Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (
More info?)
Andreas Huck wrote:
> Well. i found the Solution for myself too. Looks like ther should be a new
> Feature implemented in VPA:
>
>
> Winplan 3.52.023
Winplan versions are irrelevant. Host version is interesting.
(Even if you know I'm using Winplan 3.51, you cannot know that I do not
use a hex editor to hack my ship.dat file.)
> 1st. [this is the thing it was about]
>
> New: You are now allowed enter the ID number of a ship you can not see but
> want to intercept. It might work or it might not work, it all depends on the
> host version, host config settings and how far away the object is.
>
> ----------------------------------
> This destroys all the Tactics with the blinking /sweeping/decloaking etc. if
> i would have known this earlyer on then....
The trick has always been there. Winplan just did not allow you to use
it. It's not the only thing which Winplan does not allow you to do. With
PCC, for example, you could always enter the M.I.T. numbers by hand: M
for mission, # for extended mission, enter 7, <id>, 0 to intercept ship
<id>. From the command line, use a command such as
cc /rk with ship(<interceptee>) do setmission 7, <interceptor>
The problem is that certain host versions did allow you to intercept
everything which happens to be within 200 ly, cloaked or not. Worse yet,
older host versions (3.00 for example) send you visual scans (!) for
cloaked ships in scan range, which Winplan .025 happily displays (they
are encoded the same way as FF allies. planets.exe does not display
them, but Winplan, VPA, PCC and EV do). Just look back in this group's
archive for a utility called PlanMap.
Summarized: there always has been a rule ("you cannot intercept ships
you don't see"), but Host was not enforcing it. Newest host versions
claim to enforce it (Host .030), I don't know how exactly it is
implemented, though. PHost also enforces it by keeping track of what
ships it sent you with your last RST.
This cheat block also prevented people from sharing their RSTs and
intercepting each other's ships. This lead to the introduction of the
"VPA extra features" switch. When you look into someone else's RST -
using VPA or something else, such as PCC or EV -, you'll see ships but
Host does not know you see them. With VPA extra features enabled, you
can therefore again intercept everything, under the assumption that if
you see it, you must have gotten it from an allied RST. It also lead to
the introduction of FF allies, which are a legal way to get someone else
see your ships. When you use this, Host knows that you are allied with
someone else, he knows that you see their ships, so you can safely
intercept them.
The new feature in Winplan was just to complement the "VPA extra
features" switch. With VPAEF enabled, VPA players can intercept
everything they can think of, so the same thing was allowed to Winplan
players, too.
Stefan