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Hyperspeed: Complete Documentation
Complete Hyperspeed Dox
HYPERSPEED
~~~~~~~~~~
1. INTRODUCTION TO HYPERSPEED
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.1 Your Mission
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.1.1 The situation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The time: The distant future.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The place: Alien space.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The situation: Earth is an ecological wasteland. Nuclear
meltdowns, climate alteration, species extinction; all have
taken their toll. Humanity must evacuate its mother world, to
give Earth time to recover from the devastation wrought by past
civilizations.
The solution: The human species has left Earth in immense
transport ships of the Conestoga class. Each Conestoga transport
vessel must find a habitable planet to colonize or every family
aboard will die, lost forever in space.
You mission: Save Homo sapiens. You are the pilot of a
Trailblazer class dreadnought. Your ship has been sent ahead of
a Conestoga transport to prepare an alien starcluster for human
colonization. A robot base station is already there, prepared to
assist you. If you take too long to finish your task, the
colonists aboard the grossly overcrowded Conestoga transport
will begin to die. Eventually, they will all die. Their only
hope is you and your Trailblazer.
1.1.2 Your Purpose
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You must find a planet suitable for humanity and obtain the raw
materials the fledgling colony requires to survive. Worlds
habitable by humans are quite rare. It is often helpful to
question aliens about such habitable worlds.
The new colony requires resources to thrive. You must obtain
these resource by mining them from unclaimed worlds or through
interplanetary commerce with friendly aliens.
You must make the cluster as safe as possible for human families
by making friends. The new colony will only prosper if humanity
has allies in the star cluster. To obtain allies, you can
befriend some of the aliens in that cluster. The only way to
assure their friendship is to sing peace treaties. The more
peace treaties you posses in a cluster, the safer humanity will
be in future years.
Some aliens are not amenable to peace. Other may not be willing
to sign a treaty if you have already signed with one of their
enemies. If there is an alien which you believe will be actively
harmful to the human colony, you must weaken or destroy this
alien species. For instance, if you encounter an alien species
that eats planets like popcorn, rid the cluster of them. It
would be extremely unsafe to leave them in the same cluster as a
world full of humans.
1.2 WHAT TO EXPECT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.2.1 Political Puzzles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every alien species has its own goals and play. Usually, the
aliens are forthright about telling you what they want and what
they think about the other aliens in the cluster. Almost every
action you can take will change some alien's opinion of you, for
better or worse. These actions need not be taken against the
alien itself - for instance, if you attack and destroy an
Automata ship in the Cerberus cluster, the Venge will be angry
with you. On the other hand, if you DESTROY a Lutin ship in the
Hyades cluster, the Broodmasters will actually be pleased. You
must decipher the web of alien relationships and see a place to
fit into the cluster's political intrigue.
1.2.2 Trading Puzzles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The best way to maintain your ship is by trading with aliens. If
you want success, you must learn to make a profit in these trade
deals. Once you know which aliens will deal with you, you should
carefully plot your trade routes.
For example, you can purchase a blaster at the Didinium for two
data casings. Trade the blaster to the Broodmasters for a
Vespucci navigator. A verspucci navigator is worth two
accelerators to the Fel. You can then take those two
accelerators to the Didinium, and get two blasters in exchange.
Complete the trade circle again, and you have four blasters,
then eight. Meanwhile you invest nothing but time, fuel, and the
original two data casings. Of course, you may encounter
obstacles. Space pirates may harass you, or an alien may demand
that you help it in some way before it will trade with you.
1.2.3 Combat Puzzles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To succeed at the political game, and to protect yourself, you
must periodically fight alien ships. Every alien species has its
own unique types of ships. Many aliens have secret weapons,
unknown to other species. All aliens have combat strategies
based on their ship's strengths and weaknesses. You must figure
out the correct technique to best each type of alien ship in
combat.
2.3 INITIAL OPTIONS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the game starts, it first goes through an introductory
sequence. Use the space bar to skip to the next part of the
sequence, or use the escape key to bypass it entirely. After the
opening sequence, you are confronted with a menu of options as
follows:
ENTER NEW CLUSTER
PLAY SAVED GAME
PRACTICE COMBAT - HYADES
VIEW STARSHIPS - HYADES
Use the joystick, mouse, or arrow keys to select one of these
options, then click on it with the enter key, joystick button
one, or the left mouse button.
ENTER NEW CLUSTER: This produces the Select Cluster menu
HYADES
CERBERUS
SASSANID
RAGNAROK
Choose the name of the cluster you wish to play in. The
Hyades cluster if best for a beginner.
PLAY SAVED GAME: If you have previously saved a game and
wish to return to it, select this response.
PRACTICE COMBAT - Hyades: If you want to brush up on
your combat skills, select this response. A menu of
alien names from the Hyades cluster appears. Choose the
alien you wish to battle. Press escape at any time to
leave the battle and go back to the starting options. If
you win the battle, you also return to the starting
options.
VIEW STARSHIP - Hyades: This option displays the
spaceships native to the Hyades cluster, as well as your
own craft. Press any key to move to the next alien ship,
or press escape to finish viewing and return to the
starting options.
3. HYPERSPEED TUTORIAL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3.1 STARTING OUT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you get to the starting options, choose enter new cluster.
On the next menu, select Hyades.
Once the cluster has loaded, you are immediately confronted by a
small attacking ship. The easiest way to eliminate this enemy is
to tap missile ( the G key). This launches a guided missile
which homes in on the enemy vessel. Sit back and enjoy the
pyrotechnics as it explodes.
