Celestin Apprentice 5/Apprentice-Release5.iso/Source Code/C/Games/Xconq 7.1.0/src/xconq-7.1.0/doc/mac-sect.texi

Text File | 1996-07-07 | 32.1 KB | 952 lines | [TEXT/R*ch]

@node Introduction to Mac Xconq, Playing Mac Xconq, Playing Xconq, Playing Xconq

@section Introduction to Mac Xconq

@i{Xconq} runs on the Macintosh(r).
The interface is a full Mac interface, with multiple windows,
click-and-drag operations, both menu and keyboard access to commands,
and support for both b/w and color displays.

@menu
* Installing Mac Xconq::
* Guide to Files and Folders::
* Viewing and Printing the Documentation::
* Introductory Game with Mac Xconq::
@end menu

@node Installing Mac Xconq, Guide to Files and Folders, Introduction to Mac Xconq, Introduction to Mac Xconq

@subsection Installing Mac Xconq

@i{Xconq} requires no special installation once you have unpacked it.
Since the distribution consists of a number of files and folders in
addition to the application proper, it will be less confusing to keep
@i{Xconq} in a separate folder.

@node Guide to Files and Folders, Viewing and Printing the Documentation, Installing Mac Xconq, Introduction to Mac Xconq

@subsection Guide to Files and Folders

@samp{Xconq} is the game application.
It has been tested on nearly every kind
of Mac (including PowerMacs), all running 7.0 or better.
No init/extension compatibility problems have been reported so far.

@samp{XconqPPC} is the native PowerMac version of @i{Xconq}.
This is an optional component that may not be in every distribution.

@samp{lib} is a folder of game modules.

@samp{lib-mac} includes Mac-specific files referenced by game modules.
@i{Xconq} doesn't absolutely require these files, but you may
lose some pictures or sound effects without them.

@samp{doc-html} is the folder of documentation in HTML format.

@samp{WebMe.html} is an HTML page with links to the parts of the manual
most useful to Mac users.  This is the easiest way to get started with
looking at the manual; either open this file from your viewer or drag it
onto your viewer's icon, then follow the links displayed.

@samp{IMFApp} is a small utility for game designers to display and convert
images used in @i{Xconq} games.
See below for information on how to use @samp{IMFApp}.

@samp{NEWS} is information about notable changes in each release.

@samp{COPYING} is a copy of the GNU Public License, which is a special kind
of copyright that allows you to redistribute Xconq sources and binaries
as long as you allow your recipients to do the same.

@node Viewing and Printing the Documentation, Introductory Game with Mac Xconq, Guide to Files and Folders, Introduction to Mac Xconq

@subsection Viewing and Printing the Documentation

The source form of all the documentation is ``Texinfo'',
which is based on TeX but is like HTML in many ways.
You have several options for how to process and view the documentation.

The easiest and quickest way to view the documentation online
is to look at the HTML translation of the manual,
using your favorite Web browser.

The next easiest option is to look at the ``info'' files,
ideally with Mac Emacs so as to get the hypertext abilities,
but any other text viewer will do, as long as it can handle
large (>32K) files.  You can do the same with the manual
sources, although they will be harder to read.

For printing,
if you can find a preformatted version in PostScript(tm), and have
a PostScript printer, then you can send that directly to the printer
[using what?].

To make a nicely printed manual from the sources,
you will need a version of TeX.
There is a commercial program called TeXtures and a free version
called OzTeX. [mention versions and locations]

Note that all the information in the manual is in a portable form,
so if you have access to another computer system with a faster
or easier-to-use formatting and printing setup, you can use that instead.

Also note that the full manual includes information about designing
games and modifying @i{Xconq} sources.

@node Introductory Game with Mac Xconq, , Viewing and Printing the Documentation, Introduction to Mac Xconq

@subsection Introductory Game with Mac Xconq

Double-click on the @i{Xconq} icon.
You get an initial screen with several buttons.
Click on New.  You get a list of available games.
The ``Introductory'' game should be highlighted;
if not, then find it in the list and click on it.
Then click OK.  You then get a list of sides and players; click OK again.
After some activity, you see several windows open up.

