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- GLOBAL DOMINATION INTERACTIVE DEMO
-
- Software Copyright (c) 1993 Impressions
-
- This Documentation File Copyright (c) 1993 Impressions
-
- ---
-
- OVERVIEW
-
- You are one of up to five rulers fighting for control of
- your world; your goal is to bring peace to the planet by
- crushing all of your enemies. The world is divided into
- dozens of TERRITORIES; you rule only a handful of them at
- the start of the game, and must take all of them from your
- enemies to win. In addition to expanding your empire,
- territories provide you with the resources you need to keep
- fighting. Defending your territories and conquering those
- of your enemies are the keys to victory.
-
- Each computer-controlled ruler is taken from the pages of
- history: Abraham Lincoln, Genghis Khan, Queen Victoria and
- others. Each ruler has his own style of leadership, which
- becomes clear in their strategic styles and diplomatic
- methods.
-
- (DISCLAIMER: The historical leaders depicted in this game
- were chosen solely because of the variety and mix of
- strategies that they represent -- in other words, to make a
- more interesting game. Their inclusion here should in no
- way be viewed as condoning or celebrating their beliefs or
- actions.)
-
- Basically, you fight by building and moving armies. You
- build armies with ten types of fighting units, from infantry
- soldiers to combat jets; a key to success is finding the
- best army structure to beat the enemy's armies. You are
- also able to use DIPLOMACY to ally yourself with like-minded
- enemies, and create an INTELLIGENCE bureau which will gather
- information on each enemy. Conflicts between armies take
- place over months, and are calculated by the computer; you
- can also choose to fight a conflict as a SATELLITE BATTLE,
- where you give tactical orders to individual fighting units
- on a scrolling "satellite" battle-map.
-
- The game proceeds in TURNS, where each turn allows a player
- to make their moves for the current month. (Thus each month
- contains two to five turns -- one for each player -- plus an
- additional turn for revolutionary forces.) During YOUR GAME
- TURN you can build armies and move them; all other tasks can
- be performed at any time.
-
-
- INSTALLING THE GAME
-
- To install this demo on your computer, simply copy the file
- that you downloaded into its own directory and run it. The
- program will then expand into that directory. To configure
- the program for your sound card, type INSTALL <ENTER>. To
- run the program from there, type GLOBAL <ENTER>.
-
- This demo starts in the middle of the game, where you are
- the GRAY player named "Player 1." You have a slight
- advantage in the number of resources you get each month.
- The game will tell you the order in which you and the four
- computer players will move; click the RIGHT mouse button and
- you are taken to the game's MAIN SCREEN.
-
- The main screen is the place from which you view the game's
- maps, and access every game panel and function. It consists
- of: a large PLAYING AREA which displays game maps and allows
- you to manipulate them; a MESSAGE BAR below it, which
- displays color-coded messages for actions taken by every
- player in the game (PURPLE messages refer to countries in
- revolt); and the ICON BAR on the right side of the screen,
- which you use to select most of the game's features and
- commands. Some icons on this bar will change, depending on
- which map is displayed in the Playing Area.
-
- (If you want, you can SCROLL BACK AND FORTH through the
- message bar by clicking within the top and bottom edges of
- the bar; or change the HEIGHT of the message bar by pressing
- the thin blue buttons to its left. (NOTE: You cannot change
- the message bar's height when the WORLD MAP -- explained
- below -- is displayed.)
-
-
- GAME RULES
-
- Your goal is to control all of the territories in the world;
- you do this by building armies and moving them from
- territory to territory. You can look at the world in two
- ways: a WORLD MAP which shrinks the entire world onto the
- screen at once; and a TERRITORY MAP which shows a close-up
- view of a few territories. To switch between the two views,
- press the MAP CONTROL icon in the top-right corner of the
- screen (it alternates between looking like a GLOBE and FOUR
- COLORED SQUARES).
-
- (NOTE: If you start a game when it's a computer player's
- turn, that player will probably already be moving; you can
- still take a look at different maps and screens while this
- is going on; the only things you can't do are build and
- place armies.)
-
- The world map can show different types of information (four
- types in all), each selected by an icon from the icon panel
- at the side of the screen. The types you should be
- interested in now are: the GEOGRAPHY icon, which looks like
- some brown terrain, and EMPIRE, which looks like three
- colored rectangles on top of each other. Geography shows
- you the importance of different territories; you need
- resources to build armies, and some territories produce more
- resources than others. Empire shows who owns which
- territories; you can use this map to decide where in the
- world you want to expand (preferably by grabbing some of
- those resource-rich territories). When you choose an area
- to expand in, you can "zoom in" on it by pointing to it and
- pressing the LEFT mouse button; this takes you to the
- territory map.
