Oh, a break in the text. Instead, we get a table of computer programs usable on starships. And there are quite a few. Offensive, defensive, and routine programs abound. Let's take a look at what we've got. There's not much description; a note at the bottom of the table says details will come later in the text. Alrighty, then.
First up, offensive programs. Because blowing things up is the most important thing in space travel. The program types are 'Predict,' 'Gunner Interact', 'Target', Selective', 'Multi-Target', and 'Launch'. There are five different 'Predict' programs, three Selective and three Multi-Target. The table gives space taken up by each program, as well as the price...which is in millions of credits. Damn, I thought Apple computers were too pricey.
The 'space' part is curious; these are software, not hardware. Maybe it refers to the computer's memory capacity. Computers in 1977 didn't have a lot of memory, and hard drives didn't exist. They didn't even use floppy disks yet; I remember our first computer, built (by my dad) around the time this game came out. It used a cassette tape drive for storage. Man, that thing took forever to load. And the computer's memory was a whopping 4 KB. That's RAM, not permanent storage. And it took a few minutes to load up a BASIC program. I don't think anyone in 1977 was envisioning the sorts of computers we have today. Not in the gaming industry, anyway.
Alright, let's see what details we can glean from the table. The Predict programs, 1 through 5, are given only a DM of +1 to +3, depending on how expensive the program is. I'm not sure what the DM is for; I'll find out later. 'Gunner Interact' lets you add the gunner's expertise (skill level?) to the turret's attack. Well, that's a pretty important program, since you want to man your guns with men who know how to use them. And the program only costs a mere 1,000,000 credits.
'Selective' gives us some details: It allows the gunner to choose what part of the target ship he hits. The options are the main compartment and the engineering section. Sorry, Engineering Section. The Selective 2 program actually takes up more memory than the Selective 3. It costs a bit less, but it has a -1 DM. I'm still not sure what the DM actually affects, but we'll find out soon enough.
'Multi-Target' lets the ship (but not a specific turret) to target multiple ships. I'm going to guess that the level of the program (2 to 4) determines how many ships can be targeted simultaneously. 'Launch' is pretty straightforward; you can launch missiles...and sand. Sand? Who the hell is launching sand out of a missile turret? Is it supposed to be some sort of chaff? Laser screen? Wouldn't there be better options than sand? Maybe it's a typo. Please, let it be a typo.
Next up, we have the defensive programs. Because after blowing other ships up, the most important thing is not getting your own ship blown up. There are 'Maneuver/Evade' with six levels, Auto/Evade, Return Fire, Anti-Missile, and ECM. Maneuver/Evade lets the computer do the routine maneuvering, and (I'm guessing) allows the ship to take evasive maneuvers like a pilot would. The higher the level, the better the ship's performance. Except I'm not sure why Maneuver/Evade 6 gets a -5 DM. I sincerely hope that's explained later.
Auto/Evade has a -2 DM, and nothing else to explain it. The next three are pretty straight forward: Return Fire means the ship will shoot back automatically. Anti-Missile uses lasers to knock them down. Okay, so why the sand? ECM can blow the missile up before it reaches your ship. Again, why the friggin' sand? That's bugging me. And I know I've still got to get through a few more pages before I get to the computer program descriptions, because that's just how this is going to work.
Routine programs are just that: Routine. Unlike the offensive and defensive programs, though, some of these are required for a ship. 'Maneuver' means your pilot can actually fly the ship. The Jump programs (1-6) are required to use the jump drive. And there's a library program, which contains 'encyclopedic information.' So, a futuristic version of Wikipedia, then. And it only costs 300,000 credits. Then there's Navigation, which isn't mentioned as 'required,' but I would imagine it pretty much is, anyway. It receives flight plans to control jumps. No mention of interplanetary steering, though. Generate means the ship can make its own flight plans. That's handy. Finally, there's an 'Anti-Hijack' program, which, as the title suggests, reacts to hijacking situations. Which, I recall, aren't that uncommon. No wonder they get their own dedicated software. There's no 'anti-reactor explosion' program, or 'anti-out-of-fuel' program. No, hijackers are special.
There's also a note at the bottom of the table that new ships have a built-in 2,000,000 credit voucher to put software into the ship. So, that's enough for the maneuvering and jump drives, which will leave anywhere from 1.2 to 1.8 million credits for other programs. After that, though, you're adding stupid amounts of money to the cost of your ship if you want to really trick it out with the newest upgrades and patch files.
For a page with little text, this one produced quite a bit of text, didn't it? Let's get back to the Engineering Section next time. Maybe. We'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment