The manual for Rules of Engagement from Mindcraft Contents Introduction Designer's Notes 1 About This Manual 3 Getting Started 4 IBM/Tandy 4 Amiga 6 Atari ST/TT 6 Part I: A Shakedown Cruise About the Tutorials 7 Mouse Tutorial 7 Keyboard Tutorial 17 Part II: The Story So Far... Historical Briefing 27 Coded Situation Orders 29 Intelligence Reports 30 Part III: Mission Overview 35 Part IV: The CCSI Interface Interface Basics 46 Controlling the CCSI 47 Button Symbol Table 47 A Sample Panel 48 Part V: The Main Panels How to... 54 100 MAIN MENU 54 101 GAME/MISSION 55 300 MASTER SHIP CONTROL 59 301 NAVIGATION 63 302 COMMUNICATIONS 81 303 TACTICAL 94 401 SQUAD DEPLOYMENT 120 304 DATA RETRIEVAL 122 INTRODUCTION TABLE OF CONTENTS _____________________________________________ Part VI: Tactics Maneuvers 130 Fire Control Techniques 132 Tactical Use of Asteroid Fields 133 Damage Control and Outpost Repair/Resupply 135 Tactical Use of Self-Destruction 136 Surrender Tactics 136 Forming Battle Groups 137 Forming With the Flagship 139 Capturing Outposts 140 Dealing With Non-Objective Enemy Ships 141 Part VII: The Builder Overview 143 202 Captains 144 203 Spacecraft Design 149 204 Enemy Races 153 205 Solar Systems 160 206 Mission 169 Part VIII: The Interlocking Game System 185 Appendixes I All About Fleet Commanders 187 II Opposing Forces 191 III FW Ship Stats & Parts List 196 IV Missile Types 201 V Panel ID Numbers 202 VI Importing Commanders, 203 Captains, Systems, etc. VII Mission Descriptions 205 INTRODUCTION Designers Notes Back in 1989, when work on our previous game, Breach 2, had just commenced, we began thinking about writing a real-time spaceship combat game. Those of you familiar with our previous games know of our Universe series and that spaceship combat is not new to us. What is new, however, is the initial approach. The Universe games were created as massive contests that covered many different aspects of spacecraft operation (mining, piracy, trading, planetary assault, and transport). We wondered about taking an opposite approach. Supposing some of these aspects of the Universe games were developed into full-fledged games in their own right, playable on their own, and then suppose that these games could also be linked together to form one huge game. This is the concept behind the Interlocking Game System (IGS). A standard specification was created and incorporated into what was then the current project, Breach 2. Of course, once Breach 2 was released, IGS remained more or less a concept, since there was no other game to link with. Rules of Engagement is that missing link. Boarding enemy vessels and assaulting alien outposts are the main ties to Breach 2. The games work seemlessly, one loading the other, to create a single, integrated playing experience. Of course, Breach 2 is not required to play Rules of Engagement, as the latter has automatic squad combat routines built in. However, these two games when combined represent our first step in creating the ultimate space game. Naturally, everyone asks about future IGS modules. We do plan more in the future. Imagine having three, four, or more complete games working as one! That is our dream, and you can help to make it happen. If you have any suggestions, drop us a line. Let us know what adventures you would like us to plot a course for. Engage Hyperdrive! Omnitrend Software, Inc. / | / |\ \ |/\ |/ / | \ |\ page 1 INTRODUCTION Design Philosophy Like most computer simulators, Rules of Engagement is a highly detailed and fairly complex program. An ordinary aircraft flight simulator can easily confuse the average gamer with its multitude of controls and options, and a real-time starship simulation could easily become even more complex because of the very nature of space and the laws of physics which apply. With fleets of starships travelling at greater than half the speed of light, combat zones with a diameter greater than 50 Earths, and an overall arena billions of kilometers on a side, a game like ROE could become hopelessly unwieldy. However, although we attempted to be as realistic as possible wherever we could, our primary goal was to make an interesting and entertaining game. Real starship commanders, when and if they actually appear on the scene, will no doubt have to be highly trained: understanding doppler shifts and time-dilation at speeds approaching that of light, and have a keen knowledge of Newtonian mechanics. Obviously, this is a bit much to ask of the average gamer. After all, who wants to calculate acceleration rates for orbital injection around a planet or compensate for time slowing down as our ships approached lightspeed? Thus, certain "liberties" were taken with the game. There's no time dilation as ships approach lightspeed, and your ships' sensors use a "HyperScanner" field system in order to give you real-time updates on the positions of targets in your vicinity. All this was done to keep the game playable. In keeping with this simplification, it's logical to expect that, as computers become more and more advanced, on such hypothetical starships a commander would only have to tell the computer what he wanted and it would do it. After all, at velocities approaching 300,000 kilometers per second (lightspeed), human reflexes are thousands of times too slow to react to changes and threats. In reflection of this, in ROE the player operates all aspects of the mission via a simple yet powerful computer interface. You have a great deal of control, but all the mundane details-like taking care that the antiproton to deuterium ratio in the engines is correct, and that the ship stays at the right distance relative to a target while you're busy firing the weapons-are handled automatically. Even with this simplification, there's a lot to learn and understand. We've tried to make many of the ship's functions fairly automatic, allowing you to adjust various devices and settings when you become more familiar with them. Our design goal was to produce a full-featured, realistic, entertaining and easy to play game. We think we've succeeded. We hope you agree. page 2 INTRODUCTION About This Manual In Omnitrend's "Universe" a potential Fleet Commander must first complete four or more years at a military academy and then spend more years rising through the ranks. The training received during this period is intensive, covering everything from diplomacy, discipline, and tactics to technology and astrophysics. The size of this manual should make it clear that we're not about to try to give you this background training. While realistic in many ways, Rules of Engagement is nowhere near as complex to play as a real starship would be to command and control. This is not to say that you could just dive into the program and play the game successfully without first reading at least portions of this manual. However, we also understand that most of you will not want to have to read all of the relevant sections of the manual prior to playing the game the first time. So, to give you a general idea of how ROE is played, Part I (the tutorial) takes you through a very simple beginner mission with step-by-step instructions. In this way you'll get to play ROE right away and also get some familiarity with the program that will assist you in understanding the rest of the manual. For those of you unfamiliar with other games in Omnitrend's "Universe," Part II updates "The Story So Far...", which fills you in on the background of the game, lists your overall operational orders and also contains intelligence reports on enemies, etc. Part III describes your goals, objectives and resources, what missions are and how they are played. Part IV documents the ROE interface system (CCSI), describing the design features and general theory of operation. Part V continues in this vein, describing the controls and panels in the game itself, documenting each and every button, readout and display. Part VI describes tactics, techniques and strategies that may be useful in successfully completing your missions. One of the most important features of ROE is that it allows you to design and build missions yourself. Part VII documents the "builder" sections of the game and how the various editors are used to create new missions or edit existing ones. Part VIII documents the Interlocking Game System and how Breach 2 can be linked with ROE to make a larger game. Finally, there are the Appendixes, which document technical details, describe the supplied missions, etc. page 3 Getting Started (FOR ALL SYSTEMS) Making Backup Disks We suggest that you make back-up copies of all the game disks prior to installation. In the event of an accident, you will be able to restore the original disk(s) from your back-up copy. Readme Files If there is a README.TXT file on your game disk 1, it will contain important information and instructions that were not available at the time this manual was printed. IBM/TANDY System Requirements IBM-PC, Tandy, or Compatible computer with at least 640K of memory, 2 floppy drives or a hard disk, MS-DOS (or PC-DOS) 3.0 or higher, and CGA, EGA, VGA, or Tandy compatible graphics. A Microsoft, Tandy, or compatible mouse is optional. AdLib, SoundBlaster, and Roland MT-32/LAPC-1 sound boards are supported. Extended memory (XMS) is supported. Installing the Game Onto a Hard Disk Your game is shipped on either four 360K 5.25" disks or two 720K 3.5" disks. Place disk 1 into either drive A or B. Type the letter of the drive containing disk followed by a colon (Example: A:) and press Enter. Type ROESETUP and press Enter. Installing the 5.25" Version Onto Floppy Disks Your game is shipped on four 360K 5.25" disks. If your two floppy drives are of different sizes (one 3.5" and the other 5.25"), it will be necessary to copy some of the game disks onto disks of another size. When playing the game, disks 1, 2 and 3 will be used in drive A. Disk 4 will always be used in drive B. If drive A is 3.5", you will need to copy disks 1, 2 and 3 onto 3 3.5" disks. If drive B is 3.5", you will need to copy only disk 4 onto a 3.5" disk. Once you have resolved any differences in the disk sizes, place game disk 1 in drive A. Type A: and press Enter. Type ROESETUP and press Enter. page 4 Installing the 3.5" Version Onto Floppy Disks Your game is shipped on two 720K 3.5" disks. If your two floppy drives are of different sizes (one 3.5" and the other 5.25"), it will be necessary to copy some of the game disks onto disks of another size. When playing the game, disk 1 will be used in drive A and