PCC2 Quick Documentation

This is a brief overview of all functions of PCC2 and PlayVCR, until we have a help function. It is current as of PCC2 Beta 13.

For information about the script interpreter as implemented so far, see PCC2 Interpreter Quick Documentation.

Invocation

PCC2

Arguments can be options, a player number, or directories. Not counting options, The following possibilities exist:

You do not have to unpack your RST before playing. If you don't, PCC2 will read the RST directly, and produce a TRN directly. If you do unpack your turn, PCC2 will behave like a classic VGA Planets™ client and just modify .dat files; you will then have to run Maketurn separately.

To play registered, place a fizz.bin file created by your registered client in the game directory, just like you do with PCC 1.x.

pcc-v2 accepts all the common options.

The PCC2 Installer for Windows will make a Start Menu shortcut which will start PCC2 with a game selector, starting at your Winplan directory.

PlayVCR

There are four ways to invoke PlayVCR.

In addition to the options -sim and -dir, PlayVCR accepts the common options.

Common Options

The following options are accepted by the graphical programs pcc-v2 and playvcr:

Note that those options consist of multiple letters each, and each option must be separated from the previous one by a space (unlike PCC 1.x where each option had just one letter, and stringing them together gave you all of them).

When you're running PCC2 from a graphical user interface (e.g. Windows), you can pass options by putting them into the shortcut you're using to invoke PCC2. For example, edit the shortcut the Installer placed in your Start menu by right-clicking it and choosing "Properties", and fill in the parameters.

Environment Variables

The following environment variables are evaluated by PCC2, or by the SDL library it is based upon:

To change environment variables permanently under Windows NT or higher, right-click My Computer, choose Properties, choose Advanced, choose Environment Variables, and add the variable in the User Variables section. Users of other environments put the variables into their startup or login scripts, such as autoexec.bat or .profile.

PCC2 Screens

Game Selector

Select a directory on the left. Available races will be shown on the right. Change directory by double-clicking it or using the Change directory button, open a game for playing by double-clicking the race or using the Open game button.

When a game contains game data, Enter and Right will not browse its subdirectories, but switch to the game selector instead. Normally, game directories do not contain other game directories. Use the [Change into this directory] item at the bottom of the player list to browse subdirectories.

Unpack

PCC2 displays a list of result files found. Select those you want to unpack. When you start from a game directory containing unpacked, the ones corresponding to the unpacked data will be highlighted by default.

You can also use the command line utility c2unpack to unpack result files. You do not have to unpack to play with PCC2.

Sweep

Sweep will delete player files. Select those you want to delete. When you start from a game directory containing turn conflicts, the older files will start selected.

You can also use the command line utility c2sweep to clean game directories.

Race Screen

Unit selector

Control Screen

All control screens support similar keys.

Ship Screen

The following keys are supported in addition to Control Screen keys.

The "R" button will only appear if your game supports the Remote Control functionality (see pconfig.src). It will have a red frame if this ship's remote control is forbidden, a green frame if this is a remote-controlled ship (or you are applying for remote control), and a yellow frame if this is a remote-controlled ship you're giving back to its owner.

The "G" button will only appear if your game supports the Give Ship functionality. It will have a yellow frame when you have given an order to give the ship away.

Planet Screen

The following keys are supported in addition to Control Screen keys.

The "G" button will only appear if your game supports the Give Ship functionality. It will have a yellow frame when you have given an order to give the planet away.

Base Screen

The following keys are supported in addition to Control Screen keys.

Starchart

Object View

When you select an object (ship or planet) on the starchart, PCC2 will display two map overlays: a list containing all objects at this place, and an overlay panel containing information about the current object. While the info panel is displayed, most keys of the respective control screen are active. For example, while locked at a ship, M changes the ship's mission instead of opening a minefield info view. In addition, the following keys are accepted:

Starchart Symbols

Whether a player is ally or enemy is determined by the Teams setting.

Console

The console has two purposes. It logs various system messages, such as PCC2's startup phase. It also acts as the interface to the script interpreter. You can enter expressions and one-line commands. When you enter an expression, both the expression and its result will be logged on the console. You can therefore use this as a calculator ("what is 17*4?"), and to check PCC2 expressions (Distance(Ship(10), Ufo(20)), Ship(17).Name) or commands (SetMission 4). For details, refer to PCC2 Interpreter Quick Documentation.

