Kohan: Battles of Ahriman Readme v1.9 If you want to know more about Wanadoo, please visit http://www.wanadoo-edition.com/ For the latest updates on Kohan: Battles of Ahriman, please visit http://www.timegate.com/kag If you want to know more about TimeGate Studios, please visit http://www.timegate.com/ Unauthorized copying, reproduction, rental, public performance, or broadcast of this game is a violation of applicable laws. Windows is a trademark or registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. All rights reserved. Contents: Introduction 1- Windows Related Issues a) Desktop Themes b) Microsoft Office Toolbar c) Microsoft FindFast d) Window95 Winsock e) Windows 2000 f) Windows XP 2- Troubleshooting a) Uninstalling b) Drivers c) DirectX d) Video Performance 3- Known Problems a) Graphics b) System c) Sound 4- Launcher Application and 'Mods' 5- Command Line Parameters 6- Special In-Game Commands 7- Contact Information 8- Miscellaneous Credit Introduction This file contains additional information that supplements the Kohan manual and reference card. For more information on playing Kohan: Battles of Ahriman, please refer to the manual and to the reference card supplied with the game. For more details on using the editor, please refer to the Kohan_Editor_Overview.doc. It can be found in the Extras folder located in the folder where you installed the game. 1- Windows Related Issues a) If you are using a Theme with your desktop, there may be potential glitches with the Autorun Panel cursor. b) In the event that the Microsoft Office toolbar appears in front of the Kohan game screen, you will have to disable the toolbar before starting the game. c) On many systems, there is a utility named FindFast.exe installed that regularly runs and keeps track of all the Microsoft Office files. This may slow down the game performance. If it is the case with your system, you may want to disable this utility. d) If you get the following error: "A required .DLL file, WS2_32.DLL, was not found." You will need the Windows 95 Winsock update. The file and installation instructions can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/wuadmintools/s_wunetw orkingtools/w95sockets2/ e) Windows 2000: Administrator Rights is required on Windows 2000 to install Kohan: Battles of Ahriman. Administrator Rights is also required to run the game, due to the copy protection scheme used. Otherwise, you will get the "No disc inserted" or "Wrong disc inserted" error. f) Windows XP: Administrator Rights is required on Windows XP to install Kohan: Battles of Ahriman. Administrator Rights is also required to run the game, due to the copy protection scheme used. Otherwise, you will get the "No disc inserted" or "Wrong disc inserted" error. If your version of Kohan: Battles of Ahriman does not use SecuROM, or uses a newer version of the copy protection, then it is possible to play in Limited User mode, but the game must then be installed to "Shared Documents" or the Administrator must grant full read/write access to the installation folder. 2- Troubleshooting a) Uninstalling When uninstalling Kohan: Battles of Ahriman, certain files and folders may be left behind in the folder where the game was installed, such as saved games, and other game generated files. If this is the case you may have to remove them manually. b) Drivers If you experience any problems running Kohan, you should verify that you have the latest drivers for your hardware from the appropriate manufacturer - particularly for your Sound card and Video card. Links to the most common manufacturers can be found at: http://www.timegate.com/ Folllow the Support link. c) DirectX DirectX 7 or later is required. While Kohan may be able to run with older versions of DirectX 3, you may experience problems. If you do not have a sufficiently recent version installed, you will need to reinstall Kohan and install the version of DirectX that is on the CD. The latest version of DirectX can also be obtained from http://www.microsoft.com/directx If you experience problems after the new Microsoft DirectX drivers have been installed, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary, or write to: Microsoft Customer Sales and Service, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399, USA USA telephone: 1-800-426-9400 International telephone: ++1-206-882-8080 d) Video Performance You may experience decreased frame rates in 5+ player games on large maps with several companies. If you do not have a high-end machine, we suggest the following options to improve performance: 1) Turn off music - go to the Options interface and reduce volume to 0 2) Turn off all zones 3) Avoid playing games with more than 4 players or games on large maps 4) Keep both the left and right panel up at all times (play with a smaller view area) 3- Known Problems a) Graphics To skip the company logos without skipping the game intro, use the space bar as opposed to the [Esc] key. The [Esc] key will skip all videos and send you directly to the Kohan main game menu. 1) When scrolling the radar, some radar blips may appear to jitter. 2) On some ATI Rage cards, you may experience problems such as: - the cursor leaves trails as it is moved around - some interface menus show vertical or horizontal lines These problems will not impact game play. b) System 1) If you experience screen corruption or desktop corruption when using ALT+TAB, you should first obtain the latest drivers for your video adapter. If the problem persists, you should avoid using ALT+TAB (or use the "cooperative" command line parameter, but that requires you to change your desktop resolution - see the "Command Line Parameters" section). c) Sound 1) On some older sound cards, some sounds may be played as a loud hiss. This is a random problem. You should obtain the latest drivers for your sound card. You may also try to fix the problem by quitting Kohan and restarting the game. 2) On some older sound cards you may hear a "pop" when a voice over begins play. 3) On some older sound cards, the master volume slider on the Options interface does nothing. You should update to the latest drivers for your sound card. 4- Launcher Application and 'Mods' A .TGX file (expansion or mod - short for 