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- Instructions
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~
- for
- ~~~
- SUPER DOMINIONS
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- Dominions! is an easy-to-use, menu driven program. Each menu has a (H)elp
- function which will describe the available commands (it is for this reason that
- the individual descriptions of the commands have been omitted here in the
- instructions).
-
- The game "universe" consists of a galaxy of seven hundred and fifty
- planets. The map of the galaxy is split into 5 sections which may be viewed
- using the (M)ap option in the Main Menu.
-
- One game month equals one day real time.
-
-
- Maintenance is set from 1 to 7 days a week according to the Config file.
- The first time a user plays Super Dominions! on the specified day, the
- Maintenence program will run. The program will update the planets and all
- ships in transit.
-
- The main thing is that because of the back up files, you gain no advantage by
- logging in right at midnight or right before Maintenance is done.
-
- A. The Object
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The object of Dominions! is to conquer everything you can, no holds barred.
- Your planets will produce goods which can then either be applied to the
- manufacture of warships or to the increasing of your shipbuilding ability.
-
- This is primarily a war game. All strategy involved in the game revolves
- around basic warfare theory. If you're a pacifist, this game isn't for you.
-
- Be forewarned - Offense isn't everything. Don't leave key planets
- undefended. Your neighbors aren't the nicest of people. Remember one thing
- and you will have no problem playing and winning this game - "Expect everybody
- to do whatever they think they can get away with."
-
- B. The Menus
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Main Menu : From here you move to specialty sub-menus.
-
- Credit Menu : Gives the List of Designers and Programmers
- who contributed to the Game.
-
- Instruction Menu : Gives you a choice of Instructions, Histroy and
- Strategies for the Game.
-
- Intelligence Menu : This menu controls your spying on other planets
- or empires (players).
-
- Empire Menu : Controls the economic and political functions of the
- empire.
-
- Naval Menu : Controls the actions of all ships in your navy.
-
- Planet Menu : Allows you to control the economic and political
- functions of all the planets you own.
-
- Every menu allow you to toggle the e(X)pert mode on and off, although the
- command is actually only listed in the Main Menu. When the eXpert mode is on,
- the full menu will not be shown, only a one line prompt will be given...
-
- Dominions! Main Menu
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Option (C,D,E,H,I,M,N,P,Q,R,S,X) >
-
- C. Getting Started
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- When you first play in a given war, the computer will set up a new Empire
- for you. You will be asked to name your empire and your homeworld. The planet
- number of your capital is the same as your empire number. Up to thirty players
- may participate in each war.
-
- Each player starts with the following...
-
- Technology Level 1.0
- 40 Frigates
- 10 Destroyers
- 1 Long Range Radar
- 1 Planetary Defense Base
- 10 Industry Units
- 4 Technology Units
-
- A homeworld with
- 15,000 population
- 75 % Habitability rating
- Industry Level 1.5
-
- D. Planets
- ~~~~~~~~~~
- The known galaxy is made up of 750 habitable planets that you can conquer.
- Each has its own individual characteristics. Below is how an average planet
- report looks...
-
- Planet Number : 57
- Planet Name : Apoc's World of Doom
- Owner : 11
- X,Y : 38,19
- Habitability : 63 %
- Population : 51,459
- Industry Level : 1.7
- Defenses :
- PDBs : 1
- Frigates : 46
- Destroyers : 17
- Cruisers : 4
- Battleships : 1
- Dreadnoughts : 0
- SuperDreadnoughts : 0
- Corvette : 0
-
- Habitability is a relative rating of the planet's compatibility with human
- life. The greater the habitability, the faster the planet's population will
- grow. The formula for population growth of OWNED planets is...
-
- New Pop = Old Pop * (1.05+(Hab/1000))
-
- for an UNowned planet, the formula is...
-
- New Pop = Old Pop * (1.05+(Hab/2000))
-
- Planets with high habitabilities will end up with populations MUCH greater
- than those of low hab planets.
-
- E. Empires
- ~~~~~~~~~~
- Each player rules an Empire. Your Empire consists of all the planets and
- ships you own. There will be twentynine other empires opposing yours.
- Alliances don't do very much good, because the nature of the game is such that
- it is highly individualistic. But then again Alliances might be the only thing
- that will help control those players that seem to be running away with things.
- Remember, nothing is binding, what a player say and what a player will do might
- be totally different.
-
- F. Economics
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Economics in Dominions! are fairly simple. People are the key to
- manufacturing everything. The more people in your empire, the more ships you
- can make.
-
- There are two basic commodities : Technology Units and Industry Units.
- Technology Units are used to increase the Technology Level of your Empire.
- Industry Units have two functions; they can be used to manufacture warships or
- to increase the Industrial Level of a planet.
-
- Production for the two commodities is different. It takes 2500 workers to
- produce 1 Technology Unit, but only 1000 workers to make 1 Industry Unit.
-
- Planetary labor percentages are by population. If you have 50% of the
- population in Industry, half of the planet's population will work in Industry.
- Half of the planet's production will NOT be Industry Units.
-
- A planet's production is modified by the Industry Level of a planet.
- The formula for production is...
