COW-lite/Win32 A port of the COW-lite 1.20 Netrek Client to Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 3.1/Win32s by Jonathan Shekter (shekter@hookup.net) Contents: 0. For People Who Already Play Netrek 1. Introduction 2. System Requirements And Installation 3. Basic Instructions 3.1 Connecting To A Server 3.2 Logins 3.3 The MOTD, Teams, And Ships 3.4 Essential Commands 3.5 How Not To Be Obviously A Twink 4. Finer Points And Strategy 4.1 Dogfighting Strategy 4.2 Essential Operations 4.3 Taking Planets 4.4 Complete Command Reference 5. Configuration 5.1 Keymaps 5.2 Complete Xtrekrc Reference 5.2 Macros And RCD 5.3 Default Macros And Distresses 6. Technical Stuff 7.1 UDP, Short Packets, and SLIP 7.2 Ghostbusts 7. Resources 6.1 Where To Find More 6.2 Netrek Dictionary 8. Features Specific To This Client 9. Troubleshooting And Hints 0. For People Who Already Play Netrek This document is a somewhat extensive player's manual. If you already know netrek in general and COW-lite in particular, then all you really need to read is sections 2 and 7. This program is a direct port of COW-lite v1.20, including all features (UDP, short packets, RSA, metaserver ) and command line and xtrekrc options (except fonts and color.) In other words, if you're clue, read sections 2 (installation) and 7 (Windows- specific features.) If you're new to netrek, read on! 1. Introduction Welcome! You are now the proud owner of the best (and only at the moment) port of a netrek client to the Microsoft Windows environment.client. According to the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list for the newsgroup Netrek, "Netrek is a 16-player graphical real-time battle simulation with a Star Trek theme. The game is divided into two teams of 8 (or less), who dogfight each other and attempt to conquer each other's planets. There are several different types of ships, from fast, fragile scouts up to big, slow battleships; this allows a great deal of variance in play styles." It is played over the Internet, against real human oppenonents. If you do not have a Windows computer on the internet, or connected via SLIP or PPP, you will not be able to play. I did not invent Netrek, as anyone who plays will know. I did not even (really) write this client. COW-lite was written primarily by Steve Sheldon at Iowa State University. Even he did not write COW-lite singlehandedly in a sense as it was based on the BRMH client, which itself was a modification of the BRM client by Ted Hadley, which was worked on by a team of people (and has now evolved into COW) and was originally derived from the Berkely and Rick's Moo clients. In other words, this game has a history and can actually be traced back through various ancestors to 1972. Andy McFadden has written a wonderful history of the game, see which for more. Up to 16 players, often widely seperated geographically, connect to a central "server" running at some site. There are maybe 100 public servers in the world and of these maybe 20 are well known and popular. The individual players use a "client" program to connect to the server of their choice. Once in the game, the server recieves commands from the client (and hence player) and sends the positions and status of the other ships, planets, etc, to all players, several times per second. The net effect of all this is to create a virtual galaxy where everyone can see eachother and interact, or to put it less academically, everyone plays in the same galaxy to try to take it over. 2. System Requirements And Installation COW-lite/Win32 is a full 32-bit binary, developed under Windows NT, but will also run on Windows 3.1 with Win32s installed. If you do not have Win32s it is available by ftp from ftp.microsoft.com as /developer/DEVTOOLS/WIN32SDK/Win32s115a.Zip. It is also available on wuarchive.wustl.edu or ftp.cica.indiana.edu, in the windows directories. You will need a WinSock implementation for your machine. Any flavour of WinSock should work, including Trumpet WinSock. If you have Windows for Workgroups, there is a TCP/IP for Windows for Workgroups (the "Wolverine" beta) available free from ftp.microsoft.com as /peropsys/WFW/tcpip/TCPIP32.EXE. If you have a Windows machine directly connected to the Internet and you are using standard TCP/IP services and applications (such as mail, finger, news, Mosaic etc.) you already have WinSock, obviously. COW-lite/Win32 will run with a display driver of any number of colors, from a monochrome (1-bit) to 24-bit displays, and everything inbetween . But, you are STRONGLY advised to be running in 1024x768 resolution, as otherwise you will have trouble fitting everything on the screen. The follwing files are included in this release: * netrek.exe - Netrek/Win32 executable * netrekrc - sample configurartion file with nice window placements * ntrk6x10.fon - 6 by 10 pixel fonts file * ntrk6x10.alt - alternate font file, for large fonts display drivers * netrek.wri - You're reading it! Put these into the same directory (ntrk6x10.fon in particular must be in the same directory as netrek.exe for proper operation), make sure WinSock (and Win32s if needed) is installed and run the executable. That's it! 3. Basic Instructions 3.1 Connecting To A Server If you run netrekexe without any arguments it will just complain at you. It needs to know which server to connect to. To do this, use the "-h" command line option: netrek -h thiserver.foobar.somewhere.edu This tells netrek to join the game in progress on that server. (You can specify the port number, if it's not the standard 2592, with the -p option, should you need to.) For a list of servers, get online, see the Resources section in this document. The better way to go about this, however, is to use the metaserver. The metaserver is a central computer, currently metaserver.ecst.csuchico.edu, which keeps track of currently running games on all server. If you start netrek with the -m option, it will first connect to the metaserver to get a list of active games. It will then display a menu of each server and how many people are playing, and allow you to select a game to join. If you're running COW-lite/Win32 for the first time, starting the program as "netrek -m" is highly recommended. When you start the program, it will load the defaults and then pause briefly while initializing. If you have selected metaserver use (with the -m option) there will also be a pause while the program telnets to the metaserver. Netrek willl then attempt to connect to the specified server. After connection, there will be a pause, especially if running over the modem, as the MOTD is recieved from the server. This can take up to 30 seconds with a long MOTD over a modem. Then main Netrek window will then be displayed. 3.2 Logins Everyone who plays netrek has one or more "characters." People play under handles. The point of this -- besides fun -- is to allow to server to track each person's statistics from game to game. Thus you can have ratings, be promoted in rank, etc. A good name can also inspire fear in your enemy (a bad one inspires laughter, or ogging!) When you connect to a server, therefore, you must login. If you don't expect to play on this server often or do not wish to create a character or use a current one, login as "guest." Otherwise, think of a name and type it in. You will then be asked for a password. This prevents other people from logging in as you and messing up your stats. Think of one and remember it! You will need it to log in later. Important note: This program is a direct port from X-Windows. As such, it uses X-style input focusing. This means that when you type, the keystrokes go to whicever window the mouse is currently in. Conversely, you must place the mouse in whichever window you wish to type in. This includes the login window. So, put the mouse in the tactical window as you type your name and password or you won't be able to enter anything! 