STORMFRONT For VGA Planets v 3.5x (c) Copyright - 1996 Dave Killingsworth and Cliff McKeithan. All Rights Reserved ** Any Bugs or Problems discovered in this program should be reported to CLIFF MCKEITHAN (address at bottom) and NOT Dan Gale ** Overview: StormFront is a 3rd party add-on for VGA Planets that uses the new third party features in VGA Planets host 3.2x. This program allows the player, through the use of a device that they build and attach to their ship, to manipulate the power and/or heading of an Ion Storm in a game of VGA Planets. Requirements: Hardware: Same as VGA Planets. Software: Host 3.2 or later. STORMFNT.exe (main executable) SFCONFIG.exe (configuration program - windows based) WINPLAN 3.5c or later NOTE*** Ion Storms Option need to be turned ON in the HCONFIG for the StormFront program to be of any use to the players. Friendly Codes: con - Set this fcode on a planet and it will send you the config settings of this program. ISF - Setting this fcode on a planet will cause the construction of a Graviton Pulse Generator and to installation of the device you select the target ship with the FIX mission of the starbase. Ixx - To increase the power of an Ion Storm you set this fcode, where xx is a 2 digit number. The xx number will be the number of force points you wish the Ion Storm's force to be increased by (up to config maximum). This will only effect an Ion Storm that you are in. If you wish a single digit increase you need to use a 0 as the first x in the fcode. - This process requires fuel Dxx - To decrease the power of an Ion Storm you set this fcode, where xx is a 2 digit number. The xx number will be the number of force points you wish the Ion Storm's force to be decreased by (up to config maximum). This only will effect an Ion Storm that you are in. If you wish a single digit increase you need to use a 0 as the first x in the fcode. - This process requires empty fuel space on your ship. Hxx - To re-navigate an Ion Storm, you must be in a storm and have a heading. Then you set the fcode to Hxx, where xx is the ID# of the storm you are in and trying to re-navigate. This will cause the Ion Storm to have a heading that closely matches that of the ship. GIS - Use this fcode on a ship to Generate an Ion Storm. New StormFront abilities: With this new add-on you now have a new ability added to your arsenal. To get access to these new abilities you need to build a device and install it on your ships, to use it. This device is called a Graviton Pulse Generator. Building a GPG: To build a GPG you must meet the following requirements: The starbase at which you wish to build a GPG must have tech 10 engine technology and at least tech 6 beam technology. And you must not have the maximum number of GPG devices in service already, and the proper quantities of resource on the planet where you are building the device - these settings are set in the configuration program. i.e (default cost of a StormFront device) Tritanium - 500 Duranium - 500 Molybdenum - 750 Supplies - 300 Megacredits - 10000 When you wish to build a GPG and install it you must do the following process: You move the ship you wish to put the device on to a starbase (meeting the above requirements), set the planet's fcode to ISF, and then select the target ship with the FIX mission of the starbase. This will cause the GPG device to be installed onto the ship selected to be fixed - as long as the proper amount of materials are present on the planet. Using a GPG Device to Increase the Force of an Ion Storm: To increase the force (power) of an Ion Storm you must enter the storm before you can effect it with the GPG. Once in the storm you can increase its force by using the GPG. Once in the storm you set your fcode to Ixx, where xx is the number of force points by which you wish to increase the storms power. This force increase costs you (X) KTs of Neutronium per force point you wish to increase the storm by. In the config program the HOST sets the following settings: Max number of points you can increase a storm per turn Max voltage you can increase a storm to KT of Neutronium needed per point of Ion Storm force increase i.e. If the setting is 20 KT of fuel per point and you set to increase the storm's power by 10 points it will cost you 200KT of fuel for the increase. If you set an increase that uses more fuel than you have on your ship the program will increase the storm as much as it can with the fuel you have available, even to the point of leaving you without fuel. Using a GPG Device to Decrease the Force of an Ion Storm: To decrease the force (power) of an Ion Storm you must first enter the storm before you can effect it with the GPG. Once in the storm you can decrease its force by using the GPG. Once in the storm you set your fcode to Dxx, where xx is the number of force points by which you wish to decrease the storms power. This force decrease of the storm requires that you have empty fuel space on your ship. This is because each point of force you decrease a storm by generates fuel on your ship. For each point of force you absorb generates (x) KT of fuel in your fuel tank. In the config program