STARLANES(6) STARLANES(6)
NAME
starlanes - the game of starlanes
SYNOPSIS
starlanes [-v|c|m]
DESCRIPTION
Starlanes is a game of interstellar commerce for 1 to 4
players. Players take two-phase turns: the first phase is
movement, the second is trading.
The object of the game is to become as wealthy as possible
by trading and merging companies whilst out-smarting your
friends and enemies.
OPTIONS
-v Print version information
-c Force the game to play in color mode
-m Force the game to play in mono mode
PLAYING STARLANES
The Starlanes User Interface
Starlanes is written using color ncurses, but will detect
a black and white screen and will modify its output
accordingly. On Linux, setting TERM=console or TERM=linux
either on a virtual console or in a color_xterm window
works well.
After the initial player determination screen, you will be
presented with the main Starlanes screen. This screen is
split into three individual windows: the map window, the
company window, and the general info window.
The map window shows the terrain of the universe. The
legend is:
* - Star
() - Black hole
+ - Infant company
. - Empty space
A - Company A (Altair Starways)
The companies are Altair Starways, Beetlejuice Ltd.,
Capella Freight Co., Denebola Shippers, and Eridani Expe-
diters. On the map, the companies are represented by the
first letter of their name.
The company window shows information concerning the cur-
rently existing companies, including the company name, its
price per share, and the current player's holdings.
The general info window will prompt the user for input if
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the player is waiting to move or trade, but will also dis-
play special announcements as they come up. During a
player's turn, that player's name is displayed in the
title bar of the window, along with his cash holdings.
Also, mention should be made of two other windows: the
player standings window and the company detail window (not
to be confused with the company info window.)
The player standings window can be brought up during the
player's move by pressing the 's' key. This window shows
all the player's names, stock holdings, cash, and total
worth, sorted by total worth. It also shows the number of
sectors that remain to be filled by companies before the
game ends.
The company detail window is invoked with the 'c' key. It
shows, for each active company, its name, price per share,
size, and total worth (all player's shares * price per
share). The company size and total worth are useful in
determining the result of a merger (see below.)
If a screen redraw is necessary, pressing '^L' at almost
any of the prompts will accomplish that.
Finally, if the players want to quit before the game
before is over, press 'q' or '^C' and a quit verification
window will pop up. If 'y' is pressed, the final game
standings will be displayed, and the program will end.
Player Movement
During the first phase of a player's turn, the computer
will prompt for a move from a choice of 5. These moves
are chosen randomly (for the most part). Upon making your
move, there are several things that might happen. (NOTE:
it is important to remember that two objects on the map
are adjacent only if they are orthogonally adjacent.
Diagonals don't count!)
If you move into a sector that is completely surrounded by
empty space (.), that sector will then contain an infant
company (+).
If you move next to an existing company (A-E), that com-
pany will expand into that sector of the map. If the new
extension of the company touches an infant company (+),
that infant company will also be assimilated.
Given that you're not moving next to an existing company,
if you move next to a star (*) or an infant company (+), a
new company will be formed. You, as company founder, will
receive 5 shares in the company for free. For calculating
how much a company will be worth, see Company Pricing,
below.
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If you happen to move next to a black hole (()), one of
many things could happen, depending on the circumstances.
See Black Holes, below.
Company Pricing
Determining a company's price per share is fairly simple.
Generally speaking, a company is worth $100 for every sec-
tor it occupies (as given on the company info window under
``Size''), plus $500 for every sector it occupies which is
adjacent to a star (*), minus $500 for every sector it
occupies which is adjacent to a black hole (()). If a com-
pany's price per share drops to 0 or less, the company
vanishes (see Black Holes, below.) Also note that you
will not be able to visually estimate a company's price
per share if that company has undergone a stock split (see
Stock Splits, below.)
Holding Bonus
Immediately after a player's move, he is awarded a cash
bonus equal to 5% of the total worth of his complete hold-
ings. This bonus is awarded even if the game ends
directly following the move (see Game's End, below.) This
is the cash that the player will then use during the trad-
ing phase (see Trading, below.)
Trading
If any companies exist after a player moves on the map,
that player will be given the chance to buy and sell
stock. This is where the game is really played. One must
determine which companies are going to earn the highest
profits in the next round and invest in those companies
more heavily than ones that only have a small chance of
turning a profit. (See Strategy, below.) The current
player's cash value is printed next to his name in the
general info window title.
Use the arrow keys to select a company you wish to trade
stock in, then press return. You will be asked for an
amount to trade. Enter the number of shares you wish to
purchase in this company. (Just press return again or
enter ``0'' if you don't really want to trade with this
company.) Choose a negative amount if you want to sell
shares (at 100% of their value.) At this point, the user
can also press the 'm' key to purchase the maximum number
of shares possible, or press the 'n' key to sell all of
his holdings in this company.
Once the player has completed trading, he can press escape
to end his turn, thereby transferring control to the next
player.
Mergers
When a player chooses a sector of the map that would cause
two or more companies to touch, a merger occurs.
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First, the companies sizes are checked and the company
with the larger size absorbs the smaller.
If the companies are the same size, the company with the
highest total worth absorbs the smaller. (The user can
view company size and company total worth on the company
detail window, see above.)
