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- Stellar Conquest ]I[
- Hostile Takeover.
- (C) 1994 Ed T. Toton III
- All Rights Reserved.
-
-
-
- If you're like me, then you probably usually just run the games you
- download without reading the documentation. For that reason I made the
- instructions below as brief as possible, but you should skim through it
- anyway since it is chock full of details that might take you a long time
- to discover yourself. Please note that I'm no technical writer, so please
- bear with me.
-
- Important Note! F1 through F3 are useful function keys! Read on!
-
- Suprisingly, many of you seem to not know that the right mouse button
- allows you to scan stars, scan enemies, and select your own ships. Well,
- you can!!
-
- Several registration letters have included some very good suggestions for
- improvements to this game. While I have added a few, I do intend to add more
- at a later time. So keep an eye out for version 1.05.
-
- (please excuse the spelling/grammar errors, most of
- this has been written during the late night hours)
-
-
-
- CONTENTS:
-
- Overview: Next in line
- Tech Notes/Changes: Just a little further
- Getting Started: Even further still
- Selecting the game: Not terribly far away
- Playing the game: Somewhat far
- Charts: Fairly far
- Pods: A good ways down there
- Notes: Woohie! Tis distant!
- Troubleshooting/Q&A: Very far down
- Revisions: Very VERY far!!
- Legal Shtuffs: Way way WAY down that-away...
-
-
-
- OVERVIEW:
-
- Stellar Conquest II wasn't as much a sequel as it is a remake of the first
- Stellar Conquest game I made several years ago, with many improvements.
- The first one was written in Quick Basic and used EGA graphics and keyboard
- input only... Stellar Conquest II introduced a flexible interface in VGA
- with "clickie buttons".
-
- Stellar Conquest III, is also a VGA-only, and "Microsoft compatable mouse"
- -only strategy game for 0 to 4 human players. The game consists of 2 to 4
- active players, any of which can be either human or computer controlled.
-
- The Stellar Conquest universe is a map containing 50 stars, 4 blackholes,
- and 3 wormholes.
-
- Each player starts with one or more starbases and several ships. Your
- goal is to protect your base and destroy everyone elses' base. To do this,
- you must build ships. You will have the opportunity to build them to your
- own specifications, within your allowed budget of course. To get more money,
- build more cargo ships to do mining. You can also build combat vessels and
- scouts.
-
- The ships belonging to other players will not be visible unless within
- the scan range of one of yours, or under other special circumstances (such
- as civilian ships (which don't appear on the map) informing your base).
-
-
-
- TECH NOTES AND CHANGES FROM Stellar Conquest II:
-
- Many changes abound! The "Cloak" has been renamed "Stealth", since a new
- and more powerful Cloaking Device has been created. Additionally, there are
- many more types of pods, which are explained in more detail further down.
- Another new feature is "Flotillas" which allows you to very easily move
- entire battle groups around simply by telling the leader where to go.
-
- The game consists of over 8,900 lines of Turbo Pascal and Assembly
- source code (excluding comments and remarks), including the libraries
- of functions I made for use in all my games. The button interface is
- designed such that except for detecting where you click in the map
- area, and hiding the mouse for graphics drawing, the main program thinks
- there is only a keyboard interface. The mouse routines automatically
- handle animating the clicking of buttons, and simply return the
- corresponding keypress when you click on a button.
-
- I'm quite pleased with the results I've acheived with this game. I like
- the idea of building ships to your own specifications so much that I
- couldn't resist making another one, and the system I created for Stellar
- Conquest II was pretty well balanced. But it lacked certain things.
- Specifically, if was possible for multiple human players to reach a virtual
- stalemate because there was a way to create a practically inpenetrable
- defense. While this tactic still works to some extent, you can't protect
- three bases effectively in this manner without having one or two shot to
- death along the way. Also, the strategy was limited since all of the offense
- and defense was focused on but one base per player. Now that there are
- multiple bases, things have been decentralized enough to allow for more
- possibilities. Additionally, the new pods I've created give the players
- more options about how to deal with the enemy. Likewise, having more bases
- increases your mining efficiency allowing you to have larger fleets, and
- the 'flotilla' option allows you to move those fleets more easily.
-
- All these new options combined with the superior, more powerful, and
- easier to use interface makes the game much more effective than Stellar
- Conquest II. I actually felt butterflies in my stomach during a test run
- in which the cyan computer player wiped out the other three computer players
- with a battle flotilla of 15 or 20 ships.
