Year 2046. Governments of the world have been going bankrupt. Private industries start to purchase national governments. The world became a large business community.
Year 2050. World “peace” has been achieved when all governments have merged under one corporation called the World United Solidarity (WUS). Like all monopolies, WUS became a breeding ground of corruption. To control the people of the world, they instituted mass censorship. They banned ownership of all weapons, drugs and pornography. World vid access was limited and programming was stripped of sex and violence. Virtual Net traffic was shutdown. Life became boring.
Enter the Chaos Overlords. Former crimelords and corporate heads, these leaders sought to exploit the people by creating “chaos” - selling the drugs, guns, and porn to anyone that wanted it. They shook down businesses and ran the numbers. WUS did not take kindly to these blatant indiscretions and would frequently crackdown Overlord operations. The Overlords became more cunning and conducted many subversive operations. Bribes and kickbacks would turn WUS’s eyes away from the crimes they committed. The people were eager for more. Many gangs flocked under the Chaos Overlord’s banner for their piece of the pie. The power of these Chaos Overlords was tremendous and the only ones to stop them were each other.
The cities became battlegrounds for the Chaos Overlords. People and property became mere pawns to use in their struggle to destroy each other. Power and money were all that mattered to them. The Chaos Overlords began to savor the mass brutality and killings. People feared them, but would do nothing to stop them.
You are a Chaos Overlord. The city lies before you like a lamb before the slaughter. As you survey your domain your informational net informs you of the presence of five other Overlords awaiting to pounce upon the city which is rightfully yours. These pretenders do not realize who they’re dealing with! You have to show these fools who runs the operations around here. Get out there and kick some neck!
Starting The Game
How to Use the Menus
Chaos Overlords uses the standard menus. While you are playing Chaos Overlords, the menu bar is located at the top of the screen. To use a menu, simply move your cursor to the top of the screen and select which menu you wish to access by clicking on it.
File Menu
The File menu contains the following commands:
New Game...
Begins a new game by presenting you with the Game Setup Screen. This option is available only from the Title Screen. If you wish to begin a new game while there is currently a game in progress, you will need to select End Game first.
Open Game...
Opens a scenario file, allowing you continue play where you last saved. To use this option, you must first have a game saved as a scenario file. When selected, it will open a dialog box prompting you for the scenario file you wish to open.
Save...
Saves the game you are currently playing into a scenario file. When selected, a dialog box will appear prompting you to name the scenario file.
End Game
Ends the game in progress, returning you to the Title Screen.
Host Game...
Sets you up as the game host for a multi-player game. The game can be played over a modem or a network.
Join Game...
Connects you to the game host for a multi-player game. The game can be played over a modem or a network.
Quit...
Exits Chaos Overlords, returning you to the Desktop.
Options Menu
The Options menu helps you configure Chaos Overlords to your preferences. It contains the following options:
Thousands of Colors (16-bit)
This option sets the number of colors that you wish the game to use. Chaos Overlords has two graphics modes: Thousands (16-bit) and 256 (8-bit). For best performance and quality, this should match the current setting of you system’s configuration. On startup, Chaos Overlords will determine if the configuration is set to the same value that the game wishes to use. If they are not the same, you will be prompted with a dialog box allowing you to change your configuration. On exit, this setting will be restored. This option will be dimmed if your computer can only use one of the display modes.
Music (disabled in demo)
The game will play a soundtrack in the background. You can adjust the volume of the music by using the slider control. The volume ranges from Mute (no music) to Loud.
Sound Effects
These are the sound effects that accompany the game. You can control the volume of the sound effects just like the Music. It also ranges from Mute (no sound effects) to Loud. The volume of the Music can differ from the volume of the sound effects.
Base Statistics
When checked, the game will display an additional column of statistics in the Mercenary Information panel. This additional column displays the base information (starting statistics) for the gang currently being viewed.
Detailed Combat
Check this option if you wish to watch the individual combats take place. If this option is not checked, then a combat summary panel will be displayed instead.
Slide Panels
When this option is not checked, all slide out panels will pop out instead. This is handy for people with slow computers and some laptops.
Warn If Idle Gangs
When checked, the computer will warn you if you hit Done on the Main Panel Control and you did not give commands to all of your gangs.
Comm Menu
These options are for multi-player games.
Disconnect
This will disconnect you from all the other players connected via network/modem.
