General

The headquarter program is the executable which deals with creation
and management player teams in Titans of Steel.

Work on it started 5 years ago when Vicious Byte tried to do Titans of
Steel for the first time. Therefore its graphics are a bit dated and
the interface is far from perfect but it should do its job.

There are two executables located in the progs directory.
You can access them via the Vicious Byte Menu located under Start/Programs.

hqW is a windowed version whereas hqX is a DirectX fullscreen
version. They have the same functionality.

This is a short help on how to create new jocks and build teams.
You can navigate through the different screens with the two
arrow keys at the screen bottom. When active they are displayed green,
otherwise they stay black.

As soon as you launch the HQ you have to decide which team file
to edit. These files are used during startup of the battle module
as well as to modify/repair your titans in the factory module. 
They are located in the data directory as team1 to team4.
If there does not exists such a file it will be created and your
new team will start with 500000 $ initial money and no jocks
or titans.

Next you are in the main menu of your team management software.
Here you can :
Some basic team data is displayed. The teams total fights are divided
in wins and losses. Cost does show the teams monthly maintenance
which is automatically deducted from the teams cash after each battle.

a) Rename Team

To rename your team click on the word TEAM in front of its name.
The default name is VICIOUS WITCHES.

b) Hire Jock

To search the database you must enter the search criteria like
name, callsign, race and sex. You are only allowed to hire 
new jocks if you can pay 25000 $ to release them from prison.

Note :
The first jock you will hire will have a small increase in leadership
skill and is likely to become your team leader. Increase his
leadership so that there is a chance that subsequent jocks will start
with better attribute/skills than the average.
The second hired jock will have a small boost in business skill and
should become your teams manager. This job is very vital cause his
skill will be valuable in all sorts of monetary matters.


Your jocks can be of one of four different races :
Human, Android, Replicant and Cyborg.

Humans are like you and me, therefore they get a +1 bonus on
charisma :-)

Androids are like those you may know from Alien II or Alien IV movies.
In our game they have self healing abilities and are sexless.
They do not benefit from the healing capabilities of life supports but
are less vulnerable to radiation effects caused by neutron blasters or
engine explosions.
Androids gain +1 on both reaction and neural sense attributes.

Replicants are like those you may know from the Bladerunner movie.
They are cloned humans, genetically enhanced either in dexterity
or intelligence. Therefore they receive +2 on one of those attributes.

Cyborgs are sturdy humans enhanced with cybernetic implants.
They receive +1 on constitution but suffer a -1 penalty on
charisma. Cyborgs are less vulnerable to certain effects caused by
damaged life supports or cockpit hits.


If you choose male jocks you are granted a additional +1 bonus
on constitution whereas females receive +1 on instinct. 
   
After you have entered all necessary data you will be presented
with the result of your search. 
Now you are on the jock development screen.

A jock is defined by 7 attributes and 19 skills in 3 categories.
 
Each skill can be developed to a limit which is defined by its
primary and secondary attribute.
This limit is calculated as follows :

Max  =  5 * ((2 * primary attribute + secondary attribute) / 3)
A skills primary and secondary attribute are displayed when your
mouse pointer is over the skills name. 
   
Attributes range from 5 to 20, thus allowing a maximum skill of 100%.
The attributes are :
Neural Sense does need some explanation. Recon and light titans are
piloted manually by the jocks, therefore they have dexterity and
reaction as their primary/secondary attribute. 
Medium, heavy and assault titans are controlled with the help of a neural 
bridge, connecting the jock with its machine. Each character
has a personal sensibility towards this device, called Neural Sense.
Therefore Neural Sense and Dexterity are the primary/secondary
attributes for the skill 'piloting medium & heavy' titans.

Please note that intelligence does limit the numbers of skills a jock
can improve. Each point of intelligence does grant one skill to train.

Rookies do start with 300 development points (DP) in each of the
three categories piloting, combat and other which they can
distribute amongst their skills and/or attributes.
These points do represent their initial training.
   

