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A MESSAGE FROM THE PYROSAURUS DEVELOPERS Although many hours have been spent testing Pyrosaurus, it is a new game and there is no way to know if a glitch is going to pop up when several thousand teams and contests need to be processed each day. We will be monitoring this process and if anything goes wrong, we will correct it as soon as we can. If the problem is severe enough, we will have to shut down our system until a fix is found. During this time, you will not be able to connect when you call in. If this happens, please try again in a few hours. If the glitch misplaces your team or contest, we will add credit to your account. Please bear with us during this shakeout period. We will do our best to make any interruptions as short as possible. Check the Pyrosaurus website for the latest information on interruptions. ================================================================== P Y R O S A U R U S M A N U A L ================================================================== Pyro \pie-row\ [from Lt., pyros, Fire] + saurus \sore-us\ [from Gr., sauros, Lizard] ================================================================== Developed and is distributed by: Evryware Inc. P.O. Box 5204 Olympia, WA 98509-5204 email: barry@evryware.com website: http://www.evryware.com/pyrosaurus Dave Murry, Barry Murry, Dee Dee Murry, Jason Glover, Sean Farley and sometimes Todd Bishopp (c) Evryware Inc. 1997, All Rights Reserved Music by Matt Friedly. sub@realitybbs.com A Microsoft Word verison of this manual is available at our web site. ================================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- 1. System Requirements 2. Installing and Running Pyrosaurus 3. Important Announcement 4. Introduction 4a. Arenas 4b. Winning a Contest 4c. Entrance Fee 5. Getting Started 6. Screen Descriptions 6a. TITLE 6b. title - SETUP 6c. title - setup - MODEM 6d. title - setup - CHARGES 6e. title - ABOUT, HELP and QUIT 7. Creating a Team (Overview) 8. Building a Species 8a. title - SPECIES 8b. title - species - NEW 8c. title - species - new - RANGE 8d. title - species - new - range - NECK 8e. title - species - new - SIZE 8f. title - species - new - LEGS 8g. title - species - new - SKIN 8h. title - species - new - FIRE 8i. title - species - new - fire - FIGHT 8j. title - species - new - fire - COLOR 8k. title - species - CLONE 8l. title - species - CHANGE 8m. title - species - REMOVE 9. Training a Species 9a. title - TRAIN 9b. title - train - MOVE 9c. title - train - move - GOAL 9d. title - train - move - goal - ZONE 9e. title - train - move - TEST 9f. title - train - FIGHT 9g. title - train - fight - LEARN 9h. title - train - fight - TEST 9i. title - train - DECISIONS 10. Building a Dino 10a. title - DINO 10b. title - dino - NEW 10c. title - dino - new - SIZE 10d. title - dino - new - NAME 10e. title - dino - CLONE 10f. title - dino - CHANGE 10g. title - dino - REMOVE 11. Building a Team 11a. title - TEAM 11b. title - team - ROSTER 11c. title - team - COLORS 11d. title - team - QUEEN 11e. title - team - POSITION 11f. title - team - position - TEST 11g. title - team - position - test - OPTIONS 11h. title - team - NAME 12. Title - MODEM 12a. title - modem - MESSAGE 12b. title - modem - CALL 13. Title - CONTEST 14. Strategy and Hints 14a. More than one team 15. Order Form 16. Gift Certificate 17. Definition of Pyrosaurus Software 18. Disclaimer/Agreement 19. Limited Warranty 20. Acknowledgment 21. Technical Support 22. Error Messages 23. Common Questions ================================================================== 1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ------------------- * 486-33 or better. Pyrosaurus runs surprisingly well even on "older" computers but "newer" computers will give you more detailed graphics and/or smoother animation. * Sound Blaster or Pro Audio compatible sound card. Sounds add a lot to the game but you don't need sounds to play. As an alternative, you can make your own dino sounds at the appropriate times! * Any VGA graphics card. * 2 Meg. RAM and at least 560K (573,000) bytes available in conventional memory. Conventional memory is the first 640K of your memory. The available memory in this area can be reduced by device drivers, TSR's and other things. If you have less than 560K available then you may still be able to use Pyrosaurus but you may not be able to put very many dinos in the arena. To free up more conventional memory, you can take out a TSR or driver (the CDROM driver would be a good candidate but do not take out the mouse driver). You can also use a memory manager. If you are using DOS 6.0 or newer, you can use MEMMAKER. You can also use EMM386, 386MAX or QEMM with any versions of DOS. You might want to create a boot disk with AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files that use a memory manager or load only the device drivers that are necessary. If you are using Windows 95, you can create a configuration file for Pyrosaurus. To do so, create a shortcut for Pyrosaurus (right click on pyro.exe and select Shortcut) and drag it to your desktop. Then right-click on the Shortcut and select Properties. From here, you'll be able to specify how the memory is used by selecting the Memory tab. * 4 Meg. Hard Disk Space. * Modem, 9600 baud or better. Without one of these, you can't enter contests and show off your awesome team. * Disk Cache, EMS or XMS memory (optional). A disk cache and at least some EMS or XMS will make the game run smoother. The memory managers described above also create EMS memory. * You DO NOT need Internet access. You just need a modem hooked up to a phone line. Your modem uses a toll free number to call our network to upload teams and to download contests. ================================================================== 2. INSTALLING AND RUNNING PYROSAURUS --------------------------------- If you are unable to install Pyrosaurus, email us at barry@evryware.com. Give as many details as you can. Copy PYRO20.EXE into its own directory on your hard drive (we suggest that you name the directory PYRO) and type PYRO20. This creates all the files that you need to use Pyrosaurus. Note: Be sure to keep the PYRO20.EXE file to give to your friends. To Play ------- DOS: 1. At the DOS Prompt, go to the Pyrosaurus directory. 2. Type: pyro --------------------------------------- Windows 3.1: There are two ways to play Pyrosaurus from Windows, a good way and a better way. The "good way" is to launch it from the File Manager. The "better way" is to make your own Pyrosaurus Group and Icon. There are a lot of steps to make your own Group and Icon but it actually is quite easy and only takes a minute or two. To play using the File Manager: 1. Double click the File Manager to open it. 2. Find the PYRO.EXE file in the Pyrosaurus directory. 3. Double-click PYRO.EXE. To make your own Pyrosaurus Group and Icon: First, make a Group: 1. From Program Manager menu, select FILE-NEW. (The NEW PROGRAM OBJECT Window opens.) 2. Click the PROGRAM GROUP button. 3. Click the OK button. 4. Next to Description, type in PYROSAURUS. (Leave Group File blank.) 5. Click OK. You now have an empty Pyrosaurus Window. Then, make an Icon: 6. From Program Manager menu, select FILE-NEW. (The NEW PROGRAM OBJECT Window opens.) 7. Click the PROGRAM ITEM button. 8. Click the OK button. (The PROGRAM ITEMS PROPERTY Window opens.) 9. Next to Description, type in PYROSAURUS. 10. To fill in the Command Line, click the BROWSE button. 1. Go to the directory you put Pyrosaurus in. 2. Find the file PYRO.EXE and double click it. (The Command Line will show the path and file.) 11. Click the CHANGE ICON button. The message says there are no icons available among other things. Don't panic, everything is fine, just click the OK button. (The Change Icon Window opens.) 12. Click the BROWSE button. 13. Find the Pyrosaurus directory again. 14. Find the file PYRO.ICO and double click it. (You return to the Program Item Properties Window.) 15. Click OK. You are done! To play using the Icon: 1. Double click the Pyrosaurus Icon. --------------------------------------- Windows 95: There are several ways to play Pyrosaurus from Windows 95. the best way is to make a shortcut that you can click on. The next best way is to play it in a DOS Window. If that won't work, you can restart in DOS and play it from there. Making a shortcut for the Desktop, Start Menu or Programs: 1. Click on the Start Button. 2. Select Settings and then Taskbar 3. Click the Start Menu Programs Tab. 4. Click Add and then Browse. 5. Double click on the Pyro folder. 6. Right click PYRO.EXE and select "Create Shortcut". 7. Find the new icon called "Shortcut to PYRO.EXE". It should already be selected (highlighted), if not, click its icon. 8. Click Open. 9. Click Next. 10. To put the shortcut on the Desktop, Startup Menu or under Programs, double click the corresponding term. ex. to put the shortcut on the desktop, double click Desktop. 11. Select a Name. Type in Pyrosaurus (or whatever you want to name it). 12. Select an icon: click the Pyrosaurus icon. Playing Pyrosaurus from a DOS Window: 1. Open a DOS window. 1. Click the START Button in the bottom left corner of the Widows Task Bar. 2. Select Programs. 3. Click on the MS-DOS Prompt Icon. . 2. At the DOS Prompt, type: cd \pyro (this assumes that you put Pyrosaurus in a directory with this path and name. If not, use the path and directory that you used.) 3. type: pyro Playing Pyrosaurus from DOS: If the above procedures don't work, try the following: 1. Click on the START Button in the bottom left corner of the Windows Task bar. 2. Select Shut Down and select "Restart in MS-DOS mode". 3. At the DOS Prompt, type: cd \pyro (this assumes that you put Pyrosaurus in a directory with this path and name. If not, use the path and directory that you used.) 4. Type: pyro --------------------------------------- To UNINSTALL Pyrosaurus ----------------------- DOS: Just delete everything in the Pyrosaurus directory: Go to the Pyrosaurus directory and type "del *.*". Then delete the Pyrosaurus directory by typing "cd .." then "rd pyro". --------------------------------------- Windows 3.1: If you made a Windows Group and Icon: 1. Click the Pyrosaurus Icon once to select it. (The name will be highlighted.) 2. Press the Del (Delete) Key to delete the Icon. 3. Press the Del (Delete) Key again to delete the Group. 4. Delete all the files in the Pyrosaurus directory. (You can use File Manager.) 5. Delete the Pyrosaurus directory. If you are running Pyrosaurus from the File Manager: 1. Delete the Pyrosaurus directory and everything in it by double clicking on the File Manager Icon. Then, go to the Pyrosaurus directory. From the file menu, select Delete and follow the instructions. --------------------------------------- Windows 95: 1. Click the START Button. 2. Select Program. 3. Click the Windows Explorer Icon. 4. Select the Pyro Folder. 5. From the File menu item, select Delete. ================================================================== 3. ========= I M P O R T A N T A N N O U N C E M E N T ======== If you like Pyrosaurus, please give it to your friends, your Grandmother and your dog but you should only give them the file PYRO20.EXE. As you use Pyrosaurus, several files are modified and created for your exclusive use. They hold your credit card number, modem settings and other information that pertain only to you. One of the files also has your sound card configuration which could cause your Grandmother's computer to lock up and you won't get any more cookies. By giving out only PYRO20.EXE, you are sure that they are getting everything they need and nothing of yours. Please see the "Disclaimer - Agreement" section for more details. ==== E N D OF I M P O R T A N T A N N O U N C E M E N T ==== ================================================================== 4. INTRODUCTION ------------ Welcome to Pyrosaurus. Now that you have Pyrosaurus, you can create and train a team of fire breathing dinos. Make 'em lean and make 'em mean because they are going up against some heavy competition with bad intentions. Playing Pyrosaurus is like having your own professional sports team (only these guys battle to the death): You're the Scout: Find the players with the most potential. You're the General Manager: Organize your team, hire or fire players, etc. You're the Coach: Train your players to create an efficient and professional team. We are the League Commissioners. We match up your team with another player's team. If your team wins, you move up in the standings. The best teams compete in the playoffs, Tyrannicus Supremus! After watching each "game", you can change players, retrain your team, or anything else you want to do before they compete again. Briefly, here is what happens: * First you make your team. Making your team is a game in itself and a lot of fun. * Send your team to us. This is all automated and you don't need an Internet connection. You click a button and your computer calls our computer through a toll free 800 number and we do the rest. * Your team competes against a team sent in by another player. The next day your computer calls again and receives the results. You get a complete playback of the contest to watch and analyze. If your team won, then you are advanced in rating. When you reach the top rating for that arena, you are advanced to the next arena. As you move up, more features become available to make your team even stronger. There are eleven arenas, each with unique challenges. You are always matched against a team with the same rating as yours. * You can play back your contest results as many times as you want. Analyze your team's actions to see what each dino did right and, more importantly, what they did wrong. Also watch the other team. You might get some ideas on how to improve your team. * Your first contest is free. You are charged a small fee for all additional contests. (See Chapter "4c. Entrance Fee" for more details.) In all contests, you compete against teams built by other players. You must compete at least once every three months to keep your current standing. If you have only played one contest then your team will be dropped after one month of no activity. * Win or lose, if you are not happy with the way your team performed, you can retrain them between contests. Change team members, improve their fighting skills, change their physical characteristics. You can even start your team from scratch again. It's up to you. When you think they are ready for another contest, send them in again. * There are no hidden, automatic or unexpected charges. You are notified through your computer before there is any charge and you have the option of not allowing the charge. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4a. ARENAS ------ There are 11 arenas. Everyone has a rating in the arena. The lowest rating is 5. When you send your team in, it will compete against someone else's team in the same arena with the same rating. If you win the contest you will go up one rating level. If you lose, you keep your old rating. Once you reach a rating of 0, you advance to the next arena. New players start in the Trio Bellum arena. Trio Bellum means "Beginner's Battle" but don't be deceived, you are in for some tough fights. This arena is small and you only have 3000 points to build your team with. Use your points where they will do the most good and train your dinos to take advantage of the attributes that you give them. Each arena adds something new that will require a different twist to your training strategy. The arena changes shape and size, you get more points to create a stronger team and more options become available to you for creating your team. Some of the later arenas can become very bizarre. Only the best of the best teams will have the privilege of competing in Tyrannicus Supremus (the top arena). The other arenas are: 10. Quadriennium: "Going on Four Feet" Now you can make strong and fast Quadrupeds for your team! Do you have that penned in feeling? It is time to stretch out: the arena is over 5 times larger! With all that extra room, you will need extra points to build a stronger team to cover all that territory: you now have 4,000 points to build your team!. 9. Augustus Harena: "Narrow Arena" Food is a new addition to this arena. Small bushes are growing in the arena. When bushes are eaten, health and strength are restored. You also get an extra 1,000 points to spend on your team! 8. Tribus Bellatrix: "Three Female Warriors" Welcome to the land of three Queens. You can now teach your team to run in packs and you have three Queens that need to be protected! The contests are longer, the arena is bigger and you have 6,000 points to spend! 7. Laxus Brevis: "Wide and Short" Good offensive and good defensive skills are both critical. Danger is never very far away because there is nowhere to hide! You have 7,000 points to build a powerful team! This is truly survival of the fittest! 6. Regina Omnis: "All Queens" This time, every member of your team is a Queen! The first team to eliminate an opponent wins. Use caution. The arena is big with plenty of opportunity to get into trouble. You will want to spend every one of your 8,000 points! 5. Magnus Contendo: "Big Struggle" This is a return to the long and narrow arena you saw in Augustus Harena only now it is much longer and not quite so narrow. Your dinos have longer fire range: just the thing to clear a path to that enemy Queen. You also get more points and a longer time limit. 4. Nulla Regina: "No Queens" Here is a twist, this arena has no Queens! The team with the last dino standing wins. 3. Vastus Campus: "A Vast Plain" This is a huge arena with plenty of room to roam. Large hearts cost less points (to increase endurance) and the time limit is extended to 9 minutes. 2. Congregari Venator: "Pack Hunters" Five Queens to a side, 12,000 points, a 9 1/2 minute time limit and vicious opponents. This is no place for cowards! 1. Tyrannicus Supremus: "Supreme Tyrant" Does your team have what it takes to become the Supreme Tyrant? This is the last Arena. When you make it this far, you are among the best of the best. Two significant rules change now. The other Arenas had 5 ratings each, this one has 25! You now will go down a rating if you lose (but you can't drop down to a lower arena). This arena is not for the fainthearted! You have 13,000 points, a 10 minute limit and tough competition! If you reach the top level, your name and your team name will be added to The Official Pyrosaurus Home Page for the whole world to see! ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4b. WINNING A CONTEST ----------------- Each team has one or more Queens (except in the Nulla Regina Arena). Queens can be identified by unique head markings. You win when your team destroys any opponent Queen. (In the Nulla Regina Arena, the last man standing wins). Contests have a time limit. If all Queens are standing when time runs out, the contest is declared a draw and neither team advances. In the first arena, the opposing Queen is not hard to find but the later arenas are larger and finding her will be challenging. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4c. ENTRANCE FEE ------------ Your first contest is free. You are charged a small fee for any additional contests in which you participate. The current charge is $8 for five contests (only $1.60 per contest!). You are charged through your credit card after you specifically approve the charge. Washington State residents are charged sales tax. You are always notified through your computer before any charge is made and you always have the option of declining a charge. There are no hidden charges, no automatic charges and no unexpected charges. Your credit card number is secure (it is never sent through the Internet). You can drop out of the competition at any time just by not playing (you don't even have to notify us). The modem call is toll free. To keep costs as low as possible, the minimum charge is $8. This gives you credit for five contests. We will refund any unused portion of the charge at your request. Instead of using a credit card, you can send a check with the Order Form which is at the end of this manual and also in a separate file (order.txt). Gift Certificates are also available at the end of this manual and as a separate file (gift.txt). Well, that's Pyrosaurus in a nutshell. Even if you don't plan on entering contests, I bet you will have fun creating and training your team. Visit our web site at: http://www.evryware.com/pyrosaurus for the latest news. Now for the details. ================================================================== 5. GETTING STARTED --------------- Go ahead and start Pyrosaurus. (If you don't know how, see Chapter 2: Installing Pyrosaurus.) Pyrosaurus provides comprehensive online help so you can get the help and information you need quickly and easily. There are two ways to get online help: 1. Left Click a HELP Button (you will find one on almost every screen). 