Multi-Player Type
There are 4 types of multi-player options:
None: This is the default setting. If you are not connected to a network or modem, then this option is automatically selected.
AppleTalk: This is the preffered network type if you are connecting up all Macs.
Communicatons Toolbox: This is mainly used for modem/serial play.
MacTCP: This will allow you to play against other Macs or Win95 machines over a TCP/IP network. If you have a PPP/SLIP connection to the internet, you can also play over the internet.
Playing Chaos Overlords
Scenario Selection Control Panel
On the left side of the Game Setup Screen is the Scenario Selection Control Panel. You choose which of the 10 different scenarios you wish to play. Well, you would have 10 scenarios to choose from, but this being a demo version you only have 1.
The lower four scenarios involve attaining the most of a specific something (cash, support, sectors or a combination of all three) at the end of the predetermined time limit. You can set the time from 6 months (26 turns) to 4 years (208 turns) for each of these four scenarios by using the four Time Limit buttons on the bottom of the Scenario Selection Control Panel.
The upper six scenarios each have specific goals that must be obtained to win the game. These six have no time limits (and do not use the Time Limit buttons) and will continue to run until the goal is attained by one of the Overlords or until you are eliminated.
Each of the 10 scenarios require different strategies to defeat them. A strategy that works for Greed will not work for Big Man. Know your objective, adapt to the Sites/Gangs you are dealt and you will reign supreme.
Kill ‘Em All
Simple. Kill off all the other Chaos Overlords. Be the sole survivor.
Game Settings Panel
Under the Scenarios Panel is the Game Settings Panel. You can set the difficulty levels of the game. The easiest is Goon(also called the Pansy Level). The normal level of play is Criminal. Crimelord is very hard but very capable of being beaten. Play this level only if you are kicking some serious neck on Criminal. Homicidal Maniac should not be played with only one Human player. You can also set time limits on the turns.
Normal game play has no time limits on the turns. You can set the limit from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. Setting time limits helps out on multi-player games because some players can take forever to finish their turn. A time limit will cause these slowpokes to hurry up.
Player Selection Panel
In the upper right side of the Game Setup Screen is the Player Selection Panel. Your mug will be lit and the other five are shown as shadowy enemies. You can change your Overlord face by clicking on the two green arrows located on the face (they look like green ears). You can cycle through numerous mugs until you find one you are happy with. You can change the name by clicking on the name under the face. You can use up to 10 characters in your name (or you can leave it as the default name, i.e.Player#1). If you want to change your color, drag your face onto any of the other colors in the panel. If you have friends who also want to play using the same computer, you can click upon the Add button under the six faces. If you added too many human players or you realize that you have no friends, then you can click on the Remove button to revert the last human player added back to computer control. You can take over your friend’s color by dragging your face onto your friend’s face. This will exchange colors. Note that the starting position is random no matter what color you choose.
When playing with multiple players on the same computer, you will take turns inputting commands and hiring. After the last player finishes his/her turn, the computer will process everyone’s turn simultaneously. The first player’s turn does not “go before” the other players. All human and computer player’s commands are done at the same time. Refer to The Inner Sanctum.
OK, Get Going Panel
In the lower right side of the Game Setup Screen is the OK, Get Going Panel. All it consists of is the Begin and Cancel buttons. Once all the information is chosen to your (and friends’) liking, you click on Begin to start the game. If you don’t wish to start a new game at this time (and want to open a saved game or play a multi-player game) then click on Cancel and you will return to the Title Screen.
Controls
Hire
Located in the lower right corner of the main play screen are three pictures of gangs that you as an Overlord can hire into your “army” on a particular turn. This is the Hire Screen. The number in green represents their initial cost. That is how much cash must be spent in order to hire that gang. By double-clicking on the face of that gang, a Gang Information Panel will slide out to give you more information on that gang. In this panel is listed their upkeep. This is the amount of cash deducted every turn from your total reserves to keep that gang under your command. Numbers in red are costs or negative numbers, whereas numbers in green represent income or positive numbers. However, as mentioned above, the cost when hiring a gang is shown in green.
To hire a gang, simply click and drag the picture of one of the three gangs you want to a sector you control or to a sector where a gang of yours is in. The gang will show up in that sector next turn and can be given commands on that turn. Their cost and upkeep are automatically deducted. If you do not have enough cash to afford a gang’s initial cost, they won’t be hired and you will be advised about it next turn.
