U N I V E R S A L C O N Q U E S T ----------------------------------- by Randy Wing 11 May 1993 Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Distribution 2.0 Installation 2.1 Amiga Specific Installation Instructions 3.0 Game Play Instructions 3.1 Display Walkthrough 3.1.1 The "Title" screen 3.1.2 The "Preparation" screen 3.1.3 The "Main Game" screen 3.1.4 The "About" screen 3.2 Known Quirks 4.0 Game Play Strategy / Advice 5.0 Development 5.1 Development History 5.2 Developmental Tools 5.3 Credit 5.3.1 Mentors 5.3.2 Digitized Voices and Sounds 5.3.3 Beta Testers 5.3.4 Special Thanks 6.0 Support 6.1 Support of Current Versions 6.2 Planned Enhancements 1.0 Introduction Welcome to Universal Conquest! Universal Conquest is the culmination of five years of work. Well, at least five years of thought. I have enjoyed preparing this game as much as I enjoy playing it. I hope you, too, will enjoy this game. This game currently requires two players. I would suggest that the players be at least 12 years old. This game is as simple in concept as Checkers, but with more strategic possibilities. The game is quite engrossing if the players are cut-throats. 1.1 Distribution This game is freely re-distributable. The modification rights to the source code have been reserved by the author. All files associated with this game should be included in any re-distribution. The files that comprise version 1.08 are: FleetTakeOff 21084 LaserFire 4188 MachineGunBlast 3932 nextplayer 16732 QuickLaserBurst 5212 ucabout 29276 UCHelp.README 17337 UCHelp.README.info 527 UNIVCONQ 124724 UnivConq.info 5642 2.0 Installation All files should be placed in the same directory. If you run the program from CLI or a shell, provide a stack of 100,000. 2.1 Amiga Specific Installation Instructions This game has been tested on the following Amigas in varying configurations: Amiga 500, 1000, 2000, 2500, 3000, and 4000. On the Amiga 4000 there are two machine specific instructions: 1) Set "Mode Promotion" to OFF, (or) 2) Boot up under AmigaDOS 2.x If you find any other machine specific installation instructions that are not included in this file, please report them to the author. 3.0 Game Play Instructions 3.1 Display Walkthrough 3.1.1 The "Title" screen Isn't this a great picture? NASA photo of the earth, digitized and cleaned up somewhat. Push any key, mouse button, or the space bar to enter the game. 3.1.2 The "Preparation" screen At present, this screen allows the user to select: 1) the number of planets in the universe, 2) the number of initial ships per player, 3) the number of turns (may be referred to as "years") and 4) the players (nick) names. I have many plans for this screen in future versions of this game! 3.1.3 The "Main Game" screen The Main Game screen may be supplemented by windows and requesters that come and go off of this screen. The Main Game screen contains three main menus (FILE OPTIONS, GAME OPTIONS, TURN OPTIONS) with separate submenus. The FILE OPTIONS menu contains five submenus. Print Screen (currently not implemented), Save Game (currently not implemented), Load Game (currently not implemented), About (describes the people who helped make the game a reality plus information about who to contact when you find a bug or want the latest version), and Quit (allows the players to stop the game at any time). The GAME OPTIONS menu contains two submenus. Toggle Sound (allows the player to turn off sounds or turn them back on) and Go Workbench (allows the player to push the game screen to the back so that other Workbench activities can continue). The TURN OPTIONS menu contains two submenus. Pass Turn to Next Player and Display Fleets in Transit (currently not implemented). The Main Game screen is broken up into four separate display sections. The first section is the "Universe". The Universe is a 40 by 18 grid that may contain "space", a "planet", or "other". (Beware - although the universe APPEARS square its dimensions are rectangular. Please remember this and allow for it during game play...) "Space" is shown as a dark gray dot to facillitate game play. A "Planet" is shown as an upper or lower case letter that corresponds to a letter entry in the "PlanetList" section. "Other" will remain undefined to you, the player. Consider it an element of surprise you WILL encounter sometime. (I have not explained "other" to the beta players - I want absolutely NO leaks about their characteristics. If you learn about them through game play, trial and error, or bribing me, please keep it to yourself...). The "PlanetList" section contains a list of known planet characteristics. As game play continues, this list is updated. This section contains three columns. Each column contains three headers - Planet, Production, and Ships. The Planet header contains ownership information of a planet via color. If a planet is owned by the RED player then the letter is RED. GREEN is for the other player and BLUE is the natives. Native planet information