ASTROWAR________________________________________________________________
                                                Instructions for Players

0.      About this File

        This file is the player handbook extracted from the manual for
        AstroMail.  Note that when writing to AstroMail at Centurion,
        you address your netmails to 'AstroWar', not 'AstroMail'.

1.      Introduction to AstroWar

        Imagine a galaxy far, far away.  You should be able to do that
        by now, since this isn't exactly an original idea for a game.
        Imagine a planet with an advanced civilisation, where space
        travel within that civilisation's star system is commonplace.
        Taking a closer look at that civilisation's technology, notice
        that scientists are on the brink of a discovery that will change
        their civilisation for good.  They are about to break the light
        speed barrier.

        Now let's pan out from those scientists, away from their
        universities and research installations, away from the planet
        and its solar system, and look at another planet.  This one is
        very much like the first, although the shape and size of
        individuals in its population might vary.  They are also close
        to discovery, although maybe not as close as the first
        civilisation we looked at.  Who knows?

        And finally, before your patience gives out completely, take a
        look at one of the other planets around.  This planet is nowhere
        near any technological breakthrough, though it might posess all
        the population and raw material resources for space travel.  The
        people of these planets are the faceless unfortunates in our
        story.

        AstroWar is a game in which you, the players take on the roles
        of the civilisations in the first two planets we looked at.
        Your objective, first, is to seek out new worlds and
        civilisations, 'to boldly go' and all that nonsense.  And to
        conquer them.  As time goes on, you will meet other empires who
        will try to stop you.  You must beat them back, and take their
        planets also-- before they take yours.  You can subdue
        opposition permanently by taking over all the homeworlds of the
        opposing empires in the game.

        The game rules are very simple.  There is only one type of
        planet, called a 'planet'.  Each planet has a production rating,
        which directly relates to the number of ships it produces.
        These ships are of only one type-- 'ship', strangely enough.
        Your ships can be left in orbit to defend your planets, or can
        be sent in great numbers elsewhere, to claim new planets for the
        empire.

        This simplicity is offset by a level of secrecy more often seen
        in more complex games.  You only see a part of the map, that
        which surrounds your planets.  You only know the details of
        neutral and enemy planets by scouting them.  You don't even know
        of the existence of other empires until they carelessly write to
        you, or until you scout or conquer their planets.  Of their size
        and position, you can only know from what you see.

        AstroMail is an interface program which allows you to play games
        of AstroWar using routed or direct Fidonet netmail.  AstroMail
        will relay your orders to AstroWar and send AstroWar's reports
        back to you.

2.      Selecting a Game to Play

        AstroWar and AstroMail both allow multiple games to be run at a
        single system.  In order to find out what games are available,
        if you don't already know, send a message like the following:

        ================================================================
        From: <you>
        To:   AstroMail
        Addr: <server's address>
        Subj: <blank>
        ----------------------------------------------------------------
        <anything in here>
        ================================================================

        where <you> is your name and address, <server's address> is the
        Fidonet address of the system running the games, and <anything
        in here> can be anything, as long as there is something in the
        text of the message.  Some servers may use the name 'AstroWar'
        instead of 'AstroMail'; find out this from that system's sysop.

        When AstroMail receives this message it will tell you that there
        is no such name as '' (as long as you used a blank subject
        line), and provide you with a list of games which do exist.
        When writing to AstroMail in future, you should use one of these
        names on the message subject line.

        In order to find out more about a particular game on the list,
        send AstroMail a message like the following:

        ================================================================
        From: <you>
        To:   AstroMail
        Addr: <server's address>
        Subj: <game>
        ----------------------------------------------------------------
        INFO
        ---
        <signature or other rubbish>
        ================================================================

        In this example <game> is the name of the game you wish to find
        out about.  You can send one of these messages for each game you
        are interested in.  At any point, whether you are participating
        in a game or not, you can embed the following commands in a
        netmail:

                ROUTED

        or

                DIRECT

        which istruct AstroMail to send your responses by routed or
        direct netmail.  The default depends on the server, as in some
        places routed AstroMail messages will not be welcome.  If you
        are able to do so, it is a good idea to pick up your messages
        directly, and use the 'direct' command to ensure they are not
        sent routed.  This will stop you annoying netmail hubs, and will
        also ensure that your reports reach you before they get out of
        date.

        The tear line '---' stops AstroMail reading any further, like in
        an AreaFix message.  If your mail software automatically adds a
        signature or tagline to your messages, you will want to include
        a tear line to stop AstroMail reporting the sig or tagline as
        errors.

        When you get responses to your 'info' commands, you will see
        that different games' settings can vary.  The number of planets,
        the size of the map, the speed of the fleets and the maximum
        distance they can travel will all have an effect on gameplay.
        Some systems may run games with alternative production or
        victory rules, which you should find out from the sysop.

3.      Joining a Game

        Once you have decided to play a game, you should issue a 'join'
        command, as in the following netmail example:

        ================================================================
        To:   AstroMail
        Addr: 1:2/3
        Subj: Game1
        ----------------------------------------------------------------
        JOIN AS MyEmpire
        ---
        ================================================================

        This order will be passed to AstroWar, which will accept or
        reject your request to join.  The empire name should be fifteen
        characters or less, and should not contain spaces.  If accepted,
        you will receive a netmail containing the name and details of
        your homeworld, along with a map of the surrounding space.  It
        will look something like this:

        ================================================================
        From: AstroMail 1.00
        Subj: Report for game "Game1"
        ----------------------------------------------------------------
        Your application to join game 'Game1' of AstroWar was
        successful.  Your empire name is 'MyEmpire' and your homeworld
        is 'Ozo'.  Your planets are:

        Name               position prodn      ships
        --------------------------------------------
        Ozo                 6,   15    15         30

        Map of planets around Ozo:

              |-1                          13
        ------+------------------------------
            22|..............................
            21|..............................
            20|..............................
            19|..........................Ma..
            18|Oi............................
            17|..........Ad..................
            16|..............................
            15|..Po..........Oz....Ap........
            14|........Io..........Va........
            13|..............................
            12|........................Ei....
            11|..............................
            10|..Rr..........................
             9|......Eu......................
             8|..............................

