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- The SRE Configurable text file!
- IMPORTANT: For instructions on modification, see the end of the file.
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- #key bulletin-main
- Solar Realms Elite 0.980 was written by Amit Patel\n
- at the Solar Realm: (713)855-1665\n
- under the direction of SunStriker\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-small-empire-1
- You may want to avoid building up your military until you have a lot of planets. \
- You also could sell your army and generals (to get more money) if you haven't \
- already done so.\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-small-empire-2
- You may want to start building up an army now, since \
- you will soon be out of protection. After that, any \
- other empire will be able to attack yours.\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-small-empire-3
- You should get many tourism, ore, and petroleum planets \
- so that you will have a good source of income. You may \
- also want to start establishing relations with other empires \
- with treaties. They will allow you to trade with other \
- empires, and perhaps make a profit; some treaties provide \
- defense from attackers.\n
- #endif
-
- #key hint-small-empire-4
- You should start work on your command ship. It will build \
- up automatically each turn, or you can spend extra money to \
- build it up quicker. It acts as a powerful leader when you \
- go into battle. It adds to your heavy cruiser strength by \
- providing a central flagship.\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-insurgency
- You might need to sell some of your assets so that \
- you won't go through civil wars.\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-covert-agents
- You may want to buy covert agents so that your empire will \
- not be vulnerable to covert operations that can cause damage \
- or riots.\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-tax-rate
- You may want to go to the System Menu (*) and increase your \
- tax rate. This will increase the money you have to spend. On \
- the other hand, if you lower it, you will attract people to your \
- empire.\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-soldiers
- You should buy soldiers, because they are a primary form \
- of defense against the attacks of other empires.\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-generals
- You may want to buy generals so that you will have leaders for \
- your soldiers.\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-pollution
- You need anti-pollution planets to reduce pollution in your empire.\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-lottery
- Perhaps you should buy some lottery tickets as an investment for \
- tomorrow! Who knows, you may win!\n
- #end
-
- #key hint-research
- You might want to buy research planets so that you can improve the \
- efficiency of your planets.\n
- #endif
-
- #key planet-petroleum
- The income varies between 7,000 and 1,000,000 credits per planet, depending \
- on supply [number of petroleum planets] and demand [total number of planets].\n
- #end
-
- #key planet-government
- Government planets house covert agents and generals. One government \
- planet can house 40 generals or 300 covert agennts (or a combination).\n
- #end
-
- #key planet-tourism
- Tourism planets depend on people coming to your empire, so \
- when conditions are bad (pollution or insurgencies), fewer \
- people will be tourists, and profits will go down.\n
- #end
-
- #key planet-ore
- Ore planets are a stable source of income. Although they \
- produce less money than tourism planets, they always are \
- profitable, even in the worst civil wars or pollution.\n
- #end
-
- #key planet-anti-pollution
- Even though there is no pollution in the atmosphere at this time, \
- the Galactic Coordinator suggests having anti-pollution planets.\n
- #end
-
- #key planet-urban
- Urban planets encourage a population growth in your empire. \
- internal trade in cities and on planets is a source of income. \
- You collect tax money from the people.\n
- #end
-
- #key planet-education
- Education planets cause students to come to your empire to study. \
- If the conditions in your empire are favorable, they usually do not \
- go back home, so your empire gets an inflow of young educated citizens.\n
- #end
-
- #key planet-food
- Food planets are needed to produce the food to feed \
- your people and soldiers. If you do not wish to invest \
- in food planets, you can buy food from the food market.\n
- #end
-
- #key planet-soldier
- Soldier planets train soldiers for less money than buying a soldier \
- would cost. However, you also have to consider the initial investment \
- of buying a soldier planet instead of a money-producer. Sometimes \
- it is cheaper to buy a tourism planet and use the money from there to \
- buy soldiers; other times it is better to buy a soldier planet.\n
- #end
-
- #key civil-war-general
- Civil Wars are caused when you can't feed your people or pay to \
- maintain your planets. This civil war indicates either that you \
- ran out of money or you had insufficient food.\n\n
- #end
-
- #key civil-war-tourism
- Tourism planets, although giving 50% more profits, are susceptible to \
- a loss of profits if another player performs insurgencies on you. The \
- best strategy is to have some tourism and some of the lower-profit ore, \
- because ore won't lose its profits during insurgencies. The ore provides \
- a stable source of income when you have tourism problems. \
- #end
-
- #key civil-war-long-term-food
- Even if you didn't have food shortages now, you can ensure that you don't \
- have any in the future by being self-sufficient. You should buy enough \
- food planets to produce the amount of food you use each turn.\n\n
- #end
-
- #key civil-war-continuous
- Many times one civil war leads to another because you are unable to \
- stabilize the society. You can sell your military and non-profitable \
- planets (government, research, education, and urban) to reduce costs of \
- operating your empire. That way, you may have enough money to survive \
- the next turn. Also, don't pay for crime prevention; you don't \
- have much that can be stolen. \
- #end
-
- #key civil-war-loan
- You can also try to get a loan from the bank so that \
- you can pay for your empire for a turn, which may stop \
- the cycle of civil wars. \
