NAME

uqm —

The Ur‐Quan Masters – space exploration game

SYNOPSIS

uqm [-bcCfghklMnopqsSTuwx] [-i style] [-m soundtrack] [-r resolution] [--addon addon] [--cscan style] [--font font] [--menu style] [--safe] [--scroll style] [--shield style] [--sound] [--stereosfx]

DESCRIPTION

uqm is a port of the epic space game The Ur‐Quan Masters.

The default settings for an uqm install are 3DO music, 640×480 windowed mode, and pure SDL graphics drivers. You may pass various command line options to customize your experience.

The options are as follows:

-b, --meleezoom mode: Melee zooming mode (pc or 3do); step is an alias for pc and smooth is an alias for 3do. Default is 3do. Slower machine owners can set it to pc to get better performance in melee.
-C dir, --configdir dir: Sets the directory where the game will store the config data.
-c mode, --scale mode: Graphics scaling mode (bilinear, biadapt, biadv, triscan, hq or none). Default is none. Try these to get smoother graphics, at a performance cost.
-f, --fullscreen: Uses full screen mode. The opposite of -w.
-g val, --gamma val: Sets gamma correction. 1.0 causes no change (unless your graphics card is originally set to a different value). Higher than 1.0 makes the image brighter, lower than 1.0 makes it darker.
-h, --help: Display a help message.
-i style, --intro style: With 3do, use the 3DO intro and ending movies (if you have them). With pc, use the PC intro and ending sequences and slide shows. Defaults to 3do. Regardless of which option is selected, the PC sequences will be used if you do not have the 3DO movies.
-k, --keepaspectratio: Keep 4:3 aspect ratio when using custom resolutions.
-l file, --logfile file: Set a file to receive the diagnostic information that would otherwise go to the console.
-M volume, --musicvol volume: Set music volume (0–100).
-m soundtrack, --music soundtrack: Select either the 3DO remixed soundtrack with 3do or the .MOD‐based PC soundtrack with pc. Defaults to 3do for songs that were in fact remixed.
-n dir, --contentdir dir: Set the directory where the game will seek its data.
-o, --opengl: Use OpenGL drivers. This produces higher‐quality graphics, and may be faster as well – but it also may not work on older cards. It also permits use of any screen resolution. The opposite of -x.
-p, --fps: Print fps information in the status window.
-q setting, --audioquality setting: Can be high, medium, or low. Specifies how nice the audio sounds. Slower machines should lower the audio quality.
-r resolution, --res resolution: Sets the screen resolution. Unless --opengl is set, the only valid values are “640x480” and “320x240”.
-S volume, --sfxvol volume: Set sound effects volume (0–100).
-s, --scanlines: Simulates interlaced displays.
-T volume, --speechvol volume: Set speech volume (0–100). If set to 0, the game runs in ‘no speech’ mode and the oscilloscope reacts to the music.
-u, --nosubtitles: Disables subtitles.
-w, --windowed: Displays the game in a window. The opposite of -f.
-x, --nogl: Do not use OpenGL drivers. This is more likely to run on systems with poor or no 3D acceleration, and is often faster, especially on older or less well supported cards. Only the 320×240 and 640×480 resolutions are available when not using OpenGL. The opposite of -o.
--addon name: Enable the named add‐on in the game. See the ADD‐ONS section for details.
--cscan style: When scanning planets, display information using text (with pc) or pictograms (with 3do). Defaults to pc.
--font style: Use PC‐style fonts and colors (with pc) or 3DO‐style (with 3do). Defaults to pc.
--menu style: In menus, display options as text (with pc) or pictograms (with 3do). Defaults to pc.
--safe: Start the game in safe mode. Safe mode will ignore stored user settings, like resolution, fullscreen mode, sound driver, etc. This is useful if you have somehow wrecked your configuration files and cannot get to the in‐game setup menu to change the settings.
--scroll style: Using the left/right arrow keys, scroll voiceovers and subtitles one page at a time (with pc) or smoothly (with 3do). Defaults to pc.
--shield style: Use the CPU‐intensive, 3DO‐style throbbing slave shield graphic (with 3do) or the PC‐style static slave shield graphic (with pc). Defaults to pc.
--sound driver: Specifies which sound driver/mixer to use. Can be openal, mixsdl, or none. openal is only available when it has been compiled in. It may produce higher‐quality sound and will probably be faster, but it is not very stable on Linux platforms, and may not work well with some sound cards. Use none as a last resort if you cannot get other drivers to work, or if you have no sound card.
--stereosfx: Enables positional sound effects in melee. Currently works only when using openal.

