Galactic Empire Version 2.41 (C)1988-1992 by Bill Mountney & Bill Coffman Upgrading From Version 2.40: No changes are necessary to upgrade from version 2.40. Just copy all of the new v2.41 files in place of the old ones, and the game in progress can continue uninterrupted. Upgrading From Earlier Versions: Version 2.40 and above uses a different file format than the previous versions, so any GE_SETUP.DAT and GE_PLR.DAT files created by previous versions must first be deleted and reinitialized with the new version. Read the GE_SETUP.TXT file for instructions on setting up and initializing the game. Changes in version 2.41: o The "Pause On Exit" feature introduced in version 2.40 was causing a major problem, when it was enabled, that was preventing the two minute time-out and carrier drop detect routines from properly exiting the program. It would get stuck in a loop of saying "Press to exit to BBS" and the timing out again every two minutes. I apologize to anyone whose BBS got hung up because of this bug. o Fixed a bug that was occasionally causing corruption of some of the player's statistics, and also several other minor bugs. Changes in version 2.4: o New Maintenance Budget menu makes it easier to manage your Empire by allowing you to see and adjust the amount that will be given to various things like planetary maintenance, military maintenance, food for people, etc., all at once before approving it. You may also access the market in case you are short on credits, food, energy, etc. o New Cargo system allows shipment of more types of items including ore, galactite and missiles. o Protection from attack for new empires is no longer connected with score, but rather a separate turns of protection counter. The number of turns of protection may be adjusted in the setup by the sysop. o Separately controllable setup options for monthly auto-reset and auto-champions list for non-tournament games. o Pause on exit option will ask the user to press a key before returning to BBS to allow them to see the final output from Galactic Empire on BBS's that clear the screen immediately after exiting a doors program. o Several small bugs corrected. Changes in version 2.23: o During game setup mode, when selecting the orinfo or orem presets, you are now prompted to enter the path to BBS files. It will automatically insert that path in front of the "DORINFO1.DEF" or "FOREM.DAT" file so that it will be able to find it even if the "GE.TOS" file is in a different folder from the BBS. Previously, you would have had to modify the "File Pathname" option after selecting the preset, but that was too easy to overlook. o The following minor bugs were fixed: - Fighters and defense stations were always 100% below normal strength in an attack, even when fully paid. This resulted in their basically having no effect in the battle, and the winner was decided on troop strength alone. - Alliances were not being rejected properly when a player received multiple alliance proposals, sometimes resulting in "one sided" alliances. - The decimal value was not being correctly rounded off in the price of the medical fee for plague infection, resulting in a player's credits having a decimal amount after paying it. Changes in version 2.20: o Added Sysop Control Menu with Chat Mode, Abort Game, and Toggle Sysop View options. o The Setup Utility has been incorporated into the main game file, GE.TOS. An option to enter the Setup Mode is automatically given to the sysop when the game is run locally. o Added support for the DORINFO1.DEF file which is a fairly standard ASCII file for getting the user's name on many BBS systems. This is defined using a new custom BBS type option to extract the name from a line in an ASCII file, so there is now more capability to set up for non-standard BBS's, also. o There are changes in the method of running multiple games. See the section called "Multi-Game Option" near the end of the "GE_SETUP.TXT" file for details. o Fixed a bug causing problems in loading GE_PLR.DAT under rare circumstances. Also fixed quite a few minor bugs in game play. o The order of game play has been rearranged a bit. The order is now: Status Report, Payments, Interior Status/Production, Planetary Operations, Intergalactic Market, Black Market, Gov. Spending, and Foreign Affairs. o Overall fine tuning in the game's prices and other values should make for smoother game play. o The game should be less frustrating for beginning players, with much less chance of having a civil war destroy their empire. o New multi-spy system combines Spy and Terrorist functions and allows a player to have up to five individually controlled covert operation groups. The groups can carry out a variety of covert missions once implanted in another empire, which include most of the old terrorist missions and several new ones. o New Production Priority setting gives players better control over production of each kind of product. o The missiles and four types of warheads have been changed to four types of missiles without need to buy separate warheads. o Mail System now allows for messages to be sent to selected groups of players, eliminating the need for, as well as performing the desired function better than, the Galactic Radio, which has been removed. Changes in version 2.00c: o Fixed a bug preventing proper operation of Tournament Mode.