The little red “X” button under each gang face is the fire button. If you are unhappy with all three gangs up for hire, you can “fire” one of the gangs and another will fill its place next turn. A new gang will also replace any gang you decide to hire so there will always be three gangs available to hire.
Each Overlord can command a maximum of 80 total gangs at any one time. Each sector can be occupied by six of your gangs at one time. The three gangs for hire will always be different from each other, but you can have multiple gangs of the same gang type under your control.
When a gang is hired, they begin with a force ranging between five and nine. You can heal a gang up to ten.
Game Info Screen
This small screen is located on top of the Main Panel Control. This screen displays two sets of information.
The top set shows the name of the scenario currently being played. Under that is the date. The year starts as 2050.1 which means year 2050 week 1. Each turn lasts one week. If the scenario has a time limit, the right of the date will be a number which is the number of turns (weeks) left to play that scenario. Under the date is the score. Each Timed Scenario has its own scoring system based on the objectives. At the end of a scenario (objectives reached or the time is up) the words “scenario name” COMPLETED will be displayed under the score. This allows you to view any last turn combat and events that occurred but you will not be able to enter anymore commands (the game is over already). Hit Done to see the results.
The bottom set shows cash first. Keep an eye on cash when buying items and hiring gangs. Every turn your total cash will increase and decrease automatically depending on the gangs you hire, items you buy, Sites you influence, etc. Upkeep costs for all of your gangs will be deducted from your cash at the beginning of every turn. Cash income from influenced Sites are added to your cash every turn. For every sector you control, one cash is also added to your to cash total every turn. If your cash total ever goes negative, the following happens:
• You will be unable to buy any equipment
• You will be unable to hire any new gangs (except any gang that has a zero initial cost)
• You will be unable to execute Bribe and Snitch commands
Under Cash is all the information about the sector you have currently selected (your blinking cursor is on it). Displayed are Sector, Income, Tolerance, Cash, Support. Sector is the number ID of Sector(A3,C5, etc.). Income is the social status of the people in that sector. UP=upper class, UM=upper middle class, MI=middle class, LM=lower middle class, and LO=lower class. The higher the class, the more money will be gained from Chaos in that sector but also the higher class, the lower the tolerance. Cash is the amount of money you gain from that sector and any influenced Sites on that sector. You gain one cash per turn from a controlled sector whether of not you have any gangs in them. Any influenced Sites in that sector will increase/decrease money in that sector per turn(based on the Site: an Arena will give 3 more cash per turn and a Research Lab will cost you 2 cash per turn). Support is the amount of help the people in the sector will give you in resisting control attempts from other Overlords. Support is gained by influencing Sites that are popular with the people like Temples and Hospitals.
Game Info Button
Located to the right of the Game Info Screen is a button labeled Game Info. Clicking on this button will slide out a panel with game specific information. Listed will be the scenario type, the difficulty level of the computer players and a listing of each player, his/her/its name and intelligence (Human=human player, AI= computer player). This panel will automatically open up at the start of any multi-player game and at the start of a saved game when it is opened.
City View
In the City view, you will see the entire map of the city you are fighting over. The city is divided into 64 sectors. The six Chaos Overlords each start off in one of six sectors on the map. Those six locations are the same for all the scenarios but where each Overlord starts is random. Each Overlord will start off with one sector under their control When an Overlord controls a particular sector, the color of that sector will be that of the controlling Overlord. When a sector is gray, no one controls it.
On the map you will see various icons in the sectors:
• green circle = your gang(s) are in that sector
• red circle = your gang(s) are in that sector and they detect enemy gang(s) there
• green or red circle with a white question mark = as above, except your gang(s) in that sector have not all been given commands
• any circle with red marks = you just hired a gang into that sector
• black circle with red marks = you hired a gang into your sector that has none of your gangs in it
• two gray polygons = sector of importance in that particular scenario
• flashing white box cursor = (Sector Selector) shows which sector you have chosen
• Site icons = Located on the left side of the sector, these indicate Sites you have influenced
• Crackdown Icon = Cops in the sector. Warning; the cops will attack all gangs in this sector
Click on any sector to select it (the flashing Sector Selector will move to that sector). Double click to open to Sector View.