STARTING THE GAME

Simply invoke the uqm program to run the game. After a splash screen, you will see the main menu, which has five options:

New Game: Begins a new Full Game. This is a galaxy‐spanning space adventure full of diplomacy, exploration, combat, high treason, and low cunning. The introductory cutscenes will set the scene; the below section THE STORY SO FAR provides more extensive backstory for the curious.
Load Game: Restores a Full Game session that was saved earlier.
Super Melee!: Puts the game in Super Melee mode, where you may hone your space combat skills or challenge your friends to fleet battles. See the SUPER MELEE section below for details on this game mode.
Setup: Lets you configure many options to customize your play experience. Most options will take effect once you exit the setup menu; a few specially marked options require you to restart uqm. Setup options are preserved across sessions.
Quit: Exits the program.

CONTROLS SUMMARY

General Game Controls

F1 or Pause: Pause game
F10: Exit game
F11: Toggle between fullscreen and windowed mode

Full Game Controls

Space flight:

Up: Thrust
Left and Right: Steer
Space or Right Shift: Main Menu

Menus:

Arrow keys: Scroll through selections
Enter or Right Ctrl: Make selection
Space or Right Shift or Escape: Up one level

Conversations:

Left and Right: Rewind/Forward
Up and Down: Scroll through selections
Enter or Right Ctrl: Make selection
Space or Right Shift: Skip, Show/Hide summary

Star Map:

Arrow Keys: Move the crosshair
Enter or Right Ctrl: Select destination
Space or Right Shift: Main menu
Keypad +: Zoom in
Keypad -: Zoom out
/: Begin search. (Type star or constellation name to find matches)
Tab: Jump to next match

Space Combat:

Up: Thrust
Left and Right: Steer
Right Ctrl or Enter: Fire Primary Weapon
Right Shift: Fire Secondary Weapon
Escape: Emergency Warp Escape

Planet Exploration:

Up: Forward
Left and Right: Steer
Right Ctrl or Enter: Fire stun bolt
Right Shift or Escape: Blast off

Melee Controls

Top Player:

W: Thrust
A and D: Steer
V: Fire Primary Weapon
B: Fire Secondary Weapon

Bottom Player:

Up or Enter: Thrust
Left and Right: Steer
Right Ctrl or Enter: Fire Primary Weapon
Right Shift: Fire Secondary Weapon

These controls are configurable from the Setup Menu. You may define up to six “Input Templates” and assign a template to either or both players. Some commonly used key configurations are pre‐defined, as well as popular variants. To change key bindings, select the binding you wish to change and press Enter. At the dialog box, press the key (or joystick gesture) that you wish to assign to this action.

SAVED GAMES

The saved games are kept in your personal directory for uqm data. This directory is automatically created the first time you start the game. On Unix systems this personal uqm data is stored in ~/.uqm.

You will generally only need to know this if you intend to transfer savegames to another computer.

INTERPLANETARY EXPLORATION

When in a Solar system, use the thrust and steering controls to move about the system. Intersecting a planet will move you to the planetary system; flying over a planet or moon will then put you into orbit. From there you can talk to the inhabitants, or, if the planet is uninhabited, send a lander down to gather minerals, investigate energy readings, or capture life forms.

PLANET LANDING

To land on a planet, you need to achieve orbit, then fill a planet lander with crew and send them down. You will usually want to scan the planet first. Mineral scans will indicate easily harvestable mineral ores and other resources. Energy scans will indicate unusual installations, which will effectively always be worth investigating. Biological scans will show where life forms are on the surface.

Minerals are necessary for building up and maintaining your flagship, so harvest them wherever you can. There are nine varieties, each color coded:

Common elements (carbon, nitrogen) are cyan. Worth 1 resource unit (RU) per unit.
Corrosives (chlorine, iodine) are red. 2 RU per unit.
Base metals (iron, tin) are grey. These are common, and usually worth harvesting, but not terribly valuable. 3 RU per unit.
Noble gases (argon, xenon) are blue. 4 RU per unit.
Rare earths (lanthanum, ytterbium) are green. 5 RU per unit.
Precious elements (gold, silver) are yellow. 6 RU per unit.
Radioactives (uranium, astatine) are orange. 8 RU per unit.
Exotics (antimatter, magnetic monopoles) are purple, and a princely 25 RU per cargo unit.

Minerals may be unloaded at Earth Starbase by talking to Commander Hayes, which will give you RU that you may spend to upgrade your flagship.

However, there are many hazards on planetary surfaces. Life forms are often hostile, and need to be subdued with your stunner or evaded. Earthquakes (expanding circles) can hurt your crew, lightning may crisp them, or lava flows and hotspots can fry them. Be careful, especially on hotter or more seismically and atmospherically active worlds. If your crew level starts dropping dramatically, flee quickly with the Escape key!

