BattleTech PBeM Development Group From: bc@fccn01.fccn.pt (Luis Miguel Sequeira) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 15:24:41 +0000 ******************************************************************* B A T T L E T E C H P B e M D E V E L O P M E N T G R O U P ******************************************************************* Ok, I'm sorry not having posted anything at all earlier. However, there weren't many new suggestions to be added, except for one, coming from Hunter Chen <hunterch@chaph.usc.edu>. He has being busy developing the Jumpships, and his mail is so thorough you can directly put it on the rulebook! Thanks Chen. Here a transcription: From hunterch@chaph.usc.edu Mon Nov 23 07:42:40 1992 Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 11:57:46 PST From: Hunter Chen <hunterch@chaph.usc.edu> To: bc@fccn01.fccn.pt Subject: Jumpship travel (here goes) For many faithful Btech followers, they will be pleased to know that at least this part will be retained. Jumpships are ships equipped with the Kearny-Fuchida drive that allows mankind to leap from star to star. These ships are designed for Interstellar travel, not interplanetary or in-system travel. This type is designed for the more maneuvarable (and often more armored and armed) Dropships. Jumpships basically contain 4 different parts: 1) The sail: It is with the sail that the Jumpship recharges its drive. 2) The K-F drive 3) The docking hard points: It is at these points where Dropships are latched on before Jump. 4) The bridge Interstellar travel: In Btech there are 5 classes of Jumpship: Scout: Contains only a single docking collar Merchant: Contains two docking collars Invader: Contains three docking collars Star Lord: Contains six docking collars Monolith: Contains nine docking collars For the purpose of this game, the most common types seen will be the Scout and Merchant Classes. Occassionally a Invader class will be seen. The Star Lords and Monoliths are usually used for large scale invasions of combined arms and are usually owned by a House. If one desires to travel to another system, s/he can travel to the local starport and check the current roster of Jumpships in system. S/he will see the following information: Jumpship No.: Name: Registry: Class: Recharge time: The Jumpship No. will be assigned to all jumpships in the game. There will be a limited # of jumpships in the game. The Number system will be a 1,2, or 3 (indicating what class Jumpship it is [1 for scout, 2 for merchant, and 3 for invader]) followed by a 3 digit number. For example a scout jumpship can have the # 1002 while an Invader will be # 3004. The Name is self explanatory. Registry will indicate which House, Merchant Cartel, or Mercenary Unit it is affiliated with. There is a chance that it maybe an independent Jumpship. Class: One of the 5 classes named above. Recharge Time: In Btech, a Jumpship requires one week (on the average) to properly recharge its drive to make a jump. I am not sure what a "turn" represents in this game, so the time necessary to recharge will be decided later. Having a recharge time creates a sort of lag time where often mercs or passengers must wait until the ship is fully charged before departing to another system. Rules: 1) A Jumpship CANNOT be attacked under ANY circumstances. The Jumpship represent the life blood of the entire Human Sphere. The loss of one ship is detrimental of the survival of the human race as an interstellar species. a) There is a random chance that a Jumpship that is not being used by players (Mercs, House or others) may be lost. This small chance represents accidents, failures during jump, or simply old age and decommission. 2) A Jumpship in BTech has only a fixed range. I suggest this be modified to insure some fluidity in the game (and prevent annoying recharge stops). A Jumpship can reach any part of the Inner Sphere, but the farther the distance the longer it will take. This can be worked out as soon as a map is designed. 3) The cost of a Jump is dependent on the distance that it has to Jump. 4) A Jumpship can Jump to any system including a hostile system and cannot be harmed (see 1). Usually a Jumpship jumps into the zenith or nadir points of a system because of the lack of gravity and debris at these points. If a Jumpship jumps into one of these points, local authorities and military forces are immediately notified. a) However, a Jumpship can Jump into a "pirate" point where it will not be immediately noticed by local forces. However, for every "turn" it remains there, there remains a chance it will be detected. Orders: In order to purchase passage to a Jumpship, the player must type the following: Transport on <Jumpship #> to <destination> If the Jumpship is ready, it will make the jump. Once it arrives at its destination, the cost is automatically deducted from the mercs funds. Jumpship #= The jumpship # listed at the spaceport destination = <system or planet name, jump point> (jump point will be : Zenith/Nadir/Pirate Note: Pirate points will be very expensive to jump into.) /* transcription ends here */ My single comment: >In order to purchase passage to a Jumpship, the player must type the >following: > >Transport on <Jumpship #> to <destination> > >If the Jumpship is ready, it will make the jump. Once it arrives at its >destination, the cost is automatically deducted from the mercs funds. Wouldn't it be nice to specify something else like lance # or the 'mechs id's which want to be transported? ==================================== MAILER HELP !!! ==================================== And now, something completely different... Last Friday I was amusing myself writing an ultra-simplified mailer, to get incoming mail via the mail pipe and processing it accordingly (i. e., writing orders received on one file, gripes on another, error logging on yet another, and processing automated requests like rules, news, etc.). All very fine, I was just following the very simple instructions of Mel Nicholson's article at the PBEM magazine issue #5; however, IT DOESN'T WORK AT ALL!!! I tried with .forward first, then with /usr/lib/aliases, but NOTHING works. I chmod'ed it correctly (tried several alternatives). Or better said... the mailer IS called. It correctly creates fresh new files (with zero bytes), but does not write to them, or mails back replies... (BTW, can you use the system() call on a mailer? Or must I use an execXX() call instead??) Really, ALL help I can get on this can't be enough... Sorry for my ignorance... ======================== The Name ======================== Yep, it's time for naming our game! Provisorily it has been called `MechWars' and has a working email address at `mechwars@wkux01.fccn.pt'. You can finger it, you can't send mail to it! (yep, there's where the infamous mailer sleeps, routing every bit of meil to /dev/nul... :-( ) In the future, most posts will come from that address, as I'm preparing it so you can send contributions and get things from there (I'm still hesitant about an ftp server, though. Well, I may get it working tomorrow... :-) ) Ok, names needed... Some silly suggestions: - MechWars (next versions will be called "MechWars II - The Houses Strike Back" and "MechWars III - The Return of the Clans") - MercForce - Blood, Steel & Politics :-) - Lance Commanders - `The' BattleTech PBeM :-) I'm sure you can add quite a lot... I'll select the hundred best and vote for them!! (also: .sig designers needed!!! ) Bye... I'll get working on the mailer again. Seems that I've already got an answer... - Luis Sequeira _________________________________________________________________________ / / _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ Computer scientists do it byte by byte. _/ _/_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ "Know your enemy before he knows you" _/ _/ _/ _/ - Sun Tzu misquote _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ bc@fccn01.fccn.pt Luis Miguel Sequeira Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia Civil Phone 351-1-8482131 Ext. 2752 Centro Informatica/Grupo Sistemas Centrais "Don't call me, I'll call you" Av. Brasil, 101 - 1700 Lisboa, Portugal / _________________________________________________________________________/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ -= MechWars =- _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ The Ultimate BattleTech PBeM _/ _/ mechwars@wkux01.fccn.pt _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/_/_/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Up