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1996-05-17
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IRON OX, Version 3.00
(C)opyright 1993-1996, Joel W. Downer
INTRODUCTION
The kick in your ribs came at 3 a.m. An hour later, still bleeding, you
stumbled through the door of this cell.
Earth is out of food, out of fuel, and out of space. Worst, it's out of
luxite, the blazing heart of starships. The long Metamorph Wars have
made things still worse. Everyone agrees that what Earth needs can only
be found on other worlds. However, most people -- including you --
still prefer a blanket in the hall and a can of soup to the risk of
becoming a colonist.
It's not up to you anymore. Interbureau, the company that controls
space colonization, bought the U.S. prison system fifty years ago. One
by one the prisons closed as inmates were sent to the stars. Guilty or
innocent, at dawn you will leave the Earth forever.
To survive, you must master a raw and hostile world. You must make
allies or grow powerful enough to crush the other colonists. You begin
with your bare hands, a few automated "iron oxen" to help you build, and
a small pack of enhanced dogs ("cybermutts") to protect you. If you
live, the world holds enough luxite and precious ore to make you one of
the wealthiest people in the universe.
Will you produce the food and power, the minerals and luxite, to save
your mother planet? Or will you build wealth and weapons to conquer
neighboring worlds -- to revenge yourself on those who betrayed you?
The choice is yours.
THE GAME
Iron Ox is an exciting multiplayer game intended to run as a BBS door.
In this game, you will compete against up to twenty-four other callers,
and -- if your sysop is part of an inter-BBS league -- against callers
from other BBS'es, too! Ox is a game of strategy, intense competition,
and just a bit of humor. It will test skills you didn't know you had --
from your ability to choose the best farmland and maintain a network
of armed forts to your ability to write bad poetry. You can play Iron
Ox in a friendly, cooperative way, or play like a black-hearted,
malicious Rockpicker. There is no "right" or "wrong" way to play.
Iron Ox is one of the first BBS doors to bring together the two most
exciting features a door can have: real-time multinode interaction and
interBBS support. Attack an enemy's fort while the owner is on another
node, scrambling to purchase cybermutts and mount a counterattack. Team
up *in real time* with a friend on another node to build a weapon to
launch against another BBS. In Iron Ox, all of these things and many
more are possible!
Iron Ox also includes full support for RIP graphics. If you have a RIP
terminal, Iron Ox will send you RIP icons the first time you enter the
game; your terminal should automatically place them in your ICONS\
subdirectory.
JOINING THE GAME
Once you are done with preliminaries like these docs, the game will ask
you for your alias. This is the name by which other players will know
you throughout the game.
After you've chosen your alias, you will be taken to the Interbureau
Genetics Lab to choose what species you'd like to be. One *helpful*
result of the war with the Metamorphs is that Interbureau now knows how
to transform human bodies and DNA to convert humans into creatures of
other races. The race you choose will affect some of your abilities in
the game, as well as the way other players and characters in the game
react to you. You will be able to look at as many of the pictures and
descriptions as you like before choosing, but here are some extra hints
for choosing a race:
Human: The baseline for comparison -- average at everything.
Rockpicker: Good miner and very good at fighting and nasty tricks, but
not the best choice for beginners. Vulnerable to starvation, and
greatly mistrusted by everyone.
Slouch: Not much good at anything, but very lucky and likeable.
Caper: Very talented -- good at almost everything! -- but works short
hours and takes frequent vacations. Keep an eye on the boredom
monitor in the game status screen. Don't work too hard, and try to
keep entertained!
Photovore: Very powerful character, but tricky to use to its fullest
advantage. Doesn't mine well, but excellent at making food and
energy. Moves very quickly across most terrain, and invulnerable to
starvation -- *superb* for scouting missions. A beginner might not
be able to use the Photovore to its full potential, but the generous
number of hours can be a good way to learn.
Shovelfist: Great miner, very friendly, but unlucky and not especially
clever. Vulnerable to starvation. People pick on Shovelfists.
Rubblemuncher: Invulnerable to starvation (like the Photovore) and
*great* at making ore. However, this character travels slowly and
may have trouble making enough energy to meet its needs.
Handler: Not much good at making things, but decent at dirty tricks and
*very* good at bartering. Mostly a character for advanced players
and team play. A politician -- well-liked but not well-trusted.
