              *VGA Planets - FAQ - version 1994 05 15*
                         * Part 3 (of 3) *

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Subject: Questions in this segment of the FAQ:

In what order do Privateers Rob ships?
Is there a way to save old messages?
Where can I get sheet.exe?
What happens when 500 ships have been built?
I've captured a <race x> ship, can I now [Rob,Pillage,Cloak...]?
What's the deal with "Science ships"?
How do I simulate battles?
What is the formula for ...

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Subject: In what order do Privateers Rob ships?

     When a Privateer ship is set to "rob ship" and there is more
than one enemy ship present, it robs the ship with the lowest ID
number first.  The Privateer ship will remove all fuel first.  If the
Privateer still has space in its tanks, it will suck more fuel from
the next highest ID, and so on.

     Cargo is robbed independently of fuel, since cargo space is
independent of the fuel tank.  Again, the Privateer ship will rob from
the lowest ID ship first.  It will steal Moly first, then Tritanium,
then duranium, and I can't recall if colonists or supplies are next.
Once the first ship is completely drained of cargo, if the Privateer
has space left, it will move on to the next highest ID and begin again
(Moly, Trit, etc.)

     Privateers cannot steal fighters (even if robbing with a carrier)
or torpedoes.

     Robbing occurs at the start of a turn, in the "special missions"
section.  Therefor, it occurs before movement, and before transfers
between ships & ship <-> planet.  Cargo being uploaded to ships by
planets will be fine after robbing, but if a ship that was set to
transfer cargo away is robbed, that cargo is gone (assuming the 
Privateer had enough room).  Thus, transferring fuel between ships
does not give immunity from Privateers!
[Eric Pawtowski, epawtows@polaris.async.vt.edu or epawtows@vt.edu]

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Subject: Is there a way to save old messages?

     Yes, the newer versions of the SHEET.EXE utility let you save
messages to a file or printer.  I's available on Tim's BBS, I don't
know about the FTP sites.
[Daniel@polaris.async.vt.edu (Daniel Pawtowski)]

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Subject: where can I get sheet.exe?

     Sheet.exe is not available by ftp, since this is a bonus program
for people who register.  Either get it from the Tim Continuum BBS or
just register to get it.  I think Tim will get you the latest release
on your disk.  [lumpi@dobag.in-berlin.de (Joern Lubkoll)]

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Subject: What happens when 500 ships have been built?

     VGA Planets has a built-in limit of 500 ships allowed at one
time.  Once 500 ships exist, further ship build orders at starbases
are not performed until new "slots" have been freed up (by colonize
missions, recycling, or battle).

     When slots are available, VGA Planets scans through the 
starbases by ID# (starting at 1, up to 500) for build missions, and
performs them until the 500 ship limit is reached.  ID# of a base is,
of course, identical to the id# of the planet where the base is 
located.  What this means in practice is that a base at planet #1
will always get first crack at filling any available ship slots, 
while a base at planet #500 will seldom if ever build ships once the
limit has been reached.

     This limit is not reached in all games, but where it does, it
can significantly alter strategy & the balance of power (see the
HINTS document for comments).

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I've captured a <race x> ship, can I now [Rob,Pillage,Cloak...]?

Capturing ships, with or without the owners' consent, is common in VGA
Planets.  However, not all "special features" will operate for the
new owner.  The basic rule of thumb is: if the feature is a property 
of the crew/race, it is not transferrable.  If the property is a 
feature of the ship, it is transferrable.  See the lists below:

Transferrable:
Cloaking
Gravitonic Accelerators (& associated 1/2 fuel consumption)

Not Transferrable:
Super Refit
Hissss
Take 150% Damage before spewing pixels across the screen
Super Spy
Pillage
Rob
3x "kill" damage with beams
Repair Damage mission
Web Mines
Dark Sense
Build Fighters (as mission or Rebel innate ability)
Sweep mines with fighters

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What's the deal with "Science ships"? [CROSSD@scarab.ag.uiuc.edu 
(David Cross)]

With the newer host versions, 3 "science ships" have been added, that
allow players to "terraform" their planets to create a more suitable
environment for the colonists.  Planets have a "climate value" up to
100.  All races prefer climate "50", which is in the "warm-temperate"
range.  The exception is the Crystals (& Siliconoids), which prefer
climate 100 (hothothot), if host configuration is set with this
option.

The 3 science ship types:

Bohemian Class: Warms planet until climate "50" is reached.

Eros Class: Cools planet until climate "50" is reached.

Onyx Class: Warms planet until climate "100" is reached.

In all cases, the ships function regardless of mission setting or
friendly code, merely by orbiting the planet to be modified.
Science ships adjust climate by 1 point/turn, and I believe this
is cumulative (yes? no? let me know...).

In the newest host versions, the exploration mission will report
the climate value, so you can keep track of how your terraforming
is progressing...

Remember: each verbal climate description represents a range of
climate values, so just because a planet stubbornly remains 
temperate-cool doesn't mean your Bohemian Class is defective...
make note of the numerical climate value from turn to turn before
posting to the net 8-) .

Also remember: if you're Crystals in a game where the host has set
"Crystals like it hot" ON, make sure your host provides you with
a suitable (read: climate 100) homeworld!

[Gary]

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Subject : How do I simulate battles?