'modification') is an optional add-on to change your Kohan experience. Version 1.1 of Kohan introduces support for TGX files and a launcher application to assist in managing them. This application (KohanLauncher.exe) is run automatically by Kohan if it detects the presence of these files. Use it to select which TGX files to load. If you only have one expansion TGX file, you will be given the option to select the original game (no expansion) or the expansion game. Click on the desired option and it will launch Kohan. If you have more than one TGX file available, you will be given a list of all files (maximum 32). Select which TGX files you would like to use then select "Launch." Note that clicking on the icon for the original game serves no actual purpose other than to clear the selection of any expansion games. Be aware that use of these files has strong compatibility issues with respect to films and savegames. To reload a different set of TGX files (or none), you will need to quit and restart Kohan. If you would like to skip the launcher application, you can use the "NoLauncher" command line parameter. If you would like to explicitly load a TGX file, you can use the "AddWad" parameter. 5- Command Line Parameters You may add parameters to the Kohan command line to customize startup or to resolve problems. To add parameters, 1) right-click on the Kohan shortcut, click Properties, and then select the Shortcut tab. 2) In the Target box, enter the desired parameters after the existing command line text. Parameters must be separated by a space. E.g. "c:\program files\kohan\kohan.exe" noreschange Others * cooperative - Run Kohan in cooperative mode. It will run a bit slower, but you are less likely to have video problems, and alt-tabbing will be faster. However, your desktop must be in 1024x768 @ 16bit. This selection also enables "noreschange". * noreschange - Do not change resolutions for the cinematics (some video cards may have problems remaining in 1024x768). * nodiskspacecheck - skip the disk space check when Kohan in run. * monitorcheck - test if your system can handle the resolution required by Kohan * showfilm [x] - immediately start film [x] after launching Kohan. E.g. kohan showfilm "films\some film.tgf". * channels [x] - change the number of sound channels that Kohan uses. The default is 32, but you may be able to improve performance by reducing this number to 8 or 16. E.g. kohan channels 8 * ignoresync - ignore sync errors in films. This is useful if you want to play a film from an older version. However, the film will not playback correctly. * noswappause - don't pause the game when you ALT-TAB out of Kohan (which is already the rule for multiplayer games). This is useful for running AI-only games while you do some other work outside Kohan. * noobserver - do not run films in observer mode. Films of custom games are otherwise always run in observer mode. With this option, you will have the perspective of the first player, like campaign films. * AddWad [x] - manually specify an expansion/mod TGX file to be loaded. E.g. "AddWad SuperFootman.tgx" * NoLauncher - don't run the launcher application (which is run automatically if you have expansion/mod TGX files present) 6- Special In-Game Commands The following "slash commands" are available in the game. They can be sent by using the chat box (ENTER). a) Miscellaneous Commands * "/version" - reports the game version * "/time" - reports the elapsed game time * "/score" - reports your score * "/report" or "/r" - reports your economy to your allies via chat b) AI Tell Commands ("/tell" or "/t") Tell commands can be used to communicate instructions to your computer-controlled AI allies. These commands that will not necessarily be carried out, but they do influence the AI player's thinking. To use tell commands, first select a building (if appropriate - not all tell commands require a target building), then send the command via chat with the following format (hit ENTER to bring up the chat box). /tell [target player] [command] [parameter] Target Player: This field can be a given in a variety of formats. Either a player number, a player color, or a player name. 1..8 = send the command to the AI playing this kingdom. E.g. '/tell 2' is the second player (blue). color name = send the command to the kingdom of that color. E.g. '/tell blue' 1 = red 2 = blue 3 = green 4 = black 5 = orange 6 = purple 7 = cyan 8 = brown player name = send the command to the given AI. E.g. '/tell Syrad Amon' * = send the command to all allied AIs E.g. '/tell *' all or a = send the command to all allied AIs E.g. '/tell all' or '/t a' Command [Parameter]: There are seven different AI tell commands. Building commands (attack and defend) can also be used by selecting a building first, then issuing the command. attack [building] = request the AI send forces to attack this building E.g. '/tell black attack Garland' or '/tell black attack' after selecting Garland defend [building] = request the AI send forces to defend this building E.g. '/tell Darius defend' after selecting Cleardale cancel [building] = request the AI cancel all tell commands E.g. '/tell a cancel' after selecting a building list = request a list of active tell commands E.g. '/tell 2 list' reset = clear all previous attack/defend commands E.g. '/tell 2 reset' report = request an economy report from the AI tribute [amount] = request the AI give you the specified amount of gold. E.g. '/tell green tribute 50' This does not work in campaign play, and the AI must be doing well financially to agree. Abbreviated commands: Instead of 'attack/defend/cancel/list/report/tribute/reset' you can use 'a/d/c/l/r/t/rst'. E.g. "/t 2 a" tells player 2 to attack the selected building. "/t * r" tells all AI allies to report their economy. 7- Contact Information France Wanadoo Edition SOLUTIONS: +33 (0)8 92 68 01 49 24/7 0,34 EUR TTC/mn HOTLINE: +33 (0)8 21 21 11 22 du lundi au vendredi de 13h00 à 21h00 0,12 EUR TTC/mn e-mail : support@wanadoo.com http://www.wanadoo-edition.com (Please read our FAQ sheets or use the Technical Support page before writing or calling us.) Game site: http://www.timegate.com/kag 8- Miscellaneous Credit Uses Bink Video. Copyright (C) 1997-2001 by RAD Game Tools, Inc.