"The inevitable gap between Conquest and Dominion becomes filled with the figures of the greedy trader, the inopportune missionary, the ambitious soldier, and the lying speculator, who disquiet the minds of the conquered and excite the sordid appetites of the conquerors. And as the eye of thought rests on these sinister features, it hardly seems possible for us to believe that any fair prospect is approached by so foul a path."
..Winston Churchill
CONQUEST and DOMINION has the goal of conquering the known world and maintaining dominion over it. It tries as much as possible to be a microcosm of economic survival.
As you read this manual and try the program, a new updated version is in the works. Due to the complex nature of Conquest and Dominion there shall always be an update in the works... As long as you the user continues to support it by registering, and making sure other users register also, we will continue to produce upgrades.
When you register this program you will receive by return post a copy of the latest version, and you will continue to receive, free, new updates by mail for one year from your date of registration. In addition, anyone who has registered before January 1 1994 may download new updates of Conquest and Dominion, free, off our Bbs forever. Read the Future chapter at the end of this manual to find out what the proposed upgrades will be.
The drawback to distributing software as shareware is that many will use it and few if any will register. Registration is a pain and cripple ware is a pain, and putting fully functioning software out on the bulletin boards and not having anyone come up with the registration fee and register is a pain.
The only way that we can continue to develop this software, and get it to the advanced stage proposed in The Future chapter of this manual, in a reasonable time, is to be able to work on it full time. To do that it takes food, and the rent being paid. When you register the program and give copies of it to your friends so that they can register it, you will benefit yourself with commissions, ( see below ) and benefit us in that we can continue to produce the best products we can for the AMIGA.
CONTENTS
1.0 Registration of CONQUEST and DOMINION
1.1 Commissions
1.2 Un-registered Versions
1.3 Registered Versions
1.4 Copyright Notice
1.5 Program Warranty
1.6 Updates and Program Support
1.7 Agreement
1.8 Memory Requirements
2.0 Copying
2.1 Floppy Installation
2.1.1 Boot Disk
2.2 Harddrive Installation
3.0 Quick Operation
4.0 Reference
4.1 Menus
4.1.1 Project-New
4.1.2 Project-Open
4.1.3 Project-Save
4.1.4 Project-SaveAs
4.1.5 Project-Info
4.1.6 Project-Quit
4.2 Windows
4.2.1 Control Screen
4.3 Gadgets
4.3.1 Mapzoom
4.3.2 Stop
4.3.3 Magnify
4.3.4 Clock
4.3.5 Workbench
4.3.6 Bank
4.3.7 World
4.3.8 Build
4.3.9 Order
4.3.10 Info
4.4 Vehicle Gadgets
4.4.1 Infantry
4.4.2 Tank
4.4.3 Artillery
4.4.4 Supply
4.4.5 Bomber
4.4.6 Fighter
4.4.7 Navy
4.4.8 Merchant
4.5 Land Improvements
4.6 Windows
4.6.1 Build Window
4.6.2 Bank Window
4.6.3 Order Window
4.6.4 Info Window
5.0 The Future
1.0 Registration of CONQUEST and DOMINION
As a non-registered user of CONQUEST and DOMINION, you may copy, distribute, use, and run this unregistered version 1.00 for as long a time as you want. If you decide you would like to register, and wish to receive the registered version and any new updates. Double click on the COPYING icon in the COPYING drawer and follow the instructions. Fill out the registration form that can be printed out on your printer, or include the necessary information on a separate sheet of paper, and send the registration fee of $40.00 CDN in Canada or $40.00 US elsewhere to:
CONQUEST and DOMINION
GYRUS SOFTWARE GROUP
P.O. Box 250
LILLOOET
BRITISH COLUMBIA
CANADA
V0K 1V0
Please send postal or international money orders in US or Canadian funds only and make them payable to Bill McCarter.
Upon registration you will receive the latest version of CONQUEST and DOMINION, and be eligible to receive commissions on other registered copies of CONQUEST and DOMINION. As well you will be registered on the GYRUS BBS (604)-256-4207, where you will find the latest version of CONQUEST and DOMINION, demos of our other educational software and public domain programmers utilities.
1.1 COMMISSIONS
To help promote the use and distribution of CONQUEST and DOMINION there is a system of commissions available to registered users.