-
- On the territory map, each territory appears as a colored
- region with a "city" marker in the middle; the color of the
- terrain tells you which player controls the territory, and
- the size of the marker (small, medium or large) shows you
- the relative amount of resources in the territory. If you
- want more information on a territory, just point to it and
- press the left mouse button; this displays an info-panel
- listing its name, the names of adjacent territories, and a
- mini-map of the area. Use the button just below the map to
- switch between GEOGRAPHY and EMPIRE color codes; click the
- RIGHT mouse button to get rid of the panel.
-
- Armies are shown on the map as silver BULLETS with colored
- bands and in different sizes; the colored band tells you
- which player owns the army, and the army's size shows how
- many fighting UNITS it represents. You can find out more
- information on an army by pointing to it and pressing the
- LEFT mouse button; this displays another info-panel
- specifically for armies. You can see info-panels for both
- your armies and those of your enemies (but your INTELLIGENCE
- on them -- explained later -- affects what information they
- display).
-
- Brown territories are neutral -- owned by no player. Orange
- territories are in conflict, where two armies are fighting
- for control of it; you cannot enter these. You can move one
- of your armies into any brown territory, and thereby take it
- over.
-
- You can also do the same for any territory with no army in
- (even if it belongs to someone else); you will still gain
- ownership of that territory, with all the benefit of its
- resources -- but the previous owner will be upset. You need
- to weigh the merits of when to go for a territory like this,
- and when not to upset another player! When a game first
- starts there are no armies in any territories, so you should
- place some quickly in all of your important territories to
- protect yourself.
-
- To look around at the rest of the map, click the RIGHT mouse
- button. The mouse pointer will jump to the center of the
- playing area, and change to an open hand, palm down; if you
- try to move it past an edge or corner of that area, then the
- map will scroll in that direction. This is called SCROLL
- MODE; use this to see other areas of the map, then RIGHT-
- CLICK the mouse again to return to normal. You can adjust
- the speed at which the screen scrolls (see GAME OPTIONS,
- below).
-
-
- CREATING AND PLACING ARMIES
-
- To create an army, you need to have resources to pay for it,
- and you need to select the type of army to create. Both of
- these things are handled by the LOGISTICS SCREEN; the
- LOGISTICS icon, which looks like a gold balance-type scale,
- calls up this screen.
-
- The chart at the top of the screen tells you how many
- resource points you received this turn, and how they were
- spent. At the start of your turn, you get one point for
- every SMALL territory, two for every MEDIUM territory and
- three for every LARGE territory; the total of those points
- is listed under RESOURCES IN. Points are then deducted to
- pay for moving armies (and for intelligence, which is
- explained later); the left over points are listed under
- TOTAL STORED RESOURCES, which also includes any leftover
- points from previous turns. These are the points you use to
- build armies.
-
- The six icons at the bottom of the screen represent six ARMY
- TYPES; the number under one of these icons is highlighted.
- Whenever you build an army in a territory, the army built is
- the one highlighted here. Each army type has a default
- structure that makes it best suited to a particular purpose:
-
- Type 1: small offensive army
- Type 2: small defensive army
- Type 3: medium offensive army
- Type 4: medium defensive army
- Type 5: large offensive army
- Type 6: large defensive army
-
- Armies can contain up to ten kinds of FIGHTING UNITS:
- infantry, mobile infantry, air-mobile infantry, light and
- heavy armor (tanks), light and heavy artillery, air defense,
- combat aircraft and strike aircraft. Each unit has
- different strengths and weaknesses when pitted against each
- unit type; so the structure of your army will have as much
- effect in a conflict as its size. For example, an air-
- defense unit is only good at attacking aircraft, and has no
- defenses when attacked by infantry.
-
- If you want, you can just use the six default structures;
- simply click on the number BELOW an army type's button to
- highlight it. Otherwise, you can change the structure of an
- army by clicking on its button; this displays a new screen
- showing how many of each type of fighting unit is in the
- army structure. Use the arrow buttons beside each unit type
- to create the structure you want, then press the RIGHT mouse
- button to exit the screen. You can only have up to 75 units
- in an army.
-
- The total cost of an army type is shown by the number below
- its button. You need to have at least that many resource
- points in storage to build one army of that type.
-
- To create an army, click the RIGHT mouse button to return to
- the main screen, and make sure you are looking at the
- TERRITORY MAP (not the world map). Click on the PLACE ARMY
- icon on the right side of the screen (it looks like a hand
- holding a bullet) and the mouse pointer will change to a
- hand holding a bullet; you will also enter SCROLL MODE, so
- that you can look for a location anywhere on the map. Move
- the mouse pointer so that the SPACE BETWEEN ITS TOP FINGER
- AND THE TIP OF THE BULLET is over the center of the
- territory in which you want to place your new army; then
- press the LEFT mouse button. The army will appear on the
- map, by the city, and the mouse pointer will return to
- normal (non-scroll) mode. You can place pretty much as many
- armies as you wish to in this way, so long as you have
- enough resources to pay for them.