3.3 The MOTD, Teams, And Ships "MOTD" stands for Message Of The Day and it's what you see after you successfully log in. It will be displayed in the left window (called the "local" or "tactical" window) along with the team selection windows. With the mouse in this window, press "f" and "b" to move forward an backwards through this message, and read it. Press Shift-R (capital R) should you wish to reset your stats. Do read the MOTD: it will tell you important server-specific information. The other defining thing about this screen are the team selection windows. The large numbers indicate how many people are playing on each team. Often you will not be able to pick an arbitrary team but will be restricted to some subset. This ensures that the teams are balanced in size. Click on the team of your choice and you will be assigned a cruiser for that team. Or, with the mouse in the appropriate window, press a key to select a ship type and start as that type. The keys you may press are: S - Scouts(SC): These are fast fragile little things. Good if you want to fly around the galaxy at high speed and get shot down by the first big ship that gets near. They are very good for harassing, and bombing if there are many undefended planets with very few armies on them. They are difficult to use to fight anyone, especially if your machine is having blink problems. Cruise: 8 Combat: 6 D - Destroyers(DD): These are similar to scouts but they are a little more tough and they have slightly more powerful weapons. They are good to fight in if you're good at dodging and keeping larger ships away. Definitely the best ship for those fond of the 'Run-Away' tactic. Cruise: 7 Combat: 5 A - Assault Ships(AS): These ships are primarily useful in bombing and capturing planets (something that beginners should do after mastering the basics). One of their unique features is that they may carry 3 armies per kill their captain has. Also, they are very tough to kill because they can take so much hull damage. You have to plug extra torps into them 'just to be sure'. They also can cloak fairly cheaply, to sneak in and attack planets. Cruise: 8 Combat:4 C - Cruiser(CA): The standard ship. It combines a wide variety of features, making it a good all-around ship. It is the default ship if you don't select one. Cruise: 6 Combat: 4/5 B - Battleship(BB): This ship is slow and hard to maneuver. However, it has the most firepower of any normal ship. It is also very tough. Since it can take a fair amount of damage while still dishing out a lot, it is very effective for offensive players. This ship or the Cruiser is recommended for inexperienced players, since it need not worry so much about evasive maneuvers when it is in combat. Also, it lasts longer, both in damage and fuel. Cruise: 4 Combat: 3 O (for "outpost") - Starbase(SB): These are very powerful and hard to destroy. New players cannot play these (rank of Commander req'd). Because they are so powerful, new players should probably avoid getting in fights with one. It takes several players working together to destroy one! If you see a hostile SB, you're best off running away from it. Cruise: 2 Combat: 2 3.4. Essential Commands When you first enter the game, you will see two main windows and several smaller ones. The large window on the left is the local or tactical window, where you will do most of your playing. It shows your ship and the immediate area around it. The window on the right is the map window, which shows the entire galaxy. Each planet has a long name which appears on the local window, and a three letter abbreviation which appears on the map. The color of the planet indicates its owner, which can be one of thr four team colors or gray for neutral. Some of the planets will also have symbols on them. A person symbol means there are more than 4 armies on that planet (and hence it can be bombed if its an enemy planet or beamed up from if it's a friendly planet). A wrench symbol means that the planet is a repair planet; while in orbit around this planet you will repair damage much faster that usual. A gas can (looks like a sort of little box) means that the planet in question is a fuel planet, and you can refuel on that planet. This is important, because although you regenerate fuel automatically if you are not constantly using it, a fuel planet will fill you up much faster. Below the tactical display are two little windows. The topmost of these is the warning window. Important messages will appear here. Below this is the message-send window where you can compose one-line messages to send to your team-mates. Below the map window are three scrolling lists. These are, by default, the All window, the Team window, and the Inividual window (the "your" window). These show, as you might have guessed, messages to everybody, messages to just your team and messages to just you in them. Read messages! This is important. With this in mind, the following is a direct ripoff of the classic "opening screen" documentation, which is partof the MOTD of many servers. It will tell you the basic commands and should be enough to get you started playing. Thanks to Eric Mehlhaff for writing it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- OPENING SCREEN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mouse Buttons: Left - Fire Photon Torpedoes toward Mouse Cursor Shift+Left or Middle - Fire Phaser toward Mouse Cursor Right - Change course toward Mouse Cursor Other Important Commands: 0-9 Set Warp Speed 0-9 ) Set speed to warp 10 ! Set speed to warp 11 @ Set speed to warp 12 % Set speed as fast as you can go! c Cloak/Uncloak Ship. While cloaked your ship will not show up on other players' tactical displays. It will show up as a ?? on the Galactic display. l Lock onto object. Sets your course to that object. If it's a planet or a Base, you automatically dock there once you arrive. t Fire torpedo p Fire phasers T Tractor Beam. Pulls target toward you but uses a lot of fuel. Useful to make sure ships that run away get killed. y Pressor Beam. Just like Tractor, but it pushes target away. Useful in keeping those over-agressive warships away from you. s,u Raise/lower shields. Your shields consume fuel. Also, your ship will only repair internal damage while shields are down. But you are much more vulnerable when your shields are down. L Bring up the Player List Window. So you can see the names behind the player numbers, as well as their stats. i,I Get information on the player or planet nearest your mouse cursor. Lower and uppercase report different things, try both. q Quit game quickly Q Quit game, but read the MOTD first h Bring up help window How to send Messages: Press 'm' or put your mouse cursor in the outgoing message window. It is the lower of the two thin one-line windows just below the tactical window. Type the letter for who you want to send to: 0-9, a-j Message is sent to player of that number/letter t Send to your own team A Send to All (Everyone!) F Send to Federation K Send to Klingons R Send to Romulans O Send to Orions Use the Esc key to cancel a message before sending it. Tournament Mode: Tournament mode starts you when have 4 vs 4 and the teams are not diagonally opposite (eg Fed vs Kli is no good). You can get DI only during tournament mode, and more DI leads to promotions. DI is a composite score based on total planets taken, armies bombed, and ships killed. During Tournament mode ('Tmode' -- look for the little 't' among the flags, which are on the upper-left of the "dashboard" directly below the tactical window) you receive no DI for attacking non-warring races, ie those races not represented by a team of 4 or more. Ratings: Your rating will be updated only during Tmode. Ratings are derived from your planet bombing, killing (offense) and getting killed (defense) rates, normalized with respect to the average of all players. That is, a rating of 1.00 means you have exactly the average of all the current players. Plasmas: To get plasma torpedos, get 2 kills, and refit to [DD/CA/BB]. These home in on a target but can be shot down with phasers. Getting Started: When you start playing Xtrek, it's probably best if you use the 'guest' login handle. When you first enter the Game, you may need to press hit the keys 'B' and 'V' twice each. This makes the planets resources show up on the tactical and Galactic Maps. If you are experiencing a lot of 'blink' (uneven screen updates), try setting your updates/second to a lower value. Do this in the options window ('O' - that's capital oh -- to bring it up). Click the mouse button on the updates number until you get the number you want. Lower updates