
                                 The EV Nova
                                Resource Bible




                                Last Revision:
                                3/19/04 by mcb



WARNING: This information is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. Use
at your own risk. Has been known to cause cancer in laboratory
animals. Caveat lector.






                               by Matt Burch
                   ©1995-2004 by Ambrosia Software, Inc.
                       All Rights Reserved Worldwide






                            [Font: 9pt. Monaco]


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Part I - Game Constants


Max Ships In System         64
Max Stellar Objects         2048
Max Systems                 2048
Max Ship Classes            768
Max Stellar Classes         256
Jump Distance               1000 pixels
Max Weapon Types            256
Max Outfit Item Types       512
Max Beams On Screen         64
Max Dude Types              512
Max Ships Per Dude          16
Max Govts                   256
Max Explosions On Screen    32
Max Explosion Types         64
Max Missions                1000
Num Mission Bits            10000
Max Cargo Types             256
Max Person Types            1024
Max Shots On Screen         128
Max Asteroids               16
Max Asteroid Types          16
Max Nebulae                 32
Max Images Per Nebula		7
Max Simultaneous Missions   16
Max Disasters               256
Max Fleets                  256
Max Ranks                   128
Max Junk Types              128


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Part II - Resource Descriptions


Note:     Nova's resources all start at ID number 128, but the internal storage
for all data file info is zero-based. Therefore, when a field in the Nova data
file is said to refer to a government, stellar object, etc., it refers to it by
its index number (starts at 0) unless it is specifically stated that it is
referring to the ID number, which starts at 128.

Note:     Some of Nova's fields refer to other resource IDs or index numbers,
but their values are offset by a certain amount to indicate type. For example,
the m•sn resource's AvailStel field refers to the index number of a gšvt
resource when its value is between 10000 and 10255. In cases like this, it is
necessary to add to or subtract from the field in order to force the value into
the proper range: in this instance, you'd subtract 10000 to find the index
number of the gšvt.

Note:     Any resources in an Nova plugin file automatically replace
same-numbered resources in NovaÕs main files. Resources are loaded from the
"Nova Files" folder first and then resources from the "Nova Plug-Ins" folder are
loaded.

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A quick word about control bits and scripting in EV Nova:

Mission bits exist as they did in previous incarnations of EV. This time around,
there are 10,000 bits available for your use, and they are accessed much
differently from previous versions. For this reason, they are referred to as
Nova control bits (ncb's). Control bits are accessed through logical expressions
that allow much more powerful and logical mission scripting. These expressions are
divided into two types - test and set:

Test expressions:

These are boolean expressions that are used to determine when something happens;
for example, when a mission is to be offered, or when a particular ship should
be made available for purchase. In general, if the logical expression defined in
a given test expression field evaluates to be true (nonzero), the associated
property will be activated (mission becomes available, ship appears, etc.).

The following terms and operators are supported: (capitalization doesn't matter)

Bxxx   Lookup the value of control bit xxx. Bits are numbered from b0 to b9999.
Pxxx   Check if the game is registered ([P]aid for) ... evaluates to 1 if
       the game is registered or is unregistered but less than xxx days have
       elapsed. Evaluates to 0 only if unregistered for more than xxx days.
G      Lookup the player's gender - 1 if male, 0 if female
Oxxx   Returns 1 if the player has at least one of outfit item ID xxx, 0 if not
Exxx   Returns 1 if the player has explored system ID xxx, 0 if not
|      Logical or operator
&      Logical and operator
!      Logical negation operator
( )    Parenthetical enclosure

Some examples:
b13 & (b15 | !b72)
!(B42 | B53) & b103

Note that since the Nova evaluator is fairly primitive, it may do unpredictable
things if you give it an expression like b1 & b2 | b3 ... instead, use proper
parentheses to make it b1 & (b2 | b3) or (b1 & b2) | b3, as appropriate.

Also note that if you leave the field for a test expression blank, it will
evaluate to true as a default.

Also also note:  The Oxxx operator also considers any carried fighters that are
deployed when it examines the player's current list of outfits, although this
feature may be confused if presented with a universe that includes multiple
fighter bay weapons that launch the same ship type, or different outfits that
grant the same fighter bay ammo.


Set expressions:

These are simpler than the test expressions... basically all you are doing here
is listing what bits you want to be modified when the expression in a given
field is invoked. This will happen when the player does something (completes a
mission, buys an item, etc.) as defined by the other resources. The syntax of
set expressions is best illustrated by an example:

b1 b2 !b3 ^b4

In this set expression, bits 1 and 2 will be set, bit 3 will be cleared, and bit
4 will be toggled to the opposite of whatever it was previously. No parentheses
are supported for set expressions. Note that if you leave a set expression
blank, no control bits will be altered.

One other feature of the set expression is the ability to make random decisions.
By specifying   R(<op1> <op2>)   you can make Nova randomly pick one of the two
possible choices and execute it, skipping the other one. For example:

b1 R(b2 !b3)

...this expression will set bit 1, and then *either* set bit 2 *or* clear bit 3,
but not both at once. Which operation will be picked is completely random, which
allows for the design of interesting mission strings that branch unpredictably.

There are also a number of other operators that allow you to do many interesting
things:

Axxx - if mission ID xxx is currently active, abort it.

Fxxx - if mission ID xxx is currently active, cause it to fail.

Sxxx - start mission ID xxx automatically. 

Gxxx - grant one of outfit item ID xxx to the player

Dxxx - remove (Delete) one of outfit item ID xxx from the player

Mxxx - move the player to system xxx. The player will be put on top of the
       first stellar in the system, or in the center of the system if no
       stellars exist there.

Nxxx - move the player to system xxx. The player will remain at the same
       x/y coordinates, relative to the center of the system.

Cxxx - change the player's ship to ship type (ID) xxx. The player will keep all
       of his previous outfit items and won't be given any of the default
       weapons or items that come with ship type xxx.
       
Exxx - change the player's ship to ship type (ID) xxx. The player will keep all
       of his previous outfit items and will also be given all of the default
       weapons and items that come with ship type xxx.
       
Hxxx - change the player's ship to ship type (ID) xxx. The player will lose any
       nonpersistent outfit items he previously had, but will be given all of
       the default weapons and items that come with ship type xxx.

Kxxx - activate rank ID xxx.

Lxxx - deactivate rank ID xxx.

Pxxx - play sound with ID xxx.

Yxxx - destroy stellar ID xxx.

Uxxx - regenerate (Un-destroy) stellar ID xxx.

Qxxx - make the player immediately leave (absquatulate) whatever stellar he's
       landed on and return to space, and show a message at the bottom of the
       screen. The message is randomly selected from the STR# resource with
       ID xxx, and is parsed for mission text tags (e.g. <PSN> and <PRK> )
       but not text-selection tags like those above (e.g. {G "he" "she"} )
       (see d‘sc and m•sn resource descriptions for more examples)
       
Txxx - change the name (Title) of the player's ship to a string randomly
       selected from STR# resource ID xxx. The previous ship name will be
       substituted for any '*' characters which are encountered in the
       new string.

Xxxx - make system ID xxx be explored.



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* The sp•n resource

     Spin resources contain sprite info for simple graphical objects. Whenever
Nova needs to load a set of sprites for a particular object, it looks at that
objects's spin resource, which in turn tells the game how to load the object's
sprites. Nova sprites are stored as paired sprite and mask PICT resources, or as
rleD/rle8 resources. The sprites in each PICT are arranged in a grid, which can
be of any size. The spin resource tells Nova what shape and size the sprites'
grid is. Spin resources have the following fields:

SpritesID  ID number of the sprites' PICT resource (or the ID of the rleD/rle8
resource)
MasksID    ID number of the masks' PICT resource
xSize      Horizontal size of each sprite
ySize      Vertical size of each sprite
xTiles     Horizontal grid dimension 
yTiles     Vertical grid dimension 

Spin resources have certain reserved ID numbers, which correspond to different
types of objects:

400-463      Explosions
500          Cargo boxes
501-504      Mini-asteroids for mining
600-605      Main menu buttons
606          Main screen logo
607          Main screen rollover images
608-610      Main screen sliding buttons
650          Target cursor
700          Starfield
800-815      Asteroids
1000-1255    Stellar objects
3000-3255    Weapons

It is important to note that the ID numbers of the PICT/rleD/rle8 resources are
non-critical, as Nova looks at the spin resources to find the sprites, and not
at the actual PICT/rleD/rle8 ID numbers themselves.

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* The shŠn resource

	Shan (ship animation) resources contain sprite info for ship graphics, which
are too complex for the more rudimentary spin resource.

BaseImageID     The resource ID of the basic sprite images for this ship

BaseMaskID      The ID of the corresponding sprite masks (ignored if the base
                  image is an rleD/rle8 resource)

BaseSetCount    The number of sprite sets for the basic sprite images. A sprite
                  set is usually 36 sprite images, and the graphics for all of
                  a ship's basic sprite sets are stored in the same
PICT/rleD/rle8
                  resource, referred to in BaseImageID.
                  
BaseXSize       The X size of each basic sprite image

BaseYSize       The Y size of each basic sprite image

BaseTransp      The inherent transparency of the basic sprite images, from
                  0 (no transparency) to 32 (fully transparent).

AltImageID      The resource ID of the alternating sprite images for this ship.
                  Sprites from the alt sprite sets can be displayed on top of
                  the basic sprite for the ship, cycling through each available
                  sprite set at a rate defined in the Delay field, below.
                  Set to zero if unused.
                  
AltMaskID       The corresponding mask ID. Set to zero if unused.

AltSetCount     The number of sprite sets for the alternating sprites.

AltXSize

AltYSize


GlowImageID     Engine glow
GlowMaskID
GlowXSize
GlowYSize


LightImageID    Running lights
LightMaskID
LightXSize
LightYSize


WeapImageID     Weapon effects
WeapMaskID
WeapXSize
WeapYSize


ShieldImageID     Shield bubble (shield sprite have a number of frames
ShieldMaskID       exactly equal to 1, FramesPer, or BaseSetCount*FramesPer)
ShieldXSize
ShieldYSize


Flags      0x0001    Extra frames in base image are used to display banking.
                       The first set of sprites is used for level flight, the
                       second for banking left, and the third for banking right.
           0x0002    Extra frames in base image are used for animated ship
                       parts such as for folding/unfolding wings. The sprites
                       will be cycled upon landing, taking off, and
                       entering/exiting hyperspace.
           0x0004    The second set of frames in the base image are displayed
                       when the ship is not carrying any of its KeyCarried type
                       ships onboard.
           0x0008    Extra frames in base image are shown in sequence, just
                       like the sprites in the alternating image. The AnimDelay
                       field has the same effect in this case.
           0x0010    Stop the ships' animations when it is disabled
           0x0020    Hide alt sprites when the ship is disabled
           0x0040    Hide running light sprites when the ship is disabled
           0x0080    Ship unfolds when firing weapons, and folds back up when
                      not firing.
           0x0100    Adjust ship's visual presentation to correct for the skew
                      caused by graphics that are rendered highly off-axis from
                      vertical. This uses the ship's UpCompressY and DnCompressY
                      fields to interpolate the proper sprite frame to display
                      based on the ship's actual heading. Use this with
                      caution, as it tends to cause very jerky ship
                      rotation and is mostly included as a curiosity.
                      
           Note that the first four flags in this field are mutually
             exclusive - i.e. you can have a ship that banks, unfolds,
             changes appearance when it is carrying a certain other ship
             type, or animates in sequence, but these effects can't be
             combined. The only exception is that having both flags
             0x0001 and 0x0002 set is treated specially - it results in
             a ship whose extra frames are used for banking and which
             always displays its engine glow when it is turning, whether
             or not it is actually accelerating. (This something that
             got thrown in at some point when I realized that it would
             be necessary to have in order to replicate the behavior of
             a certain type of ship from a certain TV show).
           

AnimDelay  The delay between frames of the sprite animations, in 30ths of a
             second.

WeapDecay  The rate at which the weapon glow sprite fades out to transparency,
             if applicable. 50 is a good median number - lower numbers yield
             slower decays.

FramesPer  The number of frames for one rotation of this ship - usually 36 is
             a good number, but larger ships can benefit from having more
             frames per rotation to make their turning animation look smoother.
             Be sure this value is equal to the actual number of frames per
             revolution in your images, or bad things will happen!

BlinkMode  0 or -1  Ignored
           1        Square-wave blinking:
           			   BlinkValA is the light on-time
           			   BlinkValB is the delay between blinks
           			   BlinkValC is the number of blinks in a group
           			   BlinkValD is the delay between groups
           2        Triangle-wave pulsing:
           			   BlinkValA is the minimum intensity (1-32)
           			   BlinkValB is the intensity increase per frame, x100
           			   BlinkValC is the maximum intensity (1-32)
           			   BlinkValD is the intensity decrease per frame, x100
           3        Random pulsing:
           			   BlinkValA is the minimum intensity (1-32)
           			   BlinkValB is the maximum intensity (1-32)
           			   BlinkValC is the delay between intensity changes
           			   BlinkValD is ignored


GunPosX        Here you can set the exit points on the ship sprite for four
GunPosY         different classes of weapons. Note that The "Gun" "Beam" etc.
TurretPosX      designations are for convenience only, since which set of
TurretPosY      weapon exit points is used by a given weapon are defined in
GuidedPosX      that weapon's ExitType field. The x & y positions of each 
GuidedPosY      weapon exit point are measured in pixels from the center of the
BeamPosX        ship when the ship is pointing straight up (frame index 0). See
BeamPosY        the next four fields if you need to account for any perspective
                corrections in your sprites.
                
UpCompressX    If you have ship sprites that are rendered at an angle, these
UpCompressY     fields are used to correct for the ships perspective when
DnCompressX     calculating the weapon exit points (above). If the ship is
DnCompressY     pointing generally "up" (heading is 0-90 or 270-359) then
                UpCompressX/Y are used; if the ship is pointing generally
                "down" (heading is 91-269 degrees) then DnCompressX/Y are used.
                These values are divided by 100 and then multiplied by the
                rotated x & y values in the weapon exit point fields to apply a
                rough correction factor, so values less that 100 will bring
                the exit points in closer to the ship and values greater than
                100 will move the exit points farther out. Experimentation is
                the best way to learn how this works. Values of zero are
                interpreted the same as a value of 100, so you can leave
                this field set to zero if unused.

GunPosZ        Here you can set further weapon exit point offsets in order to
TurretPosZ      compensate for skew caused by the z position of a ship
GuidedPosZ      graphic's weapon exit point. These values are added to a
BeamPosZ        shot or beam's position after the weapon exit point x & y
                offsets and the x & y compression factors have been applied,
                so the effect of these values is not scaled. Positive values
                here move up the screen, negative values move down the screen.
                (this is a lot easier to use with the editor than it is to
                describe)



Note: if you use engine glows or running lights, you must have the same number
of engine glow and/or running light frames as base frames (including banking
frames!) or Nova will choke.


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* The bššm resource

	The boom resource is used to customize the various explosion types. Nova
supports up to 64 different explosion types. The graphics for the explosions are
loaded from sp•n resources 400-463, the sounds are loaded from snd resources
300-363, and the behavior of each explosion type is contained within bššm
resources 128-191. Each bššm resource contains three fields:

FrameAdvance   The rate at which the explosion will animate - a value of 100
                will cause each frame of the explosion to appear for exactly
                one frame of the game animation, and lower values will stretch
                out the explosion animation and make it stay onscreen longer.

SoundIndex     The index (0-63) of the explosion sound to associate with this
                explosion type, or -1 for a silent explosion. Usually you'd set
                this to either -1 or to the same value as the explosion index
                itself (e.g. 1 for bššm resource 129, etc.) but if you want to
                use the same sound for two different explosion types, you can
                do that with this field.
                
GraphicIndex   The index (0-63) of the explosion graphic to associate with this
                explosion type. Usually you'd set this to the same value as the
                explosion index itself (e.g. 1 for bššm resource 129, etc.) but
                if you want to use the same graphic for two different explosion
                types (like the small weapon explosion and the ship-breaking-up
                explosion) you can do that with this field.

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* The chŠr resource

	The chŠr resource is used to allow multiple entry points into the scenario's
storyline, by letting the player pick a "character template" from a list when a
new pilot is started. The player is presented with a list of all available chŠr
resources when a new pilot is created, and must choose one (but only one). This
allows different character types to have different ships, legal records, etc. at
the start of the game, and also allows for the setting-up of mission stuff by
way of a control bit set string that is evaluated when a new pilot is started.

