Amiga Format 85/af085b.adf/af85b.DMS/af85b.adf/Read_Me

Text File | 1994-06-27 | 12KB | 279 lines

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## #                                                 # ##
## #         This is  Obbe Vermeij's game            # ##
## #                                                 # ##
## #                 The Shepherd                    # ##
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    THE SHEPHERD IS A SHAREWARE GAME !


If you like this game and play it a lot please send some
money to the author. This will enable him to support other
shareware stuff that HE likes.

30 US$ , 50 DM, 18 British Pounds or any equivalent amount
of money in any other currency will make you a registered
Shepherd-player. (international money order or cash)
You will receive a manual including a very handy who-eats-
who guide. You will also be informed on any changes/updates
in the game.


Author of 'the Shepherd' is Obbe Vermeij ;

    O.Vermeij
    Brasserskade 69
    2612 CA  Delft
    Holland
    [phone]
    email : [e-mail]



to start the game, double click on the 'the_shepherd' icon.
disk in df0: !

-



the Shepherd; the Story.

It was a zillion years ago that the gods got bored. They
were floating around in the big black void they called
home with nothing to do and not even a snack-bar around.
At that moment the gods did what entities do as they get
bored; they started to play games. First a god created
an enormous firecracker and lighted the thing. This
of course was great fun. At the explosion a lot of balls
of mud were created and the gods soon figured out a lot
of great things to do with these spheres. They played
snooker, tennis, golf, cricket and bowling. After a while
they were so good at predicting the course of the mud-
balls that they had to come up with some sort of new game
and that is what they did.

One of the gods took one of the mud-balls and created
some extremely simple, extremely unintelligent and
extremely ugly artificial lifeforms on it. This mud-
ball was the arena of the new game. In this game (the
gods simply called it 'the Shepherd') two gods had to
compete. Each of them would try to make his artificial
lifeforms (the gods called them animals) in larger
quantities than the other. The player that could destroy
all the animals of the enemy was declared winner.
Of course knowledge on behaviour of the life-forms
was the key element to the game.
The gods were really having a great time when one of
the artificial life-forms (this is where you come in)
wanted to compete. It was a member of the group of
lifeforms that was the 3rd most intelligent on the
mud-ball. Some gods called them apes V2.0 but others
called them humans.

Of course most of the gods wouldn't play against a
human but some thought he ought to have a chance.
It was decided that the human-player should play
against the best 'the Shepherd'-players. If the human
should beat them all (this was considered highly un-
likely) the gods would promise him not only to save
the mud-ball, the human lived on, from being used in
a game of space-snooker after they finished playing
'the Shepherd', (This was their original plan with
the mud-ball) but they would also tell the human the
meaning of life, the universe and everything.
Every time the human would beat a god, a small piece
of knowledge would be revealed to the human.

Now, human, it is time to start the challenge. Most
of the rules of 'the Shepherd' are described here but
tactics and strategies are for you to learn yourself.





- the Shepherd; the rules.

   The Shepherd will run on an Amiga with at least 512k chip and a
total memory of 1 Megabyte.

   The idea of the game is to buy animals and to move them over the
map so that they multiply as fast as possible. The player controls
the red animals (red animals wear a red band around the neck or tail)
and the Amiga controls the blue ones.

   Animals are grouped in flocks and an individual animal will always
stay in the neighborhood of the flock-center. The flock-center is
indicated by a golden pricker with a statue of the specific kind
of animal on top of it. A player cannot control the individual animals
but only the flock-prickers. When a pricker is moved the animals be-
longing to that specific flock will start to move in the direction
of the pricker until they are once again close enough. When left
alone the animals will search for food and water. Well fed animals
will produce young.

   Of course there is only a limited supply of food. The trees and
bushes on the map grow and produce more bushes but as the animals
get more numerous the vegetation usually gets scarce. The idea is
to keep the computers' flock away from the best forests. Players
can also start new forests by buying trees and placing them at the
right height. (firs high, birches low)

   Buying animals and trees as well as unchaining natural phenomena
like lightning and vulcanoes costs energy. A player gets energy for
every animal he owns but of course an elephant makes more energy than
a young deer. When the player gets more energy, more options will
come available for him.




- the Shepherd; the buttons.

   There are 3 ways to move the map:
- By using the buttons with the arrows.
- By moving the small square over the small map.
- By pressing the right mouse button and moving the mouse.

Buttons:

        O     This button moves a flock.
   O    +     Press this button and move the pointer to a flock on
   + -> |     the map.(a picture of the flock-pricker will appear
   |          between the 8 direction arrows) Press the left mouse
              button. (The picture will become stable) Scroll to the
              desired location and press the left mouse button again.

