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Text File | 1998-10-07 | 24.0 KB | 471 lines

▄ ╓───────────────────────────────────────────────█─────────────╖ ║ ▄▄▀ ▄▄▀ ▄▄▄ ▄▄ ▄█▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄ ▄▄█ ▄▄▀ ▄▄ ║ ║ █ █ █ █ ▀▄▄▄ █▄▄█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ ▀ ║ ║ ▀▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▄ █▄▀ ▀▄▄▀▄ █▄▄▀ ▄ ▀▄▄▀▄ ▀▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▀ ║ ╙─▄─────────────────────────────────█─────────────────────────╜ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Version 1.12 OOSETUP.DOC is the manual for using the Operation: Overkill configuration program, OOSETUP.EXE. [ LOADING OOSETUP.EXE ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prior to loading up OOSETUP, you must first be in your Overkill directory. To load up OOSETUP, simply type in "OOSETUP". After typing in "OOSETUP" to load the configuration program, OOSETUP will check for its configuration file, OOCONFIG.DAT. If you are running OOSETUP for the first time, a configuration file called OOCONFIG.DAT will be created in your current directory. This OOCONFIG.DAT file is a standard ascii text file that will store the setup configuration from OOSETUP. You can edit this file manually with a text editor, or you may use OOSETUP, preferably, to edit your Overkill settings. Next, OOSETUP checks to see if all the required and optional files are present and in their correct directories. If OOSETUP should find any required files that are missing or not in the current directories, a screen will show you which files are missing. OOSETUP will exit if it finds missing required files. Check the disk 1 and disk 2 packages to make sure all of files have been unarchived correctly and into your Overkill directory. If all the required files are valid and found, OOSETUP proceeds to the Main Configuration menu. [ MENU/OPTION SELECTING ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To select a menu, use the arrow keys or the keypad to move the highlighted cursor up and down through the lists. If you want more information or help on the highlighted option, press the F1 function key. A help box will explain what the configuration option is you've specified (see the section of MENU HELP below). If you want to edit this option, press <ENTER>. A new menu will then display on your screen. To exit from a menu, simply press <ESCape>. To select an option (from inside a menu), use the arrow keys or keypad to move the highlighted cursor up and down the lists. If you want more information or help regarding the highlighted option, press the F1 function key. A help box will explain what the configuration option is you've specified (see the section of MENU HELP below). If you want to edit the highlighted option, press <ENTER>. An option window will then pop up on your screen and prompt you for the new setting of that specified option. If you don't want to change the current setting of the option you are editing, press <ESCape>. If you are satisfied with the new settings you have edited, press <ENTER>. The option window will then disappear and the menu will be available again to select another option. To quit OOSETUP, press <ESCape> from the Main Configuration menu. OOSETUP will then ask you if you want to quit, so press 'Y'es. OOSETUP then asks you if you want to save any changes made. If you do want to save your changes, press 'Y'es, or 'N'o appropriately. If you save your changes, the new settings will be saved to the configuration file, OOCONFIG.DAT, and OOSETUP will proceed to check for any missing data files. If you select 'N'o to saving any changes, OOCONFIG.DAT will not be updated, and OOSETUP will not check for any missing files. OOSETUP then exits cleanly and returns you to standard DOS command prompt. [ MENUS HELP ] ~~~~~~~~~~ To get help on any of the menus or selections in OOSETUP, press F1. The below "help" text messages are displayed when pressing F1 on the main menu or on an option within a menu. I. Main Configuration Menu The SYSTEM INFORMATION section is where various options pertaining to your hardware and bulletin board are set. These options can be seen by selecting this option and more help relating to each option will be displayed there. The GAME INFORMATION section is where the information regarding various comparison checks and names can be set. These options can be seen more clearly by selecting this option but generally will control the restrictions that are imposed upon players during game play. The PLAYER INFORMATION section is where the information regarding starting values for new players and comparisons that effect each individual player are found. II. System Information Menu The BBS NAME is the name of your BBS system. This can be just about anything, as long as it is 70 characters or less. The OOII REGISTRATION CODE is the number that you are given when you register your copy of Operation: Overkill. This number is less than 20 in length. If you have not registered your copy of Overkill, then "NONE" should appear in this selection. The OOII 1.0 Update Code is the number that you are given when you register or update the 1.00/1.10 version of Overkill. This code is a string of numbers less than 20 in length. If you have not registered or updated your copy of Operation: Overkill to version 1.00/1.10, "NONE" should appear in this selection. The BBS TYPE is the type of bulletin board software that you use. The current supported configurations are listed when this option is selected and if you find that your software is not in this list, please contact the author to find out what is necessary to get your system in the supported list. PATH TO BBS refers to the location where Operation: Overkill should look to find the files relating to your BBS system. These files contain information regarding Com Port, Baud Rate, Time Remaining and various other important information needed by the game. The maximum length of this path is 70 characters. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Examples: PCBoard system => \PCB\ │ │ RBBS system => D:\BBS\RBBS\ │ │ │ │ (NOTE: The actual BBS dropfile to read is not listed!) │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Operation: Overkill has the ability to create an ANSI bulletin of the Top-10 Players (TOP10.ANS) and the Frontier Log (FRONTIER.ANS). If you want these bulletins to be created, enter the path name for the files to be created in, or enter "NONE" to disable this feature. Operation: Overkill also has the ability to create an ASCII bulletin of a Top-10 Players (TOP10.ASC) and a Frontier Log (FRONTIER.ASC). If you want these bulletins to be created, enter the path name for these files to be created in, or enter "NONE" to disable this feature. Different bulletin board packages use different character sets to signify a PAUSE during the display of bulletins or text files. To this regard, the string to be used for pausing can be selected here. This string will be added into the TOPTEN bulletins between each of the sections. If you do not want any pause then enter "NONE" for the PAUSE STRING. The maximum length of this string is 20. You may need to edit OOCONFIG.DAT manually with a text editor if the pause string for your BBS software is an extended character (for example, Remote Access's pause string is CTRL-A). Several BBS systems can run multiple copies of Overkill at the same time. This is generally done by use of a network system or multi- tasking software. If your system has more than one node that can access Operation: Overkill at the same time, you should answer YES to this option, otherwise, you should answer NO. By answering YES, you will be preventing multiple copies of OOII from accessing the data files at one time and will prevent the game from corrupting the data files. MULTI-NODE AWARE OPERATION does not mean that more than one player can play at once, but rather, it means that the game will need to watch for multiple players trying to play at the same time. Those who use multi-tasking software may need to switch to BIOS video output. This tells the computer to direct all output through BIOS first. BIOS video can prevent "bleed-through" from one window to the next in a multi-tasking environment, but at the same time, it may slow down the overall speed of the game. If you do see "bleed- through" in your multi-tasking windows, you should set this option to BIOS, otherwise DIRECT video is generally best for quicker screen writes. Operation: Overkill uses two types of communications routines. One is normal communications output which directs output directly through the com ports. The other is the FOSSIL routines. If your system uses a FOSSIL driver (such as X00, OPUSCOMM, or BNU) then it is necessary for you to use this option. Also, if your system can maintain a sustained locked baud rate 9600 or higher, then the use of a FOSSIL is highly recommended. Since different machines run at different speeds, the COMBAT DELAY needs setting for your machine. The higher this value is set, the slower the "Action Combat" will run. A combat fight delay of 35-50 is the normal/average speed. If you find that the combat is still too fast, you may increase this value up to as high as 32000, if need be. After testing the game out in local mode, you can load up OOSETUP again and adjust this combat delay speed. PATH TO OOII DATA FILES refers to the location where Operation: Overkill looks to find its game data files, such as USERFILE.OO, ITEMS.OO, BASES.OO, SQUADRON.OO, FRONTIER.OO, etc. The data files can be in the same directory as the main Overkill files or can be assigned to a subdirectory (see below for more information on setting up multiple games and using alternate configuration files). PATH TO OOII TEXT FILES refers to the location where Overkill looks to find its game text files, such as ASSIST.ASC, LOGON.ASC/ANS, INVNTORY.ASC, DISEASES.ASC, etc.(*.ANS/ASC files). Like the data files, the text files can be located in the same directory as the main Overkill files, or they can be assigned to a subdirectory (see below for more information on setting up multiple games and using alternate configuration files). The maximum length of this path is 70 characters. ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ Examples: \OOII\ │ │ D:\DOORS\OOII\ │ └──────────────────────────────┘ PATH TO NEWS.ASC TEXT FILE is the directory that the game's NEWS.ASC file is located. This NEWS.ASC is a news bulletin that is displayed when a user logs into the game. This option has been added so that Sysops can use separate NEWS.ASC files if running multiple games. PATH TO BANNED.DAT DATA FILE refers to the location where Operation: Overkill looks to find the file BANNED.DAT. This file contains the real names of players who can be "banned" (or prevented) from playing the game. This file can be edited with any standard text editor. III. Game Information Menu The COMPLEX NAME is the name used for the Main Complex (building) in the game. This name can be just about anything as long as it is 20 characters or less. The