Strike Squad

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Srike Squad ==================== GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS ==================== To navigate within the READER program use the cursor keys and the PgUp and PgDn keys to move through the manual. You can print the manual by typeing "printdoc" at the DOS prompt. Each Chapter in the manual uses the Ampersand character (&) plus a letter as a marker. The Table of Contents lists the chapter names and the marker letters. If you use a reader that has a search function, you can jump to a specific chapter, by searching for the marker letters. For example, to jump to the Mercenary Characteristics chapter, search for &O. TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= Machine Requirements &A Installation & Setup &B Getting Started &C Copy Protection &D Installation Problems &E Introduction &F The Interface &G The Main Menu &H Playing a New Game &I The Screens &J Command Icons &K Items &L Combat &M Strategy and Tactics &N Mercenary Characteristics &O The Races &P Mercenary Profiles &Q Troubleshooting &R MACHINE REQUIREMENTS &A ==================== IBM & 100% compatibles To play Strike Squad you will need: * IBM-PC/AT or 100% compatible 16 Mhz 386 or faster * 2 MB Memory * Hard Drive * CD-ROM Drive * 256 Color VGA graphics * Mouse, 100% Microsoft (or Logitech) Compatible Supported: * XMS Memory * Music & Digitized Sound Effects with 3 MB memory (at least 1 MB available XMS memory) on Adlib, Disney Sound Source, Sound Blaster and Compatibles Recommended: * 20 Mhz 386 or faster * DOS 5.0 * 3 MB memory * Sound Blaster or compatible IBM INSTALLATION & SETUP &B ======================== Before you can play Strike Squad, you must install some of the files onto your hard disk. The following commands assume that you are entering commands at the DOS prompt. If you are running MS Windows or any version of a DOS shell program, you must exit or quit out of them and enter the install commands for Strike Squad from the DOS prompt. If you are having problems installing, read the section "Installation Problems." Installation ------------ From the DOS prompt, insert the CD-ROM and switch to the drive holding it by typing D: and pressing the ENTER key. Then type: INSTALL and press RETURN. The installation process will begin. GETTING STARTED &C =============== Starting the Game ----------------- After installation is complete, switch to the Strike Squad directory and type STRKSQD to start the game. For example type: C: CD \STRKSQD STRKSQD E [Where E is the CD-ROM Drive Letter] Be sure the mouse driver has been loaded before starting Strike Squad. Sound Card/Device Setup ----------------------- After you type STRKSQD to start the game for the first time, the Sound Setup Menu will allow you to select the appropriate soundcard for your computer (if you do not have a sound card or device, select the "no sound" option). Factory default settings will be displayed, pressing will choose the defaults displayed. If you are using other settings you will need to make the appropriate changes to the default settings displayed and press . If you are not sure of your sound card settings, please consult your sound card test programs or manual for assistance. Equipment Changes ----------------- If the sound equipment in your computer changes, run the SETD program from DOS and select the new sound card or device from the list and choose appropriate settings.. If you replace your existing mouse with a new one, no changes need to be made to the configuration. Make sure, however, that the new mouse driver is loaded and 100% Microsoft compatible before starting Strike Squad. COPY PROTECTION &D =============== The Strike Squad copy protection consists of matching symbols listed inside the Strike Squad cover booklet to symbols displayed on screen within the game. When playing a New Game and proceeding beyond the first known city of Rogonde to a new destination or when restarting a saved game at a point at which you have already uncovered other cities, the copy protection screen will appear: On the top of this screen 40 items are displayed. You will select 3 items from these to match the ones on the included protection page. At the bottom of the screen is a text message telling you the manual page to refer to. In the center of the screen are the slots which must be filled with the items matching the ones next to the requested page number. The arrow above these 3 slots indicates which of the 3 positions you are currently selecting an item for. Place the cursor over the item that matches the one on the indicated manual page in the same position as the current slot and click the left mouse button. The item will appear in the current slot in the center of the screen and the slot indicator will advance to the next selection slot. Once all three slots have been correctly filled, click on the DONE button to continue. If you make a mistake you can reselect items as often as needed until all three items are correct before selecting DONE. If the correct matching items were selected then the game will start the selected game (either new or a saved game), if an incorrect match was chosen then you will be given another chance to try a match. After a third incorrect match selection, you will be returned to the DOS prompt INSTALLATION PROBLEMS &E ===================== In some rare cases it is possible that the Strike Squad game may have a problem installing to your specific hard drive setup. If problems occur be sure to clear TSRs from memory. You may also try creating a boot disk to see if that fixes the problem. Refer to the manual section "Troubleshooting" for information on TSRs and creating a boot disk. If you have removed TSRs from memory and/or created a boot disk and are experiencing installation problems, but not receiving disk or media errors, consult the TROUBLESHOOTING section of this Manual. INTRODUCTION &F ============ Background ---------- Consortium Intelligence Data Transmission AccessMode: InterComlink encoded message. Consortium Translation (as per Rebellion code regs, 2198 S.Y.), courtesy service Cyberentity Ael-11: Item: Intelligence background on K'Kistik threat. Supplemental:T.O.S.S. mercenaries. Source: Consortium Intelligence Data Hunters, C.I.D.H. Target: Head Briefing Officer Major Lindor. A.D. 2198. ---------- The ill-intentioned K'kistik race has made itself known. Anarchal lawlessness envelopes the once peaceful Earth and neighboring systems as the prolific insectoids, outpopulating their home planets and dry of resources, bombard lesser planets and moons like a giant intergalactic leech. Many of the Consortium allies fell prey to the will of these insectoid masses such as the normally gentle Chlorophant. Conventional means of resistance proved ineffective at best. A high ranking general stationed on the Earth's orbiting military base MOTA M1, had sent out for "specially suited" personnel that were thought to possess the experience, willingness and grit to carry out an extermination. The characters that assembled, comprised of a variety of races and species, hailed from local systems and parts unknown, to unify as the T.O.S.S. squad of mercenaries. This group of mercenaries discovered that this general was actually a K'kistik commander in disguise. The mercenary squad effectively routed the fake general and his K'kistik forces, thus saving the Consortium from total collapse Consortium Intelligence Data Transmission AccessMode: InterComlink encoded message. Consortium Translation (as per Rebellion code regs, 2208 S.Y.), courtesy service Cyberentity Ael-11: Item: Intelligence Data regarding Consortium "Rebellion". Source: Consortium Intelligence Data Hunters, C.I.D.H. Target: Head Briefing Officer Major Eldor. A.D. 2208 [Present Day] ------------------------ Ten years later, after some rebuilding and relocating, the Consortium must again face the K'kistik cancer. With most systems fallen and others feebly staving off inevitable domination, the Consortium's hideout in the Berok system remains one of the last bastions of freedom...but not for long. Distress beacons have been constructed on the rebel planet Trindor as a plea for help to any who will listen. Hopefully, enterprising mercenaries from abroad will answer the beacon as means to aid Berok and the Consortium and perhaps to earn a fortune. These mercs will comprise the Strike Squad, for the only way to deal with a force of such magnitude is to do it stealthily. With efficiency and cunning, a tight band of mercenaries must defeat this pestilent slime at it's source...The K'kistik High Commander! The Story --------- Due to a combination of luck and skill, you have become a successful mercenary commander. You have managed to acquire a skilled crew of mercenaries, a well-equipped starship, and an adequate supply of credits from your adventures. Returning to your home planet for a visit, you find that K'kistik forces have destroyed Bao, your once beautiful home planet... killing your loved ones. You have fought K'kistiks in the past, helping to stop their fiendish plot to enslave earth's population, but now you have vowed to wreak vengence for their attack on Bao. You have received a clue to see Sakura "Ninja" Yomashi, a former mercenary ally now working undercover as a waitress at a cantina, on the planet Trindor for valuable assistance in your quest to exterminate the K'kistik threat. Assemble a shuttle squad and prepare to head to Trindor on your first step toward revenge THE INTERFACE &G ============= The Mouse Cursor ---------------- The mouse cursor is probably the most important part of the Strike Squad interface. Changes in the mouse cursor indicate changes in play modes or changes to selection settings. It can be used to point to units, locations, icons, or words; or to indicate which creature/object to attack, search, or give items to; or for indication of enemies or allies. The different cursors that may be displayed at various times and locations are as follows: Program Orientated Cursors -------------------------- * Loading Files Signifies that there will be a slight delay while the program is loading files. * Input from Keyboard This cursor indicates that the player should type input from the keyboard. It may indicate, for example, that the player should type in his "call sign". Identification Cursors ---------------------- * Arrow This is the default cursor. It is replaced by one of the other cursors when placed on or near a person, object, or place of interest. * Target This cursor indicates that the individual/creature at the cursor location is an enemy and may be targeted for attack. Clicking the left mouse button will select this target and the active mercenary will begin firing on this "enemy" (if the game is not in Pause mode). * Civilian This cursor indicates that the individual/creature at the cursor location is a civilian and thus does not pose a threat to your Strike Squad. * Furniture This cursor indicates that the object at the cursor location is furniture or other "background" object. These objects may be destroyed, sometimes creating a new path or "shortcut" for your mercenaries. * Mercenary (friendly) This cursor indicates that the individual at the cursor location is either one of your mercenary members or can be recruited to join your mercenaries. This cursor is also sometimes used to indicate special equipment, such as the mothership * Dead Enemy Indicates the body of a former enemy that has been killed during combat. The body may now be searched for valuables. Dead mercenaries will be indicated by a skeleton and the cursor will change to the mercenary cursor , the mercenary's name will also be displayed. Command Mode Cursors -------------------- * Follow - Indicates that the active mercenary has been given a FOLLOW order. The cursor should be placed on the target mercenary that you wish the active mercenary to follow. Clicking the left mouse button will select the mercenary under the cursor to be followed. * Give - Indicates that the active mercenary has been told to GIVE an item to another person or object. Place this cursor onto the desired person or object and then click the left mouse button. * Take - Indicates that the active mercenary has been issued the TAKE order. Place the cursor over the object or person that you wish to search for items. Clicking the left mouse button when the cursor is at the desired location will search that target for items if the active mercenary is within range. * Use Medic Kit - Indicates the active mercenary has been told to use a medit kit to heal himself or a fellow mercenary. Place the cursor on the merc that you wish to heal and click the left mouse button Special Action Cursors ---------------------- * Talk - This indicates that the entity under the cursor may be talked to. Your active mercenary will "talk" or "trade" with that entity if you click the left mouse button and the active mercenary is within range. * Use Vehicle - This cursor indicates that the object under the cursor is a usable vehicle (like an ATV or hovercraft). Clicking the left mouse button when this cursor is active will allow the active mercenary to USE the vehicle. The vehicle is controlled in the same manner as the mercenary and the mercenary may still be able to attack while in the vehicle. Click on the vehicle again to have the mercenary exit the vehicle. * Offsite - indicates the mouse cursor is at a location where a new area can be reached from the current location. An OFFSITE indicator appears on the map indicating the location of the exact offsite point. Next to this location will be the name of the area to which the squad will be transported when the OFFSITE is activated. This new area is considered a second part of the same city that was originally chosen on the planet map or an area that can only be reached by way of that city. Clicking the left mouse button when the Offsite cursor is active and all surviving members of the Strike Squad are near this location will transport the group to the new area. Note: clicking on the OFFSITE Icon will do the same function when the Strike Squad members are at the correct location on the screen. There will be a return "offsite" location at this new area to return to the original starting area. MOVEMENT CURSORS ---------------- * Go - displayed only on the Star Map and Planet Map. Placing the cursor over a location will highlight the name and change the cursor to the Go cursor . Clicking the left mouse button when this cursor is present will select the highlighted location for the shuttle or mothership to fly to. MAKING MENU SELECTIONS You can select most menu selections by placing the mouse cursor over the icon or word and clicking the left mouse button. The "ESC" key will normally exit most menus. SCROLLING THE MAP In order to scroll the map, move the mouse on the edges of the screen and the map will scroll in the appropriate direction. SELECTING A MERCENARY To select a mercenary, place the cursor over the desired mercenary. The cursor will change to the mercenary cursor and the merc's name will be displayed. Clicking the left mouse button will select that mercenary and they will become the active mercenary. The icon representation of the mercenary will appear in the lower right corner of the screen and their weapon currently in use will appear to the left of that picture (with the remaining amount of ammunition or number of charges for that weapon shown). Clicking on the statistic bar on the top of the screen (on the Armor/Hit Points number or the Mercenary's number) will also select the appropriate mercenary and center the viewing screen on the selected mercenary. ISSUING ORDERS Once a character has been selected as explained in the section above, you can give the mercenary various orders such as to FOLLOW another mercenary, ATTACK an entity, USE an item (Medic Kit), etc. Orders may be given by just selecting the target for the action, depending on the current cursor mode, or by clicking on the appropriate command icon and then selecting the action target. See the sections "Command Icons" and "The Cursor" for further details. Some orders require you to also select another mercenary or entity as the target, such as FOLLOW, TAKE, GIVE, etc. MOVING MERCENARIES Once the mercenary has been selected as the active mercenary, clicking and holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse, will cause the active mercenary to follow the mouse as it is moved around the screen. PLAYER MODES There are three different player modes available in Strike Squad: 1 PLAYER MODE, 2 PLAYER COOP , and 2 PLAYER VS. 1 Player Mode : --------------- In the single player mode, 1 player controls the mouse and uses the mouse to select mercenaries and issue orders and commands. This is the normal or default setting for player modes. In one player mode only mercenaries can be controlled - only 2 PLAYER VS mode allows control of enemies. 