		M A S T E R S   O F   T H E   V O I D
                -------------------------------------


This is the documentation for the game Masters of the Void. Masters of the
Void is copyright (c) 1998 by Ola Ekstrom. This program is freeware, which
means it can be distributed and spread freely, but it may not be sold for
money and the distribution archive and the files in it may not be altered
or modified in any way. Masters of the Void was developed in C using DJGPP
version 2.01, a free 32-bit C/C++ compiler for MS-DOS. DJGPP is copyright 
(c) 1995 by DJ Delorie. Included with this program is CWSDPMI.EXE, a free
DPMI host for programs developed with DJGPP. CWSDPMI is copyright (c)
1995,1996 by Charles W Sandmann. For more information about DJGPP, see
this URL: http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/v2faq/


IMPORTANT!
----------

This program is provided "as is". The program is used totally at your own
risk. I will not accept any responsibility for anything that happens when
using the software provided in this package. By using the software you are
bound to agree to these terms.


How to contact me
-----------------

Masters of the Void is freeware, and you don't have to pay anything to use
it. However, it would be nice if you could contact me if you find any bugs
in this program. If you do, please mention where and how you found the bug
so that I can reproduce the error. Incorrect grammar and spelling errors
does not count as bugs in my eyes :-)

Contact me by e-mail at this address:    knaster74@hotmail.com

Please note that I have not access to Internet very often, so it can take
some time before I can answer e-mail sent to me.


Installation
------------

Installing the game is simple. Just copy all the files in the zip-archive
to a directory. The file to run is VOID.EXE. I recommend that you run the
game from this directory to avoid trouble. When the game is saved, it will
write the save-file in the current directory. This means it might end up
somewhere else if you run the game from another directory, and that it won't
be found next time you'd like to play. Masters of the Void requires DPMI
to run. If you have Windows on your computer you allready have DPMI. Just
run the program in a DOS-box/session. Other operating systems might also
provide services like this. In case you don't have DPMI and/or would like 
to run the program from a "pure" DOS-session (not from Windows, that is)
the free DPMI host CWSDPMI.EXE is provided. CWSDPMI has to be present
somewhere in your path, preferably in the same directory as VOID.EXE, in
order for Masters of the Void to find it. When running the game from
Windows I recomend that you run it on a full screen, it's easier to read
the text then.


System requirements
-------------------

Masters of the Void run in DOS only and features no fancy graphics or
anything, so it doesn't require much of the system it is run on. You
will need at least a 386 processor or better to run this game (286 and
lower is not 32 bit). A floating point co-processor is required, that
means that the game will not work on machines with 486SX CPU's etc, but
I have heard that there is a floating point-emulator available for
people that don't have one. However, floating point are inbuilt in most
modern CPU's, so you probably don't have to worry. Some extended memory
is also needed, but not a lot. I think the majority of the computers in
use today should meet these demands, but I tell you anyway just to be 
sure :-)


How to play Masters of the Void
-------------------------------

This is a brief guide to the game and the menus found in it. The game takes
place in some strange corner of the galaxy where four different races fight 
each other for control over the sector. These are the Humans, the Insectmen,
the Floaters and the Hi-Tecs. In the game you can choose to lead any of 
these races and the other three will be controlled by the computer. The 
goal of the game is simple, take control over all the other players planets.
When a player have no more planets, he/she is out of the game. In the game 
there is 84 planets grouped together in 17 different sun systems. Each 
system has (through some odd coincidence) five planets each except for 
system 17 that has four. The players in the game fight over the planets 
with starships that are grouped together in fleets. There are three classes 
of ships that can perform different types of tasks. The Build ships screen 
will give you more information on this. Usually a fleet contains all three 
types of ships and some troops. Troops are also used to guard a planet 
against attacks from other players. The game is played in turns, one player
(you for instance) perform his/her actions and then the next player takes 
over and so on. Each turn is a year long and the current year will be
displayed at the bottom of the menu-screens.

Now I will describe the menus. The process of starting a new game is pretty
self-explanatory and should not give you much trouble. Just type in the
answers to the questions on the keyboard. When a new game has been started
you will see the Main Menu where you can choose different sub-menus and
do other things. You choose one alternative by pressing the appropriate key
on the keyboard. Unless otherwise stated, the numbers refer to numerical keys
and not to the function keys.

Military Menu
-------------

This brings up the military menu where all kinds of military tasks can be
performed. By pressing the [ENTER]-key on the keyboard you can return to
the Main Menu, this works on the other sub-menus too.

Build ships
-----------

Here you can build the starships that will be a part of your fleets. First
you will select a planet to build ships on and then you will select which
type and the amount of ships to build. Note that building ships, aswell as
most other services in the game cost money. If you don't have enough money
on the selected planet, you cannot build. Then you can transfer credits
from some other planet in your possession, but more on that later on. If
everything is OK your ships will be built, this will take three game turns.