3.2 SHIP CONTROL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now that the threat is past, you can sit back and examine your
ship. You are in the main cockpit. Most of the view is taken up
by the large central main view screen. This viewscreen lets you
see out the front of your ship. At the moment it should be empty,
except for a few stars.
First, let's get used to driving your ship. Press maximum speed
to start moving (hold down shift and tap the + key). Now try
steering your ship left and right. If you have a joystick or
mouse, just push it left and right to steer. On a keyboard, use
the arrow keys instead (or the appropriate keys on your numeric
keypad).
Notice that moving the joystick or mouse up ( or pushing the up
arrow key), noses down your ship, and vice-versa. These are
airplay style controls, and seem more natural to many players.
If you dislike this style of control, press the airplay-style
controls toggle (hold down alt and tap the A key) to reverse the
setting. You may wish to go back and forth between the settings
a couple of times until you decide which feels best for you.
Once you feel comfortable guiding your ship in empty space, stop
it by pressing stop (hold down shift and tap the - key).
If at some time during a battle you need more precise speed
control than maximum speed and stop permit. Use increase speed
and decrease speed keys ( + and - keys, respectively) to
incrementally adjust your speed.
3.3 SENSORS AND INFORMATION SCREENS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beneath your main view screen is a darkened hollow section of
the cockpit. This is split into the holographic viewer and the
radar scope.
The holographic view (on the left) gives you a close up view of
the enemy you are currently targeting. Right now, the viewer is
dark, because there are no enemy vessels present. Remember when
you first entered the cluster, an image of the attacking ship
was in this viewer, only to vanish when you destroyed that ship
with your guided missile.
The radar scope (on the right) has three green ellipses. When
enemy ships are present, the will show up on the radar scope as
dots. Your own ship is always at the middle of the radar scope.
The lights up the left hand side of the main view screen are
your ship systems readouts. If your ship's systems are damaged,
one or more of the lights here will flash.
One the right side of the screen, just under the main gun gauge,
is the missile chassis readout. There are ten little missile
icons here, nine of which should be bright, and one (the first)
which is dark. At game start, you have ten missiles, You launched
one to destroy the incoming ship, so now you have nine. If you
accidentally hit guided missile more than once in the heat of
action, you may have even fewer.
Just beneath the missile chassis readout are two bar holograms.
The left which measure speed, is currently at the bottom of the
scale and the right which measure fuel is at the top. Tap maximum
speed to watch the left hologram rise. Tape stop to see it drop
back to zero. The right hologram (fuel) only drops if you turn
on your spindrive for interstellar travel.
3.4 WEAPONS SYSTEMS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The trailblazer has five different weapons systems: the main
gun, a defensive blaster, missiles, fighters, and kamikazes. The
main gun and missiles are fired from the main cockpit. Fighters
and kamikazes are launched from the main cockpit, but once
LAUNCHED, immediately shift you into the cockpit of the fighter
or kamikaze, which you then control instead of your big ship.
The blaster turret has its own wide angle view from the turret.
Now it is time to lean how to fight. Tap fire (hit return; you
can also hit joystick button one or the left mouse button).
Notice that when you fire, the main gun gauge in the upper right
hand corner of the screen drops, then starts moving back up. You
cannot fire the main gun again until the gauge reaches the top
of the scale.
Next, press go to next cockpit (the space bar). This takes you
from the main cockpit to the blaster turret. You can't alter the
speed or motion of your ship from the blaster turret, but you
can move your point of view very quickly. Use your joystick,
mouse, or arrow keys to slew around the turret in various
directions for moment, then take some practice shots. The fire
command is the same as in the main cockpit (return, joystick
button one, or left mouse button). Fire off some shots as you
swing your turret back and forth. The blaster turret is your
final line of defense against incoming fighters and missiles.
Don't confuse the light quick firing defensive gun here withe
the powerful main gun available from the main cockpit.
When done with the blaster turret, tap next cockpit (the space
bar) to return to the main cockpit.
You have already used a guided missile (to destroy your original
attacker). If you try to tap guided missile again, nothing will
happen - your ship cannot fire such a missile without a target.
You can, however launch kamikazes and fighters.
Let's launch a fighter. Tap fighter (the F key), and your screen
instantly switches to the fighter's cockpit, as it launches at
top speed from your ship's underbelly. The fighter is much
faster than your big ship and is much more responsive. However,
the controls of the fighter work just like the big ship. The
fighter is automatically launched at its top speed, so there is
no point in pressing maximum speed unless you have slowed down.
Fire the fighter's blasters using the same keys you used to fire
the main gun when in the main cockpit (return, joystick button
one, or the left mouse button).
Turn your fighter's nose around until you can see your mother
ship. It is large, pale and somewhat disk shaped. Fly over and
buzz it a few times. Be careful not to crash into it. If you do
crash, note that the red line on the far right hand side drops a
little. This red line indicates how much damage your fighter has
taken. The lower this line goes, the greater the damage to your
fighter. When you are finished cruising around in your fighter,
tap return chassis (the R key). This automatically returns you
to the main cockpit and returns the fighter chassis to your ship
for future use (and repairs any damage the fighter has taken).
The kamikaze key (K) permits you to launch a kamikaze missile,
which is piloted in the same way as a fighter. However, the
kamikaze is much slower, has no blasters, and explodes if it
hits another ship. Kamikazes pack quite a punch, and are the
weapon of choice in many situations.
