Hints and Tips From The Internet

• When will the game be starting (i.e. when will the first .RST files get distributed)?
• How often  will  turns  be  run?   (Once  per  day;  Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays)
• When are the turn deadlines, and when will turns be sent out? If using internet, give consideration  to  international players by including a GMT time as well as your local zone. You want players to compress .TRN files before sending them back to you. Some common compression programs are ZIP,  ARJ, ARC, and compress. If you are using internet, leave at least a few days for responses to come in, and make sure you have connectivity to each player's site before starting the game.
• Will you be playing in the game?  Some players don't like the Game Host to play, so its only fair to warn them off.
• What skill level will the game be? (In practice, what sort of player are you looking for?) [Novice, intermediate, expert]
• Which version of the game will be used? [Shareware or Registered; Version 2.x or 3.0?]
• Are private alliance negotiations allowed?  [Usually, yes]
• Are player passwords in use?  [Normally not, over Email]
• How should players choose races? ["State first three choices" seems to work well.]
• Are non-standard race names usable?  [Up to you as host]
• What is the ending condition for the game?  [First to reach a specified  number of points; highest score on specified date; last player or alliance left alive]
• What is the game configuration: 
  - Distances between homeworlds?  [Short, Medium, Long, or Very Long] 
  - Mineral richness of homeworld?  [Normal or Extra Rich]
  - Starting Engine tech level?  [1-10]
  - Recycle rate of colonizing ships?  [0-100%]
  - Odds of a large meteor impact?  [0-100%]
  - Minefields allowed?  [YES or NO]
  - Alchemy ships allowed?  [YES or NO]
• What subject line should Emailed turns carry?  (Useful if you can extract files automatically.)
• Where should players send their .TRN files, and where should they address questions? If using  internet, this usually means a clearly-specified Email address.
• Any other information. Remind internet players that they will need a uuencode and uudecode package. (You could use something unusual, like PGP radix-64 or xxencode, but its probably not worth it.) Uuencode is a program that will encode a datafile as text so that it may be treated as a text file. Uudecode translates the text file back to data. Some Game Hosts compress .RST files before distributing them; if  you  do  that,  be  sure that everyone has a copy of your compression program before you start.

                       c:

                       cd \planets

                       host game1

HOST.EXE produces a few pages of output to the screen, and an error log in the file "ERROR.LOG" in the game data directory. If the Game Host has 300K or more of free memory, she/he can run HOST.EXE from a DOS shell. The first time you run HOST.EXE (right after running MASTER.EXE and possibly HCONFIG.EXE), don't worry that there are no .TRN files in your game data directory; this is normal. This comment will make more sense when you read the section "HOST: PREPARING TO PROCESS TURNS (.TRN FILES)" below.

HOST.EXE has several caveats that have the potential to make players very angry with the Game Host. They do not apply to the run of HOST.EXE done right after the game is created. Here they are -- be sure you understand them!

1. If any .TRN files are missing, the game will continue with  no problems. Ships and planets belonging to players whose .TRNs are missing  will continue performing their last order. Ships will continue on the same course and speed, and planets will continue to mine minerals and produce supplies. Players are usually not hurt badly by missing a turn in this way. This feature can be taken advantage of in playtesting. Order a ship to go to a destination that it will take ten turns to reach, then simply run HOST.EXE ten times (don't bother  running UNPACK.EXE, PLANETS.EXE, or MAKETURN.EXE). Then play the turn, and  your  planet  should  be  at  its destination (if it had enough fuel!)
2. A missed turn CANNOT be made up!  There is a turn counter that is incremented every time HOST.EXE is run, and this counter is kept in a game data file. HOST.EXE knows when a .TRN file was generated from a previous turn, and rejects it as stale. A message is printed, and the file is ignored.
3. If you accidentally forget to put the latest .TRN files in the game data directory before running HOST.EXE, then any .TRN files present will be rejected as stale, and all players will be treated as having missing .TRN files. DO NOT try to fix this mistake by putting the .TRN  files in the game data directory and rerunning HOST.EXE!  The .TRN files will simply be rejected, and the game  will  advance yet *another* turn. The best way to prevent this sort of problem is to make a backup of the game data directory after every invocation of HOST.EXE.  Also make a habit of  backing up the most recently received .TRN files before running HOST.EXE.  If there is a problem with the HOST.EXE run, restore the game data  directory from backup, copy in the (hopefully correct) .TRN files, and rerun HOST.EXE.
4. HOST.EXE will display messages from the "TIM CONTINUUM" when two or more players in the game are using the same registered copy. HOST.EXE will punish such players in unexpected ways. It is strongly suggested that everyone register their OWN copy.
5. There is no reason for anyone except the Game Host to  run HOST.EXE.

