Homeland - Player's Manual

Player's Manual

Controls

Skills/Stats

Characteristics

Natives

Spells

Trade

Conversations

Weapons & Armour

Combat

World

Please bear in mind that we sometimes modify the controls in order to make them more useable. The Player's Manual usually lags a bit in having the correct description... so there will probably be differences between this manual and the actual game. Anyone with a suggestion, please feel free to inform the programmer or the Players' Manual editor. :)

Note to New Players: For those who are new to computer Role Playing Games, the editor wishes to leave this suggestion: When beginning to play this game, after you set up your characters and move a few times, create multiple save files, say four (4). Then, following the instructions below, try to talk with Everyone you meet in town. This is the best way to begin learning your role in the story. As the programmer says below, conversation IS very important, as is accepting the challenges presented by the townsfolk.

Controls

Mouse Controls

Left Mouse Button: the left mouse button is used for moving. Simply click and hold to move in the desired direction. Double-left-clicking will cause you to run rather than walk. Holding down the SHIFT key and using the left mouse button will also run rather than walk.
The left mouse button is also used to drag inventory onto the playscreen or other player's images -- click once to select the item, then move over the target and click a second time to drop or move the item.
Right Mouse Button: the right mouse button is the "smart action" button. When the mouse is over an item with which you can interact, that item will become highlighted. Then, by right-clicking, you can pick up objects, open doors, talk to others... well, most any action. If you have right-clicked on an item to use it, you can cancel the use by right-clicking again.

Inventory

To drag an item from your inventory, you left-click once and the cursor will become that item. Then, left-click again to move or drop the item or right-click to cancel the transfer. To use an item, you right-click on it. On the far right of the screen, above the inventory button is shown the bag whose items you are currently viewing. Each player has a main backpack, and inside each backpack it is possible to have additional bags. Say, for example, you like to store all of your bandages in one bag. Then, you simply click on the bag which contains the bandages to get into it. To get back to your backpack, you right-click on the large bag image on the top.

When you kill an enemy, you can view its inventory by right-clicking on its carcass. Then you can move items around as though it is your own inventory. When you are through, you right-click on the gravestone to close its inventory.

Buttons and QuickKeys

ESC -- Brings up the options menu... save, load, sound on/off, music on/off, quit.
ENTER -- Hold/Break Formation. In combat, break formation allows the players to run off and attack. There will be an icon showing the current status soon...
TAB -- pause and select targetà you can hit TAB multiple times in order to scroll through the targets on the screen. During combat, possible targets is limited to enemies, but when not in combat, TAB will go through all object with which you can interact.
SPACE -- Activates or secures from pause. In the lower right corner of the playing field, there is a pause bar that measures how much time is left before game resumes automatically by shortening as the time left shortens. It will recharge as soon as game is resumed, either automatically or by hitting the SPACE bar again.
q -- eQuipment.
c -- Cast spell.
s -- Status.
k -- sKills.
w -- Water spells.
e -- Earth spells.
a -- Air spells.
f -- Fire spells.

The Action Menu

Equipment - Produces a list of items in use. They also can be dragged onto the play screen from the list box. Right-clicking on an item will move it from In Use to Carried.

Stats - This button lists the player's stats.

Skills - This button lists the player's skills. You can find all the group formation under skills, as we plan to have a skill level for group interaction which determines how much time you have to organize your group during combat.

Cast Spell / Inventory - This button will give the player a list of spells available to cast. Right-clicking on a spell will cause the player to try to Cast it. Inventory - Brings up an inventory of items carried by the player. These can be dragged onto the play screen or dropped onto the player's face image from the inventory box. Right-clicking on an item will cause the player to try to Use that item. The current bag you are in is shown on the right of the inventory. You can right-click on this bag to go up a level in bags.

Skills/Stats

Combat skills can be broken down into three main categories:

Long-Range Weapons
Short-Range Weapons
Magic

Your hit points will increase with your skill levels.

In addition, skills for magic are broken down into these areas:

Fire
Water
Earth
Air

Characteristics

Skills do not tell the whole story. In addition to skills, of utmost importance are a person's strength, dexterity, and intelligence.

Strength affects how much you can carry. It modifies your hit points and the damage inflicted by weapon attacks.
Dexterity affects your speed in combat and your ability to successfully strike an opponent.
Intelligence affects your ability to learn, which is especially important with magic. It also affects your ability to successfully cast spells.

Natives

Dog - These noble beasts will fight to the death to defend their human companions.

Floating Eye - Surely these are only legend. How could an eye float?

Goblins - Humanoid creatures which are enemies of humans, but respected ones. Though the Goblin's brutish manner rarely leads to peace, humans and goblins have been known to team up against a common enemy.

