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- INTRO
- SCombat is a game of strategic combat similar in style to some
- CRPG games you may have played. Up to 40 Monsters may battle up to 40
- Players on a playfield that is adjustable in size from 5 X 5 to 20 X 40.
- Monsters and Players have attributes which determine their effectiveness
- in battle and each group may use one of 11 types of weapons.
- Please make sure all unpackeded files are in the same directory. In
- addition the directory containing the game must be the current directory.
- Type SCombat.run from the CLI to start the game.
-
- START
- Before reading the rest of this document boot up the game, click
- on the ANALYZE button until you get a message of EVEN then click on GO.
- You will see the Monsters and Players distributed randomly about the
- playfield along with some obastacles. Each participant appears to be
- standing on a colored bar. These are initially all dark blue. As the
- participant absorbs damage the color of these bars will change giving you
- a visual clue as to what state he is in. The colors indicate a percentage of
- the particpant's beginning hitpoints in gradations of 20%. Ranging from
- Max to Min these colors are Dark Blue, Red, Grey, Light blue, Yellow and
- White (which indicates participant has 5 hit points or less). In order to
- move your player click in any of the vacant boxes around his icon. To
- attack a Monster click on the Monster. You may toggle the player grid off
- and on by typing "g". The game still functions the same. If you click
- anywhere outside the grid the whole screen will become attached to the
- pointer. Now move the pointer and you can scroll around the playfield to
- get a good view of things. Click again and you drop the screen and you can
- continue with the game. You may pick up and drop the screen as many times as
- you want. If you click on your own player he will attempt to rest.
- He cannot rest while Monsters are adjacent and furthermore his hitpoints
- must be below a rest point value which is displayed at the bottom of the
- screen. Initially, until they are injured, players will not be able to rest.
- The status box at the bottom of the screen displays stats for your player.
-
- The following keys are active during the game:
-
- ESC - leave the battle field and return to the set up screen
-
- F1 - increases screen scroll rate between particpant moves
- F2 - decreases screen scroll rate
- F3 - increases the delay between monster attacks
- F4 - decreases the delay between monster attacks
- F5 - increases the delay between monster moves
- F6 - decreases the delay between monster moves
-
- "r" - toggles obstacle remove mode. Use this key to remove obstacles
- that have boxed a player or monster in when you have specified
- a large number of obstacles
-
- "b" - toggles the bell between rounds on and off
-
- "g" - toggles the player grid on and off
-
- "l" - allows you to get a text description of the adjacent monster
- without losing a turn
-
- "e" - allows you to get a full examination of an adjacent monster
- but you lose a turn.
-
- "s" - skip player turn with all its attacks. This is usefull if you
- want to stand your ground or are blocked from moving or attacking.
-
- "c" - capitulate. This differs from the escape key in that you will
- be taken to the end of battle screen before re-entering the Set Up screen.
-
- "n" - noise. Use this key to set the sound level. Press the key until
- you get the level you desire. The bell will not turn off unless you
- use the "b" key. If you find the death sounds offensive use sound
- level "Movement and Combat". Use level "All sounds" to restore them.
-
- Use "l" (for look) often when you first start to play. It will allow you
- to develop an association between a monster's size and armor class and
- his displayed icon. Since this key doesn't really tell you anything you
- cannot see for yourself, after a while you will not need it. After you
- choose "e" (for examine) you will see the Monster stats displayed in
- yellow text. If you hit the space bar at this point it will toggle between
- the Monster stats and your stats. The information on the blue status lines
- is self evident except for AR and MAR. These are short for Attack Ratio and
- Monster Attack Ratio. These values are reciprocals of one another. When
- one is high the other must be low. When one is near 1 so must the other be
- near 1. AR is a measure of your chance of surviving a battle with the
- Monster. The higher the better and in general if it is 2 or 3 the odds
- in your favor are 2:1 and 3:1 etc. Also you will see the message
- "Max Damage = (some number) : 1 at (some number) %". What the second of
- these two messages reveals is, assuming a hit is rolled, what is the
- possibility of doing a least 1 point of damage or better. If the message
- is "1 at 21%" this means that although a hit may be rolled there is only
- a 21% chance that at least one point of damage will occur. If the message is
- "7 at 100%" this means that there is 100% chance of doing at least 7 damage
- if a hit is rolled. Also for players but not for monsters you will see a
- Vulnerability rating in the status box. This is a sum of all the
- Monster attack ratios that are presently targeted on the player. When
- this value is high it indicates that formidable forces are targeted on
- the player. Monsters need not be adjacent to target a player and they
- also may target a player before the players Vulnerabilty stat indicates
- that he is targeted. The stat will only show positive values when the
- Monster is within 3 game turns of reaching his target.
