TRADE WARS 2002 Trade Wars 2002 for The Major BBS is copyright (C) 1994 by High Velocity Software, Inc. All rights to Trade Wars 2002 for The Major BBS are reserved by High Velocity Software, Inc. "Trade Wars 2002" is a trademark of Martech Software, Inc. Trade Wars 2002 for DOS is copyright (C) 1994 by Martech Software, Inc. LIMITED WARRANTY: This documentation and any related software are sold "as-is", without any warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and loss of profits or other economic damages. High Velocity Software does not warrant that the operation of this software will be uninterrupted or error- free. In no event and under no circumstances will High Velocity Software be liable for any damages in excess of the sum paid by customer for the product to which any claim for damages relates. REFUND POLICY: For the thirty (30) day period following the date of sale, High Velocity Software warrants to the customer that the product shall operate in a manner satisfactory to the customer. As the customer's sole remedy under this refund policy, High Velocity Software shall refund to the customer the purchase price of any product the customer returns to High Velocity Software within the thirty (30) day period, provided the product has not been damaged by the customer, all original packaging and documentation, together with the original sales receipt and a written request for said refund, is returned to High Velocity Software. LICENSE: You may: 1. Install and operate this software on a single machine. 2. Make one copy of this software into machine-readable or printed form, for backup or archival purposes in support of your use of this software. This software is licensed to a single corporation or person, for operation on a single machine only. Once licensed, the license to use this software is NOT TRANSFERABLE to any other person or corporation, without the express, written permission of an officer of High Velocity Software, Inc. Use of this software is also restricted to certain geographic regions. For the exact regions excluded by this license, contact High Velocity Software, Inc. YOU MAY NOT USE, COPY, MODIFY, MERGE, DISASSEMBLE, OR TRANSFER THIS SOFTWARE, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED FOR IN THIS LICENSE. Violation of any parameter of this license will result in the immediate forfeiture of said license. CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION ........................................... 3 RUNNING THE DEMO ....................................... 3 SINGLE vs MULTI-USER ................................... 3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS .................................... 4 INSTALLATION ........................................... 5 WHAT IS ACTUALLY INSTALLED ............................. 6 CREATING THE UNIVERSE .................................. 7 CREATING THE UNIVERSE ON A DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM .......... 9 EDITING THE UNIVERSE ................................... 11 REPAIRING THE UNIVERSE ................................. 12 SYSOP ABILITIES ........................................ 13 CNF CONFIGURATION ...................................... 14 GLOBAL COMMANDS ........................................ 18 RUNNING THE GAME ....................................... 19 TOURNAMENT MODE ........................................ 19 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS .............................. 20 FILE LISTING ........................................... 22 - Files that come with Trade Wars 2002 v2. TECHNICAL SUPPORT ...................................... 23 ABOUT THE AUTHORS ...................................... 24 VERSION UPDATE INFORMATION ............................. 25 INTRODUCTION: Trade Wars 2002 is a game of starships, trading, corporations, aliens, and galactic conquest. Players are given a merchant cruiser and a few hundred credits to start with. They roam the universe, transporting cargo between startports and amassing their wealth. Soon they can afford fighters, space mines, scanners, new starships, and maybe even a planet of their own. They can even band together with other players to form corporations, sharing their resources to spread their conquests even further. Trade Wars 2002 for The Major BBS is true to the spirit of the classic door game that is so popular on thousands of BBSes around the world, but takes full advantage of the multi-user nature of The Major BBS that other systems lack. If your BBS users are familiar with Trade Wars 2002 already, they should feel right at home! And if your users are new to the game it certainly will not take them long to join the legions of fans. RUNNING THE DEMO: If you are running the demo of Trade Wars 2002, many of the features and options mentioned in this document will not work. Users in the demo will be limited to a 50-sector universe, will not be able to have more than 10,000 credits, and will not be able to enter the Stardock shipyards, but should get a very good idea for how the game looks and plays when fully active. SINGLE vs MULTI-USER: If you have purchased the single-user