2 Player Modes: --------------- There are two different 2 player modes. In the cooperation mode both players control mercenaries, one with the mouse and one with the keyboard. The vs. mode option allows one player to control mercenaries with the mouse and the other player to control the enemy entities with the keyboard. 2 PLAYER COOP (cooperation) mode - ---------------------------------- In 2 Player Cooperation Mode, one player controls a mercenary using the keyboard while the other player controls a mercenary using the mouse. The screen is divided in half, the left side for the keyboard player, the right side for the mouse player. Each player has his own specialized way of controlling and commanding the mercenaries. To choose a mercenary to control, first the strike squad must have been assembled in the shuttle and dropped down onto a planet. The keyboard player selects a mercenary by cycling through the squad group using the Tab key. When a mercenary is in control mode, his/her picture will appear in the lower left control window along with his/her respective name. Certain keys on the keyboard, or "hot keys", command your mercenary to do certain tasks: Arrow Keys: Move Mercenary. Walk your mercenary around screen. [Ctrl] + Arrow Keys: Scroll the screen. Space Bar: Attack. Attacks an on-screen enemy in the general direction the mercenary you are controlling is facing. The current weapon is automatically used. W: Choose Weapon. Cycles through available weapons in the weapon window at the lower left of the screen. U: Use Device. A list of devices to use will appear with corresponding numbers for each item. Press the appropriate item number to choose an item or Q to quit. V: Use Vehicle. Move the mercenary next to a Hovercraft or an ATV. press V and the controlled mercenary will use that vehicle. Press V again to get off or exit the vehicle. S: Search {Take}. Searches a dead entity. You must first move the mercenary next to the entity to search. Press S and the entity's inventory will pop up with a number corresponding to each inventory item. Press the appropriate number to choose an item or press Q to quit. G: Give. Works similar to Search, but has the opposite effect. E: Engage/Ignore. Sets the mercenary to engage or ignore the enemy. I: Enemy's quick stats. The mouse must be over the enemy to choose. M: Mercenary's quick stats. Affects mercenary you are controlling or put mouse over desired mercenary. F: Follow. Type in the number (from the health bar) of the merc to follow. X: Cancel. Cancels mercenary's orders. T: Talk. Move mercenary next to entity to talk to. Hit "T" and talker's animation will play. D: Drop an item. The mercenary's inventory will be displayed with corresponding numbers. Pres the number of the item you wish to drop or press Q to quit. P: Pauses. Pauses the game in progress. Pressing P again will unpause. (For a further description of commands and their functions, see the "Command Icons" section). The keyboard player may center the screen on mercenaries by pressing the number of his active mercenary and the left portion of the screen will center on that mercenary. At times this may be quicker than using the keyboard commands to scroll his side of the screen. The mouse player selects a mercenary just as he would in the normal 1 Player Mode. Also, he may command specific actions from his mercenary by selecting from the icons on the game screen border. All action is played out as if in 1 Player Mode. Special handling for 2 player cooperation mode: 1) Only the Mouse player can choose mercs on the mothership. 2) Only the Mouse player can call the shuttle. 3) Only the Mouse player can choose File, Surveillance, or Squad-Log. 2 PLAYER VS mode: ----------------- In Two-Player Versus Mode, one player controls an enemy using the keyboard while the other player controls a mercenary using the mouse. The screen is divided in half, the left side for the keyboard player, the right side for the mouse player. Each player has his own unique way of controlling and commanding the entities To choose an entity to control, first the strike squad must have been assembled in the shuttle and placed down on a mission location. The keyboard player selects an enemy by cycling through the list of enemies on the screen using the Tab key. When an enemy is in control mode, his/her picture will appear in the lower left control window along with his/her corresponding name. Command your enemies to battle the other player's mercenaries using certain keys on the keyboard, or "hot keys": Arrow Keys: Walk your enemy around the game screen. Ctrl+ Arrow Keys: Scroll the screen. Space Bar: Attacks an on-screen mercenary in the general direction the entity is facing with the current weapon. W: Cycles through the weapon choices in the weapon window at lower left of the screen. U: Use Device. A pop up menu of devices to use will appear with corresponding numbers for each item. Enter the appropriate number to choose that item or "Q" to quit. S: Search {Take}. Move the enemy next to the entity to search. Press "S" and the entity's inventory will pop up with a number corresponding to each inventory item. Enter the number to choose an item or "Q" to quit. G: Give. Works like Search, but has the opposite effect. I: Enemy's quick stats. Must have the mouse over the enemy to choose. X: Cancels enemy's orders. D: Drop item. The enemy's inventory will pop up with corresponding numbers. Enter the appropriate number of the item to drop or "Q" to quit. P: Pause. Pauses or Unpauses the game. The mouse player selects a mercenary just as he would in One-Player Mode. Also, he may command specific actions from his mercenary by using the list of icons on the game screen border. All action is played out as if in One-Player Mode. TURN BASED COMBAT Turn Based combat is selected from the New Game Options or from the Options icon menu. The default mode is Real Time Combat. Turn based mode enables more strategic battle sequences. When in turn based mode your mercenaries take turns fighting the enemy. When your strike squad comes upon a group of enemies and combat is initiated, the game will pause and a message will come up giving the player an option to attack or pass on to the next mercenary in line who is in combat mode. When the game is paused and waiting for the player to attack or pass, the player can cycle through his mercenary's weapons by clicking on the weapon window. While hand-to-hand combat can be performed in turn based mode, an attack ends that mercenaries current turn. FOLLOWING MERCS When landing on a mission, mercenaries will automatically be following each other according to their placement on the shuttle pads on the Mothership. When you click on a mercenary to control that is following another entity, he will cease following the entity until you release him from control. At that moment, he will continue following the entity he was previously following unless he has been moved outside a certain range (about 50') or unless he is blocked from his leader. To have a mercenary break away from the squad and independently move around on his own, click on the Follow icon and then click on that mercenary. This way, he will be following himself and can only go back to following the squad if you tell him to. THE MAIN MENU &H ============= The first menu that you will see when the game is running (not including the Sound Menu) will be the Main Menu. The Main Menu has several options listed below. Each of these options may be selected by placing the mouse cursor over the desired option and clicking the left mouse button. NEW GAME begins a new game. You will be asked to type in your Call Sign before the game starts. See "Playing a New Game" section for details on starting a new game. LOAD SAVED GAME allows you to load in a game that was previously saved and continue playing where you left off. This option will only appear if you have previously saved games. QUIT allows you to exit to DOS. PLAYING A NEW GAME &I ================== When NEW GAME has been selected from the Main Menu you have the following options: You may select to start a new game immediately without changing any of the options by selecting PLAY GAME, or first set the options you wish to be changed before starting the game. Options are explained below and also in the Option Icon Command description. RANDOM QUIPS: ON or OFF toggles the random messages displayed by mercenaries either ON or OFF. TURN BASED: ON or REAL TIME: ON allows you choose between real time or turn based combat. ICON HELP: ON or OFF toggles Icon labels either ON or OFF. 1 PLAYER MODE: ON, 2 PLAYER COOP: ON OR 2 PLAYER VS: ON toggles between number of players and mode settings. GAME SPEED: SLOW/MEDIUM/FAST displays which speed mode the game is set to. SHUTTLE ANIMS: ON or OFF sets whether or not to display the shuttle launch, landing and take-off animations. If set ON you may still skip animations by pressing "ESC". QUICK STATS: "/" or RT BTN selects between either pressing "/" or clicking the right mouse button when the mouse cursor is on an entity to display the quick stats (health, armor, inventory and other attributes) for that entity. EXIT TO DOS: exits game and returns to the DOS prompt. You will be prompted as to whether or not you are sure you wish to quit the game STARTING A NEW GAME ------------------- After selecting START GAME in the Main Menu you will be brought to the Starmap display showing your Mothership and the planet of Trindor, the only planet which is known at the beginning of the game. The mothership is capable of flying between planets on the star map. The shuttle is a short- range craft intended for traveling within the planet orbit only. The mothership houses the shuttle during interplanetary travel. Once a planet's orbit has been entered the mothership must deploy the shuttle for planetside exploration, as the mothership is too big to operate within the planet orbit. Selecting a Planet ------------------ Placing the cursor over a planet on the Star Map will cause the planet name to be displayed. The cursor will change to the (Go) cursor and clicking the left mouse button will select that planet as a destination for the mothership and the planet map will be displayed. If a Strike Squad has already been created then both the shuttle and mothership will be displayed on the planet map. As this is a new game and no Strike Squad crew has been created the game will switch to the mothership view and the Strike Squad selection will begin. The Planetary Map shows the various cities you can currently select as valid shuttle destinations. See "Planetary Map". As the game progresses and clues are uncovered, more planets and cities will be revealed on the Star Map and the Planetary Maps. If you already have an active Strike Squad and wish to change members you must do so on the mothership before selecting a new planet to travel to. Selecting a Strike Squad ------------------------ Placing the mouse pointer over the Mothership and clicking the left mouse button will bring up the Mothership display. On a new game the mothership shuttle crew help screen will be displayed, press "ESC" to exit screen. This display contains the available mercenaries you will use to go on the various missions. You will see a shuttlecraft in the center of the screen with four shuttle pads numbered 1-4. You should select four mercenaries (less if you wish) to go to the shuttle pads. As the mercenary reaches the shuttle pad his/her statistics will be displayed on the top part of the screen in the first four sections. The fifth section is for mercenaries that can be recruited while in a city. You should select the mercenaries taking into consideration the mission requirements (information can be obtained from game clues and Surveillance maps) plus the character's abilities and weapons. In a New Game, selecting the planet Trindor as a destination on the star map will automatically switch to the Strike Squad selection. Placing mercenaries on the shuttle pads must be done before selecting the SHUTTLE icon. As mercenaries are placed on the shuttle pads, their name and the total squad fee for that Strike Squad will appear at the bottom of the screen. The total cost of the Strike Squad will be deducted from your total credits when the shuttle icon is selected. The shuttle will stay in the mothership during interplanetary travel and will be launched once the mothership approaches a planet's orbit. Planetary Map ------------- Selecting a planet on the Star Map will display the planetary map for that planet with the known cities displayed. Placing the cursor over a city on the Planetary Map will display the name of the city. The cursor will change to the (GO) cursor and clicking the left mouse button will select that city as the destination for the shuttle. In a new game the only planet available is Trindor and the only city known is Rogonde. Clicking on this city (once the shuttle crew has been assigned) will launch the