Colonial Conquest  V1.0
          
          
          
          
          Colonial Conquest has been written in 1993 by Christian
          Mumenthaler. This program is giftware, which means that
          you can make a donation to the author if you  like  it.
          All  rights  remain  by  Christian   Mumenthaler,   but
          everybody is allowed to copy it  for  other  people  as
          long  as  he/she  includes  the  "Copyright"-file   and
          doesn't ask more than the nominal fee of  4$  (5  Sfr/5
          DM) for the disk. Please read the "Copyright"-file  for
          more details and all exceptions!
          
          
          System requirements:  Colonial  Conquest  runs  on  all
          Amigas (tested on A4000, A2000 & A500) with  1  Meg  of
          memory. (Should also run on machines with 500 KB!).
          
          
          1. Introduction
          
          
          Colonial Conquest is a space-strategy game for  one  or
          two persons. The  basic  idea  and  concept  have  been
          heavily influenced by the shareware game "Conquest" and
          the Microprose game "Civilization".
          The aim of the game  is  to  spread  your  civilization
          through the 26 earth-like planets of the  universe  map
          and to defend it from other civilizations  by  building
          weapons and war ships.
          Unfortunately - like all half-realistic simulations and
          strategy  games  -  Colonial   Conquest   will   reward
          primitive destructive behavior and  colonial  instincts
          without leaving much room for cooperative  actions  and
          peaceful living. Take it as a game!
          As Colonial Conquest is quite easy to handle, I suggest
          you first have a look at the program  before  returning
          to this long (and boring) manual with a  lot  of  fresh
          motivation...
          
          
          
          
          2. Getting started
          
          
          After having shown the title screen, three options will
          appear on the screen:
          
          
          - Start a new game.
          - Load saved game. (Only if you have a  saved  game  on
          the disk!)
          - Create new universe. This menu allows you  to  change
          the aspect of the planets as the  program  will  choose
          all the 26 planet surfaces among the pre-designed  ones
          in the "planets"-directory.
          
          
          If you start a new game, the program will  ask  you  if
          you  wish  to  play  alone  or  with  another   player.
          Unnecessary to say that it will be  much  more  fun  to
          play with  a  friend,  but  as  these  are  not  always
          present, you may wish to play anyway. In this case, the
          game will generate enemy troops  and  simulate  a  very
          stupid but more or less strong enemy. This  enemy  will
          however  not  really  play  like  a   human   and   not
          colonialize other planets  as  you  will  do.  It  will
          simply own one planet populated by machines and  robots
          that will constantly produce space  ships  for  combat!
          This planet will be guarded by the powerful  Mothership
          (see below!). At the beginning, you will have about 100
          to 120  turns  for  developing  your  civilization  and
          spread it among the  planets.  After  this,  the  Alien
          invasion will begin and extremely powerful troops  will
          attack your colonies! Be prepared!
          After this, the main screen will appear for player one.
          From now on, there will  be  game  turns  during  which
          first player one and then player  two  can  order  some
          actions that will then be evaluated by the program.  At
          the beginning of each turn,  the  players  will  get  a
          report of everything that has happened.
          
          
          
          
          3. Main screen
          
          
          On the main screen you will see all earth-like  planets
          of the universe. A green circle around a  planet  means
          that you have a colony there. A red circle means that a
          battle is taking place there.  A  yellow  circle  means
          that a conflict may be imminent. (Owner  of  planet  is
          not the same as owner of the space ships  orbiting  the
          planet, but the planet has not yet been attacked.)
          At the left side of the planet is  a  yellow  point  or
          line that signals the  presence  of  space  ships  that
          belong to you. A similar line in red will  appear  just
          next to it as soon as enemy  troops  are  orbiting  the
          planet too. The length of this line is proportional  to
          the strength of your fleet until it reaches the maximal
          height of 15 pixels.
          Above this line, a tiny hammer-symbol will be drawn  if
          the planet is currently producing something.
          Every planet has a number and name, but you  will  only
          see the name of the planets that you can actually  look
          at (colony or space ships present!).
          At the bottom of the screen, you will find  some  menus
          that will be explained in the following:
          
          
          MOVE SHIPS: ("m" on keyboard). You  have  to  select  a
          planet from where you want to send  a  space  ship  and
          also the destination planet. After this, all  available
          space ships will be listed and you can click  on  those
          you wish to send away. Once you have  chosen,  you  can
          click on the "OK" button to get out of this menu.
          
