: . _________ ________ _____________ _____ | __ / : ___________/ _ \ \ __ _ / | \ ____: : \_/ -A : \______ \ | \_ _: \_/ \_/ | \ | \_ D_ / / _/ | / ___/ \_ | : : | _______/ `N _/ \ \_________/ | \________/ _____ | : \__________/ \ \_ : : \__________ \___________/ . CRaZY GaNG . +--------------------------------+ K240 FULL MANUAL ================== TYPED BY SHARD - N&B Part 1 CONTENTS -------- Playing the Game Finding Your Way Around This Manual Zone 001 - Tutorial Zone 002 - Colony Management Zone 003 - Spacecraft Construction Zone 004 - Spying Zone 005 - Fleets Zone 006 - Button Selection Panels Zone 007 - Terracorp and Sci-Tek Zone 008 - Hints Zone 009 - Background Zone 010 - Building Reference Section Zone 011 - Sci-Tek Zone 012 - Spacecraft Zone 013 - Hardpoint Weapons Zone 014 - Missile Warfare Zone 015 - The Enemy EPILEPSY WARNING ---------------- Please read before using this video game or allowing your children to use it. Some people are susceptible to epileptic seizures or loss of consciousness when exposed to certain flashing lights or light patterns in everyday life. Such people may have a seizure while watching certain television images or playing certain video games. This may happen even if the person has no medical history of epilepsy or has never had any epileptic seizures. If you or anyone in your family has ever had symptoms related to epilepsy (seizures or loss of consciousness) when exposed to flashing lights, consult your doctor prior to playing. We advise that parents should monitor the use of video games by their children. If you or your child experience any of the following symptoms: dizziness, blurred vision, eye or muscle twitches, loss of consciousness, disorientation, any involuntary movement or convulsion, while playing a video game, IMMEDIATELY discontinue use and consult your doctor. PRECAUTIONS TO TAKE DURING USE ------------------------------ Do not Stand too close to the screen. Sit a good distance away from the television screen, as far away as the length of the cable allows. Preferably play the game on a small television screen. Avoid playing if you are tired or have not had much sleep. Make sure that the room in which you are playing is well lit. Rest for at least 10 to 15 minutes per hour while playing a video game. CREDITS ------- Programming: Graeme Ing Graphics: Pete Daniels Game Design: Graeme Ing and Pete Daniels Music: Patrick Phelan SFX: Patrick Phelan and Neil Biggin Intro Programming: Michael Hart Intro graphics: Paul Green and Syd Franklin Produced by: Mark Glossop Manual Copy: Kai MacMahon and Graeme Ing Manual Design: Kai MacMahon, Edited by: Steve Mckevitt Manual Artwork: Dave Lewis and Alan Batson Voice of the Computer: Tracey Park Additional Help: Graham Stone, Kevin Dudley and Damian Hibbard Quality assurance: Simon Short, Robert Millington, Tony Howe PLAYING THE GAME ---------------- From Floppy disk: 1) Turn on your Amiga, 2) Insert disk 1 in your internal disk drive, (DF0:) 3) The game will automatically boot and run From Hard Disk: 1) Turn on your Amiga, 2) Wait for the Amiga to boot into Workbench 3) Locate the directory you have previously installed K240 into, (see "Installing onto Hard Disk" below) and double click on the K240 game icon, 4) The game will run. It is recommended that you install K240 onto a hard disk if you have one. The game will be easier to play due to do data and screens being loaded almost instantaneously. On Machines with more than half a Meg of chip ram K240 uses sampled speech to announce important events. This can cause excessive disk swopping on a single drive system. If you do not have a second drive, we suggest you disable the speech option from the Tetracorp screen. On the Floppy disk version, all saved games are made to the internal disk drive (DF0:), IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE A PRE-FORMATTED DISK FOR USE AS A SAVE-DISK BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO PLAY THE GAME! The save disk must be formatted in standard Amiga format. If you are unsure how to format a disk, follow the instructions given in the manuals that came with the Amiga. Each saved game requires approximately 180K of space. Apart from the save-disk, which will always be in DF0, K240 will recognise any of the game disks in any Floppy disk drive, internal or external. On the Hard Disk version, all saved games are made to the Hard Disk, in the same directory as the game has been installed. Installing Onto Hard Disk 1) Turn on your Amiga. 2) Wait for the Amiga to boot into Workbench. 3) Insert K240 disk 3 into any Floppy disk drive. Wait for the disk icon to appear on the screen. 4) Double click on the K240 disk icon. 5) Double click on the "Install K240" disk icon. 6) Follow on screen directions. FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND THE MANUALS ----------------------------------- This manual comes in three distinct sections. a) Tutorial: K240 is a complicated game. Once you are familiar with the basics it is actually quite straightforward to play. The tutorial forms a painless introduction to the basic elements of the game, and gives you an idea where to start. We strongly advise that you follow it. b) Main Reference section: This explains in detail all of the game. It is divided into sections so that you can easily find out about any subject. It is not necessary to read this part of the manual before you commence play; you can refer to the sections when you need them; but it is worthwhile skimming through it so that you are familiar with what you can do in the game. A hints section is included to assist you if you are unsure of how you should go about developing your mining colony. c) Technical section: This contains technical details on the various weapons, spacecraft, alien races etc, as well as some notes on Imperial history. The bulk of this material is for background only, and is not necessary to play the game, but an understanding of these technical details may help you to develop better strategies. ZONE 001 : TUTORIAL ------------------- This section of the manual is designed as a full tutorial. Over the following pages you will be taken step by step through the initial parts of the game. The more complex aspects of the game will be easier to understand when you have this basic knowledge. For a painless introduction to the game, we strongly advise you to follow this tutorial. Because you will be playing a proper game during the tutorial (Alien level 1 in fact) events are bound to happen that are not documented here. The most noticeable of these will be windows that pop up to report certain events. For now if any message window appears that is not explained by the tutorial, simply ignore it and click with the left mouse button on the Exit button that will appear in a little box beside the message window. The message will go away and you can continue with the tutorial. THE MAIN ASTEROID VIEW SCREEN ----------------------------- When you start the game select your language by picking the appropriate flag. When you reach the Tetracorp screen click on "END" to begin Alien Level one. You will now find yourself looking at your initial asteroid, on the Asteroid View Screen. Before we go any further let`s take a look around this screen. In the centre is a 3-D representation of your asteroid showing rocky terrain and the sole building in your colony (A Colony Preservation Unit in green.) In space above the asteroid is the transporter ship that you used to reach Sector K240. At bottom right is a building icon. This indicates which of the many buildings is currently active for construction. You`ll see how it`s used when we look at Colony Construction in a moment. Below it is a blue button. This is explained in the section of the manual about "Time Saving Techniques". Below that is the status line. Messages will appear here from time to time but usually it flashes between two important pieces or information: a) your money in Imperial Credits b) The date in the format: E2.yyy.dd Where E2 marks the 2nd Millennium AD, yyy the year and dd the day. Each year has 100 standard Imperial days. The game begins in E2.380.01, which is the year 2380 AD. USING THE MOUSE --------------- Before we go any further, lets look at the 3 different mouse modes as it is important that you are in the correct mode for an operation. a) Hand: This is the default mode used for most operations. Whilst in this mode you can click on the asteroid to construct buildings and click on buildings to obtain information. b) Arrow: This is the Ship Selection mode. In this mode you can ONLY click on any of your spacecraft (or Orbital Space dock) to obtain information about them and control them. You can perform no other function. You enter this mode by clicking on the Ship Mode button (see later), or pressing the "S" key. Do so again to return to the normal "hand" mode. c) Bomb: This is the demolish Mode. In this mode you can ONLY demolish your buildings should you desire to do so. Simply click with the left mouse button over any building to destroy it. You enter this mode by clicking on the demolish Mode button (see later) or pressing the "D" key. Do so again to return to the normal hand mode. You carry out most operations by clicking with the Left mouse button, eg selecting ships, selecting buildings, clicking on the asteroid, clicking on buttons, etc. Clicking the right mouse button anywhere on the screen brings up one of the several Button Panels. A different button Panel appears for each different screen. Some buttons also lead to other Button Panels. Most buttons are explained in the appropriate section in the manual but there is a separate card provided which identifies the purpose of every button. Try it now: Click with the right mouse button. The Asteroid Screen Button Panel appears with 3 rows of three buttons. Notice the button in the bottom right. This is the Exit button and clicking on it takes you back to the game. Every button Panel or information window has an Exit button and in each instance it will resemble the return key on your computer. Note also, that whilst any information window or button Panel is visible on the screen, the game is paused so take as long as you like. THE ASTEROID FIELD SCREEN ------------------------- Let`s have a quick look at this before we continue. This and the Main Asteroid View Screen will be the screens you will use most. From the Asteroid View Screen bring up the button Panel as shown above (Click the right mouse button.) The centre button will take you to the Asteroid Field Screen. Click on it now. Your starting asteroid is the one rotating with a little green dot an it. The green dot indicates that the asteroid is owned by you. Those with a red dot belong to the enemy, and those without a dot are uninhabited and free for the taking. Around your asteroid is a small black circle. The rest of the screen is grey. Grey indicates uncharted space, and you only know about ships and