These are SR beta notes, as I have them - possibly I have not saved all of them, so take care. I'm not in favour of releasing the betas, but that has effectively been done now, and I partly understand the reasons why. Since the patches are out there, you may as well see the documentation too. The bug lists were recorded on SR's forum, which is no more. As it happens, I don't regard any of the beta patches as better than U2.04. ------------ 08-Apr-2002 Terminal Interface Introduction Hardwar U3.00 introduces a terminal interface which allows a huge amount of control that was not available before, access to more features, and most importantly a quick route for us to implement new commands and actions as quickly as possible. A new control (default key 'O') will bring up the terminal interface at any time. Commands can then be entered at the prompt, and output is displayed in the terminal window above. Entering the 'HIDE' command will close the terminal interface. The range of commands supported at this point in time is as follows: LOOK, L, CASH, GOODS, EXITS, X, OUT, BAYS, BOARD, BOARDPASS, LAUNCH, TARGET, AUTOPILOT, HANGAR, RECRUIT, ORDER, EXEC, STAFF, BLAG, PLANS, PERMISSIONS, HIDE A brief description of some of the more interesting commands: EXEC - executes a command as another pilot. For example, the command "EXEC Downtown Trader 1,BOARD,4" would cause Downtown Trader 1 to board the moth in bay 4. Other examples: "EXEC Fred,LOOK" to see where Fred is, and "EXEC Fred,BAYS" to see what hangar bays are available to Fred. PERMISSIONS - sets admin permissions for another pilot. You must have appropriate permissions to be able to do this. Luckily, the first time you create a pilot called "Admin", this pilot is assigned all administrative permissions. You need permissions, for example, to execute commands as other pilots (EXEC), and to do anything that might be considered cheating. RECRUIT, STAFF and ORDER - these perform part of an experimental new feature allowing you to enlist pilots ("Hired Hands" as they are known internally) onto your payroll and use them to perform tasks. Various hired hands are placed around the world at startup (e.g. at Alpha Trading Post). They can be recognised by their 6-letter names. For $1000, they can be RECRUITed onto your payroll. Type STAFF to see who you have recruited. Anyone on your payroll can be ORDERed to do various things - a limited range for now, but to be expanded, and suggestions welcome. Fun is to be had here by getting out of your Moon Moth, enlisting someone and ordering them into the pilots seat, then boarding as a passenger and having them chauffeur you around the world. e.g. "ORDER Topcat,GO,Downtown Moths" or even "ORDER Topcat,KILL,blade806". A few issues have been resolved already here (a) someone on your payroll is automatically allowed to board a moth owned by you, and (b) the police and factions will hold you responsible for the actions of your staff. There will be many other issues along these lines to resolve before this feature can be part of a balanced game - comments welcome. Full documentation for these commands will be provided at a later date. For now, expect the range of commands to expand rapidly. 17-Apr-2002 New Network Options The Network tab of the Hardwar Manager contains two new options in U3.00. The first is 'Require Pilot Passwords'. If this box is checked, new pilots will be asked to create a password when they first join the game. From that point on, the password will be required for that pilot to log back in to the game. The second option is 'Allow god hangar access'. Unless this box is checked, nobody will be allowed to access the god hangar. 22-Apr-2002 New Terminal Commands The following are new terminal commands for U3.00b2, which will be released shortly. DEPOSIT - deposits the specified amount of cash from your personal cash to the hangar you are in. (Note that you can do this even if you are not the owner of the hangar!) WITHDRAW - withdraws the specified amount of cash from the hangar into your personal cash. (You must be the owner to do this!) In addition, if you are in a hangar you own, the CASH command now shows the amount of cash held there, as well as your personal cash. 04-May-2002 Second beta version released The second beta version, Hardwar U3.00b2, is now ready for download using the same details as before, but obviously changing the b1 to b2 in the filename! Thanks to all participants for their feedback. Significant changes for this beta are as follows: * Bug fixes to stock and manufacturing interface * Boardpass terminal command no longer works for a moth without a passenger seat * DEPOSIT and WITHDRAW terminal commands added * CASH terminal command now also shows cash held in your hangar * Bay numbers made consistent between terminal and hangar bay browser * Radar now shows your staff in Green * Fixed terminal crash when AUTOPILOT entered with no parameters * Maximum fog distance increased for 3DFX, and 3DFX bug fixes * BLAG command improved - can now blag moths * HUD now displays autopilot status 06-May-2002 Persistent Network Games An explanation of this new option in the Hardwar manager: This option is intended to be enabled when you are running a long-term persistent network game. Currently, not much changes when it is enabled. The main difference is that the startup options change, so that new players cannot come into the world highly equipped. The cheats allowing specially equipped moths ("scunthorpe") etc, are also disabled. 