          
          TRAVEL ROUTES: ("t" on keyboard). All travel routes  of
          the ships actually in  flight  will  be  drawn  on  the
          screen with red lines. A tiny yellow circle  will  show
          the actual position of the ships on this route.
          
          
          FLIGHT STATUS: ("f" on keyboard). All ships  in  flight
          will  be  listed  together  with   their   source   and
          destination planet. At the right, the  remaining  turns
          needed to reach the  destination  will  be  shown.  The
          ships are automatically listed in order of arrival.
          
          
          PLANET LIST: All colonialized planets are  listed.  You
          will see your real population, the last turn population
          growth (in %), the Food/Material/Energy production  and
          the object that the planet is actually constructing.
          
          
          REPORTS: The report that you get at  the  beginning  of
          each turn will be printed again. This is useful if  you
          have forgotten its content.
          
          
          STATUS: Will show you your actual  Tech-Level  and  the
          Research Status along with all the ships you own.
          
          
          SPECIAL COMMANDS: Here comes the menu all action freaks
          have waited for! If you have hi-tech machines on one of
          your planets, you will be able  to  give  up  to  three
          commands that will be executed at the end of the  turn.
          (The result will however only be shown at the beginning
          of the next turn!). You can do the following:
          - Short Range Scan: (Needs Planet scanner).  The  space
          around your planet will be scanned in  a  range  of  60
          pixels and all discovered spaceships  drawn  as  little
          arrows pointing toward  their  aim.  Enemy  ships  will
          appear in a flashing color and your own ships  will  be
          drawn in red.
          - Long Range Scan: Same  as  above  excepted  that  the
          range is 120 pixels which allows a wide view  into  the
          flight-activities of your enemy.
          - Energy  Cannon  Shot:  (Needs  Energy-Cannon).  Three
          focussed  high-energy-beams  will  be  fired  toward  a
          selected planet. The impact will completely destroy one
          surface-unit together with the machine  that  has  been
          built on it (if there is any!). As  I  didn't  want  to
          make this game too bloody, the colonists that worked on
          that surface-unit will always be able  to  escape  from
          the catastrophe!
          - Destroy Planet: (Needs Planet Destroyer). The "Planet
          Destroyer"   belongs   to   the   class   of    hi-tech
          gravity-disruption-weapons  and  is  a  result  of  the
          advanced quantum-gravity-theory founded  by  Prof.  Von
          Hirt.  This  high   energy   weapon   can   cause   the
          gravitational collapse of any very large  object  (like
          planets!) by sending focussed disturbing  gravity-waves
          that interfere positively on  a  calculated  point  and
          cause such irregularities into the gravitational  field
          that the  object  is  torn  apart  and  explodes.  This
          command is therefore the ultimate  immoral  command  of
          the game  as  you  simply  blow  away  a  whole  world,
          possibly  populated  by  thousands  of  innocent  human
          beings! So, if you play together with  a  friend,  just
          don't use it if you still want to be his  friend  after
          the  game!  (I  can   take   no   warranty   for   lost
          friendships!)
          
          
          SAVE GAME: Allows you to save the game and to  continue
          later by using the "Load game" menu at the beginning.
          
          
          END OF TURN: ("e" on keyboard). You end your  turn  and
          give the game control to your friend. If you are player
          two,  the  game  will  first  make  the  end  of   turn
          evaluation.
          
          
          EXIT GAME: There is no button  to  exit  the  game  for
          security reasons. You may however quit the program with
          "CTRL-C" and return to the Workbench. (If  you  started
          Colonial Conquest from there!).
          