version of Trade Wars 2002, only one user at a time will be able to enter the game on your system. Other users will be put on a waiting list, and will be notified when they can enter the game. The single-user version can be upgraded to the multi-user version without having to reset any part of the game. If you have purchased the multi-user version of Trade Wars 2002, you can determine how many users you want to allow into the game at once! This is configurable through a CNF option. See: CNF CONFIGURATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Trade Wars 2002 will use between 380K of RAM for a game with a 1,000 sector universe, and about 450K of RAM for a game with a 5,000 sector universe. When a user enters Trade Wars 2002, the game will allocate 12K of RAM to hold all of his player and ship information. This RAM will be freed when the user leaves the game, but make sure you have enough free RAM so that if every user tries to enter the game at once, your system will be able to handle it. Trade Wars 2002 will occupy between 2.5 megabytes of hard drive space for a game with a 1,000 sector universe, and 4 megabytes of hard drive space for a game with a 5,000 sector universe. Trade Wars 2002 is designed to run on version 6.12x and higher of The MajorBBS. INSTALLATION: 1) Insert the Trade Wars 2002 disk into your BBS computer. 2) Type "A:INSTALL" at your DOS prompt to begin installation. 3) The installation program will begin running: A) The install program will try to determine where it should install Trade Wars 2002. B) It will then bring up a dialog box and ask you to verify where Trade Wars 2002 is to be installed. Make sure that the directory specified is the directory of your actual The Major BBS executable program. C) The install program will then verify that you have enough disk space for installation. 4) When the installation program is done running, return to your main BBS directory, if you are not there already. 5) Type "BBS" at the DOS prompt, and select option "2", Design Menu Tree. Add Trade Wars 2002 to your menu structure. 6) Read the section of this documentation called "MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS". This contains a number of optional, but not required, tips for starting out. 7) From the BBS screen, select option "8", Add-on Utilities, and run the program "HVSTWINI (initialize Trade Wars 2002 universe)". This will set up the universe that Trade Wars 2002 will use. See: CREATING THE UNIVERSE 8) If there are any changes you want to make to the playing options for the game, like the number of turns, photon duration, etc., select option "8", Add-on Utilities, and run the program "HVSTWEDT (edit Trade Wars 2002 settings)". If you want to run with the default settings, simply move to the next step. See: EDITING THE UNIVERSE 9) Use the configuration utility for The Major BBS to customize the runtime options of Trade Wars 2002, like an added credit charge, for your own system. For a list of these options, see: CNF CONFIGURATION 10) Make sure the activation code in your message file is set properly. Option ACTCODE in level 3 (Security) should be the same as the code written on your installation disk. If you are experiencing problems with the activation code or have questions, call High Velocity Software. 11) Run your BBS! Trade Wars 2002 should be all ready to go! WHAT IS ACTUALLY INSTALLED: The usual files that The Major BBS needs for running a module are installed to the BBSV6 subdirectory. Trade Wars 2002 has a lot of its own support files that we did not want to clutter up the same directory, so they are installed in the BBSV6\HVSTWDAT subdirectory. These files include all the ANSI files for the game, the sysop and user log files, and many of the incidental files that Trade Wars 2002 keeps pieces of information in. All the main data files, with universe, player, and ship information, are stored in the BBSV6 subdirectory. See: FILE LISTING If BBSV6\HVSTWDAT is an inconvenient place to store these files, you can move them to a different location, and specify the new path in the TWPATH CNF option. See: CNF CONFIGURATION CREATING THE UNIVERSE: Before your players can begin the game of Trade Wars 2002, you must initialize the universe. Creating the universe is done through the use of the "Big Bang" tool, which is called HVSTWINI. This program can be run for the first time from option "8", Add- on Utilities, from the BBS introduction screen. If you wish to re-build your universe over an existing universe, you must run the HVSTWZAP batch file from the DOS command line before starting HVSTWINI. Once Big Bang is started, you have a number of options for customizing your universe before it is created. Care must be taken when changing these options, as it is possible to create a universe that is too difficult or easy for users to get around in. If you are not familiar with the mechanics of Trade Wars 2002, it is recommended that you leave the settings at their defaults. If you expect to have a high number of players in the game, you can safely adjust the number of sectors in the universe to a higher value without disturbing the