Amiga Plus Extra 1996 #3/AmigaPlus_CD-ROM-EXTRA_Nr.3.bin/aminet-spiele/bunte mischung/fantasieforce/ff.doc

Text File | 1995-09-06 | 14KB | 391 lines

   * * *   F A N T A S Y   F O R C E S   * * *

     help guide to Release 1.0 amos / 6.9.1995



Game concept, design,
graphics and hard work:     Kalle Marjola

Music:                 Zvonko Tesic

Main (playtesting) help:    Viljo '3V' and Tane


Copyright notice:
-----------------
Complete product (c) Kalle Marjola 1995. This amos-version is
freely available to anyone interested, but when distributed, whole
packet must be held intact.

This product is CHARITYWARE, so if you like this game and play it
for a more than 10 hours, you are encouraged to donate small amount
like $15 (or 70 fim) to creator to encourage further development of
C-version. By giving such donation you also gain my full thanks and
current version of C-version if requested, but I'm not sure if it
works in non-3.0 machines - yet. When version supposed to work in
your machine is ready, you will be mailed it if you supply me with
a disc. Those with email address gain versions when major improvements
are made.


Disclaimer:
-----------
Author does not take ANY responsibility from ANY possible effect of
this material to your system, life or mental state. You have been
warned. Include other standard disclaimers here. Please report any
encountered bugs to email address below.


Further Improvements:
---------------------
This amos-version will not be upgraded, only some blatant bugs are
removed when encountered. The development of Fantasy Forces is now
in C-language, and all suggestions are welcome only to that version.
By donation you encourage me to work on that version, which already
has some features not in this amos-version (but currently missing some
other in this version). But also note that while this amos-version was
almost completely coded in 2 weeks, this C-version is taking much
longer, mainly because that my studies are starting again and have
other activities too..and I have not programmed very much with amiga
C...

But now to game itself:



Contents:
=========
 1. Overview
 2. Game requirements
 3. Game control
 4. Icons
 5. Playing the game
 6. Victory
 7. Creatures
 8. Items
 9. Playing Fantasy Forces via mail, E-mail or DCC/ftp
 10. Future


1. Overview
-----------
Fantasy Forces is a fantasy strategy/tactic game for 2-4 human
players, where you put your horde of soldiers, elves, dwarves, wizard
and other creatures against other players'.

Gameplay is somehow close to Lords of Chaos or other similar game,
ie. each of your units has various number of action points to move,
fight or use special items or abilities, and you move all your units in
one turn, and then it is your opponents' turn to do same to
his/her/their forces

Features:

 * 2-4 players
 * Map editor with random pieces
 * Save/load game
 * PBM/PBEM support
 * over 20 creature types
 * Replay log - you see what your opponent did in your sight during
    his/her turn (this is something new in multiplayer game!)
 * Darkened areas - you know what places you currently see
 * Multitasking (amos type...not perfect but works)

NOTE: There is no sound effects! I was too lazy to include them and listen
    to radio most of time anyway ;)


2. Game requirements
--------------------
This version has been tested in A1200 with 4 meg FAST and hard drive,
and almost identical version in A500 with 512 CHIP and 512 conventional
memory with os1.3 (where it was quite slow but playable)

 * NO AGA/ECS required
 * PAL recommended, but should work in NTSC (224 screen lines)
 * Garnet/16 font is required, as is some standard libraries

And note: This is made with amoose, and it may cause problems in some
systems, so you may have to disable screen blankers, Yak etc. Also note
that you must have files gB, gC, gD and maps in the same directory as
you launched game from.


3. Game control
---------------
No keyboard is required except to type in map names, and lamiga+A to
swap between WB (or other applications) and this game.
Use mouse for full game control.
Type ctrl+C anytime to kill the game


4. Icons
--------
 * Door-icon - Used to exit any current state
 * Disk-icon - Save or load game or map
 * Map-icon - show or edit map, or swap between editing size
 * Info-icon (question mark) - information about selected thing
 * List-icon (icon with small bites on it) - quick selection list
 * Next-icon (horizontally divided icon) - select next (movable) unit
 * Sight-icon (eye) - see personal visiblity of selected unit
 * Bow-icon - fire unit's bow (or crossbow)
 * Cock-icon (crossbow with arrow) - load crossbow
 * Zap-icon (lightning bolt) - cast a spell or use some special ability
 * Jaws-icon - eat corpse from grave
 * Draw-icon (drawing pentagram) - draw pentagram on ground
 * Smear-icon (unclear pentagram) - cover pentagram in ground
 * Head-icon (helmet) - player settings
 * FF-icon (fast forward) - skip replay and turn if no forces left
 * Note-icon - Music on/off