tend to produce less blink, although they make xtrek less playable when the network is working normally. Declare peace with everyone (except perhaps the current enemy race). This way you won't be attacked by neutral planets and robots! Set stay peaceful when reborn (in the options window again). This way you won't have to redo your war settings every time you get shot down. Hints for Beginners: Watch your fuel. When you run out, your weapons won't fire, you can't go very fast to run away, and you'll be helpless. If you run out of fuel, go orbit a friendly or neutral fuel planet. You can recognize these by the little fuel can (looks kind of like a square) on the right side of the planet, assuming your maps show resource icons on the planets (if not, see Getting Started, above). Avoid chasing ships, unless you know they are badly damaged or out of fuel. It's very hard for you to dodge their fire, and very easy for them to dodge yours. On the other hand, if you can get someone to chase you, waste them! Learn who your enemies are. If you shoot at friendly ships, not only do you waste fuel, but you show everyone that you are a beginner. And many players will specifically go for beginners just for the easy kill. Change speeds a lot. It is often useful to use high speed to get into the action quickly. But at high speeds you will have a hard time dodging enemy torpedoes. If you're not in combat, fly around with your shields down. This enables you to repair a little damage, and you use less fuel that way. But beware, you are very vulnerable if you are surprised. Strategy and the grand Scheme of things: There's more to Netrek than just ships flying around and blowing each other away. The actual goal of the game is to conquer the galaxy. As a shorter term goal, a team must conquer the planets of the other team. This genocides the team, and all its players are forced to quit or change to a new team. How to Conquer Planets: You conquer planets by first bombing the armies on enemy planets down to less than four. Then you need to get some kills -- you can only carry armies if you have killed with your current ship -- and beam up some armies from one of their own planets with the 'z' key (you can only beam up armies if the planet has more than four armies, so you have to keep your enemies from bombing your planets!). Once you have armies, orbit the enemy's planet and beam them down with the 'x' key. Each of your armies destroys one of the enemy's armies, so you will need more armies to capture a planet than the planet currently has. Usually, as a rule of thumb, it takes 5 armies to capture a planet, unless of course, it has fewer armies than that on it. Some planets are more important to capture, too. Fuel planets are good planets to capture, because capturing them prevents the enemy from refuelling on them. Similarily, repair planets (look for the little wrench symbol on the planet) repair ships orbiting them much faster than normal. Agricultural or "agri" planets -- press 'i' on the planet or bring up the planet window with 'P' -- are valuable becuase they generate armies quickly. Standard Netrek games usually follow a pattern: The game starts: The teams have all their planets and usually about 30 armies per planet. So, the object in this stage is to bomb out as many of the enemies' armies as possible, while preventing them from bombing out your own. The planet capturing stage: Most of the armies are bombed away, so the players concentrate on capturing the enemy planets. It's kind of pointless to try to capture enemy planets while they still have a lot of armies, so this is why players don't try to capture planets until this stage. If the enemy has lots of armies, it is very easy for them to simply recapture their planets. The Desperate wait for armies: The players have used up most of their armies trying to take planets, so they are waiting for more to grow on their own planets so they can take the enemies'. What few they do get often end up dying, as the ship that was carrying them is hunted down by hordes of enemy ships. The Last Planet Defense: One of the teams has lost several of its planets. It only has a few of the ones near its homeworld. They don't have many armies to recapture their worlds because they don't have many worlds to grow them. But their worlds are well defended because they come back real close to them when they die. This stage can last for hours if the winning team isn't aggressive or well-enough organized to take those last few worlds. Genocide: One team loses its last planet, and the cycle starts over, but with a few changes. The team that just won has twice as many planets. But the new team has all its planets with a lot of armies on them. The first few minutes are a struggle to see if the new team can capture a lot of planets before all their armies are gone. This help file courtesy of mehlhaff@ocf.Berkeley.EDU (Eric Mehlhaff) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.5 How Not To Be Obviously A Twink A "twink" (see section 6.2) is someone who is a netrek loser. Netrek, because it is a multi-player game, has an etiquette. Specifically, stupidity and laziness are not tolerated. Below are some comments on how not to get labled a as a twink, which is not only embarassing, but dangerous as players may kill you whenever they need an easy kill (so that they can carry armies and hence take planets.) A twink: - does not read messages. Netrek is a team game. Be part of the team. - shoots at his own team. Know what team you are on. You chose it, after all. Know what color that team is. Do not fire upon ships of that color. Simple. - picks up armies, flies in without escort, and gets killed while carrying. Don't die with armies on board if you can avoid it. Everyone gets killed while carrying, but getting stupidly killed while carrying is unforgivable, if your team is low on armies, which is often the case. - does not listen to his teammates. Help your team! People more experienced then you will try to direct actions and strategy. If you have a better idea, say so, but don't just ignore the requests of your teammates. - calls for help continuously, whenever there's someone chasing him. Learn how to defend yourself. If you can't, don't, for example, fly deep into enemy territory by yourself. Actually, this is fine, but don't then expect your friends to come to the rescue as soon as someone starts grinding you down. For one thing, ships do not move all that fast and so by the time they arrive you will probably be dead. For another thing, there are better things to do than waste time saving someone who will just get a new ship a few seconds later anyway, unless you are of some special value to the team, e.g. carrying armies, have many kills, etc. This does not mean, don't call for help when defending a planet or taking, for example. But if you are about to get killed and you're not doing anything special, sorry. - does things or takes resources better done or used by others. Examples of this are bombing a planet when there is a friendly assault ship right there that could do it, or taking armies before a more skilled or better equipped (e.g. you're in a scout and he's not) player who wants them can beam them up. (The first is becuase assault ships are more likely to bomb planets to a lower value than any other ship type, making planets easier to take.) - explodes near his teammates and kills them. Explosions do considerable damage. This fact can be used to your advantage, for example when ogging (killing with a suicide attack) someone. But don't explode over or near friendly ships. For example, if your are protecting someone, as in escorting for planet takes, stay a little bit away from them so that if/when you get toasted, you don't kill them too. - pesters others for help instead of reading the manual or figuring it out online. This last point is extremely important! Read this document thouroughly, and investigate the FAQ, various Mosiac sites, and the Netrek archives (see section 6.1) thouroughly before pestering other playes for help with simple things. Note that this does not mean don't ask questions: on the contrary, many players are more than happy to explain things to beginners. But a) not in the middle of a battle, b) not always are an unlimited amount and c) not things that are easily found out by reading the help (press 'h') or the manual. In otherwords, people who are too lazy to find out for themselves, if at all possible, will not be regarded highly. Other players will offer suggestions and answer specific questions. Things like "how do you play this game?" or asking "how do I raise my shields" eight times in the middle of a game (when you can always press 'h' and find out) are not appreciated by most players. 