Stunned life forms may be captured and analyzed by your planet landers. The information you gain from this may not be immediately useful, but it will eventually come in handy.

Landing on a planet costs fuel, and the heavier the planet, the more fuel it requires. Make sure you don’t spend so much fuel exploring planets that you can’t get back to Sol!

INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL

When you leave a solar system, you will push up into HyperSpace. In HyperSpace you can travel great distances quickly, but you must continuously thrust to move. Otherwise, you will gradually slow to a stop.

While you can fly about in HyperSpace just like you do in a star system, the Galaxy is Large, and you will usually want to use the Auto-Pilot. To use the Auto-Pilot, select “Starmap” on the menu. This will show you a map of the quadrant (the galactic Core is in the upper right corner). To fly to a location, move the cursor there and press Enter. Then press Space to engage the Auto-Pilot.

DIPLOMACY

When you encounter an alien starship, you will usually get a picture of their task force and a chance to choose between conversation and fighting. If you choose to fight, you will transition immediately to space combat (below). Otherwise, you will talk first. If talks go poorly, space combat will likely ensue.

If the task force shows ships streaming off in all directions, you have reached a fortified world, and there are an unlimited number of starships facing you. You cannot win such a fight – if combat ensues, you will need to warp out.

SPACE COMBAT

When combat begins, you are prompted to select a ship from your task force. A one-on-one space combat then begins, and continues until either the enemy fleet is destroyed (in which case you salvage the wrecks and continue the game), your flagship is destroyed (ending the game), or your flagship warps out of combat (consuming 5 fuel units but ending the encounter).

Each ship has two major stats: Crew and Combat Battery. Crew are effectively hit points. Getting hit by weapons kills crew, and if all crew are eliminated, the craft is destroyed. Firing weapons typically requires energy from the combat batteries, which is replaced over time. The precise speed of energy regeneration and cost of weapons fire varies by ship.

Space flight is mostly inertial (you’ll drift if you stop thrusting), but each ship has a maximum velocity that can only be exceeding by “gravity whipping” around the planet. Don’t hit the planet unless you want to take lots of damage.

Each ship has a primary and secondary weapon mode, unique to that race’s craft. The descriptions of those follow.

Ship Descriptions

Androsynth Guardian

Primary weapon:: Fires homing acid bubble clouds.
Secondary weapon:: Transforms into the ‘Blazer’, a comet that does considerable damage by ramming its opponents.

Ariloulaleelay Skiff

Primary weapon:: Auto‐aiming, short‐range laser.
Secondary weapon:: Random teleport.
Note:: The Skiff is inertia-less, and stops instantly when thrust is removed.

Chenjesu Broodhome

Primary weapon:: Crystal Shard. Travels until the fire button is released, then shatters.
Secondary weapon:: De‐energizing Offensive Guided Interceptor. Launches an autonomous DOGI that rams the opponent to drain their combat batteries.

Chmmr Avatar

Primary weapon:: Immensely powerful short-range laser.
Secondary weapon:: Tractor beam.
Note:: Has three orbiting “ZapSats” that attack anything that gets in range.

Druuge Mauler

Primary weapon:: Long range, high‐recoil cannon.
Secondary weapon:: Sets one crew on fire to gain combat energy.

Earthling Cruiser

Primary weapon:: Homing nuclear missile.
Secondary weapon:: Point-defense laser.

Ilwrath Avenger

Primary weapon:: Short‐range flamethrower.
Secondary weapon:: Cloaking device.

Kohr‐Ah Marauder

Primary weapon:: Spinning blades that stop and home when the fire button is released.
Secondary weapon:: Fiery Ring of Inevitable and Eternal Destruction (F.R.I.E.D.), a short‐range corona of energy that blocks shots and inflicts lots of damage.

Melnorme Trader

Primary weapon:: Charged shot. The longer the fire button is held, the stronger the shot.
Secondary weapon:: Confusion beam that scrambles enemy controls.

Mmrnmhrm X‐Form

Primary weapon:: Lasers (X-form) or homing missiles (Y-form).
Secondary weapon:: Switch between X-Form and Y-Form.

Mycon Podship

Primary weapon:: Homing Plasmoid.
Secondary weapon:: Regenerate 4 crew.

Orz Nemesis

Primary weapon:: Howitzer cannon.
Secondary weapon:: Secondary with left and right arrows rotates the primary cannon. Secondary with Primary launches space marines that invade the enemy ship and kill their crew.