Cash          The amount of money a player gets when starting out with this
               character type 
               
ShipType      ID number of the starting ship type

System1-4     ID numbers of up to four possible starting systems for the
               player. The player will randomly be placed in one of these
               systems when starting out. Set to -1 if unused (if all four of
               these fields are set to -1, the player will be placed in system
               ID 128 as a default).
               
Govt1-4 &     For each of the governments whose ID is entered in a Govt1-4
Status1-4      field, the player's legal status in systems owned by that
               government or one of its allies is set to the value in the
               corresponding Status field. For systems owned by an enemy
               of the govt identified in the Govt field, the player's legal
               status is set to the negative value of the number in the
               corresponding Status field. Set unused Govt fields to -1.
               
Kills         The player's starting combat rating.

IntroPict1-4  IDs of up to four PICT resources to show in sequence when the
               player starts out with a new pilot of this type. Set to -1
               if unused.

PictDelay1-4  Maximum delay time to display each of the four above pictures,
               in seconds.

IntroTextID   The ID of the d‘sc resource to show when the player starts out
               with a new pilot of this type. Along with the IntroPictID field,
               this allow you to have different opening sequences for each
               pilot type (useful to show different sides of the same issue,
               for example). Using the d‘sc resource's MovieFile field here
               lets you have an introduction movie. The intro text (and any
               associated movie) is displayed after the above PICT resouces
               are shown.
               
OnStart       A control bit set string that is called when the player starts
               out with a new pilot of this type.

Flags         0x0001    Denotes the "default" chŠr resource, which will be
                         automatically selected in the popup menu. If more
                         than one chŠr resource has this bit set (there
                         shouldn't be) the one with the lowest ID will be
                         considered the default.
                         
StartYear     The starting year of the game.

DatePrefix    String that is appended to the start of the date whenever
               it's displayed.

DateSuffix    String that is appended to the end of the date whenever
               it's displayed.

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* The cšlr resource

	The cšlr resource allows you to customize some game-wide interface
options.

ButtonUp          Normal button text color
ButtonDown        Pressed button text color
ButtonGrey        Greyed-out button text color

MenuFont          Main menu font name
MenuFontSize      Size of main menu font
MenuColor1 & 2    Bright & dim colors for main menu

GridDim           Shipyard/outfit dialog grid color
GridBright        Shipyard/outfit dialog selection square color

ProgressBar       Position and shape of the loading progress bar, relative to
                   the center of the window
                   
ProgBright        Bright progress bar color
ProgDim           Dim progress bar color
ProgOutline       Progress bar outline color

Button1x & y      Position of the six main menu buttons, relative to the
  through          top left corner of a 1024x768 main menu background
Button6x & y

FloatingMap       Floating hyperspace map / escort menu border color
ListText          List text color
ListBkgnd         List background color
ListHilite        List hilite color
EscortHilite      Escort menu item hilite color

ButtonFont        Button font name
ButtonFontSz      Size of button font

LogoX & Y         Logo animation x/y position
RolloverX & Y     Rollover animation x/y position
Slide1x & y       Sliding button x/y positions
  through
Slide3x & y

	The various interface buttons that appear are drawn on the fly. Nova
uses PICT resources 7500-7502 for the left, center, and right pieces of the
"up" buttons, PICT resources 7503-7505 for the "down" button pieces, and PICT
resources 7506-7508 for the greyed-out button pieces. Corresponding mask images
are stored in PICTs 7600-7608. STR# resource 150 is used to store the text that
appears on each button type.

Note that all color fields in the cšlr resource are encoded the same as
HTML colors, and that only the first cšlr resource is loaded.

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* The cršn resource

	Cron resources are used to define time-dependent events that occur in a
manner that is invisible to the player but can cause interesting things to
happen in the universe, via the manipulation of control bits. With it, you can
create such things as:

  - an event that occurs periodically during the course of the game
  - an event that occurs at some fixed date during the game, as part of the
    story's set script
  - an event, triggered by the actions of the player, that occurs after some
    fixed or random interval
  - etc.


FirstDay      The first day of the month (1-31) on which the cron event can be
                activated. If you set this to 0 or -1, this field will be
                ignored and only FirstMonth and FirstYear will be considered.
FirstMonth    The first month of the year (1-12) on which the cron event can
                be activated. Set to 0 or -1 for this to be ignored.
FirstYear     The first year in which the cron event can be activated. Set to
                0 or -1 for this to be ignored.
                
LastDay       The last day of the month (1-31) on which the cron event can
                be activated. Set to 0 or -1 for this to be ignored.
LastMonth     The last month of the year (1-12) on which the cron event can
                be activated. Set to 0 or -1 for this to be ignored.
LastYear      The last year in which the cron event can be activated. Set to
                0 or -1 for this to be ignored.

Random        The percent chance that the cron event will be activated during
                the date range defined above. Set to 100 for the event to
                be activated as soon as it can be.

Duration      The duration during which the event is active, in days. If this
               is set to zero, the event will start and end on the same day,
               i.e. its OnStart and OnEnd scripts will be run at the same time.

PreHoldoff    The number of days to "hold" the event in a waiting state after
               it is activated and before it starts. Set this to zero to have
               the event start immediately when it is activated.
               
PostHoldoff   The number of days to hold the event in a waiting state after it
               ends and before it is deactivated. This is used to keep a
               repeating event from being activated immediately after it has
               just happened. Set this to zero to have the event be deactivated
               immediately after it ends.
               
Flags         0x0001    Continuous, iterative cron entry - keep evaluating
                         the cron's OnStart field until the EnableOn expression
                         is no longer true or the constraints of the Require
                         fields are no longer met. This can create infinite
                         loops, so be careful!
              0x0002    Continuous, iterative cron exit - keep evaluating
                         the cron's OnExit field until the EnableOn expression
                         is no longer true or the constraints of the Require
                         fields are no longer met. This can create infinite
                         loops, so be careful!

EnableOn      A control bit test string that is used to determine whether the
               cron event is eligible to be activated or not. Leave this
               blank if you are creating an event whose activation doesn't
               depend on the state of any control bits.
               
OnStart       A control bit set string that is called when the cron event
               starts, after waiting through the PreHoldoff time, if any.
               
OnEnd         A control bit set string that is called when the cron event
               ends.
 
Contribute    When the cron event is active, these two Contribute fields
Contribute     together form a 64-bit flag that is subsequently combined with
               the Contribute fields from the player's ship and the other
               outfit items in the player's possession, to be used with the
               Require fields in the outf and misn resources.
  
Require       These two Require fields together form a 64-bit flag that is
Require        logically and'ed with the Contribute fields from the player's
               current ship and outfit items. Unless for each 1 bit in the
               Require fields there is a matching 1 bit in one or more of the
               Contribute fields, the cron will not be activated. Leave these
               set to zero if unused.
  
NewsGovt1-4     On planets or stations that are allied with the government
GovtNewsStr1-4   whose ID is given by one of the NewsGovt fields, a string
                 will be randomly selected from the STR# resource whose
                 ID is given by the corresponding GovtNewsStr field, and
                 will be displayed as news while the cron event is active.
                 This allows you to let up to four different governments
                 (and their allies) have their own "local news" for a given
                 cron event. Set unused NewsGovt and GovtNewsStr fields to -1.
  
IndNewsStr      The ID of a STR# resource from which to randomly select a
                 string to be displayed in the news dialog while this cron
                 event is in progress, if it doesn't have any applicable local
                 news. Set to -1 for no independent news.
               
  
Some notes:

1. Setting any of the above date fields to 0 or -1 effectively makes that
   field a wildcard field, which will match to anything.

2. If you want an event with a wide possible date range to be guaranteed to
   never run more than once, make it set a control bit in its OnEnd script that
   will prevent it from subsequently being eligible for activation.

3. The 'M' and 'N' control bit set string operators should probably not be used
   in conjunction with cron events, unless you really want to confuse the
   player by moving him around at seemingly random times.

4. Local news always takes precedence over independent news, even if there is
   no corresponding news string to display (the STR# ID must still be greater
   than zero to not be ignored). You can use this to make everyone in the
   universe except a particular government or set of governments report on
   something, for example.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* The d‘sc resource

     Desc resources store null-terminated text strings (descriptions) that are
used by Nova in a variety of places. For some desc resources, Nova looks for a
certain reserved ID number. Other desc resources are pointed to by fields in
other resources, so their ID numbers are not necessarily fixed, and can be set
to virtually anything by the scenario designer. The reserved desc ID numbers,
along with the maximum length for each type, are below:

128-2175        Stellar object descriptions, shown when landed on a planet. 
3000-3511       Outfit item descriptions, shown in ship outfitting dialog.
4000-4999       Mission descriptions, shown in mission dialog. 
13000-13767     Ship class descriptions, shown in the shipyard and
                 requisition-escort dialog. 
13999           Message shown after the player uses an escape pod.
14000-14767     Ship pilot descriptions, shown in the hire-escort dialog. 
32760-32767     Reserved

If you wish, you can make a d‘sc resource mutable via control bits - embedding a
special sequence of characters into the d‘sc resource will instruct Nova to
change the contents of the text on the fly. This sequence is delimited (marked)
by the characters "{" and "}", and follows this format:

{bXXX "string one" "string two"}

Where "XXX" is be replaced by the index of the control bit you wish to test. You
can add in a "!" character before the "bXXX" test in order to negate the result
of the test, but unlike the control bit test strings, you cannot perform
compound tests in a d‘sc resource - i.e., no testing of multiple bits at a time.

If the bit test (after being negated, if the "!" character is present) evaluates
to true, the first string will be substituted in place of all the characters
between (and including) the "{" and "}" characters. If the bit test evaluates to
false and there is a second string in the expression, that second string will be
substituted. If there is no second string, nothing will be substituted.

For example, consider this d‘sc resource:

This is a {b001 "great and terrific" "lousy, terrible"} example.

...if bit 001 is set, the output will be "This is a great and terrific example."
If bit 001 is not set, the output will be "This is a lousy, terrible example.".

Also note that if you want to include a quotation mark (") character in either
of the two strings, use standard C syntax to do it:

My name is {b002 "Dave \"pipeline\" Williams"}

This is also works with the player's gender - for example:

This is a test string and the player is {G "a male character" "a female pilot"}.

...in this case, the G character signifies that the following text is mutable
based on the player's gender; if the player is male, the first string is used,
otherwise the second string is used. Note that the "!" token works here as
usual.

You can also change the text based on whether or not the player is registered:

This is a test string you {P "have paid" "haven't paid"}.

...in this case, the P character signifies that the following text is mutable
based on whether or not the game is registered; if the player has registered,
the first string is used, otherwise the second string is used. Note that the
"!" token works here as usual, and you can also append a number to the P
character to specify a number of days, just as you can with the ncb Pxxx
test operator.


Besides the Description field in the d‘sc resource, there are some additional
fields:


Graphic        This is used to include graphics in mission briefings. If you
                put in the ID of a valid PICT resource, Nova will display that
                image along with the description text when it displays a
                mission dialog box (with the exception of the Mission Computer
                and Mission Info dialogs).
                
MovieFile      The name of a QuickTime movie file to display before the
                briefing dialog appears. This file must reside either in
                "Nova Files" or "Nova Plugins".

Flags          0x0001    Show the movie after the briefing instead of before
               0x0002    Show movie at double-size
               0x0004    Cinematic movie - blank background and fade screen
                          before and after 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The dŸde resource

     A dude resource can be thought of as a container for ships that share
certain characteristics. Any ship of a given dude class will have that dude
class's AI type and governmental affiliation, and will yield the same types of
booty when boarded. In a dude resource, up to 16 different ship classes can be
pointed to, with a probability set for each ship class. The result of all this
is that, in other parts of Nova's data file, you can point to a dude class and
know that Nova will create a ship of the proper AI type and governmental
alignment, and will pick the new ship's type based on the probabilities you set
in the dude resource. The dude resource's fields are:

AIType             Which type of AI to use for ships of this dude class (see
                     below).  If you set this to 0, each ship will use its own
                     inherent AI type.

Govt               The ID number of the dude class's government, or -1 for
                     independent.

Booty              Flags that define what you'll get when you board a ship of
                     this dude class. (see below)

InfoTypes          What kind of info to display when hailed
                   0x1000     Good prices
                   0x2000     Disaster info
                   0x4xxx     Specific advice (the lower 12 bits of this
                                               value are added to 7500 to get
                                               the ID of the STR# resource
                                               from which to get the quote)
                   0x8000     Generic govt hail messages
                                             
Flags              0x0001     Carries food when plundered
                   0x0002     Carries industrial goods
                   0x0004     Carries medical supplies
                   0x0008     Carries luxury goods
                   0x0010     Carries metal
                   0x0020     Carries equipment
                   0x0040     Carries money (amount depends on the ship's
                               purchase price)
                   0x0100     Ships of this dude type can't be hit by the
                               player and their shots can't hit the player
                               (useful for things like AuxShip mission
                               escorts, etc.)

ShipType (x16)     These fields contain the ID numbers of up to 16 different
                     ship classes. Set to 0 or -1 if unused.
                     
Probability (x16)  These fields set the probability that a ship of this dude
                     class will be of a certain ship type


The four different AI types are:

1 - Wimpy Trader     Visits planets and runs away when attacked
2 - Brave Trader     Visits planets and fights back when attacked, but runs
                       away when his attacker is out of range
3 - Warship          Seeks out and attacks his enemies, or jumps out if there
                       aren't any.
4 - Interceptor      Seeks out his enemies, or parks in orbit around a planet
                       if he can't find any. Buzzes incoming ships to scan them
                       for illegal cargo. Also acts as "piracy police" by
                       attacking any ship that fires on or attempts to board
                       another, non-enemy ship while the interceptor is
                       watching.

You can set different combinations of booty to be had from ships of a certain
dude class by ORing different bits into the dude's Booty field. If a dude class
has a booty flag of 0x0000, then you can't get anything from the ship, and
you're told that you were "repelled while attempting to board" it. The different
booty flags are documented above

Unlike previous versions of the EV engine, Nova can handle dude resources that
are not completely filled - so, while the dude resource can handle references to
as many as 16 different ship types, not all fields have to be used. If you do
this, remember to set the corresponding ShipType fields to 0 or -1 to indicate
that they're unused.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The fl‘t resource

     A flet resource defines the parameters for a fleet, which is a collection
of ships that can be made to appear randomly throughout the galaxy.

LeadShipType        ID of the fleet's flagship's ship class

EscortType (x4)     IDs of the flagships escorts' ship classes. If you don't
                      want to use four different escort types, you should still
                      set the unused fields to a valid ship class ID. (you can
                      set the min & max fields to 0 and just have the extra
                      ships not appear)

Min (x4)            The minimum number of each type of escort to put in the
                      fleet.

Max (x4)            The maximum number of each type of escort to put in the
                      fleet.

Govt                ID of the fleet's government, of -1 for none.

LinkSyst            Which systems the fleet can be created in
                    -1           Any system
                    128-2175     ID of a specific system
                    10000-10255  Any system belonging to this specific
                                   government
                    15000-15255  Any system belonging to an ally of this govt
                    20000-20255  Any system belonging to any but this govt
                    25000-25255  Any system belonging to an enemy of this govt

AppearOn            A control bit test field that will cause a given fleet to
                    appear only when the expression evaluates to true. If this
                    field is left blank it will be ignored.

Quote               Show a random string from the STR# resource with this ID
                      when the fleet enters from hyperspace. Any occurrences
                      of the character '#' in this string will be replaced
                      with a random digit (0-9).

