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The Project 64 etext of the ~Elite manual~. Instructions edited and
written by Bob Tinsley <mauqx@csv.warwick.ac.uk>, credits Coverdale
Page. Formatting, corrections, and prices by Cris Berneburg
<pcgeek@compuserve.com>, the Basic Bombardier. Corrections for Quick
Key Control Guide obtained from Doc's "R" Us BBS, 914-668-3664 (phone
number may no longer be valid) supplied by Uber <uber@wizvax.net> from
the Tri-City Commodore User Group collection.  This replaces
ELITE10.TXT, etext 29.

ELITE11.TXT, April 1997, etext #230#

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 %PROGRAM      : Elite
 %COPYRIGHT    : British Telcommunications plc (Firebird), 1985
 %AUTHORS      : R.J.M. Pinto, D.M.N. Prior, M. Wighton, P. Mochan
 %INSTRUCTIONS :

Command your Cobra space ship in a fantastic voyage of discovery and
adventure, a supreme test of your combat, navigational and
entrepreneurial skills.

Trade between countless planets, using the proceeds to equip your ship
with heat-seeking missiles, beam lasers and other weapons - corporate
states can be approached without risk, but unruly anarchies may be
swarming with space pirates.

Black market trading can be lucrative but could result in skirmishes
with local police and a price on your head!

However you make your money, by fair means or foul, you must blast
onwards through space annihilating pirate ships and hostile aliens as
you strive to earn your reputation as one of the Elite!



YOUR RATING AS A COMBATEER

To become an elite combateer requires great skill and great patience,
because expert trading is essential before the necessary more powerful
armaments and equipment available to the Cobra ship can be bought:
beam lasers, more missiles, energy bombs, a docking computer, galactic
hyperdrive, etc.

As you sail through space between the stars, and as you trade, you
will live with your combat rating. You will begin as HARMLESS. If you
survive your first skirmish you may be reclassified as MOSTLY HARMLESS.
But on the slow climb to a status level that reflects a growing talent
for combat you will have to engage many different ships, in many
different skirmishes, in the System Space of many different worlds.
You will then be classified as POOR, then AVERAGE, then ABOVE AVERAGE,
then COMPETENT. Then you will become DANGEROUS, then DEADLY. And at
last a few will become ELITE.

Your kills are photographed and transmitted by TS ComDirect to the
nearest GalCop Federal Law Centre. Your rating as a combateer will
increase in direct proportion.

Fly your Cobra craft wisely and carefully. Remember: other pilots may
be attempting to increase their own combat rating by attacking either
innocent traders, or police Vipers (the ships of the GalCop Police
Force). If you resort to such tactics (or if you adopt the fast-credit
routine and trade in illegal goods) then your combat rating may rise,
but your legal status: CLEAN -> OFFENDER -> FUGITIVE, will make you
Public Enemy Number One with the Federation Crime Monitoring Authority
and you will not be left alone.



CONSOLE READINGS

 +----+------------+-------------------------------------+------------+----+
 | FS | |||||||||| |  __         ___________         __  | |||||||||| | SP |
 | AS | |||||||||| | /  \   __---           ---__   /* \ |     ||     | RL |
 | FU | ||         | \__/  /                     \  \__/ |    ||      | DC |
 | CT | ||         |      <  FLIGHT GRID SCANNER  >      | |||||||||| | 1  |
 | LT |            |       \__                 __/       | |||||||||| | 2  |
 | AL | |||||||||| |  E       ---___________---          | |||||||||| | 3  |
 | -> |        |   |                                     | |||||||||| | 4  |
 +----+------------+-------------------------------------+------------+----+

 Front shields      Status (Green, all safe; Yellow,                   Speed
 Aft shields        possible danger; Red, immediate                     Roll
 Fuel level         danger; Flashing, critical.)                  Dive/Climb
 Cabin temperature         Compass (Centres on planet or       Energy bank 1
 Laser temperature         space station; when dot is not      Energy bank 2
 Altitude                  solid, object is behind you.)       Energy bank 3
 Missile status     ECM detector - ECM activity near           Energy bank 4



