path: root/doc/users/uqm.6

.\" (C) 1992, 1993, 2002 Toys for Bob, Inc.
.\" The documentation may be used freely under the terms of the
.\" Creative Commons Attribution Attribution 2.0 license,
.\" available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
.\"
.\" The content may also be copied freely as part of a distribution of
.\" The Ur-Quan Masters.
.Dd October 28, 2014
.Dt UQM 6
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm uqm
.Nd The Ur\(hyQuan Masters \(en space exploration game
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm uqm
.Op Fl bcCfghklMnopqsSTuwx
.Op Fl i Ar style
.Op Fl m Ar soundtrack
.Op Fl r Ar resolution
.Op Fl -addon Ar addon
.Op Fl -cscan Ar style
.Op Fl -font Ar font
.Op Fl -menu Ar style
.Op Fl -safe
.Op Fl -scroll Ar style
.Op Fl -shield Ar style
.Op Fl -sound
.Op Fl -stereosfx
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm uqm
is a port of the epic space game The Ur\(hyQuan Masters.
.Pp
The default settings for an
.Nm uqm
install are 3DO music, 640\(mu480 windowed mode, and pure SDL graphics drivers.
You may pass various command line options to customize your experience.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl b , Fl -meleezoom Ar mode
Melee zooming mode
.Po
.Sy pc
or
.Sy 3do
.Pc ;
.Sy step
is an alias for
.Sy pc
and
.Sy smooth
is an alias for
.Sy 3do .
Default is
.Sy 3do .
Slower machine owners can set it to
.Sy pc
to get better performance in melee.
.It Fl C Ar dir , Fl -configdir Ar dir
Sets the directory where the game will store the config data.
.It Fl c Ar mode , Fl -scale Ar mode
Graphics scaling mode
.Po
.Cm bilinear ,
.Cm biadapt ,
.Cm biadv ,
.Cm triscan ,
.Cm hq
or
.Cm none
.Pc .
Default is
.Cm none .
Try these to get smoother graphics, at a performance cost.
.It Fl f , Fl -fullscreen
Uses full screen mode.
The opposite of
.Fl w .
.It Fl g Ar val , Fl -gamma Ar val
Sets gamma correction.
1.0 causes no change
(unless your graphics card is originally set to a different value).
Higher than 1.0 makes the image brighter, lower than 1.0 makes it darker.
.It Fl h , Fl -help
Display a help message.
.It Fl i Ar style , Fl -intro Ar style
With
.Cm 3do ,
use the 3DO intro and ending movies (if you have them).
With
.Cm pc ,
use the PC intro and ending sequences and slide shows.
Defaults to
.Cm 3do .
Regardless of which option is selected, the PC sequences will be used if you do
not have the 3DO movies.
.It Fl k , Fl -keepaspectratio
Keep 4:3 aspect ratio when using custom resolutions.
.It Fl l Ar file , Fl -logfile Ar file
Set a file to receive the diagnostic information that would otherwise go to the
console.
.It Fl M Ar volume , Fl -musicvol Ar volume
Set music volume (0\(en100).
.It Fl m Ar soundtrack , Fl -music Ar soundtrack
Select either the 3DO remixed soundtrack with
.Cm 3do
or the .MOD\(hybased PC soundtrack with
.Cm pc .
Defaults to
.Cm 3do
for songs that were in fact remixed.
.It Fl n Ar dir , Fl -contentdir Ar dir
Set the directory where the game will seek its data.
.It Fl o , Fl -opengl
Use OpenGL drivers.
This produces higher\(hyquality graphics, and may be faster as well \(en
but it also may not work on older cards.
It also permits use of any screen resolution.
The opposite of
.Fl x .
.It Fl p , Fl -fps
Print fps information in the status window.
.It Fl q Ar setting , Fl -audioquality Ar setting
Can be
.Cm high ,
.Cm medium ,
or
.Cm low .
Specifies how nice the audio sounds.
Slower machines should lower the audio quality.
.It Fl r Ar resolution , Fl -res Ar resolution
Sets the screen resolution.
Unless
.Fl -opengl
is set, the only valid values are
.Dq 640x480
and
.Dq 320x240 .
.It Fl S Ar volume , Fl -sfxvol Ar volume
Set sound effects volume (0\(en100).
