Monster Media 1994 #2

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Majyk Empires 1.40 20 May 1994 The OnLine RIP Fantasy Conflict (c)1994 CIOE Corp / by Neale Davidson * INTRODUCTION The lands are ravaged by warring empires. The world suffers under the weight of destruction from powerful majyk and mighty armies. Of these, only one empire can survive. Will it be yours? Use your armies, both standard and majykal, to defeat enemy forces and conquer their cities. * INSTALLING MAJYK EMPIRES To begin installing Majyk Empires, make sure that all of Majyk Empire's files are in the same directory. If the door came to you as an archive, you will need to decompress the files into the same directory. Usually, decompression is performed with a command-line such as the following: PKUNZIP MAJYK140.ZIP C:\DOORS\MAJYK * FILE MANIFEST If any of these files are missing at startup, you will need to contact InfOrder for a replacement diskette. MAJYK.EXE - The Door Executable MAJYK.OVR - The Door Overlay GENWORLD.EXE - The World Generator MAINTAIN.EXE - The Maintenance program TEXT.STR - Text information * RESETTING THE GAME Majyk Empires comes with a utility called 'GENWORLD', which will create a new world for your users to play in. The game itself no longer does this automatically. As a sysop,you will need to run this program at least once before allowing game play. When this program runs, it will overwrite any previous games and create new datafiles. These datafiles are listed below. Also, to reset a game in progress, simply run this program and enter 'Y' when asked. THEWORLD.DAT - The world map information MESSAGES.DAT - Player and event messages EMPEROR.DAT - Player information * CREATING A CONFIGURATION To inform Majyk Empires about your modem and BBS setup, you will need to create a DOOR.CFG file with your favorite editor. This file will have several lines, which are explained below. (Note: We have had reports that additional spaces on the end of each line causes havoc with the game. If something isn't being recognized properly, simply remove any 'whitespace.') Line one tells the game which type of drop file should be hunted for when the program loads up. Known drop files are as follows: GAP DOOR.SYS (recommended) PCB PCBOARD.SYS RBBS DORINFO1.DEF WC CALLINFO.DAT SF TRIBBS WWIV Users of Wildcat BBS software of greater than version 3.0 should use GAP for their drop file. The second line is the path to that door file. You need to include the full path name on this line, but not the name of the drop file itself. The third line is the name of the BBS. This is where Majyk Empires will look for the name of the BBS when searching for registration information. The forth line is for the name of the sysop to your BBS, of for whoever is in charge of the doors. If the sysop locks the baud rate on his modem, that rate must be specified on line five. If the baud rate isn't specified, then a '0' must be entered for the line. (Note: If you are using a high-speed modem, you will almost always want to specify the baud rate of the modem as if it were locked. Connections problems result otherwise.) The sixth line tells Majyk Empires where to find the DSZ program. Be sure to include both the path and program name on the line. Majyk Empires uses DSZ for auto-downloading of Icons, as well as sending the map and events files. If you do not wish to use DSZ, or do not have that program available, then leave this line blank. Line seven of the CFG file is unused. Line eight is an 'ON' / 'OFF' switch. If this is set to off, no majyk units will be available within the game, ever. If this is set to 'ON', Majyk units will be enabled. Line nine is another 'ON'/'OFF' switch which determines if spells are available during the game. If 'OFF', all spells are disabled. If 'ON', spells work normally. Line ten tells Majyk Empires how high to start social science for new players. This number should be between 0 and 2500. Line eleven tells the door how high to start military science for new players. This number should be between 0 and 2500. Most games should start below 50. The last line tells the door how high to start majyk science for new players. This number should be between 0 and 2500. It is recommended that this number start out no higher than military science. The following is a sample door configuration file for a WildCat! 