balance. See: MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS Each setting will display a brief help screen when selected. For your reference, a short note is included in this documentation as well. A> Universe size in Sectors This setting simply controls how "big" your universe is, up to a maximum of 5,000 sectors. Changing this setting will automatically cause a number of other settings to be re- calculated from default; be sure to change this option first if you plan to change any others. In most cases a 1000 sector universe is sufficient. If you have a large number of players or otherwise want to give the game a new twist, adjust this number up. Turning this number down can create a very "cramped" universe as players will not have room to set up their empires far from one another, which may or may not be a bad thing. Every sector consumes 12 bytes of your RAM when the system is up, to a maximum of 60,000 bytes. B> Maximum possible Course Length When a player (or the game itself) attempts to plot a course from one sector to another, this is the maximum length of that plot. If a course cannot be found in this number of sectors, then it is assumed no course can be found at all. This setting has little effect on the game once it is in play, but it will have a very drastic effect on the creation of the universe, especially with larger universe sizes. When creating the universe, Big Bang tries to find sectors that are not connected to the rest of the universe ("orphans") by plotting courses between them and common sectors, such as 1 (Earth). If it cannot plot a course to connect two sectors, then it will add warps out of the orphan sector to ensure a connection. Hence a lower setting for this option will cause a very "dense" universe, with all sectors slightly closer to each other. Raising this setting will cause the universe to be "sparse" and have more isolated pockets that are difficult to find. For every channel in your system, this option consumes 2 bytes per sector in the course length. C> Maximum possible StarPorts This option is the maximum number of ports that can exist in the universe. Once this many ports are in business (or under construction), players will not be able to make new ports until an existing port is destroyed. In general, the effects of this setting won't be felt by the players until the game is fairly advanced. Lowering this number will cause more conflict between players late in the game as they destroy their enemies' ports in order to build their own. This setting consumes 2 bytes of your RAM per port. D> Initial StarPorts to Build When Big Bang constructs a universe, it places this percentage of the possible ports into the game. Changing this setting enables you to cause the initial state of the game to be slightly harder or easier. The more ports in existence at the beginning of the game, the easier it will be for starting players (but harder down the road when players want their own ports) to get by. A lower number of ports will make it more difficult and slow down the development of the game as players will have to travel farther to trade. E> Maximum possible Planets This is the number of planets that can exist in the game. Once this many planets are in existence, new planets cannot be created until an existing planet is destroyed. Note that the game makes 2 planets to begin with (Terra and Ferrengal), so make sure this setting is at the very least 2. Lowering this setting will cause more conflict between players in the middle to late stages of the game as they fight for planets. Each planet created consumes 2 bytes of your RAM. F> Two-Way Warps This is the percentage of two-way warps the game will use to build the universe initially. So if you have a 3,000 sector universe, and set this to 75%, the game will start with 2,250 randomly assigned two-way warps. After this, the one- way warps are assigned. Any orphan sectors are then linked up, creating yet more warps. This value can be increased up to 200%, and the higher you set it, the "denser" your universe will be. G> One-Way Warps This is the percentage of one-way warps in the universe. In general, one-way warps are uncommon and are not easily found. However, you can adjust this setting to create a more "twisty" universe if you like. This can create a very interesting twist on a game, although it will confuse inexperienced players. H> Maximum possible Players This is the maximum number of players that can have accounts in the game. Once this number is reached, no new players will be allowed into the game until a user is removed for not taking his turns. This setting consumes 2 bytes of your RAM per player. I> Maximum possible Ships This is the maximum number of ships that can exist in the universe at once (not counting aliens and Ferrengi). Once this number is reached, players cannot purchase new ships at the StarDock. In addition, new players will not be allowed into the game if there are no ships available. Each ship requires 6 bytes of your RAM. Z> Begin Universe Creation Selecting this option will cause your universe to be created. Depending on the speed of your computer, this