K240 FULL MANUAL ================== TYPED BY SHARD - N&B CONTENTS -------- Playing the Game Finding Your Way Around This Manual Zone 001 - Tutorial Zone 002 - Colony Management Zone 003 - Spacecraft Construction Zone 004 - Spying Zone 005 - Fleets Zone 006 - Button Selection Panels Zone 007 - Terracorp and Sci-Tek Zone 008 - Hints Zone 009 - Background Zone 010 - Building Reference Section Zone 011 - Sci-Tek Zone 012 - Spacecraft Zone 013 - Hardpoint Weapons Zone 014 - Missile Warfare Zone 015 - The Enemy EPILEPSY WARNING ---------------- Please read before using this video game or allowing your children to use it. Some people are susceptible to epileptic seizures or loss of consciousness when exposed to certain flashing lights or light patterns in everyday life. Such people may have a seizure while watching certain television images or playing certain video games. This may happen even if the person has no medical history of epilepsy or has never had any epileptic seizures. If you or anyone in your family has ever had symptoms related to epilepsy (seizures or loss of consciousness) when exposed to flashing lights, consult your doctor prior to playing. We advise that parents should monitor the use of video games by their children. If you or your child experience any of the following symptoms: dizziness, blurred vision, eye or muscle twitches, loss of consciousness, disorientation, any involuntary movement or convulsion, while playing a video game, IMMEDIATELY discontinue use and consult your doctor. PRECAUTIONS TO TAKE DURING USE ------------------------------ Do not Stand too close to the screen. Sit a good distance away from the television screen, as far away as the length of the cable allows. Preferably play the game on a small television screen. Avoid playing if you are tired or have not had much sleep. Make sure that the room in which you are playing is well lit. Rest for at least 10 to 15 minutes per hour while playing a video game. CREDITS ------- Programming: Graeme Ing Graphics: Pete Daniels Game Design: Graeme Ing and Pete Daniels Music: Patrick Phelan SFX: Patrick Phelan and Neil Biggin Intro Programming: Michael Hart Intro graphics: Paul Green and Syd Franklin Produced by: Mark Glossop Manual Copy: Kai MacMahon and Graeme Ing Manual Design: Kai MacMahon, Edited by: Steve Mckevitt Manual Artwork: Dave Lewis and Alan Batson Voice of the Computer: Tracey Park Additional Help: Graham Stone, Kevin Dudley and Damian Hibbard Quality assurance: Simon Short, Robert Millington, Tony Howe PLAYING THE GAME ---------------- From Floppy disk: 1) Turn on your Amiga, 2) Insert disk 1 in your internal disk drive, (DF0:) 3) The game will automatically boot and run From Hard Disk: 1) Turn on your Amiga, 2) Wait for the Amiga to boot into Workbench 3) Locate the directory you have previously installed K240 into, (see "Installing onto Hard Disk" below) and double click on the K240 game icon, 4) The game will run. It is recommended that you install K240 onto a hard disk if you have one. The game will be easier to play due to do data and screens being loaded almost instantaneously. On Machines with more than half a Meg of chip ram K240 uses sampled speech to announce important events. This can cause excessive disk swopping on a single drive system. If you do not have a second drive, we suggest you disable the speech option from the Tetracorp screen. On the Floppy disk version, all saved games are made to the internal disk drive (DF0:), IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE A PRE-FORMATTED DISK FOR USE AS A SAVE-DISK BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO PLAY THE GAME! The save disk must be formatted in standard Amiga format. If you are unsure how to format a disk, follow the instructions given in the manuals that came with the Amiga. Each saved game requires approximately 180K of space. Apart from the save-disk, which will always be in DF0, K240 will recognise any of the game disks in any Floppy disk drive, internal or external. On the Hard Disk version, all saved games are made to the Hard Disk, in the same directory as the game has been installed. Installing Onto Hard Disk 1) Turn on your Amiga. 2) Wait for the Amiga to boot into Workbench. 3) Insert K240 disk 3 into any Floppy disk drive. Wait for the disk icon to appear on the screen. 4) Double click on the K240 disk icon. 5) Double click on the "Install K240" disk icon. 6) Follow on screen directions. FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND THE MANUALS ----------------------------------- This manual comes in three distinct sections. a) Tutorial: K240 is a complicated game. Once you are familiar with the basics it is actually quite straightforward to play. The tutorial forms a painless introduction to the basic elements of the game, and gives you an idea where to start. We strongly advise that you follow it. b) Main Reference section: This explains in detail all of the game. It is divided into sections so that you can easily find out about any subject. It is not necessary to read this part of the manual before you commence play; you can refer to the sections when you need them; but it is worthwhile skimming through it so that you are familiar with what you can do in the game. A hints section is included to assist you if you are unsure of how you should go about developing your mining colony. c) Technical section: This contains technical details on the various weapons, spacecraft, alien races etc, as well as some notes on Imperial history. The bulk of this material is for background only, and is not necessary to play the game, but an understanding of these technical details may help you to develop better strategies. ZONE 001 : TUTORIAL ------------------- This section of the manual is designed as a full tutorial. Over the following pages you will be taken step by step through the initial parts of the game. The more complex aspects of the game will be easier to understand when you have this basic knowledge. For a painless introduction to the game, we strongly advise you to follow this tutorial. Because you will be playing a proper game during the tutorial (Alien level 1 in fact) events are bound to happen that are not documented here. The most noticeable of these will be windows that pop up to report certain events. For now if any message window appears that is not explained by the tutorial, simply ignore it and click with the left mouse button on the Exit button that will appear in a little box beside the message window. The message will go away and you can continue with the tutorial. THE MAIN ASTEROID VIEW SCREEN ----------------------------- When you start the game select your language by picking the appropriate flag. When you reach the Tetracorp screen click on "END" to begin Alien Level one. You will now find yourself looking at your initial asteroid, on the Asteroid View Screen. Before we go any further let`s take a look around this screen. In the centre is a 3-D representation of your asteroid showing rocky terrain and the sole building in your colony (A Colony Preservation Unit in green.) In space above the asteroid is the transporter ship that you used to reach Sector K240. At bottom right is a building icon. This indicates which of the many buildings is currently active for construction. You`ll see how it`s used when we look at Colony Construction in a moment. Below it is a blue button. This is explained in the section of the manual about "Time Saving Techniques". Below that is the status line. Messages will appear here from time to time but usually it flashes between two important pieces or information: a) your money in Imperial Credits b) The date in the format: E2.yyy.dd Where E2 marks the 2nd Millennium AD, yyy the year and dd the day. Each year has 100 standard Imperial days. The game begins in E2.380.01, which is the year 2380 AD. USING THE MOUSE --------------- Before we go any further, lets look at the 3 different mouse modes as it is important that you are in the correct mode for an operation. a) Hand: This is the default mode used for most operations. Whilst in this mode you can click on the asteroid to construct buildings and click on buildings to obtain information. b) Arrow: This is the Ship Selection mode. In this mode you can ONLY click on any of your spacecraft (or Orbital Space dock) to obtain information about them and control them. You can perform no other function. You enter this mode by clicking on the Ship Mode button (see later), or pressing the "S" key. Do so again to return to the normal "hand" mode. c) Bomb: This is the demolish Mode. In this mode you can ONLY demolish your buildings should you desire to do so. Simply click with the left mouse button over any building to destroy it. You enter this mode by clicking on the demolish Mode button (see later) or pressing the "D" key. Do so again to return to the normal hand mode. You carry out most operations by clicking with the Left mouse button, eg selecting ships, selecting buildings, clicking on the asteroid, clicking on buttons, etc. Clicking the right mouse button anywhere on the screen brings up one of the several Button Panels. A different button Panel appears for each different screen. Some buttons also lead to other Button Panels. Most buttons are explained in the appropriate section in the manual but there is a separate card provided which identifies the purpose of every button. Try it now: Click with the right mouse button. The Asteroid Screen Button Panel appears with 3 rows of three buttons. Notice the button in the bottom right. This is the Exit button and clicking on it takes you back to the game. Every button Panel or information window has an Exit button and in each instance it will resemble the return key on your computer. Note also, that whilst any information window or button Panel is visible on the screen, the game is paused so take as long as you like. THE ASTEROID FIELD SCREEN ------------------------- Let`s have a quick look at this before we continue. This and the Main Asteroid View Screen will be the screens you will use most. From the Asteroid View Screen bring up the button Panel as shown above (Click the right mouse button.) The centre button will take you to the Asteroid Field Screen. Click on it now. Your starting asteroid is the one rotating with a little green dot an it. The green dot indicates that the asteroid is owned by you. Those with a red dot belong to the enemy, and those without a dot are uninhabited and free for the taking. Around your asteroid is a small black circle. The rest of the screen is grey. Grey indicates uncharted space, and you only know about ships and asteroids within the black circle which marks the extent of your sensors. At the start of the game it is likely that the only asteroid you know about is your own, though there are one or two others visible. There are two ways you can discover more asteroids: a) Sensor Range: If any asteroids move into your sensor range (the black circle) then they will become visible. You can extend the range of your sensors by building a Sensor Array and by colonising other asteroids. b) Scout Ships: You can instruct Scouts to head into uncharted space and Discover new asteroids outside your sensor range. Other information will be laid over this screen at various points in the game but these will be explained later. Below your asteroid is the acronym PAFW. This is a status summary of your asteroid and will appear below all asteroids owned by you. It is used as a quick means of seeing which of your colonies needs attention. P Power supplies A Air supplies F Food supplies W Water supplies A green letter indicates that all is well. An orange letter indicates that you are using more than you are producing on that asteroid and will be using up your surplus. A red letter indicates that you are producing none at all and are existing (or maybe not!) off surpluses alone. Time to do something!. These factors are explained more fully a little later in the tutorial. In the section about the Colony Summary Window. Finally, at the bottom right is the date/money indicator. Notice that the mouse pointer is now an orange cross hair. Let`s return to your asteroid now and look at building it up a bit. Click with the right button to bring up the Button Panel. Notice that this is a different button Panel to that on the Asteroid View Screen since it has functions applicable to this screen. Notice again that the bottom right button is the Exit button. The bottom left button will take you back to the Asteroid View Screen. Click on it now. CONSTRUCTING A COLONY --------------------- We`re now going to construct a small colony an our starting asteroid to give you a feel for colony construction. As already mentioned, you begin with a single CPU. There are a range of buildings available to you and more are available for purchase from the Sci-Tek Corporation. You select the building you want from the Engineering Window. As we showed you earlier click the right mouse button to bring up the main Button Panel. You access the Engineering Window by clicking on the button at bottom left. Click there now. The Engineering Window ---------------------- You can browse through the buildings available by clicking on the Left and Right arrow buttons. Have a look now at whats available. The later section on buildings gives more detailed information about each building. Since we are operating a Mining Colony let`s get things started. Cycle to the "Mine" building. Click on the Exit button to select this building. As you return to the main Asteroid View Screen, notice that the Mine building graphic appears at bottom right reminding you of your selection. Until you select another building every time you click on the asteroid you will build a Mine. Find a piece of flat land on the asteroid and click there with the left mouse button, to build. Notice the error message? Good. We have not yet allocated any funds to the Engineering Section. To do this, bring up the Button Panel and click on the Information button (middle top). This in turn brings up another Button Panel. Click on the Financial Funds button top-right) You are now in the Financial Funds Window. Before we proceed we`ll explain how this works. Financial Funds Window ---------------------- You have 5 different budgets to manage: Money - spare cash not assigned to any budget Construction - used for constructing buildings Vehicles - used for constructing spacecraft Intelligence - used tor financing spying Missiles - used for constructing missiles The number at the far right gives the amount allocated to each budget. There are also 3 bar charts for each budget. Green - Each block = 5,000 credits (heading is "5k") Orange - Each block = 100,000 credits (heading is "100k") Red - Each block = 1,000,000 credits (heading is "1M") To add some money to a budget simply click somewhere on the appropriate line, under any of the three columns. So if you click on the VEHICLES line between the 5K and 100K headings you will add one or more blocks of 5,000 credits. Clicking between 100K and 1M will add one or more blocks of 100,000 credits. The further to the right you click the more blocks you will add. To fine tune the amount, click and hold down the left button and drag it either left or right - this will add or remove a block. Go ahead and experiment, its easier to use than to describe! To remove some money from a budget click and drag left to remove one or more blocks. Notice that all money is given to or taken from the Spare Cash line (called MONEY) at the top, so you cannot directly move money from one budget to another, you have to delete it from one budget (making it spare cash) and then add it to another budget. If you are trying to add money to a budget and nothing is happening, its probably because you have no spare cash and you`ll have to reduce another budget first. Continuing our tutorial return all your money to the Spare Cash line at the top. We need to put some money into CONSTRUCTION so add some in by clicking on the CONSTRUCTION line. Anything over 100,000 Cr should do for now. Add the lot if you like. If during the rest of the tutorial you find that one of your budgets has run out, simply return to the Financial Funds Window and allocate some more money. Now exit from this window (using the "exit" button) and return to the game. Construction ------------ You can now build some Mines by clicking on the asteroid. Build 2 or 3 Mines. Notice that scaffolding appears as your men begin work. If you click on the scaffolding with the left mouse button and hold the button down you will be told what is being built and how many days until completion. Go back to the Engineering Window and move on a few buildings until you come to a Storage Facility. Exit the store and build a Store on your asteroid. You may want to build a couple of Solar Generators too, to ensure you have enough power. Interrogating Buildings ----------------------- If you click on an existing building with the left mouse button it will be identified. Certain buildings also pop up information or control windows. As an example click on one of your finished Mines. There is no information window for a mine just it`s name at the bottom of the screen. Click on the Store and you are presented with a listing of all the ore being held in your Stores at this time. For further details see the entry on Stores in the buildings section. We suggest that you now construct a few more buildings on your asteroid and when they are built, click on them to see what information you can obtain. For now simply exit any information windows and refer to the Buildings section for more details. Build what you like but we suggest the following: 4 or 5 Solar Generators Command Centre Weapons Factory Decontamination Filter Medical centre 2 or 3 Mines 2 or 3 Deep Bore Mines Storage Facility Sensor array Tactical Mode ------------- If you were having difficulty locating a flat piece of land to build on there are two ways around this: The first is to rotate the asteroid around so you can see behind existing buildings. To do this bring up the main Button Panel. Click on the middle left button which will take you to the Asteroid Control Button Panel. There are two yellow arrow buttons. Clicking on them will rotate the entire asteroid left or right by 90 degrees. A quicker way of doing this is to use the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard. Notice how the Transporter in orbit rotates as well since you are viewing the entire asteroid from another viewpoint. The other method to assist you is the Tactical Mode. Bring up the main Button Panel and then the Asteroid Control Button Panel just like above. The bottom left button (a blue cube) toggles the tactical mode on and off. Solid box with "N" indicates normal mode Outline box with "T" indicates tactical mode. The button will not take effect until you exit out of the button panels (Later we`ll show you a quicker way to access buttons!) Notice that when you exit the button panels all the buildings and terrain have disappeared to be replaced by colour coded squares. You can now see every part of the asteroid and selecting a site to build upon is easy. You can also click on buildings to obtain information just as you can in normal mode. The various colours represent the following features: Light Grey - Flat land Dark Grey - Terrain unsuitable for building Light Blue - Buildings Red - Landing Pads White - Buildings protected by a Screen Generator Green - Asteroid Virus deposits Dark Blue - Anti Virus deposits We`ll explain some of these later. A quicker way of changing between normal and tactical mode is to press the SPACE key on the keyboard. Tutorial Conclusion ------------------- You should now have an understanding of the basics of the game: How to access button Panels, view your asteroid, access the asteroid Field Screen, select and build a building, manage your budgets, and so on. The rest of the manual is a reference section and will explain the important features of the game in depth. We would recommend that you read the reference sections. In the order they appear, as they have been structured in such a way as to be chronologically correct ie they appear in the order that you are going to need them in. ZONE 002 : COLONY MANAGEMENT ---------------------------- Your prime directive is to extract and sell as much ore as you can but the most successful and productive mining colonies all rely upon a strong and stable colony infrastructure. It is vital to regularly monitor the colonies on all your asteroids and to keep them running smoothly. There are four main aspects to successful colony management: a) Population b) Security c) Life Support d) Power a) Population Though many parts of your mining equipment are robotic,the robots usually only undertake the tasks that are most dangerous to human life. Human employees are required for many important duties and to oversee and control the robots. To support the mining and technician