asteroids within the black circle which marks the extent of your sensors. At the start of the game it is likely that the only asteroid you know about is your own, though there are one or two others visible. There are two ways you can discover more asteroids: a) Sensor Range: If any asteroids move into your sensor range (the black circle) then they will become visible. You can extend the range of your sensors by building a Sensor Array and by colonising other asteroids. b) Scout Ships: You can instruct Scouts to head into uncharted space and Discover new asteroids outside your sensor range. Other information will be laid over this screen at various points in the game but these will be explained later. Below your asteroid is the acronym PAFW. This is a status summary of your asteroid and will appear below all asteroids owned by you. It is used as a quick means of seeing which of your colonies needs attention. P Power supplies A Air supplies F Food supplies W Water supplies A green letter indicates that all is well. An orange letter indicates that you are using more than you are producing on that asteroid and will be using up your surplus. A red letter indicates that you are producing none at all and are existing (or maybe not!) off surpluses alone. Time to do something!. These factors are explained more fully a little later in the tutorial. In the section about the Colony Summary Window. Finally, at the bottom right is the date/money indicator. Notice that the mouse pointer is now an orange cross hair. Let`s return to your asteroid now and look at building it up a bit. Click with the right button to bring up the Button Panel. Notice that this is a different button Panel to that on the Asteroid View Screen since it has functions applicable to this screen. Notice again that the bottom right button is the Exit button. The bottom left button will take you back to the Asteroid View Screen. Click on it now. CONSTRUCTING A COLONY --------------------- We`re now going to construct a small colony an our starting asteroid to give you a feel for colony construction. As already mentioned, you begin with a single CPU. There are a range of buildings available to you and more are available for purchase from the Sci-Tek Corporation. You select the building you want from the Engineering Window. As we showed you earlier click the right mouse button to bring up the main Button Panel. You access the Engineering Window by clicking on the button at bottom left. Click there now. The Engineering Window ---------------------- You can browse through the buildings available by clicking on the Left and Right arrow buttons. Have a look now at whats available. The later section on buildings gives more detailed information about each building. Since we are operating a Mining Colony let`s get things started. Cycle to the "Mine" building. Click on the Exit button to select this building. As you return to the main Asteroid View Screen, notice that the Mine building graphic appears at bottom right reminding you of your selection. Until you select another building every time you click on the asteroid you will build a Mine. Find a piece of flat land on the asteroid and click there with the left mouse button, to build. Notice the error message? Good. We have not yet allocated any funds to the Engineering Section. To do this, bring up the Button Panel and click on the Information button (middle top). This in turn brings up another Button Panel. Click on the Financial Funds button top-right) You are now in the Financial Funds Window. Before we proceed we`ll explain how this works. Financial Funds Window ---------------------- You have 5 different budgets to manage: Money - spare cash not assigned to any budget Construction - used for constructing buildings Vehicles - used for constructing spacecraft Intelligence - used tor financing spying Missiles - used for constructing missiles The number at the far right gives the amount allocated to each budget. There are also 3 bar charts for each budget. Green - Each block = 5,000 credits (heading is "5k") Orange - Each block = 100,000 credits (heading is "100k") Red - Each block = 1,000,000 credits (heading is "1M") To add some money to a budget simply click somewhere on the appropriate line, under any of the three columns. So if you click on the VEHICLES line between the 5K and 100K headings you will add one or more blocks of 5,000 credits. Clicking between 100K and 1M will add one or more blocks of 100,000 credits. The further to the right you click the more blocks you will add. To fine tune the amount, click and hold down the left button and drag it either left or right - this will add or remove a block. Go ahead and experiment, its easier to use than to describe! To remove some money from a budget click and drag left to remove one or more blocks. Notice that all money is given to or taken from the Spare Cash line (called MONEY) at the top, so you cannot directly move money from one budget to another, you have to delete it from one budget (making it spare cash) and then add it to another budget. If you are trying to add money to a budget and nothing is happening, its probably because you have no spare cash and you`ll have to reduce another budget first. Continuing our tutorial return all your money to the Spare Cash line at the top. We need to put some money into CONSTRUCTION so add some in by clicking on the CONSTRUCTION line. Anything over 100,000 Cr should do for now. Add the lot if you like. If during the rest of the tutorial you find that one of your budgets has run out, simply return to the Financial Funds Window and allocate some more money. Now exit from this window (using the "exit" button) and return to the game. Construction ------------ You can now build some Mines by clicking on the asteroid. Build 2 or 3 Mines. Notice that scaffolding appears as your men begin work. If you click on the scaffolding with the left mouse button and hold the button down you will be told what is being built and how many days until completion. Go back to the Engineering Window and move on a few buildings until you come to a Storage Facility. Exit the store and build a Store on your asteroid. You may want to build a couple of Solar Generators too, to ensure you have enough power. Interrogating Buildings ----------------------- If you click on an existing building with the left mouse button it will be identified. Certain buildings also pop up information or control windows. As an example click on one of your finished Mines. There is no information window for a mine just it`s name at the bottom of the screen. Click on the Store and you are presented with a listing of all the ore being held in your Stores at this time. For further details see the entry on Stores in the buildings section. We suggest that you now construct a few more buildings on your asteroid and when they are built, click on them to see what information you can obtain. For now simply exit any information windows and refer to the Buildings section for more details. Build what you like but we suggest the following: 4 or 5 Solar Generators Command Centre Weapons Factory Decontamination Filter Medical centre 2 or 3 Mines 2 or 3 Deep Bore Mines Storage Facility Sensor array Tactical Mode ------------- If you were having difficulty locating a flat piece of land to build on there are two ways around this: The first is to rotate the asteroid around so you can see behind existing buildings. To do this bring up the main Button Panel. Click on the middle left button which will take you to the Asteroid Control Button Panel. There are two yellow arrow buttons. Clicking on them will rotate the entire asteroid left or right by 90 degrees. A quicker way of doing this is to use the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard. Notice how the Transporter in orbit rotates as well since you are viewing the entire asteroid from another viewpoint. The other method to assist you is the Tactical Mode. Bring up the main Button Panel and then the Asteroid Control Button Panel just like above. The bottom left button (a blue cube) toggles the tactical mode on and off. Solid box with "N" indicates normal mode Outline box with "T" indicates tactical mode. The button will not take effect until you exit out of the button panels (Later we`ll show you a quicker way to access buttons!) Notice that when you exit the button panels all the buildings and terrain have disappeared to be replaced by colour coded squares. You can now see every part of the asteroid and selecting a site to build upon is easy. You can also click on buildings to obtain information just as you can in normal mode. The various colours represent the following features: Light Grey - Flat land Dark Grey - Terrain unsuitable for building Light Blue - Buildings Red - Landing Pads White - Buildings protected by a Screen Generator Green - Asteroid Virus deposits Dark Blue - Anti Virus deposits We`ll explain some of these later. A quicker way of changing between normal and tactical mode is to press the SPACE key on the keyboard. Tutorial Conclusion ------------------- You should now have an understanding of the basics of the game: How to access button Panels, view your asteroid, access the asteroid Field Screen, select and build a building, manage your budgets, and so on. The rest of the manual is a reference section and will explain the important features of the game in depth. We would recommend that you read the reference sections. In the order they appear, as they have been structured in such a way as to be chronologically correct ie they appear in the order that you are going to need them in. ZONE 002 : COLONY MANAGEMENT ---------------------------- Your prime directive is to extract and sell as much ore as you can but the most successful and productive mining colonies all rely upon a strong and stable colony infrastructure. It is vital to regularly monitor the colonies on all your asteroids and to keep them running smoothly. There are four main aspects to successful colony management: a) Population b) Security c) Life Support d) Power a) Population Though many parts of your mining equipment are robotic,the robots usually only undertake the tasks that are most dangerous to human life. Human employees are required for many important duties and to oversee and control the robots. To support the mining and technician employees there is an entire Service Industry offering training, relaxation and participation in other leisure activities. Shifts are long and hard and as a result Tetracorp encourage their employees to play hard too. Procreation is outlawed on mining colonies for safety reasons but your colonies will slowly grow in population as your personnel department entices more men and women out from the Home Worlds. The more successful and smoother running your colonies the easier recruitment becomes. In general your population will grow slowly to fill all avaiable living space so you can directly