UQM(1)

NAME
uqm - The Ur-Quan Masters, a modern, free port of the classic PC game Star Control II (aka starcon2).

SYNOPSIS
uqm [options]

DESCRIPTION
Welcome to the sixth release of the Ur-Quan Masters port. This document will tell you everything you need to play, even if you've never played the original. For those of you who have played the original, read the first section (starting the game and bug reports) and the last sections (Super Melee and control summary), and you'll be good to go.

STARTING THE GAME
Simply invoke the uqm executable. This will use the default settings. The defaults and how to change them are listed under COMMAND LINE OPTIONS, below. After a splash screen, you will see the main menu, which has five options:

New Game
    Begins a new Full Game. This is a galaxy-spanning space adventure full of diplomacy, exploration, combat, high treason, and low cunning. The introductory cutscenes will set the scene; the THE STORY SO FAR section below provides more extensive backstory for the curious.

Load Game
    Restores a Full Game session that was saved earlier.

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 SUPER MELEE section below for details on this section.

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 UQM. Setup options are preserved across sessions. The options are described under COMMAND LINE OPTIONS, below.

Quit
    Exits the program.

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
The default options for an UQM install are 3DO music, 640x480 windowed mode, and pure SDL graphics drivers. You may pass various command line options to customize your experience. Most of these options are also accessible from the in-game Setup menu.

Note: Options set on the command line do not get saved permanently in the config directory. To permanently change a setting, it must be changed via the in-game Setup menu.

-r resolution, --res resolution
    Sets the screen resolution (default 640x480). Unless OpenGL is supported, the only valid values are 640x480 and 320x240; setting any other value will automatically enable --opengl if compiled in (otherwise, the -r option will be ignored).

Note: The in-game Setup menu normally only allows 320x240, 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768. To permanently set some other resolution in the config file, set it with the -o and -r options, then enter and immediately exit the Setup menu. From then on, starting uqm with no parameters will enable OpenGL and set the resolution to your custom value.

-f, --fullscreen
    Uses full screen mode. Pretty straightforward. Usually good to combine with -r 320x240 unless you're using a scaler.

-o, --opengl
    Use OpenGL drivers. This produces higher-quality graphics, and may be faster as well -- but it also may not work on older cards. It also permits use of any screen resolution.

-c mode, --scale mode
    Graphics scaling mode (bilinear, biadapt, biadv, triscan, hq or none). Default is none. Try these to get smoother graphics with cost on performance.

-b mode, --meleezoom mode
    Melee zooming mode (pc or 3do); step is an alias for pc and smooth is an alias for 3do. Default is 3do. Slower machine owners can set it to pc to get better performance in melee.

-s, --scanlines
    Simulates interlaced displays (by drawing every other line with darker colors).

-g value, --gamma value
    Sets gamma correction (default: 1.0). 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.

-p, --fps
    Print fps (frames per second) information in the status window.

-C dir, --configdir dir
    Set the directory where the game will store the config data. Default: ~/.uqm

-n dir, --contentdir dir
    Set the directory where the game will seek its data. Default: /usr/share/uqm/content

-l file, --logfile file
    Set a file to receive the diagnostic information that would otherwise go to the console.

-h, --help
    Display a help message.

-M level, --musicvol level
    Set music volume (0-100).

-S level, --sfxvol level
    Set sound effects volume (0-100).

-T level, --speechvol level
    Set speech volume (0-100). If set to 0, the game runs in 'no speech' mode and the oscilloscope reacts to the music.

-m type, --music type
    Set the soundtrack type (default: 3do). Valid values for type are 3do (use the 3DO remixed soundtrack for songs that were in fact remixed), and pc (use the .MOD based PC soundtrack everywhere).

-q quality, --audioquality quality
    Can be high, medium, or low. Specifies how nice the audio sounds. Slower machines should lower the audio quality.

--addon name
    Replace name with the name of an add-on to enable in the game. See the section ADD-ONS below for details.

--sound mixer
    Can be openal, mixsdl or none. Specifies which driver/mixer to use. openal is only available when it has been compiled in. It may produce higher-quality 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 none as a last resort if you cannot get other drivers to work, or if you have no soundcard.

--stereosfx
    Enables positional sound effects in melee. Currently works only when using --sound openal.

-n, --nosubtitles
    Disables subtitles.

--cscan pc
    Use PC style planet information when scanning (text). Default.

--cscan 3do
    Use 3DO style planet information when scanning (pictograms).

--menu pc
    Use PC style menus (text) and 'CREW'/'BATT' in melee instead of icons. Default.

--menu 3do
    Use 3DO style menus (pictograms).

--font pc
    Use PC style fonts and colors. Default.

--font 3do
    Use 3DO style fonts and colors.