-
-
-
- GETTING STARTED:
-
- At the main menu you have the choice of setting the player options, which
- is where you select how many players there will be, human or computer
- control, and what the computer cargoship ratio is.
-
- Select "Game" to play. Once in the game you can press ESCAPE to quit,
- F1 for the game options, F2 to toggle sound on/off, and F3 to toggle
- Fast-Combat on/off.
-
- At the start of the game, you will be shown your starbase menu. At the
- bottom of the screen is a picture of a spaceship. You don't own that ship,
- that's there for ship construction. By using the buttons on the right of the
- screen you can add and remove pods, and above it will show what effect that
- has on the ship's stats, while the picture below will show what it looks
- like. This is the primary function of your starbase, ship construction.
-
- At the bottom right of the screen are 4 buttons that never change. By
- clicking on "Base" you can go right back to a starbase menu. By clicking on
- "UpShip" or "DnShip" you can page through the menus for all of your other
- ships and bases. Clicking on "EndTurn" will end your turn, and the other
- players will get to do their thing.
-
- On the left is the map window. This is where you select destinations and
- torpedo targets for your ships. Clicking on "Zoom" allows you to zoom in
- on a specific region of the map. "Grid" allows you to turn the grid on and
- off. Note however that the grid settings are individual to the zoomed in and
- zoomed out modes, and is individualk to each player.
-
- Pressing "Destruct" allows you to blow up your ship, if it is equipped with
- explosives. The explosives will damage ANY ship adjacent to the one that
- is being blown up, both enemy and friendly.
-
- Selecting "Jettison" allows you to jettison a pod, thus decreasing the
- ship's mass, thus speeding it up. This option is included so that the
- ships may have the means to retreat if necessary.
-
- Clicking on the "Repair" button allows you to repair damage to the ship if
- you are within the "action zone" of your starbase (action zones are explained
- further down). All of the ships damage will be repaired for a base-cost of
- 1500, plus 500 for the replacement of each pod that was jettisoned.
-
- Pressing the "AutoMine" button will toggle the ship to between automine
- and manual mining. Automine means it will continuously perform mining
- missions independently without your needing to do anything. If you decide
- to do something else with the ship later, you can toggle it back to manual
- by clicking the button again. Any ship that is set to automine automatically
- defaults to "Anybase" and "Anystar", but those can be overridden with the
- buttons of those names, then you can place the destination cursors according
- to what you need.
-
- Selecting "Rename" let's you override the randomly generated name given
- to the ship at construction.
-
-
-
- SELECTING THE GAME:
-
- On the game menu, you can change all sorts of settings that define how the
- game will work. Most of the settings are self explanitory, so here are but
- a few suggestions:
-
- * Bases should rarely be set to speeds 3 or greater.
- * It's pointless to give the starbases Torpedoes, Loaders, Jumpers,
- Cloaks, Shields, and Minelayers since they have no effect (in most
- cases simply because there is no way to turn them on). Stealth could
- work, but bear in mind that it would be very difficult to find the
- enemy bases.
- * Make sure the players always start with at least one cargo ship, so
- that they can get started on getting money.
- * If the computer players seem too easy to defeat, try fighting two or
- three of them teamed together, or try one-on-ones with alternate
- base distributions with bases having stealth pods.
-
-
-
-
- PLAYING THE GAME:
-
- There are several nuances and details you should be aware of before playing
- the game. Particularly action zones:
-
- Action Zones are areas of space 9x9 in size (square radius 4), that
- indicate the range you must be within near something to do something. For
- instance, you must be within your bases action zone to repair the ship. You
- must also be in the action zone of the base to off-load materials from the
- cargo holds (done automatically) or in the zone of a star to mine it (also
- done automatically). Likewise, you must be within a ship's action zone to
- fire at it, or to see a "stealth"-equiped ship. The grey borders drawn around
- the bases and stars on the "Zoom In" map show their action-zones.
