Special Abilities
Starship’s Take 150% Damage
The Lizard’s , as stated above, are a very tough and hardy race. This gives them very special ability. Any starship manned by a Lizard crew is able to take 150% damage before being destroyed. This ability is not really based on any special talent or skill the Lizard’s possess but more the fact that they are so tough that they can literally hold the starship together. When they are really in trouble they can just shove a few crew members into the holes in the hull and plug the leaks and the crew apparently suffers no ill effects from this maneuver.
Ground Attack
The Lizards have a very powerful ground attack ability. When Lizard clans are downloaded onto the planet (pg. 25, Table 2.3 ) they destroy thirty (30) enemy clans to every Lizard clan. This 30:1 ratio is the HCONFIG.EXE default setting. It is recommended that this remain at default because it is within game balance. The Lizards are able to very easily take over enemy planets this way, and it seems to save on the wear and tear on the starships. Be wary, as the number of defense outposts increase on an enemy planet, the 30:1 ratio decreases.
The Lizard Increased Mining Ability
The massive strength and power of the Lizards makes them exceptional miners. The Lizards are able to extract minerals at 200% of the normal rate. This 200% setting is the default in the HCONFIG.EXE program and is recommended for game balance.
The HISSSSSSS! Mission
The Lizards have a special mission called the HISSSSSSS! mission. This mission causes the Lizard’s starship to quell riots and lower the planet’s population’s unhappiness by broadcasting threatening audio and visual messages over the planet’s communication systems. The starship then transports down members of the crew to help “convince” the more troublesome colonists and natives that they are in fact happy and not displeased at all with the government. The actual effectiveness of the HISSSSSS mission is set in the HCONFIG.EXE program.
How To Set The HISSSSSSSS! Mission
To select the HISSSSS mission you need to go to the main starship screen. To get to the starship screen, press the [F1] key from anywhere in the game, and then select the starship you wish to HISSSSS and press the [ENTER] key.
Once at the starship screen you press the [M] key and this brings up the special mission menu Look at the menu and press the number that corresponds with the HISSSSSS mission
Note: If the Hissss factor is set low in the HCONFIG.EXE it may take more than one starship to raise the happiness rating of the colonists and natives. The more starships the quicker they will become happy or the higher you can tax them and keep them from rioting.
The Lizard Alliance Fleet
The Lizards have a formidable fleet. They have stolen the plans from one Solar Federation research vessel and use it to scout out minerals. The smaller starships tend to be very solidly built and carry moderate firepower. The large starships are also very tough and are fairly inexpensive to build, in both minerals and megacredits.
Other Special Abilities of Lizard Alliance
Raceplus
The Lizards have had a new ability added to their T-Rex and Madonnzila class warships. This ability only functions on these ships and only when they are under Lizard control. This new ability is linked to their new development of what has been termed the Chameleon Device.
To activate the Chameleon Device on either of these vessels you use the friendly code of !nn or !!n. The nn represents the type number of a hull design in the game. See Table 1.1. The !!n friendly code represents all ship hull types that are 100 or more. The n is the ones digit in a 100 or more numbered hull identifier.