4. Finer Points And Strategy 4.1 Dogfighting Dogfighting is not the point of the game or even a primary objective. It is a means to an end as is neccessary for two reasons: a) you must have kills to carry armies and take planets, and b) you often need to stop enemy ships from doing things, such as taking your planets or bombing your space, or killing your team's carrier (or you!) when you are trying to take a planet. Killing them is one good way, although there are others. The following is from the Netrek archives. Due credit to those who wrote it, please. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is the manual I mentioned. I posted it 'cause many people said I should. I only use a CA, so if you play another ship take any advice with a grain of salt (actually, take it all with a grain of salt.). There are, as I see it, 3 major things about successfully dogfighting. The most important, by far, is intensive use of tractors. The second is to change speed constantly. The third is to det incoming torps. Remapping the keyboard in the .xtrekrc file is important. The y key for pressor (?), etc. is impossible to properly utilize. For those interested, here's mine: dTeyadllrrqe D I think some of that was redundant, but it works, so I don't care! :) I. Tractoring/pressoring II. Changing speeds III. Detting IV. Shields V. Torps VI. Phasers VII. Cloaking VIII. Plasma IX. Knowledge is half the battle :) X. Interesting Tidbits I. Tractoring/pressoring A. Tractors are most useful for holding an opponent in place so that your torps can catch up to him. By tractoring an opponent, one a) slows the opponent's turning speed down for a short time and b) pulls him in the direction of your torps. THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT. I can not tell you how many people have come rushing onto the screen that I have tractored, using their speed, and pulled them right onto a string of torps. B. Tractors are also useful for pulling wounded enemies (and full-strength scouts) into your phaser range so that you can finish them off. However, see III. Detting for more on that. C. My favorite method of killing any enemy is to pull up next to him, speed up to warp 8 or 9, and on the pass launch a volley of torps and at the same time tractor him. Fire the torps almost perpindicular to your ship, because at warp 8, they will move outward AND forward, hence slamming into the opponents ship. I will also det his torps if they look like they might hurt me. Sometimes, if the torps might not hit him, I pressor him, and sometimes, just sometimes, his rapid turning pushes him BACK into the string of torps. D. In the opposing situation, if an enemy tries this on me, I turn in his direction and pressor off of him at the same time, which (most of the time) propels me out of his incoming swath of torps. Pressors are most useful for maneuvering into and out of positions for battle. I don't use them extensively in battle but perhaps to keep a phaser-thirsty ship out of range so that I can torp him, or, in cases where there is a good BB playing, pressors are a key to survival. II. Changing speeds A. It is important to change speeds constantly. Many opponents tend to dodge torps I send at them. However, when involved in a dogfight, and torps are flying in a perfect line at your ship, slam your hand down around the 7-8-9 area, and watch as your CA accelerates past the torps (I dogfight at 4). A while back, I fought with West 11 or 12 times on an abandoned server. Against that kind of skill, I change speeds maybe, once very 3 or 4 seconds, just to throw him off as to where I am going. That match ended in a tie or close to it. Those 'lil matches took over a minute usually. Learn to be patient. The next entry, B, illustrates that. B. The other day, I angered an opposing BB so much that he roared onto the screen firing a plasma and a blob of torps. I calmly turned perpendicular to his plasma and accelerated. That got me out of the torps' way and out of the possible turning radius of the plasma. The BB then turned tail and slowly moved away from me, firing torps all the way. By moving back and forth and calmly accelerating out of his torps I followed him all the way up to a fuel planet, never raising my shields or firing a shot. He started orbiting the fuel planet, and I sped up to 8 or 9 and roared by him, firing a volley of torps, tractoring him off the planet, detting, and phasering. Needless to say, he died and I lost my shields. But I was patient. C. Also, remember to pressor oggers that appear behind you, as this will keep them from blowing up on you (I tend to tractor them, fire torps at them, and then pressor them, thus ensuring their death and preserving most of mine). However, you must be going away from the ogger at at least warp 7 for this to work, because pressors only really neutralize the ogger's tractor. D. When you are attempting to catch up to a target, and he is fleeing at similar speed, you can do 2 things: 1) If there are enemies in the area who could help him, you must get him quickly, so det torps sent in your direction. 2) If you and he are alone, if he fires a line at you, slam the 1-5 warp area and turn a little to the side. This usually lets you dodge most of them, but he gets those few extra seconds to flee a little more. However, if he has no help in the area, you might still have a chance of catching him. III. Detting. Here is the Netrek concept that will get me in trouble with other good dogfighters. Most never det in battle. I, however, live on detting. I will cover detting on the "accepted scale" from A to C. A. Det when tractoring scouts in and phaser them to death. Scouts fire dinky 25 pt torps that do 6 pts of damage when det them. If you can tractor them and you are moving at sufficient speed, you can crunch a scout in a CA. As long as you det. This goes for any wounded ship, too. If a CA is wounded and is sitting stopped, rush at an angle, fire torps and tractor him in. However, you MUST remember to det torps. If you don't 10 to 1 you will mutual with him. B. Det torps for wounded ships, planet takers, and SB's. If you want to be a good escort, stay AHEAD of the planet taker and det any torps headed for the planet. However, REMEMBER to fire at incoming oggers, and if you must, mutual with any too close to the planet. C. Det enemy torps to wound other enemies. This I use only in special situations. When a cloaker (planet taker) flies over enemy torps, det them. You will take damage, but so will he. Any planet taker that slows down 'cause of wounds is usually dead in any clueful game. Planet taking counts on the taker to make it to the planet as fast as possible before oggers overwhelm the escorts. D. OK, I also det a lot in combat. When I am dodging, I will often det to open a "hole" in a stream of torps, or det the first few torps in a string so that I can zoom by. Remember, detting ideally only inflicts 25% of the damage on your ship, so detting 4 or 5 torps really is nothing in a CA. I also tend to det whenever I make a pass at an enemy. Granted, at one inch away those torps might not hit me, but I don't take the chance. 