Flags               0x0001   Freighters (InherentAI <= 2) in this fleet will
                               have random cargo when boarded.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The gšvt resource

     A govt resource defines the parameters for a government, which is in turn
defined as "any collection of ships and planets that react collectively to the
actions of the player and other ships." Governments keep track of how they feel
toward you, and they can also have set enemies and allies. The govt resource's
fields are:

VoiceType          Sets this government's voice type, used for when you have
                   a ship of this government as your escort (i.e. an escort
                   with an inherent attributes govt field that points to this
                   govt). There can be up to eight different voice types,
                   numbered 0-7. The voice resources are loaded from 'snd '
                   resources as follows:
                    
                    1000-1009   Voice type 0 acknowledgement speech
                    1010-1019   Voice type 0 targeting speech
                    1020-1029   Voice type 0 victory speech
                    1100-1109   Voice type 1 acknowledgement speech
                    1110-1119   Voice type 1 targeting speech
                    1120-1129   Voice type 1 victory speech
                    ...etc, up to:
                    1700-1709   Voice type 7 acknowledgement speech
                    1710-1719   Voice type 7 targeting speech
                    1720-1729   Voice type 7 victory speech
                   
                   If a particular set of voices (i.e. the acknowledgement,
                   targeting, or victory sounds for a given voice type)
                   contains an even number of sound resources, Nova will
                   only use either the even- or odd-numbered sounds for
                   each particular ship. The Nova scenario uses this to
                   implement both male and female voices for certain
                   governments. To let each ship decide for itself whether
                   to use even- or odd-numbered sounds, set VoiceType to
                   between 0 and 7. To force ships to use only odd-numbered
                   sounds, set VoiceType to between 1000 and 1007. To
                   force ships to use only even-numbered sounds, set
                   VoiceType to between 2000 and 2007.
                   
                   (None of the preceeding paragraph applies if Nova
                   doesn't have an even number of sounds to work with)
                    
                   If you don't want any ships of a government to use speech,
                   set that govt's VoiceType to -1. Also note that ship types
                   with no inherent attributes govt defined (see sh•p section
                   for more information) will always use voice type 0.

Flags & Flags2     Sets a variety of characteristics (see below)

CrimeTol           The maximum amount of evilness the player can accumulate
                     before warships of this govt start to beat on him.

ScanFine           If the player is caught carrying an illegal (and non-
                     mission-related) cargo or item by a ship of this govt
                     and he isn't yet evil enough to attack (i.e. his legal
                     status in the current system isn't below CrimeTol) then
                     he will be fined the amount in this field.
                   
                   1 and up       fine this amount
                   0              no fine, just a warning
                   -1 and below   fine this % of the player's cash
                                   (-5 is 5%, etc)
                     
SmugPenalty        The amount of evilness a player gains for being detected
                     smuggling illegal cargo (defined in a misn resource) past
                     this government's ships.
                     
DisabPenalty       The amount of evilness for disabling one of this govt's
                     ships.
                     
BoardPenalty       Evilness from pirating one of this govt's ships

KillPenalty        Evilness from killing this govt's ships

ShootPenalty       Evilness from shooting one of this govt's ships (currently
                     ignored)
                     
InitialRec         The playerÕs initial legal record in systems controlled by
                     this govt (0 is neutral, positive is good, negative is
                     bad)
                     
MaxOdds            The maximum combat odds ships of this govt will consider
                     favorable. Combat odds are calculated by summing the
                     strengths of the ship's enemies (where a ship's strength
                     is taken from the Strength field in the sh•p resource,
                     and modified from between 30% and 100% of that value
                     depending on the ship's present shield stat) and comparing
                     it to the sum of the strength of the ship's friends.
                     A value of 100 in this field represents 1-to-1 combat
                     odds, and will cause a ship of this govt not to attack
                     unless it calculates that it is as strong, or stronger
                     than, its enemy. A value of 200 represents 2-to-1 combat
                     odds, meaning that ships of this govt won't engage if they
                     are outnumbered by more than 2-to-1. 300 means that ships
                     of this govt won't engage a group of enemies more than 3x
                     stronger than them and their friends, etc.
                     
Class1-Class4      Allows you to assign this govt to up to four different
                     "classes", which are simply arbitrary groupings of govts
                     that you can use to flexibly assign allies and enemies.
                     Two govts of the same class are not inherently allied
                     unless one of them has that same class number set in
                     one of its Ally fields. Set unused class fields to -1.
                     
Ally1-Ally4        The number of up to four classes that this govt will be
                     allied with. Set to -1 if unused.
                     
Enemy1-Enemy4      The number of up to four classes that this govt will be
                     enemies with. Set to -1 if unused.

Interface          ID of an •ntf resource to use when the player is flying a
                     ship whose inherent attributes govt or inherent combat
                     govt is equal to this govt type. Values less than 128
                     will be interpreted as 128.

NewsPic            ID of a PICT resource to use as the background of the
                     news window when the player is on a planet or station
                     owned by this govt. Values less than 128 are ignored
                     and the standard independent/generic news background
                     (ID 9000) is substituted instead.


     Doing evil deeds to one government will improve your rating with its
enemies, and vice versa. Allied governments also communicate your actions, so
attacking one government will make its allies hate you too.



The different bits that can be set in a govt's Flags field are:

0x0001     Xenophobic (Warships of this govt attack everyone except their
             allies. Useful for making pirates and other nasties.)
0x0002     Ships of this govt will attack the player in non-allied systems if
             he's a criminal there (useful for making one govt care only about
             the player's actions on its home turf, while another is nosy and
             enforces its own laws everywhere it goes)
0x0004     Always attacks player
0x0008     Player's shots won't hit ships of this govt.
0x0010     Warships of this govt will retreat when their shields drop below
             25% - otherwise they fight to the death
0x0020     Nosy ships of other non-allied governments ignore ships of this
             govt that are under attack
0x0040     Never attacks player (also, playerÕs weapons canÕt hit them)
0x0080     Freighters (i.e. AiTypes 1 and 2) for this particular government
             have 50% of the standard InherentJam value for warships (AiType 3)
             of the same government.
0x0100     ÔpersÕ ships of this govt wonÕt use escape pod, but will act as if
             they did
0x0200     Warships will take bribes.
0x0400     Can't hail ships of this govt. (if a ship type has an inherent
             attributes govt which includes this flag, all ships of that type
             will inherit this property)
0x0800     Ships of this govt start out disabled (derelicts). Note that ships
             of other governments don't care if you attack or board
             derelict govt ships.
0x1000     Warships will plunder non-mission, non-player enemies before
             destroying them
0x2000     Freighters will take bribes.
0x4000     Planets of this govt will take bribes
0x8000     Ships of this govt taking bribes will demand a larger percentage of
             your cash supply, and their planets will always take bribes
             (useful for pirates)


Flags2:

0x0001     When hailing ships of this govt, the request assistance / beg for
             mercy button is disabled and the govt is not talkative.
0x0002     This govt is considered "minor" for the purposes of drawing the
             political boundaries on the map.
0x0004     This govt's systems don't affect the political boundaries on the
             map.
0x0008     Ships of this govt don't send distress messages and don't respond
             with greetings when hailed (if a ship type has an inherent
             attributes govt which includes this flag, all ships of that
             type will inherit this property)
0x0010     Roadside Assistance - Ships of this govt will always repair or
             refuel the player for free
0x0020     Ships of this govt don't use hypergates
0x0040     Ships of this govt prefer to use hypergates instead of jumping out
0x0080     Ships of this govt prefer to use wormholes instead of jumping out



The SkillMult field allows you to apply a global multiplier to the skill levels
of ships that belong to this government. A value of 100 will cause this
government's ships to be just as skilled as any other ships of the same type. A
value of 50 will cause this govt's ships to only be 50% as skilled, and a value
of 150 will cause this govt's ships to be 50% more skilled as the stock ship is
rated. This allows you to create governments whose pilots are more highly
trained than the stock pilots, so they can gain extra speed and acceleration
from their ships. Values in this field of less than 1 are ignored.

ScanMask - This is a 16-bit flags field that is used in conjunction with the
ScanMask field in the m•sn resource. If any of the 1 bits in a government's
ScanMask field match any of the 1 bits in a mission's ScanMask field, that
government will consider the mission's cargo illegal. Set to zero if unused.

Require - These two Require fields together form a 64-bit flag that is logically
and'ed with the Contribute fields from the player's current ship and outfit
items. If for each 1 bit in the Require fields there is not a matching 1 bit in
one or more of the Contribute fields then you won't be allowed to visit any
planets or stations owned by this govt - this is useful for making travel
permits, for example. Leave these set to zero if unused.

InhJam1-4 -  The government's inherent jamming ability for each of the four
              jamming types, from 0 to 100%.
            
MediumName - The government's name in medium length, which is primarily used
              in the string "Sensors detect xxx reinforcement fleet
              approaching."

Color        The government's theme color, encoded the same as HTML colors.
              (00RRGGBB)
              
ShipColor    The theme color for this government's ships, encoded the same as
              HTML colors (00RRGGBB). You should use this sparingly, as it
              gets annoying when you have dozens of multicolored variants of
              some ship type flying around all at once. Set to 00000000 if
              unused (which is the same as 00FFFFFF, or "pure white paint"
              i.e. no shading)
              
CommName     The short string to show for ships of this government when they are
              hailed by the player.
              
TargetCode   The short string to show in the player's target display when a ship
              of this government is targeted.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The jŸnk resource

     Junk resources store info on specialized commodities that can be bought and
sold at a few locations. The fields are:

SoldAt1-8    ID number of the stellar object where the commodity is sold.
               Set to 0 or -1 if unused.
               
BoughtAt1-8  ID number of the stellar object where the commodity is purchased.
               Set to 0 or -1 if unused.
               
BasePrice  The average price of the commodity (works much like the base prices
             for "regular" commodities)
             
Flags      Misc flag bits
           0x0001     Tribbles flag - When in your cargo bay, the commodity
                        multiplies like tribbles.
           0x0002     Perishable - When in your cargo bay, the commodity
                        gradually decays away.
                        
ScanMask   If this is an "illegal" cargo type, this is used in conjunction with
            the ScanMask field in the gšvt resource. If any of the 1 bits in a
            ship's government's ScanMask field match any of the 1 bits in a
            jŸnk type's ScanMask field, that government will consider that
            junk cargo type illegal. Set to zero if unused.

LCName     The lower-case string to display in the player-info dialog box,
            among other places, e.g. "machine parts".
            Note: all outfits with identical, non-empty LCNames will be
                  displayed together as one type in the player-info dialog.
            
Abbrev     The short string that is displayed in the player's status bar when
            the player is carrying jŸnk of this type, e.g. "Parts".
            
BuyOn      Control bit test expression. This jŸnk will only be available to be
            bought when this expression evaluates true. Leave blank if unused.
            
SellOn     Control bit test expression. This jŸnk will only be able to be
            sold when this expression evaluates true. Leave blank if unused.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* The •ntf resource

	The •ntf resource controls the appearance of the status bar by modifying
the position and color of the various status bar elements, as well as changing
the status bar background image.  Additionally, the use of multiple •ntf
resources, along with proper values in the various gšvt resources' Interface
fields, allows the appearance of status bar to change based on what type of
ship the player is piloting - this is a useless but fairly neat effect.
		
		
BrightText        Bright text color
DimText           Dim text color

RadarArea         Rectangular bounds of the radar display
BrightRadar       Bright radar pixel color
DimRadar          Dim radar pixel color  (note that having an IFF outfit will
                                          override these colors)

ShieldArea        Rectangular bounds of the shield indicator
ShieldColor       Shield bar color

ArmorArea         Rectangular bounds of the armor indicator
ArmorColor        Armor bar color

FuelArea          Rectangular bounds of the fuel indicator
FuelFull          Color of the "full jumps" portion of the fuel indicator
FuelPartial       Color of the "partial fuel" portion of the fuel indicator

NavArea           Rectangular bounds of the navigation display
WeapArea          Rectangular bounds of the weapon display
TargArea          Rectangular bounds of the target display
CargoArea         Rectangular bounds of the cargo display

StatusFont        Font to use for the status bar
StatFontSize      Normal font size to use
SubtitleSize      Font size for ship subtitles

StatusBkgnd       ID of PICT resource to use as backdrop for status display.
                   Values less than 128 are interpreted as 128.

Note that all colors in the •ntf resource are encoded the same as HTML colors,
and that vertical shield/armor/fuel bars are properly handled by the game
engine - to make an indicator bar vertical, set its height to be greater than
its width. Also note that setting any of the above rectangles to have zero
area (right=left, top=bottom) will cause the corresponding status indicator
to not be drawn.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* The m•sn resource

     Missions are the crown jewel of the Nova datafile, as well as the largest
and most complex resources in the game. Each misn resource corresponds to a
single mission that the player can undertake, with the name of the mission
(which the player sees in the mission list) being the name of the associated
misn resource. The first six fields in a misn resource help Nova determine where
and when the mission is available:

AvailStel       Which stellar objects (i.e. planets) the mission is
                available at
                -1           Any inhabited stellar
                128-2175     ID number of a specific stellar
                5000-7047    Stellar in a system adjacent to specific system
                9999-10255   Specific govt's stellar
                15000-15255  Specific govt's ally's stellar
                20000-20255  Stellar of anybody but this specific govt
                25000-25255  Specific govt's enemy's stellar
                30000-30255  Stellar of specific govt or any of its class mates
                31000-31255  Stellar not of specific govt nor of any of its
                              class mates

AvailLoc        Where on a planet this mission is available
                0            From the mission computer
                1            In the bar
                2            Offered from ship (must set up associated p‘rs
                               resource as well)
                3            In the main spaceport dialog
                4            In the trading dialog
                5            In the shipyard dialog
                6            In the outfit dialog


AvailRecord     What your legal record in this system must be for this mission
                to become available
                0            ignored
                pos. value   record must be at least this high
                neg. value   record must be at least this low
                -32000       when the player has dominated the stellar in
                               question
                -32001       when the player has dominated at least one stellar

AvailRating     What your combat rating must be for this mission to be available
                -1           ignored
                0+           rating must be at least this high

AvailRandom     A randomization factor, to ensure that some missions aren't
                  available all the time. Mission randomizing values are
                  recalculated each time you warp into a system.
                100          always available
                1-99         available this % of the time


The next two fields in the misn resource define where the player needs to go to
complete the mission:

TravelStel      Which stellar object the player must go to during the mission
                -1           No specific stellar destination
                -2           A random inhabited stellar
                -3           A random uninhabited planet
                128-2175     ID number of a specific stellar (note that the
                               mission travel objectives will also be fulfilled
                               when landing on a duplicate stellar that has the
                               idendical name and coordinates to the stellar
                               you specify here)
                9999-10255   Random stellar of a specific govt
                15000-15255  Random stellar of a specific govt's ally
                20000-20255  Random stellar of anybody but this specific govt
                25000-25255  Random stellar of specific govt's enemy
                30000-30255  Random stellar of specific govt or any of its
                              class mates
                31000-31255  Random stellar not of specific govt nor of any of
                              its class mates

ReturnStel      Where the player must return to in order to complete the
                  mission and receive payment
                -1           No specific stellar destination
                -2           A random inhabited stellar
                -3           A random uninhabited stellar
                -4           The initial stellar, where the mission was
                              accepted
                128-2175     ID number of a specific stellar (note that the
                               mission will also complete when landing on
                               a duplicate stellar that has the idendical name
                               and coordinates to the stellar you specify here)
                 9999-10255  Random stellar of a specific govt
                15000-15255  Random stellar of a specific govt's ally
                20000-20255  Random stellar of anybody but this specific govt
                25000-25255  Random stellar of specific govt's enemy
                30000-30255  Random stellar of specific govt or any of its
                              class mates
                31000-31255  Random stellar not of specific govt nor of any of
                              its class mates


The next five fields tell Nova about any special cargo associated with a
mission:

CargoType       What type of cargo must be carried
                -1           No special cargo for this mission
                0-255        Specific cargo type
                1000         Random cargo of types 0-5 (the standard types)

CargoQty        What amount of cargo must be carried
                -1           Ignored (no cargo)
                0 and up     This many tons of cargo
                -2 and below abs(CargoQty) tons, +/- 50%

PickupMode      Where the cargo is to be picked up
                -1           Ignored
                0            Pick up at mission start
                1            Pick up at TravelStel
                2            Pick up when boarding special ship

DropOffMode     Where the cargo is to be dropped off
                -1           Ignored
                0            Drop off at TravelStel
                1            Drop off at mission end (ReturnStel)
                             (note that DropOffMode 1 will only cause
                             cargo to be dropped off if the cargo was
                             picked up previously, and then only if the
                             mission's special ship goal has been
                             completed or the mission has no special
                             ship goal)
                
                Note: don't set your cargo to be picked up and dropped
                      off at the same place, as it may cause Nova to
                      behave strangely


ScanMask        Used to determine which governments consider your cargo
                  illegal. If any of the 1 bits in this field match any of the
                  1 bits in a government's ScanMask field, that govt will
                  consider this mission's cargo illegal. Set to zero if unused.

