Conquest of the New World Brief programer's description document. Sample Version Description for Map Game, 6-13-95.
(note: numerical values are preliminary and likely to change) Prepared by: Quicksilver Software, Inc. 17881 Sky Park Circle, Suite H Irvine, CA 92714 (714) 474-2150 Greg Marsters (ex. 44) Bill Fisher (ex. 11) CONFIDENTIAL: This document contains confidential information belonging to Quicksilver Software, Inc., Interplay Productions, Inc. and their partners or subcontractors, and may not be disclosed in whole or in part to any party without prior written permission. Copyright (C) 1995 Quicksilver Software, Inc. All rights reserved.
Note: Also read COMBAT.TXT and README.IPX
Note: This is a pre-release version of the software. Many features are incomplete or under development, and bugs are known to be present in the code. The user interface is being refined now, and some features, such as the main map directory, are expected to be modified significantly. For any questions about precise functionality of features or how features
will appear in the final release of the product, please feel free
to call the developer. This document was created as a brief intro to the game and is not to be mistaken for a comprehensive guide to its
present or future features. Creating a new game: Under the Select Game menu select New Game. Change Game name to desired label and set game options.
Maximum Turns: Player with the highest score wins after completion of this turn.
Winning Score: First player to reach this score wins. If two players reach this score in the same turn, the higher score
wins.
Native Tribes: Number of small independent native tribes sprinkled
on the map. More tribes can prove useful in trading,
but can interfere with colony building.
Tribe Dispositions: Friendly tribes will trade with you, hostile tribes will protect their ranging grounds.
Land & Water Seeds: Used in guiding random map construction. More land seeds create larger land masses. More water
seeds break up the land masses and reduce their size.
Resources Are: Affects levels of production obtained from buildings. Scarce resources require careful placement of colonies,
Abundant resources let successful colonies be built
almost anywhere.
Movement is: Affects distance units can travel during a turn. The easier movement is, the quicker the world is explored.
Select Create to begin adding players to the game. Select Add Player. Type Name of new player.
Click on Nation button to change nation. Each nation will represent a unique set of player characteristics. Custom nation will allow a player to choose his own set.
For custom nation, distribute points to activity bonuses and abilities. (see Winning The Game for details on activities and abilities)
Select Add to add player to roster. Repeat for each player. Maximum of eight currently allowed. Click on 'Begin Game' to begin construction of the new game. Game Processing, Turn Editing: Selecting a player in the roster menu will allow the editing of that player's turn. All operations performed during edit time are likely to occur but can be thwarted by the actions of another player. When all players are done editing their turn, processing will automatically combine the turn edits of all players and form the next game turn to be
played. Any combat events will be fought during this "Process time," and the results will be reflected in the next turn. Battles between players on networked machines and solo human vs. computer games can use the combat sub-game to determine results. E-mail games will resolve combat by algorithmic means. The First Turn: For the first turn, a player will start with three explorer units (see Units:), one leader unit, three infantry, one settler unit, and a boat unit that contains them. The new world is to the left. To move the unit toward it, select the unit by clicking on it (an info window will pop up and the ship will flash), then click the mouse to the left of the boat. The boat will move to the point clicked upon. Continue this process until the boat encounters land. As you move the ship, placing the mouse cursor along the edge of the screen will cause the map to scroll in the indicated direction (see Map:)
To place a contained unit on the land, click directory button in the units information window. (see Directory:) The selected unit will appear at the top of the list with its contents indented and listed below it. To place one of the explorer units on the land, click and drag it to the top of the list and let go on the text "map". The explorer will then be uncontained to the map. Note: this user interface is awkward but only temporary, soon direct draging to the map will be possible.
Select the explorer unit and move around, revealing the map. Press the shift key to speed him up if you get impatient.
When you have revealed an area of flat land, uncontain your settler unit the as you did the explorer, and move him into the open. When your unit is in the middle of a large flat area, you will be able to click on the Found Colony button under the Missions Menu. If found colony is not an option, move the unit around some more and try again. If you run out of move allotment, you will have to Process the turn and try again next turn. Once you have founded a colony, you can select your colony by clicking on the newly created City Center. From this menu you can see the commodity contents of the colony (see Commodities:) You can also build buildings (see Buildings:),perform trade, and view more detailed information about your colony from sub windows. Buildings:
There are ten kinds of buildings: City Center: The building through which you access your colony. The city center determines the level of your colony for gaining victory points and sets the highest level that any building can be.