-
-
- MOVING ARMIES
-
- You conquer territories by moving your armies into them. To
- do so, select the MOVE ARMY icon; it looks like a hand about
- to pick something up, and is to the left of the PLACE ARMY
- icon. The mouse pointer changes into an open hand which you
- use to "grab" one of your armies. As before, you will
- automatically enter SCROLL MODE so that you can look for one
- of your armies anywhere on the map. Find the army that you
- want, and put the pointer so that the SPACE BETWEEN ITS TOP
- FINGER AND THUMB is over the army; then press the LEFT mouse
- button. You will see your mouse cursor with the army in its
- grip! You are still in scroll mode, and now you can move the
- army to your desired new location, simply by dropping (left-
- clicking) it in the middle of the new territory. You can
- only move an army into a territory that is adjacent to its
- original location.
-
- Armies can "hop" across small bodies of water; one such
- location on the map is the channel separating England from
- Northern France. Use the info-panel for a territory to find
- out which seas and lakes can be crossed. You can also move
- from some territories to others across larger bodies of
- water, using approved sea lanes which go from one territory
- to another (these territories are then considered to be
- adjacent). Sea lanes are shown on the map by a series of
- light blue circles in the water, joining the two
- territories.
-
- If you decide to cancel a movement, simply press the RIGHT
- mouse button (while still holding the army) and your army
- will reappear in the territory in which you picked it up.
-
- It costs one LAND MOVEMENT unit to move an army into an
- adjacent territory by land (or over a small body of water),
- and it takes one FLEET to cross a sea lane. A fleet will
- move its army at a rate of two sea-circles per month (one
- game turn per month, remember). If you cannot pay these
- costs, a warning message will appear on the screen and the
- move will not occur. Assuming that your land movement was
- successful (or your sea-going army reaches its destination),
- one of the following effects may occur:
-
- IF THE TERRITORY YOU MOVED INTO WAS UNOCCUPIED, then you
- will capture it. It will change to your color, and you
- start collecting its resources next turn.
-
- IF THE TERRITORY YOU MOVED INTO WAS OCCUPIED BY ONE OF YOUR
- ARMIES, then you will be asked if you want to COMBINE the
- two armies; if you answer "no," then you will be given a
- chance to choose another territory. (Experienced users can
- turn these confirmation requests OFF using the OPTIONS icon
- -- explained later.)
-
- IF THE TERRITORY YOU MOVED INTO WAS OCCUPIED BY AN ENEMY
- ARMY, then the two of them will enter a conflict (see
- below).
-
- IF THE TERRITORY YOU TRIED TO MOVE INTO WAS IN REVOLT OR IN
- CONFLICT, then you will not be allowed to move into it and a
- warning message will appear.
-
- If you want to move more armies in a turn than you are
- currently able to, go back to the LOGISTICS SCREEN and
- increase the resources spent on transport (land movement) or
- fleet (sea movement), using the arrow buttons. Transport
- points are converted into land movement units at a variable
- rate; while five fleet points gets you your first fleet, and
- every three fleet points after that generates another one.
- The land movement units and fleets you currently have
- available are listed below the chart. Changing the resource
- point allocation will affect your transport ability over the
- next couple of turns.
-
-
- HOW CONFLICTS ARE RESOLVED
-
- When you move one of your armies into an occupied enemy
- territory, or when the enemy moves an army into one of your
- occupied territories, a CONFLICT will begin. The two armies
- will fight for control of the territory until one is
- destroyed. The winner gets control of the territory, but
- will usually lose some of his units in the process.
-
- A conflict resolution will begin in the attacking player's
- first turn after he invades. When it is over, the winner is
- declared in the message bar, and the territory in conflict
- changes to the victor's color. The surviving army is free
- to move once the conflict is over.
-
- Conflicts are calculated by pitting the individual units in
- each army against each other. The factors involved in these
- calculations (aside from random chance) are: the CHANCE OF
- SUCCESS for each unit type; how quickly each piece can make
- its FIRST ATTACK; and the MORALE and OBSOLESCENCE ratings
- for each army. These factors are explained below.
-
- Each unit has not one CHANCE OF SUCCESS rating, but ten --
- one for each of the ten unit types. These represent a
- unit's accuracy when aiming at each kind of target, AND his
- ability to pierce whatever defenses that target has.
- EXAMPLES: A Light Armor piece has an AVERAGE chance of
- success when attacking a Light Armor unit, but a HIGH chance
- when attacking a less-armored Light Artillery unit.
- Meanwhile, an Infantry unit has a LOW chance of success when
- attacking that Light Armor unit (since it has weaker
- weapons), and a HIGH chance when attacking that Light
- Artillery piece.