When you use the COPYING program, found in the COPYING drawer, to make copies of CONQUEST and DOMINION you update a history file that keeps a record of the past distribution history of your copy. This history allows us to determine the amount of commission you are eligible to receive.
This commission is determined by how many copies you have distributed and how many of those copies have been registered.
The way it is calculated is as follows:
1: You must register yourself.
2: You receive $5.00 five dollars for every first level registration
3: You receive $4.00 four dollars for every second level registration
4: You receive $3.00 three dollars for every third level registration
5: You receive $2.00 two dollars for every fourth level registration
6: You receive $1.00 one dollars for every fifth level registration
For example:
Say that you give out four copies to your friends and two of them register, Your friends are at your first level, so you would receive $10.00.
Your friends at your first level now give out four copies to their friends (16 copies), these new 16 copies at your second level; and now half of these register (8 register), you receive the $10.00 plus, 8 X $4.00 which totals $42.00.
If these people now give out four copies each, half of whom register then the total earnings are $138.00
This commission system works for five levels of copies so the numbers can become quite significant.
You can see from this progression that it is beneficial for you to distribute as many copies of CONQUEST and DOMINION as possible and to make sure that as many of the people as possible that you distribute these copies to, register their copies. If you have a popular BBS you should really be able to send out a lot of copies.
The main benefit of this sales system is that you get to try a fully working copy of the software first before you buy it. If you don't like it, it doesn't cost you anything, and rather than erasing the disk, it is still a good idea to pass a copy on to others, who might want to try it, and use it. Make sure that your name has been placed in the history file by using the Copying program, because if anyone registers from your copy you will have commissions waiting for you if you do decide to register. If you do register and send out copies, you not only will get all the new updates to the program for free, you have the possibility of making some commissions.
Too many times I have forked out hundreds of dollars for a useless piece of junk software because I could not find a copy to try first.
THIS OFFER IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. YOU MUST DETERMINE WHETHER YOU ARE ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS OFFER.
1.2 UN-REGISTERED VERSIONS
UN-REGISTERED versions of CONQUEST and DOMINION may be freely distributed via any means and you are encouraged to do so.
If you continue to copy the program and send it out, your credit will still be calculated for any copies that are registered under you, although you will not receive payment of your credits unless you register yourself.
1.3 REGISTERED VERSIONS
REGISTERED versions of this program can only be used on a single computer at a time. You may not distribute registered copies of the program to others.
YOU MANY NOT USE, COPY, MODIFY, OR TRANSFER THE PROGRAM, DOCUMENTATION, OR ANY OTHER COPY, EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED FOR IN THIS AGREEMENT.
You may make copies of REGISTERED versions of the program for back-up purposes only. You must reproduce and include the original copyright notice on the back-up copy.
1.4 COPYRIGHT NOTICE
CONQUEST and DOMINION (c) COPYRIGHT 1992 Bill McCarter, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The program and its related documentation are copyrighted. You may only copy and distribute UN-REGISTERED versions of the program.
YOU MAY NOT REMOVE THE COPYRIGHT NOTICES AT ANY TIME.
The distribution and sale of the registered product are intended for the use of the original purchaser only. Lawful users of this program are hereby licensed only to read the program, from its medium into the memory of a single computer, solely for the purpose of executing the program. Duplicating or copying the program for other than backup purposes, or selling, or otherwise distributing the product is a violation of the law.
Anyone violating this agreement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
1.5 PROGRAM WARRANTY
THE CONQUEST AND DOMINION SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. YOU ARE ADVISED TO TEST THE SOFTWARE THOROUGHLY BEFORE RELYING ON IT. YOU AGREE TO ACCEPT THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION. IN NO EVENT WILL GYRUS SOFTWARE GROUP OR BILL MCCARTER BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ANY DEFECT IN THE PROGRAM.
GYRUS SOFTWARE GROUP does not warrant that the program or documentation will meet your requirements or that the operation of the program will be uninterrupted or error free.
If there is a physical defect on your disk or it is corrupted return the original disk to us and we will replace it by return mail.
1.6 UPDATE AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT POLICY
In order to receive customer support or be on the mailing list for updates to this program, you must be a registered user. If GYRUS SOFTWARE GROUP becomes aware that you have breached the agreement, GYRUS SOFTWARE GROUP reserves the right to refuse service, or updates.
