GEM POLISH by Peter Donnelly and Stuart Gillespie Copyright (c) 1996 by Peter Donnelly OVERVIEW GEM POLISH is an unofficial, unauthorized saved-game editor and general utility for Strategic Simulations, Inc.'s wargame Fantasy General(TM). The program lets you change many game variables including the current abilities of all units, friendly and enemy. You can change the player-characters' advantages in the middle of a game, adjust the state of research, and increase your reserves of gold. You can also sort and browse the list of unit types, see full specifications for any unit type, print out a complete table of type specs sorted and selected as you like, and print a game summary including a complete list of units. The program does not permit the editing of unit type specifications -- you can change individual units, but not basic characteristics of a type. Nor does it allow you to alter PBM files. Only limited range-checking is performed, and there is no guarantee that the numbers you put in won't blow up the game. Please, back up your save files before experimenting, and read the DISCLAIMER below. It's best to edit saved games where you have already selected a battlefield. If you edit a between-battles file, the enemy units in the file will not be those you encounter in your next battle. BENEFITS OF REGISTRATION This program is being distributed as shareware. If you continue to use it beyond a reasonable evaluation period, you are expected to pay for it. The price is $12 U.S. The shareware version of the program has the following limitations: 1. Does not allow viewing of type specifications. (A sample screen is shown.) 2. Does not print tables of type specifications, or game and unit summaries. (Sample printouts are produced.) 3. Allows substitution of unit type only for the first unit in the list. See the ordering instructions given when you quit the program. If by any chance you are using an illicit registered version and don't see this notice, pleasesend a check for $12 to: Skookum Software 1301 Ryan Street Victoria BC Canada V8T 4Y8 INSTALLATION We recommend copying the EXE file to the SAVES subdirectory of your Fantasy General directory. This makes it easy to load a saved game on the command line (see below). If you do a lot of switching between FG and GP, you might want to put GP.BAT in the main FG directory. See the remarks in that file for usage. The first time you run the program, you will be prompted for the drive and name of the directory where FG's unit-type data file can be found. Normally you will only have to ensure that the game CD is present, and that the correct drive letter appears in the default prompt. However, if you prefer, you can first copy MAGEQUP.DAT from the \FG\DAT directory of the CD to your hard drive, and enter this new path at the prompt. If you do this, the CD does not have to be present in order for Gem Polish to run, and the program will load more quickly. LOAD A SAVED GAME There are two ways to load a saved-game file for editing. 1. If the current DOS directory is the saved-game directory (the SAVES subdirectory of the game directory), you can put a game number on the command line, e.g. "GEMPOL 2" to load the game in the second slot of FG's saved-game menu (GAME2.SAV). A zero on the command line loads the fast-save file, QUICKSAV.SAV. 2. If no game number is entered on the command line, or the game is not found in the current directory, you are presented with a file dialog. You can also call up this dialog anytime from the File menu, or by pressing Ctrl-O. Note that the game description for any highlighted file in the list is given in the blue pane. The Open File and Save File dialogs always default to the current DOS directory. To change the current directory, select File/Change Directory from the menu. EDIT GAME VARIABLES For edit boxes that require numbers, you can get a hint about the allowable range by right-clicking on the edit box. The game description and amount of gold held by each player can be edited on the main screen. Click the Characters and Research buttons for further game options. Characters You can change the name and advantages of either player-character, but not the innate abilities of the character chosen by you or the computer at the beginning of the game. (Innate abilities are described on page 23 of the game manual.) In other words, changing the name of your character from Lord Marcas to Archmage Krell doesn't actually put the Archmage in the game. Research Since Gem Polish lets you upgrade to any unit type at any time, there's not a lot of point in manipulating research. However, we've included this feature in case you want to check or adjust the actual figures for your research funding, or see how far advanced the enemy is. This feature is available only for campaign games. The Research Funding dialog allows you to change the accumulated gold (not percentages) currently dedicated to your research in each category. At the end of a battle, if there is enough gold in a category to develop the next grade of unit, that amount is deducted from the funds in the category. Research in a category never proceeds at more than one grade per battle, regardless of how much gold you put into it. Shown below each input box is the current grade of unit in that category that can be purchased by each of the players. EDIT UNIT VARIABLES To edit a unit, select the appropriate list of units with the Side option buttons. The list shows all units in the file, whether they are dead, disbanded, deployed, or in reserve (i.e. active but not deployed). You may even see some dead units in the list that never existed in the game. Dead units are shown in blue text. Click on the unit you want to change. Type the desired values in the input boxes and set the buttons and check box as you like. If any of the numerical values are not within the allowed range, you will be warned when you attempt to tab out of the input box, select a different unit, or save the game. (Again, you can see the allowed range by right-clicking.) Type The unit type is