The next field tells Nova what to give you if you're successful in your mission:

PayVal          What you get if you're successful and you return to ReturnStel
                0 or -1            No pay
                1 and up           This number of credits
                -10128 to -10383   Clean legal record with the govt with
                                     this ID
                -20128 to -20383   Clean legal record with the govt with
                                     this ID, and all its allies
                -30128 to -30383   Clean legal record with the govt with
                                     this ID, and all its classmates
                -40001 to -40099   Take away this % of the playerÕs cash
                                     (-40001 = 1%, -40002 = 2%, etc.)
                -50000 and down   Take away this number of credits at mission
                                    start (-50000 = 0, -50001 = 1, etc.)


The next six fields contain information on the special ships associated with
this mission, if any:

ShipCount       The number of special ships for this mission
                -1         Ignored (no special ships)
                0-31       This number of special ships

ShipSyst            Which system the special ships will appear in
     -1             The initial system where the mission is begun
     -2             Any random system
     -3             TravelStel's system
     -4             ReturnStel's system
     -5             System adjacent to initial system
     -6             Whatever system the player is in (i.e. follow him around)
     128-2175       ID number of a specific system
     9999-10255     Specific govt's system
     15000-15255    Specific govt's ally's system
     20000-20255    System of any govt but this specific one
     25000-25255    Specific govt's enemy's system
     30000-30255    System of a specific govt or any of its class mates
     31000-31255    System not of specific govt nor of any of its class mates

ShipDude        What dude resource to use to determine the special ship's types
                  and characteristics
                -1           Ignored (no special ships)
                128-639      ID number of a specific dude class

ShipGoal        The mission goal associated with the special ships
                -1           Ignored (no specific goal for the special ships)
                0            Destroy all the ships
                1            Disable but don't destroy them
                2            Board them
                3            Escort them (keep them from getting killed)
                4            Observe them (for ships that can cloak, at least
                               one must be visible onscreen - for ships that
                               cannot cloak, the player must merely be in the
                               same system as them)
                5            Rescue them (they start out disabled and stay that
                               way until you board them; to make a rescue
                               mission where the ship stays disabled, give the
                               special ships a govt with the "always disabled"
                               flag set)
                6            Chase them off (either kill them or scare the
                               into jumping out of the system)

ShipBehav       Defines any special actions you want the ships to take
                -1     Ignored (they use their standard AI routines)
                0      Special ships will always attack the player
                1      Special ships will protect the player
                2      Special ships will attempt to destroy enemy stellars

ShipNameID      Tells Nova how to name the special ships
                -1             Ignored (special ships have normal names)
                128 and up     Pick a name from this STR# resource

ShipStart       Defines where in the system the ships will start
                -4    Appear on top of nav default 4
                -3    Appear on top of nav default 3
                -2    Appear on top of nav default 2
                -1    Appear on top of nav default 1
                0     Appear randomly in the system (as usual)
                1     Jump in from hyperspace after a short delay
                2     Appear randomly, cloaked
                
                Note that a ShipStart value of 0 (appear randomly in the system)
                is the proper value to use in conjunction with p‘rs
                resource flag 0x0040.


CompGovt        Which government to use in determining how your record changes
                  on completing this mission
                -1           Ignored (no reward other than pay)
                128-383      Increase record with this govt

CompReward      How much to increase your record with CompGovt
                (any value)    Increase record by this much
                (note: if you have a CompGovt and reward defined and you fail
                the mission, that govt will take it personally and decrease
                your record by 1/2 the amount specified in CompReward. This is
                useful for making missions whose success is considered vital by
                a certain party.)

ShipSubtitle    Tells Nova which subtitle, if any, to use for the special ships
                -1             Ignored (special ships have normal subtitles)
                128 and up     Pick a subtitle from this STR# resource

BriefText       The desc to show in the dialog that comes up when you accept a
                  mission. (formats are the same for all seven fields)
                -1             No special mission briefing
                128 and up     ID number of the desc resource to use (ID
                                 numbers of 5000 and up are usually the safest)

QuickBrief      The desc to show when the user hits the "Mission Briefing"
                  (I) key.

LoadCargText    The desc to show when special mission cargo is loaded from a
                  planet

DumpCargoText   The desc to show when special mission cargo is offloaded (not
                  jettisoned into space as the name would suggest!)

CompText        The desc to show when you go to ReturnStel and the mission has
                  been successful.

FailText        The desc to show when you go to ReturnStel and the mission has
                  been a failure

ShipDoneText    The desc to show when you complete the special ship goal

CanAbort        0    This mission can't be aborted by the player
                1    This mission can be aborted by the player

TimeLimit       Like it says
                -1 or 0        Ignored (no time limit)
                1 and up       This number of days


The next few fields tell Nova about any auxiliary ships you want to be placed in
the universe for this mission. Auxiliary ships cannot be given specific
instructions, and no goals can be set for them; they simply are "normal" ships
that are placed into the universe for the purpose of adding atmosphere to a
mission.

AuxShipCount    How many aux ships, if any, to activate for this mission:
                -1             No aux ships
                1-31           Place this many aux ships in the universe

AuxShipDude     ID number of the specific dude resource to use to set up the
                  aux ships

AuxShipSyst     What systems to place the aux ships in:
                -1             Any system the player is in
                -2             TravelStel's system
                -3             ReturnStel's system
                128-2175       ID number of a specific system
                5000-7047      In this system, or any systems adjacent to it
                9999-10255     Any system belonging to this govt
                15000-15255    Any system belonging to this govt or its allies
                20000-20255    Any system not belonging to this govt
                25000-25255    Any system belonging to enemies of this govt
                30000-30255    Any system of a specific govt or any of its
                                class mates
                31000-31255    Any system not of specific govt nor of any of
                                its class mates



Flags           Some misc. flag bits
                0x0001         Marks the mission as an auto-aborting mission,
                                 which will automatically abort itself after it
                                 is accepted. (sometimes useful to create
                                 special ships) Any control bits pointed to by
                                 the missionÕs CompBitSet fields will be
                                 automatically set when the mission aborts.
                                 Note: there must be special ships associated
                                 with the mission to trigger the auto-abort.
                                 If the mission is one in which a special ship
                                 replaces a p‘rs ship at mission start (such
                                 as for a "rescue disabled ship" mission) and
                                 the SpecialShipGoal is 2 or 5 (board or
                                 rescue) the mission will auto-abort after the
                                 special ship is boarded.
                0x0002         DonÕt show the red destination arrows on the map
                0x0004         CanÕt refuse the mission
                0x0008         Mission takes away 100 units of fuel upon
                                 auto-abort. (mission won't be offered if
                                 player has less than 100 units of fuel)
                0x0010         Infinite auxShips
                0x0020         Mission fails if you're scanned
                0x0040         Apply -5x CompReward reversal on abort
                0x0080         Global penalty when jettisoning mission cargo in
                                 space (currently ignored)
                0x0100         Show green arrow on map in initial briefing
                0x0200         Show an additional arrow on the map for
                                 the ShipSyst
                0x0400         Mission is invisible and won't appear in the
                                 mission info dialog. (be careful with this!)
                0x0800         The special ships' type will be selected at
                                 mission start and then kept the same whenever
                                 the special ships for that mission are
                                 created, until the mission ends. This can be
                                 used for (e.g.) "attack pirate" missions where
                                 you want the type of the enemy ship to be
                                 random at first but you don't want it to
                                 change every time the player lands or
                                 re-enters the system.
                0x2000         Mission unavailable if playerÕs ship is of
                                 inherentAI type 1 or 2  (cargo ships)
                0x4000         Mission unavailable if playerÕs ship is of
                                 inherentAI type 3 or 4  (warships)
                0x8000         Mission will fail if player is boarded by
                                 pirates.
 
Flags2          More flag bits
                0x0001         Don't offer mission if the player doesn't have
                                 enough cargo space to hold the mission cargo
                                 (even if the mission cargo won't be picked up
                                 until later)
                0x0002         Apply mission Pay on auto-abort
                0x0004         Mission fails if player is disabled or destroyed
                

AvailShipType   Defines what class of ship you must have for this mission to be
                made available:
                0 or -1        Ignored
                128-255        Must be flying a ship of this type
                1128-1255      Must not be flying a ship of this type
                2128-2255      Must be flying a ship of this inherent govt
                3128-3255      Must not be flying a ship of this inherent govt

RefuseText      The desc, if any, to show when mission offered in a bar or from
                  a passing ship is refused.


AvailBits		A control bit test expression that determines the mission's
                availability. If not left blank, the mission will only be
                available when the expression evaluates to true.

OnAccept        Control bit set expression which is evaluated when the mission
                is accepted by the player

OnRefuse        Control bit set expression which is evaluated when the mission
                is refused by the player       

OnSuccess       Control bit set expression which is evaluated when the mission
                is completed successfully

OnFailure       Control bit set expression which is evaluated when the mission
                is failed

OnAbort         Control bit set expression which is evaluated when the mission
                is aborted by the player

OnShipDone      Control bit set expression which is evaluated when the
                mission's special ship goal is completed

Require         These two Require fields together form a 64-bit flag that is
Require         logically and'ed with the Contribute fields from the player's
                current ship and outfit items. If for each 1 bit in the Require
                fields there is a matching 1 bit in one or more of the
                Contribute fields, the mission will be available. Leave these
                set to zero if unused.
                
DatePostInc     If this is set to something greater than zero, the game date
                will be advanced by this number of days after successful
                completion or auto-aborting of the mission.

AcceptButton    The label to use for the Accept button in the initial mission
                briefing dialog. If no text is entered here, Nova will use
                the "Yes" button label from STR# 150 if the mission can be
                refused, or the "Okay" button label if the mission is
                non-refusable.

RefuseButton    The label to use for the Refuse button in the initial mission
                briefing dialog, for missions that can be refused. If no text
                is entered here, Nova will use the "No" button label from
                STR# 150.

DispWeight      Controls the order that the mission is presented in the bar
                and mission BBS list. Missions with higher DispWeight
                values are presented first.



     Whenever Nova displays a desc resource related to a mission, such as the
initial mission description (desc ID 4000-4255) or one of the special mission
briefings (e.g. CompText and QuickBrief) it performs one other special operation
on the text. It searches through the text and replaces a few special "wildcard"
symbols with pertinent mission information. This is extremely useful in setting
up mission briefings that include random information that wouldn't be known when
the description is written. These special symbols and their expansions are:

<DSY>     The name of the destination system
<DST>     The name of the destination stellar
<RSY>     The name of the return system
<RST>     The name of the return stellar
<CT>      The name of the type of cargo to be carried
<CQ>      The quantity of cargo to be carried
<DL>      The date of the mission deadline, if any
<PAY>     Absolute value of mission pay (does nothing if the mission pay
            isn't monetary)
<REG>     Who Nova is registered to, or "UNREGISTERED"
<PN>      The player's name
<PNN>     The player's nickname. If no nickname was specified, Nova will use
            the player's full name here instead.
<PSN>     The player's ship's name
<PST>     The player's ship type (comes from the resource name of the player's
            ship type's sh•p resource)
<PRK>     The ConvName of the highest-weighted active rank resource. If none
            is found, this will be replaced with "captain".
<SRK>     The ShortName of the highest-weighted active rank resource. If none
            is found, this will be replaced with "captain".
<PRKnnn>  Same as <PRK>, but only for ranks affiliated with government ID nnn.
            Note that you can only do this once per description, or bad things
            might happen.
<SRKnnn>  Same as <SRK>, but only for ranks affiliated with government ID nnn.
            Note that you can only do this once per description, or bad things
            might happen.
<RRK>     The full name of the most recently activated rank resource. Note
            that it's best to only use this in a mission briefing where you
            know that you've just given the player a rank, because otherwise
            bad things could happen. (e.g. the most recently activated rank
            pointer isn't cached between game sessions)
<OSN>     The offering ship name (only works when offering a mission from a
            ship)
<SN>      Special ship name (Note: Nova will screw up if you use this in the
            initial mission description, as it doesn't pick the special ship
            names until you actually accept the mission.)


Note: Mission cargo names that start with the asterisk character ('*') are
      treated as "quantityless" - i.e. their quantity is never shown in the
      player-info dialog and the word "the" is omitted in the message that
      appears when the player retrieves that type of cargo from a ship as
      part of a mission. This is useful for when the mission cargo is a
      proper name.

Note: When Nova selects a random mission destination, it attempts to ensure
      that the random destination is: a) more than two hyper jumps away from
      the system where the mission is being offered, and b) a stellar which
      is guaranteed to always exist throughout the course of the game,
      regardless of system swapping. This means that if you have multiple
      systems that occupy the same coordinates at different times in the game
      and not all of them contain stellar object X, no missions will use
      stellar object X as their random destination. (This is to keep the
      player from accepting a mission with a random destination that might
      cease to exist before he gets there!) A further important consequence
      of this restriction is that if Nova detects that a mission whose
      TravelStel or ReturnStel is to be randomly selected will violate this
      rule, it will be prevented from being offered regardless of any other
      availability parameters the mission might have - i.e. if you create a
      mission and Nova refuses to make it available, check the debug log
      to see if the mission couldn't find a suitable nontransient random
      stellar of the desired characteristics.
      
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The n‘bu resource

     N‘bu resources contain info on the nebulae (or other space phenomena) which
are displayed in the background of the star map. These images donÕt actually
have any effect on events in the game, theyÕre just there to look pretty. You
can, however, combine n‘bu background images with custom asteroid or
interference data in the sØst resources for cool localized effects, and you can
also use the n‘bu resource's OnExplore field to enable events when the player
explores a certain nebula.

The PICT resources associated with the 32 available n‘bu resources are numbered
9500-9724. Each nebula can have up to seven PICT resources associated with it;
the first nebula's PICTs are 9500-96, the second's are 9507-13, etc. The engine
will pick the best nebula image to display for a given map scale (the map scales
used in Nova are 42.1%, 56.2%, 75.0%, 100.0%, 133.3%, 177.7%, and 237.0%). If a
nebula image of the proper size for the current map scale isn't available, Nova
will pick the closest one and stretch it as necessary. PICTs for a given nebula
should be sorted by size in ascending order.

The effects of the n‘bu resourceÕs fields are as follows:

XPos     The imageÕs position on the star map. These coordinates are
YPos       expressed in the scale of the ÒnormalÓ map zoom level (not zoomed
           in or out) and are relative to the upper-left corner of the image.

XSize    The imageÕs size on the star map. These values are expressed in
YSize      the scale of the ÒnormalÓ map zoom level (not zoomed in or out) and
           tell Nova how big to make the image when the map is at normal
           zoom.

ActiveOn   Control bit test expression. Leave blank if unused. 

OnExplore  Control bit set expression that is evaluated whenever the nebula is
            tested for visibility and found to be visible. Note that this field
            is handled a little differently from other control bit set
            expressions in Nova, because the explored state of the nebulae
            isn't saved from game to game; rather, it is recalculated every
            time based on the systems the player has explored. As a result,
            this expression may get evaluated multiple times, so you shouldn't
            use the random operator or any operators which do anything but
            set or clear control bits here.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The šops resource

     Oops resources contain info on planetary disasters. Actually, the term
ÒdisastersÓ is a misnomer, as these occurrences simply affect the price of a
single commodity at a planet or station, for good or bad. Nova uses the name of
the resource in the commodity exchange dialog box to indicate that a disaster is
currently going on at a planet. The fields of an oops resource are:

Stellar      The stellar object this disaster is linked to
             128-1628           ID of a stellar object
             -1                 Any planet or station (use sparingly)
             -2                 Nothing (used for mission-related news)
             
Commodity    Which commodity to affect the price of (0 = food, 1 = industrial,
               etc.)
               
PriceDelta   How much to raise or lower the price. (negative numbers lower it)

Duration     How many days the disaster lasts.

Freq         Percent chance per day that the disaster will occur.

ActivateOn   Control bit test expression. Leave blank if unused.

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* The oŸtf resource

     Outf resources store information on the items that you can buy when you
choose ÒOutfit ShipÓ at a planet or station.

DispWeight         The display weight of this item. Items with a higher display
                    weight are shown closer to the top of the outfit dialog.
                    This can be used to effectively rearrange the order in
                    which items are displayed without rearranging the
                    resources themselves.