Whenever PCC2 is idle, you can use the following keys:

When PCC2 is executing a long-running script, it will not otherwise react on keypresses. In this case, press Ctrl-Pause or, if your computer doesn't accept that, Ctrl-C, to abort that script (PCC2 will ask for confirmation).

Keymap Debugger

The keymap debugger can be used to figure out what a key does. It is useful if you want to develop scripts. On the left, it displays the names of the currently active keymaps, which define what keys are active at this place When you press a key, the action it triggers will be displayed on the right.

To close the keymap debugger, press Shift-ESC (a lone ESC will also work if it isn't bound by the active keymap).

Selection Manager

PCC2 manages eight layers of selections, called "A" to "H". At almost any place, you can switch selection layers using Alt-Left and Alt-Right, and you can invoke the Selection Manager using Alt-.. You can use this, for example, to keep track of the planets you're working with on one layer, and visualize search results on the others.

The following functions are available on the Selection Manager:

Selection Expressions

You can compute a selection layer's content from other layers' content. For example, you can merge two layers using an expression such as A or B: the result will be a selection that contains all objects that were in A or B. In the simplest form, the selection expression contains just a layer name, such as D, which just copies a layer.

The following contains possible selection expressions in order of increasing precedence.

a Or b Logical Or: yields all objects that are in a or b.
a + b Same as a Or b.
a Xor b Logical Exclusive-or: yields all objects that are in a or b, but not in both.
a - b Logical Subtraction: yields all objects that are in a, but not in b.
a And b Logical And: yields all objects that are in a and in b.
a * b Same as a And b.
Not a Logical Negation: yields all objects that are not in a.
-a Same as Not a.
(a) Parentheses: yields a.
P(a), PLANETS(a) Yields all the planets contained in a.
S(a), SHIPS(a) Yields all the ships contained in a.
CURRENT Yields the current selection.
A, B, ..., H Yields the contents of the specified layer.
P, PLANETS Yields the list of all planets.
S, SHIPS Yields the list of all ships.
0 Yields an empty selection.
1 Yields the full selection containing all objects.

Search

The Search dialog has four fields, switch between those using Tab (the result field will not be accessible while it's empty).

  1. The Search Objects field selects which kind of objects you want to search. Use arrows to select, Space to toggle.
  2. The Search Type field selects the type of the search:
  3. Enter your query into the input line and confirm with Enter.
  4. The result will be displayed in the list box. You can select an object and press Enter to show its control screen or, if that is not available, show it in the starchart.

Read Messages

Write Messages

Choose races to send message to, or U to send a universal message (to everyone). You'll be placed in the message editor:

Alternatively, press R in the receiver selection window to revise previously-sent messages.

Revise Messages

In addition to most message reading keys, this accepts the following keys:

Scores

PCC2 records current and past scores in a file score.cc. It records the standard score as well as all additional scores it receives from PHost through util.dat. At the time of this writing, those are minefield limits and counts.

Team scores are only available when any teams are configured.

Teams

You can use teams to model formal and informal alliances. When you put two races into the same team, they will by default behave friendly in the Battle Simulator. Units of races in the same team as you will be shown in yellow instead of red: use this to mark your allies.

Edit auxiliary commands

This menu displays all auxiliary commands (mainly for the PHost command processor). You can add, modify and delete commands. That PCC2 automatically extracts commands from messages. The commands will not be visible on the normal outgoing message list.

Note that PCC2 knows about the interaction between commands. When you add a new command that cancels a previous one, PCC2 will notice and replace the old command with the new one. For example, adding allies drop 3 will replace a previous allies add 3 command, and adding give ship 3 to 5 will replace a previous give ship 3 to 9. The Space bar therefore simply gives you an input line containing the current command, allowing you to edit it into a new one that possibly replaces the old one. You can, however, also enter a completely new command which will be added to the list. Likewise, Ins gives you a blank input line for a new command which will be added anew or replaces an old command.

PCC2 will also insert commands at sensible places (for example, allies add always precedes allies config), you cannot reorder them.

Battle Simulator

Battle Simulator Planet Editor

Beam tech 0 means "no base" and disables all starbase-related fields. You must enter a starbase beam tech first to make a base.

Battle Simulator Options

Battle Simulator Result

The simulator result screen displays simulation results. The "Totals" tab has results grouped by class and probability (e.g. "2 Feds surviving: 10x, 1 Borg surviving: 2x"). The "Details" tab has information about each unit.

