Markus Armbruster
1625567f97
silently (troff) or under protest (groff); table column width (also fixed some .L arguments to match actual game output); spacing in no-fill text; stray .FI, .in and .ce messing up indentation; stray .L; misspelled request and escape names; escaping of control and escape characters; properly ignore form-feed; argument quoting; extra arguments to .NF. Still broken: .L abused for headings, which triggers many groff warnings about negative indentation.
127 lines
5.4 KiB
Turing
127 lines
5.4 KiB
Turing
.TH Command LAUNCH
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.NA launch "Launch missiles or satellites"
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.LV Expert
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.SY "launch <PLANES>"
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The launch command is used to launch missiles (or satellites)
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from sectors or submarines owned by you.
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.s1
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There are 5 classes of missiles:
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.NF
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1. "marine" missiles may only be fired at ships. They may be given
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"interdiction" mission. When interdicting ships, "marine" missiles
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will keep launching until the entire enemy fleet is sunk.
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2. "tactical" missiles (without "marine" capability) may only be fired
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against sectors. They may be given missions. If they fire on a
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mission, then only enough missiles will fire to cause 100 damage.
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3. "intercept" missiles can not be launched. They automatically
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intercept planes. You can increase their reaction radius by giving
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them an "air" defense mission.
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4. "a-sat" missiles will automatically attempt to intercept AT_WAR
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satellites which are launched into orbit within range.
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5. "abm" (anti-ballistic-missiles) will automatically attempt to
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intercept incoming "tactical" (non-"marine") missiles.
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As well, there are "satellites" which are like missiles in that they
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can be launched, but unlike missiles in that they don't get destroyed
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as soon as they are launched.
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.FI
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.s1
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In certain cases, a missile will require petrol or shells to be in the
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sector before it can be launched. See 'show plane stats' to find out
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how much fuel the missile requires. The 'load' value in 'show plane
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stats' specifies how many shells the missile requires. Note that if
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the missile is armed with a nucelar warhead, then it does not require
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any shells.
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.s1
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Once a satellite has been launched, it can not be moved again.
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.s1
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Note here that it is much safer to use 100% missiles than those which
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are less efficient,
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and missiles below 60% cannot be launched.
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.s1
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The formula for the chance that a missile hits its target is in
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\*Qinfo Hitchance\*U.
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.s1
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Of course, things don't always go as planned!
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.s1
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Note that when you are first asked for the target sector
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you can chicken out by hitting ^C
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(or your favorite abort character).
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.s1
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In the case of non-marine tactical missiles, if there are any HOSTILE
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abm's within range of the target sector, then two of them will fire in
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an attempt to intercept the incoming missile.
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.s1
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Similarly, two AT_WAR a-sat's will attempt to intercept any satellites
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you attempt to launch within their range. Also, if the sector you are
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launching your satellite at is owned by a non-allied country, then
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they will get a telegram informing them of the positioning of the
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satellite. See below for details of a satellite's orbit path.
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.s1
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When launching missiles, there is a
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% chance equal to (5 + 100 - efficiency) * (1 - techfactor) that the
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missile will blow up on
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the launching pad instead of launching. If that happens, then there is
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a further 33% chance that the warhead it is carrying (whether it be
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conventional or nuclear) will detonate. (Note that nuclear warheads
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will only detonate in this way if the option NUKEFAILDETONATE is enabled).
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A nuclear warhead exploding on the launch pad will do the normal
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amount of damage, but a conventional missile will only do half damage
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to the sector or ship it is being launched from.
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.s1
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Missiles launched from submarines are anonymous. The victim
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is not notified of the identity of the launching country.
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.s1
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Missiles on interdiction mission have the same chance of hitting and
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do the same damage as if they were launched by hand. Also, any
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nuclear armed missiles will detonate if they launch on an interdiction
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mission. You specify whether the nuclear warhead will airburst or
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groundburst when you arm the missiles (see info arm).
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In order to better destroy missiles on the ground (or in their silos),
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the ground-burst technique is used.
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Ground-bursts are much less effective against large area targets,
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but do massive damage to the sector it impacts,
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possibly knocking out hardened missiles
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before they can be used against you.
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In the parlance of nuclear targeting doctrine,
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this is known as \*Qcounter-force\*U targeting.
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Air-bursts are used in order to kill large numbers of civilians,
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to knock out industry (by flattening the factories),
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to take out lightly armored military targets in a large area,
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and to generally wreak havoc.
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Nuclear strategists call this a \*Qcounter-value\*U technique.
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.s1
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See Also \*QOn Thermonuclear War\*U by Herman Kahn.
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.s1
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If the ORBIT option is enabled, then when you launch a satellite, you
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will be asked "Geostationary orbit?". If you answer "y", then your
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satellite will stay where you launch it. If, however, you answer
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"n", then your satellite will orbit the planet. When a satellite is
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"orbiting", it moves along 5% of a geodesic path every
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update. The path the satellite follows looks like this:
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.NF
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+----+
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|/ |
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| /|
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| / |
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| / |
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|/ |
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| /|
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| / |
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+----+
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.FI
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That is, start in the middle, move northeast until you hit the edge,
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then continue from the west edge near the top and go northeast until
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you go off the top of the map, then continue at the bottom going
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northeast until you go off the eastern edge again, and continue from
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the western edge near the bottom until you get back to the centre.
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That is the path of satellites which are _not_ in geostationary orbit
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(geo-stationary means stay in the same spot over the planet).
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.s1
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If a foreign satellite moves over your territory durring an update, then you
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will get a message like "Fodderland satellite spotted over 12,24" as a
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part of your update BULLETIN.
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.s1
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.SA "build, plane, satellite, Nuke-types, relations, Planes"
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