-
- Ind. Units = Population / 1000 * Square Root of Industry Level
-
- Tech. Units = Pop / 2500 * Square Root of Industry Level
-
-
- Industrial level of your planets can be raised to a maximum of the square root
- of your tech level.
-
- G. Ships
- ~~~~~~~~
- Maintaining a strong navy is absolutely essential to winning in
- Dominions!. To build ships, it takes Industry Units. However, if you never
- increase your Technology Level, you will soon discover that your smaller ships
- are greatly outclassed by your opponent's large ships. A balance between the
- size and number of ships is necessary. The following is chart of the
- Technology Level and Industry Units needed to make each ship class and each
- ship's characteristics...
- Ship Damage Done on Damage
- Ship Class Tech. Level Ind. Units Class Offense/Defense Takeable Speed
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Frigate 1.0 5 Fr 1- 2 2- 4 5 3
- Destroyer 2.0 10 Ds 2- 4 4- 8 11 3
- Cruiser 4.5 20 Cr 4- 8 8-16 24 4
- Corvette 6.0 40 Co 5-10 5-10 20 8
- Battleships 8.0 40 Bs 8-16 16-32 53 5
- Dreadnought 12.5 80 Dn 16-32 32-64 117 5
- SuperDreadnought 20.0 160 SDn 32-64 64-128 257 4
-
- Damage Done on...tells how many structural points of damage the given class
- of ship can cause per round of battle.
-
- Damage Takeable is the amount of structural points the ship can take before
- being destroyed.
-
- Speed is the number of light years (ly) the ship will travel per game
- month.
-
- Don't send just one large ship to capture a planet. Even if the enemy has
- only one Frigate he will win the battle using suicide tactics. Always support
- your larger ships with smaller ones.
-
- H. Radars
- ~~~~~~~~~
- A player can build and install ONE radar station in each one of his/her
- planets. The player can then "Examine" the radar screen(s) via a (new)
- command, (E)xamine Radars, in the Navy Management menu. If an enemy squadron
- is on its way to attack a planet in which a radar station is installed, and if
- the squadron is within the range of the radar, a report describing the squadron
- is printed as a response to "Examine Radars" command.
-
- There are 3 classes of radars:
-
- Class Range ind units Tech Level
- (in ly) cost required
- ----------------------------------------
- Short 4 80 5.5
- Mid 8 250 12.0
- Long 12 600 20.0
- ----------------------------------------
-
- A player can install a longer range radar station in a planet which
- already has a (shorter range) station; but the shorter range radar will be
- dismantled (no net increase in the total number of radar stations as reported
- in the "Empire Status").
-
- If a player captures another player's planet, the radar station installed
- in the captured planet by its ex-ownoer, if any, will be destroyed during the
- fight.
-
-
- I. Planetary Defense Bases
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- A player can build PBD's on his planets for quick and cheap defense. You
- will sacrifice the ability to move them for good damage done on defense. The
- maximum number of PDB's that can be placed on any one planet is 2 * the square
- root of the Tech Level. WARNING! Planetary Defense Bases are no good by them
- selves, if attacked alone they will be captured.
-
- Ind. Defense Damage
- PDB Units Damage Takeable
- 1 40 26-52 40
-
- The maximum # of PDB's that can be placed on any one planet is 2 * the square
- root of tech level.
-
- J. Spying
- ~~~~~~~~~
- All spying is controlled from the Counterintelligence Menu. You can get
- up to TEN spy reports per game month. But, they aren't cumulative. If you
- don't use them, they're lost when the Maintenence program runs.
-
- You can use your spy reports to spy on either planets or enemy empires.
- You will be given almost all the information on that subject, including
- populations, Tech/Ind Levels, and planet habitabilies.
-
- The results of your spying will be will be the status of that planet or
- empire as of when the Maintainance was Run.
-
- Spying can be done for free by your "Sensors" at a range of (Tech Level +
- 5) * 1.5 from any one of your planets. If the planet is beyond this range, the
- cost is the Square Root of (distance between planets - spy range + 1).
-
- K. The Galactic Empire and Earth
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The Galactic Empire still controls nine very powerful planets. New Earth
- (planet 31) is defended by a large navy. The other eight Imperial planets,
- Amalthea, Trantor, Magrathea, Terminus, Ace's Place, Zarcon, Sharo and Klinzhai
- (planets 32 through 39, respectively) are gaurded by smaller, but still
- powerful
- navies. Capturing any of these worlds will give a major advantage to the
- player
- that can do it.
-
- Somewhere in the galaxy is the lost planet of origin of mankind, Earth. It
- possesses a large population and a 100% habitabilty, and is defended by only by
- a moderately large fleet. It is a very valuable planet, and is on par with the
- power of the Imperial planets.
-
- L. SCORING
- ~~~~~~~~~~
-
- Empire Score = 30,000 times number of planets plus total population plus Navy
- Score. Navy Score = total sum of ship values. Values are as follows:
-
- Frigate: 100
- Destroyer: 200
- Cruiser: 400
- Corvette: 800
- Battleship: 800
- Dreadnaught: 1600
- SuperDreadnaught: 3200
- PDB's: 750
- Short Range Radar: 200
- Mid Range Radar: 400
- Long Range Radar: 800
-