50-130 pts norm on a dogfight, I guess. At one inch, one pass is usually enough :). Some good players can use my detting against me, but not always. E. You know those situations where you and an opponent suddenly zoom on the screen at the same time and right at each other? Usually, you will ram each other with a blob of torps. However, the best way to survive is to slam your hand down on the speed of 1-4, turn rapidly to one side, fire torps, pressor, and DET constantly. About 50% of the time this will allow me to destroy the incoming ship, but I in turn usually take almost 80-90% damage. However, I survive. F. If you are in a situation where both you and your opponent are both wounded and he is taking pot shots at your ship, go into repair mode. When he fires a torp, and you can't dodge it, det it. Repair mode will usually repair enough shields for a 10 pt det. This way you conserve your fuel. Once you get enough fuel, start moving and unleash a full string of torps at the enemy. G. If you are in a situation when you have enough fuel to kill a crippled ship but he is right on top of you and his explosion will kill you, pressor him away before phasering him and killing him (assuming he has no fuel). IV. Shields Never keep your shields up all the time. Your hull doesn't repair and your fuel regenerates slower. Get in the habit of putting shields up ONLY when you are doing the following: 1. Approaching an enemy planet for bombing or planet taking. 2. Within about 3/4 the phaser distance of a CA or -->BB <--. 3. If torps are gonna hit ya. 4. If a cloaker is coming to ogg you and he is within phaser distance on the galactic. 5. If friends fire a lot of torps over you and an enemy is in the vicinity to det them on you. 6. It's fun to let a SC to get within phaser range: let him lock you a few times and he (sometimes) get cocky. Once he turns around to engage you, tractor him in and kill him. V. Torps A. Though I covered most of this in tractor, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Some people here at Duke who program 'borgs say my torps are almost vector anyway. I have been accused many times of having a 'blessed borg.' It is because I practiced lots last year (this year I don't play very much anymore). PRACTICE AIMING THOSE TORPS. Learn to lead your opponent. B. Don't det your own torps when you are first learning. This is the lazy man's way of getting another shot. When you are first learning, and you die cause your first shot missed, you will soon learn to start aiming better. If, however, you keep detting your torps, you will waste all your fuel in no time and gain little experience from the situation. VI. Phasers A. I use phasers when I make a pass at an enemy. Usually it is the difference that kills him. It is difficult to remember to tractor, torp 8 times, shields up, det, phaser, and move...but the extra 40 pt phaser sometimes is all you can get on the guy. B. I don't suggest attempting to whittle down an enemy with phasers. The only person I've ever known to do this effectively against me was Val, and he's gone... VII. Cloaking A. Don't cloak (remember, this is a dogfighter's manual). B. Cloaking is only for dodging 'outgoing oggers' (those coming to ogg you before you reach your target) or to pass over some interference dogfighters who are between you and your target. C. Cloaking is for mainly planet takers and oggers. That is NOT my forte. VIII. Plasma A. Never use plasma. B. However, plasma is useful when there is a solitary planet taker orbiting a planet and you are racing to it. A plasma and a blob of 8 torps will usually do the trick. C. SMACK! IX. "Knowledge is half the battle." :) A. KNOW YOUR ENEMY. Know what kinds of ships the bitmaps are. Learn what kind of shields and hull and torps and phasers each ship has. Learn to add up quickly in your head, "Well, 3 torps and a decent phaser. 120 for the torps, 40 for the phaser. That CA is hurtin' and won't be able to flee from me for a bit..." B. Keep track of your shields and your fuel. Make sure you have enough fuel to get out of there, 'cause you might get 2 kills, but an ogger will rip you to shreads when ya have an empty tank. C. Learn to cripple an enemy. When you are rushing to say ogg a SB hanging around the enemy home planet or especially to take the home planet, NEVER kill oggers coming to engage the blob of escorts and planet takers you are moving with. If you do so, you a) waste your own fuel and shields and momentum, and b) enable the enemy to reappear right next to your target with full everything. Bad move. Either cloak before you get to outgoing oggers, or hit them with 4 torps to cripple them <-- This is possible. X. Interesting Tidbits A. I don't really ogg...I usually uncloak about an inch from the player and depend on my aim to kill the guy...ogging would better be explained by MUCUS, _ensign, Val, and FreeKill. B. Escorting 1. Fly in FRONT of the carrier. 2. Det torps that might hit him on the planet. 3. Oggers usually race onto the screen at full speed... Use it to your advantage: tractor and jam 8 torps up his nose... He can't dodge due to his high speed. 4. NEVER fire torps over your home planet when an enemy can det them on your carrier. C. Flying Interference 1. If you are staying at an important front line planet, and you are flying "interference" in guarding it... keep your eyes open for takers and their escorts massing below and call for help. 2. If ya get caught defending a planet against a mass of enemy ships, as I often do, good luck. The best thing to do is 1) cloak and maneuver over the taker and det his escorts torps. 2) Distress a lot and move back and forth over the planet, firing a few torps to make enemy ships turn from their course. In this case, you MUST survive long enough for help to arrive. Most likely, on a clued game, you would be ogged by the escorts, but sometimes they hestitate too long and friendlies arrive. That's it! Insights, criticism, etc. please either post to r.g.n or mail John Kirk Hammond jhammond@raphael.acpub.duke.edu Thanks! ------------------------------ From: mccoy@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Jim McCoy) Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek Subject: Re: Favorite fighting tactics Date: 19 Jul 1993 15:53:01 -0500 A lot of the "dogfight" tactics depend a great deal on what ship you are using, so it is harder to generalize in the same way you can with higher level strategic discussions. Most of what I consider "dogfighting tactics" are really only a list of general ideas and philosophies that depends a great deal on who I am fighting and what is happening at the time. The biggest secret to dogfighting well is learning to use your tractors and pressors. This is not really a secret, as everyone who is a good dogfighter will tell you about it, but until it becomes so natural that you don't think of T/P as any different from phasers and torps you will not be able to fight with the best out there. Speed and fuel management is second I think, and accuracy with phaser and torps runs behind these, IMHO. A couple of minor tactics that might be useful (these generally assume a CA v. CA engagement): -Tempt the enemy with down shields at the upper limit of their phaser range and pressor them every now and then. When they take the bait and hit you with phasers you turn into them, tractor and accelerate, raise shields and follow up with a phaser of your own. With practice you should be able to get all of these actions done within the span of the enemy's initial phaser recycle; a pressor and a turn after you get your phaser lock can then shear you away from them to limit damage from a folow-up phaser. - Tractor charge: This tactic relys upon a constant tractor as a hook, holding them enemy in place and allowing you to more easily hit them with torps. This assumes your opponent does not know how to pressor. By selectivly using a pressor the tractor'd enemy can gain maneuverability and get around your torps. This gambles a lot of fuel on the question of whether or not the person you are fighting with knows what pressors are. For most pick-up games this should work well but it is a big risk to take in a high clue game. -Jab the enemy with your pressors to goad them into upping their speed so that they can close the distance separating the two ships. When they turn towards you switch to tractor and pull them in and unload a stream of torps and a phaser. This is similar to a tractor charge except you get to retain more control over the engagement due to your low speed (and higher maneuverability) by using pressors prior to contact to get the enemy to increase their speed. -Use pressors to evade torp streams. This sounds simple, but it seems few people do it. You just turn in a direction perpendicular to the torp stream and pressor off the firer, you can usually get out of the torp-wobble arc from