Instructions for *** S T A R T R E K *** by Trevor Sorensen October 1978 Fleets of Klingon and Romulan warships are invading the Federation from several different directions. Their apparent goal is Star Fleet Headquarters. Defensive zones have been established, each under the command of a Starship Cruiser. It is the duty of each zone to deplete the enemy fleets suffic- iently so that the Federation fleet will be able to defeat them before they reach their goal. You are the commander of a United Starship Cruiser, which is assigned to defend the galactic quadrants of a region of the United Federation of Planets. Your mission is to patrol these quadrants and destroy the number of alien vessels assigned to you by Star Fleet Command in the given number of stardates. The starship is equipped with phasers and 20 photon torpedoes and is protected by deflector shields. Power avail- able is 5000 units. This power is available for movement, firing phasers, raising deflector shields, repairing damaged systems, operating tractor beams and transporters or launching deep space reconnaissance probes. Your patrol area consists of 64 quadrants in an 8x8 grid. Each quadrant is defined by its location in the grid. eg. quadrant "3,4" means row 3, column 4. Each quadrant in turn consists of 100 sectors in 10 rows and 10 columns. Each object (Klingon, star, starship, etc.) occupies 1 sector, with the same position designation as used for the quadrants. There will be up to 5 Klingons, 4 stars and 1 starbase in each quadrant. Although your starship can move from quadrant to quadrant, the other objects can't. The Romulan warships operate individually and are not restricted to single quadrants like the Klingons. They can enter or leave a quadrant at will, but there can only be 1 hostile Romulan in a quadrant at a time. The Romulan ships are normally invisible because of their cloaking devices. Their presence in a quadrant can, however, be detected by your starship due to their disturbance of the space-time continuum, but their exact position cannot be determined without accidentally colliding with or shooting them. However, they use energy to stay invisible, and if they stay long enough, they will become so weak, that they will appear and not be able to move. Whenever there are aliens present in your quadrant, a "CONDITION: RED" is displayed, otherwise the condition is "GREEN" (unless you are docked with starbase, when the condition is "DOCKED"). Upon entering a quadrant with "CONDITION: RED", shield power is raised automatically (if needed) when the Auto Alert Switch is on, to 800 units for each Klingon present distributed evenly amongst the shields, or if there is insufficient power available, all power is put into shields (except for 25 units reserved for life support and maneuvering). When a Romulan appears, shields are automatically raised to a level 2000 units higher than the total of the previous hits registered on the starship, if needed. Each alien will shoot at your starship each time one of the following happens (for #1 & #2 there is a chance they might miss): 1. Your starship enters a new quadrant 2. Your starship moves 3. Your starship fires phasers or torpedoes 4. You operate tractor beams or transporters Also, if a stardate goes by without the enemy firing at you (ie. you have not done any of the above things), they will fire at you anyway. The closer the alien is to your starship, the stronger the hit on the starship will be, with a maximum hit of 475 units (Klingon) or 575 units (Romulan) when in neighboring sectors. When you in turn damage the alien vessel, it's strength is weakened, and cannot be regained unless your starship leaves the quadrant. When starting a new game, you will be asked several questions. For each question there is a default answer (indicated by [ ]), which is specified by just hitting CR without any input. When the computer asks you for your MISSION RANK, enter any real number or integer between 1 and 10. This determines the degree of difficulty of the game: RANK 1 is the easiest (no Romulans, no Klingon movement and 5 starbases), and RANK 10 is the hardest (much movement and only one starbase, plus other fun things). The default rank is random (21). The fewer there are and the higher the rank, the more likely they are to move. 2. Ship Disabled ------------- You can also lose the game by being DISABLED as well as DESTROYED. The following will disable your ship: 1. All Power Expended - using up all your power (reserves and shields). 2. Both Life Support Systems Destroyed - the starship has two life support systems. When damage occurs, you can loose your primary system, which will switch your ship automatically to the secondary or back-up system. If this system is also damaged, then all life aboard the ship is terminated. It is therefor important to repair your primary life support system as soon as possible after it is damaged. 3. Backup Life Support System Batteries Exhausted - the primary life support system requires power from the main reserves for operation. If for any reason you lose all power in your main reserves, the backup life support system, which can operate on batteries, takes over. However, the batteries will only last for 0.5 stardates, and if power has not been restored to the main reserves by then, all life aboard is terminated. 