welcome to s&mtrek
                   virgin 1.2.9 (2/16/99)

      a real-time multi-player game of starship combat

this document takes you on a brief tour of your ship's  sys-
tems and gives you some information about general navigation
and  basic  combat.   the  current  location  of s&mtrek  is 
smtrek.geek.org and you can access it via a web browser at:

        https://smtrek.geek.org/play

Table of contents:

        I ..... starting the simulation
                    a. ship class variable description
        II .... display breakdown
                    a. tactical windows
                    b. message window
        III ... ship commands
                    a. single-key commands
                    b. captain's commands
        IV .... starship movement & navigation
        V ..... a starship's weapons system
                    a. description of different systems
                    b. charging, loading & firing
                    c. weapon damage charts
                    d. weapon warp speed charts
        VI .... damage reporting & damage control
        VII ... subspace messages
        VIII .. miscellaneous information


I. starting the simulation

when you enter s&mtrek, you will be presented with the stan-
dard title screen, followed by a prompt for the name of your
starship.  if you are continuing  a  previous  command,  you
will  return  exactly  where you exited the game previously.
if the ship is a new one, you will  be  presented  with  the
starship selection screen.

ship class descriptions

Ship classes available:

[a] Constitution II      (federation)   warp energy:        140
[b] Reliant Class XI     (federation)   impulse energy:     90
[c] Loknar Class VIII    (federation)   beam weapon:        blasters
[d] Excelsior (Exp)      (federation)        # of banks:    1
[e] D7-A Painbringer     (klingon)           total charge:  450
[f] D10 Riskadh          (klingon)      torpedo type:       photon MKIII
[g] L-42 Great Bird      (klingon)      torpedo supply:     600
[h] Bird Of Prey V-8     (romulan)      torpedo tubes:      FWD: 3 AFT: 0
[i] D7 Stormbird         (romulan)      mines:              2 barbidic
[j] BR-5 Wanderer        (orion)        drones:             7 class iii
[k] BR-4 Lightning       (orion)        cloak:              yes (100 power req)
[l] CL-13 Actor/Singer   (gorn)         transwarp:          no
[m] CTH-8 Leviathon      (gorn)         crew members:       113
[n] D10-G Azathoth       (gorn)         max turn rate:      10
                                        shield power:       4   (per 20)

as shown above, each starship has it's own unique  capabili-
ties,  one of which is displayed at a time. press the letter
corresponding with the ship class you wish to see stats  on.
the  above  figure displays the statistics for the Gorn ship
the CL-13 Actor/Singer.  press the corresponding  letter  to
see  each  class'  configuration.  here is a summary of what
each of the fields mean:

warp energy     total amount of energy output by both warp engines
impulse energy  amount of energy output by the impulse engine
                (for sublight travel)
beam weapon     type of beam weapon this class has:
                phasers, disruptors, or blasters
# of banks      how many banks of beam weapons this class has.
                the maximum is 4 (forward, aft, starboard, port)
total charge    the sum of the charge the banks can hold when fully
                charged
torpedo type    type of torpedos; photon MKI - MKV or plasma MKI - MKII
                see the weapons section for more details
torpedo tubes   how many forward and aft torpedo tubes this class has
                this determines how many torpedos can be loaded at
                one time.
mines           the type of mines this class carries, and the maximum
                that can be carried.
drones          the type of drones this class carries, and the maximum
                that can be carried.
cloak           if this class has a cloaking device, and how much
                energy it takes to enable it.
transwarp       if this class has a transwarp drive (makes you go
                warp speed + 4).
crew members    how many crew member the class starts with
max turn rate   the maximum degrees this class can turn per update
                (larger ships turn slower)
shield power    how much energy it costs per 20 units of shield

NOTE: see the weapons system section for more details on the
different types of weapons.

once you have chosen the ship class you wish to  fly,  press
[return]  to select it and then you will be requested to as-
sign a captain's password to it.   note  that  you  will  be
asked to re-enter the password for confirmation.  this pass-
word will be used to verify the captain's identity when  re-
turning to the simulation.