2. Right Click any button to get a description of that button. If this is your first time, you will automatically go to the sound configuration screen and then to the game configuration screen. We will talk about those in a moment, but first, there are a few basic things you should know. VERY IMPORTANT - Several files are created as you build your team. You should periodically copy these files to a floppy so that you have a backup in case your hard disk fails. The BACKUP Button on the TEAM screen will copy all the team files to a floppy in drive A. You should also backup the PYRO.USR file after each contest. This file contains your ID number and other critical information. This file is automatically copied occasionally to PYRO.BAK in your Pyrosaurus directory but it would be a good idea if you also backed it up to a floppy. If this file is lost, you will have to reinstall the game and start over. ********************************************************************* COMMON BUTTONS -------------- The bottom of every screen has buttons that do wonderful and amazing things. Sometimes you will see buttons that are brighter than normal. This indicates that a specific mode is set. ex. Three buttons are onscreen: SLOW, MEDIUM, and FAST. MEDIUM is brighter than the others, indicating that the speed is set to medium. Pressing the SLOW Button will make it turn bright and change the speed to slow. Some buttons have no use under certain conditions. For example, the REMOVE Button is not needed if there is nothing to remove. These buttons recede into the distance and disappear until needed. HELP: Almost every screen has a HELP Button, just click on it to get help. In fact, you could use Pyrosaurus without reading this manual just by pressing every HELP Button that you find. You may want to still read this manual as it does a better job of giving you an overview of all the Pyrosaurus features and it has information and tips not in the help screens. You can right click on most buttons to get a description of what that button does and other useful information. DONE: Most screens also have a DONE Button. Press this when you have finished making changes at this screen. Any changes you made will be saved. The ENTER key can be used instead of the DONE Button. CANCEL: When you press the CANCEL Button, you will back up to the previous screen. Any changes you make in this part will not be saved. PAUSE/SLOW/MEDIUM/FAST: There are four Time Settings. PAUSE freezes time. Nothing will move when pause is selected. SLOW is slow motion. This is useful when there is too much happening at once to keep up or to look at something in detail. SLOW works by limiting the frame rate to 10 frames/second. If you have a slow computer or you have a lot of mist or swamp animation, then your frame rate may already be close to 10 and you won't see much of a change. MEDIUM is normal time. FAST is like fast forward, a quick way to get through any lulls in the action. UP/DOWN: Use the UP and DOWN Buttons to move text up and down, one line at a time. PgUp/PgDn: Use the PgUp (Page Up) and PgDn (Page Down) Buttons to move text up and down, one screen at a time. ENTER key: Same as the DONE Button. Esc Key: You can press the Esc key at any time to back out of the screen. Any changes that you made in that screen will not be saved. The settings will revert back to the way they were when you entered that screen. You can exit Pyrosaurus quickly by pressing the Esc key repeatedly. SLIDERS ------- Many screens have Sliders. Sliders are a tall thin frame with a ball inside. You can move the ball up and down inside the slider to adjust the parameter associated with the slider. To move the ball, drag it by pointing at it and holding the left mouse button down. The mouse pointer will disappear and you can now move the mouse forward and back to adjust the slider. To "let go" of the ball, release the left mouse button. To make small adjustments, you can point above or below the ball and click. DEFINITIONS ----------- Arena: Contests take place in an arena. All areas outside the arena are shown as black. Dinos may occasionally step outside the arena but they cannot fight while out of bounds and will soon return to the arena. Arenas are of different shapes and sizes. Generally, arenas are larger as you advance. Biped: A dino with two legs. Click: To press and release the left mouse button. For example, to see the Help Screen, point at the HELP Button and then "click". "Press" means the same thing as "click". "Right Click" means to quickly press and release the right mouse button. Contest: Battles in which your team competes against a team built by another player. Dino \die-know\ pl. Dinos [from Lt., Deinos, terrible] a single organism taken from a variety of species resembling a fire breathing Dinosaur. Goal: Goals are yellow X's that are used in Movement Training to teach a dino what path to take from place to place. A line connecting the goals is the path. The circle around each goal is its Zone. Path: Paths are used in Movement Training. They are lines that show the route the dino will take to complete a movement. Point: To move the mouse to cause the cursor to be over something on the screen. Pyro \pie-row\ [from Lt., pyros, Fire] using or having to do with fire or combustion. Quadruped: A dino with four legs. Queen: Like the King in chess, when your Queen dies, you lose. She can be identified by her unique head markings. Saurus \sore-us\ [from Gr., sauros, Lizard] used to form the names of certain reptiles. Screens: The display that is on your monitor's screen. For example, you click the HELP Button to go to the Help Screen where you see Help text. Species \spe-shez\ [from Lt., Specere, appearance] a biological classification comprising of a single distinct kind of organism potentially able to breed with one another. Team: After you create and train a dino, his name goes on a roster. A team is a group of dinos that you choose from your roster. A team can have from one to as many as 10 dinos. Your team competes against teams built by other players. Zone: A Zone is the circle around each Goal in Movement Training. Zones are adjustable and add a great deal of flexibility to movement. With Zones, you can determine if the dino will travel in a precise path or cut corners. ------------------------- Now back to the game. If this is the first time that you have played Pyrosaurus, you should be at the.... Sound Configuration Screen -------------------------- With luck, the magic that makes Pyrosaurus so wonderful has detected your sound card and has automatically selected the proper settings. If we goofed and the settings are not correct, go ahead and change them. SFX: Click on the SFX Button to see if your sound effects are working properly. If so, you will hear a rumbling/burning sound. DIGITAL: Click on the DIGITAL Button to test your digital sound effects. You should hear a growling dino. If either SFX or DIGITAL is not working, change your settings. Just click on the box you want. If you select the wrong settings, your computer may get mad at you and lock up. Never fear, there is a solution. Re-boot and delete the PYRO.CNF file from your Pyrosaurus directory and try again. Some of the newer wavetable sound cards are not fully sound blaster compatible even though they may say they are. If you do not hear a rumbling/burning sound when you press the SFX button then put a check in the "Alternate SFX" box and try again. With the "Alternate SFX" box checked, the sounds that you hear will not be exactly what we intended but at least you should hear something. If, for some reason, you don't want to hear music and some of the more subtle sound effects, put a check in the "No SFX" box. If you don't want dinos roaring while the children are sleeping, check the "No Digital" box. You can also select the volume of the background music. Check the "Low" box if you want low volume. Check "Off" if you don't want to hear music. (You will not hear music if "No SFX" is checked either.) Press the DONE button when your sound card is configured properly. Game Configuration Screen ------------------------- You are now looking at an actual live dino, one of only a few in captivity. This screen lets you adjust your preferences for the rest of the game. * MAP SCROLLING: Normal Map Scrolling is when you drag the mouse left while you hold the left mouse button down and the dino moves left. Reverse Map Scrolling is when you drag the mouse left and the Dino moves right. Try scrolling the map by holding the left mouse button down and moving the mouse. If these movements don't seem natural to you, then click the reverse box. You can also zoom in and out by holding the right mouse button down and moving the mouse forward and back. * TURN FOOTPRINTS ON AND OFF: You won't see any footprints here but you will see them later. If you would rather not see footprints, turn them off. The game will also run a little faster if it doesn't have to draw footprints. ANIMATION QUALITY: The following settings are used to adjust how smooth the dinos move. The number to the right of "Speed" is the frame rate (frames per second). The larger this number, the smoother the animation. This number has a maximum value of 20. The idea is to get a good balance between the frame rate and the amount of graphic detail that you want. Make sure that you zoom in close to a dino before making these adjustments. If you have a super fast computer, then the frame rate will stay pegged at 20 and you can set the graphic detail to whatever you want. * SHADOWS: Turn shadows on or off. Shadows slow your frame rate down but only while the dino is on the screen. * SWAMP DETAILS: Drag the ball up and down in the Swamp slider. This changes the amount of swamp detail. The Swamp animation is the biggest consumer of speed. * MIST DETAILS: Drag the ball up and down in the Mist slider to change the amount of mist that drifts over the swamp. (You will only see mist here and during a contest.) You can change these settings at any time by pressing the SETUP Button on the Title screen. Press DONE to go to the Title screen. ================================================================== 6. SCREEN DESCRIPTIONS ------------------- The title of each description lists the buttons that should be pressed to reach that screen from the title screen. As an example, for title - Setup - MODEM, you would press the SETUP Button at the title screen and then the MODEM Button at the Setup screen. ================================================================== 6a. TITLE ----- The first screen that you see is the title screen. The intro animation will play but you can press buttons at any time. SPECIES: You need to build at least one species before you can make dinos. TRAIN: Teach your species how to move, how to fight and what decisions to make. You need at least one species before this button will appear. DINO: Make dinos for your team. You need at least one species before this button will appear. TEAM: Set up your team. Select team members, choose your Queen(s), test your team and more. You need at least one dino before this button will appear. CONTEST: Watch a contest. This button appear when you have received a contest. SETUP: This is the fun, technical stuff like setting up your sound, modem, credit card info, and game details. MODEM: Use your modem to send your team to us, download a contest and write, read and send messages. HELP: See a variety of useful information. ABOUT: An overview of Pyrosaurus, credits and how to contact us at Evryware. QUIT: Exit Pyrosaurus. You can press the D key at any time on the title screen to see the version number of Pyrosaurus that you are using. You will also see your ID number, the arena that you are qualified to compete in, your rating in that arena and your credit. Your ID number is needed if you decide to pay for contests with a check instead of a credit card. You must enter at least one contest before you are given an ID number. ================================================================== 6b. title - SETUP ------------- Let's start with the SETUP Button on the title screen. Here is where you do all the fun technical stuff. You can now select from the following buttons: SOUND: Test your sounds to make sure they are working properly. This selection is described in more detail above (Sound Configuration Screen). CHARGES: Enter your credit card information here. You don't have to do this until you enter your second contest but it is okay to do it now so it will be ready. MODEM: Set up your modem. You will need to do this before you send your team in for a contest. Do this now and your system will be ready to enter a contest when you are. GAME: If you are using an older computer and the animation runs slow, you can remove some of the graphic detail to speed things up. Reduce the amount of swamp motion and mist. Turn shadows and footprints on or off. This selection is described in more detail above. ================================================================== 6c. title - setup - MODEM --------------------- This is where you set up your modem so that your team can be sent in for a contest. For best results, you should be using a Hayes compatible modem (most are). If you are using Windows 95 and a "Windows only" modem, you will need to be running Pyrosaurus from a DOS window, not from DOS (see Section 2, Installing and Running Pyrosaurus). Initialization String: This string will be sent to the modem to put it in the proper operating mode. Different modems need different strings. Usually the modem's default hardware flow control setting will work. This is usually AT&F1 but in some cases, it can be AT&F2, ATZ or some other string. Look in your modem manual to decide which initialization string to use. The ideal modem setup is the following: * Hardware Flow Control ON (RTS/CTS) * Software Flow Control OFF (XON/XOFF) * Local Echo ON * Fixed serial port rate * Display verbal (Verbose or Word) result codes * Normal Carrier Detect operations * Normal Data Terminal Ready operations * No Guard Tone * Data Compression ON * Error Control ON * Send CONNECT when connected * Send BUSY if busy You can also try using the initialization string from your communications program. Sometimes the initialization string must contain control characters which can not be printed on the screen. When the ^ character is encountered in the string, it will make the following character a control character. For example, ^A will send out the code for Control-A. A few common control characters are ^M, which is the Carriage Return character, ^J, which is the Line Feed character, and ^[, which is the Esc character. To send out the ^ character itself, use two ^ characters. Space characters in the string are ignored. A string that would reset the modem and then turn the modem's speaker off would be: AT&F1^M ATM0 - or - AT&F1M0 Port: This is the COM port that is connected to your modem. IRQ: This is the interrupt number that your modem uses. When you change the port setting, the IRQ setting will change to the default for that port. If that setting is not correct, you can change it. Baud Rate: This is the speed at which your computer talks to the modem. It is not the modem's actual speed (i.e. 14,400, 28,800, 33,600). You should select the highest speed that works reliably. 38400 works with most computers. Newer computers can be set to 57600. Older computers may need to go down to 19200 or even 9600. This number should not be less then your modem's speed. (Don't use 19200 with a 28800 modem.) If you experience errors or erratic operation when using the modem, try using a lower baud rate. For the curious, this is why you should set your baud rate higher than your modem's speed. Your modem will try to send data at its baud rate. Most modems compress data before they send it, making the data smaller. This makes modems faster and more efficient. Consequently, your computer needs to send data to your modem faster than your modem's speed to keep the modem operating at full speed. A 14,400 modem will transfer data about 20% faster when you set your port for 38,400 than it will when set to 14,400. A rule of thumb: if you have a 14,400 modem, set the Baud Rate to 38,400 and set faster modems to 57,600. Dialing Prefix: This string is inserted in front of the phone number when dialing. It can be used to disable call waiting (*70 usually works but check with your phone company) or to dial an outside number through a PBX. (If you have call waiting and someone tries to call you while you are using your modem, the call waiting beep will disrupt your modem transfer.) In some cases, the modem can pause or wait for a dial tone after sending the prefix and before dialing the phone number. Your modem's manual should give the characters needed to do this if your system requires it. TEST: When you think that your settings are correct, press the TEST Button. Your computer will try to connect with our network using a toll free number. You will get a message indicating the results of the test. This test must pass before you can send your team to us. There are four problems that could cause a test failure: 1. Error opening COM port. You specified the wrong COM port. Try another one. 2. Unable to initialize modem. You specified the wrong IRQ or the initialization string contains commands that your modem doesn't recognize. Also, make sure that your modem is connected and turned on. 3. Fail to connect: * If you are dialing through a PBX, you may have to dial a number to connect to an outside line. Put this number in the Dialing Prefix. Be sure to add any special characters needed after the number if the modem should pause before dialing the phone number. * If there is a lot of noise in the phone line, you may not be able to connect. Try again later. * Your initialization string may be wrong. Reread the above suggestions for setting up your initialization string. * In a few rare cases, a certain modem model just won't connect to a certain other modem model. As a last resort, borrow a friend's modem and give it a try. * It is necessary to occasionally bring our system down for maintenance. If you try to test while our system is down, you will not be able to connect. If your modem rings but there is no answer, try again a little later. * Someone in another part of your house may be using the phone. 