3.0 BBS using DSZ: GAP C:\WC30\GAMES\MAJYK CIOE InfOrder Joseph Drasin 19200 C:\WC30\DSZ.EXE NULL ON ON 10 10 10 * RUNNING MAJYK EMPIRES The door can usually be executed with the DOS command 'MAJYK.EXE DOOR.CFG'. This will usually be placed in a batch file such as the following: C: CD C:\DOORS\MAJYK MAJYK.EXE DOOR.CFG CD C:\BBS EXIT Majyk Empires can also be locally outside of the BBS by adding '/L' after the configuration file parameter in the DOS command line ('MAJYK.EXE DOOR.CFG /L'). The local user will then be prompted to enter his name. Nonstandard IRQs can be used with Majyk Empires by specifying the IRQ after the configuration parameter in the command line. ('MAJYK.EXE DOOR.CFG 2'). Majyk Empires will automatically initialize any datafiles it needs when the door is first run. * RIP SUPPORT Majyk Empires will automatically detect if RipTerm or Ansi is available, ignoring the values passed it by the door drop file. This was done to allow the door to use RIP even if the BBS system hosting it does not normally have RIP available. If, for some reason, Majyk Empires cannot detect either Ansi or RipTerm, the user is prompted to force either Ansi or RipTerm sequences. Users should only do this if they do indeed have either Ansi or RipTerm, but did not have their terminal options properly detected. Users must have either Rip or Ansi available in order to play this game. RIP users need several icons in order to play the game. These icons can be downloaded automatically (provided that DSZ support is provided) when the game is started. * MAINTENANCE PROGRAM One thing that you will notice with this version of Majyk Empires is the inclusion of a maintainance program. This program will automatically update turn phases, population, and construction. You will generally want this program run once every night in your standard maintainance batch file. On its command-line, you will want to add at least Majyk Empire's door configuration file. A example of the batch file follows. C: CD C:\BBS\DOORS\MAJYK MAINTAIN.EXE DOOR.CFG EXIT In addition, you can also turn on several 'special' features in nightly maintenance, such as adding Barbarians and Disasters! seamlessly into the current campaign. This can be done simply by adding the appropriate flags after the door configuration file. /B - Turns on the barbarians option /D - Turns on the disasters option Barbarians Tired of the constant fighting in their lands, the neutral citizens of the realms have taken up arms to strike back against their oppressors. Enter the barbarians! Neutral cities build up armies and strike against any neighboring empires with infantry, knights, calvary, and wolfriders. Being a usurper in Majyk Empires has just gotten more difficult. When barbarians executes, it basically gives one turn to the neutral armies and cities on the map. In barbarians, however, only neutral armies are moved and built. Population expansion will grow as a result of Majyk Empires itself. Barbarians will first randomly place up to six armies somewhere on the map. These armies could be Settlers, Infantry, Calvary, Knights, or Wolfriders. Barbarians will then go through all neutral cities and change their builds to either Settlers, Infantry, Calvary, Knights, or Wolfriders. These are the only builds that barbarians knows how to handle. Next, barbarians will move its units around the map, pillaging, conquering, or otherwise causing harm to the empires. Barbarian effects, such as combat or "spontaneous" generation of armies, will be documented in the game messages. * Disasters The constant fighting in the realms has envoked the wrath of the gods! They send forth their fury in the forms of volcanoes, hurricanes, floors, and other disasters designed to make life in the realms more difficult. Also, the mad mage Elistan seeks to gain power in the realms by randomly striking against the empires. His spells are powerful enough to bring even the mightiest of kings to their knees. Turning on the Disasters option in the MAINTAIN.EXE file will randomly send a disaster on the world. As you can see from the below list, there are several disasters which can effect the land. Some of these events will be relatively minor, but some could outright slay an army with a bit of bad luck. Sysops should use care when turning on this option. Drain - The mad mage Elistan absorbs the world's majyk pools for his own use, reducing everyone's MP to zero. Famine - The world suffers from severe hunger. The weakest bit of starvation will halve the population of the world. The strongest will leave only one forth of the world surviving! Flood - Rains torrent a region, turning it into sea. This kills everything in the flood zone, including armies and cities, and creates a lake. Forget - The gods revoke some of the scientific knowledge of the world, dropping everyone's military, social, and majyk sciences by half. Hurricane - Sailers Beware! Three classes of hurricanes exist to reduce naval fleets to timbers. Every ship on the map must defend against a hurricane with an ATK rating of 1,2, or 3. Keep Attack - Elistan uses his majyk to destroy the keeps of the world. Each keep has a twenty percent chance of being destroyed by this attack. Meteor Swarm - This presents a danger to all armies on the map! Meteors fall from the sky at random. If an army is in the same hex as the metero strike, there is a chance that the army is slain. Tornado - Three strengths of tornadoes roam the