-
- On the Zoom-Out map, you will have a little green cursor. This cursor
- shows the destination of your selected ship (the selected ship will be shown
- in flashing color, starbases in yellow, and all other ships in their team
- color). Pressing the "Mode" button will toggle which cursor you are currently
- selecting locations for. Cargo ships set to "automine" have two cursors
- (which are invisible at first, until you change the "anystar" and "anybase"
- settings), one of which base to return to, and which star to mine. Having
- the ship set to "AnyStar" allows it to mine any star, and "AnyBase" allows
- it to return to any base. Ships that have a torpedo launcher also have a
- red cursor, which indicates where the torpedoes will be fired.
-
- Clicking the left mouse button on the map screens will select a new
- location for the selected cursor for the selected ship. The right mouse
- button allows you to select ships, scan enemy ships, and scan stars.
-
- Ships set to Automine will have different destination cursors, as noted
- above. They can only be set to point at stars or your home base, nowhere else.
- If AnyStar is turned off, then the ship will mine ONLY the star that the
- square cursor points to. If AnyBase is off, then the ship will return ONLY
- to the base the diamond-shaped cursor points to. You will need to check on
- the ship later, so that it doesn't waste time mining a star that it has
- depleted. Ships set to automine will always return directly home after
- filling their cargo holds, and will then head out to a star again. Setting
- your ships to mine specific stars has great tactical advantages under certain
- conditions. Specificially, you can make your ships avoid stars that are
- gaurded by the enemy, or drain stars that are near the enemy, and so forth.
-
- The "Zoom In" map, supports the same functions of scanning and selecting
- as the "Zoom Out" map. It also has arrow buttons you can use to scroll the
- view around to view other areas of the map.
-
- In combat, each ship will move, then fire at the nearest target if there
- is one, and assuming it has weapons. Since targets are chosen in this manner,
- you can control, to some extent, which ships your ships fire upon simply by
- positioning their destination cursors to plant them right next to the target.
- Firing is done automatically.
-
- One of the new features is "Flotillas". To create a flotilla, select a ship
- to be the leader and click on it's "F-Leader" button. It should now say that
- it is a leader, and it will have a distinct flotilla number. Then, select
- all of the ships you wish to have in the flotilla, and click on the
- "F-Number" button on them until the "Flotilla-Number:" field shows the
- correct flotilla number. You should see all of the ships linked by dark grey
- lines on the map (easier to see on the zoom-in map). All ships in the
- flotilla will follow the leader, so you will need to tell the leader where
- to go. Also, the leader will slow itself down to the speed of the slowest
- ship in the group, so as not to leave anyone behind. If the flotilla leader
- is destroyed, the flotilla will be disbanded and will have to be re-created.
-
- There are a lot of new pods, as well as old ones, so they are described in
- detail in the charts below, and in the section following that.
-
- There are 3 wormholes in the game, for a total of 6 hole-openings
- (2 per wormhole). These can be used to travel great distances across the
- map very quickly. However you must find them first. Use scouts for this.
- Also note that there are 4 blackholes in the game, and they look identical
- to the wormholes! These will destroy any ship that enters. Remember, 4 black-
- holes, and 6 worm-hole openings, that means any given anomaly has a 40%
- chance of being deadly. Remember to build little junk ships to test them
- before sending your main fleet through...
-
-
- Well, that's about all that I can explain here, to understand the rest
- you'll have to go play the game! Go on.. Go! What are you waiting for!?!?
- Play it!! Go on! Oh yeh, read the charts first.......
-
-
- CHARTS:
-
- Weapons:
-
- Name: Hit Prob: Damage: Avg Dam:
- -----------------------------------------
- Laser 1/2 2 1
- Missile 1/3 3 1
- Plasma Cannon 1/2 4 2
- Torpedo 100% 3-5 4
- Mine 100% 3-5 4
-
-
- Pods:
-
- Name: ID: Cost: Mass:
- ------------------------------
- Cargo C 500 300/700
- Laser L 1000 600
- Missile M 1000 600
- Plasma P 2500 600
- Sensor S 1200 200 Increases scan radius by 6
- Shield A 800 250 Adds 4 to ship's armor factor
- Stealth I 6000 1000 Ship invisible until in action zone
- Bomb B 2500 1250
- Targeter T 2000 250 Adds 1/12 to your hit probability.
- ECM E 1200 250 Subtracts 1/12 from enemy's hit prob.
- Thruster F 2300 500 Increases speed by 1 (compensates 750)
- Cloak X 7000 1500 Ship invisible until it de-cloaks.