Pkunk Fury

Primary weapon:: Three‐way cannon.
Secondary weapon:: Fling insults at opponent. This is the only way the Pkunk can regenerate combat energy.
Note:: On occasion, a destroyed Fury will be resurrected with full fuel and power.

Shofixti Scout

Primary weapon:: Energy Dart.
Secondary weapon:: Glory Device. When pressed three times, the ship will self‐destruct, inflicting vast damage on nearby vessels.

Slylandro Probe

Primary weapon:: Lighting weapon.
Secondary weapon:: Absorb a nearby asteroid and convert to combat power. This is the only way the Probe can recharge.
Note:: The Probe is inertia‐less and always in motion. Pressing thrust will reverse its direction.

Spathi Eluder

Primary weapon:: Simple forward cannon.
Secondary weapon:: Backward Utilized Tracking Torpedo (B.U.T.T.), a homing missile fired from the rear of the vessel.

Supox Blade

Primary weapon:: Forward firing glob weapon.
Secondary weapon:: Secondary + left or right will cause you to drift laterally, while Secondary + thrust will make you fly backwards. This cancels your current velocity, so be careful!

Syreen Penetrator

Primary weapon:: Particle Beam Stiletto.
Secondary weapon:: “Syreen Call” – psychic attack that induces enemy crew to jump ship, where you (or your opponent) may capture them to add to your complement.

Thraddash Torch

Primary weapon:: Straightforward blaster cannon.
Secondary weapon:: Afterburner. The afterburner exhaust does more damage then the blaster, so use it as a weapon!

Umgah Drone

Primary weapon:: Anti‐Matter cone. Does not require combat batteries to use.
Secondary weapon:: Fly backwards suddenly and at high speed.
Note:: The Drone only recharges batteries if you do not fire for a long time, and then the energy all returns in one lump.

Ur‐Quan Dreadnought

Primary weapon:: Fusion Blast.
Secondary weapon:: Launches autonomous fighters to harass the enemy. When they run low on fuel, they will fly back to the Dreadnought. Catch them before they expire. Each fighter requires one crew to pilot it, so take care not to weaken the core ship.

Utwig Jugger

Primary weapon:: Six‐shot cannon. Requires no combat battery energy to fire.
Secondary weapon:: Force shield. Absorbing hits re‐energizes your batteries. When the batteries are exhausted, the shield is permanently disabled until combat ends.

VUX Intruder

Primary weapon:: Gigawatt laser.
Secondary weapon:: Limpet mines that track enemy ships and slow them down dramatically if they hit.

Yehat Terminator

Primary weapon:: Twin autocannons.
Secondary weapon:: Force shield.

Zoq‐Fot‐Pik Stinger

Primary weapon:: Anti‐matter spray gun.
Secondary weapon:: “Tongue attack”, a point‐blank range attack that does grievous damage.

SUPER MELEE

Super Melee mode is pure combat. It’s designed to let you hone your skills for the full game, or to challenge your friends to fleet matches. Selecting “Super Melee!” from the main menu will bring you to the super melee main screen.

This screen is dominated by the fleet design screen. Move the cursor over a ship slot and press Enter to change the ship assignment, or press Delete to remove the ship. You may select the fleet name and press Enter to edit the fleet name to something of your choice. The number next to the fleet name lists the fleet strength; this is simply the sum of the point values of all ships in the fleet.

The right hand side of the screen has buttons for managing the battle. Each side has four buttons associated with it: LOAD, SAVE, CONTROL, and NET. The LOAD and SAVE buttons let you load and save fleets. A variety of fleets of various strengths are pre‐defined, and you may add your own by saving fleets you design.

The Control button has one of five settings. Human Control puts the fleet under the control of a human player. (The precise controls for that player are set in the Setup menu, but the bottom player’s controls are always the same as the full game’s controls.) Then there are three levels of computer control:

Weak Cyborg is not a particularly good shot, and will only use special weapons if the ship absolutely requires the special weapon to function at all (Pkunk, Slylandro). This difficulty level only appears in the full game when fighting crippled ships.
Good Cyborg will actually use its special weapon, but it’s still not much of a threat. The Good cyborg provides a gentle introduction to Star Control combat if you are unfamiliar with the gameplay. However, you will soon wish to switch to...
Awesome Cyborg. The AI will fully exploit each ship’s abilities, and is also a tolerably good shot, compensating for inertia and choosing its shots. Enemies you meet in the full game are almost always piloted at this level. If a battle is giving you trouble in the full game, this is the setting you want.

The last control option is Network Control, which will be set if that side is controlled by a non‐local opponent. To set up a network game, push the Net button on the side you wish to be under your opponent‐s control.

