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				*Q-Ships*
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			      Version 1.10

To play the mission, unzip the file and put the mission (filename qships10) into your FreeSpace 2/data/missions directory.  Put this readme wherever you want.

This mission is actually an adaptation of one that I had started in the original FreeSpace.
However, that mission was never distributed because I could never make the Q-ships as lethal
as I felt they should have been.  The beam weapons and flak cannons of FreeSpace 2 make the
Q-ships rather effective units despite their relative weakness.

This mission may be part of a future campaign, I am not yet sure.  It is all dependent upon how
much positive feedback I get, as well as how much time I will be able to devote to making a 
campaign.  If you wish, please send any criticism/comments to "vasuda_prime@hotmail.com" (minus
the quotation marks, of course:)  If there is something that you feel can be improved or is in
need of repair, please inform me about it.  I value user feedback as it can help me avoid making
some mistakes in the future.  
So, Bon Carnage (pun intended!)

-Ice Heart










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		*WARNING! POSSIBLE MISSION SPOILERS BELOW          *
		*RECOMMEND DO NOT READ UNTIL AFTER PLAYING MISSION!*
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For those whom do not know what Q-ships are, I recommend that you play the mission as that should
define it for you.  But, if you must know now, as defined by Merriam Webster's Collegiate
Dictionary, a Q-ship is:  An armed ship disguised as a merchant ship to decoy enemy
vessels into range.  There, now you know.

You may have noted that the large cargo container designated TC-TRI-1 is invulnerable after
taking a certain number of hits.  This was intentionally done due to mission balance issues.
I found that the cargo container was too big a target and 9 times out of 10 was destroyed
very early in the mission, and 1 out of 10 it usually would die later if it was not destroyed
earlier.  So, I have set it to be invulnerable after a certain point to make the mission winnable.
However, the freighter which is docked with it is NOT invulnerable.

Also, all cargos and freighters have been set to be protected from enemy fire and enemy beams.  This was done for balance reasons as well.  I found that when the enemy corvette arrived, it tended to target one of the freighters instead of the Q-ships.  To succeed in the mission, all the freighters and their cargos must survive.  Besides, the mission should still be difficult since there will be plenty of stray rounds that are not intentionally aimed.  However, the Q-ships are not so protected and will be the target of the enemy corvette and enemy fighters.

You may also have noted that some of the corvette's weaponry has been altered.  Again, this was
done due to balance issues.  A cruiser (even two cruisers) were too easily defeated.  A standard
Deimos corvette was too powerful and usually made the main mission goal unattainable.  So, I have
weakened the corvette somewhat to compensate.


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			*Version 1.10 Addendum*
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This version 1.10 corrects several problems that were brought to my attention concerning the mission.  Several things have also been added to the mission that were recommended to me:

1.)  Disbanded Q-Ship wing and made them individual ships with individual waypoints.  This was done because I did not want to simply use an order for the Q-Ships to attack the enemy since the ships would circle the corvette in an odd formation that did not give them much chance to fire their beam cannons.  I attempted to use a waypoint for the wing of Q-ships, but found that if the corvette fired on the lead Q-ship (Alpha One), the target ship would sometimes be pushed up and backwards.  This resulted in all the other ships trying to follow the lead of that ship, which resulted in some very odd maneuvers that threw the Q-ships off course.  Also by using waypoints, the Q-ships no longer get into a formation which often resulted in them hitting one another with weapons fire when attempting to fire on the enemy.

2.)  Repositioned anti-fighter beams and long range flak cannons on Q-ships.  I simply switched their placement so that the more effective anti-fighter beams could be brought to bear with greater effectiveness than their previous positioning.

3.)  Replaced an anti-fighter beam on the corvette with a flak cannon.  This was done because said beam tended to interfere far too heavily with Helios bomb lock on to the corvette by knocking the player's ship around excessively.

4.)  Gave the corvette a more powerful anti-capital ship beam so that player destruction of corvette beam weapons is more important.

5.)  Added another 'slashing' anti-capship beam to make it more of a challenge to save all the Q-ships.

6.)  Added another primary goal.  This goal has deliberately been made so that it cannot be completed, it is there to push the story along for the campaign that I plan to do along the storyline presented in the command and mission brief.  (NOTE:  The follow up mission that I am doing will revolve around the happenings surrounding this uncompletable goal.)

7.)  Added several more gameplay related messages.

8.)  Added numerous messages to help push the storyline along.  Most of these are in a send-message-list sexp.

9.)  Cleaned up events with use of add-operator function.  Drastically cut down on number of seperate cap-waypoint-speed events and beam-free events.

10.)  Altered/added to the background nebulas and planets.