the stream just using pressors and a little bit of warp. This is particularly useful if you are damaged but the enemy is not willing to close to knife-fighting range and risk a mutual; you can dance around their torps even at low- warp. -Torps do not have to hit the enemy to be effective. You can set up a stream of torps to deny a direction of movement to the enemy and force them in a particular direction. Most people will instinctively turn away from the stream instead of detting through it to break off the engagement. This is also a useful tactic if you are double- teaming someone (to direct them towards your partner) or are being double-teamed (to split up the enemy so that you can engage them one at a time. -Get good positioning. Try to decide where to fight before you start. Being able to fall back to a fuel or repair planet is an advantage you should try to set up if you can. Be prepared to give ground, but expect them to take damage and lose fuel for the ground they gain from you. Make them need to get through you, this is not as easy as it may sound; if they want to avoid you it is best to force them to take a wide turn. This is particularly important in the "space-control" style of dogfighting that is popular in recent INL play. -Speed kills. This is simple enough, but it seems a lot of people have this mistaken impression that they can maxwarp into a dogfight and survive (or even maxwarp _through_ a dogfight...) If you are going at your max speed by the time the enemy is on your tactical you will be at a disadvantage because you _must_ slow down soon while the enemy can either accellerate or decellerate and use their increased options to gain an advantage over you. raisin 4.2 Essential Operations As I have noted before, netrek is a team game. There are some basic team manuevres that you should know. Taking a planet: a single carrier (of armies) can get killed quite easily, especially if the opposing team considers that he must be killed at all costs to save a planet. So unless the planet in question is totally open, takers need escort to protect them from enemy ships while they beam down armies, which is a slow process. You will therefore sometimes see requests for escort (in the team message window.) If you are in the vicinity and free, help that player make it to their chosen destination. To do this, it is best to slightly arrive ahead of the carrier, and clear out enemy ships. The idea is to protect the taker, hence if you kill and damage the ships in the vicinity it makes it easier for the taker to take. Often, however you will not be able to kill all the ships nearby. In this case, when your carrier arrives, you must protect him from enemy fire. The taker is very vulnerable while dropping armies as his shields will be down. Position yourself between the taker and the enemy if at all possible, and distract the enemy ships by engaging them. You can also detonate enemy torps that would hit your carrier, by pressin the 'd' key (the torpedoes in question must be quite close to your for this to work). The point of the exercise: keep the carrier alive long enough to take the planet, at all costs, including your ship! (Obviously don't escort if you are carrying yourself, if you can help it. Beam down your armies to a safe location first.) Ogging: This is the art of killing a carrier, or potential carrier, by suicide run. Ogging is a simple tactic and any dummy can do it. On the other hand, ogging well is an art, involving exactly when to uncloak, how fast to go, etc. A good ogger should be able to kill his target every time (obviously this does not apply if the target is an SB), simply becuase he has the advantage in that his explosion is a weapon. Ogging a starbase: Enemy starbases can be very inconvenient. Killing one requires a coordinated effort. Typically wave after wave of ships gang up on the starbasse and do suicide runs into it, firing everything they have and then hopefully exploding right over it. The trick here is to cloak so the SB doesn't just phaser you before you get close enough. (Cloak before the SB comes onto your tactical display, and hence you onto his, otherwise he will know where you are anyway.) Then, flying at maxwarp into the SB, uncloak just before you reach him and fire a full stream of torps and your phasers into him. You will die very soon, but if you sime it right the explosion will hurt him. Use a battleship or an assault as these have strong hulls and so can get closer before dying. Ogging an SB works best when several people do it at once. The SB can only fire so fast and phaser in one direction, so when mutiple people attack simultaneously, it is much easier to get a clean shot. There are several variations on this. Sometimes it is helpful to fly slower so that you can dodge the torps being fired at you to get close enough. Also, it is sometimes useful to circle just out of phaser range and send streams of carefully aimed torps at the SB. This only really works well if there are not many enemy ships in the area, for two reasons: one, they will kill you, and two, a starbase, while it cannot dodge very well as its max speed it warp 2, can use its powerful tractor and pressor beams on nearby friendly (or unfriendly!) ships to move itself out of the way of torpedos. Speaking of which, if the SB tractors you -- you will know becuase you will suddenly not be able to move or dodge very well -- just fly right into him, tractoring him too! He is holding you still so he can kill you, you're dead anyway. So fly right into him, closing the distance as fast as possible so that when you explode you damage him. It is a bonus if there are enemy ships docked on him. In this case, try specifically to kill them. An explosing ship does much more damage than a few torps. If there are several ships you may be able to set up a chain reaction where one explodes and causes another to explode, etc. Major damage time! (Hint: never dock on your team's SB in battle!) Defending a planet: Sometimes you will notice several ships, some of them cloaked, heading towards a planet of yours. If you have time, check the player list. If players with kills are coming in, they can be carrying armies and so may be trying to take a planet. Be especially wary of cloakers, the classic planet taking tactic. At this point you need to destroy the enemy ship(s) at all costs. Go especially for cloakers and anyone trying to orbit the planet. Call for help! Kill the carrier! Exlpoding on him works, but remember that a ship dropping armies is very vulnerable. His shields are down and he is following a precise little circle. A cloaked orbiting ship is easy to hit, so kill it! Also, if he is foolish enough not to cloak -- or out of fuel! -- tractor him out of orbit so he cannot drop. Sometimes it is useful to just orbit a planet to protect it. This not only acts as a deterrent, but while you are oribiting you will have so little else to do that you can watch for incoming takers and warn your time in time. When takers approach (watch the galactic!) stop orbiting the planet, and start flying. You cannot dodge while orbiting and so you will be easy to kill if you do not start moving. Plus you have some acceleration time, and you need to be fully up to speed by the time you engage. If you are the only one in the area in and you must defend a planet, your job it to delay the enemy long enough until help arrives (you did call for help when you saw that enemy formation approaching on the galactic map, didn't you?) Failing this, you basically have to ogg the carrier, if you can figure out which ship it is. It will obviously be someone with kills. Also, some people will be known carriers. You can tell when someone beams up armies, if the armies icon suddenly dissipears from the planet they are orbiting (from one of their planets, obviously; if it dissapears from one of your planets you just got bombed!) Often you will see messages of the form "6++ @ CAP" or just "6++". This means that player number six just picked up armies at Capella. If you see someone pickup, don't hesitate to tell your team with a similar message. (Hint: use macros for this! See section 5.2.) Lock onto the enemy carrier, maxwarp, cloak, get inside the enemy formation, uncloak just before