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                    What's New With Begin?  

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             First Online * 415 598-0398 / 5.2 Gig / 9 Lines

          Northern California's Fastest Growing Online Resource



    Version 2.0 of Begin is have finally been released!



The price of v2.0 has now been set.  It will be $19 for the manual and

diskette plus $6 shipping and handling.  We will not offer a manual only 

for the new release.



All current contributors to Begin may upgrade by sending $4 plus $6 

shipping and handling.



There are now Federation Starbases, Tankers, Tugs, Klingon Outposts,

Orion Grapplers, Orion Armadillos.  Romulans have cloaking devices. 

The graphics display shows shields/strengths, direction of travel,

tractor beam connections.  



Docked ships repair twice as fast and may repair anything, even 

previously unrepairable items.

 

Docked ships may have a crew even if the life support is destroyed

since it is docked.  You may not normally board a life support

deficient ship unless docked.  There is also an impulse engine that,

when damaged, will make you dead in space unless you still have a 

warp drive.  All ships now have transporters that may be damaged that

also limit the number of crew that may transport at once. 



You may not group your allies for easier control.  Groups names are

simply numbers 1 thru N.  You tell allies to join a group then give

orders to the group number instead of the ship names.



Your sensors may now be damaged.  If you have no allies near by you

will be blind.  Ships that get to far away disappear off of your scope.

How far depends on your sensors and the size of their ship.  A game

started with the Random command will place most or all ships out of

sensor range which forces you to look for them. 



Cloaked Romulans appear as white objects on your screen and are displayed 

at their last known position.  When cloaked ships fire or are hit they

re-appear for one turn.

  

There are also different types of torps and probes.  The Federation has

MK7 and MK8 torps.  The MK7s you already know.  The MK8s are slower but

have 50% more punch.  They are good for close-in fighting.  The Feds

and the Klingons have Data Probes that travel at warp 20 but only carry

small sensors good for locating lost enemy ships.  The Klingon version

also has a small warhead of course. The Orions now posses Shield-Bore

torpedeos that damage your shields but not your ship.  The Grappler class 

ships use these torps along with their large crew to board and capture ships.



The number of torpedeo tubes per ship has been reduced although the effective

strength of the torps has been increase.  This will hopefully make single 

tube ships more useful.



New Commands During Setup:

    Up to 60 ships,bases,etc. may be selected

    Random (instead of Begin) places random number of ships.



New Commands During Play:

    Repair <System> | All   Lets you select one item that has priority.

    Tractor <ship> | Off    Lets you tow a ship.

    Board <ship>            Lets you board a ship and capture it.

    Dock <Name> On | Off    Lets you dock with a base, outpost, etc.

    Cloak On | Off          If you are a Romulan

    Reenforce <#>           Lets you reenforce a shield using much power

    Tell <ally> board <ship> <number>

    Tell <ally) tow <ship> <destination>

    Tell <ally> tractor <ship>

    Tell <ally> release

    Tell <ally> approach <ship> <range>

    Tell <ally> dock <base>

    Tell <ally> undock

    Tell <ally> join <group #>

    Tell <ally> leave

    Tell <ally> stop

    Tell <ally> defend <ship>

    Tell <base> recover <ship>

    Tell <base> eject <ship> 

    Tell <group #> <orders...>

    Group

    Chart all

    Chart by name

    Chart by distance

    Chart by nation

    Chart from <ship>

    Chart <ship> on

    Chart <ship> off

    Text

    Key <keyName> string      Allows <CR> in string.  Keys are F# or ^x



Reads Begin2.key on startup.  Contains key definitions without the word 

Key in front. 



Only VGA graphics are supported although you may still play in Text mode.

This will be the last release that supports Text mode.  Text mode has had

very little testing, so please report any bugs that show up.



Tom Nelson

Mike Higgins



