ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 …eeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)/ProfitPress-MegaCDROM2.B6I/BBS/DOORS/DOM154A.ZIP/SYSOPDOC.DOM

Text File | 1992-01-14 | 26.5 KB | 527 lines

                 System Operator/Programmer Documentation
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      _________                   for
     |_   ___  \
       | |   \  \   ___  __  __  __  __   __  __  ___  __   __   ___
       | |    \  \ / _ \|  \/  ||  ||  \ |  ||  |/ _ \|  \ |  | /  _>
       | |    /  // / \ \||\/||  ||  ||\\ ||  ||/ / \ \||\\ ||  \ <
      _| |___/  / \ \_/ /||  ||  ||  || \\||  ||\ \_/ /|| \\||  _> \
     |_________/   \___/|__||__||__||__| \__||__|\___/|__| \__|<___/
     ****************************************************************
                      The Race for Galactic Domination
                               Version 1.54a
                               January  1992

                          Initial Program Design
                   By Apocalypse of StrangeMode Software

                  Further Design Development and Debugging
                       By David "Tarl Cabot" Stidham


     Apocalypse wishes to extend a special thanks to:
             The Catt,
             Mr. Bill,
         and the Pandemonium Playtesters


     I. Running Dominions!
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Dominions! requires about 180Kb of RAM, about 40Kb of which is
used by variable data, about 95Kb for the actual program, and 48Kb reserved
for the stack.

     To install Dominions! on WWIV Bulletin Board Systems, just do four
things... (If you aren't running WWIV, please see note after the following
Installation Steps)

     Step I
     ~~~~~~
     Make a subdirectory off your main BBS directory, you may call it anything
you desire, but the following BATCH file uses the subdirectory called DOMINION.
After you create the subdirectory, change directories to make it the active
directory.


     Step II
     ~~~~~~~
     Be sure the following files are in the new subdirectory:

     Program Executable file
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     DOMINION.EXE

     Text files
     ~~~~~~~~~~
     CREDITS.DOM
     HELPCOUN.DOM
     HELPDIPL.DOM
     HELPEMPI.DOM
     HELPNAVA.DOM
     HELPPLAN.DOM
     HELPMAIN.DOM
     INSTRUCT.DOM
     PICTURE.DOM

     Data files  (Will be created when game is first run and are not included)
     ~~~~~~~~~~
     EMPIRES.???
     PLANETS.???
     SQUADS.???
     MESSAGES.???
     DATE.???
     THISYEAR.???
     LASTYEAR.???
     LASTON.???  ___
     REGION1.???    \
     REGION2.???     \
     REGION3.???      } Map files for each region in ASCII text
     REGION4.???     /
     REGION5.??? ___/
     SCORES.???  --- Created in the GFiles subdirectory.  See Maintenance.

     (The extensions for the above is listed as .??? because it depends upon
which game is being played, what the actual extension will be.  For example:
game 1 will have the extension of .001 for all the game data files.  Game 2
would have the extension of .002, and so on through game 999.  The program will
need to know which set of data files to use through a Commandline Parameter.)

     Step III
     ~~~~~~~~
     Once you have confirmed that these files are where they should be, create
a BATCH file in your main BBS directory, or a directory in the active path,
following this example:

     DOMINION.BAT

     @ECHO OFF
     CD DOMINION
     DOMINION %1 %2

     Step IV
     ~~~~~~~
     After that is completed, bring up the BBS, enter CHAINEDIT, and install
the game:

A. Description  : Dominions! v1.54a (Game 1)
B. Filename     : DOMINION.BAT %1 1
C. SL           : *
D. AR           : *
E. ANSI         : Optional
F. DOS Interrupt: Not used
G. 300 Baud     : Allowed
H. Shrink       : No

(* = your choice)
        The filename to use would be the name of the batch file that you
created, along with the parameter %1 for WWIV to pass the information for
CHAIN.TXT and the Game Number (the 1 following the %1 above is the game number
in this case) for the game that you want this entry to execute.  There is no
need for ANSI required to be toggled on, nor for the BBS to shrink (WWIV v4.10
and later releases).  Is IS, however, required that the BBS _NOT_ intercept
the DOS calls.  If you do allow the BBS to intercept the interrupt calls, your
computer WILL lock up.  This release of Dominions! now has the ability to
monitor the COM Port and the status of the carrier.  If you have a machine
with less then 640Kb, you may want to play it safe and toggle the Shrink to
on - heck, you may want to do that even if you DO have 640Kb, it will not
adversely effect the operation of the game if you elect to toggle the BBS
Shrink option to Yes.