NAME OF THE MAP FILE is the name of the file that is to be used for the terrain in the game. This file must be in its appropriate directory (the data file directory, if one is specified). The default map file is VIDLAND.MAP (beginner map). Other map files are included in the package and must be unarchived in order to be used. The NUMBER OF MINUTES PER PLAY is the total number minutes a player is allowed to play each time they enter the game. This can be anywhere between 5 minutes to 120 minutes. This parameter is listed in minutes. The TIMES PER DAY TO PLAY refers to the number of times a player is allowed to enter the game each day. This can range between 1 and 99 times per day. The MINUTES TO WAIT BETWEEN CALLS refers to the number of minutes that a player must wait before they are allowed to reenter the game. The range must be between 0 and 1000000 (minutes), and the default is usually 4 hours for a fair game. A new field of TOTAL MINUTES PER DAY has been added to allow Sysops to configure how many much time a user gets in the game per day. This can be used effectively if Sysop wishes to set Minutes to Wait Between Calls to 0 and Times Per Day to Play to a high number. This way, the player can log into the game, rummage around for 10 or 15 minutes, log out, and then call back at a later time and finish up his remaining time. During the game, a player can PAGE the Sysop by using the "!" key. This is restricted between the START CHAT TIME and the ENDING CHAT TIME and is listed by military time. The one restriction is that the starting time MUST be before the ending time. This restriction prevents odd chat hours, like 22:00-12:00, but most people will not use these type of chat hours. During the game, the enemies of the Human race (Hydrites) may attempt to kidnap players and take them as prisoners of war. To prevent new players from being kidnapped, the Sysop can set the minimum level that a player can be kidnapped. The default value is level 4, but this can changed to any value between 0 and 10, depending on the expertise of the players or difficulty of the game the Sysop wants to enhance. In order to keep the records clean of players that have decided to try the game and then later for some reason decide not to play anymore (for shame!), Overkill does a cleanup of old players. If a player has not entered the game for this many days, their record will be deleted from the game so that new players can use this space. The DELETION DAYS can range between 1 and 365 days but is generally set to 21 days (three weeks). During the game, an entity can be encountered (called the Oracle). The Oracle generally assists lower level players, increases attributes, and/or gives words of wisdom to the players. To prevent excessive use of the Oracle ("Oracle Hunting") to pump up players stats, a threshold value for the maximum number of times per day that the Oracle can be found is instated. This value is best set at 10 but may be changed between 1 and 99 by the Sysop. During the game, things that happen to the players in the game are recorded into the Frontier Log. This log is viewable by all players but can grow to large lengths if not maintained. This is FRONTIER LOG MAXIMUM is the number of lines that the Frontier Log can grow before being truncated. 150 lines is the default log length. This is the current status of the game in this directory and will show FIRST INSTALL if no data files are found. If the game is IN PROGRESS, it will be shown as such but can be changed to the option of RESET GAME. If changed, RESET GAME can be converted back, but if left as RESET GAME, all data files will be re-initialized, and the game will be reset upon exit of OOSETUP. During the game, the enemies of the Human race (Hydrites), may attempt to attack the Complex (where most players are camped). The AVERAGE PLAYER LEVEL determines whether the Complex is attacked or not. If the average player level is equal to or above this minimum value, the Complex will be attacked by the Hydrites. The default value for this field is 4. The lower this value is set, the sooner the Hydrites will begin to attack the Complex. IV. Player Information Menu Each player can build a base in the wastelands (much like the main Complex). However, there is a limit of 40 bases at any one time in the game. Therefore, it is best to limit the MAXIMUM NUMBER OF BASES that a single player can build during the game. This prevents one player from monopolizing all the of bases and leaves some openings for other players to create bases without exceeding the 40 limit. In the main Complex of the game, there is a Gaming Room where players can join in on competitive games with other players. Generally, most players do not spend excessive amounts of time here, but players can abuse the use of the Games Room to get wealthy. Therefore, a limit is generally set at 10 games but can be changed to any value between 0 and 100 games. This is a "per play" value and not a "per day" value. During game play, a player that travels around the wastelands has a certain amount of "moves", or turns, until he/she is hungry. TURNS UNTIL HUNGRY is generally set to 75 but can be changed to any value between 10 and 255 moves. When players first create their characters, their total statistics (Strength + Dexterity + Health) will be a variation of the STARTING STATISTICS TOTAL. During game testing, this value has been set to 56, which allows players to start with stats of about 19 for each attribute. The Sysop may decide to have games with less powerful or