Software Vault: The Diamond Collection

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Text File | 1995-03-08 | 26KB | 451 lines

RISE TO POWER ------------- by Robert A. Dalton VERSION 1.95 Copyright (c) 1993. SITUATION --------- For a small part of your day forget the present and relive the past represented by RISE TO POWER. The time is the 15th Century, the place is medieval Germany. The situation: Germany is a divided land at constant war. A weak king with little real power has been elected to rule over the 10 provinces that make the greater Germany of that time. The electors were the 10 Barons which rules the provinces and only nominally submit to the king. These Barons are forever feuding among themselves and each harbors a desire to become the eventual King over a powerful and united Germany. You are a small but very ambitious landholding KNIGHT who sees an opportunity to RISE TO POWER in this system and become eventual KING! GOAL: TO BECOME THE KING AND UNITE ALL 10 PROVINCES OF GERMANY! BREAK DOWN OF RANKS RELATIVE TO LEADERSHIP: KING : Rules the ENTIRE land which includes all 10 provinces of Germany. BARON : Rules 1 province of Germany. COUNT : A respected leader who maintains a large land holding, good sized keep and a considerable force of men at arms. KNIGHT : Leader of a small land holding of peasants and a few men at arms in a small keep. GAME PLAY --------- If the sysop has registered the game, then play is limited only by the amount of time the sysop has issued that particular player on the BBS. If NOT registered, Game play will be limited to 10 minutes. UNREGISTERED GAMES will be limited to a maximum of 10 players allowed. Encourage your Sysop to register the game, or better yet do it for the sysop, so that you and everyone else may enjoy the additional options. From almost any menu, EVEN THOUGH THE OPTION IS NOT DISPLAYED, you can select '*' as your selection and kick the game into expert mode and return to novice mode in the same way. Moving Around The Map --------------------- Movement on the map is done by using the Number Pad on your keyboard. Make sure your NumLock key is activated. Except for the "5" key each number on the number pad corresponds to the direction you wish to move to. Hitting the "8" key for instance moves you one space North of your present position. When moving be sure to use the Recon Option on occasion to avoid possible problems such as the brigands, etc.. On the NumberPad the "5" key activates the recon option when you are moving on the map. After you hit the "5" key you will then be asked to hit a number key to point out the direction of the area you wish to check out. You can only perform a recon on an area one position away from where you currently are. After entering the direction key the computer will tell you what is in that area. There IS a small chance that something was overlooked and the area may NOT be as empty as you were told. After telling you what it found you will be returned back to normal movement. If you encounter one of the other players traveling with his troops on the map and you decide to fight him, and in the process manage to kill him, you will get any gold and wheat that player has remaining. If YOU get killed in the fight the reverse is true as well! For a list of OTHER available commands when moving just type <?> and hit enter. Starting Out ------------ Everyone starts out as a Knight who leads a small group of men at arms. You are the leader of a small land holding with a few peasants who are sworn to your service. You are given some bushels of wheat and some Gold Florins (the currency of that time) to Start. THE FIRST THING you must do is decide were you want to build your Home Keep (similar to a castle). You will be starting in an arbitrary province inside of one of the local Baron's Keeps. To build your Home Keep, travel through the provinces until you find a spot that pleases you and select command <B>. This will build it. When you build the keep you will be given 100 acres of land and you may never attempt to sell or give away any quantity of land that takes you below this 100 acres or your action will not be allowed. Next hit the <E> key to enter your new keep. For help type <?> and hit enter. STARTING A FAMILY ----------------- Marriage is the KEY to successfully playing and winning this Game!!! It is VERY important that you find a wife as soon as possible and get married. When you are married, the computer will check daily to see if your marriage has produced any children. (No 9 month waiting period here!) You can only have a MAXIMUM of 2 children at any one time in the game. If so, it can be either a son or daughter, or some combination. Right after you have a daughter born, you can attempt to marry her off (They married YOUNG in those times!). To do this you must first set a dowry which another player will have to pay in order to marry your fair daughter. If the other player accepts this Dowry your daughter will be married to him and you will find you are now minus one child and can have another. If one of your children is a boy he will become your Heir in case of your untimely death. Yes, this means