II. display description

once piloting your starship, you will be presented with  the
standard screen display which is split into two primary sec-
tions:

tactical display

the tactical display is the top portion of the screen  which
is  subdivided  into  7  sub-sections.  a  standard tactical
display looks like this:

+---[ energy ]----+-[ blaster ]-+----[ uss sean penn ]---+---[ shields ]----+
| port warp E  70 |-    450    +|              *         |(Fwd   10 Dam    0|
| stbd warp E  70 |      f      |         TAC    DIS     |(Sbd   10 Dam    0|
| impulse   E  90 |      ^      |[0 BASE    0      0   G]|(Aft   10 Dam    0|
| battery [C] -10 |             | 1                      |(Prt   10 Dam    0|
| aux reactor  10 |-           +| 2                      +------------------+
|  tot power  230 +--[ torps ]--+ 3                      |Warp:  0.0 Hd:180 |
| blasters      0 | Fwd: *      | 4                      | acc:        =    |
| torpedos     15 | Aft:        | 5                      +----[ Scan: 0 ]---+
| shields       8 | Set:   Prox | 6                      [madonna base      ]
| movement      0 |  @      300 | 7                      |gorn              |
| aux [  C ]  100 | Rng:  34000 | 8                      |Energy            |
| unused      107 | Lead: 0     | 9                      |Reserves: 2000    |
+---[ cloaked ]---+-------------+----[ sec 31 gorn ]-----+------------------+

the left side is the energy window which details the current
energy which your starship is using and has available.

to the right of that window are the weapon menus.  the  bot-
tom of these two menus is devoted to firing plasma or photon
torpedos.  the fwd and aft fields display how many  torpedos
are  loaded  in  your  forward and aft tubes.  the set field
displays which mode your torpedos are set in.  for more dis-
cussion of this and the @, rng, and lead parameters, see the
weapons section of this document.  when the object  you  are
locked onto is within the torpedo firing arc (20 degrees), a
<> will surround the tube which is  in  arc.   depending  on
your  ship  class, the top menu is for phaser banks, disrup-
tors, or blasters.  all  are  operated  in  the  exact  same
fashion,  so  the displays are also identical.  this area is
divided into four sections associated with each  bank  (for-
ward,  starboard,  aft,  and  port)  signified  by the first
letter of each direction. letters will only be displayed for
those  banks  which  your  ship  is  equipped with (e.g, the
klingon D-10 has  forward,  port,  and  starboard  disrupter
banks).  an  arrow  in  the  center  points to the currently
selected bank, which  the  various  phaser/disruptor/blaster
commands  operate  on.   each  bank  displays  the amount of
charge that it currently has.  when you are  locked  onto  a
ship, each bank's letter will become capitalized if it is in
a firing arc.  each bank can only be fired when within  fir-
ing arc. the firing arc of each bank is 45 degrees.

in the middle of the tactical display  is  the  short  range
scanner  where  you see all of the objects which are nearby.
there are ten scan channels numbered 0-9, each of which  has
four to six fields. all objects have at least the first four
fields, as follows:

                   +---[ uss sean penn ]---+
                   |                       |
                   |         TAC    DIS    |
                   | 0 SHIP    0   7723 R  |
                   | 1 BLIP -100  22346!   |
                   | 1 astr  179   1533    |
                   | 3                     |
                   +-----------------------+
            example short range scanner display

the first field is the scan channel number. if you press the
number  of  a  scan  channel (0-9), your short range scanner
will display information about the object  in  that  scanner
position.

the second field is a four-letter code for the type  of  ob-
ject being scanned.

        SHIP = a active player ship
        SHiP = a robot ship (freighters)
        BLiP = an entity (non-user player)
        PLAN = planet
        BASE = starbase
        NEBU = nebula
        ship = a ship carcass
        astr = asteroid belt
        gsis = genesis device
        plas = plasma torpedo
        phot = photon torpedo
        dron = drone
        mine = mine

the third field is the tactical heading to the object.

           0 means the object is directly in front of you
          90 means the object is directly to starboard (right)
        -180 means the object is directly behind you
         -90 means the object is directly to port (left)

the fourth field is the distance you are from the object.

the last two fields are only present for other ships:

the fifth field is:
        ! = the object is scanning you
        * = the object has their weapons locked on you
        T = the object has you in a tractor beam

the sixth field is the race of the ship, starbase or planet:
        U = unalligned
        G = gorn
        F = federation
        K = klingon
        R = romulan
        O = orion

your shields window is to the right of the  screen,  on  the
top.  there  are  four  independantly  controlled shields on
every ship and this area displays both the amount of  energy
you  have  diverted  to each shield as well as the amount of
damage each shield has taken.  if you have more  energy  put
into  a  shield than it has been damaged, the shield is con-
sidered "up" and a ( is displayed to it's left as an indica-
tion.

the line on the bottom of the  short range  window  contains
a listing of the current sector you are in and what race (if
any) it is affiliated with.