-
- Equally important is how quickly a piece can make its FIRST
- ATTACK; if a unit cannot attack its target right away, it
- may get destroyed before it has a chance. There are also
- ten of these ratings for each unit -- one for each type of
- target. For each month during a conflict, a round of
- attacks are calculated; the "first attack" rating marks the
- first round in which a unit can make its attack. EXAMPLES:
- A Light Armor unit can attack another Light Armor unit in
- round ONE, and can attack a Light Artillery unit in round
- TWO. Meanwhile, an Infantry unit cannot attack either of
- those units until round THREE.
-
- Those two factors are the most important ones in resolving a
- conflict, but there are more. Each army has a MORALE rating
- that affects how well its units fight; it goes up when an
- army wins a conflict (proud fighters are good fighters), and
- drops when an army loses.
-
- Also, each has an OBSOLESCENCE rating that starts at zero
- percent when it is built, and increases by one percent for
- every month afterwards. This rating doesn't just measure
- obsolescence, but a combination of obsolescence and
- EXPERIENCE. For about two years, this rating represents
- increasing experience and ability; as it approaches twenty-
- five percent, the army's skills are IMPROVING. From then
- on, the percentage represents a gradual DECLINE in ability
- as the army's equipment becomes obsolete. An army is
- disbanded when its obsolescence reaches 100 percent.
-
- The best strategy when starting conflicts is to find out
- what units are in an enemy army, and then attack it with the
- best army structure to beat it. To learn about an enemy
- army, SELECT it on the territory map so its info-panel
- appears; however, your INTELLIGENCE on each enemy --
- explained later -- affects how much this will tell you.
-
-
- WATCHING CONFLICTS
-
- Conflicts can take anywhere from one to several months to
- resolve, depending on the sizes of the armies involved.
- This limits how fast you can conquer the world, since you
- can't move across territories that are in conflict.
- However, it also allows you to watch a conflict unfold, and
- even order a retreat if it isn't going well.
-
- If you want to watch conflicts as they are fought, you need
- to access the Military Report; the MILITARY icon, marked
- with three yellow stars, calls up this screen. The top half
- of the screen displays an overall summary of your military
- forces. The bottom half of the screen displays reports on
- any conflicts that you currently are involved in; use the
- ARROW BUTTONS to cycle through them. If you want to WATCH
- or CONCEAL a particular battle, toggle the "Watch?" button
- below the report appropriately. Use the "Watch New
- Conflicts?" button above the report to choose whether future
- conflicts are watched or concealed.
-
- (NOTE: A concealed conflict still takes months to complete,
- but you are only told when it ends (i.e. who wins or loses)
- via the main screen's message bar.)
-
- When you opt to watch a conflict, you receive a CONFLICT
- REPORT on it every month. The report starts by displaying
- the two armies, and the territory over which they are
- fighting; CLICK the mouse the continue. A new panel then
- appears, showing the STRUCTURES of the two armies and a
- message bar at the bottom of the panel. The message bar
- lists the current month, the current round of the conflict,
- how many attacks each side gets this month (determined by
- the size of each army), then lists how each attack is
- resolved. In an attack, one unit chooses an opponent and
- attempts to engage it, which has one of three results:
- CANNOT REACH the enemy (when waiting for its first turn to
- attack), UNSUCCESSFUL in attacking it, and DESTROYED or
- captured it. Units are destroyed outright, not damaged.
-
- A horizontal bar-graph shows the GAINED GROUND for both
- sides; the side whose color fills more of the graph has
- gained more ground. Each side gains a little ground when
- they attack, and a larger amount when they destroy an enemy
- unit. A conflict ends when one side gains sufficient ground
- to eliminate the enemy's color from the graph, or when they
- have destroyed every enemy unit.
-
- (NOTE: By gaining ground, a smaller, more mobile force is
- capable of defeating a larger, more cumbersome one. If your
- "Goliaths" are beaten by the enemy's "Davids," this is
- probably the reason why.)
-
- There is a pause between each attack of the conflict; if you
- want to speed through the remaining attacks, click the RIGHT
- button. If you want to CONCEAL the conflict in future
- months, press the small gray button. When the attacks are
- finished, click the RIGHT mouse button to exit the panel.
-
- (NOTE: If a conflict is going poorly, you can order a
- RETREAT by moving the army into one of your adjacent,
- unoccupied territories. However, this makes the army's
- morale DROP.)
-
-
- SATELLITE BATTLES
-
- As an option, you can turn one of your conflicts into a
- satellite battle; this is a tactical simulation of combat
- where you each unit of your army is individually controlled.
- In the full game, you will be able to give orders to each
- unit; in this demo, you can only watch the computer run the
- battle.
-
- There are two ways to start a satellite battle. The first
- is to press the MILITARY icon to access the Military Report
- screen, then use the arrow buttons to display the conflict
- that you want to change, and then press the BATTLE button at
- the bottom of the report. The second is to press the large,
- terrain-covered icon that appears on the Conflict Report
- panel (see above). In either case, the computer immediately
- makes a SATELLITE MAP on which the battle will occur, and
- places units at opposite ends.