Table 1.1 !nn Friendly Codes
Index Number Ship Class
1 Outrider Class Scout
2 Nocturne Class Destroyer
3 Bohemian Class Survey Ship
4 Vendetta Class Frigate
5 Nebula Class Cruiser
6 Banshee Class Destroyer
7 Loki Class Destroyer
8 Eros Class Research Vessel
9 Brynhild Class Escort
10 Arkham Class Frigate
11 Thor Class Frigate
12 Diplomacy Class Cruiser
13 Missouri Class Battleship
14 Neutronic Fuel Carrier
15 Small Deep Space Freighter
16 Medium Deep Space Freighter
17 Large Deep Space Freighter
18 Super Transport Freighter
19 Kittyhawk Class Carrier
20 Nova Class Super-Dreadnought
21 Reptile Class Destroyer
22 Lizard Class Cruiser
23 T-Rex Class Battleship
24 Serpent Class Escort
25 Saurian Class Light Cruiser
26 White Falcon Class Cruiser
27 Swift Heart Class Scout
28 Fearless Wing Cruiser
29 Dark Wing Class Battleship
30 Valiant Wind Class Carrier
31 Resolute Class Battlecruiser
32 Bright Heart Class Destroyer
33 Deth Specula Class Frigate
34 D7a Painmaker Class Cruiser
35 Victorious Class Battleship
36 D7 Coldpain Class Cruiser
37 Ill Wind Class Battlecruiser
38 D3 Thorn Class Destroyer
39 D19b Nefarious Class Destroyer
40 Little Pest Class Escort
41 Saber Class Frigate
42 Lady Royale Class Cruiser
43 Dwarfstar Class Transport
44 BR4 Class Gunship
45 BR5 Kaye Class Torpedo Boat
46 Meteor Class Blockade Runner
47 Red Wind Class Carrier
48 Skyfire Class Cruiser
49 Madonnzila Class Carrier
50 Bloodfang Class Carrier
51 B200 Class Probe
52 Biocide Class Carrier
53 Annihilation Class Battleship
54 B41 Explorer
55 B222 Destroyer
56 Firecloud Class Cruiser
57 Watcher Class Scout
58 Quietus Class Cruiser
59 Small Transport
60 Ruby Class Light Cruiser
61 Emerald Class Battlecruiser
62 Sky Garnet Class Destroyer
63 Diamond Flame Class Battleship
64 Onyx Class Frigate
65 Topez Class Gunship
66 Opal Class Torpedo Boat
67 Crystal Thunder Class Carrier
68 Moscow Class Star Escort
69 Super Star Destroyer
70 Gorbie Class Battlecarrier
71 RU25 Gunboat
72 H-Ross Class Light Carrier
73 Mig Class Scout
74 Super Star Cruiser
75 Super Star Frigate
76 Super Star Carrier
77 PL21 Probe
78 Instrumentality Class Baseship
79 Golem Class Baseship
80 Automa Class Baseship
81 Cat’s Paw Class Destroyer
82 Q Tanker
83 Cybernaut Class Baseship
84 Pawn Class Baseship
85 Iron Slave Class Baseship
86 Tranquillity Class Cruiser
87 Falcon Class Escort
88 Guardian Class Destroyer
89 Iron Lady Class Frigate
90 Sage Class Frigate
91 Deep Space Scout
92 Patriot Class Light Carrier
93 Armored Transport
94 Rush Class Heavy Carrier
95 Little Joe Class Escort
96 Cobol Class Research Cruiser
97 Aries Class Transport
98 Taurus Class Scout
99 Virgo Class BattlestarTable 1.2 !!n Friendly Codes
Index Number Ship Class
0 Sagittarius Class Transport
1 Gemini Class Transport
2 Scorpious Class Light Carrier
3 Cygnus Class Destroyer
4 Neutronic Refinery Ship
5 Merlin Class Alchemy ShipThe Chameleon Device burns fuel while activated. This fuel consumption is based on the cloak fuel burn rate in HCONFIG.EXE of HOST. If the cloak fuel burn rate is set at 5 KT per 100 KT of mass, the Chameleon Device burns just 5 KT of fuel per turn. The Chameleon Device fuel burn is not based on mass it is just a flat rate.
While the Chameleon Device is active all enemies ships and planets will see you as the hull type you have selected to emulate. The hull type listed in Table 1.1 or Table 1.2 will be the image that enemies see when they scan you or do a (V) view command of your ship. If a Chameleon Device ship engages in combat it fights as the type of ship it actually is, not as what it looks like. The Chameleon Device does not change the ships mass, heading, ID# or owner. It only changes the appearance of the hull type of the vessel. ( So, yes, you could look like a 700 KT mass probe if you wanted to.)
