DP Tool Club 19/CD_ASCQ_19_010295.iso/vrac/dspire15.zip/README.DOC

Text File | 1994-11-12 | 20KB | 405 lines

                 Welcome to DragonSpires!

                     brought to you by:

                          Dragon's Eye Productions


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Table of Contents
-----------------
I.    Introduction - What Why Who When Where How?
II.   Getting started - Installing and Connecting.
III.  How to play - List of keyboard commands.
IV.   Where to get the latest software and info.
V.    Changing options, troubleshooting tips.
VI.   Frequently Asked Questions.
VII.  How to contact Dragon's Eye, and why.
VIII. Final word from the author.

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I.   Introduction - What Why Who When Where How?


  What?   DragonSpires is an online fantasy world that you can connect
          to through the Internet.  It uses special front end software
          for the PC, supplying hi resolution color graphics, music, and
          sound effects.  It's intended as a "place" for people to meet
          and socialize, as well as to play out heroic quests and various
          other types of games.

          DragonSpires is currently available totally free, for anyone that
          wants to play it.  However, it is a prototype for a commercial
          service, so it may not be around forever.  I may or may not choose
          to leave a demo version running when I have a full commercial game
          in operation.  But I reserve the right to shut it down at any time,
          for any reason, so don't say I didn't warn you.


   Why?   I've wanted to make this game for nine years now, ever since I
          first conceived it.  The reasons to do it have grown over the
          years, as have the things I plan to do with it.  But the desire
          has never wavered.

          For months now, I've been talking to some companies about funding
          this project.  I'm still talking to them - but I decided a few
          weeks back I was tired of waiting for that process to conclude,
          and had to just start MAKING the game.

          I'm hoping that having the game partially working will attract the
          attention of someone who will fund the project.  If you're that
          someone, please contact me.  After that?  Well, I want to make
          DragonSpires the biggest, best game in the history of mankind.  To
          contribute to the evolution of virtual societies, and hopefully to
          make some good money for my partner and I.


   Who?   I'm Dr. Cat, and my partner is 'Manda Dee.  We make computer games
          for a living.  We're best know for the work we did on the award
          winning Ultima series of fantasy roleplaying games.  (We appear as
          characters in several of the games also, as Dr. Cat and Penumbra.)

          'Manda is an artist, almost all of the art you see in DragonSpires
          is hers.  She's also done writing, game design, and composed
          original music for games.  She's the most talented person I know.

          I'm a designer, programmer, writer, futurist, independent producer,
          and a few other things.  My business card says "Creative Director",
          and has a beautiful, shiny silver dragon on it.  I did almost
          everything in DragonSpires that isn't art.  I taught myself how to
          program 16 years ago, got my first modem 14 years ago, and wrote
          my first published game 12 years ago.  I've been fascinated and
          obsessed with games of all types for as long as I can remember.

          *** News flash! ***  Less than a week after starting the project,
          we've been joined by Jeff Dee, who's decided to devote his time
          and energy to working with us on this.  Jeff has been making games
          professionally even longer than I, starting with Villains and
          Vigilantes.  He did art for Dungeons and Dragons, Masters of Orion,
          Blake Stone, and was Art Director on Ultima VII.  And yes, he and
          'Manda ARE related.


  When?   24 hours a day, 365 days a year, all the time, always.  Barring
          any unexpected crashes, I intend to keep DragonSpires running
          non-stop, around the clock.  Online games and chat programs do
          for one's need for social interaction what indoor plumbing did
          for the need for water.  That is, they make it easily available,
          whenever you want, as much or as little as you want.  Enjoy!


 Where?   DragonSpires is currently available on The Eden Matrix, through
          the generosity of Adhesive Media.  They have World-Wide-Web
          publishing services, publish comic books like "Too Much Coffee
          Man", and are nice folks.  The latest client software is available
          from ftp.eden.com in the /pub/dspire directory.  The game runs on
          boris.eden.com at port address 7734.  See section IV for more info.


