Copyright (c) 1997 Activision Studios. All rights reserved.
Dark Reign is a trademark of Activision Studios.
August 24, 1997
This document contains additional information about the use of the Construction Kit and other editing tools included with Dark Reign as well as supplemental technical information about any hardware conflicts and compatibility problems for Dark Reign for Win95 that came to our attention after the completion of the Dark Reign Manual and the README.hlp.
+ Pentium 90 MHz processor (100% IBM PC-compatible)
+ U.S. version Microsoft Windows 95 operating system
+ 16 MB of physical RAM
+ Double-speed CD-ROM (300K/second sustained transfer rate). Quad-speed CD-ROM required to play movies.
+ 130 MB of uncompressed hard disk space
+ VESA local bus or PCI video card with 1 MB RAM
+ 16-bit SVGA (640 x 480) graphics mode
+ 100% Microsoft-compatible mouse and driver
+ 14.4 baud modem for modem play (28.8 required for Internet play)
+ 100% Windows 95-compatible computer system (including current 32-bit Windows 95 and DirectX-compatible drivers for CD-ROM drive, video card, sound card and input devices)
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO DARK REIGN(TM) PLAYERS
Please note that the system requirements listed in the CD Manual and Player's Manual have been revised to 130 MB of uncompressed hard disk space and a 16-bit SVGA (640 x 480) video card. This product also uses Microsoft's DirectX technology, which requires your system to have the latest Windows 95 drivers that fully support DirectX. Please refer to the box for the complete minimum system requirements.
CONTENTS:
1. Troubleshooting
2. The Mission Construction Kit
2.1 Sample scenario walk-through
2.2 Hints and tips
3. Supplemental Editors
3.1 The FSM/End Condition Editor
3.2 The AIP Editor
3.3 The Unit Editor
4. Gameplay Miscellaneous
1. TROUBLESHOOTING
1.1 DRIVER CONFLICTS
We are aware of compatibility conflicts with the following mouse drivers:
Fellowes 3 button mouse driver
Artec 3 button mouse driver
Cirque Glidepoint desktop driver
Alps Glidepoint driver
If you have any of these four mouse drivers loaded, you will need to load the Microsoft Standard Mouse Driver or compatible driver to play Dark Reign.
If you have a Matrox Mystique video card and wish to play Dark Reign in 800 x 600 mode, you will need to launch the game from the executable in the directory to which you have Dark Reign installed, not from the Windows 95 Start Menu.
If you are attempting to run Dark Reign on a Compaq Presario 4700 series system, you will probably need to download the latest DirectX3 update from the Compaq website and then re-run DirectX setup.
1.2 SYSTEM COMPATABILITY
Dark Reign is not designed to be run on a Windows NT system. If you are running NT, you may be able to load and run Dark Reign, but we do not support running Dark Reign on NT.
1.3 MULTIPLAYER SETUP
If you have "auto-dial" selected for your modem, you will need to dial and connect to your ISP before running Dark Reign.
Internet games are not supported if you are behind a firewall. We recommend direct connections to the Internet.
The maximum number of human players in an Internet game is four.
While setting up Internet games, please allow at least 30 seconds for your selections to be processed. It is normal in these situations for your mouse cursor to be immobile, until processing is complete.
If you want to input custom init. strings for your modem, you must do so in Windows 95. The Dark Reign multiplayer interface does not allow for this modification inside the Dark Reign game shell.
In the multiplayer readyroom, there are a number of option and setting buttons that you can click on that will not be operative unless you are hosting the game. Map selection, starting credits, and other options can only be modified by the host.
If you select the "Show Minimap" feature in the Multiplayer readyroom, it will be displayed for all participants. Once selected, it of course cannot be disabled, so make sure not to select it if you don't want a peek at the map in advance.
When playing on Internet, it is possible to be dropped by your ISP. When this happens, Dark Reign is minimized and the Dial-up networking dialog box pops up. Once you have reconnected, remember that the game is still minimized or you may actually start a new Dark Reign game and receive the message: "It is likely you are using a Windows CD player. Quit to Windows"
2. THE MISSION CONSTRUCTION KIT
2.1 SAMPLE SCENARIO WALKTHROUGH
From the Dark Reign main menu, left-click the "Construction Kit" button. It will take a moment for the Construction Kit to load. Before you can use the construction kit, you must first agree to the terms stated in the pop-up window that appears when the program first opens. After you have left-clicked the "Yes" button, you will have access to the Construction Kit file menu. You must first decide the type of scenario you wish to create. From the "Scenario Type" selection box at the right, choose a singleplayer mission, multiplayer mission, or a multiplayer campaign. Singleplayer missions can be played by one person against one or more computer opponents and permit the designer to establish "end conditions" (the objective[s] that must be achieved by a side in order to win a mission). Multiplayer campaigns allow for multiple human and/or computer players and also permit the designer to set end conditions. Multiplayer missions allow for multiple human and/or computer players but do not permit the establishment of end conditions. The following is a step-by-step walk-through for creating a multiplayer mission.