I know basically two ways to simulate a battle.
The easy way uses the battle simulator from the Tim Continnum BBS,
also available at ftp.fu-berlin.de (and probably at the Colorado
State ftp site). However, the simulator is pretty limited in its
capabilities since you can simulate no multi-ship-battles, planet-to-
ship-battles or battles against damaged ships. It seems also that the
hit percentage of the Torps is lower and the fighters come out faster.

The better way is to set up a test game. 
Make a new game directory, select homeworlds that are next to each
other and run vpus before you host for the first time (vpus should be
available at ftp.fu-berlin.de).
Build ships and colonize planets if you want a ship-to-planet battle.
Colonize or recycle all ships that are not involved in battles and
set up the battle. Run maketurn and zip the host data directory
(you can also use any other compress utility that works like pkzip).

Now you use a batch file to simulate the battle as often as you want.
The key to the battle results is the output from unpack. If you have
just one matchup you can determine from the unpack output who has won.

So you could use the following batch file :
----------------------------------------------
cd %1
pkunzip -o %2
cd ..
host %1
unpack %1 >> test.out
-----------------------------------------------
(the -o option forces pkunzip to overwrite existing files)

Copy this 20 times and you will have a batch file that simulates 20
battles and stores the results in test.out.  Don't forget to remove
test.out before you start simulating :-)

Assumed your batch file is called simulate.bat, the host data is in 
.\testgame and the zip file is test.zip you have to type
'simulate testgame test'

Now you have the output of xx battles in test.out. Of course you can
count the ships manually :-) but the better way is to write a little
program that scans the output file and adds all ships (enabling
you to simulate as much battles as you want).
[voigtgob@cs.tu-berlin.de "Thomas Voigt"]


And here's a method that works with host versions 3.1x:

 Set up a test game and select 2 (or more) homeworlds very close to
each other.  Then, run HCONFIG and set ALL taxes and mining rates to
500%(maximum).  Run host, unpack your RSTs and run PLANETS.  Build the
number of defenses needed for your simulation and as many factories
and mines as you can.  Set your taxes to a level at which your
colonists will be angry but not HATE YOU (You wouldn't want riots!).
Run MAKETURN and run host a few times over.  This will give you enough
cash and minerals to build any ship for any race.  Build all ships
you need for the simulation and use the procedure described in the
previous hint to actually run the simulation.  This method is faster
than waiting for the minerals to be mined and the taxes to be paid at
the normal rate.  It requires no program other than a new(any new)
version of HOST.EXE .

[ai578@freenet.carleton.ca "Slawek Chmiel"]


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Subject: What is the formula for ...

FEDERATION MINERAL MINING, HOSTS EARLIER THAN 3.1:

Feds mine 1/2 (normal with reptilian natives) and always get 25 KT of
each remaining mineral with >= 100 mines, no matter how scattered the
minerals are.


MAXIMUM POPULATION:

For native races:
     For the new host [3.1+? ...Gary] there is a maximum population
of 25 million.  [Klein@badlands.NoDak.edu (Michael P Klein)]

The formula for natives is in the 313c doc, the formula for the
colonists should be similar (like 10 000 000*sin(temp*pi/100))
[voigtgob@cs.tu-berlin.de "Thomas Voigt"]

[Note...use radians, not degrees, in the above formula.  For
Crystals, with Crystals_Like_Hot host-option ON, use the formula:
10 000 000 * (temp / 100)...Gary]

maxcolonists = 10.000.000*sin(temperature*pi/100)
maxnatives   = 15.600.000*sin(temperature*pi/100) (approx)
use radians (for the sin() ) here, not degrees.
[spock@dobag.in-berlin.de (Thomas Voigt)]


POPULATION GROWTH

(host 3.14, definitely different for <= 3.00f)

Colonist_Growth%=5*sin(temperature*pi/100)/(1+tax_rate/5) 
The growth is cut to 0 if 
(a) the happiness is lower than 70
(b) the temperature is arctic or desert (<16 or >84)
(c) the maximum population would be exceeded at the current growth rate
    
Native_Growth%=4*sin(temperature*pi/100)/(1+tax_rate/5)
The growth is cut to 0 if
(a) the happiness is lower than 70
(b) the maximum population would be exceeded at the current growth rate

Again, use radians for these formulae.


changes from v3.00f : v3.00f had double the rates for colonists, and there
was still growth if the happiness was below 70. I don't know about
arctic/desert worlds.

There was no population limit in v3.00f (or was there one for natives ?
I always taxed them high so they hadn't a chance to grow), but the
colonist growth slowed down if the limit was exceeded.
[spock@dobag.in-berlin.de (Thomas Voigt)]


HAPPINESS

Natives :
happy_change=trunc(5+native_government/2-sqrt(natives/1.000.000)
                    - (mines+factories)/200 - tax*.85)

where native_government is :
1=Anarchy
2=Pre-Tribal
(...)
9=Unity

Colonists :
happy_change=trunc(10-sqrt(colonists/1.000.000)-(mines+factories)/300
                    - tax*.8 - abs(temp-50)/33)
[spock@dobag.in-berlin.de (Thomas Voigt)]
-- 
Gary Grothman # grothmag@vax.cs.hscsyr.edu # grothmag@snysyrv1.bitnet 
 last resort: # bz334@freenet.cleveland.edu
 even worse:  # (315) 652-5488
