CONVOY GENERAL INFORMATION ------ ------- ----------- Convoy is a real-time, multi-player game that allows each participant to control either a submarine or a destroyer and attempt to aid or thwart a fleet of freighters on their journey to a fixed destination. The field of play is a rectangular ocean, (40 x 19 in arbitrary units), which contains the freighter destination port, a secret submarine base and a secret destroyer base. Players may join and drop out of the game at any point and may switch sides at will. Each time a participant joins, (or re-joins), enough new freighters are added to bring the total to ten. Convoy has several optional command line arguments: -info Print out this information and quit -nFOO Use the name "FOO" for your captain. -quiet Don't print out the battle history or hello message -records Show player records -ssub You want a submarine, ("-sdest" for a destroyer) -verbose Do print battle history & hello message These can also be specified by a CONVOYOPTS environment entry. For example: CONVOYOPTS=-nGonzo the Great,-quiet,-sdestroyer You can arrange to have the program notify you whenever anyone starts the game up by putting your name on the "sucker list". To do this run the program "sucker" (which should be in your games directory). The sucker program allows you to add your name, delete your name, check whether you're on the list, and print a list of all the games with sucker lists. CONVOY SHIP TYPES ------ ---- ----- Freighters move at a speed of 10 knots. They start somewhere in the upper right corner of the map and move to the point marked 'f' and disappear. The course for each freighter is selected by the program and no human player controls them. Submarines move at a maximum speed of 30 knots. The actual speed is set at the request of the controlling player. When a sub is damaged its maximum speed is derated. As a sub is repaired its maximum speed increases again but the actual speed doesn't unless the player instructs the sub to speed up. Note that submerged subs can only be repaired at sub base. Destroyers move at a maximum speed of 40 knots. The same considerations apply to destroyers as subs regarding the effect of damage and repair on speed. A ship moving at a speed of 50 knots would move one map space, vertical or horizontal, per second. Ships of all three types, (freighters, submarines and destroyers), can repair themselves when damaged at the rate of 1% per second, although subs must surface to repair themselves away from sub base. CONVOY COMMANDS ------ -------- The commands can be broken down into three groups; General Commands, available to all ships; Submarine Commands, available only to submarines and Destroyer Commands, available only to destroyers. The command characters are shown here in upper case, but lower case works equally well. GENERAL COMMAND MEANING ? where am I? ^ redraw screens M set engine speed to full ahead, (30 for subs, 40 for dest) N set engine speed to 1/2 ahead, (15 for subs, 20 for dest) B set engine speed to 1/4 ahead, (7.5 for subs, 10 for dest) V set engine speed to stop C set engine speed to 1/4 astern, (-7.5 for subs, -10 for dest) X set engine speed to 1/2 astern, (-15 for subs, -20 for dest) Z set engine speed to full astern, (-30 for subs, -40 for dest) 8 set heading to 0 degrees, (north) 9 set heading to 60 degrees, (east by northeast) 6 set heading to 90 degrees, (east) 3 set heading to 120 degrees, (east by southeast) 2 set heading to 180 degrees, (south) 1 set heading to 240 degrees, (west by southwest) 4 set heading to 270 degrees, (west) 7 set heading to 300 degrees, (west by northwest) [ turn 10 degrees to port ] turn 10 degrees to starboard Ratext... Radio text (ended by Carriage Return) to all players Rstext... Radio text to all submarines Rdtext... Radio text to all destroyers R#text... Radio text to player # Q Quit honorably, this can only be done at your secret base ^C Quit any way possible, (usually dishonorably) W show Who is playing discard the previous character discard all type-ahead characters waiting to be processed ^U same as above ! special mystery command [?] Note that the speed commands form a row: ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- | full | 1/2 | 1/4 | full | 1/4 | 1/2 | full | | astern| astern| astern| stop | ahead | ahead | ahead | | Z | X | C | V | B | N | M | ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- Also