Beijing Paradise BBS Backup/PARADISE.ISO/software/BBSDOORW/DREAD2P.ZIP/GAME.ZIP/WHATNEW.TXT

Text File | 1995-10-21 | 14.6 KB | 364 lines

VERSION 2P UPDATE:
This version of DREAD is designed to fix an install problem that occurred
on systems using a network, or with limited memory. It didn't have enough
memory to unzip the internal archive.

This version uses a separte installation executable so that there will be
plenty of memory. It also uses less memory for running Dread, etc.

No other new changes at this time. New upgrade with changes coming out
in a few months.

VERSION 2N UPDATE:
The DREAD.CFG or custom DREAD.CF# files were not reading in correctly.
If you were trying to install using unusual IRQ's, ports, etc. and could
never get it to work before, this version should work for you if you
alter the settings in the .cfg file for each appropriate node and pass
the config file name on the command line as shown in the docs:

dread c:\bbs\door.sys 1 dread.cfg


VERSION 2D UPDATES:
Why use a letter instead of a number? Kind of like counting in hexadecimal.
Let's me count higher without having to go to three numbers, like a 2.10
or something. So I've changed all my doors to using one number and one letter
for versions.

TRAP BONUS AMOUNT:
You now get a bonus amount for your high trap score based on your current
rank. The higher the rank, the higher the bonus you get in experience
and gleckles.

EXPERIENCE & GLECKLES:
You now receive higher experience and gleckles per battle based on your
current rank.

ZONE WHITE KEY FIX:
The Zone door on the west in Zone 94 should have been white. Fixed now.

NIGHTLY MAINTENANCE:
You MUST run nightly maintenance with: dread maint
Nightly maintenance will now delete all characters who exit the game
with 0 experience. This will keep the zones cleaned up. Non-active
players will be deleted after 30 days as usual.

COLORS:
Now! Add color to your phone chats, chat in the gym, and messages!
See the Help file for information!

INSTALLATION .BAT:
Now installs upgrades properly for those not using DOS 6.0.

BUG FIX IN VERSION 2.9:
Zones 57,58,59 were missing the right key doors. Fixed.

FEATURE IN 2.9: Added blinking asterices to the Map of the Zones. I'll
leave it to you to figure out what they represent.

BUG FIX IN VERSION 2.8:
Unfortunately, first user of the day maintenance is just not working
for multi-node systems. Various things like: is date set the same on
all network computers? Did a user log on before midnight and is still
playing after midnight when a new user logs on another node after
midnight and it tries to perform the nightly maintenance. Anyway, on
and on. So the nightly maintenance will HAVE TO BE DONE IN A NIGHTLY
MAINTENANCE BATCH FILE.

Call it like this, making sure the provided dorinfo1.def file is still
in the dread directory:
dread maint

BETA: FEATURES & BUG FIXES IN VERSION 2.7J:
Little green guy shows up hopefully before all battles are complete! ;)

You earn more experience for defeating another player in a challenge
than you do for defeating a droid.

BETA: FEATURES & BUG FIXES IN VERSION 2.7G:

When teleport from higher zone to zone 1 command center, the droids
were still have the higher zone's difficulty level. Now fixed.

Extra "any key" before guy in green lab coat goes away. Removed.

Gleckles are invisible in zone 1. Fixed.

Sysop mode allows toggling between short 10 minute and long 20 minute game
modes. Time is approximate. 10 battles or 20 battles and stuff like that.

Game defaults to short mode unless set by sysop.

Short mode is 10 battles, 3 challenges, 1 trap per day.

More gleckles and experience per battle. More life per rank increase.
More gleckles, experience and life given by Venus.

Gleckles are now easier to pick up as they fall in horizontal rows in
the zones. To make the game quicker!

NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 2.7:

There are now quantity discounts when buying the larger quantity of
waves and life.

You now earn 5% bank interest on deposits each new day you enter the game.

All store items now have a unique number instead of each screen item
starting with number one.

Bug Fixes: Radar Tracker bad text fixed.

Green Lab guy purchase fixed. If you bought something from the first screen
and then continued to next screen, the numbering was off. You could only buy
from 2nd and 3rd screens if you did not buy from the first screen first.

Bug where green guy walks over existing players and makes them disappear
is now a feature. ;) He makes them temporarily invisible. What a game!!!

A lot of internal changes for memory, size and speed considerations were
made.