5. Playing the game
-------------------
5.1 The players-screen

Select here number of players in your starting game, or exit game with
door-icon. Use disc-icon to load savegame (named "FFsave"). If this
savegame is obsolent (you use newer version of FF than savegame), then
it's name is changed to "FFsave.obsolent"


5.2 Main menu

In main menu, you select size of each horde, possible limitation in
game turns and played scenario. Click 'ok' when ready, but you must
have loaded a map from disk. Click map-icon to edit playing map.
Behind head-icon is screen where you can set player anmes and machine.
If machine selected is not same for all players, game is supposed to be
PBM game (see section 9)

Scenarios available:
Full Slaughter - kill all enemy
Standard Defender - as above, but defender's (player in zone 1 which is
usually a castle or similar place) standard is worth 100 extra points


5.3 Map editor

Here you can draw maps for battles. The real playing field is moved by
clicking mouse in gray borders. You must se at least 2 zones (like 1
and 2) for players to deploy their forces or map cannot be used. After
it is ready, exit and save it (if you want to) - the partial saving is
not implemented, so you must select to save the whole map each time
(heh, it still takes only 2.5 Kb)


5.4 Turn starting

At the start of each player's turn, he/she is noted with information
about turn number, and option to return to main-menu (door-icon) or to
save the game (disk-icon) is given. Clicking mouse at turn information
box starts the turn. Pressing the FF-icon will start turn but viewing
of the log is skipped and so is turn laso if no forces are left.
Note that player's that do not have any forces left must still conduct
their turn..maybe this is fixed (?) later.


5.5 Replaying

After turn 0 all action done in player's sight is logged and will now
be showed. Click left mouse button to advance a step, and press right
down between steps to skip rest of log (and turn if no more forces
left)


5.6 Moving your units

Use left mouse button to:
Select your active creature (if same creature is selcted again, it is
deselcted and you return to state where no creature is selected)
Move, fire or zap to target, marked location.
Activate icon (map, creature information, next unit etc.)
Jump to location

Use right mouse button to:
Show creature information (if not selected)
Select next movable creature (if clicked over selected creature)
Select your first creature (if none currently selected)
Escape action (like bow-firing or spell zapping)


5.7 Ending your turn

Select door-icon and click on confirmation box. Now it is next player's
turn.


6. Victory
----------
After turn limit is reached or only one player has units left, you are
presented with battle results. Each killed unit is worth it's value (in
points needed to buy it at start) and each surviving is same amount.
Standard is worth 5 pts to it's owner, or 2 pts to killer.


7. Creatures
------------
Creatures may have following specials, which most are shown with
special icon at information box:

 * Regenerating (green glowing man) - creature regenerates 3 life per turn
    unless killed
 * No items (crossed out item) - creature cannot have items
 * Marksman (arrow at the target) - creature gains to-hit bonus with
    bow or crossbow
 * Undead (skull) - creature is undead (or equivalent) and cannot be
    poisoned or healed
 * Unstable (drop of blood) - creature will lose 3 life each turn
 * Magical ability (lightning bolt) - creature may zap spells (or use
    some special magic-like ability)
 * Dead eater (jaws) - creature may eat corpses
 * Poisonous (green skulls'n'bones) - attacks of this creature are
    poisonous, and may poison target living creature
 * Poisoned (drop of venom) - creature is currently poisoned and will die
    unless cured by healer


