Star Command 1. Introduction....................................1 2. Background......................................1 3. Beginning Play..................................2 The Main Menu..............................3 4. Characters......................................3 Attributes.................................3 Making Your Characters.....................3 Character Classes..........................4 Rank.......................................4 Basic Training.............................4 Other Attributes...........................5 Advancement................................7 5. Starport........................................7 Game Conventions...........................7 Star Command Structure.....................7 Personnel..................................8 Buy........................................8 Sell.......................................8 Drydock....................................8 Training...................................8 Fuel.......................................9 Game Save..................................9 Headquarters...............................9 Inspect....................................9 Christen...................................9 Leave......................................9 Medical....................................9 6. Equipment.......................................9 Weapons....................................9 Armor.....................................10 Hand Weapons..............................10 Sighting Hardware.........................10 Miscellaneous Equipment...................10 Starships.................................10 Ship's Equipment..........................11 7. Space Travel...................................12 Screen Display............................13 Moving Through the Galaxy.................13 Planetary Interaction.....................14 8. Starship Combat................................14 Communications Phase......................14 Movement Phase............................14 Combat Phase..............................15 Combat Tactics and Numbers................15 Salvage Value.............................16 9. Squad Combat...................................16 Setup.....................................16 The Screen................................17 Terrain...................................17 The Combat Phase..........................17 Firing....................................18 Damage....................................18 10. Complexes.....................................18 Traps and Such............................18 Special Events............................19 Appendix..........................................22 Armor.....................................22 Shields...................................22 Defensive Systems.........................22 Weapons...................................23 Starship Data.............................23 Esper Data................................25 Ship's Weapons............................25 Missile Killers...........................27 Hand-to-Hand Weapons......................27 Sighting Hardware.........................27 Miscellaneous Equipment...................27 Parts Inventory: The IBM version of Star Command should come with the following: * One game box * Three 5-1/4" Game Disks * Two 3-1/2" Game Disks (for use with 3-1/2" drives) * This rulebook Note: Other versions include a card listing specific instructions for that version. 1. INTRODUCTION Star Command is a role-playing game of the far future. You, the player, are in command of a group of eight characters of your own creation. These characters are assigned missions by Star Command, the organization that is responsible for keeping humanity safe. You must take these green troopers, equip them with what you can, and complete your missions to save mankind. This is, unfortunately, a difficult task. The galaxy at large is a dangerous place, filled with dangers of every kind imaginable, from pirate ships that will ambush you as you try to deliver food to hungry colonists, to alien creatures that you must battle your way through in order to reach your goal. As your characters complete missions, they will gain in power, allowing them to take on greater challenges. The goal in Star Command is to complete each mission assigned to your crew, from your first anti-piracy patrol all the way through the climatic final mission to save mankind. Of course not all games of Star Command are the same. There are many missions that will be assigned to your group when you play for the first time that will not necessarily be assigned the next time you play (and of course there are many missions that may not appear the first time you play the game). This allows for a role-playing adventure game that you can finish several times, playing a slightly different game each time. The emphasis in Star Command, however, is not on hand-eye coordination. This is not a video game where the best reflexes win. Careful planning is required before, and during, each battle. Your crew's skills and equipment must be balanced, so that no critical skill is missing. In Star Command, good strategy can often overcome superior firepower. In addition to combat, both in space and on the ground, Star Command emphasized exploration and character interaction with the plotline. While your crew is exploring space stations and secret enemy bases on exotic planets, they will encounter many types of alien creatures and devices. Many are hostile, but some can be very valuable sources of information. Adventure awaits... Good luck Star Commanders! 2. BACKGROUND Star Command takes place far in the future centered in a remote section of the galaxy. The earth is nothing but a dim, distant memory, having been destroyed by hostile beings. Although the human race is still a major force in the galaxy, the human population is concentrated in a small portion of the galaxy known as "The Triangle". It is called this because of the triangular shape formed by the three starports which form its borders. The three starports are the headquarters of the military forces of mankind, known collectively as "Star Command". The area to the right of the Triangle is known as the Alpha Frontier. This area was once used primarily for mining but has become so overrun with human pirates that it is now considered enemy territory. The pirates of the Alpha Frontier were initially too disorganized and lacking in technology to present much of a threat tot he Triangle. However, in the last ten years or so, they have become organized under the leadership of a man who calls himself "Blackbeard". They have become so bold that they frequently make runs on escorted freighters and tankers within the Triangle. In fact, the situation is so bad that almost all military starships have been assigned to escort duty. The threat from the pirates is great indeed, but presently the greatest concern of Star Command lies in the opposite direction. The area to the left of the Triangle, referred 1 to as the Beta Frontier, is the territory of a race of intelligent insects that threaten to exterminate the human race. The existence of the insects has been known for over a hundred years. They have always been very hostile and only a little is known of their culture and language. About five years ago, one of our battleships was disabled and captured by the insects and the technology has been copied. They now have ships and weapons equal in power to ours. They have amazing resources and production capabilities, leading some experts to believe that their fleet may already exceed ours in power. For the past few months they have been stepping up their attacks on Triangle shipping and it is believed that they are planning an all out war soon. The rest of the galaxy, beyond the Alpha and Beta frontiers is more or less unknown. Some ships manned by robots have been reported. They are said to be extremely efficient and deadly but they never invite the Triangle. The origin of the robots is not certain. Some say they were made by the insects, others say that they are a human experiment gone astray. In any event, they pose no immediate threat to those in the Triangle. There are rumors of other intelligent races occupying the unknown region, but those are unconfirmed. The galaxy is so large that it is inaccessible to all but the largest Triangle ships due to fuel constraints. Unmanned space probes have charted thousands of planets which have life forms of some sot, but only the insects (and robots) are known to have reached our level of technology. The navigation systems of all Triangle ships contain information about those star systems which contain life or other important resources. Other star systems do not appear on navigation screens. Due to the current emergency situation, Star Command is working under unusual rules. New recruits are being forced to take combat duty in poorly equipped scout ships while veterans in better ships take escort duty. Each group of recruits is given a budget with which they must buy a ship and equipment. They receive reward money for defeating enemy ships and completing missions. This money, plus any other money they obtain, can be used to buy more and better equipment. The better equipment will be very helpful in completing the later, more difficult missions. 3. BEGINNING PLAY Before you begin playing Star Command, you should make a copy of each disk or copy every file to your hard disk drive. Once you make a copy, put your master disks away and work from your backup copies. As Star Command has no physical protection, you may make plenty of backup copies of the disks for your own protection. However, there are copy protection questions that will appear each time you wish to save the game. You will need to look up the answers to them in this rulebook. Playing the game with 1 floppy disk drive: Insert your copy of disk A in drive A and type "starcomm" at the A> prompt. The game will then load normally. During the game you will be prompted to insert disk C as needed by the program. 