This demo contains the Training Campaign from TANKTICS, as well as the first fiendishly difficult Stoneage mission and a rather silly Time Trial. The Boot Camp levels are designed to introduce you, the punter, to the happy go lucky world of Part-O-Matics, giant flappy cranes and combustible sheep.
**IMPORTANT**
Tanktics requires DirectX version 6.1 to run. If you don't have DirectX installed on your machine, you can get the latest version direct from Microsoft at www.microsoft.com
Controlling the Crane in Tanktics
To interact with the game world, you control a hovering crane with a magnet attached.
The mouse is used to move the crane in any direction. The right mouse button is used to toggle your magnet on and off. The left mouse button is used to select and de-select Tanks, as well as issuing orders to your tanks to move and attack..
Using the mouse is important in Tanktics, but there are other keys which can make play easier. When moving over large areas, it is often easier to use the cursor keys for continuous movement. You can also use the 'c' key, which keeps the crane moving at a constant speed when you move the mouse, or the 'v' key, which causes the crane to move at full speed in the direction it is currently facing.
Basic Tank Building
Each tank must have at least three parts. If your tank is to move, it must have a wheelbase. On top of the wheelbase, you must place an engine. Every tank must have at least one engine. You may then choose to put a number of weapons on your tank. Finally, every tank must have a radar dish on top to be complete. You may stack multiple engines and weapons on a tank. It may have as many 10 parts in all. Different sized engines can support a different number of weapons. For simplicity, look at how many exhaust ports an engine has. That is the number of weapons that engine can support on your tank. A tank can carry as many weapons as it has exhaust ports.
For example, a tank with two engines; one large (4 exhaust ports) and one small (1 exhaust port) can have up to 5 weapons on it.
If at any point, you do not know what an object in the world is, simply leave your crane over it for a second or two. A description will appear in the bottom-left corner of the game window.
Controlling Tanks in Tanktics
To control a Tank, move your crane over it, and a large green selection cursor will appear above it. If you press the left mouse button, your tank will be selected, and its rank will be displayed above it.
If, at any point, you wish to deselect a tank without selecting another, press the space bar.
To make a tank move to a certain location, select it and then move your crane to the spot you wish the tank to move to. The cursor will change to three small triangles - the movement cursor. Simply left-click and your tank will move towards that point.
To attack an enemy tank or receiver, select your tank and move the crane over the enemy tank/receiver. The cursor will change to 3 red daggers. Press the left mouse button to order your tank to attack.
Using Tanks in Groups
To select more than one tank, hold down the shift key and select tanks as normal.
You can assign tanks to a coloured group. First, select the tanks you wish to group together. Next, hold down shift and press a number between 1 and 5. The radars of all the tanks you selected should now be a different colour from the rest of the tanks. By pressing the appropriate number key (1 to 5) you will instantly select all the tanks in that group.
Using the Part-O-Matic
The Part-o-Matic is your base, and must be protected from enemy tanks. The Part-O-Matic is also used to create new tank parts. Almost anything can be recycled to create tank parts. The Part-o-Matic Queue is displayed beneath the radar mini-map in the side panel. This shows the order in which parts will be created by the Part-o-Matic. The side panel can also display the health of tanks and other objects. Press the TAB key to toggle the side panel display between HEALTH mode and Part-o-Matic QUEUE mode.
Once the Part-o-Matic has sufficient resources, it will begin to build the item as the bottom of the queue. To speed up production, pick up sheep and drop them on the outer ring of the Part-o-Matic.
Traversing hazards
The most basic wheel base for a tank is tyres. These can cross easy terrain such as grass or rock, but not more difficult terrains like sand or snow.
Half Tracks are a combination of tyres and tracks and allow a tank to cross sand, but not snow.
To cross snow, you will need Full Tracks or Wide Tracks.
To cross water, you will need Amphibious tracks.
To discover what type a wheel base is, position your crane over it for a few seconds and the name will appear.
Some areas of sand may contain quicksand. If you suspect that an area of sand might actually be quicksand, drop an object such as a boulder on it. If it sinks, your tanks will know that there is quicksand there and will avoid it.
Be careful around acid pools - Tanks will wander carelessly through acid unless directed away from it.
If you move a tank through mud, the tracks will become brown and muddy, and your tank will move more slowly than normal. In order to clean the tracks, you must either drive the tank through Sheep Dip or dismantle your tank and drop the tracks in Sheep Dip.
Basic Gameplay
In most levels, the objective of the game is to protect your Part-o-Matic against enemy tanks which will beam in at regular intervals. To stop new enemy tanks beaming in, you must destroy all the enemy receivers on the level. To complete the level, you must destroy all receivers and all enemy tanks on the level.
Switch Ranks
Switches usually have a small sign next to them displaying a military rank. This represents the minimum rank a tank must have acquired in order to activate the switch. Tanks gain ranks by destroying enemy tanks in combat.
Suggested levels
To become familiar with the game, it is suggested that new players start with the Training Campaign
Tanktics Key Configuration
Function Key(s)
Move crane up Mouse up / Up arrow
Move crane down Mouse down / Down arrow
Move crane left Mouse left / Left arrow
Move crane right Mouse right / Right arrow
Select Left Mouse Button / Alt
Magnet On/Off Right Mouse Button / Keypad 0
Select Multiple Tanks Shift + Select
Assign Tank to Group Shift + (1-6)
Select Group 1 - 6
Deselect all tanks Space
Force Attack Control + Select
Stop selected tank(s) S
Cruise Control C
Thrust V
Select Next Group ]
Select Previous Group [
Select Next Tank .
Select Previous Tank ,
Tab Toggle Tank Health / Part Queue
T Toggle sidebar on / off
TANKTICS - Coming Soon From DMA Design Ltd.
Including :
* PUZZLE - I do what?
* STRATEGY - I can only grind three sheep up?
* ACTION - Hah! Plasma cannons are no match for burning sheep!
* SPITE - Recycle sheep, burn sheep, make them unhappy
* TIME TRAVEL - Visit Stoneage, Medieval, Modern & Future eras - blow things up
* CONSTRUCTION - Make thousands of tracks, engines, weapons and radar dishes
* BLOOD - Well, oil - everywhere
Tanktics - War & Pieces
Available everywhere - April 1999.
DMA Design - Protecting You From Mediocrity, 'cos we love ya.
