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(*) (*)
(*) UNIVERSE II DOCUMENTATION (*)
(*) (*)
(*) Brought to you by: (*)
(*) (*)
(*) Dr. Fix (*)
(*) (*)
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These docs are verbatim from the manual, except where noted. Eight
asterisks denote chapter titles. A phrase/word that has an asterisk on
either side or is in all caps in mid-sentence is eithr bold-faced or
italicized in the documentation. All caps on a single line delineate a
major subheading in a chapter. "<|" and "|>" brace comments from me.
Enjoy.
- *******INTRODUCTION*********
THE STORY SO FAR ...
During the latter part of the First Stellar Expansion, is became evident
that the technology from planets in the Home Cluster could not support
the ever expanding colonization effort.
The hyperdrive had opened an era of fast, economical travel between the
stars. Journeys that used to consume decades could be made in a matter
of days. However, the hyperdrive was not without its problems. Its
unrefueled maximum range was a major limitation. After 3 or 4
hyperjumps, the ship would be completely out of the inhabited regions,
with nowhere to refuel. Its fuel capacity was also part of thge second
hinderance: the so-called "Mass Limit." Stated simply, it sets a severe
limit on the maximum size of a spacecraft that can enter hyperspace.
Because of these problems, the experts were predicting an end to the
rapid expansion that had previously characterized Earth's emergence as
an insterstellar civilization.
In 2105, a research ship traveling through the far reaches of the Tau
Ceti starsystem discovered a huge alien artifact. Entie scientific
communities came to study the artifact and, several years latr, the
purpose of the great machine was discovered. It was a hyperspace boostr.
It had the capability to "push" spacecraft not tens but thousands of
light-years. Since the booster itself did not enter hyperspace, ships up
to the mass limit could travel a thousand lightyears with minimal
power.
Years of research continued. Why had the aliens abandonned the booster?
Where had they gone? The scientists were unable to say. The booster
contained a mapping sustem depicting millions of stars, but very few of
them had recieved any special mention.
Finally, the control system was deciphered and test flights were made.
They proved the machine to be fully functional and technician's
knowledge of the control system, adequate enough to allow regular use.
The Second Stellar Expansion started.
You are in a cluster of stars known as the Local Group. It is impossible
to communicate with Earth because travel using the booster is strictly
one-way. Up until 40 years ago, small capsules containing the latest
news and technical examples used to arrive every month from the Home
Clustedr. Then one day they stopped. There was no indication that there
was anything wrong in the Home Cluster. The ensuing panic and fear in
the Local Group nearly destroyed civilization; as it is, the LG has been
divided into two mutually hostile govenments, set on the brink of war.
Fortunately, 20 years ago, a second hyperspace booster was discovered at
the planet Diftalpa, right in the Local Group. The second booster is
currently being towed to Cetus Amicus, where is will be studied in
greater detail. It is hoped that in the near future thre wll be two-way
communication between the Local Group and the Home Cluster ... if the
Local Group doesn't destroy itself first.
The Local Group has been divided into two governments, the Federated
Worlds (FW) and the United Democratic Planets (UDP). Although trade and
travel continue between the two governments, the situation is
deteriorating rapidly.
Almost 8 years ago, you "retired" from the Federated Worlds Special
Forces (FWSF), an organization whose function is to gather intelligence
data and perform covert operations within the United Decmocratic
Planets. Now you carry the personna of a free trader from Vrommus Prime.
Your cover is quite airtight. Occasionally, the FWSF provides you with
money and special equipment, but only to send you out on a mission. Not
all of your crew is even aware that you are anything else but a trader.
So during your travels and missions, you're ging to have to earn a
living.
--------------------------------
******* GETTING STARTED ********
--------------------------------
<| I skipped the game warranty & repair section and the paragraphs
dealing with how to set up Universe II on your Macintosh, Ibm or
Zenith. D.F.|>
HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL
This manual is broken up into 8 major sections. They are: INTRODUCTION,
GETTING STARTED, PLAYING UNIVERSE II, FILE CONTROL, FLIGHT, STARPORT,
DRYDOCK, and APPENDIX.
- Introduction* contains the background history on which the game is
based.
- Getting Started* explains the game warranty and repair policies,<|sorry
to deprive you of that|> how to boot the program and get it running on
your particular computer, how to operate the user interface (pull down
menus, buttons, mouse, etc.), and playing tips to help you jump right
into the game withut having to go through the whole manual.
- Playing Universe II* is a guide to the way the systems on your ship
work in concert. It details the functions of the various systems
availible for your spacecraft, your crew and what to do with them,
insterstellar commerce, the on-board computer, astrogation, warfare,
energyd and time, and your mission as a deep-cover agent for the
Federated Worlds.
- File Control* Explains how to create a new player file, check yuor
disks for any errors, delete old player files, and save current player
files.
- Flight* describes the workings of each of the various sections involved
in operating your spacecraft.
- Drydock* describes all of the various services available at the orbital
drydocks, including the Labor Mart, new parts, new supplies, and even
purchasing a totally new spacecraft.
- Starport* explains how to use the text parser, a user interface which
allows you to: type in sentences to move about the starports, talk with
other characters in the game, and find special clues to help you finish
successfully. It also describes the Transaction Terminal, which enables
you to buy and sell products, exchange ores for currency, accept and
discharge passengers, and send your crew to a technical school to
increase their grade.
- Appendix* is a convenient collection of tables and data neede to play
Universe II. It also includes a glossary, instructions on using the
Universe electronic bulletin board, and an index. <| I cut the index
because I didn't try to match the page numbers of the actual
documentation, and I cut the bit about the Universe BBS because you use
have to have an account based on your purchase of the game. |>
We suggest that you read THE STORY SO FAR ... and PLAYING TIPS.
Following that, you should read the entirre PLAYING UNIVERSE II chapter
to understand the ideas behind each of the program sections. Then, you
only need to read the sections in FLIGHT, DRYDOCK, and STARPORT as you
need them.
Enjoy!
RUNNING UNIVERSE II ON YOUR COMPUTER
APPLE II
System Requirments
Apple //e with a 128K 80 column board or Apple //c, 2 disk drives,
optional Apple Mouse.
- Starting Omnitrend's UNIVERSE II*
Universe II is distributed on five disk sides labeled A,B,C,D, and E. To
run Universe II, place disk A into drive 1 and turn on the computer.
Disk A must not be write protected.
The 128K 80 column board must be enabled so that the double
hi-resolution graphics are active. See the 80 column text card manual
for more information on enabling the double hi-resolution graphics.
- Using the Menus With a Mouse*
If you have a mouse connected to your computer, you can use it for
selecting menu entries. To display a menu, point to its name on the
white bar at the top of the screen and press the mouse button. Hold the
button down and move the pointer to highlight the entry you wish to
select. Once the pointer is positioned correctly, release the button.
You may often see a window on the screen in which there will be one or
two buttons. A button is a rectangle with a word in it such as
"Continue". You may click that button by pointing to it with the mouse
and pressing the button.
- Using the Menus Without a Mouse*
Too use the menus without a mouse, press the ESC (escape) key in the
upper left corner of the keyboard. This will enable you to use the arrow
keys to select the items in the menus. To move the pointer in a certain
direction, just use the four arrow keys. When the item you want is
highlighted, press the RETURN key.
You may also use the key equivalents to select menu entries in the game.
When you pull down a menu, you will see the apple character followed by
a letter next to every menu entry. To select an entry, press either
apple key (located on either side of the space bar) and the letter for
that function. The apple key works in the same way that the shift key
works, so you should press the apple key first and hold it down while
you press th letter. It is not necessary to pull down a menu to use the
key equivalents.
You may often see a window on the screen in which there will be one or
two buttons. A button is a rectangle with a word in it such as
"Continue". To press a button with the keyboard, just press the key that
corresponds to the first letter of the word in the button. For example
if the work in the button is "Continue" the you may press the 'C' on te
keyboard to press it. Note that buttons override menu entries, so if a
menu function's key equivalent was "C" and the buttonn "Continue" were
on the screen, pressng "C" would "click" the button instead of selecting
the menu function.
You may use either upper or lower case letters when using the keyboard.
We suggest that you make backups of disk sides B,C,D, and E. The disk
with side A is copy protected, so you will neeed to... <| get a cracked
copy. (I left out the mailing instructions, etc.) For those of you with
Unidisks, you may want to consider buying this program... |>
Omnitrend Software is offering a free game update for Unidisk 3.5
owners. When your original game disks have been received, we will mail
you a 3.5" version of the game, which fits entirely on one disk.
<| more mailing instructions that I left out... |>
PLAYING TIPS
These are a few playing tips to help you get started with Universe II.
- Check the vidscomm frequently. * Many of your assignments and clues
will come from listening to vidcomm messages. Don't forget that the
government affiliation of the planet you are orbiting will determine
which vidcomm messages you receive.
- There is a drydock nearby. * When you are starting the game, take
advantage of the drydock above Axia to obtain additional supplies and
parts.
- There is a starport nearby. * When you are starting the game, go down
to the Axia starport and pick upsome products. Check the planet chart
and the culture chart so you will know what products to buy and where to
bring them. Hint: Zeath is a good place to bring products from Axia.
- Be patient. * It takes some time to become familiar with Universe II.
- Use the Save & Continue feature. * By frequently backing up your game,
you can see whether a particular strategy works before committing
yourself to it.
- Check your ship's status frequently. * Go into C&S every so often and
check your ship's damage levels, supplies and crew. Chances are someone
will get a promotion.
- Check if anyone is locked-on. * When you are orbiting a planet and
ready to send shuttles or ore-processors down to the surface, you are
rather vulnerable to enemy attacks. Make sure that no one is shooting at
you before launching landers.
- Talk to people. * It's a good idea to talk to everyone you meet in a
starport.
- Check in. * Check into the FWSF headquarters on Vromus Prime every so
often. Admiral Bresheliah may have something important.
- Plan ahead with crew, * You may find that it will save you money to
purchase low grade crew early in the game, so that when you need high
grades, you won't have to send anyone to expensive technical school.
- Don't purchase too quickly. * When you are at a starport waiting to
buy something, watch a single brand of product to get an idea of what a
good price is. Many times, buying the first product you see won't yield
much profit, expecially when you are paying premium price for it.
- Check part requirments. * When purchasing a complicated system such as
an ore processor, make sure that you have all of the accesories for
using it (ex., pilots, marines, eneregy, resource scanner, programs,
etc.) before leaving the drydock. This will eliminate many unnecessary
trips.
- What to do first. * When you begin the game your Agora class
spacecraft is in the Hope starsystem, but not around any planet. Do a
solar transfer to Axia, get into a low orbit, take the orbital shuttle
down to the starport, get products and passengers for the planet Zeath,
and then go there. From there, it's up to you!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>-- UNIVERSE II DOCS, part II --<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<-- By: Dr. Fix -->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
-----------------------------
**** PLAYING UNIVERSE II ****
-----------------------------
This section of the manual illustrates the functions of the various
compnents (or *systems*) of a state-of-the-art spacecraft. There are
seven different types of systems. They are: Drive, Energy, Command &
Support (C&S), Scanning, Lander, Weapon, and Mining. Notice that each
spacecraft design available to you has these seven sections in it. The
capacity of each of the sections determines the spacecraft design's
primary goal. For example, ore processors and the ramscoop may only be
placed in the mining section. If a spacecraft has a large mining
section, such as the sutter, then it is primarily suited for minng.
SPACECRAFT SYSTEMS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All systems have several common characterisics. They are:
This is a measure of the abount of damage that a part can take before it
is destroyed. The higher the damage point level, the more likely the
part will survive an attack. Damaged parts can be brought back to their
original damage point level by an enginner or by the repair crew at a
drydock.
The measurement of a part's bulk. The larger the part, the more room it
will take to fit it in a section.
The measurement of how likely a part is to be his during an attack. This
is based upon two factors: the part's size and the visibility modifier
of the spacecraft section the part is inside. To calculate the part's
visibilitym the appropriate section's visibility modifier is added to
the part's size. For example, if you have a hyperdrive of size 5 in an
Angora class spacecraft, its visibility wouold be 3, because the
visibility modifier for the drive section is -2. This means that the
drive section is concealed enough so that anything inside of it
"appears" smaller to the outside than it really is and thus presents
less of a target. The actual visibiliy of a part may never go below 1.
This is the same as the sophistication of the drydock where the part was
purchased. Only high-grade engineers and high sophistication drydocks
can repair the most sophisticated parts. Typically, the sophistication
parts are the best (and costliest).
In addition, some systems have the following characteristics:
Any system marked as such will operate at a fraction of its normal
efficiency if damaged. The percentage of efficiency is calculated by
dividing the current dp level of the part by its maximum dp level. For
example, if a sub-light drive with 15 dp maximum and 500 gravities of
acceleration is reduced to 11 dp, then its top acceleration is reduced
to 367 gravities (11/15 =.734 and .734 * 500 =367). Note: partial
operation will affect all of a part's functions adversely.
If a system has the note "constant drain" in the Parts List, it will
consume power even if it has been severely damaged, although it will
stop draining if it is removed or destroyed.