          
          
          
          4. Planet surface
          
          
          If you click on a planet from the main  map,  you  will
          see the planet surface together with three windows.
          On the planet surface, you will see  your  colony  with
          everything  that  you  have  built  there.  Over  every
          object, you will see the number of  food,  material  or
          energy (yellow lightnings) it produces and/or how  much
          energy it needs  (red  lightnings).  Some  objects  (as
          granaries) do  not  produce  at  all,  but  have  other
          purposes. Some objects are automatic and need no  human
          help to work (it is therefore  impossible  to  place  a
          human on  them!)  while  others  like  food-robots  and
          greenhouses need assistance.
          By clicking  on  a  surface-square,  you  can  place  a
          colonist on it. You will see at once how much food  and
          material this colonist will produce at this  place.  If
          no helping object (as robots) is  on  this  place,  the
          production will usually be quite low, as  the  colonist
          will only have simple  instruments  for  his  work.  Of
          course,  the  production  strongly  depends  upon   the
          terrain type.
          If you click on a colonist,  he will disappear from the
          surface window and appear in  the  window  below  as  a
          "free" colonist (red and white cloths) at the right  of
          the working colonists (blue cloths).  "Free"  colonists
          work in the city complex or in the colony  station  for
          the science  research.  Normally,  each  free  colonist
          produces one "science unit"  that  will  make  progress
          research at each turn and rise your TECH-LEVEL after  a
          certain amount of time. The Tech-Level is important for
          the performance of your fleet (see "Space battles") and
          also to build Hi-Tech equipment (Battlestars, Stargates
          etc).
          It is important to note that each  colonist  represents
          1000 real  people  (a  planet  with  6300  people  will
          therefore have 6 colonist units!).
          Below this, you will find the food  production  (yellow
          symbols). Each colonist unit needs one unit of food per
          turn. If you produce more, the surplus will be seen  at
          the right. If you produce  less,  you  will  see  green
          symbols for each missing unit. BE WARNED: If  the  food
          production is  not  sufficient  and  no  food  reserves
          present, a colonist unit will die at  the  end  of  the
          turn!
          Besides  this,  you  will  see   the   (raw)   material
          production, the energy  production  (=  energy  of  all
          power plants - all energy needed for machines and other
          stuff) and the science "production".
          The reserves of the planet are listed  at  the  bottom.
          Note that there is always enough room  to  deposit  raw
          material, but if you want  to  make  food  reserves  or
          energy  reserves,  you  will  need  special   equipment
          (granary and energy storage unit).
          At the right  side  of  the  screen,  all  space  ships
          orbiting the planet are listed above.  The  attack  and
          defence values of the planet will also be printed here.
          In the window below, you will see what  the  planet  is
          producing  actually  and  also  find   all   accessible
          commands ("Install stargate" etc). This window will  be
          called "command window".
          
          
          
          
          4.1. Planet production
          
          
          The  first  button  in  the  command  window   is   the
          "Producing" button. By clicking on it, you will  get  a
          list of all objects, machines and space ships  you  can
          build on the planet. At the right,  you  will  see  how
          many material units will be needed to finish the  work,
          how much energy unit it will cost at each turn once  it
          is built and if a colonist is needed to  make  it  work
          (you will have to place a colonist on this machine!).
          Once you have selected an object and no  error  message
          has appeared, the production will begin.  A  white  bar
          will be drawn under the object name and from now on the
          whole material production of the  planet  will  be  put
          into the construction of the object. Once  the  bar  is
          full with material  symbols,  the  production  will  be
          finished.
          If you have some raw material left  in  your  reserves,
          you can use them to accelerate the  production  of  the
          object. To do this, you have to click  into  the  white
          bar. As the raw material in  the  reserves  has  to  be
          re-worked to be  used,  you  will  need  two  units  of
          material reserves to get one unit for  the  production!
          (It is therefore recommended always to build  something
          with the material that is produced and not to stock  it
          in the reserves!).
          