4. Connection successfully made but test failed: * Your initialization string may be wrong. Reread the above suggestions for setting up your initialization string. * This can be caused by a lot of phone line noise. Try later when there is less noise in your phone line. * In a few rare cases, a certain modem model just won't communicate reliably with a certain other modem model. As a last resort, borrow a friend's modem and give it a try. If you still have problems, check the problems page on our web site or e-mail us. If you e-mail us, include as much information as possible including your modem type and the messages that were displayed during the test. email: barry@evryware.com website: http://www.evryware.com/pyrosaurus Press DONE when your modem is set correctly. ================================================================== 6d. title - setup - CHARGES ----------------------- Your first contest is free. After that there is a small entrance fee that can be paid with a credit card. Enter your credit card information here. We can accept either Visa or Master Card. Click on the box for the card that you have. Name on Card: Enter your name exactly as it appears on the card. Card Number: Enter the card's number with no spaces between the numbers. Be sure to include all the numbers. Expiration Date: Enter the expiration date on the card. (Month/Year) ex. 08/98. Street Address: The billing address for the card. This information is only used to verify that this card is yours. Zip Code: This is also used to verify that this card is yours. Press DONE when your charge card info is correct. ================================================================== 6e. title - ABOUT, HELP and QUIT ---------------------------- These screens give you information on various things. Click 'em and read what they say. ABOUT: The ABOUT Button has fun facts to know and tell. See the names of the people that made Pyrosaurus and how to contact them. The address of the Official Pyrosaurus Web Page can also be found here. Press DONE to return to the Title Screen. HELP: Click on a HELP Button to get specific information and help. The Help on the Title Screen has a lot of good stuff about how to use Pyrosaurus, definitions, common questions, etc. You can also right-click any button to get help, advice and information about what that button does. Some longer Help Screens have a DONE Button. On those screens, click DONE to exit. Otherwise, press any key or click a mouse button to exit. QUIT: Click the QUIT Button to exit Pyrosaurus. You can also exit quickly from almost anywhere in Pyrosaurus by pressing the Esc key repeatedly. ================================================================== 7. CREATING A TEAM --------------- * Start out by building a species. A species has unique characteristics such as neck length, number of legs and so on. You will also train a species to act a certain way. All dinos of the same species will look and act the same but each one can be a different size and have a different name. You need at least one species before you can build individual dinos. You can create up to 20 species. Every species does not have to be included on your team. At the start, you are given a certain number of points with which to build your team. These points are used as you change the attributes of your species. It is up to you to decide how you want to use the points. The total cost for this species is displayed at the upper left corner of the screen. The cost of the attribute you have selected is also shown. The TEAM-ROSTER screen displays the total points allowed in your arena. * Once you have built a species, you can train the species to move, fight and make decisions. * After a species is trained, you can create individual dinos from that species. Each dino can have his own size and name. * When you have one or more dinos, you can form a team. Choose your Queen(s), team colors and select each dino's starting position on the arena. * That's it. When you are ready to enter a contest, press the MODEM Button and follow the instructions. Your team will compete against a team sent in by another player. Make any adjustments that you want to your team after a contest then send your team in for another contest. So, let's start by building a species. ================================================================== 8. BUILDING A SPECIES The first step in building a team is to create at least one species. From that species, you build dinos, and from your dinos, you build a team. And, once you have a team, you can blow away someone else's team! All the dinos created from the same Species share certain physical characteristics like the same number of legs, same tail length, how far they can see, etc. You will also train the species how to move, how to fight and how to think. You can include dinos from more than one species on your team, although you don't have to include every species. You can determine the eye positions for this new species and adjust his senses of sight, hearing and smell. Choose the size of various body parts and the strength and thickness of his skin. Want to make a biped? Sure, go ahead. How about a quadruped? Yep, you can do that too. What if you want to turn him into a snake? Go for it! Customize the fire he breathes and give him a name. Voila, a new species is born. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8a. title - SPECIES --------------- Make a brand new species. It's a lot of fun and adds fiber to your diet. You can make a new species, or you can change or clone an existing species. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8b. title - species - NEW --------------------- The following buttons are standing by, ready to serve you: Range: Adjust the distance that this species can see, hear, smell, and shoot fire. This is also where you determine the head type and his neck movement characteristics. Size: Change the size of various body parts. Stretch the poor guy's neck, lop off his tail, give him/her long shapely legs, tiny dainty feet or big clod hoppers. It's up to you, go wild. Skin: Give me some skin! The thicker, the better. Legs: You want a snake? No problem. How about an agile biped? Got that too. Got any quadrupeds? You bet (but not in the first arena.) We also have a variety of feet guaranteed to thrill the discerning dino. And that ain't all. Fire: Talk about bad breath. More hot air than a pot full of politicians. And just like a politician, you can add your own unique twist. Name: After all this work, your new species deserves a name. Press DONE to return to the Species screen ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8c. title - species - new - RANGE ----------------------------- Range adjusts the distance a dino can see, hear and smell. It also is used to set how far he can shoot fire. Let's stop for a minute and look at what's on the screen. Your dino is in the center and he is surrounded by other dinos. You can zoom in and out by holding the right mouse button down and moving the mouse forward and back. If you zoom in too close, the screen will automatically zoom out again when you let up on the mouse button. The green border shows the size of the arena. There are three circles around the dino. The Red Circle is his sight range. I bet you also see one or two cones coming from his eyes. More on this in a minute. The Yellow Circle is how far he can hear and the Green Circle shows his smell range. SIGHT: So far, so good. Now, make sure that the SIGHT Button is bright. If it isn't, then click on it. You will notice that the screen will automatically zoom out if the sight circle is past the edge of the screen. You have two sliders on the left side of the screen. Move the ball in the "Range" slider to change the distance that you want your dino to see. To adjust a slider, drag the ball by pointing at it and holding down the left mouse button. The mouse pointer will disappear and you can now move the mouse forward and back to adjust the slider. To "let go" of the ball, release the left mouse button. To make small adjustments, you can point above or below the ball and click. Keep an eye on the cost to see how many points the sight range is using. Play with the "Field" slider to adjust the dino's field of vision. You will be testing both of these adjustments with the NECK Button. For even more variety click on the PREY Button. --- Some Things You Should Know About Sight --- The field of vision cone shows the area the dino actually sees. But, even if something is in his field of vision, he may not actually see it if he turns his head too quickly. A wide field of vision increases his chances of seeing something because the object will be in his field of vision longer. Of course, a wider field of vision uses more points. Switching to "Prey" changes the shape of the dino's head and puts his eyes on the side of his head. This gives him a better chance of spotting something but he can't see directly in front of him. This hinders his ability to aim. To compensate, prey heads can see, hear, smell and shoot 20% farther than predators. While we are on the subject of fire, the fire ball that is hovering in front of the dino shows the distance that his fire will travel. Keep this in mind when adjusting the dino's sight. If he can shoot fire farther than he can see, his shots won't be very accurate because he must rely on his hearing and smell to determine where to aim. Now back to the circles... HEARING: Click on the HEARING Button. There is now a disk centered on your dino that extends out to the Yellow Circle. If this circle extends beyond the edge of the screen, your view will automatically zoom out until you see all of the circle. Move the slider up and down to adjust his hearing range. When a dino hears something, his accuracy is +/- 20 degrees. This means that when he hears something, his hearing could be telling him that the source of the sound is up to 20 degrees away from where it really is. Hearing range also determines how far away he can hear calls from other dinos on his team. He can hear these calls up to twice as far as his hearing range. A dino that is not walking can only be heard at half the hearing range. SMELL: The SMELL Button controls the Green Circle. Move the slider up and down to adjust his smell range. The accuracy for smell is +/- 30 degrees. This means that when he smells something, he knows just the general direction of the smell. This direction could be off by as much as 30 degrees. A dino can smell other team members, opponents, and food. FIRE: Click the FIRE Button to adjust the distance the dino can shoot fire. The fireball hovering in front of the dino is the distance that his fire will travel before dissipating. As you move the range slider up and down, you will notice the dino's body changes length. This is done to accommodate the change in lung size needed to shoot the fire the distance that you specify. The maximum fire range will change as you advance through the arenas. Your dinos will shoot at any opponent within fire range. If he can shoot farther than he can see, your dino will have to rely on hearing and smell to aim and he will be much less accurate. PREDATOR: Predator eye placement is on the front of its head like a cougar or a wolf. Both eyes looking forward results in stereo vision and good depth perception. This lets him pinpoint the position of his target and is especially useful during combat. A disadvantage is that he has to look around a lot to spot an opponent sneaking up on him. PREY: Prey eye placement is on the sides of the head like a duck or a deer. This lets the Prey see both sides at once and makes it harder for an opponent to sneak up on him. Prey headed dinos make good sentries. A disadvantage of a Prey head is that they have a blind spot in front of them. This can make their shots inaccurate during combat. To compensate, prey heads can see, hear, smell and shoot 20% farther than predators. The NECK Button is explained in the next section. Press DONE when the ranges are the way you want them ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8d. title - species - new - range - NECK ------------------------------------ The NECK Button is used to determine how often and how fast the dino turns his head when looking around. During a contest, your dino should always be on the lookout for danger. The way he looks around affects his ability to spot others. After you press the NECK Button, you will see two sliders: SPEED: Determines how fast the dino turns his head. The faster his head moves, the more area he can scan but the less time that he has to perceive detail. Dinos have primitive eyes. An object must be in the dino's field of vision long enough for him to notice it. In some cases, it may take several seconds for an object to register in the dino's tiny little brain. If he turns his head too fast and/or his field of vision is too narrow, he may not notice another dino. The size of the other dino and his distance also affect how likely he will be seen. You can slow the speed down and/or increase the dino's field of vision to give him a better chance of spotting danger. Variety: Controls how often your dino looks away from the direction that he is facing. It is important that your dino scans around for danger but he should also pay attention to where he is going. It is up to you to determine how often he should look around. As you adjust the "Speed" and "Variety" sliders, your dino will conform to the new settings after he completes his current neck movement. While in this screen, your dino will growl whenever he sees another dino. Orange lines are also drawn between your dino and all dinos that he sees. During a contest, your dino will remember where another dino is for about 10 seconds after that dino is no longer in his sight. If he looks at that dino again within 10 seconds, the dino will be seen instantly. On this screen, your dino immediately forgets about a dino when he is no longer seen. If you don't think that your dino is turning his head far enough, you can make his neck longer in the size screen as explained below. Press DONE to return to the Range Screen ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8e. title - species - new - SIZE ---------------------------- There are a lot of things to play with here. You can make some very unique dinos. Adjust the size of various body parts to affect different characteristics like endurance, agility, speed, etc. Usually, the larger the body part, the stronger the characteristic and the more it costs. You can zoom and scroll with the right and left mouse buttons just like on other screens. To change the size of a body part, click on the button for the body part you want to change. Drag the slider up to make the selected part bigger or down to make it smaller. The numbers at the upper left of the screen show the total cost of this species and the actual cost of the selected body part at its current size. Some buttons that you might enjoy pressing are: HEAD - You can give this species anything from a fat head to a pin head. (But they may never forgive you for it!) The size of the head affects how fast the dino exhales when breathing fire. A small head has a small mouth which can only expel flames in a thin stream. A large head has a mouth big enough to burp one big fireball. The same amount of fire comes out no matter what his head size is but the length of time that it takes to come out varies. While you are adjusting the head size, the dino will shoot fire so that you can see the results. NECK - Neck length has its advantages. A long neck allows the dino to turn his head over a greater range. This can help him spot an opponent and aim more effectively during a fight. While you are at this screen, the dino will turn his head as far as he can so that you can see his full range for any neck length. Try giving him a real long neck and see how far he turns his head. Then give him a shorter neck to compare the difference. The disadvantage of a long neck (besides cost) is that it makes your dino a larger target. Necks have thinner skin than the body. Any hits to the neck will cause twice the damage of a body shot. HEART - The heart influences endurance. The bigger the heart, the more he can do before he gets tired. A tired dino cannot run or shoot as often. A dino becomes tired as he runs, jumps, and shoots. A dino that is creeping or not moving will become rested. The dino's chest swells and shrinks as you adjust the size of his heart. Contrary to popular belief, a large heart does not make a dino more amorous. If your dinos become tired when you are on the Test screen (explained later), then you might want to come back here and add a little more heart. TAIL - The tail is used for balance. A dino can turn quicker with a long tail. During combat, a long tail makes the dino more agile. While you are adjusting the tail length, your dino will walk in a circle making the tightest turns that he can for that tail length. Try giving him a real long tail and see how tight his turns are. Then give him a stubby tail to compare the difference. A long tail is also kind of a macho thing. A short tail could give your dino an inferiority complex. LEGS - A dino with long legs takes big steps and consequently walks faster than one with short legs. Large legs are also stronger so he will be able to run faster and jump farther. FEET - The fight arena is a muddy bog. The type and size of feet determine how much traction your dino has when he is running and jumping. A small hoof provides the least traction. The largest hoof has slightly less traction than the smallest webbed foot. The largest webbed foot has slightly less traction than the smallest clawed foot. The cost of the feet gives you an indication of the traction they give. The more the feet cost, the better the traction your dino will have and the better he can jump and run. Press DONE when the sizes are adjusted to your satisfaction ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8f. title - species - new - LEGS ---------------------------- Choose the number of LEGS for this species. Decide if you want it to have straight legs or sprawling legs. The type of feet are an important part of your dino's anatomy too. You have the power to create a species that is similar to vicious Raptors. Even a big, powerful Brontosaur is within your reach. Maybe you would like a herd of cool Crocodiles. How about some slimy slithering Snakes? NUMBER OF LEGS None - Without legs, a dino becomes a snake. Snakes only have one speed: slow. The advantage of a snake is low cost. Snake skin is extra thin, 75% as thick as a biped's skin. Two (biped) - A dino with two straight legs is like a Velociraptor. If it has two sprawling legs, it is more like a big, tough frog. A biped is agile and fast but not as fast as a quadruped. Bipeds are the only dinos that can jump. This gives them a big advantage when fighting (if they have fight training). Four (quadruped) - Quadrupeds become available in the Quadriennium arena (the second arena). Quadrupeds have high strength and endurance which enables them to carry more weight than their less legged counterparts. A dino with four straight legs is like an elephant or rhino and they are fast. If it has sprawling legs, it will be more like a crocodile or iguana. The skin on a quadruped is extra tough (like a rhino). His skin is 50% thicker than a biped's skin. LEG TYPE Straight - Straight Legs are in line with the body and are fast and agile. With two straight legs, a dino is like a Raptor or an ostrich. With four straight legs, a dino is like a Brontosaurus or a rhino. Sprawling - Sprawling legs stick out to the side like a crocodile and are slow, clumsy and cause the owner to tire quickly. Because they are less efficient, Sprawling Legs cost less than Straight Legs. FEET TYPE The swamp is slippery. The type of Feet affects how much traction the dino has when he jumps and runs. A small hoof provides the least traction. The largest hoof has slightly less traction than the smallest webbed feet. The largest webbed feet have slightly less traction than the smallest clawed feet. The cost of feet gives you an indication of the traction that they offer. The more the feet cost, the better the traction for running and jumping. Press DONE when you are happy with your species legs and feet ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8g. title - species - new - SKIN ---------------------------- The thickness of the skin determines how much damage a dino can absorb before he dies. The thicker the skin, the tougher to kill. Thin Skin is tender and burns easily. It is also the least expensive skin. Medium Skin is of average thickness and cost. Thick Skin is tough and burn resistant. Armor is the strongest skin of all. It is also the most expensive. During a contest, you will see skin get thinner when it is hit by fire. The thicker you set skin here, the longer it will last in battle. Snakes have 75% the skin thickness of bipeds at the same skin setting. Quadrupeds have 50% thicker skin then bipeds. Press DONE when the skin is the way you want it ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8h. title - species - new - FIRE ---------------------------- Fire is your dino's only weapon. He exhales fire when he is fighting. This screen is used to adjust some of the characteristics of his fire. Other fire characteristics are determined by other dino settings as explained below. All of the settings have some effect on each other. * Speed - Sets the speed that the fire travels. This is the only adjustment on this screen that costs points. If speed is fast enough, the fire may reach its range limit before it fully dissipates. This will cause the remaining fire to explode. Fire gradually decreases in strength over time once it leaves the dino's mouth. When fire hits a target, fast fire will do more damage than slow fire because it has had less time to dissipate. * Density - Determines how many individual fire balls leave the dino's mouth at a time. With a low density, you will usually see distinct fire balls. With a high density, several smaller fire balls may be interlinked. * Pattern - Adjusts the tendency of the fire to spread. Low patterns produce narrow streams and a large pattern setting results in a wide spread. Although your dinos are usually accurate when they shoot, the shot could miss if the other dino is moving quickly. Your dino has a better chance of hitting his opponent if you give his fire some spread. * Variation - The bottom half of the variation scale introduces twists to the fire creating interesting patterns. The top half of the scale reduces the twists while adding variations in the fire's speed. This causes some of the fire to travel a greater distance than normal while other parts won't travel as far as they otherwise would. Other factors that affect fire: * Set the distance that the fire can travel in the Range screen. * Dino Size (set when you create an individual dino) determines how much fire the dino can breath out in one breath. A large dino can exhale more flames than a small one. * Head Size limits the rate that the fire can leave his mouth. A small head causes the fire to come out in a thin stream. Head Size is adjusted in the Size screen. Press DONE when you like the way the fire looks ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8i. title - species - new - fire - FIGHT ------------------------------------ The Fire Fight screen has four sliders: 1. Head/Body - determines where your dino should aim when he shoots. If set all the way to the top, he always aims for his opponent's head. As you slide the ball down, he begins to aim more of his shots at the body. When the ball is all the way down, he aims only at the body. The head is a smaller target than the body and is harder to hit. The body is tougher than the head and neck. Any hit to the head or neck does twice the damage of a body hit. 2. Movement - sets how far your dino moves his head while shooting. Large head movements have the most affect if your dino shoots long streams of fire. Although your dinos are accurate when they shoot, if the other dino is moving quickly, the shot could miss. Your dino has a better chance of hitting his opponent if you give him some head movement. 