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Writer's Scripts for Starsiege Tribes -- Version 1.15 -- April 18, 1999
by Lorne Laliberte (VIS.Writer[SAB], writer@videon.wave.ca)

http://www.planetstarsiege.com/lorne/
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I. Disclaimer

Although I have made every attempt possible to ensure that these scripts are
safe, I provide no warrenty of any kind.  Use the contents of this zip file
at your own risk!

That said, I hope you find these scripts useful.  I certainly have. :)


II. What is this?

This is a collection of scripts created by me for use with Starsiege Tribes.

These scripts are meant to enhance the player's experience of the game by
adding new features, automating simple events, and generally making the
game more fun to play.  In no way do these scripts constitute cheating,
although they certainly do provide the player who uses them a degree of
customization not available to a player who doesn't.  The Starsiege Tribes
development team was careful not to provide any means for cheating
through their scripting engine, and I agree wholeheartedly with this
philosophy.  These scripts are not to be used by anyone who practices any
form of cheating; doing so will be considered a big bad booboo and you'll
surely suffer under the weight of that heavy conscience for the rest of your
life. :)

You are free to modify these scripts in any way, but if you come up with
something really cool, please share your discoveries and your scripts with
the rest of us.

I have made every effort to clearly document my code, but if you find
something that just doesn't make any sense, send me an email, and I'll
either do my best to explain it (real life permitting :) or give you
credit for pointing out a...well...uh...a...a bug.


III. Installation instructions

To install these scripts, simply unzip the files, making sure that the scripts
end up in a directory called "writer" within your Tribes\config directory. If
you used the default path when you installed Tribes, the full path to my scripts
should be:

C:\Dynamix\Tribes\config\writer

Note that there are additional scripts in a writer\extras directory; these are
scripts that I have made but do not use in my own config.  The full path to the
extras directory should be:

C:\Dynamix\Tribes\config\writer\extras

Once you have unpacked or copied my files to the proper directory, you will need
to add a line to your autoexec.cs file to load my scripts.  Tribes searches in
the Tribes\config directory for a file named autoexec.cs and runs it
automatically on startup.  If you don't have an autoexec.cs file in your
Tribes\config directory, simply create one using a text editor.  All the
autoexec.cs needs in order to run my scripts is the following line:

exec("writer\\autoexec.cs");

This line will run the script named autoexec.cs in the Tribes\config\writer
directory -- this is the script I have made that calls all my other scripts.


IV. Changing the key bindings

The default key bindings in my scripts are exactly as I use them in my own
config.  Since it's quite likely that my customized config differs from your own
(it certainly differs from the default Tribes config in many ways), you will
probably want to change these keys to fit your own config.

I have provided a file named keys.cs that contains the key bindings for all of
my scripts.  Any changes you make to keys.cs will override the default key
bindings for my scripts the next time you start Tribes.


V. Compatibility

If you encounter any incompatibilities with other scripts, there are a few
things you can try.

Set $Debug::echo = true;  at the start of your autoexec.cs, to see extra
information written to the console that may give you some clues.

Make sure you're using the latest version of all the scripts involved (very
important, since the incompatibility may already have been addressed in a newer
release).

Change the order in which the scripts are included or executed -- in other
words, try calling my scripts first, or try calling them last.

Try adding these lines to the very beginning of your own autoexec.cs, so that
these files are executed before anything else:

exec("writer\\include.cs");
include("writer\\event.cs");

Isolate the problem scripts -- move a script temporarily into another directory
so it cannot be executed or included, and see if that makes any difference.  Be
as systematic as possible -- remove them all, and put them back one by one, or
vice versa.


VI. A note to other scripters

I just want to say thank you again to all of those who have contributed to
making these scripts possible.  Every script that is shared with the public
opens our eyes to new possibilities, and the experience we gain with all this
programming is sure to have some real life benefits to those of us who code for
a living.  The educational value of all this should not go overlooked -- it is
perhaps a greater gift than all the in-game benefits we continue to enjoy.

Thanks especially to the stars of our scripting community:  Presto, who on top
of providing excellent scripts has shown himself to be a kind and considerate
person deserving all the attention he receives.  Zear, DS.Poker, XP-Lux, the
three amigos of scripting, constantly improving on every script that is released
and finding new ways to impress us all with their well-thought-out code.
Nocturne, who will have us all in his debt when he finally releases his
health-aware script.  Cowboy, ShokugE, DWeasel, LabRat, Mjr. Phule, Boredom,
GrymReaper, Crunchy, Lord Harlock...the list goes on and on.  Thank you all!

VII. Have fun!

If you have any questions, just send me an email.  Real life keeps me pretty
busy but I will try to get back to you. :)

If you're interested in visiting my personal web page, go to:

http://www.videon.wave.ca/~writer/

And if you're curious about what I do for a living, check out these two links:

Boring day job: www.safe-key.com

Exciting second job: www.prelusion.se

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Lorne Laliberte, VIS.Writer[SAB]