After you have selected "Multiplayer Mission" from the "Scenario Type" selection box at the right, that type scenario will appear on the button. Next, left-click the "create" button at the right. A new window will appear in the center of your screen with options for naming your scenario and determining the size of your map. In the name window type the name "Test1". The size of your map could technically be as large as 250x250 and still run smoothly with 16MB of RAM, but for our purposes, we'll start with a modest 60x60. Backspace over the number in the height box and type "60". Backspace over the number in the width box and type "60" again. Left-click "OK".
Depending on the speed of your computer, it may take a moment for the Construction Kit to load the basic scenario you have selected. You will now see a field of plain, flat, brown terrain. This is the basic "firm/open" terrain for the "Snow" tileset. For your first map, we will work with a different tileset. To change tilesets, you will need to open the "terrain" menu. To do this, left-click on the image of the mountain in the graphic menu bar at the top of your screen. A new menu will now appear displaying a number of different terrain modeling tool menus. At the top right you will see the "Terrain" selection bar. There are three different tilesets to choose from: Snow, Barren, or Jungle. Press the plus sign button to load the "Barren" tileset. Depending on the speed of your computer, it may take a moment for the Barren tileset to be loaded. When it is loaded, you will see the terrain in your main map window has changed to a sandy beige color. This is the basic "firm/open" terrain for the Barren tileset. Below the terrain selection bar, you will see a square of sixteen boxes arranged in the following fashion:
LQ F/O F/O F/O
SG SG BG BG
RD RD RM RM
RM RM RM RM
These form the terrain type selection menu. Different types of terrain will affect unit movement differently, so your placement of terrain types will be very important. From the top left square (labeled in the above diagram as "LQ") you can select liquid terrain. In the barren tileset this liquid resembles water, but in other tilesets it may look more like sludge or oil. This terrain type is impassable to all units except those that fly or hover. From the three terrain boxes to the right of the liquid terrain box (labeled in the above diagram as "F/O") you can select firm/open terrain. This terrain type is passable at standard speed by all units. From the next row you can select "soft ground" terrain (the two boxes on the left labeled in the above diagram as "SG") or "broken ground" terrain (the two boxes on the right labeled in the above diagram as "BG"). Soft ground will slow all ground units except hover units. Broken ground, on the other hand, will slow only hover units. From the two boxes on the left in the third row (labeled in the above diagram as "RD") you can select "road" terrain. Road terrain provides a speed bonus for all ground units except hover units. The remaining boxes on this row and the row below (labeled in the above diagram as "RM") show "rimming" tiles. These terrain types should not be laid down manually but will appear later to help make different elevation levels and grades on your map more apparent.
Elevation
Before laying down terrain types, you will often find it useful to make map elevation decisions first. It is not absolutely necessary to create elevation changes for your map, but the addition of these features will make the map environment you are creating more strategically interesting for the person who will be playing in it. The default setting for laying out terrain does not include elevation rendering. You can adjust the setting by left-clicking on the red "x" below the terrain type selection menu labeled "altitude". The x will change to a green check mark. You will see that the box next to "terrain" has also been checked. It is possible to disable this function by left-clicking the box to change the green check mark to a red "x", but for the purposes of this exercise leave both functions enabled.
You can adjust elevation levels by using the vertical slider bar next to the terrain type selection menu. Elevation levels are numbered 0 through 9, although it will be easiest on your first maps to only use the 0, 3, 6, and 9 elevations. This is because you will want changes in elevation to be easily discerned. Slide the vertical slider bar up to the level 6 position and then move your cursor over into the main map window. You can see the area of the overall map in which you are working by observing the location of the highlighted square in the minimap in the bottom right corner of the screen. Move your cursor into the top left corner of the main map window to scroll to the top left corner of your map. The highlighted box in the minimap should now appear in that corner. Now try laying down a hill in the corner by left-clicking in the main map window a dragging the cursor across the screen. As you do this, a "hill" at the sixth elevation level will appear along the path of your cursor. While the terrain type of the hill will be same as the rest of the map at this time, shadows have appeared to show its general outline.
