IRON WOLVES Manual for beta-test version 1.0 July 19 1996 INTRODUCTION Iron Wolves is a 3D submarine/convoy game with sound and graphics which is easy to master and fun to play. It has a lively role-playing atmosphere where players take the role of the captain of a submarine or a ship and launch into battle against the enemy. It is a real time action game with a simple set of rules - you simply jump in and start playing, and within seconds you're sailing across the high seas on the lookout for enemy action. Ships are easily controlled using your mouse to issue commands by clicking on the various graphic controls. The ships are roughly modelled on those used during the second world war, so you get a feel of what it was like to fight in a sea battle. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS - Windows 95 - An account with an Internet provider - 32 bit Winsock - 3 meg hard disk space - 8 meg of memory minimum recommended - Modem capable of 2400 bps or higher - Graphics resolution 800 x 600, 16 bit (note: the game will run at lower resolutions but will look pretty awful) - Soundcard required for sound fx to play - Microsoft DirectX must be installed on your computer or the program will not run (if you do not have a copy you can download it from the Iron Wolves web page - see below.) INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE FROM CD Run the setup program and tell the software which directory you want Iron Wolves installed into. This will install both the Iron Wolves program and Microsoft DirectX. The Iron Wolves program will be added to your Start menu under Games. DOWNLOADING THE SOFTWARE FROM THE INTERNET If you do not already have a copy of the Iron Wolves software, or if you wish to download an updated version, you need to use your browser software to go to the Iron Wolves web page at http://www.on-line.co.uk/iw. There are several options here; one lets you download the latest version of the software. You can also download DirectX from the web page if you do not already have it installed on your computer. REGISTERING TO PLAY IRON WOLVES Before you can play Iron Wolves, you need to register to become a member of the game. Go to the Iron Wolves web page at http://www.on-line.co.uk/iw and select the option to become a member. You will be asked to provide your email address, your name, and to pick a user ID for the game. Then click Join Now, and a password will be emailed to you. If you want to change the password, there is an option on the web page to do so. PLAYING IRON WOLVES Run the Iron Wolves software and you will be connected to the Iron Wolves game. You will be asked for your user ID and password. If you have not played Iron Wolves on that user ID before, you will be asked to select a nickname, by which you will be known in the game. You will also have to choose whether you want to fight on the side of the Northlanders or the Westlanders. Once you've chosen your side, you are ready to join the fun! SELECTING YOUR SHIP Currently you can choose to pilot a corvette or a submarine. Later versions will let you choose a destroyer, merchant or tanker. Game-generated ships, or drones, can be all types except submarines. The different ships have different capabilities: Submarine - The silent hunter with lethal torpedoes; but subs are fragile and vulnerable and if a ship sees you coming it can out-manoeuvre you and drop depth charges. On the surface, subs are faster than all ships except destroyers, and can turn faster. Underwater they are much slower, so have to surface to catch up with their prey. Weapons: torpedoes plus a small deck-gun with short range and not very good accuracy. Corvette - The workhorse of convoy escorts, with reasonable hunt and kill capabilities. With sonar to spot subs and depth charges to drop on them, it can flush out and destroy the enemy, but is vulnerable to torpedoes. Corvettes are slower than destroyers and subs on the surface; faster than submerged subs, merchants and tankers. Weapons: larger guns than a submarine with better accuracy and a longer range, but slower firing rate. Destroyer - The crucial weapon in convoy escort duties, destroyers are currently the most powerful surface ship in Iron Wolves. It is the fastest ship, it's tough and can take a lot more damage than the others. It has powerful guns with faster firing rate, longer range and greater accuracy. Tanker and Merchant - Slow ships that often move in convoy protected by corvettes and destroyers. No weapons. Select your ship, and you will find yourself in the open sea, ready to search for your enemies. THE CONTROLS The Iron Wolves screen consists of a number of windows, which make up the controls to let you pilot your craft. There will be different controls depending on which ship you have chosen; these are detailed below. With one or two exceptions which are explained below, the controls are all operated by a single click of the left mouse button to set a control to a certain level. A single right click will clear what you are doing, i.e. set the control to stop or neutral. Some of the windows contain buttons that you click on to make something happen; in many cases, clicking on a button changes the button to something else so the effect toggles on or off. BRIDGE The bridge gives you a view of the surrounding sea, using either binoculars or periscope. All