A jock can improve his attributes (at a very high cost) by left
clicking on the attributes name.
The better the attribute, the more DPs he has to pay to for it.
Jocks can improve skills by 1 point to their limit by left clicking.
Shift-left click does add 10 points. Same goes for reductions with the
right mouse button. 

The cost of increasing the attribute or skill are displayed in the
DP column of the screen. Note that the cost for attribute increases
is deducted from all three categories !

There are three types of skills, piloting, combat and others.
They are :
Piloting Combat Others
Recon/Light Close Combat Electronic Warfare
Medium/Heavy Guided Missiles Scanner Systems
Assault Unguided Missiles Defensive System
Jump Cannons Damage Control
- Energy Weapons Leadership
- Indirect Fire Recon
- - Business
- - Survival
- - Medical
Most of the skills are self-explanatory. The are described in
detail in Appendix A.

After you have finished to distribute the DPs you can go back
and hire more jocks up to a maximum of 8 per team. This number
is also limited by your leaders leadership skill.

NEW :
You can create tournament teams by hiring a pseudo jock with 
name MONEY and callsign xxx ( xxx is a number ). This team 
immediatly does receive this amount of money. You can hire a 
pseudo jock with name SKILL and callsign xxx ( again a number ).
All subsequent jocks will start with xxx development points in
each of the three skill categories instead of 300.
These teams do NOT receive experience points after battles and
should only be used for single battles between humans. They are
not suited for campaigns.

c) Transfer Jock

Select a jock from a different team for transfer. The transfer
cost will depend on his rank. If the other team is out on
mission ( has a running game in the battle module ) it can not
be selected for transfers. The transfer cost is partially paid
to the team the jock was drafted from.
If you choose to transfer a jock, his and your team data
files are automatically updated and saved, there is no undo
for this action.

d) Browse Factory Titan Database

Select the titan database to buy titans for your team up to a 
maximum of 16.
You can select among premade designs and those created with the 
factory module.
The cost is modified by your team managers business skill !

e) Browse Team Jock List

Have a look at your jocks. Here you can fire them and allocate
them to a titan for the next battle. Your team manager is chosen
automatically, he/she is the one with the highest business skill.
If this skill is lower than 70%, the difference is added to the
cost when buying and subtracted when selling titans. The
biggest penalty is 40% for managers with less 30% skill in business.
Business skill in excess of 70% does give a bonus, a jock with
a skill of 100% does receive 30% discount !
Your team leader is also chosen automatically. He is the one with
the highest leadership skill ( modified by his rank ).
A good leader has a chance to attract better rookies from prison.
Furthermore a leadership skill directly influences the number of
jocks a leader can recruit ( skill / 10 ).
There are eight ranks [Acolyte, Adept, Priest, Curate, Perfect,
Canon, Lama and Patriarch] a jock can be promoted to. Each
promotion depends on gaining enough xps or by performing an
outstanding battle. 

f) Browse Team Titan List

Have a look at your teams titans and sell them if you want.
Damaged titans are displayed with a red
number in front of their name and should be repaired in the factory.

g) Save Team Data

Select save to write changes to the team data file.

h) Dismiss Team

Dismiss your current team and reset the team data so you can
start a new one from scratch.

i) Logout from Database

Select logout to quit the headquarter. If you haven't saved your team
data during your visit of the Headquarter you will now have a last
chance to do so.
Note : 

If your team is out on mission ( you have started a game with the 
battle module and not finished it yet ) you can NOT choose
menu points a - f ! Instead you get the option to retrieve your team
from battle for 500000$. This will result in no team updates in
the battle module if you decide to finish the mission.

Appendix A : Skills

All skills are listed by name and their [Primary/Secondary] attributes
which do limit the maximum skill level.