-
- NOTE: You can only fight ONE satellite battle at a time,
- and you cannot resume other aspects of the game until that
- battle is resolved.
-
- Battles are fought differently than conflicts. In a battle,
- the attacker's goal is to destroy the enemy's COMMAND
- HEADQUARTERS before he runs out of supplies or loses all of
- his units. The defender's goal is to defend his
- headquarters from attack until the enemy runs out of
- supplies or units, while attacking the enemy's supply bases
- to SHORTEN the battle. A CLOCK at the top of the screen
- measures how long the attacker's supplies will last; if it
- reaches zero, he has run out and the defender has saved the
- territory. Destroying one of the attacker's supply bases
- deducts time from that clock, giving him less time to fight.
-
- You get to the satellite map by pressing the SATELLITE icon
- on the Icon Bar. The map can be scrolled in the same way as
- the Territory Map, by right-clicking the mouse and moving
- the pointer to the edges of the Playing Area. On this map,
- you can see every unit and installation on the map;
- installations include command H.Q.'s, supply bases and
- airfields. There are several types of terrain on the
- satellite map; they affect how land-based units move
- (naturally, aircraft are not affected). Your units are
- intelligent enough to avoid obstacles, but they are most
- effective when you steer them onto smoother terrain.
-
- Each unit and installation has its own IDENTITY MARKER,
- which is a small marker made up of three colored bars (the
- color of a unit's marker shows who owns it). The first time
- a unit or structure is attacked, this marker starts
- flashing, and the center bar gets shorter to signal damage.
- Additional attacks make the bar shorter and shorter; when it
- disappears, the outer bars begin to shrink. When the color
- is drained from all three bars, that unit or structure is
- destroyed and removed from the map.
-
- Beyond following orders, your units have intelligence of
- their own and will respond to immediate emergencies in their
- vicinity; for example, nearby units will automatically
- defend their Command H.Q. when it is attacked.
-
- Fighting on the battlefield is shown in two ways. Units
- fighting against other units or attacking installations are
- marked with a BLACK-AND-YELLOW square; you cannot give new
- orders to units while they are fighting. Also, GRAY SHELLS
- are fired by artillery, and land on their targets;
- successful hits are indicated with explosions, while shells
- that miss or are out of range just disappear. (Your air-
- defense units fire striped anti-aircraft missiles that work
- in the same way.)
-
- Combat between units is calculated similarly to the way
- conflicts are calculated, but with two exceptions. The
- first is that the delay before a unit can attack (i.e. the
- "first turn" that it can attack) is no longer set in
- advance; it is now determined by how quickly you move your
- units into striking distance. The second is that DAMAGE is
- now calculated for each unit, instead of their being
- immediately destroyed. A DAMAGED UNIT IS LESS CAPABLE OF
- FIGHTING AND DEFENDING ITSELF. Attacks on installations are
- calculated using the same system.
-
- Most units inflict the same level of damage for each
- successful attack, with the following exceptions:
-
- 1) When an aircraft attacks another aircraft, the result is
- immediate; either one unit is destroyed or the other.
- 2) When an air strike successfully hits an installation, it
- can do up to FOUR times normal damage.
-
- Here are some additional rules of battles that you should
- know:
-
- 1) If an aircraft's airfield is destroyed in a battle, all
- planes based at that airfield are destroyed immediately.
- 2) In a satellite battle, AIR MOBILE INFANTRY lets you move
- infantry units quickly onto the front line. They can be
- moved ONCE as helicopters; once they reach their final
- destination, they turn into regular Infantry units. They do
- not attack while they are helicopters.
- 3) An Artillery unit's chance of success is affected by the
- distance to its target.
-
-
- REVOLUTIONS
-
- Each territory has a potential to revolt against the tyranny
- of its current master; this is measured as a percentage and
- is called UNREST. If this rating gets high enough and there
- is no army in the territory, then it will erupt into
- revolution. If the rating is high but there is an army in
- the territory, units will start deserting the army; when
- they are all gone, you will get an "Army deserts" message
- and then a revolution may occur. Revolutions and unrest
- calculations are given their own turn in the game, which
- takes place at the end of each month.
-
- A territory in revolt will turn PURPLE, and will "kick out"
- the current owner. The territory will remain in revolt for
- a random amount of time, after which it will become NEUTRAL
- (and its terrain will turn BROWN).
-
- A revolution has the potential to SPREAD into neighboring
- territories; if those territories' unrest ratings are high,
- this chance is much greater. This will also cause armies to
- desert in adjacent territories, as a precursor to
- revolution. A revolution weakens as it spreads, so that it
- can only spread so far before it dies out.