Mass               The mass in tons of the item (0 = no appreciable mass)

TechLevel          What the technology level of the item is. This item will be
                     available at all spaceports with a tech level of this
                     value or higher. (The exception to this rule involves the
                     SpecialTech fields of the spšb resource; see the section
                     on spšb resources for more information.)

The next two fields tell Nova what kind of modification this item performs:

If ModType is: Then itÕs:              And ModVal refers to:
1              a weapon                The ID number of the associated w‘ap
                                         resource
2              more cargo space        The number of tons of cargo space to
                                         add
3              ammunition              The ID number of the associated w‘ap
                                         resource
4              more shield capacity    The number of shield points to add
5              faster shield recharge  How much to speed up (1000 = one more
                                         shield point per frame)
6              armor                   The number of armor points to add
7              acceleration booster    Amount of accel to add (see sh•p for
                                         more info)
8              speed increase          Amount of speed to add (see sh•p for
                                         more info)
9              turn rate change        Amount of turn change (100 = 30¡/sec)
10             unused
11             escape pod              ignored
12             fuel capacity increase  Amount of extra fuel (100 = 1 jump)
13             density scanner         ignored
14             IFF (colorized radar)   ignored
15             afterburner             How much fuel to use (units/sec)
16             map                     1 and up  How many jumps away from
                                                  present system to explore
                                       -1        Explore all inhabited
                                                  independent systems
                                       -1000     Explore all systems of this
                                        & down    govt class (-1000 is govt
                                                  class 0, -1001 is govt
                                                  class 1, etc.)
17             cloaking device         0x0001    Faster fading
                                       0x0002    Visible on radar
                                       0x0004    Immediately drops shields on
                                                  activation
                                       0x0008    Cloak deactivates when ship
                                                  takes damage
                                       0x0010    Use 1 unit of fuel per second
                                       0x0020    Use 2 units of fuel per sec
                                       0x0040    Use 4 units of fuel per sec
                                       0x0080    Use 8 units of fuel per sec
                                       0x0100    Use 1 unit of shield per sec
                                       0x0200    Use 2 units of shield per sec
                                       0x0400    Use 4 units of shield per sec
                                       0x0800    Use 8 units of shield per sec
                                       0x1000    Area cloak - ships in formation
                                                  with a ship carrying this
                                                  cloaking device will also
                                                  be cloaked
                                       
18             fuel scoop              How many frames per 1 unit of fuel
                                         generated. Enter a negative value to
                                         perform the same function in Òfuel
                                         suckingÓ mode
19             auto-refueller          ignored
20             auto-eject              ignored (requires escape pod to work)
21             clean legal record      ID of govt to clear legal record with,
                                         or -1 for all
22             hyperspace speed mod    Number of days to increase or decrease
                                         shipÕs hyperspace travel time (still
                                         canÕt go below 1 day/jump)
23             hyperspace dist mod     Amount to increase or decrease the
                                         no-jump zoneÕs radius by (the
                                         standard radius is 1000) 
24             interference mod        Subtracts the value in ModVal from the
                                         current star systemÕs Interference
                                         value when calculating how ÒfuzzyÓ to
                                         make the radar scanner
25             marines                 Adds the value in ModVal to your shipÕs
                                         effective crew complement when
                                         calculating capture odds
                                         1 and up     Add this number to the
                                                       player's ship's
                                                       effective crew size
                                         -1 to -100   Increase the player's
                                                       capture odds by this
                                                       amount (e.g. -5 is an
                                                       increase of 5%)
26             (ignored)
27             increase maximum         The ID number of another outfit item,
                                          (call it "B") whose maximum value is
                                          to be increased. Item B's standard
                                          maximum will be multiplied by the
                                          number of items the player has that
                                          have a ModType of 27 and point to B.
                                          If the player owns no items that
                                          modify the maximum of item B, its
                                          maximum will be unchanged.
28             murk modifier            The amount by which to increase or
                                          decrease the current system's
                                          murkiness level
29             faster armor recharge    How much to speed up (1000 = one more
                                          armor point per frame)
30             cloak scanner            0x0001  reveal cloaked ships on radar
                                        0x0002  reveal cloaked ships on the
                                                screen
                                        0x0004  allow targeting of
                                                 untargetable ships
                                        0x0008  allow targeting of
                                                 cloaked ships
31             mining scoop            
32             multi-jump               number of extra jumps to perform when
                                          the user initiates a hyperspace jump
33             Jamming Type 1           amount of jamming to add or subtract
34             Jamming Type 2           amount of jamming to add or subtract
35             Jamming Type 3           amount of jamming to add or subtract
36             Jamming Type 4           amount of jamming to add or subtract
37             fast jumping             (grants carrying ship the ability to
                                         enter hyperspace without slowing down)
38             inertial dampener        (makes ship inertialess)
39             ion dissipator           amount of deionization to add. 100
                                         equals 1 point of ion energy per
                                         1/30th of a second. Higher values
                                         yield faster ion charge dissipation. 
40             ion absorber             amount of extra ionization capacity
                                         to add 
41             gravity resistance                   
42             resist deadly stellars   
43             paint                    the color to paint the player's ship,
                                         encoded as a 15-bit color value, where
                                         the bits are: 0RRRRRGGGGGBBBBB (this
                                         is necessary because the ModVal field
                                         isn't big enough to hold a 32-bit
                                         HTML color value)
44             reinforcement inhibitor  a govt class value. any govt with this
                                         value in its Class1-4 fields will be
                                         prevented from calling in reinforcements
                                         while the player is in the system and
                                         has this outfit. setting this field to
                                         -1 will inhibit reinforcements for
                                         all ships regardless of govt. note
                                         that this outfit will only work when
                                         carried by the player.                            
  
45             modify max guns          add/subtract from max number of guns
46             modify max turrets       add/subtract from max number of turrets
47             bomb                     destroys the player in flight. set the
                                         modval to the ID of the desc resource
                                         to show after the player is destroyed,
                                         or -1 for none.
48             IFF scrambler            a govt class value. any govt with this
                                         value in its Class1-4 fields will
                                         fooled into thinking the player is
                                         a friendly ship and will not attack
                                         without provocation. note that this
                                         outfit will only work when carried
                                         by the player.
49             repair system            will occasionally repair the ship when
                                         it's disabled
50             nonlethal bomb           randomly destroys itself and damages
                                         the player (nonfatally) in flight.
                                         set this field to the ID of a bššm
                                         resource to display when an item
                                         of this type self-destructs 
                                        

The next two fields tell Nova how many of this item you can possibly have at
once:

Max       How many you can have (not counting weapon limitations)

Flags     Miscellaneous info:
          0x0001     This item is a fixed gun
          0x0002     This item is a turret
          0x0004     This item stays with you when you trade ships (persistent)
          0x0008     This item canÕt be sold
          0x0010     Remove any items of this type after purchase (useful
                       for permits and other intangible purchases)
          0x0020     This item is persistent in the case where the player's
                       ship is changed by a mission set operator. The item's
                       normal persistence for when the player buys or captures
                       a new ship is still controlled by the 0x0004 bit.
          0x0100     Don't show this item unless the player meets the Require
                       bits, or already has at least one of it.
          0x0200     This item's total price is proportional to the player's
                       ship's mass. (ship class Mass field is multiplied by
                       this item's Cost field)
          0x0400     This item's total mass (at purchase) is proportional to
                       the player's ship's mass. (ship class Mass field is
                       multiplied by this item's Mass field and then
                       divided by 100) Only works for positive-mass items.
          0x0800     This item can be sold anywhere, regardless of tech
                       level, requirements, or mission bits.
          0x1000     When this item is available for sale, it prevents all
                       higher-numbered items with equal DispWeight from
                       being made available for sale at the same time.
          0x2000     This outfit appears in the Ranks section of the player
                       info dialog instead of in the Extras section.
          0x4000     Don't show this item unless its Availability evaluates
                       to true, or if the player already has at least one
                       of it.
                       

The next field, Cost, tells Nova how much to charge you for the item.

The next few fields (ModType2-4 and ModVal2-4) are for you to specify
ÒalternateÓ functions for an outfit item - e.g., a weapon could also reduce the
shipÕs turning speed.  The only restriction on ModType2-4 is that you shouldnÕt
use it for weapons or ammo (modtypes 1 or 3).

Availability    Control bit test expression. Leave blank if unused. Note that
                depending on the configuration of other flags, the item might
                appear in the outfit window even if Availability is false
                (it will still not be able to be purchased)

OnPurchase      Control bit set expression. Leave blank if unused.

Contribute      These two Contribute fields together form a 64-bit flag that is
Contribute      subsequently combined with the Contribute fields from the
                player's ship and the other outfit items in the player's
                possession, to be used with the Require fields in the outf and
                misn resources.

Require         These two Require fields together form a 64-bit flag that is
Require         logically and'ed with the Contribute fields from the player's
                current ship and outfit items. If for each 1 bit in the Require
                fields there is a matching 1 bit in one or more of the
                Contribute fields, the item will be available. Leave these
                set to zero if unused. Note that depending on the
                configuration of other flags, the item might still appear in
                the outfit window even if the player doesn't meet the Require
                bits (it will still not be able to be purchased).
                
OnSell          Evaluated when the item is sold.

ItemClass       The item's classification, used in the p‘rs resource for
                 items that are given out by non-player characters' ships.
                 Set to 0 or -1 if unused.

ScanMask        If this is an "illegal" outfit type, this is used in
                 conjunction with the ScanMask field in the gšvt resource. If
                 any of the 1 bits in a ship's government's ScanMask field
                 match any of the 1 bits in an oŸtf type's ScanMask field, that
                 government will consider that outfit item illegal. Set to zero
                 if unused.

BuyRandom       The percent chance that an item of this type will be available
                 for purchase on a given day, from 1-100. Values less than 1
                 or greater than 100 are interpreted as 100.

ShortName       The short string that is displayed in the outfit dialog menu for
                 this item type. If you want to split this name into two
                 separate  lines, put the characters "\n" into the name, e.g.:
                 "Real Big\nScary Gun". When using this, lines that start with
                 an alphanumeric character are drawn in white, while lines
                 that start with other symbols are drawn in grey.
                 
LCName          The lower-case, singular name that's displayed in the
                 player-info dialog and other places,
                 e.g. "real big scary gun".
                 
LCPlural        The lower-case, plural name that's displayed in the player-info
                 dialog and other places, e.g. "real big scary guns".

RequireGovt     Which governments the outfit item's Require bits pertain to:
                -1          Requirements apply in all outfit shops.
                128-383     Requirements apply only on stellars belonging to
                             this govt or its allies.
                1128-1383   Requirements apply only on independent stellars and
                             stellars belonging to this govt or its allies.
                2128-2383   Requirements apply on all stellars except those
                             belonging to this govt or its allies.
                3128-3383   Requirements apply on all stellars except
                             independent stellars or stellars belonging to
                             this govt or its allies.

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* The p‘rs resource

     The pers resource defines the characteristics of an AI personality - that
is, a specific person the player can encounter in the game. These AI-people have
their names (which are also the names of the associated p‘rs resource) displayed
on the target-info display in place of the name of their ship class. When ships
are created, there is a 5% chance that a specific AI-person will also be
created. (obviously, as AI-people are killed off, they cease to appear in the
game.) The first field tells Nova where a certain person can be encountered:

LinkSyst       Which systems the person can be created in
               -1              Any system
               128-2175        ID of a specific system
               9999-10255      Any system belonging to this specific government
               15000-15255     Any system belonging to an ally of this govt
               20000-20255     Any system belonging to any but this govt
               25000-25255     Any system belonging to an enemy of this govt

The next four fields define the person's character traits:

Govt           The person's governmental affiliation
               -1              Ignored (person is independent)
               128-383         ID of a specific government

AI Type        The person's AI type (see the section on dŸde resources)
               1               Wimpy trader
               2               Brave trader
               3               Warship
               4               Interceptor

Aggress        The person's aggression, i.e. how close ships have to be before
                 the person will attack them, on a scale of 1 (close) to
                 3 (far). 

Coward         At what percent of total shield capacity will the person run
                 away from a fight? e.g. a value of 25 would cause the person
                 to retreat when his shields dropped to 25%.


The next fields tell Nova more about the ship that a person uses:

ShipType      ID number of the person's ship class

WeapType (x8)     ID numbers of weapon types
                  -1 or 0     No weapon
                  128-383     Add this weapon type

WeapCount (x8)    How many of each of the above weapons to add (Note: This is
                    in addition to the standard weapons already included with
                    the ship. Standard weapons can be "removed" by entering
                    their ID numbers in the WeapType fields and entering the
                    negative of their standard load for the given ship class in
                    the WeapCount field.)
                  -1 or 0        None
                  1 and up       Add this many

AmmoLoad (x8)     The standard ammo load for weapons that need it, or ignored
                    for those that donÕt
                  -1 or 0        No ammo
                  1 and up       Include this many rounds of ammo

Credits           How many credits the person carries
                  0              ignored (no credits)
                  1 and up       This many credits, +/- 25%

ShieldMod         How much to increase/decrease the person's shield capacity, 
                    in percent. For example, a value of 130 entered here would
                    make the person's ship have shields that are 30% stronger
                    than if he were flying a stock ship. Similarly, a value of
                    70 would make his shields 30% weaker. A value less than
                    zero makes this person invincible.

The next fields tell Nova about any special quotes or missions to link to this
ship:

HailPict          ID number of a PICT resource to be displayed in the
                    communications dialog instead of the standard picture
                    for this person's ship type

CommQuote         Index number of an entry in STR# resource 7100, to be
                    displayed in the communications dialog

HailQuote         Index number of an entry in STR# resource 7101, to be
                    displayed at the bottom of the game screen (i.e. over the
                    radio)

LinkMission       What mission to activate when the ship is boarded or hailed

Flags             Some control bits
     0x0001       The special ship will hold a grudge if attacked, and will
                    subsequently attack the player wherever the twain shall
                    meet.
     0x0002       Uses escape pod & has afterburner
     0x0004       HailQuote only shown when ship has a grudge against the
                    player
     0x0008       HailQuote only shown when ship likes player
     0x0010       Only show HailQuote when ship begins to attack the player
     0x0020       Only show HailQuote when ship is disabled
     0x0040       When LinkMission is accepted with a single SpecialShip,
                   replace it with this ship while removing this one from play.
                   This is generally only useful for escort and refuel-a-ship
                   missions. Note: if the mission's SpecialShip dŸde type
                   contains the p‘rs ship's ship type in it, the SpecialShip
                   that's created will be of the same type as the p‘rs ship,
                   regardless of the probabilities in the dŸde resource. This
                   is to prevent a p‘rs ship from accidentally morphing into
                   another ship type before the player's eyes. If you really do
                   want to have the p‘rs ship be replaced by a SpecialShip of
                   a different type, use a dŸde in the mission's ShipDude
                   field that doesn't contain the p‘rs's ship type.
     0x0080       Only show quote once
     0x0100       Deactivate ship (i.e. donÕt make it show up again) after
                    accepting its LinkMission
     0x0200       Offer shipÕs LinkMission when boarding it instead of when
                    hailing it
     0x0400       DonÕt show quote when shipÕs LinkMission is not available
     0x0800       Make ship leave after accepting its LinkMission
     0x1000       DonÕt offer if player is flying a wimpy freighter (aiType 1)
     0x2000       DonÕt offer if player is flying a beefy freighter (aiType 2)
     0x4000       DonÕt offer if player is flying a warship (aiType 3)
     0x8000       Show disaster info when hailing

ActiveOn          Control bit test expression. Leave blank if unused. 

GrantClass     The class of outfit item that is given out by this person's
                 ship when boarded by the player. If there are multiple outfit
                 items with the same ItemClass value, Nova will choose a random
                 outfit item of that ItemClass. Set to 0 or -1 if unused.
GrantProb      The probability that this person will grant the player any items
                 when boarded. Set to 100 for maximum chance, zero if unused.
GrantCount     The maximum number of outfit items to be given when boarded by
                 the player - the actual value given will be between
                 GrantCount/2 and GrantCount.

Color             The color to paint this person's ship, encoded the same as
                   HTML colors (00RRGGBB). Set to 00000000 if unused (which is
                   the same as 00FFFFFF, or "pure white paint" i.e. no shading)

Flags2         0x0001    This person starts with zero fuel


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* rŠnk resource

  The rank resource is used to give the player a feeling of 'belonging' to a
given government. It can also be used to give the player certain advantages that
come with rank. When a rank is made active (which is accomplished through any
suitable control bit set string) the player is given all the privileges of that
rank, whatever they might be, and the name of that rank is displayed in the
player-info dialog.