I. Pilot Skills

a. Recon/Light [Dexterity/Reaction]

This skill is needed to pilot titans up to 70t. These titans are still
piloted by sticks, so dexterity and reaction are the attributes which
limit the maximum skill level. This is a vital skill, especially for
rookies which can't pilot bigger titans.
 
b. Medium/Heavy [Neural Sense/Dexterity]

This skill is needed to pilot titans build from medium or heavy
chassis ( up to 140t ). These titans are piloted by neural bridges,
therefore neural sense and dexterity are the primary and secondary
attributes. Jocks have to reach adept rank to improve this skill.

c. Assault [Neural Sense/Dexterity]

This skill is needed to pilot assault chassis titans ( up to 200t ).
These are also controlled by neural bridges. Only jocks of curate rank
or better can improve this skill.

d. Jump [Dexterity/Reaction]

The jump skill is required to perform jump maneuvers on any titan
which is equipped with jump ports. This is a vital skill if you
want to make good use of the titans jump capability.

II. Combat Skills

a. Close Combat [Instinct/Reaction]

This skill is used for hand to hand combat. This does include punches,
kicks and close combat weapons as well as charges.

b. Guided Missiles [Intelligence/Instinct]

The deadly guided missile racks do depend on this skill. This skill
is very useful in conjunction with the indirect fire skill.

c. Unguided Missiles [Dexterity/Reaction]

The unguided short, long range and napalm missile racks do depend on 
this skill.

d. Cannons [Reaction/Dexterity]

MGs as well as all autocannons and the gauss cannon are fired with
this skill. Its also used for the meson guns. This is a typical
skill for rookies but also useful during all ranks.
High values here will allow you to do called shots with cannons.

e. Energy Weapons [Reaction/Dexterity]

This skill does apply to all sorts of lasers, plasma guns, tesla
bolts, black ray and cold light guns as well as to the flamer and
the neutron blaster. Again this is a useful skill for rookies.
High values here will allow you to do called shots with energy weapons.

f. Indirect Fire [Instince/Intelligence]

All missiles (guided and unguided) can be fired in a ballistic arc on
targets which do not have a direct line of fire. This skill does
reduce the penalty for indirect fire.
Guided missiles are better suited for this task than normal ones.
Indirect fire is also used to get a better range modifier if you have
established a scanner link. 

III. System Skills

a. Electronic Warfare [Intelligence/Instinct]

This skill does influence a wide variety of actions.
In combination with the battle computer it is used for calculation
of the time to lock enemies.
It does influence the time to toggle the E.C.M device.
It does help to defeat active scans and is used for threat level
calculation.

b. Scanner Systems [Intelligence/Neural Sense]

Needed to calculate time for toggling the scanner as well as performing
active scans and scanner links. It does influence the maximum number of
link partners. Most valuable for succeeding in active scans.

c. Defensive Systems [Dexterity/Intelligence]

This skill is very useful if your titan does have flares and/or a
shield. It is used to calculate the time to activate these devices.
A successful skill check will prolong the duration of flares and
will prevent shield overloads. A jock can also fine tune his heat 
regulators, making them a bit more effective (0.3 C/sec).

d. Damage Control [Intelligence/Dexterity]

This one is needed to efficiently use damage control systems and to
avoid ammo explosions. Further it is used to calculate the cost for
titan repairs after battle. The team automatically does use its best
member for this job.

e. Leadership [Charisma/Intelligence]

A good leadership skill will help your team to recruit better rookies.
This skill divided by 10 it is used to calculate the maximum number of
jocks in a team.

f. Recon [Intelligence/Instinct]

The recon skill is used to keep scanner links stable.
Even better a successful recon skill roll will allow your titan to
move quicker in rough or wooded areas. 
A motionless titan with a good recon skill will also be harder to hit
in forest hexes.

g. Business [Intelligence/Charisma]

Used for all kinds of financial transactions, especially buying/selling
titans. This is a vital skill for your team. You should have one jock
with a good business skill !

h. Survival [Instinct/Intelligence]

Vital for successful and quick ejects as well as useful to reduce the
effect of damaged shock absorption.

i. Medical [Intelligence/Dexterity]

This skill is needed to use the healing capability of life supports and
to stop bleeding.

Appendix B : Rank System

A jock can gain 8 different ranks during his career :
Level Rank Title Experience Points needed
1. ACOLYTE 0
2. ADEPT 6000
3. PRIEST 14000
4. CURATE 25000
5. PERFECT 40000
6. CANON 60000
7. LAMA 80000
8. PATRIARCH 100000