shuttle and its crew to the city. CITY MAP -------- Once the shuttle has landed, the city map will be displayed. You then may move your mercenaries around the city and start your mission. You will want to view the Surveillance map for Rogonde by selecting Surveillance from the Squad Log options. Click on Rogonde in the Surveillance screen and its map will be displayed. Your objective in this first city is to meet Sakura Yomashi (she is currently working as the waitress at the building in the lower left side of map). You must explore the city of Rogonde, locate her, and then talk to her for clues. Once a mercenary has located her and standing near her, placing the mouse cursor on Yomashi will change the cursor to the Talk cursor . Clicking the left mouse button when this cursor is displayed will initiate a conversation with her. Later missions may consist of meeting characters that have valuable information, retrieving objects, destroying objects, killing enemies, plus many other different objectives. THE SCREENS &J =========== The Main Screen --------------- Upon accessing either the mothership or city displays, you will see a map of the ship or part of the city in the center of the screen. The left and right side of the screen contains icon buttons which perform various functions when you place the mouse pointer over the icon and click the left button or press the appropriate hotkey. The bottom of the screen will display messages alerting you to events or general information such as status for the active mercenary's selected weapon. Miscellaneous game information prompting you for action choices and what commands have been executed will also be displayed in this section of the screen. The top part of the screen is divided into five sections displaying the mercenary's remaining Armor Protection (A:100) and Health (H:100) values which can be from 0-100. A value of 100 is the maximum amount whereas a value of 0 reflects either no Armor Protection is left or the mercenary is about to die. While on the Mothership you will select up to four mercenaries to go to the shuttle pads and form the Strike Squad. The fifth squad slot is available so that mercenaries can be recruited while your Strike Squad is on a mission in a city. The Star Map ------------ Placing the cursor over a planet on the Star Map will cause the planet name to be displayed. The cursor will change to the (Go) cursor and clicking the left mouse button will select that planet as a destination for the mothership and the planet map will be displayed. The Planetary Map ----------------- Placing the cursor over a city on the Planetary Map will display the name of the city. The cursor will change to the (GO) cursor and clicking the left mouse button will select that city as the destination for the shuttle The City Display ---------------- Once you have chosen your mercenary Strike Squad, you can choose the planet and city you wish to travel to. The shuttle will land the available mercenaries in the city. View a SURVEILLANCE map of the city before sending the shuttle down, to prepare for the mission and choose the appropriate mercenaries for that location. Place the cursor over a computer or other piece of equipment and if the name of the item appears above the item then it probably is something that is worth examining. It may be an item you need to search, using Take, or an item that needs to be destroyed. You may be stopped by a closed door for which you will need a colored card or special pass to unlock. You may be able to open the door if your mercenary has a tool kit, it will be used automatically when the mercenary walks into the door and the door will open if the mercenary is successful. These cards or passes may be carried by an enemy or may be stored in a supply box or other location. Your Strike Squad will encounter many characters on the missions: some of which you may need to fight, others are innocent civilians that you may be able to talk to or should be ignored. Moving the cursor onto an enemy will cause the cursor to change to the target cursor . Placing the cursor over a civilian will cause the cursor to change to the civilian/noncombatant cursor . Some missions will be clear what you must do on that city or planet, others will be more complex and require exploration and more clues to solve If a mercenary or mercenaries becomes damaged during fighting, you can USE a Medic Kit from one of your characters and attempt to heal the mercenary's wounds (a person with a good medic skill is best suited for using a medic kit). Armor must be replaced when damaged or the mercenary will need to wait until reaching the mothership where it is automatically repaired. You can also talk to other entities by moving next to them on the map and then when the mouse cursor is placed on that entity the cursor will change to the Talk cursor. Clicking on the left mouse button when the Talk cursor is active will talk to the entity and gain hints of what to do next. You can use the GIVE and TAKE commands to exchange items or weapons between mercenaries or other entities (enemies must be dead before you can exchange items with them). You may also be able to recruit a fifth mercenary for your party while in the city. Other commands and options are explained in more detail in the "Command Icons" section. The Help Screens ---------------- When a new game is started the above help screen for help on assembling and deploying a Strike Squad shuttle team on the mothership will appear. Other help screens are available for various game functions like Mouse Cursors, 2 Player mode, Buying and Selling items, etc. Pressing the "H" key will access the first help screen and clicking the left mouse button will toggle thru the various help screens. Pressing "ESC" will exit the help screens COMMAND ICONS &K ============= The Command Icons used both in the Mothership and Cities (Planet surface) are explained below. The only commands available on the Mothership are: Squad Log, Options, Pause, Surveillance, and Shuttle. ENGAGE/IGNORE allows the Strike Squad to automatically fight enemies as encountered or sets them to ignore opponents and only attack when specifically ordered to attack. FOLLOW chooses an entity for the active mercenary to follow. All other orders will be cancelled. Place the Follow cursor over the desired target (which should have name highlighted) and click the left mouse button to select that entity. USE DEVICE displays a list of available devices. Select a device to use from the list displayed. If you choose Medic Kit, the cursor will change to the Heal cursor and you will need to place it over the desired character to be healed and click the left mouse button If the active mercenary has no devices to "use" then the USE DEVICE icon will not appear for that mercenary. GIVE allows a mercenary to give an inventory item to another entity which must be nearby. Click on this icon and then place the Give cursor over an entity and click the left mouse button. An inventory list will be displayed; click on the name of the desired item. TAKE allows a mercenary to take an inventory item from a nearby entity. Click on this icon and then place the Take cursor over the entity to take the item from and click the left mouse button. An inventory list will be displayed; select an item to take by clicking on its name. OR click the left mouse button when the cursor is over a dead entity (the cursor will change to the skull cursor ) and the active mercenary will automatically go into "take" mode. DROP allows the active mercenary to DROP an item from their inventory. An inventory is displayed, click on the item you wish to DROP. Once dropped the item is forever lost, you will be prompted as to whether or not you really want to drop that item. CANCEL (ESC) will cancel the current orders for the active mercenary. SHUTTLE calls or deploys the shuttle. When in the Mothership with mercenaries on the shuttle pads, clicking on this icon deploys the shuttle. When in a city this icon will call the shuttle to retrieve your Strike Squad. SQUAD LOG accesses the mothership onboard computer. This allows you to choose from seven different options: DIARY displays your commander notes for events and occurances as well as notes you have derived from conversations with others. MERCS lists available mercenaries that may be chosen for deployment and gives a brief summary of information on each mercenary such as: cost, armor, etc. Pressing the mouse button will display the next page of mercenary information. KILLED lists the names of all of your mercenaries that have been killed during your adventures. FINANCES displays your total credit currently available. Individual mercenaries draw upon or add to this credit when buying or selling items. When deploying a new shuttle crew the mercenary fees are automatically subtracted from the total credit available. COMMON INVENTORY lists the specialty items contained in the common inventory and thereby available to all mercenaries when needed. This allows items to be used even if a specific mercenary is not carrying that item on their person. Certain "key" items to the game cannot be accidentally dropped or left behind and as they are automatically "used" at appropriate times in the game, they must be accessable by all Strike Squad members/CONTINUE GAME will return to the game in progress. SURVEILLANCE will display surveillance maps of explored and unexplored cities. Signals processed by the orbiting Mothership provide datastreams resulting in "surveillance" graphics for the benefit of any Squad. When a new location is discovered by a planetside Squad, the surveillance computer is equipped to display an overhead view...replete with strategic locations and other notables indicated by war strategists working from the Mothership NAVroom. Though experimental, these computer maps will surely prove to be invaluable to the Squad and should be thoroughly utilised. Planets may not be selected but are displayed on as reference. Clicking on EXIT will exit this option. To select a city from one of the planets shown, move the cursor over that city name and click the left mouse button. A mission preparation map will be displayed with notes as to items/locations of interest on that map. Clicking on the map will return to the surveillance selection screen to choose another location. NOTE: At the beginning of a new game, the only known location is the planet of Trindor and clicking on the Surveillance icon would display the map below. The only known city at this time is Rogonde. Clicking on the city of Rogonde would display the Surveillance Map for Rogonde (shown below) which points out locations and creatures of interest. This map will alert you as to where "Ninja" is currently located {Yomashi is "working" as a waitress}. STATS brings up mercenaries' statistics, background and inventory. Clicking on this icon displays the current inventory for the active mercenary. You can select to see the statistics (and dossier) of the active mercenary. To get back to the game in progress, click on GAME. OFFSITE causes the mercenaries at the offsite location to be transported to the new section or area of the map. An "offsite" location is a new area of the map which is a second part of the city originally selected from the planet map or an area that can only be reached from that city. All of the living mercenaries from the shuttle squad must be at the offsite location for the OFFSITE icon to appear and function. In addition, the mouse cursor will change to the OFFSITE cursor when placed over this location on the map to indicate that it may be selected. Clicking the left mouse button when the OFFSITE cursor is active and all surviving strike squad members are at this location acts the same as clicking on the Offsite Icon. PAUSE will pause the action of the game, thereby giving the characters some breathing room. The Pause icon will change color to red to indicate the game is in "pause" mode. Targets may be selected for attack during Pause mode but the attack will not occur until the game is unpaused. In addition, the following commands may be performed in Pause Mode: Surveillance, Squad Log, Statistics, and Options. Other commands may be selected but will not execute until unpaused. Click on the PAUSE icon again to return the game to the normal (unpaused) mode OPTIONS brings up the game options list described below: SAVE GAME allows you to save the game in progress. Select one of the save game slots and enter the filename to save the game under. LOAD GAME allows you to load in a previously saved game to continue playing where you left off in that game and cancel the game you are currently playing. CONTINUE GAME allows you to return to the game in progress. ICON HELP:ON (or OFF) will toggle ON or OFF the automatic displaying of icon functions when the cursor is on or near the icon itself. With the setting to ON, placing the mouse pointer over an icon will display its name (function). 