in the middle on the right is your  movement  window.   this
displays  your  current warp speed, your current heading (0-
360), and your acceleration and turning  status.   accelera-
tion is signified by a + for increasing or - for decreasing.
there are two levels of acceleration, the first is a  change
of  .1  each update, and the second changes the maximum your
ship is capable of (smaller ships can  accelerate  quicker).
the  character  is  doubled  in the second mode.  turning is
signified in the same way except the characters  are  <  for
turning  port (left) and > for turning starboard (right) and
there are three levels; 1 degree per update, 5  degrees  per
update; and maximum per update.

the bottom right section of  the tactical  display  contains
more  detailed information on the currently scanned channel.
for all objects, it displays the name of the object and  the
type of the object. for ships, it displays their warp speed,
and "ETac" (enemy TAC).  the Etac  tells  you  the  object's
tactical  heading to you (ie, whether they are facing you or
not). other objects may have some other  useful  information
displayed here.

the message window

the bottom half of the screen is devoted  to  messages  from
your ship's crew and computer, as well as any other relevent
information.  this section scrolls downwards, jumping to the
top when all available space is used.  the very last line is
reserved for captain commands, as detailed later.  the  mes-
sage  window  can  be completely cleared with the single-key
command ctrl-c.



III. ship commands

there are two different modes for commanding your  starship.
the first is know as single-key mode and as you might guess,
involves simply pressing single keys which map  to  specific
ship  operations.  the other mode is known as captain's com-
mand mode which involves a multi-word single-line command.

single-key commands

this is a listing of the single-key commands available:

Key(s)     Action(s)                   Key(s)     Action(s)

o O        select phasor-bank          ^L         lock weapons
P          charge phasors              ^U         unlock weapons
^P         stop charging phasors       d          launch drone
p          fire phasors                M          drop mine
                                       v          engage tractor beam

T          load forward torp           A          load aft torp
t          fire forward torp           a          fire aft torp
^T         unload forward torp         ^A         unload aft torp

z          add 10 prox / distance      Z          minus 10 prox/distance
;          sets torp lead to zero      x          toggle torp prox<->distance
l          increase torp lead          L          decrease torp lead

ESC-s      current score               ^C         clear message box
ESC-#      active ships                ^R         redraw screen
ESC-@      display set-warp            q          just give up (quit simulation)

w          increase acceleration       W          decrease acceleration
^W         stop acceleration           ]          set warp
, <        port turn                   . >        starboard turn
RETURN ^M  stop turning                [          set heading

b          discharge (use) battery     B          charge battery
^B         battery offline             e          equalize sheild levels
s          raise shields               S          lower shields
Shift-1    enforce forward shield      Shift-2    enforce starboard shield
Shift-3    enforce port shield         Shift-4    enforce aft shield
k          cloak                       K          uncloak

0-9        scanner channels            -          clear scanner
SPACE : c  captains command            m          send subspace message
h ?        single-key help             X          toggle transwarp on/off


captain's commands

when you use :, SPACE, or c to issue  a  captain's  command,
you will notice the prompt of CAPTAIN: at the bottom of your
screen.  this is where you will build your  command.   there
are a few special keys which you can press at any point dur-
ing a captain's command:

key(s)          function

? Ctrl-D        pressing either of these keys at any point will display a list
                of all possible completions for the captains command you have
                entered so far. this is invaluable to new players.

TAB             pressing this key will cause the current word to be expanded
                as far as uniquely possible. for example, if you had entered
                the key p and then pressed TAB, the word would
                be expanded to planet.  if you had entered nav st
                and then pressed TAB, it would be expanded to
                nav starbase  and you could then press ? to list
                the possible completions. NOTE: if the autolist variable
                is set to on, possible completions will be displayed
                after each TAB pressed.

RETURN          if RETURN is pressed before completing a command,
                it will complete it for you if there is just one possible
                completion. for example, if you enter :st and pressed
                RETURN, it would complete to :starbase.

possible captain's commands are:

