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Text File | 1994-02-20 | 18.2 KB | 372 lines

The Battle Grounds Version .9d Copyright 1992-1993 by Symbolic Source Group All rights reserved. Introduction ------------ Welcome to The Battle Grounds. Alnora, a planetoid orbiting a larger planet, is going through a period in it's civilization much like our 10th and 11th centuries. The world had been ruled by kings for more than 2 periods. Life had been quite simple until the third period. It was in this period that Alnora went through an equivalent of world war. Even in this era life was pretty much primitive. Swords and axes were the weapons of war and large kingdoms often fell quickly, because of the numbers of allies that turned against each other. Treaties were broken just as quickly and easily as they were created. This horrible period lasted a total of 369 years. In the last four years of this great war, something unusual happened. Each season (much like our own) lasted for a full year. It started with a winter so cold, that most of the weaker tribes and kingdoms died quickly. Only the strongest and wisest survived the First Year. The Second and Third Year (a spring and fall equivalent) were not as bad as the First, but still many creatures (which a lot of people depended upon) died. By the Fourth Year, it was the strongest fighting amongst each other for survival. Cannibalism had struck even the bravest of cultures. The previous Years had killed most of the staple food, and even livestock was extremely scarce. It was these four years that had evened the scale of strong versus the weak. Even the strongest were broken, and the casualties were so massive, the population had dropped to only 75% of it's original size since the beginning of the war until the last for year. In just those four years, the death toll was so massive that the population was now only 2% of it's original size (keep in mind that the population of the planet before the war was roughly the size of our own population just 5 or 6 years ago, roughly 4 billion). It was those that survived, that entered into the fourth period. It was not known what god or godly beings had helped in the ending of the bloodshed, but it was agreed by all that order must be set. All creatures (during the war many evil factions had risen, and while they were not as vulnerable to the Seasons as were others, they had casualties as well) that would not peacefully join the Circle, were considered Forbiddeners. Boundaries were set up, and any Forbiddeners caught inside these boundaries were taken to the Center of the Circle (a grand city surrounded by cliffs on three sides and the most heavily guarded city on Alnora) to be put in the Battle Grounds. The Battle Grounds was a large arena where the Forbiddeners (and other criminals sentenced to death) were allowed to die an honorable death. Anyone in the Circle could fight, and in fact that is where you come in. Your family is not high in the Circle and while your status is not at the bottom, you seek a higher status. The fastest way to get higher in the Circle is being victorious in the Grounds. It has been many years since the ending of the Seasons and the war, still the Circle changes it's laws almost daily. However, the Battle Grounds has never changed, nor will it ever. All battles in the Grounds are considered to the death, unless you feel cowardly and decide to flee. For the Forbiddeners, death is emminent and for them, there is no escape. You can also fight other warriors in the Circle, but the fight is not to the death. Instead, you are given most of their gold and you can take their weapons upon defeating them, if you so choose. So read now, on how to play this game, and may the luck of your god (if you believe in one) be with you! How to Play the Game -------------------- *NOTE: This game is written on the Amiga, but uses the upper IBM character set. It is not compatible with the topaz.font or other Amiga fonts. There are a number of IBM font sets that you can use (ibm.font, cleanibm.font, etc...) that will allow you to play this game. You DO NOT have to have an IBM to play this game. If you do not have an IBM font set, almost every Amiga board should have one or two. You may have to check to see whether or not your terminal package supports different font sets (I use JRComm which uses one normally, anyway). This game also uses ANSI, which almost all terminal packages use. If you do not have ANSI, or cannot change your font, then you may not be able to play this game. I apologize for not implementing an ASCII version of this game, if enough people request it, I may implement it. Please note also, that this game uses the keypad, so you may want to make sure that your Num-Lock is on. *End NOTE This game is not difficult to play. It is basically (at least at this point in time anyway) just a beat-the-heck-out-of-a-bunch-of-monsters style game. At this point in time there is no long-term objective. I will tell you this: I have plans for this game to be a sort of training grounds for a complete campaign I am working on. This game will grow and many more features will be added, but that is another story. To start the game, you only need to enter your Player's name (You may have to enter your real name, too). Your stats will then be rolled and you will be able to either keep those stats, or re-roll them. You have five chances to re-roll your character's stats. Once you have decided on the stats you like, you will be presented with your character info and the main menu. Your character info is as follows: +Player: Cedric------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | | | STR: 16 INT: 13 Hand Weapon: Fists Missile Weapon: Blow-Pipe | | DEX: 15 WIS: 12 Armor : Leather Armour Projectiles : 11 | | CON: 13 CHR: 13 Armor Class: 7 | | Level: 1 Wins : 2 | | Gold Pieces: 00000087 Hit Points (Now/Max): 0013/0018 Losses : 1 | | Xper Points: 00000087 Spl Points (Now/Max): 000/0000 Win/Loss: 66% | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Player: This is your players name. STR: This is your strength. You get bonuses on Hand-to-Hand combat if this is close to 18. It helps in damage rolls and To-hit for Hand-to-Hand. As with all stats, the higher, the better. DEX: This is your dexterity (agility). The closer to 18 this is, the better your To-hit with missile weapons. CON: This is your constitution. It is your vitality or life force. The higher this is, the greater chance you will have to gain more hit points when you gain a new level. INT: This is your intelligence. It is basically your smarts. WIS: This is your wisdom. It gives you greater understanding of the world. * CHR: This is you charisma. It is your persona. It gives you greater ability to charm and mistify your opponent. It also helps in making certain spells and actions work, by making your opponent believe in you. Gold Pieces: A gold piece is the monetary unit of this time and place. Gold is precious, so don't go wasting it! Xper Points: This is the total of all experience points you have gained so far. You must gain a certain number of experience points to gain new levels. The beginning list is as follows: Level One - 0 Level Two - 1000 Level Three - 2000 Level Four - 4000 Level Five - 6000 Level Six - 9000 Level Seven - 12000 Level Eight - 16000 And so on, up to level Twenty Hit Points (Now/Max): This is your life bar. The number on the /Max side refers to the total number of hit points your character has. The number on the Now/ side, refers to the number of hit points you have right now. If this number reaches 0, you are dead. Hopefully, the Gods won't through you away. Spell Points (Now/Max): As with Hit points, this is your current/maximum spell points. Spell points are not used in this version. Level: This is your current level. Wins: This displays the number of battles you have won (killed your opponent, or your opponent fled). Losses: This displays the number of battles you have lost (been killed, or you left the arena before killing your opponent (retreat!)). Win/Loss: This displays the percentage of Wins to Losses. If you can keep this at 100%, you are definitely a warrior! (calculated by dividing your wins by your Wins + your Losses) Hand Weapon: This is your current weapon in hand. You will use this weapon when your opponent is in any adjoining square. i.e. \|/ -O- /|\ Missile Weapon: This is your current missile weapon. You will use this when your opponent is NOT in an adjoining square. There is an effective range (a distance to target has not been implemented yet), but since the arena is only about 100 yards across (E-W), and 35 yards deep (N-S) you can always fire at your target. Armor: This is the armor you are wearing. It is your protection from all opponent attacks. Projectiles: This is the number of projectiles you have (if you have as a missile weapon a bow, then this is the number of arrows. If you have a blow-pipe, then this is the numer of darts. Crossbow-bolts, sling- stones.) When this reaches 0, you cannot use your missile weapon until you buy more projectiles. Armor Class: This represents your physical protection. This number is adjusted by buying better armor, and having a high dexterity. * Note: This means that that element or fuction has not yet been implemented. Planned for a future release. The Menus ========= The menus are almost straight forward; the only part that will be hard to understand will be the Grounds. The following lists and describes all of the menus and how to move about them. Main menu --------- 1) The Grounds 2) Visit the Temple 3) The Armory 4) The Energy Emporium 5) Redraw the screen 6) Quit 1) The Grounds -------------- The grounds is the actual battle arena. It is where all battles take place. Once you have selected it, you will see a menu like such: Please choose an opponent class: 1) Humanoid 2) Non-Humanoid 3) Undead 4) Challenge another player 5) Leave The selections are as follows: 1) Humanoid, this refers to any creature with a humanoid appearance (walks on two feet has two arms and is about our size, but is not dead). 2) Non-Humanoid, this refers to any creature that is not dead and does not fit the first category. 3) Undead, this refers to any creature that is dead and has been re-animated. 4) Challenge another player, gives you a menu of other users you can battle. Those that are alive, will have the word ALIVE next to their name. Those that are dead, will have the word DEAD by their name. Obviously you cannot fight a dead player. Once you have selected the player to challenge (assuming they are alive) combat will proceed as for other monsters (see combat below). 5) Leave, returns you to the main menu. Combat ------ After selecting which category you wish to fight, you will be asked at which level you would like to fight: Please choose an opponent level: Simply type in the level of the monster(s) you wish to fight. If there is more than one monster for that given level, the game will randomly choose one for you. The levels of monsters works the same way as your character. A level one moster is roughly at the same level as you are at level one. Level two is the same as level two for you, etc... After selecting the level, you will be put in the arena with that monster. The fight until death, now begins (unless you choose to flee the arena). The arena looks like so: The directional keys are: ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ +---------+----------+----------+ Û............................