may take a few minutes. Increasing the number of players, ports, planets, and ships will cause the creation to take substantially longer. On slower processors (386's), increasing the number of sectors and/or maximum course length will also cause the creation to take longer. A standard universe (all default settings) takes about 5 minutes to create on a 386/40 with a disk cache and fast (12ms) hard drive. CREATING A UNIVERSE ON A DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM: If you do not want to take your system down to create a universe, you can create it on a development system and then copy it to your main BBS system afterwards. WARNING: Only attempt this if you are very familiar with DOS commands, moving files between computers, and the files that Major BBS modules need to use. This is not a very complex process, but if you do not do this correctly it is possible to "damage" your universe if some files get out of sync. 1) If a universe already exists on your development system, clear it out with the HVSTWZAP batch file. 2) Run HVSTWINI from the Add-on Utilities menu. See: CREATING THE UNIVERSE 3) Change any settings, such as photon missile duration or death delay, with HVSTWEDT from the Add-on Utilities menu. See: EDITING THE UNIVERSE 4) Bring down your BBS and install Trade Wars 2002 if it is not already installed. 5) Clean out all the data files on your BBS system with the HVSTWZAP batch file. 6) Copy the universe data files from the development system to the target system. If you have a network, you can easily accomplish this through the normal copy commands from the DOS prompt. If not, we suggest you use a compression tool, such as PKZIP, to compress the files. A virgin universe will compress very small, enabling you to fit it onto a single disk. The universe data files are: HVSTW.CFG - Master configuration file HVSTWPLY.DAT - Player data file HVSTWSHP.DAT - Ship data file HVSTWPOR.DAT - Ports data file HVSTWPLN.DAT - Planets data file HVSTWALI.DAT - Aliens data file HVSTWFER.DAT - Ferrengi data file HVSTWCOR.DAT - Corporations (teams) data file HVSTWMES.DAT - Messages data file HVSTWGRM.DAT - Trader (tavern lore) data file HVSTWSEC.D8A - Sector map Note that you don't need to move any of the files in the HVSTWDAT subdirectory. The game will build any files it needs during the game in that directory. If you are moving an existing game that is already in play from one machine to another, you should copy the entire contents of the HVSTWDAT directory to the target system's HVSTWDAT directory in addition to the above files. EDITING THE UNIVERSE: There is an editor designed just for changing around many of the configuration options inside Trade Wars 2002, as well as editing individual user and planet information. The program is called HVSTWEDT, and you can find it under option "8", Add-on Utilities, at the main BBS menu. Once inside the editor, you will find the majority of the game configuration under options G and H, labeled "General Configuration Options". From here you can set up a number of options, such as photon missile duration and whether aliases are allowed in the game. After you initialize your universe, we recommend that you peruse options G and H for any configuration changes. Each configuration option displays a help screen when you select it. REPAIRING THE UNIVERSE: Because Trade Wars 2002 is such a large and complex game, it maintains a number of data files that must be kept concurrent. In the case of a power outage or severe system crash, the references between the files can be damaged. To help handle these problems, you will find a program called HVSTWFIX included with the game. You run this program from DOS in your BBSV6 subdirectory, which will cause it to scan all of your Trade Wars data files and verify their integrity. If any errors are found, you can run the program again with the "/F" option to actually attempt to correct the problems and write them to disk. If you use the "/F" option, HVSTWFIX will write to the disk whatever changes are necessary to clean up the integrity of the data files. Depending on the exact problem, this may erase entire corporations, planets, and players. Always check your files WITHOUT the "/F" parameter beforehand. In some cases (after a crashed disk, for example), it might be better to restore a back-up of the game's data files from a few days ago than to repair the existing files. SYSOP ABILITIES: Anyone with the key specified in the TWSYSOP field of your Trade Wars 2002 configuration will be able to use these options. Cloak on exit - When you enter the game, you will be asked if you wish to cloak your ship, whether you have a cloaking device or not. A cloaking device is a way to help avoid having your ship disturbed by other players, but it is not foolproof. Use of word "Sysop" - Only someone with this key will be able to use the word "Sysop" in their player or ship name. This is to help prevent players from claiming to be a system operator to escape the wrath of other players in the game. Send custom messages - Option "S" under the Computer Menu in Trade Wars 2002 allows you to send messages to