Bug Fix: Dread tries to perform first user maintenance after midnight, but if
someone is already in the game before midnight, it errored out for the
second person trying to do the maintenance after midnight. It will now
check to see if someone else is "using" the game before trying to do the
maintenance. If they are "using" the game, it will wait until no one is.
Maintenance does not reset daily stuff so it is not important that it be
done first thing after midnight. It just deletes old stuff.

On installation of this version, all inventory will be converted to the
new method. This is internal and will not be noticeable externally by
the user. Debuggers: be looking for anything in the inventory that is not
correct as compared to prior to the upgrade.

Highlighted the "Shoot: ..." line in the Battles and Challenges. Fixed
the Challenges shoot line to include the missing "3=Right."

Cosmetic changes in the Battles with the words that show on the screen.

NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 2.6:

DREAD Sysop Mode
SYSOPS! Please read SYSOP.DOC for NEW instructions on calling Dr. Dread,
calling the Sysop Mode.

This opens the SYSOP MODE program for deleting players who may have obscene
names, moving players to Zone one who may be stuck in a different zone due
to a bug. (No such bug reported, but there could be a first time!)
Allows inputting of the registration key. It also shows all the
users by different sorting criteria -- shows by alias as well as real names.
You may also reset the game in sysop mode.

MORE GLECKLES & EXPERIENCE PER BATTLE: Players now receive 10x more
gleckles and experience per battle. Capture Dr. Dread more quickly! ;)

100 ZONES: There are now 100 Zones and more Command Centers have been added.
In the first several zones there are command centers to make it easier to
move from zone to zone and still have safety while trying to increase from
rank 1 to 2.

STARDUST: When a new agent joins the force, s/he is introduced to StarDust,
who is utilized as an orienteer -- guiding each new agent with instructions
and hints until the agent reaches Rank 2. StarDust is also around in Rank 2
greater ranks, but not in a guiding capacity.

ZONEPAK: On the bottom right of the screen while in the Zones, you will
see a (Z)onepak. This is where you will store various items which you can
purchase from one of Dr. Dread's Lab technicians while in the zone.

STRANGE MAN IN GREEN LAB COAT: This is Dr. Dread's Lab Tech. He will offer
to see you certain items if you can catch him. He is a very nervous little
man and may disappear at any moment, so hurry and make your purchases and
let him get on his way.
Items he will sell:

Waves & Life: He will offer these at a cost much less than can be obtained
from the Command Center.

Bioscanner: When you walk over another agent, it will ask if you wish to
(C)hallenge or (B)ioscan the agent. Bioscan will show you their equipment
and Life so that you can decide if you really want to challenge them.

Radar Tracker: When used will show you which zone each agent is located in,
and if they are in the zone or in the command center of that zone.

Invisibility: When used, this will make you invisible to all other players
until the next day you play. If another player bumps into you, however,
s/he will still be asked if s/he wishes to Challenge or Bioscan you.
Your little guy will show to you as "invisible" to remind you that you are
invisible.

Transmitter: Allows you to send messages from the zones instead of having
to go to the command center.

Teleport Tokens: These allow you to teleport to any of the 100 zones. Using
"1" will take you to the command center in zone 1. 0 will cancel.

Map of Zones: This is a full-color map which shows all 100 zones, the doors
to each zone and the door colors. The maps wear out with use and you'll note
that the paper map is worth 2 uses, but you can purchase a heavy-duty map
which is worth more uses.

BABBETTE'S BOUTIQUE:
Find Babbette's Boutique in the Command Center. Select the name of
an agent to send a gift to, then select the gift. You will gain
romance points each time you send a gift. You will also send a card
to the agent receiving the gift. Then when they log on or check their
messages, Babbette's Messenger Service will deliver the gift to them
along with your card.

As you accumulate Romance Points, Venus will come down to you and trade
50 Romance Points for items of more value in your quest for Dr. Dread.

COLOR:
More color has been added to text in the game.

AGENTS ON LINE:
Other agents on-line are now a different color so they can be differentiated
from those who are off-line.

MISSION GLECKLES:
Mission gleckles are now worth 75, instead of 30 each.

MISSION EXPERIENCE:
You now get 600 experience for completing a Mission, rather than 300.

SYSOP MODE: REGISTRATION & USER EDITOR

In order to run the sysop mode you must call DREAD by adding the
word "sysop" at the end of the command line as the 2nd
variable passed.