Weight       The importance of this rank, relative to the other rank resources
              that might be active. Ranks with higher weight are displayed
              first in the player-info dialog, and the active rank with the
              highest weight is selected for the <PRK> and <PSR> mission
              briefing tags.

AffilGovt    The ID of the government affiliated with this rank. 

Contribute   Another 64 bits of Contribute values that kick in when the rank
              is active. These can be used to prevent the player from buying
              certain items or doing certain missions until achieving a certain
              rank, for example.

Salary       The number of credits that the affiliated government will pay
             the player, per day

SalaryCap    The maximum amount of money the player can have before the
             affiliated government stops paying the salary. Set to 0 or -1 if
             unused.

Flags        0x0001   Deactivate all other active ranks affiliated with this
                       same govt when this rank is activated (excludes
                       permanent ranks)
             0x0002   Deactivate all other active ranks affiliated with this
                       same govt when this rank is deactivated (excludes
                       permanent ranks)
             0x0004   Deactivate this rank if player destroys or disables a
                       ship of the affiliated government or its allies
             0x0008   Rank is permanent and cannot be deactivated except if
                       explicitly done by a control bit eval string
             0x0010   Deactivate all other active and lower-weighted ranks
                       affiliated with this same govt when this rank is
                       activated (excludes permanent ranks)
             0x0020   Deactivate all other active and lower-weighted ranks
                       affiliated with this same govt when this rank is
                       deactivated (excludes permanent ranks)
             0x0040   Deactivate this rank if the player commits any crime
                       against the affiliated government
             0x0100   Ships of the affiliated government will not automatically
                       attack the player when he has this rank
             0x0200   All planets of the affiliated government will let the
                       player land when he has this rank, regardless of their
                       MinStatus field
             0x0400   Player can always request battle assistance from ships of
                       the affiliated government, who will also call in
                       reinforcements on the player's behalf if they are
                       available.
             0x0800   Ships allied with the affiliated govt will always repair
                       or refuel the player for free.

PriceMod     Used to modify the prices of items and ships at planets owned by
              the affiliated government. A value of 100 equals 100% of original
              price (i.e. prices are unchanged). Higher or lower  values raise
              or lower the prices correspondingly.  (can be used to let
              distinguished players get special deals on ships and items at
              "friendly" planets that have granted them the rank)


The name of the rŠnk resource is the full name of the rank, displayed in the
player-info dialog.
example: "Commission of Space Marshall in the Hector Empire"

The text fields in the rŠnk resource are:

ConvName     The rank name as used in conversation, through mission briefings
              and the <PRK> tag. If this is set to an empty string, the rank
              will never be used in conversation. If there are no active ranks
              or none of the active ranks have ConvNames, the <PRK> tag will
              simply display "captain".   example: if ConvName is "Space
              Marshall", then "Good job, <PRK>" becomes either "Good job,
              Space Marshall" or "Good job, captain".

ShortName    The short rank named as used in conversation through mission
              briefings and the <PSR> tag. Behavior with an empty string is the
              same as for the ConvName field.  example: if ShortName is
              "Marshall" then "Hi there, <PSR>" becomes either "Hi there,
              Marshall" or "Hi there, captain".                 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The ršid resource

  Nova supports up to 16 asteroid types, each of which can have its own special
properties. ršid resources 128-143 store the attributes for each asteroid type:


Strength     The strength of this asteroid type - this is equivalent to armor
               values for ships.

SpinRate     The frame advance rate of this asteroid type. A value of 100 is
               30 frames per second (quite fast) - lower numbers are slower.
               
YieldType    Defines what the resource-boxes which are ejected from this
               asteroid type will contain:
               0-5         This type of standard cargo
               1000-1127   This type of jŸnk resource

YieldQty     The average resource yield of this type of asteroid. Zero will
               cause asteroids of this type to not spit out any resource-boxes
               when destroyed; values of one or more will cause the asteroids
               to spit out approximately that number of resource-boxes
               (+/- 50%) when destroyed. Each resource-box is worth 1 unit
               of whatever cargo is defined in the YieldType field to be
               granted when a scoop-equipped ship runs over it.

PartCount    The number of particles that are thrown off when an asteroid
               of this type is destroyed.
               
PartColor    The color of the particles, encoded the same as HTML colors.
              (00RRGGBB)

FragType1&2  Asteroids can break up into some number of sub-asteroids when
               destroyed. If both of these fields are used, Nova will
               randomly pick between them for each sub-asteroid that is
               created. If only one is used, all sub-asteroids will be of
               that type.
               
               128-143    Generate this type of sub-asteroid
               -1         No sub-asteroids

FragCount    The average number of sub-asteroids (+/- 50%) to be generated
               when an asteroid of this type is destroyed (zero for none).

ExplodeType  Type of explosion to show (0-63) when an asteroid of this type
               is destroyed. You can also add 1000 to the value of this field in
               the same manner as the ExplodeType field in the w‘ap resource.
               Set to -1 to not show any explosion.

Mass         Mass of this asteroid type (used when weapons hit asteroids)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The sh•p resource

     Spaceships are the heart of Nova, so the ship resource contains a lot of
info. The name of a ship class, which is seen in the targeting display,
corresponds to the name of the ship resource. The first nine fields give Nova
some general performance info on each ship type:

Holds             Cargo capacity, in tons. Put a negative sign in front of this
                    value if you want to prevent the player from purchasing
                    mass expansions. (e.g. a value of -100 would mean 100 tons
                    of hold space but no mass expansions allowed)

Shield            Shield strength.

Accel             Acceleration magnitude. 300 is considered an average value.

Speed             Top speed. 300 is also an average value here.

Maneuver          Turn rate. 10 Å 30¡/sec.

Fuel              Fuel capacity. 100 = 1 jump.

FreeMass          Space available to add additional items and upgrades. Note
                    that this is in addition to the space taken up by the
                    shipÕs stock weapons. (e.g. a ship with 20 tons listed in
                    FreeMass and 10 tons of stock weapons will actually have 30
                    tons of expansion space, with 20 available.)

Armor             Armor strength.

ShieldRech        Shield recharge speed, in number of shield points x1000 per
                    frame. Bigger numbers here mean faster recharge - a value
                    of 1000 is equal to 1 point per frame or 30 points per
                    second.


The next twelve fields tell Nova which stock weapons to put on your ship when
you first buy it:

WeapType (x8)     ID numbers of weapon types
                  -1 or 0     No weapon
                  128-191     Add this weapon type

WeapCount (x8)    How many of each of the above weapons to add
                  -1 or 0     None
                   1 and up   Add this many

AmmoLoad (x8)     The standard ammo load for weapons that need it, or ignored
                    for those that donÕt
                  -1 or 0     No ammo
                   1 and up   Include this many rounds of ammo


The next two fields tell Nova what this shipÕs maximum loadout of fixed guns and
turreted weapons is. Each ship has an inherent upper limit on fixed guns and
turrets, in order to keep them from becoming absurdly powerful. (e.g. a bulk
freighter has lots of room to add weapons, but is limited to a single turret for
defense) The fields are:

MaxGun     The shipÕs maximum number of fixed guns, which are flagged in the
             WeapFlag field of the outf resource.

MaxTur     The shipÕs maximum number of turrets, which are flagged in the
             WeapFlag field of the outf resource.


The next field tells Nova where this ship is available for purchase:

TechLevel     What the technology level of the ship is. This ship will be
                available at all shipyards with a tech level of this value or
                higher. (The exception to this rule involves the SpecialTech
                fields of the spšb resource; see the section on spšb resources
                for more information.)


The next field, Cost, tells Nova how much to charge you when you buy this ship.
The cost of buying a ship is always the cost of the new ship minus 25% of the
original cost of your current ship and upgrades. (i.e. you always "trade up" to
a new ship) 

The next field stores info on how the ship explodes:

DeathDelay      The number of frames the ship "disintegrates" before finally
                  exploding.
      0-59      The ship disintegrates for this number of frames and then
                  disappears in a single fireball.
      60+       The ship disintegrates for this number of frames and then
                  disappears in a huge explosion. The exact size of the
                  resulting fireball is proportional to the ship's mass. (see
                  below)


ArmorRech       Armor recharge speed, in number of armor points x1000 per
                    frame. Bigger numbers here mean faster recharge - a value
                    of 1000 is equal to 1 point per frame or 30 points per
                    second.

Explode1       Type of explosion to show (0-63) while the ship is breaking up,
                 or -1 to not show any explosions until the ship is finished
                 being destroyed.
                 
Explode2       Type of explosion to show (0-63) when the ship is completely
                 destroyed. You can also add 1000 to the value of this field in
                 the same manner as the ExplodeType field in the w‘ap resource.
                 Set to -1 to not show any explosion when the ship is
                 destroyed.

DispWeight     The display weight of this ship type. Ships with a higher
                 display weight are shown closer to the top of the shipyard
                 dialog. This can be used to effectively rearrange the order
                 in which ships are displayed without rearranging the
                 resources themselves.

Mass           The mass of the ship, in tons. This doesn't affect acceleration
                 or speed at all, but it does affect travel time in hyperspace
                 and the display on the density scanner. Also, the blast radius
                 and impact strength when the ship explodes is proportional to
                 its mass.
  1-99         1 day per jump, small blip on density scanner
  100-199      2 days per jump, large blip on density scanner
  200 and up   3 days per jump, large blip on density scanner


Length     The ship's length in meters. Currently unused in any calculations,
             but itÕs kinda cool, so itÕs displayed in the "detailed ship info"
             dialog.


The next field tells Nova what kind of AI the ship will have if it's not created
in connection with a dude resource. The only place this field is useful is when
a ship is created as an escort ship; otherwise, it's ignored:

InherentAI     What AI the ship uses when it's escorting the player.
       1-4     Use this kind of AI. (see the AI descriptions above) Note
               that only ships with inherent AI of 1 or 2 can be used to
               carry cargo when they are the player's escorts.

Crew           Number of crew members. Ships with 0 crew can't be boarded,
                 nor can they capture any other ships.

Strength       An arbitrary value that represents the relative strength of
                 the ship type with respect to the rest of the universe.
                 Used when calculating combat odds (see the govt resource
                 for details).

The next field tells Nova what government is associated with a ship type.
Note that unlike previous EV games, Nova actually handles two inherent
government associations for each ship type: an inherent combat govt
(used when an AI ship or stellar is deciding if it likes or hates another
ship) and an inherent attributes govt (used for non-combat things like
voice type, distress message flags, etc, as well as for inherent jamming
ability). Sometimes you might want to create a ship type that inherits
attributes from a particular govt but isn't considered to be inherently
of that govt in combat, so Nova lets you use the InherentGovt field in
several different ways:

InherentGovt     -1          No inherent combat govt or inherent attributes
                              govt for this ship
                 128-383     Ship is treated as being inherently of the
                              govt with this ID, both for AI combat
                              and attributes inheritance)
                 1128-1383   Ship has an inherent attributes govt with
                              this ID (minus 1000) but no inherent
                              combat govt.
                 2128-2383   Ship has an inherent combat govt with
                              this ID (minus 2000) but no inherent
                              attributes govt.

The next field is for some miscellaneous flags:

Flags        0x0001     Slow jumping (75% normal speed)
             0x0002     Semi-fast jumping (125%)
             0x0004     Fast jumping (150%)
             0x0008     Player ship takes advantage of FuelRegen property
             0x0010     Ship is disabled at 10% armor instead of 33%
             0x0020     Ship has afterburner when player has an advanced combat
                           rating
             0x0040     Ship always has afterburner (for AIs only)
             0x0100     Show % armor on target display instead of ÒShields
                          DownÓ
             0x0200     Don't show armor or shield state on status display
             0x0400     Ship is a planet-type ship, and can only be hit by
                          planet-type weapons
             0x1000     ShipÕs turrets have a blind spot to the front
             0x2000     ShipÕs turrets have a blind spot to the sides
             0x4000     ShipÕs turrets have a blind spot to the rear
             0x8000     Ship is an escape ship type - if the player is carrying
                          any ships of this type and decides to eject, he will
                          fly off in a ship of this type (with random damage)
                          instead of an escape pod.

PodCount     For decorative purposes, AI ships can be made to launch escape
             pods when they're destroyed. This field contains the standard
             number of escape pods for an AI ship of this type to launch when
             destroyed, at a rate of one per second. Note that this has nothing
             to do with the p‘rs field's escape pod flag, it's just for eye
             candy. Don't overuse this field, as it can be annoying if used
             too often. (perhaps restrict it only to luxury liner type ships).


DefaultItems   Up to eight default items with which to equip this ship when the
                 player buys or captures one. Note that AI-controlled ships
                 will ignore these fields; also, donÕt put anything in here
                 that isnÕt a physical item - i.e. afterburners, shield
                 boosters, and the like are okay, but no fake IDs, maps, etc.
               128-255    Ship comes stock with this item
               -1         Ignored

ItemCount      The number of each DefaultItem with which to equip the player.

FuelRegen      This ship typeÕs inherent fuel regeneration property. Works
                 exactly the same as the fuel scoop ModVal property - useful
                 for making ships with built-in fuel replenishment. Note that
                 for the player to be able to use this field, the 0x0008 flag
                 must also be set. (this allows you to give enemy ships
                 built-in fuel scoops but still make the player have to buy his
                 own)

SkillVar       The amount (in percent) to which this shipÕs pilotsÕ skill
                 varies. This affects acceleration and turn rate for each ship:
                 i.e. a skill variance of 10% would make each ship of a given
                 type up to 10% slower or faster than ÒstockÓ. Values from
                 1 to 50% are valid.
          
                 
Flags2         0x0001    Ship exhibits swarming behavior
               0x0002    Ship prefers standoff attacks
               0x0004    Ship can't be targeted
               0x0008    Ship can be fired on by point defense systems
               0x0010    Don't use fighter voices
               0x0020    Ship can jump without slowing down
               0x0040    Ship is inertialess
               0x0080    AI ships of this type will run away/dock if out of
                           ammo for all ammo-using weapons
               0x0100    AI ships of this type will cloak when their weapon
                           goes into burst reload
               0x0200    AI ships will cloak when running away
               0x0400    AI ships will cloak when hyperspacing
               0x0800    AI ships will cloak when just flying around
               0x1000    AI ships will not uncloak until close to their target
               0x2000    AI ships will cloak when docking
               0x4000    AI ships will cloak when preemptively attacked 


Availability   Control bit test expression. The player will be able to purchase
               this type of ship when the expression evaluates to true. Leave
               blank if unused. Depending on the configuration of other flags,
               the ship might appear in the shipyard but not be able to be
               purchased if its Availability evaluates to false.
 
AppearOn       Control bit test expression. Ships of this type will not show up
               in dude resources if this expression evaluates to false. Leave
               blank if unused.
               
OnPurchase     Control bit set expression. Leave blank if unused. 

Deionize       The rate at which this ship type dissipates ionization charge.
               A value of 100 equals 1 point of ion energy per 1/30th of a
               second. Higher values for Deionize yield faster ion charge
               dissipation.
               
IonizeMax      The amount of ion charge at which a ship of this type will be
               considered "fully ionized".
               
KeyCarried     The key carried ship type, used for interesting effects in 
               the w‘ap and shŠn resources.

DefaultItms2   More default items, used as above
ItemCount

Contribute      These two Contribute fields together form a 64-bit flag that is
Contribute      subsequently combined with the Contribute fields from the
                outfit items in the player's possession, to be used with the
                Require fields in the outf and misn resources.

Require        These two Require fields together form a 64-bit flag that is
Require         logically and'ed with the Contribute fields from the player's
                current ship and outfit items. If for each 1 bit in the Require
                fields there is a matching 1 bit in one or more of the
                Contribute fields, the ship can be purchased. Leave these
                set to zero if unused. Depending on the configuration of other
                flags, the ship might appear in the shipyard but not be able to
                be purchased if the player doesn't meet the Requirements.

BuyRandom      The percent chance that a ship of this type will be available for
                 purchase on a given day. A BuyRandom of 0 means this ship will
                 never be made available for purchase.

HireRandom     The percent chance that a ship of this type will be available for
                 hire in the bar on a given day. A HireRandom of 0 means this
                 ship will never be made available for hire.