1 PLAYER:ON, 2 PLAYER COOP:ON, 2 PLAYER VS: ON toggles the number of players and modes. It can be either 1 Player versus the computer, 2 players cooperating together against the computer (both controlling mercenaries), or 2 players against each other (one controls the mercenaries, the other controls the enemies). GAME SPEED: SLOW/MEDIUM/FAST sets the speed at which the game plays: Slow, Medium (the default setting) or Fast. Depending on the speed of your computer, you may want to raise or lower the speed setting. The faster the speed, the faster the mercenaries move and act. RANDOM QUIPS: ON (or OFF) toggles the random messages that the mercenaries say as they walk around. The mercenaries have different messages they say depending on their personality. The default is Random Quips: On. SHUTTLE ANIMS:ON (or OFF) toggles animations such as shuttle launching, landing and taking off. If the game runs slow on your computer or you do not wish to view the animations anymore, set these animations OFF. Important character and story/event animations will still be displayed even if the shuttle animations have been disabled. TURN BASED: ON or REAL TIME: ON chooses between either Real time combat (the default) or Turn based combat. Turn based combat pauses the game at each mercenaries "turn" and allows you to move a limited amount and/or do actions/attacks during this time. Once the maximum amount of movement or actions has been done, command is transfered to the next mercenary. QUICK STATS:"/" or QUICK STATS:RT BTN (right button) toggles the ability to get the Quick Stats (armor, health, and other attributes) of an entity by either pressing "/" key (default) or by clicking the right mouse button when the cursor is on an entity. EXIT TO DOS exits the game and returns you to DOS prompt ITEMS &L ===== BUYING AND SELLING ITEMS Buying Items ------------ Select an item to buy by clicking on its name on the right part of the screen. You will see a description and picture of the item apppear on the top right of the screen. The BUY option will become available in the lower left of the screen. Clicking on the BUY option will purchase the item in question if your mercenary has enough credits to purchase it. The --> and <-- arrows indicate that there is more items available in list, clicking on the arrow will scroll the list in the appropriate direction forward of backward. If the active mercenary's inventory is full then the salesman will tell you that the character is full and no BUY option is available Selling Items ------------- Select an item to sell by clicking on its name or picture on the lower left part of the screen. The SELL option will become available in the lower left of the screen and the salesman will make an offer. Clicking on the SELL option will sell the item in question if the offer is satisfactory WEAPONS Pistols ------- Holdout Pistol: Made from ceramic composites, this laser pistol is light, easily concealed, and accurate. Its drawback is that it only does light damage. Because of its low power output, however, it can be fired fifty times before requiring a recharge. It is the popular choice among the Rebellion's mercenaries as a last resort weapon. Q5 Bull Pistol: Designed on Quinte-5, quite possibly the most violent planet in the Quinte system, this medium flechette pistol is slightly less accurate than the holdout, does more damage, and holds half as many rounds. A good general purpose pistol. APS .554 Pistol: Also designed on Quinte-5, the APS (Anti Personnel System) is a throw back to the days of slug throwers. This monstrous pistol does the highest amount of damage in the pistol class. The magazine holds 15 rounds of .554 caliber spent-uranium slugs each mounted on a solid propellant core. Definitely something to write home about. Rifles ------ Microwave Rifle: Lightest of the available rifles, the gun fires a focused beam of microwaves which literally cook the opponent. Its strength lies in its slow energy consumption, light weight and good accuracy, (it's hard to dodge what you can't see). This rifle became very popular during the famine wars in the Lerit System for some rather demoralizing reasons Delaser Rifle: By far the most used laser weapon, the Delaser has become standard issue for the Consortium Military. With a slogan like, "Building tomorrow on yesterday's charred bones.", Delaser manufacturer Delco Industries was bound to cash in big. The Delaser does only slightly better than moderate damage, has moderate accuracy and holds 60 discharges per NRG pak. Pulse Rifle: A heavy rifle to say the least, this bulky, long barreled gun does its damage by sending laser bursts in quick succession into the target. In the rifle class it is the most damaging, heaviest, and least accurate. The gun holds 30 charges per NRG pak. Machine Guns (Burst Weapons) ---------------------------- Spartan Shotgun: A relic from the days when riots could be handled by a small police force without air support, the Spartan is a short barreled semi-automatic shotgun with a magazine feed of 30 rounds. Considered to be inferior to the microwave rifle in damage and accuracy, the shotgun has the advantage of being able to hit numerous closely packed targets at once. Machine Pistol: This weapon is made by numerous manufacturers with little or no differences. The machine pistol is the most common street gun. It's cheap, light, and inexpensive. Typically the weapon fires a low velocity flechette that does as much damage as the Q5 Bull pistol while being slightly less accurate. The advantage of this weapon is that the user can spray an area and hit the assailant and one or two of his cohorts. The gun holds 20 bursts. MPMG-14: The Man-Portable-Machine-Gun-14 is currently the premier assault weapon on the Black Market, having been banned from the grey markets. The weapon is slightly inferior to the Delaser in all categories except for the fact that the weapon can effect multiple targets. The specially designed short-feed belt holds 400 rounds which is enough for 40 bursts. Fusion Cannon: Although lightweight, the Fusion Cannon is perhaps the most formidable weapon in the Consortium Alliance planet system. This energy weapon is rare and expensive...but well worth the admission price. Made by Delco Industries, issue dates 2200,2201 S.Y. Flame Guns ---------- Flame Jet: The lightest of the weapons in the flame gun category, the flame jet does slightly less damage than a Delaser and holds 50 discharges within its tank. The Flame Jet is widely used because it can be used as a support weapon without weighing th carrier down too heavily. Napalm Hurler: During the Planet War in the Pogahl system, the Napalm Hurler became popular as a defoliator and "bunker sweeper". The Napalm Hurler does marginally less damage than a Pulse Rifle. Due to its heavy bulk, the weapon is very difficult to aim accurately. The Hurler has a tank capacity of 50 discharges. Balrog Flamegun: The largest of the available flameguns, this heavy support weapon does more damage than a Pulse Rifle and less than an MP-3 rocket. Again, as with the Napalm Hurler, its accuracy is very poor. The Balrog's tank holds 50 discharges. Perhaps the only reason the Balrog is still popular is because of Eddie "Hotfoot" Leao who toasted 11 Berogian wardogs and spent the next week eating every one of them! Rocket Launchers ---------------- Six Pack: The Six Pack is a rifle configuration rocket launcher with 6 small rockets in a large magazine box. Each rocket does about the same damage as a Napalm Hurler, with greater accuracy in spite of its heavier weight. Overall, a light support weapon. MP-3: This medium support weapon packs a punch greater than the Pulse Rifle with the same weight and less accuracy. The MP-3 rocket system is standard issue to the support teams with the Consortium military. If you can't punch through it with one of the rockets in an MP-3 then you can't punch through it! Halo Rocket: Definitely the most powerful weapon available with the exception of a Demolition Charge, this shoulder mounted rocket launcher is incredibly cumbersome and hard to aim. The rocket is not widely used because it only provides one shot. Ammunition ---------- Rockets are necessary to use any Rocket Launcher. Rocket Launcher class weapons are: Six Pack, MP3, and Halo Rocket launcher. Rocket Launchers when purchased come fully loaded and require more rockets when the initial amount is used up Flame Fuel is used to refuel any of the Flame Guns. This includes: Flame Jet, Napalm Hurler and Balrog Flamegun. Flame Guns when purchased will be filled already and only require flame fuel when the charges in the gun are expended. Energy Pack- With the advent of energy weapons, it became necessary to power them with energy packs that could provide a portable power source. In 2199, PureNRG * Inc. provided that source. PureNRG* energy packs are in a cartridge form complete with precision time release, bio-engineered, power plasma...and have been proven to be much improved since the PureNRG* pack recall of 2200. When inserted into a compatible weapon, PureNRG* packs provide the user with a lightweight and very effective means of hi-tech destruction. Explosives ---------- Various explosive devices exist in Strike Squad, doing different amounts of damage and triggered by a variety of methods. Some devices are single use (like grenades) while others come multiple charges to a pack. Grenades: Grenades come in various shapes and sizes, but the most readily available variety does about as much damage as a Napalm Hurler. Grenades generally do not blow up walls due to their concussive nature; they will, however, blow up furniture all too easily. A special variety of grenade exists knkown as the E.G.G.-4. This Electroshock Generating Grenade creates a high intensity electrostatic field which paralyzes all entities in the area. Robots temporarily overload while living creatures are left stunned. Explosive Pack: Explosive packs act as mines and explode in an area that is half the radius of the more powerful Blister Charge and Demo Charge. The Explosive Charge is triggered by an enemy walking onto the location where it was placed. Explosive packs come 5 to a pack. Blister Charge: This explosive charge explodes in a large radius and does a large amount of damage within that area. The Blister Charge requires an enemy to trigger it. The Blister Charge is dropped and it is activated when an enemy steps onto that location, similar to a heavier duty version of a mine. Demo Charge: Like the Blister Charge it explodes in a large radius and does great damage. Unlike the Blister Charge, however, the Demo Charge does not require an enemy to trigger it. Your mercenary will "Use" the Demo Charge and it will dropped and a timer started to indicate the time of explosion. The Demo Charge comes in a package of 3. Mines: Occasionally, mercenaries will come across a hastily deployed minefield during a mission. The most common type of mine is the "caltrop" mine. This mine fixes itself to whatever surface it is thrown against and then arms itself. Due to their small size, they can be rather nasty if you aren't looking out for them. The best way to bypass these little monsters is with the use of the bomb extractor. ARMOR S.C.A.A. Battlesuit: Castle Corp., a subsidiary of Delco industries first introduced this line of tactical armor 23 solar years ago, when the only "shell" suits mercenaries could get were refitted military surplus. The first exoskeletally based armored suit was put into widespread use in 2160 s.y. by the Consortium Heavy Assault Corps. With the advent of Havlar and other high-bonding fibers, coupled with unheard of advances and "freeze" plastics, it became possible to have combat effective armor. The drawback was that the soldier had greatly restricted movement and would sometimes suffocate in the suit, making the suit very unpopular. Castle Corp., determined not to lose it's hold on the market, (not to mention its investment) created a self contained pressure suit that could work in a vacuum. This turned things around. The military immediately found a niche for the suits as armored space suits in various deep space "police actions". Eventually, technological advances and better design allowed the suit to be used on land and even in the sea. In 2175 s.y. Castle Corps. exclusivity contract with the Consortium ran out. The next day, they unveiled a new line of armor geared for mercenaries (who by this time were the mainstay of the "policing" force in the galaxy). Since that time, demand for a battlesuit that provides a high defense capability remains high in all systems where mercenary activity is common. S.C.A.A. stands for Self Contained Assault Armor. It features a fully articulated exoskeleton which supports most of the armor's weight. The armor itself is a composite of Ebonite filament and the freeze plastic H.E.T. The result is a residue ablative armor that can stop most military ordnance. The suit is self-contained and can operate in a vacuum. Lastly, the S.C.A.A. is designed to accept most armor enhancements that are available today. The most common of these is the armor upgrades. Most of the armor is very modular in design which allows the mercenary to remove destroyed sections and replace them with new panels. The F.L.E.X. (Flexible Linkage EXoskeleton) allows for almost universal armor compatibility. This means that any armor found in the field can be used by the squad members. To use armor found on a mission, simply have it in the squad member's inventory. Mercs aren't stupid, if they're carrying it, they're wearing it In Strike Squad, armor has two important characteristics: Stress Value and Total Protection Value. Stress Value is the amount of damage that the armor can deflect or ignore before it starts to take damage. Total Protection Value is the amount of damage the armor can take before it's penetrated. When the Total Protection Value is reduced to zero, it is possible to injure the mercenary, however, the Stress value continues to absorb damage from every attack. This reflects the natural resilience of the exoskeleton, and the residual sections of armor on the frame. There are three types of armor upgrades available to boost your armor protection: Light, Medium, and Heavy armor upgrades. Armor Upgrades -------------- Most every form of life belonging to the Consortium Allies' Strike Squad usually provides his, her or it's own armor. Armor upgrades operate on factory impregnated protective energy shielding that can withstand a limited amount of damage. Unfortunately, armor tends to become damaged all too quickly when massaged with offending lasers and various bullets. Fortunately, Squad members will occasionally chance upon armor upgrades which can be worn as emergency (or additional) protection. There are three known forms of armor upgrades: Light Armor Upgrade- Manufactured by Ablative Industries in 2201, this aftermarket light duty armor upgrade is an ideal form of additional protection for the economy minded soldier-for-hire. This is also a good choice for those keen on keeping off weight. This armor upgrade is good for an additional 20 energy absorption episodes. Medium Armor Upgrade- Ablative Industries second design has proven to be a happy medium between the limited protection of Light Armor and the bulkiness of Heavy Armor. This armor will provide additional protection up to 40 energy depletion units. Heavy Upgrade- Although heavy and quite bulky, this aftermarket armor will provide up to 60 energy drains for the user. DEVICES The following are a list of non-weapon devices which the mercenaries can employ in order to insure the success of the mission. Tool Kit: This electronic tool kit includes all the tool and patch gear necessary to perform a variety of bypassing and information extracting tasks. It allows the user, in conjunction with his, her, or its computer skill, to open a locked door, or retrieve something from a computer or other piece of hardware. Without the proper tools, though, even if the mercenary has a great deal of computer knowledge, a locked door cannot be opened. The Tool Kit is automatically used by a mercenary when they approach a locked door. Medic Kit: The medic kit, like the tool kit, provides all of the necessary equipment and is an integral part of healing a mercenary during a mission. Just how much a medic can repair a damaged mercenary depends on the Medical expertise of the mercenary or medic using the kit. Bomb Extractor: This device, when used on a mine, scans the mine to determine its detonation sequence and then disables it. The Bomb extractor is automatically used by the mercenary when standing next to a mine. Ghost Cloak: The Consortium's efforts of giving the S.C.A.A. Battlesuits a form of inherent stealth capability are rumored to have been successful. Although no one has "seen" this new ghost cloak in action, it is supposed to be very quiet and camouflage intensive COMBAT &M ====== There will be many different entities that your mercenaries will encounter in their travels. Some will obviously be enemies as they will attack on sight, others may become enemies only once they have been attacked (or when their allies are attacked), and still others may simply be non-combatant civilians (or creatures). Possible enemies are indicated by the cursor changing to the "target" cursor when placed over them, civilians are indicated by the cursor changing to the "civilian" cursor when placed over them. Certain attributes such as Speed, Weapon Skill, Stealth, and Defense all play a role in comprising a mercenary's combat agility. Weapon Combat ------------- Using weapons to kill enemies is the normal mode of attack for your mercenaries. Attacking with weapons may also do damage to civilians and equipment in the area so caution must be exercised on when to attack. Many enemies will ignore your mercenaries unless they are fired upon or are attacked in hand to hand combat. To attack an entity, place the target cursor over the entity and click the left mouse button which will initiate an attack. Mercenaries set to "engage" mode will automatically start attacking nearby enemies if they are attacked first. As your mercenaries attack, ammunition is used up, if all of the ammunition is used up for a weapon then 0 will be displayed as the number of charges for that weapon when that merc is the active mercenary. Mercenaries using a weapon, a Balrog Flame Gun for example, will automatically reload if they are carrying appropriate ammunition, like flame fuel, and this ammunition will "disappear" from the mercs inventory. See the "Weapons" section of this manual for a description of weapons and their appropriate types of ammunition. Most damage from a launched missle attack is caused by the explosions it creates on impact and not the projectile itself. The projectiles only do 1/3 as much damage as the explosions Hand to Hand Combat ------------------- Hand to Hand combat is initiated when the active mercenary moves into (or hits) an enemy. Hand-to-hand combat is also used if the active mercenary is in an ATV and "runs" into an entity. If your mercenary has run out of ammunition for all of his weapons and wishes to still attack an enemy or is in a location where using weapons may create too much damage to the background area (he does not wish his balrog flame thrower to hit innocent bystanders or there is equipment nearby that he does not want to get damaged) then hand to hand combat may be the proper choice. Be careful, some enemies will ignore your mercenaries unless first fired upon or attacked in hand to hand combat. Use caution when moving the active mercenary so that he does not initiate hand to hand combat by slamming into an entity unless you really wish him to battle that entity. Some of the restrictions to hand-to-hand combat are: 1) Only the controlled merc can do hand-to-hand combat. 2) The damage inflicted is a random value with a maximum of 1/3 of the attacking merc's Strength. 3) If the controlled mercenary is in an ATV, the damage the ATV inflicts is almost always fatal. Hand-to-hand combat may be intiated while in Turn Based combat mode but such an attack will end the current mercenary's attack turn. Any damage caused will still be applied to the target. Hit or Miss ----------- A hit or miss on an entity is determined by the weapon used and the personal statistics of the attacker and the target (defender). The accuracy of the weapon, the attack ability of the attacker (weapon skill/training) and the defensive ability of the intended target (Stealth and Defense rating) are compared and used to determine if a hit is scored A weapon attack on a target is represented by the appropriate weapon representation being shown (flame, explosion, bullet, etc) which will either "hit" the target or be shown as a "miss" and will not make it to the target. If an attack has resulted in a successful hit then a number will also be displayed next to the target. If the target has remaining armor the number will be the amount of points that is subtracted from the stress value of the target's armor. If the target has no armor, or has been damaged to zero armor points, the number displayed is the amount of points that is subtracted from the target's health. Combat Damage ------------- Combat damage is determined by a variety of factors. The amount of damage a mercenary will take depends on his/her Stress Value. This is the part of the armor that absorbs most of the damage from a weapon hit before the whole of the armor itself starts to wear down. For example: a mercenary with a Stress Value of 40 gets hits with a weapon that shoots 55 points of damage. From that 55 points, 40 of it is absorbed into the Stress Value while 15 of it is subtracted from the armor. All mercenaries have different Stress Values. To look at these values, right click on the mercenary you are controlling or use the "/" key when cursor is over mercenary - this is determined by the Option setting for Quick Stats (Quick Stats: "/" or Quick Stats: RT BTN). This will also bring up his/her Health and Armor values. When a mercenary's armor has decreased to zero, the Damage Value starts being subtracted from the Health Value. When the Health Value has reached 40 or lower, a warning message will alert you that your mercenary is about to die. Get him/her medical attention quickly to bring the Health Value back up. When the mercenary's health finally reaches zero, that's when your mercenary dies. When your Strike Squad returns to the mothership, armor is repaired and health healed for all remaining members of that Strike Squad. Turn Based Combat ----------------- When in turn based mode your mercenaries take turns fighting the enemy. When your strike squad comes upon a group of enemies and combat is initiated, the game will pause and a message will come up giving the player an option to attack or pass on to the next mercenary in line who is in combat mode. When the game is paused and waiting for the player to attack or pass, the player can cycle through his mercenary's weapons by clicking on the weapon window. In turn-based mode the mercenary has the ability to move a small distance as well as fire weapons. Hand-to-hand combat may be initiated in turn based mode but that will end the turn for the current mercenary STRATEGY AND TACTICS &N ==================== 1. Choosing the proper Strike Squad members is important. Make sure to use an appropriate mix of mercenaries with Medic and other helpful skills, good weapon skills and a generous choice of available weapons. Depending on credit available you may want to take mercenaries skilled in many areas and thus more expensive, or fine tune a mixture of mercenaries that "stand out" in only one area and thus keeping the cost down. 2. Search for objectives in cities and talk to characters that you encounter. Many of them have helpful information or tips. Some goals are clear while some may require a far amount of searching bodies, objects, and locations. Keep an eye out for shortcuts, as some locations have areas where a path may be created by exploding objects that block your mercenaries' path or winding thru a maze of doorways. 3. Use "Pause" Mode often to view surroundings, the current status of your mercenaries and enemies, and to review SURVEILLANCE maps. 4. Mercenaries will automatically use the "best" weapon available until it runs out of ammunition. You may click on the active weapon picture (next to the active mercenary icon) and select another weapon to use. Choosing the right weapon to fire in which circumstance and monitoring the # of remaining shots in each weapon can be very important to the survival of your mercenaries and successful explorations. 5. Healing injured mercenaries by having a mercenary with Medic skill use a Medic Kit is very important to the survival of mercenaries on some cities. The Strike Squad will automatically be healed and armor repaired when they return to the Mothership but it may be too late for a severely injured mercenary that may die before returning in the shuttle to the mothership. 6. Choosing which mercenary will lead and which mercenary will follow which can be important. Be sure that the leading mercenary is replaced with another when he becomes too badly injured (either in health or armor). 7. Search enemy units that are killed for cards, passes, weapons, etc. Search supply boxes as encountered also. There are supply boxes on the Mothership which may be used to "stockpile" needed items for later use, instead of selling them or overloading your mercenaries. 8. Recruit new members when possible after finding or rescuing them. Walking up to a new mercenary encountered (the mouse cursor will change to the mercs identification cursor when placed over them) or by talking to them (the mouse cursor will change to the Talk cursor when placed over them) will trigger a conversation or a rescue attempt. 9. Use Squad Log to see clues given by characters encountered on what items to get, who to see, and where to visit. Use this information to choose what planets/cities to go to and what to do when you get there. 10. Use SURVEILLANCE Maps to plan a mission before sending shuttle down to a city or other location. 11. Use a Demo Charge, Blister Charge or other explosive device in areas of high enemy concentration. Running into a room or adjacent area, placing and arming the Demo Charge and then removing all mercenaries is a good way to clear enemies that are gathered and stay in one general area. Placing a Blister Charge or Explosive Pack and then "tricking" the enemy into following you into that location is a good way to eliminate large groups of enemies that do not stay in one location long MERCENARY CHARACTERISTICS &O ========================= Each mercenary has several characteristics which determines the overall capability of what the character can do. All of the characteristics have a range from 0 to 100 with 0 being the lowest and 100 the highest level. Mercenary characteristics may be viewed by selecting the Statistics screen for the active mercenary. The various abilities are explained below. Speed is an indicator of the overall "quickness" of the character. Due to the cumbersome and heavy battle suits in use by the mercenaries, speed is not related as much to how fast a mercenary will travel, but how fast the character can react in order to dodge enemy attacks. A high Speed factor will allow a mercenary to react sooner and move more quickly than those with lower speeds. A character's speed is adversely affected by high weight. Strength reflects the character's physical power and durability. Due to the flexible nature of the battle suit, mercenaries can exert the same strength whether in or out of the suit. A higher Strength will inflict more damage on an enemy character when engaged in hand-to-hand combat (the two characters are adjacent). Also a higher Strength rating will decrease the amount of Health lost when hit. Intelligence is the ability of the mercenary to carry out orders and tasks plus learn new skills. A high intelligence factor will help the mercenary complete orders given more efficiently, an increased chance of completing a task such as retrieving information from a computer, and will have a higher chance of learning new skills thereby increasing the mercenary's level of weapon, medical, computer, stealth, and defense. Weapon is the mercenary's accuracy with any weapon including hand- to-hand combat. This base accuracy level can be affected by other factors. Some mercenaries have been trained and are more proficient with certain weapons which will affect the weapon rating. See the section "Character Dossiers" for any special training received Medical represents the ability to minister proper medical care in healing an injured mercenary. The level of medical skill determines if the injured mercenary can be healed and also how much damage to Health can be repaired using a Medic Kit. In order to give medical care, access the mercenary who has the Medic Kit. Select the USE command and choose Medic Kit. Next select the mercenary you wish to heal. Computer skill is an absolute must in the 22nd century. It is useful to bypass security systems of a locked door with the aid of a Tool Kit. Also you can retrieve information from a computer as well. Stealth is the ability to remain unseen or hide from enemy opponents and also to properly time your movements to get a jump on the enemy. Defense represents the overall ability to avoid being hit by an enemy opponent. It is a composite of speed, intuition, timing, and experience. Health ------ Health is a reflection of the overall physical and mental condition of the mercenary in combat situations. The battle suit will allow a mercenary to function until the Health rating drops to 10. At this time the character will collapse. If the character reaches zero, the mercenary has died. At the very top of the screen are five sections numbered 1-5. The character's Health rating is displayed as "H:xxx" where "xxx" represents the current Health value of the mercenary. Armor ----- Armor gives defensive protection when hit by an enemy weapon. Armor has two important characteristics: Stress Value and Total Protection Value. Stress Value is the amount of damage that the armor can deflect or ignore before it starts to take damage. Total Protection Value is the amount of damage the armor can take before it's penetrated. When the Total Protection Value is reduced to zero, it is possible to injure the mercenary, however, the Stress value continues to absorb damage from every attack. This reflects the natural resilience of the exoskeleton, and the residual sections of armor on the frame At the very top of the screen are five sections numbered 1-5. The character's current Total Protection Value is displayed as "A:xxx" where "xxx" represents the current Armor of the mercenary. The mercenary's armor can also accept three types of armor upgrade, light, medium, and heavy. If the armor upgrade is in the mercenary's inventory, then the mercenary is considered to have this additional protection. A mercenary can, even while on a mission, take an armor upgrade from another entity. Special Training ---------------- Some of the mercenaries have received special training through military practice, combat experience, specialized study courses, or computerized simulations. Special training refers to weapons that require specialized knowledge to operate. These weapons are: Machine Guns, Flameguns, Rocket launchers, and Explosives. The mercenary's dossier indicates what Special Training has been received. Character Improvement --------------------- In the performance of their missions your Strike Squad will be performing a variety of tasks. The success rate of these actions, such as healing a wounded mercenary, is determined by the skill or statistic being used of the character. When the character