This document contains general information about the Half-Life singleplayer modification Poke646. If you have any problem with playing Poke646 or getting it to run at all, please refer to this document first and see if it can be solved. If your problem and a probable fix is not listed below, you should check the technical FAQ on the official Poke646 website (www.poke646.com). If the problem persists or you couldn't find a fix for it, please contact the development team at info@poke646.com and give a detailled bug report, along with your system specifications.
In order to run Poke646, you need to have Half-Life installed on your computer. The HL version Poke646 has been developed on is 1.1.0.8. Please update your Half-Life to this version or higher before playing Poke646, you can find the necessary patches on www.planethalflife.com.
II. Poke646 Game Information
=============================
In order to get the full experience of playing Poke646, please start with the hazard course first. This training unit will explain all specific functions of Poke646 and other things that may differ from your standard Half-Life experience.
General gameplay tips:
- If you think Poke646 is too tough/easy on your current skill setting, please choose another one. The difficulty settings for Poke646 have been carefully adjusted in order to cover every kind of player and spread at a wider range than they originally did in HL.
- Don't waste precious ammunition. Poke646 has a much more tactical approach than most other 3D shooters (including HL), so you will need every single bullet.
- Quicksave often. Poke646 is based upon an intense storyline which provides twists, surprises and turns almost every minute, be prepared for that. However, I hope I included enough autosave points to prevent being thrown back too far in the game.
- Examine the environment. If you happen to get stuck and don't seem to have a clue how to solve a puzzle, it is most likely that you've overseen something. Poke646 is full of tricky puzzles, but all of them are extremely logical and can be solved by certain items within the current level. You won't stumble across any "hit switch A on one side of the map to open door B on the other"-puzzle, the high amount of realism in the storyline is transported through the puzzles as well.
- Pump up the volume. Poke646 is one of the few mods to have its own soundtrack, mixed and compiled by Watchstereo and Jay in order to enhance the thrilling atmosphere of the game, so don't miss it! For more information on the soundtrack check out www.heavydubtools.de.
- If you are stuck within the game, please check out the detailled walkthrough on the Poke646 website (www.poke646.com).
III. General Technical Issues
=============================
A. Driver Issues
DO NOT run Poke646 in software mode. Software mode is not supported by Poke646 and will most likely result in graphical glitches and huge framerate drops. If you have any other problem with the visuals of Poke646, make sure you have the latest version of DirectX installed and check your 3D card manufacturer for the most recent drivers. Poke646 has been tested on most Voodoo and NVidia cards and should run smooth on them.
B. Game Resolutions
DO NOT run Poke646 in a screen resolution lower than 640x480. The way Poke646 is designed now, you won't be able to follow the storyline or even see the HUD if you switch to a resolution lower than that.
C. Sound Problems
If you think the balance between the MP3 soundtrack and the ingame sounds is wrong, please adjust the ingame sound level ("Configuration" -> "Audio") to your needs. The built in MP3 player doesn't have a volume control.
D. Framerate Drops
Poke646 has system requirements higher than the ones that HL was originally designed for, so if you're unlucky enough to still work with a system worse than the minimum specs mentioned above, you will most likely notice slowdowns in the game. The best bet in this case would be to switch down the game resolution since HL doesn't offer much more possibilities to tweak the performance.
E: Random Crashes
If Poke646 ever decides to crash on you, please try to reproduce the bug in the same place. If it doesn't happen again, it was most likely a problem on your system. However, if the bug persists to appear in the same place more than once, please send a mail with all information about what happened to info@poke646.com so I can try to find a solution and post it in the technical FAQ of the website.
F: Warranty
The Poke646 team doesn't take any responsibility for crashes, bugs or other damage Poke646 might cause on your system. Poke646 is freely distributed through the net, therefor we don't have any influence on how the file you downloaded might have been altered or damaged. Installing and playing Poke646 happens at your own risk.
IV. Credits
============
(To see a full list of the credits, play through Poke646 and watch the final credits scroll by. You may manually launch the map by typing "map credits" into the console.)
The Poke646 team:
* Marc "Term" Schroeder
(Lead artist and responsible for everything else not mentioned below)
* Sebastian "Steini" Steinlechner
(Coding)
* Ryan "Major Clod" Veenstra
(Weapon modelling)
* Thomas "G.I. Joe" Pecht
(NPC modelling)
* Andreas "Cybermessias" Buske
(Support in storyline & concept)
Steini would like to thank Masterstroke, Prefect und Another1 for additional help in the coding department. Major Clod would like to thank the Poke646 team for all their work on this great mod, and for sticking to it over the past year. He'd also like to thank his family and friends for the feedback and ideas they've given him while working on Poke646. Cybermessias would like to thank Marc, Andrea, Lolle, Manne, Holgi and Muttan for their support and patience throughout the making of Poke646.
If you enjoyed playing Poke646 and would like to support the author, please visit the Poke646 online store at www.poke646.com and get yourself dressed up with fancy Poke646 stuff :)
V. Copyrights
===============
Poke646 and all its content is (c) by Marc Schroeder and the Poke646 team. The Poke646 soundtrack is (c) by Watchstereo and Jakob Maser. If you would like to use any content of Poke646 for your own mod, please contact me at info@poke646.com so we can sort things out. Poke646 can be freely distributed through the internet and on cover CDs for game magazines, as long as the content of the installer is not altered and this file is included. You are not allowed to use any Poke646 content for commercial use without my or the permission from the Poke646 team. You are also not allowed to distribute this mod for money, unless you received the explicit permission from me and the Poke646 team.
Alright, that's it folks, go kick some alien butts in Nation City!