The most important window is the map.
It's mostly black, indicating that you don't know anything about
what's out there.  You should see a small picture of a city,
and a small picture of a diagonal line of soldiers below it;
the soldiers have a heavy black outline around them,
along with a moving marquee around that.
This means that they are ready to move.
Note that the cursor is a arrow, and that it always points away from
the soldiers.  This means that if you click anywhere in the map,
the soldiers (your @i{infantry unit}) will try to move to the place
you clicked.  This happens the same whether you click in an adjacent hex
(or @i{cell}) or one far away, or even somewhere out in unknown regions.
Your infantry is smart enough to find its way around some obstacles,
and will stop and wait for new orders if they are blocked.

Click to move the infantry a few times.
Notice that the turn number is changing at each move.
Then all of a sudden @i{Xconq} will highlight a new infantry!
Your city was working on it quietly while you were moving the first one;
now @i{Xconq} will ping-pong between the two, asking first about one,
then the other.
Get used to it - it won't be long before you have dozens or even hundreds
of units at your command!
Fortunately for your sanity,
@i{Xconq} provides some assistance - more on that later.

At this point you should have several infantry wandering around.
Use them to explore the world - send each out in a different direction
so as to learn the most the fastest.  Eventually they will have spread
out so much that @i{Xconq} has to scroll over to each one before
asking about it.  This can be a little disorienting.
One thing you can do is to go to a lower magnification for the map;
either click on the small mountains picture in the lower corner of
the map window, or go to the ``View'' menu and pick something from ``Set Mag''.
With a little experimentation, you will see that you can magnify so
much that a single hex nearly fills the window,
or make the whole world appear to be the size of a postage stamp.

Sooner or later you will encounter either an independent city
or an enemy unit of some sort.  You can tell which is which
by looking at the emblem in the upper right of the unit;
independents have nothing, while enemies have a small ``2''.
To attack either, just click to move your infantry into the
other unit's cell.  There will be a bit of flashing, and then
either nothing happens, your infantry disappears, the other unit
disappears, or if a city, it changes to be on your side.
In the last case, you have just captured your first city!

Capturing cities is good, because you can then have them build more
units for you.
When the city is ready to start building, it will be selected just
like your mobile units;
select ``Build'' from the ``Play'' menu, which then brings up the
construction window.  Click on a type of unit (on the right side list),
then ``Construct''; this tells the city to produce units of that
type, as many as is indicated by the little text box in the upper right
corner.  You can choose to build more infantry, or you can choose
armor, which takes longer to build but moves twice as fast (except
in the mountains).

Building units and spreading them across the world is what this game
is all about; you win when the enemy side has been entirely captured
or eliminated.  If it's being run by the computer's AI, it may just
resign if hopelessly outnumbered.  You should try to capture the
enemy cities whenever possible; even if it is immediately recaptured,
the disruption works in your favor.

You will probably discover that when you have a large number of units,
you get traffic jams because units can't move through each other.
This is because the intro game does not allow ``stacking'', for
simplicity.
Most of the regular @i{Xconq} games do allow stacking.

When you're comfortable with how to play @i{Xconq}, you're ready to
play the standard game.

@node Playing Mac Xconq, Troubleshooting Mac Xconq, Introduction to Mac Xconq, Playing Xconq

@section Playing Mac Xconq

@menu
* Starting a Game::
* Playing a Game::
* Menus::
* Windows::
* Keyboard Commands::
@end menu

@node Starting a Game, Playing a Game, Playing Mac Xconq, Playing Mac Xconq

@subsection Starting a Game

The splash screen gives you four choices:
``New'', which brings up a list of games;
``Open'', which allows you to pick a file;
``Connect'', which will (when it works) allow you to pick a game to join;
and ``Quit'', which lets you escape.

