Copyright 1999 Hothouse Creations Ltd. All rights reserved. http:\\www.hothouse.org
This is a demo version of Cutthroats, and as such does not contain certain features which will be included in the full version. Many Sound Effects, Music and Adviser comments are missing throughout. All options relating to Governors are disabled.
Only 3 towns are included in this demo; Tortuga, Leogane and Puerto Santo. In the full version there will be 70 towns.
Start Up
When you launch the game, you should find yourself in the start up screen.
Select 'new game', and then enter your name & ship's name. In the full version you will be able to select any starting year between 1625 and 1700. The default year in the demo is 1640. You will start in the pirate port of Tortuga.
You start the game with a sloop (a small sized ship) with some guns, marines and sailors.
Friendly Ports
You begin the game in a Friendly Port. The info on the left tells you about states of war, gossip and missions.
Buttons on the right take you to various Friendly Port sub-screens. The following features are included:
Shipwright:
You can repair your sails or repair and careen your hull. Hit 'Buy and Sell' to trade with the shipwright.
Shipwright, Buy and Sell:
You can buy ships if the shipwright has any in stock, or sell him some of yours. Note that if you only have one ship, you can't sell it. You can also buy and sell weapons and ammunition, by dragging slider-icons across the screen.
Recruitment
This displays the number of officers available for hire, and their abilities. Click on the arrows to cycle through the available officers, and click on the "Hire Officer" button to recruit a particular officer.
It also displays the number of Marines, Sailors and Gunners available for hire. Just drag the slider icon across the screen to recruit them. (It doesn't cost anything to hire men and officers, but eventually you have to give them a share of your loot.)
Fleet
This enables you to load things on and off your ship, or ships.
Right click on your ship to see a list of everything on it.
The 'dock' on the left of the screen is a list of everything you have bought in the port. Click on an item on the dock to select it. Click "Load Hold" to load stuff from the dock to the selected ship; click "Unload Hold" to unload it from the ship and put it on the dock.
Click 'All to dock' to put everything on all your ships onto the dock.
Trade
This enable you to buy and sell trade goods. Just drag the icon to the left or the right, or click on the arrows at the end of the slider.
Divide Plunder
This is where you divide your hoard between your crew at the end of a voyage. The Grand Total is the value of everything in your fleet when you 'sell up' and the various boxes show the amount of money your crew, your officers, and your yourself will get. Try to get 1,000 pesos per man.
Treasure
Bury treasure. Click Treasure icon on Map Screen to see where you left it
Wait
You can wait for 1 day, 4 days or 1 week. The screens do not auto refresh so you may need to move from one screen to another and then back in order to see any changes that may have occurred after waiting.
The four buttons at the bottom right allow you to go to Friendly Ports, Sailing Screen, Map or Battle Modes.
Map Screen
The map screen is a map of the game world. The main purpose of it is to plot routes. Set your instructions to the Crows Nest and decide which flag to fly using the icons at the bottom of the screen. When you encounter another ship, you will go be given the option to go to Crows Nest View.
Crows Nest View
This screen represents a top-down view of approx 10 miles radius from your ship. Only flag-ships appear in this view, that is, a particular icon might represent one ship or a whole group of ships.
You can offer truces and accept them.
Keep in mind that you are a sailing ship; you move quicker with the wind behind you than with the wind against you . Right click on enemy ships to get info.
TO ATTACK THE SHIPS YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED, CLICK ON THEM. AS YOU MOVE TOWARDS THEM YOU WILL SEE MORE INFORMATION.
When you come within 1/4 mile or so of your target ship (if you have clicked on it), you go to Sea Battle Screen
Sea Battle Screen
USE THE 'F' KEY TO TURN FOLLOW MODE ON AND OFF. REMEMBER THAT YOU HAVE A SMALL SLOOP, WHO'S ADVANTAGE IS SPEED AND MANOEVERABILITY. YOU SHOULD TAKE DIRECT CONTROL AND USE THE CURSOR KEYS TO STEER AND SPACE TO FIRE. USE PgUp and PgDn TO CONTROL YOUR SAILS: LOWER THEM WHEN RUNNING WITH THE WIND, RAISE THEM INTO THE WIND IF YOU WANT TO KEEP A MORE EVEN SPEED.
To let your captain take over, left click on an enemy ship. To give more complex attack orders, right click on an enemy ship.
To change your own ship's settings, such as shot type, or to launch row boats, abandon ship and the like, right click on your own ship
If your successfully board a ship, you can 'secure' or 'loot it' (take any money or jewels on board).
If the whole enemy fleet has surrendered to you, you go to a special 'pillage' screen.
Land Battles
To start a Land Battle, choose 'Land at Beach' when you arrive at port on Map Screen. You can then choose how many marines and officers to deploy, and which weapons to give them.
If you have transferred cannons from your ship to the landing action, then each cannon will have four men manning it.
Cannons and grenades are 'area effect' weapons-which is to say, they can blow up friendly troops who are in the way of explosions.
You should enter buildings, loot them and get cash back to the treasure chest. Left click on it to dump cash, right click to return to ship. You can capture prisoners. Try to capture the Governors mansion to make the town surrender.
Destroying other buildings effects the economic status of the towns-blowing up a shipwrights means the town produces fewer ships, for example. Fire at buildings or use powder barrels to blow them up.
Logbook
If you hit the logbook icon, or the escape key, you will go to the logbook screen.
Keyboard
General Keys:
Escape
Opens the main menu in the logbook. You can then use the 'exit' option to leave the game.
F1
Opens the help menu in the logbook.
F2
Opens the save page in the logbook.
F3
Opens the load page in the logbook.
F4
Opens the options page in the logbook
F5/F6
Music volume up/down.
Shift F5/F6
Sound FX volume up/down
P
Pauses / Unpauses the game.
F
Toggles 'follow' mode on/off. (Battle mode only.)If follow mode is off, and the mouse pointer is over an object the game will begin following that object. If the pointer isn't over an object then the game will return to following the previously followed object.
+ / - (keypad)
Zoom battle screen radar window in / out.
Insert
Toggles level of ship information on right hand side panel. (Battle ONLY.)
Cursor Keys
Scroll view in Battle mode. (Follow mode MUST be deactivated.)
If follow mode is active and the object you are following is one of your ships then the Left & Right cursor keys steer the followed ship left and right.
Pg Up / Pg Down
Raise / Lower the sails on your fleet (CrowsNest) or selected ships(Battle).
Enter / Return/ Space
When following a ship in BATTLE mode this will instruct that ship to fire at whatever enemy ships are currently in it's firing arcs. In BATTLE mode, when not following a ship this will make all currently selected ships fire at the enemy ship closest to them.