.It Fl s , Fl -scanlines
Simulates interlaced displays.
.It Fl T Ar volume , Fl -speechvol Ar volume
Set speech volume (0\(en100).
If set to 0, the game runs in
.Sq no speech
mode and the oscilloscope reacts to the music.
.It Fl u , Fl -nosubtitles
Disables subtitles.
.It Fl w , Fl -windowed
Displays the game in a window.
The opposite of
.Fl f .
.It Fl x , Fl -nogl
Do not use OpenGL drivers.
This is more likely to run on systems with poor or no 3D acceleration,
and is often faster, especially on older or less well supported cards.
Only the 320\(mu240 and 640\(mu480 resolutions are available when not using
OpenGL.
The opposite of
.Fl o .
.It Fl -addon Ar name
Enable the named add\(hyon in the game.
See the
.Sx ADD\(hyONS
section for details.
.It Fl -cscan Ar style
When scanning planets, display information using text
.Pq with Cm pc
or pictograms
.Pq with Cm 3do .
Defaults to
.Cm pc .
.It Fl -font Ar style
Use PC\(hystyle fonts and colors
.Pq with Cm pc
or 3DO\(hystyle
.Pq with Cm 3do .
Defaults to
.Cm pc .
.It Fl -menu Ar style
In menus, display options as text
.Pq with Cm pc
or pictograms
.Pq with Cm 3do .
Defaults to
.Cm pc .
.It Fl -safe
Start the game in safe mode.
Safe mode will ignore stored user settings,
like resolution, fullscreen mode, sound driver, etc.
This is useful if you have somehow wrecked your configuration files and cannot
get to the in\(hygame setup menu to change the settings.
.It Fl -scroll Ar style
Using the left/right arrow keys,
scroll voiceovers and subtitles one page at a time
.Pq with Cm pc
or smoothly
.Pq with Cm 3do .
Defaults to
.Cm pc .
.It Fl -shield Ar style
Use the CPU\(hyintensive, 3DO\(hystyle throbbing slave shield graphic
.Pq with Cm 3do
or the PC\(hystyle static slave shield graphic
.Pq with Cm pc .
Defaults to
.Cm pc .
.It Fl -sound Ar driver
Specifies which sound driver/mixer to use.
Can be
.Cm openal ,
.Cm mixsdl ,
or
.Cm none .
.Cm openal
is only available when it has been compiled in.
It may produce higher\(hyquality sound and will probably be faster,
but it is not very stable on Linux platforms,
and may not work well with some sound cards.
Use
.Cm none
as a last resort if you cannot get other drivers to work,
or if you have no sound card.
.It Fl -stereosfx
Enables positional sound effects in melee.
Currently works only when using openal.
.El
.Sh STARTING THE GAME
Simply invoke the
.Nm uqm
program to run the game.
After a splash screen, you will see the main menu, which has five options:
.Bl -tag -width "Super Melee!"
.It New Game
Begins a new Full Game.
This is a galaxy\(hyspanning space adventure full of diplomacy, exploration,
combat, high treason, and low cunning.
The introductory cutscenes will set the scene; the below section
.Sx THE STORY SO FAR
provides more extensive backstory for the curious.
.It Load Game
Restores a Full Game session that was saved earlier.
.It Super Melee!
Puts the game in Super Melee mode, where you may hone your space combat skills
or challenge your friends to fleet battles.
See the
.Sx SUPER MELEE
section below for details on this game mode.
.It Setup
Lets you configure many options to customize your play experience.
Most options will take effect once you exit the setup menu;
a few specially marked options require you to restart
.Nm uqm .
Setup options are preserved across sessions.
.It Quit
Exits the program.
