Overlord is a powerful editing tool and you will find that virtually any aspect of VGAP can be edited. Colonists can be added to a planet, tech levels can be added to a starbase, ships can be upgraded and restocked with fuel, fighters or torpedoes. The possibilities are endless. With the latest upgrade to Overlord, you can now add ships to a player. Want a player to start out with a powerful battle fleet? Use Overlord to give him six battleships and a flotilla of support ships.

Example Screen Shot 1

Example Screen Shot 2

Another exciting new feature is the addition of a starmap to the toolbar. Opening the map will show inhabited planets in white and non-inhabited planets in green. Clicking the mouse on any planet will give you the planet's ID number and a list of all ships at that location. The planetary ID number is useful when making edits from the planet edit screen and this capability prevents the necessity of exiting the editor and opening the VGAP program to look at the map.

You can use the "Options/Add Ships" menu option to quickly add ships to a player's file. Simply check the box and a list of all ships and empty ship slots appears below. Click on a ship to edit it or click on an empty slot to add a ship. The program allows you to pick any ship for a race and edit it's tech levels and supplies.

The "Edit/Truehull" option allows you to add a ship to the list of ships a player can build at his starbase. For instance, you can use this option to give the Federation the ability to build a Borg Biocide Cube at his starbase, once the appropriate tech levels are met. Note that if you use this option, the file "Truehull.dat" must be distributed to each player in the game, especially the player whose ship list you edited.

If, at any time, you wish to edit a different game without exiting and then restarting Overlord, pick the "File Menu" option from the toolbar and you will be back at the selection screen. If you pick this option in error, you must still choose the game file you were working on to continue with your editing.

WARNING: Overlord does not edit check the changes you make. It is strongly suggested you make a backup copy of your game or host directory before making any edits. Neither I nor Buccaneer Software are responsible for unexpected errors that could incur the wrath of the Tim Continuum!

Example Game Setup:
Run MASTER.EXE, placing all homeworlds.
Run HCONFIG.EXE (and RCONFIG.EXE if desired), then any add on programs.
Copy PLANET.NM, RACE.NM, STORM.NM, HULLSPEC.DAT, and TRUEHULL.DAT to the game subdirectory.
Run Overlord and make your changes. Remember, you can edit planets, starbases, and
ships. You can even give surrounding planets to a player as colonies, stocking them
with money, supplies, colonists, even a starbase. The sky is the limit and Overlord puts
you in control.
Run HOST.EXE.

Another excellent use for this program:
The game has started to drag on, with the 500 ship limit reached twenty turns ago and everyone is afraid to attack and lose valuable ships. Rather than end the game with no declared winner, why not wind up with a bang? Overlord has the option for a "Final Battle". To use Final Battle you must run Overlord, click the final battle button, and run HOST without any turn files. Overlord will set all ships to KILL, set their location to 2000, 2000 (the center of the map) and when HOST runs, the last ship standing will be the winner! In a full game there could be over 200 VCR files for each person! <g>

Note:
Overlord can be used in the middle of the game to alter the conditions of the game. This program was not created to allow the host to cheat, but this program could be used in that manner. I have found the Overlord edits will take place, if you (or the player whose files you change) do not make changes that turn involving whatever you are editing with Overlord.

Example: I created a Biocide Cube with tech one everything. Then I used Overlord to upgrade everything to tech 10, added a full tank of fuel and filled the cargo bay with fighters. I then changed the location coordinates to a jumpgate, and set the friendly code to a different jumpgate. (Jumpgate is a popular add on program for VGAP). The next turn the Biocide Cube was in a position to fight.