- #end
-
- #key help-strategies
- Here are popular strategies:\n
- 1. Buy lots of ore planets. They are "safe"; they produce money even when\n
- your empire is in internal conflict.\n
- 2. Buy lots of tourism planets, and with the extra money, buy a lot of\n
- covert agents to protect against insurgent aids by other empires.\n
- 3. Buy urban and education planets and set a very high tax rate (70-100%),\n
- so that you can make money from taxes instead of planets.\n
- 4. Increase your tax rate to boost your profits. However, there might be\n
- civil unrest or mass emmigrations.\n
- 5. Get a loan to buy extra planets. If planets are inexpensive, you can\n
- make enough money with the new planets to pay back your loan the next\n
- turn.\n
- 6. Trade with other empires, because prices for items vary greatly. You\n
- might be able to buy soldiers for 1000 and someone else can sell for\n
- 1500, meaning a 50% profit (25% for each). If you can find a good\n
- trade partner, this can be the MOST PROFITABLE method of making money!\n
- 7. Buy research planets and build up the efficiency of your other planets.\n
- Then when you buy new planets, they'll be more profitable than everyone\n
- else's planets, since you researched and built up efficiency first.\n
- 8. Buy government planets and covert agents. You can then Take Hostages\n
- from your enemies to earn money. However, you usually need your own\n
- money supply in case your attempts fail.\n
- 9. If you can convince EVERY empire in your galaxy to keep exactly 1/10th
- of their planets as petroleum planets, the petroleum prices will be
- higher than tourism or ore. This requires cooperation by all empires.
- If you keep a better ratio (1/20), the prices will double!
- #end
-
- #key help-research
- Research planets can increase the efficiency (production) of your planets. \
- By doing this, your planets will produce more profits for your investment \
- than those of other players. For example, if you push your Ore profits \
- up to 30,000 per planet, you will be making 20,000 profit, and someone else \
- would be making 10,000 profit. You will be able to buy twice as much as \
- another player!\n
- #end
-
- #key help-covert-operations
- With Covert Agents, you can perform underhanded actions that can seriously \
- damage another empire. Covert operations include: Spying, Insurgent Aid \
- (which reduces the production of the other empire), Dissension (cause \
- military dissension), Demoralize (reduce the effectiveness of another's \
- army), Take Hostages, and Bribe Spy.\n
- #end
-
- #key help-bank
- The bank (in the Registered version) allows you to take a loan, deposit \
- for interest, or invest in bonds. For example, you can take a loan on the \
- first turn to buy more planets than usual. This could give you a head start \
- in the game! During the game, depositing money in the bank gives you a \
- reserve in case you need money. However, both cash and bank deposits are \
- subject to being taken by Terrorists asking for Ransom (Covert Op 'Take \
- Hostages'). If you do not need your funds immediately, you can save them \
- by Investing. Investments are completely safe; however the money does not \
- return for 1.5 days. They also give a very good profit.\n
- #end
-
- #key help-taxes
- Taxing your people is sometimes helpful to make extra profits. However, taxes \
- are not necessary to survive. If you keep a tax-free empire, many people will \
- come to your empire. When you are in trouble, you can call on these people \
- to pay some taxes. As long as you do not ask too much, they will comply. \
- On the other hand, you can encourage people to come to your empire with \
- Urban and Education planets. Then you can keep a high tax rate to earn money.\n
- #end
-
- #key help-petroleum
- Petroleum prices fluctuate due to supply and demand. If there are too many \
- petroleum planets in a galaxy, the price will be low. If there are few, \
- the price will be high. Having one petroleum planet for every 10 other planet \
- types will keep the prices at around 25 to 30 thousand, which is better than \
- tourism. However, you have to convince the other players to do the same thing \
- to prevent the prices from becoming too low.\n
- #end
-
- #key help-population
- Urban planets increase the birth rate; the birth rate is affected by the number \
- of people (parents) in your empire. Education planets bring in new people, \
- regardless of the current population. So education planets are very good \
- when you're small, and urban planets are good when you're large.\n
- \n
- To change the population growth/decrease, adjust your tax rate. A side effect \
- of decreasing your population by increasing the tax rate is a surge of income!\n
- #end
-
- #key SRE-command-line-options
- Primary options (must be the first parameter)\n
- HELP Display all help topics\n
- EDIT Simple editing - not very powerful\n
- BANK Set up a bank (REGISTERED)\n
- ATTACKS Choose special attacks ON or OFF\n
- RESET Start a new game\n
- REGISTER Enter your registration numbers\n
- INSTRUCTIONS Display the long instructions file; combine with\n
- /LOG and /ANSI=0 or /ANSI=1 to create an ANSI or\n
- text instruction file\n
- DISPLAY <file> Display the file <file>; this can be combined with\n
- /LOG and /ANSI=0 or /ANSI=1 to display SRE's system\n
- files (such as SREHINT.TXT and WALKTHRU.TXT)\n
- SCORES Display the scores\n
- ENEMY Edit the names of the pirate teams (REGISTERED)\n
- \n
- Secondary Options (may appear in combination with other parameters)\n
- /ANSI=0 Forces ANSI off\n
- /ANSI=1 Forces ANSI on\n
- /NOSPECIALEFFECTS Turn off the special effects on the pause and Yes/No\n
- prompts\n
- /LOG Turns on Logging in SRE.LOG\n
- /MENU Adds a special menu to SRE!\n
- /NOTIMELIMIT Disable time-limit checking\n
- /TIMELIMIT Enable time-limit checking\n
- /BIOS Turns on BIOS output\n
- /FASTWRITE Turns on fastest (direct-screen-write) output\n
- /LOCAL Force local play\n
- #end
-
- #EOF
-
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- Instructions on modifying the help file:
-
- The help file is set up as a series of topics marked by #key and #end. You
- can change any parts of the text, but be warned:
-
- 1. SRE does not read your end-of-lines as the end of a line. It
- instead does word-wrapping automatically. You need a '\n' sequence
- to force SRE to go to the next line. This is usually easier than
- word-wrapping yourself.
