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Annotation of 43BSDReno/games/warp/warp.doc, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: Warp is a real-time space war game.  This means that the enemies will keep
        !             2: playing even when you sit still.  Another peculiarity is that things which
        !             3: blow up can damage other things around them.  Universes above a critical
        !             4: density may chain react.
        !             5: 
        !             6: The game starts at difficulty 1, and gets more difficult with each
        !             7: succeeding wave, up to difficulty 99.  You're not likely to get that far.
        !             8: (Invoking warp with a -b switch causes the difficulty to increase more
        !             9: slowly, but games count only a tenth as much.)  The game starts with
        !            10: 5 Enterprises and 3 Bases, and you get more for surviving long enough.
        !            11: The game is over when you run out of Enterprises and Bases.
        !            12: 
        !            13: The object of the game is to get as many points as possible.  This is done
        !            14: by destroying as many enemies as possible.  This is not a trivial task.
        !            15: Each wave starts with one Enterprise and one Base, and continues until
        !            16: either both the Enterprise and Base are destroyed, or all the enemies
        !            17: (including any homing torpedoes) are destroyed.  It is possible to abort a
        !            18: wave, but you will be penalized for it.  The game may be saved between waves.
        !            19: 
        !            20: A -x switch causes any saved game to be ignored, and causes the new game
        !            21: not to be saveable.  Hence it is possible to run test games without
        !            22: invalidating a currently saved game.
        !            23: 
        !            24: The game is played in a 23 x 40 double wrap-around universe.  Everybody
        !            25: (both you and the enemies) gets the chance to move once every second,
        !            26: unless a -l (low-speed) switch was given or you are under 2400 baud, in
        !            27: which case it's every two seconds.  The following symbols are displayed:
        !            28: 
        !            29:                                FRIENDS
        !            30: E      Enterprise with shields         e       Enterprise without shields
        !            31: C      Cloaked E with shields          c       Cloaked E without shields
        !            32: B      Base with shields               b       Base without shields
        !            33: +      Friendly torpedo                M       Harry Mudd
        !            34: 
        !            35:                                ENEMIES
        !            36: K      Klingon                         G       Gorn
        !            37: R      Romulan                         A       Apollo
        !            38:        Romulan with cloaking device!   &       Space Amoeba Nucleus
        !            39: T      Tholian                         >,<     Planet crusher
        !            40: x,X    Hostile torpedo                 o,O     Homing torpedo
        !            41: P      Pirate                          M       Harry Mudd
        !            42: 
        !            43:                            MISCELLANEOUS
        !            44: *      Star                            @       Inhabited star
        !            45: |,-,/,\        Web                             ~       Protoplasm
        !            46: other  Friendly Freighter, for now...
        !            47: 
        !            48: The following keys control the DIRECTION of your various actions:
        !            49: 
        !            50:        h or 4          left
        !            51:        j or 2          down
        !            52:        k or 8          up
        !            53:        l or 6          right
        !            54:        b or 1          down and left
        !            55:        n or 3          down and right
        !            56:        y or 7          up and left
        !            57:        u or 9          up and right
        !            58: 
        !            59: (You will note that the letters are the same as other visual games, and the
        !            60: numbers are for use with a keypad.)  By themselves, these keys move either
        !            61: the Enterprise or the Base, whichever is the current vessel.  When shifted,
        !            62: they fire photon torpedoes in the specified direction from the current
        !            63: vessel.  When used with either the CTRL key or the FUNCT key, phasers
        !            64: (turbo-lasers for the Base) are fired in the specified direction.  (CTRL
        !            65: won't work with numbers, and FUNCT probably doesn't exist on non-TVI
        !            66: terminals.)  When preceded by an 'a', an attractor beam is fired in the
        !            67: specified direction, and when preceded by an 'r', a repulsor beam is fired.
