COLOBOT version DEMO 1.7 /e --------------------------- COLOBOT combines both a real time strategy game and an initiation to programming. You are at the head of a space expedition and you are only assisted by a few robots. Your mission consists in successive attempts at the exploration and colonization of various planets. You will have to search raw materials and energy needed to survive. As you progress, you will be able to build and program new types of robots which will prove of an invaluable help for the completion of your task. You may also want to know that most of the planets you'll be visiting are crowded with primitive and insect-like life-forms and that you may be forced into fighting them if you want to stay alive. Minimum requirements -------------------- Processor 300 MHz 64 MB RAM 3D accelerator board with 16 MB RAM 100 Mb free space on the hard disk DirectX 8a must be installed in order to run the DEMO version. Missions -------- The missions are the core aspect of COLOBOT. There are 36 missions, taking place on 9 different planets. They must be completed successively in a fixed order. Free game --------- In the free games, you can play freely without any definite objective. Only the planets already visited in the missions and the research already performed are available. Programming ----------- In this part of COLOBOT you can learn how to program the bots, even if you know nothing about programming. The exercises are structured in chapters, and represent a progressive introduction to the basic concepts of programming in a structured and object- oriented language. You can do the exercises in any order, but we advise you to start with the easier ones. Challenges ---------- The challenges allow you to apply the skills acquired in the programming exercises, with fewer explanations than in the exercises. Challenges allow you to check if you fully understood the concepts taught in the exercises. Change player ------------- After installing COLOBOT on a computer, several players can play on it. For every player, COLOBOT will keep track of the completed missions, of the programs written, etc. Options ------- Settings of the game, divided in 5 pages. Options - Device ---------------- - Drivers Better to choose a driver with the attribute HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer), and avoid drivers with the attribute "Emulation" or "T&L". - Resolution The first and the second number indicate the number of pixels of the screen on the horizontal and vertical axis. The third number indicates the number of bits used to encode the color: 16 bits allow to display 65,000 colors, whereas 32 bits allow to display 4 million colors. The higher you set the parameters, the more detailed the scene will be represented on the screen. However, if the frame-rate is too low (jerky movements), try a lower display quality. Start with 640 x 480 x 16 and climb slowly higher; most modern graphic cards support at least 1024 x 768 x 16. Just try out the best compromise for your computer. - Full screen Normally COLOBOT uses the whole screen, whatever resolution you choose. If you deactivate this flag, COLOBOT will be displayed in a fixed size window of approximately 640 x 480 pixels. - Apply changes Hit this key for the changes on this page to be applied. Options - Graphics ------------------- - Shadows Normally, all objects (bots, building, raw material) project a shadow on the ground. With some older graphic cards, a gray square appears around the shadow. In this case you can deactivate the displaying of the shadows. - Marks on the ground The marks on the ground accentuate the slopes and allow the ground to take a different color at some places. If you switch off this option, the flat zones around the astronaut can not be displayed. - Dust Dirt and dust give a more realistic, dirty aspect to bots and buildings. - Sky If you activate this option, the sky on some planets will show beautiful clouds pushed by the wind. If your frame-rate is too low, deactivate this highly time-consuming option. - Sun beams Shows realistic sun beams in the sky. - Planets and stars On some planets, nearby planets move around in the sky, and numerous stars adorn the firmament. - Fog This option allows you to deactivate the fog near the ground. - Dynamic lighting Dynamic lighting appears at explosions or close to power stations. - Particles (0% to 200%) Particles are used to simulate dust, smoke, fire, explosions, etc. - Field depth (50% to 200%) The field depth determines up to what distance the scene is displayed. This distance varies anyway from planet to planet. A high value (for example 200%) allows you to see very far, but requires a powerful 3D graphic card. - Details (0% to 200%) Sets the visual quality of 3D objects according to their distance. - Number of decorative objects (0% to 100%) Set the number of purely ornamental objects like plants, trees, crystals, etc. Options - Game ------------- - Film sequences Small film sequences appear at the beginning and at the end of most missions. With the Esc key you can always stop these sequences. If