control your population by building fewer or more Living Quarters. The Colony Summary Window (see below) indicates the number of surplus employees you have. These are employees available for backup roles and to operate alternate shifts with technical employees. For stability attempt to keep the surplus positive but not too high. If the surplus is negative then your employees are stretched and may be working double shifts to complete necessary work morale will deteriorate. If your surplus is too high, boredom can effect those not currently working and trouble can break out. b) Security Morale can fluctuate quickly on a mining colony. Spaces are cramped and employees work and play with the same faces day in and day out. Tempers can flare, fights are commonplace and employees are quick to anger at management failures. There would be mutiny every day were it not for your dedicated and highly paid security team. Security will keep your employees under control but only if their presence is large enough. Each Security Centre can easily manage 150 employees and often many more but don`t stretch your security too thin or you are inviting big trouble. You will be issued with reports when (if?) trouble breaks out but don`t wait for these reports monitor the Security status in the Colony Summary Window (see below) c) Life Support Each asteroid colony must be self sufficient and that means producing its own Air, Food and Water. Each employee uses 1 unit of each every day so it is necessary to produce at least as many units per day as you have employees but it is also wise to produce and store a surplus. Initially each asteroid colony begins with a single Colony Preservation Unit (CPU) which provides living space, power, air, food and water but only for a limited population and time. (see description of the CPU in the Buildings section) To back up the CPU you need other support buildings. BUILDING PRODUCES Life Support AIR Hydroponics FOOD Hydration Plant WATER In addition Environment Control continues where the CPU left off by storing all three of the above in vast quantities. The Colony Summary Window (see below) details how much of each resource you are producing, using and storing, so monitor it often and keep production ahead of population growth. More information is given for each of the above buildings in the Buildings section. Remember also that the PAFW display on the Asteroid Field Screen provides a quick summary of the status of your asteroids. PAFW was explained in the tutorial pages. d) Power Clearly nothing can operate without power. The Buildings section of the manual details the power requirement of every building. There are several power production buildings and more efficient ones are available from Sci-Tek. Like Life Support it`s vital to use the Colony Summary Window and PAFW to monitor the status of power to each colony and keep production ahead of usage. Should you suffer power shortages some buildings will fail before others. In general the most vital buildings like Life Support and Hydroponics will fail last. To see which buildings have failed simply click on any power generating building and those buildings without power will be listed. RADIATION --------- Each asteroid has background radiation some higher than others. Radiation is expressed as a percentage. 0% means the radiation is immeasurable above the radiation given off from the local star. Any value of 50% or lower is acceptable but higher radiation is harmful and will result in sickness and even deaths amoungst your employees. Use Radiation Filters to provide them with the necessary protection. (see the description in the Buildings section). Factors that lead to high radiation values are the use of Nuclear missles extensive combat and the presence of rare ores such as Traxium and Nexos. When mining these ores you must be very careful to protect your employees using Radiation Filters. COLONY SUMMARY WINDOW --------------------- You can access this by clicking on any of the colony support buildings such as Living Quarters Life Support, Hydroponics and CPU etc. Remember that you must be in Normal (hand) mode. You can also access it via the button in the Asteroid View Screen Button Panel. This information gives you an important breakdown on the status of your colony on that asteroid. You are told your current population, your maximum population, the total space in all your Living Quarter) and Surplus Population. As explained above in Colony management try to keep the surplus a positive number to allow for growth but if you overpopulate your asteroid you risk running short of food, water and air. Keep an eye on the Radiation reading (see Radiation above). The most important part of the Colony Summary Window is the breakdown of Power, Air, Food and Water. You are told how much you are producing, how much is being used daily and how much is stored for later use. The colour codes give you an instant indication of which of these factors may need attention: Green - No problems Orange - The asteroid is using a commodity faster than it is being produced. Your reserves are being used up. Red - The asteroid is no longer producing a commodity and you are running entirely from reserves (or maybe none at all!) you must rectify the situation quickly! The Security line provides a summary of employee morale on the asteroid. If the message suggests that the asteroid is not secure you would be wise to construct another Security Centre. The final line reminds you which fleets are present at this asteroid. There are also some options available by using the supplied buttons: RENAME INVENTORY EXIT Clicking on RENAME allows you to rename the asteroid. You can personalise all your asteroids and give them a name that reflects their function, like MAIN MINE or ORE DEPOT or SPACE DOCK etc. Simply delete the existing name using the backspace key and enter your own name up to 15 characters. Clicking on INVENTORY will provide a detailed listing of how many of each type of building you have. The listing is broken down into pages - simply use the Arrow Buttons to cycle through the pages. ASTEROID MINING --------------- The purpose of your colony in sector K240 is to locate and extract ores for sale to Tetracorp and the Empire. The more you sell, the larger your profits and your fame in the mining fraternity. This section details how to mine ore, what to do with it, how to transport it and how to sell it. DISCOVERING ORE --------------- The first step is to locate asteroids rich in ore deposits. This Exploration Phase requires the use of one or more Scout Ships. To go in search of new asteroids dispatch the Scout with orders to Explore. For details of how to do this see the section on Controlling Spacecraft and pay particular attention to the subsection on Scouts. Each asteroid has different amounts of each type of ore. To determine which asteroids are the most abundant in ore you must use a Scout with the orders to Prospect for ore. Again see the section on Controlling Spacecraft. When the scout has examined the asteroid it will return to its departure asteroid and present you with an ore report. You can obtain this report at any time for any at the asteroids you have prospected, by clicking on the Geology button. The Ore Report simply details how much of each type of ore remains on the asteroid to be mined. The most common are shown at the top and the rarest at the bottom. ORE EXTRACTION -------------- To extract ore you must have one or more mines. There are three types of mine each mining a particular range of ores. The table below indicates which mines you require to mine particular ores by colour coding them: Selenium Red Red requires a mine Asteros Red Barium Red Crystalite Red Quazinc Orange Orange requires a deep bore mine Bytanium Orange Korellium Orange Dragonium Orange Traxium Green Green requires a Seismic Penetrator Nexos Green obtainable from Sci-Tek As well as providing adequate power for the mines you must build one or more Stores to hold the ore. Clicking on a Store building provides you with a listing of what ores you have in ALL the stores on that asteroid. Each mine extracts one unit of ore about every 8 to 16 days. You have no control over which units are extracted. The main thing to remember about mining is to keep it running smoothly and consistently. Here are a few other points to bear in mind: Make sure there is enough power for all mines. Keep a constant track on the population of your asteroid and try and maintain a positive surplus. Make sure you have enough storage space for the ore. ORE USAGE --------- What do you do with ore? 1) Use it for ship construction 2) Use it for missile construction 3) Sell it to the Empire (see later) This is a summary of most of the cases in the game when you wil need ore: ORE NEEDED FOR Selenium Explosive Missile, Scatter Missile, Assault Fighter, Combat Eagle, Scout Ship, Destructor, Terminator Transporter, Fleet Battleship Asteros Nuclear Missile, Powerplant Barium Area Explosive Missile, Anti Virus Missile, Spy Satellite Crystalite Vortex Missile, Assault Fighter, Combat Eagle Scout Ship, Destructor. Quazinc Napalm Missile, Hellfire Missile Bytanium Space Dock Korellium Stasis Missile Dragonium Space Dock, Terminator, Transporter, Fleet Battleship Traxium Virus Missile Nexos Mega missile SELLING ORE ----------- It is necessary to retain some ore for your own use but the remainder can be sold to Tetracorp and the Empire. The Empire offers prices for ore that vary each Imperial year. You may attempt to play the markets and wait for a high price before you sell ore but don`t speculate for too long or the price may drop again. To obtain the Imperial Ore Prices click on the Command Centre building. These are the prices that the Empire will pay for each unit of ore. Sometimes the Empire will guarantee prices for a number of years for a particular ore type that it needs badly. In this case the letter "H" will appear after the ore price to indicate that the price has been held. The number after the "H" indicates the number of years that the price is held for. The Prices window also indicates the number of days before the next Imperial Ore Carrier arrives at your colony. This is important because you can only sell ore when the Imperial Ore Carrier arrives. The Imperial Ore Carrier will always arrive at whichever of your asteroids has the most ore in its Stores. You can use this fact to ensure that you transport ore in from your other asteroids. Tetracorp recommends that you have a central asteroid that acts as a major storage depot and that all other asteroids regularly ship their ore to this depot. The Imperial Ore Carrier remains in orbit about your asteroid for a short time before returning to the Imperial Home Worlds. 