2 Playing the game with a hard disk drive: After copying all of your files to your hard disk, type "starcomm" and the game should load normally. If it does not, make sure you are in the directory or sub-directory where you placed all of the files from the disks. If you are playing off a hard disk, the game will expect to find all of the files for the game in the same location (ie., the same sub-directory), so make sure all of the files were copied to the same place on the hard disk. The Main Menu After the game is loaded you will see a menu with five options: 1-Play Star Command 2-Begin New Game 3-Two Floppy Disk Drives 4-Sound On/Off 5-Color Graphics Option 1 is the command used to continue an existing game of Star Command, or to begin a game for the first time. If you wish to start a game over again, use option 2. Option 2 allows you to remove all your old characters and their equipment from the disk. This option is only used to restart a game. Using this option will erase any characters currently saved on that disk. Option 3 allows you to select which type of disk configuration you have; one floppy, two floppies, or a hard drive. This is a toggle so just select it until the desired drive configuration appears. Option 5 allows you to select which type of display adapter you have; color graphics or EGA graphics. As with the drive selector, this is just a toggle. In selecting this option, remember that the EGA graphics are likely to be much slower. If you have no EGA adapter, this option will not appear. A demonstration mode for Star Command is available, but only from DOS. You simply type "Demo" at the A>, and a continuous demonstration of Star Command, using actual graphics from the game, will be displayed. It can be stopped by pressing "Esc". 4. CHARACTERS As in any role-playing adventure, the game is centered around the characters that the player creates. The characters are the player's link to the game world, they are his "alter-egos", if you will. Attributes Each character has a number of attributes that represent the characters' physical and mental abilities. The attributes that each character possesses are: Strength - this affects hit points, movement rate, and the amount the character may carry. Speed - this affects movement rate more directly than strength. Accuracy - this affects the character's ability to hit in combat. Courage - this affects the character's ability to hit in combat. Willpower - this affects hit points. Esper - this affects the character's ability to learn the skill Esper. Intelligence - this affects training rate in various skills. Attributes range from 30 to 70 when the character is first generated and have no upper limit. The only exception to this is the Esper attribute. This attribute varies from 0 to 60 for a beginning character. Making your Characters At this point, you should have loaded the program and made it to the main menu. Select Option 1 and you will find yourself in the Starport. You should next select option "A", which is the personnel department. The rest of the options will be explained more clearly in section 5 (STARPORT). Now you will make your team. After selecting "A", you will have three options. "A" allows you to recruit a new squad member, "B" allows you to remove a squad member permanently, and "C" reorders the party members. Select option "B" and you'll get your first character. The attributes of the character will be displayed along with a question of whether or not 3 you'd like to keep the character in question. If the answer is no, then type 'n' and you'll go back to the last menu. If, however, you wish to keep the character you've just created, then just type 'y'; you'll have just volunteered that character for entry into the Star Command and will have to choose which of the classes you want this squad member to be. Character Classes There are four character classes that a character may belong to. They are Pilot, Marine, Soldier, and Esper. Each of them have different skills that they can learn and different strengths and weaknesses. It is generally recommended that a party consist of two Pilots, at least two Soldiers, at least one Marine, and one Esper (this is the maximum number of Esper's allowed). This will provide the party with a good balance and will allow the learning of all skills by at least one party member. Note that in order for a character to become an Esper, the character must have an Esper attribute of at least 51. Rank In addition to character class and attributes, a character will possess a rank. This rank starts at Private and many progress both before and during the game. Rank affects the amount of pay a character receives. Months of pay are accumulated and then given to the characters in a lump sum at the end of each mission. The amount received is based on the following table: Rank Monthly Pay Private 1500 Corporal 2000 Sergeant 2500 2nd Lieutenant 3100 Lieutenant 3800 Commander 4700 Major 6000 Colonel 7800 Brigadier 10000 Commodore 15000 Admiral 22000 Fleet Admiral 30000 Grand Admiral 45000 Basic Training Your character enters at age 20 and spends the first eight years in the Star Command, in Basic Training, which goes by rather quickly. For each year of Basic Training, the character will get to select one training area from the Training Table for their class, and they will either get one or two levels in the appropriate skill, or, if they fail to make the grade, they will get an assignment chosen by Star Command. Training Table: Class Training Areas ----- -------------- Marine Medical Scouting/Recon Survival School Hand Weaponry Light Arms Heavy Arms Officer's School Special Forces Pilot Pilot Astro Gunner Code Breaking Officer's School Light Arms Medical Ship Repair Soldier Survival School Medical Hand Weaponry Light Arms Heavy Arms Explosives Officer's School Special Forces Chemical Weaponry Esper Astro Gunner Hand Weaponry Light Arms Esper Medical The training areas of Special Forces and Survival School represent training schools designed to increase a character's attributes. Survival School will increase willpower and strength by three to seven points each while Special Forces will increase speed and accuracy by two to 4 six points each. Officer's School simply promotes the character by one rank automatically. Officer's School may only be chosen twice per character. There is also a small chance that the team member will be promoted a rank after each training year. There are 12 basic skills a character may possess. Each skill starts at level zero and may reach as high as eight. After level three is reached in a skill, each increase will begin to be worth less and less. Fractional skill levels are possible, but the fractions are dropped when calculating the effective level. Unless otherwise stated, a character with a zero skill level will have a 50% chance of completing an associated task and this chance goes up by 5% per skill level to a maximum of 90%. The skills in the game are: Pilot: A character must have Pilot skill level 1 in order to fly a starship or dropship. Also, every point in this skill will drop an enemy's effective chance of hitting your ship in combat by 5%. Astro Gunner: Every point in this skill adds 5% to a characters base 50% chance of hitting an enemy ship in combat. Of course, this is modified by the type of gun the character is using, the type of ship being fired at, and the skill of the opposing pilot. Scouting/Recon: The team member with the highest level in this skill will act as the scout for the team. While on a planet's surface, this ability may allow the character to avoid enemy encounters. If enemies do approach, the scout may spot them before they spot you, giving you the option to hide from them. If a confrontation does occur, the scout can help the party surprise the enemies, particularly if someone has a motion detector in operation (these are discussed in detail under the miscellaneous equipment list). While exploring space stations or planetary bases, the scout may spot hidden traps and avoid them or disarm them altogether. The scout can also help to surprise enemies on bases and stations, just like on planetary surfaces. Medical: A character with a medkit (also on the miscellaneous equipment list) has a 10% chance per level of this skill of healing four points on a wounded character. Explosives: This skill determines a character's chance to hit with a chemical weapon (see the personal weapons list). Code Breaking: Code Breaking represents a character's chance to break a particular code or alien language. While in space, only the co-pilot gets a chance at this. If the character is successful, the party will be allowed to communicate with the encountered beings. If not, ESP is the only hope for contact (see the Esper ability). Light Arms: This skill determines a character's chance to hit with a light weapon (see appendix). Heavy Arms: This skill is identical to the Light Arms skill, but applies to heavy weapons. Hand Weaponry: Hand Weaponry is usually used by characters that are either out of ammunition or that have had their weapon destroyed. This skill lets a character use knives, axes, etc. (see appendix for list of Hand Weaponry). Repair: Characters have a 10% chance 5 per point of this skill to repair damaged locations on the ship. This task is made 35% easier by the presence of a ship's repair kit (see miscellaneous equipment list). If any attempt is made at repairing any location on the ship and the attempt fails, then that system must be repaired by starport technicians, for a modest fee of course. If life support systems or engines are broken and are not repaired on the first try, the crew will die before