BBS_Stuff_Variant_Collection_Years/twmis085.arj/MISSIONS.DOC

Text File | 1993-05-25 | 10.9 KB | 244 lines

"Wot? Ye said ye wanna wot?"
"Missions? In TradeWars? You're outta yer bleedin mind!"
"The only way you can do that is with..."


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            Yet another Trade Wars 2002 utility for SysOps
                     written by Brandon Bannerman

                       ≡ Release Version 0.85 ≡
                             May 25, 1993

─Obligatory Disclaimer─
  TW Missions (for those of you uninitiated) is guaranteed to occupy space on
  your disk. Beyond this, you take your own chances.

─Documentation─
  Now that that's over with, on to how to actually use this thing.

  TW Missions is designed to offer a new, interactive dimension to TradeWars
  2002. It creates random "Missions", sent by the Federation to individual
  players. Players may be required to rescue a port from marauding space
  pirates, terminate a rogue alien, or stop a Ferrengi from terrorizing a
  sector of space--or one of many other possible combinations. The players may
  pass it off as a prank by someone with high access the first time, but after
  that, they'll learn. <Grin>

  Each Mission is given a certain duration--in which time the player must
  complete the mission, or fail it--of up to 31 days. (Except the unregistered
  version, which gives all Missions a set length of five days) They are sent a
  message explaining their assignment, and are not given the option to decline
  it. (Remember, we're dealing with the Federation here--Zyrain isn't exactly
  the nicest guy in the universe)

  For simplicity, Missions are classified as one of two types--Search &
  Destroy, or Rescue. In a Rescue Mission, something is threatening an object
  like a Port or a Planet, and players must eliminate the threat. Search and
  Destroy Missions are fairly self-explanatory--the target must be tracked down
  and eliminated before the duration expires! (Since Aliens and Ferrengi are
  always on the move, this can pose a problem, both in money and time)

  The point of Missions is to breathe life into a game which is winding down
  into the same old Trade-Trade-Kill-Planet-Corp routine, and quite often to
  relieve high-end players of some of their hard-earned cash.

  But it's not all hard work. For every Mission has its reward, and if a player
  does an outstanding job on a Mission, he may find himself earning a
  respectable sum of experience, alignment, and credits. (Again, the
  unregistered version is crippled--players will NOT receive credits!) On the
  flip side, if they fail to complete the Mission objective, they may notice
  they have lost a significant percentage of their experience in the process.

  Best of all, Missions will work with no installation process, and a minimum
  of effort. Simply place the following files in your TradeWars 2002
  directory (These are required):

  MISSIONS.EXE  -  Main Executable
  MISSIONS.MDF  -  Missions Datafile
  FERRSHIP.MDF  -  Ferrengi Ship PickList
  FERRNAME.MDF  -  Ferrengi Name Picklist
  ALNSHIP.MDF   -  Alien Ship Picklist
  ALNNAME.MDF   -  Alien Name Picklist

  Now append it to your TW batch file. An example is given here:

    @ECHO OFF
    CD\TELEGARD\DOORS\TRADEWAR
    COPY ..\..\CHAIN.TXT
    TW2002 -WWIV
    MISSIONS
    DEL CHAIN.TXT
    CD\TELEGARD
    EXIT

  Your batch file is undoubtedly different, but this at least gives you the
  basic idea. Missions should run after TW2002, to give it a chance to react
  to anything the player does.

    You will also need to run Missions in your daily maintenance event. Again, I
  give you an example batch file:

    @ECHO OFF
     .
     .  (The rest of your events here)
     .
    CD\TELEGARD\DOORS\TRADEWAR
    EXTERN
    MISSIONS DAILY
    CD\TELEGARD
    EXIT

  Neither of these take any significant amout of time anymore. I logged a run
  of Missions with 10 active Ferrengi S&D Missions (which take the longest to
  analyze), with a daily log of 200 lines. It took exactly 14 seconds to
  complete. Of course, my computer is a 286 with an RLL hard disk, so
  depending on your own computer it may take more or (more likely) less time.
  In addition, it is very unlikely (though possible if you have altered the
  default settings to make Missions more often) that a normal game will ever
  accumulate more than 10 or 15 Missions at any one time.

  NOTE: The Unregistered version sports a 10-second delay every time it is
  run. This is NOT dependent on your PC's speed, so it's better in the long
  run to register, eh?

  The command-line parameter "DAILY" is *required* for Missions to run its
  maintenance. When it is run after TW2002, it merely checks any existing
  Missions to see if they have been completed or failed (or if the player is
  deleted, if they are still in progress, etc). When run with the DAILY
  parameter, it rolls the electronic equivalent of percentile dice, to see if a
  Mission is created or not. It also resets the Last Log Read Date, and
  performs a few other necessary items.