Updates and Customer Support may be obtained on the GYRUS SOFTWARE GROUP BBS 24 hours a day at, (604)-256-4207, 300-2400 Bps, Mnp 5. or by mail.
GYRUS SOFTWARE GROUP
CONQUEST AND DOMINION
P.O. BOX 250
LILLOOET
BRITISH COLUMBIA
CANADA
V0K 1V0
1.7 AGREEMENT
You acknowledge that you have read and understood this agreement, and agree that you shall be bound by its terms and conditions by mailing the registration form and registration fee.
Should you have any questions concerning this agreement, please contact GYRUS SOFTWARE GROUP in writing.
1.8 MEMORY REQUIREMENTS
CONQUEST and DOMINION requires at least 1 MEG of memory with 512 K Chip Ram. The more memory you have the better the performance will be.
2.0 COPYING
To make a distribution copy of Conquest and Dominion double click on the Copying icon in the Docs drawer, update the history file so that you are the user listed and follow the instructions.
2.1 FLOPPY INSTALLATION
Conquest and Dominion may be run from it's own drawer or from
it's own boot disk. To find the files that it uses when running, it first looks to find the default files in the volume C&D:. The reason for this is so you can keep the files for the game separate from the executable if you want to.
2.1.1 BOOT DISK
I presume that you have already unarchived C&D.DMS otherwise you wouldn't be reading this file. If you have unarchived directly to df0: there should be no problems running the software. If the disk does not act as a boot disk open a CLI and type: install df0:
Otherwise, from your workbench start up a CLI by double clicking on the Shell icon.
Place a blank disk in DF0:
Type on the command line:
format drive DF0: name C&D
After the disk has been formatted type:
install DF0:
Copy all the files and their directories to C&D:
2.2 HARDDRIVE INSTALLATION
Use the INSTALL HD program included on the disk, or if you wish to install manually make sure the following files are in a directory that has been assigned as C&D:.
CONQUEST&DOMINION
CONQUEST&DOMINION.info
default.MEG
default.MEG.data
ICN1.abk
ICN2.abk
sprite.abk
cov.abk
cover
You will have to change your startup sequence so that the default data files can be found in C&D:. Add an assign command to your startup sequence somewhere before the loadwb command, for example.
Assign C&D: DH0:GAMES/C&D
3.0 QUICK OPERATION
When the program starts it loads the default map and default data files.
The upper half of the screen ( view board ) is a zoomed portion of the gamescreen and is where the commands are carried out.
The lower half of the screen ( controls ) contains gadgets for controlling the play of the game.
At the beginning of a new game, you get to choose where you want to develop your country. This is indicated by the pointer being an arrow. For the moment click with the Left Mouse Button (LMB) anywhere on the upper view board portion of the screen, on a dark green area. You will hear a boom sound if you are clicking on a square that cannot be converted to a residential area, and you will hear a bell sound as the game creates a new residential area and builds an infantry man on it.
You have now created the first residential area and the start of your country.
If you press the Right Mouse Button (RMB) you will see that there is a menu bar with Project on it. This are where all the setup, save and seldom chosen commands are located.
Now look down on the control section of the screen. Start from the largest gadget ( Map Zoom ) on the left half of the control board. Locate the mouse cursor somewhere on the gadget and press the LMB. The little yellow box will jump to the location that you clicked and shows what part of the gamescreen the view board is now zooming to. To view the entire game board you click on the gadget that looks like a picture of the world. If you have loaded a map larger than 320 X 200 you can scroll around the map by moving the mouse pointer to the edges of the screen. Click the LMB to return to the playscreen. If you want to zoom the magnification of the map in or out, you can click on the up and down arrows on the magnifying glass gadget.
Play around with the gadgets until you are familiar with getting around the map.
Now we will work our way through the other gadgets. The gadget that looks like a stop sign pauses the game. The one that looks like a little workbench reminds you that to get to the workbench you press the "LEFT-AMIGA - A" key combination. The Dollar sign brings you to the bank where buying and selling operations take place. To get out of the bank window click on the green or red buttons. The clock shows you when the next taxation time will take place and if you click on the the right side of the blue box below the clock you slow the game down and on the left side you speed the game up.
Now, Focus your attention on the gadgets in the blue area. If you click on these you will see that they become highlighted when they are active. The Question mark is the information gadget and is to provide info on different aspects of the game. You can get more information on the control gadgets by clicking the LMB on them while the question mark is highlighted, or you can get information on the map squares by clicking on the various squares on the view board. To close the window and get back to the controls click on the green or red buttons.
Just below the gadget with a picture of a hammer on it is the order gadget. Highlight this gadget and click on the orange infantryman on the view board that you placed there at the beginning. This opens the order window. The order window presents you with some information about who is on the spot and allows you to change their orders. Click in the MOV box until it reads Random move and then click on the green button to accept the order. At this point you will probably want to speed the game up by clicking the clock until it reads 1 which is the fastest setting. The infantry man will now start exploring randomly around the board. The colour of the spots now get brighter as they are explored and you own them.
The gadget with the picture of a hammer on it is the build gadget. This allows you to build land improvements on the map, on land which you own. Highlight the build gadget and now click on the gadget with the little house on it ( Residential Area ). When the build window opens it has some information on it to tell you how much stock you have available in the bank, and how much stock it costs to build one residential area. It also has a little ghosted picture of an infantry man on it. If you click on this gadget the ghosting will disappear and the next residential area that you place on the map, by clicking on a light green area, will produce infantrymen. Click on the green gadget to accept the new residential area and close the build window.
If you now click on the information button and then onto the infantry that you just have built, you can get more information on the infantry. This tells you such details as the supply status, strength, hardness, and moral. Click on the green gadget.
Highlight the order button again and click on an infantry. Rotate the movement orders to waypoint prospector and click in the large box ( waypoint box ). The numbers X1 and Y1 will highlight to show you that you are ready to enter waypoints. Now when you click on the view board you are setting points for the infantry to head to. After setting some points click on the green button and your infantry will start to move.
As you can see the movement is not very quick, the reason for this is that each square on the map corresponds to one square kilometer. Actually the infantry is running at 25 times real life speed when the clock is set at 8. To increase the speed of movement click on the clock gadget until it changes to one, this is the fastest that the game will go, 64 is the slowest and comes closer to approximating reality, although it is still 3 times faster.
I hope this serves to introduce you to game, play around with all the gadgets and read the references to the commands in the REFERENCE section.
4.0 REFERENCE
4.1 MENUS:
4.1.1 PROJECT-NEW
This menu item allows you to use your own maps in the simulation, or to re-initialize a map that has been previously used.
Picking NEW will open up a requester that allows you to pick a 64 colour
ILBM and then will convert the ILBM to a new map.
The maximum size of the Map is only limited by the operating system and chip memory you have, normally 1008 x 1024, and the minimum size is 168 x 72.
The palette colours are:
1: n/c
2: Infantry
3: Tank
4: Artillery
5: Supply
6: Bomber
7: Fighter
8: Merchant
9: Residential
10: Industrial
11: Seaport
12: Airport
13: Road
14: Bridge
15: Decimated
16: Farm
17: Mine
18: Oil
19: Forest
20: Farm Pre
21: Swamp Pre
22: Mine Pre
23: Oil Pre
24: Swamp
25: Highland
26: Mountain
27: Snow
28: Sea
29: River
30: Warning
31: Danger
4.1.2 PROJECT-OPEN
This menu item allows you to open a previously saved game.
4.1.3 PROJECT-SAVE
This menu item will save the game that is in progress, It will not allow
you to save over the default game. If you wish to change the default game then rename default.Meg and default.Meg.data. Now rename the game you want to use as default.Meg and the corresponding data file default.Meg.data.
4.1.4 PROJECT-SAVEAS
This menu item allows you to save your game under a new name.
4.1.5 PROJECT-INFO
This menu item supplys you with some useful information.
4.1.6 PROJECT-QUIT
This menu item allows you to quit. Another way to quit instantly is to type Ctrl-c.
4.2 WINDOWS:
4.2.1 CONTROL SCREEN
The opening screen is divided up into two sections. The top area is a zoomed area of the playing map. The zoom factor is variable from 2 to 8 times.
The bottom area contains the control gadgets.
4.3 GADGETS
4.3.1 MAPZOOM
This gadget is the large one on the extreme left. The image on the gadget is a reduced version of the entire map. The yellow box shows the area
of the map currently zoomed on in the upper area.
