2 January 2000
The Beta Test of the next Advanced VCR® version will start sooner.

Current version: 1.50 build 000 of 21 Oct. 1998

News

Now Advanced VCR is compatible with HOST999 3.22.024.003 or higher.

Changes

Nothing.

Bugs fixed

Fixed a bug in the message system.

Description
Advanced VCR is an addon program for VGA Planets 3.x, which allows resolving battles at higher level of details than HOST.EXE.
Combat parameters are customisable for each race; this gives the host a great deal of flexibility in how the game is planned.
Other news include Intercept & Cloak mission, Ram mission, experimental cloaking device, boarding parties in combat and support for ship-lists with up to 20 beams, 20 tubes and 20 fighter bays.

Note: Advanced VCR pack already contains the Advanced VCR Viewer pack, so you don't need to download it.

Software requirements
Advanced VCR was developed for Tim Wisseman's HOST.
Advanced VCR needs HOST/HOST.SRACE version 3.22.017 or higher, or HOST999 version 3.22.024.003 or higher.

Changes from HOST.EXE
This section shows the Advanced VCR behaviour compared to HOST.EXE battles resolution.

• Beams and fighters can miss.
• Fighters have beams equal of those mounted on ship, but they have only 1/30 of power. If a carrier has no beams their fighters will cause only damage according to FighterMinDamageRate value.
• Ships without beams, but with torpedoes or fighters, will fight.
• If a planet/starbase is conquered (captured) in battle then the planetary friendly code is set the same of the ship that has conquered (captured) the planet/starbase.
• If a planet/starbase finishes a battle with no offensive capability its friendly code (if it is ATT or NUK) is set to a random value. This prevents the planet/starbase from becoming an aggressor for the remainder of combat.
• If a ship finishes a battle with no offensive capability (i.e., no beams, no torps, and no fighters) then its mission (if it is KILL) and primary enemy settings are cleared and the ship can no longer be an aggressor. Its battle order, however, does not change.
• Similarly, if a ship is captured in battle then its KILL mission and primary enemy settings are cleared, again preventing the ship from continuing its role as an aggressor. The battle order of the ship does not change.
• You'll obtain crew experience by capturing ships in combat.
• Number of weapons availables in combat, is now directly proportional to ship damage.
• Ships, planets and starbases owned by Lizard, cannot longer sustain up to 150% of damage; they will explode at 100 % as other races. Lizard bonus was not removed; now weapons do less damage at ships, planets and starbases owned by Lizard.
• Ships will gain additional mass according to crew experience.
• Starbases can also gain more shields power from Engine-Shield bonus (if active). The starbase engines will be determined according to Engine Tech Level of starbase.
• Fed Crew Bonus is also applied to planets and starbases owned by Federation.
• Starbases can be captured in combat by killing their crew.
• "NTP" friendly code is now "intelligent": if, without the support of your torpedoes/fighters, the opponent ship has the power to blast your ship then "NTP" will be ignored.

The shareware version of Advanced VCR
To encourage registration, this program will cease to function after turn 20 of the game. This does NOT mean you can start testing at turn 15 and continue for 20 turns; it means only the first 20 turns of the game (1 to 20). In addition, a nag message will be sent to all players every turn. Otherwise, all features of Advanced VCR are enabled.

Screenshots
Clic to enlarge the images.

VCR.EXE - The main window. Here you browse all your battles.

VCR.EXE - The View window with a battle in progress.

AVCRSIM.EXE - The main window. Here you can insert, change
and delete all the objects (ships, planet or base) of your simulation.

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