note that a numeric keypad can be very handy: ------- ------- ------- | WNW | N | ENE | | 7 | 8 | 9 | | | | | ------- ------- ------- | W | shoot | E | | 4 | 5 | 6 | | | | | ------- ------- ------- | WSW | S | ESE | | 1 | 2 | 3 | | | | | ------- ------- ------- SUBMARINE COMMAND MEANING D Dive to periscope depth, (invisible on the map if radar off) P raise/lower Periscope (alternates with radar) S Surface, necessary to perform repairs at sea T launch Torpedo 5 launch Torpedo Y launch 3 Torpedoes in a 20 degree spread DESTROYER COMMAND MEANING D drop Depth charge 5 drop Depth charge A Abandon aerial radar probe P launch aerial radar Probe CONVOY WEAPONS ------ ------- Each ship can carry up to 100 weapons, (torpedoes or depth charges), and may only reload at the appropriate secret base. Each second spent at your secret base is enough to reload 10 weapons and do 10% repair. Torpedoes last for twelve seconds and travel at a speed of 15 knots, which means you can't torpedo anything further than 3.6 map spaces away. They will hit anything that comes within 0.3 map spaces of them (except submerged subs). With an equal number of submarines and destroyers playing two or three torpedo hits are usually required to sink a freighter and three or four hits are usually required to sink a destroyer or sub. See the paragraph below on "Uneven Fights". Depth charges are "instantaneous" and hit any sub within 1.5 map spaces of them, (an area approximately 18x6 on the radar display). The effect of a depth charge's hit depends on the distance to the target. In an "even" fight two direct depth charge hits will sink a sub, while a sub may survive up to fifteen hits at a distance of 1. See the paragraph below on "Uneven Fights". Aerial radar probes move at a speed of 75 knots in the direction that the destroyer was headed when they were launched. During the time that the probe is in the air the radar display for the destroyer that launched it shows the area beneath the probe, NOT the area around the destroyer. Each radar probe uses up 5 "arms" on the destroyer. If the probe is "abandoned", (caused to fall into the water), it will damage anything within 0.75 map spaces, (an area approximately 9x3 on the radar display), by an amount depending on the nearness of the object. Beware! Abandoned probes hit freighters and destroyers as well as subs. Uneven Fights ------------- The effectiveness of each weapon on other player's ships varies according to the number of ships of each type, submarines and destroyers, in the game. This variance is a multiplicative factor: 2 * V where V is the number of ships of the victim's tyope f = ----- and A is the number of ships of the other type. V + A Thus, if there are 2 submarines and 1 destroyer each depth charge will have 1.33 times the effect it has in an even fight, while the destroyer will only be damaged 0.67 times as much by torpedoes as it would in an even fight. CONVOY VISUAL DISPLAY ------ ------ ------- The visual display is divided into two sections. The right side of the screen contains a map of the entire sea with your ship marked as 'X', other ships marked as either '?', or, if nearby, as one of 'D', 'F' or 'S'. All ships appear on the map except submerged submarines with their radar off (i.e. with the periscope being displayed). Your secret base appears as an 's' for submarines and 'd' for destroyers; the freighter destination port appears as an 'f'. Torpedoes appear as '.' and radar probes appear as '?' at a distance or '*' if nearby. The area on the left side of the screen contains either a periscope view or a radar/sonar screen. Periscope --------- The periscope view is 60 degrees wide and shows ships as rectangular blobs composed of 'F's for freighters, 'D's for destroyers and 'S's for submarines on a sea of '^' characters. If you get close enough you can read the ship numbers on the blobs. Torpedoes are represented by '*' in the periscope view. Radar/Sonar ----------- The radar/sonar screen shows objects as single characters: 'F' for freighters, 'D' for destroyers, 'S' for submarines, '+' for you, (always at the center), '.' for torpedoes, and '*' for aerial radar probes. The radar/sonar screen is like a magnified section of the map except that submarines always appear, even if they are submerged and have their radar off. This is SCCS @(#)convoy.txt 1.19, last modification 10/5/84.