countryside, levelling armies, cities, mills, or keeps. Volcano - A volcano erupts somewhere on the map, killing everything around it. Armies and cities are utterly destroyed as new land is formed around the volcano. * GAME PLAY The overal objective in Majyk Empires is to conquer the world by being that last remaining army on the map. To eliminate other players, you must conquer all their cities and destroy all their armies. More information on just how to do that is outlined below. * THE INTERFACE SCREEN Most of the player's interaction with the world will take place in the interface screen. This screen is divided into a few views: The upper menu bar, the map, and the info board. The Menu Bar is where most of the commands of the game are stored. To access these commands, simply click on the appropriate button. Menu-Bar : Order - This menu presents a sub-menu which gives the option to cast spells, move armies, change builds, and to end the turn. The move armies and change builds option will simply change what mode the rest of the interface will take. End Turn wil end the turn and return to the BBS. Cast Spell, in games where spells are allowed, will present an additional menu for spell casting. Menu-Bar : Reports - The Messages report will display any new messages relavent to the game. The sciences report shows your current science levels and what it takes to get to the next level. The production report tells you how much of each army you're producing. And the status report gives an overview of the game in progress. Menu-Bar : Help - This menu hosts several single-page popups. The Basic Rules give the overall premise to the game. The Army Types popup shows the basic statistics for each army type. The Spells popup shows the basic effects of each spell, and the Info popup shows some trivial information on the game itself. Other menus are simple, one-option menus and will appear on the right hand side of the screen. The left part of the screen will either display armies or cities (depending on how you're searching). Options for moving armies and manipulating builds are given in the right-hand side menus. * SCIENCES The main key to victory comes in the form of sciences. Each of the three sciences will improve the quality of your military units, and the lifestyles of your people. Social science is the science of the people and their environment. In the game, improved social science allows the growth of cities, prevents plagues, and keeps the population in line. Empires weak in social science will start to notice their cities rebelling and their people dying. Social science ranges from Tyrant, the worst, to Avatar, the best. The larger the city, the more social science is needed to keep it in line. At Missionary, moral guidance allows for faster and more efficient production. This comes in the form of a production bonus, increasing all military unit production by fifty percent. At Clergyman, a renaissance occurs, providing a Science Bonus. All scientific production increases by fifty percent. At Priest, religion begins to dominate the majyk, and keeps increase their output by fifty percent. Lastly, at Bishop, the religious leaders begin to influence the military, granting them bonuses in conflict. This comes in the way of a +1 bonus on combat rolls. Social Allows Ability Tyrant Settlement, Nothing Village, Town Follower Nothing Nothing Missionary Nothing Production Bonus Clergyman Castle Science Bonus Priest Nothing Majyk Bonus Bishop Nothing Combat Bonus Archbishop Fortress Nothing Papal Nothing Nothing Avatar Citadel Nothing Military science is the basic knowledge of warfare, and is arguably the most important science in the game. The higher your rank in this science, the more powerful types of armies you may produce. Military science begins at pacifist, which grants the player use of only settlers and infantry units (see next section). Emperor, the higest rank, has all standard military units available. Military Rank Allows Pacifist Settlers, Infantry Peasant Nothing Soldier Calvary Squire Knights Knight Siege, Trieme Lord Catapault Warlord Archers, Ship High Lord Ballista Emperor Greek Fire, Galleon Majyk science is the study of the arcana. Majyk itself allows for two things, spellcasting and the creation of majykal units, such as wolfriders or drakes. The effectiveness of keeps is also increased with majykal science. The lowest rank of Majykal science is Majyk-Blind, which allows nothing. Dabbler is the first rank in which wolfriders and placate spells can be used. The Lord Maje rank enables the player to cast any spell and to create any majykal units. Mayjk spells are explained in later detail in the Spells section. In general, however, the higher rank the spell, the more devastating the spell effect on your enemies. Majyk Unit Spell Majyk Blind Nothing Nothing Dabbler Wolfriders Placate Student Ogres Guardian Acolyte Dire Wolves Enrage