EQUIPMENT

 Item                Tech Level      Price/CR

 Fuel                 Always           Varies
 Missile              Always             30
 Large Cargo Bay      Always            400
 ECM System              2              600
 Pulse Laser             3              400
 Beam Laser              4             1000
 Fuel Scoops             5              525
 Escape Capsule          6             1000
 Energy Bomb             7              900
 Extra Energy Unit       8             1500
 Docking Computers       9             1500
 Galactic Hyperdrive    10             5000
 Mining Lasers          10              800
 Military Lasers        10             6000



HINTS AND TIPS

* Agricultural worlds need specialist food and raw materials, but
mostly basic machinery and spare parts. If they are rich, they need
luxuries and high tech industrial machines. They produce food in
quantity, raw materials and specialised 'organic' items, like some
textiles.

* Industrial worlds need agricultural produce, raw materials (for
refining), resource exploitation machinery, and (if rich) high tech
goods. They produce basic items of need for civilised worlds: beds,
seals and gaskets, power storage units, basic weapons, mass produced
fertiliser, mass produced medicines, etc.

* Trade in illegal goods (Slaves, Narcotics and Firearms) is the most
profitable, but may harm your Legal Status.

* Destroying pirate vessels earns a bounty, but attacking innocent
traders may harm your Legal Status.

* Once your Cobra is within automatic-docking and protective range of
the Coriolis space station, the scan console will display an S next to
the compass.

* Asteroids (and spacecraft!) can be mined with the appropriate lasers,
and the debris collected in fuel scoops.

* Thargoid (alien) battle-cruisers may 'hover' in Witch-Space
(hyperspace) and attack through-coming craft.

* Using an Escape Capsule effectively resets your legal status to
Clean.



DOCKING PROCEDURE

Docking with a Coriolis space station is never easy, unless the ship
is equipped with an automatic docking computer (in which case C will
activate it). The Navy Training Manual recommends the following
approach and dock sequence.

Locate the Coriolis station and approach it. The entrance tunnels to
all these stations face the mother planet. Fly near to the station and
then on towards the planet (monitoring altitude carefully). By turning
a half circle you will now find your ship orientated towards the
entrance.

Approach the final moments of docking at DEAD SLOW SPEED. Failure to
dock cleanly can be fatal but may simply result in your scraping the
sides of the aperture, with consequent loss of defensive shield(s) and
quite possibly your cargo. Manually control the Cobra's roll motion to
match the rotation of the Coriolis station. The entry port must be
nearly as horizontal as possible.

If docking is successful, the protective field across the station
entrance is penetrated, and a break pattern appears on the screen.
Berthing is handled automatically.



QUICK KEY CONTROL GUIDE

Space Flight Controls

 Anticlockwise roll          < - or joystick
 Clockwise roll              > - or joystick
 Dive                        S - or joystick
 Climb                       X - or joystick
 Increase speed              Space Bar
 Decrease speed              ?
 Front view                  F1
 Back view                   F3
 Left view                   F5
 Right view                  F7

Space Combat Controls

 Fire laser                  A - or fire
 Target missle               T
 Fire missle                 M
 Unarm missle                U
 ECM                         E
 Energy bomb                 C=  [ Commodore Key ]
 Escape capsule              <-  [ Back Arrow at upper-left ]
 Docking computer ON         C
 Docking computer OFF        P

Navigation Controls

 Hyperspace                  H
 Intergalactic jump          ctrl H
 Distance to system          D
 Cursor cross home           O
 Cursor cross control        Cursor Keys
 Galactic chart              4
 Local cluster chart         5

Trading Controls

 Launch from station         F1 - only while docked
 Buy cargo                   1 - only while docked
 Sell cargo                  2 - only while docked
 Equip ship                  3 - only while docked
 Galactic chart              4
 Local cluster chart         5
 Data on system              6
 Market prices               7
 Status page                 8
 Inventory                   9
 Find Planet                 F - only while docked