Usually you will want to choose ``New'',
which brings up a dialog listing all the games.
You can select one and see a brief description of it.

You can also load a game from a file by choosing ``Open''.
This just uses the standard Mac file-opening dialog.
You restore a saved game this way.
You can also open from the Finder by
double-clicking on the file's icon.

@menu
* Loading a Game::
* Choosing Variants::
* Player Setup::
* Final Setup::
@end menu

@node Loading a Game, Choosing Variants, Starting a Game, Starting a Game

@subsubsection Loading a Game

Whether you've chosen from New Game or Open Game,
@i{Xconq} will go through a loading process,
which may take a while if the game is large or complicated.

You may get some warning alerts, which are often benign
(such as an inability to find some images),
but others are indicative of disaster ahead.
If you see one and continue anyway,
don't be surprised if the game goes up in a cloud of smoke later!

@node Choosing Variants, Player Setup, Loading a Game, Starting a Game

@subsubsection Choosing Variants

If the game includes any ``variants'',
you will then get a dialog with assorted buttons and checkboxes to
choose from.  For instance, some games let you choose whether the
whole world is visible when you start,
or what kind of scoring system to use.

Different games have different variants,
but there are several used by many games.

The ``World Seen'' checkbox, when set, makes the whole world seen right
from the beginning of the game.  This only affects the initial view,
and you will only see some types of units belonging to other players,
such as their cities.

The ``See All'' checkbox makes everything seen all the time,
right down to each occupant of each unit of each side.
This makes @i{Xconq} more like a boardgame,
where little or nothing is secret.

The ``World Size'' button brings up a dialog that you can use to change
the dimensions of the world in everybody will be playing.
In @i{Xconq}, the available area of the world is either a hexagon,
or a cylinder wrapping entirely around the world.
Click or drag within the display area of the dialog to select an
approximate size, or type in the text boxes.
You get the cylinder by setting the circumference equal
to the width of the area. See the generic player's manual
for more details about world size and shape, and be aware
that it's very easy to select a world that is much too large
for reasonable play (the default of 60x30 is a medium-sized game;
200x100 is enormous!)

The ``Real Time'' button brings up a dialog that you can use to set
realtime countdowns.  You can limit both the total time allotted to a game,
to each turn, and/or to each side.

@node Player Setup, Final Setup, Choosing Variants, Starting a Game

@subsubsection Player Setup

The player setup window shows the sides that will be in the game
and who will play each side.
As with the variants, you will often just want to accept it
(click ``OK''), since the game's designer usually sets the defaults reasonably.

If you want to change the setup,
you first need to understand the current set of sides and proposed players.
Each entry in the list of sides starts off with the side's emblem
(if it has one), followed by the name of side, then in italics,
some information about the player, and then the initial advantage
for the player.  You, the person sitting in front of the screen,
is described as ``You'', while players that are actually run by the
computer are described as ``AI mplayer'', ``AI'' being short for
``artificial intelligence''
(In some games, a player may be a specialized AI, named @var{name},
in which case it will be described as ``AI @var{name}''.)

In games that allow you to have more than the default number of sides,
you can just click the ``Add'' button.
All the other controls require you to have selected a side/player pair.
You can do this by clicking anywhere in one of the boxes describing
the side/player pair, which will be highlighted in response.

The @samp{Computer} button toggles the AI for that side.
You can add an AI to any side (including your own side; more on that later).
You can also remove the AI from any side; a side with no AI and no
human player will just sit quietly and do nothing throughout the entire game.

If you don't like the side you're on, you can use the @samp{Exchange}
button to switch.  The ordering of the sides is fixed,
so exchange just exchanges players between the currently selected
side/player pair and the next one.  It can take a little experimentation
to get the hang of using this, but you can generate any arrangement
of players using a combination of selection and exchange.