- Torpedo O 4000 1000/1150
- MineLayer W 3000 650/850
- Jump Pod J 2000 850 Teleports ship once each.
- Torp Loader K 3000 350/600 Extra Torp ammo, gives to other ships
- Viper-ATC V 1500 500 Fires at up to two incoming torpedoes.
-
-
- Add-ons:
-
- Name: Cost: Speed-increase: Accuracy-increase:
- -----------------------------------------------------
- Boosters 7000 4 0
- Engine-2 3000 2 0
- Robot-Crew 5000 1 1/12
-
-
- Ship Speed = 18 - (total_pod_mass / 250) + (boost_from_add_ons)
- Ship Armor = 6 + (3 * number_of_pods)
- Ship Cost = 5000 + total_pod_cost + total_add_on_cost
- Scan Range = 4 + (number_of_sensors * 4)
-
-
-
- PODS:
-
- This section explains each pod in detail, including the various nuances
- and ambiguities that may not be apparent to the casual observer.
-
- Cargo: Cargo pods are quite simple. They weigh little when
- empty, and are heavy when full. Every ton of cargo
- you carry translates to 1 credit of money.
-
- Missiles, These are the main weapon types. Except for the
- Lasers, difference in hit probabilities, damage ratios,
- Plasma Cannons: and color, they are practically the same in terms
- of the game. They do not use up ammo.
-
- Shield/Armor: Though called both "shield" and "armor", it all means
- the same thing. This type of pod simply makes it
- tougher to kill your ship.
-
- Sensor: Sensors, Scanners, various types of detection equipment.
- This type of pod allows you to "see" further on the map,
- and detect ships and incoming torpedoes.
-
- Stealth: The stealth pod renders your ship invisible to all
- outside of it's action zone. It can not be seen until
- within weapon range.
-
- Cloak: The Cloaking Device makes your ship invisible at ALL
- ranges. However, a cloaked ship can not fire unless it
- turns the cloak off. The cloak starts out turned off
- anyway, and must be turned on to be used.
-
- Bomb: Bomb pods allow you to have a nasty surprise for those
- who blow up your ships, and also makes an effective
- means of using "kamikaze" tactics. The radius of the
- blast is (number-of-bombs/2)+1, rounded down. Keep in
- mind that due to the unstable nature of bombs, they
- will instantly detonate if you try to use a jump pod,
- and will therefore never reach its destination.
-
- Targeters: These miracles of science increase your odds of hitting
- your targets by 1/12 each, or 1/24 when shooting at
- torpedoes.
-
- ECM: ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) distorts the sensor
- readings of enemy ships so that their chances of hitting
- you decreases by 1/12 for every ECM pod you have.
-
- Thruster: Thruster pods are addition engines which may be attached
- to your ship to increase it's speed. Note however, if you
- build a large ship, then add even more pods to compensate
- the speed loss, you will have one MIGHTY EXPENSIVE ship.
-
- MineLayer: Minlayers can hold up to 10 mines each. A ship equipped
- with one or more of these pods will deploy one mine per
- turn (if "minelaying" is turned on) until it runs out.
- Mines can only be detonated by other players ships, though
- your ships can get caught in the blast if nearby. An
- effective means of creating a mine-sweeper (a ship that
- clears away mines) would be to build a ship with large
- amounts of shielding.
-
- Torpedo-Launcher: Torpedoes are extremely long-ranged. They can be fired
- at any location on the map, regardless of where the
- torpedo ship is located. Torpedoes travel at speed 24,
- and explode somewhere near the target (accuracy is not
- something torpedoes have), and once they reach the
- destination they explode in a different manner than
- most other exploding things. There are gaps in the blast,
- and ships can block the blast from hitting other ships.
- You can take advantage of this to protect your bases.
- Simply by placing ships next to the base, they can take
- the brunt of the explosion. These pods can only hold
- 3 torpedoes, and can only fire once every 5 turns.
- By using 4 launchers, you can fire 4 out of 5 turns.
- Ships equiped with torpedo launchers will fire one
- torpedo every turn it is capable of firing (it won't
- fire if the launchers have not yet completed their load
- cycle of 5 turns) until 'torpedo-firing' is turned off
- or the ship runs out of ammo. Remember to use the MODE
- switch to select targets for your torpedo launchers.