Tap the space bar to leave a fighter or kamikaze cockpit and
return to the main cockpit. When you leave a cockpit in this
way, you abandon the fighter or kamikaze, which holds to its
course at its last speed. Once back in the main cockpit, tapping
the space bar once takes you to the blaster turret, but tapping
it again takes you to the cockpit of the first fighter or
kamikaze in flight, repeatedly tapping the space bar takes you
successively through the cockpits of each one, in the order they
were launched. Once you have gone through each fighter or
kamikaze cockpit, you can return to the main cockpit.
3.5 ENGINE ROOM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tape engine room (the E key). This view is full of pulsing,
spinning components. The engine room controls the capabilities
of your warship. Move your cursor around the engine room using
the joystick, mouse or arrow keys. The display in the lower
right hand part of the screen tells you the general function of
that sector (main gun, blaster turret bay, ect).
Managing the engine room is complex, and we won't get into all
the details of it here ( for more info see section 4.6). In
general, the more components you have in a sector, the more
effective that sector is.
You can move components around the engine room, enhancing some
parts at the expense of others. A component can fit only into a
slot designed to accept it. Try clicking on some components and
moving them around. To do this, put your cursor over a component
and tap return, joystick button one, or the left mouse button.
The component is removed from that slot and popped in the hold
(the pale area on the far right hand side of the screen) and is
available for placement. To move a component, put your cursor
over an empty slot and press return, joystick button one, or the
left mouse button. If you have an appropriate component in your
hold, it will zap into the slot. If you remove the central
navigator from your spindrive, be sure to return it before
leaving the engine room, because you can't go faster than light
without it. As you experiment, notice that when certain key
components are removed, other components cease functioning until
the key component is restored.
Initially, your ship has many empty slots. It can be more
powerful than its starting configuration - if you can find more
components. In battle, damage to your ship is expressed as
destroyed (burnt out) components. To make repairs, you remove a
ruined component and replace it with a new one. To upgrade your
ship, put new components into previously empty slots.
You can get additional components in two ways. First, you can
attack alien ships and scavenge components from their wreckage.
Second, you can negotiate and trade with friendly aliens.
When you are done with the engine room, tap escape to return to
the previous view. In general, use the escape key to leave any
screen for a previous one. However, the escape key will not get
you out of the blaster turret, the main cockpit, a fighter, or
kamikaze. To leave those ares, you must use the space bar.
3.6 INTERSTELLAR NAVIGATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tap navigation (the N key). Your main viewscreen changes to a
rotating 3-d representation of the Hyades star cluster. Each
glowing dot represents a different star system. Your own vessel
is a different colored dot with a small square around it. Notice
that a line extends from your ship to a nearby star. Tap select
next star system (the > key, joystick button two, or right mouse
button), and the line switches to another star. Tap select
previous system (the < key, joystick button one, or left mouse
button), and it switches back to where it was before.
The star system that the line is heading towards is your ship's
currently selected destination. If you go into spindrive (your
ship's faster than light system), your ship will target on that
star system.
In the lower right hand corner of this screen you see your
remaining fuel. In the lower left hand corner is the fuel needed
to reach your current target destination. Never, never, never go
to a system that costs more fuel to reach than you currently
possess! This will strand your ship in space! You're then
reduced to using the escape pod (shift-escape) to get an
entirely new vessel.
Now tape select next star system several times in a row to watch
the line go wandering throughout the stars. Using the next and
previous keys, select the system that requires exactly 102 units
of fuel to reach - it has a sun and two small planets. Once you
have found it, tape spindrive (the S key) to start you on your
way.
It is possible that you may encounter an alien ship while in
spindrive. If the message just under your main viewscreen reads
"UNKNOWN ALIEN ATTACKING", use emergency spindrive (hold down Alt
and tap the S key) to continue without a fight. If you get the
message "PROXIMITY OVERLOAD. PRESS ANY KEY TO ATTACK", do
nothing. Just sit quietly. In a few seconds the proximity
overload goes away and you can begin traveling again.
3.7 MINING A SYSTEM AND RETURNING HOME
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now you have arrived at a star system. Nothing appears to be
here. This usually means that the system is uninhabited. Tape
probe (the P key) to make sure. Your probe will go spinning
away. Soon the main viewscreen will display what the probe
encounters in the information screen. You'll see that, in fact,
nobody was living here. You can mine the planets with impunity.
However, if an alien race were present, you would not be allowed
to perform mining operations.
Move the joystick, mouse or use arrow keys to select one of the
system's two planets. When you have done so, tap mine (the M
key) to mine that world. The image of the planet in the main
viewscreen now states that you are mining its supply of water.
Now select the other planet and mine it too, following the same
procedure. You have now mined two units of water. Since your
ship can only carry three mining complexes, you can only mine
one more world before needing to return to your home base to get
more colonies.
Now let's go home. Returning will fill your tanks with fuel and
replace all missile chassis you used. First, leave the
information screen by pressing escape. You are now in
navigation. As long as you're there, tap home (the H key). This
zeros your navigation line to your home base. Tap spindrive to
get back home. Once more, use emergency spindrive to evade
aliens that try to stop you.
There is a remote possibility that too much use of the emergency
spindrive could damage your navigator, leaving you lost in
space, unable to escape. If this happens, use your escape pod
(shift-escape) to go back to the start and get a whole new ship.
3.8 TALKING WITH ALIENS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you finish the automatic ship refit at your base, return to
the navigation screen (via the N key), and, using the next and
previous keys, find the system that costs exactly 201 fuel units
to reach. Now, use your spindrive to get there, using emergency
spindrive as needed to avoid intruders.