Shortcut: Use the arrow keys to select sectors and hit Return to go to Sector view.
Sector View
By double clicking on a sector in the City View, or by hitting Return, a Sector View will replace the city. The Sector View shows a blow up picture of that particular sector and the three Sites in that sector and the 9 square Mini-Map. Also, all of your gangs in that sector will be displayed. If your gangs detect any enemy gang in that sector, the controlling Overlord’s face will be lit up on the Overlord Bar. Clicking on the Overlord’s face will display that Overlord’s gangs that you can detect. To return to the City View, click on the green arrow located in the lower left of the Sector View.
Gangs
You can double click on the gang’s face to open the Gang Information Panel for exact statistics on that gang. You can only look at your own gangs.
The green/red bar above each gang is its force bar. All green equals 10 force. If that gang takes any damage, the green bar will turn red. A gang dies if their force is reduced below 1.
The Command Bar is located under the force bar. You give commands to a gang here.
The three small boxes under the gang face are that gang’s equipped items. The first box is for weapons, the second is armor and the last is for miscellaneous items. Double-clicking on any item will open the Item Information panel.
Sites
The 3 Sites are located to the bottom left of the Sector View. Double click on a Site to bring up the Site Information panel. You can only influence Sites in a controlled sector. You must influence Sites to gain their benefits.
9 Sector Display
In the upper left of the Sector View is a 9 square section of the city map. The middle sector is the sector you are currently displaying. Click on any adjacent sector in the 9 Sector Display to select and display that sector. You can also use the arrow keys to move from sector to sector. The grid coordinates will also be displayed here like in the City View.
Overlord Bar
Above the city map (or sector in the Sector View) is a small bar that shows all 6 Chaos Overlords currently playing the scenario. To the right of each ugly mug is the word “Wait”. Anytime you see that “Wait”, it means that player has not finished inputting their commands and has not hit Done on the Main Control Panel. If any Overlord is eliminated, there will be only video “snow” where his/her/its face was. It is always good to see that.
Main Control Panel
Located on the right side of the main play screen is the Main Control Panel. On it are 7 buttons which control the nifty little panels that slide out of it. If there is more information than can fit in a single panel, the two arrow buttons on the left side of the panel can be used to toggle between all the different Events, Combats etc. Click on the arrows to switch or press the left/right buttons on the keyboard to switch the information. The 7 buttons are:
Event
Displays the Last Turn Events Panel. If you take over a sector, fully influence a Site, complete research on an item, a sector crackdown occurs, etc. then those events will be displayed in this panel. At the beginning of your turn, the Last Turn Events will automatically pop out if any events had occurred during your last turn. If you close the Last Turn Events Panel before viewing all the events, a yellow light will blink on the Events button. This panel will not appear if nothing of note happened last turn.
Comlink
This button is broken up into 2 halves (View and Send). View brings up any messages the other Overlords have sent you (Chaos E-mail). You can send messages to the other Overlords by clicking on Send. Type your message in the panel and click on the face(s) of the Overlords you wish to send the message to. You can send the same message to multiple Overlords by selecting their face. Your Comlink will store up to 16 of the most recent messages sent to you. The button will blink if you have “mail” from another Overlord. This button will only work in multi-player (human) games.
Finance
This button is broken up into 2 halves (City and Sector). City will bring up the City Financial panel. Listed on it is a breakdown of your projected cash flow for the next turn.
Note: Red numbers mean what you will pay, Green numbers represent cash you will earn.
Gang Upkeep: This is how much your gangs will cost you.
New Recruits: If you hire a gang, his cost will appear here. This will also show how many gangs that will be under your employ (barring any deaths from combat).
Note: you will have to also pay that gang’s upkeep the turn he is hired in.
Equipment: If you Equip a gang with an item, the cost will be reflected here.
City Officials: This is the cost of all the Bribes your gangs initiate.
Sector Tax: For each sector you control, you will gain 1 cash.
Site Protection: This is the total cash squeezed out of all the influenced Sites in your sectors.
Chaos (Estimate): This shows how much you will make from all the Chaos your gang wreck upon the city. Since Chaos is random, the number is a rough estimate of the projected Chaos.
Cash Adjustment: This is the overall projected cash flow (adding all the costs and gains together).
