Young Minds/Young Minds Interactive CD-ROM.ISO/conquest/_help

Text File | 1987-10-26 | 13.9 KB | 276 lines

                           WELCOME TO CONQUEST

CONQUEST is a multi player computer game designed to run under the UNIX
operating system.  In CONQUEST,  each player is the leader of a nation,
composed of people (humans, orcs, elves, dwarves), recourses, and land.
Each ruler can customize the nation at creation, by chosing their race and
by giving their nation powers (magic, combat factor, location, speed...)
and resources (civilians, troops, iron, gold...). Play involves building,
moving, and controlling armies and navies, diplomacy with other players,
and adjusting economic activity, which is primarily geared to the production
of gold for your treasury.  Iron is needed, however to build ships & armies,
and food is needed to prevent revolts and keep people alive.

Command line format: conquest [-maxhp]    -m   make a world
                    -a   add new player
                            -x   execute program
                            -h   print this help text
                            -p   print a map to stdout
END
             CONQUEST COMMAND HELP SCREEN

    MOVEMENT                    COMMANDS            ADMINISTRATION
'h': move west             'a': army report        'p': pick item
'y': move north-west         'r': redesignate        'd': change display
'k': move north         'ctrl-L': redraw screen    'c': administration
'u': move north-east        'm': move selected unit     '?': help screen
'l': move east             'A': adjust army         's': score
'n': move south-east         'f': fleet report        'B': budget status
'j': move south            'Z': move people 2 Sectors     'P': production stats
'b': move south west         'S': diplomacy status      'N': read newspaper
'J': scroll south         'Q': quit            'W': write message
'K': scroll north         'M': magic           'R': read messages
'L': scroll east         'C': construct
'H': scroll west         'D': draft

END
                THE WORLD

The Conquest world is very bloody, and a player needs skills at war gaming,
diplomacy, and building an economy to succeed.  Rival races are constantly
at war, and the world starts filled with player nations, random peoples
(lizard men in their cities of gold, barbarians, nomads, pirates, brigands),
and both hostile and friendly computer controlled non player countries.
Conquest can be played solitaire.  The computer uses an highly intelligent
movement algorithm to run the armies and navies of these non player
nations, and has intelligent algorithms built in that control these nations
diplomacy, construction, and economies.  You can find NPCs allied with
you against a common enemy,  but can also suddenly be stabbed in the
back and find hostile NPC armies at your doorstep.

END
                     WHAT IS WHAT IN THE WORLD

The world is composed of a 2 dimensional map of sectors, created by the
computer at the beginning of the game.  Each sector has about 10 unique
characteristics (altitude, gold, vegitation...).   For example;

SECTOR ELEVATIONS include:    WATER    '~'       PEAK     '#'
        MOUNTAIN '^'    HILL     '%'    CLEAR    '-'

SECTOR VEGETATION
Uninhabitable Areas (do not produce food and people simply do not like)
     VOLCANO   'V'    DESERT 'D'     JUNGLE  'J'
     WASTE     'W'    ICE 'I'        SWAMP  'S'

Inhabitable (people like, number is relative value of food production)
     LIGHT VEGETATION     '6'         GOOD   '9'     FOREST   '3'
     WOOD              '7'         BARREN '4'

CONQUEST is designed so each race likes their appropriate terrain.  Elves
like woods & forests,  Humans like good & light vegitation, and Orcs and
Dwarves like hills and mountains.
END
                         RACES OF THE WORLD

ORC    'O'      Poor at combat but they reproduce like mad.  Orcs reproduce
        like mad, and can go over 10% reproduction ceiling.
        They are lousy fighters and are led by a minor monster, which
        means their army #0 is very potent.
ELF    'E'    Great at defense and quick, but few in numbers.  They start
        with VOID power, which is perhaps the most potent power in the
        game, but which costs them an extra distribution point.
DWARF    'D'    Dwarves are good at combat, but slow and few in numbers.  They
        start with MINER power, which allows them to quickly mine
        iron/jewels, and thus build up their combat skills and powers.
HUMAN    'H'    The Flexible race, above average at everything.  Humans start
        with reasonable numbers of people, and WARRIOR power, which
        gives them +10% in all combats.  They have OK reproduction
        and good movement.
LIZARD 'L'    (NPC only)  An ancient race bound to their cities of gold
PIRATE 'P'    (NPC only)  Wandering pirates/brigands intent on plunder
NOMAD  'N'    (NPC only)  Wandering Nomads Tribes.  Will they leave you alone?
BARBARIAN  'B'     (NPC only)  Indigenous natives
END
            POSSIBLE SECTOR DESIGNATIONS

    MINE       'm'   Produces 100*Iron*People Talons + Produces Iron Ores
    FARM       'f'   Produces 100*Vegetation*People Talons + Produces Food
    GOLD MINE  '$'   Produces 100*Gold*People Talons + Produces Jewels
    CASTLE     '!'   Fortified Cities of the Lizards (only)
    DEVASTATED 'x'   devastated sector