reaching him, tractor him (this helps hold him and pull him into your torpedoes) and fire everything you have, exploding in a burst of glory right over him, and killing him. If there is just a single unescorted taker going for a planet you can ogg him as described above, but you might try coming in uncloaked. Sometimes this will scare him enough to make him turn around, as he doesn't want to get killed while carrying. This doesn't work on anyone who can kill you easily, obviously. Startgame bombing: when you first enter T-mode (tournament mode) there will be many armies on all planets. At this point you must bomb them away. The best ship for this is an assault as it bombs the fastest. It can also cloak cheaply and regenerates fuel quickly. Fly to an enemy planet, putting up your shields just before arriving, cloak if there's anyone near, and hit 'b' to start bombing. Watch you warning window. When it says "bombing is innefective" and the armies symbol dissapears from the planet, turn your shields on, lock onto the next planet with armies, and maxwarp to it. You can stay cloaked almost indefinately doing this, especially if the planets being bombed are fuel planets -- yes they belong to the enemy but they still refuel you, even as they damage you. At the same time, when you are in your home space, kill enemy bombers to protect your own armies. 4.3 Taking Planets This is the next logical step after mastering the game controls and learning to at least survive a dogfight. Below is a very brief introduction to the actual mechanics of taking a planet, with most of the stratgey ignored. You must first have kills to take a planet. So kill a ship or two. Look at the armies gauge on the dashboard. You will want enough kills so that you can carry enough armies to take a planet. Then lock onto a friendly planet with armies and head over there. When you arrive and go into orbit, press 'z' to beam up armies. If there are not enough armies on that planet to fill your ship to the number you need, keep stopping at planets and beaming up until you are full. One useful tactic here is to cloak just before you beam up, and for some time after. This way the enemy cannot tell who is beaming up armies, and so you avoid getting ogged. When taking yourself, always ask for escort unless the planet is totally open. This can work too -- sometimes a single ship can take a planet by itself. The trick is to not attract the enemy's attention. By the time you start dropping, it will be too late for the enemy to arrive in time to stop you. But usually you will want an escort. So ask for one (by sending a message to your team, stating where you wish to go and how many armies you are carrying). When it arrives, proceed towards to planet. Make sure you have enough fuel -- stop at a fuel planet if you don't -- and are not already damaged. When you get into enemy territory, cloak. Do not cloak too soon or you will run out of fuel as your cloaking device uses a lot of the stuff. Not only does this make you harder to hit, but if you are not cloaked, any enemy ship can simply tractor you off the planet, which means you will stop dropping. If masses of enemy ships start to converge around your target as you approach, this may be a a good time to turn around and try again later, or try somewhere else. When you reach the enemy planet and start orbiting, hit 'x' to start beaming down. At this point you have to wait and hope you don't get killed before you are done. Detting enemy torps that are going to hit you can be useful to reduce the damage they will do. You can also raise you shields just before impact and resume dropping immediately after. If you are successful the planet will first go neutral (gray) and then your team color. If a planet is left neutral then it becomes a race to get an army on it; the first team to do so will own the planet. Planets "grow" armies. When a planet gets armies it is said to "pop". Originally, there was a timer in the server that increased the army count on all planets by one every 40 seconds. Not only did this create a huge spike of net traffic every 40 seconds, but experienced players learned to time this cycle and thus knew exactly whena plant would pop, which is a great advantage in taking or bombing. The current version of the server randomizes the order of the planets, updates one planet each second, then repeats the cycle. Since there are 40 planets in standard Netrek, the net growth rate is the same, but popping is now somewhat unpredicatble. You should never have to wait more than 80 seconds (worse case), but a planet can theoretically pop twice in a row (after which it would be at least 40 seconds before it popped again.) Agricultural planets grow armies much faster. In particular, if an Agri planet is below four arimes (or you bomb it to below four) it will always go above four armies on the next update. For this reason, never bomb or drop on an agri planet (after the initial startgame bombing) below four armies unless it's about to be taken or you can stay in the area for quite a while. Otherwise, you not only have given the enemy team new armies to use within the next 40 seconds or so, but you have made the planet harder to take. For example, if the planet had 4 armies, and you dropped two, it now has two, but on the next pop it is guaranteed to have more than 4. Why don't planets just get 100,000 as they sit idle between games? There is a random "plague" in the server that kills armies. This is rigged such that a planet with less than ten armies will almost never get plauged, wheras as you go upwards of 20 or so it gets increasingly likely very quickly. You will probably never see a planet with more than 40 armies on a regular server. 4.4 Complete Command Reference The following is the complete list of commands you can use while in play.. Note that all commands are case sensitive, and a ^ denotes a control key, e.g. ^a means control+a, which is different from ^A, which is control+A (control+shift+a, in other words.) Combat Functions: c Toggle cloak. { Turn cloak on } Turn cloak off d Detonate enemy torps. All enemy torps within a certain range will explode. They do as little as a quarter of their normal damage at maximum det range. Detting is useful for protecting another ship, causing damage to other ships (if you can manage to det enemy torpedos fired by one enemy over another) or preventing torps from hitting you. Use it carefully, though: if there are many torps nearby and only one or two will actually hit you, it is better to let them hit than det, as one direct hit will do less damge than say, 5 detted torps, each at minimally 1/4 normal damage, probably more. D Detonate your torps. If you can do this near an enemy it will cause damage. It will also enable you to fire again if you have 8 torps active (the maximum.) This is not a very good idea however as you will be wasting gobs of fuel firing and then detting useless torps. f Fire plasma torpedo. You need at least 2 kills, and must be flying a BB/DD/CA to do this. Plasma torpedos are tracking, but they can be shot down fairly easily by phaser. They do a lot of damage but use a lot of fuel. Note also that when they are shot down they explode and ships that are too close can take damage. p Fire phaser. The mouse cursor specifies direction. s Toggle shields [ Shields down ] Shields up t Fire photon torpedo. The mouse cursor specifies direction. u Toggle shields T Toggle tractor beam. The mouse indicates the target. This pulls the target towards you but uses a lot of fuel and raises your engine temp. Since tractors are very useful and hitting shift-T is inconvenient, many players map lowercase t to this function (see the section on keymaps.) _ (underscore) Turn tractor beam on. Mouse indicates target. $ Turn tractor or pressor beam off. y Toggle pressor beam. Same as tractor (see 'T') but pushes. ^ Turn pressor beam on. Mouse indicates target. Movement And Navigation Functions: 0-9 Set speed to 0..9 ) Set speed to 10 ! Set speed to 11 @ Set speed to 12 # Set speed to half of your maxwarp % Set speed to as fast as you can go! > Increase speed by one < Decrease speed by one k Set course. The mouse cursor specifies direction. l Lock onto object. The mouse cursor specifies what; it can be