When you arrive at the alien system. you will see the alien
starbase come whirling up out of the gloom. BE CAREFUL! If you
launch any weapon, even a fighter, they will attack. Also, if
you try to move closer, they may assume you are maneuvering to
attack. If you actually want to attack, that's fine - but
usually (like right now), you just want to talk and maybe trade.
To talk to the aliens, launch a probe (the P key). Within
moments, you will see a new screen, the translator screen. An
alien appears at the top or side of the screen. His message is
displayed on the central readout.
Your possible responses are listed below, with a button by each
response. If you have followed the tutorial instructions
correctly, you should be at the home of the Fel, a rather
proboscidean species. He is saying:
WE ARE THE FEL. WHAT DO YOU WISH?
Underneath are your possible responses:
* information * leave
* trade * fight
* peace treaty
To communicate, use your joystick, mouse, or arrow keys to
highlight the buttons next to each response. Click on that
button to activate that response. Experiment by pressing
information and peace treaty and going through some choices.
Whatever screens you reach, try not to press trade, leave or
fight. When you've learned what you can by exploring your
options, then press trade. This shifts you to the universal
trading display.
3.9 TRADING WITH ALIENS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The trade screen is used to trade with aliens. You use the same
interface with all. At the right side of the screen are listed
the components which the alien is able to sell to you. On the
left side of the screen are the components that you have in your
ship's hold. At the moment, you probably only have data casing,
worth 1 trade unit each. At the bottom of the screen are a
number of buttons used to enact trade or get information.
As you move your mouse or joystick, a selection box appears
around the various components. If you are not using a mouse, tap
the space bar to shift your control from the top half of the
screen to the bottom half ot there screen. When the selection box
is around a component, or one of the buttons is highlighted, use
return to select that component or button.
Click on your data casings once. The total number of data
casings in your hold decreases by one and an image of that data
casings appears to the right, in the central trading area. Now
click on the lowermost item the alien has for trade - fuel. The
fuel icon will vanish, and appear in the central trading area,
but on the alien's side of the screen. Now click on accept trade
deal. You will lose the data casing, and your fuel tanks are
topped off. Buying fuel from an alien always fills 'er up to the
top, no matter how much or how little fuel you have.
Let's do some more! Select the second component from the top of
the alien's side of the screen (it is an accelerator). Move your
selection box over to your data casings and click twice, moving
two data casings to screen center. Now click on accept trade
deal. You have now acquired a new accelerator in return for two
data casings. If you make a mistake you can get rid of the
potential deal by clicking on cancel trade deal and start over.
Now selever view engine room, and you will be moved to your
ship's engine room where you can install your new component.
Move your cursor over to your rear screen generator, and click
one on the accelerator shaped slot therein (the accelerator
should pop into place). You have now enhanced your rear screens.
Use the escape key to leave the engine room as normal.
You have now successfully traded. Click on exit trade to leave
the trade screen, then click on leave to depart the Fel.
Once back at the main cockpit, notice that your fuel level has
returned to normal.
Congratulations! You have now completed the tutorial. You may
either restart the game or keep playing from here. Good Luck
4. OPERATING YOUR SHIP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.1 MAIN COCKPIT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.1.1 Screen Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Main Viewscreen: Located right in the middle of the cockpit, and
filling almost half the screen, this gives you a view out of
the front of your vessel. For maximum efficiency and minimum
confusion, it only points straight ahead. To look all around
your ship, switch to you blaster turret and spin around.
The crosshairs in the center of the screen show where your main
gun's blast will strike if you fire. They also indicate that you
are out of range. If the ship near the crosshairs comes within
range, the crosshairs change to a flashing reticule. Place the
reticule over the target ship to aim your main gun at it.
Also usually visible on the main viewscreen are the targeting
brackets. These indicate which enemy ship is currently
targeted.
Main Gun Gauge: Located in the upper left hand corner of the
screen, the left side of this gauge is a simple readout of your
main gun's current status.
When your main gun fires, there is a delay of 3 to 13 seconds
before it is ready to fire again. The right side of the gauge
shows you how close your main gun is to fire capability. When
you fire, the display goes dark. As it recovers energy, the
display lights up, from bottom to top. When the top line is lit,
your main gun is ready to fire.
Missile Chassis: You ship can carry a maximum of 10 missile
chassis. This simple readout located under the main gun gauge
tells you how many chassis you have left. Launching a kamikaze,
a fighter, or a missile uses up one chassis per launch. As you
fire them off, the little chassis icons go dark.
Speed Bar Hologram: The left bar shows your ship's current
speed. The higher the bar, the faster your ship is moving.
Fuel Bar Hologram: The right bar tells how much fuel you have
left. The higher the bar, the more fuel you have. If you need an
exact number for your remaining fuel, go to the navigation
starmap (the N key) and look in the lower right hand corner.
The Radar Scope: It is beneath the main viewscreen, a little to
the right. This show all the objects around your ship. The scope
is always centered on your current ship, and faces the same
direction as your ship.
Other ships or significant objects appear as dots on the viewer.
The ship you have currently targeted has a box surrounding its
dot. Ships above or below you ship's plane have a line extending
up or down from your central plane to the ships. The largest
ships are signified by slightly larger dots than lesser vessels.
Guided missiles and weapons fired in combat are signified by
dots of a different color, and have no line extending from the
central plane.