employees there is an entire Service Industry offering training, relaxation and participation in other leisure activities. Shifts are long and hard and as a result Tetracorp encourage their employees to play hard too. Procreation is outlawed on mining colonies for safety reasons but your colonies will slowly grow in population as your personnel department entices more men and women out from the Home Worlds. The more successful and smoother running your colonies the easier recruitment becomes. In general your population will grow slowly to fill all avaiable living space so you can directly control your population by building fewer or more Living Quarters. The Colony Summary Window (see below) indicates the number of surplus employees you have. These are employees available for backup roles and to operate alternate shifts with technical employees. For stability attempt to keep the surplus positive but not too high. If the surplus is negative then your employees are stretched and may be working double shifts to complete necessary work morale will deteriorate. If your surplus is too high, boredom can effect those not currently working and trouble can break out. b) Security Morale can fluctuate quickly on a mining colony. Spaces are cramped and employees work and play with the same faces day in and day out. Tempers can flare, fights are commonplace and employees are quick to anger at management failures. There would be mutiny every day were it not for your dedicated and highly paid security team. Security will keep your employees under control but only if their presence is large enough. Each Security Centre can easily manage 150 employees and often many more but don`t stretch your security too thin or you are inviting big trouble. You will be issued with reports when (if?) trouble breaks out but don`t wait for these reports monitor the Security status in the Colony Summary Window (see below) c) Life Support Each asteroid colony must be self sufficient and that means producing its own Air, Food and Water. Each employee uses 1 unit of each every day so it is necessary to produce at least as many units per day as you have employees but it is also wise to produce and store a surplus. Initially each asteroid colony begins with a single Colony Preservation Unit (CPU) which provides living space, power, air, food and water but only for a limited population and time. (see description of the CPU in the Buildings section) To back up the CPU you need other support buildings. BUILDING PRODUCES Life Support AIR Hydroponics FOOD Hydration Plant WATER In addition Environment Control continues where the CPU left off by storing all three of the above in vast quantities. The Colony Summary Window (see below) details how much of each resource you are producing, using and storing, so monitor it often and keep production ahead of population growth. More information is given for each of the above buildings in the Buildings section. Remember also that the PAFW display on the Asteroid Field Screen provides a quick summary of the status of your asteroids. PAFW was explained in the tutorial pages. d) Power Clearly nothing can operate without power. The Buildings section of the manual details the power requirement of every building. There are several power production buildings and more efficient ones are available from Sci-Tek. Like Life Support it`s vital to use the Colony Summary Window and PAFW to monitor the status of power to each colony and keep production ahead of usage. Should you suffer power shortages some buildings will fail before others. In general the most vital buildings like Life Support and Hydroponics will fail last. To see which buildings have failed simply click on any power generating building and those buildings without power will be listed. RADIATION --------- Each asteroid has background radiation some higher than others. Radiation is expressed as a percentage. 0% means the radiation is immeasurable above the radiation given off from the local star. Any value of 50% or lower is acceptable but higher radiation is harmful and will result in sickness and even deaths amoungst your employees. Use Radiation Filters to provide them with the necessary protection. (see the description in the Buildings section). Factors that lead to high radiation values are the use of Nuclear missles extensive combat and the presence of rare ores such as Traxium and Nexos. When mining these ores you must be very careful to protect your employees using Radiation Filters. COLONY SUMMARY WINDOW --------------------- You can access this by clicking on any of the colony support buildings such as Living Quarters Life Support, Hydroponics and CPU etc. Remember that you must be in Normal (hand) mode. You can also access it via the button in the Asteroid View Screen Button Panel. This information gives you an important breakdown on the status of your colony on that asteroid. You are told your current population, your maximum population, the total space in all your Living Quarter) and Surplus Population. As explained above in Colony management try to keep the surplus a positive number to allow for growth but if you overpopulate your asteroid you risk running short of food, water and air. Keep an eye on the Radiation reading (see Radiation above). The most important part of the Colony Summary Window is the breakdown of Power, Air, Food and Water. You are told how much you are producing, how much is being used daily and how much is stored for later use. The colour codes give you an instant indication of which of these factors may need attention: Green - No problems Orange - The asteroid is using a commodity faster than it is being produced. Your reserves are being used up. Red - The asteroid is no longer producing a commodity and you are running entirely from reserves (or maybe none at all!) you must rectify the situation quickly! The Security line provides a summary of employee morale on the asteroid. If the message suggests that the asteroid is not secure you would be wise to construct another Security Centre. The final line reminds you which fleets are present at this asteroid. There are also some options available by using the supplied buttons: RENAME INVENTORY EXIT Clicking on RENAME allows you to rename the asteroid. You can personalise all your asteroids and give them a name that reflects their function, like MAIN MINE or ORE DEPOT or SPACE DOCK etc. Simply delete the existing name using the backspace key and enter your own name up to 15 characters. Clicking on INVENTORY will provide a detailed listing of how many of each type of building you have. The listing is broken down into pages - simply use the Arrow Buttons to cycle through the pages. ASTEROID MINING --------------- The purpose of your colony in sector K240 is to locate and extract ores for sale to Tetracorp and the Empire. The more you sell, the larger your profits and your fame in the mining fraternity. This section details how to mine ore, what to do with it, how to transport it and how to sell it. DISCOVERING ORE --------------- The first step is to locate asteroids rich in ore deposits. This Exploration Phase requires the use of one or more Scout Ships. To go in search of new asteroids dispatch the Scout with orders to Explore. For details of how to do this see the section on Controlling Spacecraft and pay particular attention to the subsection on Scouts. Each asteroid has different amounts of each type of ore. To determine which asteroids are the most abundant in ore you must use a Scout with the orders to Prospect for ore. Again see the section on Controlling Spacecraft. When the scout has examined the asteroid it will return to its departure asteroid and present you with an ore report. You can obtain this report at any time for any at the asteroids you have prospected, by clicking on the Geology button. The Ore Report simply details how much of each type of ore remains on the asteroid to be mined. The most common are shown at the top and the rarest at the bottom. ORE EXTRACTION -------------- To extract ore you must have one or more mines. There are three types of mine each mining a particular range of ores. The table below indicates which mines you require to mine particular ores by colour coding them: Selenium Red Red requires a mine Asteros Red Barium Red Crystalite Red Quazinc Orange Orange requires a deep bore mine Bytanium Orange Korellium Orange Dragonium Orange Traxium Green Green requires a Seismic Penetrator Nexos Green obtainable from Sci-Tek As well as providing adequate power for the mines you must build one or more Stores to hold the ore. Clicking on a Store building provides you with a listing of what ores you have in ALL the stores on that asteroid. Each mine extracts one unit of ore about every 8 to 16 days. You have no control over which units are extracted. The main thing to remember about mining is to keep it running smoothly and consistently. Here are a few other points to bear in mind: Make sure there is enough power for all mines. Keep a constant track on the population of your asteroid and try and maintain a positive surplus. Make sure you have enough storage space for the ore. ORE USAGE --------- What do you do with ore? 1) Use it for ship construction 2) Use it for missile construction 3) Sell it to the Empire (see later) This is a summary of most of the cases in the game when you wil need ore: ORE NEEDED FOR Selenium Explosive Missile, Scatter Missile, Assault Fighter, Combat Eagle, Scout Ship, Destructor, Terminator Transporter, Fleet Battleship Asteros Nuclear Missile, Powerplant Barium Area Explosive Missile, Anti Virus Missile, Spy Satellite Crystalite Vortex Missile, Assault Fighter, Combat Eagle Scout Ship, Destructor. Quazinc Napalm Missile, Hellfire Missile Bytanium Space Dock Korellium Stasis Missile Dragonium Space Dock, Terminator, Transporter, Fleet Battleship Traxium Virus Missile Nexos Mega missile SELLING ORE ----------- It is necessary to retain some ore for your own use but the remainder can be sold to Tetracorp and the Empire. The Empire offers prices for ore that vary each Imperial year. You may attempt to play the markets and wait for a high price before you sell ore but don`t speculate for too long or the price may drop again. To obtain the Imperial Ore Prices click on the Command Centre building. These are the prices that the Empire will pay for each unit of ore. Sometimes the Empire will guarantee prices for a number of years for a particular ore type that it needs badly. In this case the letter "H" will appear after the ore price to indicate that the price has been held. The number after the "H" indicates the number of years that the price is held for. The Prices window also indicates the number of days before the next Imperial Ore Carrier arrives at your colony. This is important because you can only sell ore when the Imperial Ore Carrier arrives. The Imperial Ore Carrier will always arrive at whichever of your asteroids has the most ore in its Stores. You can use this fact to ensure that you transport ore in from your other asteroids. Tetracorp recommends that you have a central asteroid that acts as a major storage depot and that all other asteroids regularly ship their ore to this depot. The Imperial Ore Carrier remains in orbit about your asteroid for a short time before returning to the Imperial Home Worlds. 5 days before it leaves the crew will radio down with the appropriate message. Click on the Imperial Ore Carrier (whilst in Ship Selection Mode) and you will gain access to the Ore Transfer Window. This lists all the ore you have in the asteroids stores and the contents of the Ore Carriers cargo bays. The current Imperial Prices are listed for convenience. To transfer ore to the Ore Carrier click over the name of the type of ore with the right mouse button. A quantity of ore will be transferred. This quantity depends upon which ore type you have selected. Since you usually have large numbees of the cheaper ores the transfer quantity is large. For rarer ores it is small. Ores marked as red 50 units at a time. Ores marked as orange 5 units at a time. Ores marked as green 1 unit at a time. If you change your mind you can unload ore from the Ore Carrier into your Asteroid Stores by clicking with the left mouse button. Note that you can only Unload ore that you have previously loaded: there is no way of buying ore from the Empire. You can access the Ore Transfer Window as many times as you like whilst the Ore Carrier orbits your asteroid. You will be paid for the ore when the Ore Carrier returns to the Imperial Home Worlds. END OF PART ONE -=- -=- -=- -=- K240 FULL MANUAL ================== PART TWO -=- -=- TRANSPORTING ORE ---------------- There are two methods of transporting ore between your asteroids: a) Using a Transporter Ship b) Using an Ore Teleporter Building The Ore Teleporter must be bought from Sci-Tek but is a very useful facility. It enables you to instantly teleport ore between any asteroids that have an Ore Teleporter installed. This facility is perfect for transferring ore to your ore depot at the last minute when using a Transporter may take too long. For details about how to use the Ore Teleporter see the description of the Ore Teleporter in the Buildings section. TRANSPORTER SHIP ---------------- This is the main means of moving ore between your asteroids. The general procedure is: a) Load ore onto Transporter from asteroid Stores b) Move Transporter to another asteroid c) Unload ore from Transporter into new asteroid Stores Load Ore -------- Click on the Transporter (whilst in Ship Selection Mode) to access the Spacecraft Control Window. (See appropriate section for details) Click on the LOAD/UNLOAD ORE order button and you will access the Ore Transfer Window. This lists all the ore you have in the asteroids stores and the contents of the Transporters cargo bays. To Load ore onto the Transporter simply use the same process as is used to load ore onto the Imperial carrier. Ores marked as red 50 units at a time Ores marked as orange 5 units at a time. Ores marked as green 1 unit at a time. Move Transporter ---------------- See the section on Controlling Spacecraft for details of how to send the Transporter to another asteroid Unload Ore ---------- The procedure for Unloading ore is identical for that of Loading ore (see above) except that ore is transferred from the Transporter to the asteroid Stores using the left mouse button. ZONE 003 : SPACECRAFT CONSTRUCTION ---------------------------------- You will not get very far in the game without constructing a ship for one reason or another. This section describes how to do so. There are 8 types of ship and each has its uses as summarised here. For greater details about each ship, see the Spacecraft descriptions in the technical supplement. These ships can only be built using a Spacecraft Construction Yard: NAME USE HARDPOINTS Assault Fighter Combat 1 Combat Eagle Combat 2 Scout Ship Exploration/Prospecting/Spying 1 These ships can only be built using a Space Dock: (see Space Docks) NAME USE HARDPOINTS Destructor Combat 3 Terminator Combat 4 Transporter Colonisation/Ore Transporting 2 Fleet Battleship Combat 6 Space Dock Constructing Larger Spacecraft 4 Spacecraft Construction Yard Once you have built one or more Construction Yards, you can begin building the 3 smaller ship types. Before you do so, you must have the following: A Weapons Factory on the current asteroid Money allocated into the Vehicles Fund (See Financial Funds) Appropriate ore in Stores on the current asteroid. Ship construction will pause if all these things are not present. You can check the status of the Yard that is currently building ships by clicking on the Yard. Instead of the options to build ships, you will be given a progress report. This report will state if any of the above factors are not catered for. Each Yard can only construct one type of ship at a time (but up to 6 of that type) but if you have another Yard then it can be building a different type of ship at the same time. Each Yard can construct up to 3 ships at a time or 6 if you have purchased the Construction Droids from Sci-Tek. Spacecraft Construction Window This appears when you click on a vacant Spacecraft Construction Yard or on the Space Dock. Click on LEFT or RIGHT or use the left and right arrows to cycle through the ships available to you. Most of the ship details are repeated in the Spacecraft descriptions given in the technical section but a few require explanation. The number in brackets after the ships name equals the number of ships currently selected for construction. Click on BUILD to Increase this number. There are two Armour Figures. The first is the basic armour of the ships hull. The second figure (in brackets) is the total armour if any defence hardpoints have been installed in the ship (see below). The Build Times, both for individual ships and for the whole group are indicated here. The Ore Needed is also displayed. The Cost is the basic Hull cost + the total hardpoint cost (in brackets) to give the total cost for each ship and for the whole production. Hardpoints Each ship has a number of hardpoints into which you can install any of the available weapons/ defenses. This flexible system allows you to produce custom ships for specific purposes. Hardpoint weapons fall into 3 categories: a) Weapon for use against an enemy asteroid b) Weapon for use against an enemy ship c) Defence. Here are a few suggestions: 1) An Eagle with 2 attack weapons for use as an attack ship 2) An Eagle with 1 shield weapon and 1 attack weapon for defensive purposes 3) A Terminator with all hardpoints installed with anti asteroid weapons to maximise an attack against an enemy asteroid 4) A Terminator with all hardpoints installed with anti ship weapons to use as part of a fleet intercepting enemy fleets (see later) Since a ship with all anti asteroid weapons could not defend itself if if were attacked by enemy ships it may be wise to have a couple of each type so the ship can attack an asteroid OR a ship. You must decide the contents of each hardpoint depending upon your own strategies. Details on each hardpoint weapon are given in the technical section. Weapon Installation To Install a weapon into a hardpoint you must first select the weapon. In the bottom left window are up to 8 available weapon icons. More are available by clicking on the NEXT button. There are two sets of 8, but many are blank until they are purchased from Sci-Tek. Click on one of the weapon icons with the left mouse button and it will be selected. Its name and cost will be shown. You can install this in one of the ship's hardpoints by clicking with the left mouse button over one of the red boxes on the ship blueprint. The weapon is now installed. To remove the weapon simply click on it again. To install another weapon instead, select another weapon from the bottom icons and click over the already occupied hardpoint. The old weapon will disappear leaving the hardpoint empty. Click again to install the new weapon. Do this for every hardpoint on the ship, though you may leave hardpoints blank if you are really short of money! When you are satisfied with your ship remember to select the number you want to build, using the BUILD button. Then click on EXIT and construction will begin provided you have enough money and ore, and that you have a Weapons Factory. You may clear everything at any time by clicking on ABORT. After Construction As each ship is completed it will be stored. Smaller ships are stored in the asteroid Hangers (see the section on Controlling Ships). Larger ships as constructed by the Space Dock remain in orbit awaiting your commands. SPACE DOCKS ----------- A Space Dock is necessary if you want to construct the larger spacecraft. Since the Space Dock has 4 hardpoints and a large amount of armour it is also an effective defence against attack by enemy ships. Constructing a Space Dock Each asteroid can only support one Space Dock. To construct one you must have a Command Centre on the asteroid. Click on the Command Centre and then on the Space Dock Button that appears. You are presented with the Ship Construction screen and the details of the Space Dock. Notice how much ore and money is required! Use the method described above to construct the Space Dock. If you go to the Asteroid Orbit Screen you will see scaffolding appear in space as it is built. Eventually this scaffolding will clear and your Space Dock will be ready for use. To obtain a status report click on the scaffolding. Using a Space Dock ------------------ To construct one of the larger ships simply go to the Asteroid Orbit Screen and click on the Space Dock. The Ship Construction Window will appear and you can proceed as described above. CONTROLLING SPACECRAFT ---------------------- Ships can be controlled individually or as a group known as a fleet. Controlling Fleets is dealt with later. To issue orders to a ship you must click on the ship whilst in Spacecraft Selection