Tailoring the game

WINDOW DISPLAYS:

The SPECIAL menubar item contains subentries for windows that can optionally be revealed or hidden as desired.  A checkmark is displayed for each entry that is currently visible, and is absent when not.  By modifying these settings, positioning and sizing the windows as preferred, and then saving those changes, you can establish how the windows should appear in subsequent gaming sessions.  Visible windows that you wish to hide can be hidden by simply clicking in their go–away boxes, or by selecting the checked entry under the SPECIAL menubar item; select them again from the menubar to make them appear.  To save the changes, invoke SAVE PREFERENCES from the PREFERENCES window as described below.

USER PREFERENCES:

Special tailoring can be performed via the PREFERENCES window, which can be made visible by selecting PREFERENCES from the SPECIAL menubar item.  The options are are as follows:

  •  Male – your character's figure representation is male; this is the default.

  •  Female – your character's figure representation is female; the default is Male.

  •  Difficulty Level (Expert, Advanced, Normal, Beginner) – this affects the percentage of damage inflicted on your character, the probability of you injuring a badguy, and the intelligence of the badguy; this latter directly controls the amount of computation required to move creatures around, with Expert taking more time than Normal.  The default is Normal.

  •  Mouse oriented – player interaction is primarily mouse oriented; this is the default.

  •  Keyboard oriented – player interaction is primarily keyboard oriented; the default is Mouse oriented.  If this option is enabled, just after starting up the game and before selecting NEW or OPEN from the FILE menubar item, then the window layout will be modified accordingly; e.g. the BUTTON window is hidden (rather than revealed as for Mouse oriented play).

  •  Sounds – various  audible cues are played or suppressed.  The default is to play sounds.

  •  Textual Sounds  – provide text descriptions instead of sounds.

  •  Bell – the sounding of a warning bell at various points in the game is enabled or disabled.

  •  Show statistics – show various time related game statistics when leaving a game.

  •  Show scoreboard – show the current scoreboard entries when ending a game.

  •  Tile patterns – enable or disable the display of background floor tile patterns.

  •  New Name – permits you to change the name of your current character; it renames the asscociated character file and folder.

  •  Default Name – change the default name for characters in new games; the default is Captain Hazard.

  •  Mission Statement – show your current mission statement.

  •  Save Preferences – updates your Preferences file to reflect changes to all user settings, together with window positioning, sizing, and visibility information.

MEMORY ALLOCATION:

When the game starts up it determines the amount of information it can retain in memory based on how much free memory it has available.  The more information that it can store in memory, the less disk activity that will be experienced while playing.  What this means is that the game world tends to grow very large, and rather than retaining the whole thing in memory, only the parts currently being used are kept in memory, with the rest being written out to disk.  As the areas residing on disk are needed, they are brought into memory and replace other areas that will not be needed for awhile.

Thus, the more memory allocated to the game when you start play, the larger the number of these areas that can be retained in memory and the less frequently you will have to wait for a moment while disk activity takes place.  If you happen to have 8 megabytes of memory available you could, for example, provide 6 of them to the game (with the rest for the operating system) and the entire game world would probably remain in memory without any disk activity occurring during normal play.

To allocate additional free memory to the game for use in "caching" information, just increase the application memory size parameter:

  •  Click on the DoomsDay 2000 file to highlight it.

  •  Select Get Info from the File menubar item.

  •  Change the Application Memory Size (K) field to the desired amount.

Use this same procedure to reduce the memory size – but realize that there is then a possibility of memory becoming exhausted while playing.  In which case, you will have to exit the game and then increase the allocation, before resuming play.

A factor to keep in mind, however, is that as you increase the amount of memory you allocate to the game, you also directly increase the amount of disk activity involved in saving and restoring game status.  What this means is that if you allocated 6 megabytes to the game, you probably would not experience any disk activity while playing, but it will take longer to resume saved games since a lot of game world areas will be read in from disk rather than just the few it really needs initially.  The same is true for when you save the game – it will take proportionally longer to write out all of those areas, rather than just a few.

The VERSION command provides basic memory usage information.

So essentially the tradeoff is minimizing disk activity while enjoying the normal course of play, versus the time it takes to initialize and save each game session.

It should be noted that the SAVE A COPY AS menubar option within DoomsDay 2000 will typically take a significant period of time regardless of the memory allocated to the game, since each and every game area must be duplicated to properly create a complete new copy of your game world.