By clicking in the Mapzoom gadget one can view different zoomed areas of the entire map.
4.3.2 STOP
The stop gadget pauses the operation of the game.
4.3.3 MAGNIFY
The magnify gadget has two arrows in it to increase and decrease the magnification of the map.
4.3.4 CLOCK
The clock shows you at what point in the taxation cycle the game is at.
When the hand of the clock points to the top, the taxes are calculated, the bank balance is corrected and any starving vehicles are put out of their misery. The speed of the game is chosen by clicking in the blue area at the bottom of the clock. 1 is the fastest setting and 64 is the slowest. At the beginning of the game 1 is usually the most suitable and when there is a lot
of vehicles on the screen slowing the game down makes it a lot easier to play.
4.3.5 WORKBENCH
This reminds you that to get to the workbench to multitask with other software just press the Right-Amiga-A key combination.
4.3.6 BANK
This gadget will take you to the bank window so that you can buy and sell supplies.
4.3.7 WORLD
This gadget takes you to the world screen where you can peruse the entire game board. If the map is larger than 320 X 200 you can scroll around the map by dragging your mouse to the edges of the screen.
4.3.8 BUILD
This gadget looks like a hammer. It changes the mode of the control panel. If this gadget is highlighted and you click on one of the land improvement gadgets it will bring you to the build window.
4.3.9 ORDER
This gadget looks like a piece of paper. It changes the mode of the control panel so that one can give and change the orders of the different vehicles and land improvements on the map.
4.3.10 INFO
This gadget looks like a question mark. It changes the mode of the control panel so one can get more information about the different aspects of
the game.
4.4 VEHICLE GADGETS
The various vehicle types are: Infantry, Tank, Artillery, Supply, Bomber plane, Fighter plane, Navy ship, and Merchant ship.
4.4.1 INFANTRY
The infantry vehicle is the slowest of the vehicles. This is offset by the fact that only infantry can produce farms or prospect for oilfields or mines. Infantry can only be produced by Residential areas. Infantry are restricted to only travelling on land types and bridges.
4.4.2 TANK
Tanks are much faster and more powerful than infantry. Tanks are only built on industrial areas. Tanks are restricted to only travelling on land types and bridges.
4.4.3 ARTILLERY
At the moment artillery works the same as tanks.
4.4.4 SUPPLY
Supply trucks resupply vehicles. When a supply truck is given waypoints it will continue to cycle through these waypoints indefinitely. When it coincides with another vehicle it will resupply that vehicle. It carries enough supplies to resupply about 10 vehicles. It must be resupplied by landing on an Industrial area and will only be resupplied if there is a positive balance in the bank. If it itself runs out of supplies it will die. It cannot be resupplied by another supply truck and supply trucks cannot resupply planes.
4.4.5 BOMBER
Bomber aircraft fly at half the speed of fighter aircraft and fly farther than fighter aircraft.
4.4.6 FIGHTER
Fighter aircraft are the fastest vehicle and have a range of approximately 300 pixels.
4.4.7 NAVY
Naval ships have an extremely long range and are useful for exploring new lands over water.
4.4.8 MERCHANT
Merchants in this version are the same as Navy ships.
4.5 LAND IMPROVMENTS
There are two types of land improvements. Ones that the player can decide where they are to be built and ones that have to be discovered by an infantry in farmer mode or prospector mode.
The Farm, Forest, Mine and Oil land types have to be found by Infantry. When you send out an Infantry as a farmer, it will travel until it recognizes a square that can be a farm. It then sets up shop, converts the square into a farm and disappears from the board. A prospector will wander about until it finds a square that can be a mine or an oilfield, and will then convert the square and disappear.
Any dark green areas that are discovered by any vehicle other than a farmer or prospector will become a forest.
Residential, Industrial, Seaport, Airport, Road, and Bridge are areas built at the players discretion.
Residential areas can produce Infantry men.
Industrial areas can produce Tanks, Artillery and Supply trucks. When a vehicle leaves an industrial area its supplies are filled. A vehicle is only
filled with supplies when it is in the process of leaving an industrial area. These supplies are provided only if there is a positive bank balance.
Seaports can produce Navy ships and Merchant ships. Ships supplies are filled when the ship leaves a seaport.