Farm: For growing crops. Farms (and forts) are larger than other buildings and so can be more difficult to place. Farms are at their best near rivers and in open land.
Metal Mine: For obtaining metal from the ground. Mines do best when located at the bases of mountains. Most gold mines discovered will lay nestled in a mountain cove. A source of running water nearby will improve your prospecting chances.
Mills: For obtaining wood from forests. Mills also do well deep in forests next to moving water. Jungles are especially dense with trees.
Commerce: For obtaining goods from other raw materials. Make sure you have a good supply of raw materials before constructing these buildings.
Fort: For colony defense. Forts produce military units equal to their own level.
Housing: Provide living space for units and a colonies labor population. Colonies also recruit new settler units here.
Taverns: Taverns help keep the population happy and provide a source of prospective explorers.
Church: Churches encourage immigration to your colonies and may convert nearby native tribes to your cause. All buildings must be constructed on flat land, except docks which must be placed on ocean adjacent to a significant amount of land.
Buildings act as the user interface of the colony. The City Center is the main menu for the colony. Many options are available from here. Each other type of building, when clicked, will display its current status and offer a menu of command choices. All units appear in the colony
the next turn after construction (This is obviously a problem with boats and will eventually be fixed). Commodities:
There are five commodities: gold, metals, finished goods, wood, and crops. Gold is the generic currency used for the game. Metals are various ores and refined metals used in production. Goods are refined products of industry and commerce. Wood is general construction materials. Crops are field grown resources used for food, industry and commerce. Gold, metals, wood, and crops can all be produced directly from the land by their respective buildings. (see Buildings:) Goods are more difficult to obtain and require metals, wood, and crops to manufacture them.
Map:
The world is a 255X255 terrain gridded map with each grid having 128X128 atomic positions. The map is viewed at a 45 degree skew with the furthest facings of topography being seen edge on. A map tool with arrows can be used to scroll the map up, down, left and right. Diagonal arrows are used to zoom in and zoom out. Placing the mouse cursor against the edge of the screen will also cause the map to scroll in the indicated direction. The center of the map tool will adjust the distance covered by the scroll arrows.
The terrain types of the map are: grass, forest, mountain, jungle, desert, ocean, lake, river, and frozen. The map is randomly generated from a seed value that will be shareable with friends. Other map controls will include land to water ratios, brokenness of land, resource
availability, native tribe frequency and friendliness (or lack thereof).
Units:
Units are things on the map that can be selected and moved about by the player. The basic types of units are: infantry, cavalry, artillery, explorers, colonists, and leaders. Selecting a unit brings up an
information window that list its type, level, who owns the unit (Allegiance),
information on containment (number units organized for leaders,
cargo for ships). Clicking on the map will cause the unit to move toward that destination. Clicking and dragging units will also move units around on the map. This method makes it possible to move units onto other units. The Move Allotment bar shows how much the unit has move in the current turn and how much remains. As the unit moves it will reveal unexplored grids of the map. Explorer units and ships can be given exploration missions to automatically explore the map. The auto activate button causes a unit to actively pursue its mission the moment the player begins editing his turn. Otherwise a player must select the 'Missions On' button from the main menu to start units on their missions. Directory:
The directory is currently under development. To group and ungroup units, click and drag, then release on desired locations for units.
Messages will appear at the top of the screen as to why certain operations will fail. If the directory is accessed from a unit information
window, that unit will be selected (red) in the directory.
Unit Missions:
Unit missions control unit behaviors other than simple movement on the map. The Path mission is to assign a unit to follow a path to its end. If the unit cannot reach the end of the path in a single turn, it will pick up the path where it left off in following turns. What paths will entail is still under design and development.
Found Colony tells settler units to begin a new colony. Leader units containing settler units will have the found colony mission as an option. Once the turn has been processed and the colony has been established, the settler unit will convert into labor population for the
colony.
Acquire tells military units to attack and 'acquire' something. This currently can only be done with opponent colonies.
Destroy tells military units to attack and destroy something. This currently can be done with any opposing military targets. Ship combat is not currently implemented.
Auto Activate causes a unit to pursue his mission the moment a player begins editing his turn. This is useful for explorers and units on long paths. The Missions Off button on the main menu will still effect these units.
Trade: Trade is the exchange and transportation of commodities between your own colonies and the colonies of other players. Limited trade is also possible with the native tribes near a colony. Trade generates Crates, which transport commodities from one location to another.