ships can use binoculars; only subs have a periscope. Subs can only use binoculars on the surface, and can use the periscope to a depth of 15m; below that they sail blind. Subs have an orders window to enable them to raise and lower the periscope and switch between periscope and binoculars as required. Drag the mouse pointer right or left to turn the view; an indicator tells you the angle you are looking at and the angle off bow (i.e., the angle from north, and the angle from the way the ship is facing). If there is a ship in view, you will be told what it is. Each ship has an identifying letter which determines its type, and a number: T - tanker U - submarine K - corvette DD - destroyer M - merchant A D after the designation means the ship is a drone, or computer-generated ship. You are also told if the ship is an enemy or friendly vessel. Take care not to fire on ships from your own side! If more than one ship is in view, rotate the view - you will be given info on the ship closest to the centre of your view. If you click on the bridge window and then press the Z key, the view zooms in. X zooms the view out. ENGINES The engine control lets you set the speed of your ship and whether you are going forwards or backwards: - Full ahead: move forwards fast - Slow ahead: move forwards slowly - Stop: brings the ship to a dead stop - Slow astern: move backwards slowly - Full astern: move backwards fast Simply click on one of the settings. Right clicking anywhere in the window sets the lever to Stop. COMPASS The compass window serves several purposes. It does the obvious - indicating which way the ship is facing; that's the red needle. There are also two white lines, a short one and a long one. The short white line shows you the direction the binoculars or periscope is facing. The long white line is the direction request. Click on a compass point and the line moves to that point. This instructs your helmsman to steer to that angle. When your ship reaches that angle (and the long white line and the red needle are in the same position) the helmsman straightens up. Obviously, this will only work if your engines are moving you forwards or backwards. The right mouse button clears the direction request, setting it to the same as your actual heading - instructing the helmsman to go straight. MAP TABLE The map table is a summary of all the information you have about the position of other ships: eyes, binoculars/periscope, hydrophone, sonar etc. You are depicted on the map as a black blob with a line coming out of it. The line shows which way your ship is facing. All other ships are shown in different colors: - Blue for Northland ships - Red for Westland ships - Green for ships that you are aware of by using sonar or hydrophone but have not yet been able to identify further The map consists of grid squares, depicted by blue lines. The squares are 100 x 100, and you will find most of the action in Iron Wolves takes place in the square 0 to 100. You can choose the zoom level of the map: - Visual distance is the range that can be seen using binoculars - Periscope range is the range that can be seen using periscope (this is a little shorter) - Sonar range is the range that sonar can detect other ships and is much shorter You can also use the map table to move your vessel. Click on the map to set your target destination, and a little black cross will appear. The engines will start and the helmsman will steer until you reach that destination. Right click and the target destination will be cancelled. SONAR AND HYDROPHONES Sonar identifies objects under the water, using pulses of sound which are echoed back if there is anything there. This is used by ships to find submerged submarines. Only corvettes and destroyers have sonar. Submarines have a hydrophone, which is a sensitive and highly directional underwater microphone which is rotated by the operator in order to detect other ships, explosions, depth charges and so on. You do not have to control either sonar or hydrophone; they are operated automatically and any vessels they find are displayed on the map table. SUBMARINE DEPTH (subs only) There are two ways to make a submarine submerge or surface; one is to use the hydroplanes to slowly sink or rise; the other is to go into a crash drive to submerge as fast as possible. To use the hydroplanes, you use the depth gauge window. The dial has two pointers; one shows you your current depth, and the other your required depth. Click on the dial to set the required depth to the level you want. The title bar confirms your current and required depth settings. You must be moving forwards or backwards or the hydroplanes won't do anything - you can't go straight up or down. Right clicking on the dial cancels your order by setting the required depth to the same as the current depth. To bring the sub to the surface, click in the blank space at the bottom of the dial and the required depth will be set to zero. To submerge in a hurry, use the Crash Dive button in the orders box. When you press this button, it sets your engines to full ahead, fills the ballast tanks so the sub has negative buoyancy, and sets the required depth to 175m. The sub will start to sink fast while moving in the direction the engines are set. At this point, you can manually stop the engines. You will stop moving forwards but will