Create/Modify fleet
-------------------

Here you can create new fleets and modify existing fleets. You will be asked
to type in the name of the new fleet or to enter a '?' (question mark) to
bring up a list of already existing fleets. If you enter a name of an
already existing fleet it is assumed that you want to modify it. Please note
that the input is case-sensitive. I.e. 'Home Fleet' is not the same thing
as 'home fleet'. After that you will be seeing a screen where you can add
or remove ships and troops to/from the fleet. The resources on the planet
the fleet is at will be displayed aswell as the resources of the fleet.
Make your adjustments to the fleet and return to the Military Menu by
pressing [ENTER] alone at the prompt. If a fleet have no ships when you
exit it will be removed automatically.

Remove fleet
------------

If you want to release the resources of a fleet you can select this item.
The fleet is removed from the list of fleets and its ships and troops is
returned to the planet the fleet is at. You can't remove a fleet on a
planet that doesn't belong to you (and why would you want to?).

Give fleet orders
-----------------

Here you can send your fleets on new missions. You will see a list of your
fleets and after selecting one of them you will choose the planet to move
the fleet to. Note that it takes one turn to move the fleet to a planet in
the same system as the planet of origin and three turns to move it to 
another system. Next you will choose if you would like to send the fleet on
a conquer mission or just move the fleet to the selected planet. You can
toggle this by pressing the up- and down cursor keys on the keyboard. If
you select Move to Planet the planet will not be attacked even if it belongs
to one of the other players. Note that if you want to attack a planet that
belongs to one of the other players you will need some troops in your fleet.
Ships of Class 3 are used to carry troops.

Create troops
-------------

Troops are important in this game. Troops defend planets against intruders
and they are also used when enemy planets are attacked. When troops are
created they are converted from the population of the planet. Each trooper
costs 50 credits, so you will need to have both people and credits on the
planet to be able to make troops.

Buy missiles
------------

You will need a missile launcher on the planet you want to buy missiles on.
(see 'Build structures' on the 'Planetary Menu'). Each missile costs 500
credits and you can have a maximum of 255 missiles stored on a planet.
Missiles are used to destroy the defences of other planets. If the defence
percentage reaches zero during a missile raid it is possible that some
of the buildings on the planet will be destroyed too. Missiles can not be
used to attack troops on enemy planets (they have bombshelters or something
:-) .

Launch missile attack
---------------------

Here you select the planet you want to launch missiles from and the target 
of the attack. Missiles move in the same speed as fleets (see 'Give fleet 
orders').


Colonization Menu
-----------------

On this menu you can do all sorts of things to manipulate your empire. This
menu works the same way as the military menu.

Transfer people
---------------

Here you can transfer people between planets in your possession. Population-
transports move the same way as fleets and missiles and they will take the
same time to reach their destination. When you have launched a transport
you can't stop it, so if the target planet gets conquered while the
transport is enroute, the new owner will take control over the population
when it arrives. This means you shouldn't send transports to planets that
are likely to be conquered. When a transport is on it's way between planets
you will have to wait for the transport to arrive before you can send
another transport from the planet of origin.

Transfer wealth (planet <-> planet)
-----------------------------------

Here you can transfer wealth from one planet to another. The transfer is
instant, so you don't have to wait a game turn or more for the money to
get through.

Transfer wealth (empire <-> planet)
-----------------------------------

In this game there is a thing called imperial tax (see this item for more
information). This means some of the income each planet gains in a tax-
turn will end up in an imperial account. From this account it can then be
distributed among your planets at your disposal. This is sometimes easier
than collecting the money from each planet manually. A tax-turn occurs once
every three turns, you will be notified on the News Screen when this
happens.

Transfer ships & troops
-----------------------

Works the same way as population transports but transfer military supplies
instead.

Change planetary tax
--------------------

Each planet has it's individual taxrate and you can modify it on this menu.
It can be set to any value from 0 to 6 percent (%). A higher value means
more money for the planet but can also cause the people on the planet to
rebell which means it will be in a state of anarchy (which is bad). Some-
times (but not always) you can make the anarchy stop by setting the tax
to a lower rate. On startup, all planets will have a taxrate of 3 percent.
Taxes are drawn from each planet every three turns and is based on the
amount of people that lives on the planet. More people = more tax.

Change imperial tax
-------------------

Here you can choose if you want to have imperial tax or not and how high
you want the imperial taxrate to be. If enabled, the imperial tax will be
drawn from the tax-income of every planet you have every tax turn (which,
as mentioned, occurs every three turns). Initially, imperial tax is off,
so you have to enable it yourself. The rate can be set from 0 to 100 %.
A taxrate of 10 to 30 percent would be a wise setting. See Transfer wealth
(empire <-> planet) above for additional info.


Information Menu
----------------

Here you can get information about all sorts of things in the game.

Info about empires
------------------

This sub-menu displays information about the empires. There is a little
bit more information available for your empire, and you should check this
screen from time to time to see if there is a planet that is low on troops
and so on. It can also be used as a measure to see how you are doing in
the game.