Û | 7 | 8 | 9 | Û............................Û | up+left | Up | up+right | You -> Ûê...........................Û +---------+----------+----------+ Û............................Û | 4 | 5 | 6 | Û............................Û | left |fight/pass| right | Û............................Û +---------+----------+----------+ Û............................Û | 1 | 2 | 3 | Û...............é............Û |down+left| down |down+right| Û............................Û +---------+----------+----------+ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ.ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ Numbers on the Keypad ^ ^ * Note: You must have / The monster Num-Lock on to use The exit the keypad (numbers) The directional keys are pretty much straight forward. To attack (with either your hand weapon or missile weapon) just hit 5. It will then ask you which you wish to do: 4) Attack or 5) Pass. If you press 4, it will decide whether you are standing next to the monster and attack with your hand weapon, or the monster is some distance away and attack with your missile weapon (if you have enough projectiles). At this point in time, assume all monsters are stupid and will always attack you (they will not retreat or run away). I will later add some intelligence routines to make the monsters more interesting and harder to fight. However, a challenged player may flee if that player is outmatched. Consider outmatched to mean you could easily kill that person. It would be better to just run and keep all the gold and items, then just sit there and die. There are only three ways to exit the arena: Firstly, you can kill the monster. That is the most glorious and bravest way. Secondly, you can flee the arena (by moving to the exit). That is not so glorious. You will not recieve any experience points, and you will get a loss added to your score. Thirdly, you can die. This is obviously not something you want to do too often. If you were fighting another player and you defeat your opponent, then you will be allowed to exchange your weapon for that of your opponent's. It will only ask to exchange those weapons (or armor) for which your opponent's is greater. You will also receive 75% of both the characters gold pieces and 75% of their experience points. If you are defeated then your opponent will receive 75% of your gold pieces and 75% of your experience. If a challenged player is extremely outmatched, they may flee the arena. In that case, you will only receive the win. If you flee, they receive the win. That about covers everything about the arena. 2) Visit the Temple ------------------- The Temple is a place of healing. All of your wounds can be healed there, for a price. The monks are not robbers, but at 5 gold pieces per hit point, it is expensive. The menu options are as follows: 1) Fully heal your character (5 gp per hp) 2) Partially heal your character (5 gp per hp) 3) Leave The first menu option attempts to fully heal your character. It will tell you if you do not have enough gold. The second menu option will give your character as many hit points as it can, using all available gold. I will eventually be adding in an option to choose how many hit points you would like to gain back. 3) The Armory ------------- The Armory is where you can by weapons and armor for your character. There are four different types of items. Hand weapons, missile weapons, projectiles, and armor. When selecting either of the weapons or armor, you are presented with a menu of the different items. If you do not have a weapon, then the keeper will ask you to verify your purchase. If you already have a weapon and are just buying another one, then the keeper will offer to pay you half of your purchase price on the weapon you already have. You may not include that in the purchase price (in other words, you can't count on that money. You must have all the gold neccesary to purchase the item before trying to purchase it.). For projectiles, you will be asked how many you would like (which weapon it is for is irrelevant). The general rule is: The shop keeper doesn't deal in worthless or bad items. The more expensive it is, the better it is. There are no exceptions to this rule (do not count on this in future updates (hint, hint)). 4) The Energy Emporium ---------------------- At this point in time (in version .9d anyway) this does absolutely nothing. Since you can't use any spell points, you will never need to re-gain them. This is planned for a very near update. Soon you will be able to cast spells, and you will have a use for this, but for now, it won't do anything for your character. 5) Redraw the Screen -------------------- If the screen ever becomes garbled (either by line-noise, the BBS, or anything else) just use this function to fix it. It will redraw the main screen, your character and the menu. Later I will make this a function that can be called from anywhere, but for now, you can only evoke it from the main menu. 6) Quit the game ---------------- This saves your character and exits the game. End === Well, I hope I covered every aspect of the game and how to play it. I will be adding features, and this will probably be changing constantly. I will try to be as in-depth as possible. Well, that concludes the lesson for today, now go play the game and have fun! About The Battle Grounds ------------------------ Some things I have planned for the future of this game are: o I will be changing some of the menus around and making the game easier to play. o I will be adding better monster handling, and making them more intelligent. o Multi-Class, also I am working on tables for better stat handling.