                         ====================
                         EchoView version 1.1
                         ====================

Welcome to EchoView !!!
=======================

EchoView is a Windows player utility for VGA Planets. VGA Planets is a 
play-by-email game for the IBM PC written by Tim Wisseman.

This file contains information on updating from EchoView 1.02, 
installation instructions, and a list of new features in EchoView 1.1.

More information including a Mini-FAQ and the Disclaimer (legal stuff) 
can be found in the context sensitive helpfile ECHOVIEW.HLP. 
Be sure to read the relevant sections which are accessible by the F1 key 
or by clicking on the Help button in the dialogs.

This version of EchoView is distributed with two more archives :
ESHARE.ZIP   a third-party addon written by Scott Clarke (thanks a lot !) 
             which lets you merge EchoView databases. 
             See the docs for more info.
SCANMESS.ZIP the SCANMESS.EXE program which converts the messages into 
             PHOST UTIL*.DAT files (NOT necessary to run EV !!!)




Installation :
==============

The EchoView package is distributed with the following files :

ECHOVIEW.EXE	the Windows executable
SCANMESS.DAT	an ASCII file containing the message scanner definitions
CHANGES.TXT	a file describing the bug fixes and changes since the 
		last version
README.TXT	readme file with installation instructions
ECHOVIEW.HLP	a Windows help file
CTL3DV2.DLL 	a Microsoft DLL for those who do not already have it 
		(the "3D" look of dialogs)

Echoview will create E*.DAT database files in the game directory and the 
file ECHOVIEW.INI in the Windows directory.

How to install :
----------------

- Place ECHOVIEW.EXE together with ECHOVIEW.HLP wherever you want. 
- Copy the CTL3DV2.DLL to your directory, if it's not already there 
  (important : don't leave it in the same directory as EchoView).
- Put SCANMESS.DAT into your planets directory. 
- That's all !!!

- Now start EchoView. 
- Select "Load Game" from the File menu. 
- A dialog will ask you to enter the path of the planets directory. You 
  can browse through your directory tree. This directory serves as default
  directory for the planets data files. SCANMESS.DAT must reside here.
- Press "OK" to continue.
- The next dialog will ask you to enter a name for your game (EchoView 
  supports multiple games), your race number (0-11) and the game 
  directory (for WINPLAN users : the game directories are the VPWORK# sub-
  directories of your main WINPLAN directory). 
- If you assign your race to zero, EchoView will load all host files which 
  are in the game directory.
- Press "OK" again. 
- If there was an error, a message box will appear.  In this case, select 
  "Load Game" again and check whether your directory and race settings 
  have been properly described (press "Edit" to see them).
- If your game has a password, EchoView will ask you for it.

Now the fully maximized starmap of your current game should be visible.

Hint : Read the mouse section to learn about all the different ways to use 
the mouse in EchoView. This is the most important section of the manual.

Note : if you play with alternative race names, maps or ship lists, 
EchoView looks first in the game directory for the RACE.NM, PLANET.NM, 
XYPLAN.DAT and *SPEC.DAT files.

See also the FAQ section of the help file on how to setup games with 
different clients (WINPLAN, DOS planets).

If you have been using Crystal Ball, select Files/Load Crysball data. All 
of the information in the Crystal Ball database will become available in 
EchoView.




Updating from EchoView 1.0x
===========================

Updating is quite simple :
- Replace ECHOVIEW.EXE, ECHOVIEW.HLP, and SCANMESS.DAT with the newer 
  versions.
- Start EchoView !!!

All your databases will be read automatically, nothing is lost. EchoView 
is fully upwards compatible.

If you have used EchoView before, you already know many features of 
EchoView. Therefore : see below What's new in version 1.1 ?

Downward compatibility : Version 1.01 and lower of EchoView will crash 
when attempting to read the planet database (EPLAN*.DAT) of version 1.1, 
version 1.02 will read the 1.1 data but the planet notepad will be lost. 
Version 1.02 can not read the wormhole data (EWORM*.DAT) of version 1.1.




What's new in version 1.1 ?
===========================

The following list is not complete, but shows the most important 
enhancements and changes with respect to version 1.02. If you are 
interested in all changes, read the complete CHANGES.TXT file.
Check also the "What's new" section in the helpfile which offers lots
of links to the respective help pages.

- Allied planets data files (unpacked RSTs) can be read via the 
  Select_Allies dialog.