-
- Unrest decreases naturally over time, but is increased when
- a country is invaded. If a territory is occupied, its
- chances of revolting are lower, but its unrest rating
- decreases at a lower rate. If a territory is next to
- another territory in revolt, then its chances of revolting
- are HIGHER.
-
- If a revolution occurs next to one of your territories, make
- sure that your territory is occupied (to help keep the
- revolution from spreading your way). Use the features
- explained below to keep track of current unrest levels and
- potential "trouble spots."
-
- First, you can display levels of unrest in each player's
- territories by displaying the world map and pressing the
- UNREST icon; this is the icon that looks like a fist. On
- the map, RED marks unrest in your territories; the brighter
- the shade, the GREATER the unrest. DARK GREEN marks neutral
- territories, and territories with zero unrest. PURPLE marks
- territories that are currently in revolt. Enemy territories
- are marked using one of three levels of color-coding,
- depending on the INTELLIGENCE you have gathered on each
- enemy leader; this is explained in the INTELLIGENCE
- GATHERING section below.
-
- Secondly, you can use the INFO-PANEL to see a territory's
- current unrest rating. When an info-panel is displayed,
- press the icon marked with a SPY and the unrest rating for
- the selected territory will appear. This also changes the
- mini-map to display color-codes for CONFLICT and UNREST; use
- the map icon to switch between them. Pressing the SPY
- button returns the mini-map to normal and re-displays the
- territory list.
-
- Finally, the RECORDS TABLE at the bottom of the HISTORY
- SCREEN also displays how many revolutions each player has
- suffered.
-
-
- DIPLOMACY
-
- Diplomacy is used to create two types of treaties:
-
- 1) ALLIANCES are treaties where two leaders agree to not
- attack each other.
- 2) PACTS are treaties where two leaders agree to not attack
- each other AND to both attack a chosen enemy.
-
- You access these features through the DIPLOMACY SCREEN. To
- get to this screen, press the DIPLOMACY icon on the Icon
- Bar; it looks like two hands in a handshake. The bottom
- half of this screen displays a TREATY REPORT for your
- government. It displays each player's level of TRUST in
- you, and whether you currently have any treaties with them.
-
- Two of the buttons at the top of the screen allow you to
- offer an ALLIANCE or PACT to an enemy. When you select one
- of these tasks, panels will then appear so that you can
- choose WHICH LEADERS should be involved and the HOW LONG the
- treaty should last.
-
- Here are some things to consider about treaties:
-
- 1) You can only have one treaty with each player at any one
- time.
- 2) You can only attempt one treaty with each player per
- turn.
- 3) It is also possible that one of your enemies will offer
- YOU a treaty, via a message panel; it is up to you to accept
- or reject it.
- 4) A treaty are considered broken if one of the allied
- players attacks the other's territories while the treaty is
- in force.
- 5) If a computer-controlled leader feels that his ally isn't
- attacking the target of a PACT as much as he does, then he
- might complain and declare the treaty broken.
- 6) Remember that computer-controlled players have different
- personalities, which control when they decide to offer,
- accept, reject, follow and break treaties. Some leaders
- will go back on their words more often than others.
-
-
- INTELLIGENCE GATHERING
-
- Information about other players is not simply given to you;
- you have to invest resources into finding it. This is the
- job of your intelligence operation, which has two functions:
- to GATHER INTELLIGENCE, and to create SPECIAL FORCES teams
- (which are explained separately).
-
- The first step in creating an intelligence operation is to
- provide it with RESOURCES. Go back to the LOGISTICS SCREEN
- (by pressing the LOGISTICS icon) and increase the resources
- spent on INTELLIGENCE; it is the third allowance listed at
- the top of the screen. The more resources you devote to it,
- the larger your intelligence bureau will become.
-
- Once resources are devoted to intelligence, you control how
- they are spent through the INTELLIGENCE REPORT SCREEN; to
- access it press the INTELLIGENCE button, which looks like a
- spy reading a newspaper. The top four buttons on the top
- half of the screen activate intelligence-gathering sections
- for each enemy (if you have four enemies). Your resources
- are evenly divided between whichever sections have buttons
- that are depressed; selecting several sections spreads your
- resources thinly, reducing the amount of intelligence each
- section can gather. Sections will expand slowly over time,
- as more information is uncovered, and will slowly shrink
- when resources are taken away.
-
- Each section has a percentage rating that measures how
- COMPLETE your intelligence is for that enemy. This
- completeness rating determines what kinds of information you
- can access on a particular enemy, affecting the following
- areas of the game:
-
- INFO-PANEL (TERRITORIES) -- Depending on the completeness
- rating for a leader, the unrest ratings for his territories
- (as shown on the info-panel) will be at one of four levels
- of detail.
-
- INFO-PANEL (ARMIES) -- Depending on the completeness rating
- for a leader, the info-panel for an one of his armies will
- show different amounts of information.
