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