S t a r C o n t r o l Documentation Docs written by The Byter. This has been an Alternative Release. Star Control is, at its very basic core, a modern version of the arcade classic "Space War". Star Control gives you the option of choosing from a number of ships, different depending on which "side" of the game you are playing, and provides a strategic game as well. The first menu displays the player setup for each side - the Hierarchy (bad guys) on one side, and the Alliance on the other. Control indicates who does the playing, and Using indicates keyboard or joystick (for a human player). The options available from this menu are: Practice -- Action battle between two ships. This is good for getting to know how one ship will fare against another. The battles will continue until you press F10 to exit. When one ship is killed, another of the same type will replace it. Melee -- Practice battle - one fleet against another fleet. You and your opponent get one of each type of ship, and match them up against each other. When one of your ships is destroyed, you get to pick the replacement. A ship will remain in battle until it is destroyed, or no enemies remain. Full Game -- Strategic planning as well as battles. See the section below. Set Players -- Choose player setups. See below. Quit -- No fun. Self-explanatory The first option you will use is Set Players. The screen is replaced by a similar menu, showing Hierarchy on the left, Alliance on the right, and a box marked "OK" in the centre. Moving to the left allows you to choose who plays the Hierarchy forces (and vice-versa to the right). You can choose one of four choices for the player - Human (human controls strategy and battles), Computer (Computer controls strategy and battles), Cyborg (Computer controls battles, human controls strategy), and Psytron (Computer controls strategy, human does the battles). When Human is selected, you can choose keyboard or joystick control. When one of the computer or computer-assisted players is chosen, you get to choose the skill of the computer player. Make your choices for both sides, and hit the OK button in the centre of the screen. Battles ~~~~~~~ Once you have set the players up, you will want to start a battle. Select Practice to get some combat experience. You will be prompted for one ship and then the opponent. If your opponent is a computer player, the computer will randomly select a ship. Pressing the "Special Action" key (or button #2 on the joystick) will give detailed information about the ship. Pressing the "Fire" key (button #1) will select that ship for the battle. Once you begin the battle, it is to the death. There is no withdrawl (although you may hit F10 to abort it). Control is the straightforward "Asteroids" type control - left, right, thrust, fire, and "Special". The special ability varies from ship to ship, and can be quite useful. Battles take place on a starfield and a planet. Moving off the edge of the screen will move the players onto another section of the starfield. Avoid planets for the most part, as they do have a strong gravitational pull which can pull a ship to its doom. Planets can be used for a speed boost if you approach them in a slingshot manner, and can also be used to "hide" behind if an enemy with guided missiles is after you. Only one ship can square off at a time against an opponent. If there are a number of ships in a battle, they will take their turn, one at a time. To the right of the battle screen, there is a status display showing the Hierarchy ship on the top, the Alliance vessel on the bottom. This display will show a diagram of the ship, the race of the crew, and the name of the ship. On the left side is a black bar with green dots stacked inside. This is a measure of the maximum crew the ship can hold, and the green dots show the current crew compliment. If your ship looses all its crew, it will be destroyed. On the right is a similar black bar, but this one contains red dots. This indicates how much fuel the ship has. Fuel is used for firing the main weapons and for using the special ability. Fuel will regenerate as time goes on. At the bottom of the vessel diagram is a cockpit view of the crew. This serves no practical purpose, but it gives you a feeling for what kind of being serves aboard a certain vessel. Strategic Game ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For the strategic game, you will play one of the packaged scenarios or one designed with the Scenario Editor. You will be presented with a three- dimensional rotating star map which will show the relative distances between stars as it rotates. It may take some getting used to, but once you figure it out it is quite easy to understand. Each star is represented by a dot on the screen, and each can have a different planet composition. These are: Dead World - These can be fortified to build a barrier against enemy forces, but are useless for resources. Live World - These can be colonized to provide a source of additional crew for damaged ships. They are represented by a diamond (blue for Alliance, red for Hierarchy) once they have been colonized. Mining World - Building mines provides the local currency - StarBucks - for use in building new ships. A completed mine is represented by a plus sign. Ships and Starbases may only move where there is a world, and can only jump from one planet to an adjacent one. Any planet may be fortified, which puts a small box around the planet (enclosing the diamond or plus, if any) to indicate that it is fortified. A fortification must be destroyed by enemy forces before they may pass beyond it. When you choose a ship to control, you have a few options. The first one is to move to another location. When you select this, one to four blue lines will appear connecting the current star to available destinations. The light blue line is the currently selected one. Pressing the fire button will move to the selected star, moving left/right moves the selection, and the Special key will abort the move. The status of a currently selected ship will be displayed with the ship type, name, and crew/fuel status. Occasionally, when moving into an unexplored sector, a ship may uncover some artifact left by the Precursors. These give better thrusters, more crew capacity, fuel capacity, and the like. Other options include COLONIZE or MINE, if it is an uninhabited world suitable for either purpose, RECRUIT if the ship is low on crew and orbiting a colony, BESEIGE if the ship is orbiting an enemy fortification, FORTIFY, which attempts to build a fortification around the current planet, and SCUTTLE which will destroy a damaged vessel. Options in black are not available for selection. Options in red are "currently in process", and should not be disturbed. Options shown in white are currently available. Starships also have the option to BUILD new starships. At the bottom of the screen are three yellow jewels, which indicate how many "moves" the player has left. Some actions, such as moving a starship, require all moves for that turn. Other actions, such as moving a Shofixti, require a fraction of a move. Strategic Scenarios ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are about 9 scenarios which are packaged with the game, and more can be developed with the included Scenario Editor. The victory conditions for the various scenarios vary, but are usually "Destroy the Enemy" in some form or another. Here are some brief descriptions of the canned scenarios: Beginner's Luck - The Hierarchy has an Androsynth Starbase, and the Alliance has a single Syreen starship. The Syreen must quickly destroy the starbase before more Androsynths can be built. Time is on the Hierarchy's side, as they can produce more ships. The Syreen must act quickly and decisively. Escalation - The game starts with two starbases, and nothing more. Each side must build forces, colonize worlds, build mines, and ultimately destroy the enemy starbase. Total War - No starbases exist for either side. Each side has a full fleet containing ONE ship of each race. Match your ships against the opponent they will be most effective against. First Encounter - Each player begins with a starbase, three battleships, and one colony and one mine. Expand and produce, or quickly trounce the enemy while his defenses are weak. The Art of War - Each side has a starbase and a few battleships. The Alliance can only build Syreen and Arilou ships, while the Hierarchy has access to Androsynth and Mycon vessels. Each ship type is valuable against an enemy type, and nearly totally defenseless against the other. Proving Ground - The Alliance begins with a starbase, a few battleships, and a number of colonies and mines. The Hierarchy has a base and a few Spathi cruisers. The Hierarchy must destroy the poorly defended mines and colonies with only Spathi ships, and the Alliance must defend against the threat with its supply of Mmrnmhrn vessels. The Alliance may build non- Mmrnmhrn vessels if it has the StarBucks. Exterminate! - The Hierarchy has one Ur-Quan dreadnought which must invade the Alliance sector populated by the Shofixti. The Shofixti must somehow destroy the dreadnought with their tiny vessels and may build additional Shofixti to help. Onslaught - The Hierarchy has five Ur-Quan dreadnoughts with which to invade Alliance space and destroy the poorly defended mines and colonies. The Alliance has a starbase to build extra Alliance vessels to defend itself and destroy all the Ur- Quan ships. Counter Attack - The Alliance has one Chenjesu ship (and a starbase) with which to attack Hierarchy space. The Hierarchy has a base, a few ships, and a shitload of mines and colonies. If too much time is spent, the Hierarchy will be able to build a massive fleet. The Vessels ~~~~~~~~~~~ The Hierarchy vessels at your disposal are: Mycon Podship - large ship with long-range homing plasma blast. Slow. Can grow additional crew. Spathi Discriminator - medium sized crew, small fuel bays. Replaces fuel slowly. Fires short range missiles from the rear (good for fleeing) and has a weak blaster. Very quick and agile. Androsynth Guardian - Attacks with homing "bubbles" which are a pain to evade. Can also turn into a "comet". Vux Intruder - Very slow and has a large fuel capacity. Has a VERY powerful short range lazer which destroys nearly anything. Can also generate leeches which attatch to enemy ships causing navigational problems. Ilwrath Avenger - Quick at turning and accellerating. Has a short-range flame thrower which does moderate damage. Has a cloaking device which makes it invisible. Umgah Drone - Small, weak, and slow, but turns quickly. Has a very short range Anti-Matter cone weapon on the front. Very fast forward-firing thrusters for quick escapes. Ur-Quan dreadnought - huge ship and rather slow. Powerful front-firing weapon, and can release small fighters as a special weapon. Stores a lot of fuel and a large crew. Has a very long range weapon, and regenerates fuel quickly. Alliance ships include: Chenjesu Broodhome - Slow and large, but boasting a long range and powerful crystal weapon. Hold down the fire button as long as you want the projectile to travel. When you release the button, it will burst into smaller shards which do less damage, but can hit on a shot which would otherwise miss. Can generate "sheep dogs" which will bump against an enemy vessel draining it of fuel and knocking it off course. Sometimes the dogs will even drive a ponderous enemy into a planet and destroy it utterly. Yehat Terminator - quick and agile, and boasting rapid fire twin missile launchers. Very agile, and can activate a protective sheild. Mmrnmhrn Xform - Two ships in one. In its first form, it is slow ship with a powerful laser. In the second form, it has much quicker thrusters, but cannot turn quickly. In the second form, it has two homing missiles with medium range. Ariloulaleelay Skiff - Small and extremely quick, this craft features an inertialess propulsion system (no coasting after you end thrust). It has a short range auto-aiming laser, and has a quick hyperspace option for getaways. Takes some time to get the control down. Syreen Penetrator - This ship (the phallic shape is intended) has a normal navigational system, a poor quality forward-firing ejaculation weapon, and low fuel capacity. It has a large crew capacity, however it starts out with a skeleton crew. The special ability of the Syreen is to send out a signal which causes enemy crew to abandon ship and join the Syreen. Hit the feature button when you're close to an enemy, and a number of little green dots will "bail out" of the enemy craft. Swing around and pick these up, and add to your crew. Destroying an enemy colony with a Syreen will garner a full crew. Earthling Cruiser - A slow and ponderous ship. It carries a supply of homing nuclear missiles with a long range, and do considerable damage. For short range (and defense) there are the point defense lasers, which can be used most effectively against other missiles and projectiles. This ship can turn quickly, and is one of my favorites. Shofixti Scount - A tiny extremely fast ship. Has a short range weapon. Its special ability is self-destruct, which can damage enemies or even destroy the massive Ur-Quan Dreadnought at close range. Different ships have different capabilities and are strong against different enemies. Experiment with them, and find out which ones you like for specific enemies, and how to control them. Excuse any typos or slight mistakes in this file. It was a quicky, so to speak, and not as polished as my other doc efforts have been. Greetings to everyone out there and their brothers. Special greetings to Sir Reginald B. Magillicutty for releasing this fine ware. Call some of these cool systems: The Lexicon (714) Computer is your Friend! (415) The Slave Den (904) And any other exceptional quality systems I may have missed.