     Commandline Parameter format for Dominions! is:
        DOMINION.EXE <complete path/filename to CHAIN.TXT> <game number>


     NOTE: Non-WWIV installation
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     If you aren't running a WWIV BBS, then you may have problems in getting
this program to work for you.  First, you will need a way to generate the WWIV
User Information File CHAIN.TXT (I know that Door Master will do this).  Since
I operate a WWIV system, I can offer little in the way of advice on the set up
and proper running of this program with a non-WWIV system.  It should be able
to be done with little hassle now that it incorporates internal Carrier
Monitoring.

     II. Resetting the Game
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     With the release of Dominions! v1.53 and greater, the RESETDOM.EXE pro-
gram is no longer supplied, nor needed.  The routines have been incorporated
within DOMINION.EXE.

     There are two times when you would want to reset the game: the first is
when you're initially setting up Dominions!  The second is when "the war" is
over.  A suggested time period for game play would be between 1-2 months
(longer if you have few players actually playing every day).  At the end of
this time period declare whoever had the most points at the time of the reset
as the Winner, or Emperor or whatever title you think is deserved.  There is a
ASCII Text file that is created during maintenance that contains the scores of
the empires at the time of maintenance.  This file is stored in the GFiles
subdirectory and is suitable for inclusion in a message or for display in a
GFiles area so that all users may see the state of the empires in the
universe.

      You don't have to do this, but it's probably wiser and more fun than
letting the same war go on forever.  After a few months the numbers will
become very large and has been a source of problems for the maintenence routine
in the past.  Presently, it is believed that the old problems have been
eliminated and a game may concievably proceed forever without data file
problems.  Should the data files provide a problem for the maintenance routine
to handle, the result will usually be a locked system forceing a complete reset
of the computer.  In the event that this happens, please bundle all your
existing data files and attempt to submit them to Tarl Cabot at Ko Ro Ba
(details on how to contact me are listed at the end of this file).

     Also, it is suggested that you place the REGIONn.??? (where "n" denotes
a numerical value of 1-5) files in the download area so that your game players
can have easy and quick access to them.

     In order to reset the game, merely erease the EMPIRES.DOM file and the
first player to enter the game will automatically cause the creation process
to begin.  If that first player to enter the game has Full Sysop access (level
255) then he/she will be able to "customize" the game settings, otherwise, the
game will be initialized under the standard default values.  The following are
the areas that are Sysop controllable:

      o Minimum Distance between Home Planetary Systems (Default 5.0 LY)

      o Radar Option (Default Not Active)

      o Galactic Empire Active (Default Active)

      o Galactic Empire Delay before agressive (Default 12 game months)

      o Tournament Mode (Default No)

      o Advance Initial Game Settings (Default No)


     III. The MAINTENENCE Routine
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     The Maintenence routine updates all the empires, planetary systems, and
squadrons in flight.  It is executed when the first player for the day enters
the game.  It shouldn't take it too long to run, but with games that have been
in progress for a while, and fleet movements involving thousands of ships it
will slow down a little, this IS normal.  Also, there is a ASCII text file
created in the GFiles subdirectory called "SCORES.???" and this file contains
the scores of all the empires at the time of the maintenance run.  This file
is only updated once a day and is suitable for disply in a GFiles area for all
users to see the status of the game so far.

     If you take the BBS down for the day for repairs, etc., don't worry,
the maintenence routine won't run for the day because no one played it.
If no one plays for two days, two day's worth of maintenence will not be done,
only one day's worth.


     IV. Dominions! General Distribution Package
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     The following files are included in this Zip file...

     Dominion.Exe       Main program
     Instruct.Dom       Intructions text file
     HelpMain.Dom       Main menu help file
     HelpCoun.Dom       Counterintelligence menu help file
     HelpEmpi.Dom       Empire menu help file
     HelpNava.Dom       Naval menu help file
     HelpPlan.Dom       Planetary Systems menu help file
     Picture.Dom        Opening screen text file
     Sysopdoc.Dom       This text file

     V. Distribution of Dominions!
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     You are free to copy and distrubite Dominions as long as the following
     conditions are met:

     1) No fee or purchase cost is charged for the General Distribution
        Package.
     2) All files listed in Section IV are included in the General
        Distribution Package with NO additions, alterations, or substitutions.