Metamorph: Very attractive character because of its ability to change
shapes! Need to make some ore? Become a Rubblemuncher! Need to be
sneaky? Time to turn into a Rockpicker! Unfortunately, the effort
of maintaining your shape does reduce your daily turns and speed.
The best choices for beginning players are the Human, Slouch, Caper, and
Photovore. Choose carefully! Unless you play a Metamorph, you will
probably be stuck with your choice the rest of the game. Some people
have spread rumors of back-alley genetics clinics cropping up to allow
people who *aren't* Metamorphs to change shape, but who would trust an
amateur physician for such a dangerous procedure?
THE COLONY
The colony is in a river valley which is divided into a number of plots,
labelled with numbers and letters. The size of the map may vary from
five to fifty-five rows high, but is always twelve columns (A-L) wide.
If the map is more than five rows high, only five rows will appear on
the screen at a time -- your view will scroll as you move around.
When the game begins, you will be in the town square, which is
approximately at the middle of the map. Your location will be marked by
a cross-hatch symbol like this: ╬. The rest of the map will be blotted
out (black), and will only become visible as you travel around and
explore things. On the lower half of the screen, you will see a menu
that looks something like this:
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Town Square Visit Store Prospector Visit Saloon Sheriff's
Robot Shoppe Bank News Office Mutts/Drones
Other Players Help/Info Use Phone Quit Game
Move - Arrows
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
When a menu includes "Move - Arrows," that means you can use the arrow
keys on your keyboard to travel around the map. Only the four cardinal
directions are supported (Up = North, Down = South, Left = West, Right =
East), not diagonals. If you try the arrow keys and the game doesn't
respond right, try using the numeric keypad with Num Lock turned on. If
your terminal supports "Doorway Mode," turning on Doorway Mode should
also work.
Here's what the other options do:
Visit Store The store is where you can buy and sell the four vital
products used in the game: food, energy, ore, and
luxite. Here's what each product does:
Food Keeps your character alive!
Energy Keeps your oxen running and charges weapons
Ore Needed to build things, including oxen
Luxite Worth good money, and needed for cybermutts
You start the game with six units of food -- enough to
keep you fed for two days if your character race needs
to eat -- and six units of energy. When you run
short, you *can* use the store to meet the shortfall,
but be careful! The store can run out, and disasters
can ruin the store inventory all at once.
Prospector The prospector's office includes several important
options. It allows you to buy a LuxKit, a portable
chemical kit used to monitor the luxite content of
land. If you're carrying a LuxKit, it will
automatically read the luxite content of every plot
you visit. Unfortunately, LuxKits only last one game
turn. They are also fairly heavy and will slow you
down as you travel.
Another option in this office is to "jump the claim"
of another player. If you can seize control of a plot
of land from another player, and keep control long
enough, Interbureau will turn over the rights to you.
A final option is to claim a free plot of land. The
first player to visit every plot in the river valley
will be entitled to claim this prize!
Visit Saloon For better or for worse, the Saloon is the cultural
center of the colony. Care to chat with your fellow
colonists? Interested in losing some spare change to
the foul old Rockpicker who runs the Rat Race? Ready
to risk the strange drinks mixed up by the addled
bartender? The Saloon is the place.
The Saloon is also the home of the Colony Cultural
Competition. By making an entry and voting for the
entry you think is best, you have a chance to win free
land! Remember, though: the Cultural Committee won't
reward people for selfishness.
Sheriff's Some say that the Sheriff is useless -- aside from
kicking vagrants out of town, he barely does anything.
Of course, if there's someone sleeping in the streets
you'd *like to see* evicted from town....
Robot Shoppe This is where you can replenish your supply of iron
oxen and cybermutts. Both are priced very reasonably,
but beware: the supply of iron oxen can fluctuate
with the ore supply, and the price can go way up!
Mutts are always available -- dogs can reproduce under
the worst of conditions -- but *you* will need to
provide five units of luxite for the power generator
attached to each mutt.
This shoppe is also where you buy trojan oxen. Trojan
oxen *appear* to produce whatever product you choose.
By installing "turbo-chips," you can even make them
appear to make *more* than you normally could --
making the plot an extra-tempting target for sabotage.
Trojan oxen, you see, are experts in self-defense.
After a tangle with a trojan ox, even the most
dedicated saboteurs wish they had never hefted that
ball-peen hammer. Trojan oxen are only available in
the registered version of Iron Ox.