other players in the game. If you have sysop access to the game, you can send the message from people other than yourself, like the Federation, the Ferrengi, and so on. Send custom announcements - Option "A" under the Computer Menu in Trade Wars 2002 allows you to make general announcements that appear in the daily log. If you have sysop access to the game, you can send the message from people other than yourself, like the Federation, the Ferrengi, and so on. Clear conversation on Stardock - In the tavern on the Stardock is a conversation that users can add onto. This conversation can get quite lengthy, or sometimes just obnoxious, so a sysop might want to erase it. Simply try to add onto the conversation, and you will be asked if you want to clear the conversation after you are done. Clear writing on wall at Stardock - In the bathroom in the tavern at the Stardock is a wall with some graffiti. A sysop can clear the wall of text by typing "E" for erase wall. Change news bulletin - You can enter a news bulletin that will appear at the main Trade Wars 2002 menu. Just type "B" from the main menu and you will be placed into the editor. The message can be up to five lines long. This is a good place to announce new games, tournament dates, and so on. CNF CONFIGURATION: The majority of the Trade Wars 2002 game options are edited with the HVSTWEDT off-line program. A few of the options that are system-specific and not dependent on the universe are in the HVSTW.MSG message file and can be edited at levels 3 and 4 in the BBS's configuration editor. LEVEL 3 OPTIONS ACTCODE: Trade Wars 2002 activation code This is the activation code for Trade Wars 2002. Make sure you enter it here exactly as it appears on your installation disk. If you have trouble or questions, please call High Velocity Software, Inc. at (602)234-2207. Default: (Empty) TWSYSOP: Sysop key for Trade Wars 2002 This is the key a user must possess to be considered a "sysop" by Trade Wars. Anyone with this key will have the ability to wreak a lot of havoc in the game! Make sure you give this key only to trusted users who will not abuse the power. Default: SYSOP TWCCR: Trade Wars 2002 credit consumption rate, per min This is the credit consumption rate while in Trade Wars 2002. Select a number higher than your normal credit rate to place a premium on Trade Wars usage or a lower number to offer time at a discount. If you enter zero, then Trade Wars 2002 will be free! Default: 60 LEVEL 4 OPTIONS TWSYSLOG: Log important user activity to log? This option controls the sysop log feature of the game. If this option is set to "NO", then the sysop log will not be used by the game. When this option is "YES", Trade Wars will log important user activity such as the first time a player enters the game, the alias he chooses, etc., to the log file HVSTW.LOG in the HVSTWDAT subdirectory. Be sure to check this file from time to time and erase it if it gets too large. Default: YES TWPATH: Trade Wars 2002 data path This is the path where all Trade Wars 2002-related files are stored, except for the Btrieve data files (*.DAT) and the master configuration (HVSTW.CFG). All ANSI screens and help files are stored here. This path is relative to your \BBSV6 directory, but you can specify an absolute path. This path MUST have a trailing backslash to work. If you change this path, the HVSTWZAP batch file will need to be changed as well to clear the universe. Default: HVSTWDAT\ TURNMODE: Limit gameplay by turns? This option controls whether players have a limited number of turns per day in the game (the actual number of turns can be changed with HVSTEDIT). If this option is set to NO, then users can play the game as much as they like. This may imbalance the game somewhat, since users with more credits (and spare time!) will quickly overcome those who can't play as often. If this is YES, used turns will gradually come back over time (taking 24 hours to come back fully), but if a player runs totally out of turns, he will not be able to move. An average player will use approximately 120 turns in an hour of continuous play, although this will vary for novice and expert players. Default: YES MAXUSERS: Max users in Trade Wars 2002 This is the maximum number of players that can be in the game simultaneously. This option only applies if you own the multi-user license to Trade Wars 2002. Once this number is reached, no more users can enter the game, although they can view high scores and display the introduction. If you are experiencing severe system slowdown and suspect Trade Wars 2002 is at fault, adjust this number to a small value, such as 4 or 5. If this option is set to 0, then any number of users (up to the number of channels you have defined) can be in the game at once. Default: 0 CDELAY: Course depths per cycle This option is the number of "depths" to search when plotting a course between cycles. The lower this number is, the longer a course plot will take: but it will cause less of a load on your system. If your plots take too long, increase this number by a few (2 or 3). If you notice frequent system pauses when Trade Wars 2002 is in use, try