3. Risk - controls the two lines that form a cone in front of your dino. If, during a contest, the center of a friendly dino is in the cone (between the two lines) then your dino will not shoot. A narrow cone increases the risk that a friendly dino will be hit by fire from a teammate. A wide cone may cause your dino to not shoot when a friendly dino is near even though he may miss his teammate. You may want to make the risk cone wide if your dino has a wide fire pattern or if his neck movement spreads the fire out. 4. Resolve - A dino with fight training will make his fight moves anytime that he is in fight range of an opponent. He cannot make other decisions while he is in fight range (although he will go for food if he needs to). The Resolve slider is a way of telling the dino when he should stop his fight moves and make a decision even though he is in fight range. When a dino shoots and moves, he loses energy and may become tired if his heart is not large enough. A tired dino can't shoot as often as when he is rested. As your dino becomes tired, the pause between shots increases and his effectiveness as a fighter decreases. At some point, you may want your dino to abandon the fight to give him a chance to rest or do something else. The Resolve slider specifies the maximum pause between shots that will allow your dino to continue to fight. Keep in mind that your dino will still shoot at any opponent within range even when he does not want to fight. If the slider is set all the way to the top, your dino has the most resolve and will stay in the fight as long as he can. When the slider is at the bottom, he will abandon the fight as soon as he starts to become tired (usually after one or two shots). The box above the slider is a timer to help you gauge the delay between shots. When the dino on the screen shoots, the timer will start to empty. The time that it takes to empty is controlled by the slider. Your dino will try to quit the fight when the pause between his shots is longer than the timer amount. The resolve slider has no effect on the frequency of the dino's shots. Resolve also determines how close an opponent can be to food before your dino can attempt to go to the food. With a high Resolve, your dino will go to food even if an oppenent is close by. If Resolve is set to low, the opponent must be far away before your dino will go to food. Watch as your dino shoots at the target dino and adjust the sliders until you find a combination of settings that you like. Press DONE to return to the fire screen ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8j. title - species - new - fire - COLOR ------------------------------------ You can change the color of the fire at this screen. Fire colors are spread between two extremes. The left three sliders determine one of the extremes and the right three sliders determines the other. Mix red, green and blue to create the colors you want. The red ball has control over the amount of red in the fire. If you move the ball to the top, your fire will have the maximum amount of red. The green and blue balls control the amount or green and blue in the fire. The numbers above each slider are for your reference. If you find a color that you like, you can write down the numbers and then continue to experiment. If you want to go back to the old numbers, just adjust the slider until the numbers match the old numbers. You can also press the RANDOM Button as many times as you want until you find a color that you like. Color has no actual effect on the fire. It just makes it look good. All dinos in your team use the same fire colors. Changing the colors for one species changes the colors for all species. You can press the Esc key to return the colors back to the way they were before you started and return to the fire screen. Press DONE when you like the color of your fire ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8k. title - species - CLONE ----------------------- Duplicate a species that you have already made. Cloning is a quick and easy way to make a new species that is similar to another species that you have. This is useful if you want to work on your new species by using another species as a starting point or to build two similar species. Cloning a species does not clone his training. Click the CLONE Button. Click the name of the species you want to copy (clone). Now you can name your new species and modify it if you want. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8l. title - species - CHANGE ------------------------ What, you don't like something about a species? Fix it! Click the CHANGE Button. Select the name of the species you want to change. Now you can change any part of the species. In minutes your species will be new and improved! If you make some aspect of the species larger, you may have to reposition your team so that the dino's are not too close together. (see team-position). ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8m. title - species - REMOVE ------------------------ Really don't like a species? Eliminate it! Click the REMOVE Button. Select the name of the species you want to delete. All that will be left will be a fading memory. ================================================================== 9. T R A I N I N G ------------------------------------------------------------------ After you have created a species, you can train it. All dinos created from this species adopt the training that you give the species. There are three kinds of training: Movement, Fight and Decision. Movement - A movement is an attempt by a dino to perform a specific task. It could be to go to a certain point in the arena, try to move behind or run away from an opponent, or even join a pack of dinos. A dino will try to accomplish the movement after he makes the decision to do so. Fighting - If a dino is close enough to an opponent, he can perform special fight movements. Decision and Movement training bring the dino in for the initial attack, then fight training takes over. Decision - During a contest, each dino in your team is constantly evaluating everything that is going on around him. At any time, he can make a decision based on what he hears, sees, smells, feels and so on. How well you train him to make these decisions determine his success during the contest. Most decisions result in some kind of movement. There is a lot involved in training a team to work together effectively. Fortunately, the first few arenas are small enough that you can get by with a surprisingly small amount of training. As you gain experience you will add to your training and learn how to use it to your advantage. Now let's give training a try. Click on the TRAIN Button at the title screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9a. title - TRAIN ------------- You must build at least one species before you can train. First, select the species that you want to train by clicking on the name or press CANCEL to return to the title screen. Now you have a choice between Movement, Fight, or Decision training. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9b. title - train - MOVE -------------------- Movement Training teaches your species what path to take from one place to another. Each species can learn several custom moves. A dino will put up with just so much training and then refuse to learn any more. The number of movements as well as the number of total goals in all the movements contributes to how much a species can learn. All dinos of the same species share the same custom movements. You will name each custom movement so you can refer to it in Decision Training. IMPORTANT: Every time you enter a new arena, you should go back to movement training and test all your movements. Each arena is a different size so goals may have to be moved or even eliminated if they don't fit on the new arena. After you make a new movement, you will use Decision Training to specify when that movement should be used. Some simple movements are provided by Decision Training, but Movement Training provides you with the ability to create your own specialized movements ranging from very simple to extremely complex. There are 7 kinds of movements. Each has its own advantages. A movement can show a species how to patrol a certain area, hunt in a specified pattern, come in closer to an opponent for an attack, team up with another dino, or just about anything else that you can think of. All movements consist of one or more goals. During a movement, your dino attempts to follow a path that takes him to each of his goals in sequence. When your dino reaches his first goal, he proceeds to the second and so on. The movement is considered complete when your dino reaches his last goal. He then decides what to do next based on his Decision Training. He may start a new movement or just stay put for a while. During a contest, a dino can change his mind at any time. He could start a different movement even before he is finished with the current one. You can also think of goals as destinations. You tell the dino to go from point A to point B and then to point C and so on. After you experiment with goals a little, you will get a feel for what they can do. You will give each movement a name so you can refer to it later. A descriptive name is best, something like "Figure 8", "Lookout", or "Straight Run". At the Move Screen, choose from the following selections: NEW: Train a Species to do a new custom movement. CHANGE: Modify an existing movement. COPY: Copy a custom movement from a different species and use it for this species. It is quick and easy! REMOVE: Delete an existing movement. Press the NEW Button, you will go to the Movement Type screen. MOVEMENT TYPE: There are seven different movement types that you can select by checking different combinations of boxes from the two columns. To make a selection, click in the square next to its description. Make one selection from each column. If you select Map from the first column, then the choices in the second column are not needed so they disappear. THE SOURCE COLUMN The Source column specifies whether the goals are placed in relation to your dino's position (Self), another dino's position (Other) or at a particular point on the arena (Map). Self - Goals are placed on the arena relative to your dino's current position. Select Self if you want your dino to move in a certain direction and/or distance relative to his present position. Other - Goals are placed on the arena relative to another dino's position. Decision Training lets you influence who will be the other dino during a contest. Map - Goals are placed at fixed locations on the arena regardless of where the dinos are. You can use this selection to train your dino to patrol the upper left corner of the map, retreat back to a safe area in his team's territory and so on. THE GOAL COLUMN The Goal column determines what the goals do once they are placed relative to the source. These options are available when the Source is set to Self or Other. (Since Map goals are placed directly on the arena, they aren't affected by a dino's position or direction.) Rotate - The goals are rotated on the arena to match the direction the dino happens to be facing when he makes the decision to use this movement. Fixed - The goals are always orientated the same way you set them down, no matter what direction the dino is facing. Mobile - Same as Rotate except the goal moves as the dino moves and turns. There can only be one goal with mobile. THE SEVEN MOVEMENT TYPES By combining selections, you can create seven different movement types. The following descriptions give examples of when each type would be selected. These examples are not meant to imply that this is all you can do with these goals. 1. Self-Rotate: The goals are placed relative to the dino's position and the direction he is facing. The goals do not move after they have been placed. In a contest, if a goal falls outside of the arena, it will be moved back to just inside the arena edge. If you put a goal in front of your dino and he is facing North, he will travel North. If you put a goal in front of your dino and he is facing South, he will travel South. Examples: * Turn around and run away. * Turn right, take five steps then turn left. (For fun, try making a chorus line with your dinos and give them some fancy dance steps). * Search an area in the direction that he is facing. 2. Self-Fixed: The goals are placed relative to the dino's position but not his direction. The goals do not move after they have been placed. In a contest, if a goal falls outside of the arena, it will be moved back to just inside the arena edge. If you put a goal in front of your dino and he is facing North during a contest, he will travel North. If you put a goal in front of your dino and he is facing South during a contest, he will turn and travel North. Examples: * Move South into (hopefully) safer territory. * Run North ten steps then continue North-East for five more. * Patrol in a diamond search pattern where the tip of the diamond is pointing North. * Set his speed to Stopped and he will turn to face each goal. 3. Self-Mobile: Self-Mobile uses just one goal. The goal moves and rotates with your dino. Use this type if you want your dino to walk a curved path. The goal is like a carrot on a stick that the dino chases but never catches. If the carrot is in front of his nose, he will go straight, if it is to his right, he will turn right while trying to reach it. In addition to the goal and path, a special blue line and circle is drawn in front of your dino during testing. Whenever the blue circle nears the edge of the arena, the dino will turn to stay in the arena. Some dinos have trouble staying in the arena because they move so fast and/or can't turn fast enough. If one of these dinos goes out of the arena, he will return back to the arena and then continue his current movement. Three things affect the dino's movement pattern: 1. The angle of the Goal to the dino: The greater the angle, the faster the dino will turn. He will turn the sharpest if you put the Goal directly behind him. If you put the goal directly in front of him, he will travel in a straight line. The dino's tail length determines the maximum amount that he can turn with each step. 2. The distance of the Goal from the dino: The farther the goal is from the dino, the longer the blue line will be and the sooner he will turn when approaching the edge of the arena. If the Goal is very close to the dino, he may go off the edge of the arena for a short time. 3. The size of the goal's zone limits the maximum amount that the dino can turn when he approaches the edge of the arena. The smallest zone causes the dino to turn just enough to stay on the arena. The result is that he will follow the edge of the arena. With the largest zone, the dino can turn up to 100 deg. when he reaches the edge. Examples: * Guard the Queen by walking in circles around her. * Walk a curved path until the edge of the arena is reached then turn and continue. * Watch for opponents by setting his speed to Stop (he will turn in place). 4. Other-Rotate: Goals are placed relative to the other dino's position and direction. The goals do not move after they have been placed. If the other dino is moving, the goal will not be moved to reflect the dino's new position until your dino reaches the goal. In a contest, if a goal falls outside the arena, it will be moved back to just inside the arena edge. Examples: * Run away from a dino. * Walk behind a dino. * Stand guard in front of a dino. 5. Other-Fixed: The goals are placed relative to the other dino's position but not his direction. The goals do not move after they have been placed. If the other dino is moving, the goal will not be moved to reflect the dino's new position. In a contest, if a goal falls outside the arena, it will be moved back to just inside the arena edge. Examples: * Go to a spot North of another dino. * Walk around a dino and stop when East of him. * Run to the aid of another dino. (Go to where the other dino was when he called for help) 6. Other-Mobile: This feature becomes available in the Tribus Bellatrix Arena. Goals are placed relative to the other dino's position and direction. Goals move and rotate with the other dino. As these goals stay with the other dino, your dino may have a hard time reaching the goals if the other dino is moving faster than he is. If the other dino is on the same team as your dino, he will slow down to let your dino catch up. If a goal goes outside of the arena, then the dino will ignore the goal and be more concerned with staying in the arena and following his leader. You can use this goal type to form a pack of dinos. A pack can only move as fast as the slowest member. Examples: * Follow an opponent. * Form packs of dinos. * Keep a guard dino close to his Queen. * Run to the aid of another dino. 7. Map: The Goals are placed on a fixed point in the arena regardless of the position of the dinos. Examples: * Patrol a certain area. * Move in a predetermined search pattern on the arena. * Run to a predetermined meeting place. Press DONE after you've made your selections. ------------------------------ NOTE --------------------------- All of these screens have the following buttons in common: ZOOM - Press this button and the screen will zoom so that all dinos and goals are visible. This button will stay bright until the zoom completes. You can also press the Z key to zoom. The screen will automatically zoom, if needed, when you move from one screen to another. If you are testing an Other-Mobile movement, the screen continuously zooms for you, but you can still use Zoom when the test speed is on Pause. If you are testing a movement and you lock onto your dino (press L), then you can use Zoom to zoom in on your dino and his current goal. This is not available for Other-Mobile movements. FIRE - The selected dino shoots fire. You can use this to test the dino's fire range as an aid in helping you place goals. You can also press the F key to fire even on many screens that don't have a FIRE button. --------------------------------------------------------------- DINO PLACEMENT You are now at the Dino Placement screen with your dino at the center of the arena facing North. This dino represents the species that you are training. You can zoom and scroll around the arena by holding down the right and left mouse buttons, respectively. If Source is set to Other, then another dino is in front of and facing your dino. The other dino uses different colors but it isn't necessarily an opponent. You can choose which dino to rotate by left clicking on the dino. The active dino's name is displayed in the upper left corner of the screen. If source is set to Map then you will see a small map at the lower right hand corner of the screen. This map shows a small view of the arena. Goals are yellow dots on this map. The rectangle shows the area you are currently viewing. Move your view by clicking anywhere inside the small map or by dragging the rectangle. If you press the Esc key from this screen instead of clicking on DONE, you will exit the current movement edit session without saving any changes you might have made. This lets you play around with an existing movement without making permanent changes. The Esc key will act differently depending on what you are doing as noted below. This screen has the following buttons: MOVE - Used to move your dino into a better position before starting a test. (The dino's position here has no effect on his position during a contest.) Click on this button, move the mouse until the dino is where you want it, then click the left mouse button. Press the Esc key while moving your dino to cancel the move. Move is not available if Goal is set to Self because in that mode, the dino's movement is the same no matter what his position is. You can still zoom in and out while moving the dino by holding down the right mouse button. When OTHER is selected, you will see circles around the dinos. You can only place your dino so that his circle does not overlap the other dino's circle. Circles turn red when they overlap. ROTATE - Sets up the direction a dino is facing. Like the MOVE Button, this button is used to put a dino in the proper orientation for a test. It has no effect on a dino during a contest. Press the ROTATE Button, then move the mouse to the right to rotate the dino clockwise. Move the mouse to the left to rotate counter-clockwise. Press the Esc key while rotating a dino to cancel the rotation. When OTHER is selected, there will be two dinos in the arena and you can rotate either one. Select the dino to rotate by clicking on it then click the ROTATE Button. The name of the selected dino is printed at the top of the screen. If you select Self-Rotate or Self-Mobile, then the goals will rotate with your dino. If you select Other-Rotate or Other-Mobile, then the goals will rotate with the other dino. When your dino is facing the direction you want, click to set him down. GOAL - Takes you to the goal screen. This is where you create and modify goals. You can also go to the goal screen by clicking on any goal. TEST - Tests your movement. You must have at least one goal before this button is available. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9c. title - train - move - GOAL --------------------------- Goals are drawn as yellow X's. A goal must be selected (click on it) before it can be moved, removed, etc. The selected goal is brighter than the others. If there is only one goal, it is automatically selected. To select a different goal, click on it. As you create goals with the NEW Button, you will see lines connecting them to each other and to your dino. These lines show the order that your dino will follow from goal to goal. Each goal has a circle around it. This is the goal's zone. Zones are explained in the next section. You can zoom and scroll here using the right and left mouse buttons. Press the Esc key and you will exit the goal screen without saving any changes you have made. This allows you to play around with an existing movement without saving the changes. Esc will act differently depending on what you are doing as noted below. The Goal screen has the following buttons: MOVE - Move the selected goal. Click the MOVE Button and then move the goal with your mouse. Left click the mouse to set the goal down. Press the Esc key while moving a goal to cancel the move. Goal zones cannot overlap. If zones overlap, the zone will turn red and you will not be able to place the goal until its zone is clear of all other zones. There is a limit to how far the goal can be from the dino. The limit is shown as a large circle around the dino. If the goal goes outside the circle, the goal's zone will turn red and you will not be able to set it down until you move it back inside the circle. NEW - A new goal will appear when you click the NEW Button. It can be moved around with the mouse. Once the goal is where you want it, left click the mouse to set the goal down. Zoom in and out while moving the goal by holding down the right mouse button. A new goal can be added between two existing goals or at the end (New goals appear after whatever goal is currently selected). You can only have one goal if the goal type is Mobile. When you add an OTHER type goal, the zone circle may slide away from the X. This happens when the goal position is too close to the other dino. Dinos must stay far enough apart to give them enough room to move and turn. The shape of this restricted zone depends on the goal type. For Other-Mobile, it is very important that a dino does not try to move in front of the lead dino. Notice that a large area in front of the dino is also off limits. This restricted zone varies with the species that your dino is trying to follow. Your dino will consider the circle as the goal and ignore the position of the X when the circle is detached from it. The size and type of dino determines the size of the restricted zone. By placing the X very close to the dino, the position of the goal will automatically adjust during a contest and you will be sure that the position of the circle will always be as close as possible to the dino. If, during a contest, the lead dino is an opponent then the zones will stay with the X's no matter how close the goals are to the dino. If Goal is set to Other-Fixed or Other-Rotate, in a contest, the other dino may have moved by the time your dino reaches the goal. If the other dino is no longer in the way, the circle will return to the X and your dino will be able to reach the goal. REMOVE - Remove the selected goal. ZONE - Determine the zone size for each goal. Final thoughts on goal placement: If your dino is running and the last goal is too close to the previous goal, he may overrun it before he can stop. If this happens, he will turn and come back to it. Also, he may pass his goal if he cannot turn fast enough. In this case, he may swing around and try to reach it again or may just go on to the next goal. If your dino is missing his goals, you may need to move the goals or change their zone sizes so that they are easier to reach. Like any animal, dinos have minds of their own and may have other considerations in addition to reaching a goal. Dinos can get distracted by other dinos, food or a higher priority decision. If another dino is sitting on your dino's goal, he may try to convince the other dino to move or may just decide that it is not worth the effort to reach that goal and head for another goal. When moving in a pack, a dino may not pay much attention to his goal if he becomes distracted. Dinos are usually pretty good at staying close to their goals but there will be occasional lapses. Press DONE when the goals are where you want them. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9d. title - train - move - goal - ZONE ---------------------------------- The Zone screen draws a circle around each goal indicating the size of the zone. A bright green zone circle is drawn around the selected goal. A dino is considered at his goal when he is anywhere inside the goal's zone. Zones add a great deal of flexibility to goals. Large zones will cause a dino to cut corners as he goes from one zone to the next. Large zones also allow more leeway to reach a goal when other dinos are close by. Small zones result in a more precise pattern. When a dino is told to wander in Decision Training, he can only wander inside an area that is eight times the diameter of his last goal's zone. A large zone allows him to wander in a larger area. When the dino is told to turn in place, the zone size as well as his tail length determines the speed of the turns. For Self-Mobile goals, the size of a zone determines the maximum turn that the dino can make when he is too close to the edge of the arena. The larger the zone, the farther he can turn into the arena. A small zone will cause him to patrol the edges of the arena. To change a goal's zone, click on the goal (the goal and its zone will brighten) and move the slider. Zones cannot overlap so if two zones are close together, their maximum zone sizes may be limited. If a zone size is limited, you will not be able to move the slider to its maximum value. Press DONE when all the zones are the way you want them. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9e. title - train - move - TEST --------------------------- Test your dino after your goals are in place. Testing is very important. A dino may not be able to turn fast enough to reach each goal. If he is running, he will have an even harder time. If a dino misses his goal and loops around to attempt to reach it again, you may want to move the goal or increase its zone size. You can also change the species. Give it a longer tail so that it can turn faster or give it straight legs if it has sprawling legs. During testing, the Esc key will return you to the Dino Placement screen. The buttons available at this screen are: Stop, Creep, Walk, Run: These determine how fast the dino will approach each goal. These are only used here to test your dino. The actual speed in a contest is determined in Decision Training. The dino will start over from the beginning each time one of these buttons is pressed. If set to Stop, your dino will not move from his present position but will turn to face each goal in turn. The size of each goal's zone determines how fast he turns to that goal. When creeping, the dino pauses between steps: slow and cautious. Walking is the best balance of speed and energy. When running, your dino will reach his goal faster but will get tired sooner. If Goal Type is set to Self-Mobile, then the goal will constantly move with the dino and he can never reach the goal. Use this to make the dino walk a curved path. The greater the angle between the dino and the goal, the more he will turn on each step. You can only have one goal in this case. If goal type is set to Other-Mobile then only the WALK Button will be active. Your dino will then walk, run, creep or stop depending on what the other dino is doing. You can press the WALK button to start the test over. Paused, Medium, Fast: These buttons control the play speed. This speed is only used during this test. You must select Medium or Fast before the dino will move. If you select Fast, it's like watching the movement in fast forward. For all goal types, except Other-Mobile, you can manually scroll and zoom with the mouse. You can also lock on to the dino that is closest to the center of the screen by pressing <L>. The screen will now move with that dino. Press <L> again to unlock. If you press the ZOOM Button while a dino is locked, the screen may continue to adjust until the dino stops. You can go directly to the goal screen by clicking on any goal when the speed is set to Pause, or when your dino is not moving to a goal. If goal type is set to Other-Mobile, then the screen will automatically scroll and zoom to keep both dinos in view. You can manually zoom but as soon as you let up on the right mouse button, the screen will begin to adjust. If goal type is set to Other-Mobile, then you can control the other dino's movements during the test. The following diagram is in the upper left corner of the screen: | / |/ .--------. Note: The snake cannot run so | Run | he will not have a run |--------| box. | Walk | |--------| | Stop | `--------' One of the above boxes is always turned on and shows what the dino will do next. As you move the mouse over a box, that box is turned on. The | is a green line that shows the current direction of your dino. The / is a brown line that shows where the dino is turning. If you hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse right and left, you rotate the / line and your dino will turn to that direction. Sometimes it is convenient to press the PAUSE Button, change the angle, then press MEDIUM or FAST to continue the action. You can't force the dino to go out of the arena because the turning angle is automatically set when the dino gets close to the edge. Press DONE when you've finished testing. You will be asked to name this movement. If you are changing a movement, you can click the DONE Button to keep the same name or rename it by typing in a new name. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9f. title - train - FIGHT --------------------- Here you train your dino how to move when fighting. All dinos of a species will have the same fight moves. During a contest, dinos will always try to shoot at any opponent within Fire Range. Fight Training is optional. A dino with no Fight Training must rely on his Movement Training. Although Movement Training can place your dino in a good position to fight, Fight Training offers more complex, up-close fight maneuvers. A dino with no fight training will continue to act on his decisions while shooting at any opponent in range. In some cases, this behavior may be desirable and you would not want fight training. Fight Training begins with two dinos in the arena. The dino at the bottom of the screen is yours and represents the species that you are training. The dino at the center of the screen is your opponent for this training session. MIRROR BOX The Mirror Box is in the upper right corner of the screen. If it is checked, a mirror image of every movement appears on the opposite side of the other dino. This is an easy way to teach your dino the same movements for both sides of an opponent. Your dino can learn twice as many movements this way. Click in the Mirror Box to turn it on or off. When it is checked, it is on and your dino can learn the same movements for both sides. When there is no check, it is off and you can teach your dino different movements for each side. You cannot mix mirrored and non-mirrored movements. If the Mirror box is checked, then all movements will be mirrored even if they were learned when the Mirror Box was not checked. BUTTONS MOVE: Used to move your dino to a new starting position anywhere on the screen. Click on MOVE, then move the mouse until the dino is in the proper place and click the left mouse button. You cannot move the opponent dino. When moving your dino, you will see a circle around both dinos. Dinos are too close to each other when circles overlap and turn red. ROTATE: Click this and move your mouse to rotate your dino to face a new direction. You can also rotate the other dino by clicking it to select it first. The name of the selected dino is shown at the upper left corner of the screen. Use Move and Rotate to set up the starting positions of both dinos before you start a learning session. You can also scroll and zoom the view area by using the mouse buttons to place the view area where you want it. NEW: Erases the dino's memory so that he can begin learning from scratch. LEARN: Starts a learning session or continues a previous session. TEST: Tests the training. You will be able to control the other dino's movement to test your dino's training in different situations. You can also press <Z> to automatically zoom so that both dinos are on the screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9g. title - train - fight - LEARN ----------------------------- This is where your dino learns his fight movements. Control your dino by clicking in the control boxes in the upper left corner of the screen: ----- .--------. | | | Run | | / | | |--------| |/ ----- | Frwd | .------+--------+------. | Side | Pause | Side | `------+--------+------' | Back | `--------' One of the boxes will always be on and shows what the dino will do next. When you move the cursor over a box and click in it, the dino will follow that command. The two Side boxes cause the dino to side jump left and right. Back causes him to jump back and Frwd makes him jump forward. Only bipeds can jump. All other species will step or slide in the proper direction. The distance a dino jumps is determined by the length of his legs and the type and size of his feet. Some species cannot run. Others have a forward jump instead of a run. The Run box will not be available with these dinos. The | is a green line that shows the current direction of your dino. The / is a brown line that shows where the dino is turning. If you hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse right and left, you rotate the / line. Your dino will try to turn to the direction of this line. The length of the dino's tail determines how far he can turn in one step. It may take him several steps to reach the new direction. Your dino will not learn while the Pause box is on. You can change your dino's turning direction when you click in one of the movement boxes (he will not turn in place). Reaction times vary from dino to dino. Reaction times also vary from movement to movement. When you command your dino to run, it may take a few seconds for him to get up to full speed. If you tell your dino to move in a direction that would cause him to come too close to the other dino or the arena border, he will refuse your order and roar in defiance. When this happens, the Pause box will automatically be selected and your dino will stop. You will need to select another box to move your dino in a different direction. Your dino will automatically turn to avoid the other dino when running. Learning Arrows An arrow will appear at each location that your dino has learned a movement. More goes into learning than just his location but the arrows give you a general idea of where the learning is taking place. Each arrow points in the direction that your dino was going when the arrow was made. When a dino uses Fight Training, he doesn't necessarily go from the first arrow to the second and so on in sequence. Each time your dino completes a movement, he will look for the most appropriate movement to use next. If the other dino doesn't move, your dino probably will proceed in the sequence that you defined. But in combat, your opponent rarely stands still and so your dino has to be flexible to react quickly to changing circumstances. For example, your dino is along side his opponent and uses a learning arrow that says to side step behind his opponent. Suddenly, his opponent turns away from him. Now your dino finds himself behind his opponent and so he chooses the most appropriate movement for being behind his opponent which may be to move forward. If your dino is using Fight Training and no Learning Arrows are near, he will be forced to pick the closest arrow even though it may not be appropriate. As an example, if all of the arrows are in front of the other dino and your dino is behind him, your dino will use a front arrow which will make him act as if he was in front of the other dino. This could cause him to turn to face in the direction that he should face if he was in front of the other dino but because he is behind the dino, he will face away from it. The moral of this story is that you should have Learning Arrows all around the other dino so that your dino will have plenty to choose from. Learning Box --- The | | is a gauge to show how much your dino has learned. --- Once it is full, your dino has learned all the movements that he can. You can click on DONE to stop the learning. The next time you press LEARN, learning begins where it left off. The purpose of this is that you may want to reposition the dinos so that you can record new movements at new angles. You can also press NEW to erase everything he has learned and start over from the beginning. While learning, the screen will automatically zoom so that the two dinos can be seen at all times. You can still zoom in and out by holding down the right mouse button but once you let up on the button, the automatic zoom takes over. Your dino has a fireball hovering in front of him that shows his fire range. This shows how far away your dino can be from the other dino and still inflict damage. A very important aspect of fight training is your dino will only perform his fight movements when he is at least as close as the farthest learned fight movement. When he is outside of this range, he will still shoot, if he is in fire range, but his movements are determined by the goals that you set in movement and decision training. A circle shows your dino's fight range. It is just large enough to enclose all of the movement arrows. If you want a larger fight range, you will need to train at least one movement at the desired range. If you want a smaller fight range, you can delete the outer movement arrows. You can train your dino at distances greater than his fire range. He will still perform the movements but he will not shoot until he is close enough to hit an opponent. Once your dino has gone through a learning session, you can move your mouse over any learned arrow to see what your dino has learned at that location. You can press the Del key if you want to delete that arrow and erase that bit of learning. If learning arrows are the same and close together, you can delete some to thin them out and free up learning memory. Click on the DONE Button to stop learning or press the Esc key to cancel all learning from this session. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9h. title - train - fight - TEST ---------------------------- Now you can see how well your dino's training works in a real fight. You control the other dino's movements and watch how your dino reacts. Both dinos will shoot at each other when they can and a dino can die if he takes enough hits. Watch how your dino responds to the movements of the other dino. If your dino usually dies then you know that his fight training needs to be improved. This test area is set to a fixed size and does not represent the arena size. Your dinos also have unlimited vision and never get tired during testing. The controls work the same as in the Learn screen except now you are controlling the other dino. In addition to the standard moves, you can make him turn in place by changing the turning angle while the Paused box is selected. If either dino is too close to the other or too near the edge of the arena, he won't be able to perform his selected movement. When this happens, he will choose a movement that can be executed and turn to face his opponent. Your dinos will always try to shoot at any opponent within fire range during a contest so this is a good place to test your dino's shooting style. To make a change, go to the Title screen and then press the Species-CHANGE Buttons. From there you can press the following buttons to change various aspects of the dino's shots: Range-FIRE to vary how far the fire shoots (fire range). Range-NECK to change neck speed while shooting. Size-HEAD alters the amount of fire that comes out of his mouth. FIRE adjusts the characteristics of the fire. Fire-COLOR changes the color of the fire. Fire-FIGHT determines head movement and aiming point. Click on the DONE Button when you have finished testing. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9i. title - train - DECISIONS ------------------------- Decision training helps your dinos determine what actions to take during a contest. Decisions can be very detailed. For example, you may want your dino to only attack opponents that are slower, smaller, have four legs, and are running away but only do this if it is early in the contest and there is no food nearby. Before you create a decision you must choose a movement. This can be one of the seven predefined movements or one that you have created in Movement training. You then set the conditions that cause the dino to select that movement. During a contest, your dinos will make the decision that most closely matches the current situation. He may just stay where he is until something happens that makes one of his decisions appropriate. In many cases, the conditions will involve another dino. The other dino must be within range of at least one of your dino's senses before this decision can be considered. All dinos of the same species will have the same decision training. A species can have up to 20 decisions. You can set more than one decision to cause the same movement. When you press the DECISION Button, you will be taken directly to the Movement Selection screen if this species has no decisions. If it already has decisions, you will see the decision screen (in which case you can select New to go to the Movement Selection Screen). Movement Selection Screen: This is where you choose the movement that the dino will make if all the specified conditions are met for this decision. All available movements are listed. There are seven predefined movements. These are at the top of the list. All movements that you created for this species in Movement Training are listed after the predefined movements on your screen. The predefined movements are: * Call - A dino can roar to let other team members know where he is. They will come to his aid if they are trained to do so. This decision can take place at the same time as another decision. The dino may not roar immediately after he makes the decision to do so but will soon after. Because roars are so loud, dinos can hear roars twice as far as their hearing range. Be careful, an opponent can also hear your roars. A dino cannot shoot the same time he is roaring so his shots may be delayed if he is told to call. * Don't move - Stays where he is. He won't take any steps but he will turn to face his nearest opponent. * Wander - Randomly wanders inside an area that has a diameter eight times the diameter of the zone of the last goal. A Wander decision can only be made when the dino has reached a goal unless it is the only decision. You can change the size of a zone in Movement Training. * Move away - Moves directly away from the other dino. * Move closer - Moves directly toward the other dino. * Move north - Moves directly north toward enemy territory. * Move south - Moves directly south away from enemy territory. Highlight the movement that you want by clicking on it. You are now at the Decisions screen. Decision Screen: This screen lists the conditions the dino considers when he makes decisions. To change a condition, click on it. The condition expands with all of its options. Click on the option you want, then press DONE. A "*" will be to the left of the condition that you just changed. Most conditions have an option that turns them off. These options are "don't care", "doing anything", "any range", and so on. When a condition is off, it will be dimmed. All of the non-dimmed (on) conditions must be true before this decision can be made. The more conditions that a decision has, the less likely that all the conditions will be true. As an example, a decision that has "He is any enemy and he is within hearing range" will be picked more often than "He is any enemy and his skin is thinner than mine and my Queen is within sight and I am tired". The second decision will be selected over the first if all of the conditions of both decisions are true. You can have decisions that have no conditions. Your dino will make one of these decisions if no other decision can be made. "1 of 1" in the upper left corner of the screen shows that this is decision 1 of a total of 1 decisions for this species. BUTTONS LAST: Display the last Decision screen (if there is more than one screen). NEXT: Display the next Decision screen (if there is more than one screen). NEW: Adds a new decision. REMOVE: Removes the current decision. EXPANDED SELECTIONS Note: In the following descriptions, any words enclosed in < > are options. One option must be selected from each column. The other options will be ignored. For example, the first condition listed below could be read as any of the following depending on which condition you select. He is any friend. He is any enemy. He is my Queen. He is enemy Queen. I don't care who he is. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. He is <any friend>. <any enemy>. <my Queen>. <enemy Queen>. <don't care>. Select the description that best fits the kind of dino that you want this decision to be concerned with. All other dinos will not be considered. If <don't care> is selected, then he will pick the nearest dino or ignore all dinos depending on the other conditions. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. He <has> <no> legs. <does not have> <two> <four> <any or no> Narrow the decision process down to the type of dino. If "He is any friend" is selected for the first condition then the above condition is replaced with a selection that allows you to choose the friendly species. If you want to specify the species, click this selection and you will go to the Species Selection Screen where you can choose the species. If the species type doesn't matter, then press the CANCEL Button at the Species Selection screen and the species will be listed as "unknown". ------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. He is <much smaller> to <much smaller> than you. <smaller> <smaller> <same size> <same size> <larger> <larger> <much larger> <much larger> <any size>. Select his size relative to your dino's size. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. He <is> within <fire range>. <is not> <sight>. <hearing range>. <smelling range>. <any range>. How far away is he? Dinos will not be noticed if they are past the farthest range. If this condition is set to "is not within hearing range" and smelling range is the farthest range then dinos will be noticed if farther than the hearing range but within smelling range. A calling dino can be heard at twice the hearing range. A dino that is not moving can only be heard at half the hearing range. If this condition is set to "any range" then this dino will notice anyone within his longest range. The selection "is not within any range" is not valid. A dino must be actually seen by your dino to be within sight. If your dino is turned away from the other dino, the other dino will not be seen no matter how close he is. Fire range is the range that your dino can shoot. Your dino will take most notice of the closest dino within the specified range. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. His skin is <much thinner> to <much thinner> than yours. <thinner> <thinner> <the same> <the same> <thicker> <thicker> <much thicker> <much thicker> <don't care> The thicker a dino's skin, the more shots he can absorb. You may want to avoid any dinos that have thicker skin than yours and attack dinos with thinner skin. Or, you may want to gang up on a thick skinned opponent... ------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. My skin <is> <very thin>. <is not> <thin>. <is thinner than> <medium>. <is thicker than> <thick>. <very thick>. <don't care>. How thick is your dino's skin at the moment? A dino's skin becomes thinner as he takes hits. When it becomes too thin, he dies. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. I am <very tired> to <very tired>. <tired> <tired>. <rested> <rested>. <very rested> <very rested>. <in any condition>. What kind of condition is your dino in? When a dino runs and fights, he grows tired. As he becomes tired he won't be able to run and shoot as often. The size of the dino's heart determines his endurance. You should have your dino stop and rest if he gets too tired. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. My Queen <is> within <fire range> of him. <is not> <sight> <hearing range> <smelling range> <don't care>. Does the enemy know the location of your Queen? The Queen must be within one of your dino's senses before he is aware of her. If there is more than one Queen within range, only the nearest Queen will be noticed by this dino. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. My Queen <is> within <sight> of me. <is not> <hearing range> <smelling range> <don't care>. You might want to keep this dino close to the Queen to protect her from unwanted advances. This condition is not available if the first condition is set to "She is my Queen". ------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. His Queen <is> within <fire range> of me. <is not> <sight> <hearing range> <smelling range> <don't care>. Once this dino is aware of the enemy Queen, it may be time to go in for the kill or call for help. This condition is not available if the first condition is set to "She is enemy Queen". ------------------------------------------------------------------ 11. His full speed is <less than> to <less than> mine. <same as> <same as> <greater than> <greater than> <don't care>. You may want to change your strategy if the enemy is faster than you. What if he is slower than you are? You could run away and look for his Queen. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. He <is> <attacking me>. <is not> <moving toward me>. <moving perpendicular to me>. <moving away from me>. <attacking a friend>. <doing anything>. You can react to another dino's movements here. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 13. He <is> calling. <is not> <may or may not be> If another team member is calling for help, do you want to come to his aid? What if an opponent is calling? ------------------------------------------------------------------ 14. Time <is> <early>. <is not> <mid way>. <late>. <don't care>. This is contest time. You may want your team to act differently in the early part of a contest than near the end. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 15. Priority is <very low>. <low>. <medium>. <high>. <very high>. How important is this decision? There may be times when the dino could make more than one decision. When this happens, he will choose the one with the highest priority. If the movement for this decision is "Call" then Priority controls the frequency of his calls. If Priority is "very high" then he will call on the average of once every two footsteps. If set to "very low" his calls will average once every 16 footsteps. The other settings range between these two extremes. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The following selections are not part of the decision making process but go into effect once this decision is made: ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16. Food is <not important>. <important>. <very important>. Dinos gain skin thickness and become less tired when they eat food. If food is not important he will only eat if it is very close and he is very weak. If food is very important, he may take a long detour to get to it. The disadvantage of going to food is that it will delay progress which could be crucial when going to the aid of someone in trouble. Food is not available in all arenas. It is a good idea to assume that there is always food so that your training will work correctly when food is available. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 17. I should <not move>. <creep>. <walk>. <run>. This is the speed that the dino should travel if he makes this decision. If the dino is too tired to run, he will walk. If this decision is set to Pack (see below) then the dino will use whatever speed is needed to stay with the pack. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 18. <Pack>. <Don't Pack>. Only available if the movement type is Other-Mobile. If set to Pack then the dino will try to stay as close as he can to his goal. If he is slower then the rest of the pack, then they will slow down to let him catch up. If set to Don't Pack then he will go to his leader's next goal without trying to stay with the leader. If he is faster than the rest of the pack, he will move in front of the pack. If he is slower than the pack, they will not slow down. This is a good way to send scout dinos out ahead of the pack. A dino that has selected a Don't Pack decision will not follow the conventions used when packing. This means that he may get in his leader's way or not move out of the way if he is sitting on his leader's goal. ================================================================== 10. BUILDING A DINO ------------------------------------------------------------------ 10a. title - DINO ------------ Now it is time to make individual dinos from the different species you have created. The following buttons are available: NEW: Create a new dino from any of the species you made. You must have made at least one species before you can do this. You can make a maximum of 20 dinos although only 10 can go on your team. CLONE: Pick a dino you like, then make an exact duplicate, and give the duplicate a new name. You must have made at least one dino before you can do this. CHANGE: Change the size and/or name of any of your dinos. You must have made at least one dino before you can do this. REMOVE: Delete a dino from the roster. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 10b. title - dino - NEW ------------------ Create a new dino to use on your team from any of your species. Obviously, you must make at least one species before you can do this. Select the species by clicking on its name. If you have too many species to fit on one screen, click on the UP or DOWN Button to see all of them. If you change your mind, you can click CANCEL to back up to the DINO Screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 10c. title - dino - new - SIZE ------------------------- After you select the species, you will see the Size Screen. Individual dinos made from the same species can vary in size. You can make a monster as big as a house, but he will be expensive. The number at the upper left of the screen shows how much this dino costs to put him on your team. At the left is a slider with a red ball. Drag the ball up to increase the size or down to decrease the size. As you change the size, the cost will change to reflect the new size. If you change your mind, press the Esc key to back up to the DINO Screen. When you are happy with this dino's size, click the DONE Button. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 10d. title - dino - new - NAME ------------------------- Choose a name for this dino. It can be anything you want, although it helps if it is descriptive enough so you can tell what type of dino it is when you see the name again. Here are some ideas: Name them after your friends or family members. You could name a real ugly one after your boss... Physical characteristics: Red Back, Longnecker, Old Smelly, Spitter, Good Eyes, Clodhopper, Sparky. Personality: Sentry, Pack Rat, Fearless, Stalker, Scorch, Snarly. Make 'em sound tough: Fang, Talon, Slash, Maniac. Use city names: Monterey, Reno, Paris, Cairo, Chicago. Historic figures: Caesar, Napoleon, Genghis, Lincoln. Mythology characters: Odin, Loki, Achilles, Thor. Insects: Wasp, Mantis, Black Widow, Scorpion. Find a word you like and then change it to another language: German: Drache (Dragon), Kreig (War), Tyrann (Tyrant) French: Venin (Venom), Laisarde (Lizard) Spanish: Lagarto (Lizard), Bruto (Brute), Monstruo (Monster) Swahili: Dubwana (Monster), Kalimoto (Savage Fire), Malkia (Queen) Japanese: Katsu (to Win), Zanshin (Fighting Spirit) Greek: Deinos/Dinos(Terrible), Sauros (Lizard), Pyro (Fire), Phobos (Fear), Pneuma (Breath or Blow), Therium (Beast) Latin: Tyrannicus (Tyrant), Tyrannus (Usurper), Ferociter (Wild), Reptilicus (Reptile), Bellum (War), Dracos (Dragon), Flamma (Fire), Draconis (Dragon), Spiro (Breath or Blow), Belua (Beast or Monster) It is quite acceptable to combine words, too. In Greek, Dinosaur means Terrible Lizard. So, Pyrospiro would be "Flame Breath" (so would Pyropneuma), Pyrosaurus means "Fire Lizard". These are just a few ideas, so be creative! ------------------------------------------------------------------ 10e. title - dino - CLONE -------------------- Cloning is a quick and easy way to make a new dino that is similar to another dino. You copy (clone) the original dino and then modify it to make a new one. You must have made at least one dino before you can do this. Click on the name of the dino that you want to clone. The name of the species for each dino is to the right of the dino's name. If the list is too long to fit on the screen, use the UP or DOWN Buttons to see the rest of the names. After selecting the original, type in a name for the clone. If you change your mind, click CANCEL to return to the dino Screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 10f. title - dino - CHANGE --------------------- Don't like the name or size of a dino? You can change it. Click on the name of the dino you want to change. The name of the species for each dino is to the right of the dino's name. Then the procedure is the same as when you made a NEW dino. You must have made at least one dino before you can do this. You cannot change a dino's species. If you want a different species, remove this dino and make a new one. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 10g. title - dino - REMOVE --------------------- Don't really like a dino? Make it history! Click the REMOVE Button and then click the name of the dino you want to delete. ================================================================== 11. BUILDING A TEAM Turn your dinos into an organized and deadly professional team. A team consists of one or more individual dinos. Choose your Queen or Queens. Pick your team colors and team name, set up their starting positions in the arena. Then, when you are ready, test them to see how they perform as a team. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 11a. title - TEAM ------------ You must build at least one species and make at least one dino before you can use the TEAM button. The following buttons are available: ROSTER: Select your team members from the dinos you have created. A team can consist of one or more individuals. COLORS: Choose your team colors from a wide variety of choices. QUEEN: Select which team member(s) will be your Queen. The number of Queens allowed varies for each arena. You must have at least one dino selected in the roster before you can select a Queen. POSITION: Set up your team's starting position in the arena. This is also where you can test your team. You must have selected your Queen before you can set your team's position. NAME: Your team deserves a good name. Type it in here. BACKUP: Copies your team to a floppy disk in drive A. It is a good idea to back up your team periodically so that you won't lose it in the event of a hard drive failure. Put a blank formatted floppy in drive A and click the BACKUP Button. This will copy all the team files to the floppy. To use a team that has been backed up, copy all the files on the backup disk to your Pyrosaurus directory. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 11b. title - team - ROSTER --------------------- The Team Roster shows all the dinos you have built, which ones you have chosen to be on your team and how much they cost. You don't have to put all your dinos on your team. In fact, you can have as few as one dino on your team. Dinos on your team are highlighted. To add another dino to your team, just click on his name to highlight it. To remove a dino from your team, click on a highlighted name. The number next to each dino is the cost of putting him on your team. The total cost of all the dinos on your team is shown at the top left (Team Cost). This number cannot exceed the Total Allowed which is shown at the upper right of the screen. Try to get as close to the maximum as you can. If you are not at the maximum when you press the DONE Button, you may be asked if you want the sizes of your team members automatically adjusted to bring the total closer to the maximum. You can exit this screen if your total is above the maximum but you won't be able to send your team in for a contest. To bring the number below the maximum, click on one or more of your team members to take them off the team. You could also change a species to make it cost less or change the size of your dinos. You need at least one dino on your roster before the QUEEN Button appears. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 11c. title - team - COLORS --------------------- Each team has two colors: Skin Color and Marking Color. Each color has its own controls. Change the Skin Color with the right three sliders. Sliding the red ball up increases the amount of red in the dino's skin. Green and blue work the same way. You can't use bright white or dark black. You can make any color by combining these three colors. Yellow is red and green, purple is red and blue, and so on. The left three sliders work the same way except they control the Marking Color. The markings show how thick the skin is. The numbers above each slider are for your reference. If you find a color that you like, you can write down the numbers and then continue to experiment. If you want to go back to the old numbers, just slide the balls in each slider until the numbers match the old numbers. You can also click the RANDOM Button as many times as you want until you find a combination you like. Color has no actual effect on the dino. It is just to give your team a unique look. You can press the Esc key to return the colors back to the way they were before you started and return to the Team Screen. When you are happy with your team colors, click the DONE Button to return to the Team Screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 11d. title - team - QUEEN -------------------- Long live the Queen! Each team may have one or more Queens. The number of Queens depends on your arena. You must have enough dinos on your team so that all the Queens can be assigned. Click the name of the team member you want for each Queen. It can be any team member and her name will be highlighted when selected. The Queen can be identified by her unique head markings. When any of your Queens are killed, you lose. If you are in an arena that has no Queens, then every member of your team must die before you lose. Click the UP Button or the DOWN Button to see any dino names not shown. You need to select all your Queens before the POSITION Button will appear. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 11e. title - team - POSITION ----------------------- This is where you set up the initial positions for your team for a contest. You can move and rotate all of your team members. You can set them up in a formation, randomly scatter them around the arena, separate them into groups, or whatever else you want to do. To Position a dino: 1. Click on a dino to select it. When selected, its name will appear at the top left of the screen and a green circle will be drawn under it. 2. Click the MOVE Button and then move the mouse to drag the dino to a new position. If the selected dino is not on screen, the closest dino to the center of the screen will be selected and moved. Circles around dinos cannot overlap. If the circle around your dino is red, it is overlapping another dino's space and you can't set him down. Circles must also stay away from enemy territory (the red area in the small map). 3. Click again to set him down. If you press <+> or <->, the dino will be placed and the next or last dino will be moved. To Rotate a Dino: 1. Click on a dino to select it. When selected, its name will appear at the top left of the screen and a green circle will be drawn under it. 2. Click the ROTATE Button and then move the mouse left or right to rotate the dino clockwise or counter-clockwise. If the selected dino is not on screen, the closest dino to the center of the screen will be selected and rotated. 3. Click again when he is pointed in the right direction. If you press <+> or <->, the dino will be placed and the next or last dino will be rotated. --- The Small Map --- The small map at the lower right of the screen shows the entire arena. Purple dots are your Queens, the green dots are your other dinos. The red area is the opponent's side. The black area is your side. Your team members have to be on your side and cannot touch the opponent's side. The following special keys are active while at this screen: <1> - toggles the small map on and off. <2> - toggles the buttons on and off. <+> - center the next dino. Each time that you press <+> another dino is centered on the screen. <-> - center the previous dino. Press the TEST Button when you are ready to test your team. Press DONE to return to the Team screen ------------------------------------------------------------------ 11f. title - team - position - TEST ------------------------------ This is your opportunity to watch your team perform under actual combat conditions. Your dinos will act just like they would in a real contest. Your team will be fighting against a mirror image of itself. Your team may act differently each time you test them. It all depends on how your dinos are trained. If a dino has several decisions that have the same score (see below), he can select whichever one he feels like at the time. On some computers the animation may be a little slower than what you have been used to, especially if you have a lot of dinos on your team. The animation during actual contests is faster. The small map now shows the other team as red dots. As dinos die, their dots turn gray. You can control the speed of the action with the PAUSE, SLOW, MEDIUM, and FAST Buttons. Just like in the other areas of Pyrosaurus, you can scroll the view area and zoom in and out. The OPTIONS Button allows you to select a variety of information to be displayed on a selected dino during test. The OPTIONS Button is only available when speed is set to PAUSE. The following special keys are active while testing: <1> - toggles the small map on and off. <2> - toggles the buttons on and off. <+> - center the next dino. Each time that you press <+> another dino is centered on the screen. <-> - center the previous dino. <L> - locks the screen on the dino closest to center screen. Does nothing if there is no dino on screen. When a dino is locked, his name appears at the top of the screen and the view area will follow the dino around the arena. You can still scroll and zoom while locked to a dino. The dino will become unlocked if you scroll him off the screen. You can also press <L> again to unlock the dino. Click on a dino to select him. A green circle is drawn below the selected dino and his name appears at the top of the screen. This test screen can be used in a variety of ways. You may want to test only part of your team at a time or test a particular movement. Throw in some extra dinos and see how well your team does in a crowd (you can go over the team point limit while testing your team). Vary the starting positions. Get a line dance going. You are in charge, do whatever you want. A team wins when it eliminates any opponent Queen. It loses when any of its Queens are eliminated. A draw is called if all Queens are still standing at the end of the time limit. When you are satisfied that your team is fighting the way you want it to, it is time to enter a contest. At the title screen, press MODEM then CALL to send your team in to fight another player's team. Testing Hints * If a dino isn't going where you want him to, turn on the Decision and Scoring options to see which decisions he is making. If he is doing an Other-Mobile with No Packing then he will go to his leader's goal and not his own. Turn on the fight option to see if he is fighting. He will not go to his goal if he is within fight range of an opponent. If his tail is too short, he may not be able to turn quick enough to reach his goals. * A dino may not move if his goal is off the arena and he is close to the edge of the arena. This is because when the goal is brought back in the arena, it may be placed right where the dino is and he will have nowhere to go. * A dino will not move or shoot if he is too tired. Turn on the Energy option to see what his condition is. You can train your dinos to move away from the action and rest. Decrease a dino's resolve so that he will leave a fight sooner (Resolve is adjusted at the title-species-change-fire-FIGHT screen). Give him a larger heart so that he will have more endurance. * If your dinos are getting in their leader's way or they won't let their leader reach his goal, then you should move their goals farther away from the leader. * If one of the Queens dies quickly, then you need to put more effort into defense. Place the Queen so it is harder for the opponent to reach her. Train her to move away from danger. Train one or more dinos to protect her. Give her thicker skin and a better ability to defend herself. * If your dinos are getting hit by friendly fire, widen the risk cone at the species-fire-FIGHT screen. * If a dino's fire is missing its target, try giving the fire a wider pattern at the species-FIRE screen. You could also try giving the dino some neck movement at the species-fire-FIGHT screen. Press DONE to return to the Position screen ------------------------------------------------------------------ 11g. title - team - position - test - OPTIONS ---------------------------------------- The OPTIONS Button allows you to select the information to be displayed on a selected dino during test. This information can be useful to determine why your dinos are not acting the way you want them to. Click anywhere on an option's line to turn it on or off. An option is on when a check is in that option's box. The new option settings are saved when you leave. The following options are available: Sight - Whenever a dino sees another dino, a short orange line is drawn between the two. Hear - When a dino hears another dino, a short yellow line is drawn between the two. Smell - A short green line is drawn between two dinos when one of the dinos smells the other one. Decisions - Displays in the upper left side of the screen the selected dino's current decision number and the movement name for that decision. You will hear a short tick whenever the selected dino makes a new decision. When the selected dino makes a decision that concerns another dino, a yellow circle will be drawn around the other dino. With this, you can determine who the dino is following, fighting, etc. Scores - When a dino is determining which decision to make, he gives each decision a score and then picks the decision with the highest score. This option displays the scores for each of the selected dino's decisions. With this option, you can see how close your dino comes to making each of his decisions. Decision scores are not displayed if the selected dino is within fight range of another dino. Fight - A red circle blinks around the selected dino when he is using his fight training against another dino. A yellow circle is drawn around his opponent. If the Decisions option is also on, the decision information will be replaced with "Fighting". Energy - Displays how tired the selected dino is. A "+" by the description means the dino's energy level is increasing, a "-" means the energy level is decreasing. Time - Displays the minutes and seconds remaining of this test contest. Also displays the contest time as "Early", "Mid Way", or "Late". Tests have the same time limit as contests. The clock assumes you are running at the full 20 frames per second. The clock will run slower if your actual frame rate is slower. No Fight - Turn this on if you want to test your team's movements and don't want them distracted with fighting. They will not shoot fire or perform their fight movements. No Opposing Team - The other team will disappear when you turn this option on. Now you can test your team's movements without interference from the other team. All dinos will be set back to their original positions when this option is changed. Press DONE to return to the Test screen ------------------------------------------------------------------ 11h. title - team - NAME ------------------- Here you enter your team name, your name, and your location. This information is sent to your opponent along with the contest results so that they know more about whom they are fighting. Name: Choose a name for your team and type it in. A great team deserves a great name. It can be anything you want. Here are some ideas: Name your team after yourself: ex. Matthew's Marauders, Joe's Raiders, Debbie's Destroyers. Name them after your hometown: ex. Boston's Best, The Orlando Heatwave, The L.A. Predators. Refer to their physical characteristics: The Red Backs, Longneckers, Bigfoot. Name them after animals or insects: Mantis, Scorpions, Wolverines, Hornets. Find a word you like and then change it to another language: The Draches (German for Dragon), The Venins (French for Venom). Trainer - Enter your name here. Your real name is preferable, although you can enter a nickname if you are shy. Location - This can be the city, state and/or area in which you live. This is just to give your opponent an idea of your general location, you should not give your street address. Try to resist locations such as Mars, nowhere, and other witty responses. ================================================================= 12. title - MODEM ------------- This is where you use your MODEM to communicate with us and with your opponents. All calls are toll free. The following buttons are available: MESSAGE - You must receive your first contest before you can read and write messages. CALL - Send your team in to battle another team. After 24 hours, press this button again to receive the results. Any messages that you write are automatically sent with your team. Before you can send your team in, your modem must be properly configured and must pass the connection test. If you have not completed this, go back to the title screen and press the Setup-MODEM Buttons. Press DONE to return to the Title screen ------------------------------------------------------------------ 12a. title - modem - MESSAGE ----------------------- You must receive your first contest before you can write or read messages. When you press the MESSAGE Button, you can write, read, edit and delete messages. You can write to either your last opponent or your next opponent. You can also write to us to ask questions, report bugs or offer suggestions on game improvements. Another way of sending us messages is by email. We can be reached at: barry@evryware.com. --- Write a Message --- Click on the WRITE Button. You will be asked to pick a subject for your message. To write a message to a previous opponent, your next opponent or to us, click on the appropriate description. * Would you like to congratulate your last opponent on your latest battle? Send him/her a message. * Want to tell your next opponent how tough your team is to beat? Send a message. * Do you think you found a bug? Send us a message so we can fix it. * What would you like to see added or changed in Pyrosaurus? Send us a message and tell us about it. * Do you have a question about Pyrosaurus? Read this manual, the Help screens and especially the "Common Questions" that are at the end of this manual. If you have internet access, look at the Pyrosaurus website to see if it is discussed. If you still have a question, go ahead and send us a message. After picking a subject, you may be asked to give your message a title. Next and last opponent messages do not have titles. If you are sending a message to us, the title should give us an idea of what your message is about. Now you can enter your message. Use the arrow keys to move around. The Delete, Insert, and Backspace keys work like you would expect. The cursor will blink when you are in Insert mode. Messages are limited in size. When the limit is reached, you will not be able to add any more although you can still edit the rest of the message. Click on the DONE Button when you are finished. Your message will automatically be sent the next time that you enter your team in a contest. Messages are deleted after they have been sent except for your Next Opponent message. It will be sent every time that you send your team. You can have only one Next Opponent message at a time but you can change it whenever you want. You can have only one Last Opponent message. It will be sent with your team and then deleted. --- Read a Message --- Click on the READ Button. You will be shown a list of message titles. These include both messages that you have written and received. The most recent messages are at the top of the list. Messages from someone else will have a solid bar behind them if you have not read them yet. Messages written by you will have the bar if they have not been sent yet. You can also edit and remove messages by pressing the appropriate buttons. Press DONE to return to the Modem screen ------------------------------------------------------------------ 12b. title - modem - CALL -------------------- Before you press the CALL Button for the first time, you need to set up your Modem so it will work properly. (At the title screen, click the SETUP Button and then the MODEM Button.) If your team has entered a contest and you have no credits for contests, be sure to include your credit card information for your next contest. (At the title screen, click SETUP then the CHARGES Button.) You are charged $1.60 each time that you send your team. Your first contest is free. Press the CALL Button when you are ready to enter your team in a contest. Any messages you have written will automatically be sent too. Messages to your next and last opponents are only sent with your team. These messages will wait if you are retrieving a contest and then go out the next time that you send your team. If you have done everything correctly and are still unable to connect, our system may be down for maintenance. If all of our phone lines are busy, your modem will automatically redial until it gets through. You can press the Esc key to stop the redial sequence. If you are unable to get through, please try again later. If your modem can't get past sending block 1 then you may have a flow control problem. Your modem must be set to RTS/CTS hardware flow control. See the chapter on how to set up your modem for other suggestions (6c.title-setup-MODEM). Your contest results will be ready in 24 hours. All you need to do is press the CALL Button again to receive the contest. Your contest results will be available for up to 30 days. There is no charge to receive a contest. After you have the contest, you can watch it by clicking the CONTEST Button at the Title Screen. ================================================================== 13. title - CONTEST --------------- You carefully built a team and lovingly trained it to kick butt. Then you sent your team in to bring shame on any team unfortunate enough to go up against it. After patiently waiting a day, you've gotten the contest back. Let's see how you did! Press the CONTEST Button. If your team has been in more than one contest, you will see a list with the most recent contest at the top. The name of the contest is the name of the opposing team. A green bar is behind any contests that you have not yet seen. It is important that you look at your contests. A contest must play through at least once before you can read some messages and before your team can be given new capabilities. In fact, you cannot make changes to