Fallout
Author: Kenneth Strom
Fallout is an addon for Vga Planets 3.x (C) Tim Wisseman.
Quick Start
Place the FALLOUT.EXE program in your Vga Planets directory. In the game directory, add to AUXHOST2.INI, or create AUXHOST2.INI and add the line…
FALLOUT <game dir>
Run your normal host routine.
To bombard a planet use Fcode RB?
To flush a planet use Fcode RF?? = any character (prevents quick capture by a starbase)
Make sure your players know this!
You may want to read SCORE LOG Info!
Background
One fine day in the echo cluster, a crystal Topez with a brand new crew was orbiting an unowned planet, when an young ensign eating at the workstation he was supposed to be repairing, dropped his tray. The tray fell behind into the open workstation and the shorted out the radiation controls of the engine. To avert disaster the crew had to divert the radiation and send it out the weapons ports. The science officer noticed a considerable jump in radiation on the planet and that natives on the planet were dying because of this. This information on how to irradiate a planet was promptly send to the homeworld.
The next month that Topez found an enemy planet and decided to see what would happen if they irradiate the planet. The Topez began to bombard the planet with radiation and was promptly shot up by the planetary defense. Unfortunately, the crew failed to realize that a radiation signature of that size was very easily detectable.
Over the next few months words spread to all the races, and as each race tried the new tactic, they all found the same results, the planet would be irradiated and the ship would get shot up. The radiation signature was an easy target, and revealed the position of any ship, Rebels, Fascist, and even cloaked ships.
The Feds worrying about the effect of radiation on its colonists attempted and succeeded at creating a counter measure to the bombardment. The ships would be able to use there beams to heat the planet for short periods of time and the tractor some of the radiation off the planet. Though the effects weren’t as strong as a bombardment, radiation was removed from the planet. The birdmen were the second find this out, when they had a White Falcon bombarding the planet, but the radiation wasn’t rising. Soon this information was available to all races.
Some rumors of freighters building up radiation levels to be purposely shot rather than captured, have been circulating too.
VCRs and Radiation
Radiation from battles over planets fall into the planets atmosphere. The amount per VCR depends on the type and number of weapons used. A planet will pick up some of the radiation discharged in battle. This usually won’t be too harmful unless a series of battles takes place over a single planet.
Planetary Bombardment
Ships can bombard planets with radiation, however, if any defense exists on the planet, they will fire at the radiation signature, usually damaging the ship. The lower the defense the less damage taken. To bombard a planet, you must survive arrival at the planet, as this takes place in AUXHOST2 phase of host. Use the friendly code RB?, where the ? is any character you want. The higher the kill rating and number of weapons, the more effective the bombardment will be. Your ships bombarding your planets will NOT be shot at, however, FALLOUT does NOT recognize allies. Ships may be captured if all the crew is killed while it is bombarding a planet, so watch out for low crew ships.
Planetary Flushing
Ships can also flush radiation from a planet. Planets will not fire at ships flushing radiation from a planet, under any circumstance. To flush radiation from a planet, use the friendly code RF?, where the ? is any character you want. The higher the smash rating and the number of weapons, the more effective the flushing will be. Flushing is a bit harder that irradiating a planet.
Power Factors
Bombardment and flushing values are only taken from the beam weapons, not torpedoes or fighters. Bombardment and Flushing values are square roots of total power. This means that four ships with a single beam weapon, will bombard/flush more radiation than one ship with four beams. The larger the ship the quite more survivability it has.
At 100 defense post on the planet, and no starbase, the following damage was taken in a single turn.
Ship Hull Mass Damage
SDSF 30 DESTROYED
Swiftheart 45 87%
Nocturne 90 49%
D7a 170 29%
Ill Wind 275 17%
Modonnzilla 331 16%
The effectiveness of planetary retaliation can vary quite a bit, as they are only firing at a generalized radiation signature that allows no true weapons lock.
Radiation Information
Radiation is quite random, though the higher the radiation the more loss of life one can expect. Radiation kills are rated in number of colonists killed. Then the this number if rounded to the 100 colonist (CLAN) level. If under 50 colonists are killed there are no losses. A few races have some extra resistance to radiation.
Resistance to Radiation
Radiation level 7 or under causes no loss in clans.
Amorphs 2 Levels (Rad<9 no loss)
Robots 3 Levels (Rad<10 no loss)
Siliconiods 5 Levels (Rad<12 no loss)
Crystals 5 Levels (Rad<12 no loss)
Maximum radiation level is 1000, it is unlikely that anyone will get a planet up this high.
Messages from FALLOUT
All messages from FALLOUT, will have, >>> FALLOUT <<<, in the first line. Here is a list of message types.