Mode. This is where the mouse pointer is a white arrow, NOT the normal hand. There are 2 ways to get into Spacecraft Selection Mode: a) Click on the Ship button b) Press the "S" key. Both toggle between Normal Hand Mode and Spacecraft Selection Mode. When you click on a ship the Spacecraft Control Window appears: The ship details remind you what the capabilities of this ship are, such as the contents of its hardpoints and remaining armour points. It also tells you which fleet (1 to 8) this ship may belong to, or zero if it doesnt yet belong to a fleet. Orders are given by clicking on the buttons. You can give each ship one or two orders to carry out at a time. Most ships revert to Patrol Mode when they complete their orders, waiting for you to issue new ones. Each ship has different orders available to it so we`ll examine each ship individually. Assault Fighter & Combat Eagle These ships have the same orders. Land Land Hanger Patrol Join Fleet Go To Asteroid Exit Abort LAND: The simplest order. This simply causes the ship to locate a random vacant square on the asteroid and land on it. LAND HANGER: Similar to LAND except that the ship will locate one of your Landing Pads and land there. Once on the Pad the elelator will automaticaily lower the ship into the underground hangers safly storing the ship. See the section Controlling Hangered Ships for how to gain access to the ship again. The main advantage at hangering ships is to get them to safety during an enemy attack Damaged ships are repaired whilst they are in the hangers. PATROL: The ship will enter the standard patrol mode. It will repeatedly fly between the Asteroid View Screen and the Orbit Screen ready for any enemy attack. JOIN FLEET: This order is used to assign the ship to one of the 8 fleets. For details see the later section on Controlling Fleets. When you click on the button the order "JOIN FLEET 1" appears in the order window To assign the ship to another fleet simply click successively on the JOIN FLEET button. The ship will do one of 3 things depending upon its position relative to the fleet: a) If the fleet and ship are in orbit around the same asteroid the ship will immediately join the fleet and go into Patrol Mode. b) If the flett is in orbit around the current asteroid and the ships in the underground hanger it will launch from the hangers via a Landing Pad and then join the fleet. c) If the fleet is at a different asteroid to the ship, or travelling in space between asteroids the ship will automatically leave the asteroid and travel to join the fleet wherever it is. Note: Once a ship is in a fleet it can only be controlled via the Fleet Control Window (see appropriate section). To remove a ship from a fleet either use the LEAVE option from the Fleet Control Window or simply access the Spacecraft Control Window and give it new orders. It will automatically leave the fleet and carry out the new orders. GO TO ASTEROID: This order allows you to send on individual ship to another asteroid friendly or otherwise. It is often easier to send ships in Fleets (see later) but there are times when you need or want to send a single ship. When you click on the button you will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen with all the known asteroids shown. Simply click with the left mouse button on the destination asteroid. Back at the Spacecraft Control Window notice that your order has been entered into the orders window. EXIT: Use this to exit the Control Window and initiate the orders you have programmed if any. ABORT: Use this to erase any current orders ready for you to enter new ones, (You must ABORT current orders first). You can also use ABORT followed by EXIT to cancel all orders and cause the ship to stop in space. Scout Ship This ship has all the orders available to the Assault Ship and Combat Eagle and three new ones: PROSPECT EXPLORE SPY The primary purpose of the Scout Ship is to explore space looking for new asteroids and then to prospect these asteroids to report what ore deposits are there. SPY: Once you know the location of one or more enemy colonies, you can use the Scout to gather very basic information about them. For full details see the section on Spying. EXPLORE: Initially your knowledge of the asteroid field is very limited and you will need to send out one or more scouts to discover new asteroids to colonise. Use this option. When you click on the button vou will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen with all the known asteroids shown. Space is divided into 40 sectors. Simply click with the left mouse button on the sector you wish to head for. Back at the Spacecraft Control Window, notice that your order has been entered into the orders window. The scout will head for the chosen sector looking for asteroids all the while. As soon as it discovers one it will return to the departure asteroid to report its findings. The asteroid will become visible on the Asteroid Field Screen and you will receive a bonus payment. PROSPECT: It is vital that you prospect new asteroids to discover what ore deposits are available for mining. Use this option frequently. When you click on the button you will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen where all known asteroids will be displayed. Simply click with the left mouse button on the destination asteroid. Back at the Spacecraft Control Window notice that your order has been entered into the orders window. The scout will travel to the chosen asteroid land take mining samples and then return. Upon its return it will issue a report of the ore deposits it has found. You can then decide whether the asteroid is worth colonising or not. Destructor & Terminator These ships have the same orders as the Assault Fighter except that they can neither LAND nor LAND HANGER. Transporter COLONISE LOAD ORE GO TO AST JOIN FLEET ABORT EXIT The two new options available are COLONISE and LOAD/UNLOAD ORE The Transporter is primarily used for two functions: a) Starting a colony on a new asteroid b) Transporting ore between colony asteroids COLONISE: When you have located an asteroid that you wish to colonise you must dispatch a Transporter to begin the new colony. Starting a colony costs 30000 Cr which must be available in the Free Money Grant. (See the section On Financial Funds). Upon arrival at the chosen asteroid the Transport will begin construction of a Colony Preservation Unit. Once this is complete you may begin to build up your colony to your requirements. See the section on Colonisation for further details. To give the required orders to the transporter first click on GO TO AST and select an asteroid. (See instructions above). Then click on COLONISE and EXIT. If you want to start a colony on the asteroid the Transporter is already in orbit around, simply click on COLONISE. LOAD/UNLOAD ORE: Clicking on this button brings up the Ore Transportation Window, and enables you to move ore between the cargo bays on the Transporter and the Stores on the current asteroid See the section on Ore Transportation in the Mining section for further details. Fleet Battleship This has only the following orders available to it all of which are detailed above: GO TO AST JOIN FLEET ABORT EXIT Space Dock No orders are available to the Space Dock. Clicking upon it will initiate the Spacecraft Construction Window. See the section on Space Docks for further details. CONTROLLING HANGERED SHIPS -------------------------- When ships are in the underground hanger you obviously can`t control them by clicking on the ship graphic. Instead you must click on the Landing Pad whilst in Normal Hand Mode. This brings up the Ship Inventory Window. This details all the ships in orbit around the current asteroid and in the underground hangers, but ONLY ships not currently members of another fleet. All these ships are available for control. To select one or more ships click the mouse button over the name of the ship. Click right to select one ship or left to deselect one ship. Selected ships are shown by green blocks, and non selected ships by red blocks. You can quickly select more than one of a ship by holding down the mouse button. The numbers at the right remind you of how many ships you have selected. The ABORT button will deselect all selected ships. The Exit button will exit the window performing no action on the ships. Clicking on the SHIP button enables to you to access the Spacecraft Control Window and issue orders to the ships as described earlier in this section. You can now issue any order to the ships and they will automatically leave the hangers via a Landing Pad before carrying out those orders. A distinct advantage of using the Ship inventory Screen is that you can issue the same orders to several ships at once. You could select several ships and tell them all to land in the hangers or go to an asteroid. You cannot however give them different parameters to the order: so if you ordered 7 scouts to explore, they would all head for the same sector you couldn't direct them to different sectors. Note also that some orders are unavailable to certain ships eg if you selected a Scout and a Transporter, you could order the Scout to explore but the Transporter would simply ignore that order. They`re Transporters you see. For transporting things. ZONE 004 : SPYING ----------------- Though the Empire and Tetracorp have extensive databases containing information about the known alien races, much of this data is interpreted and assumed from long distance sensors and spy satellites. We know very little about the physical make up of alien colonies and even less about their expansion and military tactics. During your exploration of sector K240 you will need to supplement this information with more specific details discovered by your own spying efforts. Obtaining data about the aliens on a regular basis will allow you to predict their moves and could well give you an edge over them in combat. There is nothing you can learn until you discover at least one of their asteroid colonies (It will be marked on the Asteroid Field Screen by a red dot). There are two approaches to gathering information: a) A Scout Spying Mission b) A Spy Satellite USING SCOUTS TO SPY ------------------- This is the easiest approach to spying but the information gained is limited. Once you have an available Scout click on the SPY button in the Spacecraft Control Window. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen with all the known asteroids shown. Click on the asteroid of interest with the left mouse button. Back at the Spacecraft Control Window notice that your order has been entered into the orders window. The scout will head for the chosen asteroid. Once there it will gather as much information as it can without being detected and return to your asteroid to issue a report. The report simply indicates the number of buildings on the enemy asteroid (not what types), the number of ships observed in orbit around the asteroid and in particular the number of Transporter ships and Battleships (or ships of a similar size since exact ship details vary from alien to alien). Be aware that due to the brevity of the Scouts mission, this information is an estimation only. THE USE OF SPY SATELLITES ------------------------- There are three major reasons for using Spy Satellites rather than Scout Ships for spying: a) They offer more detailed information b) They provide warnings of enemy fleet and missile movements c) They allow you to examine the enemy asteroid Once you have a Spy Satellite orbiting an enemy asteroid, it continually transmits back video information about the surface of the asteroid. This allows you to use the Asteroid View Screen and actually watch the enemy colony yourself, to see what buildings they have, how quickly they are building, what ships are in orbit etc. This information is free and extremely useful. If you click on an enemy building you can get an idea of its function. The only other time you can watch an enemy asteroid from the Asteroid View Screen is when you have ships or fleets currently attacking it. Then you can watch the battle take place! CONSTRUCTING A SPY SATELLITE ---------------------------- You may have as many satellites as you wish. To construct one you need to build a Satellite Silo on one or more of your asteroids. When you click on the Satellite Silo with the left mouse button you enter the Satellite Construction Window. You are told the number of satelites currently in the asteroid hangers and the number under construction. BUILD ABORT LAUNCH TARGET EXIT To construct a new satellite click on BUILD. Each click will order a new satellite to be constructed. You may cancel these requests for satellites by clicking on ABORT. At the present time each satellite costs 10,000 Cr and requires 2 units of Barium Ore. You also require a Weapons Factory on the same asteroid to construct the complicated shielding equipment needed by the satellite. The money is taken from the Intelligence Grant so ensure you have allocated sufficient funds to that grant via the Financial Funds Window. A status line will inform you of any problems with construction. Completed satellites are sent to the main asteroid hangers and are ready to launch. It is recommended that you construct several satellites before you actually need them. LAUNCHING A SPY SATELLITE ------------------------- To launch a satellite click on the Satellite Silo and check that it reports that you have a satellite available for launch. First you must select its destination. Click on the TARGET button. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen where you can select an enemy asteroid by clicking on it with the left mouse button. This target will be remembered by the Satellite Silo until either you change it or the destination asteroid is destroyed. Thus you can launch further satellites to the same asteroid without having to select the target again. To launch the satellite simply click on the LAUNCH button you will observe the satellite leave the silo and head for the enemy asteroid. You cannot launch another satellite from the same silo for several days since the launch mechanism must be reset. SENSOR REPORTS FROM SPY SATELLITES ---------------------------------- Once a spy satellite arrives at its destination it shields itself and immediately begins to monitor the asteroid. On the Asteroid Field Screen you will see a small blue animation indicating that the satellite is operating normally. A satellite provides you with warnings of an enemy attack. Normallv you are only aware of the presence of enemy missiles and fleets when they enter the range of your sensors. If the satellite detects missiles leaving silos on the asteroid it will immediately issue a missile Launch Detection. It will do a similar thing the moment it detects a Fleet leaving orbit. This warning takes two forms. On the Asteroid View Screen you will see the missile or fleet warning icons appear in the bottom left corner but with the addition of the word Launch. You will receive this warning even if the enemy asteroid is not inside your sensor range. In this case you will receive a Launch warning and then a short while later you will also receive the usual warning when the fleet or missiles enter your sensor range. Thus a satellite can warn you of approaching danger long before your sensors detect the threat. The other visual indication is on the Asteroid Field Screen. Once you recieve a Launch Detect Warning you may need to know which of the enemy asteroids has launched the attack. A flashing launch indicator (a red box) surrounds the asteroid from which the launch was detected. This warning will disappear after a short while Warning: The spy satellite is not infallible. On rare occasions it will fail to detect a missile launch or fleet departure. Do not over rely upon your spy satellites! SPY REPORTS FROM SPY SATELLITES ------------------------------- At any time you can interrogate any of your spy satellites and obtain immediate information about the asteroid it is orbiting. To do so click on the SPY button from the Asteroid View Screen. You are taken to the Asteroid Field Screen and asked to select the asteroid that interests you. You must select an asteroid which has an orbiting spy satellite. After selecting the asteroid you gain access to the main Spying Screen. There are 8 categories of information listed on the screen and the cost of obtaining that information. At the top of the screen is the money you have available (The Intelligence Fund). Always ensure you have allocated sufficient money to the Intelligence Fund before entering the Spying Screen. To obtain information, simply click on the chosen category. The appropriate cost will be deducted and a report will be issued. Whilst you remain in the Spying Screen, you can call up these reports as many times as you like at no furthur cost. The categories are described below, but remember that the information is not always accurate, since the enemy are careful to encode their transmissions and conceal their true plans. For peace of mind interrogate your spy satelites on a regular basis, perhaps annually. Population ---------- This estimates the population on the asteroid Missile Inventory ----------------- This estimates the number of warheads stacked in their underground silos. Since their technology differs from ours the exact types of warheads are not given. There are three categories estimating the yield (destructive power) of the warheads. A fourth category marked "Other" indicates warheads of whose purpose we have no idea at this stage. Number of Enemy Asteroids ------------------------- This estimates the number of asteroids occupied by the enemy and may indicate that they occupy asteroids that we have not yet discovered. Our Asteroids Known to Enemy ---------------------------- This gives a list of our asteroids that are known to the enemy. It can give a valuable insight into where they are likely to attack or what asteroids we need not defend since the enemy are unaware of their presence. Building Inventory ------------------ This provides an indication of the buildings observable on the asteroid. There are categories for general buildings, defensive buildings (maybe Shield Generators or Anti Missile Pods) offensive buildings (Turrets Missile Silos etc) and power generating buildings. Make Up of Deployed Fleet ------------------------- If you have been warned that this asteroid has recently deployed a fleet you can obtain an estimation of its size. The report indicates the number of ships and number of Battleships in the fleet. Destination of Deployed Fleet ----------------------------- If you have been warned that this asteroid has recently deployed a fleet you can determine where that fleet is headed. Clearly this is very valuable information allowing you to prepare a welcoming surprise! Destination of Missile Strike ----------------------------- If you have been warned that this asteroid has recently launched a missile strike you can determine where those missiles are headed. Remember that spying information can occasionally be in error. Tetracorp accepts no responsibility for the loss and damage caused by an inaccurate or incomplete spy report. LOSING SPY SATELLITES --------------------- It is inevitable that the enemy will detect our satellites and destrov them. The longer a satellite orbits an enemy asteroid the greater this chance is. The satellite can also betray its presence each time you request specific information from the Spy Screen so don`t ask for spy information too regularly. Better still dispatch more than one satellite to the same enemy asteroid to provide a backup. ZONE 005 : FLEETS ----------------- A convenient method of controlling ships is to place them into fleets. Once joined together as a fleet ships can be easily ordered to move between asteroids. There are advantages and disadvantages to using fleets as opposed to controlling each ship individually. The advantages are that you can dispatch an entire battle fleet by clicking on just a couple of buttons. It is also easier to group ships by their type so that you know where ships are and what they are supposed to be doing. There are also some functions such as intercepting an approaching enemy fleet, that can only be done using fleets. The disadvantages are that you have less control over individual ships. There are only 4 orders you can give a fleet though they are powerful. However you can always remove a ship from a fleet at any time if you want it to perform more specialised duties. Certain orders can only be done using individual ship control such as colonisation, exploring or prospecting. JOINING A FLEET --------------- There are two ways to group ships into a fleet: a) Use the JOIN FLEET option from the Spacecraft Control Window. See the appropriate section b) Use the JOIN SHIPS button from the Fleet Control Window described below In general it you are making a fleet for the first time it is best to use method b). If