In order to connect, you must agree on a port (the default is 21837, which should not require any change) and set a net delay in frames. To compensate for network lag, a keypress or keyrelease will only take effect after this many frames. While higher values make your ship seem to respond more sluggishly, they give the keypress information more time to reach the remote party. If the game stutters, this is because it is waiting for this keypress information to arrive, which is an indication that the input delay is too low. Super Melee runs at 24 frames per second, each frame delayed will delay the input by about 42 ms. The delay used is the maximum of the desired value for both parties. The default is 2. Values lower than 4 are typically acceptable in terms of responsiveness. Future versions may automatically decide on the best value to use.

Once the port and delay are set, one player must select the first option (Wait for incoming connection), while the other enters his opponent‐s hostname or IP address into the Host field and then pushes “Connect”. Once the connection is established, the control scheme for the remote player will flip to Network Control to register the connection. To disconnect, change it away back to one of the Human or Cyborg options. Once connected, you are both free to edit your fleets to provide a properly balanced battle.

Once all fleets are in readiness, press the Battle button in the center right. (In a network game, both players must select it with no intervening fleet edits. Moving away from Battle or having your opponent change their fleet will cancel your readiness state, and you will need to reselect the Battle button.) When all players are ready, the battle begins.

The ship selection screen is much as it would be in the full game, with two notable exceptions: a question mark in the upper right allows you to select a new ship randomly from those remaining, and a red X allows you to exit the combat entirely. (It is also possible to exit the melee at any time by pressing F10, just as one can exit anything.) If nobody quits, the combat will continue until one side has been completely destroyed. At this point, both fleets are shown so that one may compare initial and remaining fleet strengths. Press a key to return to the melee menu.

To return to the main menu after finishing with Super Melee mode, push the Quit button in the lower right.

THE STORY SO FAR

For the past decade, Earth and the rest of the Alliance of Free Stars has fought the Ur‐Quan and their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. In the course of the War, the Earthlings discovered a factory world by the ‘Precursors’ – an impossibly advanced that disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. This colony, Unzervalt (aka Vela I), lost all contact with Earth shortly after landfall.

You are Captain Zelnick, a human who was born on Unzervalt and who possesses a remarkable knack for Precursor technology. You were the one who worked out how to activate the Precursor installation.

It was a factory for building starships. However, Unzervalt is mineral‐poor, and there were not enough materials available to construct a complete vessel. Your task is to command this craft, the Vindicator, and return to Earth to tell them of the abandoned colony. Also, if the War with the Ur‐Quan continues, you must fight for Earth and the Alliance as best you can.

There is a great deal more to this story. Asking Starbase Commander Hayes for background information will give you most of it.

ADD‐ONS

uqm has basic support for add‐on packages. Though it is not very elaborate yet, you can install some content add‐ons. Add‐ons created for UQM releases prior to v0.7 are not compatible with this release.

Inside the directory where the content is installed, in the content/ directory, there is a directory addons/. In this directory, you can place add‐on packages, like 3domusic, 3dovoice, remix and others, or create new directories with .zip files to be used in addition te the standard content .zip files. Each add‐on must contain at least one .rmp file to tell the game which resources the add‐on provides. When you specify the command‐ line option --addon addon, the .zip files inside the directory content/addons/addon will be included in the game. --addon may be specified more than once to enable multiple add‐ons.

3domusic, 3dovoice, and remix are intended to be used as add‐ons, and can be turned on and off from the in‐game setup menu.

BUGS

After several years of enthusiastic testing, uqm has dramatically improved its stability, but it is still beta software, and bugs certainly still lurk. Upon finding a problem, we’d like you to report it, but before you do, please do the following:

Try to isolate what causes it: “Crashes with a null dereference about half the time when firing and taunting with a Pkunk” is better than “Melee doesn’t work”. If the game crashes, notice what error is produced; if the game hangs, check to see if the game‐exit key (F12) works.
Go to the bug database and post a report of the problem there. Search the database first to see if it has been already posted; if we get many duplicate reports, processing them eats our time from actual development. If it’s been reported, and you have more information, feel free to confirm that you’ve reproduced it by adding a comment to the report. If ten people have already confirmed it, though, it’s probably best to treat it as duly reported.
Whenever possible, for bugs that only occur under certain conditions, include a save game with your bug report that duplicates the bug. In the case of a crash, a stack trace can be very helpful for us too. If you don’t know what a stack trace is, don’t worry about it.
If your issue is more like “support request” than bug report and you want help from other users, then it might be more appropriate to post it to our forum.