     Update v1.05
     
     
     
     
     Hello everybody!
     
     
     Colonial Conquest  has  been  written  in  1993  by  Christian
     Mumenthaler. If you are not familiar with the original version
     (v1.01),  please  read  the  main  manual  or  at  least   the
     "Copyright"-file that  contains  all  informations  about  the
     legal status of this game.
     Please remember that Colonial Conquest  is  a  giftware  game,
     which means that you can give a donation to the author if  you
     like it. I do however not  force  anybody  and  I  will  fully
     understand "poor" people like students (like me!)  who  prefer
     to send me their comments and suggestions instead of money.  I
     even encourage them to do so!
     I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that this
     game should under no circumstances be sold for  more  than  4$
     (or the equivalent in another currency)! Fred Fish is the ONLY
     person excepted from this restriction.
     
     
     WHY AN UPDATE?
     
     
     Programs tend to have bugs, specially when they have not  been
     tested by hundreds of persons who tried their best to find out
     these bugs.
     Colonial Conquest is no exception from this.  Fortunately,  it
     was still possible to play the whole v1.01  game  without  any
     problems  in  the  one  player  mode  (as  some  people   have
     reported).
     The worst bug concerning the stargates that couldn't  be  used
     in the two player mode was so bad though, that I have  decided
     to put a new version  into  PD  and  Aminet  at  once,  before
     Christmas.
     
     
     SO WHAT'S NEW?
     
     
     Many  minor  bugs  have  been  eliminated  and  the  graphical
     displays have been  improved  (planet  list,  flight  status).
     Besides this, there are four important changes:
     
     
     1) STARGATES: I found out that the concept  of  the  Stargates
     wasn't OK at all. While reprogramming everything, I have  seen
     that the thing you believed were Stargates in v1.01 were  just
     illusions.  So  here  are  the  new,  real  rules   concerning
     Stargates:
     Stargates can only be built if the  civilization  has  reached
     Tech-Level 5. As the hexagonal Von-Hirt field that  holds  the
     singularity stable has to be controlled, YOU  WILL  NEED  SOME
     PEOPLE ON THE PLANET SURFACE! In other words: The planet where
     the stargate is supposed to be installed must be colonized (or
     conquered!) first! It is assumed  that  all  instruments  that
     control the stargate are somewhere in the colony  (station  or
     city complex).
     These facts imply that your enemy  cannot  use  the  stargates
     around your planets unless he conquers it.
     In contrary to the old version, the following (obvious) things
     are now implemented:
     - Ships can only travel through  controlled  stargates.  Both,
     the start and destination planet have  therefore  to  be  your
     colonies.
     - Ships traveling through stargates are  not  present  in  the
     normal universe and do therefore never appear on scanners.
     - Ships use the way of travel they have at their  disposal  at
     the time you send them away. If you install stargates  at  the
     start and destination planet AFTER the ships have  left,  they
     will continue their travel in normal space.
     - Stargate travel is specially marked  in  the  flight  status
     (red star) and in the "travel route" option (yellow line).
     
     
     2) NEXT IDLE. Once  you  have  colonized  more  than  4  to  5
     planets, it is often a tedious work to look  after  each  turn
     for all the planets that need some intervention.  The  program
     does now keep in mind (with a "duty-list") all planets where a
     new colonist unit has  grown  that  could  be  assigned  to  a
     special work or where the production of  an  object  has  been
     completed  and  no  further  object  is   ordered   with   the
     "Permanent" option.
     Use the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON or the RETURN key from the  starmap
     to go to the next planet in the list. Please  note  that  once
     the program has brought you to the planet,  it  will  take  it
     away from the "duty-list" even if you do not  change  anything
     on the planet!
     
     
     3) LOAD FROM WITHIN THE GAME. It was  necessary,  without  any
     doubt. Please note that after having loaded the game, it  will
     always be the turn of the player WHO HAS LOADED IT  regardless
     of which one of the two players has saved  it.  (If  you  play
     alone, this discussion is pointless, of course). So, if player
     2 saves the game at turn 100 and player 1 loads it in the next
     turn, he will find himself in turn 100 again. Thus,  only  the
     GAME TURN is saved to disk.
     
     This is only a detail however.
     
     
     4) HIGH-SCORE LIST for  one  player  mode.  Yes,  why  not?  I
     thought this could improve your motivation to play as well  as
     possible as winners will be ranked by the number of game turns
     that were necessary to annihilate the alien opponent.  Try  to
     make it in less than 100 turns! Probably impossible...
     
     The high-score list can be  looked  at  during  game  play  by
     pressing  the  ESCAPE-key.   Please   note   that   the   disk
     "ColonialConquest:" MUST NOT be write protected!
     
     
     That's it for the moment. I have tested it as much as I could,
     but as I have done some major changes in the  code,  I  cannot
     guarantee that this version will be bug-free. All  I  hope  is
     that it will be nearer to what one could  call  bug-free  than
     the version v1.01 and that you will enjoy it!
     
     
     Colonial Conquest is a PAL game, as you have seen. Some people
     have asked me to make a NTSC version, but I hope that you will
     understand that this is definitely too much work, as  ALL  the
     graphical output would have  to  be  changed  from  a  320x255
     resolution to 320x200. Besides this, I really can not  imagine
     where I could put all the buttons and other  things  that  are
     displayed at the moment on a screen that is 20% smaller!
     I have heard however  that  from  OS2.xx  onwards  it  was  NO
     PROBLEM to run PAL programs on NTSC  machines.  If  you  don't
     know how to do it, ask somebody who has more  experience  with
     his Amiga.
     
     
     There are some plans for a second part  of  Colonial  Conquest
     with huge  improvements  in  both,  strategy  and  complexity.
     (Better AI of computer opponent, alien life  forms,  ruins  of
     old civilizations, espionage etc.) I will however  only  start
     programing it if I feel that some people would  like  to  play
     it. I have not received a lot of feedback on Colonial Conquest
     yet and I have tried to convince myself that this  is  normal,
     but I would really like to encourage you to write or e-mail me
     some comments, suggestions or just a few words telling me your
     opinion about the game. Thank you very much!
     
     
     All the best!
     	
     Chris.
     
     
     
     
     Christian Mumenthaler
     Langgrtstr. 178
     CH-8047 Zrich
     Switzerland
     
     
     e-mail: mumi@molbio.ethz.ch or mumi@stud.phys.ethz.ch
     
     
     19. December 1993.
