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- Conquest of the New World
- Version 1.10
- Installation and Gameplay Notes
-
- July 22, 1996
-
-
- INTRODUCTION
-
- Congratulations on choosing to play Conquest of the New World. This README
- file will provide you with late-breaking information about changes to the
- game design, along with tips on installing and playing the game.
-
-
- HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
-
- This program requires the following minimum system configuration:
-
- - 486DX2/66 or higher (Pentium(TM) processor recommended)
- - 8 megabytes RAM (12 megabytes or more recommended)
- - Mouse
- - 8-bit or 16-bit sound card (optional)
- - 30 megabytes free hard disk space for game files, plus approximately
- 10 megabytes of additional free space for virtual memory swap files
- - VESA-compatible Super VGA video adapter with at least 512K video RAM
- - DOS 5.0 or higher, or Windows 95
- - Network card with IPX drivers for network play
- - Serial port for serial play
- - Modem for modem play
-
- For all users with 8 megabyte machines: this version includes a special
- check-box in the Options window which allows you to turn off the highest zoom
- level of the game. You'll lose closeups of the buildings and units, but
- overall performance will improve significantly.
-
-
- INSTALLING THE PROGRAM
-
- Conquest of the New World can be installed one of several ways.
-
- 1) In DOS, change to the drive which contains the CD-ROM disc (example:
- D:) and type INSTALL.
-
- 2) In Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, use the File Manager or the Explorer and
- double-click on Install.exe.
-
- 3) In Windows (any version) you can also use the MS-DOS prompt and type
- INSTALL to begin installing.
-
- ** Note: We suggest that you install Conquest of the New World from DOS
- rather than Windows. The Install will most likely work under Windows, but if
- you wish to make changes (i.e. you have a different soundcard) in the Setup
- configuration, we recommend that you do it from DOS only. Testing the sound
- card under Windows may fail and cause you to exit from the Installer without
- saving your settings. If this happens, you can run SETUP.EXE from DOS to
- configure your sound card.
-
-
- VERSION HISTORY
-
- 1.00: Initial U.S. release.
-
- 1.01: Initial European release; various string fixes and AI adjustments.
-
- 1.05: Second U.S. release; also works with French and German release, but
- strings associated with Commonwealth will be in English.
-
- 1.06: Third U.S. release, with adjustments to Commonwealth and Federation;
- also works with French and German release, but strings associated with
- Commonwealth will be in English.
-
- 1.10: Play By E-Mail International release. Also includes a Final Zoom
- check-box to reduce RAM usage for 8 megabyte machines. All features work in
- English, French, and German.
-
-
- IN THE INSTALLER
-
- Note: The installation program offers you the option of installing the sound
- files on your hard drive. If you have space, you may wish to do this in order
- to improve performance. Some CD-ROM drives can slow down the operation of the
- game, so placing the sounds on the hard drive can make a big difference.
-
- The installer will automatically detect which hard drives are available and
- how much space is available on each.
-
- After selecting the Target hard drive, you will be able to choose the
- destination path. If you wish to use the default directory, just press the
- <Enter> key, or you choose whatever directory name that you wish.
-
- The next step will be the Soundcard configuration. If you do not know the
- setting on the soundcard, auto-detection will scan the computer for any
- soundcard that you may have installed. It is recommended that you choose
- your own settings (if you know them), because of the potential of a computer
- locking up while it is being scanned. A lock-up will likely occur if you try
- to scan a computer for a soundcard and the computer does not have one.
-
- The next thing the computer will ask you is if the settings are correct. If
- so, then you are ready to play the game. If not, make the proper changes,
- and save the configuration.
-
- You are now ready to play Conquest of the New World. If you need to make
- changes later, you can go into the Directory where you placed the program,
- and type SETUP to get you back into the Configuration screen. Another way to
- would be to use the DOS EDIT command and change the CONQUEST.CFG file to the
- proper setting.
-
- To play Conquest of the New World, just type CONQUEST in the directory that
- contains the program, and you are ready!
-
-
- LATE-BREAKING CHANGES (UPDATES TO THE USER MANUAL)
-
- REMEMBER THAT THIS GAME INCLUDES A FULL ON-LINE HELP SYSTEM. SIMPLY
- RIGHT-CLICK ON THE ITEM OF INTEREST.