.El
.Sh CONTROLS SUMMARY
.Ss General Game Controls
.Bl -tag -width "F1 or Pause" -compact
.It Cm F1 No or Cm Pause
Pause game
.It Cm F10
Exit game
.It Cm F11
Toggle between fullscreen and windowed mode
.El
.Ss Full Game Controls
Space flight:
.Bl -tag -width "Space or Right Shift" -compact
.It Cm Up
Thrust
.It Cm Left No and Cm Right
Steer
.It Cm Space No or Cm Right Shift
Main Menu
.El
.Pp
Menus:
.Bl -tag -width "Space or Right Shift or Escape" -compact
.It Arrow keys
Scroll through selections
.It Cm Enter No or Cm Right Ctrl
Make selection
.It Cm Space No or Cm Right Shift No or Cm Escape
Up one level
.El
.Pp
Conversations:
.Bl -tag -width "Space or Right Shift" -compact
.It Cm Left No and Cm Right
Rewind/Forward
.It Cm Up No and Cm Down
Scroll through selections
.It Cm Enter No or Cm Right Ctrl
Make selection
.It Cm Space No or Cm Right Shift
Skip, Show/Hide summary
.El
.Pp
Star Map:
.Bl -tag -width "Space or Right Shift" -compact
.It Arrow Keys
Move the crosshair
.It Cm Enter No or Cm Right Ctrl
Select destination
.It Cm Space No or Cm Right Shift
Main menu
.It Keypad Cm +
Zoom in
.It Keypad Cm -
Zoom out
.It Cm /
Begin search.
(Type star or constellation name to find matches)
.It Cm Tab
Jump to next match
.El
.Pp
Space Combat:
.Bl -tag -width "Right Ctrl or Enter" -compact
.It Cm Up
Thrust
.It Cm Left No and Cm Right
Steer
.It Cm Right Ctrl No or Cm Enter
Fire Primary Weapon
.It Cm Right Shift
Fire Secondary Weapon
.It Cm Escape
Emergency Warp Escape
.El
.Pp
Planet Exploration:
.Bl -tag -width "Right Shift or Escape" -compact
.It Cm Up
Forward
.It Cm Left No and Cm Right
Steer
.It Cm Right Ctrl No or Cm Enter
Fire stun bolt
.It Cm Right Shift No or Cm Escape
Blast off
.El
.Ss Melee Controls
Top Player:
.Bl -tag -width "A and D" -compact
.It Cm W
Thrust
.It Cm A No and Cm D
Steer
.It Cm V
Fire Primary Weapon
.It Cm B
Fire Secondary Weapon
.El
.Pp
Bottom Player:
.Bl -tag -width "Right Ctrl or Enter" -compact
.It Cm Up No or Cm Enter
Thrust
.It Cm Left No and Cm Right
Steer
.It Cm Right Ctrl No or Cm Enter
Fire Primary Weapon
.It Cm Right Shift
Fire Secondary Weapon
.El
.Pp
These controls are configurable from the Setup Menu.
You may define up to six
.Dq Input Templates
and assign a template to either or both players.
Some commonly used key configurations are pre\(hydefined,
as well as popular variants.
To change key bindings, select the binding you wish to change and press
.Cm Enter .
At the dialog box, press the key (or joystick gesture)
that you wish to assign to this action.
.Sh SAVED GAMES
The saved games are kept in your personal directory for
.Nm uqm
data.
This directory is automatically created the first time you start the game.
On Unix systems this personal
.Nm uqm
data is stored in
.Pa ~/.uqm .
.Pp
You will generally only need to know this if you intend to transfer savegames
to another computer.
.Sh INTERPLANETARY EXPLORATION
When in a Solar system,
use the thrust and steering controls to move about the system.
Intersecting a planet will move you to the planetary system;
flying over a planet or moon will then put you into orbit.
From there you can talk to the inhabitants, or, if the planet is uninhabited,
send a lander down to gather minerals, investigate energy readings,
or capture life forms.
.Sh PLANET LANDING
To land on a planet, you need to achieve orbit,
then fill a planet lander with crew and send them down.
You will usually want to scan the planet first.
Mineral scans will indicate easily harvestable mineral ores and other
resources.
Energy scans will indicate unusual installations,
which will effectively always be worth investigating.
Biological scans will show where life forms are on the surface.
.Pp
Minerals are necessary for building up and maintaining your flagship, so
harvest them wherever you can.
There are nine varieties, each color coded:
.Bl -bullet
.It
.Em Common elements
(carbon, nitrogen) are cyan.
Worth 1 resource unit (RU) per unit.
.It
.Em Corrosives
(chlorine, iodine) are red.
2 RU per unit.
.It
.Em Base metals
(iron, tin) are grey.
These are common, and usually worth harvesting, but not terribly valuable.
