hq.txt v1.11 12/05/98 The headquarter program is the executable which deals with the team creation and management. Work on it started 5 years ago when Vicious Byte tried to do Titans of Steel for the first time. Therefore its graphics are a bit dated and the interface is far from perfect but it should do its job. Though we promised to do a major rewrite for v1.0 we must admitt that we could not keep this, sorry. Hq.exe is located in progs directory and can be launched directly from here or by executing tos.bat from the main directory and selcting the HQ. Sound can be disabled by launching with the -s command line parameter. (hq.exe -s) This a short help on how to create new jocks and build teams. You can navigate through the different screens with the two arrow keys at the screen bottom. When active they are displayed green, otherwise they stay black. 1. As soon as you launch hq.exe you have to decide which team file to edit. These files are used during startup of the battle module as well as to modify/repair your titans in the factory module. They are located in the data directory as team1 to team4. If there does not exists such a file it will be created and your new team will start with 500000 $ initial money and no jocks or titans. If you want to delete a complete team you have to manually delete the file from the data directory, again sorry :-). 2. Next you are in the main menu. Here you can : a) Rename your team. b) Hire new jocks via the state prison database. c) Buy new titans via the titan factory database. d) View/Modify your teams jocks. e) View/Sell your teams titans. f) Logout and save if you want to. a) To rename your team click on the word TEAM in front of its name. The default name is VICIOUS WITCHES. b) To search the database you must enter the search criteria like name, callsign, race and sex. You are only allowed to hire new jocks if you can pay 25000 $ to release them from prison. There are four races available : Human, Android, Replicant and Cyborg. Humans are like you and me, therefore they get a +1 bonus on charisma :-) Androids are like those you may know from Alien2 or Alien4 movies. In ToS they have self healing abilities and are sexless. Androids gain +1 on both reaction and neural sense attributes. Replicants are like those you may know from the Bladerunner movie. They are cloned humans, genetically enhanced either in dexterity or intelligence. Therefore they receive +2 on on of those attributes. Cyborgs are sturdy humans enhanced with cybernetic implants. They receive +1 on constitution but suffer a -1 penalty on charisma. If you choose male jocks you are granted a additional +1 bonus on constitution whereas females receive +1 om instinct. After you have entered all necessary data you will be presented with the result of your search. Now you are on the jock development screen. A jock is defined by 7 attributes and 19 skills in 3 categories. Each skill can be developed to a limit which is defined by its primary and secondary attribute. This limit is calculated as follows : Max = 5 * ((2 * primary attribute + secondary attribute) / 3) Attributes range from 5 to 20, thus allowing a maximum skill of 100%. The attributes are : Intelligence Neural Sense Reaction Instinct Dexterity Constituation Charisma Neural Sense does need some explanation. Recon and light Titans are piloted manually by the jocks, therefore they have dexterity and reaction as their primary/secondary attribute. Medium and heavy titans are controlled with the help of a neural bridge, connecting the jock with its machine. Each character has a personal sensibility towards this device, called Neural Sense. Therfore Neural Sense and Dexterity are the primary/secondary attibutes for the skill 'piloting medium & heavy' titans. Please note that intelligence does limit the numbers of skills a jock can improve. Each point of intelligence does grant one skill to train. Rookies do start with 300 development points (DP) in each of the three categories piloting, combat and other which they can distribute amongst their skills and/or attributes. These points do represent their initial training. A jock can improve his attributes (at a very high cost) by left clicking on the attributes name. The better the attribute, the more DPs he has to pay to for it. Jocks can improve skills by 1 point to their limit by left clicking. Shift-left click does add 10 points. Same goes for reductions with the right mouse button. The price for increasing skills and/or attributes is displayed in the DP columns on this screen. The cost of increasing the attribute or skill are displayed in the DP column of the screen. Note that the cost for attribute increases is deducted from all three categories ! There are three types of skills, piloting, combat and others. They are Piloting Combat Other ---------------------------------------------------------------- Recon/Light Close combat Electronic Warfare Medium/Heavy Guided Missiles Scanner Systems Assault Unguided Missiles Defensive Systems Jump Cannons Damage Control Energy Weapons Leadership Indirect Fire Tactics Buisness Survival Medical Most of the skills are self explanatory. Leadership and tactics will be used only in the shareware version v2.0. After you have finished to distribute the DPs you can go back and hire more jocks up to a maximum of 8 per team. c) Select the titan database to buy titans for your team up to a maximum of 16. You can select among premade designs and those created with the factory module. The cost is modified by your team managers buisness skill ! d) Have a look at your jocks. Here you can fire them and allocate them to a titan for the next battle. Your team manager is choosen automatically, he/she is the one with the highest buisness skill. If this skill is less than 70%, the difference is added to the cost when buying and subtracted when selling titans. The biggest penalty is 40% for managers with <= 30% in buisness. Buisness skill in excess of 70% does give a bonus, a jock with a skill of 100% does receive 30% discount ! e) Have a look at your teams titans and sell them if you want. Damaged titans are displayed with exclamation marks (!) left and right of their cost and should be repaired in the factory. Note that titans only will earn you half their original value if sold. You can get more if your managers buisness skill exceeds 70% though. f) Select logout to quit. If you do not save now ALL changes you made to your team will be lost. Well thats all for now. Vicious Byte is aware that the HQ is the worst part of the game, please do NOT judge ToS only by looking at this module :-) Henrik