--scroll pc
    Scroll voice-over/subtitles 1 page at a time when using left/right arrow keys Default.

--scroll 3do
    Scroll voice-over/subtitles smoothly while holding down left/right arrow keys

-i 3do, --intro 3do
    Use the 3DO intro and ending movies (if you have them). The default.

-i pc, --intro pc
    Use the PC intro and ending sequences and slide shows. These will be also played if you do not have 3DO movies, regardless of -i option.

--shield pc
    Use PC style static slave shield graphic. Default.

--shield 3do
    Use 3DO style throbbing slave shield graphic. This somewhat increases the load on CPU while in orbit. Do not use if your CPU cannot handle that.

NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED OPTIONS
The following options may not exist in all builds and can change without notice at any time.

--accel type
    Can be none, detect, mmx, 3dnow, sse (also altivec if/when added; or other platforms). Specifies which platform accelerations to use for graphics and sound, if any. All specific platform code can only be used when compiled in.

--netport1 port

--netport2 port
    Specifies the default port that the bottom or top player respectively will connect to or accept incoming connections on. If this parameter is not specified, 21837 will be used. This value can be changed later in the SuperMelee Net menu. Your firewall needs to be set up to allow TCP connections from/to the used port.

--nethost1 host

--nethost2 host
    Specifies the default name or ip number of the host to connect to for the bottom or player. If this parameter is not specified, UQM will not attempt an outgoing connection, but instead listen for an incoming connection.

--netdelay frames
    Set the default input delay (in frames). See the SUPER MELEE section for details.

THE STORY SO FAR
For the past decade, Earth and the rest of the Alliance of Free Stars has fought the Ur-Quan and their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. In the course of the War, the Earthlings discovered a factory world of the Precursors - 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. You are Captain Zelnick, a human that 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. It was a factory for building starships. However, Unzervalt is mineral-poor, 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-Quan continues, you must fight for Earth and the Alliance as best you can. There is a great deal more to this story. Asking Starbase Commander Hayes for background information will give you most of it.

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.

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. Minerals are necessary for building up and maintaining your flagship, so harvest them wherever you can. There are nine varieties, each color coded: COMMON ELEMENTS (carbon, nitrogen) are cyan. Worth 1 resource unit (RU) per unit. CORROSIVES (chlorine, iodine) are red. 2 RU per unit. BASE METALS (iron, tin) are grey. These are common, and usually worth harvesting, but not terribly valuable. 3 RU per unit. NOBLE GASSES (argon, xenon) are blue. 4 RU per unit. RARE EARTHS (lanthanum, ytterbium) are green. 5 RU per unit. PRECIOUS ELEMENTS (gold, silver) are yellow. 6 RU per unit. RADIOACTIVES (uranium, astatine) are orange. 8 RU per unit. EXOTICS (antimatter, magnetic monopoles) are purple, and a princely 25 RU per cargo unit. 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. 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 ESCAPE key! 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. Landing on a planet costs fuel, and the heavier the planet, the more fuel it requires. Make sure you don't spend so much fuel exploring planets that you can't get back to Sol!

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. While you can fly about in HyperSpace just like you do in a star system, the Galaxy is LARGE, and you will usually want to use the Auto-Pilot. To use the Auto-Pilot, select "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 Enter. Then press Space to engage the Auto-Pilot.

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. 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 - if combat ensues, you will need to warp out.

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). 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. Space flight is mostly inertial (you'll drift if you stop thrusting), but each ship has a maximum velocity that can only be exceeding by "gravity whipping" around the planet. Don't hit the planet unless you want to take LOTS of damage. Each ship has a primary and secondary weapon mode, unique to that race's craft. The descriptions of those follow.

SHIP DESCRIPTIONS

Androsynth Guardian
    Primary weapon: Fires homing acid bubble clouds.
    Secondary weapon: Transforms into the 'Blazer', a comet that does considerable damage by ramming its opponents.

Ariloulaleelay Skiff
    Primary weapon: Auto-aiming, short-range laser
    Secondary weapon: Random teleport
    Note: The Skiff is inertia-less, and stops instantly when thrust is removed.

Chenjesu Broodhome
    Primary weapon: Crystal Shard. Will travel until the fire button is released, then shatters.
    Secondary weapon: De-energizing Offensive Guided Interceptor. Launches an autonomous DOGI that rams the opponent to drain their combat batteries.

Chmmr Avatar
    Primary weapon: Immensely powerful short-range laser
    Secondary weapon: Tractor beam.
    Note: Has three orbiting "ZapSats" that attack anything that gets in range.

Druuge Mauler
    Primary weapon: Long range, high-recoil cannon
    Secondary weapon: Sets one crew on fire to gain combat energy.