06-May-2002 Change List for Beta 3 The following is a brief list of what has been changed between beta 2 and beta 3. Beta 3 (Hardwar U3.00b3) will be available for download within the week. This list may, of course, expand before then! * Fixed AUTOPILOT command * Added THRUST command - sets thrust of moth * Syntax of TARGET command changed - now simply, e.g. "target downtown moths" or "target rex moonbeam". * Added TELL terminal command - allows chat between players in different locations. * Added SAY terminal command - allows chat between players in same location. * Added WHO terminal command - shows who else is playing, and whether via Hardwar client, terminal, or both. * Hardwar manager - option added to set port for terminal server (see below) and fixed minor typo. * Fixed bug which caused in-game terminal interface not to work on a network version. * Addition of terminal server, allowing text-only access to the terminal interface via any telnet-style software. More on this in another article. * Added text-style location system ("rooms"), which allows movement on foot within and between buildings via the terminal interface * Added ability to run command scripts on startup, currently used mainly for creation of rooms. 06-May-2002 Terminal Server Introduction Introduced with U3.00b3, the terminal server is a major enhancement to Hardwar. In brief, it allows access to the game via a text-based interface from any telnet-style client software. You can both log in as your existing pilot, or create a new pilot, via the terminal server. Once logged in, the interface is virtually identical to the terminal interface within the game. It is possible to log in via the terminal interface while connected via the standard Hardwar client. This means if you run Hardwar in a window, have two monitors, or better yet two machines, you can use both interfaces simultaneously! You can also play via the terminal interface alone, using the autopilot to navigate your moth and even attack people. Obviously you would be at a major disadvantage against any pilot using the standard Hardwar client, but the option is there. Perhaps you're at work, without Hardwar, and want to check the stock in your hangar, or complete another trade run, for example. Another option opened up by this interface is the ability to create 'bots' - AI style pilots - in any programming language that can communicate via a TCP/IP connection. All you need to do is issue commands and respond to the results. In fact, it would be possible to do this without a programming language, using a terminal client that supports scripting etc. (e.g. ZMud - www.zuggsoft.com). Obviously all this is aimed mainly at long-term online games, but everything works just the same even on a non-networked machine - you simply connect to the address 127.0.0.1. 06-May-2002 Terminal Server Basics In order to enable the terminal server on either your stand-alone game, or network server game, you need to go to the Network tab in the Hardwar Manger and select a port for the server to run on. If the port is set to 0, the terminal server is disabled. Good choices for the port would be either 23 (standard telnet port) or 9001. The simplest client software is Telnet, built-in to Windows. Hit the Start button, choose Run and enter 'telnet' to start it. When connecting, enter the address of your server (127.0.0.1 for your local machine) and the port. Once connected, hit return once and you should get the login prompt. 07-May-2002 Administrator Commands When you create a pilot called "Admin", that pilot is assigned certain permissions to do things that a normal pilot cannot do. These are things that could be considered cheating, but are also useful for the administrator of a long-term online game. Obviously, when starting up a new online game, your first action should be to create the admin pilot and set the password. The admin pilot can grant permission to do things to other pilots if desired. This is done using the PERMISSIONS command from the terminal. Each permission has a single letter code. The current set is as follows: 's' - Set permissions 'o' - Order any pilot, and EXEC as any pilot 'b' - Blag cash and items 'p' - Interact with plans 'h' - Hijack moths and hangars 'c' - Build 't' - Teleport Lets say you wanted to allow Fred to blag and teleport. You would issue the following command: PERMISSIONS Fred,bt Note that some of the permissions above will not have an effect until b3 - teleport for example. The 'set permissions' permission is very powerful and potentially dangerous. It gives the pilot permission to grant permissions to other pilots, making five uses of the word permission in only two sentences. We are open to suggestions as to other things game administrators might need to be able to do - removing abandoned moths, for example, or maybe booting pilots from the game. 29-Jun-2002 Beta 5 released Beta 5 is now available for download. Instructions are as before, again changing the last digit on the filename to a '5' - passwords etc remain the same. Major changes since beta 4 are as follows: * Fixed crash when using an invalid pilot name with commands such as GREET, WAVE, etc in the terminal * 'Debriefing Zone' restored, used as a final destination for several plot-related moths * Added a 'create' command to create buildings, mainly for internal use at the moment. * Added further subcommands for the HANGAR command - LOGO, TYPE and SOFTWARE - for builders only * Fixed problems with missing linebreaks in PLANS and ORDER REPORT commands. * Added HANGAR STOCK functionality - ability to list, set sale prices, buy prices and max buy amounts from terminal * Improvements to link connection (slow/fast) modes * Terminal server now disabled when joining as a network client, meaning you can join a game on your own machine! * Two new weapons added - fumbler (will cause random dropping of cargo if the target has shields down) and Disabler (kills target's engine power for a short time). * Blaster weapon added, for damaging buildings * Complete reworking of the way the economy and traders work. Prices are now much more dynamic and realistic. MAJOR LONG TERM ECONOMY TESTING NEEDED HERE!!!! * Fixed a major bug in game load, which meant that in any loaded (rather than new) game, movement in the terminal interface would be subject to random crashes, missing exits, etc.