disk 2 will be used in drive B. If your drive A is a 1.2mb 5.25" drive, you will need to copy disk 1 onto a 1.2mb 5.25" disk. If drive B is a 1.2mb 5.25" drive, you will need to copy disk 2 onto a 1.2mb 5.25" disk. If either of your drives are 360K 5.25", you will need to obtain the 5.25" version of the game. Once you have resolved any differences in disk sizes, place disk 1 in drive A. Type A: and press Enter. Type ROESETUP and press Enter. Running the Game To play the game, type RULES and press Enter. Memory Requirements Rules of Engagement requires almost all of the memory on a 640K computer. If you receive an error message indicating you do not have enough memory, here is what you can do: 1) Be sure you are running the game from the DOS prompt. Running the game from within a file manager (such as Windows or Deskmate) may not leave enough memory for the program. 2) Check the device drivers loaded in your CONFlG.SYS file. This includes RAM disks, disk caches, and sound drivers. You may need to remove some or all of your drivers. You will need to leave the mouse driver installed in order to use a mouse with the game. 3) Remove all TSR (terminate and stay resident) programs such as Sidekick. 4) If you still receive the memory error, you may need to remove your mouse driver as well. Also, selecting the internal speaker as opposed to one of the sound boards will use less memory. Using the CGA graphics mode will also save on required memory. page 5 GETTING STARTED Using Extended Memory (XMS) This game supports extended memory. In order for the game to use this memory, you must have an extended memory driver present. HIMEM.SYS from Microsoft and QEMM from Quarterdeck are examples of such drivers. Upon running the game, a message will appear to indicate the game is using extended memory. The game will load data into this memory, reducing the amount of disk access and thus speeding up the game. AMIGA System Requirements Any Amiga computer with at least 1 mb of memory. Installing the Game Place game disk 1 into drive DF0: and open up its window. Double-click on the ROESETUP icon. Running the Game Double-click on the icon labeled RULES. ATARI ST/TT System Requirements Any Atari ST or TT computer with at least 1 mb of memory and one double-sided drive. Supports improved colors on the STe computers. Installing the Game Since your game is shipped on double-sided disks, be sure that your drive A is a double-sided drive. Place game disk 1 into drive A and open up its window. Double-click on the ROESETUP icon. Running the Game Double-click on the icon labeled RULES. page 6 PART I: A SHAKEDOWN CRUISE About the Tutorials For your first mission, we recommend that you follow this tutorial in order to familiarize yourself with the game screens and controls. The tutorial is divided into two separate sections for mouse and keyboard use. If you are working with a system with a mouse compatible with this program, follow the mouse tutorial. If not, follow the keyboard tutorial. Also please refer to page 47 for a table of special symbols used on some game buttons. NOTE: If you can use a mouse, the keyboard commands are still useful, as you can mix and match, using a combination of mouse and keyboard action to play the game. The mission "A Shakedown Cruise" is included for use with this tutorial only. It has a very simple objective, extremely weak opposition, and is not intended to provide any real challenge. Rather, it is designed to provide you with an introduction to Rules of Engagement and how it is played. We recommend that you follow these instructions very carefully. It may be difficult (or impossible) to successfully complete the mission if you don't. Mouse Tutorial Start Rules of Engagement according to the instructions for your computer (see Getting Started section). When the credit roll has ended (or you have bypassed it by pressing a key during the "chronology"), you will arrive in the game itself and be faced with a computer interface panel labeled "GAME/MISSION 101", over which is a green bar labeled "MAIN MENU 100". An animated Federated Worlds Armed Forces logo appears at screen center. Along the top and left side of the screen are a series of control buttons, all colored magenta/purple. The first thing you need to learn about controlling Rules of Engagement is that the only "buttons" you can click on are magenta or blue (blue=cyan in IBM CGA). "Highlighted" buttons are the active items. A highlighted magenta button turns white, and a blue button/item turns cyan (in CGA the cyan items highlight to white). NOTE: In this mouse tutorial all on-screen buttons are listed in boldface, capital letters, as in: "Click on the FIRE button..." Panel labels are listed in capitalized non-bold text. page 7 Ignore the buttons across the top of the screen and under the BUILDER bracket. In this tutorial we are concerned only with the buttons under the GAME and NEW GAME brackets. Mouse button note: Whenever the instructions tell you to "click" the mouse it refers to the left mouse button. If use of the right mouse button is required you will be told to "click the right mouse button". As you portray the Fleet Commander in the game, your first step must be to create your alter-ego. Click on the button labeled FLEET CMDR