A.C.E. 1

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Text File | 1994-11-27 | 16.5 KB | 349 lines

UNIVERSE 3 Typed in by ???. Edited by PARASITE. THE STORY SO FAR... The First Stellar expansion began on May 10th, 2029, with a practical demonstration of the hyperdrive effect at Franklin Laboratories' Building Number 4 in Hawthorne, Nevada. Only 11 years later, the first starship, the SS Gerhardus Mercator, made a successful jump of over 2 lightyears through hyperspace. Less than 100 years after that first jump, the colonies around Earth (known as the Home Cluster) consisted of planets and over 1 billion people. Hyperspace proved to be rather curious. It was totally devoid of any energy or matter, yet spacecraft could operate normally within its bounds. A trip through it (a hyperjump) would take, regardless of the distance, 6.8 days. There were, however, two limitations to its use. One was the enormous amount of energy required to enter hyperspace. The other was the so-called "Mass Limit". Stated simply, it placed a severe limit on the size of a spacecraft that could enter hyperspace. By 2100, the starships, powered by mass conversion, were severely strained to travel from one side of the Home cluster to the other. Since all of the Home Cluster colonies still depended on Earth for support, the experts were predicting an end to the Expansion. As usual, the experts were wrong. In 2105, a science team travelling through the far reaches of the Tau Ceti starsystem was shocked to discover a huge alien artifact drifting through space. Entire scientific communities came to study the artifact and, several years later, the purpose of the great object was discovered. It was a hyperspace booster. The booster had the capability to "push" spacecraft not tens but thousands of lightyears through hyperspace. Since the booster itself did not enter hyperspace, a ship right up to the mass limit could travel a thousand lightyears using virtually no power. Years of research continued. Why had the charon, the "gatekeepers", as the scientists dubbed them, abandoned a working booster? Where had they gone? The scientists were unable to say. The booster contained a mapping system depicting millions of the stars in the galaxy, but few of them had been specially marked by the Charon. Finally, the control system was deciphered and trial boosts began. They proved the machine to be fully functional and the technician's knowledge of the control system adequate enough to allow regular use. The Second Expansion was underway. Your home is in a cluster of stars known as the Local Group. For years, the Local Group had been receiving CARE packages from the Home Cluster, to assist them in constructing new colonies and providing updates to their current technology. Fifty years ago, the shipments stopped coming. Officially, the word was that there hadn't been any indication that they would stop. The next 10 years were known as the Great Panic, a period of interstellar war and piracy that nearly destroyed your civilization. Fortunately, at the peak of the hostilities, a hyperspace booster was found inside the Local Group. The knowledge that two-way communication might be established acted to calm the Local Group. A monumental plan was put underway to move the booster at entirely sub-light speeds and, in only 20 years, it arrived in orbit around Cetus Amicus. But during the years of the move, the Local group again fell into turmoil, this time to emerge divided into two mutually hostile governments, the Federated Worlds and the United Democratic Planets. During the years of the divided Local Group, you were employed as a deep-cover agent for the Federated Worlds. Your intelligence work revealed a monstrous plan to destroy the FW; a plan which was designed by your former lover, Desmona Ret. Almost singlehandedly, you managed to thwart the scheme, at the cost of Desmona's life. Soon after, the Local Group was reunited into a single government, a government whose researchers soon discovered the key to operating the hyperspace booster. Now, three years later, you have been selected to command a mission back to the Home Cluster. (Confirmation fax from the Admiralty, Federated Worlds. Dated 27 Feb 2374.) NAVCOM ENCODED TRANSMISSION CODED LEVEL: ARCHER TO: Captain Alex G. Seward, Ulysses Class Vessel FWS Union FM: Admiral Branasa, Fleet Operations, HQ Axia RE: Expedition to Ambergris (Tau Ceti III, Home Cluster) MG: You have been given orders to proceed to Tau Ceti III (Ambergris) and establish diplomatic relations. The Cetus Amicus Booster Station will power-up and boost your craft at exactly 03:00 hours on 1 Mar 2374. Transit time is 6.8433 mean solar days. Upon arrival at Ambergris, you are to read and execute your sealed mission orders Good Luck. Adm. Patrice Brianasa, FLEETOPS, FtA. END TRANSMISSION GETTING STARTED Creating a New Game File To create a new game, press F1 (or click the words New Game). A dialog box will appear. Enter a filename ("game1" for example). You do not need to add an extender to the name. Moving Around There are four ways to move your character. They are: 1) Using the arrows. Click an arrow icon to move in the desired direction. The four arrow keys on the keyboard will function the same way. 2) Tracing a path. Click on your character and hold the mouse button down. Drag the mouse pointer to the desired location within the room. A series of lines indicating the path will appear. Release the button to move. If you don't have a mouse, you can press the "P" key to select Trace Path. Use the arrow keys to draw the path and press [return] to move. You cannot trace a path when your character is not alone in the room. 3) Jumping from room to room. Selecting any arrow icon or key with a shift key held down will jump your character from one room to the next. Your character may only jump if the path in the desired direction is clear and there is another room in the direction of your current facing. 