you later want to add one or two ships to an existing fleet you will usually use method a). FLEET CONTROL WINDOW -------------------- You can obtain the Fleet Control Window by one of 2 means: a) Clicking on the Fleet button b) Clicking on one of your fleet markers on the Asteroid Field Screen You can control up to 8 fleets. To obtain the details about any fleet or to create a new one, select the fleet number 1-8 by clicking on the PREV and NEXT buttons. The fleet number in the top right will alter. If the Fleet Listing Window is empty then this fleet does not yet exist. If it does exist, there will be a listing of all the ships in the current fleet and their current armour points. To create a fleet or add ships to an existing fleet click on JOIN. The display will switch to the Ship Inventory Window. This details all the ships in orbit around the current asteroid but ONLY ships not currently members of another fleet. All these ships are available to be added to this fleet. You cannot use this method to add hangered ships to the fleet: to do that you must use the Spacecraft Control Window and the JOIN FLEET button. To select one or more ships click the mouse button over the name of the ship. Click right to select one ship or left to de-select one ship. Selected ships are shown by green blobs and non-selected ships by red blobs. You can quickly select more than one of a ship by holding down the mouse button. The numbers at the right remind you of how many ships you have selected. The ABORT button will de-select all selected ships. The EXIT button will return you to the Fleet Control Window remembering the ships you have selected These will be added to the fleet and will appear in the Fleet Listing Window. These ships will switch to Patrol Mode orbiting the asteroid until you issue an order to the fleet. If the Fleet Listing fills its window then you can use the PAGE button to flick between the various pages of the listing. The current and total page numbers appear in the top right of the window. You can obtain more detailed information on any ship in the fleet by clicking on the ship in the Fleet Listing Window with the right mouse button. This is useful if you forget the hardpoint assignments of any of the ships in the fleet. LEAVING A FLEET --------------- There are two ways to force ships to leave a fleet, but remember that a ship can only leave a fleet when the fleet is orbiting an asteroid not when it is in space between asteroids. a) Simply issue new orders to the ship from the Spacecraft Control Window. The ship will automatically leave the fleet to obey those orders. b) Use the LEAVE button in the fleet Control Window: First you must select which ship(s) you want to leave the fleet. Do this by clicking on those ships in the Fleet Listing Window. Their names will be highlighted in a different colour to show they have been selected. Clicking on a highlighted ship will de-select it. You can also de-select all the highlighted ships by clicking on ABORT. Then click on LEAVE and the highlighted ships will leave the fleet. They will disappear from the Fleet Listing Window and enter Patrol Mode about the current asteroid waiting for further orders. FLEET TACTICS ------------- There are four orders or tactics that you can give a fleet. These are the large buttons on the fleet Control Screen Move Fleet (Non-Hostile Move) This is used to move an entire fleet to another asteroid. You can only use this order to move a fleet to one of your asteroids or to an uninhabited asteroid NOT an enemy asteroid. Click on the MOVE FLEET tactic button. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen where you can select the destination asteroid with the left mouse button. In the Fleet Control Window notice that the Destination has been entered at the top of the window as well as a summary of the order selected. Click on Exit and the fleet will carry out the order. The ships will depart from the asteroid and then you can monitor the progress of the fleet from the Asteroid Field Screen where the fleet appears as a numbered marker. A fleet using a non-hostile movement can move at a faster rate than one in attack mode since it does not have to consider the possibility of an attack whilst it is in transit. Attack Asteroid (Hostile Move) This is used to move an entire fleet to an enemy asteroid with the intent of attacking it upon arrival. Click on the ATTACK ASTEROID tactic button. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen where you can select the destination asteroid with the left mouse button in the Fleet Control Window notice that the Destination has been entered at the top of the window as well as a summary of the order selected. Click on Exit and the fleet will carry out the order. The ships will depart from the asteroid and then you can monitor the progress of the fleet from the Asteroid Field Screen where the fleet appears as a numbered marker. A fleet using hostile movement moves slower than normal since it must always be prepared for an enemy attack as it nears its destination. When the fleet arrives at the destination asteroid it will automatically enter an attack pattern. Ships will either attack enemy ships or enemy buildings depending upon the hardpoint weapons at their disposal Since the attack Is automated you can dispatch several attack fleets and not have to worry about them, though it is fun to watch your fleets devastate the enemy. Intercept Enemy Fleet This is used to send your fleet to attack an approaching enemy fleet. The purpose of this is to attempt to destroy or weaken the enemy fleet before it can do damage to your asteroid. Click on the INTERCEPT FLEET tactic button. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field Screen where you can select the destination fleet with the left mouse button. In the Fleet Control Window notice that the Destination has been entered at the top of the window as well as a summary of the order selected Click on Exit and the fleet will carry out the order. The ships will depart from the asteroid and then you can monitor the progress of the fleet from the Asteroid Field Screen where the fleet appears as a numbered marker. Your fleet will use hostile movement so it will move slower than normal. When your fleet arrives at the enemy fleet it will engage it in combat. The two fleets will automatically fight until one is destroyed or one retreats. On the Asteroid Field Screen you will see the fleet markers (yours and the enemies) flashing to indicate that they are in battle. You can elect to watch the battle by clicking on the flashing fleet markers. See the Space Combat Screen section for further details Sentry Mode This is used to guard one of your asteroids. Simply click on the SENTRY MODE button and then EXIT. Your ships will continue patrolling your asteroid as if nothing has happened but they are in constant contact with your asterold sensors. As soon as an enemy fleet is detected heading for the current asteroid the fleet will enter Intercept Fleet Mode and go to Intercept the enemy fleet (as above). If it is successful in defeating the enemy it will return to the asteroid and go back to Sentry Mode. It will continue to intercept all approaching enemy fleets until you instruct it otherwise or it is destroyed. END OF PART TWO -=- -=- -=- -=- K240 FULL MANUAL ================== PART THREE -=- -=- RETREAT THRESHOLDS ------------------ Each fleet has a retreat threshold which is normally 100%. This reflects the amount of the original fleet which can be destroyed before the fleet will abandon its attack and return to a friendly asteroid. To alter the retreat threshold simply click over the figure at the top right of the Fleet Control Window. Click the left mouse button to decrease the figure by 10% or the right mouse button to increase it by 10%. With 100% the fleet will never retreat. It will fight until it is successful or all the ships in the fleet are destroyed. With 0%, the fleet will retreat as soon as a single ship in the fleet is destroyed. SPACE COMBAT SCREEN ------------------- When two fleets meet in space they will pause in their initial orders and engage in combat. The battle will continue until either side is destroyed or retreats. The fleet icons on the Asteroid Field Screen will flash. You can watch the combat by clicking on the flashing icons. On the Space Combat Screen you can view yours and the enemys fleet in battle. You cannot examine your fleet listing but there are some buttons available by clicking with the right mouse button anywhere on the screen. RETREAT ASTEROID PAUSE EXIT RETREAT: Enables you to force your fleet to retreat immediately ASTEROID: Returns you to the Asteroid Field Screen PAUSE: Have we really got to explain this? EXIT: Returns you to the space battle ZONE 006 : BUTTON SELECTION PANELS ---------------------------------- When the game is playing you can bring up a Button Panel by clicking on the right mouse button. A Button Pane appropriate to the screen you are on will appear. Whilst the Button Panel is in view the game is paused. You can select any of the buttons by clicking on them using the left mouse button. You can only select buttons from the Button Panel - any buttons elsewhere on the screen are inactive until you exit the Button Panel. This section summarises the major button panels. Use it to locate a button when you don`t know what Button Panel it is on. Better still use the Button Extraction technique explained later. Asteroid View Screen Button Panel --------------------------------- TETRACORP INFO MILITARY ASTEROID FIELD DEMOLISH BUILDING PAUSE EXIT TETRACORP Access the Tetracorp Control Screen providing options for changing scenario loading and saving games etc INFO Takes you to the Information Button Panel (see below) MILITARY Takes you to the Military Button Panel (see below) ASTEROID Access the Asteroid Control Button Panel (see below) FIELD Access the Asteroid Field Screen DEMOLISH Toggle Demolish Mode on or off BUILDING Access the Engineering Window that allows you to select a building PAUSE Pause the game. To unpause the game click either mouse button. If you leave the game paused for more than a couple of minutes then the screen will dim to protect your monitor from bright colours. EXIT Exit the Button Panel Information Button Panel ------------------------ SPYING FUNDS GEOLOGY SCI-TEK BLUEPRINTS EXIT SPYING Access the Spying Control Window FUNDS Access the Financial Funds Window GEOLOGY Obtain an ore deposit report for the current asteroid SCI-TEK Access the Communications Screen which allows you to purchase devices from the Sci-Tek catalogue BLUEPRINTS Obtain a listing of all the blueprints you have bought from Sci-Tek EXIT Exit the Button Panel Military Button Panel --------------------- FLEET SHIP MISSILE EXIT FLEET Access the Fleet Control Window SHIP Toggle between Normal (hand) and Ship Selection Mode white arrow) MISSILE Access the Missile Launch Window EXIT Exit the Button Panel Asteroid Control Button Panel ----------------------------- LEFT RIGHT ORBIT FIELD TACTICAL EXIT LEFT Rotates asteroid left 90 degrees RIGHT Rotates asteroid right 90 degrees ORBIT Switch to the Orbit Screen The Orbit Screen represents an area of space above your asteroid. Many of the larger ships cannot approach the asteroid too closely so they remain in orbit. The Space Dock is always on the Orbit Screen and never on the Asteroid View Screen. This button switches to the Orbit Screen so you can view and select any ships that are there. Clicking on this button again will return you to the Asteroid View Screen. FIELD Access the Asteroid Field Screen TACTICAL Toggles between normal and tactical mode on the asteroid. Tactical mode is described in the Tutorial. EXIT Exit the Button Panel Asteroid Field Button Panel --------------------------- DISPLAY QUICKVIEW SUMMARY MISSILE PAUSE FLEET ASTEROID ENGINES EXIT DISPLAY Access the Display Options Button Panel. This enables you to select which information you want to appear on the Asteroid Field Screen (see below) QUICKVIEW Enables you to program and use the QuickView method at viewing asteroids QuickView is described in the section about Time Saving Techniques. SUMMARY Access the Colony Summary Window. This provides a summary on the important elements at the colony on the current Asteroid and is very useful when you are managing several asteroids simultaneously. Using this option can save you accessing the Asteroid View Screen to look at how a colonys progressing. See the appropriate section. MISSILE Access the Missile Launch Window PAUSE Pause the game. To unpause the game click either mouse button. If you leave the game paused for more than a couple of minutes then the screen will dim to protect your monitor from bright colours. FLEET Access the Fleet Control Window ASTEROID Access the Asteroid View Screen for the current asteroid. ENGINES Enables control of the current asteroids Asteroid Engines. If it has any. EXIT Exit the Button Panel Display Options Button Panel ---------------------------- PAFW EXIT PAFW Toggles the PAFW display on and off on the Asteroid Field Screen. If you are confident of your ability to manage your asteroids you can turn this option off to avoid cluttering the Asteroid Field Screen EXIT Exit the Button Panel Other options are available. In this Button Panel when you purchase the Asteroid Tracker Device from Sci-Tek BUTTON EXTRACTION ----------------- Most likely you are finding it annoying accessing nested Button Panels all the time. You can avoid this by customising the Asteroid View Screen making available all the buttons you commonly use. Note you can only customise the Asteroid View Screen and Orbit Screen NOT the Asteroid Field Screen or any other screens. When any Button Panel is active you can pull out or extract any button (except the Exit button). Click the left mouse button over the chosen button and keep the button held down until the button appears in the main screen at the right or bottom edge. Notice that the button function is NOT carried out. There is space for 6 buttons up the right side of the screen and 8 along the bottom. No button may be duplicated. It is well worth the time to extract your often used buttons since they are now available at any time without you having to remember which Button Panel to access. You can delete an extracted button from the screen by clicking and holding in the same way as you extracted the button. Your customised screen will be remembered if you save the game. TIME SAVlNG TECHNIQUES ---------------------- Once you are familiar with the game you may wish to use these techniques to speed up play. Keyboard Short-cuts ------------------- D - Toggles Demolish Mode on and off S - Toggles between Normal (hand) mode and Ship Selection (arrow) Mode SPACE Toggles between normal and Tactical mode on the Asteroid View Screen Left and Right Arrows - Rotate the asteroid left or right 90 degrees QuickView --------- If you are managing several asteroids and maybe know about a couple of enemy asteroids as well it can be very time consuming if you are switching between them frequently. When you click on the QuickView button you are given a listing of the definitions of the 10 function keys F1 to F1O. You can define an asteroid to any of the function keys. Then simply pressing that function key will take you to the Asteroid View Screen. For that asteroid from whatever screen you were previously on. To define a function key click on the line in the listing from F1 to F10. Then click on any asteroid with the left mouse button. The function key is now defined. You can redefine it at any stage by the same method. The listing is colour coded; Green - asteroid owned by you Red - asteroid owned by enemy Orange - uninhabited asteroid With several function keys defined you can browse through asteroids very quickly. Select Building --------------- You may discover that there is a subset of buildings that you are always building when you colonise a new asteroid, and that it takes a long time choosing them all from the Engineering Window. You can program the keys 1 to 9 to specific buildings then to select one of those buildings you just press 1-9 instead of accessing the Engineering Window. In the Engineering Window you may have noticed numbers in brackets at the top left of some buildings eg the Living Quarters. These are the default definitions of the keys 1-9. To program any building to a key 1-9 simply locate the building in the Engineering Window and press the key 1-9. The number will appear at top left and that building is now programmed. You can redefine a number key 1-9 by the same method. It is well worth taking time to define the keys 1-9. Your definitions will be remembered if you save the game. As well as selecting a programmed building using the kevs 1-9 you can use the Blue Button situated under the building icon on the Asteroid View Screen. Each click on the Blue Button will select one of the programmed buildings 1-9. You can in fact have a tenth programmed building because key 0 is alwavs defined as the last building selected by from the Engineering Window itself, it will of course change every time you select a new building from the Engineering Window. TERRAIN APPROVED 2450 THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS FOR EMPLOYEES OF SCI-TEK AND TETRACORP ONLY. ZONE 007 : TETRACORP AND SCI-TEK -------------------------------- TETRACORP This screen is accessed by clicking on the Tetracorp button in the main Asteroid View Screen Button Panel (The icon depicting a floppy disk) The Tetracorp screen provides the facilities for loading and saving games and selecting which scenario to play. Along the bottom of the screen is the command line. To select an option click on one of the commands: LOAD GAME --------- Clicking on LOAD allows you to load and continue a previously saved game. If the game is running off of floppy disk, the game is loaded from a saved game disk inserted into the internal drive (DF0:) If the game is running from Hard Disk the game is loaded from the Hard Disk. Follow the on screen prompts to Load a game. SAVE GAME --------- Clicking on SAVE allows you to save a game to continue later. If the game is running off of floppy disk, you can only save your game to a pre-formatted disk inserted into the internal drive (DF0:). If the game is running from Hard Disk the game is saved onto the Hard Disk. In the same directory as K240. Follow the on-screen prompts to Save a game. LOADING AN ALIEN ---------------- Clicking on ALIEN will allow you to load and play any one of the 6 Alien scenarios. You access the Tetracorp Alien Database which presents each allen along with some information about them. You can obtain more detail about the Aliens by reading the section of the manual entitled "The Enemy" Each Alien is given a difficulty rating and it is strongly recommended that you play the scenarios in the order of Easy, Medium and Hard. At the bottom of the Database screen is the command line. To select an option click on one of the commands: NEXT This accesses the next Alien in the database. PLAY This enables you to commence play on this scenario. Note that if you were in the middle of a game that game will be deleted and you cannot return to that game unless you had saved it to disk. END Exits the Alien Database selecting no scenario. You may return to the game you were playing. SOUND FX ON/OFF This option simply turns on and off sound effect SPEECH This option simply turns sampled speech on and off DOS This option allows you to exit K240 altogether and return to the Workbench. Any game you were playing will be lost unless you had previously saved it to disk END This returns you to the game SCI-TEK - THE TECHNOLOGY YOU PREFER Sci-Tek is available 24 hours a day for you to purchase blueprints. Under their comprehensive licensing agreement you purchase the rights to manufacture as many devices as you like from each blueprint you buy. You must however pay a royalty to Sci- Tek for every item you make but this is included in the cost presented to you in the game. You can access the Sci-Tek database from the Sci-Tek button. In some cases the database may take a few seconds to access even via hi-speed communication devices. From the database you can peruse Sci-Teks catalogue and opt to buy as many blueprints as you desire. All purchased blueprints will be delivered to you on the next scheduled Imperial Ore Carrier and are NOT available for construction until then. On the database screen you are shown one device at a time. At the bottom of the screen is the command line: PREV NEXT PURCHASE CLEAR END Use PREV and NEXT to cycle through the catalogue. Click on PURCHASE to buy the displayed blueprint, or CLEAR to change your mind. Clicking on END will break the communication link with Sci-Tek and order any blueprints you have purchased. Note: The money available to you is the funds you have in the Basic Money section of your Financial Funds (See appropriate secton) You cannot use