Neutral Zone for VGA Planets

Author: Dan Gale

This add-on allows the host to create a circular area on the
starmap in which combat and special abilities are prohibited.
A UFO object marks the center of the Neutral Zone and the UFO
label indicates the radius of the Neutral Zone.

The idea for this originated one night while chatting on the
IRC with J-Mac. He was running a custom game using a
“Neutral Zone” as a traffic intersection with Jumpgates. He
wanted it setup so that no combat could take place in the
zone. So for all intents and purposes, this addon is for
J-Mac. Should anyone else find it useful. Enjoy!

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With that in mind – this is a freebie for anyone to use. You
use this at your own risk.

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Install:
Copy the two files NZONE.EXE and NZCONFIG.EXE into your
host directory (the directory where HOST.EXE is located).

Configure:
Prior to configuring Neutral Zone, a game directory needs to
be MASTER’ed using MASTER.EXE. After this is done, you should
run the program NZCONFIG.EXE and set the three parameters
according to your desires. The program accepts one command
line parameter, the game path (i.e. – NZCONFIG C:\HOST\GAME1).
Click on OK to save the configuration. At this time, NZONE.INI
is written, AUXBC.INI is updated, and the program ends.

What It Does:
Neutral Zone runs in the AUXBC phase (Before Combat, after
movement). Each ship is checked to see if it is inside the
Neutral Zone. If it is, the Mission is set to EXPLORE if the ship
currently has its mission set to MINE SWEEP, MINE LAY, KILL!, or
any Racial Specialty (mission 9). Additionally, the Primary
Enemy is set to NONE. After this, each minefield is checked to
see if it is encroching on the Neutral Zone. If it is, the size
is reduced until no part of the minefield is inside the zone.

New 02/28/98:
If there is a minefield (x/y center point) inside the Neutral Zone
it is removed from play. Modified the Friendly Code twiddler to
allow the first character to be J so Jumpgate can be used.

Requirements:
Host 3.22 or better

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Updates:
v1.11 Added check to prevent SSD Imperial Assualt

v1.12 Allow Jumpgate FCs to be used. Check for minefield
inside of the NZ, if there then remove it.