more powerful starting characters. The starting statistics total can be range from 3 to 128. A value of 3 would give players a STR of 1, DEX of 1, HEALTH of 1, which is extremely low. Each new player in the game generally gets about 2000 water crystals to spend. The Sysop may wish for players to have more starting equipment, thus giving them more starting crystals to spend. The default amount gives players enough crystals for the basic supplies. This value can be changed to any value between 1 and 1000000. Generally, each player will start the game with no long range weapon. However, this can be changed to any one of the weapons that can be purchased from the Supply Room, if the Sysop so desires. Special weapons MUST be earned and can not be given to starting players through OOSETUP. Each weapon that requires ammo will receive 50 rounds initially; more ammo must be purchased. Generally, each player will start the game with no hand-to-hand weapon. Similar to the long range weapon, this can be changed to any one of the weapons that can be purchased from the Supply Room. Again, special weapons MUST be earned and can not be given to starting players with OOSETUP. Each weapon that requires ammo will receive 50 rounds initially; more ammo must be purchased. Like the weapons, each player will start the game without any armor. This setting can be changed to any of types of armor that can be purchased from the Supply Room. [ MULTIPLE DIRECTORIES/CONFIGURATION FILES ] (Please note that this section is also found in the OOII.DOC manual) One complaint in the last version was that every time a new, individual game was to be set up, the ENTIRE package had to be copied over into a new directory. So if a Sysop wanted to have five different Overkill games running (each game based on difficulty), the entire package had to be copied into five separate directories (without extreme batch file tooling), which took up an large amount of space! With the 1.00 version, Overkill breaks this barrier and allows for the "sharing" of the main files. To do this, you can specify where you want to store the data files and where to store the text files Overkill uses. This can be customized with OOSETUP by changing the desired directories for the "data" and the "text" storage. └OVERKILL┐ ├DATA └TEXT As an example for a one game setup, the main directory will be the basic "C:\OVERKILL\". Now, say that you wanted to split up the data and the text files into different directories. So, make two new directories: one in "C:\OVERKILL\DATA\" and one in "C:\OVERKILL\TEXT\". Next, you will have to copy all the ansi files (*.ANS) and ascii files (*.ASC) to the text directory, "C:\OVERKILL\TEXT\". Then, when you execute OOSETUP, change the "data" path and "text" path to these newly created directories in Menu 1. When OOSETUP exits, it will then create the data files in the "C:\OVERKILL\DATA\" path. Finally, load up OOSETUP one last time, and it should tell you what files are missing or out of place. If any appear on your screen, simply exit OOSETUP and copy the files from the main Overkill directory to their correct directories. For a multi-game setup, the process is similar. It's difficulty (or ease) depends on how complex you want to make your set up! For example, you can create two games that branch off from the main "C:\OVERKILL\" directory, as so: └OVERKILL┐ ├GAME1 └GAME2 Since most Sysops do not edit the text files of the game to their own likings, we can leave the "text" directory in "C:\OVERKILL\", while selecting the "data" to the different "C:\OVERKILL\GAME1\" and "C:\OVERKILL\GAME2\" directories. Now, the question is how will Overkill know which configuration file to read in if OOCONFIG.DAT is stored in "C:\OVERKILL\"? There are several ways one could do this, but the easy way is to add a parameter to your door batch file (which will be the name of the desired configuration file). If you want to load up Overkill using GAME1's configuration, you can create a new configuration file called GAME1.DAT, instead of the standard OOCONFIG.DAT file. To create a configuration file of GAME1.DAT, simply type in: "OOSETUP GAME1.DAT". To create a configuration file for GAME2, you would enter "OOSETUP GAME2.DAT". In your batch files to load up each game, you specify which configuration file you wish to use by putting it after each program name. For example, GAME1's batch file could look as so: cd\overkill ooinfo GAME1.DAT 10 \bbs\ 1 maintoo GAME1.DAT ooii GAME1.DAT cd\bbs ...or similarly for GAME2: cd\overkill ooinfo GAME2.DAT 10 \bbs\ 1 maintoo GAME2.DAT ooii GAME2.DAT cd\bbs With this multi-game setup, Overkill only uses its programs from the main "C:\OVERKILL\" directory and doesn't need to be copied over into new directories each time you want to add a new game. Here are the basic steps again to add a new game: 1) Create a new subdirectory, like "C:\OVERKILL\GAME1". 2) Load OOSETUP with the desired configuration file name, such as "OOSETUP GAME1.DAT" 3) Change the "data" path to the new directory that you added in step 1. This is done in OOSETUP from the System Information menu. 4) When you exit and save OOSETUP, the new data files will be created. 5) When creating your batch file to load up this new game, remember to add the name of the configuration file that you want Overkill to use (ie: MAINTOO GAME1.DAT, OOII GAME1.DAT, etc.) 6) Load up OOSETUP one last time to see if any files are out of place, and if they are, copy the files from your main Overkill directory to the directory where the files are required.