4. Entire Ship's Crew Killed - your crew suffers casualties from hits that penetrate shields, as well as attempted captures of enemy vessels by boarding parties. Upon docking with starbase all casualties will be replaced until that starbase runs out of replacements (each starbase starts off with 500 replacements). When crew losses reach 500 "du bist kaputt". 3. Starbases --------- Upon docking with a starbase (ie. by moving to an adjacent sector using impulse engines only), all damaged systems are repaired, all power replenished, crew replacements obtained (if needed) and photon torpedoes replaced (however, reconn. probes are NOT replaced). If there are aliens present in the quadrant, it might not initially be possible to dock. When docked, starbase shields will protect your ship (but if starbase is destroyed while you're docked, you will be destroyed too). Your ship is actually in the same sector as starbase when you're docked, therefore only the starbase, and not your ship, will appear on the Short Range Scan. You can fire torpedoes and phasers or use tractor beams, etc. while docked. Each starbase has an initial shield strength for protection against alien attack. If there are three or more Klingons in a quadrant with a starbase, there is a chance that the Klingons might start attacking the starbase, even if you are not present in that quadrant. If this happens, you will receive an emergency communication from Star Fleet Command ordering you to go to the rescue of starbase. When the base's shield strength has dropped below 25%, another warning will be given. You will also be informed when starbase has been destroyed, if you are in a different quadrant at the time. A success- ful rescue of a starbase will increase your efficiency rating, while a failure will decrease it. Starbases each have one phaser for their own protection, and as long as their shield strength is above 25%, they will assist you in the battle (or attempt to fight off the attack alone if you are in a different quadrant). When in your quadrant, starbase concentrates its fire on the closest Klingon. They will not fire at Romulans or disabled Klingons. Any Klingon destroyed by a starbase will not be added to your tally, but will reduce the number you have to destroy by one (which is a help, since your allocated time remains the same). 4. Disabled Alien Self-Destruction ------------------------------- If you have a disabled enemy vessel in tow (locked in your tractor beam) or if none of his comrades are in the same quadrant, the disabled vessel might initiate its self-destruct sequence. If your short range sensors are operational, this will be detected by your ship's computer and you will be given a warning. Once the self- destruct sequence has been started, you have 0.1 stardates before the enemy ship self-destructs. The resulting blast is over 4 times more powerful than its normal full power hit (2000 unit hit if it is right next to you), and will hit everything in the quadrant regardless of whether friend or foe (it usually destroys all other Klingons or Romulans). If your shield control is operational, the ship's computer upon detecting the self-destruct initiation, will automatically raise and adjust the shields (if needed, and regardless of whether the Auto Alert switch is on or off), with extra strength being allocated for the shield(s) directly facing the enemy vessel. If possible, the computer will leave about 125 units in reserves, which is enough to permit the use of the Emergency Hyperspace Maneuver with a bit extra for essential operations. You have 3 main choices in this situation (remember you only have time for 1 command that uses up time). 1. You can try to leave the quadrant using engines or the Emergency Hyperspace Maneuver (it will not self-destruct if you leave). 2. You can stay and absorb the blast if your shields are strong enough. 3. You can try to capture it (by boarding or delivering to starbase) or destroy it with phasers (remember it's very weak) or a torpedo. NOTE: Disabled enemy self-destruct only happens in games of Rank 3 or greater. 5. Efficiency Rating ----------------- At the game's end an efficiency rating will be displayed for you, so you can judge your performance. It is based on the number of aliens you destroyed and how long it took you, but not your rank (it is thus only comparable to other ratings at the same rank). A minimum of about 15% will be given if your ship was not destroyed, even if you have run out of time without destroying any aliens. This is because you have at least survived the game. It is possible to receive a rating of more than 100% by having destroyed more than the assigned number of aliens, in a relatively short time. If your ship was destroyed or disabled, then the efficiency rating depends on how long you survived (the longer you survived, the higher the rating). The calculated rating is then halved as a penalty for being destroyed. Also, your efficiency rating is multiplied by the factors indicated for each time one of the following events occured. Event Rating Factor x ---------------------------------- ------------------- Romulan vessel eliminated 1.02 (+2%) Starbase rescued 1.10 (+10%) Failed to rescue starbase 0.85 (-15%) Destroyed own starbase 0.70 (-30%) Alien vessel delivered to starbase 1.03 (+3%) Prisoners delivered to starbase (ea.) 1.001 (+0.1%) Any problems, bugs or suggestions, please contact: Trevor Sorensen Mailstop 245-1 NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA 94035 Telephone: (415) 965-5505 or 5531