Soldier        Basic trooper
Elf        Fast and accurate but weak
Dwarf        Slow but tough and skilled
Knight        Skilled fighter but extra bonus against undead troops
Orc        Strong but unskilled
Goblin        Little and weak
Chaos Marauder    Strong, very tough and skilled but slow
Dark Elf    A bit faster than basic trooper but also a bit weaker
Witch Elf    Poisonous, fast and skilled but very weak. Note
        that missile attacks are also poisonous
Swamp Troll    Dumb but strong and regenerating
Rock Troll    Very tough and can morph into rocks! Note that you must
        demorph when your mana runs out or troll will be slowly
        killed
Hill Giant    Very strong and tough
Healer        Healer may heal up to half lost life to target
        non-undead creature, or damage undeads
Necromancer    May raise zombies from graves, skeletons from bones or
        curse living things (same as poisoning)
Wizard        May zap powerful lightning bolts from range
Conjurer    May summon demons to pentagrams
Orc Shaman    As wizard but tougher but slower
Zombie        Slow and cannot hit a wall, but very tough
Skeleton    Fast and skilled
Wraith        Very fast and hard killed entity
Ghoul        May eat graves to retain full strength, and is also
        poisonous
Undead Champion    Skilled, tough, strong but slow
Lich        Undead necromancer, and far more deadlier and tougher
Demon        Very strong, tough and skilled entity, but also
        unstable and will die soon...


8. Items
--------
Standard    Your sign. Also place for extra pointses (and required
        in standard defender)
Bow        Fast but weak ranged weapon. Lowers user's melee
        ability
Crossbow    Slow but stronger than bow
The Smasher    Magical weapon for extra damage


9. Playing Fantasy Forces via mail or E-mail
--------------------------------------------
While this game is great fun when group of friends has gathered to play
it, it is not limited to it. You may play it via conventional mail, Email
or DCC with help of save-files. Some things are now automated when
needed:

1. Select different machine numbers according to locations in
player-setting screen (behind main menu). Numbers do not have any other
meaning than that each player in same machine should choose same number
which is different to those not in same place.

2. First player starts and does his/her turn normally. After it is
done, game will be saved if next player has different machine number,
and game will suspend until file with proper name appears to gaming
directory. Player must then pass this file to next player, who will
load it normally from players-screen.

3. Savefile is then passed to next player, who will do his/her turn and
again it is saved automatically after his/her turn, and again turn is
passed.. this time with name FFsavN, where N is number of target
player.

4. This is continued until game ends.

Example:
2 player game
- Player 1 sets game up, does his/her deploy and ends turn
- Player 1 sends file FFsave to player 2
- Player 2 downloads dile to same directory as FF, starts the game
and loads that savefile from first screen (players-screen)
- Player 2 does his/her turn, and passes file FFsav1 to player 1
- Player 1 downloads that filw (his/her game is in waiting state) and
plays turn, and then passes file FFsav2 to player 2
- This continues until game is over. Note that savefile is generated at
the same time as battle results are shown, so that they should be sent
to other players so that they see them too..

Notes about savegame names:
At first turn, files will be named as "FFsave" as long as it is for
first player in target machine. After that they are names as "FFsavN",
where N is player number whose turnit is. SO, if you want to load game
nornmally (for example, you do not play it in real-time), you must
change that filename to "FFsave" to allow loading from player number
selection menu. (This will be corrected in future version)
Also note that after savegame with name "FFsavN" is loaded, it's name
is then changed to "FFsave", so that it does not fool autoloader
anymore and can be loaded normally if need to.

NOTE: It is easy to cheat so you must trust your opponent :)


10. Future
----------
As stated earlier, this amos version is not developed anymore; I
started to do this game in C about a month ago (but took this long to
release this). This c-version will include all features in this version
and many more.

Already it has new monsters, better user interface and is faster, but
is currently missing double buffering (screen flickers), good map editor
and save/load game, which all be added in future.

You are welcomed (or better say, wanted) to send any feedback and bug
reports. I'm in internet in almost each day, so quick answer are
usually given. Also check out Knights242 in Aminet if you have not seen
it. If blatant bugs are encountered, I will try to fix them and then
rerelease this amos-version.

Also, if you draw better pics etc. contact me and your art may appear
in new releases of this game and in c-version.


And finally, my address etc.

            Email:    [e-mail]
            IRC:        RPR
            homepage: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/~marjola/

Snailmail:
            Kalle Marjola
            Leppäsuonkatu 7 A 512
            00100 HELSINKI 10
            FINLAND

Snailmail #2 (my parent's address..use this if you read this during '96
        etc. and cannot confirm above address)

            Kalle Marjola
            Jukolantie 14
            01900 NURMIJÄRVI
            FINLAND



And, finally, if you want to talk with creator of that megacool
background music, write to:

            [e-mail]