          
          4.1.1. Planet surface objects
          
          
          For reasons of pollution it is  not  allowed  to  build
          more than 30 objects on one planet!
          Here is the list of all surface objects:
          
          
          Food-robot: Simple but very efficient help  (irrigation
          etc.) for food production on fertile  ground.  Needs  a
          colonist. The effect is dependant on the ground  it  is
          built on.
          
          
          Greenhouse: Complicated but efficient,  very  important
          on planets with no fertile ground. Needs a colonist  to
          work, but it will produce the same amount  of  food  on
          every ground.
          
          
          Granary: Helps to store 200 units of food.
          
          
          Mining-robot:  Helps  colonist  to  get  raw  material.
          Effect depends upon ground.
          
          
          Energy collector: Transforms radiation energy from  the
          sun into electric  power.  Efficiency  depends  on  the
          ground.  (Efficient  in  deserts,  not   efficient   in
          forests!).
          
          
          Coal power-plant: Produces much energy.
          
          
          Nuclear power-plant: Produces much, much energy.
          
          
          Energy Storage Unit: Stores up to 300 units of energy.
          
          
          Colony Station: Basic unit carried by each colony ship.
          The integrated greenhouse produces enough food for  two
          colonist units (only if one colonist stays there!). The
          colony station produces its  own  energy  and  provides
          room enough for 4000 people.
          
          
          City Complex: Provides  room  for  8000  people.  Needs
          energy.
          
          
          Ground Defence Unit: Automatic ground defence. Not very
          strong, but quite resistant. (Attack: 2, Defence:  12).
          Will allow you to win some time if a very strong  enemy
          attacks your planet.
          Planets without ground defence automatically fall  into
          the hands of the enemy once you have no space ships  in
          orbit anymore!
          
          
          Planet Scanner: Will allow you to scan the space around
          your  planet.  Requires  Tech-Level  6!  (See  "Special
          Commands"!)
          
          
          Energy Cannon: This heavy energy gun will give you  the
          possibility to shoot from one planet to another, making
          craters on the planet  surface  where  nothing  can  be
          built on. If the  energy  beams  hits  any  machine  or
          object, this will be completely destroyed!
          Requires Tech-Level 7! (See "Special Commands"!)
          
          
          Planet Destroyer: Can destroy a whole  planet  of  your
          choice if you have 1000  energy  units  left.  Requires
          Tech-Level 8! (See "Special Commands"!)
          
          
          Medical Center: If the population  of  a  planet  grows
          beyond 8000 people, chances for a plague to arise  will
          grow rapidly. A medical center will prevent  all  sorts
          of plagues.
          
          
          University: Increases the science production for up  to
          5 free people.  (If  you  have  no  free  colonists,  a
          university will not help anything!)
          
          
          Space Port: A space  port  is  necessary  for  building
          space ships and sending them into orbit!
          
          
          
          
          4.1.2 Space ships
          
          
          If your planet has a space port, you will  be  able  to
          construct different kinds of space ships:
          
          
          Colony ship: Allows you to send up to 4 colonist  units
          (4000 people) to another planet where you will be  able
          to establish a colony. It can also be used to transport
          people from one planet to another.
          
          
          Stargate ship: Allows you to install a stargate on  any
          planet. Requires Tech-Level 5!
          
          
          Transport ship: Allows you to transport food,  material
          and energy to another planet.
          
          
          Cruiser: Small warship.
          
          
          Fighter: Larger warship. 4 times stronger than Cruiser.
          
          
          
          Dreadnought:  Huge  warship.  4  times  stronger   than
          Fighters.
          
          
          Battlestar: Incredibly powerful combat station. 4 times
          stronger  than  Dreadnoughts  and  therefore  64  times
          stronger than Cruisers! Requires Tech-Level 4!
          