To make the elevation of the hill more readily apparent, you will need to toggle back to the "file" menu. Next, find about half way down the sidebar menu on the right a button labeled "Autoridge". Left-click this button. You will now observe that the terrain type around the edge of the hill has changed to show more clearly the difference in elevation between the hill and the land at "0" elevation below. Now go ahead and toggle back to the "terrain" menu and add a few more small hills at level 6. You'll need to go back to the "file" menu and left-click the autoridge button to "rim" these hills. Now go to the terrain type selection menu and left-click on one of the "broken ground" terrain types. Go back to your main map window and make another small hill. Observe that this time you are you are laying down both elevation and differentiated terrain, creating a rocky or mossy hill.
Resources and Teams
Before you go too much farther into raising hills and laying out terrain, you need to give some thought as to the positioning of the teams on your map as well as to the locations of the resources they will draw from. The map you are currently creating is only large enough to two players. Later you can make maps that can easily provide a fighting arena for as many as eight. For two players, we will set out two pure water springs and two Taelon mines, and then set the starting locations for each team near these resources. We will then add in a few starting units and a building or two.
Each unit and building belongs to a team. Springs and Taelon mines are grouped in with the buildings. These resources are assigned to the civilian side. To find them, left-click on the image of the head in the menu bar at the top of the screen. You will now have accessed the "Player Options" menu. At the top of the menu you will see a column of four buttons: Freedom Guard, Imperium, Civilian, and Togran. Left click the "civilian" button. This is the side with which springs and Taelon mines are grouped. Next find the team selection box at the bottom of the screen. This is a collection of nine small buttons arranged as follows:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 N
Each number corresponds to a team that you could designate on your map. The first eight are player (human or computer) teams. Team "N" is neutral. This is the team to which you should assign civilians and civilian buildings - including springs and Taelon mines. Left-click the "N" button. Next left-click the image of the house at in the menu bar at the top of the screen. This takes you to the "building" menu. You will now see in the builbing menu to the left the selection of civilian buildings you can build, including the spring and the Taelon mine. If you are uncertain as to what a particular building is, hold your cursor over the image of that building and text will appear at the bottom of the screen displaying the name of the building. Left-click the image of the pure water spring. Now move your cursor over into the top right of the main map window. Left-click again to set down the spring. Lay down a second spring in the opposite corner. Near each of these, lay down one Taelon mine.
The next step will be to determine the sides and starting points for each team. Because you are creating a two player scenario, you will need to place two teams. To change teams, click the number of the desired team in the team selection box. We will use teams "1" and "2". Left-click on the "1" button. We will set team 1's side to be Imperium. Left-click the Head again to access the "Player Options" menu. In the column of side selection buttons toward the top, click the button labeled "Imperium". Now whichever player is assigned to team "1" will build Imperium buildings and units. Next, assign the Freedom Guard to team "2". Left-click the "2" button in the team selection box, then select the button labeled "Freedom Guard". Whichever player is assigned to team "2" will build Freedom Guard buildings and units. While you still have team "2" selected, left-click the "Start Pos." button on the right side of the screen. Your cursor will now change to a green flag. Now move your cursor back into the main map window and scroll back to the top right area of the map near the spot where you have placed one of your pure water springs. Left-click on a spot and an "x" will appear with the label "Team 2". When your multiplayer mission starts, this is the spot on the map from which team 2 will begin. Left-click on the "Start Pos." button again and mark a starting spot for team 1 in the bottom left area of the map near the pure water spring down there.
Starting Units, Buildings, and Credits
At this point you will have completed almost every necessary step for creating a multiplayer mission, but there are a few extra items we will add to this one. If you are ever uncertain as to whether or not you have met all the criteria necessary for the completion of a scenario, go to the "Status" menu by left-clicking on the picture of the graph on the right end of the menu bar at the top of the screen. This display will show you the number of units, buildings, and overlays you have placed on your map, as well as a list of any remaining necessary items or settings. Now return to the "Player Options" menu. Below the "Start Pos." button you will see a window in which you can select a default number of starting credits for your mission. Backspace over the number in this window and type "10,000".
Next left-click on the image of the little man (just to the right of the mountain) in the menu bar at the top of the screen. In the team selection box, the number "1" should still be depressed. On the right hand side of the screen you will now see a selection of Imperium units. You can start multiplayer missions with any number of these, but the best standard arrangement is to start each team with three Construction Rigs. This will allow each player to build an HQ, Power Plant, and Water Launch Pad - the basic building blocks of any base. Move your cursor over the image of the construction rig in the top left of the unit selection menu. The name of the unit will now appear at the bottom of the menu. Left-click on the Rig and then move your cursor over into the main map window to a spot near the marked starting position for team 1. Left-click to place the Rig. To place more Rigs, you can either hold down the left mouse button and scroll, left-click again, or left-click the "dup" button just below the team selection box. Now left-click the "2" button in the team selection box. Notice that the menu of units now changes to display the units of the Freedom Guard. Again left-click on the Construction Rig and this time set out three Rigs in the top right area of the map near the designated starting position for team 2.
Finally we will add in a building or two for each team to start with. With team 2 still selected, left-click the
image of the house in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Select a Camera Tower and place it on the map near the team two starting spot. Do the same for team one.
The Playing Environment
Your map is now perfectly playable, but you may yet want to make some adjustments and additions to make the playing experience richer and to make your map look more realistic. The first thing you may wish to do is alter the terrain in some places. Go back to the "Terrain" menu by left-clicking the image of the mountain in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Before you select anything, move the altitude slider to the right of the terrain type selection menu from "6" back down to "0". From the terrain type selection menu, select a "road" tile. You can change the size, shape, and consistency of the tile you're laying down by using the other tools in this menu. Below the terrain type selection menu you will find a numbered horizontal slider bar. Using this bar you can select the type of "mask" or texture pattern your tiles will be drawn with. For your first maps, leave the setting all the way to the left on "R". This is the random mask setting and is the one that will make your maps look the most natural. Below this bar you will see four boxes. One of these will be highlighted. Use these to control the shape of your tiles as you draw them. You may want to use the straighter-sided tile shapes for roads and artificially formed areas. More natural regions should be drawn using a more jagged-edged tile shape. Left-click on the box of the shape you wish to use and try drawing some tiles. You can also change the size and shape of your "brush" using the controls at the bottom of the menu. Left click the up and down arrows next to the image of the paint brush to adjust your brush size. Changing the shape of your brush will only really matter when you are using a brush size larger than size "1". If you want to quickly scatter a terrain type in an area of your map, left-click the button labeled "solid" at the bottom of the screen. The label for this button will now change to "spray". This tool is also only effective with larger brush sizes. You may also want to "zoom out" to work on your map on a larger scale. Left click the up and down arrows next to the image of the magnifying glass to adjust your zoom level. For whatever terrain you decide to implement, remember that different terrains will have differing effects on unit movement (see designations above), so lay out terrain types with care.
The final step in getting your map looking right is to add in overlays. Left-click on the image of the tree in the menu bar at the top of the screen. This will bring up the "Add Overlay" menu. Here you will find trees, rocks, craters - even crashed spaceships. Try placing these around your map in various spots, It's best not to place too many near the team starting points. You will want to make sure to leave enough room for base-building. Also keep in mind that units can be blocked out of certain areas by walls of overlays and that units can hide behind many overlays. In many respects your placement of overlays can have as profound an effect on the way your mission plays as your placement of terrain tiles. When you've set your last tree and rock in place, our test mission is complete. You'll need to go back to the "File" menu to save your mission. It will probably take some practice to get used to using all the tools and options. The following is a collection of tips and suggestions from our designers:
2.2 Hints and Tips
If you are making a map larger than 120x120 (especially larger than 200x200) it is helpful to place markers on the map in the corners and the center before you do anything else. This will help you create the terrain and place teams. You will also notice that this map size is lager than what will completely fit into a single frame of your minimap, so you will be scrolling on your minimap as well.
Your "End Condition" menu will appear blank when you are creating a multiplayer mission because multiplayer missions cannot have end conditions.
You can randomly paint more than one tile at the same time by holding down control and selecting all the tiles you want to paint with.
In the Construction Kit overlay, building and unit menus, you will see two numbers appear and change as you add items to your map. The first number indicates the number of that item you have placed on your map. The second number indicates the tech level necessary for building the building (where applicable.)
Use slow tiles under trees and around rocks to give a dense look and for added effect.
You can select multiple masks and tiles by holding down the control key and selecting the combination you want.
You can paint overlays by holding down the control key and selecting the objects you want. You may want to clump trees together but leave rocks by themselves.
