How do I start with VGA Planets?

How do I start with VGA Planets? (VGA Planets is a graphical, multi-player, play by electronic mail, space war game by Tim Wisseman.)

This is a common problem with VGA Planets. It is a great game but it has a complicated procedure to follow to actually play it and this tends to put players off that don't know how to write batch files. This page (with a few simple files) will hopefully solve most of your problems if not all of them.

First of all you need to get your hands on a copy of the VGA Planets Shareware Version. This can be found on Tim Wisseman's site at http://www.vgaplanets.com/share.htm or even better, click Here to download the file vp320.zip. You then need to Unzip it and Install it.

I would also recommend downloading the latest version of the Host program from this page http://www.vgaplanets.com/fixes.htm (the latest version out when this was written was "Host 3.22.019"). Unzip the file in your VGA Planets directory (after installing the Shareware version)

Next is download the Batch files that my Brother and I have written to help you. You can download a zip file of them Here , Please Unzip it in your VGA Planets directory. (Note: the batch files for running DOS Planets use the MS DOS command "Choice", so you need to be running an OS that supports the "Choice" command like MS DOS 6.0 or greater, Windows 95 etc.)

You can now run the Batch file "SET-UP" (when at your VGA Planets directory) to start a game of VGA Planets using a default Universe, Host Settings and with you playing "The Solar Federation" (race 1) against the other ten races being played by Tim's "Computer Player" program. The race you play can be changed, please see below.

Hints For The First Few Turns
I'm not going to tell you how you should play but here are a few "hints" for the first few turns.

Dont maximize your StarBase Defence and Tech Levels straight away, the money is better spent else where for the moment.
Try and build a Ship at your StarBase each turn, these ships dont want to be the best Battleships in the game but should have the best Engines you can buy.
These ships should be Filled with Clans and Supplies and then sent to the Planets near your StarBase. The turn after arriving you can drop some Clans and Supplies to the Planet and move the Ship on to the next Planet (DON'T set you Ship on "Colonize" as this dismantles the Ship). To build 1 Factory on the Planet (which will create 1 supply unit per turn) you need 3 Megacredits and 1 Supply unit, however Supplies can be sold for Megacredits (1 supply for 1 megacredit) So you need to drop 4 Supplies for each Factory you want to build (you CAN'T drop megacredits to an unowned planet).
Taxing Natives is your main source of income. Find a close Native Planet (Insectoid or Avian are best) with a good Goverment and start Taxing them (not too much as you don't want to get them unhappy) and then ship the money back to your StartBase. Make sure you have enough Clans on the Planet to collect all the Tax Money.
You also need to look for Planets that have large amounts of Minerals as your Minerals at your HomeWorld wont last for ever.
When you come to a Planet that has large amounts of Minerals and has a close source of income (either on the planet or very close to it) you may wish to look at building a StarBase on it, then you can build Ships from this Base as well allowing you to expand your Empire faster and stronger.
Planet hop! Try and end each turn at a Planet rather than in space as this make you less visable and wont give away the location of your HomeWorld.

How Do I Change The Race I Play?
You need to edit the batch file "SET-VAR.BAT". This is easy to do, but if you are unsure please follow this link.

The Computer Players Are Stupid!
That's right. With Tim's C Player you will find computer played ships that have "run out of fuel" in space and other "silly" things, you will also notice it cheats a lot to make up for its lack of intelligence. However, we don't hold this against Tim as VGAP was meant to be played against other Humans and the C player was only written as a "stop gap". I would recommend downloading a 3rd party Computer Player from Cliff McKeithan's excellent page The VGA Planets Computer Player Archive I would get ACP/Omega as it plays very well and hardly cheats. The only C player that doesn't cheat (that I'm aware of) is Cliff's own "The Dominion".
Once you have downloaded another Computer Player you will need to edit the file called "AI-RUN.BAT" to have it play the other races.

Is There A Different Interface That I Can Use?
Yes there is, Tim has written a Windows "client" called WinPlan. You can download this from Tim's site at http://www.vgaplanets.com/share.htm . However, you will need to run the "WSET-UP.BAT" file (instead of "SET-UP.BAT") and create a Windows Icon to run the "WHOST.BAT" file. From within WinPlan you need to set the "RST Download" and "TRN Upload" Paths to the "P-DATA" sub-directory created from running "WSET-UP.BAT"

There is also a 3rd party program called VPA. This is what I use to play VGA Planets so naturally I would recommend having a look at it. You can link to this page to have a look at what its like before downloading it. If you decide to go with VPA then you only have to change 1 line in the "SOLO.BAT" file.

Are There Other Programs That Help Players?
There are many (too many) programs that will do all sorts of things for you. Please link to my VGA Planets Common Player Utilities List for an almost (if not) complete list of Player Utilities for VGA Planets.

I Like This Game, Where Do I Go From Here?
Register it! This can be done from Tim's Site at http://www.vgaplanets.com/. This will allow you to upgrade your Tech levels on your StarBases past level 7 rather then having to use the Native's bonuses. It will also allow you to do some special features.

Subscribe to the Alt.Games.VGA-Planets Newsgroup as this is where most of the Internet players "hang out".

Read the Alt.Games.VGA-Planets Mini-FAQ as this will answer a lot of question about VGAP on the Internet.

Read the Document files that come with Planets.

Look for Games that are being Hosted for "Newbies". I'm sorry to say, it doesn't matter how well you do against Computer Players you will be classed as a "Newbie" until you get a few "Human" games under your belt. This is when the game comes "alive".

Modifying Batch files.
A Batch file (also called Bat) is a simple text file with the file extension of BAT (ie, AUTOEXEC.BAT) that contains DOS Commands. The DOS commands contained in the batch file are executed when the batch file is run. To run a batch file you only have to type in it's File Name (ie. without the .bat) while in the same directory as it (unless the directory that contains the batch file is in your path statement) This allows you to run a number of DOS commands with only typing one command.

To modify or create a Batch file I prefer to use the DOS text editor called EDIT (DOS 5.0 or greater). One can also use Window's Notepad.

Using EDIT.
When at the DOS prompt and in the planets directory, type "EDIT filename.bat" and press enter. When you have finished editing the batch file and you want to exit (and save), press ALT (for the pull down menus) ENTER (to access the file menu) X (to exit) and ENTER at the "save file Y/N" (Enter being YES).

Using Windows Notepad.
Start Notepad by clicking on its icon. From the menu go FILE OPEN and change the filename box to *.bat then select your Planets directory and select the filename.bat you wish to edit. Once you have finished editing the file you will need to save the file and then exit.

The Batch file you need to check is called SET-VAR.BAT and it looks like this,

@echo off
rem   You have three (3) fields to change in this file

rem  ** Enter name of game dir here **
rem     ie.  gn=c:\planets\tryout
set gn=c:\planets\tryout

rem  ** Enter player race number here **
rem     ie.  race=1              Note: use 1-11  (not 1-9,a,b)
set race=1

rem  ** Enter Race numbers to be played by artificial intelligence **
rem     ie.  ai=23456789ab       Note:  DONT have your race number here!
set ai=23456789ab

The first line "@echo off" tells your computer to not show on the screen each command as it is executed. ie. it keeps your screen tidy.
Anything after a "rem" (short for remark) is ignored. These allow you to put "comments" into your batch files.
The "set" command sets the variable for the given value. All the other batch files uses these variables which makes it very easy for you to change which race you play as you only have to change this simple batch file.

This page was created by Steven Gedye "Sonic Hedgehog" and was last modified 20.4.98
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