Scholar Giants Wealth Adept Paladins Disruption Maje Griffs Raze High Maje Wyverns Black Plague Lord Maje Drakes Holocaust Sciences are improved in cities by selecting the Develop Sciences option when building a new settlement or in changing production. Resources in that city will go into the sciences instead of the creation of units. * UNITS Name Mv At Df Pop Res Mp Settlers 1 1 2 25 10 0 Infantry 1 1 1 5 5 0 Calvary 2 1 2 5 8 0 Knights 2 2 2 5 15 0 Siege 3 0 1 2 20 0 Catapault 3 1 1 2 25 0 Archers 2 1 1 5 15 0 Ballista 3 1 2 2 35 0 Greek Fire 4 2 1 5 50 0 Trieme 1 1 1 10 15 0 Ship 2 1 2 15 35 0 Galleon 3 2 3 25 50 0 Wolfrider 2 1 3 5 8 3 Ogre 3 3 1 5 10 5 Dire Wolves 3 2 3 10 8 6 Giants 3 3 1 5 15 7 Paladins 3 2 2 5 17 9 Griffs 2 2 2 5 20 12 Wyvern 2 2 2 5 20 15 Drake 2 2 4 1 50 20 Each unit has the same basic statistics. Combat wise, the two most important are the ATK and DEF statistics. The ATK (Attack) statistic tells how strong a unit is when attacking. The higher the number here, the more powerful its attacks can be. The DEF (Defense) statistic tells how formidable the unit's defenses are. The higher the number here, the more difficult an attack will have to be to destroy the unit. The MOV (Movement) statistic is how many spaces per turn the unit can move. The higher the MOV, the quicker the unit. Most units MOV at a one or two. The Drake, the fastest and most powerful unit, has a MOV of four. The POP, RES, and MP statistics explain how difficult the unit is to build. The POP (Population) statistic is simply how many people in a city must leave to join the new unit. The RES (Resource) statistic is how many resource points in the city are taken up to create the unit. The higher the RES, the longer the unit will take to create. The MP (Majyk Pool) statistic is the drain on the player's MP for the creation of the unit. There must always be enough MP available for the unit to be created. You only need to worry about this for creating majykal units. Certain units also have special abilities which make them more formidable or more useful. Settlers can build onto areas, creating or enlarging cities, creating mills, or building keeps (See next section for more on settler builds). Catapaults, archers, ballista, greek fire, and drakes all use a ranged attack. These units can send their blows at a great distance, instead of having to engage in direct fighting. Triemes, ships, and galleons can each do two things. All these units are sailing ships, which travel on water instead of land. They can also load and unload units, transporting them from landmass to landmass across the oceans. Griffs, wyverns and drakes can fly. This ability enables them to travel over land and sea with equal speed. Ogres have a tendancy to rebel and disband, removing them from the combat arena. Paladins not only have bonuses to combat, but also possess the ability to occaisionally convert enemy units to your cause. Drakes and Dire Wolves possess a fear aura, which can sometimes cause all enemy units next to them to surrender, effectively removing them from combat. Each unit is created in cities. Unit creation is selected when a new city is built or when orders are given to change builds. Available units will be displayed, and the player will have the option of which unit he wishes to create in the city. * BUILDS When settlers move into an area, they usually have the option to build. This means, they can improve the area to benefit the player. In open terrain, settlers can build three things, settlements, keeps and mills. In already populated areas, they can only add to the existing population. Settlements are new cities, ripe to produce new troops or study sciences. Settlements will grow over time, increasing their resources. Mills and water will increase the population of a settlement per turn. Some settlements will become large enough that they will sprawl over into surrounding area, making "suburban" areas. Cities are very important in the game. If a player no longer possesses any cities or units, he is out of the game. Mills will add to the production and population of neighbouring towns. They are useful in areas where production and city growth seems slow. Mills do not, however, increase in population, nor do they keep any resources of their own. Keeps directly contribute to a player's majyk pool. How much the keep contributes is determined by his Majykal science. Dabblers get five MP per keep, while Lord Majes get twenty MP per. Keeps, like mills, do not increase in population or in resources. * ATTACKING AND COMBAT An attack is made when one unit moves into a space occupied by the enemy. Cubes are rolled to determine the victory of the attack. The attacker will his ATK rating, which determines how many cubes he may roll for his attack. This roll must be greater than the defender's roll for the attack to be successful. The defender uses his DEF rating which