Anomalies 1.00 Beta
===================

I. Introduction

"Anomalies" is an addon written for "VGA Planets 3".
It emulates & enhances the Anomalies known from the great Addon AHost.
Since AHost is a bit buggy Armin Trott from Spaceport Hamburg asked his players 
for an emulation, thats the reason why i programmed "Anomalies".

II. Installation

1. Copy Anomalies.exe somethere, usually into the host directory
2. Copy Anomalies.cfg to the game-directory
3. Edit Auxhost.ini files:
   Auxhost1.ini: Anomalies.exe  1
   Auxhost2.ini: Anomalies.exe  2
   NOTE: You have to include the path to Anomalies.exe if it is not 
         located in the host directory
         
"Anomalies" will create 2 logfiles (Anomaly1.log & Anomaly2.log) into the game-directory, 
they are just for debugging purposes.
A file called Anomaly.dat will be created in the game-directory, it contains all 
external informations.
In the game-directory a subdirectory AnTemp will be created.

III. Configuration

The configuration file Anomalies.cfg can be edited with a simple editor.
All line beginning with ";" are comments. You can add as many comments as you like, 
just don't change the order of configuration values.


IV. Anomaly behaviour

Anomalies can only be detected by ship (default scan range is 150 ly)

  Anomalies center
  ----------------
  Whenever a ship reaches the center, depending ony the anomalies type 
  certain things can happen. (see chapter V: Anomaly types)

  Gravity wells 
  -------------
  All ships inside an anomaly (there radius varies, default: 30-150 ly)
  and not in orbit of a planet are pulled towards the anomalies center. 
  The distance that they are pulled depends on the anomalies strength (1-9), 
  the strength of gravity wells (default: 5), the radius of the anomaly, the distance 
  to the anomalies center and the hull mass of the ship:
  
    distance = anomalyStrength * gravityWellStrength
               * (anomalyRadius - shipsDistanceToAnomalyCenter) / anomalyRadius 
               + 8 - (hullmass * 0.04)
    (a negative distance will be set to zero)
             
  Cloaking
  --------
  Cloaking inside an anomaly only possible if the ship is equipped with an 
  advanced cloaking device. Even these high tech cloaking devices may fail 
  (default: 10% failure rate)

  Cargo tranfer
  -------------
  Cargo tranfer between a ship and a ship/planet is disrupted, 
  the Beam up missions are not working, too.

V. Anomaly types

There are 8 types of Anomalies:
  1: Inverse Tachyon Pulse
  2: Gateway to Parralell universes 
  3: Radiation
  4: Wormhole
  5: Penton Pulse
  6: Crew Mutation
  7: Ship Mutation
  8: Crew Insane
  
1. Inverse Tachyon Impulse

  The ship will enter cloak.
  This is done by changing the mission to cloak.

2. Gateway to Parralell universes

   Up to 10 identical ships from parrallel universes may appear.

3. Radiation

   Some crew member will be killed.
   
4. Wormhole

   They are stable only at the starting point, the anomalies center.
   The destination changes each turn and its not possible to move back 
   to the anomaly through the wormhole.
   There is a 5% chance that each ship that travels through a wormhole 
   causes the wormhole to collapse.
   Ships can destroy wormholes with one torpedo. Just have at least 1 torpedo 
   on board and set the ships FC to dwh.
   
5. Pention Pulse

   The amount of money will change (0 - 10000 MC) and the cargo will change.
   Note that the total mass of cargo will not change.
   
6. Crew mustation

   The crew will mutate into another acitve race.
   
7. Ship mutation

   A ships hull, engines, & weapons will change.
   (i.e. a Small Freighter mutates into a Darkwing with 
    Stardrive1, 4 Disruptors and 10 fighter bays)
   Note: Any hulls from hullpec.dat are possible, even if they can't be build 
   by any race.
   
8. Crew Insane

   The crew will mutate into an Alien race. This happens so fast that no disress 
   call is possible.
   The Alien ship will move around and will try to kill whatever it meets.

VI. Analysing anomalies

  Each ship inside an anomaly can analyse the anomaly. Just set the FC to Axx
  (where xx is the id of the anomaly) and have enough supplies&fuel (default: 50 each) 
  on board. 
  The better the ship is equipped (beams & engines) the faster it will finish.
  Each turn the analyse progress rate will be increased by:
  
    engineType + (beamType * #Beams div 3) + Random(engineType) + Random(beamType * #Beams div 2)

  When 100% is reached there is a chance (default: 75%) that the result is correct.  
  
VII. Order of operations

  Auxhost1:
  
    Alien ships move
    Preventing cargo transfer in anomalies / disable cloaking devices
    Ship are pulled towards anomalies
  
  Auxhost2:
  
    Preventing cargo transfer in anomalies / disable cloaking devices
    Ship are pulled towards anomalies / Analyse anomalies
    Affect ships at anomalies centers / destroy&create anomalies   
      
VIII. Disclaimer
  
  "Anomalies" is freeware. I, the author, am not responsible for any
  problems that may come from the use of this program. I cannot guarantee in 
  any way that this program will not damage your data or your operating system.
  
IX. Author

  To get in contact with the author, write an email to:
  
                  Dennis.Weise@knuut.de
              
X. Thanks

  Special thanks to:
  
  Tim Wisseman for VGA Planets
  Michael Jordon for his Addon "Ahost"
  Stefan Reuther for having produced a complete list of Vga Planets data files format
  Armin Trott (www.nikita.org) for hosting games at Spaceport Hamburg
  Aivars Liepa for lots of suggestions (i hope i will have time to implement it)