From TradeWars Museum
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CRYSTALINE ENTITY-(C) Copyright 1994, SimSoft Professional Computer Services.
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Version 1.6
WE HAVE TESTED THIS ADD-ON REPEATEDLY WITH TRADEWARS VERSION 2 BETA 5 AND
HONESTLY BELIEVE THAT ALL BUGS HAVE BEEN HAMMERED OUT. PLEASE REPORT ANY
UNDISCOVERED BUGS TO SIMSOFT PCS AT THE ADDRESS OR PHONE NUMBER LISTED
BELOW.
If there is an option that you believe would enhance the CRYSTALINE ENTITY,
please let us know. We are always looking for ways to improve our products
for our users!
THANX!
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Disclaimer
Neither David R. Sim, nor SimSoft Professional Computer Services, nor any
person or entity affiliated with either, will assume any responsibility for
any situation which occurs as a result, be it direct, or indirect, of the
use of this program. THE USER ASSUMES ALL RISK WHICH MAY BE ASSOCIATED WITH
THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM.
There are no warrantees whatsoever, expressed or implied, as to the
usefulness or effectiveness of this system for any particular purpose.
This software is sold as is, and is not guaranteed to work on any particular
machine, or under any particular hardware or software configuration.
This program has been tested on our hardware under numerous configurations
to perform as described in this documentation.
USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IN ANY WAY CONSTITUTES IMMEDIATE ACCEPTANCE OF THESE
TERMS BY THE USER.
Reverse Engineering Notice
You MAY NOT disassemble, reverse engineer, hack, change, modify, alter,
mutate, refashion, vary, or catalyze this program or its documentation in
any way, manner shape or form.
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Shareware registration
CRYSTALINE ENTITY is a commercial software product, distributed via Shareware.
If you like it and are keeping a copy for your personal or BBS use, please
send a $7.00 registration fee + $3 S/H to the address below. By doing so you
will receive the following benefits:
1. Registered Key that will enable all features of CRYSTALINE ENTITY.
2. Support for the program by mail or phone.
Whether you register or not, we encourage you to make copies of CRYSTALINE
ENTITY for any friends, acquaintances and associates you feel may enjoy the
program if the executable, this document, and all other distribution files
have not been modified in any way.
If you have a modem, please feel free to upload CRYSTALINE ENTITY to your
favorite BBS. They will appreciate it and so will we. Please include all files
on any copies you make. This will help ensure that future users of CRYSTALINE
ENTITY will get maximum enjoyment from our product.
Please send your $7.00 registration to:
(please include $3 S/H to help defray mailing costs)
TW-EXTENDERS
SimSoft Professional Computer Services
P.O. Box 69
Otto, NC 28763
(803) 638-5017
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CRYSTALINE ENTITY is one of the many add-ons available for TradeWars 2002
version 2 from SimSoft Professional Computer Services. We have paid very
close attention to detail in an attempt to make CRYSTALINE ENTITY appear to
be an actual part of the TradeWars game, even down to the colors of the
messages that are sent to traders when CRYSTALINE ENTITY encounters them. If
you notice something that you believe could make CRYSTALINE ENTITY appear
even more as part of the actual game, please drop us a note or give us a call.
When CRYSTALINE ENTITY is run the first time, it will create an extremely
powerful alien in record number 40 of the ALIENS.DAT database named CRYSTALINE
ENTITY. This being will then be sent through a specified number of sectors of
the TradeWars 2002 universe in a similar way that a trader passes from sector
to sector. As it enters each sector, it will scan for planets.
Upon finding a planet with inadequate defenses, it will land on the planet
and proceed to ingest the specified percentage of colonists from fuel ore,
organics, and equipment production. It will then send a message to the
planet's owner in the same manner as TradeWars does, informing them that the
CRYSTALINE ENTITY has landed on their planet and ingested xx number of
colonists.
NOTE:
The first time ENTITY.EXE is run, a file will be created in the directory
which contains ENTITY.EXE called ENTITY.INS, and a message will be posted to
all traders that the CRYSTALINE ENTITY has been unleashed in the TradeWars
universe. It is a small file, and simply contains the date that the
CRYSTALINE ENTITY was installed in the tradewars game. This file must be
present after this run. If it is not, the program will continually post the
above message to the traders every time that it is run. ENTITY /REMOVE will
delete this file, and post a second message to the traders that the CRYSTALINE
ENTITY has been removed.
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To run the CRYSTALINE ENTITY add-on, you can place it in the TW2002 directory
and just type: ENTITY and press ENTER. It is best run however, just after
the TradeWars maintenance program EXTERN.EXE. You should place it in your
nightly maintenance batch file so it is called directly after EXTERN.EXE.
Another option is to place ENTITY.EXE program in a different directory if
you do not like to mix your different programs in the same directory. If
this is the case, you will need to add the /DP command line parameter so that
CRYSTALINE ENTITY can find the TradeWars data files.
Example: ENTITY /DP:C:\DOORS\TW2002
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There are several command lines parameters that are available to modify the
way CRYSTALINE ENTITY acts. Most of these however, are only available in the
registered version. The command line parameters are listed below, with the
registered features marked with an asterisk.
Optional command line parameters:
/DP:xxx Allows you to set the path to the TradeWars data files.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it to
look for the TradeWars data files in the C:\DOORS\TW2002 directory.
Example: ENTITY /DP:C:\DOORS\TW2002
* /ST:xxx Allows you to set the number of sectors that CRYSTALINE ENTITY will
travel through. Range = 1 - 255, Default = 5.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that
you want CRYSTALINE ENTITY to travel through 20 sectors instead of
the default 5.