- Host support : 
  Assigning the race in the load game dialog to 0 will read all host files 
  and show all ships, planets, minefields, ion storms, ufos and wormholes 
  currently in the game.

- Full WINPLAN support :
  WINPLAN outgoing message writing is now supported.
  All version 3.5 RST infos are available from within EchoView.
  EchoView and WINPLAN can run at the same time, reloading will no longer 
  cause file sharing violations.
  View your WINPLAN auto-build settings from EchoView.

- Minefield simulator :
  A mine decay, sweep and lay simulator has been added, you will be able to 
  see how much your enemies minefields will shrink due to decay and sweeping 
  and also how much your minefields will change.

- Colors
  Individual race colors are now available. Check the 
  Options/Colors/Race_colors dialog.

- Improved Toolbar:
  Buttons for showing starmap resources, planet temperature and ship class 
  have been added. Most buttons are also accessible via hotkeys.

- Message interface :
  Message filtering is configurable via the incoming messages window.
  The saved message editor can be customized (custom editor or inbuilt).
  WINPLAN messages are supported.
  Configuration messages from HOST are saved to ECONFIG.TXT.

- Improved object dialogs :
  Allmost all dialogs have been improved to contain more information.
  A planets notepad is now available.
  The ship and planet dialogs can be left open while EchoView is running. 
  The ship dialog has now a scrollbar to scroll through all the ships, a 
  "Goto" button which lets the mouse jump to the respective ship, a hull 
  spec button, a waypoint/next_turn button to show where the ship is heading to.
  The ship dialog will also pop up, when you double click a ship explosion 
  or a mine hit, if the respective ship was already in the database.

- Improved automatic ship updating
  Ships destroyed in ion storms and enemy ships destroyed in battles with 
  your own planets in HOST games are, in most cases, now automatically 
  removed from the database, too.
  Destroyed ships will be shown for one turn (as destroyed), you can view 
  which kind of ship you have destroyed.

- More Starmap options and features :
  Own/enemy radar ranges can be shown in the map (range is read 
  automatically from host messages), minescan ranges can be shown, too.
  Valid hyperjumping ships will show 350 ly displacement (and exact 
  destination point).
  Orbiting ships are indicated by small circles.
  The first line of the ship-notepad can be shown in the starmap.
  Ships can be shown in different sizes and shapes related to their armament.
  Temperature can be indicated by small red/blue bars left of each planet. 
  Most options are available via hotkeys (see the help file).

- Improved Hyperjump help
  If the destination can be reached with one normal movement followed by one 
  jump, the startpoint for this jump will be shown. The hyperjump 
  calculations take now into account whether HOST32 or PHOST hyperwarp wells 
  are switched on.

- Improved minefield handling
  Mine field explosions and scoops are now handled, the minefield type, if 
  known, is now shown in minefield dialog, minefield list and minescan 
  record, unscanned minefields will decay automatically.

- List windows :
  All list windows can be printed now with the File/Print menu command.
  They can also be saved to ASCII text files.
  Most lists can be sorted by different criteria.
  The ship list will now show ships which were destroyed this turn. They 
  will be automatically deleted from the database next turn.
  A hull specifications list has been added.
  The planet and ship lists can be exported as dbaseIII files (to import 
  them into Excel or other spreadsheet programs for further use).

- Planet scanner :
  Scan through all planets for those meeting a certain requirement, e.g. 
  enough minerals and money for a base, unhappy natives, tax rates larger 
  than X, bovinoids, etc...
  The scanner is based on interpretation of a boolean expression and thus 
  fully configurable.

- Scores
  A graphical representation of the score history is now available.
  The score dialog also shows the differences to the previous turn.

- New config options :
  Auto-reload each time you activate EchoView, load last game, a new
  message options to disallow reading of Informer messages ...

- RANDMAX support
  EchoView will read your RANDMAX ini-file and will let you change the 
  RANDMAX settings for each planet from the planet dialog box. The RANDMAX 
  ini-file will then be saved again, when you save your EchoView databases.
  To activate this, you have to check the "Allow Autobuild support" option 
  in the Options/Config dialog, and a valid RANDMAX.INI file in your game 
  directory.

- Commandline argument : 
  ECHOVIEW <gamename> will start EchoView with the respective game loaded.

Many thanks to all the beta-testers, for all the suggestions about improving
EchoView, and for the great feedback from you all !
(My to-do list is almost as long as the new features list above)

Have fun with EchoView !!!

Stefan Glasauer (e-mail u7x31ah@sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de)