under NEW GAME to create a new Fleet Commander. The animated logo is replaced by a large item selector listing all existing Fleet Commanders (this box is probably empty). At the bottom-right of the selector are four purple buttons, one of which is labeled CREATE. Click on it. A small yellow and green (white and cyan in CGA) "usurper" box will appear, asking "Are you sure you want to create a new Fleet Commander?" Click on YES to continue. Following a brief "Please stand by..." message, a larger box appears, this one featuring a picture of a Fleet Commander and a field for his/her name. Click on the NAME button and a text editing frame with a thin cursor appears in the FLEETCMDR NAME field. Type in the name of your choice (up to 18 characters-you can use the Backspace key to edit) and then click your mouse anywhere on the screen (or press the Enter/Return key on your keyboard). Your character is now named. Before actually creating the character, you will probably want to decide what he/she looks like. Clicking on the NEXT button cycles through the various options for your character's appearance. Men and women of several ethnicities are available. When you've selected an appearance, click on the box's CREATE button. The CREATE COMMANDER box disappears and you will now see your new character listed in the item selector, with the word "available" appearing to the right of his/her name. Now it's time to create a game. Click on the CREATE button under the NEW GAME bracket at screen left (not the "CREATE" button at the bottom of the screen). The contents of the selector will change to list available missions and Fleet Commanders. You must select a mission and a character in order to start a new game. Click on the name of the mission A SHAKEDOWN CRUISE so that it is highlighted, and then click on the name of your Fleet Commander to highlight him/her. At the bottom-right of the selector is a MAKE GAME button. Click on it. page 8 A usurper box will appear. Click on EDIT NAME and a text editing frame and cursor will appear in the GAME NAME field. Using the keyboard, type the name "Tutorial", then click the mouse anywhere on the screen (or press the Enter/Return key on your keyboard). Finally, you will want to select a mission difficulty. Make sure that the blue BEGINNER button is highlighted. If it is not, click on it. (You must be on beginner level to follow this tutorial as written!) Now click on the DONE button. You are returned to the main screen. Click on the EXISTING button under the GAMES bracket. The selector will now list all existing game files. Make certain that the game TUTORIAL is highlighted (click on its name if not), and then click on the PLAY button at the bottom-right of the selector. A "Please stand by..." message will appear. After a few moments, the screen will go black and then return with an image of space. The mission title and author's name appear over a picture of a Federated World's Dreadnought. A moment later, the game screen will appear. Across the top of the screen is a bar with a number 300 at the far left. This "300 bar" is the main menu of your ship's computer interface and is present at all times during the game. It contains the buttons for switching between various panels, controls for setting the game's time-passage speed, damage readouts and the elapsed mission time clock (CHRONO). Below the 300 bar is the DATA RETRIEVAL panel (numbered 304). This is your ship's computer, where you can check on the condition of your fleet, and get background information on your mission, status, and data about the Captains on the ships under your command and the enemy you face. The current data display before you is the FLEET STAT readout. It lists all of the ships under your command and their last reported status. The first ship listed, identified as F01 ,is your own flagship (the FWS Yury Gagarin), a Destroyer. The other ships are: F02, a Scout (the FWS Explorer), and F03, a Destroyer (the FWS Tau Ceti). Along the right side of the screen are buttons which will change the data displayed on this panel. Click on the BRIEFING button under MISSION. A written briefing appears, describing exactly what you must do to successfully complete your mission. page 9 When you've finished reading the briefing, click on the first icon (a sextant) in the 300 bar at the top of the screen. This will move from the DATA RETRIEVAL panel to the NAVIGATION controls. Your mission requires you to capture enemy vessel EO1 (a scout) and destroy enemy ship E02 (a transport). Both the enemy ships and your own ships appear in the map which dominates most of the panel. Each ship is indicated by a small arrow and an associated number. When you first view the map, you will see only the ship symbols. At the top of the map area are a series of buttons, only two of which, FWS and ENS, will be highlighted. If you click on the others (STR=stars, AFD=asteroid fields, WAY=waypoints, OUT=outposts, and PLN=planets), the map will then display those items as well (if any). The only items you are concerned with in this mission are ships and waypoints. All ships are already selected for display, so click on the WAY button above the map to see the system's one waypoint. When you first see the map you are in "mix" mode, which shows