@node Final Setup,  , Player Setup, Starting a Game

@subsubsection Final Setup

When you have OKed all the setup dialogs, @i{Xconq} will finish setting
up the game.  For some games, this will take quite a while - @i{Xconq}
generates random terrain, positions countries so that they are neither
too close nor too far apart, and does many other things to set up the
game, so just kick back and watch the progress bars.

Once everything is set up, @i{Xconq} then opens up the game window, the
instructions window, and one map window for you.  The map shows you
terrain with different patterns, and your playing pieces (units) with
small pictures.

Note that some @i{Xconq} games allow the AI either to act first, or to
start acting as soon as the windows come up.  You may even find yourself
being attacked before you know what's happening!  This is a feature; the
AI isn't good enough to afford to give you any breaks.

@node Playing a Game, Menus, Starting a Game, Playing Mac Xconq

@subsection Playing a Game

The basic pattern of play is to find a unit in a map or list window,
click once to select it, and then pick commands from the @samp{Play} menu.
There is also an ``auto-select'' mode that does the selection for you
and interprets mouse clicks as movement commands; @i{Xconq} actually
starts up in this mode.

You can select units by clicking on a unit, shift-clicking a group,
dragging out a selection rectangle, or by using Command-A to select all
units.  A selected unit is indicated by an outline box - solid black to
indicate that it can move, dark gray to indicate that it cannot move,
and gray to indicate that it cannot do anything at all (at least during
this turn; some types of units may only get to do something once in a
while).  If clicking on a unit image doesn't have any effect, then it's
not a unit that belongs to you.

To move a selected unit, drag the selected unit to its desired new
location.  The unit might not move right away if it doesn't have the
action points, but it may get some in the next turn.  To move all
selected units, do Command-click on the desired location and all of them
will attempt to move there.

To shoot at another unit, you can position the mouse over the desired
target, type 'f', and all selected units will attempt to fire.  This
works even if all units are selected, so you can call down considerable
destruction with 'f'!  If the target is too far away, nothing will
happen.

To find out more about a unit, pick ``Closeup'' from the ``Play'' menu
or do Command-I.  This brings up a window that shows all kind of data
about a single unit.  You can leave this window up and it will always be
kept up-to-date.

To jump ahead to the next turn, do the menu command ``End Turn'' or
<return>.  You may have to do this if some of your units still have
action points, but not enough to do any of the things you want them to
do.

The Game window (Command-1) shows the status of all the sides in the
game.  The window shows both the emblem (if available) and name of each
side.  A small computer icon indicates that an AI is running the side,
while a face icon indicates your side's relationship with the side
(smiling means friend/ally, frowning means enemy, flat expression means
neutral).

Each side also has a progress bar that shows how many actions its units
have left to do.

@c [describe auto-selection]

@node Menus, Windows, Playing a Game, Playing Mac Xconq

@subsection Menus

This section describes all the menus.

@menu
* File Menu::
* Edit Menu::
* Find Menu::
* Play Menu::
* Side Menu::
* Windows Menu::
* View Menu::
@end menu

@node File Menu, Edit Menu, Menus, Menus

@subsubsection File Menu

The File menu includes the usual sorts of commands that all Mac programs share.

@table @code

@item New Game

Brings up the new game dialog.

@item Open Game

Brings up a standard file dialog.
@i{Xconq} will assume the selected file to be a game definition and
attempt to load it as such.

@item Connect

Use the Connect item to join in a game that is already running elsewhere.
(Not implemented yet.)

@item Save

Saves the game to a file.

@item Save As

Saves the game to a file, with a name chosen from a dialog that pops up.

@item Preferences

Brings up a dialog that you can use to select various options.
[need to describe preferences]

@item Page Setup

@item Print Window

Prints the front window.

@item Quit

Leaves @i{Xconq}.

@end table

@node Edit Menu, Find Menu, File Menu, Menus

@subsubsection Edit Menu

Note that there is no Undo.  Hey, this game is a life-or-death struggle,
and you may have noticed that you don't get an Undo in real life either...