3 RU per unit.
.It
.Em Noble gases
(argon, xenon) are blue.
4 RU per unit.
.It
.Em Rare earths
(lanthanum, ytterbium) are green.
5 RU per unit.
.It
.Em Precious elements
(gold, silver) are yellow.
6 RU per unit.
.It
.Em Radioactives
(uranium, astatine) are orange.
8 RU per unit.
.It
.Em Exotics
(antimatter, magnetic monopoles) are purple,
and a princely 25 RU per cargo unit.
.El
.Pp
Minerals may be unloaded at Earth Starbase by talking to Commander Hayes,
which will give you RU that you may spend to upgrade your flagship.
.Pp
However, there are many hazards on planetary surfaces.
Life forms are often hostile, and need to be subdued with your stunner or
evaded.
Earthquakes (expanding circles) can hurt your crew,
lightning may crisp them, or lava flows and hotspots can fry them.
Be careful,
especially on hotter or more seismically and atmospherically active worlds.
If your crew level starts dropping dramatically,
flee quickly with the
.Cm Escape
key!
.Pp
Stunned life forms may be captured and analyzed by your planet landers.
The information you gain from this may not be immediately useful,
but it will eventually come in handy.
.Pp
Landing on a planet costs fuel, and the heavier the planet,
the more fuel it requires.
Make sure you don\(cqt spend so much fuel exploring planets that you can\(cqt
get back to Sol!
.Sh INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL
When you leave a solar system, you will push up into HyperSpace.
In HyperSpace you can travel great distances quickly,
but you must continuously thrust to move.
Otherwise, you will gradually slow to a stop.
.Pp
While you can fly about in HyperSpace just like you do in a star system,
the Galaxy is
.Em Large ,
and you will usually want to use the Auto-Pilot.
To use the Auto-Pilot, select
.Dq Starmap
on the menu.
This will show you a map of the quadrant
(the galactic Core is in the upper right corner).
To fly to a location, move the cursor there and press
.Cm Enter .
Then press
.Cm Space
to engage the Auto-Pilot.
.Sh DIPLOMACY
When you encounter an alien starship, you will usually get a picture of their
task force and a chance to choose between conversation and fighting.
If you choose to fight, you will transition immediately to space combat
(below).
Otherwise, you will talk first.
If talks go poorly, space combat will likely ensue.
.Pp
If the task force shows ships streaming off in all directions, you have reached
a fortified world, and there are an unlimited number of starships facing you.
You cannot win such a fight \(en if combat ensues, you will need to warp out.
.Sh SPACE COMBAT
When combat begins, you are prompted to select a ship from your task force.
A one-on-one space combat then begins, and continues until either the enemy
fleet is destroyed (in which case you salvage the wrecks and continue the
game), your flagship is destroyed (ending the game), or your flagship warps
out of combat (consuming 5 fuel units but ending the encounter).
.Pp
Each ship has two major stats: Crew and Combat Battery.
Crew are effectively hit points.
Getting hit by weapons kills crew, and if all crew are eliminated,
the craft is destroyed.
Firing weapons typically requires energy from the combat batteries,
which is replaced over time.
The precise speed of energy regeneration and cost of weapons fire varies by
ship.
.Pp
Space flight is
.Em mostly
inertial (you\(cqll drift if you stop thrusting),
but each ship has a maximum velocity that can only be exceeding by
.Dq gravity whipping
around the planet.
Don\(cqt hit the planet unless you want to take
.Em lots
of damage.
.Pp
Each ship has a primary and secondary weapon mode,
unique to that race\(cqs craft.
The descriptions of those follow.
.Ss Ship Descriptions
.Bl -ohang
.It Androsynth Guardian
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Fires homing acid bubble clouds.
.It Secondary weapon:
Transforms into the
.Sq Blazer ,
a comet that does considerable damage by ramming its opponents.
.El
.It Ariloulaleelay Skiff
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Auto\(hyaiming, short\(hyrange laser.
.It Secondary weapon:
Random teleport.
.It Note:
The Skiff is inertia-less, and stops instantly when thrust is removed.
.El
.It Chenjesu Broodhome
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Crystal Shard.
Travels until the fire button is released, then shatters.
.It Secondary weapon:
De\(hyenergizing Offensive Guided Interceptor.