OnCapture      Control bit set expression, evaluated when you capture a ship of
                 this type. Leave blank if unused. 

OnRetire       Control bit set expression, evaluated when you sell a ship of
                 this type and/or replace it with a captured ship.

Subtitle       The subtitle to show on the target display for this ship type

Flags3         Even more flags!
               0x0001    Ship destroys asteroids
               0x0002    Ship scoops asteroid debris
               0x0010    Ship ignores gravity
               0x0020    Ship ignores deadly stellars
               0x0040    Ship's turreted shots appear above the ship instead
                          of below
               0x0100    Don't show ship in shipyard if Availability is false
               0x0200    Don't show ship in shipyard if Require bits not met
               0x4000    When this ship is available for sale, it prevents all
                          higher-numbered ship types with equal DispWeight from
                          being made available for sale at the same time.

UpgradeTo      If an escort ship of this type can be upgraded, this field holds
                the ID of the ship type that it can be upgraded to. Set to 0 or
                -1 if this ship class can't be upgraded.
                
EscUpgrdCost   The cost to upgrade an escort ship of this type to the next more
                advanced version, as defined in the UpgradeTo field.

EscSellValue   The amount of cash the player gets for selling off a captured
                escort of this type. If you input a number that's less than or
                equal to zero here, Nova will default to 10% of the ship's
                original cost.

EscortType     Tells Nova which of the four categories of escorts to put this
                ship type into when organizing the escort control menu.
                -1  Have the game try to figure it out at runtime
                 0  Fighter
                 1  Medium Ship
                 2  Warship
                 3  Freighter

ShortName     The short string that is displayed in the shipyard dialog menu
               for this ship type. If you want to split this name into two
               separate  lines, put the characters "\n" into the name, e.g.:
               "Big Ship\n(used)". When using this, lines that start with
               an alphanumeric character are drawn in white, while lines
               that start with other symbols are drawn in grey.


CommName       The short string to display for this ship when it is hailed by
                the player.

Long Name      The long string to display when the player purchases a ship of
                this type or starts a new pilot.
                
MovieFile      The filename of a QuickTime movie to display in place of the
                ship picture  in the shipyard dialog. The QuickTime movie must
                reside within the Nova Files or Nova Plug-Ins folders and will
                be looped continuously while the player has this ship type
                selected.


Ships' target info picts are stored in PICT resources 3000 and on. The engine is
smart enough to reuse targeting picts for two ship classes that have the same
base sprites: all you have to do is give the first of any series of
identical-looking ship types a target pict in the usual way (PICT resource ID
3000 + shipID - 128) and the engine will use it for all higher-numbered ship
types with the same base sprites.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The spšb resource

     Spob resources describe stellar objects, such as planets and space
stations. (spob stands for space object) Each spob resource represents one
stellar object, whose name is the name as the name of the resource. The first
three fields tell Nova where to put the stellar and what graphics to use for it:

xPos & yPos     The stellar's X and Y positions in the system (0, 0) is centered

Type            Which graphic to use, from 0 to 255.


The next field stores the flag bits that tell Nova what many of the
characteristics of the stellar are. Perform an OR operation on the following
flags to get the final flag value:

0x00000001     Can land/dock here
0x00000002     Has commodity exchange
0x00000004     Can outfit ship here
0x00000008     Can buy ships here
0x00000010     Stellar is a station instead of a planet
0x00000020     Stellar is uninhabited (no traffic control or refuelling)
0x00000040     Has bar
0x00000080     Can only land here if stellar is destroyed first
0x00000000     Won't trade in food
0x10000000     Low food prices
0x20000000     Medium food prices
0x40000000     High food prices
0x00000000     Won't trade in industrial goods
0x01000000     Low industrial prices
0x02000000     Medium industrial prices
0x04000000     High industrial prices
0x00000000     Won't trade in medical supplies
0x00100000     Low medical prices
0x00200000     Medium medical prices
0x00400000     High medical prices
0x00000000     Won't trade in luxury goods
0x00010000     Low luxury prices
0x00020000     Medium luxury prices
0x00040000     High luxury prices
0x00000000     Won't trade in metal
0x00001000     Low metal prices
0x00002000     Medium metal prices
0x00004000     High metal prices
0x00000000     Won't trade in equipment
0x00000100     Low equipment prices
0x00000200     Medium equipment prices
0x00000400     High equipment prices


Tribute        The stellar's tribute payout when dominated
               -1 or 0     Default amount (1000 credits x Tech Level)
               1 and up    This number of credits per day


The next fields tell Nova what items and ships are available for purchase
at this stellar:

TechLevel     What the base tech level of the stellar is. Only items and ships
                with TechLevels at or below this value will be available.

SpecialTech (x8)     Holds the special tech levels of this stellar. Unlike the
                       previous field, only items and ships with exactly this
                       TechLevel will appear here. This is useful for making
                       low-tech worlds that also have a few high-tech items, or
                       for flagging an item with an absurdly high TechLevel
                       (say 15000) and then setting one of the SpecialTech
                       fields of a particular stellar to that same value, thus
                       making that item appear at that stellar and nowhere
                       else.


The next two fields contain info on the stellar's governmental affiliation:

Govt      What government controls this stellar
          -1          ignored (stellar is independent)
          128-383     ID number of the stellar's government

MinStatus        The point on your record in the current system that you'll be
                   denied landing clearance on this stellar.
                 -32767           Ignored (player can always land)
                 -1 to -32766     You can be this evil before they shun you
                  0 to 32766      They have to like you this much before they
                                    let you land
                  32767           Player can never land.
                  (Note that this field is ignored if the stellar is
                   uninhabited)


The next pair of fields tells Nova which special landscape to show and which
ambient sound to play.

CustPicID         Which custom landscape to show
                  128 and up        ID number of PICT to load instead of the
                                      standard landscape display
                  less than 128     No custom landscape
                  (Note: for animated hypergates, this field can be optionally
                   used to set the index of the transition between the
                   "opening/closing" animation and the "working"
                   animation. Set to 0 to have the engine use the first
                   half of the frames for "opening/closing" and the
                   second half for "working".)

CustSndID         Which ambient sound to play
                  -1                No ambient sound effect
                  Anything else     ID number of snd resource to load 
                  (Note: for hypergates and wormholes, this field serves
                   a different purpose - it controls the angle at which
                   ships emerge. Values between 0 and 359 specify an
                   exact angle, while any other value specifies a
                   random direction.)


The next two fields tell Nova what kind of ships, if any, to create for the
planet's defense fleet:

DefenseDude       Which type of dude to use for the defense fleet:
                  -1         Ignored (no defense ships)
                   128-639   ID number of the dude resource to use to determine
                               the defense ships' characteristics

DefCount     The number of ships in the defense fleet. If you set this number
               to be above 1000, ships will be launched from the planet or
               station in waves. The last number in this field is the number of
               ships in each wave, and the first 3-4 numbers (minus 1 from the
               first digit) are the total number of ships in the planet's
               fleet. For example, a value of 1082 would be four waves of two
               ships for a total of eight. A value of 2005 would create waves
               of five ships each, with 100 ships total in the planet's defense
               fleet.


Flags2		0x0001		For an animated stellar, the first frame will be
                          shown after each subsequent frame.
            0x0002      For an animated stellar, the next frame in the
                          sequence will be picked at random. The same frame
                          will not be picked twice in a row. Note that this
                          can be combined with the previous flag and the
                          Frame0Bias field to create interesting effects
                          such as random planetary lightning or lights
                          twinkling.
            0x0010      Play this stellar's sound in a continuous loop
            0x0020      Stellar is always dominated (all your base are
                                                     belong to us)
            0x0040      Stellar starts the game destroyed
            0x0080      For an animated stellar, the stellar's graphic is
                          animated after it's been destroyed and static
                          when it is not destroyed. The normal behavior
                          is the opposite of this: static when destroyed
                          and animated when not.
            0x0100      Stellar is deadly - all ships that touch it are
                          destroyed immediately
            0x0200      If the stellar has a weapon, it will only fire when
                          provoked (i.e. only when the player is trying to
                          dominate it)
            0x0400      If the stellar has an outfit shop, it can buy
                          any nonpermanent outfits the player owns,
                          regardless of tech level
            0x1000      Stellar is a hypergate - if the player lands on it
                          he will be given a choice of which other hypergate
                          to travel to (see HyperLink1-8 below)
            0x2000      Stellar is a wormhole - if the player lands on it
                          he will be transported to some other random
                          somewhere in the galaxy. If all of the
                          wormhole's HyperLink1-8 fields set to -1,
                          the player will end up at another random
                          wormhole which also has no defined hyper links.
                          If the wormhole has any hyper links defined,
                          the player will end up at one of the wormholes
                          on the other end. 
           
                          
AnimDelay   The time to wait between frames, in 30ths of a second.

Frame0Bias  If greater than 1, this is used as a multiplier to extend the
              display time of the first frame in the sequence. For example,
              a Frame0Bias of 3 would cause the first frame in the sequence
              would be held for three times longer than the rest of the frames.

HyperLink1-8    IDs of the spšb resources of up to eight other hypergates or
                 wormholes to which this hypergate (or wormhole) is connected.
                 Set to zero or -1 if unused. For a wormhole, setting every
                 HyperLink field to -1 will cause the wormhole to randomly
                 connect to any other random wormhole when the player goes
                 through it.

OnDominate      Control bit set expression which is evaluated when the stellar
                 is successfully dominated by the player

OnRelease       Control bit set expression which is evaluated when the stellar
                 is released from domination by the player
                 
Fee             The fee that is deducted from the player's credits when landing
                 on this stellar. Set to zero if unused.

Gravity         The stellar's gravity - 0 for none, positive for stellars that
                 pull, negative for stellars that push. Beware! This feature
                 is mostly here for laughs. It severely confuses the AI, so it
                 should only be used in empty systems where only the player
                 can go.
                 
Weapon          Stellars can have a single projectile or missile type weapon,
                  with unlimited ammunition (don't put the ID of a beam or PD
                  weapon here or bad things will happen). Stellars' weapons can
                  be made to fire either only when provoked or any time an
                  enemy ship is present.
                 0 or -1    No weapon
                 128-383    Stellar has a weapon of this type

Strength        The amount of combined mass and energy damage this stellar can
                 take from planetary-type weapons before it is destroyed. Set
                 this to 0 or -1 for an invincible stellar.

DeadType        Which stellar graphic to use when the stellar is destroyed.
                 -1      Don't display different graphic type when destroyed
                 0-255   Display this stellar graphic when destroyed

DeadTime        The amount of time a stellar remains destroyed before it
                 regenerates itself. Set this to 0 for a stellar that
                 regenerates at the end of every day, or -1 for a stellar that
                 never regenerates on its own.

ExplodType     What kind of explosion to show when the stellar is destroyed
               -1               No explosion
                0-63            This type of explosion
                1000-1063       Explosion type 0-63, plus a random number
                                 of type-0 explosions around it

OnDestroy       Control bit set expression which is evaluated when the stellar
                 is destroyed.

OnRegen         Control bit set expression which is evaluated when the stellar
                 automatically regenerates.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The sØst resource

     Syst resources store information on star systems, in which all combat,
trading, and spaceflight take place. Each system can be linked to up to 16 other
systems, and the player can make hyperspace jumps back and forth between them.

The first two fields in the syst resource tell Nova where on the map to place
it:

xPos & yPos     The system's X and Y positions on the map


The next fields store the hyperspace links to up to 16 other systems

Con1-Con16     Link to another system
              -1            No link
               128-1127     ID of a system to link to


The next fields store the stellar navigation defaults (F1-F4 for the first four)
for the system. It is important to always set navigation defaults for stellar
objects in your systems, because that's how Nova's AI routines and status
display keep track of stellar objects; if you don't set a planet as a nav
default, the AIs won't "see" it, it won't show up on the radar, and you can't
select it.

NavDef (x16)         Navigation defaults (F1-F4)
                    -1           No nav default for this key
                     128-548     ID number of the stellar object to set as a
                                   default


The next fields tell Nova how many ships, and of what kind, to put in the
system:

DudeTypes (x8)          Which type of dude to place (best not to set this to
                          an out-of-range value)
                        128 to 639    ID number of the dude type to place
                        -1            unused

% Prob (x8)             Probability that a given ship placed is of each of
                          the above types
                        1-99          This percent probability

AvgShips                The average number of AI ships in the system
                        0             No ships, empty system
                        1 and up      This number of ships, +/- 50%


The next field tells Nova who controls the system:

Govt                    Which government owns the system
                        -1            Ignored (system is independent)
                         128-383      ID number of the controlling govt


The next tells Nova which string, if any, to display as the message buoy's
message when you enter a system:

Message                 Which message buoy string to display
                        -1            Ignored (no special message)
                         1 and up     Use this entry in STR# resource 1000 as
                                        the text of the message buoy


The next two fields tell Nova what kinds of navigation hazards to put in the
system:

Asteroids               How many asteroids to put in the system, from 0 to 16

Interference            How thick the static in the system should be. 0 is no
                          static, 100 is complete sensor blackout.


Want to make a ÔpersÕ type ship always appear? Put its ID into one of the Person
fields that appear at the end of the syst resource. 

The Visibility field controls how and when to make the system visible or
invisible. You can pull off some cool tricks with this field, including
presenting the illusion that system has changed in some way by hiding the
original system and replacing it with a copy that is identical except for the
desired changes. The Visibility field is a control bit test expression - leave
it blank if unused.

Note: Using the Visibility field to replace one system with another will work
fine as long as they have the exact same coordinates (that's how Nova knows
to update the hyper links, etc.)  But, if you're going to have systems
replacing each other in response to ncb changes, be sure that the Visibility
fields of all the systems are mutually exclusive, or the resulting behavior
will be undefined and probably incorrect.

BkgndColor     The system's background color, encoded the same as HTML colors.
                 (RRGGBB)  ...set to zero for pure black.

Murk           The murkiness of the system (0-100). Zero will cause everything
                 to appear normally - 100 will cause the player to question
                 their current glasses prescription. A value less than zero
                 is equivalent to zero murk but also hides the starfield.

AstTypes       Flag bits that determine what types of asteroids will appear
               in this system:
               0x0001    Small metal   (ršid ID 128)
               0x0002    Medium metal  (ršid ID 129)
               0x0004    Large metal   (ršid ID 130)
               0x0008    Huge metal    (ršid ID 131)
               0x0010    Small ice     (ršid ID 132)
               0x0020    Medium ice    (ršid ID 133)
               etc.
                

ReinfFleet     The ID of a fleet to use as this system's reinforcement fleet.
                 If ships allied with the reinforcement fleet's government are
                 under attack and the combat odds against them exceed the
                 MaxOdds field of the reinforcement fleet's government, the
                 reinforcement fleet will be called in. Set to 0 or -1 if
                 unused.

ReinfTime      The delay between the time the reinforcement call goes out and
                 the time the fleet appears. A value of 30 = one second.
                 
ReinfIntrval   The interval, in days, that it takes for the reinforcement fleet
                 to be regenerated. If you set this to 0, a reinforcement fleet
                 will be available every day. If you set this higher than zero,
                 it will take that number of days for the reinforcement fleet
                 to be available again.
                 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* The w‘ap resource

     The weap resource, surprisingly, stores info on Nova's weapons. The name of
the weap resource is used as the weapon name in the weaponry section of the
status display. The first two fields control the duration of different aspects
of the weapon:

Reload                  The number of frames it takes for one of this weapon to
                          reload. 30 = 1 shot/sec. Smaller numbers yield faster
                          reloads.

Count                   The number of frames the weapon's shots travel for
                          before they peter out. 30 = 1 second of life.


The next two fields, MassDmg and EnergyDmg, tell Nova how much damage to do
when one of this weapon's shots hits something. Energy damage does damage to
shields only, and mass damage does damage to armor only. Further, if a ship
has shields, its armor can't be damaged until its shields are knocked down
(unless the weapon is a shield-penetrating weapon).