4) Using the Enter Command. Occasionally in the game there will be times when you cannot move your character onto squares which appear to be entryways. You may, however, be able to enter a particular object on such a square. Saving Your Position There are times during the course of the game that you may wish to save your progress before proceeding into a hazardous situation. You have two ways to save: 1) Selecting "Save" by pressing F3 will save your progress to the file you named with New Game or selected with Restore Game. 2) Selecting "Save as" by pressing F4 will pop up a dialog box. Enter a new name under which your progress is to be stored. Subsequent calls of the "Save" command (F3) will save your progress under this new name. PLAYING UNIVERSE 3 Key Commands [F1] New Game Create a new game file. The game will always begin in the Captain's Quarters. [F2] Resume Game Resume a game you have already been playing. Select the game you wish to play by clicking the mouse pointer over its name or high- light its name using the arrow keys and press [return]. [F3] Save Game in Progress This will add any progress you have made to the current game file. [F5] Close Game in Progress This will close your current game and allow you to start or resume another one. Close Game gives you the chance to save any progress you might have made before closing the game. [F6] Delete Game This will delete the selected game from the disk. Choose the game you wish to delete by clicking the mouse pointer over its name or highlight its name using the arrow keys and press [return]. [F7] Sound Switch Use this function to enable/disable the sound effects. [F8] Animation Switch Use this function to enable/disable animated movement. Universe 3 automatically defaults to non-animated. [F9] About Universe 3 This will display information about Universe 3 and its authors. Use this function to find out which version of the game you have when calling for technical assistance. [F10] Exit Universe 3 Leave the Universe 3 program with this command. Exit Universe 3 gives you the chance to save any progress you might have made before leaving the program. [D] Drop Object Drop Objects displays all of the objects currently held. Select the object you wish to drop by clicking the mouse pointer over its name using the arrow keys and press [return]. [E] Examine Current Room This will print a text description of your current room and list all of the non-player characters and objects in it. [F] Facing This allows you to change the direction your character is currently facing. This is very useful in combat. Press or click any arrow to select a new facing. [H] Highlight Objects/Persons This lists all of the objects and non-player characters in your current room that are not held. A highlighting box will appear around each object or person as it is listed. Its name will be displayed in the text window. More than one object or person can occupy the same square at the same time and not all objects or persons are visible in the map window. For example, if two objects occupy the same square, the larger object may hide a smaller one behind it. Some objects, which are parts of another larger object, are invisible under any conditions. [I] Inventory This lists all the objects your character currently holds. It will not list objects held by other characters. Your character can hold up to 10 objects maximum. The inventory list is also used to "zoom" (a magnified view) any any objects you are holding. Select the object you wish to "zoom" by clicking the mouse pointer over its name or highlight its name using the arrow keys and press [return]. If a selected object does not appear as a "zoom", then the object does not have a magnified view. [L] Change Level Press this key to change levels any time you are standing on a ladder or liftshaft. [O] Open/Close Door This will try to open or close any adjacent door. Select the door you wish to open or close by clicking the mouse pointer over it or select the appropriate direction using the arrow keys. If the door does not open or close you may have to do something else to move it. Not all doors in the game can be opened or closed. [P] Trace Path Use the arrow keys to draw the path you wish your character to take within the room and press [return] to move him. You can only trace a path if your character is alone in the room. [S] Status The status box displays your character's current health, your percentage chance to hit in combat, the total number of moves you've made so far in the current game, and the weapon with which you are currently armed. [T] Take Object Select the object you wish to take by clicking the mouse pointer on it or select the appropriate direction using the arrow keys. If your character is in the