The big change with this Patch is that we have included LAN, serial and Modem-Modem gameplay but here are a few things that we think that you should know to prevent misunderstandings:
1. If you want to join a LAN game which is already in progress we have allowed you take over any AI players that are available.....this being said, if the AI player you take over happens to be in Bankrupt or involved in another major action we cannot guarentee that it will work - sorry. This feature has been included to allow players that have lost synch from the game to rejoin.
2. If you do join a game as in 1 (above) and it wasn't because you lost synch you will inherit the AI players name.
3. If a player does drop from a game, either by synch problems or by quitting, his player will be converted to an AI player. Just be warned if you are not quick enough in rejoining the AI is likely to have other ideas about what should be his next move!
4. As a general hint, if you are playing LAN, Serial or Modem-Modem multiplayer, then make sure all players are consistent with their options. For instance if some players have animations on or fast walks on, those who don't will experience lag while all other participants 'catch-up'.
5. A (bizarre) feature we added was that as a host you can not be part of the game, so you can just sit back and watch the game. To do this, in the adding players screen, don't bother adding yourself as a player. Then just start the game.
TO START A NETWORK GAME
Go to the Options menu.
Select Network.
Select the type of network you wish to use.
Enter or edit your name (the programme will detect and use your login name by default).
Select a session to join, or create a new one if you want to be host.
Game Setup window will appear and the game will play as usual.
If you are host (creator of the session), add as many human and AI players as you wish to be in the game. When the players who are joining your session appear in the Setup window, start the game.
If you are joining a session, only one player can play from your machine. You will have to wait for the host to start the game.
PLAYER CONTROL
When a game has started, each player in the game is under either human control or computer control. At any stage of the game, this can be altered. For example, you may be halfway through a game when a friend comes round and wants to join in. Instead of having to start again, your friend can choose to take over one of the computer-controlled characters.
If a friend needs to leave the game and you wish to continue, the computer can take control of that player.
To alter the player control:
Go to Options and Player Setup.
This will show the names of all the players in the game along with whether they are under human or computer control.
Make the changes you require, and the game will continue with the new player setup.
ENTERING YOUR NAME:
Although you can enter very long names for players in Monopoly World Cup it will only register the first 11/12 characters and use them throughout the game....So we recommend you keep your name short.
TIMED GAME:
Although you can enter any number in the length of game field, 999 is the maximum number of minutes you can set a timed game for....16 hours, 39 minutes should give you enough time to play Monopoly in!
IMMUNITY:
You can only enter up to 9 immunity turns per property. If you enter a larger number then you will have to re-enter the number.
You can see the immunity status (if any exists) on a property when you open up the properties title deed.
You can only have one immunity per player per property. The immunity must expire before another immunity deal can be activated on the same property
AI DIFFICULTY LEVELS
Just in case you were interested here are our difficulty level ratings of the various computer players. 4 = Novice to 0 = Master, though we have added the possibility of a computer having an 'off-day' or 'day-to-shine', just add a little zest.
ERIC (3), LUKE (2), KEVIN (4), DAVID (0), MATT (1), MARTIN (1), ROGER (0), HANS (2), JOE (4), MARIA (4), ANITA (2), HOLLY (4), SARAH (0), SAM (0), MARY (2), HELEN (3), LOUISE (1) and finally KELLIE (3).
We were generally pleased with the qualities that we gave to the Computer players in the original version of this game. However we have done a number of tweaks in this patch which should make all the characters a little bit more challenging. We hope you appreciate them.
COOL FEATURE
Selecting AI players will draw up a list of 20 characters, each with different difficulty levels. If you edit the name of the AI, the computer will look at the letter combinations within that name and generate a new AI character based on that name.
This means that new names will create new AI characters, and these will be consistent every time you enter the same name, so feel free to experiment!
OTHER ISSUES
3D MAZE SCREEN SAVER
Sorry to say that if you have the Windows 95 3D Maze screen saver on while playing Monopoly World Cup and it activates, the game is likely to crash, so please don't run it. It is due to a Direct X conflict!
ATI GRAPHICS CARDS
If you have an ATI graphics card in your PC (more likely with a Rage Pro chipset) you may experience a problem with illegible text. It is a driver problem which we could not find a way of solving this directly. However if you try one of the following you should get improved results:
Go to the Start menu.
Select Run from the popup menu.
Copy one of the following strings into the Open space (assuming you installed into the default directory).
Click OK.
"C:\Program Files\Hasbro Interactive\Monopoly World Cup Edition\Monopoly.exe" f
- forces a standard system font.
"C:\Program Files\Hasbro Interactive\Monopoly World Cup Edition\Monopoly.exe" tr
- forces the font to be Roman
"C:\Program Files\Hasbro Interactive\Monopoly World Cup Edition\Monopoly.exe" tl
- forces the font point size to 16 rather than 12, makes cards alot bigger.
SAVED GAMES
You can save all your Monopoly World Cup games. In LAN, Serial and Modem-modem games you can save them but you cannot load them. In all cases it will save only the player and their status information. Non of the game rules or configurations will be saved. This means that if you were in a Short Game, saved it and reloaded it at a later date, unless you had not changed your settings since then, the game will load with the current game settings, not necessarily in a Short Game.
Monopoly World Cup will always remember your configuration settings and it will load up the last changes everytime you start Monopoly World Cup.
And finally for those who like their games just a little bit more bizarre, try typing in 'gimmesheep' at any point in the game. Hopefully you'll find the effect on the property animations beneficial. If you don't, then the effect is not permanent, exiting out and restarting the game will restore it to normality.
AND WHAT WE'VE FIXED......
1. In the board setup option we've added a Board Default setup function, which will make the board revert back to the original team positions.
2. In a trade situation, when a player is not directly involved in the trade we've changed the buttons to be more logical 'PASS' button instead of 'ACCEPT'.
3. The 32/12 Terrace/Stadium rule could be beaten in a few circumstances, it can't now!
4. Computer players didn't always use their Get out of Free Jail card when they should have.
5. Players could mortgage and unmortgage critical properties when it wasn't their turn, ie ones that others were about to land on.
6. Trading abilities could be compromised if another player initiates a trade with him while he is raising money.
7. US VERSION ONLY - We've added the 10% option when landing on one of the Income Tax spaces.
8. Now gives players a message warning when they don't have enough money to buy terraces or Stadiums.
9. US VERSION ONLY - US localisation now included.
10. Timed Game - Clock will not click down until the dice is rolled.
11. Automatic Zoom sometimes activated in the wrong quadrent.
12. We've fixed a few typos and spellings in all languages.
13. GERMAN VERSION ONLY - Fixed two Home/Away cards which gave out incorrect amounts of money.
HAVE FUN, enjoy World Cup France 98 and remember it's not the winning but taking part that counts...but England are going to win.