money allocated to Construction, Vehicles, Intelligence or Missiles unless you remove money from those funds prior to accessing Sci-Tek. ZONE 008 : HINTS ---------------- GAMEPLAY TIPS K240 is an open ended game - there is no one way to win. These notes do not necessarily represent the best way to play K240 they only serve to offer some assistance if you have no idea what you should be doing next. When you begin the game spend about 50% of your money building up your first asteroid. Build Mines, Stores, Power generation buildings, a Command Centre, Sensor Array, Ship Construction Yard, Landing Pad, buildings for producing air, food and water and any other buildings that take your fancy. Dont worry about military defences just yet. Once your asteroid is a mass of scaffolding take the time to have a look at the Asteroid Field Screen to see where you are and whether you know about any other asteroids yet. It is often a good idea to enter into communications with Sci-Tek and purchase one or two cheap devices. A Gravity Nullifier is well worth the investment at this stage (assuming of course one has not been supplied for you by Tetracorp). Once you begin to discover asteroids you may find several of them on a collision course with your main asteroid and it may be too late then to purchase a Gravity Nullifier and wait for its arrival on the Imperial Ore Carrier. Your colony should now be producing ore nicely. Your immediate concern now is to expand onto other asteroids. You need to build some Scout Ships so get your Ship Construction Yard building a couple of Scouts. They shouldnt take long. If you have already discovered some other asteroids you may wish to dispatch your new Scouts on a Prospecting mission to see how rich they are in ores. If your sensors are looking bare send the Scouts out with orders to Explore. Once you have discovered a few other asteroids and obtained Ore Reports about them, you are in a position to decide which asteroid to colonise first. Pick the one with most ore deposits, particulary the rarer ores. If you have discovered any send your Transporter ship off to colonise that asteroid. When the new colony has been established (the CPU has been built) you are in the position to expand that colony too building Mines and Stores etc. There is usually a phase where you run severely short of money so try to spend it wisely. Dont spread yourself across too many asteroids at once, dont invest in unnecessary luxuries from Sci-Tek yet and ensure you build the most important buildings first, whilst you have the money. There is no point in having 20 Mines on an asteroid if they have no power or the employees are dying from radiation because you can`t afford any Radiation Filters. Once you have sold several shipments of ore to the Imperial Ore Carrier the situation should improve It is now worth your while beginning to build a small fleet and lay down a few defences on your asteroids preparing for the time when you discover the enemy or they discover you. Maintain a balance. Keep all of your colonies growing slowly. Keep mining at all costs. As you deplete an asteroids reserves colonise and begin mining a new asteroid. Build a few ships and put them into a defensive fleet. Maybe build a few missiles. Purchase a few devices from Sci-Tek. Everything in moderation. When you finally discover the enemy start spying at once to gather all the information you can about him. You may well need different tactics against each Alien. MILITARY STRATEGY ----------------- Not too many clues here! Until you discover the weaknesses and strengths of each Alien, maintain a varied defence. If it appears that the enemy concentrate on missile strikes build plenty of Anti-Missile Pods. If you are constantly plagued by enemy attack fleets maintain a strong defence fleet which can intercept the enemy fleet as soon as it is detected. Protect your colonies with gun turrets and Screen Generators. Your attack tactics will also depend upon what you discover about the enemy and how they react when they are attacked. Sometimes it is better to build large and strong attack fleets and back them up with regular missile strikes. Other times regular attacks by small skirmish fleets may be enough to keep the enemy at bay whilst you plan something special for them! Examine the enemy defences carefully before you attack. Dont leave it too long in the game before constructing a Space Dock. This will allow you to buy the blueprints for the Terminator and Battleship from Sci-Tek and to add them to your fleet. One last tip: Watch where the enemy attacks carefully. It is possible that he does not know about all your asteroids and attacks the same ones over and over. If you think this is the case use the undetected asteroids for the bulk of your mining and ship production whilst they are safe. INTERVAL: --------- THERE WILL NOW BE A SHORT BREAK IN THE MANUAL. THERE WILL BE SOMEONE ALONG IN A MINUTE TO SELL YOU ICE-CREAMS AND COFFEE. PLEASE DO NOT OBSTRUCT THE WAY TO THE TOILETS. THANKS ZONE 009 : BACKGROUND --------------------- THE EMPIRE ---------- The Terran Empire governs a vast area of space, a sphere approximately 300 light years in radius with Earth at its centre. Over 1000 worlds have been inhabited and are home to countless billions of humans and a minor population of alien races discovered during the great expansion in the 23rd century. The Empire came into unofficial existence in the year 2215 when command of the homeworlds (the most densely populated worlds nearest to Earth) was seized by the Commander of the Fleet Parillo, during the 5 year war at Deneb Markab. Several years of uncertainty followed but most worlds quickly offered their support for Parillo when he began his Expansion Policy; promising to push out in search of new worlds to ease overcrowding. By 2250 he had discovered and opened up many new worlds for colonisation and established the Industrial Worlds so called because they concentrated industry away from population areas and maximised productivity. These advances led to Parillo being formally declared Emperor in the year 2253. Upon his death in 2274 title of Emperor passed to his son Marcissus Parillos policies were continued but his xenophobic nature led to many wars with newly discovered alien races, many of them highly advanced and capable of inflicting serious damage upon the Imperial Fleet. The Decade of Terror came about in 2294 when the Tharmaxlons declared war on the Empire. In a few short years they opened a great gash in the side of the Empire nearest their homeworlds in the Capella Sector. In 2301 they penetrated right to the heart of the Empire and attacked and destroyed the Industrial Worlds orbiting Beta Hydrae. Marcissus was blamed for his refusal to enter into peace negotiations with the aliens. That and the hatred of even the friendly alien minorities in the Empire for his open racism led to his being deposed as Emporer in 2303. Lynn Salaria, Marcissus daughter and greatest critic was crowned Empress that very year. Her first act was to push back the Tharmaxions with all the Imperial might and then negotiated treaty with them which was incidentally very preferential to the Terran Empire, Peace and prosperity returned and she is Empress to this day (the year 2380), though she is expected to abdicate in favour of her eldest son at any moment. SCI-TEK ------- Under the prosperity established by Parillo and later Marcissus many companies grew to immense size and profitability especialiy those directly linked to the Expansion Policy. One such company was Sci-Tek. Sci-Tek was founded in 2309 after decades of research into gravitational theory. It's first products were the much acclaimed Asteroid Engines and Gravity Nuilifier: allowing complete control of an asteroid independent of the gravitational influence of other space objects Countless other corporations bought the devices providing Sci-Tek with enough capital to channel more money towards R&D. Within ten years it led the way in the design and manufacture of obscure but useful devices and facilities. However its legal departments proved as cunning and resourceful as their technicians. They devised an incredibly complicated licensing agreement whereby its clients could buy the license rights to the design blueprints for a particular Sci-Tek product and manufacture it themselves. The results were phenomenal as were Sci-Teks profits. Other corporations preferred to use their own manufacturing facilities and this allowed Sci-Tek to phase out their own industrial plants and concentrate purely on development. They could put all their resources into developing a larger product line. Surpisingly, no loophole has been found in Sci-Teks license agreement and as a result none of their designs have been stolen. In the few cases where a client has broken the license agreement the Imperial Administrator himself has stepped in favour of Sci-Tek TETRACORP --------- Another, larger, Imperial company is Tetracorp. It began in 2221, manufacturing scout ships and sensory equipment for the Imperial Fleet. Its assets grew and it soon realised the potential of space exploration and asteroid mining. It began developing new techniques for extracting and transporting rare ores mined in the depths of space which were so successful that by the year 2280 it had grown to own and fill the entire Industrial World of Barnard Five. By the middle of the 24th century it had cornered the market in mining franchises. Having manufactured superior mining equipment and support ships. It offered packages to anyone with the ambition to take over one of the asteroid fields being discovered every year on the frontier of the Empire (known as the Fragmented Sectors). It would provide all the equipment and support required to establish one or more mining colonies on these ore rich asteroids. In return for a degree of control over the colonies and full rights to purchase all ore mined at standard Imperial prices. THE FRAGMENTED SECTORS ---------------------- As expansion continued in search of habitable worlds and resources the exploration fleets began to discover an increasing amount of star systems whose planets had been torn apart to produce huge asteroid fields orbiting the star. The cause of this widespread destruction in so many star systems is unknown but it proved incredible good fortune for Tetracorp. The fields of asteroids made it far easier to extract the valuable ores and several new and phenomenally valuable ores were discovered such as Traxium and Nexos. K240 ---- In the year 2380, Sector K240 was made available for colonisation by Tetracorp. K240 is one of the Fragmented Sector and occupies a cube of space 50 light years across. As a Tetracorp franchise holder you have claimed a section of K240 and are ready to begin your mining operations in the asteroid fields Good luck! TERRAN APPROVED: 2450 THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS FOR THOSE WITH SECURITY CLEARANCE BLUE AND ABOVE ONLY. ZONE 010 : BUILDING REFERENCE SECTION ------------------------------------- This section describes each building available and its features and purpose in the game. Some are unavailable at the start of the game but can be purchased from Sci-Tek. These are marked as (Blueprint). Note: This data is accurate at the present time but is subject to change without warning, as manufacturing techniques improve. Anti-Missile Pod (blueprint) ---------------------------- Cost: 7000 Cr Power: 3 MW/day Time: 36 days These are your major defence against incoming enemy missiles. They automatically detect enemy missiles and target them though their accuracy is low. To improve accuracy build several Asteroid Engines (blueprint) ---------------------------- Cost: 45000 Cr Power: 0-5 MW /day depending upon speed Time: 64 days This is a phenomenally advanced facility that provides the means to control the gravitational field of the asteroid enabling it to change direction and speed any time you want When you click on the building a control window appears: The current direction and speed of the asteroid is shown. To alter speed click on the right arrow button (increase) or the left arrow button (decrease). A speed of zero indicates that the asteroid will remain stationary. To alter the direction click on any of the yellow dots in the circle surrounding the asteroid. If the Engines run out of power the speed will drop to zero and the asteroid will no longer move. Power is essential to maintain the gravity field that moves the asteroid. Colony Preservation Unit ------------------------ Cost: 30000 Cr to start a new colony Power: none Time: 40 days This building can only be built when beginning a new colony on an uninhabited asteroid. (See the section on Colonising New Asteroids). The Transporter ship will automatically construct one when it arrives at the new asteroid provided enough funds are available. The purpose of the CPU is to establish a minimum survival colony allowing you time to construct. Further more specific buildings. To this end it provides: Living space for 100 employees 8 MW/day of power 300 units of air per day 250 units of food per day 250 units of water per day In addition it has storage capacity for: 1000 air units 1000 food units 1000 water units 50MW of power. The facilities at the CPU will degenerate over time since it is meant to be phased out when you have your colony up and running. Because of this all production of air, water and food (NOT power) will decrease by 1 unit/day until they reach zero. Thus the CPU cannot sustain a colony after about 250 days. Command Centre -------------- Cost: 8000 Cr Power: 3 MW/day Time: 32 days This is a very important building and you are advised to have more than one amongst your asteroids. A Command Centre can control any number of colonies therefore its exact location is unimportant. It makes all your asteroids run more smoothly and also offers specific functions when clicked upon. These are: a) A window appears listing the prices at which the Imperial Home Worlds will buy your mined ore. Sometimes the Empire will guarantee prices for a number of years for a paticular ore type that it needs badly. In this case the letter "H" will appear after the ore price to indicate that the price has been held. The number after the "H" indicates the number of years that the price is held for. This window also indicates the number of days before the next Imperial Ore Carrier arrives at your colony. b) By clicking on the Space Dock button you have the option to construct an orbiting Space Dock around the current asteroid. See the section about Space Docks. c) By clicking on the Ship Button you can obtain a list of the location of all your Transporter ships whether they are around an asteroid or in space. Use this to manage your transporters more effectively. Note: You will be unable to command any fleets without at least one Command Centre. Construction Yard ----------------- Cost: 7500 Cr Power: 2 MW/day Time: 32 Days This large building extends underground into huge caverns (accessible via the Landing Pads). you can construct the smaller spacecraft in the yard, namely Assault Fighters, Combat Eagle, and Scout Ships. When ships are constructed they are left in the underground hangers. To issue orders to the hangered ships, click on the Landing Pads. Clicking on this building allows you to construct ships or obtain a status report of ships currently under construction. Full details on ship construction are given elsewhere. Decontamination Filter --------------------- Cost: 8000 Cr Power: 3 MW/Day Time: 36 Days The background radiation on some asteroids is high causing employee sickness which leads to loss of production. The Company advises the construction of one or more of these Filters which offer a screen against the heavier radioactive particles protecting the employees inside colony buildings. Deep Bore Mine -------------- Cost: 5500 Cr Power: 2 MW/Day Time: 36 Days This is a sophisticated mining drill for locating and extracting the more valuable Ores. It can extract: Quazinc Bytanium Korellium Dragonium All mined ores are sent directly to Stores. Environmental Control --------------------- Cost: 3200 Cr Power: none Time: 20 Days This facility primarily stores surplus environment commodities for later use. Each building can store up to 5000 air units, 600 food units and 600 water units. It also monitors the usage and production of these environment commodities to provide an uninterrupted supply in every section of your colony. Clicking on this building will access the Colony Summary window. Protected Environmental Control ------------------------------- Cost: 8500 Cr Power: 3 MW/Day Time: 32 Days This is an extension to the normal building, with an integral Laser Turret for colony defence. Bearing in mind the importance of environmental control, it would seem prudent to protect it. Clicking on this building will access the Colony Summary window. Gravity Nullifier (blueprint) ----------------------------- Cost: 35000 Cr Power: 4 MW/day if on Time: 52 days It can take considerable time to monitor the movements of your asteroids and those nearby and collisions are a constant danger. The Nullifier generates a gravitational field that stops all asteroids within a certain range from moving including the one the Nullifier is built on. As long as the field is active you don`t have to worry about collisions, however any asteroid using Asteroid Engines will be unaffected by the field. Note that the field will collapse if you have insufficient power to drive the Nullifier so regular checks on it`s operational status should be maintained Clicking on the Nullifier gives the option of turning the field on or off. Hydration Plant --------------- Cost: 5000 Cr Power: 1 MW/day Time: 20 days These buildings provide essential water for your employees. Each hydration plant provides water for up to 500 employees. A very efficiet chemical process is used to extract water and oxygen from ice crystrals trapped deep within the asteroid. Surplus water will be stored in Environmental Stores if you have any. Clicking on this building will access the Colony Summary window END OF PART THREE -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- K240 FULL MANUAL ================== PART FOUR Hydroponics -=- -=- ----------- Cost: 7000 Cr Power: 2 MW/day Time: 16 days These buildings provide essential food for your employees. Each one provides food for up to 400 workers which is grown from a slurry tank of algae fed with concentrated nutrients. It sounds inedible but the basic slurry can be moulded into any foodstuff (In tests it was found that 8 out of 10 employees could not tell the difference and the drastic reduction in cost when compared to fresh food has made these units a Company Favourite) Surplus food will be stored in Environmental Stores should you have any. Clicking on this building will access the Colony Summary window. Landing Pad ----------- Cost: 300 Cr Power: none Time: 16 days These are the access points for ships to enter and leave the vast underground hangers. It is advisable to leave unused ships in the hangers as this keeps them safe from enemy attack and enables damaged ships to be repaired. Landing Pads cannot be built too close to the edge of the asteroid where the rock is at its thinnest. Clicking on a Landing Pad displays a list of all ships currently in the hangers or orbiting the current asteroid. You may issue orders to one or more of these ships from here. For more information see the section on Controlling Ships elsewhere in this manual. Laser Turret ------------ Cost: 3400 Cr Power: 2 MW/day Time: 24 days This low powered weapon offers defence against attack by enemy ship(s). It will automatically track and fire upon any enemy ship(s) around the current asteroid assuming it has sufficient power. Life Support ------------ Cost: 13000 Cr Power: 2 MW/day Time: 48 Days This building provides vital air and atmospheric control throughout the colony buildings. Each life support module can generate a breathable environment for up to 500 employees. A revolutionary (and top secret) chemical process is used to extract Hydrogen Oxygen and the various Noble gasses trapped within the asteroid and render them breathable. Surplus air will be stored in the Environmental Stores if you have any. Clicking on this building will access the Colony Summary window Living Quarters --------------- Cost: 1000 Cr Power: none Time: 32 Days The basic support building for employees in the colony. Much of the building is underground and has adequate facilities for about 50. They are quick to construct but very susceptible to damage from attack. Clicking on this building will access the Colony Summary window Medical Centre -------------- Cost: 5000 Cr Power: 1 MW/Day Time: 30 Days This is a state of the art facility incorporating all the medical equipment and staff you`d expect to find in a major planetary Hospital. It is capable of supporting a colony of up to 100 