:abandon ship           escape from your ship in a shuttle craft
:age                    display the age of your ship
:board [num]            send a boarding party of [num] crew to another ship
                        (or object). with no arguments, it displays the number
                        of crew already sent to the currently scanned object.
                        use a negative number to beam them back to your ship.
:bridge                 return to the bridge when in :quarters
:computer               toggle the computer on and off. when off, no messages
                        generated by the computer will be displayed.
:damage [system]        display damage percent of [system]. if no system
                        is specified, all inoperative systems are listed.
:dock                   dock with the currently scanned object
:emergency warp         push your warp engines to their extreme, risking
                        damaging your ship.
:help [topic]           display brief help on a topic or command. if no
                        topic is specified, a list of available topics is
                        displayed.
:jam                    toggle jamming nearby subspace radio (klingons only)
:long range scan        connect with your race's long range scanner and display
                        the last known enemy intrusion into your territory.
:nav [object]           display heading and distance to an object. if no object
                        is specified, the previous object nav'd to is used.
:planet                 display navigation and race details about all planets.
                        the distance and race_flag variables can
                        be used to limit the output of this command such that
                        it can actually be readable.
:quarters [object]      go to captains quarters until you get near [object] or
                        some other active ship or object gets nearby. during
                        this mode, time passes very quickly and you travel
                        faster. a different screen is displayed with other
                        options. see the captain's quarters section.
:repair [system]        send your engineer to help your crew repair a specific
                        system. if a system is not specified, the current
                        location of your engineer is reported.
:sector [num]           display heading and distance to border of sector [num].
:self-destruct          detonate your starship
:set [variable[=value]] sets or toggles variables. if no variable is specified,
                        the current values are displayed.
:sleep                  if there are no enemy ships in the game, you can take
                        a nap and return another time (this saves your ship and
                        quits the simulation).
:status [system]        this is an alias for the :damage command
:supply                 beam aboard supplies from the scanned object
:starbase               display navigation and race details about all starbases.
                        the distance and race_flag variables can
                        be used to limit the output of this command such that
                        it can actually be readable.
:scan                   do an intensive scan of the currently scanned object
:tractor beam           toggle engage/disengage tractor beam on scanned object
:transwarp              toggle engage/disengage transwarp drive


IV. starship movement & navigation

the most important thing to be aware  of  while  maneuvering
your starship is that inertia is always present!  you cannot
turn on a dime, come to complete stops immediately,  or  any
other  amazing  feats.  with that said, let's concentrate on
getting your ship to move.

sublight travel is any speed which is less  than  warp  one,
and it requires your impulse engines in order to accomplish.
you can only increase it until warp speed has been achieved.
once travelling warp 1.0 or higher, you can increase to max-
imum acceleration by press the w (or W if moving  backwards)
again.   the  maximum  acceleration  differs among each ship
class.

turning (or changing your heading), is similar to  your  ac-
celeration in that there are different levels to it.  unlike
acceleration, there are three different turning rates  which
can be set; one degree per update, maximum/2 degrees per up-
date; and maximum degrees per update.  the maximum for  each
ship  class  is displayed in the initial ship class variable
description.


V. a starship's weapons system

each starship is equipped with at least one bank of  a  beam
weapon  (either  phasers, disrupters, or blasters), at least
one tube of torpedos (either photon  or  plasma),  and  some
number of mines and drones.

description of different systems

since each  race  has  different  technology,  the  type  of
weaponry  is  slightly different from race to race.  see the
damage chart section below for a breakdown of how  effective
different  weapons  are  at various ranges and power levels.
beam weapons consist of a beam of energy which is fired in a
single  pulse.   photon torpedos are fired one at a time and
have circuitry in them to allow them to be programmed to ex-
plode at certain ranges. plasma torpedos are a contained en-
ergy field who's radius decreases the  further  it  travels.
when  any  object  enters  into  it's radius, the plasma de-
tonates and damages any  object  within  range.   each  ship
class  is only capable of carrying one type of drone and one
type of mine.

charging, loading & firing

each bank of beam weapons are charged independently, by  us-
ing  the  P  single-key  command to put energy into charging
them and the o and O single-key  commands  to  select  which
bank  to charge.  the more energy you put into charging, the
quicker a bank will become fully charged.  a bank which  has
any charge at all may be fired by using o and O to select it
and p to fire.  in order to be able to fire a bank, you must
be  locked  onto  an object and it must be within firing arc
(45 degrees) of the selected bank.

torpedos may be loaded one  at  a  time,  and  it  takes  15
seconds to prepare each tube for loading of another torpedo.
once you have issued to order for a torpedo  to  loaded,  it
will  happen automatically after the countdown has completed
(provided you have the energy needed). each  torpedo  loaded
consumes  energy  until  it is fired or unloaded. if you are
locked onto an object which is within torpedo firing arc (20
degrees),  your  torpedo  will be fired locked onto that ob-
ject.  this means that it is fired at the  tactical  heading
to  the locked onto target.  if set, the torpedo lead is ad-
ded to the heading the torpedo is fired at. this allows  you
to  fire a torpedo such that it will intercept a ship moving
perpendicular to you.  torpedos can be set for either  prox-
imity  (prox),  or distance (dist).  the former programs the
torpedo to only detonate when it has come within  a  certain
distance  from  the locked onto object.  the latter programs
the torpedo to detonate after it has  travelled  a  specific
distance.   plasma torpedos are hardcoded in dist mode, how-
ever it detonates when any object enters into it's radius.

