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Text File | 1993-03-14 | 16.6 KB | 337 lines

ARMIES OF STEEL Version 1.0 (C) Copyright 1993 Rockland Software Productions Description: Armies of Steel is a fast paced, easy to play strategy wargame. It features 256 color SVGA bitmapped graphics, animation, digital sound effects, FM soundtracks, and mouse control. Many types of terrain and units make for hours of challenging play. System requirements: * 286 or better * at least 2 meg of RAM (640K conventional + 1 meg XMS) * Sound blaster compatable sound card (Digital sound effects require SB Pro) * VESA compatable SVGA graphics card w/ 1 meg video ram * Monitor capable of 1024x768 256 colors * Microsoft compatable mouse * 4 meg hard disk space Installation: 1. Create a directory for AOS (Armies of Steel). 2. Copy your AOS archive to your AOS directory. 3. Change to your AOS directory. 4. Unpack your AOS archive. 5. All AOS files are now in your AOS directory. 6. Enter SETUP at the dos prompt to run the setup program. 7. Select the desired sound effects. SETUP will create a new AOS.BAT file to use the selected sound effects. AOS is now ready to run. Files: AOS.ZIP or AOSR.EXE - Armies of Steel archive. AOS_.EXE - Armies of Steel program. AOS.BAT - Batch file to run Armies of Steel. AOS.DOC - Armies of Steel documentation. SETUP.EXE - Setup program RTM.EXE - Protected mode runtime manager. DPMI16BI.OVL - DPMI server. DOVESA.EXE - VESA detection program. SBSIM.COM - Digital sound TSR. SBSIM.CFG - TSR configuration file. CTVDSK.DRV - Digital sound driver. VOICE.EXE - Digital sound program. *.CHR - Fonts. *.BGI - Video drivers. *.GRF - Bitmaps. *.PAL - Bitmap palettes. *.VOC - Digital sound tracks. SUPPORT.DOC - Support information. CATALOG.DOC - Rockland Software Productions Catalog. Running: 1. Make sure your VESA bios extensions TSR is loaded (see "About VESA" at the end of this file for more information.). 2. Change to your AOS directory. 3. Enter "aos" at the dos prompt. To start AOS with sound off, enter "aos s" (s for silent) at the dos prompt. 4. The titlescreen will appear. Press a key or mouse button to continue. 5. The main menu will appear. You may play the game, run an editor, or Quit to DOS. After playing or editing you are returned to the main menu. Playing the game: 1. Select old or new game. If you select old, you get to select from saved games. 2. The newspaper screen will appear. Press a key or mouse button to continue. 3. The game options menu will appear. Set options as you see fit, and then select "Start playing". Game options are as folows: Scenario - lets you choose the default scenario, or load a scenario from disk. A scenario loaded from disk overrides all game options except deploy forces automatically/manually. You up to X units per turn - lets you set your reenfocement rate. Them up to X units per turn - let you set their reenforcement rate. Deploy forces - lets you choose to deploy your forces manually or automatically. If you select manually, you will be prompted to place your forces on the map before the game begins. When placing forces manually, the unit type to be placed is displayed in a message. Click where you want the unit. If its close enough to the left edge and the terrain is ok for that unit, the unit will be placed there, and you will be prompted to place the next unit. Click with the right button to skip to the next unit without placing (handy when you have more ships than water, etc.). After you place all your units the game begins. Map - lets you select the default map or load a map from disk. Custom units - lets you add custom unit types to be used in the game. A list at the left will show custom units currently being used. A menu allows you to add, delete, and clear all custom units. Done returns you to the game options menu. Skill level - lets you select one of 4 skill levels, from beginner to expert. Start playing - starts the game. Quit - quits without playing. 4. The map will appear, along with your forces and the enemy's forces. 5. Your forces begin on the left side of the map. 6. Move your units to attack the enemy. 7. The game continues until one side's forces are eliminated. 8. After the game ends, the game options menu appears again. 9. If you play again, initial reenforcement settings for the next game will be adjusted slightly in favor of the loser of the last game (IE when you win you get less reenforcements or they get more, and when you lose they get less reenforcements or you get more.). 