Info about planets
------------------

Here you can check out a planet and see how much people that lives on it,
how many troops and ships there are and so on. For enemy planets some of
the info is hidden from you, but it can be retrieved if you have a Long
range scanner on one of your planets. See Build structures for information
on how to build one and Make long range scan for info about how to use it.

Info about fleets
-----------------

This displays the status of your fleets if you have any. It also show where
they are or where they are heading and if they are involved in an attack.
Very usefull if you forget.

Make long range scan
--------------------

This can be used to retrieve all available information from an enemy planet.
However, you need to have built a long range scanner facility on one of
your planets to do it and it will also cost you 5000 credits each time
you use it. There is a small chance that the scan will fail and no info will
be displayed. You have been warned...


Planetary Menu
--------------

Build structures
----------------

On this menu you can select various structures to be built on one of your
planets. There are three different types of buildings, the Food factory is
used to produce extra food on a planet and that will make the population
grow a little bit faster on that planet. A Missile launcher is necessary if
you want to be able to launch missiles on other planets. A Long range
scanner is used to scan enemy planets for usefull information not
available elsewhere. It will take five game turns to build a structure and
they are quite expensive, so choose carefully which ones to build.

Stop a plague
-------------

When the population on a planet grows to a certain amount, there is a risk
of a plague breaking out. However, you will have to play the game for quite
a long time for that to happen. If a plague breaks out, you can cure it by
selecting this item. The cost for the cure is 50000 credits. If the plague
is not stopped, the population on the planet will decrease.

Create planet defence
---------------------

Planet defences are used to protect a planet from attacks of other players.
If there is a planet defence, it must be destroyed before an attacker can
drop troops on the planet and conquer it. The defence is meassured in 
percents (%) from 0 to a 100 percent. Each percent you add to a planets
defence shield will cost the planet 100 credits. Defences are destroyed by
fleets that has ships of Class 2 (Heavy Bomber) or by missile attacks. If
there is an ongoing battle between troops on a planet, defences cannot be
built until the battle is over (when one of them have lost the fight).


Now we are back on the Main Menu again.

End turn
--------

When you select this you end your turn for the current year and the computer-
controlled players will make their moves. A News Window will be displayed
to let you see what happens on the different planets. Each player has its
own collor, shown at the bottom of the screen, and things that concern your
planets/fleets will be displayed in light red and so on. This is how you
keep track of what happens to each player. An example: You play the Humans
and have the color light red, and you have a fleet that attacks a planet
that belongs to the Insectmen (who has the color light cyan), the name of
your fleet will be shown in light red and the name of the planet is shown in
light cyan. The light green color is reserved for planets that don't belong
to any player, just as on the screen that shows all the planets names. If
you select to play another race, your colour will still be light red. When
all the players have made their moves, you will be prompted to press a key
and you will return to Main Menu for the begining of another turn. If a
player loses all his/her planets during a turn, he/she is out of the game.
A message will be displayed notifying you that that player is not in the
game anymore. If this happens to you, you can select to play again or quit
the program.

Save game
---------

Selecting this item will save all data on disk, so that you can resume the
game at another time. The data will be saved in a file called VOID.SAV and
will be placed in the current directory. There is also where Masters of the
Void will look for the file next time you want to load the data again. The
program will not look anywhere else for it, so if it isn't there it cannot
be opened. To avoid trubble, Masters of the Void should be played from the
directory it is placed in.

Options
-------

Here are some things to alter the apperance of the game. If you don't want
coloured and flashing text you can turn it off here. However, the game will
be a bit difficult to play then, since you can't identify planets by colour.
You can also select to have no colour by giving the '/M' option to Masters
of the Void on the command line, when the game is started. The game also
generates sound sometimes, through the inbuilt PC speaker, if you don't
like that you can turn it of here. There is also a third alternative called
Fleet Cfg, this may not be so obvious, but it has to do with the way your
fleets troops are handled when you conquer a planet. By default, a 100
troops are left as a skeleton crew on the planet and any remaining troops
is returned to your fleet. You can change this, so that all troops will be
left or so that no troops will be left at all. Note that the keynumbers on
this menu doesn't refer to numerical keys, they refer to the function keys
on the top of the keyboard.

Quit the game
-------------

Does what it says, it quits the game. If the game has not been saved during
the current turn, a prompt will be displayed asking if you are sure you want
to quit, in case you have selected this item by mistake.


Last words
----------

If anarchy breaks out on a planet, you should try to stop it, becuase no
taxes will be collected on that planet, and no building- or ship-orders 
will be completed. Anarchy might break out if there are too much people on
a planet and there is no Food Factory. It may also happen if there is not
enough troops in relation to the population. The first thing you should
do to solve the situation is to buy some troops on the anarchy-planet.
If that doesn't stop it, then try to move some people to another planet.
When the anarchy stops, build a Food Factory as soon as possible, because
when the population rises again there might be a new anarchy. You can also
try to lower the taxes to stop the anarchy. 


If you have any questions, or you want to report bugs, I can be contacted
by e-mail at this address:

                         knaster74@hotmail.com


I hope you will enjoy the game. Have fun! - Ola Ekstrom, July 9, 1998.