    CITY       'c'   Cities and Capitols are the bases of your power.  They
    CAPITOL    'C'   are the only places you can draft armies or construct
             ships. Drafting only works if the sectors people is
             greater than your total civilians divided by the quantity
             16+(number of sectors)/2.  Cities give 750 talons per
             person and Capitols give 1000 talons per person. Cities and
             Capitols cost more to redesignate.
END
             COSTS

Costs are as follows:

        Ship Maintenance:    $1000/turn
        Soldier Maintenance:    $25/turn
        Designation Costs:    $300
        Fortification:        $1000 * (2**Fort Level)
        Build Warship:        $3000
        Build Merchant:        $2000
        Bribe Nation:        $100000 per level diplomacy
        Move Civilians:        $50 per civilian
END
                          SCORING & CHARACTER CLASSES

THIS STUFF IS NOT IMPLEMENTED IN THIS VERSION!!!!
Victory points are based on your nations class and the following table.
For example, an empire gains points by controlling sectors, people, gold, and
soldiers. Some of these types also have magic powers.

                     Per    1000    1000      100K 100K   100K   Magic  10
             Races   Sector People  Soldiers  Gold Jewels Iron   Power Ship
"kingdom"    EDHO    1        1        2       3    0      0      0     0
"empire"     H       1.5      0        0       0    0      0      0     0
"wizard"     EH      0        2        1       0    3      5      20    0
"theocracy"  HO      1        1        0       0    3      0      7     0
"pirate"     HO      0        0        5       0    10     10     1     5
"miner"      D       0        0        5       0    10     10     1     5
"trader"     EHO     1        1        0       0    1      1      1     8
"tyranny"    DHO     1        1        2       0    1      1      1     0
"demon"      DHO     1        0        1       0    1      0      10    0
"dragon"     HO      0        0        0       10   20     0      0     0
"shadow"     O       1        0        0       0    0      5      0     0
"NPC"        EDHO    1        1        0       0    1      1      1     0
END
            POSSIBLE ARMY STATUS

MARCH   :Marching doubles army movement at the expense of combat strength.
SCOUT   :Scouts avoid any enemy, if possible, and can move through hostile
        :   armies, but must have less than 25 men per army and can not take
    :   even unowned land.  They are useful to check out the  map and
        :   to determine the enemy combat strength.
ATTACK  :Armies in this mode can take owned sectors, initiate
        :   combat, and have they reasonable movement rates.
DEFEND  :In this mode, can take owned sectors and have good defense
        :   and movement, but can not initiate combat.
GARRISON:This mode offers the strongest defense but is used only in cities
    :   and castles.  Garrisons may not move.

Note: It takes 75 men to take a sector.  Your attack bonus increases by
    5% if you take over a non player country. Fortresses can be built
    in cities/capitols at a cost of 1000*(2**fort level) gold pieces.
END
            NON PLAYER NATIONS

Diplomacy with non player nations is important in this game.  This determines
if you get attacked or not.

hint;  use your gold talons to bribe non player countries that are at war with
    you.  It may not work, but may allow you some breathing room and
    at some point the gold becomes irrelevant anyway.
hint;  you had best not be at war with NPCs when you bribe them.  If you are,
    you have just wasted your money.
hint;  if you are in a mutual confederacy with a non player nation of the
    same race there is a % chance that they come over to your side!!!
END
            ADDITIONAL NOTES ON COMBAT

Losses per unit are scaled by (1.2 / 1 + combat plus) so if you have a high
    combat plus your losses will be less.
You can expect to take several turns to reduce a large army, especially
    on a City or Capitol, as the defenders will draft new troops each turn
Ships (believe it or not) are more powerful than you might expect.  They
    permit you to rapidly relocate large armies or large numbers of
    civilians to strategic points.  Their movement is 3x that of
    a land army and they pay 1 move point per sector.  I will warn
    you, however, that naval combat has not been play tested.

THE NEXT PAGE IS THE COMBAT RESULTS TABLE
    basically the attacker wants a high roll and the defender wants
    a low roll.