10. When you quit you will be given an option to save the game. 11. When you quit, the top ten list will be shown. If you reach a higher rank than the last player in the top 10 list, you will be asked to enter your name for the top 10 list. Moving units: 1. Click and drag over the area containing the unit(s) to move. 2. Click where you want them to move. 3. If you select more than 1 square, you'll get a menu allowing you to select what type of unit to move. 4. If you select only one square with a unit in it, just that unit will move where you click, and no menu will appear. 5. At all times, clicking the right button cancels. The main menu in the game: 1. The main menu is accessed by pressing the right mouse button. 2. Some options allow you to move all units by type. Select a type of unit to move, then select (with the left mouse button) where to move the units. You may cancel by pressing the right mouse button. 3. The controls option allows you to turn on and off: sound, animation, and air attack sequences, and set your and their colors. 4. There are also options to show the map, redraw the screen, show map and unit information, and quit the game. The cancel option makes the menu disappear. 5. The "Issue orders" option pauses the game while still allowing you to move units. When issuing orders, the right mouse button calls up a smaller version of the main menu. It has options for moving units, etc. It also has a "Done issuing orders" option that starts the game again. 6. The "Call up X reserves" option calls up your reserve troops as instant reenforcements. Combat: 1. All units attack the closest enemy unit. Air units: 1. An airfield is a city or fort square. 2. Air unit movement depends on where the unit starts and its target: Unit starts: Target: Movement: ------------------------------------------------------------------ in airfield empty airfield unit moves if distance to target is <= unit's movement rate in airfield all except empty airfield unit moves up to 1/2 movement rate toward target, attacks, and returns to starting airfield not in airfield empty airfield unit moves if distance to target is <= unit's movement rate not in airfield all except empty airfield unit does not move Air combat: 1. Air unit combat begins with an air unit travelleing towards its target. 2. Once the air unit reaches it target (or the limit of its movement), enemy flak units in range get to attack the air unit. 3. The air unit then attacks the closest target. 4. The air unit then flys back where it came from. Unit types: Infantry - useful in swamp and mountains where tanks can't go. Useful against flak. Most useful in drawing enemy fire. Armor - useful against tough targets like tanks, ships, cities, and forts. Plane - useful for short range air attacks against all but the strongest targets. Ship - useful in sea and rivers against all target types. Bomber - useful for long range air attacks against all target types. Flak - useful against enemy planes and bombers. Artillry - useful against tough targets Engineers - useful against tough targets where vehicles can't go. Flamethrower tanks - useful against tough targets. Map symbols: map symbol terrain type ---------------------------------------------------------------- green clear green w/ trees woods green w/ green hill hills brown w/ grey hill mountains grey w/ black hill impassable mountains fortification fort lt green w/ trees jungle yellow dunes desert blue channels river blue waves sea blue w/ plants swamp city skyline city Terrain effects on movement: Land units: woods, desert - slows movement some hills - slows movement mountains, swamp - slows movement greatly. Tanks may not enter. impassable mountains, sea - no land units may enter. jungle, river - slows movement greatly. Sea units: Sea units may only enter sea and river squares. Air units: Air units are unaffected by terrain. Terrain effects on combat: Land and Air units: woods, hills - improves defense some. fort - improves defense very greatly. jungle - improves defense. mountains, river, swamp, city - improves defense greatly. desert - weakens defense some. Terrain has no effect on flak attacks against air units. Sea units: Sea units defense is unaffected by terrain. Reenforcements: 1. Reenforcements start at friendly cities and forts. 2. A city or fort is friendly to whichever side has units closest to it at the moment. If opposing forces are the same distance from the city or fort, it is friendly to neither side. 3. Reenforcements that can not be placed in a friendly city or fort are lost. 4. Reserves that can not be placed in a friendly city or fort are not called up. The map editor: 1. When you start the editor, you'll see a blank map. 2. Terrain is placed on the map by clicking on it. 3. Click the right button to call up the map editor menu. 4. The menu lists different terrain types. The type placed by clicking on the map has an asterisk next to it. 5. Selecting a terrain makes it the terrain placed by clicking on the map. 6. The menu also has options to start a new map, load, save, quit, and cancel. 