-
- 2. Many editors remove trailing spaces at the end of the line. For
- easier editing without worrying about the trailing spaces, SRE
- reads the '\' at the end of a line and ignores it. You put a '\'
- character at the end of the line AFTER the spaces, and SRE will
- keep those spaces.
-
- 3. More details on the format:
- │
- │ #key «type»-«name»
- │ «text»
- │ #end
- │
- The 'type' is pre-determined by SRE. Currently supported are
- "hint", "help", "civil-war", "planet", and "bulletin". See below
- for a description of each type. The 'name' is an identifier that
- SRE uses to distinguish between the many entries under a single
- type. For example, 'planet' might be the type, and 'tourism' would
- be the name. In "help" and "bulletin", you can use your own names.
- In the others, you may not (use the names already in this file).
- The 'text' is as described above in #1 and #2. It can be as long
- as you'd like, and SRE will word-wrap and insert pauses as needed.
-
- 4. You can modify any of these in both the unregistered and registered
- versions. The only limitation is that in the unregistered version,
- you may use only "bulletin-main". You may not add your own bulletins.
-
- 5. Notice that you can add any text that you'd like between the #key and
- #end statements (as comments). Anything after the #EOF will be
- ignored (for increased speed in searches).
-
- 6. In general, there is a new-line ('\n') at the end of the text, to go
- to the next line. In some cases (civil-war text), follow the new-line
- format of the original text.
-
- Have fun customizing SRE for your own BBS!
-
- ─[HINT TEXT]─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- The hints are available to the user when she or he presses 'H' from the
- Government Spending menu. You may not change the name of the hint, because
- SRE looks for specific names. All the hints that SRE looks for are included
- in this SREHELP.DAT file. You may modify them if you wish. For example,
- you may want to shorten some of the help text for a tournament game in which
- only experts play. You may wish to use longer hints for a game that is meant
- for beginners.
- │
- │ #key hint-«name»
- │ «text»
- │ #end
- │
-
- ─[PLANET TEXT]───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- The first time a user buys planets, this text is displayed. You can use
- this to introduce users to the types of planets and their uses. Short
- descriptions are included in this file, but you may wish to copy the longer
- text from the file SREHELP.TXT (with more details on planet operation).
- You can also modify the descriptions to match something about your BBS.
- Don't change the name of the planet, because SRE will still look for the
- original name!
- │
- │ #key planet-«name»
- │ «text»
- │ #end
- │
-
- ─[CIVIL WAR TEXT]────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- The civil war text is displayed when a user goes through civil war. It is
- meant to help out those who don't know how to recover from food/money
- shortages. Don't change the name, because SRE expects certain names.
- │
- │ #key civil-war-«name»
- │ «text»
- │ #end
- │
- WARNING: Be careful of the newlines. The civil-war newlines are very
- irregular. You can change the text, but follow the same new
- line pattern in the original so that your text will be shown
- correctly! (This applies to the new-lines at the end of the
- text.)
-
- ─[HELP TEXT]─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- The help text allows the user to access help on any number of topics. The
- help is available in the System Menu by pressing 'H'. The format of the
- help text is:
- │
- │ #key help-«name»
- │ «text»
- │ #end
- │
- Where 'name' is the help topic that the user types in to see the text. You
- can add all types of topics - popular strategies, rules for tournaments,
- hints, BBS advertisements, etc.
-
- ─[BULLETINS]─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- You can add a bulletin with:
- │
- │ #key bulletin-«name»
- │ «text»
- │ #end
- │
- You can add any name you want (case insensitive, but case is displayed in the
- list of bulletins). The user can type in the name of the bulletin and the
- text will appear. Since the user is typing in the name, keep it short for
- convenience.
-
- The bulletins will work only in the registered version of SRE. They appear
- in the opening menu as option #1 (Bulletins).
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
-