-
- PLAYER AND MONSTER ATTRIBUTES
-
- Hit Points - This value may range from 0 (dead) to 99. In addition the
- player size icon is keyed to the initial value for this variable. Players
- and Monsters are shown in 5 different sizes obtained by locating the player's
- initial HP total in successive ranges of 20 from 0 to 99. Although HPs may
- vary over the course of the game the icon remains the same. Use the player
- status bar to monitor current hit point levels.
-
- Strength - Range: 1 to 15. When a hit is rolled, total damage
- is calculated by adding the players strength to the weapon damage.
- In the status box strength is show as nn/nn. The first number is
- current strength, the second is starting strength.
-
- Agility - Range: 1 to 20. Agility will increase your chance to land
- a blow and decrease your chance of being hit. In the status the first
- number is the player's agility and the second is maximum agility.
-
- Quickness - Range: 1 to 4. This is the number of times you may move and/or
- attack in one battle turn. In the status box the second number is maximum
- agility.
-
- Luck - Range: 1 to 10. This number determines whether a hit takes place
- when one was not rolled, or a lucky miss takes place when a hit was rolled.
- In addition there is another value of Luck that determines when a critical
- hit takes place. All luck rolls are from 0 to 100 so a participant can
- never be luckier than 10%.
-
- Resiliancy - Range: 1 to 100. This number is a percentage of the
- participant's beginning Hit Points that can be recovered when the participant
- rests. For example: If a player's initial hit points were 80 and his
- resiliancy 30, he would recover 24 hit points if he were able to rest.
- A participant may rest when his hit points drop below 30% of their initial
- value. This rest point is listed in the player status box as
- "Resiliancy: (NUM)/ RP=(rest point)".
-
- Armor Class - Range: 1 to 20. The higher the better for protection. In
- addition the player icon is keyed to the current value for AC. For purposes
- of display the AC range is divided into 5 ranges with a seperate icon for
- each range. As a participant's AC changes over the game his icon will also
- change, giving a visual clue as to what is happening to him. In the status
- box the second number is the starting Armor Class for that player.
-
-
- To make something clearer: There are five sizes of Player and Monster icons
- and for each of those five sizes there are 5 different icons for each level
- of Armor Class. Thus there are 25 seperate Player icons and 25 seperate
- Monster icons. Although a player's hit points may vary over the course of
- the game he will never be seen to be differing in size. He will however
- be seen to be differing in AC as he absorbs punishment. This is why an
- icon can suddenly change when a player or monster is hit. Although not too
- realistic, it provides usefull information.
-
- COMBAT MECHANICS
-
- Whether or not a hit takes place is influenced positively for the attacker
- by his own agility and the defender's Armor Class. It is influenced negatively
- by his own Armor Class and the defender's agility. Just the reverse is true
- for the defender. This means that a heavily armored attacker is less likely
- to land a blow and a heavily armored defender is more likely to receive a blow.
- Total damage is calculated by rolling a number between the Min and Max of the
- weapon used, adding attack Strength and subtracting defender Armor Class.
-
- The order of battle is drawn up randomly at the beginning of each combat
- round.
-
- Weapons, Armor, and Strength can deteriorate over time.
