Installation and updating

Where do I get all the files I need? For the first installation, the complete package has to be downloaded from my homepage. Later, your updates will just consist of a new version of "tanascius.exe". The url is: http://www.tanascius.com How do I install the tool? As soon as you have downloaded the full version for the first time, unzip everything to any directory and look for the readme.txt, which might contain useful and important information. Start the tanascius.msi file and follow the guidelines through the installation. It's really important to install the tool into your Winplan directory (eg c:\plan1\) - only then it will work properly. If you run into problems (especially with older systems) you probably need an update of your Microsoft installer, which can be found here How do I update the tool? That's really simple - download and unzip the update straight into your Winplan directory (eg c:\plan1\) - that's it.

GAME

There are eight slots, one for every VPWork-directory. If you select one of them you will be able to choose one of the races for which gamedata was found. Every race in every game has it's own configuration. There are not many things you have to configure, but you should take care of them as these options might have a great impact on the program's behaviour. These options should explain themselves. The really important ones are the first three (or four, if you are lizard - like in my screenshot). Make sure you have entered the right settings for your game here. Federation should have 200 tax-rate and a mining-rate of 70, while lizard gets 200 mining-rate. But hosts tend to change this sometimes.

EVOLUTION

This is the only part of the tool which will change your gamedata. To stop the utility from doing so you can use the FCode '!xx' (x can by anything) on planets and ships.

At first you should select which jobs you want to have done. 'tax natives' and 'tax colonists' should be clear - check them and my tool will take care of your taxlevels. Normally the tool will use some kind of a growthtaxing method, but by using the '$xx' FCode on a planet the happiness will be dropped to about 70, before the taxrate is reset to 0 for one turn (in which you population can grow). By using this FCode you will get a bit more money within the next turns, but on the long run you will lose money because your natives will grow only a little bit. There is a second special FCode for natives - '$$x'. Then the happiness will be dropped slowly to 40%, which means that your natives won`t grow anymore. But you will get a lot of money for some turns. At the beginning of a game enable 'use the quick taxing method', then every planet will be treated like FCode '$xx' set. This might help you to get a lot of money in the first few turns as quick as possible. What about special races? The tool does know about the economic (dis)advantages of The Fed, The Lizards, The Borg, The Tholians, Insectoids, Bovinoids, Avians and Amorphous and acts accordingly. Hissers belonging to you will also be taken into the calculation. Because of some addons that generate happiness increase (like Ahost/Abhost) the "Hxx" fc was implemented in the tool. The "xx" is the amount of happiness the natives get per turn from the addon (for abhost, if you have a theme park and a stadium on the planet, you would set "H30"). This friendly code is also handy, if you got allied hissers above your planets - just set the right fc (eg for 3 hissers set "H15") and the tool will tax the natives accordingly. Enable 'Build structures', then you can set a general 'building order': You can exactly specify when and how many structures are supposed to be built. In the text box 'building order' the different inputs can be set. "f" is for factories, "m" for mines and "d" is for defense posts - those letters are combined with up to three digit numbers, "max" (maximal) and "sug" (suggested). An example: "f55 d15 fsug mmax dsug" means that the program will build 55 factories first, then 15 DP, "suggested" factories, maximal mines and "suggested" DP. The value for "suggested" will be calculated by the tool. In order to enable the programm to calcultate this value for the mines, one should enter the number of turns in which the whole mineral content of this type on the planet should be digged out for every type of mineral. For factories, the tool will calculate the "suggested" value from the type of natives on the planet - for DP it will evalute the economic importance (huge deposits of minerals and good natives will result in more DP) of the planet. And 'randomize FCodes'? Most planets will get a new FCode. Exceptions: ATT, NUK, dmp, con, noc, bum, mf, $$, $ and ! - up to 255 more FCodes which should not be changed by this function can be added with the button 'FCodes' (I'll explain this procedure very clearly later). 'use gravity wells': Activating this option will save you a lot of fuel, because the waypoints of your ships will be shortened up to 3 ly. Exceptions: Ships with "HYP", warp 0/1 and Cobols. 'Move ships 81ly': This will set the ship's waypoint, if it is further away then warp^2 exactly to the point that can be reached with the current warpsetting. Advantage: Your enemy can't see your waypoint. Disadvantage: If your turn does not get processed, your ship does not move to its original waypoint - but of course that will never happen to a decent player ... The last check button 'check starbases': Bases' missions are checked - if none is set, the tool will change the mission to "force a surrender". In addition to that a priority list for the fixing of starships is made up - the most important ship with damage or missing crewmembers gets fixed automatically. Well, there is one more thing to configure, before you can push the 'start' button. Press 'fcodes' to open a textfile that contains the friendly codes which are ignored by the 'randomize fc' option. Simply add a new line with the desired FCode. It does not matter, if the FC has 1, 2 or 3 digits. If you enter 'bt', for instance, every planet with a friendly code starting 'bt' will not get a randomized new fcode. Now just press 'start' and all selected functions will be started. When the tool has finished it's job a new window will pop up where you can find some useful details about the changes: The first column shows you whether colonists(c) or natives(n) were taxed. At the end of each line you find a value called 'H0', that's the happines you get on the specific planet with taxes set to 0. Everything else should be clear ;-) You can open this textfile again, later, by pressing 'view log'. 'Check' is a very useful button. Just press it right before you make your TRN, then it will check your commands for common mistakes like trying to hyperjump without fcode 'HYP' or not enough fuel. But there are a lot more checks: I taught the tool to report every mistake I ever made (and that were a lot, trust me :-) If you use the the 'move ships 81ly' function you might like to get your original waypoints reset, well, and that's what the last button does. So you should use it at the very beginning of each turn, right after unpacking. By the way: Gravitonic ships are moved 162ly, although the function is called 'move ships 81ly'.

VCR-SIM

Well, this is quite easy to use, you have to know only a few details: You can assign fighting ships to four groups - a ship will treat anyone who belongs to another group as an enemy. There is no difference between the 'my ships' group and the other three ones, beside the fact that worst-case scenarios generate the worst possible result for the 'my ships' group, while other groups get the best results. Ships that are placed higher in the battlelist will be more agressive (they will fight on the right side). If you modify any specifications of a ship that's already in the combatlist you have to press the "apply" button afterwards or your changes will be reset. You want to simulate with engine-shield-bonus? Well, then don't enter the ESB-rate in percent, but enter the total massbonus the ship gains. For a transwarp (300MC) ship with ESB-rate 50% enter 150 as ESB-Bonus. When a ship on the right side of the VCR fights a carrier and its mass (excluding ship parts and the fed bonus, but including engine shield bonus) exceeds 140 kts there is a 60 % chance for the ship of getting a bonus mass of 360 kts for the fight. With the box "Add bonus for right ship" checked, the ship that falls under the mentioned criteria will always (not only in 60 % of all fights) fight with the bonus mass. When the box is unchecked, the bonus mass will not be applied. 'Worst case for you': When this option is activated, not the average outcome, but the worst case for you will be carried over to the next VCR. This option is made up to simulate worst-case scenarios. Beware: It could happen that on the average your ship will win easily, but lose in the worst imaginable VCR - then the activation of this option will sim the next fight as if your (superior) ship was destroyed. This can lead to very astonishing or even frustrating results. 'Best case for enemy': The counterpart to "Worst case for you" - every enemy ship ends the fight with the best possible result. This also can lead to confusion: When the enemy ship normally loses, but wins in the best case, it is declared the winner. This is also intended to sim worst-case scenarios. If you want to see really devastating results you can enable both options :) Then the worst possible result will be calculated.