Gryphon & Jupiter
Cryogenic Cargo Hold.
The Lizards have developed a way to cryogenically freeze their warriors aboard a Saurian class ship and beam them out onto enemy planets or to supplement their colonists on planets. The Saurian class ship has to be empty of all cargo (besides fuel) and be orbiting a Lizard planet. With the FC of “LCH” the ship can Load its Cryo-Holds with cargo space of Saurian times (10), the default load factor. Therefore, in a default game with a standard ship list, the max load is 1500 clans; that can do a good deal of damage in Lizard hands. The clans can be unloaded normally (beam down colonists mission); in the end of the turn, other colonists will be defrosted and put into colonist quarters.
NOTE: this means only 150 clans per turn would be able to be beamed down. Every turn, (5%) of clans would die from Cryogenic storage accidents.
NOTE: You cannot use any of the “beam up minerals” functions; that would disrupt the cryo chambers and all colonists would die.
NOTE: other ships cannot beam minerals to the Saurian, or the same effect would occur. You can safely beam up/transfer money and fuel. You would get a message every turn advising of cryo-chamber status.
T-Rex Antifighter mines.
A T-Rex class battleship can choose to convert some of its torpedoes into mines just before battle. These mines would explode into small pieces of shrapnel and damage incoming fighters. Depending on the first letter of the FC, ‘Q’ will convert a quarter of torpedoes, ‘H’ will convert a half, ‘T’ will convert three fourths and ‘A’ will convert all of them. If the first letter of the FC is not one of these letters, no torpedoes will be converted. The more torps you use and the higher the tech level, the more mines will be created. Strength of the torpedoes can be adjusted in the GCONFIG program. This is done after movement, but before combat; you must have primary enemy set to something (anything) or kill mission for this ability to work. The formula for the percent of fighters destroyed is (FOURTH_ROOT (number_of_torps_used_squared times torp_tech_squared times config_strength)) divided by 100 per enemy ship. Ships that the Lizards are allied with will not be harmed. Use FCode “xyz” to use this ability, where x is Q, H, T, or A for quarter, half, three quarters, and all torpedoes, y is “A” or “a”, and z is “F” or “f”. The case variations of the last two characters is to help avoid ships not fighting due to matching FCodes. For example, QAf or Qaf or QAF or QaF will use 1/4 of torpedoes.
WARNING: the program does not detect if the ship is actually in combat. Do not use xAF if you aren’t sure you’ll fight, or you will waste torpedoes.
Note: to avoid xAF working two turns in a row in case a player missed his turn and forgot to reset the FCode, the ship has to be at warp factor higher than 0 to use this ability. In the end of the turn, xAF will reset warp factor to 0, so that to use it on the next turn, the player will have to manually set the warp factor.
Nemesis & Jupiter
Chemical strike.
The Lizards simply love their ground-attack capabilities, and they are constantly seeking ways to make it harder for the enemy to survive. Therefore, the Reptile class destroyer has been equipped with a toxin device, that takes 45 supplies and converts them into toxins for spreading onto enemy planets. After the toxins are spread, a set amount of planetary population dies out. To use Chem Strike, set FC to “CHx”, where x is any character (to prevent base force surrender), and have at least 45 supplies aboard. You must also have more ships than the enemy orbiting the planet, to provide cover for the Reptile using Chem Strike. Only one Chem Strike per turn per planet is allowed. The Reptile must not be damaged.
Multi-purpose Eros
Eros class cruiser will be able to heat planets up as well as cool them down. The terraform rate is the same: 1 degree/turn. Just like with default Eros ability, no special FC is required, no minerals or fuel are expended.
Super-growth
Because the Lizards are Reptilians, they particularly like warm worlds (50 degrees) and this temperature is especially good for breeding. Therefore, their growth rate would increase 10 times on such worlds, but only if there is no overpopulation (2,000,000 colonists or more) The growth rate is configurable.