Don't put too many pure water springs in one place. Spread the water springs evenly over the map.
Using many different elevations will give your terrain a bumpy effect and will also effect units' line of sight and unit movement.
Be careful with elevations. Try to play the game in your head and make sure you have considered both hover and ground unit movement for your map.
Be careful with the liquid tile. Unlike most conventional settings, it impedes one side (Freedom Guard) far more than the other (Imperium).You should use the liquid tile sparingly. It is not good to use it for looks as it severely effects gameplay.
You can make areas of the map where players cannot build by changing the elevation or placing overlays there. Keep in mind that most overlays can be destroyed.
Placing pure spring overlays in areas that have no place to build near them means that no one team will be able to build fortifications around them.
A good default setting for credits is 10,000.
It's a good idea to have at least 1.5 water springs per player and no more than 3 per player. If you do add multiple springs, you may want to put secondary ones in hard to reach places.
If you use a lot of elevation changes you may want to make ramps on the sides of hills so that hover units have a way of getting up.
Remember to leave enough flat clear space for people to build their bases.
Stick to elevations 0, 3, 6 , & 9
Never forget: Start Locations, Starting Credits, placing water & crystals
Use slow terrain for specific purposes, don't just scatter it everywhere.
With regards to elevation, only certain types of units can cross certain elevation changes (the difference between one tile and the next)
(elevation difference = x)
x>3 then hover can't cross (rimmed accordingly).
x>6 wheeled and tracked vehicles cant cross (rimmed accordingly).
infantry can cross anything.
For your base building area, a rather large area that is flat and free of overlays is needed. At least on game screen is size to two game screens in size. Remember to leave areas that you can move all unit types off of (i.e. not on islands or hills the hover vehicles can't get down from)
Bumpy terrain can really obscure line-of-sight. Best to limit this type of terrain to areas that are intended not to be crossed, very slow terrain, etc.
You can't move or see through trees. It is very possible to lay trees (and other overlays for that matter)appear to be passable, but aren't. You can hit Shift - A in the Construction Kit to display the passability of overlays.
Slow terrain can really slow play down. Slow terrain makes guard towers more powerful (since units will move slowly closer to the tower while being fired at the entire time).
Water can be crossed by both Freedom Guard and Imperium, but it provides the Imperium an advantage because the Imperium uses so many hover units. The AI can not cross water nearly as well as humans (It doesn't build bridges or load units into transports).
Talon is not required on your map but its presence does reduce some micro-management in the game (don't have to find space to build lots of power plants).
Water wells should be close enough to be easily found on multi-player maps.
AUTORIDGE EVERYTHING.
The largest size map the Construction Kit will support is 500x500 (an almost inconceivable size, but you could create a map that large if you wanted. Maps of this size are not recommended: it could take you a day or so just to FIND your opponent) If you attempt to create a larger map, the size setting will default to 500. The smallest size map you can create is 20x20 (Also not recommended unless you want to play a two minut game.)
For Campaign and Singleplayer Scenarios:
Be absolutely sure you understand FSM's & End conditions before using them. (improper use of them can make your game messy and unsatisfying.)
Comment your FSM's.
It is quite difficult to balance campaign missions when players on the same team have different end conditions.
Some of the most enjoyable Multiplayer campaigns are those where everyone shares the same objective.
Write detailed mission briefings, it never hurts.
Include each player's objectives in your briefings
Some of the end conditions specifically reference one side's units or buildings. Remember players can change sides in the Multiplayer Setup screen. So if you don't want them to change sides tell them in your briefings.
Units with preset orders or wapoints have to be special forces if the belong to a team with an AIP. Otherwise the units will be taken over by the AI.
3. Supplemental Editors
3.1 The FSM/Endcondition Editor
Basic Editing:
The editor for FSMs and Endconditions is called "SafeEdit.exe". When you run SafeEdit, after showing you the warning message, it defaults to creating a new FSM. It should look like this:
DefineAICondTree()
{
;; State
}
Note that every line except " ;; State" shows up in blue. You cannot edit these lines. The " ;; State" line is magenta. Double click on this to create a new FSM state. Now it should look like this:
DefineAICondTree()
{
DefineCondState()
{
;; State_Actions
}
;; State
}
You can continue to add new states by double clicking magenta lines which say " ;; State". Note that the line " ;; State_Actions" is red. Double click this red text to bring up a pop-up menu which gives you options for new lines to add. Choose SetAlliance, and the text should look like this:
Notice that the "Team0", etc, are in green. Green text can be edited by hand. Red, magenta, and blue cannot. You can continue to add as many new states and state actions as you want. Remember what the different colors of text mean, as there will be a few different occurences of each color:
Green: You can edit this.
