JVPC Manual

For some interesting bits of info, see the FAQ.

• Starting with JVPC,
• The Main Window,
• The Starmap,
• The Planet Window,
• The Ship Window,
• The Cargo Window,
• The Starbase Window,
• The Message Window,
• A description of jvpc.cfg.

I assume you just downloaded JVPC. No, you can not double click the jar-file (there's three useful programs in there, which one should it start?) Let's say you put that in the directory C:\games\vgap\
Let's say you wish to run JVPC on the game in C:\games\vgap\five
The probably the easiest is to make a shortcut on your PDA (or batchfile, or script or just type it on a commandline, DOSbox or in a Run... popup), containing:

   java -classpath c:\games\vgap\JVPC.jar c:\games\vgap\five

Maybe you have a special shiplist right here: C:\games\vgap\babylon, in which case you put in the shortcut:

   java -classpath c:\games\vgap\JVPC.jar c:\games\vgap\five c:\games\vgap\babylon

If the directorie(s) with game data are omitted, the current directory is used for them.

JVPC will start a main-window and a starmap.

The Main Window

If there is a command that you wish to give with another client, you can press Save, do stuff with the other client, save there. Finally, you press Load in JVPC and you continue within JVPC.

The Starmap

I'll give a list of key-commands, now, because that is much shorter than a guided tour.

tab/q	zoom in,
shift tab/shift q	zoom out,
Ctrl tab	zoom out completely,
s	switch ship string shown,
Ctrl s	toggle ship string on/off,
p/Ctrl p	same for planets,
m/Ctrl m	alike (but not exactly the same) for minefields,
Ctrl w	toggle wormholes shown,
Ctrl e	toggle explosions shown,
r	toggle rst/trn data,
c	switch between several Coverages (just check it out, it's cool),
f/F8	Find a ship/planet by ID, set Planet-/ShipString (does not work for some JVM's; popup Window does not get focus :-(
mouse press	activate selection of nearest location, where a location is any point in space where an object is,
mouse release	when released while an object is highlighted, will select that object. A message on the bottom of the screen tells you about the object. Zooming will now center around this object,
v	View selected object in more detail in a separate window, where you can edit as well. Applies to your own ships and planets,
Ctrl v	The same, but in a new window each time,
b	Pops up a base window, when the selected item is a planet with a base.
space	when a ship is selected, start setting waypoint. Pressing space again cancels. Pressing enter will set the waypoint. During waypoint setting some additional info is shown on the bottom of the screen,
k	previous turn (when available in the proper subdirectory).
j	next turn (when available in the proper subdirectory),

For PDAs, there are a few buttons on the top: the first two switch the turn you are looking at. When you've selected a planet or ship, you can View it (a window pops up with details and ability to edit), or handle Cargo (another window). When you've selected a ship, you can edit the Waypoint (hit the button, then simply tick the map to set the waypoint to the nearest object, or drag the stylus to set a waypoint in mid-space. Finally, hit the button again, or cancel).

The info JVPC shows on the bottom is highly compact. JVPC shows info derived from battles, just as out-of-fuel notifications and more info from the util*.dat file that PHost produces. Also, information about the hull-type is given, like number of beams (`B'), including additional functionality (like cloaking, refinery and glory devices; if playing with phost 3, obtain a hullfunc.dat file from your host: it is read to show the real functions of the hulls instead of the default ones).

The Planet Window

Besides the mouse, there are several key combinations that are helpful. The capitalized character of a string (let's say `C') indicates you can use Ctrl-C and Alt-C to go to the corresponding field immediately. The alt combination shows the `C' afterwards in the field I jumped to, which really annoys me. Therefore the ctrl combination works, as well. But! for megacredits do not press the shift to reach the `$' instead of the `4'. Again, annoying (I am using keyPressed(), not keyTyped() in order not to get confused; what do I get? still a mess).

The funny looking <<  < number >  >> are input fields for numbers. The single < and > will decrease, respectively decrease the value with one. The doubles use greater steps (5 for taxes, 100 for the other fields).

Selecting another planet in the starmap and pressing `v' again will put the newly selected planet in the window. Ctrl-V will put it in a new window.

PgUp and PgDn go to the previous respectively next editable planet. Shift-PgUp and -PgDn go to the previous respectively next editable planet with the same owner (useful in team-games).

A screenshot.

The Ship Window

The interface works perfectly analogous to the Planet window.

The PHost extended mission cloak has the same name as the original mission cloak. This is bad style. We suggest you edit the mission.ini file to call the mission ``PHost cloak'' or something.

A screenshot.

The Cargo Window

Transfering cargo is done by selecting one of the two objects you want to transfer cargo between (buttons on the left). After that, you type the new amount of cargo for the other object in its corresponding field.

Transfering torpedoes/fighters from a starbase to a ship and vice versa must always be done by selecting the ship and typing the amount of torpedoes to leave on the base in the top-right field.

Transfering cargo to an enemy ship must be done by selecting your own ship and typing the new value in the enemy ship field. When you transfer to a second enemy ship, all moved cargo will now be moved to the newly selected enemy ship (since Tim doesn't allow you to two or more enemy ships; it's not a bug in JVPC). Transfering MC or torps/fighters to enemy planets or ships isn't allowed either.

A screenshot.

The Starbase Window

Building a ship is done by selecting the required appropriate items the four java-Choices for hull, engine, beam and launcher. This will automatically raise the tech-levels and buy the amount of engines/beams/launchers appropriate for the selected hull. When the number of any of these three items can not be bought, the ship is not built (as indicated by bright red message). Unless you are feds, you will be perfectly happy with this (if you are feds, you can still select ``none'' for beams and the ship will be built without beams; if you want more functionality, you are invited to write it yourself, JVPC is open source).

A screenshot.

The Message Window

When you press the button

Write Message

you will be presented one or two lists:

1. The leftmost list (when present) lets you select one sender,
2. The rightmost list (always present) lets you select a group of recipients (but only the last one in the list will receive the message, for now :-( When you are done selecting, press the button

   Recipient(s) set

   .

A screenshot.

The JVPC Configuration File

The config file contains many options. An option and its value (separated by an `=') are on one line. Comments can start anywhere (with a `#') and run to the end of the line. Example config file:

  # This is a sample JVPC.CFG

  MinX = 1000  # Nice layout
    MaxY=3000#uglylayout

Currently, the following options are recognized:

Option	Values	Default	Explanation
MinX	an integer	1000	Minimum X value of starmap, useful when explorer is used,
MaxX	an integer	3000
MinY	an integer	1000
MaxY	an integer	3000
BuggyScrollbars	Yes/No	No	If the scrollbars behave weird, set to yes (notably with Sun's own jdk!),
MinFontSize	an integer	8	Minimum font size in the starmap, you can set it to something you can read :-)
MaxFontSize	an integer	16	Maximum font size in the starmap,
MinZoom	a float	0.01	Minimum zoom factor,
MaxZoom	a float	100	Maximum zoom factor.
PlanetString	a String	ntdm	indicates what should be show in the starmap as planet string. Can consist of characters "#ntdms$laoei@cNTDM" where `a' is for name, `e' for temperature, `l' for colonists, `i' for natives and all other are self explanatory to a certain extent.
ShipString	a String	ntdm	indicates what should be show in the starmap as ship string. Can consist of characters "#oc@w%heblntdm$lsMEW" where `a' is for name, `%' for damage, `l' for colonists and all other are self explanatory to a certain extent.

We might split the config file into two parts in the future: one part for game dependent data (like MinX) and one part for showing it (MaxFontSize).