User manual GAMES PC STARS!

[. . . ] STARS! The Premiere Space Strategy Game PLAYER'S GUIDE http://www. webmap. com/stars!rec. games. computer. stars II COPYRIGHT AND CREDITS Design and Programming Addtional Programming Producer Graphics Music Sound Effects Intro Documentation Technical Advice Playtesting Jeff McBride and Jeff Johnson Jeffery Krauss Brian Walker Eric Chang, Michael Miller, Michael Reichmann, Emblazon Multimedia Emil Herceg at Arte Wisdom Mahendra Sampath Minds Eye Kurt Kremer, Brett Kremer David Pugh Bill Bolosky, Dave Buchtal, Kent Cedota, Daniel Chenault, Paul Enfield, Michael Grier, William Herlan, Peter Henriksen, Peter Horodan, Brent Jensen, Mark Kenworthy, Stu Klingman, Steve Kruy, Robert Lamb, Jim Lane, John LeVee, Hilton Lange, Chris McBride, Jeff McCashland, Beth Moursund, Chris Noon, Tony Pacheco, Chris Peltz, Tony Reynolds, Jenifer Schlickbernd, Eric Snapper, Andrew Sterian, Jeff Stone, Richard Sun, David Thiel, Brad Thompson, Thomas Voigt, Ross Youngs Special Thanks To. . . Packaging Design and Artwork Production Sam Belcher, Peter Celella Sharon O'Neill Antony Bond, Gary Lucken © 1996 Entertainment International (UK) Ltd. Published by Empire Interactive CONTENTS Welcome 1-1 GETTING STARTED Single Player Setup 2-1 Playing the Tutorial 2-1 Starting a Single Player Game 2-2 Setting and Viewing Winning Conditions 2-3 Multi-Player Setup 3-1 Setting Up a Single Computer, Multi-Player (Hot Seat) Game 3-1 Setting Up Network-based Multi-Player Games 3-4 Setting Up Modem, FTP, and Play by E-mail Games 3-7 Setting and Viewing Winning Conditions 3-9 Adding Expansion Players 3-10 Being Absent from Play 3-11 Finding Multi-Player Games on the Internet 3-12 Passwords 3-12 Using a Timer Application? [. . . ] See the Engines section of the Technology Browser for more information. Running Out of Fuel (Well, Nearly) Even the best of us occasionally runs out of gas. For ships with Ramscoop engines this isn't a problem as they will automatically slow down and continue their journey at their fastest free speed. For ships with normal engines you have several choices. If they are worth saving you can send a fleet to rescue them. If they aren't worth saving then you can either just ignore them or scrap them. Or you can let them limp home at Warp 1. Wormholes are unstable and can wander. Be sure that any fleet using a wormhole has enough fuel to return to a friendly planet should the opposite end of the wormhole travel and deposit the fleet far from the expected location. MANAGING FLEETS 10-7 Any ship can travel Warp 1 without using fuel. This means you travel 1 light year per year of play. You also generate tiny amounts of fuel at Warp 1, and may be able to put on small bursts of speed. This really is helpful only if you're close to your destination, almost out of fuel, and don't want to bother sending a rescue ship. ROUTING FLEETS Routing automatically sends fleets from one planet to another. Stargates are used, if they are available. If the destination planet is yours, and it also has a route destination, the fleet will be passed automatically to the next point. Routing is most useful in large universes where you are regularly distributing new ships from specialized production centers to other points in your empire. Routing can also be used to send existing fleets from one side of your empire to the other, specifying only one waypoint within fuel range. Fuel Warning in the Fleet Waypoints Tile When you choose a waypoint you can't reach given the current speed and fuel supply, the Fuel Usage amount displayed in the Fleet Waypoints tile Routing is a function of a planet's center of production. To set a planet's route destination: 1. Click on the Route button in the planet's Production tile. Move your cursor to the scanner and click on the route destination. A line appears between the origin and destination. Any ship that has route orders will be sent to this destination, as well as any newly built fleet. To change the route destination: ¯ Click on the Route button, then click on the new destination. To remove a route: ¯ Click on Route, then click on the planet of origin. Tip: You can also change a planet's route destination by holding down the CTRL key and clicking on the new destination. 10-8 PLAYING STARS ! To pass fleets from route destination to route destination: 1. Set a route destination for each planet in your circuit or path. Using the Waypoint Tasks tile, assign the fleet Route orders. [. . . ] This item will be available in the production inventory and can be automated through the auto build feature of the production dialog. MOVEMENT Movement is speed in battle ranging from fi square to 2 fi squares per round. ORBIT RING COLORS A white circle indicates that one or more of your fleets are in orbit. A red circle indicates one or more of an opponent's fleets. A purple circles indicates that both your fleet(s) and an opponent's fleet(s) are in orbit. PLANET-PENETRATING SCANNERS These scanners can detect fleets in orbit around a planet. They also can tell you planetary stats from a distance. PLAYER LOG FILE gamename. mN --- N is a number from 1 to 16, representing the player number. [. . . ]