Blue: You cannot edit this, and clicking on it does nothing except select an action or state (delete or backspace will remove that action or state).
Red: Double Clicking brings up a menu of options.
Magenta: Double Clicking adds one more element.
The tab key will move the insertion point to the next editable text.
Comments:
Use comments liberally, but only add them when the insertion point is at the start of a line (or near it, so that a comment does not get inserted in the middle of green text; that would be bad).
Files:
With SafeEdit, you can edit FSMs or Endconditions. There is very little difference between the two (only in the very first line of the file. To get a new one of either, select New FSM or New Endconditions from the File menu (simple New will just give you a new one of whichever you last had open).
When saving, you may have to manually change the file suffix to .fsm or .end as appropriate (watch out for this!). When loading, the program tries to interpret the file as an FSM or Endconditions depending on whether its got .fsm or .end on the file name.
3.2 AIP Editor
Purpose
The AIP (Artificial Intelligence Personality) Editor is designed to complement the construction kit in allowing the user to modify the behaviors of the computer-controlled opponents. The "personality" of the opponents is defined in a AIP file (a text file) where various values are set.
Files Modified
The Editor will write out an AIP file to any desired directory. Generally, these files are placed either in a scenario's directory, or in the general "aip" directory of the game.
What the Editor Can't Do
Not all tags are covered by the editor, and if they are not covered, they will not be written out. This includes AIP files using these tags that are loaded and subsequently saved. For this reason, you should use the editor with caution on any existing file.
Some known areas that the editor currently does not support: transport tags, tactical AI levels, and unit match-ups.
Interface
This section will describe the various parts of the editor interface and how they are used.
Toolbar
There is a toolbar at the top of the editor window at all times. This contains buttons for the most high-level tasks, roughly equivalent to the File menu of most programs. The "Exit" button will close the program. The "Load" button will prompt the user for an AIP file and will load it into the editor. It's opposite, the "Save" button will write out an AIP file to the specified directory.
The "Priorities" and "Accounts" buttons are used to switch between the two different editing modes of this editor, described later. The "Units" and "Buildings" buttons will similarly switch between the iconic display of units and building at the right, which is used for various editing tasks.
There is a pair of arrows at the far right, which will allow the user to scroll through the iconic display of units and buildings on the right side of the screen.
Account Toolbar
In account mode (when the "Accounts" button is selected on the main toolbar), an additional toolbar will be visible at the bottom of the screen. This toolbar is used for the management of accounts and the individual entries in those accounts.
The pair of arrows at the far left is used to scroll through the list of accounts for the current AIP. The "Add" and "Delete" buttons on the left side of the screen are also used to modify the list of accounts; the "Add" button will add a blank account to the end of the list, and the "Delete" button will remove the currently selected account from the list.
On the right, the other "Delete" button is used to delete an individual entry from the currently selected account. When this button is clicked, the cursor changes into the "slash" symbol and if the user then clicks on an entry in the list above, that entry will be removed from the current account. The pair of arrows at the far right is used to scroll through the entry list for the current account.
Icons
The far right of the screen displays the units and buildings, which are used in various parts of the editor. Moving the mouse over one of the icons will display the description of that unit or building at the bottom of the screen.
Editing
This section will describe the various parts of an AIP file and how the editor manages them.
Priorities
The "personality" of an AIP is primarily determined by the priority values. These are relative values (most of them, anyway) which are used to determine what tasks the computer-controlled opponent considers most important. "Relative values" means that there are no practical limits to the size of these numbers (although the editor does enforce one), as they are only important in comparison to each other. There are certainly exceptions to this, and a complete breakdown of each fields significance is key to understanding an AIPs behavior; unfortunately, such a discussion is beyond the scope of this document.
Each priority is displayed in its own box ("field") on screen, when the "Priorities" button is selected in the toolbar. Each field is next to a pair of arrows which may be used to modify the value inside. The values can also be modified directly by the user by selecting the text and typing normally.
Each field has its own range and precision, which is an attempt by the designers to guide the user towards values of an appropriate order of magnitude.
Accounts
When the "Accounts" button is selected in the toolbar, the screen is then divided up into two sections. On the left are the accounts and on the right are the entries. Entries are either units or buildings, and are used to signify what is built when by an AIP. Accounts contain entries, and the editor attempts to represent this relationship in the following way.
Each account box has a unlabeled radio button (a round button) in the upper left portion of the box. If the account is selected, then this button will be highlighted. Only one account can be selected at a time, and clicking the radio button of a different account will de-select the first one. Whatever account is selected, its entries will be displayed in the right half of the screen. New accounts will not have any entries to begin with, and so none will be displayed, but the account is still selected.
Each account has a section marked "%" (percentage) and one marked "Cap", which stands for budget cap. "%" is defined as the percentage of the budge that is allocated to that account, and "Cap" is defined as the maximum amount of credits that can be specified to that account. The buttons marked "Unlimited" specify that that area of the account has no limit, and the fields nearby can be used to specify a precise value for either area. Percentage values entered by the user are normalized by the game (so you can have two accounts which combined use more that 100% of the budget).
Each entry in the current account has a box of information, as well. The unlabeled field on the left that contains a number is the priority of the entry; larger priorities will be built first. Note that the entry list is sorted according to priority. Also, there is a menu where the user selects the build mode of that entry (described elsewhere). The field at the far right is used to specify the value used by the current build mode for that entry.
To add an entry to the currently selected account, drag the icon of a unit or building over to the entry area of the screen. The unit or building will be added to the account and the entry list will be sorted (which is why the unit or building may not necessarily appear where you dropped it).
Force Multipliers
Beneath each icon for a unit or building, there is an unmarked field that contains a decimal number. This is the force multiplier for that particular unit or building; a value of 1.0 means that the unit is given no special significance by the AIP. If the value is lower than 1.0, that means that the AIP will consider that unit to be less of a threat and will send less forces to an area that contains that unit. If the value is greater than 1.0, the AIP will consider that unit to be more of a threat, and will respond accordingly.
Building Location
In the same area, for buildings but not units, there is a menu which allows the user to specify what location a particular building is built. These building locations are described elsewhere.
3.3 UBE Editor
Purpose
UBE stands for "Units, Buildings, and Environment" and that is what this editor allows the user to modify. Dark Reign uses text files external to the game itself to define the various unit and building types that are used. By modifying the contents of these files, the user can change the capabilities of most everything in the game.
Files Modified
This editor initially reads in the files "units.txt" and "build.txt", which are contained in the "deftxt" directory of the Dark Reign installation. These files may also be used in various scenarios (for special-case units, for example), and the editor supports that as well. The editor will not save directly over your units.txt and build.txt files, so that you do not accidentally change important files which are used throughout the game. Instead, the first time it is run it writes out the files "units_ED.txt" and "build_ED.txt". If you wish to incorporate your changes into the game, you must manually copy these files over "units.txt" and "build.txt". Additionally, if you create new units with the UBE editor, the names of these units are stored in the file "names.h" in the "local" directory of the Dark Reign installation. Copy the contents of this file into the end of the file "mlstring.cfg" to get the new units' names to appear in the game. After you save your changes once, the UBE editor will then read the "units_ED.txt" and "build_ED.txt" files if they are there instead of the "units.txt" and "build.txt" (if you delete "units_ed.txt" and "build_ED.txt", then "units.txt" and "build.txt" will be read in).
Special Defaults
For all the things that can be modified by this editor, there are several that can't. Some of these omissions are intentional, because they define the "physics" of the game and are key to defining exactly what some special abilities are. For example, the explosion displayed when a unit morphs is technically editable on a unit-by-unit basis, but should actually be consistent for ALL units.
These "physics" defaults are contained in the "layout.cfg" file at the root of the installation. The truly ambitious user can modify those values as well, but this editor doesn't support it.
What the Editor Can't Do
The editor has attempted to be as comprehensive as possible, but there are some tags which are not supported (or not fully supported). Any tag that the editor is not aware of will not be written out when the files are saved. Some tags are loaded and written properly, but are not editable. Also, there is no guarantee that, if a value can be set using the editor, the game will run properly will that value set. This means that great caution should be taken. Complete control over the contents of the "units.txt" and "build.txt" files can only be achieved by using a text editor.
Interface
The various parts of the editor's interface are described below.
Toolbar
There is a toolbar displayed at the top of the screen at all times. The "Exit" button will close the editor. The "Save" button will save the "units.txt" and "build.txt" files to whatever directory they were opened from (which may not necessarily be the same one, see below). The "Load" button will allow the user to choose a directory from which to load these files -- if either or both files do not exist at the specified location, the missing file(s) will be loaded from the default directory. The "Default" button will load the files from the default directory, and the "Revert" button will copy over the current default files with copies from the original installation and load the new defaults. This can be used to recover from any problems experienced from modifying the default directory files.