is successful in completing the task, there is a possibility that the squad member's skill will increase. This way your squad becomes more experienced as they complete assigned tasks and survive the mission. If a particular mercenary has a level of zero in a category, then the mercenary can never perform in that area. Inventory --------- Each mercenary can carry up to eight items in their individial inventory (see below for information on the "common inventory"). You can receive new items through the TAKE command or by clicking on dead enemies which will automatically put active mercenary into "take" mode. You can give items using GIVE. Any armor upgrades in their inventory are automatically worn by mercenaries. Common Inventory ---------------- Used to store special items of interest that are available to all mercenaries. These items are essential to specific missions and are put in the common inventory to avoid accidental selling or loss of these key items. Items in the common inventory are automatically "used" at an appropriate moment whenever any mercenary encounters the event that will trigger the item's use. Most of the common inventory items are one-time use items. Fee --- Each mercenary soldier must be hired for each mission. The fee that they charge is listed in the "Character Dossier" section as well as displayed in the game when selecting the "Stats" icon. Basically, the better characteristics and skills the mercenary has, the higher the fee becomes. In order to maximize your funds you must hire the right mercenaries at the lowest cost to get the job done. The fee for mercenaries are charge when the shuttle crew is assembled and then placed onto the shuttle. New fees are charged each time the mothership is visited and a new shuttle crew assembled and deployed THE RACES &P ========= The mercenaries comprising the Strike Squad hail from all over the universe and therefore comprise a wide variety of races/breeds and cultures each having their own inherent abilities and weaknesses in different environments. Some of the different known races/breeds are: SS'Threll --------- A naturally gentle species from the watery Apatosan moons, SS'Thrells are very intuitive and quite effective as healers or medics. Their loyalty is also very good but they suffer on the brawn side. Don't expect an SS'Threll medic-for-hire to be the berserker of the group. This race is a highly evolved one. Ss'Thrells have learned the value of freedom tempered with justice and tolerant strength. Many SS'Thrells have been employed by civilizations as legal counsels, judges, and planetary enforcement agency psychic advisors, but the SS'Threll truly shows talent in its preferred fields of medicine, psycho-analysis, trauma recovery and in various other empathy related fields. Chlorophant ----------- Chlorophants are a race of tribally oriented, bipedal, dual trunked, three-toed giants from the Jalaak system, an amphibious collection of planets notorious for its ample supply of all kinds of bizarre lifeforms. First contact was made with them through the Consortium regime in 2073 S.Y.. The handful of Chlorophants one could encounter in the K'kistik system are no doubt a long way from home, and are usually fond of and quite loyal to Humans as leaders and sympathetic to their plight against the oppression of the K'kistiks. Chlorophants have a tough ecto-dermal layer, resembling that of Human scar tissue, and have an internal structure which enables them to withstand high pressure. Their amphibious origins have enabled them to develop refined oxygen extracting trunks, regardless of atmospheric content Chlorophants are strong fighters, but not exceedingly quick as they are quite large and often encumbered by heavy, high-powered weapons. Ironcially enough, these highly adapted, wrinkly oxygen extracting creatures are prone to addiction, to smoking specifically. Never offer a cigar to a Chlorophant; there are those who take extreme offense at such an insensitive gesture as lung cancer and its variants have claimed inordinate amounts of Chlorophant life. Human ----- Humans, although known by most in the universe to come from a fair planet in the Milky Way system, actually hail from all over the universe. Depending on their planet origin, Humans may have bred with other species and vary greatly as to their overall evolution with those from Earth falling somewhere in the lower-echelon, motivated by survival and procreation. Only in the last hundred years have these formerly denial-ridden creatures living in arbitrary, war-torn realities begun to accept the possibility of life outside of their once miserable microcosm. The induction of superior alien technology and logic have done wonders for the Human way. Currently, Earth's racial/breed makeup is comprised of almost everything imaginable, including Humans at varying levels of species development with those from advanced planets sharing technologies with those from lesser. Earth's long overdue tranquility and beauty makes it ideal as a rest stop for intra- system travellers. Humans generate strong feelings from different races. While Earth's mixture is fairly at peace with one another, other races see them as simple, insensitive, superstitious and barbaric. Some races, such as the K'kistiks, simply detest anything that isn't a K'kistik (somehow an all too familiar thought process to most humans). The Human mercenary will perform at a decent level in most areas, and are adept at fighting due to their natural territorial, competitive nature. Humans bond well with one another most of the time, and their innovative abilities are respected by the most highly evolved species of life. Pure-race Humans need oxygen to survive and are fragile outside of Earth, but are often a mysteriously important factor to a hit squad's strategic success and morale. Tarrotians ---------- These are a race spawned from the union of the Humans and various bipedal indiginous Raptor-species from outer-system cloud worlds. Tarrotians benefit from the keen eyesight and quickness of a Raptor and the intelligence, creativity and adaptability of Humans. These creatures carry most light weapons with their Human-like claws with ease and can be fitted with most armor adapted from other creatures. Tarrotians are tall, slender but strong, and very quick on (and off) their clawed feet. Although they are flightless, it's not uncommon to see Tarrotians leaping about during an encounter, sometimes as high as four or five feet! Mechanized/Cyberorganisms ------------------------- These names refer to any artificial entity. Cyberorganisms can appear in the form of the simple processing circuits or complex, autonomous service droids. In any case, these things are usually built to attend to the mundane tasks that might drive any living creature insane with boredom or disgust. Some projects are simply too dangerous for anything but mech-life. Although most mech-lives keep a low profile when going about their tasks, they can get quite aggresive, if so programmed, when thwarted in any way such as a Ragnar issue #47 security model droid sporting the latest in infra- sensory and bio-elimination technology spotting an intruder of a high security installation; an intruder that could just as well be YOU! There is a growing trend in the scientific community of late, however, and that is to build and keep mechanized entities around for sheer enjoyment of their often quirky personalities that develop as a result of programming and environment. A newly assembled droid can be "mind" programmed as a comedic type or simply be a reserved fountain of information and unwavering logic. These entities form measurable bonds with their caretakers, assigned or otherwise, and seem to transcend their mechanized origins over time. Needless to say, the application for this type of entity has been exploited all too well, especially within the seedy confines of cities such as Vos Legas. Viogens ------- These advanced humanform Apatosan-residents are an example of the divergence of evolution among the Human races hailing from different systems. While sharing a common ancestry with Humans in the days before the Solar Year time conversion system.,Viogens are far ahead of Humans in terms of brain-utilisation, technology, and adaptative behavior. Most of this race stands an average of 5'5", 145 lbs., their relatively small frames being efficient and viable on their home planet. Viogens came to exist by virtue of countless tests that were being performed on Humans, as suspected in several far-seeing Earthan documents, for the purpose of collecting Human genetic breeding information. The beings suspected to have been conducting these studies were of a gentle but firm nature, being far ahead of Humans in technology and brain evolvement but seeking to diminish some of its inherent weaknesses with Human strengths. The extreme variety of Human races became the perfect gene-pool to dip into and hence the birth of the Viogen. These creatures posess the individuality and fighting ability of Humans but are masters of communication and logical thought. Their emotions reflect on their bodies in the form of different colors, ranging from black to white, in different intensities, and representing the gamut of feeling. Communication with a Viogen is an effortless process, as they are quite telepathic and can respond to a thought as quickly as presented!. Ghalarth -------- A misunderstood creature, the Ghalarth most often invokes fear rather than the more appropriate emotion-pity. This race has been exploited ever since its appearance into Consortium systems, approximately 2062 s.y.. Ghalarth are generally good natured but lack the facilities to realize when they are being exploited by bounty hunters, minefield forebeings, or intergalactic crime- kingpins. They are often in the service of someone who sees them as an expendable workhorse. It is currently illegal as per Consortium regulation 77-0347.8 to buy, sell, or otherwise participate in the continued oppression of a Ghalarth. Besides, there is a growing population of them learning COMON (a Consortium approved universal default language) and educating their own of this nefarious practice. Though slow to anger, the Ghalarth fury is to be avoided! They are large creatures, ranging in size from 6'3" to 6'8". Extremely strong, good endurance, generally good- natured, mechanically adept Schao Tsai ---------- This half feline, half human bipedal martial arts oriented race hails from Trindor's sister moon Bao, a lush, atmospherically protected world teeming with plant and animal life of all sorts. Schao Tsai are so named due to this creatures hunting prowess (like the ancient Chinese tsai weapon), in conjunction with its ironic gentleness and calming wisdom, (named for the Schao-Lin temples dotting the protected ruins of New China). Ranging in standing height from 5'9" to 6'4", these lithe "catmen" are by far the fastest beings in the Consortium worlds, and can outrun any terra- based species without effort over moderate distances. Running on all fours, with their bodies at full stride, they bound 20 feet at a time, covering great distances effortlessly. Their highly motion- sensitive eyesight is superb though not quite as sharp as the Tarrotian Raptors. When sighted the Schao Tsai often will be seen alone, though among themselves in their dens they are quite social. Schao Tsai speak Schaot, COMON, and of course have been taught Chinese, both Mandarin and Cantonese, by the parent colony settlers. If you are so fortunate as to meet and converse with a Schao Tsai, listen carefully; their words are few but meaningful. These deep thinkers and naturally well-armed creatures (They refuse to wear anything too bulky) have mostly been exposed to Consortium employed Human (Asian) Tending Officers and Land Keepers after New China's discovery of this beautiful terra-planet. The Schao Tsai are accepting, though cautious, of most beings they encounter off- world, though will never pledge allegiance to any one master. Instead, these creatures thrive on their own inner worlds of thought and independence. If one happens to meet a Schao Tsai for the first time, don't be alarmed at their custom of rubbing their facial whiskers on your cheek, it means you now have a powerful ally. Unfortunately, rogue bounty hunters seek to skin the Schao Tsai for its fur, the first one promising to earn a fortune in seedy off- world black markets. Rumors have it that these would be poachers have simply turned back in utter terror, been quickly torn to shreds by defending Schao Tsai, or have in their frustration ravaged entire H.T.O. villages. K'kistiks have comprised a majority of these rogue poachers and enlightened the Schao Tsai as to the greater evil that has been inflicted upon the Consortium, hence the Schao Tsai's recent involvement with the Rebellion. T'togam ------- Little is known about this species, but an inordinate amount of them can be seen within the not-so-sacred casinos of Vos Legas, gambling and drinking away their meager coinage. Some speculate that many T'togam have been coerced into BlackMarket Mob affairs and having defected, looking over their shoulders in this remote corner of the universe. Other Races ----------- There are more known (and unknown) races in the charted sectors of the Consortium areas alone than there is space to describe them. The vast array of the variously-populated universe will become all too apparent when delving into the nether regions. Just use caution and diplomacy with these races, whether by weapon or otherwise, to remain alive for the Rebellion's cause MERCENARY PROFILES &Q ================== Name: Braak "Squawk" Tarrop Height: 7'1" Weight: 325 Age: 4 yrs. Race/Breed: Tarrotian (Icharus Assault Falcon) male Training: Sharpshooting (most light weapons), stealth Personal History: -Braak hails from the Berok Cloud System and is currently a member of the Rebellion. -Braak served as a flight leader during the tender first year of his life at Berok, and assisted the Consortium's efforts during the Nebulous Conflict as pointman for a special-operative and reconnaisance squad. -Free trader, 5 months -Weapon transport, 7 months -Domestic; nest attendance with SheHawk, 2 yrs., 5 months. Description: Being of Tarrotian ancestry, namely the Icharus Assault Falcon species, Braak has a tremendous natural ability with regard to combat, stealth, and his incredibly sharp eyesight doesn't hurt either. "Squawk", as he is affectionately referred to by his cohorts, is also reknown for his dynamic battle re- location tactics springing 4 to 5 feet from one place to the next! Name: Vasek "Chameleon" Gendorf Height: 5'1" Weight: 106 lbs. Age: 312 yrs. Race/Breed: male Viogen Training: no Consortium records of formal training Personal History: Vasek's home back on Apatos, which rotates with the orbiting of the water blue-green water moon, Instrun, is a truly beautiful place. Although few understand