also determines how many cubes he may roll for his attack. This roll must be equal to or greater than the attack for a successful defense. Defender wins all ties. Whichever army rolls highest survives and holds the space. Lastly, attacking a unit exhausts all of the attacker's moves. Example Attack: Red's Drake has moved into a square occupied by Blue's Wolfrider. This is an attack and is handled as follows: RED DRAKE - ATK 2d6 The Red Drake rolls a two and a three, getting a five total for his two cubes. BLUE WOLFRIDER - DEF 1d6 The Blue Wolfrider only rolls one die, getting a six. Since the wolfrider rolled higher than the drake, the wolfrider wins and the drake dies. * RANGED ATTACK Ranged attacks are similar to normal attacks, only the attacker can attack an enemy unit a few squares away. To accomplish this, the attacker, when asked to move, selects the ranged attack option from the menu. The computer will then ask the attacker for a target square. The attacker then selects his target by moving the highlighter and then accepting the space. A ranged attack is only worth a 1d6 ATK rating, regardless of the unit attacking, and counts as one MOV. * SPELLS There are eight spells in Mayk Empires, each with varying effects and varying amounts of power. The Placate spell is the most basic of spells. The spell generally improves the social condition of your people. This spell's power is dependant of the Social Science. The higher the science, the more effective the spell. The Guardian spell is effective for quickly rallying troops to defend your territory. The spell will create infantry units in any open city you own. Higher levels of military science will provide calvary or knights as guardians. In many ways, the Enrage spell is the opposite of the Placate spell. Enrage causes all of your enemies' people to become discontent, lowering their social science. The higher your social science, the harder the enemies are hurt by this spell. The Wealth spell simply creates resources in each of your cities. The wealth gained is generally enough to create ballista in each city for one turn. Disruption is a particularly nasty spell. All enemy majykal units must defend against a 2d6 attack or die. This spell is useful for removing large groups of enemies from your borders. Raze reduces all of your enemies' resources to zero, as well as has a chance of destroying your enemies' mills. This spell is useful for obliterating powerful production centers. The Black Plague is a direct assault on everyone else's population. Up to 50 percent of everyone in each enemy city will die from this spell. Lastly, the Holocaust spell is used to utterly obliterate an enemy. This one spell has the combined effect of the Raze, Enrage, Disrupt, and Black Plague spells. In addition, all enemy units must defend against a 2d6 attack or die, not just majykal ones. Each spell drains a certain amount of MP. The placate spell, being the weakest, drains only 50 MP. The Holocaust spell drains a massive 5000 MP. Spell Majyk Pool Drain Placate 50 Guardian 100 Enrage 250 Wealth 500 Disrupt 1000 Raze 1500 Black Plague 2500 Holocaust 5000 * GAME MAP FILE At the end of every turn, a text-version world map is produced, which reveals all armies and cities. This file can be provided for download by the Sysop, or can be downloaded by RIP users directly by using DSZ support. * VERSION HISTORY 1.40 - 20 May 1994 A massive rewrite of the game engine. Overlay file support, EMS support, and smaller records keeping. An incredible increase in the interface. Autodownloading of icons, and many many other options. Majyk Empires datafiles are now designed to allow multi-node play. 1.30 - 28 November 1993 Documentation vastly improved from earlier versions. Installation is now gone through step-by-step. Sysop configuration has been greatly expanded. The sysop now has the power to dictate many of the options in the game from within the DOOR.CFG file. 1.26 - 1 November 1993 Some bug fixes. End-of-turn options given even to players who are completely out of turns. 1.25 - 27 October 1993 Massive update with many new options. DSZ support has been added. If the DSZ option has been set, players can download icons, instructions, the events bulletin, and the current world map. 1.20 - 18 September 1993 Cosmetics changed, addition of some majykal units. Majyk limitation in unregistered versions disabled. 1.01 - 1 September 1993 Some minor bug fixes. 1.00 - 29 August 1993 Registered version release. Includes ranged attacks, majykal spells and units, and statistical views of armies currently playing. 0.90 Beta - 20 August 1993 First version release. * TECHINICAL SUPPORT If you have any questions about Majyk Empires or any other CIOE products, you can reach us by mail, voice, or by our network system. CIOE InfOrder 207 North Street, Suite 102 West Lafayette IN 47906 Voice: (317)743-3487 BBS: (317)743-4487 14.4K N81