Airports can produce Bombers and Fighters. Planes' supplies are filled when a plane travels over an airport or when the plane lands on an airport.
Roads speed up the mobility of land vehicles.
Bridges make it possible for land vehicles to cross water.
4.6 WINDOWS
4.6.1 BUILD WINDOW
When the Build gadget is highlighted it is possible to build new land improvements. These improvements can be Residential, Industrial, Seaport, Airport, Road, and Bridge.
There are several restrictions as to where these improvements may be built.
The most important restriction is that there has to be enough stock in the bank to purchase the improvement. If you are short in one or another of the different types of stock you will have to go to the bank window to buy and sell stock to make sure you have enough.
When the build window opens the hammer in the upper left corner shows that it is the build window. The image beside the build image shows what type of land improvement may be built. The central box shows the present balance in the bank and the price of building one improvement. There are ghosted gadgets that show what type of vehicle will be built. (these may be turned on or off by clicking on them ). There is also a box to display the X Y coordinates.
All areas may be built only on any forest area that you may own.
Residential areas may be built on any forest area. If you highlight the ghosted gadget with the infantry on it, the residential area will produce infantry men at the top of the clock, if there is enough stock in the bank. If you build the residential area and then decide to change your mind on whether or not to build infantry you can go to the order window to change the building orders.
Industrial areas must touch a residential area. By highlighting the ghosted gadgets you can get the industrial area to produce either a tank or artillery or a supply.
Seaports must touch an Industrial area. It also should touch the sea or a river. You can build seaports away from water by accident and your ships will be landlocked. The only way around this is to make a line of seaports to the water so the ships may access the sea. By highlighting the gadgets you can get the seaport to produce navy or merchant ships.
Airports must touch an Industrial and a Residential area. By highlighting the gadgets you can get the airport to produce bomber or fighter planes.
Roads must start from an Improved area, and may cross forest, highland, mountain, and snow areas if you own them. Roads double the speed of the vehicles travelling on them.
Bridges must start from an improved area and are buildable on the sea and
on rivers that you own.
Pressing on the green gadget will build the land improvements and return you to the game, and the red gadget will cancel the building of the improvements and return you to the game.
4.6.2 BANK WINDOW
The dollar sign image in the top left of the window shows that you are in the bank window. The boxes C% and D% are the interest rates calculated on
the money you have in the bank. C% is the percentage added each tax period on credit and D% is the percentage subtracted if you are running a debit.
The stock box shows how much stock of each item: Money, Farm goods, Forestry products, Mineral products and Oil. If you are negative in any of these values vehicles will not be built and vehicles will not be supplied.
The price box shows the price of each of the supplies in dollars.
The up/down arrows are the method of buying and selling the products. When you press and hold an arrow the values in the buy/sell box change to the amounts you want to buy or sell. A negative value means that you are selling supplies and a positive value means purchasing supplies. The calculations will be carried out at the next taxtime.
To return to the game press the green or the red gadgets.
4.6.3 ORDER WINDOW
The order window allows you to change the movement orders of the different vehicles and the building orders of the land types. The fighting orders do not do anything in this version of the game, but will be implemented in the next version.
In the upper left corner is the order image that shows that you are in the order window. The next image to the right is the type of vehicle or land type that is being altered. The small image is the land type that the vehicle is sitting on.
If you are giving orders to a land type then there will be ghosted vehicle gadgets so that you may choose whether or not the land type will manufacture vehicles. The land type will manufacture the vehicle type that is unghosted.
For the vehicles the order window is more involved.
The NUM box is an identifier that shows the number of the vehicle you are giving orders to.
The # box shows how many vehicles are on the square.
The up/down arrows allow you to rotate through the stack of vehicles on the square and then alter their orders. The MOV box allows you to change the movement orders of the vehicles.
The movement orders are either: Standby, where nothing happens, Random move, where the vehicle will move at random, and follow waypoints.
Following waypoints is rather special. to activate the waypoint box, which is the largest box, set the MOV box to follow waypoints and click in the large box. The waypoint box is now active. If you then click onto the map in the upper portion of the screen you will be giving waypoints to your vehicle, these will flash yellow blue. The vehicle will travel from waypoint to waypoint until they are all done and then standby. Supply trucks will rotate through the waypoints continuously and will not stop until they run out of supplies or they are ordered to standby. Airplanes will random move when they reach the end of their waypoint list and will only land at an airport if the last waypoint is on an airport.