either a ship or a planet. A small triangle indicates the lock, and you will fly towards that object. If it is a planet or SB you will orbit / dock when you arrive. ; Like l but only locks onto planets and starbases (things you can orbit or dock at) * Send in practice robot, if there's no one else playing. On many servers, this is also the key for starbase transwarp. This is Really Cool. Lock onto your SB, go no faster than warp 2, hit transwarp, and you will go warp 99 until you reach the SB (at which point you will dock), run out of fuel, or die. This is handy for reaching the front lines fast. Planet Functions: b Bomb planet. You must be orbiting an enemy planet and in T-mode to do this. You only need to press it once and you will continue bombing untill the planet reaches 4 or less armies. C Try to coup a planet. This is a way to (sometimes) get back your home planet. You must have kills and be orbiting it. o Enter orbit or dock. You must be going no faster than warp 2 and be on top of a planet or starbase. x Beam armies down to planet (yours or enemy) or a starbase. You must be orbiting or docked to the planet or stabase in question. z Beam armies up from friendly planet or starbase. Again, you must orbit or dock. Message Functions E Send generic distress call. F Send armies carried report m Start sending message. After hitting this key type the destination (0..9 and a..j = specific player, F/R/K/O = specific team, T = your team, A = all) and then the body of the message. Hit enter to send or escape to abort. X: Enter macro mode. After pressing the macro key, you can send the macros you have assigned to those keys. See the section on macros. You also have available all the standard distress calls. Both the distress format and key can be changed (see: RCD). See the sections on Macros and RCD for specifics, including what the default macros are. ^0..^9 ^@ ^# etc... The distress calls are all mapped to similar control keys. For example, instead of pressing 0 to send an armies carried report, you can use ^0. See the section on RCDs for available distress calls / reports. Misc. Functions e Toggle docking permission (when playing a starbase). This allows or disallows other players to dock on you and repair, refuel, beam up/down armies, etc. If you turn off docking while players are docked, they will be ejected, hence the assigned key. i or I Get information on object near mouse. Uppercase shows more info than lowercase.You can use this to, for example, find out how many armies are on a planet, where a player is logged in from, how many kills they have, or whether a planet is agricultural. M Toggle message logging. Saves all messages to a file so you can laugh at them later. N Toggle short/long planet names display on tactical window. r Refiit. Use this to change your ship type. You must be orbiting your home planet (Earth for Fed, Romulus for Rom, Klingus for Kli, Orion for Ori) or your team's SB. After pressing r, press the key corresponding to the ship type you want (s=scout, d=destroyer, c=cruiser, b=battleship, a=assault, o=starbase/outpost) R Enter repair mode. This sets you at warp 0, and turns off shields and cloaking. Damage is repaired faster than normal in this state, but you cannot fire. To exit repair mode, hit R again or raise shields. The absolute fastest way to repair yourself is to do this while orbiting a repair planet. When you are in repair mode a little R will appear in your flags and you will not be able to fire or cloak. w Change war declarations. This is important. Your weapons will not lock or explode on ships belonging to races which you are not at war with, and you will take damage if you orbit planets of hostile races. So, declare war with your enemy and peace with everyone else (so you can use their fuel and repair planets.) Note that if you change your war settings while an enemy is on the screen you will be unable to do anything for about ten seconds while "the computers get reprogrammed." The moral of this is: declare war before you go into battle. Note that you start out hostile to everyone, so if you forget before your first engagement it's not too critical. q Quit, don't re-read MOTD. Q Quit, exiting to MOTD screen. If you hit either of these in red alert, a self destruct timer will start. This is so you can blow up over your enemy. While the countdown is in progress, any input cancels it. = Request full update (see the section on UDP and Short Packets) - Request partial update (see the section on UDP and Short Packets) ~ Write out current settings to an xtrekrc file & or : Re-read "nifty" settings from xtrekrc file Window And Display Functions: B Cycle through galactic map planet display options. Possible options are show nothing, show owner, or show resources (the most useful, as on a color display you can tell owner by color.) h Toggle help window. Display a brief summary of these commands, as well as what key each command is currenly assigned to. ^k: Toggles the keymap window. Shows your xtrekrc-specified keymap, ckeymap, and buttonmap. L Toggle player window. This lets you see the names of the players, their stats, and, most importantly for defending planets, their kills. | Toggle between sort by number / sort by name \ Toggle netween new and old playerlist format O Toggle options window. There are many neat things here, most of which are configurable via the xtrekrc file. Experiment! This is a really useful command. P Bring up the Planet window. Lists all planets, owner, who has info on them, number of armies, and facilities at each. S Toggle stats window. This is a larger version of your dashboard, sort of. Kind of big and annoying and I don't like it but you might. ^s: Toggle macro window. Indicates which macroing packages (NBT, NEWMACRO, SMARTMACRO, RCD) are active. U Toggle rank window. Shows you what ratings you need for promotion. V Cycle through tactical planet display options. Possible options are show nothing, show owner, or show resources (the most useful, as on a color display you can tell owner by color.) ^x: Toggle xtrekrc window. Displays a woefully incomplete listing of xtrekrc options and their current settings. , Toggle ping stats (network statistics) window + Toggle UDP control window. ? Cycle through show nothing / show one big message window / show three message windows. / Toggle lagmeter window. Turn off all special windows (planet, rank, help, udp, etc.) 5. Configuration Upon startup, Netrek looks for a configuration file called "xtrekrc" (or, equivalently, "netrekrc", in first the current directory, then the user's home directory (under Windows NT, or as set by the HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH environment variables), and then in the same directory as netrek.exe. You can also set the filename with the XTREKRC envirinment variable. Many, many things can be set in the xtrekrc file, and its proper use is essential to good Netrek play. 5.1 Keymaps The default key assignments were created more out of ease of memorization than speed of access in combat. For example, enabling the tractor beam is awkward, requiring the use of the shift key. Also, people will always have their particular preferences. For this reason, almost all netrek players use a keymap to change the key assignments. Its use it quite simple. Simply add a line of the form "keymap: ...." to your xtrekrc file. Each pair of characters assigns the key specified by to peerform the function originally assigned to the key specified by . For example, to map toggle tractor (T) to 't', and set max warp (%) to 's', you would use keymap: tTs% The space bar can be remapped, but it cannot be the first key to be remapped in a sequence (obviously). I often map it to det: keymap: tTs% d The following is a list of all (I hope) options that can be set in the xtrekrc file. The values immediately following the option names are the default value of the option if not set. Features: These are options the you will most likely play with a lot, most of them settable in the options window, which you will want to set to suit your tastes. askForUpdate: off Get full update from server when you enter the game. This is a good idea when using short packets and UDP. buttonmap: 1t2p3k Maps mouse buttons to key functions. Format: