display. Pausing the Game ---------------- To temporarily suspend the game type '!'. To resume type 'x'. Note: This is only allowed to answer a phone call, or go to the bathroom. You can also type control-c to abort the game. Know Your Enemy --------------- BASIC ships are sometimes at TRUCE (bright blue) and will not fire at you unless you fire first and break the TRUCE. Sometimes however they will spontaneously change to HOSTILE (dark blue) and start firing. The BASIC ships have a deadly cloaking device that can make them invisible. When a BASIC ship is attacked, all other BASIC ships in the quadrant will fire back on the attacker. BASIC ships have torpedos and conventional phasors. They only have 2000 units of energy. The Fortran ships are very unpredictable and will shoot at anything, including other Fortran ships. They can enter a higher dimension that lets them travel from any other quadrant in the galaxy and arrive at any point in the current quadrant. Their invisible phasors can travel through anything. They have 3000 units of energy. C ships come in 3 different sizes. All have torpedos and conventional phasors. The regular ships have 4000 units of energy and 1 torpedo. A single torpedo is just enough to destroy them. A 900-unit phasor from not too far way will also do the trick. The ANSI C ships have 8000 units of energy and carry 2 torpedos. C++ has 20000 units of energy and carries 4 torpedos. C++ has a distinctive magenta color and a "double-barrel shotgun" look. Watch out! Enemy ships always put a fixed percentage of their remaining energy into each phasor blast. A fresh ANSI C will hit you with twice the impact of a regular C ship. C++ will hit you with five (5) times the impact! Destroying ships ---------------- Any ship, including the Euphoria, is destroyed when its energy reserves reach 0. Enemy ships regain their full energy when you leave the quadrant, so be sure to finish them off while you can. Bases and planets also regain their defensive energy when you leave. Damage ------ 5 different subsystems of the Euphoria are subject to damage. On your screen, you will see an estimate of the time required to repair each subsystem. The engines will sometimes sustain partial damage and a recommended maximum warp speed will be posted. You may exceed this speed, but only at great risk of total engine failure that will take a while to fix. The Assembly Language space shuttle ----------------------------------- When the Euphoria is in imminent danger of running out of energy and being destroyed, you can elect to abandon ship and enter the Assembly Language shuttle (press '$'). This small craft carries 5000 units of energy and 1 torpedo deflector. It can dock at a base or a planet for energy. You will get a new Euphoria-class ship if you dock with a base. Docking ------- The Euphoria must periodically dock at an energy source (base or planet) to replenish its supplies. Planets offer energy only. Bases offer energy, torpedos, pods, deflectors, and quick repairs to any subsystems of the ship that need it. To dock, you must bump the Euphoria into the energy source while traveling at WARP 1. Moving once at WARP 1 takes about 20 seconds. Typically you will cruise up to the planet or base at warp 4 or so, bump into it and then lower your speed to warp 1 and wait for the "DOCKING COMPLETED" message. During this time you must be prepared to defend yourself and the base or planet from attackers. Bases can fire back at any ship that fires upon them, but they only have 6000 units of defensive energy, so guard them well. Planets have 5000 units of defensive energy to withstand attacks but cannot fire back. To dock again at the same source you must first leave the quadrant and come back in later. Bases and planets have finite reserves of energy to give you. After docking a few times at the same energy source, you may notice that it has dried up, and has not given you the full amount of energy that you expected. It is time to find new sources. A base will always provide repairs and new deflector shields, but it has only one pod and a finite supply of energy and torpedos. The galaxy scan indicates dried up energy sources by printing the planet or base count in gray. A base might still give you some torpedos, even though it appears in gray on the scan. The Galaxy Scan --------------- Command 'g' will display a map of the galaxy, showing the numbers of C ships, planets and bases in any quadrant that you have visited. Typing 'g' again will restore the normal view. Sometimes your sensors will be damaged and you will not be able to view the galaxy scan. It will also show how many enemy ships are remaining, and you can find out if the BASIC ships are at TRUCE, are HOSTILE, or are CLOAKING (invisible). This scan is particularly important when your reserves are getting low and you are searching for an energy source. As you are viewing the scan the action is still taking place! As you view the scan, the action continues -- but you can't see it. Your ship is still moving and you can be struck by enemy fire - watch out! Tips ---- To win this game you must get totally involved in it. The game never waits for you. You must act quickly and decisively when there is an immediate threat to your safety. You must keep an eye on your energy reserves, and plan where your next docking will take place. Do not just fly around aimlessly, picking fights with whoever comes along. You need a plan! Be aware when your deflectors have run out and you become vulnerable to 4000-unit torpedo blasts. It is generally a good idea to focus on quadrants that contain energy sources. Clear out any enemy ships and make it a safe place to dock. Choose a docking position that will let you defend yourself and the energy source from attack. Do not have a showdown with C++ until you are ready. It takes up to 5 torpedo hits or several medium-range phasor blasts to kill him. He will hit you with phasor blasts that are much stronger than you are used to from other enemy craft. You might consider using a pod - but be sure to detonate it very close to him. From a tactical point of view you are safer to travel near the edge of quadrants, since you can quickly escape into the adjacent quadrant when you are in danger. When entering a new quadrant be prepared to immediately back out if you don't like what you see. Travel at WARP 4 most of the time. It is the most energy-efficient way to travel. WARP 5 is faster but burns energy at a very high rate. Only travel at WARP 5 when you are in extreme danger. When shooting at an enemy target you should first stop at WARP 0 or, if you are docking, move at WARP 1. You can shoot on the run, but it gets frustrating when you miss and waste your torpedo, or phasor energy. Enemy ships can enter your quadrant from the 8 neighboring quadrants. (Fortrans can enter from any quadrant). They tend to do so when your energy is low or you are moving slowly. You should anticipate their sudden arrival, especially when you are attempting to dock. Be prepared to act quickly, or your energy source may be blown out from under you, just before you dock with it. You will need some practice before you are skilled at typing in commands and aiming your weapons. It might be a good idea to print lw.sum and have it beside you as you learn. You don't have to wait for a command to finish before typing in your next command. Do a trial phasor using 0 units of energy to see what the correct direction is before you waste energy on a real phasor. 0-unit phasors are also useful for finding cloaking BASIC ships. On rare occasions your enemy may be in a "blind spot" where he cannot be hit at any specified angle. In this case you must move the Euphoria slightly and try again. Do not use 900-unit phasors when something a lot less will finish off your enemy. Use torpedos when the enemy ship is far away. It is quite an achievement to win this game at the expert level. If you think of a way of improving the game, by all means go ahead! The source code is yours. Better still, write your own game from scratch with much better graphics. Objects in the Galaxy --------------------- (facing right) =-O Euphoria :=- Assembly Language Shuttle >**O C >**8- ANSI C >**8= C++ :##=- BASIC >+- Fortran OOOO OOOOOO Planet OOOO <>-<> Base <>-<> Good Luck!