you can ALMOST be immortal! Be careful, other player's can kidnap or kill your children or wife. In the event you die while your heir is kidnapped you LOSE everything. Also random events such as the ever present medieval bane - PLAGUE - can also take your wife or children. If an heir does take over, your new alias will be the same as the name of the child that you chose for it. Also his attributes will all be reset EXCEPT Reputation (it IS passed on). Except for Count, titles are NOT passed on to your heirs. If you were a Baron or King and die the deposed computer King and Barons will retake over their titles and lands and your heir will be reduced to a Count who owns only the family Keep. By the way, of course your dear wife and other children will all disappear too to make way for the heirs family members. Once daily the KING will announce the availability of a woman of suitable lineage for marriage at his Keep. If someone beats you to her for that day then visit the other player Keeps and see if someone wants to marry off his daughter for a dowry you can afford. Feeding Your Populous --------------------- Each acre of land will produce about 10 bushels of wheat depending on how good the growing season was. Each peasant eats 4 bushels of wheat. Each man-at-arms consumes 8 bushels of wheat. Each Knight consumes 12 bushels of wheat. As you can see the cost of being powerful mounts quickly. Make sure you buy land when you can afford to do so to keep up with your growing populous and army. Buying more land does not automatically mean larger harvests. You have to have enough workers for the land you have to get greater harvests. The ideal ratio is one worker to one acre. Warning: If you don't have enough food famine will quickly reduce your power! Your peasants will have children so take that into account when figuring how much land is required. Marching With Troops -------------------- Marching troops across the country side can be an expensive proposition as they tend to eat more because of the increased energy expended. As a result each space you move away from your Keep with more than 30 Troops will cost you an additional bushel of wheat for EACH man-at-arms above the 30 limit. If you run out of wheat your Troops will start deserting quickly. An army marches on its stomach!! Watch Out For ------------- BRIGANDS! They roam randomly throughout the provinces of Germany. The king rewards those knights who eliminate these brigands. The reward is a standard GF 25 for the head of each brigand you get. Be warned they CAN wipe you out quickly. They can be most often found in the province of Saxony and will ambush your party without warning. ATTRIBUTES ---------- Almost every aspect of the game will effected by your 3 main Attributes which range from 1 to 10 with 1 being lowest: 1. Swordsmanship (Your weapons proficiency) 2. Leadership (Your ability to motivate others) 3. REPUTATION (How others see you) If your reputation is low, you will notice that it effects EVERYTHING you do in a negative manner. As already mentioned the attributes are set on a scale of 1 to 10. All start out initially at 1 except for Reputation which is 3 (barely adequate). Losing in combat, and many other similar actions, can adversely effect your reputation. Think of it this way. If it would cause you to be looked on less than favorably in the real world then it will most certainly do so here to! These attributes can be moved up in a number of ways. This strategy will be discussed later on. MOVING UP --------- You start out as a Land Holding Knight and then move forward through the ranks in the following order: 1. Knight 2. Count 3. Baron 4. KING To reach the level of Count a player needs 400 men at arms and 1000 acres of land, AND maintains a Reputation value of 4 or better. During daily Maintenance, the computer will check stats for qualifying players who will be notified the next day when they loggon. <if you had enough to be promoted and didn't get it, someone could have attacked you before maintenance>. After you reach Count, you need only travel to a local Barons Keep and Attempt to ASSUME the position and the computer will put you up against the Baron in a Duel to see if you are good enough. After controlling 4 provinces you can attempt to DEFEAT the current KING! Please note that even though you are elevated to Baron or King you will still retain your old keep and it will be shown as a counts keep on the map because there is ALWAYS a possibility that someone may replace you as Baron or King! QUESTS ------ The KING will periodically issue quests and print the information concerning the quests in the news....such as Location and type of opponent you can expect to face. The range of opponents is very wide. You could fight anything from a common thief to the BLACK KNIGHT. Under the laws of chivalry you are expected to best the opponent, unaided, in mortal combat. Win and you will gain in reputation and stature which brings Men at Arms and possibly other Knights flocking to your banner. Lose and your followers will probably desert you for a more capable lord! To accomplish the quest you must travel to the coordinates