the entire system. To center on your own ship, click on the LOCK-ON button at the right end of the TELEMETRY controls. The map will change and center on your ship, showing an area 47 million kilometers in radius. In order to capture the enemy Scout ship, you must first intercept it. At screen left is a selector which allows you to probe, chase or intercept anything in the polar system. The highlighted (white bar) item in the list below the buttons for these functions indicates the current item. Below this selector are buttons for selecting what type of item you are interested in probing, chasing, etc. The default is ENS, for "Enemy Ships", and your target vessel should be highlighted, as it is the first of the two enemy ships in the sector. Click on the PROBE button, and the list of enemy ships is replaced by a scanner readout of the enemy ship in question. You now have your prey identified, and it's time to move in. Click on the CHASE button. The I.D. number of the enemy ship (E01) will appear in the small readout to the right of the INTRCPT button, and the small sextant icon alongside the HELM controls (lower-left corner of the screen) will flash, indicating that your ship is in autopilot mode. Your ship is now moving in on the target at full speed, and will automatically match course and speed when it has caught up with it. page 10 It will take approximately 2 to 3 minutes of real-time to intercept the target. In the meantime, you'll want to send your other ships after the enemy Transport. Click on the dish-antenna icon (second button from the left) on the 300 bar. This will switch to the COMMUNICATIONS panel (302). On this panel, you need to specify the order to send and the ship to receive it. At the left-center of the screen is a selector labeled ORDER. Click repeatedly on the button until the order "DESTROY ENEMY SHIP" appears as the highlighted (white bar) item in the list. Now, click on the blue ACKNOWLEDGE button, highlighting it. This will tell the Captain(s) to whom you are sending the order to send an acknowledgment when the order has been obeyed. Note that the FWS Explorer (F02) is the highlighted item in the SHIP selector just below the ORDER box. You will notice that both of these selectors are now linked to the larger selector to the right, which now lists every ENEMY SHIP, and that a bar now connects this selector to a send order box in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. Click on TRANSPORT (E02) in the large selector to highlight it and specify it as the ship you want destroyed. To send the order to the FWS Explorer, click on the SEND ORD button. If you wait a few moments, you should receive a response from the Explorer, complete with a visual of the Captain of the ship. Now you need to send the same order to the FWS Tau Ceti. The only thing you need to do is click on the + button at the left end of the SHIP selector, so that the Tau Ceti becomes the highlighted item there, and then click on SEND ORD again. In a few seconds, the Captain of the Tau Ceti will also respond. While you're waiting to catch up with your target, you might as well take some time to acquaint yourself with your opponents. Click on the Computer Panel icon in the 300 bar (fourth from the left) to return to DATA RETRIEVAL. When the panel pops up, click on the ENEMY button under DOCKET. The readout will now display an image of a member of the race/group you are opposing, and text describing them. Clicking on the up and down buttons to the left of the dossier text allows you to jump backwards and forwards through the screens of information about the enemy (if any). page 11 When you're finished researching your opponents, you might want to find out about the Captains of the Explorer and Tau Ceti. Click on the FW Captain button under DOCKET. The screen will now display information about the Captain of the ship currently highlighted in FLEET STAT mode, which probably means the stats for your own character will appear. If this is the case, click on the down button under the displayed Commander/Captain's name. After a moment you will see a picture of Captain Telifero Lawson, and his dossier to the right. The dossier scrolls like the background information on the enemy, with the up and down buttons. When you are done reading Lawson's dossier, you can view that of the Captain of the Tau Ceti by clicking again on the down button. By now your ship should have closed in on the target vessel. Go back to NAVIGATION (sextant icon) and on the map you should see that your vessel is now much closer to the enemy ship than when you started. In fact, the symbols representing your ship (F01) and the enemy (E01) may even be overlapping. In any case, you'll probably want to zoom in for a tighter view of the scene. Move the mouse pointer over the map area and, as you do, you'll notice that a set of brackets follow your movements. Using these brackets frame an area which closely fits around your ship and the target, and then click the mouse. The area you framed will now jump up to fill the entire map. You can keep zooming in like this until you can clearly see the distance separating your ship from the target. NOTE: If you re-scale the map so much that the enemy ship pops entirely out of view, you can back the