continue to sink. You can click on the Stop Dive button in the orders box, which will stop the engines, blow enough ballast to give you neutral buoyancy, and set the required depth to the same as the current depth. FIRING YOUR GUNS All vessels have guns they can fire at enemy ships. To fire your guns you have to point them at a target. Right click in the bridge window on the ship you want to fire at. The gun status window gives the name of your target and indicates whether it is out of range, in long, short or medium range. It tells you if the guns are loading, ready or firing. Press the button in the gun status window to commence firing. If the target is out of range the guns will wait until the target comes into range and then will start to fire. Unless you press the button again to cease firing, the guns will continue to fire until you destroy your target - or are killed yourself! You have an inexhaustible supply of ammo for your guns. FIRING TORPEDOES (subs only) Submarines have four torpedo tubes, all facing towards the front of the vessel. The torpedoes can only be fired if the binoculars or periscope is facing towards the front of the boat; the angle off bow must be plus or minus 15 degrees. The dial on the torpedo tube window will show you the angle, and when they can be fired the dial flashes green. Each torpedo tube has a green and a red light. When the red light is lit, it means the torpedo tube is being reloaded. The green light means it is ready to be fired. To fire a torpedo, click the left mouse button in the window. If you double-click, you will fire two torpedoes. You have an infinite number of torpedoes at your disposal. However, torpedoes are not totally reliable; sometimes you get a dud that will not explode. DROPPING A DEPTH CHARGE (all vessels except submarines) The depth charge window lets you drop a charge to the depth of your choice - simply move until you are over a submarine then click the button to determine the depth at which you want the charge to explode. RADIO ROOM The radio room window displays messages from other players and lets you send messages to them. It also shows you game messages, such as who has entered and left the Iron Wolves battle, and ships that have been sunk. The window has two parts; a large output box where text is displayed, and underneath that a small input box where you type messages you want to send. To send a message, click on the input box and type your message. Then hit return, or click on the send button. The other button determines who will get your message: All - all players in the battle Us - all players on your side Them - all players on your opposing side (great for jeering at the enemy) Click on the button to toggle through the three options. SCORING Each ship type has a base number of points, as follows: Destroyer 100 Submarine 75 Corvette 50 Merchant 10 Tanker 10 If you hit another ship, you gain the base points. If the ship is not a drone, that amount is multiplied by 5. If your shot destroys the ship, that amount is multiplied again by 10. So for example, if you hit and kill a player-driven corvette, the score for that shot will be 50 x 5 x 10 = 2500. The total amount for each shot is added to the mission score. However, if your target turns out to be a friendly ship, the total amount is deducted from your score! When you exit a battle, the score for the whole mission is totted up. Scores are not cumulative from one mission to another; your mission score is compared to your best ever score, and if it is higher then your best score will be amended. To see your mission score and your best ever score, select the View Service Record option from the Game menu. This shows you your current mission score, and your best ever for both submarine and corvette. LEAVING IRON WOLVES If you want to leave the battle but come back again with a different ship, select Exit Battle from the Game menu, then Join Battle. To leave Iron Wolves completely, select Exit. This will close down the Iron Wolves software. Note that this will not disconnect you from the Iron Wolves server; you will have to do that using your connection software. PLAYER INFO Select View Service Record in the Game menu to see information about your game character: your user ID, nickname, country and scores. Select Who's Playing from the Game menu and a list of players currently in the battle will scroll onto your radio room window. OTHER MENUS The Stations menu lets you toggle all the separate control windows on or off. The Feedback menu is not yet implemented. In the Game menu, the View Hi-score Table and Configuration options are not yet implemented. TALKING TO US Iron Wolves is still in beta-test; and yes, you may find bugs in it. To send us mail asking questions or reporting bugs, you can go to the web page at http://www.on-line.co.uk/iw, or send mail directly to ironwolves@mail.on-line.co.uk. UPDATES We are continuing to work on Iron Wolves and are producing new versions of the front-end software all the time. Sometimes the updates are not compulsory and you will be able to continue playing with an older version of the software. However, when we make major changes the updates become mandatory and you will be told when you try to play the game that your software is out of date. To update the software, go the web page and download the latest version.