        !            68: 
        !            69: These keys have special functions:
        !            70: 
        !            71:        del or %        fire photon torpedoes in every (reasonable) direction
        !            72:        s               stop all friendly torpedoes
        !            73:        S or 0          stop the Enterprise when in warp mode
        !            74:        d               destruct all friendly torpedoes (quite useful)
        !            75:        D               destruct the current vessel (commit suicide)
        !            76:        i/w             switch to Enterprise and put into impulse/warp mode
        !            77:        c/v             switch to Enterprise and put into cloaking/visible mode
        !            78:        p               switch to Base (not very mnemonic, but 'b' is taken)
        !            79:        o               switch from Enterprise to Base, or vice versa
        !            80:        z               zap explosions (multiple zaps extend further) (E only)
        !            81: 
        !            82:        ^R              refresh the screen
        !            83:        ^Z              suspend the game (on a bsd system)
        !            84:        q               asks if you want to exit this wave (will not work
        !            85:                            within 10 cycles of previous q command)
        !            86:        Q               exit this game (not wave)
        !            87:        ?               display a summary of these commands
        !            88: 
        !            89: There may be additional commands listed in your terminal's keymap file.
        !            90: Unrecognized keystrokes are ignored.  IF YOU FORGET ALL THE OTHER COMMANDS,
        !            91: REMEMBER "?", which gives you help.
        !            92: 
        !            93: Commands for moving the Enterprise may operate in one of two ways.  If it
        !            94: is in impulse mode, movement commands affect the position of the ship;
        !            95: if it is in warp mode, movement commands affect the velocity instead.
        !            96: The Base always moves in impulse mode.  Since multiple commands may be
        !            97: entered in one turn (if you can type fast enough), it is possible to jump
        !            98: over things even in impulse mode.  In a crowded universe this may be the
        !            99: only way to go.
        !           100: 
        !           101: (Actually, motion commands always change the velocity--the actual motion
        !           102: does not occur until the next turn.  Impulse mode simply causes the
        !           103: velocity to be zeroed out at the end of every turn.  Phaser commands, on
        !           104: the other hand, are executed immediately.  If you want to move and fire a
        !           105: phaser, you must wait for the motion to actually occur before typing the
        !           106: phaser command, or the phaser fires from your old position.  This is a
        !           107: feature, not a bug, and is intended to reflect reality.  Really.)
        !           108: 
        !           109: If multiple torpedo launching commands are given in a turn, a single torpedo
        !           110: is launched with extra velocity.  You can thus launch photon torpedoes over
        !           111: objects in the way, and get them where you want them quickly.  This feature
        !           112: works well with the destruct button.  Variations on this may be useful
        !           113: against the Space Amoeba.
        !           114: 
        !           115: NOTE:  Phasers destroy the target by blasting the projected next location of
        !           116: the object hit.  This means that if the object hit, be it Klingon, Romulan or
        !           117: Enterprise, changes velocity in the same turn, it can elude the effect of
        !           118: the phaser!  (Note that this also means that if you phaser a Klingon or
        !           119: torpedo that is about to ram you, you will be phasered as well as he/she/it.
        !           120: This can be embarrassing, not to mention deadly.)  Smart players move
        !           121: immediately upon phasering something at short range, or whenever they
        !           122: think they might get phasered (in other words, most of the time).
        !           123: 
        !           124: Objects with larger mass can bounce objects with smaller mass out of the way.
        !           125: In a crowded universe the bouncee can bounce quite a way before finding an
        !           126: empty place to land.  If you let the Tholians fill up the universe with web,
        !           127: so that there is no place to bounce to, the Tholians win that wave.
        !           128: 
        !           129: The status line across the top gives the current mode, the number of
        !           130: points accumulated this wave, the Enterprise's energy and torpedoes, the
        !           131: Base's energy and torpedoes, the number of stars, the number of enemies,
        !           132: and the stardate.  You will note that nice things happen to your energy levels
        !           133: when you put the Enterprise next to the Base, or the Base next to some stars.
        !           134: Bad things happen inside an Amoeba.