lowering this number a few. Default: 1 DLYMODE: Ship delay mode This option controls how ship delays work in Trade Wars 2002. By default, each time a player moves, he must wait a number of seconds equal to the turn cost of his ship. Big, slow ships, such as Colonial Transports move much slower than fast ones. Using this option, you can set Trade Wars to use that delay, half the delay, double the delay or no delay at all. Warning! Setting this option to NONE could cause unacceptable system loading. Note: setting this mode to HALF or DOUBLE will imbalance the game slightly. When set to HALF, the bigger and slower ships will be more powerful than intended. Similarly, setting this to DOUBLE will cause the bigger ships to suffer from a steeper speed penalty. Enabling turn mode will lessen this setting's impact on the game balance. Default: NORMAL ALLGLOBS: Allow all globals in Trade Wars 2002? This option controls whether all global commands are allowed in Trade Wars 2002. Certain global commands will cause problems when invoked inside Trade Wars 2002, such as the global re-log command in DataSafe's Global Power. If you are experiencing no trouble with these commands or don't own a globals package, then set this option to YES. When this option is YES, you can choose up to 5 globals to be excluded and all others will be allowed. If you set this option to NO, then you can choose 5 globals are allowed and any others are excluded. See: GLOBAL COMMANDS TWGLOB1-10: Valid global in Trade Wars 2002 This is a valid global command in Trade Wars 2002. Make sure any commands you put here will not adversely affect the game, such as global chats or re-logs. If you have any questions, see: TECHNICAL SUPPORT TWNOGLO1-10: Invalid global in Trade Wars 2002 This is a disallowed global in Trade Wars. Any global command that starts with this sequence will not be allowed. If you have any questions, see TECHNICAL SUPPORT GLOBAL COMMANDS: Because Trade Wars 2002 does not handle input like most modules (the game reacts to single keystrokes instead of requiring the user to press Enter), some global commands will not function properly within the game, and could even crash your system if used. We strongly recommend that you are careful about which globals you allow in the game. There are three sets of options you can use to control the way Trade Wars 2002 handles global commands. The first one, ALLGLOBS, controls which of the next few options are active. If you set ALLGLOBS to YES, the game will allow the user to type in any global by default. You then have the option of entering up to five global commands that the game will NOT allow, such as global re-logging or global chat. If the first part of the user's input matches what you have tagged as excluded, it will not be allowed. For example, if you set TWNOGLO1 to "-RE" (minus quotes), the user could not enter "-RELOG" as a global. If you set ALLGLOBS to NO, then you are given the option to allow five global commands in the TWGLOB family and the rest are disabled. Similar to the TWNOGLO family, these globals WILL be allowed if the first portion of the user's input matches the message option. For example, you could enable all global commands that start with a certain trigger by entering that single character in one of the TWGLOB options. Note that the "/GO" global is always disabled in the game, regardless of your settings in these options. RUNNING THE GAME: Your average game of Trade Wars 2002 will run until everyone in the game wants to start over with a clean slate. Eventually the universe will just fill up with planets, corporations, and general garbage. This might not happen for weeks or months, or it might not happen at all! Some systems have had the same Trade Wars 2002 game running for over three years. It is up to you to listen to your users as to when a game is "over." TOURNAMENT MODE: Tournament mode is slightly different than a normal game in several respects. In a tournament, the objective is to be killed as few times as possible, while killing as many other players as you can. Pretty simple, really, but it will cause a lot more carnage than a normal game where the object is to build your power base over time. You set up your game to run as a tournament after you have created a new universe, and are about to reset the game. You enable tournament mode by using the following two options in HVSTWEDT (See: EDITING THE UNIVERSE). The first option is the number of days to allow new sign-ups into the game, which you would set to a value greater than zero. After the game has been running this number of days, no new players will be allowed to join the game. In a normal game, people can join in whenever they please. The second option is the maximum number of times a player can be blown up, which you would also set greater than zero. If a player is blown up this many times, he cannot re-enter the game and is eliminated from the tournament. The handling of the end of the tournament is up to you. Generally, when all players but one (or one corporation) are eliminated, the tournament is over and the game should be restarted. When the game is running in