employees, handling both routine and emergency medical care. It is unwise to have a large colony without at least one Medical Centre. Having one improves employee morale and health and in addition lowers the number of fatalities through mining accidents. It is also invaluable in the rare cases when a virus spreads rapidly through the close confinement of a mining colony and can also offer treatment for low doses of radiation Mine ---- Cost: 4000 Cr Power: 1 MW/Day Time: 32 Days The basic mining drill for extracting the commoner types of ore. It can extract: Selenium Asteros Barium Crystalite All mined ores are sent directly to Stores Missile Silo ------------ Cost: 4300 Cr Power: none Time: 32 Days All your missiles are constructed and launched from these silos. For full details about Missiles see the appropriate section elsewhere in this manual. Each asteroid has underground caverns capable of storing 10 of each type of missile, a total of 110 missiles. Obviously no matter how many missiles you have in storage you cannot launch them without a silo. The advantage of multiple silos is that your launch rate is far greater. Clicking on a silo brings up the Missile Construction Window where you select which missiles to build. Launching missiles is done by clicking on the Missile Button (See the section on Missiles for details of both these operations) Ore Teleporter (blueprint) -------------------------- Cost: 45000 Cr Power: 1 MW/Day Time: 48 Day This is a very effective and swift means of transporting ores between asteroids you must have an ore transporter on both of the asteroids you want to move ore between. For best results install one on all your asteroids. To teleport some ore, click on the Ore Teleport on the asteroid you want to move ore FROM. A window appears listing all the ore available in the Stores on this asteroid both in bar chart form and numerical form You cannot do anything until you select the destination asteroid. To do so, click on the asteroid button. You will be taken to the Asteroid Field screen where you can move the cross hair over the destination asteroid and click with the left mouse button you must of course select an asteroid that is owned by you and that contains an Ore Teleporter. After selecting the destination you will be returned to the Ore teleport window where you will now see the contents of the stores on the destination asteroid (The second column of figures). To teleport ore simply drag the bar charts either left or right (similar to the means explained earlier in the manual) and Ore will be teleported instantaneously between the asteroids. To teleport from the current asteroid to the destination drag the bar charts to the right. To teleport from the destination to the current asteroid drag the bar charts to the left. Plasma Turret (blueprint) ------------------------- Cost: 5500 Cr Power: 3 MW /day Time: 30 days This weapon offers greater fire power than the standard Laser Turret. It automatically tracks and fires upon any enemy ships around the current asteroid providing it has sufficient power. Photon Turret (blueprint) ------------------------- Cost: 7500 Cr Power: 5 MW /day Time: 52 days This weapon offers the greatest fire power of the three turret types. The Photon Turrets power and accurracy is beyond compare and is only rivalled by some of the larger intergalactic warships. Having sold this however a warship moves pretty damn fast whereas a turret is rooted to the spot as you would expect. It too automatically tracks and fires upon any enemy ships around the current asteroid providing it has sufficient power. Powerplant (blueprint) ---------------------- Cost: 10000 Cr Power: variable Time: 40 days This is the major means of power generation upon your asteroids. It is a large and complicated building to construct but it offers superior power generation. It extracts Asteros ore direct from the asteroid and uses a fusion process to turn it into a daily output of 32 MW. Ensure you have an adequate supply of Asteros before construction since it uses 1 Asteros unit every 4 days. If there is an ample supply of Asteros it will generate 32 MW/day otherwise it will use less ores to give a much reduced output of 8MW/day. Clicking on this building brings up a list of all buildings currently without power if any. Power Store ----------- Cost: 1500 Cr Power: none Time: 32 days Unused surplus power is channelled into these for later use. They offer a good backup in the rarer cases where you may temporarily lose some of your power generation buildings, perhaps during an enemy attack. They will at least prevent you from being totally out of power for a short while. Each one has a capacity of 200 MW of power. Clicking on this building brings up a list of all buildings currently without power if any. Repair Facility (blueprint) --------------------------- Cost: 20000 Cr Power: none Time: 36 days Colony buildings get damaged in the harsh environment of the mining colony especially during enemy attacks, Normally there are insufficient resources to affect repajrs. This building controls a fleet of repair robots that routinely move about the colony and undertake building repairs. Resiblock --------- Cost: 3000 Cr Power: 2 MW/Day Time: 48 Days This is a more advanced support building, offering more facilities for employees especially in the way of entertiainment and leisure. It takes longer to construct than the basic Living quarters but supports 150 employees and is more space efficient. Clicking on this building will access the Colony Summary window Protected Resiblock ------------------- Cost: 8500 Cr Power: 5 MW/Day Time: 56 Days The standard resiblock is now protected by an integral Laser Turret giving better protection from enemy attack and subsequently safeguarding your workforce. Clicking on this building will access the Colony Summary window Satellite Silo -------------- Cost: 5000 Cr Power: none Time: 24 Days Gathering intelligence about the enemy requires the frequent launch of spy satellites. Satellites are both constructed and launched from these silos. For details see the section on spying. Screen Generator (blueprint) ---------------------------- Cost: 20000 Cr Power: 7 MW/Day if on Time: 52 Days Most buildings have very little defence against damage from enemy attacks and are easily damaged or destroyed. A screen generator uses power to erect a force screen over one or more buildings to offer greater protection. To identify the area of effect of a screen (an asteroid can have several Screen Generators) select Tactical Mode on the main asteroid view screen. All buildings shown with a white square are protected. Security Centre --------------- Cost: 4500 Cr Power: 2 Mw/Day Time: 24 Days The Company believes in high pay for hard work but sometimes the employees forget this and become slack or troubled by the long shifts and hard dangerous work. It is inevitable that there will be regular rebellions and standoffs between the management and the workers and this is where the highly trained security team steps in. They possess the power to discipline employees fine them, and imprison them if necessary. More importantly they also have guns. It is wise to have a Security Centre for about every 50 employees to prevent criminal activities taking a foothold. Clicking on this building will access the Colony Summary window Seismic Penetrator (blueprint) ------------------------------ Cost: 26500 Cr Power: 3 MW/Day Time: 42 Days This is the very latest mining equipment recently introduced by Sci-Tek. It takes more asteroid space and power than conventional Mines but is capable of extracting very valuable ores. It can extract: Traxium and Nexos All mined ores are sent directly to Stores. Sensor Array ------------ Cost: 3500 Cr Power: 2 MW/day Time: 36 days Without a sensor array an asteroid has a very small sensor range. (The small black circle on the Asteroid Field screen). The array improves this range (increases the circle) and gives better warning of enemy fleet movements. Whenever enemy missiles or an enemy fleet enters sensor range you will receive an on screen (and audible) warning. In the bottom left of the screen one or more icons will flash. A missile inside a circle indicates the presence of missiles and a ship inside a circle indicates the detection of a fleet. The Asteroid Field Screen will indicate their position as red dots (for Missiles) or a red logo (for fleets). For as long as these icons flash you are in danger! Solar Generator --------------- Cost: 1500 Cr Power: gen. 4 MW/day Time: 10 days A more effective means of harnessing solar power, this building can output up to 4MW/Day. It costs more but is more space efficient. Clicking on this building brings up a list of all buildings currently without power if any. Solar Matrix (blueprint) ------------------------ Cost: 5000 Cr Power: gen 8 MW/day Time: 32 days This is an expensive building but maximises space on smaller asteroids by containing a large tower of solar panels using a very small surface area. The output is 8MW/day. Clicking on this building brings up a list of all buildings currently without power if any. Protected Solar Matrix (blueprint) ---------------------------------- Cost: 7200 Cr Power: gen 8MW/day Time: 48 days This improved design contains an Integral Laser Turret for defence purposes. Clicking on this building brings up a list of all buildings currently without power, if any. Solar Panel ----------- Cost: 500 Cr Power: generates 2 MW/day Time: 8 days This is a very cheap and easily constructed array to harness power from the sun. It outputs a constant 2MW/day. Clicking on this building brings up a list of all buildings currently without power, if any. Storage Facility ---------------- Cost: 1500 Cr Power: 1 MW/day Time: 20 days This building stockpiles all types of ore for later use. It automatically handles ore arriving at the stores from the Mines via underground conveyor belts and feeds it to Construction yards or Missile Silos as needed. This small building can store a total of 300 ore units. Clicking on this building lists the ore stored by category. Storage Tower ------------- Cost: 3000 cr Power: 2 MW/day Time: 40 days This is a more space efficient Store capable of holding 600 ore units of any type. Clicking on this building lists the ore stored by category. Protected Storage Tower ----------------------- Cost: 7500 Cr Power: 4 MW/Day Time: 48 Days This is an improved design of the Storage Tower with an inbuilt Laser Turret to fend off unwelcome visitors. It should be noted that all ore storage devices will be prime targets for enemy attacks, as they are one of the prime requisites of any colony. It would therefore seem wise to protect them. This is done by putting a huge fake plastic gun on the top and a fairly pathetic real lasser turret inside it. This is in the vain hope that any attacking fleet will see the fake weapon and decide they are outgunned. The reality of course is that they see the tiny laser that it fires and think oh its another one of those realistic plastic guns I`m off. Honest. Don`t delay buy one today. Clicking on this building lists the ore stored by category. Weapons Factory --------------- Cost: 4400 Cr Power: 2 MW/Day Time: 32 Days This enables the manufacture of weapons, missile warheads and spacecraft engines. One of these buildings provides such facilities for an entire asteroid. ZONE 011 : SCI-TEK ------------------ Welcome to Sci-Tek! As you will be aware, at Sci-Tek we only deal in the galaxys most advanced blueprints. And since we dont waste any of our precious time with mass production plants, you, the customer, dont suffer in the long run. The more time we get to spend on our development, the better your equipment in the end. Here at Sci-Tek we put YOU, the customer first and foremost. And remember, this sign is your assurance of quality Sci-Tek Brochure 2425 To order call 075846653687 and one of our androids will be happy to take your order. Quote this ref. (Grem.226) for an extra 10% off. 2nd Generation Mines -------------------- Cost: 55000 Cr This is a computer controlled multi-headed drill assembly. It will automatically be added to all your existing Mines and all Mines built in the future. It doubles the speed at which a Mine can extract ore. 2nd Generation Deep Bore Mines ------------------------------ Cost: 75000 Cr This is a computer controlled multi-headed drill assembly for use on Deep Bore Mines. It will automatically be added to your existing shafts and all those built in the future. It doubles the speed at which a Deep Bore Mine can extract ore. Anti-Missile Pod ---------------- Cost: 250000 Cr This is a powerful addition to your asteroid defences. The pods will detect and track any incoming enemy missiles and attempt to destroy them harmlessly in flight. The pod accuracy is low but can be improved by building several pods on each asteroid. Anti-Virus Missile ------------------ Cost: 100000 Cr This warhead is the only known means of halting the effects of a Virus missile launched against one of your asteroids, For further details see the description of this warhead in the Missiles section. Asteroid Engines ---------------- Cost: 190000 Cr Engines allow you full control over the direction and speed of an asteroid enabling you to steer it clear of collisions or even just position it exactly where you want it in space. For full details see the description in the Buildings section. Asteroid Tracker ---------------- Cost: 40000 Cr This powerful computer works in conjunction with your sensors to analyse the movement of all known asteroids. It provides data on the direction and speed of each asteroid, enabling you to anticipate collisions. Once you have the blueprint you must activate the computer from the Asteroid Field Screen Bring up the button panel and click on the Display Modes button. Two new buttons have now appeared in the Display Modes button panel: PATHS SPEEDS PAFW EXIT The PATHS button toggles on or off the display of asteroid paths. Once on the Asteroid Field Screen will display the path of an asteroid with a green dotted line. It will always show the path of the current asteroid (providing it is actually moving) and will temporarily show the path of any asteroid you move the cross hair over. You can therefore quickly get an idea of the direction of all the asteroids. The SPEEDS button toggles on or off the display of asteroid speeds. Once on, the Asteroid Field Screen will display the speed of an asteroid as a number next to it. It will always show the speed of the current asteroid and will temporarily show the speed of any asteroid you move the cross hair over. You can quickly get an idea of the speeds of all the asteroids. If the speed is shown in red then that asteroid is caught in some kind of gravity nullifying field and is not currently moving. The number indicates its speed should it escape the nullifying field. Building Armour --------------- Cost: 110000 Cr You have purchased the rights to a strengthened construction material. You can use this in all new buildings you construct making them more resilient to enemy attacks. Construction Droids ------------------- Cost: 20000 Cr Usually your Vehicle Construction Yards only have the resources to manufacture up to 3 craft at a time. Once you have this blueprint all your yards and all future yards will be modified to include a state of the art robotic assembly line. The sophistication of these droids allows you to construct up to 6 craft at a time. You can now build larger fleets with less of your time spent supervising the Yards. Deflector -------- Cost: 115000 Cr This is a hardpoint that can be added to newly constructed ships to improve their defence. It consists of a generator that pulses energy through the ships hull all the time that it is in flight using power from the main engines. The energised hull is more resilient to attacks and can absorb and deflect most attacks. The Deflector can be used with existing shields and greatly improves the lifetime of a ship. Fleet Battleship ---------------- Cost: 150000 Cr One of the most powerful ships produced in the Empire. Using this blueprint you can construct these battleships at any asteroid where you have a Space Dock. For further details see the description in the Spacecraft section Gravity Nullifier ----------------- Cost: 70000 Cr The Nullifier generates a powerful gravity field about the asteroid it is built upon. This prevents the asteroid and close neighbouring asteroids from moving. This is particularly useful to avoid asteroid collisions or simply to hold several of your asteroids together for quick movement between them. For further details see the description in the Buildings section. Hi-Energy Power Stores ---------------------- Cost: 15000 Cr This specialised capacitance circuit is automatically installed in all your existing Power Stores and any built from now on. It simply doubles the storage capacity of all Power Stores. Improved Sensors ---------------- Cost: 34000 Cr Sci-Tek have recognised the reliance most asteroid mining colonies put upon their Sensor Arrays Without them an asteroid is very vulnerable to an unexpected collision or surprise enemy attack. They have developed this device that is installed in all your existing asteroids and also added to the CPU building so that all future colonies will have this device also it renders Sensor Arrays unnecessary by hiding the sensors underground and using new techniques to allow them to probe surrounding space MEGA Missile ------------ Cost: 500000 Cr Incredibly expensive but then you are buying the most powerful weapon in the Empire capable of destroying an entire asteroid upon impact. For further details see the summary of this warhead in the Missiles section. Missile Bay Extension --------------------- Cost: 30000 Cr Conventional missile Silos can only store a maximum of 10 of each type of warhead on an asteroid. If they are to be loaded and launched as quickly as possible. This new loading rack system is installed in all your existing and future Missile Silos and allows them to store up to 20 of each type of missile. The rack system is compact but can arm any warhead on any silo in a matter of seconds. Missile Guidance System ----------------------- Cost: 35000 Cr This device uses your sensors to accurately measure the distance and relative vectors of the launching and target asteroids. It uses this information to provide you with an indication of the likelihood of each missile hitting the target asteroid. By using this device you can maximise your attacks and avoid wasting missiles by firing them at targets too distant. See the Missile section for details about how to use the Guidance System. Nuclear Missile --------------- Cost: 300000 Cr This missile inflicts large amounts of damage upon the asteroid it hits. For further details see the summary of this warhead in the Missiles section Ore Teleporter -------------- Cost: 150000 Cr Transporting ore between your asteroids via Transporter ships can take a lot of time and effort You can avoid this by constructing Ore Teleporters on all your asteroids. Any type of ore can be teleported between Teleporters instantaneously. For instructions on its use see the description of the Ore Teleporter in the Buildings section. Photon Turret ------------- Cost: 100000 Cr The most powerful turret on the market today. Very effective against enemy ships attacking your asteroids. For further details see the description in the Buildings section. Plasma Turret ------------- Cost: 60000 Cr A more powerful turret than the standard Laser Turret. For further details see the description in the Buildings section. Power Amplifier --------------- Cost: 100000 Cr This optimises your solar panels allowing them to double their power output to your colony. The Amplifier is automatically added to all present and future Solar Panels, Generators and Solar Matrices. Powerplant ---------- Cost: 40000 Cr The Powerplant is a very cost effective means of power generation using a fusion process to convert Asteros ore into power. For further details see the description in the Buildings section. Repair Facility --------------- Cost: 150000 Cr This building supports a fleet of repair droids that move through your colony buildings and carrying out repairs of battle damage. For further details see the description in the Buildings section Screen Generator ---------------- Cost: 175000 Cr The Screen Generator produces a defence screen around itself and neighbouring buildings absorbing some of the damage of an enemy attack. For furthur details see the description in the Buildings section. Seismic Genetrator ------------------ Cost: 120000 Cr This is the only type of drilling assembly capable of extracting the incredibly rare (and expensive) Traxium and Nexos ores from underground. It is a large and very complicated building but vital if you have ambitions of becoming a major ore supplier. For further details see the description in the Buildings