Holographic Viewer: It is located beneath the main viewscreen,
and a little to the left. When you are facing alien ships, one
of them is always targeted. When you first enter a combat, your
ship's computer automatically selects one alien ship as the
target. You can alter the targeted ship by pressing target
change (the T key). The targeted ship appears in the holographic
viewer, which is under the main viewscreen, to the left of the
radar scope. Above the target ship is a glowing line. The length
of this line indicates that ship's hull strength. As the target
ship takes damage, a flashing color creeps in from the outer
ends of the hull strength line, showing how much damage it has
taken. When the target ship is destroyed, your ship's computer
immediately switches to another target.
Ship's Systems: Up the left side of the main cockpit is a
representation of your ship's internal systems. Once you are
familiar with the layout of your engine room, these diagrams
will be instantly recognizable. From top to bottom, the systems
represented are screen generators, spindrive, blaster turret
bar, and thruster bay. The main gun is on the right side of the
screen, just left of the main gun gauge. Each component in these
readouts is a bright color when present, and dark when absent.
If a component is inactive, it remains visible, but is darker
than an active component. If a component is destroyed and burnt
out, it flickers brightly until replaces.
You cannot replace or adjust components from the main cockpit.
The ship systems display is solely informational. To fix your
systems, you must go to the engine room.
4.1.2 Thruster Controls
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your ship is equipped with rearward-firing thrusters for
sublight maneuvering. Their operation is quite simple. To start
moving, press increase speed (the + key). To further accelerate,
press increase speed again. If you wish to get to top speed as
soon as possible, use maximum speed (hold down alt and tap the +
key). To slow down, use decrease speed (the - key), or stop
(hold down alt and tape the - key).
Steer your ship with the arrow keys, joystick, or mouse. Your
ship is initially set for airplane style controls, so when you
push up, the ship actually noses down. If this is
counterintuitive to you, use the airplane type controls toggle
(hold down alt and tap the A key).
You can make your ship barrel roll by holding down joystick
button two or the right mouse button while simultaneously trying
to turn left or right. Your ship's nose will remain pointing in
the same direction while it turns on its long axis.
4.1.3 Main Gun Firing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fire the main gun by pressing enter, joystick button one, or the
left mouse button. The main gun takes several seconds to recover
between shots.
4.1.4 Missile Firing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Launch a guided missile by pressing G. Launch a kamikaze by
pressing K. Launch a fighter by pressing F. Each time you launch
a guided missile, kamikaze, or fighter, your supply of missile
chassis is reduced by one. The hostile electronic environment of
deep space combat is severe. Your ship cannot control more than
four chassis at once. A guided missile homes in on the enemy
targeted in your holographic viewer. If the enemy vessel is
destroyed before the guided missile strikes, the missile self
destructs. A kamikaze or fighter is controlled by yourself.
4.1.5 Jettison Cargo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you are attacked by space pirates, they demand a certain
number of components. If you jettison cargo (tap the J key),
your ship's hold loses that number of components and the pirates
leave without attacking. If you do not have enough in your hold
to satisfy the pirates, they take components from your engine
room instead. Jettison cargo costs less components than
emergency spindrive but is not useful against some aliens.
4.2 NAVIGATION STARMAP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.2.1 Screen Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before you can claim a world for humanity or set up mining
colonies, you must find suitable worlds. From the main cockpit,
tap navigate (the N key) to see the navigation starmap.
The navigation starmap shows the entire cluster spinning slowly
in space. You can use zoom and unzoom (the Z and X keys,
respectively) to move the view in and out on it, plus you can
use the arrow keys or joystick to change the direction in which
it is spinning. The system in which you are currently located
has a box around it.
Once you have been to a star system, future examination of
your starmap displays already visited systems in a new color.
4.2.2 System Data Screen Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you select a star system, and then press information (the I
key), the starmap is replaced by detailed information about that
system. By using the arrow keys, joystick, or mouse, you can
select individual planets in that system, and see detailed
information about the. The information screen gives you each
world's type, temperature, and atmosphere, as well as any
resource that world possesses, and whether or not the world is
habitable. It is possible for a world to have equitable
temperature and a breathable atmosphere, and yet not be
habitable for humans, for any number of reasons. In one famous
case, a world was perfectly livable except that the air stank!
The cause of the stench was never discovered, and the world was
never colonized. The exact amount of information you receive on a
system varies. If you have never been to a system, the
information screen only tells you the number of planets and the
type of sun. If you have visited a system, but not probed it,
you can know everything about that system except for any
resource it contains. If a system is inhabited, you cannot probe
it - any probes you launch are intercepted by the inhabitants
and used to communicate with you. Only if you have probed and
uninhabited system do you receive full information about it.
4.2.3 Course Selection
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you press the select solar system keys, a linear flight
path is projected from your current system to other systems. As
you select through there other systems, a simple diagram of each
system appears in your video monitor. To see more information
about that system, tap information for more data (this only
works, however, if you have already visited the system and
probed it).
The navigation starmap also has a fuel usage display. The lower
right corner of the screen shows you how much fuel you are
carrying, and the lower left corner of the screen shows how much
fuel it cost to travel to the system indicated.
Press spindrive to travel to the selected system. Emergency
spindrive can also be activated from the navigation starmap, if
you need to flee a losing combat.
Press the escape key to leave the navigation starmap and return
to the main cockpit. When you leave the navigation starmap, the
last system selected remains in the memory of your ship's
navigation system. Whenever you press spindrive your ship
automatically heads toward that system. Beware of leaving the
wrong destination in memory especially a destination beyond
your current fuel supply!