help can arrive! This skill also applies to repairing personal equipment, although this is far less dangerous. Esper Ability: Only an Esper class character may learn this skill. The Esper skill gives a character five abilities, which become available once the character's Esper attribute reaches the appropriate level, as seen in the following chart: Attribute Lvl. Ability Gaines Level 1 Mindshock Level 3 Communications Level 5 5 point Healing Level 7 View Rooms Level 8 Psychic Scream Mindshock is a psionic attack that always succeeds and does damage as per the Esper Chart (see appendix). You have a limited number of mindshocks that may be performed each combat, due to the terrible strain that the attack puts on the Esper's mind. Communication is an Esper skill that gives the Esper character a percentage chance of communicating with a group of enemies encountered in combat on indoor exploration. The percentage chance of communication is equal to the character's Esper Attribute. Healing is a 5 point healing that can only be used on fresh wounds in combat. There is a limit on how many of these may be performed each combat. The number of heals allowed to an Esper each combat is listed on the Esper Chart (see Appendix). View Rooms is a skill that an Esper may use to look into a room while indoors. You can only do this a few times on each trip out from Starport (See Appendix). Psychic Scream is used by the Esper only in personal confrontations, and generally only as a last resort. It has a base percentage chance (see appendix) of success, and if it succeeds, the target of the attack dies. Period. In addition to the above skills, the Esper may use a special type of hand weapon, called the lightsword. It inflicts 40 points of damage on a hit, and is only available to Espers. No one else may buy them or use them. Other Attributes Characters have several secondary attributes that are determined by their seven primary attributes. These attributes are: Hit Points: These are determined by strength and willpower, and represent the number of hits the character may take before dying. To Hit Bonus: This number is added to a character's basic chance to hit in combat to determine the overall chance to hit. It is determined mostly by accuracy and slightly by courage. An average character will have a zero bonus. Defense Bonus: This number is determined by speed, and is subtracted from the enemies' basic chance to hit. It is zero for an average character. Maximum number of Kilograms Carried: This is determined entirely by strength, and represents the amount that the character may carry without incurring movement penalties. For each kilogram carried over this limit, a character's movement rate is dropped by one. When a character attempts to carry in excess of two times the character's maximum carrying allowance, then the characters movement rate drops to zero. Movement Rate: The number of meters per second that a character may move (unless, of course, your character is over- 6 burdened). This attribute is determined by strength and speed. Advancement Characters will receive training after each mission that they complete. This training allows advancement in both attributes and skills. Training may also be purchased at a rate of 200,000 credits per training session. When training, the first thing the character's will choose is the attribute to concentrate training. Although non-Esper characters may train their Esper attributes, this is not helpful as a non-Esper character may never learn esper abilities. When advancing in attributes, characters will advance 5-9 points if the affected attribute is less than 100, and only 2-4 points if the attribute in question is greater than 100. In addition, a character may be promoted one rank. The next thing selected in the training process is the skill that the character wishes to train in. This skill is then increased by one level (or less if the skill is already above level two). The skills available to the character are the ones listed on the training table. 5. STARPORT The starports are the most important places in the game. They are where you will spend all of your non-mission time, and are where you will purchase all of your equipment, training, repairs, etc. The starports are all identical in their function. Game Conventions Throughout the game, you will refer to a character with a single letter: P for the pilot, C for the Co-Pilot, and 1 through 6 for the squad members. Also, most game functions are accessed by single letter/number keystrokes. In addition, the "Return" key will exit from most menus. Note: Some special menus will require you to type in the entire word "yes" or "no" in order for it to accept that response. "Y" or "N" will not work for those menus. This is for protection against accidentally pressing the wrong key. Starport Command Structure Main Menu Sub Menu Sub Menu Sub Menu M S S S A - Personnel A - Recruit New Squad Member B - Dismiss Squad Member C - Change Positions B - Buy (you must specify buyer) A - Buy Personal Equipment A - Regular Weapon A - All Weapons (Scroll)* B - Bullet (Scroll)* C - Needler D - Electric E - Ion F - Grenade G - Heavy Bullet H - Heavy Flame I - Heavy Rocket J - Heavy Laser K - Chemical Weapons L - Explosive Weapons B - Ammunition C - Hand Weapons D - Sighting Hardware E - Armor (Scroll)* F - Miscellaneous B - Buy Ship's Equipment A - Ship's Guns (Scroll)* B - Ammo for Missiles C - Shields D - Defense Hardware E - Missile Killers F - Armor C - Buy Ship (Scroll)* A - Sell Personal Equipment B - Sell Ships Equipment C - Sell Cargo D - Sell Ship E - Declare Bankruptcy D - Drydock A - Repair Ship's Equipment B - Repair all Personal Equipment C - Remove Armor from the Ship E - Training A - Next Character B - Buy Training Session C - Inspect (Character) D - Use Training Session F - Fuel (Refuels the Ship) G - Game Save H - Headquarters I - Inspect 7 M S S S A - Inspect Ship B - Inspect Squad C - Cargo List (Scroll)* D - Espionage List (Scroll)* E - Miscellaneous List (Scroll)* L - Leave M - Medical A - Squad Health B - Rest in Sick Bay C - Make Clone D - Use Clone T - Time Delay (1-9999) *(Scroll) means that you may scroll through the menu using the space bar. Personnel This is the section of the starport where you recruit your characters, get rid of dead ones, and move the ones you have around. Buy The buying of equipment is a common portion of the game. In this part of the Starport, you must first specify who is buying, and then you choose that you wish to buy. When purchasing ammunition for hand weapons, you will be presented with a list of the weapons available. You then select which weapon is to be resupplied with ammunition, and it will increment the number of clips left, as shown on the screen. It should be noted that hand weapons, sighting hardware, and personal armor cannot be sold or exchanged between characters. These systems are custom fitted to the individual, and are not usable by anyone but the person the device was designed for. If you wish to sell the device to buy a better model, you must simply buy a new one, replacing the old one. Whenever a ship's gun or a ship's shield is purchased, the computer will ask you where the system is to be placed. This refers to the facing of the gun or the shield as per the chart in the appendix. If a new ship is purchased, all equipment that was removed from the last ship (if there was any) will be reinstalled automatically. Sell As a general rule, when items are sold, they will bring approximately 80% of their value, even if damaged. When you sell your ship, all equipment on the ship will be automatically removed and placed in holding for the next ship to be purchased. As mentioned above, when the new ship is purchased, the old equipment will be reinstalled, but for a 15% fee (that's 15% of the total value of all equipment installed into the new hull). This fee is deducted from the money received from the sale of the ship. Declaring bankruptcy is a very bad thing to do, and will be necessary if you get yourself into debt and have insufficient equipment to complete your next mission. It causes great loss of face with Headquarters but will get rid of your debts and will get you a 90,000 stake with which you may try to purchase your needed goods. Of course, your previous equipment is all confiscated and sold to help pay your debts. One other option available to you here is selling cargo. Cargo may be purchased at any world, any you may be able to turn a profit selling it. Drydock This is where damaged equipment gets repaired by professional starport technicians. These folks are excellent at their job, but are expensive. If you have damaged personal equipment, or damaged ship's equipment, these guys and gals will get the job done. Removing armor from the ship is done generally to lighten the ship in order to increase speed. Training Training sessions are the things that increase your character's attributes and skill levels, as noted earlier. This section begins by listing your first character, "P". It also lists the number of training sessions left to "P" and gives the aforementioned options. It should be mentioned that training is 8 sometimes a dangerous activity. Your squad can become injured by training. Nothing serious, but it may cost you a day or two at the medical center. Fuel Your ship may refuel for free here. As a general rule, always refuel your ship when you reach starport. Game Save This allows you to save the game without exiting, as well as quitting the game. This is where the protection questions will be asked. If you fail the questions twice consecutively, then you will still be able to play, but will be prohibited from saving that game. Headquarters This is where you will be assigned all of your missions and where you may go to review a mission in progress. Inspect