-
- WORLD MAP -- Depending on the completeness rating for a
- leader, the color-codes used on the world map to display his
- territories' UNREST ratings will show one of three levels of
- detail:
-
- COMPLETENESS UNREST COLOR-CODING
- 0% dark green = unknown
- 1-39% dark green = none, light blue = some
- 40-100% dark green = none, green = low,
- bright green = high
-
- MESSAGE BAR -- If you have 30% intelligence or more gathered
- on a leader, the message bar will display a message whenever
- he deploys SPECIAL FORCES in a territory. (See below for
- details.)
-
- LEADER REPORT -- The bottom of the INTELLIGENCE REPORT
- screen displays a profile for one of your enemies; press the
- ARROW BUTTONS to select reports for other leaders. Use this
- report to determine what an enemy is capable of doing in the
- near-future, and what he is likely to do. As the
- completeness rating for a leader grows, these items are
- added to this report:
-
- The second line of the Leader Report lets you learn about
- each computer player's current emotional state. The
- leader's STABILITY is shown on the left; each computer
- player can be driven into madness, and this rating shows how
- close he is to it. There are three stability ratings:
- STABLE (low chance of madness), UNSTABLE (high chance of
- madness) and DERANGED (actually mad).
-
- The leader's MOOD is shown on the right; this affects the
- approach he will take to the game. There are two basic
- moods that stable players may be in:
-
- AGGRESSIVE -- Spend more resources on armies, use them
- aggressively; devote fewer resources to intelligence.
-
- DEFENSIVE -- Do not initiate battles, instead stockpile
- armies and seize neutral territories; devote more to
- intelligence, and raise unrest in adjacent enemy
- territories.
-
- In certain situations, the players may temporarily shift
- into one of three special moods:
-
- EXPANSIONIST -- If a leader there are many neutral
- territories in the world, he will try to grab them as
- quickly as possible.
-
- DESPERATE -- If a leader is very weak, he will stockpile his
- resources, and concentrate on simply staying alive until he
- can "break out" into surrounding territories.
-
- VENGEFUL -- If a leader is constantly attacked by an enemy,
- he may declare revenge, and focus his efforts on attacking
- whomever attacked him the most in recent times.
-
- The third line of the Leader Report lists a leader's CHANCE
- OF MADNESS; this is a percentage that measures his
- stability. If a leader is attacked very little over time,
- this percentage may go down. If a leader is attacked a lot
- over time, this percentage will go up. If it reaches 100
- percent, the leader becomes DERANGED and enters one of three
- deranged states:
-
- MADNESS -- The leader is "gaga" -- he is incapable of doing
- anything.
-
- PARANOID -- The leader becomes ultra-defensive, buying lots
- of intelligence and using lots of special forces; he offers
- lots of treaties, but seldom accepts any from his enemies.
-
- FANATICAL -- The leader becomes ultra-offensive, buying lots
- of armies and attacking a specific enemy; the target of his
- attacks can be one chosen for revenge, or just a recent
- attacker, or even a completely random player.
-
- The chance of madness can actually go above 100 percent; the
- higher it goes above 100, the longer the resulting madness
- will last. When a leader is deranged, his chance of madness
- is displayed as zero percent (since he's already gone "off
- the edge").
-
- The starting stability and mood of each computer leader, and
- the chances that they will shift into particular moods and
- states during the game, are determined by their
- PERSONALITIES; therefore each leader will react somewhat
- differently to identical situations.
-
-
- SPECIAL FORCES
-
- The second function of your intelligence operation is to
- assemble covert intelligence teams called SPECIAL FORCES;
- these units can be deployed anywhere around the world,
- allowing you to attack your enemies from within.
-
- To create some special forces, return to the top half of the
- INTELLIGENCE REPORT screen and select the bottom button
- (below the four section buttons). When the button is
- depressed, special forces will get an even share of your
- intelligence resources, just like your intelligence-
- gathering sections. The number listed here shows the number
- of special forces units you currently have available; this
- number will increase and decrease (within a couple of turns)
- as the resources devoted to special forces change. Each
- covert activity that you attempt requires a certain number
- of these units; they are deducted from your available units
- when the activity is attempted, and reappear a month or two
- later. You can have up to TWENTY special forces units,
- total. You must have at least one percent of information
- gathered on an enemy before you can use special forces
- against him.
-
- One of the two uses of special forces is to either RAISE or
- LOWER the UNREST ratings in individual territories; however,
- this has been disabled in the demo. The second use for your
- special forces is to destabilize enemy leaders -- to
- increase a computer player's chance of madness, hopefully to
- put him into a deranged state.
-
- To destabilize an enemy, return to the DIPLOMACY SCREEN;
- select the option below the two treaty buttons, and then
- choose a leader to destabilize from the panel that appears.
- It takes five special forces units to destabilize a leader.