OTHER ADDED FEATURES:

Users may now put spaces in their aliases.

If they type a duplicate or too short alias, it now clears the line before
allowing them to retry.

Bank: You may now select all the gleckles you have for deposit or withdrawal
by typing 1.

Readme.txt has also been copied to sysop.txt since a few have complained that
there are no installation instructions. Which there are, but they haven't
looked in the readme.txt file.

Player challenges bug is fixed. Now you can REALLY only have 5 player
challenges a day. 2.1 was allowing an unlimited number.

Messages being sent by phone were being erased before getting a chance to
read them if you happened to be walking across another player -- as the
"Do you wish to challenge agent blahblah?" came up. This has been fixed
so they are now on separate lines and won't overwrite one another.

Messages are now given to you upon entrance to the game, rather than having
to report to the command center.

NEW STUFF IN VERSION 2.1:
Fixed bug in private phone chat.

NEW STUFF IN VERSION 2.0:

GLECKLE QUOTA:
You begin each day with a 30 gleckle quota to find gleckles in the Zones.
This is the number of gleckles distributed for you to find. As you defeat
a droid or a challengee, you earn an additional 10 gleckles for your quota.

QUARTERS:
It now costs to stay in the quarters. You will pay based on your rank.
Funds will be deducted from your account if you are not carrying gleckles.
It's best to stay in the Zones so others can challenge you while you're
off-line. You suffer no penalties at all for losing a battle off-line so
stay in the Zones to allow other players the fun of challenging you.

KEY INVENTORY:
Key inventory can now be seen when showing the regular inventory.

SHIELDS:
Shields have been done away with. Your account is credited the value
of the shield you once owned.

BATTLES:
Battle field is larger. Battlers are smaller. Droid hits are more
like agent hits now. To knock out the Droid you must deplete his life
as shown at the bottom right of the screen. You must hit a grey spot to
make it black, or you must hit an entire black row in order for a hit to
count.

PLAYER CHALLENGES:
Players can now challenge other players to a friendly competition.
The challengee has unlimited waves and does not suffer any penalties.
The challenger can earn experience and gleckles by challenging, but
can also lose experience of s/he loses. The challenger is also limited
to the number of waves and life in his/her possession.

To defeat the challengee, you must deplete all of their Life. The
challengee's life is never actually lost however when they return to
the game.

This is designed for off-line challenges, the computer plays for the
challengee. But you may also challenge an on-line player. The computer
will still play for the challengee however.

STORE:
More gear options have been added in the store. Names of items have been
changed to make them more exciting. hehe (yah, shure).

WAVES & LIFE:
They're cheaper now. (For all you whiners! ;)

MESSAGES:
The message database is now limited to 100 messages. That should probably
be ample messages for leaving messages. I doubt too many players leave
a lot of messages. If you find that it isn't enough and your players are
pretty verbose, let me know and I will increase that count. I'm just
trying to keep your hard disk cleaned up. The maintenance routine will
delete any messages over 100 messages beginning with the oldest.

NEW STUFF VERSION 1.9:
Many zones now have shortcuts to and from other zones which can only be
entered via the colored doors. To enter through the colored doors, you
must go on a key quest. By trying to enter a colored door, you will be
told how you can obtain the colored key for that door. Once you have
that color of key, you may enter freely through all the doors of that
color.

BATTLES:
When a Droid comes upon you in the Zones for a battle, you are now asked
if you wish to try to disassemble the Droid. This keeps the screen from
redrawing if you don't have the waves or life to battle the droid and
would have to yell to get out anyway.

MULTIPLE PLAYERS IN THE ZONES:
If you are on a multi-node or single-node BBS you can now see the other
players that are in the zones. If the other player is on line while you
are on line, you will see their movement only as you move. If that player
is transported to a mission, battle or trap, they will disappear from
the zone while they are away.

As you pass over the spot where the other player is sitting, you will
be told who that player is and offered a chance to challenge them to a
friendly battle.

DREAD HEADS:
In the Personnel office you may view a list of Dread Heads. Those who
have battled Dr. Dread's body guard Droid and lived to capture Dr. Dread.
It lists agent names, ranks, scores, and the date of capture.

NEW PLAYER HINT:
You should spend all your gleckles on life and waves in the first
3 Ranks as the Droids in the first 5 zones are fairly easy to beat.
You should start investing your gleckles in equipment around the middle
of Rank 3.

Thanks!