   How?   How did I do it?  Same way most worthwhile things are accomplished
          in this world, through determination and ceaseless dedication.
          Having years of experience and a certain amount of talent doesn't
          hurt, either.  Regardless, I will not stop making this game now
          unless I die, and maybe not even then.  My entire life up until
          now has just been training for this.

          How can you get involved?  Right now, you probably can't.  Other
          than as a player, and a member of the community of players that I
          hope will spring up online.  But if you're really determined, read
          section VI.

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II.  Getting started - Installing and Connecting.


   (Quickstart - if you're terribly clever, and don't need all the following
instructions:  Run dspire.exe, then telnet to boris.eden.com 7734 from the
terminal mode.  You should be able to figure out the rest.)

   DragonSpires is pretty easy to set up.  If you're reading this, you've
probably already gotten through the first two steps - getting a copy of the
.zip file, and unpacking it.  It's usually best to create a subdirectory just
for DragonSpires, so its files don't get all jumbled up with other things.

   From DOS, change to the DragonSpires subdirectory and type "dspire".  (It
may or may not run if you execute it from Windows or OS/2, but I don't
recommend this.  Even if the current version works, future versions may not,
and it may not run 100% reliably in any case.  ESPECIALLY if you use Windows
for task switching.)  The program will ask you for some information about
your modem and sound card.  If you don't have any sound card, or just want
to play the game with music and sound turned off, answer "0" to both
questions about your sound card.  Don't worry about making any mistakes when
you answer the questions.  If you do, you can always type "setup" and answer
all the questions over again.

   After you answer lots of questions, the program will put you into Teensy
Term.  This works just like a normal terminal program, only without any
features.  You can dial into whatever system you normally telnet out from
and log on.  Type "ATDT" followed by the phone number of the computer you
want to dial.  (It doesn't matter if you put a space in-between or not.)

   If you'd rather use your normal terminal program to log on, you can do
that too.  Just log on normally, and then exit from your terminal program,
change to the DragonSpires directory, and type "dspire".  Make sure to exit
completely from the terminal program, rather than just shelling out, so that
all of your memory is available.  You'll also have to make sure you log on
with the same baud rate that you've configured DragonSpires to use, and your
terminal program needs to be set to N-8-1.  (This means No parity, 8 data
bits, and 1 stop bit, and is the default setting on most terminal programs.)

   Once you're running DragonSpires, logged onto your local host, and at a
suitable prompt, all you have to do is telnet to the server, and the rest
is automatic.  Press alt-T, or type "telnet boris.eden.com 7734".  You'll be
asked to select a character name and password, and then the game will begin!

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III. How to play - List of keyboard commands.


If you ever need a list of all the keyboard commands from within the game,
press alt-h for help.

Movement can be controlled with the Home, PgUp, End, and PgDn keys.  You
must make sure Num Lock is OFF.  The left and right arrow keys will let
you turn in place without moving.

   You speak in DragonSpires by simply typing a message.  Other players
in the game will see it, and may reply if they choose.  You can also do a
"pose" if you want, by beginning your message with a ":".  If your name is
Trixie, and you type "Hi everyone!", then you will see "You say 'Hi
everyone!'" and everyone else will see "Trixie: Hi everyone!"  But if you
use a ":" and type ":waves hello." you and everyone else will see "Trixie
waves hello."  You can "whisper" a message to one person only by putting a
"/" and their name at the beginning.  So you could type "/trixie Hi back!"
to send a message only Trixie will hear.  Note that "/trix" or "/tr" would
work just as well, as long as there's nobody else around who's name starts
with those same letters besides Trixie.

   Pressing alt-w will show you a list of who's currently online.  Pressing
alt-x or Esc will exit from the game.  Pressing the up-arrow will scroll the
text window backwards.  Pressing the down-arrow will scroll it forwards
again.  Pressing the Tab key will swing your sword.  Pressing alt-g will let
you get/drop items.

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IV.  Where to get the latest software and info.