why any resident of such a lush pod-village would leave for grungy mercenary work, even fewer understand the depth of intrinsic concern Viogens have for all that is in the Consortium worlds. Vasek was a senior council member and ambassador to Instrun before he decided to join the Consortium's Rebellion against K'kistik oppression. "Too many paperthing", he would often project to those with open minds, "Too many few success". Loosely translated in COMON slang Vasek was saying, "Time to stop shuffling papers and kick some butt!" -No Consortium records of military service or otherwise. Description: Viogens are a hard race to miss, as they often assume a skin tone only seen in artificially created colors. They can assume a decent camoflage based on their surroundings but are most often noted for their colorful emotions reflected on their faces. Vasek often assumes the deep blue-green colors of the watery moon of Apatos, Instrun. Name: Lancer "Sly" Burke Height: 5'3" Weight: 122 Age: 24 Race/Breed: Human Training: Martial arts, Pistol (all classes) Personal History: Born and raised on Quinte-4, definitely the 2nd most violent planet in the Quinte system. Nobody in their right lobe would willingly live on Quinte-5! Fact is, every planet in the Quinte system is rife with those who would end your life as soon as terminate or extinguish your cohorts! Aptly dubbed "Sly" at a downsector cantina because of his shadow hiding practices, Lancer prefers the Martial way to all other forms of combat. "My weapons are always with me.", Sly often quips. Lancer's no fool, though, he does pack a concealed, lightweight Holdout Pistol," for those special moments," Sly informs," when I really don't want to get caught showing up at the proverbial gunfight armed only with my fists!" Sly joined the Rebellion after, he quotes, "K'kistik atrocities in the Quinte system made us appear to be traipsing in poppies brandishing static fingers!" -Received additional exclusive Schao Tsai martial training grant after winning the Quinte-5 lesser mass planetary bouts. Description: Sly is the only Quinte-trained martial-artist who has joined the Consortium's Rebellion. He enjoys making those around him chuckle, and has learned the home language of the Viogen race because, "Causing the normally sedate Viogen to belly-laugh is an amazing sight, the harder they laugh, the crazier those swirling facial colors get!!". Name: Inga "Ice" Einschoff Height: 5'11" Weight: 155 Age: 22 Race/Breed: Human Training: Most projectile weapons, Intelligence gathering. Personal History: -Born and raised on Earth, NorthernWest quadrant. -Delco Industries weapon tester, 2 yrs. -Famine wars, Lerit system, Introduced MicroRifle to the oppressed for emergency cooking of edible K'kistik remains. -provided Famine War log to Consortium High Command. Description: Inga appears to be distant and slightly aloof in her demeanor. Well, that's because she is rather emotionally guarded and slightly aloof, but her heart is a big, squishy, warm, and kind one. She was instrumental in helping to feed the Lerit System Famine War victims, and risked life and limb as a secret operator during these as well. Her detailed logs were invaluable to the Consortium as it revealed valuable K'kistik "war of attrition" strategies. Out of pure habit and training, Inga rarely speaks, though she's proven herself well as a listener. Name: S'shoshana "Giggles" Ellon Height: 6'3" Weight: 186 Age: 3 Race/Breed: S'sthrell/Human half breed Training: Medicine, field surgery, psychoanalysis Personal History: S'shoshana's home moon of Threll has a reputation for producing some of the most able medics in the business. S'shoshana has benefited from intensive schooling and a medically-oriented genepool, but lacks real on the-job experience. Her nickname comes from her extremely vivacious personality, which always seems to be on the verge of laughter, posessed by giggles, or recovering from chuckling! It is remarkable that she ever kept her fingers steady enough to pass her HoloSurgery exams! -Threll IntraVersity graduate, class of 2200 s.y. P.H.D. in Mobile Medicine. -Logged 1400 hours, HoloSurgery* Description: Tall, slender and beautiful, S'shoshana's half S'sthrell, half Human background is stunning to say the least, both inside and out. She relates very well with others due to her inbred understanding of the psyche and is quite an easy target for aspiring Mercenary comedians. (Ahem, Jester and Sly, keep away!) Name: Conchita "Dragonfly" Alvarez Height: 5'4" Weight: 132 Age: 25 Race/Breed: Human (SouthWest quadrant) Training: HoloLife survival training course (50 hours), light weaponry training, leadership training, general battle strategy/psychology, troop management, droid programming. Personal History: -Born on Earth in a desperate, remote village of SouthWest Quad, Conchita was forced to relate to all types of lifeforms in the flesh, exoskeleton, scale, etc.at an early age, and has learned to focus her fiery disposition into effective diplomacy with most known Consortium defined races. Her meager beginnings were a minor obstacle for her determination to make something of herself, despite fending for herself from a young age and being surrounded by the whining apathy of those around her. -Smuggled herself in a truly mercenary fashion, not only off Quad, but off world to the Jalaak system, where she trained with Rebellion allied Chlorophants and Ghalarth. -Scored highly with Point-Position Leadership in HoloSquad exercises. -Withstood the infamous Quinte-5 HoloStress environment for an unheard of 15.35 hours, breaking all previous records. Description: Ms. Alvarez is a survivor. In addition to her leadership abilities, Conchita has an extreme amount of endurance and has proven to be a very effective squad leader. Name: Lenny "Skeeny Boy" Deforest Height: 6'0" Weight: 143 Age: 25 Race/Breed: Human Training: SaddleComp compusystems training, extensive self-training in cybertechnology, light systems kinetics, explosives arming and disarming, droid programming. Speaks Comon, S'sthrell, Viogen, some Ghalarth. Personal History: -Has appeared as a speaker at various technical centers throughout the Earth quads. -Designed and built the LAX-8 companion/mining droid for Lusios sector 3 and 4, but the project was discontinued when it became aware that it didn't have to mine Plenum if it didn't want to. Deforest is back at the re-programming storyboards to fix the bugs in the LAX-8. -On a different note, Lenny's likeable personality was noticed by an ad scout for O-Ya Cola , and Lenny was subsequently signed on as the official O-Ya Cola spokesmodel and can be seen on billboards throughout the more popular galactic planet runs. Description: "Skeeny Boy" has a good-natured personality that induces insane laughter in most everthing he meets. Speculators say that Lenny spends so much time alone building pet cyberprojects that he keeps himself entertained by imitating different voices and alien dialects. " O-ya...", Skeeny blurts, " That's da way yi yam! Oooooooya. What can I do? I can't do nuthin' about it. Nope. No Sireebob...!". Case in point. Name: Ghlonk "The Ram" Rhantarg Height: 6'7" Weight: 359 Age: 2 Race/Breed: Ghalarth Training: no formal training Personal History: -Defected from K'kistik work camps on Kotrae by means of a garbage barge. Some maintain that Ghlonk still smells like that shuttle, though as yet no has mentioned it to him for some reason. -No formal military training. Description: Aptly named "The Ram", Ghlonk brings the art of berserking to a new level of sophistication. Using his thickly skinned, dense skull, Ghlonk enjoys charging his opponents and ramming them into oblivion. This is a truly unexpected tactic in the age of energy driven missile weapons Name: Chlana "Boomer" Chlonok Height: 7'1" Weight: 304 Age: 168 Race/Breed: Chlorophant Training: Hand held missile weapons Personal History: Chlana, like most Chlorophant, was born a resident of the Jalaak system. Unlike most Chlorophant, she sympathizes with the Rebellion's efforts and was fortunate enough to resist the exploitive bribery efforts of early K'kistik colony scouts. The K'kistiks deal with each race differently, and extra care had to be taken with the Chlorophant species due to their formidable size and strength, and natural watery habitat. Blatant K'kistik use of force against the Chlorophant in the post A.D./s.y. switch years would have resulted in a Chlorophant retreat into their watery cities, making them nearly inaccessible. -Born on EshNun, second planet in the Jalaak system. -Served with the Jalaak amphibious assault crew during the Chlorophant uprising. (8 mos.) -Defected to the Consortium after unappreciative civilians gave her hell for being a helpless draftee in a government war. Description: Tall, large boned and quite strong, Chlana is the perfect candidate to have in the rear of a squad, wielding a rocket launcher aimed over the heads of the other mercs if necessary. She can carry a good deal of heavy equipment without being overencumbered. Her nickname Boomer accurately reflects her explosives training. Name: C.U.D.4 (CyberTech Utility Droid) Height: 3' Weight: 175 Age: 2 months Race/Breed: Utility droid Training: Programmed for mine placement, deactivation, medical duty, computer system interaction. Personal History: No history, brand new. Description: CUD4 is a short, squat little droid, fresh off the assembly line and newly programmed. CUD's been coded to handle dangerous explosives-related tasks as well as a variety of delicate medical tasks, and also computer interfacing Name: Twae "SheHawk" Tarrop Height: 7'0" Weight: 357 Age: 3 Race/Breed: Tarrotian ( Daedelus assault Hawk ) female Training: Sharpshooting, Blitzkrieg tactics, stealth, missile weapons. Personal History: Twae is from the Berok Cloud system over Lusios, and is nest mate of Braak, a Tarrotian male. -Served as "wingman" to Braak during the Nebulous Conflict. 7 mos. -Free trading consultant, 5 mos. - Domestic period, proud bearer of two healthy chicks, Chip and Squal. 3 yrs. Description: As her name would indicate, SheHawk posesses the inherent qualities universally associated with her Raptor species: Sharp, long range vision, treacherous claws, and a jumping ability beyond belief in spite of her imposing size. Twae cannot fly, though, an evolutional trade off for the more bi-pedal, humanform mix-breeding that defines her very race Name: Jhalah 17 "MechKop" Height: 5' 8" Weight: 145 Age: 26/2 Race/Breed: Cyborg (female) Training: Most weapons (energy and ballistic), full-gear riot control, security patrol. Personal History: Born Jennifer Olen on SouthEast EarthQuad in s.y.2174, the since reconstructed and renamed Jhalah was involved in a severe hovercraft collision, leaving her all but dead. Olen's family recieved the proper counseling from the medical entities caring for Jennifer, and after becoming aware of all their options, decided to call in CyberTech. Jennifer's brain was replanted, and through several weeks of cross-culturing, DNA/RNA replication, and medically applied holo-sculpture, Jennifer became Jhalah 17. Cybertechnology is not cheap and quickly drained the Olens' credit resources, but the Olens' had their baby daughter back...well, sort of. -Riot control leader, Famine Wars, Lerit System, 6 mos. -Security Patrol, Berok System,1yr.6mos. Description: Jhalah's CyberTech implanted mechparts are only 2 years old to date. Since the reconstruction, Jhalah has pursued an active military and security related career due. Cyborgs are rare, and can command a high salary for their invaluable services. Name: Hank MVR-15 Height: 6'0" Weight: 230 Age: 28\5 Race/Breed: Cyborg Training: Most weapons, explosives. Personal History: - Programmed specifically for weapons aptitude and placement/disposal of explosives. Served in Chlorophant uprising as weapons/explosives consultant -8 mos. Description: Hank's body was discovered back on Southeast Quad, sector AF on Earth. A special operative from Instrun, Hank was looking for recruits for "personal interest" assignments. Needless to say, those that didn't want such suspected "galactic favors" carried out had him off...makes one wonder which side CyberTech Industries is on, as Hank was rebuilt to be one of the most formidable Cyborg units in existence today Name: Spike "Comanche" LeBold Height: 5'9" Weight: 168 Age: 21 Race/Breed: Human, Southwest Quad, Earth Training: Recent graduate, NeuForce Academy, Class of 2200. Personal History: Spike is the youngest of his brothers and sisters on Earth. Although his family suffered the ravages of anarchy like the rest, Spike had a vision. This vision surpassed the bounds of his troubled planet out to the chaos of the galaxy. Spike's dream was to be a mercenary, freedom fighter, soldier for hire, etc., anything but suffer at the hands of the upheaval that surrounded him and his family. Description: Spike radiates immense confidence and seems to posess leadership qualities. His academy ratings are good but Spike has no real experience...hence his humble fee Name: Beek "Chap" Tarrop Height: 5'8" Weight: 195 Age: 1 Race/Breed: Tarrotian Training: NeuForce Academy, class of 2200. -Family trained in basic combat techniques as well as Tarrotian combat techniques. Personal History: Male hatchling of Braak and Twae. Description: Beek has no experience but benefits from good genetics and many hours of training from his parents Name: RU-586 MED Height: 4'5" Weight: 255 Age: 8 Race/Breed: Mobile Medical unit Training: Programmed and configured for "field" medical assistance Personal History: RU-586 was manufactured 8 years ago by Didier Industries as an addition to medical teams assisting the Lerit System during the Famine Wars. As military medics found themselves becoming tired during the war efforts the mechanized medical units were a tireless and welcome backup, allowing the meds some rest. -Recieved two upgrades in 2197 and 2199, and is considered state-of-the-art. Description: Short and squat, RUMED is well equipped with modern all-terrain motion control devices and the patented Didier dual stabilizing gyros for a steady utility arm. Despite their bulky, sterile, hospital on wheels appearance, RUMED has a gentle disposition, well honed skills, a good knowledge of medical psychology and of course never forgets his patients Name: Vosah "Morph" Shengen Height: 4'8" Weight: 85 Age: 266 Race/Breed: Viogen Training: Being relatively young, Vosah is not as experienced as most Viogen that one would encounter normally, although encounters with the Viogen are by no means normal. The meager training she has received is as follows: (partial list) -Educated through MoedEme offsite research service on Instrun. Well versed in alien psychology, Bio/mech physiology, cyberorganism communicology, cryogenic specimen recovery psychology briefing/debriefing, lower- echelon species bonding techniques. Personal History: Born on tiny blue-green