                         Stellar Emperor 

                           Readme File



                        September 17, 1997





For the most current information always check the web pages.



Please bear in mind that this is still a beta product.  As such, the

level of product support we are able to provide may seem lacking.

However, Stellar Emperor has the good fortune to have an experienced

and very knowledgeable player base from its earlier incarnations. 

  

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System Requirements for Stellar Emperor

*******************************************************************



Minimum Requirements

--------------------

Operating System:     Windows 95

CPU Type and Speed:   486DX 66

Hard Drive Space:     15 MB minimum hard drive space free

Memory:               8 MB RAM

To Play Sounds:       100 % Soundblaster(tm)  Compatible sound card

Video:                256 colors required

Modem:                100% Hayes compatible 9600 kbps or faster



Please note: It is recommended that modem data compression be turned off while 

playing Stellar Emperor online.  Consult your modem's user manual for more 

information.



Recommended

-----------

CPU Type and Speed:   Pentium 100

Memory:               16+ MB RAM



Operating System Restraints

---------------------------

Currently you must have Windows95 in order to play this game.



Also, with Win95, the more memory you have, the better.  Although

Win95 will run with 8 MB, you will see a great speed increase if

you get more memory.



*************************************************************

Bug Reporting

*************************************************************



If you encounter bugs, please use the following form 

cut and paste this, fill it out, and then post it to the 

bug reporting newsgroup on the beta page,

or make sure you have included all this info.



--------------

Name:

E-mail:

Game Name:

Client Version: (Click on Help/Stats)

Host Version: (in versions.txt)

Detailed description of problem you are having:

Your hardware information:

   CPU type and speed (i.e. Pentium 90)

   RAM (i.e. 16MB RAM)

   Video Card and RAM  (i.e. Matrox Millenium 4MB)



--------------

If you have more than one bug to report, feel free to include it in

the same form.  Just put all the necessary at the top of the page and

then list the problems description by description.  The more detail

you give us, the better chance we will be able to identify and solve

the problem.



The easiest bugs to fix are ones that we can reproduce. Please try and 

detail as best you can, what you did, where you were etc. so that we

can try to duplicate those conditions, both to make sure we see the

bug and so that we can test to see when we've gotten rid of it.



*****************************************

Where to go for more information

*****************************************



The version numbers for the game are provided in the file VERSION.TXT.



Known bugs are enumerated in the file BUGS.TXT.  There is also

some information there on new features that are being implemented.





*******************

Getting Started

*******************



First off, you'll need a ship.  The initial screen will ask you to name 

your ship.  After that you will be asked to select a starting location.

If you are just beginning, it really doesn't matter which Imperial

Base you start at.



Then choose the menu item "Take Command of Your Ship".

This will put you into space!



Press Alt+G (This means: hold down the Alt key and press the letter G).

The Galaxy Map will appear over the center of your screen.

You will see the four Imperial bases marked there.  By clicking on

the Galaxy Map with you mouse, you bring up the Province Map for the porvince 

you clicked in.  This map shows all the stars in that province. 



Each star system has a number, from 1 to 4096.  As you explore each system, 

its number will change color, from white to green. If you establish a colony 

or base in a system, the number will change to blue.



Press the Esc key twice.

This should close the Provice Map then the Galaxy Map.

Now you can see "radar" display. You can recall the Galaxy Map with Alt+G 

or from the menu anytime. The Province Map is available from the menu or 

use Alt+P.



Click me:

Generally, left-clicking on any object in the "radar" display will

cause a list of buttons to display which relate to that object.

Right-clicking will give you some description of what that object is.

If your click hits more than one object, a short pop-up menu will

be displayed to let you get more specific.



The Arrow buttons:

The two arrows to the lower left of the "radar" are zoom buttons.

You may also use ALT+ or ALT- (using + and - on the numeric keypad)



The four arrows in the lower right corner are for moving the view.

You may also use ALT and the arrow keys on your keyboard to do this.

The center square button centers the view on your ship. There is

no keyboard shortcut for this yet.



The anchor button anchors the view.  Normally, your ship is always

displayed at the center of the screen.  If you are moving, however,

this makes it rather difficult to accurately click on anything.

Activating the anchor button (it turns green), locks the view where

it is, and your ship will appear to move. Recenter the display on

your ship by using the square button in the center of the arrows.



Instruments:

The compass to the upper left of the "radar" display has many 

functions. Clicking in the blue ring steers the ship.  The inner

semicircles are laser indicators, fore and aft. The middle ring

are shield indicators.  Left-clicking on the compass will bring

up the ship command buttons.



The compass to the upper right of the "radar" display is a torpedo

status indicator.  Green means loaded, Yellow is empty, Red is destroyed.

Left clicking on this instrument causes a torpedo to be loaded

(if you have empty tubes)



The energy bar shows the fuel onboard, left-clicking it will

dump 100 units.



The velocity bar can also be used to change speed. Click in

the bar to change your speed.



Button buttons:

Numbered button commands may also be executed by using ALT #

where # is the number of the button.



ALT P  will bring up the province map.

ALT G  will bring up the galaxy map.

ESC    will close the province map, galaxy map, animation window & command 

       buttons in the reverse order of their creation.



There are currently no wormholes, so don't attempt sundiving.



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Stellar Emperor is a registered trademark of Kesmai Corporation.

Copyright(c) 1997. All rights reserved.

All other trademarks are property of their respective

owners.