Trade options are reached from the 'Trade' button under the city center (Capitol) menu. The trade options will be:
Direct Trade: For transporting commodities between your own colonies, Trading with your mother country, and trading with nearby native tribes.
New Market Trade: For posting your own offers to buy or sell, or responding to offers made by other players on the market.
Market Trade Results: for viewing the status of your current standing offers, and the results of responses to offers made by other players.
Crates: Shows all incoming crates to a colony. Crates are an abstraction of being forced to literally having to put stuff in a unit, move it somewhere,
then unload it. Crates are not seen but can be intercepted (not implemented yet)
and tariffed (basic implementation only).
Trade Paths, Operations, Quantity:
Two colonies that wish to trade must be able to establish a trade path between them. Trade paths can be by land or by sea. Land trade paths can be established only if an explored route exists between two colony capitols. Sea trade paths can be established only if an explored route exists between two docks of the trading colonies. Direct trade with the mother country requires a trade path from a dock to the starting position of the players initial boat position.
A trade operation is any one act of trade with the exception of trading with the native tribes (not to be confused with the native nation player... which is not implemented yet anyway). Direct trade between two colonies of a player will count as one trade operation for each colony (two total). Market trade requires one operation to place proposals on the market and one operation to respond to an offer. The number of trade operations a colony can perform is indicated at the top of the Trade menu as Trade Capacity. The maximum quantity of any trade is set by the lower level of the two parties involved. The Mother country has an unlimited trade quantity, colonies are limited by the level of their capitol building. Winning The Game:
To win a game a player must either posses more victory points than his rivals upon completion of the last turn or obtain the winning number of victory points before his competitors. Ties occur only when identical winning scores are achieved.
Victory points are obtained though four activities and a players abilities. The four activities are colony development, exploration of the world, successful diplomatic actions, and destruction of enemy units in combat. Colony development accumulates 1 victory point for every level of city center per colony per turn. Exploration adds 1 victory point for every 10 grids of the map you revealed before your competitors, and for naming map objects (long rivers, tall mountains, great
lakes, etc.), Combat gives 10 points for every level of opponent units destroyed. The special abilities available to players are:
Miser:1 Victory point for every 10 gold held within colonies is awarded to the player. If the gold is spent or lost to another player, the points are lost as well.
Builder: 1 Victory point for every level of buildings within colonies is awarded to the player. if the buildings are demolished or lost,
the points are lost as well.
Conqueror: 10 Victory points accumulated for each level of a colony conquered. These points, once accumulated, cannot be lost. Small indigenous populations count as level 1 colonies.
Pacifist: 1 Victory point accumulated for every level of colonies owned minus 1 point for every level of military units the player owns. If the player sustains a negative accumulation long enough this score
can become negative and subtract from the player's total score.
Ally: For each other player that is an ally, 10% of their activity victory points will also count toward the players own victory point total.
Revolutionary: If independence is achieved, an additional 10% bonus is added from the players own activity scores.
Trader: 1 Victory point is accumulated for every unit of commodities sold or bought by the player on the free market. These points, once accumulated, cannot be lost.
Missionary: 10 Victory points per level of churches in a players colonies plus 100 points for every converted native tribe. If the churches are demolished or lost or the converted tribes are destroyed, the victory points are lost as well.
Trickster: 5% bonus from the players activity points is added to his score, but does not show up on the score total that is shown to all other players.
Diplomat: 100 Victory points for each Diplomatic level above neutral standing with other players. Minus 50 Victory points for each diplomatic level below neutral. Negative victory points can be achieved.
Pirate: 1 Victory point is accumulated for every 10 points of commodities (loot) that is taken from other players.
General: 10 Victory points for every level of an opponents leader is accumulated when a player is victorious in battle.
Spy: 10% of the game leaders victory score displayed to all other players is also added to the players own victory score. If the player is leading the game he gets 10% of his own activity points. Any time a player with the spy ability is the leader, all other players with the spy ability get no additional points.
Colonist: Receives 15% of his activity scores while he remains with his mother country. Declaring independence will render this ability useless.
Gambler: Player accumulates 1% of his activity points each turn. If the player can not win the game by the last turn, the value becomes negative and counts against him for highest score ranking. Only available when a game has both a turn limit and a winning score.
All subtotals and specific ability scores are only known to the player. All other players only see the final victory point total. Abilities deriving their points from activities scores take a percentage
from the combined values and respective bonuses. Declaring independence will be worth a preset number of victory points that will be significantly high, if you survive to enjoy them.