Okay, so how do I actually play this game???

Let's assume that you have already fired up the game, selected a set of character attributes, and either accepted the default name of "Captain Hazard", or changed it to something a little jazzier.  So, okay, now what???  Well, the next thing that happens after the game completes a little more initialization is that you are shown Region 1 of the gameboard.  Since you haven't explored that region yet, it is "dark"; either black for monochrome systems, a blue–ish shade for color systems, or a modest shade of grey for grey scale systems.  The only spot that has been explored is where you entered the complex and are now initially standing – see below:

Notice that in the center of that little explored area is a caricature of a human female ... that's you ... armed and hopefully dangerous.  Now you want to take a careful look around, particularly at what ever that is to your left!  To do that, use the LOOK command.  Why?  Because it is not an action and therefore does not take any time, hence nothing dreadful will happen no matter how many times you use it.  To use LOOK, click on the LOOK button, and then specify the direction you want to look by clicking on a compass button or by clicking on the gameboard next to your caricature in the appropriate direction.  LOOKing to the west we are told that we see a giant bat.  Aha!  So that's what it is.  Hmmmmm.

Wonder what that other stuff is on all the other sides ... but using LOOK in those directions doesn't tell us anything.  Why not?  Well, this is a special case.  You see, those are walls, and everybody knows what a wall looks like, and hence they aren't really important as far as LOOK is concerned.  LOOKing up and LOOKing down tell us there is a stairway here ... it's the stairway we used to get here, of course.

The next thing to do is probably to clobber that giant bat before it clobbers us.  Glancing at the inventory window we see that we are wielding a butcher knife.  Oh swell.  Love that hightech weaponry they give us for these crazy missions.  Ah well, let's make the best of it.  Moving the mouse pointer to the gameboard we click on the bat to attack it.  There is a swish, thwack, aieeee!!! as we successfully kill that vicious brute of a bat with one blow ... Hurray!  Nice sounds, too.

But there seems to be something left where the bat once was.  Using LOOK we find that it is a pile of assorted entrails.  Yuch.  There doesn't seem to be anything else around, so maybe we spend a little time now checking out our equipment (double–click on each item in your inventory), and look a little closer at everything around us just in case we missed something (use INSPECT to do that, even though it does take game time, since it let's us do a detailed examination, rather than the cursory glance that LOOK provides).

Now it's time to do a little exploring.  Only two ways to go:  back out of the complex, or head off to the west (straight ahead in the direction the character is currently facing).  So we click on the entrails to go to that location, then click just ahead again, and then again.  At this point we seem to have come to an intersection.

Flip a coin.  Tails.  So we go south.  And continuing along, step by step, we come to another intersection. And there is something nearby.  Using LOOK we find that it is a spotted pill.  Neat.  Wonder what that does?  Click on the pill to go there, then click on GET to pick it up.

To eat or not to eat, that is the question ... okay, click on the spotted pill that is now in our inventory, then click on EAT.  Munch, munch, munch ...
What happened as a result is left to your imagination ... we don't what to reveal too many secrets in this sample scenario!

Continuing our explorations we soon come to another intersection and wander down one of its corridors where we find a small pile of rocks and decide to pick those up too.  
 We eventually end up where you see us on the right.
But just as we got that far, something came from out of
the darkness.  LOOK reveals that it's a giant rat.  Feeling
extremely confident (after all, that bat hadn't been too
tough) we click on the rat to kill it with our butcher
knife.

Missed.

Click ... Missed.  Click ... Missed.  Sheesh!  We're missing
and each time we miss, it takes a big bite out of our bod.
One more time ... nope, it bit us again and we are now
down to just half of our original hit points.  Not good.
Time to retreat to rest and heal our wounds.

Click on RUN, then click on North (N) to get us back up
that corridor as fast as we can go.  Hopefully we'll out run the thing, or find some place to hide until we feel better.
 Well, this is where we ended up.  We ran sufficiently fast
that we are now slightly ahead of that nasty rat, although
something else seems to have followed along with it.
This place sure seems to be crawling with vermin.
So we don't end up running when we want to walk,
click on RUN to turn it off.

Just for grins, let's try one of the other combat oriented
commands:  THROW.  Using THROW we hurl one of
those rocks we picked up earlier.  Woosh ... Thud ...
aieeeee!  Super, that did the trick.  Scratch one blood–
thirsty rat.

In the mean time that other creature came around the
corner and got a little closer.  Should we run away, or
use another one of our nifty neat rocks?  (Actually, we'd
rather have a submachine gun or flame thrower, but we haven't found any of those ... yet)

What the heck, let's lob another rock – 

worked fine last time.  Woosh ... missed.  Try it again.  Woosh ... Thud!  We hit it, but its still coming.  In fact, it's right in front of us.  Dumb.  Should have run away when we had the chance.

Time to use the butcher knife again, and make it count, otherwise this is really gonna hurt.  Swish!   Arrgggh!!!

Hate to say it, but that Arrgggh!!! was us.  We're now down to just one single hit point.  If that creature nails us just one more time we're dead meat.  One saving grace, though, for some reason it took a step backwards, but it sure looks like it's getting ready to have us for lunch.
 Using LOOK again we find that just in front of us is the
rat corpse, then a giant spider (oho!), and just beyond the
spider is the rock we threw at the rat.

Wait a minute, seems we overlooked an interesting piece
of firepower in our inventory.  A laser pistol, and it is
held in reserve.  That means we can EXCHANGE it with
our wielded butcher knife without having time pass.
With that bugger two steps away, we have a chance to
get in two shots before it can attack us again.  Gotta make
every shot count.  EXCHANGE.  Now we're wielding the
pistol.

Uh ... how many shots does it have left?  Can't seem to
remember.  Double–clicking on the laser pistol will tells
us again how many charges it has, but that will take a
unit of time, and the creature will take a step forward.
Forget it, let's blow it away!

FIRE ... !!!

Hopefully this gives you a handle on how to "play" the game – although the simple objects and critters described in this sample scenario don't even come close to conveying what it is like to fight the fiendish mechanical constructs and alien horrors lurking within, or the ultra–high technology that awaits your explorations below!  Good luck, you will certainly need it ...

Words of Wisdom

Run away!  Run away!!  Run away!!!

This is good advice for when you are initially learning the game.  DoomsDay 2000 is not your typical hack and slash computer game where you charge forward and go toe to toe with the badguys until you or your opponent falls over and dies.  It is best to be a bit cautious; give some thought to your alternatives.  Not to worry, you'll have plenty of opportunities to slug it out with the enemy, but YOU want to be in control of the situation, not the other way around.  So here are some words of wisdom that may help you in your pursuit of a challenging and enjoyable adventure.

  •  
Stop and rest to heal at every reasonable opportunity.

  •  
Try to avoid being surrounded.  If you find yourself unexpectedly in an open area, and trouble is headed your way, hunt for someplace like a corridor where you can reduce the number of badguys you have to fight ... ideally creating a situation where they can only get at you one at a time.

  •  
If you encounter a badguy who is soundly thrashing you ... retreat!  That's the smart thing to do.  Go find a place to quietly heal, plot revenge, and then go back and clobber the bum.

  •  
Try to maintain a clear line of retreat to someplace safe.  In other words, try to avoid creating a situation where a badguy can slip between you and a stairway or corridor that leads to safety.

  •  
Where possible, attack the badguys from a distance.  If you stop them before they get to you they may not be able to hurt you.  If you are unable to stop them you may at least injure them enough so that when you finally get to hand–to–hand combat you have a much better chance of being the one who walks away from it.  Shoot them or throw things at them.  Maybe you even retreat before they get to you, so that you can find some more ammo or fetch more stuff to throw at them.

  •  
Let us suppose you can't get beyond the base of the stairway on Region 4 because there is a Bug–Eyed Monster down there that tends to rip you to shreds the instant you reach that floor.  Okay, so go off to a corner of Region 3 and pound a hole in the floor.  Now you have a different way down, and perhaps you can sneak up on that BEM and zap it from a distance.  Cleverness helps a lot in this game!

  •  
If it looks like you're not going to win a combat ... leave.  This isn't one of those games where you have half a dozen extra lives to use up before the game ends.  If you die, you lose.  So go find some place safe and re–evaluate the situation.  Maybe you can find another way around and attack the badguy from a different direction.  Maybe, if you think about it, you can find a better way to use some piece of equipment you are carrying.  Maybe you can plan a way to lure the badguy to some place where you will have an advantage.

  •  
Rule #1 is complete your assigned Mission.  There is no Rule #2.  
If you have come across one tough sonofagun that seems to be eating you alive, maybe it would be better to find a way so that you won't have to fight it.  Fighting it means you might die.  If you die you can't complete your Mission ... and Rule #1 is complete your mission.  So try leading the creature away to someplace you won't ever have to go back to and try to leave it there all by its lonesome.

  •  
It is generally a good idea to finish cleaning out the region you are on before going down to the next one.  Why is that?  Well, each lower region is more difficult than the last, so by clobbering all of the critters on a given region you gain as many Experience Points as is possible, which contributes towards boosting your skill Level, and the higher your skill level the better prepared you are for venturing down to the next region; same goes for Hit Points, they increase as your level increases, and you want to accrue as many as possible along the way.  But ... remember Rule #1.

  •  
Be extra careful in Warrens.  Warrens are places off the main floors that are reached by traveling down long twisty tunnels.  They tend to be more difficult than the next two regions below you, but they may also have some really nifty equipment inside that might make it worth you risking life and limb to investigate.  One strategy is to only enter a warren when you have completely overcome the region it is on and the next two regions below that one.  The idea being that you will have then accrued sufficient experience and hit points to have a fighting chance of survival.

  •  
If you are getting a little frustrated from losing characters, then use SAVE to save away your game status as you make progress in the game; refer to the Saving Status section for details.  Then, if/when your poor character bites the big one, just restart using the most recent save to resume at that point ... and this time try a different approach.  Experiment with alternatives, and learn different techniques for staying alive.  For example, you encounter a BIG HORRIBLE THING and decide to attack it with your trusty, rusty, section of drain pipe.  Before you attack it, save the game!  If you have the misfortune to perish in the battle, then fire up the game again and this time try shooting it, or running away, or throwing things at it from a distance, or go off hunting a better weapon and
then come back and whomp it good.  Maybe you'll get lucky and find a friend who'll want to help you ...

You should ignore the fact that you get penalty points for doing saves as described here.  You are trying to get a better handle on how things work, and not trying to get top score – that can come later.  Some players ignore the scoring aspect altogether and use SAVE throughout the game, and restart from those saves as desired – that's okay too!

  •  
If you are unable to find your way into a walled–off section of the complex, or you find yourself confined in an enclosed area without an exit, look for secret passages using the SEARCH command; also use it to look for hidden traps as needed.  If that doesn't work, what the heck, try bashing down a wall.

  •  
By the way, it IS possible to win the game in Expert mode without ever having the winning character die.  Honest!!!

  •  
Sometimes it makes sense to actually skip a region and instead head to the next one.  It will certainly be more difficult, but that may be the right thing to do.  A sample instance might be where a region is filled with icky lumps and you can't quite seem to make progress.  Since your mission is not to rid the world of icky lumps, but rather to achieve a specific objective, then it is perhaps more prudent to simply ignore them, as best you can, and move on to the next region in the facility.  Perhaps you come back and clean them out later when you find a different weapon.

  •  
Just as the character you pretend to play is learning how to cope with the game world, so too are you, the player.  You will be gaining experience on how to play, and discovering what is beneficial and what to avoid.  There will undoubtedly be instances where your character will get into trouble, and as a player you will realize why that happened, even though you may not be able to successfully overcome the current difficulty.  This knowledge is something you carry over to each new game that you play, but thereafter you will be better prepared by having a greater understanding of the possible dangers.

In fact, player learning is a fundamental aspect of DoomsDay 2000.  As you play you build expertise in your character, and apply what you learn along the way, thereby enhancing the likelihood of completing your assigned mission and winning the game.  Hence, each time you start a new character you are not necessarily assured of winning.  It will depend to some extent on your own gaming experiences.  

As an example, suppose you encounter an especially nasty creature called a Fluggle, and suppose that Fluggles have the unique ability to paralyze your arms - you learn this as a result of being zapped by such a creature.  It may very well be that your character is now a lost cause - he/she isn't dead, but now you can't wield any weaponry until you find a cure for the paralysis.  But because your arms are useless, that may prevent you from surviving long enough to get out of such a tough predicament.

Think positive!  At this point you have learned something.  In this case, it is an easy lesson:  stay away from Fluggles until you can find a remedy, or kill them before they get close enough to harm you.

So, if you had the foresight to save a copy of your character a while back, before the Fluggle got you, then you can simply restart using that saved game.  Otherwise, begin a new game and use this new information to your advantage next time you spot a Fluggle heading your way.

Run away!  Run away!!  Run away!!!

Then come back with a Plasma Cannon and blow the bugger away ...