The pers resource defines the characteristics of an AI personality - that is, a specific person the player can encounter in the game. These AI-people have their names (which are also the names of the associated përs resource) displayed on the target-info display in place of the name of their ship class. When ships are created, there is a 5% chance that a specific AI-person will also be created. (obviously, as AI-people are killed off, they cease to appear in the game.) The first field tells EV where a certain person can be encountered:
LinkSyst Which systems the person can be created in
-1 Any system
128-1127 ID of a specific system
9999-10127 Any system belonging to this specific government
15000-15127 Any system belonging to an ally of this govt
20000-20127 Any system belonging to any but this govt
25000-25127 Any system belonging to an enemy of this govt
The next four fields define the person's character traits:
Govt The person's governmental affiliation
-1 Ignored (person is independent)
128-255 ID of a specific government
AI Type The person's AI type (see the section on düde resources)
Agress The person's agression, i.e. how close ships have to be before the person will attack them, on a scale of 1 to 3.
Coward At what percent of total shield capacity will the person run away from a fight? e.g. a value of 25 would cause the person to retreat when his shields dropped to 25%.
The next fields tell EV more about the ship that a person uses:
ShipType ID number of the person's ship class
WeapType (x4) ID numbers of weapon types
-1 or 0 No weapon
128-191 Add this weapon type
WeapCount (x4) How many of each of the above weapons to add (Note: This is in addition to the standard weapons already included with the ship. Standard weapons can be "removed" by entering their ID numbers in the WeapType fields and entering the negative of their standard load for the given ship class in the WeapCount field.)
-1 or 0 None
1 and up Add this many
AmmoLoad (x4) The standard ammo load for weapons that need it, or ignored for those that don't
-1 or 0 No ammo
1 and up Include this many rounds of ammo
Credits How many credits the person caried
0 ignored (no credits)
1 and up This many credits, ± 25%
ShieldMod How much to increase/decrease the person's shield capacity, in percent. For example, a value of 130 entered here would make the person's ship have shields that are 30% stronger than if he were flying a stock ship. Similarly, a value of 70 would make his shields 30% weaker.
MissionBit Which mission bit this person is linked to.
0-255 Only have this person show up if this mission bit is set
-1 Ignored
The next fields tell EV about any special quotes or missions to link to this ship:
CommQuote Index number of an entry in STR# resource 7100, to be displayed in the communications dialog
HailQuote Index number of an entry in STR# resource 7101, to be displayed at the bottom of the game screen (i.e. over the radio)
LinkMission What mission to activate when the ship is boarded or hailed
Flags Some control bits
0x0001 The special ship will hold a grudge if attacked, and will subsequently attack the player wherever the twain shall meet.
0x0002 Uses escape pod
0x0004 HailQuote only shown when ship has a grudge against the player
0x0008 HailQuote only shown when ship likes player
0x0010 Only show HailQuote when ship begins to attack the player
0x0020 Only show HailQuote when ship is disabled
0x0040 When LinkMission is accepted with a single SpecialShip, replace it with this ship while removing this one from play (only useful for escort missions)
0x0080 Only show quote once
0x0100 Deactivate ship (i.e. don't make it show up again) after accepting its LinkMission
0x0200 Offer ship's LinkMission when boarding it instead of when hailing it
0x0400 Don't show quote when ship's LinkMission is not available
0x0800 Make ship leave after accepting its LinkMission
0x1000 Don't offer if player is flying a wimpy freighter (aiType 1)
0x2000 Don't offer if player is flying a beefy freighter (aiType 2)
0x4000 Don't offer if player is flying a warship (aiType 3)
0x8000 Show disaster info when hailing