Infantry have an extended set of movement commands and when given waypoint commands as a farmer or as a prospector will only travel until they
reach a square that can be a farm or a mine or an oil field, and then disappear.
Waypoints may be changed by clicking in the waypoint box on the waypoint
that you want to change, the number of the waypoint will be highlighted.
Clicking on the red gadget will cancel the latest changes to the orders and return you to the game.
Clicking on the green gadget will accept the latest changes to the orders and return you to the game.
4.6.4 INFO WINDOW
The question mark image in the upper left signifies that you are in the info window. The image next to the right shows you what type of vehicle or land type you are getting more information on.
If you are looking at a land type there will be three different types of window. If you are looking at land you do not own UNKNOWN will be written in
the window. If it is a regular land type you will only get an image of the land type displayed.
If the land type is a land improvement you will get a window that will have a small image next to the land type image. This small image shows what vehicle is being built by the land type. If it is blank the land improvement is not producing any vehicles. The NUM box shows the number identifier of the land type. The X Y coordinates are also supplied. The colour bars are to
show the age, AG, and the strength, ST, of the land improvement.
The info window for vehicles provides information on a wide assortment of the attributes the vehicle has. The small image shows what land type that
the vehicle is sitting on. The # box show how many vehicles are sitting on the square. The NUM box shows the number identifier of the vehicle. The X Y coordinates are also displayed.
The MOV and FGT boxes show the present movement and fighting orders respectively.
The colour bars show:
The armament level AR.
The experience level EX.
The moral level ML.
The hardness level HD
The supply level SP
The strength level ST
The green and red gadgets return you to the game.
5.0 THE FUTURE
Conquest and Dominion will continue to be updated. It is becoming the game that we have always wanted to play on a computer. The rate at which C&D is updated is totally dependent upon you. If you don't register we won't have the funds to work on it full time and will have to continue efforts on other work to put food on the table and pay the rent, relegating Conquest and Dominion to spare time. We will always, however, continue to spend time on updates to this game.
Conquest and Dominion started off as a board game developed by Bob in the 70's. It was a lot of fun then and it was always a dream to transfer it into a computer game so that the computer could take care of all the picky stuff such as the taxes, movements and battles, and the player would only have to look after the strategy.
As this release is issued there are many options that are not as yet implemented. In addition to minor changes to the appearance and the usage of the program, as you read this there are major changes being written.
What we try to do when we write for the AMIGA is to get the most effect out of the machine as possible, using the incredible resources available in the system, in the smallest amount of memory space. The Amiga's incredible power, and the intelligent design of the Motorola processor makes it a delight to program. Due to the database nature of Conquest and Dominion at least one megabyte is necessary to run properly.
This is a description of what this program will change into hopefully sometime in late 1993 or early 1994.
1: Multiple tasks running at the same time each taking care of a segment of the game so the user will have instant response to mouse commands, and the operation will be seamless to multiple users.
2: Number of players only limited by memory, or the upper limit of 20 processes on the Amiga. These players will communicate to the machine through modems or through multiple users at the same keyboard. A machine with one meg of chip ram and several meg of fast ram will have a limit of around 15 players with a 320 X 200 game board.
A Game board of 1000 X 1000 with one meg will limit you to two players.
If you have a two meg machine or hopefully in the near future there will be 8 meg chip memory you will be able to get a monster game going.
3: Support for other platforms, Versions will be written for messy dos and colour Macs that will act as terminals over a modem to a host AMIGA.
4: Computer Opponent. AI routines that are "genetically programmed" to give opponents that can change as the game changes. This prospect of a computer opponent is a gigantic project all on its own. At first I will probably add AREXX " (c) William S Hawes " command ability so that you can write your own AI routines. If this becomes a demanded item by you registered users I can envision contests to find out who can write the best AI routines.
5: When the improvements have been fleshed out, an updateable hard copy of the manual.
These changes will be added progressively over the next several months and as new versions are debugged, they will first be available on our BBs for registered users and then will be mailed out.
We welcome your comments and complaints also, as we want to produce the very best for the very best platform... the AMIGA.