Gels - Originally these creatures were bred to clean out the dungeons, much like snails in an aquarium. It appears, however, that in one of the abandoned dungeons, they have learned to fend for themselves and are now out of control.

Humans - Seemingly the most populous of creatures, it is definitely the most noisy.

Mushroom - Though usually these are harmless, there do appear to be several types that are carnivorous. I would not have believed this if I had not seen it myself. A rabbit was snacking nearby a man-sized mushroom when the mushroom suddenly closed its umbrella around its lunch.

NightRunners - Creatures spawned by the Devourer himself. They seem to hop from shadow to shadow, and their form makes them very elusive in combat. They prey upon humans for fun, but not as many have been seen lately. Perhaps the humans have finally begun to eliminate this dread beast.

Rat, Giant - These rodents breed like crazy, almost as prolific as their disease-carrying, pint-sizes cousins. They rarely venture into towns and so typically they are no more than a nuisance.

Scorpion, Giant - Inhabitants of the desert, giant scorpions are deadly if encountered in numbers. It is usually not too difficult to avoid individual scorpions.

Shambles - These unholy creatures were once human, as well as other beasts. After death, they were pieced together from whatever spare parts were available and given a deathly life. It seems the Devourer left just enough life in them to hold them together and to flame a bitter rage against the living.

Snakes - While most are harmless to humans, there is a green venomous snake which inhabits the Airy forest. Travelers should be wary of these slithery creatures, for they are easily aggravated and attack quickly. Legend has it that some of there snakes have grown quite large in the heart of the Airy forest.

Other creatures are known to inhabit the realms.

Spells

Fire

Light (similar to a torch, but doesn't require a free hand to hold it)

Dazzle (blinds opponent for a couple of minutes; blinded monsters should attack whatever is next to them - with a penalty to their attack chance - and wander in random directions when nobody's next to them)

Flame Dart (single target, ranged attack spell)

Flame Weapon (surrounds a weapon by flames, making it do more damage)

Protection from Fire (you won't take any damage from walking through normal fire, and only half or so from magical things like fireballs).

Wall of Fire (doesn't actually block anything, but it hurts to pass thru)

Sunlight (certain monsters, particularly undead, are harmed by sunlight)

Aurasight (allows you to detect magical energies and emanations)

Water

Tranquillity (calms an enemy so that he will stop fighting until provoked.)

Water Walk

Hesitation (slows opponents' thoughts and thus their actions)

Translation (a telepathic spell that allows you to understand whatever somebody says in whatever language; doesn't help with written texts)

Mind Sense (allows you to detect creatures, even invisible ones or things hidden behind walls)

Mind Shield (protects against most mental attack forms, including other spells from the Water discipline, such as Mindshatter)

Cold Ray (ranged single-target attack spell)

Freeze Monster (paralyzes)

Water Breathing

Air

Shock (touch attack spell)

Wind Change

Telekinesis

Shelter (target disappears for a couple of minutes, then pops back in; he cannot be harmed while 'gone')

Dispel (cancels most spells, but Quench Fire has a much larger chance of dispelling Fire Auras and such)

Blink (short range teleportation, useful in combat)

Summon Animals

Lightning Bolt (ranged single-target attack spell)

Earth

Heal

Weaken (single monster)

Materialize (forces an ethereal foe to de-etherealize, allowing it to be hit by normal weapons)

Toughskin (minor protection)

Cure Poison

Haste (speeds up target)

Grounding - protect form electrical attacks (including Shock and Lightning Bolt)

Strength

Poison Ray

Trade

During a conversation, especially with a shopkeeper, you may be given the option to trade. Store onwers are willing to both sell you items and buy needed items from you. A good way to make money is to sell needed items to the stores.

Conversations

The only way to learn is to ask... Communication is the key to learning your way around.

Weapons & Armour

There is armour made for different levels of protection. The general types of armour are boots, gloves, helms, leggings, shields, shirts, capes, and there is even armour made for animals. The material is clearly important - typically, those that provide greater protection are heavier, and can encumber movement. When acquiring a new set of armour, one should be sure the burden is not too great, for in the end, the loss of speed with heavier armour could lead to your death. The general materials used are cloth, leather, scale, chain, and plate. There are reports of magical armour, providing the protection of heavy armour, while not weighing nearly so much. The user of this armour would clearly have a great advantage in combat.

Combat

The combat interface has been set up so that by default, the combat will do something natural. The result is that during combat with simpler creatures, the player will not have to take over control of every hero's move, but just let the combat progress in real time.