     VI. Legal Stuff
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Neither Apocalypse, nor myself (David Stidham) assume resposibility for
any failure of the program to perform in the indicated or expressed way,
and/or for any damage caused by the failure of the program.  Use Dominons!
at your own risk!

     VII. Dominions! Support and Source Code information
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     First, allow me to explain my reasons for retaining the source files from
the regular distribution packet; a good majority of the operator's using this
game have no real need for the source, so this is primarily an attempt to
reduce the overall size of the packet for distribution purposes - we all know
how expensive it can get for those long distance calls!

     Second, too many people out there have decided to alter the source code
from previous releases on their own (which is great, but...) and NOT make
their source code, or at the very least the modifications they made, available.
So, I've decided to join that growing trend and no longer make the supported
source code available to anyone.  This decision may change sometime in the
future, but, presently, I doubt it.  It's a shame how a few people can ruin a
good thing for everyone...

     If you have any suggestions, comments, or criticisms of Dominions!,
please leave a message for me (Tarl Cabot) anyway you can.  I may be contacted
via one of the following methods:
     Calling my system...

                   Ko Ro Ba
                [phone]
                 WWIVnet 8350
                  Tampa, Fl.

     ...or WWIVnet mail sent to 1@8350.


     In addition, there is now (once again) a WWIVnet sub devoted to Dominions!
support for both Sysops and players.  It is net sub type 28350.  Send EMail to
1@8350 in order to subscribe to the base.

     The Original home board for Dominions!, Pandemonium did have WWIVnet
connections for mail and messages, but appears to be down permanently at this
time.  =>Apocalypse<= (aka Chris Haisty) and may still be able to be reached
through one of these alternate mediums:

     GEnie mail address C.HAISTY
or
     CompuServe ID 72220,3300

Please note, that at the time of this writing, I (Tarl Cabot) have no way of
verifying those two alternate methods for contacting Apocalypse.  If anyone
DOES track Apocalypse down, please extend my wishes to talk with him and ask
him to contact me.

     VIII. Sysop Controls
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     You, the Sysop, now have some local control over the user in the game.
The following is a list of local Functions available:

        F5  - Hangup on User/Force them back to BBS
        F6  - Update time remaining (if user has sat idle for a while)
        F7  - Subtract 5 minutes from users remaining time in door.
        F8  - Add 5 minutes to users remaining time in door.
        F10 - Chat with user

     IX. Tarl Cabot's Release Revisions: A Summarized History
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  v1.54a: Corrected a bug in Galactic Empire routines for long term (90+ days)
          games.  Found 2 days after release of v1.54 officially.

  v1.54 : Compensated for an anomoly with Turbo Pascal v6.0 when dealing with
               real variables in the IF/THEN environment.
          Compensated for an anomoly with Turbo Pascal v6.0 when using the STR
               function to turn a real value into a string for display.
          Corrected a variable call oversight in the Diplomacy area so that
               Alliances were handled properly when broken by one party.
          Corrected an oversight with the Galactic Empire's decision routines
               when it had 0 planetary systems actively controlled.
          Made the Galactic Empire AI Routines more "intelligent" regarding the
                decisions of Increasing Technology, Planetary System Industry
                Levels, and building additional Ships for the navy.
          Added "multi-game" capability.  NOTE: This is NOT Multi-Node, only
                multi-game.  The ability for this program to look for and use
                other data files without having to set up multiple directories
                and multiple copies of this program to simulate that function.
          Added "Tournament Mode".  Game can now be initialized to run the
                daily maintenance more than once per day.
          Added ability to toggle the Galactic Empire as active or inactive
                during initialization.
          Added ability to set the "delay" period before the Galactic Empire
                became "active" and begins to send out fleets.
          Added Diplomatic Relations notification to the receiving empire
               regarding the selected Diplomatic Posture (Allied, Friendly,
               Neutral, or Hostile).
          Corrected the input fields for numeric values to eliminate the input
               of "excessively" large values through Scientific Notation
               (example: 1E9, which crashed the game 100% when a REAL value was
               expected.).  Maximum scientific notation value allowed is 1E4,
               which corresponds to nearly the same for maximum numeric entry
               (example: 1E4=10,000 and maximum field length is 4 characters, so
               a numeric input could be 9,999).
          Added the ability for the player to check the anticipated amount of
               Technology and Industry Points generation when maintenance is
               run to the Planetary Systems Management section.
          Corrected problem with Communications Monitoring routines to remove
               the interface problem between a high speed modem and the
               program itself.