@table @code

@item Cut
@item Copy
@item Paste
@item Clear

These are not normally enabled, but if a text entry window is up,
then you can use these in the usual way.  Examples of text entry
include the command input dialog and the construction run length
item in the construction dialog.

@item Select All

Selects all units that you are currently allowed to select.  Most
commands will operate on multiple unit selections, so this is a powerful
(and therefore dangerous) option.  For instance, if you select all units
then put them all to sleep, nobody will do anything at all.

@item Design...

The Design item is for access to game designer tools.  You cannot use
these during a normal game; you will be asked to confirm that you want
to design, and if so, @i{Xconq} will change all the windows
appropriately and bring up a special designer's palette.  This is a
one-way activity; once somebody in the game becomes a designer, all
players will be notified and computer-run players will no longer bother
to play.  (In case it's not obvious, this is because it's too easy to
cheat using the designer's powers.)

@end table

@node Find Menu, Play Menu, Edit Menu, Menus

@subsubsection Find Menu

This menu is for various kinds of searching.

@c should implement or remove...

@table @code

@item Previous Actor

This item selects the previous unit that can do actions.

@item Next Actor

This item selects the next unit that can do actions.

@item Location

@item Unit by Name

@item Selected

This item scrolls the most recently-used map over to show the selected unit in a list.

@end table

@node Play Menu, Side Menu, Find Menu, Menus

@subsubsection Play Menu

This menu is the main set of commands that you can give to individual units.
When you specify one of these, the units affected will be whatever is
selected in the window.  If the window is of a type that does not have
selected units (such as a help window), then the items on this menu will
be disabled.

@table @code

@item Closeup

This items opens closeups (see below) of all the selected units.

@item Move

@item Patrol

@item Return

This item directs the selected units to return to the closest place where they can
replenish supplies that have been used up.
If the unit has been damaged, it will also look for places to get repairs.

@item Wake

Wakes up the selected units.

@item Sleep

Puts the selected units to sleep.

@item Reserve

Puts the selected units into reserve.

@c @item Delay

@item Build

Brings up the construction window and selects the first of the selected
units that can do construction.

@end table

@node Side Menu, Windows Menu, Play Menu, Menus

@subsubsection Side Menu

This menu is for overall control of the side you're playing.

@table @code

@item Sounds

Enables or disables sound effects.

@item AI

This is a submenu that lists the possibilities for AIs to run the side
for you.  Select the name of an AI to have it decide units' moves for
you.  If you select @samp{None}, then the AI will shut itself off and
return the units it was controlling to your control.

@end table

@node Windows Menu, View Menu, Side Menu, Menus

@subsubsection Windows Menu

This menu is for the creation and arrangement of windows.

@table @code

@item Game

This item brings up the game window.

@item Notices

This item brings up the notices window.
Notes are messages about things that are happening in the present.
It has a limited capacity (32K of text), so old notices eventually
disappear.

@item History

This item brings up the history window.
The history is a complete record of important events.

@item Construction

Brings up the construction window.  Unlike the ``Build'' item under ``Play'',
the window will not be put away after you have requested construction.

@item Command

This item creates or brings forward the command entry window.
The command @code{'o'} has the same effect.

@item New Map

Create another map window.

@item New List

Create another list window.

@end table

The rest of the menu lists the windows that are currently open.  You can
select a menu item to bring its corresponding window to the front.

@node View Menu,  , Windows Menu, Menus

@subsubsection View Menu

The View menu gives you control over the appearance of the window you're
currently looking at.  Each kind of window that has any view controls
will have a different view menu.  Currently only map and list windows
have view menus.  Each window has its own view settings, although you
can set defaults for new windows from the preferences.  You can find the
descriptions of each view menu's items under the description of its
window, below.

@node Windows, Keyboard Commands, Menus, Playing Mac Xconq

@subsection Windows

@i{Mac Xconq} lets you have many windows open at once.
Each type has its own specialized functionality.