of the quest and once there hit the "P" key to attempt to perform it. You may only perform a quest ONCE per day! The computer will then put you into to hand-to-hand combat mode of which the options displayed are straightforward and to the point. Fighting bigger opponents will of course bring BIGGER rewards; such as increased abilities, gold, more men at arms, etc...... Before each quest, you will be asked to select a sword. This is important because it effects how you want to fight. If you select a smaller sword you'll have lower attack value but a HIGHER reward value. As you go down the list to more powerful swords the attack value goes up whereas the reward value goes down. If you come across something you just can't defeat.....leave it! If no one conquers it by the end of the day, the computer will replace it the following day. Also, upon completion of each quest, the KING will immediately issue another. This can be a good option, but if you have low Attributes, it is unwise to under take every quest the King announces. You CAN lose more than you gain by fighting a too tough opponent early on. ADDING TO YOUR KEEP ------------------- Your Keep is your castle-like place of home. The higher the value, the bigger the keep. The bigger the keep the better Defense value is. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT when People start attacking your keep, especially with a siege engine!! TAX RATE -------- Although with smaller landholds the tax rate doesn't mean much, it does when you start building up people. Your TAX rate CAN effect everything you do. It's a FAST way to make money, but if you keep it up too long, your peasants and men at arms will start to notice and you could possibly start a rebellion that you yourself could be killed in. You will learn quickly what the peasants will tolerate in taxes! DUELING PLAYERS --------------- You are allowed a certain number (1-10) duels a day. A stage with both players will be displayed and a power rating will be calculated from the attributes of each player. The computer will handle the Duel based on your attributes. The winner will receive any number of things from the loser. This can be a good option, but if you have low Attributes, it is unwise to duel everyone you run into. You can lose members of your family if you have nothing to give the winner. ATTACKING KEEPS --------------- <F> ight to Death = Excellent way to build up Leadership, but do NOT try this if you are just starting out and are not very strong. If you survive you get his remaining gold and wheat. If he survives and wins he gets yours. There are FIVE outcomes possible: (A) You kill the other guy. (B) You are killed by the other guy. (C) the other guy is killed by your men-at-arms but you are ALSO killed in the fighting in the Home. This will happen most if you are not very strong. (D) He is not home but you trash his place and kill anyone you can find there. (E) You lose but you did not lead the attack on his home. All your men at arms and Knights are killed in the attack and your reputation declines. <R> aid for Treasure = The more men you send the higher your chance for success and amount of gold and wheat retrieved. <A> ttack Peasants = Wipe out a player's peasants. <L> ay Siege to Keep = Lowers Enemy Keep values - but not below the minimum Keep value of 1. If his Keep is only rated at a value of 1 (the starting value for all Keeps) you are wasting your time and men at arms by attacking it. <K> ill Family Member= Kills Wife or Children in that keep. <B> attle Men at Arms= Pit your army against another. Wear down an army! <E> xecute = Attempt to assassinate a player TREACHERY --------- Word of warning on using treachery - There IS a small chance you can be caught in the act with sometimes unpleasant consequences! <I> ncite Rebellion = Start a rebellion in player's keep. <R> escue Hostage = Rescue a family member from an enemy player. <S> py on Family = Learn VITAL information about a player. <L> oot Treasury = Steal money from player's money vault. <T> ake a Hostage = Take another player's family member hostage. <P> lant Evidence = Attempt to plant incriminating evidence on a player. <C> ause Wheat Spoilage= Spoil player's wheat and cause peasant starvation. Options in the KINGS KEEP ------------------------- Recruit Knights - Once a day you can choose this option and it will randomly recruit knights to your keep which aid in defensive and offensive actions with other players. The more men at arms you control, the more Knights you will attract. Knights act as VERY powerful men at arms for combat purposes but have no other direct role in the game. One knight is worth roughly 10 men at arms for combat and defense purposes! Look for Wife - During nightly maintenance a woman of suitable lineage MAY OR MAY NOT become available for marriage. Selecting this option will reveal the answer. Also, it will be advertised in the daily News when one is available. Of course, you'll have to pay the dowry which is arbitrarily set by the computer. Hire Men at Arms - Allows you to add more men at arms to your army for a Fixed price. Purchase Siege Engine - While the cost is high (GF 