206 lines
9.6 KiB
Plaintext
206 lines
9.6 KiB
Plaintext
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/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
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< Reach for the Stars Sofdocs--Written by Black Fire >
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\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
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Introduction
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The object of this game is to accumulate the most points.
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Points are gained by completing the victory conditions. There are
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four of these: Colony Development, Starship Battles, Planetary
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Conquest, and Colony Destruction. At the start, each category is
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weighted with a modifier of 2, but you can change that (See Main
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Menu selections).
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Explanation of Victory Conditions
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Colony Development - You get points for developing industry and
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improving social status on your colonies.
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I don't know exactly how many points you
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get, but it's multiplied by the modifier.
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Starship Battles - Pretty obvious. After each battle, you will
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be told how many victory points you earn.
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(See Combat-Invasion Phase for more). Also,
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all points you earn are multiplied by the
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modifier.
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Planetary Conquest - You get points for conquering a planet which
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has been colonized by another player. I
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don't know the exact amount again, but it is
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multiplied by the modifier.
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Colony Destruction - This involves totally blowing away a colony
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belonging to another player. (You can't
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destroy your own colonies.) These points are
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also multiplied by the modifier.
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First Menu Selections
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After you get past my title page(s), you should get the
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first menu up on the screen. It's relatively simple to understand
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and if you have trouble with it, you might as well give up all
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hope of learning to play this game. The keys that are in use on
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this menu are 1-9, A-C, R, and Space. Here is a brief explanation
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of what they do:
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1) Player 1 7) Player 3
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2) Human 8) Computer
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3) ........ 9) Beginner
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etc.
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I will explain keys 1-3, because keys 4-9 and A-C do the same
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thing for the other 3 players. (Four players are always used.)
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1= Change name of player. Easy enough.
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2= Toggle human player or computer. Computer players finish
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up the required 4 players.
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3= Change ability level FOR COMPUTER ONLY! Set the computer
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players to Beginner if you're just starting. They will
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default to Expert unless you change them.
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Again, use 4-6 for Player 2, 7-9 for Player 3, and A-C for Player
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4. Use R to continue a saved game, if you don't have one saved,
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it won't work, so skip it. After you've got it set up, press
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Space to go onto the next menu.
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Main Menu Selections
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I'll go through these by number, just press the number of the
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one you want. Nothing difficult here.
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1) Scenario Length - Choose 40, 80, or 150 turns. Take my advice
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and stick with 40 at first.
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2) Novas --+
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3) Natural Disasters !__ I don't have the manual so I can only
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4) Xenophobes ! guess what these do. Let it go at
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5) Solar Debris Effect--+ saying they add random events to game
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play. Try them yourself and see what
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happens.
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6) Random Star Map - Usually the stars are layed in out in a set
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(and astrologically accurate) map. You can
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make it random by just choosing this.
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7) Task Force Setup - This will give each player a task force out
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in space at start. Normally, you must build
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build this first one just like the rest.
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This selection makes for quicker colony
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development for all players.
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8) Variable Production Costs - This option lets you modify how
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many RP's (Resource Points, money
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basically) it costs to build
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various things. Unless you have
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played a couple of times, don't
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mess with the numbers or you could
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end up screwing the game royally.
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9) Variable Victory Conditions - This is where you can modify not
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what you have to do to win, but
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how much each is weighted. At
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start, each has a weight of 2,
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you can change them, but all
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numbers must add up to 8.
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R) Return to First Menu - Just in case you want to review it or
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change something before you go on.
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Once you've got all these set to your liking, press Space to
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go on to the game.
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Game Overview
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The game moves in cycles of 2 turns. The first turn consists of
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the Combat & Invasion Phase, followed by the Production Phase.
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Combat involves all players simultaneously, but the Production
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phase goes through the players one by one. After all players have
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completed the Production Phase, the game moves on to the second
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turn which consists of just the Movement Phase. The movement
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phase also moves through the players one at a time. After all
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players have finished moving, you will see the task forces move
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around and the cycle will restart at the combat-invasion phase.
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NOTE: The Combat-Invasion Phase will only be displayed if a human
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player is involved in combat in that turn.
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Combat & Invasion Phase
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The first part of this phase is Starship Combat. This is where
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you earn points in the category of the same name. When the Combat
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Phase begins, you will get a display similar to this:
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COMBAT DISPLAY : TARAZED : K : BROWN
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(1) BLACK FIRE (3) PLAYER 3
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(2) PLAYER 2 (4) PLAYER 4
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: GOOD : . . : POOR : . . :
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----------------------------------------
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TRANSPORT : 20 : . . : 1 : . . :
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: . . : . . : . . : . . :
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----------------------------------------
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MARK I : 12 : . . : . . : . . :
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: 2 : . . : . . : . . :
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----------------------------------------
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MARK II : 4 : . . : . . : . . :
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: . . : . . : 2 : . . :
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----------------------------------------
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MARK III : . . : . . : . . : . . :
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: . . : . . : . . : . . :
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----------------------------------------
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MARK IV : . . : . . : . . : . . :
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: . . : . . : . . : . . :
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----------------------------------------
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The important parts to recognize are as follows:
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1) Where it says "TARAZED" on the example.
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This is the star system you are fighting over. Ignore
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the "K" and "BROWN", they are just for astronomical use
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and mean nothing in the game.
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2) The names at numbers (1)-(4).
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The two highlighted names are the player who are in
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combat.
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3) The words "GOOD" and "POOR" on the example.
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These are a pretty good indication of each player's
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chances of winning. The left column is Player #1 and the
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right column is Player #4. In this example, Player #1
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will most likely easily blow Player #3's ships away.
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4) The numbers and/or dots on the grid.
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First off, a set of dots (. .) is just SSG's way of
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putting a zero there. Now, each box contains two sets of
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numbers (or dots). The top number shows the number of
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normal functioning ships that player has in the area.
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The lower number is the number of damaged ships of that
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type the player has in the area. Naturally, normal ships
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will fight better than damaged ships.
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Now a little more on combat, the more enemy ships you defeat in
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combat, the more points you get (i.e. if you defeat 4 Mark I's
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and a Mark II, you get more points than defeating a pair of Mark
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I's alone). Mark IV's are the most powerful ship and so on up
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the list, until you hit the Transports which have almost no
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fighting capability. You press Space to fight a round or ESC to
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wimp out and retreat. Combat continues until one side retreats or
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is destroyed. Keep pressing Space to go thru more rounds of
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combat. Before I go on to the Production phase, let me explain
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the main map which you'll see most of the time.
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Main Map & How to Move Around
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What you'll be seeing most of the time is the main map. This on
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the screen during most of the Production and Movement Phases. The
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graphic display shows a portion of the galaxy map. The circular
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type patterns which change shape are star systems. The
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non-changing shapes are dust clouds. The solid block is your
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cursor. The shapes that resemble the Enterprise and Klingon
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vessels are task forces. Each player has a different shape for
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his task force. Player #1's is the Enterprise facing right.
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Moving around the screen can be done in several ways:
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I,J,K,M - Move the cursor up, left, right, or down one star
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system.
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The numbers 1-6 move the cursor one block in the following
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directions: ^
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\ 1 /
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6 2
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5 3
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/ 4 \
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v
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S followed by a number 1-9 moves you to that sector.
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P will show you a small scale map of the entire galaxy at
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once.
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(> |