Launches an autonomous DOGI that rams the opponent to drain their combat
batteries.
.El
.It Chmmr Avatar
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Immensely powerful short-range laser.
.It Secondary weapon:
Tractor beam.
.It Note:
Has three orbiting
.Dq ZapSats
that attack anything that gets in range.
.El
.It Druuge Mauler
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Long range, high\(hyrecoil cannon.
.It Secondary weapon:
Sets one crew on fire to gain combat energy.
.El
.It Earthling Cruiser
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Homing nuclear missile.
.It Secondary weapon:
Point-defense laser.
.El
.It Ilwrath Avenger
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Short\(hyrange flamethrower.
.It Secondary weapon:
Cloaking device.
.El
.It Kohr\(hyAh Marauder
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Spinning blades that stop and home when the fire button is released.
.It Secondary weapon:
Fiery Ring of Inevitable and Eternal Destruction (F.R.I.E.D.), a short\(hyrange
corona of energy that blocks shots and inflicts lots of damage.
.El
.It Melnorme Trader
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Charged shot.
The longer the fire button is held, the stronger the shot.
.It Secondary weapon:
Confusion beam that scrambles enemy controls.
.El
.It Mmrnmhrm X\(hyForm
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Lasers (X-form) or homing missiles (Y-form).
.It Secondary weapon:
Switch between X-Form and Y-Form.
.El
.It Mycon Podship
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Homing Plasmoid.
.It Secondary weapon:
Regenerate 4 crew.
.El
.It Orz Nemesis
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Howitzer cannon.
.It Secondary weapon:
Secondary with left and right arrows rotates the primary cannon.
Secondary with Primary launches space marines that invade the enemy ship and
kill their crew.
.El
.It Pkunk Fury
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Three\(hyway cannon.
.It Secondary weapon:
Fling insults at opponent.
This is the only way the Pkunk can regenerate combat energy.
.It Note:
On occasion, a destroyed Fury will be resurrected with full fuel and power.
.El
.It Shofixti Scout
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Energy Dart.
.It Secondary weapon:
Glory Device.
When pressed three times, the ship will self\(hydestruct,
inflicting vast damage on nearby vessels.
.El
.It Slylandro Probe
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Lighting weapon.
.It Secondary weapon:
Absorb a nearby asteroid and convert to combat power.
This is the only way the Probe can recharge.
.It Note:
The Probe is inertia\(hyless and always in motion.
Pressing thrust will reverse its direction.
.El
.It Spathi Eluder
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Simple forward cannon.
.It Secondary weapon:
Backward Utilized Tracking Torpedo (B.U.T.T.),
a homing missile fired from the rear of the vessel.
.El
.It Supox Blade
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Forward firing glob weapon.
.It Secondary weapon:
Secondary + left or right will cause you to drift laterally,
while Secondary + thrust will make you fly backwards.
This cancels your current velocity, so be careful!
.El
.It Syreen Penetrator
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Particle Beam Stiletto.
.It Secondary weapon:
.Dq Syreen Call
\(en psychic attack that induces enemy crew to jump ship,
where you (or your opponent) may capture them to add to your complement.
.El
.It Thraddash Torch
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Straightforward blaster cannon.
.It Secondary weapon:
Afterburner.
The afterburner exhaust does more damage then the blaster,
so use it as a weapon!
.El
.It Umgah Drone
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Anti\(hyMatter cone.
Does not require combat batteries to use.
.It Secondary weapon:
Fly backwards suddenly and at high speed.
.It Note:
The Drone only recharges batteries if you do not fire for a long time,
and then the energy all returns in one lump.
.El
.It Ur\(hyQuan Dreadnought
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Fusion Blast.
.It Secondary weapon:
Launches autonomous fighters to harass the enemy.
When they run low on fuel, they will fly back to the Dreadnought.
Catch them before they expire.
Each fighter requires one crew to pilot it,
so take care not to weaken the core ship.
.El
.It Utwig Jugger
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Six\(hyshot cannon.
Requires no combat battery energy to fire.
.It Secondary weapon:
Force shield.
Absorbing hits re\(hyenergizes your batteries.
When the batteries are exhausted,
the shield is permanently disabled until combat ends.