-
- Torpedo-Loader: Loaders hold 5 torpedoes, and are less expensive than
- launchers, but they can not launch the torpedoes. They
- can be used for holding extra ammo, but they can also
- be used to carry ammo out to your torpedo ships. Ships
- with multiple launchers tend to get very slow, and it's
- not practical to keep hauling them back to base to be
- reloaded. Ships witch have loaders will automatically
- give torpedoes to any of your torpedo ships within their
- action zones.
-
- Jumper Pod: Jumpers are strange twisted and jumbled masses of coils
- made of various materials, and are used to twist, fold,
- and distort space. The result is the ability to teleport
- the ship to any location on the map. However, the jumper
- burns out in the process, and must be replaced at FULL
- cost (which happens to be 2000) (as opposed to the usual
- 500 credit pod replacement fee + 1500 service and armor),
- unless of course it is jettisoned instead of used. Of
- course this works out to about the same cost for one pod,
- but if you are reloading multiples of them the cost is
- 2000 each.
-
- Viper-ATC: The Viper Anti-Torpedo-Cannon is a small array of
- omnidirection laser cannons designed to track and
- fire upon incoming torpedoes. Each pod may fire at
- up to 2 torpedoes per turn. The V-ATC will not fire
- at your torpedoes. Using the V-ATC takes a little
- effort on your part, since the ship has to be positioned
- such that it will be within firing range at the end of
- the turn.
-
- Engine-2: The Engine-2 is a more powerful version of the normal
- engine, thus allowing you to travel slightly faster
- than normal (+2). Since your ships are slowed by 1 for
- every 250 tons, and this pod weighs 250 tons, the speed
- increase is acheived by compensating 750 tons.
-
- Boosters: The Boosters are externally added engines which provide
- your ship with a considerable speed increase (+4).
-
- Robot-Pod: The Robot command-module allows the ship to fly faster
- (+1) since the robots don't require the same types of
- safety features to be installed (such as a low-radiation
- engine) as humans do. Robots are also faster to respond,
- and therefore add a 1/12 to your hit probabilities in
- combat (but not when shooting torpedoes). Note that use
- of a Robot pod + 5 targeters is the only way to get
- a 100% chance of hitting an enemy, assuming that enemy
- isn't using ECM.
-
-
-
- NOTES:
-
- The following are a bunch of details that aren't made clear during the
- game, as well as some hints and tips:
-
-
- - Once all of the stars are depleted, one will be moved to the center of
- the map and it will regenerate it's supply.
-
- - The stealth and cloaking devices are the only pods that don't have a
- cumulative effect for carrying multiples of them. It is absolutely
- pointless to put more than one on a single ship, and for that reason
- you can't.
-
- - Each type of pod has a limit on how many you can have on the ship.
- Most pods allow you 6 each. Cloak and stealth pods allow only one,
- ECM and targeters are 5, and mine and torp pods have a limit of 4,
- and Viper-ATC pods are limited to 3 (with three, only one in eight
- torpedoes will survive).
-
- - If you find the computer player too easy to defeat, then put yourself
- against 2 or 3 of them teamed together using the Custom Game options.
-
- - Setting the game configuration to "Bases can Fire" will equip each
- starbase with one of each [standard] weapon.
-
- - Starbases can travel through worm-holes, however they will not be
- destroyed by black-holes (starbase commanders know better than to
- let that happen!).
-
- - The score value displayed on the starbase menu is the value of that
- particular players force with the rapair costs subtracted from each
- ship (and base), plus the players money level.
-
- - The cargo-ship ratio for the computer players determines what fraction
- of their fleet will be cargo ships. Setting this to a low number will
- slow down the computer players ability to replace its lost ships.
-
- - At the bottom right of the game screen, 'cargo-ships' counts every
- ship that has a cargo pod. 'Weapon-ships' however only includes the
- plasma, laser, and missile equiped ships that do not have cargo pods.
- (cargo and weapon equiped ships are considered armed cargo ships).
-
- - Remember to use the MODE switch to select targets for the torpedoes!
-
-
-
-
-
- TOUBLESHOOTING AND Q&A:
-
- So far I only have a few things in this section, but as more problems
- arise "in the field" I'll add what I can to this section.
-
-
- Q: Why does red stuff appear on my screen? (in the background)
-
- A: Unknown, it seems that on RARE occasions some VGA cards simply don't
- like having a constant palette rotation in 640x480x16 mode...