Example: ENTITY /ST:20
* /DAY:xx Specifies the Day to actually run. 1=Sunday, 2=Monday, 3=Tuesday,
4=Wednesday, 5=Thursday, 6=Friday, 7=Saturday, R=Random. The day
numbers can be in any order and in any combination. If R is
specified, the day numbers will be ignored. You could have the
CRYSTALINE ENTITY run through the universe every day of the week if
you wanted. The Unregistered version will only move on Fridays.
The following example would run the CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it
to move randomly. ie. the program will pick a number between 0 and
1. If it chooses 1, the CRYSTALINE ENTITY will run. If it chooses
0, it will not.
Example: ENTITY /DAY:R
The following example would run the CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it
to only move through sectors on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Example: ENTITY /DAY:345
* /NOFED Tells CRYSTALINE ENTITY to stay out of fedspace, stardock and class
0 ports.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that
you do not want it to enter sectors 1 - 10, the stardock sector, or
either of the 2 class 0 port sectors.
Example: ENTITY /NOFED
* /CP:xxx Specifies the percentage of colonists to digest. Range = 1 - 100,
Default = 50.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that
you would like it to ingest 25% of all coloinsts in fuel ore,
organics and equipment production.
Example: ENTITY /CP:25
* /CL:xxx Minimum Citadel level required to fend off the Crystaline Entity.
Range = 1 - 6, Default = 6.
Keep in mind that all of the /CL, /MR, /QA, /MF and /MM settings
must be met to keep the CRYSTALINE ENTITY from landing on a given
planet. If you do not want the Citadel level to be part of the
deciding factor, then pass /CL:0 as a parameter.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that
you would like it not land on a planet if the planet contains a
Level 3 Citadel or higher.
Example: ENTITY /CL:3
* /MR:xxx Minimum Military Reaction Level to fend off the Crystaline Entity.
Range = 1 - 100, Default = 100.
Keep in mind that all of the /CL, /MR, /QA, /MF and /MM settings
must be met to keep the CRYSTALINE ENTITY from landing on a given
planet. If you do not want the Military Reaction to be part of
the deciding factor, then pass /MR:0 as a parameter.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that
you would like it not land on a planet if the planets Military
Reaction Level is set at 30% or higher.
Example: ENTITY /MR:30
* /QA:xxx Minimum Quasar Atmosphere Level to fend off the Crystaline Entity.
Range = 1 - 100, Default = 100.
Keep in mind that all of the /CL, /MR, /QA, /MF and /MM settings
must be met to keep the CRYSTALINE ENTITY from landing on a given
planet. If you do not want the Quasar Canon Atmosphere Level to
be part of the deciding factor, then pass /QA:0 as a parameter.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that
you would like it not land on a planet if the planets Quasar Canon
Atmosphere Level is set at 30% or higher.
Example: ENTITY /QA:30
* /MF:xxx Minimum deployed fighters required to fend off an assimilation.
Range = 1 - 32,000, Default = 32,000.
Keep in mind that all of the /CL, /MR, /QA, /MF and /MM settings
must be met to keep the CRYSTALINE ENTITY from landing on a given
planet. If you do not want a Deployed Fighters to be part of the
deciding factor, then pass /MF:0 as a parameter.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that you
do not want CRYSTALINE ENTITY to destroy any fighters in the current
sector if the number of fighters in that sector are greater than
or equal to 2000.
Example: ENTITY /MF:2000
* /MM:xxx Minimum deployed mines required to fend off an assimilation.
Range = 1 - 250, Default = 250.
Keep in mind that all of the /CL, /MR, /QA, /MF and /MM settings
must be met to keep the CRYSTALINE ENTITY from landing on a given
planet. If you do not want a Deployed Mines to be part of the
deciding factor, then pass /MM:0 as a parameter.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that you
do not want CRYSTALINE ENTITY to destroy any mines in the current sector
if the number of mines in that sector are greater than or equal
to 100.
Example: ENTITY /MM:100
/LOG Causes all CRYSTALINE ENTITY actions to be written to a log file.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that you
want it to write everything that it does to the log file
ENTITY.LOG.
Example: ENTITY /LOG
* /LOC Displays the sector location of the CRYSTALINE ENTITY aliens.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that you
want it to display the sector location of the CRYSTALINE ENTITY
alien in the database, then terminate.
Example: ENTITY /LOC
* /REMOVE Removes the CRYSTALINE ENTITY alien from the Alien database.
The following example would run CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it that
you want it to remove the CRYSTALINE ENTITY alien from the alien
database. If CRYSTALINE ENTITY is run after this is done, it will
add the CRYSTALINE ENTITY back to the database.
Example: ENTITY /REMOVE
/@xxxxx Tells the CRYSTALINE ENTITY to look for all other command line
options in the file xxxxx.
The following example would run the CRYSTALINE ENTITY, telling it
that all command line options are in the file ENTITY.PAR.
Example: ENTITY /@ENTITY.PAR
The format for the parameter file is simple. Just place each
command line option on a separate line. See the file SAMPLE.PAR
for an example.
Most parameters can be used in cunjunction with another. Note that some
parameters do not send the ENTITY on its way through the universe, but merely
do something then exit, such as /LOC and /REMOVE.
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UPGRADING NOTES:
Any updates to this program may be copied directly over the current version.
We do recommend, however, that you run ENTITY /REMOVE with the old version,
before running the new version. The new version will add him back into the
game the first time that it is run.
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