- The maximum damage that can be inflicted using an edged weapon is reduced
- based on some ratio of the number of hits delivered with it. This ratio
- is adjustable using the Weapon Rate variable on the Set Up screen. If
- the variable is set at 5, for example, then for each 5 hits delivered
- maximum damage for the given weapon is reduced by 1. No matter how many
- hits are delivered maximum damage can never fall below minimum damage,
- so a Halberd could never be worse than 12-12 for example. The Weapon Rate
- variable can range from 1 to 9. The Hammer, Club, and Spiked Maul do
- not suffer weapon deterioration.
-
- Armor Class is likewise influenced by the number of hits taken and the
- Armor Rate variable on the Set Up screen. Current AC will be reduced
- by this ratio as the player absorbs damage. For example, if the variable
- is 4 then for each 4 hits absorbed, AC will drop by one. This allows a
- group of weaker or less equipped attackers to beat down the AC of a
- heavily armored defender.
-
- Strength deteriorates in the same manner as above using the Stren Rate
- varialble on the Set Up screen.
-
- Bravery - this variable controlls how brave the monsters are. If it is
- set at 4, for example, this implies that monsters will target and accept
- battle against players when the odds are 4:1 against them. If they are
- in battle, it determines how high the odds have to be before they will
- run away, in this case 4:1. When in battle monsters take into consideration
- the possible threats of all adjacent players, not just the one that is
- ostensibly attacking them. Setting this value too high will make the
- Monsters too brave, they will attempt to battle players who
- can quickly kill them while ignoring more likely targets. Setting this
- value too low will make the monsters overly cautious and consequently
- ineffective. 4-5 are good values.
-
- Attack Ratio - all monster decisions are based on calculating this value.
- It is derived from the ratios of the player's and monster's current
- hit points, possibility of hitting each other, maximum damage if a hit
- occurs to either of them, and the number of attacks each has.
-
- Tide of Battle - this variable is displayed between rounds on the blue
- status line. It is an indication of how the current battle is going.
- If it is positive, the odds are in your favor. If negative, they are in the
- monster's favor. In general the value indicates odds, for example 2.3213
- would indicate about a 2:1 advantage for the player. This variable is
- calculated in such a way that it is more meaningful when the number of
- participants is high. Consequently when the number of players is very
- low (1 - 4) it may fluctuate pretty wildly. It also reflects relationships
- which may not actually be occurring on the battle field. It is merely for
- fun and reference rather than strategy.
-
- Board X - This allows you to set the width of the playfield between 5 and 40.
-
- Board Y - Height of playfield between 5 and 20
-
- Generalship - if you fight more than 5 monsters you will get a Generalship
- rating. This can be positive even if you lose, if you take enough Monsters
- with you. It can also be negative if you win. This could arise if the odds
- were heavily in your favor but you won taking a lot of casualties.
-
- SET UP SCREEN
-
- Player and Monster Attributes - There are two columns of arrows next to
- each attribute. Click in the arrows to set the numbers in the two columns.
- The first column indicates the level you want to set the attribute at.
- The second column indicates the percentage of the total monsters or players
- that you want to have that level of attribute. For example if you want
- 50% of the monsters to start out with Strength of 8 you would set the first
- column to eight and the second to 50. If you want a completely random
- assignment of Strength among the Monsters or Players, set the corresponding
- percentage to 0%. When you click GO the assignment of the all the attributes
- takes place based on the values you specify. Attributes are assigned in this
- way: For each attribute all the monsters or players, which ever is currently
- being assigned, are thrown into a pool. The percentage you specify are
- drawn out at random and given the level you specify. The rest, up to the
- total number, are assigned a random level. Then they are all thrown back
- into the pool and the assignment of the next attribute takes place in the same
- manner. From this it follows that you cannot directly specify all the
- attributes for any 1 Monster of Player except as you make all the percentages
- very high. If they are all 100% for example then all the levels will be
- directly specified. In addition, when the percentage is less than 100%,
- the remaining players or monsters are given a level of attribute that
- excludes a certain range of values around the one you specified. This
- insures that there will be some low values if high were specified and
- visa versa.