          
          Mothership: When you play against a  computer-simulated
          enemy, you will once encounter the  most  powerful  and
          terrifying  of  all  space  ships   ever   built:   The
          Mothership! Ten times stronger than one of your  mighty
          Battlestars,  this  enormous  space  station  has  been
          designed to cause fear to human minds. As it will  stay
          orbiting around its planet-colony,  you  will  have  to
          face and destroy it one day, to be able to conquer  the
          planet and win the game!
          
          
          
          
          4.2. Commands
          
          
          If some actions are possible on the planet, the command
          menus will appear right under  the  production  button.
          Here is a list of the possible commands:
          
          
          Establish Colony: If you have a Colony  ship  in  orbit
          and no colony is presently installed on the planet, you
          can do so. The ship will land on the chosen  place  and
          be transformed into a colony  station  unit  that  will
          provide  room  for  up  to  four  colonist  units.  The
          internal  sun-energy  collectors  will  provide  enough
          energy for the  internal  greenhouse  that  produces  2
          units of food if one of the colonists  is  put  on  it.
          This way, you will have at least one  of  the  colonist
          free to do some mining or research.
          
          
          Install stargate: If you have a Stargate ship in orbit,
          you will be able to transform it into a  stargate.  The
          high-energy  singularity  will  be  taken  out  of  the
          M�bius-box and placed into a hexagonal  Von-Hirt-field.
          Thanks to the principle of singularity convergence,  it
          will  automatically   be   connected   to   all   other
          singularities of the  universe  and  therefore  to  all
          other stargates which will allow all ships to travel at
          zero-time from one Stargate to another.
          
          
          Load Transporter/Unload  Transporter:  If  you  have  a
          Transport ship in orbit, you will be able  to  transfer
          your planet reserves to the ship or unload the  content
          of the ship to the planet reserves.
          
          
          Show Transporter: Allows you to  have  a  look  at  the
          content of the Transport ships  that  are  actually  in
          orbit.
          
          
          Load Colony Ship/Unload  Colony  Ship:  Allows  you  to
          evacuate up to four people from a planet to the  colony
          ship and the contrary.
          
          
          Attack Planet/Stop Attack: Once you have your own ships
          orbiting a planet that has been  colonialized  by  your
          enemy, your ships will  not  automatically  attack  the
          planet surface. This allows  you  a  larger  number  of
          different strategies when you are playing together with
          a friend. If you wish  to  attack  it  (or  to  stop  a
          current attack!), you will have to click on this menu.
          
          
          
          
          5. End of turn
          
          
          Once  both  players  have  given  their  commands,  the
          program will calculate the effects of  these  commands.
          Here are the main points of this procedure:
          
          
          5.1. Space ships & Space battles
          
          
          All space ships are moved by one unit. If  they  arrive
          to their destination planet, the program tests if enemy
          troops are there. If  so,  a  space  battle  will  take
          place. This battle is invisible for the player and only
          the result will be shown, but here is how  the  battles
          are simulated:
          Each ship type has an attack value and a defence value.
          For simplicity, these  values  are  equal  in  Colonial
          Conquest. The attack value  represents  the  number  of
          shots that this ship can fire  toward  the  enemy,  the
          defence value represents the number of shots  that  the
          ship can absorb before being destroyed. This  value  is
          therefore decreased at each hit and once  it  is  zero,
          the ship will explode.
          In the battle, each side can shoot once until all ships
          of both sides have fired all their guns. Each shot hits
          with a chance of 15% plus the Technology-Level  of  the
          owner of the ships! (In other  words:  if  you  have  a
          Tech-Level of 10, the chances of your ships to  hit  an
          enemy ship are 25%!)
          If  the planet where the  battle  is  taking  place  is
          colonialized, the enemy side will have the  possibility
          to attack it (see "Attack planet" menu of  the  command
          window!). The attack and defence values of  the  planet
          will then be added to the total fleet force.  Once  the
          defence of the planet has dropped to zero,  the  planet
          will be without defence and automatically surrender  to
          the enemy! It is therefore possible to continue to play
          even if you have lost all planets as long as  you  have
          enough war ships left to attack and conquer a planet of
          your opponent.
          The player will see the result of all  battles  in  the
          battle report that will be shown at  the  beginning  of
          every new turn.
          