you may inspect your squad in order to examine a squad member's primary and secondary attributes. In addition to examination of your squad and ship, this section allows you to check your list of contraband picked up on espionage missions, as well as a list of cargo picked up on scientific missions, and miscellaneous items picked up in complexes. Christen This is used to name your new ships for the first (and only) time. You may not rename them later, so make it a name you like. Leave This is how you leave the spacedock to go out into the galaxy. Medical The skilled physicians of the starport medical center are here to heal you free of charge. You may be required to stay a day or more in their facilities so that they can make sure you are fully heated, but they do a perfect job every time. One other option available here is cloning. Cloning allows a character to make a duplicate of him or herself, and then have it stored until the character meets with disaster. Then the clone is activated, and the character lives again. The clone will have slightly lower attributes than the original, but will keep indefinitely. Cloning costs 30,000 credits. Of course, the clone may be created after death has already occurred. In this case, it costs 100,000 credit to do so. 6. EQUIPMENT Weapons The weapons listing is in the appendix. It lists all important information about each weapon. There are 54 weapons to choose from in the personal weapons list. Each of them has the following statistics: Damage: The maximum amount of damage the weapon can do. On the average, a weapon will do about 70% of the maximum. Armor subtracts directly from this number to determine the actual damage to the victim. ROF: Rate of Fire. This is the number of times the weapon can fire during a single combat round. Weight: This is the weight of the weapon, fully loaded, in kilograms. Range: This is the effective range of the weapon in meters. If a target is out of range, it will be more difficult, but not impossible, to hit the target. Cost: This is the weapon costs in credits. Type: This is an indication of the skill used with this weapon. Ammo Capacity: The number of shots that the weapon has in each 9 magazine/power pack. A laser with a 20 shot power pack and a ROF of four must be reloaded every five rounds. Each weapon comes fully loaded. Ammo Weight: This is the weight, in kilograms, of each magazine/power pack. Cost of Ammo: This is the cost of each magazine/power pack in credits. To Hit Bonus: This number is added directly to the "To Hit" percentage, and thus makes it easier (or harder, as appropriate) to hit with this weapon. Obviously, the larger the number here, the better. Damage Type: An indicator of the type of damage done by the weapon, as well as how many targets the weapons will affect. Bullets, shotguns, needlers, electricity, radiation, and laser damage will only affect one target. Flame, rockets, chemical, and explosive weapons will usually affect more targets in a target group. Armor Armor comes in many different types and stops damage equivalent to its protection factor. Armor, as mentioned previously, may not be resold or given from one character to another. It is body fitted and therefore usable by only one person. Hand Weapons There are six different types of hand weapons. The skill Hand Weaponry is the one used with these weapons. All of these weapons are again specific to the user and may not be sold. They cost nothing to purchase. Sighting Hardware The four sighting devices give the user a bonus to hit. They are unsalable, as armor and hand weapons are, and may not be traded from character to character. These devices are specifically fitted to each individual's brain wave patterns. Note that sighting hardware may only be used in personal combat. Miscellaneous Equipment Medkit: This device allows you to try to use your Medical skill to cure an injured character. If successful, the injured character is healed four points, up to the character's original maximum. Repair Kit: This device allows you to repair equipment and weapons as per the description under the repair skill. These kits are far too heavy to carry into personal combat, and are therefore left on the ship most of the time. Helmet Scanner: Whenever a party is walking through enemy territory, this device can be used to detect moving beings and thus reduce the party's chance of being surprised. While exploring bases and space stations, you must activate the helmet scanner before it will be of any benefit. Eventually, it will wear out. Motion Detector: This is a more powerful version of the Helmet Scanner. Sonic Torch: Used to blast through doors in complexes. Chemical Torch: A more powerful version of the Sonic Torch. Lockpick Set: Needed to make attempts at picking locked doors in complexes. The scouting/recon skill helps in using the lockpick set. Oxygen Mask, Oxygen Cylinder, and Environment Suit: These are required in unbreathable atmospheres. Each person in the party needs a full set. Radiation Detector: If used in complexes, they will often detect radiation traps before they poison a member of the squad. As with the motion detector, it must be activated first. Starships Your starship in Star Command is your only mode of transportation from mission to mission and is therefore your home away from home. You must take good care of your starship lest you be caught unawares by an angry enemy destroyer and be destroyed. There are 9 different classes of starships available to you in Star Command. They range in capabilities and performance (and, of course, price). Each of them has the capability to carry 8 crew (that's you) and some additional weaponry, armor, and other devices. Your first two party 10 members, "P" and "C" are the pilot and co-pilot of your ship. Both should be pilot class characters, especially since the "P"ilot must have pilot skill in order to fly the starship and the "C"o-pilot must have pilot skill in order to fly drop ships, which are the squad's method of getting to a planet's surface. The other 6 squad members double as gunners. Each gun position corresponds to the individual firing it. All ship classes have a number of statistics that they begin the game with (see Appendix). Initial Weight: This is in tons. The starting weight of the ship, without any additional installed equipment. Maximum Weight: The maximum the ship may weigh before it slows down. Price: The cost of the ship in credits. Defense Bonus: This number is, like the personal defense bonus, subtracted from an opponents chance of a hit. On the larger ships, which are easier targets, this number is indeed negative. Maximum Movement Rate: This is the limit to the ship's speed, in squares per turn. Armor Cost/Point: This is the amount, in credits, that it costs to install an additional point of armor on the ship. Armor on ships works somewhat differently than armor in ground combat. Fire that reduces the armor, doing less damage than the armor remaining, may still penetrate and damage internal systems. Armor Points/Ton: The number of points of armor that are added to the ship for each ton of armor. It should be mentioned that armor on ships is very much unlike personal armor. Ship armor is worn down, and need not be exceeded in one shot for penetration to occur. Fuel Capacity: This is the number of points of fuel that the ship may carry. Since all ships use fuel at the same rate (not including laser fire), this also represents the range of the ship. Drop Ships: This is the number of drop ships carried by the ship. The only advantage of multiple drop ships is that one can be damaged and you may still land on planets. Ship's Equipment There are several systems that are standard on a new starship, many of which are necessary to the proper function of the ship. They cannot be purchased but can be repaired if damaged. These systems are: Drop Ships: These are used to explore planets. Your co-pilot will pilot the drop ship. Computer: This system provides you with lists of what your ship is towing, kill lists, and a description of your current mission. Communications: If this system is damaged, then your co-pilot will not be able to communicate with enemy ships, using Code Breaking skills. Tow Linkage: This is used only to tow enemy ships back to starport after boarding and capturing them. You may not tow more than 10 ships at once. This does not slow you down. Hull Integrity: If your hull is penetrated, it will have holes in it. The only real problem, however, is that you will find it more difficult to convince an enemy to surrender if your hull has been penetrated. Engines: If your engines are shot out in combat, you will be unable to move at all. If you fail to fix them using repair, you will never see home again. Retros: These are needed to turn in combat. If they are damaged, then you'll be unable to turn. Life Support Systems: If this system is shot away in combat, your crew will perish in moments. Power Generator: Loss of this unit will stop the ship from moving, but batteries will allow the ship to continue fighting. Guns: These are what allow you to fight 11 back when attacked. The positions of the guns are shown on the back page of the manual. You may have up to six of them on your ship (one for each squad member, excluding the pilot and co-pilot, who have other duties to keep them busy!). Missile weapons use ammunition as normal personal weapons. The number of reloads, as shown on the weapons display, is the number of reloads of that type for ALL the weapons of that type on the ship. For example, if you have 2 Anti-matter Missile systems on board, and 12 reloads, then you have 12 reloads for BOTH missile launchers, not 12 each. (see appendix). Laser weapons use energy from the ship's reserves rather than ammunition. Each shot by a laser weapon uses one unit of fuel. (see appendix). Shields: There are four shield positions on a ship. They are front (position 1), right side (position 2), rear (position 3), and left side (position 4). Shields are used to deflect incoming attacks. If they are penetrated, then the attack hits the ship's armor and may penetrate to the ship's interior. (see appendix). Defense Hardware: These are systems that will not only reduce an enemy's chance to hit, but will increase your movement allowance as well (up to a maximum of six). (see appendix). Missile Killers: These shoot down incoming missiles. The percentage listed is the percentage chance of intercepting each missile. The system can attempt to intercept as many incoming missile attacks as necessary. (See Appendix). 