-
- In all multiplayer games and most scenarios, your Settler will arrive on a
- Ship at the start of turn #6. This is not stated explicitly in the manual.
-
- This program includes Play By E-Mail capability. Please refer to the separate
- instructions, located on your Conquest of the New World CD-ROM, for details.
-
- Network play requires that at least one machine on the network have access to
- the CD-ROM of the game. Whenever a player resumes a network game in progress
- or joins a newly forming net game, the computer will check locally and then
- over the network for the presence of the CD.
-
- In order to prevent problems between different versions of the game, such as
- CRC errors, the program requires that all machines on any given network be
- running the identical version of the software. Any machine which has the new
- code will not allow games to be played against people with older versions of
- the game. Users can determine which machines on the network have incorrect
- versions by bringing up the Network Status window. The information lines for
- all machines with versions that differ from the one on the current machine
- will be displayed in red. Be sure to install the update on every machine
- before starting a new network game.
-
- To summarize: you can't play multiplayer using version 1.05 or 1.06 against
- version 1.10 (this version) of the game.
-
- Colony population growth rate is 8% rather than 10%. Also, three types of
- buildings now have labor requirements: Colony Center, Tavern, and Church.
- Each has a labor requirement of zero for Level 1, and increasing values at
- higher levels.
-
- When moving a unit on the map, the "drag line" that runs from the unit to the
- destination will change depending upon the type of movement and type of
- destination:
-
- - Solid: the unit will attempt to follow a straight line to its destination
- - Broken: the unit is going to a location that is already known, so
- it will attempt to travel along the most efficient path
- - Dark gray: the destination is in unknown territory
- - Red: the destination is hostile
-
- The Native Relations option in the Game Setup window is no longer available.
- Relations with native tribes are now linked to the Difficulty Level.
-
- Clarification: With the Missionary ability, each Church radiates a certain
- number of "smiles". This total number of happiness points is distributed to
- all natives within a given radius of the Church building. This radius is
- centered on the Church building and not on the Colony Center. Building
- additional Churches, or raising the levels of your existing Churches, will
- have a significant effect on the speed with which your Missionaries affect
- the local tribes.
-
- Leaders in colonies: A Leader need not be present in a given Colony in order
- to contain military units or defend the Colony against attacks, but any such
- Leader will be a significant improvement over the basic Leader supplied. If
- more units are in the Colony than can be controlled by your best Leader, the
- program will choose as many units as possible. Militia units and native aid
- units will then be added to the total. If you retreat from a defensive
- battle, all units are ejected from the Colony and the Colony's ownership will
- be changed. If you lose a defensive battle and all units on the battlefield
- are destroyed, all other units contained within the Colony will be destroyed.
- *** When in doubt, remember that discretion is the better part of valor -- a
- well-timed retreat may be the best means of recapturing your colony. ***
-
- Spy missions cost money. The more missions you send on a given turn, the more
- they cost. If you do not have sufficient funds in your Capitol to pay for a
- new Spy, the Save button will be grayed out. The first Saboteur costs 50
- Gold. The next is 100 Gold, and so on, doubling each time (up to 5 missions
- per turn). Espionage missions cost 1/50 as much as Sabotage missions.
-
- The upper and lower limits on the numbers of land and water seeds have been
- tightened to ensure that the generated worlds are always reasonable. You can
- allocate between 5 and 20 water seeds and between 10 and 100 land seeds.
-
- This game does a great deal of self-checking to ensure that games running on
- multiple computers remain synchronized with one another. Similar to the
- computer systems on the Space Shuttle, all machines perform the computations
- together and compare the results. If the comparison ever fails, the game will
- report a "CRC Error." The CRC, or Cyclic Redundancy Check, basically allows
- the game to detect such mismatches. If a CRC error occurs, the game will
- decide which version of the information is the correct copy and will update
- all other machines with that data. This action will be reported in a message
- window. Just click OK. Once the reloading of the data is complete, the
- program should continue to play.