Game Controls

 Game skip                   J
 Freeze game                 Inst Del
 Continue game               Clr Home
 Initiate save               @ - only while docked

Other Controls

Note: these controls can only be used when the game is frozen

 Keyboard recentering toggle A
 Keyboard damping toggle     Run Stop
 Keyboard/Joystick toggle    K
 Reverse joystick            Y-y channel only
 Reverse joystick            J-both channels
 Docking music ON/OFF        M
 Sound effects OFF           Q
 Sound effects ON            S
 Flashing RED/YELLOW toggle  F
 Planet surface lines        P
 Start new game              <-  [ Back Arrow at upper-left ]


The keyboard recentering toggle (A) will disable and re-enable the
recentering in roll and dive/climb control.  When recentering is
enabled, a small amount of climb (or clockwise roll) cancels any dive
(or anticlockwise roll) and vice versa.

The keyboard damping toggle (RUN STOP) will disable and re-enable the
automatic damping of a roll, dive or climb while in keyboard control.
The J key will reverse both channels of the joystick enabling it to be
held either way around.  The Y key will reverse the Y-channel only so
that pushing the joystick forward will result in a climb and pulling
it back will result in a dive; roll will not be affected.  The J and Y
keys can be used in conjunction.

The F key will make the dial information appearing in red flash red
and yellow.  This will make the screen display clear for users with
black and white televisions or monochrome monitors.

*********

Sample prices and quantities for some systems. Price and availability
may vary ;-)

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Name    Lave    Leesti     Diso   Orerve    Oresqu   Erlaza  On Rira
Econ   Rich Ag  Poor In   Ave Ag  Main In   Ave In   Ave Ag  Rich In
Gov     Dict     Corp      Dem    Feudal    Multi     Dict    Corp
Tech      5       11        8        6       10        6       14
Pop      2.5      5.0      4.1      2.5      4.0      3.0      6.0
Prod     7000    35200    13120     7000    17280     6720    52800
Rad      4116     3085     6155     5132     5142     2846     6678
Food    3.6/16   6.0/10   2.8/18   5.6/13   7.2/9    3.2/19   7.6/6
Tex     6.0/15   8.0/12   6.4/18   8.0/16   8.8/14   6.0/17   8.8/12
Rad    20.0/17  26.0/12  19.6/22  25.2/18  27.6/12  20.8/25  26.8/25
Slave   6.0/-   20.8/-    8.0/10  12.8/-   16.8/-   15.6/29  23.2/-
Liq    23.2/3   31.6/9   25.2/35  30.0/17  34.0/7   26.4/38  34.0/-
Lux    94.4/28  85.6/38  98.4/8   89.2/33  82.8/49  98.0/7   79.2/56
Narc   49.6/14  46.8/62  64.4/34  26.4/-    3.2/-   83.6/-   23.6/24
Comp   89.6/-   73.6/28  96.0/-   79.6/17  68.4/45  95.6/-   62.4/58
Mach   58.8/-   54.0/32  62.0/6   56.8/29  52.0/41  63.2/9   47.6/42
Alloy  33.2/10  40.8/35  37.6/21  35.2/21  34.4/23  45.2/40  38.4/35
Fire   75.6/-   61.6/7   81.6/-   68.0/-   57.6/23  82.8/-   50.4/31
Furs   52.4/17  84.0/34  52.8/28  62.4/-   69.6/-   73.2/15  77.6/-
Min    10.8/58  12.0/55  11.2/61  12.8/59  13.6/57  10.8/60  13.6/55
Gold   36.8/7   39.6/8   37.2/10  40.4/12  41.2/10  38.4/13  39.6/4
Plat   64.4/9   74.8/15  67.6/13  68.8/4   70.4/-   75.2/32  75.6/9
Gems   16.0/8   18.8/-   19.6/10  19.6/4   20.4/2   20.8/13  18.8/-
Alien  51.2/-   34.8/-   58.0/-   42.0/-   30.0/-   59.2/-   22.0/-

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End of the Project 64 etext of the Elite manual.

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