7. SPACE TRAVEL During the game, you will have to travel through much of the galaxy in search of objects, people, and enemies. Although there are thousands of planets, only some of them are inhabited by intelligent life, and only a few of those have items of interest to Star Command Headquarters. They will give you many clues as to which ones are the ones to check out. Screen Display While travelling through space, you will constantly have a screen display showing not only a map of where you are, but quite a bit of information vital to you during this portion of the game. A short description of the screen display follows: Map Display: This is the map portion (the upper left portion) of the screen. The map tells you at what zoom level you are (the options are "Galaxy Scan", "Long Range Scan", "Sector Scan", and "Visual Scan"), as well as displaying everything in your detection range for the appropriate zoom level. Text Display: This is the portion of the screen just below the Map Display. It is where messages and menus will appear. Fuel Display: This display tells you how much fuel is remaining. Be warned that running out of fuel is very bad. Not only does it cost a lot of money to get refuelled in deep space, but the wait for the rescue ship could be fatal to sick crew members. Armor Display: This is right below the Fuel Display and it tells you how much armor is left on the ship. Status Display: This display reads either Green, Yellow, or Red depending on where you are and if you're in combat or not. Green means you're in safe territory and hostile enemies are unlikely (but not impossible). Yellow means that you ARE 12 in hostile territory and that attacks are likely. Red means that a critical situation has arisen, such as a hostile encounter. Weapons & Squad Display: Located on the center right hand portion of the screen, this display shows squad status at all times. If any squad member is dead, this will be indicated on this display. Under the weapons columns (the right hand side of this display), the list will either have dashes (indicating no weapon) or some text indicating weapon status. "Okay" means that there is a laser type weapon operational on that mount and controlled by that squad member. Numbers here mean that the mount is a missile system and the numbers represent the number of shots the weapon has left, and the number of reloads left. Ship Orientation Display: This is located in the upper right corner of this display. It shows the current facing of the ship,a nd whether or not there are shields on all four of the shield facings. if a shield is there, the ship will have a colored arc covering that portion of the ship. A thick arc indicates a working shield while a thin arc indicated a broken one. Moving through the Galaxy The galaxy is divided into a 32 by 32 grid of sectors, with 1.1 being the lower left as per a normal cartesan coordinate system. The sector you are in will be shown at the top of the visual display, along with the zone. Using A and D keys, you may zoom in and out and look at the different scan levels. This is known as "Up Scan" and "Down Scan". Zooming in and out will become necessary during the game because many of the missions require you to examine planets, which are found by scanning individual star systems. Movement is accomplished by moving the little white square on the visual display. This square represents your ship. You may move it freely using the cursor pad, but may only travel through the galaxy (this means leave the sector that you're in currently) on the Long Range Scan level. If you're in Sector Scan and you try to drive off the edge of the map, you'll simply stop at the edge. The different scan levels are: Galaxy Scan: This level shows the entire galaxy and is used purely for reference purposes. You may not drive your ship on this map. This scale is too large to show every star, so it is used primarily for navigating back to your starbase. Long Range Scan: This is the normal level for driving through the galaxy. It will display a block of 8 by 8 sectors at a time. Every star and starport in each sector will show up on a long range scan. This is also the only level where you can move your ship from sector to sector. In addition, the main menu is displayed at this scan level. Sector Scan: This level shows every star, starport, or other hidden space station in the sector. As always, your location is shown by a white square. Stars are numbered from left to right and top to bottom. System Scan: This shows a star and all surrounding planets. Once again, movement is restricted to within the system and your ship is represented by a white square. Planets are numbered from the inside out. Visual Scan: This is the lowest level of scan and it shows a direct view of the planet, starport, or space station that you're near. Each planet, when examined at this level, will list the components in the atmosphere, whether or not the atmosphere is unbreathable, the mass, gravity, density, and diameter of the planet, and whether or not the planet has life. If life is detected, it will be analyzed on a very basic level. When travelling from place to place, there are several types of potential encounters. You may find a space station that you didn't expect to find, for instance. A more likely occurrence, however, is the encountering of another ship. In this case, the other ship will be automatically scanned. It may be identified as friendly, but if identification is not made, then you will pro- 13 ceed to starship combat (section 8). Planetary Interaction At the Visual Scan level, you will have an entirely new menu to select from. You may examine the planet with a scientific mission in an attempt to find materials needed for a mission (some missions send you after special materials that can only be found on a few types of worlds), send a squad down on an espionage mission in an attempt to break into the underworld portion of the society on the planet (obviously, this only works on planets with a hi-tech life form), and even send down a drop ship with the intent to purchase cargo (or sell it!). Planetary encounters may occur when your team is on an espionage mission, a scientific mission (less likely), and on a cargo mission (least likely). When they do, you may have to fight your way out, as in any personal confrontation. 8. STARSHIP COMBAT When you find another ship while in your wanderings, and your scanners cannot identify the opposing vessel(s), then you will find yourself quickly in the middle of a conflict. However, not all unidentified ships are enemies. During starship combat, time is divided into rounds lasting just a few seconds. For the sake of convenience, each round is further divided into three phases, the communications phase, the movement phase, and the combat phase. Communications Phase This phase first occurs after discovering that an opposing ship, or ships, is unidentified. At that point, your co-pilot will try to use the code breaking skill in order to establish communications with the unidentified ship or ships. If your co-pilot is unsuccessful at the first try, then you will be unable to communicate for the rest of the combat. If successful, however, you will be able to communicate during the Communications Phase of each combat turn. Once communications are established you must decide on an approach to take. You choices are Bargain, Plead, Ask, Demand, Impersonate a Deity, or nothing at all. If you choose nothing, then you proceed to movement. These approaches are in ascending order of pushiness. If you Bargain, then you are trying to get the unidentified craft to take some of your money as incentive to leave. Pleading, Asking, Demanding, and Impersonating a Diety are all approaches that should be taken in increasing positions of strength. The response you receive will depend heavily upon how your opponents perceive the approach, and on how much they believe that you are more powerful than they are. Once you choose an approach, then you will be presented with a list of four objectives that you are trying to obtain. These choices are Fuel, Truce, Tribute, and Surrender. Fuel means that you want the other ship's fuel, or enough to top off your tanks. Truce means that you'd like to have both sides just go their own way. Tribute is a nice way of saying, "Give me your money or else!" Of course, Surrender is just what it sounds like, a request for unconditional surrender. Movement Phase Once the Communications Phase is passed, then the Movement Phase begins. This means that you're in combat now. if the ships you're encountering are really friendly, then they won't fire at you and shouldn't be fired upon. Destroying unarmed freighters is not worth anything. If they do fire, however, you should defend yourself. The movement phase is divided into six segments, with the fastest ships moving in all six segments, and slower ships moving only in some of the six. In each of the six segments, your ship will have the following options: A - Rotate Counterclockwise: This means that your ship will turn 45 degrees to the