same square as the object, select it by pressing the [home] key. Take will attempt to add all of the objects in the selected square that can be taken. If an object cannot be taken, the computer will beep when you select it. You cannot carry more than 10 objects at a time. [V] Verb List The verb list is the basic form of communication between you and your character. There are 13 commands on the verb list. Select a command by clicking the mouse pointer on it or highlight it using the arrow keys. Most of the verbs will require that you select an object or person on which to carry out the command. [W] Use Weapon Your character will attack the nearest target he is facing with a readied weapon. If no weapon is available, your character will fight barehanded. [Z] Zoom Object/Person Select the object you wish to "zoom" by clicking the mouse pointer over its name or highlight its name using the arrow keys and press [return]. If your character is in the same square as the object, select it by pressing the [home] key. If a selected object does not appear as a "zoom", then it does not have a magnified view. Use the zoom mode to manipulate objects by clicking on any details of the picture. For example: The safe in your cabin cannot be opened using the Open/Close Door command. You display the Verb List by pressing [V] and select Examine. The program displays a list of all the objects and people you can examine in the room. You select the safe. The program tells you that there is a small control panel on the safe. You select Zoom and indicate the safe. A picture of the safe will appear where the room map usually is. You click on the open button and the safe pops open. [Space] Wait This causes your character to wait at his current location for a few seconds, allowing other characters to move and other actions to occur. [Arrows] Move Character/Jump Character This will move your character in the selected direction if the destination is a terrain square your character can occupy. Holding a shift key down while pressing an arrow will jump the character into the next room in the direction of the arrow. You can only jump if there is a straight path out of the room in that direction. Mouse Commands Left click on your character and drag. This traces a path from your character to any point in the room. Your character will not move until the left mouse button is released. You can only trace a path when your character is alone in the room. The trace path command will not trace over any squares onto which you cannot normally move. Right click on any adjacent door. This will open or close the door that you clicked on. If you cannot open or close the door with the mouse button, it may be necessary to use a key or other such object first. Click left button on a square adjacent to your character. This will move your character into the selected space if it is a terrain square your character can occupy. Shift click left button on a square adjacent to your character. This works the same as holding a shift key and pressing an arrow key. Click the right button on any adjacent object or person. If any of the objects or persons selected has a close-up or "zoom" picture, it will be displayed. Click with the left mouse button on any part of the object that you wish to manipulate. If you want to leave the zoom mode without selecting any part of the object displayed, click outside the map window. Click the left mouse button on the Room Name window Redisplays the room description. This is the same as pressing the [E] key. Icon Commands Click the Take Icon. Select the object you wish to take by clicking the mouse pointer on it. Take will attempt to add all of the objects in the selected square that can be taken. If an object cannot be taken, the computer will beep when you select it. You cannot carry more than 10 objects at a time. Click the Drop Icon. Drop Objects displays all of the objects currently held. Select the object you wish to drop by clicking the mouse pointer over its name. Click the Inventory Icon. This lists all the objects your character currently holds. It will not list objects held by other characters. Your character can hold up to 10 objects maximum. The inventory list is also used to "zoom" (a magnified view) any objects you are holding. Select the object you wish to "zoom" by clicking the mouse pointer over its name. If a selected object does not appear as a "zoom", then the object does not have a magnified view. Clicking an Arrow Icon Clicking an arrow does the same thing as pressing an arrow key. Shift Clicking an Arrow Icon Shift clicking an arrow icon does the same thing as shift clicking an arrow key. Clicking the Ladder Icon Click this icon to change levels any time you are standing on a ladder or a liftshaft. Clicking the Verb Icon The verb list is the basic form of communication between you and your character. There are 13 commands on the verb list. Select a command by clicking the mouse pointer on it. Clicking the Status Icon The status box displays your character's current health, your percentage chance to hit in combat, the total number of moves you've made so far in the game, and the weapon with which you are currently armed. Clicking the Weapon Icon Your character will attack the nearest target he is facing with a readied weapon. If no weapon is available, your character will fight barehanded.