-
- The virtual memory code for this game creates a temporary swap file on the
- hard disk. The game therefore requires that at least 8 megabytes (preferably
- 16 megabytes or more) of disk space be available when the game is started.
- Additional disk space will be necessary for each game file created
- (approximately 500K bytes). Failure to provide this amount of free space may
- cause the program to report "Out of Memory" errors even if sufficient RAM is
- available.
-
- Clarification: you can use the Shift key to speed up the up and down arrows
- for numeric values in the Trade dialogs, the War College, and so on. But you
- need to press Shift before clicking the arrow, not after.
-
- Back door: You can exit your game without saving if you wish to redo a turn.
- Just click the Exit button in the main game menu. This will exit to the main
- screen without saving the changes made since the last save.
-
-
- COMMONWEALTH
-
- Players may Sue for Commonwealth when they have done at least 60% of the
- damage to the Mother Country's attacking forces as would be required to reach
- Independence. Players who achieve Commonwealth status may later declare
- Independence again. They must do 60% of the damage to the Mother Country that
- would normally be required to reach Independence. Note that the victory
- condition for Independence is not simply the winning of three battles, but
- the destruction of a specific number levels of the Mother Country's units
- (100 levels).
-
- The Commonwealth button will become enabled during any War for Independence
- when the player has done an amount of damage to the Mother Country equal to
- 60% of the damage required to gain Independence. Clicking the Commonwealth
- button will change relations with the Mother Country to Happy and stop any
- pending attacks. It will also award 500 victory points.
-
- When a player achieves Commonwealth, future taxes will be reduced to 20% of
- their former value. Any pending taxes will still be owed, but 80% of the
- balance will be forgiven. Trade prices for sales of commodities will improve.
- If the player was not a Craftsman, prices will improve to the equivalent of a
- non-Independent Craftsman. If the player was already a Craftsman, prices will
- be the same as those for a fully Independent player without the Craftsman
- ability.
-
- Players who achieve Commonwealth will still be subject to the Mother
- Country's dictates regarding relations with other players.
-
- TIPS
-
- This is a turn-based game. Each player makes moves, builds colonies, and
- attempts to engage the enemy in combat. Then each player clicks the End Turn
- button in the main menu to signal that all moves are complete. When every
- player is done (just you and the computer player for the Tutorial), the game
- will calculate the results of each player's move. If any attacks take place,
- players will join in combat against one another. Then the next turn will
- begin.
-
- When playing Conquest of the New World for the first time, select New
- Solitaire Game from the main menu screen and then choose the Tutorial
- scenario. The Tutorial will challenge you with a series of missions, each
- more difficult than the last. Along the way, you will learn how to explore,
- build colonies, raise armies, and fight battles. At the conclusion of the
- Tutorial, you'll know everything you need to play solitaire or against a
- human opponent.
-
- Tutorial Hint: Spend some time placing your colony in the best possible
- location. Don't just drop it where your ship starts -- that may not be a very
- good location.
-
- IN THE COMBAT SECTION OF THE TUTORIAL, BE SURE TO RIGHT-CLICK ALL OF THE
- DIFFERENT UNITS IN BATTLE. TO LEARN HOW TO MOVE UNITS, LEFT-CLICK ON THE UNIT
- THAT YOU WANT TO MOVE AND THEN RIGHT-CLICK ON A DESTINATION SQUARE. TO LEARN
- HOW TO ATTACK, LEFT-CLICK ON YOUR ATTACKING UNIT AND RIGHT-CLICK ON AN ENEMY
- UNIT.
-
- Once you've completed the Tutorial, try the Island scenario. Here you'll
- have a chance to explore another island similar to the one you saw in the
- Tutorial without being told what to do or when to do it. You'll have 40
- turns to get as far as you can, or you can set your own time limit.
-
-
- CAVEATS (THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW)
-
- THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS A FULL ON-LINE HELP SYSTEM. SIMPLY RIGHT-CLICK ON ANY
- UNIT, BUILDING, WINDOW, OR BUTTON TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO USE IT.
-
- If you have a problem with the game (especially if it is repeatable), please
- send a note to us at support@interplay.com so we can investigate and solve
- it. Give us as much detail as possible about your hardware, your operating
- system, and the actions that led up to the problem.
-
- Likewise, if you see a feature that you really like or really hate, please
- tell us. We design our games for you -- the dedicated gamer -- and we want
- to hear what you have to say, good or bad. Our goal is to bring you a
- satisfying and challenging gaming experience. Send comments to
- cnw@interplay.com. We cannot respond to each person individually, but we do
- read our mail and will give careful consideration to all suggestions.
-
- Some testers have reported that the computer player in the combat subgame
- plays too well and must be cheating. Actually, it just has a very clear
- understanding of the rules and knows which attacks are likely to be the most
- effective. In combat, remember to combine your forces and use flanking
- attacks to get the most out of your forces. This has a very strong effect on
- the amount of damage that you can do. That's how the computer player works.
- Also, keep in mind that the War College has a very strong effect on your
- ability to defend against attacks and to do damage to the enemy.
-
-
- TROUBLESHOOTING
-
- If you cannot hear sound in the game, exit and run the SETUP program and make
- sure that you can hear sound when using the Test Sound Card function.
-
- The auto-detection of sound boards may not always work when under Windows 3.1
- or Windows 95. If you experience problems, enter numbers directly for your
- specific sound card setup, or rerun the SETUP program under DOS.
-
- If the program experiences slowdowns during play (the spinning globe appears
- when moving units around the map, or for no apparent reason at all), this is
- most likely due to a problem with the sound code. In general, on fast
- machines (any Pentium-class unit), the globe should not appear during a
- player's editing of a turn or during combat. The problem can be fixed or
- reduced in a number of ways. The following are, in order, the most likely
- steps to take to reduce this problem.
-
- 1. Turn off sound to see if it makes a difference.
- 2. Be sure that SMARTDRV and EMM386 are off. These can cause serious
- slowdowns in some cases.
- 3. If under Windows 95, try to adjust the Windows 95 CD-ROM cache settings.
- The system can be set to optimize its performance for a variety of hardware
- configurations. Changing the numbers may clear up the problem (there is no
- one fixed setting that applies to all makes and models of computers and
- CD-ROM drives; the proper settings must be determined empirically for each
- individual machine).
- 4. Copy the file CNWSNDC.WAD from the CD-ROM to the hard disk, in the same
- directory as the game. This will allow the game to read all of the sounds in
- the game from the hard disk, at the expense of requiring an additional 35
- megabytes of space (this is what the full installation option in the INSTALL
- program does).
-
- This game requires a Super VGA VESA-compatible video card with at least 512K
- of video RAM. Some older SVGA boards may not support VESA. In this case,
- you will need to obtain updated driver software from the video board vendor
- or use a third-party VESA library such as UniVBE.
-
- When attempting an IPX network connection between a Windows 3.1 machine and a
- Windows 95 machine, you may need to make a change to the Network control
- panel in Windows 95, because the default IPX protocol on some networks is
- different than the one expected by Windows 3.1. Windows 95 defaults its IPX
- Frame Type to "Auto". Changing it to "802.3" may make it possible to
- communicate with machines running other system software.
-
- Conquest of the New World runs best in a DOS environment. It has been tested
- and does run under Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, but you may notice some
- degradation of sound effects and a slight reduction in overall performance.
-
- When running under Windows 95, be sure that your swap file is set to at least
- 20 megabytes. Even running in a DOS box, the game makes use of Windows'
- virtual memory system.
-
- This game may not operate correctly under DPMI versions less than 0.9, which
- are found in some older versions of QEMM and potentially other memory
- management utilities. This can lead to odd behavior when attempting to set up
- a network game. Be sure that your machine is running a current version of
- DPMI services.
-
- Some Intel ethernet boards which provide the "Concurrent Processing" feature,
- in conjunction with an outdated Intel driver, will most likely result in
- program crashes and other inexplicable behavior. For best results, update to
- the latest Intel driver and disable Concurrent Processing.
-
- Some users have experienced problems with certain versions of video drivers
- on their machines. If you experience crashes upon startup of the game or
- shortly thereafter, or you find that the game just displays a black screen,
- you may wish to try replacing your video driver with a generic third-party
- driver such as UniVBE or VVESA. This approach has been successful in the past
- in some situations.