By clicking on Sector, a mini-report will show the Sector Financial. This panel is the same as the City Financial, except that the projected cash flow is for only one sector (useful in determining if your average Chaos in that sector is over the sector tolerance).
Combat
By far the most enjoyable panel to look at. At the beginning of your turn, a Combat panel (or Combat Results panel if Detailed Combat is turned off from the menu) will pop out if any of your gangs smacked somebody or got smacked. The gangs on the left are your gangs and the right side gangs are all the enemy gangs. Combat is simultaneous. So if your gang looks like he is being shot by a gang with a zero force don’t panic; that gang is just getting his simultaneous shot in at you. This button is broken up into 2 halves (Summary and Detail). Clicking on Summary will bring up a Combat Results panel (no animation). This shows your gangs, per sector, involved in any combat. The left side shows the sector and all your shmucks in that sector. The right side shows all the enemy gangs in that sector. If more that one enemy Overlord has gangs in that sector, just click on that Overlord’s face to bring up his boys. Your selected gang has a green box around him. On the right, any gangs that attacked that selected gang will have a yellow box around them and any gangs attacked by your selected gang will have a red box around them. If two gangs attacked each other, the enemy gang will have a red/yellow box around him. Clicking on Detail, you can bring up the Combat (animated) Panel and watch the animation. This will work even if you turned off Detailed Combat in the menu. You can exit the detailed combat panel while the animation is running by clicking on the Cancel button in the panel. This panel will not open if no combat took place in a sector you have gangs in.
Gangs
This button is broken up into 2 halves (Sector and Hire). Clicking Sector will bring out the Gang Information panel. It will show a statistical breakdown of all your gangs in the selected sector. This panel will not open if there are no gangs in that sector. Clicking Hire will bring out the Gangs for Hire panel. It shows statistical information on your 3 gangs-for-hire in the Hire Screen.
Ranking
This button brings up the Player Ranking panel. On it the 6 Overlords are on a ranking scale. The face highest on the scale is currently leading in the scoring. In scenarios like Eliminate, where there can be only one winner, the faces are all in the middle, and anyone eliminated will have his/her/its face removed from the panel.
Done
The most important button. When you have given all your gangs commands, hired/fired gangs etc., hit this button. The game cannot move on until you click here. The game will warn you if you hit Done and you did not give all your gangs commands (unless Warn if Idle Gangs is turned off). If the Done button is blinking, then the previous turn was the last turn and now you are just given the opportunity to look at the results of the last turn commands. Just click the Done button to go to the Endgame Screen.
Issuing Commands
Issuing commands is the most important aspect of Chaos Overlords.
You start the game with a single gang (Right Hands) in your one controlled Sector. On your first turn you can give a command to your Right Hands. Commands are the orders you give to a gang to tell them to do something. As you hire more gangs, commands can be given to them as well. Every gang you control can execute a single command per turn. You may choose not to give any commands to a particular gang, but its more efficient to have them do something other than sap your cash with their enormous upkeep costs.
There are many ways to issue a command to a gang. You must be in the Sector View to give commands to a gang. On top of each of your gangs is a black bar with a single green arrow pointing down on the left and a double green arrow on the right side. This is the Command Bar.
Click and drag down on the single green arrow on the Command Bar to choose a command from the list. Once chosen, the name of the command will be placed in that gang’s Command Bar. That gang will execute that command for one turn. If you wish to change a command, simply choose another one and it will replace the old command with a new one.
Sometimes you want a gang to carry out a command that will take more than one turn to complete, like Heal or Influence. To have a gang do a command forever (or until done), choose the command from the double green arrow. You will have a smaller list of commands. These commands can be performed continuously or until that particular task is done. You can choose to stop the continuous command by choosing a regular command. Commands are not carried out until you hit the Done button on the Main Control Panel.
When you have multiple gangs in a Sector, you can issue gang commands. A Gang Command Bar will appear over the top two gangs in a sector when two or more of your gang are in a sector. When a command is chosen from the Gang Command Bar, it will issue the command to all of your gangs in that sector. Any gangs which had commands from before will change to the new command issued through the Gang Command Bar. Of course you can change a gang’s command individually after that. You can also issue continuous gang commands by issuing the command from the double green arrow.
You cannot give commands to enemy gangs and you will not be able to see what commands an enemy gang is executing. You will know if your gangs are attacked by an enemy gang, but only after being spanked by them.