[mention new history and notice windows]

@menu
* Map Windows::
* Game Window::
* List Windows::
* Unit Closeup Windows::
* Construction Window::
* Instructions Window::
* Help Window::
@end menu

@node Map Windows, Game Window, Windows, Windows

@subsubsection Map Windows

A map window gives you an overhead view of some part of the @i{Xconq} world.
As you might expect, you can scroll around to look at different parts.
You can also zoom in and out using the small zoom icons in the lower
left corner; zooming in (``closer mountains'' icon) makes the cells larger,
while zooming out (``farther mountains'' icon)  makes the cells smaller,
so you can see more of the world.  You can zoom way in or out!

The optional ``top line'' of the map window supplies you with information
about what the cursor is currently over, plus the current game date.

The map control panel is along the left side.  At its top is the
auto-select/move-on-click button.  Below that is a set of
find-next/previous buttons.  The next set of buttons is controls
for how the map will be displayed.  These behave identically to
the map's View menu items.

Map View Menu

Since maps are the main interface to @i{Xconq} games,
you have many options for controlling their appearance.

@table @code

@item Closer

This item increases the magnification of the map, which draws
units and cells larger.  This is useful when many units are
stacked in a cell or transport unit.

@item Farther

This item decreases the magnification of the map, which draws
things smaller and with less detail, but you can see a larger
area at once, which is useful for strategic planning.

@item Set Mag

This submenu allows you to select a magnification directly.
The numbers indicates the approximate size in pixels of the
icons.  Units generally become unrecognizable at less than 16x16.

@item Angle

This submenu allows you to select an angle at which to view the
map.  Choices are 15 degrees, 30 degrees, and 90 degrees (overhead).

@item Names

@item Elevations

This item controls the display of contour lines indicating elevations.

@item People

This item controls the display of which cells' people belong to which sides.

@item Weather

This is a submenu that includes controls for the display of temperature,
clouds, and winds.

@item Materials

This is a submenu that includes an item for each type of material that
a cell might have in it.

@item Terrain

This is a submenu that includes toggles for the display of each
border and connection type.

@item Daylight

This item controls whether the display is darkened for those cells
that are dark.

@item Coverage

This item controls whether view coverage is displayed.  Cells with no
view coverage by any units are darkened.

@item Grid

This item controls whether the grid separating cells is shown.

@item Top Line

This item controls whether the top line of the map is displayed
or hidden.

@item Unit Info

This item controls whether the unit info at the top of the map is
displayed.

@item Other Maps

This item controls whether outlines of other maps are drawn on
the map.

@item Font Size

[not yet implemented]

@end table

@node Game Window, List Windows, Map Windows, Windows

@subsubsection Game Window

The game window shows you the turn number or date of the current turn,
as well as any realtime clocks that may be counting down, and a list
of all the sides.  For each side, you see its name, the emblem for
that side, a progress indicator, and icons indicating the side's attitude
and whether it is being played by the computer.
You may also numbers indicating scores and/or real time remaining.

The progress bar shows how much movement a side has done during the turn.
This usually goes down during the turn,
but because it indicates a percentage rather than an absolute number
of actions, the percentage may go up sometimes.
For instance, if some of your units that have already acted are captured,
then the percentage goes up because the @emph{total} number
of actions has gone down!  A gray bar indicates that the side has
finished all movement for this turn.  There may also be a dashed vertical
line in the bar, which indicates the percentage of units that are asleep
or in reserve.  Note that a player can always wake up sleeping or reserve
units at any time before the end of the turn.

@node List Windows, Unit Closeup Windows, Game Window, Windows

@subsubsection List Windows

A unit list window just lists all the units, one line each.
This is useful for getting a more organized look at your assets.
A unit listing shows the icon for the unit, its name and type,
action points, hit points, supply, etc.

You can create more than one list window.

If you select a unit in the list and then choose Find Selected from the
the Find menu, then a (randomly selected) map will be scrolled over to
that unit.