END
               6-1 5-1 4-1 3-1 2-1 3-2 5-4 1-1 4-5 2-3 1-2 1-3 1-4 1-5 1-6
    <--010     30% 40% 40% 55% 60% 65% 65% 85% 100%100%110%110%110%120%130%
   010-020     20% 30% 35% 45% 50% 55% 55% 65% 75% 85% 100%100%110%110%120%
   020-030     15% 20% 30% 35% 35% 35% 45% 55% 65% 75% 95% 100%100%110%110%
   030-040     15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 35% 45% 55% 65% 75% 90% 100%100%110%110%
   040-050     15% 20% 25% 25% 35% 35% 45% 55% 65% 65% 80% 90% 90% 100%100%
D  050-060     15% 20% 20% 25% 35% 35% 45% 55% 65% 65% 80% 90% 90% 90% 100%
I  060-070     15% 15% 20% 20% 25% 30% 35% 45% 55% 55% 75% 85% 90% 90% 100%
E  070-080     15% 15% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 45% 55% 55% 75% 85% 85% 90% 90%
   080-090     15% 15% 15% 20% 20% 25% 30% 35% 45% 45% 65% 80% 80% 80% 90%
R  090-100     10% 10% 15% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 45% 45% 60% 80% 80% 80% 90%
O  100-110     10% 10% 10% 15% 15% 20% 30% 35% 45% 45% 60% 70% 70% 70% 80%
L  110-120     10% 10% 10% 10% 15% 20% 30% 35% 45% 45% 60% 70% 70% 70% 80%
L  120-130     5%  5%  10% 10% 10% 15% 25% 25% 35% 40% 45% 65% 65% 65% 80%
   130-140     5%  5%  5%  10% 10% 15% 25% 25% 35% 40% 50% 65% 65% 65% 70%
   140-150     5%  5%  5%  5%  10% 15% 25% 25% 35% 35% 45% 55% 55% 55% 65%
   150-160     0%  0%  5%  5%  10% 15% 25% 25% 35% 35% 45% 50% 50% 50% 50%
   160-170     0%  0%  0%  5%  10% 15% 25% 25% 35% 35% 45% 45% 45% 45% 45%
   170-180     0%  0%  0%  0%  5%  10% 15% 15% 25% 35% 35% 40% 40% 40% 40%
   180-190     0%  0%  0%  0%  5%  10% 10% 10% 20% 25% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30%
   190+++      0%  0%  0%  0%  5%  10% 10% 10% 15% 20% 25% 25% 25% 25% 25%
END
                      RULES ON IRON, FOOD, AND GOLD

FOOD:      You MUST have enough food to feed your people... One civilian eats
    one unit of food, and one soldier eats two units.  If you run out of
    food, half the difference of people in cities die.  Your Granary
    will store 3x your civilian population in food.  The remainder
    is converted to gold talons at a rate of 1 per food point.
IRON:      You need to have iron to draft new military.  Ten iron units
    will suffice to equip one soldier.  You also need 200 gold talons to
    train a soldier. One person produces one iron per point of mineral in
    the sector per turn.  An ammount of Iron (based on the number of troops
    you have) can be used to buy +1% in attack or defense.
JEWELS:    You can have a maximum of 10 talons debt for every jewel
    point that you mined.  After that point, you undergo a TAX REVOLT,
    which has not yet been implemented. Thus gold can be negative to
    a certain level.  Jewels are also used in magic, and 100000 Jewels
    will buy you one random new power (command M).  You can have 10
    talons in the treasury for each jewel (gold based economy).  After
    that, your gold talons will be converted to jewels at a 10:1 ratio.
END
                MAGIC POWERS

WARRIOR/CAPTAIN/WARLORD: +10% each in combat, 1/2 Enlistment cost
(MINOR/AVERAGE/MAJOR) MONSTER: (ORCS) Army 0 fights at +20% per level.
        Takeover ORC NPC 1%/3%/5% / 20K jewels.
SPY            All enemy troop/civilian strength is shown exactly (even voids)
KNOWALL        Know all troop strengths and see the whole map (except voids)
DERVISH        Desert/ICE sectors => 1 move point, vegitation 6, +30% combat in
DESTROYER    Vegetation in 3 sectors of capital = Desert.  Act as Dervish.
HIDDEN        Nobody can count troops in your armies on map.
THE_VOID    Nobody can see your sectors/armies (appear blank)
ARCHITECT    Double strength fortresses, Double city revenue.
VAMPIRE        50% troops killed become yours, -35% in combat, -2 Move, 0 maint
HEALER         +2 repro to 10% limit.  excess repro adds to defense
MINER          (DWARVES) 2x iron and jewel production
BREEDER:        +3% Birth Rate (ORCS ONLY) (beyond 10% limit).  -10% combat.
URBAN:          +3% Birth Rate to 12% limit.  remainder gives + to move (roads)
STEEL:          Additional 2x Iron Production for MINERS.
ARCHER:            +10% on defense, +30% for garrisons
CAVALRY:        +10% to attacking combat skill, +6 movement.
END
            FINAL HINTS

You would be a fool not to buy a reproduction rate of 9-10% percent.
Extra movement is very useful (especially if your movement is 6)
Buy civilians instead of military (who dont reproduce).  This assumes
    that you have a military of about 1500 men for taking land.
Take as much land as possible in the beginning.

ONE NOTE ON HOW THE GAME WORKS>> you will find that when you do something
that effects another country and then logoff/logon, that change will not
be displayed (ie. if you bribe them or overrun one of their armies).  There
is no easy fix for this.  The changes occurred!!! the computer knows about
them, and if you logged in as their nation you would see the army gone or
the diplomatic status changed, but you can not see them because only
a selected part of the turns total moves are updated when you log in.

<To be added to later>
END
DONE