5 days before it leaves the crew will radio down with the appropriate message. Click on the Imperial Ore Carrier (whilst in Ship Selection Mode) and you will gain access to the Ore Transfer Window. This lists all the ore you have in the asteroids stores and the contents of the Ore Carriers cargo bays. The current Imperial Prices are listed for convenience. To transfer ore to the Ore Carrier click over the name of the type of ore with the right mouse button. A quantity of ore will be transferred. This quantity depends upon which ore type you have selected. Since you usually have large numbees of the cheaper ores the transfer quantity is large. For rarer ores it is small. Ores marked as red 50 units at a time. Ores marked as orange 5 units at a time. Ores marked as green 1 unit at a time. If you change your mind you can unload ore from the Ore Carrier into your Asteroid Stores by clicking with the left mouse button. Note that you can only Unload ore that you have previously loaded: there is no way of buying ore from the Empire. You can access the Ore Transfer Window as many times as you like whilst the Ore Carrier orbits your asteroid. You will be paid for the ore when the Ore Carrier returns to the Imperial Home Worlds. TRANSPORTING ORE ---------------- There are two methods of transporting ore between your asteroids: a) Using a Transporter Ship b) Using an Ore Teleporter Building The Ore Teleporter must be bought from Sci-Tek but is a very useful facility. It enables you to instantly teleport ore between any asteroids that have an Ore Teleporter installed. This facility is perfect for transferring ore to your ore depot at the last minute when using a Transporter may take too long. For details about how to use the Ore Teleporter see the description of the Ore Teleporter in the Buildings section. TRANSPORTER SHIP ---------------- This is the main means of moving ore between your asteroids. The general procedure is: a) Load ore onto Transporter from asteroid Stores b) Move Transporter to another asteroid c) Unload ore from Transporter into new asteroid Stores Load Ore -------- Click on the Transporter (whilst in Ship Selection Mode) to access the Spacecraft Control Window. (See appropriate section for details) Click on the LOAD/UNLOAD ORE order button and you will access the Ore Transfer Window. This lists all the ore you have in the asteroids stores and the contents of the Transporters cargo bays. To Load ore onto the Transporter simply use the same process as is used to load ore onto the Imperial carrier. Ores marked as red 50 units at a time Ores marked as orange 5 units at a time. Ores marked as green 1 unit at a time. Move Transporter ---------------- See the section on Controlling Spacecraft for details of how to send the Transporter to another asteroid Unload Ore ---------- The procedure for Unloading ore is identical for that of Loading ore (see above) except that ore is transferred from the Transporter to the asteroid Stores using the left mouse button. ZONE 003 : SPACECRAFT CONSTRUCTION ---------------------------------- You will not get very far in the game without constructing a ship for one reason or another. This section describes how to do so. There are 8 types of ship and each has its uses as summarised here. For greater details about each ship, see the Spacecraft descriptions in the technical supplement. These ships can only be built using a Spacecraft Construction Yard: NAME USE HARDPOINTS Assault Fighter Combat 1 Combat Eagle Combat 2 Scout Ship Exploration/Prospecting/Spying 1 These ships can only be built using a Space Dock: (see Space Docks) NAME USE HARDPOINTS Destructor Combat 3 Terminator Combat 4 Transporter Colonisation/Ore Transporting 2 Fleet Battleship Combat 6 Space Dock Constructing Larger Spacecraft 4 Spacecraft Construction Yard Once you have built one or more Construction Yards, you can begin building the 3 smaller ship types. Before you do so, you must have the following: A Weapons Factory on the current asteroid Money allocated into the Vehicles Fund (See Financial Funds) Appropriate ore in Stores on the current asteroid. Ship construction will pause if all these things are not present. You can check the status of the Yard that is currently building ships by clicking on the Yard. Instead of the options to build ships, you will be given a progress report. This report will state if any of the above factors are not catered for. Each Yard can only construct one type of ship at a time (but up to 6 of that type) but if you have another Yard then it can be building a different type of ship at the same time. Each Yard can construct up to 3 ships at a time or 6 if you have purchased the Construction Droids from Sci-Tek. Spacecraft Construction Window This appears when you click on a vacant Spacecraft Construction Yard or on the Space Dock. Click on LEFT or RIGHT or use the left and right arrows to cycle through the ships available to you. Most of the ship details are repeated in the Spacecraft descriptions given in the technical section but a few require explanation. The number in brackets after the ships name equals the number of ships currently selected for construction. Click on BUILD to Increase this number. There are two Armour Figures. The first is the basic armour of the ships hull. The second figure (in brackets) is the total armour if any defence hardpoints have been installed in the ship (see below). The Build Times, both for individual ships and for the whole group are indicated here. The Ore Needed is also displayed. The Cost is the basic Hull cost + the total hardpoint cost (in brackets) to give the total cost for each ship and for the whole production. Hardpoints Each ship has a number of hardpoints into which you can install any of the available weapons/ defenses. This flexible system allows you to produce custom ships for specific purposes. Hardpoint weapons fall into 3 categories: a) Weapon for use against an enemy asteroid b) Weapon for use against an enemy ship c) Defence. Here are a few suggestions: 1) An Eagle with 2 attack weapons for use as an attack ship 2) An Eagle with 1 shield weapon and 1 attack weapon for defensive purposes 3) A Terminator with all hardpoints installed with anti asteroid weapons to maximise an attack against an enemy asteroid 4) A Terminator with all hardpoints installed with anti ship weapons to use as part of a fleet intercepting enemy fleets (see later) Since a ship with all anti asteroid weapons could not defend itself if if were attacked by enemy ships it may be wise to have a couple of each type so the ship can attack an asteroid OR a ship. You must decide the contents of each hardpoint depending upon your own strategies. Details on each hardpoint weapon are given in the technical section. Weapon Installation To Install a weapon into a hardpoint you must first select the weapon. In the bottom left window are up to 8 available weapon icons. More are available by clicking on the NEXT button. There are two sets of 8, but many are blank until they are purchased from Sci-Tek. Click on one of the weapon icons with the left mouse button and it will be selected. Its name and cost will be shown. You can install this in one of the ship's hardpoints by clicking with the left mouse button over one of the red boxes on the ship blueprint. The weapon is now installed. To remove the weapon simply click on it again. To install another weapon instead, select another weapon from the bottom icons and click over the already occupied hardpoint. The old weapon will disappear leaving the hardpoint empty. Click again to install the new weapon. Do this for every hardpoint on the ship, though you may leave hardpoints blank if you are really short of money! When you are satisfied with your ship remember to select the number you want to build, using the BUILD button. Then click on EXIT and construction will begin provided you have enough money and ore, and that you have a Weapons Factory. You may clear everything at any time by clicking on ABORT. After Construction As each ship is completed it will be stored. Smaller ships are stored in the asteroid Hangers (see the section on Controlling Ships). Larger ships as constructed by the Space Dock remain in orbit awaiting your commands. SPACE DOCKS ----------- A Space Dock is necessary if you want to construct the larger spacecraft. Since the Space Dock has 4 hardpoints and a large amount of armour it is also an effective defence against attack by enemy ships. Constructing a Space Dock Each asteroid can only support one Space Dock. To construct one you must have a Command Centre on the asteroid. Click on the Command Centre and then on the Space Dock Button that appears. You are presented with the Ship Construction screen and the details of the Space Dock. Notice how much ore and money is required! Use the method described above to construct the Space Dock. If you go to the Asteroid Orbit Screen you will see scaffolding appear in space as it is built. Eventually this scaffolding will clear and your Space Dock will be ready for use. To obtain a status report click on the scaffolding. Using a Space Dock ------------------ To construct one of the larger ships simply go to the Asteroid Orbit Screen and click on the Space Dock. The Ship Construction Window will appear and you can proceed as described above. CONTROLLING SPACECRAFT ---------------------- Ships can be controlled individually or as a group known as a fleet. Controlling Fleets is dealt with later. To issue orders to a ship you must click on the ship whilst in Spacecraft Selection Mode. This is where the mouse pointer is a white arrow, NOT the normal hand. There are 2 ways to get into Spacecraft Selection Mode: a) Click on the Ship button b) Press the "S" key. Both toggle between Normal Hand Mode and Spacecraft Selection Mode. When you click on a ship the Spacecraft Control Window appears: The ship details remind you what the capabilities of this ship are, such as the contents of its hardpoints and remaining armour points. It also tells you which fleet (1 to 8) this ship may belong to, or zero if it doesnt yet belong to a fleet. Orders are given by clicking on the buttons. You can give each ship one or two orders to carry out at a time. Most ships revert to Patrol Mode when they complete their orders, waiting for you to issue new ones. Each ship has different orders available to it so we`ll examine each ship individually. Assault Fighter & Combat Eagle These ships have the same orders. Land Land Hanger Patrol Join Fleet Go To Asteroid Exit Abort LAND: The simplest order. This simply causes the ship to locate a random vacant square on the asteroid and land on it. LAND HANGER: Similar to LAND except that the ship will locate one of your Landing Pads and land there. Once on the Pad the elelator will automaticaily lower the ship into the underground hangers safly storing the ship. See the section Controlling Hangered Ships for how to gain access to the ship again. The main advantage at hangering ships is to get them to safety during an enemy attack Damaged ships are repaired whilst they are in the hangers. PATROL: The ship will enter the