List View Menu

List view controls typically either affect what will be listed,
or the sorting of the list.  There is also an item to control
the size of the unit icons.

@table @code

@item by Type

@item by Name

@item by Side

@item by Acting Order

@item by Location

@item with Transport

@item with Commanders

@item Larger Icons

This item controls the use of larger (32x32) or smaller (16x16)
icons for displaying units graphically.

@end table

@node Unit Closeup Windows, Construction Window, List Windows, Windows

@subsubsection Unit Closeup Windows

For any unit, you can create a closeup window.
This window supplies full details on the unit.

@node Construction Window, Instructions Window, Unit Closeup Windows, Windows

@subsubsection Construction Window

You use the construction window to control the construction of new units.
The window comes in two parts; the left side is a list of all the units
that can do construction, while the right side is a list of all the types
that can be constructed.

@node Instructions Window, Help Window, Construction Window, Windows

@subsubsection Instructions Window

The instructions window is the basic info about what game you're playing
and what you're supposed to do.  Many game designs have few or no
instructions.  There is a Help button that just brings up the help
window, for convenience.

@node Help Window,  , Instructions Window, Windows

@subsubsection Help Window

@i{Xconq}'s help information is organized into a list of topics.  When
you first open the help window, you will see the list, and a row of
buttons.  To look at a specific topic, just click on it.

The ``Topics'' button goes straight to the list of topics, while the
``help'' button shows you the topic describing the help system itself.
``Prev'' and ``Next'' buttons take you through the topics in order,
while ``Back'' goes to the last topic you looked at.

@node Keyboard Commands, , Windows, Playing Mac Xconq

@subsection Keyboard Commands

@i{Mac Xconq} understands all the single-character and long-name
commands that are defined for @i{Xconq} in general.  In addition, it
also defines Mac-specific commands:

@table @code

@item
@code{C-[} @code{escape} Escape character.
This is implemented as a command, but in practice, it is a
way to escape from interaction modes.

@end table

@node Troubleshooting Mac Xconq, , Playing Mac Xconq, Playing Xconq

@section Troubleshooting Mac Xconq

If @i{Xconq} crashes, that is a serious problem; please report it, and
include as much information as possible about your system, what you were
doing, which options were in effect, and so forth.

@i{Xconq} will sometimes display ``error'' or ``warning'' alerts.
These can be caused either by bugs in @i{Xconq}, or more likely,
by mistakes in the design of the game you're playing.
For instance, you may be playing a version of a game that
has been modified by one of your friends,
but the modification was not done correctly,
and you'll get an alert unexpectedly.

``Error'' alerts are fatal; you may be able to save the game at that point,
but don't count on it.  Common ones for @i{Mac Xconq} include errors
because you're
loading a text file that is not a valid game, and running out of memory.
Most error alerts occur during game startup, while @i{Xconq} is checking
out the game definition that it's loading.  Error alerts that appear during
a game, and do not involve running out of memory, are more serious, and
may indicate bugs in @i{Xconq}, so you should try to save the game and report
what happened.

There are many kinds of ``warning'' alerts.  Warnings are not fatal,
but they do indicate that all is not well.
If you get a warning alert and don't know what it means,
it's safer to quit than to try to struggle on.
Most warnings indicate mistakes in the design of the game you're playing,
and should be reported to the game designer.
If you @emph{know} that a warning is unimportant, and don't want to
see it over and over, you can hold down the Option key while clicking
on the Continue button; this will suppress all future warnings.

@xref{Problems and Troubleshooting} for a list of common error and
warning messages, and what they mean.

@menu
* Known Bugs::
@end menu

@node Known Bugs, , Troubleshooting Mac Xconq, Troubleshooting Mac Xconq

@subsection Known Bugs

In the construction window, clicking on ``Build'' doesn't
always result in a unit being created immediately.
It may be that the builder has used up its acp and can't
start construction until the next turn, or that it hasn't
come up for executing actions in the current turn.
Clicking a second time will make the construction start
immediately.