The "Units", "Buildings", and "Environment" buttons are used to switch the mode of the editor. The "Add" and "Delete" buttons will add or delete a unit or building (there is no effect while in environment mode). Lastly, the pair of buttons on the far right of the toolbar are used to scroll through the displayed units or buildings.
Icons
Units and Building are displayed for their appropriate modes on the right side of the screen. Moving the mouse over an icon will display its description at the bottom of the screen.
Editing
This section will describe how to modify the values that the editor displays. A complete description of each and every tag used by the editor is not possible here. Each mode of the editor will display a different box in the left part of the screen. Each box has a number of sections of data, which are represented by the labeled tabs at the top part of each box.
Clicking on a unit or building in the iconic list will display the information for that unit or building. When editing values, the changes made by the user will not be applied until the "Apply" button is clicked in the center lower part of the screen. This means that if a series of modifications are made to a unit and the user selects another unit (or changes modes) before applying changes, then those changes are lost.
4. GAMEPLAY MISCELLANEOUS:
If you want to load a game that you have saved in "Instant Action" you will need enter the game shell and go to the "options" menu.
In order to receive a "mission successful" message in a multiplayer game in which you are allied with other players, you must have pre-selected the same team as your allies.
On the pre-printed keyboard quick reference card, one of the hot keys listed is "H" for returning to your primary HQ in the main map window. This feature was never implemented.
In multiplayer games, unless you specify otherwise by specifically assigning them to different teams, all AI players will ally with each other.
If your machine is at or near minimum memory requirements to run Dark Reign, you may notice that the game may pause for a second while changing audio tracks.
In some situations, music volume setting do not reset to the default setting when you exit the game - they will remain at the last setting you chose before the last time you exited the game.
Save games DO take up hard disk space: from 1 to 8 megabytes, depending on the mission and the point in the mission at which you save. If you find yourself running low on memory, you may want to consider eliminating some old save games.
You can assign the Rift Creator to a hot key in the same way you would a unit (cntrl+a number). Once you have gained line of sight for your target, select the Rift Creator group # and fire.
The Shockwave will autofire unless you set it on low Independence in the "orders" menu. This setting is recommended as you may otherwise from time to time find yourself accidentally shockwaving your own base to take out an enemy unit that has sneaked up from the rear.
In missions in which your performance is timed, the game clock IS slower than real time.
Units cannot be cued in the build menu if you have walls or resources selected.
Oftentimes, you'll find your resource freighter taking a dangerous route to and from a water spring or taelon source. To protect your freighter and its valuable cargo, we recommend setting up waypoints along a two-way path in the PATHS menu to guide your freighter out of harm's way to and from the resource. Note: Once your path is created, do not try to save it for other units to use. Saving the path will not capture this unit's unique function (picking up and dumping its cargo at each endpoint).
If you choose to play as a Togran (either in the final mission, Instant Action, or multiplayer), you will have access to all of the buildings and units from both the Imperium and Freedom Guard. To build units from either side, all you need to do is just meet the prerequisites from one of the sides (ie., the Freedom Guard Assembly Plant will allow you to build both basic level Freedom Guard and Imperium units). However, the pop up text that displays which prereqs have been met and which ones haven't that appears over your unit icon in the BUILD menu can be a little misleading. For example, let's say that you've met the requirements for building an Imperium bion by constructing a Freedom Guard level 1 Headquarters and Training Facility. If you now want to build an Imperium Exterminator, when you select the unit, the pop up text will list the Imperium HQ and Training Facility as prerequisites that need to be met in addition to an Advanced Training Facility. Don't be fooled. You do not have to start from scratch and build these Imperium facilities. All you have to do is build an Advanced Training Facility (either Imperium or Freedom Guard), as the earlier prereqs have already been met by those Freedom Guard buildings.
Dark Reign does use a substantial amount of memory. If you get an "out of memory" message when trying to start the game, try freeing up more space on your swap file drive. ("C" drive for most people.)
The audio assets and many of the art assets (specifically sprite files) are "packed" in special project files in your Dark Reign game directory. On the CD, we have included un-packing and re-packing tools in case you want access these and switch out art and sound assets in the game. To use these utilities, open the "pakutils" directory in the inside the dark folder in your game directory and follow the instructions in the included README.