zoom off by right- clicking the mouse. Doing this will shrink the current map area to fit within the brackets. Left-clicking zooms in; right-clicking zooms out. By now you should be or almost be within range to combat the enemy vessel. Click on the Crosshair icon (3rd from the left) in the 300 bar to switch to the TACTICAL panel. Here is where you'll combat the enemy. In a beginner level mission your ship's defensive energy shields are automatically raised the moment another ship fires on you. However, since the enemy ships in this mission have no operational weapons systems, this will not happen. You can tell the status of the shields by looking at the defense subpanel to the lower right. If the SHIELDS button is highlighted and a green circle appears around the small picture of your ship there, then the shields are on. Clicking on the SHIELDS button toggles them on and off. Just to get into the habit, raise the shields now. page 12 Before going into combat you'll want to power up your Enhanced Beam Weapons (EBWs). At the top-center of the TACTICAL panel, directly under the WEAR label, is a power meter. A small arrowhead is at the left end of the scale, and the power readout below it reads 000%, indicating that the EBW power is off. Click on the arrowhead and, while holding the mouse button down, drag the arrowhead as far to the right of the scale as it will go. When you release the mouse button the EBW power should be set to 100%. The enemy Scout in this mission has most of its systems severely crippled, but its shields are still partially intact. In order to capture the ship you must board it, and in order to board it you need knock its shields and engines out entirely. To knock out the shields you'll want some very precise weapons control. Click on the GET button just above the EBW power meter. The combat map will disappear, replaced by expanded weaponry controls. Note that the EBW FOCUS is currently set at NORM (normal). What you want to do is click on PIN, for pinpoint firing, allowing you to target specific systems. Now move down to the PINPOINT EBW SET box. The default system to target is the communications system (COMM). Click on the SHLD button; you now have the shields targeted. Click on the highlighted GET button to deselect it and restore the map display, then click on COMBAT ZONE to display a view with a radius of 500,000 kilometers. This is the maximum effective combat range of your ship's weapons, and the approximate range of your target. At the center-left of the screen are a set of TARGET controls. Your target, Scout E01 appears in the selector bar. Click on ACQUIRE. The I.D. number of the target is fed into target slot A, and, as long as the A button is highlighted, your computer will attempt to keep the weapons pointing in the direction of that target. As you can see, the targeting scope (the "viewer" towards the upper-left of the panel) immediately turns to find and lock onto the target. When a lock is achieved a flashing ACQUISITION indicator appears at the bottom of the targeting scope along with an image of the target starship. Before you start firing, check the range to the target, listed as the number to the right of the R: at the top of the targeting scope. If the number there is greater than 550,000 you are out of effective firing range. Wait until the range is approximately 550,000 kilometers, and the enemy ship symbol appears in the map display, before firing. page 13 At this point, you'll want to attack. To fire the EBWs, click on the upper of the two FIRE buttons to the right of the targeting scope, making certain that the ACQUISITION indicator is present (if you fire while there is no acquisition, you'll hit nothing). Each time you fire the EBW power level drops, and you have to wait for the EBW power meter to build up before you can fire again, otherwise you'll be hitting the target with very little energy. (The second FIRE button is for firing missiles. However since your ship is carrying no missiles in this mission, clicking on it will have no result.) Directly to the left of the tactical icon are a set of six readouts, which represent your computer's estimation of the damage the enemy ship's systems have sustained (do not confuse these with the similar damage readouts for your own ship, which appear in the 300 bar). Each time you fire, glance at the tiny red bar to the right of the S (shields) meter there. When the bar alongside the S readout vanishes completely, then the enemy ship's shields have been completely disabled (this could require as few as 3 or as many as 9 full-power EBW hits to accomplish). When the enemy's shields have been destroyed, click on GET and then move the highlighter on PINPOINT EBW SET to DRIVE. Click on GET again to restore the map, then continue firing on the enemy ship until red bar next to the D vanishes completely, indicating that the enemy drive systems are completely destroyed (this should require between 5 and 10 full-power EBW hits). You are now ready to board the enemy vessel. The ATTITUDE controls in the lower left-hand corner of the screen now come into play. These controls are normally used to set your range to the target, your position relative to it, and which shield you want to keep towards it. In boarding situa