the HOST sets the following settings: Max number of points you can decrease a storm per turn KT of Neutronium space needed per point of Ion Storm force decrease i.e. If the setting for fuel space is 10KT per point of force you absorb and you have 200KT of free fuel space on your ship you could absorb 20 points of force from a storm. If you set an decrease that requires more fuel space than you have on your ship the program will decrease the storm as much as it can with the fuel space you have available, to the point of leaving you maxed out on fuel. An Ion Storm can be absorbed out of existence by a ship using a GPG. Using the GPG Device to Re-Navigate an Ion Storm: To attempt to re-navigate an Ion Storm you must have a GPG device and be inside an Ion Storm. The mission requires (X) amount of fuel to perform. You must also have a heading and a warp factor. Once inside the storm you must set a heading that is longer than 5 light years. You must have a warp factor of 1 or greater. You will want the heading of the ship to be the new heading you want for the Ion Storm. This done you set your fcode to Hxx, where xx is the ID# if the Ion storm you are in and trying to re-navigate. If the Ion storm has a single digit ID# (i.e. # 5) you enter H05 as the fcode to re-navigate the storm. This will cause the Ion Storm to take on a heading that is the same as your ship and cause the storm to move along that heading. After it moves the host then will change the heading of the storm by +/- 40 degrees. If more than one ship is attempting to re-navigate a storm, the ships will be selected in a random order and processed, with the last ship processed, being the vessel that sets the storm's final heading. Using a GPG to Generate an Ion Storm: (Not available in Shareware) When StormFront is active in a game and Ion Storms are turned on you have the option to use a GPG to generate an Ion Storm where YOU wish to have an Ion Storm generated. To accomplish this goal you need to have a GPG device installed on your ship and the max number of Ion Storms can not already exist in the game. If these conditions are met you set your ship's Fcode to GIS and expend (X) fuel (set in StormFront config program), have a heading of at least 5 Light Years and a warp factor of ZERO (0), an Ion Storm will be created. The storm generated will appear with the same heading as the ship and a warp factor set by the HOST.exe program. The starting voltage of the storm will be (X) (a number set in the StormFront config program). Once created the storm will act like other storms managed by the HOST.exe, unless later affected later by other GPG devices. **************************************************************************** HOSTS---- You need to give a copy of this DOC file to your players !!! **************************************************************************** You also need to give them copies of all BMP files you find in the ZIP file you got this program from. Tell them that they need to place the BMP files in the sub directory (labeled BMP) under their WINPLAN directory. This will give them the BMP's they need to see the in the GPG Device in the messaging system. SHAREWARE RESTRICTIONS: This is a shareware copy of this program. It will only allow a limited number of GPG devices in the game and they will have a limited number of uses before they disappear and are destroyed through usage. (You can only build a total of 2 devices in a game and each device can only be used three times before being destroyed). And the ability to Generate Ion Storms will not be available at all. Registration of this program will get you a registered copy of the program mailed to you. This copy will allow you full use of the devices as configured in the configuration program, allow you to generate Ion Storms and remove the please register message. ORDERING INFO: Registration information is available in the ORDERFRM.ZIP file that was included in this ZIP file. Note: Dan and Dave add-ons and Cliff and Dave add-ons can be registered through the same places - either from Dave (orderfrm.zip), Tim or from BMT Micro. BMT Micro (credit card orders) 1-910-791-7052 BMTMICRO@aol.com There is also ONLINE ORDERING available through Tim's Web page. http://www.wilmington.net/vgaplanets/index.html (go to the ONLINE ORDERING link) IN GERMANY STC Computerservice Tobias and Co. KG POB 910427 90262 Nuemberg - Germany sales@stc-kg.com FAX 49-911-3 937 937 IN DENMARK Henrik Moerk +45 38 89 52 52 N-8-1 POB 1538 DK-2700 Copenhagen Denmark Thank you for your interest, to contact us via the internet use the following addresses: Dave Killingsworth : capstern@aol.com http://users.aol.com/capstern/index.html Cliff McKeithan skye@diac.com http://www.diac.com/~skye/home.html STORMFRONT For VGA Planets 3.5x Design : Dave Killingsworth and Cliff McKeithan Programming: Cliff McKeithan Consulting / Additional Design: Tim Wisseman, Conrad Lesnewski and Dan Gale Artwork: Kenneth Wisseman, Ralph G Hart Shareware may be freely distributed but all copyrights are still retained and all rights reserved. STORMFRONT - (c) Copyright 1996 - Dave Killingsworth and Cliff McKeithan