  v1.53 : The inclusion of the Resetdom.EXE routines in the body of the game's
               source.  No more separate program for initializing the game,
               simple erasure of the EMPIRES.DOM file will initiate the reset.
          Addition of a Diplomatic Relations section so that Alliances may be
               formed and used.
          Restriction of Radius scan to only those planetary systems controlled
               by the player making the scan or planetary systems of those
               empires that are allied with the player.
          Addition of ability to launch fleets to Allied players planetary
               systems as Reinforcements for that planetary system.
          Addition of SCORES.DOM as a separate file for external score keeping
               by players and non-players alike.
          Correction of the Navy Status display to show only those totals of
               ships on planetary systems rather than the empires total ship
               amount including those in flight to targets.
          Removed ability to send ships from planetary system A to planetary
               system A.  ATN the Ace of The Old Guard BBS had added this to
               source he had, but I did not agree with its implementation
               before now.
          Reduced amount of memory required for data by removing the use of
               an internal array to hold the messages.  Savings of approx-
               imately 20,000 bytes of RAM.  Message file no longer has a
               restriction on the number of messages it can contain.
          Addition of psuedo-Email ability to private empire messages function.
          Revised the Recent Happenings to become "Recent Events" and the files
               now contain the events from the last 12 months for two years of
               game play; last year and this year.
          Terminology change regarding the planets.  Changed all references of
               "Planet" to "Planetary System".  Offers a better explanation of
               the distance between points - a single planet that is 3 light
               years from another planet?  Come on.  Planetary SYSTEM is more
               appropriate.
          Addition of Siroos Afshar's Radar option with enhancements and
               optimizations.
          Addition of ability to toggle the Radar option active or inactive at
               the moment of game reset by the Sysop.  Program detects setting
               and will allow or disallow the Radar Section from being seen or
               accessed by the players throughout the entire game.
          Addition of the "Galactic Empire" as the 21st "player" in the game.
               The Galactic Empire is computer controlled and will perform all
               the duties that a human player would: Increase industry, set
               manpower allocation, increase technology, build ships, and send
               out fleets.
          More code optimizing/efficientizing.
          Addition of ability for a player to relinquish control of a Planetary
               System to any other active player via the Diplomatic Relations.
          Addition of "Game Advancement" at time of initialization by the
               Sysop.  Advancement ranges from 2 to 24 game months.
          Addition of Terraforming Operation to Planetary Systems management
               menu.
          Unitized previous Include files of source so that program may exceed
               the 64Kb Turbo Pascal limitation.
          Use of my highly enhanced and optimized COMMON.PAS to include many
               new routines - Including Local Sysop controls, i.e. F10 Chat,
               F7 minus 5 minutes, F8 add 5 minutes, F5 "log user off".
          Addition of Communications Monitoring to remove the "Hangup and
               play again" cheat mode.
          Addition of more colors to program.  Virtually all areas are now
               colored.
          Addition of a confirmation prompt to Radius Scan to eliminate
               accidental input of truly large scan parameters.
          Addition of a "starting point" for the Planetary System listing.
          Addition of Abortable lists to all areas that offer information
               displayed in a listed format with a Yes/No prompt in case of
               "accidental" aborts.
          Addition of COM Port and carrier status monitoring.
          Addition of a "Status Bar" showing local terminal who is online
               in the game along with their logged baud rate and time
               remaining online.

  v1.52 : More code "efficientizing".
          Optimized code for more speed and smaller size under TP 5.xx.
          Added a fleet sort routine based upon fleet velocity into maintenance
               routine.  No more locking up at maintenace when dealing with 5
               digit fleet actions.
          Removed some redundant code during planet conquering message sending.
               No more duplicated information regarding conquered and/or lost
               worlds.
          Updated the combat module again for the maintenance routine to give
               better speed and to eliminate the maintenance "hang problem" for
               very long games.  This was required as a second part to
               completely correct this problem.
          Added a Radius Planetary Scan into Navy routines.  This allows
               players to select any single planet and then a range in LY's to
               scan from that planet.
          Enhanced the RESETDOM utility to make it interactive regarding the
               minimum distance between homeworlds when generated.
          Source Code no longer regularly distributed.