tournament mode, be sure that the players are aware of the rules of the game. If a player is blown up only to find he can't enter the game again, he will not be happy! MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS: Trade Wars 2002 is a very large and complex game, and unless you are one of the many "Trade Wars 2002 junkies" in the world, you might find the game a little daunting. This section contains some tips and suggestions to help get you started. LET THE USERS TALK: When it comes to Trade Wars 2002, users like to brag, talk, ask questions, and share tips with each other. A forum on your BBS is the perfect place for them to do it, so you might want to set one up for them to use. If you are a member of MajorNet, you can connect the forum to the MajorNet address "ML@MAJORBBS.GAMES.TWAR". Then your users can talk with other players from around the world! ZIP THE USER DOCUMENTATION: Once you install the program, you will find the user documentation in a file called HVSTWUSR.DOC in the HVSTWDAT subdirectory. You might want to ZIP up this file and place it in a forum on your BBS so users can download it easily. DOOR VERSION OF TRADE WARS 2002: The Major BBS version of this game was adapted from the door version of the game with the same name. You can find the shareware version of this game on many systems, including The Rock Garden, under the name 2002V200.EXE. You might want to make that file available on your own BBS so your users can experiment with it. If they play it by themselves to learn how things work, they will be all the more excited to call your system back and play with everyone else! LEARN THE GAME: Either the Sysop or a Cosysop on your BBS should be familiar with the game. Players will undoubtedly have questions, and if a bug pops up, you will need to have some idea about what has happened to be able to report it to us. Reading the user documentation (HVSTWUSR.DOC), and playing the door version of the game on a separate machine are good ways to learn how the game is played. DEFAULT OPTIONS: Trade Wars 2002 comes with the configuration that it does because we feel it is the overall best balance for a game. Keeping a game in balance is important to prevent players from becoming discouraged, or just losing interest. There are, however, many different ways to play, and many valid reasons for tinkering with these options. If you want to change things around, you need to use the program HVSTWEDT (See: EDITING THE UNIVERSE). We suggest leaving the game as-is until you are sure that you understand the ramifications of altering these options, but at the very least keep the following things in mind: 1) Sysop editing - You should be very careful what you edit. Many players will immediately lose morale and drop out of the game if they believe someone in the game has an unfair advantage. Editing aliens and Ferrengi to make them stronger can have a desirable affect on the game if used sparingly, but editing players will almost always destroy the game balance, if they are given too much by way of combat equipment or cash. 2) Over-sized teams - The default maximum for the most number of Traders on a corporation is 5. If you allow more than this number, it is possible for a group of users to gain an iron grip on the game, especially if not confronted with an equally-sized enemy team. If there are few teams in your game, you may wish to adjust the maximum to something lower, such as 4. In general, the more teams that form, the more members that can be on a team without disruption. 3) Small universes - The smaller your universe, the easier it is for a dominant player or team to control. A team of 5 players in Imperial StarShips can effectively scour the bad guys from a 1000 sector universe in no time. Unless the size of the universe is grossly out of proportion with the active players (3000 sectors with 3 traders, for instance), players will have no trouble finding each other in very large universes. 4) Skilled players - Even with small teams and a large universe, it is possible for a skilled player to eventually become so powerful that none can challenge him. Although this takes a long time, it is something that does happen. Not much can be done to prevent this from happening, aside from enlisting other skilled players to compete. In many cases, the game has been running so long by this point, that it will actually spark more interest in the game to re-bang it with new universe settings: half the course length, or three times the normal one-way warp density, or whatever change strikes your fancy. 5) Unlimited turns - This option has the power to drive the game into total chaos. If you wish to have a well-ordered game with complete fairness to the other players, then this option should never be turned on. However, it will not make the game unplayable if enabled. While the game can be easily knocked out of balance by a team with too much spare time, it is also easy for another team to reclaim the lead by sinking enough time into playing. Given enough uncontested time, a group of people will be able to make the game COMPLETELY hostile to new users. While fun for the winning team, the game will quickly stagnate. This option is set from within CNF, and not HVSTWEDT. See: CNF CONFIGURATION TRADE WARS 2002 FILES: After installation, you should have the following files in your BBSV6 directory: HVSTW.MDF -- Definitions required by The Major BBS. HVSTW.DLL -- Executable code for Trade Wars 2002. HVSTW.DOC -- BBSUSER.DOC fragment for the Trade Wars 2002. HVSTW.MSG -- Menus, prompts, configuration, etc. HVSTWPLY.DAT -- Data file for player information. HVSTWSHP.DAT -- Data file for players' ships. HVSTWPOR.DAT -- Data file for starports. HVSTWPLN.DAT -- Data file for planets. HVSTWALI.DAT -- Data file for aliens. HVSTWFER.DAT -- Data file for Ferrengi. HVSTWCOR.DAT -- Data file for corporations (teams). HVSTWMES.DAT -- Data file for player messages. HVSTWGRM.DAT -- Data file for grimy trader (hints). HVSTWINI.EXE -- Executable code for universe creator. HVSTWEXT.EXE -- Executable code for midnight clean-up. HVSTWEDT.EXE -- Executable code for the game editor. HVSTWFXX.EXE -- Executable code for the integrity checker. HVSTWFIX.BAT -- Integrity checker batch file. HVSTWZAP.BAT -- Batch file to clear game universe. HVSTWVER.TXT -- Release notes. HVSTWSYS.DOC -- Sysop documentation (this file). In addition to the files listed here, all .DAT files also have a corresponding .VIR file. The .VIR files are (empty) virgin copies of their respective databases. There is also a subdirectory called /HVSTWDAT (unless you specified another path or name) that contains all the game specific files (such as the ANSI animation and pictures). TECHNICAL SUPPORT: All technical support for Trade Wars 2002, as well as all bug fixes and updates, will be handled through High Velocity Software's support BBS, at (602)200-9756. Create an account on our support board, if you haven't already, and then follow these instructions: 1) Type "A" for support from the main menu. 2) Enter your REGISTRATION number for your copy of Worldgroup. This number is located on the front inside cover of the Sysop Manuel or on the "about" screen. 3) Select "Trade Wars 2002" from the list of products, and enter your activation code for Trade Wars 2002. Do NOT use the activation code for your copy of The Major BBS. Once you enter this information, you will be given access to the support areas for Trade Wars 2002. 4) For bug fixes and updates, type "/GO TOP" and select "H" for the Support File Area, then select "8" for the Trade Wars 2002 Files. 5) For discussion of Trade Wars 2002, and to report bugs and problems, type "/GO TOP" and select "T" for the Support Forum. This forum is echoed over MajorNet, and has the address "ML@MAJORBBS.DEV.HVS.TW". This is where we will post notices of updates, as well as answering questions about the game. If you are a member of MajorNet, feel free to carry this forum on your own system, but please restrict access to sysops only. When you download an update, be sure to save the contents of your ACTCODE option from HVSTW.MSG somewhere (or keep your installation disk handy), since the update will not have an activation code. Once you've downloaded the update, simply un- zip it to a blank floppy disk or an empty subdirectory on your hard drive and run the INSTALL program. Although we can't be sure, you should not ever have to re-initialize your universe to run an update. If you are on MajorNet, feel free to also carry the following forums: ML@MAJORBBS.DEV.HVS - This is the High Velocity Software support forum, and is a good way to keep up on what new products we have coming out, updates to our software, and so on. You can also read this on the support board in the "/HVS" forum. ML@MAJORBBS.GAMES.TWAR - This is the Trade Wars 2002 player's forum. While the one mentioned above is for sysops only, this forum is for anyone who is interested to talk about the game, exchange hints, or generally goof around. This forum is carried on the support board as "/TradeWars". ABOUT THE AUTHORS: High Velocity Software is a small development company based in Phoenix, Arizona. We would love to hear any comments, criticisms, questions, or suggestions you have to pass along! You can reach us at: High Velocity Software, Inc. Post Office Box 33455 Phoenix, AZ 85067-3455 Voice: (602)234-2207 BBS: (602)200-9756 - HVS Support Board Email: Sysop@HVS - MajorNet support@support.hvs.com - Internet We definitely could not have pulled off this huge endeavor without the help and consultation of Gary and MaryAnn Martin of Martech Software. Gary is the original maniac behind Trade Wars 2002. We also received a mountain of help from all the people who helped us track down bugs, quirks, burps, and other semi- catastrophes: On The Rock Garden: Joe "Farmer" Abrams, James "King James" Anderson, David "Belgarion" Brimer, Jason "Darkness" Crosby, Scot "Pentax" Stecher, and Kelly "Simbul" Schultz. On Metropolis: Russel "Brick" Brickell, Derrick "Ace" Samuel, Matthew "Robby" Lewis, Brandon "Moebius Redhawk" Russell, and Jim "Slog" Rueschhoff. VERSION UPDATE INFORMATION: TRADE WARS 2002 - v1.00a to current version All bug fixes and new features are documented in HVSTWVER.TXT in the BBSV6 subdirectory.