standard patrol mode. It will repeatedly fly between the Asteroid View Screen and the Orbit Screen ready for any enemy attack. JOIN FLEET: This order is used to assign the ship to one of the 8 fleets. For details see the later section on Controlling Fleets. When you click on the button the order "JOIN FLEET 1" appears in the order window To assign the ship to another fleet simply click successively on the JOIN FLEET button. The ship will do one of 3 things depending upon its position relative to the fleet: a) If the fleet and ship are in orbit around the same asteroid the ship will immediately join the fleet and go into Patrol Mode. b) If the flett is in orbit around the current asteroid and the ships in the underground hanger it will launch from the hangers via a Landing Pad and then join the fleet. c) If the fleet is at a different asteroid to the ship, or travelling in space between asteroids the ship will automatically leave the asteroid and travel to join the fleet wherever it is. Note: Once a ship is in a fleet it can only be controlled via the Fleet Control Window (see appropriate section). To remove a ship from a fleet either use the LEAVE option from the Fleet Control Window or simply access the Spacecraft Control Window and give it new orders. It will automatically leave the fleet and carry out the new orders. GO TO ASTEROID: This order allows you to send on individual ship to another asteroid friendly or otherwise. It is often easier to send ships in Fleets (see later) but there are times when you need or want to send a single ship. When you click on the button you will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen with all the known asteroids shown. Simply click with the left mouse button on the destination asteroid. Back at the Spacecraft Control Window notice that your order has been entered into the orders window. EXIT: Use this to exit the Control Window and initiate the orders you have programmed if any. ABORT: Use this to erase any current orders ready for you to enter new ones, (You must ABORT current orders first). You can also use ABORT followed by EXIT to cancel all orders and cause the ship to stop in space. Scout Ship This ship has all the orders available to the Assault Ship and Combat Eagle and three new ones: PROSPECT EXPLORE SPY The primary purpose of the Scout Ship is to explore space looking for new asteroids and then to prospect these asteroids to report what ore deposits are there. SPY: Once you know the location of one or more enemy colonies, you can use the Scout to gather very basic information about them. For full details see the section on Spying. EXPLORE: Initially your knowledge of the asteroid field is very limited and you will need to send out one or more scouts to discover new asteroids to colonise. Use this option. When you click on the button vou will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen with all the known asteroids shown. Space is divided into 40 sectors. Simply click with the left mouse button on the sector you wish to head for. Back at the Spacecraft Control Window, notice that your order has been entered into the orders window. The scout will head for the chosen sector looking for asteroids all the while. As soon as it discovers one it will return to the departure asteroid to report its findings. The asteroid will become visible on the Asteroid Field Screen and you will receive a bonus payment. PROSPECT: It is vital that you prospect new asteroids to discover what ore deposits are available for mining. Use this option frequently. When you click on the button you will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen where all known asteroids will be displayed. Simply click with the left mouse button on the destination asteroid. Back at the Spacecraft Control Window notice that your order has been entered into the orders window. The scout will travel to the chosen asteroid land take mining samples and then return. Upon its return it will issue a report of the ore deposits it has found. You can then decide whether the asteroid is worth colonising or not. Destructor & Terminator These ships have the same orders as the Assault Fighter except that they can neither LAND nor LAND HANGER. Transporter COLONISE LOAD ORE GO TO AST JOIN FLEET ABORT EXIT The two new options available are COLONISE and LOAD/UNLOAD ORE The Transporter is primarily used for two functions: a) Starting a colony on a new asteroid b) Transporting ore between colony asteroids COLONISE: When you have located an asteroid that you wish to colonise you must dispatch a Transporter to begin the new colony. Starting a colony costs 30000 Cr which must be available in the Free Money Grant. (See the section On Financial Funds). Upon arrival at the chosen asteroid the Transport will begin construction of a Colony Preservation Unit. Once this is complete you may begin to build up your colony to your requirements. See the section on Colonisation for further details. To give the required orders to the transporter first click on GO TO AST and select an asteroid. (See instructions above). Then click on COLONISE and EXIT. If you want to start a colony on the asteroid the Transporter is already in orbit around, simply click on COLONISE. LOAD/UNLOAD ORE: Clicking on this button brings up the Ore Transportation Window, and enables you to move ore between the cargo bays on the Transporter and the Stores on the current asteroid See the section on Ore Transportation in the Mining section for further details. Fleet Battleship This has only the following orders available to it all of which are detailed above: GO TO AST JOIN FLEET ABORT EXIT Space Dock No orders are available to the Space Dock. Clicking upon it will initiate the Spacecraft Construction Window. See the section on Space Docks for further details. CONTROLLING HANGERED SHIPS -------------------------- When ships are in the underground hanger you obviously can`t control them by clicking on the ship graphic. Instead you must click on the Landing Pad whilst in Normal Hand Mode. This brings up the Ship Inventory Window. This details all the ships in orbit around the current asteroid and in the underground hangers, but ONLY ships not currently members of another fleet. All these ships are available for control. To select one or more ships click the mouse button over the name of the ship. Click right to select one ship or left to deselect one ship. Selected ships are shown by green blocks, and non selected ships by red blocks. You can quickly select more than one of a ship by holding down the mouse button. The numbers at the right remind you of how many ships you have selected. The ABORT button will deselect all selected ships. The Exit button will exit the window performing no action on the ships. Clicking on the SHIP button enables to you to access the Spacecraft Control Window and issue orders to the ships as described earlier in this section. You can now issue any order to the ships and they will automatically leave the hangers via a Landing Pad before carrying out those orders. A distinct advantage of using the Ship inventory Screen is that you can issue the same orders to several ships at once. You could select several ships and tell them all to land in the hangers or go to an asteroid. You cannot however give them different parameters to the order: so if you ordered 7 scouts to explore, they would all head for the same sector you couldn't direct them to different sectors. Note also that some orders are unavailable to certain ships eg if you selected a Scout and a Transporter, you could order the Scout to explore but the Transporter would simply ignore that order. They`re Transporters you see. For transporting things. ZONE 004 : SPYING ----------------- Though the Empire and Tetracorp have extensive databases containing information about the known alien races, much of this data is interpreted and assumed from long distance sensors and spy satellites. We know very little about the physical make up of alien colonies and even less about their expansion and military tactics. During your exploration of sector K240 you will need to supplement this information with more specific details discovered by your own spying efforts. Obtaining data about the aliens on a regular basis will allow you to predict their moves and could well give you an edge over them in combat. There is nothing you can learn until you discover at least one of their asteroid colonies (It will be marked on the Asteroid Field Screen by a red dot). There are two approaches to gathering information: a) A Scout Spying Mission b) A Spy Satellite USING SCOUTS TO SPY ------------------- This is the easiest approach to spying but the information gained is limited. Once you have an available Scout click on the SPY button in the Spacecraft Control Window. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen with all the known asteroids shown. Click on the asteroid of interest with the left mouse button. Back at the Spacecraft Control Window notice that your order has been entered into the orders window. The scout will head for the chosen asteroid. Once there it will gather as much information as it can without being detected and return to your asteroid to issue a report. The report simply indicates the number of buildings on the enemy asteroid (not what types), the number of ships observed in orbit around the asteroid and in particular the number of Transporter ships and Battleships (or ships of a similar size since exact ship details vary from alien to alien). Be aware that due to the brevity of the Scouts mission, this information is an estimation only. THE USE OF SPY SATELLITES ------------------------- There are three major reasons for using Spy Satellites rather than Scout Ships for spying: a) They offer more detailed information b) They provide warnings of enemy fleet and missile movements c) They allow you to examine the enemy asteroid Once you have a Spy Satellite orbiting an enemy asteroid, it continually transmits back video information about the surface of the asteroid. This allows you to use the Asteroid View Screen and actually watch the enemy colony yourself, to see what buildings they have, how quickly they are building, what ships are in orbit etc. This information is free and extremely useful. If you click on an enemy building you can get an idea of its function. The only other time you can watch an enemy asteroid from the Asteroid View Screen is when you have ships or fleets currently attacking it. Then you can watch the battle take place! CONSTRUCTING A SPY SATELLITE ---------------------------- You may have as many satellites as you wish. To construct one you need to build a Satellite Silo on one or more of your asteroids. When you click on the Satellite Silo with the left mouse button you enter the Satellite Construction Window. You are told the number of satelites currently in the asteroid hangers and the number under construction. BUILD ABORT LAUNCH TARGET EXIT To construct a new satellite click on BUILD. Each click will order a new satellite to be constructed. You may cancel these requests for satellites by clicking on ABORT. At the present time each satellite costs 10,000 Cr and requires 2 units of Barium Ore. You also require a Weapons Factory on the same asteroid to construct the complicated shielding equipment needed by the satellite. The money is taken from the Intelligence Grant so ensure you have allocated sufficient funds to that grant via the Financial Funds Window. A status line will inform you of any problems with construction. Completed satellites are sent to the main asteroid hangers and are ready to launch. It is recommended that you construct several satellites before you actually need them. LAUNCHING A SPY SATELLITE ------------------------- To launch a satellite click on the Satellite Silo and check that it reports that you have a satellite available for launch. First you must select its destination. Click on the TARGET button. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen where you can select an enemy asteroid by clicking on it with the left mouse button. This target will be remembered by the Satellite Silo until either you change it or the destination asteroid is destroyed. Thus you can launch further satellites to the same asteroid without having to select the target again. To launch the satellite simply click on the LAUNCH button you will observe the satellite leave the silo and head for the enemy asteroid. You cannot launch another satellite from the same silo for several days since the launch mechanism must be reset. SENSOR REPORTS FROM SPY SATELLITES ---------------------------------- Once a spy satellite arrives at its destination it shields itself and immediately begins to monitor the asteroid. On the Asteroid Field Screen you will see a small blue animation indicating that the satellite is operating normally. A satellite provides you with warnings of an enemy attack. Normallv you are only aware of the presence of enemy missiles and fleets when they enter the range of your sensors. If the satellite detects missiles leaving silos on the asteroid it will immediately issue a missile Launch Detection. It will do a similar thing the moment it detects a Fleet leaving orbit. This warning takes two forms. On the Asteroid View Screen you will see the missile or fleet warning icons appear in the bottom left corner but with the addition of the word Launch. You will receive this warning even if the enemy asteroid is not inside your sensor range. In this case you will receive a Launch warning and then a short while later you will also receive the usual warning when the fleet or missiles enter your sensor range. Thus a satellite can warn you of approaching danger long before your sensors detect the threat. The other visual indication is on the Asteroid Field Screen. Once you recieve a Launch Detect Warning you may need to know which of the enemy asteroids has launched the attack. A flashing launch indicator (a red box) surrounds the asteroid from which the launch was detected. This warning will disappear after a short while Warning: The spy satellite is not infallible. On rare occasions it will fail to detect a missile launch or fleet departure. Do not over rely upon your spy satellites! SPY REPORTS FROM SPY SATELLITES ------------------------------- At any time you can interrogate any of your spy satellites and obtain immediate information about the asteroid it is orbiting. To do so click on the SPY button from the Asteroid View Screen. You are taken to the Asteroid Field Screen and asked to select the asteroid that interests you. You must select an asteroid which has an orbiting spy satellite. After selecting the asteroid you gain access to the main Spying Screen. There are 8 categories of information listed on the screen and the cost of obtaining that information. At the top of the screen is the money you have available (The Intelligence Fund). Always ensure you have allocated sufficient money to the Intelligence Fund before entering the Spying Screen. To obtain information, simply click on the chosen category. The appropriate cost will be deducted and a report will be issued. Whilst you remain in the Spying Screen, you can call up these reports as many times as you like at no furthur cost. The categories are described below, but remember that the information is not always accurate, since the enemy are careful to encode their transmissions and conceal their true plans. For peace of mind interrogate your spy satelites on a regular basis, perhaps annually. Population ---------- This estimates the population on the asteroid Missile Inventory ----------------- This estimates the number of warheads stacked in their underground silos. Since their technology differs from ours the exact types of warheads are not given. There are three categories estimating the yield (destructive power) of the warheads. A fourth category marked "Other" indicates warheads of whose purpose we have no idea at this stage. Number of Enemy Asteroids ------------------------- This estimates the number of asteroids occupied by the enemy and may indicate that they occupy asteroids that we have not yet discovered. Our Asteroids Known to Enemy ---------------------------- This gives a list of our asteroids that are known to the enemy. It can give a valuable insight into where they are likely to attack or what asteroids we need not defend since the enemy are unaware of their presence. Building Inventory ------------------ This provides an indication of the buildings observable on the asteroid. There are categories for general buildings, defensive buildings (maybe Shield Generators or Anti Missile Pods) offensive buildings (Turrets Missile Silos etc) and power generating buildings. Make Up of Deployed Fleet ------------------------- If you have been warned that this asteroid has recently deployed a fleet you can obtain an estimation of its size. The report indicates the number of ships and number of Battleships in the fleet. Destination of Deployed Fleet ----------------------------- If you have been warned that this asteroid has recently deployed a fleet you can determine where that fleet is headed. Clearly this is very valuable information allowing you to prepare a welcoming surprise! Destination of Missile Strike ----------------------------- If you have been warned that this asteroid has recently launched a missile strike you can determine where those missiles are headed. Remember that spying information can occasionally be in error. Tetracorp accepts no responsibility for the loss and damage caused by an inaccurate or incomplete spy report. LOSING SPY SATELLITES --------------------- It is inevitable that the enemy will detect our satellites and destrov them. The longer a satellite orbits an enemy asteroid the greater this chance is. The satellite can also betray its presence each time you request specific information from the Spy Screen so don`t ask for spy information too regularly. Better still dispatch more than one satellite to the same enemy asteroid to provide a backup. ZONE 005 : FLEETS ----------------- A convenient method of controlling ships is to place them into fleets. Once joined together as a fleet ships can be easily ordered to move between asteroids. There are advantages and disadvantages to using fleets as opposed to controlling each ship individually. The advantages are that you can dispatch an entire battle fleet by clicking on just a couple of buttons. It is also easier to group ships by their type so that you know where ships are and what they are supposed to be doing. There are also some functions such as intercepting an approaching enemy fleet, that can only be done using fleets. The disadvantages are that you have less control over individual ships. There are only 4 orders you can give a fleet though they are powerful. However you can always remove a ship from a fleet at any time if you want it to perform more specialised duties. Certain orders can only be done using individual ship control such as colonisation, exploring or prospecting. JOINING A FLEET --------------- There are two ways to group ships into a fleet: a) Use the JOIN FLEET option from the Spacecraft Control Window. See the appropriate section b) Use the JOIN SHIPS button from the Fleet Control Window described below In general it you are making a fleet for the first time it is best to use method b). If you later want to add one or two ships to an existing fleet you will usually use method a). FLEET CONTROL WINDOW -------------------- You can obtain the Fleet Control Window by one of 2 means: a) Clicking on the Fleet button b) Clicking on one of your fleet markers on the Asteroid Field Screen You can control up to 8 fleets. To obtain the details about any fleet or to create a new one, select the fleet number 1-8 by clicking on the PREV and NEXT buttons. The fleet number in the top right will alter. If the Fleet Listing Window is empty then this fleet does not yet exist. If it does exist, there will be a listing of all the ships in the current fleet and their current armour points. To create a fleet or add ships to an existing fleet click on JOIN. The display will switch to the Ship Inventory Window. This details all the ships in orbit around the current asteroid but ONLY ships not currently members of another fleet. All these ships are available to be added to this fleet. You cannot use this method to add hangered ships to the fleet: to do that you must use the Spacecraft Control Window and the JOIN FLEET button. To select one or more ships click the mouse button over the name of the ship. Click right to select one ship or left to de-select one ship. Selected ships are shown by green blobs and non-selected ships by red blobs. You can quickly select more than one of a ship by holding down the mouse button. The numbers at the right remind you of how many ships you have selected. The ABORT button will de-select all selected ships. The EXIT button will return you to the Fleet Control Window remembering the ships you have selected These will be added to the fleet and will appear in the Fleet Listing Window. These ships will switch to Patrol Mode orbiting the asteroid until you issue an order to the fleet. If the Fleet Listing fills its window then you can use the PAGE button to flick between the various pages of the listing. The current and total page numbers appear in the top right of the window. You can obtain more detailed information on any ship in the fleet by clicking on the ship in the Fleet Listing Window with the right mouse button. This is useful if you forget the hardpoint assignments of any of the ships in the fleet. LEAVING A FLEET --------------- There are two ways to force ships to leave a fleet, but remember that a ship can only leave a fleet when the fleet is orbiting an asteroid not when it is in space between asteroids. a) Simply issue new orders to the ship from the Spacecraft Control Window. The ship will automatically leave the fleet to obey those orders. b) Use the LEAVE button in the fleet Control Window: First you must select which ship(s) you want to leave the fleet. Do this by clicking on those ships in the Fleet Listing Window. Their names will be highlighted in a different colour to show they have been selected. Clicking on a highlighted ship will de-select it. You can also de-select all the highlighted ships by clicking on ABORT. Then click on LEAVE and the highlighted ships will leave the fleet. They will disappear from the Fleet Listing Window and enter Patrol Mode about the current asteroid waiting for further orders. FLEET TACTICS ------------- There are four orders or tactics that you can give a fleet. These are the large buttons on the fleet Control Screen Move Fleet (Non-Hostile Move) This is used to move an entire fleet to another asteroid. You can only use this order to move a fleet to one of your asteroids or to an uninhabited asteroid NOT an enemy asteroid. Click on the MOVE FLEET tactic button. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen where you can select the destination asteroid with the left mouse button. In the Fleet Control Window notice that the Destination has been entered at the top of the window as well as a summary of the order selected. Click on Exit and the fleet will carry out the order. The ships will depart from the asteroid and then you can monitor the progress of the fleet from the Asteroid Field Screen where the fleet appears as a numbered marker. A fleet using a non-hostile movement can move at a faster rate than one in attack mode since it does not have to consider the possibility of an attack whilst it is in transit. Attack Asteroid (Hostile Move) This is used to move an entire fleet to an enemy asteroid with the intent of attacking it upon arrival. Click on the ATTACK ASTEROID tactic button. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen where you can select the destination asteroid with the left mouse button in the Fleet Control Window notice that the Destination has been entered at the top of the window as well as a summary of the order selected. Click on Exit and the fleet will carry out the order. The ships will depart from the asteroid and then you can monitor the progress of the fleet from the Asteroid Field Screen where the fleet appears as a numbered marker. A fleet using hostile movement moves slower than normal since it must always be prepared for an enemy attack as it nears its destination. When the fleet arrives at the destination asteroid it will automatically enter an attack pattern. Ships will either attack enemy ships or enemy buildings depending upon the hardpoint weapons at their disposal Since the attack Is automated you can dispatch several attack fleets and not have to worry about them, though it is fun to watch your fleets devastate the enemy. Intercept Enemy Fleet This is used to send your fleet to attack an approaching enemy fleet. The purpose of this is to attempt to destroy or weaken the enemy fleet before it can do damage to your asteroid. Click on the INTERCEPT FLEET tactic button. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen where you can select the destination fleet with the left mouse button. In the Fleet Control Window notice that the Destination has been entered at the top of the window as well as a summary of the order selected Click on Exit and the fleet will carry out the order. The ships will depart from the asteroid and then you can monitor the progress of the fleet from the Asteroid Field Screen where the fleet appears as a numbered marker. Your fleet will use hostile movement so it will move slower than normal. When your fleet arrives at the enemy fleet it will engage it in combat. The two fleets will automatically fight until one is destroyed or one retreats. On the Asteroid Field Screen you will see the fleet markers (yours and the enemies) flashing to indicate that they are in battle. You can elect to watch the battle by clicking on the flashing fleet markers. See the Space Combat Screen section for further details Sentry Mode This is used to guard one of your asteroids. Simply click on the SENTRY MODE button and then EXIT. Your ships will continue patrolling your asteroid as if nothing has happened but they are in constant contact with your asterold sensors. As soon as an enemy fleet is detected heading for the current asteroid the fleet will enter Intercept Fleet Mode and go to Intercept the enemy fleet (as above). If it is successful in defeating the enemy it will return to the asteroid and go back to Sentry Mode. It will continue to intercept all approaching enemy fleets until you instruct it otherwise or it is destroyed. RETREAT THRESHOLDS ------------------ Each fleet has a retreat threshold which is normally 100%. This reflects the amount of the original fleet which can be destroyed before the fleet will abandon its attack and return to a friendly asteroid. To alter the retreat threshold simply click over the figure at the top right of the Fleet Control Window. Click the left mouse button to decrease the figure by 10% or the right mouse button to increase it by 10%. With 100% the fleet will never retreat. It will fight until it is successful or all the ships in the fleet are destroyed. With 0%, the fleet will retreat as soon as a single ship in the fleet is destroyed. SPACE COMBAT SCREEN ------------------- When two fleets meet in space they will pause in their initial orders and engage in combat. The battle will continue until either side is destroyed or retreats. The fleet icons on the Asteroid Field Screen will flash. You can watch the combat by clicking on the flashing icons. On the Space Combat Screen you can view yours and the enemys fleet in battle. You cannot examine your fleet listing but there are some buttons available by clicking with the right mouse button anywhere on the screen. RETREAT ASTEROID PAUSE EXIT RETREAT: Enables you to force your fleet to retreat immediately ASTEROID: Returns you to the Asteroid Field Screen PAUSE: Have we really got to explain this? EXIT: Returns you to the space battle ZONE 006 : BUTTON SELECTION PANELS ---------------------------------- When the game is playing you can bring up a Button Panel by clicking on the right mouse button. A Button Pane appropriate to the screen you are on will appear. Whilst the Button Panel is in view the game is paused. You can select any of the buttons by clicking on them using the left mouse button. You can only select buttons from the Button Panel - any buttons elsewhere on the screen are inactive until you exit the Button Panel. This section summarises the major button panels. Use it to locate a button when you don`t know what Button Panel it is on. Better still use the Button Extraction technique explained later. Asteroid View Screen Button Panel --------------------------------- TETRACORP INFO MILITARY ASTEROID FIELD DEMOLISH BUILDING PAUSE EXIT TETRACORP Access the Tetracorp Control Screen providing options for changing scenario loading and saving games etc INFO Takes you to the Information Button Panel (see below) MILITARY Takes you to the Military Button Panel (see below) ASTEROID Access the Asteroid Control Button Panel (see below) FIELD Access the Asteroid Field Screen DEMOLISH Toggle Demolish Mode on or off BUILDING Access the Engineering Window that allows you to select a building PAUSE Pause the game. To unpause the game click either mouse button. If you leave the game paused for more than a couple of minutes then the screen will dim to protect your monitor from bright colours. EXIT Exit the Button Panel Information Button Panel ------------------------ SPYING FUNDS GEOLOGY SCI-TEK BLUEPRINTS EXIT SPYING Access the Spying Control Window FUNDS Access the Financial Funds Window GEOLOGY Obtain an ore deposit report for the current asteroid SCI-TEK Access the Communications Screen which allows you to purchase devices from the Sci-Tek catalogue BLUEPRINTS Obtain a listing of all the blueprints you have bought from Sci-Tek EXIT Exit the Button Panel Military Button Panel --------------------- FLEET SHIP MISSILE EXIT FLEET Access the Fleet Control Window SHIP Toggle between Normal (hand) and Ship Selection Mode white arrow) MISSILE Access the Missile Launch Window EXIT Exit the Button Panel Asteroid Control Button Panel ----------------------------- LEFT RIGHT ORBIT FIELD TACTICAL EXIT LEFT Rotates asteroid left 90 degrees RIGHT Rotates asteroid right 90 degrees ORBIT Switch to the Orbit Screen The Orbit Screen represents an area of space above your asteroid. Many of the larger ships cannot approach the asteroid too closely so they remain in orbit. The Space Dock is always on the Orbit Screen and never on the Asteroid View Screen. This button switches to the Orbit Screen so you can view and select any ships that are there. Clicking on this button again will return you to the Asteroid View Screen. FIELD Access the Asteroid Field Screen TACTICAL Toggles between normal and tactical mode on the asteroid. Tactical mode is described in the Tutorial. EXIT Exit the Button Panel Asteroid Field Button Panel --------------------------- DISPLAY QUICKVIEW SUMMARY MISSILE PAUSE FLEET ASTEROID ENGINES EXIT DISPLAY Access the Display Options Button Panel. This enables you to select which information you want to appear on the Asteroid Field Screen (see below) QUICKVIEW Enables you to program and use the QuickView method at viewing asteroids QuickView is described in the section about Time Saving Techniques. SUMMARY Access the Colony Summary Window. This provides a summary on the important elements at the colony on the current Asteroid and is very useful when you are managing several asteroids simultaneously. Using this option can save you accessing the Asteroid View Screen to look at how a colonys progressing. See the appropriate section. MISSILE Access the Missile Launch Window PAUSE Pause the game. To unpause the game click either mouse button. If you leave the game paused for more than a couple of minutes then the screen will dim to protect your monitor from bright colours. FLEET Access the Fleet Control Window ASTEROID Access the Asteroid View Screen for the current asteroid. ENGINES Enables control of the current asteroids Asteroid Engines. If it has any. EXIT Exit the Button Panel Display Options Button Panel ---------------------------- PAFW EXIT PAFW Toggles the PAFW display on and off on the Asteroid Field Screen. If you are confident of your ability to manage your asteroids you can turn this option off to avoid cluttering the Asteroid Field Screen EXIT Exit the Button Panel Other options are available. In this Button Panel when you purchase the Asteroid Tracker Device from Sci-Tek BUTTON EXTRACTION ----------------- Most likely you are finding it annoying accessing nested Button Panels all the time. You can avoid this by customising the Asteroid View Screen making available all the buttons you commonly use. Note you can only customise the Asteroid View Screen and Orbit Screen NOT the Asteroid Field Screen or any other screens. When any Button Panel is active you can pull out or extract any button (except the Exit button). Click the left mouse button over the chosen button and keep the button held down until the button appears in the main screen at the right or bottom edge. Notice that the button function is NOT carried out. There is space for 6 buttons up the right side of the screen and 8 along the bottom. No button may be duplicated. It is well worth the time to extract your often used buttons since they are now available at any time without you having to remember which Button Panel to access. You can delete an extracted button from the screen by clicking and holding in the same way as you extracted the button. Your customised screen will be remembered if you save the game. TIME SAVlNG TECHNIQUES ---------------------- Once you are familiar with the game you may wish to use these techniques to speed up play. Keyboard Short-cuts ------------------- D - Toggles Demolish Mode on and off S - Toggles between Normal (hand) mode and Ship Selection (arrow) Mode SPACE Toggles between normal and Tactical mode on the Asteroid View Screen Left and Right Arrows - Rotate the asteroid left or right 90 degrees QuickView --------- If you are managing several asteroids and maybe know about a couple of enemy asteroids as well it can be very time consuming if you are switching between them frequently. When you click on the QuickView button you are given a listing of the definitions of the 10 function keys F1 to F1O. You can define an asteroid to any of the function keys. Then simply pressing that function key will take you to the Asteroid View Screen. For that asteroid from whatever screen you were previously on. To define a function key click on the line in the listing from F1 to F10. Then click on any asteroid with the left mouse button. The function key is now defined. You can redefine it at any stage by the same method. The listing is colour coded; Green - asteroid owned by you Red - asteroid owned by enemy Orange - uninhabited asteroid With several function keys defined you can browse through asteroids very quickly. Select Building --------------- You may discover that there is a subset of buildings that you are always building when you colonise a new asteroid, and that it takes a long time choosing them all from the Engineering Window. You can program the keys 1 to 9 to specific buildings then to select one of those buildings you just press 1-9 instead of accessing the Engineering Window. In the Engineering Window you may have noticed numbers in brackets at the top left of some buildings eg the Living Quarters. These are the default definitions of the keys 1-9. To program any building to a key 1-9 simply locate the building in the Engineering Window and press the key 1-9. The number will appear at top left and that building is now programmed. You can redefine a number key 1-9 by the same method. It is well worth taking time to define the keys 1-9. Your definitions will be remembered if you save the game. As well as selecting a programmed building using the kevs 1-9 you can use the Blue Button situated under the building icon on the Asteroid View Screen. Each click on the Blue Button will select one of the programmed buildings 1-9. You can in fact have a tenth programmed building because key 0 is alwavs defined as the last building selected by from the Engineering Window itself, it will of course change every time you select a new building from the Engineering Window. TERRAIN APPROVED 2450 THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS FOR EMPLOYEES OF SCI-TEK AND TETRACORP ONLY. ZONE 007 : TETRACORP AND SCI-TEK -------------------------------- TETRACORP This screen is accessed by clicking on the Tetracorp button in the main Asteroid View Screen Button Panel (The icon depicting a floppy disk) The Tetracorp screen provides the facilities for loading and saving games and selecting which scenario to play. Along the bottom of the screen is the command line. To select an option click on one of the commands: LOAD GAME --------- Clicking on LOAD allows you to load and continue a previously saved game. If the game is running off of floppy disk, the game is loaded from a saved game disk inserted into the internal drive (DF0:) If the game is running from Hard Disk the game is loaded from the Hard Disk. Follow the on screen prompts to Load a game. SAVE GAME --------- Clicking on SAVE allows you to save a game to continue later. If the game is running off of floppy disk, you can only save your game to a pre-formatted disk inserted into the internal drive (DF0:). If the game is running from Hard Disk the game is saved onto the Hard Disk. In the same directory as K240. Follow the on-screen prompts to Save a game. LOADING AN ALIEN ---------------- Clicking on ALIEN will allow you to load and play any one of the 6 Alien scenarios. You access the Tetracorp Alien Database which presents each allen along with some information about them. You can obtain more detail about the Aliens by reading the section of the manual entitled "The Enemy" Each Alien is given a difficulty rating and it is strongly recommended that you play the scenarios in the order of Easy, Medium and Hard. At the bottom of the Database screen is the command line. To select an option click on one of the commands: NEXT This accesses the next Alien in the database. PLAY This enables you to commence play on this scenario. Note that if you were in the middle of a game that game will be deleted and you cannot return to that game unless you had saved it to disk. END Exits the Alien Database selecting no scenario. You may return to the game you were playing. SOUND FX ON/OFF This option simply turns on and off sound effect SPEECH This option simply turns sampled speech on and off DOS This option allows you to exit K240 altogether and return to the Workbench. Any game you were playing will be lost unless you had previously saved it to disk END This returns you to the game SCI-TEK - THE TECHNOLOGY YOU PREFER Sci-Tek is available 24 hours a day for you to purchase blueprints. Under their comprehensive licensing agreement you purchase the rights to manufacture as many devices as you like from each blueprint you buy. You must however pay a royalty to Sci- Tek for every item you make but this is included in the cost presented to you in the game. You can access the Sci-Tek database from the Sci-Tek button. In some cases the database may take a few seconds to access even via hi-speed communication devices. From the database you can peruse Sci-Teks catalogue and opt to buy as many blueprints as you desire. All purchased blueprints will be delivered to you on the next scheduled Imperial Ore Carrier and are NOT available for construction until then. On the database screen you are shown one device at a time. At the bottom of the screen is the command line: PREV NEXT PURCHASE CLEAR END Use PREV and NEXT to cycle through the catalogue. Click on PURCHASE to buy the displayed blueprint, or CLEAR to change your mind. Clicking on END will break the communication link with Sci-Tek and order any blueprints you have purchased. Note: The money available to you is the funds you have in the Basic Money section of your Financial Funds (See appropriate secton) You cannot use money allocated to Construction, Vehicles, Intelligence or Missiles unless you remove money from those funds prior to accessing Sci-Tek. ZONE 008 : HINTS ---------------- GAMEPLAY TIPS K240 is an open ended game - there is no one way to win. These notes do not necessarily represent the best way to play K240 they only serve to offer some assistance if you have no idea what you should be doing next. When you begin the game spend about 50% of your money building up your first asteroid. Build Mines, Stores, Power generation buildings, a Command Centre, Sensor Array, Ship Construction Yard, Landing Pad, buildings for producing air, food and water and any other buildings that take your fancy. Dont worry about military defences just yet. Once your asteroid is a mass of scaffolding take the time to have a look at the Asteroid Field Screen to see where you are and whether you know about any other asteroids yet. It is often a good idea to enter into communications with Sci-Tek and purchase one or two cheap devices. A Gravity Nullifier is well worth the investment at this stage (assuming of course one has not been supplied for you by Tetracorp). Once you begin to discover asteroids you may find several of them on a collision course with your main asteroid and it may be too late then to purchase a Gravity Nullifier and wait for its arrival on the Imperial Ore Carrier. Your colony should now be producing ore nicely. Your immediate concern now is to expand onto other asteroids. You need to build some Scout Ships so get your Ship Construction Yard building a couple of Scouts. They shouldnt take long. If you have already discovered some other asteroids you may wish to dispatch your new Scouts on a Prospecting mission to see how rich they are in ores. If your sensors are looking bare send the Scouts out with orders to Explore. Once you have discovered a few other asteroids and obtained Ore Reports about them, you are in a position to decide which asteroid to colonise first. Pick the one with most ore deposits, particulary the rarer ores. If you have discovered any send your Transporter ship off to colonise that asteroid. When the new colony has been established (the CPU has been built) you are in the position to expand that colony too building Mines and Stores etc. There is usually a phase where you run severely short of money so try to spend it wisely. Dont spread yourself across too many asteroids at once, dont invest in unnecessary luxuries from Sci-Tek yet and ensure you build the most important buildings first, whilst you have the money. There is no point in having 20 Mines on an asteroid if they have no power or the employees are dying from radiation because you can`t afford any Radiation Filters. Once you have sold several shipments of ore to the Imperial Ore Carrier the situation should improve It is now worth your while beginning to build a small fleet and lay down a few defences on your asteroids preparing for the time when you discover the enemy or they discover you. Maintain a balance. Keep all of your colonies growing slowly. Keep mining at all costs. As you deplete an asteroids reserves colonise and begin mining a new asteroid. Build a few ships and put them into a defensive fleet. Maybe build a few missiles. Purchase a few devices from Sci-Tek. Everything in moderation. When you finally discover the enemy start spying at once to gather all the information you can about him. You may well need different tactics against each Alien. End Of Part One...