Instrun, orbiting moon of the huge planet, Apatos. -Medic and counselor during the Famine Wars, Lerit System. -CyberTech, SynthEgo division, 4 yrs., assisted in synthesized personality development. -Chief briefing/debriefing officer for IMA cryogenic labs. The first few minutes that follow the "thawing" process of a cryogen specimen are crucial. In order to prevent the extreme shock and possible insanity associated with thaws, the cryogen specimen must be immediately made aware of it's current situation, all new data to the specimen must be "humanely" filtered by a skilled Empath or Medic type Often these terminally-ill cryogen specimens were "frozen" (at a very stiff price) in the hope of being thawed and cured in a (hopefully) more advanced future. Some engaged in the process simply out of curiosity for what the future might bring. In any case, many of those thawed reacted violently to their dramatically different and permanent arrangement. To the cryogen, it is an instantaneous blip from freezepoint unconsciousness, perhaps hundreds of years of storage,to final thaw! Assimilation takes years with the most well-adjusted travellers, but many never recover from the shock of the new environment...although the Viogen have been instrumental in the more successful cryogenic recoveries. Description: Vosah's small, fragile frame is dwarfed by the magnitude of her incredible mind. It is truly a sight to witness a being, feeling comparitively large, switch from interfacing at a bold and base physical level to a shirking mental mindcringe when first meeting this luminous Viogen female. Truly an asset to any squad Name: Tuchai "The Fang" Tsuncheng Height: 6'3" Weight: 193 Age: 7 Race/Breed: Schao Tsai Training: No training necessary. (Quite a good rating based on Quinte-5 HoloEnvironment test results.) Personal History: -Homeworld: Bao of Trindor -Joined Consortium's Rebellion in 2199 as a special reconnaisance agent. -No additional information- Description: Tuchai is the only known Schao Tsai member of the Interstellar Mercenary Association. Despite his treacherous nickname, "The Fang" is gentle with allies and moderately loyal to whom he chooses to follow (or lead). Tuchai often recalls the time when his PrideFather taught him speed focusing for the first time. PrideFather said," son, if you can remove this luhunberry from my paw before I can- ", PrideFather got no farther, for the clever young Tuchai had taken the initiative and snatched the luhunberry. " Well done...", PrideFather said with a chuckle, "So today we've learned the element of suprise! Name: "Vice" (Name in K'kistik is "K'kin", A Schao Tsai oxymoronic term meaning Enemy Brother) Height: 6'5" Weight: 226 Age: 6 mos. Race/Breed: K'kistik (Confidential) Training: Minor H.T.O. training on Bao of Trindor Personal History: Apparently an egg-bearing K'kistik poacher on Bao forgot to collect all of his larvae after emergency birthing before a K'kistik pickup shuttle could arrive. Needless to say, K'kin never knew the K'kistik way and has been duly trained by merciful H.T.Os despite being "one of the enemy oppressors". Description: K'kin is young, but not stupid. He hides his identity well, insulating it with layers of protective Consortium armor and weaponry. No mercenary in his right mind would knowingly serve with a K'kistik, but Vice keeps a low profile with his armored getup and the use of his callsign as his exclusive identity. When addressed will speak COMON, although was born able to understand and speak K'kistik...a genetic curiosity not previously known by the Consortium. TROUBLESHOOTING &R =============== Problems and Solutions ---------------------- Strike Squad fails to load or run properly ------------------------------------------ *You may not have enough free memory or enough total memory. Strike Squad requires 2 MB of available memory to load and run. Strike Squad requires an additional 1 MB of XMS extended memory for playing digitized sound effects. XMS memory is not the same as EMS and does not use the EMM386.EXE driver to load XMS memory requires the HIMEM.SYS driver (DOS/Windows) or other upper-memory manager (QEMM, 386MAX for example) to be first loaded. *You may have a memory-resident TSR program that is conflicting. See the "TSR programs/Device drivers" section for information on what TSRs are and what conflicts may arise. Check the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat file samples below to see if you may need to edit these files to stop programs from being loaded that can cause a conflict with the game. Creating a boot disk, using the Boot Disk instructions below will allow you to boot the machine from a floppy. *Some disk compression programs, like Stacker or DOS 6.0 Doublespace, may not always be compatible with Strike Squad. Try installing the game to a non-compressed portion of the hard drive and then create a boot disk that boots without disk compression drivers being loaded into memory. Strike Squad displays Insufficient Memory messages -------------------------------------------------- *You may not have enough free memory in the 640K portion of DOS. Use DOS MEM or CHKDSK commands to check "largest executable program size" for the amount of memory free before game play. Remember, bytes shown must be divided by 1024 to calculate the actual amount in K (kilobytes) available. You may have to alter your Config.sys and/or Autoexec.bat files or create a boot disk to free up enough memory. See "Sample Config.sys" and "Boot Disk" sections below. *You may not have enough available XMS (extended) memory. Run DOS MEM or CHKDSK to see how much XMS memory is available. XMS memory does not use the EMM386 command and you may need to alter or remove EMS memory to free up more XMS memory. Sound Effects do not work or stop working after playing for a while ------------------------------------------------------------------- *You may have chosen an incorrect IRQ or I/O setting during installation. Run the SETD program again and be sure that correct options are chosen for sound board and its settings. You may want to consult your sound card or device manual or test software to determine the correct settings for that board. For example, your Sound Blaster Pro sound card may be set to IRQ 5 but the Sound Blaster Pro driver in Strike Squad expects it to be on IRQ 7. The SETD program in this case would need to be set to IRQ 5 instead of the default IRQ 7. Be sure that the SETD options match your sound card or device settings. Check your sound card or device test program or manual for further instructions on correcting problem. *You may not have enough available XMS (extended) memory. The Strike Squad game requires only 2 MB of memory to run but requires an additional 1 MB of XMS (extended) memory to play the digitized sound effects. Run DOS MEM or CHKDSK to see how much XMS memory is available. XMS memory does not use the EMM386 command and you may need to alter or remove EMS memory to free up more XMS memory. *You may have a memory-resident TSR program that is conflicting. See the "TSR programs/Device drivers" section for information on what TSRs are and what conflicts may arise. Check the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat file samples below to see if you may need to edit these files to stop programs from being loaded that can cause a conflict with the game. Creating a boot disk, using the Boot Disk instructions below will allow you to boot the machine from a floppy disk instead. Sound effects are slightly garbled or do not always play on time ---------------------------------------------------------------- *The sound card or device being used may be causing an interrupt problem. The construction and chips used in some sound cards like the Adlib card (not the Adlib Gold which has different sound chips) and some external devices like the Disney Sound Source may have interrupt problems with the 32 bit code used for sound playback and thus they may experience loss in quality of sound or timing problems with sound effect playback. The mouse pointer does not appear --------------------------------- *The mouse driver may not have been loaded before starting the game. Be sure that the mouse driver is loaded in your Autoexec.bat or Config.sys file or that you typed your mouse command (such as "Mouse") before loading Strike Squad. The mouse cursor appears but mouse does not function correctly or at all ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Mouse driver may not be a 100% Microsoft or Logitech compatible driver. Make sure that the Microsoft or Logitech name and version number is displayed when the mouse driver is initially loaded. Consult your mouse user's guide or package to verify that it is 100% Microsoft or Logitech compatible. If not, you may check with the mouse manufacturer to see if an updated version of the mouse driver is available from them that will correctly work with Strike Squad. The game runs too slow slowly ----------------------------- *Your computer may not be fast enough to run the game effectively. Check the Strike Squad box and the Machine Requirements section of this manual for minimum and recommended system configurations. Required options are the lowest settings possible for the game to be "playable" but a bit slow nonetheless, recommended options are for the settings at which the game would function at a "comfortable" speed. Equipment Changes ----------------- If the sound equipment in your computer changes, run the SETD program from the DOS prompt and choose the new options. If you replace your existing mouse with a new one, no changes need to be made to the configuration. Make sure, however, that the new mouse driver is loaded and 100% Microsoft compatible before starting Strike Squad. TSR programs/Device Drivers --------------------------- TSR (Terminate Stay Resident) programs once loaded, remain in memory and may create memory conflicts with the Strike Squad installation program, the game program itself, or even the sound drivers. It is possible for these programs to use up memory necessary for the game or for them to cause lockups and other strange occurances. It is recommended that you not run any such program if having problems either installing or playing Strike Squad Some sample TSRs are: device drivers (such as CDROM drivers, Scanner drivers, special Video drivers, etc), shells (such as DOSSHELL), Utilities (such as Windows Smartdrive and DOS Share). TSR programs are normally loaded upon system bootup in your autoexec.bat file. Device drivers and DOS shells are also loaded automatically and are generally installed in the Config.sys file. See sections below for information on editting Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files to remove TSRs or for creating a boot disk without TSRs loaded. Config.sys and Autoexec.bat --------------------------- These files allow you to control how memory is used and therefore set the amount of free memory and whether high memory is configured as EMS memory, XMS memory, or both. Sample DOS 5.0 CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files: CONFIG.SYS ---------- DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DOS=HIGH,UMB FILES=15 BUFFERS=15 AUTOEXEC.BAT ------------ PATH=C:\DOS PROMPT $P$G You can use the DOS 5.0 EDIT function or other word processor program to edit your existing Config.sys or Autoexec.bat files. They will be in the root directory (C:\) of the hard drive. If you don't want to edit hard drive files, see Creating a Boot Disk below. Creating a Boot Disk -------------------- If you wish to free up more low memory or increase the amount of available XMS memory without altering the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files on the hard drive, you will want to create a boot disk. You can use the commands below to Create a Boot Disk for use with the Strike Squad game. Creating a DOS 5.0 Strike Squad Boot disk: 1) Place a blank disk into drive A:. 2) At the C> prompt type: FORMAT A: /S 3) Use the DOS "Edit" utility to create a Config.sys file: Type: EDIT A:CONFIG.SYS If you are having problems with the DOS EDIT function, please refer to your DOS manual. 4) Type:DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DOS=HIGH,UMB FILES=15 BUFFERS=15 NOTE: If you are loading a Mouse.sys mouse driver, you will need to type it here. Otherwise, mouse commands would be put into the Autoexec.bat file. To load, Type:DEVICE=C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.SYS 5) To save this Config.sys file, hold down the [ALT] key and press [F]. The file menu will be displayed. Press the [X] key and then Enter. 6) Next you will want to use DOS "Edit" to edit the batch file Autoexec.bat. Type: EDIT A:AUTOEXEC.BAT 7) Type: PROMPT $P$G PATH=C:\DOS 8) Next you will want to type in your mouse command. For example: MOUSE for a Microsoft mouse. You may need to look at the Autoexec.bat file on the hard drive or look up the command in your Mouse documentation. Example: Type: C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.COM Remember to type in the appropriate command for your mouse driver. NOTE: If you are loading a Mouse.Sys mouse driver, you will want to put that mouse command in the Config.sys file and not in this Autoexec.bat file. Consult your mouse documentation and/or DOS manual for information on loading mouse.sys drivers. 9) To save this file, hold down the [ALT] key and press [F]. The file menu will be displayed. Press the [X] key and then Enter. 10) Finally, reboot the computer by using the Reset button or by pressing and holding down the [CTRL], [ALT], and [DEL] keys at the same time. This will boot the computer from your boot disk and not the hard drive. Limited Warranty ==================== Mainstream America warrants the original purchaser of this computer software product that the recording medium on which the software programs are recorded will be free from defects in materials and workmanship for ninety days from the date of purchase. Defective media that has not been subjected to misuse, damage, or excessive wear, will be replaced at no charge within ninety days of purchase. Following the ninety day warranty period, defective media will be replaced for a replacement fee of $7.50. Return defective media, and payment to: Mainstream America 1012 South Main Street Taylor, PA 18517 Except as set forth above, this warranty is in lieu of all other warranties, whether oral, or written, expressed or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Mainstream America shall not be liable for incidental or consequential damage resulting from possession, use, or malfunction of this product, including damage to property, and to the extent permitted by law, damages for personal injury. Some states do not allow limitations on how long an implied warranty lasts or the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you. This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you have other rights which vary from state to state.