7. The "Check map" option checks that units on one side can reach enemy units on the other side of the map. The unit editor: 1. The unit editor menu allows you to create your own custom unit types for use in Armies of Steel. 2. Unit editor menu options are as follows: Name - the name of the unit type (infantry etc). Graphic filename - filename for the unit's graphic. Attack graphic filename - filename for the unit's attack graphic. Attack, defense, range, move - the unit's stats. Select the "Map and unit info" option on the main menu in the game to see stats for the predefined unit types. Unit type - Basically, how the unit moves. This is used for terrain effects on movement. Choices are: on foot, land vehicle, air, and sea. Attack sound - the sound effect made when the unit attacks. Choices are: machine gun, artillary, bomb, flak burst, and flamethrower. Chance to get - the percent chance that a unit you get will be of that type. Edit graphic - lets you edit the graphic for the unit. Edit attack graphic - lets you edit the attack graphic for the unit. Play attack sound - plays the currently selected attack sound for the unit. Check unit - check the unit to make sure it contains enough information for use in the game. Load - loads a previously saved unit type. Save - saves the current unit. You will be asked for a filename. Quit- quits the unit editor. The graphic editor: 1. The graphic editor is used by the "Edit graphic" and "Edit attack graphic" options in the unit editor. 2. The graphic editor displays the graphic being edited at the right side of the screen in actual size, and blown up 15 times on the left side of the screen. 3. Click on the blown up graphic to change a pixel to the current drawing color. The change will appear on both the actual size and blown up graphics. 4. Buttons at the top of the screen let you change drawing color, set brush size, clear the graphic, and quit. 5. When you quit, you will be given the option to save the graphic. The scenario editor: 1. The scenario editor allows you to create a complete scenario. 2. Scenario editor menu options are as follows: Map filename - lets you select a map for the scenario. Custom units - lets you set custom unit types for the scenario. Your units - lets you set your order of battle (how many of each type of unit you get). Their units - lets you set their order of battle. Place your units - shows the map and lets you place you units. Works the same as manual deployment, except units need not be near the left edge of the map. Place their units - shows the map and lets you place their units. Your reenforcements - lets you set your reenforcement rate for the scenario. Their reenforcements - lets you set their reenforcement rate for the scenario. Load - loads a saved scenario. Save - saves the scenario to disk. You will be asked for a filename. Quit - quits the scenario editor. Differences between the registered and unregistered versions: 1. The following features are only available in the registered version of Armies of Steel: * Over 3 times as many graphics * Over 4 times as many type of units including air, ship, bomber, flak, artillary, flamethrowers, and engineers * 3 times as many sound effects (digital or FM) used in the game * Loading of saved: games, maps, scenarios, and custom unit types * Calling up of reserves * Reenforcements Support, Ordering information, and Catalog: 1. Support is available via phone and mail. Email support is available on all national networks. See the file SUPPORT.DOC for more information. 2. Ordering information is at the end of the game. 3. See the CATALOG.DOC file for descriptions of all of Rockland Software Productions products. About VESA: 1. VESA is a new graphics standard that makes many different SVGA cards compatable with each other. 2. The cards are made compatable by the VESA bios extensions that are built in to the card, or loaded into memory via a TSR program. 3. This allows software written for just one kind of video (VESA) to run on many different SVGA cards. 4. A program that uses VESA requires the VESA bios extensions in order to run. 5. Most cards load their VESA bios extensions via a TSR program. 6. Most card manufacturers include a VESA TSR program with their cards. 7. If you do not have the VESA bios extensions for your card, here's how to get a copy: * Call your card manufacturer's BBS and download the file. * Call one of the national networks such as Compuserv, GEnie, Delphi, America on line, PC Link, or Promenade. Each has a VESA area on it. Download the VESA file for your card. * Call Rockland Software Productions (voice) at 703-378-5120 11am-3am eastern. We will download the file from a national net, and then download it to you.