Finally, if both company sizes and total worths match, the
companies will merge at random.
If a three or four-way merger occurs, the merges will take
place one at a time, in an order that is somewhat clock-
wise.
After a merger, each player will have half the number of
shares of held in the vanquished company added to the num-
ber of shares held in the still-existing company. The
value of the still-existing company's price per share will
increase by the vanquished company's price per share.
Additionally, each player receives a cash bonus equal to
10 * stock price * holdings percentage,
where stock price is the old price per share of the van-
quished company and holdings percentage is the percentage
of total stock once owned in the vanquished company. For
example, imagine that Altair Starways (worth $500 per
share) is merged into Denebola Shippers. Also, assume
that the player owned 50% of the total shares in Altair
Starways. Using the formula, that player would receive a
bonus of
10 * $500 * 50% = $2,500.
For more hints on how to deal with mergers, see Strategy,
below.
Stock Splits
When a company's price per share climbs above $3,000, a
stock split occurs. All player holdings in that company
are doubled, and the price per share is halved. See
Strategy, below, for money making tips during and after
stock splits.
Black Holes
Since black holes drain $500 from any company that is in
contact with them, it is possible that the company's price
per share will drop to 0 or less. If this happens, the
entire company is sucked out of space and all player hold-
ings are lost.
If a player attempts to place an infant company (+) near a
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black hole (()), that infant company will be immediately
sucked up, resulting again in an empty sector.
Likewise, if a player attempts to start a new company that
would normally be worth $500 or less per share next to a
black hole, the sectors that the new company would have
occupied all become empty space (.).
For some ways to make black holes work to your advantage,
see Strategy, below.
Game's End
The game ends when 54% of the map is filled with companies
(about 70 sectors.) The player who made the final move
receives his 5% holdings bonus (see Holding Bonus, above)
and the final standings window is displayed. The player
with the highest total worth is the winner.
Strategy
In order to maximize your profits, you must wisely invent
your cash. For instance, if a company is near a black
hole, it is likely that it will lose $500 per share in the
next few rounds. Likewise, if a company is near a star,
it might soon have a $500 gain.
Also, the larger the company, the greater that chance that
it will be added onto (just because it takes up more room
on the map.) If you own 300 shares in a company, and its
value goes up by $100 per share, that's a $30,000 increase
in your net worth.
Another thing to watch for is when companies are about to
merge. Remember that the number of shares you own in the
smaller company will be halved before being added to the
bigger one when they merge. This can be used to your
advantage, especially if the smaller company is worth sig-
nificantly less than the larger. If the big company is
worth $2,000 per share, and the small is worth $200 per
share, you can buy 10 times as many shares in the smaller.
When the companies merge, the number of shares in the
smaller company is halved, but it's still 5 times the
amount of stock you could've purchased in the larger com-
pany.
Don't forget that when two companies merge, the players
receive a cash bonus that depends on the percentage of
stock they owned in the smaller company (see Mergers,
above.) It is good to try to own a higher percentage than
anyone else.
A way to gain profit earning potential is to have a large
number of shares in a company when the stock splits two-
for-one (see Stock Splits, above.) Even though your ini-
tial net worth remains the same after a stock split,
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you'll now increase your net worth by twice the value you
used to whenever the company's price per share rises.
Also, if your opponent has 100 shares and you have 150
before the split, that'll change to 200 shares and 300
shares, effectively increasing your lead in shares by
100%.
Black holes weren't present in the original game, but were
added to give players who have fallen behind a chance to
shaft the leaders. If your opponent owns 100 shares of
Altair Starways and you only own 50, you can extend the
company against a black hole. Your opponent will lose
$50,000 from his net worth, but you'll only lose $25,000.
Finally, a reminder to invest as much money as you possi-
ble can each round (unless it's too risky.) The reason
for this is the 5% cash bonus all players receive each
round based on their holdings (see Holdings Bonus, above.)
Your cash earns you no interest.
FILES
/usr/local/games/starlanes
/usr/local/man/man6/starlanes.6
AUTHOR
This version of Starlanes was written and is Copyright (C)
by Brian ``Beej'' Hall 1995-1997. The author can be
reached at beej()ecst.csuchico.edu. Starlanes comes with
ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you
are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions;
read the file COPYING for details.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I'd like to thank the unnamed authors of the original
Starlanes for creating such a thought provoking and fun to
play text-based game. I got my first copy on a First
Osborne Group (FOG) disk in what must have been 1982 or
so, and used to spend endless hours playing against my
friends. For us, the game is just as fun as ever. To the
original authors, I salute you!
BUGS
There are no computer controlled players.
Doesn't respond if ^Z is pressed to suspend the game.
If only one person is playing, he or she will frequently
make enough money to break the fixed-field-length windows
and/or cause the variable that holds player cash to over-
flow. Try to keep your earnings under $2 billion until I
convert these variables to long doubles. :-)
Starlanes V1.2.2 29 March 1996 6
.___________________________________________________________.
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| A M I G A O S 4 . 0 C O M P I L E B Y |
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| If you feel |
| that what I do is worth anything, use paypal to donate |
| to my email addy, spotATtriadDOTse, thanx! |
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| Spot / Up Rough 2007 |
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