-
-
- Q: My screen is black, and nothing happens when I press the keys. What
- do I do?
-
- A: Turn the computer ON.
-
-
- Q: What are those little dots I sometimes see on the map on various turns?
-
- A: Torpedoes! That's right, the computer players will sometimes fire them at
- you. They travel very fast, and are quite small, so that's why you get
- that "Now you see it, now you don't" feeling. Mines, unlike torpedoes,
- will not show up on the main starmap, but will be visible as dark colored
- balls in the zoom-in maps.
-
-
- Q: I hate scrolling through the ships using the "UpShip" and "DnShip"
- buttons, is there an easier way?
-
- A: Yep, as stated elsewhere, use the right mouse button to scan stars,
- scan enemies, and select your own ships on the map.
-
-
- Q: How do I select targets for my torpedo ships? And why aren't they firing?
- The minelayers aren't doing anything either...
-
- A: First you have to turn on the minelayer/torpedo-launcher (cloaks have
- to be turned on to do anything as well). Then you can use the "MODE"
- button on the left side of the screen to select "Torpedo Targetting
- mode".
-
-
-
-
- REVISIONS:
-
-
- 1.01 - First public release.
- - Starbases don't die in black holes now.
- - Starbases are no longer counted in your cargo-ship and
- weapon-ship counters.
- - Zoom-in map drawing speed increased. (you can make the maps
- draw even faster if you set "See-All" under 'players' in the
- F1 menu to 'yes', but that allows everyone to see everything,
- and cloaks become useless).
-
- 1.02 - Using a jump pod on a ship equipped with bombs will cause the
- ship to instantly detonate. This was added because several
- players discovered that by jumping bomb ships into the enemy
- territory, whoever found the location of the other first would
- win.
- - Menu screen bug fixed.
-
- 1.03 - Attempting a jump with bombs on board will now give you a
- warning instead of just simply detonating the ship.
- - Occasionally the screen would get a little messed up
- in clicking on a button inside a pop-up window. This has
- been fixed.
-
- 1.04 - Coordinates are now displayed for the zoom-in views. I had
- intended to implement this previously, but apparently forgot.
- Luckily I was reminded in a registration letter.
- - Various documentation revisions
- - Random ship-names are now stored in external ASCII file, and
- can thus be edited by any DOS-ASCII editor.
- - Surviving ships are now moved 'down' in the list when other
- ships are destroyed, so that all new ships are always at the
- END of the list, instead of being lost throughout...
-
- 1.05 - Documentation revisions
-
-
-
-
- LEGAL SHTUFFS:
-
- This game is being distributed as "shareware", which basically means
- "try before you buy". You are entitled to try out this program to evaluate
- its use to you. If you continue to use it you are expected to pay for it,
- as outlined in the REGISTRATION section below. You are also encouraged to
- give copies of the unregistered version to your friends, and upload it to
- bulletin boards. The copies you distribute MUST be unmodified, and must be
- the unregistered version of the program. If you are a shareware disk vendor,
- please see the section labelled "VENDORS" below.
-
-
-
- REGISTRATION:
-
- This program is being distributed on the "shareware" concept. It is by
- no means completely free. If you think the program is of use to you, or you
- use it for any reasonable amount of time, please send a registration fee of
- $10 (US). If you think that is rediculous, then send less (or more for that
- matter). If you hate the program or found too many bugs, write me and tell
- me, and include a graphic explanation (but don't be too harsh!! Heheheh). In
- any event, write to:
-
- Ed T. Toton III
- 7101 Talisman Lane
- Columbia Md 21045
- (USA)
-
- For CONTACT INFORMATION see: NBONES.DOC
-
- We accept cash, checks (ones that are paper, not rubber, if you catch my
- meaning), or money orders. Please make sure all checks and money orders
- are from US banks/postal-services, and all cash must be US legal tender.
-
- We regret to inform you that we no longer accept the following forms of
- payment: briefcases full of drugs, top secret documents, women, firstborn
- children, slaves, work animals, crates of firearms, and thumbtacks. :-)
-
- Please make sure you clearly spell out your name the way you would
- like it to appear in the program. If you would like copies of some of my
- other software, please send me a blank disk to send them to you on.
-
- And WHY should you register it?
- 1. To support my continuing efforts to bring you some level of
- functional programs. If I get no cash, you get no improvements
- in these programs, and I won't be encouraged to make new and
- better software!