Bank The bank is a (relatively) safe place to deposit and
draw interest off of surplus cash. Keeping at least
*some* money in the bank is a must, because the price
of maintaining your mutts, forts, and other land
improvements is drawn automatically from the bank. If
you have a large number of mutts or land improvements
and you don't have enough money in the bank, the
results may be unpleasant!
News Office Care to change your name? Want to spread nasty rumors
about other players? This is the place to go.
Mutts/Drones This menu allows you to control your drones and
cybermutts. You can pick up or drop off mutts
(leaving a nasty surprise for other players!) and
adjust your mutts' "attitude" -- whether they
recklessly try to murder any visitors or fight
defensively to protect the land. You can view a list
of your drones, reprogram drones, load or unload
products from them, and (if you're in a league game)
even launch them to another BBS!
Other Players As you travel, sometimes the game will tell you that
you are "NOT ALONE" on a plot of land. When that
happens, use this menu to see who's here, to attack
other players, and to examine other players. If
you're playing on a multinode BBS and other players
are in the game at the same time as you are, you can
also use the motion detector option to try to track
down the other players.
Note: Interbureau regulations don't allow fighting in
the Town Square.
Help/Info This menu includes a wealth of information you will
need to refer to regularly while playing the game:
Game Docs What you're reading right now
Map Key What do all those symbols stand for?
Player Key Who is who, and who has played today?
Game Info Invaluable summary of various stats
Race Catalog Review the race pictures/descriptions
List Scores How's the competition doing?
Your Holdings What land do you own? Got enough energy?
Browse Map Lets you review places you've visited
Note Pad A place to write reminders to yourself
Mutt Summary Counts your mutts and maintenance cost
Improvements Lists improvements and maintenance cost
Use Phone This menu includes all the options you could want to
keep in touch with the world:
Auction Bid Bid on extra land offered by Interbureau
Enter Mail Send a note to another player
Review Mail Reread the mail you saw on game entry
Outbound Deals Create/edit trade deals for other players
Inbound Deals Review deals offered by other players
Communes Team Menu; see "COMMUNES," below
Multinode Menu Care to chat in real time?
Newspaper Review the daily news; stay informed!
Add to Log Let the whole world hear you gloat or gripe
Order Pizza Call for pizza under someone else's name!
Call Pirates Cut a deal with the bad guys....
More information on ordering pizza and calling the
luxite pirates appears under "DIRTY TRICKS," below.
Quit Game Aww, don't leave so soon! In this version, though
(unlike Iron Ox 1.x and 2.x), you *can* access the
game multiple times per day.
OUT IN THE WILD
The Town Square is fun, but the real action takes place out in the
wilderness. When you leave town, be sure to bring your cybermutts
along, because you're moving into danger: You can encounter other
players, enemy cybermutts, or forts with devastating weapons that can
knock you unconscious, injure you, or even kill you! Don't be shy,
though -- nobody ever got rich by refusing to take chances.
As you move around the map, you will encounter five different types of
terrain:
Plains Reasonably good for energy and food; lousy for ore. Easy to
travel across, but difficult to defend against invaders.
Mountain Good for ore and energy; very poor for food. (Mountain
terrain may have one to six mountains. In general, the more
mountains, the better the ore.) Difficult to travel across,
but an excellent place to build forts and defend.
River Very good for food, good for energy, and useless for ore.
Many of the most important improvements -- like forts, power
plants, and refineries -- cannot be built on river land.
Swamp This terrain is typically useless: very poor for food, ore,
and energy. Many land improvements cannot be built on
swamp land because the ground is too soft. What's more,
players traveling across swamps may be bitten by snakes!
Desert Superb for energy, useless for ore, and useless for food
unless irrigated. Like plains, difficult to defend. If you
spend a lot of time traveling through desert, watch out for
sunburn.
Remember that you may find luxite on any type of terrain -- therefore,
even the nastiest swamp may turn out to be precious!
What you can do on a piece of land depends on who owns it -- you or a
teammate, no one, or an enemy.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Unowned Land Attack Claim Plot Take/Leave Mutts/Drones
Examine Plot Work Land Other Players Help/Info
Use Phone Quit Game Move - Arrows
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Attack Launch a cybermutt attack against another player, a
drone, or a pack of cybermutts that's standing in your
way. Note: The object you're attacking must be on the
same plot with you for this option to work. To attack
players on another BBS in an interBBS league, visit
"Other Players" and select the "InterBBS" submenu.