section. Shield X40 ---------- Cost: 30000 Cr This is a Hardpoint that can be added to newly constructed ships to improve their defence. It simply adds an extra layer of armour to the ships hull. Shield X50 ---------- Cost: 40000 Cr This is another hardpoint that can be added to a newly constructed ship. It provides a state of the art defence system almost guaranteed to render the ship invulnerable (but not quite) And all for a mere 40000 Cr. Solar Matrix ------------ Cost: 30000 Cr This is a more space and cost effective means of power generation than the basic Solar Panel For furthur details see the description in the Buildings section. Static Inducer -------------- Cost: 80000 Cr This is a Hardpoint that can be added to newly constructed ships it uses the ships main engines to concentrate and emit a powerful electromagnetic pulse that temporarily confuses the electronics of enemy ships. The blueprint also shows how our own ships are protected against the e m pulse. During the pulse all enemy ships are unable to move or attack and are completely vulnerable to our own attacks. Stasis Missile ------------- Cost: 250000 Cr This state of the art missile encompasses the target asteroid with a temporary field that stops time, freezing the asteroid and all ships in orbit about it for a period of time. For further details see the summary of this warhead in the Missiles section. Terminator ---------- Cost: 90000 Cr This is a powerful Cruiser warship with 4 hardpoints making it a superior attack ship to everything but the fleet battleship. For further details see the description of this ship in the Spacecraft section. Turret Optimiser ---------------- Cost: 240000 Cr This devise has been long awaited. It modifies all existing and future turrets of any type giving them the power to double the damage that they can inflict in each shot. Quite how the device works is a closely guarded secret, however the most popular theory is that a huge capacitor is used to charge the turret up when not in use and the surplus of power increases the damage it is capable of inflicting. Virus Missile ------------- Cost: 350000 Cr This warhead releases a volatile substance upon impact that causes the very rock of an asteroid to become unstable. It is impossible for buildings to stand upon this new, unstable substance. The virus will slowly spread across the asteroid destroying everything in its path. A very powerful weapon (hence its price). Upon its initial release the Virus missile was declared illegal on almost 200 separate worlds however modern thinking suggests it is a more humane method of warfare: Maximum results with minimum casualties. Such is the turnaround in the concensus of opinion that Sci-Teks PR department has won several awards for its work on this particular project. For further details see the summary of this warhead in the Missiles section. Warp Generator -------------- Cost: 75000 Cr This is a hardpoint that can be added to newly constructed ships. It is a limited defence device. A capacitor is charged from the ships main engines and then the charge is released as a powerful warp field phasing the ship out of the Spacial Matrix (tm). In its phased out state the ship is impervious to all damage but may still fire its own weapons. When the capacitor has discharged the ship phases back into normal space until the capacators charged again and is thus vulnerable to attack again. This pulsing warp field happens automatically. ZONE 012 : SPACECRAFT --------------------- Assault Fighter --------------- Imperial Code: 15KC/TC/4158137 Internal Code: KC651910067 Length: 13m Beam: 8m Speed: 15,700 km/h atmos. Speed: 3 FN = 1000 LS/day Mass: 40 tonnes Hull: 20 armour Build 20 days From: Construction Yard Hardpoints: 1 Ore: 2 Selenium, 2 Crystalite Cost: 6000 Cr Engine: Kerell Thruster MKII, x2 KA344325G Cargo: 10 tonnes Boost: +3000 LS/day Crew: 3 Sensor: Nembry Avionics NA6518PD Life Support: 1 year Computer: Kerell TR37, 200 MIPS Landing Gear: triple EW/ECM: 1 LD fwd & rear only Comms: Sensory Matrix transceiver 1 LY effective Inert Damping: none In use since its initial design in 2232. A proven ship that is cheap, quick to build and ideal in Combat situations. Developed by the Kerell Corporation, based on the Industrial World of Tau Ceti III. Its designer was L.G.R. Riley, Engineer Grade VII at the Kerell Corp. Incredible as it may sound, Ms Riley is the only female engineer to have ever held a senior position in Kerell. Ironically, this ship is one of their best selling ever, and has provided the funding for many of their more recent ventures. Combat Eagle ------------ Imperial Code: 12TC/B5/8778103 Internal Code: TC86608133X Length: 10m Beam: 9m Speed: 15,700 km/h atmospheric Speed: 3 FN = 1000 LS/day Mass: 120 tonnes Hull: 30 armour Build: 30 days From: Construction Yard Hardpoints: 2 Ore: 4 Selenium, 4 Crystalite Cost: 8000 Cr Engine: Fortuna Drive V3.4 (x2) MX3321H Cargo: 32 tonnes Boost: + 2500 LS/day Crew: 7 Sensor: XLR array, XLR793 V1.31 Life Support: 1.5 years Computer: Kerell TX5, 560 MIPS Landing Gear: triple EW/ECM: 2.5 LD, spherical Comms: Sensory Matrix transceiver 2.3 LY effective Inertia Damping: < 2 FN Designed by Engineer and Pilot R F Drake Stoker at the Morgan Design Institute on Barnard Five, under license to Tetracorp, in the year 2308. It has now become Tetracorps standard lowcost assault ship and widely used throughout the Empire. A general purpose Combat vessel. Scout Ship ---------- Imperial Code: 12TC/B5/8751113 Internal Code: TC-888132-712-F Length: 12m Beam: 6m Speed: 10,200 km/h atmospheric Speed: 2 FN = 740 LS/day Mass: 34 tonnes Hull: 5 armour Build: 20 days From: Construction Yard Hardpoints: 1 Ore: 4 Selenium, 2 Crystalite Cost: 3000 Cr Engine: Fortuna Impulse Dome, Mk3 RBW 690421-C Cargo: 5 tonnes Boost: + 200 LS/Day Crew: 3 Sensor: XLR sub array core, XLR-64 V5.2 TN sampling units, code:TN 87991 Life Support: 4.5 years Computer: SG Imagine os 5.1 910 MIPS Landing Gear: Triple EW/ECM: 1.2 LD, fwd only Comms: Sensory Matrix transceiver 12,8 LY Inertia Damping: none Designed by Engineer R Marax at the Tetracorp Central Construction Yards on Barnard Five, in the year 2345, This is the fourth issue of Tetracorprs Popular scout ship. Though the Imperial Navy uses the superior Class 7, this vessel is widespread amongst Tetracorp's franchised mining operations. Whilst it is near useless in combat situations, it carries superior XLR sensor arrays tuned to the discovery of ore rich asteroids. END OF PART FOUR -=- -=- -=- -=- K240 FULL MANUAL ================== PART FIVE Destructor -=- -=- ---------- Imperial Code: 171GX/B7/3771826 Internal Code: GX48911-8834 Length: 34m Beam: 48m Speed: 9,700 km/h atmospheric Speed: 2 FN = 690 LS/day Mass: 1033 tonnes Hull: 40 armour Build: 48 days From: Orbital Space Dock Hardpoints: 3 Ore: 8 Selenium, 6 Crystalite Cost: 15000 Cr Engine: Gax V2 Hyper drive (7.1c) (x1) Gax RN35 Thrusters (x2) GRN35-7133 Cargo: 120 tonnes Boost: + 340 LS/day Crew: 16 Sensor: XLR array, XLR 793 V2.17 Life Support: 2.7 years Computer: Kerell NT-690, 1700 MIPS Landing Gear: none EW/ECM: 5.6 LD, spherical Comms: Sensory Matrix transceiver 4.4 LY Inertia Damping: < 2 FN Gax Industries are well known for their superior ship design, and this ship is no exception. It is widely used as a leading attack and support ship, and is extremely versatile, being capable of interstellar Jump travel, interplanetary and atmospheric use. Its designer was Y. Inars, working at the Gax R&D Facility on Brekon 7 , Initially designed in 2278, it was never built, instead it underwent a redesign and finally became operational in 2316. Terminator ---------- Imperial Code: 112ST/613922 Internal Code: ST-1D-7791337 Length: 52m Beam: 32m Speed: 2,100 km/h atmospheric Speed: 1 FN = 430 LS/day Mass: 7814 tonnes Hull: 50 armour Build: 80 days From:Orbital Space Dock Hardpoints: 4 Ore: 8 Selenium, 2 Dragonium Cost: 34000 Cr Engine: Sci-Tek InterSpacial Drive STC-87 revision 4.3 (x2) Sci-Tek Thrusting Unit STC-7133 revision 2 (x2) Cargo: 470 tonnes Boost: + 60 LS/day Crew: 38 Sensor: STC-7Y, sweep pattern Life Support: 4.5 years Computer: Sci-Tek Tek-16 2500 MIPS Landing Gear: none EW/ECM: 9.8 LD, spherical Comms: Sensory Matrix transceiver 16.4 LY effective Inertia Damping: full One of Sci-Tek's most popular warships, it is used widely by the Imperial Navy. Originally designed and built in 2321, this is the latest and updated version 5, newly built in 2371. Its original designer is unknown, but version 5 is credited to I. Atkin. He (Atkin) is considered by many to be one of the greatest naval architects the galaxy has ever seen. It is also widely believed that he has the worst colour sense of anyone in the known worlds, hence the Terminator's lurid (original?) colour schemes Transporter ----------- Imperial Code: 171GX/B7/3771663 Internal Code: GX42880-7515 Length: 105 m Beam: 74 m Speed: no atmospheric Speed: 1 FN = 400 LS/day Mass: 14320 tonnes Hull: 40 armour Build: 114 days From:Orbital Space Dock Hardpoints: 2 Ore: 6 Selenium, 1 Dragonium Cost: 24000 Cr Engine: Gax V2 Hyper drive (7.1c) (x1) Gax Drive DC-721603-K (x1) Cargo: 48000 tonnes Boost: +10 LS/day Crew: 8 Sensor: XLR array, XLR-793 V2.17 Life Support: 8 years Computer: Kerell NT-690, 1700 MIPS Landing Gear: none EW/ECM: 2.4 LD, spherical Comms: Sensory Matrix transceiver 14.2 LY effective Inert Damping: full Another ship designed by Y. Inara on Brekon 7, Inara obviously had a poor year when he designed the Gax Transporter as in many areas it is inadequate and in others it is woefully underspecced. As an example it has far too powerful a computer which is prone to system crashes when the Impulse Drives are used to manoeuvre the Transporter into orbit. Many clients have asked for better armour and longer range communicators and as a result it is likely that Inara will update the ship for re-release in the next few years. The reason the Gax Transporter sells is its enormous cargo bays and the ease of loading. Despite it's slow speed, the XLR Sensor Array is more than adequate for the ship to be used in an asteroid field. Shame it handles like a brick though. Fleet Battleship ---------------- Imperial Code: 112ST/617600 Internal Code: ST-1D-7785581 Length: 92m Beam: 63m Speed: no atmospheric Speed: 1 FN = 580 LS/day Mass: 45910 tonnes Hull: 70 armour Build: 114 days From:Orbital Space Dock Hardpoints: 6 Ore: 8 Selenium, 6 Dragonium Cost: 60000 Cr Engine: Sci-Tek InterSpacial Drive STC-87 revision 4.3 (x2) Sci-Tek Thrusting Unit STC-135 revision 3.1 (x4) Cargo: 1310 tonnes Boost: + 180 LS/day Crew: 74 Sensor: STC-7Y5, sweep pattern, globe Life Support: 12 years Computer: Sci-Tek Tek-18 5000 MIPS Landing Gear: none EW/ECM: 45.1 LD, spherical Comms: Sensory Matrix transceiver 38.6 LY effective Inert Damping: full One of Sci-Tek's most modern and powerful ships, it was designed by R. Giggs in 2364. Despite its grand name, it is a mere fraction of the size of the real Imperial Battleship, but is easily large enough to form the centrepiece of any independent fleet. Both Sci-Tek and Tetracorp use and recommend them as their primary warship, and its 6 hardpoints make it a very flexible vessel. Orbital Space Dock ------------------ Imperial Code: 12TC/B5?8799145 Internal Code: TC-734403-451T Diameter: 215m Speed: 1 FN = 50 LS/day Mass: 145512 tonnes Hull: 120 armour Build: 86 days Hardpoints: 4 Ore: 10 Bytanium, 20 Dragonium Cost: 200000 Cr Engine: Fortuna Thrusting Arrays MX-67-14 (x8) Cargo: 14400 tonnes Boost: + 5 LS/day Crew: 230 Sensor: XLR GlobCon MkIV XLR-GC-71334 Life Support: indefinite Computer: Kerell NT-690, 1700 MIPS Landing Gear: none EW/ECM: 1 LY, spherical Comms: Sensory Matrix transceiver, 70 LY effective Inert Damping: <1 FN Designed by M.D.Glossop at the Morgan Design Institute on Barnard Five in the year 2338. Tetracorp intended the O.S.D. to be used as a control post in the Frontier Sectors, keeping each mining colony in touch with the Home Worlds and Tetracorp. Glossop originally designed larger cargo bays but altered them at the last moment into a ship construction facility. This is probably the sole factor that has made the O.S.D. as successful as it is - the ability to contruct large warships in the depth of space ZONE 013 : HARDPOINT WEAPONS ---------------------------- This is a summary of the devices available for installation in a hardpoint. Ones marked with (blueprint) are only available once the construction rights have been purchased from Sci-Tek Note: Costs given are correct at the present time but are subject to change without warning Ion Cannon ---------- Cost: 1000 Cr This is the basic (and very cheap) weapon for use against enemy asteroids. It has a minimum impact area and does little damage Disruptor --------- Cost: 6000 Cr This weapon is another Air-to- Surface weapon for use against enemy asteroids. It has a greater area of effect than the Ion Cannon but darmage is still limited. Napalm Orb ---------- Cost: 4000 Cr This fires a stream of high temperature plasma gas at an asteroid with its own Oxygen supply which will burst into flame upon impact. Damage will be inflicted upon any buildings caught in the flame. The area of effect is very limited however. Chaos Bomb ---------- Cost: 12000 Cr This is an improved version of the Napalm Orb but with a much larger area of effect. Like the Hellfire Missile the flames from this weapon can easily spread to neighbouring buildings and devastate huge areas of an asteroid. Very effective against densely populated asteroids. Vortex Mine ----------- Cost: 5000 Cr An electrical vortex is released upon the asteroid. It will wander at random upon the surface inflicting damage upon any building it touches. The longevity of the vortex is indeterminate. It can vanish at any time. It is possible for the vortex to split into two parts each continuing to wreak havoc and each with the possibility of splitting again Laser ----- Cost: 1000 Cr This is the standard Ship to Ship weapon based on a focused beam of light. It does very little damage. Photon Cannon ------------- Cost: 4500 Cr A more effective ship to ship weapon. The twin guns fire packets of energy held together by a force field. Plasma Cannon ------------- Cost: 9000 Cr The most powerful ship to ship weapon. It fires a focused disruptor beam housing superheated plasma gas and is capable of ripping through even the most powerful armour. Caution should be exercised in the use of this weapon, and the Company is not liable for any damage incurred to the user should anything untoward happen. Static Inducer (blueprint) -------------------------- Cost: 4500 Cr This devise uses the ships main engines to concentrate and emit a powerful electromagnetic pulse that temporarilly confuses the electronics of an enemy ship. During the pulse the enemy ship is unable to move or attack and completely vulnerable to our own attacks. Warp Generator (blueprint) -------------------------- Cost: 9000 Cr This is a limited defence device. A capacitor is charged from the ships main engines and then the charge is released as a powelful warp field phasing the ship out of the Spacial Matrix (tm) In its phased state the ship is impervious to all damage but may still fire its own weapons When the capacitor has discharged the ship phases back into normal space until the capacitor is charged again and is thus vulnerable to attack again. This pulsing warp field happens automatically Deflector (blueprint) --------------------- Cost: 12000 Cr This devise consists of a generator that pulses energy through the ships hull all the time that it is in flight using power from the main engines. The energised hull is more resilient to attacks and can absorb and deflect most attacks. The Deflector can be used with existing shields and greatly improves the lifetime of a ship Shield X10 ---------- Cost: 1500 Cr This extends the armour of the ships hull to give better protection against damage. This shield adds 10 armour points and may be stacked with other Shields or defences Shield X20 ---------- Cost: 3000 Cr This extends the armour of the ships hull to give better protection against damage. This shield adds 20 armour points and may be stacked with other shields or defences Shield X30 ---------- Cost: 5000 Cr This extends the armour of the ships hull to give better protection against damage. This shield adds 30 armour points and may be stacked with other shields or defences Shield X40 (blueprint) ---------------------- Cost: 6500 Cr This extends the armour of the ships hull to give better protection against damage. This shield adds 40 armour points and may be stacked with other shields or defences Shield X50 (blueprint) ---------------------- Cost: 8000 Cr This extends the armour of the ships hull to give better protection against damage. This shield adds 50 armour points and may be stacked with other shields or defences. TERRAN APPROVED: 2450 THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS FOR THOSE WITH SECURITY CLEARANCE ORANGE AND ABOVE ONLY ZONE 014 : MISSILE WARFARE -------------------------- Missiles are an integral part of the military might of your colony. You should rely on neither ships alone nor missiles alone, but use a combination of both of them. The advantage of missiles is that they are a long range weapon, allowing you to strike at the enemy deep in space. This is a disadvantage too since missiles cannot be used to combat enemy attacks on your asteroids. BUILDING MISSILES ----------------- To be able to build and launch missiles you must have one or more Missile Silos on an asteroid Select these from the Bullding Selection Window and construct them on suitable asteroids preferably ones with a variety of ore and not too distant from an enemy asteroid. You need only one silo on an asteroid but the more you do have the more missiles you can launch simultaneously for a quicker attack. To build a missile click on the Missile Silo building. A window appears detailing each of the missiles available to you at this time. See the end of this section for a summary of each missile warhead type. Some missile types are only available once you have purchased the blueprints from Sci-Tek. At the start of the game you have 6 types available but there are 11 in total LEFT RIGHT BUILD ABORT EXIT Use the Left and Right Arrow buttons to cycle through the missile types until you reach the one you wish to build. Click on the Build Missile button to build a missile and click successive times to build more than one. Click on the Abort button to abort the building of any of this type of missile. Other types will be unaffected. Missiles will be built over a period of time. Each type takes the same amount of time to build but clearly the more you want to build the longer it will take. The cost of each missile will be deducted when the missile is finally built and delivered automatically to the underground missile hangers. These hangers can hold up to 10 of each type of warhead on each asteroid. NOTE: Money must be pre allocated to the Missile Fund in the Financial Fund Window. See the appropriate section for how to do this. The type of Ore needed to build the missile is given in the information window but you will be warned if there is insufficient ore to build any particular missile. The ore must be held in Stores on the current asteroid so you may need Mines to extract ore (See the section on Mining) Similarly you will be warned if the current asteroid does not have a Weapons Factory. Missiles cannot be built without one. Even if you receive one of these warnings about insufficient ore, lack of money or lack of Weapons Factory the Missile Silos will continually check whether they can build another missile. So as soon as you rectify the fault (ie mine or transport more ore allocate more money to the Missile Fund or build a Weapons Factory) the construction will continue automatically. LAUNCHING MISSILES ------------------ To launch a missile click on the Launch Missile button either from the Asteroid View Screen or the Asteroid Field Screen. A window will list the number of each type of missile you have on the current asteroid. Each blob on the barcharts represents one missile. At the bottom of the window the current target is listed, if you have selected one, and the expected accuracy of any missiles launched against this target. This accuracy is unavailable unless you have purchased a Missile Tracker from Sci-Tek. So until you buy a Missile Tracker you will have to estimate your chances of success for a missile attack (see below) LAUNCH TARGET ABORT EXIT SETTING THE TARGET ASTEROID --------------------------- Missiles can only target asteroids not individual ships or fleets. To select a target from the Missile Control Window click on the Target button. You will be taken to the Asteroid View screen (unless you are already there) and shown all the asteroids known to you. A circle is entered on the current asteroid and this marks the range of your missiles. The circle is of little use