If, however, the player is in a difficult combat situation, he/she can take over manual control using the mouse and keyboard. There are presently two keyboard controls:

space - this controls the pause timer. There is about a 4 or 5 second pause to allow you to control your heros. It recharges when not in use. The timer is the red bar in the bottom-right corner of the playscreen.

enter - this controls whether your group is "in formation". There is an icon on the info screen that shows whether you are presently "in formation" or not. This icon can be clicked on to send the same control as hitting the enter key. Putting your group "in formation" groups them all about you in a user-specified order. Letting your group "out of formation" allows them to chase after bad-guys.

There are new controls (Aug. 13, 1998) which allow more control for the advanced player. They are shown over the hero's portrait image, and can be toggled with the mouse.

If you have a bow, then the portraits look something like the image on the left, where the top row of icons is a sword, an arrow, or both. If you do not have a bow, then there is only the sword icon. This top row allows you to set whether you want to use your melee weapon exclusively, your ranged weapon exclusively, or the default -- where you use the ranged weapon when the enemy is far away and the melee weapon when the enemy closes. One of these three icons must be selected at all times.

The next level of icons (the second row is skipped... room for other controls) is supposed to be a hand, palm forward, in the "universal" symbol of STOP. (I know, terrible drawing... thats why I pass all the art along to Pendragon). When this is selected, that hero will stay in place. This icon does NOT have to be selected. There are some things worth noting about the STAY rule. First, the STAYING hero will still follow the main hero around if the main hero gets too far away. Second, if you are "in formation", then your hero who is STAYING will not attack enemies. This is because he has conflicting orders... to STAY where he is and to STAY in formation... and he cannot do both, so he just stands there and lets himself get beat to death. Clearly, this is something I shall change, but for now, just keep in mind that if you are telling a party member to STAY, you had better put your party "out of formation".

The final row has three settings for different levels of combat aggresiveness:
Defensive - Fights defensively, lowering attack scores and increasing defense scores.
Nornal - Fights normally.
Berserk - Fights aggressively, raising attack scores and lowering defense scores.

So, give me your feedback on the new combat system!

Just thought I'd mention how *I* handle combat. I usually go into the Skills-Formation screen and place the dog in front of me. Then, I click the ENTER key (during gameplay) to release the dog from formation (so he'll chase after beasties). I highlight the dog's portrait. Now, when I use the left-mouse button, it moves the main hero, but if a bad-guy turns up, I can right-click on the bad guy to send the dog chasing after him. Check out the Discussion Board for some other opinions on how best to handle combat.

World

At one time, magic reigned supreme. The power of one individual could determine the fate of thousands. Mages warred amongst themselves and the untalented were the fodder for their battles. One such wizard attempted to raise forces from other worlds and brought into this world a demon beyond his power to control... the Devourer of Souls. This demon feasted on mankind, with a particular taste for mages.

For the first time, the mages united, if hesitantly, against a common foe. The hunt was long and cost many lives, both mages and their untalented brethren. The Wizards of Light were formed to hunt the dark forces of the Devourer. The Legions of Light were formed to be the warrior army, or sword-arm of the mages. The Legions, protected and bound by the Wizards of Light, fought off the minions of the Devourer. The day finally arrived when the Wizards trapped the Devourer of Souls in the Void, but at great cost... a personal cost to the greatest Wizard and Sorceress of all time, who lost their child in the trap, and the loss of the lives of many of the mages themselves.

With the Devourer captured and the Wizards of Light weakened to ineffectuality, splinter groups of mages began to challenge the power of the Light. In their greed they sought the power of old, the control over the lives of non-mages. The Legions were used to hunt down these renegades, for that abuse of power could not again be tolerated... it could lead to the freeing of the Devourer, or worse.

As the last of the Wizards of Light perished, the bond between the Wizards and Legions became corrupted. The Legions became a power unto themselves, hunting mages and destroying magic of all kinds. They are now more of a religious sect, witchfinders if you will, though of enormous power and reach.

Meanwhile, the world has begun its recovery, growing without the destructive power, or the beauty, of magic. The abandoned Fortress of Light, home of the Wizards, has had a mighty forest grow around it, and a new Fortress of Light, controlled solely by the Legions, has appeared in the city of Aldar. Remote villages remain where once great cities flourished, such as Whitewater near the ruins of Mandolin. The face of the world has changed greatly since the reign of the Wizards. Most people prefer the heavy-handedness of the Legions to the fear instilled by the mages of the past.

Still, strange things have been seen lately... the stories, told by children, of creatures shadowed in darkness... that village found abandoned... the unnatural fear of going out at night. The Legions have begun their hunt once again, for they fear a new mage has been born who has eluded them, and who now abuses his power. Generations have passed since the Devourer hunted this world... for if any were still alive from that time, they would have recognized these signs for what they truly were...