   All the latest files relevant to DragonSpires will always be available
at ftp.eden.com, in the directory /pub/dspire.  Periodically you may need
to update your client software to work with newer versions of the server.
Soon there will be an option built in to automatically upgrade your software
for you when you connect to the server, to eliminate this inconvenience.
Note that unpacking a new version into the same directory where you had the
older client will leave all of your setup info intact, saving you the
trouble of entering it again.

   For the time being, I intend to carry out most public discussion of the
game (what's planned for it, what people want to see, etc.) on the Usenet
newsgroup rec.games.mud.misc.  PLEASE, try to bring things up there, rather
than sending me email.  Within the next two weeks, I hope to have a message
board system set up within DragonSpires itself.

   I do have a big file detailing many of my future plans for features for
the game and other things.  I may decide to release it publically at some
point, I may not.  Serious potential investors are welcome to see it.  I
will, in any case, be discussing specific, near-term additions on the
message boards, and asking people for feedback on what they'd like to see
added first.

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V.   Changing options, troubleshooting tips.


   You can change your character colors by type "colors" in the DragonSpires
directory.  Type "sound" to change your soundcard setup, or to turn music or
sound effects on or off.  Type "modem" to change your serial port settings.
And type "setup" to re-configure EVERYTHING.

   Note that your character name and password are stored in the file called
"CHAR1.SAV".  If you give a copy of DragonSpires to a friend, you should
leave out this file from the copy, so they can create a fresh character.
If you want to make a new character, renaming or deleting this file will
cause the game to prompt you for a new one.  If you rename it, you can still
use the old character by copying it back later.  You can have different
colors for each character too, if you move the "CHAR1.COL" file around also.
And your description is stored in the file "CHAR1.TXT".


   Problem:  I get to Teensy Term mode, and then the characters I type don't
appear on the screen.

   Things to try:  Type "ATZ" and hit Enter.  If that doesn't help, it may
be that the serial routines didn't intialize your port correctly.  Press
alt-x and type "dspire" again.  If that doesn't do it, running your normal
terminal program first and then exiting should initialize everything.  If
that doesn't work either, you probably set your comm port and/or baud rate
incorrectly.  Press alt-x and type "modem" to try again.


   Problem:  When I try connecting to my local service provider with Teensy
Term, all I get are garbage characters.

   Things to try:  Check to see if you've been using any settings other than
N-8-1 (No parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit) to connect to your host.  Currently
DragonSpires uses those settings by default.  If your host can only use E-7-1
or some other combination, DragonSpires simply won't work.  Support for other
settings MIGHT be added some day, but I'm not currently planning to.


   Problem:  I'm using a 2400 baud modem, and I get weird things on my
screen sometimes.  Like extra copies of people's shapes left behind.

   Things to try:  You're probably getting line noise.  DragonSpires doesn't
currently do error-correction, and I'm not sure whether I'm going to add it
in, as it's becoming a standard hardware feature with more and more people
moving to high speed modems.  You may be able to see some improvement if you
talk to your service provider or local phone company about the quality of
the lines.  But ultimately, the best solution is to get a newer, better modem.
I've seen 14,400 baud internal modems for as little as $69.95.


   Problem:  It says I'm out of memory when I try to run the game.

   Things to try:  Don't "shell out" of your terminal program, if you're
using one to log on with.  Exit completely from it, that will leave more
memory available.  Don't run the game under Windows.  If you're using
Windows, exit completely from it and run the game directly from Dos.  If
all else fails, users of Dos 6 or later can hold down the "shift" key while
booting to avoid loading any drivers, which may leave more memory free.
(Users of older versions of Dos can do this by creating a boot disk.)


   Problem:  Something else went wrong that wasn't listed above.

   Things to try:  Turn off the sound and music.  Type "sound" from the
DragonSpires directory, and answer "0" to both questions.  That might help.
Exiting Windows or trying a clean boot, as suggested in the answer to the
"out of memory" problem above, may help with other problems too.


   Problem:  None of those suggestions worked, now what can I do?

