Dome Wars 1.0.3

          by Nathan Sturtevant ©1996
                           nathanst@csua.berkeley.edu
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~nathanst/DomeWars.html

Description
The goal of the game is to be victorious in battle over the other tanks (domes). Each dome is started in a location across the canyon floor. By varying the angle and the power used, attempt to destroy the other tanks on the screen. Points and cash are awarded according to your performance during the play, which can then be used to buy new weapons.

Quickstart
Move turret left: right arrow, 6 (numeric keypad)
Move turret right: left arrow, 4 (numeric keypad)
Increase power: Up arrow, 8 (numeric keypad)
Decrease power: Down arrow, 2 (numeric keypad)
Medium increase power: hold down command key
Fast increase power:  9 (numeric keypad)
Fast decrease power: 3 (numeric keypad)
Fire: space/enter/return
Select Weapon: click with mouse/tab (forward)/command-tab (backward)

How To Play
Before you begin a game of Dome Wars, you should decide on the options
for your game. A complete list of these options can be found in Chapter 3
of this document, Menu Options.

To begin a new game of Dome Wars, select "New Game" from the file menu.
You will then be presented with the following dialog box:

From here you will determine the names & the number of players in the
game. As you add players, the count of total players above the "OK" button
will increase. A description of each player type can be found in Chapter 2 of
this document, Computer AI. Please note that networking is not yet implemented,
but is being worked on. After you set the characteristics for a player, you
must press "Add Player" to add that player to the people in the game.

Once you have added the total number of players in the game, you will begin
play. (Unless you specified a starting cash amount. For a description of weapons
see Chapter 4, Weapons.)

A typical playing field might look something like this:

It is your job to set your angle, weapon & power so that you can
destroy the other tanks. This may take some practice. For beginners
I would recommend playing as several human players at once, with
no computers, until you learn the basics of the game.

Extra Game Options

• You can also click on the weapon name to get a pop-up menu of your
   avaliable weapons
• Click on an enemy tank to see their name & health
• Click and hold on the Quit/End Round buttons to exit while the computers are
   taking their turns.

Play Notes
A direct shot will always kill, unless shields are activated. A direct shot is considered any shot that lands within a radius of 9 pixels from the center of the tank. This means hitting directly below the tank so that the explosion takes place under the tank may cause a death. You lose one health for every pixel you fall, and damage is assigned from explosions based on the explosion strength and your distance from the explosion. Rollers may behave unpredictably when they hit a very skinny peak. Because not every point that the projectile passes through is calculated, it is possible for a shot to pass through a very narrow slit of land without exploding. Slowing down the game speed will reduce the chance of this happening. Do your best to survive the round, you get more points for doing this than for killing tons of tanks.

Other Misc info.
You can create your own backgrounds to randomly be chosen for the background. Registered users can have as many backgrounds as they like. Unregistered users are limited to 10. Sky patterns start at id 128, and go upward, ground patterns start at id 1000 and go up. Ids must be consecutive. Patterns should not contain more than 256 colors.

Custom tank names can be added by the names to the proper str# resource. (By color.)

Custom spoken messages can be added in the same way. (REGISTERED VERSION ONLY)
If you want to start with more cash, you can add extra items to menu id 136, with
10,000 more cash for each menu item. (i.e. 210000, 220000 etc)

Known Bugs
When you trace shots with multiple warheads it isn't too pretty. Right now I would
recommend not tracing multiple warhead shots, and I will see what I can do about a
fix.

Future Plans
Along with adding the ability to save a game, I will add a somewhat primitive network scheme. This will work by having a game file that players can read from. No promises on when this will be done, but if you are in an environment such that you think you could test it well, go ahead and send me e-mail.

Closing remarks
This game is shareware. This means if you like this game and decide to keep it, you should send me $10 to register it. This registration will be good for all versions of the game, and, when implemented will allow you to play across a network. I realize most people don't pay this, but, if you want to see further updates please send something.

Registration entitles you to:

• The next major release of the game on disk

• A registration code which allows you to use all the game features

A special thanks to the people who has registered, and to Todd for some of the extra textures!

This game is provided as is, and no guarantee is made about the stability of this game on your particular computer. I take no responsibility if this game doesn't work on your system, or in any way causes you loss.

However, do send registrations/comments/suggestions/bug reports to:

Nathan Sturtevant
--before May '96--
2910 Hillegass Ave #3
Berkeley, CA 94705
--permanent address--
84 Yosemite Ct.
Ventura, CA 93003

Internet:
nathanst@soda.csua.berkeley.edu

WWW: (the latest version is always available here)
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~nathanst/DomeWars.html

Dome Wars ©1996 Nathan Sturtevant