  v1.51 : Never made public debut, but was given out for beta test to one
               person - never to be seen/heard from again.
          Data file format change - replaced simple integer type for ships
               to long integer type.  No change as to maximum ships allowed
               though.
          Using data file change and combat module upgrading as a means to
               correct the long game maintenace hangs.
          Added Time remaining online checking so players wouldn't remain
               online beyond their allotted time.
          Simplified maintenace fleet combat routines for speed.
          Implemented "ATN the Ace"'s idea for minimum distance between home-
               worlds idea and enhanced it here as well with the change from
               setting of 3 LY distance between homeworlds to 5 LY
               distance.

  v1.50 : Corrected problem with Increase Technology and Increase Industry,
               as well as an oversight with the abortable display listings.
          Also, this has received the official version number of 1.50 where it
               was originally called v2.00TC (v2.00 Tarl Cabot).

  v2.00TC:Converted the source to compile under Turbo Pascal v5.0.
          "Efficientized" the code further as well as adding in fully support-
               able user aborts in the lengthy display listings.
          Added Color to the game in many areas.
          Unofficial release revision number.

  v1.41B: Corrected problem with Empire Technology level checking for building
               different ship classes.  Corrected (FINALLY!) the "Annomoly
               Fleet" bug for homeworld recapturing.
          Corrected an Integer Overflow problem in ship building and total
               ships in an empire's fleet checking.

  v1.41A: Corrected "Annomoly Fleet" bug for homeworld re-capturing.
- v1.40A  "Efficientized" the code by removing extraneous loops and code lines.
          Added habitability ratings to the display in Naval Status screen.
          Added Counter Intelligence moves remaining in CI routines.
          Added the use of the "standard" COMMON.PAS Prinfile procedure for
               display of the map regions so users could pause the display and
               abort normally.
          Added user abort to the Planet Zoom Display routine.
          Corrected the lack of negative input checking for ship movement
               between planets.
          Corrected an Integer Overflow problem in the ship building cost
               calculation routine.
          Corrected an Integer Overflow problem in the planetary Industrial
               Level increase routine.
          Removed a second call to store the day's date so as to allow the
               maintenance routines to run everyday and not be overlooked.
          Corrected the formulas used in the maintenance routines for Tech
               and Ind production to reflect that used in the documentation.
          Updated and "Efficientized" the RoundOff routine to use the FRAC
               function.
          Updated the St function to remove that mysterious 1 unit of Ind
               or Tech that would pop up but not be available because it wasn't
               really there.
          Removed Pad and Back_Pad and replaced with Addfront and Addrear.
          Added habitability display to the Zoom Planet display as well
               as adding single planet display to the Naval routines.
          Added a "Fleets in Flight" display to the Naval Routines.


   - Apocalypse's Revision History -

   v1.40: This version has fixed the infamous "9999 Frigates" bug.
          Earlier versions of Dominions! were written on an IBM XT clone with
                1 meg RAM, a 20 megabyte hard disk, and only a measly 8 mhz
                operating speed. This version was done on an real IBM XT
                with 1 meg RAM and 12 mhz.
          All versions were written in Turbo Pascal 3.0.
          The source code files (DOMINION.PAS, RESET.PAS, OVERLAY...) aren't
                really needed to run Dominions!, I just included them for
                those of you who are curious about the source code.
                The Dominions! source code isn't as "clean" as it could be,
                as I (Apocalypse) learned quite a bit while writing this
                game and I (Apocalypse) haven't yet gone back to trim the
                "rough edges".


     X. Miscellaneous
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     This is where I, Tarl Cabot, would like to give credit to Mysterion,
one of my users and a fellow enthusiast of good games.  He has done a great
deal of bug hunting for me on other works, and previous revisions for this game
were no exception.  He seems to find nearly every bug a programmer can place
into a program!  I've learned a great deal of things to look for and watch
out for when programming with his help.  If you are a door designer, and you
are looking for either a someone to assist with Debugging, or (now for a small
plug for my system...grin) are looking for a remote site to BETA test your
work, Ko Ro Ba is available, and so is Mysterion.