   Things to try:  Post a message on rec.games.mud.  Someone there may have
solved the same problem you're facing, and be able to help.  Send email to
[e-mail].  He's volunteered to collect bug reports, help people
with problems that he knows how to fix, and look for patterns to help me
find and fix the ones I need to fix.  Tell him all the basics of your
system configuration to help in figuring out what DragonSpires may have
compatibility problems with I need to look at.

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VI.  Frequently Asked Questions.


Question:  It looks cool, but what is there to DO?  What's the point of
           the game!

  Answer:  Not much, yet.  I've only been making the game for a few weeks
           now, and I haven't put many things in to do yet!  I thought
           people would like to see what the game is looking like so far,
           so I put it online.  There will be more things to do soon.


Question:  Will you support playing the game through SLIP/PPP/Ethernet?

  Answer:  See the next question.


Question:  Will there be a Windows version?

  Answer:  We've got someone working on one now.  When it's finished, we
           should have full support for WinSock, which will let people
           connect through SLIP, PPP, Ethernet connections, etc.  It will
           also be in 256 colors, and should support multiple resolutions
           eventually.  The DOS version will be phased out not long after
           we move to supporting Windows.


Question:  Will there be a Macintosh version?

  Answer:  I don't know.  There won't be one SOON, for sure.  I wouldn't even
           want to accept a volunteer to make one for me right now, with all
           the code still changing so fast.  There will probably be a Mac
           version someday.


Question:  Will there be a (X Windows/Power PC/Amiga/etc.) version?

  Answer:  Maybe someday.


Question:  Will there be a TRS-80 version?

  Answer:  No.


Question:  Will there be mouse support?

  Answer:  There definitely will be when I move to Windows.  There might not
           be any before that, especially as a lot of the code I'd have to
           write would be thrown away when I move to Windows anyway.


Question:  How soon will you add such-and-such feature?

  Answer:  I don't know.  When I have a budget and a full-time project team,
           I schedule things.  For the time being, I'm just doing stuff at
           whatever pace it gets done at.

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VII. How to contact Dragon's Eye, and why.


   Wow, you made it this far!  Or else you know how to use the Page Down key.
In any case, let me first tell you who should NOT contact me right now.  If
you're not someone who intends to fund the development of DragonSpires, most
likely I really can't spare the time to talk to you right now.  If I don't
find funding soon, I'm going to take on some other paying project.  Until
then, I really want to focus all my time and energy into adding as much into
the game as I can.  And of course, if I *do* end up doing continuing
development of the game in my spare time, I'll have even LESS time to spare.

   What I'm hoping to do, if this remains a non-funded project for a while,
is to get someone I know to act as a "volunteer coordinator".  (Please don't
offer to do THAT, I already have several candidates in mind.)  Anyone who
wanted to contribute by doing art, or music, or designing maps of areas, or
programming, or whatever, would email the coordinator, thus saving me from
dealing with more mail than I have time to handle.  If I get that set up,
I'll announce it publically, as well as modifying this document to reflect
it.  Until such time as that happens, please just sit tight and wait.  I
appreciate any sincere desire to help anyone might have, but right now I'm
at a point where I need to focus on implementing the core of the game, and
ignore almost everyone - even friends and loved ones, to say nothing of
helpful strangers.

   That said, if you ARE seriously interested in funding this project, and
are in a position to do something about it, I think I have a unique and
exceptional opportunity to discuss.  My partners and I, together with the
experienced and talented contractors we regularly work with, have the ability
to deliver a product of higher quality than has yet been seen in the online
entertainment industry.  An industry that has, over the last year, entered
a period of exceptional growth that's likely to continue for some years to
come.  I'm easy to get in touch with, let's talk.

   You can email me at [e-mail].  Phone me at [phone].  Fax me
at [phone].  Send me a letter at 4815 West Braker Lane, Suite 502-164,
Austin, TX  78759.  Or call my BBS at [phone].

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VIII. Final word from the author.


            Enjoy.

                -- Dr. Cat,  October 4th, 1994