Earthling Cruiser
    Primary weapon: Homing nuclear missile
    Secondary weapon: Point-defense laser

Ilwrath Avenger
    Primary weapon: Short-range flamethrower
    Secondary weapon: Cloaking device

Kohr-Ah Marauder
    Primary weapon: Spinning blades that stop and home when the fire button is released
    Secondary weapon: Fiery Ring of Inevitable and Eternal Destruction (F.R.I.E.D.), a short-range corona of energy that blocks shots and inflicts lots of damage

Melnorme Trader
    Primary weapon: Charged shot. The longer the fire button is held, the stronger the shot.
    Secondary weapon: Confusion beam that scrambles enemy controls.

Mmrnmhrm X-Form
    Primary weapon: Lasers (X-form) or homing missiles (Y-form).
    Secondary weapon: Switch between X-Form and Y-Form.

Mycon Podship
    Primary weapon: Homing Plasmoid.
    Secondary weapon: Regenerate 4 crew.

Orz Nemesis
    Primary weapon: Howitzer cannon.
    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.

Pkunk Fury
    Primary weapon: Three-way cannon
    Secondary weapon: Fling insults at opponent. This is the only way the Pkunk can regenerate combat energy.
    Note: On occasion, a destroyed Fury will be resurrected with full fuel and power.

Shofixti Scout
    Primary weapon: Energy Dart.
    Secondary weapon: Glory Device. When pressed three times, the ship will self-destruct, inflicting vast damage on nearby vessels.

Slylandro Probe
    Primary weapon: Lighting weapon.
    Secondary weapon: Absorb a nearby asteroid and convert to combat power. This is the only way the Probe can recharge.
    Note: The Probe is inertia-less and always in motion. Pressing thrust will reverse its direction.

Spathi Eluder
    Primary weapon: Simple forward cannon.
    Secondary weapon: Backward Utilized Tracking Torpedo (B.U.T.T.), a homing missile fired from the rear of the vessel.

Supox Blade
    Primary weapon: Forward firing glob weapon
    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!

Syreen Penetrator
    Primary weapon: Particle Beam Stiletto.
    Secondary weapon: "Syreen Call" - psychic attack that induces enemy crew to jump ship, where you (or your opponent) may capture them to add to your complement

Thraddash Torch
    Primary weapon: Straightforward blaster cannon.
    Secondary weapon: Afterburner. The afterburner exhaust does more damage then the blaster, so use it as a weapon!

Umgah Drone
    Primary weapon: Anti-Matter cone. Does not require combat batteries to use.
    Secondary weapon: Fly backwards suddenly and at high speed.
    Note: The Drone only recharges batteries if you do not fire for a long time, and then the energy all returns in one lump.

Ur-Quan Dreadnought
    Primary weapon: Fusion Blast.
    Secondary weapon: Launches autonomous fighters to harrass 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.

Utwig Jugger
    Primary weapon: Six-shot cannon. Requires no combat battery energy to fire.
    Secondary weapon: Force shield. Absorbing hits re-energizes your batteries. When the batteries are exhausted, the shield is permanently disabled until combat ends.

VUX Intruder
    Primary weapon: Gigawatt laser.
    Secondary weapon: Limpet mines that track enemy ships and slow them down dramatically if they hit.

Yehat Terminator
    Primary weapon: Twin autocannons.
    Secondary weapon: Force shield.

Zoq-Fot-Pik Stinger
    Primary weapon: Anti-matter spray gun.
    Secondary weapon: "Tongue attack", a point-blank range attack that does grievous damage.

SUPER MELEE
Super Melee mode is pure combat. It's designed to let you hone your skills for the full game, or to challenge your friends to fleet matches. Selecting "Super Melee!" from the main menu will bring you to the super melee main screen. This screen is dominated by the fleet design screen. Move the cursor over a ship slot and press ENTER to change the ship assignment, or press DELETE to remove the ship. You may select the fleet name and press 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. The right hand side of the screen has buttons for managing the battle. Each side has four buttons associated with it: LOAD, SAVE, CONTROL, and NET. The LOAD and SAVE buttons let you load and save fleets. A variety of fleets of various strengths are pre-defined, and you may add your own by saving fleets you design. The CONTROL button has one of five settings. 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's controls are always the same as the full game's controls.) Then there are three levels of computer control: 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. GOOD CYBORG will actually use its special weapon, but it's 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... AWESOME CYBORG. The AI will fully exploit each ship's 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. The last control option is NETWORK CONTROL, which will be set if that side is controlled by a non-local opponent. To set up a network game, push the NET button on the side you wish to be under your opponent's control. 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 42ms. 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. Once the port and delay are set, one player must select the first option (Wait for incoming connection), while the other enters his opponent's hostname or IP address into the Host field and then pushes "Connect." Once the connection is established, the control scheme for the remote player will flip to NETWORK CONTROL to register the connection. To disconnect, change it away back to one of the HUMAN or CYBORG options. Once connected, you are both free to edit your fleets to provide a properly balanced battle. Once all fleets are in readiness, press the BATTLE button in the center right. (In a network game, both players must select it with no intervening fleet edits. Moving away from BATTLE or having your opponent change their fleet will cancel your readiness state, and you will need to reselect the BATTLE button.) When all players are ready, the battle begins. 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 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. To return to the main menu after finishing with Super Melee mode, push the QUIT button in the lower right.