The next two fields tell Nova how the weapon should behave in flight:

Guidance      The weapon's guidance mode
              -1      Unguided projectile
               0      Beam weapon (see below)
               1      Homing weapon (see Seeker field below)
               2      (unused)
               3      Turreted beam
               4      Turreted, unguided projectile
               5      Freefall bomb (launched at 80% of the ship's
                        current velocity, "weathervanes" into the "wind."
               6      Freeflight rocket (launched straight ahead, accelerates
                        to its maximum velocity)
               7      Front-quadrant turret, (can fire +/-45¡ off the ship's
                        nose) fires straight ahead if no target
               8      Rear-quadrant turret (can fire +/-45¡ off the ship's tail)
               9      Point defense turret (fires automatically at incoming
                        guided weapons and nearby ships)
               10     Point defense beam (fires automatically at incoming
                        guided weapons and nearby ships)
               99     Carried ship (AmmoType is the ID of the ship class)

Speed         The weapon's speed (pixels per frame * 100)


The next field tells Nova how to handle the ammunition for this weapon, assuming
itÕs not a fighter bay:

AmmoType       What kind of ammo the weapon uses
               -1               Ignored (unlimited ammo)
                0-255           Draws ammo from this type of weapon. (Usually,
                                  if your Hector Cannon was of ID 131, you'd
                                  set the AmmoType to 3 so it'd use Hector
                                  Birdseed Pellets or whatever. However, you
                                  could conceivably set it to use ammo from
                                  another weapon's supply by setting the
                                  AmmoType to something else.)
               -999             Ship is destroyed when weapon is fired
               -1000 & below    Weapon uses abs(AmmoType+1000)/10 units of
                                  fuel per shot.
                                  (example: -1005 = 0.5 units per shot)
                                            


The next three fields tell Nova which graphic and sound to use for this weapon,
and how to launch it:

Graphic        What graphic set to use for this weapon
               0-255             Use this graphic set (i.e. spin resources
                                  3000-3255)

Inaccuracy     The weapon's inaccuracy as it leaves the ship (ignored for
                 guidance-10 point defense beams)
               0                Fires straight
               1 and up         Fires with up to this amount of inaccuracy (in
                                  degrees)

Sound          Which sound to play when the weapon fires
               -1               Silent but deadly
                0-63            Play this sound (snd ID 200-263)


The next four fields store info on how the weapon behaves when it hits
something:

Impact         The magnitude of the impact when the shot hits something
               0                No impact
               1 and up         This amount of impact, which is inversely
                                  proportional to the ship's mass.
                                  (e.g. Missile = 30)

ExplodType     What kind of explosion to show when the weapon hits.
               -1               No explosion
                0-63            This type of explosion
                1000-1063       Explosion type 0-63, plus a random number
                                 of type-0 explosions around it

ProxRadius     The radius of the weapon's proximity fuse (useful for unguided
                 missiles and bombs)
               0                Weapon requires direct hit to do damage
               1 and up         This number of pixels of proximity radius

BlastRadius    The radius of the weapon's blast effect
               0                No blast effect
               1 and up         This number of pixels of blast radius

The next field contains some miscellaneous flag info:

Flags          0x0001           Spin the weapon's graphic continuously (rate
                                  of frame advance is controlled by the
                                  BeamWidth field as detailed below)
               0x0002           Weapon fired by second trigger
               0x0004           For cycling weapons, always start on the first
                                  frame of the animation
               0x0008           For guided weapons, don't fire at fast ships
                                  (ships with turn rate > 3)
               0x0010           Weapon's sound is looped rather than played
                                  repeatedly
               0x0020           Weapon passes through shields (use sparingly!)
               0x0040           Multiple weapons of this type fire
                                  simultaneously
               0x0080           Weapon can't be targeted by point defense
                                  systems (works only for homing weapons)
               0x0100           Weapon's blast doesn't hurt the player
               0x0200           Weapon generates small smoke
               0x0400           Weapon generates big smoke
               0x0800           WeaponÕs smoke trail is more persistent
               0x1000           Turreted weapon has a blind spot to the front
               0x2000           Turreted weapon has a blind spot to the sides
               0x4000           Turreted weapon has a blind spot to the rear
               0x8000           Shot detonates at the end of its lifespan
                                  (useful for flak-type weapons)


The next field contains flags that control how a guided weapon (Guidance = 1)
behaves, as well as some misc flags for other weapon types:

Seeker         0x0001           Passes over asteroids
               0x0002           Decoyed by asteroids
               0x0008           Confused by sensor interference
               0x0010           Turns away if jammed
               0x0020           Can't fire if ship is ionized
               0x4000           Loses lock if target not directly ahead
               0x8000           May attack parent ship if jammed


SmokeSet       Which cicn set to use for this weaponÕs smoke trail, if any.
               0 = cicnÕs 1000-1007, 1 = 1008-1015, etc.  Note that the smoke
               icons themselves can be any size, but if you use ResEditÕs cicn
               editor to make each icon only as large as it needs to be, game
               performance will likely improve.

Decay          How fast to decay each shotÕs power
               -1 or 0          Ignored
                1 and up        Remove one point of mass & energy damage every
                                time this number of frames goes by
                                (1 frame = 1/30 sec.)

Particles      Number of particles to generate per frame. Set to zero for 
               no particles

PartVel        Particle velocity, from 1 to about 200 or so. Experiment to
               find useful values.

PartLifeMin    Minimum life of a particle from this weapon, in frames.

PartLifeMax    Maximum particle life, in frames.

PartColor      Particle base color, encoded the same as HTML colors.
               (RRGGBB)


BeamLength     The length of the beam created by this weapon, if applicable.

BeamWidth      Beam width (actually, radius) in pixels. A BeamWidth of 0 will
                 have no center beam, just corona glow.
                 Note: Lightning beams require a BeamWidth or 1 or greater.
                 Note: For sprite-based weapons that spin continuously, this
                       field controls the time between frames, in 30ths of
                       a second. 
                 
Falloff        The corona falloff. Higher numbers make the corona fall off
                 faster. This value must be between 2 and 16. (since lightning
                 beams have no corona, this is ignored for lightning beams)
                 
BeamColor      The color of the beam center, encoded as a 24-bit RGB value
                  (00RRGGBB).
                  
CoronaColor    The color of the beam corona, encoded as a 24-bit RGB value.
                  Note that since the corona is translucent, it will appear
                  approximately half as bright at its maximum as what you
                  specify in this field. (since lightning beams have no corona,
                  this is ignored for lightning beams)


SubCount       The number of submunitions to create when the shot reaches the
                  end of its life or detonates because something wanders into
                  its proximity radius. Set to 0 or -1 if unused.
                  
SubType        The resource ID of the weapon type to create as submunitions.
                  Anything except beams and fighters is handled.
                  
SubTheta       The angular error of the submunitions as they are launched,
                  as expressed in degrees error from the carrier weapons'
                  heading.

SubLimit       If you have defined a recursively-submunitioning weapon (i.e.
                  one which splits into more copies of itself) this field
                  will allow you to limit the number of recursive splits
                  that happen. This field is ignored if the weapon is
                  not recursively submunitioning.

ProxSafety     A time delay for the weapon's proximity fuse, in 30ths of a
                 second. Set to zero for immediate arming on launch.

Flags2         0x0001           For cycling weapons, keep the graphic on the
                                  first frame until the weapon's ProxSafety
                                  count has expired
               0x0002           For cycling weapons, stop the graphic on the
                                  last frame
               0x0004           Proximity detonator ignores asteroids
               0x0008           Proximity detonator is triggered by ships other
                                  than the target (for guided weapons)
               0x0010           Submunitions fire toward nearest valid target
               0x0020           Don't launch submunitions when the shot expires
               0x0040           Don't show weapon's ammo quantity on the status
                                  display
               0x0080           This weapon can only be fired when there is at
                                  least one ship of this ship's KeyCarried
                                  type aboard
               0x0100           AI ships won't use this weapon
               0x0200           This weapon uses the ship's weapon sprite, if
                                  applicable
               0x0400           Weapon is a planet-type weapon, and can only
                                  hit planet-type ships or destroyable stellars
               0x0800           Don't allow this weapon to be selected or
                                  displayed if it is out of ammo
               0x1000           Weapon can disable but not destroy
               0x2000           For beam weapons, display the beam underneath
                                  ships instead of on top of them.
               0x4000           Weapon can be fired while cloaked.
               0x8000           Weapon does x10 mass damage to asteroids
               
               
Ionization     The amount of ionization energy to add to the ship that gets hit
               by this weapon. When a ship is ionized it becomes nearly
               immobilized until the ionization charge dissipates.
               
HitParticles   The number of particles to generate when a shot of this type hits
               a ship or asteroid. Set to zero if unused.
               
HitPartLife    The average life (in frames) of the hit-particles.
               
HitPartVel     The speed of the hit-particles; a value of 100 is one pixel
               per frame.
               
HitPartColor   The color of the hit-particles, encoded as a 24-bit HTML color
               (00RRGGBB)
               
ExitType       The type of weapon exit point to use for this weapon:
               -1   Ignored - weapon will fire from the center of the ship
                0   GunPosX/Y
                1   TurretPosX/Y
                2   GuidedPosX/Y
                3   BeamPosX/Y
                
BurstCount     The number of shots this weapon can fire before having to endure
                 a burst reload. Set to 0 or -1 if unused.  For weapons that do
                 not fire simultaneously, this value will be multiplied by how
                 many of this weapon the firing ship has - for example, a
                 weapon with a BurstCount of 4 on a ship with 3 of that weapon
                 will be able to fire 12 times before entering the burst reload
                 period. For weapons that fire simultaneously, this value is
                 independent of how many of the weapon the ship has.
                 
BurstReload    The reload time that is imposed when the weapon has fired >=
                 BurstCount shots. Ignored if BurstCount is 0 or -1.           
 
             
JamVuln1-4     The weapon's vulnerability to the four different types of
                 jamming, from 0 to 100%. Ignored if the weapon is not a
                 guided weapon.
                 
Flags3         0x0001  Weapon will only use ammo at the end of a burst cycle
               0x0002  Weapon's shots are translucent
               0x0004  Firing ship can't fire another shot of this type until
                        the previous one expires or hits something.
               0x0010  Weapon fires from whatever weapon exit point is closest
                        to the target
               0x0020  Weapon is exclusive - no other weapons on the ship can
                        fire while this weapon is firing or reloading
             
Durability     For guided weapons, this is how many point defense hits a shot
                from this weapon can take before it is destroyed. Set to 0 for
                weapons that are immediately destroyed by any PD hits. Ignored
                for non-guided projectile weapons or beams. (PD damage to
                guided weapons is calculated as 100% of mass damage plus
                50% of energy damage)
                
GuidedTurn     For guided weapons, this is the turning speed of the weapon.
                Higher values yield more maneuverable missiles. Ignored for
                anything but guided weapons.
                
MaxAmmo        For ammo-using weapons, this is the maximum amount of ammo
                per each instance of this weapon. (so, if you have two of these
                weapons, the max amount of ammo for that weapon type would
                actually be twice MaxAmmo, and so on)  Set to 0 or -1 if you
                want the ammo quantity to be constrained by the oŸtf
                resource's Max field instead.

Recoil         The amount of recoil force to apply to the firing ship when
                this weapon is used:
                0 or -1            No recoil
                Positive values    Thrust the ship backwards
                Negative values    Thrust the ship forwards
                (note that the resulting change to the ship's velocity is
                 inversely proportional to its mass)

LiDensity      For a beam weapon, entering zero in this field will make it a
                normal, straight beam weapon. Entering a value greater than
                zero will make the beam a lightning beam, which has no
                real effect other than to make it look cool. The number you
                enter here is the number of zig-zags the beam will make per
                100 pixels. Higher numbers yield more convoluted beams. Note
                also that lightning beams can't have a beam corona, and so
                will only use the CoreColor and CoreWidth fields above.

LiAmplitude    The amplitude of each zig-zag of a lightning beam, in pixels.
                Higher numbers yield more jagged-looking beams. Don't overdo
                this or you will have screen redraw problems. In fact, don't
                overuse lightning beams period, as they are much more
                processor-intensive to draw than normal beams!

IonizeColor    The color that a ship hit by this weapon will appear after being
                sufficiently ionized (encoded the same as an HTML color value).
                A value of 0 here will be interpreted as a default bluish
                color. Using fairly bright colors here is probably the best,
                as low-intensity colors tend to look odd when used as the
                ionization color.


Please note that if you've set the weapon to be a beam (Guidance of 0 or 3) the
following fields have different functions:

Count          The number of frames the beam stays onscreen. Note also that if
                the beam has a positive Decay value entered (see below) the
                actual time the beam will exist onscreen will be
                Count + 16 - CoronaFalloff, so adjust the Reload value
                accordingly to ensure that the universe doesn't get filled
                up with overlapping beams from a single ships.

Impact         Functions normally, with one exception: if the impact is set to
                a negative value, the beam acts as a tractor beam. Smaller
                ships will be pulled towards the firing ship with a strength
                proportional to the Impact value, while a small ship
                firing a tractor beam at a larger ship (or asteroid) will
                "latch on" to it and be dragged along. Note that you cannot
                enter hyperspace if held by a tractor beam from a ship that's
                larger than you are. Note also that inertialess ships are not
                affected by tractor beams.

ProxRadius     Ignored

BlastRadius    Ignored

Decay          If Decay is greater than zero, the beam will "shrink" before it
                disappears from the screen. The actual time the beam spends on
                screen will be Count + 16 - CoronaFalloff in this case, so
                adjust your Reload value accordingly (otherwise you'll get too
                many beams onscreen at once).



Another Note:  If you don't create an oŸtf resource for each weapon type, your
ship's weapon loadout will be corrupted when you land on a planet.
(specifically, Nova will mistakenly remove any weapons for which you didn't
create oŸtf resources)  Also, having multiple outfit items that bestow the
user with the same weapon type can cause weird things to happen.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Appendix I - Combat Ratings

Your combat rating is based on the number of kills you have made, which is the
sum of the strengths of all the ships you have destroyed, times some internal
multiplier for adjustment. The scale is as follows:

Kills:     Rating:
0          No Ability
1          Little Ability
100        Fair Ability
200        Average Ability
400        Good Ability
800        Competent
1600       Very Competent
3200       Worthy of Note
6400       Dangerous
12,800     Deadly
25,600     Frightening

The text strings listed above are given only by way of illustration, since
they can be changed by editing STR# 138.

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Appendix II - Legal Status

Your legal status in a system is based on the crime tolerance of that system's
government. (if the system is independent, it is based on the first government's
[ID 128] crime tolerance) On this scale, enough "good" or "evil" points to equal
the government's crime tolerance is given a value of 1:

Good Scale:     Legal Status:
0               Clean
4               Citizen
16              Good Citizen
64              Upstanding Citizen
256             Leading Citizen
1024            Model Citizen
4096            Virtuous Citizen


Evil Scale:     Legal Status:
0               No record
1               Minor Offender
4               Offender
16              Criminal
64              Wanted Criminal
256             Fugitive
1024            Hunted Fugitive
4096            Public Enemy


The text strings listed above are given only by way of illustration, since
they can be changed by editing STR# 134.

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Appendix III - Patching STR# Resources


The STR# resource format used to store many of the strings in Nova may seem to
be incompatible with the flexible nature of plugin files. For example, a plugin
for a new ship would have to replace several of the built-in STR# resources to
incorporate its new name into the game. The problem arises when you want to use
two plugins that try to modify the same STR# resource.

The solution is not to change the STR# resources at all, but to use NovaÕs handy
string patching functionality by updating only select strings in a STR# resource
by providing Nova with a properly-numbered 'STR ' resource. For example, to
change the first cargo type from food to something else, youÕd simply create a
'STR ' resource with the ID 9000 and type in the name of your new commodity. A
chart of 'STR ' resource numbers is provided below:

String Type:                                        Replacement 'STR ' ID range:
Message buoys                                       1000-2500
Hail quotes                                         5000-5511
Stellar types                                       7000-7063
Base prices of commodities                          9300-9305
Commodity abbreviations for status display          9400-9405
Govt-specific greetings for comm dialog           10000-12559 (first 10 for
                                                    govt -1, second 10 for
                                                    govt 0, third 10 for govt
                                                    1, etc.)
p‘rs-resource CommQuotes                          15000-15511


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Appendix IV - Log Files

Nova supports two different kinds of debug log output that are useful to
plugin developers:

1. If you create a file called "debuglog.txt" in your Nova folder, a large
   amount of debug info will be dumped into this file as the game runs.
   Further, enabling this output also turns on some additional error checking,
   which can be very handy for finding errors in plugins.
   
2. If you create a file called "pilotlog.txt" in your Nova folder, every time
   a pilot file is opened its contents will be written in human-readable
   form to the pilotlog.txt file. (works only after registering)


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