  MISSIONS can also be forced to produce a Mission, no matter what other
  parameters are (or aren't) issued, if run with the parameter of:
    MISSIONS FORCE
  This will "Force" Missions to assume a successful roll on the percentile
  dice, and will create a Mission--EVEN if the DAILY parameter is NOT issued.
  Note that you could set this up as an external event in the registered
  version of my TW Events program. (Lovely blatant plug, eh?)

  Missions now logs its activity to the TWGAME.LOG file. If you wish to
  disable these writes, add the parameter of NOLOG to the commandline.

  The following files come with Missions, but aren't needed to run it:

  MISSIONS.DOC  -  This Document File
  PRODUCTS.LST  -  List of my software and current versions
  WHATS-UP.DOC  -  TW Missions Version History (which tends to wax personal)
  SURVEY.TXT    -  Survey Textfile of TW2002 and related products
  ABOUT.ME      -  About the author of this program

-Types of Missions-
  Search & Destroy
    Ferrengi
      A particular Ferrengi is targeted for termination by the Feds, and
      Player x must deep fat fry the sucker within x amount of days.
    Alien
      Same as Ferrengi, but an Alien is targeted. Slightly less hazardous
      than messing with Ferrengi.
    Fighters
      A cluster of Rogue fighters are clustering in Sector x, and causing a
      general nusiance. Player x must houseclean the sector.
    Mines
      A Ferrengi is dropping mines around a sector, and the player must clear
      these mines--possibly dealing with the Ferrengi in the meantime.
    Player
      NEW! Works for both good and evil characters. A player will be told to
      execute another player of the opposite alignment. The message will come
      from the Federation for good players, the Ferrengi for evil players.
  Rescue
    Port
      A port is threatened by a terrorist faction, supplying themselves from
      the fighters in such and such a sector. Player x must waste said
      fighters and make the port live happily ever after.
    Planet
      Same as Port, but a planet is threatened, and a new planet is created
      from scratch as opposed to Port, where it uses an existing port.

─The Editor─
  Yes, there IS an editor for Missions. Invoking MISSIONS with the parameter
  of "EDITOR" will bring up MisEdit in exclusion to all else (including the
  "FORCE" parameter). This is a change from older versions, where MisEdit was
  a separate program.

  In the Editor, you can set the percentage chance for a Mission to be
  created, the multiplier for a Mission's difficulty (and consequent rewards),
  and enter your registration code, if you have ordered one. You can also set
  the minimum alignment and experience a player must have to be assigned a
  Mission. There is now a flag, telling Missions whether or not it should
  remove objects when a Mission is finished. You can reset the last date the
  daily log was read, and specify which ShipType aliens are given, or make it
  random.

  In the Registered version, you can also edit the Missions themselves. In the
  previous version, the Mission editor was solely a viewer, but it works fully
  now. In addition, if you change a Mission, you can now resend the message to
  the player.

-Name Picklists-
  There are five picklists in Missions, and they must exist in the current
  directory. Their formats are simple and mostly identical:
  Line 1 : Number of picks
  Line 2 : Pick 1
  Line 3 : Pick 2
         .
         .
         .
  And so on. These files are what Missions picks from when it gives a
  Ferrengi or Align their name and ship. Feel free to edit these to your
  heart's content--just remember that each name has a maximum length of 25
  characters, and that there must be at least as many names as there are
  listed at the top.

  The sole exception is GOODPLAN.MDF, which holds the planet names and
  creators. This consists of:
  Line 1 : Number of picks
  Line 2 : Nothing. Exists for compatibility with GENESIS.DAT.
  Line 3 : Planet 1 Name
  Line 4 : Planet 1 Creator
         .
         .
         .
  Etc.

─Rerolling Missions─
  Rerolling couldn't be simpler. Just delete MISSIONS.MDF, and on the next
  run, Missions will create a new one before doing anything else.

─Registration─
  I just had to say the "R" word, didn't I? <Chuckle> Yes, Missions requires
  registration. This is $10 US funds. Send Cash, Check, or Money Order, along
  with a completed REGISTER.FRM to:

  Brandon Bannerman
  27908 84th Ave So
  Kent, WA 98032-8625

  In the unregistered version, the following limitations are in effect:
    o No Rescue Missions--only Search and Destroy Missions will be created.
    o No Credits--players will receive no monetary rewards for their efforts.
    o No Editor--The Mission Editor is nonfunctional, although the
      configuration screen is not.
    o Annoying Messages--every time a Mission is drawn to a close, the player
      will receive an annoying message, encouraging them to tell you to
      register. The Tavern Announcement gets overwritten every time Missions
      runs, showing a rather annoying message to this effect. A nasty
      ten-second delay will show at the end of every run.

  Current distribution sites:
  DarkStar StarDock @ [phone]  14400  Burien, WA
  Innovative Images @ [phone]  9600   Kent, WA

Enjoy!