GENERAL GAME CONTROLS SUMMARY
F1 or PAUSE                  Pause game
F10                          Exit game

FULL GAME CONTROLS SUMMARY
	Space flight
UP                           Thrust
LEFT and RIGHT:              Steer
SPACE or RIGHT SHIFT:        Main menu
	Menus
Arrow Keys:                  Scroll through selections
ENTER or RIGHT CTRL:         Make selection
SPACE or RIGHT SHIFT:        Up one level
	Conversations
LEFT and RIGHT:              Rewind/Forward
UP and DOWN:                 Scroll through selections
ENTER or RIGHT CTRL:         Make selection
SPACE or RIGHT SHIFT:        Skip, Show/Hide summary
	Star Map
Arrow Keys:                  Move the crosshair
ENTER or RIGHT CTRL:         Select destination
SPACE or RIGHT SHIFT:        Main menu
Keypad +:                    Zoom in
Keypad -:                    Zoom out
/ (not on the keypad):       Begin search.
                             (Type star or constellation name to
                              find matches)
TAB:                         Jump to next match.
	Space Combat
UP:                          Thrust
LEFT and RIGHT:              Steer
RIGHT CTRL or ENTER:         Fire Primary Weapon
RIGHT SHIFT:                 Fire Secondary Weapon
ESCAPE:                      Emergency Warp Escape
	Planet Exploration
UP:                          Forward
LEFT and RIGHT:              Steer
RIGHT CTRL or ENTER:         Fire stun bolt
RIGHT SHIFT or ESCAPE:       Blast off

MELEE CONTROLS SUMMARY
	Top Player
W:                           Thrust
A and D:                     Steer
V:                           Fire Primary Weapon
B:                           Fire Secondary Weapon
	Bottom Player
UP or ENTER:                 Thrust
LEFT and RIGHT:              Steer
RIGHT CTRL or ENTER:         Fire Primary Weapon
RIGHT SHIFT:                 Fire Secondary Weapon
These controls are configurable from the Setup Menu. You may define up to six "Input Templates" and assign a template to either or both players. Some commonly used key configurations are pre-defined, as well as popular variants. To change key bindings, select the binding you wish to change and press ENTER. At the dialog box, press the key (or joystick gesture) that you wish to assign to this action.

SAVED GAMES
The saved games are kept in your personal directory for uqm data. This directory is automatically created the first time you start the game. On Unix systems this personal uqm data is stored in ~/.uqm. You will generally only need this if you intend to transfer savegames to another computer. Note that currently games saved on an PowerPC Mac will not work on a PC (or an Intel Mac), and vice versa. AMD64 and Intel savegames may be safely transferred.

ADD-ONS
As of version 0.3, The Ur-Quan Masters has basic support for add-on packages. Though it is not very elaborate yet, you can install some content add-ons. Inside the directory where the content is installed, in the content/packages/ directory, there is a directory 'addons/'. In this directory, you can create new directories with .zip files to be used in addition to the standard content .zip files. When you specify the command-line option '--addon <addon>', the .zip files inside the directory content/packages/addons/<addon> will be included in the game. '--addon' may be specified more than once to enable multiple add-ons.

BUG REPORTS
After several years of enthusiastic testing, UQM has dramatically improved its stability, but it is still beta software, and bugs certainly still lurk. Upon finding a problem, we'd like you to report it, but before you do, please do the following: - Try to isolate what causes it: "Crashes with a null dereference about half the time when firing and taunting with a Pkunk" is better than "Melee doesn't work." If the game crashes, notice what error is produced; if the game hangs, check to see if the game-exit key (F12) works. - Go to the bug database at http://bugs.uqm.stack.nl/ and post a report of the problem there. Search the database first if it has been already posted; if we get many duplicate reports, processing them eats our time from actual development. If it's been reported, and you have more information, feel free to confirm that you've reproduced it by adding a comment to the report. If ten people have already confirmed it, though, it's probably best to treat it as duly reported. - 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't know what a stack trace is, don't worry about it. - If your issue is more like "support request" than bug report and you want help from other users, then posting it to our forum might be more appropriate: http://uqm.stack.nl/forum/

SEE ALSO
The full documentation in /usr/doc/uqm-0.6.3
The official Ur-Quan Masters web site at http://sc2.sourceforge.net/