.El
.It VUX Intruder
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Gigawatt laser.
.It Secondary weapon:
Limpet mines that track enemy ships and slow them down dramatically if they
hit.
.El
.It Yehat Terminator
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Twin autocannons.
.It Secondary weapon:
Force shield.
.El
.It Zoq\(hyFot\(hyPik Stinger
.Bl -inset -compact
.It Primary weapon:
Anti\(hymatter spray gun.
.It Secondary weapon:
.Dq Tongue attack ,
a point\(hyblank range attack that does grievous damage.
.El
.El
.Sh SUPER MELEE
Super Melee mode is pure combat.
It\(cqs designed to let you hone your skills for the full game,
or to challenge your friends to fleet matches.
Selecting
.Dq Super Melee!
from the main menu will bring you to the super melee main screen.
.Pp
This screen is dominated by the fleet design screen.
Move the cursor over a ship slot and press
.Cm Enter
to change the ship assignment, or press
.Cm Delete
to remove the ship.
You may select the fleet name and press
.Cm Enter
to edit the fleet name to something of your choice.
The number next to the fleet name lists the fleet strength;
this is simply the sum of the point values of all ships in the fleet.
.Pp
The right hand side of the screen has buttons for managing the battle.
Each side has four buttons associated with it:
.Cm LOAD ,
.Cm SAVE ,
.Cm CONTROL ,
and
.Cm NET .
The
.Cm LOAD
and
.Cm SAVE
buttons let you load and save fleets.
A variety of fleets of various strengths are pre\(hydefined,
and you may add your own by saving fleets you design.
.Pp
The
.Cm Control
button has one of five settings.
.Cm Human Control
puts the fleet under the control of a human player.
(The precise controls for that player are set in the Setup menu, but the bottom
player\(cqs controls are always the same as the full game\(cqs controls.)
Then there are three levels of computer control:
.Bl -bullet
.It
.Cm Weak Cyborg
is not a particularly good shot, and will only use special weapons if the ship
absolutely requires the special weapon to function at all (Pkunk, Slylandro).
This difficulty level only appears in the full game when fighting crippled
ships.
.It
.Cm Good Cyborg
will actually use its special weapon, but it\(cqs still not much of a threat.
The Good cyborg provides a gentle introduction to Star Control combat if you
are unfamiliar with the gameplay.
However, you will soon wish to switch to...
.It
.Cm Awesome Cyborg .
The AI will fully exploit each ship\(cqs abilities, and is also a tolerably
good shot, compensating for inertia and choosing its shots.
Enemies you meet in the full game are almost always piloted at this level.
If a battle is giving you trouble in the full game,
this is the setting you want.
.El
.Pp
The last control option is
.Cm Network Control ,
which will be set if that side is controlled by a non\(hylocal opponent.
To set up a network game, push the
.Cm Net
button on the side you wish to be under your opponent\(hys control.
.Pp
In order to connect, you must agree on a port (the default is 21837,
which should not require any change) and set a net delay in frames.
To compensate for network lag,
a keypress or keyrelease will only take effect after this many frames.
While higher values make your ship seem to respond more sluggishly,
they give the keypress information more time to reach the remote party.
If the game stutters, this is because it is waiting for this keypress
information to arrive, which is an indication that the input delay is too low.
Super Melee runs at 24 frames per second,
each frame delayed will delay the input by about 42\ ms.
The delay used is the maximum of the desired value for both parties.
The default is 2.
Values lower than 4 are typically acceptable in terms of responsiveness.
Future versions may automatically decide on the best value to use.
.Pp
Once the port and delay are set, one player must select the first option
(Wait for incoming connection), while the other enters his opponent\(hys
hostname or IP address into the Host field and then pushes
.Dq Connect .
Once the connection is established, the control scheme for the remote player
will flip to
.Cm Network Control
to register the connection.
To disconnect, change it away back to one of the
.Cm Human
or
.Cm Cyborg options.
Once connected,
you are both free to edit your fleets to provide a properly balanced battle.
.Pp
Once all fleets are in readiness, press the
.Cm Battle
button in the center right.
(In a network game, both players must select it with no intervening fleet
edits.
Moving away from
.Cm Battle
or having your opponent change their fleet will cancel your readiness state,
and you will need to reselect the
.Cm Battle
button.)