unless you have a Missile Tracker. In which case it will be accompanied by a percentage chance to hit figure. If you don`t use a Missile Tracker you`ll have to experiment. As you move the cross hair with the mouse the circle will grow and shrink and the percentage chance to hit will alter. The percentage chance is an approximate indication of the chance of EACH of your missiles hitting but remember that even if a missile reaches its target successfully the enemy may have the means to shoot it down. To select a target asteroid move the cross hair over an asteroid and click the left mouse button. You will return to the Missile Control window. That target is now set and will remain so unless you alter it ot the targetted asteroid is destroyed SELECTING THE MISSILES TO FIRE ------------------------------ You can fire as many missiles at a time as you want but remember that the missiles will take longer to launch if you only have one or two Missile Silos. To select missiles move the mouse pointer over the name of a missile. Click right to add one missile of that type to the launch bay. Click left to remove one missile from the launch bay. Hold down the mouse button to add/remove several missiles. The red blobs show available missiles and green blobs show missiles selected for launch. The numbers at the right of the window echo this information showing how many missiles you have selected of each type. The abort button will clear all selected missiles of all types. LAUNCHING THE MISSILES ---------------------- To actually launch the selected missiles click on the Launch button. To quit without launching any missiles click on the Exit button. You can watch the progress of missiles in flight from the Asteroid Field Screen. Your missiles appear as yellow dots. MISSILE WARHEAD DATA -------------------- The data on each missile type follows. Missiles marked with (blueprint) are only available from Sci-Tek. Note: This data is accurate at this moment in time but is subject to change by Sci-Tek and the other missile manufacturers without warning. Explosive --------- Cost: 1000 Cr Ore: 1 Selenium This is the basic (and very cheap) warhead. It has a minimum impact area on the target and several such missiles may be required to destroy enemy buildings. For best results launch many at one time. Area Explosive -------------- Cost: 8000 Cr Ore: 2 Barium As an extension to the basic Explosive warhead, this warhead does similar damage but over a wider area. For best results use against densely populated asteroids. Napalm ------ Cost: 6000 Cr Ore: 1 Quazinc This warhead has a core of plasma gas which is released at a phenomenal temperature upon impact. It carries its own Oxygen supply causing the impacted buildings to erupt into flame. This flame will burn for some time inflicting further damage. The area of effect is very limited however. Hellfire -------- Cost: 20000 Cr Ore: 3 Quazinc The chemical substance encased in this warhead is a by product of the development of the Napalm warheads. Upon impact the core shatters and spreads high temperature plasma gas over a wide area. Any structure caught in this blast will begin to burn ferociously and suffer damage over a period of time. The hellfire substance has the capability to spread to neighbouring buildings and it is possible for one missile to devastate an entire asteroid if the hellfire burns long enough. Clearly it is most eftective against densely populated asteroids. Scatter ------- Cost: 10000 Cr Ore: 3 Selenium This is a larger version of the basic Explosive warhead. In fact it contains 25 such warheads. It will explode just above the surface of the asteroid and the multiple warheads will fall at random upon the asteroid. The damage is slight but the random pattern is good at weakening many buildings at once. Vortex ------ Cost: 9000 Cr Ore: 3 Crystalite Upon impact an electrical vertex is released upon the asteroid. It will wander at random upon the surface inflicting damage upon any building it touches. The longevity of the vortex is indeterminate and Sci-Tek are still attempting to develop a Vortex MkII that has a guaranteed longevity. It is possible for the vortex to split into two parts each continuing to wreak havoc, and each with the possibility of splitting again. Nuclear(blueprint) ------------------ Cost: 50000 Cr Ore: 5 Asteros This is a multi-megaton warhead capable of inflicting enormous damage to an asteroid possibly destroyirng every building upon it. Spacecraft in orbit will also suffer damage from the blast. WARNING: USE WITH CARE! The radiation effects from a nuclear attack can render an asteroid uninhabitable for many many years. Virus (blueprint) ----------------- Cost: 30000 Cr Ore: 1 Traxium This is a very powerful weapon which unfortunately reguires the very rare Traxium ore for its payload. Upon impact it releases a volatile substance which begins at once to eat at the fabric of the asteroid itself. It will alter the molecular consistency of the asteroid material, turning it a different colour as it does so. No building can stand upon a weakened section of asteroid, but will simply collapse. The mutated rock becomes radioactive too. Over time the virus will spread across the asteroid never stopping until it has affected the entire asteroid which is then incapable of supporting any colony at all. A virus infected asteroid is living on borrowed time! There is one way to combat the virus an Anti-Virus missile. Anti-Virus (blueprint) ---------------------- Cost: 10000 Cr Ore: 4 Barium The only known means to enadicate the effects of a Virus missile. Upon impact it disperses a bacterial agent over the entire surface of the asteroid. Within moments this will seek out and destroy the virus substance and halt its spread. It will then begin to act upon the parts of the asteroid that have been altered by the virus. It takes a long time to act but will eventually restore the asteroid to a more stable form capable of supporting buildings again. The only known side effect is an increased radiation. Since you will only be firing this missile aganst one of your own asteroids it is possible to target the same asteroid as the launching silo by using the same technique explained above. Mega (blueprint) ---------------- Cost: 65500 Cr Ore: 1 Nexos This is the most devastating weapon available! It took Sci-Tek some 40 years of research to perfect it. Quite simply it destroys an entire asteroid or even a small sized planet - nothing but rubble remains. The actual process is extremely complicated, relying upon a gravity pulse to rip apart the target asteroid rather than simply using huge amounts of explosives. Stasis (blueprint) ------------------ Cost: 40000 Cr Ore: 2 Korellium This is the latest warhead from Sci-Tek utilising their research into temporal physics. Upon impact it will establish a temporal field around the asteroid latching it to the Spacial Matrix (TM) of the surrounding space. The effect is to freeze time itself or at least the local time inside the stasis field. Nothing will happen on the affected asteroid and no spacecraft or missiles may arrive or leave. The field will decay and die over a period of time. ZONE 015 : THE ENEMY -------------------- KLL-KP-QUA Home world: Tau Ceti III Physical Description: At first glance they resemble a Terran Praying Mantis, standing just under 1m tall. Their face however bears more resemblance to a bird than an insect. They have two eyes, two ears and a single mouth positioned where we would expect a nose to be. It is not known whether they possess a sense of smell. Atop their heads they wear an ornate headpiece, whose complexity and colours denote theie social standing. At all times they dress in exquisite and colourful robes, usually adorned with large ruffs and gemstones. Habitat: Their native habitat varies from hot and arid grassland to steamy jungles. They can adapt to other habitats except they have little resistance to cold or ice. Technology: They have adapted to space very well, building well-insulated structures and large underground caverns, filled with native jungle fauna, their spaceships are basic and their technology generally barely adequate. Social Structure: They exhibit remarkable similarities to Terran hive insects. Each asteroid possesses a single Queen, responsible for laying and hatching all eggs, the rest of the population is split into two distinct and genetically different groups. One remains on the asteroid and fulfils a support role building, maintenance, serving the Queen, etc, the others operate the spacecraft and are never allowed to return to the asteroids. They spend their entire life inside the spacecraft. In normal circumstances a Queen is born every 2 to 3 Terran Years. Once the Queen reaches maturity, in a few short months, she commandeers a transport ship and goes in search of her own asteroid. It is not known whether their is a hierarchy amongst the Queens. Each asteroid appears to operate independently, but there is regular communication between Queens on different asteroids. Power Generation: The primary means of power generation is the burning of their own corpses. All dead are carefully recovered and taken to the burners. Secondary power generation is by means of solar panels Special Weapons: It is known that they possess a special type of warhead, but its effects are unknown. Military Strategy: Their actions appear very predicable so expect few surprises. LAK`MAJ`TRAAL (ORE EATERS) Home world: Their exact home world is not known. We beleive they originated in the M53 galaxy in Sagittarius, which they appear to have explored extensively. Physical Description: An adult male stands 1m high at the head and up to 12m long. They are very large wormlike creatures covered in hard scales. Their fangs and horns have the strength to break up rocks. Their diet is one of rock. They regurgitate a special chemical that can break down even the hardest ores, which they then eat hungrily, digesting them with extraordinarily strong stomach acids. Their heat signature in Infra Red is enormous. They are slow moving which is why they rely on technology to assist them. Habitat: They seem able to exist in any habitat but particularly in the vacuum of space. Examining the M53 galaxy, we have discovered that huge areas of it have been destroyed. planet literally eaten apart by great migrations of these creatures. Their appetite is enormous - an adult male will eat up to twelve times his own body weight in ores every day! They are a real threat to the Empire Technology: Most of their structures are simple domes, protecting areas of an asteroid from solar radiation and meteorite bombardment while they eat into the heart of the asteroid in search of food. They possess powerful spacecraft which have carried them to our galaxy from M53. We know little of their technology since whenever they evacuate an asteroid they destroy all remnants of their structures and devices. Social Structure: We have been unable to determine their heirarchy, other than the obvious dominance that the adult males have due to their size. Procreation is via egg laying, but the population grows slowly due to the longevity of each male. It appears that duties are simply performed by whoever is in the right place at the right moment. Their must be some form of overall control, even if it is only the signal which makes them suddenly board the transporters and head for another asteroid which they do the minute they have drained it of ore. Power Generation: They use chemical reactions to break down useless rock, harnessing the power created. Special Weapons: No information Military Strategy: They are vicious when disturbed. We have observed that they only ever attack our mining colonies and never inhabited planets, as if they identify that our mining colonies are robbing them of food. Be prepared for regular missile strikes. AX-ZILANTH`S Home world: Beta Hydrae IV, though they are extensive in the Capella and Arcturus Sectors, where we have fought skirmishes with them on many occasions. Physical Description: The bulk of their 2m tall bodies are a hard carapace that protects their vital and sensory organs The lower part of their body consists of six extremely sensitive and flexible tentacles which they use both for movement (fast!) and manipulation of objects. Their eyes see in a greater spectrum than our own, allowing them access to Ultraviolet and Infrared light. Habitat: Varies from sparse desert and rocky badlands to temperate forest and grassy plains. Technology: Their technology has developed upon similar lines to our own. They use smelting processes to produce steel and use silicon and germanium components in their electronic circuits. Their spacecraft are certainly on a par with our own, if not superior and many possess cloaking devices. Social Structure: They operate on a strict hierarchy as does our Empire. Each asteroid is divided into sections responsible for a particular aspect such as engineering, food supply spacecraft manufacture, etc. Each section head reports to an asteroid council which determines overall policy for that asteroid. The chair being of each council participates in a regional council that comprises twenty or more asteroids and planets. We conclude that a representative of these regional councils sits upon a higher council that governs their entire Empire. Power Generation: Standard techniques of Fission and Fusion as well as harnessing solar energy. Special Weapons: No information. We suspect that they have Military Strategy: Our skirmishes with them in other sectors have led us to determine that they are never first to initiate an attack. They parade a threatening arsenal of weapons and warships but always wait for us to take the initiative before retailaiting. Try to use this to your advantage. TYLARAN EMPIRE Home world: Deneb Mira III Physical Description: They resemble hideous lizards, standing over 3m tall. Though they have no balancing tail, the bulk of their body and their strong legs enables them to walk easily as a biped. Their clawed hands are surprisingly dextrous and capable of manipulating very fine objects. They possess large mouths with fangs, identifying them as carnivores, and their craniums support a brain larger than our own. Habitat: Their homeworlds are ice worlds, far from their primary sun and covered with continual ice and blizzards. They are at home in the cold of space! We believe that their hide contains special insulating layers to protect them against temperatures up to -100 degrees below freezing. Technology: Their technology varies greatly. On the one hand they have only recently developed spacecraft capable of crossing interstellar space, (though we have monitored their home world for over a century and know that their weapons technology is spohisticated). On the other hand we have yet to understand other aspects of their technology, such as power generation. Social Structure: They seem to operate on the principle of Imperial supremacy, where each region of space has a sub Emperor who has complete control over his region, but reports to the real Emperor on Deneb Mira III. They are very social creatures and work well with each other. Discipline is strong and absolute and apparently welcomed. Power Generation: We can only suspect that they harness power directly from the Spacial Matrix, which would give the access to practically unlimited power. We have detected new kinds of radiation from the buildings that we have called Flux Convertors and Power Collectors and we suspect that these play an important part in the process. Special Weapons: One of their structures emits a huge surge of energy at regular intervals. This could well be a weapon proceed with caution. Their asteroids also have a screen generator whose purpose is unclear. Military Strategy: Unknown. THE RIGELLIAN CONFEDERATION Home world: Rigel system Physical Description: We were very surprised when we first identified their species over a century ago. They corresponded almost exactly with historical depictions of vampires, which makes it conceivable that they visited Earth in the long distant past to provide a source for the classic legends. They appear similar to a human but with bald domed heads, and of course those legendary fangs. Their eyes glow an eerie red, which we know to be the reflection of light off their retinas. All their senses are well developed. Habitat: Unknown Technology: Their technology is sophisticated, though not in the area of power generation. Their devices appear to require vast amounts of power, and several of our scout ships have been mysteriously drained of all power after entering Rigellian Space. They are also extremely advanced in the areas of Warp technology. Social Structure: From the few communications we have made with them, we know them to be an extremely ancient race. It is likely that they were developing technology when dinosaurs walked the Earth. They name themselves a Confederation, which suggests that they operate as a series of individual states or worlds that are independently governed but have allegiance and common laws with each other under the authority of a federal government. They are highly developed socially, but steadfastly refuse to open negotiations with us for the trade of materials or information. Power Generation: Primitive methods of burning fossil fuels. They only recently aquired the secrets of atomic power, stolen from one of our research vessels. Special Weapons: They have the abilility to drain power from our batteries. Otherwise, we expect few surprises. Military Strategy: We would best describe their strategies as muddled. They are very trigger-happy with missiles. We also know that their ships carry advanced warp engines. SWIXARANS Home world: They originate from the densely grouped star systems at the heart of our galaxy. We have detected their presence in over thirty star systems. Physical Description: The Swixarans are one of those rare cases when plant life has developed intelligence and the ability to develop technology. A typical Swixaran is between 1m and 4m high and composed of a mass of soft and pliable shoots and creepers. Constantly moving. Their exact form varies with their surroundings - if they enter corridors they flatten their body and use many of their creepers to probe the way ahead. We are unsure of their sensory organs but it is likely they possess very sensitive touch sensors in their extremities and maybe motion detectors as well. There is a small part of their body which we suspect houses their vital organs and brain, but it is always well protected by the creepers. Habitat: Unknown, but we suspect either dense jungle worlds or huge forests. Technology: Almost incomparable to our own, since much of their technology is based on biological proteins and DNA encoded, self replicating tissue. They are very advanced in areas of shield generation and cloaking devices. Social Structure: Difficult to determine. We suspect that they possess a group intelligence and there is evidence to support the theory that a great deal of this intelligence is located in a particular location on each asteroid. Their aims seem only to be expansion and colonisation. Power Generation: We do not understand their method of power generation. It is certainly biologically based and undoubtedly bears more resemblance to blood sugar levels in their organic structures, rather than the harnessing of nuclear power. Special Weapons: Our spies report several closely guarded weapons, the details of which are unavailable at this time. Be prepared for anything! Military Strategy: They seem to react to our own strategies and attacks rather than initiating their own they are especially susceptible to fire-based weaponry, but otherwise their structures are well protected. There does seem to be a pattern to their attacks, but we have yet to understand it. ANY PROBLEMS ? If you have prohlems loading K240, then return it to your retailer, or to Gremlin Graphics at the address on the packaging. If you have any questions relating to the game, then Gremlin Graphics Helpline is available between the hours of 09:30 and 17:30 U.K. time Monday to Friday, on 0742 753423 COPYRIGHT Copyright 1994 Gremlin Graphics Software Limited. All Rights Reserved. This manual and the information contained on the disks are copyrighted by Gremlin Graphics Limited. The owner of this product is entitled to use this product for his or her own personal use only. No one may transfer give or sell any part of the manual or the information on the disks without the prior permission of Gremlin Graphics Software Limited. Any person or persons reproducing any part of the program, in any media, for any reason, shall be guilty of copyright violation and subject to civil liability at the discretion of the copyright holder. ------------------------------------END------------------------------------ * ********************** * * * TYPED F/\STER * * BY * * SHARD NUT & BOLT * * * ***********************