4.2.4 Spindrive Operation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Normal travel via spindrive is uneventful. You simple zip
through space to the selected system, expending fuel as needed.
However, if another ship is near your route, its spindrive may
interfere with yours. If any ship crosses your path, you'll see
an image of the alien ship appear in the holographic viewer.
If the alien ship is hostile, under the main viewscreen will
appear the message "(alien name) SHIP ATTACKING" and you will be
forced to pop out of spindrive and fight.
Sometimes the alien waits to see what you are going to do. In
this case, you receive the message "PROXIMITY ALERT. PRESS A KEY
TO ATTACK". You may now choose whether you wish to attack the
alien ship or not. If you choose to attack, tap any key and the
enemy ship is forced out of spindrive to fight you. If you do
not wish to attack, do nothing, and after a few seconds, the
opportunity will vanish.
If you have a peace treaty with an alien species, your computer
will not bother to alert you to their ships' presence. In
effect, you will cease encountering them in deep space. After
you have dropped out of spindrive and fought an alien ship, you
may return to the starmap. Note that your ship is partway along
it route. You can change your destination if you wish, or you
can simply strike spindrive to continue to your destination.
When you are traveling near an alien's world, encountering that
type of alien becomes more likely. Hence, if you continually
meet a particular alien's ships partway along a certain trade
route, this could be a clue to the location of that alien's
secret base.
4.2.5 Emergency Spindrive Operation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you are clearly outclassed by an enemy vessel, you have a
last ditch defense mechanism. By hitting emergency spindrive
(hold down alt and tap the S key), you can leave a battle at
faster than light speed, negating any possibility of pursuit.
Emergency spindrive has a cost, however. If overburdens your
ship's internal systems, and will destroy many components. So
reserve it for true emergencies.
If you have not selected a destination, and try to use emergency
spindrive, you ship will signal an error. Select a nearby
system, then use emergency spindrive.
4.3 BLASTER TURRET
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your Blaster turret can be reached from your main cockpit by
hitting the space bar. Strike the space bar again to return to
the next active cockpit. Hitting the space bar will then cycle
through all active cockpits until you get back to the main
cockpit again.
4.3.1 Screen Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The blaster turret is almost devoid of clutter, for maximum
visibility. At the bottom of the screen is a radar scope, which
works just like the main cockpit's radar scope. The crosshairs
in the center of the screen show where your blasters are aimed.
They are also an indication that you are out of range. When a
ship or missile comes within range, and is more or less close to
the crosshairs, the crosshairs change to a flashing reticule.
Center the target within the reticule to aim at it.
Your blasters have an additional feature associated with the
rangefinder. The blaster bolts are aimed so that they
automatically converge at the nearest target's exact range.
4.3.2 Controls
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To aim your blaster turret, just slew it around using the
arrow keys, joystick or mouse. Fire the blasters using the enter
key, joystick button one, or the left mouse button. You can spin
the turret in place without changing your point of aim by
holding down joystick button two or the right mouse button as
you turn left or right.
4.4 FIGHTER/KAMIKAZE CONTROLS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A fighter is a small spaceboat armed with blasters. Its function
is destroy enemy fighters and small ships. It can also be used
to destroy vulnerable spots on large ships.
The kamikaze is a small spaceboat carrying a large warhead. It
can be used to destroy any size of enemy ship, but several
kamikazes may be needed to eliminate the largest vessels. The
kamikaze actually rams the enemy ship and explodes. Hence
kamikazes are not reusable, unlike fighter.
When you launch a fighter or kamikaze a subspace link is set up
between your main ship and the smaller craft, so you can pilot
these ships directly. However, if the chassis is destroyed, you
yourself are not harmed. Instead, you are returned to the main
cockpit. Fighters and kamikazes are only used in combat, against
enemy vessels.
4.4.1 Screen Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blaster bar: The leftmost bar indicates the readiness of your
fighter's blasters. When the bar is at its height, you can fire
a lengthy burst (by pressing enter, joystick button one, or the
left mouse button). As you fire, your blasters rapidly heat up,
the bar drops. Once the bar reaches bottom, your basters are too
hot, and can only get off shots intermittently. If you refrain
from firing to let your guns cool off, the bar gradually rises.
In general, you get more impact from your shots if you fire
single bursts rather than emit a continuous slow barrage.
Kamikazes have no blasters.
Speed bar: The center bar tells you how fast you are going. The
higher the bar, the greater your velocity. When it is at the top
of its scale, you can't go any faster.
If you are flying a kamikaze, you will notice that the center
hologram will not rise above halfway. This is because kamikazes
have a lower maximum speed than fighters.
Damager bar: The rightmost bar indicates how much structural
strength your fighter retains. As your fighter takes more
damage, the bar drops. You will never actually see the bar reach
the bottom. When that happens, the fighter is destroyed.
A kamikaze posseses the damage indicator, but any hit on a
kamikaze will explode its deadly cargo; it never loses any
structural strength without being totally destroyed.
Radar Scope: This works identically to the main cockpit's radar
scope.
Main Ship Damage Readout: This diagram provides a graphic
indication of how much damage the Trailblazer is suffering while
you are in the fighter or kamikaze. Portions of the diagram
change color as they are damaged. At the bottom of the readout,
text appears on which system was just damaged. If you get
concerned about the damage the trailblazer is taking, you may
jump back into the main cockpit and take control, abandoning the
fighter or kamikaze to its fate, or returning it with return
chassis (tap the R key) to the mother ship's hold for future
use.
