
	This is a game of interstellar exploration/conquest.  By the time I
realized there really wasn't going to be much fighting going on in the game, I
was so in love with the title that I just couldn't change it...

	Players begin the game as members of a randomly generated race, with
attributes (intelligence, birth rate, size, metabolism, etc) that affect
development later.  Each turn, population will migrate to unpopulated areas
of the planet.

	Currently I have the following features:

	Exploration: players can build many types of ships with which to 
colonize other planets.
	Terraforming: planets have atmospheres, composed of different amounts
of gases.  Players can build machines to alter the atmosphere to one more
suited to their race.
	Von Neumann machines: This is a ship-type that can be built.  It
exists to reproduce itself using whatever resources are available, and can be
useful to send to other players.  I got this idea after reading _The Forge of
God_.
	Co-existance: There are several types of terrain: land, ice, ocean,
mountainous, and gas(gasgiant).  Each player has a type which he preferrs; if
one race's preference differs from another, both races can co-exist on the same
planet.
	Communication: players can communicate with each other, but only if
they sacrifice valuable resources to translate another language.
	Combat: If the above breaks down.


	The game is not (of course) complete, but it's fixed up enough to post
I think.  It runs pretty good on 4.3 and 4.2, but as our versions of
both here are a little funky, it may require some tweaking before it runs to
a game keeper's satisfaction.




BUGS:

	Ships with "*" before their names (shipdata.h) don't work as yet.
don't build them.
	Probably shouldn't have used a square grid implementation for
planet maps, but I wanted the simplest thing possible for that.  I'm
thinking of adding new planet types if I can get information on their
generation.  Any help on this point (once you have seen the game and know how
it is done here) would be appreciated.  Ideas of mine on this cover
things such as Ringworlds, Dyson spheres, space elevators, artificial
hollow planets, the list goes on..
	new command: technology.  this allows investment to influence
tech development, instead of just having that depend on your
race's IQ..


	New versions will be posted/added to/however this is done,
when I have the time to write same.  I've spent two years writing 
this program, and I hope it is enjoyed by everyone using it.



STARTING THE GAME:
	This was done on two seperate machines, one running 4.2 and the other
running a tweaked version of 4.3.  The current code has been tested using
4.3 BSD Unix. Edit the Makefile to suit your needs. When it's done making, 
try this:
	makeuniv < planet.list
If you don't put the planet.list direction you will be asked for data
pertaining to the universe you wish to create.

	This will set up a fair-sized game with 30 stars and 30 planets,
should be good for a decent system.  GB_daemon is the program that does
turns.  Invoke it with "GB_daemon <update_hours>" where update_hours
is the number of hours between updates.  You may want to have them
at 1/hr at first, slower later on as things get rushed..
	Once the game is up, you, as the diety player, must enroll
first.  (several objects in the game are owned by player 1, it would be better
if this were you..)  (To make yourself some resources, use the 'fix' command.) 
Occasionally you might tweak a star or two to go nova
(fix its stability to 100); this is especially useful for recalcitrant 
game-players complaining about bugs.  Put the fear of god into them.

	Please send me information on trends in the game; what tends to
happen here and there.


FIXES/ADDITIONS:
	Ships are now stored in a list, instead of slots in planets.  This 
makes a lot of things much faster, as well as more efficient, and you won't
run into the barrier of 25 ships max in orbit around every planet.
	Alterations in some algorithms make it now impossible for ships to 
be in two lists at once, or in the wrong list.
	Load used to not check for the other ship overflowing its 
bounds; I fixed this since you could load a whole colony onto an
explorer.  You can, however, load as many resource points as you want, onto 
shuttles only.  this makes it possible for two shuttles to construct something
larger.
	Only shuttles, space habitats (used to be space stations), and
orbital assault platforms can assemble other ships.
	There have been changes to the behavior of space habitats:
they reproduce resources and also people.  Because of some new restrictions
I've put in, the only way to really build them (at least the first one)
is to build two shuttles, load them with resources, launch them and dock
them together and transfer all the resources of one to the other, land the
empty one and fill it again, and continue transferring them until the
shuttle has enough to build a habitat.  Hey, it's the way WE have to do
it..

	Planets are now moved in their orbits before ships are moved;
this makes them more efficient in interplanetary navigation, and ships won't
follow them around anymore.
	New ship type: toxic waste canister, which reduces your toxicity
of the planet you build it on-- but what do you do with all the canisters?
	More new ships: ground and space telescopes.  ground telescopes are
way cheap and have a much lower tech, while space telescopes cost more
but have a longer range.  range is proportional to your tech.  These
were put in so people don't have to send ships out blindly.  Once you've
surveyed someplace with one of these, you can then map and 'cs' to it.
	Tactical works better, it uses planets as part of its display.
	The bug where sector maps got randomly switched around sometimes
halting the game, has been fixed.  This was a MAJOR pain, and the main problem
of the moment in GB.


	Many thanks to Steven Grimm (koreth@ssyx), without whose help
in the early stages of the game, development would not have been possible,
and Evan Schaffer admin of ssyx, whose tolerance of huge CPU usages by a lowly
undergrad making a game is greatly appreciated.


	Rob Chansky
	smq@ucscb.ucsc.edu
	smq@ssyx.ucsc.edu
	...!ucbvax!ucscc!ssyx!smq
	...!ucbvax!ucscc!ucscb!smq