        Ad=Ade (4,17). Ap=Apada (9,15). Ei=Eisho (11,12). Eu=Eujid
        (2,9). Io=Iowev (3, 14). Ma=Marbrarsere (12,19). Oi=Oiza
        (-1,18). Oz=Ozo (6,15). Po=Poc (0,15). Rr=Rrel (0,10).
        Va=Vawiegowax (9,14).
        ================================================================

        Although planets are shown as two-letter abbreviations on the
        map, when referring to them in orders you will need to use their
        full name.  This is because the abbreviations are not unique,
        and you may even find duplicates on a single map.  The key below
        includes planet positions, to help you resolve such ambiguities.

        Sometimes, your request to join a game might be rejected.
        Sometimes this is because the game is full, and there are no
        unscouted or unowned planets which could be given to you as a
        homeworld.  Sometimes it may be because you have chosen a name
        which is already in use in the game, something which is unlikely
        unless players try to use 'kewl' names like 'X' or 'Q'.  In any
        case, AstroWar will give you the reason.

4.      Scouting and Other Fleet Movements

        At first, you will want to scout the planets around you.  You
        may want to scout all the planets on the visible map, or maybe
        restrict your scouting to a few nearby planets in order to leave
        as many ships for your attack fleet as possible.

        To scout a nearby planet, use the 'scout' order as in the
        following example:

                SCOUT Ade FROM Ozo

        Here, 'FROM' is a noise word and can be omitted.  Retaining the
        noise words in your orders can help you remember which way
        around the origin and destination planets go.  The 'SCOUT' is
        just a short-cut to the 'send' command, taking advantage of the
        fact that sending one ship to an enemy or neutral planet is
        considered a scouting mission rather than an attack force.  You
        could have easily used the full 'send' form instead:

                SEND 1 SHIP FROM Ozo TO Ade

        In a 'send' command, the words 'ship' or 'ships', 'from' and
        'to' are noise words which can be omitted.  Notice that the
        'send' and 'scout' orders reverse the order of origin and
        destination planets.  When the scout reaches its destination, it
        will produce an intelligence report, containing details of the
        planet's production, current owner (if any) and number of ships
        in orbit.

        Sending two or more ships to an enemy or neutral planet is an
        invasion force.  Thus, once finding that Ade has 10 ships in
        orbit, you could issue the order:

                SEND 20 SHIPS FROM Ozo TO Ade

        which would send an invasion force of 20 ships.  You can also
        send ships from one planet of your own to another; when the
        fleet arrives at its destination it is disbanded and the ships
        join those already in orbit around the planet.  Such a move can
        help in preparing strategic bases of defense, or in positioning
        reaction forces on the lookout for nearby enemy fleet movements.

5.      Requesting Information about Your Empire

        As the game progresses, the information given to you at the
        start of the game will begin to get out of date.  As you take
        new planets which are further from your homeworld, you will need
        to see more of the map beyond the frontiers you know about.

        The simplest reports available are your planet and fleet lists.
        You can actually keep track of these details without having
        AstroWar remind you of what and where your planets and fleets
        are.  This is highly recommended if you are using routed
        netmail, as it keeps message sizes down and keeps annoyance to
        netmail hubs at a minimum.  In order to get a planet list,
        simply include the order

                LIST PLANETS

        or just

                PLANETS

        in your message.  The resulting planet list will include name,
        position, production and the number of ships in orbit around
        each of your planets.  To get a fleet list, use the order

                LIST FLEETS

        or just

                FLEETS

        in your message.  This gives the number, origin and destination,
        number of ships and distance left to travel for each of your
        fleets.  Finally, in order to receive a map of space around a
        certain planet, use an order such as

                MAP FROM Ade

        where 'from' is a noise word which can be omitted.  This will
        produce a map centred upon the named planet, its appearance
        being much like the one you receive when you first join the
        game.  Note that you can only create maps centred upon your own
        planets.

6.      Writing to Other Empires

        You can write messages to other empires in order to discuss
        alliances, make threats, discuss the weather or whatever you
        want to talk about.  To write a message, using the following
        command:

                WRITE TO EmpireName
                This is the message text...
                Include even more of it if you like.
                <blank line>

        Note the blank line, which is crucial.  If you miss it out you
        could have some of your orders sent to an ally or enemy in the
        body of a message.  At best this will cause mild amusement, and
        at worst, it will reveal to an enemy your secret plan for
        galactic domination (while preventing it from being carried out
        since the orders will not be seen as such by AstroWar).  The
        'to' in the command is a noise word.

        You can address all the other empires in the game by issuing a
        'WRITE TO ALL' or 'WRITE TO *' message.  Your message will be
        copied to every empire in the game (including a copy to
        yourself).  This is not advisable though, since giving away your
        existence may count against you.

        You can also use the message system to communicate with external
        add-ons to AstroWar, such as game enhancements.  In order to
        write to an add-on, address your message to 'SYSTEM', and
        include in the message body whatever the add-on instructs (see
        the add-on's player manual for details).  You may also receive
        messages from add-ons, which will be declared as messages from
        'the system'.