is not immediately provided. During a battle, you will be shown the number of defending native ships, but production remains a mystery until the natives have been defeated. The Production header shows how many ships will be produced during an AVERAGE turn. (Yes, production can be affected by a myriad of factors. I am purposefully being remiss in explaining these factors.) The Ships header shows the number of Owner ships currently on the planet. Native planets do not produce ships - at this time. The "TransportDefinition" section shows mid-turn ship movement information. During a turn, a player will select a planet in the "Universe" section. Then the planet is shown in the "Source:" portion of the "TransportDefinition" section. When the player clicks on the next planet in the "Universe" section, that planet is shown as a destination planet and the E.T.A. (Estimated Time of Arrival) is shown for this transit. At this time a Ship Requester is opened that allows the player to send as many ships as desired from the source to the destination planet. At the end of a turn, the current years worth of ship arrival events are "processed". Ships arriving at a friendly planet (ship owner = planet owner) become reinforcements. Ships arriving on hostileplanets go through a battle to determine planet ownership. Please note that "Battle" windows may be relocated on the screen at any time - Universal Conquest will reopen them in that position. Also note that a "Battle" can be sped up by clicking on the upper left hand corner of the "Battle" window (for those of you with Amiga experience - the CLOSEWINDOW box). This will result in a very quick battle resolution, with no difference in battle outcome. The "Statistics" section contains a column for each player. Each player has a list of vital statistics. "Planets:" contains the number of planets currently owned by each player. "Ships:" contains the number of ships currently based on owned planets. (Note: Ships in transit are not counted in this total. The players need to keep track of something to make the game interesting!). "Production:" contains the total owned planets production. Please note that the turn play is shown by the at first flashing and then inverse highlighted players name in the header of this section. 3.1.4 The "About" screen Not only does the "About" Screen display where to get game support, but it also displays the names of people associated with the development of Universal Conquest. Take a look! If you find a problem and report it to me, I could very well add your name to the list of supporters. 3.2 Known Quirks This game currently attempts to load sound files into RAM memory to speed their usage. This takes a few seconds during the display of the title screen. Please be patient during this activity. 4.0 Game Play Strategy / Advice Try to win as many worlds as possible as early as possible. This will increase your chances of dominating your opponent in terms of production. The more ships you produce than your opponent every turn the higher the odds that you can continue to establish more planets. Make sure you do not leave high production planets unprotected - they are tempting targets of opportunity. Keep track of large troop movements - they can indicate an imminent attack. Towards the end of the game, re-locate your ships to establish a balanced defense of ALL of your planets, even the low-production "losers". Remember, the way to win the game is to have more planets than your opponent at the end of the game! 5.0 Development 5.1 Developmental History In the beginning, I owned a Commodore 64 and purchased a $5.00 game from Target called "Galactic Empire". Simple in execution, but intriguing in concept, my college and work friends spent many hours playing this interesting game. When I purchased an Amiga 500 in the Spring of 1987, I was quickly engulfed in new software and games, but there was still one program that could draw me back to the C-64 on occasion - "Galactic Empire". When I purchased a C-compiler, nothing stood in my way to develop my own game - except experience with the C-language, experience with the Amiga operating system, and the purchase of dozens of Amiga programming books! version 1.00 - 1.07 -- varying bug fixes resulting in the first clean Universal Conquest game. version 1.08 -- better documentation, added the "initial number of ships per player" variable on the Prepare screen, and the defending ships get the advantage of shooting first. 