Claim Land Take the plot as yours, so that you can put iron oxen on
it and build things on it. Unless you missed a turn or
joined late, you can only do this once a day.
Take/Leave As you travel around, you may find products hidden by
other players or scattered by a passing caravan. This
menu allows you to grab those products and, if you
choose, hide things yourself.
Examine Plot This option redraws the screen, updating any plot
information that may have changed (e.g., because of the
actions of drones or players on other nodes).
Work Land Iron oxen are very good for making things, but you know
the old maxim: If you want something done right, do it
yourself. You'll be most productive if you put iron oxen
on all of your land *and* take advantage of all of your
"work turns."
You can work just about any land (except the Town
Square), but you can only work each plot once a day. For
best results, use the "Examine Plot" option to see what
the land is good for before you decide what to make.
Note: The number of times you can work a plot of land is
determined by your sysop. You can view how many "work
turns" you have left by looking at the "Game Info" screen
described above.
All other "Unowned Land" options are described above, under the
information for the "Town Square" menu.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Your Land Attack Improve Plot Take/Leave Mutts/Drones
Manage Oxen Examine Plot Work Land Other Players
Enter Fort Help/Info Use Phone Quit Game
Move - Arrows
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Improve Land You'll probably use many of the plots you claim just for
production: claim it, drop an ox on it, and forget about
it except when you come by to pick up the products. In
some places, though, you will want to enhance your land
by building things like roads, mine shafts, refineries,
and forts. For more information, see the section on
"IMPROVEMENTS," below.
Manage Oxen When you claim a piece of land, you will almost always
want to assign an iron ox to work on it. If you build
your estate with skill, before long your iron oxen will
be producing much more than you can make with your bare
hands. This menu also allows you to assign trojan oxen
to a plot.
If you have a network of roads built up, you can also use
this menu to "program" your iron ox to deliver your
products to your doorstep.
Enter Fort If a fort exists on your land, you can use this option to
enter the fort. (See the section on "FORTS," below.)
When enemies come on your land, they will have to defeat
your defenses before they can enter your fort, so forts
can be a very good place to use as a base of operations
and stay when you quit for the day. When you try to use
the "Enter Fort" option on *enemy* land, be careful! You
can get blasted if you don't have enough mutts along.
The other options on this menu are documented under the information for
the "Town Square" and "Unowned Land" menus.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Enemy Land Attack Destroy Stuff Take/Leave Mutts/Drones
Examine Plot Work Land Other Players Enter Fort
Help/Info Use Phone Quit Game Move - Arrows
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Destroy Stuff You can use this menu to smash another player's iron ox,
which will stop the land from making anything until the
ox is replaced. Be careful, though! If the ox you're
smashing is a trojan ox, *you* may get a black eye for
your trouble.
This menu also includes the option to destroy land
improvements -- ruin roads, smash forts, and so forth.
To do this sort of work effectively, you will need some
sort of high explosive. Access to explosives on colony
worlds is tightly regulated, but you may be able to find
a disreputable person *somewhere* who will sell them to
you.
The other options on this menu are documented under the information for
the "Town Square," "Unowned Land," and "Your Land" menus.
MANAGING YOUR TIME
The self-employed work very long days, so you get a large number of
hours to invest every turn. (Exactly how many is set by your sysop.)
Unfortunately, you have a great deal of work to get done with those
hours. Most of the tasks in the game -- claiming land, assigning oxen,
working the land -- take several hours. Early in the game, though,
you'll probably spend most of your time moving around the map. Here are
a few tips for how to get the most done every day:
1. Some kinds of land are slower going than others. If you're spending
your time on mountains and swampland, you won't cover much ground.
2. The more heavy things you're carrying, the slower you'll move. Ever
trying climbing a mountain with 150 pounds of ore strapped to your
back?
3. You will start with less than the normal number of hours if you are
sick or don't get enough to eat. When the game tells you you're
going hungry, make food your number one priority!
4. Don't pass through desert land over and over, or you'll get sunburned
and lose some hours for the next few days. (This issue is especially
important for underground/miner races.) Avoid swampland almost
entirely, or you may be snakebitten and lose most of your hours for
the turn!