Crosshairs: These work identically to the crosshairs in the
blaster turret.
4.4.2 Controls
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Speed controls for fighters and kamikazes are almost identical
to those of the main ship, maximum speed, stop, etc. all work.
The one major difference in controls is match speeds (the M
key), which enables your chassis to match the speed of an enemy
ship which is currently in your target crosshairs. This ability
is very useful for a fighter which wishes to cruise along behind
a slower ship and pump fire into the enemy until he explodes. It
is less useful for a kamikaze, but is still available.
To fire a fighter's blasters, just tap enter, joystick button
one, or the left mouse button.
The space bar returns you from the most recently launched
chassis back to the main cockpit. From there, you can tap the
space bar again to get to the blaster turret, and from there you
can tap it again to go to the oldest chassis in action. Tap the
space bar again to go the the next oldest chassis, etc. Once you
have cycled through all your current chassis, your tapping the
space bar once more gets you back to the main cockpit again.
4.5 ENGINE ROOM DISPLAY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tips: Engine Room
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Except for linkages, components that do not pulse or spin
are useless - separated from the rest of their system they may
as well be in the old.
* Then converters siphon power from the spindrive to other
systems. The more powerful your spindrive, the better those
systems are.
4.5.1 Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From the main cockpit or blaster turret, tap engine room to
receive a top down view of your ship's vitals. The engine room
is divided into five different bays, each holding a variety of
components. Some components can be used in more than one bay. At
the top left hand corner of the engine room is the screen
generator. It holds slots for up to 12 components, but only has
10 at game start.
The top right hand corner has the blaster turret bay. It can
contain up to 13 components, but only has 7 at the start.
Below the blaster turret bay, in the lower right hand corner, is
the thruster bay, capable of holding 10 components and starting
with 6.
Just to the left of the blaster turret bay, and running
vertically up the middle of the engine room, is the main gun,
which has slots for 7 components, all of which are filled.
To the left of the main gun, under the screen generator, and in
the lower left hand corner of the engine room is the circular
spindrive. It has room for 13 components, starting with 7. The
large round component in the center of the spindrive is the
navigator, the most important component you possess.
Your ship's hold is to the right of the screen. The hold
contains components that are not in use, either because you are
saving them for trade, or because all the slots for that type of
component are filled. The hold can carry and enormous number of
components. No matter how many components you trade for or
scavenge, you do not have to worry about running out of storage
space.
Combat damage destroys components. You can repair damage by
visiting the engine room and replacing burnt out or missing
components by new ones from your ship's hold.
To interact with the engine room, use the mouse, joystick, or
arrow keys to place the cursor over a component slot. Click on
that slot with the enter key, joystick button one, or the left
mouse button. If the slot currently holds a component, clicking
moves that component to your hold, and empties the slot. If the
slot is empty, clicking on it fills it with a matching component
from your hold. If you have no matching components, clicking on
that slot is futile.
Placing the cursor over a component slot in the ship's hold
tells you how many such components you possess. Some components
come in more than one flavor. If you have more than one flavor
of component in your hold, clicking on the appropriate slot
brings a different flavor to the top. Then, when you click on an
appropriate slot elsewhere in the engine room, the correct
flavor pops into the slot.
4.5.2 Thruster Bay
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The thruster bay controls your sublight engines. The components
that make up this bay determine your ship's maximum combat
speed. Your initial configuration is composed of two burners,
each connected to a converter and a turbine. At the start, there
is room for two more burner, each potentially controlled by a
secondary.
Your ship is an immense battleship. No matter how powerful your
thrusters are, it moves and maneuvers in a stately fashion. If
you crave speed and responsiveness, jump into one of your ship's
fighters.
4.5.3 Spindrive
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The spindrive's primary function is to move your ship faster
than light. Without a spindrive, your vessel is totally
incapable of accomplishing its mission. Therefore, it is the
single most important system in your ship. The spindrive is
composed of a central Vespucci navigator, surrounded by three
turbine/accelerator pairs. It can be enhanced by adding up to
three more turbine/accelerator pairs.
The turbines and accelerators must be matched in pairs to be
effective. A lone turbine or accelerator is valueless in the
spindrive.
The spindrive is controlled by the centrally located navigator
device. This device ia actually capable of propelling your
vessel through faster than light drive all by itself. However,
the addition of matched pairs of turbines and accelerators
permits you to drain off power to be used by the rest of your
ship and also enhances the drive's efficiency, so that it takes
less fuel to travel through the cluster.
4.5.4 Main Gun
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The main gun is your ship's primary armament. Its sole function
is to destroy enemy vessels and starbases. The main gun is
composed of an accelerator, a converter, two linkages, a
radiator, a secondary, and a turbine. Though the main gun is
usable with less than this optimum setup, initially your layout
is complete and cannot be increased.
4.5.5 Blaster Turret Bay
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The blaster turret bay is an important defensive system. The
blaster turret is used to DESTROY or break up incoming missiles
and energy bolts, as well as enemy fighters. The initial
configuration is composed of a Cody targeter, two linkages, two
blaster, and two radiators, which gives you a twin barreled
effect. The bay can take two more linkages, blaster, and
radiators, giving you up to four barrels when engaged in battle.
Each linkage/blaster connection to the central targeter gives
you one working blaster.
Your targeter controls the firing sequence of the blasters. It
is the key component to your blaster turret bay, and without it,
no blasters can fire.
