BloodThirsty Version 2.3 Documentation By Dale Bertrand BloodThirsty is a shareware game. This means you've been given a chance to review it before you pay. Feel free to give copies to your friends and upload this game onto BBSs as long as you are distributing all six files listed below. Pease use the DESCRIP.DOC file when uploading. Blood23.exe - the main executable file Blood23.doc - this file Update23.lst - list of new features Register.doc - registration info Descrip.doc - description of the game 000.map - first map file 006.map - seventh map file If you are missing any of these files you have an incomplete copy of the game. For information on recieving a complete up-to-date registered version with extra goodies see the last section in this file. Also, you may have an older version of the game. The best way to get the lastest files is to register. REQUIREMENTS VGA monitor and a mouse. ABOUT THE GAME A description file is provided for use when uploading. BloodThirsty is a VGA 256 color risk-style strategy game with some important changes. The object of the game is to conquer every "state" on the map. You do this by placing armies and attacking enemy territories. Every time you win a new territory you'll be awarded $10, which can be used to buy more armies or attack/defense strength. The game can be played Human vs. Human, Human vs. Computer or Computer vs. Computer. Two map files are distributed with this shareware version. The game is simple to learn with a lot specifics left for you to modify if you desire. For a greater challenge try your luck against the Super Computer or "Hide" the armies from view and play a blind war. INSTRUCTIONS MENU- To reveal the menu at the top of the screen press the right mouse button. The use of the menu options is explained below. NEW GAME- Before a game begins the New Game screen will ask you to enter some information about the game you wish to play. In this screen you'll be able to change the nature of the players (Human or Computer) and their colors. When you've made your selection click the left mouse button on -PLAY- at the bottom of the New Game window. To choose a Human player press on the stick figure and to choose a computer player press on the litte computer. Your current selection will be highlighted with an arrow above it. To choose the color you'd like to play click on one of the two color bars. The current color for each player is displayed in the rectangle in front of the player's name. PLACE ARMIES- When the box to the left of the screen tells you to place armies do so by pressing the left mouse button on the territory you wish to place one army. Each territory can hold up to nine armies. BONUS ARMIES- You're awarded extra armies on top of the base number of armies you recieve at the beginning of each turn if you control a whole continent. There are four different kinds of continents ranging in size from 2 to 13 territories each. The following is a table of Bonus Armies awarded based on which size continent you own. If you control more than one continent add the Bonus Armies for those continents. 2 territories - 1 bonus army 8 territories - 2 bonus armies 10 territories - 3 bonus armies 13 territories - 4 bonus armies ATTACK- To attack, first highlight the territory you wish to attack from by clicking on that territory. Then pick a territory bordering the one you just highlighted and click on this territory for one attack. It may take several attacks to win or lose a battle depending on the number of armies involved. BUY- You'll recieve $10 every time you win a new territory. Your current total will be displayed in the calculator at the top left of your screen. When it is your turn press the -BUY- button at the button left of your screen. This will bring up the buy window. Here you can buy armies by pressing on the zero to the left. The number in this box, which should contain a zero to start off, represents the number of armies you've purchased this turn. When you exit this screen you'll place the number of armies in this box on the game board. The cost of $15 is subtracted for every army you buy. Attack and Defense strength can be purchased by clicking the left mouse button inside one of the two horizontal boxes at the bottom of the screen. $2 is subtracted for each attack or defense strength point purchased. To exit this window press the right mouse button or on any part of the screen not in the buy window. You will only be allowed to buy once per turn, so use it wisely. The computer player cannot buy. FORTIFY- This option is used to shuffle armies around to other territories. You can only fortify once per turn and can move any of your armies to any territory you own. First select the -FORTIFY- option at the bottom left of your screen. You will then be instructed to fortify and press the -DONE- botton when finnished. Now you can click the left mouse button on the armies you want to move and the screen will instruct you to place those armies where ever you like. When finnished click the left mouse button on the -DONE to the left of your screen. END TURN- Click the left mouse button on this option when you've finnished all your moves for this turn and would like to pass control of the game over to your opponent. If you're playing the computer sit back and wait for him to finnish his turn. When playing a human it's time to let go of the mouse and give him/her a turn. MENU The menu at the top of the screen can be called by pressing the right mouse button. Here lie the options that give the game its seamingly infinite possiblies. GAME MENU- In the game menu resides three options. The first of which is the -BLOODTHIRSTY- option. This displays information on the title and version of the game you're playing. The second option -NEW GAME- brings up the New Game screen which is used to enter the nature of the players (Human or Computer) and their colors as explained above. Lastly the -EXIT GAME- option should be used to quit to DOS. A box to the left of the screen will ask you if you are sure you'd like to quit. Clicking the left mouse button on the yes box will quit the game. Any other mouse action will send you back to the game. OPTIONS- Here the first option is the -SLOW COMPUTERS/FAST COMPUTERS- button. The computer is capable of making his moves so fast you can't tell what he's doing. This can slow him down. This option will change according to current game settings. If the game is currently set to play fast computers the OPTIONS menu will only offer you the option to change this to slow computers and if the game is set to play slow computers this will offer you the option of changing it to fast computers. Sometimes this setup can get confusing. The best thing to do is just press this button a couple of times and watch how it changes. It's a neat trick when you understand it. The second option in this menu is -MAP FILES-. This option allows to change the map to be played. When the map file is changed during a game the change will not go into effect until a new game is started. When the Map Files screen is on, highlight the name of the map you'd like to play and press -OK-. The -MORE- button will switch to the next page of map files if you have more than ten. Lastly the -MORE MAPS- option brings up information about how to register and recieve 10 more map files. PLAYER- It's important to know all the options in this menu modify the how the Human player plays the game. None of these options will take effect until the next game is started. -HIDE ARMIES/SHOW ARMIES- is a changing button that will allow you to set the human player's armies to invisible and then back to visible. Try an invisible game for a greater challenge. The -ATTACK- button is used to set the starting attack strength for the Human players. Attack strength and Defense strength are taken into account by the computer whenever there is a battle. The player with the highest strength has an advantage based on the difference between the two strengths. For example a high Attack strength attacking a low Defense strength has a statistical advantage and a low Attack strength attacking a high Defense strength is at a disadvantage. The -DEFENSE- button sets the Human player's Defense strength for the start of the game. These strengths can be changed for a price during the game in the buy window. -STARTING ARMIES- lets you change the number of armies the Human player will place at the beginning of the next game. -ARMIES PER TURN- will let you set the base number of armies to be placed at the beginning of each turn. To this number will be added any bonus armies for controling whole continents. COMPUTER- All the options in the Computer menu modify how computer players play the game. Anything changed in this menu will take effect at the beginning of the next game. The -HIDE ARMIES/SHOW ARMIES- button will make all the computers armies invisible to you. When attacking a territory controled by a computer player you will not know how many armies you're attacking. This makes for some very interesting situations. The use of the next four options is similar to the use of their counterparts explained in more depth in the Player menu section. -ATTACK- will change the starting attack strength for the computer player and -DEFENSE- will change the starting Defense strength. -STARTING ARMIES- AND -ARMIES PER TURN- will set the number of armies given to the computer to start and the base number of armies to be placed each turn. The -AGGRESSIVENESS- button sets the aggressiveness of the computer player. The computer's aggressiveness can range from 1 to 10 and is used to determine how many times the computer will attack in one turn. The computer's -INTELIGENCE- will determine how well it can place its armies. The higher the inteligence the better the computer will be at identifying and dealing with "hot spots" and territories it needs to win the game. One click of the -SUPER COMPUTER- button will set the computer's attack, defense, starting armies, armies per turn, aggressiveness and inteligence to their highest possible levels. This creates a seemingly unbeatable computer. It may be necessary to tone down some of the computers attributes after pressing this button or maybe increase some of your own to make it fair. HINTS FROM THE AUTOR When playing the Super Computer make the computer be the second player so he doesn't have a chance to take you out of the game before you get your first attack! Use your Buys and Fortifies wisely. Even if you press these buttons by mistake you'll have to wait until your next turn to use them again. Try playing a friend with the Human players on "Hide Armies". See which of you is the better general with their eyes closed. Try watching two computers play. You're sure to learn something. Set up a tournament with several human players and a computer. Make sure everybody plays everybody and keep track of who ends up with the best record. Write to us with any experiences you have with the game good or bad. We may include them in this section of the documentation! FUTURE POSSIBLITIES This game can go in many directions. In future versions you may see tournament play, support for more than two players, multiple backgrounds, modem play, moving backgrounds, digitalized sound, larger maps, more and more map files, special forces, cities and disasters. Most of all we'd like to consider your ideas. See the next section for information on contacting us. CONTACTING US To contact us with any comments or problems please use one of the following addresses. Registration for BloodThirsty v2.3 is a only $12. The money will help us offset overhead and shipping costs. Please refer to to the file REGISTER.DOC for more information. If this file is missing you can still register to recieve a complete up-to-date version of BloodThirsty with 10 extra map files by sending the registration fee to the below address. (Specify 3.5" or 5.25" disks) (Make checks payable to Dale Bertrand) BloodThirsty c/o Dale Bertrand 14 Vernon St. Hamden, Ct 06518 USA Compuserve- 72237,761 America Online- Bertrand83 Internet- 72237.761@Compuserve.com Thanks for playing the game. -Dale