left. B - Rotate Clockwise: This means that your ship will turn 45 degrees to the right. C - Scan: This shows a long range scan of 14 the area and will reveal any ships that have run off the tactical screen but that are still in combat. In this scan, the status of each enemy vessel is reported, along with a location. D - Visual: This shows a view of all ships within firing range. E - Skip Move: You may use this if you are satisfied with where your ship is on the tactical map. F - Switch Positions: This may be used to change positions of some of your squad members. This takes their entire turn, so those squad members will be unable to act for the rest of that turn. G - Jump to Hyperspace: This is an emergency-only measure that will get your ship away as a last resort. It will require 40 units of fuel (if there are less then the chance of success is much less). Jumping to Hyperspace will moe you out of the combat. Also available during the combat phase are the movement cursor keys. You may move using the cursor pad, as you would normally. The tactics in the Movement Phase are simple enough. Try to fight only one opponent at a time and try to stay behind that opponent. Of course, if there are lots of opponents and they are all faster than you, then this may be impossible. However, the best place to be is usually behind your target and with only one target to fight at a time. Combat Phase In the combat phase, each gunner on your ship (and the enemy ships) will have the opportunity to fire a ship's gun. This, of course, assumes that the gunner has a gun to fire, that it is in working order, that the gunner is above, and that the target is within the firing arc of the guns (see the diagram on the back page). If all these criteria are met, then you'll get to fire. As a general rule, opponents are easier to hit if they are closer and vice versa. Your options, during the Firing Phase are as follows: W - Wait: This means do nothing. Wait and watch. F - Fire: This means fire your gun. There will be a list of targets available (A, B, etc) and you must select which target to engage. R - Rapid Fire: This allows a gunner to fire twice as many times as is normal, with half the chance to hit. This is only useful against very big, very slow targets. L - Load: Reloading your guns is needed on occasion, but only for missile weapons. Lasers need not reload. Reloading may be done even if your gun is not empty, but it is a bit silly. M - Aim: Aiming at a target will allow you to gain a 50% bonus to hit on your next shot, but takes an entire round. This means that you would fire every other round using this option. If you still wish to Aim, you may do so, gaining another 30% bonus. If you Aim for a third round in a row, then you'll gain another 20% bonus, for a grand total of a 100% bonus to hit. There are very few things that you'll miss with a 100% aiming bonus. Note that if you turn so that the gunner doing the aiming can no longer see the target, or if the target goes out of range, then the aiming bonus is lost. Combat Tactics and Numbers As mentioned before, the idea in starship combat is to isolate one or two of them and then hit them with all you've got. Fighting enemy ships in one at a time is much easier. There are other considerations, however. If you get too far away from an enemy ship, so that you can no longer see it when using a Scan command, then that ship, or your ship depending on who was running, has escaped from the encounter. Thus, in addition to jumping to Hyperspace and successful negotiation, there is another visible method of getting away from an unwanted encounter. Another possible outcome of the combat is boarding. If you are up against only one remaining opponent, then you may attempt to board. This is done by driving 15 your ship to within 1 square of your opponent (don't worry, no ramming is allowed). If you board, you will get to execute a personal confrontation using your squad in normal hand-to-hand combat. If you win, you'll capture the opposing vessel. This will gain you a large reward when you return to Headquarters and will also refuel you ship (with their fuel). Once again, you should remember how the percentages work in starship combat. A gunner's percentage chance of a hit is 50%, plus 5% for each level of Astro Gunner, plus up to 25% bonus for being very close, plus any aiming bonus, minus 5% for each level of the opposing pilot's skill, minus (or plus) the target size bonus of the opposing ship. If the final number is greater than 90%, then the hit number will drop to 90%. The same is true on the other end of the scale. If the percentage to hit is below 10%, then it goes to 10%. Salvage Value Ships destroyed in combat are worth 20 credits per ton of the vessel in reward money from Star Command Headquarters. In addition, if you towed the vessel back for salvage, you get an additional 10 credits per ton. Remember that you can only tow back up to 10 ships, and that you must have a functional tow linkage to tow any at all. 9. SQUAD COMBAT At several points during the game, personal confrontation will occur. These confrontations usually mean combat, and that is when your choices of personal equipment and weaponry gets tested to its fullest. Setup Before actually beginning an encounter, you will be provided some information regarding that combat. First, the computer will display a list of factors that may affect the combat. These factors are gravity, atmosphere and fatigue factor. In addition, before a combat begins you will be presented with a number of symbols that represent offensive, defensive, clear, and inaccessible terrain. These will be discussed further below. Gravity will affect the fatigue factor directly. In many space stations, a normalized gravity of 1.0g will be maintained. Unfortunately, many planets have other than 1.0g, and if this gravity is higher than the standard 1.0g then the fatigue factor goes up by an equivalent factor. Atmosphere comes in only two types, breathable and non-breathable. If the atmosphere is non-breathable, and the character is not wearing an oxygen mask, an oxygen cylinder, and an environment suit, then the character will fatigue VERY quickly, and will be of little use. Be warned that if you try to enter a space station or alien base with an unbreathable atmosphere and without the appropriate breathing apparatus, the unequipped party members will die. The fatigue factor is calculated from the gravity and then adjusted up if a specific character is unable to breathe (breathing is pretty much a necessity and doing without IS pretty tough). The higher the fatigue factor, the less useful your squad will be in combat. At this point, the game will switch over to a tactical display. 16 The Screen The screen in personal combat deserves some explanation. In the upper left corner of the screen is an animated display of what it is that you're facing, along with a text description of the foes. To the right of the animated display will be a 4 by 5 block grid with small weapons in it. This grid represents the individual opponents and the type of weapons that they carry (the one with many notches on barrel represents a laser, the one with the wide, nozzle like end is a flamethrower, and the one with the hollow barrel is a rocket launcher). If a weapon is white on a black background, then that opponent is still alive and fighting back. If the weapon turns black on a white background, though, then the opponent is dead or unconscious. Below the enemy displays is the squad display. In this display, you'll find your six ground team members, their current hit points (HP), their current condition (either okay, dead, or rad), and their weapon status. This weapon status is very much like the one for starship combat; the "A" column represents the number of shots left on that magazine while the "R" column represents the number of magazines left. Note that the number of shots left will remain at nine until the magazine gets down to under nine shots left, so magazines with 100 ammo will stay at nine for a while. The bottom lines of the screen are for menus and text displays, just as in all other facets of the game. Terrain The only portion of the screen that need detailed explanation is the map portion, which fills up the right hand side of the combat display. This map is filled with a number of different symbols which represent three different types of terrain, the enemy groups, and your squad. The terrain symbols displayed in the setup portion of the combat will appear at different locations on the map. You squad always starts in the center of the map while the enemy squads start in somewhat random locations. Terrain has a very significant effect on the combat. Offensive terrain, such as tables or boulders to stand on, gives you a 25% bonus to hit when your squad is in that terrain type. Of course, nothing is free. When in offensive terrain, your squad is also 25% easier to hit (standing on a table in a firelight is probably dangerous). Defensive terrain, on the other hand, is just the opposite. It gives your opponents a negative 25% to hit bonus because your are in good cover. Once again, nothing is free. Hiding behind that tree or chair may make you harder to hit, but it also makes it harder for you to hit an opponent. So, as before, the 25% negative modifier applies to your firing as well. The other type of terrain is impassible. Impassible terrain is simply that, impassible. Your squad may not enter impassible terrain, nor may the enemy squads. Unlike terrain, the enemy squads are represented by letters, A thru D (if there are four enemy squads), instead of symbols. These letters correspond to the letters on the enemy display in the upper portion of the screen. The Combat Phase Just as in starship combat, the combat phase is divided into three portions, the