-
- When specifying the % of obstacles you are giving a pecentage of the
- spaces on the game board that will be occupied by obstacles. You can
- make this 100% and then use the Remove Mode to edit the game board to
- your own liking. If you make this value too high the monsters will
- probably be stuck most of the time.
-
-
- OPTIONS
-
- GO - takes you to the battle field with the attributes you specify
-
- RESTART - resets the Set Up screen so that all values are those used
- when the program was started
-
- ANALYZE - Using the attributes you specify, analyze attempts to tell
- you who has the initial edge in battle. You may click repeatedly on this
- button until you get a result you are satisfied with, then chose GO and
- you will enter battle with the displayed odds. Analyze first assigns
- all attributes. Then each group, either Monsters or Players, are
- paired off against a group of fictional opponents with average abilities
- in all attributes. Then each group is sorted from high to low based
- on their calculated abilities vs. such opponents. Next, the Monsters and
- Players are paired off against each other so that strong attacks strong
- and weak attacks weak. Any disparity in numbers is resolved by having
- the excess pitch in against the strongest opponent. The results are
- summed and averaged and displayed on the screen. Owing to
- the way the results are calculated it is possible that some anomalies
- will occur which are not truely reflective of the relative abilites of
- both sides. The first number is the conservative result of excluding
- those anomalies. However, under some circumstances they may in fact
- be indicative of relative strengths. The second number is the result of
- letting the anomalies stand. Your own experience will tell which is more
- correct. This method is necessarily fictional and reflects pairings
- that most likely will never occur. It also does not take into consideration
- initial board position, or the Resiliancy or Luck stats, as their impact
- on the final outcome couldn't be guestimated. The numbers are probably
- more accurate for large numbers of participants than small. My own
- experience is that they are pretty good with some exceptions now and again.
- This value is also the source of the tide of battle variable. If you
- click anywhere on the Set Up screen after you have used Analyze you
- will destroy the analyzed party. To insure you go to combat with the
- analyzed party use GO immediately afterward.
-
-
- MATCH - This function will attempt to match a group of Monsters to
- a group of Players using the initial values you specify for each along
- with the value you specify as the Match Value on the Set Up Screen.
- You may match on values from 1 to 9. This indicates that you want the
- initial advantage to be from 1:1 to 9:1 in favor of the Monsters. You
- cannot Match in favor of the players. If you want the players to have
- the advantage use the analyze function. Match works this way:
- Analyze is repeatedly called until the conservative result is within
- range of your Match Value. If not in range the first remedy is to
- rectify any disparity in numbers. If or when the numbers are equal
- the monster attributes are raised or lowered to achieve the proper result.
- Match will not add Monsters above equality to achieve its results,
- consequently not all high Match Values can be realized. If you want
- to insure matching on a high number, first make sure that the number
- of Monsters is greater by 3 or 4 than the number of Players.
- Match is much more accurate than Analyze to achieve a given result
- consequently if you want to insure fighting a group that truely is
- superior by some factor, use Match. Match also gets rid of the anomalies
- of Analyze by adjusting attributes so that any possible erronius values
- are ironed out first. IMPORTANT - do not choose Analyze
- after Match or you will destroy the Matched Party.
-
-
- Finally - although I have tried to give the Monsters as much strategy
- as possible, they can still be seen to be making bad decisions. In
- particular they have extreme difficulty getting out of boxes and
- traps and around long walls that block their path at right angles.
- Monsters can always navigate around 1 or 2 objects, and most of the
- time around 3, but walls of 4 or more will usally block them. This
- may be considered a boon or a bug.
-
- Hopefully future versions will include smarter Monsters, ranged combat,
- Magic Users and a game board with more than just obstacles on it. Perhaps
- even a mini rollplaying scenario.
-
- Any comments, complaints or suggestions can be addressed to me on
- Compuserve at 73577,2202 : On Genie as RDEWITT2 or by mail at
- Box 8854, Albany, NY 12208
-
-
-