-
- Since this is a DOS game, it may not be compatible with Windows-based screen
- savers or energy-management features of your computer. We recommend disabling
- all screen savers and all energy management while playing this game.
-
- Windows uses a number of special key sequences to switch between tasks.
- Because Conquest of the New World changes the video mode during play, some
- configurations may experience problems when switching tasks under Windows. We
- recommend that you not use these keys while playing the game. In addition,
- you may wish to disable the keys in your Control Panel if you are able to do
- so. Likewise, new Windows machines have special Windows keys on the keyboard.
- These can also cause problems and should be disabled via the Properties for
- MS-DOS.
-
- Performance of the game can be improved through the use of a small hard disk
- cache -- 128 kilobytes or so -- if you have enough RAM to dedicate for it.
- Larger cache sizes are not necessary. However, on some systems, the disk
- cache can interfere with the proper operation of the virtual memory system in
- the game. If you experience crashes while running the game, disable all disk
- cache software and try again.
-
- The CONQUEST.BAT file contains one line which sets up virtual memory. When
- running on machines with 12 megabytes or more, virtual memory can be disabled
- by deleting or commenting out the line which contains the "SET DOS4GVM"
- command. This will result in a slight performance increase. If the game
- crashes or reports "Out of Memory" errors, you should put back this line or
- reconfigure your machine to make more memory available.
-
- Older versions of EMM386 may cause problems with the virtual memory in the
- game. Since EMM386 is not required by the game, we recommend that you remove
- it from your machine while running Conquest of the New World.
-
-
-
- HOW TO REACH US
-
- Interplay support sites:
-
- Internet E-mail: support@interplay.com
-
- Web Site: http://www.interplay.com
-
- America On-Line: Keyword INTERPLAY
- or E-mail IPTECH
-
- Compuserve: GO GAMEPUB
- or E-mail 76702,1342
-
- Genie: Type M805;1 or go to the Bulletin Board in Scorpia's area
-
- Prodigy: Use the Web browser to our Web Site
- or E-mail PLAY99B
-
- FTP Site: ftp.interplay.com
-
- Interplay's phone: (714) 553-6678
- in Europe: +44 (0) 1628 423 723
-
- Interplay's Fax: (714) 252-2820 Attn: Customer Service
- in Europe: +44 (0) 1628 487 752 Attn: Customer Service
-
-
- Strategy guide available from Prima Publishing. To order call
- 800-531-2343. Also available at better bookstores and multimedia
- outlets nationwide. In Europe, call Littlehampton Book Services at
- +44 (0) 1903 732 596.
-
-
- Please let us know what you think! We love feed-back, and it helps us make
- the games that you want to play!
-
- Gameplay comments and suggestions: cnw@interplay.com
-
-
- Quicksilver Software, Inc. Web Site: http://www.quicksilver.com
-
-
-
- Thanks for taking the time to play Conquest of the New World. Now for the
- legal stuff...
-
-
-
- SOFTWARE USE LIMITATIONS AND LIMITED LICENSE
-
- This version of Conquest of the New World (the "Software") is intended
- solely for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use. You may not
- decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the Software, except as permitted
- by law. Interplay Productions retains all rights and title in the Software
- including all intellectual property rights embodied therein and derivatives
- thereof. You are granted a revocable, nonassignable limited license to
- create derivative works of this Software solely for your own personal
- noncommercial home entertainment use and may publicly display such derivative
- works to the extent specifically authorized by Interplay in writing. A copy
- of this authorization, if any, will be provided on Interplay's World Wide Web
- site, and may also be obtained by contacting the legal department at
- Interplay at (714) 553-6655. The Software, including, without limitation,
- all code, data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game
- play, derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be
- copied, resold, rented, leased, distributed (electronically or otherwise),
- used on pay-per-play, coin-op or other for-charge basis, or for any
- commercial purpose. Any permissions granted herein are provided on a
- temporary basis and can be withdrawn by Interplay Productions at any time.
- All rights not expressly granted are reserved.
-
-
- Copyright (c) 1996 Interplay Productions. All rights reserved.
-
-