V10/games/trek/usrnews

trek
Wed Dec  1 23:54:06 EST 1976
Some more computer requests have been added.
They only work in appropriate circumstances.

c x<digit>
gives the SR scan for the current quadrant
for x=<digit>
It saves getting a complete SR scan in some cases.
Also  c y<digit>

c-omputer b-ase
gives the quadrant containing the nearest star base
or the sector if it is in the current
quadrant.

To try another game the same length and skill
as the last one can say
r-epeat to the prompt `another game'


trek
Sun Nov 28 01:35:50 EST 1976
The bug that caused it to incorrectly count
klingons has been fixed. It only happened
in obscure circumstances
(There was a torpedo burst the 1st or 2nd 
of which caused a star to supernova, and the 2nd
or 3rd of which killed a klingon.)

The strange effect with long range tractor
beams that caused a move to be cut off
prematurely has been fixed.

The amount of damages from an attack has been
reduced for the harder games.  The increase
in damages with game skill used to be linear
and is now logarithmic. It is still advisable
not to get damaged in the harder games.


trek
Fri Nov 26 00:49:16 EST 1976
Black holes have been added to the objects that can
be present in a Quadrant. They are printed as a
blank (space) and they have the effect of
a) swallowing torpedoes that come their way,
b) treating the enterprise like the energy
   barrier; it gets dumped in a random
   place. It also costs a time penalty
   otherwise it would be too easy to get
   around the Galaxy.

Also it is now possible to ram stars, starbases
and Klingons.  It costs a lot of damages.

The bug associated with the negative time portal
has been fixed.

One of the responses to "Another game" is "pm"
which will print out the whole of the last game's
Galaxy in the "c r" format.

Some number of bugs has been fixed (and some number
introduced).


trek
Sat Nov 13 17:00:08 EST 1976
The file /usr/srb/star/treklog contains a list of
everybody's best games in each skill, length
category.


trek
Sat Nov 13 00:17:42 EST 1976
a) A dump command has been added that dumps a
   game such that it can be restarted. The file
   used is called trek.dump (fixed).
   To restart reply "restart" to the question
   what length game.
b) A computer move request has been added that
   is like computer course except that it also
   does the move. NB the computer has to be
   working for this to work.
c) A computer base request has been added that
   tells you where the nearest starbase is.
   If it is in the current quadrant then the
   short range scanners must be working.
d) When docked at a starbase the long or
   short range scanners of the starbase can
   be used if those of the Enterprise are broken.


A new version of trek has been installed that differs
in minor ways from the old version. Complaints to srb.

a) In general when reading commands a list of valid
   responses can be obtained by typing a ?
b) Interrupt cancels the current command.
c) The computer course request accepts the input form
   qx,qy/sx,sy
   where the , and / may be replaced by blanks and
   qx qy are the quadrant coordinates and sx sy are the
   sector coordinates.  9 is no longer a valid
   quadrant coordinate.  By typing /sx,sy the current
   quadrant is assumed.
d) The computer record of all long range scans is
   obtained by the request
   computer record
   not computer chart as before.
e) The terminate command is now called quit.
f) To escape to the shell type ! newline
g) The program does not consume so much paper.