When all players are ready, the battle begins.
.Pp
The ship selection screen is much as it would be in the full game, with two
notable exceptions: a question mark in the upper right allows you to select a
new ship randomly from those remaining,
and a red X allows you to exit the combat entirely.
(It is also possible to exit the melee at any time by pressing
.Cm F10 ,
just as one can exit anything.)
If nobody quits,
the combat will continue until one side has been completely destroyed.
At this point, both fleets are shown so that one may compare initial and
remaining fleet strengths.
Press a key to return to the melee menu.
.Pp
To return to the main menu after finishing with Super Melee mode, push the
.Cm Quit
button in the lower right.
.Sh THE STORY SO FAR
For the past decade, Earth and the rest of the Alliance of Free Stars has
fought the Ur\(hyQuan and their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls.
In the course of the War, the Earthlings discovered a factory world by the
.Sq Precursors
\(en an impossibly advanced that disappeared tens of thousands of years ago.
This colony, Unzervalt (aka Vela I),
lost all contact with Earth shortly after landfall.
.Pp
You are Captain Zelnick, a human who was born on Unzervalt and who possesses a
remarkable knack for Precursor technology.
You were the one who worked out how to activate the Precursor installation.
.Pp
It was a factory for building starships.
However, Unzervalt is mineral\(hypoor,
and there were not enough materials available to construct a complete vessel.
Your task is to command this craft, the Vindicator,
and return to Earth to tell them of the abandoned colony.
Also, if the War with the Ur\(hyQuan continues,
you must fight for Earth and the Alliance as best you can.
.Pp
There is a great deal more to this story.
Asking Starbase Commander Hayes for background information will give you most
of it.
.Sh ADD\(hyONS
.Nm uqm
has basic support for add\(hyon packages.
Though it is not very elaborate yet, you can install some content add\(hyons.
Add\(hyons created for UQM releases prior to v0.7 are not compatible with this
release.
.Pp
Inside the directory where the content is installed, in the
.Pa content/
directory, there is a directory
.Pa addons/ .
In this directory, you can place add\(hyon packages, like
.Sy 3domusic ,
.Sy 3dovoice ,
.Sy remix
and others, or create new directories with .zip files to be used in
addition te the standard content .zip files.
Each add\(hyon must contain at least one .rmp file to tell the game which
resources the add\(hyon provides.
When you specify the command\(hy line option
.Fl -addon Ar addon ,
the .zip files inside the directory
.Pa content/addons/ Ns Ar addon
will be included in the game.
.Fl -addon
may be specified more than once to enable multiple add\(hyons.
.Pp
.Sy 3domusic ,
.Sy 3dovoice ,
and
.Sy remix
are intended to be used as add\(hyons,
and can be turned on and off from the in\(hygame setup menu.
.Sh BUGS
After several years of enthusiastic testing,
.Nm uqm
has dramatically improved its stability, but it is still beta software,
and bugs certainly still lurk.
Upon finding a problem, we\(cqd like you to report it,
but before you do, please do the following:
.Bl -bullet
.It
Try to isolate what causes it:
.Do
Crashes with a null dereference about half the time when firing and
taunting with a Pkunk
.Dc
is better than
.Dq Melee doesn\(cqt work .
If the game crashes, notice what error is produced;
if the game hangs, check to see if the game\(hyexit key
.Pq Cm F12
works.
.It
Go to the
.Lk http://bugs.uqm.stack.nl/ "bug database"
and post a report of the problem there.
Search the database first to see if it has been already posted; if we get many
duplicate reports, processing them eats our time from actual development.
If it\(cqs been reported, and you have more information, feel free to confirm
that you\(cqve reproduced it by adding a comment to the report.
If ten people have already confirmed it, though,
it\(cqs probably best to treat it as duly reported.
.It
Whenever possible, for bugs that only occur under certain conditions,
include a save game with your bug report that duplicates the bug.
In the case of a crash, a stack trace can be very helpful for us too.
If you don\(cqt know what a stack trace is, don\(cqt worry about it.
.It
If your issue is more like
.Dq support request
than bug report and you want help from other users,
then it might be more appropriate to post it to
.Lk http://uqm.stack.nl/forum/ "our forum" .
.El