you want these sequences never to appear, deactivate this option. - Scrolling When the camera is behind the astronaut or a bot, the screen scrolls if the mouse gets close to the edge of the screen. - Mouse inversion X Inverts the scrolling direction when the mouse gets close to the left or right edge of the screen. - Mouse inversion Y Inverts the scrolling direction when the mouse gets close to the upper or lower edge of the screen in the program editor. - Quake at explosions Explosions or unskillful landings will shake the camera. Deactivate this option in order to keep the camera always stable. - Exit film Activates/deactivates the animated re-initialization in the programming exercises and in the challenges. - Help balloons The help balloons appear when the mouse stops on a button or object and display a small text that explains the item. - Reflections on the buttons The reflections appear when the mouse flies over a button. - Particles in the interface Sparks and steam clouds when the mouse moves over the interface. - Mouse shadow When you wish the mouse to have a shadow, the mouse is managed by COLOBOT, whereas the mouse without shadow is managed by Windows. When Colobot is executed in a window, the mouse can not have a shadow. - Automatic indent The automatic indent moves the text in the programming editor to the right according to the number of braces { and }. - Big indent The big indent moves the text 4 spaces to the right at every brace. Otherwise, the indent is 2 spaces. Options - Controls ------------------- - Arrows left, right, up, down. Move the astronaut left, right, forward or backward. In the programming exercises, the bots cannot be moved with these keys. - Shirt and Ctrl These keys control the jet of the astronaut and the bots. Shift increases the power of the jet (climb), Ctrl decreases the power (descend). On some planets, flying is impossible. - Enter This key starts the main action of the selected bot (grab/drop, fire, sound, etc.), equivalent to the red-framed button. - Space bar Changes the view angle of the camera. For most bots, this control switches between a rear sight and the onboard camera. - . (Num pad) Pauses the game and shows where the last message displayed on top of the screen was sent from. If several messages were displayed, a new hit on the key will show the previous message, and so forth. Hit the Esc key to get back to the game. - Tab Selects the next object, according to the order of the small symbols on top of the screen. - Home Selects the astronaut. - 0 (Num pad) Selects the bot or building that was previously selected. - + et - (Num pad) Moves the camera closer or further away from the selected object. - F1 Displays the instruction for the current mission or exercise on the SatCom. - F2 Displays the general help about programming on the SatCom. - F3 When editing a program, this key displays a help text about the current instruction. - F4, F5 et F6 Selection of game speed. F4 sets the normal speed (x1). F5 (x1.5) and F6 (x2) allow you to increase the speed of the whole game, in order to cut waiting time down. - Esc Interrupts the current mission, and displays a menu where you can choose to quit the mission, save it, load a saved game, restart the mission, or set the options. Options - Sound --------------- - Game sound The game sound is generated by the current action, i.e. motor, voice and shooting sounds. - Background sound The background sound depends on the planet. Every background sound corresponds to a soundtrack on the CD. They are made of a specific musical atmosphere and are independent of the current action. On the Moon and in the exercises, there is no background sound. - 3D sound Some sound cards allow the positioning of a sound in space with 4 loudspeakers, increasing the realism of the sound effects. If your sound card does not support this possibility, the button is gray. Fine tuning ----------- In order to allow you to find the best settings for your computer, you can instruct the computer to display the current frame-rate. Hit the keys Ctrl+Break, tape the command "showstat" and validate with the Enter key: Ctrl+Break showstat Enter The frame-rate and some other parameters will then constantly be displayed on the upper part of the screen, for example: 32.46 fps T=11558 (640x480x16) The first number corresponds to the frame-rate (fps = "frames per second"), i.e. the number of images per second displayed. The second number indicates the number of triangles displayed in the scene. The 3 last numbers in brackets indicate the resolution and the number of bits per pixel. All the options are saved in the file colobot.ini. You can edit this file in any text editor, for example the note-pad in Windows. Development team ---------------- - Daniel Roux - Denis Dumoulin - Otto Kölbl - Michael Walz - Didier Gertsch Beta tester core team --------------------- - Adrien Roux - Didier Raboud - Nicolas Beuchat - Joël Roux - Michael Jubin - Daniel Sauthier - Nicolas Stubi - Patrick Thévoz Developer --------- EPSITEC SA Mouette 5 CH-1092 Belmont colobot@epsitec.ch www.colobot.com