5.2 Developmental Tools I have used several commercial and public domain/shareware titles in preparation of Universal Conquest - some of which are: A.M.A.S. - Sound digitizing hardware/software Art Department Professional - image processing DCTV - Video digitizing hardware/software Deluxe Paint II and IV. - creation of pictures MakeC - converts pictures to "C" code Manx Aztec "C" - compiler, debugger, and other utilities PowerWindows - a Graphics User Interface (GUI) to "C" code converter 5.3 Credit 5.3.1 Mentors Thanks to Dennis Brauning for his Amiga and "C" programming advice and assistance. Whenever I was stuck he had just the right idea to trigger my thoughts into a productive line of reasoning. Thanks also to Craig Shannon for his "C" programming and style advice. Several times he made me sit down and "code it right" without offending me. Look for a version of this game on the PC-compatible line of computers, prepared largely by Craig. And finally, thanks to Randal Moore for finally putting the kabosh on those pesky Amiga 3000 bugs. These men are my close friends - don't be surprised if you see their names on other Amiga and IBM public domain and shareware titles. 5.3.2 Digitized Voices and Sounds Thanks to Cathy Collins for recording dozens of sound clips. In addition to a wonderful voice; Cathy is a software engineer at a major aerospace firm. Other sound clips were created by the author - can you guess how? 5.3.3 Beta Testers I considered myself a fairly good tester of my own software - until I developed "Universal Conquest". Each and every one of "UC"'s beta testers has found strange and unique bugs that I never would have thought to test. Randal Moore and Steve Canfield discovered the Amiga 3000 bug that stumped me for over a month. Nick and Mike Farlow focused on play-ability and user-interface. Lynn Decker was intent on pushing for creation of a 'balanced' universe. Mark Brinkman was the first to play an entire game an find that no matter how many ships were thrown at a "Zero" populated world that it just couldn't be defeated. Scott Wing, my brother, called me almost every week for five years and never failed to ask if I had made progress. Thanks to Kenneth Bartlett and Dave Bringolf for permitting their respective BBSs to be used as a "Base" for Universal Conquest support. Without your selfless help, this game wouldn't be here. Thanks! 5.3.4 Special Thanks I would like to express my warmest wishes to Fred Fish and his great collection of Amiga public domain and shareware. Without the inspiration of the many authors that have dedicated their 'wares to the public domain, this game would have died as a "good idea". I challenge any Amiga programmer to give to the public domain at least once - if we all did, we would all be much better off. If anyone wishes to release their software to Fred Fish, he can be reached at the following U.S. Mail address: Fred Fish Amiga Library Disks 1835 East Belmont Drive Tempe, Arizona 85284 Lastly, I would like to dedicate this game to my wonderful wife - Lisa. Without her patience, love, and understanding I wouldn't have finished my first major Amiga program. 6.0 Support Please limit Universal Conquest related mail messages to the FIDONET node 1:291/15 (Randy Wing) or directly to the "1st Xenolink BBS in Kansas" (316-265-4514 or 316-265-0580). The "Lancer Loader BBS" (316-262-8999) is another recommended alternative for E-Mail traffic. 6.1 Support of Current Versions If an error large enough to warrant a minor version upgrade is found, I will leave a notice on the bulletin board(s) noted in the "About" menu item. In addition, I will post the upgrade on those boards as well. If someone contacts me in some way (E-Mail, USMail, etc.) and wants the an upgrade supplied to them I will make every effort to perform this activity if reimbursement is provided. I envision reimbursement being $10.00 for the latest version . Please specify what version of AmigaDOS you are using, the machine you were using, and the other software products that were in use at the time, and where I can contact you if a problem arises. Please, only send money that I can easily convert to United States cash at a United States bank! 6.2 Planned Enhancements Their are several aspects of this game that are not "full-blown" at this time. For instance, Menu options are not fully implemented. I fully expect that by version 2.00 I will have incorporated the "Save Game", "Load Game", and "Display Fleets in Transit" menu items. Also, hotkeys for the menu items and for selecting planets will be fully in place. Several Beta testers indicated that allowing planets to be chosen from the statistics list would be intuitive. Some players, however, have thought really big. For instance, adding in telecommunication ability. Adding a solitaire feature for those people who don't have ready access to a friend. My personal desire is to add more sound, music, and animations to the game. Especially in the battle sequences! I would appreciate any new game playing ideas. Please note that I plan on upgrading this game to be compatible with Workbench 2.x AmigaDOS. This means no more additional updates for the Workbench 1.x owners. Drop me a line if you feel this is too restrictive. My major reason in doing this is not to cut out users, but to speed development - WB2.x is definitely a fertile programming ground. These and other features will definitely keep me learning and you entertained. Keep the ideas coming!