Bombard User and Target Retaliation User and Target Flush User and Target, if Target is another race Sensor Anyone orbiting a planet with high radiation and dying clans.
This message is given to both the race using bombardment and the race, if any that inhabits the planet.
>>> FALLOUT <<<
RACE # 7
CRYSTAL018
ID # 18ATTEMPTING TO BOMBARD
PLANET # 191
PLANET BOMBARDED !!!INCREASED : 4
This message is given to both the defending planet’s race and the attacking ships race.
>>> FALLOUT <<<
RACE # 3
PLANET # 191
RETALIATING AGAINST SHIP
CRYSTAL018
ID # 181% DAMAGE TAKEN !
ATTACK KILLED 4 CREW !
This message is given to both the defending planet’s race and the attacking ships race. This is modified from the above to denote a starbase is also firing on your ship.
>>> FALLOUT <<<
RACE # 3
STARBASE AND
PLANET # 191
RETALIATING AGAINST SHIP
CRYSTAL018
ID # 181% DAMAGE TAKEN !
ATTACK KILLED 4 CREW !
There is a possibility that the retaliation will be so poor that it will be totally ineffective. This message is produced then. If there is no Def on the planet/base you may not receive any of these messages.
>>> FALLOUT <<<
RACE # 6
PLANET # 448
RETALIATING AGAINST SHIP
CRYSTAL451
ID # 4510% DAMAGE TAKEN !
ATTACK KILLED 0 CREW !
This message is given to both the ship and the planet owner, if they are not the same.
>>> FALLOUT <<<
RACE # 7
CRYSTAL018
ID # 18ATTEMPTING TO FLUSH
RADIATION FROM
PLANET # 411RADIATION FLUSHED !!!
RADIATION FLUSHED : 5
This message is given to any ship that fails to flush the radiation from a planet, the owner of the planet, if not the same race, will get this.
>>> FALLOUT <<<
RACE # 7
CRYSTAL007
ID # 7ATTEMPTING TO FLUSH
RADIATION FROM
PLANET # 411FLUSHING FAILED !
This message will be given only to the race owner of a planet.
>>> FALLOUT <<<
RADIATION REPORT FOR
PLANET # 98CLANS KILL : 8
NATIVE CLANS KILL : 8RADIATION AT LEVEL : 41
Any time there are deaths caused by radiation, flushing or bombardment of a planet, all ships in orbit of that planet receive a message about the radiation. This message is given out after the natural decay is calculated. There may be a three point difference, between any clan kill messages and this message, as natural decay takes place after radiation affects the races and natives.
>>> FALLOUT <<<
SENSORS HAVE DETECTED
RADIATION ON
PLANET # 23LEVEL : 1
Score Log Information
As FALLOUT happens after the score.log is set, and FALLOUT can cause the demise or capture of ships. This makes score.log a bit inaccurate if you use FALLOUT. I am not going to make this program edit the score log as this, makes the game a bit more interesting. Those with captured or destroyed ships will receive a message, so they will know when they lost a ship.
Fallout Configuration Program
Fallout will automatically write a configuration file when it is run, or you can use the configuration program.
Racial resistance adds to the survivability and lowers clan losses to radiation.
Effect percent adjusts the damage done by radiation. At normal level 100 radiation normally damages very few clans, unless there is a lot of radiation. (Basic Setting is 100) Maximum Radiation sets the maximum allowable radiation build up on a planet. (Basic Setting is 1000)
Natural Decay sets the per turn radiation loss of a planet. The planet will lose the set amount of data each turn. (Basic Setting is 3)
Updates. If Yes, then a message will be sent to each planet or race that is over a planet that has been affected by radiation each turn.
That should cover everything. Email and questions or comments to me at:
http://thewarroom.tripod.com
Ken.
Version 1.00 – Worked OK, but had a small problem with
messages. (Not actually released)
Version 1.01 – Fixed Messages (First release)
Version 1.02 – Fixed retaliation code that had caused
mathematical error.
Version 1.03 – Finally got the thing to work correctly.
No math or messaging errors. Changed Fcodes to
RB and RF, so they would not trigger another addons
missions.
Version 1.04 – Planets now capture ships correctly.
Version 1.05 – Improved Memory. Modified radiation fallout
from VCRs. Added basic program usage messages. These are
sent to each player when the data is initialized.
Version 1.06 – Changed message system to allow for WINPLAN
identification of messages.
Version 1.07 – Added configuration program.
Version 1.08 – Added FRY FCode for planetary irradiation.
Version 1.09 – Modified VCR reading code. This should fix the
radiation spikes.
Version 1.10 – Modified program to make sure it works on 200Mhz+
computers.
No more versions will be available, source was lost.
FALLOUT v1.10
Copyright 1998 Kenneth A Strom