communications phase, the movement phase, and the firing phase. Also just like in starship combat, the movement phase is divided into six pulses. Your squad will move at the rate of the slowest party member. When combat begins, the first thing that occurs is the communications phase. Once again, if you fail to establish communications the first time, you will not have a communications phase for the rest of the combat. Code Breaking skill is the skill used to establish communications, but if this fails, then the party Esper, assuming there is one, will attempt to establish communications using the Esper skill. If this is successful, then communications operates normally. With the exception of not being able to represent fuel, the available commands and approaches for personal communications are the same as for 17 starship communications. See the section on Starship Combat for details. The next phase is the movement phase. The squad will move at the rate of the slowest party member, and dead members do not slow you down. Each squad member's movement rate is equal to his personal move rate divided by five and rounded off. Thus, a movement of between 18 and 22 will result in a movement rate of four. Movement is similar to movement in starship combat except that you cannot rotate (nor do you need to). Party members may not change positions in combat, mainly because if doesn't matter. They all get shot at and they can all fight back. Fatigue is a big part of personal combat. Each player has fatigue points equal to his or her movement rate times three. All actions, including firing, movement, and even doing nothing, use fatigue points. The amount used is multiplied by the fatigue factor (low gravity helps to make you last longer in a fight) but is greatly increased if the party member in question cannot breathe. Once a party member runs out of fatigue points, the member will rest for a round, regaining all fatigue points. Firing Each character who is alive, not resting, and who did not change weapons this round, will be presented with a list of enemy groups. The enemy groups that appear in capital letters are in range of that character's weapon while those that appear in small letters are out of range and will cause a 25% to hit penalty to be applied if chosen as the target. Enemy groups that aren't listed at all are totally out of range and may only be fired at at the cost of 50% penalty to hit. Hand weapons may only attack targets in adjacent squares. One special type of attack is the Esper attack. The Esper may try to use several of his/her special abilities during the combat phase, instead of attacking. The options are as listed in the Esper section. To attack an opponent, you simply type in the letter of the group that you wish to attack, and if the weapon is not an area attack type of weapon (such as a grenade), then you must also specify the specific number of the target to be hit. Grenades have a chance of hitting an entire group. Damage Once a target is hit, the damage for the weapon is determined for and then applied against the armor. If the weapon does more damage than the armor stops, then part of the damage will penetrate and hurt the individual inside. In addition, penetration can result in damaged armor and or equipment. It is entirely possible to have your gun blown out of your hands, so carry spares. 10. COMPLEXES Several missions that may be assigned to your crew involve indoor exploration of unknown complexes. These facilities are often filled with dangerous traps, villains, and unknown devices. Caution is important in the unknown. While exploring indoors, a map will be created for you as you move from room to room. This map will automatically show the entire extend of the room and all of the terrain features in it (chairs, tables, control panels, etc.). In the upper right corner of the screen, a short description of the room will be printed. Just below this is a space where the type of room (either enclosed, semi-enclosed, or open) is listed. You are more likely to be surprised by an enemy in an enclosed room. Traps and Such While you are exploring, you will encounter traps. There are basically two types of traps, explosive traps that do damage and radiation traps that poison your squad members. If your party has a member with a high Scouting/Recon skill, then you will often find traps without setting them off. You may then try to disarm them, using the same skill. Another problem you can encounter during your exploration of complexes is that of 16 unpenetratable doors. You may occasionally come across a door that is very difficult to pass. If this happens, there are only two ways through. One is to pick the lock. You may only attempt this once, and if it fails, then you may not try again later with someone else. So, if your Scouting/Recon specialist cannot pick the lock, then you must bast your way through. Torches can be very useful for this, but they are not the only answer. Your firearms can cause damage to the door. Warning: if you fire at a door with a weapon, you will continue to fire until either the door gives or the gun runs out of ammunition on that clip. One thing to remember during exploration is to turn on any motion detectors and radiation detectors you might have. This is done through the "U"se command. Once you turn them on, you will notice a pair of moving dots on the edges of the screen for each device you enable. Motion detector dots are the ones moving from left to right and radiation detector dots move from top to bottom. Special Events In some rooms you may find that you want to interact with certain objects or beings. If there is anything of interest in a certain room then the player will be asked to enter a special command. The arrow keys will be used to move through the list of commands. If the command you are looking for is not in the list of commands, then you may enter a specific command using the "Enter Command" function. The list of special Commands is as follows: Options 1 through 9 are used if you are offered a number of choices by something or someone. Leave is used to leave the object or person that you are interacting with. Attack/Blow it Up is for initiating a fight or destroying something. Search/Inspect will sometimes reveal more information about the thing that you are interacting with. Greetings should be self explanatory. Demand/Get Information is also self explanatory. Demand Tribute is equivalent to saying "your money or your life". Not nice, but it gets the point across. Take It is the command used to take an object. Use It is an attempt to manipulate the object in question. Follow the Advice is used to follow someone's instructions. Yes is for answering questions. No is also for answering questions. Pay for Information is for offering to pay a small amount for some important information. Enter a Single Word Command is where you enter any command that you'd like to try that isn't on the above list. Spelling is not vital as only the first few letters are examined. It is important to understand the idea of the single word command. This is a vital function that you will be using during the game. Commands entered will always be one word commands, but will sometimes lead to other one word commands. For instance, if you wished to tell the computer that you wanted to fry a newly acquired egg with a fusion pan you'd found, you would type in "EGG". The computer would then respond with, "What do you wish to do to the egg?" Your next single word command would then be "FRY". The computer might then ask, "What will you fry the egg with?" Of course you'd type in "PAN" or something equivalent and the computer would then say, "You fry the egg with the pan. while you fry the egg, you notice something strange..." 19 APPENDIX 20 21 ARMOUR ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Armor Type Protection Weight Cost ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flight Suit 3 1.5 60 Ballistic Cloth Jumpsuit 5 3 252 Standard Combat Suit 6 5 312 Reinforced Combat Suit 7 7 408 Antihixotropic Plastic Armor 6 3.5 444 Semi-rigid Plastic Armor 7 7.5 384 Metalized Plastic Armor 8 8.5 576 Microbonded Steel/Resin Armor 9 15 528 Polymerized Titanium Armor 10 9.5 1260 Biphase Carbide Armor 12 12 2076 Scout Exo 11 4 4392 Infantry Exo 12 8 3108 Heavy Assault Exo 13 10 3432 Electroactive Armor 15 5.7 34488 Surface Effect Stasis Armor 13 4 11424 Stabilized Neutronium Plated Armor 16 20.3 5628 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHIELDS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name Weight Protection Cost ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anti-Inertian Screen .2 30 3000 Reaction Damping Field .5 45 5880 Vector Translation Screen 1.5 90 14040 Surface Effect Stasis Shield 1.2 100 21600 Variable Stasis Shield 4.0 150 67620 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name Defensive Movement Weight Bonus Bonus Cost --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stealth Pod .5 15 0 8100 Enhanced ECM Pod .2 25 0 18756 Maneuvering Thrusters 3.0 30 1 11652 High Performance Thrusters 2.5 40 2 26184 Inertialess Drives 4.6 60 2 69432 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 WEAPONS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Max Weight Damage ROF Ammo (KG) Range ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.56mm Palm Gun 8 2 8 .4 20 11mm Wrist Gun 15 2 2 .3 10 9mm Revolver 12 2 6 1.0 50 9mm Automatic 12 2 8 1.0 50 12mm Automatic 14 2 7 1.3 50 11mm 'Automag' 15 2 8 1.5 75 5.56mm MiniMAC SMG 10 7 50 2.5 100 9mm MAC-10 SMG 11 5 30 3.5 90 11mm 'Lead Hose' SMG 12 6 30 4.0 90 5.56mm 'Streetsweeper' SMG 10 8 100 5.3 100 5.56mm Assault Rifle 13 4 30 5.5 205 7.62 Assault Rifle 15 3 20 6.3 210 7.62/20mm AR/Grnd Lnchr 20 3 20 7.3 210 12ga 'Slugmaster' Riot Gun 22 2 5 4.5 100 12ga Automatic Shotgun 18 2 5 5.3 50 10ga Rotary Mag.Shotgun 21 2 5 6.0 75 1mm Slivergun 10 12 250 1.3 30 2mm Needler 14 10 220 1.8 100 2.5mm Gauss Rifle 16 10 200 3.3 200 40KV Taser 18 1 20 2.5 10 1.1MV Taser 27 1 15 3.0 10 40GHz EMP Gun 12 1 5 8.0 250 TWT Amplified EMP Gun 18 1 4 11.0 250 2-Coil Ion Gun 15 3 25 5.5 15 3-Coil Ion Gun 25 3 12 7.5 20 5-Coil Neutron Gun 30 3 8 9.3 215 Incendiary Grenade 30 1 1 .2 50 .458 Magnum Rifle 18 2 5 6.5 220 .600 Nitro Express 20 2 2 6.0 210 7.62mm 'Puff Pack' Minigun 15 9 250 18.5 220 12.5mm Long Barrel MG 25 4 50 12.0 225 20mm Flame Thrower 20 1 12 6.0 30 25mm Flame Thrower 25 1 10 6.5 30 'Supernova' Flame Gun 30 1 8 8.3 40 6mm Microjet Rocket Gun 16 2 12 5.5 150 10mm Rocket Rifle 19 2 10 5.8 180 Zero-G Assault RL 22 3 20 4.3 75 20mm Auto Rocket Rifle 25 1 15 8.2 200 40mm 'Panzerjaeger' RL 30 4 12 9.2 210 LAWS Anti-armor Rocket 35 1 4 3.0 205 HAAWS Heavy Rocket 43 1 4 5.0 210 1MW Laser Carbine 15 4 100 3.5 210 1.5MW Laser Rifle 18 3 100 4.3 210 2MW Laser Assault Rifle 20 3 50 4.8 215 Freq. Agile Sniping Laser 24 2 40 4.0 225 1 Compression Laser 27 2 30 5.3 100 2 Compression Laser 32 2 30 5.8 150 Nerve Gas Container 38 1 1 .3 75 Caustic Mist Bomb 43 1 1 .2 70 Fragmentation Grenade 25 1 1 .4 60 Enhanced Splinter Grenade 40 1 1 .5 50 Concussion Grenade 20 1 1 .3 75 1500 Microton Nuclear Grenade 60 1 1 .5 40 Neutron Grenade 50 1 1 .1 80 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Damage Type: 1-bullet; 2-shotgun; 3-needle; 4-electrical; 5-particle; 6-flame; 7-rocket; 8-chemical; 9-explosive; 10-nuclear, 23 WEAPONS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Damage Reload Reload Hit Weapon Intim. Weapon Type Weight Cost Bonus Cost Factor Type ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 .4 4 -10 20 0 2 1 .1 5 -20 20 0 2 1 .2 1 0 299 1 2 1 .3 5 0 338 1 2 1 .3 6 -5 282 1 2 1 .3 7 0 516 2 2 1 2.6 10 0 1279 2 2 1 .9 10 0 898 3 2 1 1.3 11 5 1084 3 2 1 5.1 35 10 2433 4 2 1 1.5 16 0 1218 6 2 1 .4 15 0 1130 7 2 1 10.9 55 0 1577 8 2 2 1.1 8 -5 1125 5 2 2 1.1 3 20 973 4 2 2 1.4 13 20 1440 8 2 3 .3 8 5 5370 0 2 3 .9 9 5 5434 1 2 3 1.2 14 10 5861 2 2 4 .5 20 0 570 0 2 4 .5 40 0 1330 1 2 4 .2 75 5 677 5 2 4 1.5 90 5 740 5 2 5 .3 50 10 959 2 2 5 .3 50 10 2709 2 2 5 .3 50 10 5520 3 2 11 .2 83 -5 83 2 2 1 .8 10 10 1093 4 1 1 .5 3 5 1149 4 1 1 5.3 113 10 6276 10 1 1 2.8 155 15 4760 9 1 6 3.0 35 35 1160 6 1 6 3.0 35 30 1571 6 1 6 4.5 75 45 2645 7 1 7 1.2 18 0 788 6 1 7 1.5 18 10 1276 7 1 7 2.0 30 5 2071 7 1 7 3.5 38 25 1907 8 1 7 2.5 41 35 7786 9 1 7 3.0 850 10 3771 10 1 7 5.0 1200 15 7638 10 1 12 2.0 40 10 3035 6 1 12 2.5 60 15 3335 6 1 12 2.5 60 20 2765 6 1 12 3.1 50 30 3115 4 1 12 3.7 100 5 2986 7 1 12 4.0 225 0 5038 7 1 8 .3 209 25 209 0 3 8 .2 343 40 343 1 3 9 .4 40 10 40 1 4 9 .5 258 15 258 2 4 9 .3 18 25 18 2 4 10 .5 1299 50 1299 3 4 19 .1 625 50 625 0 4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11-incendiary; 12-laser. Weapon Type: 1-heavy arms; 2-light arms; 3-chemical weaponry; 4-explosive weaponry. 24 STARSHIP DATA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Drop Initial Max. Starship Name Ships Tons Tons Price ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wasp class Scoutship 1 40 52 70800 Hornet class Scoutship 1 42 52 57600 Dagger class Escort 1 85 112 146400 Katana class Escort 1 80 102 124800 Salamander class Corvette 1 149 199 280800 Fire Drake class Corvette 2 152 195 264000 Hunter class Frigate 2 200 270 456000 Warrior class Frigate 2 210 300 516000 Ranger class Frigate 3 200 266 420000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ESPER DATA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Esper Rating: Esper Ability 51-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of Mindshocks/Combat 2 2 3 3 Damage of Mindshock 12 13 15 16 Number of Heals/Combat 1 1 1 1 Number of Views/Trip from Starport 2 2 2 2 Psychic Scream Percentage 12 13 15 16 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHIP'S WEAPONS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Max Name Damage ROF Ammo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hypervolocity Rocket 75 6 24 High Speed Emission Tracker 100 4 16 Bofors Medium Torpedo 150 2 12 Bofors Heavy Torpedo 250 4 10 SS-28 "Rogue" Missile 200 2 8 SS-29 "Bulldog" Missile 250 2 6 LTV "Ranger" Seeker Missile 200 2 8 SS-31 "Bounty Hunter" Missile 275 2 4 500 KT Nuclear Missile 175 4 24 1.25 MT Nuclear Missile 300 2 16 "Pilgrim" Capital Ship Missile 380 1 2 Neutral Particle Torpedo 310 2 4 Antimatter Missile 340 2 4 Singularity Warhead Missile 500 1 1 Gauss Cannon 50 5 .. .75 GW Laser Cannon 100 3 .. 1.4 GW Laser Cannon 150 2 .. Frequency Agile Laser Cannon 200 1 .. 20 Compression Laser 240 1 .. Multi-barrel Laser Cannon 100 4 .. Ion Cannon 225 1 .. Resonant Cavity EMP Cannon 275 1 .. Light Plasma Cannon 250 1 .. "Thunderbolt" Plasma Cannon 300 2 .. FMC Anti-Ion Cannon 400 1 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 STARSHIP DATA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Initial Defense Max Armor Armor Max Armor Bonus Move Cost.Pt. Tons.Pt Fuel ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 30 7 5 .005 100 0 30 7 5 .005 100 125 5 6 12 .008 200 150 10 6 12 .008 200 250 -5 5 27.5 .011 300 275 -10 5 27.5 .011 300 500 -20 4 50 .020 400 450 -15 4 50 .020 400 450 -25 4 50 .020 400 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ESPER DATA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 70-74 75-79 80-84 85-89 90-94 95-99 100 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 17 18 20 21 22 23 25 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 4 17 18 20 21 22 23 25 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHIP'S WEAPONS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weight Reload Reload Hit Weapon (1000 KG) Weight Cost Bonus Cost ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- .5 .4 60 5 1200 .8 .4 78 15 12672 1.4 .4 114 20 18756 2.2 .6 468 15 52284 2.4 .4 240 20 33312 2.4 .3 630 20 61044 4.6 .3 174 25 27960 3.8 .6 786 30 71472 11.0 .9 108 10 20664 10.0 3.1 336 5 48864 2.4 .7 1650 20 122628 7.7 .3 1116 15 89796 5.8 .5 984 20 89304 7.3 1.1 5010 25 244560 .8 n/a n/a 0 2940 1.5 n/a n/a -5 15000 2.0 n/a n/a 0 37968 2.4 n/a n/a 0 50004 4.5 n/a n/a -5 55296 1.3 n/a n/a 10 23088 3.5 n/a n/a 5 54924 6.4 n/a n/a 10 67020 7.3 n/a n/a 0 40128 8.2 n/a n/a 5 148176 9.1 n/a n/a 0 210984 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 MISSILE KILLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- % Chance Name Weight To Kill Cost ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Point Defense Turret .5 10 7584 Full Spectrum Jammer 3.0 25 24996 "Skynet" Antimissile System 5.0 50 84852 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HAND-TO-HAND WEAPONS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name Damage Weight Hit Bonus ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stiletto 8 .1 0 Shock Glove 10 .4 0 "Ugly Stick" Crowd Control Baton 12 .8 5 Stasis Blade 16 1.0 15 Marine Assault Axe 20 1.5 0 Light Sword 40 1.0 30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SIGHTING HARDWARE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name Cost Weight Hit Bonus ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Laser Targeter 432 .5 10 Self Calibrating 4x Optical Sight 936 .8 15 Integral Helmet Sight 2928 .3 25 Compusight Aiming Assistant 5484 1.0 35 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name Cost Weight ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Medkit 420 2.0 Repair Kit 1440 100.0 Helmet Scanner 1800 1.0 Motion Detector 2400 1.2 Sonic Torch 900 2.0 Chemical Torch 480 4.0 Lockpick Set 120 .5 Oxygen Mask 300 1.0 Oxygen Cylinder 48 .8 Environment Suit 3000 3.0 Radiation Detector 1440 1.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 STAR COMMAND Data Card - Amiga IMPORTANT: You must make a copy of both disks, for you own use only, before beginning play. Both copies must be named the same as the original disks. For example: when you copy "SC1" the copy will be named "copy of SC1". Simply rename the newly copied disk "SC1". Don't forget to rename "SC2". Play off the copies and do NOT write protect the disks as the game writes and saves to the disks during play. The mouse interface will not work for much of the game, so you will need to use the keyboard during play. LOADING THE GAME: 1) Turn on your Amiga. 2) Insert your KICKSTART disk (Amiga 1000 owners only) 3) When you are prompted to insert the WORKBENCH disk, simply insert your copy of disk 1. The game will automatically boot. INSTALLING STAR COMMAND ON A HARD DRIVE: Note: The following assumes your hard drive is referred to as DH0, and that you have basic knowledge about creating directories, copying files, and using ED to edit your startup-sequence. Please see your manual for more information. 1) Create a directory on your Hard Drive named SC, for example. 2) Now copy everything from both disks into the newly created SC directory on your Hard Drive. 3) You will need to copy the T directory from the newly created SC directory to the T directory at the root directory of your Hard Drive. 4) Now edit the Startup-Sequence in the S directory of your Hard Drive and add the following five lines: Assign SC1: DH0:SC Assign SC2: DH0:SC Copy DH0:SC/EL to RAM: Copy DH0:SC/Free.run to RAM: RAM:Free.run LOADING STAR COMMAND FROM THE HARD DRIVE: Boot your computer and click on the Hard Drive icon containing the SC directory. Go to CLI or a shell, change the directory to SC and type COMMANDO. Example: 1) CD DH0:SC 2) DH0:SC>Commando Remember to set the drive option to "Hard Drive" during game startup. ============================================================================ DOCS PROVIDED BY -+*+-THE SOUTHERN STAR-+*+- for M.A.A.D. ============================================================================