COMMUNES
When you play Iron Ox, you can choose any number of strategies --
ruthless or friendly, loner or "team player," roving explorer or
relentless builder. The most powerful form of cooperation in the game
is to found or join a commune. (No, being a member of a commune doesn't
make you a Communist, though some Rockpickers think so.) Members of
communes still hold onto private property, but they can
* trade property back and forth freely with other commune members
* view teammates and their locations at any time
* visit teammates' land and enter their forts regardless of defenses
* take and leave cybermutts on teammates' property
* reprogram each others' drones
Because the philosophy of communes is "all for one and one for all,"
net worth for commune members is averaged across the entire commune.
Warning: Be careful about whom you invite into your commune! An
unscrupulous grifter or flim-flam man can sometimes pick an entire
commune clean of its property and then disappear.
The Commune Menu is accessible from the Phone Menu, which is available
at just about any point in the game.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Team Options Show Communes Join Commune Start Commune Leave Commune
View Members Chg. Password Help/Info Quit to Main
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Show Communes Lists the teams in the game, sorted by score, and
shows who's a member of which team.
Join Commune If you know the password, you can use the option to
become a member of a team.
Start Communes If no teams exist or you don't want to join any of the
ones that do, use this option to found your own.
Leave Commune *You're* not one of those flim-flam men, are you...?
View Members This option shows you who's on the team, what they're
carrying, where they are, what race they are, and how
hungry they are. Knowledge is power!
Chg. Password You can't be too careful....
IMPROVEMENTS
You've been transported to a hostile, strange world. As you learn the
landscape, you'll also want to *change* it -- to start building
improvements that will make your colony world a little more like home.
Land improvements affect many different parts of the game, from land
production to player movement rate to cybermutt combat odds to
maintenance costs. Most of the changes work intuitively (e.g., a road
makes travel faster, and a grain silo cuts down on food spoilage), but
some improvements have surprising "side effects." (Ask the Egyptians
about the Aswan Dam if you want proof of that.) The most powerful
improvements can also be quite expensive to maintain. However, skillful
use of land improvements can make the difference between winning and
losing, especially in league games.
Here's a short primer on land improvements. (The improvements that are
made on forts are described under "FORTS," below.) In addition to
what's listed, most improvements require some money to start and many
require products like ore or energy to build.
Road Allows you to travel faster, and protects you from some
of the nasty illnesses and injuries that can result from
traveling. An effective network of roads will also allow
your iron oxen to deliver products to *you*, so that you
don't have to visit all of your land to pick up what's
made there. Requires: Nothing.
Freeway Freeways allow nearly instantaneous travel and protect
you against the exposure to the elements that's common
during travel. They also improve your manufacturing
power and make cybermutts more effective (you know how
dogs love to chase cars...). Requires: Road.
Warehouse When you have a large estate of land and many iron oxen
producing things for you, one of your biggest problems
may be that products can go bad when stored for too long.
Warehouses allow you to store more on a plot without
worrying about spoilage. Requires: Road.
Grain Silo A silo will substantially reduce food spoilage. What's
more, having an effective storage system will cut down on
lost food and make your land produce more effectively!
Requires: Nothing.
Irrigation Irrigation was one of the discoveries that launched
modern agriculture. It improves food production near
rivers, but is especially important if you want to grow
food in the desert! Requires: Nothing.
Dam The most common way to produce energy on a colony world
is to use solar generators. However, water power can be
much *more* effective under the right circumstances.
Requires: Road; must be built on river land.
Mine Shaft Ore mining is more effective, and wears out the land more
slowly, when you can reach deeper into the ground.
Requires: Nothing.
Laser Drill Luxite veins are very narrow and delicate, and are
difficult to reach using conventional mining methods.
Laser drills allow you to slice veins out of the ground,
improving production and *reducing* the rate at which the
land is worn out. Requires: Nothing.
Ore Refinery One way to improve your ore production is to increase the
amount you can tear out of the ground. Another is to do
a better job of purifying the ore you're already mining.
An ore refinery will improve the ore production for *ALL*
land owned by you or your team! Requires: Freeway, Mine
Shaft.
Lux Refinery Does the same for luxite as an ore refinery does for ore.
Requires: Freeway, Laser Drill.
Power Plant Does the same for energy as an ore refinery does for ore.
Also reduces energy spoilage *and* allows automatic
pooling/sharing of energy for the commune that owns it.
Requires: Freeway, good existing source of energy.