your team until you have looked at your contest. Click on the contest name that you want to view. Two windows will slide onto the screen. The top window has your opponent's information. The color of the window is his team's skin color. The bottom window has information about your team. Press any key to start the contest. You may notice occasional pauses while watching your contest. This is caused when contest information is read in from your hard disk. The more conventional memory you have, the fewer times this will happen. As you probably already know, a team wins when it eliminates any opponent Queen. The contest is declared a draw if all Queens are still standing at the end of the time limit. (The time limit changes between arenas.) At the lower right of the screen is a small map of the contest arena. The green dots are your dinos and the red dots are the opponent dinos. Purple dots are the Queens. Dead dinos show up as gray dots. If you click in the small map, your large view will instantly go to that location in the arena. If you drag the mouse across this small map, you will quickly scroll the view area. Just like in the other areas of Pyrosaurus, you can scroll the view area by holding the left mouse button down then moving the mouse. Zoom in and out by holding the right button down and moving the mouse. To start the contest running, select a speed other than Pause. CONTEST BUTTONS: PAUSE, SLOW, MEDIUM, FAST - determines the speed of the contest. The contest starts with Pause selected so the dinos are not moving. Usually, you will want to set the speed to MEDIUM. Select Slow if you want to analyze something in slow motion or Fast if you want to move ahead quickly. Slow works by limiting the frame rate to 10 frames/second. If you have a slow computer or you have a lot of mist or swamp animation then your frame rate may already be close to 10 and you won't see much of a change when you press Slow. The following keys are available during a contest: <1> - Turns the small map on and off. <2> - Turns the menu bar on and off. <+> - Center the next dino. Each time that you press <+> another dino is centered on the screen. <-> - Center the previous dino. <L> - Locks the screen to the dino that is closest to the center of the screen. Does nothing if no dino is on the screen. When a dino is locked, his name appears at the top of the screen and the view area will follow the dino around the arena. You can still scroll and zoom while locked to a dino. The dino will become unlocked if you scroll him off the screen. You can also press <L> again to unlock the dino. <Esc> - Exits the contest. Same as the DONE button. Watching a contest is a valuable aid to improving your team. Examine your dinos' reactions to other dinos. Think about how you can adjust their training to improve their chances for victory in the next contest. Zoom in and out of battles, watch different parts of the arena, follow individual team members, look for team weaknesses that you can then improve on. Watch it as many times as you want. As you watch a contest, pay attention to your dinos' skin. As the markings get smaller, the skin becomes thinner. This is a good way of determining the condition of your dinos. If a dino isn't moving or shooting as fast as he should, zoom in close and watch his stomach. If he is breathing hard and fast then he is tired. When you click the DONE button, two windows appear. The top window has the same information that it had at the beginning of the contest. The bottom window specifies the results of the contest and your rating. After a contest, you can change team members, fine-tune fighting techniques, or anything else you want to do to your team before entering your next contest. ================================================================== 14. STRATEGY AND HINTS ------------------ Food - During a contest you may see food (in the form of large bushes) scattered around the arena. If a dino walks over the food he gains energy and his skin thickness may go up a notch or two. If a dino is already at full strength, then he will ignore the food. Want to make two dinos of the same species that think differently? Take the original species, clone it, then retrain the new species. Dinos made from the two species will look identical but act differently. When you move up to a new arena, various aspects of the game change. New features may become available, the arena size will change, and so on. You should always go through your Movement, Fight and Decision Training when entering a new arena and make sure that they are still appropriate. ================================================================== 14a. MORE THAN ONE TEAM ------------------ If you are not satisfied with only one team, you can create and enter as many as you want. All you need to do is create a separate directory for each of your teams and install the Pyrosaurus software in each directory. You can enter the same credit card information in to each of your teams. You should give each of your teams a different name. Wait at least 30 minutes after sending one team in before sending in another to reduce the chances of your teams playing against each other. You don't have to wait if your teams have different ratings or are in different arenas. ================================================================== 15. ORDER FORM Use this Order Form if you do not wish to use a credit card to build up credit for contests. Be sure to include your ID number with your order. To get your ID number, press <D> at the Pyrosaurus title screen. Your ID number will be printed on screen. You will need to play and receive your first contest before your ID number will appear. After the credit has been received and recorded, we will know that you have credit but your computer won't. So your computer, thinking you need more credit, may ask you for your credit card information. This needs to be entered but it does not have to be valid. As soon as you connect, your computer will find out that you actually do have credit and not use your credit card info. For your convenience, this form is also available as a separate file in your Pyrosaurus directory (order.txt). Date ___/___/___ Name ______________________________________________________________ Address ___________________________________________________________ Phone # ___________________________________________________________ ID # (REQUIRED)____________________________________________________ Email (if you have one) ___________________________________________ Amount Enclosed (check one): [ ] $8 ... [ ] $16 ... [ ] $24 ... [ ] $32 ... [ ] $40 Thank you. 1. Fill in ALL the blanks! 2. Send the completed form and a check made out to: Evryware Inc. 3. Mail to: Evryware, Inc., P.O.Box 5204, Olympia, WA 98509-5204 * The amount must be in increments of $8: $8, $16, $24, etc. * To get your ID Number: At the Pyrosaurus title screen, press D and it will appear on screen. * It is okay to make your own order form as long as ALL the information is included. * Each $8 entitles you to play 5 contests! * Please allow at least one week for your credit to take effect. (Your team will be rejected if you send it in before we receive your check and record it.) (C) Copyright EVRYWARE Inc., 1996 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ================================================================== 16. GIFT CERTIFICATE ---------------- Got a birthday coming up or any other gift giving occasion? Give someone you love (well, at least someone you like) a Pyrosaurus Gift Certificate. The perfect gift for someone who has everything. Gift Certificates start at $8. Each $8 entitles your team to enter in 5 contests. Maybe you would like one yourself. It's easy! When a grandparent, a parent, a spouse, offspring or friend asks what you want, give them this gift certificate form and a big smile. Give the gift giver the whole gift certificate (from A. to B.). You can help by filling in the "Player's" information, especially your ID number. After the credit has been received and recorded, we will know that you have credit but your computer won't. So your computer, thinking you need more credit, may ask you for your credit card information. This needs to be entered but it does not have to be valid. As soon as you connect, your computer will find out that you actually do have credit and not use your credit card info. This form is also available as a separate file in your Pyrosaurus directory (gift.txt). A. ---------------------------------------------------------------- * * * PYROSAURUS GIFT CERTIFICATE * * * This Gift Certificate entitles the bearer to enter Pyrosaurus contests! Date___/___/___ Name_________________________________________________ Amount___________________ (5 contests for $8) From:___________________________________ (C)Copyright EVRYWARE Inc., 1996 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Give this part to the Player) --------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------- (Send this part to Evryware) * * * PYROSAURUS GIFT CERTIFICATE ORDER FORM * * * Date___/___/___ Your Name ________________________________________________________ Your Street Address_______________________________________________ Your City _____________________________State_________Zip _________ Player's Name_____________________________________________________ Player's Phone Number_____________________________________________ Player's ID Number (very important)_______________________________ Player's Email (if they have one)_________________________________ Amount Enclosed (check one): [ ] $8 ... [ ] $16 ... [ ] $24 ... [ ] $32 ... [ ] $40 (C)Copyright EVRYWARE Inc., 1996 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Print or copy this order form. 2. Fill in ALL the blanks! 3. Give the top portion as a gift. 4. Send the bottom portion and include a check to "Evryware Inc.". 5. Mail to: Evryware Inc., P.O.Box 5204, Olympia, WA 98509-5204 * The amount must be in increments of $8: $8, $16, $24, etc. * To get the ID Number: At the Pyrosaurus title screen, press D and it will appear on screen. (You have to play at least once before you receive your ID number.)If you don't know the player's ID number, you can ask them to show you Pyrosaurus and nonchalantly press D at the title screen or just give the player the check with the gift certificate form and let them send it in. * It is okay to make your own order form as long as ALL the information is included. * Each $8 entitles you to play 5 contest! * Please allow at least one week for your credit to take effect. (C)Copyright EVRYWARE Inc., 1996 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED B. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================== 17. DEFINITION OF PYROSAURUS SOFTWARE --------------------------------- Unlike traditional games, with Pyrosaurus, you don't pay for the software. If you use the software and enjoy it enough to want to compete in a contest then there is a small fee for each contest. This way, you get to compete directly against other players' teams and we are repaid for the time and money that we spent to create Pyrosaurus. Actually, your first contest is free so you always know exactly what you are getting before you buy. Even though the software is free, copyright laws apply to Pyrosaurus just like with commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights. The programmers of Pyrosaurus have been commercial authors for over 15 years. The main difference with Pyrosaurus and what we have done in the past is in the method of distribution. The authors of Pyrosaurus specifically grant the right to copy and distribute the Pyrosaurus software, to all and sundry as long as all the files are included and that you don't profit financially from it except as described in the next section. Be sure to give the original compressed file and not the files that you use to play this game. ================================================================== 18. DISCLAIMER/AGREEMENT -------------------- Users of Pyrosaurus must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "Pyrosaurus is supplied as is. The authors disclaim all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of Pyrosaurus." The Pyrosaurus software is provided at no charge to the user. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not charge for it and do not give it away altered or as part of another system. If, after building and training a team, you would like to enter your team in a contest against another team, a small fee will be charged after, and only after, you specifically approve it. Anyone distributing Pyrosaurus for any kind of remuneration must first contact Evryware, Inc. at the address below for authorization. Evryware reserves the right to change the cost of contests at anytime. You are encouraged to pass a copy of Pyrosaurus along to your friends. Be sure to give them the original file and not the files that you are using unless you want to give them your team, credit card information, etc. Evryware Inc. PO Box 5204 Olympia, WA 98509-5204 Email: barry@evryware.com ================================================================== 19. LIMITED WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY ------------------------------------------- THIS SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN MATERIALS (INCLUDING INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE) ARE PROVIDES "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. FURTHER, EVRYWARE, INC. DOES NOT WARRANT, GUARANTEE, OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE, OR THE RESULTS OF USE, OF THE SOFTWARE OR WRITTEN MATERIALS IN TERMS OF CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS, OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY YOU. IF THE SOFTWARE OR WRITTEN MATERIALS ARE DEFECTIVE YOU, AND NOT EVRYWARE OR ITS DEALERS, DISTRIBUTORS, AGENTS, OR EMPLOYEES, ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION. THE ABOVE IS THE ONLY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, THAT IS MADE BY EVRYWARE, ON THIS EVRYWARE PRODUCT. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE GIVEN BY EVRYWARE, ITS DEALERS, DISTRIBUTORS, AGENTS OR EMPLOYEES SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY OR IN ANY WAY INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THIS WARRANTY AND YOU MAY NOT RELY ON ANY SUCH INFORMATION OR ADVICE. YOU MAY HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. NEITHER EVRYWARE NOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION OR DELIVERY OF THIS PRODUCT SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE SUCH PRODUCT EVEN IF EVRYWARE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. This Limited Warranty shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Washington. ================================================================== 20. ACKNOWLEDGMENT -------------- BY USING PYROSAURUS YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS LIMITED WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER AGREEMENT, UNDERSTAND IT, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS' TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU ALSO AGREE THAT THE LIMITED WARRANTY IS THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE PARTIES AND SUPERSEDE ALL PROPOSALS OR PRIOR AGREEMENTS, ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE PARTIES RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE LIMITED WARRANTY. ================================================================== 21. TECHNICAL SUPPORT ----------------- Pyrosaurus technical support can be obtained by writing to: Evryware, Inc. PO Box 5204 Olympia, WA 98509-5204 Email: barry@evryware.com ================================================================== 22. ERROR MESSAGES BAD HEADER DATA - (when using the modem) This means that your information does not correspond with who you are. Header data is a safeguard to prevent other people from using your account. The following could cause this message: * If you do not send a team in for three months (one month if you have only played one contest) then your account is canceled and you will get this error message. You must reinstall Pyrosaurus and start over from the beginning. * In some cases this error could be caused by a noisy phone line and you could try again later. * Your header may be corrupt. You can correct it by replacing the "PYRO.USR" file with PYRO.BAK or a backup that you created. If the backup does not help then you have no choice but to reinstall Pyrosaurus and start over from the beginning. CANNOT OPEN FILE You are either out of disk space or your FILES statement in CONFIG.SYS is set to too low a number. FILES = 30 should work fine. OUT OF FAR MEMORY You don't have enough conventional memory available. You should have at least 560K available but you may need more if you have a lot of dinos on your team. To check the available memory, type MEM from DOS. The "Largest Executable Program Size" is the value that you want. To free up more memory, you will have to disable a TSR or driver. If you have a boot disk for another game, it will probably work for Pyrosaurus too. FILE NOT FOUND A file is missing. You should always remove dinos, species and so on from within Pyrosaurus. You should never delete a file in this directory from DOS or windows. You can usually fix the problem by installing Pyrosaurus into another directory and compare the files in the two directories. If any are missing in this directory then copy the files from the new directory. PROGRAMMER ERROR We all know that programmers don't make mistakes but in the unlikely event that you find a bug in the program please tell us about it. For a list of bugs that we already know about, you can check our web site at: http://www.evryware.com/pyrosaurus. There are several ways to report a bug: 1. Write a bug message in Pyrosaurus and send it in with your team. 2. Email: barry@evryware.com (on the subject line write: P Bug) 3. Snail Mail: Evryware Dept. PB P.O.Box 5204 Olympia, WA 98509-5204. Please give us as much information as you can about where you were in the game, what you were doing when you got the error and what led up to it. Thanks. ================================================================== 23. COMMON QUESTIONS Q. How do I make a dino with four legs? A. Quadrupeds become available when you advance to the second arena. Q. The game locks up when it first starts. A. Your sound card configuration may not be set properly. Delete PYRO.CNF from your Pyrosaurus directory, start the game again and select different settings. Q. The game locks up when I am building or training a species. Your hard disk might be full. You should have at least 1 Meg. free before starting Pyrosaurus. Q. Sometimes when I click on a button, nothing happens. A. You are probably clicking too fast. Try holding the mouse button down a bit longer before releasing. Q. When I try to send my team in, it never gets past sending block 1. A. Your modem must be set to RTS/CTS hardware flow control. See the chapter on how to set up your modem for other suggestions (6c.title-setup-MODEM). Q. My hard disk crashed and it trashed Pyrosaurus. How do I get everything back? A. First, install the latest version of Pyrosaurus. Next, if you used the BACKUP button in the TEAM screen to save your team to a floppy then you just need to copy all the files in the floppy to your Pyrosaurus directory. You now have your team back. Hopefully you also backed up the PYRO.USR file. You need to copy this file to your Pyrosaurus directory also. If you don't have a copy of PYRO.USR then you will have to start over as a new player. Q. Something went wrong. I am in the wrong arena and I no longer have an ID number. A. Your PYRO.USR file may be bad. Copy PYRO.BAK to PYRO.USR and that should fix it. Q. I want to order a Gift Certificate but I don't know my ID number. A. You get an ID number when you receive your first contest with your modem. To find your ID, start up Pyrosaurus and while you are at the title screen, press D. Your ID number will appear on the screen. If you do not have an ID, "None" will replace the ID number. Q. I made a species but I can't put him on my team because he is not in the team roster. Why? A. The roster lists dinos not species. After you make a species, you need to make individual dinos from that species and then they will appear in your roster. Q. Some of the sounds are missing when I play a contest. A. Some sound cards don't work properly after the modem has been used. This is a bug that we have not yet been able to solve. For now, you can exit Pyrosaurus and come back in before looking at a contest and the sounds should work properly. ================================================================== Thank You for playing Pyrosaurus!