The damage rating for a single hit from a blaster is 0.15. A
damage rating of 1 means that if the weapon hit your own ship,
and was not stopped by screens, it would destroy 1 component. A
damage rating of 2 would destroy 2 components, and so forth.
If as blaster lacks a radiator, it can only get off three shots
in a row before overheating. An overheated blaster fires much
more slowly than one with a radiator.
4.5.6 Forward and Rear Screen Generators
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The screens protect your ship from combat damage. Your Screens
are always on and consume no fuel. The components of your screen
generators are arranged in a y-shape. The right and left arms of
the y are the forward screen generator. The rearward pointing
base of the y is the rear screen generator. The forward screen
generator protects only the front hemisphere of your
Trailblazer. The rear screen generator protects only the rear
hemisphere of your Trailblazer. The forward screen generator can
be more powerful than the rear screen generator.
A pair of linkages connect the forward screen generators to the
rear screen generator, and do not directly enhance the activity
of either generator. However, the absence of a linkage prevents
operation of the connected arm of the forward screen generator.
At the start, your forward screen generator is composed of two
complete arms, each containing one accelerator, one converter,
and one radiator, for a total of two of each component. There is
no room for expansion beyond this.
However your rear screen generator just has a converter and a
secondary. There is room for an accelerator and a radiator,
should you wish to upgrade your vessel's rear screens.
4.6 ESCAPE POD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can use the escape pod (hold down shift and tap the escape
key) to abandon your main ship and launch a sub space capsule,
which carries you unerringly back to your home base. Once there,
a distress signal is sent to Earth and a new Trailblazer ship is
dispatched to the home base for your use.
The disadvantage of the escape pod is that is costs you
considerable time. The Conestoga colony ship must therefore wait
even longer before getting its colony established, and this may
mean the death of colonists.
4.7 HOME BASE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To assist you in your mission, a large robot home base has been
constructed in the star cluster you will explore. Because the
star clusters teem with hostile aliens, a security program has
been instituted to conceal the home base's presence from those
aliens, as much as possible. After you visit the home base, it
will fire you away from itself, a parsec or two into space.
Thus, when you travel to an alien world, the aliens will not be
able to figure out the home base's location by extrapolating
your flight route backwards.
The home base has a navigation beacon to make it easier for you
to find. To zero in on this beacon, use home (press the H key
when in the navigation starmap). This automatically targets your
home base for spindrive navigation.
When you visit your home base, your fuel tanks are automatically
filled from the base's extremely large supply. In addition, you
receive more missile chassis and mining complexes, if you have
expended some since your last visit.
One of the most important functions of your home base is that it
continually manufactures computer disks for use in trade. These
computer disks are universally valued, and you can use them as
trade goods with every alien species known. On each trip back to
your home base, you will receive one or more of these computer
disks, and you will be able to use them to your advantage in
obtaining useful components from friendly aliens.
4.8 MISSION END AND EVALUATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You must find a planet suitable for humanity and obtain the raw
materials the fledgling colony requires to survive. Worlds
habitable by humans are quite rare.
4.8.1 Colony Planet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The colony cannot survive without a habitable planet. All the
clusters selected for your exploration are know to contain at
least one habitable planet. It is often helpful to question
aliens about such habitable worlds.
When you find such a world, claim it for humanity by launching a
mining complex, which will begin the terraforming process.
4.8.2 Resource Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The new colony will require resource to thrive. You must obtain
these resource by mining them from unclaimed worlds or through
interplanetary commerce with friendly aliens.
The amount of resources needed for a particular colony depends
largely upon its distance from Earth. The number of resources
required for the clusters you are to explore is given below:
Hyades 5 resources of each type
Cerberus 10 resources of each type
Sassanid 4 resources of each type
Ragnarok 9 resources of each type
4.8.3 Safety Factors
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You must make the cluster as safe as possible for human families
by making friends and eliminating enemies.
The new colony will only prosper if humanity has allies in the
star cluster. To obtain allies, you can befriend some of the
aliens in that cluster. The only way to assure their friendship
is to sign peace treaties. The more peace treaties you posses in
a cluster, the safer humanity will be in future years.
Some aliens are not amenable to peace. Other may not be willing
to sign a treaty if you have already signed with one of their
enemies. If there is an alien which you believe will be actively
harmful to the colony, you must weaken or destroy this alien
species.
4.8.4 Time Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite its huge size, the colony transport ship is still
overcrowded. You are under time pressure. The longer you take to
finish preparing the colony world, the more colonists will die.
Eventually they will all die.
On the other hand, abandoning a bunch of hapless colonists on a
world with insufficient resources in a star cluster teeming with
enemies is a death sentence for them all.
All thing being equal, it is better to spend the time to get an
extra peace treaty or exterminate a species of implacably
hostile aliens than to bring in the colonists prematurely.
4.9 SAVE GAME TECHNIQUES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like any roleplaying game, you'll want to save your game to disk
periodically, and then restore it later. You can only do this
from the main cockpit, if you are not moving or engaged in
combat. Just use save game (hold down alt and press the G key)
to bring up a screen which you can type your saved game's name
into. To bring back a game, use load game (hold down alt and
press the L key). A screen appears on which all the saved games
are listed.
Colony status screen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The colony status screen (hit the C key) gives you an ongoing
check on your progress through the star cluster. It lists the
amount of each resource you carry. This screen lists aliens with
whom you have signed peace treaties, and all aliens you have
exterminated or driven from the star cluster. It also tells you
of any special non-component cargo you are carrying in your
hold.
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