shown with a symbol representing the class to which it belongs. The key to these symbols is shown in the Unit Types dialog (see below). To change a unit's basic type, select the unit in the list and click the Type button, or double-click on the unit name in the list. The Unit Types dialog opens. Find the desired type and click the Insert button or press the Ins key. Note that the name of the selected unit is displayed under the Insert button, so that you can be sure of which unit you are changing. When you change a unit's type, the name changes to reflect the change, unless you have given the unit a custom name either in the game or by making a change in the Name field within Gem Polish. The designation "Regular", "Hero", or "Volunteer" indicates what kind of unit FG expects to find in this position in the list. This designation cannot be changed. If you assign a hero to a slot occupied by a regular unit, or vice versa, FG may exhibit some odd behaviour, such as incorrectly allowing or not allowing upgrades. Also, volunteers remain volunteers no matter what unit types you assign to them: they are still unable to use magical items, and they will leave your army at the end of a continental campaign. Morale The value shown in the morale edit box may not agree with the value shown for the unit within the game. This is because the basic morale may be adjusted at runtime by factors such as an adjacent hero or a character's charisma advantage (or disadvantage -- Krell's units deduct 20, though this is not documented). Status If you change a unit's status to "Deployed" or "Reserve", the unit's wounds and dead are automatically set to zero, and its morale to 100. (You can quickly bring any unit back to full strength just by clicking on "Deployed", even if the unit is already deployed.) If you revive a dead unit, you may want to place it into the reserve, and then deploy it in the game, rather than directly deploying it in Gem Polish. The program does not check to see whether a unit is being deployed on a vacant hex. UNIT TYPES DIALOG You can open the Unit Types dialog from the main menu or by pressing Ctrl-B, whether or not a saved-game file is open. The dialog also appears when you click the Type button on the main editing screen. This dialog shows a list of all available unit types within the selected class or all classes. If you open the dialog from the main menu (File/Browse Unit Types) or with Ctrl-B, all classes are shown. If you open the dialog with the Type button or by double-clicking on the unit list, only types of the same class as the selected unit are shown. You can change the class shown, or reset to all classes, as well as changing the sort order, by selecting different option buttons. The Specs button brings up another dialog showing specifications for the selected unit type. Double-clicking on a type in the list also brings up this dialog. In the Specifications dialog, attack values are shown with (*) if magical and (#) if mechanical; otherwise they are physical. The Search button allows you to search the list for any string of characters (not necessarily a whole word). The search is not case-sensitive. The next match after the selected item is found, and the selection highlight is moved to that item. If no match is found, the search continues at the beginning of the list. The Insert button changes the type of the unit selected on the editing screen. If no file is loaded, this button is not available. The Print button prints out a table of specifications for all the unit types currently displayed in the list, and in the same sort order. See Selecting Printer Output, below, for instructions on how to change the default output. The printout is in the same format as the "Unit Class Tables" starting on p. 64 of the Fantasy General manual. In order to keep the tables within the width allowed by most printers, five columns are not included: special abilities, spells, and ownership. A two-letter code identifies the unit class, and as on screen, (*) and (#) signify magical and mechanical attack values respectively. See p. 63 of the FG manual for a key to other abbreviations. ASSIGN MAGIC ITEM To assign an item to a unit, select the unit and then click Item. Highlight the desired item in the list, and click Assign. Note that the name of the currently selected unit appears beside the Assign button. To take an item away from a unit, select "(None)" from the list. The same restrictions apply as in the game: you cannot assign a magic item to a siege engine or a volunteer. PRINT GAME The File/Print... menu item prints out a summary of the game and a complete list of active units (i.e. those deployed or in reserve, but not dead ones) with information about each one. SELECTING PRINTER OUTPUT When you print a game or unit type table, a dialog appears asking you to set the output device or file. By default the output device is PRN, i.e. the standard printer. If you prefer to print to a file, type in a valid DOS filename. Files can be imported into a word processor for custom printing; use a fixed-width font such as Courier so that the columns line up. TURBO VISION INTERFACE All operations can be performed without the mouse. You can navigate quickly in dialog boxes by pressing Alt plus the highlighted key in the various labels and buttons; if there's no cursor in an input box, the Alt is not necessary. Tab and Shift-Tab also take you from field to field. Cancel dialogs with Esc. When using the mouse, you can highlight existing text for "first- keystroke-deletes" mode by either double-clicking on the field itself or single-clicking on its label. DISCLAIMER THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PRODUCT IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PRODUCT PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. IN NO EVENT WILL PETER DONNELLY, STUART GILLESPIE, OR SKOOKUM SOFTWARE BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PRODUCT (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PRODUCT TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.