          
          5.2. Population growth & Production
          
          
          On the planets, the population will grow depending upon
          the food surplus that is  produced  at  each  turn.  In
          addition to this, the food reserves of the planet  will
          have a negative influence if there are not at  least  4
          units left for every colonist.  The  growth  rate  will
          never be higher than 5%.
          At the beginning of the game, you will have 5000 people
          on your planet represented by five colonists.  For  all
          next 1000 people you will get one colonist more.
          As people need room to live, you  will  have  to  build
          city  complexes  (8000  people  each)  to  enlarge  the
          initial colony station (4000 people). If  there  is  no
          room left, the population will not grow anymore!
          Once your population has reached 8000  people,  chances
          for a plague will rise. It is therefore useful to build
          a medical center at this time.
          At every turn, all material will be used to  build  the
          active object. If no object  is  chosen,  all  material
          will go into the reserves. Once the  object  is  built,
          you will see it in the planet window.
          
          
          
          
          5.3. Game End
          
          
          Once one side has lost all  its  planets  and  all  its
          spaceships, the game will end. A  normal  message  will
          appear at the end of your monthly report informing  you
          that you have won/lost. You will then have time to look
          at all your planets and space ships  (if  you  are  the
          winner) or to switch off the  Amiga  before  the  final
          screen appears (if you are  the  (bad!)  looser).  Once
          both players have seen  the  results  and  ended  their
          turn, a final graphic screen will appear  to  celebrate
          the winner. After a few seconds you  will  be  able  to
          click on your mouse and the game  will  return  to  the
          Workbench.
          
          
          
          
          6. Last Word
          
          
          Wow! I admit that this manual  is  quite  long!  Sorry!
          It's just because the game  rules  got  more  and  more
          complicated  during  the  programing,  and  I  couldn't
          resist the temptation to implement all new ideas I  got
          during the hours of boring game-testing. Fortunately, I
          think that Colonial Conquest is very easy to handle and
          the rules are quite intuitive. If you are used to  play
          this kind of strategy games, you will probably not have
          to read the whole manual - just start the game and have
          a look! (That's the way impatient people like me do  it
          usually!)
          
          
          For all of you who would like to know a little bit more
          about the making of Colonial Conquest, I  have  written
          the following few lines:
          
          
          This program has been written in about one  month  with
          the fantastic AMOS Basic (v1.36) and compiled with  the
          AMOS  Compiler,  both  from  Europress   Software.   It
          contains  more  than  3000  program  lines.  The  title
          picture was created with Imagine  v2.0  and  all  icons
          were painted with DPaint IV. It has been designed on  a
          A4000 and was therefore always very fast. I  hope  that
          it will not be too slow on smaller machines.
          Colonial  Conquest   has   been   written   to   be   a
          nice-looking, easy to use immoral strategy game  to  be
          played with a friend. I hope you will enjoy it!
          
          
          At this point I would like to thank Armand Hirt for his
          incredible Icon-Map-Editor and Michael Untern�hrer  for
          game testing.
          
          
          I would also like to make an  advertising  for  a  huge
          role-playing game that Armand Hirt and I are programing
          for more than a year now. It will  probably  be  called
          THE MISSION and be for sure one  of  the  most  complex
          role playing games  ever  created.  (I'm  very  excited
          about it, as you see!). We will release it as shareware
          or giftware sometime in 1994. Watch out for it!
          
          
          Comments, donations, postcards, bug reports etc. to:
          
          
          Christian Mumenthaler
          Langgr�tstr. 178
          CH-8047 Z�rich
          SWITZERLAND
          
          
          E-mail:  mumi@stud.phys.ethz.ch
          (As I am just finishing my studies, I may not  be  able
          to keep this e-mail address for a long time!)
          
          
          PS: Please read the "Copyright"-file too!  It  is  very
          important!
          
          
          Z�rich, 25. October 1993