VCR

Choose fight using arrows, press Enter to play it. During playback, use the following keys:

Friendly Code

As a little help, PCC2 knows special friendly codes and offers you them on a list. Note that the list also contains a friendly code ???, which is not special to host. However, the simulator treats it as an exception to the "same fcode, no fight" rule, so you don't have to come up with individual fcodes for completely made-up fights.

List Ships

This window displays information about an enemy or own ship. It is used as visual scanner, and to select ships for various operations.

When you have opened the list view using L, you can use the right mouse button or # resp. \ to bring up a menu that allows you to sort the list. The sort order will be saved, and also be used for other "ships at one place" lists, including the order for the Tab key on the Ship Screen.

Ship Specification

This window displays information about a ship's hull. It lists resources needed to build the ship, as well as its cargo capacity and special functions.

PCC2 uses the PHost 4 ship abilities internally. Even when you're using a game not hosted by PHost 4, ships will have Tow when they can tow, or Full Weaponry when they belong to the Feds.

Abilities available to all ships are considered racial abilities. Those are not shown on the normal specification sheet, but listed on the ability list. The ability list uses various icons to tell you about an ability's status:

In addition, a symbol tells you whether you have this ability:

Navigation Chart

Cargo Transfer

After choosing the target (if applicable), the Cargo Transfer window displays the unit you started with on the left, and the target on the right.

Buildings

Taxes

The Auto Tax function implements "safe-taxing": it will aim at making the happiness 100% within 5..10 turns. If several tax rates yield the same income, it will use the lowest of them for greater population growth. This taxation algorithm is safe because it will not cause riots, not even if you lose a turn. However, other taxation algorithms are known which can yield higher income in many situations (e.g. "growth-taxing").

Sell Supplies

The "Sell Supplies" dialog will ask you how many supplies you want to sell. It will sell the supplies when you confirm with Enter. You can also enter the number of supplies you want to keep and confirm with A.

Auto Build

For each planet, you can define a target count and speed for each structure type. When ordered to perform automatic building, PCC2 will sort those values by speed, highest first. It will then try to build as many structures as the speed says, stopping only when the goal has been reached or rules don't allow building more. It will then proceed with the second structure, etc. If all structures have been processed, the cycle starts again, until nothing more can be built. As a special exception, PCC2 will make sure there's at least one factory, even if you ordered it to build mines first.

By default, goals are 1000 (meaning "infinite"), and speeds are 5 for mines, 10 for factories, and 3 for defense posts. This means that auto build will try to build 10 factories, then 5 mines, then 3 defense posts. If you have lots of money, this means that PCC2 will build twice as many factories as mines. If you have little money, this means PCC2 will first build up factories before starting with mines.

To disable auto build for one structure, set its goals and/or speeds to zero.

Building Ships

The ship building dialog has four tabs. Choose the hull type on the first tab, further components on the other three tabs. You can choose components you don't yet have the right tech for, PCC2 will then include the tech level cost in the bill displayed below, and automatically upgrade tech as appropriate. For beams and torpedoes, you can choose how many components to put into your ship using + and -.

Drawing

PCC2 can draw four kinds of items into the starchart:

If you want to draw a marker, PCC2 will prompt you for shape and color, and draw that marker into the starchart. For the other types, you'll be dropped back in the starchart, and a new shape starting here will be begun.

Distance Mode

Distance mode behaves a little different when you invoke it from a ship you play, or from another context. When you invoke it from a ship, PCC2 automatically computes that ship's fuel consumption (as if you had typed F), and starts measuring at that ship's waypoint, not its position. Also, ESC will return to the ship instead of leaving you where you are.

Prefix Argument

At some places, PCC2 accepts a prefix argument which modifies the following keystroke. Normally, this is used to set the amount you wish to build, move, etc.

To use a prefix argument, just start by typing a number. A yellow popup will appear. Keep typing, and confirm by pressing the key whose function you wanted to perform. For example, to build 15 factories on the Buildings screen, you'd type 15+.

PlayVCR Screens

File Selector

Select a directory on the left. Available VCR files will be shown on the right. Change directory using the Change directory button (or Enter while cursor is on directory list). Play VCRs using View VCRs button (or Enter while cursor is on race list). Use Tab to switch between fields.

VCR Selector

Choose fight using arrows, press Enter to play it. Press F to get back to file selector.

Actual playback works identical to PCC2.

[ PCC2 | PCC 1.x | My VGA Planets Page ]
Stefan Reuther
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Last modified: Sat Apr 16 22:06:14 CEST 2011