- 2. To get that warm glow for knowing that you supported the author
- of at least one of the many shareware programs you probably use.
- 3. To find out if there is a newer version. All you need to do is
- ask! But letters with money take priority!
- 4. You could be sick and demented and thus register everything you
- get your hands on.
- 5. It's the right thing to do.
- 6. To get your very own registration number that will make that
- "please register" nag screen at the end of the game go away.
-
-
-
- Remember- Buying one of my games is more cost effective than buying one
- of today's commercial game packages. A really good commercial
- game will last you 20 hours of play or so, and cost you $50.
- That comes out to a value of about $2.50 an hour. Most games
- don't last even that, many will last only 5 or 10, and cost
- $40 or more. If one of my $5 games lasts you two hours, it's the
- same ($2.50 an hour). But if you play it for more than two hours,
- say 4 or 5, or even more, than you are paying significantly less
- per hour. The same holds for any other program I create, as my
- pricing is quite modest and reasonable. I've always been apalled
- by some of the arrogance used in the pricing of shareware by
- certain individuals, and I feel you should be able to obtain
- software at reasonable prices as compared to the quality. I also
- absolutely abhor those nasty tactics used in various programs
- of crippling the software or requiring access codes to use
- critical features and so forth. You want software that WORKS
- and I try to give exactly that. If you bought it from a shareware
- disk vendor, that in itself does NOT mean you own your copy of the
- program, it is still theft if you continue to use it without paying
- for it. You are entitled to "try before you buy" only, not to use
- and abuse. Please don't steal, pay for what you use.
-
- (yeah yeah, nag nag... now go play...)
-
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- This Program, Manual, and Data Files, are all protected by U.S. Copyright
- Law (title 17 United States Code). Unauthorized reproduction, distribution
- and/or sales may result in imprisonment of up to one year and fine up to
- $10,000 (17 USC 506). Copyright infringers may also be subject to civil
- liability. If you mess with us, we'll delete you!
-
- The author of this program makes no warranties of any
- kind, expressed or implied, as to the fitness, functionality,
- effectiveness, or safety of this software and accompanying
- documentation. Under no circumstances shall the author and
- developer be liable for any damages incurred during or as a
- result of the use of, or misuse of, or inability to use, this
- software and documentation. All risk is assumed by the user,
- and we hereby disclaim any implied warranties of fitness or
- performance of this software. Use at your own risk.
- The developer and author reserves the right to make
- revisions and changes to the software and documentation without
- warning at any time. Any and all changes and revisions will be
- made without obligation to inform any person or persons of said
- changes.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- VENDORS:
-
- Recently I have altered my policies concerning shareware vendors. Now you
- must first obtain written permission from the author before you can
- distribute this program. One reason for this is so that I may try to avoid
- certain "unpleasant" situations, but the main reason is merely so that I
- may keep track of what is being distributed where, and by whom.
-
- To obtain permission to distribute this program, simply write to me
- (same address as listed above for registration), and include the following
- information:
-
- 1. Your name (or company name) and address.
- 2. Your policies for encouraging your customers to
- register the shareware they obtain from you.
- 3. The cost the customers will pay for the program.
- 4. The means of distribution (i.e. mail order, disks
- in computers stores, disks at computer shows, etc).
-
- If you do not include this information, your request will be denied.
- If you do include the information, your request will most likely be granted.
- I simply need to know where my programs are going, and I need to make sure
- that I regulate the pricing.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Disclaimer:
-
- Before installing, backup your hard-drive (what!?). The program is
- harmless, but if by some chance it blows up in your face, burns down your
- house, or attacks your cat with a fake pickled trout, or incurs any other
- damage (to data or otherwise), I am not responsible. If you can not accept
- these terms, delete this package now and don't use it.
-
-
-
-
- FINAL NOTE:
-
- If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, criticisms, donations,
- remarks, praise, or opinions, please write! I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!
- (the address is listed above).
-
- Welp, that's all! Have fun!!!
-
- For CONTACT INFORMATION see: NBONES.DOC
-
-
-
-
-
- Ed T. Toton III
- "Necromancer"
-
-
-
- Stellar Conquest III
- Hostile Takeover
- (C) 1994 Ed T. Toton III
- All Rights Reserved.
- ((C) includes the spelling errors)
-
-