PLAYERS: PLAYING TURNS

       c:

       copy c:\download\player3.rst c:\planets\mygame

       cd \planets

       unpack mygame

       planets mygame

       maketurn mygame

UNPACK.EXE decodes the PLAYERx.RST file into data files  that can be read by PLANETS.EXE.
PLANETS.EXE is the main program in VGA  Planets;  running  it plays  the  game. Players should exit PLANETS.EXE when their turns are completed. If a player exits then suddenly realizes that they want to make a change, there is no problem rerunning PLANETS.EXE. The turn can be replayed up to the point that the PLAYERx.TRN file  (produced  by MAKETURN.EXE) is delivered to the Game Host. This can be done by copying the backed-up  PLAYERx.RST file to the game data directory, running UNPACK.EXE again, then running PLANETS.EXE.
MAKETURN.EXE converts the player data files into  PLAYERx.TRN files, ready to be delivered to the Game Host. 
When running on a single computer out of a single game data directory, the Game Host should be the only one to run UNPACK.EXE and MAKETURN.EXE.

PLAYERS: RETURNING TURNS TO HOST (.TRN_FILES)

The PLAYERx.TRN files must be delivered to the Game Host. Here are some suggestions for various host scenarios. When game is being hosted...

• FROM A BBS: most BBSs support attaching an uploaded data file to an Email message. Alternatively, you can uuencode the .TRN  file and Email it or post it as text. File compression/decompression is also an option, though the uploads/downloads are usually quite small (less than 10k).
• WHEN NO NETWORK AVAILABLE: simply copy the .RST files to individual floppies and distribute them to the respective players.

HOST: DISTRIBUTING TURNS (.RST_FILES)

• FROM A BBS: most BBSs support attaching an uploaded data file to an Email message. Alternatively, you can uuencode the .RST file and Email it or post it  as text. File compression/decompression is also an option, though the uploads/downloads are usually quite small (less than 10k). BBS hosts are advised to set things up in such a manner  that .TRN files can only be uploaded by the proper players, unless player trust is not an issue.
• ACROSS INTERNET: usually uuencode the .RST file and Email it. Some Game Hosts may wish to lump all .RST files together in a compressed, uuencoded archive so that they can Email the same file to all players. In this case, player passwords should be enabled at game configuration time.
• ON A SINGLE COMPUTER: there is no need to transfer files if everyone is playing on the same computer, out of the same directory. If this is the case, the Game Host should run UNPACK.EXE at this time; for example:

                c:

                cd \planets

                unpack gamedirname then alert the other players that they can run PLANETS.EXE at their leisure.

• ACROSS INTERNET: usually uuencode the .TRN file and Email it. Some Game Hosts may want .TRN files compressed first, and/or may want a particular Subject line so that they can more easily automate the .TRN extraction process.
• ON A SINGLE COMPUTER: there is no need to transfer files if everyone is playing on the same computer, out of the same directory. If this is the case, the Game Host should run MAKETURN.EXE at this time; for example:

                          c:

                          cd \planets

                          maketurn gamedirname

• AND NO NETWORK IS AVAILABLE: simply copy the .TRN file to a floppy and deliver it to the Game Host.

HOST: PREPARING TO PROCESS TURNS (.TRN_FILES)

The Game Host should backup the players' .TRN files, and copy them to the game data directory. Suppose the VGA Planets executables are in directory C:\PLANETS, the game data directory is C:\PLANETS\GAME1, and the current .TRN files are backed up in C:\download:

       c:

       copy c:\download\*.trn c:\planets\game1

The Game Host is now ready to begin the cycle again by running HOST.EXE.

MOVING HOST TO A NEW COMPUTER

It's easy to move the game data directory to a new directory or even a new machine. Simply copy the game data directory and all its contents to the new directory or machine, and run the VGA Planets executables using the new directory. Of course, the VGA Planets executables must also be present on the new  machine to be able to run the game!

For  example, suppose I want to move a game from C:\PLANETS\GAME1 on  machine #1 to C:\GAMES\PLANETS\MOVED on machine #2. One way to do it is to copy all files from  machine #1's C:\PLANETS\GAME1 to a floppy disk, then copy all files from the floppy disk to machine #2's C:\GAMES\PLANETS\MOVED.

Then (assuming VGA Planets executables are in C:\GAMES\PLANETS\MOVED on machine #2), you can run HOST.EXE as follows:

                       c:

                       cd c:\games\planets

                       host moved