-
- The chance of successfully destabilizing a leader is based
- solely on how much intelligence you have gathered on him; if
- your intelligence is 50 percent complete, then you have a 50
- percent chance of success. A successful destabilization
- will raise the leader's chance of madness by FIFTEEN
- percent; if it goes over 99 percent, he will become
- deranged.
-
-
- VIEWING YOUR EMPIRE
-
- As the game progresses, there are two methods that you can
- use to study how the war is going:
-
- First, the HISTORY SCREEN provides a record of the course of
- the war; to display it press the HISTORY icon, which looks
- like a book. The top half of the screen contains a
- TERRITORY GRAPH, which shows how many territories each
- leader has controlled from month to month; you can use the
- arrow buttons to change its scale both vertically and
- horizontally. The bottom half of the screen is a RECORDS
- TABLE which shows how many conflicts each player has won and
- lost, how many times each enemy has attacked your
- territories, and how many times you have attacked theirs.
-
- Second, when the world map is displayed you can press the
- CONFLICT icon (which looks like a tank) to show how many
- times each territory has been attacked, captured and/or
- occupied since the beginning of the war. The map is color-
- coded as follows: DARK GREEN territories have not been
- touched by conflict; BLUE-GREEN territories have a past
- history of conflict (the BRIGHTER the color, the more times
- it has been invaded); and ORANGE territories are currently
- in conflict.
-
-
- ENDING YOUR TURN AND COMPLETING THE GAME
-
- The game proceeds in turns, where each player gets one turn
- per month; you can place and move armies only during your
- turn. When you have built and moved all the armies you want
- for a turn, press the END TURN icon to pass control to the
- next player; this icon looks like a small "thinking" man.
-
- During other players' turns, the message bar will display
- where they build and move armies, and how any conflicts you
- have with them are resolved. Also, the world map and
- territory map will change in real-time as they make their
- moves. You can press the PAUSE icon, just to the right of
- the End Turn icon, to pause the game while an enemy is
- moving. If you have trouble following the enemy's actions,
- you can slow them down (see GAME OPTIONS, below).
-
- This demo finishes when either a) two game years go by, b)
- you succeed in capturing one third of the world (as measured
- by resourced produced per month), or c) you lose all your
- territories and armies. (The complete game continues until
- you WIN (by eliminating all other players) or LOSE (by
- losing all your territories and armies).)
-
- If you are looking for occasional guidance while you play,
- you can ask for ADVICE via the OPTIONS icon (see below).
- Good luck!
-
-
- GAME OPTIONS
-
- All game options are handled through one icon; this is the
- OPTIONS icon, which is marked with the letter "I." Pressing
- this icon displays new icons, which do the following tasks
- (loading and saving are disabled):
-
- SNAIL -- Adjust game speed and scroll speed settings
- "EXIT" SIGN -- Exit to DOS
- "I" ICON -- Change configuration settings
-
- The GAME SPEED setting controls how fast your enemy's moves
- are displayed, and how fast satellite battles move. The
- SCROLL SPEED setting controls how fast you can scroll over
- game maps.
-
- The "I" ICON on this panel displays another panel with
- additional options:
-
- A) CONFIRMATIONS -- Controls whether the computer asks you
- to confirm irreversible actions; this should only be turned
- off by experienced players.
- B) SOUND EFFECTS -- Toggles sound effects on and off.
- C) TUNES -- Toggles music on and off.
- D) ANIMATIONS -- Toggles animated panels on and off; turning
- this off will make the game faster on slow machines.
- E) ADVICE -- Displays a panel with helpful hints for winning
- the game.
-
-
- WHAT'S MISSING?
-
- In the complete version of GLOBAL DOMINATION, you will be
- able to play a game to completion (naturally); however,
- these additional features are also included:
-
- 1) Difficulty Adjustment -- You will be able to adjust
- Difficulty Levels, Complexity Settings and Revolution
- Frequency in any combination, to create exactly the type of
- game you like to play.
-
- 2) Multiple Human Players -- Up to five players can play at
- once, from the same machine.
-
- 3) Modem Play and Null-Modem Play -- Two players can play on
- separate machines, linked by a modem or direct serial
- connection.
-
- 4) World Generator -- You will be able to generate and endless
- variety of world maps, and save them for repeated use.
-
- 5) Special Forces -- You will be able to deploy special forces
- units in ANY territory to raise and lower unrest.
-
- 6) Tactical Commands in Satellite Battles -- You will be able
- to give orders to each unit in a satellite battle, for
- movement, artillery barrages, and group organization.
-
- 7) Full-Screen Victory and Defeat Animations
-
- 8) Animated Introduction
-
- 9) Digitized Sound Effects Throughout the Game
-
- 10) Save and Load Game Commands.
-
- ---
-
- Global Domination will be released in early October, 1993 by
- Impressions Software.
-
-