1500) buying a siege engine from the Kings Siege Engineer will greatly assist your reduction of the defensive value of an enemies Keep and help in combat when the other player is in his Keep. Because of the potential danger involved to the King he only allows each player to have one siege engine in his armory. ASSASSIN SUB-MENU -------------------------------------------- You can hire an assassin from the Assassins Guild located at the King's Keep to perform a single mission for you. Cost for an assassin depends on what you want him to do. Costs are listed in the Assassin menu and are Nonnegotiable with the GuildMaster. <1> Assassinate Player = Attempt to kill a player. <2> Take Hostage = Attempt to take a member of a players family hostage. <3> Start Fire = Attempt to burn up some of a player's grain. <4> Rescue Hostage = Attempt to rescue a member of your family who is being held hostage by another player. <5> Spy on Player = Attempt to find out information on another player. <6> Kill Players Family = Attempt to kill a member of another players family. <7> Massacre Peasants = Attempt to kill the peasants of another player. <8> Hand Carry Message = Hand carry a secret message from you to another player. This is a great way to make alliances or treaties! There is a small chance the assassin will be killed enroute and the message will be lost. Options in BARONS Keep ---------------------- Donate Land - Donating land to the church is the easiest way to gain in reputation. Every 500 acres of land donated will increase your reputation by 1. Erect Church - Building a church in the province is a great way to increase your reputation but can be expensive. To do this will cost 500 acres of land, GF 5000 and 1000 bushels of wheat, but will raise your reputation by 2. Buy/Sell Menu - Allows you to buy Wheat and Land at arbitrary prices set by the computer during nightly maintenance. Increase Weapons Proficiency - The higher you increase this value the better your men at arms and knights can fight and defend your keep. This helps you in Duels, Attempting Quests and in all battles that include you or your men at arms. Options while VISITING player keeps ----------------------------------- Goto Trade Menu - Allows you to Buy and Sell Wheat & Men at Arms at prices and amounts set by the owner of the Keep. Duel Visiting Players - Allows you to Duel ALL players (INCLUDING OWNER) in a duel that is run by the computer. The stakes can be anything from Gold to your Children. Marry Owner's Daughter - If owner has a daughter he may or may not make her available for Marriage. If so you will be shown the dowry he is asking and if it meets with your approval she's all yours....however, she will have to bear the name, the owner assigned her at birth. Ransom Hostage - Use this option to ransom a hostage the player took from you. The ransom will be 25% of your land, gold and wheat! Attempt Treachery - SEE ABOVE Options in HOME Keep -------------------- Prevent Entry - This will allow you to shut the gates and keep other players out of your keep. Can be a good idea sometimes, but not ALWAYS recommended. This is NOT selective. Either everyone can enter or everyone cannot enter. You of course can ALWAYS enter your Keep. * Edit Trade Market - IMPORTANT! There are 3 values to be set for both Wheat & Men at Arms on this menu. 1. Amount to Sell - how many you want to take out of stock or from your army and sell. Used for surplus or if in need of money. 2. Price to Sell At - price your willing to sell the above amount at. 3. Price to Buy At - If you want to buy something, set a price and players can come along and sell as much as they want. REMEMBER, a player could theoretically sell you INFINITE numbers of either value so watch it closely. Build on To Keep - DISCUSSED ABOVE Kick Player Out - If someone is in your keep that you don't want there, this option will throw them out. ! ATTACK KEEPS ! - options are discussed ABOVE Something to remember--when a keep is under attack, and the owner is home, the defense value is GREATLY increased. This is not to say, sit at home and defend your Keep, but it doesn't hurt to be at home if your not going to be playing a couple of days. The more men at arms, knights, etc.. you have the better your chances are. A siege engine is highly recommended when attacking a player in his Keep. I highly recommend you do NOT use this option if you are JUST starting out and have little power, men at arms, etc.. Send Reconnaissance - Given any coordinates, it will tell you what is there. Marry Off Daughter - This will allow you, if you have a daughter, to set a dowry and allow your daughter to marry other players. Free & Kill Hostage - If you have a hostage you can choose either option RANDOM EVENTS ------------- During the game several random events will come into play. These can be good, bad or both. As mentioned earlier PLAGUE is one of the random events and can affect members of your family, Men at arms, Knights, and, of course, those long suffering peasants who are part of your land holding. Random events can also effect your wheat crops and royal treasury in several different and colorful ways.