        !           135: 
        !           136: An object is destroyed when its energy goes negative, either from a direct
        !           137: hit, or from the blast of the previous turn's explosions.  Enemies and
        !           138: stars start with random amounts of energy.  High energy enemies can go warp
        !           139: 2.  A Romulan with sufficient energy maintains a cloaking device.  Tholians
        !           140: spin web, Gorns shoot homing torpedoes, and the Planet Crusher munches
        !           141: anything in its way, even Apollo.  Apollo won't let you go unless you kill
        !           142: him, but he loves you very much and beefs up your shields considerably.
        !           143: Both Apollo and the Planet Crusher recharge themselves, so you must hit
        !           144: them hard in a single turn to do them in. (Yes, the Planet Crusher must be
        !           145: shot in the mouth--he can only die of gluttony--and he blasts out of his
        !           146: mouth when he dies.)  Tholian web may be crossed only by coasting across it
        !           147: in warp mode, or by blasting it (but web blasts extend twice as far as
        !           148: normal blasts, so keep your distance).  The Space Amoeba sucks energy and
        !           149: grows, and you must destroy the nucleus.  Somehow.  There are at least four
        !           150: ways.  Phasers won't work on the big ones.
        !           151: 
        !           152: Pirates turn inhabited star systems into uninhabited ones.  Even Friendly
        !           153: Freighters will take potshots at you if you get them mad enough.
        !           154: 
        !           155: Note that because of the size of the Base's turbo-lasers (the Base does not
        !           156: have phasers) they cannot shoot anything next to the Base.  (This is why the
        !           157: Death Star died!)  In part, this is to protect the Enterprise.  It also lets
        !           158: you shoot over one adjacent star.  The Enterprise's phasers will shoot over
        !           159: a arbitrary number of adjacent, contiguous stars, including inhabited ones.
        !           160: Phasers die away with distance, so don't expect them to kill everything with
        !           161: one blow.
        !           162: 
        !           163: While the Enterprise's shields are up (when it is displayed as "E" rather
        !           164: than "e"), hits on it count only a fifth as much (or even less if you are
        !           165: moving in warp mode).  The shields are automatically maintained as long as
        !           166: there are more than 500 units of energy for the Enterprise.  The Base also
        !           167: has shields, which stay up as long as it has at least 1000 units of energy.
        !           168: 
        !           169: Aside from losing energy, the Enterprise can also take damage, either random
        !           170: damage from getting blasted, or specific damage when a system is in use
        !           171: and breaks down under the load.  In place of the score you will see the
        !           172: Estimated Time to Repair.  Sometimes docking helps to get things fixed faster.
        !           173: If you lose both your warp and impulse engines, try the tractors.  The
        !           174: Base doesn't take damage because it has much more redundancy than the
        !           175: Enterprise.
        !           176: 
        !           177: You get points for destroying enemies and hostile torpedoes.  At the end of
        !           178: a wave, you also get bonus points for saving stars, saving the Enterprise
        !           179: and Base, and for having an efficiency rating higher that 0.8.  You get
        !           180: NEGATIVE bonus points for letting friendly life forms get blown up, and for
        !           181: giving up.  Bonuses tend to be scaled by the ratio of the number of points
        !           182: you got over the number of points you could have got.  If you think you are
        !           183: done with a wave, but it won't quit, there may be homing torpedoes that you
        !           184: haven't destroyed--you must make the universe safe for posterity, you know.
        !           185: 
        !           186: When you have used up your Enterprises and Bases (or quit), your score will
        !           187: be posted to the scoreboard.  You may see the scoreboard outside of the game
        !           188: simply by giving the command "warp -s".
        !           189: 
        !           190: If you get bored, you can always play with some of the undocumented switches
        !           191: that are used to test warp.  Such funny games go on their own scoreboard.
        !           192: For kicks try "warp -x -d50 -C -\& -G -T -E400 -S5" and then go hide.  Quick.
        !           193: 

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