Except as noted above, each improvement only applies to the plot on
which it's built. Only the Refineries and the Power Plant have global
effects. The Refineries and the Power Plant are unique improvements:
Interbureau will only license one of each per colony!
Another important thing to remember: Each improvement costs money to
maintain. You will want to keep surplus in the bank if you're building
improvements. The improvement summary from the help menu will tell you
how much money your improvements need to stay working.
DIRTY TRICKS
In Iron Ox 3.00, the nastiest things you can do to other players happen
in combat: you can knock people unconscious, steal what they're
carrying, critically injure them, or even kill them! If you're short on
mutts, though, the game *does* offer a couple of nasty tricks you can
play using a common telephone:
Order Pizza Online games are a great place to do all those things
we're *FAR* too mature and honest to do in real life.
This dirty trick is really more of a prank: It involves
ordering a pizza in the name of another character so that
the food arrives in the middle of the night and leaves
your victim bleary-eyed -- and less able to work -- the
next day. If you are caught, you will be fined 100
credits.
Call Pirates Luxite pirates are ruthless, nasty predators who have
made a fortune stealing from hard-working colonists. One
of the most terrible things a colonist can do is to cut a
deal with these vermin and give them the planetary
security codes. However, you may be able to think of
times when you'd *like* to see the colony's luxite supply
disappear.
Warning: Be *VERY* careful about this dirty trick. Some
colonists have been executed for aiding the pirates.
FORTS
When you first join the game, you may decide to end your turn in the
Town Square or find a hiding place off in the hinterlands somewhere. As
you build an empire, though, you will probably decide that you need a
safe "home base" for your estate. Building a fort is an excellent way
to secure a plot of land against intruders. A fully developed fort can
even attack enemies on nearby land. When you are inside your fort, you
are invulnerable to attack by most types of drones, and protected
against other players: an enemy will have to defeat your defenses
before he or she can harm you.
To take full advantage of your fort, you will want to build improvements
that make it more powerful. Forts support the following improvements:
Cyberkennel Research shows that having a dog is the single most
effective way to discourage burglars and other intruders.
A cyberkennel will allow you to deploy mutts to defend
your fort.
Defense System This equipment generates an energy field that, so long as
it's operational, will completely prevent access to your
fort. Unfortunately, it's pretty easily knocked out if
your enemy can get hold of some explosives.
Note: Due to some quality control problems, Interbureau
has mandated a recall of DefSystem technology. Colonists
are crossing their fingers that it will be available
again before the rumored "fort-smasher" drone begins to
show up in numbers!
Sonic Cannon This terrifying weapon can be used to blast intruders,
and even to lash out against people who *come near* your
fort! A fort that has a sonic cannon, a defense system,
*and* a large pack of mutts defending will stand a chance
even against the best-armed attacker.
A.T.M. Machine If you build your fort far from town, trudging back to
the Town Square to access your bank account is a hassle.
This improvement allows you to access your account
long-distance.
Transporter If you don't mind having your body broken down into
billions of tiny energy particles and (probably) rebuilt
miles away, this is the single fastest way to travel.
Warning: Transporting is only reliable when you are
beaming from one transporter-equipped fort to another.
"Blind transporting" is unwise.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Inside Fort Attack Claim Fort Fort Tools Metamorphose
Leave Fort Take/Leave Mutts/Drones Fort Status
Examine Plot Other Players Help/Info Use Phone
Quit Game
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Claim Fort If you can invade and capture an enemy fort, this option
makes the fort yours. Claiming a fort owned by another
player also changes the land to your possession, allowing
you to "steal" the land!
Fort Tools Allows you to tune, charge, and use your fort
improvements. See below.
Metamorphose If you are a metamorph, you will need a safe place to
hole up when changing shape. A fort is the ideal spot!
Leave Fort Takes you back out to the plot menu. It can be dangerous
out there....
Take/Leave Allows you to store goods and money inside your fort.
Manage Mutts If you have a cyberkennel added to your fort, you can
take and leave mutts and program them to defend your
fort. Mutts defending a fort fight more effectively than
mutts defending normal land.
Fort Status Allows you to review vital information about your fort.
The other options are documented in the land menus, above.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Fort Tools Set Cannon Charge Cannon Cannon Range Use A.T.M.
Transporter Fort Status Improve Fort Quit to Main
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Set Cannon Allows you to choose how much energy to use on each
cannon shot.