      O       This button splits a flock.
 O    + O     Press this button. Click on the flock-pricker and two
 + -> | +     prickers will come into being, both containing half the
 |      |     number of animals. This will be usefull when a flock
              became to large for a certain food source.

 O            This button merges two flocks.
 + O    O     Click on the first flock-pricker and then on the second.
 | + -> +     The two flocks will become one. This only works with
   |    |     flocks of the same species.

        ##    Purchase animal.
        #     Animals and plants can be bought using this button.
  -> ####     Animals can only be placed near the large golden statue
     #  #     of the Shepherd. (the computer also has such a begin-
              point).Plants can be placed everywhere but it is wise
              to place them at the right height. (In the first level
              the large golden shepherd statue is positioned in the
              middle of the field)

There are many other buttons (like start rain, raise water, lower
water, raise land locally, lower land locally, release virus, start
lightning, scare animals(NI), earthquake, vulcano, erode mountains,
carnivorous plants) but you will discover them as you play the game.



-the Shepherd; level goals.

Note that there are different goals in different levels. The goal for
a specific level is mentioned as you start the level.
There may or may not be a time limit.
When the goal is to fill your manna-meter (cumulative) the manna-meter
no longer reflects the amount of animals you have at that moment but
the amount of animals you have ever had multiplied by the time you
have had them. (Having had 1 elephant for 2 minutes is just as good
as having had 2 elephants for 1 minute).


-the Shepherd; Passwords.

Every time you complete a level you will get a level-password.
(something like 'kldoa') This password enables you to start at
that level the next time you play the game. A password only works
for a specific shepherd-name. The default name is 'nobody'. If
you want to use another name (like 'oliebol') you'd better change
the name before you begin level 1. There is no way to change the
name when you are on level 2 or higher without having to start
all over. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with playing
with 'nobody' as a name.


-the Shepherd; Manna-meters.

At any stage in a game the computer has a certain amount of manna
(representing its bio-mass) and the player has a certain amount
of manna. These amounts are displayed in the manna-meters of the
computer and the player. These manna-meters are displayed to the
left of the turn-map buttons. For the computer the manna shows up
blue and for the player red/orange. The manna-meters look like a
bunch of tubes with 2 sections. A section to the left spiralling
upwards and a small section to the right. The left section is a
fine scale and the right section is the part you will usually be
looking at. This may sound very complicated and unfortunately it
is. It may help however to take a look at the manna-meter while
buying animals.
The 2 manna-meters (computer and player) will be replaced by one
manna-meter on levels where there is a time limit. Just click on
the manna-meter to toggle between computer/player manna-meter.



-the Shepherd; Getting started.

Some people may find it useful to follow this example to get
the general idea of the game and to get used to the important
buttons.
It may be a good idea to print this section out on paper for use
while playing. (You could also memorize it)
Make sure you read the explanation with the 4 buttons described
above. They are very important and will be used frequently.

Here we go:
Start the game by pressing the icon with the Shepherd.
Enjoy the 2 intro screens.
When signs appear press a button to go to the selection screen.
(the 'h' key will do quite nicely)
You can use the 'F3' key to change the name of the shepherd.
Start the game by pressing 'F1'. This will take about 20 secs.

You will now see a part of the game-world in the center of the
screen and a small map of the total game-world in the upper
left part of the screen.
Now move the small square in the upper left window to the red
dot on the map. Click the left mouse button when pointing on
the upper left window to move the small square. When the small
square in the upper left window covers the red dot you will
see a red statue of a shepherd on the large view on the center
of the screen.
This shepherd-statue is your begin point. Newly bought animals
can only be placed near this statue. Newly bought trees can be
placed all over the map.
Now we are going to buy an animal. Press the 6th button from
the left (the buy animal button, under the small bird). A row
of animals and trees will be displayed. Choose the animal you
want to buy. (Sheep would be a good idea (3rd from the left))
The next thing you have to do is to place the sheep on the map.
(large map) You have to place the sheep close to the Shepherd-
statue (THIS IS IMPORTANT). If you try to place them too far
away, nothing will happen but if everything goes well a small
golden pricker with a golden sheep on top of it will appear.
The 2 real sheep you just bought will stay close to their gol-
den flock-pricker.
Your sheep will need food so it's a good idea to move the flock-
pricker to a place where there is food. Somewhat to the right
of the large shepherd-statue there is a group of bushes. Use the
left most button to move the sheep flock-pricker to the bushes.
When you have done that, your sheep will follow their flock-pricker.
They will eat from the bushes and when spring comes they will
probably produce young.
This might take a few miutes but you can use the >> button to
speed-up time and skip a minute or so forward in the game.
(This might take a second or two)