drones are fired with the d single-key command  when  locked
onto  an  object. a drone will travel on an intercept course
with the object until it either exhausts it's  lifetime,  or
impacts against the object.

mines are dropped with the m  single-key  command.   a  mine
will detonate when any object gets within range (250 units).
this means that if you were to drop  two  mines  within  the
same 250 units, they would set each other off.

weapon damage charts

beam weapon     100range/100pow 1000range/100pow        10000range/100pow

phasers         600 dmg         214 dmg                 28 dmg
disrupters      600 dmg         150 dmg                 17 dmg
blasters        750 dmg         136 dmg                 14 dmg


torpedo type    50range         100range                500range

photon MKI      71 dmg          41 dmg                  9 dmg
photon MKII     88 dmg          50 dmg                  11 dmg
photon MKIII    121 dmg         68 dmg                  15 dmg
photon MKIV     140 dmg         78 dmg                  17 dmg
photon MKV      161 dmg         89 dmg                  19 dmg

torpedo type    1000 travelled  5000 travelled          10000 travelled

plasma MKI      190 dmg         150 dmg                 100 dmg
plasma MKII     317 dmg         257 dmg                 181 dmg


mine type       50range         100range                500range

atomic          184 dmg         140 dmg                 48 dmg
neutronic       368 dmg         280 dmg                 96 dmg
barbidic        552 dmg         420 dmg                 144 dmg

drone type      50range         100range                200range

class i         24 dmg          13 dmg                  7 dmg
class ii        16 dmg          9 dmg                   4 dmg
class iii       8 dmg           4 dmg                   2 dmg
barbidic        40 dmg          22 dmg                  11 dmg


weapon warp speed charts

weapon type                     warp speed

photon torpedo MKI              6.5
photon torpedo MKII             6.7
photon torpedo MKIII            7.0
photon torpedo MKIV             7.2
photon torpedo MKV              7.5
plasma torpedo MKI              3.5
plasma torpedo MKII             4.0
drone class i                   2.0
drone class ii                  3.0
drone class iii                 5.0
drone barbidic                  2.0


VI. damage reporting & damage control

there are many systems on your ship which can become damaged
while in combat.  when any of these systems becomes damaged,
your crew automatically begins repair work on it as  quickly
as  they can.  you can use the captain's command damage sum-
mary to list all systems with any damage to  them.   systems
have three modes of operation:

mode            damage percent          description

nominal         0-100%                  operating normally,
inoperative     100-200%                non-working, but repairable by crew
destroyed       > 200%                  must be replaced at a starbase

in order to speed up repair of the ship, you may direct your
engineer  to help one section of the ship at a time by issu-
ing the captain's command repair [system].

when various areas of your ship are  inoperative,  different
functions  of  your ship will become unavailable.  for exam-
ple, if your impulse engine is not functioning, you will not
be able to control your turning since it is what drives your
navigation console.  similarly, if your  navigation  station
is  damaged, you will be unable to change your direction and
rate of turning.  if your drone  launch  control  system  is
broken, you will be unable to fire any drones.  if your hull
becomes 200% damaged, your ship will detonate.

list of areas of the ship which may take specific damage:

system                          affected actions

cloaking device                 ability to cloak
communication station           subspace messages
computer                        various status reports
disrupter/blaster/phaser bank   firing beam weapon
drone launch control            firing a drone
engineering deck                status report on weapons/engines
helm control                    changing your heading
hull                            life support, hull integrity
impulse engine                  turning (impulse speed)
navigation station              navigation report (starbase/planets/etc)
science station                 ability to detect cloaked ships
shields                         protection from internal damage to subsystems
torpedo tubes                   firing a torpedo
tractor beam                    engaging the tractor beam
transporter                     transporting boarding parties
transwarp drive                 ability to go into transwarp
warp engines                    available energy for warp speed


VII. incoming subspace messages

subspace messages travel at the equivalent of warp  10,  and
thus  can  take  a  while  to reach ships across the galaxy.
when a subspace message  is  received,  your  communications
officer  will  pass it on to you along with the sector which
it originated from and the heading to the object which  ori-
ginated it.  for example, the message:

        [30: 110] dead cow: i am not a carcass yet!

came from the ship "dead cow" in sector 30 and if you wished
to fly to them, you would set your heading to 110.


VIII. miscellaneous information

your tractor beam can be used to push or pull an object away
or  towards  you.   use captains command set tractor beam to
set how much energy you wish to put into the  tractor  beam.
use  a  negative  value  to push away and a postive value to
pull toward your ship.  to toggle the  tractor  beam  on  or
off, use the captain's command tractor beam.

[NOT COMPLETED YET]



























                       June 18, 1993