Charge Cannon When you have built a sonic cannon, you can use this
option to transfer energy into the cannon.
Cannon Range Allows you to choose whether your cannon will fire only
to defend the fort itself, to defend the plot of land
containing the fort, or to defend the land directly next
door to the fort (to the north, south, west and east).
Cannon fire is most effective at close range.
Use A.T.M. Allows you to access your bank account long-distance.
Transporter Allows you to beam anywhere on the map!
Improve Fort Allows you to build improvements to your fort.
DRONES
Rumor has it that drones were originally built to exterminate and
replace colonists if disorder in the colonies ever got out of hand.
Whether that's true or not, one thing is certain: How well you take
advantage of drones can mean the difference between fabulous wealth and
ignominious death.
Drones are machines -- robots like iron oxen, not cybernetically
enhanced creatures like cybermutts -- with varying degrees of computer
intelligence. Each drone is designed for one -- or at most two --
tasks, such as harvesting products, building improvements on land,
scouting and defending territory, or attacking enemy installations.
A limited supply of drones is available for purchase from the colony
hardware store. You will probably encounter drones belonging to other
players, and may attempt to destroy or capture them.
Colonists also frequently report encountering drones with no obvious
owner out in the wilderness. Some of these drones are clearly
visitors from other colonies. Others are harder to account for. Are
they rogues, freed by the misguided fools of the Robot Liberation Front?
Or are they property of Interbureau, part of ongoing experiments in
"life-free colonies"? In any case, these drones can sometimes be
captured and reprogrammed for use by colonists, but extreme care is
recommended!
Here is basic information on the known classes of drones. Unconfirmed
rumors abound about other drone classes currently in development back at
Interbureau labs.
DEINONYCHUS 3000 (Light Assault Class)
This model is named for a prehistoric Earth predator related to the
well-known Velociraptor. Like the Velociraptor, the Deinonychus was
a small, light predator capable of travelling at alarming speeds and
was, pound for pound, one of the most dangerous predators of its era.
The Deinonychus 3000 fits this description well: it moves rapidly
across flat terrain and "hunts" for ready prey, usually colonists or
iron oxen. The Deinonychus 3000 is especially effective at
harrassing large targets, like big mutt-packs; it cannot, however,
attack forts.
HARVESTER (Medium Tractor Class)
The Harvester is the most benign drone, capable of working the land
or building to improve its owner's property. It has almost no combat
capabilities, and is too stupid to remember much more than what to
make and where to make it, but effective use of Harvesters can
drastically improve your profits. Harvesters may be instructed to
stick to land belonging to you (so that they stay within the
protection of your defenses) or to roam across the map to cover as
much territory as possible.
To control your drones, choose the "Program Drone" option from the
Mutts/Drones menu.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Drone Mgmt Owner Range Enemy Land Targ Product
Improve Only Quit to Main
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Owner If this drone belongs to you and not to a teammate, you
may use this option to give it to another player.
Range This option controls what area of the map the drone will
(voluntarily) travel. If the drone isn't currently
within the range you specify, it will move as directly as
possible to reach that range. If it encounters some
obstacle that prevents it from moving toward the desired
range, it won't move at all. (Drones are quite stupid
about this -- if they encounter an obstacle in the most
direct path, they probably won't be able to figure out an
alternate route.) Drones will not use their special
abilities (sabotage, land work, improvements) when they
are outside of the travel range you set.
Enemy Land Drones may be programmed to avoid enemy land. If this
option is set, and they are on friendly land (land owned
by you or a teammate), they will not leave friendly land,
even if that means not moving at all.
Targ Product This option controls which of the four products a
Harvester drone will try to make. You will want to use
this option and the "Range" option to verify that your
Harvesters are making a useful product on land that's a
good place to make it.
Improve Only This option tells a Harvester drone not to work the land
to make product, but instead to concentrate all its
energies on completing land improvements you have
started. If the drone cannot find a land improvement to
complete within the specified range, it will do nothing.
Note: Because of the scrambling technology that prevents
smaller drones (like the D3K) from breaking into forts,
Harvesters will not help to build forts.
BEING THE BEST
Iron Ox is a exciting and complicated game, so you may want more advice
on strategy and game play. If the bulletin board you call is connected
to FidoNet, the best way to get information about the game is to read
the IRONOX game echo. Many veteran Ox players, not to mention the
author, participate in that echo and will be happy to answer your
questions!